American Politics Thread VI: Can't We All Just Get Along?

[Illu-chi]

I'm confused what every on is talking about. Is this it?

https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB6/id/234 ... duced.html

No.
The House version is this one, the Senate Bill this one.

Yours is from the previous session and has seen some changes to make it slightly less horrific

OK thx

[The Caleshan Valkyrie]

What I mean is that if they kept all the stuff in the For the People Act, like all those mandates and such, and included the bit on the ID AND also stuck in government funding to facilitate getting those IDs to people, would they be able to use Reconciliation for it since it affects the budget? Would that not allow them to push it through whether Mitch likes it or not?

I'm guessing it's more complicated, because I'd think they'd have done something like that already, if it were so easy.

No. Byrd Rule means it can't merely be "incidental" to the budget. So the voter ID program would get through under your scheme, but almost everything else would get scrapped.

Thankya for the clarification. I THOUGHT it would be too easy otherwise.

[Kowani]

No. Byrd Rule means it can't merely be "incidental" to the budget. So the voter ID program would get through under your scheme, but almost everything else would get scrapped.

Thankya for the clarification. I THOUGHT it would be too easy otherwise.

if my sig could fit more characters, i'd put in "master of obscure parliamentary procedure" on it

[Eahland]

I'm confused what every on is talking about. Is this it?

https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB6/id/234 ... duced.html

No.
The House version is this one, the Senate Bill this one.

Yours is from the previous session and has seen some changes to make it slightly less horrific

I haven't actually read the text of this version, but I believe it's still got the "allow brownshirts with guns to intimidate voters and poll workers" bit?

[Kowani]

No.
The House version is this one, the Senate Bill this one.

Yours is from the previous session and has seen some changes to make it slightly less horrific

I haven't actually read the text of this version, but I believe it's still got the "allow brownshirts with guns to intimidate voters and poll workers" bit?

wel, maybe not with guns

In addition, the bills expand what partisan poll watchers can observe during elections and prohibits poll watchers from being removed for violating election law.

[Conservative Republic Of Huang]

Haha haha he’s literally just gonna forecast an if/then, huh? I mean, I’m not surprised.

Do you really think Trump knows how to code?

His rhetoric is so predictable by this point that he might be coded.

[HISPIDA]

Thankya for the clarification. I THOUGHT it would be too easy otherwise.

if my sig could fit more characters, i'd put in "master of obscure parliamentary procedure" on it

Ask Val how he does it. I've never figured it out.

[Kowani]

U.S. Office of Government Ethics orders Biden’s top domestic policy adviser Susan Rice to divest her multimillion-dollar holdings in fossil fuel corporation Enbridge weeks after the Biden administration boosted the company’s Line 3 pipeline

Federal ethics regulators have ordered Joe Biden’s top domestic policy adviser Susan Rice to divest her multimillion-dollar holdings in a fossil fuel giant weeks after the Biden administration boosted the company’s controversial pipeline, according to government documents obtained by The Daily Poster.

The pipeline decision — backing a Trump administration policy over the objections of environmental groups — came as the company’s stock price has skyrocketed. That has created a potential financial jackpot for Rice, who as Domestic Policy Council chief will now be able to delay capital gains taxes on any windfall made off her sale of thousands of shares of Enbridge.

In all, Rice has been instructed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to divest stock worth nearly $32 million from more than three dozen companies and one index fund that she and her family own. Among the holdings are approximately $2.7 million worth of shares of Enbridge, the Canadian oil and gas pipeline company constructing the controversial Line 3 pipeline through Indigenous lands in Minnesota. While the Biden administration recently revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project, Biden Justice Department officials last month backed the permit for the Line 3 pipeline in court, allowing the tar sands oil pipeline project to move forward amid the intensifying climate crisis. Enbridge shares are currently up about 13 percent since Biden took office, and earlier disclosures show Rice has previously raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars of dividend payments from the company.

Rice’s decision to retain stakes in Enbridge and other corporations with business before the government she helps lead has not only generated questions about conflicts of interest, it has also created a potentially lucrative tax shelter for herself and her family, thanks to a law allowing federal officials to defer capital gains levies when facing divestment orders from ethics regulators.[...] The Office of Government Ethics is also ordering Rice and her family to sell off nearly $1.1 million worth of shares of Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant and COVID-19 vaccine maker, housed in a family trust.

[San Lumen]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/07/12/trump-sows-doubts-about-upcoming-virginia-governors-election/

Trump is claiming that the election in Virginia will have been rigged if Republicans lose.

Haha haha he’s literally just gonna forecast an if/then, huh? I mean, I’m not surprised.

It could backfire. If some people the outcome is pre decided they might decide not to vote. The whole GOP is embracing the idea of if we don't win its fraud. I hope if he loses Youngkin accepts defeat.

[North Washington Republic]

looooool

With Republican-backed voting bills moving rapidly through a special session of the state Legislature, Texas Democrats are planning to make a break for it — again.

At least 58 Democratic members of the state House of Representatives are expected to bolt from Austin on Monday in an effort to block the measures from advancing, a source familiar with the plans told NBC News. The unusual move, akin to what Democrats did in 2003, would paralyze the chamber, stopping business until the lawmakers return to town or the session ends.

The majority of the members plan to fly to Washington, D.C., on two private jets chartered for the occasion and use the time there to rally support for federal voting legislation, the source said. Others will make their own way.

The lawmakers risk arrest in taking flight. Under the Texas Constitution, the Legislature requires a quorum of two-thirds of lawmakers be present to conduct state business in either chamber. Absent lawmakers can be legally compelled to return to the Capitol, and the source said Democrats expect state Republicans to ask the Department of Public Safety to track them down. “It's really exciting to see Democrats taking a bold move with this potential walkout,” Carisa Lopez, political director for civil liberties group Texas Freedom Network, said.

House Democrats already staged one successful walkout to defeat election legislation prioritized by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott. Members quietly left the House floor in the final minutes of the regular legislative session that ended in May, breaking quorum and forcing Republicans to adjourn without passing the key agenda item. But that victory was always likely to be short-lived, as Republicans control both legislative chambers. Abbott kept his vow to call a special session, which began July 8.

Republicans didn't waste time. Lawmakers advanced a pair of voting measures — House Bill 3 and Senate Bill 1 — Sunday after marathon committee hearings in both chambers, with the House hearing lasting nearly 24 hours. Both panels featured members of the public waiting hours to give testimony in the middle of the night. Floor votes were expected to take place as soon as this week. Both bills would add new identification requirements for mail voting, ban some early voting options and create new criminal penalties for breaking election code while empowering partisan poll watchers.

To block the currently pending legislation, the Democratic lawmakers would have to remain away through the end of the special session, which can last as many as 30 days under the state’s constitution.

And they're off!

I wonder how long they can legally delay the vote…. I mean this bill deserves to be put in the trash…I just don’t know how long this delay tactics can last.

[Neutraligon]

And they're off!

I wonder how long they can legally delay the vote…. I mean this bill deserves to be put in the trash…I just don’t know how long this delay tactics can last.

For as long as there is no quorum. I wonder if the GOP will attempt to trick them into coming back.

[HISPIDA]

I'm confused what every on is talking about. Is this it?

https://legiscan.com/TX/text/HB6/id/234 ... duced.html

No.
The House version is this one, the Senate Bill this one.

Yours is from the previous session and has seen some changes to make it slightly less horrific

I can't really read legalese. Can someone translate?

[San Lumen]

I wonder how long they can legally delay the vote…. I mean this bill deserves to be put in the trash…I just don’t know how long this delay tactics can last.

For as long as there is no quorum. I wonder if the GOP will attempt to trick them into coming back.

How would they trick them?

[Sincluda]

For as long as there is no quorum. I wonder if the GOP will attempt to trick them into coming back.

How would they trick them?

Put up a bill they'd want to vote for.

[San Lumen]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/vi ... story.html

Youngkin to skip marquee Virginia debate over moderator’s donation to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Is he trying to lose the election? Skipping debates is never a winning strategy. I hope he loses in a landslide.

[Kowani]

No.
The House version is this one, the Senate Bill this one.

Yours is from the previous session and has seen some changes to make it slightly less horrific

I can't really read legalese. Can someone translate?

Give me a bit to get in front of a computer

[HISPIDA]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/youngkin-skip-debate-judy-woodruff/2021/07/12/8311282c-e355-11eb-8aa5-5662858b696e_story.html

Youngkin to skip marquee Virginia debate over moderator’s donation to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Is he trying to lose the election? Skipping debates is never a winning strategy. I hope he loses in a landslide.

As someone who lives here? Yeah, he's definitely going to lose. Which is a good thing, his ads and promises suck. At least he's not a Trumpist.

[San Lumen]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/youngkin-skip-debate-judy-woodruff/2021/07/12/8311282c-e355-11eb-8aa5-5662858b696e_story.html

Youngkin to skip marquee Virginia debate over moderator’s donation to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Is he trying to lose the election? Skipping debates is never a winning strategy. I hope he loses in a landslide.

As someone who lives here? Yeah, he's definitely going to lose. Which is a good thing, his ads and promises suck. At least he's not a Trumpist.

Hopefully all three Democrats win statewide and they expand their majority in the House.

[The Alma Mater]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/youngkin-skip-debate-judy-woodruff/2021/07/12/8311282c-e355-11eb-8aa5-5662858b696e_story.html

Youngkin to skip marquee Virginia debate over moderator’s donation to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Is he trying to lose the election? Skipping debates is never a winning strategy. I hope he loses in a landslide.

Maybe he does not want Trump to become speaker of the House ?

[San Lumen]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/youngkin-skip-debate-judy-woodruff/2021/07/12/8311282c-e355-11eb-8aa5-5662858b696e_story.html

Youngkin to skip marquee Virginia debate over moderator’s donation to Clinton Bush Haiti Fund.

Is he trying to lose the election? Skipping debates is never a winning strategy. I hope he loses in a landslide.

Maybe he does not want Trump to become speaker of the House ?

What does him becoming Governor have to do with Trump being Speaker? Governors have no say in who the Speaker is.

[Kowani]

No.
The House version is this one, the Senate Bill this one.

Yours is from the previous session and has seen some changes to make it slightly less horrific

I can't really read legalese. Can someone translate?

so the really important parts: criminalizing the proactive (that is, non-requested) distribution or solicitation of vote-by-mail applications, banning 24-hour (specifically, voting may not be conducted earlier than 6 a.m. or later than 10 p.m.), banning drive-through voting and adding ID requirements to vote by mail requests ( driver's license number, personal identification card issued by the Department of Public Safety, or last four digits of the social security number)

it also adds a requirement for attempts for unlawful registration to vote to be reported to "the attorney general, the secretary of state, and the county or district attorney having jurisdiction in the territory covered by the election", puts in a provision to do audits before, after, and during every election, moves all the polling-places inside branch offices of the county clerk (no more curbside drop boxes for you!), bans polling places from being located in "movable structures", prevents ballots from being structured to allow party-list voting, prevents judges from removing poll watchers for violating the election law unless the judge witnessed the violation after having previously warned them (though they can request police to remove them for violating other laws), makes it a crime for election officials to remove poll watchers (this is important because the GOP tried flooding places with more watchers than they were allowed in 2020), watchers are now allowed to stand close enough to voters to see who they voted for (the precise language reads: "In this code, a watcher who is entitled to "observe" an
election activity is entitled to sit or stand near enough to see and hear the activity."),
more stuff about poll watchers, including lowering the burden of proof for obstruction to "belief"

, more administrative burdens for election workers when people drop-off early vote ballots, prevents the use of electronic signatures for mail-in ballot applications (good luck applying online now), more administrative burdens for late ballots, extra administrative burdens for helping fill out ballots
so if you helped your 80-year old grandfather vote, here are your new steps!

complete a form
stating:
(1) the name and address of the person assisting the
voter;
(2) the relationship to the voter of the person
assisting the voter; and
(3) whether the person assisting the voter received or
accepted any form of compensation or other benefit from a
candidate, campaign, or political committee.

(how this will prevent any hypothetical voter fraud is beyond me)

also, you have to take an oath

"I swear (or affirm) under penalty of perjury that the voter I am assisting represented to me they are eligible to receive assistance because of a physical disability that renders the voter unable to write or see or an inability to read the language in which the ballot is written; I will not suggest, by word, sign, or gesture, how the voter should vote; I will confine my assistance to reading the ballot to the voter, directing the voter to read the ballot, marking the voter's ballot, or directing the voter to mark the ballot; I will prepare the voter's ballot as the voter directs; I did not pressure or coerce the voter into choosing me to provide assistance; I am not the voter's employer, an agent of the voter's employer, or an officer or agent of a labor union to which the voter belongs; I will not communicate information about how the voter has voted to another person; and I understand that if assistance is provided to a voter who is not eligible for assistance, the voter's ballot may not be counted."

there's a section about criminalization for election judges i can't really look up because it cites another statute and this is too long already but it leads to jail time, there's some superfluous stuff about changing ballots (which was literally already a crime under the statute this is changing, it's just political grandstanding for no fucking reason), things that are misdemeanors for normal people become felonies for election officials (hello, chilling effect), more administrative burdens for the courts by making them prioritize election cases over everything that's not a death penalty or a constitutional case, makes recusal harder (here are all the things judges must do before they can recuse themselves: hear an application for any emergency temporary relief sought, make a ruling on that, set a scheduling order that provides a date for a hearing on any injunction sought no later than five days after the date on which the proceeding was filed, an discovery and deposition deadlines before the expiration of any emergency relief order entered), and a new judge has to be assigned within 12 hours

they also tried to ban "vote-harvesting" but the statute is written so fucking poorly it doesn't actually apply

now for the inevitable contrarian who pops up with "well actually it's not all that bad", i remind you that texas' baseline voting laws are some of the most draconian in the nation
this is just some of the stuff they tacked on (house version only)

[Cannot think of a name]

U.S. Office of Government Ethics orders Biden’s top domestic policy adviser Susan Rice to divest her multimillion-dollar holdings in fossil fuel corporation Enbridge weeks after the Biden administration boosted the company’s Line 3 pipeline

Federal ethics regulators have ordered Joe Biden’s top domestic policy adviser Susan Rice to divest her multimillion-dollar holdings in a fossil fuel giant weeks after the Biden administration boosted the company’s controversial pipeline, according to government documents obtained by The Daily Poster.

The pipeline decision — backing a Trump administration policy over the objections of environmental groups — came as the company’s stock price has skyrocketed. That has created a potential financial jackpot for Rice, who as Domestic Policy Council chief will now be able to delay capital gains taxes on any windfall made off her sale of thousands of shares of Enbridge.

In all, Rice has been instructed by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics to divest stock worth nearly $32 million from more than three dozen companies and one index fund that she and her family own. Among the holdings are approximately $2.7 million worth of shares of Enbridge, the Canadian oil and gas pipeline company constructing the controversial Line 3 pipeline through Indigenous lands in Minnesota. While the Biden administration recently revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline project, Biden Justice Department officials last month backed the permit for the Line 3 pipeline in court, allowing the tar sands oil pipeline project to move forward amid the intensifying climate crisis. Enbridge shares are currently up about 13 percent since Biden took office, and earlier disclosures show Rice has previously raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars of dividend payments from the company.

Rice’s decision to retain stakes in Enbridge and other corporations with business before the government she helps lead has not only generated questions about conflicts of interest, it has also created a potentially lucrative tax shelter for herself and her family, thanks to a law allowing federal officials to defer capital gains levies when facing divestment orders from ethics regulators.[...] The Office of Government Ethics is also ordering Rice and her family to sell off nearly $1.1 million worth of shares of Johnson & Johnson, the pharmaceutical giant and COVID-19 vaccine maker, housed in a family trust.

Well, at least the horses won't get back in the barn now.

[Kowani]

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy wants to raise periodical rates by more than 8%

The U.S. Postal Service’s plan to raise mailing rates could present one more damaging blow to community newspapers already reeling from the coronavirus pandemic and advertising declines, a trade group says.

Rates on periodicals would increase by more than 8% as of Aug. 29, according to agency filings. The price jump is part of a broad plan pushed by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to overhaul mail operations.

The impact of the periodical rate increase is expected to be felt most by small daily and weekly newspapers, as well as rural newspapers, which depend on the Postal Service since they have shifted from using independent contractors for deliveries.

In response, publishers potentially could be forced to further reduce staff or forgo home deliveries entirely and instead send papers to communal news racks, or even shutter their papers, said Paul Boyle, senior vice president at the News Media Alliance, a trade association representing nearly 2,000 news organizations in the U.S. “It is one of several nicks and slashes that can damage the bottom line, especially if you are an independent publisher who is operating at break even or in the low single digits of profitability. And most are,” said Penelope Muse Abernathy, a Northwestern University professor who has extensively studied the decline of the news industry.

For some, it could be the tipping point for survivability, Boyle said.

The News Media Alliance, in comments opposing the rate increases, told the independent Postal Regulatory Commission that the plans “ultimately harm the public interest while doing little to improve the Postal Service’s financial condition.”

In a statement, Postal Service spokesman David Partenheimer said the agency’s leaders are “committed to judiciously implementing a rational pricing approach that helps enable us to remain viable and competitive and offer reliable postal services that are among the most affordable in the world.”

“While the price newspapers pay varies based on how they prepare and enter their papers into our system, the average proposed price increase for newspapers for local delivery is from 10.6 cents to 11.4 cents or 0.8 cent, less than one cent,” he said.

The newspaper industry has struggled greatly over the past two decades. Advertising has dried up due to the internet and readership has fallen. More than 2,100 newspapers in the United States have closed in the past 15 years, the majority of them weeklies that serve local communities, according to research by the University of North Carolina.

In the same period, regular newspaper readership has fallen by one-half, the researchers said.

Newspaper newsroom employment stood at 74,410 in 2006, the last year that figure grew over the previous year, according to the Pew Research Center in a study released last week. In 2020, there were 30,820 people in newsrooms. DeJoy, along with Ron Bloom, chairman of the agency’s governing board, presented the 10-year plan for the Postal Service in March, arguing that significant changes would be necessary to stem a projected $160 billion loss over the next decade.

The strategy includes relaxing delivery standards on first-class mail going to the farthest reaches of its network, from a one-to-three-day benchmark to a one-to-five-day goal. Postal officials have said 70% of mail would still be delivered within three days. Postal leaders are also moving to increase the price of a first-class stamp from 55 cents to 58 cents, and want to consolidate underused post offices and invest in new delivery vehicles.

[Salandriagado]

So you agree with stripping people of their right to vote if they can't be guaranteed to vote republican, I take it?

Absolutely not. But it is an absolute fallacy that policy that is crafted with the intent of making elections more secure and applies to everyone equally is racist and an attack on Democracy.

This policy is not crafted with the intent of making elections more secure and doesn't apply to everyone equally. It's crafted with the intent of making it harder for poor people to vote.

[Ifreann]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/07/12/trump-sows-doubts-about-upcoming-virginia-governors-election/

Trump is claiming that the election in Virginia will have been rigged if Republicans lose.

It's kind of wild how Trump can just tell people that he's lying about elections being rigged and they'll cheer him on. The best explanation I've seen for it is that his people think that they're in on the con, that together with Trump they're tricking the liberals.