December 22, 2018

If a President is impeached but not convicted, can they repeat the process again?

Let's say this happens in 2019, and the Senate Republicans all vote "No" on conviction. Can we impeach again in 2020 (or, gasp, 2021 if he's re-elected), or would that be double jeopardy?

December 19, 2018

New Yorkers Have a Constitutional Right to Nunchucks, Judge Rules

Source: NY Times

In the 1970s, the United States was in the middle of kung fu fever. A wave of martial arts movies washed onto American shores, making Bruce Lee an international superstar and “nunchucks” a household word.

Worried that young people inspired by the craze might use nunchucks to cause havoc, New York State lawmakers criminalized the weapon in 1974.

Not long after, a young man in suburban New Jersey began studying nunchucks, eventually developing a passion for them.

Four decades later, that formerly young man, James M. Maloney, now 60, was in court battling New York’s ban on the weapon — and winning.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/nyregion/nunchuks-ban-overturned-new-york.html

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Interesting. Wonder if the NY ban on shurikens (throwing stars) will be overturned next...

December 13, 2018

Abortion opponents are starting to worry Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh isn't the ally they w

Abortion opponents are starting to worry Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh isn’t the ally they were expecting

Justice Brett Kavanaugh has only been on the bench for two months, but a controversial decision announced this week has abortion opponents starting to worry that he may not be the ally on the high court that they expected.

On Monday, the court announced that it would not review two lower court decisions that temporarily banned Louisiana and Kansas from cutting Planned Parenthood’s Medicaid funding. While three of the court’s conservatives voted to take up the cases, Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts declined to join them, ensuring the cases would not receive the necessary four votes for review.

Despite a claim of “vindication” from Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, who voted to confirm Kavanaugh after he assured her that he viewed the court’s abortion precedents as settled law, progressives have cautioned against reading too much into Kavanaugh’s vote.

The question the cases presented was not about the legality of abortion, but instead over whether individuals have a right to challenge a state’s determination that a Medicaid provider is “qualified.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/12/brett-kavanaugh-may-not-be-solid-ally-abortion-opponents-were-expecting.html

Note: I thought he was pro-Roe since the hearings, his answers worried Rick Santorum in an interview. I also thought Gorsuch was anti-Roe from the hearings. So far it seems that I may be right...

December 11, 2018

Let's say Trump isn't removed from office, but decides not to run again in 2020

Let's also say he doesn't resign. Who would be the Republican nominee in 2020? I wouldn't call Pence the front-runner, because he would be coming out of a very tainted administration. He might not even run.

So who? My bet is Cruz gets the nomination this time, although he alienated lots in his own Party. He would almost certainly run again. Perhaps we'll see a Cruz vs. Beto again, only this time on the national level. That would be a very interesting race.

Or do you think someone else would get the nomination? Romney? Jeb? Rick Scott? <gasp> Cindy Hyde-Smith?

December 8, 2018

Principal Bans Candy Canes Because 'J' Shape Stands For Jesus

OMAHA, NB (CBSMiami/CNN) – An elementary school principal in Omaha, Nebraska is on administrative leave after asking teachers to not celebrate Christmas in classrooms.

Principal Jennifer Sinclair sent out an internal memo which included a list of Christmas-related items and activities that could not be used in class at Manchester Elementary School.

Items ban included images of Santas or Christmas items on worksheets, trees in classrooms, singing carols, playing Christmas music, making ornaments and candy canes.

According to Sinclair, the ‘J’ shape of a candy cane is for Jesus and the red and white colors represent his blood and resurrection.

https://miami.cbslocal.com/2018/12/07/principal-bans-candy-canes-because-j-shape-stands-for-jesus/

I've been eating candy canes for 40 years in December, and it never crossed my mind about it being a J, this is crazy.

December 8, 2018

Why did David Souter retire from the Supreme Court so young and soon?

With Bush Sr.'s death all over the news, it got me thinking about Souter again. He was on the SC from 1990 to 2009. He was 51 when he joined, and just 69 when he stepped down, a baby for a retiring SCJ. I get it if you're old or very sick, but he was neither.

Now, I know he wanted to retire under a Democrat, but he had at least 16 years left in him. Why give up the best job in the world?

December 5, 2018

Teacher Who Told First-Grade Students Santa Isn't Real Won't Be Returning To School, Officials Say

Source: CBS Philly

MONTVILLE, N.J. (CBS/AP) — School officials say a substitute teacher who told first-grade students in New Jersey that Santa Claus isn’t real will not be returning to the school.

NJ.com reports Montville Schools Superintendent Rene Rovtar confirmed Tuesday the teacher will no longer work in the district after the incident Thursday at Cedar Hill School.

Rovtar declined further comment, saying the issue is a personnel matter.

Officials say the teacher debunked other holiday characters, including the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and Elf on a Shelf.

Read more: https://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2018/12/05/teacher-who-told-first-grade-students-santa-isnt-real-wont-be-returning-to-school-officials-say/

November 18, 2018

Republican Mia Love pulls ahead in Utah House race after Trump knocked her for losing

Source: CNN

Washington (CNN)Two-term Republican Rep. Mia Love on Friday took the lead over her Democratic challenger in Utah's 4th District House race more than a week after election night and after President Donald Trump mocked her for losing.

Love leads Democrat Ben McAdams by 419 votes as of Friday evening, CNN results show, giving the congresswoman 50.1% of the vote -- a slim margin above McAdams at 49.9% as votes continue to be counted.

The shift in votes marks the first time Love has held a lead over McAdams since election night on November 6, when the race was deemed too close to call.

Despite the slim margin and the fact that votes were still being counted, Trump declared in a news conference the day after the election that Love had lost the race and attacked the congresswoman for not embracing him as a campaigner.

Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/16/politics/mia-love-utah-lead-trump/index.html

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WTF? How the hell did they suddenly find more votes for her?

November 15, 2018

Governor Calls Abortion 'Black Genocide,' Defends Hyde-Smith on 'Hanging' Tape

JACKSON — As state and national controversy swirls around U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s comment about a “public hanging” in her race against an African American opponent, Gov. Phil Bryant opened a press conference this morning implying that black women are participating in “the genocide of 20 million African American children” through legal abortions.

“See, in my heart, I am confused about where the outrage is at about 20 million African American children that have been aborted. No one wants to say anything about that. No one wants to talk about that,” Bryant said, with Hyde-Smith and National Right to Life President Carol Tobias standing nearby.

Bryant’s use of the abortion-as-genocide conspiracy theory about a woman’s right to choose a legal abortion, a trope popular with white conservatives, comes amid a state and national outcry after it went viral Sunday that Hyde-Smith had made a comment about “public hangings” at a campaign stop in Tupelo. She is in a run-off to keep her U.S. Senate set on Tuesday, Nov. 27, against former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, who would become Mississippi’s first African American senator since Reconstruction, should he win the race.

Anti-abortion activists, white and black, often point to black women choosing abortion as a form of “genocide” of African Americans. “Look at African Americans,” Bryant said Monday morning. “According to Wikipedia, had those (black) children not been aborted, the African American population would be 48 percent larger in America. Forty-eight percent larger. We can play with those numbers, and we can look at statistics, but the cold, grim truth is, children are being murdered.” (At press time, we had not located the Wikipedia page Bryant referred to.)

http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/2018/nov/12/governor-calls-abortion-black-genocide-defends-hyd/

Wow, the Governor is as insane (perhaps even more so) than the Senator...

November 14, 2018

'ANGRY GOY 2' NEO-NAZI VIDEO GAME LETS USERS KILL LGBT PEOPLE AND MINORITIES TO SAVE DONALD TRUMP

Source: Newsweek

Christopher Cantwell, the white supremacist infamous for his role in last year's far-right rally in Charlottesville, is one of the key promoters of a Neo-Nazi video game that allows users to slaughter gay men, Jews, other minorities and journalists.

Angry Goy II, available to download on the website for Cantwell's Radical Agenda podcast, allows users to play as Cantwell or fellow alt-right figurehead Richard Spencer in order to save President Donald Trump, who has been kidnapped by “left-wing terrorists.”

As reported by the Angry White Men blog, one of the game’s levels involves shooting people inside a gay club called “LGBTQ+ Agenda HQ.” The action is strongly reminiscent of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, in June 2016 when 49 people were killed.

Another mission involves killing journalists inside the offices of the “Fake News Network," a reference to the term Trump uses to attack media organizations such as CNN. The New York offices of CNN were recently sent a pipe bomb as part of an alleged plot targeting Trump critics and key Democrat figures, including former president Barack Obama and former secretary of state Hilary Clinton.

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/charlotesville-crying-nazi-hosts-video-game-allowing-users-kill-lgbt-people-1212855

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Disgusting. It's not free speech if it promotes violence.