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lees1975
lees1975's Journal
lees1975's Journal
January 9, 2023
Asking for a friend, How are those deemed to have violated the 14th amendment adjudicated and
removed from Congress? Does the House have to vote or can it be done through the court system?
It seems to me that with all these Oath Keepers and Proud Boys going to prison for being in the Capitol on January 6th, that Republican members of the House who were involved with that should also be going to prison and having their seats vacated for their participation in sedition against the United States constitution they swore to uphold. How does that process get started? Are there Democrats in position to be aggressive enough to enforce that law, or is it just another one of those things that people can get away with if they have enough money or influence?
January 9, 2023
Those who continue to grab on to Trumpism, and who push themselves to be the face of the GOP will bring the whole party down with them. There will always be the pockets of disgruntled, unhappy, uneducated ignorance where Republicans have few challengers, but I believe we are on the verge of seeing Democrats gain and hold Congressional power for at least a decade. The pendulum always swings, but perception and discernment, along with understanding that this is a democracy where the will of the people is sovereign, is the trademark of leadership. As long as Democrats realize that, like Joe Biden has done, they will have the mantle of leadership.
Predicting a "Blue Tsumami" in 2024 isn't climbing out on a limb
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/stepping-out-on-limb-to-predict-blue.htmlThose who continue to grab on to Trumpism, and who push themselves to be the face of the GOP will bring the whole party down with them. There will always be the pockets of disgruntled, unhappy, uneducated ignorance where Republicans have few challengers, but I believe we are on the verge of seeing Democrats gain and hold Congressional power for at least a decade. The pendulum always swings, but perception and discernment, along with understanding that this is a democracy where the will of the people is sovereign, is the trademark of leadership. As long as Democrats realize that, like Joe Biden has done, they will have the mantle of leadership.
January 8, 2023
I'm not a fan of the phrase, "control the narrative," but the new house leadership, well, I think their approach is great. Sometimes when Democrats are the minority, they're tongues are sharper and their minds are more organized.
Democrats in the House Minority have control of the narrative
https://www.msnbc.com/alex-wagner-tonight/watch/-we-know-how-to-take-them-on-raskin-projects-confidence-as-democrats-shift-to-minority-159454789528I'm not a fan of the phrase, "control the narrative," but the new house leadership, well, I think their approach is great. Sometimes when Democrats are the minority, they're tongues are sharper and their minds are more organized.
January 6, 2023
The first Republican majority in the House in four years, in its opening exercises conducting what has been a routine and relatively peaceful transfer of power for most of the nation's history, is showing us that it is no longer capable of governing. Extremists, while not making up nearly as large a majority as their leader wants us to think, has still paralyzed the party, mainly because the rest of it has still decided it is too weak and conciliatory to stand up to the orange menace and take their party back. So, while the extremists aren't participating in the negotiating and deal-making that is an essential part of a representative democracy, they are also helping to make their party's chances of holding this majority and winning the White House in 2024 slimmer every day.
This is a prelude to the next two years of Republican house leadership. Even with the gerrymandering that is essentially the only reason they actually got their thinnest of majorities this mid-term, this is going to turn into an electoral disaster. And in all honesty, I don't think the party can survive this in one piece. It is in "disarray" (I love to use that term!) and the tendency of Republican extremists to avoid any kind of deal making or compromise and stick to their "my way or the highway" way of doing things will cause a fracture that can't be repaired.
From Pelosi's effective leadership to chaos
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/from-pelosis-effective-leadership-to.htmlThe first Republican majority in the House in four years, in its opening exercises conducting what has been a routine and relatively peaceful transfer of power for most of the nation's history, is showing us that it is no longer capable of governing. Extremists, while not making up nearly as large a majority as their leader wants us to think, has still paralyzed the party, mainly because the rest of it has still decided it is too weak and conciliatory to stand up to the orange menace and take their party back. So, while the extremists aren't participating in the negotiating and deal-making that is an essential part of a representative democracy, they are also helping to make their party's chances of holding this majority and winning the White House in 2024 slimmer every day.
This is a prelude to the next two years of Republican house leadership. Even with the gerrymandering that is essentially the only reason they actually got their thinnest of majorities this mid-term, this is going to turn into an electoral disaster. And in all honesty, I don't think the party can survive this in one piece. It is in "disarray" (I love to use that term!) and the tendency of Republican extremists to avoid any kind of deal making or compromise and stick to their "my way or the highway" way of doing things will cause a fracture that can't be repaired.
January 6, 2023
The first Republican majority in the House in four years, in its opening exercises conducting what has been a routine and relatively peaceful transfer of power for most of the nation's history, is showing us that it is no longer capable of governing. Extremists, while not making up nearly as large a majority as their leader wants us to think, has still paralyzed the party, mainly because the rest of it has still decided it is too weak and conciliatory to stand up to the orange menace and take their party back. So, while the extremists aren't participating in the negotiating and deal-making that is an essential part of a representative democracy, they are also helping to make their party's chances of holding this majority and winning the White House in 2024 slimmer every day.
This is a prelude to the next two years of Republican house leadership. Even with the gerrymandering that is essentially the only reason they actually got their thinnest of majorities this mid-term, this is going to turn into an electoral disaster. And in all honesty, I don't think the party can survive this in one piece. It is in "disarray" (I love to use that term!) and the tendency of Republican extremists to avoid any kind of deal making or compromise and stick to their "my way or the highway" way of doing things will cause a fracture that can't be repaired.
From Pelosi's effective leadership to Chaos.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/from-pelosis-effective-leadership-to.htmlThe first Republican majority in the House in four years, in its opening exercises conducting what has been a routine and relatively peaceful transfer of power for most of the nation's history, is showing us that it is no longer capable of governing. Extremists, while not making up nearly as large a majority as their leader wants us to think, has still paralyzed the party, mainly because the rest of it has still decided it is too weak and conciliatory to stand up to the orange menace and take their party back. So, while the extremists aren't participating in the negotiating and deal-making that is an essential part of a representative democracy, they are also helping to make their party's chances of holding this majority and winning the White House in 2024 slimmer every day.
This is a prelude to the next two years of Republican house leadership. Even with the gerrymandering that is essentially the only reason they actually got their thinnest of majorities this mid-term, this is going to turn into an electoral disaster. And in all honesty, I don't think the party can survive this in one piece. It is in "disarray" (I love to use that term!) and the tendency of Republican extremists to avoid any kind of deal making or compromise and stick to their "my way or the highway" way of doing things will cause a fracture that can't be repaired.
January 5, 2023
What part of Florida does Matt Gaetz represent?
I want to make sure I never go there, to that godforsaken place which has to be the most backward place in America, full of rubes and uneducated hicks who have no education and no teeth either. Otherwise, how could someone as despicable, immoral and with absolutely zero common sense ever get elected to Congress?
January 4, 2023
We saw this coming
but like a lot of similar things, weren't sure it would develop the way it did. Three floor votes, the Democrat getting a plurality on all three, it couldn't have gone better for Democrats if it had been scripted.
Let's be patient here, these things take time, but this is the beginning of a blue tsunami. The GOP has forgotten something it used to yell at the top of its lungs, that reality doesn't take place inside the walls of the Capitol. And that's where they're huddling now.
If it gets this intense every time some nutcase right wing lunacy comes to the floor, it's going to be a long two years for them, and a landslide for the Democrats in 2024.
January 3, 2023
Most criticism and rejection of Christianity is a rejection of the political movement. In most cases, what gets rejected isn't even genuine Christian faith, at least, not the kind of faith that comes out of a contextual, historical interpretation of the Bible. Evangelicals have a tendency to ignore history and context in favor of a fundamentalist brand of literalism, which distorts the message of the original authors of the Bible and which injects modern cultural bias into the practice of the faith. There's also an arrogance that has developed among conservative Christians, based on their belief that they've got it all right, and that those who don't see it their way are hell-bound liberals who have it wrong. They are blind to their presuppositions and incorrect assumptions.
Two of the church's early apostles, recognized leaders in the founding years of Christian faith, both write about the relationship between the church and the civil government. Recognizing that God is sovereign, they concluded that Christians are to recognize that all governments derive their power from God and obedience to the civil government, even if those involved did not share Christian beliefs, was an act of obedience to God. What is also clear is that the Christian church was given a mission and purpose based on the Christian gospel, and while it acknowledged the authority of the civil government, it was not instructed to use that power to advance its own mission and purpose, but was to see God's sense of direction.
Jefferson and Madison, noting that religion had been the cause behind centuries of European bloodshed and desiring that the kind of fighting Europe had endured would never find its way to American soil, took what I see as a Biblical model of the separation of church and state, and created a free church in a free state, so that both could thrive. For Christians, from my perspective, that makes the preservation of democracy and the freedoms guaranteed by it the highest priority for the church. Whether the church is empowered by the favor of the state, or persecuted by it, in neither situation is it free to be the church.
Which political party's worldview is incompatible with Christian history and doctrine?
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/which-partys-worldview-is-incompatible.htmlMost criticism and rejection of Christianity is a rejection of the political movement. In most cases, what gets rejected isn't even genuine Christian faith, at least, not the kind of faith that comes out of a contextual, historical interpretation of the Bible. Evangelicals have a tendency to ignore history and context in favor of a fundamentalist brand of literalism, which distorts the message of the original authors of the Bible and which injects modern cultural bias into the practice of the faith. There's also an arrogance that has developed among conservative Christians, based on their belief that they've got it all right, and that those who don't see it their way are hell-bound liberals who have it wrong. They are blind to their presuppositions and incorrect assumptions.
Two of the church's early apostles, recognized leaders in the founding years of Christian faith, both write about the relationship between the church and the civil government. Recognizing that God is sovereign, they concluded that Christians are to recognize that all governments derive their power from God and obedience to the civil government, even if those involved did not share Christian beliefs, was an act of obedience to God. What is also clear is that the Christian church was given a mission and purpose based on the Christian gospel, and while it acknowledged the authority of the civil government, it was not instructed to use that power to advance its own mission and purpose, but was to see God's sense of direction.
Jefferson and Madison, noting that religion had been the cause behind centuries of European bloodshed and desiring that the kind of fighting Europe had endured would never find its way to American soil, took what I see as a Biblical model of the separation of church and state, and created a free church in a free state, so that both could thrive. For Christians, from my perspective, that makes the preservation of democracy and the freedoms guaranteed by it the highest priority for the church. Whether the church is empowered by the favor of the state, or persecuted by it, in neither situation is it free to be the church.
January 2, 2023
Religious bigotry in the form of anti-Semitism is on the rise--this is absolutely chilling
and it is unacceptable in this country.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/religious-bigotry-threatens-america-as.html
No American should ever feel threatened in their own country to the point where they feel they must start to plan to flee in order to avoid danger, because they are of a different race, ethnicity or religious belief.
December 27, 2022
This is about raising money for future political ambitions. Lake knows she lost, as certainly as Trump knew he lost in 2020 once the vote tallies were finalized and certified. Her entire demeanor and approach to this whole post-election tantrum conveys a very clear understanding that she knows she lost and she also knows that her claims that she "won by 200,000 votes" are bogus. There are always glitches and equipment issues and a whole array of problems associated with elections, but there are solutions to all of them which make it possible for every voter's ballot to count accurately. The failure of a handful of printers in Maricopa County provided cover for Lake's bogus claims, but the county was right on top of that and documented the fact that every voter who chose to cast a ballot did so, and their votes were counted.
Kari Lake will never become governor of Arizona, certainly not at all based on an election that she clearly lost. She's trying to figure out her next move, and she wants her supporters to pay for her time and effort. And that's what this is all about.
Election deniers thrive on ignorance. It's not easy to admit that a majority or plurality of voters don't see things the way a specific candidate may see them. The polarization that we've seen, introduced by hostile media elements, promoted by various extremist factions including elements of the religious right, has introduced an "all or nothing" attitude into politics, which makes it difficult to make government work. So convincing people who don't really pay much attention to anything except their own self, that someone is "rigging" elections is easier than it should be.
Lake knows she lost the election, this is all about continuing to collect money from suckers.
https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2022/12/enough-is-really-enough-says-maricopa.htmlThis is about raising money for future political ambitions. Lake knows she lost, as certainly as Trump knew he lost in 2020 once the vote tallies were finalized and certified. Her entire demeanor and approach to this whole post-election tantrum conveys a very clear understanding that she knows she lost and she also knows that her claims that she "won by 200,000 votes" are bogus. There are always glitches and equipment issues and a whole array of problems associated with elections, but there are solutions to all of them which make it possible for every voter's ballot to count accurately. The failure of a handful of printers in Maricopa County provided cover for Lake's bogus claims, but the county was right on top of that and documented the fact that every voter who chose to cast a ballot did so, and their votes were counted.
Kari Lake will never become governor of Arizona, certainly not at all based on an election that she clearly lost. She's trying to figure out her next move, and she wants her supporters to pay for her time and effort. And that's what this is all about.
Election deniers thrive on ignorance. It's not easy to admit that a majority or plurality of voters don't see things the way a specific candidate may see them. The polarization that we've seen, introduced by hostile media elements, promoted by various extremist factions including elements of the religious right, has introduced an "all or nothing" attitude into politics, which makes it difficult to make government work. So convincing people who don't really pay much attention to anything except their own self, that someone is "rigging" elections is easier than it should be.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Tucson, Arizona
Current location: Chicago, Illinois
Member since: Wed Dec 25, 2019, 01:02 AM
Number of posts: 3,845
