...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Friday, February 19, 2021
Woe in Texas
In case you missed the reference: click here.To use an already-overused cliché, the failures we've seen in Texas this week are a feature, not a bug, of the style of government and the character of people that we have elected.
Before the storm, Texas failed in its response to the coronavirus. When local officials tried to establish or enforce capacity limits and mask wearing, state officials stepped in to object because, like windmills, masks must be liberal. Given months to plan for the vaccine rollout, both state and local governments failed to develop and communicate a workable plan. More than 41,000 Texans are dead.
Texans don't ask much of our government. But is it too much to ask that government not try to kill us?
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For too long, Texans have elected people more interested in dismantling government than actually running one. As we painfully learned this week, small government sounds good right up until the power goes out and the faucet runs dry.
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For too long, our politicians have been more interested in wedge issues to win party primaries increasingly dominated by extremists.
How much time did our Legislature spend debating transgender bathrooms? How many new ways can we find to restrict access to abortion and promote out-of-control gun culture? How many times can we sue the federal government for political sport? ("I go into the office, I sue the federal government and I go home," Greg Abbott boasted when he was attorney general, starting a tradition his successor has been proud to continue, even when it means trying to disenfranchise millions of voters.)
Our government has dismantled the social safety net and outsourced what's left.
Our regulatory agencies work to protect the businesses they regulate, not the people they serve.
Our state officials repeatedly undermine local governments. The last Legislature restricted local taxing authority, much of which is spent on public safety. Now the governor wants to forbid cities from controlling their own police budgets.
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Our government has dismantled the social safety net and outsourced what's left. Our regulatory agencies work to protect the businesses they regulate, not the people they serve. Our state officials repeatedly undermine local governments. The last Legislature restricted local taxing authority, much of which is spent on public safety. Now the governor wants to forbid cities from controlling their own police budgets.
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In Texas, the buck doesn't stop here — it just gets on a plane to Mexico.
Statesman
Please do.Rather than face up to the fact that they've been warned about Texas power grid vulnerabilities for a decade, numerous Texas officials sought to shift blame to other agencies or to frozen wind turbines, because renewable energy is somehow a liberal conceit.
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Texans deserve better. Let's remember these frozen, powerless, waterless nights on Election Day.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Racism in voter suppression doesn't get any louder
Outrageous.
In the words of Bobby Kennedy: Desperate acts of defeated men.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Officers involved in the coup attempt
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.Six US Capitol Police officers have been suspended with pay, and 29 others have been placed under investigation, for their actions in the January 6 riot, a department spokesman said Thursday.
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One of the suspended officers took a selfie with someone who was part of the mob that overtook the Capitol, according to Rep. Tim Ryan, a Democrat from Ohio. Another wore a "Make America Great Again" hat and started directing people around the buildin.
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At least seven officers in five other departments across the country have come under internal investigations as their presence in Washington during the assault comes to light through social media or other means.
One officer in New York, one in Philadelphia, two in Seattle, two in Virginia and one in Texas are under investigation by their departments for potential rules violations. Additionally, some departments have been contacted by the FBI as part of their criminal investigation into the overrunning of the Capitol.
CNN
Let them eat cake
Bad choice unless they're going to do it in a separate bill.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Thursday, February 18, 2021
Well, then
He still has the power to humiliate. She deserves it, though. So much for her 2024 plans.Former President Donald Trump this week declined to meet with Nikki Haley, his former ambassador to the United Nations and a prospective 2024 presidential candidate, according to a source familiar with the matter.
Politico first reported that Haley reached out to Trump on Wednesday to request a face-to-face meeting at his Mar-a-Lago resort. But Trump turned her down after Haley has spent recent weeks criticizing the former president for his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
The Hill
Of course it's not over
Trump is still saying he won.
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
Jesus Christ, these people.Law enforcement in Washington D.C. said they are monitoring the potential threat of further violence as followers of the QAnon conspiracy theory eagerly await March 4.
Supporters of the radical movement, listed as an domestic terrorist threat by the FBI, believe that Donald Trump will once again be inaugurated as president next month.
There is no suggestion that the QAnon supporters are planning anything in particular, but both Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department are keen not to have a repeat of the deadly January 6 attack, which conspiracy theorists took part in.
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According to QAnon, Trump will become the 19th president on March 4 because of a theory, also believed by the so-called sovereign citizen movement, that a law was secretly passed in 1871 that turned the U.S. into a corporation. As a result of this, all other presidents after Ulysses S. Grant are illegitimate, the theory goes.
March 4 is the date that presidential inauguration ceremonies used to take place, before it was moved to January 20 in 1933 in order to shorten the lame-duck period.
Newsweek
...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.
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