With my devil's advocate comments considered, however, I wholeheartedly encourage all Republican controlled states to implement any plans to minimize the probability of fraud. Just because I think some states will refuse to make improvements, doesn't mean we can't take steps to help where it's possible. It's getting too easy to say the enemy already won so what's the point in trying right? Even if I think the corruption is overwhelming, I'm still a fan of going down swinging.
"Hey jackass, get your government off my freedom." MOLON LABE
“ I certainly hope Georgia is paying attention. Pennsylvania too.”
LOL I’m sure they are, so are WI, AZ, NV, MI, along with the 28 States that use Dominion voting machines. Doesn't mean any of them on concerned about fixing their own election fraud issues any time soon.
There is money to be made in politics and even more in crooked politics.
If Florida can do it, so can any other GOP controlled state. I will tell you the GOP in Georgia is working on these things right now.
Florida has given these states a blueprint to clean things up. That's how movements start.
There is no money to make crooked or otherwise if your Party goes out of power.
With my devil's advocate comments considered, however, I wholeheartedly encourage all Republican controlled states to implement any plans to minimize the probability of fraud. Just because I think some states will refuse to make improvements, doesn't mean we can't take steps to help where it's possible. It's getting too easy to say the enemy already won so what's the point in trying right? Even if I think the corruption is overwhelming, I'm still a fan of going down swinging.
I'm not. Nor am I a fan of dying for your country. I'm a fan of Patton's way of thinking.
If the Senate passes the House bill DeSantis can kiss all of his plans for a fair and honest election goodbye. The house is trying to make federal law on elections and it will greatly resemble California's elections. This email is from my congress person. Her nose is clear up nancy pelosi's back side. She votes with nancy 95% of the time. This is the plan. Read it for yourself. Good luck Ron DeSantis kwg
February 26, 2021
Dear Kris, Thank you for contacting me to express your thoughts on the For the People Act. I appreciate you taking the time to share your views with me. You may be pleased to know that I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 1, the For the People Act, which was introduced on January 4th, 2021 by Representative John Sarbanes. As H.R. 1, the For the People Act represents the highest priority for the House of Representatives. I was proud to co-sponsor and vote for the For the People Act in the 116th Congress, and I urge my colleagues to bring this package up again for a vote in the 117th Congress.
This package of election and government reform legislation will help end the culture of corruption, get money out of politics and ensure that the voices of Iowans are heard in Washington. No matter if you are a Democrat, Republican or an Independent, I believe we can agree that all Iowans deserve easy and accessible voting, fair and transparent campaign finance laws, and responsible and accountable representatives. The three broad sections in the For the People Act – voting, campaign finance reform, and stronger ethics regulations – all help change the culture in Washington to move our country forward. Every voter in Iowa deserves to have their voice heard, and the For the People Act makes it easier for Iowans to participate in our democracy. I support provisions in the For the People Act that encourage voting like automatic registration, longer voting hours and more chances to vote early or by mail. Protecting our elections and ensuring Americans can vote is the cornerstone of our democracy. That’s why I have also previously voted for much-needed legislation to increase election security and protect voting rights – like the SAFE Act, which would create federal standards to secure our elections; and the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore and revise the Voting Rights Act to guard against efforts to suppress voter turnout. I will also make sure that the For the People Act ensures Iowa can continue leading charge against gerrymandering by using nonpartisan legislative staff who cannot use targeted political data to find an advantage in redistricting. Last Congress, I worked with members of Iowa’s congressional delegation to amend the For the People Act so that Iowa’s strong anti-gerrymandering laws continue to serve our state, and I intend to make sure this language is retained in the For the People Act this Congress.
I am also glad the For the People Act helps fight back against big money in politics to keep our democracy accountable to Iowans – not corporations and special interests. Currently, our tax code allows groups – like super PACs – to spend unlimited sums on political activities without having to reveal their big-money donors. This package will shine a light on anonymous dark money groups by requiring them to disclose their largest funders. To improve oversight, the For the People Act also empowers the Federal Election Commission to strongly enforce existing regulations. The For the People Act helps tackles corruption and waste in Washington. Provisions in the bill, such as closing lobbying loopholes and preventing elected politicians from serving on corporate boards all help prevent representatives from serving their pocketbooks instead of the people. I spent a decade at the State of Iowa rooting out waste, fraud and abuse to make sure Iowans’ tax dollars were being used wisely; I want Iowans to know their hard-earned tax dollars are being used to help move our country forward, not fund unnecessary perks for Members of Congress. In the 116th Congress, I introduced legislation, the Clean Up Congress Act, that takes three steps to root out waste, fraud and abuse by: 1) banning Members of Congress from becoming lobbyists, 2) prohibiting Members of Congress for using taxpayer dollars for first class flights, and 3) preventing Congress from getting a pay raise until they reduce the spending deficit. Iowans deserve better from Washington – and that starts with Congress getting its own house in order.
I believe that regardless of political affiliation, Congress can always look for ways to increase voter participation, hold government accountable, and save taxpayer dollars. One of the most important parts of my job is to listen to the people, and I will continue to keep your thoughts in mind as I continue working to guarantee the people of Iowa’s Third Congressional District have your voices heard. Thank you again for contacting my office. Please keep in touch with any additional questions or comments by emailing me at https://axne.house.gov/contact. If you would like to receive regular updates from me, please visit https://axne.house.gov/contact/newsletter to sign up for my e-newsletter. Sincerely,
Cindy Axne Member of Congress
For liberals and anarchists, power and control is opium, selling envy is the fastest and easiest way to get it. TRR. American conservative. Never trust a white liberal. Malcom X Current NRA member.
“ I certainly hope Georgia is paying attention. Pennsylvania too.”
LOL I’m sure they are, so are WI, AZ, NV, MI, along with the 28 States that use Dominion voting machines. Doesn't mean any of them on concerned about fixing their own election fraud issues any time soon.
There is money to be made in politics and even more in crooked politics.
If Florida can do it, so can any other GOP controlled state. I will tell you the GOP in Georgia is working on these things right now.
Florida has given these states a blueprint to clean things up. That's how movements start.
There is no money to make crooked or otherwise if your Party goes out of power.
I sincerely hope y'all can do it. Godspeed.
Hat lives in Georgia if I’m not mistaken?
Georgia has Republican leadership?
The degree of my privacy is no business of yours.
What we've learned from history is that we haven't learned from it.
The swing states don't want the blueprint....the blueprint they used worked just fine for them and now they are in control. Unfortunately, it will be almost impossible to change that.
Who's in control?
BREAKING| Nov 6, 2020,11:57am EST|49,287 views Republicans Will Enter 2021 With Control Over Most States’ Governments. Here’s Why That Matters For Redistricting. Joe Walsh Joe WalshForbes Staff
If you are relying on people like Toomey and Loeffler (who both caved on Jan 6th) then prepare to be disappointed again.
I sure could go for some $2.50/gal gas and a mean tweet!
NRA Benefactor member, disgruntled. Life member: Firearms Owners Against Crime. Life member: GOA Member: RMEF
“ I certainly hope Georgia is paying attention. Pennsylvania too.”
LOL I’m sure they are, so are WI, AZ, NV, MI, along with the 28 States that use Dominion voting machines. Doesn't mean any of them on concerned about fixing their own election fraud issues any time soon.
There is money to be made in politics and even more in crooked politics.
If Florida can do it, so can any other GOP controlled state. I will tell you the GOP in Georgia is working on these things right now.
Florida has given these states a blueprint to clean things up. That's how movements start.
There is no money to make crooked or otherwise if your Party goes out of power.
I sincerely hope y'all can do it. Godspeed.
Hat lives in Georgia if I’m not mistaken?
Georgia has Republican leadership?
If you can call that Traitor Kemp and his Secretary of State Republicans, then yes, the Republicans control that crooked legislative body.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man a welfare check, a forty ounce malt liquor, a crack pipe, an Obama phone, free health insurance. and some Air Jordan's and he votes Democrat for a lifetime.
The swing states don't want the blueprint....the blueprint they used worked just fine for them and now they are in control. Unfortunately, it will be almost impossible to change that.
Who's in control?
BREAKING| Nov 6, 2020,11:57am EST|49,287 views Republicans Will Enter 2021 With Control Over Most States’ Governments. Here’s Why That Matters For Redistricting. Joe Walsh Joe WalshForbes Staff
If you are relying on people like Toomey and Loeffler (who both caved on Jan 6th) then prepare to be disappointed again.
Agreed, the Uniparty is in control and they will make sure to keep it that way.
Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Give a man a welfare check, a forty ounce malt liquor, a crack pipe, an Obama phone, free health insurance. and some Air Jordan's and he votes Democrat for a lifetime.
Desantis is part of a new breed of conservatives coming up. Actually, they are a much better group than anything we have had in 20-30 years.
This Covid issue is going to galvanize their resolve even more. These are the people that actually have kids suffering from this boondoggle.
"...aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one." - Paul to the church in Thessalonica.
Of course, the Dems and MSM talking Points against these new Republicans that push back is that they are "spreading disinformation". Good example of that here: (Note that the GOP lawmaker from AK rightly calls them out, saying "disinformation" is everything they don't agree with)
Quote
Some GOP state lawmakers help spread COVID-19 misinformation
JULIE CARR SMYTH and BECKY BOHRER Sun, February 28, 2021, 11:09 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Many Republican lawmakers have criticized governors’ emergency restrictions since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. Now that most legislatures are back in session, a new type of pushback is taking root: misinformation.
In their own comments or by inviting skeptics to testify at legislative hearings, some GOP state lawmakers are using their platform to promote false information about the virus, the steps needed to limit its spread and the vaccines that will pull the nation out of the pandemic.
In some cases, the misstatements have faced swift backlash, even getting censored online. That's raised tough questions about how aggressively to combat potentially dangerous misinformation from elected officials or during legislative hearings while protecting free speech and people's access to government.
Last week, YouTube pulled down a video of committee testimony in the Ohio House after a witness inaccurately claimed COVID-19 wasn't killing children. The platform said the video violated its community standards against the spread of misinformation.
Ben Wizner, director of the ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology project, said YouTube went too far.
“When we're talking about testimony that occurred at a public hearing, the far better response would be counterspeech, maybe in the form of fact-checking or labeling, rather than this attempt to flush it down the memory hole,” Wizner said.
But opposing voices aren't always present in committee hearings.
In Michigan, for example, a House Oversight Committee meeting didn't feature state health officials or other virus experts in a discussion about an extended pause on youth contact sports ordered by Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
It did include Jayme McElvany, a virus skeptic who also has posted about the QAnon conspiracy and former President Donald Trump's unfounded claims of election fraud. Founder of a group called Let Them Play, McElvany questioned mask mandates and the science behind state COVID-19 data during a legislative hearing that didn't feature any witnesses from the other side. The committee chairman, Republican Rep. Steven Johnson, said the state health department was invited to testify but did not. Legislative Republicans have been challenging decisions of the Whitmer administration throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Wizner said such imbalances need to be highlighted, not suppressed.
“People need to know this is what passes for local government,” he said. When the hearings are posted online, YouTube owner Google has plenty of tools for flagging questionable information and directing people to facts, Wizner said.
In Tennessee, a Republican lawmaker is pushing legislation that would ban most government agencies from requiring anyone to get COVID-19 vaccines, which isn't a mandate anywhere. Rep. Bud Hulsey has tried to drum up support downplaying the seriousness of the disease.
While testifying, he ticked off selective statistics that COVID-19 has a lower death rate among children and falsely alleged that the vaccines could cause genetic modifications.
Hulsey faced pushback from a fellow Republican, Rep. Sabi Kumar, a surgeon who has been a rare GOP advocate for proper mask-wearing while lawmakers gather at the Tennessee Capitol.
“The concern I have is that (the bill) creates an anti-vaccine attitude,” Kumar said.
Kumar pointed out that vaccines have saved countless lives throughout the centuries and repeatedly fact-checked Hulsey by emphasizing that the vaccines don't change a person’s DNA.
Hulsey wasn't convinced.
“People have seen governments all across this country do things that have never ever happened in the history of the United States, and it scares them," he said. "They have every right to be afraid.”
His bill has advanced out of a House subcommittee.
In Alaska, Gov. Mike Dunleavy is fighting what he called a pattern of misrepresentations by state Sen. Lora Reinbold, a fellow Republican, saying he would no longer send members of his administration before her Senate Judiciary Committee.
In a scathing Feb. 18 letter that referenced her Facebook posts, Dunleavy accused Reinbold of misrepresenting the state’s COVID-19 response and deceiving the public.
“The misinformation must end,” the governor wrote.
Reinbold has been a vocal critic of Dunleavy issuing disaster declarations while the Legislature wasn't in session. She has used her committee to amplify voices of those who question the effectiveness of masks and the effects of the government's emergency response.
On social media, she characterized the Dunleavy administration as being “wild” over “these experimental” vaccines. At a hearing in early February, Reinbold questioned the extent to which the administration had suspended regulations during the pandemic.
“It’s almost like martial law," she said.
The governor said that while he has tried to ease rules on businesses such as suspending fees, he's never imposed martial law or forced Alaskans to get vaccines. Reinbold has called the governor's criticism of her baseless.
“Some call ‘misinformation’ information they do not agree with or do not want to hear,” Reinbold said by email.
The dustup prompted intervention by the Senate president, who said he expected his committees to provide a “balanced approach.”
In Idaho, Rep. Heather Scott opened the legislative session in January by declaring, “The pandemic is over." She said Idaho's 1,600-plus COVID-19 deaths at that time amounted to "nowhere close to a pandemic.”
The average number of daily COVID-19 cases is falling in Idaho, but the death toll has risen.
During a live Zoom forum with constituents in mid-February, Scott criticized the National Governors Association, which last year issued a statement with tips for fighting misinformation about the virus. She alleged that the group is run by “globalists” at the World Economic Forum and that “they are the ones that came out with COVID." The term “globalists” is widely considered to be an anti-Semitic slur.
Scott didn't immediately respond to a message seeking clarification on what she meant.
Several of those who are spreading bogus virus information in legislatures also have supported Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen.
In Virginia, Republican Del. Dave LaRock, who attended the Trump rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the attack on the U.S. Capitol, warned a state House Health committee in late January that COVID-19 vaccines couldn't be trusted. He said they were especially risky for several communities, including the elderly and people of color.
Democratic Del. Cia Price, who is Black, called LaRock's false claims “simply dangerous.”
“There is legitimate vaccine hesitancy in communities that the gentleman listed, but actual and factual information is key, not fanning the flames that are based on historic events,” she said.
___
Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska. Associated Press writers David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan; Kimberlee Kruesi in Nashville, Tennessee; Geoff Mulvihill in Cherry Hill, New Jersey; Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Virginia; and Keith Ridler in Boise, Idaho, contributed to this report.
"The Democrat Party looks like Titanic survivors. Partying and celebrating one moment, and huddled in lifeboats freezing the next". Hatari 2017
"Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid." Han Solo
