I've seen a lot of news talking about the Republican strategy of filling electoral offices with people who believe the 2022 election was stolen. There are also laws being passed to allow a state legislature or government to override electoral results, sending their own delegates to Congress.
If it comes to pass that the Democratic party wins the presidency in 2024, what happens next?
Will the Republicans in those oversight positions allege fraud again, and throw out results now they have the power to do so?
Where does that end? Will the Democratic party just roll over and accept permanent defeat? Will the supreme court rule one way or another, and will Republicans accept rulings that aren't in their favour? Will the next presidency even be considered legitimate?
What is the end goal of the Republican party?
(I don't think civil war should even be discussed, it just devolves into an extremely polarizing: "X could kick Y's ass" "but but but the military" etc etc, over and over.)
They are only paid $100 a year plus mileage. It has been at that rate since 1889. As a result, the most likely ways to be an active member are to be wealthy, or retired. How can a person of wealth or a person significantly older than the average age of their constituents truly understand the plight of the commoners?
This was triggered in me because I wrote a cordial email to Senator Gannon about my disappointment of his marijuana stance. What I received back was an incoherent wall of text that included all the stereotypes from decades past. Based on his answer, I decided to consider running against him and was reminded of how I'm not in a position to "volunteer" my time to be a legislator here.
I'm a Gen-Xer and I would love to see some organization between Gen-X, Millennials, and Zoomers to get the Boomers that are out of touch out of office. Can we get some momentum? Who is with me?!
A bill has been filed in Kentucky (HS 142) to ban kratom, introducing stiff penalties for trafficking (KRS 218A.1412) any quantity (listed in the same category as heroin and fentanyl) and possession as a Class-D Felony.
Another bill has been issued in Washington State (SB 5743). This would similarly add mitragynine and 7-OH-mitragynine to Schedule I under the existing state laws dealing with controlled substances.
As a reminder, there is also a pending ban in Pearl Co. Mississippi. The last day to register to speak at the board meeting has passed (January 13).
Consider signing up for the American Kratom Association mailing list for up-to-date information about pending issues and opportunities for activism. Donations help those who help us keep kratom legal.
EDIT: It appears this has been in place since 2003. The recent discussions around this bill appear to be on how it will be applied.
Here's the link to the proposed bill itself: https://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=246-100-040
Just the first section is chilling enough, because all it takes is for a local health officer to point to say, "you've got a communicable disease" to detain someone.
>(1) At his or her sole discretion, a local health officer may issue an emergency detention order causing a person or group of persons to be immediately detained for purposes of isolation or quarantine in accordance with subsection (3) of this section, or may petition the superior court ex parte for an order to take the person or group of persons into involuntary detention for purposes of isolation or quarantine in accordance with subsection (4) of this section, provided that he or she:
>(a) Has first made reasonable efforts, which shall be documented, to obtain voluntary compliance with requests for medical examination, testing, treatment, counseling, vaccination, decontamination of persons or animals, isolation, quarantine, and inspection and closure of facilities, or has determined in his or her professional judgment that seeking voluntary compliance would create a risk of serious harm; and
>(b) Has reason to believe that the person or group of persons is, or is suspected to be, infected with, exposed to, or contaminated with a communicable disease or chemical, biological, or radiological agent that could spread to or contaminate others if remedial action is not taken; and
>(c) Has reason to believe that the person or group of persons would pose a serious and imminent risk to the health and safety of others if not detained for purposes of isolation or quarantine.
I think it's kind of crazy that a state with 40 million people has one senator per million people and one Assemblyman for 500,000 people.
This is not how state government should work. I would quadruple the size of the California Legislature as a start.
2010 data: https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/2010-constituents-per-state-legislative-district.aspx
Washington Representatives Dye, Mosbrucker, Graham, and Dent introduced a bill establishing a Washington State Boys and Men's Commission to focus on the wellbeing of men and boys. this won't be possible without the effort of the Global Initiative for Boys and Men/Equality for Boys and Men. if you live in Washigton state you should contact your representatives and encourage them to vote in favor of the bill. sources here
Read the bill here: https://lawfilesext.leg.wa.gov/biennium/2021-22/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1917.pdf?q=20220118102555
PS: the same organization (GIBM) is working on other states as well. to donate: https://www.gibm.us/donate
I became a teacher for the "lightbulb" moments when a student suddenly understands. I stayed a teacher for the relationships and the moments when I can help a young person through a rough time, even if just for a moment. But year after year after year of mismanagement - much of it intentional from people who actively are trying to destroy public education - have broken me. I cannot help students in the tiny amount of time I get with them when I have far too many and they come in far too broken.
They need parents present in their lives, and their parents are working 3 jobs to keep a shitty roof over their heads and keep them alive.
Lobbying legislatures is a waste of time anywhere near me because they are breaking public education on purpose (maaaaybe Michigan would be ok?). You can only lobby someone acting even vaguely in good faith.
So, what do I do? What organization already exists that is trying to deal with this problem in a real way? Or, if I leave the field entirely, what do I do with my degrees / experience?
I have taught in rural schools, urban schools, and in between. Most of my experience is in schools with significant poverty.
BS in health, phys. ed. and recreation.
Licensed to teach health and p.e. k-12 in Va and Indiana (currently, easy enough to transfer that elsewhere. I've jumped through the hoops before). 5-ish years of experience at various levels doing that in different schools over the last 20 years.
Masters in Educational Leadership.
Licensed K-12 administrator VA. Does not transfer to Indiana without a bunch of work and $$$ poured in. No experience in administration beyond a stint as an elementary athletics director while I was the p.e. teacher.
Licensed secondary math teacher (not a math degree - long story with years of jumping through hoops). 15-ish years experience over the last 20 years. Most of that high school at Geometry or algebra 1 levels. Geometry is my baby.
I am currently making about 60k a year and cannot afford to terribly much of a downgrade, so the vast majority of recreation jobs are out of the question.
What can I transfer over to that does not involve thousands of dollars of debt taking classes? Where can I take my skills and desire to make life better (for anyone, but children in particular) where I might actually be allowed to make a real difference?
I find it outrageous that this is legal in the county and State, but apparently it is by default since it is not actually addressed as illegal per the voting regulations. For the first time in my life I bothered to look up the State Senator for my district and reached out to them using a form email, took about 5 minutes.
Here's how to do it:
- Look up your district's State Senators and Representatives: https://app.leg.wa.gov/DistrictFinder/
- Click on a Senator or Representative listed for your district and it will take you to a list of the Senators or Representatives, and click the "email" link under the person's contact info to send a form email.
- There is an option when you send the form message to also send it to your district's other State representatives (Senator or Representatives) so you can easily send it to all of them at the same time.
Please try it as we need to fix this broken aspect of our voting laws to prevent election meddling by people like Sawant and her supporters, who have shown they will do anything to keep their power and position.
Batson v. Kentucky establishes that striking jurors based solely on race is unconstitutional because it violated the equal protection clause of the 14th amendment (and other cases have applied this precedent to civil cases and striking down jurors because of their sex).
Now obviously there is a huge problem with diversity in juries in America. My question is, if a state wanted to remedy this within their own jurisdiction, could they mandate that criminal defendants have the right to at least one or some jury members of their own race? Basically, this would be a form of affirmative action for juries. I am curious as to whether or not the equal protection clause would apply to a scenario like this. The Supreme Court has upheld affirmative action before, on the grounds that it is not the deciding factor for someone’s admission. However, these cases were for admissions to universities and I can imagine that the precedent might not apply to jury selection. (And as of writing this post, the Supreme Court is considering taking up another case on affirmative action regarding Harvard’s discrimination against whites and Asians, so maybe even affirmative action at universities could be partially overturned).
Regardless of how controversial this would be, would it be constitutional? On one hand, no particular jury member might be struck because of their race, similar to how no particular student is denied entry to college because of their race, so this might not violate the EPC. On the other hand, this would directly make race a factor in the selection of jury members, which could make it unconstitutional. But I’d appreciate thoughts on the issue and anything I may have missed.
I live in Texas and have served on a grand jury here. It always bugged me that the statutes of this state (and others) considers it a higher offense to kill someone (even accidentally) in the act of committing another felony, often theft, burglary or robbery, than straight up premeditated murder. Besides just the moral inconsistencies, prosecutors have a distinct advantage if they can charge capital murder or felony murder in a case, and often will if they can get away with it, to increase the likelihood of a defendant making a plead deal vs. going to trial. These types of statutes also tend to give the lives of public officials and employees a higher value than ordinary citizens, which I believe is a perversion of our democratic principles.
If you disagree with me, I would like to hear a reasonable defense of capital murder and felony murder statutes to better understand the other side of the argument.
I think we are all going to be told this is very normal and what the founders wanted in a few years.
I think state legislatures in the partisan lean used for the redistricting tracker should be replaced with statewide offices of sorts. Many states such as Wisconsin and Arizona vote much more Republican in state legislatures than for other elections. Yet, looking at many statewide offices that are up for election every two years such as the Arizona Corporation Commission, the Democratic underperformance is small or nonexistent. State legislatures are subject to much greater variance and can be thrown off by factors such as only one major party running and significant third parties. And if a Democrat who caucuses with Republicans get more votes than Biden in a given district, does this really justify giving Democrats credit for the state legislative success there?
Democracy-our votes kneeled in front of blackmail of violence yesterday, there's no 2 ways about it. While we outrage about Modiji kneeling the sanctity of Parliament & Executive in front of religion-motivated violent goons opposing desperately needed laws, we need to have a look at the pillars of democracy which employed their entire machinery to enable the said goons- if we need to address the structural issues.
- Foreign funding- Protests aren't cheap, ask how much money is required to ply alcohol, food, AC, gym, upkeep for hundreds for sustaining the protests for a year.
Not just Soros, foreign based Khalistanis spent massively to ensure booze,food & amenities kept flowing at protest sites.
https://np.reddit.com/r/IndiaSpeaks/comments/li8ndq/you_might_be_sick_hearing_of_sorosfrankly_so_am/
What more, here's NYT itself admitting that the goons had foreign financial support
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/20/world/asia/india-modi-farmer-protests.html
- Of course, foreign funding for protests doesnt really make sense for maintaining the sovereignty of a nation. So why didn't the government ban that you, ask?
Well, it did ban and the ban was repealed instantly by our good old judiciary within a month.
https://www.opindia.com/2020/03/supreme-court-ngo-foreign-funds-agitations-protests-public-cause-politics/amp/
Currently Supreme Court is working to dilute the FCRA laws regulating foreign funding for all political/legal/religious/social activism & lobbying even further. Over 20,000 cr INR ie close to 10% of central budget is funnelled by foreign govts particularly US & EU each year for activism & conversions. Govt had made the law such that a foreign funded NGO can transfer money to any NGO as long as it is registered under FCRA, to keep a track of its activities so that foreign funding isnt used for illegal purposes. Supreme Court is claiming that asking those recipient NGOs to get registered with FCRA like the donor NGO is problematic. Really?
https://livelaw.in/top-stories/fcra-amendments-2020-supreme-court-ngos-foreign-powers-centre-diversion-of-funds-184100
https://livelaw.in/top-stories/fcra-amendments-supreme-court-foreign-contributions-ngo-supreme-court-184731
Let's look at other regulations of courts wrt these protests.
Granting bail to a literal gangster in case of armed who had led armed mobsters in attack on Red Fort on Republic Day to hoist Sikh flag at the Fort. Lakha Sidhana's bail plea literally reads "ga
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