Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Delicate Ballet of Mississippi Ballot Initiatives

Her lawsuit hinged on the state constitution’s requirement that ballot initiatives be filed with signatures from five congressional districts. It would have been pretty difficult for the Initiative 65 campaign to gather these signatures, though, as the state has only had four such districts since the 2000 Census. The constitution’s language around ballot initiatives, which was written prior to that redistricting, had never been updated. “It was almost surreal, as if it didn’t happen,” Newburger says of learning about the challenge ahead of the election. “A plethora of initiatives had been filed already and never challenged. I thought we had done everything right.”

They had done everything right, the court determined, except conjuring signatures from a congressional district that hasn’t existed for over 20 years. Considering the state’s current legislative map, the decision read, the ballot initiative process “no longer functions.”

Rookie mistake.

Defund!

The House on Thursday narrowly passed a $1.9 billion emergency spending measure to boost security for the U.S. Capitol complex and other government agencies that responded to the Jan. 6 attack on the building.

...

The bill passed the House, 213-212, with three Democrats voting "present" and three opposing the bill.

The three Democrats who voted against the bill were Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Cori Bush of Missouri and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts. The three Democrats who voted present were Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Jamaal Bowman of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. They are all members of the so-called squad, a group of the most liberal lawmakers in the House.

Opposition to the bill largely stemmed from a provision allocating more funds to the police — which would run contrary to calls on the left to "defund" the police.

“There are some things about the bill that I support, like making sure our custodial staff and our cleaners have the resources they need to respond and deal with this trauma. But there are other parts of it that I don't support, like adding more funding to police budgets,” Bowman said. “So that's why I decided to vote present.”

American-hating, no good, anarchist, liberal commies!

No Republicans supported the bill.

Oh.

George Washington - Vaccine Czar

When George Washington took command of the Continental Army in 1775, America was fighting a war on two fronts: one for independence from the British, and a second for survival against smallpox. Because Washington knew the ravages of the disease firsthand, he understood that the smallpox virus, then an invisible enemy, could cripple his army and end the war before it began.

That’s why Washington eventually made the bold decision to inoculate all American troops who had never been sickened with smallpox at a time when inoculation was a crude and often deadly process. His gamble paid off. The measure staved off smallpox long enough to win a years-long fight with the British. In the process, Washington pulled off the first massive, state-funded immunization campaign in American history.

Cultural Studies

Things I've learned about the UK from Netflix:

  1. All police detectives are women in their late 30s - usually single women with gruff demeanors.
  2. Their partners or significant co-workers are usually non-Caucasian.
  3. Their bosses are usually black or incompetent, sometimes both.
  4. Cops and wealthier victims always drive new, dark-colored, immaculate, Audis; sometimes a BMW shows up for variety.
  5. Normal people drive ancient econoboxes.
  6. Everything wraps up in six chapters.

The Bad Carolina

South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster has signed into law a bill that forces death row inmates for now to choose between the electric chair or a newly formed firing squad in hopes the state can restart executions after an involuntary 10-year pause.

... is very bad.