I'd think the idea of a Snipes payoff would be just conspiracy fodder, except that we know we have someone in the White House that gave Florida AG Bondi $25,000 to quash (or in appreciation for quashing) the state's case against his ummmm "university." And we know that same guy really really wanted his lapdogs to win. And we know there are more Dems than Repugs in Florida - 11,446,540 registered voters: 40% Democrats. 36% Republicans. 20% No Party Affiliation (independents). 4% Minor Parties And we know Broward is highly Democratic and has a record of electoral controversy, giving cover to "complications" this year. So if somebody could design a ballot that sharply reduces the chance of a Senate vote in a highly Democratic county (a ballot that directly violated the clarity principles published after the hanging chad debacle), and then make sure there is enough controversy about the voting to put the entire county in doubt... then voila! Repugs stay in power. And to make sure everything goes properly wrong, promise Snipes a soft landing with a comfortable nest egg in exchange for accepting a little public abuse. Makes sense to me.
Most conspiracy theories are missing a major component of reality - no motive, no means, out of sequence events. Not so much here.
Who knows, maybe some journalists somewhere makes a name for themselves.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
The Dems picked up 38 House seats. 2 races in currently GOP districts are still undecided, so it could be a 40 seat gain. This is the most Dem gains since 1974 after Nixon resigned. 8.9 million more Americans voted for Dems in House races than for the GOP. In comparison, 2.9 million more Americans voted for Hillary than for POSPOTUS in 2016 (not sure what the House comparison was).
No way am I getting my hopes up for a win, but just the slight possibility of one in Mississippi is stunning. Any votes for Espy above about 1/3 of the total will come from white voters.
In case there was any doubt about her apparent racism being actual racism:
Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican Mississippi senator who made comments condoning “public hangings,” attended a “segregated” school when she was younger, the Jackson Free Press reported Friday after unearthing a 1975 yearbook photo.
The school, Lawrence County Academy, was set up for white parents to avoid sending their children to school with black children, according to the Free Press. Many such schools, dubbed “segregation academies,” were created in the South following desegregation as inexpensive, private educational options.
Hyde-Smith is identified in a caption beneath the yearbook photograph, which shows a row of cheerleaders smiling as they lie on the ground, propped up on their elbows, as a girl dressed in what seems to be Civil War–era regalia stands in the center holding an apparent Confederate flag.
Lawrence County Academy was established in 1970, one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Mississippi to desegregate its schools. For 15 years after desegregation became law of the land, Mississippi dragged its feet on integrating black and white students.
A former student who provided the photo to the newspaper said she realized at the time that her parents sent her to Lawrence County Academy to avoid interactions with black students. Segregation was not openly acknowledged at the school, she said.
Hyde-Smith sent her daughter to a similar school, Brookhaven Academy, which is nearly all white despite being located in a majority-black town.
... A 2014 Facebook post in which Hyde-Smith praises Confederate history subsequently surfaced. Alongside a smiling photo of herself in a Confederate hat and holding a rifle at a museum exhibit, the senator wrote, “Mississippi history at its best!”
... President Donald Trump, of whom Hyde-Smith has been a vocal supporter, will hold two rallies in Mississippi on Monday to whip up support for the Republican candidate.
"whip"
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith appears third from the right in a 1975 yearbook photo of cheerleaders at Lawrence County Academy. The mascot appears in the middle dressed as a Confederate colonel holding a rebel flag. http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/20 ... -avoid-in/
The Dems picked up 38 House seats. 2 races in currently GOP districts are still undecided, so it could be a 40 seat gain. This is the most Dem gains since 1974 after Nixon resigned. 8.9 million more Americans voted for Dems in House races than for the GOP. In comparison, 2.9 million more Americans voted for Hillary than for POSPOTUS in 2016 (not sure what the House comparison was).
No way am I getting my hopes up for a win, but just the slight possibility of one in Mississippi is stunning. Any votes for Espy above about 1/3 of the total will come from white voters.
In case there was any doubt about her apparent racism being actual racism:
Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican Mississippi senator who made comments condoning “public hangings,” attended a “segregated” school when she was younger, the Jackson Free Press reported Friday after unearthing a 1975 yearbook photo.
The school, Lawrence County Academy, was set up for white parents to avoid sending their children to school with black children, according to the Free Press. Many such schools, dubbed “segregation academies,” were created in the South following desegregation as inexpensive, private educational options.
Hyde-Smith is identified in a caption beneath the yearbook photograph, which shows a row of cheerleaders smiling as they lie on the ground, propped up on their elbows, as a girl dressed in what seems to be Civil War–era regalia stands in the center holding an apparent Confederate flag.
Lawrence County Academy was established in 1970, one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered Mississippi to desegregate its schools. For 15 years after desegregation became law of the land, Mississippi dragged its feet on integrating black and white students.
A former student who provided the photo to the newspaper said she realized at the time that her parents sent her to Lawrence County Academy to avoid interactions with black students. Segregation was not openly acknowledged at the school, she said.
Hyde-Smith sent her daughter to a similar school, Brookhaven Academy, which is nearly all white despite being located in a majority-black town.
... A 2014 Facebook post in which Hyde-Smith praises Confederate history subsequently surfaced. Alongside a smiling photo of herself in a Confederate hat and holding a rifle at a museum exhibit, the senator wrote, “Mississippi history at its best!”
... President Donald Trump, of whom Hyde-Smith has been a vocal supporter, will hold two rallies in Mississippi on Monday to whip up support for the Republican candidate.
"whip"
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith appears third from the right in a 1975 yearbook photo of cheerleaders at Lawrence County Academy. The mascot appears in the middle dressed as a Confederate colonel holding a rebel flag. http://www.jacksonfreepress.com/news/20 ... -avoid-in/
I've seen a lot being made of her parents choosing a segregated school for her to attend. Hundreds and hundreds of all white private and church schools popped up all over the south and the north when people realized that their precious children would have to commingle outside of their own kind. Many people went to segregated schools, it doesn't mean that they grew up to be trumps and hyde-smiths.
It was a movement, hardly a choice by the racist herself.
Buried in one article I read was something much more important, but little is being made of this woman sending her kid to an all white school 30 years later.
Trump: “We had the safest border in the history of our country - or at least recorded history. I guess maybe a thousand years ago it was even better.”
I agree, but when the individual later turns out to be a racist adult, it helps confirm the racism and explain where it came from. That's why I made bold the sentence about sending her daughter to a "nearly all white" school, and the next sentence about her recent celebration of Mississippi's slaver/traitor "history".
... On the other hand, two governors who prevented death-penalty repeal bills from going into effect in their states also won re-election. Nebraska's Republican Governor Pete Ricketts, who vetoed a bipartisan bill to abolish the state's death penalty in 2015 and then, after the legislature overrode his veto, personally bankrolled a successful state-wide referendum in 2016 to block the repeal, cruised to re-election with 59.4% of the vote. New Hampshire Republican Governor Chris Sununu, who vetoed the state’s death-penalty repeal bill in March 2018, won re-election with 52.4% of the vote. In Florida, Republican Ron DeSantis won the governorship against Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum, who had pledged, if elected, to suspend executions in Florida until he was sure the death-penalty system was nondiscriminatorily applied....
Mixed results, apparently not an issue that will make or wreck a campaign.
Voters in Florida and Louisiana also voted on criminal justice reforms that eradicated practices adopted in the Jim Crow era. Florida voters approved a referendum that ended Florida's lifetime termination of voting rights for anyone with a prior felony conviction, which passed with 64% of the vote. Louisiana, with the country’s second-highest incarceration rate, abolished a post-slavery law that permitted felony convictions for crimes other than capital murder based on non-unanimous 10-2 or 11-1 jury votes. The vote leaves Oregon as the only state that permits convictions by non-unanimous jury votes, and Alabama as the only state to permit judges to impose the death penalty based upon a non-unanimous jury recommendation for death.
Seems to be more certainty on other criminal justice matters, including ending pot prohibition.
Might be hard to get much serious traction on the death penalty since it's (unfortunately) a state by state issue. Not a lot of people will rush to the barricades in states where nobody has been killed lately, and in states that kill a lot (you know who you are, Texas), people will stand on line to watch.
May be more that the candidates with the broadest Dem/progressive support might just also happen to be pro-moratorium.
I dunno. I'd vote against death penalty if it were up for a vote, but it wouldn't be on my top 5 or so issues I'd find priorities for a candidate.
Might be hard to get much serious traction on the death penalty since it's (unfortunately) a state by state issue. Not a lot of people will rush to the barricades in states where nobody has been killed lately, and in states that kill a lot (you know who you are, Texas), people will stand on line to watch.
May be more that the candidates with the broadest Dem/progressive support might just also happen to be pro-moratorium.
I dunno. I'd vote against death penalty if it were up for a vote, but it wouldn't be on my top 5 or so issues I'd find priorities for a candidate.
Agreed. I think the takeaway is that if informed and thinking pols recognize that it's no good for society, they can fairly safely do away with it.
3. General lack of sympathy for felons. Supporters of the amendment apparently recognized that in running ads showing this nice looking guy with his pretty wife and adorable kid telling how he had re-built his life after "mistakes" yada. Didn't see any ads featuring Bubba and a face full of prison tats.
True, but the effects of 1.4 million mostly black new potential voters should have been recognized and opened up some liberal purses long ago.
Imagine - not even the Supreme Court could have prevented President Gore. no governor bush or scott, no rubios and scott in the Senate.
I'm guessing at reasons, not supporting them.
U.S. Rep. DeSantis was elected by 32,463 votes out of more than 8 million cast, defeating Democratic Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum. Scott defeated incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson by 10,033 votes.
If felons had been able to vote and the ones that did all voted Dem, only 2.32% of the 1.4 million would have had to turn out to flip both races, slightly more if some felons (Aryan Brotherhood, etc.) voted GOP.
Racist pigs like Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) should not get donations from diverse outfits like MLB and the Giants.
Be better,
(Vrede too)
Edit: TV news says that MLB and many corporations have asked for their donations back. I'm still glad I sent a note, no harm in reinforcing the point.
Subject: RE: Funding a racist From: "Customer Service" <CustomerService@SFGIANTS.com> Date: Tue, November 27, 2018 1:15 pm
Thank you for reaching out to us to express your concerns. I want to start by making something perfectly clear. In no way does the Giants organization condone any racist and hateful language and behavior by anyone. It is abhorrent and in direct conflict with the core values of the San Francisco Giants.
We take seriously the platform we have to make an impact on our community, and for decades we have used it to advocate for social justice and equality, inclusiveness and tolerance in our communities. We were the first team in professional sports to raise money and awareness for a cure for AIDS (Until There’s A Cure Day), the first team to devote a day to preventing domestic and family violence (Strike Out Violence Day), and the first team to speak out against bullying, in particular of LGBTQ youth (It Gets Better). We were proud to support the renovation of the Willie Mays Boys & Girls Club at Hunter's Point and each year our Junior Giants program provides free baseball instruction and life skills coaching to more than 25,000 low-income children throughout Northern California.
We in the sports world have an ongoing responsibility to step beyond the comfort zone of our ballparks, stadiums and arenas to address injustice and suffering in our communities and the Giants will continue to make that a priority. And we will continue to support and celebrate the rich diversity of San Francisco and the Bay Area community. We operate the organization so that all profits are reinvested back into the team, the facilities and the community. At the end of the day, our goal is to make our fans and community proud.
The Giants have more than 30 owners. Just like our fans, they come from different backgrounds and have their own political views. Many give to Democratic causes, many to Republican causes and some refrain from politics altogether. Neither I nor anyone else at the Giants can control who any of our owners support politically, just as we cannot and should not control whom any of our employees support politically. While our 30-plus owners span the political spectrum, they share one core belief: that sports has the power to inspire and galvanize a community. In 1992, when the Giants were about to be sold to a group in Tampa, these individuals recognized the importance of the Giants to the community, and they saved the team for the Bay Area. They helped turn the Giants into one of the most socially-minded and successful organizations both on and off the field. That vision has never faltered. We remain steadfast in our mission to serve our fans and the community.
Nice letter EXCEPT that an actual person should have signed it and:
"(Charles B.) Johnson is principal owner of the MLB San Francisco Giants, although he leaves team control duties to the head of the ownership group, Larry Baer." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_B._Johnson#Career
One could imagine that most everybody related to the team is mortified that their team is associated with funding a Mississippi racist, and unfortunately they can't do anything about it. But it's kinda hard to separate yourself from your organization when you're the owner, as learned by Chick fil A, Hobby Lobby, and others. If Johnson wanted to back a racist, what could he possibly have been thinking to contribute through his own name?
I've been getting tutoring in writing scathing emails from neoplacebo.
Heh; thanks for the honorable mention. Actually, I've not written to anyone recently other than my "representative" Phil Roe after his remark in the local newspaper where he stated that the Democrats "will be more interested in investigating than legislating" so I fired off a reminder of how much investigating the GOP has done in the recent past......Benghazi, Clinton emails, etc. Needless to say, I chastised him severely and brutally and so far have not heard back from him. With any luck, I have shamed him into silence.
New GOP senator-elect suddenly revealed to be under investigation for allegedly using public funds to boost his campaign
Josh Hawley reportedly mingled taxpayer-funded staff with out-of-state consultants who helped him run the attorney general's office while he planned his Senate campaign. That might have been illegal.
... According to court documents filed by the state Democratic Party, the ballot-collection operation was run by a Harris campaign official, Leslie McRae Dowless Jr., a local political operative with a criminal history, having previously been convicted of fraud and perjury unrelated to politics. This is not the first time races Dowless has worked on have had curious results. In 2016, a candidate who hired Dowless won 221 of the 226 absentee ballots cast despite finishing third overall in the primary. In 2014, Dowless worked for a candidate who was narrowly elected sheriff amid allegations of absentee ballot misconduct....
Wow. So, Harris knew or should have known about Dowless' history. I think he's toast. He should save himself further humiliation and just hand the seat to McCready.
