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Good grief: "Loyalty to Trump emerges as issue in Virginia Republican debate"

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Virginia Republicans’ awkward relationship with President Trump was on display Saturday in a debate among the three candidates vying for the GOP nomination for governor.

As a tea-party-sponsored debate just outside Richmond wound down, and following some predictable clashes over cutting taxes, the question became whether front-runner Ed Gillespie doesn’t like Trump enough, or whether brash challenger Corey Stewart loves him too much.

Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors and a onetime Virginia leader of the Trump campaign, accused Gillespie of being insufficiently committed to the president. He cited Gillespie’s reluctance to support Trump last fall after a 2005 video was unearthed in which Trump was recorded making lewd remarks about women on the set of the TV show “Access Hollywood.”

“In the wake of the ‘Access Hollywood’ scandal,” Stewart said, “Ed was among the first Republicans in the country to kick him when he was down. . . . You refused to be anywhere near Donald Trump and refused to be on his leadership committee.”

Gillespie, a longtime Republican consultant and former adviser to President George W. Bush, at first avoided addressing his feelings toward Trump. “I supported our ticket as I always support Republican tickets,” he said.

As he went on to call for party unity and mentioned times he had introduced Vice President Pence at public events, someone in the crowd of about 275 tea party activists yelled out, “What about Trump?”

Finally, Gillespie responded: “I did take exception to the comments he made in the ‘Access Hollywood’ tape,” he said, mentioning that he has a wife and two daughters. “Corey’s the only one who thinks they’re great comments,” he said, as some in the crowd booed and others cheered. “I want to make sure we try to respect all Americans, and I found those comments to be offensive.”

The exchange, which left third challenger state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (R-Virginia Beach) looking on bemusedly, provided drama in a one-hour debate that otherwise featured familiar positioning on issues of taxes, immigration and the economy.

...

As they did in a debate a week ago in Lynchburg, Stewart and Wagner spent a chunk of time slamming Gillespie’s plans for an across-the-board 10 percent tax cut. Stewart claimed Gillespie would not make enough budget cuts to afford such a measure, and Wagner painted it as unrealistic.

Wagner, a 25-year veteran of the General Assembly, was particularly pointed in questioning Gillespie’s math, noting that the tax plan claims a yearly savings of $1,300 for an average Virginia family.

Based on current rates, though, Wagner calculated that to realize those savings, a family would need an income in excess of $200,000 a year. “That’s the kind of deceptions I’ve heard over and over in this campaign — baiting voters with things that aren’t true,” Wagner said.

...

Stewart’s attacks were by far the most vicious. He alluded only briefly to the issue of preserving Confederate flags and monuments around the state, which he has made the centerpiece of his campaign, saying he would “stand up for our heritage.” But he closed with an aggressive put-down of Gillespie, who in 2014 failed by the thinnest of margins to unseat Democratic Sen. Mark R. Warner.

“I know controversy, and I know a lot of weak-kneed Republicans don’t like it. That’s tough,” Stewart said, and as supporters began to cheer he added: “Weak-chinned, weak-jawed establishment Republicans. . . . He lost,” he said, referring to Gillespie, “because he has no leadership skills. He’s wishy-washy. . . . If you’re looking for a winner, I’m your candidate.”

...

 

I can't stand Gillespie and don't know too much about Wagner, but Corey Stewart is insane. I keep praying that whichever Dem wins the Democratic primary can win over any of the three Republican Dumbsketeers.

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The Citizens United SC judgment is destroying democracy in the US. It's now bought and sold, with no accountability or transparency as to who is pulling the strings.

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"The chaos created by former Alabama governor Bentley’s fall is now headed for a 2017 special election"

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Alabama Republicans had no problem dropping former governor Robert Bentley (R), who resigned this month after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors related to covering up an alleged affair.

That's because it's Alabama: There are plenty more electable Republicans to go around. But Bentley's fall threatens to destabilize one of the state's most electable Republicans: newly appointed U.S. Sen. Luther Strange.

Actually, it already is. Embattled, suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore announced his candidacy Wednesday to challenge Strange in a special election set for August. It's safe to say Strange would not be facing a challenge to his new Senate seat (or even an election) if Bentley were still in office.

Let me explain the many ways in which Bentley is coming back to haunt Alabama politics — specifically, anyone tied to him.

If Bentley were still in office, “Big Luther,” as the 6-foot-9 former Tulane basketball player is known, would probably not have to run for election twice in one year. Now, he does.

Bentley appointed Strange, then Alabama's attorney general, to U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions's seat in February. Bentley also decided not to hold a special election in August, as some in Alabama suggested the constitution required. Strange would officially run for election for the first time in November 2018.

Kay Ivey (R), the former lieutenant governor, is now governor. And one of her first acts is to hold that special election in August for Sessions's seat. And at least one candidate sees an opening to knock off Strange early.

Strange has far less baggage than Moore, who was recently suspended for not recognizing legalized same-sex marriage. But Strange will only have had a couple months to establish himself in Washington rather than the year-and-a-half Bentley had given him, essentially eliminating the advantage of incumbency. Other Republicans, like state Sen. Trip Pittman (R) from the Mobile area, could decide to jump in and be potentially much more of a threat.

Speaking of Bentley and Strange's relationship, Strange has come under fire for that, too. Top Alabama Republicans who helped kick Bentley out the door now see Strange as an extension of the embattled governor.

That's because Bentley appointed Strange to the Senate right around the time Strange's office was considering investigating Bentley over whether he used state resources to carry out an alleged affair with his former top aide, Rebekah Mason.

...

Strange may well stay comfy in his Senate seat. If he wins it in August and again in 2018, he could hold it for decades.

But the governor who appointed him is so damaged that even in political death, Bentley is forcing people tied to him to fight political battles on multiple fronts.

 

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2 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

Actually, it already is. Embattled, suspended Chief Justice Roy Moore announced his candidacy Wednesday to challenge Strange in a special election set for August. It's safe to say Strange would not be facing a challenge to his new Senate seat (or even an election) if Bentley were still in office

This is going to be an interesting election...

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One of the Repub candidates for governor in this year's election in VA, Corey Stewart, is nuttier than a fruitcake. He had been Agent Orange's statewide coordinator before being let go because he was too much of a sycophant (Imagine that). One of his "causes" is confederate symbols, which, being in Virginia, is a big deal. "Virginia gov’s race gets weird, as GOP candidate spars on Twitter with musician John Legend"

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RICHMOND — Corey Stewart, the Republican running for Virginia governor as a defender of Confederate flags and monuments, got into a Twitter fight this week with - among others - musician John Legend, crime novelist Laura Lippman and David Simon, creator of the HBO series “The Wire”.

Along the way, Stewart added fuel to the Internet sparring by seeming to defend an apparent anti-Semite.

Stewart kicked off the fracas on Monday, when he criticized the removal of The Battle of Liberty Place monument in New Orleans, which honored members of the Crescent City White League who died trying to overthrow the city’s government after the Civil War. It was the first of four statues linked to the Confederacy that are set to be torn down in New Orleans.

Stewart’s comments prompted blowback from musician John Legend and many of his 9.2 million Twitter followers. Among those who chimed in was Lippman, who was born in Atlanta and raised in Baltimore.

“Darlin’ I’m a Southerner and happy to explain why those monuments are [messed] up,” Lippman wrote.

Someone tweeting as “Fashy Frog” shot back to Lippman: “Are you a Jew?”

Eventually Lippman’s husband, “Wire” creator Simon, jumped in with: “Are you a s---head? Sounds like it.”

And that’s where Stewart popped up again in the thread with this: “Just like a liberal: no argument, so attack the man.”

...

In an interview Thursday, Stewart said he was not defending Fashy Frog, but himself and that he was not supporting anti-Semitism.

“We don’t even know who that is,” he said, referring to Fashy Frog, whose Twitter handle incorporates an image of Pepe the Frog, a cartoon appropriated by some members of the alt-right movement.

...

In the Twitter war that raged Monday and Tuesday, many critics of Stewart noted that his defense of Southern heritage was disingenuous, given his roots as a native of Minnesota.

“Congratulations!” tweeted broadcast journalist Soledad O’Brien. “Do tell, when did you move to the great state of Virginia, sir?”

Stewart was back at it on Thursday, tweeting “We must protect Virginia heritage from #HistoricalVandalism.”

The string of Tweets in the article are interesting. I love John Legend's response.

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correct me if I am wrong - but shouldn't keeping guns out of mental hospitals be a gvien?

http://www.kansascity.com/news/politics-government/article147144099.html

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Brownback wants $24 million to keep guns out of state psychiatric hospitals

BY JONATHAN SHORMAN

jshorman@wichitaeagle.com

 

TOPEKA 

Gov. Sam Brownback wants more than $24 million over the next two years to keep guns out of state hospitals, frustrating lawmakers who question how the security measures are supposed to be in place by a July 1 deadline under current law.

Lawmakers and Brownback have the power to change the law — and avoid spending millions — but attempts to amend it have faltered.

A 2013 state law allows concealed weapons at public hospitals and college campuses beginning July 1. That includes the state’s psychiatric hospitals in Larned and Osawatomie.

Guns may be kept out if buildings provide “adequate security measures” such as metal detectors and armed guards. Storage for weapons may also be provided.

In a budget request released Thursday, Brownback asks for $12.5 million in the fiscal year that begins July 1, and $11.7 million in the year after, to meet the security requirements.

The request includes $810,000 in one-time costs for metal detectors. About 180 full-time armed guard positions would be needed, amounting to $11.7 million in annual costs.

The budget request doesn’t include the University of Kansas Hospital. The hospital will have to allow guns on campus beginning July 1 unless it pays for security measures.

Senate Majority Leader Jim Denning, an Overland Park Republican, said he favors an exemption for the KU hospital because it competes with private hospitals and needs similar regulations to stay competitive.

Lawmakers voiced frustration with the Brownback administration over the request during a joint meeting of the House and Senate budget committees. They appeared skeptical the metal detectors could be put in place and guards trained by July 1.

“I think it was pretty apparent there has been no planning and no real effort to get prepared for July 1. There’s no training program in place,” said Rep. Kathy Wolfe Moore, a Kansas City, Kan., Democrat.

The budget request doesn’t include any money in the current fiscal year for training.

“If we’re going to train existing personnel who are not authorized to carry now, they’re going to have to get into training. We’re going to have to pay for that before the fiscal year is up,” said Sen. Vicki Schmidt, a Topeka Republican.

Attempts to change the gun law have so far not advanced through the legislative process. The Kansas State Rifle Association has opposed exempting hospitals from the current law.

Under questioning from lawmakers, the governor’s policy director, Brandon Smith, appeared to indicate the governor is not seeking a change in the law.

“The governor is not lobbying for a particular change at this point,” Smith said.

The Legislature as a whole supports exempting hospitals from allowing concealed weapons, Denning said.

“Give them an exemption, let the signs stay up and have that feeling that there are no guns on mental health campuses,” he said.

Multiple bills could conceivably be used to pass an exemption. But if one passes the Legislature, it is unclear whether Brownback will sign it.

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What a dickwad!

Christie Halts Bill to Require Tax-Return Disclosures for Presidential Candidates

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New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Monday blocked a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature that would have required presidential and vice-presidential candidates to disclose their federal income-tax returns in order to appear on the state’s ballot.

Mr. Christie, a Republican, blasted the legislature for passing the bill, which he said was an unconstitutional political stunt and “form of therapy” for lawmakers unhappy that President Donald Trump won the November election. Mr. Trump, a Republican and friend of Mr. Christie, was the first major-party nominee to not release his tax returnssince President Gerald Ford in 1976.

“The hypocrisy and false outrage underlying this bill is stunning—even by Trenton standards,” Mr. Christie wrote in his conditional veto message. “The legislature wasted time on a bill that manufactures from whole cloth a qualification for the office of president not found in the United States Constitution in the hope of scoring cheap political points.”[...]

Gosh, I wonder why he vetoed the bill? 

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Assemblyman John McKeon, a Democrat, said lawmakers would put forward the bill again under New Jersey’s next governor. Mr. Christie is prevented by term limits from seeking a third term and is scheduled to leave office in January.

“Gov. Christie is becoming more and more irrelevant, and I’m confident that the new governor well before the next presidential election will sign that into law,” Mr. McKeon said, adding that the bill would provide “transparency to the extent of understanding sources of income, understanding charitable giving, understanding potential for conflicts.”

The bill, approved in March along party lines, would have required presidential and vice-presidential candidates to release their tax returns for, at minimum, the five preceding years. State electors would have been prohibited from casting Electoral College votes for candidates who didn’t comply.[...]

I'm so glad this asswipe can't be re-elected!

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41 minutes ago, fraurosena said:

What a dickwad!

Christie Halts Bill to Require Tax-Return Disclosures for Presidential Candidates

Gosh, I wonder why he vetoed the bill? 

I'm so glad this asswipe can't be re-elected!

He is still Trump's flunky still trying to get picked for the team.  Sadly he never will be.

Edited by onekidanddone
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9 hours ago, fraurosena said:

What a dickwad!

Christie Halts Bill to Require Tax-Return Disclosures for Presidential Candidates

Gosh, I wonder why he vetoed the bill? 

I'm so glad this asswipe can't be re-elected!

I can't wait until Christie has been reduced to shilling catheters and reverse mortgages on the more obscure cable networks. :twisted:

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14 hours ago, fraurosena said:

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie Monday blocked a bill passed by the Democratic-controlled legislature that would have required presidential and vice-presidential candidates to disclose their federal income-tax returns in order to appear on the state’s ballot.

If Trump would release his income tax returns voluntarily, the state(s) would not have to introduce this legislation.  As Christie said, it's not a requirement, but with all the potential conflicts of interest Trump has, we have a national interest in seeing the returns.  It's not "scoring cheap political points," it's a valid concern.  As @onekidanddone says, he's still trying to get picked for a team.  There are so many incompetent people surrounding Trump, he's definitely qualified.

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This popped up on my newsfeed just now.  (thanks to a writer friend commenting on it).

http://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/fallin-signs-bill-decriminalizing-seduction-of-a-virgin-with-promises/article_59019a73-25a2-57ab-b9d7-0dcfd5fbe897.html

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OKLAHOMA CITY — For more than a century, seducing a virgin by promising to marry her has been illegal in Oklahoma.

So has been slandering a woman’s virtue.

Related: 8 laws in Oklahoma and Tulsa that are weirdly specific — and a few that are just flat-out weird

Those old laws will be coming off the books this fall.

Gov. Mary Fallin on Monday signed Senate Bill 286, which repeals laws against seducing an unmarried female and imputing unchastity to females. The changes go into effect Nov. 1.

Click here to read the rest of this story on Newsok.com (A subscription to The Oklahoman may be required).

 

 

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Connecticut will be up for grabs. Malloy - the least popular Democratic Governor in the country - won't seek reelection. Fingers crossed we end up with someone decent!

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The Virginia gubernatorial election this November is shaping up to be quite ugly. One of the reasons is the idiotic Corey Stewart. I hope he hurts the Repubs, but I have a feeling a goodly number of the people in the rural southwest (coal country), who went for Agent Orange by huge margins, will like Corey's crap. "Do Corey Stewart’s Confederate antics help Ed Gillespie or hurt the GOP brand?"

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RICHMOND — By embracing Confederate symbols and flirting with the alt-right, Corey Stewart seems, to many political analysts, to be handing the GOP nomination for Virginia governor to rival Ed Gillespie.

Some also think Stewart is damaging the Republican brand in a way that could hurt Gillespie’s chances in November — in a general election that could reverberate beyond the Old Dominion.

“The rest of the country’s looking at us and saying, ‘Look at these hicks in Virginia!’ ” said Brian W. Schoeneman, a Virginia political analyst and blogger who served in the George W. Bush administration. “They don’t realize that he’s not representative of the broader GOP and the vast majority of us — including Ed — are looking at him with horror.”

But Stewart says defending Confederate symbols against “political correctness” is not just a cause, it’s a winning strategy in an off-year primary.

“It’s a very small turnout election — we’re talking maybe 4 or 5 percent of the entire voter base,” he said. “So you’ve got a certain percentage of the electorate who are going to vote on abortion. You’ve got a certain percentage of the electorate who are going to vote on illegal immigration. And then there’s going to be a percentage who will vote on the historical-monuments issue. Pretty soon, you add them all up and it’s a significant portion of people.”

As for damage to the Republican brand, Stewart contends that Gillespie and other establishment Republicans have hurt the party by cutting deals with Democrats and refusing to stake out bold positions on tough issues.

“It’s the Bush family and other establishment Republicans who hurt the Republican brand so badly that we got Barack Obama,” he said.

Virginia hasn’t had a statewide candidate stand accused of being too cozy with the Confederacy since George Allen’s Senate reelection bid in 2006. The issue resurfaces now in a particularly high-profile race at a chaotic moment in American politics.

Virginia is one of just two states — the other is New Jersey — with a governor’s race this year. The contest is drawing national attention as an early referendum on President Trump and as an example of the populist/establishment tug of war within both major political parties.

Trump’s surprising path to the presidency could embolden more politicians to seek office as provocateurs, political analysts said. Yet the lesson here could be that only Trump, by virtue of his celebrity and personality, can get away with it.

“He’s made the mistake of saying, ‘This [monument removal] is what’s going on. I’m going to go big,’” Jennifer Duffy, senior editor for the Cook Political Report, said of Stewart. “But he might have fallen off the cliff. When we’re dealing in an atmosphere of deeply Southern states starting to remove their Confederate monuments, maybe it’s not the issue to go crazy on.”

But Kyle Kondik, who analyzes elections at the University of Virginia Center for Politics, said he thinks the strategy could work for Stewart, whose rallies sometimes draw more counterprotesters than supporters. He noted that polls show many voters have not made up their minds or even tuned into the race.

“If you’re an underdog candidate looking for something to get attention with, Stewart has certainly gotten attention for this,” he said. “Just the name ID can be more than half the battle. . . . Sometimes it matters not so much what your own position is, but who your enemies are. Maybe Stewart’s calculation is if he can fire up these protesters, those are people that conservative Republicans think are riffraff. Therefore, he becomes an enemy of the left, and that generates more support on the right.”

Stewart and Gillespie started the primary race — along with underdog state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach) — as seemingly perfect symbols of the GOP’s intraparty angst.

Stewart cut a brasher-than-Trump figure as someone who had led a crackdown on illegal immigration in Prince William County a decade ago. He was such an over-the-top Virginia chairman for Trump last year that the campaign fired him. Gillespie was the cautious establishment type, a former lobbyist, Republican National Committee chairman and White House counselor to Bush who kept his distance from Trump.

Which one would sell in an off-year contest in Virginia, a state that favored Hillary Clinton by 5 points in November but also gave Trump a narrow primary win? That looked like an open question at first, when Stewart aimed to attract populists energized by Trump’s surprise White House victory.

Then Stewart, chairman of the Prince William Board of County Supervisors, took his campaign in an unexpected direction. The impetus was a vote early this year by the Charlottesville City Council to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from a downtown park.

Stewart saw an opening and rallied to oppose the monument’s removal. The move brought him considerable attention after news videos showed counterprotesters shouting him down.

From there, he made Confederate monuments the centerpiece of his campaign — one that allowed him to skewer “Establishment Ed” for what he deemed a mealy-mouthed stance: While the former RNC chief is also opposed to removal, he said it’s a matter left to local authorities, not the governor.

Stewart held multiple rallies for the monument, unfurled the Confederate flag at other events and attended an Old South ball in an outfit approximating a Civil War dress uniform.

Along the way, he gave an interview to Mike Cernovich, the alt-right Internet figure who helped popularize the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory. The alt-right is a small, far-right movement that seeks a whites-only state. Adherents of the alt-right are known for espousing racist, anti-Semitic and sexist points of view.

Stewart also attended a Charlottesville news conference with Jason Kessler and Isaac Smith, founders of Unity and Security for America (USA), a fledgling group that calls for “defending Western Civilization.”

Smith has sometimes introduced Stewart at events and appeared at his side with alt-right symbols, such as placards with Pepe the Frog and a gladiator-style shield. At one raucous rally with Stewart at the University of Virginia, Smith used a shield to push against counterprotesters.

Stewart said he does not condone white supremacy but welcomes support from anyone who wants to upend the GOP establishment.

“There’s a revolution going on here in conservative circles, and these young people are coming up — very social-media savvy — and they are shaking things up, and their views are very disparate,” he said. “I’ll take support where I can get it. But that doesn’t mean I believe in everything they believe in.”

Smith, 20, said he enjoyed needling liberal activists with Pepe signs and shields at Stewart’s events, although he rejects the alt-right label.

“The term I might use is ‘dissident right.’ It’s the part of the right wing that has fun,” Smith said. “And part of the fun is just getting a rise out of these sensitive — and I’d say sensitive for no good reason — people. . . . It’s a frog. It’s not like I’m sending a picture of a member of the Ku Klux Klan holding a noose. It’s a smiling frog. Why does this upset you so much?”

The provocations have succeeded in some ways. Late last month, as Stewart railed against the removal of a New Orleans monument, he wound up in a Twitter war with musician John Legend and others. But the attention has not translated into support, as measured in recent polls.

...

Stewart knows people are counting him out — but says they are wrong.

“The last time liberals got mad at someone & said ‘his campaign is imploding’ we took back the White House,” he tweeted.

...

Most political strategists and observers don’t think Stewart will be in the race after the June 13 primary. They say the leader of Virginia’s second-largest jurisdiction, someone who had managed to win reelection four times in racially diverse Northern Virginia — has turned himself into a fringe candidate.

“This is manna from heaven for Gillespie,” said Bob Holsworth, a former Virginia Commonwealth University political scientist.

“On the one hand, [Stewart] has basically ceded much of his home turf to Gillespie, which is remarkable. And secondly, the other benefit it provides Gillespie is that the campaign is so outrageous that it captures all of the media attention and ensures that Frank Wagner gets no traction, too.”

Political analysts are more divided on whether even a badly defeated Stewart would give the GOP a black eye that lasts through the general election. Many think that come fall, Gillespie will have to worry more about being tied to Trump than to Stewart. But Democrats would like to yoke him to both. They are already criticizing Gillespie for not condemning Stewart’s far-right appeals, a line of attack that echoes their complaints about Gillespie’s reluctance to speak out against Trump.

“Not even a Confederate apologist trying to use racism to score political points can draw condemnation from @EdWGillespie. Says it all,” tweeted former congressman Tom Perriello, one of two Democrats vying to succeed term-limited Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).

Abbi Sigler, a spokeswoman for Gillespie, declined to comment on Stewart’s campaign or Democratic criticism of his silence.

“Candidates speak for themselves,” she said. “Ed is speaking about how we make this a stronger economy for all Virginians, and it’s very clear that his positive message is resonating with voters statewide.”

Some Republicans wish Gillespie would condemn Stewart — among them Schoeneman, editor in chief of the conservative blog Bearing Drift.

“Maybe you lose some general-election votes, but at least you can look yourself in the mirror in the morning,” he said. “I think it has a negative impact on the party as a whole. . . . This is not something that is even remotely reasonable.”

But Chris LaCivita, a top adviser at the RNC for the Trump campaign, does not think Stewart’s Confederate antics will do any lasting damage. And he thinks Gillespie is smart to stay mum about him.

“The first rule in politics is not to engage the idiot,” LaCivita said. “Let the idiot be the idiot.”

The irony is: Corey Stewart, who is crying and whining about the confederate symbols being removed, is from Duluth, MN.  I also love how Ed Gillespie's spokeswoman was quoted as saying, "candidates speak for themselves..." Um, then why do you have a job, honey?

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19 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

The Virginia gubernatorial election this November is shaping up to be quite ugly. One of the reasons is the idiotic Corey Stewart. I hope he hurts the Repubs, but I have a feeling a goodly number of the people in the rural southwest (coal country), who went for Agent Orange by huge margins, will like Corey's crap. "Do Corey Stewart’s Confederate antics help Ed Gillespie or hurt the GOP brand?"

The irony is: Corey Stewart, who is crying and whining about the confederate symbols being removed, is from Duluth, MN.  I also love how Ed Gillespie's spokeswoman was quoted as saying, "candidates speak for themselves..." Um, then why do you have a job, honey?

Corey's trying way too hard with this nonsense. I keep expecting to hear he's bought an old plantation and is now inviting people to come over and have mint juleps on the veranda while he regales them with stories of his fake ancestors who fought in the War of Northern Aggression. :pb_rollseyes:

I refuse to watch videos of this jerk. Has he adopted a really bad fake Southern accent as well? 

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1 hour ago, Cartmann99 said:

Corey's trying way too hard with this nonsense. I keep expecting to hear he's bought an old plantation and is now inviting people to come over and have mint juleps on the veranda while he regales them with stories of his fake ancestors who fought in the War of Northern Aggression. :pb_rollseyes:

I refuse to watch videos of this jerk. Has he adopted a really bad fake Southern accent as well? 

Thankfully, not yet. However, he's such a media whore that if using a fake accent got him more press, he'd do it in a heartbeat.

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"Texas Gov. Abbott springs surprise on critics, with unannounced Facebook live signing of sanctuary cities ban"

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Texas Gov. Greg Abbott made an unannounced appearance on Facebook live Sunday evening to sign a tough bill banning “sanctuary cities” in the state, thereby avoiding demonstrations opponents planned for later in the week when they thought he was going to put his signature on the legislation.

While Abbott’s spokesman said he was just trying to reach a wide audience, critics called Abbott “cowardly” for springing the signing without notice.

Though the bill, which cleared the Republican-controlled legislature last week, was opposed by most major police chiefs in Texas, Abbott said in a statement that the law was a blow against “those that seek to promote lawlessness in Texas.”

Abbott also blasted the one law enforcement officer in Texas who appears to have adopted any sort of policy resembling the amorphous concept of a sanctuary city, Travis County Sheriff Sally Hernandez, who said she would not cooperate with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement requests to hold immigrants while federal authorities investigate their status.

“This law cracks down on policies like the Travis County sheriff who declared she would not detain known criminals accused of violent crimes,” Abbott said.

In fact, Hernandez does honor detainer requests from federal immigration authorities for inmates accused of serious offenses.

The term sanctuary cities is ill-defined and takes different forms in different places. In general, jurisdictions identifying themselves as sanctuaries refuse to hold immigrants who have been arrested for local crimes past their release date so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement can take them into federal custody and try to deport them.

The Texas law would fine local governments up to $25,500 a day for policies that block immigration enforcement. Elected or appointed officials who refuse to cooperate with immigration agents could lose their jobs. Sheriffs and other police officers would face misdemeanor charges punishable by up to a year in jail and fines if they ignore requests to detain immigrants. The law would take effect Sept. 1.

...

 

 

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"Is populism popular? These Virginia candidates are banking on it"

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Corey Stewart wants to be the next governor of Virginia, and the way he has chosen to get there is by issuing polarizing provocations in support of the Confederate flag. “My purpose is to show I have the guts to stand up to political correctness,” he said. “People voted for Trump because of his guts, not so much because of his policy views.”

Tom Perriello wants to be governor too, and his message also carries familiar echoes of last year. “Donald Trump was right about some things,” Perriello said on the stump, painting a bleak portrait of a country that’s losing millions of jobs and suffering from an opioids epidemic fomented, he said, by pharmaceutical companies that “created a culture of pain.”

While the rest of the country gets another year to discern the meaning of last fall’s momentous election, people in two states – Virginia and New Jersey – will choose governors this year and decide if the past is prelude: Are voters looking for a booster shot or an antidote – another dose of Trumpism or a traditional focus on the nuts and bolts of governing?

In the runup to Virginia’s June 13 primary, it’s not clear whether the populist message is a winner. In the Republican race, Stewart is lagging in the polls behind two establishment Republicans who focus on smaller government — longtime party strategist Ed Gillespie and state Sen. Frank Wagner of Virginia Beach. But in the Democratic contest, Perriello is in a tight race with his more staid and traditional rival, Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam.

Six months after the presidential decision, every election in the country is being inspected for hints at whether Trump’s win was unique to his personality or reflects a shift in voter preferences. In a special election in Georgia last month, the Republican congressional candidate who most avidly touted his ties to Trump got clobbered. In a district where Trump won 48 percent of the vote last fall – four points better than he fared in Virginia — Bob Gray, whose campaign slogan was “America First, Conservative Always,” won only 11 percent in the primary, which had 11 Republicans on the ballot. Overall in that race, the more a candidate was aligned with Trump, the worse he did.

Virginia’s primaries both feature one candidate who preaches that the system is rigged while their opponents more or less are the system. But in both races, the president looms large in voters’ minds, especially in parts of the state that went heavily for Trump.

In Pittsylvania County, hard by the North Carolina border, county supervisor Ron Scearce is still shopping for a Republican governor who will run the state “like a business, just like Trump.”

Scearce, 53, a semi-retired Air Force veteran, likes the fact that Stewart was an early Trump supporter – indeed, chairman of Trump’s Virginia campaign until he was fired for organizing a protest against the Republican National Committee, which he said was not sufficiently supportive of Trump.

But even though Scearce agrees with Stewart that Democrats are “trying to destroy the history of our country, one monument at a time,” he would rather have a governor focused more on jobs than flags.

In Campbell County, near the Blue Ridge mountains, Eric Zehr, who owns a house-washing company, keeps meeting people who registered to vote for the first time last year solely “based on Trump’s ability to be politically incorrect.” Trump won 71 percent of the vote in the county in November, but lost statewide with 44 percent.

Zehr, who entered politics a few years ago and is now a county supervisor and chairman of the county GOP, has not made his choice in the primary. He’s looking not so much for a Trump soundalike as someone who “shares my top two values, right to life and fiscal conservatism.”

But Zehr, 46, worries that many Trump voters will “go back into hibernation this year. They’re just delighted that the president doesn’t have a close guard on his tongue; that comes across as honest and refreshing. We’re hoping for more of the same from a governor – maybe not Trump’s coarseness, but his willingness to go upstream.”

In Northern Virginia, where Clinton beat Trump handily, last year’s populist surge seems to have less staying power. “In a place like Virginia, in a low turnout, off-year race, people are ready for a cheerful, roll-up-your-sleeves, hardworking traditional governor,” said Will Estrada, the Republican party chairman in Loudoun County and a Gillespie supporter. “People aren’t looking for another Trump; Trump is an anomaly. Trump is unique.”

Donald Scoggins, a longtime conservative activist in Prince William County who runs Republicans for Black Empowerment, initially endorsed Trump last year then broke with him “because of the way he was going after minorities.”

Now, “I’m looking for normalcy to return to the Republican party,” Scoggins said. “Governing is more important right now than shaking things up. I don’t want a governor who pines for adulation. It’d be a tragic thing if that Trump attitude percolated down to the state level.”

Among Democrats, anti-Trump fervor has propelled Perriello from a late start to near-even status with Northam in recent polls. Perriello’s boosters often describe themselves as supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential bid. But there are plenty of Clinton voters in his audiences too, and some are struggling to figure out how Perriello’s rhetoric fits with their ideas about what a Democratic governor should be.

“I’m trying not to have that visceral reaction that Tom Perriello is Bernie,” said Melissa Cooper, 38, a government contractor who lives in Loudoun County. “Divisiveness didn’t work very well for us last year.”

After listening to Perriello for an hour, Cooper decided she is likely to vote for Northam. “Northam’s an establishment guy and that’s not what I want,” she said, “but I want to win and I think people are a little tired of people who are all fervor.”

Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, a longtime Democratic strategist based in Roanoke, is not persuaded that the recipe for victory in Virginia must now include a hefty dollop of populism.

“When times are darkest, the people will always turn to the meanest, toughest son of a bitch in the tribe,” said Saunders, who broke with his tribe last year to support Trump. But although he said “the Democratic brand is very, very tarnished out here among working-class people, the winning margin wasn’t just Trump – it was ABC, Anybody But Clinton.” A Democrat not named Clinton could win, he said, if he forged an authentic connection with voters in rural Virginia – as Mark Warner famously did when he launched his political career to become governor and, eventually, a two-term senator.

Trump made that connection as “somebody who would stand up to the status quo, the political establishment and political correctness,” Stewart said. “I’m betting that Trump voters have that same desire this year for somebody who says things you’re not supposed to say. It’s a risky move, but I want to demonstrate that I’m willing to be vilified. If the Republicans choose the establishment guy who’s mouthing the same old garbage that Republicans have for 30 years, then we lose.”

Perriello rejects the idea that if Stewart is the Trumpian figure in this election, he is the Bernie Sanders analogue. “People have trouble putting us in a box,” Perriello said. “We’re very explicitly trying to unite the Bernie, Hillary and Obama wings of the party.” Rather than populist, he calls his approach “non-compliance,” a rebellion marked “not by the volume of my voice, but by pushing back against [Trump’s] agenda.”

Perriello is by no means all passion; he’s a strikingly policy-oriented candidate, with a command of detail reminiscent of fellow Virginia Democrats Warner and Sen. Tim Kaine. “We need Hillary’s command of policy and Bernie’s sense of the corruption in the system,” he said.

Perriello doesn’t apologize for seeking wholesale change in an economy where no job seems safe — where, as he puts it, “automation is going to make globalization look like child’s play.”

...

If Perriello presents himself as a blend of fiery populist and policy wonk, Stewart is the proud, unadulterated bomb thrower. He rejects the notion that Virginia politics is different from the national scene.

“This Virginia gentleman thing is a bunch of baloney,” Stewart said. “It’s BS. They may act on the surface a little more genteel, but Virginians like fighters. I’m an in-your-face, no-holds-barred, ruthless fighter. There are parallels between Perriello and me; we’re both trying to tear down the established order.”

Everywhere he goes, Stewart proudly repeats his mantra: “I was Trump before Trump was Trump.”

But he said in an interview that if he wins the primary, he will pivot to a different message in the fall. “As soon as this primary is over, I’m going right back to the community to say, ‘I know you don’t like what I say about southern heritage or that I supported Trump, but there’s a lot of other stuff we agree on’,” he said. “Clearly, my focus will change after the primary and be about jobs and the economy. I will probably never say the word ‘Republican’ in the fall campaign.”

Stewart says that his Trumpian rhetoric about the Confederate flag and illegal immigrants will not stop him from winning votes, even in majority-minority counties such as his own base in Prince William.

Stewart first won widespread notice in 2007, when, after his county’s Hispanic population tripled in six years, his board of supervisors told county police to check the immigration status of anyone they stopped for traffic or other violations.

This year, Stewart is again making immigration a focus, even though he did not make it a big issue in the intervening years. “The issue ebbs and flows,” he said. “Now it’s flowing again.”

Still, Stewart said adopting a campaign persona that so closely parallels Trump’s is risky. “If Trump doesn’t deliver on jobs and immigration by November,” he said, “I’m going to have a lot of trouble.”

This election season is going to be especially hard-fought here in VA. I've heard both Northam and Perriello and would be okay with either. I just want one of them to bury the DOH candidates.

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Branch Trumpvidian candidate for governor in Virginia strikes again: "At a synagogue, Corey Stewart blames anti-Semitism on the left"

Spoiler

Republican gubernatorial candidate Corey A. Stewart told an audience at a Northern Virginia synagogue Sunday night that he blames the political left for rising anti-Semitism, stunning many in the audience who felt Stewart excused bigotry coming from his own supporters.

“Today most of the anti-Semitic bigotry is not coming from the right. It’s coming from the left. We have to face it,” said Stewart, prompting a collective gasp and incredulous laughter from the crowd of about 400 at Temple Rodef Shalom in Fairfax County.

Stewart, who is significantly lagging in his campaign for the Republican nomination behind front-runner Ed Gillespie, has made the defense of the state’s Confederate heritage a mainstay of his bid and has attracted support from white supremacists.

But in his remarks, Stewart ticked off three instances — including one more than a decade old — in which Democrats had been labeled anti-Semitic or sexist.

“What about Keith Ellison from Minnesota?” Stewart said, referring to the Democratic congressman who has been criticized by some for his earlier support for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Audience members shouted back, “What about Trump?”

Stewart received the iciest reception of the four candidates who appeared at the forum, which was sponsored by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. He participated with one of his Republican rivals, state Sen. Frank W. Wagner (Virginia Beach), and Democrats Tom Perriello, a former congressman, and Ralph Northam, the state’s lieutenant governor.

The only missing candidate was Gillespie. His communications director said the candidate had a conflicting event but declined to say where. His campaign finance director delivered remarks on his behalf at Temple Rodef Shalom.

The candidates appeared one at a time to deliver remarks and then answer questions that had been submitted through an online forum.

Guila Franklin Siegel, the associate director of the JCRC, agreed that it’s important to address bigotry on all ends of the political spectrum but said she was disheartened by Stewart’s remarks.

“I thought it was disappointing he didn’t take the opportunity to speak about what he could do within his own sphere of influence to combat anti-Semitism and all other forms of bigotry and intolerance, instead of looking at what other people are doing in other parts of the political spectrum,” Siegel said.

The comments from Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William Board of County Superviors, come amid rising anxiety in the Jewish community about the increasing frequency acts of anti-Semitism, including recent vandalism at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia. Police said the man arrested in the case had connections to the Aryan Underground.

Many attendees in this Democratic stronghold were less concerned with Stewart’s remarks and more focused on choosing between Perriello and Northam.

Sang Moore, a 42-year-old manager at a credit union who lives in Falls Church, said she was still undecided but leaning toward voting for Northam because of his experience in state government, where he served as a lawmaker before being elected lieutenant governor. In her eyes, it gave him an edge over Perriello, who lost his congressional seat in 2010 after one term and then worked for a left-leaning think tank before becoming a special envoy in Africa for the State Department.

“Perriello’s experience, while vast and impressive, is not Ralph Northam’s,” Moore said.

Perriello and Northam are locked in a neck-and-neck battle for the Democratic nomination, according to polls.

Perriello panned President Trump on Sunday and blamed his rhetoric for increasing acts of racism and hate in the region. He cited the vandalism at the Jewish Community Center, the harassment of a woman in a hijab at a Trader Joe’s in Reston, Va., and a torchlight rally organized by white supremacists in Charlottesville to protest the proposed removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee.

“We have to be honest that we stand at a scary moment, where we’ve seen the kind of hatred and bigotry unleashed and enabled from the president himself, those around him and those who stand beside him,” Perriello said.

Perriello also touted his experience working as a negotiator in Africa, saying it demonstrates his ability to work through disagreements. “If we can bring together people who have literally been killing each other for years, we’ve got to find a way to find common ground,” he said.

Northam’s remarks garnered the most applause. The soft-spoken pediatric neurologist talked of treating toddlers for gunshot wounds after mishaps with firearms and domestic violence victims shot by their partners as evidence of the need for stricter gun control, including restricting gun purchases to one per month.

“Nobody needs to buy more than one gun a month,” Northam said.

Wagner, who is running third in the GOP race just behind Stewart in the latest Washington Post-Schar School poll, mentioned how he once ran a company with a prominent Jewish businessman. He spoke of his proposal to revamp the high school curriculum to give students the flexibility to take career and technical education courses.

“Somebody with a good career and technical background and industry credentials is going to earn more money than a college graduate,” Wagner said.

He also pitched his proposal to raise the fuel tax to improve the transportation infrastructure. “We have to make a bigger investment in transportation if we expect the Virginia economy to grow,” Wagner said.

Both parties will choose their nominees in a June 13 primary, and the general election will be in November. May 22 is the last day to register to vote in the primary.

Corey is bizarre. I hope and pray he doesn't pull a surprise upset like Agent Orange.

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Meanwhile here in Iowa we have a new Governor

kcci.com/article/transition-of-power-iowa-will-have-a-new-governor-today/9922186

Quote

Governor Terry Branstad has stepped down and Lieutenant Governor Kim Reynolds has become the 43rd governor of Iowa, the first woman to hold the position.

This transition of power happened because Branstad was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as the new U.S. Ambassasdor to China. The vote Monday afternoon was 82 to 13.

It is an extraordinary opportunity for Branstad, who was selected in part because of his longstanding friendship with Chinese president Xi Jinping.

Reynolds becomes Iowa's first female governor in state history. Her predecessor, Gov. Terry Branstad, was reserved a front row seat alongside Speaker of the House Linda Upmeyer, Senate Majority Leader Bill Dix and Reynolds' parents, Charles and Audrey Strawn.

I'm not expecting anything positive to come out of this.  There's been little daylight between her and Brainfart policy wise.  Of course every member of the GOP here in Iowa will never let people forget Reynolds is the first woman to hold the office.

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On 5/2/2017 at 2:57 AM, Cartmann99 said:

I can't wait until Christie has been reduced to shilling catheters and reverse mortgages on the more obscure cable networks. :twisted:

<venting>My sister works as a visiting social worker in NJ. Her clients are the poorest of the poor; sickest of the sick. Many are on Medicaid and receive Meals on  Wheels. She has to sit with some and show them or a family member apply for assistance because they can't do it themselves.  They are sick, weak, and poor hanging by a thread. She is apoplectic over the new budget (has nothing nice to say about Christie either). The people under my sister's care can't make it with out assistance.  These fuck sticks want to yank their only lifeline.  The poor, the sick, the elderly don't fund campaigns, so they don't matter.

Money is tight in here in One Kidville.  Husband is under employed, my job is on the chopping block if TT gets his way so we really don't have much 'disposable' income.  With all that I'm good with my taxes going to help others, keep our air clean, our schools open. I live in a county with top rated schools, fantastic library system, top notch fire and rescue departments,. Why can't all this be the case for everybody?

</venting>

 

On 5/22/2017 at 9:24 AM, GreyhoundFan said:

Branch Trumpvidian candidate for governor in Virginia strikes again: "At a synagogue, Corey Stewart blames anti-Semitism on the left"

Corey is bizarre. I hope and pray he doesn't pull a surprise upset like Agent Orange.

Ugh.  He sounds like my brother with the whole "The left hate Jews more"

Edited by onekidanddone
took out quote box to take up less space in my reply
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A real class act <end sarcasm font> "Texas Governor Greg Abbott Jokes About Shooting Reporters"

Spoiler

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appears to be a pretty good shot ― and a horrible comedian.

A Texas Tribune reporter snapped a photo of Abbott showing off his target sheet on Friday, after which the governor “jokingly” pointed to the bullet holes and threatened the media.

“I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” Abbott said, according to reporter Patrick Svitek.

...

Abbott was on a victory lap at a shooting range after signing a bill on Friday that significantly reduces the fee for a license to carry a handgun in Texas. His office says the new law “strengthens the 2nd Amendment,” but critics worry that the state is going too far with various gun measures.

Texas is trying to drastically ease requirements for gun ownership. In April, a House committee greenlighted a bill that would make it legal to carry a gun without a license. Another bill would nix a requirement that gun owners take a training course.

The Texas Tribune reports:

House Bill 375 — authored by State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford — is known as “constitutional carry” and it would make the licensing process and classes to obtain a permit optional. The idea, according to Stickland, is that Texans shouldn’t be forced to take a course and pay a fee to exercise their Second Amendment rights. If passed, Texas would be the 11th state to allow constitutional carry.

A number of Texas Democrats oppose the proposal. State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, a critic of both the campus carry and open carry laws, said constitutional carry “seems to be an unnecessary thing.” 

It’s no secret that Texas loves its guns. But Abbott’s quote, at the very least, showed a stunning lack of awareness. After all, Republican Greg Gianforte was charged with assault after allegedly body-slamming a Guardian reporter in Montana on Wednesday. He was elected to Congress the next day. 

Everyone saw that story ― media outlets pulled their endorsements of the candidate and the GOP appeared to keep its distance from him after the news broke. As it turns out, threatening or attacking reporters isn’t a good idea, although there appears to be a trajectory of anti-media rhetoric under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“This joke was dangerous and out of line. Because it’s never just a joke to some. It’s never just rhetoric. Words matter,” Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Friday afternoon.

“President Trump encouraged violence as a candidate on the trail, and his supporters started throwing punches,” he added. “Rep-elect Gianforte once joked about hurting journalists, then this week followed it through with a bodyslam that sent a Guardian reporter to the hospital. Words matter.”

But it doesn’t matter whether these incidents are directly related to Trump’s campaign against the media or simply outliers — the toxic environment is there. Trump has railed against all media so often and with such vitriol that press freedom has already taken a dive.

Trump called the press the “enemy of the American people,” possibly asked then-FBI Director James Comey to imprison reporters, and joked with his head of Homeland Security that the department should consider using a ceremonial sword on the press.

Needless to say, journalists aren’t laughing along.  

...

But it goes both ways. In states like Texas and Montana, which have “Stand Your Ground” laws, a reporter would have every right to shoot back in self-defense.

 

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3 hours ago, GreyhoundFan said:

A real class act <end sarcasm font> "Texas Governor Greg Abbott Jokes About Shooting Reporters"

  Reveal hidden contents

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) appears to be a pretty good shot ― and a horrible comedian.

A Texas Tribune reporter snapped a photo of Abbott showing off his target sheet on Friday, after which the governor “jokingly” pointed to the bullet holes and threatened the media.

“I’m gonna carry this around in case I see any reporters,” Abbott said, according to reporter Patrick Svitek.

...

Abbott was on a victory lap at a shooting range after signing a bill on Friday that significantly reduces the fee for a license to carry a handgun in Texas. His office says the new law “strengthens the 2nd Amendment,” but critics worry that the state is going too far with various gun measures.

Texas is trying to drastically ease requirements for gun ownership. In April, a House committee greenlighted a bill that would make it legal to carry a gun without a license. Another bill would nix a requirement that gun owners take a training course.

The Texas Tribune reports:

House Bill 375 — authored by State Rep. Jonathan Stickland, R-Bedford — is known as “constitutional carry” and it would make the licensing process and classes to obtain a permit optional. The idea, according to Stickland, is that Texans shouldn’t be forced to take a course and pay a fee to exercise their Second Amendment rights. If passed, Texas would be the 11th state to allow constitutional carry.

A number of Texas Democrats oppose the proposal. State Rep. Donna Howard, D-Austin, a critic of both the campus carry and open carry laws, said constitutional carry “seems to be an unnecessary thing.” 

It’s no secret that Texas loves its guns. But Abbott’s quote, at the very least, showed a stunning lack of awareness. After all, Republican Greg Gianforte was charged with assault after allegedly body-slamming a Guardian reporter in Montana on Wednesday. He was elected to Congress the next day. 

Everyone saw that story ― media outlets pulled their endorsements of the candidate and the GOP appeared to keep its distance from him after the news broke. As it turns out, threatening or attacking reporters isn’t a good idea, although there appears to be a trajectory of anti-media rhetoric under President Donald Trump’s administration.

“This joke was dangerous and out of line. Because it’s never just a joke to some. It’s never just rhetoric. Words matter,” Dan Gross, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said Friday afternoon.

“President Trump encouraged violence as a candidate on the trail, and his supporters started throwing punches,” he added. “Rep-elect Gianforte once joked about hurting journalists, then this week followed it through with a bodyslam that sent a Guardian reporter to the hospital. Words matter.”

But it doesn’t matter whether these incidents are directly related to Trump’s campaign against the media or simply outliers — the toxic environment is there. Trump has railed against all media so often and with such vitriol that press freedom has already taken a dive.

Trump called the press the “enemy of the American people,” possibly asked then-FBI Director James Comey to imprison reporters, and joked with his head of Homeland Security that the department should consider using a ceremonial sword on the press.

Needless to say, journalists aren’t laughing along.  

...

But it goes both ways. In states like Texas and Montana, which have “Stand Your Ground” laws, a reporter would have every right to shoot back in self-defense.

 

I saw that you had posted and figured it had to be about this. What an asshat. 

 

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The horrifying thing is, that now even mentally imbalanced people can buy guns, it's just a matter of time before someone actually starts shooting reporters. This kind of idiotic statements will only egg them on. 

What a terrifying prospect. 

Edited by fraurosena
Silly autocorrect changed a word into a Dutch one
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Lieutenant Governor, but close enough. Gotta love Texas. NOT: "Texas Anti-Trans Bathroom Bill May Force A Special Session"

Spoiler

AUSTIN, Texas ― A potential compromise to avoid a full-blown set of bathroom restrictions keeping trans Texans from using the facilities that most closely match their gender fell apart Friday night, as Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick (R) once again implied that he’d force legislators to return for a special session if the measure doesn’t pass.  

Patrick has made the issue a priority since the beginning of the regular session, which started in January. But the bill he backed in the state Senate, which would have required trans Texans to use public bathrooms of the sex listed on their birth certificates, failed to gain traction in the state House of Representatives.  

Instead, House Speaker Joe Straus blocked the measure and threw his support behind an amendment to a separate bill last week as his watered-down alternative. The amendment would have required public and charter K-12 schools ― but not government buildings ― to provide single-use bathrooms to those uncomfortable using facilities of their “biological sex.” The amendment wouldn’t have overturned more inclusive local policies, which Patrick wanted.  

Friday night, both Straus and Patrick called press conferences to tell reporters neither one intended to budge. Patrick once again threatened to push legislators into a special session over the issue.

“They’re definitely playing a game of chicken,” Mark Jones, a political scientist at Rice University in Houston, told HuffPost. “Straus has effectively told Patrick, take it or leave it.”

Straus is an establishment Republican who opposes the bill and fears it will drag the state through the same negative publicity and boycotts that North Carolina faced last year when it restricted bathroom use for trans people. He’d spoken publicly against the idea, but backed the amendment last week after Patrick threatened to hold up must-pass legislation if the House didn’t approve some version of the bathroom restrictions.

“He said he has compromised enough, but in fact, he has not compromised at all,” Patrick said, according to the Texas Tribune.

The state legislature meets once every two years for five months. But Patrick, a staunch conservative who presides over the Texas Senate, once again raised the possibility of pulling lawmakers back to Austin for the express purpose of considering the bathroom bill.

“We are representing the people of Texas,” Patrick said, according to the Texas Observer. “Women want to be protected in bathrooms, government bathrooms, across this state… Every poll clearly says that.”

During debates at the legislature, supporters of the Republican-backed bill did little to show that the state faces a public safety problem if people use public bathrooms that correspond with their gender identification. Assaulting women or men in a public bathroom or anywhere else is already illegal. Trans bathroom use is not associated with crime. 

Hundreds of people, however, told legislators at a committee hearing in March that the bill would needlessly stigmatize and harm trans Texans. Only 9 percent of trans Americans have successfully altered the markers on their birth certificates, according to a 2015 study by the National Center for Transgender Equality. The study cited bureaucratic hurdles and associated costs as obstacles.

Colt Keo-Meier, a clinical psychologist who specializes in serving transgender clients and has transitioned himself, told Senators in March that his clients routinely suffer from suicidal thoughts and other mental health problems provoked by the harsh way they are treated.

“It communicates to transgender people that they don’t belong,” Keo-Meier said of the measures Patrick supports. “Quite literally, this bill is killing my patients.”

The compromise amendment backed by Straus didn’t satisfy LGBTQ advocates, who likened it to segregation. But in a legislative session dominated by hardline conservatives, Straus hoped it would at least limit the bad press and economic consequences that the original bill threatened to unleash.

“For many of us — and especially for me — this was a compromise,” Straus told reporters Friday, according to the Texas Tribune. “As far as I’m concerned, it was enough. We will go no further. This is the right thing to do in order to protect our economy from billions of dollars in losses and more importantly to protect the safety of some very vulnerable young Texans.” 

If Patrick refuses to back down, the pressure to raise the bill will fall on Gov. Greg Abbott. He alone has the authority to call a special legislative session, and he picks which bills state lawmakers may consider when taking that measure. Abbott has said he supports some measure restricting bathroom use.

But forcing a special session over the issue would put an even greater spotlight on the controversial bill, which worries some business-minded Republicans. Two studies showed the state would lose billions of dollars due to boycotts and lost tourism if the measure passes.

“If it passes during the regular session, it appears like a priority,” said Jones, the political scientist from Rice University. “But if you call a special session to pass the bathroom legislation, you’re essentially saying this is such a priority we’re willing to pay approximately $1 million to hold a special session and make 181 legislators return to Austin to debate it and pass it.”

If Abbott were to call a special session and place bathroom restrictions on the agenda, they’d have a higher likelihood of passing because Straus would have less room to use procedural tools to block the measure.

“The Texas economy is sliding backwards. Healthcare for millions of Texans could be ripped away. Our students pay the price for a broken school finance system. Higher education is out of reach for working families. And Texas workers still need a damn raise,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement in response to the controversy.

“We are facing a Texas with less opportunity, and Republicans have been debating bathrooms for months,” he added. “Texas Republicans have failed us all.”

 

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