The Several States - States in General

[47of74]

Thought I'd start a thread for states just in general when it wouldn't fit quite so neatly into the US Governors or State Houses Threat.

To start, gee I wonder why

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Iowa businesses need to recruit diverse groups of Iowans because the state is unlikely to reverse more than a century of weak population growth, the director of an Iowa State University center said Friday. 

Ronald Cox of ISU’s Center for Industrial Research and Service said that means working to hire immigrants, people with disabilities, retirees, ex-convicts and others that might not be on companies’ main radar. He also suggested seeking remote workers and improving efficiencies so fewer workers are needed.

With Iowa still having one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country, even as the pandemic wears on, finding workers has been nearly futile for many businesses. Cox asked his colleagues to send photos of “help wanted” signs for his presentation if they saw one. He got several dozen. 

CIRAS has identified 27 groups of workers, including veterans, that businesses might want to add to their recruiting lists. The center also suggests that businesses make sure they retain the good workers they have.

No where in the article does it talk about how Iowa has a Branch Trumpvidian government that is driving people - especially college educated - away and how Vichy Iowa can just about apply to the entire state now instead of just the Steve King corner.  Just can't be if they throw money at people while doing nothing to address conditions that make Iowa not as attractive as other areas. 

Edited April 27, 2021 by 47of74

[clueliss]

Kobach is trying to make (another) comeback.

 

[47of74]

Iowa GQP is incompetent

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This is the gang that can’t shoot straight: Republicans control the Iowa House, Senate and governorship. Yet here we are in extra innings of the legislative session because they can’t cobble together a budget. The governor and senator appear to finally be landing on the same base, but the House is hung up.

The session was supposed to end April 30. The work isn’t done because so much time was wasted on wedge issues — banning abortion (likely unconstitutional), passing another ag gag law (likely unconstitutional), attaching enhanced penalties to protestors, attempting to end tenure at state universities, restricting voter access, arguing about transgender students — that make most Iowans nervous, at least. But we get downright impatient when Gov. Kim Reynolds cannot herd her own frogs into the wheelbarrow.

It does not make a strong argument for her re-election next year. She has been arrogant but that does not make for leadership.

It remains to be seen if Democrats can capitalize on this incompetence. One would think that voters by now recognize the hubris that gathers around a one-party government apparatus. When Democrats had a trifecta of control, they finished a day late once, three days late the next year and early twice. In 2010, the legislature finished in 80 days, and were rewarded by voters with the defeat of Gov. Chet Culver and the loss of the House by Democrats. Maybe voters don’t care about wasting time on our dime.

 

[47of74]

My latest missive on how Iowa's government was doing was published today.

https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/opinion/article_951bef62-ea41-52fd-bd1c-18f265b8a1a9.html

I suppose all the trolls I blocked are having an absolute Klan rally in the comments but since I blocked them, I don't see them.  Which is how I like it.

[fraurosena]

17 hours ago, 47of74 said:

My latest missive on how Iowa's government was doing was published today.

https://www.telegraphherald.com/news/opinion/article_951bef62-ea41-52fd-bd1c-18f265b8a1a9.html

I suppose all the trolls I blocked are having an absolute Klan rally in the comments but since I blocked them, I don't see them.  Which is how I like it.

I'd love to read your article, but even with VPN I can't open the link as I'm not a subscriber... 

[Cartmann99]

@fraurosena, here's @47of74's letter:

Spoiler

Letter: Iowa motto no longer fits direction of state government

[I omitted his name and address]

In 1847, the new state of Iowa adopted its official motto, which can be seen on the state flag today. That motto is “Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain.” But I think it’s time to take that off our flag and replace it with something else because Iowa’s government no longer prizes our liberties nor maintains our rights.

Iowa was the first state to admit women to the practice of law and its public universities to open degree programs to women. Iowa was one of the first states to outlaw segregation in schools, allow married women to own property, and allow interracial marriage. (https://bit.ly/3hNqfJv). But that was then.

Now Iowa’s government is more interested in “owning the libs” than sound public policy. Keeping non-Republicans from voting and stripping control away from local communities is far more important than doing what’s best for Iowans. Especially in the middle of a pandemic. Governments based on “owning the libs” might get thumbs up from many Iowans, but it’s not sustainable long term. A lot of people are leaving Iowa for greener pastures where the pay is higher, and said pastures aren’t run by extremists. Hell, even I’m thinking of moving and I’ve lived here almost 46 years.

Our motto no longer represents what Iowa is. Maybe it did even as recently as 15 years ago. Not now. Maybe something about worshiping a giant golden calf would be better because that’s what Iowa represents now.

Paxton is a lying liar who lies.

 

Edited August 24, 2021 by Cartmann99

[GreyhoundFan]

I wasn't quite sure where to post this, but Texas is offering us a scary glimpse of the future if the GQP keeps taking over: "Texas shows us what post-democracy America would look like"

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Texas this week showed us what a post-democracy America would look like.

Thanks to a series of actions by the Texas legislature and governor, we now see exactly what the Trumpified Republican Party wants: to take us to an America where women cannot get abortions, even in cases of rape and incest; an America where almost everybody can openly carry a gun in public, without license, without permit, without safety training and without fingerprinting; and an America where law-abiding Black and Latino citizens are disproportionately denied the right to vote.

This is where Texas and other red states are going, or have already gone. It is where the rest of America will go, unless those targeted by these new laws — women, people of color and all small “d” democrats — rise up.

On Wednesday, a Texas law went into effect that bans abortions later than six weeks, after the Supreme Court let pass a request to block the statute. Because 85 to 90 percent of women get abortions after six weeks, it amounts to a near-total ban. Already on the books in Texas is a “trigger” law that automatically bans all abortions, even in cases of rape and incest, if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. At least 10 other states have done likewise.

Also Wednesday, a new law went into effect in Texas, over the objections of law enforcement, allowing all Texans otherwise allowed to own guns to carry them in public, without a license and without training. Now, 20 states have blessed such “permitless carry.”

And on Tuesday, the Texas legislature passed the final version of the Republican voting bill that bans drive-through and 24-hour voting, both used disproportionately by voters of color; imposes new limits on voting by mail, blocks election officials from distributing mail-ballot applications unless specifically requested; gives partisan poll watchers more leeway to influence vote counting; and places new rules and paperwork requirements that deter people from helping others to vote or to register. At least 17 states have adopted similar restrictions.

All three of these actions are deeply antidemocratic.

Texans overwhelmingly object to permitless carry. Fully 57 percent of Texas voters oppose such a law and only 36 percent support it, according to a June poll by the University of Texas and the Texas Tribune. The partnership’s April poll found that, by 46 percent to 20 percent, Texans want stricter gun laws — and support for tougher laws is 54 percent among women, 55 percent among Latinos and 65 percent among Black voters.

Texans also oppose banning all abortions if Roe is overturned, with 53 percent against a ban and 37 percent for one. Women oppose the ban, 58 percent to 33 percent. A narrow plurality (46 percent to 44 percent) oppose the six-week ban, too.

Furthermore, pluralities of Texans opposed the ban on drive-through voting and restrictions on early voting hours. The drive-through ban was particularly objectionable to Black voters (52 percent opposed to 30 percent in the April poll) and Latino voters (44 percent to 36 percent), as were the limits on early voting hours, opposed 52 percent to 28 percent among Black voters and 46 percent to 31 percent among Latino voters.

And that’s the whole point of such voter-suppression laws. Texas became a “majority minority” state more than 15 years ago — and the country as a whole will follow in about two decades. But White voters still dominate the electorate. Latinos are about 40 percent of the Texas population, but only 20 to 25 percent of the electorate.

Texas legislators aren’t answering to the people but rather to the White, male voters that put the Republicans in power. The new voting law, by suppressing non-White votes, aims to keep White voters dominant. As demographics turn more and more against Republicans in Texas, their antidemocratic actions will only get worse.

Bad things happen when leaders don’t reflect the will of the people. This is happening already in Texas and some other red states. It will be happening more nationally if Republicans get their way.

In Texas, the legislature this term also banned the fictional menace of “critical race theory,” put in new restrictions on demonstrations and banned homeless encampments. Gov. Greg Abbott (R) also banned mask and vaccine mandates while the pandemic rages. Meanwhile the legislature failed to expand Medicaid eligibility to low-wage workers, refusing billions of federal health-care dollars for the state with the most uninsured residents in the nation. Instead, Texas cleared the way for people to buy beer and wine before noon on Sundays.

Less voting and less health care, but more guns and more booze: This is the present in Texas, and the future for all of us — unless we mobilize to arrest the Republicans’ destruction of democracy.

 

[danvillebelle]

Joe Jaworski is running against Ken Paxton and I will most definitely be voting for him.  From his website:

As Attorney General I will never embarrass Texas in The Supreme Court of the United States.

I will never file embarrassing frivolous litigation in any court. When we file it will be to win and protect Texans, not to pull a political stunt.

I will support the Affordable Care Act.

That specifically means I will advocate that we expand Medicaid so that billions in Texans’ tax dollars paid to our federal government return to the state to create jobs, insure families and sustain our vital network of rural hospitals.

I will lead a statewide effort to legalize adult-use recreational purpose cannabis.

…in a regulated, pro business free market to create 30,000 direct industry jobs and raise over $1B in revenue for every Texas legislature; to treat veterans’ PTSD and chronic pain and offer a wellness alternative to opioids so Texas can fight a winning war on addiction; to usher in positive and long overdue social and criminal justice reform; and to give police and prosecutors a break from time consuming, wasteful, petty prosecutions and honor their actual scope of work, their skills and valuable resources, saving over $300 million annually to fight real crime. 

I will create a Texas Attorney General Civil Rights Division to protect the civil rights of all Texans. 

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968 are the law of the land. Our civil rights are protected by Texas state law as well. As new laws are passed, protected classes are defined and society’s concept of social justice matures, you should be able to count on the Office of the Texas Attorney General to protect civil rights in employment, education, housing, voting, the courts, physical access to accommodations and above all interaction with our criminal justice system. You can expect General Joe Jaworski’s Civil Rights Division to keep the playing field fair for you and your family. 

I will support cities, counties, and school districts in their local decision-making authority.

The Republican Party of Texas has declared war on cities and counties – which is outrageous because every Texan lives in a city or a county. It’s like the Republican leadership is hating on our most basic sense of identity: Our hometowns. I say you should get to live where you want – City, suburbs or the country – and enjoy the freedom of choosing a unique place to live and prosper. Texas is big enough for that. As Attorney General I will support local authorities’ innovative governing. Let Abilene be Abilene; let Houston be Houston; let Tyler be Tyler; and let Brownsville be Brownsville.

I will turn Ken Paxton’s wasteful voter fraud division into General Jaworski’s voter access division.

I’ll diligently prosecute what little fraud exists, and I know the best way to guarantee the integrity of each election: make it easier for everyone 18 and older to vote legally. Texans want to vote, but indicted Attorney General Ken Paxton makes it harder for Texans to vote. He says: “No vote by mail, no after hours voting for shift workers, no drive through voting and only one drop box per county!” Ken Paxton is suppressing Republican and Democratic votes.  Here’s my message to Ken Paxton: “Don’t mess with Texas voters!”

 

 

Edited September 2, 2021 by danvillebelle

[47of74]

Illinois might be facing a tough electoral roadmap - especially the Mayor of Chicago.  Even the Governor may have to put in a bit of work to win another term.

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Gov. J.B. Pritzker is the “favorite” to win a second term but it won’t be a “walk in the park” —no matter how deep his billionaire pockets.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot is in so much political trouble she may want to consider not even trying to get reelected.

That’s the no-holds-barred assessment from David Axelrod, an astute political strategist who has helped to elect mayors, senators and the nation’s first Black president.

A former presidential adviser to Barack Obama, CNN analyst and co-founder of the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics, Axelrod believes Illinois voters are so fed up with rising crime, two years of pandemic restrictions and inflationary pressures exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, incumbents from Pritzker on down will have a tough time getting reelected.

I'm not a fan of either Pritzker or Lightfoot.  They both just rub me the wrong way.  Yeah, if I lived in Chicago and it was a choice between them and a Branch Trumpvidian there's no contest, I'd vote for them because for all their faults they are a million times better than any GQP member.

[Howl]

*****ing South Dakota. This has been dragging on for awhile.  Our Texas AG Ken Paxton is an utterly corrupt white collar criminal and MAGA leg humper. 

South Dakota AG [Jason] Ravnsborg is walking on vehicular homicide.  He pled no contest to two misdemeanors, never had to admit guilt and didn't seem sorry about what happened

He hit a man carrying a flashlight at night on a deserted stretch of highway and left that man to die by the side of the road.  The flashlight was still shining the next day when the body was found.   Supposedly, Ravnsborg knew he hit SOMETHING, but gosh, he was looking at the speedometer, and just didn't know it was a HUMAN BEING named Joe Boever.  Agents investigating the incident have a different take: “His face was in your windshield, Jason. Think about that,” an agent said.

A South Dakota House committee comprised of fellow politicians decided he should stay because...well, he wasn't on "official duty" at the time of the accident so shouldn't be impeached.  This did have a positive effect of triggering the release of ALL of the investigation files. 

In the two years leading up to the "accident"  Ravnsborg was stopped 15 TIMES by law enforcement, but ticketed only twice.  Chronic speeder and generally asshole driver.  Ravnsborg used title to get out of traffic tickets, according to report

What would’ve prevented Ravnsborg from hitting Boever  (take your blood pressure medicine before reading anything about this incident). 

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More than one investigator determined the crash could have been prevented, including Trooper John Berndt of the South Dakota Highway Patrol who wrote ‘if Mr. Ravnsborg is not driving on the north shoulder of the road it makes no difference if Mr. Ravnsborg sees Mr. Boever or not, this crash does not occur.’

One take away from this article is that a cell phone's location can be reconstructed with pinpoint accuracy.  Ravnsborg was on his phone and the precise location and trajectory of his car is known.  

Edited April 2, 2022 by Howl

[Cartmann99]

Firing squad ready as South Carolina schedules 1st execution since change

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — South Carolina has scheduled its first execution after corrections officials finished updating the death chamber to prepare for executions by firing squad.

The clerk of the State Supreme Court has set a April 29 execution date for Richard Bernard Moore, a 57-year-old man who has spent more than two decades on death row after he was convicted of killing convenience store clerk James Mahoney in Spartanburg.

Moore could face a choice between the electric chair and the firing squad, two options available to death row prisoners after legislators altered the state’s capital punishment law last year in an effort to work around a decade-long pause in executions, attributed to the corrections agency’s inability to procure lethal injection drugs.

The new law made the electric chair the state’s primary means of execution while giving prisoners the option of choosing death by firing squad or lethal injection, if those methods are available.

The state corrections agency said last month it had finished developing protocols for firing squad executions and completed $53,600 in renovations on the death chamber in Columbia, installing a metal chair with restraints that faces a wall with a rectangular opening 15 feet (4.6 meters) away.

 

[Ozlsn]

On 4/3/2022 at 3:28 AM, Howl said:

Supposedly, Ravnsborg knew he hit SOMETHING, but gosh, he was looking at the speedometer, and just didn't know it was a HUMAN BEING

Surely if you knew you'd hit something you would stop to check what it was and what damage there was? He knew what he'd hit, he was just hoping to get away with it.

[fraurosena]

2 hours ago, Cartmann99 said:

Firing squad ready as South Carolina schedules 1st execution since change

 

Sorry, but killing people, even if it’s state condoned, is disgusting and contemptible to me.

As Tolkien by way of Gandalf so aptly said:

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”

[Flossie]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement.”

One of my favorite quotes.

[Howl]

On 4/2/2022 at 12:28 PM, Howl said:

South Dakota AG [Jason] Ravnsborg is walking on vehicular homicide.  He pled no contest to two misdemeanors, never had to admit guilt and didn't seem sorry about what happened

South Davokta is holding an impeachment trial for Ravnsborg: 

HuffPo: South Dakota AG Lied About Fatal Crash, Impeachment Prosecutors Say  Jason Ravnsborg is accused of lying to investigators and abusing the power of his office after he struck and killed a pedestrian.

PIERRE, S.D. (AP) — South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg lied to investigators and abused the power of his office after he struck and killed a pedestrian, prosecutors argued Tuesday at the opening of an impeachment trial that could remove him from office.

Ravnsborg’s attorneys countered that such an action would improperly undo the will of voters for what he has maintained was an accident. He has insisted that he did not realize he struck and killed pedestrian Joseph Boever until he returned to the crash site the next day and discovered the 55-year-old’s body. Ravnsborg has said he first believed he hit a deer or large animal.

[GreyhoundFan]

"Involuntary relocation" What the actual fuck?

 

[Destiny]

"Involuntary relocation" What the actual fuck?
 

If it makes you feel any better, a friend who lives there says that this fuckery is dead in the water as of yesterday per local news.