Archive for the ‘politics’ Category

Gena Griswold Does an Excellent Groucho Marx Impersonation

Posted: June 18, 2021 by datechguy in elections

All I could think of when I saw this tweet from the Colorado Secretary of State banning audits of ballots in her state:

Was this exchange from the beginning of the 1940 Movie Go West, starring the Marx Brothers:

S. Quentin Quale (Groucho Marx): One ticket for the West, end of line.
Ticket Clerk: Yes, sir. That’ll be $70, please.
S. Quentin Quale (Groucho Marx): There’s your $70. Don’t bother counting it.
Ticket Clerk: There’s only $60 here.
S. Quentin Quale (Groucho Marx): I told you not to count it.

Go West 1940

Nothing says: “Our elections are open and honest.” like the secretary of state of is in charge of election integrity sounding like Groucho Marx trying to cheat a ticket clerk.

I’m old enough to remember when thieves were not so blatant but that’s the whole point to be blatant and open and dare people to do something about it.

It’s pretty bad, but then again that what the Soros left pays for, what’s even worse are the people of a state going along with it.

Hispanic votes, NK Defectors, NK Media, NK Crushing of Dissent and Russian Cosplayers with Credit Cards.

Posted: June 15, 2021 by datechguy in politics
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Now that we’ve seen reports of heavily “Hispanic” towns and cities in Texas voting GOP I’m wondering if the left is re-evaluating their border policies? It’s been joked for years that if they thought illegal immigrants would vote against them the left would have built the wall decades ago.

None of this should be a surprise, after all these folks didn’t leave one shithole to come to another

I really was taken by the report of the North Korean defector being amazed at the amount of censorship of thought going on around here lately. It was an important reminder that being American doesn’t confer immunity from tyranny stupidity, ignorance and most importantly cowardice without which none of these woke warriors would be able to function.

The degree of cowardice is simply astounding.

Our media has been very North Korean like lately or should I say it’s been that way for a while but only recently have they been publicly exposed in terms of lie after lie. So many that Donald Trump even took a victory lap in terms of how many false stories they pushed where he was right and they were wrong.

Spreading disinformation is dishonorable on their part. Knowing that it’s going on and doing nothing about it is dishonorable on our part.

The media and even the Biden Administration doesn’t care what we actually know as long as we play along and let them do it.

Of course the most North Korean thing going on has been the treatment of the Jan 6th protestors by this government in terms of charges, holding of people incommunicado etc. That this is going on while the people who literally burned cities were and still are given a pass is a national disgrace. That so many in law enforcement in the Capital and in the FBI are going along with this are a bigger disgrace.

I find myself turning to this speech from the 1935 Movie Captain Blood when he is asked at trial to plead Guilty or not Guilty to joining the Momouth’s rebellion:

Prosecutor: Peter Blood… guilty or not guilty?

Dr. Peter Blood: It’s entirely innocent, I am!

Clerk of the court: Take the stand and face his Lordship. [Peter Blood does so] Are you guilty or not guilty? You must use the right words.

Dr. Peter Blood: Words is it? Oh. Not guilty. And speaking of words, I’d like to say a few about the injustice of keeping an innocent man locked up for three months in such filth and heat and ill-feeding… that my chief regret is I didn’t try to pull down the filthy fellow that sits on the throne!

Who knew so many had ambitions to tyranny?

Finally I’ve noticed that on Rule Five Sundays at the other McCain Wombat (who is in charge of said post) has shifted from highlighting established stars to international cosplay girls in the lead of said post (many of them Russian).

Now while I acknowledge the cultural changes of the readership, concede that beauty is not confined by boarders and even smile at the idea of these young ladies making a living as models bypassing official agencies that might exploit them I really question the wisdom of those who might go to their sites and subscribe.

After all, in an age of ransomware attacks do you really want your credit card, bank or even paypal information in the hands of a Russian site just to look at some girl playing dress up?

Remember your information’s security is only as good as the least trustworthy or careful person holding it.

Two lawsuits filed over Democrats’ gerrymandered legislative districts in Illinois

Posted: June 13, 2021 by John Ruberry in elections, News/opinion, politics
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Minding the Illinois political maze for decades.

By John Ruberry

Since posting my Illinois gerrymandering entry here last week there is an update.

First some background: Despite multiple promises to veto a partisan remap of Illinois state legislative districts, Democratic governor JB Pritzker signed into law new hyper-partisan new state House and Senate districts, claiming that these new maps preserve diversity.

Not so fast, JB.

Late Thursday the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, on behalf of five Hispanic voters, filed suit in federal court claiming that the new maps are “malapportioned.” AP sums up the controversey beautifully. “But the challenge from MALDEF,” the wire service says, “expands the source of objections to the very groups whose voting rights Democrats say they are protecting.”

Earlier last week the Illinois Republican Party also filed a federal lawsuit that claims that the new maps violate the 14th Amendment to the US Contsitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Indeed it may. Illinois’ constitution states that new General Assembly district maps must be drawn by legislators by the end of June after each decennial census. If not, the process moves to an eight-person committee evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. If that panel can’t come to a decision then two names are placed in a hat, one Republican and one Democrat. Lovers of political theater will be thrilled to learn that the four times the remapping committee was formed, three times times no decision was reached and the tiebreaker clause was invoked. In 2000 a stovepipe hat said to have been worn by Abraham Lincoln was used for the tiebreaking ceremony.

The complete Census figures won’t be available until August. But it’s clear that the Democrats didn’t want the redistricting process to be left by chance, or worse, given to Republicans. So the Dems, rather than work with hard numbers, instead used population estimates from the American Community Survey.

This weekend on Fox Chicago’s Flannery Fired Up, host Mike Flannery ventured into what-aboutism expressed by the left regarding gerrymandering in Republican states. During an interview with state Rep. Tim Butler (R-Springfield).  Flannery phrased their argument this way, “That the Democrats here stopped short of annihilating as many Republicans as they could in the General Assembly–do you buy that?” Butler responded that he does not and he explained to Flannery, “We have 14 members–Republican members of the House–that were drawn in districts together and we have zero Democrats that were drawn into districts together.” That’s an observation the Wall Street Journal made earlier this month. Because of Democratic gerrymandering after the 2010 census, there are currenly only 45 Republicans among the 118 members in the Illinois House. 

While of course there are no state or federal legal protections to protect GOP state legislators, as I mentioned earlier in this post and last week, Pritzker promised he would veto a partisan remap.

There is a better way. Twice in the 2010s enough signatures were collected to put an amendment to the Illinois Constitution on the general election ballot that would take redistricting out of the hands of legislators and placing a non-partisan committee in control. Twice a lawyer closely tied to Boss Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), the longtime Illinois House speaker who was forced out of power early this year, sued to block having Illinois voters decide the issue. In a party-line vote, the Illinois Supreme Court sided with the Democrats both times.

John Ruberry regularly blogs at Marathon Pundit.

Counting to 50 Why the MSM Joe Manchin Noise Means Nothing

Posted: June 8, 2021 by datechguy in News/opinion, politics
Tags: , ,

I have always known how to count

Tip O’Neill

I don’t often agree with Joe Scarborough these days but there is something he said a bit back that really stuck in my head.

He was commenting on people on the right who wanted to purge Susan Collins from the GOP and noted that if you want a majority and all the advantages that a majority entails you need to keep a Susan Collins on board even if she votes against you now and again. It’s something Stacy McCain has written about repeatedly even as far back as 2008 concerning Pam Geller:

 Pam is a good person and I would suggest that this guilt-by-association “urge to purge” is antithetical to the best interests of conservatism. You can’t build a movement by the process of subtraction.

And as recently as 2019 concerning Pat Buchannan:

the targeting of Buchanan is an example of the “urge to purge” that has so often damaged the conservative cause. Buchanan’s decades of loyal service to the Republican Party — he was a key adviser to both Nixon and Reagan — ought to have entitled him to a certain amount of deference, even from such an eminent figure as Buckley, and as I’ve often said, you cannot build a successful movement by a process of subtraction.

If you do a search of Joe Manchin online today you can find all kind of items about pressure being put on Joe Manchin.

Let’s cut to the chase, there is a lot of talk about pressure on Joe Manchin but there is actually NO pressure on Joe Manchin because Both Chuck Schumer and Joe Biden can count to 50.

Right now Manchin is most powerful pols in the country and he knows it. Unlike Kyrsten Sinema he could change his party affiliation tomorrow and if every Democrat in his state retaliated by voting against him next time he would still hold his senate seat for life. He knows it, and while they won’t admit it, both the media and the Democrats know it.

As long as Manchin is the 50th vote he is the boss and no amount of press angst will make a difference.

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