ChiGoose

Do you believe that HAVV checks are actually registrations of people without IDs or can you admit that the tweet you quoted was clearly wrong?

The account is conflating verification checks with registrations, which are obviously not the same thing. The actually number of total new registrants for Texas this year is about 230k, Net new registrants (new registrants - people falling off the rolls) is about 190k according to the Texas Secretary of State.

Jack Smith is very good at his job

Good to see! Nevada abortion rights amendment surpasses signature threshold for ballot "The organization behind a proposed effort to enshrine abortion rights in Nevada's constitution says they've garnered enough signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom is pushing to change the state constitution to include the right to an abortion until fetal viability. In a release sent Tuesday, the campaign said they've gathered 110,000 signatures, which surpasses the 102,362 threshold to qualify for the ballot. Of those, 25,591 signatures need to be from each of the state's four congressional districts. The organization said they're actively collecting signatures from all congressional districts. Political groups often try to gather well over the minimum requirement of signatures because many signatures are invalid for various reasons. Nevadans for Reproductive Freedom says that the 110,000 signatures is 50% of their goal for this measure. “We are overwhelmed by Nevadans’ enthusiasm for protecting our reproductive rights and by the eagerness that voters across the political spectrum have shown for our petition. With more than 110,000 signatures gathered in less than six weeks, it’s a true testament to the fact that Nevadans recognize the importance in codifying reproductive freedom into our state constitution. As we continue to see new attacks on abortion access around the country, Nevadans recognize that there is real urgency to get this measure on the ballot and passed,” said president Lindsey Harmon. Abortion rights up to 24 weeks are already codified into Nevada law through a 1990 referendum vote, where two-thirds of voters were in favor. That can be changed with another referendum vote. Abortion rights have become a mobilizing issue for Democrats since the U.S. Supreme Court in 2022 overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 court decision establishing a nationwide right to abortion. Public polling shows about two-thirds of Americans say abortion should generally be legal in the earliest stages of pregnancy. Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade in June 2022, that sentiment has been underscored in elections both in Democratic and deeply Republican states. The standards are higher for amending the constitution, which requires either approval from two legislative sessions and an election, or two consecutive elections with a simple majority of votes. In Nevada, reproductive rights were central to Democratic campaigns in the 2022 midterms. It is set to be a central issue for Democratic U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen as she looks to defend her seat in 2024. Another broader proposed ballot question seeking to enshrine various reproductive freedoms in Nevada's constitution is awaiting a decision from the state supreme court. The deadline to collect signatures is June 26 and then it will head to the Secretary of State's office for verification."

The Republican party has become a full-fledged anti-sex movement "The US supreme court justices Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas cited the Comstock Act, named after the 19th-century anti-vice campaigner Anthony Comstock, in last week’s case about access to the abortion pill mifepristone. If you don’t know who Anthony Comstock was or what his law did, that might not have alarmed you. But it should have." "Comstock was reputed to be driven by religious shame over ***** to become his era’s most extreme anti-sex crusader. He rose to prominence in the early 1870s, when he convinced Congress to make it a crime to advertise, sell or mail contraceptives or give out contraceptive information, even orally, or to mail anything “immoral” – a term whose vagueness allowed widespread prosecution, including of a feminist newspaper reporting on sexual abuse whose prominent publishers, Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Claflin, he got sent to prison. Like modern-day rightwingers he was a book-burner, and he boasted that he had driven 15 people to suicide." "While the backlash to Roe’s June 2022 overturning has been spectacular, with Democratic election victories and blue-state legislation strengthening reproductive rights, that doesn’t spare women in red states from the horrific consequences of the decision. At this point we all know they include prosecution for miscarriages suspected of being abortions, let alone for actual abortions, and lack of timely care from medical providers, who, fearful of prosecution themselves, sometimes wait for miscarrying patients to go critical from infection or loss of blood before offering care. " "..[I]n May 2023, the Heritage Foundation declared on social media, “Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose, & ending recreational sex & senseless use of birth control pills.” "The Project 2025 agenda for a rightwing coup, should Trump win this November, declares that the USAid office of gender equality and women’s empowerment “should remove all ... language on USAid websites, in agency publications and policies, and in all agency contracts and grants that include” terms including “gender and gender equality” and should also remove references to “abortion”, “reproductive health” and “sexual and reproductive rights”"

If you believe that the investigation into Russia was a hoax, why is that? Do you believe that Russia didn’t try to influence the election? Do you believe that the Trump campaign wasn’t willing and eager to accept help from Russia? Are you just mad because the media sucks?

Not something you’d expect to see for a former president but in line with what you’d expect to see for someone suffering from NPD

I don’t think that Biden will win Florida. But if these referendums drive turnout on the left, that will force Trump to spend real money in the state. Given the Trump campaign’s financial disadvantage, having to put money into Florida likely pulls money out of states like Michigan, Pennsylvania, or Arizona.

Florida potentially in play now: Florida Supreme Court allows recreational marijuana, abortion amendments on 2024 ballot I wonder if the Dems start putting real money into the state given how these referendums have been going lately. Should be a natural bump in turnout on the left.

As the value of $DJT continues to plummet, this is some helpful context: tl;dr: social media companies are often unprofitable for a long time as they build their network, user base, and market share. However, Trump Social has noted that they do not plan on releasing their user numbers so there’s no way to verify if they are following the Facebook model to build user base or failing.

I don’t think this is true. As the article stated, the Manhattan DA charges these kinds of cases all of the time, to the extent that they say it’s their “bread and butter.” They’ve even charged them against politicians for campaign violations not unlike what Trump has been charged with. From what we can tell, the Feds seemed reluctant to move against Trump on the documents because they tried to get him to turn them over for almost a year before taking serious action. It wasn’t until they became aware that he was outright lying to them that they did the search warrant and indictment. As we’ve seen, those types of cases generally don’t get charged unless there’s obstruction like there was with Trump. And the fake electors scheme, as well as other efforts to overturn the election, were clearly fraud. There’s an argument for one of the states (I can’t remember which one) where the electors understood themselves to be contingent, but for the rest they falsely claimed to be the real electors. Trump directed or was otherwise involved in efforts to defraud the public. The reason these charges seem novel is not because nobody has lied or committed fraud before. It’s because we haven’t seen a president/ former president do it, especially to such an extent. Had Trump paid Daniels out of the campaign funds and mislabeled it, he’d just get a fine (if that). Had he not lied about turning over the documents and/or just handed them over when asked, he wouldn’t be facing charges there. Had he just gone home when he lost the court cases about the election, he’d be in the same position Al Gore was: not facing charges. It’s because of his actions that he exposed himself to so much legal liability.

It is weird that Clinton got slapped by the FEC while they let Trump do the same thing with no consequences. But the FEC is a hopelessly broken organization. Maybe he could have gotten away with paying out of the campaign funds and didn’t need to expose himself to NYS liability.

Under what theory?

That's a valid criticism and the reason why this is generally considered the weakest case against Trump. The nuance here is that Trump is being charged for misappropriating company funds, which is a misdemeanor, but the DA is arguing that he did so in an effort to violate campaign finance law, which escalates the original charge to a felony. It is my understanding that he is not being charged for the campaign violation itself (I don't believe Bragg could even bring that charge if he wanted to). As I mentioned before, people who are more used to federal criminal practice are generally quite skeptical of this case. Which is why I thought the explainer from Just Security was helpful because it illustrated that this has actually been successfully prosecuted against politicians in Manhattan before. Had Trump paid the money out of the campaign funds and mislabeled it to hide the origin, he'd probably face the same slap on the wrist that Clinton did. By intermingling with the Trump Org's funds, he exposed himself to liability under NYS law.

If the payments were made by Trump in order to benefit the campaign but were not reported as campaign expenses, then that constitutes a campaign violation even (and especially) if the funds did not come from the campaign. The argument being presented is that the arrangement to pay Stormy Daniels came on the heels of the Access Hollywood tape. Since the tape was very damaging to Trump, the possibility of Daniels’ going public with him cheating on his wife right after their son was born would likely be viewed as a problem for the campaign. So Trump arranged to pay for something that benefited his campaign in a manner that concealed it from campaign finance reporting requirements. It’s a bit complicated if you’re not familiar with the issues here, so I’ll give a hypo: Let’s say that in addition to Bill being on the Epstein flight logs, Hillary herself was on them a bunch. During the 2016 election with all of the Pizzagate stuff, Hillary realized that her name on the logs would be a problem if it were made public. But if she arranged to pay off Epstein / Maxwell with campaign funds, she’d have to report it to the FEC. So instead, she used Clinton Foundation money to pay Epstein / Maxwell to keep the logs secret during the campaign. That would be a campaign finance violation because the money was spent to benefit the campaign but wasn’t properly done under campaign finance laws.

I would judge a political party not on what its opponents say about it or what its extreme members or vocal randos say but more on what their leadership says and (more importantly) what they actually do while they are in power. I grew up hating the Democratic Party and resisted supporting them as long as I could. But they’re not nearly as bad as I had been told. Yeah, I’m still working on nailing that. For years, my wife was either pregnant or taking IVF meds to get pregnant so I always erred on the side of caution by overcooking them. Now I’m just trying some stuff and trying to get it right. My dad still overcooks his steaks so maybe it’s genetic too, lol.

Only way to become a billionaire is to become a millionaire. An easy way to become a millionaire is to sell your soul. I have an excellent meat thermometer (four probes with a Bluetooth reader) that I use for smoking meats. But steaks cook quick and I want to work on my timing on them better rather than eyeing a screen.

Never said that. A lot of Dems are captured by the billionaire class. But unlike the liberal movement, the conservative movement exists *solely* to deliver for the donor class.

The entire conservative movement exists at this point to funnel money and power to the billionaire class. To keep the rubes supporting this movement, they use emotional triggers to activate people against anyone who might stand in the way of their mission. So instead of “White House issues same proclamation it has in previous years” the pushed narrative is that the second-ever Catholic President of the United States hates Catholics. This will keep people supporting candidates that will break working class Americans to ensure profits for their corporate overlords. Also, I’m making steak tonight since it’s finally nice enough out for some grilling. Gonna try for rare but I’m a bit rusty on the timing. And vanilla ice cream is the best ice cream.

The Biden White House does this proclamation every year and Biden does not decide what day this falls on. Lots of triggered snowflakes getting big mad about it anyway.

Well obviously. He’ll probably actually pick someone he likes.

Given how the RNC is being run, my guess is Don Jr. Might as well keep it all in the family.

New Jersey ballot design scrapped by judge in win for Andy Kim I wasn't familiar with NJ's "county line" ballot system until I saw in the news that Kim was challenging it. Essentially, the party bosses in each county decide who gets the coveted first column on primary ballots, leading to somewhat bizarre looking ballots like this: According to an investigation, placement on the county line provides a boost to the candidates while also increasing voter confusion, leading to undervotes and overvotes. That alone should be worth getting rid of this, but when you add in that this allows the party to heavily influence who wins the primary, I'm glad to see it's likely on its way out.

Maybe the internet was a bad idea... Online Conspiracies About the Baltimore Bridge Collapse Are Out of Control Conspiracy theorists are calling the Baltimore bridge collapse a “black swan event” and are blaming everything from Israel to DEI to Covid vaccines. A non-exhaustive list of things that are getting blamed for the bridge collapse on Telegram and X include President Biden, Hamas, ISIS, P. Diddy, Nickelodeon, India, former president Barack Obama, Islam, aliens, Sri Lanka, the World Economic Forum, the United Nations, Wokeness, Ukraine, foreign aid, the CIA, Jewish people, Israel, Russia, China, Iran, Covid vaccines, DEI, immigrants, Black people, and lockdowns. The Francis Scott Key truss bridge collapsed when the MV Dali cargo ship collided with one of the bridge supports. Six construction workers, who were filling potholes on the bridge’s roadway at the time, are presumed dead. The ship is owned by Singapore-based Grace Ocean Private Ltd., and the 22-person crew were all Indian. The ship was en route to Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the time of the accident. This did not stop people from “asking questions” about the incident, a frequent conspiracist response to major events. And though conspiracy theorists are having a hard time pinpointing exactly what conspiracy caused the collapse, the one thing they do agree on is that this incident is a “black swan event.” The term black swan event has been around for decades and is used to describe a major global event (typically in the financial markets) that can cause significant damage to a country’s economy. But in recent years, the term has been co-opted by the conspiracy-minded to explain an event triggered by the so-called deep state that would signal an imminent revolution, a third world war, or some other apocalyptic catastrophe. One of the first people to call the bridge collapse a black swan event was disgraced former US national security adviser Michael Flynn. “This is a BLACK SWAN event,” he wrote on X. “Black swans normally come out of the world of finance (not military) … There are harbor masters for every single one of these transit points in America that are in charge of assuring the safety of navigation … start there.” Flynn’s post has been viewed 7.2 million times. Misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged in Romania with rape and human trafficking, also posted on X early on Tuesday morning, writing: “Nothing is safe. Black Swan Event imminent.” The post has been viewed almost 19 million times. The term black swan quickly began trending on X, and soon conspiracists, extremists, and right-wing lawmakers began coming up with explanations for what or who triggered this “black swan event.” One post claiming a link between the bridge collapse and the film Leave the World Behind has been viewed more than 1.2 million times. The post claimed that because the ship was headed to Sri Lanka, which has a lion on its flag, then the situation was linked to the ship that runs aground at the beginning of the film which was called White Lion. The post also points out that the film was produced by Obama. A post from Anthony Sabatini, a former Florida state congressman, declared, without evidence, that “DEI did this”—and its been viewed over 2.2 million times. Some politicians have boosted the conspiracy as well. “Is this an intentional attack or an accident?” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, an influential and conspiracy-minded member of the GOP, posted on X above a video shared by a prominent QAnon conspiracist. Under previous iterations of X, formerly Twitter, such speculation would typically have gained little traction, as the algorithm would have prioritized trusted news sources and primary evidence. But under Elon Musk’s reign, anyone willing to pay for a blue check can have their posts artificially boosted by the algorithm. This means that conspiracies like this are ending up in the news feeds of millions of people. On Telegram, one prominent election denier claimed the incident was linked to the fact that the bridge was named after Francis Scott Key, who wrote the words for the Star Spangled Banner, and was thus an attempt to undermine America. “Don't let them erase our history,” the conspiracist wrote. Investigators are looking into the cause of the tragic incident, but William DelBagno, the FBI special agent in charge, said on Tuesday that there are no indications of terrorism.