Tag Archives: Trump

The Voting Empowerment Act

5 Ways to Defend Voting Rights this Election - Unitarian Universalist Service Committee

To: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

From: The HollywoodBowles

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

First, an admission. I freelanced for another. I wrote a column Friday calling for the Quarter-Million Campaign, but sent it to the Lincoln Project instead. They just do commercials better. I stand by my decision.

But as an olive branch, I’d like to offer you something better. It’s called The Voting Empowerment Act, and I think it would serve your party well and, more importantly, the people.

Is voting a right or a privilege? (2 letters)

What’s great about the VEA is that it works regardless of next week’s election. In fact, it may even work more effectively in the case of defeat, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

The VEA is simple. It would mandate that every county in America establish a minimum of TWO polling places. You could get downright aspirational in higher goals: a 10% increase in every county; a low-income mandate; county-wide voter initiatives, etc. But a seismic first step, as you know, would be requiring just two polling places per county.

Live Updates: We're Tracking The Vote And Voting Problems | FiveThirtyEight

There are really no need for statistics for the passage of this act, which I think is part of its beauty. All you need do is tell voters: “We all saw the horrific lines our citizens had to endure, just to be heard. In the middle of a pandemic, no less. It’s time we follow the Founders’ spirit of law, not just the letter of it.”

Long lines at Baltimore voting centers as many opt to cast ballots in person - Baltimore Sun

As I said, the VEA works regardless of election outcome. If Democrats were to take power, what better first step, what better administrative introduction than to put power in the hands of the public? They largely align with your views anyway.

Should you lose, the VEA makes a great sword upon which to fall. You could propose the bill, whisk it through the House, and allow the GOP to suffocate it in a public execution. Just watch what happens should they choke out the Affordable Healthcare Act.

Don’t do it for the Party. Do it for the Republic.

I know it’s a lot to ask, bringing sanity to D.C, particularly now. And putting power in our hands may be fool’s folly. God knows we actBut hell, die nobly for a cause if you can’t live humbly for one, right Madame Speaker?

The HollywoodBowles

ps: Can you believe Giuliani dropped his drawers for Borat?!?

And God Said, ‘I Get It’

Pope Francis speaks at the Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli during an inter-religious ceremony for peace in Rome's Capitoline Hill on Tuesday.

It was easy to miss amid all of the political braying that is October in an election year, but the Catholic Church did something seismic today.

It acknowledged reality.

Forgive the misquote, but I’m pretty sure this is on the scale of the loaves and fishes. Because it was a hard reality for the religious: Gay people exist. And God’s cool with it.

Pope Francis, who is becoming Catholics’ Rebel Without a Pause, broke the news Wednesday to those whose faith mandates bigotry.

“Homosexuals have a right to be part of the family,” the pontiff said in Francesco, a documentary about his life. “They’re children of God and have a right to a family. Nobody should be thrown out, or be made miserable because of it.

“What we have to create is a civil union law,” he added. “That way, they are legally covered.”

First off: Hell yeah! The pope granted an interview? To a documentary film crew?? All Fran needs now are a pack of smokes, some Chuck Taylors and a skateboard, and I’m converting.

Chuck Taylors | Boys converse, Chuck taylors, Sneakers

The comment also underscored an inescapable truth that’s perhaps just as uncomfortable for the religious and conservative: History always drifts to the political left. It can’t help it.

Take any U.S. political or societal issue over the decades: women’s rights, minority rights, gay rights, animal rights, guns, weed, porn, language, ad nauseum; we are more liberal on that issue than we were a generation ago. I cannot find an exception.

You can’t unlearn enlightenment. You can only choose to ignore it.

Which is what The Catholic Times has apparently done. After learning of Pope Kickass’ comments, I checked out the popular publication, dedicated to Roman Catholics worldwide, to see their take it all.

I discovered that the CT is a weekly newspaper, so I could forgive it not having a piece on Francis’ bombshell. But I found something more disturbing. This picture and promotion:

Surely, I thought, this was simply click bait. The headline “Is it sinful to vote for Joe Biden?” had to be an editorial ruse.

But no: this from Paprocki’s column, which pointedly cites the Biden-Harris pro-choice stance: “In order to justify voting for a proponent of abortion, one would need a proportionately grave reason that outweighs the killing of 860,000 babies per year.”

He continued: “Note also that I am not saying that you must vote to re-elect President Donald Trump.”

Uh, yeah you are. This is the sort of semantic soft shoe that allows religion to skirt modern-age questions with Iron Age answers. Instead of telling readers to come up with a reason “proportionately grave” to the killing of 860,000 babies, how about just being honest with people? Your religion mandates that abortion is an atrocity, and your political interests must align with Republicans, even if it means Trump. We can at least be honest on that level, can’t we?

Interesting, too, that he did not bother to ask what seems a basic Catholic question — or implore his readers to ask it themselves: Which candidate is the better Christian?

But I’m not a theist, so what do I know? So we’ll turn it over to someone who is. Bruce Morrill, the Chair in Roman Catholic Studies at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University, said Wednesday’s papal wokeness is “not surprising coming from Pope Francis because of the trail of individual statements he has made here and there over his papacy.”

Morrill, a Jesuit priest, added that one of Francis’ characteristics was “that he likes to speak and act on the principle of mercy.”

Amen.

WTF, Joe?

Trump pulls out of second debate with Biden after commission says it would be virtual

God knows these waters break liberal, and sharks patrol them for that globular red Republican meat. But sometimes sharks have to eat their own; true reporters can’t help their nature.

And, as the headline suggests: What the fuck, Joe?

On Thursday, the Infection-in-Chief announced he would not participate in next week’s debate because the bi-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates reasonably decided to hold a virtual argument instead of a live one, given Trump’s alleged positive COVID test.

In response, Trump announced he will hold a rally. Biden’s camp attempted to reschedule the show, and Kate Bedingfield, Biden’s deputy campaign manager, added: “We look forward to participating in the final debate, scheduled for Oct. 22… Donald Trump can show up, or he can decline again. That’s his choice.”

Why in the hell would Joe want another debate? For that matter, why did Kamela Harris debate Mike Pence last night?

For months, the CDC and other medical professionals have urged citizens to look upon COVID the way we view smoke to grasp the contagious nature of the virus. Understanding that analogy, they have told us, is vital to understanding the scope of the pandemic.

Ok, let’s use the smoke analogy. Say Harris, Pence and moderator Susan Page were the only ones in the room (they weren’t). Each had a lit cigarette on their desk that burned the entire hour-and-a-half. Every time one of them spoke, they puffed their respective cigarette. Even with the 12-foot distance between them (was that just a random doubling?), how smoky would that room smell?

2020-10-08-pence-harris-page.jpg | The World from PRX

Now substitute the term smoky with “contagion-filled.”

If the administration is to be believed (which this is granting them everything), Donald Trump is still actively ill with COVID-19. By the CDC’s own recommendations — which Harris said she believed — Pence should not have been within throwing distance of a non-infected person. Particularly one who is vying to be vice-president.

Because we know Pence is interacting with an unwilling patient. Does anyone believe Trump is following doctors’ recommendations for getting better? The Biden-Harris team don’t know when he contracted it, if he contracted it, or where he is in the recovery process.

Covid-19 positive Donald Trump gets criticism after taking off mask in front of the White House | Trending News,The Indian Express

Dems need to say “We are done talking until the election, when you will be receiving a phone call from us to pack your shit.”

As for the remaining presidential debates, America saw all it needed to see last week. Other than rubbernecking a grisly car accident, what would future debates illustrate? Is anyone going to be swayed, one way or the other, by any revelation in what would inevitably be a screaming match? If a town hall debate were held on the 22nd, would you want to be in the petri dish?

More importantly, there’s a danger in giving Trump an unedited national stage. His rallies are unhinged enough. Do we want to give this man a hot mic? The Michigan militia already tried a coup after his first order to stand by.

If the last two weeks have told us anything, it’s the cost of underestimating what can kill us. Joe, don’t fumble that message on the 2-yard-line.