The site for ranting and reporting by John Masters
This category is used when the post relates to actions by the Florida Legislature.
The Swiss argument about gun control gets bandied about with some regularity. There’s this claim that “The Swiss require everyone to have a gun,” or “The Swiss government issues everyone a gun.” Except, no they don’t. And as a matter of fact, when you look into gun violence statistics, Switzerland supports the position: “the more guns, the more gun violence.”
Read moreThe NRA has trained well their minions. One of the most common arguments after every mass shooting is, well a waiting period wouldn’t have stopped; an age restriction wouldn’t have helped in this situation; or a determined person will get a gun. No one regulation will stop all shootings (with the clear inference that means there should be no regulations).
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Marva Johnson. Here’s a name you may not know, but you’d better learn who she is, and what here (and apparently her employer’s) agenda is for public education. She also is chair of the Florida State Board of Education, appointed by Gov. Rick Scott in 2014. In addition, In March, the governor appointed her to the 37-member statewide Constitutional Revision Commission.
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A couple of weeks ago, as Hurricane Matthew was churning it’s way up the east coast of Georgie and South Carolina, bearing down on North Carolina, where it ultimately did the most damage, McSquinty was doing what he does best, and whining at a party of bigots.
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North Carolina Senate Majority Leader Phil Burger has his knickers in a bunch because he claims Democratic faculty members at the University of North Carolina out-number Republicans by 12:1. He claims it is because of discriminatory hiring practices. People in the real world know better, so Burger has earned our Douche Bag of The Day Award.
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It seems that something was finally found to put the fear of God into the members of the North Carolina General Assembly about HB2…the NBA. Never mind jobs, reputation, economic growth…no, the threat of losing the All-star game brought them around…sort of.
Read moreFor giving away not one, but two, AR-51s as a fundraiser, we award West Tennessee lawmaker Andy Holt our Douche-Bag of the Day Award for exemplary douche-baggery.
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I’m getting tired of hearing about and talking about public restrooms. I don’t particularly like having to use them, but I’m sure thankful they’re there sometimes. I suspect most folks feel the same. But alas, the public restroom is under attack. Where once one could go for some semi-private release, it’s now a place where evil-doers and gender-obsessed perverts lurk.
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I was recently involved in an exchange with someone in a discussion thread about elections, candidates, and what a sad state we’ve reached in this country. We seem no longer interested in extending the right to free and fair elections, but have allowed Republican controlled legislatures and Congress to withdraw that freedom. And that doesn’t even take into account the Republican Clown Car of candidates they’ve posited for President.
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Just in case you’ve forgotten, U.S. Senators were not always elected by the people. The Constitution allowed the state legislatures to determine how their states’ Senators would be chosen. In the early days after the Constitution was ratified, legislatures often chose the Senators themselves. This was changed in 1913, by the 17th Amendment, which provided that Senators would be chosen by the people in the same way the Representatives were.
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We’re starting to see the backlash against LGBTQ people as the likelihood of nationwide marriage equality increases, and LGBTQ people achiever equality under the law. One of the main ways the Christianists are trying to keep us in our place, is to pass these bogus, and clearly unconstitutional, religious liberty bills. We saw how cowardly they are in Oklahoma this week.
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