The Republic Is Saved.

[orange87]

President Joe Biden should:

- Sign the incoming gun control bill - It looks like universal background checks and red flag laws have a good chance of passing. It would be nice if they raised the purchase/possession age to 21 for ALL firearms too.

- Forgive $10k student loan debt - This is something that is supported by the majority of voters. It will help a lot of people and supposedly increase America's GDP.

- Raise the federal minimum wage to $8/hr - There's bipartisan support in Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, just not to $15/hr. A smaller raise would be likely to pass. A mere $0.75 increase would raise the yearly salary of someone who works 40 hours a week by $1,560/year or $130/month or $30/week. Currently, 20 states use the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr.

I'd call that mission accomplished for his first term.

Edited June 2, 2022 by orange87

[jack]

8 minutes ago, orange87 said:

President Joe Biden should:

- Sign the incoming gun control bill - It looks like universal background checks and red flag laws have a good chance of passing. It would be nice if they raised the purchase/possession age to 21 for ALL firearms too.

- Forgive $10k student loan debt - This is something that is supported by the majority of voters. It will help a lot of people and supposedly increase America's GDP.

- Raise the federal minimum wage to $8/hr - There's bipartisan support to raise the federal minimum wage, just not to $15/hr. A smaller raise would be likely to pass. A mere $0.75 increase would raise the yearly salary of someone who works 40 hours a week by $1,560/year or $130/month or $30/week. Currently, 20 states use the federal minimum wage of $7.25/hr.

I'd call that mission accomplished for his first term.

- I wonder if it is a blanket ban up to 21, would that be constitutional? Our ban in Florida is working its way through the courts. I suspect if it is a nation wide ban, it may not pass a legal challenge. Universal background checks would not do much. I assume this would apply to private sellers, aka the gunshot loophole. The problem is these kids get them at 18 and they don't have a record that would block them from guying a gun. Red flag laws looks like a workable solution but we need to put more money into mental health. If your guns are seized, mental health counseling should be mandatory. 

-Boo, inflation is already too high. Circulating more money is not the answer. 

- How many people actually make the minimum wage? I suspect it is not very many. 

- I will add legalizing marijuana and eliminating tariffs that are responsible for inflation. 

[orange87]

The Mass Shootings Where Stricter Gun Laws Might Have Made a Difference

Article: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/04/upshot/mass-shooting-gun-laws.html

[spenser1058]

Where Shopping Is A … Disaster? Publix heiress gave $600,000 to aid and abet the Jan 6 mess:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/14/kimberly-guilfoyle-turning-point-action-jan-6/

From The Washington Post 

Thank goodness my life is now Publix-free.

Edited June 15, 2022 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Where Shopping Is A … Disaster? Publix heiress gave $600,000 to aid and abet the Jan 6 mess:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2022/06/14/kimberly-guilfoyle-turning-point-action-jan-6/

From The Washington Post 

Thank goodness my life is now Publix-free.

I think you added an extra zero in your quoted dollar figure. 

 

[spenser1058]

No, if you read the story it notes she spent 600K (it was actually 650K) on the various events. The 60K was just for Guilfoyle.

Edited June 15, 2022 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

4 minutes ago, spenser1058 said:

No, if you read the story it notes she spent 600K (it was actually 650K) on the various events. The 60K was just for Guilfoyle.

Unfortunately, paywall articles don't allow one to read them in their entirety. 

[spenser1058]

I thought all you computer whiz types knew how to get around paywalls. I’m with the sad computer illiterate crowd myself, but thankfully Jeff Bezos lets us poor folks have the Post for  just $29/year to make sure Democracy Doesn’t Die In Darkness.

Edited June 15, 2022 by spenser1058

[JFW657]

Nah. Sneaking around paywalls makes me feel dishonest and the $30 bucks per year each for however many publications I'd have to subscribe to, just to read articles about topics I'm only slightly curious about to begin with, is just.....

  

[spenser1058]

I subscribe to four newspapers - The NY Times, The Post, The DB News-Journal and the Sentinel. I only pay full price for the Sentinel, because who’s going to keep local government and the appointees of the Tallahassee idiots in line if they don’t ? The Sentinel also has the best coverage of UCF athletics and the university itself. It works out to about $30/month, which is probably less than most folks here spend for their pricey coffee drinks and craft beers/cocktails. That’s not a judgment, just a choice.

The only two I’d like to add would be:

(1) the Times-Union (Jax), but that city is uniquely blessed with several free online sites like The Jaxson that cover most of what I’d want to know up there;

(2) The Tampa Bay Times, which is Florida’s best newspaper and, unlike the Sentinel which makes you pay for Growth Spotter for most business news, covers most of the Bay’s growth and development news in its regular business section.

I subscribe to the NY Times mostly for its columnists like Paul Krugman and Tom Friedman. They’re getting older and, once they retire, I’ll probably swap it out for the St. Pete paper since I’ll still have the Post for national news.

Meanwhile, the TB Times paywall gives me five articles/month for my iPhone and another five for my iPad. So I ration myself to the articles that I think would be of most interest to our UP clan.

A really good free site is also floridapolitics.com for political news. It tends to lean a little right because the GOP rules the roost in the state, but still has the best coverage of the most powerful players in the state.

Edited June 15, 2022 by spenser1058

[orange87]

The bipartisan gun control bill is less than a half measure. I guess the only way I can look at this in a not completely negative way is to say "it's more than nothing." 

[spenser1058]

22 minutes ago, orange87 said:

The bipartisan gun control bill is less than a half measure. I guess the only way I can look at this in a not completely negative way is to say "it's more than nothing." 

It’s more than anyone expected from the right wing wackadoodles and The Turtle in the  Senate. All we can do is take what we can now and elect Democrats who want gun safety in the future.

[orange87]

President Joe Biden has canceled $31 billion in student loan debt so far.

[spenser1058]

“Elected prosecutors across the country, including from 12 states with “trigger bans,” are saying they will not prosecute people who seek or provide abortion care. Over 80 district attorneys and other elected prosecutors signed a statement issued Friday through the Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP) group, a national network of elected prosecutors. “Not all of us agree on a personal or moral level on the issue of abortion,” the statement said. “But we stand together in our firm belief that prosecutors have a responsibility to refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.” The signatories represent nearly 90 million people across 29 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia, according to a news release from FJP. As of Sunday, 10 states had banned or mostly banned abortion. Attorneys from five of those states signed the joint statement. John Creuzot, district attorney for Dallas County in Texas — a state with a “trigger law” that bans abortion from the moment of fertilization in nearly all cases — said in a statement Friday that abortion bans go against the “very core of policies” he was elected to implement. “I want women across Texas, and especially here in Dallas County, to rest assured that my office will not stand in the way of them seeking the health care they need,” Creuzot’s statement said. The office of Gov. Greg Abbott (R) did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s Sunday afternoon request for comment on Creuzot’s statement.”

Let’s think about this for a moment. If this happens in Florida (plans are already being made for a special session after the election by GOP legislators to toughen the recently passed restrictive law even though polling shows the state to be majority pro-choice), and given how urban Florida is, if a State’s Attorney  chooses not to prosecute abortion cases, DeSleazy can take the cases away from them. This would be like what Rick Scott did in OC on capital punishment cases.

Now, if Ron does that, he can say goodbye to the votes of suburban women across the country when he runs for president (remember the 2018 congressional elections?)

Our  dear governor is about to be hoist on his own (and the GOP’s) petard. Clarence Thomas may yet prove to be the best thing to ever happen to the Democratic Party.

[JFW657]

I heard somewhere today that there may be issues involving the state constitutions in some of the states talking about prosecuting people for abortion related.... "crimes". 

They're also talking about banning the abortion pill in these states.

Wonder how that will work out for them.

Like it did with banning marijuana, cocaine and every other illegal narcotic?

And with the internet, offshore suppliers, etc, seems like it will be impossible to enforce or prove after the fact.

I can imagine several unintended consequences of this ruling, not the least of which being an increase in the number of terminated pregnancies. 

[spenser1058]

16 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

I heard somewhere today that there may be issues involving the state constitutions in some of the states talking about prosecuting people for abortion related.... "crimes". 

They're also talking about banning the abortion pill in these states.

Wonder how that will work out for them.

Like it did with banning marijuana, cocaine and every other illegal narcotic?

And with the internet, offshore suppliers, etc, seems like it will be impossible to enforce or prove after the fact.

I can imagine several unintended consequences of this ruling, not the least of which being an increase in the number of terminated pregnancies. 

It’s important to remember that the GOP loves sending as many as possible to the for-profit prisons they created (and which have little us for civil rights if prisoners - all they care is about the money).

[jack]

14 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

Let’s think about this for a moment. If this happens in Florida (plans are already being made for a special session after the election by GOP legislators to toughen the recently passed restrictive law even though polling shows the state to be majority pro-choice), and given how urban Florida is, if a State’s Attorney  chooses not to prosecute abortion cases, DeSleazy can take the cases away from them. This would be like what Rick Scott did in OC on capital punishment cases.

Now, if Ron does that, he can say goodbye to the votes of suburban women across the country when he runs for president (remember the 2018 congressional elections?)

Our  dear governor is about to be hoist on his own (and the GOP’s) petard. Clarence Thomas may yet prove to be the best thing to ever happen to the Democratic Party.

One, ( don't have an answer to this) is why didn't they do this in the last session? Secondly, 15 weeks is not that restrictive. 

If stricter laws are passed, our prosecutors would be stupid to announce they are not prosecuting these cases. The governor will just remove them.  

If you think suburban GOP woman voters are going to vote for Democrats because of this, you will be disappointed. We are seeing a loss of the suburbs from the democrats back to the GOP. It looks like the shift was temporary to get rid of Trump. 

[jack]

13 hours ago, JFW657 said:

I heard somewhere today that there may be issues involving the state constitutions in some of the states talking about prosecuting people for abortion related.... "crimes". 

They're also talking about banning the abortion pill in these states.

Wonder how that will work out for them.

Like it did with banning marijuana, cocaine and every other illegal narcotic?

And with the internet, offshore suppliers, etc, seems like it will be impossible to enforce or prove after the fact.

I can imagine several unintended consequences of this ruling, not the least of which being an increase in the number of terminated pregnancies. 

Its a mess. A complete mess and will be for a while until it can get sorted out. Though I read this weekend from the CDC(?) that 90% of abortions take place in what we would all call blue states and a vast majority are before 10 weeks. 

[spenser1058]

5 minutes ago, jack said:

One, ( don't have an answer to this) is why didn't they do this in the last session? Secondly, 15 weeks is not that restrictive. 

If stricter laws are passed, our prosecutors would be stupid to announce they are not prosecuting these cases. The governor will just remove them.  

If you think suburban GOP woman voters are going to vote for Democrats because of this, you will be disappointed. We are seeing a loss of the suburbs from the democrats back to the GOP. It looks like the shift was temporary to get rid of Trump. 

They didn’t do it before the election because Florida is majority pro-choice. Trump was an important reason for them to switch - so is upsetting privacy issues.

[spenser1058]

“It will surprise, well, everyone if the puppets in the Legislature don’t send a total abortion ban to DeSantis at some point. So much for the “free state of Florida” idea.”

- Joe Henderson, who worked at the Tampa Tribune for 42 years, in Florida Politics 

[JFW657]

3 hours ago, spenser1058 said:

“It will surprise, well, everyone if the puppets in the Legislature don’t send a total abortion ban to DeSantis at some point. So much for the “free state of Florida” idea.”

- Joe Henderson, who worked at the Tampa Tribune for 42 years, in Florida Politics 

It will be interesting to see if DeShameless and the Repugnant led state legislature will have the cajones to pass an all out abortion ban, knowing what the possible political consequences could be.

Especially with this being an election year.

I'd not be surprised if they wait until after November. 

This is not Oklahoma or Nebraska, after all.   

[orange87]

9 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

It will be interesting to see if DeShameless and the Repugnant led state legislature will have the cajones to pass an all out abortion ban, knowing what the possible political consequences could be.

Especially with this being an election year.

I'd not be surprised if they wait until after November. 

This is not Oklahoma or Nebraska, after all.   

A total abortion ban would also have financial/economic ramifications for Florida too I'd imagine.

[JFW657]

1 minute ago, orange87 said:

A total abortion ban would also have financial/economic ramifications for Florida too I'd imagine.

True.

A nationwide boycott could be devastating for the tourism industry.

Especially as we're finally rebounding from COVID.

Still, given the way these ideologues operate, one has to wonder.  

[spenser1058]

30 minutes ago, JFW657 said:

It will be interesting to see if DeShameless and the Repugnant led state legislature will have the cajones to pass an all out abortion ban, knowing what the possible political consequences could be.

Especially with this being an election year.

I'd not be surprised if they wait until after November. 

This is not Oklahoma or Nebraska, after all.   

But they’re doing their darndest to turn us into Mississippi…

[orange87]

Mississippi looks like a great place! Why wouldn't you want Florida to turn into this?