Claims And Issues

THE SECOND THING YOU SHOULD KNOW:

 

(Thomson Reuters West via LinkedIn)

PART TWO.  THE STATE OF FLORIDA WON'T SAY HOW MUCH THEY HAVE TO PAY BEFORE THEY CAN VOTE.

The second thing you should know about returning citizens is that although the Florida Legislature imposed a poll tax on returning citizens who want to vote, Florida won't tell them how much they have to pay before they will be allowed to vote.

    From reporting in The New York Times it looks like Florida may be the only State in the nation in which the requirement is imposed on voters to pay court fees before they will be allowed to vote. 

    Part One of this series of articles focused on a couple of facts.  First, most returning citizens can vote under Amendment 4 to the Florida Constitution if they have served out all "the terms of their sentence" including paying restitution when that was a term of their sentence.  Or at least the two-thirds of Florida voters who voted for it two years ago thought so.

    Second, the Florida Legislature said this could not stand.  The Florida Legislature tacked on a requirement that all people eligible to vote under Amendment 4 -- meaning all people who had served the terms of their sentence including restitution -- would also have to pay court fees and costs to keep the court system funded, before they can vote in Florida.  As The New York Times has said:  "The fines and fees in Florida fund the routine operations of the criminal justice system and are not restitution payments to crime victims."

    Parenthetically, 6 federal judges overruled millions of Florida voters and upheld the poll tax.  They said that the poll tax is not a poll tax.  It is fine to say that voters in Florida cannot vote until they pay Florida's court costs, they ruled.  The 6 federal judges also ruled that the State does not have to tell the voters how much they have to pay before they can vote.  By the way, the vote of these federal judges was 6 in favor of the poll tax, 4 against.  There are newspaper stories that warn about them changing the federal courts as if that were something that may happen in the future.  It is already happening.  But that lesson will be the focus of another article.  The focus here is on the vote in Florida in 2020.

    Now you also know the second thing about this.  Florida won't say how much returning citizens have to pay in court fees before Florida will allow them to vote.  But if they don't pay Florida's court costs, they cannot vote.  This is not "Catch 22" because that was fiction and this is not.  Call it "Catch 2020."

Next:  The Third and Final Thing.

    In the meantime you may want to explore making a donation to pay the court costs imposed on returning citizens in Florida.  If you want to explore making a donation to ease this burden, check out the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition at www.floridarrc.com.  Their deadline to accept contributions is September 24.

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FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES" ALREADY.

Newspaper reporters and editors practice prejudice when it's quicker than reporting the truth.  Not all of them. But specifically, the ones who call people "devout Catholics" that you would not want to tell your mother about.  Using shorthand without reporting, these newspapers call them "devout Catholics."  See, e.g., "'CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES.'  Rebecca Solnit," an article blogged here on September 8, 2019; "NYT, AGAIN:  'CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES.'  Rebecca Solnit," December 11, 2019.

This past week the Orlando Sentinel did it again, using the "devout Catholic" shorthand to describe a person who behaved badly.  I would link to their article here too, but the Orlando Sentinel is behind a paywall and they may charge you for that 'privilege.'

To these newspapers I say:  Knock it off.  The truth is that "devout Catholics" get that label just because they give more money to the Church than other people do.  They are louder about it too.

It is in no way the behavior of any "devout Catholic" to separate children from their parents, to inflict cruelty because you can, or to say rotten things about people because you can get away with it.  These behaviors may be "devout" all right, but these behaviors are in so way Catholic and they  are not the results of good will, period.  Instead, you will find devout people helping out in places like this food pantry:

               (Desiree Rios / New York Times)

In the words of Rebecca Solnit, "Call them by their true names."

 

TODAY IS THE OBSERVANCE OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.'S BIRTHDAY.   HOPE.  BELIEVE.  PRACTICE FREEDOM FROM FEAR TODAY AND EVERY DAY!

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SO WHAT WERE WE TALKING ABOUT? THE UNREDACTED EMAILS?

So what were we talking about before the drone exploded?

It is hard to recall, which is a measure of distraction in itself.

As best I recall, we were talking about the unredacted emails. An online blog or zine or whatever called Just Security published some totally redacted emails which the current regime had filed in a court file in response to a court order to release those emails. Just Security says that it "viewed" many of those emails, unredacted, and it published them along with the redacted version.

The emails evidenced communications between political appointees in the current regime, and officers in the Department of Defense and in the Department of State, over the illegality of impounding funds which Congress had already appropriated and ordered spent, and over who ordered this action.

One of the more significant emails, which the regime had blacked out, revealed that the head of our government directed it.

That is what we were talking about before the drone exploded.

Since the drone exploded, it is hard to find any reporting in any medium anywhere about the message in the unredacted emails. Keep your eyes on the ball, media. Keep your focus, publishers and editors and reporters. The people could use your help and we are not getting it.

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NYT, AGAIN: "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES." Rebecca Solnit.

The New York Times has anointed another "devout Catholic."  This time the Times anointed William Barr of all people.  See Jeremy W. Peters and Katie Benner, Right Rejoices as Barr Assails Liberal Culture, NEW YORK TIMES, Monday, December 9, 2019, p. A1 (the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports; posted online under a different headline).

Previously they declared Kenneth Cuccinelli "a devout Catholic" in The Public Face of Homeland Security Also Ruffles Its Feathers. A Lot, by Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Maggie Haberman, NEW YORK TIMES, Friday, September 6, 2019, p. A12 (to say again, be forewarned: the New York Times often charges for any online access to its reports). Mr. Cuccinelli is the latest acting director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services or "USCIS."  I previously pointed out some of the many reasons that Mr. Cuccinelli isn't anyone's "devout Catholic" in an article posted here on September 8, 2019, "CALL THEM BY THEIR TRUE NAMES."  Rebecca Solnit.

This is insulting. As I told the New York Times in September's article, we will have to discuss what being "a devout Catholic" means. That long discussion is coming, sooner than later.  

A devout Catholic does not lie that his Inspector General's report affirming the FBI somehow debases the FBI the way he does.

A devout Catholic does not betray an old friend like Robert Mueller by publicly suggesting that he was incompetent.  Especially when that friend conducted an investigation that resulted in dozens of indictments and a report that runs for hundreds of pages presenting two volumes of evidence for impeachment of a president.

And a devout Catholic does not say that a politician's political campaign was spied on not by Russia, mind you, but by his own Government particularly when the truth is all to the contrary of what he says about it.

It is not my place to judge Bill Barr as a person and I am asking you not to judge him or Ken Cuccinelli either. I am not saying that either Barr or Cuccinelli is a bad person. I am saying that neither one should be called "a devout Catholic." Barr's actions in particular are not devout and they are not Catholic. Many will say "Lord, Lord," but you shall know them by how they act and not by what they say about how devout they are.

To paraphrase the Irish-American poet John Boyle O'Reilly, William Barr may have a right to rule if we let him. But he has no right to call his reign Catholic.  See "THIS IS NOT DECAY.  THIS IS ORGANIZED DESTRUCTION," posted here on October 27, 2019.

Or to call it the United States of America.

 

Download CI 12.11.19.

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"THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OZ HAS SPOKEN."

From Behind A Curtain, Naturally.

It started and ended with a tweet.  The Secretary of the Navy and the Admiral in charge of the SEALS thought that a trophy photograph clearly displayed conduct unbecoming.  In it, the individual in question is photographed standing on top of the body of an unarmed man.  Parenthetically, I tried to get you that photo, but it is much, much easier to find photos of the individual smiling at his good luck than it is to find the trophy photo.

The Secretary of the Navy said that the Navy does not act on a tweet.  He wanted an order to keep the individual in the photo in the Navy SEALS.

The Navy Secretary wasn't fired, apparently.  At least that's how the story goes.  The Secretary of Defense asked the Secretary of the Navy to voluntarily resign.  So, the Secretary of the Navy voluntarily resigned over the weekend.  Read his resignation letter here.

The chair of the Joint Chiefs says that ends the matter.

Except it really doesn't, you know.  That photo doesn't even come close to displaying what the SEALS stand for.  The individual in question is standing in a trophy photo on the dead body of his unarmed victim.  (Is he the next Secretary of the Navy?)

That leaves the Admiral in charge of the SEALS who doesn't want this individual in his command, either.  No word yet on what has happened to him.

My best guess?  Plan on the Secretary of Defense asking him, too, to "voluntarily resign."  There appears to be nothing that the current Secretary of Defense will not do.

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WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

This week is the beginning of 4 weeks now that the Mueller Report has been under wraps in the current federal government.  Once-seemingly powerful Representatives in the House said that they would subpoena the Mueller Report if it was not released to the public.  Other than talk, what are they going to do about it?

Tax returns are supposed to be released immediately upon the written request of the Chair of the House Committee concerned with finance.  Now that Representative has given them another extension, this time until April 23rd.  Once upon a time he and other Representatives said that they would subpoena the tax returns if need be.  Other than giving them more extensions, what is he going to do about it?

Representative Ilhan Omar has been attacked in one more contrived hit job this week, in addition to so many other hit jobs that seem to arrive about every week now in her case.  The people who do this are not negligent.  This is no mistake.  What is she going to do about it?

Did you think that if something is "against the law" it means that these people will not do it?  That's fine talk.  But it's only talk.  What are you going to do about it?

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CALL THE "POLICE." SURE, BUT WHY CALL these people "POLICE?"

Have you noticed that the uniformed individuals escorting defendants to federal criminal proceedings lately have a patch prominently displayed on their uniform that says "POLICE DHS"?

In the same vein, ICE, or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, famously fought for the ability to display "POLICE" on their uniforms and equipment and which they paste on many things.

Like so:  
                  US Customs and Border Protection at the Border

                     (Adrees Latif/Reuters)

                                                                                                                                     

Are they trying to convince us that they are "POLICE" by repeating the word over and over on their uniforms and on their equipment?

                                                       US Customs and Border Protection Agents (CBPO)                                                                                                                          

If the DHS and its Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel are law enforcement officers, what training in law enforcement do they have?                                                                                                                                                                         

Presumably the individuals who investigate things like drug trafficking across borders have received training in conducting an investigation.  What training in investigative techniques and processes do the other personnel receive, if any?

If they become police officers when they are hired by DHS for USCBP or ICE, for example, how does DHS go about selecting them to become federal employees?

And selecting them to become law enforcement officers?

How do their hiring and retention policies compare to those of most city police departments and the majority of county sheriffs' offices?

Why has there been so little reporting about their practices?

How is it that we do not know the answers to such simple questions if these outfits are in effect held up as rivals to the oldest and most experienced federal law enforcement agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation?

We do have a very good idea of how FBI agents are selected, how they are trained, and in what they are trained.  The FBI does not exactly give any information away, and still we know the answers to these essential questions when we ask them about the FBI.

Why don't we know the answers to these essential questions about the DHS or USCBP or ICE?

And why is the FBI of all agencies more transparent and accessible than they are?

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