Prickly City by Scott Stantis for March 10, 2021

There’s only one thing that I know how to do well

And I’ve often been told that you only can do

What you know how to do well

And that’s be you,

Be what you’re like,

Be like yourself,

And so I’m having a wonderful time

But I’d rather be whistling in the dark

They Might Be Giants

Come to the dark side Luke.

You can learn to be a selfish ahole, be a libertarian.

There’s always (shudder) INDEPENDENT!

DON’T TREAD ON HIM!!

Noooo, Carmen. Don’t succumb.

You see the brightness…Go to the enlightenment.

You could define yourself by MORE than your political affiliation. If you weren’t a child, I would suggest find someone to loved and be loved by, start a family, get a job you want, have a hobby, etc.

Called it!!!

I’m still hoping for a Carmen that’s conservative, yet not a complete hypocrite…

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Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, is attacking Democrats for passing a pandemic relief bill that will send money to prisoners.

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Facts First: Prisoners also received checks from both of the pandemic relief bills that then-President Donald Trump signed and Cotton voted for. Neither the bill Trump signed with Cotton’s support in March nor the bill Trump signed with Cotton’s support in December contained any language prohibiting prisoners from getting relief funding.

The Trump-era Internal Revenue Service did try, belatedly, to prevent prisoners from getting money from the first bill.

But tax law experts across the political spectrum said the IRS had no authority to do this given that the text of the law did not exclude prisoners. After prisoners filed a class-action lawsuit, a federal judge ruled in October that the government had to let prisoners access the cash.

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Prisoners, like other individuals, were eligible for checks up to $1,200 per individual from the first bill Trump signed and up to $600 from the second bill Trump signed, depending on their income.

Both of those bills were approved by a Republican-controlled Senate — and Cotton voted for both of them.

The first bill, the CARES Act in March 2020, was passed 96-0 by the Senate; Cotton was one of the 96 in favor.

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https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/08/politics/fact-check-tom-cotton-prisoners-pandemic-relief-checks-trump-biden/index.html

Can someone show me where, exactly, in the Constitution there’s a voter ID requirement?

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Republican-led legislatures in dozens of states are moving to change election laws in ways that could make it harder to vote.

Many proposals explicitly respond to the 2020 election: Lawmakers cite public concerns about election security — concerns generated by disinformation that then-President Donald Trump spread while trying to overturn the election.

The Brennan Center, a nonprofit that tracks voting laws, says that 43 states — including key swing states — are considering 253 bills that would raise barriers to voting, for example by reducing early voting days or limiting access to voting by mail.

Lawmakers in a different set of 43 states have proposed expanding voter access, but Republicans have prioritized new security requirements and shorter voting periods.

In Georgia, which President Biden won by nearly 12,000 votes, legislators are considering multiple bills to restrict voting.

The most significant, House Bill 531, is before a committee chaired by Republican Rep. Barry Fleming.

He said Democrat Stacey Abrams campaigned to expand voter access after losing a governor’s race in 2018, and now Republicans want their own changes. The bill is “an attempt to restore the confidence of our public,” he said, because “there has been controversy regarding our election system.”

That controversy had no basis in fact. Audits and recounts confirmed the accuracy of the vote count in Georgia, and lawsuits there and in other states by the Trump campaign and allies failed to show otherwise.

But Trump sought to discredit the vote and even asked Georgia’s secretary of state to change the vote totals. Now Georgia lawmakers are moving to repair a system that was not shown to be broken.

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https://www.npr.org/2021/02/28/970877930/why-republicans-are-moving-to-fix-elections-that-werent-broken

Such a deal, Carmen! You’ll have permanent complaining rights, no matter who’s in office, and you’ll never have to be held accountable for accomplishing anything!

Welcome to the Orphanage.https://mightyheaton.com/the-political-orphanage

Thanks to all who posted links. Have an awesomely great day my friends.

A new approach from some libertarians is seen in this policy paper from the Niskanen Center, a think tank that opens avenues to bridge the gaps with goals that are possibly compatible and even in some cases identical with liberal goals:

https://www.niskanencenter.org/the-center-can-hold-public-policy-for-an-age-of-extremes/

Yes, the Libertarian side’s approach worked so well in pandemics and snowmageddon.

You are lost, child. So am I.

If you’re not completely on the Trump train, you’re a RINO…

Could be interesting: Is Scott finally facing his libertarian leanings -

And seeing them for what they are?

The dark side of the Force?

The Republican party is dead. What you see now is the convulsions and fitful writhings of an adder that has succeeded in biting itself and is dying from its own poison. There’ll be a lot of noise and thrashing as it gasps its last, but it will succumb. Something new will have to form so the conservatives will have their own group again. The Trump-cultists aren’t Republicans, just vipers.

Already there! GOP and I parted company about 8 years ago.

Libertarianism is in that same party you left, Carmen.