Senate Democrats fail to advance voting
and elections bill over GOP opposition
Posted By: earlybird, 10/21/2021 12:32:45 PM
Washington — A revamped bill aimed at strengthen voting rights and overhauling the nation's election systems failed to advance in the Senate on Wednesday, as Democrats couldn't overcome unanimous opposition from Republicans who criticized the bill as federal overreach. The procedural vote to begin debate on the Freedom to Vote Act was 49 in favor to 51 against, far short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer changed his vote to "no" as a procedural maneuver that allows him to bring the bill to the floor again. All 50 Republicans voted against advancing to debate.
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earlybird"
On August 24, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin issued a memo to senior Pentagon leadership announcing that he was implementing a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for all military service members. The day before, the FDA had issued full authorization to Pfizer for their Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine product(snip). At first glance it would seem that the mandatory vaccination policy, while scientifically unsound and strategically foolish, was at least a policy being implemented according to both the letter of the directive and in accordance with the law. But a further examination of the facts(snip)makes clear that the military’s implementation of this order is illegal and highly unethical.
Now that the remains of Brian Laundrie have been positively identified by authorities, there are still lingering questions as to why, how and even when he disappeared in the days after his fiancée, Gabby Petito, was reported missing.
His parents, Chris and Roberta Laundrie, may be vital to unraveling the mysteries. But their recollections of key moments during these critical days — according to their family attorney — have been inconsistent or conflicted with law enforcement authorities’ version of events.(snip) from September 13 to 17.
Here’s what each says happened during those four days:
A movie prop masters union has told members it was a live round and not a blank that Alec Baldwin fired at a female cinematographer on Thursday in New Mexico, killing her and wounding the movie's director in a tragic on-set accident.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, died shortly after being shot by Baldwin around 1.50pm Thursday at Bonanza Creek Ranch, near the city of Santa Fe in New Mexico, where they were filming the movie Rust. Joel Souza, 48, the film's director, was also hurt and spent several hours in hospital, but was released later the same evening.
Police have disclosed few details about the shooting, saying only that
Dental records show remains found at Carlton
Reserve are those of Brian Laundrie, FBI says 21 replies
Reserve are those of Brian Laundrie, FBI says 21 replies
The FBI's Denver office said Thursday that remains found a day earlier in a Florida nature reserve are those of Brian Laundrie, who disappeared last month just days after his fiancée Gabby Petito was reported missing.
The FBI said dental records confirmed the identification.
Two local detectives visited the North Port, Florida, home of Laundrie's parents shortly before the FBI made its announcement.
The human remains found in a Florida reserve in the search for Brian Laundrie were bones, including part of a human skull, and may take days to be identified.
(snip) law enforcement sources who said the remains included a partial human skull. It is unclear how long they have been in the area, but they may take days to identify.
(Snip) the search in the area around the Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park continues.
Cadaver dogs are combing through the preserve and drones are scanning overhead for more traces of Laundrie, who vanished on September 13. (snip)The lawyer representing the couple has denied speculation that they may have planted the evidence.
Sometimes even New York Times columnists tell the truth. For instance, a recent article by Jennifer Finney Boylan was headlined “Abortion Rights and Trans Rights Are Two Sides of the Same Coin.” Yes, and the coin is currency from Hell.
Although there are abortion supporters who oppose transgenderism and vice versa, Boylan is correct that the justifications for abortion and transgenderism share most of their ideological DNA. Both are rooted in hatred for the givenness of human embodiment and its limitations. Both should be rejected in favor of something better.
Boylan, who identifies as transgender, objects to giving “the state the right to limit what you can or cannot do with your
Our Purgatory Is Their Nirvana
6 replies
Sheer chaos and anarchy on the border?
Afghanistan—the most humiliating defeat in recent U.S. military history?
A labor-starved supply chain in shambles and holiday shelves emptying out?
The worst inflation in 30 years that seems soon ready to match Carter-era levels?
Gas hitting $5 a gallon with winter heating fuels soaring?
(snip)
Joe Biden’s policies and Biden himself diving in the polls?
Never in recent American history has any administration birthed such disasters in its first nine months.
(snip)
Were these disasters a result of historic incompetency? Or mean-spirited nihilism? Or a deliberate effort to create the necessary turbulence to birth a new American revolution? Or a bit of all three?
Washington — A revamped bill aimed at strengthen voting rights and overhauling the nation's election systems failed to advance in the Senate on Wednesday, as Democrats couldn't overcome unanimous opposition from Republicans who criticized the bill as federal overreach.
The procedural vote to begin debate on the Freedom to Vote Act was 49 in favor to 51 against, far short of the 60 votes needed to advance the measure. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer changed his vote to "no" as a procedural maneuver that allows him to bring the bill to the floor again. All 50 Republicans voted against advancing to debate.
The apparent human remains that authorities found Wednesday in a Florida park most likely belong to Brian Laundrie, the missing man whose fiancée Gabby Petito was found fatally strangled last month, the Laundrie family attorney told CNN.
Investigators also found a backpack and a notebook belonging to Laundrie, 23, near the suspected remains while they were searching the Carlton Reserve (snip)The remains and items were found in the same area that the parents had initially told the FBI to look, .(snip)According to Bertolino, Laundrie's parents informed the FBI and the North Port Police Department on Tuesday night that they wanted to visit the park Wednesday morning to search
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released the third quarter review of average weekly wages [Main Data Here]. The results of the year-over-year comparison should alarm everyone. This is a very serious data point that likely means we are in a recession, it just has not been quantified yet.
By now everyone knows the term “stagflation”, which means a stagnant economy and large inflation (price increases), the easiest comparison is Jimmy Carter economic program in the 1970’s. However, let me assure you what this latest BLS release foretells is not that. This is far more serious than stagflation. (Snip)t I am encouraging everyone to take this
Taliban wins backing for aid at Moscow
talks, with regional powers saying US
and allies should pay 20 replies
talks, with regional powers saying US
and allies should pay 20 replies
Afghanistan's new Taliban rulers won backing from 10 regional powers at talks in Moscow on Wednesday for the idea of a United Nations donor conference to help the country stave off economic collapse and a humanitarian catastrophe.
Russia, China, Pakistan, India, Iran and five formerly Soviet Central Asian states joined the Taliban in calling for the UN to convene such a conference as soon as possible to help rebuild the country.
They said it should take place "with the understanding, of course, that the main burden...should be borne by the forces whose military contingents have been present in this country over the past 20 years."
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday although he is fully vaccinated, according to a spokesperson for the agency.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokesperson Marsha Espinosa said Mayorkas “tested positive this morning for the COVID-19 virus after taking a test as part of routine pre-travel protocols.”
“Mayorkas is experiencing only mild congestion; he is fully vaccinated and will isolate and work at home per [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] protocols and medical advice. Contact tracing is underway,” Espinosa added.
The diagnosis came after Mayorkas attended the Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service at the Capitol alongside President Joe Biden on Sunday. It’s not clear
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
A movie prop masters union has told members it was a live round and not a blank that Alec Baldwin fired at a female cinematographer on Thursday in New Mexico, killing her and wounding the movie's director in a tragic on-set accident.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, died shortly after being shot by Baldwin around 1.50pm Thursday at Bonanza Creek Ranch, near the city of Santa Fe in New Mexico, where they were filming the movie Rust. Joel Souza, 48, the film's director, was also hurt and spent several hours in hospital, but was released later the same evening.
Police have disclosed few details about the shooting, saying only that
Preliminarily, it is tragic that 42-year-old Halyna Hutchins, a rising cinematographer in Hollywood, died yesterday on the set of Rust, a movie being filmed in Santa Fe, New Mexico. My thoughts are with the loved ones she left behind. Having said that, I cannot escape a feeling that karma had a hand in this one because the finger on the trigger of the gun that killed Hutchins belonged to Alec Baldwin, a hysterical leftist who is fanatically opposed to the Second Amendment.
To give a sense of Baldwin’s hostility to gun rights, in 2018, the smug and constitutionally illiterate Baldwin had some harsh words for Dana Loesch, an NRA spokeswoman
Unvaccinated Americans are more likely to die of non-Covid causes than those who got their shots, a new report finds.
Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) compared deaths among those aged 12 and older who got any of the three authorized vaccines in the U.S. to teens and adults who did not. Deaths due to causes unrelated to the virus were up to three times more likely in unvaccinated people than those who got either the Pfizer or Moderna Covid vaccines. And non-COVID-19 fatalities were nearly twice as likely among Americans who were not jabbed compared to those who received the one-shot
Ilhan Omar Introduces Bill to Create Special
Envoy to Monitor “Islamophobia” Around
the World 48 replies
Envoy to Monitor “Islamophobia” Around
the World 48 replies
Reps Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) on Thursday introduced legislation to create a special envoy that would “monitor and combat Islamophobia” around the globe.“The bill requires the State Department to create a Special Envoy for monitoring and combating Islamophobia, and include state-sponsored Islamophobic violence and impunity in the Department’s annual human rights reports,” Omar said in a press release.Through the “Combating International Islamophobia Act,” Ilhan Omar wants the US to police the world and silence political discourse and truth
First things first. National Review Editor Rich Lowry is not a “die-hard” Trump fan. We’ll offer several examples later in the article — but let’s first get to the business at hand. As Lowry sees it, it’s a fool’s game to overestimate Trump’s dominance of the Republican Party this far in advance of the 2024 election.
Lowry writes, in an op-ed posted by The New York Post on Friday, that Republican politicians who think the Republican Party belongs to Trump can be forgiven, given that he not only survived two impeachments and the January 6 attack against the U.S. Capitol; he has since continued to thrive.
What is wrong with Kamala?
40 replies
The Vice President of the United States spoke yesterday at the brand-new Northeast Bronx YMCA, promoting the so-called infrastructure bill that actually would transform the economy into dependence on unreliable “green” power and the populace into unsustainable financial dependence on borrowed money from the US Treasury.
But forget about the substance, bad as it is, and focus on her behavior at the podium, which was, frankly, bizarre enough to suggest something is deeply wrong.
Watch her arms in this clip. It’s only 26 seconds long, so I recommend watching it first with the sound off. Watching a second time with the sound on does nothing the ameliorate the utter weirdness
Things are not sounding good as more information comes out about the incident in which Alec Baldwin shot a cinematographer and the director on a movie set Thursday.
Now there are reports that there had been a lot of problems before the shooting – that the crew was upset about long hours, low pay, and having to commute 50 miles from Albuquerque instead of staying in Santa Fe. According to the Los Angeles Times, the camera crew walked off the production just hours before the shooting:
As the camera crew — members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees — spent about an hour assembling their gear at the Bonanza
Somehow, someone made the decision to let Joe Biden out and to go to a CNN town hall.
I’m not sure who thought this was a good idea. But even within the friendly confines of CNN, it was a complete train wreck — even by Biden standards.
Naturally, most of the questions from folks in the audience were Democrats or softball questions. But there were some highlights and it was disastrous.
Let’s start with the creepiness and the incoherence.
Here’s Joe Biden claiming that top corporations “don’t pay a cent” in taxes with that creepy stage whisper voice.
The National School Boards Association has apologized for a letter that called on the Biden administration to investigate whether alleged threats against school-board members constituted domestic terrorism.
The NSBA Board of Directors apologized in a memorandum to members on Friday. The initial letter, sent on September 29, asked the administration to investigate whether alleged threats to school-board members, over masking policies and “propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory” in lessons, necessitated federal investigation.
No free college meant personal trouble for President Biden.
In a joking moment during Thursday night’s town-hall meeting on CNN, Mr. Biden was asked about the reaction from first lady Jill Biden to the news that the proposal for two free years of community college had been dropped from his $3.5 trillion spending bill. Mrs. Biden is a college teacher. “The White House has a lot of bedrooms,” Mr. Biden replied with a smile. “She went like this,” he told host Anderson Cooper before making a pointing gesture. “Down the hall,” the first lady then said, according to Mr. Biden.
No, let's not be kind to Alec
31 replies
There have been a number of suggestions, from the conservative press as much as elsewhere, that we should go easy on poor Alec Baldwin concerning the terrible “accident” that resulted in a “tragedy” at his New Mexico filming location.
No, we should not. It was not an accident, and it is not a tragedy.
There a four primary rules of firearms handling, codified many years ago by firearms expert Jeff Cooper. Everyone serious about firearms has long ago (snip) It seems clear that Baldwin ignored every last one of these.
China on Tuesday launched a major effort to ramp up coal production and stabilize coal prices ahead of an anticipated surge in electric power demand this winter.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) reportedly ordered mine operators to “produce as much coal as possible.”
CNN noted on Wednesday that China made an effort to scale back coal production this year to placate climate change activists, but those desultory efforts simply evaporated in the face of rolling blackouts that interfered with the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) industrial goals.