In today’s political news - Part 6

Like I have said, politicians have found ways to insulate themselves from having to explain their lies and misinformation publicly.

From The Washington Post..

“Opinion MAGA Republicans shut out the media — and the public”

By the Editorial Board
August 18, 2022 at 11:05 a.m. EDT

“Journalists across the United States find themselves increasingly shut out of political events they would have routinely, and easily, covered in previous election cycles.

Candidates have been trying to bypass mainstream media scrutiny for generations. Most politicians prefer to engage with ideologically friendly outlets, such as Fox News or MSNBC. But in recent election cycles, campaigns have generally scheduled fewer, yet more scripted, public events. More often than before, newsworthy gatherings are not announced ahead of time and reporters only find out they occurred when pictures get posted to social media or a news release is sent out later. For traditional outlets, interviews with many candidates have become harder to secure. Some campaigns don’t even return calls or emails.

These trends don’t just hinder media coverage. They also insulate would-be leaders from tough questions and thorny issues. Mostly, they hurt voters by leaving them less informed.

Both parties deserve criticism on this front, but the worst offenders, by far, come from the GOP’s MAGA wing. Sarah Palin, a former governor and vice-presidential nominee, announced no public events in Alaska between a rally that former president Donald Trump headlined for her in Anchorage on July 9 and the special election that took place Tuesday. In Pennsylvania, gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano’s campaign has physically barred reporters from entering events.

Other candidates, such as Georgia Senate hopeful Herschel Walker, have also been extremely unavailable.

The Florida GOP recently blocked many independent reporters, including from The Post, from covering the party’s Sunshine Summit — which was previously open to the media — while permitting outlets that were deemed sufficiently supportive. When journalists complained, the spokeswoman for Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted: “My message to them is to try crying about it.” Florida’s governor has pioneered new techniques in thwarting journalists from doing their jobs. He gave Fox News, for example, exclusive access to a bill-signing.

On Friday, Mr. DeSantis will travel to Ohio to stump with Republican Senate candidate J.D. Vance. The organizers of the event, a conservative nonprofit called Turning Point Action, are requiring that journalists applying for credentials agree to give organizers access to any footage they record and be willing to answer questions about how it will be used. Journalists who attend are restricted from recording speakers, staff and attendees who do not wish to be filmed or going into certain areas of the event. They also are barred from recording anything displayed on projection screens.

To apply for a credential, reporters must agree to the terms that state: “Turning Point Action shall have the final say on all matters.” A spokesman for Turning Point Action says the group frequently waives “certain clauses for legitimate press outlets that are covering the event in good faith, as we’ve offered to do with Washington Post reporters for the very events in question.”

That’s a start, but these highly unusual conditions have led to understandable outrage among Ohio television stations. Media organizations record these events for the benefit of voters, as well as for history. They should be allowed to do their jobs unencumbered.”

Pure Republican spin in the Washington Post.

“Opinion Why Republicans don’t want to join Liz Cheney on her kamikaze mission”

By Marc A. Thiessen

From the article…

“Whatever you think of Liz Cheney, give her credit for courage: She knew that relentlessly pursuing Donald Trump meant the end of her congressional career, and she did it anyway. It was an act of bravery, akin to kamikaze pilots who intentionally crashed their planes into the deck of an aircraft carrier.

The problem for Cheney is: Most Republicans are not interested in kamikaze missions.

Cheney believes that Trump is the greatest threat facing our country today, greater than the serial disasters President Biden has unleashed since taking office — among them, the worst inflation in 40 years, the highest gas prices in decades, the worst border crisis in U.S. history and the worst crime wave in many cities since the 1990s. She thinks stopping Trump is more important than stopping Democrats from spending trillions of our tax dollars, hiring an army of IRS agents to harass hard-working Americans, raising taxes on businesses struggling in this economy, projecting weakness on the world stage and pursuing a radical climate agenda at the expense of U.S. energy independence.”


Now some may agree with this spin but the reality is his laundry list of “disasters unleashed by President Biden” are a combination of temporary and bullshit.

But what trump and his minions are doing could very well end that experiment started by the framers all those years ago.  An experiment we as a country managed to keep going until a group of power hungry racist decided to change things by lying, spewing misinformation, changing or denying our history, banning books, taking away people’s rights, finding ways to stop people from voting, laying the groundwork to overturn elections for no other reason then they don’t like the outcome, and becoming more invasive in people’s lives.

Silly me because I don’t think Liz Cheney or any Republican calling out what trump & company are doing is a suicide mission but something a lot more Republicans should be doing.

He may have a point…

I don’t know if that is true since it’s coming from this guy, but if it is good!

CA Prop 26 & 27.

The Tribes are arguing amongst themselves.

The only real gambling in CA are the Tribe Casinos and maybe a couple of card houses. The Tribes that have Casinos think the ONLY gambling should be at their casinos.  Because of the “promise” the CA voters made to the Tribes.  

Proposition 27makes it legal for online gambling from corporations outside CA. Meaning you could gamble on your phone or iPad or laptop.  A % of the money would stay in CA to be used to fight homelessness.  Also a % would be given to the Tribes that aren’t wealthy enough to have their own casinos.  This prop is supported by the smaller poorer tribes.

Proposition 26 is supported by the Tribes that have casinos.  What they want is for all the online gambling be done only in their Casinos and 3 or 4 racetracks. They also want to add another game they can have at their casinos.  Of course they want you to vote no to Prop 26 because they are claiming Prop 27 is so much better for CA.

I’m voting no for both.  We don’t need any more ways to gamble in this state. 

Why am I bringing this up now, because everywhere I turn there is an ad telling you to vote for one or the other.  All day long.  The ads started before the primary election in June and it’s only the middle of August and we have to listen to them for another 2 1/2 months.   And they are starting to drive me nuts.

Somebody is spending a lot of money on both sides.

Hmm.