November 20, 2018 6:00 AM
Morning Reads for Tuesday, November 20
“The eagle’s a scavenger, a thief, and a coward! A symbol of over ten centuries of European mischief! The turkey is the truly noble bird. Native American. Source of sustenance of our original settlers. An incredibly brave fellow who will not flinch at attacking a regiment of Englishmen! Singlehandedly!
Therefore, the national bird of America is going to be...”
- Libertarian Smythe DuVal, who finished third in the Secretary of State race, endorsed John Barrow for the December 4 runoff.
- Mississippi and the consequences of not finding a rural broadband solution.
- One California GOP leader and why she thinks the Republican party in her state is, for now, dead. (This is a thoughtful interview that I highly recommend.)
- The President will pardon a turkey this morning. No, literally. A turkey. But here’s how the tradition traces its origins to the Iran Contra Scandal.
- What are the most common political campaign sign colors?
- For many (MANY) Americans, the Exhausted Majority, “politics is not a hobby but an obligation to be endured,” like going to the dentist.
- Tips from Terry Gross on how to have a good conversation.
- If your attempt at a good conversation are tanking, perhaps because of differing political views, test your skills with the Angry Uncle Bot! It’s a chat program that will teach you different techniques to navigate tricky subjects, no matter if your Angry Uncle is on the left or the right.
About Author
Teri
Teri Anulewicz is a Democrat who represents House District 42 in the Georgia General Assembly. She previously spent nearly a decade on the Smyrna City Council. A native New Orleanian and quasi-Texan, Teri graduated from Agnes Scott College in 1998. She's been a front page contributor since 2015, and she compiles each Tuesday's Morning Reads.
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Secretary of State should not be a hyper-partisan position. This job requires even-handed implementation of elections and corporate oversight.
John Barrow has years of service working in a non-partisan way to get results. He has committed to bringing Ranked Choice Voting to Georgia. He has also called for de-certifying the current voting machines and implementing paper ballots. These are important steps to improving our elections. (Maybe the cost of not having separate runoff elections can help offset the cost of new optical scan equipment!)
Raffensberger’s main issues seem to be that he is endorsed by the NRA and the Faith and Freedom Coalition, and Georgia Right to Life. Not sure what those have to do with being Secretary of State. Other than that, he wants to make sure only legal citizens vote and to continue to purge the voter rolls.
This is one race where the ‘D’ or the ‘R’ shouldn’t matter. In this runoff, the choice seems to be between more of the same and progress. I urge you to vote for progress. Let’s do this.
edit: Just wanted to add this link:
https://www.myajc.com/news/opinion/opinion-safeguard-access-security-democracy-sacred-rite/gYC0KKxF9NJRVuYmHPLDcK/
Nice pitch.
Reading the article by Ms. Gross reminded me of Forrest Sawyer while he was still on WGST radio in Atlanta. He followed the same rules. Imagine an interviewer who has obviously read the book, lets the guest be the star, and actually has a brain.
When the President and his supporters are laughingstock, MAGA and enjoy it.
“A supporter of President Donald Trump admitted in an extremely colorful way that she did not care in the least whether he told lies.
The woman, who declined to give her name, attended a Trump campaign rally Oct. 31 in Estero, Florida, wearing New England Patriots socks and carrying a homemade placard photo showing Louis Farrakhan with former President Barack Obama, reported the Huffington Post.
She demanded to know why the media wasn’t covering Obama’s appearance alongside the controversial Nation of Islam leader, which apparently took place briefly at a Congressional Black Caucus lunch in 2005, when he was an Illinois state senator. The reporter presented the Trump-backing woman with a short list of the president’s most frequent falsehoods, but she said she was not interested in determining whether he would lie during the rally.
“I don’t care if he sprouts a third d— up there,” she said. She declined to explain how many penises she believed the president already had.”
Thanks for the link to The Bitter Southerner. It has been a while since I visited there.
Declare the infrastructure that delivers broadband a utility, and get on with subsidizing that infrastructure in rural areas.
Don’t, with the powerful and insiders taking whatever “free market” cut they think they deserve of politician-directed subsidies doesn’t have my support.
We are bringing the fiber. https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/breakingnews/story/2017/may/11/tva-spend-300-million/427606/
For many, TVA=socialism.
Except when it isn’t.
It’s only fitting, as the former California Republican wrote, that the California GOP has failed and isn’t salvageable because it failed to separate itself from the national brand of Republican politics.
Nationalizing party politics has been the GOP’s strategy since at least Newt culminating in Trump. Consider the role Pelolsi paid in the 51% victory of a Georgia incompetent. The chickens have come home to roost in CA, and more arrive every week Trump is President. There’s 110 weeks to go.
The President will pardon a turkey? Is it MBS or Ivanka?
The Turkey pardon is one thing Sarah Palin did very well. https://chamblee54.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/the-gruesome-truth-about-turkeys/
Yesterday on the east side of the state 43 people in 6 counties were charged in a 93-page, 83-count federal grand jury indictment. They are members of the Ghost Face Gangsters, and many have the tattoo ‘Vanilla Gorilla’ on them (thus where the name of the operation came from).
https://www.savannahnow.com/news/20181119/operation-vanilla-gorilla-43-white-supremacist-gang-members-arrested-on-gun-drug-charges
http://www.wtoc.com/2018/11/19/operation-vanilla-gorilla-charges-affiliates-ghost-face-gangsters-with-drug-trafficking-firearms-felonies/
My gang name is Kudzu Killa. ‘Cause that’s how I spend most of my summer weekends.
Ya got ink to prove it?
(To the tune of Who Do You Love):
I killed 47 acres of kudzu
I got a kudzu leaf as a tattoo
I got ropes and whips and other things
that are made from kudzu vines
I feed kudzu to goats in the daytime
and I burn whatever’s left behind
Come and take a little walk with me baby
And tell me who do you love
My new state rep is a committed guy but his campaign had some major disconnects. He liked to go on about how ‘throwing money at a problem’ doesn’t work (70 percent Kemp in Oconee so he had a receptive audience) yet he believed the state should actively ‘incentivise’ broadband companies to include rural Georgia. Come again?
It’s all about privatization and the free market except when it isn’t.
Adventures in being a 12 year old.
https://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2018/11/get-on-the-bus-2.html#more-148868
I can identify with that story. Interesting site too. Even more procrastination seduction.
Nice site! I was not aware of that one. Good stuff.
Speaking of Frito-Lay…
I remember there used to be a Frito Lay plant up on Peachtree Rd I think, just inside the perimeter. They had this device there that I thought was so cool. They would back a semi truck onto this platform, unhook the tractor part, clamp the trailer down, then the whole platform would tilt up and dump the contents (presumably potatoes?) out into the building! I hope the guy who thought of that got a bonus.
I’ve always liked big machinery.
Georgia Tech has almost always been involved in leading edge research, almost…
Scientists discover why wombat poop is cube-shaped
https://www.cnet.com/news/scientists-discover-why-wombat-poop-is-cube-shaped/
https://creativeloafing.com/content-170768-The-New-Georgia-Problem
http://www.peachpundit.com/2015/02/19/stacey-abrams-the-new-georgia-project-and-winning-elections/
I found this about the New Georgia Project. Apparently, Stacey Abrams isn’t as great as people seem to think she is. She seems to have made a mess with the New Georgia Project.
I’m not the only one calling the Trump deployment to fend off the caravan invasion a stunt. Retired colonels Lawrence Wilkerson and Isaiah Wilson wrote that:
”[T]he president used America’s military forces not against any real threat but as toy soldiers, with the intent of manipulating a domestic midterm election outcome, an unprecedented use of the military by a sitting president. Electoral gain, not security, is this president’s goal. Two of us served in the military for many years; while all troops must obey the legal and ethical orders of civilian leaders, they need to have faith that those civilian leaders are using them for legitimate national security purposes. But the border deployment put the military right in the middle of the midterm elections, creating a nonexistent crisis to stimulate votes for one party. When partisan actions like this occur, they violate civil-military traditions and erode that faith, with potentially long-term damage to the morale of the force and our democratic practice—all for electoral gain. The deployment is a stunt, a dangerous one, and in our view, a misuse of the military.”
Other words for it, if you’re a Republican, are Make America Great Again.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/19/opinion/president-trump-border-military-troops.html
Trump last week said he’d have a statement about Khashoggi today. It was a pearl:
“Representatives of Saudi Arabia say that Jamal Khashoggi was an “enemy of the state” and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, but my decision is in no way based on that – this is an unacceptable and horrible crime. King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman vigorously deny any knowledge of the planning or execution of the murder of Mr. Khashoggi. Our intelligence agencies continue to assess all information, but it could very well be that the Crown Prince had knowledge of this tragic event – maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
I don’t know. Putin vigorously denied that he meddled in the 2016 elections. That’s so true that I’m going with MBS didn’t do it.
Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t…
Just another demonstration that reality and truth are simply non-existent to Trump, and thus are not the basis of his “moral” compass.
It would have been better if he said I trust our intelligence reports, and it seems he did it, but we’re going to deal with it the sanctions and in private ways that don’t threaten the long-term strategic interests.
Pompeo more or less said that, but the Pres. instead writes this personal Get Out of Murder Free check. It still leaves you wondering though if it’s America’s interests or his business interests, though…
The awful truth is that the pre-meditated murder of an American resident in a foreign consulate, or of Yemeni children as collateral damage, are less important than Trump’s fabulous deal with the Saudi’s.
The Saudi’s upped oil production at Trump’s request in anticipation of tightening of supply due to sanctions on Iran. Trump’s exceptions to Iranian oil sales to other allies depressed Saudi oil prices such that a quid pro quo was in order. Besides, it was only one Muslim guy. And at least the Yemeni children won’t be showing up here as part of an invasion caravan.
The grim reality is America has green lighted worldwide open season on “enemies of the people”. Put yourself first like Trump does, and do what you need to do.
I hope Kemp’s transition team named “Georgians First” doesn’t actually mean “Kemp First”.
Maybe you posted this in the wrong spot?
It was a riff on Dave’s “Put yourself first like Trump does” and Trump’s ‘America First’ slogan.
Clumsy, I admit.
Dave, he is (was…) a Saudi citizen. Calling him an “American resident” is nothing but clutching of pearls and over dramatization.
But if we want to talk about killing of citizens how about Iran… do you feel that the lifting of sanctions by the former administration was wise considering Iran has a long history of killing those that speak out against the administration? I this single instance better or worse than the hundreds/thousands killed over the last 30-40 years by the Iranians? Is the actual delivery of money better or worse than a “Get Out of Murder Free check”?
The “Get Out of Murder Free check” was my creation.
If the Iranian transaction you’re talking about is the release of the frozen assets in exchange for the signing of the nuclear/uranium agreement, that’s a tough one because the Iran deal has enough costs and benefits to be analyzed on itself. But of course the foreign policies of the two countries are intertwined.
As for Khashoggi, I would just say that it was possible for Trump to show support for the U.S. intelligence assessment, be a man and say that assessment out loud, and still maintain the big picture foreign policy strategy. And also have some moral proclamations about the press not being the enemy of the people. But giving a pass on persecution of the press can have some serious worldwide repercussions- including on our strategic interests- and it will be hard to calculate those costs into the equation.
Who cares if he was a citizen or not anyway? How many times have we heard about- anywhere, anytime- a person being murdered inside an embassy, let alone one of our supposed allies? Ever?