Pennsylvania legislators introduce a bill, SB 754, which could force protestors to pay "public safety response costs incurred by a State agency or political subdivision as a result of the State agency’s or political subdivision’s response to a demonstration if, in connection with the demonstration, the person is convicted of a felony or misdemeanor offense." In other words, if you were convicted of something at a protest, the state could, under this bill, put you on the hook for anything. Call me old-fashioned, but I think you should only be punished for the crimes you actually commit. You'd think "law and order" politicians would feel the same, but they don't -- they're just looking for ways of stopping protestors, which usually means they've lost the argument on the merits.
U.S. District Court judge strikes down the latest version of Texas's Voter ID law, saying it still discriminates against minority voters. Who will be the first right-winger to say that the District Judge should have recused herself because she's a minority voter herself? We are so sick, immoral, and decadent that I'm pretty sure it won't be some right-wing talk show host who needs the attention. It might even be more likely to be the President of the United States.
Now this is good news: at least half a dozen sitting House or Senate Democrats are getting primary challenges from staunch single-payer advocates. The price of being noncommittal or evasive at citizen town halls, apparently, is a primary challenge from your left. It won't work exactly like the Tea Party challenges of 2010 did, though, because those challengers got a lot of support from corporate front groups. Still, it's better than staying hostage to weak Democrats. Yes, even if Donald Trump is President.
Bryan Menegus at Gizmodo says "The Right is Faling for Its Own Fake Antifa Accounts" -- you know, by regurgitating the hateful stuff "antifa activists" supposedly say on social media, without noting that these "antifa activists" are actually right-wing trolls in disguise -- but I submit that they're not, in fact, "falling for" anything, that they in fact mean to foment chaos and confusion, so that the rest of us talk about the chaos, rather than how we'd solve real-world problems. (See also Wonkette's reporting on this topic.)
Finally, Paul Ryan conducts a televised townhall in his home district where he says a bunch of ridiculous crap about taxes. He goes on and on about the corporate tax rate that virtually no corporations pay, since they get so many welfare handouts from Congress, and he goes on and on about "taxing our job creators" when these "job creators," who would never create a job if they didn't absolutely have to, are making tons of profits these days. And I don't even credit him for having a town hall, since that's his job. I'd say CNN's cameras were probably there to protect him, but they might also have been there to make sure he didn't run out.
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