Bayard
Bayard's JournalWe were at our monthly local Dem meeting this morning in Southern Kentucky
A number of candidates were there to give 10 minute stump speeches and answer questions.
Amy McGrath was there. I have to tell you, she comes across much stronger in person than the ads. She was articulate, forceful, knowledgeable, and empathetic. There were probably 50+ people there, (compared to our usual 15 or so,) and I think she managed to look every one in the eye at least once. Impressive, and I'll be voting for her again. She needs to take part of that speech and make an ad from it.
There were a couple of also ran's. One was just ridiculous. He brought his baby with him, and it babbled the whole time. Very unprofessional. He did have an interesting idea though. He proposed having 3 U.S. presidents--one Democrat, one rethuglican, and one Independent. He also wants to get rid of the House, and have 300 Senators. Supreme Court justices would also be voted on, and all offices would have term limits. The guy sitting on the other side of me was wearing a Navy hat and tshirt. He jumped up and said--You have lost my vote! Coming in here and talking about ridiculous stuff like having 3 presidents! Its just stupid, yada yada yada. Then he stormed out.
I wanted to get a pic with Amy, but she disappeared quickly. I was wearing my Amy McGrath hat from 2020, and she kept looking at it.
Trump is adding anti-trans provisions to SAVE America Act
The White House confirmed Friday that President Donald Trump is pressing Congress to add new provisions targeting transgender people to the SAVE America Act — a sweeping anti-voting bill that could disenfranchise millions. The proposed additions, along with a provision banning no-excuse mail voting, were not included in the legislation the House narrowly passed last month. Trump appears to be using culture-war issues, which are popular among Republican voters, to increase the pressure on Republican lawmakers to back the bill.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing that Trump recently added new demands to the anti-voting legislation, which already faces steep odds in the Senate. “This is a huge priority for the president. He added on some priorities to the SAVE America Act in recent days, namely, no transgender transition surgeries for minors. We are not gonna tolerate the mutilation of young children in this country. No men in women’s sports,” Leavitt said. “The president putting all of these priorities together speaks to how common sense they are.”
The comments mark the first time the White House has publicly confirmed that Trump is pushing to attach anti-transgender policies to the SAVE America Act. In a recent Truth Social post earlier this week Trump wrote that the legislation includes:
“NO MAIL-IN BALLOTS (EXCEPT FOR ILLNESS, DISABILITY, MILITARY, OR TRAVEL!).”
“NO MEN IN WOMEN’S SPORTS.”
“NO TRANSGENDER MUTILATION SURGERY FOR CHILDREN.”
An earlier version of Trump’s post included language regarding parental consent for transition surgeries. But after backlash from far-right activists, Trump deleted the post and republished a version removing the parental consent clause. The bill passed in the House last month would require people registering to vote in federal elections to provide documentary proof of U.S. citizenship and show photo ID in-person. It would also mandate routine voter purges.
If the Senate were to amend the bill to include the mail voting ban and the anti-trans provisions, the measure would have to return to the House for another vote — a potentially difficult hurdle given the narrow margin by which it passed initially. Even without those additions, the bill faces long odds in the Senate, where most legislation requires 60 votes to pass and where Democrats have vowed to block it. Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has so far declined to support changing the filibuster rules to pass the SAVE America Act.
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/trump-is-adding-anti-trans-provisions-to-save-america-act/
No surgery for children, but its okay to rape them.
A song for our current politics
"Long Road Out Of Eden"
The Eagles
Moon shining down through the palms
Shadows moving on the sand
Somebody whispering the twenty-third psalm
Dusty rifle in his trembling hands
Somebody trying just to stay alive
He got promises to keep
Over the ocean in America
Far away and fast asleep
Silent stars blinking in the blackness of an endless sky
Cold silver satellites, ghostly caravans passing by
Galaxies unfolding, new worlds being born
Pilgrims and prodigals creeping toward the dawn
But it's a long road out of Eden
Music blasting from an SUV
On a bright and sunny day
Rolling down the interstate
In the good old USA
Having lunch at the petroleum club
Smokin' fine cigars and swappin' lives
He said, "Give me another slice of that barbecued brisket!"
"Give me another piece of that pecan pie!"
Freeways flickering, cell phones chiming a tune
We're riding to Utopia, road map says we'll be arriving soon
Captains of the old order clinging to the reins
Assuring us these aches inside are only growing pains
But it's a long road out of Eden
Back home I was so certain
The path was very clear
But now I have to wonder what are we doing here?
I'm not counting on tomorrow
And I can't tell wrong from right
But I'd give anything to be there in your arms tonight
Weaving down the American highway
Through the litter and the wreckage and the cultural junk
Bloated with entitlement, loaded on propaganda
And now we're driving dazed and drunk
Been down the road to Damascus,
The road to Mandalay
Met the ghost of Caesar on the Appian Way
He said, "It's hard to stop this binging, once you get a taste."
"But the road to empire is a bloody stupid waste."
Behold the bitten apple - the power of the tools
But all the knowledge in the world is of no use to fools
And it's a long road out of Eden....
Anti-voting activists coordinating with White House on blatantly illegal draft emergency order to take control of electi
Anti-voting activists coordinating with White House on blatantly illegal draft emergency order to take control of elections
A draft emergency executive order to declare a national emergency to allow President Donald Trump to take unprecedented control over voting is being circulated by anti-voting activists who said they are in coordination with the White House. Voting rights experts, democracy advocates, and at least one state election chief said Trump doesn’t have the authority to claim such powers — and any attempt would be blatantly unconstitutional.
The draft order — which is said to be based on a conspiracy theory that China interfered with the 2020 election — would allow Trump to unilaterally ban mail-in ballots and voting machines on the basis that they are susceptible to foreign interference. The order comes from MAGA activists who have been coordinating with the White House. One of the advocates for the order is Peter Ticktin, the attorney for Tina Peters, the former GOP Colorado county clerk who is currently serving a nine-year state prison sentence for her role in a 2021 voting system breach, in an attempt to find voter fraud based on election conspiracies.
The Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution explicitly gives states — not the president — sole authority over elections. But in an email to Democracy Docket, Ticktin said that Trump “may invoke emergency powers in response to an election emergency involving foreign interference, provided certain statutory and procedural requirements are met.” Ticktin said those requirements derive from the National Emergencies Act (NEA) and the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEA). “These powers are subject to procedural safeguards and judicial review to ensure compliance with constitutional and statutory limits,” Ticktin added.
Trump could have been referencing the legal argument laid out in the draft emergency order in a social media post earlier this month, where he threatened to bypass Congress to implement voter ID requirements and to ban mail-in voting. “I have searched the depths of Legal Arguments not yet articulated or vetted on this subject, and will be presenting an irrefutable one in the very near future,” Trump wrote. He later posted that would “be presenting them shortly, in the form of an Executive Order.” “What a gift such a clearly unconstitutional executive order would be!,” David Becker, the executive director of Center for Election Innovation & Research and a former DOJ Civil Rights Division attorney, noted on social media. “Though divorced from legal and factual reality, it would enable the courts to invalidate this power grab well in advance of the election, and confirm the clear limits to [federal] interference in elections.”
https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/white-house-circulating-blatantly-illegal-draft-emergency-order-to-take-control-of-elections/
Reverse Mortgages
I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but I didn't see anything else closer.
Anyone out there have experience with reverse mortgages?
Cats
"One of my favorite things about cats is that when they don't understand what something is, they hit it."
As ICE Arrests Increased, a Higher Portion Had No U.S. Criminal Record
While the Trump administration insists that it is targeting the “worst of the worst” in its immigration enforcement, it has not provided information to substantiate that, and the data that is available suggests the claim has become less accurate over time.
“The Trump administration has specifically targeted the worst of the worst,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a press conference in July. “The individuals that we are going after are those that are violent criminals, those that are breaking our laws and those that have final removal orders.”
While the number of monthly Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrests has risen steadily over the first year of Trump’s second term, the percentage of those arrested who have no criminal convictions or pending charges has also gone up.
Our analysis of ICE arrest data obtained by the Deportation Data Project found a doubling over time of the percentage without criminal records, meaning neither convictions nor charges. In Trump’s first three months in office, 21.9% of those arrested had no criminal record. The percentage rose to 34.2% in Trump’s second three months, and then to 40.5% in the three months ending in mid-October. In January, nearly 43% of those detained had no convictions or charges, according to publicly available ICE data.
https://www.factcheck.org/2026/01/as-ice-arrests-increased-a-higher-portion-had-no-u-s-criminal-record/
This is a good article that includes facts and figures of who is being targeted.
MAGA's zero weddings and four funerals
This week, Speaker Mike Johnson told three lies as Attorney General Pam Bondi deflected and evaded questions on the Epstein Files during a five-hour congressional hearing. The song and dance from the Trump sycophants on Capitol Hill encapsulated the pathetic capitulation and election denialism marching the Republican Party toward its funeral.
snip
Speaker Mike Johnson started the lying early in the morning on Wednesday, going on Fox News to claim that Democrats “feel they gotta cheat” to win elections. Speaking with Maria Bartiromo about the SAVE America Act, he lied through his teeth about the bill that could potentially disenfranchise tens of millions of Americans. Johnson said that Democrats “want illegals to vote. That’s why they opened the border wide for four years under Biden and Harris and allowed in all these dangerous people. They feel they’ve got to allow illegals to participate in elections so they can continue to win. We’ve got to stop that.”
Never mind the fact that the SAVE America Act would make it harder for U.S. service members to register to vote. Forget that over 21 million citizens lack access to proof of citizenship. For Trump and Republicans, this is about Democrats cheating their way to electoral victories. That was only the beginning of Johnson’s lies. After a grand jury rejected the criminal indictment of six Democratic lawmakers for making a video urging service members to reject illegal orders, Johnson criticized the decision.
“A line is crossed and it's very serious when you have leaders here in the Senate and House effectively telling members of the military to defy orders,” he told reporters. “It's a very dangerous gambit they were playing.” Let’s be clear: The line Johnson claims was crossed does not exist. Johnson, who claims to be a constitutional law expert, knows that he is supporting members of Congress being indicted for exercising their First Amendment right. Not only was making the video perfectly legal — in fact, it was the right thing to do.
As usual, it was the president who crossed the line when he said that lawmakers participated in “seditious” behavior that should be “punishable by death.” Maybe it’s Trump who should be investigated for inciting and calling for violence.
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