January 31, 2023

New Mexico appears to be a bastion of American Democracy. Maybe the DOJ should send Trump there.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/new-mexico-is-indicting-its-criminal.html

Couy Griffin, a former Otero County Commissioner, also founder of "Cowboys for Trump," a notorious election denier, participated in the sedition of the January 6th Trump Insurrection and as a result of his criminal disloyalty to the United States, was removed from his post by a judge who cited his violation of a clause in the 14th amendment. The judge used the term "insurrection" in his ruling, and not only removed Griffin as a county commissioner, but also ruled that he may not hold any elected state or federal government position in the future.

Solomon Pena, who was mercilessly beaten into the ground by voters in losing a race for a state house seat by a 74% to 26% margin in November, decided to follow Trump's insurrectionist plan by screaming the election fraud lie and then hiring some help to shoot up the homes of victorious Democratic officials, resorting to violent attacks against those who were elected by the will of the people. After a relatively short period of time, a Bernalillo County judge has decided that the potential for Pena, or some of his supporters, committing more violence warranted not only the highest level of indictment allowed by the law, but also holding him in jail until his trial.

Look how fast justice moved in New Mexico. Pena has been arrested, indicted and held within a month. One month. Griffin wound up in court and off the commission in less than six months after he was charged.

Perhaps, for the sake of democracy, and for protecting the American people from more violence, the DOJ should send Trump to state courts in New Mexico.

January 30, 2023

Why are we, as Americans, allowing this?

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/why-are-we-as-americans-allowing-this.html

A criminal who led one of the most corrupt presidencies in American history is on the campaign trail seeking election to a second term. That's exactly the opposite of what should be happening in a country that claims it is a "nation of laws." If the Constitution of the United States, which guarantees the civil rights of the people in whose hands lies the full power of government, cannot prevent a corrupt, criminal, insurrectionist from entering a political campaign to get back into the most powerful political position in the world, after his crimes and corruption have been revealed, then how can it protect the rights of its citizens?

January 30, 2023

Florida Governor, Legislature is motivating students to learn things they are censoring from schools

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/the-best-way-to-make-sure-i-learn-about.html

Censorship invites investigation. And in a free society, there are always detours around the prohibitions and restrictions.

I think we are about to see just how creative a group of teachers and college professors can be in helping their students have access to all kinds of ideas as the censorship of the state government motivates the curiosity of those who will now be looking to learn all about what their governor doesn't want them to know. Educators in America have done an outstanding job of finding ways to exercise their academic freedom. We've already seen some examples of this.

As conservatives complained that CRT was being promoted by schools and colleges, it really didn't have anywhere near that kind of coverage or promotion. But now, even as states like Virginia and Florida have restricted any kind of instruction their small minded legislatures and governors deem "woke", CRT is coming to the forefront of the media, being explained by experts, discussed in all kinds of forums and people are realizing that it is not the bugaboo the extremists make it out to be. It's not a Marxist plot for taking over the country, it's a theory that is the product of the conditions of the society that produced it. And as it gets more exposure, even though it has been banned from schools, those who are using it as a political bombshell lose credibility because of their false presentation of it.

January 27, 2023

Brian Sicknick's Mother makes the case against the Trump Insurrectionists

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/gladys-sicknicks-victim-impact.html

This should be in every social media outlet and on every major news outlet.

January 24, 2023

Stealing our democracy with lies and conspiracy theories

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/stealing-our-democracy-with-lies-and.html

Education is the key to an informed electorate, which is the key to preserving democracy.

When Trump ran for the GOP nomination in 2016, the signs of Russian influence and involvement were everywhere. I try to keep an open mind, look at facts and not jump to conclusions, but it now appears that not only was Putin's government involved in helping Trump get elected to the Presidency, it was also involved in suppressing information about its involvement and some of that suppression occurred within the intelligence branches tasked with the responsibility of preventing it. The FBI agent who was involved in an investigation of the link between Trump and Russia who declared that there was no evidence of any such link was just arrested for secret connections to Oleg Deripaska, the Russian oligarch who was named in those links.

That raises a reasonable question. Shouldn't this arrest and discovery of the agent's connection to Russia's most influential and powerful oligarch raise some red flags and direct attention back to Trump's collusion? Isn't that evidence to add to the pile already gathered as proof of Trump's intentions to overthrow the government of the United States by insurrection? My answer to both of those questions is yes, but that's because I'm a patriotic American who sees that there is real danger for American democracy, and the individual rights that it protects, in the conspiracy theories, lies, election denialism and everything else related to the far right extremism I call Trumpism. It's also yes because this isn't rocket science and it doesn't take a Harvard education to see this and figure it out.

And why, when this arrest was made, wasn't this front-page and headliner news everywhere, all day, like the discovery of a few allegedly classified documents in Biden's old office was?

January 23, 2023

Some things I think make sense.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/some-things-that-i-think-make-sense.html

It almost appears intentional, on Biden's part, that documents found in his office led to a search of his private residence as well. After all of the caterwauling done by Trumpie apologists and by Trump himself over "searching the private residence of a former President," here we have a search of the private residence of a sitting President. This nullifies that complaint for sure.

The reaction of the sitting President to this discovery, to the searches and to the appointment of a special counsel, has, at least as far as I am concerned, put this in perspective. My guess is that the documents found in Biden's possession are not currently classified, or have been de-classified long ago. He wouldn't have had them otherwise. Maybe they were overlooked, but maybe those who were going through the files had an inventory list similar to what the FBI had when it came to Trump's hundreds of classified documents and they picked up everything Biden had that was on that list. And I will believe his explanation and whatever he has to say about it, because, yes, he is that trustworthy.

That's just my speculation of course. But it involves comparing the relative integrity of Joe Biden to Donald Trump, and that's no contest at all. Really, this is why all the drama in the media, the sort of "na-na-na-na-boo-boo, Biden did it too" narrative they are pushing is incredibly laughable nonsense. No matter how excellent our FBI agents may be, there's not a single one of them who could ever find Donald Trump's credibility.

January 23, 2023

Abusive pastor applauded and welcomed back to the ministry in Evangelical denomination

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/ovations-accolades-return-to-pulpit-and.html

In spite of the bad publicity, the humiliation for Southern Baptists who have arrogantly pointed fingers at Catholics for years over their clergy abuse scandal, and the rising cost of litigation, it does not seem that everyone in the denomination recognizes or acknowledges the serious nature of this issue. While the more conservative branch of Southern Baptists, which accounts for much of the abuse and most of the denial of it, helps support extremist right wing politics, and the lies, immorality and corruption at the top of that heap, and buy into Q-Anon conspiracy theories about "grooming," they are turning their backs on some real, genuine, "grooming" that is going on within their own ranks. Some are pointing out that no task force, set up by the denomination, has the authority to do anything to a church that determines not to cooperate with it.

Keep an eye on what's going on here, both from the perspective of high profile, well known Southern Baptist sex abusers who find their way back into a pulpit, and the gravy train, somewhere, and the politicians who ally themselves with these hypocrites in order to downplay their own sinfulness.

January 19, 2023

Ron Desantis labelled the "Anti-woke prophet" of Evangelicals

https://baptistnews.com/article/ron-desantis-the-anti-woke-prophet-of-evangelicals/

DeSantis seems to label anything he opposes as “wokeness.” He is definitely making a list, checking it twice, determined to find out who is too naughty to teach in a Florida university.

DeSantis’ anti-wokeness campaign threatens to trample on free speech, academic freedom and faculty tenure — simply because the governor believes he has the right to do this as a means to win the presidency.

Make no mistake: DeSantis is an ambitious politician, but he fights like an evangelical culture war preacher. This is not really political; it’s religious. Doing his best impression of a fiery evangelical preacher, DeSantis thunders, “This wokeness, it’s a religion of the left, and it’s infecting a lot of institutions: Big Corporate America, Big Tech, the bureaucracy, of course academia. It is wokeness, a form of cultural Marxism.”

January 19, 2023

If George Santos were a Democrat...

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/if-george-santos-were-democrat.html

If Santos were a Democrat, he'd already be facing the ethics committee, not the softball throwing one that belongs to the GOP now, but a real ethics committee. He'd have to make his own way, without party assistance or endorsement. And the Democratic party leadership would be strongarming him into stepping down. That's quite a contrast to McCarthy, who is doing, well, absolutely nothing.

If it was Nancy Pelosi who was in charge, it wouldn't have gone this far. Someone else would have been running for that seat the moment it became known that he was a phony, no matter how late it was in the campaign cycle. If he had managed to get into the house before his scam was detected, she would have gone to him privately and put pressure on him to resign.

Get the popcorn and pull up a chair. This should be a lot of fun.

January 18, 2023

Extremists are infiltrating school boards; Texas Panel advocates ways to counter them.

https://signalpress.blogspot.com/2023/01/education-is-essential-to-preservation.html

A panel discussion held in the Southlake school district in Texas, where the board is in the process of being taken over by extremist right wingers who want to set the agenda, promoted ways people can counter these actions, by showing up at school board meetings on a regular basis, and by VOTING.

Elections have consequences, even at the school board level. And I would add, especially at the school board and municipal level. That's where groups under the larger umbrella of right wing extremism are making inroads to plan their ideology in the minds of students and subvert American democracy, making it into what they want, which is some kind of Christian nationalist dictatorship. They advocate censorship, removal of the academic freedom of teachers and the use of schools to indoctrinate students in what they call "American Exceptionalism," which is white supremacy, not so cleverly disguised.

These right wing extremists have set up local organizations to encourage their people to run for school boards whether they have an interest in the school or not, city councils, county boards of supervisors, from which they can control the local policies and get their agenda in place. They're planting their extremism into the school curriculum, especially in states where the departments of education will let them do it. They've lost the younger generations, so this is their attempt at trying to get their ideology in place.