Tuesday Twitter roundup

Submitted by scharrison on

The bells are tolling for Richard Burr:

I'm still skeptical that he will receive any meaningful punishment, unless his own party decides to throw him under the bus. We'll see.

I'm liable to tick off a few people who read this, but I don't care. I was one of the primary caregivers of my mom in her declining years, and I helped her to vote several times. That included the one (and only) time she voted absentee by mail. The requirement to have two witnesses, one of which must not be a family member, or using a notary public, is an unnecessary and potentially embarrassing hassle. And during this current pandemic, a potentially deadly hassle.

We were lucky her next-door neighbor was home, and didn't mind coming over to witness (along with me). But being the "instruction following" guy that I am, I made sure she did not cast her votes until we were both in attendance watching. Far enough away that we couldn't tell who she picked, but close enough to see her making her marks.

This may not sound like such a big deal, but what about voters who live alone with no family close enough to help, and no neighbors close enough to walk over? And while a notary is not permitted to charge a fee for witnessing a ballot, that doesn't mean they will make a house call for free. Florida (and several other states) have done away with this requirement, and so should NC. But Republicans will never allow it as long as they rule the General Assembly.

I'd rather have lasik surgery done by somebody with the shakes than read any nonsense from Bob Luddy...

Um, you don't pass a bill like that when our front-line health care workers are dying because they don't have personal protective equipment. Ted Budd is an idiot, and apparently a dangerous one at that.

You're not very smart, are you? This is akin to saying we no longer need the Clean Smokestacks law because our air quality has improved. Sheesh.

Actually, to hell with privacy concerns. It is impossible to oversee the ethical distribution of taxpayer's money if we don't know who's getting it. And since the Trump administration has perfected the art of patronage, the SBA itself is prone to be subverted.

You post that list like it's not something about which to be embarrassed...

I endorse this message, and this candidate.

I'd really like to read that, but the Wilson Times paywall is like Fort Fricking Knox. And before you say it, I'm already paying for four different online news subscriptions. And I ain't giving up Netflix in exchange for the Wilson Times...

Again, these people are not very smart, at all. Many of those millions unaffected can (and should) thank the Governor for their continued health, and see nonsense like this for what it is: Tone-deaf partisan ranting.

Actually, I don't think it is legal. From a 2019 WaPo article:

An elected official in Virginia violated the First Amendment when she temporarily blocked a constituent on Facebook, a federal appeals court ruled Monday, in a novel case with implications for how government officials nationwide interact with constituents on social media.

The unanimous ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit is the first from an appeals court to answer the question of whether free speech protections prevent public officials from barring critics from their social media feeds.

Joshua A. Geltzer, executive director at Georgetown Law’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, said the 4th Circuit ruling is significant because the digital social media space is now the equivalent of a physical public meeting, where most political dialogue occurs.

“In the case of the Loudoun official and the president, both have gone out of their way to use their social media presence in an official capacity and to encourage public participation,” Geltzer said. "A platform has been created in which the government can’t allow the voices it likes and silence the ones it doesn’t like,” he said.

Unfortunately, you'd have to pursue a lawsuit yourself to get relief, because no laws were changed or created by this decision.

Not nearly enough to fix the problem:

To put the announcement in perspective, a staff attorney at Forward Justice noted that more than 50 prisons in North Carolina are potentially releasing 500 incarcerated people — the number DPS is reviewing — but that wouldn’t even remove 10 individuals from each facility.

Brian Elderbroom, president of consulting firm Justice Reform Strategies, calculated that as of Monday, North Carolina was operating at 8% over capacity, and DPS would need to release at least 2,647 individuals from custody to provide minimal protection for incarcerated people and correctional staff.

The calculation is based on DPS’ daily inmate count and the North Carolina Sentencing and Policy Advisory Commission’s (SPAC) report with the operating capacity.

“Every elected official and criminal justice practitioner must act urgently to save lives right now, but our state leaders also need to reckon with a hard truth,” Elderbroom said. “North Carolina has an incarceration crisis that has been laid bare by this pandemic and we can not go back to business as usual. The SPAC projection showing significant growth over the next decade, at a time when most states are safely reducing prison populations, was an alarm bell before COVID-19, and decarceration is more important now than ever before.”

Just to provide some context, three prisoners at Butner just died from COVID 19, and close to 100 others there are infected. NC's facilities are just as overcrowded as Federal prisons, and some of them are really bad. This needs to be fixed, asap.

The only "aggressive" actions Trump has taken are stealing PPE from states who coordinated their own purchases and insulting female reporters who dared to ask him questions. His entire response has been a glaring failure, and anybody who believes otherwise is as delusional as he is.

On that infuriating note, here's your Onion:

Honestly, he is just dumb enough to say something like that.

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