That is what it looks like. You sign a petition and the next thing you know you got policed on your front door where all your neighbors can see the police cars. To me that sounds a lot like the governor is trying to prevent people from signing a petition for a ballot question.
And that would be a slap in the face to DeSantis. How dare they vote against him!
Salon writes about what set this all off.
All the signatures have been verified already by the state’s Secretary of State as being valid! This is all about the Republican “Big Lie” about voter fraud. It is like Joseph Goebbels, Nazi propaganda minister said that if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth and that is what the Republicans are doing with election fraud. There hasn’t been found any election fraud but the Republicans use the lie to pass draconian election laws.
Couple that with getting a knock on the door by the police and it all boils down to voter intimidation. Florida Politics reports,
That’s the Republican way… gerrymandering, closing of polling places in liberal enclave, stricter voter ID laws that make it hard for minorities to get their required IDs, making it hard to get mail-in ballot, and removing ballot drop boxes in minority districts. And now this!
Vote Blue for liberty! Vote Blue to stop the attacks on voter rights!
Voter intimidation! Pure and simple!DeSantis’ election police questioned people who signed abortion petitions
Two residents of Lee County said they were questioned at their homes about the validity of petition signatures.
Tampa Bay Times
By Romy Ellenbogen, Justin GarciaTimes, and Lawrence Mower
September 6, 2024Isaac Menasche remembers being at the Cape Coral farmer’s market last year when someone asked him if he’d sign a petition to get Florida’s abortion amendment on the ballot.
He said yes — and he told a law enforcement officer as much when one showed up at the door of his Lee County home earlier this week.
Menasche said he was surprised when the plainclothes officer twice asked if it was really Menasche who had signed the petition. The officer said he was looking into potential petition fraud.
Though the officer was professional and courteous, Menasche, who has had little interaction with police in his life, said the encounter left him shaken.
“I’m not a person who is going out there protesting for abortion,” Menasche said. “I just felt strongly and I took the opportunity when the person asked me, to say yeah, I’ll sign that petition.”
The officer’s visit appears to be part of a broad — and unusual — effort by Gov. Ron DeSantis’ administration to inspect thousands of already verified and validated petitions for Amendment 4 in the final two months before Election Day. The amendment would overturn Florida’s six-week abortion ban by proposing to protect abortion access in Florida until viability.
Castellanos said she felt intimidated by having a law enforcement officer come to her door. And she said she was “surprised but not surprised” when she learned it was about Amendment 4. She said she thinks if Florida could do away with abortion entirely, it would.
Last year, DeSantis, a Republican, signed into a law a ban on abortion after six weeks of pregnancy. In response, pro-choice campaigners gathered and submitted nearly one million signatures to place on the ballot Amendment 4, a referendum that would overturn the ban and restore reproductive rights in the state.
Now Florida's Department of State is claiming it suspects fraud in the signature-gathering process. In an email to county election officials, the department's Brad McVay requested that they hand over their already-verified petitions so that the signatures can be reexamined, claiming without evidence that those who circulated the petitions "represent known or suspected fraudsters," Tampa Bay television station WTVT reported.
FL Dems call for probe of 2 state agencies, accusing them of meddling in abortion amendment campaignWait A Minute! Is that legal for a state agency to make a lie that that?
Action News Jax
By Jake Stofan
September 09, 2024
Florida Democrats are calling for investigations into two state agencies, alleging they are attempting to interfere with a ballot measure aimed at expanding abortion access that is set to appear on the November ballot.
Posted on the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration’s website, you’ll now find this lengthy information page, warning voters, “Amendment 4 threatens women’s safety.”
The page claims the amendment that seeks to expand abortion access in the state would lead to unregulated and unsafe abortions, and that it fails to define terms like “patient health,” “health care provider,” and “viability.”
Monday, the agency went a step further, posting this video on social media, defending Florida’s current abortion laws.
“We’re going to be looking at every legal and legislative means possible to make sure the people of this state have an opportunity to vote for Amendment 4 without intimidation and government intrusion,” Nikki Fried, Chair of the Florida Democratic Party, said.
“This should really shock everybody. That we are using government money, our taxpayer dollars, is not only illegal, but again this goes way above anything that we have even seen under a DeSantis administration,” Fried said.
Couple that with getting a knock on the door by the police and it all boils down to voter intimidation. Florida Politics reports,
Undermining the will of voters and stomping over their democratic freedoms.'
Is Gov. Ron DeSantis going too far in trying to defeat an amendment to restore abortion access?
That’s what one group says.
“Gov. DeSantis is using his election police to intimidate voters who dare to have beliefs that differ from his. This opens the door towards making voters and all Floridians feel unsafe for voicing their constitutionally protected opinions on important issues like abortion,” says All Voting is Local Action’s Florida State Director Brad Ashwell.
“It’s been clear from day one that the purpose of the election police was to harass voters who don’t have the same viewpoints as the governor. By going after a petition for Amendment 4, which is already on the ballot, Gov. DeSantis is undermining the will of voters and stomping over their democratic freedoms for his own political gain,” Ashwell adds.
Vote Blue for liberty! Vote Blue to stop the attacks on voter rights!
Did you watch the debate last night? So what did you think about the debate?
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| Aliens eating Cats |
I watched about half of it and I couldn't stand Trump lies after lies... so I turned it off just after the "childless cat lady's cats were eaten by some really, really, bad Haitian undocumented immigrants.
Here are some foreign news media outlet take on the debate.
Former president dealt further blow after combative ABC News encounter as Taylor Swift formally announces she is endorsing his rival Kamala HarrisThe IndependentBy Joe Sommerlad, Gustaf Kilander, and Mike BediganSeptember 11, 2024Donald Trump appeared to fall apart in his first head-to-head debate with Kamala Harris in Philadelphia on Tuesday evening, providing rambling answers on illegal immigration, abortion and the economy and taking the bait whenever he was goaded by his opponent.The candidates shared an unexpected handshake as they took to the stage, with Harris introducing herself and catching the Republican off guard.When the debate got underway, Trump went off on wild, yet familiar tangents about his rally crowd sizes, the whereabouts of Joe Biden and recently debunked claims accusing Haitian immigrants of stealing and eating domestic pets in Springfield, Ohio.Harris, meanwhile, used her time to cycle through Trump’s legacy of racist attacks, professional falings and his culpability for the Capitol riot.
*****
ReutersBy James Oliphant and Gram SlatterySeptember 11, 2024Democrat Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump met on Tuesday for their first and perhaps only debate, a square-off that could have a significant impact on the Nov. 5 election as polls show a tight race.Here are takeaways from the debate:RILING HER RIVALHarris made a point to get under Trump's skin, as her campaign had forecast - and it worked.She urged viewers to attend a Trump rally, where she said Trump would say bizarre things such as windmills cause cancer (something he has, in fact, said) and where, she taunted, attendees would leave out of exhaustion and boredom (something they have, in fact, done.)Trump, who prides himself on the crowds he draws, was clearly riled."My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics," he said. He accused Harris of busing in attendees to her rallies.Trump then falsely claimed that immigrants in the country illegally were killing and eating people's pets in the city of Springfield, Ohio, an unsubstantiated assertion that has circulated on social media and been amplified by Trump's vice presidential running mate JD Vance.WEAPONIZED' JUSTICETrump and Harris accused each other of conspiring to "weaponize" the Justice Department in a bid to go after their enemies.Trump said the indictments he faces for conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss and for his mishandling of classified documents - as well as his conviction for forging documents related to hush money payments to a porn star - are all the result of a conspiracy cooked up by Harris and Biden. There is no evidence for that assertion.Harris shot back by pointing out that Trump has promised to prosecute his enemies if he wins a second term."Understand this is someone who has openly said he would terminate, I'm quoting, terminate the Constitution," Harris said.
*****Kamala Harris and Donald Trump discuss they would break through the stalemate and reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.Jerusalem PostBy HANNAH SARISOHNSEPTEMBER 11, 2024Almost an hour into the presidential debate on Tuesday night, debate moderators David Muir and Lindsey Davis asked Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump how they would break through the stalemate and reach a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.Harris answered first, saying, "let's understand how we got here. On October 7, Hamas, a terrorist organization, slaughtered 1200 Israelis, many of them young people, who were simply attending a concert. Women were horribly raped.""And so absolutely I said then, I say now, Israel has a right to defend itself. We would," she said. "How it does so matters, because it is also true, far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed; children, mothers. What we know is that this war must end. It must end immediately."[…]When it was Trump's turn to answer the question on Israel, he began by talking about Russia, saying President Putin would've never gone into Ukraine if he were president.Trump then repeated a claim he said last week when addressing the Republican Jewish Coalition, that Israel would not exist under Harris."But when she mentions Israel, all of a sudden, she hates Israel. She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers. She went to go to the sorority party," Trump said. "She hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, and I've been pretty good at predictions."While Harris's microphone was off, she could be seen mouthing, "oh, come on," as Trump said this.
Now I have to add this “Oh, come on,” for those who don’t remember when Trump wanted to pull out of NATO.
*****
The Democratic and Republican candidates traded plenty of accusations. Do they hold up to factual scrutiny?AljazeerSeptember 11, 2024Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump met face to face for the first time in Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia.During the debate, they exchanged various accusations; here, we fact-check the candidates’ claims.Harris ‘wouldn’t even meet’ NetanyahuTrump: Harris “wouldn’t even meet with” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers.”Half true.This needs context. Harris did skip Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of the US Congress on July 24. She was busy making a previously scheduled keynote speech to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority.However, Harris met Netanyahu face-to-face the following day. After that meeting, she doubled down on support for Israel, committing to its defence, but also referred to the growing death toll of the war in Gaza, in which more than 41,000 people have been killed, and said she would not stay silent.[…]Trump misleads about military equipment in AfghanistanTrump: The US “left $85bn worth of brand new, beautiful military equipment behind” in Afghanistan.False.The figure is far lower than Trump stated. When the Taliban toppled Afghanistan’s civilian government in 2021, it inherited military hardware the US gave to the government.However, an independent inspector general report told Congress that only about $7bn of US-funded equipment remained in the Taliban’s hands. According to the report, “The US military removed or destroyed nearly all major equipment used by US troops in Afghanistan throughout the drawdown period in 2021.”[…]Additional ‘Trump sales tax’ of $4,000Harris: “Economists have said that the Trump sales tax would actually result for middle-class families in about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be the backs of middle-class people paying for tax cuts for billionaires.”Half true.Trump has repeatedly proposed wide-ranging tariffs on foreign goods, including an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent to 20 percent and a 60 percent levy on goods from China. Although tariffs are imposed separately from the tax system, consumers would feel their effect much the same way as taxes.However, the specific dollar impact on consumers varies. Two estimates we found generally support Harris’s $4,000 figure; two show a smaller, though still significant, impact.
*****
NHK News JapanUS Vice President Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump have faced off in a high-stakes televised debate in Philadelphia.Over the course of 90 minutes, the candidates sparred over key issues including immigration, foreign policy, and the US economy.Harris said: "I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America... His plan is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations which will result in five trillion dollars to America's deficit."Trump said: "Look, we've had a terrible economy because inflation has, which is really known as a country buster, breaks up countries. We have inflation like very few people have ever seen before... I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country. I'll do it again, and even better."
Update: 9/12 @ 8AMIn the poll everyone but one agreed that VP Harris won the debate, one person thought it was a draw. A draw? What debate did you watch.
Wake up America!!! Don’t let Trump fool you. Vote Blue. He’ll only ruin our country. Avoid the January 6 question avoided a lot of questions. Can’t let the Cheeto win
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