ShazzieB
ShazzieB's JournalHerschel Walker Told a Georgia Campaign Audience That He Lives in Texas, Because Of Course
“I live in Texas,” Walker said in January of this year, when speaking to University of Georgia College Republicans.
That is a sentence from CNN, which has been doing some good reporting on the question of where Walker lives, including this report which notes that he takes a tax exemption for his Dallas-area Texas home. It is a tax exemption that is only supposed to apply to primary residences.
Here is a visual illustration of the difference between Texas and Georgia:
Per the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, telling college students and tax officials that he lives in Texas does not necessarily disqualify Walker from counting as an “inhabitant” of Georgia under the state’s laws, which is the only standard the Constitution requires senators to meet.
MORE: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/11/herschel-walker-texas-raphael-warnock-georgia-senate-runoff.html#cxrecs_s
I didn't realize that he had once proudly announced that he lives in Texas to a college Republican group, but it figures.
I guess I'd call myself an agnostic.
I think I believe in God, sort of. I feel like there's someone or something out there beyond what I can perceive with my human faculties, and I call him/her/them/it God, because that's the word I learned to use from the time I became capable of thinking about such things. I don't claim to know who or what God is, exactly, but I feel like he/she/they/it exists. I can't prove it, and I'm not the least bit interested in trying to convince anyone else of his/her/their/its existence.
Having said all that to establish where I'm coming from personally, I am appalled by people who are arrogant and presumptuous enough to claim that they know exactly what God wants or intends, and even more appalled by someone claiming that they have the power to make God do their personal bidding (i.e., that "thanks to their fervent prayers, a Red Wave was assured" ).
That anyone thinks they, as a piddly little human, could possibly be THAT important in the overall scheme of things absolutely blows my mind. I'm sure it feels great to tell yourself you have that kind of cosmic significance, but that's ALL it does. It certainly doesn't do them or anyone else any good, and it can lead to horrible things, such as when people decide that God "wants" them to punish those they have decided are evildoers.
People who think like this have the potential to be dangerous. Not all of them are dangerous at all times, but the potential is there. When they mistake their own personal desires and unconscious yearnings for what they call the "voice of God," that enables them to justify almost anything. I actually believe that at least some of them mean well, and some think they mean well (which is not at all the same thing), but that doesn't make them one bit less potentially dangerous.
As long as they are busy getting high on having a direct line to what they believe to be the voice and will of God, they will never see the contradictions or "wonder why he [i.e., God] seems to be siding with the Democrats." They will also continue to have the potential to be dangerous.
The whole thing is very unsettling. 
Carrying out executions took a secret toll on workers -- then changed their politics
This story was originally broadcast on NPR's "All Things Considered." The link below includes a 12 minute audio recording as well as the full text of the segment.
During the past 50 years, 1,556 death sentences have been carried out across the U.S. Hundreds of people like Escobar played a role in each of those executions, and again, hundreds more are getting to work. Five states scheduled seven executions over the last two months of 2022 alone.
There are legal restrictions to revealing the identities of many of the workers while they're employed, and a culture of secrecy tends to keep them quiet long after they leave their posts. But NPR's investigations team spoke with 26 current and former workers who were collectively involved with more than 200 executions across 17 states and the federal death chamber. They were executioners, lawyers, correctional officers, prison spokespeople, wardens, corrections leaders, a researcher, a doctor, an engineer, a journalist and a nurse. Many are sharing their names and stories publicly for the first time.
The answers the workers gave about how their jobs affected them weren't all the same — and neither were their circumstances. A few said they volunteered for the task and that it didn't bother them much. Many more of the people NPR spoke with had little choice in their involvement. Execution work was often a required part of their jobs, and it took a toll.
Most of the workers NPR interviewed reported suffering serious mental and physical repercussions. But only one person said they received any psychological support from the government to help them cope. The experience was enough to shift many of their perspectives on capital punishment. No one who NPR spoke with whose work required them to witness executions in Virginia, Nevada, Florida, California, Ohio, South Carolina, Arizona, Nebraska, Texas, Alabama, Oregon, South Dakota or Indiana expressed support for the death penalty afterward, NPR found.
*snip*
https://www.npr.org/2022/11/16/1136796857/death-penalty-executions-prison
I'd be very interested in hearing whether this article changes anyone's thinking about the death penalty in any way. (Note: You have to read or listen to the whole thing or it doesn't count!
)
Disclaimer: I was already opposed to the death penalty before reading this, and I still am.
NV Senatorial race was just called for CCM! "throws confetti*
Per MSNBC, NBC just called the NV Senatorial race for Catherine Cortez Masto!!!
Trump expected to announce 2024 campaign before end of November
Source: The Guardian
Donald Trump is expected to announce a third White House campaign before the end of November as envoys have quietly started to prepare the groundwork for an aggressive field operation, according to people familiar with the matter, thrusting him into the center of attention ahead of Tuesday’s midterms.
The plans for a potential 2024 campaign have started to accelerate in recent weeks, with the former president and his advisers signalling that an announcement is imminent and aiming to capitalize on his position as the clear frontrunner to seize the GOP nomination.
Expecting broad Republican gains in an array of midterm races, Trump has indicated that he wants to launch his latest presidential campaign around the week of 14 November on the back of that momentum, taking credit for Republican wins that were bolstered by his endorsements and those that were not.
The date, earlier reported by Axios, is not final and partly dependent on GOP performance in the midterms. But Trump has been eager to start a 2024 campaign in part because he believes it could shield him from intensifying criminal investigations by the US justice department.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/nov/06/trump-2024-presidential-run-announcement
Thanks for this link.
I was somewhat familiar with the concept, but not the word. Now I know what to call it.
And yes, I think the other side does believe in preformationism, if not literally, then in a sort of symbolic sense. It comes out in the way they respond when you try to discuss any of this stuff with them in a purely rational way. For example, I've seen them respond to someone pointing out that there's no actual heart present at 5 weeks (or whenever those electrical pulses start) by saying that it doesn't matter, because those cells will eventually develop into the heart. It's as if, to THEM, the heart really IS already there, even though it's.... not? 
The more I think about it, the more sense it makes to view the anti-choicers as preformationists of a sort. I mean, these are people who think there's an actual person present from the moment a sperm penetrates an ovum, that a few pulsating cells = a heart, and ethically disposing of frozen embryos is mass murder. They see ALL of those things as actual humans with the same rights as you and me. If that's not preformationism, I don't know what is!
Is it true that you can't see tweets that are posted here at DU unless you have a Twitter account?
I'm pretty sure I've read comments to that effect, but I don't understand why that would be the case.
I've had a Twitter account for years but never used it much. I just never found it enjoyable. It's too big and impersonal, and writing tiny short posts is just not my style.
Now that You Know Who has taken over, I've seriously thought about deleting my account. But I don't hat means I wouldn't be able to see the tweets people post here, I'm inclined to keep it, at least for now.
That is really the only thing I use Twitter for these days, but it's something I would really miss.
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Name: SharonGender: Female
Hometown: Chicago area, IL
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