Last Call For Vote For Bon

If you're wondering what Bon The Geek has been up to lately, she's been butting heads with the obnoxious Springfield, MO City Council on a variety of issues.  And it's finally gotten to the point where instead of just airing her grievances, she's doing something about it.

Bon Tindle's experience with Springfield City Council has, thus far, often been in the form of jabs thrown on social media.

That could change in 2017, as Tindle announced Wednesday an intention to run for a seat at the next election.

"I'm going to run a good race, on my own terms, and I'm going to put up a fight like you've never, ever seen before," she wrote in a Facebook post Wednesday morning. "I'm going to do it the way I did it all along, out in the open, listening to people and using my research abilities to find the answers I need to make solid choices."

Tindle, who was especially outspoken during the indecent exposure ordinance debate, said months ago that she didn't plan to run for council. However, she said she received a lot of support to run.

She said Councilman Justin Burnett's resignation and quick reversal earlier this month is what ultimately changed her mind.

Burnett and Councilwoman Kristi Fulnecky have often been at the end of Tindle's barbs. Fulnecky announced last week that she intends to run for mayor in 2017.

While Tindle is not running for mayor, she sees herself as an opponent of Fulnecky.

"I'm ashamed of the spectacle that Burnett and Fulnecky have made of our city," Tindle said in her announcement. "Springfield is a great place to live, but it has its shortcomings. These two, in my mind, represent everything that is wrong with local government. They don't care about the people, they care about doing what they want for their buddies. For themselves, at our expense. Enough."

Tindle lives in Zone 2, but she said she doesn't want to wait until Burnett's seat opens in 2019. In the next election, 2017, Jan Fisk's General Seat A and Craig Hosmer's General Seat B are both up for election. Neither has stated whether they intend to run for re-election.

Tindle said she hasn't decided which seat she'll file for.

I of course will keep you updated, and hopefully Bon will too.  Gotta start fixing things somewhere, and your own local government is a great place to start.

Well Actually, Tennessee Style

A Christian fundamentalist group in Tennessee is trying to sue the state arguing that it has to nullify all marriages since last June in order to stop same-sex marriage.

Just one day after a Tennessee House committee rejected a bill to nullify the Supreme Court’s marriage equality decision, the head of the state’s top conservative organization filed a lawsuithoping to, at the very least, stall same-sex marriage. And he has the support of several state lawmakers. 

David Fowler, head of the Family Action Council of Tennessee (FACT), filed the state suit in Williamson County, asking County Clerk Elaine Anderson to cease issuing marriage licenses until the suit is resolved. His contention relies on a mix of odd technicalities relating to the impact of the Obergefell decision on Tennessee law, particularly the idea that the state’s entire marriage statute was invalidated. He argues that because lawmakers would never have passed a marriage law inclusive of same-sex couples, there is no longer any law stipulating marriage for any couple, and thus all marriage licenses issued in the state since last June are void. This, he fears, exposes the pastors who join him as plaintiffs to liability, because a separate Tennessee statute dictates that it is a Class C misdemeanor to solemnize a wedding between two people not legally eligible to marry, punishable by a $500 fine. 

But Fowler doesn’t hide the fact that his clear intent is to create legal pathways to discriminate against same-sex couples, and perhaps even overturn Obergefell. He lays out his master plan on the FACT website, complete with a flowchart of the way he hopes to manipulate the case to undo marriage equality.

It's the a variation of the same argument Alabama has been using: state lawmakers haven't passed a law that has met with the Supreme Court's ruling, therefore same-sex marriages aren't legal until the law is passed.

The difference is that Fowler's group is arguing that all marriages performed since the Obergfell ruling are null and void because Tennessee's current marriage law, which banned same-sex marriage, would have been thrown out by the ruling, leaving no law governing marriage in the state.

So at this point, the question is "will a judge buy this argument" and will said judge vacate thousands of marriages in the state, including all the same-sex marriages, just to be assholes?

We'll find out.

Just Number One With Racists, Con't

Donald Trump is winning because he represents the Republican Party, and the Republican Party is filled with bigots.  Really is that simple, as Greg Sargent points out.

With less than a week to go before the first voting, the new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows that Donald Trump continues to grow stronger. He sits high above his GOP rivals, with the support of 37 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents nationally. A majority of Trump supporters say they’ll definitely vote for him. Three out of four Republicans think Trump has the best chance of defeating Hillary Clinton, suggesting many GOP voters are coming to see him as a very plausible standard bearer. 

But this one finding from the poll is worth some attention: Trump is absolutely dominating among GOP voters who think immigration weakens American society.

Republicans who think immigration is bad for America overwhelmingly favor Donald Trump (and to a lesser extent, Ted Cruz.)  That's the long and the short of it.  Other candidates are in single digits when it comes to this issue.

"Deport them all" is what Republicans want.  They want Donald Trump.  No need to overthink this, guys.

StupidiNews!

• One person was killed as federal agents arrested Ammon Bundy and several other followers driving to a meeting, however several continue to occupy a wildlife refuge in Oregon.
• MSNBC and the New Hampshire Union-Leader will hold an unsanctioned Democratic debate five days before the state's primary, so far only Martin O'Malley says he will be there.
• Republican front-runner Donald Trump says he will not participate in Thursday's debate before the Iowa Caucuses next week, citing anger at FOX News. 
• Philanthropy to US universities reached a record $40.3 billion in 2015, including a record $1.63 billion in gifts to Stanford, edging out Harvard's $1.1 billion.
• Israeli officials say the country's electricity authority was hit by a major computer hack as the country experienced a cold snap and record electricity consumption.