Last Call For The GOP's Race To The Bottom, Con't

Racism isn't a by-product of the GOP, it's the point of the party, especially in Florida.

Florida’s top elections official abruptly resigned Thursday after a newspaper obtained pictures of him in blackface dressed as a Hurricane Katrina victim at a 2005 party.

Secretary of State Michael Ertel, who had been on the job less than three weeks, resigned just hours after he testified about election lawsuits before a state legislative committee.

The Tallahassee Democrat obtained pictures taken at a Halloween party 14 years ago that show Ertel dressed in blackface while wearing earrings, a New Orleans Saints bandanna and fake breasts under a purple T-shirt with “Katrina Victim” written on it. The photos were taken two months after the deadly storm ravaged the Gulf Coast region and eight months after Ertel was appointed Seminole County supervisor of elections. The newspaper hasn’t said how it got the photos or identified the source.

Ertel was the Seminole elections supervisor until new Gov. Ron DeSantis picked him last month to take over the department that oversees elections.

DeSantis said Ertel regretted dressing up in blackface, but he said that he was right to step down after the pictures emerged.

“I want people to be able to lead and not have any of these things swirling around,” said DeSantis, who was in Marianna to discuss hurricane relief efforts for areas hit hard by Hurricane Michael in October.

Bye.

Three weeks on the job and this pops up.  Frankly, this should have been revealed last decade and Ertel's career ended then, but hey, now's good too.

Of course I expect he'll be fine with a nice sinecure somewhere in Right-Wing Noise Land, most likely a Trump Regime position somewhere.

But there was no way Ertel was going to survive as the state's top election officials with Ron DeSantis's racist campaign and current efforts to re-disenfranchise a million-plus black Florida residents fresh on everyone's mind.

Still, not only is the cruelty the point, so is the racism.

A Collegiate DREAM In New York

With the Republicans disguised as Democrats no longer blocking New York's state Senate, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo with no place to hide and no place to run, the Empire State is finally on it way towards long overdue liberal policies like we've seen in California over the years.

Supporters erupted in applause and tears Wednesday as New York lawmakers passed their own version of the DREAM Act. 

The measure shares the same name -- but is different from -- the DREAM Act that's failed to pass in Washington for years. 

Unlike the proposed federal measure, which would give conditional green cards to undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, New York's version is more narrowly focused on another battleground in the immigration debate: college tuition. 

The Jose Peralta New York State DREAM Act: 

• Makes state tuition assistance programs available to undocumented immigrants who attended high school in New York for at least two years and graduated or obtained an equivalency diploma. 

• Creates a "DREAM Fund" -- funded by private contributions -- to give scholarships to the children of immigrants. 

The measure passed the New York State Senate 40-20 and the New York State Assembly 90-37. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to sign it into law. 

Immigrant rights advocates praised the measure as a sign of successful organizing efforts at the state level. Its passage comes as so-called Dreamers, undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children, find themselves in limbo during a political stalemate in Washington. 

New York state lawmakers who voted to pass the measure said it's particularly important at a time when federal authorities have increasingly targeted immigrant communities.

It couldn't have come at a better time too, with Donald Trump getting a constant reminder that in the state he lives in, basically everyone hates his ass.

 

Shutdown Meltdown, Con't

The support pillars for Donald Trump's wall as the longest shutdown in US history drags on are definitely beginning to crack.

A strong majority of Americans blame President Donald Trump for the record-long government shutdown and reject his primary rationale for a border wall, according to a new poll that shows the turmoil in Washington is dragging his approval rating to its lowest level in more than a year.

Overall, 34 percent of Americans approve of Trump’s job performance in a survey conducted by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. That’s down from 42 percent a month earlier and nears the lowest mark of his two-year presidency. The president’s approval among Republicans remains close to 80 percent, but his standing with independents is among its lowest points of his time in office.

“Trump is responsible for this,” said poll respondent Lloyd Rabalais, a federal contractor from Slidell, Louisiana, who’s not affiliated with either political party.

The 47-year-old has been furloughed for more than a month. He said he’d need to start drawing on his retirement savings next week to pay his bills if the shutdown continues.

“I do support a wall, but not the way he’s handling it,” Rabalais added. “Trump guaranteed everybody that Mexico would pay for the wall. Now he’s holding American workers like me hostage.”

The drop in approval comes as Trump begins the third year of his presidency under the weight of the longest government shutdown in U.S. history, an international trade war that’s straining the global economy and new revelations about his push for a real estate deal in Russia during his 2016 campaign.

Trump has similarly abysmal numbers in the latest CBS poll as well.

Seven in 10 Americans don't think the issue of a border wall is worth a government shutdown, which they say is now having a negative impact on the country. But partisans don't want their own side to budge: 65 percent of Republicans say President Trump should refuse a budget unless it includes wall funding, and 69 percent of Democrats think congressional Democrats should keep refusing to fund it.

Among Americans overall, and including independents, more want to see Mr. Trump give up wall funding than prefer the congressional Democrats agree to wall funding. Comparably more Americans feel House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is handling negotiations better than the president is so far.
Republicans are more divided than Democrats are on whether the shutdown is worth it.

Pelosi is seen as doing a better job than Mr. Trump on handling the negotiations over the shutdown. Partisans divide on this, while independents give the edge to Pelosi.

Overall, two-thirds of the country now say Republicans should agree to fund the government without any money for the wall, according to CBS.  That's a fatal position for the GOP to be in, and Mitch McConnell knows it.  Trump's approval rating according to CBS has dropped to 36% and falling. It's gotten so bad that Americans are remembering things like "general strikes" exist.

Something's going to give, and soon.

StupidiNews!

• Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine says he will "absolutely" sign the state's unconstitutional "heartbeat" abortion ban bill, making the Buckeye State the most populous state to effectively ban abortion. 
• Five are dead after a mass shooting and hostage situation at a bank branch in central Florida, police have a 21-year-old white male suspect in custody.
• Senate Democrats are asking the federal government to continue to pay health insurance premiums for furloughed workers, premium bills will be due as soon as this week for some employees.
• Iowa GOP Sen. Joni Ernst say that she was sexually assaulted in college, and that her husband Gail physically abused her as she has now filed for divorce.
• Google spent a record $21 million on lobbying lawmakers in 2018, up $3 million from last year, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple all increased lobbying payments last year.