Category: News & Comment

DeSantis Wields Extra-Legal Powers to Fight Florida Abortion, Pot Amendments

Pensito Editors


Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis just can’t help himself: If there is a way to wield authoritarian power to advance his own political ends, he will do it and Florida law and Floridians be damned.

The Tampa Bay Times has reported on Puddin Fingers’ latest nefarious attempt to undermine Amendment 3, which would legalize recreational marijuana use. Herr Governor used the Florida Department of Transportation to issue a 30-second public service announcement paid with state funds asserting that “DUI crashes increase in states with legalized marijuana, putting everyone at risk.”

Except: The preliminary results of an Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study of injured drivers who visited emergency rooms in California, Colorado and Oregon showed that drivers who used marijuana alone were no more likely to be involved in crashes than drivers who hadn’t used the drug. That is consistent with a 2015 study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that found that a positive test for marijuana was not associated with increased risk of being involved in a police-reported crash.

But that’s not all. Not content to let the citizens of Florida make up their own minds about access to reproductive medical treatment, the failed presidential candidate and go-go boot–wearing governor also sent his private army of goons to the homes of people who had signed a petition to get Amendment 4 on the ballot to ostensibly corroborate that they actually signed the petition, which would overturn Florida’s Draconian six-week abortion law. This, after the deadline to challenge the petition had passed.That was a ham-handed and clearly illegal use of state resources to further MeatBall Ron’s personal agenda.
[…]

Trump and Wealthy Donors Have Started Undermining the 2024 Election Results

Pensito Editors

ABC News

Judd Legum at Popular Information offers a pretty good explainer on how Donald Trump and billionaire asshats like Peter Theil are already calling into question the results of the presidential election before a single vote has been cast. It’s rich that Trump is accusing the U.S. Postal Service of ineptitude in handling mail-in votes, since the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, is a Trump appointee:

There are 49 days until Election Day in the United States. Although the presidential race remains extremely close, Donald Trump and his allies have escalated their efforts to undermine the results.

In a post to Truth Social on Sunday morning, Trump falsely claimed that the United States Postal Service (USPS) “has admitted that it is a poorly run mess that is experiencing mail loss and delays at a level never seen before.” Trump asked, “how can we possibly be expected to allow or trust the U.S. Postal Service to run the 2024 Presidential Election?”

Read more here.

34th First Annual Ig Nobel Prizes Feature Dead Trout, Guidance Pigeons, Drunk Worms

Buck Banks

From IFL Science:

The 2024 Ig Nobel Prizes have been announced, and once again prove that science can be funny, which only sometimes gets in the way of it being good.

Highlights this year include research comparing the movements of live and dead trout, and sober and drunk worms. Apparently, being drunk may harm a worm’s capacity for movement more than being dead interferes with trout’s.

The Ig Nobel awards each year honor (or dishonor) research that “first makes you laugh, and then makes you think.” One such discovery won this year’s Ig Nobel for Medicine with the revelation that side-effects may make medicine more effective. How did the authors discover this important information? They gave people placebos (ie fake medications with no ingredients targeted at their condition). The capacity of the human mind to heal ourselves, at least partially, when given a treatment we think will work is remarkable, but requires some sort of belief.

Trump Serves Word Salad Answer on Funding for Childcare – Mainstream Media Ignores His Dysphasia Again

Pensito Editors
Donald Trump serving up word salad at the Economic Club of New York, Sept. 5, 2024
Donald Trump serving up word salad at the Economic Club of New York, Sept. 5, 2024

Question from panelist Reshma Saujani, founder of the nonprofit Girls Who Code and its campaign to help mothers, Moms First: “If you win in November, can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?”

Answer from former President and current GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump: “Well, I would do that and we’re sitting down, you know, I was, somebody, we had Senator Marco Rubio and my daughter, Ivanka was sooo..uh..impactful on that issue. It’s a very important issue… But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I’m talking about, that, because, the child care is, child care is ..couldn’t, you know, there’s something you’d have to have it in this country, you have to have it. uh but when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers that I’m talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that..they’re not used to but they’ll get used to it very quickly. And it’s not gonna stop them from doing business with us, but they’ll have a very substantial tax when they send product into our Country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers we’re talking about including child care…that it’s gonna take care. We’re gonna have. I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time. Coupled with the reductions that I told you about on waste and fraud and all the other things that are going on in our country. Because I have to stay with child care..I wanna stay with child care but those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I’m talking about including growth..but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just..uhh..that I just told you about, we’re gonna be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as child care..uhh..is talked about as being expensive, it’s relatively speaking not very expensive compared to the kinda of numbers we’ll be taking in. We’re gonna make this into an incredible country that can afford to take care of it’s people…and then we’ll worry about the rest of the World. Let’s help other people. But we’re gonna take care of our country first, this is about America first, is about Make America Great Again. We have to do it because right now we’re a failing nation. So we’ll take care of it. Thank you.”

Here is Kamala Harris’ answer to a similar question:

[…]

Trump Campaign Wastes Donations on Broadcasting Ads Targeted at Mar-a-Lago

Pensito Editors

Newsweek: George Conway, a conservative attorney and critic of former President Donald Trump, is targeting the Republican nominee in his own neighborhood with a six-figure attack.

Conway’s Anti-Psychopath PAC launched a new ad campaign on Thursday that will highlight Trump’s “mental unfitness for office.” It will run for two weeks on Fox News, ESPN, and the Golf Channel around Bedminster and Mar-a-Lago.

The 60-second cable TV ad begins with Conway telling the viewer, “Donald Trump has never, ever been right in the head,” before showing a montage of the former president superimposed onto an image of Trump’s brain.

“Donald Trump wanted to make this election all about mental fitness,” George Conway said in a press release. “We’re good with that. Even before he began showing age-related cognitive decline, Trump had a long history of doing and saying bizarre things.”

Now the Trump campaign is responding by counterprogramming Conway’s ad and, like his Anti-Psychopath PAC ad, the pro-Trump ad will only be shown around Trump’s residence.
[…]