{"id":85247,"date":"2019-02-26T11:00:19","date_gmt":"2019-02-26T15:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=85247"},"modified":"2019-02-26T17:39:08","modified_gmt":"2019-02-26T21:39:08","slug":"oh-here-we-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=85247","title":{"rendered":"Oh, Here We Go…. Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Crown-of-thorns starfish, photo taken by Jon Hanson\/Wiki Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A North Carolina amendment requiring voter ID in North Carolina has been judged to be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/nc-judge-strikes-down-voter-id-amendment<\/a><\/p>\n

Since it\u2019s an amendment to North Carolina\u2019s constitution, not the US Constitution, it is a local issue. The judge who handed down the ruling says it violates the state\u2019s constitution, and that North Carolina is so gerrymandered, the amendment is biased to deprive black voters of their right to vote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWake County Judge Bryan Collins ruled that a new voter ID amendment and a cap on state income tax, both passed by North Carolina residents in the 2018 midterm elections, violated the state constitution.\u201d \u2013 Article.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not sure how requiring a voter ID violates the right to vote, when it is aimed at ending some of the nastier aspects of elections, e.g., dead voters, multiple votes in districts that people don\u2019t live in, etc. \u00a0It has been declared constitutional at the federal level.\u00a0 \u00a0https:\/\/www.carolinajournal.com\/opinion-article\/beware-claims-about-unconstitutional-voter-id\/<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAt the federal level, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld the basic concept of a photo ID rule as constitutional. At the state level, a solid majority of voters decided to build a photo identification requirement into the constitution. You can\u2019t get much more constitutional than that.\u2019 \u2013 Article.<\/p>\n

Chicago\/Cook County has possibly the most notorious reputation for vote corruption, although those episodes from the most recent national elections (sudden discoveries of boxes full of ballots, recounts discovering more Trump votes, trashing mail-in ballots, etc.) show that it has definitely spread to other places.<\/p>\n

Gerrymandering originated in the US, early on. In New York City, it was used by Boss Tweed, who ran things in his district out of Tammany Hall, and wanted to keep his chokehold on what happened. It isn\u2019t something new. \u00a0In this case, the term \u2018gerrymandered\u201d was applied to the voting areas that voted for this amendment to North Carolina\u2019s constitution.\u00a0 The article does not refer at all to the color temperature of the voters, which leaves one guessing at the judge\u2019s assumptions. People tend to move to places where they feel comfortable and safe. I would not feel that way in Englewood or parts of New York City or San Francisco.<\/p>\n

The judge\u2019s opinion of North Carolina? \u201cThe North Carolina General Assembly is so gerrymandered that its members don\u2019t truly represent the people of the state and thus should never have proposed constitutional amendments in the first place, Wake County Superior Court Judge G. Bryan Collins wrote in\u00a0his ruling that was issued<\/a>\u00a0late Friday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Also, I don\u2019t know why Collins thinks a cap on state income tax is unconstitutional. The Taxed Enough Already (TEA) party got its start with an objection to excessive taxation. However, many states have governors who view the population as a bottomless well of money that they can dip into at will. Unfortunately, when you target a specific group like wealthy people, they’ll go away.<\/p>\n

In Illinois, newly-elected Governor Prtizker is already following through on his campaign splotches about raising taxes on people who use the roads a lot.\u00a0 Most likely, he doesn’t know that “road taxes” are built into the taxes per gallon at the fuel pump. I doubt seriously that he ever pumps his own gas at the Citgo or Speedway stations on the highway, nor is it likely that he’s ever pulled into an Iron Skillet truck stop in the middle of a snowstorm, just to get out of the weather.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0https:\/\/www.ta-petro.com\/amenities\/restaurants\/iron-skillet\u00a0<\/a> \u00a0Truckers probably pay more in OTR tax than any other population group, and it’s all buried in fuel taxes and whatever they pay at the toll booths on the interstates.<\/p>\n

Like all people of Pritzker’s ilk, he views more taxes\u00a0 as a way to solve the state\u2019s money problems. Accordingly, he\u2019s also got plans for an increased tax on wealthy people. https:\/\/www.ilnews.org\/news\/state_politics\/live-updates-pritzker-lays-out-plans-for-illinois\/article_62d3a57c-1822-11e9-819d-af3501438900.html<\/a><\/p>\n

There was a rumor circulating for a while that he would inflict an exit tax on people who move out of state, but it was just a rumor.\u00a0I guess he thinks people who build megamansions in the suburbs, or who live in expensive condos in the Loop and the North Shore, are going to stay forever, when the reality is that they don\u2019t. It\u2019s easy enough to up stakes and move across the state line into Indiana or Wisconsin, and telecommute. Seriously, if it weren’t for telecommuting, TAH would not exist.<\/p>\n

Besides, Pritzker’s net worth is about $5.5 billion. How much is he going to cough up in this plan of his?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just a shame that none of these people have the contact with reality that the rest of us have. That includes Judge Collins in North Carolina.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a site allowing debate of the voter ID issue:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.debate.org\/opinions\/are-voter-id-laws-unconstitutional<\/a><\/p>\n

You can go put your $.02 worth into that discussion. Try to keep it short and pleasant.<\/p>\n

Why the crown-of-thorns starfish photo? It’s a parasite that kills off entire coral reefs by feeding on the coral polyps. Nasty critter. Kind of like the taxman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A North Carolina amendment requiring voter ID in North Carolina has been judged to be unconstitutional. … Oh, Here We Go…. Again<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[220,213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-85247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-floggings-will-continue-until-morale-improves","category-your-tax-dollars-at-work"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=85247"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85247\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}