Search Results: leading me on

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/10/republicans-are-suddenly-afraid-democracy/616685/
Republicans Are Suddenly Afraid of Democracy

“We’re not a democracy,” Republican Senator Mike Lee tweeted in the middle of Wednesday night’s vice-presidential debate. He was reacting to something he’d heard onstage there, in his home state of Utah. Another tweet: “The word ‘democracy’ appears nowhere in the Constitution, perhaps because our form of government is not a democracy. It’s a constitutional republic. To me it matters. It should matter to anyone who worries about the excessive accumulation of power in the hands of the few.” Hours after the debate Lee was still worrying the thought: “Democracy isn’t the objective; liberty, peace, and prospefity [sic] are. We want the human condition to flourish. Rank democracy can thwart that.”

Why did Lee choose this moment—less than four weeks before an election in which his party seems likely to suffer defeat—to make the familiar, even pedantic, point that we live in a republic rather than a pure democracy? Why did he insist on the point so vehemently that he neglected to mention that power in the American system ultimately lies with the people, which means that our system could also be called a representative democracy? Did he mean rank as in “foul,” “rancid,” or “outright”? If the last, does that mean the tyranny of the majority leading to perverse rule by “the few”? What did this short, misleading course in Civics 101 have to do with anything?

My guess is that Lee wasn’t just being pedantic. Worried about an election in which the people can express their will, Lee was laying the groundwork to contest the results or block an elected majority from governing.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-sc-crowd-50-000-230550142.html
Trump in SC: Tens of thousands pack Pickens. More than 50 treated for heat-related illness

Former President Donald Trump didn't have to do much convincing to impress a hometown crowd of mostly Trump supporters in Pickens Saturday.

Nearly 75 percent of Pickens County voters selected Trump over current President Joe Biden in 2020.

"I love it," Kenny Stoll, a self-described blue-collar iron worker from Summerville, S. C., said of Trump's remarks. "I don't think he lies to the people. He's true to his word and he don't back down. He fights for what's right."

Trump headlined the Pickens Independence Day Spectacular, and supporters came as early as Friday to Pickens in hopes of being among the first on Saturday to see the former president, who is leading in the polls among GOP presidential candidates.

Supporters traveled from as far away as Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Indiana and Florida to attend the rally.

Trump spoke for nearly an hour and a half, and people began leaving before he finished due to the extreme heat.

More than 50 people treated for heat-related illness

https://www.yahoo.com/news/newsmax-staffers-hit-subpoenas-2020-123000533.html
Newsmax Staffers Hit With Subpoenas in 2020 Election Defamation Suit

Dominion Voting Systems’ defamation lawsuit against Fox News laid bare how the network communicated behind the scenes about broadcasting 2020 election misinformation, ultimately leading the network to fork over a massive settlement. Newsmax could be next, as voting technology company Smartmatic has subpoenaed several of the right-wing cable network’s current and former employees for work and personal correspondence.

Several Newsmax insiders, who spoke with Rolling Stone under a condition of anonymity due to a fear of reprisal, said that roughly three weeks ago they were told to hand over “mirror images of their personal cell phone, personal email, and iCloud” as Smartmatic’s lawsuit against the network moves forward.

Smartmaric’s attorney J. Erik Connolly, Managing Chair of the Litigation Practice Group, at Benesch, Friedlander, Coplan & Aronoff, LLC tells Rolling Stone: “Smartmatic intends to pursue discovery from the current and former Newsmax employees who participated in the egregious disinformation campaign against the company. Some of the discovery has come, and will come, from the company. Smartmatic is pursuing these individuals to get the rest. Our complaint does not numerically specify the amount of damages we have suffered.”

Smartmatic claims in their lawsuit that Newsmax knowingly pushed falsehoods about the company following the 2020 presidential election. “Newsmax published and/or republished false statements and implications during news broadcasts, in online reports, and on social media that ‘Smartmatic participated in a criminal conspiracy’ to fix, rig, and steal the Election,” the defamation suit alleges.

Whenever the subject of climate change arises, invariable young people will say that scientists must be trusted. Unfortunately, scientists sometimes lie. Maybe they are lazy and simply fabricate research "results;" maybe they have some unspoken pressures to produce certain results; or maybe they simply have a personal bias that they want to support with "research" results.

Research studies are published in journals that are read by other researchers in the field, and others rely on the published research when they design and analyze their own research. Errors or lies in one study can be perpetuated and infect subsequent research, so the validity of data should always be open to scrutiny instead of the question being shouted down.

Here's a current example of apparently completely fabricated research. . . AT HARVARD UNVERSITY!

https://www.foxnews.com/media/leading-scholar-harvard-accused-fabricating-findings-famous-study-honesty-report

So, do you think research should be blindly accepted or should it be carefully scrutinized and examined for bias or intentional error?

https://news.yahoo.com/trump-demands-gop-rivals-pledge-222001118.html?.tsrc=daily_mail&uh_test=0_00
Trump Demands GOP Rivals Pledge to Pardon Him … or Else

In the days since Donald Trump was indicted, his allies have had a unified demand of his GOP primary rivals: promise to pardon the Donald — or else.

It’s not an accident: In the days leading up to his arraignment, the former president worked the phones to vent about the case to his allies and discuss the way forward. According to a person familiar with the matter and another source briefed on it, Trump had one repeated request for his supporters: go on TV and social media and trash Ron DeSantis for refusing to commit to pardoning Trump.

Trump’s demand advances two goals: The first is to protect himself from legal consequences if he loses both the GOP primary and his federal court case. But given that Trump is telling allies he’ll trounce DeSantis and all other primary challengers, the demand for a pardon pledge appears to be more a political move. The question itself offers a trap for any Republican who tries to engage with it: either side with Trump and use the occasion to keep him in the campaign spotlight or share some uncomfortable real estate on the side of Joe Biden and the Justice Department.