Rancid wrote:I predict a Trump rout. Assuming he's not in prison for financial fraud.
If Trump runs I can see him winning a squeaker, even comfortably, but not a rout. There's probably too many like me that won't vote for the man no matter who his opponent is.
And an interesting bit of election news:
Indiana officials reject ballot challenge to GOP Rep. BanksIndiana officials rejected on Friday an attempt to kick Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Banks off of the ballot over claims that he violated the Constitution by allegedly supporting last year’s U.S. Capitol insurrection.
The state election commission, which is made up of two Republicans and two Democrats, voted unanimously against the challenge filed by a long-shot Democratic candidate for Banks’ northeastern Indiana district.
An attorney for Banks argued that the allegations were baseless and that removing Banks from the ballot would deprive his supporters of their preferred representative in Congress.
“Congressman Banks has publicly commented that he did not support that conduct, nor did he engage in it, and he has also called for the prosecution of unlawful conduct that occurred that day,” attorney Paul Mullins said.
Democrat Aaron Calkins, of Fort Wayne, told the commission he believed Banks violated the 14th Amendment’s ban on members of Congress engaging in “insurrection or rebellion” by backing the efforts of then-President Donald Trump and his supporters to overturn President Joe Biden’s election.
Banks, an outspoken Trump supporter, was rejected last year by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as the top Republican for the committee investigating the Capitol insurrection, which was followed by House GOP leadership boycotting the panel.
A similar challenge on 14th Amendment grounds is pending against North Carolina Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
Banks, who is seeking reelection from a heavily Republican district he first won in 2016, criticized the ballot challenge as a “bogus theory” against Republicans like him who voted in the hours after the siege to overturn Biden’s Electoral College win, which has been upheld by a succession of judges and state election officials
“Many Democrats in Washington hope to weaponize the 14th amendment to disenfranchise President Trump’s 74 million voters,” Banks said in a statement. “I hope they watched today’s unanimous decision.”
Paul Okeson, the Indiana commission’s Republican chairman, said the Capitol riot was a “regrettable mark in history” but that there was no evidence that Banks was guilty of taking part in an insurrection.
Yup, two major problems (though of course AP only really covers one). First, there's zero evidence that Representative Banks had anything to do with the January 6 riot, and second the major problem that the AP lies about--the riot wasn't an insurrection, as evidenced by the fact that, AFAIK, not a single participant has been charged with that crime. If you want a real modern example of an insurrection, you have to look to the Oregon siege carried out by BLM/AntiFa.
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
—Edmund Burke
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