The Conservative Cave

Old Crank (7,382 posts)

CA election and ballot

We live in Germany and vote by mail.
We waited to see what was going to shake out before we sent in our ballots.
We mailed our ballots on the 23rd of May.
As of today, Alemeda county says they haven't gotten our ballots. Over 2 weeks.
The delivery has never been this slow. Don't know if they are behind in the updating of the website or they just haven't made it there.

For the General election it looks like we will have to mail a month in advance or find a way to fax in the ballot.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221293994

A little over two years ago, a group of protesters shut down traffic on one side of the Golden Gate Bridge. This was connected to the pro-Palestinian protests which were then taking over campuses around the country.

The bridge was shut down for more than four hours, largely because the police took three hours to start making arrests. Then the vehicles had to be towed. It was a giant mess that impacted thousands of people and 26 protesters were arrested.

Something surprising happened next. San Francisco DA Brooke Jenkins actually charged all 26 of the protesters with crimes. That almost never happens in liberal enclaves after protesters are arrested.
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But over the past year, charges against 19 of them have been dropped in favor of some kind of diversion program.
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However, the remaining seven continued to face felony charges. Here they are.

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That trial has been underway since last month. The defense argument is that they were taking necessary action to stop a greater evil.

Rep. Thomas Massie is on his way out of the House, having resoundingly lost his primary election last month. So how is he spending his last months in public office? He is defaming Israel.

Today, on the floor of the House, Massie resurrected an old calumny against the Jewish state, the USS Liberty incident, which occurred in 1967 during the six-day war. He described his shameful performance as “one of the biggest honors of my lifetime.” Here he is; the chamber appears to be mostly empty, and his speech had no bearing on any pending legislation. He did it merely for the principle of the thing:

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David Reaboi offers this rebuttal:
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Quote

Massie: Israel deliberately attacked the ship with the intent to leave no survivors. There is absolutely zero evidence it was a premeditated strike. The Israeli military correctly identified the ship at dawn, but a duty officer erased the ship’s marker from the naval plot hours later because the information was considered stale. ... .

If Israel had intended to sink the ship, they would have used iron bombs—but the Israeli air controller deliberately diverted the flight carrying iron bombs away from the ship.

When an Israeli pilot recognized Latin letters on the hull (Arab warships used Arabic script), the attack was immediately halted with the order, “Leave her!” Israel then dispatched rescue helicopters, ceased fire immediately, and apologized within hours, before Washington had even publicly acknowledged the incident.

Massie: The attack was a 25-minute unprovoked assault using napalm, and lifeboats were machine-gunned. In reality, the air attack lasted approximately 14 minutes, and every official investigation confirms there were only two Mirages and two Super-Mystères involved. (Even survivor advocates who previously claimed there were up to 30 sorties have conceded on the record that there were only two initial jets).

The jets dropped napalm because they had been diverted mid-mission from bombing Egyptian infantry, not because of a surgical plan to sink a steel ship.

Furthermore, the torpedo boat did not machine-gun lifeboats to execute survivors; it actually recovered a damaged life raft put overboard by the crew that was marked “US Navy.” This recovery is exactly how the Israelis realized the ship was American.

Massie: It was a clear day with unlimited visibility and the American flag was flying proudly. While Massie argues the flag should have made the ship’s identity obvious, gun-camera film from the attacking pilots and shipboard photos confirm that the smoke from the burning ship was rising straight up–meaning there was essentially no wind. Because of the calm conditions, the flag hung limp and drooping against the mast rather than extended. The Navy Court of Inquiry specifically concluded that the calm weather and slow speed (~5 knots) “may well have made the American flag difficult to identify.”