Missouri | The Show-Me State

I was rushing to get these done between school and work, but I kept each of the 5 questions under 3 minutes if y'all are curious how I interpreted them! I heard lines might be longer than usual today, so make sure you've got water and some snacks. Hope to see you at the polls!

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/18356889

Hey y'all - I'm starting a video series breaking down our statewide ballot questions since I looked last week and had no idea about some of them. I'd really appreciate any support you can give, whether it's watching, commenting, or following my channel!

As someone on mastodon said, "I'm a little sad that I will never ever ever be as whimsical as this meteorologist was with this costume no matter how hard I try."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/21425435

Missouri…once again, making it too easy for social media! It's like living in an Onion headline…without the satire.

> A longshot Missouri gubernatorial candidat e with ties to the Ku Klux Klan will stay on the Republican ticket, a judge ruled Friday. > > Cole County Circuit Court Judge Cotton Walker denied a request by the Missouri GOP to kick Darrell McClanahan out of the August Republican primary. > > McClanahan is running against Secretary of State Jay Ashcroft, Lt. Gov. Mike Kehoe, state Sen. Bill Eigel and others for the GOP nomination to replace Gov. Mike Parson, who is barred by term limits from seeking reelection. > > McClanahan’s lawyer, Dave Roland, said the ruling ensures that party leaders do not have “almost unlimited discretion to choose who’s going to be allowed on a primary ballot.” *** Everything I say is a lie… !detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social ☆ !music@midwest.social

Last week I bought a used car. I got a title. I moved to Missouri in January, and I'll be moving back out of Missouri in a month. I have insurance on it. I've been looking at the papers I still need online, and at reviews of the different office I need to go to. Apparently, I need info from the assessors office to show that I'm exempt from property tax on the vehicle or to pay it.

It's gonna be an hours drive to get to the office. They dont have accurate info online on hours open, they don't answer the phone, and the voicemail says that they hope to open again on April 4th. It's April 15th. I figure it's gonna be another drive to get to DMV offices, and reviews on both offices show that there's 2 hours waits, and extremely unpredictable closing times. So I'm looking at having to take at least a day off of work, maybe more.

I make like $300 on a good day. The max fines for late registration look like $200, and for the traffic violation it's $50.50, if I understand right from my Google search. If I were able to even get a hold of somebody at either office during business hours, I'd go ahead and register. Honestly though, I'm struggling to justify the opportunity cost. I could get caught and fined twice in a traffic stop before it would be worth doing it.

Am I missing something? Is it financially worth registering my car? What if I just register when I move, in the new state?

> Missouri House Republicans passed a resolution Wednesday that seeks to make it harder to amend the state constitution.

> Lawmakers voted 106-49 to pass the resolution, almost strictly on party lines, with Majority Floor Leader Jon Patterson, R-Lee’s Summit, being the only Republican to vote no.

> The resolution now goes to the Senate, which has already approved its version.

> [...]

> The resolution, if passed by both chambers, would ask voters whether it should be harder to amend Missouri’s constitution through the initiative petition process.

Even though this will likely pass both chambers, it still has to go to a plebiscite.

Hopefully Missourians are smart enough to vote down this attack on our rights. Luckily, voters have been pretty good about things like this (except for the rollback of the lobbying reform "Clean Missouri" act). Still, people need to be aware of this.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/16271143

> Under a Missouri statute that has recently gained nationwide attention, every petitioner for divorce is required to disclose their pregnancy status. In practice, experts say, those who are pregnant are barred from legally dissolving their marriage. “The application [of the law] is an outright ban,” said Danielle Drake, attorney at Parks & Drake. When Drake learned her then husband was having an affair, her own divorce stalled because she was pregnant. Two other states have similar laws: Texas and Arkansas.

!detroit@midwest.social ☆ !michigan@midwest.social

C'mon, Missouri! Today you're just making it too easy.

From the same news source as this post, here's reporter Kylie Cheung at jezebel.com's article on more mental instability Made In Missouri…

> On Tuesday afternoon, Valentina Gomez shared a video of herself taking a flame-thrower and burning the books Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens and Naked: Not Your Average Sex Encyclopedia. “This is what I will do to the grooming books when I become secretary of state,” Gomez says in the video, set to upbeat hip-hop music. “These books come from a Missouri public library. When I’m in office, they will burn.” The clip ends with a glamour shot of Gomez posing with a large gun.

> Gomez[…]seems to think the role would give her the power to ban (torch...?) books and push an extremist anti-LGBTQ agenda in schools and libraries. Her website lists “protecting children against the transgender agenda” and “protecting sports—there’s only 2 genders” as top priorities. But other than actively trying to rig elections in favor of anti-LGBTQ lawmakers, it’s not really clear what authority she’d have as secretary of state to mandate trans-exclusionary team sports policies at Missouri schools or make a statewide book bonfire.

> Gomez’s flamethrower ad comes as Republicans are escalating attacks on books across the country. […] Gomez is clearly trying to capitalize on her party’s ongoing, heightened embrace of censorship and fascism in the name of anti-LGBTQ bigotry. And the sad thing is, whether or not she’s actually able to deliver on her campaign promise to incinerate all books that reference queer identity, her utterly insane stunts might just appeal to enough voters anyway.

Regardless on where you stand on the subject, is this the quality of administration you'd want for the fine State of Missouri? As Cheung notes, "What does that have to do with being secretary of state?"

This is all kinds of crazy. What kind of animals representatives are you electing in the fine State of Missouri? Read what your elected leaders have to say regarding reproduction rights…

> On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total [abortion] ban. Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery proposed the amendment by pleading with her colleagues to “show an ounce of compassion” for victims.

> Sen. Rick Brattin (R) explained his vote by arguing that being forced to carry their rapist’s baby could be “healing” for victims.

Yeah, you read that correctly. Healing.

> “If you want to go after the rapist, let’s give him the death penalty. Absolutely, let’s do it,” Brattin said. “But not the innocent person caught in-between that, by God’s grace, may even be the greatest healing agent you need in which to recover from such an atrocity.” Seemingly trying to make his comments as horrific as possible, Brattin also managed to compare abortion to slavery.

> Sen. Sandy Crawford [(R)], argued against rape exceptions because “God doesn’t make mistakes”: “Even in some of these very horrific cases, there was a reason that God allowed there to be a child out of this situation,” Crawford elaborated.

> Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Bill Eigel—who’s running for governor—inexplicably claimed McCreery’s proposed amendment would “bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” stating, “A one-year-old could get an abortion under this.” To this, a Democratic senator returned, “I don’t know that a one-year-old could get pregnant, Senator.”

!detroit@midwest.social !michigan@midwest.social

>O’FALLON, Mo. (AP) — In the national reckoning that followed the police killing of George Floyd three years ago, about 2,000 protesters took to the streets in a St. Louis suburb and urged the mostly white Francis Howell School District to address racial discrimination. The school board responded with a resolution promising to do better. > >Now the board, led by new conservative board members elected since last year, has revoked that anti-racism resolution and copies of it will be removed from school buildings. > >The resolution passed in August 2020 “pledges to our learning community that we will speak firmly against any racism, discrimination, and senseless violence against people regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, immigration status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity, or ability. > >. . .

Hey everyone,

Missouri Agrees is running a fundraising campaign so they can put Freedom Voting Up for referendum.

You can donate through any of the campaigns here and your impact will be TRIPLED. +1 from the individual campaign and +1 from an anonymous donor. They're aiming for 1.2 million by July 1st, so every dollar counts. It's an all or nothing fundraiser, so if we fall short everyone gets their money back.

Don't know what Freedom Voting is? It's also called Approval Voting and you can read more about it here. The short answer is it gives you the freedom to vote for everyone you like instead of having to just choose one. That's it. Instead of "pick one" it's "pick any number." It fixes a huge number of problems while also being ridiculously simple.

If anyone has any questions of course I'm open to chatting.

/r/Missouri was a great community for people who live in Missouri, but felt out of place living here. It was great for venting.

But i feel that it also had a lot of wasted potential. I feel like there could have been a bit more of a focus on community activism.

Obviously different people beleive different things, but i think it would have been great if the mods stickied some things relevant to values most of the community shared. Like when certain protests were going to happen.

After all, if a good majority of people on the sub hate the political culture of where they live, why not help make it a better place?

What do you personally want out of this community?

I can most probably search for the answer but I would like to hear from the "natives".

Why is it called the "show me state"?

> As the 2023 legislative session sputtered to a close, House Speaker Dean Plocher stood before a throng of reporters talking about what happened — including the failure to change ballot initiatives.

> Republicans wanted to send a ballot item to voters that would raise the threshold to amend the state constitution from a simple majority to 57%. The Des Peres Republican said something that many in Missouri politics assumed all along: Making the constitution more difficult to amend was critical in stopping an initiative petition to expand abortion access in Missouri.

> “We are pro-life,” Plocher said. “And if the Senate fails to take action on IP [initiative petition] reform, I think the Senate should be held accountable for allowing abortion to return to Missouri.”

> Some Democrats, like House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, said Plocher was saying “the quiet part loud” about the motivations behind trying to get voters to approve a measure raising the constitutional amendment threshold. But in many respects, the proposal will have a far bigger impact than just stymying one potential initiative petition.

> The city of St. Louis and Missouri counties could enact gun restrictions tougher than those in state law under a plan that supporters hope will go before state voters next year.

> A new nonprofit, Sensible Missouri, hopes to launch a petition drive to put a proposed constitutional amendment on the November 2024 ballot. It would allow county-level governments and St. Louis city to approve their own rules on the access and carrying of firearms.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1174730

> Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s attempt to increase the cost of an abortion-rights initiative petition was unprecedented and illegal, lawyers for the Missouri ACLU and state auditor’s office argued Wednesday in Cole County Court.

> ”No attorney general has ever attempted to exercise this level of discretion,” said Robert Tillman, deputy general counsel for Auditor Scott Fitzpatrick.

> Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office contends it was simply exercising its authority under state law when it refused to sign off on a fiscal note summary crafted by the auditor that said the abortion-rights initiative petition would have no cost to state or local government.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1174661

> St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, a Democrat, announced Wednesday he is a candidate for U.S. Senate, setting up what could be an expensive intraparty battle to take on Republican incumbent Josh Hawley in November 2024.

> In a launch video released Wednesday morning, Bell said, “We need leaders who try to help — unlike Josh Hawley, who’s in a rush to be famous and pretending to be tough while showing the world how weak he really is.”

> Bell, 48, would face Democrat Lucas Kunce, who hauled in $1.1 million in the first fundraising quarter this year, in next year’s August primary.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1168894

> Transgender minors and some adults in Missouri will soon be banned from accessing puberty blockers, hormones, and gender-affirming surgeries under a bill signed Wednesday by the state’s Republican governor.

> Beginning Aug. 28, Missouri healthcare providers won’t be able to prescribe those gender-affirming treatments for teens and children. Most adults will still have access to transgender health care under the law, but Medicaid won’t cover it.

> The most difficult part of the new rule is allowing parents to challenge the aged designation of any item in the library. Some libraries are receiving lists of 100 or more books and challenges overall are increasing, Moeller said. “Most of the items being included in these lists relate to identity, race or sexual orientation,” she said. “What we really seeing is the ones that relate to identity are being called ‘inappropriate.’”

In today's "No Shit Sherlock" news...

I guess it's always good that they "run reports" on this stuff, however. Then maybe someday they can continue to do not much about it.

> Missouri teachers who quit their jobs on short notice face increasingly severe consequences, as school districts facing staffing shortages impose financial penalties as high as $10,000 or seek to suspend the teaching licenses of teachers who break their contracts.

> The Missouri State Highway Patrol said a Toyota Corolla crossed the center line of the two-lane highway and struck the motorcycles, ejecting the drivers and passengers on each motorcycle. One of the motorcycles caught fire.

I can’t say that I share her optimism, but I suppose it’s always good to maintain hope that people here in MO will stop voting against their own interests.

Stop on by, post what’s on your mind. What’s happening in our state?

Want to be a moderator? Let me know!