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.