Speaker @PhilipGunnMS appointed Rep. Jim Beckett—the sponsor of the bill that stuck MSians with a billion-dollar bill for the Kemper coal boondoggle—to chair the elections committee.
What's more, Rep. Beckett now also chairs Mississippi's joint redistricting committee.
When Beckett passed a bill to mandate big, dragnet voter purges through the elections committee this year, he told @RepZSummers—a member of the committee—that he would not consider any amendments.
The bill passed the House and died in the Senate.
Last year, when Rep. Omeria Scott tried to introduce an amendment to open all polling locations for voters in last year's elections, to reduce the length of voting lines in November, Beckett made barely-lucid remarks opposing the amendment.
THREAD: @LynnFitchAG says overturning Roe would empower women because they would "get a chance to redirect their lives."
Fitch's remarks evoke fairytale language in her SCOTUS brief that turns a blind eye to burdens working women and families face throughout Mississippi. 1/
Fitch's brief argues that legal protections, social programs, and public benefits extended to women and families since Roe render parenthood unburdensome. supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
But how do Fitch's references to, for example, family leave and subsidized childcare hold up? 2/
154 economists filed a brief noting, among other things, that the United States is one of only two countries LACKING paid maternity leave, and that childcare remains unaffordable: supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/19/1…
THREAD: Today's protest against vaccines in Oxford appears to have been organized by Dr. John Witcher—an MD from Flowood, pictured below, with a lengthy history of ethical violations that resulted in his license to practice medicine being suspended in 2011. 1/
The MS State Board of Medical Licensure's investigative director filed charges against Witcher in an affidavit available here: gateway.msbml.ms.gov/File/fileDispl… 2/
The 2011 affidavit begins with a recitation of background information about Witcher's prior incidents, including arrests for domestic violence, trespassing, assault, and other charges. 3/
I see that @SenatorWicker, after four years of hiding his light under a bushel, is spontaneously worried about the ability of Christians to enter the United States as refugees. christianitytoday.com/news/2020/july…
Roger has passed up a great number of opportunities to express this concern over the past four years. washingtonpost.com/national-secur…
Pretty much every major media outlet in the United States covered the US closing our doors to persecuted Christians abroad. nbcnews.com/news/world/chr…
THREAD: I have devastating news for Mississippi parents who don't want health mandates on their schoolchildren.
I that describes you, please sit down and have tissues ready before I tell you about MS Code § 37-13-134. 1/
MS Code § 37-13-134 is the so-called "Comprehensive School Health Education Program."
But even if you thought it was really based on "health," it's not just "health education. Nope, it's not enough or the #MSleg to make your child listen to their propaganda. 2/
No, the state demands ACTIVITY.
That's strict authoritarianism right out o the gate. Right there in Section 1. I mean, if this isn't communism—what is? 3/