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Scooter
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Is that a pig I see flying overhead as hell freezes over?

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George Will reveals he is voting for Joe Biden — the first time he’s ever cast a vote for a Democrat: report

Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post columnist George Will says he will be casting a vote for a Democrat in November — for the first time in his life.

Will was interviewed at the Aspen Institute on Monday by USA TODAY Washington bureau chief Susan Page.

Page reports that Will said that will be voting for Biden and that it is the first time he has voted for a Democrat since he started voting Republican when Barry Goldwater ran for president in 1964.
John Kasich: Republican to Endorse Biden at Democratic National Convention

The Democratic National Committee has invited former Ohio Governor John Kasich, a Republican, to speak and endorse Joe Biden at the convention in August, garnering mixed reactions from within the party.

“John Kasich tried to obliterate public-sector unions in Ohio, attacked reproductive rights, slashed education funding and championed fracking, yet here he is getting a DNC slot anyway,” progressive activist Jordan Uhl tweeted Monday. “At least he’s not Joe Rogan, amirite?”

Kasich has been a vocal Trump critic, after unsuccessfully running in the 2016 Republican primary. Many centrist Democrats and so-called “Never Trump” Republicans welcomed Biden’s slot at the convention.

Here’s what you need to know:

Kasich was recently approached by party leadership for a speaking slot at the convention and he accepted, the Associated Press reported Monday morning.

After suspending his 2016 campaign, Kasich was clear that he had significant issues with Donald Trump. He declined to endorse Trump, as would usually be protocol within a party, and also declined to even say if he would vote for him, CNN reported.

Kasich supported Trump’s impeachment in the House of Representatives over his withholding of military aid from Ukraine.

“It’s one for thing for a president to pull aid from a country based on public policy,” Kasich said on PBS NewsHour. “But it’s another thing to dangle aid, vital military aid, over the head of a nation that’s fighting, literally, for their survival based on politics.”

Heavy reached out to the DNC, as well as Kasich, for comment Monday morning. A spokesperson for Kasich declined to comment, and the DNC did not immediately respond.

Kasich’s record as Ohio governor between 2011 and 2019, and a U.S. Representative between 1983 and 2001, includes a number of votes and positions considered toxic by modern progressives. Some of the issues, including LGBTQ rights, Kasich has softened on, however, the Huffington Post reported.

In December 2016, as governor, Kasich signed a bill banning abortions after 20-weeks of a pregnancy, alarming abortion rights activists. However, he also with the same pen vetoed a so-called “fetal heartbeat” bill, which would have outlawed abortions once a heartbeat is detected, CNN reported.

Kasich also made Ohio the first state to sell a correctional facility to a private, for-profit company, Democracy Now reported.

A number of progressive activists seized on Kasich’s LGBTQ track record, with one calling him an “extreme homophobe”; others noted his past on abortion rights.

In response to progressive historian Erik Loomis claiming the left’s outrage over Kasich’s potential appearance was “performative,” writer Brandy Jensen said, “my disgust at welcoming the guy who shuttered half the abortion clinics in his state is not ‘performative.'”

Conservative commentator and organizer of Republican Voters Against Trump Bill Kristol praised the move and said that the DNC should invite Republican voters who have pledged not to vote for Trump again to speak as well.

Others also welcomed “any and all Republicans” who would stand up to Trump, insisting that the need to keep Trump from a second term was too great for traditional party divides.
"If you don't have a seat at the table, you're on the menu."

-- Author unknown

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