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we've got a Rabbi doing the opening prayer today
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shoutout to Mykolaiv (in Ukraine); apparently this Rabbi has a connection with the Jewish community there
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Before we can get into the bills we put off from last time, we have some Senate messages to attend to
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reminder that I skip voice votes that go by too quickly for me to comment on
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ok onto the bills from the regular calendar we didn't get to last time; we were up to "State-Federal Relations & Veterans Affairs" bills (so, with alphabetical committee ordering, that's "S" out of "Z")
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Now up: @TimothyHorrigan speaking against HR17, which is a resolution against carbon taxes. I support a carbon tax, and thus oppose this resolution.
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sorry Tim but I gotta reiterate my usual complaint (that I have with everyone) about using "Concord" as metonymy for the legislature that meets here
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.@lwelkowi is also speaking against HR17. lol he got an "even Milton Friedman" in!
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I think an important aspect of our state that a lot of libertarians moving here miss is that we have another important aspect to our state identity besides "Live Free Or Die" and that's environmentalism. One of our state's most attractive qualities is its natural beauty.
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Even in the old days when we had Republicans like Judd Gregg running the state, they still cared about the environment. Protecting our state's natural beauty often requires regs that directly go against the libertarian attitude that many Free Staters moving here bring w/them.
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This Republican speaker in favor of HR17 is spreading straight-up lies about climate change; he thinks the ice caps aren't melting when literally the other day... hold on, let me find the story I'm thinking of.
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HR17 passes; at least we got some good quotes to use against Republicans in campaign ads to show their ignorance out of the debate...
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next: HR18, a resolution calling for removal of the prison loophole to the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution
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Al Baldasaro's motion to table HR18 passes; reminder that I subbed on his committee for the executive session where the resolution was previously voted on: @cooljeanius/1484571605460267010
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Al was pretty disgraceful then, too: @cooljeanius/1484570628506140680
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anyways onto bills from Transportation now (so we're up to "T" out of "Z")
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current bill: HB1093, to provide a fix for nonresident aliens seeking driver's licenses in NH
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hey look this Republican speaker in favor of killing HB1093 actually believed those fearmongering "caravan" stories were anything more than an attempt by right-wing media to drum up votes in the run-up to elections
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I actually could have been convinced to support the motion of ITL on that if they'd made the "cars are bad and it should be harder for *everyone* to get driver's licenses" argument, but nope, they decided to go with racist fearmongering about immigrants instead
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next: HB1302, about cops pulling cars over to weigh them. I might actually disagree with the Dem majority on this: traffic stops often result in disaster for minorities, so reducing the number opportunities for cops to do that seems worthwhile.
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but, then again, if weigh stations can help discourage driving, they might actually be good, so... idk...
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HB1302 passes; onto HB1401, which prevent mileage data sharing with the feds. I support data sharing between levels of government (to the extent that it helps promote better regulations), and thus oppose this bill.
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this bill is a direct attempt to sabotage the recent federal bipartisan infrastructure bill; state-level Republicans must not have been in touch with the federal Republicans that joined Dems in passing it
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Next bill: HB1424, the Lake Winnipesaukee speed limit bill we were getting all the emails about. I'm breaking my "skip voice votes that go by too quickly" rule for this one due to the interest it generated (the motion to ITL it passed btw, so it's dead)
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my previous response to the email campaign against HB1424: @cooljeanius/1501597887872045056
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next: HB1666, about drivers licenses for the undocumented. Why is it the Transportation Committee that's getting all these immigration-related bills? Anyways @ACLU_NH supports this bill, so I'll oppose the motion of ITL on this bill, and support a motion of OTP instead.
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(as with HB1093, if Republicans wanted to base their argument on being against driving in general, I might have been convinced to join their ITL motion, but instead they're basing their argument on xenophobia instead)
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Good grief I think this is the first time I've heard the "Bienvenue" on our welcome signs as a dogwhistle! It's the Québécois we're afraid of taking over the state now, apparently?
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onto bills from Ways & Means... I agree with Josh Adjutant here and disagree with the bipartisan majority of both parties that just voted to kill HB1478.
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Next: HB1524, establishing a national service alumni attraction and retention fund. This seems like it's @RepWilhelm's area; I wonder why he's not speaking on it?
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heh, I guessed right, he was the prime sponsor on it: legiscan.com/NH/bill/HB1524/2022
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HB1524 is killed; oh well
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"Regular Calendar- Part Two" (bills removed from the consent calendar) First from this part: HB1349 (from Criminal Justice & Public Safety), decriminalizing psilocybin
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I seem to remember a story (possibly an urban legend?) about psilocybin being legal in Japan at the time that the original Super Mario Bros. was developed... anyways, motion to table HB1349 passes; so much for our mushroom debate...
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all these bills that were removed from consent are getting motions to table
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we're in the "election conspiracies" section now; motion to table HB1064 passed, and HB1473 is next
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HB1473 was removed from consent by Rep. Homola, who wants an Arizona-style fraudit here... I don't get why the motion on this that everyone (on the committee) agreed to was for interim study instead of a full ITL motion; I guess it's a compromise to get Republicans on board...
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HB1473 is tabled; onto CACRs 24 through 27 (inclusive) from Leg. Admin. CACR24 is to have our Attorney General be elected by the legislature, instead of appointed. I actually don't necessarily oppose the idea, but it's Norm Silber, so I don't trust his motives behind this...
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Next: CACR25, a term limits amendment. Sorry, Tony, but political scientists are consistently against the idea of term limits; it's one of those ideas that sounds good in the abstract but breaks down once you start looking at the effects it would have.
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Max Abramson got out-of-line with his PI there
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If term limits are something people *really* want, I have an idea for a compromise; remind me to share it later (don't have time now)
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CACR25 dies, onto CACR26, for party-list proportional representation. I'd support this if it were just for our existing multi-member districts, but I don't think it is (100 seats sounds like more than that), so I'll be voting against it today instead.
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I'm presuming the vote went against CACR26 just now, since that's how it went in committee. Next: CACR27, another Norm Silber idea, to provide for recall elections of state judges. Recalls have turned out horribly pretty much everywhere I've heard about them; I oppose this CACR.
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Next: HB1155, which our committee put on the consent calendar, but which Rep. True then removed. Let me see if I can find my past tweets on it...
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Hearing for it was Feb. 9th: @cooljeanius/1491449795449602050
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Municipal Association opposed it: @cooljeanius/1491456097034862594
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Executive session for HB1155 was Feb. 23, according to the notes I've received, the vote total was actually 17-1, not 18-1 like I thought: @cooljeanius/1496499613972455434
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HB1155 goes to interim study just like my committee had recommended; onto "Regular Calendar- Part Three"
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I think these are all "second committee" bills; current bill is HB1417, which we already considered previously on Feb. 16th when our sessions were at the Doubletree in Manchester: @cooljeanius/1494065136415432705
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I kinda undersold HB1417 as just "tweaks" to the retirement system; apparently it's actually a pretty big deal, that would help actually fund our retirement system properly: @cooljeanius/1494055413368635398
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lol this Nashua representative sure has a lot to say about our retirement system!
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different person speaking... guys should not attempt to combine male-pattern baldness with a ponytail (well really it's more of a rat tail), IMO. I have had both rat tails and ponytails before, but never in combination with male-pattern baldness.
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I'll probably develop male-pattern baldness in the near future myself (the gene for it is passed down on the mother's side, and my mother's father had it), but once I do, I intend to let what remains of my hair hang free, rather than using any sort of elastic to bind it.
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we overturned the motion of ITL on HB1417! On to pass it next!
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Yeah, we passed HB1417! Nice! Doing the "reconsider but vote no" thing now so it can't be killed later...
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a few announcements before we break for lunch
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Max Abramson is trying to apologize for his PI earlier; he was trying to pass it off as a joke, and I heard someone say "Yeah Chris Rock was just making a joke, too" in response... remember that map that showed NH supporting Will Smith in that controversy!
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k, back from lunch... I've got a pay-as-you go phone, and it's looking like I forgot to refill on minutes earlier this month, so, no posting via data today, just wi-fi...
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anyways back to legislating... Josh Adjutant is speaking about taxes and cost-of-living adjustments; I support his opposition to the amendment to HB1535 under consideration (I'll still support the underlying bill with or without the amendment though)
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current bill (HB1552) is a "listen to debate" bill, but it looks like we won't be getting an actual debate, so... idk...
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motion to table HB1552 fails, so it looks like we're getting our actual debate on it now after all
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HB1552 is about whether certification of assessors should be done by DRA or OPLC, and... what? Why does this debate exist? I don't get it... whatever...
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more voice votes going by quickly
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Current bill: HB1609, relative the scope of the fetal protection act.
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I didn't get enough sleep last night...
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oh no not this guy again
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HB1609 passes; next is HB1624, something disabilities voice vote nvm
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oh no there are 9 separate amendments to vote on for this next one (HB1627)
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point of order: Speaker Packard already declared that none of today's amendments were non-germane
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bureaucrats aren't nameless and faceless villains; my father could technically be considered a "bureaucrat" and he does important work.
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Medicaid is what I have for my own insurance, so any attacks on it aren't going to fly with me. It's an important program that many rely upon.
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I'm hugely impressed that @marysullivanhea is able to keep everything about in order about this bill
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#TwitterPoll: the better idiom for a catch-all bill full of random unrelated amendments is: 1. a "Christmas Tree" bill 2. a "Kitchen Sink" bill
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wtf does civil asset forfeiture have to do with education? I think I misunderstood Speaker Packard when he said he wasn't ruling any amendments "non-germane" today, what he really meant was that he wasn't disqualifying any amendments under the non-germaneness rule
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or, to put it another way, there *are* actually non-germane amendments today, but they're not being ruled out-of-order since there's a process for non-germane amendments, and all the non-germane amendments today went through that proper process
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I'd be open to do something about civil asset forfeiture, but: 1. not in a way written by Mike Sylvia, and: 2. not as a non-germane amendment to an education bill
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ivermectin also has nothing to do with the underlying education bill
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props to Rep. Blasek for actually engaging with the research that shows why ivermectin doesn't work; she's still wrong that the research is wrong, though.
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good grief, if there's going to be a new motion to table this bill after every separate amendment to it...
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Rep. Prout is literally arguing in favor of governmental gridlock
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.@tlangsr is in favor of the "Christmas Tree" option for the poll I put earlier in this thread, apparently (or "omnibus")
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redistricting has nothing to do with the underlying EFA bill
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welp, I guess Al Baldasaro just learned a lesson about asking yes-or-no questions (if he were capable of learning from getting owned, that is)
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ok we're through all those amendments
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phew, finally done with HB1627!
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.@DebrasATeam moves to table HB1647, relative to the calculation of child support. Sounds like the bill could use more work.
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motion to table HB1647 fails; time for debate, and then to vote on passing it...
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...wait, this is HB1661 we're on currently, correct? What does the Storrs Street Parking Garage have to do with regional career technical education agreements?
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a bunch more bills went by on voice votes... now we're on HB1598, the cannabis legalization bill. This one has a bunch of amendments to it, too; unsure how it's going to go...
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we considered this previously in February; it went before a second committee between then and now, though: @cooljeanius/1494023692518633482
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this amendment from @caseymconley about edibles seems reasonable
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apparently the Abramson/Adjutant amendment replaces the entire bill; unsure how I feel about that
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it removes marijuana from being run by our state liquor stores, and instead does legalization the way other states do it, where private establishments sell it. Which addresses some of the complaints with the bill as-is, but... idk, seems too drastic?
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I don't get why Rep. Adjutant agreed to cosponsor this amendment with Rep. Abramson when Abramson is basically using his floor speech to insult Adjutant and his allies.
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Rep. Adjutant better have a killer speech of his own lined up to clean up after the mess Abramson is making, because there's no way I can support this amendment solely based on the speech from Abramson
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...and nope, it looks like Rep. Adjutant won't be speaking on it (maybe he'll be doing a PI, though?)... so, I'm leaning "no" on this amendment as-is
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there's some talk about the rooms-and-meals tax... someone near me joked, "How much cannabis would you have to eat for it to count as a meal?"
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Abramson amendment goes down in flames; now there's a motion to table
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I'm going to vote against the motion to table; there are some concerns with the bill, but I'm going to support the bill because I want to make some actual progress on legalization
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opponents of the bill call it socialism, and, well, as a socialist, that's the point. Let's give a vote of confidence to government programs succeeding.
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this bill is flipping all sorts of alignments on their heads
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Al Baldasaro is actually making sense on this? What is going on...!
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Jerry Knirk has seat 4-20, apparently (he says to laughter)
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lol "enter the weeds on it"
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Rep. Knirk is making the argument that "full legalization threatens therapeutic uses for it", which is actually an argument I made myself in a debate on the topic in high school, but... that was in high school.
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none of the rest of my classmates bought this argument when I made it; people just want full legalization
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the parties no longer exist on this bill; it's a free-for-all with everyone going off in their own ways
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I seriously have no idea how the results of this vote will turn out
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"unprecedented" isn't necessarily a bad thing
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we have crossed into a bizarro world where Republicans are suddenly the party of big government, and Democrats are the party of big business... I guess that makes me a Republican, then, at least in the context of this bill?
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HB1598 passes by an extremely narrow margin; normally I'd assume that means it was party-line, but with this one... I can't say that. Would be interesting to see the roll call breakdown.
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One last bill: Rep. True removed HB1540 from consent, about recording custodial interrogations... but Rep. True's speech was all about downshifting of costs?
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just a voice vote anyways, so, whatever... third reading motion now! There's going to be another Renny memorialization event after this.
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ok time to leave