The U.S. Senate is voting on legislation THEY HAVEN'T READ

This happened with the Affordable Health Care Law, also known as "Obamacare", and it is happening RIGHT NOW with other legislation, being debated RIGHT NOW in the U.S. Senate.


The legislation would approve a United Nations treaty that would remove the protection of one of the rights in our Bill of Rights, a document that a hundred generations of American soldiers, sailors, airmen, marines, and coast guardsmen have fought and bled to protect.

U.S. Senator Mike Lee of South Carolina, speaking today about the legislation. This video lasts five and a half minutes.

Call your Senator NOW.

Tell him/her that any legislation that hasn't been read should never be approved.

June 22, 2017 update

These are the first three paragraphs of a story in The Blaze, published today.  The link in the first paragraph was in their story.

Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul introduced a Senate resolution called “Read the Bills” Wednesday that would require every bill or amendment to be filed for a minimum of one day for every 20 pages before they can be considered by the upper chamber.

“Enough with rushed, secret legislation!  Today I reintroduced my Read the Bills resolution,” Paul tweeted Wednesday.

The purpose of the resolution, according to Paul, is to make sure that his fellow senators have ample time to review bills before they can be voted on.  The resolution would allow the Senate to waive the minimum time requirement only with “an affirmative vote of three-fifths of the members.”

A Senate resolution can't force any action to be taken, but it shows a Senator's views on a subject.  This is a subject that he and I agree on, which is why I added this news story to this blog page.

In this June 2012 video, U.S. Senator Rand Paul asked his colleagues to read legislation before they voted on it.

Voter identification prevents voter fraud

India is a nation that whose population is four times the United States population.  Link to statistics on the web page IndiaOnlinePages.

India's people speak more languages and dialects than we do, so it is much harder for their government to organize any nation-wide policy than it would be for our own government.  Link to the Lanaugages of India page on the website New World Encyclopedia.

If India can organize a national system of identification for their voters, then the United States can do it.

Thank you, Judy Stines, for posting this graphic
on your Twitter account @jstines3 on

Link to an accusatory article dated on the website the Huffington Post.  This article was updated

This is a tweet that was posted by U.S. Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, who claims to represent the people of the 18th Congressional District in Texas, which includes the city of Houston.  If you click on the date, you can see the tweet on her Twitter account.

Voter ID laws discriminate against the most vulnerable Americans. Congress needs to ensure equality in the voting process now#RestoretheVote

— Sheila Jackson Lee (@JacksonLeeTX18) June 14, 2016

The only people who should be voting in an American election are Americans.
Voters should be able to prove who they are, whether they vote in person or not.

This proof of identification would also prevent anyone from

• voting twice,
• voting when they're actually a citizen of another country, or
• voting after they've died. (Yes, it has happened.)

---

Voter Identification Cards

	An Indian voter's identification card. This is a real identification card for a real person.
	A sample voter identification card for someone who lives in Pennsylvania.
	A Mexican voter's identification card. This is a real person, too.

If India, Mexico, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania can do it, every state in the United States can do it.

---

July 18, 2016 Update

Kansas, Oklahoma, and Georgia won

A Federal judge rejected a challenge to the principle of Voter ID.

These are the first five paragraphs of a June 29, 2016 Washington Times story.  Both of the links in these paragraphs were in their story.

Kansas, Alabama and Georgia can demand their residents submit proof of citizenship before signing up to vote even if they’re using the federal government’s registration forms, a judge said Wednesday, delivering a win to states concerned about voter fraud.

The League of Women Voters and the Obama administration had tried to halt the practice, arguing that federal law doesn’t require an extensive citizenship check when people register to vote, and saying the three states were imposing an extra burden on voters.

But Judge Richard J. Leon said that while it may be an inconvenience to require proof of citizenship, and voter registration drives may have to do more work to get folks signed up, it’s not an insurmountable burden — and certainly less so than trying to explain Obamacare.

“The organizational plaintiffs and their members will undoubtedly have to expend some additional time and effort to help individuals,” Judge Leon wrote. “But let’s be candid: doing so pales in comparison to explaining to the average citizen how the [Affordable Care Act] or tax code works!”

Since the voter groups didn’t show a real and irreparable harm, he rejected their request for a preliminary injunction.

Link to the official biography of U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon on the website of the U.S. Court system.

Link to his two-page PDF order.

Link to his 25-page PDF Memorandum Opinion, which states the reasons why he made this decision.

I want to thank the person who uses this Twitter account @grannyinfla16 for posting a Tweet that mentioned this story on another website.  They linked to a story on another website, which linked to the Washington Times story that I quoted here.  If you click on the date at the end of this tweet, you will be able to see her tweet on her timeline.

BREAKING: Federal Judge Turns On Obama With Bombshell Ruling – White House In Panic Mode - World News Politics https://t.co/02KCR1lHFb

— EX-GOP; #WRITEINCRUZ (@grannyinfla16) July 16, 2016

North Carolina lost

This is a link to a July 29, 2016 New York Times story, written in an unprofessional manner.  Their choice of adjectives and adverbs makes it clear that this newspaper has taken sides in an issue that is likely to be an important factor in the presidential election in November.

Quotes from the article that show biased reporting.  I highlighted their bias with boldfaced text.

"A federal appeals court decisively struck down North Carolina’s voter identification law on Friday ..."

"That ruling and a second wide-ranging decision on Friday, in Wisconsin, continued a string of recent court opinions against restrictive voting laws that critics say were created solely to keep minority and other traditionally Democratic voters away from the polls."

The "critics" aren't named in this article.  The NY Times is substituting this false organization for their own opinions, which belong in an editorial, not a news story.  States have the legal right to prevent non-citizens and non-residents from voting.  The State Government of North Carolina exercised their right to do so.

North Carolina lost again

These are the first two paragraphs of a February 21, 2017 story on the website of the A.B.C. News affiliate in Raleigh, North Carolina.

RALEIGH, North Carolina (WTVD) --

North Carolina's new Democratic governor and attorney general say they are ending state efforts to persuade the U.S. Supreme Court to revive a GOP-backed voter ID law that was struck down by a lower court, but Republican lawmakers say they will continue pushing for the high court's review.

Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory last year asked the Supreme Court to review an appeals court ruling that the elections law was unconstitutional because it targeted minority voters with "almost surgical precision" to discourage Democratic support and protect Republican dominance.

North Carolina won this time

These are the first three paragraphs of a December 19, 2018 Associated Press story that was published in the Charlotte Observer.

RALEIGH, N.C.

The North Carolina law detailing a new voter photo identification requirement got challenged in court Wednesday mere moments after the Republican-led General Assembly completed the override of Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's veto of the measure.

Six voters filed the lawsuit in Wake County court less than 15 minutes after the state House finished the override in a mostly party-line 72-40 vote.  The Senate already voted to override Tuesday.

The photo ID law implements a constitutional amendment approved in a referendum last month that mandates photo identification to vote in person, with exceptions allowed.  Still, the plaintiffs contend the law violates the state constitution and should be blocked, saying it retains requirements within a 2013 photo ID law that federal judges struck down.

---

For more information on the topic of Voter I.D.

I have written six blog pages, on a different blog, about voter fraud.  These are the links.

Link to Part 1 - about ACORN

Link to Part 2 - changing the election date

Link to Part 3 - The voting ballot of  then-Attorney-General Eric Holder could have been stolen

Link to Part 4 - tampering with the electronic voting machines

Link to Part 5 - lawsuits to change the result of an election

Link to Part 6 - about voting in the name of dead people

I have started writing a seventh page on the topic of voting by people who aren't eligible to vote because they're not American citizens.  When I finish writing that page, I will include the link here.

December 8, 2017 Update

Note: Chuck has 324,000 followers.

I bet voter ID would really help against other countries, Like Russia, interfering in our elections. Maybe Democrats would consider this easy measure.

— Chuck Woolery (@chuckwoolery) December 8, 2017

February 12, 2019 update

Very informative piece on voter-id laws. It seems they neither suppress turnout nor suppress fraud. So would everyone please calm down. https://t.co/sevM6nMDdF

— Brit Hume (@brithume) February 12, 2019

Note: Brit was commenting on an opinion piece that was published this day in the New York Times.

These are the first paragraphs of a March 11, 2024 article on the website of The Federalist..

These are the first paragraphs of a September 27 Rasmussen Reports article.  This article was linked in an article by independent Journalist Sharyl Atkisson.

These are the first three paragraphs of an October 1, 2024 KCRA story.  The link in the second paragraph was in their story.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a new law prohibiting local governments from enacting or enforcing a requirement that a person must show identification when voting.

Senate Bill 1174, authored by Dave Min (D-Irvine), targets a voter ID requirement that was adopted by Huntington Beach in Orange County.

These are the first paragraphs of an October 24, 2024 article on the website of the Gallup polling organization.

These are the first paragraphs of a November 27, 2024 Washington Times story.

End

Blog pages in a series, part 4

Public School Horror Stories

Each of the pages in this series has quotes of news stories and sometimes informal articles that document the bad behavior of teachers and administrators in America's public schools.  The 4th and 5th pages in this series are focused on one topic within the general topic of American public education.

1. This page documents the hypocrisy of the Michigan chapter of C.A.I.R., which demanded that Muslim students be allowed to take time away from classes to pray and which also demanded that Christian students could not participate in a Bible Study during school time.  This page also has 30+ links to news stories about teachers who were arrested for sexual activity with their students plus another 30+ links to news stories about teachers who were convicted of these crimes.


2. This page has a story about an elementary school in Manhattan that required its' students to learn the Arabic language.  Teachers in different states were arrested for soliciting a prostitute.  A school in Colorado criticized 7th grade students who had conservative political attitudes.  Two schools sent students out in handcuffs.


3. This page includes the story of a satanic group that wanted to distribute literature in a school system, various public schools that discouraged patriotism, one school that encouraged the desecration of an American flag, a teacher who forced a student to use his bare hands to unclog a urinal, and a section about dual-language public schools.  A police officer used a taser on a violent student at a Utah public high school.  A school nurse stole prescription medicine from students.  One boy was not allowed to read his personal Bible during free time at school.  A teacher showed an erotic film to her students.  A teacher and his roommate were arrested for possession of illegal drugs that had a street value of $6.2 million.


4. This page shows how some public schools, typically run by leftist activists, have overreacted when a young boy pretends to have a gun.  Students have been suspended for activities that are clearly legal, including wearing an N.R.A. t-shirt.


5. This page is about Common Core.  It begins with a summary of the three categories of objections to it.  Then, the page includes a YouTube video that shows how first-graders in one school district were taught how to write like a political activist.


6. This extra page, published in September 2013, before the publication of the second page in this series, has 23 YouTube videos.  Most of them are a news story about a public school horror story.

Reelect Ted Cruz

The first page in this set was written in March 2017, although Google misdated it.  Other pages were added later.

1. This page is about his basic biography and his early career.  It includes a few articles about one of his professors at Harvard Law School, Alan Dershowitz, who called him "brilliant".  There is a 2003 press release about the end of his job as the Director of the Federal Trade Commission's Office of Policy Planning.  There is a section about his personal faith and how he, as a U.S. Senator, helped a Christian woman who was being persecuted in the Sudan.  Another section is about a dispute he had with the openly lesbian Mayor of Houston.  Another section has videos of him listening to criticism.


2. This page, written in March 2017, is about him as an author.  There are quotes from many of the articles he's written for journals that include Real Clear Politics, the Wall Street Journal, and the National Review.  There is a large section about his best-selling book, "A Time for Truth", which the New York Times denied was a best-seller until the evidence was shown to them by many publishing professionals.


3. This page, written in March 2017, is about the November 2009 murder of some soldiers at Fort Hood, Texas and the fact that other soldiers were wounded.  President Obama called it "workplace violence" and denied the wounded soldiers the medical benefits that they would've received if they had been awarded the Purple Heart, but Senator Cruz, who represents Texas in the Senate, began a multi-year project, with the help of other legislators, to change the law that President Obama had relied upon.  He was successful.  This page also shows some of his visits to military bases and one Navy ship in Texas.


4. This page, written in March 2017, is about his dedication to the Rule of Law, Due Process, and other principles that are embedded into the U.S. Constitution.  He will support and defend these principles even when they're unpopular.  He introduced a Constitutional amendment to prevent the U.S. Government from overturning state laws on marriage.  This page also includes a section about Hillary Clinton's e-mail server, which he criticized in the Senate.
   


5. This page, written in April 2017, is about his principled opposition to legislation that claimed to give financial help to people who were hurt by Superstorm Sandy.  This legislation included many unrelated financial benefits, sometimes called pork.  The page also mentions his effort to get financial help for his home state of Texas when it was victimized by flooding.


6. This page has copies of tweets that he has made that show him interacting with various individuals and groups in his official capacity as a U.S. Senator.  These groups include the March for Life (January 2017), Texas Wheat Producers (February 2017), the British Ambassador Kim Daroch (February 2017), and the Customs and Border Protection agency (February 2017), and some Boy Scouts (March 2017.  This page was published in April 2017, but I have added many more tweets since then.


7. This page has copies of tweets that thanked Senator Cruz for helping them in some way.  This page also has tweets from VIPs who complimented him.  In May 2016, the Governor of Texas said that Ted was "the most conservative of all with a No. 1 ranking by American Conservative Union."  The police chief in Pasadena, Texas said, "Had the opportunity to met Senator Ted Cruz, who has always been an advocate of law enforcement on the national level." This page was published in May 2017, but I have added a lot of tweets to it, also.


8. This page is about his effort to repair Obamacare early in 2017.  Its' exchanges were failing.  This was a clear sign that the law had created an unsustainable medical economy.  A July 2017 Christian News Service article is quoted with this headline "Cruz: Free Health Care Is Wonderful in 'World' of 'Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and Pixie Fairies’".


9. This page is about the Senator's commitment to the religious liberty of all Americans.  There are subsections.  One is about a Supreme Court case based on a business called Hobby Lobby.  The second section is about the Washington, D.C. City Council, which passed two City Ordinances that restricted the rights of religious-based health-care organizations.  The third is about his support for a county clerk in Kentucky who refused to process marriage licenses from two men or two women. The fourth section shows how he used religious liberty effectively as a campaign issue, and a companion section about the Democrat Party's hatred for organized religion.  Thee is a brief section about a conversation between the Senator and a gay business owner, followed by his support for Pro-Life causes.  The last section is a Supreme Court case involving a Lutheran Church.

In August 2017, a hurricane came into Texas.  The first large city it hit was Houston.  While it was still in the Gulf of Mexico, Senator Ted Cruz sent out, on his Twitter account, a series of tweets, some of them written in Spanish, to prepare the people of Texas, who he loves, for that disaster.  They're copied onto these two blog pages.

Page 1 covers the time period from August 17, 2017 to August 26, 2017.

Page 2 covers the time period from August 27, 2017 to August 31, 2017, but I added more tweets that were made by Senator Cruz, starting in July 2018.

End

My Twitter info

Introduction

I have had a Twitter account since March 2012, but it's not my favorite literary style.  I prefer to write essays, not short 140-character messages or even 280-character messages.  I don't read my tweets every day, but there's a good chance that I'll see your messages.  My e-mail address is available on my Blogger "about me" page.

If you want to send me a tweet, send it to @BennyTheKite, named in honor of Benjamin Franklin.

About Mr. Franklin

He was:

• A printer. Link to his page on the National Museum of American History.
• A writer.  Link to his page on the Library of Congress.
• A diplomat  Link to his page on the U.S. Department of State.
• An inventor.  Link to his page on the National Constitution Center.
• A scientist.  Link to his page on the website of Texas A&M University.
• A patriot  Link to his page on the website of the U.S. Army's historian. 
• An abolitionist.  Hs page on the website of the National Archives.  He sent a letter to Congress, asking them to abolish slavery.

My personal standards for retweeting other people's messages

This is a repeat of an announcement that I have already made on Twitter.  As my personal policy on Twitter, I will not retweet certain messages.  Any message that has strong swear words will not be retweeted.  I have reluctantly retweeted messages from people who called someone else "an ass" or "a jackass", but stronger language is not acceptable to me.  Twitter may allow other swear words, but I do not.

Also, in accordance with my personal racial policy (I am color-blind), I will not retweet any message that includes a description of an individual or a group as being a member of a race.  No descriptions of anyone or any group as a "white person" or a "black person" are allowed.  No color-coded descriptions of a group of people are allowed, either.  I recently had a conversation with someone who had been a political candidate of a congressional district that he said was "majority black".  I did not retweet that message because it goes against the color-blindness that has been a part of my life for decades.

New retweeting policy as of December 2, 2015

Today, I found out that another person followed me whose Twitter account was strictly commercial.  There were no messages about any of my favorite subjects: politics, political science, or economics.  None of his messages interested me at all.  It seems that the only reason he followed me was because he believed that I would eventually retweet some of his messages, and he would get some free publicity

That was my policy for well over a year, but as of today, December 2, 2015, I am changing this policy.

Anyone is welcome to follow me on Twitter.  Anyone at all, including singers, writers, graphic artists, and anyone else who has a product to sell, but I will not retweet messages from Twitter accounts that are set up exclusively for a commercial purpose.

I will make exceptions at my own personal discretion.

The threats against the jury

I have only made one exception to this policy of not retweeting messages that include color descriptions of people or groups.  During the 2013 trial of George Zimmerman, I found a person who was tweeting threats against the jury.  As soon as I saw these messages, I looked for some way to report him to Twitter, but I didn't see any way to do it, so I began retweeting the messages verbatim, one after another, hoping that someone else knew how to notify Twitter and some law enforcement authority of the threat to this jury.

Fortunately, someone else that was reading my retweets retweeted them again to the Twitter support staff and to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Less than a half-hour later, the Twitter account of the person who was making the threats was suspended.  I can only hope that someone in the F.B.I. has arrested him, but I don't have a lot of confidence that this has happened, because the F.B.I. reports to the U.S. Department of Justice, which was headed by Eric Holder at that time.  He is well-known for not prosecuting certain kinds of people.

The names of some of my followers

All of these people follow my account.

Two U.S. Senators

Note: Senator Cruz followed me before Senator Schmitt did, so Senator Cruz is listed before Senator Schmitt.

Name	Other Information	Twitter Handle
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz	He represents Texas Senate office website.  He has followed me with this account and the next one since April 2013.	SenTedCruz
Ted Cruz	This is his personal Twitter account, sometimes called "a campaign account".	tedcruz
Eric Schmitt	He was sworn-in as a U.S. Senator in January 2023.  He began following me when he was a Missouri State Senator.  campaign website.	Eric_Schmitt

Six U.S. Representatives

Note: They are listed in the order that they began following me.

Name	Other Information	Twitter Handle
Ann Wagner	She represents Missouri's 2nd District.  This is her House office website.  She has followed me since July 2013.	RepAnnWagner
Brian Mast	He has been a member of the U.S. House, representing Florida's 21st Congressional district, since 2017.  This was the 18th District until the district map was redrawn in 2022.  This is his House office website.	BrianMastFL
Nicole Malliotakis	She represents the 11th Congressional district in New York.  She was the Republican candidate for the Mayor of New York City in 2017.  Campaign website	NMalliotakis
Matt Rosedale	His state, Montana, has only one seat in the U.S. House.  He represents the whole state.  Campaign website.	MattForMontana
Claudia Tenney	She represents the 24th Congressional district in New York.  She is an attorney and the owner of a small business.  Campaign website.	claudiatenney
Marianette Miller-Meeks, M.D.	She represents Iowa's first Congressional District.  This is her Congressional website.  She is also a licensed physician.  Campaign website.	millermeeks

Four Candidates for the U.S. Senate

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account.

Name	State	Twitter Handle
Aaron L. Packard	Massachusetts	AaronLPackard1
Bob Antonellis	Massachusetts	BobForSenateMA
Thomas Murphy	South Carolina	tommurphy8485
Alexander Gaaserud	West Virginia	AlexGaaserud4WV

Alexander's election will be in 2026.

Eight Candidates for the U.S. House

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account.

Name	Other Information	Twitter Handle
Yvette Herrell	She was a member of the U.S. House from 2021 to 2023.  She is running again fro New Mexico's 2nd District.  Campaign website.	Yvette4congress
Tim Fazenbaker	Candidate for Congress in Maryland's 2nd Congressional district.  Campaign website.	america1timfaze
Elbert Guillory	Candidate for the 6th Congressional district in Louisiana.  He was a State Senator and an Executive Member of the Louisiana Republican Party.	ElbertGuillory
Chrris Bright	He is a graduate of West Point and a candidate for New Hampshire's 1st District.  Campaign website	ChrisBrightNH
Riley Moore	He is the current West Virginia State Treasurer.  He is a candidate for West Virginia's   Campaign website	RileyMooreWV
Lily Tang Williams	She escaped from Maoist China and started a business in New Hampshire.	Lily4Liberty
Mike Zimblaskas	The Republican candidate in NY-12.  The incumbent is a Democrat named Jerry Nadler.	MikeZumblaskas
Alfe Goodwin	The Republican candidate in PA-05.  The incumbent is Democrat Mary Gay Scanlon.	AlfeGood89159

Nine State Legislators

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account

Name	Other Information	Twitter Handle
Texas State Senator Brandon Creighton	TX Senate website.	SenCreighton
Missouri State Senator Mary Elizabeth Coleman	She represents Missouri Senate District 22.  She is a candidate for Secretary of State. MO Senate website.	meacoleman
Virginia Delegate Paul Milde	He represents Virginia House District 64.  VA House website.	PaulvMilde
Virginia Delegate Emily Jordan	Member of the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 64th District.  She was elected in 2017.  She was reelected in 2019, 2021, and 2023.  Campaign website.	EmilyJordan4VA
Virginia Delegate Terry Gilgore	Member of the Virginia House of Delegates, representing the 45th District.  Campaign website.	delterrykilgore
New York State Representative Joe Angelino	He represents Arkansas Senate District 27.  New York House website.	JosephAngelino
Arkansas State Representative Jim Dotson	Member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, representing the 93rd District.  His page on the website of the AR Legislature.	RepJimDotson
Missouri State Representative Melanie Stinnett	She represents Missouri House District 133.  campaign website.	MStinnettSWMO
Missouri State Representative Louis Riggs	He represents Missouri House District 5.  campaign website.	riggs4missouri

Former legislators

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account.

A former member of the U.S. Senate

Roy Blunt

He represented Missouri in the U.S. Senate for two 6-yr terms, from January 2011 until January 2023.

RoyBluntMO

Three former members of the U.S. House of Representatives

Scott Rigel	Former Congressman for VA-02 until 2017.	RepScottRigell
Steve Stockman	He represented two Congressional districts (at different times) in Texas from 1995-1997 and from 2013-2015.	SteveWorks4You
Diane Black	Represented Tennessee's 6th District in the U.S. House until January 2019.  She was elected in 2010.  She was also a candidate for the Governor of Tennessee.  Campaign website.	DianeBlackTN

Six former members of state legislatures

Bob Ballinger	He represented an Arkansas Senate District from January 2019 to Januasry 2023.  Before that, he was a member of their House of Representatives.	Bob_Ballinger
John MacDonald	He represented the 1st Middlesex district in the Massachusetts State Senate.  Campaign website.	jmacforstatesen1
Garrett Love	Former State Senator from Kansas.	Garrett_Love
Bob Thorpe	He represented a District in Arizona's House of Representatives from January 2013 until January 2021.	azrepbobthorpe
Richard Corcoran	He was a Florida State Representative in their 37th House District and he was their House Speaker.  He was also the Commissioner of Edication in their state.  He was unable to run for reelection in 2018 due to term limits.	richardcorcoran
Geoff Diehl	He represented the 7th Plymouth District in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  He ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate in 2018 and for Governor in 2022.	RepGeoffDiehl
Gates Lucas	He represented the 2nd Sullivan District in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.	GatesLucasNH

Former Candidates for the U.S. House

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account.

Eric Essshaki	He was a candidate for Michigan's 10th Congressional district.	EsshakiCongress
Tre Pennie	President, Fallen Officer's Foundation.  Candidate for Congress in Texas.  Campaign website.	RealOmarNavarro
DeAnna Lorraine	Candidate for the 12th Congressional district in California.  She tried to replace Nancy Palosi in the U.S. House of Representatives.	DeAnna4Congress
Tiffany Shedd	Candidate for the 1st Congressional district in Arizona.  Tiffany grew up in Pinal County, and worked her way through college and law school at the University of Arizona.	Tiffany_Shedd
Joe Profit	Candidate for the 6th Congressional district in Georgia.  He is a former NFL player.  Campaign website.	JoeProfitGA_06
Nick Moutos	Candidate for the 35th Congressional district in Texas.  He is a licensed attorney and a veteran.  Campaign website.	votenickmoutos
Patrice Kimbler	Candidate for the 36th Congressional district in California.  He is a licensed attorney and a veteran.  Campaign website.	pkforca36
Lerah Lee	Former Candidate for the 7th Congressional district in Georgia.  Her campaign website	LerahLeeforGA7
John Hugo	Former Republican candidate for the U.S. House, in the 5th Congressional District in the state of Massachusetts.  Campaign website on Facebook.	HugoCongress
Willie Billups	Former Republican candidate for the U.S. House in Tennessee's 9th Congressional District.	VoteBillups
Lori Bartley	2016 Candidate for the U.S. House in Texas's 18th Congressional district. Campaign website.  She didn't win her race, and she deleted her old Twitter account.  She used to use @LoriBartleyTX18	AVFTVoiceless
Pina Prinzivalli	Former Republican candidate for the 19th Middlesex district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.  Campaign website.	PinaForYou
Claire Malaguti	Former Republican candidate for the 30th Middlesex district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.	claire_malaguti
John Cruz	Former Republican candidate for the 10th Plymouth district in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.	JCruz4Rep
Rob Maness	Former candidate for the Louisiana House of Representatives, District 77, and a retired Air Force Colonel. Campaign website.  Unfortunately, he lost his race.	RobManess
Former Texas State Senator Don Huffines	He represents Texas Senate District 16.  TX Senate website.  He lost his reelection race in November 2018.	DonHuffines

Other very important people

Name	Other Information	Twitter Handle
John Kasich	Former Governor of Ohio (until January 2019) and 2016 presidential candidate website	JohnKasich
Debbie Georgatos	Member, Reppblican National Committee.  She is also the host of a radio talk show in Texas.	DebbieCanWeTalk
Ryan Fournier	Founder, Students for Trump	RyanAFournier
Jessie Jane Duff 275,000	Executive Director, Veterans for Trump.  Retired Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps.	@JessieJaneDuff
Michael Bars	Former White House Sr. Sommunications Advisor and Spokesman, Deputy Asst. Secretary, Homeland Security	MichaelBars_
Governor Abbott's reelection campaign	Greg Abbott is the Governor of Texas.	AbbottCampaign
Keri Ingraham	Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute	KeriDIngraham
Ed Krassenstein	Lefty with 1m followers	EdKrassen
Texas Tribune	Online Newspaper	TexasTrubune
Don Bulduc	Retired Four-Star General and former candidate for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshiire	GenDonBolduc
Debbie Georgatos	Member, Republican National Committee, Texas.  She is also a radio talk show host.	DebbieCanWeTalk
David E. Biddle	Chair, Gilchrist County (Florida) Republican Party	davidebiddle
Joey Bautista	Former professional baseball player with a million followers	JoeyBats19
Scott Brown	The U.S. Senate confirmed him June 8, 2017 as the U.S. Ambassador to New Zealand.  Before that, he was a U.S. Senator from January 2011 until his confirmation as a U.S. Ambassador.	SenScottBrown
Oil and Gas Worker's Association	OGWA is working to secure and advance oil and gas jobs.	ogwausa
Jeff Kuhner	WRKO Radio Talk Show Host	TheKiknerReport
Conservative Republican Alliance of New York	A grassroots political club.  They also have a GETTR account.	CRANewYorkState
Republican National Hispanic Assembly of Florida	A grassroots political club.  They also have a GETTR account.	CRANewYorkState
Michael Johns	Tea Party Leader & former White House Speechwriter	michaeljohns
Matt Batzel	National Executive Director of American Majority	MattBatzel

Advocacy groups and journalists

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account.  "AFP is the acronym of an advocacy group called Americans For Prosperity.

The Massachusetts Tea Party	my oldest follower (thanks)	MAteaparty
The Daily Caller Politics	Their main page is @DailyCaller	TheDCPolitics
The Mass GOP Muni PAC	The full name is The Massachusetts Republican Municipal Coalition PAC.  Their last tweet was in July 2017.	MassGOPMuniPAC
AFP, North Carolina	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPNC
AFP, Tennessee	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPTN
AFP, Colorado	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPColorado
AFP, Iowa	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPIowa
AFP, New Hampshire	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFP_NH
AFP, Florida	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPFFlorida
AFP, Maine	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPFMaine
AFP, Pennsylvania	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPFPennsylvania
AFP, Georgia	A strong voice in opposition to Obama's policies	AFPFGeorgia
American Spectator	Their Twitter profile says that they "provide witty political and cultural commentary from the nation's capital." Website.	AmSpectator
The National Center for Public Policy Research	Chairman @AmyRidenour also follows me	NationalCenter

Other Individuals

All of these Twitter accounts follow my Twitter account.

Jesse Columbo	Forbes online columnist  His bio.	thebubblebubble
MS Operator	Protection Detail Operator at Mexico Executive Protection Group	MSOperator1
Barbara Boland	CNS News Reporter	BBatdc
Melody Himel Clarke	Regional Coordinator, Heritage Action	TheRightMelody
Andrew Malcolm	Columnist at Investor's Business Daily	AHMalcolm
Sarah Steelman	Former Commissioner of the Office of Administration in Missouri's State Government.  Link to her office website, which mentions her name.	Sarah_Steelman
Jesse Lee Peterson	The host of a radio talk show.  Video and audio podcasts are available.	JLPtalk

Note: Lori Bartley and Rob Maness lost their elections.  Lori deleted her Twitter account a day or two after the election was over.  I wish that she had used it to thank her supporters and to listen to the well-wishes of the people who voted for her, but she chose not to do that.  I think it was a bad decision, but it's her decision.

Followers with a lot of followers

All of these people follow me, and they all have more than 100,000 followers.  They are listed by the number of their followers, highest first.  Most of these people appear in other categories.

Name & Twitter Handle	Other Information	Followers
Ted Cruz @tedcruz	his personal Twitter account	6.4 million
U.S. Senator Ted Cruz @SenTedCruz	represents Texas Senate office website	3.7 million
Ryan Fournier @RyanAFournier	Chairman of Students for Trump and former political commentator on Fox News.  Link to his Instagram account.	1.1 million
Joey Bautista @JoeyBats19	Former professional baseball player	1 million
Former Governor John Kasich @JohnKasich	Former Governor of Ohio and 2016 presidential candidate website	883,000
Artem Klyushin @ARTEM_KLYUSHI	No self-description	763,000
Taye Diggs @TayeDiggs	Actor IMDb listing	624,000
Kevin Green @MySOdotCom	Owner of My SO.  It offers digital content management.	583,000
Kevin Green @FixedOpsGenius	Paid speaker	495,000
Eric Matheny @ericmatheny	Co-host of "Bob and Eric Save America" Apple podcast	394,000
Life News @LifeNewsHQ	They write news about Pro-Life topics.	339,000
Texas Tribune @TexasTribune	Member-supported, non-profit, and non-partisan newsroom..	317,000
Deanna Lorraine @DeAnnaCongress	Former candidate for Congress in California.  She is now a radio talk show host.	296,000
Daniel F. Baranowski @LifeNewsHQ	Retired Harvard Professor of Public Health.	299,000
Jessie Jane Duff @JessieJaneDuff	Executive Director, Veterans for Trump.  Retired Gunnery Sergeant, U.S. Marine Corps.	275,000
Spencer Rayner @spencerrayner	Digital consultant in the U.K. SP Digital Consultants	270,000
Lennar @Lennar	This is a national homebuilding company..	239,000
Michael Johns @michaeljohns	National Tea Party movement co-founder and leader. Former White House speechwriter and Heritage policy analyst.	231,000
Steve Fergusom @lsferguson	This former Massachusetts legislator posts frequently about national political issues.	205,000
Dr. Lynn J. Anderson @andersonDrLJA	Retired Colonel, U.S. Army, Christian.  Descendant of a Revolutionary War soldier.	200,000
The Gay Republican @GayRepublicanSwag	A member of @againstgrmrs	162,000
Susan Gaeta @GaetaSusan	Executive Board Member, 1791 Society.	153,000
Nah Baby Nah @NahBabyNah	A patriot whose heart bleeds red, white, and blue.	152,000
Nat Shupe @NatShupe	Affiliated with the U.S. Freedom Army	152,000
LessGovMoreFun @LessGovMoreFun	A common American.	144,000
Eric Schmitt @Eric_Schmitt	United States Senator, representing Missouri	142,000
Jesse Lee Peterson @JLPTalk	Host of the JLP Show	137,000
Chris Stamper @CStamper_	His self-description doesn't mention it, but I think he's a contributor to Wired Magazine.	144,000
Andres Malcolm @AHMalcolm	Contributor to Red State and Co-Host of The Ed Morrisey Show on Hot Air.	138,000
Michael Moates @FreedomMoates	Contributor to the Washington Examiner.  Link to his most recent articles.	111,000
Robert Cahaly @RobertCahaly	Chief Pollster for The Trafalgar Group.	110,000
Matt Batzel @MattBatzel	National Executive Director of American Majority	110,000
Montgomery Granger @mjgranger1	Author, "Saving Grace at Guantanamo Bay" His books	110,000

Congresswoman Claudia Tenney, representing the 24th District in New York, has 97,000 followers. @claudiatenney

Inactive followers

These people follow me, but they haven't posted anything in more than a year.

The late Amy Ridenour	Chairman, National Center for Public Policy Research	@AmyRidenour
Scott Rigell	Former U.S. Representative from Virginia's 2nd District until January 2017.	@RepScottRigell
Jesse-Jane McParland	2016 Junior World Champion, World Association of Kickboxing Organizations	@JJmcparland

These people and organizations have followed me in the past.

Montel Williams	The host of one of the longest-running talk shows on television.  Emmy winner in 1996.	@Montel_Williams
MUma Pemmearaju	Fox News Reporter	@Montel_Williams
The Washington Examiner	Recent headline: Carson: No Syrian Refugees in the U.S., should help Jordan instead	@DCExaminer
Dave Brown	Senior Editor at the Washington Examiner	@dave_brown24
Nick Short	Chief TEchnology Officer, Thomas Klingenstein	@PoliticalShort
Anthony Scaramucci	He is a founder of a hedge fund, and he was a member of Donald Trump's transition team in 2016.  Link to his IMDb biography.	@Scaramucci
American Majority	They train people to become politically active.	@Am_National
Modern Masons	"Integrating Modern times with Freemasonry" Website of their oldest lodge	@ModernMasons
The Thomas More Society	A national not-for-profit law firm that provides pro-bono legal services. Website	@ThomasMoreSoc
Barnstable County (MA) Commissioner Ron Beaty	List of the County Commissioners.  He ran for election to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 2018 but lost.	@ronbeatyjr
J. J. Koch	Dallas County Commissioner, District 2.  Campaign website.  He was elected in 2018.	@JJKoch
Beth Lindstrom	A former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, representing the state of Massachusetts.  Campaign website.	@BethLindstrom
Kevin Nicholson	Former Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, representing the state of Wisconsin.  Campaign website.	@KevinMNicholson
Dan DeBono	The Republican candidate for the U.S. House in New York's 3rd Congressional District.  Campaign website.	@DanDeBono
Phoenix, AZ City Councillor Sal DiCiccio	His reelection website.  He was reelected in August 2017.	@Sal_DiCiccio
Team Santorum	Rick Santorum was a 2012 presidential candidate.  The last tweet posted by this account was made January 2016.	@TeamSantorum
Derek Cressman	Former Democrat candidate for the 6th district in the California State Senate.  Campaign website.	@DerekCressman
Gavi Shapiro	Former Republican candidate for State Representative in Georgia House District 52.  Campaign website.	@GaviShapiro
U.S. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife Service	part of the Interior Department	@USFWS
Jenny Beth Martin	Co-founder of the Tea Party Patriots	@jennybethm
Leslie Marshall	Nationally syndicated radio talk show host who streams her show on LeslieMarshall.com	@LeslieMarshall
Kris Gutierrez	Former national correspondent for Fox News, now working for KXAS-TV in Fort Worth, Texas.	@KrisGutierrez
John Grisham	Best-selling author.  He followed me twice.	@JohnGrisham
The Daily Caller	Recent headline: Media rushes to blame Christians, Republicans for Planned Parenthood shooting	@DailyCaller
Team Ted Cruz 2016	This account was controlled by his campaign staff.  The last post was July 20, 2016.	@TeamTedCruz2016
Linda Wang	Professional actress.  IMDB listing.	@LoveLindaWang
Aurelia Scheppers	Professional actress.  IMDB listing.	@aureliasaid
Alfons Lôpez Tena	The current leader of the separatist movement in Spain.  An Op-Ed he wrote about Catalonia.	@alfonslopeztena
Michele McPhee	Emmy-nominated Investigative Reporter, Author, ABC News Producer.	@MicheleMcPhee
Everette Taylor	Chief Marketing Officer for Skurt  More information about him is here.	@Everette

The number of my followers is accurate

In the middle of December 2013, I had about 235 followers.  They were following me at the rate of about two or three a day.  I was happy with this.  I have been rewarding new followers by retweeting some of their messages, and if I get 2-3 new followers a day, I can keep up with that pace and thank each one individually.

But then, I was away from Twitter for a few days.

When I came back and logged back on, I saw that I had over ten thousand new followers.  I tried hard to think what I could have done on Twitter or this blog to earn ten thousand new followers in a few days.

In a desperate effort to learn more, I started looking at some of these followers, and I started seeing two patterns.

1. Many of these new followers had not sent out an original tweet in years.
2. Many of these people had names that sounded Spanish.

I came to the conclusion that many of these people, perhaps even the overwhelming majority of them, had died, and that someone else had figured out some way to get the Twitter account of a dead person to "follow" someone.

Few of these strange new followers have corresponded sent me any tweets, and none of them have replied to anything I've written, which gives me even more reason to believe that they're literally the account of a dead person.

Since December 2013, I still get about two or three new followers a day, on average, and I still reward them by retweeting some of their recent messages, but I would really like to have a private talk with whoever dumped those ten thousand dead accounts on me.

In early August 2018, Twitter removed many inactive followers from many people.  The number of my own followers dropped overnight from about 11,500 to 4,500, but I'm gaining one or two new followers on most days.

July 2018 update

Twitter's administrators and support staff have been removing accounts that they believe were registered improperly.  The number of accounts that followed me dropped overnight from about 11,400 to 4,500.  That number is now climbing slowly, as I expect it would.

However, some accounts that belong to people who are politically conservative have been targeted for abuse, some of which is hidden.  Tweets made by conservatives are sometimes seen by the people who posted them and simultaneously unviewable by others.  This practice is called shadow banning.

These are the first three paragraphs of a July 25, 2018 article in Vice News.

Twitter is limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans in search results — a technique known as “shadow banning” — in what it says is a side effect of its attempts to improve the quality of discourse on the platform.

The Republican Party chair Ronna McDaniel, several conservative Republican congressmen, and Donald Trump Jr.’s spokesman no longer appear in the auto-populated drop-down search box on Twitter, VICE News has learned.  It’s a shift that diminishes their reach on the platform — and it's the same one being deployed against prominent racists to limit their visibility.  The profiles continue to appear when conducting a full search, but not in the more convenient and visible drop-down bar. (The accounts appear to also populate if you already follow the person.)

Democrats are not being “shadow banned” in the same way, according to a VICE News review.  McDaniel’s counterpart, Democratic Party chair Tom Perez, and liberal members of Congress — including Reps. Maxine Waters, Joe Kennedy III, Keith Ellison, and Mark Pocan — all continue to appear in drop-down search results.  Not a single member of the 78-person Progressive Caucus faces the same situation in Twitter’s search.

This article was updated the next day, and Vice News wrote a new article. The updated material says that the Twitter Corporation fixed the problem, but without making any announcement that they had done so.  This is an inadequate solution because there is no statement of Twitter's policy to be fair to both sides of the political spectrum.  In fact, this July 26, 2018 statement claims that they don't shadow-ban, but this statement was made the day after they appeared to halt this practice.  Their lack of a clear long-term policy means that Twitter's politically leftist administrators could still try to hurt people unfairly just because they're on the right side of the spectrum.

David