Trump's Latest Voter Suppression Scheme Blocked By Appeals Court

 

Another attempt by the J6 insurrection leader Malignant Fascist to rig elections has been blocked, for now:

A federal appeals court on Saturday declined to allow U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to implement in 23 states his executive order that aims to tighten rules for mail-in voting ahead of November elections that will decide control of Congress.

The Boston-based 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the administration’s request to lift an injunction several Democratic-led states secured on June 25 from a lower-court judge who concluded that key parts of the Republican president’s order were unconstitutional. In asking the court to pause U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani’s ruling while it pursues an appeal, the U.S. Department of Justice had argued that because government agencies had yet to finalize actions and policies to implement Trump’s directive, any lawsuit challenging his order was premature.

The appeals court, in a 2-1 ruling, rejected that argument.

“As the district court reasoned, the (executive order) lays out a clear set of rapidly approaching deadlines by which states must coordinate with federal officials and comply with new voting procedures — all while the states must also ensure that their officials and the public understand the evolving set of rules that would govern the upcoming September and November elections,” the judges wrote. “The Plaintiff States have no practical choice but to respond to the (order) now.” Before Talwani ruled, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., rejected a related effort by Democrats to block Trump’s order on similar grounds. The Justice Department warned that absent a ruling in its favor from the 1st Circuit, it may be forced to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene.  [snip]

But Talwani, in siding with a coalition of 23 states and the District of Columbia that was led by California, Massachusetts, Nevada and Washington state, said the president lacked any authority to direct DHS to compile voter eligibility lists for each state to use and that USPS had no statutory authorization to adopt any binding regulations on mail-in voting.

The judge, who was appointed by Democratic President Barack Obama, said Trump also could not attempt through his order “to intimidate local election officials to use the necessarily incomplete confirmed citizenship lists as a resource, lest they face criminal prosecution.”

The "Justice" Department is expected to run to the Republican Supreme Court in order to overturn the Appeals Court's decision, where we're certain his MAGAt lackeys will create some new powers for the MF and the agencies involved that don't exist in statute.  From gerrymandering to purging voter rolls to mail-in ballot restrictions, the objective is for the MF and his party/ cult to choose who votes, because that's the only way they win.

(Cartoon:  R.J. Matson, CQ/ Roll Call)

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

Democrats successfully defended a conservative seat in rural Louisiana on Saturday night, as Chasity Martinez defeated Republican Brad Daigle by a dominant 62-38 margin—a massive 37-point overperformance compared to the 2024 presidential result.

Republicans had hoped to score their first legislative pickup of any kind during Donald Trump’s second term, and they had good reason to think they might succeed in the 60th House District.

Voters in the district, which includes part of Assumption and Iberville parishes (Louisiana’s equivalent of counties), had long backed state and local Democrats but had moved decidedly toward Republicans on the federal level in recent years.

According to calculations by The Downballot, Donald Trump carried the 60th by a 56-43 margin in 2024, giving the GOP a real opening. Daigle, an insurance agent, further argued that the district would be better served by electing a member who would join the Republican supermajority in the legislature.

But Martinez, a member of the Iberville Parish Council, emphasized issues that have resonated for Democrats running on similarly difficult turf: affordability and public education. She also criticized a lack of responsiveness from state officials to the difficult conditions faced by many residents.  [snip]

Since Trump returned to the White House, Democrats have picked up eight Republican-controlled districts through special elections, as well as 18 seats in New Jersey and Virginia during those states’ regularly scheduled contests last November. Republicans have flipped none.  (our emphasis)

That's 26 Democratic flips to 0 for the MAGAts since January 2025.  In this race, the overperformance number is the one to look at -- 37% + for Democrat compared to the national 2024 election.  That giant sucking sound you hear is the fascist Republican party/ cult imploding.

The bad:

A federal judge refused Sunday to help in attempts to open early voting sites at three public North Carolina universities, declining requests to overrule decisions by Republican-controlled elections boards leading up to the state’s upcoming primary.

U.S. District Judge William Osteen rejected arguments by the College Democrats of North Carolina and some students that they were likely to win a recent lawsuit because decisions by GOP board members placed undue burdens on the right to vote.

The decision by Osteen — nominated to the bench by President George W. Bush — to deny a preliminary injunction or a temporary restraining order can be appealed.

Early in-person voting for the March 3 primary begins this coming Thursday. It features nomination races for U.S. Senate and House, the legislature and local elections. 

Osteen also wrote that formally backing efforts to open the sites so close to voting could risk confusion.

Osteen’s ruling marks a key decision on policy preferences by the State Board of Elections and elections boards in all 100 counties since a state lawrecently shifted them from having Democratic majorities to Republican majorities. 

The College Democrats of North Carolina — an arm of the state party — and four voters sued in late January accusing the state board and boards in Jackson and Guilford counties of violating the U.S. Constitution.

The lawsuit involves votes by the state board and the two county boards to not include early voting sites at Western Carolina University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and North Carolina A&T State University, also in Greensboro. A&T is the largest historically Black university in the country.

An early voting site at Western Carolina has operated regularly since 2016. Sites at the Greensboro campuses have not been offered in midterm elections. Voting sites are offered at college campuses elsewhere in the state. Same-day registration is available at early voting sites.

Without the sites, the lawsuit says, students will be forced to travel off-campus to vote, imposing time and money upon those least familiar with voting...  (our emphasis)

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" -- the MAGAt Republican party/ cult creed for the 2026 midterms.  Restricting early voting in Democratic strongholds, other voter suppression and intimidation tactics, gerrymandering, etc.:  whatever it takes to maintain power. This decision will be appealed.  But, regardless of the ultimate outcome, the duty of the Democratic Party and every American who values our endangered democracy is to fight back with everything we have and in every way we can for as long as it takes to defeat these lawless fascists.

The ugly:

“Wear the mission. Text merch to 71776 for official TPUSA merch.”

Those were the first words greeting thousands of viewers as they joined Turning Point’s YouTube channel for the 15-minute countdown before their alternate All-American Halftime Show, as a chyron ran nonstop at the bottom of the screen, hawking merchandise and begging for text signups.

It was a fitting start for a slapdash night of music that seemed half-hearted from the start. The whole event was predicated on outrage from the MAGA faithful over Bad Bunny, a proud Puerto Rican who performs in Spanish, being selected to perform the Super Bowl halftime show. Because those angry about Bad Bunny couldn’t say the quiet part out loud — outside of Turning Point conspicuously surveying fans about what kinds of music they would want, and one of the choices was “Anything in English” — vague language was instead used to invoke patriotism.

Unfortunately, the All-American Halftime Show was unable to evoke much more than a shrug, with halfhearted pop-country performances that showed the limitations of booking a big show with minimal talent.  [snip]

Meanwhile, while the Turning Point show screamed about patriotism, Bad Bunny’s official show was filled with highlight after highlight of things that are exciting about America: A nation full of people who came here with talent and differences worth embracing. Even if you don’t speak Spanish, the visual storytelling evoked so many people living the American dream, from the workers in the opening segment, to elderly folks, female friendships, dancing, drinks and unabashed jubilation and unity.

Ignore the blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of a few guys grinding on each other, and there was even plenty that the MAGA crowd would enjoy if they bothered to watch it: A real-life wedding! Beautiful women dancing! A great, big declaration of “God Bless America”!

But there was never going to be a good-faith effort to meet Bad Bunny’s show halfway. Like clockwork, Trump sent out a long message on Truth Social minutes after it ended, slamming it as quickly as possible. (Note to Trump: “Nobody understands a word this guy is saying” … he sings in Spanish, dude! Better take that cognitive test again.)

In the end, the final words shown during Bad Bunny’s performance were seen on a massive video screen: “The only thing more powerful than hate is love.”

The final words on the Turning Point broadcast? “Get involved,” next to a QR code begging for more money.  (our emphasis)

"A big show with minimal talent."  Kind of like the MF's regime.

Grifters will always grift (see also, "Melania").  Two culture war stinkers in a row.  Better dig up Leni Riefenstahl!  On the other hand, a real American story was being told by Bad Bunny at the Super Bowl halftime show, full of "unabashed jubilation and unity," in contrast with TPUSA/ Kid Rock(head)'s mean-spirited, money-grubbing grift (perfectly representing the MF's presidency).

Texas Republican Orders Raids Of Group Registering Latino Voters

 

Securities fraudster and bribe- taking (allegedly!) ultra- MAGAt Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is going after a Latino civil rights organization that's supporting Democratic get- out- the- vote efforts.

The nation's oldest Latino civil rights organization, LULAC, is one of several entities in Texas targeted in voter fraud raids led by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, CBS News has learned.

In a letter first obtained by CBS News, LULAC requested that the Justice Department investigate Paxton's office for Voting Rights Act violations. The organization is accusing Paxton's office of carrying out illegal searches premised on voter fraud. 

"These actions echo a troubling history of voter suppression and intimidation that has long targeted both Black and Latino communities, particularly in states like Texas, where demographic changes have increasingly shifted the political landscape," LULAC CEO Juan Proaño and the group's national president, Roman Palomares, said in the letter.

The Justice Department confirmed receipt of the letter and declined to comment further. (Ed. -- somebody wake up Merrick Garland!)

Last week, Paxton's office announced in a press release that it was launching undercover operations and an investigation into reports alleging some organizations in Texas are unlawfully registering noncitizens to vote, in violation of state and federal law. 

LULAC officials told CBS News that some of the group's Texas members were targeted and had their laptops and cell phones confiscated by Texas authorities executing search warrants. Some of the raids focused on Latino activists across the state. 

"Attorney General Paxton is using his position of authority to harass and intimidate Latino non-profit organizations like LULAC, Latino Leaders and LULAC members," Juan Proaño, LULAC's CEO told CBS News, calling the state AG's effort "point-blank" voter intimidation. "It is evident through his pattern of lawsuits, raids, searches, and seizures that he is trying to keep Latinos from voting."... (our emphasis)

Texas will one day be a purple, then a blue state, and everything voter intimidating and suppressing MAGAt Republicans like Paxton and Gov. Greg Abbott are doing, in concert with their gerrymandered legislature and corrupt courts, is intended to delay that day for as long as they can.  For years, Paxton has been using bogus claims of "voter fraud" to justify voter intimidation tactics (whenever he's not in court defending himself against fraud and bribery charges).  It's long been a Republican thing to try to suppress the votes of Democratic constituencies, but it's been kicked up several notches in the autocratic Malignant Loser era because the stake have gotten higher with each election, and because it's Republicans, not Democrats, that have to cheat to win.

(Cartoon:  Steve Sack, Minneapolis Tribune (2021))

Trump's Menacing "Guard The Vote"

Among the many dog-whistles and bullhorns that the Malignant Loser regularly spews to his audience of angry cultists is the phase "guard the vote" in 2024. Superficially, it sounds like a benign civic call. But with the Malignant Loser, it's far more sinister and has dire implications for the 2024 elections. From the Associated Press:

"Trump employed the phrase in Ankeny, Iowa, on Saturday, saying his followers need to 'guard the vote' because 'we have all the votes we need.' He encouraged his supporters to 'go into' cities including Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta to 'watch those votes when they come in.'

Experts in political messaging say the context in which Trump uses 'guard the vote' primes his supporters to not only expect fraud in diverse Democratic cities next year, but to intervene to ensure Trump wins.

'It suggests that the outcome of the election is foregone. It’s been decided,' said Susan Benesch, founder and executive director of the Dangerous Speech Project. 'Is it actually guarding the election against fraud, or is it guarding the election against a result in which Trump is not declared the winner?'”  (our emphasis)

Indeed, the article points out that allies of the Malignant Loser -- specifically the disgraced Michael Flynn and Victor Mellor -- have launched an operation called "Guard the Vote" with the intent of flooding polling stations and boards of elections with zealous and potentially violent MAGAts during the 2024 elections, intimidating poll workers and voters if they see voting going against the Malignant Loser. The Malignant Loser's examples of Detroit, Philadelphia and Atlanta -- being Democratic strongholds in three key swing states -- is an indication that the goal is not to keep an eye on a close election in those jurisdictions, but to suppress the vote of African American and other minority voters in overwhelmingly Democratic communities. In 2020, right-wing Oath Keepers, some masked and armed, hovered by ballot drop boxes, until a Federal judge required them to keep their distance from voters. Expect the same intimidation tactics in 2024, unless states and communities take action against them beforehand.

(photo: Trumpists outside a Virginia early voting site in 2020. Kenny Holston for The New York Times)

 

Texas Passes Election Law Targeting Democratic Stronghold

 

ICYMI over the weekend, the anti- democracy yahoos in Texass are continuing their rear guard action to defend Christofascism in their state:

Texas Republicans wound down their regular legislative session Sunday by changing election policies for a single populous Democratic stronghold but not other parts of the state.

The measure gives the secretary of state under certain conditions the power to run elections in Harris County, home to Houston and 4.8 million residents. It follows a bill approved days earlier that shifts the oversight of elections from its appointed elections administrator to the county clerk and county assessor.

Harris County officials at a news conference last week said they would bring a lawsuit challenging the measures as soon as Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signs them into law.

“These bills are not about election reform,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the county’s chief executive. “They’re not about improving voters’ experience. They are entirely about suppressing voters’ voices. The reasoning behind these bills is nothing but a cynical charade.”

Also over recent days, the Republican-controlled legislature passed bills increasing penalties for illegal voting and likely setting the stage for the state to withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center. The center was formed in 2012 to help states maintain accurate voter rolls, identify instances of potential fraud and contact people so they can register to vote. More than half the states belong to the consortium, but some Republican-run states have bolted from it over the last year as election deniers have spread false information about its work.

The new law seemingly violates the Texass Constitution, not that that would stop the vote suppressors, who are being real clever:

The Texas Constitution, like those in many states, bars the legislature from passing laws that apply only to specific jurisdictions. Harris County officials said they would use that provision of the state constitution to challenge the legislation targeting their county.

Whether they succeed will be up to the courts. The legislation does not mention Harris County by name. Instead, one bill is written to apply to counties of more than 3.5 million and the other to counties of more than 4 million. Harris County is the only county that meets those thresholds.

“We’re suing the state of Texas to protect Harris County, to protect Harris County residents, to protect our public officials and to stop the state from targeting us,” Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee said during last week’s news conference.

We wish them well, but given how the Christofascists have salted the state courts with their own, even having the law and the state Constitution on your side might not be enough.

What's happened in Arizona, Nevada and Georgia, once red states now purple, is what Christofascist Republicans in Texass see coming in the distance.  It might take longer to happen than it did in those other states, but it will happen there, too.

If you want to help Harris County Democrats fight voter suppression, you can make a donation here.

(Photo:  Gabriel C. Pérez / KUT News)

 

Letters We Wish We'd Written Department -- Voter Fraud

In today's Washington Post:

The basic premise of former vice president Mike Pence’s argument in his Jan. 16 op-ed, “Jan. 6 was a tragedy. Busting the filibuster would be, too.,” was that voter fraud runs rampant across our nation, yet he cited no examples of this allegedly widespread behavior. The goals and objectives of the Republican Party, regarding voting rights legislation, could not be any clearer. When you gerrymander a state so that a minority party always wins elections, that is voter fraud. When you put one voting machine into a Black district that should have 10, that is voter fraud. When you allow a gun permit to be used as voter identification but reject a college ID, that is voter fraud.

Well, I guess Mr. Pence was right: There is a good deal of voter fraud in the United States today. The problem is that the Republican Party wants to double down on that fraud by further manipulating voting rules, regulations and officials.

If we are going to continue to determine the outcome of presidential elections using the electoral college, how each state conducts its elections does matter to voters in other states. When a rogue state can steer the presidency to a minority party, that is real voter fraud.

David Dunn, Fairfax Station

Phony arguments from a phony Mike "Hang Mike" Pence op/ ed about "voter fraud," expertly described by Mr. Dunn as a purely Republican phenomenon.  Pence, in echoing the Big Lie claims about voter fraud and election theft, is supporting the vicious movement that almost led to his demise at the Capitol on January 6.  The man is brimming with ambition, but he doesn't have any integrity or spine, like the vast majority of current or would- be Republican officeholders.  What a... fraud.

And, why would the "Democracy dies in darkness" Post print the weasel's lies in the first place, especially without fact checking it (rhetorical question)?  Democracy actually dies when anti- democratic lies are allowed to metastasize with the collusion of the media.

Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds. 

The New York Effing Times, where there is a cognitive dissonance between the editorial page and the news pages, had an editorial on the existential threat to our democracy posed by the Trump Republican Party:

It is regular citizens who threaten election officials and other public servants, who ask, “When can we use the guns?” and who vow to murder politicians who dare to vote their conscience. It is Republican lawmakers scrambling to make it harder for people to vote and easier to subvert their will if they do. It is Donald Trump who continues to stoke the flames of conflict with his rampant lies and limitless resentments and whose twisted version of reality still dominates one of the nation’s two major political parties.

In short, the Republic faces an existential threat from a movement that is openly contemptuous of democracy and has shown that it is willing to use violence to achieve its ends. No self-governing society can survive such a threat by denying that it exists. Rather, survival depends on looking back and forward at the same time.

Truly grappling with the threat ahead means taking full account of the terror of that day a year ago. Thanks largely to the dogged work of a bipartisan committee in the House of Representatives, this reckoning is underway. We know now that the violence and mayhem broadcast live around the world was only the most visible and visceral part of the effort to overturn the election. The effort extended all the way into the Oval Office, where Mr. Trump and his allies plotted a constitutional self-coup.  [snip]

This is where looking forward comes in. Over the past year, Republican lawmakers in 41 states have been trying to advance the goals of the Jan. 6 rioters — not by breaking laws but by making them. Hundreds of bills have been proposed and nearly three dozen laws have been passed that empower state legislatures to sabotage their own elections and overturn the will of their voters, according to a running tally by a nonpartisan consortium of pro-democracy organizations. [snip]

Thus the Capitol riot continues in statehouses across the country, in a bloodless, legalized form that no police officer can arrest and that no prosecutor can try in court.

The Times being The Times, no ink or electrons are expended examining the blame the media in general or The Times in particular shoulders for the current state of affairs.  Until and unless they come to grips with that and make changes, they're part of the problem, not the solution (not holding our breath).

As The Times editorial notes, the reckoning is underway in the form of the January 6 committee's upcoming must- see- tv:

They’ve interviewed more than 300 witnesses, collected tens of thousands of documents and traveled around the country to talk to election officials who were pressured by Donald Trump.

Now, after six months of intense work, the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection is preparing to go public.

In the coming months, members of the panel will start to reveal their findings against the backdrop of the former president and his allies’ persistent efforts to whitewash the riots and reject suggestions that he helped instigate them. The committee also faces the burden of trying to persuade the American public that their conclusions are fact-based and credible.

But the nine lawmakers — seven Democrats and two Republicans — are united in their commitment to tell the full story of Jan. 6, and they are planning televised hearings and reports that will bring their findings out into the open.

Their goal is not only to show the severity of the riot, but also to make a clear connection between the attack and Trump’s brazen pressure on the states and Congress to overturn Joe Biden’s legitimate election as president.

Let's also get those criminal referrals ready to go, please. 

On the COVID-19 front, keep your eye on the hospitalization numbers:

As the United States continues to see a huge spike in coronavirus cases driven by the omicron variant, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, Anthony S. Fauci, says the better way to track the variant’s impact is to look at growing hospitalizations.

The United States was averaging more than 400,000 new cases each day as of Monday, double the previous week’s rate, according to Washington Post data, and is expected to soon hit as many as 1 million cases per day. Fauci, speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, said “the real bottom line that you want to be concerned about is: Are we getting protected by the vaccines from severe disease leading to hospitalization?”

Hospitalizations are up 31 percent from last week, and deaths increased by 37 percent, with about 1,500 Americans dying of covid-19 each day. Experts have warned that this surge will be driven by the unvaccinated, as those who are vaccinated and boosted would have considerable protection from serious illness.

Fauci warned of the broader dangers on CNN: “Even if the rate of hospitalization is lower with omicron than it is with delta, there is still the danger that you will have a surging of hospitalizations that might stress the health-care system.”

Where is the problem most acute?  Why, mostly in Republican- governed anti-vax, anti-mask states, of course:

Lower vaccination rates and fewer mask and vaccine mandates have created a much different environment for the omicron variant to spread in the South, leaving experts unsure whether outbreaks will end up deadlier than in the North.

Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Mississippi are among the states experiencing the sharpest increases in covid-19 hospitalizations since Christmas, according to data tracked by The Washington Post. And the situation may only get worse, as initial outbreaks in metropolitan areas spread to more poorly vaccinated rural regions.

The unvaccinated are causing great harm to the health care system in this country, as they play a major role in perpetuating the pandemic.  At this point, we're losing interest in what harm they're doing to themselves and their families.

What happens when a cosseted pro football player is humored and enabled rather than helped? This:

Antonio Brown chucked his shoulder pads, hurled his black undershirt into the stands and walked off the MetLife Stadium field shirtless, exhorting the crowd as he jogged across the end zone and into the tunnel, disappearing from view. As his team lined up for third and seven, Brown torched what remained of his career. The spectacle rested upon a fundamental fact that should embarrass so many in the NFL: Brown orchestrated an exit of his own volition.

Coach Bruce Arians announced afterward that Brown no longer plays for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which Brown had already declared with his behavior. That Brown, 33, could choose the time and manner of his departure, no matter how bizarre, should shame the Buccaneers and many others across the NFL. All the times Brown should have received serious help or significant punishment over the past three years, he received more chances to play football.

Each time one team grew tired of his antics, another clamored to sign him. When two women accused Brown of sexual assault and the NFL suspended him for half a season for a separate battery charge involving a moving company employee, Tom Brady leaped to rehabilitate him. When he used a fake vaccination card this year, the NFL slapped his wrist with a three-game suspension and Arians allowed competitive desperation to trump his zero-tolerance vow about Brown.

Well, any league that will tolerate the on-going shame of having Li'l Danny Snyder as an owner is pretty much capable of tolerating anything.

"Now, for something completely different,"* please head over to Infidel 753's link round-up to interesting posts he curated from around the Internet.  There's plenty to interest even the most jaded reader.  Also check out his ten most important stories of 2021 -- hard to argue with his choices!

* Yes, that was a Monty Python reference.

Arizona Republican Fraudit: Er, Uh, Biden Won By Wider Margin

 

 

Well, well, what will the malignant loser have to say about this:

A Republican-commissioned review of nearly 2.1 million ballots cast last year in Arizona confirmed the accuracy of the official results and President Biden’s win in Maricopa County, according to a draft report prepared by private contractors who conducted the recount.

The draft was obtained by The Washington Post late Thursday night in advance of a planned public release of a final version on Friday.

The ultimate findings will cap a costly and drawn-out recount commissioned by the GOP-led Arizona Senate that had been championed by former president Donald Trump and kept alive false claims that fraud tainted the election in the state’s most populous county. The process was pilloried by election experts who warned that the methods used by the firm hired to run the review were sloppy and biased.

After nearly six months and almost $6 million — most of it given by groups that cast doubt on the election results — the draft report shows that the review concluded that 45,469 more ballots were cast for Biden in Maricopa County than for Trump, giving Biden 360 more votes than the certified results.

The draft report found the count to have “no substantial differences” from the county’s certified tallies.

So, the Republican fraudit actually found that Biden won more votes than were certified.  (Meaning the "steal" was even bigger than the malignant loser suspected! Bwahahahahahaha!)

Whether this result -- in which even the mightiest efforts by Trumpists to find Chinese bamboo ballots, dead people voting, and purloined ballots failed to overturn the legitimate results -- puts a damper on other Republicans' efforts to cast doubt on the election by running similar fraudits has already been answered:  nope.  Other states, including Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, with anti- democracy Republican legislators already have similar fraudits in the works;  Texas, which went for Trump (!), just announced its own fraudit after it was demanded by... the malignant loser himself. The point of all of them, of course, is not to find "fraud" (because there was none), but to give Republicans cover to carry out their voter suppression/ election nullification plans.

How much longer do we have to wait before we get federal voting rights legislation passed to put an end to all this b.s.?

BONUS:   Classic --

 

Even though I didn’t vote for him… Newsflash: Biden won. pic.twitter.com/lBGUhDiUaX

— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) September 24, 2021

(Photo: "Wait, I think I found some Chinese bamboo!")

There Are No "Hero" Republicans

 

More proof, if any were needed, that the "heroes" of the Georgia elections are, in the end, just your garden variety Republican cheats:

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who was pressured by President Trump to change the election results in his state in the 2020 presidential election, is now defending the state's new, stricter voting law against a lawsuit by the U.S. Justice Department. 

Raffensperger told CBSN's Tanya Rivero on Tuesday that he sees "absolutely no merit" in the lawsuit and insisted there is "record voter turnout" in the state.

Attorney General Merrick Garland alleged in a lawsuit filed last week that Georgia's election law was enacted "with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians to vote on account of their race or color, in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act."

After having concluded, along with multiple recounts and court findings, that the elections in Georgia were fair, and fraud free, Republican Raffensperger now defends "fixing" a system that wasn't broken in order to tilt the table toward Repubicans.  Notably, he's running for reelection against former guy- annointed Rep. Jody "Rhymes With Lice" Hice, who was one of the 139 Republican Representatives who voted to overturn the 2020 election.  So, either way, a vote for a Georgia Republican Secretary of State is a vote to undermine democracy.

 

Monday Reading

 

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds. 

Vaccine hesitancy/ resistance is... a problem:

Plummeting vaccination rates have turned what officials hoped would be the “last mile” of the coronavirus immunization campaign into a marathon, threatening President Biden’s goal of getting shots to at least 70 percent of adults by July 4.

The United States is averaging fewer than 1 million shots per day, a decline of more than two-thirds from the peak of 3.4 million in April, according to The Washington Post’s seven-day analysis, even though all adults and children over age 12 are now eligible. [snip]

The slowdown is national — with every state down at least two-thirds from its peak — and particularly felt across the South and Midwest. Twelve states, including Utah, Oklahoma, Montana, the Dakotas and West Virginia, have seen vaccinations fall below 15 daily shots per 10,000 residents; Alabama had just four people per 10,000 residents get vaccinated last week.

But the picture varies considerably across the country: Thirteen mostly East and West Coast states have already vaccinated 70 percent of adult residents, and another 15 states, plus the District of Columbia, are over 60 percent and will likely reach Biden’s goal.

The rest are lagging behind. Tennessee and five other states are at 50 percent or below and vaccinating at such low rates that meeting the president’s threshold is very unlikely.

The steep decline began in mid-April, coinciding with federal officials’ temporary suspension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine while they probed rare blood-clotting reactions. That slowdown has continued, with only 2.4 million adults getting their first shot last week. Officials must get a first dose to 4.2 million adults per week to meet Biden’s goal of ensuring that 70 percent of adults are at least partially vaccinated by Independence Day.  (our emphasis)

There's not much doubt for us that the suspension of the J&J vaccine just as vaccination rates were climbing and confidence in vaccinations was building was a major error, an overreaction to an extremely rare reaction that gave vaccine- hesitant people a reason not to get their shot, or at least indefinitely delay the decision.

The problem is particularly critical in vulnerable populations:

Less than a quarter of Black Americans had received their first Covid-19 shot as of June 3, amid a weekslong stagnation that has defied the government’s ramped-up effort to accelerate vaccinations and reach the nation’s most vulnerable communities.

The slowdown has put Black Americans behind the pace set over the past month by other racial and ethnic groups tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The trend line worries health officials and experts who say the immunization drive is running into a particularly complex web of distrust, outreach challenges and stubborn barriers to access. [snip]

“We still have some places where the past history of bias, discrimination and hate has just caused such an ingrained mistrust of political and social structures that it’s hard to break through that,” said James Hildreth, CEO of Meharry Medical College and a task force member. “We need to make a stronger effort to bring the vaccine to the communities, rather than relying on the communities to come to vaccination centers.”

Joel Mathis posits that the Republicans just might be engaging in one of the biggest self- owns in American political history:

...[I]n so openly working to tilt the playing field in their favor, Republicans may already be convincing American voters the party can't win the White House without a little funny business. In that case, the party will have created a crisis of legitimacy for itself when it next takes power. That would be a massive self-own — darkly amusing, if the possible consequences weren't so serious.

Legitimacy matters. All governments depend on some mix of coercion (laws, prisons, taxes, police) and public acceptance of a regime's right to rule. When you have more of the latter, you often need less of the former. And when government's legitimacy falters, unrest can often follow — witness last summer's Black Lives Matter protests after the police murder of George Floyd. The balance is a living thing, always in flux.

In a democracy, nothing undermines legitimacy faster than the public's sense that its leaders didn't follow the rules while acquiring power. Indeed, Trump has already created both an outright insurrection and an ongoing crisis for President Biden by convincing so many of his followers — falsely, egregiously — that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election. The shocking revelation of the Trump Era is that it takes only one particularly bold liar to threaten the underpinnings of a government that couldn't even be undone by the horrors of the Civil War.

As Mathis notes, it's no comfort that the (horrible) prospect of a future Republican governance would have called upon itself the illegitimacy it perennially seeks to pin on Democratic administrations. The instability ushered in by such a scenario is not something to be wished for.

In the meantime, Perry Bacon says there are six things that "small d democrats" need to do to turn the tide on the Republican assault on our democracy:

Having a functioning democracy isn’t just about electoral rules. But core democratic principles include every citizen having an equal, unhindered right to vote, elections being administered freely and fairly, and political parties respecting the outcomes of those elections. We often think of democracy as binary — a political system is either democratic or it isn’t — but scholars view democracy as a continuum. And right now, as Republicans keep undermining our election system, America is becoming less democratic.

That’s an existential crisis, and it should be treated like one. At least six things are needed to turn the tide. [snip]

I know some of these six are unrealistic. But I think we need all six to happen, because the problem we face is so big: Top officials in one of our two political parties, and perhaps a majority of its voters, are embracing undemocratic steps to preserve their power. America needs a huge coalition of small-d democrats — Democratic, Republican and independent — to come together to stop this anti-democratic drift.

We left out the six things so you'll just have to go to the link to see what he's proposing!

Finally, please do yourself a favor by heading over to Infidel 753's link round-up for the best collection of links to interesting posts from around the Internet. That's all we ask.

Florida Republicans Follow Georgia's Jim Crow Lead

 

The good ol' Republican boys in Florida are doing everything they can to rig elections just like in the Jim Crow days:

Florida’s state Senate has passed a bill that includes a number of voter suppression initiatives, following Georgia’s lead in chipping away at voting rights.

Senators in the GOP-led chamber voted 23-17 to pass S.B. 90 on Monday, which is Confederate Memorial Day in the state. The Florida House, which is also led by the GOP, is expected to pass a similar bill later this week, despite concerns from Democrats and voting rights activists that the legislation is part of a nationwide Republican effort to restrict the constitutional right to vote.

The Florida Senate bill criminalizes giving food and water to voters in line, severely restricts where ballot drop boxes can be placed, and limits who can collect and drop off ballots. It also requires voters to first show identification to an election official before casting their ballot, mandates that voters request an absentee ballot for every election, and empowers partisan poll-watchers during the ballot-counting process. 

They're following the same Big Lie script, of course:

Republicans have falsely alleged that the bills are efforts to prevent fraud and restore trust in elections following Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory and two Senate runoffs in Georgia that handed wins to Democrats. Claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent ― especially in cities and suburbs with a substantial Black population ― are lies, with former President Donald Trump’s own officials concluding that it was the most secure election in U.S. history. 

The election also saw record voter turnout ― especially among people of color ― thanks to expanded access to voting and initiatives like ballot drop boxes. That turnout ended up flipping some Republican states blue when it came to the presidential race, including Georgia.

Trump and DeSantis had both previously used and praised mail-in voting, but the Florida governor changed his position after more Democrats than Republicans voted by mail for the first time in his state.

They can't win when people are allowed to vote, so they try to fix it so that it's harder for Democrats to cast ballots.  As they say, it's (Republican) politicians choosing voters rather than voters choosing politicians.

As with the Georgia voter suppression law, this will be challenged in the courts.  But, more importantly, Democrats have tools in the form of H.R. 1/S. 1 (the For the People Act) and the more targeted (and potentially more enactable) John Lewis Voting Rights Act that have the potential to neutralize these Republican efforts to cling to power by rigging the system.  As well, corporations and others doing business in Florida need to rethink and reposition themselves in light of this anti- democratic legislation.

Regardless, these voter suppression efforts are a direct and existential threat to our form of government by a reactionary, racist minority that doesn't share our democratic values.  They're playing for keeps.  They have to be fought tooth and nail.

The Worst Part Of The Georgia Jim Crow Law

Since it continues to get no attention in the media (or, frankly, from national Democrats), it bears repeating what Ari Berman pointed out as perhaps the worst aspect of the Georgia voter suppression law (spoiler alert: it's election nullification).  This time, let's let Zach Beauchamp amplify it:

Under current law, key issues in election management — including decisions on disqualifying ballots and voter eligibility — are made by county boards of election. The new law allows the State Board of Elections to determine that these county boards are performing poorly, replacing the entire board with an administrator chosen at the state level.

At the same time, the bill enhances the General Assembly’s control over the state board.

It removes Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican who famously stood up to Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results in Georgia, from his role as both chair and voting member of the board. The new chair would be appointed by the legislature, which already appoints two members of the five-person board — meaning that a full majority of the board will now be appointed by the Republican-dominated body.

To simplify: The state board, which now will be fully controlled by the Republican legislative majority, is unilaterally empowered to take over (among other things) the process of disqualifying ballots across the state. Given that Georgia Republicans have helped promote false allegations of voter fraud, it’s easy to see why handing them so much power over local election authorities is so worrying. 

So, even if all the voter suppression tactics fail, Republicans can still override election results through the Republican- dominated state board of elections.

Whether this particular provision, much less the law in general, survives court challenges remains to be seen.  The Justice Department under Merrick Garland has been tasked with looking at the Georgia law, presumably including this election nullification gambit (which is being copied in other Republican- run states with the same goal of disenfranchising Democratic -- Black and Hispanic -- voters).  Through litigation or legislation or both, this racist, anti- democratic crap needs to be stopped.

(Image: Merika-Imgflip)

QOTD -- Election Nullification, Georgia Style

"... [I]f this law had been in place, Donald Trump absolutely might have succeeded in overturning the election in Georgia because his biggest Republican critic in Georgia was the secretary of state, (Brad Raffensperger)…. If the Republican legislature in Georgia had wanted to overturn the will of the voters, they could have done that through control of the State Board of Elections and through leaning on county board of elections. And this is why they have made this such a big part of the bill. [snip]

"A lot of things got the headlines, right, Rachel? Not being able to give people food and water, trying to cut back on early voting — those kinds of things got the headlines. But I think the real purpose here was to intensify control over how every aspect of elections are run in Georgia. So, when there are close elections in the future — which they know there will be — they will have unprecedented power to challenge the election results and to decline to certify them if they don't like who the winner is." -- journalist Ari Berman on "The Rachel Maddow Show" Thursday, commenting on a less- noted provision in the recently- signed Georgia voter suppression law paving the way for the Republican state legislature to change election results through control of the board of elections.  It should be noted other Republican- controlled states are proposing similar provisions. (our emphasis)

(Photo:  Georgia Gov. Brian "KK" Kemp signs voter suppression law, witnessed by six white Republicans and a portrait of a plantation.  Their white sheets must be in the laundry.)

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We linked to Dave Roberts' article in Vox earlier this week, about how President- elect Biden should run a blitz in the face of intransigent Republican opposition; here's an excerpt:

Biden’s best chance is to try to overwhelm the system the way Trump did, by doing so much that it’s impossible to make any one thing into a lasting story. He should launch so many simultaneous reforms that there’s no time for right-wing media to make up lies about all of them or for the Supreme Court to hear them all. He should ignore bad-faith attacks and stay relentlessly on message about what’s gotten done and what’s getting done next. He should, at every juncture, get caught trying to make government work better for ordinary people.

To succeed, all this must happen alongside Democratic Party efforts to improve messaging and media, get persistent party infrastructure on the ground in communities the party has neglected, and innovate on voter outreach and persuasion. (Aaron Strauss has some good ideas on that front.)

But Biden has something the rest of the party at the federal level does not have: the power to improve Americans’ lives in a visible way. More than anything else, cynicism about government’s ability to do that is corroding US politics. The best thing Biden can do, morally and politically, is act, as much and as fast as possible, and then talk about it, and do more of it, and talk about it more. (And he should be clear about exactly who stands in the way of bigger, better changes, and why his name is Mitch McConnell.)

We hope that's what the Biden team has in mind. He got an electoral mandate and he needs to use it. Also this:

 

A new Gallup poll finds that President-elect Joe Biden has a 55% favorable rating and a 41% unfavorable rating.

Joe Biden's already more popular than Trump's ever been. https://t.co/3Qse62vVrH

— Vaughn Sterling (@vplus) December 6, 2020

Geoffrey Kabaservice writes about the other side of the political equation, the permanent revolution of the perpetually aggrieved:

Trump’s permanent revolution has no fixed principles other than smashing a nebulous “deep state,” forcing all institutions of society to bend to its will, and waging never-ending war against Democrats, independents and non-Trump Republicans. It has become a perpetual grievance machine unwilling (and unable) to address those grievances through governance or the legislative process. And in refusing to accept Trump’s defeat, the conservative movement increasingly insists that the rule of law, truth and democracy are what the revolution says they are.

More than 70 million Americans voted for Trump. He and his supporters will indulge in an orgy of fantasies about a stolen election for years to come. Any Republicans who hope to succeed him as president will have to parrot his claims that he won in a landslide, that American democracy is corrupt and that Joe Biden is an illegitimate president.

When all is said and done, though, Trump lost reelection despite the political advantages that accrue to an incumbent president. That strongly suggests that he did not somehow repeal every law of political gravity. At some point, a party has to deliver more than grievance-mongering. The GOP’s donors will want something to show for their investments. The party’s constituents — especially the non-college-educated, working-class citizens who make up much of the Republican base — need the government’s help with their problems. And the party’s long-term viability may be in doubt if a strategy of mindless, implacable obstruction endangers the stability and prosperity of the country, causing too many voters to consider it an existential threat. Cynical political realism, if nothing else, suggests that the Republican Party can’t carry on forever as a permanent revolution.

There's no "meeting in the middle" with these nihilistic fantasists.  And they're determined more than ever to disenfranchise Democratic voters, just as they're determined to portray Biden as a somehow illegitimate president:

The shifts that led to this year’s surge in voting, in particular the broad expansion of voting options and the prolonged period for casting ballots, could forever alter elections and political campaigns in America, providing a glimpse into the electoral future.

A backlash from the right could prevent that, however. In many ways, the increase in voting is what Mr. Trump and the Republican Party are now openly campaigning against in their floundering bid to overturn his clear loss to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. — whose popular vote lead grew to seven million on Friday. Republicans have portrayed the burgeoning voting ranks as nefarious and the expanded access to voting options as ripe for fraud — despite the fact that the record turnout provided them numerous victories down ballot.

Though Mr. Trump and the party have not managed to prove a single claim of fraud in the courts — where they and their allies have lost or withdrawn dozens of cases — Republicans at the state level are vowing to enact a new round of voting restrictions to prevent what they claim — without evidence — is widespread fraud.

It's just a reminder that we need to continue to be aggressively pushing back on these un- democratic, un- American efforts, and that when we do, we win elections!

Finally, if it hasn't already become a habit to check out Infidel 753's link round- up, you should go over there right now for the best compendium of topics written about in the past week.  Then bookmark him so you don't have to be reminded by us every week!  You're welcome!

Tweets Of The Day -- Wreck The Vote

Black voters in TX who spent *hours* in line on Super Tuesday tell local station, "The way it was going it's like it was set up for me to walk away, walk away, don't worry about it."

Republicans have worked to cut polling places in black, latino and college areas in the state. pic.twitter.com/qm8YIVKqTr

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 4, 2020

More details on how Texas Republicans created the conditions for long voter lines on Super Tuesday https://t.co/2A462sieLE

— Oliver Willis (@owillis) March 4, 2020

When polling places are deliberately shut down to force working people to wait HOURS to vote, it’s a poll tax.

The time STOLEN from your job,

and time STOLEN  from your paycheck is a #SuperTuesday poll tax. 

This is a #2020 violation of the 24th Amendment. #VoterSuppression https://t.co/y2ckSXFIXm

— Rev. Cornell William Brooks (@CornellWBrooks) March 4, 2020

750 polling places were closed from 2012-2018 in Texas, more than any other state. 52 of those polling places were closed in Houston's Harris County https://t.co/6nelynmFbi

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) March 3, 2020

Ridiculously long lines and difficulty voting are largely the result of the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County v. Holder case, decided by a 5-4 Republican majority.

Courts matter, and they affect the ability of candidates you support to win elections in the future. https://t.co/xvKAwg9mSC

— Parker Molloy (@ParkerMolloy) March 4, 2020

The stories of insanely long lines EVERY ELECTION are a reminder of how much voter suppression is just priced into results and the news coverage. It's purposeful. It's indefensible. The next Democratic president should make voter access a top priority.

— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) March 4, 2020

Also as noted below.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

Over 1,100 2,000 former Justice Department officials have signed an open letter denouncing Attorney General Trump attorney William "Low" Barr's interference in criminal cases, specifically in the sentencing recommendation for long- time Trump/ Republican ratfucker Roger Stone.  Here's part of their statement:

... Although there are times when political leadership appropriately weighs in on individual prosecutions, it is unheard of for the Department’s top leaders to overrule line prosecutors, who are following established policies, in order to give preferential treatment to a close associate of the President, as Attorney General Barr did in the Stone case. It is even more outrageous for the Attorney General to intervene as he did here — after the President publicly condemned the sentencing recommendation that line prosecutors had already filed in court.

Such behavior is a grave threat to the fair administration of justice. In this nation, we are all equal before the law. A person should not be given special treatment in a criminal prosecution because they are a close political ally of the President. Governments that use the enormous power of law enforcement to punish their enemies and reward their allies are not constitutional republics; they are autocracies.  (our emphasis)

The letter goes on to urge all DOJ employees to follow the example of the four prosecutors who withdrew from the Stone case (one resigning from DOJ), and report future abuses to the DOJ Inspector General and other oversight organizations.

The Washington Post has a feature article about how Trump's rhetoric has affected how children are harassed and bullied at school:

Since Trump's rise to the nation’s highest office, his inflammatory language — often condemned as racist and xenophobic — has seeped into schools across America. Many bullies now target other children differently than they used to, with kids as young as 6 mimicking the president’s insults and the cruel way he delivers them.

Trump’s words, those chanted by his followers at campaign rallies and even his last name have been wielded by students and school staff members to harass children more than 300 times since the start of 2016, a Washington Post review of 28,000 news stories found. At least three-quarters of the attacks were directed at kids who are Hispanic, black or Muslim, according to the analysis. Students have also been victimized because they support the president — more than 45 times during the same period.

Although many hateful episodes garnered coverage just after the election, The Post found that Trump-connected persecution of children has never stopped. Even without the huge total from November 2016, an average of nearly two incidents per school week have been publicly reported over the past four years. Still, because so much of the bullying never appears in the news, The Post’s figure represents a small fraction of the actual total. It also doesn’t include the thousands of slurs, swastikas and racial epithets that aren’t directly linked to Trump but that the president’s detractors argue his behavior has exacerbated. (our emphasis)

The Bully- In- Chief, a Giant Toddler himself, is changing our country for the worse in so many ways, but perhaps most disturbingly in how his viciousness is being normalized by young children.  That Third Lady Melon Trump has the anti- bullying "Be Best" campaign as her focus makes it a dark, cosmic joke.

Sticking with the topic, the Post editorializes this morning about the homophobic bullying of Pete Buttigieg by the likes of sick slob Oxycontin Rush Limbaugh:

The most prominent, to date, has been Rush Limbaugh, the radio host, whose enthusiasm for public predation makes him a strong contender for the title of America’s No. 1 bully. Mr. Limbaugh, who wears his sexism, racism, nativism and assorted other bigotries as badges of honor — he once invited an African American caller to “take that bone out of your nose” — last week sneered that Mr. Buttigieg “loves to kiss his husband on the debate stage.”

The Trump presidency has been a heyday for bullies at home and abroad — for schoolyard tormentors who have weaponized the president’s odious rhetoric against their Hispanic and black classmates; for tyrants around the world ever more emboldened to threaten dissidents and intimidate journalists. Could there be any clearer sign that malice is in official favor than Mr. Trump using the occasion of the State of the Union speech to honor Mr. Limbaugh, around whose neck first lady Melania Trump hung the Presidential Medal of Freedom? Could there be anyone more antithetical to the purported goal of Mrs. Trump’s “Be Best” anti-bullying campaign?  (our emphasis)

Forewarned is forearmed.  As you might guess, the Red Hat Cult plans an all- out voter suppression/ voter fraud "program":

The 2020 election will be the first in decades in which the Republican National Committee will not be constrained by a Reagan-era court order that prohibited “ballot security” measures to intimidate nonwhite voters. The Democratic National Committee had sued to halt the intimidation, after the GOP had deployed off-duty police officers wearing “National Ballot Security Task Force” armbands to New Jersey polling stations. Some of these poll watchers were visibly armed.

According to a leaked recording of a Trump campaign official, Trump is all in on the “voter fraud” theme this year. “We’ve got a guy that’s committed to this, who is able to short-circuit media attention on stuff,” said Trump campaign senior counsel Justin Clark last November to a meeting of the Republican National Lawyers Association in Madison, Wisconsin. “Let’s start playing offense a little bit. That’s what you’re going to see in 2020. It’s going to be a much bigger program, a much more aggressive program, a much better-funded program.” 

The “program” relies on Trump’s talent for “raising the profile of issues that come up,” as Clark put it. If lawyerly euphemism is not your native tongue, here’s a translation: Trump will foment hysteria about voter fraud — “the issues that come up” — to justify GOP suppression tactics, AKA the “program.”

Your "Party of Trump" ladies and gentlemen.  We've got to burn it down to the ground, then salt the earth over it.

Finally, we strongly recommend a visit to Infidel 753's link round- up for his usual eclectic collection of "interesting stuff."  You should also check out his post on what he expects, and doesn't expect, to occur during the rest of the 21st Century, mostly through technological progress and social change.