Lower Courts Upholding Voting Rights

 

The courts, for now, seem to be upholding election laws against the Malignant Fascist's and his rotted- out Republican/ MAGAt party's attempts to subvert American democracy.  Decisions in several states in recent days offer glimmers of hope that the flame hasn't yet been extinguished.

Pennsylvania

A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that it is unconstitutional for the presidential battleground state of Pennsylvania to throw out mail-in ballots simply because the voter didn’t write an accurate date on the return envelope.

The unanimous decision by the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Pennsylvania to stop throwing out such ballots and upheld the decision earlier this year by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

In its 55-page opinion, the three-judge panel said it had to weigh the state’s interest in throwing out the ballots against the constitutional right to vote.

The panel wrote that it was “unable to justify” the practice of discarding such ballots “that has resulted in the disqualification of thousands of presumably proper ballots.”

Under [Republican- passed] Pennsylvania law, voters are required to write the date on the return envelope for their mail ballot. However, thousands of voters, confused by the request to write the date, might skip it or write another date, such as their birth date.

Tuesday’s decision marks the latest instance in more than a half-dozen cases where a court has instructed election officials in Pennsylvania to count such ballots.

However, higher courts have always reinstated the requirement in the heavily litigated matter that has pitted Democrats and their allies in trying to get rid of the requirement against Republicans who defend it. For Tuesday’s ruling to be reversed, the U.S. Supreme Court would need to take up the issue.

Asked whether they might appeal, the state and national Republican parties said in a joint statement that they were considering their next steps in the case.

Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania supported the lawsuit against the provision and, in a statement Tuesday, said it is “disenfranchisement and unconstitutional” to throw out a voter’s ballot over the handwritten date. His administration’s lawyers had argued that “meaningless errors shouldn’t cost you your right to vote in Pennsylvania,” he said.

Alabama

A federal judge on Friday ordered Alabama lawmakers to draw new state Senate districts after ruling the state violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the influence of Black voters around the capital city.

U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco blocked the state from using the current map in the 2026 elections and said a new map must be put in place that creates a new district in Montgomery where Black voters “comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”

“The appropriate remedy is a redistricting plan that includes either an additional majority-Black Senate district in the Montgomery area, or an additional district there in which Black voters otherwise have an opportunity to elect a senator of their choice,” Manasco wrote in the 261-page ruling.

The ruling said the court will redraw the districts if the state does not do so in time for the 2026 elections. 

The order came from a 2021 lawsuit that argued the Alabama Senate district lines diluted the voting strength of Black citizens in Huntsville and Montgomery. The lawsuit maintained that in Montgomery, Black voters were unnecessarily packed into a single district, preventing them from influencing elections elsewhere, while white voters in the majority-Black city of Montgomery were “surgically” extracted into another district.

Manasco did not find a Voting Rights Act violation in Huntsville. However, she said that the evidence shows that another Black-majority district could be created in Montgomery...

Utah

The Utah Legislature will need to rapidly redraw the state’s congressional boundaries after a judge ruled Monday that the Republican-controlled body circumvented safeguards put in place by voters to ensure districts aren’t drawn to favor any party.

The current map, adopted in 2021, divides Salt Lake County — Utah’s population center and a Democratic stronghold — among the state’s four congressional districts, all of which have since elected Republicans by wide margins.

District Court Judge Dianna Gibson made few judgments on the content of the map but declared it unlawful because lawmakers had weakened and ignored an independent commission established by voters to prevent partisan gerrymandering.

“The nature of the violation lies in the Legislature’s refusal to respect the people’s exercise of their constitutional lawmaking power and to honor the people’s right to reform their government,” Gibson said in the ruling.

New maps will need to be drawn quickly, before candidates start filing in early January for the 2026 midterm elections. The ruling gives lawmakers a deadline of Sept. 24 and allows voting rights groups involved in the legal challenge to submit alternate proposals to the court.

But appeals expected from Republican officials could help them run out the clock to possibly delay adopting new maps until 2028...

Louisiana

District maps for seats in the Louisiana Legislature violate the federal Voting Rights Act, a panel of judges on the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled. Their decision upholds a lower court ruling that found the boundaries discriminated against Black voters. 

The panel’s ruling was issued Thursday in the case Nairne v. Landry, in which Black voters sued the state over redistricting plans the legislature adopted in 2022. The new boundaries for Louisiana Senate and House of Representatives districts did not increase the number of majority Black seats. The plaintiffs alleged they were unconstitutional racial gerrymanders. 

The three appellate judges – James Dennis, an appointee of President Bill Clinton; Catharina Haynes, an appointee of President George W. Bush; and Irma Ramirez, an appointee of President Joe Biden – upheld a 2024 ruling from U.S. District Judge Shelly Dick of the Middle District of Louisiana. 

Dick, who former President Barack Obama named to the federal bench, determined the legislative maps do not give Black voters a fair opportunity to elect their own representatives. Dick’s ruling came after the 2023 elections, when a new class of lawmakers were elected, yielding a Republican supermajority in both chambers. 

The state appealed Dick’s decision, arguing in part that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional and should not be applied to Louisiana. The section prohibits actions and policy that restrict a person’s right to vote based on their race, color or membership in a language minority group.

The 5th Circuit judges disagreed with that argument. 

Their decision said that when Congress approved the Voting Rights Act, “it did so based on overwhelming evidence that ‘sterner and more elaborate measures were needed to address ‘an insidious and pervasive evil,” referring to laws in some states that sought to disenfranchise Black voters. 

The judges shot down the state’s request that it ignore the Supreme Court and disregard the intent of Congress when it outlawed racial discrimination in voting in Section 2.

“This is a historic affirmation of the rights of Black voters in Louisiana,” said Megan Keenan, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union’s Voting Rights Project who is representing the Nairne plaintiffs. “Today’s decision sends a powerful message: The Voting Rights Act is still a vital safeguard against racial discrimination in our democracy.” ...

If these decisions are appealed, counting on the Republican Supreme Court (which has already eviscerated the Voting Rights Act to help tip the scales for the MAGAt Republican Party) to uphold the lower court decisions may require a lot of wishful thinking.  The other game at play is simply running out the clock for the 2026 elections through legal maneuvering and delays.  Both of these anti- democratic tactics are right in the Republican wheelhouse.  You also have, in the Malignant Fascist, someone who fantasizes being a dictator and who's proclaimed, " I can do anything I want." 

But for now, check.

(Image:  via aclu.org)

Another Victory For Voting Rights

 

Louisiana Republicans were so blatant in trying to weaken voting rights for blacks that even the Supreme Court couldn't justify it:

On Monday, June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated an order blocking Louisiana’s congressional map for diluting the voting strength of Black voters, paving the way for Louisiana to redraw its congressional map with a second majority-Black district. Now, litigation will go back to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

The order stems from Ardoin v. Robinson, a case challenging Louisiana’s congressional map under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). Today’s order vacated its previous pause of a lower court decision that temporarily blocked Louisiana’s congressional map for likely violating Section 2 of the VRA.

The voters and civil rights organizations who brought the case against Louisiana’s congressional map argue that Black voters can only elect their candidate of choice in one of the state’s six congressional districts even though Black residents of Louisiana compose over 33% of the total population and vote cohesively as a bloc. The lawsuit alleges that by failing to include a second minority opportunity district, the map dilutes the voting strength of Black voters in violation of Section 2 of the VRA. 

In June 2022, a federal district court blocked Louisiana’s map for likely diluting the voting strength of Black Louisianans in violation of Section 2 of the VRA and ordered the state to adopt a new map with a second majority-Black district. Republican officials appealed this decision to the Supreme Court and requested emergency relief, arguing that the Louisiana case “presents the same question as” the Alabama case, Allen v. Milligan. The Court granted the Republicans’ requested relief and paused the decision blocking Louisiana’s map while also holding the case pending the outcome of Allen. 

On June 8, the Court issued its opinion in Allen — a landmark ruling upholding Section 2 of the VRA. For Louisiana, this meant that once the case challenging the state’s congressional map was unpaused, litigation over the map would continue. Today, the Court took a final administrative step to allow litigation in the Louisiana case to continue and most importantly, to reinstate the order blocking Louisiana’s congressional map. With the case now permitted to move forward, Black voters in Louisiana will have the opportunity to gain fairer representation under a new congressional map.

Congratulations to the Elias Law Group for their work.  Now, let's stay on these bastards and the Republican bastards in Alabama to make sure they do what they're told.

More about the case here.

The Major SCOTUS Ruling On Racial Redistricting

Yesterday's ruling by the Supreme Court on Alabama's discriminatory Congressional districts is expected to have far-reaching impacts on other Republican-dominated states trying to minimize African-American voting impact through gerrymandering. Coming as a surprise, given the right-wing makeup of the Court's majority, the ruling actually bolstered section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which the Court had previously weakened with its decision in Shelby v. Holder in 2013. The New York Times article looks at the impacts of the Alabama decision beyond that state's borders, and potentially to the future control of Congress:

"The ruling could result in multiple Southern states having their maps struck down through pending Voting Rights Act challenges.

In Louisiana, where Black voters make up one-third of the population, a case before the Supreme Court had been put on hold pending the Alabama decision. Now a second majority-Black district could be drawn.

'We know that in compliance with the principles of the Voting Rights Act, Louisiana can and should have a congressional map where two of our six districts are majority Black,' Gov. John Bel Edwards of Louisiana, a Democrat, said on Thursday. 'Today’s decision reaffirms that.'

The Supreme Court decision is also expected to send legislators in Georgia back to the drawing board for their congressional maps. On Thursday, a federal judge in a pending Georgia case asked both parties to provide supplemental materials in light of the new ruling.

And in Texas, where Republicans drew an aggressive gerrymander that could lock in power for a decade, nine cases in the federal court system could be affected by Thursday’s decision, according to a tracker kept by the Brennan Center for Justice, a think tank.

Across the South, the decision raises the prospect of adding three majority-Black districts in reliably red states, changes that would upend what will be a pitched battle for control of the House of Representatives next year."  (our emphasis)

We're hoping the estimate of "three majority-black districts" in red states can be doubled or more, now that the conservative Supreme Court has rejected blatant attempts by the Republican / New Confederate / Shooters party to compress African-American voters into the fewest Congressional districts possible. Now, there's a real chance beginning in 2024 that Congressional elections in the South will reflect the population mix, rather than the desire of Republicans to choose their electorate.

 

Republican Attacks On Voting Rights Continuing

 

As the 2024 elections approach, Republican legislatures across the country are attempting to pass voting restriction laws that they believe will hamstring their opposition. Targeting student, minority and elderly voters who often vote Democratic with onerous registration and voting requirements, Republicans are working relentlessly to shape the electorate to their liking. Ohio is a good example, as the Associated Press reports:

"As Ohio’s primary approaches, a strict new photo ID requirement is stirring concerns for military veterans and out-of-state college students, in Amish communities and among older voters. [snip]

Ruth Kohake is among those caught up in the confusion over Ohio’s law, which is going into effect this year. The retired nurse from Cincinnati gave up her driver’s license and her car in 2019. Now 82, she thought she might never have to step foot in another state license agency.

But Ohio now requires an unexpired photo ID in order for someone to vote, and she’ll have to get that at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles. The law adds passports as valid ID, but eliminates nonphoto documentation such as a bank statement, government check or utility bill for registration and in-person voting. Military IDs also are no longer acceptable when registering to vote.  (our emphasis)

You can fight for your country, but you can't use your military identification to register to vote. Pure Republican hypocrisy and malevolence. Also, we can't let those seniors without driver's licenses to vote for saving the Social Security and Medicare that we Republicans are trying to privatize can we?

The article notes that this wave of voter suppression is happening in numerous states controlled by Republicans, like Nebraska, North Carolina and Idaho, who obviously want to retain power by choosing who votes and who doesn't:

"Of 35 states that request or require a photo ID to vote, Ohio is now the ninth Republican-controlled state to move to a strict law allowing few to no alternatives, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Fifteen states allow other ways voters can verify their identify, such as an electric bill, bank statement or signature match.

The number of states where voters face strict photo ID requirements is poised to rise in the coming months."  (our emphasis)

The restrictive requirements are based on fictitious "voter fraud" claims and conspiracies by the right wing in order to force a change in laws that would make the election of their candidates much more likely. The Malignant Loser fanned the "voter fraud" claims throughout the 2020 Presidential campaign and ever since, and his political cultists are following his lead in using that bogus claim to commit a fraud of sorts on the people of their states.

 

QOTD -- Voting Is Fundamental

 

“Intimidation is real.  If we don’t continue to vote, they’re going to have us right back where it used to be.”-- Olivia Coley-Pearson, a city commissioner in Douglas, GA, and long-time voting rights activist. The Pro Publica article this is quoted in traces the long history of right- wingers to suppress the black vote, and how heroes like Coley-Pearson have persisted.  A lot of us (white people) take voting for granted.  It's always good to have your perspective sharpened by the travails of the Coley-Pearsons of the nation.  Good read.

Quotes Of The Day

 

“It’s not just this vote. These are people who I think have undermined the president of the United States.

“They have forced us to have five months of discussions that have gone absolutely nowhere." -- Sen. Bernie Sanders' take on Sen. Sinemanchin's bad faith refusal to find a way around the Jim Crow filibuster rule in order to pass voting rights, Build Back Better and other Democratic priorities.

Rep. Cori Bush cuts to the chase --

Tonight will be remembered in history as the night that Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and Senate Republicans chose the racist legacy of Jim Crow over delivering voting rights.

— Congresswoman Cori Bush (@RepCori) January 20, 2022

 

The best solution?  Elect more Democrats to break this choke hold.

QOTD -- Dismantling Democracy

 

"Senators, our democracy may be standing in its final hour.  The bedrock of freedom in America lies in our sacred right to vote.  Without it, everything else crumbles.  We still have time to act, but the window of opportunity is rapidly narrowing.  Let's not miss this critical moment to pass federal voting rights protections, what may be our last hope to save our democracy." -- Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP, in a letter to 100 Senators in the likely futile attempt to appeal to a mojority's sense of justice and morality to pass voting rights legislation.

His plea essentially to the two corrupted Democratic Senators:

"Democratic senators:  what good is preserving a dysfuntional tradition of bipartisanship if bipartisanship cannot even preserve democracy? It is morally inconsistent to praise voting rights legislation while allowing a procedural rule to tank it.

Let's be honest, every voter suppression bill passed in the 19 states across the country has been passed by Republicans alone.  If one party can dismantle our democracy on its own, the other party should muster the courage to safeguard it."

After the maneuvering is over, and the votes are taken, and the voting rights legislation goes down, every Republican and Sinemanchin must be held to account for their decisions to dismantle American democracy.  This is a turning point in our history, and those on the wrong side of history must ultimately pay for their actions (as it's said, revenge is a dish best served cold).

Photo Of The Day: March For Voting Rights

 

(click to enlarge)

Hundreds of marchers calling for the strengthening of voting rights in the face of Republican attacks marched across Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington, D.C. today. The march was led by Martin Luther King III and other members of Dr. King's family, including 13 year old Yolanda Renee King, who spoke about the urgency of passing voting rights legislation and suspending the filibuster to do so. 

Last Saturday, the King family marched for voting rights in Phoenix, AZ, the home state of flaky filibuster friend Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, who has declared her opposition to dropping the Senate's filibuster rule in order to pass voting rights legislation, which is opposed by every single Republican / New Confederate / Active Shooter Party senator.

(photo: Astrid Riecken / Washington Post)

 

Monday Reading

 

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

Republicans are determined to prolong the pandemic, part infinity:

At the entrance to the Lowe’s in a central Ohio strip mall, a bright blue-and-white sign tells customers that, under local ordinances, they must wear a face covering inside. Next door, at Hale’s Ales & Kitchen, a sign asks customers to please be patient with a staff shortage — with no mention of masks.

The city line between Columbus and suburban Hilliard crosses right through the strip mall, Mill Run Square. In Columbus, where the Lowe’s Home Improvement Store lies, the city council early in the coronavirus pandemic created a mask requirement that remains in place. In Hilliard, where Hales is located, the city council has not imposed a mask rule, despite entreaties from the top county health official as coronavirus cases spiked.

Under a new law in Ohio — one of at least 19 states this year that have restricted state or local authorities from safeguarding public health amid the coronavirus pandemic — Franklin County’s health commissioner Joe Mazzola can no longer intervene. The county health department was stripped of its power to compel people to wear masks even as the omicron variant fuels a fifth coronavirus surge in the United States.

“We’ve not been able to put in place the policy that would protect our community,” Mazzola said.

The number of states that have passed laws similar to Ohio’s is proliferating fast, from eight identified in one study in May to more than double that many as of last month, according to an analysis by Temple University’s Center for Public Health Law Research. And around the country, many more measures are being debated or being prepared for legislative sessions to start early in the new year.

These laws — the work of Republican legislators — inhibit health officers’ ability to require masks, promote vaccinations or take other steps, such as closing or limiting the number of patrons in restaurants, bars and other indoor public settings. Often, the measures shift those decisions from health experts to elected officials at a time when such coronavirus-fighting strategies have become politically radioactive.

The article's headline, "Anger over mask mandates, other covid rules, spurs states to curb powers of public health officials," would lead one to think that the anger grew spontaneously (like that of the "Tea Party" astroturfers of a decade ago);  it begs the question "who's responsible for stoking that irrational anger in the first place?"

Meanwhile, the toll on heroic health care workers that we see on our screens is mounting:

As more than 7,800 Americans are admitted into hospitals with the virus each day, from Michigan to New Hampshire, health care workers are once again finding themselves overwhelmed with the number of patients in need of care -- not only for COVID-19, but for other illnesses and winter-related ailments.

"We are burnt out, we are tired and we are disheartened. So much of what we see on a daily basis is preventable," Sarah Rauner, chief nurse practitioner at Beaumont Health in Troy, Michigan, told ABC News. "We are still living this every day."

In Wisconsin, just 4% of intensive care unit beds are currently available.

Sue Wolfe, a nurse at UW Health in Madison, Wisconsin, told ABC News that in her 38-year tenure as a nurse at the hospital, she has never seen anything like this surge.

"This place is so busy, so packed. ... We have patients coming in all the time, waiting in the waiting room, waiting in the hallways, waiting on carts, waiting to go upstairs," Wolfe said. "We also have a waiting room that's packed full of people that are coming in more and more each day with COVID."

Nearly 100% of the people requiring hospitalization are the unvaccinated, taking up ICU beds that might be needed for people with other life-threatening conditions.  

Despite all of this, holiday spending showed the biggest gain in 17 years:

The latest COVID-19 variant is upending holiday plans for tens of thousands of travelers — but it didn’t do much damage to holiday shopping.

Airlines canceled hundreds more flights Sunday, citing staffing problems tied to COVID-19, as the nation’s travel woes extended beyond Christmas, with no clear indication when normal schedules would resume.

But shoppers shrugged off the omicron variant, and holiday sales rose at the fastest pace in 17 years, according to one spending measure. [snip]

Despite omicron, American consumers appeared undaunted. Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks all kinds of payments, including cash and debit cards, reported Sunday that holiday sales had risen 8.5% from a year earlier, the biggest annual gain in 17 years. Mastercard SpendingPulse had expected an 8.8% increase.

The Washington Post editorial board calls for voting rights legislation, but uses a lot of "shoulds" instead of "musts":

American democracy frayed in 2021, as Republicans in states such as Georgia and Texas passed laws making it harder to vote, premised on the lie that fraud tipped the 2020 presidential election. As GOP-controlled state legislatures forced through these antidemocratic policies on party-line votes, the U.S. Senate was silent, the Democratic majority unable to respond because Republicans filibustered bill after bill to ease access to the ballot box. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced last week that he intends to change this dynamic early next year, bringing up voting rights legislation once again and taking more assertive procedural moves to advance it.

Good. Voting is not an issue like health-care policy or tax rates, on which there is reasonable debate. No senator should cheer any move to weaken minority rights in the chamber, but these specific circumstances should compel even the most traditionalist of senators to contemplate change. President Biden says he supports suspending the filibuster rules to get it done.  [snip]

Mr. Schumer should push hard to advance both voting bills. And if Republicans continue to fight them, Senate Democrats should look at reforming the filibuster.

"Democracy dies in darkness mush." Yawn.

It is hereby recommended that you pay a visit to Infidel 753's incomparable link round-up for a stimulating, eclectic array of links to posts from around the Internet.  As the Moody Blues once said, "Go Now"!

Monday Reading

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

E.J. Dionne, Jr., goes once more into the breach:  Reform the filibuster and pass voting rights!

There are two big reasons why senators should vote to reform the filibuster, no matter their past views. The first is institutional: What started out as an unusual practice to extend debate has become a routine method for blocking the will of the majority. To put it starkly: Abuse of the filibuster is wrecking the Senate. [snip]

But the core reason the filibuster must be reformed is the moral imperative of passing bills to defend democracy. It confronts multiple challenges: to the right to vote; the right to have votes counted without political interference; and the right of voters to select their representatives — and not have politicians do it by drawing wildly partisan district boundaries.

Should Democrats, including President Biden, allow these things to happen by claiming that the filibuster renders them powerless, they will be guilty of a more profound hypocrisy.

If it fails to act, the party that won power in 2020 as the bulwark of democracy and civil rights will be saying that these commitments matter less than fealty to an outdated, dysfunctional practice that has been altered repeatedly in pursuit of far less noble goals.

To what extent is membership in the Cult of the Malignant Loser reinforced by conservative media?  Duh, a lot:

A large 53% of Republican voters who get their news from the conservative media say supporting Trump is very important to being a Republican. It's just 21% among those who get their media from other television or digital sources.

 

Another way to gauge this is by examining those who argue that backing Trump is not at all important to their Republican identity. It can be argued that these are some of the most ardent anti-Trump Republicans.

Just 8% of Republican voters who prefer conservative media think it's not important at all to support Trump. Among those who prefer to get their news from other sources, it's 35%.

 

The anti-Trump resistance within the GOP is low no matter where you go, but it's far lower among those who like conservative media.

 

Looking ahead to the 2024 presidential primary, any Republican looking to beat Trump (assuming he runs) will likely need to dominate among those who don't prefer conservative media. It probably won't be enough to win. This lane is likely a minority of Republicans (20% to 40% under the most generous definition). Without it, though, any challenge to Trump will have a very hard time succeeding. 

 

The new COVID variant "Omicron" has people all over the world rightly concerned.  The Washington Post looks at these questions and what we know at this point:

• Where has omicron been confirmed?
• What do we know about the new variant?
• Why is it called omicron?
• What’s being done to halt the spread of omicron?
• Do we know whether vaccines are effective against omicron?
• Will omicron cause severe illness, and will existing treatments work?
• How far might omicron have already spread?
• Will omicron upend plans to return to ‘normal’?

Finally, a trip over to Infidel 753's link round-up is highly recommended for inquiring minds (all of you, of course).  He's got another award- winning collection of links to posts from around the Internet that are bound to engage you.

Monday Reading

 

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

Perry Bacon, Jr., starts us off with why he's disappointed with Democratic governance thus far:

On Jan. 7, I did not expect the Democrats to get rid of the filibuster, pass new voting rights laws or pursue judicial reforms such as adding new justices to the Supreme Court; after all, the Democrats would have only very narrow majorities in the House and Senate. But I also did not think such steps would be absolutely essential. Now, I do. Republican radicalization needs to be met with a proportionate Democratic response.

And we just aren’t seeing that response. One reason, of course, is that the slim Democratic majority is big enough to address the world I foresaw on Jan. 7, with a less extreme GOP, but not with this even more extreme Republican Party. But I’m convinced the issue runs deeper. There are a lot of signs that Democrats don’t fully grasp the extent of the GOP’s radicalization or accept that it must be addressed aggressively.

Many in the party remain cautious, incrementalist and obsessed with bipartisanship. It’s one thing for West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin III, in a state that Trump won by 39 percentage points in 2020, to defend the filibuster, but Sen. Christopher A. Coons in Delaware, where Biden won by 19 points, is also bristling at the idea of changing the rules.

Bacon concludes his piece with a call to arms for Democrats to fight the anti-democratic, increasingly Christofascist Republican Party -- a message that needs amplifying and repeating.

His WaPo colleague E.J. Dionne, Jr., reviews the Biden agenda landscape and comes to a similar conclusion:

At least with battles over spending and taxes there are many paths to compromise. What cannot be compromised is democracy itself.

Yes, the stakes are that high. The horror of what so many Republican-dominated state governments have done — most recently in Texas — to restrict access to the ballot and undercut the honest and nonpartisan counting of ballots presents Democrats with only two options: Act uncompromisingly at the national level to ensure democracy everywhere, or accept that many states in our union will, in important ways, cease to be democratic.

Killing a strong voting rights bill means accepting, to evoke Abraham Lincoln’s declaration on slavery, a nation half-democratic and half undemocratic.

The next 30-60 days will be make- or- break time.  We'll see if Democrats have democracy's back soon enough.

Floriduh boys:

Two Florida middle-schoolers are being held at a juvenile detention center after being accused of planning a mass school shooting inspired by Columbine.

The 14-year-old and 13-year-old boys, whom The Washington Post is not naming because they are minors, are eighth-graders at Harns Marsh Middle School in Lee County, about two hours away from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where a gunman killed 17 people in 2018. They were charged with conspiracy to commit a mass shooting and have been ordered to be held at a juvenile detention center for three weeks, reported WINK, a CBS affiliate in Fort Myers, Fla.

Police investigations suggest the boys had looked for guns on the black market, studied ways to build pipe bombs and researched the 1999 school shooting that occurred at Columbine High School in Colorado, County Sheriff Carmine Marceno said. [snip]

Police officials who executed search warrants of the boys’ homes found a gun and several knives, Marceno said.

Both boys “are well known to deputies, as we have responded to their homes for almost 80 times combined,” Marceno said.

The two underwent assessment at a mental health facility, then were transferred to the Lee County Jail.

If the police have responded to their homes that many times, they should've received professional help well before now.  Another broken system.

Tweeter Incunabula has a thread on ham and cheese (mmm, ham 'n' cheese sammiches) and European civilization that's worth a look.  Here's how it begins:

European civilization is built on ham and cheese, which allowed protein to be stored throughout the icy winters. Without this, urban societies in most of central Europe would simply not have been possible. This is also why we have hardback books. Here's why.

Another week, another fabulous link round-up from Infidel 753.  While you're there, take time to read his thoughtful essay from the past week on religious rigidity and cultural evolution.

 

The "Broad Assault Against Voting Rights"

Here's some reading regarding yesterday's Republican Supreme Court's decision in the Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee voting rights case.

President Biden's statement:

I am deeply disappointed in today’s decision by the United States Supreme Court that undercuts the Voting Rights Act, and upholds what Justice Kagan called “a significant race-based disparity in voting opportunities.”

In a span of just eight years, the Court has now done severe damage to two of the most important provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 – a law that took years of struggle and strife to secure. 

After all we have been through to deliver the promise of this Nation to all Americans, we should be fully enforcing voting rights laws, not weakening them. Yet this decision comes just over a week after Senate Republicans blocked even a debate – even consideration – of the For the People Act that would have protected the right to vote from action by Republican legislators in states across the country. 

While this broad assault against voting rights is sadly not unprecedented, it is taking on new forms. It is no longer just about a fight over who gets to vote and making it easier for eligible voters to vote. It is about who gets to count the vote and whether your vote counts at all.

Our democracy depends on an election system built on integrity and independence. The attack we are seeing today makes clearer than ever that additional laws are needed to safeguard that beating heart of our democracy. We must also shore up our election security to address the threats of election subversion from abroad and at home.

Today’s decision also makes it all the more imperative to continue the fight for the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore and expand voting protections. The Court’s decision, harmful as it is, does not limit Congress’ ability to repair the damage done today: it puts the burden back on Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act to its intended strength.

That means forging a coalition of Americans of every background and political party – from advocates, activists, and business executives – to raise the urgency of the moment and demand that our democracy truly reflects the will of the people and that it delivers for the Nation.

That is what Vice President Harris and I will continue to do. 

This is our life’s work and the work of all of us.

Democracy is on the line.

We can do this together.

The Washington Post editorial board:

At times, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. has labored to maintain the Supreme Court’s legitimacy against the gale-force pressures of partisan acrimony and social division. When it comes to voting rights, he has pushed in the opposite direction, presiding over the court’s systematic dismantling of the Voting Rights Act, overriding Congress’s clear intentions and gravely injuring U.S. democracy.

The first major blow came in 2013, when the court eviscerated the act’s Section 5, which required states with a history of racial discrimination to preclear changes to voting rules with the Justice Department. The decision left in place a backstop, Section 2, which allows legal challenges to discriminatory election rules after they have been enacted. On Thursday, the Roberts court sharply limited that provision as well.

The court also encouraged states to argue that worries about fraud and voting integrity justify new burdens on the right to vote — though there is little or no evidence that the fraud state leaders claim they are fighting actually occurs. From the nation’s Jim Crow past to its voter-suppression present, states have claimed that they merely want to ensure ballot integrity as they impose voting restrictions that disproportionately burden minority voters. The Supreme Court lent legitimacy to their search for pretext.

E.J. Dionne, Jr., writes on the Brnovich decision, as well as yesterday's awful decision on a dark money case (Americans for Prosperity Foundation v. Bonta), calling it "Oligarchy Day" at the Republican Supreme Court:

From the GOP blockade against President Barack Obama’s appointment of Merrick Garland to the 2020 confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett a little more than a week before Election Day, Republicans have been ruthless in using raw power to tilt court outcomes. Two votes on the court could (and likely would) have shifted the outcomes of Thursday’s decisions the other way.

Conservative justices may not vote as a bloc on every issue, but they have held together firmly when it comes to issues affecting democracy itself. Court enlargement must now be on the agenda of anyone who cares about protecting voting rights and our increasingly fragile system of self-rule.

Also, please take a look at "Don't Be Fooled: This Is Not A Moderate Supreme Court," by Leah Litman and Melissa Murray, who review the latest term of this radical Court.

There is no more important fight than the fight for democracy in the United States.  We have no option but to win it, and to be more ruthless in that pursuit than the Right.

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.

 

Attorney General Garland Announces Voting Rights Actions

 

Attorney General Merrick Garland today on what the Justice Department is planning to do to defend voting rights in the face of state Republican voter suppression laws:

Quotes Of The Day -- Warning

 

"Whatever the label, the party that prioritized protecting white rights has always been more willing to destroy the country than accept a situation where people of color are equal and can participate in the democratic process.

"Donald Trump was not the first politician to refuse to accept the results of a presidential contest. After Abraham Lincoln and the anti-slavery Republican Party won the election of 1860, the Confederates did not waste time filing lawsuits and trying to bully state election officials into overturning their state’s election results. They simply severed their ties with the United States of America, seceded from the union with the defiant 1861 Cornerstone Speech by Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens declaring that “the negro is not equal to the white man,” and quickly organized an army that killed hundreds of thousands of their formerly fellow countrymen." --Steve Phillips in The Nation, on "The Party of White Grievance."

 ______________________

"So 2020 felt like a test run. The plot to overturn the 2020 election never had a real chance of working without some external intervention like a military coup or something like that, which I never thought was particularly likely. But the institutional path that they pursued to steal the election failed because they didn’t control Congress and they didn’t control the right governorships in the right places. [snip]

"It was a test run for a way to overturn an election with the veneer of legality. You have to give Trump and Republicans some kind of dark credit for figuring out that this is really conceivable. I think they now know that, even though it would cause a court battle and possibly a civil war, that if they can’t win by suppressing the vote and the election is close enough, they can do this if they control enough state legislatures and the Congress.

"If Democrats don’t make some changes to our election laws and if they lose some races that they really need to win in 2022 and 2024, then we’re in real trouble." -- David Faris, Roosevelt University political scientist, in an interview with Sean Illing at Vox.  

Democrats need to stay energized and focused -- and pass the "For the People Act" and the "John Lewis Voting Rights Act."  With Vanita Gupta and Kristen Clarke in key positions at the Justice Department, that would be a strong antidote to Republican anti- democracy actions.  They may not be able to always counter Republican white grievance politics, but they need to keep them from rigging elections, which they're doing in plain view right now.

Defending voting rights must be the number one priority for the Administration and Democrats.

Monday Reading

 

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

A monthly child cash benefit stemming from the coronavirus relief bill is on the way to millions of families:

The Biden administration announced Monday that roughly 39 million American families will begin receiving direct cash payments in July under a new child benefit created by Democrats’ coronavirus relief bill.

The Internal Revenue Service will on July 15 start delivering a monthly payment of $300 per child under 6 and $250 per child older than 6 for those who qualify. The monthly benefits will be deposited directly in most families’ bank accounts on the 15th of every month -- or the closest day to that date, if the 15th falls on a holiday or weekend -- for the rest of the year, without any action required. For instance, an eligible family with two children aged 5 and 13 will receive $550 from the IRS directly to their bank accounts on or close to the 15th of every month from July to December.

Biden administration officials estimate that households representing more than 65 million children -- or 88 percent of all U.S. kids nationwide -- will begin receiving the benefit through direct deposit, paper checks, or debit cards. Of that population, roughly 80 percent of that population will be sent the cash directly via direct deposit, administration officials told reporters on a call Sunday. High-income parents will receive a smaller benefit or none at all, depending on how much they make. The credit diminishes for individuals with adjusted gross income of more than $75,000, as well as couples earning more than $150,000.

Thank you, Democrats!

E.J. Dionne, Jr.,  writes about the importance of passing the For the People Act for sustaining our democracy, and about the "two Joes" who are holding the key:

We can lament that voting rights have become a partisan issue, but that’s the way things are. No amount of cajoling, compromising, begging, pleading or standing-on-your-head-and-holding-your-breath will change this. Polls showing that many rank-and-file Republicans support the S. 1 reform don’t make a difference, either.

Which means that you can defend voting rights or you can defend the filibuster. You can’t do both. Manchin fears that passing a “partisan” bill on voting would further divide the country. Here’s what would divide the country even more: an election system that rolls back voting rights by endangering the ballot access of Black Americans, other minority groups and younger people.

Congress must also enact a new Voting Rights Act to restore the Justice Department’s ability to fight voting restrictions in the future. The original law was gutted in 2013 by a 5-to-4 right-wing Supreme Court majority. But a Voting Rights Act is no substitute for S. 1. Even if the Voting Rights Act is revived, all the voter suppression laws that have already been passed would stay on the books.  [snip]

... The time has come for the president to speak out, often and forcefully, against the assault on voting rights inspired by former president Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.

Contrary to Trump’s claims, it was a small-D democratic triumph. Amazingly during a viral pandemic, turnout rose in both Republican and Democratic states because voting was made more convenient. The only partisanship now involves the GOP’s determination to make it harder to vote.

Which also means that Biden must talk to Manchin, Senate traditionalist to Senate traditionalist, about why their past opposition to ending the filibuster has to give way in the face of the GOP’s assault on democracy.

History will not look kindly on anyone who failed to rise to the occasion to support this existential voting and civil rights legislation of our time.

It appears the recall election Republicans hoped would drive California Gov. Gavin Newsom from office is flopping:

A fading coronavirus crisis and an astounding windfall of tax dollars have reshuffled California’s emerging recall election, allowing Democratic Gov. Gavin Newscom [sic] to talk about an end to most COVID-19 restrictions and propose billions in new spending as he looks to fend off Republicans who depict him as a foppish failure.

The governor spent much of 2020 on the defensive for whipsaw decisions during the depths of the pandemic that angered many business owners and residents. But more recently he has appeared to steady his stride with the all-but-certain election looming this fall.

The first-term Democrat unleashed a torrent of new spending after the state’s budget was blessed with a $76 billion surplus and $27 billion in federal pandemic aid. This week, he crisscrossed the state to unveil a string of proposals sure to bring smiles from many voters: $12 billion to fight homelessness; checks up to $1,100 for millions of low and middle-income earners who struggled during lockdowns; $2.7 billion to pay for all of the state’s 4-year-olds to go to kindergarten for free; and hundreds of millions to help small businesses recover from the economic downturn.

His budget released Friday was studded with initiatives favored by his progressive base, including $7.2 billion to pay off people’s outstanding rent and utility bills and $300 million to forgive traffic and other fines for lower-income residents. There also was $35 million to encourage local universal basic income programs and money to give Medicaid benefits to people 60 and older living in the country illegally.

Sorry, Caitlyn!

Remember that memory- holing, crackpot Republican Congressman who said at a hearing on the January 6 insurrection that the event reminded him of a "normal tourist visit"?  That would be this asshole:

The Rep. Clyde news reminded me of this:

UNITED STATES - JANUARY 6: Rep. Andrew Clyde, R-Ga., second from top left, helps barricade the House chamber door as rioters disrupt the joint session of Congress to certify the Electoral College vote on January 6, 2021. pic.twitter.com/ewizgiuwLn

— Tom Williams (@pennstatetom) May 15, 2021

 

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy:

In the weeks since the feds raided Rudy Giuliani’s apartment and office in late April, close allies have tried to ferry a slew of emergency requests to former President Donald Trump and his advisers.

But according to three people familiar with the matter, Trump, as well as several of his legal advisers and longtime confidants, have been hesitant about swooping in to help the embattled Giuliani, who for years worked as Trump’s personal lawyer, a political adviser, and attack dog. Giuliani also served as a major player in the Trump-Ukraine scandal and as a key driver in the former president’s efforts to nullify Joe Biden’s clear victory in the 2020 election.  [snip]

Two people close to Trump say they have urged the former president to lay low on the matter and to refrain from making too many statements or commitments on Giuliani and the federal probe. These people have told Trump that it’s unclear what the feds have and that any statement could backfire both on him and on Giuliani. Moreover, various people in Trump’s social and political orbits have been trying to convince the former president for years that Giuliani has been too great a liability for him, and they have suggested that he cut the lawyer loose.

Pro tip for Rudy and his allies:  get a readout from Michael Cohen, Jeff Sessions, The Mooch, Omarosa, John Bolton, and dozens of unpaid contractors and stiffed business associates as to what you can expect from Dear Leader.  You're welcome.

Finally, to complete your morning reading, please head over to Infidel 753's excellent link round-up for the best assortment of links to interesting posts from around the Internet.  Also check out his latest edition of "Improving Words", an on-going exploration of "word definitions, based on what the words visibly should mean....."  Very clever and amusing stuff.

 

QOTD -- Call The Bastard's Bluff!

 

"Some Democrats believe this would be a tidy tradeoff if they could just break the rules on a razor-thin majority.  That's not what would happen. So let me say this very clearly for all 99 of my colleagues. Nobody serving in this chamber can even begin to imagine what a completely scorched-earth Senate would look like.

"Everything Senate Democrats did to Bush and Trump, everything the Republican Senate did to President Obama would be child's play compared to the disaster the Democrats would create for their own priorities if they break the Senate.  Even the most basic aspects of our colleagues' agenda, the most mundane tasks of the Biden presidency would actually be harder -- not easier -- for Democrats in a post-nuclear Senate." -- Enemy of democracy Sen. Moscow Mitch McConnell (R-Autocracy) today on the Senate floor.  If outrageous threats like this don't stiffen Democrats' spines to reform or abolish the racist Senate filibuster, we don't know what will.  "Breaking the rules" is exactly what Moscow Mitch and his seditionist caucus do (need we mention the Merrick Garland hold and the bum rush confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, among the most egregious examples?).  This treasonous turd's threat, in the face of fellow Republicans' unprecedented actions across the country to disenfranchise Democratic voters, should backfire right in his chinless face.  

The choice for Democrats is either keep the filibuster or keep democracy.  Moscow Mitch would like the former.  Make him sad.  Then pass H.R. 1 and make him really sad.

BONUS:  Moscow Mitch was likely responding to fiery comments from Democratic Whip Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), calling the filibuster "the death grip of democracy." 

BONUS II:

Sounds like Moscow Mitch is trying to take the country hostage.
Dems should make clear, they don't negotiate with terrorists.

— Art Martin (@gartmartin9) March 16, 2021

 

BONUS III:  Moscow Mitch also got the Stephen Colbert treatment.

Michelle Obama: Pass The "For The People Act" (H.R. 1) !

 

Former First Lady Michelle Obama issued this statement in support of the new voting rights act (H.R. 1, "For The People"), slamming the "unpatriotic actions" of state- level Republicans trying to suppress the vote and the false choice between secure elections and the right to vote:

(click to enlarge)

 

We know she'll stay in this fight and continue to make the case that nothing -- especially not an arcane, racist Senate rule -- should stand in the way of the right to vote for every American.

Monday Reading

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

This is the soundbite that may have set off a reinvigorated #FireFauci smear campaign from deranged sociopath Donald "Moron Vector" Trump and his cult on Sunday.  It's Dr. Anthony Fauci responding to being asked if mitigation efforts to stop the coronavirus had started earlier (rather than being sloughed off by Moron Vector) would have saved lives:

“I mean, obviously you could logically say that if you had a process that was ongoing and you started mitigation earlier, you could have saved lives,” Fauci told CNN this morning. “Obviously, no one is going to deny that. But what goes into those kinds of decision is complicated. But you’re right, I mean obviously, if we had right from the very beginning shut everything down, it may have been a little bit different. But there was a lot of pushback about shutting things down back then.”

Meanwhile, the inaction and blundering by Moron Vector in the early stages of the outbreak are being catalogued on a daily basis by many news organizations, including the New York Times and Washington Post.  The evening network news broadcasts are also reporting on the timeline of incompetence, a relatively and welcome recent change.

Neil Young (no, not that one) writes about how Moron Vector's promotion of hydroxychloroquine is an encapsulation of his entire "presidency":

In the end, Trump's obsession with hydroxychloroquine is an encapsulation of his presidency: a mixture of sham and scam fueled by questionable ideas pushed by fringe outlets, all working to undermine scientific expertise and sow chaos. "So what do I know?" Trump shrugged to reporters last Sunday after he was pressed about hydroxychloroquine's potential harm to patients, especially those with heart issues.

Those five words represent the Trump presidency— and Trump himself— in a nutshell. But rather than a gracious expression of intellectual humility, they are a careless admission of the callousness and indifference at the heart of everything this president says. Nothing matters to Donald Trump but himself. And he'll sacrifice truth, expertise, and even the lives of his own people to satisfy his ego. That's a drug Trump will never put down.  (our emphasis)

That's the definition of a narcissistic sociopath.

Michael Stern on Moron Vector's existential need to remain in office:

The deadly rampage of coronavirus across the United States has pitted President Donald Trump’s self-interest in maximizing his chances of winning a second term against the safety of the American public.

When Trump leaves office, the protection that prevents a president from being criminally indicted will be gone. Even before his impeachment, legal experts found ample support for the belief that Trump would be indicted upon departing the White House. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office has already essentially named Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator in a campaign finance fraud scheme that saw his personal attorney, Michael Cohen, sentenced to three years in prison.

This means Trump is almost certainly working overtime, figuring out how he can avoid indictment after leaving office.  (our emphasis)

Will any prosecutor actually indict?  Would Moron Vector make a deal to leave office peacefully in exchange for immunity?  Will he just load his family on Air Force One and decamp to Russia?  To coin a phrase, "So what do we know?"

Though he incorrectly places the point at which "anti- government conservatism" became ascendant (Ronald Reagan's first inaugural address anyone?), Dana Milbank arrives at the correct conclusion:

... [T]hen came the tea party, the anti-government conservatism that infected the Republican Party in 2010 and triumphed with President Trump’s election. Perhaps the best articulation of its ideology came from the anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, who once said: “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.”

They got their wish. What you see today is your government, drowning — a government that couldn’t produce a rudimentary test for coronavirus, that couldn’t contain the pandemic as other countries have done, that couldn’t produce enough ventilators for the sick or even enough face masks and gowns for health-care workers.

Now it is time to drown this disastrous philosophy in the bathtub — and with it the poisonous attitude that the government is a harmful “beast” that must be “starved.” It is not an exaggeration to say that this ideology caused the current debacle with a deliberate strategy to sabotage government.  (our emphasis)

This means defeating the Republican Party -- at every level of government -- that has supported, cosseted and enabled the incompetent, evil shitgibbon in the Oval Office, in November and beyond. We'll drink to that.

Something else we'll drink to -- expanding voting rights:

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced Sunday that he has signed new legislation that expands access to voting in the Commonwealth.

The new bill repeals Virginia's voter identification law, makes Election Day a state holiday, and expands access to early voting, according to a release from the office of Gov. Northam.  (our emphasis)

That should help keep Virginia blue for the foreseeable future.  Electing Democrats at the state legislature level is imperative, especially with the impact the 2020 Census will have on redistricting.

As always, we close by recommending you scamper over to Infidel 753's link round- up for a metric ton of links to interesting posts from around the Internet (we found the Michael Stern piece on Moron Vector's self- interest vs. public interest there -- you'll find much more).  What better way to pass the time staying at home?!

Photo And Quote Of The Day - Selma, Alabama

President Obama speaks at Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, March 7, 2015. (Getty Images)

... Right now, in 2015, fifty years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood and sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, stands weakened, its future subject to partisan rancor.

How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic effort. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred Members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right it protects. If we want to honor this day, let these hundred go back to Washington, and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore the law this year.

Full transcript of President Obama's address here.