Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

I’m more Christian than these people and I’m an atheist.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

No one could have predicted…

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Donald Trump, welcome to your everything, everywhere, all at once.

“Why isn’t this Snickers bar only a nickel?”

SCOTUS: It’s not “bribery” unless it comes from the Bribery region of France. Otherwise, it’s merely “sparkling malfeasance”.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

rich, arrogant assholes who equate luck with genius

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

There are some who say that there are too many strawmen arguments on this blog.

Roe isn’t about choice, it’s about freedom.

Accused of treason; bitches about the ratings. I am in awe.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Voting Rights Open Thread: Georgia on *Everybody’s* Mind

Voting Rights Open Thread: Georgia on *Everybody’s* Mind

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Voting Rights Open Thread: Georgia on *Everybody's* Mind - STOCKPILE

(Jeff Danziger via GoComics.com)

The Repub who grabbed the Idiot Ball in this week’s scrum — “Everybody shouldn’t be voting” — was in Arizona, not Georgia. But the GOP Death Cult’s Warchief-By-Combat gifted criminal investigators with some extremely dodgy phone calls, in a state where voting rights advocates have established a strong base (thank you, Stacey Abrams!), and where the Republican response has been to propose blatantly racist and probably illegal restrictions on voters, so…

Per the Washington Post (because that’s where I subscribe):

President Donald Trump encouraged Georgia’s chief elections investigator in a December phone call to uncover “dishonesty” in her investigation of absentee ballot signatures in an effort to reverse his defeat against Joe Biden in the state, according to a recording of the call released this week by the Georgia secretary of state’s office.

“The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me,” Trump told Frances Watson, the chief investigator for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to the recording. “They know I won, won by hundreds of thousands of votes. It wasn’t close.”

He added, “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised.” Later on the call, he said, “You have the most important job in the country right now.”…

When The Post first reported on the call, state officials said they did not believe that a recording existed. Officials located the recording on a trash folder on Watson’s device while responding to a public records request, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal process…

At the time Trump called her, Watson was leading an audit of mail ballot signatures in Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta. Legal experts have said the president’s outreach — and another call he placed directly to Raffensperger on Jan. 2 — may have amounted to obstruction of a criminal investigation.

The Fulton County district attorney’s office has launched a probe into the efforts by Trump and his allies to subvert the results in Georgia…

Mr. George Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:

… So, if you’re keeping score at home, the former president* apparently called everybody in Georgia except Boss Hogg to solicit mischief in counting the ballots, and everybody he called apparently recorded the conversation, which is the only thing to do when that particular former president* calls. I don’t care if he’s ordering a pizza, you still want a tape running and at least two witnesses. And he still might stiff your driver. But what you do see from this compulsive meddling is a perfect illustration of how desperate he was as he realized that his presidential immunity from all consequences was running out. And, it turns out, with very good reason…

During the six-minute call, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Trump repeatedly said that he won Georgia. “Something bad happened,” he said. “When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” Mr. Trump told the chief investigator, Frances Watson…

Further reading:

Evergreen tweet:

Reader Interactions

182Comments

  1. 1.

    lahke

    Hi, AL,
    Isn’t that Charlie Pierce at Esquire? Or does he have a brother who also writes there?

  2. 2.

    Splitting Image

    When The Post first reported on the call, state officials said they did not believe that a recording existed. Officials located the recording on a trash folder on Watson’s device while responding to a public records request, according to a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe the internal process…

    In a trash folder….?!?!?!

    Didn’t something like that happen to some emails or something in 2016? And wasn’t it part of the most monstrous cover-up in history, or so I was told at the time?

    I certainly hope that the intrepid journalists who uncovered and reported on the first story will report on this one as well.

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    I didn’t quite expect to see Jim Crow V2.0 in my lifetime. The fight is on.

    “The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me,” Trump told Frances Watson, the chief investigator for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, according to the recording.

    I had almost forgot what a sullen, self-centered child the Orange Beast is. So good to see him gone.

  6. 6.

    different-church-lady

    Officials located the recording on a trash folder on Watson’s device

    How appropriate for any words from Trump.

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I had Jonathan Capeheart’s show on in the back ground as I did my morning review of the internet, and I heard Lindsey Graham dog-whistling about white farmers being victimized by a provision for Black farmers in the rescue package, and a Wisconsin backbencher named Glenn Grothman saying that Black Lives Matter “doesn’t like the old-fashioned family“. trump really taught them they could let that racist freak flag fly, put spotlights on it, leave it up all day and all night.

  9. 9.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    While the principle of these laws is utterly unacceptable, it’s hilarious that the Republican dimwitts can’t do the math to see that early voting still benefits them.  Grandpa Celtius and Grandma Kareen aren’t going to wait in line with the riff raff.

  10. 10.

    Ksmiami

    @Alison Rose: I want Republicans to fucking hurt. I want this effort to fail so hard, and the party incinerated. Useless, craven stupid people belong to the GOP we are better off without them.

  15. 15.

    Nicole

    As has been pointed out before, the real issue is that people are having to stand in line to vote long enough that they need food, water, and a chair.

    Fuck the GOP.

  16. 16.

    cain

    We have a hell of a fight on our hands – these fascists are looking to holding on to power. We aren’t going to let them and that means we need to seriously start expanding the supreme court and the other federal court and start challenging every law. I mean it is so obvious that they are trying to stop black and liberal people from voting.

    That law about providing aid to people in lines. Fucking ridiculous, nobody else has lines – why do they have lines?? It will depress the white people vote in the cities too, won’t it?

  17. 17.

    Cameron

    What a disgrace.  Backward, ignorant, evil racist horseshit.  At least there are a significant number of people fighting back, and doing it openly and loudly.  It would be so wonderful if we could flush all these vermin into the sewer where they belong in 2022.

  19. 19.

    Ksmiami

    @cain:
    Military troops at polling places to hand out water etc and guard the vote – these guys want a fight? I say give it to them.

  22. 22.

    Mike in NC

    Just finished a couple more chapters in “American Kompromat: How the KGB Cultivated Donald Trump, and Related Tales of Sex, Greed, Power, and Treachery” by Craig Unger. It goes into great detail on the ‘Battle of Lafayette Square’ where Trump and his chief enabler Bill Barr brutally attacked peaceful protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets, and pepper spray just so Fat Bastard could stage a stupid photo-op holding a bible upside-down.

    The whole idea is attributed to aide Hope Hicks, the vapid ex-model who worked for Ivanka Kushner.

  23. 23.

    Citizen Alan

    @Brachiator:

    I didn’t quite expect to see Jim Crow V2.0 in my lifetime.

    I did. I was still following DKos back when “The Emerging Democratic Majority” came out and that site was briefly full of smug glee over it. My response at the time was that the GOP could delay that Democratic Majority taking over for quite some time by employing Jim Crow tactics. And they can still delay it for a very long time to come if they’re willing to embrace apartheid.

  24. 24.

    Gvg

    My sweet mom just called me and mentioned this interesting podcast she just watched about political polarization she just watched. So far so good, but then she said it featured a group that tried to get opposite sides to listen to each other respectfully and find some things they agreed on…..I did not bother to argue as it just upsets her. She will not give up her ideals. To me the problem starts with fantasy facts. I can’t listen to non realists who want to hurt people with respect.

  25. 25.

    Millard Filmore

    @Alison Rose: 

    I nominate “Mr. Potato Head’s imaginary penis” for rotating tagline.

    What? Conservatives these days are FOR anatomically correct dolls?

  29. 29.

    Omnes Omnibus

    But the GOP Death Cult’s Warchief-By-Combat gifted criminal investigators with some extremely dodgy phone calls,

    Gifted? Really?

  30. 30.

    Ella in New Mexico

    The parallel to these laws is so similar to what Republicans are doing on abortion lately–throwing the most blatantly illegal, discriminatory and unconstitutional shit out there in hopes some of it sticks.

    It has not been the most successful way of getting what they want, fortunately. I see the courts knocking down most of these laws relatively quickly at a variety of levels.

    But it’s yet more proof that Republicans REALLY don’t care if you see who they are anymore, do they?

  32. 32.

    Major Major Major Major

    One thing about this that I find especially weird is the assumption that increased turnout helps Dems. It’s been the conventional wisdom for a long time, but as I understand it there’s not actually a lot of evidence for the hypothesis. Yes, some Democrats are good at activating Democratic low-propensity voters, but we’ve also seen that some Republicans (Trump especially) are very good at activating low-propensity Republican voters. Anything that makes voting more difficult could just as easily shoot Republicans in the foot.

    In lighter news, I finished the rough draft of my hopepunk novel! It took 13 months, but you know what, some of those months SUCKED so I’ll give myself a pass. 125,570 words. Now the fun begins (after a head-clearing break, of course!)​

  35. 35.

    japa21

    The GOP is so stupid. Don’t they realize that vote by mail was more popular with Dems because there was this little thing called a pandemic? All they are doing is hurting their own voters and creating even more urgency and motivation for Dems to get out and stand in lines for days if necessary. Granted the other changes will hurt the Dems, but there are ways to get around it.

  36. 36.

    SFAW

    @Ksmiami:

    its a well known fact that Republicans can’t do math, or economics or science or history or well anything

    I disagree. They can grift, lie, be fascist, be racist, and generally fuck over America pretty well.

  38. 38.

    Major Major Major Major

    @japa21: Recent studies have suggested that most targeted voter suppression doesn’t even work, since the Dem campaigns to get voters the paperwork they need etc. have been effective. The laws are still vile and bad, of course, and this is energy that could be spent elsewhere… but that’s before we even get into how these things seem to be just as likely to affect their own voters.

  39. 39.

    Kay

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

    It’s bigger than “wingnut judges”.

    They’re planning on operating under a legal theory that says state courts cannot alter state law on voting. Only the state legislature and then federal courts may operate in this area.

    Alito and Thomas laid it out during the 2020 election challenges. 

    This is the new far Right legal theory on election law and the far Right members of SCOTUS have already endorsed it- heck, they invented it and pushed it out last year, fully formed and directly from the SCOTUS.

    Throwing these state laws on the books and inviting challenges is the litigation strategy. They’ll try to establish the broader far Right theory as the challenges wind thru courts.

  40. 40.

    Beautifulplumage

    @Alison Rose: Yes! I went back to check the quote and am all in that this should be added. Thank you for suggesting it; it sums up so much about the knots the republicans get themselves into over gender & sex.

  42. 42.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Kay: According to Lemieux at LGM, this concept came from Rehnquist’s Bush v. Gore concurrence, and Kavanaugh was the one who wrote the footnote in the PA case that cites it. (Thomas & Alito joined.)

    Bush v. Gore: it’s back, baby!

  45. 45.

    Kay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    Right, I think that’s accurate.

    In October, Thomas—joined by Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh—accused the Pennsylvania Supreme Court of infringing on the Legislature’s authority to set election law. They asserted that, under the U.S. Constitution, federal courts can override state courts’ interpretation of election codes based on their own sense of what the state legislature prefers. Yet these four justices never found a fifth vote: Amy Coney Barrett joined the court too late to weigh in, and Chief Justice John Roberts refused to go along with this hijacking of state election law. In the end, late-arriving ballots were counted, though they did not change the outcome of any federal race in Pennsylvania, including the presidential contest.

    Barrett will go with the far Righties, so that’s 5.

  46. 46.

    oatler.

    Chuck Todd had the gov of GA on this morning and oddly Trump was never mentioned, nor Jim Crow.

  48. 48.

    Kay

    @Major Major Major Major:

    In terms of litigation, they’re pushing us into a smaller and smaller corner. Cutting off avenues. It’ll impact both red and blue state law, because obviously conservatives can take up a liberal state law just like liberals can take up a conservative state law, and they’ll take it up to limit voting rights.  They can overturn our state laws but we can’t overturn theirs.

  49. 49.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Rough drafts are the worst!!

    Just about a year ago, I was really struggling with how to do anything with the setting other than like, nihilistic dystopia. I stumbled upon a Le Guin essay about the importance of highlighting communities of resistance and alternative ways of living, and everything sort of fell into place.

  50. 50.

    Redshift

    DEMs should readily embrace that message, that ending Sunday voting is an explicit attempt to silence Christians. Because it is.

    That certainly wouldn’t hurt, but I doubt it would help much. When conservatives rage about Christians being oppressed or “religious liberty,” they only mean White Christians. Only conservatives can be victims.

  51. 51.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:

     

    Remember all those wingnut judges that got confirmed.

     

    Many of whom have made decisions of late that uphold the laws and Constitution thus giving Trump exactly ZERO wins in his frantic effort to overturn the election. Even a Supreme or two, if I recall has surprised us.

    So there’s that.

  55. 55.

    Ruckus

    @Ksmiami:

    They seem to be doing a lot of this racism thing.

    Of course they seem to think that doing it openly, brazenly, illegally will work so…..

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    I don’t think they need to just yet. A strong, bold and modernized federal voting law would suffice for a time because it’ll take a while to chip away at it.

    The current SCOTUS is going to gut Section 2 of the VRA, just like they gutted Section 5 w/Shelby County so even without this newer legal theory it was an emergency. I think Democrats know it, which is why you see movement on the filibuster. It’s an existential threat to Democrats.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @Nicole:

    Is it possible that in places like GA, OH and yes others, they have always been doing the least they could do to make voting easier for everyone. Poll tax, restrictive hours, fewer machines (which should only mark a readable paper ballot, not actually do any voting) fewer voting places….. And as I’ve said here before, I’ve seen this first hand in OH in Nov 2004, I waited in line, in the rain for 4 hrs to vote, in a suburb of Columbus because Ken Blackwell removed half the machines and combined polling places to make it harder for democratic areas to vote. It worked, I watched pissed off people stand in line for a while then walk away because they had to go to work. It’s a good thing for Ken that he didn’t show up to see how it was working, I’m sure I wouldn’t have been the only one to knee him in the groin. There would have been a 4 hr line, just for that.

  59. 59.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    You’ll also see more and more liberal challenges grounded in the ADA, which IMHO is underused in voting rights litigation. The ADA is politically popular too. It’s a good political argument. If you can’t make that sympathetic as an advocate you should find a new job – you suck at sales :)

  60. 60.

    Ruckus

    @Spanky:

    They used to crime pretty well. Because they were not as open and verbal about it. Now they are terrified that they are and will continue to lose everything their racist, ignorant minds can imagine because they have been exposed to the light, and are running around insanely, like the rats they are.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    We’re going to have to get more creative. It doesn’t have to be labeled “a voting law” to use it :)

    Just fucking bury these people with lawsuits. Sue on all of the above.

  62. 62.

    Cameron

    I haven’t seen what’s going on with voting laws here in Florida. Not that they have a sense of shame, but for Republicans to attack mail-in voting when the Hero of Mar-a-Lago himself uses it is a bit of a contorted message. It probably differs all across the state, but voting in Manatee is pretty straightforward, despite it being heavily Republican. Of course, it could also be that I suffer from terminal naivete.

  66. 66.

    Mike S

    In reference to that last tweet, it seems like the stupid ones do believe it and do try committing fraud.

    @Cameron:

    I have see a lot of Florida local GOP registrars yelling bullshit from all the way in CA. Of course they’re all Susan Collins now so all they will do is complain and then do as they’re told.

  71. 71.

    James E Powell

    CNN right now basically running an anti-Newsom ad disguised as a news story.

    I don’t get the sense that there is that much support for that effort, but it will be a nuisance. What we need is a completely united and energetic Democratic defense.

  72. 72.

    Raoul Paste

    Do you know who would hand a bottle of water to a thirsty person waiting in line?
    Jesus Christ
    There is your TV ad, right there

  73. 73.

    mrmoshpotato

    “The people of Georgia are so angry at what happened to me,”

    ? Choke on a cheeseburger already.

  74. 74.

    Yutsano

    @Raoul Paste: Oh I’m sorry. You think good white “Christians” believe in the Jesus of the Bible? Oh silly man. They bowed to their Golden Calf at CPAC. There is no God but Drumpf. They literally sold their souls to a con man, and all their pursuits are to please him.

  75. 75.

    Cameron

    @Mike S: Well, having Governor Covid DeMini-me is not helpful.  I can’t comment much, since I’ve only lived here a couple of years and those are in a 55+ community.  Some stuff’s really got to happen at the state level, but I don’t know enough about what’s hot/not to know what sells.  Would appreciate some suggestions from life-time/long-term Floridians.   You would think that something would have to give when FL’s very own Senator Medicare Fraud Nosferatu said the state shouldn’t accept any Federal recovery money…and even Mini-me had a problem with that.

  77. 77.

    Another Scott

    It’s good that everyone knows what the Teabaggers are trying to do in Georgia and elsewhere. We have to fight them every single day, and develop countermeasures.

    ObOpenThread for the shutterbugs – ICYMI, Petapixel – Photoshop Super Resolution:

    Adobe just dropped its latest software updates via the Creative Cloud and among those updates is a new feature in Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) called “Super Resolution.” You can mark this day down as a major shift in the photo industry.

    […]

    In my testing, as shown below, it took this old 12MP image from 4256×2832 pixels to 8512×5664 pixels. The screenshots below show this enlargement. The top image is the lower resolution (original) version and the bottom image is the one that went through the Super Resolution process. The higher-res image looks absolutely amazing. And at 48MP I could easily blow this up to a 40×60 inch print just as with any image captured using my 45MP Nikon D850.

    […]

    My grad school adviser was an amazing polymath. A fellow student once asked him why he was so fascinated by optics. He said something like, “Lenses take 2D Fourier Transforms.” IOW, optics is well-understood math.

    With enough data, one can reverse-engineer an image to get the lens and thus work back to construct what the “real” image should look like.

    Photoshop apparently has enough data, and enough algorithms, and PCs are fast enough now that one can do that between cups of tea.

    Neato. And it might finally make getting a PS subscription worthwhile if/when I get into photography more seriously.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  78. 78.

    Elizabelle

    @Kay:   Wonderful to see you here, even if with grim news about “conservative” challenges to the VRA.  I hope you will be back to comment in the mornings, too.  Happy Sunday.  Cheers.

  80. 80.

    debbie

    @Another Scott:

    Can’t really make a comparison. It would be far easier to see if and by how much the photo’s been improved if the surfer had been the same size in both!

    Knowing Adobe as I do, I’d bet there are drawbacks, like maybe over-sharpening or loss of color subtleties. Confound you, Adobe!

  81. 81.

    Another Scott

    @debbie: You can click on the last 4 images to get embiggened images, and count the blood vessels in Cruz’s eyes and the water drops in the wave.

    Really impressive stuff.

    Cheers,

    Scott.

  84. 84.

    Another Scott

    Imagine putting on a full beekeeper get up for whatever bee business you have to do and then running into this badass. pic.twitter.com/swkmaQWe65— southpaw (@nycsouthpaw) March 14, 2021

    Smoke works wonders, but still!

    (via TheRealHoarse nycsouthpaw)

    [eta:] I blame DST.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  85. 85.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:   Save those bees.

    A lot of us need to learn the difference between “gentle bees” and the stinging kind.  (Which maybe are primarily wasps; no one is thrilled to find an enormous wasp nest in their home, no??)

  88. 88.

    Bill Arnold

    @Kay:

    Does that theory imply that legislatures can also arbitrarily block vetoes by including an election-related provision in a bill? (Do any states have a line-item veto?)

  90. 90.

    Miss Bianca

    @Gvg: One of these groups operates in my county – called Bring It to the Table. They’re talking about it at my Democratic Party Zoom call tomorrow. Le sigh. They mean well, and the guy who’s organizing it is a rich dude who donates generously to the theater and other causes I care about, so I’m willing to humor him; but personally I’m just at the point where I think, “these fuckers can’t be reasoned with. They can only be defeated.”

    We’re a long way from that in our little red county.

  91. 91.

    Yutsano

    @Elizabelle: Even the gentle bees (honeybees) will sting, but only at a perceived threat. When they’re smoked they’re basically stoned, so they’re much more docile. Notice how she knows enough that she needs only the smoke for protection.

    Wasps, however, are spawn of Shaytan himself and should be destroyed on sight.

  92. 92.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Elizabelle: Worse than wasps are yellow jackets.  A swarm nearly killed me a few years back…so now in the Spring and Fall I actively hunt their nests and eradicate…without mercy.

  94. 94.

    Miss Bianca

    @Another Scott: I’m one of those who discovered I am allergic to bee stings *after* I didn’t bother to suit up in a full bee suit to take charge of a friend’s delivery of ten pods of honey bees. So yeah, I’m impressed, and I’m also jealous. There are bee whisperers out there, but I sure as shit ain’t one of them.

  96. 96.

    James E Powell

    What no one in the news business will say is that the GQP’s voter suppression has the full support of a majority of white Americans. In some parts of the country, it’s super-majorities.

  97. 97.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Another Scott: 90 plus stingers pulled out from eyelids and the rest of my face.  Couldn’t see for days.  They got diesel fuel for their troubles…then fire.  The fuel kills them, but the fire id for me.  Paper wasps don’t always need a reason, but they will generally go away if you make it hard on them to be around you.  I do not use deodorant or cologne or use scented soaps during mowing season, otherwise I get lit up like crazy.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @Bill Arnold:

    I don’t know. Thomas’s dissent applies it narrowly – he says state courts issuing opinions on state voting laws creates confusion, but Alito is definitely setting this up to pretend it was issued by The Founders.

    I think it’s ridiculous. They’re a joke. So clearly a power grab and politically motivated. It’s this idiotic, excessively legalistic distinction between “voting rights” and “voting process”. The process IS the right. One can have “elections” in a dictatorship. HOW they’re conducted matter.

  99. 99.

    Immanentize

    @Miss Bianca:

    Agreeing has to have starting points:

    1). Do you agree Joe Biden won the election in 2020?

    2).  Without reference to the value of anyone else, do you agree Black lives matter?

  102. 102.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: hi Kay!!!

    Here’s another one for the litigation hopper — why do people in the military get to automatically mail in any ballot such that it must be counted if received 5 days after the election?  That sounds like a B v. G equal protection problem as well.

  104. 104.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: I’ve missed your wisdom- in the meantime, we will be donating substantial amounts to fair fight etc. If you have to limit people from voting to win, maybe you just suck..

  105. 105.

    Geminid

    @Miss Bianca: The concept of “Negative Partisanship” attributes a lot of party loyalty to fear and loathing of the other side. Some political scientists make the phenomenon an integral part of their electoral modeling. I think the concept is pretty valid, but I think the negative partisanship on the Democratic side is based on a fairly realistic view of Republican politicians and the people who elect them. Whereas the Republican’s negative partisanship seems based on an exaggerated, fantastic picture of the Democrstic party, whipped up by propaganda from right-wing radio and other media (And I don’t think this is just my Democratic bias at work). So these common-table type programs probably work to Democrats’ advantage.

    A good explaination of negative partisanship can be found in the article “Hate is on the Ballot” by political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, in the February 2020 New Republic. The article analyses voting patterns 2010-2018, with reference to the upcoming 2020 election. It is still worth a read.

  108. 108.

    Another Scott

    You’ve heard of the threat from Jewish Space Lasers? Beware the space telescope pirates. TheAtlantic via GovExec:

    NASA’s new space telescope has had a rough go. Name a problem, and this telescope—meant to be the most powerful of its kind, a worthy successor to the famous Hubble—has faced it: poor management, technical errors, budget overruns, schedule delays, and a pandemic. So, naturally, the people responsible for the telescope’s safety are now thinking about pirates.

    Yes, pirates.

    The topic came up at a recent meeting about NASA’s James Webb space telescope, named for a former administrator of the space agency. Later this year, the telescope will travel by ship to a launch site in South America, passing through the Panama Canal to reach French Guiana. Webb, with a mirror as tall as a two-story building and a protective shield the size of a tennis court, is too large for a plane. Its departure date will be kept secret, someone said at the meeting, to protect against pirates who might want to capture the precious cargo and hold it for ransom. Christopher Conselice, an astrophysicist at the University of Manchester who attended the meeting, was at first baffled by the concern because, well, pirates, but it quickly clicked.

    “Why would you announce that you’re going to be shipping on a certain day something that is worth over $10 billion,” he explained to me, “that you could easily put in a boat” and sail away with?

    When Conselice tweeted about the meeting, other scientists responded with jokes about swashbucklers and starrrs. But the playful commentary carried a hint of unease. The James Webb space telescope has taken far longer to develop than anyone anticipated; after more than 20 years of work, it’s finally supposed to launch in late October. This is the homestretch. There are many more realistic circumstances that could derail the mission than marauders at sea, but for a project that has been through so much—for a telescope that was initially supposed to launch in 2007, the year the first iPhone was released—pirates might as well happen too.

    […]

    (See the original for embedded links.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    Brachiator

    @Geminid:

    A good explaination of negative partisanship can be found in the article “Hate is on the Ballot” by political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, in the February 2020 New Republic. The article analyses voting patterns 2010-2018, with reference to the upcoming 2020 election. It is still worth a read.

    Did Bitecofer make any predictions about the 2020 election? Was she accurate?

  111. 111.

    Miss Bianca

    @Geminid: Yeah, I’ve seen that Bitecofer article cited again and again, I just haven’t got my spirits up to read it yet.

  112. 112.

    Brachiator

    @Kay:

    It’s this idiotic, excessively legalistic distinction between “voting rights” and “voting process”. The process IS the right. One can have “elections” in a dictatorship. HOW they’re conducted matter.

    Isn’t this similar to Scalia’s notion that it was okay to execute an innocent man as long as the trial was conducted fairly?

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Immanentize:

    I think in the past voting rights advocates didn’t litigate if they thought they might get a bad precedent- but to me that risk is now outweighed by the value of finding out where the edges are- we don’t know how far they’ll go so we have to test it. We need information, even if it’s bad news because it’s going to happen anyway- they’re teeing up all this restrictive state law to take it to SCOTUS anyway.

  115. 115.

    Geminid

    In the article, Bitecofer does not predict the outcome, just says that negative partisanship would be a powerful factor.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @Brachiator:

    Not really. It’s more like “we had a TRIAL, even if there were no witnesses and the defendant wasn’t given notice”.

    It’s like “we’ll allow an ELECTION. So what if 25% of people were unfairly excluded- TECHNICALLY the election OCCURRED”.

    Elections are a state recording process. They’re rule-bound and nitpicky not because people are a pain in the ass but because the process protections makes the rights real. They know this- that’s why they’re all the way into the weeds on Pennsylvania’s absentee balloting. They just don’t want anyone else to get all the way into the weeds on absentee balloting.

  118. 118.

    Immanentize

    @Kay: The State Legislature clause argument is puro horse hockey.   It was primarily referring to the election of Senators which legislatures used to do.  In fact, Congress has the power to alter almost any election law in a federal election EXCEPT the time and place chosen for the election (by the state legislature) is Senators.  To suggest this is a prohibition on State constitutional structures is madness.  But Scalia managed to read militia out of the 2nd A….

  119. 119.

    Another Scott

    @Geminid: No offense intended, but that’s poor form.  Your edit takes care of that.

    We know you’re a big fan of hers.  She was amazingly accurate in her 2018 House predictions.

    She rubs at least a few political operatives (e.g. NotLarrySabato) the wrong way.  And she’s stepped in it at least once on Twitter.

    I don’t know enough about the nitty-gritty of her mistakes and why they dislike her so.  And it really doesn’t matter to me.  And, to be clear, NLS is no political genius either – his last prediction map listed Biden at 415+ Electoral Votes, IIRC.  :-/

    It’s no problem recognizing that nobody is infallible and that even good people have feet of clay (e.g. her being officially with the Lincoln Project folks).

    If she made predictions about 2020 in that piece, it would be helpful to say so, or posting an excerpt, so that we can make up our mind whether it’s worth reading.  None of us have infinite time.

    Just my $0.02.  And probably not even worth that!  ;-)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    dww44

    @Ksmiami: Whoa.  Don’t forget there are bunch of good ones who live here too.  Seriously, I’m thinking that Sen. Whitehouse is on to the something.  The same anonymous individuals and all their dark money  who got all these Republican conservative, often unqualified judges on the bench last administration are fueling the efforts to institute these new voting restrictions. They are pushing/hoping for legal challenges to these rules to get to the federal courts up to and including the SC, where they expect payback from those recently elevated judges.

    Whitehouse is chairing a sub-committee looking into this and I hope he succeeds in revealing who these folks are.  We need legislation to prevent this in the future….. no more dark money sabotaging our judicial system.​​​​​

  121. 121.

    Feathers

    @Omnes Omnibus: I like “gifted” here. I adds the sense of being a happy surprise for the recipient and the slightly humorous dig that it might not be what the giver intended.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    @Brachiator: But it’s just a ten minute or so read. Friends I’ve recommended it to thought it was worthwhile.

    Bitecofer became known for her prediction of a 42 seat Democratic pickup in the 2018 midterms, some months before the election. She was something of an upstart: a lecturer at Christopher Newport University, a third tier Virginia college, with a PhD from the University of Georgia. Her prediction was poorly regarded by established pundits who thought the number would be much smaller. In the event, Democrats flipped 40 seats. (Bitecofer maintains they left several seats on the table for lack of investment).

    I am impressed by the solid social science base Bitecofer brings to her analysis. I play at the game of electoral analysis, but she is a pro.

  123. 123.

    Suzanne

    @Redshift:

    That certainly wouldn’t hurt, but I doubt it would help much. When conservatives rage about Christians being oppressed or “religious liberty,” they only mean White Christians. Only conservatives can be victims. 

    I agree with you, but it’s important to say things like this aloud because other people are watching and listening, and when you say it, it may strike a chord for some people. Some people really don’t notice this stuff until someone points it out. I have long thought that the Dems and the Left have made a strategic error by letting the Right adopt the language of Christianity unchallenged.

  124. 124.

    Dan B

    @Josie: We were relieved that our neighbors, black – three generations, got their vaccinations, J&J.  They’re wonderful especially the young dad with his sweet toddler, a quiet and energetic little guy.  My dread was he’d lose his dad, and / or his mom.

  127. 127.

    Mary G

    President Biden's approval rating has risen to 62% in the new CBS/YouGov poll. 74% approve of the American Rescue Plan.The The honeymoon is going great!— What Biden Has Done (@What46HasDone) March 14, 2021

  128. 128.

    Geminid

     

     

    @Another Scott: I do not suffer from a belief that Rachel Bitecofer is infallible. She does bring a lot to the table, though, as much as other political analysts who are often cited here.

    As for her association with the Lincoln Project, some would insinuate she is some sort of crypto-Republican because of this. But anyone reading her twitter feed can see that Bitecofer is as ardent a Democrat as anyone here. I think the veteran political operators at the LP just knew talent when they saw it.

    Tom Nichols, who actually was a Republican, also was a Senior Advisor to the LP. Like Bitecofer, he says he was unpaid. I believe them both because I think they are honest people. And it would be professionally reckless for either to make such an easily disproven assertion if it were false.

  130. 130.

    mrmoshpotato

    BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!

    Via bluegal

    If he dies, they'll stuff the corpse with a sound system that just repeats, "Give me money, you losers," and wheel it around every parking lot in Florida.— David Ambaras (@dambaras) March 14, 2021

  131. 131.

    Elizabelle

    @mrmoshpotato:   found within that Twitter stream page:

    New York Times Pitchbot @DougJBalloon

    I’ll be on the Today Show tomorrow discussing my best-selling book “Cancelled: How the Woke Mob Silenced Me Forever.”

  132. 132.

    Ohio Mom

    Good to see you again Kay! You are always missed when you step away.

    It’s an unpleasant reflex but every time voting rights come up in conversation I hear in my mind’s ear my Tea Party neighbors: “We’re not a democracy, we are a republic!”

    They think that is so clever and airtight, this pronouncement is usually accompanied with a huge grin. Nitwits.

  137. 137.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    @Ohio Mom:

    You can get around that by saying, “Fine, we’re a representative democracy. There, happy pendant?”

  140. 140.

    Ken

    @Immanentize: In fact, Congress has the power to alter almost any election law in a federal election EXCEPT the time and place chosen for the election (by the state legislature) is Senators.

    Pendant point, that clause about Senators was removed by the 17th amendment. So there are no Constitutional restrictions on Congress’ power to override state law regarding federal elections.

  141. 141.

    Bill Arnold

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    How do we stop them?

    (Note: IANAL)
    One hardball game is that the Supreme Court’s makeup is determined by Congress, and they know it, so a constant buzz of “if they do absurd thing X we might as well expand the court” would(will) help. (Or changes with a similar effect of diluting the court’s RW’s power.)
    Also, some of the Court’s right wing have vestigial preferences for intellectual coherence, and dislike of shoddy arguments, and justices do not live in a vacuum: they have information feeds, that can in principle be leveraged for use as effectors.

  143. 143.

    debbie

    @Ohio Mom:

    Calling the country a republic was more about trying to erase any mention of the party with any part of the word “democracy” in it. That which cannot be named…

  144. 144.

    cain

    @Major Major Major Major: ​
     
    I would say that over time, all the ID requirements – would eventually overcome. The only thing they can do is make sure that they have less people manning the polling stations in Democratic strongholds. Which they do already. They also try to kick out those with D registrations out. But I think we have a handle on that as well.

    I think people thinking that these laws will make it hrd for GOP voters should probably understand that they might “adjust” for some areas more than others. But I think it will be important that we make sure they absolutely adhere to the law everywhere.

    I would laugh my ass off if it ended up that GOP ended up restricting their own people and it came to light that was what happened. The absolute freak out .. lol. I suppose they’ll be hitting the voter fraud thing – but that’s not gonna work when it hits the courts.

  149. 149.

    cain

    @Kay: ​
     

    Just fucking bury these people with lawsuits. Sue on all of the above.

    I like the way the way you think!

  151. 151.

    Baud

    @Bill Arnold:

    so a constant buzz of “if they do absurd thing X we might as well expand the court” would(will) help. (Or changes with a similar effect of diluting the court’s RW’s power.)

    I agree. It’s important to brandish even of we never pull the trigger.

  158. 158.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Baud: ​
     

    It does make a lot of sense and it’s a well-thought, cogent take.

    What increasingly makes less and less sense is how poorly this website operates in my browser. I am baffled.

  163. 163.

    Elizabelle

    @HumboldtBlue:   That makes a lot of sense. [Already agreed upon. In triplicate, at least.]

    Frum is a good observer.

    And I laughed to see he was responding off a FTF NY Times Republican whisperer reporter Peter Baker tweet.  Of course Villager Baker is concerned, concerned, concerned.

  164. 164.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Elizabelle: ​
     

    Yes he is an excellent observer and it was delicious take down of NYT bullshit, hell all the media outlets at this point. ABC ran a story on this nonsense about no PCs as well.

  165. 165.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: Have you read that article, or any of Bitecofer’s work? It wouldn’t take long, and then you would have a better based opinion of her. None of us here would want to be judged by impressions and second hand opinions.

  168. 168.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:

    Last I emailed with her she was doing fine and working on a book. That was back towards the end of November. Haven’t heard anything different since.

  169. 169.

    cain

    @Baud: ​
     
    He would have been a good Linux desktop kind of guy. Speaking of which – next week is our new GNOME release and it’s gonna be LIT. Love the UX that our designers came up with. But haters are gonna hate.

    We are out-gesturing MacOS. Works best with a Apple Magic Trackpad.

  171. 171.

    Kay

    @Ohio Mom:

    “We’re not a democracy, we are a republic!”

    Oh, whatever. Except the Far Right Five on the US Supreme Court are planning on legislating nitty gritty election process rules from the bench. They’re pretending they have some Grand Constitutional Theory but read that dissent I linked- Thomas is all pissy because Pennsylvania slightly modified absentee balloting.
    There’s no Grand Theory. They want to be the National Board of Elections.

  172. 172.

    Geminid

    @Major Major Major Major: I see a lot of what I believe are low propensity voters at the local store, yakking about huntin’ and fishin’. I’m kind of glad not many of them vote. A late carpenter friend told me of a job where several country-boy tradesman were griping on and on about Obama, Holder, etc. But when he asked, it turned out that none of them voted.

  173. 173.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    Hi rikyrah

    The grandbaby is walking so I send her shoes, all kinds. Maryjanes, tiny deck sneakers, little work boots. My daughter says “she doesn’t go anywhere! Where will she wear them?”

    She can wear them in the house. MATCH her OUTFITS :)

  175. 175.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Geminid: This was her prediction from the Salon article. Yes I have read her and about her. I disagree with her analysis.

    Bitcofer also warns that in this moment of populist discontent, Bernie Sanders may actually have a better chance than Joe Biden of defeating Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

  178. 178.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: I would certainly disagree with that particular statement in that particular article. But if you read the New Republic article I cite above, I’d be interested in what you thought of it.

  179. 179.

    Ken

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: That’s all right, you can take the output 4x image and run it through again to get 16x.  At last reality has caught up with the CSI shows: Zoom — and enhance!

  180. 180.

    Geminid

    @schrodingers_cat: I do remember that after the first few primaries last year, Bitecofer pointed out Bernie Sanders was very much underperforming his 2016 vote totals. She did not seem at all sad at this, nor was I.

  182. 182.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’d be tempted to come back with Malcolm X. “It’s the ballot or the bullet.” Of course, he was talking just as much about the situation where the people you do elect don’t do anything for you. But if the ballot’s neutralized, if even the majority have no peaceful political process for addressing grievances, what do they think happens? What’s the alternative?

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