Viola Davis becomes Michelle Obama in trailer for 'The First Lady' anthology series https://t.co/ice9qsy4QX pic.twitter.com/Uh9NILSSnf
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) February 17, 2022
You may think "So what? Donald, ivanka, & jr. will just take the 5th 500 times" in their now required depositions in NY, but keep this in mind: in a civil case, which this is, taking the 5th CAN be "used against you" (adverse inference). This is a HUGE win. Act like a winner.
— Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) February 17, 2022
BREAKING: The Senate has given final approval to legislation averting a weekend government shutdown, sending President Joe Biden a measure designed to give bipartisan bargainers more time to reach an overdue deal financing federal agencies until fall. https://t.co/0siSiymYCo
— The Associated Press (@AP) February 18, 2022
Full U.S. Congress invited to Biden's State of Union speech as COVID fades https://t.co/xhDPaGgGi9 pic.twitter.com/2L9cJWLb2n
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 18, 2022
Per the Washington Post:
All members of Congress but no guests will be invited to attend when President Biden delivers the State of the Union address March 1 at the U.S. Capitol, a sign of ongoing precautions being taken because of the pandemic.
Members of Congress will be seated in both the floor and the gallery sections of the House, according to a letter sent to lawmakers Thursday from the House sergeant-at-arms. All attendees must report a negative PCR coronavirus test within one day of the speech, remain socially distanced and wear an approved KN95 or N95 face mask while in the Capitol.
According to the letter, it is “strongly recommended” but not required that attendees be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus and have received a booster shot…
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said this month that her goal would be to invite every member of Congress to this year’s State of the Union address, noting that members had wanted a return to “fuller participation” in the speech…
germy
bbleh
And I’m sure ALL Republican Senators and Representatives will observe the masking and distancing rules, and there won’t be ANY performative disobedience, out of RESPECT for the president and the important tradition of the State of the Union, not to mention the law.
And not ONE of them will wear a tan suit. THAT’s how respectful and civil they are!
RepubAnon
What is the plan for when 100% of the Republicans take off their masks and yell “FREEDOM!!!!!”
A few may even add Braveheart-style facial coloring…
SiubhanDuinne
Viola Davis as Forever FLOTUS? Works for me!
Dorothy A. Winsor
I predict there will be ceremonial ripping up of Biden’s speech
Searcher
Does Chuck Schumer have something terminal, or is that just a really unflattering photo?
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Heh.
It’s a tradition.
bbleh
@RepubAnon: Then the Sergeant-at-Arms will have no choice but to order a charge with bayonets fixed and leave the chamber choked with their dead, dying, and mangled bodies.
Order must be preserved!
Jeffro
metal detectors and pat-downs for the Sedition Caucus, please
(with apologies for those having to perform the pat-downs :P )
germy
debbie
Can someone more scientifically minded than I am please take a look at this photo and tell me where most of the specks are dust or distant stars and planets? NASA never says anything about this. Thanks!
germy
Jeffro
They keep trying this phrase out in all sorts of ways. I don’t think it reaches too many folks who aren’t already GQP cult members.
Hey Republicans! We wouldn’t be ‘after’ these criminal goons if they weren’t such criminal goons. Raise your standards!
germy
@Jeffro:
Trump is inciting violence.
gbear
They should require a trip through the metal detector before entering the house chambers for the SOTU speech. Wonder how visible the security will be just to monitor legislators?
Ken
@debbie: Most of the specks are distant stars. All would be in our galaxy, including the three star clusters mentioned in the caption. A few specks might be very distant galaxies.
None are planets – at 3 degrees across the photo doesn’t have the resolution that would allow an extrasolar planet to be visible, and Puppis isn’t on the ecliptic so it’s not one of the other seven planets in our system. There could be a local dwarf planet or asteroid lurking in there somewhere.
Kay
The only favorable or neutral coverage Hillary Clinton will ever get is if it’s in the context of media comparing Democrats unfavorably to her.
I hope she keeps doing it. She’s the only Democrat they cover.
debbie
@germy:
Took him long enough, but he finally showed his racist self. Why wouldn’t this be projection, just like everything else that’s ever spewed from his mouth?
debbie
@Ken:
Thanks so much!
debbie
@Kay:
The growing horror of her running in 2024 has been dawning on the GQP for a while now. ??♀️
NotMax
Kitsch or just bad taste?
;)
Betty Cracker
Trump’s language has been more overtly racist for weeks if not months. At one rally, he told attendees that in states and cities run by Democrats, white people had to “go to the back of the line” for COVID treatment. It’s not that widely known if you don’t follow politics closely because MSM orgs made a decision not to amplify Trump after he directed followers to sack the Capitol Building.
It’s an understandable choice! It’s a decision lots of folks supported long before the MSM shut the barn door after the flaming horse bolted the paddock and galloped through the fireworks depot. But is it the right decision? I don’t know.
topclimber
@Kay: Well, there is the theory that you don’t spread lies by repeating them, even in the context of refuting them.
Kay
How Democrats Botched the Fight Over Voting:
Democrats had an obligation to abandon their committment to federal protections for voting rights and instead work solely on whatever minor technocratic fix Susan Collins and Joe Manchin can come up with- nothing so far, of course. Neither one of them has come through, as usual, even with the minor technocratic fix. They’ll produce nothing because they’re both full of shit. They only announced it so they could day they were working on something.
This is really bad advice for the Democratic Party and they should avoid the people who offer it to them.
Abandoning core principles of the Party to put out fires started by Republicans is reactive, defensive and weak.
Kay
It’s wrong on the substance, too. Voting rights really are under attack. The Voting Rights Act will be gone this year or next- gutted, thrown in the trash. I don’t know if you’re watching what’s going on in Texas with voting but those voters are going to need civil rights protecitons for voting sooner rather than later and they aren’t going to have any.
Geminid
@debbie: I see outgoing Senator Rob Portman has endorsed Jane Timken in Ohio Senate primary. The primary election is May 3. A lot of people will be glad when it’s over, although maybe not the TV and radio stations.
Bex
@Dorothy A. Winsor: But who’s going eat it? I assume Cruz, Hawley and Gym Jordan will boycott…or maybe not with an opportunity like this.
JMG
Dave Weigel of the Post tweeted yesterday that 1. Most of his job is listening to political speeches. 2. He hears Democrats say what Clinton did all the time, but they receive almost no media coverage. Sure won’t get any from the Times, anyhow. Last sentence is mine, not his.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Texas-style voter suppression is being adopted in one of the other laboratories of autocracy states — Florida.
guachi
The thing about the voter ID voter suppression is that it seems like it will hit older voters harder – voters more likely to vote Republican.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone???
debbie
@Geminid:
Portman will be ignored. There’s a new PAC ad lumping Vance and Timken together as the most horrible thing to happen to the GOP in forever.
Anyway, there may not be an election on May 3 if they can’t get a map approved.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Baud
@guachi:
?
different-church-lady
@RepubAnon: Well, in the film they went ahead and disemboweled him anyway, so…
Steeplejack (phone)
@rikyrah:
Good morning! ?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
And the truest believers in the GOP will pull off their stripper pants to display they have g strings on made from an American flag
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
What’s happening in Texas is a new issue- corruption. It stems from (basically) deregulating voting.
The basic problem with having no federal oversight or protection of voting is the incumbents have a conflict. They want to remain incumbents. They need a national government policing them because they will skew/break rules to go in their favor. This is just common sense and people will understand it. It’s gotten lost but what’s really going on with politicians stopping AA from voting? They are white conservative politicians who want to remain in power. That’s the broader goal and concept. So you won’t just see it along race lines.
You’ll start to see things like this:
It gets worse. After this letter went out a rule was quietly scrubbed from the Texas Sec of State website.
This is going to spread like wildfire.
rikyrah
@Kay:
It’s absolutely ridiculous?
Why has the MSM NOT been in Sinema and Manchin’s faces about Voting Rights and the filibuster since that horrible Alabama decision?
Why have they been allowed to skate on their bullshyt?
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
I gotta ask…what do they have in for ID?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Off topic, but I’m seeing comments on Reddit about Trump like “It’s crazy to think he was right about being spied on.”
Does this have anything to do with the fact that members of his campaign/transition lied about inappropriate contacts with Russians and were investigated for it subsequently? Is that what this is? Idiots, not even conservatives, but low-info types seemed to be acting like this vindicates Trump or something
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: That blacks are secretly as vicious and dumb as white rednecks are publically has been the big excuse for racism in American history since the Thomas Jefferson administration.
Geminid
Republicans trying to oust Representative Liz Cheney are looking for help from the state legislature. State Senator Bo Biteman has introduced legislation that would end primary day party registration, and prevent independents and Democrats from voting for Cheney in the August primary. Trump and Club for Growth warlord David McIntosh are pressing Wyoming Republicans to support the measure.
Yesterday, House Minority “Leader” Kevin McCarthy endorsed attorney Harriet Hageman, Cheney’s principal opponent. In response, a Cheney spokesperson said of Hageman, “Wow, she must really be desperate.”
From Politico
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
And the national “analysis” where “AA turnout is up” so no one needs federal regulations or laws to protect and standardize voting is just a dumb analysis. AA political power is not just at the state and congressional or presidential level. Local elections can be tiny. It really does matter if you knock out 120 voters if the vote total is 5600 or 7000. That’s determinative in a close local race and AA political power, like all political power, starts local. You can’t analyze it “nationally”. It doesn’t mean anything. It could be up nationally and down at the level of the county water supervisor. It’s an idiotic analysis. It operates in a world where the only elections are Presidential elections.
Baud
@Kay:
I’m sure of AA voting goes down, the courts will change their minds again about what the law requires.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@debbie:
Saw a headline the other day in the front page of the Plain Dealer about the standoff between Redistricting Commission, the State Leg, and the Ohio Supreme Court. I’m surprised it’s dragged on this long. I assumed that state Republicans would’ve acquiesced by now given it’s the state Supreme Court.
Makes you wonder how they would be acting if liberals controlled the SCOTUS, but Republicans controlled Congress and the presidency/state government
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Democrats are right that we need national civil rights protections and consistent national regulations for voting and conservatives (and most of national media) are wrong. No one needs to apologize for protecting and promoting existing standards. The new lower standards will be worse.
Putting incumbent Texas politicians (or any other state) in charge of who gets to vote with no federal oversight or guardrails is insane. It will be a disaster.
narya
Waiting for a pre-surgery phone call . . . surgery scheduled for the 28th. Very cold out this morning, but a beautiful sunrise when I went for my walk!
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
On the right, at least from what I can tell on Twitter, a federal voting rights bill is a “federal takeover” of elections. Also too Sinema is a defender of democracy by protecting the filibuster and anyone who criticizes her for it are the real fascists. ?
Or something
zhena gogolia
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): It’s bullshit.
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: I haven’t looked into it beyond that one linked article, but it sounds like they’re pulling the same bullshit TX did — asking people to supply details of what’s on their registration when the requirements have changed over the years and people may not remember what ID they used.
In FL currently, you have to supply a state-issued ID number, like a driver’s license or state ID, and the last four digits of your SSN. But was that the standard in 1985? Fuck if I know! So if I still lived in the same place where I first registered, I wouldn’t know what number was on my original registration.
I moved back to my home county a while back, so I updated my voter info and will know what data to supply for my mail-in ballot. My mother-in-law probably won’t. She’s been a snowbird FL voter since 1990 or so. I agree with what Kay said at #38 — it’s incumbents executing a corrupt subversion of the election to retain power.
Chief Oshkosh
@RepubAnon: I don’t know what the President’s plan is for such an occurrence, but my plan would involve tasers. Lots and lots of tasers. And big, heavy-duty zip ties and ball gags (a la Pulp Fiction). I realize that a substantial portion of the miscreants will likely enjoy such rough handling, but no plan is perfect.
Kay
@Baud:
This is what this debate sounds like to me:
“why shouldn’t the incumbent Texas governor or political party be in charge of who gets to vote?”
The question should answer itself. You don’t even have to go to race based discrimination. That’s a fucking disaster across the board. They’re throwing out consistent federal standards and laws – the guardrails that protect the public from self interested incumbent politicians and parties and they can be “self interested” in supressing AA votes or “self interested” in suppressing any other group of voters. It’s a given how this ends. Just call it gutting federal regulation of voting. That’s what it is.
zhena gogolia
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Aaron Rupar has explained it in his newsletter. Excerpt:
Baud
@Kay:
They’ll keep changing the rules of the game as we keep advancing. In their minds, there’s no such thing as a fair fight that they lose.
Kay
@Baud:
The anti-gerrymandering people in Ohio had a great slogan. “Voters should pick the politicians, politicians shouldn’t pick the voters”
Same concept here.
Chief Oshkosh
@Kay: Who the fuck is Jon Ward and why shouldn’t I tase and ball gag him, too?
zhena gogolia
Sounds as if Hillary gave a hell of a speech.
WereBear
@Kay: Journalism economies of scale. .
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
She gave a speech? About what?
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@zhena gogolia:
Thanks. I’ll use that explanation next time I see foolishness like, “Trump was right all along! Crazy!”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
“Unless it’s a Democrat, then fuck the voters. Save the babies!”
Some Republicans who voted for the amendment back in 2015, in 2022 probably
guachi
@Baud: Republicans being awful
japa21
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: That is the biggest tell. It is really an admission by those whites that they know that POC have been “mistreated”, to put it mildly, and they are afraid that the POC (particularly AA) will get revenge by treating whites the same way.
Kay
@Chief Oshkosh:
It’s isn’t him that bothers me. It’s the fancy lawyers quoted in the article. It’s bad advice for Democrats and they should not not take it. Democrats don’t have a duty to jettison their commitment to voting rights to follow along behind Collins and Manchin as they fail at tweaking the Electoral Count Act. Manchin is a bad faith actor and Collins is just covering her ass for the January 6th debacle.
Democrats have their own base, they have their own agenda, and they have their own long term goals. There’s no duty for them to be frantically putting out each fire Republicans start. They’ll never make any long term progress if they do. You’re not the designated defense, always behind, always catching up, never advancing. You can play the other side.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Everything.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/17/politics/hillary-clinton-andrew-cuomo-republicans-fox-news-kathy-hochul/index.html
zhena gogolia
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Clinton hints in her speech to the NY Democrats that she’s going to sue Fox for this. She says it comes close to “actual malice.”
rikyrah
@Betty Cracker:
Why can’t people send in a new registration?
rikyrah
@Kay:
Amen, Kay????????
And the base wants Voting Rights protected.
And, they don’t give two shyts about bipartisanship??
James E Powell
@Kay:
What are they talking about?
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Oh cool.
Geminid
@Kay: Ohio Republicans seem to be devolving to the party norm of Texas, Florida, and Georgia. Have they tried to introduce these voter suppression/election subversion measures in your state?
Baud
@Kay:
Also, it won’t be an issue until 2024.
Leto
Here’s a funny comic that explains the Australian Voting System (ranked choice). I know that a few states do it (Maine and Alaska being primary examples) but I do know a few commenters here have called for it to be implemented everywhere. If you don’t know what it is, or how it works, here’s a quick guide. Personally, I still think Republicans will rig this system, but it’s an alternative.
Old School
@NotMax:
Seems well made. I can admire the work that was put into it, but I’ve no interest in putting one in my house.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Quotes seem pretty tame. But it’s Hillary so everyone is going to freak out.
Miss Bianca
@germy: Personally, I feel like the *sooner* POC take over, the better I’ll feel.
Baud
@Leto:
If it’s a system, Republicans will rig it.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Acyn and Aaron Rupar have some good excerpts in their tweets. I don’t think I can embed tweets any more without joining Twitter.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Betty Cracker
@rikyrah: Caveat: I haven’t read up on this beyond the linked article, but voters will have a chance to “cure” disqualified ballots, presumably by supplying something amounting to a new registration form with the proper ID. But if something like 40% of mail-in ballots are disqualified (as they were in some counties in TX), what percentage of that group of voters will jump through the hoops necessary to cure it? That’s what the corrupt incumbents are counting on — putting barriers in the path of voters will discourage a sufficient number.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
?
No lie told.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
Like I said. Mild. True, but mild.
germy
@Miss Bianca:
– Amanda Gorman
waratah
@Betty Cracker: Betty I thought that the Republicans in Texas might lose their own votes. I am waiting to see how much of the seniors they lose that vote for them.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
What about this part?
Also the part about nonpartisan voting rights experts being frustrated with Dems?
You’re right when it comes to saying that Collins and Manchin are flakes who never come through. But why doesn’t this Hasan, described a leading national authority on voting rights, see it?
Betty Cracker
@waratah: I hope they end up shooting themselves in the foot. FL GOP heavily pushed vote by mail with seniors way before Trump came along, and it has been to their advantage. But Trump’s lies about VBM didn’t hurt GOP VBM turnout in 2020. Of course, that was before they put ballot access restrictions in place — it was just messaging. We’ll see.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I thought it hurt them in Georgia.
Another Scott
@NotMax: Needs more cats.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Leto: Alaska will try out it’s novel ranked choice voting system in elections this year including Senator Lisa Murkowski’s reelection bid. The state will hold a nonpartisan “jungle” primary on August 16. Then the top four finishers will compete in a ranked choice general election on Tuesday, November 8.
New York City’s first ranked choice Democratic Mayoral primary last year had an interesting result. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams edged out former Sanitation Commissioner Kathy Garcia in the final round by 8,000 votes. Attorney Maya Wiley was a close third. Adams was ranked first by ~32% of voters. Under the old system, there would have been a runoff between Adams and Garcia since Adams did not reach 40%.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
“The Ottawa occupiers, who I do not support, are being oppressed for having alternative viewpoints by the tyrannical shitlibs who live in Ottawa and object to a little blocked traffic and horn honking.”
– Glenn Greenwald, probably
pat
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Btw, I ordered your books from the local (downtown not B&N) bookstore and they have arrived. Took about a week. Will pick them up today and save them for the flight to Austria next weekend. Should be perfect…
ETA: Just noticed how many more comments there are. Hope you see this.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
@Kay:
Cory Booker had this to say on the voting rights bills, quoted in the article:
“Overwrought.” Why would he say something like that?
Another Scott
That’s good. Nominated.
(via LOLGOP)
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty Cracker
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Because he’s a squish like Dick Durbin, who (mildly) criticized Biden’s Atlanta voting rights speech before the bill went down. I think Durbin and Booker are pretty good senators. But damn, this kind of shit is intolerable.
John S.
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Bothsiderism is a helluva drug.
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Because he thought it was a useful wording. Remember 99% of Democrats are not wording things with partisan blog denizens in mind. They have our votes. They have to say what they think will move/motivate/persuade the others.
Jackie
@zhena gogolia: She did! For some reason Fox News chose to broadcast it LIVE. She tore into Fox and lying republicans ??? Ooops!
UncleEbeneezer
Here is a really fantastic interview with comic, activist, podcaster Wajahat Ali. He tells his fascinating story of being a Muslim-American student when 9/11 happened, and then goes on to a great discussion of Racism in America and what White Allies should be doing to help. The interview being at the 23 minute mark and the part about multi-racial coalition building, White Fragility and ally ship starts at 33 minute mark. Ali covers alot of ground that we have been talking about here recently so here are some of the key take-aways:
1.) Humor is one way to help (white) people get past the defensiveness and paralysis that springs up as a result of discussions about race (and other isms/phobias)
2.) “I don’t see color” is a bad take/perspective that only perpetuates racism.
3.) White People are heavily invested in the American Myth (that downplays/ignores systemic oppression)
4.) We do that because ultimately confronting that Myth will inevitably lead to the uncomfortable question of: what is my role, how do I benefit and he moral obligation that we should all be trying to fix things. It’s much easier to just pretend we are Color Blind than have the hard discussions.
5.) This is what the banning of books is all about: letting white kids/parents continue to pretend racism is over and avoid having to have difficult/honest conversations about race. White People would literally rather erase history than confront race/privilege.
When asked about White Allyship and building multiracial coalitions he noted:
1.) While talking about racism is uncomfortable for White People, it is nowhere near as bad as actually living it is for Black/Brown people. It’s never a good look for White People to complain about it or make excuses for those that do.
2.) We need to learn to remove ourselves from these discussions and understand that Whiteness or White Supremacy is not the same as All White People. If something doesn’t refer to you, let it slide.
3.) Raise your awareness. Read, listen to podcasts, watch movies/documentaries etc. from Black/Brown perspectives. Examine the role that racism plays in every issue, every institution, every thing! Because it always does.
4.) Commit to doing this every day. All the time. Make it a practice.
5.) Commit to concrete goals (I’m gonna read one book on topic X or by authors from group Y, every month etc.). For every X number of generic podcasts or tv series I watch, I’m going to also check out one that is centered on race or by author of color etc.
6.) Consider things like running for school boards, local office, volunteering
7.) Make a practice of calling out racism amongst your friends/family. Try to help educate others who might be open to learning.
8.) Step aside in multi-racial spaces and let people of color speak, lead. Support them.
9.) Encourage coalition building with your local organizations: your church, clubs, etc.
10.) Try to use your White Privilege in multi-racial spaces to take a bit of the burden off of the people-of-color. Many of the White People will hear things better from you than from a minority voice.
11.) Understand that you will fuck up, and you may get called out for it. Learn to accept the criticism, sit with it for a while and most importantly get back to work. Don’t use your own fuck up as an excuse to take your ball and go home. If you stick around, you will find that the people who called you out will respect you and start to trust you.
He ends by noting that these are the things we must do to make America realize it’s full potential. We need to have these conversations with our kids and family etc.
And I will just add that pretty much everything he listed is something I have heard from Black/Brown colleagues and friends that are heavily invested in dismantling White Supremacy/Patriarchy over the last five years. This is all pretty much standard fare for what is expected of us. Nobody expects us to do EVERYTHING, but we should always be doing something, and striving to do as much as we can both on the systems we have access to and on ourselves.
And yes, doing these things will make you sound preachy to others. But whatever ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, that is a trivial price to pay for doing the real work of helping to make the world a better and more just place for marginalized people.
J R in WV
@debbie:
Those are all stars; there are planets in there also too, but we can’t see them in this photo as they aren’t brightly lit by internal fusion like the stars are. This is of interest partly because of the three clusters of stars, which is probably why this photo was chosen for this publication.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: How is it useful to have the president out there calling Republican voter suppression “Jim Crow 2.0” and an existential threat to democracy and then have Democratic senators out there undermining that message? Maybe it’s useful to Booker (in blue NJ), but it goddamn well isn’t useful to the president or the Democratic Party or American democracy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: I am pretty sure that Booker is aware of the stakes. YMMV.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know the answer, but maybe there’s a good cop/bad cop thing going on here.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: Stipulated. Is Booker’s both-sidesy comment useful in your opinion? How about Durbin’s comment that Biden may have gone “a little too far” in his Atlanta speech?
Voting rights are either under assault or they’re not. We know they are, and one of the challenges is to inform people who aren’t paying a lot of attention about the scale of the problem and persuade them to oppose it. I don’t see how this helps. YMMV.
BlueGuitarist
@Betty Cracker:
States as “laboratories of autocracy” very accurately describes contemporary federalism.
Have any jackals read former Ohio Dem Party chair David Pepper’s book, Laboratories of Autocracy?
BlueGuitarist
@Kay:
Brennan Center: “Between 2012 and 2020, the white-Black turnout gap grew between 9.2 and 20.9 percentage points across five of the six states originally covered by Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.” Roberts/Republican Scotus racist Shelby County decision at work.
Omnes Omnibus
@Betty Cracker: It’s not useful to me, but, as I said, I am not the intended audience. I am already persuaded. I am voting for them. I donate. I march.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
I just think it’s profoundly misguided. Republicans didn’t attempt an insurrection because there is ambiguity in the Electoral Count Act. That’s not the CAUSE of what happened.
I think these well meaning people are working backward– “what is it possible to fix immediately? Okay, let’s make that the problem”.
Fixing the electoral count act won’t fix attempts to overturn elections because the electoral count act isn’t the cause of attempts to overturn elections. They can fix it! Well, they can’t because Manchin and Collins won’t come thru and it’s maybe it’s a nifty thing to fix but it isn’t going to stop the next attempt.
And for DEMOCRATS, for the Democratic Party, consigning themselves to a role where all they do is temper the worst abuses of Republicans is political suicide. It makes them almost an appendage of the Republican Party. Republicans act, Democrats react. Over and over and over. No one will want to be in this Party.
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
The water main to my house breaks. I go get some bottled water. I fixed something….but I didn’t fix the water main break. Not having bottled water was not the cause of the water main break.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Omnes Omnibus:
Fine, but what about this?:
Or this?:
Or this?:
Steeplejack
@BlueGuitarist:
For a second I read that as “contemporary feudalism,” which is where they want to end up.
Kathleen
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): That’s what Portman claims. I asked him how does that square with Trump strong arming GA Sec of State? No response.
Betty Cracker
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m trying to imagine what audience needs to hear that both sides are “overwrought” on voting rights. Nope, not coming up with an audience that would be motivated by that message. But it’s pretty easy to imagine someone who heard Biden’s “Jim Crow 2.0” speech hearing Durbin or Booker’s comments and thinking, “Oh, even DEMOCRATS like Booker and Durbin think Biden is ‘overwrought’ on voting rights. Must not be that big a deal!”
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
While I generally agree with you here, I’m not sure Dems have any choice anymore. It really does seem like we’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t because of various factors outside of our control
Kathleen
@zhena gogolia: I so hope that was a warning. She’s very savvy and I think she made that comment for a reason.
Kathleen
Omnes Omnibus
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I don’t think that anyone, from you to me to Booker to Durbin to BC to Kay to Biden disagree that voting rights are under assault and that legislation is necessary (among other things) to solve the problem. I also doubt the Booker and Durbin see it as any less urgent that anyone else. Therefore, I look at what is being said as an attempt to sound “reasonable” to people who are not as aware of the problem as we are and then to persuade them of the urgency. Now, you may think that it won’t work, but that’s a different thing. How do you persuade people who don’t see a problem to see it?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@pat: Whoa. You’re the best!
Baud
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
He’s just trolling.
pat
Glad you saw this. Now I’m off to pick them up.
Brantl
That’s spelled BraveFart……
Kay
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Of course you have a “choice”. The “choice” is do you run your political party as a appendage of the Republican Party that exists only to mitigate or lessen Republican excesses or do you have your own set of principles that take precedence over acting as the nanny for misbehaving Republicans?
These are decisions. They’re longer term than an election cycle. React over and over and over, put out fires, or advance your own agenda.
UncleEbeneezer
@Omnes Omnibus: Also, we are at an All Hands On Deck scenario where we have to pretty much try EVERYTHING. And the reality is that there is no One Weird Trick to solve the root of the problem (and even if there was, we don’t have the numbers to make it happen).
Brantl
@guachi: Just because it’s supposed to apply to everyone, doesn’t mean it won’t be selectively enforced, does it?
H-Bob
The picture with Biden speaking, with Harris and Pelosi presiding is very cool!
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I just wanted to reiterate that this isn’t a “tone” issue for me. I think the people who don’t believe voting rights are at stake are substantively WRONG. I think they’re in error.
They can scream and yell a lot when describing the threat or not – “overwrought” is just not relevant.
I can wait. Within 6 months of Shelby County all the same people who said it was no big deal were proven wrong and they’ll be proven wrong again. They’re going to have to learn this the hard way, but they will learn it.
When Mitch McConnell says “states” would never do anything to supress their own voters he’s parroting John Roberts. They’re wrong. It was never “states”. It’s people in power in those states. It’s incumbents.
No one with any common sense at all would sign on to the idea that a STATE attorney general, the incumbent, should be the only party who can bring an election lawsuit. That is insane. He won’t! He wants to remain in power! They have lost the whole justification and grounding for federal oversight. They’re just wandering around in the weeds stumbling over “turnout” and mumbling.
Whats the point of the thing? Why did we have it in the first place?
UncleEbeneezer
@Kay: Yeah, the push for this version of the ECA doesn’t make much sense. As Marc Elias just emailed out this morning:
“As I have written, we need to recognize that the way Republicans will subvert elections will be in the offices of secretaries of state, county clerks and governors, not on the floor of the House and Senate. We need to update the ECA, but it needs to be revised in a way that deals with the modern threats of 2022. If all Congress passes is a bill that says Vice President Kamala Harris has no power to overturn elections and raises the threshold for members of Congress to challenge election results when electors are counted, then they will have done virtually nothing.”
Given the reality of the GOP + Manchinema, I’m not sure ANY Voting Rights legislation is possible, but this sure doesn’t look like the right thing to push.
Villago Delenda Est
It is my sincere hope that the agreement to avoid the shutdown includes a provision to put MTG on a rocket ship to the Oort Cloud.
taumaturgo
@Kay: Thank you, right on point and sadly falling on deaf ears.
debbie
@J R in WV:
Thanks. That page publishes lots of photos like this. I think they refer to them as “deep field.” I thought it might just be stars, but the descriptions never clarified this.
taumaturgo
@Leto: NYC primary elections also used ranked choice voting.
Kay
@UncleEbeneezer:
And. I regret to reoprt this, but it seems to be true:
The “bipartisan” bill is being drafted by Ted Cruz’s mentor?
Anything else we can do for Republicans? Anything else they need done?
Democrats didn’t try to overthrow an election. Now they all have to promote a bill written by the Dean Of Wingnut Judges?
Imagine this the other way. Switch the Rs and Ds. You can’t, because it would never, ever happen. It’s too much to ask! None of it is ever reciprocal and Democrats will get absolutely nothing out of it.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
I totally get that we junkies & committed Ds are not the intended audience, but I am not sure who the intended audience is and I am not convinced that Democrats criticizing other Democrats persuades anyone to vote for Democrats.
Bupalos
@UncleEbeneezer:
There’s a tension here and having participated in some of these spaces in regards to community rights and rights of nature….There is a VANISHINGLY thin line to walk between these two things. And I find that trying to walk it while trying to think about strategy, while trying to preserve group dynamics…its impractically difficult for me and I think for most people. There’s also a danger that we subliminally “segregate” these issues as “belonging” to various minoroties rather than to all of us. Rather than as a critical national weakness that harms us all and threatens to destroy the common good.
Another Scott
@debbie: The photographer talks about the image some on his blog: Open Clusters in Puppis:
APOD is usually pretty good about giving links for more information, but there’s no doubt that it can be overwhelming.
HTH!
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@Another Scott:
This is the one I go back to a couple of times every year. So many stars!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@debbie: Those are all stars, in fact, three star clusters.