An assault on American voters is underway

[China]

God forbid we have a platform and are able to defend it and intelligently talk about it:

 

Trump blows a hole in 2024 presidential debates

 

Donald Trump thumbed his nose at traditional retail politics, preferring large rallies and appearances on conservative TV. In defeat, he refused to deliver the familiar concession speech and instead falsely claimed that his Republican or Democratic opponents stole elections.

 

Now it’s the presidential debates that are about to get a Trump makeover. They may never be the same again.

 

With last week’s Trump-inspired threat to boycott 2024 debates sponsored by the Commission on Presidential Debates, the Republican National Committee began priming the electorate for a race in which the GOP nominee might not debate at all.

 

“It certainly gives the candidate more of an out if they’ve decided debating is to their disadvantage to be able to say, ‘The party rules prevent me from accepting’ the commission’s invitation,” said Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission who served as general counsel to Republican John McCain’s two presidential campaigns.

 

The RNC, he said, is attempting to “blow up the structure and therefore change the expectation to ‘will they or won’t they‘” debate.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Ball Security]

Good for Nick Saban. Probably won’t do much, but for him to take this position is huge.

 

 

[Llevron]

It would be interesting to see Nick Saban actually speak out on these things. Not taking anything away from him and his position here. I would just like to see it and the reaction to it. I hate to be this guy but Manchin and the other people who need to see Saban take this position can easily ignore it as is. Still though, full credit to him for doing it. 

[NoCalMike]

Speaking of this, is there any actual polling data from AZ and WV about what the people of those states actually support when it comes to BBB, Voting Rights, and the idea of breaking the filibuster to get stuff passed?  Because I know some will try to sell their opposition as just being the moderate voice of their constituency but I have a funny feeling the actual Democratic voters who voted for them don't even agree with the positions they are taking. 

Edited January 19, 2022 by NoCalMike

[JCB]

Dammit, Saban! Now my pure hatred for him is complicated.

[PCS]

Senator Klobuchar having none of it today. 

 

 

[tshile]

Dear amy

do more of that

less of the sending of emails

 

you sent me two today

 

i already unsubscribed like 6 months ago and I don’t even live in or near your state. 
 

For ****s sake 

[Hersh]

It's so disheartening what happened tonight. I am at the point where I want to see this country split into two countries. I just don't share values with the GOP and their white nationalist, racist, backward ass thinking. That are awful human beings that don't care one bit about others. The SCOTUS is ****ed. The Senate is ****ed. Gerrymandering is ****ed. We ain't getting out of this anytime soon because too many privileged white Americans don't care.  

[TheGreatBuzz]

9 hours ago, Hersh said:

It's so disheartening what happened tonight.

What happened?

[Hersh]

29 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

What happened?

the continued unraveling of our democracy. We are watching the GOP systematically destroy voting rights and two piece of **** Dems helped them do it. 

[EmirOfShmo]

 

 

[TheGreatBuzz]

1 hour ago, Hersh said:

the continued unraveling of our democracy. We are watching the GOP systematically destroy voting rights and two piece of **** Dems helped them do it. 

I mean was there something specific that happened yesterday to make you say that or just general concern.  Only big news I saw was SCOTUS ruling against trump for the documents thing.

[Hersh]

26 minutes ago, TheGreatBuzz said:

I mean was there something specific that happened yesterday to make you say that or just general concern.  Only big news I saw was SCOTUS ruling against trump for the documents thing.

 

The failure to pass the voting rights legislation yesterday after debate. Everyone knew it would fail but it's just so disheartening to see. There is no world in which the Democrats would lose elections by eliminating the filibuster and protecting voting rights and yet, two of them are so blinded by their own egos that they just won't do it. 

[TheGreatBuzz]

31 minutes ago, Hersh said:

 

The failure to pass the voting rights legislation yesterday after debate. Everyone knew it would fail but it's just so disheartening to see. There is no world in which the Democrats would lose elections by eliminating the filibuster and protecting voting rights and yet, two of them are so blinded by their own egos that they just won't do it. 

Oh I had not idea that even happened.  If it isn't posted here, I probably won't know about it.  I get the majority of my news here and let everyone else determine what is worth knowing.

 

In a somewhat related note, anyone know what happened to @visionary?  Did he get burned out?  Hope he is okay.

[ixcuincle]

https://www.thedailybeast.com/biden-who-was-obamas-vp-says-he-did-not-anticipate-gop-obstruction

 

so Joe just comes out of hibernation to realize in "shock" that republicans, gasp, won't tow a democratic line. Wow!

 

HE should have known for years this was going to happen, the republican party has compromised principles to sell out to Orange Man. They aren't willing to work with Democrats for most issues. Why is this such a surprise to Joe now?

[Larry]

Am I supposed to believe that the Veep to Barack Obama did not expect the GOP would unanimously filibuster every attempt to fix the mess that the President inherited?  
 

[EmirOfShmo]

Yeah, well, when you put it this way.

One of my first clients was Schott Glass who bought a former Mr. Coffee (glass) plant in beautiful Parkersburg, WV (home of the Social Security HQ). I see the plant has now shutdown. Shocker. I've never seen - anywhere in the US - a state highway system so big & beautiful...with very few cars. Senator Byrd did all kinds of deals to get things built in that state. Everything you see is "Byrd-this". And then we got this ****head voting & doing nothing for his state. 

 

[EmirOfShmo]

For @LadySkinsFan and the rest of us...

 

 

[NoCalMike]

We need more Democrats doing what Amy (and to lesser extent Schumer) did in that press conference because I think one of the problems is when Dems get out there and say voter suppression the folks who are on the fence or even predisposed to not believe them will hear the GOP counter with "nothing in these laws make it illegal to vote" or whatever and it becomes an argument without actually understand what all the suppression looks like.

Amy Klobuchar did more in that 2 minute clip to actually explain how the suppression works, with a surgical precision then I usually hear public officials explain.  Joe Biden's 2+ hour press conference should have featured at least a half hour of doing what she did and really get to the meat & potatoes of what voter suppression means and how it works.

[Larry]

2 minutes ago, NoCalMike said:

We need more Democrats doing what Amy (and to lesser extent Schumer) did in that press conference because I think one of the problems is when Dems get out there and say voter suppression the folks who are on the fence or even predisposed to not believe them will hear the GOP counter with "nothing in these laws make it illegal to vote" or whatever and it becomes an argument without actually understand what all the suppression looks like.

 

Oh, I think there's a lot of that going on.  Deliberately so.  

 

People don't see a sign on the polling place that says "No blacks allowed".  So they assume that there's no suppression going on.  

 

Just like I think there's a lot of people in this country who honestly believe that there's no racism in our society any more.  

 

Data I'm looking at for 2019 say that median income for black men is 76% of white men.  But we don't have segregated drinking fountains, therefore racism does not exist.  

 

(And remember.  Republicans nationwide are fighting to actually make it illegal for people to point out that it still does.)  

[China]

 

[China]

On 10/31/2021 at 11:32 PM, China said:

University of Florida bars professors from testifying in voting rights lawsuit

 

The University of Florida (UF) is prohibiting three professors from providing expert testimony in a lawsuit challenging a state law critics claim restricts voting rights, saying the school should not be placed in conflict with the administration of the Republican governor, Ron DeSantis.

 

Though the decision is being criticized as threat to academic freedom and free speech, the university said allowing Dan Smith, Michael McDonald and Sharon Austin to serve as paid experts for plaintiffs challenging the law would be “adverse to the university’s interests as a state of Florida institution”.

 

“The University of Florida has a long track record of supporting free speech and our faculty’s academic freedom, and we will continue to do so,” a statement said.

 

When he found out he wouldn’t be able to provide testimony, Smith tweeted an image of Hannah Arendt’s classic book The Origins of Totalitarianism.

 

“Dusting this classic off the bookshelf for some light weekend reading,” he wrote.

 

Lawyers for a coalition of civic groups challenging the law said in court papers the professors were told by the university their expert testimony would dissent from the DeSantis administration, creating a conflict.

 

“UF will deny its employees’ requests to engage in outside activities when it determines the activities are adverse to its interests,” read an email from an assistant vice-president to McDonald filed with the court documents.

 

“As UF is a state actor, litigation against the state is adverse to UF’s interests.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

If I were one of these professors I'd likely testify anyway and make them fire me.

 

Federal judge sides with UF professors in free speech dispute

 

A federal judge has sided with three University of Florida political science professors, giving them a preliminary win in their fight to provide expert witness testimony in a lawsuit challenging a new state election law that starts in less than two weeks.

 

Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker granted them a preliminary injunction on Friday in a 74-page order in which he cites the removal of a tower at the University of Hong Kong known as the "Pillar of Shame" commemorating the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre.

 

"In many ways, the Pillar’s demise was emblematic of the demise of academic freedom in Hong Kong," Walker said, tying it to the impact of UF's conflict of interest policy on the academic freedom of its own faculty.

 

People say that's China, and it couldn't happen here, Walker said, but the UF professors contend in their request for an injunction that it has already happened, that "UF has bowed to perceived pressure from Florida’s political leaders and has sanctioned the unconstitutional suppression of ideas out of favor with Florida’s ruling party."

 

The judge, who sits in the Northern District of Florida in Tallahassee, issued the order against the university's controversial conflict-of-interest policy regarding giving expert testimony in legal matters.

 

Sharon Austin, Daniel Smith and Michael McDonald challenged the constitutionality of the revised policy after they were denied permission to provide expert testimony in a case challenging a new state elections law that places restrictions on voting by mail, among other things. Smith is chair of the department.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[skinsmarydu]

A beautiful voice, and she was down for the cause.  RIP, Mama Cass.

 

 

 

[China]

Vote-by-mail rejections are testing integrity of Texas Republicans’ voting law

 

With less than a month left to vote by mail in the March primary election, hundreds of applications for mail-in ballots are being rejected as both Texas voters and local election officials decipher new ID requirements enacted by Republican lawmakers.

 

Barely started down the path toward the first elections conducted under voting restrictions enacted last year by Republican lawmakers, Texas voters and local election officials have found themselves enveloped in a fog of errors, delays and miscommunications as they navigate new rules for casting votes by mail.

 

Only a small slice of the state's electorate is allowed to cast absentee ballots, and the trickle of requests for mail-in ballots that began in early January is now swelling into the usual pre-election flood.

 

But hundreds of applications are being rejected — in many cases because voters appear to not know the new rules. Local election workers themselves are still deciphering the procedures, and say they've been hampered by a paucity of help and information from the Texas secretary of state's office. Meanwhile, the state is scrambling to provide training under the crush of advising counties on implementing a multitude of election changes.

 

“We are bombarded,” said Yvonne Ramon, the Hidalgo County elections administrator. “To try to review Senate Bill 1 alone was a monster, and it wasn’t just on us. It was on the state. It was on every [election official] at every level.”

 

Signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott in September, the voting law known as Senate Bill 1 contained an array of new restrictions on the state’s voting process and narrowed local control of elections.

 

Among its many provisions — and the earliest to be tested — are new rules for voting by mail. Absentee voters are now required to include a state identification number like a driver’s license number or a partial Social Security number on their applications for a mail-in ballot. Those numbers must match information in a voter’s record or their application will be rejected.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Trump Supporters Left Death Threats for Election Workers. We Called Back.

 

“Well, Tennessee is watching you, Mr. Rick,” a voicemail said. “I'm just right over the border. We're watching you all closely.”

 

Another one had a similar message: “Hey Rick, watching this video of you on YouTube. You need to get your act together or people like me really may go after people like you.”

And yet another: “I hope they hang your ****ing ass.”

 

After the 2020 presidential election, hundreds of threatening messages, emails, and voicemails were left for elections workers across the country. This is especially true in election hotspots like Georgia’s Fulton County, where officials were harassed for months over the phone and by email. Local law enforcement has not held anyone accountable, and some workers fear continued harassment in future elections. 

 

Importantly, these calls weren’t anonymous. Instead, they were made by people from across the country who believe the false conspiracy that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump—and that election workers in Fulton County were to blame for massive electoral fraud. 

 

VICE News called them back. These messages were sent without shame: Of the threatening messages reviewed by VICE News, almost all contained the phone numbers, email addresses, or names of the people who had sent or left them. None regretted leaving threatening messages or expressed remorse that their words had caused election workers to fear for their lives. 

Richard Barron, the elections director of Fulton County, received over a hundred such messages in one week. “We're coming after you and every mother****er that stole this election with our Second Amendment, subpoenas be damned,” a message stated. “You're going to be served lead, you ****ing enemy communist ****sucker.” 

 

Tennessee resident John Johnson didn’t leave that message, though he left others like it. Johnson was convinced by Trump that the election had been stolen in Georgia. He had watched a live feed of Fulton County election workers and spent weeks following the conspiracy. He called Barron with a warning: “We’re watching, Rick.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

Why are the police doing nothing?