So what I'm reading is that having a candidate drop out at the last minute (or in an irresponsible manner, as the case may be) is another great reason for ranked choice voting.
Also, RFK Jr...sigh. I can sympathize with a guy going all conspiracy-brained when both your uncle and father were quite publicly assassinated, probably with help from the CIA, but damn, stick to your Grey Gardens instead of running your mouth everywhere.
When I see things like this, I feel so discouraged and disheartened.
Everybody here knows at least one thirty-something libertarian ass hat, and probably also one twenty-something ass hat on the Left, who's been saying for YEARS that "both parties are the same, blah blah blah".
I despise that sort of thinking, among other reasons because it's both defeatist and intellectually lazy.
Then I read something like this, and it makes me think that maybe the bros have a point, and maybe some/most/all of the Democrats are performative opposition, who are not only too cowardly to stand up for us, but also cannot even be bothered to make a bullshit show of standing up for us. Merrick Garland is the fucking poster child for this sort of shit.
Where were they during Dobbs? Where were they during Trump vs. United States? Where are they now?
How are judges even allowed to make a ruling that violates either Federal or State law, let alone both?
Where is the oversight?
Why doesn't our newly immune President do SOMETHING? What are they gonna do, impeach him?
Did NONE of these people go to grade school? Do NONE of them realize that if you don't stand up to bullies, they escalate their tactics, and then they escalate them further, and then further than that?
Do we have to have a God damn swastika on the American flag before the people we elected to protect us do their fucking jobs?
Can we just understand that YOUR elected officials (not MINE, unless you're in the same city as me, although the same applies to them too) are literally one person (each) in a bureaucracy composer of millions and interacted with by countless outside influences? Of which the president, while the chief executive, is only one person?
We're in Portland, so I'll give my elected officials the benefit of the doubt because antifa burns the city to the ground on a daily basis.
That having been said, every Republican who has been dismantling democracy and the rule of law for the past 50 years is ALSO literally one person in a huge bureaucracy.
Absolutely right. The Dems aren't a real opposition; they're knuckling under everywhere. It seems insulting that we're supposed to fight for votes for them, when those votes won't count, and if they counted they wouldn't make a difference.
Build a third party? Start a militia? Emigrate? All fine choices, but let's never forget that Joe and Kamala abandoned us here.
Why can't they just use a Sharpie? They work to alter the track of a hurricane, so surely they could work to remove that fucking kook from the ballot. Redact!
I feel like at this literally historic time I need to address some of the incredulity (“I find this just amazing!”) in comments about how and why this is happening --
It is the exact opposite of "amazing". Instead, it has been *totally predictable* ever since White people who had the capacity - in many iterations of “capacity” -- to put a stop to this at any time during the ELEVEN YEARS since some of us started sound the alarm after John Roberts handed down that utter slop of a majority opinion in the Shelby County case.
People have had all that time to educate themselves as to what the removal of preclearance provisions would render. Confederate Republicans understood it in full from jump, as was evidenced when they RACED to enact voter suppression laws in 48 states and RACED to elect judges just like these clowns who prioritized one corrupt White man’s rights over the rights of millions of other voters … possibly at the cost of autocracy prevailing over democracy in the United States (anybody here heard of the Electoral College? Anybody doing the math?).
So. The only thing I think I have left to say to the White people with the influence to have collectively pushed back on this but who instead looked the other way and hoped someone else would solve it because they didn’t believe it was really their problem is to say what someone else said to the Asian plaintiffs who aligned with white supremacists to spit on other minorities in the affirmative action case before SCOTUS because they thought it would give them an advantage over those other minorities – congratulations, you played yourselves.
How the U.S. Courts Gut Voting Rights – Complexion of Law
Because some of us had our history literally WIPED OUT of textbooks -- Ukrainian, African American, makes no different WRT the *erasure* -- and some people (DeSantis springs to mind) are still trying to do that, because, as Professor Jason Stanley said -- some of those so-called "histories" are "recognizing hierarchy as permanent and unchallengeable".
So I guess my follow-up questions contain things like
"Whose history do you plan to be reading in future?"
Does anyone remember me talking about my horrible pet rabbit when I was a kid? The one I began to resent? He HATED me. HATED. So obnoxious. And he lived for fucking ever--like 7 or 8 years. And for the last couple of years he stopped gnawing, so we would have to try and get him and take him to the vet to file them down, because the teeth keep growing, so they'd grow out of his mouth--these thick yellow rodent teeth--and he couldn't eat.
Anyway--he was a tan mini lop and looked just like the bunny at the top (until his teeth grew out of his mouth).
Could the state elections commission pursue this in federal court? Since it requires them to violate federal law. Oh wait, federal supreme court is worse than NC state supreme court (probably).
Since the courts are so obviously and blatantly corrupt, why are people just not rising up against them. Why wouldn't a county's election team just say "fuck you, we can't afford to print new ballots, you ignored the law, we'll go ahead with the current ballots kthxbye"?
The rest of "the people" required to achieve the critical mass of "people" have just chosen to REFUSE to pay attention, in great part because they believed it would never affect them.
Pretty good summary. But it's worse than that. There is now effectively no ballot printing deadline in NC, and there will never be one as long as this clique runs the court.
Simply all kinds of fuckery are possible when there's no deadline to finalize what's on and off a ballot -- including, say, when voters are casting ballots for justices of the state supreme court.
And the cherry on top of the shit sundae is that this bare court majority based its entire "argument" on the "free elections" clause of the NC Constitution --- the same clause these same clowns said in the "let's go back to gerrymandering" case was simply an "aspirational platitude."
This is a judicial dictatorship, plain and simple. Fascism has come to America, wearing a judge's robe.
I know there's no way to do this constitutionally and legally ( let alone without being as authoritarian as they are attempting to be ), but PAB enablers like the NC Supreme Court need to be removed from office, prosecuted for violating their oaths to ALL the people, and sent up the river to spend the rest of their lives contemplating just what sins they have committed.
It is fucking amazing how partisans get away with the shit they do
The system in NC's rigged. Perhaps a Harris admin and an activist Congress could use the Guarantee Clause of the Constitution --
Article IV, Section 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
-- find that the NC Supreme Court majority is a judicial dictator, and despite the justices being elected, has denied the people of the state a meaningful representative form of government by usurping without effective avenues of appeal powers reserved to the executive and legislative, and to the people.
And intervene in the state to restore a government of, by and for the people.
I've said it before, the Feds need to restore democracy in the unreconstructed states, there doesn't need to be shooting, but they better come heavily armed.
That "representative form of government" seems to be what the right just doesn't understand. To them, only those on the right deserve to be "represented" - and fuck the rest of us - but this is not just a state problem, but at the national level, too. This is only one of the words and phrases that Republicans fail to recognize.
If I'm in charge of ballots in North Carolina I tell the MC $CROTUS to eff off.
So what I'm reading is that having a candidate drop out at the last minute (or in an irresponsible manner, as the case may be) is another great reason for ranked choice voting.
Also, RFK Jr...sigh. I can sympathize with a guy going all conspiracy-brained when both your uncle and father were quite publicly assassinated, probably with help from the CIA, but damn, stick to your Grey Gardens instead of running your mouth everywhere.
For a party that pisses and moans about "lawfare" as much as the Republicans, they sure do seem to engage in a lot of it.
And "election interference," of which I'd say this fuckery qualifies since they've illegally cut short early voting among the other issues.
Ta, Dok. Yes, I need that fluffy bunny.
Same.
This is why all those polls saying that NC is in play is worthless. Write it off, write Georgia off; concentrate on states which aren't rigged.
When I see things like this, I feel so discouraged and disheartened.
Everybody here knows at least one thirty-something libertarian ass hat, and probably also one twenty-something ass hat on the Left, who's been saying for YEARS that "both parties are the same, blah blah blah".
I despise that sort of thinking, among other reasons because it's both defeatist and intellectually lazy.
Then I read something like this, and it makes me think that maybe the bros have a point, and maybe some/most/all of the Democrats are performative opposition, who are not only too cowardly to stand up for us, but also cannot even be bothered to make a bullshit show of standing up for us. Merrick Garland is the fucking poster child for this sort of shit.
Where were they during Dobbs? Where were they during Trump vs. United States? Where are they now?
How are judges even allowed to make a ruling that violates either Federal or State law, let alone both?
Where is the oversight?
Why doesn't our newly immune President do SOMETHING? What are they gonna do, impeach him?
Did NONE of these people go to grade school? Do NONE of them realize that if you don't stand up to bullies, they escalate their tactics, and then they escalate them further, and then further than that?
Do we have to have a God damn swastika on the American flag before the people we elected to protect us do their fucking jobs?
and even then...
Can we just understand that YOUR elected officials (not MINE, unless you're in the same city as me, although the same applies to them too) are literally one person (each) in a bureaucracy composer of millions and interacted with by countless outside influences? Of which the president, while the chief executive, is only one person?
CAN WE? JUST THIS ONCE?
It's not like we asking for miracles. We fought long and hard to give Democrats power, yet they refuse to use it.
"not MINE, unless you're in the same city as me"
`
We're in Portland, so I'll give my elected officials the benefit of the doubt because antifa burns the city to the ground on a daily basis.
That having been said, every Republican who has been dismantling democracy and the rule of law for the past 50 years is ALSO literally one person in a huge bureaucracy.
Absolutely right. The Dems aren't a real opposition; they're knuckling under everywhere. It seems insulting that we're supposed to fight for votes for them, when those votes won't count, and if they counted they wouldn't make a difference.
Build a third party? Start a militia? Emigrate? All fine choices, but let's never forget that Joe and Kamala abandoned us here.
Why can't they just use a Sharpie? They work to alter the track of a hurricane, so surely they could work to remove that fucking kook from the ballot. Redact!
The fucking bunny! SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!
All legal news should be accompanied by adorable baby bunny pictures.
This is how it works in Jim Crow and how the unreconstructed party keeps states unreconstructed.
Also remember this when people talk about “codification.” Codification only works if you never let Republicans have a majority...ever.
RIGGED!? UNCONSTITUTIONA!?! STOLLEN!?
Yes, um.
I feel like at this literally historic time I need to address some of the incredulity (“I find this just amazing!”) in comments about how and why this is happening --
It is the exact opposite of "amazing". Instead, it has been *totally predictable* ever since White people who had the capacity - in many iterations of “capacity” -- to put a stop to this at any time during the ELEVEN YEARS since some of us started sound the alarm after John Roberts handed down that utter slop of a majority opinion in the Shelby County case.
People have had all that time to educate themselves as to what the removal of preclearance provisions would render. Confederate Republicans understood it in full from jump, as was evidenced when they RACED to enact voter suppression laws in 48 states and RACED to elect judges just like these clowns who prioritized one corrupt White man’s rights over the rights of millions of other voters … possibly at the cost of autocracy prevailing over democracy in the United States (anybody here heard of the Electoral College? Anybody doing the math?).
So. The only thing I think I have left to say to the White people with the influence to have collectively pushed back on this but who instead looked the other way and hoped someone else would solve it because they didn’t believe it was really their problem is to say what someone else said to the Asian plaintiffs who aligned with white supremacists to spit on other minorities in the affirmative action case before SCOTUS because they thought it would give them an advantage over those other minorities – congratulations, you played yourselves.
How the U.S. Courts Gut Voting Rights – Complexion of Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXRpJmdlouY&t=603s
https://xcancel.com/aschwortz/status/1831678851539177774
https://xcancel.com/ask_aubry/status/1831515152526573736
History will not look kindly on any of us.
Come on. Stop it. It's the "history" that's been written by White historians that got us here in the first place.
If the rest of "history" is written by the same relatives and descendants of those White people, what do you honestly think it's going to look like?
https://www.whitetoolong.net/p/my-latest-at-time-trumps-christian
I guess we read different history books.
Exactly the point.
In order for some of us to literally survive, we have to read at least two sets
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LjK5Rt3DuJc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90pJ1jz7anI
Because some of us had our history literally WIPED OUT of textbooks -- Ukrainian, African American, makes no different WRT the *erasure* -- and some people (DeSantis springs to mind) are still trying to do that, because, as Professor Jason Stanley said -- some of those so-called "histories" are "recognizing hierarchy as permanent and unchallengeable".
So I guess my follow-up questions contain things like
"Whose history do you plan to be reading in future?"
and perhaps even more importantly
"Who will be writing THOSE history books?"
Thanks for the links.
Does anyone remember me talking about my horrible pet rabbit when I was a kid? The one I began to resent? He HATED me. HATED. So obnoxious. And he lived for fucking ever--like 7 or 8 years. And for the last couple of years he stopped gnawing, so we would have to try and get him and take him to the vet to file them down, because the teeth keep growing, so they'd grow out of his mouth--these thick yellow rodent teeth--and he couldn't eat.
Anyway--he was a tan mini lop and looked just like the bunny at the top (until his teeth grew out of his mouth).
Big nasty teeth!
for death awaits you all, with nasty, big, pointy teeth!
"He's a killer!"
Could the state elections commission pursue this in federal court? Since it requires them to violate federal law. Oh wait, federal supreme court is worse than NC state supreme court (probably).
https://www.wonkette.com/p/are-rfk-jr-and-the-state-supreme/comment/68905036
Since the courts are so obviously and blatantly corrupt, why are people just not rising up against them. Why wouldn't a county's election team just say "fuck you, we can't afford to print new ballots, you ignored the law, we'll go ahead with the current ballots kthxbye"?
Some people HAVE been "rising up against them".
The rest of "the people" required to achieve the critical mass of "people" have just chosen to REFUSE to pay attention, in great part because they believed it would never affect them.
https://www.wonkette.com/p/are-rfk-jr-and-the-state-supreme/comment/68905036
Pretty good summary. But it's worse than that. There is now effectively no ballot printing deadline in NC, and there will never be one as long as this clique runs the court.
Simply all kinds of fuckery are possible when there's no deadline to finalize what's on and off a ballot -- including, say, when voters are casting ballots for justices of the state supreme court.
And the cherry on top of the shit sundae is that this bare court majority based its entire "argument" on the "free elections" clause of the NC Constitution --- the same clause these same clowns said in the "let's go back to gerrymandering" case was simply an "aspirational platitude."
This is a judicial dictatorship, plain and simple. Fascism has come to America, wearing a judge's robe.
Losing the judicial branch is going to fuck us over for a very long time.
I know there's no way to do this constitutionally and legally ( let alone without being as authoritarian as they are attempting to be ), but PAB enablers like the NC Supreme Court need to be removed from office, prosecuted for violating their oaths to ALL the people, and sent up the river to spend the rest of their lives contemplating just what sins they have committed.
It is fucking amazing how partisans get away with the shit they do
It's not "amazing" at all
https://www.wonkette.com/p/are-rfk-jr-and-the-state-supreme/comment/68905036
The system in NC's rigged. Perhaps a Harris admin and an activist Congress could use the Guarantee Clause of the Constitution --
Article IV, Section 4: "The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government, and shall protect each of them against Invasion; and on Application of the Legislature, or of the Executive (when the Legislature cannot be convened) against domestic Violence."
-- find that the NC Supreme Court majority is a judicial dictator, and despite the justices being elected, has denied the people of the state a meaningful representative form of government by usurping without effective avenues of appeal powers reserved to the executive and legislative, and to the people.
And intervene in the state to restore a government of, by and for the people.
^^^THIS^^^
I've said it before, the Feds need to restore democracy in the unreconstructed states, there doesn't need to be shooting, but they better come heavily armed.
That "representative form of government" seems to be what the right just doesn't understand. To them, only those on the right deserve to be "represented" - and fuck the rest of us - but this is not just a state problem, but at the national level, too. This is only one of the words and phrases that Republicans fail to recognize.