Manchin and Sinema have got Exxon Mobil backing them, they won't change their minds, this is where it ends. There is not an escape hatch.
The escape hatch existed back in 2000, when---if the anti-Gore press hadn't been so smug and smirking, chiding Gore for wasting everybody's time by claiming the presidency he had in fact won, if the New York Times hadn't circled the wagons around the corrupt Republican Court that stopped the count in Florida and handed the election to Bush and Cheney, if, if, if---that was when we still had a chance to fight for the democracy, although it was dying even then, battered by two decades of Reaganism and the escalating madness of the dark money propaganda machine.
The stolen presidency of 2000 allowed the Republicans to pack the federal courts (that was why they stole the presidency in the first place), and put the constitution and our institutions and our future in the hands of men like John Roberts and Samuel Alito and never forgetting Brett Kavanaugh, that darling little Brooks Brothers rioter.
Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett were in Florida at the same time Brett was. Brett's talents were limited, so he merely joined the noisy little circus organized by Roger Stone, to distract the national press and provide images of young Republican rioters banging their hands on windows and harassing vote counters: that was the autumn of the hanging chad. Roberts and Barrett were there in sleek, quiet, oak-paneled rooms, giving sage and, as it turns out, effective advice to Sandra Day O'Connor and the others on the Court as to how best to make sure Gore's victory could be overturned.
Look, this is Not Good. But fer cryin' out loud, the battle is being fought over a really broad front. We can't give up in despair just because we had a little setback in one small sector. In actual fact, we are WINNING in other states!
Virginia just had it's own Voting Rights Act go into effect. Among other things, Virginia’s new law prohibits localities from changing the location of a polling place without advance public notice or approval from the state’s attorney general. The state earlier made Election Day a state holiday, has 45 days (!) of "No Excuse" early voting, and has automatic voting registration when you get a driver's license.
Nevada recently joined the growing roster of states that will automatically mail ballots to active voters in future elections. Maryland created a permanent absentee voter list. Connecticut and New York are poised to amend their state constitutions so people can vote by mail without an excuse. Indiana and Kentucky, both of which are red states, have expanded ballot drop-off locations and made it easier to correct errors on mail-in ballots that would otherwise be invalidated.
Why don't we take the fight to the Repugnicans? Put them on the defensive on the issues they are most concerned with.
"We agree that voter fraud is something to be worried about. Even though it has rarely happened in recent memory, there's no reason it won't happen in the future. So we can see the need for some form of Voter ID. Here's a list of IDs we will find acceptable. It's really long, we wanted to include every possible form of ID that voters would have easily available - we even have gun permits! Did we leave anything off?"
"Yes, there is a possibility of tampering with absentee / mail-in ballots. Though, like voter fraud, it happens so rarely as to be insignificant, we can't risk a problem in the future. We think the best way to deal with the problem is to eliminate the need for voting by mail altogether. Will a minimum of two weeks of Early Voting be enough? Or perhaps we could expand the number of polling places so that no one will live more than X miles away from one? And if it becomes impossible to meet that criteria for all registered voters, than anyone who lives outside that limit will automatically have a ballot sent to them. Would that work?"
"The mere fact that there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that... it does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote" because words have meanings. That is what "disparity in impact" means: not everybody has the same opportunity.
There's a brilliant piece up in the New Yorker about the crackdown by mainland China on Hong Kong, where, for a brief shining moment, the great ideals and principles of a free society had flourished, but no more.
It's all gone, for now: the mainland government, with staggering ruthlessness and determination and attention to detail, has snuffed out even the least pockets of free speech and free expression in the press, in the arts, in education, in every form of discourse, including a little independent newspaper called Apple Daily, recently shut down, silenced, and the subject of this article.
The reporter, Jiayang Fan, concludes this deeply depressing article thus:.
When I was in Hong Kong I visited Lee Yee, a prominent political commentator who had been involved with Apple Daily since its inception. At the time, he was writing a regular column for the newspaper, and told me that he didn’t know whether resistance would be futile, but that the act of resistance was important in and of itself. Last week, he posted a tribute to the newspaper. “As an editor and as a writer, I have enjoyed a long career and it's only because I’ve always been based in Hong Kong,” he wrote. “It’s also why I’ve been able to reach old age with few regrets.”He continued, “As I’ve learned more about the ugly side of human nature, I’ve also come to realize that it’s all but impossible for truth to defeat raw power. Yet the human quest for freedom can never be quashed. Even if the power-holders might appear to succeed, freedom itself will remain irrepressible. Power can never unseat truth.”
We are in that moment. We cannot defeat the fascist billionaires, the corrupt dynasts like Charles Koch and Rupert Murdoch: we cannot defeat a powerful, thoroughly corrupt Supreme Court, or a compromised, billionaire-owned national press, or a fascist movement impelled to ever greater extremes by narratives of persecution and racial rage. This is a bad, a grimly bad, moment.
But freedom itself will remain irrepressible. Power can never unseat truth.
I mean... yeah. If everyone hypothetically eligible to vote, does, including those who no longer actually have the ability to in one way or another, then yeah, of course we win. That's... kinda the whole point?
Those who shriek about never are.
You seem to be saying the same think I said.
Manchin and Sinema have got Exxon Mobil backing them, they won't change their minds, this is where it ends. There is not an escape hatch.
The escape hatch existed back in 2000, when---if the anti-Gore press hadn't been so smug and smirking, chiding Gore for wasting everybody's time by claiming the presidency he had in fact won, if the New York Times hadn't circled the wagons around the corrupt Republican Court that stopped the count in Florida and handed the election to Bush and Cheney, if, if, if---that was when we still had a chance to fight for the democracy, although it was dying even then, battered by two decades of Reaganism and the escalating madness of the dark money propaganda machine.
The stolen presidency of 2000 allowed the Republicans to pack the federal courts (that was why they stole the presidency in the first place), and put the constitution and our institutions and our future in the hands of men like John Roberts and Samuel Alito and never forgetting Brett Kavanaugh, that darling little Brooks Brothers rioter.
Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett were in Florida at the same time Brett was. Brett's talents were limited, so he merely joined the noisy little circus organized by Roger Stone, to distract the national press and provide images of young Republican rioters banging their hands on windows and harassing vote counters: that was the autumn of the hanging chad. Roberts and Barrett were there in sleek, quiet, oak-paneled rooms, giving sage and, as it turns out, effective advice to Sandra Day O'Connor and the others on the Court as to how best to make sure Gore's victory could be overturned.
It was a coup.
There is going to be blood. Sadly.
https://media3.giphy.com/me...
Look, this is Not Good. But fer cryin' out loud, the battle is being fought over a really broad front. We can't give up in despair just because we had a little setback in one small sector. In actual fact, we are WINNING in other states!
https://www.washingtonpost....
Virginia just had it's own Voting Rights Act go into effect. Among other things, Virginia’s new law prohibits localities from changing the location of a polling place without advance public notice or approval from the state’s attorney general. The state earlier made Election Day a state holiday, has 45 days (!) of "No Excuse" early voting, and has automatic voting registration when you get a driver's license.
Nevada recently joined the growing roster of states that will automatically mail ballots to active voters in future elections. Maryland created a permanent absentee voter list. Connecticut and New York are poised to amend their state constitutions so people can vote by mail without an excuse. Indiana and Kentucky, both of which are red states, have expanded ballot drop-off locations and made it easier to correct errors on mail-in ballots that would otherwise be invalidated.
Why don't we take the fight to the Repugnicans? Put them on the defensive on the issues they are most concerned with.
"We agree that voter fraud is something to be worried about. Even though it has rarely happened in recent memory, there's no reason it won't happen in the future. So we can see the need for some form of Voter ID. Here's a list of IDs we will find acceptable. It's really long, we wanted to include every possible form of ID that voters would have easily available - we even have gun permits! Did we leave anything off?"
"Yes, there is a possibility of tampering with absentee / mail-in ballots. Though, like voter fraud, it happens so rarely as to be insignificant, we can't risk a problem in the future. We think the best way to deal with the problem is to eliminate the need for voting by mail altogether. Will a minimum of two weeks of Early Voting be enough? Or perhaps we could expand the number of polling places so that no one will live more than X miles away from one? And if it becomes impossible to meet that criteria for all registered voters, than anyone who lives outside that limit will automatically have a ballot sent to them. Would that work?"
"The mere fact that there is some disparity in impact does not necessarily mean that... it does not give everyone an equal opportunity to vote" because words have meanings. That is what "disparity in impact" means: not everybody has the same opportunity.
Agreed.
https://uploads.disquscdn.c...
Where did I put my courtpacker?
Why isn't Biden adding justices? Will this be his excuse? The mean ol' court won't let me, what can i do? Waaaaaaaa, send money.
Where were the local Dems? Cowering.
Consumption was another word for tuberculosis in the novels I read.
The Hispanics I know best here in DFW are Jehovah's Witnesses.
There's a brilliant piece up in the New Yorker about the crackdown by mainland China on Hong Kong, where, for a brief shining moment, the great ideals and principles of a free society had flourished, but no more.
It's all gone, for now: the mainland government, with staggering ruthlessness and determination and attention to detail, has snuffed out even the least pockets of free speech and free expression in the press, in the arts, in education, in every form of discourse, including a little independent newspaper called Apple Daily, recently shut down, silenced, and the subject of this article.
The reporter, Jiayang Fan, concludes this deeply depressing article thus:.
When I was in Hong Kong I visited Lee Yee, a prominent political commentator who had been involved with Apple Daily since its inception. At the time, he was writing a regular column for the newspaper, and told me that he didn’t know whether resistance would be futile, but that the act of resistance was important in and of itself. Last week, he posted a tribute to the newspaper. “As an editor and as a writer, I have enjoyed a long career and it's only because I’ve always been based in Hong Kong,” he wrote. “It’s also why I’ve been able to reach old age with few regrets.”He continued, “As I’ve learned more about the ugly side of human nature, I’ve also come to realize that it’s all but impossible for truth to defeat raw power. Yet the human quest for freedom can never be quashed. Even if the power-holders might appear to succeed, freedom itself will remain irrepressible. Power can never unseat truth.”
We are in that moment. We cannot defeat the fascist billionaires, the corrupt dynasts like Charles Koch and Rupert Murdoch: we cannot defeat a powerful, thoroughly corrupt Supreme Court, or a compromised, billionaire-owned national press, or a fascist movement impelled to ever greater extremes by narratives of persecution and racial rage. This is a bad, a grimly bad, moment.
But freedom itself will remain irrepressible. Power can never unseat truth.
I mean... yeah. If everyone hypothetically eligible to vote, does, including those who no longer actually have the ability to in one way or another, then yeah, of course we win. That's... kinda the whole point?
Of course it is, but in the 1800 they called consumption