The election of 2000 was back in the news this week, when Nate Cohn of the New York Times reminded readers of his newsletter, using a map by data strategist and consultant Matthew C.
I ran across this on Daily Kos today. It's a quote from Scientific American:
Studies overwhelmingly find no evidence that U.S. immigrants, including those who are undocumented, commit more crimes than native-born Americans. And now a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that draws from a detailed and well-sourced data set comes to an even more dramatic conclusion. It reports that between 2012 and 2018, compared with their U.S.-born neighbors, undocumented immigrants in Texas were less than half as likely to be arrested for violent crimes or drug offenses and less than a quarter as likely to be arrested for property crimes.
“Simply put, we found that undocumented immigrants have lower felony arrest rates than both legal immigrants and, especially, native-born U.S. citizens,” says study co-author Michael Light, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In my 73 yrs, I have found that most immigrants are better citizens than many natives. Perhaps it’s because they have a greater appreciation of all that we have here than many natives, who take it for granted.
I'd rather the immigrants stay and MAGA leave. Immigrants, for the most part, are people looking for safety and opportunity. MAGA is just an evil entity that is more dangerous to our country than any immigrant.
Even TFFG would rather hire an undocumented immigrant than an American. He hires H-2b's when he can and if he can't he's more than happy to hire undocumented immigrants.
I think neither Orban nor Putin would want a lot of MAGA's. The both of them, especially Putin, just want to manipulate MAGA's to undermine American liberal democracy.
Ralph, I've worked for almost 50 years with immigrants and hired many of them for construction projects and other jobs.
Most of them came here to work and build a better life for their families. Plus, it seems that most of them work harder than many Americans and certainly take pride in their work. The last thing they want is to be deported for committing a crime.
For the most part, they realize that the quality of their work is important for them to keep working.
I am a Spanish speaking white American. I always hire migrants for any job needed. They work hard and without them wouldn’t have anyone to work at all.
Absolutely, a lot of immigrants really step up once they're here, bringing fresh energy and perspectives to the table. They've often had to jump through hoops to get here, so they don't take anything for granted. This drive and appreciation can make them super committed to giving back and making a difference in their new community.
Many years ago I was prowling around the grounds of the California State Library in Sacramento, examining a (new to me) camphor tree. I would have been hard to see in the bushes, and there was no one else around. Then, I saw a young-ish man who appeared to be Pakistani or something, ride up, get off his bicycle, and face a large US flag that was waving overhead, then put his hand over his heart. Then he continued on his way. I'm not so keen on flag waving, but that left a tear in my eye.
Good one J L. HCR correctly noted that a Texas lawyer [ Aaron Lloyd Nielsen ] told the 5th Circuit that Texas "may have gone too far." Actually Governor Abbott has admitted that Texas' SB4 was modeled after an Antonin Scalia sole dissent in 2012.
See, David G. Savages recent L.A. Times' article, "An old Scalia dissent is driving Texas' immigration dispute" with Federal law. Of course, dissents have no weight on SCOTUS' Constitutional Opinions.
Texas is attempting to pitch Scalia's "sovereign states" dicta to any five (5) of the current Justices. Texas may already have as many as four (4) SCOTUS votes right now assuming there is no change in the structure of SCOTUS or the number of Justices.
Scalia’s evil lives on. How smart of Texas to look for a dissent (loser position) to base their brilliant law on. Catch them if you can. But look at the damage and the wasted time.
I wrote this about a month ago - supporting your position. Despite the title, this letter is about NEEDING more immigrants to solve more than one problem.
They are cheated out of promised wages, and most often unable to get licenses and insurance. They have almost zero ability to report thefts from them, or other crimes against them (or even our citizens). That means they also don't want to be innocent witnesses that can help stop real criminals with information they can provide (beyond police using it without having to have them exposed to legal consequences that could get them deported).
I could appreciate a truck with 3 who I assume were undocumented who pulled off the freeway to warn a medical facility of a brush fire, making sure the people were safe before they ran back to the truck to get away before anyone could identify them or the truck .
There was no way I was going to try to get close enough to identify them or the truck, just very appreciative of the personal risk they took to make sure others were safe.
Yep. A felony conviction for even someone here on a green card means deportation.
I know someone from St. Stephen, NB that has been in the US for 30 years. He was arrested for a felony DUI because the people involved in the crash were seriously hurt plus he was way over the limit. His lawyer plead the felony down to a misdemeanor. He still served 6 months in county jail, but he wasn't deported.
This is definitely true and you have the facts to prove it. Trump and his mega Republicans know it's true also. Unfortunately Trump used immigration as a hatered political strategy to gravitate his base. Now it has mutated into division and violence against innocent people who want to come to this country to work. Like the immigrants who sacrificed their life's working at 1 am. to cover pot holes at the bridge at Baltimore.
I live in Florida and remember the Brooks Brothers riot quite well. If you think that these efforts don’t matter, think again. Roger Stone (and a sympathetic Supreme Court) delivered the presidency to George W. Bush. By a measly 537 votes.
But even though the Florida Supreme Court upheld the six-week abortion ban, it also allowed the voters a voice on the November ballot, making Florida “Ground Zero” according to Rick Wilson.
So let’s remember the three V’s: be vigilant, be vociferous, and VOTE!
Roger Stone just keeps popping up all over the place. Wonder what he's up to now. I'm guessing he's figuring out a way to keep Alan Grayson from registering 1,000,000 FL dems.
Voting is easy, but if we can we need to
Get Out The Vote
by supporting Grayson, Abrams, Rorke, MoveOn, etc.
Roger Stone is such an unsavory character committing so many nefarious acts and involved in criminality behind the scenes of already horrible Republican candidates that he seems to be an actual Bond villain or a comic book supervillain. He even looks and reminds me of the Penguin from the Batman comics. https://twitter.com/jdlovitz/status/1088858113493647362
Even more bizarre and disturbing is the fact that he has Nixon's face tattooed on his back.
Lots of tattoos is a psychological method of changing who you are because you don’t like your original self. How do you know about Stone’s tattoo of Nixon? It is weird if true, but honestly I find the many crimes he has committed far more disturbing.
Ah, thanks for the info about interior motivations. I guess it helps confirm first impressions, to have details of how disturbed and cray-cray various members of the current plot to bring down the government of the United States actually are. Makes it easier to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.
A huge problem for our country is that so many have been “giving them the benefit of the doubt for so long”. When love and altruism are your MO it’s hard to imagine that it isn’t the same for everyone. It helps to be a student of violence and the human mind. Maybe we should give more respect to the experts in the field. Dr. Bandy Lee comes to mind.
Let's see how quickly the R's decide to require a 70% threshold instead of the proposed 60% to allow the ballot initiative to take effect...another state tried to do the same by trying to require the margin to be 60% but the 50% was enforced.
I was living in Paris when Dubya got in. There were internet jokes about the Florida votes. And, to start with, about Dubya. I remember a newspaper comment a few months later: "What are the Americans up to? There's total silence." Follow the dots.
Because the GOP blusters about law and order while engaging in the opposite and Democrats actually believe in law and order and want fairness, equality, justice and peace.
Actually it was 537 votes more popular votes awarded to Bush. The only reason for me to be a bit picky about the actual vote was that it happened to be the same as the total votes cast in the Electoral College (271 for Bush/Cheney, 266 for Gore/Lieberman, though 267 were pledged to vote for Gore/Lieberman). One Elector from D.C. abstained making the total 1 less than the 538 normally cast.
If the popular vote assigned to Gore/Lieberman had been 538 popular votes higher, they would have won with 292 EC votes to 246. Florida at the time had 25 Electoral votes so, if added to the 267 (instead of 266 with the abstaining vote), would make a 46 vote margin for Gore/Lieberman.
As it was the abstaining vote let Bush/Cheney be declared the winners by a 5 EC vote margin (instead of a4 vote margin if the Elector had voted as pledged).
Thanks for correcting my typo! You are right. And if not for the Stone et al shenanigans, the difference would have been made up with a couple of more days of counting.
It is not surprising that Mitch McConnell is behind the ignoring of the rules set forth by the Judicial Conference. The more these rogue R party judges are at the helm, the more women lose their rights as well as black folks losing their voting rights. Schumer is a little too calm for me when he said that the decision of the one judge not to comply was “unfortunate”. I want him to tear the judge’s throat out!! He already has messed with women re: mifepristone. Between these issues plus Ukraine and Israel, especially the killings of the WCK workers, it’s hard to keep positive. But one thing is certain, the more the R’s try to work against us, the more we come out fighting.
The more saboteur judges the "GOP" manages to place, the more equal protection, due process, and “a government of laws, and not of men” goes down the drain.
Is she just plain stupid or is she purposely being obtuse in her rulings?
As far right as the 11th circuit is even they may end up replacing her on this case.
Remember when McConnell scolded Leo and the Trump administration for nomination extremely unqualified judges? Some of them had never been inside of a court room.
Sadly, I don't believe she is either. She is 100% intentional in what she is doing. She is also both inexperienced in trial settings and completely unqualified to be on the bench.
I’ll just throw this out here; my husband doesn’t agree. I think she’s done everything so far to prove to Biden’s predecessor that she’s thankful to him for her position, but is going too far so that she’ll be thrown off the case and not be responsible for final judgment. She’s trying to have it both ways; hopefully, she’ll lose her judgeship. Wishful thinking.
Of the myriad reasons not to vote for TFFG, the possibility that Leonard Leo spearheads another couple hundred unqualified anti-abortion judges that will undermine the law is among the most important.
Gary, I tried to tell my "purist" Democratic friends that the 2016 election was about the Supreme Court, and to cast a third party vote or to fail to vote was going to cost us the Court. They wanted their ideal mate, not a bus that got them closer to where they wanted to be, and look at where we got to.
I tried to tell some of my purist friends not to sit out Nixon- Humphrey largely on the basis of the power of appointment. They were understandably offended by the shabby way the DNC had treated anti-war candidates, but that said, Nixon was clearly not "just the same" as Humphrey as they were insisting.
Well, the G.O.P. (sic . . . sick) is digging its own grave. I wish it did not take so long. Need fresh blood down-ballot to entrench a new New Deal coalition.
It's not over Israel, it's over Netanyahu's butchering of civilians in Gaza and the fact that the US is still supplying arms to Israel.
His approval rating in Israel is about as bad as SCOTUS in the US.
The Republicans will lie, cheat and steal every vote they can. This is just another example of the MSM's sensationalism in reporting to maximize advertising dollars.
Remember, that Bibi slept in Jared Kushner's bed when he was in the US. Bibi is a friend of TFFGs, or at least he was. And Bibi does need to go. But, he's like TFFG, he's in serious legal trouble so he will delay leaving as long as he can.
The youth have the most to lose if they let King Con into the Oval Office for another 4 years. There will be millions more dead children throughout the world. Protesting is great. Voting against humanity not so much!
I would ask the youth, what did a resistance vote against Hillary Clinton get you? Three more corporatist Christian Dominionist SCOTUS judges and a loss of a woman’s agency over her own body and health! It matters. A better government is a lot of hard work and heartbreak. No one can deliver it on a silver platter. Study history, or at least read LFAA every day.
But today 4/4 I heard White House news that Biden explained to Netanyahu that more military aid would be contingent upon how Israel treats the people in Gaza.
Marlene, I need to be more informed/educated regarding what you are talking about. What is the Judicial Conference, and the rules that Mitch and others are ignoring?
“At the national level, the Judicial Conference serves as the policymaking body for the federal courts. It convenes twice a year to consider administrative and policy issues affecting the federal court system, and to make recommendations to Congress concerning legislation involving the Judicial Branch.”
The constant evolution of a better system of government plus the falling asleep at the wheel that comes with a full stomach. Need to keep learning new ways to keep the foxes out of the henhouses
Everything societal is complicated these days, but sufficient insistence on fairness, good faith, and integrity could ease us over the rough spots. Without that, there is not much left to fix.
I see so little push back from our Government concerning Netanyahu that frankly, they lost me.
I took a very hard stance against a friend that spoke up about our Government being complicit with Netanyahu and what his goals were.
Guess what, my friend was completely right. I remember saying "our Government would never be part of a vile plan that would bring harm to innocent people." Boy, do I have egg on my face.
Thank you for mentioning the famous butterfly ballot in Florida in 2000. I'm sure a lot of people today don't know about it. There is no question that Gore won Florida by many thousands of votes. The Rehnquist Court is alive and well today, only much much worse. And the Brooks Brothers thugs have simply morphed into armed ones hauling Joe Biden's corpse around in a pickup truck. It's still the same Republican Party.
The Republicans have been despicable, mean spirited, thugs veering towards fascism for the entire 55 years that I've been alive.
But this incarnation of the Republican Party has mutated into something far worse than I could have ever imagined or care to see, it's not the same Party anymore even as bad as it was...
Ugh. The "hanging chads" episode. A badly designed ballot + a bad Secretary of State + a bad Extreme Court (that had no basis for deciding how a state run election should be run) = Two multi-trillion $ stupid wars that caused enormous death and suffering - and wrecked nations and our international reputation. Heather makes the point that elections are often decided on the margins of error. And the resulting catastrophes are mind boggling.
And aside from the needless devastation...what if Gore had become president and the US had begun seriously investing in renewable energy and other climate concerned measures - 24 years ago? How many lives could have been saved, improved? How many more kids could have been fed and cared for?
Nixon created the EPA and wanted to find an alternative to gasoline engines; the one anomaly in his otherwise creepy past. Carter was very pro-environment. Reagan hated the EPA and tried to get rid or it. Appointed Gorsuch and Watt.
But to what end? Follow the money. Who benefited, and continues to benefit? Who and what gets the shaft? To what end?
Thank you for the reminder and for sounding the alarm about the devious and anti-democratic skulduggery the GQP continues to commit to suppress voting.
Seems like voting is foundational to government of the people, by the people, for the people. Break that and break everything. It is not an unalienable right that enables all the others?
Any vote, improperly denied, by error or by malice should be considered unacceptable. No effort can be spared to insure that all who are eligible to vote are not prevented or impeded from doing so, and that every vote counts. It is unethical, irresponsible, and potentially dangerous to do otherwise, as worldwide and historic events amply demonstrate.
Sadly, the right to vote is NOT inalienable. and never has been, because the regulation of elections is left to the states. The ONLY way to beat this is to enact federal election laws with teeth, i.e. the John Lewis Voting Rights Act with serious enforcement provisions. Not happening very soon, I fear.
It's been called the American Experiment for a reason, and it still has many bugs. Fortunately we were provided with means to patch those bugs with sufficient solidarity and will. The notion that there are better (and worse) angels in our nature is old, widespread, and consistent, if always at war with greed, aggression, and hubris. Darwin is defamed for somehow advocating treachery, but in reality, he recognized our capacities for cooperation, compassion and conscience. Liberty is an individual right and a social responsibility. It is a universal right or to the degree it is not, it is tyranny; impunity for the privileged and subjugation for those who are not. We have to choose or lose the choice.
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men (sic), in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
Any who frivolously interfere with the right of another individual to vote should be fined and exposed to the same criminal consequences of a deliberately fraudulent vote. That would expose those who personally try to preemptively challenge thousands of other individuals right to vote to the consequences of each and everyone would have faced if they had in fact tried to vote fraudulently.
Thanks Heather, the reminder of 2000, which burns in my memory led us to forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (especially Iraq that depleted our moral standing in the world) as well as the implosion of our economic security. Yes voting matters and vigilance to every little detail that the GOP takes to disenfranchise voters must be accelerated.
Pat Buchanon was the recipient of about 3,000 votes on the butterfly ballot that were intended for Gore. He admitted it! How different the world woud be if W Bush and Trump had never entered the White House. But then W was assisted by the Rehnquist Court. Trump has even better odds now!
Why is our society so offended when someone cheats at sports and wink and nudge when at cheating when the future of our society is at stake? Why do we permit so many schemes to take votes by treachery rather than truly equal protection under law?
Anthony, one of the best political cartoons I ever saw was a drawing of the eastern seaboard done as a drawing of Uncle Sam with Florida "dangling" as it does, with a doctor telling him "you have electile dysfunction there, sir".
To learn that three of our sitting SCROTUS judges worked on that case in Florida boggles my mind.
It still strikes me as ironic that had Al Gore won his home state of Tennessee, he would have won the Electoral College vote, and “hanging chads” would not have entered our national conscience. 🙄 Just saying.
HCR points out that (old school) Republicans created a graduated federal income tax to pay for the Civil War. Bush II slashed taxes (mostly for the rich) while declaring two quagmire wars. He left us in a "Great Recession". You might think Republicans might want to clean their act, but you would be wrong. Greed uber alles.
It is disheartening to recognize how much the Republicans corrupt our institutions and democratic processes. The positive take away from today's letter, however, remains that there are more who believe in democracy than in the oligarchy of the right wing minority. Sure hope Democrats can get the vote out.
This judge-shopping exploit, which was scuttled momentarily by the Judicial Conference, before Leonard Leo's c̶r̶y̶-̶b̶a̶b̶i̶e̶s̶ minions pushed back and the JC backed down, got me to looking up how an Article III federal judge is impeached. Just like you'd expect: impeached in the House of Representatives, and tried in the Senate.
I'm glad to hear there are encouraging signs of support for democracy. The fascist wing of the Republican Party is desperate to seduce the country away from its foundational moorings before democracy screws up their plans and pocketbooks. In what universe should there be any law that is opposed by a supermajority of the citizenry? Yet the minoritarian Republican Party feels entitled to dictate terms as if it deserved to be taken seriously. Abortion is just one example.
Allowing the corporate oligarchy to neutralize the underpinnings of American social order in favor of dictatorship should be more alarming to more folks, don't you think? We're looking at a ten-alarm fire.
If you watched 60 Minutes, you have probably also concluded, from the evidence presented, that Russia has a device that is behind the whole Havana Syndrome. When I saw that Bellingcat was also involved in the investigation internationally I knew the A Team was on the case. One person commented that he thinks Putin's biggest coup is this Russian wizardry that American ingenuity still has not figured out how to defend against or countervail.
It is now national news that Russian bullet points were being fed directly to Republican Congressional hearings and debunked by credible sources time and again.
Sheesh. I sure hope HCR has a team backing her up. So many different-yet-connected topics to update us on. Thanks for keeping us up to date...even if it makes it impossible to sleep at night.
So…are the voters who have been challenged informed about the challenge and told how to get their voting rights back? And do challenged voters have legal recourse against the people doing the challenging? I
I know that if something like that happened to me, this little old lady would be at the County Elections Board office pounding my cane on the Supervisor’s desk.!
People are NOT notified if their name is purged (usually because they have moved -even within their own State- or have not voted in the past couple of elections). Everyone should regularly check his/her voter status at their State elections office (easy to find online). Otherwise the only way you know is being told when you show up to vote and then it’s too late.
I had cast my mail in ballot in one of the first few elections after Oregon enacted vote by mail that my ballot was rejected because my signature didn't match. I went down to the elections office, showed my ID and explained the change. I was permitted to sign a new card and have my ballot counted.
The "why" as to the signature change was because of another deputy with the same initials as me, and with a similar script for his signature that I wanted NOTHING to do with (subsequently vindicated, because he was ultimately fired, and subsequently convicted for conspiracy for murder where he was still in possession of one of our agency uniforms...)
I loathe Republicans. If you can even call them that anymore. MAGA fascists is a more apt descriptor. What a loathsome, utterly detestable group of sick fcks that are. I can only imagine the defeated, depressed, infuriated, impotent way that I feel must mirror somewhat to how it felt to exist in Nazi Germany in the 1930s watching horrible people do horrible things.
Well, I have to break etiquette and make a comment only tangentially related to tonight's letter...
Boy Howdy, Jiggity Jig, I did it! I can't believe it, but I did it! Using my new favorite search platform, the PerplexityAI.com search engine, I found a number of companies that will produce a political yard sign! I spent a bit more than I anticipated and had to modify someone else's pre-made template due to my lack of originality in graphic arts, but sometime in the next 2 weeks a package will arrive at my door with 10, count'm, 10 yard signs and hardware that have the usual Stars and Stripes background and say "Elect Donald Trump for Dictator, 2024 United States of America". Technically incorrect of course, as the fated, almost unspeakable event would occur in early 2025 on Inauguration day, but the concept won't be lost on anyone. Now, I'll go out in the dark of night and plant them in places around my neighborhood that are not anyone's front yard and see just how long they last, how quickly they will be defaced by spray paint, gunshots, smeared excrement or other established MAGA tricks taken from the January 6 US Capital playbook.
I feel strangely empowered by this little act of anticipated defiance, much more so than after making a token donation at ActBlue, which has only resulted in a literal blizzard of recurring solicitations from across the country for candidates for every conceivable public office ranging from the US Senate to county vital statistics recording clerk. Why, oh why, won't these political donation clearing houses protect the identity and contact information of donors who want to donate precisely what they HAVE donated without reading the sob stories of cataclysmic urgency of every other candidate for office in the entire US of A?
You nailed my sentiments exactly. The constant “urgent deadline” requests are beyond the pale. I chose my donations very thoughtfully and I greatly resent the intrusion into my mailbox!!!
Some other ideas for political yard signs: TRUMP/PUTIN 2024, 2028, 2032... , DT = DickTator, Roe, Roe, Roe your Vote (not original to me, I'm sorry to say), VOTE, LIKE YOUR VOTE DEPENDS ON IT!, VOTE REPUBLICAN - TAX THE POOR FEED THE RICH, Gerrymandering, Bankruptcy, Rape Trump 2024. There may be more coming in the future :)
Love the yard sign idea! Maybe I need to make “Enforce the Logan Act Now— Treason is a CRIME” signs with a little USA flag.
About ActBlue and Dem fund-raising tactics in general, I could not agree more! I now reply to every text and email with the same message: “This is exactly why I no longer donate financially to the Democratic Party” and then I block them. Here’s hoping they look in their records to see just how much I have contributed in the past. I really don’t appreciate being treated like a dumb Trumper being bled for cash. I don’t know why they don’t set up a system where people can more effectively priority target their state’s issues and candidates. Once a donation is made, THAT would be the moment to OFFER that people can contribute to other causes and give a list with links.
The stealing of elections by Republicans must be stopped. Also, the Russian infiltration into our government by proxies like Mike Johnson who work for Treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump must be stopped.
I know. Al Gore should have been president if not for the made up hanging chads, Jeb Bush as governor stealing it and the Supreme Court stealing it too.
To be clear, it was the cult that is now the MAGA group that stole it. The "commanders" of the Handmaids Tale- the faux christians that see themselves as soldiers of God. I call them fake because the God they fight for is a weak, feckless idol of money and power. The god they believe in is not the all powerful being, but a weak, selfish god that must have the people do the dirty work.
It is the God of "I'm better than others because of my gender and my skin color, and I can boss my wife and my children around like slaves." So, since they do not follow the teachings of Christ, but instead worship treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump, they are not Christians either, but brainwashed members of the Cult of Trump!
Both disheartening and enraging at the same time. To lean on a time-worn trope, perhaps we should be shop'n for a hang'n Judge to mete out some justice long overdue? Al Pacino's character in Scent of a Woman expressed my current sentiment toward the shockingly effective manipulating radical republicans perfectly... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq8CtJSQFL4 - More's the pity that we can't live in a celluloid universe rather in the world as we currently find it. So, within my limited sphere of available time and energy I will view "enraged" as a heartfelt and not so funny malapropism for "engaged" and do whatever I can to assure a second Biden administration, and to add a growing awareness of the local scene in our part of the world.
Al Pacino did more than adequately express his opinion to the board! Even when the administrator tried to shut him down he said,”I’m just getting started!” Probably my favorite scene ever!
The bought out "GOP" is trying to warp the infrastructure of the republic to destroy the republic, and install a "wannabee dictator". Follow the Money.
I keep hoping those greasy Bic Macs he eats every day will take him down. I don't think we could be so lucky. I am beyond sick and tired of the raging, corrupt creep DJT.
I'm kinda torn about him dying. I think I'd prefer seeing pictures of him strapped to a chair with a shaved head and drooling, than for him to die.
Not that I want to see that image, but I know there would be nothing more embarrassing for him and his followers. I wonder if he's ever seen the picture of his fat ass in the tennis shorts. That's something you can't unsee.
I agree, Mr. Wilkins. All jokes aside, DJT is a horrible person, and there is no way he should ever be allowed to lead our nation again. He is a cruel and evil person that will utterly destroy the United States. He is a narcissistic psychopath that doesn't give a hoot about the average citizens of our nation. That stunt he pulled with the large banner of President Biden hog tied and bound in the back of a pickup truck recently is the last straw for me. I just hope he has to go to prison for the rest of his despicable life. In my opinion, he is just as horrible as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, Al Capone, the Unabomber, just to name a few of some of the most notorious criminals that have ever existed here in the United States!
I fully agree with you, i might say, he could be even worse than the old devil himself! I have a sister-in-law who is obsessed with that cretin. I avoid her at all costs. She is a low IQ person just like so many of DJT's followers are. Kind of reminds me of the Jim Jones cult!
On second thought, i like your idea better. Or seeing him imprisoned in a filthy prison cell in solitary confinement and fed stale, moldy bread and water from a sewage pond and no contact with the outside world and no ''Big Macs'' allowed.
I think i would lose my appetite permanently if i seen that picture of his fat ass in the tennis shorts. I don't even like to think about that.
I wish that I could turn on our TV and not see his face every day! The media is giving him exactly what he wants. I think too he knows if he makes outrageous statements, the more press coverage he’ll get. Yet, we play right into his hands! Like the old saying, “ Playing us like a ukulele!
I ran across this on Daily Kos today. It's a quote from Scientific American:
Studies overwhelmingly find no evidence that U.S. immigrants, including those who are undocumented, commit more crimes than native-born Americans. And now a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA that draws from a detailed and well-sourced data set comes to an even more dramatic conclusion. It reports that between 2012 and 2018, compared with their U.S.-born neighbors, undocumented immigrants in Texas were less than half as likely to be arrested for violent crimes or drug offenses and less than a quarter as likely to be arrested for property crimes.
“Simply put, we found that undocumented immigrants have lower felony arrest rates than both legal immigrants and, especially, native-born U.S. citizens,” says study co-author Michael Light, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/4/2/2233104/-Trump-lied-about-talking-to-a-murder-victim-s-family-It-never-happened#comment_88370132
In my 73 yrs, I have found that most immigrants are better citizens than many natives. Perhaps it’s because they have a greater appreciation of all that we have here than many natives, who take it for granted.
I'd rather the immigrants stay and MAGA leave. Immigrants, for the most part, are people looking for safety and opportunity. MAGA is just an evil entity that is more dangerous to our country than any immigrant.
Agreed! We could trade MAGA’s for immigrants, but who would want the MAGA’s?
Even TFFG would rather hire an undocumented immigrant than an American. He hires H-2b's when he can and if he can't he's more than happy to hire undocumented immigrants.
Putin?
That's what I was going to say! Putin can have them all.
Idk. Maybe Alcatraz? 😂 They could all live and fight with each other while we fix everything they broke.
Orban, perhaps?
I think neither Orban nor Putin would want a lot of MAGA's. The both of them, especially Putin, just want to manipulate MAGA's to undermine American liberal democracy.
Agreed!
Ralph, I've worked for almost 50 years with immigrants and hired many of them for construction projects and other jobs.
Most of them came here to work and build a better life for their families. Plus, it seems that most of them work harder than many Americans and certainly take pride in their work. The last thing they want is to be deported for committing a crime.
For the most part, they realize that the quality of their work is important for them to keep working.
I’m a retired construction worker and had the same experience working with immigrants, legal and otherwise.
I am a Spanish speaking white American. I always hire migrants for any job needed. They work hard and without them wouldn’t have anyone to work at all.
72 here :)
Absolutely, a lot of immigrants really step up once they're here, bringing fresh energy and perspectives to the table. They've often had to jump through hoops to get here, so they don't take anything for granted. This drive and appreciation can make them super committed to giving back and making a difference in their new community.
My experience has been the same Michael. As they say in Texas, clear eyes, full hearts.
Many years ago I was prowling around the grounds of the California State Library in Sacramento, examining a (new to me) camphor tree. I would have been hard to see in the bushes, and there was no one else around. Then, I saw a young-ish man who appeared to be Pakistani or something, ride up, get off his bicycle, and face a large US flag that was waving overhead, then put his hand over his heart. Then he continued on his way. I'm not so keen on flag waving, but that left a tear in my eye.
If I were trying to flee an unsafe situation in my home country, I would bend over backwards to be a MODEL citizen if I wanted to enter the US.
I try to be extra polite in other countries.
Good one J L. HCR correctly noted that a Texas lawyer [ Aaron Lloyd Nielsen ] told the 5th Circuit that Texas "may have gone too far." Actually Governor Abbott has admitted that Texas' SB4 was modeled after an Antonin Scalia sole dissent in 2012.
See, David G. Savages recent L.A. Times' article, "An old Scalia dissent is driving Texas' immigration dispute" with Federal law. Of course, dissents have no weight on SCOTUS' Constitutional Opinions.
Texas is attempting to pitch Scalia's "sovereign states" dicta to any five (5) of the current Justices. Texas may already have as many as four (4) SCOTUS votes right now assuming there is no change in the structure of SCOTUS or the number of Justices.
Scalia’s evil lives on. How smart of Texas to look for a dissent (loser position) to base their brilliant law on. Catch them if you can. But look at the damage and the wasted time.
Not good for this Texan.
True that.
Well, J.L., thank you for this most welcome news!
I wrote this about a month ago - supporting your position. Despite the title, this letter is about NEEDING more immigrants to solve more than one problem.
https://billalstrom.substack.com/p/fix-social-security-now
Yes! Well done, Bill.
I wonder why that is. Could it just be that undocumented immigrants are afraid they would be deported if they were caught?
They are cheated out of promised wages, and most often unable to get licenses and insurance. They have almost zero ability to report thefts from them, or other crimes against them (or even our citizens). That means they also don't want to be innocent witnesses that can help stop real criminals with information they can provide (beyond police using it without having to have them exposed to legal consequences that could get them deported).
I could appreciate a truck with 3 who I assume were undocumented who pulled off the freeway to warn a medical facility of a brush fire, making sure the people were safe before they ran back to the truck to get away before anyone could identify them or the truck .
There was no way I was going to try to get close enough to identify them or the truck, just very appreciative of the personal risk they took to make sure others were safe.
Yep. A felony conviction for even someone here on a green card means deportation.
I know someone from St. Stephen, NB that has been in the US for 30 years. He was arrested for a felony DUI because the people involved in the crash were seriously hurt plus he was way over the limit. His lawyer plead the felony down to a misdemeanor. He still served 6 months in county jail, but he wasn't deported.
Heard the same thing as well. What to do with the anti-immigrant herd.
That makes sense. People who are undocumented won’t risk discovery and deportation by knowingly committing a crime.
I agree JL!!!I believe immigrants aren’t being treated fairly!!
What Trump does is criminal, even apart from the broken families separated on his orders.
Thank you for challenging lies with facts JL.
This is definitely true and you have the facts to prove it. Trump and his mega Republicans know it's true also. Unfortunately Trump used immigration as a hatered political strategy to gravitate his base. Now it has mutated into division and violence against innocent people who want to come to this country to work. Like the immigrants who sacrificed their life's working at 1 am. to cover pot holes at the bridge at Baltimore.
This has been well documented in many trustworthy studies and publications. Thank you for the reinforcement.!
Immigrants are destroying this country, but it’s only the immigrants from Australia named Murdoch who are a problem.
I live in Florida and remember the Brooks Brothers riot quite well. If you think that these efforts don’t matter, think again. Roger Stone (and a sympathetic Supreme Court) delivered the presidency to George W. Bush. By a measly 537 votes.
But even though the Florida Supreme Court upheld the six-week abortion ban, it also allowed the voters a voice on the November ballot, making Florida “Ground Zero” according to Rick Wilson.
So let’s remember the three V’s: be vigilant, be vociferous, and VOTE!
Roger Stone just keeps popping up all over the place. Wonder what he's up to now. I'm guessing he's figuring out a way to keep Alan Grayson from registering 1,000,000 FL dems.
Voting is easy, but if we can we need to
Get Out The Vote
by supporting Grayson, Abrams, Rorke, MoveOn, etc.
Roger Stone is such an unsavory character committing so many nefarious acts and involved in criminality behind the scenes of already horrible Republican candidates that he seems to be an actual Bond villain or a comic book supervillain. He even looks and reminds me of the Penguin from the Batman comics. https://twitter.com/jdlovitz/status/1088858113493647362
Even more bizarre and disturbing is the fact that he has Nixon's face tattooed on his back.
I would rather talk to Nixon on Stone's back than talk to his frontside. Ugh. He's almost as disgusting as TFFG.
Lots of tattoos is a psychological method of changing who you are because you don’t like your original self. How do you know about Stone’s tattoo of Nixon? It is weird if true, but honestly I find the many crimes he has committed far more disturbing.
It’s well documented in numerous places. Takes a little curiosity to find a photo of it. He’s very proud of it and does not try to hide it
Ah, thanks for the info about interior motivations. I guess it helps confirm first impressions, to have details of how disturbed and cray-cray various members of the current plot to bring down the government of the United States actually are. Makes it easier to stop giving them the benefit of the doubt.
Absolutely!!
A huge problem for our country is that so many have been “giving them the benefit of the doubt for so long”. When love and altruism are your MO it’s hard to imagine that it isn’t the same for everyone. It helps to be a student of violence and the human mind. Maybe we should give more respect to the experts in the field. Dr. Bandy Lee comes to mind.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dangerous_Case_of_Donald_Trump
As Barb McQuade says, the bigger question is what’s keeping him from adding the king of con?
https://twitter.com/BarbMcQuade/status/1281927921280659456?lang=en
That is very strange and disturbing.
Is there any historical precedent for overturning s presidential pardon? If so, Stone would be a good test case.
Roger Stone even brags about his trickery in "Get Me Roger Stone" at https://www.netflix.com/title/80114666
Thanks, I think I do remember hearing about that one. I'll have to check that out if I can stomach it.
Unsavory is too kind an adjective to describe Roger Stone.
Yes truly it is too kind of a word for him. Even 4 letter cuss words seem too nice to describe him.
Voting is easy but informed voting is an ongoing effort.
He is more dangerous when we don’t hear from him.
Matt Schlapp, head of CPAC, was a ‘Brooks Brothers Riot’ participant.
Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh and Barrett all worked on Bush's legal team during that colossal steal.
That little tidbit upsets me greatly, and has since I first learned of it. I am absolutely disgusted.
I know. One could almost imagine it as payback.
They will never forget the win that the dirty tricks gave them in Florida. Especially since it was blessed by the old guard.
Let's see how quickly the R's decide to require a 70% threshold instead of the proposed 60% to allow the ballot initiative to take effect...another state tried to do the same by trying to require the margin to be 60% but the 50% was enforced.
That was Ohio, arguably THE most corrupt state in the union.
I was living in Paris when Dubya got in. There were internet jokes about the Florida votes. And, to start with, about Dubya. I remember a newspaper comment a few months later: "What are the Americans up to? There's total silence." Follow the dots.
An follow the money.
Because the GOP blusters about law and order while engaging in the opposite and Democrats actually believe in law and order and want fairness, equality, justice and peace.
You're so right. Empty vessels make the most sound.
Actually it was 537 votes more popular votes awarded to Bush. The only reason for me to be a bit picky about the actual vote was that it happened to be the same as the total votes cast in the Electoral College (271 for Bush/Cheney, 266 for Gore/Lieberman, though 267 were pledged to vote for Gore/Lieberman). One Elector from D.C. abstained making the total 1 less than the 538 normally cast.
If the popular vote assigned to Gore/Lieberman had been 538 popular votes higher, they would have won with 292 EC votes to 246. Florida at the time had 25 Electoral votes so, if added to the 267 (instead of 266 with the abstaining vote), would make a 46 vote margin for Gore/Lieberman.
As it was the abstaining vote let Bush/Cheney be declared the winners by a 5 EC vote margin (instead of a4 vote margin if the Elector had voted as pledged).
Thanks for correcting my typo! You are right. And if not for the Stone et al shenanigans, the difference would have been made up with a couple of more days of counting.
It is not surprising that Mitch McConnell is behind the ignoring of the rules set forth by the Judicial Conference. The more these rogue R party judges are at the helm, the more women lose their rights as well as black folks losing their voting rights. Schumer is a little too calm for me when he said that the decision of the one judge not to comply was “unfortunate”. I want him to tear the judge’s throat out!! He already has messed with women re: mifepristone. Between these issues plus Ukraine and Israel, especially the killings of the WCK workers, it’s hard to keep positive. But one thing is certain, the more the R’s try to work against us, the more we come out fighting.
The more saboteur judges the "GOP" manages to place, the more equal protection, due process, and “a government of laws, and not of men” goes down the drain.
I would put Judge Aileen (loose) Cannon in the group!
But of course. As complicit as it gets.
Is she just plain stupid or is she purposely being obtuse in her rulings?
As far right as the 11th circuit is even they may end up replacing her on this case.
Remember when McConnell scolded Leo and the Trump administration for nomination extremely unqualified judges? Some of them had never been inside of a court room.
Sadly, I don't believe she is either. She is 100% intentional in what she is doing. She is also both inexperienced in trial settings and completely unqualified to be on the bench.
I’ll just throw this out here; my husband doesn’t agree. I think she’s done everything so far to prove to Biden’s predecessor that she’s thankful to him for her position, but is going too far so that she’ll be thrown off the case and not be responsible for final judgment. She’s trying to have it both ways; hopefully, she’ll lose her judgeship. Wishful thinking.
Of the myriad reasons not to vote for TFFG, the possibility that Leonard Leo spearheads another couple hundred unqualified anti-abortion judges that will undermine the law is among the most important.
Gary, I tried to tell my "purist" Democratic friends that the 2016 election was about the Supreme Court, and to cast a third party vote or to fail to vote was going to cost us the Court. They wanted their ideal mate, not a bus that got them closer to where they wanted to be, and look at where we got to.
I tried to tell some of my purist friends not to sit out Nixon- Humphrey largely on the basis of the power of appointment. They were understandably offended by the shabby way the DNC had treated anti-war candidates, but that said, Nixon was clearly not "just the same" as Humphrey as they were insisting.
Well, the G.O.P. (sic . . . sick) is digging its own grave. I wish it did not take so long. Need fresh blood down-ballot to entrench a new New Deal coalition.
They have turned into the Zombie apocalypse
I fear we’re losing the youth vote over Israel. 😥
It's not over Israel, it's over Netanyahu's butchering of civilians in Gaza and the fact that the US is still supplying arms to Israel.
His approval rating in Israel is about as bad as SCOTUS in the US.
The Republicans will lie, cheat and steal every vote they can. This is just another example of the MSM's sensationalism in reporting to maximize advertising dollars.
Remember, that Bibi slept in Jared Kushner's bed when he was in the US. Bibi is a friend of TFFGs, or at least he was. And Bibi does need to go. But, he's like TFFG, he's in serious legal trouble so he will delay leaving as long as he can.
100%. That is how much I agree with you. Totally.
I agree with you, but anecdotally I hear many who still can’t vote for Biden if he doesn’t “do something” about Israel. 🤞🤞🤞
Everything is Biden's fault -- the border, the price of gasoline and food, supply chains, Ukraine and Israel. Maybe Bibi will be voted out soon.
Are they writing letters, using their voices and asking him to do something? Biden will respond where the other candidates won’t. It matters.
The youth have the most to lose if they let King Con into the Oval Office for another 4 years. There will be millions more dead children throughout the world. Protesting is great. Voting against humanity not so much!
I agree, but people are stubborn. 😵💫
I would ask the youth, what did a resistance vote against Hillary Clinton get you? Three more corporatist Christian Dominionist SCOTUS judges and a loss of a woman’s agency over her own body and health! It matters. A better government is a lot of hard work and heartbreak. No one can deliver it on a silver platter. Study history, or at least read LFAA every day.
I agree with you & am Dem all the way, but nervous.
Just what we don’t need, another drain on Joe
Agreed
Hopefully, the Biden team will take notice and recommend corrective action.
🤞🤞🤞
But today 4/4 I heard White House news that Biden explained to Netanyahu that more military aid would be contingent upon how Israel treats the people in Gaza.
Marlene, I need to be more informed/educated regarding what you are talking about. What is the Judicial Conference, and the rules that Mitch and others are ignoring?
I had to look them up, too. Try this. Note they recommend policy, they don’t mandate it.
https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/governance-judicial-conference
“At the national level, the Judicial Conference serves as the policymaking body for the federal courts. It convenes twice a year to consider administrative and policy issues affecting the federal court system, and to make recommendations to Congress concerning legislation involving the Judicial Branch.”
The US judiciary system doesn't seem to work perfectly well. Could it be that it's too complicated?
The constant evolution of a better system of government plus the falling asleep at the wheel that comes with a full stomach. Need to keep learning new ways to keep the foxes out of the henhouses
Everything societal is complicated these days, but sufficient insistence on fairness, good faith, and integrity could ease us over the rough spots. Without that, there is not much left to fix.
As you say.
See Heather's letter tonite/morning.
Marlene, I completely agree.
I see so little push back from our Government concerning Netanyahu that frankly, they lost me.
I took a very hard stance against a friend that spoke up about our Government being complicit with Netanyahu and what his goals were.
Guess what, my friend was completely right. I remember saying "our Government would never be part of a vile plan that would bring harm to innocent people." Boy, do I have egg on my face.
Tear the judges throat out, by all means.
"In local elections in the St. Louis, Missouri, area on Tuesday, voters rejected all 13 right-wing candidates for school boards..."
Is this a misprint or has hell frozen over?
Now, that’s a major step in the right direction! 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
maybe Hell is running out of O2?
Thank you for mentioning the famous butterfly ballot in Florida in 2000. I'm sure a lot of people today don't know about it. There is no question that Gore won Florida by many thousands of votes. The Rehnquist Court is alive and well today, only much much worse. And the Brooks Brothers thugs have simply morphed into armed ones hauling Joe Biden's corpse around in a pickup truck. It's still the same Republican Party.
The Republicans have been despicable, mean spirited, thugs veering towards fascism for the entire 55 years that I've been alive.
But this incarnation of the Republican Party has mutated into something far worse than I could have ever imagined or care to see, it's not the same Party anymore even as bad as it was...
They are Nazis, plain and simple.
Truman called them out with no mincing of words.
Ugh. The "hanging chads" episode. A badly designed ballot + a bad Secretary of State + a bad Extreme Court (that had no basis for deciding how a state run election should be run) = Two multi-trillion $ stupid wars that caused enormous death and suffering - and wrecked nations and our international reputation. Heather makes the point that elections are often decided on the margins of error. And the resulting catastrophes are mind boggling.
And aside from the needless devastation...what if Gore had become president and the US had begun seriously investing in renewable energy and other climate concerned measures - 24 years ago? How many lives could have been saved, improved? How many more kids could have been fed and cared for?
Nixon created the EPA and wanted to find an alternative to gasoline engines; the one anomaly in his otherwise creepy past. Carter was very pro-environment. Reagan hated the EPA and tried to get rid or it. Appointed Gorsuch and Watt.
But to what end? Follow the money. Who benefited, and continues to benefit? Who and what gets the shaft? To what end?
Thank you for the reminder and for sounding the alarm about the devious and anti-democratic skulduggery the GQP continues to commit to suppress voting.
Seems like voting is foundational to government of the people, by the people, for the people. Break that and break everything. It is not an unalienable right that enables all the others?
Any vote, improperly denied, by error or by malice should be considered unacceptable. No effort can be spared to insure that all who are eligible to vote are not prevented or impeded from doing so, and that every vote counts. It is unethical, irresponsible, and potentially dangerous to do otherwise, as worldwide and historic events amply demonstrate.
Sadly, the right to vote is NOT inalienable. and never has been, because the regulation of elections is left to the states. The ONLY way to beat this is to enact federal election laws with teeth, i.e. the John Lewis Voting Rights Act with serious enforcement provisions. Not happening very soon, I fear.
It's been called the American Experiment for a reason, and it still has many bugs. Fortunately we were provided with means to patch those bugs with sufficient solidarity and will. The notion that there are better (and worse) angels in our nature is old, widespread, and consistent, if always at war with greed, aggression, and hubris. Darwin is defamed for somehow advocating treachery, but in reality, he recognized our capacities for cooperation, compassion and conscience. Liberty is an individual right and a social responsibility. It is a universal right or to the degree it is not, it is tyranny; impunity for the privileged and subjugation for those who are not. We have to choose or lose the choice.
"What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence? It is not our frowning battlements, our bristling sea coasts, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength our gallant and disciplined army? These are not our reliance against a resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of those may be turned against our liberties, without making us weaker or stronger for the struggle. Our reliance is in the love of liberty which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men (sic), in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
Abraham Lincoln
Any who frivolously interfere with the right of another individual to vote should be fined and exposed to the same criminal consequences of a deliberately fraudulent vote. That would expose those who personally try to preemptively challenge thousands of other individuals right to vote to the consequences of each and everyone would have faced if they had in fact tried to vote fraudulently.
Jim, both Mark Meadows and his wife fraudulently voted and because they were elite Republicans, absolutely nothing happened to either of them.
If it had been anyone else they would have been fined, charged or both.
THIS. Either way, it is theft of a fundamental human right.
Thanks Heather, the reminder of 2000, which burns in my memory led us to forever wars in Afghanistan and Iraq (especially Iraq that depleted our moral standing in the world) as well as the implosion of our economic security. Yes voting matters and vigilance to every little detail that the GOP takes to disenfranchise voters must be accelerated.
The issue I remember so well is “ the hanging chad!”
Pat Buchanon was the recipient of about 3,000 votes on the butterfly ballot that were intended for Gore. He admitted it! How different the world woud be if W Bush and Trump had never entered the White House. But then W was assisted by the Rehnquist Court. Trump has even better odds now!
And I didn’t think it could get worse. Silly me.
Why is our society so offended when someone cheats at sports and wink and nudge when at cheating when the future of our society is at stake? Why do we permit so many schemes to take votes by treachery rather than truly equal protection under law?
Anthony, one of the best political cartoons I ever saw was a drawing of the eastern seaboard done as a drawing of Uncle Sam with Florida "dangling" as it does, with a doctor telling him "you have electile dysfunction there, sir".
To learn that three of our sitting SCROTUS judges worked on that case in Florida boggles my mind.
What a cluster that was to watch....
I lived down the street from Florida Supreme Court. Lots of news trucks and pissed off people.
It still strikes me as ironic that had Al Gore won his home state of Tennessee, he would have won the Electoral College vote, and “hanging chads” would not have entered our national conscience. 🙄 Just saying.
So much irony, it defines us
And ended many lives. Lies kill.
HCR points out that (old school) Republicans created a graduated federal income tax to pay for the Civil War. Bush II slashed taxes (mostly for the rich) while declaring two quagmire wars. He left us in a "Great Recession". You might think Republicans might want to clean their act, but you would be wrong. Greed uber alles.
It is disheartening to recognize how much the Republicans corrupt our institutions and democratic processes. The positive take away from today's letter, however, remains that there are more who believe in democracy than in the oligarchy of the right wing minority. Sure hope Democrats can get the vote out.
Hope's not enough. Got to. Must. And guard it. Dishonest might is going to prevail over honest right otherwise.
This judge-shopping exploit, which was scuttled momentarily by the Judicial Conference, before Leonard Leo's c̶r̶y̶-̶b̶a̶b̶i̶e̶s̶ minions pushed back and the JC backed down, got me to looking up how an Article III federal judge is impeached. Just like you'd expect: impeached in the House of Representatives, and tried in the Senate.
I'm glad to hear there are encouraging signs of support for democracy. The fascist wing of the Republican Party is desperate to seduce the country away from its foundational moorings before democracy screws up their plans and pocketbooks. In what universe should there be any law that is opposed by a supermajority of the citizenry? Yet the minoritarian Republican Party feels entitled to dictate terms as if it deserved to be taken seriously. Abortion is just one example.
Allowing the corporate oligarchy to neutralize the underpinnings of American social order in favor of dictatorship should be more alarming to more folks, don't you think? We're looking at a ten-alarm fire.
If you watched 60 Minutes, you have probably also concluded, from the evidence presented, that Russia has a device that is behind the whole Havana Syndrome. When I saw that Bellingcat was also involved in the investigation internationally I knew the A Team was on the case. One person commented that he thinks Putin's biggest coup is this Russian wizardry that American ingenuity still has not figured out how to defend against or countervail.
It is now national news that Russian bullet points were being fed directly to Republican Congressional hearings and debunked by credible sources time and again.
Ten alarm fire, at least
Sheesh. I sure hope HCR has a team backing her up. So many different-yet-connected topics to update us on. Thanks for keeping us up to date...even if it makes it impossible to sleep at night.
So…are the voters who have been challenged informed about the challenge and told how to get their voting rights back? And do challenged voters have legal recourse against the people doing the challenging? I
I know that if something like that happened to me, this little old lady would be at the County Elections Board office pounding my cane on the Supervisor’s desk.!
People are NOT notified if their name is purged (usually because they have moved -even within their own State- or have not voted in the past couple of elections). Everyone should regularly check his/her voter status at their State elections office (easy to find online). Otherwise the only way you know is being told when you show up to vote and then it’s too late.
I had cast my mail in ballot in one of the first few elections after Oregon enacted vote by mail that my ballot was rejected because my signature didn't match. I went down to the elections office, showed my ID and explained the change. I was permitted to sign a new card and have my ballot counted.
The "why" as to the signature change was because of another deputy with the same initials as me, and with a similar script for his signature that I wanted NOTHING to do with (subsequently vindicated, because he was ultimately fired, and subsequently convicted for conspiracy for murder where he was still in possession of one of our agency uniforms...)
I loathe Republicans. If you can even call them that anymore. MAGA fascists is a more apt descriptor. What a loathsome, utterly detestable group of sick fcks that are. I can only imagine the defeated, depressed, infuriated, impotent way that I feel must mirror somewhat to how it felt to exist in Nazi Germany in the 1930s watching horrible people do horrible things.
My sentiments exactly
Jessie, you spoke my heart. Thank you.
Well, I have to break etiquette and make a comment only tangentially related to tonight's letter...
Boy Howdy, Jiggity Jig, I did it! I can't believe it, but I did it! Using my new favorite search platform, the PerplexityAI.com search engine, I found a number of companies that will produce a political yard sign! I spent a bit more than I anticipated and had to modify someone else's pre-made template due to my lack of originality in graphic arts, but sometime in the next 2 weeks a package will arrive at my door with 10, count'm, 10 yard signs and hardware that have the usual Stars and Stripes background and say "Elect Donald Trump for Dictator, 2024 United States of America". Technically incorrect of course, as the fated, almost unspeakable event would occur in early 2025 on Inauguration day, but the concept won't be lost on anyone. Now, I'll go out in the dark of night and plant them in places around my neighborhood that are not anyone's front yard and see just how long they last, how quickly they will be defaced by spray paint, gunshots, smeared excrement or other established MAGA tricks taken from the January 6 US Capital playbook.
I feel strangely empowered by this little act of anticipated defiance, much more so than after making a token donation at ActBlue, which has only resulted in a literal blizzard of recurring solicitations from across the country for candidates for every conceivable public office ranging from the US Senate to county vital statistics recording clerk. Why, oh why, won't these political donation clearing houses protect the identity and contact information of donors who want to donate precisely what they HAVE donated without reading the sob stories of cataclysmic urgency of every other candidate for office in the entire US of A?
You nailed my sentiments exactly. The constant “urgent deadline” requests are beyond the pale. I chose my donations very thoughtfully and I greatly resent the intrusion into my mailbox!!!
Same here, Christine.
Some other ideas for political yard signs: TRUMP/PUTIN 2024, 2028, 2032... , DT = DickTator, Roe, Roe, Roe your Vote (not original to me, I'm sorry to say), VOTE, LIKE YOUR VOTE DEPENDS ON IT!, VOTE REPUBLICAN - TAX THE POOR FEED THE RICH, Gerrymandering, Bankruptcy, Rape Trump 2024. There may be more coming in the future :)
Nice Steve. I love the Roe Roe Roe your vote. Here is some not so clever ones the Republicans could roll out...
Suppress Women's Rights -- Vote Republican
Racism is Cool - Vote Republican
Legalize Fraud and Corruption - Vote Republican
One Religion One God - Vote Republican
Good for you. I won’t donate through ActBlue anymore. So sick of the onslaught of crap.
Love the yard sign idea! Maybe I need to make “Enforce the Logan Act Now— Treason is a CRIME” signs with a little USA flag.
About ActBlue and Dem fund-raising tactics in general, I could not agree more! I now reply to every text and email with the same message: “This is exactly why I no longer donate financially to the Democratic Party” and then I block them. Here’s hoping they look in their records to see just how much I have contributed in the past. I really don’t appreciate being treated like a dumb Trumper being bled for cash. I don’t know why they don’t set up a system where people can more effectively priority target their state’s issues and candidates. Once a donation is made, THAT would be the moment to OFFER that people can contribute to other causes and give a list with links.
The stealing of elections by Republicans must be stopped. Also, the Russian infiltration into our government by proxies like Mike Johnson who work for Treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump must be stopped.
Linda, this has been a conservative practice for decades.
I know. Al Gore should have been president if not for the made up hanging chads, Jeb Bush as governor stealing it and the Supreme Court stealing it too.
To be clear, it was the cult that is now the MAGA group that stole it. The "commanders" of the Handmaids Tale- the faux christians that see themselves as soldiers of God. I call them fake because the God they fight for is a weak, feckless idol of money and power. The god they believe in is not the all powerful being, but a weak, selfish god that must have the people do the dirty work.
It is the God of "I'm better than others because of my gender and my skin color, and I can boss my wife and my children around like slaves." So, since they do not follow the teachings of Christ, but instead worship treacherous-treasonous-traitorous-tantruming-Trump, they are not Christians either, but brainwashed members of the Cult of Trump!
the might is right crew - I have the might and i determine the right.
Both disheartening and enraging at the same time. To lean on a time-worn trope, perhaps we should be shop'n for a hang'n Judge to mete out some justice long overdue? Al Pacino's character in Scent of a Woman expressed my current sentiment toward the shockingly effective manipulating radical republicans perfectly... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq8CtJSQFL4 - More's the pity that we can't live in a celluloid universe rather in the world as we currently find it. So, within my limited sphere of available time and energy I will view "enraged" as a heartfelt and not so funny malapropism for "engaged" and do whatever I can to assure a second Biden administration, and to add a growing awareness of the local scene in our part of the world.
Al Pacino did more than adequately express his opinion to the board! Even when the administrator tried to shut him down he said,”I’m just getting started!” Probably my favorite scene ever!
Should we become complacent even more and sit out the November election or vote third party, Trump wins! For democracy, game over! Yes, GAME OVER ‼️
The bought out "GOP" is trying to warp the infrastructure of the republic to destroy the republic, and install a "wannabee dictator". Follow the Money.
Yep. Follow the meddling, too. Trump et al. are "bot and paid for."
I keep hoping those greasy Bic Macs he eats every day will take him down. I don't think we could be so lucky. I am beyond sick and tired of the raging, corrupt creep DJT.
I'm kinda torn about him dying. I think I'd prefer seeing pictures of him strapped to a chair with a shaved head and drooling, than for him to die.
Not that I want to see that image, but I know there would be nothing more embarrassing for him and his followers. I wonder if he's ever seen the picture of his fat ass in the tennis shorts. That's something you can't unsee.
My spouse's daily prayer for the stroke that leaves him drooling but aware of his surroundings hasn't been answered. But she keeps trying.
James, that is my wish as well. Alive but not functional or capable of speech.
A double sized chair at that!
I agree, Mr. Wilkins. All jokes aside, DJT is a horrible person, and there is no way he should ever be allowed to lead our nation again. He is a cruel and evil person that will utterly destroy the United States. He is a narcissistic psychopath that doesn't give a hoot about the average citizens of our nation. That stunt he pulled with the large banner of President Biden hog tied and bound in the back of a pickup truck recently is the last straw for me. I just hope he has to go to prison for the rest of his despicable life. In my opinion, he is just as horrible as Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, Timothy McVeigh, Al Capone, the Unabomber, just to name a few of some of the most notorious criminals that have ever existed here in the United States!
He’s, as an old saying goes, rotten to the core! Never seen anyone worse! I dare say, the devil himself!
I fully agree with you, i might say, he could be even worse than the old devil himself! I have a sister-in-law who is obsessed with that cretin. I avoid her at all costs. She is a low IQ person just like so many of DJT's followers are. Kind of reminds me of the Jim Jones cult!
On second thought, i like your idea better. Or seeing him imprisoned in a filthy prison cell in solitary confinement and fed stale, moldy bread and water from a sewage pond and no contact with the outside world and no ''Big Macs'' allowed.
I think i would lose my appetite permanently if i seen that picture of his fat ass in the tennis shorts. I don't even like to think about that.
Ugh!
I wish that I could turn on our TV and not see his face every day! The media is giving him exactly what he wants. I think too he knows if he makes outrageous statements, the more press coverage he’ll get. Yet, we play right into his hands! Like the old saying, “ Playing us like a ukulele!
The complacency is what scares me!