James at Right Wisconsin Gets Voting Rights Wrong in Wisconsin

Voting in Wisconsin

This gets tiresome.
 
Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson is a genuinely good writer. His thoughts are insightful. He presents those thoughts crisply and clearly.
 
But he’s not perfect, a fact he illustrates while complaining about a Republican passed state law that says a state commission is required to use a disreputable method that has a history of disenfranchising legitimate voters. James is not complaining about an unjust, anti-democratic law. His beef is with a state election commission that is not using the law as it was intended. Instead, members voted to add safeguards to be sure valid voters are still allowed to vote.
 
The practice is known as voter caging. When used unethically, a mail piece is sent to voters. The piece is non-forwardable. Non-wealthy, non-owners are more likely to move short distances away. Those pieces will be returned as non-deliverable. Around the country, Republicans have used the method to file legal complaints against voter registrations. When voters show up to vote, they are told they are no longer registered. When used aggressively, tens of thousands of legitimate voters are told they are no longer voters. Some don’t show up, since reminders are sent only to those still on file.
 
The national Republican Party eventually signed a consent agreement that has the force of law. They agreed never to use voter caging again, because … well … the rights of voters should be protected.
 
Sometimes, today’s Republicans use state governments to get around the consent agreement. When they get control of a state legislature they use the state itself to perform voter caging. The consent agreement only keeps the Republican Party from unfairly keeping voters from voting. It doesn’t keep state governments from doing the disfranchising.
 
In Wisconsin, the Election Board is using caging, but they are taking additional steps, like giving voters more time to show they are still state residents.
 
James is pretty upset. He approves of a lawsuit by a conservative organization that seeks to force the commission to cancel voter rights within 30 days after a mailing is returned. After all, the law is the law, right?
 
There could be reasoned arguments against additional safeguards. Perhaps the national Republican consent agreement against caging was a bridge too far. Maybe, if done carefully, caging is okay. Perhaps a call or visit could ensure that only folks who move out-of-state are purged. Or perhaps there are other arguments for what otherwise would look like a naked attempt to undermine democracy.
 
If a voter shows up to vote and is unexpectedly barred from voting, Wisconsin does allow that voter to go home and dig up hospital birth papers, marriage licenses, and other documents, then to return and re-register on the spot, and vote. Many forms of ID are not allowed. This is a bit of a burden, especially for non-drivers who rely on bus schedules to commute to work, to shop, and to vote. James argues that the Wisconsin same-day home trip document provision is absolute proof that caging presents no burden on low income voters.
 
Aside from that, James relies primarily on accusation. He charges that a failure to purge these voters will cause voter fraud. In reality, when elections are stolen, it is by behind-the-scenes fiddling with vote totals, not illegal voters showing up to vote. An amazing number of studies have shown voter fraud is vanishingly rare, while the denial of voting rights is alarmingly common.
 
James does not document his discredited accusation. He does not bother to defend his stance from well-known arguments against it. In fact, he does not mention those arguments.
 
He neglects the Republican history of abuse, and the Republican consent agreement, and the danger of purging valid voters and making it impractical for them to re-register.
 
To be fair, James has, over his writing career, repeatedly proven he can do better than this.

Not So Ruby Tuesday, Lies, Fraud, RasPutin, Shutdown, Sean Melts

Andy Beshear, Kentucky Democrat, Victory Speech

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No Booing, No Cheers:
Seven Silent Stadiums

A different sport in many ways.

The concussive violence of football, the long term damage to players, was never in the national consciousness in those days. Back when I was a kid, such thoughts never intruded. We had no idea.

There is something about football crowds. I’m not sure exactly what it is. But if most of us were blindfolded and put into the middle of a crowd at a professional game, we’d be able to tell if it was football or some other sport. The raucousness of the crowd, maybe? The yelling of the vendors? The play-by-play enthusiasm? Hard to say what the rhythm is, exactly, but it is unmistakable.

The Redskins vs Eagles game at Franklin Field in Philadelphia had been billed as a big deal. The stadium itself seemed like the setting for it. It was the oldest stadium in the country. The Eagles had been there only a few years.

By the time the coin was tossed that Sunday, there were over 60,000 fans in the stadium. But, on that Sunday, you would not have recognized the sound as happening during a football event. In fact, there was an eerie silence during the entire game.
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Seven Silent Stadiums”

World Series Boos and Blues, God, Gaetz, Overconfidence, Balance

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MAGA Violence, Colorado Walled, Lynch, Corruption, Barr, Biden Lips

MAGA Pepper Spray
  • How many MAGA folks will turn violent if provoked by that with which they violently disagree? M. Bouffant at Web of Evil notes a pepper spray attack on some non-violent anti-Trump protestors (videos included), followed by the arrest of the attacker, and sees a sign of more violent things to come when Trump gets tossed.
     
  • After 7 months or so, Margaret and Helen are finally back. YAY!
    Helen talks about Trump’s wall in Colorado right on the border with Mexico.
     
    Uh…
    HaHaHa. He was just joking, really he was.
     
    She suggests that something is seriously wrong with someone who ties himself and his administration into pretzel shaped knots because he can’t ever, ever be wrong, even about little mistakes that can’t possibly be m-m-m-mistakes. Because … Trump.
     
  • Laurie Baron at The Moderate Voice explains to my President, I suspect with exaggerated care, the difference between impeachment and lynching.
     
  • It’s all in the headline as Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post manages a bit of pity for those trying to defend Trump lies. Or maybe the lack of content after the sympathetic headline is the message. Symbolism can be hard.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony brings us Tom the Dancing Bug to explain the absurdity of current Trump defenses and why Trump still doesn’t seem worried.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors quotes my president on Rudy (“He looks for corruption wherever he goes”) and discerns a bit of irony.
     
  • Let’s see. GOP Congressional Reps object because Impeachment Proceedings are following unfair procedures, including conducting investigatory hearings in private. The rules were established in 2015 by … uh … the Republican controlled Congress. News Corpse suggests a bit of hypocrisy as Trump Attorney General Barr conducts a baseless investigation of FBI investigators of 2016 Russia interference. Seems Barr’s Russia probe is being done entirely in secret.
     
  • Green Eagle goes to the history books (which, for me, would largely be memory) to count Attorneys General in Republican and Democratic administrations and which retired with reputations intact and which did not.
     
  • In MadMikesAmerica Michael John Scott likes Bernie Sanders. Might even support him. One drawback: Bernie’s reckless minions who helped serve up Trump. Michael didn’t exactly say Bernie Bros are jerks, so I suppose there may yet be peace in the valley.
     
  • Frances Langum brings us a couple of lip-reading videos with Joe Biden as the subject, both videos hilarious. Other campaign targets are promised.
     
  • Lots of retractions. So, okay, turns out Hillary didn’t say, or imply, that Tulsi is a Russian asset, but rather that she is being groomed by the GOP for a third party. The always insightful Vixen Strangely at Strangely Blogged, insightfully makes an insightful observation. Tulsi pretty much underscores the underlying under lying by making Trumpy talking points on, of all places, Fox. Okay, so maybe shes a groomee after all. Still I do kind of wish Hillary would start of new tradition that losing presidential candidates are best not heard or seen or thought about. Like …uh… Jill Stein. Did I mention insightful?
     
  • Julian Sanchez of Cato Institution is interviewed about 2020 election security in a posted podcast.
     
  • Our favorite Earth-Bound Misfit briefly explains the how the crisis in higher education spreads to a similar crisis in military recruitment. Trump/Miller immigration policy makes both crises close to hopeless.
     
  • In about 5 seconds, Scotties Toy Box explains what the issue of deficit spending is really about.
     
  • driftglass briefly recites the story of how upstart Einstein with his weird theories was vindicated and ties it to media history of false equivalence. Balance at the expense of documented truth.
     
  • The Journal of Improbable Research finds a documentary about ongoing research into talent and meritocracy. Apparently, luck has more to do with it than is generally acknowledged. One study provides mathematical proof that organizations would be more efficient if promotions were awarded randomly.

Betrayal, Corruption, Trump by the Numbers, Diving, Melting

Trump and Tarot

  • nojo argues compellingly that, with the betrayal of America’s Kurdish allies, the damage to our country is not really long lasting. It is more likely permanent.
     
  • Max’s Dad does not think Mr. Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds was a mistake. It was deliberate. The real motive is obvious.
     
  • North Carolina pastor John Pavlovitz has a message for conservative evangelicals who proudly declare themselves to be pro-life. If you are not horrified, sick to your stomach, over the Trump-endorsed genocide that has begun against Kurdish families, you are not pro-life.
     
  • Green Eagle suggests an unwitting partner in the Trump/Erdogan ethnic cleansing of our Kurdish allies.
     
  • Tommy Christopher sometimes watches Fox News. He has to. It’s part of his job. On Monday he watched Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump defend the impulsive abandonment of Trump families to the tender mercies of Erdogan. She says it’s not a big deal because most Americans don’t even know who the Kurds are.
     
  • Ted McLaughlin at jobsanger tells us of one American who does know who the Kurds are. The wife of an American soldier writes a letter of hope, fear, and gratitude to Kurdish soldiers, for fighting bravely along with her husband. They were part of his safe return home to her and the family waiting anxiously for him.

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Heros with Painted Nails

found online by Alert Reader Tee Tee

 

Firefighters Tough As Nails

From CBS News:

Firefighters let “very scared” little girl paint their nails after she was in a car crash

While on the scene of a car accident on Saturday, two Utah firefighters noticed a “very scared” young girl clutching bottles of nail polish. The pair offered to let the girl paint their nails to help calm her down — and left with much more than a new manicure.

– More –
 

Press Pressed, Trump Foxed, Kurds Betrayed, Graham Punked

Trump Betrays
  • nojo expresses the frustration of patriots, and does it more eloquently than anyone else, at the numbingly repetitive nature of Trump scandals and the lazy collaboration of the press.
     
  • News Corpse reports as the current White House occupant heaps furious heaps of fury on Fox News for allowing some personalities to openly criticize him.
     
  • Pretty much every US adult with even the dimmest awareness knows our President betrayed a vulnerable ally made up of fierce fighters who risked everything to help the US destroy a common enemy. Infidel753 reviews what happened with more knowledge and insight than ordinary mortals, and predicts with startling clarity the long term impact on our nation.
     
  • Jack Jodell at The Saturday Afternoon Post has never liked my president. But he is especially angry as Mr. Trump leaps from election fraud and caging children all the way to abetting genocide.
     
  • Michael John Scott of MadMikesAmerica goes around the world and through the ideological spectrum for reactions to President Trump’s nonsensical defense of his abandonment of our Kurdish allies to the tender mercies of Turkey: that Kurds were not part of the Normandy invasion.
     
  • At The Moderate Voice James Gelvin points to an underreported aspect to the developing genocide enabled by Trump: a remarkable democratic experiment by the Kurds.
     
  • tengrain at Mock Paper Scissors relates the latest adventures of Senator Graham, angry as all hell about Trump’s betrayal of the Kurds to Turkey’s aggression … until we find out about his true feelings as expressed to someone he thought was an official in Turkey during a prank phone call. Interesting that the call was arranged by Russians with ties to Putin’s spy network.
     
  • Scotties Toy Box tells us which refugees might be able somehow to make it over Trump’s wall, if it actually gets built.
     
  • Iron Knee at Political Irony explains the weirdness of my President by channeling Rod Serling.
     
  • At The Onion, Donald Trump has a plan to flee from government oppression.
     
  • Tommy Christopher of Mediaite interviews Dan Abrams of … well … Mediaite to recount how two associates of Rudy Giuliani have been arrested after lunching with him. The Mediaite associates speculate on how he must be feeling right now.
     
  • Green Eagle considers how Rudy’s buddies were apprehended at the airport, trying to leave the country before they could be arrested, and asks the most obvious question that would immediately occur to a skeptical mind.
     
  • Jonathan Bernstein looks at history and current polling and suggests that the campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination is not a two person race.
     
  • Frances Langum has a cool story to tell. The Federal Election Commission chair can’t do much of anything because Trump won’t appoint new members so a quorum is a mathmatical impossibility. She sometimes goes semi-public, refusing to comment on specific cases but quoting applicable law. This ticks off a Congressman who sends a threatening letter. What she does next is perfect.
     
  • Wisconsin conservative James Wigderson once explained his everlasting hostility toward President Trump. Now he never seems to miss an opportunity to prove himself wrong, even portraying a Republican Senator’s awkward refusal to answer a simple question about my President as heroically challenging the narrative. But sometimes integrity parallels contemporary conservativism: as when James blasts the NBA for surrendering free speech to Communist China.
     
  • I sometimes hear from my brothers and sisters in Christ, in one form or another, some version of Pascal’s Wager. It has always struck me as fundamentally dishonest to attempt to gin up something that might pass for belief, not because you genuinely think it is true, but out of fear just in case. In a particularly vicious form of this rhetoric, Bruce Gerencser finds himself threatened by an angry evangelical who warns him that since he says bad things about God, God will get him. Don’t tug on Superman’s cape, so to speak, by saying you don’t believe in the planet Krypton.
     
  • driftglass offers a brief overview of his use of Facebook.
     

The New Colossus: We Believe In This Solemn Promise – Or We Don’t

From Burr

Trailer for the new documentary, Liberty: Mother of Exiles

The poem by Emma Lazarus, the poem that was placed at the base of the Statue of Liberty is movingly, powerfully read by:

Big Freedia,
Wayne Brady,
Charo,
Jessica Chastain,
Andy Cohen,
Whoopi Goldberg,
Cyndi Lauper,
Monica Lewinsky,
Lizzo,
Courtney Love,
RuPaul,
Regina Spektor

Treason, Cruelty, Snakes, Trump and Obama and JFK and Churchill

From Newsmaker Limericks at MostCorrupt.com

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