Lessons of History and Trying To Avoid the Same Mistakes

[Sixties Fan]

Supreme Court rebuffs GOP challenge to Biden's immigration policies

The court threw out Texas' lawsuit in an 8-1 ruling.

www.axios.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

Mail voting targeted after 2020
More recently, lawmakers seeking to restrict access to voting have focused on voting by mail. The United States has a long history of mail voting that dates back to before the nation’s founding. In the immediate aftermath of Shelby County, very few restrictive laws targeting mail voting passed. In fact, many states actively expanded mail voting options. However, the lies about mail ballot voter fraud that were spread during and after the 2020 race, coupled with the role mail voting played in expanding voter turnout in 2020, prompted an extreme legislative backlash against mail voting. Since the 2020 election, 20 states passed 32 laws restricting mail voting access. Overall, 22 states passed 41 such laws since Shelby County. (A number of these bills restricted voting access in other ways as well.)
For any voter, and especially those who have travel obligations, health needs, transportation challenges, or job conflicts, restricting mail voting can hinder them from easily participating in democracy. Some of these new restrictions have a clear racially discriminatory impact. For example, the Brennan Center studied a 2021 Texas law requiring a voter to include their driver’s license number or the last four digits of their social security number on mail ballot applications and mail ballots and requiring the number to match the individual’s voter file data. During Texas’s March 2022 primary, thousands of mail ballots and mail ballot applications were rejected, disproportionately cast by Latino, Asian, and Black voters. Overall, nonwhite voters were at least 30 percent more likely to have an application or mail ballot rejected than white voters.
In short, Shelby County v. Holder opened the floodgates for restrictive voting laws. The Supreme Court’s ruling was based on a claim that racial discrimination in voting was largely a thing of the past, but the story that has unfolded in the years since belies that claim. Over the last decade, voters have faced an unprecedented slew of restrictive and often discriminatory laws, and the courts have offered little in the way of protection.
As the Supreme Court noted in Shelby County, Congress can remedy this problem. And it should — by passing the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to restore the Voting Rights Act to its full strength, as well as the Freedom to Vote Act to set nondiscriminatory baseline national standards for voting and elections.

​

(full article online)

States Have Added Nearly 100 Restrictive Laws Since SCOTUS Gutted the Voting Rights Act 10 Years Ago

Many of the new laws are in states with a history of racial voting discrimination.

www.brennancenter.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ Religious extremism at its worse ]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

[ If not Hunter, then the Jews. One or the other ]

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) has appeared to suggest that an announcement about the fate of the missing Titan submersible was somehow planned to distract from accusations against the president’s son Hunter Biden.

“If the U.S. Navy suspected that the Titan Submersible imploded just hours after it began its voyage, why did the Coast Guard wait until Thursday—the same day the IRS whistleblowers testified before Congress—to make their announcement to the public?” asked the senator in a Friday night tweet.

Authorities searching for the Titan said Thursday afternoon that the vessel seemed to suffer a “catastrophic” failure not long after launching into the North Atlantic on Sunday, killing all aboard. It took several days to mobilize high-tech equipment and locate any sign of the sub. After a debris field on the ocean floor turned out to be remnants of the Titan, the U.S. Navy revealed that it had detected what was likely the sound of the vessel imploding Sunday, although the Navy said it could not be sure at the time.

Also on Thursday, the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee convened behind closed doors and voted to release IRS whistleblower testimony criticizing a federal investigation into Joe Biden’s son.

The interviews with the two whistleblowers had taken place weeks ago, not the same day as the Titan announcement, as Blackburn suggested.

The pair alleged that the Justice Department improperly interfered with the investigation of Hunter Biden, which began as a tax probe and expanded to look at his business dealings. Attorney General Merrick Garland staunchly denied accusations of wrongdoing.


(full article online)

GOP Sen. Marsha Blackburn Floats Conspiracy Theory On Titanic Sub And Hunter Biden

That authorities found the missing Titan on Thursday was too much of a coincidence for the Tennessee senator.

news.yahoo.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Analysts Say Solar Is Saving Texans From Widespread Power Outages Amid Extreme Heat

"Renewables are definitely saving the grid and saving our wallets," said one independent energy analyst.

www.commondreams.org

 

[Sixties Fan]

Pete Souza is a professional photographer whose work documenting President Reagan (R, 1981 — 1989) and President Obama (D, 2009 — 2017) is in the National Archives, probably in the form of original film for the former and original memory cards for the latter. Copies of these photos are of course available for use and misuse in the public domain.

And of course if it’s Trump doing the using, it’s probably misuse. Yesterday, classified documents salesman Donald Trump posted the photo above on Truth Social with the caption, “Biden sitting outside with Lisa Monaco, second in charge of DOJ, probably working on future Plots and Schemes against Republicans.”⁣

Souza did not take kindly to his photo being used for one of Trump’s deceptions. “Shame on Donald Trump for using a photo I made to try and justify yet another one of his lies,” Souza wrote on Instagram this morning.

⁣To be fair to liar Trump, he did include the word “probably” in there, admitting that he doesn’t know for a fact what President Biden and Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco were actually talking about at the time the photo was taken. And, as Souza points out, the photo is from a decade ago. Back then, Biden was the vice president, not the president, and Monaco was an advisor from Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice.




(full article online)

Pete Souza sets the record straight on misused Biden photo

Pete Souza is a professional photographer whose work documenting President Reagan (R, 1981 — 1989) and President Obama (D, 2009 — 2017) is in the National Archives, probably in the form of original film for the former and original memory cards for the...

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Turns out crime doesn't pay: Trump's fundraising slides

Are you ready for the media’s favorite bedtime story? Once upon a time in America, Republicans were right on the verge of saying goodbye to Donald Trump. They were seriously looking for someone who could bring them all of Trump’s policies without...

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware announced that it had reached a plea deal with Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two charges of misdemeanor failure to pay taxes, and one felony charge of possessing a gun while using drugs.

As NBC News reports, that Hunter Biden is facing these charges at all is highly unusual. When it comes to the tax charges, Biden had already paid the missing taxes in 2021. It’s very unusual for the IRS to file any sort of criminal charge against a first-time tax offender, and it’s difficult to find any situation where such charges have been filed after the taxes were paid. The statute against possessing a weapon while using drugs is also rarely applied, and is generally limited to cases where defendants are facing other charges involving gun violence or drug sales.

Even though Republicans are whining that Hunter Biden has been let go with a slap on the wrist, the truth is that he’s facing charges that are much stiffer than are usually applied to anyone in his situation. And the reason seems to be simple enough: The man in charge of Hunter Biden’s case, U.S. Attorney David Weiss, was not just appointed by Donald Trump, but was one of the candidates Trump bragged about as being among the most supportive of MAGA positions.


Even as Republicans are complaining that the Department of Justice is somehow doing Joe Biden’s bidding in this matter, Weiss issued a letter to Rep. Jim Jordan making it clear that everything about Hunter Biden’s case—from the investigation to the charges and penalties—was entirely his decision.

“I want to make it clear that, as the Attorney General has stated, I have been granted ultimate authority over this matter, including responsibility for deciding where, when, and whether to file charges, and for making decisions necessary to preserve the integrity of the prosecution, consistent with federal law, the Principles of Federal Prosecution, and departmental regulations.”

Weiss issued this letter while turning down Jordan’s demand that the U.S. attorney produce information that would violate the privacy of both Hunter Biden and others interviewed in the investigation, which Republicans are naturally seizing on as yet more “proof” of a corrupt DOJ.

That includes Trump, whose reaction to the news that Hunter Biden is getting a sentence above and beyond what would be applied to the average person in such a position is exactly as might be expected.


(full article online)

Republicans weren't really interested in Hunter Biden. Or the truth

On Tuesday, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware announced that it had reached a plea deal with Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden. Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two charges of misdemeanor failure to pay taxes, and one...

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

Via Rep. Adam Schiff’s House press room: (emphasis supplied)

To my Republican colleagues who introduced this resolution, I thank you. You honor me with your enmity.

You flatter me with this falsehood. You, who are the authors of a big lie about the last election, must condemn the truth tellers, and I stand proudly before you.

Your words tell me that I have been effective in the defense of our democracy, and I am grateful.

And yet this false and defamatory resolution comes at a considerable cost to the country and to the Congress.

At a moment when millions of people in our home state of California are unable to find a place to live or afford a place to live, Speaker McCarthy chooses to occupy the resources of the Congress for two straight weeks on this hollow sop to the MAGA crowd.

He offers nothing to those who are homeless, or addicted to opioids, or to millions of college students mired in debt, but this paltry distraction.

Donald Trump is under indictment for actions that jeopardize our national security, and McCarthy would spend the nation’s time on petty political payback, thinking he can censure or fine Trump’s opposition into submission.

But I will not yield. Not one inch.

The cost to [the country of] the Speaker’s delinquency is high, but the cost to Congress of this frivolous and yet dangerous resolution may be even higher, as it represents another serious abuse of power.

Donald Trump has threatened that any of you that defy him, and vote against this partisan resolution, will be met by a primary challenge.

And he calls for my imprisonment. If a transient majority can punish and attempt to silence members who hold a corrupt president to account, there is no telling what further corruption of office will follow.

And I say this to Speaker McCarthy and others who wish to gratify Donald Trump with this act of subservience or bend to his demands — try as you might to expel me from Congress, or silence me with a $16 million dollar fine, you will not succeed. You might as well make it $160 million. You will never deter me from doing my duty.

No matter how many false justifications or slanders you level against me, you but indict yourselves. As Liz Cheney said, “there will come a day when Donald Trump is gone, but your dishonor will remain.”

This resolution attacks me for initiating an investigation into Trump campaign solicitation and acceptance of Russian help in the 2016 election, even though the investigation was first led not by me, but by a Republican chairman.

It would hold that when you give internal campaign polling data to a Russian intelligence operative, while Russian intelligence is helping your campaign — as Trump’s campaign chairman did — that you must not call that collusion, though that is its proper name, as the country well knows.

It would fine me for the costs of the critically important Mueller investigation into Trump’s misconduct, even though the special counsel was appointed by Trump’s own attorney general.

It would reprimand me over a flawed FISA application, as if I were its author, or I was the director of the FBI, and over flaws only discovered years later and by the inspector general, not Mr. Durham.

In short, it would accuse me of omnipotence, the leader of some vast deep state conspiracy. And of course, it is nonsense.

But here is the real gravamen of my offense:

I led the first impeachment of Donald Trump for one of the most egregious presidential abuses of power in our history, and I led a trial which resulted in the first bipartisan vote to remove a president in history.

And I would do so again.

I warned that if Trump was not held accountable, he would go on to try to cheat in even worse ways in the next election, and HE DID, inciting a violent attack on this very Capitol.

And after that, I participated in some of the most important hearings in congressional history — hearings that exposed Donald Trump’s incitement of a dangerous insurrection to prevent the peaceful transfer of power.

My colleagues, if there is cause for censure in this House — and there is — it should be directed at those in this body who sought to overturn a free and fair election.

The question, my Republican colleagues, is not why am I the subject of this false resolution for doing my constitutional duty, but why are you not? Why are you not standing beside me, the subject of a similar rebuke for speaking the truth?

Why did you not stand up to Donald Trump, why did you not reject his immorality, why did you not condemn his dishonesty, why did you not speak out when his horde attacked this Capitol, or now, when he treats the nation’s secrets with such carelessness, lawlessness and disdain, why did you hide from efforts to hold him accountable, why were you silent, afraid, unwilling to do your ethical, constitutional duty, why did you cower, why did you cower — and why do you still?

Will it be said of you that you lacked the courage to stand up to the most immoral, unlawful and unethical president in history, but consoled yourselves by attacking those who did?

Today, I wear this partisan vote as a badge of honor. Knowing that I have lived my oath.

Knowing that I have done my duty, to hold a dangerous and out of control president accountable. And knowing that I would do so again — in a heartbeat — if the circumstances should ever require it. I thank you.

And I yield back.

Full transcript of Rep. Adam Schiff's response to his censure by the Trump-corrupted GOP House

Every word of this is worth savoring and remembering.

www.dailykos.com

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]

 

[Sixties Fan]