Everyday Erinyes #81

Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage.  These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that.  Even though there are many more which I can’t include.  As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”

Kris Kobach is not a name new to Politics Plus readers.  Probably his major claim to fame is the invention of “Crosscheck” –  which is now suspeced of having disenfranchised more voters in several red states than Trump’s margin of “victory” in those states.  It should come as a surprise to no one that such an achievement brought him to the attention of Trump, and resulted in an appointment to Trump’s Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.

He has now sent letters to all fifty states “requesting”

all publicly available voter roll data, including the full names of all registered voters along with their addresses, dates of birth, the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, voting history and other personal information. 

There are, thankfully, SOME states whose elected officials have a clue about Democratic government, truth, and falsehood.  Connecticut reported the letter it received to news agencies, resulting in my source article in the Kansas City Star.  However, that appears to be the extent of it for Connecticut – or else, they have quite a sense of humor.  Maybe both.

Connecticut Secretary of State Denise Merrill, a Democrat, said in a statement that her office plans to share “publicly-available information with the Kobach commission while ensuring that the privacy of voters is honored by withholding protected data.” 

“In the same spirit of transparency, we will request that the commission share any memos, meeting minutes or additional information as state officials have not been told precisely what the commission is looking for,” she said. “This lack of openness is all the more concerning, considering that the vice chair of the commission, Kris Kobach, has a lengthy record of illegally disenfranchising eligible voters in Kansas.” 

Missouri is going right along with the plan, and “looks forward” to working with Kobach.

California has the Secretary of State I would like to have (and, I’m sure, don’t.)  Alex Padilla

said in a statement that he will “not provide sensitive voter information to a commission that has already inaccurately passed judgment that millions of Californians voted illegally.”

“California’s participation would only serve to legitimize the false and already debunked claims of massive voter fraud made by the President, the Vice President, and Mr. Kobach. The President’s Commission is a waste of taxpayer money and a distraction from the real threats to the integrity of our elections today: aging voting systems and documented Russian interference in our elections.”

It might be a good idea for everyone in the US to contact his or her State Secretary of State and find out where he or she stands on this – “request.”  [Afterwards you can try saying “State Secretary of State” five times fast.]  Let us know.  Megaera and Tisiphone will be standing by.

Moving briefly to Right Wing Watch, a service of People for the American Way, Rick Wiles was recently picked up praising Russia for banning “cults,” such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Who is Rick Wiles, you may (if you are lucky) wonder.  Well, Rick Wiles, founder and host of the TruNews [sic] radio program and trunews dot com, as well as a frequent guest on the Jum Bakker Show (yes, that Jim Bakker), can in my opinion probably be well described as Alex Jones on Prozac.  He is every bit as crazy as Jones.  But he keeps a lower profile, and, unlike Jones, keeps his personal life out of the news.  He does, however, say crazy things (Pokemon are from Satan, Democrats are Satanic, Barack Obama is a devil from hell – gee, I am starting to see a pattern here) on a regular basis, and I only bring him up today as an example for Separation of Church and State 101.

• Praising Russia for banning “cults,” such as the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
• Praising Ireland for banning “cults,” such as the Southern Baptists.
• Praising South Afric for banning “cults,” such as the Unitarian Universalists.
• Praising India for banning “cults,” such as the Catholic Chirch.

See how that works?

If you accept the first one, you are stuck with, not only the other three, but many others I can’t even imagine.  And, pretty soon, some one, some country is going to get around to banning YOU.  Because there is no religion or religious group, including atheism and agnosticism, that isn’t perceived as a cult by SOMEONE.

Alecto, I doubt if even the Erinyes can get any sense into what Wiles calls his head.  But for sure, if you can’t, no one can.  good luck.

The Furies and I will be back.

Cross posted to Care2 at http://www.care2.com/news/member/101612212/4059982