I know all our thoughts are with Colleen, but there’s still some news too, and some commentary. Thank God It’s Friday. I guess.
Cartoon 
Short Takes
Washington Post – States across the country are dropping barriers to voting, widening a stark geographic divide in ballot access
Quote – Seventy-one new laws easing voting rules are poised to benefit 63 million eligible voters in 28 states, or about one-quarter of the U.S. voting population, according to the Voting Rights Lab report, which tracked policy changes as of June 13. Thirty-one new laws in 18 states create more barriers to the ballot box, affecting 36 million eligible voters, or 15 percent of the national voting population, the report stated. Legislative debates over restrictions are underway in key states such as Texas and Pennsylvania, leaving open the possibility that new limitations affecting millions more voters still will be enacted this year.
Click through if you don’t mind fighting a paywall. Bottom line, it’s somewhat bleak,but not all break.
CNN – Why Democrats were desperate to win Joe Manchin’s vote for an already-doomed election bill (opinion)
Quote – See, now all 50 Democrats will vote to move forward with election reform legislation and all 50 Republicans are expected to oppose that move, Democrats can then go to their base ahead of the coming 2022 midterms and say something like: Every single Democrat wanted to make elections more fair and open. And every single Republican stood in opposition to that effort.
Click through for full analysis. He may be right, or there may be more, but this theory falls in well with Auntie Maxine’s vide vote request.
Crooks and Liars – Ohio Republican Who Forged His Father’s Signature To Vote Twice Calls It ‘An Honest Mistake’
Quote – “It was there with a pile of other paperwork,” Snodgrass said of the absentee ballot. “I was sleep-deprived and not thinking clearly. But I’m not going to run away from it. I was simply trying to execute a dying man’s wishes,” he added, saying that it would be wrong to characterize what he did as “just Trump voter fraud.”
Click through for a little more. Sadly they must be saving his picture for the poster for IOKIYAAR.
Bonus Headline: Americans Shocked to Learn That Giuliani Had Law License (Borowitz) You can click through also.
Food for Thought
first they came for Rudy Giuliani’s law license, and I did not speak out- because I was laughing so hard that I couldn’t catch my breath. also, fuck that guy
— Jeff Tiedrich (@itsJeffTiedrich) June 24, 2021
9 Responses to “Open Thread for June 25, 2021”
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States across the country are dropping barriers to voting
Putting up barriers to prevent Americans from voting is terrible. But allowing legislatures to NULLIFY the results of elections if they don’t like the results is downright fascist!
How is that remotely Constitutional?
Why Democrats were desperate to win Joe Manchin’s vote
It’s a wonderful campaign point. Now we Democrats need to learn to talk in “Bumper Sticker Language” (like Rethuglicans do so well) so we can beat them over the head with it!
Ohio Republican Who Forged His Father’s Signature To Vote Twice Calls It ‘An Honest Mistake’
Riggghhhttt
Americans Shocked to Learn That Giuliani Had Law License (Borowitz)
Giuliani’s lawyers statement on the suspension was a head-scratcher for me:
Gee, I don’t know – maybe it’s just me. But I think when Giuliani, on January 6th, incited an insurrection when he called for a “Trial by combat” to nullify the election results … that would probably qualify as “pos[ing] a present danger to the public interest.”
Colleen – Hope your surgery goes well & you recover quickly!
Cartoon: Yes, a good day for the Native Americans.
WaPo: Not good news, and worse for TX & PA. No thanks to our gov’nah.. and I’m sure other states will follow. ugh!
CNN: Hope Manchin’s vote works and is preserved for the Dems, in the future. The R’s not so much. ugh.
C&L: Good grief! If I would have done that, I’d be in jail for months. What in the same hill was he thinking? Besides lying about the incident? I agree that he should lose his status as an elected official too.
Bonus: Andy rocks! Love this guy, and so spot on!!
FFT: Awesome. He writes out loud, what I think in the moment.
p.s. Colleen … Hope all goes well for you today, and also for a smooth post-op recovery.
This just in: TJI: “All 11 Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee are calling on Merrick Garland and DOJ to release the memo supposedly justifying Bill Barr’s decision not to prosecute Trump. Garland and DOJ must show transparency, the Dems argue in a new letter.” ~ Greg Sargent ~
2. “Given that Biden just hours ago demanded reciprocal transparency in their respective Govts between USA & Russia, I think transparency here should be a given.” ~ Kiwi C. ~
3. “As Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner’s relationships strain, you can bet that Donald will throw Jared “under the bus”, as the DA’s case heats up. Stay tuned, folks…family fireworks are about to be ignited for our viewing entertainment.” ~ Michael Cohen ~
4. “Every major social problem in America can be linked to fatherlessness. Wherever involved fathers are rare, crisis is certain to follow. And billions in government spending is no substitute for fatherhood.” ~ Marco Rubio ~
5. REPLY to Rubio’s statement #4 – “WTF is wrong with you @marcorubio?? Are you saying all of the January 6th insurrectionists lacked fathers. Closer to home, are you saying the impact of gun violence on Americans is because of a lack of dads? No Marco, it is because of cowards like you.” ~ Fred Guttenberg ~
TJI ## 4 & 5 – Marco has a point. but it’s not the point he thinks he has. Kids can be fatherless regardless of the presence of a chronological adult with a penis in their life. If that person is a narcissist, or a practicing addict, or a MAGAt, or any number of other things, including a Marco Rubio, they are not being fathered. On the other hand … I was reared by a single mother – a widow – my dad died while she was still in the hospital with me, a newborn. But she did what she needed to do to be sure I felt his love. Just one example, when I hit puberty, she sat me down to read all his love letters to her. That canot have been easy. The only time I felt I needed to carry a gun was in the military – and then only while transporting cash. Preach it, Fred.
This just in:
Derek Chauvin was sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for the murder of George Floyd.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2021/06/25/derek-chauvin-sentenced-prison-george-floyd-murder/5319789001/
Great minds!
I just read that too on the A(ustralian)BC news.
Judge Peter Cahill said the sentence wasn’t based on emotion or sympathy nor on politics. Kudos to Judge Cahill for handing Chauvin an appropriate sentence, as Biden called it.
TJI #1 – Time for Garland to step up and start providing some reasonable, valid & earnest information WRT Barr’s shenanigans.
Cartoon: Native Americans never got long to celebrate their victories, did they?
WP: This article turned out a bit more hopeful than expected but, as we all know, the balance is shifting quickly.
CNN: This sounds like the correct analysis to me. But Democrats shouldn’t be waiting until 2022 to use it against Republicans. Use it now and without remorse.
C&L: He’s a Trumpkin, isn’t he? Of course, this is an honest mistake to him. And it is also why he contradicted himself immediately by saying he had been trying to execute a dying man’s wishes. He must have had front-row seats at every Trump rally.
AB: Everyone was under the impression the licence had been taken from Rudy years ago.
FFT: You must have read my mind, Jeff.