March, 2021 archive
The Voter Fraud Fraud, Facts Are What People Think Dept. 0
In the light of the previous federal executive’s loss in the recent national election, a number of Republican legislators are proposing bills to gut out the vote. One of their justifications* can be loosely paraphrased as “well, lots of persons think that something was wrong, so we must act.”
At the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Howard Kirtz has a suggestion for them. Here’s a bit of his article (emphasis added).
Here is another solution: tell the voters of Georgia the truth! There was no fraud in the recent elections, so there is nothing to fix. If there is a perception problem, tell the voters the truth. That will fix the perception problem. If the legislators do not think that will fix the problem, then they have no faith in their own ability to persuade. They should retire from the political arena and let those who can speak the truth in a convincing way lead the state.
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*The “justifications,” of course, are just for show; gutting out the vote is the goal, not an unintentional side effect. Said “justifications” make your local used car dealers claims about that used Yugo that’s been on the lot for two decades look truthful.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Resolve political differences with politeness.
“That Party’s Over” 0
Gordon Weil suggests that we no long have a two-party system, at least not in the traditional way of two principled parties with different policies, platforms, and goals. Rather, he submits that we have one party that’s for things and another that’s against.
Methinks he’s onto something.
QOTD 0
Robert Peel:
Agitation is the marshalling of the conscience of a nation to mold its laws.
(This is a second post that was inadvertently published early and then rescheduled. My lamer excuse is that I’m still getting used to the keyboard on my new laptop, as it’s a slightly different size from that on my old laptop, which has started showing signs of age.)
Just the Vaxx, Ma’am 0
Warning: Short ad at begins at about the six-minute mark.)
You can blame a lot of this delusional thinking on the disinformation superhighway and persons’ willingness to believe anything they see on a computer screen when they wouldn’t believe the same damn thing if it happened right before their eyes.
Cancel Culture, Republican Style, If One Standard Is Good Dept. 0
At Above the Law, Tyler Broker calls out the two-facedness. A nugget:
(Inadvertently posted for a short time yesterday, then rescheduled for today, when I wished it to post.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Practice politeness at your friendly local retail emporium.
Through reviewing the video surveillance, according to police, it was determined that the shooting was clearly accidental. The male appeared to have the gun in his hand, inside his jacket pocket, when it suddenly went off and injured his leg.
The Sentry 0
H/T my brother in Virginia’s Northern Neck.
Kraken Up 0
Trumpette lawyer Sidney Powells “Kraken” election law suit is crackin’ up on the rocks of reality.
Craven Images 0
Trevor Hughes reports on the use of Christian symbols by right-wing extremists, whose credo is antithetical to a Gospel of love in any form (as their actions repeatedly prove), but which is entirely consistent with Leonard Hitchcock’s analysis of what he refers to as “Christian Nationalism.”
Here’s a bit from Hitchcock’s article; follow the link for the rest.
A broader underlying motivation is a deep resentment of cultural change and the ongoing collapse of a hierarchical social order in which their ranking might not have been very high, but it was secure, and lots of people were below them. For CNs, Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again,” signaled an intention to return to a past with which they were comfortable, a past in which the class and racial barriers between people were still intact, where Black people and immigrants, gays, atheists and women “knew their place,” and where white Protestants knew that they were the “real Americans” and were in charge.
