Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

U.S. Code 10307:

No person acting under color of law shall fail or refuse to permit a person to vote who is entitled to vote... or willfully fail or refuse to tabulate, count, and report such person's vote.

Well here's a wanted poster that belongs on the walls of every post office in the land. Of course, we'll never see the day but I can tell you that, if in some alternate reality, you elect me as your president on 11/3, you would not only see it but there would be an APB out for this traitorous cretin and no panic room in his ridiculous mansion in Greensboro would keep him from the weighted leg irons of justice.

Just who the hell is Louis DeJoy? How'd he get the job of being Comrade Trump's Postmaster General? Easy. He bought it for a measly $1,000,000 in contributions to Trump's campaign but he claims that he's not a traitor and he's not beholden to Trump. Just wait 'til he starts trying to sell off post office buildings for the land so his buddy Trump can erect some money laundering Trump Hotels and Trump Casinos.

So far, he has come up with a sick variety of ways to please his boss by sabotaging the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to process our mail with an eye towards making sure that mail-in ballots are not received by voters in time to vote in this year's election or be processed on time with the necessary postmark and relayed on to the proper place for counting at all. DeJoy is, in effect, designing a system of sabotage that will cause ballots to either disappear or be disqualified because of a late postmark or no postmark at all. The latter is of course assuming that the ballots ever get to voters so they can fill them out in the first place. DeJoy's methods to achieve this Trumpian goal include the firing of 23 top organizational and supervisory personnel with the express purpose of centralizing everything under himself only, thus making himself a postal strongman. DeJoy is also denying overtime needed to get the job of timely sorting and delivery done, removing truckloads of mailboxes from street corners, and literally ordering mail sorting machines to be thrown away. He's in an obvious rush to do this for an equally obvious reason. Like Trump, he is a long time republican dream come true.

I believe that, technically, DeJoy Boy may not have yet committed a federal crime in his manipulations of the mail but he is skating closer and closer to violations of civil rights laws, voting rights laws, equal protection laws, violation of the Administration Procedures Act, and various violations of several state Constitutions if he hasn't already crossed the lines. In the case of the most obvious federal violation, DeJoy would technically, have to be a member of the Trump campaign. See what he and Trump have done here? He's contributed 7 figures (actually a little more than that but I rounded it off in a fit of generosity and kindness) to the campaign but, supposedly that kind of money doesn't make you a full-fledged member of said campaign. It only makes you a henchman in an authoritative dictatorial takeover of the United States Of America. There oughta be a law but when did that ever stop Trump and Bill Barr? The Democrats? They barely even act when there is a law, at least not seriously. Instead, we see daily abuses of power on the part of Trump and in behalf of Trump and no one does anything other than write memorandums to various smirking officials and say "Vote them out on November 3rd." As if it won't be too late by then. Hopefully, their memorandums are not being sent via the post office. If so, they've probably already been circular filed in DeJoy's office or maybe he reads them to Trump or Barr for laughs.

So here we are: Trump has Putin and who knows who else working "the interwebs" and now he has this new guy messing with the ol' snail mail. Sweet deal. All the bases covered. Khrushchev would be proud and Stalin would be envious. After all, it was he who said:

Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything.

Trump and his henchmen are beating that Stalin game. By November 4th, they'll be saying:

"Votes? What votes? We ain't even seen any stinkin' votes!"

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

In keeping with the president's intense psychopathology, the Trump owned and operated "Supreme" Court chose illness and death over the Constitutional right to vote for untold numbers of Wisconsin citizens earlier this week when they decreed from on high that there would be no extension of voting time, due to the pandemic, for citizens to get, fill out, and send in absentee ballots. Many voters who had asked for the absentee ballots literally didn't receive their ballots in time due to pandemic-caused postal delays. The result of all of this will be, of course, ballots being tossed in the garbage by state election officials and voters waiting in line as huddled masses, some infectious, some not, and all soon to be if they risked their health by voting. This is not unlike Trump urging Americans to pack their churches of Easter. The more sickness and death the merrier, no matter what your party affiliation. Make your judges and your president happy; get sick and die.

In short, Republicans, for whatever reasons, always seem to have an advantage that goes up as the number of actual voters goes down. It's the turnout wars and this decision to not extend the absentee ballot deadline will be a template for increased voter suppression across the country this year. It's a particularly brazen addition to the Republican Party's smorgasbord of voter suppression. It's taking advantage. It's evil. It's cynical. It's who they are. In this case, the scheming particularly affects urban African-Americans and Latinos who have suffered a deliberate decrease in polling locations in order to discourage voters with extra long lines at the locations which remain. The scheme also targets elderly voters in Wisconsin who, like African-Americans and Latinos, tend to vote for Democratic Party candidates. In addition, of course, the elderly are particularly more susceptible to the ravages of the coronavirus as are African-Americans and Latinos who live in densely packed urban neighborhoods. It's all part of the Republican Party grand strategy, and don't think for a second that dirtbags like "Justice" John Roberts (special thanks to Chucky Schumer) and Donald Trump haven't rubbed their hands in glee about it.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I've lived in New York City for 39 years so I've gotten to see the Statue Of Liberty innumerable times. She's an elderly woman and frequently in need of repairs. She's a metaphor in that sense. But, the important thing is: She gets those repairs, imperfect though they may be. Most of us, in fact, gladly pay for those repairs. Sometimes, the repairs are only of the stop gap variety. Sometimes they are extensive and deep. Consider today, Election Day, a day for those repairs.

There are however many in our country who would prefer to preserve other statues; statues that stand for something quite the opposite of the Statue Of Liberty. They'll tell you it's their birthright. They'll tell you it's their heritage, even though (or especially) when that heritage that they so cherish includes hanging black people from trees. They make no bones about protecting that heritage, especially when protecting that heritage means depriving people of their constitutional right to vote if not their right to breathe. The Republican Party and their severely mentally ill leader have thrown their lot in with those who embrace that heritage. They even call them very fine people, even as they do their bidding and run over people in the streets, shoot up synagogues, shoot up and burn down African-American churches, and mail pipe bombs to democrats. The party that once ran against terrorism now runs with terrorism. Some of them deny that they do, while they smirk at us, and cross their fingers behind their backs.

The only legal power we have to rid ourselves of such people; the only legal power we have to rid ourselves of the Steve Kings, Duncan Hunters, Dave Brats, and Scott Walkers of our government is to vote them out. The same is true of those who don't even consider our government to be their government or our country to be their country: people like Devin Nunes and Dana Rhohrabacher. That's what election days are for. Vote with a vengeance. Which torch do you choose?

Big Win For Automatic Voter Registration In Illinois-- Is Maine Next?

The Illinois legislature was working on Monday-- and in a very bipartisan way. The House has 67 Democrats and 51 Republicans but the vote on Robyn Gabel's Automatic Voter Registration bill was 115-0. The Senate had already passed i-- also unanimously. (It had passed last year as well but was vetoed by Gov. Bruce Rauner (which is exactly what the grotesque Jersey slob did when the legislature in his stated passed it last year), claiming their could be fraud. His concerns were addressed in the current wording of the bill. The new law will add over a million new voters to the rolls in Illinois.

SB1933 reforms current registration laws so that whenever an eligible Illinois resident applies for, updates or renews a driver’s license or state ID, he or she will be automatically registered to vote or have their registration updated, unless they opt out. It also creates a similar program for other state agencies, such as the Department of Human Services and Department of Natural Resources.

...“Automatic voter registration, as passed this year, will allow technology to help make our elections more secure, more efficient, and more open to all citizens of Illinois,” said Rep. Fortner [R]. “This bill will create a seamless process for citizens to register and keep their registration up-to-date as they move. At the same time, it respects the privacy of those in the system and those who choose not to participate.”

Sen. Andy Manar (D-Bunker Hill) and Rep. Robyn Gabel (D-Evanston) first introduced the proposal in 2015, which passed in both the House and Senate with broad bipartisan support before Governor Rauner issued a veto.

 “I am proud that my colleagues in the House voted to bring automatic voter registration to Illinois, making voter registration more modern, efficient and accessible to all eligible voters,” said Rep. Gabel. “This legislation is a model of bipartisan cooperation and I urge Governor Rauner to sign it into law.”

“We retooled parts of this plan based on suggestions from both sides of the aisle. There’s no plausible reason Gov. Rauner shouldn’t sign it the moment it lands on his desk,” Sen. Manar said. “If he is serious about modernizing Illinois government and saving money for taxpayers, then automatic voter registration is an excellent way to do both.”

Oregon was the first state to pass Automatic Voter Registration (2015) and the increase in voter registration has been huge. California followed several months later and in 2016 West Virginia, Vermont, Connecticut, Georgia, DC and Alaska passed it as well, Alaska in a referendum. This year Colorado approved it, as did Nevada-- although, again, a Republican governor (Brian Sandoval) vetoed it.

Almost every state in the Union has an Automatic Voter Registration bill pending this year except for 11 states controlled by the Republican Party: Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, both Dakotas, Wisconsin, Kansas, Louisiana, Kentucky, North Carolina and New Hampshire. Bob Brady (D-PA) introduced federal legislation that would automatically register ever eligible American citizen to vote in federal elections but no Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors, dooming it until 2018 when Democrats are likely to win back control of the House.

Meanwhile, the great state of Maine may be next to pass this. It won in the House last Thursday 74-68, all the Democrats and independents plus one Republican in favor and the rest of the Republicans opposed. Shenna Bellows is the sponsor in the state Senate which is scheduled to vote today. She needs to get one Republican to vote with the Democrats to pass it. It's a bill, though, that Governor LePage, who opposes expanding the franchise, is pretty certain to veto. How do I know? Well, in the early 1970s Maine passed same day voter registration and the second LePage and the Republicans took control of the state government they repealed it. We asked our old friend Shenna, who was the chair of the successful drive to overturn LePage's and the GOP's repeal of same day registration, how she plans to persuade a Republican to help pass automatic voter registration today.

"Every person who supports democracy in its truest form," she told us last night, "understands that voting is foundational to democracy. In an era of voter suppression and the rise of grave threats to our democracy, it becomes all the more important that we champion measures that increase voter participation and empowerment. That’s the goal of LD1232, Maine’s automatic voter registration bill, which passed the Democratically controlled Maine House of Representatives last week and is pending for a vote in the Senate. One would think it would be unanimous. Constitutional rights shouldn’t be a partisan issue. One would hope that a Governor looking to his legacy would sign it. Alas, we’ve been down this road before. Not only has Republican Governor Paul LePage vetoed numerous measures that would have benefitted the people of Maine, he’s actively campaigned against voting rights. Indeed, he was a leader in a 2011 voter suppression effort when Republicans controlled the legislature and repealed Maine’s election day registration law, a law that had been on the books for almost forty years. The people rose up in 2011. We passed a so-called “people’s veto” to restore same day voter registration via ballot measure. Governor LePage and his allies may block automatic voter registration by veto, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have options if he does. We have principle and politics on our side."


UPDATE: Maine

An amendment has made the bill into a study. Shenna just got back to us with the wording: "This amendment replaces the bill with a resolve directing the Secretary of State to study the implementation of automatic voter registration. The Secretary of State is required to submit a report to the Joint Standing Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs by March 1, 2018." Very disappointing for everyone who was inspired by the unanimous vote of approval in Illinois yesterday.

More Update: Worse yet, it failed.The Dems were not united. Senate Democrats Bill Diamond and Dawn Hill voted against it. And the Republicans were united against it. It failed 20 to 15 in a Senate that has 18 Republicans and 17 Democrats. Because the motion was "ought not to pass" the vote itself was on the merits of the actual underlying bill, not the study. Terrible news.

Another Corpulent, Dyspeptic, Pompous, Self-serving Son Of A Bitch Buys A Ticket On The Double Talk Express... To Nowhere

Most people just dismiss conservative direct mail guru and far right icon Paul Weyrich as a perennial malcontent and a kook. In fact, John McCain has been a good deal less generous in his descriptions of Weyrich, most of which can't be published at DWT because of McCain's overly colorful language-- even worse than what he calls Cindy! But in his 2002 book, Worth Fighting For-- no this isn't the one where he claims (falsely) to have invented the Blackberry, nor the hula-hoop, the Edsel, fire, marbles, paper-- McCain wrote that "Weyrich possesses the attributes of a Dickensian villain. Corpulent and dyspeptic, his mouth set in a perpetual sneer as if life in general were an unpleasant experience, he is the embodiment of the caricature often used to unfairly malign all religious conservatives.... I like to think I know a pompous, self-serving son of a bitch when I see one."

And Weyrich, though not nearly as potty-mouthed as McCain, has been no fan of his either. During the primary season Weyrich was regularly describing McCain as the worst possible case for the GOP and he vowed to vote for a third party candidate if McCain managed to get the nomination. "I will not vote for him. I can't." Of course, that was then.

As Right Wing Watch pointed out this morning, "like just about every other right-wing leader who once declared McCain utterly unacceptable, Weyrich has changed his tune:

They only started speaking again after nineteen years.  Both have been quite open in saying why they held one another in “minimum high regard.” Their animosity toward each other is well known in national political circles.

But Paul Weyrich, one of the godfathers of the modern conservative movement, put all of that aside last week when he strongly endorsed John McCain for President.

And how did this come about? Because McCain once again realized it suited his political interest to grovel:

After he nailed down the Republican nomination, Weyrich [said], the Arizonan “came to my office to see me.  We talked things over and he asked for my support.”

Apparently McCain decided that what his campaign desperately needed was the support of at least one more “corpulent and dyspeptic… pompous, self-serving son of a bitch.”

It was more than that though. According to a report in the National Journal one can conclude that Weyrich promised to support McCain if McCain picked a bona fide far right extremist as his running mate. McCain wanted Lieberman but was convinced that that would be the ultimate kiss of death.

About a month ago, conservative activist Paul Weyrich delivered a message to John McCain's campaign managers: The Republican presidential candidate should make Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin his running mate. Weyrich even dared McCain. "I don't believe he's got the guts to do it," he told a campaign staffer.

...[W]ith the selection of Palin, all is forgiven. McCain understood the stakes, Weyrich said. "He realized he had to listen to the base-- the base was clamoring for her."

And what about McCain's temperament? "He wants this [election] bad enough that he has been restrained," Weyrich told NJ. "I figured he'd be blowing up all over the place. He hasn't. Not once. He has shown extraordinary discipline."

"Palin is right on every issue-- she's better than he is," Weyrich added. "She's for drilling in Alaska and he's not. She doesn't support [the campaign finance law] McCain-Feingold and he does. She's good on immigration and he isn't."

Weyrich even said he will publicly endorse McCain-- a move he resisted when the senator from Arizona asked him earlier this year. "I was going to swallow hard and vote against Obama," Weyrich said. "Now I actually have a reason to vote for McCain."

Other right wing extremists in control of dark corners of the crumbling GOP who have changed their minds about voting against McCain because of Palin:
Phyllis Schafly, who says she hopes McCain will catch up with Palin.
Jimmy Dobson: "A lot of people were praying, and I believe Sarah Palin is God's answer."
Steve Scheffler: "Picking Palin ignites the bonfire-- people will be excited. I will walk on broken glass or do whatever I can to get this team elected."