Voting in the U.S. will soon be (even) harder to do.

[Free]

As voting issue gets white-hot, political reporters try to duck the moral implications | Press Watch

With Republicans making voter repression their top goal, political reporters are under pressure not to "take sides." But is the moral stench too much, even for them?

presswatchers.org

Suppressing and controlling the vote has become the Republican Party’s most urgent and most defining political issue, putting Washington reporters in the uncomfortable position of having to choose between covering it like any other partisan squabble — or as the grotesque, racist, anti-democratic sequel to Trump’s Big Lie that it is.

This really shouldn’t be a hard one.

And yet!

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

"At what point on the skin tone chart does humanity end? Let the viewers decide! We now go to our panel on the issue with four white septuagenarian men."

 

[Innula Zenovka]

As voting issue gets white-hot, political reporters try to duck the moral implications | Press Watch

With Republicans making voter repression their top goal, political reporters are under pressure not to "take sides." But is the moral stench too much, even for them?

presswatchers.org

And yet!

I remember in the 1960s and 70s there was a lot of agonising in the British media about how South Africa and Rhodesia should be covered..

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

As voting issue gets white-hot, political reporters try to duck the moral implications | Press Watch

With Republicans making voter repression their top goal, political reporters are under pressure not to "take sides." But is the moral stench too much, even for them?

presswatchers.org

And yet!

So, here is the thing. Sometimes, not taking sides is all well and good, but there comes a time when being morally correct is much more important than 'Objectivity', especially since there isn't really such a thing no matter how hard we try.

Also, I think that in the US, trying to 'not take sides' is half of why we're in this mess.

 

[danielravennest]

So I discovered that the law restricting handing out food and water to voters in line only applies within 25 feet of a line or inside polling places. So all we have to do to defeat it is stand 40 feet from the line and have a large sign.

 

[Free]

So, here is the thing. Sometimes, not taking sides is all well and good, but there comes a time when being morally correct is much more important than 'Objectivity', especially since there isn't really such a thing no matter how hard we try.

There is also the problem that when you keep adopting the right's terms of endearment, you are not not taking sides.

 

[Free]

It's not Jim Crow at all!

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Free]

McConnell is sorry, Big Business. He still wants to cuddle with you and listen to your problems while cashing your checks.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

McConnell is sorry, Big Business. He still wants to cuddle with you and listen to your problems while cashing your checks.

There used to be a name for a politician like McConnell; flilp-flopper. It once was actually pretty devastating for a politician to be labeled as such.

 

[Free]

Always good to see roadblocks being put up by people on your own fucking side.

Manchin Digs Heels In On Keeping Filibuster, No Exception For Voting Rights Bill

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) on Wednesday doubled down on his opposition to blowing up the filibuster or even weakening it, striking a blow to Democrats hoping he could be swayed to do so to advance their sweeping voting rights bill and other major legislation.

Manchin argued in a Washington Post op-ed that the filibuster, a Senate procedure that requires 60 votes for a bill and that Republicans use constantly to thwart the Democrats’ agenda, “is a critical tool to protecting that input and our democratic form of government.”

Isn't one of the features of our "democratic form of government" a simple majority vote?

 

[Romana]

Always good to see roadblocks being put up by people on your own fucking side.

Manchin Digs Heels In On Keeping Filibuster, No Exception For Voting Rights Bill


Isn't one of the features of our "democratic form of government" a simple majority vote?

He wants something. Or some things, maybe lots of things.
He doesn't care who he has to hurt to get them, so I sure hope they can find a way to do an end run around him and leave him looking foolish.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

McConnell is sorry, Big Business. He still wants to cuddle with you and listen to your problems while cashing your checks.

lol. cuck.

 

[Free]

Well, well, well.

Kentucky Gov. Beshear signs into law bipartisan elections bill expanding voting access

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bipartisan-supported bill into law on Wednesday that expanded voting access by codifying election recount procedures, online absentee ballot portals and early voting procedures -- an exception to the GOP efforts nationwide to overhaul state election...

www.cnn.com

Kentucky Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear signed a bipartisan-supported bill into law on Wednesday that expanded voting access by codifying election recount procedures, online absentee ballot portals and early voting procedures -- an exception to the GOP efforts nationwide to overhaul state election rules in the wake of the 2020 election.

"Today is also a good day for democracy, a good day for elections," he said. "I want to start by talking about voting -- about how when much of the country has put in more restrictive laws -- that Kentucky legislators, Kentucky leaders were able to come together to stand up for democracy and to expand the opportunity for people to vote."

Among its provisions are the official approval for voting centers, an online portal for absentee ballot registration and three days of early voting. It will also require drop boxes, creates official recount procedures, allows for tax dollars to advocate for or against ballot questions and mandates all voting machines to generate a paper trail for votes cast, Beshear said.

Kentucky gave us McConnell. Me confused. But grateful (not for McConnell).

 

[Free]

Georgia's GOP lieutenant governor says Giuliani's false fraud claims helped lead to restrictive voting law

A top Georgia Republican said Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani's false claims of election fraud -- which were presented before state lawmakers -- created momentum for a package of voting rights restrictions that recently became state law.

www.cnn.com

A top Georgia Republican said Wednesday that Rudy Giuliani's false claims of election fraud -- which were presented before state lawmakers -- created momentum for a package of voting rights restrictions that recently became state law.

"This is really the fallout from the 10 weeks of misinformation that flew in from former President Donald Trump," Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN's "New Day." "I went back over the weekend to really look at where this really started to gain momentum in the legislature, and it was when Rudy Giuliani showed up in a couple of committee rooms and spent hours spreading misinformation and sowing doubt across, you know, hours of testimony."

Thank Goddess it's Republicans behind all this. If it had been Democrats, the howling would never end.

 

[WolfEyes]

 

[Innula Zenovka]

US anti-abortion groups shift focus to voting restrictions

Increased attention on elections has come from unexpected corners offering significant grassroots power and money to efforts to make it harder to vote

www.theguardian.com

 

[danielravennest]

He wants something. Or some things, maybe lots of things.
He doesn't care who he has to hurt to get them, so I sure hope they can find a way to do an end run around him and leave him looking foolish.

Dude is a Democratic senator from West Virginia, a state that voted 69/30 for Trump. So he has to throw some red meat to his constituents from time to time to make them think he's on their side. Then he'll quietly find a way to vote with the rest of the Democrats. That's what he's done for the last 10 years in the Senate, and as governor of West Virginia before that.

One of the ways to weaken the filibuster is to go back to the old rules that required actually speaking on the Senate floor to maintain the blockage. Leaning on tradition would be a good way to satisfy the people in his state while actually making it easier to pass bills.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

US anti-abortion groups shift focus to voting restrictions

Increased attention on elections has come from unexpected corners offering significant grassroots power and money to efforts to make it harder to vote

www.theguardian.com

So, yes - this is because the whole anti-abortion thing was simply because they could not use 'Pro-Segregation' openly - IE it was always about white supremacy, but conned a fair number of Catholics into who are -solely- about being anti-choice, or in rare cases -actually- pro-life...

The Real Origins of the Religious Right

They’ll tell you it was abortion. Sorry, the historical record’s clear: It was segregation.

www.politico.com

I think that's the right story.

 

[Innula Zenovka]