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

[Romana]

Bullshit. The (Democratic) voters get it. It's not a punishment - it's playing the long view.

So, the Daily Beast thinks that Georgia Dems would rather let the GQP pass their vote suppression laws so that Dems won't get elected in their state and maybe more, all for the sake of baseball games?

 

[Innula Zenovka]

So, the Daily Beast thinks that Georgia Dems would rather let the GQP pass their vote suppression laws so that Dems won't get elected in their state and maybe more, all for the sake of baseball games?

According to the article, some (though not all) prominent Georgia Democrats seem to think so:

“I absolutely oppose and reject any notion of boycotting Georgia,” freshman Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “In fact, economic growth is driving much of the political progress we have seen here. Georgia welcomes the world’s business.”

Democrats like Ossoff have floated an alternative for corporations and labor forces that want to show their solidarity with Georgia voters: cut off Georgia Republicans from financial support. And Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic candidate for governor credited with laying the groundwork for the party’s huge 2020 win, laid out the rationale in a USA Today op-ed on Thursday.

“Corporations eager to prove their good faith can do so by putting their resources to good use. Rather than financing state legislators pushing these anti-democratic bills, refuse to fund their efforts,” wrote Abrams. “I ask you to bring your business to Georgia and, if you’re already here, stay and fight. Stay and vote.”

The article goes on to explain that

The Georgia voting bill moved lightning-fast, and there’s resignation among Democrats that they had virtually no window to build a pressure campaign. The state’s legislative session ended late Wednesday night. No further formal action on S.B. 202 is possible until the chambers meet again next year, as one Georgia Democrat noted to The Daily Beast.

For now, there’s a strong desire among voting advocates to keep the focus on federal action. And Democrats think the most pro-active way to combat local legislation is with Congress passing two bills: H.R. 1, a sweeping bill that aims to rework the nation’s election system, and H.R. 4, a restoration of the Voting Rights Act. Both bills have the strong backing of Biden and congressional Democrats, but will not pass in the Senate unless the party gets rid of the 60-vote threshold to pass legislation.

“The sense is the horse is kind of out of this barn,” said Andrea Young, the director of the Georgia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, “and the most helpful thing to Georgia would be a federal Voting Rights Act.”

Stacy Abrams sets out her views here

Stacey Abrams: Don't boycott corporations over voting rights yet. First press them to speak up.

However, it would be fair to say the article acknowledges that Georgia Democrats are by no means unanimous in their opposition to a boycott.

Cliff Albright, co-founder of the group Black Voters Matter, argued it was the boycott position, not the one Abrams described, that led to the defeat of the bathroom bills. “Family can disagree on some nuances sometimes,” said Albright.

 

[danielravennest]

So, the Daily Beast thinks that Georgia Dems would rather let the GQP pass their vote suppression laws so that Dems won't get elected in their state and maybe more, all for the sake of baseball games?

As a Georgia Democrat, I have several thoughts:

* The All-Star game would be bringing a lot of people into Atlanta. The pandemic isn't over yet, and we don''t need more infections brought in from outside. Georgia ranks dead last in vaccinations so far. We can wait a while.

* When the right says "cancel culture", my response is "Like you wanted to cancel the last election and voting rights?"

* A comment I saw online: "Voting is like driving, choose R to go backward, choose D to go forward."

 

[Jolene Benoir]

What do some R's understand and desire above most other things? Money. When I say that, I'm speaking, not of the average voter, but those who are at the top of the feeding chain. Those who receive government bailouts, tax abatement or public financing of their stadiums. I think a financial analysis of who a boycott hurts would be in order. Does the presence of a given operation benefit private interests more or does it provide for the public more, in terms of jobs and taxes paid. In the case of stadiums being built the argument is often that it brings in people who frequent local businesses and therefore taxes get paid to the state. Yet, just how those taxes are divvied out to the public is very, very uneven, in particular when R's are in charge of the apparatus, with them usually choosing to cut off money to public and social services. In the case of things like the Super Bowl, it has often happened that the public who pays millions of dollars to bring it in, pay for security and the like often ends up losing money. The NFL, in particular, irks me as the ticket prices on games is out of reach for many of the taxpayers who finance it. Instead, you have people from wealthy suburbs come in on light rail (that they opposed) and then head back there to spend their money. It's saving grace is that games are available still on free tv.

I would think that a loss of jobs with Delta would be very difficult. I have no idea about the MLB.

 

[Romana]

Hank Aaron's grandson has something to say to Georgia's former senator :

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

What do some R's understand and desire above most other things? Money. When I say that, I'm speaking, not of the average voter, but those who are at the top of the feeding chain. Those who receive government bailouts, tax abatement or public financing of their stadiums. I think a financial analysis of who a boycott hurts would be in order. Does the presence of a given operation benefit private interests more or does it provide for the public more, in terms of jobs and taxes paid. In the case of stadiums being built the argument is often that it brings in people who frequent local businesses and therefore taxes get paid to the state. Yet, just how those taxes are divvied out to the public is very, very uneven, in particular when R's are in charge of the apparatus, with them usually choosing to cut off money to public and social services. In the case of things like the Super Bowl, it has often happened that the public who pays millions of dollars to bring it in, pay for security and the like often ends up losing money. The NFL, in particular, irks me as the ticket prices on games is out of reach for many of the taxpayers who finance it. Instead, you have people from wealthy suburbs come in on light rail (that they opposed) and then head back there to spend their money. It's saving grace is that games are available still on free tv.

I would think that a loss of jobs with Delta would be very difficult. I have no idea about the MLB.

Yes, on paper. But, the GOP does NOT run Atlanta. Delta hires more people than even the state government. And who is likely to be hurt the most f 80k jobs in one city go -poof-?
And maybe I'm biased, but when friends of mine who years after Jindal was out of office, can't work in their field because the movie industry ganked itself out in protest? Yeah...

 

[Innula Zenovka]

What do some R's understand and desire above most other things? Money.

I don't think so.

As Daniel Kahneman puts it in Thinking, Fast & Slow,

Except for the very poor, for whom income coincides with survival, the main motivators of money-seeking are not necessarily economic. For the billionaire looking for the extra billion, and indeed for the participant in an experimental economics project looking for the extra dollar, money is a proxy for points on a scale of self-regard and achievement.

Money, that is, is a way of keeping score in a game where the prizes are power and status, and the US Republican seem now, at least to me, interested only in gaining and keeping power for its own sake.

That's what this is all about, to my mind -- the Georgia Republicans have so far held on to power by constructing a racial oligarchy, which Stacy Abrams and the Georgia Democrats are undermining at its foundations.

Any temporary financial losses they sustain while trying to hold on to their power and privilege, while doubtless very unwelcome, will be but a small price to pay for retaining what they see as theirs by right -- after all, if you have the power, the money will follow, by fair means or by foul, but if you have money without power, you live with the constant fear it will sooner or later occur to those with the power to change things to their advantage rather than yours.

 

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Trump might have 'found' the votes he needed to win Georgia under state's new election law

Republican legislators now have more oversight and power over elections and the county officials who count the votes. The secretary of state has less.

www.usatoday.com

Tucked inside the new Georgia elections law is a measure that shifts a significant amount of election oversight power from the secretary of state and county election boards to the legislature. The measure removes the elected secretary of state as chair of the state election board and replaces him or her with an appointee of the Republican-run legislature.

Such a coincidence! Just a few months after Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger says “no” to magical vote-finding, the legislature takes a chunk of power and authority from his office and shifts it to someone of their choosing — and, we can only assume, more likely to do their bidding.

The law doesn’t just change who picks the chair. Now, the majority of the board’s members will be legislative appointees, and the board gains ominous new power: the ability to remove and replace election officials administering the vote at the level where the real elections work happens — the county level.

Let’s say the state board does not like the way vote-counting is going in heavily Democratic Fulton County. Under the new law, the board can fire those in charge and plop in a new boss more to its liking.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Because it's not just a Georgia thing. GOP led states are all jumping into the same dirty barrel.

Dell, American Airlines, AT&T weigh in on restrictive voting bills in Texas

Dell, American Airlines and AT&T voiced concerns over restrictive voting rights bills in Texas.

abcnews.go.com

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

“Today, Major League Baseball caved to fear, political opportunism, and liberal lies” Gov. Brian Kemp (R) said in a statement. “Georgians — and all Americans — should fully understand what the MLB’s knee-jerk decision means: cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included.”

I love the pure irony of them calling it "cancel culture", when it's really not even cancelled, just moved. But they had no qualms about cancelling Colin Kaepernick when he had the audacity to take a knee during the National Anthem - and then to the NFL itself when they refused to intervene.

And then there's this:

But, sure, go ahead and rail on about the left's "cancel culture".

Fucking hypocrites, all of them!

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

 

[Free]

But, sure, go ahead and rail on about the left's "cancel culture".

Fucking hypocrites, all of them!

 

[Free]

Fuck Nate Cohn, fuck the person who hired him to write for the NYT, and fuck the NYT in general.

 

[Free]

Besides, what hurts Atlanta (because really, the beneficial effects of an all-star game are more local than they'll admit to) will benefit Denver, or wherever they move the game to.

...

Dem governor wins big as All-Star Game moved to a blue state: report

One Democratic governor may be the biggest beneficiary of the backlash against Georgia's Republican governor.Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp suffered a major public rebuke when Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta following his signing of a controversial voter suppression bill...

www.rawstory.com

"Coors Field in Denver is expected to host this year's All-Star Game, sources told ESPN's Buster Olney on Monday. MLB opted to move the game out of Atlanta due to voting laws passed in Georgia last month," ESPN reported Monday. "It will mark the second time the homer-friendly home of the Colorado Rockies will host the Midsummer Classic. The American League beat the National League 13-8 at Coors in 1998."

I'm an off-the-cuff psychic!

 

[Free]

Mitch McConnell Is Barking Scared Now That Corporate Power Is Against Him

We should all be concerned at how much power these firms wield. But the Senate Minority Leader is only concerned because he and his allies do not believe they can win elections if citizens are broadly able to participate.

www.esquire.com

What's telling here is how desperate McConnell seems to be. He built his empire of obstruction in service to oligarchy on the notion that those who stood to benefit would back him, in turn, on his own political initiatives. But it's clear he and his allies do not believe they can consistently win elections if people are broadly allowed to participate. And some entities he'd normally regard as his corporate clients have turned against him on that issue, demanding that states stop constructing obstacles to voting. It's a bind that clearly has him highly concerned, even if we all ought to be concerned at how much power these massive firms have to sway things either way.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Free]

Sorry for the Fox News link; right now the only outlets with this headline are alt-right...

Rep. Crenshaw tells United Airlines to just 'shut up' after airline follows same route as Delta

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, told United Airlines to just "shut up" after the airline followed the same, controversial route taken by their competitor Delta Airlines in attacking Georgia's recent election law.

www.foxnews.com

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, told United Airlines to just "shut up" after the airline followed the same, controversial route taken by their competitor Delta Airlines in attacking Georgia's new election law.

United Airlines called Georgia's new voting law "wrong" and claimed it "infringes on the right to vote of fellow Americans."

 

[Free]

MLB Fans More Likely to Support League’s Decision to Move All-Star Game Than Oppose It

39% of U.S. adults, 48% of MLB fans and 62% of self-described “avid” MLB fans said they supported the league moving the All-Star Game and draft out of Atlanta, according to new Morning Consult polling.

morningconsult.com

I am bothered by the 23% of Democrats supporting the Georgia VOTER SUPPRESSION law. Jesus, dudes.