We Americans are about to crash into that little red school
house brick wall, learning our three Rs.: reading, ‘rithmetic and
Righting. Here’s why: Democratic controlled states number 15;
Republican controlled states number 28, and divided states number 13. Translated into electoral college votes, that
guarantees Democrats just 188 votes out of a 538 total.
Why is that important? Because Jan. 6, we experienced a coup
that showed all the finesse and subtlety of a wad of chewing gum stuck under a
school house chair, but the next coup is gonna be a silent, stealthy one, and
here’s how that’s going to happen. You
may have read (and ignored) that over 400 anti-voting rights bills have already
been passed in state legislatures.
To better understand the implications, some serious background is needed. According to Heather
Digby Parton writing for Salon, as early as 2020, #45 pressured AG Jeffrey
Rosen to declare that the “election was corrupt and leave the rest to me and
Republican Congressmen.” Despite both
Barr and Rosen telling him there was no fraud, #45 wanted the DOJ to back him
in his Big Lie. On that very same day, a faceless GOP lawyer named Clark who
had worked in the Bush administration and had been head of the DOJ civil
division since Sept. 2020, circulated a letter addressed to Gov. Brian Kemp,
notorious of Georgia, (as well as six other states) dishonestly claiming that
the DOJ had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome
of the election.” The letter went further: it recommended that the Georgia
legislature “convene in special session so that its legislators are in a
position to take additional testimony, receive new evidence, and deliberate on
the matter.” He further suggested that the
legislature could refuse to accept the outcome of the election and select
electors for #45 instead.
Rosen and his deputy took notes and turned them over to
Congress. Rosen rejected Clark’s maneuvers to overturn the election. At which point
Clark went directly to #45 who threatened to replace Rosen with Clark! Only the
counter threat that the entire top leadership of the DOJ would resign if #45
tried such a gambit prevented #45 from replacing Rosen.
The NYT’s Jane Mayer writes “in Bush v. Gore, Chief Justice
Rehnquist along with Scalia and Thomas, hinted at a radical reading of the Constitution
that, two decades later, undergirds many of the court changes on behalf of
[#45]….The Justices argued that state legislatures have the plenary power to
run elections and can even pass laws giving themselves the right to appoint
electors. Today the so-called Independent Legislature Doctrine has informed
[#45] and the Right’s attempts to use Republican-dominated state legislatures
to overrule the poplar will.” They gave intellectual respectability to an
otherwise insane, anti-democratic argument.”
Concludes Parton: “Jeffrey Clark was no rogue. He was doing
a dry run for a coup long in the making.”
Writing for the Editorial Board, John Stoehr amplifies Parton’s message. Stoehr points out
that Republicans already have a plan for stealing the next election. Reviewing
the background of Clark’s letter to Gov. Kemp claiming the legislature could
simply call itself into session to make a determination contrary to the will of
the people, he states that in the coup-to-come, the letter will become the
“roadmap for overthrowing the will of the voters. From what I understand,” he continues, “they have all made arrangements for the state legislators to step in
when state election authorities are not producing desirable results.”
“Seeing the danger posed by a Republican Party that acts more like a
separatist movement than a good faith bargaining partner,” he concludes,
“citizens themselves might not be as alarmed as they should be about a
separatist movement that is, as we speak, threatening to rend the world’s
oldest federation of free states.”
Not to forget that after #45 attempted unsuccessfully to
sway Rosen, he told Brad Raffensperget, Georgia’s Secy of state, to “find”
votes to change the election outcome.
Robert Reich in RawStory writes: #45’s call to Rosen in which he pleads ‘Just say the
election was corrupt, and leave the rest to me’ should trigger section 3 of the
14th amendment, which bars anyone from holding office ‘who engaged
in insurrection’ against the United States….#45’s proto-fascism poses the largest
internal threat to American democracy since the civil war."
Brett Wilkins writing in Common Dreams offers some respite: “The Right to Vote Act, introduced
by Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-N.Y.) and
Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Padilla (D-Calif.) would establish for the first
time a statutory right to vote in federal elections, shielding Americans from
laws making it harder to cast ballots.
But will it also prohibit state legislatures from making their own
voting laws to skew the results.
COMPOSE a letter to
your Congresspersons summarizing this newsletter to bring this issue to their
attention. This writer intends doing the same. Bring it to the attention of
POTUS as well: https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Climate activists demand
COP26 reduce military carbon emissions.
Chinese
government announces it has abolished extreme poverty among its 1.4 billion
people, that is to say 70% of the
world’s poor.
‘We
are owners’: Palestinians refuse to conceded land rights to Israelis in Sheikh
Jarrah.
14
African states agree to reject Israel’s membership in th African Union.
Israel’s
standing in America is now far weaker than it seems.
Mexico
files historic lawsuit against U.S. gun companies fueling cartel carnage.
Bolivia
and Peru open ‘binational cabinet’ with social movements.
In
Japan, nuclear-contaminated ‘black rain’ victims finally win in court.
Colombia’s
ex-army chief to be charged over extrajudicial killings.
Families
of 9/11 victims tell Biden to release classified info or stay away from
memorials.
Democrats
introduce Right to Vote act to beat GOP voter suppression blitz.
100+
state lawmakers join Texas Dems in DC to demand passage of For the People Act.
MLK’s
family and civil rights leaders call for voting rights march on Washington.
Hundreds
protest in DC, demanding voting rights, end to poverty, and death of
filibuster.
Alaska
court upholds new top-four primary and ranked choice general election.
For
the first time in 40 years, the House eliminated the racist and discriminatory
Hyde Amendment denying abortion access to Medicaid patients, from the federal
budget.
Peace:
After decades-long grassroots push, key Senate panel votes to repeal Iraq War
Authorization.
Peace,
religious and community groups call for ‘No first use of nuclear weapons’
policy.
100+
state lawmakers join Texas Dems in DC to demand passage of For the People Act.
Activists
demand N.Y. close groups backing settler genocide in Palestine.
Block-the-Boat
hits New Jersey.
218
organizations say no to water privatization.
After
100 years, Nez Perce People celebrate reclaimed land.
Coal
miners hit NYC streets to protest corporate greed.
Job
recovery is happening far more quickly than it did after Great Depression.
D.N.C.
staff to join union, in a milestone for..
ACLU
dues over ‘illegal and inhuman’ migrant transportation order in Texas.
Citing
‘irreparable injury to the United States, judge temporarily halts Texas Gov.
Abbott’s order targeting migrants.
Amid
allegations of child endangerment, HHS inspector general to probe Fort “Bliss”
Detention facility.
Lawsuit initiated against #45
for ‘illegal’ deportations resumes under Biden.
Groups welcome Biden’s review
but demand Congress permanently protect Arctic Refuge from drilling.
Nearly 100 grassroots
organizations across the country push for community investments in lead pipe
removal, public transit, and EV charging.
Congressional Democrats are
seeking to tax roughly two dozen oil, gas, and coal corporations to ensure that
the carbon polluters most responsible for fossil-fuel-driven climate emergency
pay for some of the destruction.
California cites technical
reasons for denying 42 more fracking applications.
Cori Bush and progressive lawmakers
and activists hailed for new CDC eviction Moratorium affecting 11 million
Americans.
Related: ‘Give the money
back,’ demands Tlaib after revelation of $1 million donation to House Dems from
real estate titan.
Tlaib unveils bill to cancel
$40 billion in utility debt to stop ‘life-threatening injustice of shutoffs.’
More than two-third of U.S.
adults support mask mandates as variants spread.
Despite funding threat,
Florida Schools defy DeSantis’s ban on mask mandates
NYC becomes first U.S. city
to mandate proof of vaccination for certain indoor activities.
Poll: Seniors would cross
party lines to back candidates who support medicare negotiating drug prices.
Hundreds of protesters
gathered at Westlake Park in Seattle for the Healthcare Equity March, a protest
centered around Kaloni Bolton, a 12-year-old Black girl who died tragically as
a result of medical negligence.
Nancy Pelosi swallows her pearls and backtracks on student debt cancellation after urging by Swig billionaire power couple.
