Friday Homestead Dispatch

Rascally Redundant Remembrance

The answer lay in the vision itself: a different man than Moose was the one who thrived in this new world, a sociopath who made himself anew each afternoon, for whom lying was merely persuasion. More and more they ruled the world, these quicksilver creatures, minotaurs who weren't the products of birth or history, nature or nurture, but assembled for the eye from prototypes; who bore the same relationship to human beings as machine-made clothing did to something hand-stitched. A world remade by circuitry was a world without history or context or meaning, and because we are what we see, we are what we see, such a world was certainly headed toward death. —Look At Me, Jennifer Egan

1.
Ever since the Supreme Court gutted the heart of the Voting Rights Act in 2013, making it so that voters who are discriminated against had to bear the burden of proving they were disfranchised, it’s gotten worse over time. Since then Republicans have fought hard to place new restrictive voting laws in most red states and according to the Brennan Center for Justice, the state legislative push to restrict voting and undermine faith in elections has moved at a near-record pace in 2023. The good news is the pro-democracy movement has continued to press for legislation to boost voting access.

Just last week Federal judges in Georgia and Texas have ruled against key provisions of two controversial election laws passed two years ago as the Republican Party sought to tighten voting rules after former President Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential contest. In Georgia U.S. District Judge J.P. Boulee’s ruling temporarily prohibited officials from enforcing penalties against people who provide food and water to voters waiting in line as long as they are more than 150 feet from the building where voting is taking place. He also blocked a part of the law that requires voters to provide their birthdate on absentee ballot envelopes. And in Texas U.S. District Judge Xavier Rodriguez struck down a provision of Texas’ law requiring that mail voters provide the same identification number they used when they registered to vote. He ruled the requirement violated the U.S. Civil Rights Act because it led to people being unable to cast ballots due to a matter irrelevant to whether they are registered.

Surprisingly in June, Chief Justice Roberts, writing for the majority in a 5-to-4 ruling in the Allen v. Milligan case, reaffirmed the law’s authority over racially biased maps and the arcane structure of legal precedents and court tests that underpin it.

Right-wing folks are still working diligently to silence voters who have historically been denied voter access. In July Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries announced the reintroduction of the Freedom to Vote Act (FTVA) and said the legislation would be the top priority for Democrats in this Congress, as it was in the last Congress. The Freedom to Vote Act would protect the right of all eligible citizens to vote and have their vote properly counted; override state voter suppression and election sabotage laws; provide for fair and secure federal elections; prevent partisan gerrymandering; and combat the influence-seeking political money that is flooding our elections and corrupting Washington.

According to a new poll of likely voters in 2024 House and Senate battlegrounds, defending democracy, protecting the freedom to vote, and ending big money, special-interest control of Washington politicians, were each named as top or major priorities by at least 79 percent of voters surveyed.

JUST. VOTE. BLUE.

2.
You have probably heard that some young’n’s in Montana made some stink about climate change by accusing state officials of violating their constitutional rights by promoting fossil fuels. In a court of law. Kids say the darndest things, don’t they? In a 103-page court order, Judge Kathy Seeley of the first judicial district court, affirmed the plaintiffs’ claim that a stable climate is included in a right to a “clean and healthful environment”, guaranteed in the state’s constitution.

The Montana ruling did not merely affirm that climate change is real or human-caused: it specifically confirmed it is caused by fossil fuel usage and that every additional ton of greenhouse gas pollution warms the planet. “Judge Seeley obviously really understood not only the issues of law, but the very complex scientific issues surrounding the climate crisis,” Melissa Hornbein, an attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center who represented the plaintiffs, said on Monday. The strength of the order, said Gerrard, could make it the “final nail in the coffin of any efforts to advance climate denial in the courtroom”.

The Pew Research Center reports that Younger Americans – Millennials and adults in Generation Z – stand out in a new Pew Research Center survey particularly for their high levels of engagement with the issue of climate change. Compared with older adults, Gen Zers and Millennials are talking more about the need for action on climate change; among social media users, they are seeing more climate change content online; and they are doing more to get involved with the issue through activities such as volunteering and attending rallies and protests. The report goes on to say that even 48% of Millennial Republicans (including Republican leaners) say action to reduce the effects of climate change needs to be prioritized today, even if that means fewer resources to deal with other important problems; significantly fewer Gen X (37%) and Baby Boomer and older (26%) Republicans say the same. Hmmmm, change up in the ol’ GOP? Stay tuned…

3.
Those in Tucson who are Barrio Bread fans know that Barrio Charro recently closed. It was a nice try but it wasn’t meant to be. Barrio Bread is still open for business at its Country Club and Broadway location. Not only can you buy baked goods at that location, Don Guerra’s grain blends are also available for purchase. Some of them can also be purchased through Native Seeds SEARCH in case you want to order from out of town.

4.
And I know you’ve been anxiously waiting for a follow up of my post that veered off the rails detailing my memories of Men’s ‘Sweat’ Magazines. DID YOU KNOW that the title of Frank Zappa’s Weasels Ripped My Flesh album (art by Neon Park) was ‘borrowed’ from a 1956 issue of Man’s Life? Didn’t think so. Who even considers these things, anyway? (Slowly raises hand…) Park found visual inspiration for his ‘Weasels’ artwork from a shaving ad from a 1953 Saturday Evening Post as pictured below. Wil Hulsey was the artist who was responsible for many of the classic ‘Terror of the All Girl Posse and Their Necktie Parties’ magazines of the 50s and 60s. Simply weird and dated. I wonder if these magazines would be banned in today’s climate? Check out another cover from around the same time period titled ‘Flying Rodents Ripped My Flesh.’ Lot of flesh ripping in those days…

Tiny Tidbits of Goddamn!

1. Murderers condemned to a hell of their own making die in plane crash. Goddamn!

2. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, I’m happy that Sha’Carri Richardson won gold in the women’s 100-meter race, and everybody’s talking about it, but check out Hawaii-born Laulauga Tausaga-Collins who threw a discus an astonishing 69.49 meters, beating her previous personal best by nearly four meters and winning the United States’ first ever world championship gold in women’s discus. Goddamn!

3. The Constitutional Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association, known as CSPOA, is a group of America’s sheriffs that have decided what’s lawful and are following teachings that elected sheriffs must “protect their citizens from the overreach of an out-of-control federal government” by refusing to enforce any law they deem unconstitutional or “unjust.” Founded in 2011 by former Arizona sheriff Richard Mack, he said in an interview “The safest way to actually achieve that is to have local law enforcement understand that they have no obligation to enforce such laws. They’re not laws at all anyway. If they’re unjust laws, they are laws of tyranny.” Goddamn!

R. Crumb, of course…

And now…