Today’s post is all about our loving companion Milo!
I lied. I was just pulling your leg. (The phrase first appeared in the late 1800s in America. The origin is not clear, though there are two popular theories, but both implausible. The first theory says that thieves used to pull the legs of their victims to put them off guard, so that they could rob them. The second one refers to hangings that were held in Tyburn, England. It is said that people were hired to hang on the victim’s leg to give them a quick execution.)
So, two stories caught my eye yesterday (I posted shorter versions of both of these rants on FB):
1.
The BIG LIE still being promoted by the orangenastyman and his followers of a stolen election is energizing the Republican party to implement voting rights restrictions in as many states as possible, and have introduced more than 250 bills that would restrict voting access, according to the Brennan Center. The formula of the ‘nasty man who will not go away’ is to just keep hammering the lies over and over and over. The Southernization of the Republican Party still emboldens the bigots, election officials and others, to strut around in broad daylight which encourages more racist lies, and now leading to more voter restriction laws.
To curtail absentee and mail-in voting, the party of ‘fuck everyone but whites and the rich, but mostly the rich’ has set up a Committee on Election Integrity to implement stricter voter ID laws, making it more and more difficult for minorities to vote. This is happening right now.
Yesterday, the Supreme Court began to review the shield provided by the Voting Rights Act (VRA), first passed in 1965 to forbid laws that result in discrimination based on race. In 2016, Democrats argued that two Arizona voting laws discriminated against Hispanic, Black, and Indigenous voters in violation of that act.
When Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked a lawyer for the Arizona Republican Party why his client cared about whether votes cast at the wrong precinct should be counted, he gave a candid answer. “Because it puts us at a competitive disadvantage relative to Democrats,” said the lawyer, Michael A. Carvin. “Politics is a zero-sum game, and every extra vote they get through unlawful interpretations of Section 2 hurts us.”
And in Georgia, flipped blue for the first time in decades, Republicans are working overtime to make sure poor people and minorities have a difficult time voting by ending automatic voter registration, banning drop boxes for mail ballots and eliminating the broad availability of absentee voting. The bills would restrict early voting on the weekends, limiting the longstanding civic tradition of “Souls to the Polls” in which Black voters cast ballots on Sunday after church services. And, on Monday, the state House passed a bill that would, among other things, make it illegal to give food or drinks to voters waiting in line to vote. What?!? Standing in line for hours to vote…but no water for you!
Why do you think these folks want to subvert the process? Is it because if real votes get counted that Republicans will lose every time? Even the orangenastyman has said Republicans would never win an election again if it was easier to vote. Democrats have now won the popular vote in seven of the last eight elections, something no party has done before in U.S. history. The election in November is also their fourth consecutive popular-vote victory; the last time that happened was the party’s run from 1932 through 1948.
Again, Heather Cox Richardson sets the table.
2.
A new study from the London School of Economics says 50 years of tax cuts have only helped one group — the rich. Thanks to legislation passed by the Reagan administration, the highest income-tax rate fell from 70 percent to 28 percent, one of the biggest rate reductions in American history.
Yesterday Elizabeth Warren introduced legislation that would apply a 2 percent tax to individual net worth above $50 million, and an additional 1 percent surcharge above $1 billion. Polls have shown that 3 in 5 Americans approve of this, including (gasp!) Republican voters.
Warren said, “A wealth tax is popular among voters on both sides for good reason: because they understand the system is rigged to benefit the wealthy and large corporations. As Congress develops additional plans to help our economy, the wealth tax should be at the top of the list to help pay for these plans because of the huge amounts of revenue it would generate.”
The rich are raising concerns that they may no longer be able to afford servants year round for their 4th and 5th vacation homes. Many are now considering setting up a GoFundMe to get through these hard times.
Just to put a bow on it, a new survey by Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll says that 61% of voters approve of Biden’s performance so far. Fifty-five percent of respondents also approve of the Democratic Party, a number that is up 7 points since January. Confidence in the economy and in the future of the country are both growing, as well. And the Republicans still haven’t released their very great health plan.
Now, off to ponder Wittgenstein.