Where's Nelson Mandela When You Need Him?

In their ongoing campaign to wrest control of elections from voting citizens, the GOP once again showed who they were, last week, when a presenter at a Republican Donor’s Retreat gave a speech on how they needed to “combat” voting on college campuses.

Lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, who has represented Republican organizations, individual lawmakers, and right-wing groups such as the National Rifle Association, said, “"What are these college campus locations? What is this young people effort that they do? They basically put the polling place next to the student dorm so they just have to roll out of bed, vote, and go back to bed."

Cleta, whose name sounds like what you would call a group of Cletuses, thinks it’s a bad thing to make voting too easy. Well, too easy for people unlikely to vote Republican, anyway.

Lest anyone claim that Cleta is some kind of outlier on the subject, note the complete lack of disavowal on the part of national, or any other, Republicans.

They’ve been working on stamping out college voting for some time now… There have been 11 states, so far, with proposals to eliminate the use of college IDs, tuition, or housing receipts as voter IDs. Texas is considering a bill that would ban college campuses as polling places.

This is what you need to throw in the face of the next person who tells you that voter ID requirements are merely a way to fight election fraud. When you look at these actions, there is zero content that addresses fraud; it’s 100% voter suppression.

It’s obvious that Republicans have no interest in trying to persuade young people that their ideas are better. They’re just going straight to preventing the perceived opposition from voting by any means necessary. And I understand that, given their toxic policy intentions. It’s hard to sell the continued protection and enrichment of the 1%, forced births, White supremacy, and evangelical Christianity.

Republicans know that young people are especially butt-stung over Dodd and the toppling of Roe, and are not thrilled by being so aggressively disenfranchised, so they have to find some way to overcome the severe unpopularity of their platform. How else can they ensure that the views of 30% of the country, or less, take precedence over those of the rest of us?

Between this voter suppression, closing and under-staffing voting precincts, gerrymandering, packing the courts with ideologues who are happy to ignore case law to bless their noxious legislation, and running candidates who plan to switch parties, the GOP is working overtime with their efforts to turn the future USA into the old RSA. What’s the redneck word for “apartheid?” Anyone? I’m sure they’ll let us know soon enough.

***

Ohio, desperate not to let Texas surpass them in red state ratfuckery, is trying to sabotage a possible state constitutional amendment to support reproductive rights because they know it would pass easily.

They’re taking a two-pronged approach:

·         Proposing a hurry-up referendum to change the threshold to pass further referendums from 50% to 60%.

·         Holding that election in August, when the expected turnout is light. The Religious wingnuts will be sure to show up. Politically passive people may not even know what’s at stake and the Republican State government will ensure it stays that way. They’re counting on “election fatigue” to weed out the casual supporters.

So then, if it passes, it will be that much harder for the majority to see their collective will translated into reproductive freedom and minority rule will be enshrined into Ohio law.

***

Lest we completely succumb to the bleakness that is the current political landscape, there IS some good news to be found today.

“Ding dong, the whiney little bitch is dead.”

Now, I’m as happy as anyone to see that pious, pampered piece of monkey shit gone from his lair at Fox, we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves. They’ll just pop another talking head in there who will spew the same lies and misinformation, and pretty soon, he or she will be the next Worst Person in the World. But still, we can at least have a moment.

“People familiar with the situation” say that his firing came straight from Rupert Murdoch and is related to a discrimination suit filed against them by former producer, Abby Grossman.

I think there has to be more to it. Fox has been dancing with these kinds of lawsuits for years. It would take a lot for them to can the face of their network. I’m sure the Dominion lawsuit didn’t help, but he wasn’t the only one that came out of those depositions looking like a schmuck.

No, I think there has to be something more going on behind the scenes. I mean, all we have to go on is what the people at Fox are saying… and since when can we trust THEM to tell a painful truth about themselves?

Maybe he’s been believing his own bullshit for so long, he’s going to mimic his beloved/behated orange idol and make a run for office, maybe even president.

Then again, that’s a pretty remote possibility. I don’t think he could handle the kind of scrutiny that comes with a run for office. He certainly couldn’t run against TFG… he’d get mincemeat made out of him. There’s too much footage of Tucker fawning at the altar of Trump that could be used to cut him off at the knees.

Anyway, I expect there will be more information forthcoming, be it from the inevitable leaks, or legitimate investigative reporting.

Man, I hope it’s someone who has embarrassing pictures on him…