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Fables Of The Reconstruction

Stacey Abrams vs. the Revanchist Racist

by Anne Laurie|  October 21, 201810:25 am| 110 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights, All Too Normal

Retweet this to remind everyone in Georgia that their vote counts. pic.twitter.com/bD53MuFifN — ???Black Aziz aNANsi??? (@Freeyourmindkid) October 19, 2018 Wim Laven arrived to his Georgia polling site unsure of voter suppression allegations. Then he waited 2 hours in the sun; saw one person in line treated for heat exhaustion; watched a 2nd collapse, yet …

Stacey Abrams vs. the Revanchist RacistPost + Comments (110)

The Abrams campaign signs Jenkins placed on her lawn were frequently stolen; she would replace them. But then came the one-word, handwritten messages on white pieces of paper that started showing up in her mailbox.

“Coon,” some of them said…

Still, Jenkins was among the throng of Abrams supporters, maybe a hundred or so, who gathered to listen to the gubernatorial candidate deliver her stump speech in a church parking lot in Waynesboro, Ga., on Wednesday afternoon.

It will be choices such as the one Jenkins is making—remaining steadfast in the face of intimidation in a state where charges of voter suppression have increased the past few weeks—that will likely decide what polling data says is a close race between Abrams and her Republican challenger, Brian Kemp.

Georgia made national headlines recently after the Associated Press found that 70 percent of the voter registration applications being held up by Kemp, who is also Georgia’s secretary of state, are African American. (Georgia is 32 percent black.)

Like the tension in Jenkins’s neighborhood, Kemp’s dual role as Abrams’ opponent, as well as the man in charge of voter registration, has become a prominent feature of this election cycle. Kemp has justified his decision to hold up so many applications because of the “exact match” policy that can invalidate an application if something as simple as a hyphen on a last name of a license is missing on the form. Most civil rights groups consider it a voter suppression tactic. While those whose applications are among the 53,000 can still show up to vote with the proper identification, many black Georgians see this as a 1960s-era attempt to scare them away from the polls.

“I come from the generation where we had to march to be able to vote,” Evelyn Ellis, 72, of Augusta, said after Abrams spoke. “I’m the last of that generation who can tell that story. It was a terrible thing my generation had to go through. For there to be any kind of suppression is just awful. So I am hoping and praying that even though that effort is out there that we will still be able to overcome it.”…

Goal Thermometer

Must-read @pemalevy profile of Brian Kemp, who's dedicated his career to preventing people of color from voting & whose voter suppression policies could tip GA governor's race in his favor https://t.co/Bacw92fMSO

— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) October 19, 2018

If any member of the GOP had even the tattered vestiges of decency left, they’d be publicly shunning Kemp just for his clumsiness. But in Trump’s America, being a Repub means never having to apologize for being shamelessly racist.

GOP Voter Suppression in Georgia: Maybe If the Seniors Agreed to Ride in the Back of the Bus?…

by Anne Laurie|  October 16, 201810:31 pm| 75 Comments

This post is in: Election 2018, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Voter Suppression

vote suppression ✅black seniors with a living memory of Jim Crow ✅a f***ing bus ✅ https://t.co/2vR6LQtznK — Zedward D Wood Junior (@Zeddary) October 17, 2018 The Suthrun Tradition revanchists are getting desperate. Let’s keep working to ensure these disgraceful antics will be summed up in the future as an extinction burst. From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, …

GOP Voter Suppression in Georgia: Maybe If the Seniors Agreed to Ride in the <em>Back</em> of the Bus?…Post + Comments (75)

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Evil Old White Men in Cahoots

by Anne Laurie|  October 6, 20181:00 am| 79 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, domestic terrorists, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Assholes

If Kavanaugh has the tiniest iota of self-awareness, tonight’s boozy TGIF should be as downbeat as the one at Trump Tower on the night of 11/6/16. Forty years of ‘youthful horseplay’ and a long history as a mid-level GOP apparatchik substituting effort for talent are about to be examined in a media glare to which …

Late Night Horrorshow Open Thread: Evil Old White Men in CahootsPost + Comments (79)

Grassley says he is still going to be investigating and collecting information on Dr. Ford's allegations.

“She raised issues in testimony and if you raise issues in your testimony we ought to have information to back it up.”

— Sam Stein (@samstein) October 5, 2018

Maria Bartiromo asked Chuck Grassley this morning if he thinks George Soros is paying the elevator protesters. "I have heard so many people believe that. I tend to believe it," Grassley said. Trump tweeted the accusation about 80 minutes later pic.twitter.com/az8QtMZwma

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) October 5, 2018

Speaking of evil old men, is there nobody in the Iowa GOP who will challenge this vicious old fekker? It’s not as though the pig manure lagoons have poisoned the brains of every IA voter…

One of the pivotal and defining moments of 2016. McConnell really hasn't gotten his due as a central villain in the Russia plot to undermine the US election, but I'd guess history books will correct that over the long term. https://t.co/CGd1lXNgr5

— Susan Hennessey (@Susan_Hennessey) October 2, 2018

Fellow historians: How far back do we have to go to find a politician who did as much institutional damage to Congress as Mitch McConnell has?

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 4, 2018

And then there’s Mitch McConnell. There were some dreadful Suthrun senators during the run-up to the Civil War, but I don’t remember any of them actually conspiring with foreign adversaries for personal advantage in their backwards little fiefdoms. Maybe he thinks he can get his wife’s rich Taiwanese parents to buy him asylum somewhere, once the GOP’s Backlash Decade comes crashing down?

Late Night Open Thread: All Deplorables Together!

by Anne Laurie|  October 4, 20181:13 am| 63 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Open Threads, Republican Stupidity, All Too Normal, Assholes, Bring On The Meteor, Just Shut the Fuck Up

This man is a pig.So is everyone at this rally. https://t.co/OxyP4A0uyq — Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) October 3, 2018   An’ Ah’m proud to be a Deplorable / Cuz at least Ah know Ah’m free / Of the social norms that a wider world / Tried so hard to force on me… Donald Trump is …

Late Night Open Thread: All Deplorables Together!Post + Comments (63)

This isn’t incoherent. It reflects a clear principle: Only the president and his allies, his supporters, and their anointed are entitled to the rights and protections of the law, and if necessary, immunity from it. The rest of us are entitled only to cruelty, by their whim. This is how the powerful have ever kept the powerless divided and in their place, and enriched themselves in the process…

Trump’s only true skill is the con, his only fundamental belief is that the United States is the birthright of straight, white, Christian men, and his only real, authentic pleasure is in cruelty. It is that cruelty, and the delight it brings them, that binds his most ardent supporters to him, in shared scorn for those they hate and fear: immigrants, black voters, feminists, and treasonous white men who empathize with any of those who would steal their birthright. The president’s ability to execute that cruelty through word and deed makes them euphoric. It makes them feel good, it makes them feel proud, it makes them feel happy, it makes them feel united. And as long as he makes them feel that way, they will let him get away with anything, no matter what it costs them.

But the Oxycontin doesn’t make their clothes reek, so they can go back to their gated communities and their contracting businesses without getting busted…

My god, there are Trump dead-heads. https://t.co/JXvhYlc4Sk

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) October 3, 2018


 
It is the (R)age of the Deplorables, and this man is their god-king!

As in an object with no agency that Trump wouldn't be able to keep his paws off of if he thought no one was looking? https://t.co/ncT1zzZQny

— zeddy (@Zeddary) October 3, 2018

I really don’t know how Sarah Sanders does it sometimes, the bargain one has to make with yourself. https://t.co/3p8vyJl9w9

— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) October 3, 2018

Like, you could be falsely accused of rape in Central Park, and then a racist, brain-damaged businessman could take out full-page ads in the NY Times demanding your execution. Scary times, indeed. https://t.co/8BP8H9L3TU

— Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) October 2, 2018

Repub Venality Open Thread: Lindsay Graham Is Giving His Voters What They Want

by Anne Laurie|  October 2, 20187:12 pm| 275 Comments

This post is in: Activist Judges!, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Hail to the Hairpiece, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Republican Venality, Assholes

this is a bit of a tell https://t.co/smgJa9xuIK — Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) October 2, 2018 It may be a tell, but it ain’t no mystery. Graham’s seat comes up again in 2020, in South “Too small for a republic, too big for an insane asylum” Carolina. You don’t need to postulate Russian kompromat or other …

Repub Venality Open Thread: Lindsay Graham Is Giving His Voters What They WantPost + Comments (275)

Every six years, he finds himself at risk of being ousted in a Republican primary election by someone claiming to be farther to the right.

And every time, Graham is able to survive. In 2014, Graham won his Republican primary with 56 percent. His chances of holding on, however, become more and more tenuous with each gesture he makes towards Democrats…

Voters are unlikely to shoot him down for his court views this time. During his fiery speech on Thursday, Graham accused Democrats of playing politics with the Kavanaugh nomination.

“Boy, do you want power,” he yelled, his voice shaking. “God, I hope you never get it.”

Graham’s take-down of colleagues on the other side of the aisle might have been an encouraging sign to many GOP voters who want a true, partisan hardliner representing them in Washington…

This is the best possible argument for voting Democratic I've ever heard. https://t.co/9tV3bR2WHP

— Matthew Chapman (@fawfulfan) September 29, 2018

He found Garland "honest" with a "reputation beyond reproach," but Graham wanted to hold the seat open due to politics.

With Kavanaugh's honesty and reputation in doubt, Graham says Dems just want to keep the seat open due to politics. Which is…bad now?https://t.co/8qh4PdbZ09

— Kevin M. Kruse (@KevinMKruse) October 1, 2018

‘I have argued to you that when you found that a judge was a perjurer, you couldn’t in good conscience send him back in a courtroom because everybody that came in that courtroom thereafter would have a real serious doubt’
— @LindseyGrahamSC (January 1999) pic.twitter.com/A5D3yx2iIS

— RetroNewsNow (@RetroNewsNow) September 28, 2018

Anyone else starting to think the Lindsey Graham plotline may end with an involuntary psych hold?

pic.twitter.com/7ImJGSWehh

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) October 2, 2018

There’s A Pony In There!

by Cheryl Rofer|  September 24, 20183:27 pm| 227 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, Fables Of The Reconstruction, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Daydream Believers

You might think that this morning’s shitshow had no redeeming qualities. I found one. It appears that the Democrats actually have a plan if Robert Mueller is fired. Senator Chris Coons of Delaware was willing to go on the record. Almost immediately, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer would consult with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, …

There’s A Pony In There!Post + Comments (227)

Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Another Bannon Comeback Failure

by Anne Laurie|  September 4, 20183:46 am| 21 Comments

This post is in: Dolt 45, Don't Mourn, Organize, Enhanced Protest Techniques, Fables Of The Reconstruction, Free Markets Solve Everything, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, Flash Mob of Hate, Riveted By The Sociological Significance Of It All

I’m not sure how this is meaningfully different from inviting David Duke https://t.co/u4OfM5BXnL — b-boy bouiebaisse (@jbouie) September 3, 2018 Up with the rocket and down with the stick, as my Irish granny used to say… but the cycles are getting shorter. This particular publicity attempt was over before most people even knew to complain …

Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Another Bannon Comeback FailurePost + Comments (21)

BTW, interviewing Bannon isn’t a crazy thing. But it’s also not all that necessary at this point. He’s got no real patron or base he’ll admit to. He’s either bankrolled by Russians to help out in Europe, or he’s old news here.

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 3, 2018

I’d enjoy a real Remnick-Bannon conversation. But not on a festival stage. Ideally on a plane, where they randomly were assigned seats next to each other for a long flight. And I‘m in the row in front, hearing everything and resisting the urge to live-tweet.

— Carlos Lozada (@CarlosLozadaWP) September 4, 2018

This might be the most succinct explanation I’ve seen for why/how @NewYorker screwed this up. https://t.co/ZZRYP5bKkk

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 3, 2018

Seems @NewYorker lost sight of key distinction between warily hearing out and scrutinizing @SteveKBannon's views, and celebrating him as a Festival headliner. Like an honorary degree or distinguished lectureship, latter implies a measure of acclaimhttps://t.co/cwvYLhJZtx

— Suzanne Nossel (@SuzanneNossel) September 4, 2018

Yup, though his current hustle is the "Bannon Rehabilitation Project" — trying to redeem himself not in the public's eyes, but in Trump's, to regain his lost influence https://t.co/inL7c6qgez

— Joshua Green (@JoshuaGreen) September 4, 2018

Bannon is a Newt knock-off: Smart,curious,worldly, industrious, enamored w florid language, an autodidact, undisciplined, sloppy, unfocused, somewhat narcissistic, convinced he’s a world historical figure, a dick, & unconcerned w the human/societal/political carnage he causes

— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) September 3, 2018

(The comparison — much as I hate to admit it — is unfair to Gingrich, who at least had hustle. The Giant Albino Axolotl actually managed the Repub fantasy of pulling himself up by his own bootstraps, however loathsome his methods. Bannon is just another Straight Outa Scarsdale wanna-be who flames out of every ‘influencer circle’ he attempts to conquer within five years.)

So is Gorka gonna replace Bannon at the Ideas festival or what?

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) September 3, 2018

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