As we expected, Judge McAfee, the judge overseeing the Georgia Racketeering case, ruled today that the romantic relationship between DA Fani Willis and her chief prosecutor Nathan Wade did not avoid the appearance of conflict while not technically violating the law.  He gave her the choice that either she or Wade had to go.  He talked extensively about Willis’ poor judgement in a case this important and her unprofessional behavior during testimony.  Wade resigned a few hours later.  Legal experts are saying that this debacle almost assures that the case will unlikely go to trial before the election.

As I said before, this is 100% Willis’ fault.  What she did was stupid, but exceptionally stupid when she was going after a former president of the US.  The carelessness is breathtaking.  In another slow moving disaster, the NY hush money case was delayed today for at least 30 days because, after a YEAR of waiting, the SDNY US attorney’s office dumped 150,000 pages of evidence that DA Bragg had requested.  TFG’s lawyer asked for a 90 day delay but the judge delayed for 30, but that will surely be appealed.

So, with a big assist from the Trump-Thomas SCOTUS when they rewrote the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, it looks like TFG’s going to win by running out the clock.  Add that to TFG’s handpicked judge in Florida slow walking the documents case and that’s almost a certainty.  What’s infuriating is that Garland, the NY DA, and Fani Willis dragged their feet so long that we’re now up against the election and it’s almost certain that no trial, much less a verdict, will happen before the election.  Garland sat on his ass for almost two years before he was shamed into prosecuting Trump only after the Select Committee on January 6th produced a warehouse full of damning evidence of insurrection.  He also KNEW TFG was sitting on thousands of government documents, 800 of which were classified TOP SECRET, but waited 21 months to finally do something.  Because of that negligence and the stupidity on Willis’ part, we’re not going to get any justice before Election Day.

There’s a good chance TFG’s going to win the election, and if he does, the documents case and the election interference cases will certainly be dropped by his new AG.  The NY hush money case and Georgia case will continue, but prosecuting a sitting president will be almost impossible, and the Trump-Thomas SCOTUS will make sure nothing happens.  Fani Willis will probably lose her re-election bid and the new DA could just drop the Georgia case. But those aren’t the biggest problems – the biggest problem is that TFG will gut the DOJ and FBI, pardon the almost 1,000 charged or convicted insurrectionists, and undo all the progress we’ve made while Biden has been in office.   He’ll pack the WH and his cabinet with criminals, white supremacists, and authoritarians, and it could easily be game over for the US as we know it.  If by chance he loses the election, he most certainly won’t accept it and will call for civil war.  There’s no good result here, and you can thank the Trump-Thomas Court, Merrick Garland, and Fani Willis.  Thanks for nothing.

Yesterday, MLB made a terse announcement that the league is moving the All Star game AND the MLB draft out of Atlanta as a response to Georgia Republicans passing its voter suppression bill which included voter suppression tactics like stricter ID requirements and shortened absentee voting periods.  The worst provisions, though, included giving the legislature authority to reject county voting results, removing the Georgia secretary of state from the state elections board voting members, and the cruel criminalizing of giving water and food to voters standing in line.

In a statement, MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said,

“Over the last week, we have engaged in thoughtful conversations with Clubs, former and current players, the Players Association, and The Players Alliance, among others, to listen to their views.  I have decided that the best way to demonstrate our values as a sport is by relocating this year’s All-Star Game and MLB Draft.

“Major League Baseball fundamentally supports voting rights for all Americans and opposes restrictions to the ballot box. In 2020, MLB became the first professional sports league to join the non-partisan Civic Alliance to help build a future in which everyone participates in shaping the United States. We proudly used our platform to encourage baseball fans and communities throughout our country to perform their civic duty and actively participate in the voting process. Fair access to voting continues to have our game’s unwavering support.”

Joining Atlanta based Delta Airlines and Coca Cola, along with other companies, MLB is ratcheting up the pressure on the GOP to stop its massive voter suppression efforts in a desperate effort to cling to power as its demographic shrinks.   It worked in Indiana years ago when then governor Mike Pence signed the anti-gay bill that explicitly allowed private businesses to refuse service to people they didn’t like under the guise of “religious choice”.  After massive backlash against businesses and sports in Indiana, the state legislature “clarified” the bill by adding that, notwithstanding why the bill was written in the first place, it couldn’t be used to deny service to anyone.

That’s not good enough for Georgia, though.  The GOP must be stopped in its tracks in Georgia because it’s doing the same thing in 42 other states.  If companies, sports leagues, activists, and Americans stand against this anti-democratic and anti-American effort to consolidate power, this effort can be stopped.

Georgia Republicans passed a terrible law under the guise of “election integrity”, all based on Trump’s Big Lie that he and his enablers continue to repeat today.  Said Republicans in Georgia, and in other states, ignored overwhelming testimony and public opinion that these law are ill conceived, hurt voters, are anti-democracy, and anti-American.  They did it for one reason and one reason only, and that is to cling to power because they know they can’t win in a fair fight.  Rather than celebrating our two century old tradition of voting for those individuals we want to represent us in our state and national capitols, I’ve heard Republican supporters paint a dark picture of voting locations being war zones where, “by God if you’re going to vote, pack in your own supplies and be prepared for long waits; don’t you dare help anyone else, and people who do should go to jail.”  AND, “don’t you dare speak out against Republican policies or we will come after you.”

That very scenario is playing out in Georgia.  Atlanta based Delta Airlines, trying to go along to get along, at first had a milquetoast response to the law in Georgia, displeasing many, including voting rights activists, who then called out the company.  In a response, Delta strengthened its response condemning the law, even saying that the law was “based on a lie” that there was widespread voter fraud which was simply not true.  Republicans didn’t like that dose of truth, and retaliated last night in the Georgia House voting to revoke Delta’s fuel tax credit that helps the airline be more competitive.   The measure died in the Georgia Senate, but the message was clear…it is, “Don’t disagree with us or we will come after you and damage your business.”  The GOP has now become the Mafia.  It is transactional, based on quid pro quo and most certainly a protection racket.  They’ll hand out gimmes to companies to attract them, but if those companies don’t toe the line, they’ll mete out punishment and quickly.

This is the twenty-first century, but many states are controlled by a party that are playing by 19th century rules.  Repubs scream about “woke” leftists and “cancel culture” even while they are muscling everyone who may disagree with them.  They’re the real cancel culture.

Jennifer Rubin has a good piece in the Washington Post today addressing the GOP’s ham handed election integrity Jim Crow 2.0 bill signed in a secret ceremony last week.  The bill, which is a solution in search of a problem, is one of the most cruel bills introduced this year intended not for security but to make it harder to vote.  Why make it harder to vote?  To trim off a few points by reducing turnout.  Ironically, one of the cruelest provisions in the bill may cause its undoing.  This provision makes it illegal to bring food or water to anyone standing in line.  Really?  Illegal to serve water to people standing in long lines (caused by Republicans, too)?  Rubin suggests, and I agree with her, that this provision, which has NOTHING to do with “election integrity” and everything to do with the Georgia GOP just being assholes.  There’s already a lawsuit filed to stop the bill, and hopefully it will be struck down because of this blatant attempt at voter suppression.  Fingers crossed.

This morning on Fox Business, Rand Paul blurted out his concern about more people voting:

Rand Paul rails on how Georgia was supposedly stolen — “but probably most importantly” absentee ballot applications being sent out for the Senate runoffs.

“I’m very, very concerned that if you solicit votes from typically non-voters, that you will affect and change the outcome.” pic.twitter.com/J1TPaN02Us

— Eric Kleefeld (@EricKleefeld) December 17, 2020

Heaven forbid we have more people voting – right?

Remember when Republicans were calling for more civility after last week’s shooting of a Republican congressman?

Remember when Charlie Brown would try to kick the football and Lucy would pull it up at the last minute?

Yeah, the Lucy Republican strikes again …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sh7ZiddrkmI

The Atlanta Journal Constitution covers the story.