Arlington must have Republicans taking care of the drinking water, y’all.

Lets go back in time, just a few months, to December of 2020. Representative Ron Wright (R), infamous for complaining that there is no federal protection for the ever-persecuted white American male, is the U.S. Representative for the 6th Congressional District of Texas. He believes that the 2020 election was fraudulent and votes against certifying the election results on the day of the Capitol riot, January 6.

Not long after Rep. Wright made it back to Arlington, he tested positive for COVID. And died. He had spent the entire last year battling lung cancer and tweeting that businesses and schools should re-open because COVID-19 isn’t all that dangerous.

Moving forward, 23 people have filed to run for his seat. Texans will be voting in a special election May 1. One of the candidates, former wrestler and current carpetbagger Dan Rodimer, has already had himself gossiped about at the beauty salon for being a fool. Not to be outdone, let me introduce y’all to one of the ladies running for Wright’s seat.

Sery Kim is Korean. Last week, there was a forum for the GOP candidates where they could out-stupid each other to try and win the Republican votes. Kim decided to play the race-card.

On the subject of Chinese immigrants, “I don’t want them here at all,” Sery Kim said. “They steal our intellectual property, they give us coronavirus, they don’t hold themselves accountable.” She said the racist part out-loud. Trump voters love that.

“And quite frankly, I can say that because I’m Korean,” she added.

She has refused to apologize, saying it’s the big bad liberal media’s fault and that she “will not back down from speaking the truth.” She lost the endorsements of the two Korean Republican Representatives in the House: Young Kim and Michelle Steel.

In a political climate where you’ve got to be a giant jack-ass to get on the ballot, she just might have a shot.

As I was writing this, I saw some more political news out of Arlington. Governor Abbott has turned down the offer to throw out the first pitch at the Ranger’s game this week, citing Major League Baseball’s opposition to Georgia’s restrictive Voter ID law. I’d wager three jars of El Jefe’s South Texas Pucker Up & Slap Yo’ Knee Bread n’ Butter pickles that Abbott expects to be boo’d out of the stadium by Texans still pissed off about last month’s power grid failure. Besides, no one watches the Rangers anyway. Go ‘Stros!

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.

In the Texas election last year, turnout was 6.6 percent higher than in 2016.  In my view, there were two reasons for this:

1. Voters not normally engaged in public policy were alarmed by the disaster that was Trump’s infestation of the White House.  Trump’s childish attacks on social media, continuous stream of outrageous lies, and soaring Covid cases and deaths finally broke through the fog of disinformation pouring out of right wing media and drove people to the polls.
2. Efforts by local officials to make it easier to vote, especially after Trump’s new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, intentionally sabotaged the Post Office and undermined voters’ confidence that their mail in ballots would be counted.

The turnout was bipartisan.  Even though Biden decisively won the national election, Republicans maintained their iron grip on Texas and made gains in the US House (I’m ignoring gerrymandering at this moment.)  Turnout us up across the country this last election, so the response from GOP controlled statehouses around the country was predictable – make sweeping changes to make it harder for Americans to votes.  Over 250 bills in 43 states are being rammed through state legislatures as I write this.

In fact, last night while we were all asleep, the Texas Senate voted to advance Senate Bill 7, that places additional sweeping restrictions on voting including reducing early voting days and hours, eliminating highly successful and popular drive-through voting, and making it illegal for local officials to send mail in ballot applications to those who don’t request them, even though they are qualified.  They are ramming this bill through as fast as possible, even though the majority of testimony in Senate hearings opposed these laws as unnecessary and just more voter suppression.  The House could vote on this bill by the Texas House and signed by Abbott as early as next week.  It’s passage is as certain as the sunrise tomorrow.

This anti-American undemocratic bill is being passed so the GOP, controlled by old pot-bellied rednecks can cling to power for another cycle.  Elections have consequences.  When the bad guys win, bad things happen.  Welcome to “democracy” in the 21st century.  Any more of this kind of “democracy” our status as a failed state will be cemented for decades.

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.