I understand the gravity of eliminating the filibuster for when the Dems lose the Senate again, but if they don’t, they’ll lose the House and Senate in 2022, and risk never winning again in our lifetimes.  Having lost the WH, the House and the Senate during  the last 4 years, Republicans have launched a full frontal assault on voting  in 43 states, filing over 250 bills with the goal of making it harder to vote.  These bills include new laws that reduce voting hours, shorten early voting days, purge mail voter lists, limit polling locations, reduce drop box locations, require printed voter ID in mail in ballots, severely restrict eligibility for absentee voting, and in Arizona, allow the Legislature to overturn election results by simple majority.  If successful, Republicans will have such a locked in advantage that it will be impossible for voters to control their own destiny in the states, and therefore the US Congress.

These Republicans are lying, of course, that their intent is to “restore faith” in the election system after they joined Trump in claiming non-existent voting fraud, CAUSING that loss of faith.  One politician even said it out loud this week; he’s Arizona Rep John Kavanaugh, who chairs the Government and Elections Committee in the Arizona House.  Talking about the 24 bills filed to suppress voter turnout, Kavanaugh said,

“There’s a fundamental difference between Democrats and Republicans.  Democrats value as many people as possible voting, and they’re willing to risk fraud. Republicans are more concerned about fraud, so we don’t mind putting security measures in that won’t let everybody vote — but everybody shouldn’t be voting.”

“Not everybody wants to vote, and if somebody is uninterested in voting, that probably means that they’re totally uninformed on the issues.  Quantity is important, but we have to look at the quality of votes, as well.”

The translation of Kavanaugh’s statement from GOPish to English is, “We only want people who agree with us to vote.”  It’s that simple, and it is a desperate last ditch attempt to keep power even if it means trampling all over the rights of millions and millions of Americans.  There should be no doubt in all Americans’ minds the seriousness of this issue.  Having a cemented in a gerrymandered advantage, these laws could achieve what Tom DeLay and Turd Blossom sought twenty years ago, a permanent majority for the GOP.  These laws, if passed and not stopped in the courts, would mark the end of democracy in the US.  With the Roberts Court’s record of laying waste to the Voting Rights Act and other anti-democratic opinions, I have zero confidence that, with a 6-3 majority, the court will suddenly regain its sanity and overturn these new laws.

The Congress must pass a new Voting Rights Act 2.0 that reinstates federal oversight to changes in voting laws by Jim Crow states that went nuts after the tragic 2013 Shelby ruling and went right back to doing precisely what Roberts said they wouldn’t do, suppressing minority voting rights.  They also need to make non-partisan redistricting a federal law and to standardize voting systems to protect the rights of all voters.  The Congress can only do this by eliminating the filibuster and passing these laws as quickly as possible before the 2022 elections.  Not doing so could have disastrous consequences for American voters, and fulfilling DeLay’s and Turd Blossom’s dream of a permanent majority.

Paxton made a big deal about this one, saying that the “left is gaslighting on voter fraud” pretending that it doesn’t exist.  The little detail he left out was that the arrests that were made last month included a Justice of the Peace of Medina County, Tomas Ramirez, a REPUBLICAN, along with 3 other suspects who had participated in a mail in vote harvesting scheme at managed care facilities.

They always accuse opponents for what they’re doing themselves.  BTW, am I the only one shocked that the Texas AG continues in his position FIVE YEARS after being indicted for felony securities fraud?

Must read this morning from Dana Milbank – We’ve finally found the fraud in the 2020 election – It’s Ron Johnson.  Milbank describes the Senate hearing shit show Johnson held this week.   It was a parade kooks, Trumpists, and, of course, Ron Johnson spewing a mountain of lies and innuendo about the non-existent massive fraud.  Completely missing the irony that this clown show was actually destroying our democracy, he spewed lies about non-existent massive fraud that supposedly is destroying our democracy.

Milbank hits Johnson hard in this piece which make for good reading.

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?

Bush appointee Andrew Hanen, a federal judge in the 5th circuit, just threw out the lawsuit filed by GOP activists and shitbags to dis-enfranchise 127,000 Harris County voters, including yo, who voted at a drive through location.  Had we lost, the 10 drive through locations in Harris County would have been shut down AND all 127,000 of us would have had to stand in line tomorrow and VOTE AGAIN.  The only surprise here is that Hanen, known as one of the most knee jerk extreme conservatives on the bench, actually followed the law and ruled correctly against this outrageous tactic to sow chaos into our right to vote.