Florida Gov. DeSantis proposes disgusting anti-protest bill which would make it a felony to participate (either via on-the-ground protesting or donating to protests) in any demonstration where any property damage or road blocking happens -- but would give you a pass if you hit protestors with your car. The bill gets much, much worse from there, but remember that he didn't propose the bill because it'll ever become law -- he proposed it because being a prick is what passes for persuasion among too many right-wingers these days. But then, when you've done almost as bad a job managing the pandemic as our President has, what opportunities for persuasion remain open to you?
Speaking of evil Florida politicians, Sen. Rick Scott has introduced a bill that would force states to count all votes within 24 hours of Election Day's end -- and wouldn't let them start counting already-received votes until the morning of Election Day. This bill, somehow called the Help America Vote Act of 2020, also has no chance of becoming law -- even this Supreme Court would say it's too close to an election to screw with established election procedures like this -- but again, as one Twitter commenter said, "(i)t's just wild that they're introducing a bill like this in the light of day." Which is the whole point of the exercise -- after all, how else can prick-swingers find each other?
Surprise, surprise, Presidential votaries have planned a crap-ton of violence ahead of Portland (OR) rallies this summer. And they still hide their threats behind weasel words! "(P)eople will get shot, stabbed, and beat," one says, hoping you won't realize exactly who does all the shooting, stabbing, and beating in that formulation, and they also think "justice on our DA" somehow disguises the precise nature of the "justice" they propose. When you confront apparent stupidity on that scale -- which is, like, a daily occurrence these days! -- you might think they wanted their noxious utterings leaked. And though I think the pick-up truck is about to become a symbol of American racism, I think immortality will nonetheless elude them.
Hard to believe, Harry, but American states that tax the rich do rather better than states that don't -- they have less unemployment, faster wage growth, and faster GDP growth. And this must be why "free" marketeers insist that raising taxes on the rich will lead to TEH DISASTURZ!!!!! After all, if you don't have the facts on your side, you almost have to resort to hysteria if you even want to be heard. The right have been teaching a master class in this subject for many years. And it's not a "fever" that'll "pass" -- it won't change until these right-wingers experience shame again.
ProPublica reminds us that a COVID-19 vaccine coming out before the election would be a "miracle." Read the whole thing, so that you have it in mind that science is actually hard and doing it wrong hurts people the next time our President says a vaccine is coming before the election -- or, more likely, whines about "bureaucrats" keeping a vaccine from coming before the election. Maybe our President could have, you know, dealt with COVID-19 in February and March and he wouldn't be up against a deadline now?
Finally, Nathan J. Robinson at Current Affairs delivers the goods yet again, explaining at considerable length why Amy Coney Barrett shouldn't be on our Supreme Court. Many detailed examples of her jurisprudence on immigration, criminal justice, and workers' rights later, we see that Ms. Barrett does indeed demonstrate "a bias toward the powerful and against the powerless," and maybe I'm old-fashioned, but I think a "bias toward the powerful" runs pretty much counter to the whole idea of democracy. (As a bonus, he demolishes arguments based on respecting Ms. Barrett's "intellect": "the moment we discuss the actual results of the rulings, 'intellect' begins to seem a ridiculous criterion on its own.")
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