Presidential votaries hinder early voting in Fairfax, VA. Whether or not plaintiffs will be able to hang these folks on Virginia state law (which prohibits political advocacy within 40 feet of a polling place), that doesn't change the fact that confident people don't have to chant and wave flags in front of a polling place. Also, these I'm-not-touching-you games don't do well at persuading others to vote for their candidate. And though we know relentless negative TV advertising depresses turnout, making someone throw up their hands and go home once they've already trekked out to the polling place may be another thing entirely.
Federal agents abduct two Native American protestors at a holy site in the path of our Administration's vanity border wall construction, and hold them without access to a lawyer for almost 24 hours; their detainment (at a private prison over two hours away) includes at least two strip-searches and being "chained at the feet and waists." You know, in case you thought this was only happening to police brutality protestors. Anyone else think the private prison's claim that they couldn't tell the two activists were women is utter horsedoodle -- or worse, was a show they put on for the Administration and/or its votaries?
Shane Burley at TruthOut finds catches T-shirts disappearing from retail site Teespring while far-right groups actually committing violence on the ground still selling their wares. Freedom: it's best when it's completely conditional! And Teespring spokeshacks flat-out lied about it, too, first alleging "copyright violations," then when confronted with evidence to the contrary, admitted it was all about the word "antifa." Using a corporate website to hawk your wares is always fraught with danger, particularly when the corporate types live in fear of offending right-wingers, but don't give a damn about those of us who are actually offended by the noise of Nazi wannabes. So go ahead and boycott their sorry asses. It's not like the internet is a tiny place.
Upon hearing that our President has led his votaries to believe he's actually received a Nobel Peace Prize when he's only been nominated, I feel compelled to note, again, that none of his votaries will verify his assertion; they'll just take it at face value because they want it to be true. And maybe if he gets re-elected, and doesn't actually win it (which sure seems likely!), his votaries will whine about how they "took" it from him! (Also, too, over 200 individuals and 100 groups were nominated this year, so I can't even say it's "an honor to be nominated," as they say about the Oscars.)
While it may not be precisely true that 7th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Amy Coney Barrett -- reportedly at or near the top of our President's short list to replace the late Justice Ginsberg on our Supreme Court -- belongs to an organization that inspired Margaret Atwood's famous novel The Handmaid's Tale (now a Hulu TV series starting Elizabeth Moss), one Facebook meme of Ms. Barrett in a handmaid's headdress might be weapons-grade PR against her. Our President loves to create drama, of course, so he might pick Ms. Barrett precisely because of the uproar it'd create, where a choice like 11th Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa would more likely fly under the radar.
Finally, speaking of drama, our Justice Department designates three U.S. cities -- New York, Seattle, and Portland (OR) -- as "anarchist jurisdictions," meaning our Administration could deprive them of federal funding. Or try to, anyway -- the only leg our President has to stand on here is a memo he wrote, which, last I looked, isn't law, no matter what he thinks. More likely he just likes using the word "anarchist" as often as he can, to make people think ZOMG TEH CITIEZ AREZ TEH LAWLESSEZ!!!!! Again, our President never talks about "law and order" as it would relate to polluters and banksters.
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