Is it literally true that I have never seen more terrible, bullshit useless news coverage and commentary than I've seen the last two days re Trump? It's a hard thing to calculate precisely, but if it's not exactly true it's damn close. Nobody knows nuthin', that's for sure. What a disgrace and how unfortunate for the country.

I was just reading about the new anti-trans law in TN and it occurred to me that if Athens GA was a mere 176 miles west in Chattanooga TN, several of the men wearing dresses at the Saturday HHC show might have been subject to arrest depending on the interpretation of a lot of soft, fuzzy language in this absurd law. Outrageous doesn't begin to cover it. As is so often the case, there is really nothing new to say about the fear, hypocrisy, lack of knowledge and understanding and disregard for the rights and lives of others behind this nonsense but unfortunately there are real life consequences.

I think most people who follow politics have a general sense that Wisconsin is a seriously gerrymandered state. Even so, the actual numbers are pretty shocking. Per Prof. Heather Cox Richardson:

"Political scientists judge Wisconsin to be the most gerrymandered state in the country. The state is divided pretty evenly between Democrats and Republicans, although the Democrats have won 13 of the past 16 statewide elections. But despite the state’s relatively even political split, the current district maps are so heavily tilted for Republicans that Democrats have to win the statewide vote by 12 points just to get a majority in the assembly: 50 of the 99 seats. Republicans, though, can win a majority with just 44% of the vote...

When Democrat Tony Evers won election as governor in 2018, Democrats won all four statewide races. They also won 53% of the votes for state assembly—203,000 more votes than the Republicans did—but because of gerrymandering, the Democrats got just 36% of the seats in the legislature. The Republicans there immediately held a lame duck session and stripped powers from Evers and Democratic attorney general Josh Kaul. Then they passed new laws to restrict voting rights. The legislature went on to block Evers’s appointees and block his legislative priorities, like healthcare, schools, and roads.

Polls showed that voters opposed the lame duck session by a margin of almost 2 to 1, and by 2020, 82% of Wisconsin voters had passed referenda calling for fair district maps.

But when it came time to redistrict after the 2020 census, the Republican-dominated legislature carved up the state into an even more pro-Republican map than it had put into place before. Ultimately, the new maps gave Republicans 63 out of 99 seats in the assembly and 22 out of 23 in the state senate. They came within two assembly seats of having a supermajority that would enable them to override any vetoes by the governor, essentially nullifying him, although Evers had been reelected by 53.5% of the vote (a large margin for Wisconsin)."

Yup. This is why tomorrow is such a big deal. We have been especially in the crosshairs of the Koch/general right-wing apparatus since the first Scott Walker election in 2010. It's certainly no coincidence that a state with a history of being a "laboratory for democracy" and being known for the "Wisconsin Idea" was one that they so desperately wanted to smash.

I support this message:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/opin ... 029039208a

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 03, 2023 3:09 pm

I support this message:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/02/opin ... 029039208a

As a professor in the Arts and Humanities, hear hear!

This nonsense in Tennessee's legislature is getting nearly no national coverage. TN Republicans are trying to forcibly remove duly elected officials for having the audacity to stand up against guns. First they simply wanted to strip them of all of their committee seats. Now they want to force them out entirely. This is in direct violation of Tennessee's constitution (though the GOP has long ago wiped their collective asses with those)

Zip City wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 8:10 am

This nonsense in Tennessee's legislature is getting nearly no national coverage. TN Republicans are trying to forcibly remove duly elected officials for having the audacity to stand up against guns. First they simply wanted to strip them of all of their committee seats. Now they want to force them out entirely. This is in direct violation of Tennessee's constitution (though the GOP has long ago wiped their collective asses with those)

Nothing is getting much coverage other than Trump's every move. And by every move, I mean physical, not tactical or strategic. "Trump Gets Up From Living Room Sofa!", "Trump Takes Golf Cart Between Tennis Court and Pool!," "Trump Gets on a Plane!" and on and on and on and on ...

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 9:07 am

Zip City wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 8:10 am

This nonsense in Tennessee's legislature is getting nearly no national coverage. TN Republicans are trying to forcibly remove duly elected officials for having the audacity to stand up against guns. First they simply wanted to strip them of all of their committee seats. Now they want to force them out entirely. This is in direct violation of Tennessee's constitution (though the GOP has long ago wiped their collective asses with those)

Nothing is getting much coverage other than Trump's every move. And by every move, I mean physical, not tactical or strategic. "Trump Gets Up From Living Room Sofa!", "Trump Takes Golf Cart Between Tennis Court and Pool!," "Trump Gets on a Plane!" and on and on and on and on ...

From the perpetrator of The Weekly Sift, a short sermon on having a healthy relationship with the news:

I was miserable in that unique way that addicts are miserable. I was filled with anxiety and tension and fear and rage — and a yearning for relief from those feelings. But I was looking for relief in something that was actually going to make it all worse: more news coverage. The latest details on those stories, more talking heads arguing about them — that’s what I felt like I needed. It was crazy.

So I went cold turkey on the news for a couple weeks, and I did indeed get better. I was once again able to experience the ups and downs of life as they came, without an ever-present background anxiety, and a desperate grasping after experiences that would make that anxiety worse.

But of course, ignoring the news is not an answer either, any more than it’s an answer for an alcoholic to live the rest of his life in a rehab center. I am a voting citizen in a democracy, and I live in a society that faces real issues of justice and injustice. Closing my eyes to everything bigger than my personal life might be necessary from time to time, but long term it can’t be the right response.

So there’s one central question that always hangs in the background of The Weekly Sift: What is a right relationship to the news?

What's the weather/turnout in Wiscy?

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:35 pm

What's the weather/turnout in Wiscy?

I was #36 in my village at shortly after 8:00, which is pretty high turnout here. It's a pretty shitty day. Windy, rainy, and sleety. Not supposed to be anything major until quite a bit later in the evening, so hopefully it won't depress turnout much among people who vote after work, etc.

Big win for the Dems. Most articles I've seen focus on choice related issues and those are obviously important but the gerrymandering thing seems bigger to me in the big picture because of its potential impact on national matters while the abortion-related issues that play out in WI will be one of 50 more or less simultaneous scenarios (of course I'm not getting pregnant anytime soon, especially not in Wisconsin).

I am also ecstatic about the Chicago mayoral result. Of course there will be no soul-searching op-eds about how "MORE FUCKING COPS" is a failed electoral strategy, like there were when Very Smart People had a field day scolding anyone to the left of George W. Bush with the narrative that criminal justice reform is not actually possible. Unfortunately a lot of well-meaning liberals fall for that shit every time, since they have been conditioned by prominent Democratic politicians for generations that a better world just can't exist and they have to take whatever incremental "progress" they get. More people need to turn off their pundit brain and have an imagination.

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:19 pm

Big win for the Dems. Most articles I've seen focus on choice related issues and those are obviously important but the gerrymandering thing seems bigger to me in the big picture because of its potential impact on national matters while the abortion-related issues that play out in WI will be one of 50 more or less simultaneous scenarios (of course I'm not getting pregnant anytime soon, especially not in Wisconsin).

I think the general theme is just right-wing overreach. They went too far and then kept going and going. It's a combination of all these things. Abortion, gerrymandering, labor, general obstructionism/inaction, etc. Robin Vos (our assembly speaker) is like Mitch McConnell on steroids if you can imagine that. A real repugnant piece of shit.

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 03, 2023 9:45 am

I was just reading about the new anti-trans law in TN and it occurred to me that if Athens GA was a mere 176 miles west in Chattanooga TN, several of the men wearing dresses at the Saturday HHC show might have been subject to arrest depending on the interpretation of a lot of soft, fuzzy language in this absurd law. Outrageous doesn't begin to cover it. As is so often the case, there is really nothing new to say about the fear, hypocrisy, lack of knowledge and understanding and disregard for the rights and lives of others behind this nonsense but unfortunately there are real life consequences.

A judge stayed the law Friday night, ten minutes before in would have gone into effect.

Good Op-Ed by Ketch Secor of OCMS:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/05/opin ... lence.html

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:19 pm

Big win for the Dems. Most articles I've seen focus on choice related issues and those are obviously important but the gerrymandering thing seems bigger to me in the big picture because of its potential impact on national matters while the abortion-related issues that play out in WI will be one of 50 more or less simultaneous scenarios (of course I'm not getting pregnant anytime soon, especially not in Wisconsin).

Brett would no more about this than I do, but I read that the Republicans are threatening to impeach the new justice before she ever takes office. Whether it happens our not, simply voicing it is disgusting beyond words.

Tequila Cowboy wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 10:08 am

beantownbubba wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 04, 2023 11:19 pm

Big win for the Dems. Most articles I've seen focus on choice related issues and those are obviously important but the gerrymandering thing seems bigger to me in the big picture because of its potential impact on national matters while the abortion-related issues that play out in WI will be one of 50 more or less simultaneous scenarios (of course I'm not getting pregnant anytime soon, especially not in Wisconsin).

Brett would no more about this than I do, but I read that the Republicans are threatening to impeach the new justice before she ever takes office. Whether it happens our not, simply voicing it is disgusting beyond words.

Yes, this is a thing that could happen. Republicans won a state senate election last night that gives them a 2/3 majority and the power to do that. The candidate that won (Dan Knodl) is the person who had been bringing this idea up as a way to get the real psychos to turn out for him. It's hard to say right now if it was just rhetoric or something with a realistic possibility of happening. I guess in the current day you have to treat every one of these things like it's the latter. If this sort of thing did happen, the Governor would just be able to appoint a replacement.

brettac1 wrote: ↑

Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:44 am

I am also ecstatic about the Chicago mayoral result. Of course there will be no soul-searching op-eds about how "MORE FUCKING COPS" is a failed electoral strategy, like there were when Very Smart People had a field day scolding anyone to the left of George W. Bush with the narrative that criminal justice reform is not actually possible. Unfortunately a lot of well-meaning liberals fall for that shit every time, since they have been conditioned by prominent Democratic politicians for generations that a better world just can't exist and they have to take whatever incremental "progress" they get. More people need to turn off their pundit brain and have an imagination.

100% agree

brettac1 wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 11:37 am

https://bad-faith-times.ghost.io/wiscon ... be-undone/

That is a great read. Couldn't agree more about the simple move to FAIR voting maps completely changing the political landscape. Until then, look out for some increasingly nasty shit...those who can't win, cheat.

Republicans are calling protesters at the Tennessee State House “a real insurrection.” Yet I see nobody pissing on the walls, no stupid motherfuckers with horns, no broken windows and no police being assaulted. Instead what I see is the most undemocratic display by elected officials I’ve ever witnessed. After the last few years that’s saying something. The vote on expelling the three legislators is about to start and we may see something even more shameful.

Justin Jones has been expelled. It’s fucking shameful.

Tequila Cowboy wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:26 pm

Republicans are calling protesters at the Tennessee State House “a real insurrection.” Yet I see nobody pissing on the walls, no stupid motherfuckers with horns, no broken windows and no police being assaulted. Instead what I see is the most undemocratic display by elected officials I’ve ever witnessed. After the last few years that’s saying something. The vote on expelling the three legislators is about to start and we may see something even more shameful.

Tequila Cowboy wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:39 pm

Justin Jones has been expelled. It’s fucking shameful.

The problem with words losing all meaning is that they can then be used to say anything and to sow confusion, create doubt and eliminate accountability or even rational discourse. Calling what happened in the TN legislature "a real insurrection" is simply absurd. It does not meet any definition of "insurrection" I'm familiar with. The allegation should not even need to be refuted yet here we are. Only one of a bazillion examples we see and get inured to every day (another of immediate relevance: Right wing media referring to the TN citizen protesters as a "mob" which they certainly weren't but which resonates with their audience and deflects attention from what happened because the 1/6 participants were correctly labeled as a mob). It's certainly Orwellian but more than that it's just plain scary because it symbolizes the breakdown of civil society - if we can't agree on what words mean, if we can't agree on what facts are, what are we left with? Chaos.

I had of course heard that 3 TN legislators had been targeted to be expelled and that 2 were in fact expelled. What I did not hear until this morning is that there is one stark factor uniting the 2 expelled legislators and differentiating them from the 1 not expelled. They are Black; she is White. Coincidence? I think not.

Shameful is a good descriptor and there are many others, all of which come easily to mind and all of which get too much use in these sad, corrupt, twisted times which are aided and abetted by supermajorities in state legislatures created by gerrymandering and restricted voting rights. As Lord Acton (or somebody, I guess it's disputed) once observed: Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Thomas is a piece of work for sure. Sadly, this latest episode is only a matter of degree (and yes it is a lot of degrees) not kind compared to other stories about his many actual and apparent conflicts of interest, acceptance of gifts, non-disclosures, etc. If there was ever an argument that justices of the Supreme Court are the very model of probity whose ethics and standards can't be challenged, it is now officially smashed (not that it was ever a legit argument anyway).

PS Great clip!

Tequila Cowboy wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:26 pm

Republicans are calling protesters at the Tennessee State House “a real insurrection.” Yet I see nobody pissing on the walls, no stupid motherfuckers with horns, no broken windows and no police being assaulted. Instead what I see is the most undemocratic display by elected officials I’ve ever witnessed. After the last few years that’s saying something. The vote on expelling the three legislators is about to start and we may see something even more shameful.

I've worn my Congressman's phone out but haven't gotten a reply.
I've said for a while that Tennessee may have the worst of the office holding nutty, right wing lot. Mississippi is supposed to be bad but I'll trade Marsha Blackburn for Roger Wicker seven days a week. Ya'll can keep Tate Reeves though.
It is a real shame because for a long time Tennessee was a bit of a model for good government. Far from perfect, but things ran really well here until 6-8 years ago.
For fuck's sake the guy who said "what did the President know and when did he know it" during the Watergate hearings was Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee. A Republican giving a Republican President the business !!! How the mighty all have fallen.

jr29 wrote: ↑

Fri Apr 07, 2023 5:33 pm

Tequila Cowboy wrote: ↑

Thu Apr 06, 2023 4:26 pm

Republicans are calling protesters at the Tennessee State House “a real insurrection.” Yet I see nobody pissing on the walls, no stupid motherfuckers with horns, no broken windows and no police being assaulted. Instead what I see is the most undemocratic display by elected officials I’ve ever witnessed. After the last few years that’s saying something. The vote on expelling the three legislators is about to start and we may see something even more shameful.

I've worn my Congressman's phone out but haven't gotten a reply.
I've said for a while that Tennessee may have the worst of the office holding nutty, right wing lot. Mississippi is supposed to be bad but I'll trade Marsha Blackburn for Roger Wicker seven days a week. Ya'll can keep Tate Reeves though.
It is a real shame because for a long time Tennessee was a bit of a model for good government. Far from perfect, but things ran really well here until 6-8 years ago.
For fuck's sake the guy who said "what did the President know and when did he know it" during the Watergate hearings was Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee. A Republican giving a Republican President the business !!! How the mighty all have fallen.

Tate Reeves's name is actually Tate Reeves SMH because one has to shake one's head every damn time he opens his damn mouth. Talk about people who should be ashamed of themselves, large numbers of people for whom he is responsible actually die or are consigned to a life of pain and disability because of the things he does and doesn't do. Unbelievable.

No first hand knowledge but definitely by reputation i agree that TN was long known for good govt. It's a shame (notice a theme here?)

I wonder if there is a federal legal or constitutional claim available to the citizens of the districts whose reps were expelled. I haven't seen anything about this which may be indicative, but just for yucks, there would seem to be voting rights related issues over being denied representation and constitutional issues around being denied due process and representation, all colored (NO PUN INTENDED) by the potential discrimination issue I mentioned above. They wouldn't be easy cases to win but I wonder what Larry Tribe might have to say.