GOP voter suppression efforts in Colorado fail and the DOJ sues Georgia ( updated (June July , 2021)

. GOP voter suppression efforts in Colorado fail and the DOJ sued Georgia.. June 25. Joe Biden continued his efforts to deal with GOP voter suppression efforts through his Department of Justice after the Senate defeated the attempt to set federal standards. The attempt in the Senate to get voting rights bills passed failed the week before and the lawsuit was a plan B for the Biden administration. The DOJ announced it was suing Georgia for their legislature passing voting restriction laws, tailor-making them intentionally to make it harder for African Americans and others of certain language groups to vote. Department of Justice sues Georgia over voting law | TheHill. The crux of the suit is to use part of the existing voting rights act prohibiting racial discrimination. (The Supreme Court earlier had declared the part of the act unconstitutional that required any government pre-approval of changes in state voter laws, but the anti-discrimination portion still remains.) The burden for the DOJ is to show that while the new Georgia law applies to everyone, it is aimed at making it harder for African Americans and other minorities to vote and that was the intent of the lawmakers. The DOJ will also give priority to prosecuting threats to the safety of poll watchers paid or volunteers, and state and local officials. Last week Senate Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell switched gears from denying these kinds of laws like Georgia's were meant to be suppression of minority voters and instead evoked the old "states rights" argument ) that has been used to keep Jim Crow discrimination practices alive until the voting rights laws of the mid-1960s ended that claim. Expect, too, the Big Lie fueling these laws will come up advocated in cases made by the GOP that these restrictive laws were needed because of widespread fraud in 2020. The Big Lie likely would be slapped down in court. Pres. Trump's personal attorney Rudy Guiliani just had his law license suspended for making such false claims in court and in public.

The Georgia voter suppression effort has been replicated to some extent in all states and the repercussion on pending or passed voter restrictions attempts may be significant. Colorado's Democratic-dominated statehouse already beat down an attempt earlier this spring and an attempt to get suppression tactics on the ballot by Initiative 38 in November also failed. June 2, 2021, the State title board denied the petition to put #38 on the ballot on the basis that it was not a single issue...a requirement in Colorado that an initiative could only address one single issue.

Initiative 38 would have ended mail-in voting in Colorado and require fingerprinting to get a voter registration card, requiring a person to vote in person, end drop boxes. It would have done away with the mail-in voting system in effect since 2013. This initiative would break whatever is considered one of the most fraud-free, largest voter participation systems in the US.

 https://news.yahoo.com/gops-main-voter-bloc-shrinking-153954578.html

That last sentence is particularly interesting.  If the GOP's most solid voter block is over 75, the more the GOP makes it harder to vote by mail, the more that block's ability to vote is suppressed.  In fact, many of the vote-by-mail movements were begun by the GOP in order to maximize votes from their loyal seniors.  Now they are busy reversing that method.  From the article: "A new deep dive into the 2020 electorate by Pew Research contain mostly bad news for Republicans, whose approaching demographic dooms less racial than it is generational. While it shouldn't be news to anyone at this point that young voters are a solidly blue voting bloc, the more worrisome developments for the GOP are the unexpectedly elderly nature of the party's coalition and the unyielding Democratic lean of younger voters as they age. If Pew's numbers are to be believed, the only solidly Republican age demographic last year was 75 and over, meaning that every time the sun comes up, the GOP's struggle to win a majority of American voters gets harder."   

A Facebook friend. and a Trump supporter,  complained that memes get fact-checked but vote results do not. My answer:" The question is who does the fact-checking.? For example, recounts in Georgia were done 3 times, but that was not enough? 80 judges reviewed all of the lawsuits brought by Trumpers alleging fraud or irregularities...and nothing was found..and in fact, many of those lawyers are being disciplined for failure to provide facts regarding their allegations...and that is not enough? Oh, I get it. Only fact checking that is accepted is by the partisan supporters of the losers without observing the chain of possession or other requirements to protect the integrity of the evidence? And only partisan loyalists will be allowed by proposed statutes in some states? Is that what you mean?"

New Colorado election laws expand multilingual voting access, voter registration options - Colorado Newsline    This article is a good contrast between red and blue states on voting laws and an analysis of the recent Supreme Court decision that made suits against suppression laws even more difficult to win

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 Biden's epic remarks on voter suppression< July 13 2021: https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/07/13/remarks-by-president-biden-on-protecting-the-sacred-constitutional-right-to-vote/   transcript

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hewILVSXXc

New York Court Suspends Rudy Giuliani's Law License | Georgia News | US News

1

Frank Zaveral

Save your Confederate money, boys, the South is rising with cancel culture and voter suppression

 I am old enough to remember the revival in movie theaters of, Gone the Wind. It inspired my 10-year-old playmates to re-enact the glory of the lost cause of the South in the civil war and we chose up sides of either North or South. (I went North because I liked winners more than losers and Abraham Lincoln was my patriotic hero) Those who cheered the south had one favorite battle cry: "Save your Confederate money, boys, the South will rise again". That was in the latter 1940s. I lived in the most southern part of a non-southern state, eastern Oklahoma, and, in a very segregated city of Muskogee,.The Confederacy is still trying to rise again in 2021, though it seems it has never stopped trying.

Politically the GOP has morphed into a latter-day Confederacy party with their Jim Crow voter suppression attempts, the reason they say is widespread voter fraud. The left calls that alleged fraud is a lie. In 2021, watching the antics at CPAC and another, more radical group, what looks like what is happening is that the Confederacy is still trying to rise, with their focus holding together the white crowd in an obvious attempt to keep demographic changes from overcoming them. Platitudes like "protecting vote security" are what they may be saying, but their party actions and proposals are doing something else. Complaining the left is canceling their culture begs the question of "what is their culture?"Top of their oratorical list was the demonstrably false claim that Trump won but he was kept from getting sworn in because of widespread fraud. This is why the left calls this "The Big Lie".This persistent lie is still being touted by Trump and the GOP at CPAC. They keep on lying in spite of 60 judges tossing Trump lawsuit attorneys and their proofless claims out the door in November and December. Disputing Trump, Barr says no widespread election fraud (apnews.com) In December, Trump's attorney general Bill Barr had testified there was no widespread fraud. On March 2, FBI Director Wray, testifying before a House committee, also confirmed his support of Barr's findings.

The 5 biggest takeaways from FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony about the Capitol insurrection | Business Insider India

.To fix what "aint broke", the GOP has launched a campaign for state legislatures they control to tighten and make more difficult access to the ballot in a series of laws conveniently aimed at undermining African-American voting habits. GOP-dominated legislatures have proposed or enacted measures to suppress the minority vote in the very states where that demographic helped Biden win. Likewise, in Hispanic-populated states like Arizona, not only is their access to voting being suppressed by proposed election laws, their GOP legislature is trying to remove the popular vote by their citizens in presidential elections, letting the state legislature choose their presidential electors.

If the only way the GOP thinks it can win is to discourage people from voting, especially those they think will vote for their opponents, there is something wrong with their message. This kind of attitude from the GOP is an admission of their failure to attract enough voters to their cause. In Colorado since 2018 over 40 thousand registered as Republicans changed their affiliation to independent or Democrat. 4600 alone left the GOP after January 6.

Update 4/6/21:: In protest to Georgia's just passed voter suppression legislation, the MLB has moved the All-Star game to Denver. Colorado's voter laws are considered the Gold Standard for voter participation and security. Colorado Vs. Georgia Voting Laws: What Are The Differences? | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

I am not sure I am grasping the "cancel culture" thing. It was a big deal at CPAC...but could it be that those who are feeling canceled would like to be politically incorrect? Or is this just right-wing ideological silliness? I fear the culture the left they accuse of canceling is the Confederacy...or at least a culture that permits and exhorts racist remarks and denigrates people of color. Is that it? The Washington Post asked the right question: What exactly is your culture? FYI: the left did not cancel Dr Suess books; the Dr. Suess owners of the publishing rights did:"Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrated by announcing that it will no longer publish six of his books because they contain racist and insensitive imagery. Dr. Seuss -- Theodor Seuss Geisel -- wrote more than 60 books, but some of them were under other pseudonyms.
The six books that the organization decided to stop selling aren't any of the biggies like "Green Eggs and Ham" or "The Cat in the Hat," but you may know them:

"And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street"
"If I Ran the Zoo"
"McElligot's Pool"
"On Beyond Zebra!"
"Scrambled Eggs Super!"
"The Cat's Quizzer"

A lot of the problematic content has to do with harmful stereotypes, such as Asians portrayed in conical hats and carrying chopsticks, or barefoot Black men in grass skirts."  MORE VACCINE NEWS - FELICIAMUFTIC@GMAIL.COM - GMAIL (GOOGLE.COM)


WASHINGTONPOST.COM

Analysis | If curtailing racist imagery in Dr. Seuss is ‘cancel culture,’ what, exactly, is your culture?

Supreme Court Seems Ready to Sustain Arizona Voting Limits - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

.GOP bill would override will of Arizona voters, elections boss Hobbs says (ktar.com)

Voting Laws Roundup: February 2021 | Brennan Center for Justice

Trump’s CPAC 2021 speech was heavy on lies about the election - Vox

CPAC is promoting Donald Trump’s big lie of election fraud | The Independent

 Colorado’s Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney was alarmed by falsehoods about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems (coloradosun.com)

Lawyers Who Pushed Trump's Big Lie Face Immediate Bar Suspension (bipartisanreport.com)

Pro-Trump Attorney Lin Wood Could Lose License As Georgia Bar Asks For Mental Health Evaluation (forbes.com)

Trump-Backing Lawyer May Face Discipline in Election Case - Bloomberg

Most Republicans say the election was stolen — especially the ones who hate Democrats and don’t mind White nationalists - The Washington Post

65% of GOP believe the big lie, per an AP poll: Poll finds 65% of Republicans say they don’t believe Biden’s election was legitimate - MarketWatch

Voter Fraud Map: Election Fraud Database | The Heritage Foundation

Fact check: What's true about 2020 election, vote counts, certification (usatoday.com)

https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/its-time-to-talk-about-dr-seuss This posting resulted in a very interesting exchange on a Facebook site: with a dialogue with X...who presented the long history of the Republlican party's support of civil rights.   Me: Thanks for your reminder. of the Republican party history. From the 1860s to even the 1960s, I would have been a Republican. Since the passage of the civil rights act, in 1964 and the voting rights act of 1965, the political parties traded places on human and civil rights. With the Trump takeover of the GOP, the GOP does not even resemble the GOP of my parents who were great supporters of Ronald Reagan. In fact, the Trump GOP party more resembles the Dixiecrats on civil rights. the party of George Wallace, and. on fiscal issues and democracy, anarchy, and autocracy. While I love the lessons of history, I live in 2021. Like  ·  Reply  · 1h  ·  Edited Replies X:  first, I never have and I never will buy the "magic fairy dust" theory that somehow the Democrat and Republican parties magically changed positions at some point in time. But let's do a little thought experiment. Let's accept your premise that the Democrats only had horrible policies prior to 1960. Now let's apply that to your Doctor Seuss post that kicked off this conversation. Dr. Seuss was a great man, who benefited Society. He taught children, and adults, how not to discriminate. He was a man who spent his life publishing positive, life-affirming stories with fantastic underlying messages. Some decided that some of his images should not be viewed by children. As a result six books have been canceled. Using that as the basis, shouldn't the Democrat Party change their name? I'm a big believer in differing viewpoints. I believe very strongly that there should be two parties. But shouldn't the name "Democrat" be relegated to the Dustbin of History, due to its association with slavery, Jim Crow, and the KKK? Even today's Democrat governor of Virginia has a college picture of him either in blackface or a KKK robe. He can't remember which. I guarantee you that if I ever did anything that horrific, I would remember. Felicia Muftic  The sensitivities of the publishers of Seuss books are to be applauded, but the main body survives.  One of my favorite Seuss books was one of his earliest.. which has a strange relevance to today's GOP dilemma: I even remember the punch line: "I meant what I said and I said what I meant: an elephant is faithful 100 percent" Pledging allegiance to a party is a very stubborn habit, and I cannot abide the current GOP, but there is still a big enough tent in the Democratic party for me to have a place. And you? 1 Like  ·  Reply  · 50m  ·  Edited X replies: Felicia Muftic , we agree on so many things. Can we agree that the Democrats should update the name of their party? Like  ·  Reply  · 47m Felicia Muftic No on Democrats and Trump has signaled he is not forming a third party My preferred, Biden, won and represents the majority. It is also true with the Colorado Democrats. So far as culture is concerned, the Democrats fit mine OK. Back to the culture cancel thing...We do agree on much. The size of the tent makes it worth my time. Is there room for you in the current GOP? Back to the question: what is your culture? The basic problem is that the two-party system is so entrenched by gerrymandering and voting structures that primaries reign supreme and control the candidates, third parties have no chance to succeed. Belonging to a party is a matter of relativity, not absolutes. Here is the problem.The changes must take place within the parties...but instead of fighting for the changes, people are more likely to become independents. When they do that, they lose their right to vote in primaries and have any say in their party's direction. .