For people who wonder why there's so much right-wing energy around "vote fraud," (a virtually nonexistent phenomenon) should glean a lesson from Southern history. During the rise of Jim Crow, it was necessary to disfranchise Black voters in the South./1
In order to do this, they came up with the argument that Black voters were poor and ignorant and were either bribed or duped to vote as a bloc against their "true friends."/2
This came to be called "fraudulent" voting--the idea being that no genuine choice was being made. At one point in the South during Civil Rights, a county judge convened a grand jury to haul Black people in and demand to know why they all voted for the same candidate./3
If that has a familiar ring, remember that as a US Attorney Jeff Sessions had elderly black voters arrested and brought before a grand jury to explain why their registrations *weren't* "fraudulent."/4
I knew Jesse Helms and he was not self-conscious about assuming that votes in Durham County (high Black population) were "fraudulent."/5
So the attempt to shut down counting in Detroit isn't really useful for Trump to _win_ (he's already ahead) but to create a legend that votes in Detroit (hmm, what's special about Detroit?) were "stolen" and that's why he lost./6
As Faulkner said, the past isn't dead, it's not even past./7
I mean _Biden_ is already ahead, sorry.
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The essence of the Portland situation is this: Citizens are free to assemble peaceably and to protest. Those are not grudging tolerances of the all powerful leader, they are civic duties of a free people./1
It is certainly foreseeable that such assemblies can lead to violence or lawbreaking. But that comes in two kinds. 1. Small pockets at the edge of a peaceful rally. 2. Tumultuous disorder that leads to widespread violence and destruction./2
Constitutionally, 1. is not 2. and cannot be converted to 2. by administrative whim or pretext. The state cannot proclaim an assembly unlawful, and ascribe criminality to all present, unless the assembly is factually 2./3