GOP has done this trick for years: introduce bills to restrict access to voting in the name of fighting the *loss of trust* caused by (their) allegations of fraud, even when they end up granting there’s no basis to them.
Pay attn to this sleight of hands now. It’s everywhere.
Here’s a Trump-era example of it from Washington State:
Now they’ve laid the groundwork to amp this up massively. “I said there was smoke!’
See how this sleight of hands works with Loeffler here. She has nothing to justify fraud, but she no longer needs that: “lost of faith” is all she needs for what’s next.
“even outlandish allegations seem plausible:” Crenshaw is very clunky here, unable to disguise this sleight of hand very well.
Repeat “outlandish” claims enough until they “seem plausible”, then you need policies to dispel that feeling you fanned.
The latest entry in the GOP's rhetorical sleight of hands is a doozy. It involves Raffensperger, Kemp, & other GA GOPers' push against mail-in voting.
Per this deputy SoS, there may be no evidence of fraud, but *people saying there's fraud* is enough. pbs.org/newshour/polit…
Folks, continue to be careful about the GOP’s devious sleight of hands — pointing to lack of “confidence” fostered by their own lies as reason enough to restrict access to voting, no matter fact that it’s baseless.
Most recent entry by Rob Portman, in filing federal legislation.
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JUST IN: Polls closed in first round of France elections. Two main French TV estimates (combines early results & exit poll) show strong far-right.
Far-right bloc: ≈34%
Left bloc: ≈28-29%
Macron bloc: ≈20-22%
What does this mean? What'll happen? Follow this thread ⬇️
Both estimates project that far-right will dominate the upcoming National Assembly — falling short so far of absolute majority, but not unattainable next week.
Left bloc projected 2nd. Macron's bloc, to collapse < 100 seats.
NOTE: This is projections of what'd happen NEXT WEEK.
First: If you are new to my timeline & need background, here's my thread from three weeks, with a lot of background.
The basic: This is largely a 3-way battle between far-right bloc, left bloc, & Macron bloc, with conservatives as a smaller fourth bloc.
‼️ Shock news : French President Emmanuel Macron just announced he was dissolving the country's National Assembly.
He's calling national elections, which'll decide who'll run the country.
The elections were supposed to be in 2027. Instead, they'll be in early July (!!!).
The runoff of these parliamentary elections will be on July 7th... so 3 days after the UK elections! An extremely short campaign.
More context:
#1: This comes an hour after disastrous election results for Macron in the EU elections. (The far-right got 31% and Macron at 15%.)
#2: France currently has a hung Parliament due to weak results by Macron's party in 2022, tho his party has been able to govern because the conservative LR (despite not being in government) typically bail them out. Upside for Macron is if lighting campaigning gets him a majority.
bolts just covered 2 big criminal justice reforms that became law over last week.
let's jump in:
1️⃣ Minnesota ended prison gerrymandering. This is the practice of counting incarcerated people where the prison is located, which skews political power. boltsmag.org/minnesota-ends…
2️⃣ Oklahoma passed a bill that gives incarcerated survivors of domestic violence a new shot at freedom, when the crime they were convicted for stemmed from their abuse.
Law went thru twists and turns as lawmakers (in this GOP-run state) navigated a veto: boltsmag.org/oklahoma-survi…
OK, it wasn't all about policy break throughs this week.
3️⃣ In Virginia, parole has basically entirely vanished (& it was already very low) as Glenn Youngkin has remolded the board. We reported in collaboration with MoJo.
Three Glenn Youngkin stories in @boltsmag that capture how much a governor matters. (And who he is.)
1/ He ended all automatic rights restoration in Virginia. VA's default now is permanent loss of voting rights, one of single harshest systems in nation. boltsmag.org/virginia-gover…
2/ He recently vetoed a bill that would have barred prosecutors from pressuring defendants to waive away their constitutional rights... for many years! boltsmag.org/fourth-amendme…
3/ Under his governorship and his appointments, the state's already very low parole grants have virtually vanished.
One reason why is his decision to empower a man who responsible for shutting down parole in the 90s. boltsmag.org/virginia-parol…
I skipped the headline story here assuming you've seen it elsewhere, but if not: the Arizona supreme court just declared abortion illegal. 12news.com/article/news/p…
Katie Hobbs, a Democratic governor, would have the power to appoint replacement if the justices are not retained. (Still, note that in Arizona governors choose within a list proposed by a commission.)
A thread about a messed up situation in Mississippi.
It's on how state officials have voided direct democracy thru an absurd excuse, and how they keep refusing to yield that power back to people.
The state constitution gives people the right to ballot initiatives.
It outlines how they should do so, & how they should collect signatures in each of MS's five congressional districts.
The language was written into the constitution in 1992.
In 2000, Mississippi lost a congressional district, down to four.
No one saw a problem with that until 2021: the state supreme court effectively said that, since there were no longer 5 districts in which to collect signatures, no ballot initiative could be valid.