One of the most bizarre aspects of the “Biden wants unity but...” schtick is that the GOP continues its decade-long process of suppressing voters to maximize partisan advantage, and we now treat this as a normal part of US politics.
Pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act now.
To recap:
*the US had extraordinary turnout
*Trump declared it was a fraud, offering zero evidence and inspiring insurrection
*"moderate" Republicans are using the fake fraud claims to push another wave of voter suppression nytimes.com/2021/01/30/us/…
Violent insurrections and the wave of 106 GOP state voter suppression bills are different. But both are fruit of the poisonous and false claim that election fraud is rife, and indicative of a support for democracy contingent on one side winning rather than the will of voters.
To sum up: If Biden pushed to ignore a legislative tactic used primarily to suppress civil rights in order to block a new wave of attacks on voting rights, he would draw more criticism as a divisive attacker of norms than the politicians trying to make it harder to vote.
Put it another way: the 2020 election was the most scrutinized and contested in our history. The evidence-free Big Lie of voter fraud was not justification for overturning the election, and its not justification for voter suppression for future elections.
Lots of corporations wanted to burnish their democratic credentials by not providing financial support for politicians who voted to overturn the 2020 election. Great!
.@AOC talking about the Capitol insurrection mob entering her office while she was hiding in a nearby bathroom, screaming "Where is she?"
"I thought I was going to die"
She adds the person who was yelling "where is she?" was a Capitol Police officer. But he was yelling with such aggression that "the situation did not feel ok."
The Trump OMB told agencies to no longer report strategic goals of performance metrics, saying no-one was using them. But they got the evidence wrong as I write here @GovExec. So what should the Biden admin do differently? govexec.com/management/202…
.
Earlier thread on the background to this management issue.
Trump's OMB head said no-one was using the performance data, but he ignored one key audience: federal managers. Of course members of the public are not downloading federal data - that does not mean they don't care about performance, but that they expect federal employees to do so
At @napawash panel on the Trump administration and the effects on the machinery of government, will report out useful comments. Start with paper w @AlasdairRoberts and I on Trumpism as an administrative doctrine forthcoming in Public Administration Review papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf…
.@LorenRaeDeJ: ongoing challenge that got worse under Trump was the politicization of the military, undermining civilian control. Undermines credibility of military as a bipartisan institution.
@LorenRaeDeJ: politicization of intelligence is not a new challenges, but the select declassification and challenges to the intelligence organizations as a body may leave lasting harm.
Will never get over this. Cases are high, a new, more virulent strain is on the horizon. Masks don't shutdown economic activity, they make it more possible.
This isn't even wishful thinking - it is straightforwardly pro-COVID policymaking.
Future historians: "While almost all politicians declared themselves to be opposed to the pandemic, a de facto split emerged between those who proposed actions to curb it's spread, and those who blocked or reversed such actions."
WI GOP rushed to remove a state mask mandate without even a hearing. And now it will cost low-income families $50M in benefits tied to COVID relief. jsonline.com/story/news/pol…
What is the most memed Simpsons episode? Not the best, or your favorite, but the one with the most number of canonical lines per minute?
Gonna propose Bart Gets Famous:
"Say the line Bart"
"Impaled on my Nobel Peace Prize"
"You'll have to speak up. I'm wearing a towel."
"My boy's a box! Damn you! A Box"
Also:
"They're not gone. You're gone"
"No thats Danish"
"This is the music you tighten up to"
"Pepe, go for the face"
Larry Hogan is still Governor of Maryland, but TBF Covid is blocking Tom's primary source of information - a humble taxi driver with sharp geopolitical insights.
Tom Friedman on the phone to local health officials