Andy Borowitz: Georgia to Allow Some Voting in Certain Situations

Republicans in the Georgia Senate passed a new bill that would allow some voting in certain situations.

Senator Harland Dorrinson, who sponsored the bill, said that the legislation stopped short of other Republican proposals that would have banned voting altogether, but was still “a good step forward.”

“Under this bill, voting in Georgia will be legal but rare,” he said. “This legislation will stop the runaway growth in voting.”

Dorrinson said that the bill would prevent a repeat of what happened during the January runoffs, when “voting was allowed to spiral out of control.”

“People were voting as if it were their right,” he said. https://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/

Dominion Voting Systems Builds Legal Behemoth to Drain Trumpland of Billions

With billions of dollars in lawsuits now in the balance, Dominion Voting Systems has quietly expanded its legal armada in recent days, as the election technology company goes after Trumpworld and conservative media giants.

Dominion expanding its legal team is the latest effort to punish leading players in the months-long propaganda push to trash the company and baselessly assail the results of the 2020 U.S. presidential contest.

Other conservative media outlets including Newsmax and One American News Network—also aired post election conspiracy theories and are among the top targets for Dominion’s next round of lawsuits, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Some of the targets or potential targets of Dominion’s legal wrath have run for cover, or even resorted to deleting articles or covering their tracks. Others have remained reliably defiant, claiming that a court battle and the discovery that comes with it would lead to humiliation for Dominion instead.

People familiar with the matter say that the company’s legal team still hadn’t ruled out going after ex-President Trump specifically, but that no final decision had been made yet on if they wanted to open up that can of worms on the former leader of the free world. During his time in office, Trump personally promoted the same kinds of conspiracy theories and lies that the voting-tech executives and their attorneys now claim substantially and groundlessly damaged their business and has put them in danger via numerous death threats. https://www.thedailybeast.com/dominion-builds-legal-behemoth-to-drain-trumpland-of-billions

Florida COVID numbers face new scrutiny

New research published earlier this month in the American Journal of Public Health argues that Florida is undercounting the number of people who died from COVID-19 by thousands of cases, casting new doubt on claims that Gov. Ron DeSantis navigated the coronavirus pandemic successfully. https://www.yahoo.com/now/florida-covid-numbers-face-new-scrutiny-090058319.html

Matt Gaetz Is Said to Face Justice Dept. Inquiry Over Sex With an Underage Girl

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/30/us/politics/matt-gaetz-sex-trafficking-investigation.html

Former Trump aides aren’t necessarily happy to see Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) in trouble, but they “feel a little vindicated,” Insider reports. Said one: “He’s the meanest person in politics.”

Republicans seek to make vaccine passports the next battle in the pandemic culture wars

Republicans are opening a new front in the pandemic culture wars, attacking efforts by the Biden administration to develop guidelines for coronavirus vaccination passports that businesses can use to determine who can safely participate in activities such as flights, concerts and indoor dining.

The issue has received an increasing amount of attention from some of the party’s most extreme members and conservative media figures, but it has also been seized on by Republican leaders like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is considered a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

“We are not supporting doing any vaccine passports in the state of Florida,” DeSantis said Monday. “It’s completely unacceptable for either the government or the private sector to impose upon you the requirement that you show proof of vaccine to just simply be able to participate in normal society.”

Other Republicans have used more inflammatory rhetoric, with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) calling the passport idea “Biden’s Mark of the Beast” and some conservative activists comparing it with Nazi policies to identify Jews. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/biden-vaccine-passports-desantis/2021/03/30/eeb41124-9171-11eb-9668-89be11273c09_story.html

Democrats Look at Lowering Medicare Eligibility Age in Healthcare Package

Congressional Democrats and the Biden administration are planning another round of healthcare initiatives that could include lowering the Medicare eligibility age, following their major expansion of the Affordable Care Act this year.

Democrats are still negotiating over which healthcare policy elements could be in the second of two spending programs the administration plans to unveil soon, according to congressional aides and industry groups.

The package is likely to contain measures to reduce drug prices and expand health coverage, lawmakers said. Proposals to expand Medicare eligibility from age 65 to 60 and to enable the federal government to negotiate drug prices in the health program for seniors—both of which President Biden supported on the campaign trail—are also likely to be included. https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-look-at-lowering-medicare-eligibility-age-in-healthcare-package-11617109207

Capitol riot suspect wore ‘I Was There’ shirt when arrested

Prosecutors say that when officers arrested a Capitol riot suspect at his Dallas home, he was wearing a T-shirt with “I Was There, Washington D.C., January 6, 2021” emblazoned on it. https://apnews.com/article/garrett-miller-capitol-riot-wore-i-was-there-shirt-b393f63484444463a459aa6998a78a7f

Schumer and Gillibrand lobby to restore lost deductions

U.S Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand introduced legislation in the new Congress to eliminate the $10,000 cap on the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction starting in 2021. The proposal would allow taxpayers to fully deduct their state and local taxes on their federal income returns. In 2017, the deduction was capped at $10,000 and resulted in a tax increase for many middle-class families. http://timeshudsonvalley.com/stories/schumer-and-gillibrand-lobby-to-restore-lost-deductions,23697

The GOP's new power centers

Democrats control Washington, but Republicans have a mighty counterweight that gets little attention: dominance in the states and the courts.

The GOP controls a majority of statehouses and state legislatures + more state Supreme Court justices lean Republican than Democrat. All of this is backed by Republican-appointed majorities on federal appeals courts and the U.S. Supreme court. 

That one-two punch gives Republicans domain over a huge swath of America's governing system, including power over voting laws and the redistricting of House seats, plus the ability to use state courts to their advantage. https://www.axios.com/republicans-democrats-voting-courts-states-ea4183f9-4834-4c93-b125-1ad424605894.html

SolarWinds hack got emails of top DHS officials

Suspected Russian hackers gained access to email accounts belonging to the Trump administration’s head of the Department of Homeland Security and members of the department’s cybersecurity staff whose jobs included hunting threats from foreign countries, The Associated Press has learned.

The intelligence value of the hacking of then-acting Secretary Chad Wolf and his staff is not publicly known, but the symbolism is stark. Their accounts were accessed as part of what’s known as the SolarWinds intrusion, and it throws into question how the U.S. government can protect individuals, companies and institutions across the country if it can’t protect itself. https://apnews.com/article/solarwinds-hack-email-top-dhs-officials-8bcd4a4eb3be1f8f98244766bae70395

Georgia Voting Law Punished Their Secretary Of State For Defying Trump

Georgia Republican election official Gabriel Sterling told CNN on Saturday that the state’s new restrictive voting law was also motivated by revenge against Brad Raffensperger, the official who defied Donald Trump over his false claims of election fraud.

The hugely controversial law signed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday creates stricter voter identification requirements for absentee balloting, limits drop boxes for ballots, imposes shorter early voting hours and makes it a crime to offer food or water to voters waiting in line at the polls.

The law also strips Georgia’s secretary of state, Brad-Raffensperge, of his role as chief elections officer. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/gabriel-sterling-brad-raffensperger-punishing-cnn-georgia-election-law_n_605fe4eac5b6531eed059a5f

Texas Looks To Curb Local Efforts To Expand Voting Access

During a recent news conference, Gov. Greg Abbott argued that local election officials — including those in Harris County — were doing things not explicitly allowed by law. He also accused them of effectively opening the door to voter fraud.

"Whether it's the unauthorized expansion of mail-in ballots or the unauthorized expansion of drive-thru voting," Abbott says, "we must pass laws to prevent election officials from jeopardizing the election process."

In response to those local efforts, Republicans who control the state legislature filed a series of restrictive voting bills. Researchers last year said "Texas is the state with the most restrictive voting processes," but it's likely its laws will become stricter. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/26/981308277/texas-republicans-look-to-curb-local-efforts-to-expand-voting-access

House launches wide-ranging review of federal handling of Jan. 6 insurrection

Seven House committees launched a sweeping investigation Thursday into the federal government's handling of the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol — fueled by thousands of Donald Trump supporters who backed his false claim that the 2020 election was stolen — and the intelligence and security breakdowns that preceded it.

In letters to 16 agencies across the Executive Branch and Congress, the panels asked for all communications sent between agency officials regarding Congress' Jan. 6 session, when lawmakers certified Joe Biden's Electoral College victory. The requests demand all relevant documents and messages from Dec. 1, 2020, to Jan. 20, 2021.

The unusually broad committee review comes as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been unable to secure bipartisan cooperation to launch an independent commission to review the federal government's handling of the attack. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/house-review-jan6-insurrection-478108

’Alex Azar Anonymous’: Trump health officials start a club to counter former HHS chief

A small group of top Trump health officials recently held a series of discussions to coordinate their accounts of the administration’s troubled Covid-19 response, worried they will be scapegoated by old colleagues — including their onetime boss, former Health secretary Alex Azar, according to six people with knowledge of their interactions.

Much of the group — which includes former FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn, former CDC Director Robert Redfield, former Medicare chief Seema Verma and former White House Covid coordinator Deborah Birx — had fraught relationships with Azar, whose own accounts of the administration’s pandemic efforts have often diverged from theirs. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/trump-health-officials-battle-covid-4781

Image of lawmaker’s arrest spoils victory lap on election law

Even as Gov. Brian Kemp was denying charges that the sweeping elections changes he just signed into law didn’t suppress the vote, authorities outside his office were dragging away a Black legislator who knocked on his office door during his remarks.

The arrest of state Rep. Park Cannon — who faces two felony charges — far overshadowed the victory lap that Kemp and other Republicans hoped to take with the signing Thursday of Senate Bill 202, legislation that imposed new ID requirements, limited drop boxes and instituted other restrictions.

The image of Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat, being forcibly dragged from the statehouse lobby was hard to watch and the arrest could be legally questionable, since state law protects sitting lawmakers from arrest during a session except for charges of treason, felonies or breach of the peace. https://www.ajc.com/politics/politics-blog/the-jolt-image-of-lawmakers-arrest-spoils-victory-lap-on-election-law/ANSKFQJUPVGOHAYNVIFTJ5HMDA/

GOP 2024 contenders enter Iowa, wary of Trump’s long shadow

Ambitious Republicans are starting to make moves in Iowa, long a proving ground for future presidents. Their first step is finding out whether activists there have gotten over the last one.

Associated Press: “Party activists say these early arrivals are the state expose the difference between their declared love for Trump and hope he runs again.
“
There are Trumpsters who can’t wait for him to run again. They are the ones still moaning and groaning that they were cheated out of the election,” said Gwen Ecklund, a veteran former county chairwoman in conservative western Iowa. “But there are some — average, rank-and-file Republicans — who are turning the page.” https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-des-moines-elections-iowa-mike-pompeo-dc85426cae010d9d050767144d523c9e

Stephen Miller to launch a new legal group

Former Trump White House policy adviser Stephen Miller, known for his hard-line immigration policies and conservative culture war postures, is launching a new legal group. And he’s looking to use it to make Joe Biden’s life miserable.

The group, which will be known as America First Legal, will help organize Republican attorneys general against perceived executive branch abuses in addition to filing lawsuits of its own, according to six people familiar with the planning. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/26/stephen-miller-legal-group-478167

These Mega-Businesses Are Already Back to Bankrolling Insurrectionists

The Daily Beast identified four companies that appear to have gone back on their suspension of donations to GOP election objectors: AT&T, Cigna Health, Ford Motors, and Pfizer. https://www.thedailybeast.com/these-mega-businesses-are-already-back-to-bankrolling-insurrectionists

Republicans Fear Flawed Candidates Could Imperil Key Senate Seats

The entry of two hard-right candidates this week into Senate races in Missouri and Alabama exposed the perils for Republicans of a political landscape in which former President Donald J. Trump is the only true north for grass-roots voters.

Strong state parties, big donors and G.O.P. national leaders were once able to anoint a candidate, in order to avoid destructive demolition derbies in state primaries.

But in the Trump era, the pursuit of his endorsement is all-consuming, and absent Mr. Trump’s blessing, there is no mechanism for clearing a cluttered primary field. With the former president focused elsewhere — on settling scores against Republicans who advanced his impeachment or showed insufficient loyalty — a combative Senate primary season is in store for the 2022 midterms, when Republicans who hope to regain the majority face a difficult map. They are fighting to hold on to five open seats after a wave of retirements of establishment figures, and even deep-red Missouri and Alabama pose potential headaches.

There is no mechanism for clearing a cluttered primary field. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/24/us/politics/senate-races-missouri-alabama.html

At least 72% of AG Ken Paxton's voter fraud prosecutions target people of color, analysis shows

Since Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took office in 2015, the vast majority of individuals his office has prosecuted for voter fraud are people of color — and primarily women of color, a new analysis by the American Civil Liberties Union shows.

The analysis, based on public records, court filings, media reports and assumptions based on common Hispanic surnames, found at least 72 percent of all the election fraud cases have been brought against Black and Latino defendants. At least 45 percent were against Black and Latino women.

The demographic analysis comes as lawmakers consider giving Paxton even more latitude to pursue felony charges against people who submit incorrect information on election-related documents and public officials who send out absentee ballot applications that are not requested. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/politics/texas/article/Ken-Paxton-voter-fraud-minorities-target-election-16049496.php

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says only 0.1 percent of Trump administration’s covid farm relief went to Black farmers

In an interview with The Washington Post, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack for the first time noted the extent to which the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic exacerbated existing disparities across the American economy.

The distribution of coronavirus relief increased those gaps, he said. Of those who identified their race or ethnicity, Black farmers received only $20.8 million of nearly $26 billion in two rounds of payments under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program announced by the Trump administration last April, he said.

“We saw 99 percent of the money going to White farmers and 1 percent going to socially disadvantaged farmers and if you break that down to how much went to Black farmers, it’s 0.1 percent,” he said. “Look at it another way: The top 10 percent of farmers in the country received 60 percent of the value of the covid payments. And the bottom 10 percent received 0.26 percent.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/03/25/vilsack-interview-usda-rescue-plan/

Prosecutors allege Oath Keepers leader and Proud Boys coordinated before Capitol attack

A leader among the paramilitary group the Oath Keepers said he was coordinating with the Proud Boys about how their members would work together at the US Capitol on January 6, according to a new court filing from prosecutors late Tuesday night.

Facebook chats made public in the filing by the Justice Department show Kelly Meggs, a leader among the Oath Keepers, discussing his communications with Proud Boys leadership and how he had "orchestrated a plan" with the group.

Criminal conspiracy cases against the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers are among the most aggressive actions from the Justice Department following the violent pro-Trump riot. The new allegations about Meggs and the Proud Boys are the first time prosecutors have publicly linked allegedly violent efforts of the two right-wing extremist groups closely together. https://edition.cnn.com/2021/03/24/politics/capitol-riot-oath-keepers-proud-boys/index.html

Amid gun control debate, federal court rules states states restricty open carry of weapons

As the nation debates gun control following mass shootings in Colorado and Georgia, a California-based federal appeals court decided Wednesday that states may restrict the open carrying of guns without running afoul of the 2nd Amendment.

In a 7-4 decision the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a county law in Hawaii that has severely limited permits for open carrying of guns.

“The government may regulate, and even prohibit, in public places — including government buildings, churches, schools, and markets — the open carrying of small arms capable of being concealed, whether they are carried concealed or openly,” Judge Jay Bybee, appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote for the majority.

The decision is likely to help push the Supreme Court to review the issue. Federal appellate courts have handed down conflicting rulings on gun laws that only the high court can resolve. https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2021-03-24/9th-circuit-appeals-court-panel-rules-states-may-restrict-open-carry-guns

Biden Names Wife of Pivotal Democratic Senator for Federal Post

President Joe Biden has nominated Gayle Conelly Manchin — an educator and the wife of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a key swing vote — to a regional economic development position after the lawmaker has emerged as a key swing vote in the chamber. https://freenews.today/2021/03/26/biden-names-wife-of-pivotal-democratic-senator-for-federal-post/

Trump’s secret sit-down with Ohio candidates turns into ‘Hunger Games’

It was a scene right out of "The Apprentice."

Donald Trump was headlining a fundraiser on Wednesday night at his golf club in West Palm Beach, Fla. But before the dinner began, the former president had some business to take care of: He summoned four Republican Senate candidates vying for Ohio’s open Senate seat for a backroom meeting.

What ensued was a 15-minute backroom backbiting session reminiscent of Trump’s reality TV show. Mandel said he was “crushing” Timken in polling. Timken touted her support on the ground thanks to her time as state party chair. Gibbons mentioned how he’d helped Trump’s campaign financially. Moreno noted that his daughter had worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign.

The scene illustrated what has become a central dynamic in the nascent 2022 race. In virtually every Republican primary, candidates are jockeying, auditioning and fighting for the former president’s backing. Trump has received overtures from a multitude of candidates desperate for his endorsement, something that top Republicans say gives him all-encompassing power to make-or-break the outcome of primaries. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/25/trump-ohio-candidates-478059

Fox News sued by Dominion Voting for $1.6 billion over election fraud claims

Dominion Voting Systems on Friday filed a $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News, alleging that the network purposefully aired false claims about the the company’s role in the 2020 presidential election in order to boost ratings.

In the suit, filed in a Delaware court, Dominion argued that the Fox and several of its on-air personalities elevated conspiracy theories about the voting company rigging the 2020 election and allowed falsehoods by their guests to go unchecked, including a wild claim that the company’s machines were manufactured in “Venezuela to rig elections for the dictator Hugo Chávez” and that Dominion’s algorithm manipulated votes so that then-President Trump would lose.

“Fox engaged in this knowing and reckless propagation of these enormous falsehoods in order to profit off lies,” reads the lawsuit. “Fox wanted to continue to protect its broadcast ratings, catering to an audience deeply loyal to President Trump.”

Dominion attorney Stephen Shackleford said that Fox “took a small flame and turned it into a raging fire” by amplifying false statements about the election and Dominion, and that the media company did so with “reckless disregard” for the truth. https://www.washingtonpost.com/media/2021/03/26/fox-dominion-lawsuit-defamation/

Democrats Are Poised to Raise Taxes on Business and the Rich

Democrats have spent the last several years clamoring to raise taxes on corporations and the rich, seeing that as a necessary antidote to widening economic inequality and a rebuke of Donald Trump’s signature tax cuts.

Now, under President Biden, they have a shot at ushering in the largest federal tax increase since 1942. It could help pay for a host of spending programs that liberal economists predict would bolster the economy’s performance and repair a tax code that Democrats say encourages wealthy people to hoard assets and big companies to ship jobs and book profits overseas. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/27/business/biden-taxes-business-rich.html

The Unlikely Team of Prosecutors Hunting Trump in Georgia

A sheriff’s deputy who went to law school but remained a cop for another two decades. A prosecutor best known for tackling juvenile offenders. And the guy who literally wrote the book on racketeering cases against mafia goons. This is the team Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is assembling to investigate Donald Trump—to go after his advisers and their attempts to manipulate election results in Georgia. https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-unlikely-team-hunting-team-donald-trump-in-georgia

Raising Taxes on Wealthy Americans and Corporations to Fund Biden’s Plan Is OK With Over 1 in 2 Voters

Coming off a slate of economic policy measures that enjoyed backing from both parties’ voters, it appears that the tax increases being pitched to fund Biden’s infrastructure plan aren’t as popular, but still have support from a majority of registered voters. 

Fifty-four percent of voters said they support making improvements to America’s infrastructure funded by taxes on those making more than $400,000 per year and increases to the corporate tax rate, according to new Morning Consult/Politico polling. Another 27 percent said they support improving the country’s infrastructure, but only if those improvements can be made without higher taxes, and another 6 percent said they don’t back making infrastructure improvements. https://morningconsult.com/2021/03/31/biden-infrastructure-plan-raising-taxes-wealthy-corporations/

Gavin Newsom would survive a recall if it went to California voters today, new poll shows

If a recall election were held today, Gov. Gavin Newsom would likely survive, according to the latest poll released from the Public Policy Institute of California.

In interviews with more than 1,700 Californians conducted between March 14 and March 23, 56% of respondents said they would vote no to a recall, with 40% saying they would vote yes and 5% saying they were unsure. https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article250317609.html

The DAILY GRILL

What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security…. — Chicago reporter Milton Mayer, an American Jew of German ancestry, on how Nazis corrupted the political system and took it over, bit by bit.

VERSUS

In Georgia yesterday a voter suppression bill was passed that functionally hands to the Georgia legislature the power to decide who won elections in that state, regardless of how the vote turned out. It was introduced into the House, passed the House; introduced into the Senate, passed the Senate; sent to the Governor and signed by Governor Brian Kemp…all in less than one day. https://www.rawstory.com/georgia-kemp-authoritarian-takeover/

 

“D.C. statehood is a key part of the radical leftist agenda to reshape America, along with the Green New Deal, defunding the police, and packing the U.S. Supreme Court.” — Rep. James Comer (R-KY)

VERSUS

The hypocrisy is so thick you couldn’t cut it with a diamond saw. Wyoming only has 580k people in it and they have two Senators same as California which has 39 million. I guess it’s only ok when the GOP does it. — Uncle Salty