Voting on the GOP Side

The Supreme Court has given Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) her election win this fall by upholding the GOP redistricting plan that a lower court said “exiled” 30,000 Black Charleston voters to make the boundaries safely Republican. The 6-3 vote complained the lower court did not credit the state GOP legislature with a presumption of good faith. In addition, the high court could not find “direct evidence of a racial gerrymander.” In short, racial gerrymandering is acceptable if the high court calls it by politics, not race. Mace applauded the decision, calling it ”democracy.” The high court waited seven months after arguments to deliver its decision, almost five months past its deadline, overturning a lower court’s order in March to use its ungerrymandered map for 2024. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote a separate opinion carrying the opinion even further by questioning whether the Supreme Court should ever hear racial gerrymandering claim.

With the help of a majority, Justice Samuel Alito has turned the law upside down, just as he did with the U.S. flag hanging outside his home during President Joe Biden’s inauguration. His opinion rejected a lower court’s finding of facts without it being clearly erroneous and reversed the burden of proof to be applied—pushing “presumption of good faith” and increasing evidentiary burdens for the plaintiffs. Rick Hasen provides an excellent explanation.

Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley has made her decision: she will cast her 2024 vote for Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), who she called “unstable and unhinged.” And there were many more “critical” statements including DDT’s friendship with the “thug,” Vladimir Putin. Now Haley switched her many negative statements about DDT to he “has not been perfect” while DDT has attacked Haley, calling her “birdbrain, her campaign an “embarrassment,” and her husband “missing” although he’s on a military deployment.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has now succeeded in being banned on all nine Native American reservations in her state, about 20 percent.

Failed presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy now owns 7.7 percent of Buzzfeed, HuffPo’s parent company.  The hard-righter supporting all the ultra-conservative position endorsed white nationalist Steve King, the Iowa congressional member who was removed from all his committee assignments for radically right racist positions now more acceptable in the House.

Senate Democrats have started an investigation into DDT’s “quid pro quo” (aka bribery) with eight big oil executives after he offered to drop climate regulations if they gave him $1 billion for his campaign. Chairs of the Finance and Budget committees have sent letters to nine companies asking for more information about “policy proposals discussed” at DDT’s fundraising event at Mar-a-Lago plus “materials distributed to any attendees.” Democrats on the Oversight Committee also started an investigation although Republicans are trying to block the probe.

The day before the Senate started its probe, DDT promised oil executives in Houston that he would immediately approve their projects and expand drilling in a second term with immediate approvals for energy infrastructure. That’s pipelines, power plants.” The Houston fundraiser cost $250,000 per person. Instead of asking for specific amounts, he said, “Be generous.” One person said the event raised $25 million. The audience cheered as DDT said he would “lift the natural gas export ban [and] open up more federal lands” to drilling, according to one attendee. Once again, DDT complained about wind energy, that turbines kill bald eagles and wind “doesn’t work.” Another DDT promise was opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to drilling. He bashed electric vehicles and ridiculed energy-efficient and water-saving appliances.

With a vote of 43-50, Republicans blocked the progress of the border security bill approved by a bipartisan group over three months ago. Lisa Murkowski (AK) was the only GOP senator to support the bill, and six Democrats opposed it. DDT had ordered Republicans to reject the bill, wanting to use its failure as a campaign issue. Republicans hope that border chaos will elect them.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) has joined the competition with Republicans John Cornyn (TX) and John Thune (SD), both in the Senate leadership, to succeed Mitch McConnell (R-KY)—likely hoping to become Majority Leader if the GOP gains a majority in November. Scott is also running for reelection this November; six years ago he won by only 0.2 percent of the vote. Hoping for support, he was among the first prominent Republicans to appear at the New York courthouse for DDT’s trial. The fact that McConnell “loathes” Scott won’t be a help. Competing with McConnell for leader after the 2022 election, Scott lost by 36-10.

Afraid of having another two Democratic senators, Republicans consistently block Washington, D.C. from its own control. Last week, the House passed a bill by 225-181, 18 Democrats joining Republicans, to permanently ban the city from changing its sentencing laws, even to toughen them. This March, the D.C. Council boosted penalties for gun crimes, expanded pretrial detention for violent criminals, and attacked shoplifting—all improving crime statistics. Republicans ordered D.C. to stop spending money on abortions, giving addicts clean needles, and trying to legalize cannabis.

The city also wants to transfer the old RFK Stadium from federal control so it can be used for more housing and build another stadium to bring the NFL team back to D.C. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), however, won’t agree until the Commanders bring back the name Redskins, because the family of the long-deceased designer of the old logo lives in Montana. Yet Daines ignores the dental and medical care of his constituents, blocking the expansion of Medicaid.

In another control on D.C., the House passed a bill to prevent the city from permitting noncitizens to vote in local elections. In the vote of 262-143, 52 Democrats joined the Republicans. The Senate won’t be taking the bill, but the GOP uses it for campaign purposes. The capital is one of over a dozen municipalities—primarily in California, Maryland, and Vermont—allowing noncitizen residents to vote in local contests although they usually don’t take advantage of the laws.

House Republicans want a national law blocking noncitizen voting although the law also prevents noncitizens from voting in federal elections. In a hearing, Republicans on the House Administration Committee argued for legislative action and refused to believe how rare it is. DDT and the members are already spreading the word that November elections will be illegal unless Republicans win. The bill demands proof of citizenship, but Rep. Derek Kilmer (D-WA) tried to explain the impact on eligible voters, including tribal members who use their enrollment cards which may not have citizenship information. Rep. Joe Morelle (D-NY) said:     

“It appears the lesson Republicans learned from the fiasco that the former president caused in 2020 was not ‘Don’t steal an election’ — it was just ‘Start earlier.’ The coup starts here. This is where it begins.”

Despite the lie that conservatives tell about the large number of undocumented migrants voting, no proof exists, and states block it. Ohio’s GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose found 137 suspected noncitizens on the state rolls out of about 8 million voters and is working to either confirm or remove them. In 2022, Georgia’s GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger found that 1,634 noncitizens had attempted to register to vote in 25 years, but none was able to register. North Carolina found 41 legal immigrants not yet citizens cast ballots out of 4.8 million.

Republicans found witnesses for the hearing who lied about the prevalence of noncitizens registered to vote. James Agresti reported that “10% to 27% of non‐​citizens are illegally registered to vote” and predicted that “about 5% to 13% of them will illegally vote in the 2024 presidential and congressional elections.” The numbers, however, don’t fit with research indicating between one percent and zero.

Anyone registering must provide a Social Security number, driver’s license, or state ID, meaning that they’ve already shown the government proof of citizenship. More ID requirements can disenfranchise eligible voters who don’t have birth certificates or Social Security cards available.

Republicans will accept election fraud if it’s in their own party.  In at least three states—Michigan, Nevada and New Mexico—fake electors lying about who won their states are trying to become electors for the 2024 election. In 2020, 84 electors for DDT met in seven states that Biden won. In four of those states, 35 of the electors face criminal charges for their votes and have all pled not guilty in Georgia, Nevada, and Michigan. In Arizona, 9 of the 11 electors pled not guilty; the remaining two have not yet entered pleas. DDT continues to claim that he can lose in 2024 only if Democrats cheat as he lied about their doing in 2020.

Researchers have found that microplastics are building up in testicles of humans and dogs, suspected to negatively affect sperm quality and male fertility. Microplastics in human testicles was three times higher than dogs, which act as “sentinel” animals for disease and harmful chemical exposure because their spermatogenesis is more similar to the human process of producing sperm than lab rats. The polyethylene plastic is the most widely used plastic in the world, used in packaging, bags, bottled water, etc. The second most common plastic found was polyvinyl chloride, found in PVC piping, and an association to decreased weight of testicles. Chemical contaminants also affect hormonal control of reproduction in the body including the brain.