The Democracy Defenders

From the letter mentioned in the last post:

"We, the undersigned, are scholars of democracy who have watched the recent deterioration of U.S. elections and liberal democracy with growing alarm. Specifically, we have watched with deep concern as Republican-led state legislatures across the country have in recent months proposed or implemented what we consider radical changes to core electoral procedures in response to unproven and intentionally destructive allegations of a stolen election. Collectively, these initiatives are transforming several states into political systems that no longer meet the minimum conditions for free and fair elections. Hence, our entire democracy is now at risk."

"The most effective remedy for these anti-democratic laws at the state level is federal action to protect equal access of all citizens to the ballot and to guarantee free and fair elections. Just as it ultimately took federal voting rights law to put an end to state-led voter suppression laws throughout the South, so federal law must once again ensure that American citizens’ voting rights do not depend on which party or faction happens to be dominant in their state legislature, and that votes are cast and counted equally, regardless of the state or jurisdiction in which a citizen happens to live. This is widely recognized as a fundamental principle of electoral integrity in democracies around the world."

"We urge members of Congress to do whatever is necessary—including suspending the filibuster—in order to pass national voting and election administration standards that both guarantee the vote to all Americans equally, and prevent state legislatures from manipulating the rules in order to manufacture the result they want. Our democracy is fundamentally at stake. History will judge what we do at this moment."

100 experts: Democracy is in grave danger

We know that to save it the Senate must pass the For the People Act. And to do that the filibuster has to be completely eliminated. The experts:

"Now, in a striking intervention, more than 100 scholars of democracy have signed a new public statement of principles that seeks to make the stakes unambiguously, jarringly clear: On the line is nothing less than the future of our democracy itself.

The problem though:

"But it remains unclear whether 50 Senate Democrats will ever prove willing to reform or end the filibuster, and more to the point, whether Biden will put real muscle behind that cause. If not, such protections will never, ever pass."

And democracy will be flushed down the toilet. No exaggeration or hyperbole.

Homeland Security Threat Assessment October 2020

Document here. 

"Among DVEs [domestic violent extremists], racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists—specifically white supremacist extremists (WSEs)—will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland" (18).

We must not only face this reality but do something about it. Here is one approach.

Reich: Bi-partisanship is a meaningless goal

And Mancin knows it. So we can only speculate as to his real reasons for opposing the filibuster, but it ain't that.

EU's ties to Big Pharma holding up vaccine distribution

There's a lot of good analysis of the whole situation in this Daily Poster report. But for me the bottom line is this:

"As a recent report from the Corporate Europe Observatory highlighted, the European Commission has overwhelmingly prioritized talks with industry contacts over civil society groups when it comes to vaccines. From the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 to early May 2021, EU commissioners with a direct stake in medicine and vaccines met 140 times with pharmaceutical companies and just once with a group that supports a patent waiver, according to the watchdog group."

Republicans for the Rule of Law

Even members of their own Party are aghast at what the Party has become. 

"Trump must be held accountable. On January 6, President Trump incited a mob to attack Congress and the U.S. Capitol. The mob’s aim was his aim—to disrupt the process of a free, fair election and overturn the will of the people by physically assaulting their duly elected representatives at the seat of government. He must be convicted by the Senate and disqualified from holding future office."

Flynn covers his own ass

Continuing this post, Flynn, realizing he had let slip his treasonous intent, had to cover his ass with this explanation. It seems the only reason he did so was to protect himself from another prosecution. Given the venue at which he spoke was full of QAnuts who love the violent coup in Myanmar and want to see it in the US, and Flynn's own Twitiodic inclinations, we can easily surmise what his original comments were about.

Of course why corporate media frames it as a 'walk back' or a 'clarification' instead of an 'ass covering' once again exposes their own complicity in protecting seditionists, but that's another story,