The Blue Country Gazette is the successor to the Rim Country Gazette, reflecting our evolution to a nationwide political blog for readers who identify as "blue," liberals, progressives, and/or Democrats. Our mission is to provide distinctive coverage of issues during a time of extreme polarization in the U.S. We strive to provide side-stories and back-stories that provide additional insights and perspectives conventional coverage often doesn't include.
As Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida gears up for a
2024 presidential campaign, he is drawing on his legislative record on
prescription drugs to attract older voters. (photo: Stefani
Reynolds/NYT)
Aliza Chasan/CBS News
22 May 23
The NAACP issued a formal travel advisory
for Florida on Saturday in response to what the organization described
as Gov. Ron DeSantis' "aggressive attempts to erase Black history and to
restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in Florida schools."
The civil rights organization is the latest to caution travelers
against visiting Florida; the League of United Latin American Citizens
and LGBTQ advocacy group Equality Florida previously issued travel
advisories.
"Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, the state of Florida has
become hostile to Black Americans and in direct conflict with the
democratic ideals that our union was founded upon," NAACP President
& CEO Derrick Johnson said. "He should know that democracy will
prevail because its defenders are prepared to stand up and fight. We're
not backing down, and we encourage our allies to join us in the battle
for the soul of our nation."
CBS News reached out to DeSantis' office for a comment about the travel advisory. DeSantis is expected to launch a presidential campaign in the coming days.
The DeSantis administration in January blocked the introduction of an Advanced Placement course for high school students that focuses on African American studies.
"Florida is openly hostile toward African Americans, people of color
and LGBTQ+ individuals," the NAACP travel notice states. "Before
traveling to Florida, please understand that the state of Florida
devalues and marginalizes the contributions of, and the challenges faced
by African Americans and other communities of color."
Tourism is a massive industry in Florida. Around 137.6 million people
visited the state in 2022, according to tourism agency Visit Florida.
Visitors contributed $101.9 billion to the state's economy and supported
more than 1.7 million jobs in 2021.
Disney, one of the biggest draws for tourists, has also been engaged in an ongoing dispute with Gov. DeSantis. Most recently, Disney canceled a $1 billion plan to build a campus in Florida. The feud started after Disney criticized the state's "Don't Say Gay" law.
Equality Florida issued its advisory after DeSantis signed the "Don't Say Gay" bill into law.
"That law, along with additional proposals being considered, has
turned the state's classrooms into political battlefields and is
telegraphing to LGBTQ families and students that they are not welcome in
Florida," the group said at the time.
The League of United Latin American Citizens advisory cited strict Florida laws dealing with immigrants.
Organization president Domingo Garcia called the new immigration laws
"hostile and dangerous," saying they presented a clear and present
danger to Latinos.
"Florida is a dangerous, hostile environment for law-abiding Americans and immigrants," Garcia said.
Nadya Tolokonnikovat, of the group Pussy Riot, has a message for
Vladimir Putin. She also has a message for MAGA Republicans here in
America.
Although sentenced to prison in Russia, she saw herself as freer than
the prosecutors who sentenced her because she could say whatever she
wanted, while those prosecutors could not, because of the fear that they
might end up like her, imprisoned.
Because of her courage, Russian partisans are now destroying Russian
infrastructure in support of Ukraine. If not for her, they would
instead be cowering in fear. We in America need to channel Nadya’s
courage and fight back against the Fascism that is attempting to turn
our own nation into what Russia has now become, where freedom faces the
threat of our own Democracy being murdered by those who wish it to die,
and where the power of our own Autocratic wannabes threatens to
overwhelm our own Democratic system.
Russia, as it now exists, will not exist much longer because,
eventually, truth always defeats lies.
Here, in America, the courage of
Nadya Tolokonnikovat, will defeat whatever MAGA throws at us.
Russia
will not defeat Ukraine, nor will MAGA defeat the decency that exists in
every American citizen. Vladimir Putin will eventually be nothing
more than a skid mark in history’s underwear, and the MAGA movement will
become exactly the same.
The simple truth is that truth always defeats
lies. Pussy Riot opened a can of worms that will eventually cause
Putin’s downfall. It will also result in defeat of the MAGA movement
here in the United States. Human nature is better than we might believe
it is, and in 2024, we will all see the proof of it.
President Joe Biden speaks about the debt limit
talks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, May 17,
2023, in Washington. (photo: Evan Vucci/AP)
Aris Folley/The Hill
21 May 23
Dozens of progressives have signed onto a letter
urging President Biden to invoke the 14th Amendment and bypass
Republicans to prevent the nation from defaulting on its debt.
Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) leaders Pramila Jayapal
(D-Wash.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) led more than
60 progressives in penning the letter to Biden on Friday, as the president attends the Group of Seven (G-7) summit abroad this week.
“If the options are either agreeing to major cuts to domestic
priorities under the Republican threat of destroying the economy and
moving forward to honor America’s debts, we join prominent legal
scholars, economists, former budget officials, and a former president in
advocating for invoking the 14th Amendment of the Constitution,” they
wrote.
“Not only does the debt ceiling run counter to the Constitution’s
mandate that the validity of America’s public debt shall not be
questioned, it contradicts the appropriations law that requires the
Treasury to issue debt for the funding you are obligated to administer
at Congress’s direction,” the group added.
The letter comes as Republican negotiators indicated that bipartisan talks to resolve the nation’s debt limit fight had hit a roadblock on Friday — and blamed the White House.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the negotiations were on
pause, claiming the other side failed to make adequate concessions on
spending cuts.
“We’ve got to get movement by the White House, and we don’t have any
movement yet. So, yeah, we’ve gotta pause,” McCarthy said.
“Yesterday I really felt we were at the location where I could see
the path. The White House is just — look, we can’t be spending more
money next year. We have to spend less than we spent the year before.
It’s pretty easy.”
It also came a day after the House Freedom Caucus pushed
the Senate to pass the GOP conference’s partisan debt limit package,
with the group calling for “no further discussion” until it makes it out
of Congress.
The statement from the hardline conservative caucus was thought to
pose a threat to the GOP conference’s unity amid bipartisan debt limit
negotiations between the White House and Republican leaders.
But House Freedom Caucus Chairman Scott Perry (R-Pa.) seemed to try
to dial back some of the heat later on Thursday, telling CBS: “We’re not
saying you can’t continue to talk, but until they’re willing to tell us
what they’re willing to do, it’s hard to come to an agreement.”
Liberals and conservatives alike have been raising concerns over how
far leaders on both sides will go to strike a bipartisan deal to prevent
a federal default.
In their letter to Biden on Friday, progressives accused Republicans
of “economic ransom,” while pressing the president against concessions
that could lead to “devastating budget cuts, additional work
requirements for essential food and economic support, and fast-tracking
fossil fuel projects that undermine our shared climate achievements is
antithetical to our shared Democratic values.”
They went on to argue that Biden should invoke the 14th Amendment,
which says “the validity of the public debt of the United States … shall
not be questioned,” to try to continue to issue debt to make federal
payments.
But there are serious questions
about the legality of such a move. And the stakes are high, as experts
warn the nation’s economy could face catastrophic consequences if
lawmakers fail to act quickly on the debt limit.
Meanwhile, conservatives are stepping up pressure for both sides to
produce a deal that would enact new limits on annual government funding,
permitting reform and changes to work requirements or federal
assistance programs, among other proposals.
Less than two weeks stands between Congress and the June 1 deadline
forecasted by the Treasury Department as the earliest the nation risks
federal default.
Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) leaders Pramila Jayapal
(D-Wash.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Greg Casar (D-Texas) led more than
60 progressives in penning the letter.
It’s hard not to picture Arizona gubernatorial dopeful Kari Lake
sitting at a mall Chili’s bar four years from now with the last soldier
who doesn’t know World War II is over and the most popular REO
Speedwagon tribute band on MySpace as she whines and reminisces in equal
measure about the good old days.
Lake remains in thrall to her delusions, including that she won her
election in November and that Donald Trump is simply too stable and
genius-y to have possibly lost in 2020. She is currently in court
challenging her loss. And—well, gee, you never could have predicted
this—it’s not going well. At all.
As Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts noted,
the first day of Lake’s latest trial was a “complete and total fizzle.”
According to Lake’s attorney, Kurt Olsen, the very-much-not-governor of
Arizona was sitting on a powder keg of evidence proving that Arizona’s
Maricopa County failed to do any signature verification on early ballots
during the midterm elections. And her side called witnesses who proved
exactly that.
Wait. Sorry. That was supposed to say “who proved exactly the opposite.”
Jacqueline Onigkeit, who worked as a level one reviewer during last
year’s election, spent more than an hour explaining the lengths to which
county went to verify signatures — the weeklong training of workers,
the two shifts of level one reviewers, three levels of signature review,
the admonition to get it right.
“They (supervisors) told us, ‘You need to be very cautious. You need
to pay attention to what you’re doing and remember that whatever you
reject or approve, you can be called in to testify,’ ” Onigkeit
testified.
As a witness for the defense, Onigkeit was dynamite.
The problem is, she was supposed to be the star witness for Lake.
Wait, so why would Lake call a witness who ended up destroying her
case? I’m no lawyer, but isn’t that the opposite of what you’re supposed
to do? Did she find her attorney on Craigslist? And did the advertiser
throw in a free futon?
But that wasn’t all. Oh, no. The hits kept coming.
According to Roberts, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter
Thompson said that in order to prove her case, Lake needed to show that
the county had conducted no signature verification at all. Instead, she
and her lawyer helpfully proved that it had.
Olsen showed a video in which one election worker did appear to be
breezing through signature verifications too quickly, but he failed to
note that the worker was dismissed from those duties for not doing a
thorough job—a fact that, as Roberts writes, “bolstered the county’s
case that it was taking signature verification seriously.”
Meanwhile, Onigkeit testified that the workers were continually told
that they should be careful not to rush through the verification
process.
Of course, while the Big Lie may triumph in the court of public
opinion (at least in MAGA-land), it’s done diddly-squat in actual
courts, possibly (gird your loins now) because these Big Liars have no
case. And on Wednesday that was made brutally clear. Again.
That said, Big Liars are still poking at the foundations of our
democracy, looking for flaws that might allow them to illegally install
their once and future Burger King, who continues to serve up
steamy whoppers on the daily while safely ensconced in Mar-a-Lago. Their
ultimate vision, of course, is a permanent white minority rule in which
Potemkin elections rubber-stamp their preordained picks. And while
they’ve run into plenty of roadblocks on their way to this white man’s
coup-topia, their plan remains essentially unchanged.
To be fair, it’s abundantly clear by now that election denialism is a
bad campaign strategy. Relying on voters who think voting is pointless
is always a bad tactic, of course, but now we have data to support the
fact that Big Liars tend to be Big Losers.
According to a recent study from Stanford’s Graduate School of
Business, election deniers did demonstrably worse in the midterms than
candidates who refused to embrace Trump’s barmy nonsense.
Assaying the general election results in 85 races across the country,
the study found that election-denying Republicans received 2.3% less
support in statewide contests than Republicans who stood fast and
refused to indulge Trump’s insidious blather.
That may not sound like a lot. But it was the difference in several
close contests involving prominent election deniers, including races forU.S. Senateand
secretary of state in Nevada, and governor and attorney general in
Arizona. In each of those elections, scoundrels and cheats — let’s call
them what they are — went down to narrow, deserved defeat.
Great news, to be sure. But don’t get too comfy. Democracy is still in danger.
The nonpartisan watchdog group Informing Democracy recently put together a report
on some of the perils still facing our democracy, including the fact
that election deniers are worming their way into government like weevils
in Lake’s squishy simulacrum of a brain.
Still, following the results of the 2022 elections, a positive
narrative that most election deniers were defeated at the ballot box
quickly developed within the national media, but outside of a few
prominent election contests, the reality is unfortunately more
pessimistic. In fact, more anti democracy actors were elected to
statewide offices last year, not fewer. Across the country, candidates
supporting election denialism won several statewide elections,
solidifying their influence in state and federal government. These
election winners include the Governors of Alabama, Alaska, Florida,
Idaho, Iowa, South Dakota, and Texas; Secretaries of State of Indiana
and Wyoming; Attorneys General of Alabama, Florida, Kansas, Ohio, South
Carolina, and Texas; and U.S. Senators in Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri,
North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin.
At least 180 of the 222 Republican members of the U.S. House of
Representatives elected in 2022, most of whom were incumbents, either
questioned or denied the results of the 2020 presidential election. Of
the 34 U.S. Senators elected or reelected in 2022, 17 expressed
skepticism about the outcome of the 2020 presidential election. This
adds up to at least 74% of Congressional Republicans who rejected the
2020 election results. Barring their resignation or removal from office,
these same officials will be charged with confirming the electoral
college votes for the 2024 presidential election.
Then there’s that wacky SCOTUS, which loves nothing more than to
place flaming bags of poo at the public’s doorstep and run away
laughing. The court is currently considering the validity of the
so-called “independent state legislature theory,” which would give
partisan legislatures broad authority to gerrymander districts, disenfranchise voters, and possibly even pick their own winners. Fortunately, the Supreme Court looks poised to reject the theory, but it remains a real and horrifying threat.
The Republican-controlled Senate passedthe billTuesday
and sent it to the state House. If it is enacted, it would allow the
secretary of state to toss out election results in the state's largest
county and call a new vote if there is "good cause" to believe that at
least 2% of polling places ran out of usable ballots during voting
hours.
The bill would apply only to counties with populations greater than
2.7 million, effectively singling out Harris County, which is home to
Houston and has by far the largest population in the state, at nearly 5
million. In recent decades, Harris County has becomemore Democratic.
And hoo-boy, get a load of this one. Georgia’s Fulton County Board of
Commissioners nearly appointed a Republican to oversee elections in the
heavily Democratic county, which includes almost all of Atlanta. (The
nominee, Lee Morris, eventually withdrew his name in the face of strong opposition, and a Democrat was given the reins. But seriously—what were they thinking?)
So, yes, Lake’s faceplant is both hilarious and heartening. But that
doesn’t mean we can relax, fellow progressives! Democracy is still on
the ballot in 2024, and likely will be for the foreseeable future. Or
until MAGAs finally realize that Trump almost never tells the truth.
Which pretty much means we’ll be white-knuckling our way through
election nights until the heat death of the universe. And here you
thought you might get a full night’s sleep sometime before the end of
the millennium. You naif!
And just in case we Coloradans get too uppity about Arizona's Kari Lake, here's a reminder that we have our very own idiot-female politician in the person of pistol-packin' Lauren Boebert.
Ya think he's about to grab her by the...? OK, so we're rubbing it in now.
'One woman standing up, speaking the truth glimmers the brave in each of us.' (photo: Edna Leshowitz/Shutterstock)
17 May 23
The ex-president gaslights and diminishes his victims, and was given a platform by CNN. We can ensure he isn’t elected again
V/Guardian UK
Since the beginning of the trial between E Jean
Carroll and Donald Trump, I have been seriously triggered. I am not
alone. I am hearing from women all across America and the world.
Sleepless nights, unbearable anxiety, shortness of breath, unexplained
rage, depression. Survivors have a kind of collective nervous system, a
central body where our stories and trauma live in a timeless and
interwoven continuum. When one of us goes on public trial, it is all of
us on trial, our histories charged, our past memories made frighteningly
present. We are what I would call “sister-triggered”.
Triggers are cues that signal potential threats around us. As
survivors, we are constantly on alert as we swim in these volatile
misogynist waters, knowing a wave can come any minute to swallow us
whole, or at the very least remind us that although we may have one-off
victories we are still swimming in their rigged and violent sea. And
this is particularly true each time a sister survivor bravely goes on
trial, willingly stands up and publicly tells the truth, sheds her
anonymity for the greater good, faces an onslaught of hate, and
inevitably has her privacy, being and body reinvaded.
E Jean Carroll’s case against Donald Trump was a true victory, led by
a brave, graceful, brilliant survivor of integrity and eloquence,
tirelessly fought for by dedicated advocates and lawyers. Before we had
time to celebrate, the triggers began.
Trump’s lawyer, Joe Tacopina, proudly bragging that it was a rape
trial case and the jury rejected it. Trump was not branded as a rapist.
Triggered because even now in 2023 we still have to settle for sexual
abuse or battery or whatever names have been devised by patriarchal
institutions to make what is soul-destroying seem not so bad or at the
least, not what it is. Donald Trump stuck his fingers and penis inside E
Jean Carroll against her will and both are rape.
Corey Rayburn Yung, a law professor, says: “the word rape
carries extra connotations in our culture, and the jurors might have
been gun-shy about applying it regardless of the specific standard
there. So there’s a lot of stigma in many directions around the word
rape and perhaps this jury, pragmatically recognizing that, agreed that
Trump’s responsible, agreed on the dollar amount, but they didn’t want
to force the issue on the word rape.”
Triggered by all the ways we obfuscate and muddle and distance and
normalize what really happens to women’s bodies when they are grabbed,
invaded, penetrated or defiled. And how this makes survivors feel
unspeakable insanity, sorrow and rage.
Triggered that laws created by men have never served women or sexual
abuse, have never reckoned with or been determined by the nature of rape
and what it does to a woman’s mind and memory, or the language she
speaks in describing it. See Prima Facie now playing on Broadway.
Triggered that CNN didn’t think a minute about what it would mean to E
Jean Carroll or the millions of survivors to see a predator given such a
platform the day after we finally had a rare victory, and then be
forced to watch as Trump instigated his audience to mock and belittle E
Jean Carroll the day after he was charged with defamation. Perhaps CNN
is not aware that one out of three women in the world have experienced
what E Jean Carroll has experienced and this was insulting,
irresponsible and outrageous.
Triggered that a predator was offered a platform to address millions
of people when his accuser who won her trial against him only had a
small courtroom to plead her case.
Triggered that Trump, just like so many powerful rapists and
predators, continues to gaslight his victims, refuses to admit or
seemingly understand what sexual abuse and rape is or what it does to
its victims.
Triggered that the audience at CNN was laughing with Trump as he made
fun of E Jean Carroll which triggered memories of men and women cheering and laughing with Trump
as he mocked Christine Blasey Ford in the Kavanaugh hearings. Which
triggered more rage thinking that our supreme court includes justices
accused of sexual abuse and those appointed by one.
Triggered that afterwards at the CNN town hall with Republican voters
in New Hampshire, when Gary Tuchman asked a voter, Karen Olson, how she
felt about Trump being found liable for sexual abuse by a jury of his
peers. She said: “I didn’t really care ... All of these situations where
people are coming out 20, 30 years later, I don’t listen to it.” This
must have triggered thousands of women who weren’t believed by their own
mothers, or teachers or employers.
Triggered because the lack of accountability, the platforming of a
known self-admitted and now charged predator, white supremacist,
treasonous, twice-impeached president was more important for ratings and
money than protecting women, Black people and democracy which triggered
a deja vu of being back in 2016 when the media essentially gave Donald
Trump an estimated $5bn in free media (more than any other Republican or
Democratic candidate combined) which was what inevitably gave him the
presidency.
I recently was exposed to a new term, “glimmering”, which was coined
by Deb Dana, a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in
complex trauma. “‘Glimmers’ refers to small moments when our biology is
in a place of connection or regulation, which cues our nervous system to
feel safe or calm.” Glimmers are the opposite of triggers.
One woman standing up, speaking the truth glimmers the brave in each
of us. She opens the space for another world where women might do more
than dream of being safe and free.
Glimmering happens when you call rape rape. When you speak the
language that matches the crime. It happens when you put rapists on
trial and not their victims, when you silence predators and exile them
rather than giving them mega-media platforms.
Our greatest glimmering will be making sure we never elect a charged predator to be our president again.
Let the glimmering begin.
Donald Trump stuck his fingers and penis inside E
Jean Carroll against her will and both are rape.
“I
heard New Hampshire and America run on @dunkindonuts, had to check it
out for myself,” he tweeted, complete with an American flag emoji.
That seems like a good tweet! Pence wants to show he’s normal, and normal people drink coffee and eat donuts.
But here’s the problem: normal people don’t act like Dunkin’ Donuts is some hidden New England delicacy. There are over 8,500 Dunkin’ Donuts locations across 41 states,
and more than 11,300 worldwide. Not to mention, they sell Dunkin’
Donuts branded coffee beans, canned beverages, and even jelly beans in
grocery stores and gas stations literally everywhere.
All
that being said, it’s fair to assume that most Americans know about
Dunkin’ Donuts, and have visited one, too! Pence may want to launch an
old-school GOP presidential campaign; but in this instance, he’s
channeling George H.W. Bush’s supermarket scanner gaffe.
