Politico:
Panic Rooms, Birth Certificates, and the Birth of GOP Paranoia
How America’s center-right party started going mad, as recounted by the man who tried to keep them sane.
Under Crazytown’s new rules, I might have been a spokesperson, but I didn’t have all the power. By 2013, the chaos caucus in the house had built up its own power base thanks to scratchy right-wing media and indignant donations. And now they had a new lunatic who wasn’t even a member of the house. There’s nothing more dangerous than a ruthless asshole who thinks he’s smarter than anyone else. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz. He engaged the GOP’s insane caucus on a really stupid idea. Not that anyone asked me.
With such quotes, the piece by former speaker John Boehner is read one and a half times.
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It is noteworthy that Major League Baseball’s switch of All-Star Game and Draft is not a boycott. https://t.co/LC53yH2qYK
– Franklin Leonard (@franklinleonard) April 2, 2021
Ian Millhiser / NY Times:
Republicans have an agenda and they don’t need Congress for it
The GOP’s program lives on in the judiciary – and particularly in the Supreme Court.
Under Crazytown’s new rules, I might have been a spokesperson, but I didn’t have all the power. By 2013, the chaos caucus in the house had built up its own power base thanks to scratchy right-wing media and indignant donations. And now they had a new lunatic who wasn’t even a member of the house. There’s nothing more dangerous than a ruthless asshole who thinks he’s smarter than anyone else. Ladies and gentlemen, meet Senator Ted Cruz. He engaged the GOP’s insane caucus on a really stupid idea. Not that anyone asked me.
Zeynep Tufekci / Substack:
How polarization ate our brains
First part of the Trifecta misinformation
Much emphasis was placed on misinformation over there – often focused on direct COVID denialism. In fact, some of this misinformation was downright deliberate lies and lies. Some of this – the polarization around masks or the obsession with hydroxychloroquine – is made more difficult by events at the start of the pandemic. Some of these, like claims about vaccines altering your DNA or the wild rumors of 5G chips, are clearly false, although the former are also complicated (since they’re also related to the excitement about genetically modified foods).
But then there is the misinformation over here that is also quite persistent and also wildly wrong. This misinformation has its own characters, from the downright grabbers to the misleading alarmists to a large number of respected opinion leaders and even officials who spread falsehood. A few days ago, I noticed an article that seemed to hit the Trifecta both in content and visually (a no less important form of misinformation).
What is the trifecta here? It’s polarization (eating our brains), bad science (which causes terrible politics), and puritanism and moralization (masking as public health).
New York Times:
What Georgia’s electoral law really does
The New York Times analyzed the state’s new 98-page electoral law and identified 16 key provisions restricting access to ballot papers, potentially confusing voters, and giving Republican lawmakers more power.
Go page by page through Georgia’s new electoral law, and a snack stands above all others: the Republican legislature and governor have made it a staggering assertion of partisan power in elections that makes postal voting difficult and creates constraints and complications for the Democrats as a result of the low casualties.
The New York Times has reviewed and commented on the bill and identified 16 provisions that impede the right to vote for some Georgians or take power away from state and local electoral officials and give it to lawmakers.
Republicans passed and signed the 98-page electoral law last week after Georgia’s first democratic victories in presidential and senate elections in a generation. President Biden won the state only 11,779 votes by nearly five million performers. In particular, the new law will restrict electoral access for voters in booming urban and suburban areas where many Democrats live. Another provision makes it a crime to offer water to voters who wait in lines, which tends to be longer in densely populated communities.
Below is the Times’ analysis of the law, including specific provisions and a crossed-out language from the state’s previous voting laws.
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“Come on, let’s take this seriously … we’re playing this game. You take a word or phrase someone says and you throw a gotcha at them” – Dr. Fauci gets over the mask with Neil Cavuto pic.twitter.com/fLvWFrlcb7
– Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 2, 2021
Tom Krattenmaker / USA Today:
Trump may have “found” the votes he needed to win Georgia under the state’s new electoral law
Republican lawmakers now have more control and power over elections and the district officials who count the votes. The State Secretary has less.
What if Georgia election officials somehow found the nonexistent votes of then-President Donald Trump? urged them to “find” to overcome his narrow loss in Peach State? What if there wasn’t a secretary of state with not only the spine but also the power to ensure that the elections were protected from partisan fraud?
It would have been a devastating loss to democracy, that’s what. And it would have been a lot easier to pull through if Georgia’s brand new electoral law had come into effect.
Thanks to a somewhat overlooked provision in Georgia’s new restrictive electoral law and similar measures are being pursued In more than half a dozen other GOP-controlled legislations, the runners for future Trump-style election rigging are getting better and better lubricated. These attempts to undermine the will of the electorate must stop.
Politico:
Dem jaw to face Ron Johnson just one more time
Johnson says he hasn’t made up his mind whether to run again, but confident Democrats are hoping he does.
Here’s what you don’t see every day: Democrats call on incumbent Republican senator to run for re-election.
It’s not just that Democrats see Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) As finally ripe for defeat after he has been closely tied to former President Donald Trump’s penchant for incendiary rhetoric. You also want to point out that Johnson’s is confrontational style no longer fits into its multi-year swing condition.
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GOP VOTED: Against the American bailout plan that pocketed $ 1,400, pocketed vaccination shots, and cut health care premiums.
GOP VOTED: For the tax law that allows the richest and most profitable companies to pay ZERO taxes. https://t.co/UpJ0JsDdTA
– Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) April 2, 2021
USA Today Editor:
Dr. Birx spoke out against Trump’s COVID response. It’s a shame that it’s a year late.
Our View: In a recent interview, Birx said the majority of COVID deaths could have been mitigated. During this critical time she supported a failed message.
The Trump administration’s coronavirus response coordinator made a shocking revelation in a recent CNN interview – many of the 550,000 Americans Lost life to the pandemic could have been saved with better leadership.
In other words, managing the response to the pandemic under President Donald Trump – Dr. Deborah Birx – was a failure of historic proportions.
“That’s how I see it,” said Birx, a renowned HIV researcher and diplomat. CNN said, “The first time we have an apology. There have been approximately 100,000 deaths from this original surge (coronavirus). All the others I think could have been mitigated or decreased significantly.”
Why is she telling us? now? And why did Birx persist in her high post and deliver a business as usual message while knowing of so much unnecessary death?
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🚨NEW from @NavigatorSurvey
The American bailout remains popular – strong, deep, and bipartisan support.
A TOTAL OF
– Support: 72%
– Opposition: 19%
UNDER INDEPENDENTS
– Support: 72%
– Opposition: 11%
AMONG REPUBLICANS
– Support: 48%
– Opposition: 39%
Every Republican in Congress voted NO pic.twitter.com/HMhfXbtop8
– Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) April 2, 2021
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