I’m surprised how quickly people forgot the very first bill the Democrats introduced in 2021 addressed this very topic. The Republicans in the senate killed it.

https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1

Passed House (03/03/2021) For the People Act of 2021

"This bill addresses voter access, election integrity and security, campaign finance, and ethics for the three branches of government.

Specifically, the bill expands voter registration (e.g., automatic and same-day registration) and voting access (e.g., vote-by-mail and early voting). It also limits removing voters from voter rolls.

The bill requires states to establish independent redistricting commissions to carry out congressional redistricting.

Additionally, the bill sets forth provisions related to election security, including sharing intelligence information with state election officials, supporting states in securing their election systems, developing a national strategy to protect U.S. democratic institutions, establishing in the legislative branch the National Commission to Protect United States Democratic Institutions, and other provisions to improve the cybersecurity of election systems.

Further, the bill addresses campaign finance, including by expanding the prohibition on campaign spending by foreign nationals, requiring additional disclosure of campaign-related fundraising and spending, requiring additional disclaimers regarding certain political advertising, and establishing an alternative campaign funding system for certain federal offices.

The bill addresses ethics in all three branches of government, including by requiring a code of conduct for Supreme Court Justices, prohibiting Members of the House from serving on the board of a for-profit entity, and establishing additional conflict-of-interest and ethics provisions for federal employees and the White House.

The bill requires the President, the Vice President, and certain candidates for those offices to disclose 10 years of tax returns."

Hey, totally unrelated, but does anyone remember this Simpsons episode?

The increase in border security spending was announced back in December. The only real change announced today is that Canada will now stick the bogus title of Fentanyl Czar on someone. Oh, and the fact that Canadians now will actively avoid any American products. Great job mango Mussolini.

This moron can’t even decide if his name is Jack or John.

Because Putin wants rid of it.

U.S.A.I.D. funds democracy-promotion programs around the world, including in European countries where right-wing populist movements are thriving. Mr. Musk has become an ally of those movements, some of whose leaders have specifically targeted the agency’s pro-democracy programs in recent years.

Supporters of Viktor Orban, the right-wing leader of Hungary and a darling of pro-Trump conservatives in the United States, have personally criticized Samantha Power, who led U.S.A.I.D. during the Biden administration, for trying to import American values into their country.

NY times gift link

https://www.faena.com/aleph/umberto-eco-a-practical-list-for-identifying-fascists

In an essay published in the New York Review of Books, Umberto Eco distilled the 14 typical elements of “Ur-Fascism or Eternal Fascism,” while warning that, “These features cannot be organized into a system; many of them contradict each other and are also typical of other kinds of despotism or fanaticism. But it is enough that one of them be present to allow fascism to coagulate around it.”

• The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”

• The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense, Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”

• The cult of action for action’s sale. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.” Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture, the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”

• Fear of difference. “The first appeal of a fascist or prematurely fascist movement is an appeal against the intruders. Thus Ur-Fascism is racist by definition.” Appeal to social frustration. “[…] one of the most typical features of the historical fascism was the appeal to a frustrated middle class, a class suffering from an economic crisis or feelings of political humiliation, and frightened by the pressure of lower social groups.

• The obsession with a plot. “The followers must feel besieged. The easiest way to solve the plot is the appeal to xenophobia.”

• The enemy is both weak and strong. “[…] the followers must be convinced that they can overwhelm the enemies. Thus, by a continuous shifting of rhetorical focus, the enemies are at the same time too strong and too weak.”

• Pacifism is trafficking with the enemy. “For Ur-Fascism there is no struggle for life but, rather, life is lived for struggle.”

• Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”

• Everybody is educated to become a hero. “in Ur-Fascist ideology, heroism is the norm. This cult of heroism is strictly linked with the cult of death.”

• Machismo and Weaponry. “This is the origin of machismo (which implies both disdain for women and intolerance and condemnation of nonstandard sexual habits, from chastity to homosexuality). Since even sex is a difficult game to play, the Ur-Fascist hero tends to play with weapons—doing so becomes an ersatz phallic exercise.”

• Selective Populism. “There is in our future a TV or Internet populism, in which the emotional response of a selected group of citizens can be presented and accepted as the Voice of the People.

• Ur-Fascism speaks Newspeak. “All the Nazi or Fascist schoolbooks made use of an impoverished vocabulary, and an elementary syntax, in order to limit the instruments for complex and critical reasoning.”

I hope that every last trump voter is held to collective responsibility for whatever atrocities lie ahead. After the Nazis were defeated, Germans were shown posters like this one that said “These Atrocities, Your Fault!”

I, for one, welcome our new kakistocratic overlords.

Not normal at all. This was America’s 1932 Germany moment, there’s no going back now. 70 plus million of the dumbest Americans on the planet welcomed the Nazis with open arms.

Last I checked, Iroquois county had 9000 yes votes to secede. Good luck with that massive tax revenue base. Chicagoland’s 10 million plus residents will be happy to stop sending them money.

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9542152/

In summary, we observed significant and consistent differences in dental caries experience in the primary dentition between Grade 2 children in Calgary (fluoridation cessation) and Edmonton (still fluoridated), Canada, 7‐8 years following cessation in Calgary. Our findings are consistent with an adverse impact of fluoridation cessation on children’s dental health in Calgary, and point to the need for universally, publicly funded prevention activities including, but not limited to fluoridation.

This is my favorite thread of the day. I learned something, and it brought back memories of plugging one of these into my parents '87 Buick LeSabre wagon. Complete with wood grain panels. Yeah, I didn’t date much back then.

The full plan is detailed here: https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/little-secret-trump-johnson-election/.

Basically, they just need enough States to withhold submitting valid slates of electors, which are due on Dec 11th. If that doesn’t happen, and it lowers the amount of electoral college voters enough so no single candidate has a majority, then the US House gets to decide.

In other words, we’re fully reliant on GOP controlled States doing the right thing. We’re fucked.

Damn dude, there’s not enough xanax in the world to help me cope with that mental image.

I found the NYT’s sanewashing of Trump irresponsible, so I took my WaPo subscription to The Guardian. It’s a sad reflection on the US when a foreign paper has better reporting than any domestic source.

Video of the pacing:

https://bsky.app/profile/bubbaprog.ilovecitr.us/post/3l6tb2nxfyo2o

This is a complete sanewashing article… Roberts read all the dissents, he knew exactly what he was doing. Putting Trump above the law.

Florida (desantis) recently enacted concealed carry, so I’ll be curious to see what law this nut actually broke.