but it’s vital timely stuff that is still fresh today-
Yesterday’s News Today
but it’s vital timely stuff that is still fresh today-
Tag: US Politics
In Yesterday’s Democracy Docket
(I tried all day yesterday to post this, but didn’t get it done, so here it is this morning.)
Since 2020, Democracy Docket has extensively covered and tracked important litigation related to voting rights, elections and redistricting and now has a database of over 660 cases. As in previous years, we are providing a comprehensive year-end report on all the democracy-related cases filed and decided in 2023 that directly impacted voters.
Considering it was not a federal election year, 2023 was quite busy for democracy in the courts. While there were not as many new lawsuits filed this past year relative to 2022, there was a notable influx of consequential outcomes stemming from democracy-related cases that directly impacted voters.
Between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 2023, we tracked:
- 73 new democracy-related lawsuits filed across 31 states.
- 146 court orders that impacted voters across 34 states.
- 83 victories for voters across 26 states.
The statistics in this report are based on the lawsuits in our case database as of Dec. 31, 2023. For the purposes of this report, we excluded the 57 active redistricting lawsuits and the small number of criminal cases we are tracking.
Throughout 2023, we tracked 73 new democracy-related lawsuits across 31 states.
Despite not being a federal election year, 2023 nevertheless saw over 70 democracy-related lawsuits spanning dozens of states. By comparison, in 2021 — another off-cycle year — Democracy Docket tracked 57 new democracy-related lawsuits across 18 states.
As expected, the number of new lawsuits filed in 2023 was lower than the 175 new democracy-related lawsuits filed in 2022 both before and after the midterm elections. In anticipation of the upcoming 2024 presidential election, we expect the number of new lawsuits to once again drastically increase this year.
In 2023, we tracked more pro-voting than anti-voting lawsuits and saw a nearly even split amongst lawsuits filed in federal and state courts. Lawsuits that centered around election administration — especially relating to direct democracy and the ballot initiative process — were most prominent among democracy-related litigation filed this past year. We observed how Republicans are doubling down on their anti-voting efforts in court, with GOP litigants bringing 68% of anti-voting lawsuits in 2023. Meanwhile, lawsuits filed by nonpartisan organizations — such as the NAACP or League of Women Voters — accounted for the vast majority of pro-voting litigation.
Below, we break down our comprehensive database of lawsuits that were filed in 2023 and provide analysis of the broader trends that characterized the past year’s litigation landscape.
Unlike in 2022, there were more pro-voting than anti-voting lawsuits filed in 2023.
Democracy Docket categorized the 73 new lawsuits filed in 2023 as either “pro-voting” or “anti-voting.” In total, we tracked 51 pro-voting lawsuits and 22 anti-voting lawsuits filed in 2023.
While this past year’s breakdown is a departure from the trend we saw in 2022 — in which there were more anti-voting lawsuits (93) than pro-voting lawsuits (82) — it is more in line with what we saw in 2021, when there were 49 pro-voting lawsuits and 8 anti-voting lawsuits.
Between 2022 and 2023, we noticed a distinct shift in who was behind new democracy-related litigation, with pro-voting parties bringing the bulk of all new lawsuits in 2023. While anti-voting parties brought 53% of the total lawsuits filed in 2022, they only brought 30% of new lawsuits filed in 2023. Inversely, pro-voting parties brought 47% of the total lawsuits filed in 2022, but nearly 70% of new lawsuits filed in 2023.
This is likely explained by the fact that most off-year election litigation focuses on pro-voting challenges to new voter suppression laws. In both 2021 and 2023, we saw waves of new anti-voting laws enacted by Republican-controlled legislatures. On the other hand, in even-numbered years, litigation tends to focus on how elections are administered and votes are counted — two areas where the anti-voting parties are particularly litigious. (snip-graphics and much More Info on the page)
I love The Majority Report and the progressive factual style they have. Enjoy some clips on different subjects.
I wish I could Like this 1,000 Times
I have Bart Art on a thumb drive, but I share the regret that I don’t have the graphic Ten Bears writes of because it’s spot on.
Trump Tributes
by Clay Jones
New Jersey drones and some MAGA ass-kissing. Read on Substack
I’ve felt sick and disgusted since November, and those feelings only increased after I read about what ABC News did. If Donald Trump sues me for doing my job, I will not cave like ABC News, and I’ll tell him to go suck a lemon (replace lemon with something else).
Trump has villainized the media and has tried to take away the credibility of the press. Trumpers believe legitimate news outlets are “fake news” while they share “news” from YouTube and repeat Trump’s lies. Back when I freelanced for CNN and I’d try to discuss an issue with a MAGAt, they’d say, “Oh, you’re with CNN. That explains a lot,” without ever telling me exactly what it explained.
Anytime a Trumper tells you a news outlet lies, they can’t cite one example. Yet, these same idiots are in a cult that worships a man who told over 30,000 in a span of four years.
And it’s not just the cultists who are kissing Trump’s ass.
Jeff Bezos is donating $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration. He also pulled an endorsement from The Washington Post which was for Kamala Harris. When Bezos purchased the Post, he promised he would never meddle with editorial decisions. Bezos said he’s “very optimistic” about a second Trump administration (sic) and will be meeting with the orange goon this week. What’s Bezos’ deal with kissing Trump’s ass after years of criticizing him? It’s Elon Musk.
Bezos has government contracts such as with the Post Office delivering Amazon shipments (which is why you see angry mailmen on Sundays) and through Blue Origins, his rock company (it’s the one that looks like a giant penis). Bezos has lost government contracts to Elon and his rocket company (it’s the one owned by a giant penis). How can Bezos compete when his competition is firmly entrenched up Trump’s ass. It’s why you can’t see Trump anymore without Elon by his side. He’s afraid if he goes to the toilet for one minute, he’ll find Bezos up Trump’s butt when he returns despite the fact he called dibs.
Mark Zuckerberg, who banned Trump from Facebook for a minute (along with Russian trolls until they started paying to post), is also pledging $1 million to Trump’s inauguration and said Trump’s “fight fight fight” after being nipped in the ear was “badass.” Zuck probably also thinks My Little Pony is badass. Zuck is also donating his hydrofoiling board along with his CD that contains Country Roads.
Sam Altman, the owner of OpenAI, is also pledging a million bucks to the grift and said Trump will “lead our country in the age of AI.” That’s great news actually because I hate AI and if Trump is leading it, it’s doomed. But the thing is, Sam knows this and is only saying stupid shit to kiss Trump’s ass.
There’s no word yet on all the donors but former contributors to inaugurations are keeping mum, such as Google, Walmart, Home Depot, Target, etc, but nobody seems concerned about how their money is spent and they’re probably all resigned to the fact their donations will probably be grifted.
Trump raised $107 million for his inauguration in 2017 and a lot of that money disappeared. Sure, they paid for Three Doors Down (opening shot makes me think of what Trump must look like first thing in the morning) to sing Kryptonite and there was a very fine parade of tractors (look at the crowd size), but that didn’t cost $107 million. At least $1 million of it was spent for a ball at what was then Trump’s Washington hotel, but how many more millions landed in Trump’s bank account?
Trump has refused government funding for his inauguration in order to accept private donations. He says he’s saving taxpayer’s money when the truth is, he just wants to be bribed.
The donors didn’t care what happened to the money just so long as they won Trump’s favor, but what’s even more disgusting is when the media kisses the royal rump.
Bezos kissing Trump’s ass and using the Post to do it is one disgusting thing, but then there’s ABC News giving Trump $15 million for his stupid library.
ABC News agreed to pay $15 million to settle a defamation lawsuit filed by Trump. He was miffed by the way George Stephanopoulos used the term “liable for rape” to characterize a 2023 civil case in Manhattan, the one where a jury ruled that Trump, the rapist, was liable for sexual abusing and defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, who won $83 million from Rapey Trump. The judge noted that the jury’s verdict didn’t mean Carroll failed to prove Trump, the rapist, raped her.
The bar is high for libeling a public figure and Mr. McRapey is the most public of them all. News organizations usually don’t settle these bullshit lawsuits as they have the First Amendment on their side. When they do settle, it’s usually because it’s cheaper than paying their lawyers through a long tedious lawsuit, and not for something like $15.
Fox News had to settle with Dominion Voting Systems for $787.5 million but they were guilty as fuck and they’re not a real news organization. So why did ABC settle with a guy liable for rape?
ABC News, which is owned by Disney, settled to kiss Trump’s ass but all they did was give him more encouragement to file bullshit lawsuits. What ABC selfishly did was hurt the entire news industry, which Trump, the rapist, has called the “enemy of the American people.”
Disney should understand that they shouldn’t kiss the ring of Darth Sidious. They own Star Wars. At least Palpatine never had over two dozen women accuse him of rape and sexual assault, not even a female gundark.
Today, Trump scolded the government for not giving out more information about drones in New Jersey, but if the government knows what’s going on with Jersey drones, then Trump probably does too. Sorry to scare you like this but since he’s president-elect (sic), he’s getting daily briefings which means Vladimir Putin is getting daily briefings. Maybe the drones are delivering Big Macs to Bedminster.
Creative note: Proofer Laura asked if I intended to make a Hunger Games parallel with this cartoon. Since I’m the only person in the nation who’s never watched Hunger Games despite there being abundant nudity with dragons (I’ve been told and I hope it’s not just naked dragons), I did not intentionally make that reference, but it sounds cool the way Laura described it.
Laura told me, “In the Hunger Games the “tributes” are the people forced to fight to the death, and drones are used to deliver gifts from audience members to help the tributes survive.” What kind of drones? Dragon drones? What if they smoked the tributes? Can you say a dragon ate my homework?
Laura also said, “In the Hunger Games the gifts sent to competitors are hugely expensive and only very wealthy sponsors can afford to send them, Bezos and Musk types.” That sounds about right. The only people who won’t be eaten by a dragon over the next four years will be people like Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk.
I wish I could send Trump a dragon. (snip)
I Think I’m Gonna Hate It Here – A Randy Rainbow Song Parody
DECEMBER 14 Funniest American Political Cartoon Ever Made – Time Magazine Person of the Year 2024
House Republicans fumble government funding as deadline looms
Yet Johnson had the time to slam in at the last minute with no committee hearings or being addressed by the entire House an add on to the end of year must pass military budget that would block the military from granting gender affirming care to dependents of service members. If that remains it will hurt moral and hit retention. Family with trans kids will leave the military to get the care their kids need. Plus again it is based on ideology and religion, not science. Ok the link above was gotten from Ten Bears’ site, the link will be below because of how fucked up WordPress has gotten. Hugs
Speaker Mike Johnson
Over the weekend, House Republicans once again failed to secure a deal to fund the federal government. The deadline for approving a spending bill is Dec. 20 and without its passage there could be another shutdown, which has happened before on the GOP’s watch.
Speaker Mike Johnson has been unable to get members of his own party representing farm districts to back the legislation currently being negotiated. Politico reports that Republicans planned to circulate the text of the bill among members on Sunday, but that soft deadline has passed without a solution and now leadership may reach out to Democrats for help.
Advocacy groups and lobbyists representing farming interests have been pushing Congress to include farm relief in the funding bill.
“Our country will suffer the consequences if Congress takes farmers & our food supply for granted. I call on members of Congress who represent ag to stand with farmers by insisting the supplemental spending bill include economic aid for farmers and voting it down if it doesn’t,” Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation wrote.
Ironically, one reason farms are seeking relief is that they are still dealing with the economic fallout from Donald Trump’s trade war, which led to decreased sales of U.S. farm products on the international market. Trump has proposed similar trade policies, including tariffs, for his second term despite the economic risk to millions of consumers.
While the House fumbled this key deadline, Johnson was not at the Capitol. On Saturday he instead attended the Army-Navy football game along with Trump, Vice President-elect JD Vance, and Trump benefactor Elon Musk.
Since taking the House in the 2022 midterm elections, Republicans have governed in a state of almost perennial chaos. The party could not decide on a consensus speaker and then after Kevin McCarthy was selected, he was removed from power.
Because McCarthy and now Johnson have had such a hard time getting the party in line, they have had to rely on Democratic votes to pass key legislation keeping the nation funded. Even after Republicans held on to the House in the 2024 election, the margin of the party’s control will be virtually unchanged from two years ago.
The incoming administration hopes to implement many of the unpopular ideas in Project 2025 (despite Trump’s claims that he had no connection to the conservative agenda), but the party’s track record of legislative incompetence may show another path forward.
Republicans had unified control in Trump’s first two years of the presidency and the party failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) or pass an infrastructure bill (President Joe Biden did). Now they cannot even agree on a spending bill with just a few days to go.
The future, even with Republicans in control of the House, Senate, and White House, does not look bright for Johnson and his party in Congress.
