Erasing tools to recognize prejudice & prevent atrocity

I renewed my conversation with Comcast this morning, continuing what I posted yesterday. They had blocked allowing me pay my bill because I didn’t give them a non-Comcast email address, which I don’t have. Each round of today’s chat discussion took 20-30 minutes. Since they needed verification from me and then needed screenshots of the error message, this took over two hours. Eventually a person explained that they changed their policies and now need to be able to do two-factor authentication that needs two email addresses. They need the second in case I can’t access my Comcast email. I replied: Their two-factor authentication is more complicated than what my bank requires. Needing a second email in case I can’t access their email really doesn’t make sense. If I’m required to create a second email address I might as well take that as the first step in switching all my various online accounts to the new addy and leave Comcast behind. The response was they have changed their security steps and the support team has no way to avoid them. So. I can pay by phone app, which I rejected (and am puzzled why the account then doesn’t need the second email). I can pay at an Xfinity store, which I did, and waited a half hour once I got there. The support person said I can pay by check by printing out the bill I get online and cutting off the payment coupon. I have a big project of how to convert the files from my old music program to something readable by the new. It looks like I have another big project to establish a second email address, go through my dozens of online accounts to convert to that address, and choose a new internet provider. I didn’t need another big project. I have a few other big projects this will keep me from getting to. Emily Singer of Daily Kos reviewed various news sources to get an idea of what the nasty guy plans to do on election day. NBC News reported he’ll quickly declare himself the winner well before networks call it. Yeah, he did that last time. He’s spreading the same lie that voting machines are stealing his vote, the same lie that cost Fox News $787 million in a defamation suit. In several states Republicans have already files various suits trying to block various kinds of voters such as families of overseas military (as was filed and tossed in Michigan).

“We have known for some time that Donald Trump uses the legal system not to adjudicate things on the merits but rather to make a point,” Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias said in an interview on MSNBC. “In the election context, we know he has used it to try to further a false narrative, the big lie, that serves as a permission structure for him and his supporters to deny the reality that he lost in 2020 and that he will almost certainly lose the popular vote and probably the election in 2024,” Elias continued. “But we have to be clear, those lawsuits are not succeeding.

Oliver Willis of Kos reported it isn’t just the nasty guy spouting election disinformation. The Washington Post listed statements of Republicans running for office at various levels and found 230 of them have said they have doubts about the 2024 election. That is influencing Republican voters. WaPo said this disinformation will have a “pervasive effort within the GOP to undermine public trust in the vote ahead of Nov. 5.” According to the Brennan Center for Justice many candidates are pushing conspiracies of noncitizens voting, when that was 0.0001% of votes cast out of 23.5 million votes in the 2016 election (was that the number of votes in the swing states?). Many candidates are also claiming Biden dropping out and being replaced by Harris is somehow undemocratic, though Harris was on the ballot with him through the primaries. Election fraud is rare. Voter suppression and disinformation isn’t and is an ongoing tactic by Republicans. Singer wrote that the nasty guy is reportedly considering Judge Aileen Cannon to be his attorney general. It would certainly be payment for all the good she has done for him and gives a clear idea of what he intends for his Department of Justice. Cannon is the judge in his classified documents case who did all she could to slow down the case, then absurdly dismissed the case by saying special counsel Jack Smith wasn’t legally appointed. A couple other rumored appointments are just as bad. Sen. Lindsey Graham was on NBC’s Meet the Press and Kos of Kos discussed what he said. Graham complained that Republicans are endorsing Harris and that Democrats want to to “pack” the Supreme Court, eliminate the Electoral College, and make D.C. and Puerto Rico states. Wrote Kos:

None of it is crazy, other than it would dilute the institutional power that Republicans have built for themselves in direct contradiction to the nation’s electorate. Remember, Republicans have lost the popular vote for the last 20 years.

If we get rid of the Electoral College then conservative voters matter in California and South Carolina (where Graham is from), and not just is six or seven states. But Republicans well know they they don’t have a national majority, so they need the contrivance of the EC to win. Graham has various other lies he hoped would make Harris look bad. Kos debunked them.

Graham was clearly on air to make Trump happy. But despite all the angry bluster, his real fear is a Democratic majority that would undo the GOP’s ill-gotten institutional advantages. And that should sound pretty awesome to us.

Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos has several quotes from people born in October. One of them is worth sharing:

"There’s a reason white supremacy attacks history. Opposition to teaching bigotry’s history and where it leads—from the slave trade to the Holocaust—is about erasing society’s tools to recognize prejudice & prevent atrocity. Holocaust denial has no place in our society. None." —Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-NY)

Another way to say that is they want to deny something because they want to be able to do it again. They deny racism because they want societal permission to be racist. In another Cheers and Jeers column Bill quoted late night commentary. One of them:

“In a new interview, former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said that former President Trump spoke positively about Adolf Hitler more than once, and added he wanted ‘the kind of generals Hitler had.’ You know what? I’m starting to think that Trump doesn’t watch the ends of documentaries.” —Seth Meyers

In the comments of a pundit roundup on Kos there are cartoons and memes that are variations of the image of a man and woman walking together. He turns and looks appreciatively at another woman while his partner is annoyed at what he is doing. In these cartoons each of the three characters are usually labeled. The first example is by Mike Luckovich and shows the nasty guy admiring Hitler while Lady Liberty looks annoyed. In one posted by Hugh Jim Bissell the passing woman is replaced by the nasty guy, the man is labeled “Conservative Christians” and the woman is labeled “Jesus.” Also featuring Jesus, exlrrp posted an image of Jesus driving the money lenders out of the temple (told in all four Gospels in the Bible) though in this image one of them is the nasty guy and others are labeled JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Goldman Sachs. The caption says, “Dear Conservatives: This is what Jesus would have done.” Below it is an image of Jesus with a child in his lap talking to people. He says, “You think turning water into wine is cool? 2,000 years ago, I wasn’t even white!” An Associated Press article posted on Kos warns that though abortion protection provisions may win (they’re on the ballot in ten states) the legal battle over abortion won’t end right away. That’s because the laws or constitutional amendments don’t actually repeal the abortion bans. Passing the provisions only mean the courts will be very busy, though the pro-choice side will have the wind at their backs. The delay will also mean Republicans will have time to craft a proposal to ask voters to undo what they do this year (though I’m puzzled why they think they’ll get a different result – oh, yeah, they’re Republicans). Morgan Stephens of Kos included and discussed a two minute video of Walz explaining Project 2025 as a playbook for a football game. His description includes raising penalty flags on unchecked power and plays that rely on misdirection. He ends by saying, “This linebacker is you, getting to the polls, voting; you got a chance to stop this, let’s play defense, folks.”