They built the wrecking ball now swinging at them

Myriam-Fernanda Alcala Delgado, in an article for Capital & Main posted on Daily Kos, discussed the Los Angeles volunteer organization Unión del Barrio. The group got their start in 1992 after the beating of Rodney King. They are a community patrol network to monitor law enforcement activity that might be dangerous to residents in vulnerable neighborhoods. These days they monitor ICE. Volunteers look for cars with tinted windows and masked license plates. They patrol neighborhoods looking for ICE. They also respond to tips about current ICE activity. They do some verification before issuing public alerts. They are very careful to keep to the speed limit and obey all traffic signs. They don’t want ICE or law enforcement a reason to stop and engage with them. Sometimes ICE leaves an area because they have lost the element of surprise. But ICE is changing tactics in response to volunteer patrols. Instead of morning operations ICE shifted to later in the day when volunteers are at work. They have also started using decoys – one ICE vehicle leads patrols one way while ICE operations go another. The group got a letter from Sen. Josh Hawley saying they are supporting civil unrest and aiding criminal conduct. The letter demands they “cease and desist.” Unión del Barrio says the letter is simple intimidation and won’t stop them. Carrie Levine, in an article for Votebeat posted on Kos, talked about an executive order involving new rules for voting machines. From this article I didn’t figure out whether the new rules promoted the nasty guy, promoted democracy, or were impartial. The article is more about the problems implementing the new rules. From what I can figure out, one problem is that federal accredited laboratories have not yet certified voting machines to the new standards, which can take years. In the meantime, the current standards are quite good and lead to accurate results. But devious actors can say the current machines don’t meet the new standards, spreading doubt on the election results. Another problem is the move to the new standard does not come with money to make that happen. Replacing voting equipment can cost millions. A while back I talked about ways authoritarians stay in power. One way is to hold elections that the opposition party is well represented on the ballot but just can’t seem to ever win. Thom Hartmann of the Kos community and an independent pundit wrote an essay in response to words by James Carville. Carville warned that as the nasty guy sees a decisive Republican loss in the coming 2026 midterms he may try something extreme to hold onto power. Hartmann is equally concerned, but doesn’t think the extreme action will be martial law or a national emergency. Instead, according to journalist Greg Palast, a Great Purge will be enough. The purge has been authorized by five corrupt conservatives on the Supreme Court. It involves scrubbing names from voter rolls. One part is removing names and Hartmann lists several ways that is happening. Another part is the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act introduced by Republicans (who else?). One provision is if the name on the birth certificate is different from the passport or driver’s license a person can’t register (or reregister). The biggest group this affects is married women who take their husband’s last name. Others affected are transgender. The other half of the problem is that most Americans don’t have a birth certificate readily available or know where it is. The reason for the law is a racist myth. There are claims that millions of undocumented immigrants vote. When dedicated sleuths work to uncover evidence of that claim they can produce in court they come up empty, while defendants can show similar state laws prevent thousands of legal voters from voting. These tactics go back to before the 2000 election. In that one George Bush II was able to claim victory in Florida, and thus the White House, because his brother Jeb, governor of Florida at the time, had purged tens of thousands of black voters from the rolls. Republicans continue to use purging because it works. “That’s not election security. That’s systemic suppression.” And it happens before a vote is cast. If it doesn’t work? There is always ICE, answerable only to the nasty guy and with a growing number of concentration camps to use. Kos of Kos wrote that two Alaskan lawmakers, one a Republican, wrote a hand-wringing op-ed in the New York Times about the Big Brutal Bill with the headline, “Alaska cannot survive this bill.” Kos lists the horrors of the bill – lost health coverage, food assistance, school funding, and more. The nasty guy campaigned on all that carnage. And 54% of Alaskans voted for him anyway. Strange that the small-government crowd is the most dependent on assistance from the government. The state’s politicians, Sen. Lisa Murkowski in this case, scramble to shield their constituents from the cuts the citizens voted for. The pattern is getting old.

So, yes, Alaska is right to be scared. The bill will devastate them. But they aren’t innocent. They helped build the wrecking ball—and now they’re shocked to find it swinging in their direction. Actions have consequences.

In Saturday’s pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin had several quotes worth mentioning. Norm Ornstein of The Contrarian talked about how Democrats were tripped up when the nasty guy’s campaign was able to cast several issues in terms of fairness. There was a female swimmer who tied for fifth place with a transgender swimmer, but got the sixth place trophy. Another case was student loan forgiveness that was portrayed as unfair to those who had worked hard to pay off their student loans.

Democrats who did not want to sacrifice anyone for temporary political advantage supported trans athletes as a matter of fairness and decency were easy to portray as being too woke to recognize the perceived unfairness.

Matt Fuller tweeted a link to a story on Notus and wrote:

That letter from 16 vulnerable House Republicans — about how they won't vote for the Senate's Medicaid cuts — is a pretty crazy read today. Everyone on this letter voted for the bill.

Paul Waldman of The Cross Section also talked about Republicans and the Big Brutal Bill:

So why are they doing this? One can certainly imagine a less radical version of this bill, one that moved in the same direction but not so far and fast, much as the legislation they passed in Trump’s first term did. That kind of bill might not be a political winner, but it wouldn’t be such a huge loser either. Why not go that route? They’re not giving away their shot [not quite the Hamilton lyric] The answer is that this isn’t about the politics, it’s about the substance. You don’t like weather-vane politicians, always checking the polls to see how they should vote? Well here you go. They are willing to take the political risk, even the certainty of future defeat, because they believe so strongly in what this bill does. They despise Medicaid and have contempt for everyone who uses it. The same goes for SNAP, aka food stamps. They desperately want to cut taxes for the wealthy, and always have. They don’t just want to roll back Biden-era climate policies, they want to destroy the entire green energy and manufacturing sectors of the economy. ... That’s just part of what’s in the bill, but the point is that this is the fulfillment of their fondest policy wishes. If it costs them their House majority and maybe even their Senate majority as well (a long shot, but not impossible), they’re willing to do it. Because they believe in it.

I’m on the email lists for Demand Progress and Move On. Both are very good at sending me frequent emails about the latest outrage from the nasty guy (and there are lots). All of them ask for money. Some ask me to sign a petition first, though I’ve gotten no feedback on whether any of the petitions have been effective – from what the nasty guy and Republicans are doing they probably aren’t. I also get letters from various prominent Democrats as well as the national committees, all asking for money. I get texts on my phones from Democratic candidates around the country hoping I would be a part of their team (as in donating money). So this tweet from Dan Pfeiffer resonated:

I understand the short term incentives involved, but the fact that every bad thing that Trump does is immediately followed by 1000 fundraising texts from every person in the Democratic Party has some long term consequences for the party’s relationship with its base.

In the comments ResJudicata22 posted a cartoon by Drew Sheneman. A MAGA man says, “Gender-Affirming care is unnatural!” Around him words point to various parts of his body, words such as, “Hair plugs, Beard coloring, Viagra,” and for his shoes, “Lifts.” Tracy posted another cartoon by Sheneman. This one shows the nasty guy telling young kids, “I’m cutting your school lunch program to pay for tax cuts and bombs. If you’re hungry, join the Army.” Another commenter noted that lowest level Army pay is below a living wage. In the comments of Sunday’s roundup Rented Mule posted a meme:

I didn’t grow up reciting “with liberty and justice for all” every morning at 7 am just to be called radical for actually wanting liberty and justice for ALL.

A cartoon posted by thendis-nye, creator unknown, shows a man on the phone as out the window is a formal garden with a fountain. The man says:

They’re all gone!? My pool’s dirty! Who’s going to cook for me and clean my house? Who will trim the hedges and take care of the estate grounds!? No one told me this would affect me!

And a cartoon by Garth German show a man with elephants:

Man: Why should we spend $60 billion to help Ukraine?! Elephants: Yeah! Damn Straight! Man: Think of all we could to if we spent that $60 billion helping Americans instead! Elephants: (uproarious laughter) Elephant1: This guy thinks we’ll spend money to help Americans... Elephant12: Hee Hee Elephant3: Here’s the plan to cut Medicaid, Social Security, and SNAP.

In today’s roundup Dworkin included a tweet by Melanie D’Arrigo that quoted a tweet by Aaron Rupar. First Rupar, referring to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, billionaire.

Bessent on Medicaid cuts: "The able-bodied Americans are not vulnerable Americans ... people can get off Medicaid and get a job that has good healthcare benefits ... I don't think poor people are stupid. I think they have agency."

D’Arrigo adds:

30% of American jobs do not offer health benefits, and 49% of employed workers can't afford healthcare without going into debt. Every American is a vulnerable American when healthcare is restricted, tied to employment, and for-profit.