Senators and citizens kibitzing

Kris Kobach is on the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity. He was appointed by the vice nasty guy for his sterling work in voter suppression in Kansas. Now Kobach and this commission have made a move. They sent a letter to every state requesting full voter rolls, including all names with party affiliations, voting history, and even last four of the SSN.

This is partial answer to the question: How can the GOP insist on passing such a deeply unpopular “healtcare” bill, one that has only 17% approval rating and could mean death to many citizens? That answer is: They don’t intend for the 2018 election to be fair. All this data could be used to show where voter suppression is helpful to the GOP cause. And suppression can be as simple as reducing the number of voting machines in minority precincts to drive long lines and people saying I can’t wait that long.



A magical event happened a few days ago. Ben Wikler, Washington Director for Move On, captured a few photos of it as he became a part of it. NJ Senator Cory Booker and civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis sat down on the Capitol steps, opened a Facebook Live stream and started talking about Trumpcare. Pretty soon Senators Jeff Merkley, Chris Murphy, Kristin Gillibrand, Brian Schatz, Bob Casey, and perhaps a few more joined them, as did a growing crowd of regular citizens, perhaps hundreds. The crowd shared stories about health care. Wikler says it felt like a picnic. This is what democracy looks like – “senators and citizens kibitzing about issues.” It became a rally and the start of the People’s Filibuster.



A quote being passed around Twitter:

Choose your leaders with wisdom and forethought.
To be led by a coward is to be controlled by all that the coward fears.
To be led by a fool is to be led by the opportunists who control the fool.
To be led by a thief is to offer up your most precious treasurers to be stolen.
To be led by a liar is to ask to be told lies.
To be led by a tyrant is to sell yourself and those you love into slavery.
– Octavia E. Butler, Parable of the Talents (Earthseed, #2)