It is getting harder and harder to vote in the United States, either because of the MAGAt sabotage of the voting system, or because of the incompetent bureaucratic poor design of the ballets, as is happening in Michigan. We are a country that claims to be a democracy but the individual states, as this Michigan article describes, are not doing what they should to make democracy function properly.
A Michigan absentee ballot for the 2024 primary election. Under state law, if a voter selects candidates in different columns of the partisan section of the ballot, those votes will not be counted. Credit: Krishnan Anantharaman / Votebeat
Every other August in Michigan, thousands of votes are rejected because the voters didn’t pay attention to the directions on their primary ballot, or didn’t understand them.
The problem occurs when voters do something called “crossover voting,” where, intentionally or otherwise, they vote for candidates from different parties on the same ballot. In a general election, that would not be a problem. And in a presidential primary, it wouldn’t be possible.
But in the August primary elections — where candidates for federal- and state-level positions are selected — a crossover vote that doesn’t get caught by the voter means officials can’t count the votes on the partisan section of the ballot. And many voters, particularly if they vote absentee, will never know that their […]
Neil Vigdor, Maggie Haberman and Simon J. Levien, Reporters - Reader SUpported News / The New York Times
Stephan:
I told you criminal Trump would find a way to back out of a debate with Kamala Harris. He is afraid of her because unlike Biden she will call him a liar to his face. So he is trying to rerig a debate using the Fox propaganda network to conduct it, instead of ABC. He expects that Fox staff will only ask him softball questions, and will not challenge his lies. I think Harris is going to show up at the long scheduled ABC conducted debate, and give a talk on Trump’s cowardice and lies. It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
Criminal Trump speaking at a MAGAt rally. Credit: Intercept
Former President Donald J. Trump declared late on Friday that he was dropping out of an ABC News debate scheduled for Sept. 10 and presented a counterproposal to Vice President Kamala Harris, his presumptive opponent, to face off on Fox News six days earlier.
The change, which Mr. Trump announced on his social media site, Truth Social, raised objections from the Harris campaign and appeared to throw a potential showdown between the rivals into question.
A campaign official for Ms. Harris on Saturday accused Mr. Trump of scheming up the Fox News debate to distract from reneging on his commitment to the ABC debate. Mr. Trump had agreed to that debate in May, before President Biden dropped out of the race and before Mr. Biden’s calamitous performance in a CNN debate on June 27.
“Donald Trump is running scared and trying to back out of the debate he already agreed to and running straight to Fox News to bail him out,” Michael […]
We are less than 100 days from the weirdest and most important election in any of our lifetimes, and we have one party that is openly and explicitly planning to end democracy, create an oligarch controlled authoritarian country, break the firewall between church and state, and reduce women to permanent second-class status as citizens. If you don’t vote, and vote only for Democrats, you are condemning yourself and your children to live in a country the Founders would not even recognize. As Benjamin Franklin responded to a woman, as he was walking out of what is now called Constitution Hall, when she asked what kind of government had been created, “A Republic, if you can keep it.” I also urge you to get involved with your local voting process because I keep hearing Donald Trump say to people, “I don’t need your vote…. and after I am President again you’ll never have to vote again.” What he is saying is that he believes the Republicans have already rigged the voting process so that they win.
Peter Cvjetanovic (R) along with neo-Nazis, alt-right, and white supremacist demonstrators chant at counterprotestors after marching through the University of Virginia campus with torches in Charlottesville, Virginia on August 11, 2017. Credit: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency / Getty
“Invasion and great replacement theory rhetoric, both deeply rooted in white nationalist and antisemitic tropes, are no longer a bug on the Hill, they are a regular feature,” said one campaigner.
Republican U.S. lawmakers who embrace and amplify racist, xenophobic, and antisemitic conspiracy theories about undocumented immigrants are helping to stoke deadly politically motivated violence, according to a report published Friday by a coalition of advocacy groups.
The report—titled Bigoted Conspiracy Caucus—”exposes the normalization of xenophobic ‘great replacement’ and ‘invasion’ conspiracies within the 118th Congress, documenting their historical roots and widespread promotion by members of Congress.”
“The great replacement conspiracy claims Jews are orchestrating the replacement of white Christian Americans with nonwhite immigrants, people of color, or others who they think are inferior and ‘easier to control,’” the report states. […]
Perverted Christianity, fascism, White supremacy, male dominance, and an obsession with guns, that’s the combo of the MAGAt world, and it is all funded by christofascist oligarchs who hire lawyers without honor to play the laws like a banjo to get the American they want. Here’s the story.
Mother Jones illustration / Getty
For decades, McLean Bible Church has served as the place of worship for many of DC’s Republican elite. The sprawling evangelical megachurch in Vienna, Virginia, boasts a roster of former parishioners that includes everyone from Ken Starr to Mike Pence. It’s where Donald Trump once dropped in for a brief prayer after a round of golf.
McLean Bible is also where, in November 2017, a senior pastor named Dale Sutherland formed a nonprofit called Act2Impact. In those days, the organization was described in state records as an “auxiliary” of the church, with a mission to “preach the gospel” and “conduct evangelistic and humanitarian outreach.”
But that mission was short-lived.
Two years later, Sutherland—who had once been an undercover narcotics officer in DC—left McLean Bible and filed papers to rename Act2Impact. It became the Constitutional Defense Fund (CDF), which would “promote and secure” constitutional rights. “We aim to defend and strengthen those rights through methods that will include litigation and […]
Miriam Bergeret , Live Science Contributing Writer - Live Science
Stephan:
Here is some good news concerning research on how to degrade “forever” chemicals (PFAS), that have become a major human-created pollutant with all kinds of negative consequences for the Matrix of Life, including humans.
Scientists have uncovered bacteria with enzymes that can break down various PFAS, also called “forever chemicals.” Credit: Kateryna Kon / Science Photo Library / Getty
Certain bacteria can degrade the strong bonds that give “forever chemicals” their long shelf life, and this hints at potential low-cost treatments that could cleanse water of concerning PFAS.
Now, in a study published July 17 in the journal Science Advances, researchers reported for the first time that four species of Acetobacterium can degrade the bonds in some PFAS. This includes unsaturated PFAS, whose […]
