This would be the worst voting bill to be passed by Congress in memory, probably ever. It would restrict millions of eligible citizens from registering. And in the clamor of the moment, it could slip through. Defenders of democracy need to stand up, stand firm, and fiercely call attention to its risks.
The Republican Party has made voter suppression one of its core activities in recent years. One element of this strategy is preventing people who are likely to vote for Democrats from casting ballots (or using lies to persuade them not to vote at all), by passing cynical laws and adopting rules that make it harder or impossible to vote; casting doubt on election safety; and refusing to accept election outcomes.
That context, as the Brennan Center for Justice explains, helps you understand the sleazy "Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act" – probably the modern era's most dangerous voter suppression bills. It targets eligible voters who lack passports and birth certificates or can't easily locate them, and women who've changed their last name in marriage. By amazing coincidence (not) those groups tend not to be supporters of Republicans.
The legislation is a lie, a solution to a bogus problem, since voting fraud is incredibly rare (something even the Republicans' Speaker of the House has admitted). It aims to make mail-in registration harder or kill it outright. It is a travesty and it could be the law soon.
Democrats need to fight this tooth and nail, and so do you. If this bill becomes law, it will be one huge step toward locking in permanent Republican power, and we're in enough trouble already.
Trump’s MAGA allies have been spoiling for this fight. Trump himself said in June 2023 that he would “do everything I can to challenge the Impoundment Control Act in court” and then “use the president’s long-recognized impoundment power to squeeze the bloated federal bureaucracy for massive savings.” But the intention to challenge 50 years of statutory and judicial precedent on impoundment actually goes back to the last day of Trump’s first term. And it was co-authored by Mark Paoletta, a close confidant of Clarence Thomas, suggesting that the eventual Supreme Court case on impoundment that Trump’s allies want will likely trigger demands for Thomas’s recusal.
This piece in the American Prospect is essential perspective on the political warfare roiling Washington right now. Trump's flagrantly illegal orders to stop government spending are, for the moment, overruled. But the regime has every intention of pursuing its goal of co-opting Congress' authority when it comes to spending the money the lawmakers appropriate.
One of the most important points here is a reminder that the extremists who have captured the Republican Party have been working for decades to take full power, and all through Biden's term on this issue. Yes, they lie and cheat and do pretty much anything to get their way. But they don't hide and sulk, unlike so many in the other major party.
Incidentally, the context-heavy journalism in this piece is rare in "mainstream" media, so we have to look for it in important niche publications. I hope you will join me in supporting the Prospect's consistently fine work.
The accusations soured Musk in the eyes of some hardcore gamers, for whom “grinding” out challenges, “farming” loot and “no-life-ing” games are seen as virtues of endurance and self-sacrifice. By paying someone else to earn him his high-level gear, they said, he had removed most of the challenge — only to boast how quickly he had beaten others who played fair and square. One poster on a Diablo subreddit called it “unbelievably pathetic” that the world’s richest man would feel “the need to cheat” in a video game to “claim he is good at something” most people “couldnt care less about.”
Elon Musk is a liar and a cheat. That is not news and it hasn't been news for a long time.
So is it all that surprising that – as this Washington Post account explains – he felt the need to be a liar and a cheater about something like this? Not really.
Does it matter? Yes, a lot, in much the same way that his fascist salute last week mattered. (He lied about that, too.) They matter because they go to the core of a man who – like Donald Trump – has vast wealth and power but, from all appearances, no soul or conscience, no honor or empathy. He's a danger to humanity, but also truly pathetic
The valuable 404 Media journalism site noticed a major upsurge of downloads for what it calls a guide for "sabotaging fascism," published in the 1940s by the predecessor to the CIA. The quote above helps explain why people are interested in taking a look.
There are (obviously) quite a few differences between World War II and today. Not least, the United States government was fighting against fascists back then, as opposed to promoting it as the Trump regime is doing now.
This newsletter is a compendium of the reporting and commentary that best explains the America's political, economic, and social conditions – and, most important, how we can find a way back from the dark days ahead. You will rarely find anything here from the New York Times or Washington Post or any of the other Big Journalism companies that failed us so completely during the 2024 elections and are now sucking up – even more than usual – to Donald Trump, his cult, and corporate oligarchs. My focus will be on smaller, more honorable outlets (and individuals). I hope you'll support them with your attention and your money. For more details, please read my About page.
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David Dayen
Jason Koebler
