Day 66 – The Persistence of Evil

Friday March 26, 2021

Yesterday was the first time I didn’t write a screed during the new administration.

Yesterday, The President having met his goal of 100 million shots in arms in 100 days has now upped that goal to 200 million. When he announced his 100 million goal we had barely vaccinated anyone in this country. There was no delivery system. There was no National plan. Now? Everyone says we are on track to hit 200 million by Biden’s 100^th day in office.

In fact, the national response to the pandemic by this administration is so well in hand that at his news conference yesterday he didn’t get a question about it.

President Joe Biden stood for a hour at that conference and took answered questions. He gave real answers. He knew what he was talking about. The press has started to go back to asking inane questions. How refreshing.

“Are you planning to run again?” – Yes.

“Do you think your opponent will be Trump?” – Trump? (Exhausting a breath and then quietly.) I miss that guy. (Then more loudly) I have no idea.

Apparently Joe Biden had a bevy of American historians to The White House a few days ago: Mecham, Kerns-Goodwin, Beschloss, and several others. The commentary I have heard is that various presentations were made. After each one Biden commented and asked questions that demonstrated a depth of knowledge in the area presented.

But now, let us turn to the question I raised in today’s title – The Persistence of Evil. In Egyptian folk tales there is a character who is always causing trouble and stirring things up. For example he cut up his brother into 13 parts and scattered him all over Egypt. The cut up brother’s wife, and sister (same person), collected all the parts (except the penis – yikes!) and put him back together again. She completed him with a fake penis – btw. The reincarnated brother defeated his evil brother and the tale ends with the moral – You can defeat evil, but you can’t kill it.

And so we see that evil has risen once again in our land. We may have thought we defeated it in the last election, and so we had, but now? Now, a new evil is upon it. Some are calling it Jim Crow 2.0. That’s apt because in states where Satan lost the election that the local state chambers are controlled by Republicans they are rushing to pass despicable election laws. Laws that limit voting, that allow the state’s political machinery to overturn the elections or get rid of election boards if they so choose. This is a direct assault on our democracy. 

Appeals to the conscious of these people is pretty fruitless, because if they had any sense of justice and fairness they would not have tried to pass these restrictions in the first place. In Georgia the bill started out at two pages and ended up at 100! The bill passed the Georgia House, Senate, and was signed into law in 24 hours. It went from 2 pages to 100 in 24 hours and was signed into law.

A state legislator wanted to be at the signing ceremony, which was being live-streamed. She knocked on the door where the signing ceremony was being conducted (all by white Republican men.) She was arrested, cuffed, and dragged out of the state house. Yes, she was black and a Democrat.

A similar bill has been introduced in Texas, and in many other states across the country. This is a concerted effort by the Republican Party. This is not some fringe thing. 

The fear is that one of these bills will get not only passed but will be upheld in the courts by one of the Trump nominated and approved judges.

There is a voting rights bill in the U.S. Senate that could stop a lot of this. Forty nine Democratic senators are for it. The holdout is Joe Manchin who wants ten Republican Senators to go along with it. I kind of like that idea. Let’s see the comity of the Senate as Mitch McConnell envisions it. And Mr. Manchin what will you do if none of the Republican senators want to support voting rights? 

Then we get to the “end the filibuster” question. No one is proposing ending the filibuster. What they are talking about is cloture, the vote to end debate and call the question. If someone wants to stand and talk they are welcome to do so. 

Will Republican stand for honesty, integrity, voting rights, and fairness? I don’t think so. They haven’t for decades. Well, they used to at least make it seem like they did. Now,  the best they can do is to name their heinous bills with high sounding principled names.

They aren’t trying to cover up what they are doing. Trump showed them that you can commit your crimes in the open.

Brian Kemp who stole the election for governor from Stacey Abrams did some heinous things when he was Secretary of State for Georgia. Besides overseeing his election for governor he lost lots of registration forms that were filled out. People asking to be added to the voting rolls never made it. Abrams complained about this at the time. The number was 50,000.

In a similar instance a woman in Georgia had started a push that season to get people of Korean descent registered to vote. The project was called “10,000 Koreans Vote”. That was her goal – to register 10,000. After she had registered 4,000 she checked the voting roles. None were on the roles. She asked the voting commission. They said there weren’t any registrations. She said there were and she had copies of the forms. They (Brian Kemp) told her that copying registration forms was illegal. 

I mean, how are you going to prove you registered if you don’t make a copy? What did Kemp do? Had the place raided. Seized the computer and all the paperwork. The movement collapsed.

That was what he was doing in 2016. Imagine what he can do now with this sweeping new law? This is crime in plain sight. This is a direct attack on democracy. This is the modern Republican Party. 

Now Georgia is being hit by deadly tornadoes. One went for one hundred miles. Obviously this is God sending Kemp and his fellow white Christian Republicans a message.

In other news the nomination of Vanita Gupta to move forward was voted in the Senate Judiciary Committee along party lines 11-11. This means Chuck Schumer will have to use procedural methods to advance her nomination to be #3 at Justice. One person who voted against her was John Cornyn. This is no doubt because she rose to prominence by taking the cases of 35 black people in Texas that were convicted and sent to prison on drug charges based on the testimony of one police officer who admitted to having no evidence whatsoever in any of the cases. These people were sent to jail and languished for four years until Gupta took up their cause. Meanwhile, Cornyn was Texas AG and gave the cop “The Lawman of The Year Award.” 

Under Gupta’s legal fight the cop’s case fell apart and he was found guilty of perjury. How embarrassing for Cornyn!

In earlier exchanges this year with Gupta, Cornyn was shocked to learn that there is racism in our institutions. Shocked I tell you. 

We are facing evil. We are facing forces dead set on destroying our democracy and they are coming from within.

Oh, by the way, the folks promoting some of these draconian Jim Crow laws were at the January Insurrection and were in communication with The Proud Boys, who were in communication with The Oath Keepers, who were in communication with Roger Stone.

PS JESUS! JESUS, Jesus – Jesus, jesus jesus