Tuesday News & Notes
JULY 13, 2021 -- #BLACKLIVESMATTER MAKES FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN FACEBOOK, 2013
•President Biden will call out Donald Trump’s “Big Lie” today in a speech in Philadelphia, where he will also describe denial of voting rights as autocratic, undemocratic, un-American, and un-patriotic.
•Secretary of State Antony Blinken on last Sunday’s protests against the Marxist Cuban regime: “Peaceful protesters are not criminals, and we join partners across the hemisphere and around the world urging the Cuban regime to respect the rights of the Cuban people to determine their own future, something they have been denied for far too long.”
•Go to https://thehustings.newsfor information on Braver Angels’ next coliseum debate, this Thursday on the resolution: “America is a racist nation”.
CPI Rises 0.9% in June, 5.4% for the Year – The Consumer Price Index of all items rose 0.9% in June on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday. The non-adjusted inflation rate for the past 12 months is +5.4%.
Note: Used cars led inflation, with a 1.3% month-over-month hike in June, according to the Manheim Used Vehicle Index, as reported by NPR, although used car values have already peaked. This is the result of a widespread shortage of new cars and trucks for sale largely because of computer chip shortages and assembly plant shutdowns during the pandemic. It serves as proof the high inflation rate is temporary, although the strong economic growth numbers are as well. Those gross domestic product numbers look good compared with last summer’s severe drop because of COVID constrictions. Economic indicators will be askew for at least the rest of the year.
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Texas Democrats Flee to Washington – Facing yet another attempt by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, and the Republican majority in the state legislature to ram through draconian voting laws in a state already known to have the tightest restrictions on casting ballots, Democrats in the legislature fled Austin for Washington, D.C., Monday. Abbott had called for a 30-day special session for the legislature to vote on the bill after an earlier version, SB 7, was thwarted by a similar walkout in April. Two-thirds of the 150 members of the legislature must be present to vote, and at least 53 of the state’s 67 Democratic legislators fled for Washington, according to The Texas Tribune.
While in Washington, the Texas Democrats are urging Congress to pass federal legislation that would assure liberal voting rights, although Capitol Hill Democrats cannot count on the necessary support of several Democratic senators, most prominently Joseph Manchin III of West Virginia, and Krysten Sinema of Arizona.
Texas already has the nation’s toughest voting rules, with no online registration and limits on who can vote by mail, resulting in the country’s lowest turnout last November, according to The Guardian. The bill currently stalled in the legislature would:
•Lower the bar for overturning an election.
•Restrict ballot drop-boxes.
•Make it a felony, subject to a jail sentence, for a state public official to proactively solicit or send voter mail applications.
Note: While restricting drop-boxes and “proactive” voter mail applications are the restrictions that get the most media attention, it’s that first provision that deserves scrutiny, as it potentially would allow state election officials to reject the official Electoral College count for presidential candidates.
Note II: Gov. Abbott ultimately has the upper hand in this standoff, and has threatened arrest of the Democrat lawmakers upon their inevitable return to the state. The Democratic legislators are drawing national attention to their issue, though, and if they can find the time, they could visit the just-reopened Washington Monument.
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Clyburn Urges End to Filibuster for Voter Rights Reform – House of Representatives Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, D-SC, has told Politico that President Biden “should endorse” the idea of creating a special carveout to the Senate’s legislative filibuster for legislation that applies to the Constitution. This would make it possible to pass a sweeping elections reform bill called the For the People Act, plus another bill that would reauthorize the part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013, that had required certain states to acquire federal approval for changes to their voting laws.
Note: This potentially pits Rep. Clyburn, who is widely credited with saving Biden’s bid for the Democratic presidential nomination among Black voters last year, against Sen. Joseph Manchin III, D-WV, who may have to either a.) go along with this plan to pass the legislation, or b.) switch parties before his next re-election bid in 2024.
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Former Louisiana Populist Governor Dies – Edwin Edwards, Louisiana’s only (non-consecutive) four-term governor, who also served eight years of a 10-year sentence for bribery and extortion, has died at his home in Gonzales of respiratory failure. In his first two terms, from 1972 to 1980, the Democrat was credited for breakthroughs in hiring women and minorities, eliminating chronic budget deficits, modernizing the state’s constitution, helping bring an NBA team to New Orleans and crafting changes in oil taxes to help pay for state social services and roads and infrastructure, according to The New York Timesobituary. He also easily defeated former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke when running for a fourth term for governor in 1990. Edwards was 93.
-- Edited by Todd Lassa and Nic Woods