The Sessions Effect: Trump DOJ Reverses Course In Major Texas Voter ID Case
By Alice Ollstein
Published February 27, 2017, 12:47 PM EDT
For the last six years, the Justice Department has sided with the citizens and civil rights groups fighting Texas’ voter ID law, which a federal judge at one point found to be intentionally discriminatory against black and Latino voters. But its position changed Monday when the department decided to drop its claim that Republican state lawmakers enacted the law to make it harder for minorities to vote.
“This signals to voters that they will not be protected under this administration,” said Danielle Lang, the deputy director of voting rights at the Campaign Legal Center, which is challenging Texas’ law in court.
The reversal, on the eve of a key hearing in the case, is a clear sign of the DOJ’s direction under Attorney General Jeff Sessions—a longtime advocate of voter ID laws and other voting restrictions. The department signaled its intentions last week when it joined with the state of Texas to ask the court to hold off on judging the constitutionality of the law until Republican lawmakers can modify it. The court rejected this request.
Lang told TPM that the DOJ reached out Monday morning to her and the other voting rights groups fighting the law to notify them of their new position.
On Tuesday, DOJ lawyers will appear before U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos and inform her that the federal government is dismissing its claim that the voter ID law was crafted with a discriminatory intent.
“There have been six years of litigation and no change in the facts,” Lang told TPM. “We have already had a nine-day trial and presented thousands of pages of documents demonstrating that the picking and choosing of what IDs count was entirely discriminatory and would fall more harshly on minority voters. So for the DOJ to come in and drop those claims just because of a change of administration is outrageous.”
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Texas enacted the strict voter ID law in 2011, and it has been tied up in court battles ever since. Civil rights groups say the policy, which accepts gun licenses but not student IDs at the polls, discriminates against low-income and minority voters who are far less likely to possess an ID and face difficulties obtaining one. In some parts of the state, the groups argued in court, people would have to drive more than 100 miles to reach the nearest office where they could obtain and ID—a burden many cannot overcome.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the state from fully enforcing the law for the 2016 presidential election—a move that preserved the voting rights of more than 16,000 Texans, according to state records. Last summer, the appeals court agreed with the challengers, which then included the Justice Department, that the law had the effect of discriminating against minority voters, but it sent the question of whether the law was intentionally discriminatory back to the district court for further review after the election. The district court will hear arguments on that question in the hearing scheduled for Tuesday, but the Justice Department will no longer be on the side of voting rights advocates.
It’s not like we didn’t suspect this, when Senator White Citizens Council was nominated for the position of the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of this country.
After all, the man was too racist to become a judge during the REAGAN years.
So, why would anyone think that things would change? The man is a racist in word and professional deed.
Never forget that the case which dealt the blow to the Voting Rights Act was from his home state of Alabama.
And, after 8 years of having a Justice Department actually interested in defending Voting Rights and Civil Rights. After having to rebuild from scratch, the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department following the Shrub Years….it’s still a bitter pill to swallow.
This Voter ID Law in Texas is totally racist and discriminatory. It was created for the specific purpose to deny the right to vote for Blacks and Latinos in Texas. In discovery, the paper trail outlining the intent, was plain and clear.
See, this isn’t a fight we should have to be doing. This isn’t a fight that we should be having at all.
Having that RACIST as Attorney General, when my ancestors, and so many others, fought for us, and suffered through the Police State known as Jim Crow, so that we could have our Voting Rights. This was already fought for- why are we having to go back and re-fight this?
This is but another reason why I don’t want to hear it. No explanations for the deplorables. See this? THIS is tangible. THIS is real. THIS is messing with me and mine, and I will NEVER have anything but disgust and utter loathing for everyone who voted for THAT MAN and made this horrible situation possible.
But, fight we must. And, fight, we will.
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/837459118319357953?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
How Steve Beshear Can Cripple the GOP
His response to Trump’s speech was widely pilloried, but the former Kentucky governor was the right man for the job.
by Saahil Desai
March 2, 2017
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n choosing Beshear, Democrats understood that, statistically, State of the Union watchers are disproportionately the president’s supporters. Heightened political polarization has seeped into the president’s public speeches, found researchers Samuel Kernell and Laurie Rice: “Modern presidents thus find themselves increasingly preaching to their party choir and losing the capacity to influence public opinion more broadly.”
Instead of laying the groundwork for 2020, Democrats went straight for the GOP’s jugular on Obamacare, a move that could immediately begin to reap political benefits for the party. The GOP is sweating from the political costs of repealing the Affordable Care Act; now that they own the law, Republicans are coming to the obvious realization that, as Trump said earlier this week, it’s “unbelievably complex.” Public support for Obamacare has soared to a record high — higher, in fact, than that of the flailing President. Under pressure from angry Obamacare supporters at town halls, Republicans seem to have changed their promise to “repeal and replace” the law into a more nebulous promise to “repair” it. John Boehner, freed from the politician’s shackles, understands the conundrum that his party is facing:
Steve Beshear is precisely the guy to hit the GOP where it hurts on Obamacare — which is exactly what he did, reiterating that Obamacare enrollees in his state are “not aliens from some distant planet. They’re our friends and our neighbors.” Under Beshear’s leadership, Kentucky expanded Medicaid and set up its own state exchange that was ingeniously branded as Kynect, distancing it from the president and seething conservative anger at big-government reform. The uninsured rate in Kentucky plummeted from 20.4 percent in 2013 to 7.5 percent in 2015, among the largest drops nationwide.
Why French Presidential Candidate Emmanuel Macron Could Save Western Democracy
He’s the last best hope to stop the ethno-nationalist Marine Le Pen from capturing the presidency.
by Andrew L. Yarrow
March 2, 2017 2:22 PM
Why are this spring’s French presidential elections so important to the United States and the world?
Typically, few Americans pay attention to elections beyond our borders, although Britain’s “Brexit” vote last summer was potentially a harbinger of Donald Trump’s election in November. Likewise, for most Americans who think about France, it is as a romantic tourist destination, an occasionally annoying ally, and a country whose language we studied in high school. And, for those very few who think more about French politics and policy, the picture is of a succession of lackluster, often corrupt leaders since before World War II, rigid regulatory policies that have hurt the French economy for more than 30 years, and some social policies—like the French health-care and child-care systems—that could be a model for the United States.
This year is very different. For Americans, and Brits and others—deeply disturbed by rising xenophobia and racism, the go-it-alone nationalism that sees other countries as enemies and free trade as harmful, and the rise of “alternative facts” and disdain for a free press—the French election could be a dramatic turning-point. For those who support President Trump and Brexit leader Nigel Farage, a victory by Marine Le Pen, the far-right National Front leader in France, would be the third, and decisive, domino to fall in the overturning of the post-World War II order of liberal democracy.
https://twitter.com/tdelano/status/837378444157661184
https://twitter.com/KVUE/status/837376179631972352
https://twitter.com/BlackYouthProj/status/837362114801074177
Have a listen, if you have time. Transcript available at link also, too!
Sensing Chaos, Russia Takes A ‘Wait-And-See’ Approach To Trump
http://www.npr.org/2017/03/01/517921957/sensing-chaos-russia-takes-a-wait-and-see-approach-to-trump
Good morning 3Chics,
It’s good to see Team Obama coming for Sessions. He has the dirt to make the congress do what they don’t want to and I’m here for it. Have a great day.
Hi Tyren. PBO still playing champion chess and KICKIN AZZ.
YASSS!
Why You Must See ‘Get Out’ in 7 Tweets
The Jordan Peele-directed film took over the top spot at the box office over the weekend.
The film, which opened on Friday (February 24), made more than $30 million over the weekend, knocking “The Lego Batman Movie” from the top spot. And it has a rare 100 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which means critics universally agree that it’s a excellent movie. In fact, it currently sits at number 51 on the site’s list of all-time greatest films. Chance the Rapper was so moved that he bought out a theater in Chicago yesterday (February 26). Need more incentive to see it? These tweets say it all.
http://www.colorlines.com/articles/why-you-must-see-get-out-7-tweets?utm_term=Why%20You%20Must%20See%20%27Get%20Out%27%20in%207%20Tweets&utm_campaign=%20A%20Phony%20Performance%20by%20President%20Trump&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-%20A%20Phony%20Performance%20by%20President%20Trump-_-Why%20You%20Must%20See%20%27Get%20Out%27%20in%207%20Tweets
Melania Trump calls for the ‘gift of nature,’ not health insurance, to heal sick children
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First Lady Melania Trump paid a visit to Children’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, where she called on the power of nature to heal seriously ill children.
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“I am a passionate believer in integrating and interpreting nature’s elements into our daily lives to create a warm, nurturing and positive environment,” said Melania Trump, according to a statement released by the hospital. “I believe that these same natural benefits can be instrumental to enhancing the health and well-being of all children.”
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Melania Trump’s visit came the day after her husband’s joint address to Congress in which a number of sick children, including Children’s National patient Jessica Gregory, sat alongside the First Lady. During his speech, President Trump pointed to college student Megan Crowley, who has Pompe disease, using her story to launch a misleading and disingenuous attack on the Food and Drug Administration. Using the wheelchair-bound woman as an example, Trump falsely claimed that cutting regulations would help speed up the drug development process.
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President Trump also used his address to call on Congress “to repeal and replace Obamacare with reforms that expand choice, increase access, lower costs, and at the same time, provide better health care.”
A report released in December found that a partial Obamacare repeal through reconciliation, as Republicans in Congress are planning now, would cause millions of children to lose health insurance.
“We find that 4.4 million children and 7.6 million parents could lose coverage in 2019 if Congress’s budget reconciliation process repeals pieces of the ACA without a replacement plan,” researchers at the Urban Institute wrote in a report released Wednesday called “Partial Repeal of the ACA through Reconciliation: Coverage Implications for Parents and Children.”
If states were to also lower the eligibility for Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) programs to the minimum levels, an additional 9 million more children could lose coverage, according to the report.
…
https://thinkprogress.org/melania-trump-hospital-c221842d9096#.paroq6sc6
Fuck Melania Trump, she who gets artificial injections to enhance her aging body.
HAVE A SEAT, FOOL.
I thought this was quite a statement for someone who has lived through 8 years of Reagan and 8 years of Shrub:
On point! And if any of you haven’t filed yet, I would do so with the quickness. There are delay tactics in play with this administration. File and get an early return.
We have THIEVES IN THE WHITE HOUSE ADMINISTRATION.
PERIOD
https://twitter.com/SueinRockville/status/837307369512120320
https://twitter.com/psddluva4evah/status/837327356683485184
What Bannon and Miller Learned From the Willie Horton Ad
by Nancy LeTourneau
March 2, 2017 8:17 AM
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He went on to introduce four people who had lost loved ones due to violence from undocumented immigrants (read: Hispanics).
The contrast with the Willie Horton ad is that George Bush, Sr. and Roger Ailes had focused on showing America the face of the criminal they wanted to exploit. What Trump did on Tuesday night was to make the families of crime the focus. As we saw in the chamber last night, how do you NOT stand in support of the victims of such violence? But the underlying message was exactly the same: Americans must fear black/brown men. In this president’s world, black and brown men are criminals, while Muslims are terrorists.
That is the white nationalism being propagated by people like Steve Bannon and Stephen Miller. Here is how Joshua Green described that in his expose on Miller:
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Given the goal of Miller and Bannon to invert the frame, it is interesting to go back to Trump’s speech last night and notice all the ways this theme played out. One issue Dara Lind wrote about is the president’s desire to focus on “merit-based immigration.” She explains that, for the most part, our immigration policy has tended to attempt a balance between merit-based (high-skilled, employable) and family-based (reuniting relatives) immigrants. But rather than increasing the number of merit-based immigrants, Bannon’s focus is more likely an excuse to reduce (or eliminate) family-based immigrants. As part of her argument, she points out that for him, Asians are also part of the group that threatens white nationalism.
In the end, George Bush exploited racism in order to get elected. But for Bannon and Miller this goes beyond simply using it to win an election. Their goals are to drastically change the face of this country and restore the old order of racial hierarchy. The combination of Donald Trump and the confederate insurgency that formed after the election of our first African American president are their vehicle for doing so.
George W. Bush Breaks Down His Affection for Michelle Obama: ‘We Just Took to Each Other’
To some, they might seem an unlikely twosome: a former president and former first lady from two different administrations, different political parties, different generations and different upbringings.
But George W. Bush tells PEOPLE that he feels a real fondness for Michelle Obama.
“She kind of likes my sense of humor. Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like,” says Bush, in an interview to launch his first art book and new exhibit, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, a collection of his paintings of post-9/11 war veterans.
Bush, 70, notes that he was regularly seated beside Obama, 53, at official events like Nancy Reagan’s memorial service, an interfaith memorial service for Texas police officers last year, and the September 2016 dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C., to mark the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. There, photos of the two of them cuddling on stage went viral.
George W. Bush Breaks Down His Affection for Michelle Obama: ‘We Just Took to Each Other’
http://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/family-relationships/george-w-bush-breaks-down-his-affection-for-michelle-obama-%e2%80%98we-just-took-to-each-other%e2%80%99/ar-AAnGXZZ?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=U348DHP
To some, they might seem an unlikely twosome: a former president and former first lady from two different administrations, different political parties, different generations and different upbringings.
But George W. Bush tells PEOPLE that he feels a real fondness for Michelle Obama.
“She kind of likes my sense of humor. Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like,” says Bush, in an interview to launch his first art book and new exhibit, Portraits of Courage: A Commander in Chief’s Tribute to America’s Warriors, a collection of his paintings of post-9/11 war veterans.
Bush, 70, notes that he was regularly seated beside Obama, 53, at official events like Nancy Reagan’s memorial service, an interfaith memorial service for Texas police officers last year, and the September 2016 dedication ceremony in Washington, D.C., to mark the opening of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. There, photos of the two of them cuddling on stage went viral.
“I can’t remember where else I’ve sat next to her, but I probably have a few wise cracks and she seemed to like it okay,” says Bush. “I needle her a little bit and around her, I’m fairly lighthearted. [The Obamas] are around serious people all the time and we just took to each other.”
Asked about that sweet moment at the Smithsonian, he says: “When I saw her, it was a genuine expression of affection.”
And then there’s the work with military personnel, military families and veterans that Obama did as first lady through her Joining Forces initiative with Dr. Jill Biden, wife of the former vice president. That’s right up Bush’s alley. He has dedicated most of his post-presidency to the cause of wounded warriors—ensuring through wellness and employment programs at the George W. Bush Presidential Center that those wounded in war get the health and career assistance they need to make a full and successful transition to civilian life.
There, he and his wife Laura say, is where they hope to work with both Michelle and Barack Obama.
“I think they’re interested in, also, doing things with our troops of course now in their after-life, as I call it,” says Mrs. Bush.
Adds the former president: “It’s going to take them a while to find their footing and figure out how they’re going to do what they want to do. But if there’s a way to be symbiotic, we’ll do so.”
you…me…on the same wavelength…LOL
LOL!
Bush has affection for Michelle Obama.
LOL “Affection, hmmmm?
Get the tissues
https://mobile.twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/837079774006669312?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
So cute
https://mobile.twitter.com/_skull_queen_/status/836671359296032770
Good Morning, Everyone 😐😐😐
Morn-tin, EVERYONE!