MAGA has not only selected hearing … but selective memory too. The Fifties were not a moment of glory for the South; Bull Connors and Lester Maddox were no heroes; the rest of America is no longer fooled.
Don’t forget Gov Faubus in Arkansas sicking the Ark Nat’l guard on the Ark 8 (also Little Rock 9) trying to integrate the high school. Then Eisenhower had to “federalize” (I don’t like to verbalize nouns) that National Guard to get the students inside. So Faubus shut down the public schools for a year. Probably why AL is smarter than AR.
Look at the piece that G. Elliott Morris published on Friday at the Substack Strength in Numbers. He argues that the Supreme Court ruling contains a glaring statistical error that would get returned with much red ink on it in a Statistics 101 class. This post is free. (I'm a paying subscriber to SIN because of the valuable work that he does.)
At a time when a man who has cheated his way to great power tries to impose new geographical names on the world (e.g. "the Gulf of America"... incidentally, in Spanish, 'golfo', the word for 'gulf', also means 'petty criminal'...) we should not be surprised when the same conman ignores, then denies, inconvenient geographical facts (e.g. the Strait of Hormuz). Nor should we be surprised when his underlings claim they can cancel the Constitution, citizenshjp, the Republic itself... by sleight-of-hand fiat. And now, pseudo-legal sophistry practiced by Supreme Court justices trumps simple math.
I’m so tired of people, usually men, trying to control everyone. When I first started following Andra Watkins I thought she was exaggerating. Now however given how the Republican Party is treating everyone no matter their race, I fully believe they won’t be happy taking black peoples rights , they want everyone’s. They have to be stopped. Joyce I really appreciate your work.
and the irony is that women got the “right” to vote after the last census used for the house cap. Really we are being shockingly under-represented. Zero idea why we put up with it.
Canadian here, so I have no skin in the game, but I am totally baffled by all of those Americans who claim that the US is the greatest democracy on earth. It is not! We, in Canada, have nonpartisan election commissions at both the provincial and federal levels. They decide the boundary lines, and then hold public meetings so folks can comment. They publish the drafts in the newspaper, send them to media outlets, etc. Then they finalize the decision. They run our elections. They are nonpartisan. All the parties can and do have observers both throughout the voting period and during the counting. We try to take elections seriously! From up here much of what goes on in your country looks like a circus. Sorry!
The worst thing is that most Canadians think really highly of Americans. I used to live 20 min from the Maine/NB border. We shopped in Houlton all the time. We used to drive to
Maternal Grandfather is Canadian, born in Jarvis in 1900 and joined the CEF in 1916 and went to Brest, FR. in WWI. He began with the Haldimand regiment, they disbanded, and then with the Highlanders and wore a kilt.
Sadly he drowned in Lake St Clair in 1933.
Thanks to the Canadians for changing the citizenship to include descendants, further than the 1st born, I'm applying.
Murchie's in YVR has the best tea, paid a 25% tariff to buy it a few months ago, but have been buying it for years tariff free. A Grandaunt in White Rock introduced me to the tea in 1973.
Yay, Murchie's! I also had to pay a tariff this year imposed by FedEx. The tariff plus the service charge from FedEx amounted to 100% of the value of the tea! I won't be ordering any more tea until I can be sure that this atrocity has been corrected.
As do we in Oz. There’s a bunch of dull people in cardigans with ballpoint pens - red and blue and green - in their breast pockets whose job it is to count population from place to place and adjust the boundaries from time to time. Bless them.
I always took voting as a right and obligation, if I was going to be a true American. When I vote I am thanking all those that served and the ones that died for my freedom. Including, my uncles, brothers, husband, daughter, son, grandson, and0 many cousins. You are correct elections should be taken seriously, and not the mess that they are making of them now, here in my Beloved Country.
We could only live up to being the best republic democracy on earth if all of our elected officials in all honesty upheld every bit our our US Constitution with ethical, responsible, accountable and transparent words and actions in service for our entire diverse country without the current bribery, inside trading, coverups, theft, continual lies, senseless wars without diplomacy, apathetic picks who are not qualified, experienced or wise, continually wasting billions if not trillions of tax payers' money, greed, corruption, racism, pedophilia, etc. When elected officials are the worst, the whole nation and world suffers, when they are the best the very opposite is true. Apathy, collusions, monopolized big money and complicity are also the killing tyrants! Now the message being sent to our entire country is to make voting as difficult as possible by terrorism by racist, misogynist criminals. The majority of our nation is fed up!
I'm sad to have to say this, but I do think we are headed for Civil War 2.0.
Please, I encourage EVERYONE to "get out the vote" this coming November. Make sure that you are registered to vote. And, make sure that you vote. Tell your friends to register to vote; tell your friends to make sure that they vote.
The ONLY way to overcome voter suppression tactics and gerrymandering is to vote in massive numbers.
I have been a poll worker in several elections (Maricopa County, AZ); during all the audits and threats and denials the county was having trouble filling all the spots. When I got the confirmation email about my intent to work again for the July primary the message was that there were more applicants than positions!
Agreed: get out and vote and as I see it, we are in a cold Civil War now. I’m stunned the South hasn’t seceded again. And sadly I agree with you that there’s a really high probability the Cold Civil War will give way to an actual battle/war, which I don’t think anyone following Joyce wants. But I truly believe you can only push a man so far. They are giving people nothing left to lose. I hope we can escape this. I really do.
We are the leaders we have been waiting for. Determine to do your citizenship responsibilities and we will escape the long national nightmare. Light a metaphorical fire under ALL your friends and family. Register more voters; knock on doors; call voters; volunteer to help people get to the polls.
Stay focused. Build community. These things work. Be a LIGHT in Trump's face (think deer in headlights.
Oh absolutely agree. The first CW was the deadliest and bloodiest war ever fought - American v American. I can’t really wrap my head around it. I hope I don’t have to. I’m just afraid people are going to lose so much that they lose their minds. It’s heartbreaking and terrifying. I feel like I’m waking up in a nightmare everyday. 🥹😢🤯
And John Roberts has the unmitigated gall, the naked chutzpah to whine this week about how unfair it is that his court is seen as partisan! History will not be kind to his court.
Perhaps an opportune moment to repeat what another Republican, John Bingham (R-OH), and widely considered the "father" of the 14th Amendment, made clear what he expected it to be:
"A simple, strong plain declaration that equal and exact justice shall be secured within every state for any person, no matter whence he comes, or how poor, how weak, how simple, how friendless. We propose to put it into the power of every man, woman and child, black or white, when his rights are invaded, to raise his hand toward the flag, and say, 'I am an American citizen.'"
I saw that Trump asked Rubio to tell the Pope that Iran killed thousands of its citizens in anti-government protests. (As if that justified the illegal war...)
Iran's regime obviously has no respect for that country's citizens. Then again, what sort of respect does our own regime have for us? It crashes through the guardrails of our method of redistricting following census years because of our dictator's fear of losing the midterms.
Didn't Ledbetter have to take an oath? Given the Alabama Speaker's remarks, Republicans don't care about the Constitution. They care only about keeping their boots on the throats of presumed Democratic voters.
Personally, I think that several Southern legislatures are currently high on the idea that they can finally relegate the Black vote to the dust bin and preserve white supremacy for a few more years or maybe decades.
I think I’m angrier about the destruction of the gains of the civil rights movement than anything else Trump has done. Coming of age, or political consciousness, in the 50s, and being very committed to that justice, I am crushed with disappointment at the speed with which the white supremacists gleefully are putting all their Jim Crow shit back into place. Aren’t we ever going to grow out of this?
Hold on! Did I flunk middle school civics? The SCOTUS cannot overturn a constitutional amendment approved by the people. They can modify an amendment's interpretation, but they cannot strike it down. Is that not correct???
Probably one of those segregated schools that claims to be religious, that teaches their version of history and civics, and paid for by Alabama taxpayers.
A high school diploma is it. If you do a little research on a lot of these people in powerful positions, it will scare the shit out of you. Hence the comment by John above.
The Supreme Court has already scotched the provision in the 14th Amendment that forbids the election of convicted felons. I'm sure they'll try to chip away at the remaining provisions just as they did with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Possibly it will be on grounds of "originalism," since obviously the 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War and was not part of the original Constitution. Mind you, I don't think they will have an easy time of it, trying to cancel the rules we have all lived by for centuries.
Until Donald Trump came down that escalator, at least the racists & bigots knew that their hatred had been shoved back into basements & dark rooms for a few years! I think I finally “get” why the Republican Party embraced that disgusting orange boor like they did . . . by sheer will, he’d bully his way into allowing their hate, racism & bigotry out into the light again!🤮🤢🤮 I will hope & pray that all those who dream of living in a truly multiracial democracy, turn out to vote in droves in November! We need to prove once & for all that WE are the majority in this country, not them, and they’d better start accepting it! 💪
I am afraid you are correct in your analysis about the negativity aborning again. I have read a lot of material from different authors that we all know, especially Thom Hartmann and Timothy Snyder and others that draw on history of autocracy around the globe. "Cliodynamics" is the history of history, as I understand it. Might be helpful to find Peter Turchin's "End Times" and digest the "path of political disintegration". It seems to mirror what is and has been happening to us here in the USA, unfortunately. And thank you, Joyce, for being a headlight on the subject.
Ledbetter is a racist. These people are imbeciles. They really should not be allowed to reproduce. I realize it’s too late for him. However if he does have offspring they need to be sterilized so the lineage stops.
Learned indeed! Much of which comes from the pulpit. Twisted and cherry-picked passages from the good book to fit the ‘moment at hand’ and when that moment changes, so does meaning of the same passage! So many duped, fooled, and lead astray, yet willing to pay their last penny to hear the “Good News”. Oh yeah, I need another new airplane. Learned? Indeed. Some of these folks become politicians, too many of them bring their twisted views with them. Religious views do not belong in our government. Religion does not belong in our government.
MAGA has not only selected hearing … but selective memory too. The Fifties were not a moment of glory for the South; Bull Connors and Lester Maddox were no heroes; the rest of America is no longer fooled.
Let’s not forget Huey Long
Don’t forget Gov Faubus in Arkansas sicking the Ark Nat’l guard on the Ark 8 (also Little Rock 9) trying to integrate the high school. Then Eisenhower had to “federalize” (I don’t like to verbalize nouns) that National Guard to get the students inside. So Faubus shut down the public schools for a year. Probably why AL is smarter than AR.
Indeed—unforgettable.
Look at the piece that G. Elliott Morris published on Friday at the Substack Strength in Numbers. He argues that the Supreme Court ruling contains a glaring statistical error that would get returned with much red ink on it in a Statistics 101 class. This post is free. (I'm a paying subscriber to SIN because of the valuable work that he does.)
https://www.gelliottmorris.com/p/2026-05-08-simple-math-error-scotus-callais-vra?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
I am hoping that lawyers will pick up this information and use it in the future to overturn this latest Supreme Court atrocity.
Writ of coram nobis.
At a time when a man who has cheated his way to great power tries to impose new geographical names on the world (e.g. "the Gulf of America"... incidentally, in Spanish, 'golfo', the word for 'gulf', also means 'petty criminal'...) we should not be surprised when the same conman ignores, then denies, inconvenient geographical facts (e.g. the Strait of Hormuz). Nor should we be surprised when his underlings claim they can cancel the Constitution, citizenshjp, the Republic itself... by sleight-of-hand fiat. And now, pseudo-legal sophistry practiced by Supreme Court justices trumps simple math.
Look no logic! Look no mind!
Surprise! Surprise!
I read the same criticism too … in “The New Republic” I think.
George Wallace?
Neanderthal to their troglodytes.
At the end, he had an ephiphany.
A real one, I think … not the crocodile tears of Tucker & Marge.
Wasn't that after he was shot?
Yes, but look at Steve Scalise, who was both shot and is in remission from cancer. Neither experience changed him.
I’m so tired of people, usually men, trying to control everyone. When I first started following Andra Watkins I thought she was exaggerating. Now however given how the Republican Party is treating everyone no matter their race, I fully believe they won’t be happy taking black peoples rights , they want everyone’s. They have to be stopped. Joyce I really appreciate your work.
and the irony is that women got the “right” to vote after the last census used for the house cap. Really we are being shockingly under-represented. Zero idea why we put up with it.
Time to expand the house and rethink the senate representation.
Canadian here, so I have no skin in the game, but I am totally baffled by all of those Americans who claim that the US is the greatest democracy on earth. It is not! We, in Canada, have nonpartisan election commissions at both the provincial and federal levels. They decide the boundary lines, and then hold public meetings so folks can comment. They publish the drafts in the newspaper, send them to media outlets, etc. Then they finalize the decision. They run our elections. They are nonpartisan. All the parties can and do have observers both throughout the voting period and during the counting. We try to take elections seriously! From up here much of what goes on in your country looks like a circus. Sorry!
It’s worse than a circus - we have no elephants, just all the sh*t.
The worst thing is that most Canadians think really highly of Americans. I used to live 20 min from the Maine/NB border. We shopped in Houlton all the time. We used to drive to
Keystone
Maternal Grandfather is Canadian, born in Jarvis in 1900 and joined the CEF in 1916 and went to Brest, FR. in WWI. He began with the Haldimand regiment, they disbanded, and then with the Highlanders and wore a kilt.
Sadly he drowned in Lake St Clair in 1933.
Thanks to the Canadians for changing the citizenship to include descendants, further than the 1st born, I'm applying.
Murchie's in YVR has the best tea, paid a 25% tariff to buy it a few months ago, but have been buying it for years tariff free. A Grandaunt in White Rock introduced me to the tea in 1973.
Yay, Murchie's! I also had to pay a tariff this year imposed by FedEx. The tariff plus the service charge from FedEx amounted to 100% of the value of the tea! I won't be ordering any more tea until I can be sure that this atrocity has been corrected.
As do we in Oz. There’s a bunch of dull people in cardigans with ballpoint pens - red and blue and green - in their breast pockets whose job it is to count population from place to place and adjust the boundaries from time to time. Bless them.
Imagine what it looks like to us.
My country is disappearing before my eyes.
I always took voting as a right and obligation, if I was going to be a true American. When I vote I am thanking all those that served and the ones that died for my freedom. Including, my uncles, brothers, husband, daughter, son, grandson, and0 many cousins. You are correct elections should be taken seriously, and not the mess that they are making of them now, here in my Beloved Country.
We could only live up to being the best republic democracy on earth if all of our elected officials in all honesty upheld every bit our our US Constitution with ethical, responsible, accountable and transparent words and actions in service for our entire diverse country without the current bribery, inside trading, coverups, theft, continual lies, senseless wars without diplomacy, apathetic picks who are not qualified, experienced or wise, continually wasting billions if not trillions of tax payers' money, greed, corruption, racism, pedophilia, etc. When elected officials are the worst, the whole nation and world suffers, when they are the best the very opposite is true. Apathy, collusions, monopolized big money and complicity are also the killing tyrants! Now the message being sent to our entire country is to make voting as difficult as possible by terrorism by racist, misogynist criminals. The majority of our nation is fed up!
I'm sad to have to say this, but I do think we are headed for Civil War 2.0.
Please, I encourage EVERYONE to "get out the vote" this coming November. Make sure that you are registered to vote. And, make sure that you vote. Tell your friends to register to vote; tell your friends to make sure that they vote.
The ONLY way to overcome voter suppression tactics and gerrymandering is to vote in massive numbers.
I have been a poll worker in several elections (Maricopa County, AZ); during all the audits and threats and denials the county was having trouble filling all the spots. When I got the confirmation email about my intent to work again for the July primary the message was that there were more applicants than positions!
💙🌊
YAY
My experience in my PA county as well. I hope it bodes well for turnout.
Well, that is good news!
Agree
Agreed: get out and vote and as I see it, we are in a cold Civil War now. I’m stunned the South hasn’t seceded again. And sadly I agree with you that there’s a really high probability the Cold Civil War will give way to an actual battle/war, which I don’t think anyone following Joyce wants. But I truly believe you can only push a man so far. They are giving people nothing left to lose. I hope we can escape this. I really do.
We are the leaders we have been waiting for. Determine to do your citizenship responsibilities and we will escape the long national nightmare. Light a metaphorical fire under ALL your friends and family. Register more voters; knock on doors; call voters; volunteer to help people get to the polls.
Stay focused. Build community. These things work. Be a LIGHT in Trump's face (think deer in headlights.
But we should hold off on getting to that last, worst place as long as we can. Little good will come from it, I think
Oh absolutely agree. The first CW was the deadliest and bloodiest war ever fought - American v American. I can’t really wrap my head around it. I hope I don’t have to. I’m just afraid people are going to lose so much that they lose their minds. It’s heartbreaking and terrifying. I feel like I’m waking up in a nightmare everyday. 🥹😢🤯
Let "TheSouth" secede. Sorry to say this, but we should have cut "The South" loose in 1860.
Not a happy fate for those enslaved down here in Dixie…
Agreed
Our conversation this afternoon
And John Roberts has the unmitigated gall, the naked chutzpah to whine this week about how unfair it is that his court is seen as partisan! History will not be kind to his court.
Supreme criminals…
The one who nominated him is cheering him on from his Simi Valley grave.
Lying, sniveling SOB lives in the tower of his own delusions.
Autocrat weasels come in many disguises. Whine, weasel. What would YOU call it?
"For as he thinketh in his heart so is he." Solomon We know what he is and he can't hid it with the black robe!
Like their Orange leader can't accept losing the 2020 election, the South can't accept losing the Civil War.
Ledbetter and Tubberville, or dumb and dumber.
And ugly too.
Perhaps an opportune moment to repeat what another Republican, John Bingham (R-OH), and widely considered the "father" of the 14th Amendment, made clear what he expected it to be:
"A simple, strong plain declaration that equal and exact justice shall be secured within every state for any person, no matter whence he comes, or how poor, how weak, how simple, how friendless. We propose to put it into the power of every man, woman and child, black or white, when his rights are invaded, to raise his hand toward the flag, and say, 'I am an American citizen.'"
I saw that Trump asked Rubio to tell the Pope that Iran killed thousands of its citizens in anti-government protests. (As if that justified the illegal war...)
Iran's regime obviously has no respect for that country's citizens. Then again, what sort of respect does our own regime have for us? It crashes through the guardrails of our method of redistricting following census years because of our dictator's fear of losing the midterms.
Didn't Ledbetter have to take an oath? Given the Alabama Speaker's remarks, Republicans don't care about the Constitution. They care only about keeping their boots on the throats of presumed Democratic voters.
Personally, I think that several Southern legislatures are currently high on the idea that they can finally relegate the Black vote to the dust bin and preserve white supremacy for a few more years or maybe decades.
absolutely!
Yep.
I think I’m angrier about the destruction of the gains of the civil rights movement than anything else Trump has done. Coming of age, or political consciousness, in the 50s, and being very committed to that justice, I am crushed with disappointment at the speed with which the white supremacists gleefully are putting all their Jim Crow shit back into place. Aren’t we ever going to grow out of this?
Agree. I came into this world during Jim Crow and I’m afraid I’m gonna leave it in the same way!
Hold on! Did I flunk middle school civics? The SCOTUS cannot overturn a constitutional amendment approved by the people. They can modify an amendment's interpretation, but they cannot strike it down. Is that not correct???
You got that right, but Ledbetter got me wondering what kind of education he had.
a lot of people outside the US are saying that they wouldn't know the US even had an education system if it weren't for all the school shootings.
Look at the likes of Tuberville, and even the shootings won't convince you.
Probably one of those segregated schools that claims to be religious, that teaches their version of history and civics, and paid for by Alabama taxpayers.
A high school diploma is it. If you do a little research on a lot of these people in powerful positions, it will scare the shit out of you. Hence the comment by John above.
The Supreme Court has already scotched the provision in the 14th Amendment that forbids the election of convicted felons. I'm sure they'll try to chip away at the remaining provisions just as they did with the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Possibly it will be on grounds of "originalism," since obviously the 14th Amendment was adopted after the Civil War and was not part of the original Constitution. Mind you, I don't think they will have an easy time of it, trying to cancel the rules we have all lived by for centuries.
Oh Joyce ✨
Deep breath
Inhale for 4
Hold for 4
Big exhale for 4
Repeat at least 3 times
At least 3 times a day
And in the middle of the night @ 2:44a
Breathing is always good
“ …We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain.
That this nation , under God, shall have a new birth of freedom. And that government of
the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth .”
—Abraham Lincoln
How is it that one individual can sow so much chaos….Someone needs to…
Thank you, Joyce. These are troubling times.
Shocking but not surprising. This cannot stand.
Until Donald Trump came down that escalator, at least the racists & bigots knew that their hatred had been shoved back into basements & dark rooms for a few years! I think I finally “get” why the Republican Party embraced that disgusting orange boor like they did . . . by sheer will, he’d bully his way into allowing their hate, racism & bigotry out into the light again!🤮🤢🤮 I will hope & pray that all those who dream of living in a truly multiracial democracy, turn out to vote in droves in November! We need to prove once & for all that WE are the majority in this country, not them, and they’d better start accepting it! 💪
I am afraid you are correct in your analysis about the negativity aborning again. I have read a lot of material from different authors that we all know, especially Thom Hartmann and Timothy Snyder and others that draw on history of autocracy around the globe. "Cliodynamics" is the history of history, as I understand it. Might be helpful to find Peter Turchin's "End Times" and digest the "path of political disintegration". It seems to mirror what is and has been happening to us here in the USA, unfortunately. And thank you, Joyce, for being a headlight on the subject.
Ledbetter is a racist. These people are imbeciles. They really should not be allowed to reproduce. I realize it’s too late for him. However if he does have offspring they need to be sterilized so the lineage stops.
I wish that, and bigotry, would work that way, but they're learned behaviors.
True. So we need be sure the ones doing the teaching can’t teach it anymore.
Would you be good enough to send me a copy of it in response? Thanks in advance...
Copy of what?
Learned indeed! Much of which comes from the pulpit. Twisted and cherry-picked passages from the good book to fit the ‘moment at hand’ and when that moment changes, so does meaning of the same passage! So many duped, fooled, and lead astray, yet willing to pay their last penny to hear the “Good News”. Oh yeah, I need another new airplane. Learned? Indeed. Some of these folks become politicians, too many of them bring their twisted views with them. Religious views do not belong in our government. Religion does not belong in our government.