The knockout blow

The feds won't save us. We have a better chance of seeing Gandalf and his white steed on that horizon.

Republicans ate shit everywhere last week except in Ohio and Florida.

The GOP railroaded the Constitutionally-mandated legislative redistricting process and made the state vote with maps twice ruled illegal by the state supreme court. They gained margins on their supermajorities in both chambers of the state legislature.

Democrats won a majority on the State School Board, and the Republicans quickly announced plans to strip the elected body of its powers and hand them to unelected bureaucrats in the governor’s office. Harrowing when you realize Mike DeWine is likely the best governor we’ll have for the rest of our lives.

Given how anti-public school warriors cheered the selection of State Rep. Derek Merrin (R-Monclova Township) as the next Speaker of the Ohio House, it’s likely that their death knell to public school funding is right over the horizon.

Again, that’s not enough power for these hogs. They’re already moving to erect barriers between “the wrong people” and their right to vote.

From Haley BeMiller of dispatch.com:

A sweeping overhaul to Ohio election law first introduced last year reemerged Thursday with changes that eliminate attempts to streamline voter registration and limit what can be used for identification at the polls.

House Bill 294 would also allow election officials to set up three ballot drop boxes at one location in the county, which advocates worry could limit access for voters in both urban and rural areas. It also lets Ohioans request an absentee ballot online and eliminates in-person early voting the Monday before Election Day, redistributing those hours to other days.

Republican legislative leaders telegraphed this move before the election because they knew the only way they wouldn’t get elected was if one of their vital organs called a wildcat strike.

Yesterday, however, our Republican overlords unveiled the second prong of their attack. Secretary of State Frank LaRose, who, it must be said, is still running from The Rooster’s reporting about his racist high school yearbook, released the details on his plan to gut citizen-led initiatives at the ballot box.

From Jamilah Muhammad of spectrumnews.com:

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Secretary of State Frank LaRose is partnering with Republican State Rep. Brian Stewart, of Ashville, to propose the Ohio Constitution Protection Amendment. 

If the amendment were to be adopted, petition-based amendments would have to get at least 60% of the vote to pass instead of a simple majority.

Notice how the State Constitution is either a holy relic or something akin to toilet paper, depending on Republican strategy.

The ballot initiative is not perfect. Special interests can indeed buy their way onto the ballot—just like that weed legalization effort in 2015 that would have made boy band singer Nick Lachey a weed kingpin in Akron.

But special interests must still educate (read: scam) voters about the issue and get them to vote. Ohio defeated that legislation because it was terrible business that gave the weed monopoly to a pre-selected few.

The ballot initiative was the only recourse we had left against the corrupt plunderbund that governs Ohio. It could have been used to put abortion rights and recreational marijuana on the ballot in 2024.

That probably would do more to spur Democratic-leaning Independent voters to the polls than anything the Ohio Democratic Party would orchestrate.

Republicans know that. They saw how everybody from Kansas to Michigan has enshrined abortion rights when given the chance. They know recreational marijuana is more popular than their crusty asses will ever be.

You start to wonder at what point there would be a federal investigation into these antics. But it’s naive to think American institutions will save us at this point. We have a better chance of seeing Gandalf on his white steed on the horizon than a federal injunction against these losers.

Voting was always the least we could do. Now, it’s not even that in Ohio for any voter to the left of General Curtis LeMay. The time has come to look beyond the ballot box for ways to push back against their never-ending power grab.

THOSE WMDs. The economics behind grandma’s tuna casserole… Restaurants are cutting hours and closing early amid employee crunch… Millions in America can’t make ends meet with two jobs… Stop tossing your apple cores and banana peels in the woods… Why ticket brokers can get Taylor Swift tickets and you can’t.