DL Open Thread: Friday, June 23, 2023

Supreme Court To Navajo Nation: “No Water For You”.  Chief Justice Roberts could have flipped the decision with his vote, but didn’t. Justice Gorsuch (!?) goes nuc-u-lar:

“Where do the Navajo go from here? To date, their efforts to find out what water rights the United States holds for them have produced an experience familiar to any American who has spent time at the Department of Motor Vehicles,” Gorsuch wrote. “The Navajo have waited patiently for someone, anyone, to help them, only to be told (repeatedly) that they have been standing in the wrong line and must try another.”

Billionaire’s Group Leads Fight Against Democracy.  In this particular set of instances, by requiring super-majorities to pass statewide referenda.  It’s working:

The Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based group affiliated with the alliance of conservative thinktanks called the State Policy Network, has played a key role in recent efforts to raise the threshold for passing citizen ballot initiatives from a simple majority to a supermajority, and to make it harder to place measures on the ballot in the first place.

These efforts are designed to derail citizen-led ballot initiatives to protect abortion rights, raise the minimum wage or expand Medicaid. In effect, FGA and its allies seek to give 41% of the voting population an effective veto over the wishes of the other 59%.

The latest fight is in Ohio, where Republican lawmakers last month passed a measure requiring future constitutional amendments to receive at least 60% support from voters – rather than a simple majority – and that would make it harder for proposed amendments to make it on to the ballot. Ohioans will now vote in August on whether to approve the higher thresholds.

As the measure moved through Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature, the Illinois billionaire Dick Uihlein gave $1.1m to the newly created “Save Our Constitution PAC”, which ran ads pressuring state lawmakers to support the measure; Uihlein is expected to contribute more as the August vote approaches.

A foundation controlled by Uihlein is also the largest known source of FGA’s funding, giving $17.6m since 2014. Uihlein has also been one of the key funders of election denial. Among other things, Uihlein has poured tens of millions into his “Restoration of America” network that promotes ludicrous election conspiracy theories and which created a controversial database that published voters’ personal information online in the name of uncovering election fraud. In the 2022 cycle, Dick Uihlein and his wife, Liz, were also top donors to election-denying candidates like the Pennsylvania gubernatorial hopeful Doug Mastriano and Nevada secretary of state candidate Jim Marchant.

Citizens United: The gift that keeps on grifting.

Auto-matic Voter Registration In Delaware:  Very cool:

A transaction at the Delaware DMV can also make you an eligible voter.

According to the Delaware Department of Elections, under terms of state law, beginning Wednesday automatic voter registration begins at DMV locations and online with the myDMV account. If someone is not registered to vote in Delaware, they will become automatically registered if they apply for a driver’s license, renewal, ID card or learner’s permit.

The information obtained by the DMV will be forwarded to the Department of Elections, which will review each record transfer. Eligible voters will be notified that they are now registered and, indeed, eligible to vote. They also would get a form to update their registration, choose a party affiliation, or cancel the voter registration if they wish.

The Absolutely Coolest Book I’ll Read All Year.  I’ve only put it down to write the Open Thread. Grudgingly, at that.  Also, the absolutely only Steely Dan book you’ll ever need.  Even Al and Nathan Arizona will learn stuff–although I suspect they already knew that ‘Daddy G’ was G. Gordon Liddy, the district attorney of Dutchess County, who conducted a drug raid at Bard College while Fagen and Becker were students (well, Fagen was a student, Becker had dropped out, but still hung around there). Nobody knows who ‘Chino’ was. There’s a whole bunch of ‘oh, by the way’ info here, which is a feature of some of my fave books.    BTW, lest you wonder why they stopped touring, how would you like to open for Black Oak Arkansas in a virtually empty arena with ‘hockey rink sound’?  What song features ‘Chino and Daddy G’, you ask? This one:

I leave you with this existential question: Will you still have a song to sing when the Razor Boy comes and takes your fancy things away?

Oh, and this existential question: What do you want to talk about?