Ohio’s issue one is anti-democratic horseshit, (special, single-issue) election day edition

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As Ohioans throng to the booths to decide to whether or not to take away their democratic rights in a single-issue special election concocted by gerrymandered cult-drones (here’s a useful guide as to what wouldn’t have passed in Ohio with the issue one-decreed 60% threshold and onerous requirement to get signatures from all 88 counties instead of the current 44 before any measure could even make it to voters) who claim it has nothing to do with abortion though the signs saying it does are all over the place (and, in one case, plastered in windows AND lawn) – as are the NO signs – a re-sharing of two earlier articles and a record of my duly registering my hearty FUCK NO on this horseshit issue. FFS Ohio, indeed.

issue one is anti-democratic horseshit, ctd

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The vast majority of funding for it is being provided by an Illinois billionaire who also has spent millions supporting politicians who spread the lie that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Donald Trump. And this week the controversial measure’s most vocal supporter in Ohio compared Trump’s indictment for trying to overturn the election to what’s done “in third-world dictatorships.” 

To top it off, an Arizona politician who has lied both about Trump’s 2020 loss and her own loss last year plans to come to Ohio to promote Issue 1 — to “protect” the Ohio Constitution.

Couldn't have said it better myself

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Whole article is not only a great primer on why I voted a hearty NO on Ohio's bullshit Issue One, but a succinct guide to understanding the clusterfuck that is the present state of Ohio politics:

With Issue 1 on August 8, Ohio lobbyists and politicians demand total unchecked power.

They seek to create signature requirements so burdensome that they would destroy the ability of Ohio citizen groups to bring amendments to our Ohio Constitution ever again.

And they seek to ensure a minority of voters can veto critical decisions over the life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness of all Ohioans.

Ohio Republicans presently enjoy absolute control over our state’s legislative, executive, and judicial branches. Last year, they manipulated that power to override a majority of voters on gerrymandering.

Now those same gerrymandered politicians seek to rip away citizens’ power so that a majority of voters can be overruled on the Ohio Constitution itself.

boofuckinghoo

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Given the insanity endemic in the Rethuglican party and the Ohio varietal’s accelerated transformation of this state into a (more) corrupt MAGAstan hellscape, I'm hopeful that Householder won't be the last of this coterie who trades in their suit and tie for an orange jumpsuit. They deserve every day of their sentence and then some – Ohio will (if it finds its way back to sanity - a big if) be digging itself out of the mess Householder et al created for years beyond that.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Black gave (Householder) the maximum possible sentence of 20 years and then ordered blue-shirted U.S. Marshals to immediately take him into custody. He rose, put his hands behind his back, the marshals cuffed him and led the once-powerful pol away...

"You conned the people of Ohio and you tried to con the jury, too," Black said in his gravely voice as Householder, clad in a gray suit and red tie, slumped his bulk back in his chair...

Steven Bradley, Householder's attorney, sought leniency for his client. Referring to the possibility of a 20-year sentence, he said "That is effectively a life sentence for Larry Householder given his age and health situation."

Householder is 64 and overweight.

Bradley argued that his client was around 60 when the racketeering conspiracy began in late 2016 and that prior to that, Householder did "innumerable" good deeds "for decades." A 20-year sentence would "effectively give no consideration" to those good deeds, Bradley said.

Can you hear the song I’m playing on the world's smallest violin?

no more deadlines until it’s time to have a deadline and even then

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I suppose that it's a good sign that getting to work on The Main Thing this morning felt like being able to breathe again, a creative tracheotomy freeing me from the suffocation of the last several weeks and/or months and finally letting me ride the wave as it were of whatever waters I'm navigating and while I'm uncertain of what, exactly, changed (or maybe it's nothing more than the happy pill dose readjustment finally started to work), I'll – no, wait, I'm actually fairly certain of what changed: two weeks ago I made the announcement to subscribers that I didn't know when or if the second issue of PRESS(A) would come out and followed that up yesterday morning in a note to myself written in pencil on a "note to god" while not spontaneously combusting during my annual (grand)father's day endurance test of fire and brimstone horseshit (seriously, these people have gotten even nuttier than last year – it was more than moderately terrifying, whatwith the addition of "more jesus in america" callouts from the usually taciturn and silent crowd of 20) that I wouldn't make any further announcement about PRESS(A) until I had at least two more main features, for 03 and 04, in a state of forward motion as I've found, on a visceral level, that adding a window of release / self-inflicted deadline is, at this point, the most sure-fire way to fall off the wave, get hit in the head with the board, and become narrative fish food. Guess that's that then – end of story, as that one guy said in FARGO.

links/2023w05

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midterminal, coda

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Prediction largely correct – though definitely not as bad as I feared. Biggest disappointment – though not at all a surprise – was Tim Ryan's loss. Hopefully will cause some recriminations in the DNC over lack of support sent his way; I'm not sure he could have won it with it, but it would have been welcome. Confident that this isn't the end of Tim's political career – he would be the one Democrat (other than Sherrod Brown) that could win the governorship (sorry Nan): Ohio is a red state, full stop, having fallen hook and line from one red slimebucket for another (and this one's a shit writer) – but at least I can find solace in Fetterman's defeat of the other out-of-state opportunistic snake (oil salesman) on the IKEA side of the state line. Current prediction: Repubs take neutered control of House with a slim majority and Senate remains a 50/50 deadlock or one seat +/- towards either party but we won't know the latter for at least another month because I'm almost certain Georgia will head to a runoff. Does this "red trickle" render Tumor toast? I want to say yes, but it's not like he's ever shown the capacity to know when to leave a party, even after he's shit all over the guests and absconded with their top secret documents.

In other news, I slept. So that was nice. And I want to sleep some more. But please get rid of all the signs.