Voting rights groups denounced election officials in Hall County, Georgia, for shuttering 4 of the county’s 8 polling locations, “which the groups say is limiting turnout of Black and Latino voters” in the early voting in the Jan. 5, 2021, Senate runoff election, Huffington Post re[...]
Archive for December, 2020
December 23rd, 2020 - 12:27 pm § in Environment
Oil train derails near Bellingham
An oil train derailed and caught fire near Custer, Washington, on Tuesday, December 22, 2020 (photo below). Read story here. Various news outlets said the derailment occurred near where two people were arrested last month for tampering with railroad signals (see, e.g., story here), but authorities h[...]
December 23rd, 2020 - 11:48 am § in Health
12/23: The Covid-19 hotspots now
Think you’re safe in the sticks? Think again. Return to The-Ave.US Home Page[...]
Election company employee sues conspiracy peddlers
“An election systems worker driven into hiding by death threats has filed a defamation lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s campaign, two of its lawyers and some conservative media figures and outlets,” Talking Points Memo reported on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. Read their story he[...]
December 23rd, 2020 - 1:26 am § in Misc.
Celebrating the Sacrifice of the Ear
December 23, 1888 Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh cuts off his own left ear, or at least part of the earlobe, after a row with fellow artist and close friend, Paul Gauguin. The incident happened in Arles, where van Gogh was living in a rented studio. The Dutchman, then aged 35, had long suffered repea[...]
Trump pardons more war criminals
“The Nisour Square Massacre occurred on September 16, 2007, when employees of Blackwater Security Consulting (now Academi), a private military company contracted by the US government to provide security services in Iraq, shot at Iraqi civilians, killing 17 and injuring 20 in Nisour Square,�[...]
Trumpublican damage assessment
America isn’t a banana republic, no thanks to Trump, his enablers, and supporters. Still, he (and they) inflicted significant damage. “Among other things, Trump and his Republican enablers have normalized corruption and nepotism, degraded public discourse, invited foreign involvement�[...]
December 22nd, 2020 - 12:16 pm § in Donald Trump, Politics
The GOP’s Iowa hypocrisy
Rita Hart, an Iowa Democrat who lost a race for Congress in November by 6 votes, has filed “an official notice of contest” asking the House of Representatives to reject the results and order “a hand recount of every ballot,” NBC News reported on Tuesday, December 22, 2020, he[...]
What Republicans mean when talking about “secession”
America still can’t shake off its racist impulses, and the Tea Party movement — renamed “MAGA” — is the merely latest iteration of racist backlash. Its driving force, rooted in pre-Civil War “nullification” ideology, is defiance. Physical secession is imposs[...]
Will the Harriet Tubman $20 bill make a comeback under Biden?
The plates have existed since 2018, but Trump’s treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said it would take 10 years to start printing the bills because of “technical difficulties.” Yeah, a racist in the White House who can’t stand black people — least of all, black voters &#[...]