The Justice Department Can Swing a Mighty Big Stick in the Realm of Voting Rights

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

12 June 21

It's encouraging that Merrick Garland's shop isn't waiting around for Congress.

ttorney General Merrick Garland’s announcement that he’s doubling the enforcement staff of the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights division with an eye toward investigating seriously the attacks on the franchise that are all the rage in Republican controlled states was the best possible conclusion to what hasn’t been Garland’s best week. From CNN:

“We will use all existing provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to ensure that we protect every qualified American seeking to participate in our democracy," Garland said Friday, adding that the Justice Department will examine new restrictive voting laws across the country and take action against any "violations of federal law.”

"There are many things that are open to debate in America. But the right of all eligible citizens to vote is not one of them. The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy, the right from which all other rights ultimately flow," Garland said.

It is distantly possible that the Republicans have overreached in their assault on the franchise. (Maybe the farcical counting house in Arizona has been enough to get people to notice how obvious the effort was.) In any case, the DOJ can swing a very big bat in this area, and the fact that they’re not waiting for Congress to get off the dime is very encouraging.

But that E. Jean Carroll business is still pretty awful.

I think Rep. Val Demings is the perfect candidate to finish the job of reducing Senator Marco Rubio to subatomic size. She’s smart, funny, tough, and undeniably charismatic. (The woman has presence. I would not have wanted to be a perp in her interrogation room.) That said, it’s still a long pull up a dirt road for her, because Florida. It will be fascinating to see how much further Rubio will abase himself to keep The Base satisfied. The former president* undoubtedly will barge in from time to time, and Rubio will find it hard to avoid Governor Ron DeSantis, scourge of transgender teens and serious American history. This could be just enough to have Rubio disappear entirely.

Weekly WWOZ Pick To Click: “Ship Is Sinking” (Bon Bon Vivant)) Yeah, I pretty much still love New Orleans.

Weekly Visit To The Pathe Archives: Here, from 1958, is film of Argentina’s effort to vaccinate every child. Also shots of hero monkeys. History is so cool.

The Pulitzers were announced on Friday and, significantly, there were none awarded in any category involving coverage of the presidential election. The jury awarded a special Pulitzer to Darnella Frazier, the young woman who filmed the murder of George Floyd. (The Minneapolis Star-Tribune also won a prize for its coverage of the killing.) This strikes me as the completely proper priority. Also, my old Morrissey Boulevard running buddy Wesley Morris now has a pair of Pulitzer bookends. Congrats all around.

Is it a good day for dinosaur news, Smithsonian? It’s always a good day for dinosaur news!

Nicknamed Cooper, the titanosaur's bones were unearthed near Cooper Creek at the Eromanga Basin in southwest Queensland. Researchers found its shoulder blades, pelvic bones, and limbs mostly intact, reports Donna Lu for the Guardian. Titanosaurs are long-necked herbaceous sauropod dinosaurs that walked the Earth from the late Jurassic Epoch to the end of the Cretaceous period. They were some of the largest dinosaurs that ever existed. While other titanosaur species were found in Australia before, Cooper is significantly larger. It is estimated that Cooper weighed 70 tons, stood at two stories tall, and measured 82 to 98 feet in length—or about the size of a basketball court, the New York Times reports.

Accidental discoveries are the best kind. That’s a lot of dino, for sure. A lot of dino then and a lot of happy now.

I’ll be back on Monday to see if the administration can get itself out of the muddle. Be well and play nice, ya bastids. Stay above the snake-line, wear the damn mask if it makes you feel good, but get the damn shots.