Voter Blocks, Ostracizing Trump, Capitol Rioters Profiled, and Even More

 #Elie Mystal, "The GOP Strikes Back," The Nation, 3.8 - 15.2021. - "The GOP's entire protection strategy was to reinstate race-based voter disenfranchisement all the way up to January 6." "The Brennan Center for Justice reports that state legislatures have already prepared three times as many voter-restriction bills this year as were proposed during the same period of time last year. The numbers are staggering: 'Twenty-eight states have introduced , prefiled, or carried over 106 restrictive bills this year (as compared to 35 such bills in fifteen states on February 3, 2020).' " 

#Jeet Heet, "Impeachment Was Just the Beginning," The Nation, 3.8 - 15.2021. - "Trump remains a toxic figure on many grounds: racism, abuse of office, and incitement to violence. For defenders of American democracy the still urgent mission is to turn him into a political pariah: To ostracize him from the political process, radically diminish his political power, and change the incentive structure so that Republicans will think twice before allying themselves with him again."

#Katha Pollitt, "The Disloyal Opposition," The Nation, 3.8 - 15.2021. - ""As Robert Pape and Keven Ruby point out in a detailed analysis in 'The Atlantic': 'The demographic profile of the suspected Capitol rioters is different from that of past right-wing extremists. The average age of the arrestees we studied is 40. Two-thirds are 35 or older, and 40 percent are business owners or hold white-collar jobs.' "We warned one another against normalizing Trumpers by presenting hard-core reactionaries as ordinary people. But what if they are normal -- the new normal?" 

"The actual political murders in recent years have mostly been premeditated attacks committed by militia types and anti-abortion fanatics and racist loners like Dylann Roof." "Maybe if we can get enough power, the Trumpers' numbers will dwindle as they see it's not so terrible to have health insurance, or to legalize the status of immigrants who have been living here forever, or even to wear a mask to prevent a deadly virus from spreading."

#Amy Littlefield, "Closed Roads," The Nation, 3.8 - 15.2021. - Women seeking an abortion are being "lured by free ultrasounds to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers that were allowed to operate even as abortion clinics were being shuttered." "Under Ohio law, [Larada] Lee had to undergo a counseling session, in person, that included information designed to discourage her from having an abortion."

"Eighteen states have active laws requiring physicians to be physically present when medication abortion is administered, making remote abortion care impossible." "A study of independent clinics found that while 73 percent of facilities in the Northeast reported that they had started or increased telehealth services during the pandemic, only 23 percent in the South had done likewise."

#Wiliam D. Hartung, "Diplomacy First?" The Nation, 3.8 - 13.2021. - "Nearly 250,000 people have died in Yemen since the war began, according to a December 2020 United Nations report. Millions are on the brink of famine, and the country is uniquely vulnerable to diseases like cholera, and Covid-19, because of the destruction of much of its health care infrastructure, and the lack of access to clean water and life-saving medicines."

ADDENDUM:

*Chase Iron Eyes, "Yes," The Nation, 3.8 - 15.2021. - "Each year, nearly 45,000 people die and more than half a million families declare bankruptcy because they lack affordable health care."