Claiming this is due to “Robert E Lee’s birthday” is a complete red herring and disingenuous. Here’s what’s actually going on.
▪️In 2016, the Georgia legislature passed a bill which restricted early voting on Saturdays falling either on a holiday or following a holiday on Thursday or Friday.
https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/legislation/document/20152016/162401
▪️Next Saturday happens to follow 2 state holidays. Thanksgiving on Thursday, and a generic “State Holiday” on Friday. This used to be called “Robert E Lee’s Birthday” but was renamed in 2015. Lee’s birthday is actually on Jan 19, but Georgia traditionally celebrated it after Thanksgiving.
https://www.ajc.com/blog/politics/confederate-memorial-day-disappears-from-2016-georgia-holiday-calendars/ef2nD9pIa8itUbrEKhBbvL/
▪️Thus, even if Georgia abolished the “State Holiday” formerly known as Robert E. Lee’s birthday, the law still calls for the restriction because of Thanksgiving! The only reason to bring up Lee is to be disingenuous and misleading, without providing that context.
▪️The reason this is now an issue is because last year the Georgia legislature moved runoff elections to 4 weeks after Election Day instead of 9 weeks, which created the conflict. This even confused the Secretary of State, who initially said there would be Sat voting until his office realized the law prohibited it.
https://www.ajc.com/politics/georgia-holidays-prevent-saturday-voting-before-us-senate-runoff/Q7WG5X7T55AIJEJYLEOJ6JLQ6M/
▪️Democrats have sued Georgia, claiming that this law shouldn’t apply to runoffs, but for now the SoS has ordered no voting on the Sat following Thanksgiving per the law as written. We’ll see how the courts rule.
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2022/nov/15/georgia-sued-over-ban-on-saturday-voting-before-us/
▪️There is still plenty of early voting opportunities, as well as absentee ballots and, of course, the normal election day voting for the runoff election. Just no early Saturday voting after Thanksgiving.
I first critiqued this terrible take by looking at how food has actually improved substantially. Even though I said the same could be done in every category, people said “you’re only doing food.” So let’s do air travel and see why it’s not gotten better, not worse.
▪️Aircraft have greatly improved. Just 15-20 years ago, many domestic routes (~15%) were flown by turboprops like the Brasilia, Dash 8 or Saab. Now, almost everything is in jets, and most aircraft have WiFi. Some even have Starlink, where you probably have faster WiFi than your home. Most major airlines offer dozens or hundreds of movies and shows to watch.
▪️Newer designs like the 787 have lower cabin altitudes and improved humidity, which make a huge difference in passenger comfort on long haul flights. The first/business class international market has gotten very competitive globally, with many carriers offering excellent service and amenities. Pods, suites, showers, etc. Coach still sucks but is dramatically cheaper ...
This is the complete opposite of an empirical fact. The right has now joined the left in being pessimistic about the modern world and completely unappreciative of the amazing abundance we now have. I’ll just focus on food here, but you could do it for almost every category.
▪️Fresh produce used to be available only in season. In the winter it was canned or frozen. People used to send fruit for Christmas gifts, it was that much of a luxury good. Now, you can get giant, sweet berries year around in every grocery store. Corn on the cob in February. Not to mention once rare items like dragon fruit, heirloom tomatoes or baby bok choy.
▪️If you didn’t live on the coast, seafood was either not available, frozen, or extremely expensive. If you lived in the Midwest and traveled to coastal locales you would quite literally be able to eat food you had never seen. Salmon has become much more abundant and accessible. You can get fresh ahi at Walmart today. Sushi and oyster bars exist everywhere ...
▪️This is a proposal that pertains only to graduate level nursing degrees, not undergraduate ones (which were never considered professional degrees). The proposal will have a 30-60 day public comment period next year, where groups can object, before the DoE will decide on it.
▪️This is about how much federal student loans someone can take out for a particular degree. The cap on graduate degrees is $100k ($20,500/yr), while a “professional degree” limit is $200k ($50k/yr).
▪️Under the new rule proposal, professional degrees include:
🔹Pharmacy
🔹Dentistry
🔹Veterinary medicine
🔹Chiropractic
🔹Law
🔹Medicine (including osteopathic medicine & podiatry)
🔹Optometry
🔹Theology
▪️The nursing degrees excluded are ones like master of science in nursing (MSN), doctor of nursing practice (DNP) and PhD in nursing. These degrees would be limited to $100k in federal student loans, like all other graduate degrees.
▪️These changes came from the One Big Beautiful Bill’s...
