This meme is neither “breaking” nor a credible example of voter suppression or systemic racism, despite many activists around the country from LeBron James to Hillary Clinton highlighting it.
-The Kentucky primary was supposed to be in May, so it’s already been delayed due to the pandemic. Both the Democratic governor Andy Beshear and Republican Sec of State Michael Adams have worked together to allow it to happen with some significant changes.
-For a variety of reasons, it wasn’t possible or desirable to have all the normal polling sites open due to COVID-19. Many locations were small and cramped, and elections are primarily manned by volunteers, most of whom are over age 60 in KY and at high risk for the virus. KY wanted to avoid what they felt were debacles in WI and OH.
-So the locations were severely limited, essentially down to one per county. In some of the larger counties, the polling sites are large convention centers or football fields. But while the locations were limited other options were expanded.
-All registered voters in Kentucky could request an absentee ballot through an online portal without a notarized signature, a major shift. In addition, in-person voting was expanded for an entire week, since June 15.
-So far, Kentucky is on pace for a record primary turnout. As of Monday, 973,807 Kentuckians had either requested an absentee ballot or voted in person. This doesn’t even include any turnout from today. 503,400 ballots had already been received in the mail, and election officials estimate 90% of absentee ballots issued will be sent in. For reference, the highest primary turnout ever was 922,456 in 2008.
-As Adams said, “If the governor and I are both suppressors, we're doing a terrible job because we've got the highest turnout we've ever seen.” He also had harsh words for outside activists, “I am worried that know-nothing, angry people from New York and California will call us and they'll block out people from rural and urban Kentucky who are trying to find out where to go vote. That is voter suppression."
-The governor also had strong words. “We've had mail-in voting for the first time in our history. I think that's the opposite of voter suppression. We've had no-excuse early voting for the first time in our history. I think that's the opposite of voter suppression. We've had 170,000 people have their voting rights restored, which is I think the opposite of voter suppression. Now, that doesn't fit in Twitter very easily."
-Louisville NAACP President Raoul Cunningham, a longtime civil rights activist in the state and who also sits on NAACP’s national board, said "I was concerned if the African American vote would be suppressed, but I really don't think it will be.”
-The meme shows Mitch McConnell grinning at the bottom, but he’s likely indifferent to this. He’s not facing any serious challenge in his primary. The contentious race is on the Democrat side, with Amy McGrath and Charles Booker squaring off. Any supposed voter suppression wouldn’t be helping Republicans beat Democrats, but Democrat against Democrat.
-To believe this is an example of systemic racism, one must ignore that this election was thrown into turmoil by COVID-19, and make the (frankly racist) case that black people are less capable of requesting and filling out absentee ballots or finding their way to a polling place during an entire week. But this doesn’t appear to be the case at all as it looks to be a record turnout for both the state and for the spotlighted urban Jefferson County in Louisville.
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2020/05/19/louisville-primary-2020-jefferson-county-officials-defend-1-poll-site/5220141002/
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/2020/04/24/coronavirus-kentucky-mail-voting-allowed-2020-primaries/3019216001/
https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2020/06/22/kentucky-officials-refute-primary-voter-suppression-claims/3235183001/
So many of these right wing accounts are just whiners now, this is a diatribe about automatic sinks and towels, the horror! As I explained in a prior post, most of the newer terminals have great bathrooms, some now have completely private stalls and plenty of them. The worst and most crowded airport bathrooms are invariably found in aging terminals that are decades old. It’s a reminder that airports were usually drab and uncomfortable.
I think the heyday of the air hand-dryers was like 15-20 years ago, where often you couldn’t find real towels. Now you can at least usually get real paper towels in airport bathrooms. Remember those old cloth roller towels that would go in a loop and somehow “clean” themselves? Yuck! Public bathrooms have always been gross, it seems some are deliberately having selective memories.
Airport food and drinks were always expensive, but now practically everyone brings those huge cooler flasks with them and fills them up. So not sure what he means that ...
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 ...
