It’s on the menu The Overton Window has shifted a lot on abortion what with the extremists deciding lately on a total ban with no exceptions and proposing to limit interstate travel etc. It wasn’t long ago that these ideas weren’t even discussed among “pro-lifers.” Now it’s a mainstream Republican position. Is that going to be enough for them? Not bloody likely. If you thought they cared about cute little babies, think again. This is really what it’s all about: A new pro-forced pregnancy proposal in the South Carolina General Assembly that would make people who obtain abortion care eligible for the death penalty was portrayed as coming from the fringes of the Republican Party by one GOP lawmaker—but with 21 state Republicans backing the legislation, critics said the idea is representative of the party’s anti-choice agenda. Proposed by state Rep.
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I think the DeSantis ad is better but they played it at the NRA convention and Trump was received with rapturous applause. The pudding ad is one of those ads that will stick even though it’s icky. I call it a draw.
Right wing legal extremists have a cunning plan to “fix” the border Gregg Abbot hasn’t signed off on it yet but he’s ready: One of the more insidious elements of Texas’ attempt to annex immigration enforcement away from the federal government comes down to its justification. Proponents, like the author of the hard-line HB20, state Rep. Matt Schaefer (R), say that Texas faces an “invasion” from Mexico, specifying that drug cartels trafficking fentanyl constitute a threat to the state of Texas. It’s not only a way to inflate the sense of crisis and potentially set the stage for a sea change in national immigration policy; it could, far-right lawmakers theorize, allow the state to seize border enforcement powers from the federal government. During an invasion, the Constitution says, states have a right to defend themselves. Declaring an invasion under Article 1, Section 10 of the U.S.
It’s not good news for the forced birth zealots: A big majority of Americans want to see the abortion pill mifepristone remain available. Even some who are more generally opposed to abortion hold this view. On a broader level, American women feel access to reproductive health care is getting harder today rather than easier, by about four to one. There’s a red-blue state divide on the outlook for abortion rights: most who live in “red” states think abortion access is going to become more restricted for them. But people see national agendas at work from the parties, nonetheless: half of Americans, and especially those who want abortion to be legal, think the Republican Party is trying to ban it nationwide, rather than let states decide. And most think Democrats are trying to make abortion available nationwide.
Ten years ago Edward Snowden was helped to escape by Wikileaks and to publish his revelations by The Intercept, Guardian, New York Times and others. In 2023 Jack Texeira is tracked down by UK secret service front Bellingcat in conjunction with the New York Times and in parallel with the Washington Post, not to help […]
The post Snowden and Texeira: Ten Years of Disaster appeared first on Craig Murray.
Just a couple of years ago the NRA was on the skids, overwhelmed with scandal and financial malfeasance. Apparently its members are fine with all that. Wayne LaPierre, who stole vast sums from the organization is still at the helm and he spoke to rapturous applause — as did a bunch of others. Some highlights from Aaron Rupar. (You can subscribe to his substack here.) Wayne LaPierre says at the NRA event that "gun hating politicians should never go to bed unafraid of what this association and all of our millions of members can do to their political careers" 😳 holy shit Pence is getting booed loudly at the NRA event "We don't need gun control" — Pence at the NRA forum blames recent mass shooting on trans people and mental illness and tries to absolve guns Pence calls for armed guards in every school in America Pence calls for mass shooters to be put to death within months the NRA forum is not especially pumped about Asa Hutchinson's veiled shots at Trump DeSantis is doing a video message to the NRA forum instead of being there in person. Low energy.
Even small rural towns balk at destroying libraries: It isn’t every day that the ruminations of local bureaucrats in a small rural Texas county become national news. But when commissioners in Llano County — population 21,000 — voted Thursday to keep its three-branch library system open, the moment was closely monitored by the biggest news organizations in the country. That’s because Llano County has become a national symbol of local right-wing censorship efforts after officials threatened to close its libraries entirely rather than allow offending materials to remain on shelves. Under intense scrutiny, the commission blinked. Its leader acknowledged feeling pressure from “social media” and “news media.” The commissioners’ apparent reluctance for Llano to be seen as a locus of censorship points to an unexpected development: Skirmishes emanating from book bans at schools and libraries in red states and counties, once localized affairs, are becoming viral national sensations. And the American mainstream appears to be paying attention.
Charlie Pierce on the recording obtained by the Tennessee Holler which shows the conversation among those pigs in the legislature after they expelled the two Justins: Much of the first part of the recording consists of a re-education session aimed at Rep. Jody Barrett, who jumped the fence after voting to expel the two Black guys and voted against expelling the white lady. The other members of the congregation jumped all over Barrett allegedly because he didn’t give the GOP leadership a heads-up, but really because expelling the two Black guys and not expelling the white lady made the rest of the House majority look…racist. Rep.Jason Zachary found his dudgeon achieving orbit status. They then dogpiled on Barrett for a while. But the full aria came from Rep. Scott Cepicky, who looked out from the height of his seat representing District 64 and saw armageddon approaching from all sides. Cepicky sought to steel his comrades against the onslaught of wokeness, inconsistent pronouns, and books about gay penguins. And, Lord have mercy on him, he actually resorted to profanity. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the Republican farm team.
Directing shame outward “One of the great ironies about 2016,” writes The Bulwark’s Jonathan Last, “is that Hillary Clinton was right,” if impolitic, in how she described a third of the GOP. Over at The Atlantic, Peter Wehner writes about the attack of Trumpism we all witnessed last week by Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives. “[C]oming from a party whose sensibilities and racial attitudes are embodied by Donald Trump,” we should hardly have been surprised by their overreaction to Black activist members. Memphis wasn’t exactly hospitable to Rev. Martin Luther King in March of 1968, either. The more things change, etc. MAGA Republicans want not only to roll back the 20th century, they want to roll back Reconstruction. Nullification is back, fof heaven’s sake. Wehner suggests that the GOP knows it made a deal with “a demonic force” and is secretly ashamed: The human mind’s capacity to rationalize such things is extraordinary, but not limitless. Some Republicans have the sense, even if it’s only in their quiet moments, that they have acted not only hypocritically but dishonorably.