And it will probably work… Will they fall for this? The Christian Right has said they believe abortion is murder and Roe v. Wade created a genocide. Now Trump’s saying they need to set that aside so he can win the election. He may know them better than most people think. After all, these people who believe it’s murder and genocide have spent the last five decades saying they just wanted to “let the states decide” when that was a total lie. So why not? They’re political actors not religious people.
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2024 Laboratories of Autocracy competition David Pepper, former Ohio Democrats’ state chair, calls GOP-led legislatures such as in Wisconsin, Ohio, and North Carolina laboratories of autocracy. But really, must they be so competitive about which is worst? Here in N.C., Democrats are trying to organize for 2024 beginning with the March primary. But since rules and the district lines keep moving, how to do it? Voters will need photo IDs this time. Do they know? And which type? Under Covid, use of voting by mail skyrocketed. His Indictedness disapproved. Now N.C. Republicans mean to make voting by mail more unwiedly and mailed ballots less likely to be counted. So Democrats over the next year will advise voters against their use. State and federal districts will be different in 2024. Again. (I’ve lost count of how many times over the last dozen years.) The N.C. GOP will hold a couple of public hearings about new N.C. districts that are already predetermined. The meetings are meant to be pro forma and unattended. Ask Pepper. This is what his looked like the other day in Ohio: The Ohio state Supreme Court declared Republicans’ gerrymandered maps illegal too.
It’s unprecedented: His decision to stand alongside the striking workers represents perhaps the most significant display of union solidarity ever by a sitting president. Biden’s announcement comes a week after he expressed solidarity with the UAW and said he “understand[s] the workers’ frustration.” The announcement of his trip was seen as a seismic moment within certain segments of the labor community. “Pretty hard-core,” said one union adviser, who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Biden had earlier attempted to send acting Labor Secretary Julie Su and senior adviser Gene Sperling, who has been the White House’s point person throughout the negotiations, to Detroit to assist with negotiations. However, the administration subsequently stood down following conversations with the union. Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said earlier Friday it was a “mutually agreed upon decision.” The president’s plans come as some Democrats have begun to question his response to the strike, recognizing that he needs the full backing of union workers in his presidential reelection bid.
Brace for “both sides” on steroids Some musings on the Menendez case and more. ICYMI (ABC News): A federal grand jury in New York has returned a sweeping indictment against United States Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the powerful Foreign Relations Committee, in connection with improper foreign relations and business dealings. The investigation focused on a luxury car, gold bars and an apartment allegedly received by Menendez and his wife, Nadine Arslanian. His wife was also indicted. This is the second time Menendez has been charged with corruption. “A 2015 indictment ended in a mistrial in 2018 after a jury failed to reach a verdict on all counts and a judge acquitted him on some charges.” This time he stands accused of accepting bribes in exchange for using his foreign affairs clout to help Egypt. He says he will not resign. I joked online Friday that all Menendez need do now is switch parties. The GOP will welcome him openly (see NC state Rep. Tricia Cotham), fundraise for his defense, and claim the indictment is a politically motivated act against a Republican by a “weaponized” Biden Department of Justice.
I blame Trump. And Newt Gingrich Pew has a new survey. America is a culture in distress. After what we’ve been through how could it be any other way? The rightwingers have been brainwashed by Fox, Trump and the erstwhile conservative movement to believe that liberals are destroying their way of life and must be stopped at all costs and the rest of us can see that the right has gone batshit crazy because of it. A comprehensive new Pew Research Center study of the state of the nation’s politics finds no single focal point for the public’s dissatisfaction. There is widespread criticism of the three branches of government, both political parties, as well as political leaders and candidates for office. Notably, Americans’ unhappiness with politics comes at a time of historically high levels of voter turnout in national elections. The elections of 2018, 2020 and 2022 were three of the highest-turnout U.S. elections of their respective types in decades. But voting in elections is very different from being satisfied with the state of politics – and the public is deeply dissatisfied. Just 4% of U.S.
I’m sure you’ve read all about the potential impeachment of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janet Protasiewicz in Wisconsin despite her recent massive electoral win because of her promise to revisit the gerrymander laws in the state which have given Republicans a huge majority.I had not heard that there was a precedent for this back in 2018. Bolts magazine has the story: Margaret Workman is watching Wisconsin Republicans threaten Justice Janet Protasiewicz with impeachment from several states away. But she can relate to Protasiewicz like very few can. Workman sat on West Virginia’s supreme court in 2018—one of the three Democratic justices in the court’s majority—when Republican lawmakers decided to impeach that entire court.
Defend science There was nobody to defend Galileo back in the day. There’s no excuse for that sort of thing now. Dr. Peter Hotez wrote this: Nearly a century ago, when global dominance in scientific research began shifting to the United States from Europe, our nation built an empire firmly grounded in the natural sciences. America’s research universities and institutes flourished and provided the discoveries leading to the Manhattan Project, Silicon Valley’s tech industry, NASA and space exploration, vaccines to fight polio and other global infections, and new treatments for cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes and depression. As a science envoy for the State Department, I saw first-hand how global leaders and technocrats admired the U.S. for its higher education system of scientific training and support. They spoke to me with pride about their time spent at U.S. universities or their hopes and aspirations that one day their sons and daughters might study here. I have devoted my life to vaccine science.
He hates Trump but he just couldn’t quit him Michelle Goldberg read the new Michael Wolfe book about the malevolent Rupert Murdoch which was perfectly timed to coincide with Rupert’s retirement: In his tortured enabling of Trump, Murdoch seems the ultimate symbol of a feckless and craven conservative establishment, overmatched by the jingoist forces it encouraged and either capitulating to the ex-president or shuffling pitifully off the public stage. “Murdoch was as passionate in his Trump revulsion as any helpless liberal,” writes Wolff. The difference is that Murdoch’s helplessness was a choice. Few people bear more responsibility for Trump than Murdoch. Fox News gave Trump a regular platform for his racist lies about Barack Obama’s birthplace. It immersed its audience in a febrile fantasy world in which all mainstream sources of information are suspect, a precondition for Trump’s rise.
Kevin McCarthy’s constituents watch Fox News LA Times columnist Mark Z. Barabak went to Kevin McCarthy’s district and did some man-on-the-street interviews asking The People what they thought about impeaching Joe Biden. Julian Perea doesn’t hate Joe Biden. If anything, he feels bad for him, given his age and what Perea regards as the president’s severe mental and physical impairment. “The guy is out of it,” Perea said. Even so, the retired Fresno police officer is glad the House of Representatives — led by his congressman, Speaker Kevin McCarthy — has taken the first step toward impeaching the president. “We as conservatives need to fight back,” said Perea, who served more than three decades in the Army and sprinkled his views with several references to war and warfare. “You have to keep the enemy off balance at all times.” . . . “I think it’s a great idea,” said Claudia Warkentin of Biden’s impeachment. The 43-year-old political independent lives in Clovis, a Fresno suburb, and works in the waste-management industry.