The dystopian future of modern America Does Elon Musk know that his precious Republicans are waging a war against electric cars? They are… Electric vehicle drivers in Texas have started to get some bad news in the mail. Starting in September, they’ll have to pay the state an extra $200 each year to register their climate-friendly cars and trucks. And if they want to buy a new EV, that will cost $400 upfront. State lawmakers imposed the new fee on EVs this spring to replace gasoline taxes lost to the switch to battery-powered vehicles. Supporters say it ensures every driver pays their fair share. But the fee is nearly double what an average driver would pay in taxes at the pump, according to consumer advocates. Those moves have some EV advocates fuming — and will create new barriers to one of President Joe Biden’s signature climate policies. Unchanged since 1991, Texas’ gas tax is one of the cheapest in the country. Now, its new EV fees are among the most expensive. That’s no accident, experts and advocates say.
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Biden has always had a stutter and sometimes sounded garbled even when he was young. But this is something else. It isn’t just slurred and garbled, it’s completely incoherent. (Not to mention that he’s going full-on Flock of Seagulls with the hair.)
Buckle up “You could see this one coming a mile off,” snarked Charlie Pierce (Washington Post): A federal appeals court said Wednesday that it would restrict access to a widely used abortion medication after finding that the federal government did not follow the proper process when it loosened regulations in 2016 to make the pill more easily available. Food and Drug Administration decisions to allow the drug mifepristone to be taken later in pregnancy, be mailed directly to patients and be prescribed by a medical professional other than a doctor were not lawful, a three-judge panel of the conservative U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled. Mifepristone will remain available while the Department of Justice appeals the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court. “You damn bet it will,” Pierce continued. “Right into the lap of Justice Sam Alito, who will undoubtedly find some obscure codicil in the Code of Hammurabi to justify upholding the ruling of the 5th Circuit, which is the Uruk-Hai to Alito’s Saruman anyway.
You know he would J.V. Last considers how Donald Trump might stage his booking in Atlanta: From the time of his (latest) indictment, Donald Trump has 10 days to surrender himself to the authorities in Fulton County. The clock started running on August 14. Ten days takes us to August 24. You know what’s happening on August 23? It would not surprise me—at all—if Trump chooses to surrender himself on August 23. He’d then take over the entire news cycle that day with its wall-to-wall coverage of the fingerprinting and mugshot. And then Trump goes straight from the jail to a giant Trump rally that runs—and here I’m just spitballing—from 8-11pm ET. He would absolutely do that. It’s his style up one side and down the other. The entire Republican debate would be swamped. The candidates on the stage would have extra pressure to light themselves on fire in order to break through. And the second-day stories would be about how Trump schlonged Fox and the rest of the field. Trump isn’t smart, but he is cunning and he understands both power and weakness. And he sees the same things we’re all seeing.
Look who thinks she’s going to be president: Rep. Majorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) is looking at potential opportunities for higher office, including in the Senate or a potential second Trump administration. Greene has emerged as a key ally to both former President Trump and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.). In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published Wednesday, Greene didn’t rule out running for U.S. Senate in 2026, telling the outlet, “I haven’t made up my mind whether I will do that or not.” -She added: “I have a lot of things to think about. Am I going to be a part of President Trump’s Cabinet if he wins? Is it possible that I’ll be VP?”-Greene said would “very, very heavily” consider being Trump’s running mate if asked, saying it would be “an honor.”-The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
New polling on the Trump indictments: In a week where former President Donald Trump was indicted for a fourth time, a majority (63%) of Americans say that the charges approved by a grand jury in Georgia related to efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in the state are serious (47%) or somewhat serious (16%), according to a new ABC News/Ipsos poll. Trump’s latest indictment was handed up on Monday in Fulton County and charges him and 18 others in what District Attorney Fani Willis alleged was a “criminal racketeering enterprise to overturn Georgia’s presidential election results.” Trump maintains he did nothing wrong and has claimed the four cases against him are politically motivated and “un-American,” which prosecutors deny. He has pleaded not guilty to his three previous indictments but has not yet appeared in court in Georgia. The public’s view on the gravity of Trump’s latest charges is similar to an ABC News/Ipsos poll conducted in early August right after Trump was indicted by a federal grand jury in the nation’s capital on charges related to Jan.
That’s Trump pouting about his unflattering pictures. He’s not doing well. But he is strategic in one way. He’getting his racist base riled up about the Atlanta indictment” Huffington Post: Former White House communications director Alyssa Farah Griffin said she believes Donald Trump intentionally used the word “riggers” as a racial dog whistle following his Georgia indictment. Hours after Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis released the racketeering indictment charging Trump and 18 allies in a conspiracy to change Georgia’s 2020 election results, Trump raged against the case on his Truth Social platform. The former president claimed to have evidence that would lead to a “complete EXONERATION of him and his allies, adding: “They never went after those that Rigged the Election. They only went after those that fought to find the RIGGERS!” Many of his supporters quickly began using the term on far-right social media sites, some in a derogatory manner alluding to the racist slur.
I don’t understand why Georgia makes the names of jurors public but they really shouldn’t. Transparency is one thing. This is not that, especially in high profile cases. It’s reckless: Names, photographs, social media profiles and even the home addresses purportedly belonging to members of the Fulton County grand jury that this week voted to indict former President Donald Trump and 18 co-defendants are circulating on social media – with experts saying that some anonymous users are calling for violence against them. CNN cannot independently verify if the photographs, social media accounts and the homes addresses being posted actually belong to the grand jurors. However, the names being circulated on these sites appear to match the names of at least 13 of the 26 grand jurors that served on the panel in Fulton County. It’s unclear if those names are the actual grand jurors or just people with the same name. Some addresses appear to be wrong. Unlike the federal system, when someone is indicted in Fulton County, the indictment includes the names of all the grand jurors who served on the 26-member panel that handed up the charges.
this is concerning Via Salon: On May 11, 2023, the federal public health emergency declaration for COVID-19 came to an end. Only a few months later, and cases are already starting to surge across the country again . This decision was made despite emerging science surrounding long COVID – a condition in which symptoms of the disease linger for months or even years. While the general public ignores and downplays the risk of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, long COVID may well prove to be one of the biggest health problems of the 21st Century, presenting a real risk that a secondary pandemic of chronic illness will be overlooked. While things seem to be getting back to normal for most people, those with long COVID are still suffering – and this suffering will likely continue on indefinitely if nothing is done to change course.
With Republicans going insane, it’s an important backstop This article from the indispensable Bolts Magazine about the assault on the ballot in red states is well worth reading: The resounding defeat of Ohio’s Issue 1, a constitutional amendment that would have undercut direct democracy in the state, received wall-to-wall coverage last week because it salvaged the prospect that Ohioans may adopt a ballot measure protecting abortion rights in November. Abortion advocates rejoiced, but for some organizers watching around the country, the result was especially exhilarating because it spoke to the fight they’re going through in their own backyards to defend direct democracy. South Dakotans last year defeated an amendment similar to Ohio’s, which came on the heels of initiatives to increase the minimum wage and legalize cannabis and would have kneecapped a measure to expand Medicaid. In Arkansas, the GOP repeatedly asked voters to limit the initiative process but lost repeatedly at the polls; this year, they adopted new restrictions anyway.