Since when do you need ID to go into a bathroom? (That apparently happened some years ago but you can bet it’s happening today.) Take a look at these horrible people who are institutionalizing more of this grotesque nonsense: Members of the conservative parental rights group Moms for Liberty are known for making impassioned and sometimes spicy speeches to school boards to complain that teachers are supposedly indoctrinating students. This can include mothers, often in the group’s trademark tee, standing at a lectern reading sex scenes from books they deem inappropriate to have near their children. Supporters post videos of these speeches, some of which have gone viral. And the group has claimed success, pointing to growing membership nationwide as well as policies and elections going their way. But because Moms for Liberty is working on such a local level, opponents have found plenty of opportunities to take action. “I just got back from forcibly re-closeting myself for 90 minutes to infiltrate a Moms for Liberty meeting. … I got so much juice!” a TikTok user who goes by Morgan Howls said in a video.
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This has an air of desperation to it, I’m afraid. They are flailing around with one investigation after another, now this nonsense based on the Durham dud. But it does serve one purpose. it keeps the Trump cult conspiracy nuts excited. But I’m fairly sure that if they launch yet another crusade against Hillary Clinton the general public will not be amused.
There’s lots of reporting that the GOP primary field is about to get very crowded. Christie, Sununu, Youngkin, a Dakota Governor nobody’s ever heard of on top of already announced DeSantis, Nikki Haley and Tim Scott are preparing to run against Donald Trump. Why is this happening when it was assumed that the smart move for the party was to field just one opponent to confront Trump? Well… Meatball Ron just isn’t making anybody’s heart beat faster: No seasoned, successful politician runs for president without a theory of the case — a detailed and plausible path to victory. And as more prospective candidates surface, it’s becoming clearer what’s at the heart of those plans: a growing belief within the party that DeSantis is a paper tiger. At one time, the Florida governor looked to be the candidate best positioned to knock off Trump, en route to finishing off President Joe Biden. DeSantis was Trump without the baggage — and 32 years younger. He was coming off an epic 2022 reelection victory in the nation’s third-largest state, marked by Florida’s biggest winning margin in 40 years.
“Government spends too much” is back We know how this goes. When Republicans lack the ability to control the fate of legislation, they are born-again, small-government fundamentalists. Government is too big. Government spends too much (on the Irresponsibles). Deficits must be brought under control! Then when they hold the White House, they backslide. Tax cuts : GOOD. Deficits : MEANINGLESS. But the push-pull budgeting conversation is too wonky for the general public to wrap its brain around. To default or not to default is an inside-the-Beltway drama. Or one for G7 leaders to fret over. Until it tanks your retirement fund or hammers the dollar. The remoteness makes it difficult for the left to effectively exploit the shameless flip-floppiness of conservative lawmakers on spending. The only people paying attention are the people already paying attention. Speaker Kevin McCarthy issued one of his “stubborn aphorisms” on the subject on Friday: “Washington has to spend less.” “And indeed, Washington could spend less,” responds Prem Thakker at The New Republic.
A mother’s reply to bills targeting her kid After Nebraska passed its 12-week abortion ban last week (attached to a bill restricting “gender-affirming care for people younger than 19”), Spocko tweeted out a tee shirt he helped design last year. He got my attention. Spocko is very good at that. NPR reported: Conservative lawmakers called in a visibly ill colleague so they would have enough votes to end a filibuster and pass a bill with both measures. Republican Gov. Jim Pillen, who pushed for the bill, has promised to sign it into law. The mood in the Nebraska Capitol has been volatile since lawmakers on Tuesday advanced by a single vote the hybrid measure that ties together restrictions that Republicans have pursued across the U.S. One lawmaker, Omaha state Sen. Megan Hunt, disclosed in March that her teenage son is transgender and said Friday that she now plans to leave the state. In case you missed Hunt’s response from the floor, here it is: “I’m asking you to love your family more than you hate mine.” Her GOP colleagues don’t. They demonstrated that by their actions and their votes. And the tee shirt.
where gender-nonconformity hurt you Real Americans™ might want to reevaluate their life choices. People who complain loudest about having political opponents forcing randy random things down their throats have a new obsession, says Kat Abughazaleh of Media Matters. It’s piss. * And transphobia. This would be embarrassing if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was capable of it (Al Jazeera): Most recently, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is expected to announce his bid to be the Republican presidential nominee, signed bills that ban gender-affirming care for minors, restrict chosen pronoun use in schools and force people to use the bathroom corresponding with their sex assigned at birth. Lydia Polgreen adds in The New York Times: The new bathroom law is particularly cruel and absurd. Politicians claim these measures seek to make bathrooms safer. But I have yet to see any of these legislators produce a shred of credible evidence that transgender people pose a safety threat to cisgender people in bathrooms. […] Bathrooms have long been porcelain crucibles for our deepest fears and anxieties.
Against committed clowns Scott Lemieux comments at Lawyers, Guns & Money on our authoritarian party’s redefinition of freedom. Lemieux referenced Jamelle Bouie’s helpful reframing of FDR’s Four Freedoms as an antimatter version for the MAGA party. It is a repudiation of everything conservatives once claimed to hold sacred and didn’t. But you knew that.
Hyperbole much? Move over Jim Crow, we had to wear a mask and stay home during a pandemic for a few weeks. The humanity. That’s a Supreme Court Justice saying that. My God. I guess the next time we get hit with a new deadly virus for which humans have no immunity (and we will) we’ll just go about our business and pretend it isn’t happening. No need to try to save lives. Just let ‘er rip. We have lost 1.1 million people in the US in the last three years to this virus. We would have lost many times that without the mitigation efforts and the vaccines. And I guess that would be just fine — preferable, actually.
I can’t bring myself to write about the debt ceiling debacle again. I had foolishly thought the Democrats had a specific back-up plan for when the lunatics in the House decided to crash the economy for shits and giggles. Anyone could have seen they would try to do that. But apparently the White House and the Dem leadership didn’t see that coming? Really? But a huge part of the problem is, as usual, the way the media is covering the issue. Anyway this piece from TNR spells out the current dilemma: Having watched Capitol Hill fall into chaotic convulsions over the debt ceiling a million times before, I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to properly negotiate your way through a debt ceiling crisis is to not negotiate at all. But it would seem, for the moment, that President Biden is going to dip a toe in those waters and fashion some sort of compromise. A deal may not be possible; it won’t take but a handful of House Republicans to scuttle any sort of bipartisan offering. So it may be too early to say that Biden is breaking his vow not to repeat the mistakes his former boss made in 2011.
Many transgender bills are authored by experts in hate It’s the usual suspects: At least 17 states have enacted laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, though judges have temporarily blocked their enforcement in some, including Arkansas. An Associated Press analysis found that often those bills sprang not from grassroots or constituent demand, but from the pens of a handful of conservative interest groups. Many of the proposals, as introduced or passed, are identical or very similar to some model legislation, the AP found. Those ready-made bills have been used in statehouses for decades, often with criticisms of carpetbagging by out-of-state interests. In the case of restrictions on gender-affirming care for youths, they allow a handful of far-right groups to spread a false narrative based on distorted science, critics say. “These are solutions from outside our state looking to solve nonexistent problems inside our state,” said Aaron Jennen.