Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. let’s win this.

It’s a new day. Light all those Biden polls of young people on fire and throw away the ashes.

Republicans would impeach Biden if he bit into a whole Kit Kat rather than breaking the sections apart.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

Second rate reporter says what?

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Bad people in a position to do bad things will do bad things because they are bad people. End of story.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

You are here: Home / Elections / Election 2020 / Friday Morning Open Thread: We Fight On (Because We Have No Choice)

Friday Morning Open Thread: We Fight On (Because We Have No Choice)

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A federal judge will fast-track a decision on President Trump’s bid to quash a House subpoena for financial records from his accounting firm, saying he will decide the full case, not just whether to temporarily block the subpoena while the case proceeds, after a hearing Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta made his announcement Thursday in a brief notice to both sides after receiving a first round of written arguments in the case. The lawsuit was brought April 22 by Trump and several of his businesses against House Oversight Committee Chairman Elijah E. Cummings (D-Md.) and Trump’s accounting firm…

Mehta, an Obama appointee confirmed in 2014, gave all sides until Monday to file any further comments ahead of oral arguments previously set for 11 a.m. Tuesday in Washington.

The announcement means that any appeal of a decision in the case could reach an appeals court by the summer…

Cummings’s committee has called Trump’s bid to quash the subpoena a long-shot bid to delay the unearthing of politically damaging information about Trump until after the 2020 election, and to obscure from the public ongoing conflicts of interest by officials charged with executing the nation’s laws.

“Trump’s attacks on the Committee’s investigations amount to nothing more than political histrionics and hyperbole,” the panel’s lawyers wrote, calling the subpoena consistent with Congress’s duties to weigh legislation, conduct oversight, manage spending of tax dollars and informing the public…

Reader Interactions

145Comments

  1. 1.

    Shalimar

    I haven’t even thought of de Blasio long enough to rule him out. I guess we have to see whose ass he is kissing most to decide whose VP he wants to be.

    It is good to see that those paying attention know enough about Gabbard to dislike her.

  4. 4.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Florida’s new law allowing teachers to carry guns in their classrooms is largely impotent, research by the Guardian has found, with dozens of school districts across the state rejecting the controversial measure.

    Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, signed the bill into law on Wednesday that expands a campus “armed guardian” program established in the wake of the 2018 Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school massacre to include trained teacher volunteers.

    According to the Republican lawmakers who pushed through the bill last week despite criticism from teachers, gun safety groups and several law enforcement agencies, the move was designed to improve the security of students, especially in rural counties where a police response to any incident could be slower.

    But after leaving Florida’s 67 counties to make their own decision about allowing teachers to participate, the scale of opposition quickly became apparent. Following the bill’s passage, the Guardian canvassed the 25 largest school districts by size, covering more than 2.3 million of the state’s 2.8 million school-age children, and established from interviews, a study of public statements and resolutions passed by school board members, that none were planning to allow their teachers to be armed.

    I guess Flori-Duh man isn’t allowed in school.

  5. 5.

    NotMax

    On this day in 1872, Victoria Woodhull became the first woman nominated as a candidate for U.S. president, by the Equal Rights party. Her running mate was Frederick Douglass.

  7. 7.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: My county is one of the stupid rural ones that is considering it, but basically, the armed teachers provision was the wingnut FL legislature’s sop to the NRA after passing timid, weak reforms in the wake of the Parkland massacre. Good to know it’s mostly smoke and mirrors.

  8. 8.

    OzarkHillbilly

    If you need a good laugh: Drugs, guns and politics collided in the small town of Port Richey. Two mayors went to jail.
    A very Florida investigation

    Two months before the 2015 election — with Massad running to be mayor — his girlfriend called the police. She said people were hiding in the air-conditioning vents of Massad’s home. Officers found Massad searching for the intruders with a flashlight and a loaded gun. He said he’d been partying but denied using drugs. No intruders were found.

    And that was just one of 59 police reports.

  10. 10.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Betty Cracker: Yep:

    “I would love to say it’s encouraging that the majority of our students won’t be in harm’s way, however it will be the rural school districts that will suffer the most,” said Gay Valimont, the volunteer leader of the Florida chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “We’re here to save the most lives and even if it’s putting [just] a fraction of our children in danger then it’s an ill-conceived bill.”

  12. 12.

    Betty Cracker

    @OzarkHillbilly: She’s correct. Still, it’s somewhat encouraging that even the yahoos in my county aren’t rushing to arm teachers. There was talk about it, but it looks like it’s going nowhere.

    Meanwhile, now there’s a waiting period for gun purchases in FL, the age for gun purchases has been raised from 18 to 21, and the red flag law that enables authorities to seize guns from people who are a danger to themselves or others is on the books. All this was done last year under a horrible Republican governor and a wretched GOP statehouse over the loud and threatening objections of the state’s powerful NRA lobbyist, who is used to literally writing laws for a rubber stamp.

    In that context, these reforms are a stunning accomplishment, and the credit goes to the Parkland kids. I remember posting something here shortly after the Parkland massacre about sensing a shift in attitudes and a possibility that finally something would change. I got razzed by our occasional gun nut commenter for that. Ha! :)

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘We’re in constant crisis’: cyclone-hit reservation forced to recover on its own

    Donald Trump approved a national disaster declaration for Nebraska and Iowa in March after the cyclone hit the region, providing federal funding to impacted individuals and communities in those states. But in South Dakota, Native Americans on the Pine Ridge Reservation hit by the same storm have been forced to try to recover on their own.

    “Imagine 1,000 families stranded. Imagine families subsisting on $10,000 to $20,000 a year. We’re living in a constant crisis,” said Chase Iron Eyes, public relations director for the Oglala Lakota nation who resides on the Pine Ridge Reservation. “We’re survivors. We’re surviving these circumstances meant to bring about our extinction. If you’ve ever heard the phrase ‘poverty is violence’, you just have to come to Pine Ridge to see what that means.”

    More than a month after the bomb cyclone hit, many roads remain unusable and dozens of homes are still inaccessible from main roads. The Oglala Lakota nation is currently circulating a petition for Trump to provide federal disaster relief to the Pine Ridge Reservation.

    This is the second storm within a year that badly damaged the Poafpybitty’s home. Last July, their home was one of hundreds of houses on Pine Ridge badly damaged by a storm that included baseball-sized hail, his roof, windows and house siding still scarred from the damage. Fema (Federal Emergency Management Agency) denied requested assistance to the Oglala Lakota nation after that storm, leaving residents to live with the damage to their homes and gradually make repairs as they can.
    …………………………
    Nearly a year after the July 2018 hailstorm, about half of the damaged homes are still not repaired. Many residents lived in darkness for months, with just plastic wrap and blankets used to cover broken windows to try to keep out South Dakota’s brutally cold winter air in homes where heating, electricity and access to clean water are already substandard or nonexistent.

    Now the residents of Pine Ridge are recovering without any federal support again.
    ……………………..
    The Oglala Lakota nation is in the process of assessing the extent of the damages in order to file a formal request for funding to Fema. The South Dakota state legislature passed a resolution urging South Dakota senators and the state’s lone congressional representative to seek an emergency declaration from Trump, but no action has been taken by the Trump administration.

    “We’re trying to get our preliminary damage assessments done by May 10,” said tribal member Del Brewer, a former hazard specialist with Fema for 16 years who is helping the tribe’s emergency management team. “Right now, we can’t get to some of these families without burying our vehicles in the mud.” Brewer noted at least one person has died so far from the flooding due to being unable to get out to their dialysis treatment.
    …………………………
    A Fema spokesperson told the Guardian in an email in regards to Fema’s denial of assistance to the reservation after the July 2018 storm, “requests for major disaster declarations are decided by the president, and the region is not always informed of how or why decisions are reached”. The spokesperson added the South Dakota governor has not yet formally requested a disaster declaration from Trump.

    As the disaster continues to take it toll, locals seem almost resigned to government inaction. “We do everything on our own. We don’t rely on anyone anymore, but we’re poor. We make do with what we have,” Poafpybitty said.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    $32 billion

    Loss in gross domestic product that Texas could suffer in a three-month span from increased wait times at the state’s ports of entry. In March, the Trump administration ordered hundreds of customs officers to instead help the U.S. Border Patrol, potentially slowing down trade with Mexico.

    https://www.governing.com/daily-digit/32-billion.html

  18. 18.

    hueyplong

    One of Nixon’s worst torments in hell is seeing the propaganda support for Trump and spending eternity wishing he had had Majority Leader McConnell.

  19. 19.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: I’m right here! Driving my big manly 4×4 half ton pick up with the wimpy assed Hillary sticker on the bumper and an “Impeach trump” sticker in the window. I’m a rolling interview just waiting to be asked some questions while I eat breakfast at the Do Kum Inn! (which really is a great place for breakfast)

  20. 20.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A chimpanzee in a suit. It’s a racist caricature associated with times gone by – ones we’d like to imagine we had left behind in the 20th century, a period characterised by segregation, dehumanisation and, well, comparing black people to animals. So understandably, all hell broke loose on Wednesday when the BBC Radio 5 Live presenter Danny Baker tweeted a picture of a couple with an ape descending a flight of steps, captioned: “Royal baby leaves hospital.”
    ……………………………
    Although Baker says he would have made the joke about any child,

    Right.

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Dude, send The Guardian an email pitching the story. I would love to read that.

    You could even explain how you’re a white male Dem who doesn’t support Bernie. That would blow their minds.

  24. 24.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud:

    You could even explain how you’re a white male Dem who doesn’t support Bernie.

    It would never see the light of day. Maybe the NYT?

  27. 27.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    The red flag laws are good. If they don’t have a red flag law they have to use a law that may be too broad and really doesn’t fit- like having the person adjudicated incompetent or putting in a whole patchwork of protection orders. The idea is to use the least restrictive option and if they don’t have the option of taking the gun and leaving all the other rights in place then they’ll limit some other rights in order to reach the gun. That already happens, it’s just that no one admits it. So two people with mental illness- one with a gun, one without. The person with the gun will get the whole gamut of restrictions while the person without will get “least restrictive” because they have to get the gun away and they don’t have a tailored way to do that. It is often the first thing judges ask “are there guns in the home?” – everything after flows from that “yes” or “no”.

  29. 29.

    Raven

    Another repost: Beach chronicle day five. A brutal south-southeast wind made the morning fishing like losing a prize fight. I finally decided to take a break and hoped the wind would “lie down”. It did and one of the chair/umbrella guys came down to fish at sunset. They didn’t know a great deal about surf fishing so we chatted some and I cut up a ladyfish for bait. One of the guys was casting away when he got hit by a nice big redfish. It was quite a fight for him but he got it in. I cleaned it for him down and the beach and they went on their merry way. Two days ago I landed a lunker and, with the help of a great guy I got to know on the beach, I landed it. It was almost as exhilarating helping someone else as it was to catch one myself. I think I’ll stick with this here fishin!?????????

  30. 30.

    Immanentize

    People like using past elections as analogy for this one…. Can we start saying Bernie is the Jeb Bush of this cycle?

  32. 32.

    satby

    Public service announcement: Saturday is the mail carriers food drive “Stamp Out Hunger”. I know the mail carriers here are very enthused about it but worried it won’t be as successful as past years. So if you can leave some non-perishable food out in a bag for your letter carrier tomorrow it would be great and for a good cause. All food goes to local food pantries.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    This is how dumb, impractical policies operate in real life. Gun nuts can insist no one can take the gun. Okay. But the fact is they have to get it, because guns make dangerous people more dangerous. So they’ll just use another law and we’ll all pretend it isn’t about the gun.

    Refusing to take the guns out of the homes of teenagers with mental illness just means we take the teenager out of the home, or remove them from school. You are a danger to yourself and others but you won’t give up your arsenal? Ok. Then you get adjudicated incompetent and lose all your rights, because they’re not leaving you with an arsenal. What they have done by refusing to put any laws in specific to guns is to force police and judges to use the laws they have, which restrain people. They already do this, because all of their worst nightmare is they don’t do anything and there is a gun slaughter the next day, one that can be tied to their individual decision to do nothing.

  40. 40.

    debbie

    Last night, Colbert ran a clip of Trump at his rally saying there was “essentially no collusion.” Let him go on long enough with these incremental adjustments and he’ll be escorting himself out of the White House and into prison before too long!

  41. 41.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: Never thought about it from that perspective, but that makes sense. If guns are sacred artifacts that aren’t subject to restrictions, the courts and cops have to find alternate ways to address the danger.

  42. 42.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    What I love is how we all have to pretend this isn’t happening, because we CANNOT, MUST NOT, mention guns. Dumb asses are losing a whole suite of rights in efforts to reach the guns. If they would just put in gun laws schools wouldn’t have to use “expulsion” as a gun law. Often it is the deciding factor. Two similarly situated mentally ill adults who reach the “safety” level for the state, one armed, the other not. They don’t treat those two people the same. Because they’re not the same. One is more dangerous. I tell people flat-out because it’s the truth. “If you can get the gun away from him voluntarily he can probably stay in the home and get ‘least restrictive”. They can turn them in to the sheriff. He must have hundreds.

    They’re not leaving them any choice. Dump this impossible problem in their laps and they will DO something. They’ll use a broader law, like expulsion from school for teenagers or removal from the home or the incompetency laws in the probate code or protection orders or “disorderly conduct” or jail. These are not “gun laws” but they’re used to limit the risk from guns. Gun nuts refusal to regulate guns is causing this.

  43. 43.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    The last time the World Cup Series champions Boston Red Socks visited the White House

    (Photo #1)

    (Photo #2)

    Once inside the White House grounds, we were escorted to seats on the South Lawn. I spotted the actor Denis Leary.

    We have a lot in common if you leave out the millions of dollars and the acting credits. We’re both Massachusetts natives and attended the same college, Emerson, in downtown Boston. After chit-chatting for a few minutes, I asked him “What’s more fun, making movies or coming here?”

    “Are you kidding me,” he said. “This is amazing, I can’t believe it. This is one of the best days of my life.”

    (Photo #3)

  45. 45.

    Catherine D.

    @satby: My mail carrier left a plastic bag printed with a logo for the food pickup. I’m picking up stuff this afternoon.

  46. 46.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    I think the gun nuts are essentially waiting to see how much is too much for the Roberts 5. Until then, they are always going to try to push the envelope.

  47. 47.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @Kay: The gun nuts like to say guns don’t kill people. People kill people. But it’s people-with-guns, which is a whole different thing.

    I like how out of step the Fla legislature is with its citizenry. Lobby money squeals the loudest, I guess.

  49. 49.

    Another Scott

    @Kay: I don’t know if this (in Northern California) qualifies as a “red flag law”, but it seems like a very good idea (especially these days).

    Preventing terrorist or other criminal activities and emergencies is much easier and more effective than reacting to the aftermath. And it saves lives.

    That’s why the NCRIC encourages you to contact your local law enforcement agency with tips on wanted individuals, unsolved crimes or potential threats.

    For urgent threats and incidents Dial 911 or the FBI -JTTF at (415) 553-7400. For non-urgent tips or leads, call 1-866-FOR-TTIP 1-866-367-8847 (24/7) Or, Email: [email protected]

    […]

    Too many people are ignoring norms and threatening people (either because of medical issues (lead exposure, meth, stroke, etc.), or because they’re stupid monsters). It needs to stop, and those subject to such threats need to speak up.

    Every state needs to have such reporting policies, and to get the word out. (And malicious false reports need to be punished, also too, of course.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  51. 51.

    Baud

    On Today this morning, sharks are apparently amassing on the east coast.

    I for one welcome our new shark overlords.

  52. 52.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    We’re getting light rain here in Beautiful Downtown Glendale, I looked at the radar and noticed that one of the locations I was thinking of for a lakeside Milky Way shot is getting snow(it’s in the Sierra).

  58. 58.

    --bd

    @satby: SSDD? Yes, I know what it means. But I am of the age where my first reading of the acronym was Single Sided, Double Density. And I haven’t used 5 1/2 inch floppies in over 30 years.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    If the Connecticut school shooter had been removed from his mother’s home and placed somewhere appropriate for a clearly troubled individual- appropriate and gun-free, that slaughter wouldn’t have occurred. Hell, if she had just provided weapons with less capacity we could have limited the casualties. He wouldn’t have been able to cause all that damage with a handgun, which we know since we have handgun school shootings too, so we can compare. Since we can’t regulate guns we’ll have to regulate homes and children. Choose.

  62. 62.

    MomSense

    Apparently the NGA analyst who leaked classified documents about the drone program was burned by the Intercept. Um, wasn’t it DRONEZ that supposedly turned Greenwald against Obama and Dems?

    Anyone who fell for anything he was selling got played.

  64. 64.

    OzarkHillbilly

    Last November, as he rallied support for federal prison reform, Donald Trump visited Gulfport, Mississippi, touting the legislation and what Mississippi had accomplished. Trump talked about the “fantastic job” that the Mississippi corrections commissioner, Pelicia Hall, was doing of turning the state’s prisons into places that train inmates for jobs. The following month, Trump signed the First Step Act, which aims to reduce the federal prison population and better prepare offenders for life outside bars.

    Yet the implementation of Mississippi’s reforms has been marked by broken promises and a lack of funding, according to interviews, data and documents reviewed by the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica. The Mississippi law promised to send offenders to drug courts for treatment rather than to prison; provide ID cards to all offenders leaving prison to help them secure housing and jobs; offer training for offenders eligible for parole; and keep offenders guilty of technical probation violations from returning to prison. But in each case, those efforts have faltered.

    When the state governor, Phil Bryant, a Republican, signed house bill 585 into law in 2014, the measure drew widespread praise from conservatives and liberals alike because it promised to reduce the prison population, save millions and reinvest some of the money into programs for offenders. Instead, all of those savings have gone back into the state’s coffers, helping to pay for huge corporate tax cuts at a time the state was struggling to meet revenue estimates.

    Over five years, the Mississippi Department of Corrections spent $185m less in total than it would have had its budget remained at the level it was in 2014. The department’s $347m budget for the coming fiscal year is $30m less than it was in 2014. Meanwhile, the number of prisoners is creeping back up, and the lack of funding and staff is contributing to worsening conditions. Over the rest of this year, the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica will explore those conditions.

    Republicans, same as they ever were.

    Experts say Mississippi provides a cautionary tale for the nation as it implements the First Step Act.

    Buyer beware.

  66. 66.

    MomSense

    @Baud:
    Apparently they burned the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency analyst who leaked classified docs about the drone programs.

  68. 68.

    Kay

    I was following Trump’s trade war with China until I realized it’s useless to “follow” since he and everyone who works for him lies constantly, so they’ll say they…whatever. I get that this is the point of all the lying- we won’t know what the truth is so it becomes silly to even attempt to evaluate from the outside, but at the same time I have X amount of time and reading liars is a waste of time. I’ve lost interest in their psychology, I don’t really care why they lie all the time or their inner motives. Sometimes one can look at the other side of a Trump deal – find a less dishonest world leader and team and see what THEY say, but that’s not true in this case.

  69. 69.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    I’ve seen other reporting that JS was communicating with him using unencrypted messages.

  72. 72.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @OldDave: And NW Arkansas, where I have spent a considerable amount of time. It is at least a little surprising to me that we don’t have them here in this part of the Ozarks. You ever been to Blanchard Springs Cavern? Well worth the trip. There’s another of those great roadside diners in either Fifty-Six or Big Flat we used to eat at all the time. I can’t remember the name of it for the life of me, but again, good southern fried breakfasts. Loved their biscuits and gravy.

  73. 73.

    Baud

    @Kay: Agreed. I’m the same way. That also applies to freaking out about what Trump says he might do next. Maybe he will and maybe he won’t, but it’s impossible to know.

  74. 74.

    Chyron HR

    @MomSense:

    “The neoliberal Obamacrats claim that we burned our source, however nobody was set on fire. This is just more of their neoshitlibobamacracy conspiracy theories trying to drone freedom in glorious mother Russia. Watch me on Sean Hannity tonight and every night to learn more.”

  76. 76.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @JR: I didn’t even have to read the article to know that. I still want to use my ‘date rape’ line on them.

  79. 79.

    Tata

    My friend’s father, whose wife succumbed to Alzheimer’s about a year ago, shot himself last week. He too was sinking into dementia, but he apparently chose a time and had planned out his suicide. I don’t know if anyone knew he had a gun.

    I have mixed feelings about this.

  80. 80.

    Steeplejack

    @Dorothy A. Winsor:

    My friend who lives in Las Vegas makes sure to send me a photo of one of the signs every year when she visits her ancestral homeland in Missouri.

  81. 81.

    Betty Cracker

    @MomSense: That’s the third source The Intercept has burned, IIRC. If I had government documents to dump, I sure as hell wouldn’t drop them on that pack of amateurs. They’re still coasting on Snowden fumes. Omidyar should clean house.

  82. 82.

    tobie

    @OzarkHillbilly: I can think of few other groups that have suffered more injustice than Native Americans. As if genocide against them were not enough, we had to strip the survivors of land, deprive them of their sovereignty, and put them in places with infertile soil, few social services, and exposed to the elements. It’s shameful.

    If you want to give to the flood victims at the Pine Ridge Reservation, here’s a link to their emergency aid site.

  83. 83.

    low-tech cyclist

    @Baud:

    Reality Winner, or did they burn someone else?

    Where did Reality Winner finish in the Kentucky Derby?

    (Seriously, it took me quite a while to realize that that was the name of a person, not a race horse.)

  86. 86.

    tobie

    @MomSense: Either the Intercept is a totally amateur operation or they want to burn their sources. You would think that a news organization dedicated to exposing unpleasant truths about government would have a lawyer specializing in whistle-blowing on speed dial.

  87. 87.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Tata:

    I have mixed feelings about this.

    For myself, nobody gets to tell me how to live. They don’t get to tell me how to die either. Yes, it is selfish. But so is wanting me to continue living in a downward spiral of pain that only ends in one way.

    I am sorry for your friend’s loss. It is difficult no matter how it happens.

  90. 90.

    MomSense

    @Betty Cracker:

    I also think we progressive liberal types need to vet our sources better. If a campaign, movement, organization, etc is comprised almost completely by white guys – it’s not progressive.

  93. 93.

    Baud

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Gun suicides seem especially cruel to family because of the mess. But I don’t think we’re anywhere near being able to discuss the pros and cons of various methods culturally.

  94. 94.

    MomSense

    @Betty Cracker:

    Snowden had a rep with his followers of being some sort of hacker extraordinaire. He even offered webinars on how to protect your privacy online. He got that info by conning co-workers into giving him their passwords. He’s not some uber hacker.

  96. 96.

    Baud

    @MomSense:

    Agreed. And please can we please stop assuming that a tweet portrays reality accurately. I fall for this myself sometimes.

  97. 97.

    Kay

    Looking at these state laws on “abortion” (although of course they cover every single pregnancy) I think we can now say that every conservative who said liberals were over-reacting was wrong.

    The laws are worse than even I anticipated. Shockingly restrictive and punitive, poorly considered, and guaranteed to have all kinds of negative consequences for ALL women. They massively over-reached.

    The same thing happened with voting laws. All the sophisticates and fancy lawyers on the Right said gutting the Voting Rights Act wouldn’t matter. Then came the far Right state laws.

    We’re getting a hard lesson on why these rights had to be specified and codified at the federal level in the first place.

  98. 98.

    MomSense

    @Baud:

    Yeah, we all fall for it. It takes time to discern the credibility of information but social media is all about speed – going viral.

  99. 99.

    Belafon

    Of course there are a lot of people who know how they feel about Sanders, since he’s no longer a new candidate. I do find the timing of the article a bit suspicious, though. He’s been kind of fading from the news. I’m seeing more Harris (who I support) diaries over at Daily Kos than him. It feels a bit like someone needed to get his supporters riled up again. But not voting for him in the primaries doesn’t necessarily translate into not voting for him in the general if he’s nominated.

  100. 100.

    Betty Cracker

    @MomSense: I think The Intercept’s staff is probably more diverse than most news orgs, and they do have some good journalists on board. The leadership is the problem. Omidyar’s heart seems to be in the right place, but he hitched his wagon to Greenwald, which was a massive mistake. I like the idea of The Intercept, but it’s impossible to take them seriously when the organization is lead by a one-note crank who appears on the Tucker Carlson White Power Hour.

  101. 101.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Unlike some other issues, I feel like abortion rights is the one fight where Dems have consistently fought the good fight for nearly half a century. It’s impossible to “both sides” this issue. But it doesn’t seem to move votes as much as it should.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    What we have to get across to people, woman specifically, is that the new state laws on abortion apply to every pregnancy.

    They’re not abortion laws. They are pregnancy laws.

    Far Right religious are drafting laws and regulating every single pregnancy. This gives then carte blanche to use the state to enter YOUR pregnancy and sniff around looking for violations of their religious tenets. The entry point isn’t “abortion”, it’s “pregnancy”. You’re then in the class of people they can reach.

  103. 103.

    MomSense

    @Betty Cracker:

    I was talking more about pre-intercept Assange Greenwald Snowden. It also seemed to be mostly white men who became really caught up in following them. I do think they fooled a lot of progressives into thinking they are progressives.

  104. 104.

    MomSense

    @Kay:

    They are pregnancy laws written by men who don’t seem to know the first thing about it. Assuming the person who is pregnant has regular periods, the weeks start counting at the first date of the last period which could be weeks before the woman actually conceived. They also seem to think conception is instantaneous although that may be a good thing because then they’d want to prosecute us for every period.

  105. 105.

    Steeplejack

    @Kay, @Baud:

    My question about these abortion laws is why do we seem to hear about them only after they have enacted or are just waiting for the governor’s signature? I don’t consider myself completely clueless, but they always come as a surprise. Can’t we mobilize opposition earlier in the process? I thought abortion rights are an issue where right-wing GOP legislatures are way out of step with public polling.

  106. 106.

    Kathleen

    Nancy LeTorneau broke down what really happened in link you provided in 38 above. She also threw shade on how reporters distort the reality of these events/donations. Weigel’s tweet is the kind of crap she’s calling out. I know Weigel has his fans here but I am not one of them. ETA meant to reply to Baud.

  108. 108.

    Betty Cracker

    @MomSense: True. It was an “enemy of my enemy is my friend” situation with that troika at first, but now it seems to have devolved into a cult, at least with the Assange defenders. It will never cease to amaze me, the warped people around whom cults of personality revolve. Trump? Assange? Really? If you’re going to be a sheep, at least surrender your will to a competent shepherd, people!

  109. 109.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: A buddy of mine found his stage 4 lung cancer father. I wouldn’t do that to anyone I love. Call 911, say “Come get my body at…” a location not at home, and do the deed. My sons and step daughter will be feeling enough pain, they don’t need that too.

    I leave out my wife because we have a deal: She dies first.

  111. 111.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Ireland overturned their abortion laws not as a result of a woman seeking an abortion, but because the abortion law was applied to a pregnancy- a delivery. Every single pregnancy is included. The 6 week ban (I think) was drafted to deliberately to oversee every pregnancy. They went out of their way to include as many women as they could possibly could under the new state law pregnancy statutes. You’re covered under these laws before you even know you’re pregnant. The clerics and religious panels intrude 2 weeks in. From that moment on you’re subject to their evaluations of your medical needs. You can be refused medical care for a miscarriage based on a religion you don’t practice.

  112. 112.

    mali muso

    @Kay: I have been walking around for the past few days in a blinding FURY over these horrific new laws. Just utter rage. I’ve been pro-choice for a long time, but it was my experiences in the past five years with trying to get pregnant, having two miscarriages (one of them ectopic) and then giving birth that have made me totally militant when it comes to the rights of women to control their own bodies. This is such an utterly personal and intimate area of life, that I can’t even conceptualize of how EVIL it is to assume you can legislate and criminalize it. When I lost my two wanted pregnancies, I was gutted. I can’t imagine having to be questioned by law enforcement and risk jail time for a miscarriage. And make no mistake, that is exactly where we are headed.

    On a positive note, I feel completely reaffirmed by our decision last year to investigate and pursue seeking an immigration pathway to Canada. It’s cost us time and money to jump through the bureaucratic hoops, but if all goes according to plan, by 2020, we will have our permanent residency cards and the option to take our two year old daughter to safety if needed. I can’t believe it’s come to that, but here we are.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Steeplejack:

    There was lots of opposition in Ohio- 6 months of protests. It was covered extensively in state and local media. I think it isn’t covered at the national level until the vote, which is understandable- there are 50 states.

  114. 114.

    Belafon

    @Baud: I think it’s because, while most people support abortion in the abstract, since it doesn’t affect them directly, it doesn’t register when it’s time to vote for someone.

  115. 115.

    germy

    “The Power of Propaganda”
    Facts:
    1. The world’s worst businessman loses more money than any other American, over more than a decade.
    2. Actual NYC billionaires call him a conman. Openly.
    3. Gambino underboss does an interview with Diane Sawyer, naming Donald Trump as his front…

    4. Mark Burnett visits new Russian President and former KGB agent, Putin, at the Kremlin. Returns back to NYC and goes straight for Donald Trump. “Pitches” him a show.
    5. A decade plus of “The Apprentice” – a f*cking tv show, promotes Donald as a successful billionaire…

    6. Trump launches Presidential campaign in 2015 – based solely on propaganda of his business success. Enough Americans believe him to elect him. (“Winning!”)
    7. 2+ years in, avalanche of facts continue to prove Trump is biggest biz failure in American history. And mobbed-up…

    8. 30% (we’re told) of Americans believe the fake TV show over avalanche of facts, incl. hard financial data.
    There is no telling or showing them otherwise.
    They believe the TV show.
    That’s the power of propaganda.
    Just as Putin knew it would be, all those yrs ago w/Mark Burnett.

    https://twitter.com/LincolnsBible/status/1126641032228040705

  117. 117.

    Aleta

    “the women standing by Trump in 2020”

    @OzarkHillbilly: While you’re entertaining the Guardian reporter tell him the correct term for this is the Kavanaugh Exposed Strategy, after the GOP fearlessly dropped its pants about using judgeships and women as political tools.

  118. 118.

    Kay

    @Belafon:

    The woman in Ireland didn’t think “abortion” affected her personally either, until an “anti abortion” law was applied to her pregnancy and delivery and they killed her. They refused medical treatment based on their religious opposition to abortion. There’s no exception for “good” pregnant women. They’ve covered the entire pregnancy. The state can now intrude 2 weeks into ANY pregnancy to prevent “abortion”. These are pregnancy laws. The difference between “applies” and “doesn’t apply” is not “are you seeking an abortion” it’s “are you pregnant”.

  119. 119.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Kay:

    The difference between “applies” and “doesn’t apply” is not “are you seeking an abortion” it’s “are you pregnant”.

    Why don’t I feel safe then?

  121. 121.

    germy

    If women can't have abortions then the government need to stop wasting $85M prescribing viagra for broken dicks.
    God broke your dick, the consequences of life.
    Broken dicks is the natural way of life just like babies. No abortions for women, no fix a broken dick pill for men.
    — Mr. Weeks ?? (@MrDane1982) May 9, 2019

  123. 123.

    Kay

    Lachlan Markay
    ‏Verified account
    @lachlan
    21h21 hours ago
    More
    The $91 billion in disaster relief aid that Trump keeps insisting Puerto Rico has received is actually the estimated federal cost of recovery efforts over the next 20 years.

    This is what I mean by “waste of time”. They all lie. So one can read what they say and then go search out what they lied about, or one can just skip the Trump Administration statements and see if there’s a credible source, in this case the text of the recovery funding. If there isn’t one you’re just SOL. They all lied about “a deal” with North Korea. Everyone who spent any time listening to them or reading them wasted that time. They’ll do the same with China.

    Trump lies about his business. So, naturally, people are now saying the way to find out how corrupt his is to look at the other party in any Trump transaction. He and his low quality bottom of the barrel hires are excluded as a credible source. Which makes “access journalism” all but useless.

  124. 124.

    rp

    @germy: Laws like this will accelerate urbanization and the brain and money drain out of those states and into blue states. That could be a good thing if our political system could react appropriately, but the senate and the electoral college will allow those states to maintain an insane amount of power. It’s a terrible and unsustainable situation.

  125. 125.

    Steve in the ATL

    @germy: wait, what? I thought they were already boycotting us because of voter suppression in the gubernatorial election. Get your story straight, Hollywood!

    Either way, bad news for Georgia’s economy. We have been losing the millions and millions in revenue that we took from North Carolina when Art Pope moved that state back 100 years.

  127. 127.

    Miss Bianca

    @Kay: Meanwhile, in *our* fucked-up state, we have county commissioners and sheriffs declaring “2nd amendment sanctuary communities” in the wake of CO’s consideration of a red-flag law – including my own fucked-up county. The battle never fucking ends.

    I can see why people tune out of politics. The fucked-up-ed-ness of it all is starting to wear me down, too.

  130. 130.

    Miss Bianca

    @Betty Cracker:

    If you’re going to be a sheep, at least surrender your will to a competent shepherd, people!

    I am *so* stealing this cri de coeur, Betty!

  131. 131.

    rikyrah

    @MomSense:

    Apparently the NGA analyst who leaked classified documents about the drone program was burned by the Intercept. Um, wasn’t it DRONEZ that supposedly turned Greenwald against Obama and Dems?

    1. Stop talking to the Intercept.
    2. They didn’t really have a problem with DRONEZ….they had a problem with the BLACK PRESIDENT. As you see, they’ve been quiet as church mice pissing on cotton with Dolt45, who has done far worse with DRONEZ….

  134. 134.

    Hoodie

    @Betty Cracker: @Betty Cracker: Friendly tip: these people don’t want competence and wouldn’t know it if it bit them in the ass. Thinking is hard, people join cults because they don’t want to think. Cult leaders are adept at pushing certain emotional buttons that turn off thinking.

  135. 135.

    mali muso

    @chris: Thanks, but I guess we’ll just have to take the chance. Another big motivator is to get my daughter out of the insane gun-toting, active shooter drilling school situation here before she’s old enough to be exposed to it. Any moves on the Canadian horizon towards a gun in every school?

  137. 137.

    Aleta

    When I hear certain Republicans in Congress claim they (read: personally) “would not ban abortion in the case of rape,” I can clearly imagine how this loophole (*for themselves*) would be used to torment women in front of judges. They never mention the sexual and racial and class politics of reporting … going to trial (often required just to have a chance of a judgement of rape)… the tendency to offer the accused a plea down … and (under our system of fairness) how long this all takes when both woman and prosecutor decide to go through it.

    So how would this work, this offer of abor tion allowed in the case of rape? How would it work “in the case of medical necessity,” when the GOP already refuses to give final authority to doctors and women, and treats science as irrelevant.

    (To be clear, this is an example of GOP hypocrisy, and those limitations are not at all acceptable.)

  138. 138.

    Aleta

    And when some (even a few progressive men wtf) say ‘at least abortion will still be available in some states’ … .

    As a way to study how to approach the politics in the fight — courts and particular judges, and how to write and try to pass laws, and who to trust with your vote, it’s useful; and as Imani Gandy says, it’s a way to have hope.

    As a way to say ‘most women will be OK,’ it’s deplorable. Most women can’t leave jobs, kids, pets and other dependents, and in some cases suspicious partners; or afford the cost of travel to 2-3 appointments and lodging for 2-3 days. On top of the medical and prescription costs. Insurance coverage depends on their state, their work or their partner’s, and whether they are hiding it from anyone else on their policy. And on their fear of privacy invasion by their employer or other violation of their records if they file for coverage.

  139. 139.

    chris

    @mali muso:

    Any moves on the Canadian horizon towards a gun in every school?

    Jesus, no! IMHO the US should just become a province of Canada, we have serious gun laws. Except for police and a very few others like armoured car guards no one is allowed to carry a loaded firearm on a public thoroughfare.

  140. 140.

    trollhattan

    In late to note the preponderance of Catholics on SCOTUS and to remind everybody of the Church’s continuing stance on contraception. Republicans would be fine with “ridding” us of the pestilence and short of that, making damn sure the poors “can’t have none.” Court would go along with that, as presently composed.

  142. 142.

    john b

    @Steve in the ATL:

    Either way, bad news for Georgia’s economy. We have been losing the millions and millions in revenue that we took from North Carolina when Art Pope moved that state back 100 years.

    I thought the move of all the NC film business was because of the elimination of the NC film tax credit

  143. 143.

    Matt McIrvin

    @MomSense: The anti-Bush coalition included a lot of people who are opposed to aggressive US foreign policy but who were basically right-libertarians or paleocons. There was no way they were actually going to stick with the coalition through a Democratic US administration, and they could easily support a reactionary regime in the US whose main focus was not (for the time being) waging foreign wars. But we tend to label people by whatever team they’re on at the moment.

  144. 144.

    Ruckus

    @Aleta:
    And aren’t some of the new laws written so that it’s a crime to travel to another state for an abortion? The pregnant 11 yr old, the reporting is that she would be arrested if taken to a state that allows her to receive an abortion.

  145. 145.

    Original Lee

    @Baud: Crossbows aren’t any better.

    Although to be fair, my friend’s husband used a crossbow because the draw was too heavy for his wife and he didn’t want her under suspicion for his death.

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