Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Happy indictment week to all who celebrate!

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

Something needs to be done about our bogus SCOTUS.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Why is it so hard for them to condemn hate?

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Come on, man.

How can republicans represent us when they don’t trust women?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Everybody saw this coming.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

You are here: Home / Healthcare / Open Thread: More Election Good News

Open Thread: More Election Good News

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I’m heading out the door, but this caught my eye, and thought I needed to share.  If it was already covered, my apologies, I missed it. But the takeaway is ROE, ROE, ROE the VOTE all the way to November.

With the fight over abortion rights looming large over the midterm elections, voters in Florida ousted two prominent anti-abortion elected officials in separate races on Tuesday.

Florida Rep. James Bush lost his reelection bid, a notable defeat for the sole Democrat in the state legislature who voted on a 15-week abortion ban and the anti-LGBTQ “Don’t Say Gay” bill.

His opponent, 37-year-old lawyer Ashley Gantt, ran on a platform focused on affordable housing, public education, and criminal justice reform. Gantt, an attorney and former public school teacher, has criticized Bush for siding with Republicans on the abortion ban and the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which bars “classroom discussion about sexual orientation or gender identity.”

“As a Black woman, I was offended when he voted to restrict my rights, our right to make decisions over our bodies,” she said last week. “As a former teacher, I was insulted that he voted to inject Tallahassee extremism into our classrooms and deny local control over our school systems.”

Gantt and Bush were the only two candidates vying for District 109. As the winner of the Democratic primary, Gantt is now the representative-elect.

Bush was first elected to the Florida state House in 1992. He was elected again in 2008, then in 2018. His penchant for supporting Republican-sponsored bills drew the ire of his fellow Democrats, some of whom publicly voiced their support for Gantt in the election; Democratic state Sen. Jason Pizzo recently accused him of “voting against Democratic values and kissing the Governor’s ass – all day, everyday.”

Florida voters also ousted Jared Smith, an incumbent circuit judge for Hillsborough County who gained notoriety for rejecting a teenager’s request for an abortion because her grades were low.

The race between Smith and his opponent, Nancy Jacobs, was relatively contentious for a typically low-key nonpartisan judgeship election, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Smith had denied a 17-year-old seeking an abortion without parental consent in January this year on the basis that her grades were low and that she lacked “intelligence or credibility,” and was therefore not mature enough to get an abortion. An appeals court later overturned his ruling.

Jacobs did not directly criticize Smith over his decision (Florida bars judicial candidates from making public statements on legal issues), but she has shared posts on Facebook regarding the ruling.

In a statement to BuzzFeed News, Jacobs said she looked forward to taking the bench in January and “ensuring that the people of Hillsborough County who enter my courtroom are treated with respect, dignity, and integrity every day.”

She said that Smith’s decision in the abortion case was possibly “one factor among many in voters’ decisions on whom to cast their ballots for in this race” given that it made national headlines.

Smith had made his Christian faith central to his reelection campaign. His wife, Suzette Smith, once told supporters that Jacobs, who is Jewish, “needs Jesus.”

“We pray for her. She needs Jesus,” Suzette Smith said. “To deny God and to deny the Bible is a person that’s — the heart is very hard toward God.”

Jacobs called the comments “troubling” and accused the couple of “using their religion to insult and disparage the faith of an opposing candidate.”

Florida is set up for a riveting general election in November, with abortion rights expected to be a central issue in races all the way up to the gubernatorial election.

Charlie Crist, a former Republican governor, won the Democratic primary on Tuesday, setting up a challenge against Gov. Ron DeSantis. Crist fended off accusations of being “pro-life” from his primary opponent, Nikki Fried, arguing that he struck down anti-abortion bills during his time in office.

Aug. 24, 2022, at 18:17 PM
Open thread

Reader Interactions

48Comments

  1. 1.

    trollhattan

    Florida voters also ousted Jared Smith, an incumbent circuit judge for Hillsborough County who gained notoriety for rejecting a teenager’s request for an abortion because her grades were low.
    The race between Smith and his opponent, Nancy Jacobs, was relatively contentious for a typically low-key nonpartisan judgeship election, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
    Smith had denied a 17-year-old seeking an abortion without parental consent in January this year on the basis that her grades were low and that she lacked “intelligence or credibility,” and was therefore not mature enough to get an abortion. An appeals court later overturned his ruling.

    Holy hell–“you’re not smrt enuf to get anbortion but totally fit to be a mom”?

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    Great answer and on point

     

     

    Kenny BooYah! 🖖🏾 (@KwikWarren) tweeted at 3:42 PM on Wed, Aug 24, 2022: How did a criminal, immoral shitweasel like donald trump scam his way into being worshiped—even deified—by millions and millions of poor&middle class Americans?! Many of whom are our friends, neighbors, co-workers and family members…who we thought had good got damn sense! https://t.co/y2VNk1B4ly

     

     

    Lauri Smalls (@LauriSmalls) tweeted at 6:34 AM on Thu, Aug 25, 2022: I am convinced they worship him because his actions represent everything they wish they could do. Lie cheat steal with impunity. You worship what you want to emulate (https://twitter.com/LauriSmalls/status/1562765291452452865?t=XI75QFMJpv8t1FL2rhsnJg&s=03)

  12. 12.

    Urza

    @HumboldtBlue: That is a good ad to depress Republican turnout.  I can see where the Twitterati are whining it might be anti-muslim, but given that its against a specific branch controlled by Erdogan I’m ok with it.
    Also, why the hell is it not a law, preferably in the Constitution, that no Senator or House member or high ranking ANYTHING must renounce their citizenship to other nations in order to serve.  I guess they didn’t have such a thing as dual citizenship in the 1700s, but it still seems like a legit concern today.

  13. 13.

    HumboldtBlue

    @Felanius Kootea:

    I find the final image, the Muslim holding the automatic weapon, rather off-putting. But on the other hand, fuck Oz.

    @Spanky: @Urza:

    One commenter said it’s funded by Greeks and Armenians through an American PAC.

  15. 15.

    bbleh

    @HumboldtBlue: Yeah I kinda don’t think BJ readers are exactly representative of the target demographic for this one ..

    (And I did see something in one of the final frames, “Hellenic” something, which definitely suggests connections to the Greek/Greek-heritage community.)

  16. 16.

    RaflW

    “He voted to inject Tallahassee extremism into our classrooms” is a great line. Congrats to Ms. Gantt!

  17. 17.

    RaflW

    Oz has barely renounced his New Jersey residency. Why cut ties with Turkey?
    (Is that clip at the end with him pushing a magazine into a gun legit? What’s it from?)

  19. 19.

    Ken

    @Urza: The constitution does bar people in office from accepting titles of nobility from foreign states.  I would suggest asking the Queen for a favor and getting TFG knighted to keep him out of office — but the emoluments clause is in the same list, and we saw how much that mattered.

  21. 21.

    bjacques

    @HumboldtBlue: I like that Armenians are onboard with this. By the way, the legendary Serdar Argic would have you know THE SO-CALLED ARMENIAN GENOCIDE WAS A LIE!1!!

    just keeping the legend of Col. Argic alive. He was an online presence during the heyday of usenet newsgroups and could be summoned anytime, day or night, by mentioning said genocide. Turned out he was some sort of Grey Wolf cub, staying on a student visa, with access to a university internet account. He finally disappeared from usenet because the feds caught him and booted him out of the country.

  22. 22.

    Calouste

    @rikyrah:

     How did a criminal, immoral shitweasel like donald trump scam his way into being worshiped—even deified—by millions and millions of poor&middle class Americans?! Many of whom are our friends,

    They’re not my friends

    everything they wish they could do. Lie cheat steal with impunity.

    And that’s why.

  23. 23.

    Geminid

    @HumboldtBlue: I can see how Greek-and Armenian-Americans might want to get their licks in against Turkiye and a Turkish American. But in Oz’s case, they’re beating a dead horse.

  25. 25.

    Alison Rose 💙🌻💛

    Smith had denied a 17-year-old seeking an abortion without parental consent in January this year on the basis that her grades were low and that she lacked “intelligence or credibility,” and was therefore not mature enough to get an abortion. 

    It’s so fun being a lady.

  28. 28.

    HumboldtBlue

    “Oz has ties to everything except Pennsylvania.”

    Hah!

    @raven:

    Oh, I understand that, but the image itself is of the Muslim terrorist canard that fuels the GOP base.

  29. 29.

    Another Scott

    @rikyrah:

    DeLong gives some interesting historical context on the battle to fight fascism in democratic societies:

    A taste:

    From one perspective, fascism, neo-fascism, and fascism-adjacent are things that go back to the very beginning of democratic politics—back to the election of Andrew Jackson in the U.S. in 1832 and to the election of Louis Bonaparte in France in 1848. It is a short-circuiting of the politics of patron and client, of interests and affinities, and of network connections for something else: a politics of a parasocial connection to someone whom Max Weber called a “charismatic” leader. And as long as the parasocial bonds are maintained, the leader can change course at will and lead the people pretty much anywhere, no matter whether his policies are any good for their material interests or indeed for their former ideal interests.

    That Max Weber thought it important enough to include this type of leadership as one of his three “types” tells you how deep he thought it ran in human affairs. And Karl Marx could not believe that the French Revolution of 1848—the one that was supposed to see the rapid advance of socialism, as the bourgeoisie was moved to the back and the proletariat took the driver’s seat—end in the dictatorship of the clown Louis Bonaparte, heading a government “not, as was traditional in France, of mistresses, but of gigolos”. Indeed, Marx’s rant is something to read:

    Every observer of average intelligence… must have anticipated that an unheard-of fiasco was in store for the revolution…. The constitution, the national assembly, the dynastic parties, the blue and the red republicans, the heroes from Africa, the thunder from the tribune, the flash-lightnings from the daily press, the whole literature, the political names and the intellectual celebrities, the civil and the criminal law, the “liberte’, egalite’, fraternite’,” together with the [succession of power to take place on the] 2d of May 1852—all vanished like a phantasmagoria before the ban of one man, whom his enemies themselves do not pronounce an adept at witchcraft. Universal suffrage seems to have survived only for a moment, to the end that, before the eyes of the whole world, it should make its own testament with its own hands, and, in the name of the people, declare: “All that exists deserves to perish.”

    It is not enough to say, as the Frenchmen do, that their nation was taken by surprise. A nation, no more than a woman, is excused for the unguarded hour when the first adventurer who comes along can do violence to her. The riddle is not solved by such shifts, it is only formulated in other words. There remains to be explained how a nation of thirty-six millions can be surprised by three swindlers, and taken to prison without resistance…

    Marx was, in some ways, very traditional and bourgeois indeed.

    Marx in the end constructed a convoluted, implausible, and false explanation that Louis Bonaparte could become dictator of France because the landlord-bourgeoisie required a king from the Bourbon dynasty while the mercantile-industrial-bourgeoisie required a king from the Orleans dynasty, and an illegitimate dictator from the Bonapartist dynasty was preferable to each than the candidate of the other faction because he would follow not pro-agriculture or pro-industry policies but would rather compromise.

    But that was not it at all.

    DeLong’s new book sounds fascinating.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  32. 32.

    Brachiator

    @Another Scott:

    From one perspective, fascism, neo-fascism, and fascism-adjacent are things that go back to the very beginning of democratic politics—back to the election of Andrew Jackson in the U.S. in 1832 and to the election of Louis Bonaparte in France in 1848.

    Gee, I thought that democratic politics went further back than 1832 or 1848.

    Still, a provocative argument.

  33. 33.

    HumboldtBlue

    Huh, it appears there may trouble brewing for Project Veritas.

    Guilty pleas for two people who stole Ashley Biden’s diary (among other property) and sold it to Project Veritas

    And for the academics among us:

    BREAKING: Biden WH issues new policy requiring that, by 2026, all federally-funded research results be freely available to the American public without delay. This will effectively end the longstanding ability of journals to paywall results for up to 1 year.

  34. 34.

    SiubhanDuinne

    I know it shouldn’t surprise me at all, but I’m still flabbergasted whenever I come across shit like this:

    Smith had made his Christian faith central to his reelection campaign. His wife, Suzette Smith, once told supporters that Jacobs, who is Jewish, “needs Jesus.”

    “We pray for her. She needs Jesus,” Suzette Smith said. “To deny God and to deny the Bible is a person that’s — the heart is very hard toward God.”

  36. 36.

    Elizabelle

    @SiubhanDuinne:  Yup.  Suzette Smith est un imbecile.  Calls into question a lot of “Judge” Smith’s rulings, if that’s how they talk at home.  How arrogant.  How ignorant.

  41. 41.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Spanky: “Armenian National Committee of America.” Y’think mebbe they might have a tiny amount of animus toward a Turkish citizen like Mehmet** the Oz?

    Too bad The BOZO isn’t running in California – LA is (and Fresno was until the 1960s) by population the second largest Armenian city in the world, and they’d be ripping him a new ապուշ (pislik in Turkish) on an hourly basis.

    ** Just FTR, the Turkish form of Mohammed.

  44. 44.

    Geminid

    @wv blondie: That’s a safe Democratic seat no matter who runs on the WFP ballot line. But this is a good example of how some progressives have only a conditional loyalty to the Democratic party.

    Another telling aspect of the NY 10-CD primary was the lack of support for Rep. Mondaire Jones from some “progressive” networks. They talked up Mr. Jones when they hoped that he would compete with Sean Patrick Maloney for the nomination in the new district they shared. When Mondaire Jones did not do what was wanted and chose to compete in the open 10th CD, a lot of his former proponents ghosted him.

  46. 46.

    eddie blake

    @Geminid: that’s my district now. which sucks, bc i really liked having nadler as my rep.

    i voted for niou, but what she’s doing now is a dick move, making me regret my vote a little.

    goldman will be ok as a rep

    eta-i was turned off by jones’ shameless carpetbagging.

  48. 48.

    Joe Falco

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    As is so often the case, Republicans and Christians like Smith will throw around that meaningless phrase “Judeo-Christian” up until the point there is a Jewish candidate standing in the way of their sought-after Christian theocracy.

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