The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

... In the bitterly contested race for the White House, abortion remains a glaring vulnerability for the Republican nominee.

“You know it’s an important issue because Trump is trying to change his position,” said Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster.

As a candidate, Trump has held conflicting positions on abortion, alternately boasting that he appointed three of the nine supreme court justices whose votes were decisive in overturning Roe, while complaining that Republican extremism on the issue has cost his party at the ballot box.

​He recently appeared to endorse a ballot measure to expand abortion rights in his adopted home state of Florida, only to announce one day later – after sparking backlash among prominent conservative groups – that he would vote against it. He has also previously hinted at support for a 15-week federal ban only to insist that the issue should be left to the states. His campaign has said Trump would not sign a national abortion ban as president.

While the economy remains the top election issue for voters this November, a New York Times/Siena College poll released in August showed that a growing share of battleground state voters, particularly women, say abortion will be central to their decision. Among women younger than 45, abortion has eclipsed the economy as their single most important issue.

In the final months of the campaign, Democrats are aiming to harness the unabated anger over the loss of federal abortion protections, especially among women and young people, and unifying around a platform that seeks to protect what remains of abortion access and the availability of reproductive healthcare, including contraception and fertility treatments such as in vitro fertilization (IVF)...

It's our top winning issue.  It helps that it's also in the right, and on the right side of history.

The bad:

Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. officials and recently unveiled criminal charges.

“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said in a briefing on Friday. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”

 

The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle in order to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic. Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the U.S. government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say.

“We're focusing on these tactics because the American public should know that content that they read online, especially on social media, could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans,” another senior U.S. intelligence official said in a July briefing with reporters on election security. “In short, foreign influence actors are getting better at hiding their hand and using Americans to do it.”...

The recent indictment of employees of media outlet Russia Today (RT) for providing malign content to MAGAt media company Tenet, plus the indictment of actors in Russia's "Doppelganger" operation are the tip of a very large iceberg that is using American outlets to spread pro- Trump, pro- Russia propaganda. 

The ugly: 

For millions of Venezuelans and dozens of foreign governments, Edmundo González was the undisputed winner of the country’s July 28 presidential election.

But on Sunday, he joined the swelling ranks of once-prominent government opponents who have fled into exile, leaving his political future uncertain and tightening Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power.

The former presidential candidate arrived at a military airport outside Madrid after being granted safe passage by Maduro’s government so he could take up asylum in Spain. His surprise departure came just days after Maduro’s government ordered his arrest.

González, 75, burst onto Venezuela’s political scene less than five months ago. His candidacy was as accidental as it gets after opposition powerhouse María Corina Machado was barred from running and a handpicked substitute was also blocked.

In April, a coalition of more than 10 parties settled on González, who overnight went from being a virtually unknown retired diplomat and grandfather to a household name in whom millions placed their hopes for an end to more than two decades of single-party rule.  [snip]

In the weeks since the disputed vote, both opposition figures went into hiding amid a brutal crackdown that led to more than 2,000 arrests and the deaths of at least 24 people at the hands of security forces. González stayed out of public view while Machado appeared at sporadic rallies seeking to keep the pressure on Maduro.

Machado tried to put a positive spin on González’s departure late Saturday, assuring Venezuelans he would be back on Jan. 10 for a swearing-in ceremony marking the start of the next presidential term.

“His life was in danger, and the increasing threats, summons, arrest warrants and even attempts at blackmail and coercion to which he has been subjected, demonstrate that the regime has no scruples,” Machado said on X. “Let this be very clear to everyone: Edmundo will fight from outside alongside our diaspora.”...

By all accounts, Maduro lost the election handily, and now the likely winner is in at  least temporary exile.  Maduro's forces have surrounded the Argentine embassy in Caracas which is sheltering several of his political opponents.  No wonder the Malignant Loser muses about decamping to Venezuela if/ when he loses in November.  It handles the opposition as he would. 

Morning Campaign Bits -- Sad News From Trumpworld

 

Sad!

When Donald Trump in 2016 promised to appoint conservative Supreme Court justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade, white evangelicals made an uneasy bargain — and hoped he meant what he said.

Now, eight years later, they’re hoping he doesn’t.

Trump, who decades ago described himself as “pro-choice” and then, as president, appointed the judges who cemented Roe’s demise, has long been all over the map on abortion. But for anti-abortion activists, Trump’s shifting rhetoric over the last two weeks has been particularly fraught. And it’s leaving some of his staunchest white evangelical backers fearful that some of their voters may stay home in November, tipping the scales toward Vice President Kamala Harris in battleground states and potentially costing Trump the election.

“It’s disastrous that he’s attempted to run against his own track record,” said Albert Mohler, a prominent evangelical and head of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. “There is a real danger to the Trump campaign that pro-life voters just don’t turn out for him with the intensity that he needs.”...  (our emphasis)

Also, sad!

Donald Trump’s sons want to turn their father’s growing bromance with the cryptocurrency industry into the new family business. So far, the project’s troubled rollout has succeeded in creating only one thing: a potential political liability for the former president.

Trump’s eldest sons — Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — have been teasing their plans to unveil a crypto startup called World Liberty Financial for weeks. But the launch has been marred in recent days by a series of apparent scams that have redirected fans to fake pages and compromised the social media accounts of other Trump relatives.

The incidents have begun to rattle some of Trump’s allies within the crypto world. They’re warning that his family should shelve a project that they say creates unnecessary political risks and reflects poorly on the industry.

“This is a huge mistake,” said Nic Carter, a Trump supporter who is a founding partner at the crypto-focused venture capital firm Castle Island Ventures. “It looks like Trump’s inner circle is just cashing in on his recent embrace of crypto in a kind of naive way, and frankly it looks like they’re burning a lot of the good will that’s been built with the industry so far.”...  (our emphasis)

What could be sadder than losing an election and your failsons tanking another crime family business?  We can only hope to find out in the months ahead.

Trump Tries To Have It Both Ways On Abortion (UPDATED)

While intrepid, Republican- wired reporters were assiduously probing changes in Vice President Harris' position on... fracking, the Malignant Loser was having a meltdown over a policy that affects tens of millions of Americans, backpedaling and flip- flopping like the desperate lump he is:

Former President Donald Trump came out on Friday against a ballot measure in his home state of Florida that would expand access to abortion, after spending a day doing damage control on the issue.

His announcement came a day after telling NBC News that Florida’s six-week ban is “too short” and declining to take a clear stance on a state ballot measure that would expand access to the procedure.

On Friday, Trump said, once again, that women need "more time" than six weeks to decide whether to have an abortion, but that the "Democrats are radical" and he couldn't back the amendment.

“So I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I’ve disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it, I disagreed with it,” Trump said in comments to Fox News. “At the same time, the Democrats are radical, because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation where you can do an abortion in the ninth month. ... So I’ll be voting no for that reason.”

The proposed amendment would bar restrictions on abortion before fetal viability, around the 24th week of pregnancy, while ensuring exceptions to protect the health of the mother.

The backlash from anti-abortion advocates was fierce after Trump's interview with NBC News, with some warning that the Republican presidential nominee was risking losing support from a key bloc of the party’s base.

Alarmed by what she saw, Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the influential anti-abortion group Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, called Trump on Thursday to ask for clarity on his comments, according to a source with knowledge of the conversation. Trump told her that he didn’t state a position on an amendment on his home state’s ballot this fall.  (our emphasis)

Well, if he said he didn't state a position, he must be telling the tru... what's that:

During the interview with NBC News, Trump said, “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks,” when asked how he would vote on the ballot measure. It's unclear what he meant as the Florida initiative gives voters a binary choice.

Later Thursday, Trump’s campaign issued a statement saying the former president had “not yet said how he will vote on the ballot initiative in Florida.”  (our emphasis)

The Independent sums up the Malignant Loser's dilemma:

... Trump, a thrice-married former casino owner, seemed like an imperfect vessel to usher in their plans. Now, he seems almost ashamed about his accomplishments as he recognizes that abortion is a political loser for Republicans, even in his adopted home state of Florida.

The relationship between evangelicals and anti-abortion Republicans always resembled that of a shotgun wedding. Now, evangelicals are just the latest partner Trump is accused of cheating on.

But, let's watch the media continue to parse what the Vice President's positions were in 2019 vs. now on topics of vital importance to the American people, and not cover this pathologically lying, flailing dimbulb's cynical, transparent flip- flopping on reproductive freedom!  Sic transit gloria, America.

UPDATE:

Kamala Harris responds to Donald Trump’s plan to vote no on Florida’s abortion amendment: pic.twitter.com/x04JBdTZDA

— Shelby Talcott (@ShelbyTalcott) August 30, 2024

 

 

Anti-Choice Zealots Dropped At Trump's Direction

The Malignant Loser, who will say anything to get elected and to stay out of prison, has apparently ordered his minions at the Republican Nazional National Committee to soften platform language and to keep a pair of anti-choice zealots from the party's platform committee. According to Politico:

"Two hardline anti-abortion delegates to next week’s GOP platform committee have been stripped of their positions, according to several members of the Republican National Committee, underscoring a broader fear among evangelicals and other social conservatives that the party is poised to moderate its stance on abortion at the direction of former President Donald Trump.

The Trump campaign’s efforts to block the two South Carolina delegates from the platform committee and replace them with loyalists is described in several affidavits as “interference from paid RNC staff … to circumvent the will of the delegation.”

The shakeup, which has not been previously reported, comes as anti-abortion groups petition Trump, his campaign advisers and members of the RNC not to make significant changes to the party’s platform on abortion." (our emphasis)

The Malignant Loser knows that the issue of a woman's right to her reproductive freedom is a new third rail in general elections, and his embrace of taking down Roe v. Wade is a constant theme -- and problem -- of his.

Of course the far-right Bible thumpers are part of a cult of personality, not of faith or principle. The Malignant Loser's the least religious of any modern President, and has reportedly mocked his religious followers behind their backs. He's violated more of the Ten Commandments than he's followed, but for the Christofascists, it's all about a deal with the devil to gain power and get regulations and legislation passed to remove the church / state separation. While party platforms are mostly symbolic, this episode reinforces the fear the Malignant Loser has for the anti-choice issue and the contempt he has for his "flock."

 

The "States' Rights Smokescreen"

 

Michael Starr Hopkins, writes in The Hill about the tap dance the Malignant Loser and MAGA Republicans are doing over their wildly unpopular position on reproductive choice:

"The Republican Party’s efforts to drastically limit if not completely eradicate access to abortion in Florida and Arizona is not isolated. It is part of a larger, insidious plan to ban abortion nationwide. These states are merely testing grounds for a broader assault on women’s reproductive rights across the country.

While Republicans may attempt to frame their efforts as a matter of 'states’ rights,' this is nothing more than a deceptive smokescreen designed to obscure their true intentions. The ultimate goal is to implement a total abortion ban, and the states’ rights messaging is simply a means to that end. By chipping away at abortion access state by state, they hope to create a patchwork of laws that will effectively make the procedure inaccessible for millions of women.

We cannot afford to be fooled by this rhetoric. The echoes of 'states’ rights' have been heard before, used to justify the oppression and subjugation of entire populations. Now, it’s being wielded once again as a weapon against women’s bodily autonomy."  (our emphasis)

The more reproductive choice comes up in states like Arizona, it demonstrates why the striking down of Roe v. Wade is a political albatross around the Malignant Loser's neck, who in his latest remarks said Arizona had gone "too far" with its medieval ban on abortion. That comment followed his pronouncement that states should be left to decide matters of women's reproductive choice. It's deliberately misleading to allow the Malignant Loser to get away with running a campaign where one camp in MAGAworld hears one thing and another camp hears another.  Dems need to remind voters, who back reproductive choice by 70%, who caused this chaos: the Malignant Loser and his Supreme Court appointees.

Biden Ad On Trump's Anti-Choice Record

 

This ad from the Biden campaign should run in every swing state (and more) regularly until the November election.

Not only doesn't the Malignant Loser not trust women, he assaults, demeans and represses women. Make that clear, too.

 

QOTD: MAGA Scrambling On Abortion Issues

Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin on America's newest third rail for MAGA Republicans, by the numbers:

"Republicans’ zealotry for forced-birth laws might be the best thing ever to happen to the pro-choice movement. 'A record 59 percent of surveyed Americans believe abortion should be legal, according to a new Fox News poll,' the Hill reported last week. 'Support for abortion rights has increased by double digits since early 2022, just before the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision. 'The Supreme Court’s decision shredding Roe v. Wade 'created a cascading effect of abortion restrictions in Republican-controlled states nationwide and sparked a new movement of abortion rights activism.'

The impact of abortion criminalization has been profound. The percentage of Americans who say abortion should always be legal rose from 27 percent in April 2022 to 35 percent. Moreover, a record number now consider this an important issue (41 percent) while voters believe President Biden (53 percent) would do a better job on abortion issues than his almost certain 2024 rival, Donald Trump (41 percent).

Republicans, scrambling to avoid the backlash against abortion bans, have seized upon the idea of a six- or 15-week limit. That does not solve their political problem. 'When asked if they supported a six-week abortion ban, only 38 percent said yes, while 58 percent said they opposed the idea.' the poll showed. 'On a 15-week ban, 43 percent said they supported the idea, with 54 percent saying no — a complete flip in numbers from a Fox News poll from last year.'”  (our emphasis)

While anti-choice voters have decreased over time, they're still a menace to reproductive freedom. It's noteworthy that the solid Trump voter (the 41 percent cited) believes he'd do a better job on abortion issues, by which they mean restricting choice.

States that put reproductive choice on the ballot have shown it's potent power against Republicans. They're about to find out in Florida in November, where that state's reprehensible law nearly banning abortion will be tested by vote of the people aiming to enshrine protections in their state constitution.

BONUS:  The folks at electoral-vote.com on the Florida November implications --

...[E]ven if the pro-choice and/or pro-marijuana forces can't get to 60%, there are lots of important races that are determined by a simple majority, or, in the absence of a majority, a plurality. The state's electoral votes. The U.S. Senate race, featuring the never-won-any-election-by-more-than-2% Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL). The various House races, which could return a Congress that protects abortion access nationwide. The state legislative races, which could seat a legislature that overturns the 6-week ban...

(photo: Jason DeCrow/AP Photo)

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

A high-stakes legal drama around a pregnant woman in Texas and the Supreme Court’s announcement it will consider restrictions on the abortion pill mifepristone are the latest unwelcome reminders for Republicans that abortion rights will be front and center ahead of the 2024 election.

Abortion has been a calamitous political issue for the GOP since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last summer — and it’s been a boon for Democrats, boosting them to a string of electoral victories on the issue and lowering their losses.

At a time when President Biden’s approval ratings are down and his party is badly divided over Israel’s war in Gaza, abortion rights are seen as a major unifying and motivating issue as 2024 heats up, particularly as Republicans can be cast as seeking to curtail access to the medical service.

Across-the-aisle tensions on abortion have been on full display over the last week after the Texas Supreme Court blocked Kate Cox, a pregnant woman whose fetus was diagnosed with a fatal condition, from having an abortion. Cox left the state to obtain an abortion just hours before the Texas court rejected her challenge.

Biden has already sought to wield the case as a cautionary tale against Republicans in power and against the GOP presidential front-runner, former President Trump.

“I don’t think they can escape it,” Republican strategist Liz Mair said of next year’s White House candidates, adding that the recent Texas case underscores the salience of the issue.

The forced- birth bastards won't escape their obscene record of interfering in women's reproductive rights.  Every weaseling attempt to do so (looking at you, Nikki "Windsock" Haley) must be swatted down.  And the fact that they insist on showing us who they are, and to what extent they'll go, keeps the issue at or near the top of the list for election 2024.

The bad:  

... More than a decade ago, a cadre of armed military and police personnel took an oath rooted in a conspiracy theory that a globalist cabal was working to steal Americans’ democratic birthright. That narrative was then mainstreamed on the most-watched “news” show on cable TV. And then a Republican presidential candidate exploited the narrative to mobilize a citizen army to steal back the White House after losing the election.

Now, nearly three years later, what should we expect the media establishment to have learned from missing an origin story of January 6? That much of Trump’s constituency understands violence as a central tool for achieving their political aims.

But has the media learned it?  [snip]

Forces are gathering on the Right that see their political aspirations as something worth killing for. When the likes of Mike Huckabee proudly announce the idea of bullets over ballots as an inevitability, media that omit the mounting potential for political violence from their political coverage are abdicating basic journalistic responsibility. It’s certainly as important as totting up who can be expected to caucus for whom in Iowa, or who’s winning over Virginia’s soccer moms.

Horse-race reporting has its place. But it won’t matter much if the men in the MAGA hats blow up the horse track.

That's Rick Perlstein concluding a case for how a decade of media malpractice -- from coverage of the Tea Party and the Oath Keepers by CNN, to the coverage of the Malignant Loser in 2015 /16 -- enabled the  January 6 insurrection and continues to downplay or ignore the "epidemic of right- wing terror" in this country today.

The ugly:

Former President Donald Trump is pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail again as he took aim at people coming to the U.S. and “poisoning the blood of our country” during a rally on Saturday.

Trump, who has echoed the likes of Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in a recent speech pledging to “root out... vermin” political foes, ranted about immigrants to supporters in Durham, New Hampshire.

“They poison mental institutions and prisons all over the world, not just in South America... but all over the world,” Trump said of immigrants.

“They’re coming into our country, from Africa, from Asia, all over the world,” he continued. “They’re pouring into our country. Nobody is even looking at them, they just come in and the crime is going to be tremendous, the terrorism is going to be.”

Trump also quoted Russian President Vladimir Putin to attack President Joe Biden, saying: “Even Vladimir Putin … says that Biden’s, and this is a quote, politically motivated persecution of his political rival is very good for Russia because it shows the rottenness of the American political system, which cannot pretend to teach others about democracy.”

Along with name-dropping Putin, the former president also mentioned two other authoritarian figures during his rally: North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán. He called Kim “very nice” and Orbán “highly respected,” adding that the latter said “Trump is the man who can save the western world”...

Un- American.  Pure fascist.  Racist.  

The odds- on favorite to be the Christofascist Republican nominee, for the third time, is as evil and deranged a demagogue as those he echoes.  And his MAGAt cult is with him all the way. 

Senate May Break Tuberville's Hold On Military Promotions

The Senate moved closer to shutting down white nationalist, jug-eared moron Sen. Tommy "Dixie Dolt" Tuberville's hold on nearly 400 military promotions. The Senate Rules Committee agreed to a resolution that would approve all of the promotions, something Tuberville has blocked over the Pentagon's policy of reimbursing service members for travel out of state to receive reproductive rights care. The measure moves to the Senate floor, where at least 9 Republican votes are needed to pass. Uniformed members of the military have no say over the policy, which was promulgated by civilian political appointees. 

Tuberville's reckless stand has created critical vacancies in the military command, and forced military families to put relocations and other plans on indefinite hold. On October 31, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. Eric Smith was hospitalized after having a heart attack brought on by workloads that he took on because his assistant commandant has been blocked for promotion. Tuberville nonsensically brushed off Gen. Smith's workload complaint, comparing the workload to his coaching days at Auburn. Tuberville has never served one minute in uniform.

(photo: About to be sacked by his teammates?)

 

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

 

The good:

...We [the College Board] have made the mistake of treating FDOE [Florida Department of Education] with the courtesy we always accord to an education agency, but they have instead exploited this courtesy for their political agenda. After each written or verbal exchange with them, as a matter of professional protocol, we politely thanked them for their feedback and contributions, although they had given none.

In Florida’s effort to engineer a political win, they have claimed credit for the specific changes we made to the official framework. In their February 7, 2023, letter to us, which they leaked to the media within hours of sending, Florida expresses gratitude for the removal of 19 topics, none of which they ever asked us to remove, and most of which remain in the official framework.

They also claimed that we removed terms like “systemic marginalization” and “intersectionality” at their behest. This is not true. The notion that we needed Florida to enlighten us that these terms are politicized in several states is ridiculous. We took a hard look at these terms because they often are misunderstood, misrepresented, and co-opted as political weapons. Instead we focused throughout the framework on providing concrete examples of these important concepts. Florida is attempting to claim a political victory by taking credit retroactively for changes we ourselves made but that they never suggested to us.

FDOE’s most recent letter continues to deride the field of African American Studies by describing key topics as “historically fictional.” We have asked them what they meant by that accusation, and they have failed to answer. The College Board condemns this uninformed caricature of African American Studies and the harm it does to scholars and students...

The College Board finally blasts the DeSanctimonious racist political hit job on the Board's AP African American Studies curriculum.  The full statement is a proper evisceration of Bootsie's attempt at white- washing of American history and, as the Board now admits, should have come much sooner.

The bad:

...The day after leaving the White House, [Mr. Ivanka Trump Jared] Kushner created a company that he transformed months later into a private equity firm with $2 billion from a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Kushner’s firm structured those funds in such a way that it did not have to disclose the source, according to previously unreported details of Securities and Exchange Commission forms reviewed by The Washington Post. His business used a commonly employed strategy that allows many equity firms to avoid transparency about funding sources, experts said.

A year after his presidency, Trump’s golf courses began hosting tournaments for the Saudi fund-backed LIV Golf. Separately, the former president’s family company, the Trump Organization, secured an agreement with a Saudi real estate company that plans to build a Trump hotel as part of a $4 billion golf resort in Oman.

The substantial investments by the Saudis in enterprises that benefited both men came after they cultivated close ties with Mohammed while Trump was in office — helping the crown prince’s standing by scheduling Trump’s first presidential trip to Saudi Arabia, backing him amid numerous international crises and meeting with him repeatedly in D.C. and the kingdom, including on a final trip Kushner took to Saudi Arabia on the eve of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

New details about their relationship have emerged in recently published memoirs, as well as accounts in congressional testimony and interviews by The Post with former senior White House officials. Those revelations include Kushner’s written account of persuading Trump to prioritize Saudi Arabia over the objections of top advisers and a former secretary of state’s assertion in a book that Trump believed the prince “owed” him...

A truly epic and ongoing corruption scandal that, since the House will be busy pursuing Hunter Biden's dick pics, will be left to the Senate or a Special Counsel to investigate.  You may not want to hold your breath.

The ugly:

GOP lawmakers see a major flaw in their states’ near-total abortion bans: Some local prosecutors won’t enforce them.

Republicans in Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and Texas — frustrated by progressive district attorneys who have publicly pledged not to bring charges under their state’s abortion laws — have introduced bills that would allow state officials to either bypass the local prosecutors or kick them out of office if their abortion-related enforcement is deemed too lenient.

In Texas, one of several bills lawmakers are pushing would allow the state attorney general or a private individual to ask a court to remove a district attorney who fails to prosecute abortion-related offenses and other “crimes of violence.” They also plan to introduce a bill to allow any resident to bring civil claims against anyone suspected of “aiding and abetting” an abortion.

In Georgia, legislators want to create a prosecutorial oversight commission that could discipline or remove local prosecutors who demonstrate a “willful and persistent failure to perform his or her duties.”

A bill introduced in the South Carolina House would give the state attorney general the power to prosecute abortion cases — something currently under the purview of local district attorneys.

And in Indiana, proposed legislation would allow a legislatively appointed special prosecutor to enforce laws when a local prosecutor declines to do so...

The forced birth zealots won't stop, and neither must we.

Quotes Of The Day -- The American Taliban's Not Done Yet

Shot:

"Indiana’s Republican attorney general said on Wednesday that his office planned to investigate the Indiana doctor who helped a 10-year-old rape victim who crossed state lines to have an abortion.

Dr. Caitlin Bernard, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Indianapolis, has told multiple outlets that she provided care to the 10-year-old after a child abuse doctor in Ohio contacted her. The child was six weeks and three days into the pregnancy, Bernard said. After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month, a wave of state-level abortion restrictions took effect, including in Ohio, a state that bans abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, with no exceptions for rape or incest." -- Myah Ward, reporting in Politico.

Chaser:

"Democratic legislation that would protect the right to travel freely from state to state to seek abortion care was blocked in the Senate on Thursday by Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.).

Lankford, who supports instituting a national ban on abortion, dismissed it as unnecessary.

“'No state has banned interstate travel for adult women seeking to obtain an abortion. This seems to be just trying to inflame, to raise what-ifs,'” he said.

The Freedom to Travel for Health Care Act, introduced by Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) earlier this week, seeks to clarify the right to cross state lines to obtain reproductive health care services. It would also empower the U.S. attorney general and affected individuals to bring civil lawsuits against anyone who attempts to restrict that right." -- Igor Bobic, reporting at HuffPo.

The forced birthers of the American Taliban, folks.  The evil, the pure evil of it all.

The Absurd And Unintended Consequences Of Alabama's Abortion Ban

Law professor Carliss Chatman follows the "logic" of the recently enacted Alabama law virtually ending abortion rights to its "logical" conclusions:

Alabama has joined the growing number of states determined to overturn Roe v. Wade by banning abortion from conception forward. The Alabama Human Life Protection Act, as the new statute is called, subjects a doctor who performs an abortion to as many as 99 years in prison. The law, enacted Wednesday, has no exceptions for rape or incest. It redefines an “unborn child, child or person” as “a human being, specifically including an unborn child in utero at any stage of development, regardless of viability.”

We ought to take our laws seriously. Under the laws, people have all sorts of rights and protections. When a state grants full personhood to a fetus, should they not apply equally?

Child support starting at conception? Sure!

Claim a fetus on your taxes? Makes sense!

Deporting a pregnant immigrant with an American citizen/fetus in her womb?  Better not!

How about detaining that pregnant immigrant's American citizen/fetus without arraignment or trial? Unconstitutional!

How about counting that American citizen/ fetus in the census?  Now you're talking!

It's an interesting read showing the absurdities of the Alabama law beyond, for example, the brutality of having no exceptions for rape or incest and criminalizing a medical procedure.  The application of the 14th Amendment's definitions of personhood and citizenship is the foundation for what would become an issue for the courts:

... States have been allowed to define the personhood of unnatural creatures — such as corporations — since very early in our nation’s history. In exchange for this freedom, states are not permitted to go back on their deal. In other words, once personhood rights are granted, a state may not deny life, liberty or property without due process, nor may a state deny equal protection under the law. States have never had the right to define the personhood of people. This was a subject — influenced either by place of birth or by complying with immigration and naturalization requirements — for the Constitution and federal law. State grants of natural personhood challenge this norm.

Since different states have laws that protect women's reproductive rights (eg., New York), applying the "logic" in the Alabama law in a post- Roe world would lead to the unintended consequence of what Chatman calls a bonkers system of "two- tiered fetal citizenship" across the country.  It's a timely and thought- provoking article.  Go read!  (h/t FOB P.E.C.)

BONUS:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog has more on Chatman's op/ed.

Massive Hypocrite Is Massively Hypocritical

There's this:

President Donald Trump urged attendees at a Tuesday night gala for a top anti-abortion organization to vote in November, issuing a stern warning about what might happen if they don’t. 

“If Democrats gained power, they will try to reverse these incredible gains, these are historic gains,” Trump told the audience at Susan B. Anthony List’s annual Campaign for Life event, referring to the strides made by his administration to defund abortion providers like Planned Parenthood and generally limit abortion services in the U.S.  

“Every day between now and November we must work together to elect more lawmakers who share our values, cherish our heritage, and proudly stand for life,” Trump said. [snip]

“For decades, American taxpayers have been wrongfully forced to subsidize the abortion industry through Title X federal funding, so today we have kept another promise,“ Trump said to a cheering crowd. “My administration has proposed a new rule to prohibit Title X funding from going to any clinic that performs abortions.” (our emphasis)

And then there's this:

Four days after after the raid on [Trump attorney Michael] Cohen’s office, on April 13, The Wall Street Journal published a story claiming that this David Dennison, in the NDA signed by [Playboy model] Shera Bechard, was none other than Elliott Broidy — despite its being precisely the same pseudonym Trump had used in the Stormy Daniels NDA. 

But as I argued at length and in detail in this space two weeks ago, Broidy’s account raises a lot of questions — and I believe a more plausible explanation of all the facts at hand is that he agreed to pay Bechard seven figures as a favor to Donald Trump, who actually impregnated Bechard, and then needed to hush her up about their affair and her subsequent abortion. 

Trump, I pointed out, is exactly the kind of man who has affairs with women like Shera Bechard, while Broidy has a history of bribing public officials to further his business interests — indeed, he had even made payments to the mistress of a politician he was bribing. And it was clear Broidy had spent much of 2017 touting his connections to Trump to various foreign officials.

The New York Magazine article by Paul Campos excerpted above is a must- read, and makes a compelling argument, based on further reporting by the Associated Press, for why Broidy did what he did =cough= quid pro quo =cough=.

Now, please raise your hand if you believe serial adulterer Donald "Rump" Trump was the one who impregnated Ms. Bechard and then paid hush money for her abortion.  Keep your hand raised if you think this epic hypocrisy won't matter one bit to the knuckle- dragging Rump base.  You can put your hands down now.

BONUS:  Susie Madrak at Crooks & Liars has more here.

The Republican War On Women - Trump, Abortion Avenger

Noted lover of women Donald "Rump" Trump:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said Wednesday that there “has to be some form of punishment” for abortion if it were banned in the U.S. — as he says it should be — and that punishment should fall on the woman.  (our emphasis)

Further reading on Rump and women.

Our sentiments, exactly:

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse. Horrific and telling. -H https://t.co/Qi8TutsOw9

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) March 30, 2016

Your Republican frontrunner, ladies and gentlemen. Shameful. https://t.co/y49Z8YfRgV

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) March 30, 2016

Morning Reading - What Republican War On Women?!

More chicanery from the Old White Man's Republican Party, this time on what should have been a non-controversial, bipartisan human trafficking bill:

An overwhelmingly bipartisan Senate bill to combat human trafficking hit a wall last week after Democrats said they discovered a provision to impose new limits on abortion rights, and threatened to filibuster the bill unless the provision is removed. 

Senate Republican leaders now find themselves caught between wanting to show they can pass even the most noncontroversial legislation and the passions of the pro-life base they roped into the battle by making it a high-stakes proxy war over abortion. 

The provision expands the restrictions on government funding of abortions beyond those contained in the decades-old Hyde Amendment... [snip]

That the Democrats didn't notice the provision for nearly two months reflects an extraordinary failure on their own side to read and understand the bill before voting unanimously to approve it in committee and allowing it to come before the full Senate. Republicans didn't inform them of the provision, Democrats say, arguing that they made a mistake by "trusting" the GOP. 

That Republicans are for the most part lying, untrustworthy ideologues should not have come as a surprise to Democrats;  perhaps they'll make sure they curry-comb any bills in committee from now on to avoid this happening in the future.  Shame on them.

At the same time, there was a gathering of right-wing interest groups in Washington to try to dispel the notion that the Old White Man's Republican Party is engaged in a War on Women.  Dana Milbank covered the event and saw a few (=cough= huge =cough=) problems :

Alas for the GOP, the gender gap preceded Senate candidate Todd Akin, and the comments have continued since then: the Idaho legislator who asked last month whether a gynecological exam on a woman could be conducted by having her swallow a camera; the New Hampshire legislator who said a Democratic congresswoman would lose because she’s “ugly as sin”; another New Hampshire legislator who argued that men make more than women because “they don’t mind working nights and weekends” or “overtime or outdoors”; the Arizona GOP official who said women on Medicaid should be sterilized; and the New Mexico congressman who endorsed this biblical view: “The wife is to voluntarily submit, just as the husband is to lovingly lead and sacrifice.” 

At the same time, Republicans have taken up hundreds of bills in state legislatures restricting abortion, and Democrats have sought to highlight Republican opposition in Congress to the Violence Against Women Act, the Paycheck Fairness Act and other bills.

So women, who are you going to believe:  Republicans or your lying eyes?

The Republican War On Women: The Culture Wars Are Back, Bay-bee!

Now that the new Congress is getting down to business, it didn't take very long for the uterus-obsessed Republican/ New Confederate/ Stupid/ White Supremacist party to get into a woman's, um, business:

After a botched effort to pass legislation imposing a 20-week ban on abortions, House Republicans are moving forward Thursday with what's being dubbed a less controversial bill that codifies a ban on federal funding for abortions. 

The bill would do a number of things -- including block federal funds for abortion for women who are in the military, who live in Washington, D.C., and who are poor -- but one aspect of the legislation that hasn't received much attention is the fact that it would raise taxes on the vast majority of small businesses.

The bill, which passed 249-179 (with, shamefully, 3 Democratic votes) on the 42nd anniversary of Roe v. Wade,  has little or no chance of getting through the Senate, but the White House wanted to make sure it's position was clear (our emphasis):

"The legislation would intrude on women's reproductive freedom and access to health care; increase the financial burden on many Americans; unnecessarily restrict the private insurance choices that consumers have today; and restrict the District of Columbia's use of local funds, which undermines home rule," reads a Statement of Administration Policy from the White House. "If the president were presented with H.R. 7, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto this bill."

Republicans, having successfully lulled low-information voters into thinking that its unpopular culture war policies like abortion restrictions were off the radar screen during the 2014 midterm elections, now feel they have at least two years to chip away at women's reproductive rights.  As long as the President has his veto pen, they won't get very far.  But the whole point of the exercise, just like the 50-plus votes to repeal Obamacare, is not serious policymaking -- it's pandering to the frothing base and having issues that you can use to raise money from said frothing base.

Ready to govern, our asses.

Surprise! Republicans' First Order Of Business: Go Far Right

E.J. Dionne, Jr., has several examples of why the Republican Congress, while talking "bipartisanship" and "governing" is the same old same old (and, once again, thank you to all the Democrats who couldn't be bothered to get off their asses last November):

One example: The new rules would provide for “dynamic scoring” of tax cuts, which sounds very cool and forward-looking but for the fact that they aim to assert tax cuts won’t cost what they’ll actually cost. This, in turn, will make it easier for the Republicans to shower money on their favored constituencies while pretending to be fiscally responsible. [snip] 

[T]he House leadership included another rule flatly designed to force cuts to Social Security’s disability program. If Republicans want to debate such cuts, fine, but don’t sneak them in through the fine print.  

Then there is the move by both House and Senate Republicans to change the employer mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Currently, employers with 50 or more full-time workers have to provide health insurance to employees who work 30 hours or more, or pay a fine. Republicans want to limit the mandate to Americans who work 40 hours or more. In USA Today this week, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) wrote that the purpose of the change is “so more people can work full time.” 

But the change would have exactly the opposite effect.

Dionne doesn't even mention this culture war stinker:

On Tuesday, the very first day of the 114th Congress, two lawmakers introduced a measure to ban abortions after 20 weeks, in direct violation of the protections afforded under Roe v. Wade. Reps. Trent Franks (R-AZ) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) reintroduced the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, the same legislation that successfully passed the House last year. 

Or this one:

Speaker John Boehner and the House Republicans are planning to try to choke off President Barack Obama’s immigration executive action next week, according to multiple GOP leadership aides involved in the talks.

You may have noticed this emerging Republican-wired media narrative (or some variation):  the establishment Republicans are in charge now and are ready to govern, if only Obama will compromise!  To which we say, with exhibits A through E above as evidence, please extract your heads from your asses and report things as they are, not as you wish them to be.

The Republican War on Women: Buckeye State Edition

Move over, Texas.  We have another Rethuglican-run state that wants to severely restrict a woman's reproductive rights:

The new [Ohio state] budget, which takes effect on Monday, includes at least five new anti-abortion provisions. HB 59 will defund Planned Parenthood clinics, reallocate family planning funding to right-wing “crisis pregnancy centers,” strip funding from rape crisis centers that give their clients any information about abortion services, impose harsh restrictions on abortion clinics that will force many of them to shut down, and require doctors to give women seeking abortion information about the presence of a “fetal heartbeat.”
 
Taken together, the budget amendments ensure that Ohio now has some of the most stringent abortion laws in the nation.

The culture war continues, in states from Virginia to Texas to Ohio, and the front-line soldiers on the other side are all white, male and Rethuglican.  Amazing how they know what's best for women, and what women really want.

UPDATE:  Some are fighting back, um, hard.

Rethugs "Akin" to Ban Abortions, With No Exemptions

Proving that amateur gynecologist and (still) Missouri Rethug Senate candidate Rep. Todd "My Ass Is Really" Akin is in the mainstream of the Rethuglican Party: the 2012 Rethuglican platform is set to include a plank endorsing an extremist position outlawing all abortions, with no exemptions for incest or rape. And you thought they couldn't get any crazier...

UPDATE: Another example, as if more were needed.

UPDATE II: And another.

Do As We Say, Not As We Do Rethugs

Hmmm. Why are we not surprised by this? It seems until today the Rethug National Committee had an employee health insurance plan that, for the past 18 years, covered abortions. Then the whistle was blown on them for egregious hypocrisy, and Tin Man Steele manfully...uh...aborted the policy.

UPDATE: Surprise again! The RNC also has end of life counseling ("death panels") in his health insurance plan!

(Image: no worries - the RNC still covers this procedure)