Sunday, April 9, 2023

And another day of defenses, rulings that are ‘not America,’ TX Rs try to break Internet over abortion, TN is not shocking, DeFascist amps up revenge on Disney, gun violence becomes more fatal, and TX’s Abbott aims to abuse his power comes to a close:

“There’s no safe place in America when there is fascism in red states. It will creep out.” — Jess Piper

“Lotta people jumping to defend Harlan Crow who get paid by Harlan Crow.” — Ben Wexler

“What's really shocking is that Harlan Crow is merely a two bit billionaire. His obscene wealth isn't even close to that of the DeVos family, the Kochs, Theil and Musk. It's hard to fathom how many politicians and judges they own.” — Tweetmonger

Clarence Thomas Defends Undisclosed “Family Trips” with GOP Megadonor. Here Are the Facts. In response to a ProPublica report, Thomas explained why he did not disclose lavish travel provided by billionaire Harlan Crow. But legal experts maintain the justice was required to make these disclosures.

Health secretary slams abortion pill ruling as ‘not America’. The nation’s top health official said Sunday that a court ruling threatening the availability of a main drug used in medication abortion was “not America” and he did not rule out defying the judge’s order if necessary. -- Republicans frequently defy court orders.

Explainer: Texas judge suspends approval of abortion pill. What happens next? The legal battle over medication abortion is only beginning and could wend its way through multiple levels of appeals courts over a period of months or years before it is resolved. Here is what you need to know about the case as it further unfolds:

Texas Republicans Try to Break the Internet to Deny Women Abortions. New legislation aims to criminalize providing information about abortion care online. Toth’s bill would make it illegal to “create, edit, upload, publish, host, maintain, or register a domain name for an internet website, platform, or other interactive computer service that assists or facilitates a person’s effort in obtaining an abortion-inducing drug.” Internet service providers themselves would be in the awkward position of enforcing the law by making “every reasonable and technologically feasible effort” to block sites with information about abortion, abortion providers, or abortion funds — keeping Texans in the dark about their health care options, essentially...“The whole point of the First Amendment is to prevent the government from censoring ideas or information because it disagrees with the view that’s expressed — and that’s exactly what this law is trying to do.”...Like Texas’ Senate Bill 8, the abortion-bounty law passed in 2021, House Bill 2690 would be enforced by private citizens, rather than the government — an effort to hamper a legal challenge to the law...A majority of Texans oppose banning abortion, according to research done by the University of Texas, with a scant 15 percent of Texans supporting a complete ban on abortion access. -- Stop voting for Republicans. They are fascists. They want you to have access to only those things they approve of. That’s not freedom. They have shown again and again that they are not the party of freedom. They are not the good guys in this country. They are the oppressors.

Iowa won’t pay for rape victims’ abortions or contraceptives. The Iowa Attorney General’s Office has paused its practice of paying for emergency contraception — and in rare cases, abortions — for victims of sexual assault, a move that drew criticism from some victim advocates. Federal regulations and state law require Iowa to pay many of the expenses for sexual assault victims who seek medical help, such as the costs of forensic exams and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Under the previous attorney general, Democrat Tom Miller, Iowa’s victim compensation fund also paid for Plan B, the so-called morning after pill, as well as other treatments to prevent pregnancy. -- There are two kinds of people: those who care for and empathize with others, and Republicans.

Tennessee becomes new front in battle for American democracy. The removal of the lawmakers, who were only recently elected, reflects a trend in dozens of states where Republicans are trying to make it harder to cast ballots and challenging the integrity of the election process. At least 177 bills restricting voting or creating systems that can intimidate voters or permit partisan interference were filed or introduced in dozens of states so far this year, according to the Brennan Center…The next question is whether states with Republican supermajorities will follow Tennessee's lead in expelling opponents with different points of view.

No One Should Be That Shocked by What’s Happening in Tennessee. But for those who have closely watched the chamber in recent years, the events were of little surprise. The place has been defined by partisan vitriol, pique, scandal, racism and Olympic-level pettiness for years. I know. I covered it…When I covered the Tennessee Capitol from 2018 to 2021, the family-values espousing Republican House speaker had to explain why his text message trail included discussions of pole-dancing women and his chief of staff’s sexual encounters in the bathroom of a hot chicken restaurant. After a Republican lawmaker was accused of sexually assaulting 15- and 16-year-old girls he had taught and coached, he was made chairman of the House education committee. Protesters filled the halls week after week, year after year, calling for the removal of the bust of the Ku Klux Klan’s first Grand Wizard, a piece of art featured prominently between the House and Senate chambers. Democrats pushed for its removal, while Republicans resisted. A Democrat who declined to support the current speaker’s reelection had her office moved into a small, windowless room. In a twist of fate, that same Democrat, Rep. Gloria Johnson, a white woman, narrowly escaped expulsion on Thursday. (Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson fared differently.) And then, of course, there was the famous peeing incident…It wasn’t always quite like this. There was a time before when one-upmanship wasn’t the organizing principle inside the Tennessee statehouse. Not so long ago, there was more balance in power and, with that, more comity in the chamber. But as Republicans have made bigger gains, they’ve also become more politically confrontational…For them and others, the speed with which the Tennessee House acted this week to throw out two young Black legislators must be put into perspective by all the other issues the legislature has declined to act on. For more than four years, House Republicans declined to expel one of their own, Rep. David Byrd, after he was accused of sexually assaulting three teenage girls, students he taught and coached on a high school basketball team. Byrd was on tape apologizing to one of them, decades later. Even the Republican governor said he believed the allegations to be credible. But House Republicans — some conceding in private that they suspected Byrd may actually have preyed on minors — dug their heels in, saying he was fairly elected…The undercurrent of race is present in many of the Capitol’s controversies…And on and on…Instead, the current era of the Tennessee legislature has been defined by a non-stop stream of befuddling scandals and unforced errors by a Republican supermajority that is seemingly insulated from being punished for them.

Expelled Tennessee lawmakers both seeking seats again. Nashville’s metro council is likely to reappoint Justin Jones to the seat during a specially called Monday meeting. Mickell Lowery, the chairman of the Shelby County Commission, said in a statement Sunday that the panel will consider at a meeting Wednesday whether to reappoint Justin Pearson, who is from Memphis, to his seat.

‘Buckle up': DeSantis escalates Disney dispute, eyes hotel taxes and road tolls. “They are not superior to the people of Florida,” DeSantis said during an evening appearance at Hillsdale College, the conservative liberal arts college in Michigan. “So come hell or high water we’re going to make sure that policy of Florida carries the day. And so they can keep trying to do things. But ultimately we’re going to win on every single issue involving Disney I can tell you that.” — DeFascist is, well, a fascist. This is how he wants to run America if he becomes president. Cross him and he will enact revenge on you “come hell or high water.”

Gun violence in the U.S. is becoming more fatal, new research shows. A new study has found that fatalities from gun violence in the U.S. have increased over time, with more victims dying at the scene of a shooting before they can be transferred to medical treatment facilities.

Gov. Greg Abbott announces he will push to pardon Daniel Perry who was convicted of murder. Less than 24 hours after a jury in Austin found Daniel Perry guilty of shooting to death a protester, Gov. Greg Abbott announced on social media Saturday that he would pardon the convicted killer as soon as a request "hits my desk.”…Perry’s defense team argued that he acted in self-defense, but prosecutors contended that Perry instigated what happened. They highlighted a series of social media posts and Facebook messages in which Perry made statements that they said indicated his state of mind, such as he might “kill a few people on my way to work. They are rioting outside my apartment complex.” A friend responded, “Can you legally do so?” Perry replied, “If they attack me or try to pull me out of my car then yes.” A jury Friday unanimously convicted Perry. — Republicans abuse power. Soon we’ll only have the laws set down by King Republicans. And God help you if you break one.

Elon Musk Wants to Cut Your Social Security Because He Doesn’t Understand Math. Generally, these stunningly wrong opinions are the conventional wisdom among the ultra-right and ultra-rich. In particular, like most of the ultra-right ultra-rich, Musk is desperately concerned that the U.S. is about to be overwhelmed by the costs of Social Security and Medicare…There’s so much wrong with this that it’s difficult to know where to start explaining, but let’s try…This is exactly what happened in the past. And we can see that there’s no reason to believe it won’t continue, again using the concept of math. The economist Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, a Washington think tank, has done this math. U.S. productivity has grown at more than 1 percent per year — sometimes much more — over every 15-year period since World War II. If it grows at 1 percent for the next 15 years, it will be possible for both workers and retirees to see their income increase by almost 9 percent. If it grows at 2 percent — about the average since World War II — the income of both workers and retirees can grow by 20 percent during the next 15 years. This does not seem like the “reckoning” predicted by Musk. — There is the possibility that Musk does understand the math but like all Republicans expects his supporters don’t and therefore manipulates them into thinking the sky is falling. 

North Dakota senators vote to boost their own meal reimbursements after rejecting free school lunch bill. A leading Republican senator says employee meal compensation rates and free school lunch programs aren't related issues, but top Democrats see the chamber’s conflicting actions on the two bills as unjustifiable.

Gay youths are more than twice as likely to have sleep trouble, study finds. Researchers analyzed data on more than 8,500 young people ages 10 to 14, a critical time for mental and physical development. They found that 35.1% of those who identified as gay, lesbian or bisexual reported trouble falling or staying asleep in the previous two weeks, compared to 13.5% of straight-identifying adolescents.

Utah Is “Protecting” LGBTQ+ Kids by Letting Their Parents Read All Their Messages. In March, Utah lawmakers passed a bill requiring parental consent for minors to join social media platforms—and enabling parents to read their children’s messages and posts. While this isn’t ideal for any teen, granting homophobic or transphobic parents full, unquestioned access to the messages and posts of a teen still in the closet could spell disaster. LGBTQ+ youth have long been known, both anecdotally and through research, to use the internet and social media to connect with their communities and learn about themselves.

Births in Italy hit record low in 2022, population shrinks further. Last year Italy recorded more than 12 deaths for every seven births and the resident population fell by 179,000 to 58.85 million, ISTAT said in its annual demographic report.

As streamers cut costs, TV Shows — and residuals — vanish. As streamers face mounting pressure to save money, several have followed HBO’s lead. Erasing original shows from their libraries can help streamers get tax write-downs and, to a smaller extent, save on residual payments. But it brings criticism that they are sidelining already marginalized voices and shortchanging creatives out of already slimmer residual paychecks. These issues have increased tension between executives and writers amid union contract negotiations that started late last month and could lead to a significant work stoppage this spring. Streaming companies offer this defense: They never promised that shows would live forever. In a hyper-competitive, changing market, they say, each streamer is trying to balance ample offerings with sheer survival.

Life’s short. Live, love, create, and help others.

Until next time, my friends. Stay safe and stay sane. Good night.