DL Open Thread: Saturday, April 15, 2023

Have you figured out that, if John Carney does nothing on the pot bills, HB 1 will become law next Saturday?  Quietly becomes law as Carney does what he does best:  Nothing.   For once, a do-nothing governor would be a plus.

Mike Pompeo Says He Won’t Run For President.  Nobody cares.

DeSantis, On Book Tour, AWOL On Ft. Lauderdale Flooding.  Priorities, pipples.  If G-D existed, do ya suppose he might be telling us something with all these cataclysmic weather events in the Sunshine State?

DeSantis, At G-D’s Campus, Doesn’t Mention 6-Week Abortion Ban.  When your stuff won’t play at Falwell U, you just might not be a playa:

“Last night, after the legislature there passed the bill, he signed the Heartbeat Protection Act,” said Jonathan Falwell, a pastor at Liberty University and the son of Jerry Falwell, the university’s founder. Falwell introduced DeSantis at the university on Friday morning following a performance by a Christian rock band in a giant indoor arena. “[The law] will protect all unborn babies because he recognizes and knows that life is a gift from God.”

That, however, was the only mention of Florida’s new abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the nation. DeSantis ignored the law altogether in his 20-minute remarks, except for a nod to the “sanctity of life.” The omission was glaring considering the timeliness (DeSantis had just signed the bill last night) and setting (a university with thousands of young evangelical voters who packed its weekly convocation).

DeSantis used most of his time onstage to pitch Florida, a formerly purple state now galloping toward the right, as the place where “we fight woke” to be the best at everything.

Including destructive weather.  ‘G-D’s gift’, no doubt.

Rethugs Caught The Car. Got Run Over:

Democrats have taken multiple actions in response to what they say is a “draconian” and “dangerous” decision by a federal judge in Texas threatening access to the most commonly used method of abortion in the US.

Their fury over the ruling has been met with relative silence from Republicans.

Only a handful of congressional Republicans offered immediate comment on judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s decision last week to revoke the FDA’s 23-year-old approval of the abortion pill mifepristone. Just a fraction of Republicans on Capitol Hill signed onto an amicus brief urging an appeals court to uphold the ruling. And among the party’s national field of Republican presidential nominees, just one – the former vice president, Mike Pence – unabashedly praised the decision.

The starkly different reactions underscores just how dramatically the politics of abortion have shifted since last June, when conservatives achieved their once-unimaginable goal of overturning Roe v Wade.

For decades, Republicans relied on abortion to rally their conservative base, calling for the reversal of Roe v Wade and vowing to outlaw the procedure if given the chance. But since the supreme court’s ruling in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, abortion has emerged as a potent issue for Democrats, galvanizing voters furious over the thicket of state bans and restrictions ushered in by the decision.

Republicans have struggled to respond, lacking a unified policy on abortion in the nearly 10 months since the landmark decision.

I now believe that Rethugs’ only hope to retain power is to short-circuit democracy, which is what they’re doing state-by-state, city-by-city.  Please read this!  It’s totally on-point.

Here’s a sample from Texas:

Texas officials on Wednesday announced a state takeover of Houston’s nearly 200,000-student public school district, the eighth-largest in the country, acting on years of threats and angering Democrats who assailed the move as political.

The announcement, made by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s education commissioner, Mike Morath, amounts to one of the largest school takeovers ever in the U.S. It also deepens a high-stakes rift between Texas’ largest city, where Democrats wield control, and state Republican leaders, who have sought increased authority following election fumbles and COVID-19 restrictions.

The takeover is the latest example of Republican and predominately white state officials pushing to take control of actions in heavily minority and Democratic-led cities. They include St. Louis and Jackson, Mississippi, where the Legislature is pushing to take over the water system and for an expanded role for state police and appointed judges.

Let’s not forget Nashville:

Tennessee Republicans filed bills Tuesday to exert their control over the governing boards for Nashville’s airport, Nissan Stadium, Bridgestone Arena and other Music City landmarks.

The new bills would remake the boards and give state lawmakers and the governor the power to appoint the majority of the members.

Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, R-Franklin, introduced a bill to defund Music City Center — another venue whose board of directors is currently appointed by the mayor — and another bill by House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, could shrink the size of the 40-member Metro Council to no more than 20 members.

The good news?  The public at large is now really hip to Rethug tactics.  Those tactics will work only in areas that are overwhelmingly-R and where the Black vote is routinely suppressed.  In other words, the Confederate South.

What do you want to talk about?