DL Open Thread: Sunday, May 21, 2023
Rethugs Try To Reframe Abortion Bans As ‘Mainstream’. You know, b/c The Overton Window:
A few days earlier, North Carolina Republicans used their legislative supermajority to enact a similar 12-week ban, calling it a “mainstream” approach that would be more broadly accepted than the stricter bans many conservatives had sought to pass. And in neighboring South Carolina, state Sen. Katrina Shealy (R) told The Washington Post that she and the other female GOP senators who blocked a near-total ban are planning to push for a 12-week ban on most abortions when the state Senate takes up a bill next week restricting abortion after roughly six weeks of pregnancy.
There’s a problem, though, one of the Rethugs’ own making:
But the approach has drawn sharp criticism from others in the antiabortion movement, who argue the 12 or 15 week bans don’t do enough to stop what they see as widespread murder, allowing more than 90 percent of abortions to continue. Some Republican lawmakers and antiabortion advocates remain adamant that the only path forward is to aim to eradicate abortion completely nationwide.
Gee, if this were the debt ceiling, I wonder what kind of ‘bipartisan’ deal Biden would cut.
Biden: ‘Too Late’ To Do Anything But Sell Out On Debt Ceiling:
President Biden said on Sunday that he believed he had the authority to challenge the constitutionality of the nation’s borrowing limit but that he did not believe such a challenge could succeed in time to avoid a default on federal debt if lawmakers did not raise the limit soon.
“I think we have the authority,” Mr. Biden said at a news conference after the Group of 7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan. “The question is could it be done and invoked in time.”
Mr. Biden added that after the current crisis is resolved, he hopes to “find a rationale and take it to the courts” to decide whether the debt limit violates a clause in the 14th Amendment stipulating that the United States must pay its debts.
This is but one reason why this fading octogenarian should be primaried. From the beginning, he promised that he would not negotiate with hostage-takers. Didn’t do anything else. Now, he’s negotiating with hostage-takers because he says there’s no time to do anything else. Whose fucking fault is that?? As the British princess who dumped her lover during the Wimbledon fortnight said, “New balls, please”.
Trump’s Ex-Lawyer Thinks Trump Is Going To Jail For Taking Documents. Hey, you’ve got 10 minutes. Watch:
Fox News & NY Post Concoct Migrant Vs. Vets Story Out Of Whole Cheesecloth.
A week ago the New York Post went to town with a made-for-Fox News story of a group of veterans who had been booted out of hotels about an hour north of New York City to make way for migrants. As I said, it was a made-for-Fox News: Here are these disabled or impoverished American veterans getting kicked to the curb to make way for migrants with no permission to be in the country in the first place. Politicians jumped on the story. The Post ran it. It made the rounds of the wingnutosphere. Fox of course got on board.
But none of it was true. And I don’t just mean not true in the sense of being misleading or incomplete or embellished or sensationalized. It was a hoax. Sharon Toney-Finch, the founder and head of a small local nonprofit, the YIT Foundation, which focuses on veterans issue and premature births (?) was the source of the original story. But it turns out the she recruited a group of 15 homeless men from a local shelter to impersonate veterans and talk to the press about their tale of woe.
And stiffed each of them out of the $200 she promised them. No doubt, though, the story has served its purpose as it’s now out in the ether and will be accepted as gospel by the yokels.
Cheating Horse-Killer Saddles Preakness Winner. Fresh off a two-year suspension for cheating. Oh, and having another one of his horses destroyed earlier in the day:
Animal rights groups called for sweeping change after a horse trained by Bob Baffert was euthanized on the track at Pimlico Race Course on Saturday ahead of Preakness Stakes.
PETA called for Baffert, who has been linked with numerous horse deaths over the years, to be banned from Pimlico, and the Humane Society said in a statement there is an urgent need for reform.
“The tragic loss of Havnameltdown at the 2023 Preakness, coming after the eight horse deaths prior to and since the Kentucky Derby, underscores the urgent need for sweeping reforms in the horse racing industry. It’s time to prioritize horse safety, implement the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act doping program, and stop gambling with racehorses’ lives,” Kitty Block, president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement.
Shortly after the death, Baffert celebrated another horse he trained, National Treasure, winning the Preakness Stakes.
Baffert has a history of horses dying under his care. According to the Washington Post, at least 74 horses have died in Baffert’s care in California since 2000. When factoring in the number of races run, Baffert’s horses have died at the highest rate of the 10 trainers who have had the most horse deaths, per the Washington Post’s analysis.
This goes beyond Baffert, though. In horse racing’s heyday, there were significantly fewer betting options. I know that we have a few ‘improvers of the breed’ amongst our readers. Is it time to ban thoroughbred racing entirely?
What do you want to talk about?
Strange how Democratic Presidents have no power to do anything, While Republican Presidents have kinglike powers to do whateverthefuck they want to do. And don’t give me that Joe Manchin shit.
If it was Joe Manchin it wouldn’t happen to EVERY Democratic President. It is almost as if Democrats like being powerless, and seek out powerlessness. Also,”McCarthy, negotiating genius, runs rings around doddering Joe” Not a headline I ever expected but probably the lead story Monday.
“after the current crisis is resolved, he hopes to “find a rationale and take it to the courts”
I hope that rationale has already been found and printed out with a bow on it, ready for the courts. Just like I hope Ukrainian pilots are already being secretly trained up on F-16s.
If he thinks he has the authority to use the 14th Amendment gambit, why didn’t he think of it 2 weeks ago, a month ago, whatever? Then, if/when the court challenge was filed, there would have been time to resolve the issue.
Dumb, disturbingly dumb.
Maybe Janet Yellen can find a little more money in the sofa cushions to buy time.
This whole episode has me thinking that Biden’s staff hates him.
Putting my eleven-dimensional chess goggles on…
McCarthy won’t be able to deliver the vote for a deal negotiated with Biden. There will be a much better media spin on a 14th Amendment solution after a failed House vote.
The 14th Amendment solution has me uneasy, because I think it is on shaky legal ground. The debt shall not be questioned, but there is nothing in the amendment that authorizes the executive branch to issue new debt to avoid questioning the debt.
The Constitutionally sound legal solution is for Congress to agree on a deal, even if that means Biden accepts all of McCarthy’s terms, but it is an available “solution.”
That is unacceptable to me, but I don’t think the Court will see it that way, even if there weren’t six RWNJs on the bench.