News and Current Events - 2017 - 2022

[michaelflanagansf]

If Justice Thomas is looking for someone to challenge the Sodomy laws, he has a willing participent in A.G. Paxton in Texas:

https://www.kxan.com/lgbtq/justice-thomas-seeks-case-to-challenge-lawrence-v-texas-ruling-paxton-evaluating-new-territory/

[michaelflanagansf]

More on A.G. Paxton and the Texas sodomy ruling:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/akedna/texas-ag-ken-paxton-sodomy-laws

[fritzkep]

Can't help but wonder what makes them so eager.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

They're:

drunk with power
definition
1. a form of mental illness marked by delusions of greatness, wealth, or power.
2. an obsession with doing extravagant or grand things.

[gattaca]

^^^ Yes... I read today that SCOTUS seems "overly eager" to now take on cases they would not have touched before.  These *@*@ SOB want to undo as much progress was they can before someone figures out how to remove those two lying bastards from the bench.   

^^^ The above is very, very troubling, indeed. 

[Jeff Wrangler]

Well, here's some hot news I learned last evening:

Attorney General Merrick Garland has benign prostatic hyperplasia.

 

OK, of course that's not funny if you're him. I believe the real point of the story is that the deputy attorney general will be in charge of things while Garland is under general anesthesia,

But the article did share details of his condition.   

[Lyle (Mooska)]

^^^ Yes... I read today that SCOTUS seems "overly eager" to now take on cases they would not have touched before.  These *@*@ SOB want to undo as much progress was they can before someone figures out how to remove those two lying bastards from the bench.   

^^^ The above is very, very troubling, indeed.

It’s Hard to Overstate the Danger of the Voting Case the Supreme Court Just Agreed to Hear
by Richard L. Hasen
Slate | June 30, 2022

The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to hear Moore v. Harper, an “independent state legislature” theory case from North Carolina. This case has the potential to fundamentally rework the relationship between state legislatures and state courts in protecting voting rights in federal elections. It also could provide the path for election subversion in congressional and presidential elections.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/supreme-court-dangerous-independent-state-legislature-theory.html

________

Now they're hearing cases on THEORIES!

[Jeff Wrangler]

Of course now here in Pennsylvania we have a Repub candidate for governor who has smugly pronounced that as governor he can unilaterally decertify any voting machines he wants (if he doesn't like the results)--and that means Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

Incidentally, this buffoon was at the Capitol January 6.

The Democratic ads attacking this buffoon are playing up his opposition to abortion and gay marriage. Typically Democratic bad idea. This is Pennsylvania. I know my people. The farther away you get from Philadelphia and, I presume, Pittsburgh, the more likely people are to agree with him on those issues. Reminding them of that is a bad idea.

[gattaca]

It’s Hard to Overstate the Danger of the Voting Case the Supreme Court Just Agreed to Hear
by Richard L. Hasen
Slate | June 30, 2022

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/supreme-court-dangerous-independent-state-legislature-theory.html

Now they're hearing cases on THEORIES!

^^ Yes this is a very, very dangerous case which makes me really believe all this is too part of the GOP's plan to take over the country.  The castrating of "Federal Voting Rights" by SCOTUS  was the first alarm bell b/c they could not get around that.  Now, this case(s) will further weaken  federal and state voter rights and more-so voter protections across the country.  It will empower corrupt state legislators to "choose as they please" and ignore the will of the people's votes. 

Folks, we are reverting to pre-civil war mentality, all engineered by the GOP, Moscow Mitch, The Federalists BS, to create corruptly sanctioned and gerrymandered state electors which will have limitless power to put who THEY see fit into office.. and this case puts that beyond the reach of the courts.   Sadly, if these a$$-wipes gain the power to ignore the will of the voters... hang on, b/c we might as well be back to April 1861.

"The theory in this extreme form is that the state constitution as interpreted by the state supreme court is not a limit on legislative power. This position would essentially neuter the development of any laws protecting voters more broadly than the federal Constitution based on voting rights provisions in state constitutions. "

The GOP is positioning itself at the state level to monkey-wrench the Federal 2024 elections.... Not going to be pretty.  I'm not an alarmists but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this plan in play.  Voters better wake up.

[gattaca]

A recommended, chilling read outlining the BS used in both rulings by these "originalists conservatives" cases this week.  More overturns to come as the GOP is lining up cases to dismantle us back to 1860's.   "A right to privacy" - all depends on what sex you are and what "god" you worship and BTW, that "privacy cone of protection" now extends as far as man wants...  Un-frakking REAL for ya?

-> https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/06/supreme-court-women-rights-versus-men.html   Should make you very ->   

"As the conservative supermajority that controls the Roberts court careens through the remainder of this term, take note of which types of people deserve “privacy” and spiritual dignity, and the right to be let alone, and which do not. Notice who is cast as a fully realized spiritual being, and who is denied a life worthy of religious expression. More and more these new definitions will track sectarian imperatives, archaic race and gender assumptions, and subjective ideas about religious sincerity. These inquiries will reinstate the most retrograde ideas about who matters and who doesn’t, what freedom looks and feels like for different kinds of people, who gets to move freely and confidently through the world, and who must live in fear of government restrictions. Women and people of color will not prevail in these new hierarchies. Alito’s new test freezes constitutional rights in 1868, a time when dignity and privacy followed only some people and eluded many more."

[Jeff Wrangler]

The GOP is positioning itself at the state level to monkey-wrench the Federal 2024 elections.... Not going to be pretty.  I'm not an alarmists but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see this plan in play.  Voters better wake up.

Of course. Whenever they don't like the outcome of an election, they'll cry "corrupt" or "stolen." In practice here in Pennsylvania that will mean the loss of my vote because they will always cry "corrupt" or "stolen" about votes in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, what I am about to say is not nice, and I know it, so be warned.

Remember that woman who said the overturn of Roe is a victory for "white life"? (Like Hell that was a slip of the tongue. ...  Or, rather, a slip that betrayed her true feelings. ...)

I've been thinking: All those racists who wanted to overturn Roe--did they never stop to think that with the majority of abortions being sought by women of color, overturning Roe would contribute to their great fear--more babies of color being born?

Not only are they racists, they're also morons.

[fritzkep]

Unintended consequences.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I usually like our Independence Day holiday. I am not feeling so patriotic this July 4th.

I'm attending a friend's gathering today. I'll often wear some patriotic coloring on a day like today to something like this, but I feel more like wearing pride colors or the like, like I did earlier this month, so that's what I'm going to do.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I just read an article concerning Katie Porter, the great Democratic House Representative of CA's 45th Congressional District. This district is usually Republican and she won it narrowly in 2018. In 2020 she held onto it with roughly the same margins. The article says that because of redistricting, this year 2 out of every 3 voters in the district will be (or could be) unfamiliar with her name on the ballot.

An example of California's "fair" redistricting rules, while red states just draw them to get maximum/assured representation. In any case, if Katie Porter, one of the best new(ish) Represenatives in the house from anywhere in the U.S., doesn't get re-elected based on her performance FOR THE PEOPLE of her district (and the U.S.) there is even less hope than we can even dare imagine.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

When there's lots of dispiriting news, I try to find something in the news that's hopeful and also try to find something I can actually do about things, even if it's the littlest thing...something.

So on easy thing I can do today is to share this video of someone who is in a position to fight back against that which is happening nowadays.

California Governor Gavin Newsom is airing a re-election campaign ad (today) in Florida--and on Fox News! He is posting videos on the Cretin's Truth Social platform. I was peripherally aware of this. Watch this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s3VMLFuFfJk

All people, especially Democrats, need to start fighting back. Why do I even have to say that. The Republicans keep steamrolling everyone, including their own voters. Holding the line is not working. It seemed every day of Obama's and Trump's Presidency that Mitch McConnell was out there on the news working the voters, alarming Democrats and being praised by the Reprehensibles. Where is Chuck Schumer?

Find ways to be optimistic! Feeling good is empowering.