It is so great to see that Randy Rainbow is still at it. Warning: this is not safe for work! And neither is the original song from which this was made.
This is a followup to my last post about the ballot initiative in Kansas. Stephen Colbert gives us a more in-depth look at the other elections that happened at the same time:
He also warns you about how processed foods are killing your brains. Maybe that explains the Republicans (especially Donald Trump!)
For years, Republicans courted Evangelicals by giving lip service to right-to-life zealots, homophobes, racists, and other right-wing social issue voters. But even when Republicans had the trifecta, they knew better than to do things like overturn Roe v. Wade. They did try to block gay marriage, but they gave into that relatively quietly.
But all that changed with the arrival of Trumpism. One of the main tools of Trumpism is to rile up your voters to create a base. It does this by “owning the libs”, and even demonizing them, calling them socialists, and even pedophiles. Indeed, Trump was never against abortion, he just used it to mobilize religious voters to vote for him. But when you get a group of people really angry, you pretty much have to do something for them to get them to keep voting for you.
So Republicans packed the Supreme Court, and despite the new justices claiming that Roe was “settled law”, the Supremes unsettled it. They had to, despite the fact that 61% of Americans say that abortion should be be legal in all or most cases, while only 37% say it should be illegal in all or most cases.
But yesterday, in the first response to the Supreme Court decision, blowback happened. The constitution of Kansas protects the right to an abortion, but there was a primary election yesterday, and Kansas Republicans tried to change the constitution so that abortion would not be protected, so that the legislature could then make it illegal. They scheduled the vote during a primary election, rather than waiting for the general election, because typically primary elections bring out more Republican voters, especially if held in the summer, when college students (who tend to be more progressive) are gone for summer break.
But then something unexpected happened. Even though Kansas is solidly Republican and conservative, the proposed change to their constitution galvanized pro-choice voters. Turnout for the election was 250% larger than expected, matching the turnout in many presidential elections. Amazingly, even Republican voters were not as anti-abortion as expected. In fact, the vote wasn’t even close, the measure being rejected by roughly 20 points.
Now the only question is how much efforts to ban abortions in other states will slow down. Indeed, conservative activists and politicians have been making noise about banning gay marriage, contraception, and even going after Social Security and Medicare, but this strong rebuke should make them think twice. And maybe, just maybe, the Supreme Court will realize that a majority of Americans don’t agree with them.
Pregnant Texas Woman Cited for HOV Violation Told Cop Her Fetus Is the Passenger A pregnant Texas woman who got a ticket for driving alone in the car-pool lane plans to fight the citation, arguing her unborn baby should count as a second person.
The woman, Brandy Bottone, was headed to pick up her son when she was stopped at a sheriff’s checkpoint targeting HOV drivers breaking the rules. By law, in order to use the high-occupancy vehicle lanes, drivers must have at least one passenger in the vehicle.
“He starts peeking around. He’s like, ‘Is it just you?’ And I said, ‘No there’s two of us?’” Bottone said. “And he said, ‘Well where’s the other person.’ And I went, ‘right here,’” pointing to her stomach.
At the time of the incident last month, she was 34 weeks pregnant.
But the officer told her that doesn’t count.
“And then I said, ‘Well (I’m) not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on (with Roe v. Wade), this counts as a baby,’” she said.
Though Texas penal code recognizes an unborn child as a person, the state’s transportation code doesn’t.
Bottone got a $275 ticket. She said she plans to fight the ticket in court.
I wonder if corporations are recognized as people under Texas transportation law.
On Sunday, two days before her primary election, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) campaigned during a religious service in Colorado. She said:
The church is supposed to direct the government. The government is not supposed to direct the church. That is not how our Founding Fathers intended it. I’m tired of this separation of church and state junk that’s not in the Constitution. It was in a stinking letter, and it means nothing like what they say it does.
The “stinking letter” Boebert refers to is apparently a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptist Association. In it, he explains the part of the First Amendment about religion (i.e., “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of Religion.”)
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should ‘make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,’ thus building a wall of separation between Church and State.
So how can Boebert claim that this is not what the Founding Fathers intended? Does she think that the person who wrote the Declaration of Independence and was one of the main proponents of the Bill of Rights, isn’t one of the Founders of this nation?
I don’t think Boebert is stupid. She says these things because that’s what her base wants to hear. However, it seems she believes her base is somewhat stupid.
Does Boebert really think that “the church” should “direct the government”? If so, which church? Even if we only consider abortion, there is no clear consensus position. Many religions either support abortion rights or have no opinion about it, including Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. The main religion that opposes abortion is Hinduism! Shall we follow Hindu law?
You may be asking, what about Christians? Well, that is a mess. Catholics and Mormons oppose abortion, but Episcopalians, Methodists, Presbyterians, Unitarians, and members of the United Church of Christ support abortion rights. Even Catholics are not unified against abortion, after all, Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi are Catholics (and Pelosi just met with Pope Francis and received Communion during a papal mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, despite her position in support of abortion rights).
Even if we limit ourselves to Evangelical faiths, things are still a mess. For example, the National Baptist Convention supports abortion rights, while the Southern Baptist Convention opposes abortion.
And yet, a majority of our Supreme Court is acting like the Taliban, overturning “settled law” in favor of religion (and – ironically – guns). Not only did they reverse Roe v. Wade, they struck down a century old New York gun law that placed restrictions on carrying concealed handguns outside the home, compelled Maine to provide tuition assistance to religious schools (yes, taxpayers are going to support religious education), and finally in another reversal – despite the fact that in 1962, the Supreme Court banned organized school prayer – they somehow decided that a religious coach in a public school had the right to organize prayer sessions with players on the football field after each game.
And incidentally, Boebert won her primary yesterday. I guess that means that her base is pretty stupid.
On Saturday night, congresswoman Mary Miller (R-IL) appeared at a rally with Donald Trump, and spoke to the crowd, saying:
President Trump, on behalf of all the MAGA patriots in America, I want to thank you for the historic victory for white life in the Supreme Court yesterday.
Now, I would be remiss if I failed to mention that a spokesman for her later said that she had misread her remarks, and was supposed to call the decision a victory for “a right to life”.
Is it just me, or does saying that she misread “a right to life” as “white life” make things seem even worse for her?
As long as we are on the subject of interesting words, this headline just popped up:
Dick’s Sporting Goods offering employees more access to abortions
On Thursday we got a stark reminder that farcical fascism is still fascism.
Yes, Jeffrey Clark was a clownish Iago; the theories about Italian satellites were certifiably insane; Trump’s election lies were absurd and easily debunked; and the smoking guns are right there in plain sight.
But even so, it was a damned close run thing.
The President of the United States was moments away from installing a seditionist crony as the nation’s top law enforcement officer and using the Department of Justice to execute his coup.
The line held. Thank God.
But that line was thin, and it might not be there the next time around.
— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) June 14, 2022
It is so ironic that Donald Trump ran for president as an isolationist, who wanted to build walls around America. He seems to have built a wall around himself, isolating him from just about anyone with any sense. As Liz Cheney points out, Trump disregarded his campaign managers, his own lawyers, even his Attorney General, Vice President, and many others. But it is even worse, as he has thrown his own beloved daughter Ivanka under the bus, accusing her of perjury.
George W. Bush just admitted that he is a war criminal.
Note how after Dubya corrects himself, he doubles down and says “Iraq, too” and laughs.
Will anyone be held accountable for our war in Iraq? We will never know how many deaths were due to that war, but estimates go as high as a million people.
Saturday Night Live takes on the Supreme Court. When Donald Trump said “Make America Great Again” I didn’t realize that he wanted to take us back to the 13th century! The USA didn’t exist then, so I guess he wants to eradicate our country.
Today, Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) responded to the leaked document from the Supreme Court, saying that if accurate, it was “inconsistent” with promises that were made to her by Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch that were made in order to get her confirmation vote.
At the time, Collins told CNN that she was assured that the nominees would not overturn the Supreme Court’s precedents protecting abortion access in the U.S.
Let me get this straight. How long has Collins been a member of the Republican Party? And she believed them? Remember, Donald Trump repeatedly announced that he would focus on appointing justices who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
