;)
The Commentariat -- September 8, 2021
Afternoon Update:
Biden's Gift to Earth. Ivan Penn of the New York Times: "The Biden administration on Wednesday released a plan to produce almost half of the nation's electricity from the sun by 2050 -- something that would require the country to double the amount of solar energy installed every year over the next four years and then double it again by 2030. The expansion of solar energy is part of President Biden's effort to fight climate change, but the new target would represent a huge leap with little historical precedent -- solar energy contributed less than 4 percent of the country's electricity last year. Such a large increase, laid out in an Energy Department report, is in line with what most climate scientists say is needed to stave off the worst effects of global warming. It would require a vast transformation in technology, the energy industry and the way people live.... Getting there will mean trillions of dollars in investments by homeowners, businesses and the government." A UPI story is here.
Alan Rappeport of the New York Times: "The wealthiest 1 percent of Americans are the nation's most egregious tax evaders, failing to pay as much as $163 billion in owed taxes per year, according to a new Treasury Department report released on Wednesday. The analysis comes as the Biden administration is pushing lawmakers to embrace its ambitious proposal to beef up the Internal Revenue Service to narrow the 'tax gap,' which it estimates amounts to $7 trillion in unpaid taxes over a decade. The White House has proposed investing $80 billion in the agency over the next 10 years to hire more enforcement staff, overhaul its technology and usher in new information-reporting requirements that would give the government greater insight into tax evasion schemes." MB: Hey, Joe & Kyrsten, here's some found money that will pay pretty much all of that omnibus infrastructure bill you find too expensive.
Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "Frank Scavo, a Donald Trump supporter from Pennsylvania who chartered four buses to D.C. on the day that the U.S. Capitol was attacked, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge on Wednesday. As part of a plea agreement, Scavo pleaded guilty to one of the four counts in his criminal information during a virtual hearing before Judge Royce C. Lamberth. Scavo admitted that he 'willfully and knowingly paraded, demonstrated, and picketed in a Capitol Building.' Scavo, an Old Forge resident who said that about 200 Pennsylvania residents traveled on the trip he organized, initially lied to the Wilkes-Barre Times Leader, saying that he and his group 'didn't see what was going on inside the Capitol.' But the news outlet spotted Scavo in news photographs inside the Capitol building. Scavo's plea deal requires him to cooperate with federal authorities."
Florida. Lori Rozsa of the Washington Post: "A Florida judge on Wednesday ruled against Gov. Ron DeSantis's administration for a second time over school mask mandates, allowing school boards to require that students wear face coverings. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper again sided with parents who said an executive order from DeSantis (R) overstepped the state's authority in restricting school districts from requiring masks. 'We have a variant that's more infectious and more dangerous to children than the one we had last year,' Cooper said when issuing his ruling. 'We're in a non-disputed pandemic situation with threats to young children who, at least based on the evidence, have no way to avoid this unless to stay home and isolate themselves. I think everybody agrees that's not good for them.' Cooper pointed to the guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that recommends masks for students and staff in schools, calling it the 'the gold standard.'"
Texas. Jack Douglas & Laura Meckler of the Washington Post: "Masks are now mandatory for students and staff in the Connally Independent School District, on the outskirts of Waco. The decision, made late last week, followed ... two teacher deaths and a surge of cases in the community.... Gov. Greg Abbott (R) in May barred Texas school districts and other governmental entities from requiring masks, saying it should be a matter of personal choice. But as this school year began, with the highly contagious delta variant bearing down, several big-city school districts defied him. Then a court put his order on hold. Now, many smaller, more rural school districts are following their big-city counterparts." MB: Teachers have to die as martyrs to Greg Abbott's stupidity before schools, parents & students wake up to reality.
A Monument to a Traitor Comes Down. Sabrina Tavernise of the New York Times: "After more than a year of legal wrangling, one of the nation's largest Confederate monuments -- a soaring statue of Robert E. Lee, the South's Civil War general -- was hoisted off its pedestal in downtown Richmond, Va., on Wednesday morning. At 8:54 a.m., a man in an orange jacket waved his arms, and the 21-foot statue rose into the air and glided, slowly, to a flatbed truck below. The sun had just come out and illuminated the towering gray pedestal as a small crowd on the east side of the monument let out a cheer.... It was an emotional moment. The Lee statue was erected in 1890, the first of six Confederate monuments -- symbols of white power that dotted the main boulevard in Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. On Wednesday, it became the last of them to be removed, opening up the story of this city to all of its residents to write." ~~~
~~~~~~~~~
Katie Rogers & Juliet Macur of the New York Times: "President Biden warned Americans on Tuesday that Hurricane Ida's lethal destruction was the sure sign of a nation and world 'in peril' from climate change and said drastic action would be needed to prevent extreme weather patterns from worsening. 'They all tell us this is code red,' Mr. Biden said from a neighborhood in Queens, referencing scientific research that suggests a growing number of Americans are vulnerable to extreme weather events.... A trip through storm-battered areas of New Jersey and New York City gave Mr. Biden an opportunity to show his commitment to the federal government's storm response and to build support for an infrastructure package that he has promised would help safeguard against future storms. While he was traveling, the White House sent Congress an urgent funding request for $14 billion to aid recovery from natural disasters that occurred before Hurricane Ida and to avert a government shutdown on Oct. 1." ~~~
~~~ Here's the transcript of President Biden's remarks, as delivered, via the White House.
Matt Zapotosky, et al., of the Washington Post: "Attorney General Merrick Garland's vow to protect women's right to choose abortion while officials explore challenging a Texas law that severely restricts the procedure offers more bark than bite, legal analysts say, with abortion rights proponents pressing for more aggressive steps. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee called Tuesday for Garland to take the dramatic step of criminally prosecuting those who seek to enforce the law, which effectively bans abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy. Republicans and supporters of the measure, meanwhile, decried what they saw as Justice Department overreach to block a law where the Supreme Court would not.... Department officials have been discussing other ways to get involved in recent days, and Garland said they had reached out to U.S. attorneys' offices and FBI field offices in Texas and across the country 'to discuss our enforcement authorities.'"
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "The White House budget office Tuesday sent Congress an 'urgent' spending request asking for tens of billions of dollars in natural disaster relief and Afghanistan resettlement funding as the administration tries to respond to both emergencies. The White House is asking for $14 billion in aid to respond to natural disasters that occurred before Hurricane Ida, as well as $6.4 billion to pay for the ongoing relocation of tens of thousands of Afghans who partnered with the United States during the war in Afghanistan. The administration anticipates that another $10 billion will have to be approved in disaster relief for Hurricane Ida, as well. As part of the request, White House Office of Management and Budget acting director Shalanda Young called for Congress to approve a short-term extension in government funding so that there isn't a partial government shutdown Oct. 1."
Thanks, Heidi! Jonathan Weisman, et al., of the New York Times: Former North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp [D] has emerged as the smiling face of a well-financed effort to defeat a proposed tax increase that is crucial to funding the $3.5 trillion social spending bill at the heart of President Biden's agenda. Her effort is indicative of the difficult slog ahead as the business lobby mobilizes to chip away at Democrats' tax-raising ambitions, which some lawmakers say will have to be scaled back to maintain party unity, an assessment the White House has disputed.... Corporate interests, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Business Roundtable and Americans for Tax Reform, have mobilized a multifaceted lobbying and advertising blitz to stop the tax increases -- or at least mitigate them.... On Thursday, the House Ways and Means Committee is set to begin formally drafting its voluminous piece of the 10-year measure to combat climate change and reweave the nation's social safety net, with paid family and medical leave, expanded public education, new Medicare benefits and more. The committee's purview includes much of that social policy, but also the tax increases needed to pay for it."
I will pursue as my primary goal in life the killer or killers who slaughtered Nicole and Mr. Goldman. -- O.J. Simpson, vowing to find the real killers
We will run our own investigation. -- Kevin McCarthy, vowing to find the real insurrectionists
Kevin McCarthy is the O.J. Simpson of Jan 6. -- Dana Milbank (or his headline writer)
~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "How deeply, an interviewer asked [Kevin McCarthy], was ... Donald Trump involved in the events of Jan. 6? 'The FBI has investigated this,' McCarthy replied. 'The Senate had bipartisan committees that come back. And you know what they have found? That there is no involvement.'... To the extent that McCarthy has control over what comes out of his mouth, what he voiced was a lie. The Senate probe avoided the question of Trump's role, and the FBI has reached no such conclusion.... McCarthy embodies the corruption of truth that has consumed the GOP.... [Among other things,] he's threatening telecom companies that cooperate with the committee's request to preserve phone and social media records of people (including lawmakers) who may have been involved in the insurrection.... What did McCarthy mean? Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), a rising power in the House GOP, explained on Fox News that if telecom companies 'go along with this, they will be shut down -- and that's a promise.'"
Charles Pierce of Esquire: "The world's most predictable exercise in public hypocrisy is unfolding right on schedule. After spending a couple of weeks belaboring the administration over how it allegedly left our Afghan allies behind, even as the administration airlifted some 125,000 people out of a war zone, the Republicans -- and a few too many people in the elite political press -- are now trafficking in Scary Brown People stories regarding the administration's attempts to resettle some of our Afghan allies, and their children, in this country." Pierce points to a Wisconsin Public Radio story about the president pro tem of the state senate -- one Patrick Testin -- and U.S. Rep. U.S. Tom Tiffany [R], are most exercised about "the mass entry of foreigners from a known hotbed of terrorism" into a refugee camp to be located in the state. "The New York Times is on this story, too, but, as expected, is soft-pedaling the utter two-faced mendacity of the Republican Party. It's not the hypocrisy, you see, it's the 'schism.'" Pierce provides "a fine example of a kind of pure Timesian euphemistic lullaby." Pierce's post is firewalled.
Felicia Sonmez & Terrence McCoy of the Washington Post: "Jason Miller, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump, said Tuesday that he was briefly detained and questioned by Brazilian authorities on a day in which the South American country inched yet closer to a full-blown constitutional crisis. In a statement, Miller, the chief executive of the social media site Gettr, said that he and other members of his traveling party were 'questioned for three hours at the airport in Brasilia, after having attended this weekend's CPAC Brasil Conference,' before eventually being released to fly back to the United States.... According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Miller's questioning was ordered by Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes.... In recent weeks, de Moraes has signed off on the arrest of multiple supporters of Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro as his office oversees a national investigation into misinformation." MB: This makesme very sad, said Miller didn't get at least an overnight stay in a dank Brazilian jail.
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Perry Bacon of the Washington Post on how Politico wrecked mainstream political journalism: "... early in the Obama years, it became clear that the ... most important stories in American politics were the deepening polarization of the American electorate along cultural and racial lines and the growing radicalization of the GOP. But a Politico-ized national political press was both largely unwilling and in some ways unable to center its coverage on those realities. So the press spent much of the Obama years acting as if the opposition to him was solely because he had a liberal policy ideas ... -- and not because [President] Obama had become both the leader and a symbol of a multicultural America whose values are opposed by many on the right. Wary of angering Republican readers, much of the mainstream press refused to cast the GOP as drifting into radical and racist behavior, even when prominent Republicans would not acknowledge that Obama was born in the United States. The coverage of the 2016 campaign in particular was abysmal. The focus on Hillary Clinton's emails stemmed from the media's reflexive both sides-ism, and an obsession with feuds among Donald Trump's staffers reflected an insider-focused approach to politics gone too far."
The Pandemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live Covid-19 updates for Wednesday are here.
David Leonhardt of the New York Times: "The C.D.C. reported a terrifying fact in July: Vaccinated people with the Delta variant of the Covid virus carried roughly the same viral load in their noses and throats as unvaccinated people. The news seemed to suggest that even the vaccinated were highly vulnerable to getting infected and passing the virus to others.... In recent weeks, however, more data has become available, and it suggests that the true picture is less alarming.... If you're vaccinated, a Covid infection is still uncommon, and those high viral loads are not as worrisome as they initially sounded. How small are the chances of the average vaccinated American contracting Covid? Probably about one in 5,000 per day, and even lower for people who take precautions or live in a highly vaccinated community." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Fauci States the Obvious. Madeline Holcombe of CNN: "Dr. Anthony Fauci says there's an important step adults can take to protect children who are too young to be vaccinated against Covid-19. 'The way you protect children who, because of their age, cannot get vaccinated yet is to surround the children ... surround the children with vaccinated people,' the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told CNN on Sunday. More children have needed emergency room visits and hospitalizations in states with lower vaccination rates, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Florida. Stupidest Remark of Last Week. Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Ron DeSantis on Covid-19 vaccinations: "At the end of the day ... it's about your health and whether you want that protection or not.... It really doesn't impact me or anyone else." For the stupidest remark of this week, see Greg Abbott, Texas, linked below.
Idaho. Rebecca Boone of the AP: "Idaho public health leaders announced Tuesday that they activated 'crisis standards of care' allowing health care rationing for the state's northern hospitals because there are more coronavirus patients than the institutions can handle. The Idaho Department of Health and Welfare quietly enacted the move Monday and publicly announced it in a statement Tuesday morning -- warning residents that they may not get the care they would normally expect if they need to be hospitalized. The move came as the state's confirmed coronavirus cases skyrocketed in recent weeks. Idaho has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the U.S."
South Dakota. Ashish Jha in a Washington Post op-ed: "The annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota ... was ... a serious pandemic stress test.... The best data suggests that at least 75 percent of the entire South Dakota population has some degree of immunity against the virus.... South Dakota, despite its middling vaccination rates, probably has among the highest levels of population immunity in the nation, driven largely by horrifying winter outbreaks.... But unfortunately..., in the weeks since the rally began in early August, infection numbers have shot up more than 600 percent in South Dakota. We can expect to see big increases in other states, too, since bikers returned home from the event. Last year..., much of the region was aflame because of Sturgis, probably causing thousands of deaths.... Over the past year, every time we have tried to defy the virus by scorning precautions, the virus has won...."
Beyond the Beltway
New York. Republican Local Official (Allegedly) Behaving Badly. Lauren Frias of Business Insider, reprinted in Yahoo! News: "A deputy mayor of a city in New York state faces federal charges after authorities discovered unregistered firearms and bogus badges for federal agencies, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday. Last week, Brian Downey, a Republican who serves as deputy mayor of Airmont, New York, was taken into custody for 'purchasing a rifle suppression device over the internet,' according to a statement from the Rockland County District Attorney's Office. Authorities later executed a search warrant on his home and found at least 13 illegal suppressors and 16 unregistered assault weapons, including a short-barrel rifle and sawed-off shotgun. The firearms were displayed on a rack in a room of Downey's house, which authorities dubbed the 'Gun Room,' according to the complaint. Alongside the illegal firearms, law enforcement officers also found a small locked box, to which Downey claimed he did not have the combination. After forcing the box open, [authorities found] it contained 'numerous federal badges and credentials' bearing Downey's name from various agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Justice Department's Bureau of Prisons, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation." The Washington Post's story is here.
Texas. Eva Moravec of the Washington Post: "Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Tuesday signed into law a bill that creates strict new voting rules in the state, ending a months-long effort by Democrats to stall the legislation by denying Republicans a quorum in the House. But the law already faces at least five challenges in state and federal courts, with dozens of organizations and individuals suing Texas GOP leaders and local elections officials." ~~~
~~~ Stupidest Remark of the Week. And it was only Tuesday: "During a Tuesday press conference, [Gov.] Greg Abbott said the law gives rape victims up to six weeks to get abortion[s] and thus 'does not do that [force victims to have their assaulter's child]. Let's be clear: rape is a crime. And Texas will work tirelessly to make sure that we eliminate all rapists from the streets of Texas by aggressively going out and arresting them and prosecuting them and getting them off the streets.'" ~~~
~~~ Marie: Apparently Greg there imagines that rapists are a lot like jaywalkers; Texas lawmen will find them walking down the street. (The vast majority of rapes are committed by someone known to the victim & very few are reported to law enforcement.) I would like to hear from those Texas law enforcement officials who can fulfill Abbott's goal to "eliminate all rapists," as we would all be glad to know how that might be accomplished. When you're a Republican Who Would Be President, making stupid, fact-averse remarks is a feature, not a bug.
Wisconsin Senate Race. Democratic Local Official (Allegedly) Behaving Badly. Natalie Prieb of the Hill: "Milwaukee City Councilwoman Chantia Lewis [D], who is running for the Senate seat held by Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), was charged Tuesday with four felonies for allegedly stealing $21,000 from her own campaign and lying about it. The criminal complaint said Lewis used funds from her campaign to travel to a worship conference in Florida, pay tuition for classes at a bible college and go on family trips, as well as pay for personal expenses like car and credit card bills, TMJ4 reports."
Way Beyond
Afghanistan. Jim Huylebroek & Matthieu Aikins of the New York Times: "The Taliban announced their choices for several acting cabinet positions on Tuesday, but held off on formally announcing a permanent government for Afghanistan.... The announcement came just hours after the Taliban used force to break up a demonstration by hundreds of women in Kabul. The protesters called for the Taliban to respect their rights and made it clear that they would not easily surrender the gains they have made over the past two decades. Running a government will most likely prove more daunting than toppling one. To succeed, the Taliban will need to secure desperately needed aid, which has been frozen by the United States and other nations. Foreign governments and lenders are waiting to see the fate of the opposition and if rights for women and ethnic and religious minorities will be respected. Without that money, the government faces worsening challenges, including humanitarian and economic crises that have forced Afghans to flee. Basic services like electricity are under threat, and the United Nations warned that food aid would run out by the end of the month for hundreds of thousands of Afghans." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ AP: "An Afghan employee of an American organization in Afghanistan says the Taliban are blocking her and hundreds of other people from boarding charter evacuation flights out of Afghanistan.... The U.S. organization, Ascend, has worked for years with Afghan women and girls. The woman is among several hundred people, reportedly including American citizens and green card holders, who say they have been waiting in large residence halls and hotels for more than a week for permission to board waiting charter flights out of the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.... She says the American citizens she has met in the group are vulnerable people in their 70s, parents of Afghan Americans in the United States. Taliban officials say they will let people who have the proper passports and other documentation leave. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday denied claims from Republican lawmakers that the situation in Mazar-e-Sharif amounted to a hostage-taking...." (Als linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Marie: This morning, a representative of a rescue operation, speaking on CNN, said that his organization had to move vulnerable Afghans through 20 "checkpoints," where the "checkers" demanded payoffs of up to $4,000 for each person they allowed through. I don't know if that's true, but assuming it is, demanding huge bounties is, IMO, comparable to hostage-taking. ~~~
~~~ Back to the Future. Akhtar Makoii in the Guardian: "The Taliban have started replacing murals on Kabul's streets with paintings of their flags and Islamic slogans as the new rulers continued to reimpose their austere vision on Afghanistan. The [painted-over] murals addressed everything from the killing of George Floyd in the US and the drowning of Afghan refugees in Iran, to the signing of the US-Taliban agreement towards peace and murder of a Japanese aid worker."
Mexico. Mary Beth Sheridan & Alejandra Chaoul of the Washington Post: "Mexico's supreme court voted unanimously on Tuesday to decriminalize abortion, a striking step in a country with one of the world's largest Catholic populations and a move that contrasts sharply with tighter restrictions introduced across the border in Texas." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. MB: Okey-doke, Texas, time for some abortion tourism south of the border. ~~~
~~~ Samantha Beech & Rafael Romo of CNN: "A powerful earthquake struck the southwest of Mexico late Tuesday, causing widespread shaking as far away as Mexico City and killing at least one person. The United States Geological Survey said the 7.0 magnitude quake struck 2.5 miles (4 kilometers) east-northeast of Los Órganos de San Agustín, about eight miles from the Pacific Coast beach resort city of Acapulco. It was measured at an initial depth of 7.8 miles (12.6 kilometers). At least 92 aftershocks were recorded, including one with a magnitude of 5.2, the Mexican State Civil Protection Secretariat said." MB: As Ken W. points out in today's Comments, the second event (the earthquake) is no doubt God's response to the first event (the supreme court's decision to decriminalize abortion).
News Lede
New York Times: "Dangerous swells from Hurricane Larry were expected to reach the East Coast beginning Wednesday, although its current track does not suggest the powerful storm will make landfall in the United States, according to the National Hurricane Center. As of Wednesday morning, Larry was about 500 miles southeast of Bermuda and moving northwest at 13 miles per hour, the Hurricane Center said. The Category 3 storm has maximum sustained winds of 110 m.p.h., but forecasters expect it to weaken in the coming days. Bermuda was under a tropical storm warning, with high winds expected late Wednesday or early Thursday. Swells generated by Larry were affecting parts of the Caribbean and could produce 'life-threatening surf and rip current conditions' in the United States and Canada through the end of the week, the Hurricane Center said."
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Reader Comments (8)
More proof of capitalism's greatness.
https://www.stanforddaily.com/2021/09/01/who-is-elizabeth-holmes/
The details would suggest Holmes ran another Hoover Institution con job.
Surprised Dr. Atlas wasn't also on the Theranos board.
BTW, hope we don't find the Mexico earthquake reported tonight was a heavenly rejoinder to the Mexican supreme court's abortion decision...
From yesterday: here's a funny for all you comma mavens:
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Repub's Obstetrics & Gynecology :
"Spare me the many women who don't know they're pregnant for six weeks–-WHORES!--- only whores wouldn't know for six weeks."
former Food Network host Josh Denny
Check out Rachel's program last night: she had Lawrence Tribe who in the day successfully won a case for a restaurant who wanted to get a liquor license but was stopped by a church in its vicinity. Asked if he thought Garland would pursue successfully the Texas law, Tribe, who was a teacher of Garland, said yes, "he just works a lot slower than I would like."
and Ken––thanks for yesterday.
I see that my link above doesn't work so I'll splain: (it was from a cartoon)
A policeman stops a truck with the words "ME AND WALLYS PRODUCE" on its side panel.
"Sorry, but I'm going to have to issue you a summons for reckless grammar and driving without an apostrophe."
Random thoughts about specific idiocies and idiots…
President Biden points to the increasing power of storms whose destructive powers have been dangerously elevated by climate change. R response is sure to be a yawn and a couple of snowballs. The same sort of criminal negligence that got us here.
Plastic knives to automatic weapon gunfights, part 245:
Merrick Garland, our 1850 style AG, takes on the reprehensible misogyny and illegal attacks on women in Texas. Despite the fact that he has some pretty cool weapons at his disposal (federal prosecution of those who ply illegal actions under cover of law), I’ma guess he’s gonna channel his inner Susan Collins and express his Concern ™, but not much else. If I’m wrong, great! The linked piece describes his position so far as “more bark than bite”. News to me. I have yet to hear even a tiny bark. About anything.
GQP goes full police state, threatening to shut down telecom companies who honor requests for data helping to single out confederate traitors who aided and supported Trump’s attempted coup and his deadly attack on the government. Oh, and Kevin McCarthy as the Jan. 6 OJ Simpson? Excellent. Now if that analogy follows through, maybe we’ll see “My Kevin” in an orange jumpsuit one-a these days.
Heidi Heitkamp. Speaking of analogies…back in the 60’s, someone at NBC broke away from an NFL telecast of a crucial game late in the season to air a made for television film* based on the book about a little Swiss tyke, “Heidi”. The game continued with the team that had been far behind scoring two dramatic touchdowns in the final minute to win the game. Most viewers had no idea that the team that looked on the verge of victory was beaten. The game has gone down in sports history as “The Heidi Game”. Heitkamp is playing an updated version of this game, helping a team that should lose to beat their opponents (all of us). Thanks, Heidi. Now here’s a plane ticket to the Alps. Why don’t you go explore a crevasse or something. And take Manchin and Sinema with you.
Texas rapists. Hey, who knew that rapists in Texas (the entire GOP, btw) walk around wearing t-shirts proclaiming their crimes? Ol’ Greg’ll git them varmints any day now. Oh, and that bit about victims of rape having six weeks (six WHOLE weeks) to find some place to get an abortion (Mexico?)? Most women don’t even know they’re pregnant at that point, which was the idea in the first place. They’d have made it six hours but they didn’t want to appear like vicious, unreasonable, misogynistic pricks.
*The movie, by the way, had an astounding amount of talent involved. Maxillian Schell, a few years removed from his Oscar for “Judgment at Nuremberg”, esteemed British actors Michael Redgrave and Jean Simmons (another Oscar winner), and Walter Slezak. The film was directed by Academy Award winner Delbert Mann and starred Jennifer Edwards, daughter of director Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, in the title role. Music was by another Oscar regular, John Williams. Lotta fire power for a TV movie in 1968. Just thought I’d finish on a somewhat more positive note.
PD,
And only a right-wing, Y chromosome douchebag would think that “only whores” don’t know they’re pregnant at six weeks. Where do these fucking people come from? When even the frickin’ Food Network is airing these pigs, you know we’re being overrun by depraved dickheads.
@Akhilleus: The trouble is, if Heidi took Joe & Kyrsten to the Alps with him, the Republican governors of West Virginia & Arizona would appoint their replacements. Although you couldn't prove it by Bush & Cheney, the U.S. is a signatory to the Geneva Conventions, so we'll have to think of some method other than torture to get Joe & Kyrsten to abandon their Concerns ™ & toe the line.
How about a law that says men can be sued for $10k if they have sex without the express purpose of procreation. Women are always having their sex lives legislated, so little turnabout seems fair.
Sorry, RAS, my thoughts are more of the Lorena Bobbitt variety as far as right wing GQP'ers go.