The new Republican House wasted no time in passing bills that (a) will die in the Senate, and (b) show us they still aren’t listening to voters. A couple of these were abortion bills. One was the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act, which is based on the morbid and possibly prurient fantasy that healthy, viable babies routinely survive abortions, and when that happens doctors kill them (some Fetus People get off on describing the warm, still-twitching flesh discarded into buckets) or deny them care so they die of neglect. Never mind that intentionally causing the death of an infant, no matter its circumstances, is murder under the laws of every state. And as for denying care, all I can imagine is that some of them are mistaking the palliative care given newborns who have no chance with denying them care.
This also ignores the fact that an earlier Congress already passed a Born-Alive Infants Protection Act into law back in 2002 that was supposed to protect all these viable babies who survive abortions from being tossed into buckets. If the 2002 law didn’t change anything, perhaps it was because the atrocities the Fetus People oppose are only happening in their imaginations. Laws can’t change that. And ain’t enough psychologists in the world to deal with these people. Unfortunately, the new law would imprison real doctors for up to five years if they fail to resuscitate babies “born alive” after an abortion. This is regardless of whether the abortion was performed due to fatal fetal abnormalities. It’s possible doctors would be prosecuted for following standard medical practice for, say, an anencephalic neonate.
The other bill is a resolution that condemns violence directed at “anti-abortion facilities” such as those phony pregnancy crisis centers. And I also would condemn such violence, but of course the bill doesn’t say bleep about violence against abortion providers or facilities. Shooting doctors is okay with these people. So ‘pro life” they are.
As one Republican already admitted, this is about signaling to the forced birth advocates that their elected officials haven’t given up. Since there is no chance either bill will pass in the Senate or be signed into law by President Biden, the two bills are really just legislative theater, and the House Republicans won’t have to face any real-world consequences for passing them.
House Republicans also are still talking about a federal abortion ban and making the Hyde Amendment a permanent, stand-alone law and not a rider attached to appropriations bills.
This would seem to be nuts, given that their forced birth positions cost the Republicans a whole lot of seats in last year’s midterms. Well, it is nuts. These people are not facing reality. The forced birth movement is telling them that the reason Republicans lost so many elections in the midterms is that they didn’t talk about forcing women to give birth against their wills enough. Some elected Republicans are claiming that the midterms really gave them a mandate for more abortion restrictions.
Many GOP lawmakers who sailed to victory in states with anti-abortion laws balk at the idea that Democrats’ focus on abortion rights is evidence the left’s message resonated with voters. Instead, they’re taking their electoral victories as a mandate to pass additional abortion restrictions.
“South Carolina had a huge red tidal wave in this election. We flipped eight seats in the South Carolina House of Representatives … We all ran on pro-life,” said South Carolina Republican Rep. John McCravy, who spearheaded efforts this summer to prohibit abortion in most cases starting at conception. “If anything, we need to ramp our efforts up.”
I guess we should expect members of the Selfishness Is Good party to not care what happens to other members in less deep-red states. Also note that abortion is still legal in Rep. John McCravy’s South Carolina, thanks to the SC Supreme Court deciding the state constitution protects a right to abortion.
That’s not so in other states, of course. A few days ago the FDA announced a policy change that would allow more retail pharmacies, both online and brick-and-mortar, to dispense abortion pills. CVS and Walgreens have already announced they are getting with the program, at least in states where state laws don’t prohibit the sale of abortion pills. The forced birth people are up in arms and organizing pickets outside CVS and Walgreens stores in at least eight states. Well, it’s their time to waste, I guess. But if Walgreens stores around the country start getting bombed, we’ll know why.
The attorney general of Alabama has declared that if he catches any women buying abortion pills he will prosecute them under a state law meant to protect children from illegal drugs like cocaine and throw them in jail. This is causing division in the forced birth movement, since it has long been the official position of the Fetus People that women are not capable of making abortion decisions for themselves and are being misled by the malevolent abortion industry into having abortions it wouldn’t occur to them to have otherwise. Seriously.
And then there’s Virginia. Yesterday Republicans in the state legislature introduced a bill providing a 15-week abortion ban. This was proposed by the MAGA-Lite governor as a moderate compromise.
The party is framing the ban as a moderate compromise: GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin praised it as a “bipartisan consensus,” while the Senate Republican caucus described it as “practical, sensible, and reasonable.”
But these descriptions do not align with the actual text of the law. In addition to outlawing abortion long before viability, the proposal shares several features with the extreme abortion bans adopted by states like Louisiana and Texas. It contains extremely limited exceptions while exposing doctors to criminal liability for performing emergency abortions, including up to 10 years’ imprisonment. In short, the ban would ensure that reproductive health care in Virginia is dictated by criminal law rather than patients and their physicians.
Also yesterday, a Democrat defeated a Republican in a special election for a Virginia state Senate seat. This was a district that had elected Republicans for a decade. It’s suspected that the abortion issue made the difference. Republicans control most of the Virginia government except for the Senate, which has a small Dem majority. Youngkin may have a hard time getting his “moderate” bill passed.
The moral is, though, that the Republican party hasn’t yet been punished enough for their obsession with banning abortion.
Other bills the GOP House passed or is about to pass include defunding the IRS (which will be DOA in the Senate),
In other news, the Missouri state legislature is considering a dress code for women lawmakers to be sure they keep their arms covered. And for some a cardigan isn’t good enough; they want the ladies to wear blazers.
Yep, the caucus that lost their minds over the suggestion that they should wear masks during a pandemic to respect the safety of others is now spending its time focusing on the fine details of what women have to wear (specifically how to cover their arms) to show respect here.
— Rep. Peter Merideth (@PeterforMO) January 11, 2023
Yes. They need to argue that, because otherwise, they have to call pregnant women seeking abortions "murderers" and that hurts their poll numbers, so they don't like that. They don't listen to polls, they listen to their guts! And their guts turn to water when they think about blaming women for this horrible, murderous, act.
So they had to invent a reason why "abortion murder" is different from, you know, murder. Why bother inventing a good reason, when you don't need it to be good, or even make sense?
So, if a woman legislator in Missouri shows up exposing (gasp) her elbows the males will stand up and shout in unison "you slut! Your indecency is making me turgid and I can't control my Midwestern manliness and I might force you into a condition of being forced to carry the fruit of my loins to full term."
Cheeseandcrackers, and I thought Florida was bad.
It is the home state of Josh Hawley, after all.
and I thought Missouri was the "Show Me" state
Now it's the "Screw Me" state.
No, you were right. Florida is bad.
Nothing sways people to your side of the abortion argument more than screaming at them about fetal rights from your picket line while they're on their way into a drugstore to buy toothpaste and floss.
These are the same Jesusy, uber-"Christian" loony-tines who've been on the wrong side of EVERY human and civil rights issue in this country's history – from independence from the King, to the Civil War, to women's suffrage, to equality for Black (and brown, and red, and yellow) people!
After Roe, it took a few years*, but these "nucking-futs" figured out that to make-up for being wrong on everything for centuries, they'd take the side of fetuses.
Largely because they hate and fear women. Especially, independent women. You know, the "uppity" types who don't know their place. (Ditto that, for minorities).
Boy, won't they be shocked when they lose the House in a Blue Tsunami in 2024!
And "KKKev's KKKids" could even keep the RepubliKKKLANS from taking over the Senate in what should be a good year for them in their Senate races.
As the GREAT Barack Hussein Obama said to Mittens in 2012: "Please proceed…"
*A lot of younger folks may not know this, but the Southern Baptist Convention's initial position after Roe, was pro-choice!
Yes! PRO ABORTION!!!
It was only when some twisted KKKonservative "Christians" realized that abortion would make a great political wedge issue against liberals that they flipped the SBC's stance – and then a lot of other (misogynist) ministers (ALL MALE, it should go without saying) followed the idiot leaders.
So again, " Please proceed…"
Amen to all that, bro.
The "Republican Playhouse" is one of three rings in "The Greatest Show On Earth." The other two rings are the 2024 Election (and we're in it) and the third ring is Donald Trump's criminal trials. IMO, the Republican Party knows that the voters tuned out the "leadership" years ago. They are a cult, listening to liars, addicted to the lies.
The problem for the Republican Playhouse: how does the GOP perform to the satisfaction of the donor class when the priorities of GOP voters, largely detached from reality, are not aligned with what the donor class wants? The donor class is trying to ride the hurricane of chaos – note that the first bill they passed (going nowhere) is to reverse the added funding of the IIRS which empowers the IRS to go after tax cheats. This is McCarthy telling big money the GOP can still protect their flank from tax accountability and tax increases. AFTER that, the GOP signaled to the fetus people that the GOP is going after women's rights. Both of these are deceptive feints, going nowhere unless the Democrats fold under the pressure of a credit default and or government shutdown. The fifteen-round fight for the speakership was ALL about forcing McCarthy to support House terrorism tactics – they will ride the default and shutdown all the way to hell, regardless of polls and the ruin of the country. However, the cost of a credit default for the donor class will exceed the benefit – they will want McCarthy to back off when the economy tanks for the rich. The five holdouts against McCarthy aren't working for the donor class – they are true anarchists.
The 2024 election is of great concern to McConnell, the RNC, McCarthy, and the practical politicians in the GOP. If history is a guide, the default and the shutdown will not be popular with the public and I think Biden is well into strategy how to make sure the GOP takes the blame and voters convert the pain into voter action. Trump is running from DOJ more than he's running FOR president. DeSantis will go for it and Trump will, like the GOP House, threaten to bring down the entire Republican party if they allow a fair primary (with DeSantis in it.) IMO, Trump sees delay of the criminal trials and winning the presidency as the only way to avoid criminal convictions. So, yeah, Trump will declare a third-party run for POTUS if DeSantis wins in the primary. Fox is all-in for DeSantis – McCarthy is all-in for Trump. I expect the RNC and the money they control will stand with the donor class,
Trump Criminal Trials: They're gonna happen. First out of the gate will be Georgia, it looks like for election tampering. Next will be DoJ with the MAL documents case. That could be soon – February? The DOJ is developing the J6 case against Trump – the only open issue is Trump's state of mind and level of awareness before J6 what was planned. If Rudy flips to avoid jail in Georgia, the feds have Trump for the premeditation of J6. I heard a federal prosecutor point out that the opportunities to delay a federal criminal trial are not so great as they are in (state) civil litigation. If charges get filed soon, we could be looking at trial date(s) just 12 months out. WAY before November '24! If Trump gets convicted, san June '24, how will voters react?
A few months after Nixon resigned (1974), Democrats picked up 49 seats in the House and four seats in the Senate. From what I read, Georgia DOES allow "electronic recording devices" in courtrooms. This could easily make the Georgia trial(s) more influential than the federal trials. It could also be the first criminal trial – I have to think the viewership would break all records. For Republicans, the trial would likely split the GOP into reality-based voters and fantasy-based voters, possibly resulting in two conservative parties who loathe each other more than they hate Democrats.
The British would call this spanner in the works politics by the loyal opposition. Here in the land of dismal decorum we best use monkey wrench, nihilist, diversion and division. Meanwhile we ponder if George Santos is not the new poster child of the republican party. Funded by mystery money linked to Florida, his top-secret puppeteer hides in its uber-swamp or some other undisclosed location. No, the real George Santos will never stand up or stand down either.
I heard (from Beau of the fifth column) that George Santos crossed the line, the only one that matters to Republicans, which is scamming a wealthy donor. They didn't care about the mountain of lies he told – probably a badge of honor among Republicans – but when money's involved it gets serious.
From comments to a NYT article today about Santos:
Patrice
2355 recommendations to this point suggests your both spot on.
You ok, maha?
Sorry,but I worry..
What he said…
Here I am. I've been busy.
The legislation isn't designed to solve an actual problem, so pointing out its ineffectiveness and redundancy means nothing to them. Like 99% of Republican legislation that doesn't involve funneling money to the rich, it's political theater to dazzle the emotionally child-like, stupid and ignorant.