USA News and Discussions

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caltrek
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House Progressives Cite Clarence Thomas to Argue SCOTUS Should Lose Jurisdiction Over Abortion
by Kenny Stencil
July 15, 2022

Introduction:
(Common Dreams) Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mondaire Jones on Thursday led a group of progressive lawmakers in sending a letter to Democratic leaders urging them to support restricting the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction over statutes codifying abortion and other civil rights imperiled by the court's reactionary majority.

"With our basic rights under threat from a rogue Supreme Court, Congress needs to exercise our legal authority to the fullest extent," Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) tweeted Thursday. "That's why today we called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to support stripping the Supreme Court's jurisdiction over abortion."

"Congress is granted the authority to remove the Supreme Court's jurisdiction under Article III" of the Constitution, she continued. "To protect marriage equality, contraception, and more, we need to limit the power of the far-right court that's already overturned Roe v. Wade."

Jones (D-N.Y.) argued that "this far-right Supreme Court is on a rampage against the freedoms of the American people."

Prior to last month's 6-3 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization—a decision that experts say will have deadly consequences and violates international law—access to legal abortion care had since 1973 been protected by the 14th Amendment's substantive due process clause.
Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022 ... on-over

Article III, Section 2 of the Constitution reads in part as follows:
In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, and those in which a State shall be Party, the supreme Court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under such Regulations as the Congress shall make.
caltrek’s comment: I am not sure what would happen if a pro-life state brought litigation challenging a federal law in which Congress acted to remove the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction. In such a case, wouldn’t the State be a party in the case?

Just asking.
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caltrek
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Americans United for Life CEO gets Called Out for Claiming a 10-year-old Terminating a Pregnancy is 'Not an Abortion'
by Alex Henderson
July 14, 2022

Extract:
(Alternet) Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, during a July 14 hearing, discussed the case with anti-abortion activist Catherine Glenn Foster, president and CEO of Americans United for Life — and Foster denied, much to Swallwell's shock, that the pregnancy's termination qualified as an abortion.

When Foster was asked if a "ten-year-old" would "choose to carry a baby," Foster responded, "I believe it would probably impact her life. And so therefore, it would fall under any exception and would not be an abortion."

…Foster replied, "If a ten-year-old became pregnant as a result of rape and it was threatening her life, then that's not an abortion. So, it would not fall under any abortion restriction in our nation."

Swalwell directed his next question to another witness at the hearing, Sarah Warbelow, legal director of the Human Rights Campaign — asking her, "Miss Warbelow, are you familiar with disinformation?.... Did you just hear some disinformation?"

Warbelow responded, "Yes, I heard some very significant disinformation…. An abortion is a procedure; it's a medical procedure that individuals undergo for a wide range of circumstances, including because they have been sexually assaulted — raped in the case of the ten-year-old. It doesn't matter whether or not there is a statutory exemption; it is still a medical procedure that is understood to be an abortion. Beyond that, I think it's also important to note that there is no exception for the life or the health of the mother in the Ohio law. That's why that ten-year-old had to cross state lines in order to receive an abortion."
Read more here: https://www.alternet.org/2022/07/anti- ... victim/
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caltrek
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Build Back Better May End Up a Health Care Bill, Thanks to Joe Manchin
by Li Zhou
July 18, 2022

Introduction:
(Vox) Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV), a longtime holdout on the Build Back Better Act, has once again up-ended talks on the bill.

Democrats had hoped to put together a slimmed down version of the original $2 trillion package, narrowly focused on health care, climate, and tax reforms. Manchin, however, has expressed opposition to additional climate and tax policies at this time, and it now seems the party will have to settle for a smaller bill than leaders wanted.

Manchin said Friday that he remains concerned about the impact new climate spending could have on inflation, and worried raising taxes on businesses could stymie their growth.

“Inflation is absolutely killing many, many people,” Manchin said in a recent interview with MetroNews’s Hoppy Kerchaval, noting that he was particularly alarmed by the recent Labor Department report. “Can’t we wait to make sure we do nothing to add to that?”

Manchin remains supportive of Democrats’ prescription drugs package as well as an extension to Affordable Care Act subsidies, which are due to sunset at the end of this year. And he has said he may be willing to negotiate again on taxes and climate in September, when lawmakers have more information about where inflation stands.
Read more here: https://www.vox.com/2022/7/6/23197398/ ... -prices

caltrek’s comment: I guess Manchin hasn’t got the memo yet. The memo, that as Senator Sanders put it, says that climate change “is an existential threat to humanity.”

If Manchin really cared about inflation that much, he would support paying for climate initiatives with increased taxes on the rich. Perhaps I am just too cynical, but I think that all his “we can talk in September if inflation is moderated” is just another rope a dope tactic on his part.
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weatheriscool
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I'll admit that the gop is too extreme when it comes to its no abortion even when the women is raped and forcing little children to carry a dead baby. I mean wtf? But this is what happens when you push full term abortion and use it as a form of late term birth control. You anger a lot of people and sometimes those people overshoot and do dumb shit.
Vakanai
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weatheriscool wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 10:29 pm I'll admit that the gop is too extreme when it comes to its no abortion even when the women is raped and forcing little children to carry a dead baby. I mean wtf? But this is what happens when you push full term abortion and use it as a form of late term birth control. You anger a lot of people and sometimes those people overshoot and do dumb shit.
Except for the fact that no one uses it as a form of "late term birth control."
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caltrek
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Vakanai wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 10:40 pm
weatheriscool wrote: Tue Jul 19, 2022 10:29 pm I'll admit that the gop is too extreme when it comes to its no abortion even when the women is raped and forcing little children to carry a dead baby. I mean wtf? But this is what happens when you push full term abortion and use it as a form of late term birth control. You anger a lot of people and sometimes those people overshoot and do dumb shit.
Except for the fact that no one uses it as a form of "late term birth control."
I agree with Vakanai. If you are going to continue to insist that pro-choice advocates have pushed "full term abortion" for use "as a form of late term birth control" then you need to cite some examples of when and where that has happened. Otherwise, it will become increasingly clear that you are just propping up a straw man argument unconnected with the real world that you can then knock down. Further, you are doing so in a manner which very much comes across as a variation of blaming the victim(s).

What I came here to post:

The Extreme Agenda of Anti-Abortion Politicians Is Already Coming True
by Pema Levy
July 16, 2022

Introduction:
(Mother Jones) It was less than a month ago that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Already, anti-abortion politicians across the country are not only seeking to restrict abortion access but even deny care in situations of life-threatening emergency and unimaginable cruelty. And they aren’t even shy about it.

In just the last week, Republican officials have sued to stop abortions even in medical emergencies, said child rape victims should be forced to give birth, and blocked a bill that would guarantee the right to travel to another state for an abortion. Meanwhile, doctors are denying pregnant people possibly life-saving care. It’s no exaggeration to say that the most dire warnings about the end of Roe are already coming true.

On Thursday, Republicans in Congress blocked a law that would allow pregnant people to travel to another state to obtain a legal abortion—a warning that as some states plan to pass laws limiting interstate travel, Congress may not get in the way. In objecting to the bill, Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) called the bill “radical” and warned about “abortion tourism.” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) also spoke out against it. “There’s a child in this conversation, as well,” Lankford said, referring to an unborn fetus. He accused Democrats of trying “to inflame—to raise the what-ifs.”

Lankford’s word choice was odd given that the country was at that very moment learning that a 10-year-old child, a victim of sexual assault, had been forced to resort to interstate travel to get an abortion. There are indeed children in these conversations, and they are unwillingly pregnant. This child left the state of Ohio and obtained an abortion in Indiana, but the anti-abortion movement argued that she should have been forced to become a mother instead.

The rightwing lawyer Jim Bopp, who has helped Republicans move quickly to ban abortion, argued that even child rape victims should be forced to give birth. The Ohio abortion ban, according to him, had worked as intended.
Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/ ... nancies/
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caltrek
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A Victim-blaming Narrative is Meant to Quiet the Left
by Jeet Heer
July 7, 2022

Extract:
(Muck Rack) (Libby) Emmons wrote, “If only the pro-choice movement had focused on upholding ‘safe, legal and rare’ instead of advocating for abortion on demand and ‘shout your abortion’ there would have been enough mercy so that a 10-year-old didn’t have to carry a rapist’s baby to term.”

Blaming those who resist patriarchy for bad outcomes is a classic tactic of abusers to control their victims. “Don’t make me hit you,” an abuser might say. More and more, this is what we hear from the political right.

With a Supreme Court dominated by six Republican appointees, the right has an unprecedented stranglehold on power. It is using this dominance of the courts to rewire the legal system on issues ranging from gun control and environmental policy to police power and church/state relations.

But rather than enjoying their judicial triumph, many conservative pundits have adopted victim blaming, arguing that the left has brought their defeats on themselves, and that any bad consequences come from resistance to the right’s agenda.

What’s behind the logic? Partially, it’s that Dobbs and other recent court decisions are indefensible. They are already producing vile real-world results. Victim blaming is a way of deflecting responsibility.
Read more here: https://muckrack.com/jeet-heer/articles
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Senators expect GOP support to grow for same-sex marriage bill in bid to overcome filibuster

Source: CNN

(CNN)Republican and Democratic senators said Wednesday they expect a bill to codify same-sex marriage to eventually win the 60 votes needed to break a filibuster, a sign of growing public acceptance and a sea change over an issue that had once badly divided the two parties. hile most GOP senators are likely to vote against the bill, lawmakers in both parties believe there will be at least 10 Republicans who would join all 50 Democrats and advance the bill to a final up-or-down vote.

Buoyed by the 47 Republicans who voted for similar legislation that passed the House Tuesday, senators expected a similar show of bipartisan support when the measure hits the Senate floor. One key Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, told CNN Wednesday he "probably will" support the bill. And, importantly, Republican Whip John Thune said he expects the legislation will have similarly strong GOP support in the Senate as it got in the House.

"If and when (Democrats) bring a bill to the floor, we'll take a hard look at it," said Thune, a South Dakota Republican who cautioned he had not made a decision on the bill. "As you saw there was pretty good bipartisan support in the House yesterday and I expect there'd probably be the same thing you'd see in the Senate." At this point, four Republicans, including Tillis, have signaled their support for the bill while several have said they will vote against it. A number of Republicans have not committed to how they will vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a Democrat from New York, said he wants to bring the bill to the floor soon, but did not announce when he would schedule a vote. He added that he was "impressed by how much bipartisan support the bill got in the House." The Senate leaves for its August recess in two weeks, making it unlikely he will be able to get the floor time before then, especially as senators are already trying to pass a bill to boost production of semiconductor chips and a separate economic package. Taking it up after August moves the debate closer to the midterm elections and will allow Democrats to highlight what they believe are key social issues important to voters.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2022/07/20/politics ... -senators/
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Steve Bannon Convicted of Contempt of Congress Charges
by Erin Doherty and Shawna Chen
July 22, 2022

Introduction:
(Axios) Former Trump adviser Steven Bannon was found guilty Friday of two counts of contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the Jan. 6 select committee investigating the attack, the New York Times reports.

Driving the news: The two misdemeanor counts each carry a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of $100 to $100,000. Bannon is the first close Trump aide to be convicted as a result of the committee's probe.
  • The Department of Justice in closing arguments of the trial said that Bannon "chose allegiance to Donald Trump over compliance to the law," CNN reports.
  • Bannon's lawyers had argued that the committee's deadlines were flexible and claimed the subpoena and prosecution's case were politically motivated.
The jury deliberated for less than three hours before reaching a unanimous verdict.
What to watch: Bannon's sentencing date is scheduled for Oct. 21.
Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2022/07/22/banno ... ongress
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‘US democracy will not survive for long’: how January 6 hearings plot a roadmap to autocracy
Sun 24 Jul 2022 07.00 BST

They promised the January 6 hearings would “blow the roof off the house”, presenting America with the truth about Donald Trump’s attack on democracy culminating in the US Capitol insurrection. In the end, the roof of the House, where the summer season of hearings reached their finale on Thursday night, remained intact, though mightily shaken.

It will take time for historians to assess whether the eight public sessions were comparable to the 1973 Watergate hearings, as Jamie Raskin, a Democratic member of the January 6 committee, predicted. Yet it’s already clear that after 19 hours and 11 minutes of testimony, filmed depositions, documentary evidence and raw footage of the Capitol attack the hearings have generated a mountain of words and images that will linger long in the collective memory.

We know now that on the day that the United States suffered the worst assault on the Capitol since the British ravaged it in 1814, Trump tried to grab the steering wheel from a secret service agent to turn his presidential SUV in the direction of the violent mob so he could join them. We know that when he exhorted his followers to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell” he was aware that many of them were armed with guns and wearing body armor.

We know from Thursday night that when his close aides pleaded with him to call off the attack, he refused, spending 187 minutes watching events unfold on TV in the White House dining room while swatting away increasingly desperate pleas for him to act until it was clear that his hopes of violently overthrowing the election had faded.

To those who track anti-democratic movements there is a chilling familiarity to this rich evocation of a president descending into an abyss of fantasy, fury and possible illegality. “The picture that the hearings depict is of a coup leader,” said the Harvard political scientist Steven Levitsky. “This is a guy who was unwilling to accept defeat and was prepared to use virtually any means to try to stay illegally in power.”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -autocracy
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