[A]pproximately one fourth of all fertilized eggs are swept out on the menstrual tide before they even get near to implanting themselves in the uterine wall, and we do not hold funerals over Kotex or Tampax.
I suggest to you this means that the beginning of life is not a single specific event, but rather a process that deserves increasing respect as it continues toward birth—precisely the tripartite system set up under Roe v. Wade (and if you hear Roe v. Wade described as “abortion on demand,” you are listening to a liar).
I respect those who oppose abortion, but I do not think they have a right to use the law as an instrument of coercion against people who do not believe (and it is a matter of faith) as they do. … There were an estimated one million abortions a year in this country before Roe. Abortion can be safe and legal, or dirty and illegal. It cannot be stopped.
—From Who Let the Dogs In? (2004)
Coming soon to a Republican-controlled state legislature near you: the Mandatory Funerals for Kotex and Tampax Act of 2022.
Cheers and Jeers for Wednesday, May 4, 2022
Note: Happy Star Wars Day. May the Fourth be with you…
CHEERS to face time. Hey, did you know that Daily Kos turns 20 this month? It’s true! Among the ways we’re marking the occasion is with a little online get-together on Zoom two weeks from Friday, and you’re invited. Organizer Chris Reeves has the early details:
On May 20, we are holding a virtual Cheers & Jeers meetup once again…a chance to join with your fellow members of Daily Kos for an evening of fun, pop-ins, and the chance for all of us to talk about anything we desire.
May 20th.
It is a lot easier to appreciate someone when they step out from behind the keyboard and you can see them in real life. COVID, however, has changed so much about our ability to come together and just talk.
On May 20, we’re going to host the second Cheers & Jeers virtual gathering via Zoom. While it isn’t quite the same as meeting in person, it is definitely a chance for everyone to hear each other and talk about their own cheers and jeers.
I think we’ll start around 6pm EDT and it’ll run—for me at least—until shortly before I have to post the Friday C&J around 7:30. It won’t be the big Bob Fosse-style production we put on last year that left half of the staff in traction for weeks. Just a low-key affair this time, to jawbone while swigging your favorite cocktail or ivermectin smoothie. To get in our secret club, you need to RSVP to Chris via kosmail. Drop him a line hereand he’ll put you on the list. Shortly before the event, he’ll send you the info for logging in to the Zoom account. As always with these formal blogger galas, pants are optional.
CHEERS to hoosegows for gougers. Another January 6thinsurrectionist—a real piece of work, this one—will be cleaning prison toilets with a toothbrush for a spell. Asshole is an ex-Marine and an ex-cop who decided it would be a swell idea to shred the oaths he took to defend the Constitution and take out his “economic anxiety” on his fellow cops. A jury concluded that he needs a little time-out, like maybe for the rest of his miserable existence on Planet Earth:
In the weeks following the Capitol attack, Thomas Webster turned himself into a New York FBI field office.
Traitors have such a poetic way with words.
He was arrested and charged, and a superseding indictment was filed late last year accusing him of multiple counts, including violence and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds. A Washington, D.C. jury convicted him on all charges, including assaulting a police officer, on Monday after only a few hours of deliberation, WUSA’s Jordan Fischer reported.
After crossing onto restricted grounds, the government alleged Webster yelled at one of officers, “You f***ing piece of shit. You f***ing Commie motherf***ers, man.” He then allegedly used the flagpole against the officer, swinging over the police line.
He’ll be sentenced in September. Until then, the traitor who tried to overthrow the United States government gets to sleep in his own bed; he’s on 24-hour home detention but has to wear an ankle monitor. If there’s any justice it’ll play Battle Hymn of the Republic every hour on the hour—a little musical torture to remind him who won the Civil War.
CHEERS to connecting the docs. The American Medical Association, which is rapidly coming around in favor of a single-payer health care system, was formed 175 years ago today. Medical professionals from 22 states and 28 medical schools attended to hear such topics as: “How to Smoke a Stogie Properly Over an Open Wound,” “Why Drugs Will Never Replace A Good Arsenic Tincture” and Ether: Your Trusted After-hours Friend. On their first day they unanimously approved the association’s motto which is still in place today: “E PluribusThree O’clock Tee Time.”
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BRIEF SANITY BREAK
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Timelapse of Europa & Io passing over Jupiter’s Great Red Spot, shot from space probe Cassini. pic.twitter.com/V9t5QnvDYg
JEERS to a predictable outcome. Midterm primary elections started yesterday in states I haven’t bothered to check. But I heard that there was a Republican primary in Ohio for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by a pasty-faced male MAGA cultist, and I can tell you without any hesitation that, in the battle to replace him with either a pasty-faced male MAGA cultist or a pasty-faced male MAGA cultist (not to mention the other two pasty-faced male MAGA cultists), MAGA cultists totally zigged when everyone thought they’d zag, choosing the pasty-faced male MAGA cultist over the pasty-faced male MAGA cultist. Who says there’s no diversity on the right?
JEERS to itchy trigger fingers. Fifty-two years ago today, National Guard troops fired on Vietnam War protesters at Ohio’s Kent State University, killing four students and injuring 12 in 13 seconds. (The site is now designated Ohio’s 76th national Historic Site.) The question that may never be answered: what possessed the Guard to use live ammo when they could’ve pacified the crowd with a plate of hash brownies? A permanent blemish on my home state’s record.
P.S. Imagine if all the students had been walking around with concealed (or even open-carry) weapons so they could “stand their ground,” a concept that makes Republicans salivate every time they think about it. That would’ve worked out swell that day, huh. Real swell.
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 4, 2012
JEERS to tactics of the lowlife. OMG!!! I saw a billboard by the Heartland Institute with a huge photo of the Unabomber that says: ”I still believe in global warming. Do you?” So I got to thinkin’ real hard, and…dang. If that’s the case—if Ted Kaczynski really still believes in global warming—well, then, I can’t believe in global warming anymore. Because if the Unabomber believes in it, and I believe in it, then that would mean I’M A UNABOMBER TOO AND I’M NOT!!! Thank you, Heartland Institute, for posting that billboard. Without false equivalence I’d be so lost.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to the Great Restoration of Aught 22. Yesterday we mentioned in our award-winning column that we were heading to our ophthalmologist to get some scar tissue obliterated by the Jewish space laser…a byproduct (the scar tissue, not the laser) of double cataract surgery we had in 2019, which was a byproduct of chemotherapy a couple years earlier. All I can say is wowie zowie. At 11:15am and 32 seconds everything in my life looked like this:
Yesterday I thought this was a pickle factory. I see now that it’s a battleship.
And at 11:15am and 58 seconds…it didn’t. Holy cow. Everything’s crisp and clear and colorful again: the marbled colors of the squirrels’ coats. The green grass. The blue skies. The blossoms on the trees. The daffodils and crocuses. The twinkle in my partner Michael’s eyes. The cigarette butts in the gutter. The accumulated dust in the house. The butt crack of the plumber working on a clog in the neighbor’s kitchen. The blond patches of shed dog hair. The fresh orange-green cat vomit. Gaaahhhh…when did these elephantine wrinkles take up residence on my hands??? “Hello, Doc? Do you do laser un-do surgery? Asking for a bloated ego.”
Have a happy humpday. Floor’s open…What are you cheering and jeering about today?
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Today’s Shameless C&J Testimonial
“We conclude that Daily Kos’s flag-raising program does not express government speech. As a result, Markos’srefusal to let Bill in Portland Maine fly his underwear violated the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment.”
So who knew an issue popping up this week would knock Ukraine out of being story #1? If you didn’t, be a bit humble as you confidently explain What It All Means.
A Supreme Court in Disarray After an Extraordinary Breach
The leak of a draft majority opinion overruling Roe v. Wade raises questions about motives, methods and whether defections are still possible.
Sources have motives, and the leaked draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade raises a question as old as the Roman Empire. Cui bono? Who benefits?
Not the Supreme Court as an institution. Its reputation was in decline even before the extraordinary breach of its norms of confidentiality, with much of the nation persuaded that it is little different from the political branches of the government. The internal disarray the leak suggests, wholly at odds with the decorum prized by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., was a blow to the legitimacy of the court.
The most immediate thing the Biden Administration can do to guarantee abortion access in the states with post-Roe anti-abortion trigger laws is to affirm that the FDA will approve telemedicine for mifepristone (abortion pill) and it can be sent via mail regardless of state law.
The Supreme Court’s religion-driven mission sets off a firestorm
The leak itself, while not entirely unprecedented, is further evidence that the court has ceased to act like a court and now conducts itself like a partisan operation seeking to manipulate public opinion.
As would be entirely expected, pro-choice advocates reacted with fury over the news, with an unusually pointed statement from the White House on a pending case: “If the Court does overturn Roe, it will fall on our nation’s elected officials at all levels of government to protect a woman’s right to choose. And it will fall on voters to elect pro-choice officials this November. At the federal level, we will need more pro-choice Senators and a pro-choice majority in the House to adopt legislation that codifies Roe, which I will work to pass and sign into law.”..
With polls showing as much as 70 percent of Americans favoring the preservation of Roe v. Wade, unelected justices — in some cases appointed by presidents who lacked a popular-vote majority and confirmed by senators who did not represent a majority of the country — would bring to head a battle between a fading racial, religious and political minority and an increasingly diverse, secular country.
Again and again and again, Democratic governors in PA, WI and MI have vetoed anti-abortion bills passed by GOP legislatures. Now imagine those states with Republican governors, after a SCOTUS decision overturning Roe:https://t.co/vz5q9UJJMmpic.twitter.com/Otmfb7qT33
After leak of draft abortion decision, advocates react with emotion
‘Life in this country will be noticeably different’
“What can you say?” said Alan Braid, an abortion provider in Texas and Oklahoma who chose his profession after caring for several women who died from botched abortions before Roe.
“Life in this country will be noticeably different. There will be, every day, some story on some local news channel about somebody dying. I guarantee it.”
Things not “deeply rooted” in US history – Interracial marriage – Anyone other than white men voting – The concept of illegal immigration (doesn’t exist until 1875) – Non White people naturalizing – An individual right to a handgun – Women serving on juries
Democrats hope draft abortion opinion will jolt midterm elections
The Supreme Court’s potential move to overturn Roe v. Wade sparked frustration and vows to protect abortion rights from governors, senators and House members.
Hours after POLITICO’s reporting on the high court’s draft opinion, Democrats privately predicted that the potential decision by its five-conservative majority to repeal the landmark abortion-rights ruling would energize their base and drive up turnout in November. The party’s governors, senators and House members took to social media and the airwaves with reactions that ranged from pleas to codify Roe to emotional personal stories.
Who Leaked Samuel Alito’s Draft Opinion Striking Down Roe v. Wade—and Why?
If the five justices maintain their votes to strike down Roe once the opinion is announced, likely in June, the immediate consequence is that abortion would become illegal in about half of all U.S. states. This would obviously be an earthquake in American social and political life, and it is the most consequential piece of news from Monday’s leak.
There is, however, another monumental story: that the opinion was leaked to begin with, and from one of the most secretive bodies in the country. A draft Supreme Court opinion has never been leaked in full in history, and there hasn’t been an advanced leak of an outcome since 1986. Only the justices themselves and their small clique of law clerks would likely have access to such a draft. The closest similar example in the past 32 years came when somebody leaked, in 2012, that Chief Justice John Roberts had initially voted to strike down all of Obamacare, before changing his mind and voting to uphold the individual mandate. (Notably, as law professor Jonathan Peters wrote on Twitter, details of the original 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade, including the vote itself, were reported in advance by Time magazine.)
So… the first lawsuit I’d like to see is from a Jewish woman who has access to an abortion provider denied in a Christian Theocracy state sue that the Christian rules inhibit her religious freedom under the free exercise clause of the 1st Amendment.
Why it matters: The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) recognizes the decision will have major implications in this fall’s midterms and the 2024 presidential race. The memo is its attempt to have its members speak to voters with a unified voice.
“Be the compassionate, consensus-builder on abortion policy. … While people have many different views on abortion policy, Americans are compassionate people who want to welcome every new baby into the world,” it says.
“Expose the Democrats for the extreme views they hold,” the document says, arguing, “Joe Biden and the Democrats have extreme and radical views on abortion that are outside of the mainstream of most Americans.”
“Forcefully refute Democrat lies regarding GOP positions on abortion and women’s health care,” it adds, saying Republicans do not want to take away contraception, mammograms and female health care or throw doctors and women in jail.
Between the lines: The document includes sample language for anti-abortion ads.
So….the supreme court is upset that someone didn’t respect their right to privacy while destroying our right to privacy?
Imagine we will see more and more articles like this. How can Ukraine transition to the counteroffensive and what help will it need to do so. Key thing is to do the exact opposite of the Russians. Well planned out and coordinated action that can, crucially, keep casualties down. https://t.co/5N9s3008Fn
— Phillips P. OBrien (@PhillipsPOBrien) May 3, 2022
Mark Sumner wrote earlier today about the incredible shrinking Russian army. It’s an important read, as it explains why Russia is stuck on all fronts in Ukraine despite having a seemingly overwhelming numerical and equipment advantage. The bottom line, as it turns out, is that Russia doesn’t have a numerical and equipment advantage.
Russia didn’t gain any ground today, anywhere. They are stuck stuck. Meanwhile, Ukraine finally confirmed the capture of the strategic city of Staryi Saltiv, which actually took place over the weekend. Those Ukrainian gains around Kharkiv now allow utter destruction of supply convoys anywhere that city. No wonder the Donbas front is stymied.
Henry Schlottman is an Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) guy painstakingly tracking the movement of individual units in this war. This chart of his speaks volumes. (I’ve cropped for legibility, so click on this link to get the full view.)
The green squares represents the estimated strength of Ukrainian forces in brigades. The Russian numbers in red are their battalion tactical groups (BTG). A Ukrainian brigade is the rough equivalent of 2-3 Russian BTGs, though I would estimate on the higher end (3x) given how under-resourced those BTGs have turned out.
Down near Kherson, in the south, Ukraine actually has a numerical advantage—seven Russian BTGs vs 10-15 Ukrainian equivalents. It’s no surprise that Russia is stuck trying to move on Krivyi Rih and Mikolaiv, while Ukraine is slowly rolling Russian forces in that axis.
Similarly, Russia is severely under-resourced in the Kharkiv axis with just five BTGs, while Ukraine has 6-9 equivalents. That’s why Ukraine is moving. However, the advantage isn ‘t huge, so progress is slow. Ukraine has admitted severe losses, and even got smashed trying to enter the northern town of Kozacha Lopan.
#Ukraine: Results of the foiled attack on Kozacha Lopan, #Kharkiv Oblast, April 22nd by the Ukrainian army – as seen at least two Ukrainian BMP-2 IFVs, BTR-80 APC, supply truck and T-64BV tank were destroyed. pic.twitter.com/cj7UW3aM1R
— 🇺🇦 Ukraine Weapons Tracker (@UAWeapons) April 25, 2022
Defending is much easier than military offense.
In the Izyum direction, Russia is far more resourced with 22 Russian BTGs, opposite 12-18 Ukrainian equivalents. Russia has an advantage! Except that the standard military ratio—assuming competent combined arms (artillery, air, armor, and infantry coordination)—is a 3:1 advantage over defenders, and perhaps as high as 5:1 against well-trained soldiers in well-defended positions. Here in Izyum direction, Russia’s advantage is less than two-to-one, which explains why Russia can’t punch through.
The supposed Russian advantage in the Donetsk direction is even more stark—20 Russian BTGs opposite 6-9 Ukrainian equivalents, yet those Russians haven’t even tried to move in at least four days, seemingly afraid to push forward. Ukraine General Staff keeps warning that Russia is organizing and resupplying for a big push. Obviously, Ukraine has to prepare for the worst-case scenario. But it hasn’t happened and I’m not expecting Russia to surprise us anytime soon.
Still, Ukraine has held fast because of the steady resupply of weapons and munitions from its NATO allies. The Pentagon has noted Ukraine’s high consumption rate and is working with allies and other third-parties to resupply. For example, the United States has approached India and other countries utilizing Soviet-era munitions to buy them on Ukraine’s behalf. As long as the spigot is running—and it is—Ukraine can hold off the Russian hordes.
Meanwhile, Russia is still doing what it claimed to be fixing after the Battle of Kyiv—spreading its forces too thin, along too wide of a front, unable to mass its forces for a decisive punch through Ukrainian defensive lines, all the while its long supply lines are decimated by Ukrainian forces.
Except this time, Russia can’t attempt a do-over like it did after Kyiv. It’s do or die, and mostly, it’s the dying part.
The Supreme Court leak of the draft opinion meant to erase abortion rights in this country rocked Washington, D.C., and the rest of the country, but for two different reasons. Most of the public strongly supports abortion rights and public fury is already rising as Americans learn of the planned decision and its Alito-written justification; most Republican lawmakers are in an absolute froth over the opinion being leaked before the Supreme Court revealed it publicly.
That froth is largely performative, in a town that hands out leaks like candy when it furthers partisan ends. But Republicans were far, far less eager to talk about the implications of overturning Roe in the face of widespread public opposition. That’s the problem with theocratic authoritarianism; it’s difficult to sell on the merits.
The Republican primary for Ohio’s open Senate seat—which weighed in at nearly $75 million—finally concluded on Tuesday with a win for Trump’s endorsed candidate, venture capitalist J.D. Vance. Vance, the Hillbilly Elegy author and one-time vociferous Trump critic, reinvented himself as a MAGA diehard and defeated former state Treasurer Josh Mandel 31-25 for the nod to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman. Vance will take on Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan, who won his own primary 71-17 against former Treasury official Morgan Harper, in a longtime swing state that has lurched hard to the right in recent years.
Just a few months ago, Vance’s allies at Protect Ohio Values, a super PAC funded by megadonor Peter Thiel, warned that the candidate’s poll numbers were in “precipitous decline.” The group highlighted the previous fall’s assault by the Club for Growth, which supported Mandel and had run a barrage of ads using 2016 footage of Vance saying, “I’m a Never Trump guy,” an offensive that persuaded many voters that Vance could not be trusted.
Thiel’s group responded with new advertisements that rebranded Vance as a Trump loyalist, a maneuver that seems to have at least kept him in contention. Vance was also able to keep going because none of his four major rivals were able to establish a meaningful lead—either in the polls or in the contest to win Trump’s endorsement. (Only state Sen. Matt Dolan, who criticized Trump as recently as last year, didn’t seek it.) The financier also had a powerful ally in Fox News host Tucker Carlson, whom Rolling Stone reported played a key role in winning Trump over to Vance’s side.
Carlson reportedly not only made the case that Vance’s anti-Trump days were long behind him, he also argued that Mandel’s main benefactor, Club president David McIntosh, was untrustworthy because of what the story calls an “an embarrassing and ‘chronic’ personal sexual habit.” The magazine refused to provide any details about this salacious claim, but it relayed that Trump “spent a notable amount of time gossiping and laughing about the prominent Republican’s penis.” (Can’t believe you just had to read that sentence? We can’t believe we had to write it, either.)
No matter what ultimately convinced Trump, though, he went on to give his stamp of approval to Vance less than three weeks ahead of the primary. Trump excused Vance’s past disloyalty at a recent rally, saying that while his new favorite had indeed “said some bad shit about me,” each of his rivals “did also.”
The Club hoped that voters wouldn’t be so forgiving, and it even ran a commercial questioning Trump’s judgment—a shocking gambit given the GOP’s obeisance to its supreme master. Even Trump himself managed to give Vance a humiliating round of headlines just two days before Election Day when he told an audience, “We’ve endorsed—JP, right? JD Mandel, and he’s doing great.” But while Trump couldn’t remember Vance’s name, enough Republican primary voters could.
We’ll be recapping all of Tuesday’s results in Ohio and Indiana the next Morning Digest, though if you don’t want to wait that long, join us on Wednesday at Daily Kos Elections and follow along as we provide updates in our Live Digest.
Mexico has been planning a trade railway that spans thousands of miles from Mazatlán to Winnipeg, with a connection in Texas. But while the T-MEC Corridor railway connecting the two nations is still happening, the stop in Texas is not.
Mexican officials have now decided to instead reroute the line through New Mexico, The Dallas Morning News reports. It’s a major loss for Texas, because border states thrive and depend on international trade. But the state has only one person to blame for this change: Greg Abbott.
Mexican Economy Minister Tatiana Clouthier said Abbott’s political stunt forcing commercial vehicles to undergo redundant inspections caused officials to rethink the Texas connection, all but calling the right-wing governor too volatile to deal with. Abbott shut down his $4 billion stunt just ten days after announcing it, following intense bipartisan opposition ranging from fellow state Republicans to the White House.
“We’re now not going to use Texas,” Clouthier said in the report. “We can’t leave all the eggs in one basket and be hostages to someone who wants to use trade as a political tool.”
But despite Texas’ own data showing that the governor’s redundant inspections turned up precisely zero migrants or drugs, he’s threatened to reinstate the policy. Not because of some new perceived threat—but because he didn’t like critical remarks by Mexico’s president. That threat probably didn’t help Abbott’s case when it came to the rail line—but why should Mexican officials further deal with a hostile actor when there are far friendlier neighbors?
“Jerry Pacheco, president of the Santa Teresa-based Border Industrial Association, called Clouthier’s announcement ‘a very positive step for New Mexico,’ but cautioned that such a project will take years to complete and ‘anything can happen in that time,’” The Dallas Morning News said. Pacheco told the outlet that they hope this fosters a continued relationship even if there’s a snag with the line.
“If this particular project doesn’t work out, there’ll be other projects that the Mexican government will have and they’ll speak favorably of New Mexico because they know we want to work with them in a constructive way,” Pacheco continued. He noted that Abbott’s stunt forcing massive commercial delays led to higher traffic numbers for his state.
Economists in Texas have said Texas’ now-rescinded policy “will cost the equivalent of 77,000 job years for the country and 36,300 for Texas’ economy,” The Dallas Morning Newsrecently reported. Nationally, Abbott caused us roughly $9 billion in lost gross domestic product. But he’s also going to have to grapple with the interpersonal damage he created with his neighbor to the south (that is, if he even cares). The Dallas Morning News in its newer report said that Mexican Foreign Minster Marcelo Ebrard called Abbott’s policy extortion.
“I close the border and you have to sign whatever I say,” he said is what Abbott was forcing on them. “That’s not a deal; a deal is when you and I are in agreement on something.”
As is the case before every major election, conservatives at all levels of government have a handful of buzzwords they can use to get their voter base riled up. As Daily Kos continues to cover, trans youth using the bathroom and playing sports is one of the biggest ones, as are calls to ban or even burn books that belong to public schools and libraries. What else? Conservatives absolutely lose their minds over drag queens, too, especially when it comes to totally normal, inclusive activities like story hours and library events.
Largely thanks to the anti-LGBTQ+, conspiracy theory-laden Libs of TikTok Twitter account (you can read more in-depth about Libs here), the Hempfield School District in Pennsylvania has issued an apology for an after-school drag event organized by an openly queer teacher for the high school’s Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA), according to LGBTQ+ outlet them. Far-right and conservative outlets have been covering this event with fervor. The district issued a statement saying they’re going to investigate the event. The district noted an “unnamed” person has been placed on administrative leave per the investigation, and that disciplinary action may be on the table for those involved.
The district has not released the teacher’s name, but them reports that the GSA adviser is Kelly Tyson, who works as a French teacher at the school. Local outlet FOX 43 identifies English teacher Carla VicidominiIt as the other co-adviser for the GSA. It appears Tyson’s social media has been deactivated, but Libs of TikTok posted an alleged screenshot from her Facebook account.
In the post, Tyson describes her “sheer joy” at organizing such events and shares that it makes her emotional to provide such a space. “I would have loved nothing more than to have. space like they have, an opportunity to attend their own drag show … and to have these beautiful role models to support them,” the post reads in part. Tyson added that it’s the third year she’s organized such an event.
Of course, the Libs account presumably posted this content to be damning, but Tyson sharing about her closeted high school self and the safe space she’s trying to provide for students today is actually quite touching. Unfortunately, according to them, the production company reportedly involved in the event says they’re now receiving death threats.
Why? It seems Harrisburg 100, a conservative local outlet that describes the cast as “erotic dancers,” incorrectly reported that the drag queens were contracted via DePiro’s Divas, a local drag show production company, but a spokesperson for the group told them the performers actually participated in the event individually. Either way, the death threats are still horrifying and unacceptable.
Interestingly, the school district doesn’t seem to be taking the side of the GSA or the teacher involved in organizing the event. A statement from the district says they are “appalled” and don’t “condone” this type of activity in schools. “Neither the dress of the invited guests nor the performance was appropriate in our school setting,” the statement reads in part, adding that there will be a “thorough investigation.” Again, this statement is confusing when compared to the Facebook post allegedly by Tyson, in which it seems this is not the first time such an event has taken place.
Does the amount of conservative backlash have an impact here? It’s definitely possible. Republican state Sen. Ryan Aument, for example, took to Facebook about the event, writing that he was in touch with Superintendent Mike Bromirsi twice on the phone about the show.
According to FOX 53, Aument is now using the incident as leverage to introduce a bill that would require public schools to identify “sexually explicit” content in school curriculums and give parents notice about such content.
“Very specific descriptions and visual depictions of sexual acts,” Aument told the outlet. “That really is the heart of what we’re talking about.” He was not then able to offer a specific definition of “sexually explicit,” but that he felt the drag show would have counted.
The book banning; the lack of access to safe, age-appropriate health care; the bathroom bills; the grooming rhetoric … It’s all related. Everything about being LGBTQ+ is reduced to sexuality, and at that, inappropriate and predatory sexuality. We’re told it’s not about sexuality or gender identity, that it’s about appropriateness, but when people believe being LGBTQ+ is inherently wrong, there’s no way for us to be right unless we stop existing.
Anyway, remember when students in Kentucky dressed in lingerie for a pep rally and gave lap dances to adult staff? Yeah, that happened! And some parents, somehow, didn’t think it was a big deal. Funny how that happens …
Under the circumstances, despair can be tempting. Understandably. So what I’m going to suggest as an antidote to the despair and depression and compassion fatigue isn’t meant to apply to everyone. I’m not about to tell anyone I understand their personal situation better than they do. Nor am I offering some quackery claiming activism cures all that ails you. But after nearly 60 years working side by side with activists in the streets, in elections, in prison, and in the media, I firmly believe activism can undermine personal and political malaise. Okay, call it half an antidote. But that’s a start, right?
Let me be clear: I’ve believed since I first became politically involved six decades ago that grassroots education and action “in the streets” are at the core of all reform initiatives and that elections are essential to getting those reforms confirmed. Both are needed. Whether altering police powers, confronting fascists, fighting environmental injustices, or putting rational, diverse people on school boards, it matters. The states are places needing far more activists, in particular state legislatures. So here’s my recommendation to help cope with the never-ending emotional and political baggage of the past two years:
Help build a stronger and more progressive Democratic Party bench by “adopting” and volunteering in the campaign of a state legislative candidate in your or a nearby district.
One thing about the electoral battles for the House of Representatives, the Senate, the presidency, and governorships is they never lack for attention or volunteers or paid campaign staff.
However, state legislatures are a crucial electoral battlefield that gets all too little attention from the media, from the national party, from donors, and from most grassroots activists who focus their attention on those candidates further up the ballot. State legislatures. You know, the bodies that, with a few exceptions, redraw the boundaries of political districts, often with outrageous gerrymanders, and pass laws about drugs, abortion, health care, guns, transportation, energy, law enforcement, environment, education, and a multitude of other matters that affect citizens on a daily basis.
Despite the impact they have, for most people the challengers and incumbents in state legislatures are just downballot names that they may be encountering for the first time and know nothing about. In most states, most activists don’t pay much mind to these actual and would-be legislators. This hurts.
Here’s why: Of the 99 state legislative bodies (Nebraska has a single house), 62 are now in the hands of Republicans, just 36 in the hands of Democrats, with Alaska having a multipartisan power-sharing arrangement. Ballotpedia gives us this detail: “As of March 7, 2022, Republicans controlled 54.40% of all state legislative seats nationally, while Democrats held 44.29%.” Ouch.
“Neglecting state legislative races pays dividends in bad policy. Right-wingers work diligently at the federal level to turn bad state policies into bad national policies. Some of this could be nipped in the bud. But a host of obstacles stands in the way …”
Happily, even prying loose a couple of hours a week to work the phones for a legislative candidate, canvass a neighborhood, or do whatever else is helpful to a campaign can make a huge difference in the outcome, just as comparatively small amounts of money can. What seems like a drop in the bucket for a congressional candidate can turn the election in a state legislature.
I’ve told this story before, but I’m of an age now when people should expect me to repeat myself.
A few weeks before the 2016 election, I knocked on every door in the small California apartment complex where I then lived, surveying people in 20 of the 24 units. (The others refused to participate.) I asked each person if they were registered to vote, and if so, which party. Then I asked if they knew who their state representative and state senator were.
Not one person did.
I can’t say this electoral ignorance is the case everywhere. It might not even be the case a block away where, instead of renters, most residents own their houses. However, based on my canvassing and supervising canvassing for decades over much broader areas, I suspect that the percentage of voters who can name their legislators is exceedingly low.
And that’s a big problem. It’s partly a product of the death of local newspapers and the shrinking space in surviving newspapers devoted to covering legislative matters, as well as new forms of media failing to pick up where the newspapers dropped the ball. It’s also partly due to Democratic Party failure to promote and fund year-round organizing at the precinct level. Yes, I have said this a few hundred times before: If every precinct were canvassed at least once a year (twice would be better), a lot of educating would go on. A lot more people would know who their state reps and senators are, and whether they’re worth keeping or should be replaced. They would be less willing to skip that line on the ballot. But with some exceptions, we have given up this kind of local organizing. We should restore it.
If you don’t know your state lawmakers and the candidates challenging them, find out. If you’re not happy with your representative and senator, “adopt” one of those challengers to support with your time, organizational skills, and, if you can afford it, your money. If you’re happy with those currently in office, perhaps you can adopt a candidate in a nearby district.
Remember Michele Bachmann? She is the former Republican member of Congress from Minnesota who asked God about whether or not she should run for Senate, and God said, “No.” Bachmann’s belief that we were in the “End Times” dates back about nine years at this point, so her general prognosticating has never been particularly good. It has been a few years since anybody was forced to care about what Michele Bachmann had to say about anything. But a couple of months ago, Bachmann started doing the rounds, figuring her Bible-y brand of bullshit is back in fashion.
In November, Bachmann proclaimed to Americans that “children have almost a zero-rate of dying from COVID,” and that “just when COVID is really being extinguished” we should not have children vaccinated against the virus that has killed just under 1 million Americans and more than 6 million people worldwide. She followed up that appearance by heading over to Fox News to praise Sarah Palin’s irresponsible appearance at a restaurant—after Palin tested positive for COVID-19.
I’ll give you one guess what happened next.
On Monday, Right Wing Watch posted videos of Bachmann’s November appearance calling for parents to deny their children the COVID-19 vaccination, along with another video from Sunday night’s “prayer call” where she failed to have her video on but was asked to report on “the plandemic” and “the great reset.” If you don’t know what any of those phrases mean, God bless you.
The general idea is that the COVID-19 pandemic is an orchestrated event being managed by deep state officials and other nefarious conspirators to bring about a collapse of the existing world order in order to replace it with a New World Order. I know it doesn’t sound very well-reasoned, but that’s it in a nutshell. It’s QAnon-cum-Christian eschatological nonsense. (There’s another nutshell for you.)
Well, Bachmann did not appear on camera because she “just [was] not suitable for camera.” Why? She’s got the COVID-19—you know, the extinguished plandemic virus that isn’t real, or is sort of real but not really as real as deep state officials would like you to believe.
Michele Bachmann was on a prayer call last night and explained why she was unable to appear on camera: “I’ve been struggling with COVID pretty severely lately and I’m just not suitable for camera.” https://t.co/p0ROX0zyaIpic.twitter.com/oDxOdJxwE5
After a two-month break, the 2022 primary season has resumed! Polls closed in Ohio at 7:30 PM ET and at 6 PM ET in the portion of Indiana located in the Eastern Time Zone, while the rest of the state followed an hour later.
IN-09: The polls just closed in Ohio, but they’ve been closed for over 90 minutes in most parts of Indiana, and so we are already at our vote threshold (5000 votes in a CD, and obviously more statewide) in southern Indiana’s IN-09, where Trey Hollingsworth is tapping out after three terms. Former state legislator Erin Houchin has a comfortable lead over former Congressman (and, it must be said, perennial candidate) Mike Sodrel (40-24). Army veteran Stu Barnes-Israel is just behind Sodrel at 22 percent of the vote.
