Straight up Nazi move by Kansas

 

I assume they will file a lawsuit.  And as soon as their licenses are reinstated, move to another state.

MAGA regrets

 

Resistance

 

Missouri still backsliding into MAGA swamp

Progressives suffered a major blow in Tuesday night’s primaries as Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) became the second “squad” member to lose to a challenger this cycle.

Coming just hours after Vice President Harris announced Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her running mate in a move seen as a win for the progressive wing of the party, Bush’s loss put internal party frictions over the Israel-Hamas war on full display.

[...]

Bush’s defeat [to St. Louis County Prosecutor Wesley Bell] makes her the second member of the squad to lose reelection after Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D) lost his seat in New York earlier this year. [O]ther high-profile members, like Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) are likely to win reelection handily. And another progressive, Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), won her primary challenge earlier this year despite being outspent.

  The Kill

Maybe it's more about Missourians than progressives.

AIPAC’s super PAC spent big to unseat her in the primary, reportedly throwing more than $8 million into the race.

The group’s opposition to Bush came in response to her vocal criticism of Israel’s war against the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

She was one of just a few House members who opposed a resolution that expressed support for Israel last year, and when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a joint session of Congress last month, Bush called it “sickening that Congress gave him a standing ovation.”

I agree with Bush.

Meanwhile in Kansas...

Johnson County Sheriff Calvin Hayden kickstarted an investigation after the 2020 election, despite claims from local officials that there was no widespread fraud, as reported by The Associated Press.

Hayden paused the investigation last month after producing no criminal charges and stoking suspicion toward state and local election systems.

[...]

On Tuesday, Hayden appeared headed for defeat in his GOP primary to Republican Doug Bedford, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who served as Hayden’s undersheriff from 2017 to 2021. He’ll face Democrat Byron Roberson, the police chief of Prairie Village, in the fall.

The incumbent’s likely defeat comes after he ran unopposed four years earlier, and signals divisions among Republicans in the state surrounding claims of election fraud.

Former President Trump has refused to commit to accepting 2024 results and has continued to tout his debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, while some in the party have pressed fellow Republicans to move on from the last cycle.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 07:53 am:

UPDATE 02:16 pm:

Bush said in a fiery speech after her loss that leaving Congress will only “takes some strings off.”

“Because now, there are some strings that I have attached. And as much as I love my job, all they did was radicalize me, and now they should be afraid,” she said.

“They’re about to see this other Cori, this other side,” she continued. “There is nothing that happens in my life that happens in vain. So, this happened because it was meant to happen. And let me say, it’s because of the work that I need to do.”

“And let me say this: AIPAC, I’m coming to tear your kingdom down!” she added to cheers.

  The Hill

Well.

Kansas presents

Gilead, here we come

As the Kansas News Service reports, starting today, abortion providers are supposed to be required to ask patients which of 11 possible reasons is most relevant to their decision to get an abortion. Possible reasons include that the patient cannot financially afford a child or that the pregnancy resulted from rape or incest.

But also today, a Planned Parenthood spokesperson said that the Kansas health department “has stated that it will not enforce this intrusive law, for now” and a health department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Kansas News Service.

The question is optional — the law states that if someone refuses to answer, their refusal will be recorded. But lawmakers voted down a proposed amendment that would have clarified to patients that the question is optional.

  NPR

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

MAGA

In an unprecedented raid Friday, local law enforcement seized computers, cellphones and reporting materials from the Marion County Record office, the newspaper’s reporters, and the publisher [Eric Meyer]’s home.

Eric Meyer, owner and publisher of the newspaper, said police were motivated by a confidential source who leaked sensitive documents to the newspaper, and the message was clear: “Mind your own business or we’re going to step on you.”

  Kansas Reflector

What's the matter with Kansas?

“It’s going to have a chilling effect on us even tackling issues,” Meyer said, as well as “a chilling effect on people giving us information.”

[...]

The city’s entire five-officer police force and two sheriff’s deputies took “everything we have,” Meyer said, and it wasn’t clear how the newspaper staff would take the weekly publication to press Tuesday night.

The raid followed news stories about [Marion restaurant owner Kari Newell] who kicked reporters out of a [public] meeting last week with U.S. Rep. Jake LaTurner [whose staff was apologetic], and revelations about the restaurant owner’s lack of a driver’s license and conviction for drunken driving.

[...]

The criminal record could jeopardize her efforts to obtain a liquor license for her catering business.

[...]

The search warrant, signed by Marion County District Court Magistrate Judge Laura Viar, appears to violate federal law that provides protections against searching and seizing materials from journalists. The law requires law enforcement to subpoena materials instead.

Is impeachment in order?

“An attack on a newspaper office through an illegal search is not just an infringement on the rights of journalists but an assault on the very foundation of democracy and the public’s right to know,” [Emily Bradbury, executive director of the Kansas Press Association,] said. “This cannot be allowed to stand.”

And it probably won't. But it's still able to have its chilling effect. There should be some very serious penalties when this is all over.

As a journalism professor in Illinois, Meyer said, he had graduate students from Egypt who talked about how people would come into the newspaper office and seize everything so they couldn’t publish. Those students presented a scholarly paper at a conference in Toronto about what it has done to journalism there.

“That’s basically what they’re trying to do here,” Meyer said. “The intervention is just like that repressive government of Egypt. I didn’t think it could happen in America.”

Seriously?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE 08/14/2023:

Keystone leak

It's not the first time, and it won't be the last.

Nearly 600,000 gallons of oil spilled into the waterway as well as the land surrounding it.

Environmental advocates say this is just the beginning to a cleanup that will likely take years.

[...]

Not including the Mill Creek leak, the two largest spills in Keystone's history occurred in 2017 and 2019. As of Dec. 7, government data shows that this spill is the biggest in the pipeline's history, the Associated Press reported.

[...]

As of Friday morning, TC Energy says, 4,125 barrels of oil from the creek have been recovered of the estimated 14,000 barrels (about 588,000 gallons) reportedly lost in the spill.

Aerial footage of the leak from Nebraska Public Media shows the leak has affected a nearby pasture and residents' farmland.

[...]

"When a tar sands disaster like this happens, it is worse than a traditional oil spill. Because tar sands is much more difficult, expensive and much more toxic to clean up. We know that this is going to take years," Kleeb told NPR. She said she's been monitoring oil spills, particularly tar sands spills, for 14 years.

She also notes that, in her experience, initial estimates of the amount of oil actually spilled can be wrong.

"Usually, when this happens, that initial number ends up doubling," she said.

[...]

TC Energy, formerly known as TransCanada, says its Keystone pipeline runs from Canada to Oklahoma. (This Keystone pipeline is not to be confused with the canceled Keystone XL pipeline project that was a major flashpoint in the U.S. for years.)

[...]

Bitumen doesn't flow through a pipeline efficiently, "so it is mixed with diluents to be readied for pipeline transportation as diluted bitumen, or 'dilbit,' " the American Petroleum Institute says.

[...]

Most containment efforts don't really work for bitumen, he says. In situations of other oil spills affecting waterways, one of the first steps is to set up booms to prevent the oil from spreading farther in the water.

Diluted bitumen "doesn't float the way conventional oil does. And most means of spill remediation in water bodies do rely on most of the oil staying on top of the water body," Swift said.

[...]

"Once this thick tar sands is on something, you basically have to just extract everything that this stuff has touched," he said. "The bitumen can migrate and it tends to seep into soils. The longer it's left, the more of a problem it can become."

[...]

Keystone has been the subject of 22 reported leaks since 2010, according a Government Accountability Office report last year. With the Mill Creek case, it is now up to at least 23.

[...]

"In the past, when we've seen the spills happen it impacts the land for years. They not only have to excavate all of the polluted soil, there is a lot of work to be done to make sure that this isn't impacting the root system," she said. "And now all of that precious topsoil, which is critical to agriculture, is now destroyed and will be destroyed forever."

[...]

Prior to construction, TC Energy got a special permit from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to operate certain portions of the pipeline at a higher pressure level than is ordinarily allowed under agency regulations for oil transport.

[...]

"They should have never given a company with this many spills a special permit to pump at higher pressure."

  NPR

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Surprise! Kansas recount changes nothing

A decisive statewide vote in favor of abortion rights in traditionally conservative Kansas was confirmed.

[...]

Nine of the state’s 105 counties recounted their votes at the request of Melissa Leavitt, who has pushed for tighter election laws. A longtime anti-abortion activist, Mark Gietzen, is covering most of the costs. Gietzen acknowledged in an interview that it was unlikely to change the outcome.

[...]

Gietzen, of Wichita, and Leavitt, of Colby, in far northwestern Kansas, have both suggested there might have been problems without pointing to many examples.

Recounts increasingly are tools to encourage supporters of a candidate or cause to believe an election was stolen rather than lost.

  The Hill

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Kansas performative art

Kansas’ elections director says the state will go along with a request for a hand recount of votes from every county after last week’s decisive statewide vote affirming abortion rights, even though there was a 165,000-vote difference and a recount won’t change the result.

Melissa Leavitt, of Colby in far western Kansas, requested the recount and declined to comment to reporters Friday evening, citing work obligations. But she said on an online site raising funds for a recount that she had “seen data” about the election. Her post was not more specific, and there is no evidence of significant problems with the election.

[...]

Kansas law requires Leavitt to post a bond to cover the entire cost of the recount. Bryan Caskey, state elections director for the Kansas secretary of state’s office, said it would be the first recount of the votes on a statewide ballot question in at least 30 years.

Caskey said the work won’t begin without a guarantee that Leavitt can cover the cost.

[...]

Also seeking a recount is state Sen. Caryn Tyson, who is trailing state Rep. Steven Johnson in the Republican primary for state treasurer by about 400 votes out of nearly 434,000 cast. She is asking for a hand recount in about half the state’s 105 counties.

  The Hill

Why was the request granted under these circumstances? Kansas voters should next recall the elections director and vote down Tyson.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  The recount failed to change the vote.  What a surprise.

Score one for Kansas!

The rejection of the measure highlighted the increasingly stark divide between the activities of Republican state lawmakers, often in legislatures gerrymandered to effectively guarantee GOP control, and the political and policy desires of American voters. In more immediate terms, the ballot measure’s defeat – on a day of extraordinary turnout – also provides a clear indication that the desire to defend abortion rights could be a potent issue for Democrats in the coming midterm elections.

[...]

In Kansas, there was hardly a contest to speak of. The “No” coalition – which opposed a measure that would have removed abortion rights from the state constitution – appears to be on track to win in a landslide. And it’s no low-turnout fluke. The overall vote count on the amendment eclipsed 869,000 at around 1 a.m. ET.

That figure exceeded Kansas’ general election turnout in the midterm year of 2010 and was approaching the 2014 total overnight. And overall primary turnout in the state two years ago – in the midst of a presidential campaign – clocked in at just over 636,000. In the 2018 midterm primary, the figure was lower: 457,598.

[...]

Meanwhile, Republican leaders and anti-abortion activists in several states are locked in court battles as they push to implement all manner of new restrictions or preexisting “trigger laws” over the objections of abortion rights groups, many of whom are arguing that those measures violate existing state law or constitutional protections.

  CNN

Kansas – a deeply conservative and usually reliably Republican state – is the first US state to put abortion rights to a vote since the US supreme court ruled to overturn constitutional protections for abortion in late June.

The state will remain a safe haven for abortion in the midwest, as one of the few states in the region where it remains legal to perform the procedure. Many other states have undertaken moves to make abortion largely illegal since June.

[...]

Kansans turned out to vote in heavy numbers on Tuesday, in a referendum brought by the Kansas Republican legislature that was criticized for being misleading, fraught with misinformation and voter suppression tactics.

[...]

The vote was scheduled for August, when voter turnout is historically low, particularly among independents and Democrats, and the wording on the ballot paper was criticized for being unclear.

“The ballot mentions a state constitutional right to abortion funding in Kansas, but that funding has never really been on the table,” Mary Ziegler, a US abortion law expert from the University of California, Davis told the Guardian on Monday.

Kansans for Life, one of the main backers for a yes vote, told church congregants on 27 July that removing protections for abortion in Kansas would prevent late-term abortions, lack of parental consent and taxpayer funding for abortion, despite none of these being the law in Kansas.

[...]

After failing to get a more directly named referendum, “Kansas No State Constitutional Right to Abortion”, on the ballot in 2020, Republicans switched tactics, naming this amendment “Value Them Both”.

  Guardian

Kansas now needs to vote out Republicans in the general election, because next time - and there will be a next time if Republicans hold power in the state legislature - they'll just call it something else, and move to suppress the vote even more.

Kansas may be cleaning up its act

Will we be welcoming Kansas to the 21st Century?

Let's see if the legislature overrides her veto.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

New Jersey, New York, and Kansas join the ranks of states arguing over districting maps

The New Jersey Supreme Court on Thursday voted 5-0 to side with Democrats and dismiss a GOP lawsuit that asked the court to remand the map to the redistricting commission for further consideration and require the tie-breaker commissioner, former Supreme Court Justice John Wallace, to recuse himself.

[...]

Democrats won the redistricting process when Wallace voted with the six Democratic members of the commission, installing a congressional district map that, barring a major wave election, would likely result in a 9-3 Democratic majority in the New Jersey's House delegation. Democrats currently have a 10-2 majority.

[...]

The state's highest court ruled that for all the Republicans’ complaints about the process, the lawsuit did not challenge the map itself as unlawful or unconstitutional.

“Historically, after meeting in private with the respective partisan delegations to discuss their proposals, the independent member serves as the tiebreaker and selects one party’s preferred map,” Chief Justice Stuart Rabner wrote for the court. “The outcome commonly garners praise from one party and criticism from the other. This redistricting cycle was no different … This Court has no role in the outcome of the redistricting process unless the map is ‘unlawful.’”

  Politico

Will they take it to the Trump Supreme Court?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Assholes

Taxpayers in 5 states are forced to double down their support of people who refuse to get vaccinated. Support them financially, give up hospital beds to them, and risk their own and their children's health and lives.

Seems fair.

These people did not "lose" their jobs.  They QUIT their jobs.

So begins the book banning

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

It's Sunday

Jesus Christ.

I'm not even going to excerpt that article.  It's much greater than the headline, and it gets crazier as it goes along.  You should just read the whole thing.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Resurgence of right-wing attempts to MAGA

In addition to a spate of new abortion and voter suppression bills being introduced, we're now into fossil fuel protest bills.

SCOTUS making itself an enemy of "the people"

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

NOW they're jumping ship

Donald Trump’s Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice lost another member on Thursday when [Kansas’s Wyandotte County District Attorney Mark Dupree] requested that the Department of Justice remove his name from a report addressing police reform recommendations[, saying he believed the commission’s work was “smothered by a pernicious political agenda.”].

[...]

Dupree’s letter, a copy of which was viewed by Reuters, also expressed concerns over the commission’s refusal to address systemic racism in the criminal justice system. Dupree, who is Black, is the second member of the commission to have resigned while a third has said the DOJ is refusing to take the concerns of all parties involved in its operation seriously.

[...]

[A] federal judge in Washington, D.C. ruled in October that the commission was operating in violation of a several facets of federal statutory law, prohibiting it from even releasing reports and other work product until the myriad violations were remedied.

[...]

District Judge John Bates reasoned that the commission’s composition—consisting exclusively of current and former law enforcement officials—and a lack of transparency violated multiple provisions of the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA). Barr had stacked the commission’s 18 members exclusively with law enforcement professionals who were employed as police, prosecutors or federal officials while none had any background in criminal defense, civil rights, academia, or social work areas.

[...]

The NAACP Legal Defense Fund (LDF) in April sued the administration after Barr ignored its request to appoint additional commissioners that would help balance the law enforcement-only viewpoints of the commission’s make-up.

[...]

Judge Bates said earlier this month that the commission would be permitted to release its final policing reforms report on the condition that it be marked with a disclaimer stating that the commission broke the law in failing to be “fairly balanced” in its members and not giving the public “timely notice” of its meetings.

  Law and Crime

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.