Republicans only hurt themselves with veterans stunt

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

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.

Well, well, well

Yet more phones wiped. First we learn of the Secret Service phones. Then DHS phones, and now...

The Defense Department wiped the phones of top departing DOD and Army officials at the end of the Trump administration, deleting any texts from key witnesses to events surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to court filings.

The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army.

[...]

American Oversight is now calling for a “cross-agency investigation” by the Justice Department to investigate destruction of the materials.

“It’s just astounding to believe that the agency did not understand the importance of preserving its records – particularly [with regards] to the top officials that might have captured: what they were doing, when they were doing it, why they were doing, it on that day,” Heather Sawyer, American Oversight’s executive director, told CNN.

  CNN

Oh, they understood.

Remember when the Republicans were passing around a story that the Clinton administration removed all the W keys from computers when they left and were outraged?

When they get back from vacation in September, the January 6th Committee's next public hearing is going to be a doozy.  

Alex Jones is testifying in his trial

That's probably not a good idea for many, if not most, defendants. 

Looks like it's going swimmingly. Here, he exchanges words with the judge, Maya Guerra Gamble:

 

Jones is still on the air.  In fact, he was on the air this morning while plaintiff was testifying.  

Jones' attorney this afternoon objected to the prosecution playing the tape of the show in court.

“Spit your gum out, Mr. Jones,” said Judge Maya Guerra Gamble, eyeing Jones grimly from behind the bench.

“It’s not gum,” the far-right broadcaster retorted immediately. Jones claimed that he’d had a tooth pulled late last month, and that he was massaging the hole in his mouth with his tongue.

“Would you like me to show ya?” he asked, leaning in.

“...I don’t want to see the inside of your mouth,” Gamble said, admonishing him to “sit down.”

  MSN

Jones is being sued by the parents of a little boy who was killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School for spreading lies about the attack, calling the massacre a hoax, and encouraging Jones' audience to make life hell for them and other parents.

Jones went so far as to take potshots at the families from afar, calling them “pawns” in an episode of his Infowars show that aired Tuesday, according to Media Matters for America.

Later in the episode, an aggrieved Jones blasted Gamble and the lawyers representing Lewis’ parents, calling them “caricatures of what you would imagine in some alternate universe of dwarf goblins.”

“It’s demonic,” he added. “They all act demonically possessed. The judge, the lawyers. It’s surreal to be around them. And it makes you feel sorry for them because these people are committed to occult ideology of the new world order.”

Jesus Christ.

Jones, who has attempted to spin the complaint against him as an attack on his First Amendment rights, had rolled up to the courthouse after the morning session. A piece of duct tape covering his mouth had the phrase “Save the 1st” plastered across it.

And calling the judge a liar. Brilliant move. And I hope he ripped facial hair out by the roots removing the tape.

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

UPDATE:

Surprise!

They must really, really, really, REALLY hate China.

What this country needs is another major disease outbreak

The polio virus was present in wastewater in a New York City suburb a month before health officials there announced a confirmed case of the disease last month.

[...]

[T]he CDC added there have been no new cases identified, and that it is not yet clear whether the virus is actively spreading in New York or elsewhere in the United States.

[...]

"Given how quickly polio can spread, now is the time for every adult, parent, and guardian to get themselves and their children vaccinated as soon as possible," State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said.

[...]

Polio is often asymptomatic and people can transmit the virus even when they do not appear sick. But it can produce mild, flu-like symptoms that can take as long as 30 days to appear, officials said.

It can strike at any age but the majority of those affected are children aged three and younger.

[...]

There is no cure for polio, which can cause irreversible paralysis in some cases, but it can be prevented by a vaccine made available in 1955.

  Reuters

New longest sentence for insurrection on January 6, 2021

A Texas man convicted of storming the U.S. Capitol with a holstered handgun, helmet and body armor was sentenced Monday to more than seven years in prison, the longest sentence imposed so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

Prosecutors said Guy Reffitt told fellow members of the Texas Three Percenters militia group that he planned to drag House Speaker Nancy Pelosi out of the Capitol building by her ankles, “with her head hitting every step on the way down,” according to a court filing.

  The Hill

It was just locker room talk.

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

Senate bill to codify right to abortion

A bipartisan group of senators [Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine)] on Monday introduced legislation that would codify the right to an abortion into federal law, but it faces an uncertain future.

[...]

The bill aims to prevent states from enacting laws that impose an “undue burden” on access to pre-viability abortions, while also allowing some “reasonable” limits on post-viability abortions, so long as they don’t impact the life and health of the mother.

[...]

The bipartisan legislation also ensures access to contraception.

[...]

The bill does not define viability, or what would constitute a danger to the life and health of a mother.

[...]

[A] Democratic-only effort, the Women’s Health Protection Act, failed twice on the Senate floor this year.

That legislation would have codified Roe while also expanding abortion access. Every Republican voted against it, as well as Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.).

[...]

[I]t’s not clear if the bipartisan bill will be brought to the Senate floor. It’s likely to get opposition from Democrats for being too conservative, and from Republicans who don’t want to allow any abortion rights.

  The Hill

Jesus Christ.

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

Zawahiri dead --- so they say

How many times have they killed this guy now?  Isn't it grand that there has been a major bad guy for each of our last three presidents to claim a major kill?  

I'm not even going to read the article. Maybe it's true.  

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

About that inflation...

After-tax corporate profits stood at 8.1 percent of the economy at the beginning of 2020 but have since shot up to as high as 11.8 percent of the GDP.  [...] These higher corporate profits have been the cause of over 50 percent of recent price increases.

[...]

[T]he key issue right now would be how to lower inflation while keeping employment and worker power high. Such a tack would include full-bore attempts to lessen supply chain issues and reduce the pricing power of big corporations.

  The Intercept

One reason to think the pandemic is the root cause of the recent inflationary surge is empirical. The inflationary shock has occurred in essentially all rich nations of the world—it’s very hard to find any country-specific policy that maps onto inflation.

Another reason is to look where this inflation started: the rapid run-up of prices in the goods sector (particularly durable goods). The pandemic directly shifted demand out of services and into goods (people quit their gym memberships and bought Pelotons, for example) just as it also caused a collapse of supply chains in durable goods (with rolling port shutdowns around the world).

[...]

In short, the rise in inflation has not been driven by anything that looks like an overheating labor market—instead it has been driven by higher corporate profit margins and supply-chain bottlenecks. Policy efforts meant to cool off labor markets—like very rapid and sharp interest rate increases—are likely not necessary to restrain inflationary pressures in the medium term.

Other tools that would be less damaging to typical families—like care investments to boost expected growth in labor supply or a temporary excess profits tax—could be effective in tamping down inflation over the next year and should be a bigger part of the policy mix.

[...]

The inflation spike of 2021 and 2022 has presented real policy challenges. In order to better understand this policy debate, it is imperative to look at prices and how they are being affected.

  Economic Policy Institute

Continue reading.

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