Friday, December 03, 2021

The Weekend Wrangle from Far Left Texas


A lot to catch up on before a weekend full of outdoor activities (Mrs. Diddie and I are doing Dickens, as we always do).


These are among the variety of hurdles and onstacles that I cannot see Texas Democrats overcoming on their way to an electoral breakthrough next year.

Still, t'is the season for optimism, so I'll try to hold that.


We're all hoping Jessica is right.


Let's do the criminal and social justice news next.


Let me take that as my cue to segue to the environmental headlines.


Two COVID updates.


Lamb founded Daystar in late 1997, in Dallas.

And a few items that don't fit easily in the previous categories.


Ending another very weird and bad week with some calm-me-downs.

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Thursday, December 02, 2021

A news update from the Republic of Gilead


It's just to the west of Dystopia.


Tackling only the last item in this post.

As the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority seems poised to uphold a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, more than twice as many Americans (55 percent) say they want the court to reaffirm its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision as say they want it overturned (24 percent), according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll.

Yet when asked about the specifics of the Mississippi case, respondents are far more divided -- a sign that America’s views on abortion are not quite as clear-cut and polarized as many assume.

The survey of 1,696 U.S. adults, which was conducted from Nov. 17 to 19, found that equal numbers favor (39 percent) and oppose (38 percent) the Mississippi law when it is described as something “that bans most abortions after 15 weeks, or about three and a half months.” (Roe v. Wade currently prohibits states from outlawing the procedure before about 23 weeks.) A significant share of Democrats (19 percent), Black Americans (25 percent) and Hispanic Americans (29 percent) also say they support a 15-week ban. Another 23 percent of overall Americans are unsure.


During oral arguments Wednesday, Chief Justice John Roberts emerged as the leading voice on the right for a narrow decision that would allow other states to ban abortions before 15 weeks but not fully overturn Roe.

“The thing that is at issue before us today is 15 weeks,” Roberts said.

But Justice Samuel Alito disagreed, arguing that “the only real options we have” are to reaffirm Roe in its entirety or to overrule it -- a view that at least two other conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, are thought to share.

Who's to blame here?


"Vote Blue No Matter Who!"


There are ways the Democrats could save abortion and save democracy and sweep back the country’s inexorable trend toward theocratic fascism, but they all involve using power in a way that, so far, no leader from the party has been willing or able to do.

You’ve probably heard of several of these: eliminating the filibuster, packing the court, or even simply using the executive branch to ignore the right’s new grasp over judicial review, which was never in the Constitution in the first place and we can all see has clearly gotten out of hand. Even within the flawed system of the Senate and current legislature, Democrats could be making a concerted push for D.C. statehood or Puerto Rico statehood or both, giving them a better chance to secure majorities so that every single bill doesn’t rest on people like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. Democrats could even pass a law ensuring a woman’s right to an abortion (imagine that) right now, technically, if they chucked the filibuster and convinced Manchin and Bob Casey to support the bill that passed the House in September.

They can’t do this, of course, because Manchin and Casey probably won’t budge on abortion and Manchin and Sinema won’t budge on the filibuster. All of these people are Democrats. So while it’s potentially true that if we just elected “more Democrats,” these few ideological aberrations might be less of a problem, but the question becomes how many? How many do we have to elect? And what if we keep voting for Democrats, somehow flip a few more red states to purple, but the only way we do so is if we elect another Joe Manchin? What then? What do we need to secure these things -- 60 votes in the Senate? Obama had 59 in 2009 and barely got the Affordable Care Act passed. Political priorities have changed a bit in the past 12 years, but is there any guarantee that we’d get anything done with 59 or 60 now? Not really. And where are those seats supposed to come from?

Democrats aren't going to save Roe.  They could have long ago if they wanted, but then they couldn't raise money off the issue.

Donating to, voting for, or electing more Democrats isn't going to save Roe, or pass Medicare for All, or raise the minimum wage, or cut subsidies to fossil fuels, or anything else that needs to be done NOW and not later.

Democrats can't even save themselves from an electoral wipeout in 2022.  What makes you think they're going to do anything for you?
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