Abortion Rights

Abortion Rights And Attack On ObamaCare By Trump Helps Democrats

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Donald Trump bragging about the end of abortion rights, and his renewed attack on the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) are two issues that seem likely to insure that the Democrats and Joe Biden will have issues that will resonate with voters in the Presidential Election Of 2024.

About 40 million people benefit from ObamaCare and Medicaid expansion coverage available due to the Affordable Care Act.

Abortion being legal and available has been supported in Kansas, Vermont, Montana, Michigan, Kentucky, California and Ohio since the Supreme Court decision in Dobbs V. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, and has galvanized those who believe in women’s rights and civil rights.

Abortion Rights Score A Big Victory In 2023 Elections!

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Abortion Rights won the day yesterday in the 2023 elections!

Ohio voters by 14 points agreed to put abortion rights into the state Constitution.

Virginia voters gave Democrats control of both houses of the state legislature, a blow to Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, who was promoting abortion restrictions to be put into state law.

Kentucky reelected Democratic Governor Andy Beshear who promoted abortion rights, which already had been supported earlier by citizen vote in 2022.

So now, 8 states have rejected the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V Wade, including

Kansas in August 2022

Vermont, Montana, Michigan, Kentucky, California in November 2022

Kentucky again yesterday, along with Ohio and Virginia

Religious people have a right to their views, but NOT to impose it on the entire population, and to dictate the reproductive lives of American women!

MAGA Republicans In Charge In House Of Representatives: Its Implications!

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Having “slept” on the elevation of Mike Johnson to the Speakership of the House of Representatives, this author and blogger has woken up to the horrors of this MAGA Republican, who seems to be a “nice” person on the surface, but has horrendous views on so many issues!

This man, now two heartbeats away from the Presidency, is a rabid social conservative who is vehemently opposed to abortion, gay rights and gay marriage, and has a hardline Christian view of marriage and family, more like the 1950s and earlier!

Johnson also led the Election Denier movement in support of Donald Trump, and has never backed away from refusing to accept that Joe Biden is President.

Also, he has spoken in favor of changing Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid.

Johnson is the Speaker with the least government experience since the 1880s.

He is also not a supporter of Ukraine in its war with Russia under Vladimir Putin, and is likely to have a difficult relationship with President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.

So, while the whole fiasco of the Speakership battles is likely to harm the Republican Party in 2024, for the next year, and including through the lameduck session after the Presidential Election of 2024, there could be a massive crisis in acceptance of the election results with a Trump supporting MAGA Republican in charge in the House of Representatives!

The South Of Slavery And Racial Segregation Now The South Of Denial Of Health Care And War On Women’s Rights!

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The American South, the area of slavery and racial segregation in its past, is once again demonstrating that it is the area of denial of civil and human rights.

In the past, it was the Democratic Party that worked to deny human rights and dignity.

Now it is the Republican Party, the party that had fought for civil and human rights in the mid 19th century.

A total switch which remains startling, but now the emphasis is on denying health care to millions of poor whites and minorities, and taking away the right of women to control their own bodies and reproductive life.

The Medicaid Program enacted into law by Lyndon B. Johnson in 1966 now is being denied to help the health and safety of poor Americans, most particularly in Texas and Florida, but throughout the American South, as well as other Republican controlled states.

The section of the nation that demands that all fetuses be born, no matter what condition they are in, or how the woman became pregnant, is only too willing to deny health care, which undermines and shortens the lives of their less fortunate constituents.

This is so mind boggling, and it is as if the American South is still fighting the Civil War a century and a half later, continuing to be lacking in humanity and common decency.

A Most Despicable Governor: Sarah Huckabee Sanders Of Arkansas! :(

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Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the former Press Secretary to President Donald Trump, became well known for incessant lying and nastiness in that role.

But she managed to promote her profile to the point of believing that she was qualified to run for Arkansas Governor, a position her father, Mike Huckabee, held from 1996-2007.

Her father, once seen as moderate, has become a right wing religious extremist since leaving office in 2007, and his daughter now is surpassing earlier Arkansas governors in moving the state further to the bottom.

Hard to believe that the state once had Winthrop Rockefeller as a Republican governor, and Dale Bumpers, David Pryor, and Bill Clinton as Democratic governors.

And the most recent Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, while conservative, came across as “reasonable”, and is now challenging Donald Trump for the Republican Presidential nomination in 2024, and is showing guts and courage as a critic of Trump, a rarity in the present.

But Huckabee Sanders is copying Florida Governor Ron DeSantis in his meanness and nastiness, on such issues as race, gender, sexuality, health care, and child labor.

She is promoting discrimination against gays and lesbians; waging war against abortion rights; refusing to allow an African American Advanced Placement history course in high school curriculums; taking poor Arkansans off Medicaid; allowing child labor to return to her state; and threatening librarians with prison terms if they do not remove materials and promote “Book Banning”!

The state is in the bottom five nationally in so many statistics, but Huckabee Sanders is following DeSantis’s playbook, and has national Presidential ambitions, which is stunning, since she has zero qualifications for the Presidency, and is not very smart intellectually!

Kamala Harris At 59, And Her Future Role In American Government!

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Vice President Kamala Harris celebrated her 59th birthday yesterday, and she is seen as a strong partner of President Joe Biden.

Constantly under attack by conservatives and Republicans, she has played the proper role of remaining in the background, not trying to take attention away from the President, which is the proper role for a Vice President.

But she has become more visible on the issues of abortion rights, civil rights, voting rights, gun safety reform, and the promotion of truth in education, including denouncing Florida Governor Ron DeSantis promoting a distorted view of African American history and slavery, and also, his attack on the field of psychology and the teaching of gender and sexuality.

Harris speaks for those who are being attacked and abused, as the Supreme Court moves the nation backward on issues that were thought to be settled decades ago, but clearly are not resolved.

Harris is a very intelligent woman, with a career of being a prosecutor in San Francisco; Attorney General of California; and four years as a United States Senator!

She is superbly qualified to be President, if tragically, in the next five years, she was called upon to take the Presidential oath.

Hopefully, President Biden will win reelection and served capably, as he has so far, but the nation can be comfortable with the possibility of a succession, knowing this is a woman of compassion, decency, empathy, and sincerity.

Republican Presidential contender Nikki Haley has disgraced herself since she had courage as South Carolina Governor in 2015 to take down the Confederate flag after nine black churchgoers were slaughtered. She has lost all credibility, when she suggests that Joe Biden will die and Kamala Harris will be President in the next term, as if that would be the most horrendous thing possible, and it disqualifies Haley’s own Presidential ambitions.

One woman of Asian Indian ancestry feels a need to attack a woman of similar Asian Indian and Jamaican ancestry as unqualified, when clearly, Harris has far better credentials than Nikki Haley has ever demonstrated, particularly Haley’s bending to Donald Trump, and agreeing that if he is the nominee of the Republican Party in 2024, that she would support him!

Abortion Rights Win Support In Seven States Since Repeal Of Roe V Wade!

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Ever since Roe V Wade was repealed by the Supreme Court in June 2022 in the Dobbs V Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, seven states have seen voters choose to support abortion rights!

This is a winning issue for Democrats, and a massive losing proposition for Republicans!

Ohio is the most recent state to reject making it harder to promote citizenship rights, including abortion rights, which will be directly voted on in November in that state.

Previously, California, Vermont, and Michigan passed constitutional amendments guaranteeing the right to an abortion.

Also, Kentucky rejected amending the state constitution to prevent the right to an abortion.

And Kansas rejected an amendment of similar language.

And Montana voted NOT to prosecute medical workers involved in abortion care.

Realize that four of these states—Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas, and Montana are Republican states, and Michigan was until the 2022 Midterm Elections when the Democrats gained massively.

So only California and Vermont were really Democratic controlled states.

So this is proof that by vast margins, Americans want abortion rights to be protected, despite the actions of Republicans and the Supreme Court!

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville Undermining Military Readiness, And Must Be Stopped!

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There is a dire need for the US Senate to change its policy that any one Senator can prevent a movement forward on a nomination, or a vote on legislation!

Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville, who was a renowned football coach with a Physical Education degree from a third rate college, has held up approval of military promotions, causing hundreds of military personnel to be held effectively captive, including the movement forward on a new Marine Corps Commandant. This has been done in order to prevent women in the military from being able to gain the right to have abortions, if in their personal judgment, it is appropriate and wish to control their own bodies!

He also is vehemently anti gay and anti transgender, and has claimed white nationalists are not racists!

This is causing an uproar, with even Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell disturbed about this mess, and the need is clear to do whatever has to be done to force movement on promoting the military readiness that is urgent for national defense!

The fact that Tuberville is a terrible Senator, who sadly defeated Doug Jones in 2020, arguably the best Alabama Senator in many decades, is a sad commentary on how extremist right wing Alabama has been for such a long time! The idea that a football coach with minimal qualifications on major national issues could end up in the Senate is a true tragedy! 🙁

Away For Two Weeks, And The World Changes, Not For The Better! :(

Ronald 6 Comments

Having just returned from my vacation with my older son after watching nine baseball games at eight baseball stadiums from Washington DC to Chicago, it is clear while I have been away that the nation and the world have changed, and not for the better.

Russia under Vladimir Putin is in turmoil after a challenge to the government by a militia group, creating more international instability. And demonstrations in France have gone large after the killing of an Algerian Arab French citizen by police, making clear that racism is alive and well in not just the United States but world wide!

And then, domestically, the Supreme Court has shown once again just how extreme they are, and presenting a constitutional crisis, as the Bush I and II appointees, along with the Trump appointees, have declared war on precedent and progress, trying to bring America back to the 18th century “originalism”, which many scholars make clear is totally preposterous!

The majority Court Justices have been shown to have massive financial and ideological conflicts of interest with no means for accountability, and with Chief Justice John Roberts losing all of whatever reasonable reputation he has had over the years, with his refusal to testify on ethics violations by himself and the other Republican Justices, particularly, but not only, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

Between the attack on abortion rights a year ago, and now the end of affirmative action; the denial of student college debt relief; and allowing religion to interfere with the basic human rights of gays and transgenders, and arguably, other groups that any person in any business or industry could decide to refuse to interact with in daily life, is clearly the most dangerous time in constitutional history since the Civil War!

Gerrrymandered State Legislatures–Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, Texas And Other Republican States!

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Gerrymandering of many state legislatures, particularly in “Red” states, has led to the movement to take away democracy.

This is particularly noted in Tennessee, North Carolina, Florida, and Texas, as those state legislatures take unprecedented action to strip voting rights, abortion rights, gay rights, and to reject any regulation of guns, despite consistent, every day, occurrences of gun massacres!

The “red” states are the centers of greater carnage than in “blue” states, which are totally the opposite of the “red” states on the major issues of civil rights.

Many state legislatures have become the center of autocratic leadership, such as Ron DeSantis in Florida and Greg Abbott in Texas, but also including many other states!