As you know when the right comes up with what seems to be some wild out of this world “issue” we on the left often wonder what the ultimate end will be. Much like the long ago (50 years?) Powell memo led to the end of the Fairness Doctrine which led to Fox News(?) which has led to even more radical right wing media which we see now running wild fiction stories of a president who lost by a landslide claiming he won the presidency.
We can tell a story on almost any issue of how the right has evolved from slightly outside the norm into stories and talking points that have nothing to do with reality. The whole “Critical Race Theory” that has blown up from nowhere to now being a dominant distraction on right wing media even though no one on the right seems to have any idea what they are talking about.
This has even led to laws in states like Iowa to prohibit teaching classes that don’t exist so Iowas won’t be tainted with critical race theory even if we don’t know what it is. Where did all this come from, besides the chance to abuse the scary concept of race?
Where do these ideas come from anyway. It seems like they spring like 17 year locusts out of nowhere for right wing politicians to use to distract good politicians and citizens from serious issues like infrastructure and reforming police.
We may have a couple of examples in the formative stages this week. One comes from that state to our south in Missouri. While many on the left and many women are deeply concerned about a Supreme Court seemingly sculpted to overturn the Roe v. Wade decision, Missouri is prepping to move beyond banning abortion to banning contraceptives.
During the most recent legislative session, the Missouri legislature failed to provide funding for their portion of Medicaid. Thus if they do not do so, medicaid will be out of funds in Missouri in late September. This will cost the state multi billions in federal funds not to mention cause a crisis in the health care system.
The legislative session ended without funding. Republican governor Mike Parsons has called a special session to deal with this issue. Leading republicans in the Missouri legislature have decided that this is the time to have a showdown on using Medicaid funds for abortifacient birth control. That would be birth control that could cause a fertilized egg to be expelled when used quickly enough after intercourse. The most recognized is what is called “Plan B.”
But the legislature didn’t stop with abortifacients. Included in the banned group are IUDs which re in no way abortifacients. Also included is cutting off money to Planned Parenthood (of course). (See more here)
In the monkey see – monkey do world of right wing politics, we could easily see Missouri’s nascent effort to ban certain birth control to quickly widen and deepen to some form of prohibition of birth control in general. Once again they will be employing the chip, chip, chip method of slowly killing laws or rulings they do not like. So keep an eye on birth control as the next battle ground in the culture wars.
Most people would realize that the best way to stop abortions is to stop unwanted pregnancies. The best way to stop unwanted pregnancies is birth control properly used. You will not stop humans from having sex. They couldn’t even do that in the Puritan days.
Public universities in Florida will be required to survey both faculty and students on their political beliefs and viewpoints, with the institutions at risk of losing their funding if the responses are not satisfactory to the state’s Republican-led legislature.
The unprecedented project, which was tucked into a law signed Tuesday by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, is part of a long-running, nationwide right-wing push to promote “intellectual diversity” on campuses — though worries over a lack of details on the survey’s privacy protections, and questions over what the results may ultimately be used for, hover over the venture.
Based on the bill’s language, survey responses will not necessarily be anonymous — sparking worries among many professors and other university staff that they may be targeted, held back in their careers or even fired for their beliefs.
According to the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Ray Rodrigues, faculty will not be promoted or fired based on their responses, but, as The Tampa Bay Times reported Tuesday, the bill itself does not back up those claims.
While it seems like we have been down this path before, this one seems more ominous. On its face it also seems to be unconstitutional based on the first amendment, BUT we now have a very right wing SCOTUS that seems too often be not terribly concerned what the constitution says.
Keep your eyes out as once again the right chips away at our rights.
But firstMelanie Moore of Georgia addresses the right wing’s bogus Critical Race Theory crap (2:20)
The right wing and their media empires have taken a truly bogus issue (critical race theory) and ridden it for all it is worth. They have even had it become legislation in many states. As I told a friend when Biden signed the bill making Juneteenth a national holiday that this was a good day. But in Iowa we can’t say why because it violates the new law. But we can agree that Juneteenth is a good thing.
Now we come to the close of what I am now calling the patriotic month that begins with Memorial Day, then adds the D-Day memorial, Flag Day (no we don’t celebrate Trump’s birthday), now we add Juneteenth to the list and ends two weeks later on July 4th. Pretty good lineup, I’d say.
If you want to do something patriotic and cheap during this time, get vaccinated. Your country needs you. And you may get a $10 gift certificate for a free donut. But mostly you do what your country needs.
A) In Miami-Dade County, Florida the death toll continues to rise following what tragedy that occurred overnight Thursday?
B) Iowa’s Governor has decided to send IHP troopers to what state for two weeks?
C) In Washington, DC what piece of infrastructure fell down after being hit by a truck?
D) President Biden and a bipartisan group of senators announced an agreement on what issue Thursday?
E) What other country joined the US as countries that have suffered over 500,000 Covid deaths last week?
F) What religious group publicly threatened to discontinue President Biden’s ability to receive communion in his church?
G) In a real out of normal weather situation, what normally mild area of the country will be experiencing high temperatures up to 115 degrees F this weekend?
H) Who was the King of England when the American colonies declared independence?
I) What senior administration official paid a visit to the US-Mexican border Friday?
J) Friday what branch of the administration sued Georgia over their new voter suppression laws?
K) In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law which will require students and faculty to take a survey on their what?
L) It was announced this week that what major eye clinic in Iowa is dealing with a cyber ransomware attack?
M) With the delayed Olympics just four weeks away, what percentage of host country Japan have been fully vaccinated for Covid?
N) What Revolutionary Patriot provided intellectual fuel for the revolution with pamphlets like “Common Sense”?
O) What major pop star is in the news this week as she goes to court to end the conservatorship of her money by her father?
P) What lawyer to Trump had his law license suspended in New York Thursday?
Q) Carl Nassib made the news this week as he became the first person to do what?
R) Speaker Pelosi announced she will create a special committee to investigate what?
S) According to British researchers, what common beverage could reduce risk for chronic liver disease?
T) What financial firm announced that they will ban employees and clients unvaccinated for Covid from its headquarters in NYC?
When you don’t want to teach kids about slavery but want to preserve confederate monuments, that’s called hypocritical race theory. – OhNoSheTwitnt
Perhaps one of the most widely seen videos of last week – General Milley on critical race theory (4 minutes)
Answers:
A) The collapse of part of a condominium building
B) Texas – I guess they will stop immigration. All the republican guvs are doing it.
C) A pedestrian bridge over a highway
D) an infrastructure bill
E) Brazil
F) the US Catholic bishops
G) the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Portland)
H) George III
I) VP Kamala Harris
J) Justice Department
K) Political Views – how very 1984 of him
L) Wolfe Eye Clinic
M) 9.2%
N) Thomas Paine
O) Brittany Spears
P) Rudy Giuliani
Q) Nassib is the first NFL player to come out as gay.
R) The January 6th attack on the Capitol
S) coffee – have another cup!
T) Morgan Stanley
Republicans are mocking Biden for showing grief over the loss of his dog.
If you lose your dog but feel nothing, you might be a Republican. – George Takei
The war with the Covid virus at the present time seems to be at an uneasy standoff, at least in the US. We have come to this standoff because a large percentage of our population has decided to do the right thing for themselves and for society and get vaccinated. Unfortunately, there is also a large minority that refuses to be vaccinated.
Since the last president left office daily cases have fallen from nearly 300,000 cases a day with over 4,000 deaths a day to a now daily case rate of 10,000 to 15,000 with around 300 deaths a day. This is a remarkable turn around. The single most important reason for this turnaround is the focus that the Biden Administration put on manufacturing and distribution of the Covid vaccines.
But the downward direction of new cases and deaths has leveled off at about the numbers noted above. While those numbers are so much better than they had been, if maintained for a month or a year it is a significant numbers of what are now mostly preventable infections and deaths. 10,000 cases a day is 3,650,000 cases a year with 109,000 deaths.
If those numbers continue to hold steady we can make a fairly reasonable assumption that most of those illnesses and deaths will concentrate among those who are not vaccinated. Right now the unvaccinated pretty much fall into three groups – 1) Those who choose not to vaccinate 2) Those who for various medical reasons can’t be vaccinated and 3) children under 12.
We know that the vaccine companies are following protocols for getting children tested. Predictions have vaccines available for the over 5 YO by September with vaccines for over 6 months possibly by December. That would leave the medically unable to be vaccinated and those who choose not to be vaccinated as the mediums for the Covid virus to grow and evolve in.
Those who are medically unable to be vaccinated will do their best to avoid infections.
We are now embarking on a situation where humans are purposefully choosing to be incubators for an extremely wicked virus to evolve in. Instead of getting vaccinated and shutting the virus’s access to their body to grow and evolve in, these humans are choosing to give the virus a place to grow.
If we were to think of in terms of war, US against THEM, we have some of us purposely committing treason and giving the enemy aid and comfort. Certainly based on even the short history of the Covid virus we know that it mutates quickly and is very good at adapting characteristics that allow it to prosper. That is how we have come to the present Delta and Delta plus variations.
So far the vaccine has been proven to stop these variations. But given a fairly large group to infect and mutate in, one has to wonder how much longer before a fairly wily vaccine will mutate a mechanism to avoid or fool the vaccines?
Right now the very best way to stop the virus would be to dry up its supply of available bodies to infect. Stated simply we need to get as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible. It has been that simple from day 1. Right now predictions are that the Delta and Delta plus variations are on the cusp of an explosion that will spike the number of infections and deaths.
So if you are not vaccinated, get it done and done soon. Do it for the children, do it for those who can’t, but especially do it because you are a good citizen who knows that it is the right thing to do. With July 4th next week, what could be more patriotic than doing something to save your countrymen’s lives?
Just to appeal to your partisan side, you might have noticed that the preponderance of unvaccinated folks are on the right. If cases and deaths spike, they will be the ones suffering. It is a strange political maneuver to kill your own voters. Get vaccinated so you can live to vote another day!
It should come as little surprise to anyone living in Iowa that Iowa’s senators voted against allowing debate in the US Senate for the “For the People Act” that would level the playing field for all voters in federal elections. A vote to at least debate the “For The People Act” would be in the interest of Iowans who saw voter suppression shoved down their throats with little chance for input in the last legislative session.
This is hardly the first time and it certainly won’t be the last. Grassley has been little but a party hack for decades. Ernst didn’t get the reputation of being owned by the Koch brothers for nothing. Minority leader Mitch McConnell has openly declared he plans to stop anything the Biden administration proposes. McConnell knows he has Grassley and Ernst in his back pocket as he (McConnell) goes about destroying Biden’s plans.
Must be nice to have such loyalty. Iowa’s senators will gladly vote against legislation that is good for Iowans for purely party reasons and especially to satisfy their donors. This becomes a real problem because we have a deadline coming up that could be devastating to the economy and to all Americans.
That deadline is that the two tear debt ceiling agreement forged on July 31, 2019 expires on July 31, 2021. On August 1st the US will once again have to go through extraordinary measures to pay their bills. But this year the ability to maneuver has been limited by spending on the pandemic.
In the past couple of decades Republicans have precipitated a crisis around the expiration of the debt ceiling when a Democrat is president. Republican logic says that the voters will blame the president for not getting the debt ceiling fixed before it became an issue.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told lawmakers Wednesday that they must raise or suspend the limit on total U.S. debt before August 1, or risk incurring “absolutely catastrophic economic consequences.”
A two-year agreement that has suspended the debt ceiling expires after July 31, at which point the Treasury would take what it calls extraordinary measures to keep paying the government’s bills. In the past, the Treasury’s extraordinary measures have provided a cushion of several months, but massive spending on Covid relief programs has muddied the financial picture. Speaking to a Senate subcommittee, Yellen said the government could run out of money at some point in August, possibly when Congress is out of town on its summer recess.
“I believe it would precipitate a financial crisis, it would threaten the jobs and savings of Americans, and at a time when we’re still recovering from the COVID pandemic,” Yellen said of a default.
“I would plead with Congress simply to protect the full faith and credit of the United States by acting to raise or suspend the debt limit as soon as possible.”
Here we have the makings of a perfect storm – an evenly divided Seate with a couple of maverick Democrats who no one is sure whether they will be team players when the chips are down. A Minority Leader looking to do some damage and an issue that will affect every American if the debt ceiling is not renewed.
Stay tuned as perhaps once more Republicans may take something that should be nothing and blow it into a full blown crisis with Mitch McConnell smirking his way through and Grassley and Ernst playing follow the leader while making somber sounding pronouncements.
Indigenous leaders and allies organized for more than a decade to stop the Keystone XL pipeline and finally won after the project was cancelled earlier this month. Now, we have a chance to come together again to stop another dangerous project: Enbridge’s toxic Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which is a threat to treaty rights, clean water, and the climate.
For seven years the Anishinabe (Ojibwe) people of Northern Minnesota and our allies—have been organizing to stop the construction of the massive Line 3 toxic tar sands pipeline, which is a terrible threat to our treaty rights, clean water, and the climate.
President Biden can cancel the permits for Line 3 with the stroke of a pen, just as he did for the Keystone XL pipelineon his first day in office. It just needs to become a priority for him.
This month was a month that touched my heart. More than 2,000 water protectors took peaceful, bold action side by side with frontline Indigenous leaders in resisting Enbridge’s Line 3. Nearly 200 were arrested.1 Others are still prayerfully holding space in solidarity with the RISE Coalition, upholding our treaty rights at the spot where the pipeline is slated to cross the Mississippi headwaters.
Now we need YOUR help to send a loud message to President Biden, asking him to stop construction of the Line 3 tar sands pipeline.
The Enbridge corporation’s Line 3 tar sands pipeline project would expand the production of one of the world’s dirtiest fuels—tar sands crude oil—through 200 bodies of water in our treaty territory.2 These are lands where we have the right to hunt, fish, and gather the sacred manoomin (wild rice). In the face of climate catastrophe, the pipeline would carry the carbon impact of 50 new coal plants.3
Over the past seven years, youth, Indigenous leaders, community groups, scientists, and tribal governments have fought this project. The state of Minnesota’s own Commerce Department has joined tribal governments and others in a pending lawsuit saying this project is not needed.
But big money talks loudly, and the Trump administration and state regulators let the project go through, without a proper Environmental Impact Statement taking into account treaty rights or climate change. More than 300 groups wrote to President Biden asking him to use his power to revoke the Army Corps of Engineers permit for this project.4 But we need you to add your voice.
Just this month, the company that has spent more than a decade trying to build the Keystone XL pipeline officially cancelled the project.5 That didn’t just happen; it was the result of tireless organizing that built political power stronger than corporate lobbyists. Together, we can build on that momentum and make Line 3 the next pipeline to be cancelled.
There is no time to lose. Over the next few weeks, the Enbridge corporation is preparing to drill under dozens of Minnesota’s rivers and lakes, including the Mississippi headwaters.
Hundreds of us have faced arrest, threats, and harassment for rising up against the Line 3 pipeline and for our rights and everyone’s future.
Seeing people from all over—every race, age, and religion, Native and non-Native—put their bodies on the line this month told me we can win.
“I think Americans agree…after years and years of worrying about billionaires and the rich now it’s time to have a budget that speaks to the needs of working families and the climate crisis that we face.” – Bernie Sanders
If we can’t regulate the “news” or even stop trolls and foreign operatives from inciting Americans, how can we activate the “immune system” of democracy? – Thom Hartmann
ABOUT THE PROGRAM The Thom Hartmann Program is the leading progressive political talk radio show. Follow Thom at the links below.
“Iowans have the right to clean water. According to the Public Trust Doctrine, which has been Iowa law since Iowa became a state, it is the State’s duty to protect that right. The legislature failed to protect Iowans’ right to clean water as provided by the Iowa Constitution.
The Iowa Supreme Court has decided that a favorable decision in our case would not remedy the harm from pollution in the Raccoon River and that the lawsuit raised political questions that the legislature, not the courts, should resolve. Until further action is taken, industrial agricultural runoff will continue to pollute the river unimpeded, and Iowans’ right to clean water will remain a right without a remedy. We speak for many people across the state of Iowa when we say that we are deeply disappointed.”
We’re already considering the next legal steps we can take. Stay tuned: we’ll be in touch with more in-depth, exclusive details about what this ruling means for our case and for our work going forward.
What we know for sure: The fight for clean water in Iowa is far from over.
Governor Kim Keynolds: (515) 281-5211 U.S. Capitol Switchboard: (202) 224-3121 Iowa Members of Congress - Rep. Randy Feenstra (R) - Rep. Ashley Hinson (R) - Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) - Rep. Zach Nunn (R) Iowa US Senators - Senator Joni Ernst (R) - Senator Charles Grassley (R)
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