Republicans: continued

[Tero]

We are not cutting seniors, just future seniors. (social security)

“When people say that we’re going to somehow cut seniors, that is totally not true,” DeSantis said on Fox News. “Talking about making changes for people in their 30s and their 40s so the program’s viable — that’s a much different thing, and something I think there’s going to need to be discussion on.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business ... vals-cuts/

[Sean Hayden]

Who wakes up with an opinion on how best to manage social security anyway?

Can we at least try to identify this disorder first? We could be helping millions with their pain…

[Tero]

Republicans somehow save "babies" by cutting food aid bill.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... l-mail-law

[Tero]

Occupy Democrats/Facebook

BREAKING: Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell gets into a volcanic, profanity-riddled fight with Speaker Kevin McCarthy — and the details are just too juicy to pass up.

Buckle up, because this showdown was even more explosive than the Lauren Boebert VS. Marjorie Taylor Greene fight...
According to a new report, on June 21st, the day Republicans voted on their sham censure of Representative Adam Schiff, Democrats stood up on the House floor to yell "Shame!"

Swalwell was standing near the Speaker's podium and let loose on McCarthy…
"This is pathetic. You’re weak. You're a weak man," Swalwell said to him, giving voice to the opinion that most Americans share of McCarthy.
McCarthy grew so visibly upset that he had a "vein popping out of his forehead" and he stared down Swalwell for "about 10 seconds before walking away."

Things heated back up the next day.
"If you ever say something like that to me again, I’m gonna kick the shit out of you," McCarthy said to Swalwell.
The two men got up "in each other's faces" so that they were "basically nose-to-nose" and Swalwell said "Are we really gonna do this?"
The two argued back and forth until finally McCarthy puffed up his chest and threatened physical violence again.
"Call me a pussy again, and I’ll kick your ass," said McCarthy.

Swallwell, never afraid to stand up to fascist bullies, looked him dead in the eye and clearly enunciated his response: "You. Are. A. Pussy."
The two men stared each other down until McCarthy caved like a coward and stepped aside to let Swalwell pass.

Yet again, we see that McCarthy is a craven, yellow-bellied, spineless, cowardly jellyfish masquerading as a man. He's scared to stand up to Donald Trump and he's not even a tenth of the man that Eric Swalwell is.

[Tero]

Thankless GOP ready to replace man that got rid of abortion
https://news.yahoo.com/gop-senators-exp ... 25991.html

[L'Emmerdeur]

This one for the 'why we can't have nice things' folder, I suppose. Heritage Foundation mendacity may carry the day.

'Republicans are threatening to sabotage George W. Bush’s greatest accomplishment'

You may not have heard of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). But you should: It has saved more lives than any other US government policy in the 21st century. And now, for the first time in the program’s history, it is at risk of losing a critical vote in Congress — for reasons that say a lot about today’s Republican Party.

First passed in 2003 under President George W. Bush, PEPFAR is a vehicle for distributing HIV/AIDS drugs to people in poor countries who wouldn’t otherwise have access to them. It has been astonishingly effective: The most recent US government estimates suggest it has saved as many as 25 million lives since its enactment. It is currently supporting treatment for over 20 million people who depend on the program for continued access to medication.

Given its success, PEPFAR has historically enjoyed bipartisan support. In 2018, Congress reauthorized PEPFAR for another five years without a fuss. But this time around, things look different. Some House Republicans, prodded by an array of influential groups, are threatening to block another five-year reauthorization. Their argument is pure culture war: that PEPFAR has become a vehicle for promoting abortion.

In reality, PEPFAR is legally prohibited from funding abortion services, and the argument against the program on anti-abortion grounds is very thin. But in today’s political climate, where the culture war reigns supreme on the right, this is enough to jeopardize the continued good functioning of a program that the Republican Party used to champion.

“This is not a fact-based argument. It’s an attempt to destroy a program,” Asia Russell, the executive director of the global health advocacy group Health GAP, tells me.

...

[Heritage Foundation shitbird Tim Meisburger] argues that “HIV/AIDS in the U.S. and in developing countries is primarily a lifestyle disease (like those caused by tobacco) and as such should be suppressed though [sic] education, moral suasion, and legal sanctions.” Moreover, Meisburger writes, PEPFAR has become a means for Democrats to promote “their own social priorities like abortion.” The Biden administration, in his view, has used PEPFAR to fund pro-abortion groups internationally.

The evidence offered for this is flimsy. PEPFAR operates primarily through partner groups, funding their efforts to directly distribute antiretroviral drugs and other HIV-AIDS treatments to supported populations. Meisburger notes that some of these partner groups have issued statements supporting legal abortion, and that campaign donations from their staff have leaned left (“PEPFAR is in fact an entirely Democrat-run program,” he writes).

PEPFAR, however, has always been prohibited from funding abortion. The program steers clear of many controversial social issues related to HIV/AIDS by design, a legacy of its bipartisan creation back in 2003. PEPFAR-supported groups that also support abortion services do not use any federal dollars for this purpose.

[Tero]

Arkansas is temporarily blocked from enforcing a law that would have allowed criminal charges against librarians and booksellers for providing “harmful” materials to minors, a federal judge ruled Saturday.

U.S. District Judge Timothy L. Brooks issued a preliminary injunction against the law, which also would have created a new process to challenge library materials and request that they be relocated to areas not accessible by kids. The measure, signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders earlier this year, was set to take effect Aug. 1.

A coalition that included the Central Arkansas Library System in Little Rock had challenged the law, saying fear of prosecution under the measure could prompt libraries and booksellers to no longer carry titles that could be challenged.

“The question we had to ask was — do Arkansans still legally have access to reading materials? Luckily, the judicial system has once again defended our highly valued liberties,” Holly Dickson, the executive director of the ACLU in Arkansas, said in a statement.

The lawsuit comes as lawmakers in an increasing number of conservative states are pushing for measures making it easier to ban or restrict access to books. The number of attempts to ban or restrict books across the U.S. last year was the highest in the 20 years the American Library Association has been tracking such efforts.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said in an email Saturday that his office would be “reviewing the judge’s opinion and will continue to vigorously defend the law.”

The executive director of Central Arkansas Library System, Nate Coulter, said the judge’s 49-page decision recognized the law as censorship, a violation of the Constitution and wrongly maligning librarians.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ju ... -rcna97119

[Tero]

Trump...and Wisconsin Republicans...insist, election was stolen.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... s-official

[Tero]

DeSantis gets all swampy:
"As President, I will end the weaponization of government, replace the FBI Director, and ensure a single standard of justice for all Americans," DeSantis tweeted on Tuesday.

"While I’ve seen reports, I have not read the indictment. I do, though, believe we need to enact reforms so that Americans have the right to remove cases from Washington, DC to their home districts," he continued. "Washington, DC is a ‘swamp’ and it is unfair to have to stand trial before a jury that is reflective of the swamp mentality."
FOX

[Tero]

[Tero]

DeSantis surrounds Disney with heteros.
https://www.nbcnews.com/business/busine ... -rcna97703

[Tero]

WSJ unhappy that future presidents cannot send fake electors or press governors to overturn their states' voters results

The editorial board of the Wall Street Journal is arguing that the indictment of former President Trump sets a dangerous precedent for candidates’ ability to contest election results in the years to come.

While the conservative editorial board called Trump’s actions and rhetoric after the 2020 election “deceitful and destructive,” it questioned whether the conduct amounted to criminal behavior.

“There is no evidence tying Mr. Trump to the Oath Keepers or Proud Boys who planned to, and did, breach the U.S. Capitol that day. That was the worst offense against democracy, and more than 1,000 people have been prosecuted in connection with it,” the editorial board wrote.

“This potentially criminalizes many kinds of actions and statements by a President that a prosecutor deems to be false. You don’t have to be a defender of Donald Trump to worry about where this will lead. It makes any future election challenges, however valid, legally vulnerable to a partisan prosecutor.”

https://thehill.com/homenews/4133132-tr ... ial-board/

[rasetsu]

I don't waste my time with the journal anymore. Times and Post have better reporting and less nuttery.

[Tero]

I just find their odd angles to news useless. When others cite them I might notice. WSJ have been climate change deniers from the beginning.

[Tero]

Long story from WI. Ends with
And the gerrymander itself prevents Democrats from appealing to the state legislature for relief. In electing Protasiewicz, Wisconsin’s voters turned to the only remaining institution that can eliminate the state’s gerrymandered maps.

If the state Supreme Court does not act, pursuant to the clear mandate voters gave Protasiewicz in her recent election, there is no one left to restore democracy to the state of Wisconsin.
https://www.vox.com/voting-rights/2023/ ... tid=Zxz2cZ