If you sit down and talk with Republicans,
which I advise against doing,
you will notice that they justify nearly every one of their awful policies with a call to states’ rights.
They say they want to take power away from national representatives in Washington, D.C., and redistribute it to state and local governments,
which, they claim, are best equipped to determine the best policies for their constituents’ particular, parochial concerns.
They use this appeal to “federalism” to shield them from moral accountability for their disastrous actions.
Republicans will say, for instance, that their intention is not to take away abortion rights but merely to let the states decide when a person can be forced to give birth against their will.
They are lying, of course.
We know this because whenever Republicans get the power to impose their views by national fiat, they happily do so, states’ rights be damned.
Republicans are for local control right up until a local prosecutor declines to deport an immigrant or a city council decides to ban assault weapons.
Still, “states’ rights” remains their battle cry,
and few things expose the full measure of their antipathy toward democratic norms and civil rights than what they do with the power they’ve given to the states.
Most people are aware of the horrors that await when Republicans take control of statehouses and governors’ mansions.
For recent examples, consider Greg Abbott’s murder moat in Texas, or Glenn Youngkin’s crusade against abortion rights and Pornhub in Virginia.
Fewer, however, recognize the horrors that lie in store when Republicans commandeer the machinery of the law.
Put simply, whichever rights the Supreme Court does not succeed in obliterating, Republican-controlled state courts and Republican attorneys general eagerly chisel away, state by state.
They are the people who, under their own authority, can bend the law to their will and weaponize it against vulnerable communities.
There are currently 27 of them, and they include future Newsmax hosts like
Kansas AG Kris #Kobach, who finds his joy in suing to stop Joe Biden’s student debt relief program;
Florida AG Ashley #Moody, who spends her days fighting whatever “wokeness” conspiracy exists in her head at any given moment;
and Texas AG Ken #Paxton, who has effectively decided to make up his own immigration laws and enforce them at the point of a gun.
Republicans realized long ago that state AGs represent the steel gauntlet inside the velvet glove of states’ rights.
They also realized that they needed an organization to help them make that vision real,
so in 1999 they created one: the
💥Republican Attorneys General Association.💥
Much like the Democratic National Committee or the Republican National Committee or any number of partisan-affiliated outfits, #RAGA identifies candidates, supports their efforts to win elections, and imposes national Republican priorities at the state level
—though that’s far from all it does.
The association sees its mission as “Defending the Rule of Law. Keeping America Safe”
and hails itself as “America’s last line of defense.”
You’d think that means keeping states safe from criminals and fraudsters,
but in most cases RAGA AGs think they’re “defending” us from transgender kids who need to use the bathroom or Uber drivers who take people across state lines to get abortions.
RAGA prosecutors share a hatred of reproductive rights, a love of guns, and an obsession with persecuting the LGBTQ community.
You probably didn’t need me to tell you that, though:
Hating women and gay people while using a .450 Bushmaster as a masculinity supplement when the testicle tanning wears off is simply standard GOP operating procedure these days.
But RAGA AGs are also committed to doing the dirty work for every other hellish Republican policy idea,
from destroying the environment to gutting voting rights to undermining vaccines, because apparently states need “defending” from science, facts, and public health.
No matter what awful thing they’re doing, the AGs always have enough money to do it.
In exchange for this largesse, these corporations get more than one-off lawsuits or the occasional friendly AG.
Beyond backing individual officials, RAGA is involved with bigger, broader strategies.
RAGA attorneys general work hand-in-hand with preferred Trump judges to shape our national laws through targeted cases designed for appellate and eventually Supreme Court review.
They make rulings that trigger nationwide injunctions.
In recent months, RAGA AGs in 19 states have asserted their right to get access to the private medical records of patients seeking care out of state
—most likely so they can be prosecuted for receiving an abortion when they come back home.
In 13 states, RAGA AGs have threatened to sue companies over their diversity and inclusion programs.
Most of the time, the law is hiding in shadows, obscured under thick layers of jargon and confusing rules of procedure.
But RAGA attorneys general are not trying to hide the ball. They’re proud of their work.
These people are elected officials (many with ambitions for higher office), so when they menace a vulnerable community, they want you to know about it.
From John Schreiber (CBS/KCAL) "Might be a bad (or maybe good?) time to run from police in #Pasadena as every law enforcement helicopter from as far away as San Diego is parked by the Rose Bowl." #RoseBowl#aviation#helicopters#LEO#Pasadena
In 📆 2022, the #SpaceIndustry was estimated to be worth US$350 billion 💵 and is projected to grow 📈 to more than one trillion 💰 dollars over the next two decades. Actors such as #SpaceX already own a majority of the #LEO#satellites 🛰️ . In the absence of a concerted global 🌏 dialogue, individual countries are pushing ahead with their own laws. Usually, international arrangements tend to arise 🥱 when there is a real risk of #conflict. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-024-00722-4
Right-wing outlets want you to believe our movement is secretly controlled by billionaires. The reality is we're just ordinary Americans who are using our citizen power to do the extraordinary: Defend our democracy from fascism. Now's a good time to join our "Radical Left Network." https://act.indivisible.org/signup/stay-in-touch?source=mastodon&medium=directpost
Our IAU Centre for the Protection of the Dark and Quiet Sky from Satellite Constellation Interference paper on observations of the #BlueWalker3 prototype #satellite is finally out in the latest print edition of Nature accompanied by a News & Views piece by @sundogplanets.
Excuse me, #Netflix movie about a talking reptile who gives advice to 5th graders, but tuataras do not live in the Everglades, they are native to only a few islands near New Zealand. I hope someone got fired for that blunder. #Leo
SpaceX starship lifts off.
Hot-stage separation.
First stage explodes.
2nd stage self-destructs.
Praises galore.
Artemis astronauts will have to a wait a bit longer.
Don't pack your bags for Mars yet. #starship#spacex
1/n
Best report found so far is confusing and says the rocket reached both 51 miles (90 km) and 91 miles (148 km), so maybe close to orbital height which can be as low as 100 miles (160 km), but not a danger to StarLink or other LEO satellites.
The Global Satellite Operators Association (GSOA) has released a "Code of Conduct on Space Sustainability". The Code is the result of more than seven months of negotiation among multiple parties and commercial space operators.
One of the four pillars of the Code is "Limiting satellite reflectivity and the related impact on optical astronomy".
@fiee
Hab ich was Dummes gemacht? #leo hat gemeint, “drag” hieße „Baggerschaufel“ – und an der Schaufel war halt noch der restliche #Bagger dran… @Trudi
The Alabama government’s briefs before the three-judge panel in September referenced a concurring opinion by #Kavanaugh that questioned whether “race-based redistricting” can “extend indefinitely into the future.”
Alabama further relied on arguments — also rejected by the U.S. District Court — that a subsequent U.S. Supreme Court decision this same term ending affirmative action in college admissions (called Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ) compels the Court to find that a state’s use of a map in which “race predominates” now violates the 14th Amendment’s guarantee of equal protection. As in Milligan, Kavanaugh filed a concurrence in Students for Fair Admissions, emphasizing the potential for #time#limits on race-related policies.
In addition, there now appears to be a significant connection between Alabama’s post-Milligan map redrawing process, #Leo’s powerful national dark money network, and Kavanaugh.
The tangled web of previously unreported ties centers around #Marshall, Alabama Solicitor General Edmond #LaCour — dubbed “the architect behind Alabama’s voting rights defiance” — and the D.C.-area law firm #ConsovoyMcCarthy, the firm founded by William #Consovoy, a now-deceased former clerk to Justice Clarence Thomas who represented Shelby County in Shelby County v. Holder.
In Shelby County, the Supreme Court invalidated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act and its vital preclearance provision, which protected against unilateral state changes to voting rights and maps in states that had a documented history of racial bias in administering elections in order to disenfranchise Black voters. #LeonardLeo#scotus#darkmoney#clarencethomas#FedSoc#ShelbyCountyVsHolder#VotingRightsAct#racebased#affirmativeaction
Terrifying. This group has infiltrated every crevice of #Florida. #Leo stooges are placed everywhere.
If you want to see his pilot program for how the entire country would look, fascist-style, look at Florida.
Teachers cower in fear of arrest. Local Health departments were co-opted by imbeciles during #Covid. Blacks never know whether voting rights will be there next election. The Guv regularly uses violent and derogatory language. He deflects our attention to Texas' borders while our own coastline shrinks and fresh water aquifers dribble away. Confused new migrants can’t drive. He literally has goons at his secret press conferences intercept the lone guy who dares show up to ask questions.
"[A] sequence of geomagnetic disturbances together with multiple weak space weather events could lead to severe levels of atmospheric drag ending in a service or #satellite loss."
Pictures : "Langley engineers check out the interior of the #inflatable 24-foot #SpaceStation in 📆 1962.", #Bigelow#SpaceStation, #CrewDragon approaches #ISS Kibo laboratory https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Langley_engineers_inside_inflatable_a_24-foot_spacestation_mock-up.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bigelow_Aerospace_facilities.jpghttps://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crew-2_dragon_approach.jpg