The vote on the #RightToContraceptionAct was 51-39, falling short of the 60 votes needed to defeat a #filibuster & move forward. Republicans said the bill is unnecessary as the use of #BirthControl is protected under #SCOTUS precedent as if [#SupremeCourt precedent means anything anymore].
#Republicans Lisa #Murkowski of Alaska & #SusanCollins of Maine voted w/ #Democrats in support of the bill. #Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-NY, switched his vote to “no” for procedural reasons so he could bring up the bill again at a later date.
#ClarenceThomas’s concurring opinion begins on page 117. On page 119 Thomas specifically states “in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process #precedents, including #Griswold, Lawrence, & Obergefell.”
The GA Court of Appeals on Wed ordered a halt to the proceedings in the election interference case against Trump & 8 co-defendants pending the outcome of their appeal seeking to disqualify Fulton County District Attorney #FaniWillis.
The order, issued by the full appeals court, means the case against #Trump & his co-defendants, accusing them of a #criminal#conspiracy to try to overturn his defeat in the state, will almost certainly not be scheduled for trial before the fall #election or even the new year. It remains unclear if the case against the 6 remaining co-defendants who did not sign onto the appeal will proceed.
The intensity of #anger & open desire for using the #criminal#justice system against #Democrats after the verdict surpasses anything seen before in #Trump’s tumultuous years in national #politics. What is different now is the range of #Republicans who are saying #retaliation is necessary & who are no longer cloaking their intent w/euphemisms.
#StephenMiller, a fmr snr adviser to #Trump [& pure concentrated evil] who still helps guide his thinking on policy, blared out a directive on #FoxNews after a jury found Trump #guilty of falsifying financial records to cover up… his 2016 [#ElectionInterference]. Miller posed a series of questions to Republicans at every level, including local DAs.
A streak of record-setting #heat that began last summer has now persisted for an entire year across the globe, researchers announced Wed, pushing #Earth closer to a dangerous threshold that the #world’s nations had pledged not to cross.
Temperatures surpassed the 1.5°C #warming threshold over the past year, & scientists warn they will again soon.
30—70% of fertilized eggs NEVER IMPLANT SUCCESSFULLY, EVEN WITHOUT #BirthControl, acc/to Michael Belmonte, an #OBGYN in DC & a #FamilyPlanning expert w/the American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG). #Laws restricting #abortion#access in some states, including Idaho, have defined life as beginning at fertilization.
#Trump Tues night on the conservative network #Newsmax:
“I said, ‘Wouldn’t it really be bad? … wouldn’t it be terrible to throw the president’s wife & the fmr secretary of state — think of it, the fmr secretary of state — but the president’s wife into #jail? … But they want to do it … So, you know, it’s a terrible, terrible path that they’re leading us to, & it’s very possible that it’s going to HAVE TO HAPPEN to them.”
#Trump has made #payback for opponents central to his campaign, at one point declaring to a crowd: “I am your #retribution.” In private, has told advisers & friends that he wants his #DOJ to investigate specific fmr aides & allies who are now critical of him. And he has promised to appoint a special prosecutor to scrutinize #Biden & his family.
After a NY jury deemed #Trump a #felon last week, his staunchest supporters are focusing on what they allege is a weaponized #justice sys by ramping up #House investigations & stalling [#obstruction ] regular business in the #Democratic-led #Senate. #House Spkr #MikeJohnson broadly outlined a “3-pronged approach” Tues during a weekly conference on how the #Republican majority can #target the #DOJ, #NewYork & other jurisdictions for investigating Trump.
“You had 12 #jurors come to a #unanimous conclusion, & the former president was #guilty of 34 #felonies, & that, that somehow is indication of weaponization when that was a #state prosecution that had nothing to do w/President #Biden or the Dept of #Justice,” Jeffries said. “The American people understand that we need more common sense & less chaos in Washington, DC.”
#Biden calls #America’s democratic values the “grounding wire of our global power” & its #alliances “our greatest asset.” …#Trump, called for withdrawing American forces in #Europe & #Asia & has promised… to cut loose even our closest #allies if they don’t do as he tells them. …Trump sees all countries as unreliable, the relations between them #transactional. That sentiment has spread throughout a #GOP that once championed America’s values abroad…
#Biden’s admin has worked to prevent the #war in #Gaza from igniting a broader regional conflict. He brokered the 1st trilateral summit w/long-distrustful regional partners #SouthKorea & #Japan, & coaxed the #Philippines to move away from China’s orbit & accept 4 new #US military bases. He has rallied countries in #Europe & #Asia to curtail #China’s economic sway. “We have put together the strongest #alliance in the history of the world,” Biden says…. #ForeignPolicy#geopolitics#BidenHarris2024
On the 1st day of #testimony in #HunterBiden’s federal #gun trial, #jurors heard his audio of his memoir, where he recounted his #drug use in graphic detail. A federal prosecutor told jurors “no one is above the #law,” & defense said the he did not “knowingly” lie when filling out forms to purchase a weapon.
The #FBI agent said they were able to confirm that the laptop taken from the repair shop was #HunterBiden’s partly from his iCloud data, which contained an invoice from the shop [wait - an invoice for the repair was on the laptop before the work was done? Remember, he never picked it up]
"A new fiscal analysis confirms that a GOP plan to give Arizona police officers the power to arrest migrants will cost the state money and one law enforcement agency estimates that price tag at more than $40 million."
If voters pass the #border enforcement measure in Nov, it would mark a sharp U-turn for a state that has moderated its approach to immigration since an era when Sheriff #JoeArpaio of Maricopa County carried out #raids & traffic stops that critics criticized as #RacialProfiling. not just critics, his policies were [#cruel & #unconstitutional]
WI’s AG filed charges against an aide & 2 attys who advised Trump over a meeting of #Republicans who claimed to be the state’s 2020 presidential electors even though Trump had lost the state.
The charges are the first in WI related to the meeting of electors. Prosecutors have separately charged Republicans who were involved in similar efforts in #Arizona, #Michigan, #Nevada & #Georgia.
>300 #House lawmakers were reimbursed ≥$5.2M for #food & #lodging while on official business in Washington last year under a new, #TaxpayerFunded prgm that doesn’t require receipts.
The prgm, which kicked off last yr after a #Republican-led House panel passed it, was intended to make it easier for lawmakers to maintain separate homes in DC & their home districts.
#Republican#MattGaetz, the prgm’s overall top spender, was reimbursed for nearly $30k in lodging #expenses & >$10k for food in 2023. He was reimbursed >$4k for lodging in 2 different months & >$3k in 5 different months.
A spox for #Gaetz said he was reimbursed for expenses when the #House was out of session but he was in DC on ofcl business related to his post on the select cmte on #weaponization of the federal govt.…
Other members of the cmte expensed SIGNIFICANTLY less than Gaetz.
An earlier version of this article said that Rep #MattGaetz (R-Fla.) was the reimbursement program's top spender for 2023. That analysis was based on data released by the #House as of last week. But additional data The Post reviewed Tuesday showed that Rep #JackBergman (R-Michigan) was reimbursed for more than Gaetz was.
Most analysts expected #Modi to brush aside #India’s enervated & poorly funded opposition parties, some of which had their #bank accounts frozen & their leaders #jailed by the govt in the run-up to the #election.
Yet the mood shifted dramatically as early vote counts trickled in Tues morning & indicated that the #BJP might not single-handedly secure the 272 seats needed in the 543-member #LokSabha lower house, as it comfortably did in 2014 & 2019.
@Nonilex A little bit of hope in there anyway. His populist push towards driving division and conflict, and authoritarian leaning has been disturbing. Would be great to see the populace reject that.
Don't have a good sense of what the alternatives offered are.
DC #ElectionWorkers have been fielding angry calls & emails for over a month from people who oppose allowing #noncitizen residents to #vote in local #elections, leaving the head of the DC Board of Elections concerned about #safety at the polls in Tues’s primary.
“I am definitely nervous,” said Monica Evans, BOE exec dir. “The environment around elections has felt more unsafe.”
In one vm…, a caller yells: “Where the hell do you get off letting illegals vote? This is the nation’s capital. You are traitors, traitors to our country.”
Evans said that employees have been encouraged to cover up any DC BOE paraphernalia they may be wearing or holding while outside the office in case someone who opposes #noncitizen voting directs their opinion toward a staffer. DC police spox said in a stmnt that officers would be near polling locations “ensuring #safety for voters” #democracy