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What I Wrote About Abortion A Year Ago ... And What I Think Now: Saturday's GNR [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-06-24  

A year ago today, the Supreme Court overturned Roe and sent women’s rights back decades and decades. The next day, I had to write a GNR. Here is what I wrote:

They are overconfident. They are overreaching. Yes, the consequences are gutting. But the pendulum is about to swing back in our direction. Are you furious about Roe? I know am furious about Roe. Seeing red mad. I took my kids to the amusement park Friday morning so I was there when I found out and had to bury my rage while I was with them. My FIL is in the hospital so I had to bury it while I went to sit with my MIL. Then I came home ready to burst. . I wrote “I Dissent” on a posterboard and went and stood on Main street in my little village and just seethed for half an hour with my sign in front of me as cars drove by. Like a lunatic. Some guy yelled "trump" at me and I murdered him with my gaze. Some guy gave me thumbs down and I melted him with my stare. I got a lot of thumbs up and thanks and honks and I didn't smile or move for any of them. I was and am beyond furious. All I wanted was to let as many people as I could know that this is not normal, this is not OK, and we will not sit down for this. . WE WILL MAKE THEM PAY. We will not give up. We will not stop fighting. We are only angrier and more ready. . One thing we can do is focus on November. We need to make sure that people get how important this election is — how much is at stake. And if we do that WE CAN WIN and we can protect basic rights at the federal level. I know we can. Think about how hard all of us will fight (and win) over losing the right to choose. WE CAN DO THIS.

And we did do this. And we will continue to:

x 89% of Democrats support abortion rights, agreeing that it should be legal always or most of the time, according to the April 2023 NBC News poll.



That's up from 68% of Democrats who said the same in a September 2008 poll — an increase of 21 percentage points. — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 17, 2023

Dems Have a Familiar Secret Weapon in 2024

Even though abortion was a potent political issue in the midterm elections, Republicans haven’t shied away from offering legislation to tighten access to abortion. There’s a GOP effort to restrict abortion pills at the national level. And a bill to further limit “taxpayer-funded abortions.” And the national abortion ban that plenty of House Republicans continue to support. Democrats say the issue is slated to be a centerpiece of their campaign strategy. They think that, after a year of abortion restrictions going into effect—and a term of House Republicans attempting to legislate on the issue—voters in battleground districts might be ready to sway in Democrats’ favor. When The Daily Beast interviewed the chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA), she was definitive that abortion would be a main driver for Democrats. “Republican extremism on abortion is going to lose them the House majority in 2024,” she said last week. “And remember, we we only need five more seats to take back the majority,” DelBene said. “So critical issues like this that are important across the country are going to be critical in many, many races.”

Trump isn’t the GOP’s biggest problem. Abortion is.

The 2022 midterms gave us a peek at Dobbs’s possible impact on the national political landscape, saving scores of Democratic Senate and House seats, boosting female voter registration and enabling a clean sweep of pro-abortion-rights ballot measures. In case there was any doubt as to the significance of stripping women of the right to bodily integrity, the Wisconsin Supreme Court race in April turned a normally 50-50 state into a 55.5-44.5 state in favor of Democrats when abortion was front and center. There is every reason to believe that in 2024, the issue will be just as potent and the impact on Republicans up and down the ticket just as disastrous. “A record-high 69% say abortion should generally be legal in the first three months of pregnancy. The prior high of 67% was recorded last May after the Supreme Court’s Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization draft was leaked,” Gallup reports. “Gallup’s oldest trend on the legality of abortion finds 34% of Americans believe abortion should be legal under any circumstances, nearly matching last year’s record-high 35% and above the 27% average since 1975.” Moreover, “another 51% currently say abortion should be legal under certain circumstances, while 13% (similar to the all-time low of 12%) want it illegal in all circumstances.”

x Important Virginia primary result: In a Democratic primary for a Richmond-area state Senate seat, former Del. Lashrecse Aird, who made her pro-abortion stance the centerpiece of her campaign, defeated incumbent Sen. Joe Morrissey, a Democrat who opposed abortion rights. @NBCNews — Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 21, 2023

Republicans struggle with abortion one year after Dobbs

It’s been nearly a year since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. The political consequences have also been staggering. Democrats credit abortion with helping them keep control of the Senate and protecting against steep losses in the House in last year’s midterm elections. And they plan to make it a major campaign issue in 2024. And Republicans still have no consistent message on abortion one year after securing conservatives’ long-sought victory at the Supreme Court. With polls showing support for abortion access near all-time highs, the divide between GOP moderates and the most ardent antiabortion lawmakers over how far to pursue restrictions continues to fester. The political stakes will be even higher next year, with abortion access expected to play a central role in the presidential race as well as in the fight for control of the House and the Senate.

Onto the rest of the good news. This was a big week for amazing action by the Democrats!

Democrats are doing great things

The Biden Boom is real. Spread the news!

x Surprise: For the first time in decades new manufacturing construction is growing rapidly. I’ll be on @Morning_Joe in a few to show some charts on what’s driving it. — Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) June 22, 2023

x Annual manufacturing construction is on pace to be close to $190bn compared to less than $100bn for the entirety of the 2010's. This is a boon for the US economy and overall job picture. @Morning_Joe pic.twitter.com/bM1mlTO0vV — Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) June 22, 2023

x The IRA continues to drive a significant portion of this growth. Not only will renewable energy projects benefit but over 10M EVs per year will be able to be produced with new battery plant construction that's been recently announced. @Morning_Joe pic.twitter.com/2zEBpPkjKp — Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) June 22, 2023

x Other Biden policies are also supporting the manufacturing boom with $550M set to be spent on public infrastructure and more via the CHIPS Act to improve the US's position in the global semiconductor race. @Morning_Joe pic.twitter.com/0suSPbASZc — Steven Rattner (@SteveRattner) June 22, 2023

Ford Gets $9.2 Billion to Help US Catch Up With China’s EV Dominance

A deep-pocketed US government program designed to finance futuristic energy businesses is issuing a conditional $9.2 billion loan to Ford Motor Co. for the construction of three battery factories. The enormous loan — by far the biggest government backing for a US automaker since the bailouts in the 2009 financial crisis — marks a watershed moment for President Joe Biden’s aggressive industrial policy meant to help American manufacturers catch up to China in green technologies.

Throughout the past year, the rate at which prices are rising has fallen dramatically

What a difference a year makes. Last June, the inflation rate hit a four-decade high of 9.1 per cent, a development that dominated the news for weeks. At the time, the Federal Reserve was sharply raising interest rates to tackle climbing prices, and many economists were predicting a recession for this year. Barely able to contain their glee, Republicans were rattling on about “Bidenflation,” even though some of the main factors driving the rise in prices had little or nothing to do with the President (the supply-chain crisis and the war in Ukraine, to name two). On Tuesday, however, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the rate of inflation fell to four per cent last month. After declining for eleven months in a row, it has dropped by more than half from last year’s peak.

and that isn’t all Biden has been doing:

Biden Administration Moves to Restore Endangered Species Protections

The Biden administration moved on Wednesday to make it easier to protect wildlife from climate disruptions and other threats, restoring protections to the Endangered Species Act that President Donald J. Trump had removed. Three separate regulations proposed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries service would make it harder to remove a species from the endangered list and restore a provision that strengthens protections for threatened species, the classification one step below endangered. The rules also eliminate a Trump-era policy that would have allowed regulators to factor in economic assessments, like estimates of lost revenue for oil and gas operations, when deciding whether a species warrants protection. Listing species as threatened or endangered must be done, the proposed rule reads, “without reference to possible economic or other impacts of such determination” and be made only based on the scientific evidence.

What a three-part diplomatic push reveals about U.S. strategy on Asia

The week’s meetings with senior officials of China, India and Japan will highlight the three essential power centers in the Indo-Pacific. By seeking greater engagement with all three, President Biden is attempting to create a more stable strategic balance. Rather than walking a bipolar tightrope between Washington and Beijing, the administration is trying to build a matrix of relationships, with the United States as a key interlocutor in each node. Competition between China and the United States will be inescapable in the Indo-Pacific region. It will probably get more intense through most of our lifetimes. But diplomacy is producing some needed speed bumps — and a widening safety net — that should reduce the likelihood of a fatal crackup.

Biden plan will give more than 100 federal buildings green upgrades

Nearly three decades ago, when the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center opened its doors, it became the nation’s second-largest federal building — and it was largely powered by fossil fuels. Now, under a Biden administration initiative, the building will get a green makeover through the installation of heat pumps, more efficient lightbulbs and other climate-friendly appliances. It’s one of more than 100 federal facilities that will become all-electric or net-zero emissions using nearly $1 billion from Democrats’ landmark climate law, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, according to details shared exclusively with The Climate 202 by the General Services Administration. The plan underscores how Biden has sought to leverage Washington’s purchasing power to slash the government’s carbon footprint. The president signed an executive order in 2021 directing the government to become carbon-neutral by 2050, with federal buildings meeting this target by 2045.

And other Democrats are doing great things as well:

Senate banking panel to consider measure empowering regulators to penalize bank executives whose firms collapse

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to consider a proposal from its leaders, Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), that would allow regulators to claw back bank executives’ compensation from the two years before a failure and impose stiff fines on them. The effort to penalize top bankers comes as financial policymakers consider a wider array of rules changes to prevent a repeat of the banking crisis that ultimately claimed not only Silicon Valley Bank, but also two other regional lenders, Signature Bank and First Republic.

x I-95 is reopened.



Over the past 12 days, the eyes of the country have been on Pennsylvania.



We showed them what our grit and determination can accomplish, and we showed them good government in action.



This serves as an example to everyone: Pennsylvania can do big things. — Governor Josh Shapiro (@GovernorShapiro) June 23, 2023

Adam Schiff Gets John Durham to Admit Russia Helped Trump

When Republicans brought Special Counsel John Durham to the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, they thought it’d be an opportunity to score points on Democrats—particularly Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), who spent years hyping up Donald Trump’s connections to Russia. What they got instead was a viral moment when Schiff got Durham—the man tasked with concluding whether the FBI’s investigation of Russia’s connections to the 2016 Trump campaign was appropriate—took Durham to task. Schiff, a former impeachment manager against Trump, questioned Durham about whether President Trump flaunted information that was released by Russian hackers during the 2016 election. Durham repeatedly insisted he had no knowledge of the matter. But in the midst of the exchange, Durham clearly stated he doesn’t doubt the validity of evidence showing Russia was trying to help Trump—something many Republicans have vehemently denied.

Meanwhile, things are not looking good for tfg and his allies:

Trump is in really big trouble

Trump Tape Was Turning Point for Skeptical Prosecutors in Docs Case: Report

Some officials in the FBI and Department of Justice were torn on whether to raid Mar-a-Lago as part of their investigation into Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified documents—but a bombshell audio recording in which Trump allegedly boasted of having “secret information” quashed much of that uncertainty, The Wall Street Journal reported. At first, prosecutors struggled to pinpoint a motive and could not prove rumors that Trump shared classified information with others, sources told the Journal. Even Trump’s alleged refusal to respond to a subpoena to hand over all classified material wasn’t quite enough. But when prosecutors got their hands on a tape of a meeting at Trump’s golf club in New Jersey, it reportedly pushed the case over the edge. In the tape, detailed in Trump’s eventual indictment, the ex-president allegedly brandished a classified Pentagon document and confessed he knew it hadn’t been declassified. Trump has insisted he didn’t know “anything about it” and that “everything I did was right.”

Trump’s Fox News interview was a defense attorney’s nightmare

In a tense Fox News interview on Monday, former President Donald Trump offered a confusing defense in response to his recent indictment, touting his right to keep sensitive documents and effectively admitting that he held onto them even after he was supposed to return them. Trump’s interview follows a 37-count indictment that’s centered on his decision to take classified national security documents after leaving the White House, for which he was arraigned in court in Miami last week. “I have every right to have those boxes,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier as part of their conversation, while claiming that these documents were “declassified,” a point the indictment rebuts. “This is purely a Presidential Records Act. This is not a criminal thing.” Trump’s statements, many of which were meandering and difficult to follow, both provided a muddled defense, and may have offered fodder to reinforce some of the charges against him. By acknowledging that he had the documents in his possession and that he had reasons for not returning them promptly, Trump’s statements corroborated allegations he’s charged with regarding mishandling these materials.

x The breaking news is that the Special Prosecutor, Jack Smith, has a new addition to his legal team tonight. An unpaid new deputy Special Counsel. His name is Donald J. Trump. https://t.co/bfhYDb8O6X — Neal Katyal (@neal_katyal) June 20, 2023

Trump lacked power to declassify secret nuclear arms document, experts say

Even when he was president, Donald Trump lacked the legal authority to declassify a U.S. nuclear weapons-related document that he is charged with illegally possessing, security experts said, contrary to the former U.S. president’s claim. The secret document, listed as No. 19 in the indictment charging Trump with endangering national security, can under the Atomic Energy Act only be declassified through a process that by the statute involves the Department of Energy and the Department of Defense.

A former prosecutor explains what surprised her most about Trump’s indictment

The indictment was, frankly, even stronger than I expected, and by stronger I mean the evidence of obstructive conduct — failure to cooperate, failure to return classified information that had been requested, was far more fulsome than even I had imagined and went back much further in time. So my reaction was, first of all, “Wow, Mr. Trump was in this from the beginning.” That whole defense that was floated by his attorneys that in the rush of getting out of the White House, this was all by mistake, and he was cooperative later on — the indictment, if the allegations can be proved, really puts the lie to that.

x The thing that stands out to me most in Jack Smith’s response to the standing discovery order tonight is how PREPARED special counsel is. Testimony, bedminster audio, trumps public statements, surveillance w/ time stamps, Brady material…DoJ is READY https://t.co/FQTzuaGxBN — Mueller, She Wrote (@MuellerSheWrote) June 22, 2023

Special counsel trades immunity for fake elector testimony as Jan 6 probe heats up

Special counsel Jack Smith has compelled at least two Republican fake electors to testify to a federal grand jury in Washington in recent weeks by giving them limited immunity, part of a current push by federal prosecutors to swiftly nail down evidence in the sprawling criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The testimony, described to CNN by people familiar with the situation, comes after a year of relative dormancy around the fake electors portion of the investigation and as a parade of related witnesses are being told to appear before the grand jury with no chance for delay. That activity could signal that investigators are nearing at least some charging decisions in a part of the 2020 election probe, sources added. It also comes just as the special counsel’s office filed charges against former President Donald Trump for his handling of classified documents.

x Jack Smith giving immunity to two fake electors indicates that he is aggressively pursuing charges related to the fake elector scheme.



That scheme involved false statements made to the Senate. Republican attorneys and others involved in the effort are potential targets. https://t.co/RPUnmuDy4J — Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) June 23, 2023

and this guy….

Eastman plan to keep Trump in power faces a reckoning, as authorities seek his disbarment

The fringe legal theory that former President Donald Trump deployed to subvert the 2020 election faced withering scrutiny Tuesday from California legal authorities who want to disbar its key architect: attorney John Eastman. Eastman’s bar trial, on charges that he committed professional misconduct by fomenting efforts to obstruct the election of President Joe Biden, comes as both he and Trump await word on whether they’ll be criminally charged for the scheme. But on Tuesday, California bar authorities made sure that Eastman’s legal theory itself would face its own thorough reckoning for the first time since Jan. 6, 2021. In fact, Duncan Carling, trial counsel for the California State Bar, emphasized that Eastman’s plan all along had been to avoid ever having a court pass judgment on the legitimacy of his effort to keep Trump in power. Eastman’s plan “was baseless, completely unsupported by historic precedent or law and contrary to our values as a nation,” Carling said, promising that the two-week trial would expose Eastman’s conduct as “fundamentally dishonest and intended to disrupt the lawful certification of the winner of the 2020 election.”

Trump coup plotter John Eastman is finally facing real accountability

Eastman, who manufactured the bogus theory behind Trump’s effort to overturn his 2020 election loss, could lose his law license — making him the first elite insurrectionist to pay a serious professional price for the coup attempt. Eastman faces 11 charges from the California State Bar, most concerning his lawyerly lies about election fraud. Importantly, the bar also accused Eastman of advising Vice President Mike Pence that a fabricated legal rationale empowered him to reverse or delay the presidential electoral count in Congress. If Eastman is disbarred for that charge, it would be genuinely novel. If Eastman loses his law license expressly for abusing his professional stature to destroy our constitutional democracy, it would constitute yet another step, however small, in that direction. At the very least, it will send a message: Coup-lawyering will no longer be tolerated.

Republicans in Disarray

At first, using this title was a bit of a joke because it was always being used on us. But honestly, it is hard to imagine more disfunction from a political party...

Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls Boebert a ‘Little Bitch’ on the House Floor

The messy feud between two of MAGA world’s biggest stars burst into public view on Wednesday, when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) called Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) a “little bitch” to her face on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. The angry exchange came as the two lawmakers have been swiping at each other over their competing resolutions to impeach President Joe Biden. But tensions came to a head on Wednesday after Boebert leveraged a procedural tool to force a vote on her own impeachment resolution within days—undercutting Greene, who had offered her own resolution, but not with the procedural advantages of forcing a vote. Greene apparently cursed out Boebert while the House was voting Wednesday afternoon, as the two spoke in a center aisle of the House floor; part of their interaction was captured on C-SPAN’s cameras.

Republicans bash Boebert for forcing Biden impeachment vote: ‘Frivolous’

House Republicans teed off Wednesday on one of their own colleagues, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), over her stunning move to force a vote this week to impeach President Biden. While no fans of the president, Boebert’s GOP critics said her move to stage an impeachment vote this week is wildly premature, harming the Republicans’ ongoing efforts to investigate the Biden family’s business dealings while undermining potential impeachment efforts in the future.

Boebert’s ‘frankly stupid’ impeachment push leads to GOP groans, Dem glee

more moderate Republicans are wincing at what they consider an unforced political error that will give Democrats ammunition to attack the GOP as extreme and out of touch. Republican strategist Dan Judy described the move as “frankly stupid,” adding, “the party needs to be focused on the problems facing Americans rather than this sideshow.” Most polls, to be sure, show American voters’ main concerns are the economy and inflation, as well as a host of other matters barely related to the effort to impeach the president. Democratic strategist Mark Longabaugh declared himself amazed at “the degree to which the Republicans will figure out a way to self-destruct.” He argued the specific danger was that performative efforts such as a push to impeach Biden would turn off independent and moderate voters.

Fox News Analyst Brit Hume Slams Trump After Bret Baier Fox Interview

Fox News chief political analyst Brit Hume was not impressed by former President Donald Trump’s performance in an interview with his colleague Bret Baier, which aired Monday evening. In the segment, Trump insisted he had won the 2020 election and denied retaining classified documents, a charge federal prosecutors leveled against him in a lengthy indictment earlier this month. “His answers on the matters of the law seem to me to verge on incoherent,” Hume said. “He seemed to be saying that the documents were really his and that he didn’t give them back when he was requested to do when they were subpoenaed because, you know, he wasn’t ready to because he sorted them and separated the classified information or whatever from his golf shirts or whatever he was saying. It was not altogether clear what he was saying.” In the interview, Trump claimed the boxes seized by the feds contained “golf shirts, pants, shoes.”

‘Loser, Loser, Loser’: Chris Christie Doubles Down on Plan to Take Down Trump

Chris Christie turned up his rhetoric on fellow presidential contender Donald Trump in an interview Sunday, branding the former president as a “petulant child” and a “loser.” Christie further blasted Trump’s etiquette on a potential debate stage, repeating his promise to treat the Republican National Committee’s pledge to support the eventual 2024 nominee “just as seriously” as when Trump refused to acknowledge it during the first Republican debate in 2015. “I will do what I need to do to be up on that stage to try to save my party, save my country for going down the road of being led by three-time loser Donald Trump,” Christie said, citing Republicans’ performances in 2018, 2020, and 2022. “Loser, loser, loser.”

Other Goo d News

New Study Bolsters Room-Temperature Superconductor Claim

A magical material that could effortlessly conduct electricity at room temperatures would likely transform civilization, reclaiming energy otherwise lost to electrical resistance and opening possibilities for novel technologies. Yet a claim of such a room-temperature superconductor published in March in the prestigious journal Nature, drew doubts, even suspicion by some that the results had been fabricated. But now, a group of researchers at the University of Illinois Chicago reports that it has verified a critical measurement: the apparent vanishing of electrical resistance.

Uptick Seen in Red Knots on Jersey Shore

The number of rufa red knot shore birds migrating via Delaware Bay beaches to Arctic breeding sites this spring rose to the highest level in four years, according to an independent annual survey. The count, by land and boat, tallied about 22,000 of the robin-sized birds, an encouraging sign for a shorebird that is listed as federally threatened. The survey’s figures were the highest since 2019, and a sharp increase from a record low of 6,880 in 2021, according to Larry Niles, an independent biologist. He has been monitoring the migration of the rufa red knot, an Atlantic coast subspecies, on the Delaware Bay for the last quarter century. An annual spring count instilled hope among biologists that the threatened shorebird may be recovering from recent declines. Crab harvesting bans were partly credited for the rise.

The wage gap shrunk

In the early 2000s, the wage gap between Black and white workers in the U.S. was as large as it had been in 1950. That is a shocking statistic and a sign of the country’s deep racial inequality. Over the past five years, however, the story has changed somewhat: The wage gap, though still enormous, has shrunk. “It’s a pretty meaningful reversal,” Elise Gould, a senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told me.

On The Lighter Side

x If anyone’s looking for our most sensitive national security secrets… Donald’s in the 🚽 with 📦. #DonaldInTheJohnWithBoxes #SongParody #NewVideo pic.twitter.com/mSBr45ExCW — Randy Rainbow (@RandyRainbow) June 23, 2023

This is the time for hard work.

What are some things you can do?

So pick just one and get to it!

I am so lucky and so proud to be in this with all of you 💓💚💛🧡✊🏻✊🏽✊🏾✊🏿✊❤️🧡💛💚

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