New polling shows that, if given the chance, Floridians will vote for a constitutional amendment supporting abortion
A majority of Florida voters say they would vote yes on a constitutional amendment ensuring abortion access until fetal viability around 24 weeks, according to a new poll.
“If this amendment does make it on the ballot, initiatives like this one need a supermajority of 60% in order to pass, and it looks like the proposed abortion amendment is right at that threshold among these respondents,” said University of North Florida pollster Dr. Michael Binder. “Even among registered Republicans, 53% would vote to protect abortion rights in Florida, with just 39% voting no.”
The University of North Florida polled Florida voters and found 62% support the amendment and 29% are opposed to it, with a 4.37% margin of error.
In April, Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week abortion ban, which has not taken effect as a previous 15-week ban awaits the outcome of a legal challenge. A constitutional amendment would supersede either law.
The deadline for the constitutional amendment ballot initiative to receive enough signatures is February, with a required 900,000 signatures to appear on the ballot. At present, organizers say they have 500,000 certified signatures.
This sounds very promising. Oh wait:
If enough signatures are obtained, the Florida Supreme Court would then review the amendment and determine if it can be put on the ballot.
It doesn’t sound like this will make it to the ballot by next November, unfortunately. But at least it shows that DeSantis’ 6 week and 15 week abortion bans are potent issues that may just help some of the Local Dems.
They reportedly went at it on January 6th, you’ll recall when MyKev supposedly said, “who do you think you’re talking to?” So they have that kind of relationship. And this report says that he said “fuck you” when Trump told him why he didn’t support him during the ouster:
During a phone call with McCarthy weeks after his historic Oct. 3 removal as House speaker, Trump detailed the reasons he had declined to ask Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and other hard-right lawmakers to back off their campaign to oust the California Republican from his leadership position, according to people familiar with the exchange who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose a private conversation.
During the call, Trump lambasted McCarthy for not expunging his two impeachments and not endorsing him in the 2024 presidential campaign, according to people familiar with the conversation.
“F— you,” McCarthy claimed to have then told Trump, when he rehashed the call later to other people in two separate conversations, according to the people. A spokesperson for McCarthy said that he did not swear at the former president and that they have a good relationship. A spokesperson for Trump declined to comment.
Apparently, it was just a lovers spat though. Trump and MyKev are still in touch, texting and calling each other frequently. MyKev needs to keep that relationship strong, after all. As a lobbyist he’ll want to keep his options open. And, who knows? Trump’s going to need to fill that cabinet if he wins. “Kevin McCarthy, Secretary of State” sure sounds good.
This week the Texas Supreme Court heard a case brought by 20 women denied emergency care under the state’s radical abortion ban (Texas Tribune):
In August, state District Judge Jessica Mangrum ruled that the near-total abortion ban cannot be enforced in cases involving complicated pregnancies, including lethal fetal diagnoses. The state immediately appealed that ruling, putting it on hold.
Texas law allows abortions only when it is necessary to save the life of the pregnant patient. But this lawsuit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights in March, claims that doctors are unsure when the medical exception applies, resulting in delayed or denied care.
“No one knows what [the exception] means and the state won’t tell us,” Molly Duane, senior attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, told the justices Tuesday.
The state argues the judge went too far in her injunction by reading exceptions into the law beyond what the Legislature intended.
Plaintiff Taylor Edwards and Duane spoke to PBS about the suit.
The penalties for doctors who perform abortions outside the ban’s restrictions “could not be more extreme,” Duane said:
We are talking about life in prison, loss of medical license, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in civil fines. So, quite understandably, physicians are terrified. They don’t know when or how close to death a patient needs to be before they can provide abortion care. And they have been begging the Texas Medical Board and the rest of the state for guidance for years.
And it has fallen on deaf ears. So here we are. We came to court. Courts are places that can vindicate constitutional rights, and Taylor has constitutional rights, just like everyone else in Texas.
PBS asked Duane to comment on the state’s position in light of those severe penalties for doctors:
Beth Klusmann, Texas Assistant Attorney General:
If, as she said, a woman is bleeding or has amniotic fluid running down her legs, then the problem is not with the law. That is with the doctors. I mean, that woman clearly would qualify for medical emergency exception.
And so if she has to come to court to make that happen, that is not the state’s fault.
Geoff Bennett:
So, Molly, what’s your response to that argument?
Molly Duane:
Well, my response is that the state has been saying over and over again the exception is clear, yet they have never once told us what they think the exception means.
In fact, contrary to what they said today, they have made every attempt to show that amniotic fluid does in fact need to be running down a patient’s leg before they can come to court.
What Taylor said that her doctor said to her is verbatim what I have heard from every single one of my clients, which is, my doctor said that her hands were tied. And who tied them? It was the state of Texas.
Beto O’Rourke spotlighted some of the women’s stories Wednesday night:
Texas Republicans forced these women to continue dangerous, nonviable pregnancies that almost killed them.
I hope you’ll read their stories, and then commit to the work of overturning Texas’ extreme abortion ban🧵:
These women are sharing their stories so that we understand the true cost of the total abortion ban in Texas.
My hope is that their courage in coming forward will be matched by our resolve to change the laws so that this never happens again.
With a year before the ‘24 elections that will decide our state’s future, it’s time for each of us to decide what we’re willing to do.
There are millions of pro-choice Texans who aren’t registered to vote. Getting them on the rolls would have a seismic impact on these elections.
This is and needs to be a major issue in 2024, as it was in 2022 when President Joe Biden said this:
A certain candidate for the presidency has scrambled a lot of names lately. He’s accused President Joe Biden of being so cognitively impaired that he would lead the U.S. into World War II.
Donald Trump would like people to know he “ACED” a cognitive test, and that he totally knows who the current president of the United States is.
The former president claimed in a Truth Social screed Monday morning that he’s been referring to former President Barack Obama as the sitting president “sarcastically,” to suggest that Obama is secretly calling the shots instead of President Joe Biden.
[…]
“No, I know both names very well, never mix them up, and know that they are destroying our Country. Also, and as reported, I just took a cognitive test as part of my Physical Exam, and ACED it,” Trump wrote. “Also ACED (a perfect score!) one taken while in the White House.”
Sure he didn’t say Waffle House?
Every accusation is a confession
Popular Information on Thursday told the tale of one 20-year-old Lanah Burkhardt. She testified to the school board of the Conroe Independent School District in Texas that her exposure at 11 to a Scholastic book featuring the image of “a single kiss” led her to porn addiction:
But Burkhardt went further, arguing that Conroe should remove all Scholastic books from schools and stop hosting Scholastic book fairs. These steps were necessary, Burkhardt argued, to protect children from “sexual obscenity.” According to Burkhardt, “getting rid of Scholastic books and their book fairs will inevitably protect kids.”
Burkhardt’s appearance was promoted by SkyTree Book Fairs, a newly formed organization marketing itself as “an alternative to the sexually explicit content distributed in Scholastic’s book fairs.”
While SkyTree Book Fairs presents itself as an independent non-profit organization, it appears to be a hastily assembled offshoot of Brave Books, which publishes children’s books by right-wing pundits and pseudo-celebrities.
2. The woman was 20-year-old Lanah Burkhardt.
Burkhardt said after reading a Scholastic book that depicted a "single kiss," she "looked for other books that gave me pleasure." This "led to internet searches" that she will "never forget."https://t.co/ozdtf5ulPy
Popular Information reports that Burkhardt did not disclose that she is an employee of Brave Books. In fact, she’s the company’s “public relations coordinator.” She’s the Nayirah of book banning.
Burkhardt seems to have scrubbed her LinkedIn page.
Popular Information offers a sampling of the company’s fare:
Many of the titles published by Brave Books are set in an imaginary world based on the United States called Freedom Island. According to Politico, each book based on Freedom Island contains a “fold-out map marked with villages and mountain ranges,” with the southwestern corner of the map being called the “Car-a-Lago Coast.” The books also include “an afterword for parents” that is “filled with suggested games and discussion questions to drive home political concepts.”
One of the books sold by Brave Books is “Elephants Are Not Birds” by Ashley St. Clair. The book, which sells for $22.99, follows an elephant named Kevin “as he learns that even though he can sing, he is not a bird.” The villain of the story, a “vulture named Culture,” “gives [the] elephant a beak and a set of fake wings and watches as he plummets out of a tree.” Culture is a recurring character in the books set on Freedom Island who, according to Politico, “tries to poison innocent animals with progressive ideas.” In an interview with the New York Post, St. Clair described the book as “an unapologetic rebuke of transgender acceptance and the growing number of young people identifying as trans.”
Brave Books also sells a book called “Paws Off My Cannon” by Dana Loesch, a former spokesperson for the National Rifle Association (NRA). According to Brave Books’ website, the book “teaches kids the importance of the Second Amendment” by following the story of Bongo, a gorilla, who is shot at with a coconut cannon by a “villainous hyena.” Bongo’s friend Bonnie then “suggests the village ban all coconut cannons,” but “Bongo thinks that the hyenas are the problem, not the coconut cannons.”
Another book sold on Brave Books’ website is “No More Secrets: The Candy Cavern” by right-wing influencer Chaya Raichik. Raichik runs the X account Libs of TikTok, known for anti-LGBTQ rhetoric. The book is about “Rose the Lamb” and how her teacher is “focused more on candy than teaching.” According to the New York Post, the subtext of the book is “based on longstanding criticisms by parents that schools are encouraging gender transition in young students without informing parents.” Brave Books’ website advertises that “Donald Trump Posted in Support of the Book!”
But heaven forfend any of your children should attend public schools, those dens of leftist indoctrination.
Every accusation is a confession.
(Will follow up with a clip of Burkhardt praising her training in Biblical Citizenship from “Patriot Academy” East Tennessee if I can locate it again.)
Trump and Melania entertaining Eddie Gallagher, one of the war criminals he pardoned, at Mar-a-Lago
Trump’s abuse of the pardon power is well known. But this analysis by Protect Democracy pinpoints three specific abuses that are unprecedented and provide a major threat in a Trump second term:
During the Trump presidency, we saw three types of henchmen pardons:
Self-protective pardons: Trump dangledpardons for associates implicated in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia, notably former campaign manager Paul Manafort and his former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, providing an incentive for them not to cooperate with the Mueller investigation into Trump and his 2016 campaign. Both were indicted, in Manafort’s case sentenced to years in jail, and later pardoned.
Pardons to reward illegal political activity that accrued to his benefit: Trump pardoned 2000 Mules filmmaker and vocal ally Dinesh D’Souza, who pled guilty to using straw donors to make illegal campaign donations to a Republican Senate candidate. Trump strategist Steve Bannon was charged with defrauding donors who gave money to build a border wall; Trump pardoned him before his trial began.
They note that Trump has also promised to pardon the January 6th insurrectionists. I would guess he’d do it on the very first day.
This isn’t just about these specific individuals. It’s a necessary corollary to Trump’s plans to dismantle the government and put the institutions of government to work to serve his personal and political interests. He has made it clear through actions and words that the people who help him do it will not be held liable and that includes the military and the police. Even during his first term he would tell people that he’d pardon them if they broke the law for him.
There are some guardrails but I wouldn’t count on them holding in Trump 2.0:
First, Congress enjoys the constitutional prerogative to conduct oversight of the pardon power and its potential abuse. Congress should pass legislation that strengthens its ability to do so, improving mechanisms for obtaining information related to presidential pardons during investigations — such as those included in the Abuse of Pardon Prevention Act.
Second, despite Trump’s claim that the president’s pardon power is “complete,” federal courts have long placed limits on that power when it threatens other constitutional provisions and principles — in casesdatingback to the 19th century — and could be called upon to do so again.
Third, the Executive Branch itself also maintains a role in investigating and prosecuting potential criminal abuses of the pardon power. Pardons that may function as bribes or to obstruct justice in violation of federal criminal statutes have previously been the subject of Department of Justice investigations, and could again be in the future.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Republican presidential primary front-runner Donald Trump revived calls to roll back Obamacare, also known as the Affordable Care Act, if he returns to the White House.
“The cost of Obamacare is out of control, plus, it’s not good Healthcare. I’m seriously looking at alternatives,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social on Saturday.
Trump’s post resurrects an issue on which he and his party are vulnerable. A Sept. 15-19 NBC News poll found that when it comes to health care, voters trust Democrats over Republicans by a margin of 45%-22%. The same survey found that Democrats trail the GOP on many other issues, including the economy, immigration and crime.
After trying and failing to repeal the ACA, and suffering for it at the ballot box, Republican candidates abandoned their calls for eliminating the law in the 2022 midterm elections, recognizing the push as a political loser. But Trump could bring it back in 2024.
“We had a couple of Republican Senators who campaigned for 6 years against it, and then raised their hands not to terminate it,” Trump wrote in his post over the weekend. “It was a low point for the Republican Party, but we should never give up!”
He doesn’t need to “seriously look” for the Republican Alternative to the ACA, it has been fully developed already:
If you think Republicans would never do this because it would be too unpopular, I would google “Roe,” “against,” and “Wade.”
Again, of course they will do it. The defection of McCain, Collins and Murkowski on that repeal vote is one of Trump’s most humiliating moments as president and he wants revenge. He hated McCain for it and railed against him for years on the stump. This will be at the top of his list and there’s no way in hell the Republicans will stand in his way. They don’t want to.
Kevin McCarthy appeared at the NY Times Dealbook Summit and suddenly he’s not a total Trump sycophant:
Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) jabbed former President Donald Trump while being interviewed at the New York Times’s Dealbook Summit on Wednesday.
McCarthy was joined at the event by other big-name interviewees like Vice President Kamala Harris and controversial tech billionaire Elon Musk.
“I didn’t say he’d be a great president. He’ll be a better president,” McCarthy said on stage when asked about Trump possibly returning to the White House.
“If his campaign is about renew, rebuild and restore, he’ll win. If it’s about revenge, he’ll lose,” McCarthy added, according to NY Times coverage of the event.
McCarthy is widely credited with helping to rehabilitate Trump’s standing in the GOP after the former president had briefly become something of a pariah following the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The Times’sRobert Jimson also reported that McCarthy made clear he plans to vote for Trump if he is on the ballot in 2024, but only characterized their current relationship in vague terms:
McCarthy says he did not expect Trump to support him when he faced an ouster, and says he currently has an “interesting” relationship with the former president. He repeats that he would vote for Trump in the next election. “America would be stronger.”
While on stage at the event, McCarthy also briefly addressed his future in politics and said he is unsure if will run for reelection – adding he will “take the time” to decide.
It sure sounds like he’s getting ready to cash in. Why pretend he has a future in politics? He’s done.
It actually sounds like he is royally pissed that Trump didn’t step up and try to save his speakership. Poor Kev. Did he think that loyalty went both ways?
Multiple GOP lawmakers expect Kevin McCarthy to step down from his seat before the end of the year.
McCarthy privately told donors he is looking to "get the hell out," according to a source familiar with the conversation. https://t.co/wj2lPfYMrd
On Jan. 6, before the attack on the Capitol, Cheney describes a scene in the GOP cloakroom, where members were encouraged to sign their names on electoral vote objection sheets, lined up on a table, one for each of the states Republicans were contesting. Cheney writes most members knew “it was a farce” and “another public display of fealty to Donald Trump.”
“Among them was Republican Congressman Mark Green of Tennessee,” Cheney writes. “As he moved down the line, signing his name to the pieces of paper, Green said sheepishly to no one in particular, ‘The things we do for the Orange Jesus.’”
CNN just reminded us of this about Green. He’s not some MMA fighter guy who lucked into politics. He definitely knows better:
Mark Edward Green (born November 8, 1964) is an American politician, physician, and retired U.S. Army major who has served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 7th congressional district since 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Green has chaired the Committee on Homeland Security since 2023.[1] Before his election to Congress, he served in the Tennessee Senate from 2013 to 2018, representing the 22nd district.
After graduating from West Point, Green was an infantry officer. He then graduated from Boonshoft School of Medicine at Wright State University and became a flight surgeon, serving tours of duty in the War in Afghanistan and Iraq War. He wrote a book about his experience in Operation Red Dawn, in which Saddam Hussein was captured. After retiring from the military in 2006, Green became the CEO of a hospital emergency department staffing company.
This guy is not some illiterate boob. He knows exactly what Trump is and what he did. And he supports him solely for power. He is not alone.
