In today’s news - Part 3

While reading the thread asking what good things the United States has done it popped into the noggin that how good some of the departments and programs listed are is often determined by the people who run them.  Which in most cases is determined by what political party is running them.

I didn’t want to derail the thread so I kept my comments to myself.   

Then my favorite columnist must have been reading my mind and wrote this opinion piece that accurately describes the going ons by one political party and the results from it.  

In the end, a country and state is defined by the actions of the people who run the government.

Still not wanting to derail the other thread I’m putting it here…

Paul Waldman - Washington Post…

“Opinion: Which party is more ruthless? It’s not even close.”

By Paul Waldman
Columnist

“People in both parties will tell you that their own side is made up of feckless wimps who cower at the first sign of resistance, while the other side is populated by ruthless Machiavellians who will go to any lengths to win. But they can’t all be right.

A look at Washington, and more vividly, at the states, tells us which side is mercilessly advancing its goals and which isn’t. And there are few better illustrations of this vast imbalance than how the parties have responded to the extraordinary Texas abortion law passed last year.

A recap: The Texas law outlawed almost all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant. This is plainly unconstitutional; the Supreme Court has repeatedly held that women have the right to an abortion before viability, and even abortion opponents don’t claim that a six-week-old fetus is viable.

To evade the courts, the law put enforcement in the hands of private vigilantes, allowing anyone to sue abortion providers, or anyone who even helped a woman get an abortion. In a shocking move, the Supreme Court allowed the Texas law to stand, potentially for years, while it and other abortion laws are adjudicated by the courts.

Conservatives fully understand the implications of this. When the Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the Texas law last November, Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh noted that if it law stands, states could restrict all kinds of constitutional rights by putting enforcement in the hands of vigilantes instead of the government. “It could be free speech rights,” he said. “It could be free exercise of religion rights. It could be Second Amendment rights, if this position is accepted here.”

In theory, that’s true. But in practice, it could turn out that only Republicans are willing to avail themselves of this vigilante tactic, now that the Supreme Court has opened this door by letting the Texas law be implemented.

Since then, Republicans in a dozen states have introduced unconstitutional abortion bans enforced by private vigilantes. Idaho just became the first state to pass one; the legislation banning abortions after six weeks is now headed to the governor’s desk.

Idaho’s law is slightly more limited than the one in Texas; it only allows suits against abortion providers, and only by people related to the fetus. Still, when a Democrat in the Texas House asked the bill’s sponsor if a rapist’s brother could sue over his brother’s victim’s abortion, the sponsor admitted he could.

So have Democratic states passed a deluge of laws modeled on the Texas law, using vigilante provisions to attack the gun industry or other opponents of liberals?

No, they haven’t.

The Post has identified 35 bills with vigilante provisions that had been introduced in state legislatures as of last month, some by Republicans and some by Democrats. But so far there has been no wave of vigilante laws signed by Democratic governors.

With a good deal of fanfare, California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recently endorsed legislation allowing people to sue gun manufacturers and sellers for the harm their products do. Right now the legislation is in committee.

Is it going to become law? It might. And maybe if California does it, other liberal states will follow (there was a similar bill introduced in Illinois). But no one will be surprised if those bills sink into the limbo where most legislation resides and disappear.

And the typical Democratic legislator will probably tell you there are more pressing problems at hand. Their states already have fairly strict gun laws, and they have economic, educational, and environmental challenges to confront, among others. Governing is complicated, and if you’re serious about it, there’s only so much time you can spend on making a point.

Republican state legislators, on the other hand, tend not to be particularly serious about governing, so they can devote all their energy to things like restricting women’s reproductive rights. And smashing through norms and breaking rules has become part of what it means to be a Republican.

It’s how you show your supporters you’re committed to the conservative cause. If you say “I’d like to ban all abortions, but we can’t until the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade,” that marks you as a squish. After all, didn’t the court give you the go-ahead by not putting a hold on the Texas law?

That’s hardly all. On subject after subject, Republicans in the states are going farther than anyone imagined just a short time ago, whether it’s attacking the families of trans kids, banning books, or eliminating any and all gun restrictions.

 Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine just signed a law making his the eighth state just since 2021 to remove permitting requirements for concealed weapons after Alabama passed a similar law last week — no training, no background check, no license required.

In more liberal areas of the country (and just about everywhere else in the world), the idea that any adult should carry a gun around without even showing they know which end the boom comes out of seems positively insane. But Republicans are not feeling constrained. While the rest of us look on in horror, their base has every reason to conclude that their leaders are getting things done.”

The man is dumber then dirt, the idea he would actually learn anything while president was never going to happen.

And the idea that Putin could just make his country larger without doing what he is currently doing shows one how ignorant trump is.  That along with his belief rising waters just means more beachfront property.

Well actually I think this one is too stupid to comment on…

3-16-2022

These Senators have no shame…

3-17-2022

It is a mystery..