Well, he’s bad at dodging ugly sticks.
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The National Popular Vote solves the problem of presidential elections but it has no effect on the highly gerrymandered House districts in GOP controlled states or on the undemocratic Senate that grossly over represents low population states, a problem that is exacerbated by the equally undemocratic filibuster.
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I think we might have to wait for what the SCOTUS has to say about these fugitive slave laws. Until then, innocent people are going to get hit with charges and legal bills that no average person can afford.
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Isn’t it unusual for a group of state legislators to send out a threatening letter to a law firm based on no law but a promise to criminalize the firm’s behavior in the next legislative session? But this is Texas, where the most salient characteristic of the legislature is grandstanding and political theatrics.
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Thanks for that. Carlin always had a remarkable ability to describe the absurdity of everyday life in crystal clear terms that made us sufficiently uncomfortable to laugh at it . . . At least if you weren’t a RW ideologue.
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I’m smelling some “Official Oppression” in this case. Damn you Texas GQPers!
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True, but at least it’s something
Here in Colorado we have a bi-partisan redistricting commission and a judge must approve the result. There are very explicit guidelines that must be followed. A national law that incorporated these guidelines and the process would be a huge step in the right direction.
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Looks like a routine presentation of RW “performance art” for the benefit of their audience. Most performance artists I used to watch in L.A. did their performances with more sincerity and artistic merit, and probably still do.
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The new legislation, according to the letter, will criminalize any Texas company’s reimbursement of “elective abortions” or “abortion-related expenses — regardless of where the abortion occurs, and regardless of the law in the jurisdiction where the abortion occurs.”
Something, maybe intuition or instinct, tells me that this threat will only antagonize people who will eat the Texas GOP’s lunch. It has all the characteristics of making the residents of Texas captives of that state.
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Since the Texas GOP is threatening a law firm, possibly several law firms, I can see representation being offered pro bono.
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He’s terribly confused. He wants to ban critical race theory and support free speech. HM supports gender issues when he can use his concerns for them as a cudgel to whack somebody else. This guy is beneath contempt.
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he has been strangely quiet about Disney, since he made his proclamation
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I work at Chevron – the head of HR just a sent an all-company email stating that our health plans have been amended to explicitly cover travel costs for reproductive health services not available to employees in their locations… previously, it was ambiguous, but generally understood that if you had to travel to get specialty health care, those costs would be reimbursed. (This has been especially helpful for transgender folks getting gender-conforming surgery – but also to people in remote locations - like Wicket, TX that needed chemo or other cancer treatments.)
According to friends at all the other majors (ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, etc.), they, too, have similar policies in place.
Additional: should be interesting to see if the political arm of these companies put pressure on the Texas Leg to stall this effort out. The fall elections are going to be wild. Go BETO!
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Personally, I wasn’t impressed with the debut of our redistricting commission. We are the only town along the Front Range that was removed from CD-2 (Joe Neguse) and put in CD-4 (the execrable Ken Buck) with the right wing ranchers and frackers.
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Too bad Texas Republicans are hellbent on making this ban worse. This is setting up a showdown between Texas Republicans and SCOTUS. SCOTUS clearly stated that travel bans would not be allowed. Texas is looking to skirt that by punishing the employer? That’s a sure way of running businesses out of the state. To punish a company, the state still needs to prove women were pregnant when they left, and not pregnant when they returned, and the company reimbursed the women for abortions. While that may not be seen as a travel ban on the women, it is the state digging deep into their privacy rights, and some entity being punished for these women leaving the state to get abortions. If Texas thinks states that continue to protect abortion rights are going to give up patient information on demand, good luck. The insurance companies? Good luck- HIPPA is a federal law, and what legit medical interest does Texas have in getting women’s medical records from another state? Does Texas law supersede Illinois law? In Illinois? What about California law?
This is boiling down to Texas and other red states wanting to control women, and extending that control past their state boundaries. If that doesn’t scream at you, nothing will. Where does a state stop? No state seems to care that women leave and have cosmetic procedures elsewhere. This is clearly Texas trying to cut off avenues for a few women to have abortions. I say a few because most women in Texas don’t work for companies with these benefits. As we see already, poor women are left with few choices. Poor women in menial jobs have the same poor choices.
If Texas wants to go to war with a law firm, I’m sending flowers- dead ones, because the state doesn’t want to mess with a law firm (or Oil Company, High Tech Firm, etc). This is why I think they are going to go after some forms of birth control next.
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Great post!
The question that keeps coming up here is the question of the legitimate governmental interest. What interest does Texas have in other states’ laws? As you point out – Texas seeks to extend control beyond the state’s boundaries. That’s never going to fly in any court. Notice how Middleton frames the issue:
He used the term “murder.” Is that where they want to go with their sense of self-entitled control over women? That in itself makes any legislation to that effect radioactive.
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That was only Rapey McBeerface, in his solo concurrence.
Nope. Not gonna happen. Even with the abortion laws the Lege passed last year, there are express carve-outs for birth control and Plan B.
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At various times in the past a great many people were of the mind Roe was safe. Settled law. No one was (successfully) coming after it. Yet here we are.
I’m not as sanguine as you about birth control being left alone.
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