justinspoliticalcorner - Tumblr blog

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Susan Rinkunas at Jezebel:

Donald Trump’s new interview with Time magazine underscores the bleak consequences of what it really means to “leave abortion to the states.” Faced with questions about whether he’d enact a nationwide abortion ban, Trump has been running around claiming that he thinks abortion should be left to the states—but also criticizing state bans he considers too extreme, like those in Florida and Arizona. It’s a totally incoherent stance: Does he support states’ rights or not? He’s likely triangulating because he doesn’t want political blowback for laws that voters think are too extreme. But in a new interview, Trump blessed the most extreme effort states could take: Arresting women and pregnant people who have abortions in violation of state law.

Time magazine’s Eric Cortellessa spoke to Trump earlier this month and asked him how he’d govern if he wins the presidency in November. The reporter pressed Trump on abortion laws at both the state and federal level, given Trump’s Truth Social video where he seemed to suggest that he wouldn’t support federal legislation banning abortion, but also didn’t say he would veto such bills. Cortellessa wrote that Trump “decline[d] to commit to vetoing any additional federal restrictions if they came to his desk.” So there’s that! Then Cortellessa asked Trump specifically about whether states could monitor pregnancies and prosecute women who they believe have gotten abortions despite state bans, rather than just doctors who might provide them. Trump said states might arrest women and it’s their prerogative—but he’s staying out of it.

[...] Back to Trump’s interview, a reporter with access finally asked Trump about the Comstock Act, a dormant 19th-century law that conservative activists want him to enforce that would ban the mailing of abortion pills, and potentially all supplies to abortion clinics. Trump said he would make a statement on abortion pills and the Comstock Act within one to two weeks, but these interviews were done more than two weeks ago. (In a follow-up call on April 27, Trump told Cortellessa: “I’ll be doing it over the next week or two. But I don’t think it will be shocking, frankly.”) I guess we get to wait and see.

In a pair of interviews with Time recently, Donald Trump said that he'll permit states to surveil pregnancies and prosecute pregnant people for violating abortion bans. He also said that he's going to make a statement on the Comstock Act soon.

Trump's interview with Time in which he basically supports state laws punishing people who have abortions is why we must re-elect Joe Biden. He would support a federal ban on abortion if given the chance, despite claiming to have a "leave it to the states" stance.

See Also:

HuffPost: Trump Is Fine With States Monitoring Pregnant Women So They Don't Get Abortions

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sherman Smith at Kansas Reflector:

TOPEKA — As the Kansas Legislature renewed its yearslong assault on transgender children, Sen. Mary Ware told her Senate colleagues Monday she had a “simple” question for them.

“What is the acceptable number of youth suicides?” Ware asked. The Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is a hotline for individuals in crisis or for those looking to help someone else. To speak with a certified listener, call 988. Crisis Text Line is a texting service for emotional crisis support. To speak with a trained listener, text HELLO to 741741. It is free, available 24/7, and confidential. Ware’s question set the tone for debate in the Senate, which voted 27-13 to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of Senate Bill 233, legislation that would ban gender-affirming care for anyone younger than 18. But the override attempt fell short in the House on an 82-43 vote, two short of the two-thirds majority required.

The bill would have blocked teenagers from receiving hormone therapy and other treatments recognized as necessary by medical professionals. And it would have banned state employees from supporting “social transitioning,” which is defined to include an individual changing their preferred pronouns or manner of dress. Rep. Susan Concannon, R-Beloit, and Rep. Jesse Borjon, R-Topeka, flipped their votes from earlier in the month to sustain the governor’s veto. Two other Republicans — Rep. Mark Schreiber of Emporia and Rep. David Younger of Ulysses — also joined Democrats in blocking the legislation from becoming law. “We hear about mental health, about suicide, and ask why,” Concannon said. “We’re not listening to the impact of youth. Government involvement is not the answer.” On the Senate side, Sen. John Doll, R-Garden City, and Sen. Carolyn McGinn, R-Sedgwick, joined the chamber’s 11 Democrats in supporting the veto.

Opponents of the bill pointed to extensive medical research that shows transgender children, who are already at an elevated risk for suicide, are more likely to die from suicide if they don’t receive gender-affirming care. “This bill ignores, or should I say tramples, on the rights of some Kansas citizens to live peaceably, lawfully and free to make their own decisions about their own bodies,” Ware said. Republicans argued the bill would protect children from life-altering decisions they could end up regretting.

[...] The House delayed taking action as Republican leadership tried to secure enough votes to override the governor’s veto. Before closing the roll call, Republicans locked the chamber doors and issued a procedural declaration that requires every member to cast a vote, rather than abstain. Borjon said he would support a ban on gender reassignment surgery and limits on the use of hormone blockers for minors. But for him, the bill went too far in restricting speech and behavioral health care for transgender youths. Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen, a Topeka Democrat and pastor, said it was clear the “politically motivated bill” would make the lives of trans kids and their families more difficult.

Good news: Kansas's anti-trans gender-affirming care ban for trans youths will not take effect, as Gov. Laura Kelly (D)'s veto of SB233 has been sustained in the House. #KSLeg

See Also:

Erin In The Morning: Kansas Republican Votes No On Trans Ban: "Govt. Involvement Is Not The Answer"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Jennifer Bendery at HuffPost:

Donald Trump says he’d make local and state police departments participate in a massive immigration crackdown if he wins a second term in the White House, even though he wouldn’t have the authority to do this. In an interview with Time published Tuesday, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee said if he wins the election in November, his immigration plans include setting up migrant detention camps along the U.S.-Mexico border and deploying the military nationwide to deport millions of immigrants living in the U.S. illegally. “We’re going to be using local police,” Trump said, “because local police know them by name, by first name, second name and third name. I mean, they know them very well.” U.S. presidents don’t have the authority to order local and state police departments to carry out immigration policies run by the federal government. Asked to elaborate on his plans on this, Trump vaguely threatened that they could lose federal money if they don’t play a role in his crackdown.

“There’s a possibility that some won’t want to participate, and they won’t partake in the riches, you know,” said the Republican presidential hopeful. “We have to do this. This is not a sustainable problem for our country.” Asked if that means he would create funding incentives from the U.S. government for state and local police, Trump said only, “It could very well be.”

[...] He has previously said he wants to use local police for his mass deportation plans, but what’s evolved here is his mention of federal dollars being on the line for local police who don’t participate. In his Time interview, Trump said in rambling remarks that he also wants to give local police immunity from prosecution if they participate in his mass deportation plans. “I want to give police immunity from prosecution because the liberal groups or the progressive groups, depending on what they want to be called, somewhat liberal, somewhat progressive, but they are — they’re very strong on the fact that they want to leave everybody in, I guess, I don’t know,” he said.

In a pair of recent interviews with Time Magazine, fascist lunatic Donald Trump says that he'll use local and state police agencies to enforce his draconian anti-immigration agenda, wasting precious police resources.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Bethan McKernan in Jerusalem and Patrick Wintour in London at The Guardian:

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed that Israel will proceed with an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah even if renewed efforts at internationally brokered talks with Hamas result in the release of hostages and a ceasefire. Mediators led by Egypt have renewed efforts aimed at a truce in recent days after it became clearer that Israel is preparing for its long-threatened ground operation in Rafah. The city on the Egyptian border is the only part of the Palestinian territory that has not faced ground fighting, and more than half of the strip’s 2.3 million population has sought shelter there. Speaking in Jerusalem on Tuesday, the Israeli prime minister said: “The idea that we will halt the war before achieving all of its goals is out of the question. We will enter Rafah and we will eliminate the Hamas battalions there – with or without a deal, in order to achieve total victory.” This week’s talks in Cairo are widely viewed as the last opportunity to salvage a diplomatic solution to free Israeli hostages and a pause or end to the war. A Hamas delegation left the Egyptian capital on Monday, saying they would return again with a written response to Israel’s latest ceasefire proposal, and on Tuesday, while it is believed Israel is waiting for the Palestinian militant group’s response before sending its own delegation.

Netanyahu’s latest comments, made during a meeting with members of two right wing groups representing hostage families and bereaved soldiers’ families, came hours before the arrival of the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, on a visit to advance the truce talks. It was not immediately clear whether they would impact Hamas’s response. Speaking in Jordan before flying to Israel, Blinken said the “focus” is on improving the humanitarian situation in Gaza and reaching a ceasefire deal that brings Israeli hostages home. He said Israel has offered a “strong proposal” and called on Hamas to respond. “No more delays. No more excuses. The time to act is now,” he said. “We want to see in the coming days this agreement coming together.”

About Israelis were killed and another 250 taken hostage in Hamas’s 7 October attack that triggered the war. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ensuing retaliatory operation in Gaza, which has left desperate civilians without healthcare, food or water and reduced most of the coastal territory to ruins. A ceasefire at the end of November saw 100 hostages freed in exchange for about 240 Palestinian women and children held in Israeli jails, but collapsed after a week. Israel estimates that 129 hostages remain in Gaza, including 34 who are believed to be dead. Multiple rounds of talks over the past five months have ended in failure. Netanyahu’s ministers have publicly sparred on whether to go forward with a truce proposal: far right members of his coalition have threatened to quit the government if Israel is seen to “surrender” to Hamas’s demands, while centrists have said they will quit if a hostage deal isn’t struck.

Israel Apartheid State war criminal PM Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing to raid Rafah in Gaza regardless of whether a hostage deal occurs or not.

Should such a raid occur, it would be a mass episode of genocide and ethnic cleansing.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alanna Vagianos at HuffPost:

A far-right anti-abortion extremist will be on the presidential ballot in November in at least 12 states. The Constitution Party chose Randall Terry as its 2024 presidential nominee, according to Ballot Access News and Politico. Terry is an extreme anti-abortion advocate who founded Operation Rescue, an anti-choice group notorious for targeting and harassing abortion clinics across the U.S. The party also nominated Stephen Broden, a Texas pastor, as its vice presidential nominee. “We are running for President in the effort to make child killing by abortion the number one voter issue in America,” Terry’s website states. “We will show the horror of aborted children to the American people, and call on Christians to REPENT for having voted for Joe Biden.”

Terry ran as a Republican for a seat in the Florida state Senate in 2006 and for Congress in New York in 1998; he lost in a primary both times. In 2012, he ran in the Democratic Party presidential primaries, where he was known for his graphic advertisements featuring pictures of aborted fetuses in an attempt to discredit then-President Barack Obama. His advertisements are back for his 2024 campaign and are featured prominently on his website. All of the ads include shock images of allegedly aborted fetuses, criticize “stupid celebrities” who support abortion rights, and call on the nation to repent for the sins of pro-abortion rights Democrats. Terry clarified in a video he posted to X, formerly Twitter, earlier this month that he’s seeking the nomination not because he believes he will win, but so that he “can run television ads that show aborted babies.”

The Constitution Party picks anti-abortion extremist Randall Terry to be its nominee for President. He’ll be on the ballot in at least 12 states.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Molly Sprayregen at LGBTQ Nation:

Four Southern states have joined together with four conservative organizations to sue the Biden administration over a recently issued rule banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in education.

[...]

The idea is that it’s impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity without taking sex into account, a legal argument that the Supreme Court has already used in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Co. ruling with respect to job discrimination.

With the new rule, any school that receives federal funding will no longer be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. This could affect states and school districts with policies to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents or ban trans students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender. The new rules could also give students who face discrimination recourse in federal courts. Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia allege in the lawsuit that the Biden administration does not have the authority to make this rule and also that it goes beyond the original intentions of Title IX, according to CBS News. The states are joined in the lawsuit by the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the Independent Women’s Law Center.

“The role of Cabinet agencies is to interpret laws as written by Congress – not to redefine the meaning of words to suit a fringe group of activists,” said Parents Defending Education president Nicole Neily in a statement, which went on to claim the rule proves “the Biden administration’s contempt for families, trumping state laws which reiterate parents’ right to access information and make decisions about issues related to their children’s gender identity in schools.” “By lowering the standard of ‘harassment’ to little more than a one-off expression of humor, satire, or parody,” Neily continued, “the free speech rights of every young learner in America has become subordinate to how the most sensitive student might interpret a phrase. This Title IX rule is both unconstitutional and immoral, and we look forward to vindicating our members’ rights in court.”

“We will fight very strongly against this rule,” added Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), “just to ensure this does what Congress intended it to do, and that is provide opportunities to everyone and especially protect the security and fairness for our biological females.” Moody also claimed the new rule “is really a radical departure from what Title IX was originally meant to do.” The lawsuit alleges that the rule “conflicts with many of the state plaintiffs’ laws that govern public institutions of higher education and primary and secondary education, including laws involving harassment, bathrooms, sports, parental rights, and more.” It continues, “The rule thus impedes the state plaintiffs’ sovereign authority to enforce and administer their laws and creates pressure on the state plaintiffs to change their laws and practices.” The new rules, however, do not discuss transgender student-athletes and which teams they can play on. The DOE is reportedly planning to issue a separate rule regarding what Title IX means for sports participation.

4 Southern states are suing the Biden Administration for the right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ children over the LGBTQ+-friendly Title IX changes.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Scott Dworkin at The Dworkin Report:

Last week the GOP-controlled Tennessee legislature passed a law allowing teachers to carry guns on school grounds, bucking recommendations from top education and school safety experts from across the country. We already ask more from our schoolteachers than we do from almost any other profession, and we give them just the bare minimum to do it. The answer to school shootings is not to ask our teachers to become armed bodyguards for our children. Republicans clearly haven’t thought this through. A teacher with a handgun would simply be no match for an attacker with an assault rifle. Even if they could somehow abandon their classroom in the middle of a school shooting, it’s hard to imagine they would be able to get to the scene in time. Even if they did, it’s unlikely their meager amount of training would be enough to stop the shooter.

In fact, research concludes “an armed teacher is more likely to impede responding law enforcement than to stop an active school shooter.” There’s also the very obvious possibility that a student could gain access to the gun, which makes our schools more dangerous, not safer. [...] We should not allow Republicans to act like students are safer because teachers can carry guns in school. We must call out these right-wing, NRA-owned politicians who lie and say more guns are the answer to gun violence. And in November, let’s vote these lunatics out. Until then, GOP lawmakers need to stop hiding behind their pro-gun blood money and take real steps to make our schools safer. Trying to turn a schoolteacher into Rambo is clearly not the solution for stopping school shootings, and it never will be.

Scott Dworkin is correct: arming teachers with guns is counterproductive policy that would NOT stop school shootings.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alex Kaplan at MMFA:

At a signing event for his new book, Fox News host Jesse Watters told Jeffrey Pedersen, a QAnon influencer known online as “intheMatrixxx,” that he “love[s]” him and follows him online, adding that he does “good work” and has “all this information.” Watters’ admission comes after he previously praised QAnon supporters and then backtracked. During the April 29 episode of the QAnon-supporting MatrixxxGrooove Show (or MG Show), Pedersen aired a video of an interaction he had with Watters at a book signing event for the Fox News host.

Pedersen has repeatedly promoted QAnon and other misinformation online, like false claims about vaccines and election fraud. And regarding QAnon itself, multiple government agencies have issued internal warnings about the conspiracy theory and its supporters, some of whom have also been tied to violence, including the January 6 insurrection. While signing a copy of his book for Pedersen, Watters told Pedersen and others around him, “I love intheMatrixxx,” adding, “I follow this guy.” He said that Pedersen’s “got all this information. … You’re very good.” And at the end of the video he told Pedersen, “Keep up the good work. … We’ll be in touch.”

[...] In 2020, Watters praised the QAnon community for having “uncovered a lot of great stuff when it comes to [Jeffrey] Epstein and when it comes to the deep state,” though he later claimed he did not “support or believe in” the conspiracy theory. And the year before that, QAnon supporters cheered over a segment Watters aired on his show about QAnon that had a “neutral to positive spin.” Watters’ praise for Pedersen adds to Fox’s long history of amplifying and sometimes openly embracing QAnon. And it comes as MatrixxxGrooove Show has received press passes at multiple Trump rallies.

Fox Noise host Jesse Watters gave praise to QAnon conspiracist Jeffrey Pederson (aka InTheMatrixxx).

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Julie Tsirkin and Monica Alba at NBC News:

WASHINGTON — The Biden administration will take a historic step toward easing federal restrictions on cannabis, with plans to announce an interim rule soon reclassifying the drug for the first time since the Controlled Substances Act was enacted more than 50 years ago, four sources with knowledge of the decision tell NBC News. The Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to approve an opinion by the Department of Health and Human Services that marijuana should be reclassified from the most strict Schedule I to the less stringent Schedule III, marking the first time that the U.S. government would acknowledge its potential medical benefits and begin studying them in earnest. Attorney General Merrick Garland will submit the rescheduling proposal to the White House Office of Management and Budget as early as Tuesday afternoon, a source familiar with the timeline told NBC News. The Justice Department "continues to work on this rule," a Biden administration official said. "We have no further comment at this time."

What rescheduling means

Since 1971, marijuana has been in the same category as heroin, methamphetamines and LSD. Each substance under the Schedule I classification is defined as a drug with no accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse. Schedule III substances include Tylenol with codeine, steroids and testosterone. By rescheduling cannabis, the drug would now be studied and researched to identify concrete medical benefits, opening the door for pharmaceutical companies to get involved with the sale and distribution of medical marijuana in states where it is legal.  For the $34 billion cannabis industry, the move would also eliminate significant tax burdens for businesses in states where the drug is legal, notably getting rid of the Internal Revenue Services code Section 280E which currently prohibits legal cannabis companies from deducting what would otherwise be ordinary business expenses. The Department of Justice’s rescheduling decision could also help shrink the black market which has thrived despite legalization in states like New York and California and has undercut legal markets that are fiercely regulated and highly taxed.

The Biden Administration announces its plans to reclassify marijuana from the stringent Schedule I to the much more lenient Schedule III, following recommendations from the HHS and the DEA.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Sanjana Karanth at HuffPost:

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Sunday accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza ― upping his rhetoric against the U.S.-funded military offensive in the enclave that has been underway for nearly seven months.

CNN’s “State of the Union” show was Sanders’ first time using the term “ethnic cleansing” to describe the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, where soldiers have killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, wounded more than 75,000, displaced most of the population, destroyed cultural, medical and educational infrastructure, and created a famine by blocking most aid from entering the territory. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that what Netanyahu is doing now ― displacing 80% of the population in Gaza ― is ethnic cleansing,” Sanders told CNN host Dana Bash. “That’s what it is, pushing out huge numbers of people.” He added: “I think I, and a majority of the American people, do not want to be complicit in the humanitarian disaster that Netanyahu is causing in Gaza right now.” The decision to use the term to describe the crisis in Gaza is an escalation of Sanders’ criticism of the U.S. government’s role in supporting the deadly military campaign, which began Oct. 7 after Hamas militants launched an attack on Israel that killed about 1,200 people and resulted in about 250 people being taken hostage. Half of the hostages were released during a temporary halt in fighting, and about 30 of those remaining are presumed dead.

[...] “Mr. Netanyahu, antisemitism is a vile and disgusting form of bigotry that has done unspeakable harm to many millions of people,” Sanders, who is Jewish and whose father’s family was killed in the Holocaust, said last week in a video addressed to the prime minister. “Do not insult the intelligence of the American people by attempting to distract us from the immoral and illegal war policies of your extremist and racist government.” Despite a growing number of U.S. officials speaking out against Israel’s military campaign, most are still hesitant to use terms like “apartheid,” “ethnic cleansing” and “genocide,” language that is particularly freighted when discussing a state that was established for Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Sanders said he believes the question of whether “genocide” is an applicable term should be determined by international courts.

Democratic-caucusing Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is correct: Israel Apartheid State is engaging in ethnic cleansing against Palestinians in Gaza.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kyle Mantyla at RWW:

Kandiss Taylor is a flat-earth, election-denying conspiracy theorist who unsuccessfully ran for governor in Georgia in 2022. Undaunted by her paltry showing in that election, Taylor subsequently became a Georgia GOP district chair and also began hosting a weekly program called “Jesus, Guns, and Babies” on the far-right Stew Peters Network.

Peters himself if a racist, far-right anti-LGBTQ bigot who regularly uses his own nightly program, speeches, and social media accounts to promote white nationalism and virulent antisemitism while spreading wild conspiracy theories, bigotry, and calls for violence. Taylor has said that Peters is her “best friend,” so it was not surprising to hear her issue a threat of violence during a recent appearance on Peters’ program. Peters has repeatedly and openly called for violence against the government and his perceived political enemies, threatening time and again to deliver “extreme accountability,” by which he means public executions. Taylor, who has her own history of issuing warnings of violence, used that exact phrase during her recent appearance on Peters’ show while discussing what will happen to those who oppose her Christian nationalist efforts to place the church in control of the government.

Christian nationalist kook Kandiss Taylor went on fellow far-right extremist Stew Peters's program to endorse violence against those who oppose her whacked out agenda.

From the 04.25.2024 edition of The Stew Peters Network's The Stew Peters Show:

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Kerry Eleveld at Daily Kos:

Supporters of Donald Trump who are most likely to reconsider their support if he is convicted in his Manhattan hush money trial have very Joe Biden-friendly profiles, according to a CNN poll on Americans’ views of the criminal proceedings. While three-quarters of current Trump supporters said a criminal conviction would be immaterial to them, 24% said they "might reconsider" their support. In other words, of all the voters supporting Trump in the survey, 76% were MAGA diehards, while roughly a quarter were more malleable.   

So let's take a look at a profile of these squishier Trump supporters, according to the survey:

They are younger: 64% who said they might reconsider were under 50.

They are less likely to be white: 49% who said a conviction could matter were people of color, while just 17% of whites said the same.

63% said Biden legitimately won 2020.

20% said they backed Biden in 2020.

49% are independents.

50% are ideological moderates.

"These are the exact voters who propelled Trump to his very narrow lead in the polling average. Younger voters, independents, Black and Latino voters are groups Trump struggled with in 2020 but is doing better with now,” points out Dan Pfeiffer, White House communications director for the Obama administration. The 2024 presidential race is effectively even now, with the 538 aggregate giving Trump just a 1-point advantage. Both camps need to persuade more voters into their corners to cement a win, but Biden even more so given Republicans' built-in advantage in the electoral college. And a candidate always wants the pool of voters they need to woo to be predisposed to supporting them in the first place. 

According to a CNN poll regarding Donald Trump's criminal charges, a conviction could cost Trump critical votes he needs to be elected again.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Alex Bollinger at LGBTQ Nation:

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) announced that he has sued the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) over new Title IX guidelines that make discrimination against LGBTQ+ students in education illegal. “Texas will not allow Joe Biden to rewrite Title IX at whim, destroying legal protections for women in furtherance of his radical obsession with gender ideology,” Paxton said in a statement. “This attempt to subvert federal law is plainly illegal, undemocratic, and divorced from reality. Texas will always take the lead to oppose Biden’s extremist, destructive policies that put women at risk.”

Earlier this month, the DOE unveiled new Title IX rules to address the needs of LGBTQ+ students. The rules interpret Title IX, which bans discrimination on the basis of sex in education, as a legal protection against anti-LGBTQ+ school policies. The idea is that it’s impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity without taking sex into account, a legal argument that the Supreme Court has already used in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Co. ruling with respect to job discrimination. The new rules do not discuss the issue of transgender student-athletes and which teams they can play on. However, any school that receives federal funding will no longer be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. This could affect states and school districts with policies to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents or ban trans students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender. The new rules could also give students who face discrimination recourse in federal courts.

Paxton’s lawsuit claims that Biden misinterpreted Title IX, saying that the Supreme Court’s Bostock ruling was based on the phrase “because of sex” in Title VII, whereas Title IX is completely different because it bans discrimination “on the basis of sex.” [...] Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) ordered the Texas Education Agency today to ignore the new Title IX rules, something that at least four other states — Louisiana, Florida, Oklahoma, and South Carolina — have done or announced that they would do. On X, he argued that protecting transgender students takes away from protections for women. “Congress wrote Title IX to protect women,” he wrote. “Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women.”

Anti-LGBTQ+ extremist Texas "AG" Ken Paxton sues the Biden Administration over his new LGBTQ+-inclusive definition change of Title IX. Paxton falsely claims the new Title IX changes are "destroying legal protections for women."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Judd Legum and Tesnim Zekeria at Popular Information:

In the 2024 presidential election, one of the central attacks that Trump and his political allies are levying against Biden is that Biden is responsible for a "migrant crime" wave. The argument was summarized by Trump in a March 22 video:

[[A] real bloodbath is occurring right now under crooked Joe. It’s Biden’s Border Bloodbath. There’s never been anything like that. Every day, Joe Biden is setting loose thousands of unvetted, unscreened, military-age men into the United States from parts unknown… We had the safest border in history. Now we have the worst border probably in the history of the world. Every day innocent citizens are being killed, stabbed, shot, raped, and murdered because of Biden migrant crime. It’s a new word, a new term. It’s migrant crime, but we call it Biden migrant crime cause he’s responsible for it 100%... When I’m your president, we’re going to end this disgrace, and we’re going to stop Biden’s Border Bloodbath. It is a bloodbath indeed, and we’re going to get it stopped.]

The Republican National Committee (RNC) has launched a website dedicated to the issue, BidenBloodbath.com. "History will remember Biden for his destruction, chaos, and failure. Lives of everyday Americans have been shattered as a direct result of Biden’s open border policies — and he doesn’t care," the RNC claims on the homepage. "We have to stand up and stop Biden before he destroys our nation. The cost of doing nothing is measured in the lives lost to the… crime wave washing across America."

This message has been amplified by the right-wing media. Fox News' Jesse Watters, who hosts the network's top-rated primetime show, offered this commentary on April 12:

[Migrant crime is quickly becoming one of the largest issues affecting the American people. Communities all across the United States are being terrorized by violent illegals, while Biden rolls out the red carpet for them with his open border policies, but Donald Trump is pledging to take care of the problem and keep our citizens safe when Republicans get back in power]

There are violent crimes committed by undocumented migrants, which are traumatic for the victims, their families, and their communities. That is why the accusation that Biden is responsible for a surge in violent crime by undocumented migrants is so politically potent. There are disturbing anecdotes of crimes that make powerful fodder for attacks during a political campaign. People, understandably, want to feel safe.  But is there evidence that, since Biden took office, there has been a surge in violent crime by undocumented migrants? 

[...]

The national crime decline

If there is no migrant crime wave at the border, perhaps it will show up in other areas of the country. The data does not support that claim either.  Nationwide, homicide and violent crime dramatically declined in 2023. According to the latest FBI’s Quarterly Uniform Crime report, which was released in March, homicides were down 13% in 2023 compared to 2022. Meanwhile, violent crime and property crime dipped 6% and 4% respectively. This data is preliminary and based on reports submitted by 15,199 of 19,152 law enforcement agencies across the country, reflecting “about 82% of the U.S. population.” (The FBI will release a more complete analysis for 2023 in the fall.) 

[...] The fact that we are not seeing evidence of a migrant crime surge is consistent with historical data that shows migrants, even undocumented migrants, are less likely to commit crimes than native-born Americans. A peer-reviewed 2020 study, which used data from the Texas Department of Public Safety from 2012 to 2018, "found a lower felony arrest rate for immigrants in the U.S. illegally compared to legal immigrants and native-born U.S. citizens and no evidence of increasing criminality among immigrants." An upcoming study by a researcher at the libertarian Cato Institute similarly found that "undocumented migrants in Texas were about 26% less likely to be convicted of homicide than native-born Americans over the decade of 2013-22." It appears, however, that Republican messaging around the issue is having an impact. Despite the data, most people believe crime is up. A Gallup poll in November 2023 found that 77% of Americans “believe there is more crime in the U.S. than a year ago.” 

Popular Information debunks the right-wing myth of a "migrant crime" wave. Such fact-free propaganda has been spewed out by the likes of Donald Trump and other conservative media outlets.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Adam Wren at Politico Magazine:

NEW YORK CITY — Brian Glenn was about to go live. Amid the hundreds of reporters crowded outside a Manhattan courthouse on the first morning of Donald Trump’s criminal trial last week, Glenn, the director of programming for Right Side Broadcasting Network, would be delivering the news from the circus straight to hundreds of thousands of faithful MAGA viewers. Glenn looked like a typical television newscaster, but a bright blue and white pin he wore on the lapel of his suit set him apart from others in the press corral: It featured a big, bold “47” — a nod to Trump’s possible return to the presidency, which was gifted to him by the Trump campaign. Surrounded by Trump fans, Glenn cut the figure of a former homecoming king navigating the crowd at the big game. People wearing red caps kept coming up asking to be interviewed, a request he repeatedly obliged. In between, he pulled out his iPhone and flashed me photos from when he had shown up at this same spot to cover Trump’s arraignment last April. Pointing to one image, he singled out his girlfriend, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. (He calls himself the other half of “MAGA America’s favorite couple.”) He recounted how his crew had to cut their coverage short that day after Greene was mobbed by press and onlookers. “I probably physically bulldozed a dozen people getting her out of there,” Glenn said.

As Glenn spoke, he stopped mid-sentence, a voice breaking through his AirPods. “30 seconds?” I heard him say. He quickly returned to his mark and began to broadcast to an audience of what would soon blossom into more than 200,000 RSBN viewers spread across YouTube and Rumble, the right-coded video service. “This is Biden’s witch hunt,” Glenn told his viewers. “This is what this is. This is Biden’s trial. This is his ability, or effort right now, to take President Trump off the campaign trail.” Right Side Broadcasting Network dates back to 2016, when stay-at-home dad Joe Seales launched the online channel in order to live stream Trump rallies. Eight years later, RSBN has grown into a full outlet that employs roughly a dozen people and features a website full of stories. RSBN is like NFL RedZone for Trump rallies, covering them hours before any speakers approach the dais. Now, as Trump’s general election campaign kicks into high gear, it has also cemented itself as the pro-Trump media outlet of record for the MAGA base. The network boasts 1.64 million subscribers on YouTube (a larger subscribership than One America News Network) and another half a million on Rumble.

Glenn is the star who Seales has largely handed control over to. He is the Trump rally gameday host who plumbs the depths of MAGA America in the crowds wherever Trump goes. Glenn is fast becoming one of Trump’s favorite reporters, likely racking up more one-on-one interviews with Trump in the last year than any other journalist. During gaggles, Trump often singles him out for positive-slanted questions after entertaining a series of hardballs from other reporters. Christina Bobb, one of Trump’s revolving cast of attorneys, is a regular guest alongside Glenn on RSBN’s coverage of the trials.

[...]

RSBN has developed a reputation for going nearly everywhere that Trump ends up. Thanks to that flood-the-zone mentality of documenting Trump’s every move, it’s likely your favorite mainstream media reporter’s go-to method for keeping tabs on Trump on days that they’re off the campaign trail. Filipkowski and Glenn have formed an unlikely friendship online over direct messages that have spanned years, something I did not expect when I reached out to Filipkowski, a prominent X personality who made his name by spending almost every waking moment dunking on Trump and the MAGA movement. “I actually have found them to be the most valuable resource over the last four years to understanding MAGA — more than any other source,” Filipkowski told me. “I’ve probably posted 50 or 100 Brian Glenn interview clips of Trump, probably even 200. I find those clips incredibly valuable, because you’re getting it unvarnished. That’s when [Trump] lets his guard down a little, when he’s got a friendly face.”

What Filipkowski and many reporters most appreciate about Glenn’s coverage is a simple open-ended question he asks MAGA stans: What is it that you love most about Donald Trump? “If you say ‘I’m from the New York Times,’ his fans at rallies say ‘you’re fake news’ and don’t talk to you,” Dave Weigel, a Semafor politics reporter who relies on the site, told me. “That’s obviously less interesting than somebody saying, ‘We love you guys. Let me explain to you all my views in an interesting way,’ which is what Right Side Broadcasting does.” RSBN has “replaced mainstream media in the needs of your average Trump supporter: Why would you turn on Fox where they’re going to cut away when you can watch this website, and they’ve also got more access,” Weigel said.

Politico Magazine reports on Brian Glenn, the boyfriend of far-right extremist Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA). Glenn is a host for far-right MAGA propaganda outlet Right Side Broadcasting Network (RSBN).

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Andrew Perez and Adam Rawnsley at Rolling Stone:

THE CONSULTING FIRM led by Leonard Leo, the architect of the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority, has worked for billionaire Charles Koch’s political advocacy network and a dark-money group that is currently arguing a Supreme Court case designed to preempt a wealth tax, according to documents obtained by Rolling Stone. The firm even worked to promote a book by Donald Trump cronies Corey Lewandowski and David Bossie. Leo has played a central role in shifting the high court and its decisions far to the right. As former President Donald Trump’s judicial adviser, Leo helped select three of the Supreme Court’s six conservative justices. He also leads a dark-money network that boosted their confirmations and helps determine what cases the justices hear and shape their rulings. The Supreme Court connection has paid off for Leo — big time. In 2021, he was gifted control of a $1.6 billion political advocacy slush fund. Over the past decade, Leo’s dark money network has plowed more than $100 million into his for-profit consulting firm, CRC Advisors. 

Leo co-chairs the Federalist Society, the conservative lawyers network. He is also the chairman of CRC. Like many consulting firms, CRC does not publicly disclose its clients. However, several of the firm’s clients were named in resumes that applicants submitted to an online jobs bank hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute, which accidentally left the files exposed online. One CRC employee’s 2024 resume says his clients include the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a dark-money group arguing a case before the Supreme Court this term that is designed to slam the door shut on a federal wealth tax. Experts say the case could upend the nation’s tax code.  “In the last Congress, legislation to establish a wealth tax was introduced in both the House and the Senate,” CEI wrote in its petition to the Supreme Court, adding that justices should act now to “head off a major constitutional clash down the line.” During oral arguments in December, Justice Samuel Alito presented a hypothetical where “somebody graduates from school and starts up a little business in his garage, and 20 years later, 30 years later, the person is a billionaire,” and asked whether the government “can Congress tax all of that.” According to the CRC employee’s 2024 resume, Leo’s firm has also worked for the Koch network’s political advocacy arm, Americans for Prosperity. AFP’s super PAC spent more than $40 million supporting former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley’s failed Republican primary campaign against Trump this election cycle. AFP’s charitable arm has supported a case at the Supreme Court this term pushing justices to block the government from influencing content moderation by social media platforms.

Rolling Stone exposes radical right-wing SCOTUS puppetmaster Leonard Leo's consulting firm CRC Advisors, whose clients were leaked online.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Matthew Chapman at Raw Story:

MSNBC's Nicolle Wallace made a startling prediction on Monday: should former President Donald Trump be voted back into the Oval Office, she and other journalists could find themselves forced out of their jobs. Wallace's name quickly became a trend on the social media platform X as Americans on both sides of the aisle digested this disturbing take. The MSNBC host made this remark while discussing the recent White House Correspondents' Dinner and a comment from President Joe Biden.

"[Trump] said he wants to be a dictator on day one," Biden told the nation. "He tells supporters he is their revenge and retribution. When in God's name have you ever heard another president say something like that? And he promised a 'bloodbath' when he loses again. We have to take this seriously." Biden urged his viewers not to discount Trump's comments as mere campaign trail rhetoric. [...] "I've seen that toast a bunch of times, but it landed very differently this year," said Wallace. "Because depending on what happens in November, seven months from right now, this time next year, I might not be sitting here. There might not be a White House Correspondents' Dinner or free press. Will our democracy fall apart immediately without it? The real threat looms larger. A candidate with outward disdain, not just for a free press, but for all of our freedoms, and for the rule of law itself."

On Monday's edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House, host Nicolle Wallace gave a very grim warning that Donald Trump could force her and any other voice that dares to criticize Trump's fascist rule off the airwaves should he be elected again. This is one of many reasons why Joe Biden must be re-elected.

From the 04.29.2024 edition of MSNBC's Deadline: White House: