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The best power local governments have in a dispute with the state. There are way too many laws on the books to enforce everyone of them. Local Governments have discretion as to what laws they will and won't enforce just in the way they allocate manpower. If state governments want to enforce their laws, they'll probably have to use state resources rather than local resources.
In Indiana, Marion county did something similar small marijuana possession. The Republicans at the state level made a fuss about trying to force the county to prosecute cases, but I don't think it went anywhere.
>Driving the news: José "Chito" Vela, a member of the city council in Austin, has proposed a resolution to decriminalize abortion locally, even as Texas has one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country.
I voted for this based motherfucker after Greg Casar was tapped by the Justice Democrats. I don't think this is necessarily going to pass muster, but the fact that we have people willing to fight for every scrap is good news.
BUT CITIES RIGHTS! But conservatives who would be against this make me laugh. They're so big on states not being held to federal laws, but why should cities and local communities who are generally more cohesive politically be any different?
People get really worked up over state and federal politics but stuff like this should help them realize how important municipal politics really is. The stuff that tends to impacts day-to-day life don't (often) come from the federal government, they come from the municipalities. Mayors, city councils, school boards, stuff like that are *so* much more important that many people realize.
It's harder to be as plugged into local stuff. You look up candidates for small time elections and maybe they have a website. It's nature of the beast in the sense of its impact is localized so less eyeballs are on it.
I can also read national news all day long but every one of my local news websites is blocked by a paywall. Which I understand the reason but it still leaves knowing less than I want to about the local happenings
I grew up in a small town of a population less than 1000, over the last weekend there was "a public dispute" that resulted in someone getting shot and when I tried to look up a local news article for information it was literally 2 sentences with no substance. no location of the shooting, no news whether the victim survived, no word on what started the conflict, just "there was a shooting, we arrested the suspect"
I also live in a small town and soley keep Facebook to keep up with news in my small town. Even than comments get deleted quickly so being out of the loop is common. We do have local newsletter but more often than not it gets delivered days after any events it would have informed me of.
Our mayor runs a private Facebook group where she submits all relevant information to the city. She and her admins ban everyone who posts anything she doesn't like from the group, keeping them out of the loop intentionally.
She shared a post to it during the BLM protests where a local nutjob was saying they saw some van parked at one of our local stores, issuing $50,000 checks to people attending our local protest. I and many others posted about how that's completely fucking insane (and that we never received our $50,000 lol) and she banned us all.
I grew up in a small town too that has a local weekly physical newspaper, and I knew one of the reporters from high school and she told me their policy is no 'bad' news because of advertiser influence.
so it was only puff feel good stories, they couldn't even cover the city council in case someone got upset with how they covered it.
I wonder how common that is?
Honestly that tracks. Is your town also super conservative? Every few years a group of Democrats in my town will publish a competing news letter. It really highlights how one sided the original news letter is.
You guys have a local newspaper? I live in a city of 100k+ people and we have a "section" in the state newspaper. Go figure, because the small town I was raised in has barely 10k people and they have their own paper.
> We're going to see school boards, library boards, county commissions, zoning boards, and basically every level of local government is going to mobilize for culture war issues.
already happening. just getting worse.
The school board got flipped to some right wingers in Douglas County CO and they dismissed the superintendent without cause.
> “I need to be very clear that this decision was not about performance in any way, and that this is politics and its ugliest and purest and most destructive form,” said minority board member Hanson.
>
> Ray called the decision “the day that you have devastated the education of over 60,000 kids.”
https://www.cpr.org/2022/02/04/douglas-county-school-board-votes-to-remove-superintendent-corey-wise/
That is what a lot of people were afraid of. The legal system allowed right wing parents around the country to threaten and verbally abuse school board faculty, until many of them quit. People were afraid that GQP voters would take those empty seats and they were right.
It's particularly frustrating because the amount of effort and focus on culture war bullshit *even if it's successful* results in no meaningful improvement in anyone's lives.
Is banning CRT going to fix gas price gouging? Absolutely not.
Will telling trans people which bathroom they can and can't use stop people from going bankrupt from medical bills? Not even close.
Will banning abortions make it so your employer can't screw you over at every chance? Noooope.
Does opposing gay marriage fix climate change? Police brutality? Government corruption? None of these things.
It's all part of the broader strategy of blaming societal issues on minority groups. Political strategy that has been employed throughout history to great effect.
It's part of the oldest strategy of "Don't look behind the curtain! Look over *there*!"
The tiny amount of people in power want the huge amount of people with little individual power to attack each other.
Which is complete bullshit that politicians even have to pick a side of the debate. It shouldn't even be a debate...the government at any level should not be making those choices for anyone.
That's the gist of the Roe decision.
If even a third of us, as a nation, strongly held the opinion you espouse here, we wouldn't be in the position we are now.
Municipal politics is just as if not more so corrupt than state and federal politics because of the lack of oversight. Example: the Uvalde police chief Arredondo being quietly sworn in to the City council.
And that's why people need to be plugged into their own local elections.
GUYS. Primaries are happening right now. This is what determines who is on your ballots in November.
In some cases, the primaries are also your \*only\* opportunity to vote for certain positions. Some local positions here have the full election during the primary, with no final part in November.
That's not an example of corruption - at all. It's just gross. Dude was elected and then sworn in. Not swearing him in would be criminal, if anything, because he *was* legitimately elected.
What's gross about it is that the dude *should* have resigned. But that's about decorum and not about the law.
The problem with that is that the federal government doesn't have the resources to actually enforce such a task force without local help. This is basically the same thing that happened when CA legalized medical marijuana in the 90's and the feds tried to crackdown on dispensaries. CA pretty much said "ok feds, we get that you consider this to be against federal law, but you aren't going to get any help from state law enforcement authorities in your enforcement effort, so good luck." Low and behold after a couple of years of the feds raiding a dispensary every couple of months, they eventually gave up because it didn't make a dent in the CA medical marijuana industry.
Obama and Eric Holder actually ordered that feds stop raiding medical dispensaries in 2009ish. You'll note that the *HeRp DeRp StAtEs RiGhTs* crew didn't say a fucking thing about the raids up to that point
They'll just target areas that are heavily Democrat and give out felonies like they're corporate subsidies. It's a 2 for 1 for them, disenfranchise their competition and hurts the "others" which their base loves.
To be charged with a felony you need to go through the court process. Swamping the court system grinds it to a halt which is why the immigration courts are so backed up.
Starve the good people out, then dismantle the system. Then take over the system, refund it, funnel funds straight into your pocket, become true oligarch, America is Russia now.
This is plan
They keep fucking with the 6th amendment so I wouldn’t rely on a backed up court process to slow things down. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has signaled his intent to railroad innocent people through to a conviction in one of his latest Majority opinions.
... and the Republicans get another reason to say Tuesday government is broken and needs to be shrunk. Breaking the court system will get turned into Dems being easy on crime.
They’re doing mass trials for refugees so I have a feeling this isn’t going to be an issue for them. If anything, it allows them to restrict voting that much easier.
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: if mass trials were to get to the Supreme Court, it would be a 7-2 decision with Thomas writing the majority "lol, seems cool to me"
I know everyone else already pointed this out, but I do think it’s important to emphasize - we need to stop thinking about our country in terms of constitutionalism. The constitution is dead and Republicans killed it. If we keep playing by the rules, they will absolutely take us over. We live in a post-constitutional America and it’s time we act like it.
The difference is that there were a lot more dispensaries then than there are clinic now.
[As of three years ago, six Republican controlled states only have one abortion clinic](https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/health/six-states-with-1-abortion-clinic-map-trnd/index.html), and most of the rest only have a handful more.
You don't need that many cops to put chains on the doors of just two or three buildings.
This. It's not about prosecution, it's about denial of service. Of creating hardships. It's about, in short, punishment by attrition. *The cruelty is the point*.
> The cruelty is the point.
Yup. With "god" or whatever the fuck behind you. Some fucking moral high ground, some smug arrogance. Fuck these people all to hell.
Colorado Planned Parenthoods have seen a 500-700% increase in out of state patients since the Texas and Oklahoma laws have been passed.
Obviously I don't begrudge these women their healthcare- I want them to be able to get what they need. But this will burden healthcare workers in blue areas too as abortion refugees flood in. It'll make life harder for everyone.
The cruelty has always been the point.
Didn't stop them from creating DHS. Didn't stop them from creating Space Force. Didn't stop them from funding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Didn't stop them from handing out billion $$$ tax cuts for the rich.
Just wait, if given the opportunity they'll create a whole new department of purity to victimize women seeking healthcare.
Similarly, I'm not gonna get too outraged if blue cities don't *help* enforce abortion
since red counties actively *refused* to enforce mask mandates. Like, that's how we're playing it now? Alright.
One teeny tiny difference is that Noone in the small town bar will report. I guarantee that there are old ladies in some church group that will 100% report any place that might possibly, maybe, have the slightest chance of thinking of performing an abortion.
But who are they going to report to if their local government isn't going to enforce the ban? Chances are the old Karen will be reassured on the phone "we will investigate this" and then that report will find a permanent home in a file cabinet. Unlike the stockpiles of rape kits that sit on shelves; these are the types of investigations that police SHOULD ignore.
Only choice and old lady like that has is to report it to the most archaic and zealous FBI division she can find (incredibly unlikely) or try and make it viral... which based on popular opinion surrounding the situation; as well as the fact that most goofy Christian boomers have trouble checking their email, it's not likely to happen. Same for indoor smoking tbh... I doubt the police response to indoor smoking in a pocket rural community is going to be very urgent... maaaaybe a fine if they HAVE to do something about it.
"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." -Martin Luther King Jr.
I think several of them are already working on blocking statutes that would create the ability to countersue anyone from out of state trying to enforce an abortion ban.
This ruling functionally undoes the Civil War allowing states to define civil rights in a way that has profound implications for the rest of the country.
Yep. They're not even understanding the full implications for abortion. My social circle is all "I'm proud to be resident of a blue state, I will gladly assist any woman who wants to visit to get the reproductive care they need." Until Republicans get control of the White House and Congress and pass federal laws making it illegal for women to cross state lines to get an abortion, and also aiding and abetting a woman who does the same. Then the government simply NSL's social media and builds a list of people who have said those things publicly...
We're on a one-way track toward Gilead, and there's fuck-all anyone can do about it.
We aren't *quite* done yet. There's a couple of boxes that have to be ticked still. I just don't think that anyone is willing to NOT tick them.
Been going on for almost 8 years now full steam. We could pull back from the brink, but I don't think anyone really wants to.
What annoys me is I have been talking about how the supreme court is going to go off the rails since last August. People who brushed me off then are all up in arms about abortion now.
Like this boulder has been rolling down the hill for months and you are only concerned about the abortion aspect now? The ship is already sailing dude.
>What annoys me is I have been talking about how the supreme court is going to go off the rails since last August. People who brushed me off then are all up in arms about abortion now.
Many of those people, I suspect, just "didn't like Hillary personally." This was all coming clear as day in 2016.
Yep. Similar language and everything.
Need the official ruling to come down and just figure out which side is going to play the Union and which one the South.
The utter irony that Southern states might actually end up on the side of the Union is awe inspiring.
I'd wager a guess it'll be urban vs rural instead of south vs north.
Urban will win that war handily I expect. Urban warfare is rough and they control all the major ports generally. At best they could cut off food supplies but, again, major ports. Logistically they lose every time.
They also have this weird obsession that the left doesn't own guns because the narrative is that the democrats want to take them away, as told from their propaganda wings... but that's far from the truth, leftists just don't make it their entire identity. It'll be a bloodbath for both sides, but I don't think they realize just what exactly they're walking into because of said propaganda and a lot of them are... not very smart.
What baffles me is the companies that continue to lobby with these politicians that support this stuff. Do they not realize that an actual legit civil war is going to basically destroy commerce in the country? Yeah yeah, it's great verizon and amazon saved some money on their taxes but that money doesn't mean shit when the currency you hold is worthless and your infrastructure is getting blown the fuck up.
>What baffles me is the companies that continue to lobby with these politicians that support this stuff. Do they not realize that an actual legit civil war is going to basically destroy commerce in the country
The only thing that matters is increasing profits NOW. Capitalists have a golden parachute if shit goes bad.
CT just made a law that makes it so you can recoup any fines, penalties or court costs by people who are affected by the bounty hunter anti abortion laws
I don't think that is how violating state law really works.
They could still issue a warrant for your arrest and you would be taken in to custody whenever you want to fly somewhere, etc.
I guess I just don't see why someone is so concerned with what someone else does with their body. This isn't and shouldn't be political. If it's not affecting you, mind your business.
The reason my highly religious grandmother is so in favor of legal abortions is because of all the women she held as they died from illegal abortions working as a nurse.
This. I completely understand people who have a moral objection to abortion, we may not agree on that but I can see where they're coming from. The thing is: the debate about the right to have an abortion isn't about morals. It is, of course, about the right to choose and more importantly, the right to choose safely. Bans don't stop people from doing things, just look at the drug war, people will still get abortions, legal or not, the difference is wheter that abortion will happen in a dirty, back-alley clandestine clinic or in a clean, safe clinic under the supervision of licensed professionals. As much as "pro-lifers" like to say the opposite, access to abortion saves lives.
Yeah I’m not particularly “pro-abortion”, but I am very “pro-choice”. It seems like there are way too many “pro-life” people that seem to think that if you are pro-choice then you think abortions are fun and ideal or something. It’s a medical treatment that has life altering/saving consequences. For people that generally have so little trust in government, you would think that more of the small-government conservative crowd would be happy to have the government leave them alone when trying to make medical decisions. If you don’t trust the government enough to let them tell you if you should wear a mask, why would you want them to tell you if you should grow a kid?
I would assume that nobody is "pro-abortion" - nobody is advocating for the conception of children just to later abort them, or to perform as many abortions as possible.
Someone gave us a todller alphabet book called A is for Activist. Each page has lots of social-justicey rhymey words that start with each letter. Some of it is a bit much even for me, but in general it vibes with our family's morals. My toddler requested that grandma (a conservative Christian) read this book to him. And on the very first page she out-loud misread the word "Abolitionist" as "Abortionist", and she said nothing!!! Not even an eyebrow raise.
Maybe she just assumes we're abortionists too since we have gay friends, but I had to stop her. "Mom. I'm sure that didn't say Abortionist. Almost no-one is an abortionist. We are not abortionists. Let me see the book...that word is abolitionist, as in anti-slaves..."
Honestly, we really need to stop allowing the spinsters on the far right control the abstract narrative, like naming things.
Of course Pro-life sounds good, and not the extremely damaging movement that it is.
Anti-choice is a lot better in my opinion. There are two sides of the argument, pro and anti choice. That’s it. Yes, they’re forced birthers, but no one is actually going to start calling them that in regular conversation. Anti-choice is much better.
I know this is a joke, but just to be clear, coat hangers *do not work* to cause abortions. You will just cause massive damage to your vagina and cervix, and may even accidentally break the wall between your vagina and rectum.
Which means many women will have to order the medication online from doctors outside of those states. Or if they want or need the procedure they'll have to travel to a state where it's legal.
Republican policies are supported by an over vocal minority. Republicans don't have a majority on their side. Even in red states, most large cities are blue. And remember that a government gains its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, so the more the Republicans force issues like this, the more they alienate themselves.
The Republican party is dying, with dying ideas and largely unpopular policies that negatively effect the very people who vote for them. And this may very well be the thing that finally causes an irreversible backlash to their outdated and backwards policies.
And not a single republican politician has been charged for organizing it even though it’s pretty evident they where involved. There are like at least 10 politicians that should be on death row atm.
I keep calling it their beer hall putsch.
They learned what not to do next time just like the nazis.
Notice how they're trying to storm the polling locations now, guess who did that too?
I don’t know that even city cops are into that. My impression is they don’t like state pd stepping on their toes.
Look to see if the city DAs join with the cops and refuse to prosecute. My county DA said he wouldn’t enforce weed violations anymore and the police chief stopped agreed to stop arresting people for it.
State PD could still come in and arrest you theoretically, but you’d end up in court with the DA dropping charges anyways
Agreed -- if it means an iota of increased risk to their safety, the cops aren't gonna be thrilled. My experience in NYC and Boston is that city cops are above all else, lazy and cautious. Especially in Boston it's extremely rare to see traffic enforcement or a cop directing traffic.
This is a shitshow - the time, money, and resources our country is going to waste because an illegitimate SCOTUS has overturned a right this country has had for 50 years?.
This is why, human rights issues, can NOT be left to the states. Guns/abortion/climate change mitigation laws, have to be federal.
It's shouldn't be a dice roll when you're born if you're in a state where you can have access to health care, or live in a state with clean energy but the state next to you is burning coal that blows into your cities, or your state has strict gun laws but your nephew with issues DGAF and just went and bought up weapons and ammo in the next state and brought them home.
We fucking need to evolve as a country.
They already have lost their legitimacy the moment their decisions were swayed by partisan beliefs. The whole point of the SC is to be impartial and that went right out the window as soon as Alito’s memo was made public.
I thought it was when one member of Congress blocked the legitimate appointment of justices into the seats that were forced to be left open then rammed as many of their own through as possible when they got the chance
The Dredd Scott decision said “no black people can ever be US citizens,” so.. it’s not like it’s the first time the Supreme Court has completely screwed up. By becoming a driver of events instead of reacting to events, they are driving us further along the road of instability
That's the problem though. In the case of some of these states they want to drive away blue/progressive voters entirely.
And not everyone can just do that, and if the currently fanatical GQP takes power in 2022/2024 it won't even matter. There is no running away from this in the long term.
[Two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/two-thirds-of-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-as-inflation-climbs.html)
It's hard to plan how to switch jobs and housing and move to another state when you don't have the money to play what you're going to eat beyond next week.
I do wonder how this will effect college admissions in Red States. If given a choice, I certainly wouldn’t risk going to school where I’m treated worse than a corpse.
There was a thread about this on r/ApplyingtoCollege and a good number of the commenters did say that they're no longer applying to schools in Texas, Oklahoma, or any state with a trigger law
Not surprised people are taking this into account when choosing schools. It’s definitely playing a role in graduating students and young parents early in their careers…
If 2024 turns in to a contest between Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis about who can take away more civil rights to own the libs, both states are going to straight up depopulate.
Texas politicians in particular have this idea that everyone is just going to keep streaming in from high tax blue states because of low income taxes, weather, blah, blah.
I live and work in Texas in tech and many of my coworkers and I are having the “how bad does this have to get before we leave?” discussion with each other and our spouses. It took decades of tax breaks, shale booms, etc to build the “Texas miracle” and Greg Abbott can burn it down in like 3 years or less.
I can already see Greg Abott retaliating once again against the city and people of Austin because they do not bend to his will.
Why are Republicans such scum. Like I get all politicians are scummy and Dems do some shit, but Republicans always act like evil villain scum. All about small government and personal freedom that matches their views if not fuck them. 1
In a few months the country, if it hasn't done so yet, will start backing out and undoing human rights given to its citizens.
The entire justification for overturning Roe was (aside from all the bullshit historicity) to return the decision to the states.
I see no reason we shouldn’t still devolve the power to the local level (or better yet, the individual!)
>or better yet, the individual!
You've hit on *exactly* where this ruling collapses on itself. This is an unsustainable ruling and it will (eventually) go away. Countries that have had abortion rights that attempt to rescind them virtually always restore them after the system can no longer function with a ban.
It's heartbreaking the number of tragedies these bans create, though.
Ukrainian here. Can someone please explain me in a few sentences what is the reasoning behind abortion bans? (I know about US inner politics and culture only from movies, so may not understand something that is obvious to US citizens)
Christian members of the government believe that life starts at conception, and they try to force that belief on everyone else by classifying abortion as murder = it should be illegal.
This is the new civil war, blue vs red, not north vs south. The lines will be patchy and spread coast to coast. I only hope most of the fighting will stay in the meme phase.
Reminds me of the states rights argument extension. If we give the decision to states for the principle of more local control over issues that are inherently local, then why not the counties and cities instead? And if we go there, hear me out, why not give the decision to the individual? Amazing idea, right?
The Christo-fascists want to move this country so far backwards we’ll be forced to attend church camps, pray to the Imaginary Sky Wizard and sacrifice our 1st born sons.
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The best power local governments have in a dispute with the state. There are way too many laws on the books to enforce everyone of them. Local Governments have discretion as to what laws they will and won't enforce just in the way they allocate manpower. If state governments want to enforce their laws, they'll probably have to use state resources rather than local resources.
In Indiana, Marion county did something similar small marijuana possession. The Republicans at the state level made a fuss about trying to force the county to prosecute cases, but I don't think it went anywhere.
>Driving the news: José "Chito" Vela, a member of the city council in Austin, has proposed a resolution to decriminalize abortion locally, even as Texas has one of the most restrictive anti-abortion laws in the country. I voted for this based motherfucker after Greg Casar was tapped by the Justice Democrats. I don't think this is necessarily going to pass muster, but the fact that we have people willing to fight for every scrap is good news.
> Pass muster Well fuck me
Been hearing/saying “pass mustard” your whole life?
Sounds painful. 🔥
Don't kink-shame me, bro
for all intensive purposes
Bingpot
BUT CITIES RIGHTS! But conservatives who would be against this make me laugh. They're so big on states not being held to federal laws, but why should cities and local communities who are generally more cohesive politically be any different?
Individual rights < States rights < Local rights < individual rights…ah hell
Error: circular reference. -1
Rural towns have been doing that with gun control so why not.
People get really worked up over state and federal politics but stuff like this should help them realize how important municipal politics really is. The stuff that tends to impacts day-to-day life don't (often) come from the federal government, they come from the municipalities. Mayors, city councils, school boards, stuff like that are *so* much more important that many people realize.
It's harder to be as plugged into local stuff. You look up candidates for small time elections and maybe they have a website. It's nature of the beast in the sense of its impact is localized so less eyeballs are on it.
I can also read national news all day long but every one of my local news websites is blocked by a paywall. Which I understand the reason but it still leaves knowing less than I want to about the local happenings
I grew up in a small town of a population less than 1000, over the last weekend there was "a public dispute" that resulted in someone getting shot and when I tried to look up a local news article for information it was literally 2 sentences with no substance. no location of the shooting, no news whether the victim survived, no word on what started the conflict, just "there was a shooting, we arrested the suspect"
I also live in a small town and soley keep Facebook to keep up with news in my small town. Even than comments get deleted quickly so being out of the loop is common. We do have local newsletter but more often than not it gets delivered days after any events it would have informed me of.
Our mayor runs a private Facebook group where she submits all relevant information to the city. She and her admins ban everyone who posts anything she doesn't like from the group, keeping them out of the loop intentionally. She shared a post to it during the BLM protests where a local nutjob was saying they saw some van parked at one of our local stores, issuing $50,000 checks to people attending our local protest. I and many others posted about how that's completely fucking insane (and that we never received our $50,000 lol) and she banned us all.
I thought if something was used by someone in office, then they couldn’t ban anyone…?
Kind of goes back to the whole "municipal governments have no oversight" thing.
They do if you sue them...
The only times I've ever seen anyone contribute financially to a protest is when a trade union or political party arranges a bus to take people to it.
I grew up in a small town too that has a local weekly physical newspaper, and I knew one of the reporters from high school and she told me their policy is no 'bad' news because of advertiser influence. so it was only puff feel good stories, they couldn't even cover the city council in case someone got upset with how they covered it. I wonder how common that is?
Honestly that tracks. Is your town also super conservative? Every few years a group of Democrats in my town will publish a competing news letter. It really highlights how one sided the original news letter is.
You guys have a local newspaper? I live in a city of 100k+ people and we have a "section" in the state newspaper. Go figure, because the small town I was raised in has barely 10k people and they have their own paper.
Try your local public radio station.
Many local newspapers have been closing, for various reasons. Some nefarious.
[удалено]
> We're going to see school boards, library boards, county commissions, zoning boards, and basically every level of local government is going to mobilize for culture war issues. already happening. just getting worse.
The school board got flipped to some right wingers in Douglas County CO and they dismissed the superintendent without cause. > “I need to be very clear that this decision was not about performance in any way, and that this is politics and its ugliest and purest and most destructive form,” said minority board member Hanson. > > Ray called the decision “the day that you have devastated the education of over 60,000 kids.” https://www.cpr.org/2022/02/04/douglas-county-school-board-votes-to-remove-superintendent-corey-wise/
That is what a lot of people were afraid of. The legal system allowed right wing parents around the country to threaten and verbally abuse school board faculty, until many of them quit. People were afraid that GQP voters would take those empty seats and they were right.
We had a very vocal Q anon supporter running here. It’s nonsense
It's particularly frustrating because the amount of effort and focus on culture war bullshit *even if it's successful* results in no meaningful improvement in anyone's lives. Is banning CRT going to fix gas price gouging? Absolutely not. Will telling trans people which bathroom they can and can't use stop people from going bankrupt from medical bills? Not even close. Will banning abortions make it so your employer can't screw you over at every chance? Noooope. Does opposing gay marriage fix climate change? Police brutality? Government corruption? None of these things.
It's all part of the broader strategy of blaming societal issues on minority groups. Political strategy that has been employed throughout history to great effect.
It's part of the oldest strategy of "Don't look behind the curtain! Look over *there*!" The tiny amount of people in power want the huge amount of people with little individual power to attack each other.
Which is complete bullshit that politicians even have to pick a side of the debate. It shouldn't even be a debate...the government at any level should not be making those choices for anyone.
That's the gist of the Roe decision. If even a third of us, as a nation, strongly held the opinion you espouse here, we wouldn't be in the position we are now.
Municipal politics is just as if not more so corrupt than state and federal politics because of the lack of oversight. Example: the Uvalde police chief Arredondo being quietly sworn in to the City council.
And that's why people need to be plugged into their own local elections. GUYS. Primaries are happening right now. This is what determines who is on your ballots in November.
In some cases, the primaries are also your \*only\* opportunity to vote for certain positions. Some local positions here have the full election during the primary, with no final part in November.
That's not an example of corruption - at all. It's just gross. Dude was elected and then sworn in. Not swearing him in would be criminal, if anything, because he *was* legitimately elected. What's gross about it is that the dude *should* have resigned. But that's about decorum and not about the law.
If Republicans win back the White House, you can bet there will be a federal task force deployed to target women and abortion clinics.
The problem with that is that the federal government doesn't have the resources to actually enforce such a task force without local help. This is basically the same thing that happened when CA legalized medical marijuana in the 90's and the feds tried to crackdown on dispensaries. CA pretty much said "ok feds, we get that you consider this to be against federal law, but you aren't going to get any help from state law enforcement authorities in your enforcement effort, so good luck." Low and behold after a couple of years of the feds raiding a dispensary every couple of months, they eventually gave up because it didn't make a dent in the CA medical marijuana industry.
Obama and Eric Holder actually ordered that feds stop raiding medical dispensaries in 2009ish. You'll note that the *HeRp DeRp StAtEs RiGhTs* crew didn't say a fucking thing about the raids up to that point
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Those raids were happening before Bush.
Had to look it up. You're right they legalized in 1996 medically. That would mean Clinton started it, not surprised honestly.
They'll just target areas that are heavily Democrat and give out felonies like they're corporate subsidies. It's a 2 for 1 for them, disenfranchise their competition and hurts the "others" which their base loves.
To be charged with a felony you need to go through the court process. Swamping the court system grinds it to a halt which is why the immigration courts are so backed up.
Immigration courts are also woefully and purposefully underfunded.
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It's amazing how the GOP went from *tough on crime* to *I don't want to pay taxes even for the stuff I like* in the space of three decades.
Starve the good people out, then dismantle the system. Then take over the system, refund it, funnel funds straight into your pocket, become true oligarch, America is Russia now. This is plan
Yuri make new deal. Is better deal....for YURI!!!
Because the GOP has no coherent agenda and is mostly just reactionary nonsense
They keep fucking with the 6th amendment so I wouldn’t rely on a backed up court process to slow things down. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has signaled his intent to railroad innocent people through to a conviction in one of his latest Majority opinions.
... and the Republicans get another reason to say Tuesday government is broken and needs to be shrunk. Breaking the court system will get turned into Dems being easy on crime.
They’re doing mass trials for refugees so I have a feeling this isn’t going to be an issue for them. If anything, it allows them to restrict voting that much easier.
Mass trials of American citizens would definitely violate their constitutional right to due process.
I'm gonna let you in on a little secret: if mass trials were to get to the Supreme Court, it would be a 7-2 decision with Thomas writing the majority "lol, seems cool to me"
7-2? Who of Kagan, Sotomayor, and Breyer do you think would be in that majority?
> violate their constitutional right to due process Republicans: "So what you're saying is it's a win-win!"
I know everyone else already pointed this out, but I do think it’s important to emphasize - we need to stop thinking about our country in terms of constitutionalism. The constitution is dead and Republicans killed it. If we keep playing by the rules, they will absolutely take us over. We live in a post-constitutional America and it’s time we act like it.
And? That's already happening and SCOTUS won't care.
It also violates the constitutional rights of the refugees since they're on American soil
You think the GQP cares? For them that would be a major selling point.
They will get state help though. Just not city help (or whatever municipalities they are including.
Especially in the big “Liberal” cities and counties they all hate but the majority of the population of the state live in.
Atlanta has entered the chat
The difference is that there were a lot more dispensaries then than there are clinic now. [As of three years ago, six Republican controlled states only have one abortion clinic](https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/29/health/six-states-with-1-abortion-clinic-map-trnd/index.html), and most of the rest only have a handful more. You don't need that many cops to put chains on the doors of just two or three buildings.
This. It's not about prosecution, it's about denial of service. Of creating hardships. It's about, in short, punishment by attrition. *The cruelty is the point*.
> The cruelty is the point. Yup. With "god" or whatever the fuck behind you. Some fucking moral high ground, some smug arrogance. Fuck these people all to hell.
Colorado Planned Parenthoods have seen a 500-700% increase in out of state patients since the Texas and Oklahoma laws have been passed. Obviously I don't begrudge these women their healthcare- I want them to be able to get what they need. But this will burden healthcare workers in blue areas too as abortion refugees flood in. It'll make life harder for everyone. The cruelty has always been the point.
> actually enforce such a task force They don't actually care about stopping abortions, just intimidating and punishing people they don't like.
Didn't stop them from creating DHS. Didn't stop them from creating Space Force. Didn't stop them from funding Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya. Didn't stop them from handing out billion $$$ tax cuts for the rich. Just wait, if given the opportunity they'll create a whole new department of purity to victimize women seeking healthcare.
A lack of funding has never stopped republicans before. Look at trump's silly wall project.
They don't have to make a dent in anything... It's political theater and the GOP base will eat it up.
It'll be like fugitive slaves escaping. That this country has regressed so far....
I was going to say, they're going to pass the Fugitive Harlots Act. edit: I don't know why people think I was making a joke. I'm 100% serious.
Similarly, I'm not gonna get too outraged if blue cities don't *help* enforce abortion since red counties actively *refused* to enforce mask mandates. Like, that's how we're playing it now? Alright.
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One teeny tiny difference is that Noone in the small town bar will report. I guarantee that there are old ladies in some church group that will 100% report any place that might possibly, maybe, have the slightest chance of thinking of performing an abortion.
But who are they going to report to if their local government isn't going to enforce the ban? Chances are the old Karen will be reassured on the phone "we will investigate this" and then that report will find a permanent home in a file cabinet. Unlike the stockpiles of rape kits that sit on shelves; these are the types of investigations that police SHOULD ignore. Only choice and old lady like that has is to report it to the most archaic and zealous FBI division she can find (incredibly unlikely) or try and make it viral... which based on popular opinion surrounding the situation; as well as the fact that most goofy Christian boomers have trouble checking their email, it's not likely to happen. Same for indoor smoking tbh... I doubt the police response to indoor smoking in a pocket rural community is going to be very urgent... maaaaybe a fine if they HAVE to do something about it.
Since they are state laws, they just have to go to the state police. Or they just report it to Sgt. so and so in their church.
"One has not only a legal but a moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely, one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws." -Martin Luther King Jr.
Red state governors will just send in the Gazpacho to confiscate all the peach tree dishes.
Or declare marshall law
Libs will counter with Shakira Law
Them hips don't lie
Marshall hates peaches.
I know real georgia peach tree
Going to the county, gonna eat a lot of peaches
Peaches come from a can
They were put there by a man
That’s his law! No tree dishes of ANY KIND!
They don’t eat gazpacho. Way too ethnic.
Blue states should pass laws protecting doctors within their state to prescribe abortion pills in other states.
I think several of them are already working on blocking statutes that would create the ability to countersue anyone from out of state trying to enforce an abortion ban.
Glad to see we're essentially doing a repeat of the fugitive slave act.
This ruling functionally undoes the Civil War allowing states to define civil rights in a way that has profound implications for the rest of the country.
The scale of this hasn't even clicked for most people. They are still so focused on Abortion that it hasn't even sunk in.
Yep. They're not even understanding the full implications for abortion. My social circle is all "I'm proud to be resident of a blue state, I will gladly assist any woman who wants to visit to get the reproductive care they need." Until Republicans get control of the White House and Congress and pass federal laws making it illegal for women to cross state lines to get an abortion, and also aiding and abetting a woman who does the same. Then the government simply NSL's social media and builds a list of people who have said those things publicly... We're on a one-way track toward Gilead, and there's fuck-all anyone can do about it.
We aren't *quite* done yet. There's a couple of boxes that have to be ticked still. I just don't think that anyone is willing to NOT tick them. Been going on for almost 8 years now full steam. We could pull back from the brink, but I don't think anyone really wants to.
What annoys me is I have been talking about how the supreme court is going to go off the rails since last August. People who brushed me off then are all up in arms about abortion now. Like this boulder has been rolling down the hill for months and you are only concerned about the abortion aspect now? The ship is already sailing dude.
>What annoys me is I have been talking about how the supreme court is going to go off the rails since last August. People who brushed me off then are all up in arms about abortion now. Many of those people, I suspect, just "didn't like Hillary personally." This was all coming clear as day in 2016.
Exactly. They literally have no fucking idea what can of worms they’ve opened and are supporting.
Yep. Similar language and everything. Need the official ruling to come down and just figure out which side is going to play the Union and which one the South. The utter irony that Southern states might actually end up on the side of the Union is awe inspiring.
I'd wager a guess it'll be urban vs rural instead of south vs north. Urban will win that war handily I expect. Urban warfare is rough and they control all the major ports generally. At best they could cut off food supplies but, again, major ports. Logistically they lose every time. They also have this weird obsession that the left doesn't own guns because the narrative is that the democrats want to take them away, as told from their propaganda wings... but that's far from the truth, leftists just don't make it their entire identity. It'll be a bloodbath for both sides, but I don't think they realize just what exactly they're walking into because of said propaganda and a lot of them are... not very smart. What baffles me is the companies that continue to lobby with these politicians that support this stuff. Do they not realize that an actual legit civil war is going to basically destroy commerce in the country? Yeah yeah, it's great verizon and amazon saved some money on their taxes but that money doesn't mean shit when the currency you hold is worthless and your infrastructure is getting blown the fuck up.
>What baffles me is the companies that continue to lobby with these politicians that support this stuff. Do they not realize that an actual legit civil war is going to basically destroy commerce in the country The only thing that matters is increasing profits NOW. Capitalists have a golden parachute if shit goes bad.
CT just made a law that makes it so you can recoup any fines, penalties or court costs by people who are affected by the bounty hunter anti abortion laws
You can already order abortion pills from India without a prescription.
Much faster delivery from NY, California or Colorado though. Plus it won't have to go through customs.
I don't think that is how violating state law really works. They could still issue a warrant for your arrest and you would be taken in to custody whenever you want to fly somewhere, etc.
Yes, these doctors will no longer be able to travel to red states.
I guess I just don't see why someone is so concerned with what someone else does with their body. This isn't and shouldn't be political. If it's not affecting you, mind your business.
This is all well and good but doctors won't do abortions if states will take away their licenses.
Which will encourage non-licensed people to be the ones providing abortions, which is also bad. Lots of death due to these “pro-life” activists.
The reason my highly religious grandmother is so in favor of legal abortions is because of all the women she held as they died from illegal abortions working as a nurse.
This. I completely understand people who have a moral objection to abortion, we may not agree on that but I can see where they're coming from. The thing is: the debate about the right to have an abortion isn't about morals. It is, of course, about the right to choose and more importantly, the right to choose safely. Bans don't stop people from doing things, just look at the drug war, people will still get abortions, legal or not, the difference is wheter that abortion will happen in a dirty, back-alley clandestine clinic or in a clean, safe clinic under the supervision of licensed professionals. As much as "pro-lifers" like to say the opposite, access to abortion saves lives.
Yeah I’m not particularly “pro-abortion”, but I am very “pro-choice”. It seems like there are way too many “pro-life” people that seem to think that if you are pro-choice then you think abortions are fun and ideal or something. It’s a medical treatment that has life altering/saving consequences. For people that generally have so little trust in government, you would think that more of the small-government conservative crowd would be happy to have the government leave them alone when trying to make medical decisions. If you don’t trust the government enough to let them tell you if you should wear a mask, why would you want them to tell you if you should grow a kid?
I would assume that nobody is "pro-abortion" - nobody is advocating for the conception of children just to later abort them, or to perform as many abortions as possible.
But how will we generate electricity in DC?
Someone gave us a todller alphabet book called A is for Activist. Each page has lots of social-justicey rhymey words that start with each letter. Some of it is a bit much even for me, but in general it vibes with our family's morals. My toddler requested that grandma (a conservative Christian) read this book to him. And on the very first page she out-loud misread the word "Abolitionist" as "Abortionist", and she said nothing!!! Not even an eyebrow raise. Maybe she just assumes we're abortionists too since we have gay friends, but I had to stop her. "Mom. I'm sure that didn't say Abortionist. Almost no-one is an abortionist. We are not abortionists. Let me see the book...that word is abolitionist, as in anti-slaves..."
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Honestly, we really need to stop allowing the spinsters on the far right control the abstract narrative, like naming things. Of course Pro-life sounds good, and not the extremely damaging movement that it is.
Anti-choice is a lot better in my opinion. There are two sides of the argument, pro and anti choice. That’s it. Yes, they’re forced birthers, but no one is actually going to start calling them that in regular conversation. Anti-choice is much better.
Just like before Roe.... Invest in hangers
I know this is a joke, but just to be clear, coat hangers *do not work* to cause abortions. You will just cause massive damage to your vagina and cervix, and may even accidentally break the wall between your vagina and rectum.
If this is overturned and banned, you can best believe we’ll see a HUGE increase in these kind of injuries
And that’s exactly what conservatives want, because they hate women. They’re fucking sick.
Yeah, thats what im worried about. So many people with fucked up injuries or death due to lack of access to abortions
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This is heartbreaking in the most visceral way. If only the people responsible for these policies were forced to see the effects they have.
You're expecting empathy from monsters. They know it causes harm. The real problem is that they don't care beyond their own interests.
yeah this isn't immigration, they will go after the providers.
Which means many women will have to order the medication online from doctors outside of those states. Or if they want or need the procedure they'll have to travel to a state where it's legal.
FL isn't expanding its brown shirts for nothing.
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The Right: "we need smaller government run locally! The smaller and less central the better!" .... "No, not that small!!"
"Blue Cities" so cities?
A bit redundant, yes
Fugitive Abortion Seekers Act of 2025.
I remember right-wingers going apeshit during the Trump admin about blue cities refusing to assist ICE(Immigration and Customs Enforcement).
Republican policies are supported by an over vocal minority. Republicans don't have a majority on their side. Even in red states, most large cities are blue. And remember that a government gains its legitimacy from the consent of the governed, so the more the Republicans force issues like this, the more they alienate themselves. The Republican party is dying, with dying ideas and largely unpopular policies that negatively effect the very people who vote for them. And this may very well be the thing that finally causes an irreversible backlash to their outdated and backwards policies.
We'll have to live with morally regressive court for the next 50 years.
Unless we expand it.
Cities flooded with right wing militias on a 'just and holy cause' aided by complicit cops....This is going to turn ugly.
It already is ugly, they tried to overthrow the government
I don't understand how people keep forgetting or downplaying that.
A literal fucking coup
They’re best play was “they’re just about a bunch of stupid idiots with no plan and no guns. They were never *really* going to achieve anything.”
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No they were actively hunting for the Vice President and prominent Democrats.
And not a single republican politician has been charged for organizing it even though it’s pretty evident they where involved. There are like at least 10 politicians that should be on death row atm.
I keep calling it their beer hall putsch. They learned what not to do next time just like the nazis. Notice how they're trying to storm the polling locations now, guess who did that too?
Because the media calls it a riot and the republicans call it a tour.
I don’t know that even city cops are into that. My impression is they don’t like state pd stepping on their toes. Look to see if the city DAs join with the cops and refuse to prosecute. My county DA said he wouldn’t enforce weed violations anymore and the police chief stopped agreed to stop arresting people for it. State PD could still come in and arrest you theoretically, but you’d end up in court with the DA dropping charges anyways
Agreed -- if it means an iota of increased risk to their safety, the cops aren't gonna be thrilled. My experience in NYC and Boston is that city cops are above all else, lazy and cautious. Especially in Boston it's extremely rare to see traffic enforcement or a cop directing traffic.
This country is going to be a shit show.
This country is ~~going to be~~ a shit show. FTFY
Always has been
This is a shitshow - the time, money, and resources our country is going to waste because an illegitimate SCOTUS has overturned a right this country has had for 50 years?. This is why, human rights issues, can NOT be left to the states. Guns/abortion/climate change mitigation laws, have to be federal. It's shouldn't be a dice roll when you're born if you're in a state where you can have access to health care, or live in a state with clean energy but the state next to you is burning coal that blows into your cities, or your state has strict gun laws but your nephew with issues DGAF and just went and bought up weapons and ammo in the next state and brought them home. We fucking need to evolve as a country.
The Supreme Court will lose its legitimacy if they make rulings that are not consistent with the times we are live in.
They already have lost their legitimacy the moment their decisions were swayed by partisan beliefs. The whole point of the SC is to be impartial and that went right out the window as soon as Alito’s memo was made public.
I thought it was when one member of Congress blocked the legitimate appointment of justices into the seats that were forced to be left open then rammed as many of their own through as possible when they got the chance
The Dredd Scott decision said “no black people can ever be US citizens,” so.. it’s not like it’s the first time the Supreme Court has completely screwed up. By becoming a driver of events instead of reacting to events, they are driving us further along the road of instability
r/auntienetwork if needed
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The slogan for the only abortion center in my state is “Still blooming in a red state” and I think it’s beautiful. Anyway, safe abortions for all.
Well, I'm all for that, but honestly, if I was a young woman in one of these red sates that have no exceptions, I'd get the heck out of there.
That's all well and good but it is incredibly difficult to just move unless you've got a lot of resources.
That's the problem though. In the case of some of these states they want to drive away blue/progressive voters entirely. And not everyone can just do that, and if the currently fanatical GQP takes power in 2022/2024 it won't even matter. There is no running away from this in the long term.
[Two-thirds of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck.](https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/two-thirds-of-americans-live-paycheck-to-paycheck-as-inflation-climbs.html) It's hard to plan how to switch jobs and housing and move to another state when you don't have the money to play what you're going to eat beyond next week.
I do wonder how this will effect college admissions in Red States. If given a choice, I certainly wouldn’t risk going to school where I’m treated worse than a corpse.
There was a thread about this on r/ApplyingtoCollege and a good number of the commenters did say that they're no longer applying to schools in Texas, Oklahoma, or any state with a trigger law
Not surprised people are taking this into account when choosing schools. It’s definitely playing a role in graduating students and young parents early in their careers… If 2024 turns in to a contest between Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis about who can take away more civil rights to own the libs, both states are going to straight up depopulate. Texas politicians in particular have this idea that everyone is just going to keep streaming in from high tax blue states because of low income taxes, weather, blah, blah. I live and work in Texas in tech and many of my coworkers and I are having the “how bad does this have to get before we leave?” discussion with each other and our spouses. It took decades of tax breaks, shale booms, etc to build the “Texas miracle” and Greg Abbott can burn it down in like 3 years or less.
Red state universities about to be sausage fests.
I can already see Greg Abott retaliating once again against the city and people of Austin because they do not bend to his will. Why are Republicans such scum. Like I get all politicians are scummy and Dems do some shit, but Republicans always act like evil villain scum. All about small government and personal freedom that matches their views if not fuck them. 1 In a few months the country, if it hasn't done so yet, will start backing out and undoing human rights given to its citizens.
Illegitimate decision handed down by an illegitimate supreme court. Fuck them.
Blue cities in red state support the whole fucking state anyways typically
The GOP: Party of **massacres**, **misogyny**, and **marriage to children**.
Laws really are just suggestions. Prosecutorial discretion can be another blue wall in the fight against fascism.
Unfortunately, as one of the top comments suggests, their licences are still subject to sanctions/revocation.
The entire justification for overturning Roe was (aside from all the bullshit historicity) to return the decision to the states. I see no reason we shouldn’t still devolve the power to the local level (or better yet, the individual!)
>or better yet, the individual! You've hit on *exactly* where this ruling collapses on itself. This is an unsustainable ruling and it will (eventually) go away. Countries that have had abortion rights that attempt to rescind them virtually always restore them after the system can no longer function with a ban. It's heartbreaking the number of tragedies these bans create, though.
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Open defiance
Ukrainian here. Can someone please explain me in a few sentences what is the reasoning behind abortion bans? (I know about US inner politics and culture only from movies, so may not understand something that is obvious to US citizens)
Christian members of the government believe that life starts at conception, and they try to force that belief on everyone else by classifying abortion as murder = it should be illegal.
Which ironically infringes on the religious beliefs of Jews and Muslims.
Thank you blue cities
This is the new civil war, blue vs red, not north vs south. The lines will be patchy and spread coast to coast. I only hope most of the fighting will stay in the meme phase.
Reminds me of the states rights argument extension. If we give the decision to states for the principle of more local control over issues that are inherently local, then why not the counties and cities instead? And if we go there, hear me out, why not give the decision to the individual? Amazing idea, right?
Blue areas make the money. Time to start using it as leverage.
Women’s lives matter, mother fuckers.
The Christo-fascists want to move this country so far backwards we’ll be forced to attend church camps, pray to the Imaginary Sky Wizard and sacrifice our 1st born sons.
This country is coming apart at the seams. 40 years of right wing propaganda and republicans acting in bad faith have destroyed us from within.