John Roberts Is Putting His Thumb on the Impeachment Scale
The chief justice is wielding the little power he has in the impeachment trial in support of the Republican side.
https://www.thenation.com/article/roberts-impeachment-trial/For the key players in the Senate impeachment trial of Donald J. Trump, their actions during these few consequential days will constitute entire paragraphs in their obituaries. Already, House impeachment manager Adam Schiff has elevated himself as a dogged pursuer of justice. Already, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone—who falsely declared, “President Trump is a man of his word”—has lowered himself as an agent of deceit.
The legacy of John Roberts, chief justice of the United States, is being rewritten on the fly as well, just days shy of his 65th birthday. Roberts fancies himself an institutionalist, a mere “umpire,” there to fairly administer the rules of the game. His self-styled reputation, however, has never matched his actual judicial record. Roberts is a Republican who does everything he can to bend the law to the Republican agenda. A recent book by Mark Joseph Stern looking at how Roberts navigated the last Supreme Court term, which is also the first term in which Roberts enjoyed an unflinching Republican majority, bears that out.
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Finally, Roberts is the mere “umpire” he’s always claimed to be. All he can do is enforce the rules as written.
So far, Roberts hasn’t even done that.
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Is that how it’s going to work? Republican lawyers lie, and Roberts says nothing. Republicans leave the hearing room to do partisan television interviews, and Roberts says nothing. But Susan Collins gets her feelings hurt and Roberts takes judicial notice? Is there a “push to talk” button on his robes that only Republicans can see?
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'Take her out': Recording appears to capture Trump at private dinner saying he wants Ukraine ambassador fired
Trump apparently heard discussing firing Ukraine ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/recording-appears-capture-trump-private-dinner-ukraine-ambassador/story?id=68506437A recording reviewed by ABC News appears to capture President Donald Trump telling associates he wanted the then-U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch fired while speaking at a small gathering that included Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman -- two former business associates of Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani who have since been indicted in New York.
The recording appears to contradict statements by President Trump and support the narrative that has been offered by Parnas during broadcast interviews in recent days. Sources familiar with the recording said the recording was made during an intimate April 30, 2018, dinner at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C.
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[**** NOTE: Rightist/fundamentalist source.]
[**** NOTE: This would be a FEDERAL requirement, imposed on EVERY state. The point, as always, is to eliminate abortion rights as far as possible until/unless Roe v. Wade is overturned. If RvW goes away, do not expect this to be left to the states in any way. It _will_ be Federalised.]
Exclusive: Biggs, Kennedy Bills Would Require Hospital Admitting Privileges for Abortionists
https://www.dailysignal.com/2020/01/23/exclusive-biggs-kennedy-bills-would-require-hospital-admitting-privileges-for-abortionists/Specifically, the Biggs-Kennedy legislation requires that a doctor performing an abortion “have admitting privileges at a hospital located within 15 miles from the principal medical office of the physician and the location in which the abortion is being performed.”
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The bill would also require the physician to inform the woman undergoing the abortion where the hospital is located so she can access follow-up care in the event of complications.
Conviction for failure to do so by the doctor performing the abortion could result in fines and prison time.
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Puberty blockers can be 'life-saving' drugs for trans teens, study shows
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/23/health/transgender-puberty-blockers-suicide-study/index.html(CNN) Transgender youth have a much greater risk of suicide, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. However, if they have access to a puberty blocker, their chances of suicide and mental health problems in the immediate term and down the road decline significantly, a new study finds.
The study, the first of its kind to examine access to pubertal suppression and suicidality, was published Thursday in the medical journal Pediatrics. The research comes as a handful of states are considering placing restrictions on transgender health care.
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The legislation would contradict medical guidelines from several associations, including the Endocrine Society, which has guidelines that recommend doctors offer transgender teens pubertal suppression therapy, also known as puberty blocking. It became a treatment option in the United States in 1998.
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Lindsey Graham Bizarrely Defends Trump: ‘He Did Nothing Wrong In His Mind’
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lindsey-graham-trump-defense-twitter_n_5e29f14cc5b6779e9c2f8373Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Thursday came up with a bizarre explanation for why President Donald Trump shouldn’t be removed from office: He didn’t think he was doing anything wrong.
“If thought he was doing something wrong, he would probably shut up about it,” Graham told reporters.
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The Guardian has outed the true identity of the mysterious founder of the Base, a white nationalist terror group
https://boingboing.net/2020/01/24/rinaldo-nazzaro.html The Base is a white nationalist terror group that made the news when three of its members were arrested and accused of planning to start a civil war at this week's gun rally in Virginia by murdering cops and opening fire on the pro-gun protesters.
The group has a "culture of secrecy" and its members know its founder by aliases like "Norman Spear" and "Roman Wolf." But The Guardian has uncovered his true identity, using a combination of insider leaks and public records requests. According to the newspaper, "Norman Spear" is Rinaldo Nazzaro, a 46-year-old American from New Jersey whose personal history includes many extravagant claims of providing intelligence and security contracting to governments.
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How To Get A Head On A Pike Without Really Trying
Do we take this seriously? Literally? How about plausibly deniable and dangerous?
https://alexandraerin.substack.com/p/how-to-get-a-head-on-a-pike-without...
"Heads on pikes" is something I've actually had on what I guess you'd call my own internal bingo card for a while now. Given the wannabe tough guy mobster businessman crowd he exemplifies and the cultural saturation of Game of Thrones, it's felt inevitable that sooner or later it would be bandied around.
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Dr. Daniel Grossman
twitter.com/DrDGrossman
https://twitter.com/DrDGrossman/status/1220708194470809600I want to take a moment to address this op-ed that appeared in USATODAY this week. The framing is designed to undermine the current case at the Supreme Court and uphold the medically unnecessary restrictions on abortion—one of the safest medical procedures—across the country.
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[Twitter thread]
If anyone was wondering if this "LGBAlliance" thing was yet more astroterfing from US religious fundamentalists, there's your obvious Heritage Foundation connection.
https://twitter.com/CaseyExplosion/status/1187746002419310592[Summary: The "LGB Alliance" is yet another fundamentalist sockpuppet group, part of the well-documented effort by the fundamentalist movement to break up the LGBT/queer/QUILTBAG/etc alliance by shaving off one piece at a time. The plan after "ditching the T" is to ditch the B and then - goes the thought - it'll be small enough just to kill.]
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[NOTE: I and many others were given advance warning of this from a source I consider unvalidated _several hours before this story dropped_. That does _not_ mean the warning came before it actually happened, but it was before it dropped.
This source indicated that this is specifically a stunt, a distraction from the Senate trial, and _not_ to chase it. Do with that what you will.]
Pompeo berated, cursed at NPR reporter over Ukraine questions, she says
"He was not happy to have been questioned about Ukraine, he asked, 'Do you think Americans care about Ukraine?' He used the F word in that sentence, and many others," said NPR correspondent Mary Louise Kelly.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-impeachment-inquiry/pompeo-berated-cursed-npr-reporter-over-ukraine-questions-she-says-n1122566?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_ma[ALSO]
Transcript: NPR's Full Interview With Secretary Of State Mike Pompeo
https://www.npr.org/2020/01/24/798579754/transcript-nprs-full-interview-with-secretary-of-state-mike-pompeoIn an interview on Friday with All Things Considered co-host Mary Louise Kelly, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo took questions about U.S. policy in Iran and about the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.
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