Last Call For Bevin Shuts The Door

And the number of abortion clinics in Kentucky is now down to one.

The Kentucky Court of Appeals granted on Wednesday the Bevin administration’s request to temporarily close a Lexington abortion clinic, reversing an earlier Fayette Circuit Court ruling. 

The appellate court said EMW Women’s Clinic on Burt Road is “temporarily enjoined from operating an abortion facility” until it receives a license from the Cabinet for Health and Family Services or until a final judgment is rendered in this case, whichever comes first. 

The appellate court said it agreed with Bevin’s argument “that the circuit court’s findings and conclusions are clearly erroneous.” 

“As the cabinet points out, this case is not about a woman’s right to an abortion,” the court said in its 24-page order. “The cabinet is not seeking to prevent women from obtaining abortions. It is seeking, however, to enforce its right to regulate the manner in which abortions are performed in this commonwealth.” 

In March, Fayette Circuit Judge Ernesto Scorsone denied the state’s request for a temporary injunction to close the clinic. 

The state claimed the lower court misinterpreted and misapplied relevant state laws and relied on unwarranted assumptions and facts that were not in the court record. 

Scorsone said the state cabinet failed to present adequate evidence during a hearing that it eventually would prevail in the lawsuit or that allowing the clinic to remain open as the lawsuit proceeds would cause “irreparable injury.” 

Scorsone also said closing the clinic would be against the public interest because it is the only physician’s office that routinely provides abortion services in the eastern half of Kentucky. 

The state sued the clinic in early March, alleging that it lacked a required state license. The clinic stopped performing abortions March 9 pending a judge’s ruling, but said it would resume offering the procedure after Scorsone’s ruling. 

The state has said the clinic performed more than 400 abortions in 2015.

So at this point, there's a very good chance that between this closing and the Planned Parenthood clinics in Cincinnati still in limbo, that the part of the country I live in may not have an abortion provider within 100 miles, thanks to Republican TRAP laws.

But it's not about "seeking to prevent women from obtaining abortions".  No, it's never about that.

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article83964517.html#storylink=cpy

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To Equality

Just another reminder that the next time you hear Republicans mention anything about how "divisive identity politics" are ruining the nation, mention to them that they have no problem trying to pit America's Muslims against America's LGBT population (not to mention the fact that LGBT Muslims exist) for political points, and that when it comes down to "protecting" people, Republicans really don't give a good god damn.

House GOP leaders won’t allow a vote this week on a proposal to ensure that federal contractors can’t discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.), who is gay, filed an amendment to a Defense Department spending bill that would enforce a 2014 executive order prohibiting discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) people. The Defense bill is slated to hit the House floor this week, in the aftermath of the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando. 

But the House Rules Committee, which serves as an arm of majority leadership in deciding how legislation is considered on the floor, did not green-light Maloney’s amendment for a vote Tuesday night.

Sunday’s shooting, which took place during LGBT Pride Month, has been deemed the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. 

Maloney argued that allowing a vote to prohibit discrimination in the workplace after the targeted attack on the gay nightclub would send a message of solidarity with the LGBT community. 

“It’s hard to imagine that any act that is so horrific could lead to anything positive. But if we were going to do anything, it would be a very positive step to say that discrimination has no place in our law and to reaffirm the president’s actions in this area,” Maloney told The Hill. “Seems to me a pretty basic thing to do.”

Hahaha, you're expecting basic human dignity from Republicans, the vast majority of which refuse to see anyone unlike them as human at all (and the rest look the other way).  Good luck with that, man.

I'm hoping enough people figure this out by November.  We'll see.

Donald Trump In Mathmagic Land

If Donald Trump somehow had not yet convinced a huge swath of Americans that he was a giant prick with tiny hands before last weekend's horrific events in Orlando, then Don the Con's response to the slaughter at Pulse has pretty much sealed that deal.

In the latest sign Americans are dreading their general election options -- and particularly one of them -- negative views of Donald Trump have surged to their highest level of the 2016 campaign, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. 

Trump's unfavorable rating, in fact, far surpasses Hillary Clinton's even as the presumptive Democratic nominee receives her worst ratings in more two decades in public life. 

[Read full poll results and methodology] 

The poll finds 70 percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Trump, including a 56 percent majority who feel this way "strongly." Negative ratings of Trump are up 10 percentage points from last month to their highest point since he announced his candidacy last summer, nearly reaching the level seen before his campaign began (71 percent). The survey was conducted Wednesday through Sunday among a random national sample of U.S. adults, coming after last week's primary contests, but with the large majority of interviews completed before Sunday's massacre at an Orlando club.

Holy cats. it's going to be a mess.  Let's take a look at those crosstabs, which finds that two-thirds of Republicans like the guy, and 5% of Democrats do. Five. Percent. Yikes. Among independents, Trump has a 30% number. Among Hispanic voters that number is down to 11% now.

Trump is down to 33% among white women and 46% among white men (he was above 50% with them last month.), 39% overall among white voters.

Clinton does fare better, 75% among Democrats, 11% among Republicans, and 34% among independent voters. Clinton however is at 64% among Hispanic voters.

Clinton is however at a dismal 23% among white men and 39% among white women, 31% overall.

These numbers are, granted, very bad for Clinton.  But Republicans are bound and determined to run the one person with even more awful numbers against her.

StupidiNews!

• As presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won last night's D.C. primary, she met with Bernie Sanders in order to move forward on unifying the party.
• President Obama will meet with the Dalai Lama at the White House on Wednesday, drawing sharp criticism from Chinese officials who call the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader dangerous.
• Britain's largest banks are expected to have extra trading staff on hand ahead of the country's June 23rd "Brexit" referendum on staying in the EU.
• California has overtaken France in GDP as the most populous US state would now by itself count as the world's sixth largest economy.
• Net neutrality rules won a major battle Tuesday as an appeals court ruled the FCC can regulate the internet as a utility, but internet providers are expected to now appeal to the Supreme Court.