Last Call For The Big Lie, Con't

The latest CNN poll finds that the Big Lie is getting more and more effective as time goes on, and that nearly three-quarters of Republican voters now believe 2022 elections will be fraudulent.

An increasing majority of Americans lack confidence that elections in America today reflected the will of the people, and about half think it likely that a future election in the United States will be overturned for partisan reasons, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. 

In the new poll, 56% of respondents said they have little or no confidence that American elections reflect the will of the people, up from 52% who felt that way in September and 40% in January 2021. Almost three-quarters of Republicans were now skeptical that elections are representative (74%), as were 59% of independents, and only a third of Democrats (32%). The results reflected a significant decline in confidence over the past year among both independents (45% lacked confidence in January 2021) and Democrats (9% felt that way a year ago). 

At the same time, there's been a shift in the partisan dynamic driving concerns about the possibility of an overturned future election. While the 50% overall who considered such a prospect at least somewhat likely was similar to the 51% who felt that way in September, Democrats were now more apt to see an overturned election in the future than Republicans. In the new poll, 56% of Democrats saw it as likely vs. 48% of Republicans. In September, 57% of Republicans thought that was likely while just 49% of Democrats agreed. 

More broadly, fewer now said that American democracy is under attack than did late last summer (52% now vs. 56% in September), and the share who said the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, represented a crisis for democracy stood at 28%, down from 36% shortly after the attack last year. 

The poll's findings come as the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack has issued new subpoenas to key members of former President Donald Trump's inner circle as it investigates the origins of the attack. 

Most Americans saw the January 6 attack on the Capitol as a problem for democracy (28% said it's a crisis, 37% a major problem, and another 20% called it a minor problem), and 54% said not enough has been done to penalize those who rioted at the Capitol. 

Republicans in particular, though, have shifted in their views of the attack over the past year. While 15% of Republicans said in January 2021 the storming of the Capitol was not a problem, 27% felt that way now. Likewise, while 38% of Republicans a year ago said enough had been done to penalize rioters, 71% felt that way now. 

A plurality of all Americans saw the select committee's work as a fair attempt to determine what happened on January 6 (44%), while about a third saw it as a one-sided effort to blame Trump (36%) and 20% said they hadn't heard enough about it to say. About three-quarters of Democrats (76%) said it was a fair investigation, while two-thirds of Republicans (67%) dubbed it a one-sided effort to blame Trump. 

Still, those who said the January 6 attack was a problem for democracy were not very likely to see the select committee's work as a path to helping protect American democracy. Overall, 47% said that the attack was a problem and that the panel's work was unlikely to result in changes that would help protect democracy, while 37% said protective changes were the likely outcome.

 

All of these numbers are terrible, and count me as one of the many Democrats who believe Republican losses in 2022 will be overturned by state courts or legislatures later this year.  It's going to be bad, folks.

Keep an eye on this.

The Road To Gilead Goes Through Kentucky, Con't

Kentucky Republicans in the General Assembly are putting together their major abortion restriction bill in anticipation of the Supreme Court gutting Roe v Wade later this year, with a raft of new restrictions that will make safe abortion all but impossible in the state.

 

A Republican lawmaker has filed a far-reaching bill that would impose more layers of regulation on abortion in Kentucky, including new restrictions on medication used to terminate an early pregnancy.

It also bans shipment of such medication by mail or other carrier, which is allowed in many states under a recent federal rule change lifting a requirement for an in-person medical visit.

And it puts the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy in charge of enforcing a lengthy list of rules around distribution of the medication, with fines reaching $5 million for pharmacies and others who violate a rule requiring they be certified.

Of the 4,104 abortions performed in Kentucky, about half were medication procedures, according to the state Annual Abortion Report for 2020, the most recent report available.

House Bill 3, filed Wednesday by Rep. Nancy Tate, R-Brandenburg, includes most of the provisions she outlined during a December hearing when she said she planned to file an "omnibus" abortion bill.

But Tate's goal isn't to eliminate abortion access in Kentucky, she said in a news release from the House GOP.

"This bill isn't about ending abortion," Tate said. "... Our goal is to ensure the procedure is the result of a fully informed, educated choice that takes into consideration the health and safety of both the unborn child and his or her mother."

But Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of Kentucky immediately blasted HB 3 as a "dangerous attack on reproductive care" based on "junk science and misinformation that endangers the health of pregnant people."

 

Here's what the bill would do:

• It imposes new restrictions on medication abortions generally provided up to the 10th week of pregnancy, including rules for doctors and pharmacists. It requires an in-person visit with a physician, rather than telehealth, and also requires that a patient be counseled that the termination, which consists of taking medication several days apart, can be reversed, a medically unproven claim.
• It requires the state pharmacy board to create a new program to oversee the distribution of abortion drugs and oversee a new certification process for pharmacies, physicians, manufacturers and distributors who administer or provide the drugs.
• It also charges the pharmacy board with enforcing certification requirements with violations resulting in a fine of no less than $5 million for pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors and a fine of $250,000 for physicians. It also requires the board to create a complaint portal on its website which lists the names of all physicians certified to prescribe medication to induce abortions and pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors certified to supply it.
• It requires physicians who prescribe abortion drugs to maintain hospital admitting privileges at a nearby hospital or have a written contract with a physician who has such privileges.
• It adds new restrictions on the "judicial bypass" in which a girl under 18 can seek permission from a judge for an abortion in cases where getting permission from a parent is not possible or might put the girl in danger. Tate referred to the judicial bypass as a "loophole," and said her bill would require more strenuous efforts to obtain permission from parents.
• It puts new, extensive reporting requirements on abortion providers, which would involve notifying state health officials of any complication or adverse event following an abortion. It also requires the provider to report the patient's reason for the abortion, if known.
• It requires that parents can have a say in how fetal remains from an abortion may be disposed of and bans disposal of fetal remains as medical waste, instead requiring cremation or burial by a licensed establishment.
• It imposes new restrictions on medication abortions generally provided up to the 10th week of pregnancy, including rules for doctors and pharmacists. It requires an in-person visit with a physician, rather than telehealth, and also requires that a patient be counseled that the termination, which consists of taking medication several days apart, can be reversed, a medically unproven claim.
• It requires the state pharmacy board to create a new program to oversee the distribution of abortion drugs and oversee a new certification process for pharmacies, physicians, manufacturers and distributors who administer or provide the drugs.
• It also charges the pharmacy board with enforcing certification requirements with violations resulting in a fine of no less than $5 million for pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors and a fine of $250,000 for physicians. It also requires the board to create a complaint portal on its website which lists the names of all physicians certified to prescribe medication to induce abortions and pharmacies, manufacturers and distributors certified to supply it.
• It requires physicians who prescribe abortion drugs to maintain hospital admitting privileges at a nearby hospital or have a written contract with a physician who has such privileges.
• It adds new restrictions on the "judicial bypass" in which a girl under 18 can seek permission from a judge for an abortion in cases where getting permission from a parent is not possible or might put the girl in danger. Tate referred to the judicial bypass as a "loophole," and said her bill would require more strenuous efforts to obtain permission from parents.
• It puts new, extensive reporting requirements on abortion providers, which would involve notifying state health officials of any complication or adverse event following an abortion. It also requires the provider to report the patient's reason for the abortion, if known.
• It requires that parents can have a say in how fetal remains from an abortion may be disposed of and bans disposal of fetal remains as medical waste, instead requiring cremation or burial by a licensed establishment.

 

Keep in mind there is now only one abortion clinic left in the entire state, and if Roe v. Wade is overturned completely, the state's 2019 complete abortion ban will go into effect.  Finally, keep in mind voters will go to the polls in November to decide whether or not women have a constitutional right to an abortion at all in Kentucky.

Abortion will all but be impossible here in the state by summer.

I take that back. Safe, legal abortion will be impossible here, and in two dozen other states, by the end of the year.  In Texas, legal abortions are down by almost two-thirds already as the Supreme Court refuses to block the state's unconstitutional bounty law.

That's because in a few months, that law will no longer be unconstitutional, and everyone knows it. We're headed for a very dark period of American history by the end of this SCOTUS term.

The road to Gilead winds on.

But What About Real America, Con't

Another red state Democrat complaining that the national Democratic party doesn't care enough about the HEARTLAND and it's getting tedious at this point to see Dems slagging themselves.

 

"I honestly don't think the Democratic Party can be a majority party unless we start appealing to Middle America a lot more. I'm talking about the area between the two mountain ranges, the Appalachians and the Rocky Mountains. And if we're able to do that, I think it will provide success," Tester, who is also a farmer, told David Axelrod on an episode of CNN's "The Axe Files" podcast released on Thursday.

The comments from Tester come as Democrats seek to hold on to their majorities in Congress in the 2022 midterm elections and amid low approval ratings for both Congress and President Joe Biden. Failures on key issues on Biden's agenda, including passing voting rights legislation, also have Democrats rethinking their strategy for the upcoming elections. The President's approval rating is 42%, with 55% disapproving, according to CNN's average of six recent national polls.

Democrats hold a narrow majority in Congress, where the Senate is split 50-50 and Vice President Kamala Harris' power to cast a tie-breaking vote gives them the advantage. Democrats have struggled among rural American voters in the polls while Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, have found solid footing among rural Americans. CNN exit polls from the 2020 presidential election found that among rural voters, 42% voted for Biden and 57% voted for Trump.

Tester, who was critical of Democrats' messaging and appeal to rural Americans following the 2020 presidential election, also told Axelrod rural Americans view the Democratic Party as "toxic."

"It's toxic. The national Democratic brand in, I think in rural America generally, is toxic, and it's because, quite frankly, we don't show up," he said when asked how his Montana neighbors view the Democratic Party. "I'm talking about national Democrats. We're not willing to go places we're not wanted and answer questions."

He continued, "I think it's critically important if you're going to win, you've got to go to those places, as miserable as it might be, you still go. You still contact the people, and you still let people know that you're a human being and you have a view for this, a vision for this country."

 

To recap:

 

• White rural Americans don't want to hear what Democrats have to say.
• When Democrats show up in White Rural America, they are attacked. 
• Visits to White Rural America are loudly called pandering.
• Democrats are told by White Rural Americans not to bother to visit.

 

This is the fault of Democrats, somehow.

 

When someone refuses to respect you as a human being, let alone vote for you, you're wasting your time dealing with them.  There is no point...and your limited time and resources are coming at the direct expense of the people who did vote for you, and are counting on you to actually fix their problems.

Look, nobody did more for White Rural America than Joe Biden in the last 12 months, passing a massive infrastructure bill, a child tax credit, more stimulus for COVID relief and an economic policy that put back more than six million jobs nationally, and that was greeted with a loud raspberry from anyone in a red district. They took the money, and then the Republicans who voted against every part of that then took credit for it.

You can spend all the time on Earth explaining to people, but if they refuse to listen, eventually you give up on them and help who you can.

 

Remember, Trump's farm tariffs wrecked White Rural America. They voted 75%+ to reelect him even through he destroyed their livelihoods.

They made their choices and still continue to do so. Now that the consequences are here, I feel no sympathy towards saving them when I have my own damn problems.

You cannot have reasonable conversations with fanatics who want to see you dead.