06/14/24

Good morning! It’s Friday, June 14th.

Flag Day! On this day in 1777, the Second Continental Congress adopted the US flag, and then the following year, Congress established a Supreme Court.

And now almost 250 years later, those two things combined to make a few not-so-great headlines. Time, ya know. What a concept!

And now, the news.

The Supremes

-via CBS News (Justice Thomas), AP News, CNN, Washington Post (IVF), and The Hill

It’s Friday and, I’m sorry to tell you, we’re going to end the week with the Supremes.

First up:

It turns out that Historical Badman Justice Thomas took three undisclosed private flight fancy trips with Harlan Crow, the Republican megadonor.

Crow handed the documents over to the Senate Judiciary Committee after its November vote that authorized a subpoena for Crow as well as Leonard Leo, who also has a habit of taking conservative Justices on little friendship trips/

You know what really grinds my gears here? Thomas just last week put out his most recent disclosure statement. In it, he mentioned two trips with Crow.

So he knows he needs to put those trips in his disclosure!

It is just so absolutely absurd and makes it impossible, factually impossible, to believe he deserves to be sitting on the bench. Not that he ever did, but he certainly doesn’t now.

It certainly doesn’t really seem like a mind-boggling idea that the nine Justices sitting on the highest Court in our country shouldn’t tell lies. Especially when they are so easily provable.

Because now you’re a liar, and also… a dinkus.

But here’s the big story – the big stories.

These three things all happened on the same day.

First, the Supreme Court has finally handed down their abortion pill ruling.

And honestly, in a surprise (in a good way) for everyone… the Supreme anonymously preserved access to the pill that is used in nearly two-thirds of all abortions. Not that most of the Court wants this pill to exist, obviously, but if they had voted against access, it would have bigfooted a lot of FDA rulings.

A downvote would have been bad for anyone who can get pregnant and deserves a choice, as well as medicine in general.

In fact, I hate to say it but… it was Kavanaugh who united the court and gave us this decision, by noting that “federal courts are the wrong forum for addressing the plaintiffs’ concerns about FDA’s actions.”

In a statement about the ruling, President Biden said: “It does not change the fact that the right for a woman to get the treatment she needs is imperiled if not impossible in many states.”

What happened today is huge. This is a good ruling.

Which can only explain the next two stories…

Because after that ruling came down, the Senate voted to block a Democratic bill that guarantees the right to IVF nationwide.

You may recall that just yesterday I said that it kind of didn’t matter what came out of the Southern Baptist conference because they’re not setting laws. But then I added that it did matter because they have an audience with conservatives in Congress.

The fact that this IVF vote came on Thursday, the day after the Southern Baptist conference disagreed with the use of IVF, is for sure a coincidence. Still, it was a warning sign.

Meanwhile, Texas’ Senator Cornyn really fixed his mouth to say: “Why should we vote for a bill that fixes a non-existent problem? There’s not a problem. There’s no restrictions on IVF, nor should there be.”

So that’s a lie. Recall that we just had this whole fight about IVF just this past February in Alabama. It got overturned by the state legislature but at the time, all these Republican yahoos were jumping on their precious Twitter machines to tell us how much they love IVF. Get those clicks baybee. But when push comes to vote…

They will not, have not, cannon ever protect your right to choice. To bodily autonomy. A vote for this version of the Republican party is a vote against your right to bodily autonomy.

Just last week they blocked a bill that would have created a federal right to contraceptives.

No contraceptives. No abortion. No IVF.

Just another day in the world of that small government party.

When they blocked the contraceptives law, Sen Schumer said this: “Today was not a show vote. This was a ‘show us who you are’ vote, and Senate Republicans showed the American people exactly who they are.”

Democrats should continue to bring these votes to the floor. They will never pass, but with one-third of the Senate and every single House member on the ballot this year, voters deserve to know exactly who is working for them.

After their IVF vote, Senate Republicans introduced a bill that supports alternatives to IVF. Called the Restore Act, the bill cites conditions like endometriosis and blocked fallopian tubes as common causes of infertility and prohibits “discrimination” against healthcare providers who don’t provide “assisted reproductive technology,” including IVF.

Prohibits discrimination against healthcare providers who don’t provide IVF.

In this episode, I told you about a Supreme Court Justice getting caught not disclosing all of his trips with a Republican megadonor, and the House rejecting IVF, blocking contraceptives, and introducing a bill that would prohibit discrimination against healthcare providers who don’t provide IVF.

I also told you that the Supreme Court has protected the abortion pill.

Please don’t let that one story, change the narrative of what’s happening. The abortion pill is safe for now… it will not be, if we let Trump and the Republicans take the White House and Congress.

When someone tells you who they are, believe them.

And that’s it. That’s the news.

It’s Friday! It’s Flag Day! Get out there and make the most of it.

I’m proud of… flags! Most flags. (Some are bad).

It’s also International Bath Day and we all know I love a bath!

But more than that… because you also are a great calming presence… I’m proud of you.