Republicans think abortion is a messaging problem, one they can win

Tom Edsall/NY Instances:

The Republican Strategists Who Have Rigorously Deliberate All of This

The expulsion of two Black state representatives by the Republican majority in Tennessee acquired widespread publicity this previous week. (One has already been reinstated by native officers, and the opposite could also be quickly.) However their expulsion, as spectacular because it was, is simply the latest growth in a sample of makes an attempt by Republicans to fireside or restrict the powers of elected Democrats in Florida, Mississippi, Georgia and elsewhere. This contains Gov. Ron DeSantis’s resolution in August 2022 to droop Andrew H. Warren, the elected Democratic state legal professional of Hillsborough County, who had signed a press release saying he wouldn’t prosecute those that search or present abortions.

I suppose Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis are vying for the coveted Orbán endorsement.

Richard L Hasen and Dahlia Lithwick/Slate:

The Effort to Suppress the Vote Is Spreading to the Republican Mainstream

They’ve been at it for a very long time, and so they’re selecting up steam.

It’s unhealthy sufficient when a trio of voter suppression teams led by charlatans will get collectively at an annual secret convention that’s sponsored, partially, by a bunch created by the Federalist Society’s Leonard Leo to speak about all of the methods they may make it tougher for individuals to register or vote in future elections. However it’s a lot worse when the members in that secret convention additionally embrace secretaries of state and different prime election officers from 13 Republican-led states, plus Don Palmer, a member of the US Election Help Fee, plus counsels to Senate Minority Chief Mitch McConnell and the Home Administration Committee’s Republican workers, and a sitting Texas state senator. The whole convention—whose existence was revealed in a blockbuster report by the Guardian and Documented final week—reveals that there’s a thriving community of interlocking organizations working with elected and election officers to make use of unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud to attempt to mess with truthful elections for partisan benefit.

It’s comprehensible if this specific report flew beneath the radar for you. We’re all dwelling in Steve Bannon’s Trumpian dreamworld during which “flooding the zone with shit” has change into a remarkably profitable political tactic. From the previous week’s tales of Supreme Court docket Justice Clarence Thomas failing to report lavish free holidays, together with a $500,000 jaunt on a non-public aircraft, to a bonkers anti-abortion ruling from a Texas choose that bans an abortion drug and lays the groundwork for recognizing a fetus as a human being entitled to full constitutional safety, to the expulsion of two Black state legislators from the Tennessee Legislature as a result of that they had the temerity to protest gun violence fueled by a Supreme Court docket caught within the 1790s to—sure—extra mass shootings, it’s too simple to be distracted. However that doesn’t change the truth that there are individuals assembly, behind closed doorways, to plot out new paths to voter suppression, with direct implications for the kind of democracy that we could have in the US in 2024 and past.

Philip Rotner/Bulwark:

Sorry Doubters, However Bragg Was Proper to Indict Trump

No, the case isn’t too weak. No, it’s not too politically explosive. And no, Bragg mustn’t have waited for different indictments to return first.

However what are they actually saying?

To argue that Bragg mustn’t have indicted Trump in any respect requires one to imagine that even when Bragg can show every thing alleged within the indictment and the accompanying assertion of details filed in New York final week, he nonetheless shouldn’t have introduced the case.

That’s a heavy raise. Too heavy.

Tressie McMillan Cottom/NY Instances:

Why I Preserve My Eyes — and My Thoughts — on the South

We wish to look to the horizon as an alternative of to the soil as a result of we bury the individuals we don’t care about within the South. It’s the place we’ve put migrants and poor individuals and sick individuals. It’s the place we put the social issues we’re keen to simply accept in alternate for the promise of particular person alternative in locations that sound extra refined. However the South remains to be a laboratory for the political disenfranchisement that works simply as effectively in Wisconsin because it does in Florida. Individuals are by no means as removed from the graves we dig for different individuals as we hope…

I hold my eyes on the South for lots of causes. That is my house. It’s the area of this nation’s unique sin. Nothing about the way forward for this nation might be resolved until it’s first resolved right here: not the local weather disaster or the border or life expectancy or the rest of nationwide significance, until you clear up it within the South and with the individuals of the South.

Politico:

Republicans going through a reckoning later this week

An NRA conference and an RNC confab in Nashville come at an inopportune time.

Days after a mass capturing in Louisville, Ky., many declared and undeclared 2024 candidates shall be brandishing their Second Modification bona fides on the Nationwide Rifle Affiliation’s annual management discussion board in Indianapolis. From there, quite a few the candidates will journey south on I-65, the place they may make their instances to Republican Nationwide Committee grandees for a gathering in Nashville — the location not solely of one other mass capturing, but in addition the state GOP-led ejection of two Black Democratic lawmakers final week.

“Speaking on the NRA assembly in Indianapolis then going to the RNC assembly in Nashville all suits collectively,” stated Paul Helmke, the previous Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind., and president and CEO of the Brady Middle/Brady Marketing campaign to Stop Gun Violence. “You’re giving a single unified message: You don’t brook dissent or disagreement on weapons.”

CNN:

Tenure of recent Michigan GOP chair who unfold Beyoncé paganism conspiracy principle is off to a rocky begin

Karamo has claimed previously that Beyoncé was secretly recruiting Black Individuals to Paganism via a brand new album; that “demonic possession is actual” and transferred through “intimate relationships”; and that acceptance of homosexual and transgender Individuals will result in the acceptance of pedophilia.

She has stated that the leaders of the Black Lives Matter motion are “Marxist witches”; that the speculation of evolution is “one of many largest scams ran on us in human historical past”; and that doing medication is “witchcraft.” She has in contrast abortion to Pagan youngster sacrifice.

Previously, Karamo has additionally in contrast the media to Nazi Germany, saying media rhetoric about Republicans will result in them being rounded up, killed and put in focus camps.

A proud anti-vaxxer, Karamo has additionally stated she doesn’t imagine in vaccines – saying she gained’t vaccinate her youngsters and has solely taken one vaccine herself.

After shedding each statewide workplace and full management of the state authorities for the primary time in practically 40 years, Michigan Republicans elected Karamo – who made these feedback and plenty of others inside the previous few years – as their new state celebration chairwoman and the primary Black individual to guide the state celebration.

Karamo, an election denier who believes the 2020 presidential race was stolen, has additionally refused to concede her personal 2022 race for Michigan Secretary of State, which she misplaced by 14 proportion factors – probably the most lopsided lack of any statewide candidate final yr.

I’m wondering why the Michigan GOP is having bother elevating cash?

Reuters:

Biden administration urges motion on youngster labor from meat corporations

Meat corporations ought to study their provide chains for proof of kid labor, the Biden administration stated in a letter despatched to prime meatpacking corporations on Wednesday.

The letter is a part of an effort by a number of companies, led by the Division of Labor, to curb the usage of unlawful youngster labor throughout sectors. Since 2018, unlawful employment of youngsters has risen 69% within the U.S., in accordance with the company.

Be it COVID danger or youngster labor, meat corporations shouldn’t have a stellar file of adhering to the legislation. Control this, as youngster labor points are making headlines.