Pickles ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️🌻

Blastocysts R Us: Last year 4 million or 1% of the babies born in the US resulted from in vitro fertilization.  Their parents cross the political spectrum which explains why a number of Republican politicians, most notably Trump, Speaker Mike Johnson, and Senator Steve Daines, chair of the Republican Senate campaign committee, spent part of the weekend denying that they’re opposed to IVF. Among those asserting that they are supportive of IVF are some of the 125 Republican House members who co-sponsored the “Life at Conception Act,” legislation also supported by Senator Daines.  That Act declares that the “right to life guaranteed by the Constitution is vested in each human being” at the “moment of fertilization,” the concept that the Alabama Supreme Court relied on to put IVF on life support.  So once again, don’t believe their politically convenient lies, they’ve already told us how they feel about IVF it’s just that the outrage about last week’s Alabama decision has them in a pickle. Their views haven’t changed, they still believe and are prepared to act on their belief that the destruction of a six to eight cell fertilized egg, the likely outcome of any IVF procedure, is murder. And those promises to provide exceptions for pregnant women facing dire health emergencies, forget about that too.  Just last week Kelise Norris-De La Cruz, was turned away from a Texas hospital emergency room where doctors refused to terminate her life-threatening ectopic pregnancy. Less than twenty-four hours after she was turned away, she ended up at another hospital with a ruptured fallopian tube.  She’s lucky to be alive.  According to Politico, the termination of reproductive rights, including the passage of a national abortion ban is just one of the things we should expect should Trump make it back to the White House to impose the Project 2025 Mandate, the mostly Christian Nationalist manifesto being pushed by many members of his team and supported by the same folks who brought us our newest Supreme Court Justices.  By Christian Nationalist, don’t think Christian because the Christian Nationalist agenda is about exclusionary politics and intolerance rather than the Golden Rule. Trump hasn’t hidden his plans to abandon NATO allies or to “round-up” and “mass deport” immigrants, but some of his other plans have been getting less attention. They include eliminating most immigration, disputing the reality of global warming, dismantling environmental protections, launching trade wars, and so on because who needs any of that when you can have Gilead, albeit a hot, smog laden Gilead?    

Primaries:  Trump won Saturday’s South Carolina Republican presidential primary, receiving 60% of the vote to Haley’s 40%, a clear win but one that pales in comparison to Biden’s 96% in the Democratic primary. Haley’s voters included a mix of Republicans, independents and a few Democrats who showed up just to vote against Trump.  She insists that she’s staying in the race through next week’s super Tuesday when 16 states and territories will hold their primaries and she likely will because she has enough funds on hand to do so but the biggest source of her funding is now gone since last night the Koch network which had been supporting her campaign announced that they’re halting their financial support to focus on Senate and House races.  It’s been fun watching Haley attack Trump, but we’ll only know for sure if she really meant any of the things she’s been saying after she pulls out because unlike Chris Christie early on in the campaign, she pledged to support the Republican nominee.  She’s probably also going to be approached by the No Labels folks who still haven’t found themselves a candidate.  During the week, she refused to say whether she’d consider that avenue and Democratic Congressman Dean Phillips who is still challenging Biden said that he'd be interested in teaming up with her on the No Labels ticket, not that she even knows who he is because most of us don’t.  Tomorrow is primary day in Michigan.  Both Biden and Trump are expected to win easily though a number of Democrats, spurred on by Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and the state’s large pro-Palestinian community are expected to cast their votes for “uncommitted” rather than for Biden. For what it’s worth this morning’s Emerson College poll shows 75% of Democrats polled supporting Biden, 5% Phillips and 9% “uncommitted” with 12% undecided. For Biden, the issue is less about the primary and more about whether the “uncommitted” protest votes abandon him in November, staying home or instead voting for the candidate who wants to ban all Muslims from entering the country. Notably, Biden has issued an order temporarily blocking the deportation of most Palestinians with expired visas.  That order protects around 6000 Palestinians from being sent home now when given the Gaza war going home could put their lives at risk.  On the subject of polls, the NY Post reported this weekend on a poll that said that 53% of New York’s Jewish voters would vote for Trump over Biden if the election was held today.  That struck me as weird since Jews typically vote Democrat, Tom Suozzi did better than expected win in the recent Long Island special election where he ran against an IDF veteran, and because around 70% of Jewish voters cast their votes for Biden in 2020 so I did some internet sleuthing.  It turns out that there were only 80 Jews in the poll cited so though it made for good clickbait, its statistical relevance is questionable.   

Fog:  We’re still waiting to hear what the Supreme Court has to say about Trump’s immunity claims and from Judge “Loose” Cannon who has also been asked to weigh in on the subject. The clock is officially ticking on Trump’s fraud penalty so unless he finds another court, if that is even possible, to put a stay on his payment, he’s going to have to fork up or find a friend with some bigly bucks or a bond soon.  That ceasefire in exchange for kidnap victims deal is still “imminent.” Ukraine is struggling while Republicans in Congress kowtow to Trump and his BFF Putin. And another government funding deadline is soon to be upon us.        

#BringThemAllHomeNow