#SCOTUS is expected to hand down more rulings Wednesday. There are 10 more cases to be decided this term, including some of the court’s most politically salient ones. Those cases address topics such as whether #Trump is immune from prosecution for all acts during his presidency, whether the #Biden admin violated the #FirstAmendment in asking #SocialMedia companies to take down posts, & whether a federal #law means ER doctors can perform #abortions in states where they are restricted or banned.
Jess Piper takes readers on a tour of a "Trump Store" in ticky-tacky Branson, Missouri, Trump country if there ever was such a place, and boy howdy, the discoveries she makes. For one thing, far from making America great, the store is peddling merch made in China and Mexico, while claiming Mexican workers sew "made in Mexico" tags on American goods.
Bailey argued the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, a quasi-state agency that services federal #StudentLoans & funds state #scholarships, loses revenue from servicing direct loans — those made & owned by the federal govt — when loans are wiped away.
BFD in #Missouri: GOP tried to rush a constitutional change to crack down on future ballot initiatives. Anticipated an #abortion rights measure this fall.
Damn, that's certainly one way of euphemizing it. Resistance....really?! More like opposition.
The uncensored reality is these red states are exhibiting a level of fucked up that is previously unmeasured by the world's foremost elite social neuroscientists and trauma therapists.
It’s hard work to get ballot measures going and especially hard in a state controlled by Republicans. The organizers doing this are trying as hard as they can to protect the right to an abortion.
Jess Piper reports – from the ground in rural Missouri and Arkansas – about how, since it knows it cannot win fair and square, the Republican party is resorting to tricks, subterfuge, and outright lies to try to impose its minority position on abortion on the majority who believe that abortion should not be made illegal.
She recently went to a Democratic rally in Arkansas, and encountered a woman handing out cards with QR code.
Cat birds! More first time IRL specimens for me this week. The super dark one is super unique, and was the first to show up. They seem to enjoy the cuties I put out for the Oriels. They only hung out for a day or so.
"I live in a red state [Missouri], and I hope you will listen to my warning. Those who want to demolish democracy won’t stop with my state, or any of the other GOP-dominated states. They are rolling over our rights to get to yours.
I know you’ve heard of it, and may be sick of reading posts about it, but Project 2025 will introduce the entire nation to red-state rule if Trump is elected."
"Some will say an easy fix is to move. But, that’s my entire point. There is nowhere to move. There is not one state that won’t be impacted if we don’t stop the billionaire-inspired plans that have already been implemented in Missouri.
The answer is to stand up in every state with the backing of those of you in less regressive states. Please, stand with us."
Today is the most ridiculous day for #BackyardBirding! First a rose-breasted grosbeak at our feeder (first time we’ve seen one IRL), then a full-color goldfinch, and just now a Baltimore oriole showed up at the hummingbird feeder. First time getting photos of a BO. YAYYY 🤩
Also, Mr and Mrs Bluey (our eastern bluebird couple) have been hanging out, too.
First time seeing a Blue-Gray Gnatcatcher with my own eyes. I managed two photos, this one and a super blurry one. I’m A-OK with this for a first photo.
Jess Piper on how right-wing trolls taunt her when she speaks out about the shortcomings of her home state of Missouri by telling her just to move to New York or California.
But it's not just right-wing trolls: as she reports, she also routinely gets the very same advice from leftist allies who appear to think they're entitled to judge her for living where her family lives, a state that's her state, too.
Her response to these privileged and supercilious folks who seem to imagine they're protected, by living in protected places different from Missouri:
"None of us is safe so long as there are folks living in states that are unsafe. They will roll over us first, and you next."
Stop telling those of us living in deep-red states because we have family ties and obligations and roots there to move. Start building solidarity with us and helping us fight.
Monday they spent most of the morning perched or nest building. By afternoon they were gone and didn’t come back.
Yesterday I didn’t see them at all.
Today they are back but not working on their nest or even going into the box that often. They are just hanging out in the area. If prior experience holds, I’m guessing they will be gone in a few hours. #birding#Missouri#backyardbirding
It was 2014, & #ErinHawley was fighting against the egg-laying hens of #Missouri. Specifically, a new req that chicken cages have enough space for the hens to stand up, turn around & stretch out. [#AnimalCruelty]
A #law prof rom 5 generations of ranchers & the wife of Sen #JoshHawley, Ms. Hawley joined a challenge to #California, which req more spacious enclosures for hens laying eggs to be sold there.
The state where she taught, #Missouri, sold ⅓ of its eggs to #California, & #ErinHawley believed that a #BlueState had no #right to impose its #values & rules on MO’s farmers. Apparently, Missourians should be allowed to [#abuse#animals but no one in the nation should be allowed to save a #woman from a life-threatening nonviable pregnancy]
She joined in a #lawsuit against Cali’s AG at the time, #KamalaHarris. A judge found that the challengers could show no direct injury & dismissed the case.
The case involves a lawsuit initiated by… #Missouri & #Louisiana & individual #SocialMedia users. They accuse the #Biden admin of violating the #FirstAmendment by operating a sprawling federal “censorship enterprise” to #influence platforms…. Justices #Kagan & #Kavanaugh, who previously worked in Democratic & Republican admins, respectively, suggested that such exchanges were routine occurrences & did not amount to #censorship or #coercion in violation of the constitutional right to #FreeSpeech.
Arwa Mahdawi notes these points (see /1) as she points to a bill introduced by MO Republican rep Jamie Gragg which will force teachers to register as sex offenders if they use a child's preferred pronoun in the classroom.
It's all about "protecting" children in Missouri, you see — for Republicans.