ChiGoose

The right to contraceptives was established in Connecticut v. Griswold, a case founded on the grounds to similar privacy rights as Roe v. Wade. In his concurrence in Dobbs, Justice Thomas called for overturning Griswold. The main thrust of Dobbs is that abortion doesn’t appear in the text of the Constitution, but neither does contraceptive. Some GOP candidates are already running on a platform to ban access to contraceptives: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/michigan-gop-extremist-candidate-ban-contraception-1356393/amp/ As for interracial marriage, it too was established partly on privacy grounds in Loving v. Virginia, but you should note that the right to interracial marriage is also not in the text of the constitution. Oddly, while Thomas mentioned overturning privacy cases like Griswold, Obergefell, and Lawrence, he somehow forgot the fourth case in that line: Loving. That being said, it appears that Loving may be on the radar for some people: https://www.businessinsider.com/republican-senator-mike-braun-questions-whether-the-supreme-court-should-have-legalized-interracial-marriage-2022-3?amp I’m not going to make predictions on whether or not these cases will be overturned, but to say that they are settled is ignoring the current environment on the far Right.

All members of Congress should be banned from trading stocks. I couldn’t buy individual stocks in my last job and I didn’t have nearly the access to MNPI than members of Congress.

I’d rather eat paint chips. Better for the brain.

No.

Why does this thread exist? “Lefties are mentally disturbed” is an acceptable thread topic? I want to say I’m surprised the mods have allowed this to go on so long, but I’m honestly not.

Alternative headline: “Jeffrey Epstein’s buddy thinks it’s bad to arrest criminals.”

I’d like to see a serious investigation into this but it’s also important that a Secret Service Agent left the protection detail to take a political position and then returned to the agency and, I believe, is currently running their training. Feels like not everything is on the up-and-up there. Very interested in what the IG has to say (and the IG has already stated that the Secret Service has not been cooperative in the investigation).

No he didn't.

Many of the laws in Europe have exceptions so large you can drive a truck through, such as the woman's mental health. Ohio doesn't even have an exception for minors who are raped.

They are proposing it, though I don't know if there is more current draft legislation: https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/24/politics/republican-reaction-abortion-congress/index.html

Fair enough. We should have a "summer thread" with lighthearted posts about what everyone's up to during the summer.

Get help.

Are you ok?

Or they keep their heads in the sand and do nothing while the problem gets worse.

I don’t know much about California, but since Pritzker took over in Illinois, we have had multiple credit ratings upgrades (after the last governor intentionally took us down to one above junk), dramatically reduced the bill backlog and have rebuilt the rainy day fund. Things are actually going quite well in the state.

For one, I don’t think every single issue should be left up to the states. Should the right to contraceptives be left to the states? Should we let the states decide if they want to allow interracial marriage? If I was offered a great job opportunity in Ohio, the state where my wife and I went to school and still have friends, it would be a really difficult decision because moving to Ohio would mean losing access to important healthcare. Secondly, the whole “leave it up to the states” argument falls a little flat when the GOP is openly advocating for a nationwide ban through Congress. Ultimately, it likely won’t be left to the states one way or the other.

Government employees often have a separate phone for their work. I know a couple employees of the state who have a work-issued phone because everything they do for work is subject to FOIA. I do not know if the secret service has the same policy, but if cops and other state government employees have this, it wouldn’t surprise me if the secret service did too. However, I think the best course of action is to remain skeptical and keep an eye out for updates of an investigation into this.

He’s a troll. Between him and DR, they don’t have two brain cells to rub together. Best to ignore and let the adults talk.

Sorry I’m just seeing this, was on dinner and clean up duty. I think it’s a bad look for any government employee phone to have data deleted after an IG asks for it to be preserved. Generally, I would expect that there is a procedure to identify such devices and prevent them from undergoing regular data wipes. As far as I can tell, that leaves three likely potential scenarios: 1. There was no procedure to prevent devices from being wiped after an IG asks them to be preserved. 2. There is a procedure but it failed in this instance for some reason. 3. The data was intentionally deleted to prevent the IG from uncovering facts. I think all of those are a bad look for an agency as serious as the Secret Service. I am not going to do the PPP thing and break out my jump to conclusions mat, but if I had to guess, I think Occam’s and Hanlon’s Razors would make me more inclined to lean towards option 2. In any case, this should be investigated to get to the bottom of it.

Per The Intercept: THE SECRET SERVICE erased text messages from January 5 and January 6, 2021, according to a letter given to the January 6 committee and reviewed by The Intercept. The letter was originally sent by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to the House and Senate homeland security committees. Though the Secret Service maintains that the text messages were lost as a result of a “device-replacement program,” the letter says the erasure took place shortly after oversight officials requested the agency’s electronic communications. ... The Department of Homeland Security — the Secret Service’s parent agency — is subject to oversight from the DHS Office of Inspector General, which had requested records of electronic communications from the Secret Service between January 5 and January 6, 2021, before being informed that they had been erased. It is unclear from the letter whether all of the messages were deleted or just some. Not a great look.

My understanding is that a lot of the solutions around things like recycling simply aren't profitable, limiting their scale. Though, I will certainly defer to someone with LEED accreditation.

(citation needed)

Nice telling on yourself with that comment, but if you were really interested, here are some stats: The states with the lowest maternal mortality rate are: California (4.0 per 100k) Massachusetts (8.4 per 100k) Nevada (8.4 per 100k) Connecticut (10.5 per 100k) Colorado (11.5 per 100k) The United States as a whole has a fairly high maternal mortality rate, tied for 57th and below such countries as Russia, Iran, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Belarus.

I was referring to the claim that there are people pushing to allow for killing babies after they are born. I do not know who is proposing that, nor would I support anyone who did. As to your point, I do live in Chicago but I have no hand in crafting laws in Illinois. Nor do I need to lobby on this issue since Illinois has a forward-thinking government that codified these rights prior to Dobbs, (since the writing was on the wall once Barrett was appointed). I do, however, have monthly donations to several senate candidates, as well as a fund to help people in less fortunate states access the care they need. Unfortunately, as we can see, that is not enough to prevent people from suffering due to Dobbs. I can pretend that "trusting the process" will fix all of this eventually, but I can also wish that the Patriots would be sold and moved out of New England. Doesn't mean a whole lot nor does it help anyone.

No idea. I’m not aware of this movement, their guidelines or proposed legislation.