This Just In – Republicans don’t care about women’s health and Donald Trump is that guy in the car who would choke the driver and grab the steering wheel if he didn’t get his way.
Where to begin, right?
Although the extraordinary step of leaking a draft of the Roe vs. Wade opinion put us all on notice that the worst case scenario was coming, the shock wave of last Friday’s full reversal is still coming into the shore.
Among 50 states, there are dozens of variations in reproductive health law ranging from no change in status to full bans on abortion that make no legal, practical sense at all. Only one specific thing is very clear coming from the Roberts Court last week – the “Supreme Court” is corrupt.
We have a justice in Clarence Thomas who was dragged (by reporting) into correcting his disclosure forms to include his spouse’s income, he also has failed to recuse himself from hearing cases about the January 6th attack on the Capitol, in which his wife, Virginia, has criminal exposure. He’s unfit for the bench.
Within the Roe decision, Thomas opines that other precedents should be reviewed, too. Namely Griswold v. Connecticut (a married couple’s right to practice birth control) and Obergefell v. Hodges (marriage equality).
The Roe reversal as a legal opinion is gibberish. Nineteenth Century gibberish. Here’s my translation: All that stuff conservatives used to say to crank about “activist judges” and “legislating from the bench” … y’all need to forget about that. We have five votes (that’ a political approach). We’re doing this. The chaotic mess of 50 states with 50 laws … that’s ok with us – we need to stay out of it.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott was asked last September about that state’s “’trigger” law, banning ALL abortions if Roe is reversed. What about a 14-year-old rape and incest victim? Why force her to carry that baby to term?
His ridiculous answer was that he will eliminate all rape in his state. That will be his top priority. There were more than 13,500 rapes in Texas last year–the most in the nation. There are many millions more people in California than Texas, but in rape – the Lone Star state is #1 in the nation. Presently, law enforcement clears about half of those cases.
Meanwhile, this week we heard from the 2022 version of John Dean – Cassidy Hutchinson. They already had 20 hours of recorded depositions from her. What else could she tell them?
A lot, it turns out. With all the tick tock details that only front-line staffers can provide, we heard that Trump and his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows (Hutchinson’s boss) knew very well that violence was on the January 6 agenda. Trump thought he was going to arrive at the Capitol and give a speech in the House chamber. When his Secret Service detail got him in his limo to ride from the ellipse back to the West Wing, they told him (again) that there were armed people in the crowd there and the security situation would not allow them to go. He insisted. They refused. He reached into the front seat to grab the lead of his detail by the throat and grab the steering wheel to redirect the car.
We saw evidence that the Cabinet at least considered invoking the 25th Amendment and text messages of everyone around the president – except Mark Meadows – trying to convince him to call off the mob – either preventing the violence that he knew as coming or stopping it once when he learned about a gallows being constructed on the mall and chants of “Hang Mike Pence.”
The president and his chief of staff had no problem with that chant. The mob was acting as expected. Trump wanted to be up there with the armed insurrectionists. When his Secret Service detail told him that there were people up in trees, armed with AR-15s, he said he had no concern, as they were not there to hurt him.
All of this is brutally shocking and at the same time not at all surprising. We have a lot to think about this Independence weekend. Clearly, the fireworks have already begun.
(featured image: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
Jean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.
Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc
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