If anyone had told me two decades ago that I would be admiring, let alone praising, someone with the last name of “Cheney”, I’d have said they were nuts. But that’s just the sort of uncomfortable position many progressives find themselves in these days, when contemplating the recent performance of Representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), daughter of the former Vice President, vis-a-vis the actions of Donald Trump and the bastardization of the GOP.
It didn’t quite make it to fifty, but for almost half a century legal abortion has been the law of the land here in the US. No more.
On June 24, 2022, the gavel fell on Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 decision guaranteeing reproductive rights, overturned 5-4 by the current US Supreme Court. The test case which led to Roe’s reversal was Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which sought to prevent a Mississippi state law virtually eliminating abortion after 15 weeks from conception. That law was upheld 6-3, but Chief Justice John Roberts joined the progressive minority on the Court when Roe itself became the target of his conservative colleagues.
Imagine it: more than 24 hours cooped up inside a cramped metal box, with subfreezing temperatures just a thin glass wall away. No food, water, medicine or bathroom. Power, heat and connectivity only as long as the fuel and cellphone power hold out. Children, pets, seniors, special needs individuals – no one is spared. That was the situation confronting hundreds of motorists caught in a massive traffic snarl on Interstate 95, the primary north/south artery up the East Coast, on Monday, January 3rd.
On Wednesday, November 3, 2021, Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers tested positive for COVID-19, sparking a controversy over his previously unrevealed unvaccinated status. Rodgers had earlier described himself as “immunized” for the coronavirus, parsing his words carefully so as not to expose his actual vaccination refusal. The NFL superstar experienced COVID symptoms Tuesday, and tested positive the following day, triggering a mandatory 10-day suspension from play.
For the second time in twenty years, California is holding a recall election for its governor. Like Gray Davis in 2003, the at-risk chief executive is a Democrat, Gavin Newsom, less than two years into his first term, former mayor of San Francisco. Unlike the successful challenge mounted by Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2003, there is no high-profile Republican candidate running to unseat Newsom in 2021. Rather, upwards of 40 little-known candidates have ponied-up to the electoral bar, from across the political spectrum, but Newsom is not among them, as the current governor is not allowed to run to replace himself.
“That hymn you hear [playing in Congress] is ‘Just as I Am,’ and we’re open for deathbed conversions.” – Joe Scarborough, former Republican Congressman and MSNBC morning show host
Can you feel it? Impending political mortality is in the air. Trusted councilors leave the bedside, rats exiting a sinking ship; former shark allies mass in feeding frenzy, smelling blood in the water; media buzzards circle, waiting to pick the bones. US President Donald J. Trump is in extremis, with scant days to go before the end of his political career.
