abortion

This Was Not A Win

The fundamentalist fringe of the Republican party believes they’ve won a major victory now that Roe’s been struck down. They’re wrong, but we’ll save that for later.

An awful lot of Republican voters celebrated this weekend, even as protesters flooded the streets in cities across the nation. Republican party insiders know better. They’re counting the marchers and examining the present demographics of Texas and Georgia, and they’re slowly coming to the realization that they may well have just lost the mid-term elections by a landslide. Democrats haven’t been this unified since before Obama.

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SCOTUS: The Same Emphasis

“The one function that TV news performs very well is that when there is no news we give it to you with the same emphasis as if it were.”

David Brinkley, broadcast journalist

The American press is dying of suspense, and it serves ’em right.

After reporting on the May leak of a draft SCOTUS opinion on abortion as though it were a done deal when in actual point of fact it’s not, American broadcast journalism has placed a massive critical spotlight on the Court and its opinions. Every week they don’t release the final judgment, the tension continues to build and speculation to circulate, until now, when there’s nothing new left to say and no fresh pundits to say it, they’re forced into invention to satisfy an audience ravenous for blood (or whatever it is that jurists use these days).

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Texas Abortion Law: This Is A Good Thing

Even its proponents will often be compelled to admit: This is a strange type of law.

There’s precedent for granting bounties to private citizens, and it’s very probably lawful to use the civil courts instead of criminal for enforcement in this or a similar fashion. Even if it’s not, centering a counter-argument on this point is an error anyway. Those who invented the bill in the first place are attempting to choose the ground for the next fight over what is effectively a “heartbeat law” on abortion.

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F&L 2020: Trump/Pence vs. Biden/Harris

Opinion/Analysis

It’s been decided:  This November, our ballots will feature Biden/Harris for the Democrats; presumably, they’ll be facing Trump/Pence* for the Republicans.  This settles one of the oft-repeated questions from past weeks, “Who will he pick?”, leaving us with… well, with rather more questions.  These include “What will the electoral map look like?”, “How do the candidates stack up against each other?”, and the all-important “Who should I vote for?”

At present, the editorial staff here at The Not Fake News has mixed feelings ourselves on that last question, so we’re not inclined to opine. (more…)

Reimplanting Ectopic Pregnancies

Every time some idiot Congressman tries to introduce the impossible into law, it makes national news.  This time it’s Ohio attempting to mandate the reimplantation of ectopic pregnancies.  As always, there’s a lot of uninformed people out there expressing their opinions, often quite loudly.

In this case, there’s also some well-intentioned experts oversimplifying the issue for mass consumption.  Which is potentially excusable for politics; most politicians are… well, calling them idiots would (more…)

Virtue Signalling For Votes

“The only people truly bound by campaign promises are the voters who believe them.”
― Christopher Hitchens

There are two types of promises:  comforting lies, and those meant to be kept.  Campaign promises differ from normal ones only in the choice of subject; where a doctor might tell a panicked child, “Now, you might feel a little pinch,” a politician will promise to end world hunger (more…)

On Abortion (as a political issue)

I’m going to begin by making three statements:

  1. Roe v. Wade is, for the moderate future, settled law.  No politician currently running is going to overturn it.
  2. Science gives us no clear, simple, easy-to-understand answer here.
  3. There are a lot of people on every side of the discussion who will never be content with any compromise.

If you can accept each of these statements, there are two conclusions (more…)

Bet You Won’t Share This One

“This meme shows what evil bastards Republicans are.”  [LIKE] [SHARE]

It’s this sort of attitude that’s what’s wrong with America today. It’s horribly counterproductive. Your meme will never convince the unconvinced; all it does is make the Democrat feel smug without compelling them to do anything whatsoever.

I’m sure you’ll understand if I don’t (more…)