A Late Turn for the Media: An Attorney General in Texas Tells His Son, Paxton, to Keep Away From the Public Propaganda

The author of “OK Boomer, Let’s Talk: How My Generation Got Left Behind” is a journalist based in New York. She can subscribe to her on micro-blogging site. The opinions are of her own. You can get more opinion on CNN.

Patrick T Brown said that Republicans expect to regain control of the House and the Senate next week. The slate of initiatives could remind conservatives of their limitations when running against unpopular presidents, and cause them to grapple with a new political reality post-Roe. Voters in several states will weigh in on propositions relating to abortion rights.

More than an hour later, as Paxton exited the home through the garage, Herrera said he approached him. He went back to his house, through the same door as I did, after I called out his name.

Minutes later, said Herrera, Paxton and his wife exited the house again, climbed into a truck parked in their driveway and drove off without taking the document.

For his part, he doesn’t dispute that he ran. But he says he ran from a shady stranger outside of his house, and not from the subpoena. “This is a ridiculous waste of time and the media should be ashamed of themselves,” Paxton tweeted. Many threats to conservatives’ safety were not given any attention from the mainstream media.

He continued, “It’s clear that the media wants to drum up another controversy involving my work as Attorney General, so they’re attacking me for having the audacity to avoid a stranger lingering outside my home and showing concern about the safety and well-being of my family.”

It is frightening to have your privacy invaded and frustrating when people try to interfere when you are trying to protect yourself and your family. Women in Texas can relate.

The Voice of Marc Molinaro, a Republican Candidate in New York, is Not Me: Abortion in Nevada Cannot be Forbidden Without Excision

Arizona’s Republican Senate candidate Blake Masters used to champion fetal personhood laws, which would fully criminalize abortion and potentially IVF as well, along with some forms of contraception; recently, though, that information was deleted from his website.

A DCCC ad released in mid-September claimed that Marc Molinaro, the Republican candidate in New York’s 19th District, would “stand with politicians who support a nationwide ban on abortion.” The text on the screen was titled, “MARC MOLINARO,” and it said that the politicians banned abortion nationwide.

There is a video on the Barbara Kirkmeyer website that shows her speaking at the March for Life and defending the sanctity of life.

Americans don’t support broad abortion bans. When you poll voters, even many who identify as pro-life and vote Republican, and even majorities in conservative states, hedge when it comes to actually criminalizing abortion.

The laws may cost Republicans votes at the ballot box. The solution is simple: Stop penning and passing wildly unpopular laws. So far, though, Republicans continue to do just that – and then they raise their hands in a cartoonish “it wasn’t me!” The gesture was made when pressed on it.

Two women have alleged that Walker pressured them to have abortions, which was recently contended with by Walker’s candidacy. Walker has denied the allegations and CNN has not independently confirmed them. But the women’s claims run counter to the candidate’s past statements in favor of a full federal abortion ban without exceptions. He walked back those remarks and stated that he supported Georgia’s law, which prohibits abortions after about six weeks but allows exceptions for rape or incest and where the pregnant woman’s health is at risk.

Democrat politicians have caused chaos at our border, increasing crime in our cities, and they have done incredible damage to America. They changed our lives. The spot says that one thing hasn’t changed: abortion in Nevada.

He took a novel approach. Although he has backed a federal abortion ban in the past, he now calls for “a one-time, single-issue referendum to decide the question.” His campaign released a sample ballot with a multiple-choice quiz and asked if society has a responsibility to protect the life of an unborn child.

While Adam Laxalt has declined to support a Women’s Right to make our own health care decisions, his opponent, Democratic Sen. Catherine Masto is running an ad saying that she will always fight for a Women’s Right to make our own health care decisions.

The Republican Senate candidate in Washington State has aired multiple ads opposing the federal ban. “Patty Murray has spent millions to paint me as an extremist,” Smiley says of the longtime Democratic senator in one of her spots. I am pro-life but oppose a federal abortion ban.

She began airing a straight-to-camera ad about the fact that politicians are now in charge of the most private health care decisions.

Some ads try to make it sound like Republicans who support exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother are opposed to these exceptions. Some ads say that Republicans who have opposed the idea of a federal abortion ban are in favor of a ban.

Republican groups, including the National Republican Senatorial Committee, have urged their candidates not to allow their opponents to define them on abortion but also not to fight the election solely on that issue.

The GOP’s position in the US Senate should be based on compassion and reason, says a memo from the National Republican Senatorial Committee. The group said Democrats should not be elected because they hold extreme views on abortion.

This is exemplified by the way Joe O’Dea, the Republican nominee for Senate in Colorado, has addressed the issue in his race against Democratic Sen. Michael Bennet in a blue-leaning state.

The first-time candidate and businessman used his outsider credentials and support for abortion during the first few months of a woman’s unborn child to promote his candidacy.

(O’Dea has also said he would have voted for Obama nominee Elena Kagan, a liberal justice who dissented in the Dobbs ruling, as he wants to end the “blood sport” over the Supreme Court confirmation process.)

The Role of Abelian Reproductive Rights in the State Senate and Beyond: Vice President Ted Budd’s Call for Action before the November Midterm Elections

“If it is an issue in the district and it is showing up in your polling, talk about. If it is not an issue that shows up in your polling, talk about issues like the economy that are more advantageous to you,” the operative said.

“The Supreme Court made it clear: This is a Raleigh decision, not a Washington decision,” North Carolina GOP Senate nominee Ted Budd said in a local interview in September.

The congressman sponsored the House companion bill that would let elected officials in Washington decide how to regulate abortion, after he made that point.

Ever since the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade first leaked in May — a decision that led to bans and severe restrictions on abortion in 15 states — Vice President Harris has had a lengthy series of conversations.

Harris has held more than 20 events focused on reproductive rights, hearing from activists, state legislators, health care providers, legal experts, faith leaders, civil rights leaders, and others about their concerns — and making clear that she sees it as a key issue ahead of November midterm elections.

“Let’s link arms, and do what we need to do, including in the next 34 days,” Harris said last week at one such event at Central Connecticut State University in New Britain, Conn.

According to polling by Fivethirtyeight, abortion has become less important to some voters as inflation and crime remain high and fears of an economic downturn grow. 29% of women in the age range of 18 to 44 listed abortion as one of their top three political priorities after the Dobbs ruling. In a poll conducted in September that number went from 12% to 12%.

Bringing Back the Voting Rights: An Introduction to Women’s Health Care Policy, a Conversation with Axiom Leader, Ms. Elrod

Harris was introduced by a Democrat. Democrats are pushing to hold on to their majority in the House of Representatives, despite the fact that the district is normally a safe Democratic one.

She has invited people from across the country to the listening sessions at the White House and will also be travelling to several states with competitive elections, such as North Carolina, Indiana and Florida.

These events give Harris the chance to hear from people affected by the new restrictions on abortion. Elrod said that they’re a “smart move” politically.

The events get a lot of local attention when they don’t make national news. “Her visit to those states will likely lead most of the daily papers in that state, or at least in that area,” Elrod said in an interview.

People who have been in the meetings say Harris is focused on the details. “I think it’s obvious that she’s very involved in the discussion when we attend those meetings”, said the president of the advocacy group National Partnership for Women and Families.

“This is a meeting that she is talking to people.” She is focused on what is going on. it was a conversation where she really wanted to learn. She had done her homework,” Frye told NPR.

Harris said fighting for the dignity of women in the health care system was ingrained in her when she was younger.

“This is truly an issue that is going to be about what all of our movements have been about, frankly,” Harris said. “There’s going to be a need for litigation and legislation, there’s going to be the need for organizing.”

In the meetings, Harris raises the “Venn diagram” method in which states that are restricting abortion access are also banning people from voting and voting if they don’t have an abortion.

When she attended one of Harris’ roundtables with other Latina state lawmakers, she found the message quite applicable to her. She left the meeting feeling like the call to action that Harris had given them was more than abortion.

“She also gave us a challenge as elected officials to organize,” Ramos said. “It was about ensuring that everyone has an opportunity to vote, and it was about marriage equality.”

She said that the roundtable reminded her of the stakes and that she has to engage with her own constituency to encourage people to vote.

Towards the Future of Pro-life Education in the U.S. Senate and House Minority Elections: An Analysis by Patrick T. Brown

Editor’s Note: Patrick T. Brown is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a conservative think tank and advocacy group based in Washington, DC. He is also a former senior policy adviser to Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. Follow him on Twitter. The views he expresses in this piece are his own. There is more opinion on CNN.

Most Republican candidates sought to change the topic or not at all. In these last weeks of the campaign, there is still time for an attack to get over the heads of moderate voters.

Republicans running for office have largely tried to downplay the issue. While Adam Laxalt, the Republican Senate candidate in Nevada, has run advertisements that stress his lack of interest in changing the status quo, the GOP Senate nominee in Arizona Clumsily scrubbed his website of stridently pro-life language.

Republicans have little to lose by sketching out a proactive vision in the current political environment. An explicit stance in favor of supporting women through stronger safety net spending and improving maternal health would soften the hard-edged image the left would love to paint and could influence key races that could decide the balance of power in Washington, DC, and state capitals.

Some Republicans have begun to look that way. In response to the ruling of the Dobbs case, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida proposed a package of safety-net proposals that would increase resources for pregnant mothers and bolster on-the-ground programs to help them with their babies.

Tennessee, Florida, and South Carolina are states that have opted into a federal program that provides Medicaid coverage for a year after a baby’s birth up from the previous standard of 60 days. Both Texas and Indiana passed new spending that aimed at supporting low income women at the same time as they passed restrictions on abortion, in order to show their commitment to being pro-life both during and after the baby is born.

Correspondence with Whitmer during the 2016 GOP Bipartisan Causality Crisis: A Reflection on America’s First Lady and the Michigan Senate Candidate

She supports background checks and red flag laws. She said that she didn’t agree with him for supporting permitless carry and opposing gun-free zones.

Whitmer has placed her support for abortion rights at the forefront of her bid for a second term in a state where Republicans control the legislature. She has praised her efforts to improve the economy and funding for schools.

After winning the GOP nomination and receiving an endorsement from former President Donald Trump, a supporter of Betsy DeVos, there has been criticism of the policies of the leader of the party. She has also leaned into cultural battles, proposing a policy that would ban transgender girls from competing in sports with the gender they identify with, as well as one modeled after the controversial measure Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis signed into law earlier this year, which critics dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” law.

It might be the most useful journey by Tudor Dixon. She is currently running for governor of Michigan, and has become a fan of abortion rights. After the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the 1931trigger law, which criminalized abortion, Whitmer requested that an injunction be granted.

“I am pro-life with exceptions for the life of the mother. The people of Michigan or a judge are expected to decide on the matter. The governor is unable to decide between a judge or constitutional amendment.

A 14-year-old child who is raped by a family member shouldn’t have an abortion, says a woman in a radio interview.

Whitmer, meanwhile, defended her actions amid the crisis, saying that “we made tough decisions because lives were on the line,” even as she conceded she would have done some things differently in hindsight.

Whitmer said 35,000 people in Michigan died during the pandemic. Some may not care about them. They matter to me, each and every one of them.

The Governor’s Debate: A Case Study of Michigan’s Infrastructure Reform and Gas Tax Decreases by 45 Cents Per Gallon

On Thursday night, Dixon took aim at one way Whitmer attempted to pay for those road improvements: increasing Michigan’s 27 cents per gallon gas tax by 45 cents per gallon.

According to a report by the MichiganTransportation Asset Management Council, roads are continuing to degrade.

Whitmer touted a bonding program and measures approved by the legislature that she said amount to $4.8 billion in transportation funding. She credited Biden and Congress for their infrastructure bill which she said gave us billions.

We have to find a way to fund the roads. It is going to require public-private partnerships in the future. It will be a ways out because the whole country isn’t going to go to EV vehicles overnight.

Dixon, acknowledging that a shift to electric vehicles will over time reduce gas tax revenue, said Michigan will need to pursue “public-private partnerships” to fund road construction. She did not detail what those would include, but such partnerships typically involve tolls.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/13/politics/michigan-governor-debate/index.html

A Reply to the DCCC ad advocating a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest

“This idea that you’re going to take guns away from law-abiding citizens and somehow that’s going to keep them out of the hands of criminals? That is never going to work. Someone who commits a gun crime needs to be put away.

The DCCC’s phrasing – King “stands with Republicans who want” a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest – allowed the ad to avoid explicitly claiming that King herself wants a national abortion ban with no exceptions for rape or incest. But the ad did not acknowledge that King has taken a public position against the proposals the ad insinuated that she plans to support.

A lawyer for Molinaro’s campaign sent a letter to television stations demanding that they stop airing the ad. The letter said it is not true that Molinaro would stand with politicians supporting a nationwide abortion ban, adding that “the ad provides no citation or other support for this false claim.” CNN could not determine how each station responded.

The ad was fact-checked in late September by the Albany Times Union. The Times Union noted that during a 2018 run for New York governor, Molinaro expressed support for the general idea of New York passing state legislation to codify abortion rights if the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade – though he said he doubted the court would do so and also said, as the DCCC ad correctly noted, that he did not support the particular codification bill state legislators were contemplating at the time.

While Becker obviously wants to be part of the Republican caucus in Congress, the ad did not mention that she has repeatedly pledged to vote against any federal abortion ban.

Becker publicly supports all three exceptions and did so on her website during the Republican primary, as noted in the research file on Becker.

A House Majority PAC ad released in late September targeted George Logan, the Republican candidate in Connecticut’s 5th District. The ad said that Republicans in Washington are discussing banning abortion in the entire nation, and that George Romney would help them vote for Republicans who would do just that.

Schumer had a lot of fun in Pennsylvania, but his message to the state was too much for the good, the bad, and the ugly

Schumer was concerned about Democratic prospects in Georgia in the last weeks before the election but he remained hopeful about Pennsylvania after the debate performance of their nominee.

But with inflation concerns rising and Biden’s unpopularity, he’s kept the president at arm’s length. Barack Obama has been the Democrats’ choice to win Georgia voters over with a harsh case against Walker.

Schumer said that the debate did not hurt the state of Pennsylvania.

The overheard comments came during a conversation among Schumer, President Joe Biden and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul on the tarmac of Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York. Biden gave a speech in the state Thursday as part of his midterm closing message in which he painted Republicans as a threat to Americans’ pocketbooks.

Democrats are in a race to hold on to their majority in the Senate despite the fact that Vice President Harris has the tie-breaking vote. Both Georgia, which Democrats are defending, and Pennsylvania, which represents their best opportunity to flip a seat, are critical to that mission.

The Democratic leader said his party was “picking up steam” in Nevada, where Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto is among the party’s most vulnerable incumbents.

When Gina and Brane attacked Oz, a Pennsylvania woman who allegedly had an abortion, and they wouldn’t reopen the debate

The Georgia race was rocked this week by allegations from a woman who claims she was in a years-long romantic relationship with Walker. She said at a press conference that he forced her to have an abortion. Walker, who has already been accused by a former girlfriend of encouraging her to have the procedure and then reimbursing her the cost, has denounced each claim as a lie. CNN has not independently confirmed the first woman’s allegations. She has not been made public in public reports.

A majority of likely voters, or 49%, support Walker over the other 50%, according to the New York Times and Siena College poll. Another poll, from Fox News at the end of October, also found a remarkably close contest, with Warnock at 44% and Walker at 43%. If neither candidate notches a majority of the vote, the race would be decided in a December 6 runoff.

“You can’t afford to give a clown a vote on Roe v. Wade,” Fetterman told MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Thursday, adding that Oz’s comment showed “what he actually believes about abortion.”

Democrats pounced on Oz’s comments in paid advertising, but most of the attention was focused on Fetterman’s stroke.

We were sure that it was important to be there. And we showed up,” the Democrat told Reid. “And getting knocked down, I always got back up. And, to me, that’s really at the essence of our campaign, is that we’re running for any Pennsylvanian that ever got knocked down that has to get back up. That is the thing we are running on.

The Case for a Post-Dobbs Panel to Determine the Legality of Abortion in the State House: A Comment from Former Vice President Mike Pence

Some of the pivots were not easy to use. Bo Hines, a former college quarterback who is running for a House seat in North Carolina, backs creating a panel that would decide whether to allow abortions in case of rape or incest. He has not given an indication about how it might work.

The legal mechanisms you could place on the legislature’s floor would be able to create an individual basis. The Democrats called the idea a post-Dobbs rape panels.

Dr. Mehmet Oz, who is running against Lt. Gov. John Fetterman for Senate in Pennsylvania, says he opposes a federal abortion ban. He made the point that local officials should be involved in determining whether or not to end a baby’s life. Who he meant was a mystery. county assessor? Democrats pounced.

A grass-roots group on the left is pushing for a measure on the ballot that would make abortion legal again. In response, anti-abortion groups have claimed it would invalidate laws requiring parental consent and even permit children to have gender-reassignment surgery without their parents’ permission. Legal experts say all that would be for courts to decide, but Democrats have griped that the right “has done a good job of muddying the waters.”

The contest for a seat in the Senate in Georgia, which was won by two Democrats in the last election cycle, is potentially crucial to the fate of Biden’s agenda because it occurred in a state where he already held a seat.

The Senate is currently split 50-50 in favor of the Democrats with Vice President Kamala Harris casting a decisive vote. Republicans coalesced around Walker because of the reality and the fact that Joe Biden has low approval ratings across the country.

Underscoring his party’s mix of ambivalence and political practicality, former Vice President Mike Pence, after not mentioning Walker during his remarks at a rally in Cumming, Georgia, on Tuesday for GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, told reporters he is “supporting the whole (Republican) ticket here in Georgia.”

Revisiting Warnock, Biden, and the Future: A Time for Reflection in the CNN Spotlight and Re-visited

Warnock, meanwhile, initially sought to steer clear of directly addressing the controversy. But late last month, he launched a television ad titled “Hypocrite.”

A narrator tells the audience Herschel Walker wants to ban abortion and he supports a national ban. “But for himself,” the narrator then asks before playing news reports about the allegations.

The focus of his play to undecided voters and moderates has been on his work to expand access to health care, along with his bipartisan record in the Senate.

“I’ll work with anyone if it means helping Georgia,” he says in another ad, hammering home a message the senior pastor at Atlanta’s historic Ebenezer Baptist Church has repeated at rallies and in his lone debate with the Republican.

“There is very little evidence that he has taken any interest, bothered to learn anything about or displayed any kind of inclination towards public service or volunteer work or helping people in anyway,” Obama said of Walker at a rally for Warnock last week in College Park.

Walker has made a lot of allusions to the culture war and criticism of inflation and crime under Biden, in an effort to make his opponent pay attention.

“For those of you who are concerned about voting for me, a non-politician,” Walker said during their debate, “I want you to think about the damage politicians like Joe Biden and Raphael Warnock have done to this country.”

Editor’s Note: Sign up to get this weekly column as a newsletter. We’re looking back at the strongest, smartest opinion takes of the week from CNN and other outlets.

The acronym “VUCA” was popularized by the US Army War College as a lens for seeing a world in turmoil. It stands for “volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity.” Or, as professors Nate Bennett and G. James Lemoine wrote years later, “Hey, it’s crazy out there!”

The Future of American Democracy and the Challenges of Inflation and Decelerating Wall Street: Joe Biden, Donald Trump and the Dems

Will it be a success for the leadership of Joe Biden and the Democrats in Congress? Will it strengthen or weaken the election denialism many Republicans adopted after former President Donald Trump refused to accept his 2020 election loss? How would GOP control of one orboth chambers of Congress affect America in the last two years of Biden’s term?

Both parties disagree on the issues in the election, which is being fought over. Republicans are stressing inflation, crime and immigration in their campaigns, while many Democrats see threats to democracy and the overturning of Roe v. Wade as key reasons to elect their candidates.

Democrats think their warnings about the future of democracy are amply justified. Dean wrote “we all understand inflation is temporary but losing our democracy could be permanent.” He cited the “Washington Post’s recent reporting that a majority of the GOP nominees on the ballot his year for the House, Senate and statewide office have denied or questioned the results of the 2020 election. We have never seen anything like this in our lifetimes – if ever in the history of the United States.”

Campaigning for Democrats, former President Barack Obama talked about inflation: “Republicans are having a field day running ads talking about it, but what is their actual solution to it?” Dean Obeidallah thinks Obama had a more effective message when it came to turning out Democrats.

basic fights over who should have what can be done when the cause of inflation is not known. Should corporations earn bigger profits, should workers earn higher wages and should consumers shoulder the burden of both?”

“The message is clear: As energy companies continue to rake in massive profits, energy has become increasingly unaffordable for lower-income Americans. Families need help maintaining access to affordable energy in the winter. He argued that the US should follow the European Union by taxing the excess profits of fuel companies, directing the money toward consumers struggling to pay their bills.

An “unnecessarily painful recession” is on the horizon, warned Desmond Lachman of the American Enterprise Institute. The Federal Reserve bank hiked interest rates by three quarters of a point for the fourth time in a row this week due to the unusual rapid pace of monetary policy tightening. He argued that higher rates are putting pressure on companies to cut staffing, as the housing market is slowing. “The Fed’s hawkish policy stance is occurring in the context of a very troubled world economy that has also been plagued by high inflation.” The Fed’s leaders have signaled that they may start moderating the pace of interest rate hikes.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html

How Do Midterms Are Vuca Elections? A Comment on Obeidallah, Thiessen, and Other Sensitive Observers

It was the perfect way to ask voters who will fight for their freedom. Obeidallah observed, “The answer clearly is the Democratic Party, and the former President delivered that message, pointing to threats to reproductive rights and same-sex marriage by some Republicans.”

Having Obama make the closing argument “might not be such a great idea,” wrote Republican Marc A. Thiessen in the Washington Post. It can be thought of as rosy, but Obama has been less than stellar in his help to downballot Democrats. More seats went missing under Obama than any other president in U.S. history. Many Democrats do not want Biden on their campaign trail. But Obama may not be the savior they are hoping for. To the contrary, based on this disastrous record, he may be electoral kryptonite.”

A note to our readers: On Tuesday, pivotal races will decide who controls the House, Senate and dozens of governorships across the country. CNN has a My Election tool that can be used to build a custom dashboard for the contests you follow. Become a CNN user and get started with your account.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html

The 21st Century of the U.S. Capitol, Victims of Paul Pelosi’s Attack on January 6, 2021

Former Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police officer Michael Fanone, who was injured in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, wrote, “When I speak privately with fellow officers who defended the US Capitol on January 6, the conversation often turns to why so many Americans remain indifferent about the insurrection. Most Americans don’t seem to care. An overt attempt to end our democracy? Meh…”

I don’t think the violent attack on Paul Pelosi will be a turning point. We are no longer talking about isolated incidents or seeing universal condemnation of violence by our leaders. The 82-year-old husband of the woman who is third in line to the US presidency was beaten in his own home for political reasons, and right-wing media and some Republicans reveled in the violence,” Fanone added.

Governor’s races with mixed party control will be key, particularly in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Kansas – where Democratic governors have fought efforts to impose restrictive abortion laws.

Most of the states have an initiative up for a vote this year. “Democracy itself is on the ballot in 2022,” wrote Joshua A. Douglas. “Not only do we have candidates who have questioned the 2020 election or refuse to say they will accept defeat this year, but numerous states and localities also will vote on measures to change how elections are run or who may vote in them.”

Friday brought word that former President Donald Trump could announce that he is launching another bid for the White House in the next few weeks. Zelizer said that Democrats should not underestimate the threat posed by Trump.

“The Republicans remain a strongly united party. Very little can shake that unity. The ‘Never Trump’ contingent didn’t become a dominant force. Indeed, officials such as Congresswoman Liz Cheney were purged from the party.”

If Republicans win back control of the House and Senate next week, members of the party will be reassured about talking about their economic and culture wars for the next eight years. And given the number of election-denying candidates in the midterms, a strong showing will likely create the tailwinds for the GOP to unite behind Trump.”

Zelizer stated that Trump himself would feel confident. Despite ongoing criminal investigations and the House select committee investigating January 6, Trump is still a viable political figure. … It will become more difficult to prosecute Trump once he becomes a candidate. Trump, a master of playing the victim, is sure to claim (as he has in the past) that any investigation is simply a politically motivated ‘witch hunt’ intended to take him out of the running.”

Elon Musk: The Tesla CEO, Twitter, the Financial Times, Midterms Are Vuca Elections: An Analysis of Musk, Norman & the News

All of this has made the slurring of Jews even worse. A cultural icon decided to hang a live wire around his neck and run it up the stairs of his fame, as a means of avoiding a scary electrical charge in the air.

Elon Musk’s first few days of controlling Twitter have been tumultuous, with the Tesla CEO spreading misinformation, laying off a large share of the workforce and sharing the idea of charging users for blue-check verification status.

Musk is making the power that US tech executives hold over their lives, from politics to the health of democracy, painfully tangible to all of us, was stated in the Financial Times.

“Immediately after the sale was confirmed, the number of neo-Nazi and racist tweets exploded on the site. The accounts marked as linked to Russian and Chinese state media requested the labels be removed. There was considerable speculation that Musk would reverse the ban for extremists or conspiracy theorists.

Musk “has placed no limits on his own speech,” wrote former advertising executive Rob Norman in the New York Times, “and, under his ownership, seems likely to enable the inflammatory, provocative and sometimes verifiably untrue speech of others.”

“I know from having represented the world’s biggest buyer of advertising space that advertisers worry about these things a lot. In this case, advertisers’ worries could lead them to flee en masse, costing Twitter almost all its current revenue. Without that revenue, Twitter could be a calamitous acquisition for Mr. Musk, and the very future of the platform could be at risk.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html

2021 was the worst year of her working life: M. A. Hickson’s expulsion, a personal essay to CNN’s “America’s Future Starts Now”

Martha Hickson, a high school librarian in New Jersey for more than a decade, called it the worst year of her working life. In 2021 protesters showed up at a school board meeting and railed against two books, one of which is a memoir by Maia Kobabe. They spewed selected sentences from the Evison book, while brandishing isolated images from Kobabe’s.”

“Next, they attacked Banned Books Week, an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. The protesters characterized it as a nefarious plot to lure kids to degradation,” wrote Hickson.

“But the real sucker punch came when one protester branded me a pedophile, pornographer and groomer of children. After a successful career, with retirement on the horizon, to be cast as a villain was heartbreaking.”

The response from my employer was worse. The board sat silent that night and didn’t say anything for the next five months.

The final personal essay was in CNN Opinion’s series on “America’s Future Starts Now.” Nine education experts also weighed in with thoughts on how to move America’s schools forward.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html

Midterms are Vuca Elections: What Has Israel Learned About Israel in the 1980’s? A View from Latin America and the Middle East

The faces came back after the elections in Latin America and the Middle East. In Brazil, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “posted a stunning political comeback,” beating the incumbent, Jair Bolsonaro, Arick Wierson wrote.

Since the end of the military dictatorship in the 1980’s, Brazilians have been faced with two more starkly contrasting candidates, each with differing political outlooks. And “it’s clear that a sizable percentage of the voting population didn’t buy into either of their visions for the country.”

“Even under indictment and on trial for bribery, fraud and breach of trust, Netanyahu is still the most consequential politician on the Israeli scene today,” wrote Aaron David Miller. The election was very important for Netanyahu. Had he failed to secure a governing majority – one that is likely to pass legislation to postpone or even cancel his trial – he may well have had to face the consequences of a guilty verdict or a plea bargain that would have driven him away from politics.”

Likud is one of the most stable political parties in Israel. Israel is now shaped more by the right wing than at any point in its history, because Netanyahu is its master.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/11/06/opinions/midterms-are-vuca-election-opinion-column-galant/index.html

Tom Brady and Gisele Bndchen: A Feasibility Test for a Family-Avoiding Breakdown of the Roe Family Law

The world of celebrity power couples has seen many divorces in recent years, notably in the case of Tom Brady and Gisele Bndchen. There is an enormous public interest in the split. The “fascination with the Brady-Bündchen divorce comes from the fact that this couple’s split hits a perfect celebrity sweet spot: These are two people who are absolutely nothing like us, but who nonetheless seem to be splitting up over a familiar gender dynamic that is imminently relatable.”

“Bündchen’s public comments indicate a worry about Brady’s health playing a dangerous sport and a desire – after years of sacrificing so that he could thrive professionally – for him to spend more time with their family.”

This is a familiar and frustrating dynamic: The wife who steps back to care for children and help her husband succeed, but then the husband who doesn’t seem to appreciate that sacrifice and continuing to push professionally far past, at the expense of his family.

Democrats in charge of the White House and facing growing concerns about inflation and the rest of the economy, are wondering how much energy the Supreme Court decision will unleash.

Abortion rights supporters have been pushing for passage of the Women’s Health Protection Act, designed to codify Roe’s protections in federal law. That legislation passed the House last year in a largely symbolic vote but has lacked the votes to overcome the Senate filibuster.

People will still travel from states with restrictions to those with more liberal abortion laws if a nationwide abortion ban is not in place.

NARAL Pro-Choice America president Mini Timmaraju isn’t comfortable with the fact that President Biden will veto anti- abortion legislation when he is in office.

Timmaraju: “It’s not going to get that far.” Defending Anti-Abelian Rights in the U.S. Senate

“We definitely don’t want it to go that far.” Timmaraju said that the precedent was a bad one. “We’re absolutely not going to let it get to that point; that’s our goal.”

Some are suggesting that abortion rights will be a difficult issue for voters in the upcoming election, and Emily’s List is hopeful that will be the case.

“Voters are whole people; they carry their whole selves into the ballot box,” Butler said. “And what we have experienced as a nation is that our economy ebbs and flows – but once our fundamental freedoms are taken away, we don’t know if we’re ever going to be able to get that back.”

SBA Pro-life America says that Women Speak Out Pacific hasreached 8 million voters on behalf of anti- abortion rights candidates.