Feels damn good to have a big legislative win, doesn't it?

Sure, it's gotta pass the House before Biden can sign it, but the biggest hurdles - Manchin and Sinema - have been overcome.

We deserve to feel good about this.

And fuck the republican whining!

Elections matter

Does anyone question that after today's historic vote?

Think about how much more we could have gotten done if we had enough of a majority in the Senate so that Manchin and Sinema are irrelevant. Imagine how we can protect our right to vote, and protect women's right to make their own decisions about their own bodies.

ELECTIONS MATTER.

America Supports Abortion

Abortion rights had a resounding win last night in Kansas, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have removed abortion protections from the state constitution. In addition to being an incalculable victory for the people of Kansas, the referendum results make plain what feminists have been screaming for decades: Abortion is a winning issue.

It’s time to start treating it like one.

From ‘safe, legal and rare’ to framing abortion as a tragic choice rather than an essential freedom—Democrats have tiptoed around abortion rights for far too long. (Even last night, in the wake of a massive triumph, President Joe Biden’s tweet in response to the vote didn’t include the word ‘abortion’.)

There is no benefit in being tentative. Apologetic messaging certainly didn’t protect Roe, and it ceded the most important advantage we have: The moral high ground. After all, we aren’t the people who want to force 10 year-olds to give birth, we aren’t making devastated women carry dead and dying fetuses, and we aren’t the ones mandating rape victims sign affidavits or ‘prove’ their attack before being allowed basic care.

Forcing someone to be pregnant when they don’t want to be is cruel, and voters know it: Six-in-ten Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and a whopping 85% of Americans want abortion legal at least in some circumstances. The extreme abortion bans going into effect across the country don’t reflect what voters actually want.

There’s a reason Kansas anti-abortion groups made the referendum language as confusing as possible, and why they tried to trick voters with misleading text messages, telling people to “Vote YES to protect women’s health.” (A ‘yes’ vote would remove abortion protections.)

Conservatives know that banning abortion is a losing issue.

America Supports Abortion

Abortion rights had a resounding win last night in Kansas, where voters overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would have removed abortion protections from the state constitution. In addition to being an incalculable victory for the people of Kansas, the referendum results make plain what feminists have been screaming for decades: Abortion is a winning issue.

It’s time to start treating it like one.

From ‘safe, legal and rare’ to framing abortion as a tragic choice rather than an essential freedom—Democrats have tiptoed around abortion rights for far too long. (Even last night, in the wake of a massive triumph, President Joe Biden’s tweet in response to the vote didn’t include the word ‘abortion’.)

There is no benefit in being tentative. Apologetic messaging certainly didn’t protect Roe, and it ceded the most important advantage we have: The moral high ground. After all, we aren’t the people who want to force 10 year-olds to give birth, we aren’t making devastated women carry dead and dying fetuses, and we aren’t the ones mandating rape victims sign affidavits or ‘prove’ their attack before being allowed basic care.

Forcing someone to be pregnant when they don’t want to be is cruel, and voters know it: Six-in-ten Americans believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, and a whopping 85% of Americans want abortion legal at least in some circumstances. The extreme abortion bans going into effect across the country don’t reflect what voters actually want.

There’s a reason Kansas anti-abortion groups made the referendum language as confusing as possible, and why they tried to trick voters with misleading text messages, telling people to “Vote YES to protect women’s health.” (A ‘yes’ vote would remove abortion protections.)

Conservatives know that banning abortion is a losing issue.

Jan. 6 text messages wiped from phones of key Trump Pentagon officials

The Defense Department wiped the phones of top departing DOD and Army officials at the end of the Trump administration, deleting any texts from key witnesses to events surrounding the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to court filings.

The acknowledgment that the phones from the Pentagon officials had been wiped was first revealed in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit American Oversight brought against the Defense Department and the Army. The watchdog group is seeking January 6 records from former acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller, former chief of staff Kash Patel, and former Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy, among other prominent Pentagon officials – having filed initial FOIA requests just a few days after the Capitol attack.

Miller, Patel and McCarthy have all been viewed as crucial witnesses for understanding government’s response to the January 6 Capitol assault and former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the breach. All three were involved in the Defense Department’s response to sending National Guard troops to the US Capitol as the riot was unfolding. There is no suggestion that the officials themselves erased the records.

The government’s assertion in the filings that the officials’ text messages from that day were not preserved is the latest blow to the efforts to bring transparency to the events of January 6. It comes as the Department of Homeland Security is also under fire for the apparent loss of messages from the Secret Service that day.

Miller declined to comment. Patel and McCarthy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon and the Army also did not respond to requests for comment.

American Oversight is now calling for a “cross-agency investigation” by the Justice Department to investigate destruction of the materials.

Tell me again how the DOJ has been doing nothing

Ooooooh, the J6 plot thickens

Abortion and why MEN want it abolished

I was asked to cross-post this response from General Discussion here. The discussion is why Alito is so damn wrong about abortion and gender equality: https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216962217

You don't need to look that far back.

In fact, there are a ton of current studies that show women with children make less money and are promoted far less than men and than women without children. Mothers are the slowest group to succeed in the working world behind white men, black men, and childfree women.

Keeping women pregnant takes them out of the workforce and keeps them on an uneven footing throughout their careers. Because if they don't advance when they are younger, by the time they have 20 years of experience and they're still on the lower rungs of the ladder, they're much less likely to go much higher.

WOMEN TWO THIRDS LESS LIKELY THAN MEN TO GET PROMOTED AT WORK AFTER HAVING CHILDREN

DOJ's contact information:

Early on I said I'd post DOJ's contact info so we can send letters and make calls when the hearings wrap up. The committee may not be done yet (indeed, they mentioned additional hearings in September), but it appears they might be done with this phase of presentations.

We have seen evidence of conspiracy - seditious conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the U.S., we see evidence the orange asshole put Pence's life in danger, as well as everyone in the Capitol building, we see his utter dereliction of duty.

We now get to put pressure on the DOJ.

Here's the DOJ's contact information: https://www.justice.gov/contact-us

I think all of us should call or write letters. The more pressure we place on them, the harder it will be for them to find any excuse not to go after him with everything they've got. Remember, they hired additional staff. Let's put them to work!

Pence needs to testify

I posted this in response to a thread but I think it stands on its own (edited slightly):

Pence needs to tell the committee and/or the DOJ what the SS were telling him while they were trying to get him out of the Capitol, he needs to explain what he was doing and who he was calling (plenty of photos of him on the phone in the garage that day), and he needs to explain what he did.

It's my understanding that he did not have the authority to mobilize the National Guard but it's clear he knew no one else would make that call, and together with Milley they got them mobilized.

On some of those phone calls I'll bet he was talking to individuals about removing the orange fuck via the 25th Amendment and that's one reason he took over to mobilize the National Guard. I suspect people told him that the orange asshole sat all afternoon watching the TV with glee and Pence knew the asshole was incapable of doing a thing about the violence. Remember that Pence was a congressperson and I suspect he was really angry that the orange asshole gave the order for the Capitol attack. The Capitol is considered sacred by a lot of legislators.

I despise Pence but his actions on that day were correct. However, he is a coward if he does not testify. He should actually be volunteering information. So I suspect he is compromised and maybe blackmailed by the orange fuck to keep quiet.

Pence is stupid enough to think he has a political career left. He might still have political viability if he came out and told the country that HE was the only person acting with integrity that day, that HE acted presidential. But he's a fucking coward and he's afraid to anger the cultists.