Crooked Media - What A Day: Biden His Time

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade, many Democratic voters have been rightly frustrated by the Biden administration’s inert response. Today, the president finally seemed to get the ball rolling.
 

• President Biden signed an Executive Order today aimed at safeguarding access to medication abortion and emergency contraception. The order also aims to protect patient privacy, launch public education efforts, and bolster the legal options and protections available to those seeking and providing abortion services. Biden has tasked his Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Bacerra with expanding access to emergency contraception and long-acting reversible contraception like IUDs, and ensuring patients have access to "the full rights and protections for emergency medical care afforded under the law." He also directed Becerra to consider updating guidance that clarifies physician responsibilities and protections under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act.
   

• The Executive Order further establishes an interagency task force on reproductive health care access, including Attorney General Merrick Garland, who has issued a statement warning states that they cannot ban Mifepristone—an FDA-approved medication used to end early pregnancy.
   

• While this is certainly a good start, and a show of actual effort at long last, the Administration’s plan bucks many of the proposed solutions and stop-gaps from the progressive wing of the party, such as providing abortions on federal property and (would that it were…) adding justices to the Supreme Court. New reporting indicates he also decided against declaring a public-health emergency, which would have greatly expanded the Department of Health and Human Services’ powers, for fear of winding up in court over doing so. But many progressives and even mainstream Democrats alike feel that now is the time to throw caution to the wind, because there is too much at stake. With so many basic civil rights being thrown in the garbage, our elected officials should be trying anything and everything.

Because on the other side of the aisle, Republicans are playing legislative hardball without any fear of harm it might cause, let alone litigation.

• Conservatives in the Pennsylvania state senate have advanced a bill that would explicitly strip any protections for abortion from the state constitution. The State House Democratic floor leader, Sen. Jay Costa of Allegheny County, said he saw the abortion bill as “designed to prevent abortions in this commonwealth,” while the bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Judy Ward of Blair, said it would simply give the Legislature power to determine abortion law. Hmm, I wonder which one is telling the truth!
   

• Abortion is now fully banned in 10 states, mainly those that had statewide trigger laws on the books that went into effect the minute the Dobbs ruling was official. Although a flurry of court challenges to those bans ensued, their efficacy is on borrowed time. After Dobbs, a Louisiana District Court judge granted a temporary restraining order banning enforcement of the trigger laws, but that order was lifted today when another state district judge said she did not have the authority to extend it. This once again clears the way for the state’s total abortion ban, with no exceptions for rape or incest.

While President Biden is correct that the Executive Branch’s moves to combat the overturn of Roe are limited, and that ultimately it is Congress that can enshrine abortion rights into law, his calls to “vote,” fall on beleaguered and disillusioned ears. His administration must exhaust every option to protect reproductive rights, and he must use his leverage as president to pressure holdout Senators to pass his agenda in order to earn back the trust of voters who currently feel both defeated and taken for granted.

On this week's Imani State of Mind, psychiatrist and TV personality Dr. Imani Walker and co-host comedian MegScoop Thomas get real about mommy and daddy issues. They explore what a healthy relationship with parents even looks like and how much a parent plays in the forming of your personality well into adulthood. Listen and follow Imani State of Mind wherever you get your podcasts.

Prior to President Biden’s announcement of his Executive Order on abortion, he gave an impromptu economic progress report as if to say, “See? Don’t say I never did nothin’ for ya.” And it turns out he did, in fact, have good news to share. The Department of Labor reported that the economy created 372,000 jobs in June, handily surpassing predictions. U.S. National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said the U.S. has now recovered all private sector jobs lost during the pandemic. Gas prices have fallen for 25 days in a row. Unemployment is at a historic low of 3.6 percent. All of this is great news, and hopefully it will be enough to begin to counteract the narrative, obsessively pushed by right-wing and center-right media outlets, that Biden has led us to “economic disaster.” Now, if only there were *something* they could do about that indefensibly-low federal minimum wage.

Wisconsin’s conservative Supreme Court barred ballot drop boxes across the state in a 4-3 decision.

The IRS commissioner has formally asked the Treasury Department’s Inspector General to conduct an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the unusual audits of Trump foes James Comey and Andrew McCabe experienced shortly after he fired them.

Social media giant Twitter is preparing a legal battle to force Elon Musk to abide by his highly publicized, legally binding agreement to buy the company. (Update: Elon is now trying to get out of it.)

Retired army general and former Trump advisor Michael Flynn has been cited by the Department of Defense’s inspector general for failing to disclose large payments he received for speaking engagements and business dealings with foreign entities. 

People seeking concealed carry permits in New York state will now be required to hand over their social media accounts as part of a review of their “character and conduct.” Character does seem pretty relevant!

An elected North Carolina Republican introduced a bill in the state legislature proposing to destroy free electronic-vehicle charging stations, which raises the question: Republicans, are you okay? (Obviously the answer is no.)

Japan’s Former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated Friday by a gunman who shot him from behind as he delivered a campaign speech ahead of the country’s upcoming parliamentary elections. When he resigned in 2020, Abe, 67, was the longest-serving prime minister in Japanese history. The attack shocked many in Japan, one of the world’s safest countries with some of the strictest gun control laws, but when police arrested the suspected shooter at the scene, his gun appeared to be handmade. Despite his long tenure as Japan’s head-of-state, Abe was an extremely divisive figure. A conservative darling from a political dynasty, he took a hawkish approach to governing 21st century Japan, building up its military and spearheading a failed attempt to revise the nation’s constitution, which denounces the use of force in international conflict. He was also the driving force behind conservative efforts to whitewash Japanese wartime atrocities and stop apologizing for them. He will be remembered as a controversial giant in Japanese politics, and of course for the time he cosplayed as Super Mario at the 2016 Rio Olympics closing ceremonies to promote Tokyo’s hosting duties in 2020.

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Three former JP Morgan traders will go to federal court on racketeering charges for trade manipulation. Wall Street criminals facing actual legal consequences? We love to see it.

Senate Democrats will unveil a plan to raise taxes on the wealthy in order to improve the solvency of Medicare.

Comedian Sacha Baron Cohen defeated a $95 million defamation lawsuit from Alabama judge and former Republican Senate nominee (and “alleged” pedofile) Roy Moore. 

A gecko and a possum family were found sharing a nest. Even animals have to move in with roommates in this economy.