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election 2023
Tuesday's Election Results Show Women Will Fight for Abortion Rights
Women don't want men making laws getting between us, our families, and our doctors.
Nov 12, 2023
It is clear that the Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court caught the Republicans completely off guard, even though they have been working to take away the rights of women since before they killed the Equal Rights Amendment.
The right must have thought that stealing the basic rights to bodily autonomy and to determining the size of one's own family would be upsetting at first, but then we would all get over it. The pundits always say that Americans have a short span of attention, especially when it comes to politics, so it appears that the forced birthers didn't have a clue about the buzz saw they were about to confront.
The discussion of abortion has shifted greatly from the pre- Dobbs days. It is standard now, unless you are a fan of Fox and its ilk, to hear abortion referred to as "abortion healthcare." In fact, the media now tells us that abortion is a part of the many procedures used by doctors and midwives to keep women healthy. Some of the heartbreaking cases of doctors being unable or unwilling to do their jobs have resulted in permanent damage to the women who were denied care—whether it is being unable to have more children because of the damage done to the reproductive organs, or people who have to go through unbearable suffering when they could be resting, recovering, and taking care of their lives.
It is hard to imagine that these mostly white, buttoned up men think that the women of 2023—who either lived the explosion of feminism or have raised daughters with the feminist awareness of the past 50 years—will be persuaded, bribed, or forced into accepting their intervention into the most basic aspects of our lives.
A woman described her torment waiting for her sepsis to become life threatening so she could be treated for a fetus that had no chance of survival. Another woman who was so thrilled to get pregnant, only to learn that her fetus was not viable and she had to stay pregnant for months until she birthed a child who would suffer for a few days before passing away. The real fanatics want to deny women with cancer the chance to live, since often the drugs will damage a fetus.
Unlike 50 years ago, when the abortionist was forced to work in a back alley or underground and most people were secret about having the procedure, dozens of brave women have opened up and discussed their worst moments in order to prevent others from having to face the same horrors. These stories are magnified many times over on social media.
In Ohio, the voters recalled the spectacle of the poor 10 year old, impregnated by rape, who had to travel out of state in the miserable no-exception land that Ohio has been. In Kentucky, Andrew Beshear was reelected to his seat as governor with the help of a brave young woman who addressed the Republican in the race directly, telling him about her experience as a victim of incest at age 12. The deplorable Glenn Youngkin thought he was real smart when he told Virginia voters that he had the solution for all this abortion talk: the 15-week ban with exceptions for rape and incest. We all agree on this, right? Not so fast.
The voting earlier this week showed us something very interesting: Women don't want men making laws getting between us, our families, and our doctors. The vast majority of this country does not want Republican men deciding that six weeks is the cutoff for treatment, or 12 weeks, or, Mr. Youngkin, 15 weeks. The numbers don't lie: Women and those who love them say NO. Taking away a human right that most of us felt was secure will not be compromised away.
After a long string of not-even-close defeats, the Republicans, who are loathe to compromise on anything, suddenly are talking about the need to come to "common ground." It is hard to imagine that these mostly white, buttoned up men think that the women of 2023—who either lived the explosion of feminism or have raised daughters with the feminist awareness of the past 50 years—will be persuaded, bribed, or forced into accepting their intervention into the most basic aspects of our lives. Fifty years ago, women were not all in the workforce. In 2023, those who are trying to force women to give birth also fight tooth and nail against expanded Medicare, family medical leave, and any other programs helping women and families.
The level of delusion is remarkable: In Ohio, the tremendous margin of passage for the constitutional amendment enshrining abortion, birth control, and other good things into the state constitution did not seem to percolate down to the state legislature. The day after the vote, these guys are already trying to find ways to circumvent the will of the people. As Rick Santorum brilliantly deduced from the referendum "pure democracies aren't how to run a country."
Millions of women came out for the Women's March after the disaster that was the 2016 election. We did not disappear. We were waiting for the right opportunity, and after Trump-appointed justices gave us the Dobbs decision, now is the time. Women are not going back to being chattels.
And Republicans think their problem is messaging!
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US Voter Support for Legal Marijuana Hits All-Time High as Ohio Approves Recreational Use
"As more states have adopted legalization, public support for this policy has risen dramatically," said one campaigner. "Voters prefer legalization and regulation over the failed policy of marijuana prohibition."
Nov 08, 2023
A record 7 in 10 voting-age Americans think marijuana should be legal, according to Gallup polling published Wednesday, a day after voters in Ohio made it the 24th state to legalize adult recreational use of the plant.
After holding steady at 68% for three straight years, Gallup found that support for legalization rose to 70%, with 29% of respondents saying cannabis should not be legal and 1% undecided. That's a 12% increase in support from 2013 levels and a 36% rise from 2003. In 1969, when Gallup first asked Americans if marijuana should be legal, only 12% said "yes."
"There's no 'buyer's remorse' among the public when it comes to legalizing cannabis," Paul Armentano, deputy director at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), said in a statement. "As more states have adopted legalization, public support for this policy has risen dramatically. That's because these policies are largely working as intended and because voters prefer legalization and regulation over the failed policy of marijuana prohibition."
According to Gallup:
For the second straight year, majority support for legalization is found among all major subgroups, including by age, political party, and ideology. Self-identified conservatives were the last major subgroup to express majority support, reaching 51% in 2022. Republicans first gave marijuana majority-level backing in 2017.
As of today, support for legal marijuana use is highest among self-identified liberals (91%) and Democrats (87%) and lowest among conservatives (52%) and Republicans (55%). Support is inversely correlated with age, reaching 79% among 18- to 34-year-olds. However, even among the oldest age group, nearly two-thirds (64%) are in favor.
This widespread support for legal marijuana was evident on Tuesday as nearly 57% of voters in Ohio—a state that voted for former President Donald Trump in the last two elections and has a Republican governor—approved the legalization and regulation of marijuana for people age 21 and older, who are also allowed to grow up to six cannabis plants per person and 12 plants per residence. The measure imposes a 10% tax on cannabis sales.
"Marijuana is no longer a controversial issue," Tom Haren, spokesperson for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol, toldMarijuana Moment. "Ohioans demonstrated this by passing State Issue 2 in a landslide."
Marijuana Policy Project interim executive director Matthew Schweich told MJBizDaily that the Ohio vote "shows that a cannabis legalization campaign can win anytime and anywhere."
"To achieve victory in a nonpresidential year in a red state shows just how strong public support for legalization has become," he added.
The rise in support for legal marijuana parallels "the rise in Americans' self-reported use of the drug," Gallup said, citing a July survey. "The percentage saying they personally smoke marijuana has risen 10 points to 17% since 2013, and the percentage who have ever tried it has increased 12 points to 50%."
Despite state-level gains—only 10 states have not legalized marijuana for recreational or medical use—cannabis remains strictly prohibited at the federal level, where the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) lists the plant as a Schedule I controlled substance.
Schedule I drugs, the DEA explains, have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse," and in addition to cannabis include heroin, LSD, MDMA, and peyote. Far more dangerous substances than marijuana—including cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl—are classified as Schedule II.
After granting a mass pardon last year to U.S. citizens and permanent residents convicted of simple federal marijuana possession, President Joe Biden ordered Attorney General Merrick Garland and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra to initiate a review which resulted in an August recommendation by HHS to reclassify cannabis as Schedule III. Such a move would place the plant in the same category as codeine, ketamine, testosterone, and anabolic steroids.
"Just as it is intellectually dishonest to categorize cannabis in the same placement as heroin, it is equally disingenuous to treat cannabis in the same manner as anabolic steroids," Armentano said at the time. "The majority of Americans believe that cannabis ought to be legal and that its hazards to health are less significant than those associated with federally descheduled substances like alcohol and tobacco."
"Like those latter substances, we have long argued the cannabis plant should be removed from the Controlled Substances Act altogether," he added, "thereby proving state governments—rather than the federal government—the ability to regulate marijuana in the manner they see fit without violating federal law."
In the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate, the bipartisan Secure and Fair Enforcement Regulation (SAFER) Banking Act—which would legally protect banks and credit unions that serve cannabis businesses—was approved by the Banking Committee in September.
Last week, a bipartisan group of U.S. House lawmakers reintroduced H.B. 6028, the States Reform Act, legislation led by Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) that would remove cannabis from the Controlled Substances Act, facilitate the expungement of certain marijuana-related offenses, and provide regulatory oversight for state-legal marijuana markets.
However, Republicans control the lower chamber, and new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is a Christian fundamentalist who opposes marijuana on religious grounds. In recent years, Johnson has voted against legislation that would end federal prohibition, allow banks to work with state-legal cannabis businesses, and fund medical marijuana research.
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'The Sweetest Victory': Exonerated 'Central Park 5' Member Wins New York City Council Seat
"Together, we will rewrite the next chapter of our story ensuring that no one is left behind," said Yusef Salaam.
Nov 08, 2023
More than three decades after Yusef Salaam and four other Black and Latino men were wrongfully convicted of brutally assaulting a woman in New York City's Central Park, Salaam will be joining the council of the largest city in the United States following his victory in Tuesday's election.
Salaam ran unopposed after winning his Democratic primary election in District 9 in June with more than 50% of the vote, his closest competitor trailing him by 25 points.
His progressive policy platform centered housing justice including eviction prevention; economic justice; "equitable public safety measures," including investments in community programs and alternatives to incarceration; and environmental justice.
Two decades after he and the rest of the "Central Park 5" were exonerated by DNA evidence, Salaam said before the election that his opportunity to join the New York City Council, representing parts of Harlem, "means that we can really become our ancestors' wildest dreams."
Janai Nelson, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, called Salaam's ascension to the city council "the sweetest victory" for those who grew up in New York City when the public was wrongly led to believe that the then-15-year-old was guilty of rape and saw him sent to prison for seven years.
"It says so much about the indestructible human spirit and this righteous Black man," said Nelson.
Since his exoneration, Salaam has been a poet, public speaker, and activist, calling for "criminal justice reform, prison reform and the abolition of juvenile solitary confinement and capital punishment." He serves on the board of the Innocence Project and is a founder of Justice 4 the Wrongfully Incarcerated.
"Working-class voters, voters of color, and those who are disenchanted with the political process are central to our campaign," he wrote on his campaign website. "As a victim of a broken criminal justice system, I understand the challenges faced by those who are marginalized and neglected by the powers that be."
Former Republican President Donald Trump—whose daughter testified Wednesday in his civil fraud trial in Manhattan, one of several criminal and civil cases against him that are now proceeding in court—called for capital punishment for Salaam and the rest of the Central Park 5 in the 1990s, and refused to apologize for doing so nearly twenty years after their exoneration.
"Together, we will rewrite the next chapter of our story ensuring that no one is left behind," said Salaam at his victory party Tuesday evening. "We will rebuild our community with the principles of fairness, healing, and progress of the forefront of our efforts."
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