Abortion update; Trial update; Poll data on 3rd party effect; Reich video on history, DJT & the GOP

The theocratic radical right's war on abortion rights isn't over yet. Jezebel reports:

In Moyle v. United States, Idaho argues that its abortion ban takes precedence over a federal law establishing a right for all people to receive emergency care, including abortion.

On April 24, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Moyle v. United States, a case about Idaho’s total abortion ban and a federal law called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA). EMTALA passed in 1986 and requires hospitals to provide stabilizing, emergency care to patients—including those experiencing pregnancy-related complications—regardless of individual state laws. In certain cases, abortion is necessary to save a pregnant person’s life, but Idaho’s ban allows abortion only if the pregnant person is basically moments from death. In Moyle, the court will determine whether Idaho’s ban and its extremely narrow exception for life-threatening medical emergencies takes precedence over EMTALA.

The case also relates to fetal personhood because Idaho is trying to argue that EMTALA actually does say that an embryo or unborn fetus is a “patient” whose rights should supersede the rights of the person carrying the pregnancy. (It definitely doesn’t say that.)

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Daily KOS reports that DJT is signaling open contempt of the lawsuit and the jurors in his election fraud trial:

Trump refused to stand when the jury entered and left the court room. Next, Trump fell asleep again, .... it is a sign of respect for all in the court room to stand when the jury is being seated and when they leave. A good lawyer will instruct his/her client to show respect to the jury, and the defendant will stand. Well, not this defendant. Trump stubbornly refused to stand for the jury.

And, there's this weirdness about gag orders 🤪:

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NBC News reports poll data about something I have suspected for a while about the possible effect of the JFK Jr campaign:

The latest national NBC News poll finds the third-party vote — and especially independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — cutting deeper into former President Donald Trump’s support than President Joe Biden’s, though the movement the other candidates create is within the poll’s margin of error.

Trump leads Biden by 2 percentage points in a head-to-head matchup, 46% to 44%, in the new NBC News poll.

But when the ballot is expanded to five named candidates, Biden is the one with a 2-point advantage: Biden 39%, Trump 37%, Kennedy 13%, Jill Stein 3% and Cornel West 2%.

The poll finds a greater share of Trump voters in the head-to-head matchup backing Kennedy in the expanded ballot. Fifteen percent of respondents who picked Trump the first time pick Kennedy in the five-way ballot, compared with 7% of those who initially picked Biden.

It is still too early to give much weight to poll data. But it struck me that since Kennedy is a crackpot conspiracy theorist, he would likely appeal to more DJT voters than Biden voters. Time will tell if that actually happens in November. Jill Stein appears to hurt Biden more than Trump, so the impact of 3rd parties is unpredictable at this time.

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This Robert Reich video discusses 6 points of history related to the candidacy of DJT. The first point considers the Robber Barons of the 1800s and early 1900s and parallels with DJT. The second, starting at about 6:50, considers fascism vs authoritarianism vs DJT. The 3rd issue, starting at about 13:50, discusses the rise radicalization of the political right and how that changed perceptions of the left and center left to far left and left. This segment of the video touches on the Overton Window concept and why its is relevant to current politics.

I've argued this point several times here

 The 4th issue, starting at ~16:45, considers the rise of culture wars in recent modern history focusing on the May 1970 Hard Hat Riot in New York city. 

The 5th issue, starting at ~22:35, deals with the corporate takeover of politics starting with a Chamber of Commerce memo to corporate CEOs by Lewis Powell (later a USSC justice). Powell's 1971 memo urged the business community to unite in opposition to social forces arguing for environmentalism, consumer rights and labor unions. Money was the weapon that Powell told the business community it had to use against subversive forces demanding that corporations act with a social conscience for the public interest, not just shareholder interest.

Powell's call to war of united business

interests against the public interest

Yeah, money = power, a no-brainer proposition

The fruit of Powell's war on democracy and

truth included the 2010 Citizens United decision

with this predictable outcome:

The last point (~27:35) deals with the influence of Robert Bork on business and politics. Bork argued that antitrust law was bad and effects on consumers was generally positive or neutral. The end result is a major concentration of corporate power among a few huge companies who learned how to corrupt government with money (free speech). Loss of meaningful business competition after consolidation of political and market power in synch with Bork anti-antitrust ideology is estimated to cost each household about $5,000/year.