The Fall of Roe v Wade: US Politics, June 2022

Thank, JNJ. Also, the promotion of weaponry is even grosser than I could’ve imagined

I’m gonna just reiterate -

“Well, in an age where celebrities take the stage seemingly daily to push anti-gun agendas, finding common ground with major stars of any genre remains important.”

Anywhere else, “anti-gun” could’ve been profitably replaced by “woke socialist mob,” I guess

I've buried guns all over my backyard, like a squirrel, so when the shit goes down and they've taken all the guns I can just start digging randomly and hopefully find a stash, because I am a survival enthusiast. Just squirrels.

*adds item to do-do list*

• find a major star of any genre and find common ground <<IMPORTANT!!!

Or you could just shoot a couple of people at a protest and then *you* become the star.

weird how badly they need to be accepted by Hollywood Sickos

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna34012

Now we just need to prosecute about half a million more gun nuts who make a habit out of threatening to kill public officials. If we can peg a felony on them lots of states will keep them from legally buying or owning guns. Win-win!

Some interesting positive changes, from a newsletter I subscribe to:

A year ago, Lina Khan became Chair at the Federal Trade Commission, followed a few months later by Jonathan Kanter taking the helm at the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division. Khan and Kanter are perhaps the most aggressive proponents of antitrust enforcement in decades, returning competition policy to the basic view that when it comes to corporate power, big is usually bad.

This week, three actions will help flesh out what this new enforcement regime looks like practically. First, Jonathan Kanter at the Antitrust Division filed a statement of interest on a court case asking for the narrowing of the antitrust exemption for Major League Baseball. MLB is embroiled in litigation over its choice to eliminate 40 minor league teams, and has been heavily criticized for mistreating minor league players. It was trying to use its antitrust exemption to get the lawsuit dismissed. With this statement of interest, as well as a series of others, Kanter is using his posture as the chief antitrust enforcer at DOJ to shape the law in a more assertive direction.

Second, on Thursday, the FTC voted to resurrect the Robinson-Patman Act, a bill prohibiting corporate bribery and price discrimination by middlemen that hasn’t been meaningfully enforced since the 1970s. I wrote several chapters in my book on the titanic fight in the 1930s to tame chain stores with this law, and the equally vicious conflict in the 1970s to stop enforcing it. The end of RPA enforcement is why chain stores like Walmart and Amazon took over our retail space, and why dominant middlemen control every area of our economy at this point. It’s worth noting that Robert Bork’s most hated statute was the Robinson-Patman Act, and he considered it a tremendous victory that he helped end the enforcement of the law.

So what happened at the FTC? All five commissioners voted on a policy statement saying that the use of rebates by dominant middlemen in the insulin market were a potential violation of different laws under the jurisdiction of the FTC, including the Robinson-Patman Act. This vote is a signal to every private antitrust lawyer, state attorney general, and judge, that the Robinson-Patman Act can once again be dusted off and used.

Insulin is a great test case for this law, because everyone knows how unfair and inefficient the insulin market truly is. It’s a medication that has been around since 1922, and yet it has been increasing in cost every year for decades. And while the three main producers engage in all sorts of schemes to push up cost, most of the high cost of insulin is actually a result the middlemen named pharmacy benefits managers - CVS Caremark, Cigna (Express Scripts), and United Healthcare (OptumRx) - who manage and control how medicine is priced and sold. PBMs demand rebates of up to 70% for the right to have an insulin company sell their product to patients. These rebates in turn massively drive up the price of insulin.

PBMs are increasingly hated by both parties. Last week, in a separate but related action, the FTC voted 5-0 for an investigation into PBMs, which Republicans like Senator James Lankford cheered on. And now this week, the FTC revealed that the Robinson-Patman Act is coming back. But while PBMs are the immediate focus, there are many other dominant middlemen who are vulnerable to the resurrection of the Robinson Patman Act. Last November, for instance, the FTC launched an investigation into price discrimination by, among other firms, Amazon. Amazon knows it is vulnerable; a few years ago, FTC alums Tim Muris and Jonathan E. Nuechterlein wrote a paper financed by the online giant on why the use of Robinson-Patman to go after a grocery chain in the 1930s was bad for consumers. Their attempt to control the historical narrative is a tell that keeping this law dormant is an important corporate priority.

Even more surprisingly, the vote was not partisan. Christine Wilson and Noah Phillips, the two Republicans on the commission, voted to resurrect this law, and even praised Lina Khan for doing so. So if I’m a middleman who uses rebates, aka corporate bribery, to control a market, I’m very unhappy by what the FTC just did.

The third big policy action was also at the FTC. The commission forced some significant restrictions on private equity firm JAB, which is seeking to roll-up veterinary care clinics nationwide. Under this decree, JAB must get the FTC’s permission to buy up a specialty or emergency veterinary clinic within 25 miles of any JAB-owned clinic in Texas and California. This is the use of an authority called ‘prior approval’ that Khan dusted off last year, and it begins fulfilling a pledge Khan made to address the roll of private equity in monopolization of industries nationwide. The Republicans on the commission, Christine Wilson and Noah Phillips, voted for the decree, but with a statement asserting they think private equity is good. Alas.

What these actions show is that there is a fundamental reorientation of the law happening. In her strategic memo last September, Khan outlined a number of different priorities. She wants to get at root causes of consolidation, address dominant middlemen, and the business trend of private equity and its impact on competitive markets. And Kanter has discussed the need to use his enforcement tools to push the law in useful directions. They are both following through on their pledges. Neither the FTC or DOJ has operationalized the use of these new tools, but that is the next step.

It takes a while to stop a giant ship, turn it around, and get it going in the opposite direction. That’s where we are with antitrust. We started this journey in 2013 or so, and finally got the ship stopped by the end of the Trump administration. Well, the ship has turned around, and it is beginning to move in the right direction. Slowly. But it’s speeding up.

Thought that photo of Merrick Garland was the 42-year old for a second. Conservatives do age poorly.

this video is worth burning a free article for:

https://www.nytimes.com/video/us/politics/100000008392796/rile-up-the-normies-how-proud-boys-breached-the-capitol.html

it's an 18-minute video using countless sources of footage to outline the proud boys' actions throughout jan 6, and demonstrating how effective they were in overcoming the capitol. at least five different entrances, including the huge, key ones, were breached under their direction and influence. In areas where crowds had been standing for hours, they would arrive and within minutes, confront the capitol cops, distract them, remove the barricades, rile up the crowd (with just the dumbest, sportsy "LET'S GOOOOOOO! USSAAAAA!!" kind of bullshit you've ever heard, which is very effective for crowds of authoritarians), then lead the physical confrontation and breach the entrance, now supported by hundreds of very pumped up "normies" (as the proud boys call them) among their number.

all of us have probably seen a version of this or read about most of this a million times, but this puts it all together in a very coherent way. also, watching, it really drills in that whole regrettable issue where absolutely everyone except for trump and his paramilitary supporters were begging for backup for the cops, and trump very conspicuously just did whatever he did for several hours until he was pretty much forced to tape a (very transparently hostage-like) message asking his goons to back away, congratulating them for being such fine patriots standing up against evil. or whatever the fuck he said. watching the video above, and then remembering what he did, it just makes your fucking blood boil. i am not a fan of the usa but holy shit, fuck all of these people forever and anyone who ever supported them, for a single moment, i still feel that just as much as i did in 2016 when trump won by negative millions of votes

also, knowing that as recently as 2020, the proud boys were the allies of the police, in countless confrontations and assaults on black lives matter protesters. the proud boys openly collaborated with the police, across the country, and everyone that was there knew it. the police refused to wear masks and collaborated with the proud boys. in that summer, there was no one fighting against the proud boys except BLM. the capitol police were likely overwhelmed by the proud boys and their summoned mob of "normies" because they assumed that they were still allies with the idiotic racists they were allied with the previous summer

Interesting, unperson; I had no clue about any of that!

Karl, hopefully that video gets more attention.

Not to diminish their danger, but I amuse myself by thinking of all these American nazis as “the Oath Boys” after an elderly professor from my college fumbled the two groups’ names at a brunch months ago

proud keeping oath believing bitter-clinging right-winging clingers of guns god and liberty

right-winging, bitter-clinging proud clingers of our guns, our God, and our religions, and our Constitution

oops, I forgot to delete my reference notes for that important post

religions and constitution with "liberty", just to make it rhyme. Sarah Palin did not make it rhyme.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw and his staff were violently confronted at the Republican Party of Texas convention a short time ago, when far-right social media activist Alex Stein and others whom witnesses described as Proud Boys began shouting “eyepatch McCain” at him – an attempted insult coined by Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson.

sorry, but lol.

is he going to make a marvel movie commercial about this? like he did with aNtiFa? or nah

The Dark MAGA gang is really developing a hate-on for Crenshaw.

The guy I went to high school with who tried to primary DC was easily beaten, and he's been issuing Cawthorn-esque attack statements on the reg ever since.

I gotta admit “eyepatch McCain” as a shouted taunt just cracked me up

They booed Cronyn on Friday because of that limp gun control bill that wasn't limp enough for their tastes.

https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/articles/news/politics/2022/06/17/427222/john-cornyn-booed-at-texas-gop-convention-in-houston/

jfc

Truly monstrous stuff here 👇🏽— (scandal-plagued) GOP Missouri Senate candidate @EricGreitens says “join the MAGA crew, get a RINO hunting permit” (Republicans In Name Only)  as they break into a house…presumably to murder Republicans he disagrees with. pic.twitter.com/YLUSSIlm6k

— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) June 20, 2022

Wow. GOP would lose 38 electoral votes and a net 13 lost seats in the House and 2 Senators lost. TX would stop getting Medicaid, any federal funding whatsoever, and couldn't use the $ anymore. Sounds good to me.

— Christopher Boyd (@CJBear71) June 19, 2022

(in response to this)

Texas GOP Platform also calls for full repeal of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as well as for the state to hold a referendum on whether Texas should secede pic.twitter.com/oeiGjB0nys

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) June 19, 2022

I really don't want to be put into a situation where I have to move to different part of the country

twitter thread full of the usual cheerleading the downfall of Texas as if millions of amazing people horrified by their Governor/GOP Platform don't live there.

Good morning!

How the fuck does Grietens still have a career

Latest Senate polls, @FiveThirtyEight:

PA Fetterman 46-37 Oz
NC Beasley 44-40 Budd
GA Warnock 47-47 Walker
CO Bennett +13
UT Lee 41-37 McMullin
OH Ryan 44-41 Vance
WA Murray 51-40 Smiley
NV Cortez Masto 48-27 Laxalt

No red wave to be found here.

— Simon Rosenberg (@SimonWDC) June 16, 2022

huh

he's dominating the GOP primary here, too.

conservatives in Missouri are creepy as fuck, that's all i can say. look at this article from March: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-campaigns-eric-greitens-missouri-texas-5cb2c458155b4f611b0e9a3377d9d970

whose story sounds more plausible here? background: "COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Former Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens, now a leading Republican Senate candidate, was physically abusive and demonstrated such “unstable and coercive behavior” that steps were taken to limit his access to firearms, according to new allegations from his ex-wife revealed in court records on Monday.”

his ex-wife’s position:

In the affidavit, Sheena Greitens casts her ex-husband as someone who threatened to use his political connections and influence in order to destroy her reputation to win custody of the children.

“Prior to our divorce, during an argument in late April 2018, Eric knocked me down and confiscated my cell phone, wallet and keys so that I was unable to call for help or extricate myself and our children from our home,” Sheena Greitens wrote in the filing. “I became afraid for my safety and that of our children at our home,” later adding that his “behavior included physical violence toward our children, such as cuffing our then-3-year-old son across the face at the dinner table in front of me and yanking him around by his hair.”

In 2019, one of her sons came home from a visit with his dad “with a swollen face, bleeding gums and loose tooth,” she said.

“He said Dad had hit him; however, Eric said they were roughhousing and it had been an accident,” Sheena Greitens wrote, adding that the tooth eventually had to be removed.

Greiten’s position:

“I am seeking full custody of my sons, and for their sake, I will continue to pray for their mother and hope that she gets the help that she needs,” he said in a statement issued from his Twitter account.

man, if ever I wanted someone to drive into the ocean and somehow have a shark break into his submerged vehicle and eat him....

i'm glad that about the update in Caek's post, that things don't look as bleak in battleground states.

here, it's going to be senior fascist hawley and junior fascist grietens. it is bleak as fuck

looking dire in FL for Governor. but there haven't been any major polls for months.

can't believe our 'best' option is a guy who already governed our state as a Republican and switched parties.

also haven't had our primary yet for D

hoping Walker’s very obvious CTE keeps Warnock competitive there but I don’t feel great about it

but holy lord pls let Vance eat shit.

looking dire in FL for Governor. but there haven't been any major polls for months.

can't believe our 'best' option is a guy who already governed our state as a Republican and switched parties.

― Slowzy LOLtidore (Neanderthal),

South Florida market bombarded with Val Demings Senate ads this weekend. She is alas going hard on opposing defunding the police ("That's just crazy!!") and her cred as sheriff.

Also: Annette Taddeo, the best candidate in the governor's race, dropping out to run against Salazar in FL-27 looks like the smart play.

God, everything about that Texas GOP convention was bleak as fuck.

It’s a state that I would steer far clear of if I didn’t have to go there.

Greitens is such an obvious MAGA grifter, the rubes buying in would be hilarious if it wasn’t so tragic. He flipped a coin deciding which party to join when he went from being a corrupt SEAL to a corrupt politician.

Does the Navy (or Navy SEALS) have any position on military people using their training to break into the homes of Americans and murder them? it seems like they would care about that, but probably not

i guess that's what cops do anyway, so now it's just getting normalized through the branches of the military as well

Larry Summers -- who the president said he spoke with today -- publicly saying a 5% unemployment rate is necessary to combat inflation. To state the obvious, a 5% unemployment rate would mean devastating joblessness for millions of poor American workers pic.twitter.com/wsSB9zmBy9

— Jeff Stein (@JStein_WaPo) June 20, 2022

Coincidentally it would also change the worker-friendly dynamic of the past year, where everyone was raising wages to try to attract people.

(Which I'm sure would break Larry Summers' heart.)

it's wild that these people are just out walking around in public and no one's (redacted) them

I don't have a PhD from wherever Larry went to school but I'm still unclear on how Great Recession levels of unemployment are going to stop the Ukraine war, end pandemic lockdowns in China or keep Saudi Arabia from collaborating with Russia to keep oil prices high.