January 25, 2024

Thursday, January 24, 2024. Annette’s News Roundup.

I think the Roundup makes people feel not so alone.

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Joe is always busy.

Biden to Receive Endorsement from United Automobile Workers Union.

Biden made history by joining striking autoworkers on the picket line on September 26, 2023.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union’s support yesterday at a conference in Washington, D.C., as he introduced Biden to deliver remarks.

He cited the president’s solidarity with the UAW during its recent strike against major automakers,and he added, “Donald Trump is a scab.”

The United Automobile Workers union will endorse President Biden on Wednesday, delivering an influential boost to a president who faces a battle against former President Donald J. Trump to win the support of labor groups, according to a person familiar with the plan.

Mr. Biden, who appeared on a picket line with striking union workers in the fall, was to provide the keynote speech at a union conference in Washington and address “the top issues facing working-class Americans,” according to a media advisory for the event.

The union was expected to announce the endorsement at the event, according to the person familiar, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the plan.

The value of the union’s endorsement to Mr. Biden may be less about persuading members to back him than in motivating them to vote. The union has estimated that only about 30 percent of its members supported Mr. Trump in 2016. But without the union’s formal backing and investments in turnout, Mr. Biden could suffer a drop-off in members who show up to vote in critical swing states like Michigan. (New York Times).

Breaking: The White House says President Biden and first lady Jill Biden have invited Kate Cox, the Texas woman at the center of a high-profile abortion case, to the State of Union address in March.

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Kamala is always busy.

From @BmbEmpower

"Putting Kamala Harris as VP into perspective. See the red box? Until then, she would have been enslaved. Blue box? Until then, she couldn’t vote. Yellow box? Until then, she had to attend a segregated school. The green one? Until then she couldn’t have her own bank account."

https://x.com/vp/status/1749948911035285581?s=61&t=I_Od53CbnPTsbLcD0baXPg

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The number of births resulting from rapes is bad enough, but be sure to look at the actual number of rapes estimated to have happened too.

These are only estimates since Roe was overturned in June 2022.

Abortion ban states have seen 65K pregnancies from rape, study estimates.

More than 64,500 pregnancies have resulted from rape in the 14 states that banned abortion since Roe v. Wade was overturned, with the vast majority occurring in states that don't make exceptions for rape, researchers estimated today in a leading medical journal.

The big picture: The projection in JAMA Internal Medicine aims to shed light on the frequency of these pregnancies at a time when exceptions for rape loom large in abortion debates.

Researchers, led by the medical director at Planned Parenthood of Montana, say even states with bans that have exceptions for rape impose other requirements that make it difficult to access the procedure.

Rape victims have few options other than self-managed abortions, including by illegal methods or via pills obtained through the mail, or traveling out of state to where abortion is legal. As a result, many have to carry a pregnancy to term, the researchers wrote.

What they found: Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bureau of Justice Statistics and the FBI, researchers estimated that 519,981 rapes occurred in states with bans from July 2022 — in the immediate aftermath of Roe being overturned — through Jan. 1, 2024.

Adjusting for the fraction of female victims ages 15 to 45 and the cases likely to result in a pregnancy, they projected 64,565 pregnancies resulted from rape during the four to 18 months various state bans were in effect.

Nine out of 10 pregnancies were in states with no exceptions for rape victims, with 45% of those (26,313) in Texas. Missouri was next highest with 5,825.

Idaho and Mississippi had the most pregnancies among the five states with exceptions for rape, with about 1,400 each.

Between the lines: The Supreme Court's decision to strike down federal protection of abortion threw regulation of the procedure to the states, some of which had "trigger bans" that immediately took effect. Others soon took up anti-abortion legislation.

• The researchers said there were 10 or fewer legal abortions a month in states with bans.

• Even those with exceptions for rape have other restrictions likely to disqualify victims, such as gestational limits or a requirement that the victim must report the rape to law enforcement.

Of note: The research contained a lot of statistical assumptions since sexual assaults are hard to measure accurately in surveys.

The CDC and Bureau of Justice Statistics data don't include state-level data, so researchers turned to the FBI's most recent uniform crime reports, which include rapes reported to law enforcement in 2019. (Axios).

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Tell folks who vote Republican but are not in the cult.

“Tuesday night’s results showed that the time is coming to sit shiva for the Republican Party of the Bushes, Cheneys and Romneys.” (New York Times.)

Trump only wears a “partisan jersey.” He is President and member only of Party Trump.

5 Takeaways From the New Hampshire Primary.

The much-fabled power of New Hampshire’s fiercely independent voters wasn’t enough to break the spell Donald J. Trump has cast over the Republican Party.

Brushing aside Nikki Haley a little over a week after he steamrolled her and Ron DeSantis in Iowa, Mr. Trump became the first Republican presidential candidate who was not a White House incumbent to carry the nation’s first two contests. His winning margin of 11 percentage points in moderate New Hampshire demonstrated his ironclad control of the party’s hard-right base and set him on what could very well be a short march to the nomination.

For Ms. Haley, the former South Carolina governor, it was a disappointing finish in a state she had poured considerable resources into carrying. Her efforts to cobble together a coalition of independents and anti-Trump Republicans, with support from the state’s popular governor, were no match for Mr. Trump’s legions of loyalists.

Even though Ms. Haley is vowing to fight on, the difficult terrain ahead in South Carolina means that this first-in-the-nation primary could turn out to be the last.

Here are five takeaways.

Trump demonstrated his command of the G.O.P. in a purple state.

In 2016, Mr. Trump’s win in New Hampshire put him on a path to the nomination and ultimately the presidency.

Eight years later, the state delivered again for him.

He performed well across nearly every demographic group, according to exit polls. He won every age group, among men and women.

In the final days, Mr. Trump sought to project an air of inevitability, hoping to avoid a protracted and costly fight as he resists efforts to convict him in a criminal trial before Election Day in November.

His success in New Hampshire was likely to lead to more pressure on Ms. Haley to drop out from his Republican allies, who include senators, House members and governors.

He won more than 50 percent of the vote, although his margin of victory decreased significantly from the primary in 2016, when he won New Hampshire by about 20 points over a crowded field. And he fell far short of his 30-point triumph in this month’s Iowa caucuses.

He seemed visibly aware of that fact when he took the stage on Tuesday night, and signaled an uglier next phase.

Using an expletive as he repeatedly attacked Ms. Haley, he said, “I don’t get too angry — I get even.”

Haley has an incredibly rocky road ahead.

The contest now moves to South Carolina, the next competitive primary and one where Ms. Haley faces a steep uphill battle. Mr. Trump has led polls in her conservative home state by more than 30 points for months.

There’s little question that a defeat there for Ms. Haley would be devastating, making it difficult for her to justify carrying on in the race.

For Mr. Trump, drawing the contest to a close in South Carolina would allow his campaign to avoid the costly expense of Super Tuesday on March 5, when 16 states hold primary contests. He’s expected to unleash a barrage of harsh attacks, a tactic similar to the brutal campaign of humiliation he waged against Mr. DeSantis, who quit the contest on Sunday.

Already, Mr. Trump has argued that Ms. Haley is hurting the party’s chances in the fall by forcing him into an extended nominating contest.

“If she doesn’t drop out, we have to waste money instead of spending it on Biden, which is our focus,” he told Fox News shortly after the race was called.

Ms. Haley has been embraced by Republican traditionalists, but they are outnumbered in today’s Republican party.

The old guard of the G.O.P. is a dwindling faction.

Tuesday night’s results showed that the time is coming to sit shiva for the Republican Party of the Bushes, Cheneys and Romneys.

And the donor class that once played an outsize role in shaping the party is now a desperate group of bystanders.

Ms. Haley ran on a traditional Republican platform, one that has faded during the Trump years. She campaigned on issues like reducing federal spending, enacting a staunchly interventionist foreign policy and overhauling programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Her candidacy was embraced by the pre-Trump G.O.P., as the gang got back together for one last shot at the interloper.

Traditional party donors from Wall Street, who loathe Mr. Trump, poured money into Ms. Haley’s super PAC. And in New Hampshire, she seemed to have a political environment more hospitable than in Iowa, with a voting base that is less religious and more educated.

But on Tuesday, New Hampshire Republicans rejected Ms. Haley and her attempt to revive the old guard.

She insists her campaign is alive and well, marching to South Carolina, but the wing of the party she represents will come out of New Hampshire on life support.

Biden, Democratic grumbling aside, is cruising to renomination.

President Biden did not submit his name for the New Hampshire ballot, after the state refused to comply with a new Democratic nominating calendar that made South Carolina the first primary contest. Yet a scrappy write-in campaign run by the president’s allies delivered a victory for him nonetheless.

His most significant challenger — Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota — was on track to capture little more than 20 percent of the vote. The self-help author Marianne Williamson, who mounted a second bid for the Democratic nomination, was far behind with just 5 percent.

Democrats have spent months pining for another option, raising worries about Mr. Biden’s age in polls, focus groups and even “Saturday Night Live” sketches. But these results underscore the reality of the Democratic nominating process: Mr. Biden faces no real opposition.

For years, many Democrats questioned whether Mr. Trump would complete his comeback and become the 2024 nominee. Now that he is ascendant, Mr. Biden and his party are turning their attention to the general election and preparing to transform the race into a debate over whether a polarizing and criminally indicted former president is fit to return to office.

Trump’s strength may not translate to the general election.

Despite his robust showing, the results offered warning signs for Mr. Trump ahead of November.

A significant slice of Ms. Haley’s support came from unaffiliated voters who wanted to send a message about stopping Mr. Trump — a reminder that he owns Republicans, but doesn’t own everybody else.

While Mr. Trump won the race, he failed to rack up the kind of numbers that would be expected of someone essentially running as an incumbent. He has been behaving as one as part of his strategy in battling the 91 criminal charges he is facing both in courts of law and courts of public opinion.

Mr. Trump’s mug shot displayed on a mobile billboard in Rochester, N.H. He is facing 91 criminal charges in four cases.

But only about half of those who voted in the New Hampshire primary said they would consider him fit for the presidency if he were convicted of a crime, according to CNN exit polling.

Those who might not vote for him with a criminal conviction, assuming a trial takes place this year, remain a minority. But in a close fall campaign, such factors could matter.

On the flip side, the issues that exit polls suggested are driving a number of voters, including immigration, are ones that the Trump team expects to benefit him in a general election. And even with divisions within the Republican Party, the vast majority of its voters view someone wearing their partisan jersey as preferable to Mr. Biden. (New York Times).

One more thing.

The Press should expose, not normalize Trump. He is unhinged, mean, crass, unfit, corrupt, undemocratic and criminal. See the examples below.👇

Watch👇

Haley is just unapologetically opportunistic and hypocritical.👇 No wonder she can’t get Republican votes.

#BidenHarris2024

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Liz Cheney goes after one Trump enabler at a time.

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Another reason for Trump to be xxxxing in his pants.

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Ken speaks.

Has anyone not heard? “”Barbie,” a cultural phenomenon and the top-grossing movie of 2023 and of all times - s1.4 billion dollar gross - was snubbed in the Oscar nominations.

The movie had 8 nominations but Barbie herself - Margot Robbie - wasn’t nominated in the best actress category nor was the movie’s director, Greta Gerwig, given a director nom.

There have only been 8 women nominated in the Director category in the 95 year history of the Oscars. 3 have won.

Gerwig had her first 3 feature films (Lady Bird, Little Women and Barbie) nominated for Best Picture.

Ken, hardly the star of the movie named “Barbie,”was nominated for “Barbie.”

Ryan Gosling who plays Ken expressed his delight for his own recognition and disappointment for his colleagues in a statement late Tuesday.

Ryan Gosling’s full statement

“I am extremely honored to be nominated by my colleagues alongside such remarkable artists in a year of so many great films. And I never thought I’d being saying this, but I’m also incredibly honored and proud that it’s for portraying a plastic doll named Ken.

But there is no Ken without Barbie, and there is no Barbie movie without Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie, the two people most responsible for this history-making, globally-celebrated film. (Source for Gosling statement.Time).

What's the meaning of Kenough?

At the end of Barbie, Ken (Ryan Gosling) wears a tie-dye hoodie that says, “I am Kenough” — meshing his name with the word “enough.” This comes after Ken realizes that he is more than just an accessory to Barbie (Margot Robbie) and has a personality of his own.

One more thing.

Only the so-called directors “branch” of the Academy votes for the Director nominations. The NY Times reports: The directors branch is made up of just 587 voters, about a quarter of which are women.

As America Ferrera said onscreen in “Barbie,” speaking the words from a script Gerwig wrote: “Always stand out and always be grateful. But never forget that the system is rigged.”

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