Lazy Caturday Reads

Good Morning!!

Painting by Carlton Alfred Smith

After all these years of carefully avoiding Covid-19, I finally came down with it about a month ago. I wasn’t that sick at first, and I never got any upper respiratory symptoms. However I became extremely weak and after several days, I sat down and was unable to get up again. I had to call 911, and I ended up in the hospital.

Once I got there, it turned out that the sodium level in my blood was dangerously low. That may have been responsible for my weakness. I had no idea that sodium was so important, but apparently it is. You can have seizures and other serious health problems if it is too low or too high.

Day after day the doctors tried to increase my sodium level. Fortunately, the hospital had very good food. I was never really hungry, but part of raising the sodium level was to eat! So I was in the hospital for about two weeks. Then I was transferred to a rehab, but I signed myself out after 3 days, because they weren’t doing anything for me. 

I’m doing OK at home, although I’m still tired and somewhat weak. I seem to have a bit of a mental hangover from the Covid. My memory seems a little worse and I feel spaced out at times. I think it’s improving though.

I saw my own doctor on Wednesday, and learned that my sodium level is back in the low normal range. That is a relief, but I also tested low for iron and protein. I’m waiting to hear back from my doctor about this.

I did manage to stay abreast of the politics news while I was hospitalized. My TV got CNN, but not MSNBC, and I could read news on my phone. Unfortunately, the news has been disturbing, what with the clear evidence that Trump plans to turn our county into a dictatorship and the war between Israel and Hamas.

So what’s happening today? A real horror story in Texas where the government is forcing a woman to continue a pregnancy even though the fetus will not survive and continuing to carry it will likely result in the woman being unable to have any more children.

CNN: Texas Supreme Court temporarily blocks pregnant woman from emergency abortion.

The Texas Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a pregnant woman from obtaining an emergency abortion in a ruling issued late Friday.

The court froze a lower court’s ruling that would have allowed Kate Cox, who sued the state seeking a court-ordered abortion, to obtain the procedure. “Without regard to the merits, the Court administratively stays the district court’s December 7, 2023 order,” the order states.

The court noted the case would remain pending before them but did not include any timeline on when a full ruling might be issued. Cox is 20 weeks pregnant. Her unborn baby was diagnosed with a fatal genetic condition and she says complications in her pregnancy are putting her health at risk.

Following the ruling, Cox’s attorney said they remain hopeful the state’s request is quickly rejected. “We are talking about urgent medical care. Kate is already 20 weeks pregnant,” said Molly Duane, an attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights. “This is why people should not need to beg for healthcare in a court of law.”

The ruling came just hours after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton petitioned the high court to intervene in the case.

Paxton’s petition stemmed from a ruling on Thursday by a Texas judge who granted a 14-day temporary restraining order against the state’s abortion ban, so Cox could legally terminate her pregnancy.

The decision marked a significant development in the ongoing debate over the state’s medical exception to its controversial ban on abortions after six weeks – one of the strictest in the nation.

Elizabeth Allan Fraser Seated, Reading with a Cat., by Patrick-Allan-Fraser

More from The New York Times: Texas Supreme Court Temporarily Halts Court-Approved Abortion.

The Texas Supreme Court late Friday temporarily halted a lower court order allowing a Dallas woman to obtain an abortion in spite of the state’s strict bans, after she learned her fetus has a fatal condition.

The state court’s ruling was in response to an appeal from Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas, who opposed the woman’s abortion.

The Supreme Court said that, “without regard to the merits” of the arguments on either side, it had issued an administrative stay in the case, to give itself more time to issue a final ruling.

The stay meant that, for the moment, the order from a judge in Travis County district court permitting the abortion was on hold. That order allowed the woman, Kate Cox, to obtain an abortion and protected her doctor from civil or criminal liability under Texas’s overlapping abortion bans.

“We fear that justice delayed will be justice denied,” said Molly Duane, a senior staff attorney at the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is representing Ms. Cox.

Paxon is a crook who has been under indictment for years and who recently survived an attempt by the legislature to impeach him.

While the Texas bans allow for exceptions to protect the health and life of a pregnant woman, doctors have said that vague legal language created fear of prosecution and an unwillingness to perform abortions.

Mr. Paxton’s filings came hours after a district court judge issued a temporary restraining order barring Mr. Paxton and others from enforcing the state’s overlapping abortion bans against Ms. Cox’s doctor, Damla Karsan, or anyone who assisted her with providing an abortion to Ms. Cox.

In granting the order, the judge, a Democrat, found that Ms. Cox, 31, a mother of two young children living in the Dallas area, met the criteria for an exception to the state’s abortion bans. Her fetus was diagnosed with trisomy 18, a fatal condition in all but a small number of rare cases; Ms. Cox, who is 20 weeks pregnant, had been to the emergency room several times for pain and discharge during her pregnancy.

On Friday, lawyers from the Center for Reproductive Rights, which is also representing Dr. Karsan, filed a response to Mr. Paxton with the state’s highest court.

“The State’s mandamus petition is stunning in its disregard for Ms. Cox’s life, fertility, and the rule of law,” the lawyers for Ms. Cox wrote. “Plaintiffs respectfully request that this Court deny the writ and instruct the Attorney General to comply with binding orders from a Texas court.”

A ruling would apply only to Ms. Cox and her current pregnancy.

Abbott Handerson Thayer (American painter, (1849-1921) Favorite Kitten

A large majority of Americans support abortion rights. At Politico, Alice Miranda Ollstein and Adam Cancryn suggest that what’s happening in Texas could help Democrats in 2024: Dems want to focus on abortion rights. A Trump ally may have just helped.

A showdown in Texas over one woman’s right to terminate a non-viable pregnancy could keep abortion at the center of the 2024 election and change the trajectory of legal challenges to state bans.

The case underscores the legal and ethical gray areas physicians have faced since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. And it has amplified a debate over who is exempt from strict abortion bans, who has legal standing to challenge the bans and the liabilities doctors risk in interpreting vague laws with stiff penalties as they help patients navigate time-sensitive medical crises.

Legal experts say the Texas case’s implications stretch far beyond the state’s borders and highlight the defects of a post-Roe legal regime in which a patchwork of state laws is open to clashing interpretations. Several states have vaguely worded exemptions to their abortion bans that rely on the judgment of medical providers to decide who is sick enough to qualify. And those doctors risk losing their license, and can face steep fines or years in prison if a jury disagrees with their call.

“All of this confusion is revealing that Dobbs is not itself workable,” said Greer Donley, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh, referring to the case that overturned Roe. “Dobbs is premised on the distinction between elective and therapeutic abortions, that … you can ban one while protecting the other. We’re learning in real time that that’s not possible.”

Read more at the Politico link.

Recently, there have been a number of stories in the mainstream media acknowledging the obvious fact the Trump plans to turn our country into a dictatorship modeled on Putin’s Russia and Kim Jong Un’s North Korea. Now the Trump campaign is trying to put the genii back in the bottle.

The Washington Post: Trump camp escalates attempt to limit second-term talk from outside allies.

Top officials in Donald Trump’s campaign sought Friday to quell discussions about his possible second term in the White House, amid alarms about authoritarianism and reports about personnel.

“Let us be very specific here: unless a message is coming directly from President Trump or an authorized member of his campaign team, no aspect of future presidential staffing or policy announcements should be deemed official,” Susie Wiles and Chris LaCivita said in a written statement to the media.

The unusual statement, which came after a similar message from the senior advisers last month, reflected growing concerns in Trump’s circle about some perceptions associated with his second term. It comes as experts and political opponents have raised alarms about the former president and his allies embracing authoritarian ideas and rhetoric.

Wiles and LaCivita added a warning to their missive: “Let us be even more specific, and blunt: People publicly discussing potential administration jobs for themselves or their friends are, in fact, hurting President Trump … and themselves. These are an unwelcomed distraction.” [….]

Two girls dressing a kitten by candlelight, by-candlelight-by-joseph wright of derby (1734-1797), English

The Washington Post and other outlets have previously reported that Trump and his allies have drawn up specific plans to use the federal government to punish his opponents, including discussions of invoking the Insurrection Act on his first day in office, which would allow him to use the military against civilian demonstrations. Trump, who is campaigning on his grievances and vowing retribution, has also repeatedly said that he sees his prosecutions as justification to turn the Justice Department and the FBI against his opponents.

Friday’s statement also came amid an escalating response from the campaign against reports describing a second Trump term that would be more extreme and autocratic than his first. Trump advisers, who have sought to run a more disciplined campaign compared with Trump’s previous ones, view those reports as unhelpful for the general election.

Trump, however, has at times undercut that message, including on Tuesday during a town hall with Fox News’s Sean Hannity. When asked whether he “would never abuse power as retribution against anybody,” Trump said, “Except for Day 1,” and proceeded to talk about drilling for oil and closing the border.

A coalition of right-wing groups known as Project 2025 has been preparing for an incoming Republican administration. But in light of reports about Trump’s potential second-term policies, including on immigration and personnel, Wiles reached out to the project’s director, Paul Dans of the Heritage Foundation, to tell him the reports were not helpful, The Post previously reported.

Putting a genii back in the bottle is not an easy thing. Democrats should run on the autocratic threats that Trump himself has made repeatedly.

The New York Times: Fears of a NATO Withdrawal Rise as Trump Seeks a Return to Power.

For 74 years, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has been America’s most important military alliance. Presidents of both parties have seen NATO as a force multiplier enhancing the influence of the United States by uniting countries on both sides of the Atlantic in a vow to defend one another.

Donald J. Trump has made it clear that he sees NATO as a drain on American resources by freeloaders. He has held that view for at least a quarter of a century.

In his 2000 book, “The America We Deserve,” Mr. Trump wrote that “pulling back from Europe would save this country millions of dollars annually.” As president, he repeatedly threatened a United States withdrawal from the alliance.

Yet as he runs to regain the White House, Mr. Trump has said precious little about his intentions. His campaign website contains a single cryptic sentence: “We have to finish the process we began under my administration of fundamentally re-evaluating NATO’s purpose and NATO’s mission.” He and his team refuse to elaborate.

That vague line has generated enormous uncertainty and anxiety among European allies and American supporters of the country’s traditional foreign-policy role.

European ambassadors and think tank officials have been making pilgrimages to associates of Mr. Trump to inquire about his intentions. At least one ambassador, Finland’s Mikko Hautala, has reached out directly to Mr. Trump and sought to persuade him of his country’s value to NATO as a new member, according to two people familiar with the conversations.

In interviews over the past several months, more than a half-dozen current and former European diplomats — speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from Mr. Trump should he win — said alarm was rising on Embassy Row and among their home governments that Mr. Trump’s return could mean not just the abandonment of Ukraine, but a broader American retreat from the continent and a gutting of the Atlantic alliance.

Read more at the NYT.

Platt Powell Ryder – American artist, 1821–1896 Woman at Spinning Wheel

One more story on Trump’s autocratic plans from ABC News: Liz Cheney says Donald Trump’s ‘dictator’ remark should be taken ‘literally and seriously.’

Former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney, who is warning about the potential dangers of a second Donald Trump presidency, said Americans should take his recent dictator remark “literally and seriously.”

Trump raised alarms earlier this week when he declined to flat out reassure the public that he wouldn’t abuse power if he is elected, instead telling Fox News host Sean Hannity he wouldn’t be a dictator “except on Day One.”

Some Republicans have suggested Trump was making a joke but Cheney — who had a lead role in investigating his actions after the 2020 election and on Jan. 6, 2021 — disagreed.

“I think we have to take everything that Donald Trump says literally and seriously,” Cheney said in an interview with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, which will air Sunday on “This Week.”

“And I think that we saw, frankly, what he was willing to do already after the 2020 election in the lead up to Jan. 6, after Jan 6,” she continued. “People need to remember that when Donald Trump woke up on the morning of Jan. 6, he thought he was going to remain as president. And we saw the extent to which he was willing to attempt to seize power when he lost an election.”

Cheney called it “wishful thinking” to believe that Trump would “now abide by the rulings of the courts or be stopped by the guardrails of our democracy.”

She is absolutely right.

Just a couple more stories before I don’t have the energy to continue:

Speaking of NATO, if Republicans continue to block U.S. aid to Ukraine, we may soon be forced to send U.S. troops into a shooting war. If Ukraine is no longer able to resist being taken over by Russia, Putin will not stop there. If he attacks a NATO ally, we will be forced to a war that could possibly become World War III.

BBC News: Laura Kuenssberg: Ukraine in ‘mortal danger’ without aid, Olena Zelenska warns.

Olena Zelenska has warned that Ukrainians are in “mortal danger” of being left to die if Western countries don’t continue their financial support.

Ukraine’s first lady spoke to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg a day after Republican senators in the US blocked a key aid bill.

It would have provided more than $60bn (£47.8bn) worth of support to Ukraine.

Speaking hours after a Russian missile attack, she said: “If the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.”

Auguste Lorange (1830-1875) Girl sleeping with kittens

The White House has warned that US funds for Ukraine could soon run out, but Republicans have held up a deal to authorise more assistance.

They are seeking to secure compromises from President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress on funding for US border measures, in exchange for their support.

President Biden said the failure to agree Ukraine aid would be a “gift” for President Vladimir Putin, warning history would “judge harshly those who turned their back on freedom’s cause”.

Nearly two years since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the first lady expressed grave concern over delays in funding.

In an exclusive interview to be broadcast on Sunday, Olena Zelenska told the BBC the slowdown in aid represented a “mortal danger” for her country.

She said: “We really need the help. In simple words, we cannot get tired of this situation, because if we do, we die.

“And if the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.”

The first lady continued: “It hurts us greatly to see the signs that the passionate willingness to help may fade.

“It is a matter of life for us. Therefore, it hurts to see that.”

Another “first lady,” Casey DeSandis, really put her foot in it yesterday.

The Daily Beast: Florida First Lady’s Plea to ‘Moms and Grandmoms’ Sows Confusion.

Florida first lady Casey DeSantis sparked confusion on the campaign trail Friday after calling on supporters of her husband, Ron DeSantis, to flock to Iowa to participate in its looming caucuses.

“We’re asking all of these moms and grandmoms to come from wherever it might be—North Carolina, South Carolina—and descend upon the state of Iowa to be a part of the caucus because you do not have to be a resident of Iowa to be able to participate in the caucus,” Casey DeSantis said during an appearance on Fox News.

“So moms and grandmoms are going to be able to come and be a part and let their voice be heard in support of Ron DeSantis,” she continued.

The Iowa Republican party then issued a reminder that, actually, “you must be a legal resident of Iowa and the precinct you live in and bring photo ID with you to participate in the #iacaucus.”

[Emphasis added] The Iowa Republican party then released a statement explaining that you must live in Iowa in order to participate in the caucuses. Casey then pretended that she was only calling for volunteers, not out-of-state voters. Sure. Casey is apparently as dumb as her husband.

That’s all I have for you today. I know there is much more happening, so please post any thoughts and links on any topic in the comment thread.