574 lines
67 KiB
HTML
574 lines
67 KiB
HTML
|
<!DOCTYPE html>
|
|||
|
|
<html lang="" xml:lang="" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head>
|
|||
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/>
|
|||
|
|
<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0, user-scalable=yes" name="viewport"/>
|
|||
|
|
<title>12 March, 2023</title>
|
|||
|
|
<style>
|
|||
|
|
code{white-space: pre-wrap;}
|
|||
|
|
span.smallcaps{font-variant: small-caps;}
|
|||
|
|
span.underline{text-decoration: underline;}
|
|||
|
|
div.column{display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; width: 50%;}
|
|||
|
|
div.hanging-indent{margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em;}
|
|||
|
|
ul.task-list{list-style: none;}
|
|||
|
|
</style>
|
|||
|
|
<title>Daily-Dose</title><meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" name="viewport"/><link href="styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><link href="../styles/simple.css" rel="stylesheet"/><style>*{overflow-x:hidden;}</style><link href="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.css" rel="stylesheet"/><script src="https://unpkg.com/aos@2.3.1/dist/aos.js"></script></head>
|
|||
|
|
<body>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-down" id="daily-dose">Daily-Dose</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" data-aos-anchor-placement="top-bottom" id="contents">Contents</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-vox">From Vox</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><a href="#from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</a></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-new-yorker">From New Yorker</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Future of Palestinian Politics</strong> - Will mounting frustration with the status quo—and with Israel’s new extremist government—be the end of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority? - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/the-future-of-palestinian-politics">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>2024 Trump Is Even Scarier Than 2020 Trump</strong> - When the front-running ex-President campaigns on a platform of “retribution” and “termination,” it’s best to take him seriously. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-bidens-washington/2024-trump-is-even-scarier-than-2020-trump">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>The Latest Attack on the Abortion Pill Is Forty Years in the Making</strong> - If a Texas lawsuit prevails, mifepristone will no longer be available anywhere in the nation, even in states where abortion is legal. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-latest-attack-on-the-abortion-pill-is-forty-years-in-the-making">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>What We Talk About When We Talk About Trans Rights</strong> - Masha Gessen on the public discourse over trans identity, the real reasons for the culture war over gender, and how well-meaning people can do better. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-new-yorker-interview/what-we-talk-about-when-we-talk-about-trans-rights">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Masha Gessen on the Battle Over Trans Rights</strong> - The writer explains why the message of rolling back social change is powerful. Plus, a Nebraska lawmaker on the front lines of the fight against anti-trans legislation. - <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/podcast/the-new-yorker-radio-hour/masha-gessen-on-the-battle-over-trans-rights">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-vox">From Vox</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>No one knows when it is legal to perform medically necessary abortions in Texas</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/Dk3gpYii6SJLvk7kC65z_Lzahfo=/323x0:5486x3872/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72064596/1471962464.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Plaintiffs Amanda Zurawski, Lauren Hall, Anna Zargarian, CRR President & CEO Nancy Northup, and CRR Media Relations Director Kelly Krause at the Texas State Capitol after filing a lawsuit on behalf of Texans harmed by the state’s abortion ban, on March 7, 2023 in Austin, Texas. | Rick Kern/Getty Images for the Center for Reproductive Rights
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Doctors in red states across the country are too scared to perform legal abortions. A Texas lawsuit seeks to fix that in the biggest red state.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="8nVQzN">
|
|||
|
|
A lawsuit, recently filed in a Texas trial court, seeks to answer a question that has vexed lawyers, doctors, hospitals, and patients ever since the Supreme Court permitted the state to ban abortions: When can a Texas patient obtain an abortion <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Zurawski-v-State-of-Texas-Complaint.pdf">in order to save their life or ward off serious health consequences</a>?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AosqSN">
|
|||
|
|
Texas is famously one of the most anti-abortion states in the country — you may remember the Supreme Court fight over the 2021 Texas law that <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/8/31/22650303/supreme-court-abortion-texas-sb8-jackson-roe-wade-greg-abbott">sics litigious bounty hunters on abortion providers</a> — but even in Texas, it is legal for doctors to perform an abortion when one is necessary to protect the health or life of a patient.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TJO4Ct">
|
|||
|
|
Or, at least, it is supposed to be legal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rOMYMR">
|
|||
|
|
Before the new lawsuit was filed, stories about patients who suffered because they were unable to obtain abortions were already common. One Texas woman had a nonviable pregnancy that risked giving her a life-threatening infection, and was told she had to wait, as <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/07/26/1111280165/because-of-texas-abortion-law-her-wanted-pregnancy-became-a-medical-nightmare">her body discharged blood clots and a strange-smelling yellow liquid</a>, until she became sick enough to have an abortion. Her doctors eventually agreed to induce labor after her vagina started to emit a dark, foul-smelling fluid.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TlxOOf">
|
|||
|
|
Another Texas woman, whose fetus had multiple defects that would prevent it from living more than a few minutes after birth, says she had to flee to New Mexico to receive an abortion that would protect her from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/09/health/abortion-restrictions-texas/index.html">blood clots, cancer, and a potentially fatal condition known as preeclampsia</a>. Her doctor later warned her not to get pregnant again in the state of Texas.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="03xb3n">
|
|||
|
|
Nor are these kinds of stories limited to Texas. Similar stories abound in states like <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/01/us/abortion-journey-crossing-states.html">Tennessee</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/29/1143823727/bleeding-and-in-pain-she-couldnt-get-2-louisiana-ers-to-answer-is-it-a-miscarria">Louisiana</a>, and <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Health/idaho-woman-shares-19-day-miscarriage-tiktok-states/story?id=96363578">Idaho</a>, which also have very strict abortion laws.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sQi6pK">
|
|||
|
|
In theory, even after the Supreme Court’s anti-abortion decision in <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/19-1392_6j37.pdf"><em>Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization</em></a> (2022), medically necessary abortions remain legal in all 50 states. Texas law, for example, is supposed to permit abortions when a patient is “at risk of death” or if they face “<a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/texas/2021/health-and-safety-code/title-2/subtitle-h/chapter-170a/section-170a-002/">a serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function</a>.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="1UIf2g">
|
|||
|
|
There’s also a federal law, the <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/42/1395dd">Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act</a> (EMTALA), which <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/23289324/abortion-supreme-court-emtala-medically-necessary-doj-biden-hospitals">requires most hospitals to perform emergency abortions</a> to prevent “serious impairment to bodily functions” or “serious dysfunction of any bodily organ or part.” (Though, notably, Texas’s GOP attorney general, Ken Paxton, convinced a Trump-appointed judge to <a href="https://www.vox.com/politics/2023/2/26/23611826/texas-trump-judge-hendrix-government-shutdown-proxy-voting-omnibus-supreme-court">issue an opinion claiming that this federal abortion protection does not exist</a>.)
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Uw6lt">
|
|||
|
|
But in practice, the new lawsuit claims, Texas physicians are often too terrified to perform likely legal abortions because the consequences of performing an abortion that the courts later deem to be illegal are catastrophic. The maximum penalty for performing an illegal abortion in Texas is <a href="https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm#:~:text=12.32.,or%20less%20than%205%20years.">life in prison</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FkNo7S">
|
|||
|
|
This lawsuit, known as <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Zurawski-v-State-of-Texas-Complaint.pdf"><em>Zurawski v. Texas</em></a>, asks the state courts to clarify when medically necessary abortions are legal within the state so that doctors can know when they can treat their patients without risking a prison sentence or a lawsuit.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ozboio">
|
|||
|
|
Represented by lawyers from private firms and the Center for Reproductive Rights, an abortion-rights litigation powerhouse, the <em>Zurawski </em>plaintiffs ask the courts to clarify that Texas law “permits physicians to provide a pregnant person with abortion care when the physician determines, in their good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person, that the pregnant person <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Zurawski-v-State-of-Texas-Complaint.pdf">has a physical emergent medical condition that poses a risk of death or a risk to their health</a> (including their fertility).”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NRKgaI">
|
|||
|
|
The suit, in other words, asks the courts to lift a cloud of uncertainty that hangs over Texas doctors, preventing them from treating their patients even when that treatment is legal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="KIcjd6">
|
|||
|
|
The <em>Zurawski</em> lawsuit, briefly explained
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Lo2NLu">
|
|||
|
|
The plaintiffs in <em>Zurawski</em> are five women who, because they struggled to find abortion care in Texas, say that they suffered harrowing and unnecessary medical crises.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rEPF0j">
|
|||
|
|
Amanda Zurawski, for example, alleges that she was <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Zurawski-v-State-of-Texas-Complaint.pdf">forced to continue a pregnancy until she developed sepsis</a>, a life-threatening medical condition, even though her doctors determined days earlier that her fetus would not survive. At one point, Zurawski’s family flew to Austin to be by her side because they were unsure if she would survive.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="sJbs2T">
|
|||
|
|
Though she eventually received an abortion, Zurawski developed severe scar tissue on her uterus and fallopian tubes. One of her fallopian tubes is now permanently closed.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="KwUssW">
|
|||
|
|
Another plaintiff, Anna Zargarian, says she was forced to <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Zurawski-v-State-of-Texas-Complaint.pdf">fly to Colorado to obtain an abortion after her water broke prematurely</a> and her doctors told her the fetus could not survive. A third plaintiff, Lauren Hall, alleges she had to fly to Seattle to see a specialist, at great cost to her family, after she learned that her fetus had not developed a skull and would not survive. Her doctors told her that, if she did not terminate the pregnancy, she was at risk for many medical conditions, including hemorrhage.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JO70Rx">
|
|||
|
|
These plaintiffs argue in their <a href="https://reproductiverights.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Zurawski-v-State-of-Texas-Complaint.pdf">complaint</a> that one reason why Texas doctors are unwilling to perform abortions, even when delaying an abortion risks a patient’s life, is that Texas law is a hodgepodge of multiple abortion bans, each with inconsistent provisions permitting abortions when a patient’s life or health is in danger, and none of which use medical terminology that doctors can rely upon to know exactly what they are and are not permitted to do.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NjQarn">
|
|||
|
|
Texas’s primary <a href="https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/HS/htm/HS.170A.htm">criminal ban on abortions</a>, for example, provides that abortions are permitted when “in the exercise of reasonable medical judgment” a physician determines that their patient “has a life-threatening physical condition” or faces a “serious risk of substantial impairment of a major bodily function” that relates to their pregnancy.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JqPPqz">
|
|||
|
|
Meanwhile, a separate statute, enacted before <em>Roe v. Wade</em> was decided in 1973, also bans abortions. And it does so with a much narrower exception for abortions performed “<a href="https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/SDocs/VERNON'SCIVILSTATUTES.pdf">for the purpose of saving the life of the mother</a>.” But it’s unclear whether, now that the Supreme Court has overturned <em>Roe, </em>this law remains in effect or not. While a federal appeals court determined in 2004 that this pre-<em>Roe</em> ban on abortions was “<a href="https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-5th-circuit/1344628.html">repealed by implication</a>,” Attorney General Paxton <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/09/27/texas-abortion-funds-out-of-state-ken-paxton/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CUnder%20these%20pre%2DRoe%20statutes,to%20five%20years%20in%20prison.">claimed that the law is still enforceable</a> after <em>Roe</em> was overruled.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="UV3RBQ">
|
|||
|
|
And then there’s SB 8, the state’s bounty hunter law, which permits private citizens to sue doctors who perform abortions after the sixth week of pregnancy. That statute uses completely different language to describe when an abortion is allowed, permitting abortions “<a href="https://casetext.com/statute/texas-codes/health-and-safety-code/title-2-health/subtitle-h-public-health-provisions/chapter-171-abortion/subchapter-h-detection-of-fetal-heartbeat/section-171205-exception-for-medical-emergency-records#:~:text=Current%20through%20the%2087th%20Legislature,prevents%20compliance%20with%20this%20subchapter.">if a physician believes a medical emergency exists that prevents compliance</a>” with SB 8.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JBjYEr">
|
|||
|
|
Most of these statutes, moreover, were enacted when <em>Roe</em> was still good law. So there are few, if any, court decisions interpreting them, explaining how the multiple conflicting exceptions to the multiple different abortion bans interact with each other, or resolving disputes about which laws are actually in effect.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nfAYOh">
|
|||
|
|
Typically, lawyers rely on past court decisions to predict how courts are likely to apply a statute to their clients. But, without many (or any) such decisions to rely upon, lawyers advising doctors and hospitals cannot provide reliable advice to those clients. And, again, if a doctor and their attorneys guess wrong about whether a particular abortion is legal, that doctor could <a href="https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/Docs/PE/htm/PE.12.htm#:~:text=12.32.,or%20less%20than%205%20years.">wind up spending the rest of their life behind bars</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="GPuLXi">
|
|||
|
|
So how likely is this lawsuit to clarify the law?
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="SLznTO">
|
|||
|
|
There’s one other reason why there’s little case law so far explaining when doctors may perform medically necessary abortions: Absolute bans on such abortions are extremely unpopular. A 2022 poll by the Pew Research Center, for example, found that 73 percent of American adults, and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2022/05/06/wide-partisan-gaps-in-abortion-attitudes-but-opinions-in-both-parties-are-complicated/">62 percent of Republicans</a>, believe that abortions should be legal under these circumstances.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jcH7LG">
|
|||
|
|
Only 11 percent of adults, and just 16 percent of Republicans, said definitively that abortions should be illegal when needed to protect a patient’s life or health.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="a5OrpB">
|
|||
|
|
Even Greg Abbott, the state’s Republican governor, has said that “something that really does need to be done” is clarifying “what it means to protect the life of the mother.” He also worried about “some actions by some doctors that are not taking care of women who have an ectopic pregnancy or who have a miscarriage.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="3zxZiM">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
QUESTION TO GOV. <a href="https://twitter.com/GregAbbott_TX?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="GregAbbott_TX">@GregAbbott_TX</span></a>: If the GOP-controlled legislature approved an exception for rape or incest to the state’s <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/abortion?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#abortion</a> law, would you sign it into law?<br/><br/>Gov. Abbott & <a href="https://twitter.com/BetoORourke?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw"><span class="citation" data-cites="BetoORourke">@BetoORourke</span></a> on Inside Texas Politics this morning. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/txlege?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#txlege</a> <a href="https://t.co/hhLHLxwJEe">pic.twitter.com/hhLHLxwJEe</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
— Jason Whitely (<span class="citation" data-cites="JasonWhitely">@JasonWhitely</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/JasonWhitely/status/1581648405922734091?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 16, 2022</a>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="pCQqee">
|
|||
|
|
The fact that even many leading Republicans oppose bans on abortions when a patient’s life or health is at stake may seem like good news for those patients. But it also contributes to the void of case law explaining when such abortions are permitted.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DeApEz">
|
|||
|
|
That’s because a prosecutor, confronted with a case involving a doctor who performed an abortion on a woman like Amanda Zurawski, is likely to conclude that this abortion was legal and choose not to prosecute. But if no such prosecutions occur, then no court will ever hear a case that will allow it to definitively establish that such an abortion is, in fact, legal.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v7aTWU">
|
|||
|
|
It’s a Catch-22. The sorts of abortions that are most widely viewed as legally and morally justified are also the sorts of abortions that are least likely to result in litigation.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="GyKkvO">
|
|||
|
|
That said, the fact that politicians like Abbott, who is himself a former Texas Supreme Court justice, believe that the health and life exceptions to Texas’s abortion bans need to be clarified is a hopeful sign for the <em>Zurawski </em>plaintiffs. It suggests that even Texas’s current slate of justices, all of whom are Republicans, may agree that someone with a life-threatening medical condition shouldn’t have to wait until they go into sepsis before they can receive medical care.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="CLLX4C">
|
|||
|
|
What’s less clear is whether the Texas courts will provide clarity that helps patients with less drastic cases to obtain abortions. Recall that the <em>Zurawski </em>plaintiffs seek a legal rule allowing doctors to perform abortions when “in their good faith judgment and in consultation with the pregnant person” they determine that their patient has an emergency medical condition that endangers the patient’s life or health.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tuv5LS">
|
|||
|
|
Texas’s lawyers have not yet proposed an alternative standard, but the Texas legal team will be led by the virulently anti-abortion Attorney General Paxton. So, even if Paxton’s office doesn’t oppose this effort to clarify Texas law altogether, it is likely to propose a rule that will be much less friendly to doctors and their patients.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9e7FFs">
|
|||
|
|
We have miles to go, in other words, until Texas physicians will know when they can safely treat their patients. And it is likely that similar legal fights will need to play out in every state with strict abortion laws.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>The UK’s extreme new immigration plans, explained</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, wearing a dark suit with a white shirt and blue tie, gestures while speaking from behind a podium with a sign reading “Stop the Boats.”" src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/gOKmzEdouZyyqri6jt1Qc_uBgaQ=/224x0:3808x2688/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72063685/1247861623.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak speaks during a press conference following the launch of new legislation on migrant channel crossings on March 7, 2023. | Leon Neal/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Tory plans to stop channel crossings may be more politics than practical.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="rMrRj5">
|
|||
|
|
Facing an increase in <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uk-migrants-channel-asylum-human-rights-braverman-497fc05aa4056bc3fdb2b5ba381931c1">migration across the English Channel</a>, the UK agreed to fund additional policing and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/news/prime-minister-agrees-unprecedented-measures-to-tackle-illegal-migration-alongside-france">new migrant detention center</a> in northern France on Friday, to the tune of <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/11/europe/uk-france-illegal-immigration-funding-intl-hnk/index.html">$576 million over three years</a>. The deal, which builds on previous agreements between the UK and France, is the latest step by Britain’s right-wing government to combat immigration, and a sign of the Conservative Party’s increasing desperation on the issue.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ah5PN1">
|
|||
|
|
After the number of migrants entering the UK by crossing the channel exploded in 2020, climbing from just 300 people to 8,500 in just two years, it reached new heights in 2022 with 45,000 new arrivals. In response, not only is the UK stepping up cooperation with France on immigration, but British Home Secretary Suella Braverman this week introduced a <a href="https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3429">draconian new bill</a> that would refuse the right to asylum to people arriving via irregular migration.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="7eSa9T">
|
|||
|
|
Under the terms of the new agreement, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/france-britain-macron-sunak-summit-aaa5ce464f4ca16b01a1a4f1154adb20">announced Friday at a UK-France summit in Paris</a>, the UK will not only fund a new migrant detention center in France, but an increased French police presence in the English Channel to intercept attempted crossings via boat. France is expected to contribute funding to the enforcement efforts as well, but the French government <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-64916446">has not yet released those details</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="xj7Gt1">
|
|||
|
|
“The level of ambition of this plan is exactly what we need,” French President Emmanuel Macron said of the deal, emphasizing that “this is not an agreement between UK and France but between UK and EU.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="QLafne">
|
|||
|
|
Braverman’s bill, meanwhile, which was introduced in the House of Commons on March 7 and has yet to face a vote, would deport people who arrive to the UK via irregular migration channels — primarily small boats crossing the English Channel — and bar them from seeking asylum in the UK. The bill has been widely criticized as racist and legally fraught, and both the UN’s refugee agency and the European court of human rights <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2023/mar/07/small-boat-crossings-immigration-rishi-sunak-suella-braverman-mps-details-uk-politics-latest">have objected on human rights grounds</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="j4dWa1">
|
|||
|
|
As described by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on <a href="https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1633158789103747072?s=20">Twitter</a>, the bill, if passed, would not only prevent asylum claims, it would shut undocumented immigrants out of the UK’s modern slavery protections, which provide <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/modern-slavery-how-to-identify-and-support-victims/modern-slavery-statutory-guidance-for-england-and-wales-under-s49-of-the-modern-slavery-act-2015-and-non-statutory-guidance-for-scotland-and-northe#Identifying_potential_victims">support for victims of modern slavery</a> and <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/modern-slavery-bill">a framework to crack down on perpetrators</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<div id="0AdFYc">
|
|||
|
|
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" dir="ltr" lang="en">
|
|||
|
|
If you come to the UK illegally: <br/><br/>➡️ You can’t claim asylum <br/><br/>➡️ You can’t benefit from our modern slavery protections <br/><br/>➡️ You can’t make spurious human rights claims <br/><br/>➡️ You can’t stay <a href="https://t.co/026oSvKoJZ">pic.twitter.com/026oSvKoJZ</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
— Rishi Sunak (<span class="citation" data-cites="RishiSunak">@RishiSunak</span>) <a href="https://twitter.com/RishiSunak/status/1633158789103747072?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2023</a>
|
|||
|
|
</blockquote></div></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="AAKuAz">
|
|||
|
|
“Most people fleeing war and persecution are simply unable to access the required passports and visas,” the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/uk/news/press/2023/3/6407794e4/statement-on-uk-asylum-bill.html">said in a statement</a> responding to the bill’s announcement. “There are no safe and ‘legal’ routes available to them. Denying them access to asylum on this basis undermines the very purpose for which the Refugee Convention was established.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IS7vzp">
|
|||
|
|
Migrants arriving in small boats — many from Albania, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uk-migrants-channel-asylum-human-rights-braverman-497fc05aa4056bc3fdb2b5ba381931c1">according to the Associated Press</a> — are often those with the least access to conventional, safe routes to access the asylum system. But the UK’s legal asylum system is overwhelmed, too, according to the <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-uks-asylum-backlog/">Migration Observatory at Oxford University</a>, with a backlog of more than 100,000 cases affecting nearly 150,000 people, some of whom are applying with family members.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gojfTC">
|
|||
|
|
Sunak’s plan comes as the UK attempts to iron out its post-Brexit relationship with the European Union and France in particular after a <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/9/18/22680875/france-us-australia-ambassadors-nuclear-subs-explained">blowup over a defense pact</a> between Australia, the US, and the UK, which France saw as a betrayal. <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/uk-migrant-return-deal-france-rishi-sunak-emmanuel-macron/">France had resisted the UK’s proposal</a> to return migrants to France and have them claim asylum in the first safe country they enter, insisting that such a policy couldn’t be decided bilaterally and must be a decision between the UK and the EU.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="DXJhZX">
|
|||
|
|
Should Sunak’s plan and Braverman’s proposal fail to address the number of people coming to the UK via irregular channels, some Conservative members of Parliament are insisting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/feb/05/tory-mps-to-push-for-uk-exit-from-european-convention-of-human-rights">the UK withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights</a>, which guarantees people the right to access asylum procedures and <a href="https://www.echr.coe.int/Documents/Convention_ENG.pdf">prevents countries from sending migrants back to countries where their lives are at risk or they would be subject to torture</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="F3VVjN">
|
|||
|
|
The new plans won’t fix the UK’s immigration system
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="LWYQ6l">
|
|||
|
|
It’s far from clear, however, that the Conservative bill will significantly curb migration to the UK. According to Peter William Walsh, senior researcher with the Migration Observatory at Oxford University, “to date, there is surprisingly little evidence that asylum deterrence policies put people off in large numbers, for the simple reason that asylum seekers often have little understanding of what policies will face them after they arrive.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="70aOtj">
|
|||
|
|
As Sunder Katwala, head of the think tank British Future, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/audio/2023/mar/10/is-stop-the-boats-a-slogan-without-a-solution-podcast">told the Guardian’s Hannah Moore</a>, the number of boat crossings picked up during the <a href="https://apnews.com/article/uk-migrants-channel-asylum-human-rights-braverman-497fc05aa4056bc3fdb2b5ba381931c1">Covid-19 pandemic</a> because other methods of travel weren’t available. Now, channel crossings “are an established and institutionalized route,” Katwala said. The best available option for these migrants is to pay a smuggler or group of smugglers to take them across the English Channel in <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/14/uk/english-channel-migrant-boat-deaths-intl-gbr/index.html">unsafe and sometimes deadly</a> voyages to try and claim asylum in the UK or find under-the-table employment opportunities.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EfiYcA">
|
|||
|
|
Braverman’s proposal hinges on the idea that they can simply be deported, taken elsewhere, or detained. But that’s a fairly simplistic premise, Walsh said, and one that might not stand up to reality.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tRNppm">
|
|||
|
|
“On paper, the bill effectively opts the UK out of the global asylum system as we know it, by preventing people from claiming asylum if they arrived through irregular routes,” he told Vox via email. “But when these people can’t be removed because there is nowhere for them to go (and this is expected to be the case for most asylum seekers arriving by small boat), what happens to them? On the face of it, the bill appears to leave them permanently in the UK with no rights, financially dependent on the state because they would not have the right to work.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="v9rjA9">
|
|||
|
|
Sunak has <a href="https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2022-12-13/debates/DB61C374-16B5-411C-9A29-CC3DCA119EB3/IllegalImmigration">pledged to cut backlogs</a> in the UK immigration system by “radically re-engineering the end-to-end process, with shorter guidance, fewer interviews and less paperwork,” and “introducing specialist caseworkers by nationality,” as well as doubling the number of case workers focused on asylum claims, which numbered around 117,000 applications awaiting an initial decision from the Home Office as of September 2022, <a href="https://migrationobservatory.ox.ac.uk/resources/briefings/the-uks-asylum-backlog/">according to the Migration Observatory</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h3 id="BLoHbc">
|
|||
|
|
The Tories have a track record of extreme immigration policies
|
|||
|
|
</h3>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6Zy31g">
|
|||
|
|
The new immigration measures are not the first hardline immigration proposals from the Tory government; they’re just the latest in a series of increasingly drastic, hardline immigration measures pushed by Sunak’s Conservative Party.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="9CrFpm">
|
|||
|
|
Last April, the government put into place a program to deport irregular asylum seekers to Rwanda to apply for asylum there. That plan, introduced under then-Home Secretary Priti Patel, was deemed legal by the UK’s High Court; however, the European Court for Human Rights <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-61806383">intervened and prevented the first flight of migrants</a> from taking off for Rwanda last June, and no migrants have been sent to Rwanda under the plan.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="FUjGp2">
|
|||
|
|
Braverman took over Patel’s position, first under former Prime Minister Liz Truss and then again under Sunak, and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2022/oct/04/suella-braverman-revives-tory-pledge-to-cut-net-migration-to-tens-of-thousands">took up the torch for the Rwanda plan</a>, although she conceded that it wouldn’t happen “for a long time.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="mbDN9Y">
|
|||
|
|
The legality of that measure is currently being debated in court, but “even if the proposed Rwanda scheme gets up and running, this barely changes the picture because capacity in Rwanda is low,” Walsh said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IVvpyv">
|
|||
|
|
Ultimately, Walsh tells Vox that for as draconian as the bill is, it’s fundamentally also “a gamble: that the UK won’t actually need to impose this penalty on many people because the deterrent effect will be so strong.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ag0Joe">
|
|||
|
|
That’s something of an untested proposition, though. As Walsh told Vox, there’s no way to tell how effective the policies will be, “since they are more extreme than polices adopted in most other high-income countries where the evidence comes from.” And in the US, immigration policies <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2022/4/27/23043477/title-42-border-biden-midterms-trump">such as Title 42</a> have done little to slow the pace of arrests at the southern border, which were <a href="https://www.texastribune.org/2022/10/22/border-patrol-migrant-encounters/">reported at a record high</a> in 2022.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="HPDl9t">
|
|||
|
|
If Braverman’s bill passes and “people continue to arrive in the UK by small boat in substantial numbers, not being able to process and resolve their asylum claims could create considerable operational chaos and financial costs,” Walsh said.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JT1Es4">
|
|||
|
|
Despite the potential problems, however, recent polling shows that small boat migration is a priority for a crucial constituency: <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/stop-the-boats-now-second-biggest-concern-of-tory-voters-poll/">Brits who voted Tory in 2019</a>. <a href="https://www.publicfirst.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/PF_UUK.pdf">According to a new poll by Public First for Universities UK</a>, stopping illegal migration via small boats has become the second-most important issue for these voters more important than reducing wait times for surgeries with the National Health Service. That polling also indicates voters are less concerned about legal migration and fixing the immigration system, which could help explain the extreme proposals Sunak’s government is pushing, without corresponding investment into the immigration system.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="F6YocF">
|
|||
|
|
After 12 years in power, the Tories are at a low point; <a href="https://docs.cdn.yougov.com/523wfnrggo/TheTimes_VI_230201_W.pdf">in a recent YouGov poll</a>, only 17 percent of respondents said they’d vote Conservative if there were a snap election, compared to 30 percent who said they’d vote Labour. As such, recapturing people who voted in a landslide for Boris Johnson to “<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-britain-eu-johnson-text/prime-minister-johnsons-speech-to-conservative-conference-idUSKBN1WH192">get Brexit done</a>” is undoubtedly a priority for British Conservatives after the troubled tenures of Johnson, who stepped down after investigations into his administration’s flouting of Covid-19 restrictions, and Truss, whose administration lasted only six weeks.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tIEXvy">
|
|||
|
|
Appealing to those 2019 Tory voters concerned about illegal migration and rekindling the UK’s relationship with France and the EU in the post-Brexit era are both crucial priorities for Sunak’s government. With the UK-France migration deal and Braverman’s migration proposal, the Tory party may have secured a short-term victory, without fixing the immigration system for the long term.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><strong>Why DC is stuck as America’s continental colony</strong> -
|
|||
|
|
<figure>
|
|||
|
|
<img alt="A mostly Black crowd holds signs reading “DC Statehood Is Racial Justice” and “Hands Off DC” in front of the US Capitol building." src="https://cdn.vox-cdn.com/thumbor/y1dGHYn3E_nM0qAs-JZ7bLxA40s=/0x0:4777x3583/1310x983/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/72062178/GettyImages_1472152372.0.jpg"/>
|
|||
|
|
<figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
Protesters advocate for Washington, DC, statehood in the wake of Congress overturning the city’s crime bill. | Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
|
|||
|
|
</figcaption>
|
|||
|
|
</figure>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Washington just owned DC.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="YoHLv2">
|
|||
|
|
Congress came together in a rare show of bipartisanship this week. What brought the opposing sides together? Well, it wasn’t figuring out the debt ceiling or the war in Ukraine, it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2023/03/08/dc-crime-bill-senate-vote/">was voting down Washington, DC’s proposed new criminal code.</a>
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="vuHO7P">
|
|||
|
|
The new code had been in the works for over a decade and would have been the first overhaul of the District’s criminal statutes since 1901. Many of the changes were uncontroversial, but federal lawmakers couldn’t get behind the update’s lower maximum penalties for some violent crimes.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="BnpV6f">
|
|||
|
|
Advocates said those changes simply would have brought the code into alignment with the penalties judges actually dispense. But that argument wasn’t persuasive to Republicans — and many Democrats — in Congress, where the proposal was excoriated as being “soft on crime.” DC’s mayor and police chief had also objected to aspects of the update for similar reasons.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Ebfzt2">
|
|||
|
|
Republicans in Congress rag on big-city mayors all the time, but they don’t have the ability to step in and change local laws — except in DC. Though the capital city has had “home rule” since the 1970s, by law, every bill passed by DC’s city council goes to Congress for a review.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="XXt0O4">
|
|||
|
|
Then the president has the final say; they can block Congress from disapproving of District legislation. In the past, President Joe Biden has been a vocal supporter of DC autonomy. But not this time.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="VSJDxE">
|
|||
|
|
“I support DC Statehood and home-rule — but I don’t support some of the changes DC Council put forward over the Mayor’s objections — such as lowering penalties for carjackings,” the President <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS/status/1631392285182009376">tweeted</a>.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="P3rzWJ">
|
|||
|
|
The saga has been a brutal setback for advocates of increased DC autonomy, said <a href="https://twitter.com/maustermuhle?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">Martin Austermuhle</a>, a reporter at WAMU in the District who has for years covered the proposed criminal code update.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Fhz2mM">
|
|||
|
|
“There’s usually a lot of noise from Republicans on the Hill where they dislike things that DC is doing, which is often because this is a Democratic city,” Austermuhle told <em>Today, Explained</em> co-host Sean Rameswaram. ”But for it to get this far and for Democrats and Republicans to be united on this issue against the District is virtually unheard of.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="qof4xl">
|
|||
|
|
Below is an excerpt of the conversation between Austermuhle and Rameswaram, edited for length and clarity.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="k9IotC">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="gZgMlV">
|
|||
|
|
Can you just remind people how DC’s government works in concert with the federal government?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="fyNGkV">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jCPcfO">
|
|||
|
|
Yeah, it’s one of those very confusing things in the sense that nowhere else in the country is like DC. First of all, DC is not a state. And DC only got its own mayor and elected city council back in the mid-1970s. It’s pretty limited home rule. It’s not like, here, govern yourselves and we’ll just step out of the way sort of thing. It’s: Everything that DC does can be checked by Congress.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="fT0P7V">
|
|||
|
|
Essentially, Congress is the ultimate check and balance on the District’s local affairs. So any bill that clears the DC Council goes to Congress, Congress gets a chance to weigh in. Congress has the power to basically tell the district it can’t do certain things by putting provisions in the federal budget that say DC cannot spend money on needle exchange programs. It can’t spend money to legalize the sale of recreational marijuana. It can’t spend money subsidizing abortion for low-income women. And those are all things that Congress has done to DC and is currently doing to DC.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="nkOJGj">
|
|||
|
|
It’s a very kind of fraught relationship because DC did get the chance to govern itself — with adult supervision.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="B2cIaA">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tyvXVL">
|
|||
|
|
I think the marijuana example you quickly alluded to there is one of maybe the most illustrative of all of them because I think a lot of people across this country now had the experience of having marijuana legalized for either recreational or medicinal use at the state level, while it’s illegal at the federal level. But in DC, it’s a much murkier situation. Could you explain it to people who aren’t familiar?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="IawtHn">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tmKwBo">
|
|||
|
|
Back in 2014, DC voters approved a ballot initiative that legalized the possession, home cultivation, personal use, and gifting of small amounts of marijuana. So everything but sales.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="ig0MQ9">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="6jQLlq">
|
|||
|
|
Which is to say that if you go into a marijuana dispensary in DC, you don’t buy marijuana. You give them like $20 for a painting or a bracelet and they give you some marijuana along with said painting or bracelet as a gift.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="rzjYuT">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bm74lJ">
|
|||
|
|
Yeah, it’s a very confusing, convoluted, and completely congressionally made reality because after DC voters approved this ballot initiative, Congress came back, congressional Republicans came back and said, well, listen, that’s great and good, but you’re not doing anything when it comes to recreational sales. So they put what’s called the budget rider, essentially a prohibition on the city saying you can’t legalize recreational sales. That was in 2015 and it still exists today.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="Z9JtC1">
|
|||
|
|
So we have this market where literally dozens of stores across the city, you can pay 50, 60 bucks for a sticker or a cookie and you get your “gift of marijuana.” But like, let’s be honest, we all kind of understand what’s happening: You’re buying marijuana.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="yVAGEz">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="ZeEQOz">
|
|||
|
|
And, of course, there is a very active movement in the District of Columbia to change this status quo.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="6Lo38y">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="yBnlmv">
|
|||
|
|
It ebbs and flows. There’s times where people say, listen, the ultimate fight is statehood, and that’s what we have to go for. And then there’s moments where they say statehood is never going to happen. Let’s go for something else. Let’s try for, let’s say, like a full voting representative in the House of Representatives because right now it’s just a non-voting delegate. Nothing has moved particularly far.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="S7FuJn">
|
|||
|
|
It was only about eight years ago that the fight for statehood became kind of the main goal, the driving goal for city officials. And it actually got relatively far. I mean, the House of Representatives, when it was controlled by Democrats, voted twice on a bill that would have made DC the 51st state. Now, the Senate has never done the same because of the filibuster, basically. And so the city has been stuck without statehood still.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="TCaCdO">
|
|||
|
|
But it has made progress in making the issue more of a national issue and tying it to voting rights and saying, listen, if you believe in expanding voting access, expanding voting rights, you should also believe in statehood.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="z5k47T">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="IaiMy0">
|
|||
|
|
And when Biden came out last week and said he wasn’t going to support this crime bill, he wasn’t going to use his veto, his statement was — and I’m reading here — “I support DC statehood and home rule, but I don’t support some of the changes DC City Council put forward over the mayor’s objections, such as lowering penalties for carjacking,” which a bookstore in DC retweeted, saying, “Look, folks, I fully support the Rebel Alliance, but construction of the Death Star must proceed on schedule.” How complicated is Biden’s support of DC statehood made by his actions in the past week?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="tA6S6w">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="eJelIA">
|
|||
|
|
It’s got a lot of people confused because obviously they appreciate that President Biden supports statehood, has said he supports statehood. And last year, he tied the issue of statehood to his broader fight for voting rights, for access to the ballot and that sort of stuff. But now he’s effectively trying to please no one, apparently, by saying I support statehood and I support the district’s right to govern itself, except in this one case where I really don’t support the district’s right to govern itself. And this is why I’m not going to step into this fight that Congress is having with DC. So, yeah, at best it’s confusing. At worst, it’s gotten a lot of people pretty pissed.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="bUz3Ag">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="jRTFM7">
|
|||
|
|
What are the biggest barriers to DC achieving its sort of perpetual goal of being a state?
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="4eIzzw">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="JvNReI">
|
|||
|
|
I mean, depends who you ask. There’s folks that just say, “It’s a city full of Democrats, which means it’s going to gain two senators that are going to be Democrats, which means it’s going to benefit Democrats in the Senate.” So there’s a very partisan angle to it. There’s also folks who could raise lesser concerns, stuff like DC is just geographically not big enough. And yes, it would be the smallest state by geography, though it would have more people than Vermont or Wyoming. Some Republican senators have raised concerns, including that there’s not enough miners and loggers in DC.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="xJfIVK">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="bGkUux">
|
|||
|
|
You know, there are some constitutional concerns where they say the founders wanted a place for the federal government that was insulated from the states, where Marylanders and Virginians couldn’t storm the Capitol. Ironically, you know, when January 6 happened, it was DC police officers that helped clear the Capitol. That’s notwithstanding this idea that DC has to exist in this kind of neutral territory, and so thus DC could never be a state because then it’s no longer neutral, and then the federal government is at the risk of being at the whims of just the District.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="t3n5Lm">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="NyNo5t">
|
|||
|
|
But meanwhile, you’ve got Biden saying he supports statehood. I think Trump at CPAC this year said the federal government should take over management of DC, and you got 700,000 people caught in the middle without much of a right to self-govern.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="kiwVpv">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="5L0yjc">
|
|||
|
|
I don’t know that anybody could have foreseen this exact series of events happening the way it did. There was always an assumption that, okay, fine, this criminal code bill will go to the Hill. Republicans will vote to disapprove it. But we’ve got the Senate that’s run by Democrats and then that fell. Well, fine. We’ve got Biden. He’s the ultimate backstop. There’s no way that President Biden, a supporter of statehood, wouldn’t veto this. And then President Biden says, no, I’m not going to veto this.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="duamgi">
|
|||
|
|
There is some collective anger about the situation the District has always found itself in and continues to find itself in. But there’s also some finger-pointing internally of, was this a strategic mistake by us? Was this just the wrong time to debate criminal justice reform and reforming criminal laws? Shouldn’t we just wait till Democrats at least have maybe retaken the House so we can at least have that as a backstop? So there’s a lot of layers to this. It’s complicated.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="kOPzOy">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="L8VDec">
|
|||
|
|
And in the meantime, we have a joke on our license plate.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="JklNDH">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="oHU8DL">
|
|||
|
|
“End taxation without representation.” I mean, at least you’ve got that. You’ve got the license plate.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="zYbacQ">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="p8dpF8">
|
|||
|
|
Yeah. Good. To be fair, I liked it more when it just said “Taxation without representation,” it felt sort of self-deprecating. Now it feels just like this hopeless slogan that’s never going to do anything, but …
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="WbQtmo">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="tm9dlQ">
|
|||
|
|
But that being said, the district is rolling out a new license plate this year. It’s going to come out soon. It’s going to say, ”We demand statehood.” So …
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="yO0oR4">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="f6ZvCg">
|
|||
|
|
Wow!
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="Kcfjri">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="df16yY">
|
|||
|
|
I know, there’s that.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="uCPVzs">
|
|||
|
|
Sean Rameswaram
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="07kEIW">
|
|||
|
|
The joke is over.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<h4 id="P8QZcT">
|
|||
|
|
Martin Austermuhle
|
|||
|
|
</h4>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom" id="EhZHZu">
|
|||
|
|
I mean, it’s not … you don’t get a new criminal code, but you get a license plate that says, “We demand statehood.” So there you go.
|
|||
|
|
</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-sports">From The Hindu: Sports</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Doc Martin and Axlrod catch the eye</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Ind vs Aus fourth Test | Shades of Sachin Tendulkar’s epic 241 at Sydney in Virat Kohli’s century</strong> - The 40-month wait is over and Kohli has finally got his 28th Test hundred.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>IND vs AUS | Virat Kohli ends Test century drought, first hundred in whites since 2019</strong> - Virat Kohli scored a sublime 136 in India’s only innings at Eden Gardens and helped his team secure an innings and 46-run victory</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Aus vs Ind 4th Test, Day 4 | Kohli gets his 28th Test ton as India close in on first innings lead</strong> - Virat Kohli scored his first Test hundred since November 2019</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Aus vs Ind 4th Test | Shreyas Iyer suffers back pain again, taken for scans</strong> - Iyer had also missed the first Test in Nagpur due to a back issue before returning for the second game in Delhi.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-the-hindu-national-news">From The Hindu: National News</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Moot court contestants need a lot of creativity’</strong> -</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>All members enjoy unhindered right to express their views in Parliament, says Om Birla</strong> - The Lok Sabha Speaker was addressing the 14th Assembly of Inter-Parliamentary Union.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>‘Strange’ parties find space in Nagaland</strong> - With the Congress self-destructing, Nagaland polls present a win-win situation for lesser-known political parties trying to expand their base and candidates seeking a platform to realise their ambitions</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>FIR against Maharashtra MLA after woman accuses him and supporters of assault and molestation</strong> - Meanwhile, the BJP MLA also filed a counter-complaint against the victim’s husband for allegedly posting objectionable messages on social media against his mother</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“I think Swati Maliwal has lost her mental balance,” says former DCW chairperson Barkha Shukla</strong> - Swati Maliwal on Saturday narrated her childhood ordeal and said that she was sexually assaulted by her father when she was a child.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-bbc-europe">From BBC: Europe</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Turkey earthquake: Istanbul residents fear homes will collapse</strong> - After quakes in Turkey’s south claimed 50,000 lives, the race is on to protect its biggest city.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Has Putin’s assault on Ukraine’s power grid failed?</strong> - For 22 days Ukraine went without power cuts, and there are hopes Russia’s strikes are losing momentum.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Hamburg shooting: Police spoke to gunman weeks before attack</strong> - He co-operated with officers and there were not enough grounds to take away his gun, police say.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Sunak and Macron summit: UK to give £500m to help France curb small boat crossings</strong> - The cash will fund a French detention centre and is a big increase on what the UK already pays France.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Italy migrants: Hundreds in trouble off Calabria coast</strong> - Rescue efforts are under way near the scene of a shipwreck in which dozens of migrants died last month.</p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-ars-technica">From Ars Technica</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Animal personalities can trip up science, but there’s a solution</strong> - Individual behavior patterns may skew studies, but a new approach could help. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1923215">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A grasshopper-like soft material can jump 200 times above its thickness</strong> - Inspired by grasshoppers, the new material stores energy then uses it all at once. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1923423">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Are we ethically ready to set up shop in space?</strong> - A new book asks hard questions about whether we’ve thought through life in space. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1923414">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Get ready to meet the Chat GPT clones</strong> - A tidal wave of bots is on its way. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1923204">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Apple, Atari, and Commodore, oh my! Explore a deluxe home vintage computer den</strong> - Brian Green re-lives the 1980s with dozens of fully operational vintage PCs at home. - <a href="https://arstechnica.com/?p=1923267">link</a></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
<h1 data-aos="fade-right" id="from-jokes-subreddit">From Jokes Subreddit</h1>
|
|||
|
|
<ul>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>A guy was boarding a plane when he heard that the Pope was on the same flight</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“This is exciting!” the guy thought. “I’ve always been a big fan of the Pope. Perhaps I’ll be able to see him in person.” Suddenly, the man realized his seat was right next to the Pope!
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
In the beginning, the gentleman was too shy to speak to His Holiness.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Shortly after take-off, the Pope took a crossword puzzle out of his carry on bag and began writing in the answers.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
It crossed the gentleman’s mind that if the Pope got stuck, he’d ask him for assistance
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“This is fantastic!”, he mused. “I’m really good at crosswords!”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Almost as if Providence struck, the Pope turned to the man and said, “Excuse me, but do you know a four-letter word referring to a woman that ends in ‘unt’?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The three Cardinals behind, in front of, and beside him shrunk down in their seats, as far as possible, all looking for something on the floor.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
The gentleman was in morbid shock.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He couldn’t breathe.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
He thought within himself, thought deeper, longer, for a plausible answer and after almost a minute, the dark clouds of evil parted in his mind and the light shined through.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Turning to the Pope, the gentleman said with reverence and politeness, “I believe, Your Holiness, that the word you’re looking for, is ‘aunt’.”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
“Of course!” the Pope mused, not taking his gaze off the crossword. “You wouldn’t happen to have an eraser, would you?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jcs801"> /u/jcs801 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11ootgy/a_guy_was_boarding_a_plane_when_he_heard_that_the/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11ootgy/a_guy_was_boarding_a_plane_when_he_heard_that_the/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>“Son, I killed 12 people in Afghanistan”</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Son: Dad you were a cook.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Dad:Never said I was a good one
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/donnygel"> /u/donnygel </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11p9ts3/son_i_killed_12_people_in_afghanistan/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11p9ts3/son_i_killed_12_people_in_afghanistan/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>My trip to the doctor</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Doctor: “You should stop masturbating”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Me: “Why doc? Is there something wrong?”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Doctor: “It’s making me really uncomfortable”
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/jcs801"> /u/jcs801 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11op7iv/my_trip_to_the_doctor/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11op7iv/my_trip_to_the_doctor/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>In which state is the Great Salt Lake?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
Liquid
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Zuksmartins"> /u/Zuksmartins </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11oolil/in_which_state_is_the_great_salt_lake/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11oolil/in_which_state_is_the_great_salt_lake/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
<li><p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"><strong>Why did the obtuse angle go to the beach?</strong> - <!-- SC_OFF --></p>
|
|||
|
|
<div class="md">
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom">
|
|||
|
|
It was over 90 degrees.
|
|||
|
|
</p>
|
|||
|
|
</div>
|
|||
|
|
<!-- SC_ON -->
|
|||
|
|
<p data-aos="fade-left" data-aos-anchor-placement="bottom-bottom"> submitted by <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/Ok_Boysenberry2713"> /u/Ok_Boysenberry2713 </a> <br/> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11ox6x1/why_did_the_obtuse_angle_go_to_the_beach/">[link]</a></span> <span><a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/11ox6x1/why_did_the_obtuse_angle_go_to_the_beach/">[comments]</a></span></p></li>
|
|||
|
|
</ul>
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
<script>AOS.init();</script></body></html>
|