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Federal judge to DeSpicable "Let me make this easy for Florida - It's the first amendment, stupid"

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/17/media/florida-judge-tv-abortion-rights-ad-health/index.html

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Then where would he be?

In the Florida Governor's Mansion (for two more years), sharing space with Casey DeSantis, the Woman Who Will Not Be First Lady.

And we silly atheists don't believe Hell exists.

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Ta, Robyn. DeathSentence should put on his white go-go boots and get-get gone.

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Somebody who believed in democracy would just make their case for why the amendment is bad and then let the voters decide.

But DeSleestak is a republican and republicans no longer believe in democracy.

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Republicans have always believed that Might Makes Right.

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Ah, the vaunted "marketplace of ideas" that libertarians pretend to believe in!

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So, the Republican position is that abortion should be decided by the states, just as long as the people have no voice in that decision.

Very MAGA.

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If they came to my door asking that I would have said, "Fuck off with that, Nazi creep." Would they count that as a "no"?

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Probably not. Your answer had too many two-syllable words in it.

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Fuck Ron DeSantis.

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"Most recently, he deployed his “Election Police” to “investigate” the petition to get the measure on the ballot in the first place and to actually show up at people’s homes demanding to know whether they really signed it or not. Naturally, based on “the small sample” they reviewed, they determined that around 16.4 percent of the 900,000 signatures may be invalid."

Geez, Rhonda, you need to hire a MUCH better class of goons if they couldn't even intimidate a quarter of the sample into backing down from their signatures. ( We all know that's what's really going on here. 16.4% isn't very much when they're being confronted right in their own homes. )

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FsUuhW7WbIg

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It can be defeated by only 40% of the voters? Minority rule rides again.

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41%, to Well Ackshually you; but near as dammit. They tried to push a similar law thru here in the Floriduh of the North (Ohio *sob*) before we held our own vote on abortion last year. Fortunately, the 60% rule went down in flames, which is good because we didn't quite manage to get there on abortion, 57 or 59% I forget. But yeah. Tyranny of the minority should be the GOP's tagline these days.

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Early voting in Florida begins October 26. Make a plan to get it done.

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Yesterday I learned early voting began YESTERDAY! I got it done.

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"In order to be adopted into the state constitution, Florida’s abortion amendment ballot initiative (Amendment 4) will have to get 60 percent or more of the votes this Election Day. That’s a pretty high threshold. Even given the fact that abortion rights have won in every state where they’ve been on the ballot, it’s not easy to be confident about reaching a threshold that high."

Was this a thing before, or is it specially-crafted for this ballot initiative? Because it seems profoundly stupid to me. Even if the initiative doesn't end up meeting the threshold to pass, it may galvanize even more people in favor of it to vote because "Man, it needs all the help it can get."

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IIRC, it's strictly for this initiative, or at least was made law because of this initiative.

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Oct 18Edited

2006 Florida Amendment 3, which was submitted by the Florida legislature, changed the threshold for voters to approve any constitutional amendment, from 50% to 60%.

Ironically, it passed with a little less than 58%.

https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_3,_60%25_Majority_Requirement_for_Constitutional_Amendments_Amendment_(2006)

Perhaps the legislature was still irritated about the 2002 citizen-initiated amendment 10 to the Florida constitution, which legislated — via the constitution — the humane treatment of pregnant pigs.

https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_10,_Treatment_of_Pregnant_Pigs_Initiative_(2002)

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That picture: “I stuck my thumb in a hole in the ground. Or up my ass, I have a hard time telling them apart.”

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the current scare commercials here in Narth Flarduh talk about how Amendment 4 will remove the requirement that a minor get parental permission before getting an abortion.

the actual text of the amendment reads thusly: "This amendment does not

change the Legislature’s constitutional authority to require notification to a parent or guardian before a minor has an abortion."

the sample ballot for the election says, "The proposed amendment would result in significantly more abortions and fewer live births per year in Florida. The increase in abortions could be even greater if the amendment invalidates laws requiring parental consent before minors undergo abortions and those ensuring only licensed physicians perform abortions"

how the fuck is that language allowed onto the election ballot in Florida when the bill specifically notes that it does not change parental consent laws or the legislature's ability to write them?

ELECTION FUCKERY!!!!! AUTONOMY RIGGED AND STOLLEN!!!

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Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose changed the ballot description language on our abortion amendment and replaced fetus with unborn child.

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Someone should sue over that.

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We just need a ballot referendum in Virginia about wolves and then the Wonkette can have a headline "Who's Afraid of the Virginia Wolf ballot referendum?"

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"I AM TOO RELEVANT! PAY ATTENTION TO ME! I MATTER!"

--DeSantis, ever since ending his quest for the presidency

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--DeSantis, ever since his quest for the presidency ended in humiliating and hilarious flames that smell like ketchup and Big Macs

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And now he gets to join Scott Walker and Chris Christie and George Pataki and all the others in the Pantheon of Republican Governors Who Were Once The Shit But Went to Shit.

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Stomps tiny white boots in disgust, pounds fists on floor.

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When you're an unreconstructed party governor, sabotaging democracy on behalf of your unreconstructed party is just part of the package. Let's hope that Floridians show him what's what and hand him a resounding defeat that he takes to his next stop on the Grievance Express.

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