Iran Retaliates against Israeli Attack:
Israel has a history of poking at groups and countries until they fight back. For years, Israelis tried to make Palestinians miserable enough that they would desert Gaza and the West Bank until a militant group fought back. The question is whether Israel bit off too much by attacking the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria on April 1, killing seven military officers including a top commander. On April 13, Iran launched over 200 drones toward Israel after seizing a Portuguese-flagged cargo ship with links to Israel in the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel’s “defensive systems” were deployed, Israeli airspaces have been shut down, and schools are closing. Gatherings over 1,000 people are limited in some areas, and dozens of Israeli combat planes are airborne for monitoring. Worried that a counterattack could target U.S. troops in the Middle East, the U.S. began last week to dispatch more ships and warplanes to the region. The U.S. has shot down some of the drones, and Israel intercepted most of the others.
U.S. House Peacefully Passes Surveillance Act:
After much drama, publicity, and months-long stalling , the House reauthorized the FISA package by 273-147 with 147 Republicans and 126 Democrats voting in favor of the reauthorization, and 59 Republicans and 88 Democrats voting against it. The renewal was for two years instead of the former five years, but it did include Section 702 permitting warrantless surveillance of foreigners. Earlier this week, 19 House Republicans had tried to follow DDT’s order, “KILL FISA.”
Section 702 provides about 60 percent of intelligence in the president’s daily briefing. The deadline for reauthorization is April 19, but a majority of the senators support the bills. Some GOP senators are furious about Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) trying to destroy the FISA extension to remove intelligence agencies from the ability to spy on U.S. adversaries and terrorists. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) maintained that loss of FISA would cripple U.S. intelligence gathering. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said that without FISA, “we’d go dark on a lot of threats.”
A proposed amendment to the FISA bill requiring warrants for domestic communications caught in foreign surveillance operations lost by 212-212 with 86 Republicans and 126 Democrats voting against it. Hardline conservatives enraged by their GOP colleagues who opposed the amendment, including Speaker Johnson who voted in favor of the final FISA package, threatened to campaign against them. After the FISA bill passed, hardliners blocked its transmission to the Senate, postponing its sending to the upper chamber until the House’s return on Monday. Johnson said he supported FISA because he received more confidential information about Section 702 after he became Speaker.
The House faces many challenging high-pressure issues—repairing the Key Bridge in Baltimore, expanding the child tax credit, determining a possible TikTok bill, reauthorizing the FAA, finishing a rail-safety bill, and, of course, readying the impeachment case against DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. But the rules committee has a Monday schedule for bills that they consider more important to send to the full House floor:
- H.R. 6192 — Hands Off Our Home Appliances Act
- H.R. 7673 — Liberty in Laundry Act
- H.R. 7645 — Clothes Dryers Reliability Act
- H.R. 7637 — Refrigerator Freedom Act
- H.R. 7626 — Affordable Air Conditioning Act
- H.R. 7700 — Stop Unaffordable Dishwasher Standards Act
These bills are intended to oppose energy efficiency and increase climate change, similar to the GOP hysteria over gas stoves, low-flush toilets, and light bulbs. Republicans know that the Senate won’t bother with the bills, but the GOP uses them in their presidential campaigning for DDT and their own fundraising. Steve Benen writes that Republicans ignore important issues because “that work (a) is difficult; (b) requires real legislative work; and (c) necessitates meaningful, bipartisan solutions.”
The FISA deal was done in time for Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson to fly to his meeting with DDT at Mar-a-Lago where the two of them continued to promote the “big lie” about a stolen election in 2020, another important campaign issue for DDT. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), strongly supported by DDT, has a motion to vacate Johnson’s position as speaker, but during the Mar-a-Lago visit with Johnson, DDT supported the Speaker, saying “he’s doing a really good job.” DDT and Johnson plan a bill to prevent non-citizens from voting, already encased in federal law, by requiring proof of citizenship. In 2016, DDT claimed that 3-5 million non-citizens voted against him; a study found about 30 ballots from illegal votes. DDT lost that election to Hillary Clinton by 3 million popular votes.
On Fox’s The Five, co-host Richard Fowler said that DDT’s and Johnson’s voter fraud claims had “no evidence,” citing the highly conservative Heritage Foundation’s database reporting “fewer than 50 cases of noncitizens voting in elections since 2002. According to a 1996 law, any non-citizen attempting to vote in a federal election commits a felony, is heavily fined, and potentially be deported.
Asked about DDT’s support for Johnson, Greene said DDT “loves me.” Greene also bought Truth Social stocks almost 30 months ago but won’t say that happened to those shares.
Pro-Choice Rulings Differ in States:
One of Supreme Court Justice Antonio Scalia’s conservative achievements before he suddenly died in 2016 was the 2014 Burwell v. Hobby Lobby ruling that permitted religious, anti-abortion employers the right to refuse coverage of contraception in their employee health insurance. Ironically, a three-judge panel from an appellate court used that decision to support abortion rights in Indiana. The opinion determined that the state’s abortion ban infringes on religious beliefs of plaintiffs of faith and Jewish Hoosiers for Choice that a fetus is part of a woman’s body and not an independent being with its own rights.
Opposing the Hobby Lobby decision, the state said the plaintiffs were not entitled to religious protection, but the court cited the Supreme Court ruling as a decisive precedent. Like health insurance, abortion is a “mandatory religious ritual,” according to the opinion. An appeal would go to the Indiana Supreme Court. Elizabeth Sepper, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, called the decision “enormously significant,” showing “what an even-handed application of religious liberty doctrine looks like.” The case could fight the religious right’s opinion that it can impose its beliefs on everyone.
In Arizona, four state Supreme Court Justices reinstated an 1864 law banning abortions. Former Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, who criticized the decision, had expanded the court from five to seven justices in 2016 and appointed the four justices who banned abortion. One of his five appointees abstained, and both Republicans nominated by GOP Gov. Jan Brewer voted against the decision. Voters decide to retain or reject judges two years after their appointments and every following six years. Two of Ducey’s justices are up for reelection this year. The wife of one justice supporting the law, Shawna Bolick, is running for state Senate in November and called on the legislature to repeal the law. The ballot also has a citizens initiative to put abortion rights into the state constitution.
William Jones, author of the 1864 Arizona anti-abortion bill, was married at least four times, all his wives under 15. At that time, the age of consent was nine years old. He abandoned his first wife and their children in Missouri; he abducted his second wife, a 12-year-old Mexican girl; he abandoned his third wife, 15 at the time of their marriage, when he moved to Hawaii in 1865 and took another 15-year-old bride. Jones tried to become a delegate to the Confederate Congress when the Southern states seceded and took refuge in Mexico after pro-Confederate forces were driven from most of the Southwest. The Union Army, considering him a traitor, blocked his return until early 1864 when he took an oath to support the U.S., seven months before the establishment of the first territorial legislature and he was elected Speaker of the 18-member lower house.
In 1870, The first territorial census was 9,658 residents other than non-citizen Native Americans, much larger than the earlier population in 1864 before the transcontinental railroad and the westward migration after the end of the Civil War. Because women couldn’t vote, the actual number of voters could have been about 1,000. During a 43-day session, their representatives voting on a 400-page package may not have been aware of the abortion ban, instead focusing on building the state capitol and six roads as well as obtaining federal funds to deal with Navaho and other tribes. Other legislative business was granting two divorces, one to the post surgeon at a military post and the other to a legislative member who claimed to be lured into marriage “by fraudulent concealment of criminal facts. Those are the people and the situation for Arizona’s 1864 law now used in 2024.
Until 1864, abortions were permitted until after “quickening” when women felt fetal movement, between 16 and 21 weeks. In 1864, Arizona’s 27 white male legislators used opposition to women and immigrants to rule on women’s bodies. Male physicians resented midwives at that time, considering them competitors, and used reproductive rights and health care to gain decision-making power. At the same time, birthrates among American-born women were drastically falling while the influx of Catholic immigrants rapidly rose. The result was a xenophobic fear of “replacement” by these immigrants. By the end of the 19th century, every state and territory criminalized abortion because of the American Medical Association. Over a century later, the AMA believes that early termination of a pregnancy is between a doctor and patient, not recognized by conservative lawmakers.
Nel's New Day 