US Politics Mega-thread - Page 3883

CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley on Wednesday signed into law a bill banning most abortions after 19 weeks of pregnancy unless the mother’s life is at risk, a spokesperson told Reuters on Wednesday.

The South Carolina legislature passed the bill last week, the 17th U.S. state to approve such a ban.

A signing ceremony will take place on a date to be announced later, said Haley spokesperson Chaney Adams.

The act, proposed last year in South Carolina’s Republican-controlled legislature, passed after it was stripped of exceptions for pregnancies that result from rape of incest.

Sixteen other states have passed similar laws as conservatives have chipped away at the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision to legalize abortion. Courts have overturned the bans in three states.

“I believe that life begins at conception and every step we can take to get back to that point is important,” the bill’s sponsor, Republican Representative Wendy Nanney, told Reuters. “In my view and many others’, it’s inhumane to subject that baby to pain at 20 weeks.”

Critics have said the name of the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act goes against medical evidence showing that a fetus at 20 weeks cannot feel pain.

“This is a dangerous bill for South Carolina women ..., made even more extreme by removing exceptions for victims of rape and incest,” Alyssa Miller, South Carolina director of public affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, said in a statement.

The law allows abortions at the 20-week mark if the pregnancy endangers a mother’s life. It also includes a second exception if severe fatal abnormalities will mean the fetus would definitely die at full-term birth.

On May 26 2016 09:20 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:
They're just the hated flavor of the decade.

When Texas takes up always-contentions revisions of science and social studies coursework in 2017, a former schoolteacher who believes dinosaurs were on Noah’s Ark and Democrats killed John F Kennedy won’t have a vote.

Mary Lou Bruner lost her Republican primary runoff for a seat on the powerful Texas state board of education on Tuesday night, just two months after a near-outright victory that would have put her on the brink of having a say in what more than five million schoolchildren learn in classrooms and read in textbooks.

The 69-year-old Bruner has posted on Facebook claims that Barack Obama is a gay prostitute, climate change is a hoax concocted by Karl Marx and that Obama’s healthcare overhaul was an orchestrated plot to wipe 200 million people from the US population. She also wrote that the flood from the biblical story of Noah’s Ark is what destroyed the dinosaurs, not a meteor as “concocted” by atheists.

In March, Bruner came within two percentage points of avoiding a runoff altogether. But Republican voters flocked this time to Keven Ellis, a local school board president in Lufkin who ran a mainstream campaign.

“I honestly believe that in the primary – that was during the presidential primary, too – our race just got buried,” said Ellis, who wouldn’t criticize Bruner following his victory and instead thanked her for her career as a teacher.

“Voters just may have selected a name,” Ellis said.

Ellis easily won with nearly 60% of the vote. Bruner’s fade was perhaps tied not only to increasing attention surrounding her since-deleted Facebook posts but also to an influential Tea Party group recently withdrawing its endorsement. Grassroots America did not cite Bruner’s conspiracy theories and fringe political screeds on social media in taking back its support but rather her making inaccurate school data claims.

Bruner did not respond to an email seeking comment Tuesday night.

On May 26 2016 09:31 SK.Testie wrote:


Rather than hated I'd actually say they're forgotten or not thought of more than hated because they are so rarely seen. Again the few times I've ever seen or heard of one, there's only been a groundswell of support in the community. Like, it's extremely rare so people just completely forget in this case.

On May 26 2016 09:55 Liquid`Drone wrote:


I challenge you to watch a twitch chat while Scarlett plays. Contrast that with how she is treated on this forum. One is moderated strictly, the other is not. One is a cesspool of hatred, the other treats her respectfully. Expecting this kind of stuff to just 'figure itself out' or whatever doesn't work- changing attitudes and supporting minority rights is a continuous struggle which takes deliberate effort.

On May 24 2016 06:33 oBlade wrote:

All you said was "in what way." Those are classic clips of bright people briefly summarizing for the laymen what the general difference is between the levels of rigor. There hasn't been a scientific revolution between Feynman's death and now. I don't know why you would call his words outdated (I assume you weren't calling the living Chomsky outdated), the scientific method isn't some kind trend.

Shareholders of Exxon Mobil and Chevron have voted to reject a series of resolutions aimed at encouraging the companies to take stronger actions to battle climate change.

But Exxon Mobil shareholders voted in favor of a rule that could make it easier for minority shareholders to nominate outsiders to the company's board, a potential victory for environmentalists.

Activist shareholders at both companies had placed an unusual number of resolutions on the ballot related to climate change.

The resolutions would have required the company to add a climate change expert to its board, publish an annual report on the subject, and pursue policies that limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. All were defeated at Exxon Mobil's annual meeting in Dallas.

Chevron shareholders voted down a series of similar resolutions at their annual meeting in San Ramon, Calif.

One bright spot for environmentalists was the passage of the so-called proxy access rule by Exxon Mobil shareholders. The rule, which won 61.9 percent of the vote, could make it easier to bring outsiders such as a climate change scientist onto the board.

Shareholders heard from several scientists who urged the company to take the threat of climate change more seriously.

On May 26 2016 09:26 Mohdoo wrote:


Its weird that the baby needs to be on its way to death. Being on its way to down syndrome or any other mental ailment should be treated just the same. Parents of mentally disabled people do enough mental gymnastics to convince themselves it is some sort of blessing or that they are equal. That doesn't mean people should be forced to birth them.

On May 26 2016 09:14 DarkPlasmaBall wrote:


That's a good point. American culture is much more prude and anti-sex as a whole. Half our country can't even get decent sex education in our public schools, because of how taboo the topic is.