Only One Thing Will Stop Bevin's War on Women

Everybody getting the fuck out November 5 to VOTE.

From the Courier:

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services has denied an abortion license for Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky.

The pro-choice group announced the decision in a release late Friday night.

“While Governor Bevin is once again on the wrong side of history, we will continue to fight this decision and the slew of unpopular decisions that take away reproductive health care and abortion access in the Commonwealth," PPINK CEO Chris Charbonneau said in a statement. "This decision shows the true motive, which is to purposefully place undue burdens on pregnant Kentuckians. Shame on Gov. Bevin and CHFS Secretary Adam Meier.”

The release went on to say that "Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin’s Cabinet for Health and Family Services (CHFS) has once again weaponized a regulatory process to deny an abortion facility license to Planned Parenthood of Indiana and Kentucky (PPINK). ...

"... CHFS continues to refuse to comply with the court’s orders — its decision today is a blatant attempt to take the ongoing proceedings outside of the courts and bypass the authority of U.S. District Court Judge Greg Stivers. CHFS’s baseless denial of PPINK’s license will not stand."

Stivers previously ordered the state to expedite its review of the license Planned Parenthood was seeking to provide abortions at its Louisville clinic and report back to him no later than Aug.19 with a decision.

For now, EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville remains as the only abortion clinic in Kentucky.

Matt Bevin: Women Are Sub-Human Incubators

Because that's what you really mean when you deny women bodily autonomy.  When you insist that they endure forced birth.  When you mandate that their doctors rape them with foreign objects.  Not Missouri: Kentucky.

From the Propaganda Office (corrections in italics):

Gov. Matt Bevin's legal team this week fuiled a response opposing EMW Women's Surgical Center's petition for rehearing in a recent federal court case that resulted in a major pro-life anti-woman victory for the Commonwealth woman-hating freakazoids.

In contrast, Attorney General Andy Beshear refused to say anything in defense of the law, arguing simply that he should not have to be involved refused to defend a blatantly un-constitutional law that violates women's 14th Amendment rights to equal protection under the law, and women's human rights to bodily autonomy.

In April, the anti-woman freakazoids on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld the constitutionality of House Bill 2 (2017). HB 2 requires an abortion provider to provide mothers with an ultrasound and a description of what it depicts, as well as the opportunity to hear the fetal heartbeat, before she chooses to terminate her pregnancy. force a hard plastic untrasound wand into a woman's body against her will.


The Louisville abortion clinic is asking the Court to rehear the case en banc (before the entire bench) in a desperate attempt to undermine the Kentucky law, which passed with the support of more than 87 percent of state legislators. courageous move to protect the last place in the entire Commonwealth where women can receive health care that respects them as women and as human beings.

The Americans who respect a woman's bodily autonomy - consistently 60 to 80 percent of the population - are going to have to stop pretending that there is some kind of compromise or middle ground with the wingnut freakazoids on the issue of female bodily autonomy.

To do that, we are going to have to stop mealy-mouthing on abortion and start saying - no, screaming - flat out that:

• The multi-celled object that grows inside a uterus is not a baby, a child, a precious or unborn anything.  Until it can breathe air outside the uterus, it most closely resembles a tumor.
  
• Until it does breathe air outside the uterus, it is, indeed, a part of the woman's body.
   
• Like a tumor, it steals food and energy from the woman's body, weakening and debilitating her, and subjecting her to high risk of injury and death if she undergoes forced birth.
  
• Only the woman is qualified to decide whether to take that risk or quickly,  easily and safely remove the tumor.
  
• Therefore, abortion is nobody's fucking business.
  
• Women will not have civil or human rights in this country until we have Abortion on Demand.
  
• That means no restrictions, no bullshit requirements, no questions asked.
  
• That means federally-funded abortion clinics on every fucking street corner in America and fuck you if you don't like it, it's none of your fucking business.

They're not coming for just Roe vs. Wade.  Griswold vs. Connecticut (right to contraception) is just a stepping stone.  They're gonna steamroll over Brown vs. Board (unsegretated schools.) They won't be satisfied until they've repealed the Equal Protection of the 14th Amendment.

Because only then will only rich, white, straight, conservative, christian, republican men have any rights in the country that won't be America any more.

"Dark Forces" Attacking Lt. Gov. Hampton Are the Ones She Eagerly Allied With

Lay down with repugs, get up with corruption, crime and clusterfucks.

And oh, yeah: racist, misogynistic motherfuckers.

You're a black woman, Jenean Hampton.  Successful and a veteran.  All the rights - ALL the rights you have as both an African-American and a woman have been brought to you by liberals and progressives (republicans for about 15 years 160 years ago, and Democrats since 1933.)

Why did you ever imagine teaming up with conservative assholes like Matt Bevin to destroy the Commonwealth and eventually the nation would turn out well for you?

Why are your wasting your own and everybody's else's time asking them to talk to an imaginary sky wizard? 

Why aren't you on Rachel Maddow exposing all of Bevin's crimes? Why aren't you rallying black and female voters behind Andy Beshear?

What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You?

In Asshole Derby, Bevin Laps the Field

National news outlets were fighting for comments, but nobody in Kentucky was surprised.

Joe Gerth at the Courier:

Matt Bevin doesn’t think like you or me.

After an incident like the one Thursday at the Louisville Rotary Club, one has to wonder if he thinks at all.

During his speech, Bevin went on the attack against teachers who called in sick to protest changes to their pension plans. Jefferson County Public Schools had to shut down six days over a two-week span because of the absences.

"One thing you almost didn't hear anything about while we had people pretending to be sick when they weren't sick and leaving kids unattended to or in situations that they should not have been in — a little girl was shot, 7 years old, by another kid," he said.

He was apparently talking about a girl who was shot by her brother who somehow got his hands on a loaded gun while their uncle, who was supposed to be watching them, was outside. 

He was blaming teachers for the girl getting shot. 

Then, after the Rotary Club meeting ended, he blamed journalists for having reported the utter hogwash he had uttered moments before. 

Yeah, the Pumpkin Traitor bettter up his asshole game.  Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You is coming for him.

Trumpie "judge" orders KY doctors to rape their patients with foreign object

Penetrating a woman with a transvaginal ultrasound wand against her will is rape.  And that's before we get to the requirement of lying.

And of course this asshole is one of the wingnut freakazoid fanatics Mitch McConnell has been forcing through the Senate against the will of the people.

Straight-up authoritarian torture.

From the Courier:

A federal appeals panel has upheld a 2017 Kentucky law requiring doctors who perform abortions to first perform an ultrasound and attempt to show and describe the image to the patient, as well as play an audible heartbeat of the fetus.

In a 2-1 vote, with Judge John Bush writing for the majority, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday struck down a lower court ruling that said the law known as House Bill 2 was unconstitutional because it violates the free speech rights of physicians.

Bush, in his opinion, rejected the opponents' argument that forcing the physician to perform an ultrasound that may not be necessary and describe in detail the results to the patient is a violation of free speech rights.

"We hold that HB 2 provides relevant information," Bush wrote. "The information conveyed by an ultrasound image, its description and the audible beating fetal heart gives a patient a greater knowledge of the unborn life inside her. This also inherently provides the patient with more knowledge about the effect of an abortion procedure: it shows her what or whom she is consenting to terminate."

Bush, of Louisville, was appointed by President Donald Trump.

But in a blistering dissent, Judge Bernice Bouie Donald, a Tennessee native appointed to the appeals court by former President Barack Obama, said she found the reasoning to be deeply flawed and a setback for the freedom of physicians and their patients.

More: Attorneys general across the US taking sides in Kentucky abortion case

"I am gravely concerned with the precedent the majority creates today," she said. "Its decision opens the floodgates to states in this Circuit to manipulate doctor-patient discourse solely for ideological reasons."

She added: "HB 2 is a restriction on speech that has no basis in the practice of medicine."

Gov. "What women?  They're just incubators" Bevin hailed the decision, of course, as "victory for life." Because the only lives that matter are white, straight, freakazoid, rich, repug men.

My Governor Is A Child-Abusing Anti-Vax Terrorist

Because refusing to vaccinate your children then sending them out into the community to infect defenseless infants, and cancer patients is terrorism.

From the Herald:

Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin said in a radio interview that he deliberately exposed his children to chickenpox so they would catch the highly contagious disease and become immune.

During a Tuesday interview on Bowling Green radio station WKCT, Bevin said his children were "miserable for a few days" after contracting chickenpox but said "they all turned out fine."

"Every single one of my kids had the chickenpox," Bevin said in the interview. "They got the chickenpox on purpose because we found a neighbor that had it and I went and made sure every one of my kids was exposed to it, and they got it. They had it as children."

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article228187849.html#storylink=cpy

Bevin and his wife, Glenna, have nine children, four adopted.

Public health authorities strongly discourage the practice of deliberately exposing children to chickenpox, a medical expert said Wednesday.

"It's unfortunate and not an example for any of us," said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee.

"We should vaccinate all our children. It's a great triumph of public health in the United States. Let's not take a step backward," he added in a phone interview.

SNIP

Kentucky requires that children entering kindergarten be vaccinated for chickenpox, but parents may seek religious exemptions or provide proof that a child already had the disease.

Bevin's comments followed reports this week of a chickenpox outbreak at a Kentucky Catholic school.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends two doses of chickenpox vaccine for children, adolescents and adults who have never had chickenpox and were never vaccinated, according to its website. Children are routinely recommended to receive the first dose at 12 through 15 months old and a second dose at 4 to 6 years old, it said.

"What the governor and other like-minded folks are unaware of is that there are potentially serious complications of chickenpox," Schaffner said.

Complications from chickenpox can include bacterial infections, pneumonia and encephalitis — inflammation of the brain, according to the CDC. Complications aren't common in healthy people with the disease, it says, but high risk groups for complications due to a serious case of chickenpox can include infants, adolescents, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems.

You read that right.  Governor "I fight for life (of tumors, not adult women)" is deliberately and with malice aforethought attempting to severely injure or kill pregnant women.

He's up for reelection THIS November. In 2019.  Donate to Democratic candidate Attorney General Andy Beshear here.

Lege Declares KY Women Sub-Human

UPDATE Below.

From the Herald:

Within minutes after the Kentucky Senate approved a bill Wednesday that restricts abortions, the American Civil Liberties Union said it will file a lawsuit against it on behalf of the only remaining abortion provider in the state.

The Senate gave final passage to House Bill 5 on a 32-4 vote and sent it to Republican Gov. Matt Bevin.

Bevin indicated on social media that he will sign it into law. “Bring it!” said Bevin. “Kentucky will always fight for life... Always!”

But never for the life of actual adult, living, breathing women.  To Bevin, tumors have rights, but women are just incubators.  

As for actual living, breathing children, Bevin has stripped away their healthcare in his Medicaid destruction, condemned them to death by freezing waiting for school buses, and accused their teachers of abandoning them to rapists and molesters.

The bill would take effect immediately upon his signature.

It basically bars a woman from having an abortion if she decided to have one because of a fetal diagnosis. It also would ban abortions based on the sex, race, national origin or ancestry of the fetus.

After the Senate vote, the ACLU said in a release it will file a lawsuit on behalf of EMW Women’s Surgical Center in Louisville, the only licensed center in Kentucky offering abortion services.

“Decisions about whether to end a pregnancy must be made by the woman and her family. But this law takes the decision away from them and hands it over to politicians,” Brigitte Amiri, deputy director with the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project, said in a release.

“Kentucky women must be able to have private conversations with their health care providers and must be able to decide whether to have an abortion. We see this legislation for exactly what it is — part of a campaign to prevent a woman from obtaining an abortion if she needs one — and we won’t stand for it.”

Heather Gatnarek, staff attorney at the ACLU of Kentucky, said passage of the bill “represents a thinly veiled effort of the Kentucky General Assembly to advance their anti-abortion agenda under the guise of an anti-discrimination bill.

“This law will do nothing to improve the lives of Kentuckians with disabilities. In fact, a number of bills that would have addressed health care, housing and updated anti-discrimination protections were not even given a hearing of this legislation session.”

Crystal Staley, a spokeswoman for Attorney General Andy Beshear, who is a Democratic candidate for governor this year, said Wednesday night Beshear “thinks this legislative session was an opportunity to come together and get things done on jobs, the opioid crisis and protecting access to health car

“Unfortunately, we have instead seen the legislature focus on issues that divide us. A challenge to this legislation has already been announced and he believes the challenge will be successful in court.”

18 Kentucky "Democrats" voted for this abomination. Haven't confirmed names yet, but when I do I will post them.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article227668719.html#story

This isn't about "life," it ain't about women's health and it sure as fuck ain't about helping children, who by the way, don't exist in any uterus.

UPDATE: The companion "fetal heartbeat" bill that outlaws abortion in Kentucky, has been blocked by a federal judge.  Give ALL your monies to the ACLU of Kentucky right now.  It is the only thing protecting civilization from Bevin the Hun right now.

Abortion By Mail Is Here

And just in fucking time.  Details below, but first,  KY AG Andy Beshear again warns the repug state legislature that they are freakazoid misogynist assholes violating the state and U.S. Constitutions.

Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear sent the legislature’s top two leaders a letter Thursday informing them that he thinks a bill in this year’s General Assembly that would ban abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected is unconstitutional.

Not that they give a shit.  They have been passing unconstitutional forced-birth bills since literally the day after Roe was decided 46 years ago."

All together now:  It's impossible to abort a "baby," "child," "innocent life" or "preborn" anything, because they do not exist inside a woman's uterus.  Inside a uterus is a mass of cells that is none of your fucking business. 

Maybe clinics have a sign outside:  "No children were harmed in the performance of this abortion."

But the ridiculous "heartbeat" bill is not the only forced-birth bill in the KY lege.  From Senator Reggie Thomas:

Senate Bill 50, which passed 30-6, would require that the dispensing of certain prescriptions be reported to Vital Statistics. The report on these drugs, which can be used to induce abortion, would be made available on the cabinet’s website. With so many important health issues facing Kentuckians, I do not understand why we want to use our scarce resources in this manner. These drugs are used for many procedures other than abortion. They are used to dilate a woman’s cervix to insert an IUD to prevent pregnancy; they are used to facilitate a miscarriage, and they are used to accelerate childbirth.  I opposed this bill.  

Fear not, however.  Abortion by mail is here.


From the Washington Monthly:

Contrary to what Sen. Susan Collins would have you believe, the addition of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court means that it is only a matter of time before Roe v. Wade is overturned and the legality of women’s access to abortion is left to the states. That was made obvious by the support Kavanaugh got from court evangelicals and other anti-abortion activists. Conservatives might not go there immediately, opting instead to continue to chip away at the ruling. But there is no doubt about where this is all headed.

As that reality sets in, it is important to keep in mind that a lot has changed since Roe v. Wade was decided back in 1973. The idea that its demise will return this country to the days of back alley and bloody coat hanger abortions is something that should be soundly rejected, because science has provided us with alternatives. That’s why I found this report from Olga Khazan to be extremely important.

For years, an organization called Women on Web has given women a way to perform their own medication-induced abortions at home. The organization would, remotely, do online consultations, fill prescriptions, and ship pills that trigger miscarriages to women who live in countries where abortion is illegal. Several studies have shown that the service is safe.

For American women who’ve wanted pills, though, there’s been one major problem: Women on Web wouldn’t ship to the United States. American women could (and do) instead search online for abortion pills, but some of the medicines and pharmacies they’ve found have been less than reliable. Now Women on Web’s founder, a doctor named Rebecca Gomperts, has launched a new service that she says is just as safe as Women on Web, and it does ship to the United States. The cost is $95, but the website says the service will try to help women who can’t pay.

Just like Women on Web, the new service, Aid Access, will screen women for their eligibility to take the pills—they should not be more than nine weeks pregnant—through an online process. (If the pills are taken later, they are less likely to work.) Gomperts will herself fill each woman’s prescription for misoprostol and mifepristone, which together are about 97 percent effective in causing an abortion within the first trimester and already account for a third of all abortions in the United States. She then sends the prescriptions to an Indian pharmacy she trusts, and it ships the pills to women at their homes in the United States.

Need legal help because your woman-hating state legislature has made self-abortion a crime?  An abortion legal hotline is here for you.

Think Progress:

Purvi Patel was sentenced to 20 years in prison for allegedly terminating her own pregnancy with medication she ordered online. By the time the Indiana Court of Appeals overturned the feticide conviction in 2016, Patel had been incarcerated for three years.

Patel is one of at least 20 people who was arrested or investigated for a self-induced abortion since 1973.

“We don’t want anybody else to have to suffer that fate,” said Jill Adams, chief strategist of the Self-Induced Abortion (SIA) Legal Team.

The growing hostility to abortion rights could mean an uptick in arrests, and so lawyers with the SIA Legal Team formally launched a free, confidential helpline and website on Tuesday to help anyone who’s criminalized for “self-managing,” or performing an abortion themselves.

 I'm giving the last word to Robyn Pennachia at Wonkette, whose posts on the forced birth motherfuckers are treasures to be read in full and passed on to everyone.

These statements are not made out of a belief that would happen, or concern for babies who might not get to experience the joy of taking one breath at birth and then dying from their crushed lungs. They are made out of a desire to paint women and their doctors and those who support abortion as horrible, cruel and selfish monsters who kill simply for the joy of killing, like so many lady Ted Bundys -- and they're willing to put parents through hell in order to make that point.

 Oh, yeah, one more thing. Andy Beshear is running to beat Gov. Women Are Incubators Bevin.

Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You Stealing State Property

And I don't mean pens.  I mean a whole, entire, official STATE PARK.  Stolen in the middle of the night and handed over to a bunch of freakazoids with no notice to the public - you know, the TAXPAYERS who actually OWN that piece of property.

It's not Bevin's property.  It doesn't belong to him.  He STOLE it.  Why haven't the state police arrested the motherfucker and thrown him in the dungeons below Eddyville?

The theft and the handover to a church are also blatant violations of both the Kentucky and U.S. Constitutions.  Why are KY Dems not screaming for impeachment?

Tom Eblen at the Herald:

Boone Station State Historic Site in southeast Fayette County is no more. Gov. Matt Bevin’s administration last month closed the 46-acre park and gave it to David’s Fork Baptist Church with no public input, notice or comment.

Daniel Boone, Kentucky’s most famous pioneer and first international celebrity, helped build cabins and a stockade there in 1779 after he left nearby Fort Boonesborough. He lived at Boone Station for about four years with other settlers. Since the 1990s, the property has been a small state park.

“Since the State is willing to give away the home of Daniel Boone, are all Kentucky’s historic sites now on the chopping block?” asked Phil Gray, a former manager of Boone Station and Fort Boonesborough State Park.

“The cost to the state for Boone Station is almost nothing,” Gray added. “There is a mowing contract and a very small electric bill each month. Upkeep on the fence. But that is it. When history loses, we all lose.”

Pastor Mickey Hyder said church leaders haven’t decided what to do with Boone Station. “We’re taking our time,” he said, declining further comment.

Yeah, they're gonna lay low until the furor dies down and then sell it for a clusterfuck subdivision.  In Fayette County, that is gonna run into the millions of dollars. Tax dollars that belong to the people of Commonwealth of Kentucky, not to Billionaire Bevin and not to a nest of morons who think an invisible sky wizard runs the world.

Boone Station has two old tobacco barns and a big granite monument the Daughters of the American Revolution erected in 1967. It also contains pioneer graves, which may or may not be Boone family members.

“That historic site is very important to the history of the Commonwealth,” said Leslie Miller of Louisville, the DAR’s state leader. “We hope that whoever owns the property, now or in the future, will continue to honor the historical significance of that place and continue to share the story of those brave early patriots with the public.”

SNIP

Giving away Boone Station is part of a larger Bevin administration effort that William Landrum, secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet, described to legislators last fall as “reducing the footprint of state government.” He said the state is forming “partnerships” — essentially turning over operation and maintenance of some state parks, historic sites and natural areas to local governments or organizations so it doesn’t have to spend money on them.

There’s no doubt Kentucky’s state parks and historic sites have been underfunded. That’s because governors and legislators of both political parties over the past two decades have abdicated their responsibility to fix a broken tax system that doesn’t generate enough revenue to properly fund state government.

With some state parks, local officials could do a better job of developing and maintaining them than state government has. But do they have the resources and expertise to care for, preserve and interpret historic properties?

As I wrote in September, these places have been deemed Kentucky treasures. They have great educational and cultural value. Politicians shouldn’t give them away, especially under a cloak of secrecy. Anyone who cares about preserving Kentucky’s rich history should be asking questions and demanding answers.

Painfully White Guy Picks a Different Minority for Useless Job

No, it's not weird. It's exactly what the kind of racist who adopts black children to prove the superiority of white people does.

In 2015, African-Americans and women were "in," so he picked the unknown Jenean Hampton as his running mate.  Today, it's Hispanics, so he dumps Hampton and goes for another unknown with a Mexican-sounding name.


From the Herald:

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin announced Friday afternoon that state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, will be his lieutenant governor running mate as he seeks re-election in 2019, putting an end to speculation about his political plans.

When asked why he chose not to run again with Lt. Gov. Jenean Hampton, the Republican said “because I chose to run with Ralph Alvarado.”

Well, that explains it.

“This is somebody who moves with a sense of urgency that I think is needed as we look forward,” Bevin said of Alvarado. “He’s a guy who has relationships and strong ones with the very constituencies that are going to be imperative as we move forward.”

SNIP

Bevin described Hampton, who was the first black person elected to statewide office in Kentucky, as “a dear and personal friend,” but said Alvarado represents the American dream and aligns with what he would like to see “moving forward.”

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article225085955.html#storylink=cpy

Oh, gag.

Hispanics constitute barely 1.5 percent of Kentucky's population, and that's only if you count the migrant workers Kentucky farmers pretend aren't undocumented.

Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You is playing to a national audience here.  He's gonna run for president as the repug who luuuuurrrrrvvves the blacks and the browns.

Let's see how far he gets against the likes of Kamala Harris.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article225085955.html#storylink=cpy

Gov. Cowardly Worm Begs Lege to Protect Him From Mean Old Judge

I don't know how Phillip Shepherd can function these days, helpless from hysterical laughter as he must be.

Tom Loftus at the Courier: 

A lot of state government's big legal cases in recent years have landed in front of Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd. And they haven't always gone the way the governor or General Assembly want.

A Senate bill filed Friday would let Gov. Matt Bevin or other state officials avoid going before Shepherd.

Senate President Robert Stivers, upset with Shepherd’s handling of the big pension case last year, sponsored the measure, filed as Senate Bill 2. The low number indicates it’s a top priority of the Senate Republican majority.

Stivers, a Manchester Republican, complained in a floor speech Friday that all big state government cases and constitutional challenges should not be heard by judges elected from a single county.

Hey moron: State government cases are heard in the "single county" of Franklin circuit because that's where state government exists.

“It’s not appropriate. As I’ve termed it, it’s a super circuit judge,” Stivers said.

But Senate Minority Leader Morgan McGarvey, D-Louisville, responded that he’s uncomfortable with the legislature meddling with the courts because it is angry over the outcome of a particular case.

“Initially, I am very skeptical of any piece of legislation which is directed particularly at one judge and one court,” McGarvey said.

Stivers' bill says claims against state officials and/or state agencies that now must go to Franklin Circuit can be redirected if a defendant requests a special judge. No reason for the request is required. And the chief justice of the Kentucky Supreme Court would be required to randomly appoint a special judge.

In an interview last fall, and again on the Senate floor on Friday, Stivers acknowledged that it is Shepherd’s handling of last year’s lawsuit against the pension bill that sparked his interest in in the issue.

Shepherd struck down the pension bill – Senate Bill 151 – last June for two procedural reasons. He said the rapid one-day passage of the bill violated part of the Kentucky Constitution that requires lawmakers have time to consider a bill. He also said the bill was an appropriations bill, which required at least 51 votes in the House to pass. (The House vote on the bill was 49-46.)

In December, the Kentucky Supreme Court affirmed Shepherd. In a 7-0 ruling, the high court agreed the rapid process violated the Kentucky Constitution, but it was silent on the question of whether the bill was an appropriations bill requiring 51 votes.

SNIP

One veteran Louisville attorney who has represented both Republicans and Democrats in major state government cases, Sheryl Snyder, said Monday he believes the current system is preferable.

“I think choosing judges at random for those kinds of state government and state constitutional issues would be at the cost of the expertise that the Franklin Circuit judges build up over the years by handling those cases…” Snyder said. “Also, the decisions of those Franklin Circuit court judges are always appeal-able to the Court of Appeals and/or the Supreme Court.”

SNIP

Robert Lawson, a retired professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law, said Franklin Circuit judges have always properly handled such state government cases and that it is “ridiculous” to make such a change because of disagreement with a particular judge.

“This whole criticism of Judge Shepherd is outrageous,” Lawson said. “He’s very fair-minded, very competent."

Shepherd also knows repug bullshit when he hears it.

More Proof Bevin Wants to Bankrupt Kentucky

This is not rocket science West Virginia tried forcing their state workers into the stock market, only to see their retirement revenues plummet toward bankruptcy.  Returning to a defined-benefit pension plan restored the retirement system to solvency.

But bankrupting the retirement system in Kentucky is Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You's goal.

 

From the Herald:

A national credit rating agency said Thursday that proposed changes to Kentucky’s troubled pension systems are unlikely to affect the state’s credit rating, contradicting claims made by Gov. Matt Bevin as he pushed lawmakers to pass a pension bill during a December special session.

Fitch, a credit rating agency based in New York City, said the state’s ability to maintain full funding for pensions and eliminating its reliance on one-time money to fund ongoing programs are the most crucial factors in its credit-rating of the state, not the proposed changes to the pension systems.

“Even if the legislature and governor enact replacement legislation, Fitch anticipates further litigation,” the agency wrote, referencing the recent Kentucky Supreme Court ruling that struck down a pension overhaul bill lawmakers passed last spring. “Given the modest savings anticipated, the proposed pension benefit changes, and any related litigation, would not affect the state’s rating.”

The report contradicts the urgency Bevin claimed when he unexpectedly called the legislature into special session last month the week before Christmas.

He's already ripped health care away from hundred of thousands of Kentuckians, wrecking the pension system is going to be dessert.

Medicaid Torture

Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You right here in Kentucky started this shit.  How dare impoverished people - no matter how sick, disabled or already working - dare take a penny of tax money that should be going to make Bevin and his billionaire buddies even more filthy rich?

 

Digby:

Making sick people work in order to get health care is right up there with the most dissonant policies they've ever came up with. It makes even less sense than usual.

Look for them to start saying people need to work to get social security and Medicare as well. After all, just because they're old doesn't mean people shouldn't "take responsibility" for their retirement and health care, amirite?

I wish I could understand what it is about sick people getting health care that makes these people so angry that they lose their humanity.

It's the same reason we can't have all the nice things European socialists have:  because American motherfucking racists hate everything that puts a penny into the pocket of a ni**er or a spic.

Trump: Emergency Powers for Wall. Bevin: Hold My Beer.

That's the people's house, motherfucker.  It doesn't fucking belong to Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You.  It belongs to me and 4.5 million of my closest Kentucky friends.

We will go anywhere we want in it, and sit or stand or walk as we please.  We will exercise free speech and freedom of association any way we damn well please.  We will carry signs and we will cheer and boo as appropriate.  FUCK your rules.

From the Herald:

Visitors in Kentucky’s Capitol Tuesday, the opening day of this year’s legislative session, found more security and less freedom to roam around the august building and its annex.

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin on Jan. 4 signed an emergency regulation outlining procedures for the state Finance and Administration Cabinet to implement to “protect the health, safety and welfare of visiting members of the public, as well as staff” in the two buildings and other state facilities and grounds.

“Over the years, public interest in and attendance of, the regular business of the Kentucky Legislature has steadily increased to the extent that concerns have arisen regarding the healthy, safety and welfare of visiting members of the public and staff,” said Bevin’s statement. “With a regular session of the Kentucky Legislature imminent, the provision of this administrative regulation should be given immediate effect.”

The Capitol and its grounds were flooded last spring with protesters upset with a public pension bill backed by Bevin and the Republican-controlled House and Senate. The legislature approved the bill but the Kentucky Supreme Court last month declared it unconstitutional.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article224094650.html#storylink=cpy

Bevin’s move meant that Capitol visitors found more security checkpoints — especially in an underground tunnel between the Capitol and Capitol Annex — security officers, and areas where people can’t stand.

The Kentucky Democratic Party posted its opinion of the new rules on Facebook.

It showed a photo of three uniformed state police troopers standing at the bottom of the steps that lead to the state House and two more in front of the House chamber’s main entrance.

“The people are once again shut out,” said the post. “Sudden ‘new rules’ restrict access to general public all over the Capitol but especially near the House of Representatives with no notice and no rules changes vote.”

There also is a new “House Gallery Rules” sign with rules for visitors going to the gallery to watch the House in action.

Visitors to the state House gallery now see a sign on how they should behave.

Jack Brammer jbrammer@herald-leader.com

SNIP

House Minority Floor Leader Rocky Adkins, D-Sandy Hook, said he is concerned about Bevin’s emergency regulation and called it “too stringent.”

“I don’t think we need further and more strict access into the Capitol,” he said.

Adkins, who is running for governor this year, said he especially was concerned about restricting access to the tunnel between the Capitol and Annex.

“I think it’s more about making it tough for the general public to come and be a part of the process,” he said.

Bevin Charging Voters a Poll Tax

The traditional way to do this is to invite votes - withOUT the poll tax - and then donate HIS OWN MONEY according to the number of winning votes.

But Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You is making the voters pay for a charitable contribution for which Gov. I Never Pay My Own Way is going to take full credit.

Don't be fooled. It is a Total Scam.

From the press release:

Gov. Matt Bevin, who has been sporting a full beard in recent weeks, is encouraging Kentuckians to contribute to a very worthy cause while helping him answer a hairy question — “Should I shave or should I grow?”
 

Individuals are invited to visit http://governor.ky.gov/ShaveOrGrow and cast their vote to determine the fate of the Governor’s facial hair. Every dollar donated equals one vote, and these tax-deductible contributions will benefit First Lady Glenna Bevin’s foundation, #WeAreKY! Inc., that works to support the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable children through foster care and adoption initiatives.

Bevin's Fucking With Medicaid Costing Kentucky Hundreds of Millions of Dollars

Gov. Steve Beshear's expanded Medicaid brought billions of dollars into Kentucky. Not just direct federal payments, but the economic growth of saved regional hospitals, retained doctors and nurses, and healthy residents.

But Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You destroyed that, and now the bill is coming due.

From the Herald:

Warning of a nearly $300 million potential shortfall in Kentucky's Medicaid program, officials say they could eliminate health coverage for more than 480,000 people to balance the state's budget.

This is the same old repug shit they're been pulling for 40 years: Sabotage a successful Democratic program then claim it doesn't work.  Use that lie to demand more massive cuts to successful social programs in order to shove more tax dollars down the gullets of the obscenely rich.

That's not a Medicaid shortfall: it the result of repugs stealing the state Treasury.  The chief thief is a billionaire: make him pay the $300 million.

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/latest-news/article217580810.html#storylink=cpy

Bevin Running for Re-Electio; Dems Delirious With Joy

In 2007, repug guv Ernie Fletcher ran for reelection after spending 3-1/2 years illegally firing the  state employees who in 2003 had handed him the first repug guv victory in 36 years.

That November, those state employees busted his ass and elected Democrat Steve Beshear in a landslide.

But Ernie Fletcher never accused Kentucky teachers of enabling the sexual molestation of children.  Ernie Fletcher never called state employees stupid for exposing the evil corruption of his pension DEform plans.  Ernie Fletcher never signed legislation stripping teachers and other state employees of state pensions.

Compared to the epic loss facing Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You next year, Ernie Fletcher is going to look like a winner.

From the Courier: 

Gov. Matt Bevin surprised a gathering of Kentucky Republicans on Saturday night and announced he will be seeking re-election as governor in 2019.

At the very end of his remarks as the final speaker at the GOP's Lincoln Day Dinner, Bevin said there was one matter he wanted to clear up.

“You bet I’m running again, you bet I'm running again, seriously," Bevin said.

The declaration was met with a standing ovation from the approximately 500 Republicans who packed the Hilton hotel in downtown Lexington for the dinner.

Just as Beshear's election in 2007 foreshadowed Barack Obama's victory in a year later, Kentucky's new Democratic governor (very likely another Beshear) in 2019 is going to foreshadow the epic 2020 electoral overthrow of Cheeto Twitler.

ohboyohboyohboy is this going to be good.

Bevin Loses on Medicaid Again

How many is that now? Four? 27? Doesn't matter, it's way more times than any other governor has lost in court.  Gov.  I Got Mine Fuck You is on track to be the losingest governor in Kentucky history, if not nationally.

From the Herald:

A federal judge in Frankfort on Monday dismissed Gov. Matt Bevin’s lawsuit against 16 Medicaid recipients in which he had hoped to defend his controversial changes, including co-pays and work requirements, to the state’s Medicaid program.

The lawsuit was the reverse of a suit the same 16 people successfully brought against Bevin’s Medicaid changes in a federal court in Washington, D.C. — a fact that U.S. District Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove noted in his dismissal order.

Bevin already chose to participate as a defendant in the Washington case, where a different judge ruled against him and the federal government in June, and he failed to show what injury the Frankfort court was supposed to redress, Van Tatenhove wrote.

“Not all disputes are capable of federal judicial review,” Van Tatenhove wrote. “Federal courts are limited in their jurisdiction, and they can only hear cases where the plaintiff can establish jurisdiction. Here, the commonwealth failed to do so.”

Read more here: https://www.kentucky.com/news/politics-government/article217012085.html#storylink=cpy

Run, Attica, Run

Yeah, Andy Beshear's a good candidate, and with a teacher as his running mate plus his history of fighting Gov. I Got Mine Fuck You at every turn, he can probably beat him.

But young as he is he's still a representative of the White Guy Caucus that's been running this state for 226 years (Martha Layne Collins was one of them, too.)

How about someone really different?  Someone who has been fighting for progressive Kentucky values her entire adult life? Someone who can light Democrats aflame and get the stay-at-home non-voters out to the polls with a vengeance?

Democrats of Kentucky, I give you Attica Scott.

Democratic state Rep. Attica Scott said Thursday she is leaning toward what would be a historic run for Kentucky governor in 2019 after months of encouragement from supporters.

"I've definitely had a lot of people from across Kentucky, whether rural, urban or suburban and Appalachia, asking me to run and I'm seriously considering it," she said.

Scott, a Louisville Democrat, gained national recognition two years ago for being the first African-American women elected to the state legislature in nearly two decades. That earned her a place among Essence Magazine's "Woke 100 Women" list that featured black women trailblazers in politics, business and entertainment.

In that short period of time Scott has been one of the more outspoken members of the House's minority caucus. Mostly recently she questioned the Kentucky State Police for keeping demonstrators from the Poor People's Campaign out of the Capitol Building.

The attorney general said in an opinion that such an action was illegal.

Scott, who previously served on the Louisville Metro Council, said she would likely announce her gubernatorial campaign intentions after November. She doesn't face a challenger in the general election for her District 41 seat, which stretches from parts of western Louisville into the St. Matthews area.

"If, and when, I decide to run it's going to be a serious campaign based on uplifting the issues that people across Kentucky have said are important to them," Scott said. "And making sure we're building a base of support of people who often feel they're not part of the processes because they're often done by people in the status quo, establishment or their families have been part of politics for decades in Kentucky."

There is going to be a metric fuckton of Democratic candidates in the gubernatorial primary next year, but none of them will look or sound like Attica Scott.

The first time I heard Attica Scott speak, I had just been discussing with several other people the utter dearth of decent Democratic candidates to challenge Bevin. Then she spoke.  And on our feet, cheering, we looked at each other, thinking the same thing.

There she is.

Candy Barr Cheers Bevin Killing Kyians Just for Being Poor

The only thing you have to know about Candy is that he's a trump-taint-licking repug, and all his fake concern for caged babies on the border can't hide it.

From the Herald:

U.S. Rep. Andy Barr said Monday he supports Kentucky's ability to determine who receives Medicaid benefits, a day after the Bevin administration eliminated access to vision and dental coverage for 460,000 Kentuckians on Medicaid.

SNIP

(Democratic challenger Lt. Col. Amy) McGrath was critical of the Bevin administration's decision to eliminate dental and vision coverage for the 460,000 Medicaid recipients who received coverage when former Gov. Steve Beshear expanded Medicaid eligibility under the federal Affordable Care Act.

"Bevin's obvious goal is to take health care away from Kentuckians," McGrath said. "He tried to do it by instituting his unconstitutional work requirements. When that didn't work, he's just going through with taking health care away any way he can."