United States Governors

[onekidanddone]

2 hours ago, LeftCoastLurker said:

Saw this from NM governor and wanted to share...

 

Hold the phone!@!!!!!11111!!!!!!111!!!!1 Are you telling me New Mexico is part of the U.S.?

[Cleopatra7]

I’ve been on a vacation of sorts from FJ while I work on my dissertation, but this blackface issue has made me so angry that I have to interject. If you’re confused about why blackface is problematic, look at these articles from the Museum of Jim Crow:

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/caricature/homepage.htm

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/coon/homepage.htm

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/mammies/homepage.htm

https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/golliwog/homepage.htm

Simply put, blackface is calling me and everyone else like me a [redacted]. Full stop. I am not a costume. I was not made to be your servant/sex slave. I was not made for your amusement. It doesn’t matter if your a Republican or a Democrat, if you do blackface, you’re dropping an atomic n-bomb on me. If you’re concerned about the GOP taking control because of this scandal, too bad. If the Democratic politicians can’t be any better on race than Republicans, they deserve to lose; at least with the latter I know where I stand, whereas the former demand my vote and then ignore me and my concerns until the next election cycle. This is not the 1930s. I’m not going to be silent to make white people feel comfortable, and I’m not going to support any political party that’s going to keep throwing blacks under the bus.

[AmazonGrace]

 

Jesus take the wheel.

[AmazonGrace]

Not sure what this is all about but it smells like corruption 

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[Ali]

3 hours ago, AmazonGrace said:

 

I saw a few Trumpsters criticize her attire on social media. They are petty people that are part of the cult. I remain friends on social media with them because psychological curiosity. If it was not the dress, it would be some other ridiculous thing.

My husband had her speech on the radio while he was on an errand with our eight year daughter. He was surprised to discover she was actually listening and interested. When they got home, she told me the governor wanted to make it so women for paid the same as men because it was not fair they get paid less. I gave her a hug thinking I hope that is true by the time you are an adult. It is getting really hard not to feel discouraged though.

Edited February 14, 2019 by Ali

[47of74]

Governor Reynolds isn't going to appeal the fetal heartbeat ruling

Quote

Reynolds says it was "an extremely difficult decision" but is the right one for the state and for those who oppose abortion. They had hoped the law posed the legal challenge that would get to the U.S. Supreme Court and possibly overturn the longstanding case that legalized abortion nationwide.

However, Planned Parenthood of the Heartland and the American Civil Liberties Union of Iowa challenged the law on state constitutional grounds only, foreclosing an appeal to the federal courts.

Awaiting the butt hurt from Shannon and other local conservatives about how Kavadouche won't get to rule on their pet law.

[onekidanddone]

Md. Gov. Hogan calls Trump’s 2020 chances ‘weak’

Come on Lawrence, switch parties already. You know you want to.

Quote

Maryland’s Republican governor, who’s viewed as a potential primary challenger to President Donald Trump in 2020, said the President’s poll numbers show he’s “pretty weak in the general election.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan made the comments to CBS News in an interview set to air Wednesday morning as the moderate Republican continues to mull a possible primary challenge to Trump.

“The issue I’m concerned about is he has a very low re-elect number, I think in the 30s, high 30s, low 40s,” Hogan said in the interview. “So the chance of him losing a general election are pretty good. I’m not saying he couldn’t win, but he’s pretty weak in the general election.”

According to Gallup’s most recent poll, Trump’s overall favorability is at 44%. But a CNN poll from last month showed that the President maintains strong support within the party, with 81% of Republicans approving of Trump’s performance as President.

Hogan added that Trump’s unpopularity could jeopardize the entire Republican fold, especially if the President faces a “very far-left” opponent.

“At some point, if he weakens further, Republicans would say we’re concerned about whether or not he’s going to win if we’re going to face a very far-left Democratic nominee, and is he going to take the rest of us down with him, if you’re an elected official,” Hogan told CBS.

In a nod to his own potential future plans, the two-term governor also acknowledged that a primary challenger beating an incumbent to win the party’s nomination would be unlikely — but compared it to his unlikely success in becoming Maryland’s second-ever Republican governor.

“I don’t know what it’s going to look like down the road,” he told CBS News. “Today it would be very difficult. Nobody has successfully challenged a sitting president in the same party in a primary since 1884. I know I’m the second Republican (governor) in the history of Maryland but I’m not sure, that’s probably about the same odds, I guess.”

Hogan told CNN earlier this month that he’s open to a run for the 2020 Republican ticket.

“I’m watching with great interest all of this talk,” Hogan told CNN. “I’m flattered people are saying that and including me in those discussions. My focus, my plan right now is to stay here for four years and do the best job I can in Maryland, but I’ve said, ‘You never say never.’ Who knows what’s going to happen.”

The Maryland Republican has also been a vocal Trump critic, bashing Trump’s fixation on a border wall in a CNN op-ed last week.

“President Trump: Let’s be honest, neither Mexico nor ‘Chuck and Nancy’ are going to pay for the wall from sea to shining sea that you promised during your campaign,” Hogan wrote, later adding, “Mr. President, in some areas a wall makes zero sense.”

 

[AmazonGrace]

 

[AmazonGrace]

If you're reading this on Death Row in California I have good news for you 

 

[47of74]

Kim Reynolds strikes again...

Quote

Gov. Kim Reynolds has been calling for new approaches to deal with persistent flooding, and now she's also seeking prayers to deal with the problem.

On Monday, Reynolds was surrounded by evangelical Christians as she signed a proclamation declaring Sunday a statewide day of prayer for flood recovery. Reynolds and the group then bowed their heads together in prayer.

She called on Congress to set aside politics and pass a disaster aid bill. A measure funding Midwest flood relief has been delayed in the U.S. Senate by calls from Democrats to spend more on Puerto Rico, which is still recovering from 2017 hurricane damage.

That's right Kimmy.  Blame Democrats and pray away the gay flood waters.

Anyone wonder why I'm looking at moving after school...

[47of74]

I was watching the original Ghostbusters the other day and noticed in the dickless scene that Mayor Lenny said he wasn't gonna call a press conference and tell everyone to start praying.  (About 1:20 into the following clip).

God, if Gozer the Gozerian came back Kimmy would probably throw up her hands and insist everyone pray.

I wish we could have someone like Mayor Lenny as Governor of Iowa instead of Kimmy.  Ugh.

 

Edited April 9, 2019 by 47of74

[GreyhoundFan]

"In their first months on the job, Democratic governors seek to roll back Republican predecessors’ policies"

Spoiler

AUGUSTA, Maine — Standing in front of a stove shop powered by 83 rooftop solar panels, Gov. Janet Mills (D) used three simple words to usher in her state’s new solar energy policy.

“It’s now law,” Mills shouted as she raised her pen after signing legislation that expands the use of renewable energy in Maine.

The bill had been fiercely opposed by Mills’s predecessor, Republican Paul LePage, a staunch conservative known for rancorous comments, penny-pinching budgets and denial of man-made climate change. For Mills, the solar metering bill is part of an effort to rapidly reverse the policies of LePage and the conservative interest groups that backed him for eight years.

“We are doing things differently now in Maine,” Mills said in an interview after the signing early this month. “And we are going to continue doing things differently.”

Mills is one of seven Democrats who flipped GOP-held governorships last year and are moving quickly to shift debate leftward in their states. Their agendas bolster and defend the Affordable Care Act, enjoin their states in the fight over climate change, and revitalize state budgets that often saw stagnant funding under their GOP predecessors.

Just as important, the new Democratic governors say, they view their governorships as gentler, less adversarial models for how government should function in the era of President Trump.

“As much as certain kinds of behavior grab headlines, people out there still, I think, are hungry for a better degree, higher level of civility,” said Mills, who was elected Maine’s first female governor in November. “People want a more thoughtful approach to governing and a more thoughtful approach to public policy.”

On her first day in office, Mills moved to expand Medicaid in the state under the ACA, a direct rebuke to LePage’s staunch opposition to the federal health-care law. She also has reversed his call for Medicaid work requirements, pushed to roll back his support for offshore drilling and sought to expand access to abortions by allowing health-care providers other than doctors to perform them.

New Democratic governors are making similar moves across the country: In Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been pushing a gasoline-tax hike to pay for highway repairs that she says were neglected by her predecessor, Republican Rick Snyder. In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers is promoting a plan to expand Medicaid to 82,000 low- and moderate-income state residents, a change that was opposed by the previous governor, Scott Walker (R).

[Former governor pardoned at least 2 people without hearings]

In Illinois, Gov. J.B. Pritzker has been pushing to raise the minimum wage while supporting pay increases for child- and health-care workers that his predecessor, Republican Bruce Rauner, rejected. And in his first months in office, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has signed legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases, even though some local sheriffs are rebelling against the law and vowing that they won’t enforce it.

New Democratic governors in Kansas and New Mexico have made clean energy and climate change a centerpiece of their early efforts. Of the seven governors, six of them — Evers, Mills, Pritzker, Sisolak, Whitmer and Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico — have signed onto the U.S. Climate Alliance, pledging to meet the goals outlined in the Paris climate accord, even though Trump withdrew the United States from the pact.

There’s debate about whether the new governors are shifting policy too far to the left for some voters’ tastes. Evers, for example, has proposed granting in-state tuition rates to some undocumented immigrants, decriminalizing small amounts of marijuana and freezing school vouchers, which had been a top priority of Walker.

But Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll, notes that about half of Wisconsin voters approve of Evers’s job performance.

“After eight years of Republican rule, with Democrats having zero influence, there is now pent-up demand among Democrats for a Democratic agenda,” said Franklin, adding that Republicans will be incensed that “you are rejecting everything we did for the last eight years.”

Moving to the left

What the Democratic governors are able to accomplish hinges heavily on the partisan makeup of their legislatures. GOP lawmakers in Wisconsin and Kansas, for example, have vowed to block Evers’s and Gov. Laura Kelly’s efforts to expand Medicaid. Those in Michigan have signaled that they are unlikely to support Whitmer’s ambitious gas-tax proposal.

But in Maine, the leftward tilt of the legislature — which has been infused in recent years by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — has provided Mills with a pathway to prioritize climate change and roll back some of LePage’s policies.

Mills’s upbringing and early career prepared her to take on a Republican agenda. She grew up in a family of prominent Republicans in Farmington, a town about 40 miles north of the state capital, Augusta, in foothills known for lumberjacks and downhill skiers.

[Wisconsin judge blocks Republicans’ lame-duck power grab]

Her father, Sumner Peter Mills Jr., was a state legislator who served as the U.S. attorney for Maine in the 1950s. After being drawn to San Francisco during the “Summer of Love” in 1967 and to Paris to study French, she returned to Maine in the early 1970s and registered to vote as a Democrat.

“I had time to think about it, and it just felt like that is where things were going,” Mills said. “Women’s issues were becoming much more broadly discussed. You had civil rights issues. You had antiwar things, and the Democrats were at the forefront of a lot of issues.”

During her stints as Maine’s attorney general — from 2009 to 2011 and again from 2013 until her swearing-in as governor this year — Mills frequently clashed with LePage while he was governor.

When he sought to join other GOP-led states in a lawsuit to overturn the ACA, Mills refused to represent him. LePage sued Mills in 2017 after she added Maine to a multistate lawsuit challenging Trump’s decision to suspend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which shields some young immigrants from deportation.

Now as governor, Mills’s governing style stands in particular contrast to that of LePage, who has a long history of racially inflammatory statements and once referred to himself as being “Donald Trump before Donald Trump became popular.”   

While LePage notoriously refused to attend Martin Luther King Jr. Day events, Mills led the holiday march around the state Capitol this year. In a nod to Maine’s growing diversity, she also changed the state highway signs, replacing LePage’s preferred “Open for Business” with “Welcome Home.”

Environment before business

So far, even many Republicans here say they are willing to give Mills a chance, believing she will be a calmer leader than LePage was known to be.

“I believe strongly in the Maine cycle of switching between the parties and giving us the balance that you don’t have in a lot of places,” said Jodi Hollingsworth, 48, a self-described moderate Republican who backs Mills’s support for expanding Medicaid. “Being from around here, she knows we have a lot of uninsured people who live off free spaghetti suppers and bake sales to pay their medical bills.”

But some Maine Republicans warn that the mood of the electorate could shift rapidly if Mills seeks to raise taxes, as some of the other new Democratic governors are trying to do.

In her first two-year budget proposal, Mills avoided a tax hike but proposed an 11 percent increase in spending, including more money for schools and health-care initiatives. In comparison, LePage was known to stockpile budget savings, resulting in a record $250 million reserve fund by the time he left office.

“There is real concern all of the progress created under LePage could be decimated and go away in this next budget,” said Charles Webster, a Franklin County commissioner and a former chairman of the Maine Republican Party.

A cornerstone of Mills’s agenda, to limit reliance on fossil fuels, is already facing stiff resistance from some state residents.

In February, she threw her support behind a 145-mile high-voltage transmission line to transfer hydropower from Quebec to Massachusetts, arguing that the project would transform New England’s clean-energy portfolio, saving up to 3.6 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually.

Residents along the proposed path of the transmission line, however, have mounted intense opposition. They include liberal environmentalists worried about the loss of trees as well as conservatives who question how the project would benefit Maine.

Last month, despite a personal plea from Mills, residents in her hometown, Farmington, voted 262 to 102 to oppose the project.

“When I found out [Mills] approved the power line I thought, ‘Well it must be okay,’ ” said Stewart Goodwin, a retired English teacher. “But now, the more I find out about it, I’m waiting for her to change her mind, because I’ve learned so much against it.”

Although he’s now living in Florida, LePage also appears to be closely watching how Mills is governing. LePage and his allies maintain a political action committee, Maine People Before Politics, and the former governor has suggested on local radio programs that he could run again in 2022.

Term limits prevented him from running against Mills in 2018, but Maine allows governors to serve an unlimited number of nonconsecutive terms.

“The question is, does she go too far?” asked Julie Rabinowitz, a spokeswoman for Maine People Before Politics.

For now, Mills doesn’t seem particularly worried about the possibility of a future matchup against her old nemesis. Instead, she is optimistic that Maine residents — who last ousted an incumbent governor more than 50 years ago — will continue to respect that she’s trying to move the state to a “healthier” future.

“I don’t think there will be any buildings or bridges with my name on it,” Mills said. “But I think somebody will say, ‘She has done good.’ ”

 

[GreyhoundFan]

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Bevin is such a tool: "Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin suggests teacher protests led to 7-year-old getting shot"

Spoiler

The question was about reducing gun violence in Kentucky. The state’s governor, though, wanted to talk about a favorite pet peeve: The thousands of public school teachers who have called in sick to protest legislation they complained weakened education and their pensions.

So he combined the two topics by suggesting that the teachers’ actions directly led to a 7-year-old girl getting shot.

“We had people pretending to be sick when they weren’t sick and leaving kids unattended too or in situations that they should not have been in,” Kentucky Gov. Matt Bevin (R) told a gathering at the Louisville Rotary Club on Thursday. “A little girl was shot, 7 years old, by another kid because they were somewhere that they weren’t intended to be and because the parents didn’t have any option, and put them into a situation so they could go to work.”

Bevin didn’t offer evidence that the shooting, which happened last month, was linked to the protests, as opponents swiftly condemned the governor, who is battling slumping poll numbers and has already apologized once for lurid allegations about the teacher protests.

“There’s plainly something wrong with Matt Bevin. You don’t politicize the shooting of a child,” tweeted Adam Edelen, a former state auditor seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

Although Bevin didn’t go into detail about the shooting, he appeared to be referring to a March 12 incident in Shively, Ky., a city just southwest of Louisville. Around 3 p.m. that day, a 7-year-old girl was accidentally shot in the head by her 11-year-old brother after they found a handgun in a home while their uncle was outside, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported. In an update on March 27, Shively police said the girl was recovering and in “good condition.”

On the date of the shooting, the local school district was closed because of the teachers’ “sickout,” according to the Courier-Journal, but it’s not clear whether the children — who haven’t been identified by police — attended public schools in Jefferson County.

The protests that day were part of weeks of action by Kentucky teachers who were demanding more funding for classrooms and for their pension systems — the latest in a national wave of similar strikes and walkouts from West Virginia to Oklahoma. In Kentucky, where teachers are legally forbidden from striking, educators instead have used coordinated sick days to shut down districts and travel to the state capital.

Bevin has previously aimed his fury at the protesters. Last spring, the governor claimed that the sickouts would expose children to sexual assault and drug abuse.

“I guarantee you somewhere in Kentucky today, a child was sexually assaulted that was left at home because there was nobody there to watch them,” Bevin told reporters outside the state Capitol in April 2018.

Facing backlash heated enough that the GOP-dominated state House passed two resolutions condemning his claim, Bevin backtracked and apologized to “those who have been hurt by the things that were said.”

Many of his in-state critics are demanding a similar mea culpa for his new allegation.

“Despicable. Matt Bevin is unfit to govern,” tweeted Kentucky Attorney General Andy Beshear, a Democrat challenging Edelen in the primary to take on Bevin in November. “Kentucky families, teachers, and kids deserve so much better than this governor.”

State Rep. Joni Jenkins, a Democrat who represents the Shively area, asked the governor to focus instead on reducing gun violence.

“Our community, like the family, is devastated by what occurred,” Jenkins said, according to the Courier-Journal. “This should drive us to enact commonsense gun safety, not further a spiteful agenda against teachers.”

Bevin’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on his claims. When reporters after the Thursday meeting asked him for more details about why he made a link between the accidental shooting and the sickouts, he chastised them for the question, calling them “pretty sad.”

Polling suggests Bevin could face a stiff reelection battle this fall, with a Mason-Dixon survey in December finding him struggling with a 53 percent disapproval rating.

 

[GreyhoundFan]

Another republican prince of a man: "Wyoming mayor: Governor cursed, slammed fists in meeting"

Quote

CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon used foul language and “his physical presence in an aggressive and threatening manner” in a meeting with the mayor of Wyoming’s capital city, the mayor said Monday.

Gordon slammed his fists on a table and shouted “F--- you, mayor” in the meeting last Friday, said Cheyenne Mayor Marian Orr, who like Gordon is a Republican.

“For a split second I thought about walking out, but I felt like this was a very important issue,” Orr said of the meeting with Gordon about a possible visit to Wyoming in July for a Taiwanese government delegation during Cheyenne Frontier Days.

In a statement after Orr leveled the accusations, Gordon apologized for what he said but denied using intimidating body language.

“I am deeply offended by the mischaracterization represented in the mayor’s description of our meeting,” said Gordon.

The half-hour meeting witnessed by three Gordon staffers ended on a less confrontational note, according to Orr, who said she nonetheless felt like she needed to draw public attention to Gordon’s behavior out of concern it might continue.

It was a rare bit of non-election-year strife in Wyoming, which the Republican Party dominates perhaps more than any other state. Most politicians here save their toughest words for national-level Democrats and the federal bureaucracy in Washington, D.C., not each other.

A rancher and businessman who once served on the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Gordon has been known for his cool-headed demeanor over six years as state treasurer and now five months as governor — in public and behind the scenes.

Gordon won election in 2018 with over two-thirds of the vote. Orr, a former lobbyist whose husband helped with Gordon’s campaign, backed him last year but said she “wouldn’t have endorsed him last fall had I known that he was capable of this.”

She added: “And to be comfortable enough to do this in front of three of your own staff is telling about one’s character.”

The episode involved a generally noncontroversial topic for Wyoming: Ongoing efforts to encourage beef exports to Taiwan, where the state recently opened a trade office. Foreign officials visiting the U.S. often visit Cheyenne during Frontier Days, a two-week festival of rodeo, country music and celebration of the state’s cowboy culture.

But tension involving China — a country where Wyoming officials would like to export some of the state’s vast coal reserves but one that views Taiwan as a renegade province — apparently has muddled coordination of an upcoming, high-level Taiwanese government visit.

Gordon expressed concern during his meeting with Orr that Wyoming should “not be used as a pawn between Taiwan, China and the United States,” he said in his statement.

“The Chinese are very good with intimidation and threats and I think that there was some concern about the work we were trying to do regarding coal exports to China and somehow getting into favoritism, or appearing to show favoritism, toward Taiwan,” Orr said.

Gordon called Orr on Monday to apologize for his language and she accepted the apology, said Gordon’s spokesman, Michael Pearlman.

 

[47of74]

Yeah, sure Kimmy, Trumpy McFuckface will listen to you...

Quote

Although Reynolds has aligned herself closely with Trump, she says she'll be clear with him about her view that his planned tariffs against Mexico will hinder efforts to ratify a trade agreement between Canada, Mexico and the United States.

Trump is expected to visit an ethanol production plant in Council Bluffs and attend private Republican Party fundraiser in West Des Moines.

Jesus we'll be able to smell the orange shit from not only five miles away, but all the way across the state.

[47of74]

And now Wisconsin has a decent human being as a Governor;

Quote

Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers has ordered a rainbow flag symbolizing gay pride to be flown over the Wisconsin state Capitol for the first time.

Evers on Friday issued an executive order to fly the flag for the remainder of June in recognition of "Pride Month." It will fly over the east wing of the Capitol where the governor's office is located.

Does it make me a bad person if the thought of the GOP - and former Governor Scotty Wanker in particular - not being happy about this brings a smile to my face?

[AnywhereButHere]

Not including any of the sane members that may live there, but what the hell is wrong with Alabama?

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/alabama-governor-signs-law-allowing-church-to-have-its-own-police-force/ar-AADbRd6?ocid=ientp

Quote

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed a bill into law to allow a Presbyterian church to have its own police force.

The law approved during the most recent legislative session gives Briarwood Presbyterian Church and its private school on the same campus the ability to hire private police officers who can make arrests if crimes are committed on the property, according to The Associated Press.

Officials from the church say a private police force is necessary to adequately secure the church and school, which has 2,000 students and faculty on its campus.

The law also applies to the church's private academy located in a nearby county.

The police will have the same powers as regular police.

Randall Marshall, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama, told the AP that the law could give the church the ability to not report criminal activity that occurs on its property. He said the law will likely be challenged in court.

The new policy is scheduled to go into effect this fall.

Dystopian future - here we come. If they somehow manage to get this through a court challenge, how soon before this spreads to all churches, schools, private entities with their own police forces. It'll be like the freaking wild west. Even if it doesn't make it through the courts, the seed is planted for future attempts.

[fraurosena]

I bet Kelly Bates is doing a happy dance at the shrine in her house.

 

[JMarie]

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/female-reporter-responds-mississippi-candidate-s-denying-her-access-how-n1028671

Quote

A female reporter who was denied access to a Mississippi gubernatorial candidate because he didn’t want to be seen spending time alone with a woman who is not his wife says, “How’s that not sexism?”

The candidate meanwhile is using the controversy in a campaign fundraising email that says the "liberal media" and Hollywood "are attacking me for my Christian faith and choosing not to be alone with another woman," according to a report in Mississippi Today.

One of Mississippi Today's reporters, Larrison Campbell, revealed Tuesday that when she asked to follow Republican candidate Robert Foster on the campaign trail, his staff said she would have to bring a male colleague along. Foster told The Associated Press he made the request because "it's unprofessional to be alone with a woman who's not my wife."

Quote

"I will not be intimidated into a corner of silence by a group of radical Socialists and Communists whose goal in life is to dismantle America," Foster tweeted. "In fact, I’m looking forward to fighting their radical, left-wing agenda."

I'm sorry, Mississippi.

[fraurosena]

Good grief. 

 

[candygirl200413]

5 hours ago, fraurosena said:

Good grief. 

 

Does he mean he signed a bill into law banning infanticide? That's the only logical sense that can come of this decision.

[fraurosena]

32 minutes ago, candygirl200413 said:

Does he mean he signed a bill into law banning infanticide? That's the only logical sense that can come of this decision.

Yeah, but using the word 'abortion' gets him brownie points with the cultist crowd.