Anti-abortion campaign collapses in Ohio, Trump legal memo reveals electoral conspiracy

In today's headlines, Ohioans stood up against "pro-life" politics, a Trump lawyer's secret plot and a bizarre attempt at book banning in Arkansas.

WHAT YOU MISSED

• Ohio’s special election concerning Issue 1, a public referendum on the necessary votes in which ballot initiatives could amend the state’s constitution, ended with a resounding rebuttal by the electorate: 57% of voters rejected the measure.

The goal of Issue 1 was to increase the amount of total votes needed to pass a ballot initiative from 50% to 60%. This hypothetical requirement was cynically introduced by Ohio Republicans in order to potentially block an upcoming referendum in November that could enshrine abortion rights into the state’s constitution.

The logic was clear from the start. Polling indicates that 58% of Ohioans would support such protections for reproductive rights. In the eyes of the GOP, this meant moving the goalpost just enough to put the amendment out of reach.

• But this isn’t just a win for abortion rights. Frank LaRose, Ohio’s Secretary of State who is looking to unseat Democratic incumbent Sen. Sherrod Brown (D), took heat for the outcome of the special election. LaRose had been vocal about his support for Issue 1, to the point where a federal complaint was filed against him by the Libertarian Party of Ohio for using his office to advocate for the position — a violation of the Hatch Act, the complaint asserts.

GOP insiders in Ohio believe that LaRose’s inability to get the goods could undermine his senatorial aspirations.

• Meanwhile, other reactionary stalwarts in the state refused to see the writing on the wall. As the votes rolled in and all signs pointed to a lost cause, Mike Gonidakis, president of the anti-abortion organization Ohio Right to Life, refused to accept defeat.

“We’re not ready to call it on our side just yet … So, we’re still holding out,” he told CNN. Gonidakis gave the game away when he said that even with a defeat on Issue 1, he and his acolytes were “laser focused on November.” “This was just step one of the process,” he added.

New memo provides evidence Trump campaign conspired to overturn election

Exactly a month before the infamous Jan. 6 insurrection at the nation’s capitol, a lawyer working with former President Donald Trump outlined a potential legal strategy to overturn the election and upend President Biden’s electoral victory.

In a memo authored by Kenneth Chesebro (who is likely one of the six anonymous co-conspirators listed in the federal lawsuit United States of America v. Donald J. Trump that has charged Trump with trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election), the Harvard Law alumnus lays out a scenario in which a new, pro-Trump electorate would be recruited in the crucial swing states that tilted the election towards Biden. This would cause enough chaos, according to Chesebro, to give Trump’s camp enough time to properly litigate supposed voter fraud that had turned states like Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin blue.

While Chesebro seemed to understand that this gambit might not be fruitful, he believed this  “bold, controversial strategy” was a plausible and pseudo-legal solution to the problem of, well, losing an election.

“It is important that the alternate slates of electors meet and vote on December 14 if we are to create a scenario under which Biden can be prevented from reaching 270 electoral votes,

even if Trump has not managed by then to obtain court decisions (or state legislative resolutions) invalidating enough results to push Biden below 270,” he wrote to James Troupis, a Trump campaign attorney who worked with Chesebro to lobby the Supreme Court to overturn Biden’s victory in Wisconsin.

The memo, which had been known to exist but had not been publicly released until The New York Times published it Tuesday night, provides key insight into the deliberate nature of Trump’s efforts to subvert democratic practices.

“Given the possible upside of having the Trump-Pence electors meet to vote on December 14, it seems advisable for the campaign to seriously consider this course of action and, if adopted, to carefully plan related messaging,” he concludes.

Culture War Cranks: Little free libraries are ‘woke’ now?

The spouse of Arkansas state Rep. Stephen Meeks (R-Conway) is waging her own personal war on the quaint “little free libraries” you may have seen on street corners in your neighborhood.

In a now disappeared Facebook status posted on Aug. 1 and later archived by the Faulkner County Coalition for Social Justice, Jennifer Meeks raged against supposed radicals keeping these nefarious sites of indoctrination full of fiendish content.  

“Today, I saw a bunch of Pride stuff in one. There’s a group of leftists, especially in Conway, who are very active in keeping little libraries well-stocked,” Meeks wrote. Many of the books, she worried, did not propagate “Christian values.”

But worry not, dear reader. Mrs. Meeks has been swapping out what we can only imagine was rows and rows of Marx’s “Das Kapital” and “Heather Has Two Mommies” with proper Christian literature.

“Recently I have been picking up free Bibles at flea markets and thrift stores. Sometimes I find good devotion books or kids’ Bible stories at a good price to add. Or just great books and a gospel tract is a nice idea, too,” Meeks advised.

In conclusion: You can never be too careful on the streets of Conway, Ark. when there are pernicious wokesters afoot.