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marmar
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marmar's Journal
May 14, 2022
Ann Arbor, Michigan, rally for reproductive rights, in pictures:
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2022/05/14/abortion-rights-rally-ann-arbor/9775927002/
May 14, 2022
....and given everything that's happened with the SCOTUS leak, the marches today and so on, it's impossible not to connect the dots....
White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement
Mon 24 Jan 2022 06.12 EST
(Guardian UK) This weekend’s March for Life rally, the large anti-choice demonstration held annually in Washington DC to mark the anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, has the exuberant quality of a victory lap. This, the 49th anniversary of Roe, is likely to be its last. The US supreme court is poised to overturn Roe in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, which is set to be decided this spring. For women in Texas, Roe has already been nullified: the court went out of its way to allow what Justice Sonia Sotomayor called a “flagrantly unconstitutional” abortion ban to go into effect there, depriving abortion rights to the one in 10 American women of reproductive age who live in the nation’s second largest state.
These victories have made visible a growing cohort within the anti-choice movement: the militias and explicitly white supremacist groups of the organized far right. Like last year, this year’s March for Life featured an appearance by Patriot Front, a white nationalist group that wears a uniform of balaclavas and khakis. The group, which also marched at a Chicago March for Life demonstration earlier this month, silently handed out cards to members of the press who tried to ask them questions. “America belongs to its fathers, and it is owed to its sons,” the cards read. “The restoration of American sovereignty must follow the restoration of the American Family.”
Explicit white nationalism, and an emphasis on conscripting white women into reproduction, is not a fringe element of the anti-choice movement. Associations between white supremacist groups and anti-abortion forces are robust and longstanding. In addition to Patriot Front, groups like the white nationalist Aryan Nations and the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker party have also lent support to the anti-abortion movement. These groups see stopping abortion as part of a broader project to ensure white hegemony in addition to women’s subordination. Tim Bishop, of the Aryan Nations, noted that “Lots of our people join [anti-choice organizations] … It’s part of our Holy War for the pure Aryan race.” That the growing white nationalist movement would be focused on attacking women’s rights is maybe to be expected: research has long established that recruitment to the alt-right happens largely among men with grievances against feminism, and that misogyny is usually the first form of rightwing radicalization. ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/24/white-nationalists-are-flocking-to-the-us-anti-abortion-movement
Reposting this January article, in light of the Buffalo shooter's rants about the white birth rate..
....and given everything that's happened with the SCOTUS leak, the marches today and so on, it's impossible not to connect the dots....
White nationalists are flocking to the US anti-abortion movement
Mon 24 Jan 2022 06.12 EST
(Guardian UK) This weekend’s March for Life rally, the large anti-choice demonstration held annually in Washington DC to mark the anniversary of the Roe v Wade decision, has the exuberant quality of a victory lap. This, the 49th anniversary of Roe, is likely to be its last. The US supreme court is poised to overturn Roe in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, which is set to be decided this spring. For women in Texas, Roe has already been nullified: the court went out of its way to allow what Justice Sonia Sotomayor called a “flagrantly unconstitutional” abortion ban to go into effect there, depriving abortion rights to the one in 10 American women of reproductive age who live in the nation’s second largest state.
These victories have made visible a growing cohort within the anti-choice movement: the militias and explicitly white supremacist groups of the organized far right. Like last year, this year’s March for Life featured an appearance by Patriot Front, a white nationalist group that wears a uniform of balaclavas and khakis. The group, which also marched at a Chicago March for Life demonstration earlier this month, silently handed out cards to members of the press who tried to ask them questions. “America belongs to its fathers, and it is owed to its sons,” the cards read. “The restoration of American sovereignty must follow the restoration of the American Family.”
Explicit white nationalism, and an emphasis on conscripting white women into reproduction, is not a fringe element of the anti-choice movement. Associations between white supremacist groups and anti-abortion forces are robust and longstanding. In addition to Patriot Front, groups like the white nationalist Aryan Nations and the neo-Nazi Traditionalist Worker party have also lent support to the anti-abortion movement. These groups see stopping abortion as part of a broader project to ensure white hegemony in addition to women’s subordination. Tim Bishop, of the Aryan Nations, noted that “Lots of our people join [anti-choice organizations] … It’s part of our Holy War for the pure Aryan race.” That the growing white nationalist movement would be focused on attacking women’s rights is maybe to be expected: research has long established that recruitment to the alt-right happens largely among men with grievances against feminism, and that misogyny is usually the first form of rightwing radicalization. ..............(more)
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jan/24/white-nationalists-are-flocking-to-the-us-anti-abortion-movement
May 14, 2022
The Supreme Court guards its privacy. Too bad it doesn't care about yours and mine
For a cabal that's about to kill off the constitutional right to privacy, SCOTUS sure keeps itself buttoned up
By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
PUBLISHED MAY 14, 2022 8:00AM
(Salon) To use Justice Samuel Alito's criteria in his recently-leaked draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade, where is it written in the Constitution that practically everything that happens at the Supreme Court is secret?
The answer, my worthies, is that it is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Secrecy — or, if you will, privacy — at the court is another one of those invented rights Alito and his pals are so fond of yapping about. The secrecy of that august body is almost absolute: Everything that happens at the Supreme Court, with the exception of its hearings and the publication of its decisions, is secret. The court maintains complete secrecy about how and why it chooses which cases to hear. The conferences held by justices during which they decide cases and record their votes is so secret they don't even allow their clerks inside the doors when they consider the arguments on either side of a case. Most justices demand that their clerks take an oath to keep secret everything they learn while carrying out their jobs.
There are no federal laws which mandate or govern the secrecy enjoyed by the Supreme Court. In fact, whoever leaked the Alito draft opinion cannot even be prosecuted, because he or she broke no law. There is nothing in federal statute or in the Constitution itself, for that matter, which mandates that draft opinions — or any other document produced at the court by the justices or their clerks or anyone else — be kept away from the prying eyes of the press or the public which, by the way, pays the salary of everyone working in that pile of Vermont and Georgia marble located just behind the Capitol.
If you listen to the justices themselves or so-called court-watchers or even members of the bar who practice before the Supreme Court, the reason for all the secrecy is tradition. It's always been that way, and so it should remain. In other words, everything at the Supreme Court is secret because they say so. ...............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/14/the-guards-its-privacy-too-it-doesnt-care-about-yours-and-mine/
The Supreme Court guards its privacy. Too bad it doesn't care about yours and mine
The Supreme Court guards its privacy. Too bad it doesn't care about yours and mine
For a cabal that's about to kill off the constitutional right to privacy, SCOTUS sure keeps itself buttoned up
By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
PUBLISHED MAY 14, 2022 8:00AM
(Salon) To use Justice Samuel Alito's criteria in his recently-leaked draft opinion overruling Roe v. Wade, where is it written in the Constitution that practically everything that happens at the Supreme Court is secret?
The answer, my worthies, is that it is nowhere to be found in the Constitution. Secrecy — or, if you will, privacy — at the court is another one of those invented rights Alito and his pals are so fond of yapping about. The secrecy of that august body is almost absolute: Everything that happens at the Supreme Court, with the exception of its hearings and the publication of its decisions, is secret. The court maintains complete secrecy about how and why it chooses which cases to hear. The conferences held by justices during which they decide cases and record their votes is so secret they don't even allow their clerks inside the doors when they consider the arguments on either side of a case. Most justices demand that their clerks take an oath to keep secret everything they learn while carrying out their jobs.
There are no federal laws which mandate or govern the secrecy enjoyed by the Supreme Court. In fact, whoever leaked the Alito draft opinion cannot even be prosecuted, because he or she broke no law. There is nothing in federal statute or in the Constitution itself, for that matter, which mandates that draft opinions — or any other document produced at the court by the justices or their clerks or anyone else — be kept away from the prying eyes of the press or the public which, by the way, pays the salary of everyone working in that pile of Vermont and Georgia marble located just behind the Capitol.
If you listen to the justices themselves or so-called court-watchers or even members of the bar who practice before the Supreme Court, the reason for all the secrecy is tradition. It's always been that way, and so it should remain. In other words, everything at the Supreme Court is secret because they say so. ...............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/14/the-guards-its-privacy-too-it-doesnt-care-about-yours-and-mine/
May 14, 2022
Audio Leaks Show White Supremacists Plotting ‘Blackmail’ of Girlfriends
17 hours of recordings from the white supremacist group Patriot Front paint a disturbing picture of the organization’s inner workings.
A massive new leak from the white supremacist group Patriot Front reveals how members seek to normalize their extreme message even as they try to avoid outside scrutiny.
The leaks, published by the media nonprofit Unicorn Riot, contain more than 17 hours of conversations from inside Patriot Front as it recruited members and refined its tactics late last year. A white supremacist group with origins in 2017’s deadly Unite The Right rally, Patriot Front has vied for national attention by participating in anti-choice rallies and by staging a series of often-disastrous marches.
The leaked chats and audio recordings give more insight into the group, including plans to target Black and LGBT artwork, and to “blackmail” members’ girlfriends participating in hate sprees.
While openly fascist, Patriot Front also tries to build inroads with the more mainstream conservative movement. Some of those efforts come in the form of graffiti blitzes, the leaked chats show.
In recorded conversations, Patriot Front members discussed targeting Black and LGBT artwork so as to encourage contempt against those groups. ...................(more)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/patriot-front-audio-leaks-show-white-supremacists-plotting-blackmail-of-girlfriends?
Audio Leaks Show White Supremacists Plotting 'Blackmail' of Girlfriends
If you can't trust an insurrectionist white supremacist who can you trust?
Audio Leaks Show White Supremacists Plotting ‘Blackmail’ of Girlfriends
17 hours of recordings from the white supremacist group Patriot Front paint a disturbing picture of the organization’s inner workings.
A massive new leak from the white supremacist group Patriot Front reveals how members seek to normalize their extreme message even as they try to avoid outside scrutiny.
The leaks, published by the media nonprofit Unicorn Riot, contain more than 17 hours of conversations from inside Patriot Front as it recruited members and refined its tactics late last year. A white supremacist group with origins in 2017’s deadly Unite The Right rally, Patriot Front has vied for national attention by participating in anti-choice rallies and by staging a series of often-disastrous marches.
The leaked chats and audio recordings give more insight into the group, including plans to target Black and LGBT artwork, and to “blackmail” members’ girlfriends participating in hate sprees.
While openly fascist, Patriot Front also tries to build inroads with the more mainstream conservative movement. Some of those efforts come in the form of graffiti blitzes, the leaked chats show.
In recorded conversations, Patriot Front members discussed targeting Black and LGBT artwork so as to encourage contempt against those groups. ...................(more)
https://www.thedailybeast.com/patriot-front-audio-leaks-show-white-supremacists-plotting-blackmail-of-girlfriends?
May 14, 2022
A former Georgia county elections supervisor opened her offices to an election-denying businessman shortly after the 2020 presidential election, granting access to voting equipment that election-deniers claim was vital to rigging the election, according to a Washington Post report.
Misty Hampton told the Post that she cannot remember when the walkthrough took place or what was done during the visit but recalled giving access to Scott Hall, the owner of a Georgia bail bond business.
"I'm not a babysitter," she reportedly said of her past role in the Coffee County office.
In an interview with Post, Hampton said that she was unaware that the visit might contravene the state's guidance barring voting equipment from being released to the public. ..........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/13/georgia-official-allowed-conspiracist-to-breach-voting-system-in-search-of-fraud-report/
Georgia election official allowed conspiracist to breach voting system in search of "fraud": report
A former Georgia county elections supervisor opened her offices to an election-denying businessman shortly after the 2020 presidential election, granting access to voting equipment that election-deniers claim was vital to rigging the election, according to a Washington Post report.
Misty Hampton told the Post that she cannot remember when the walkthrough took place or what was done during the visit but recalled giving access to Scott Hall, the owner of a Georgia bail bond business.
"I'm not a babysitter," she reportedly said of her past role in the Coffee County office.
In an interview with Post, Hampton said that she was unaware that the visit might contravene the state's guidance barring voting equipment from being released to the public. ..........(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/13/georgia-official-allowed-conspiracist-to-breach-voting-system-in-search-of-fraud-report/
May 13, 2022
(Slate) In the year 2000, it looked like a bright new day for abortion rights.
The FDA was set to approve the first medication specifically designed for terminating a pregnancy: The “French abortion pill,” as it was called—the name, a nod to the drug’s origins, also happened to convey a whiff of the laissez-faire—was about to come to America.
Abortion rights groups had been fighting to make the drug available in the U.S. since the 1980s, when it was first developed. More than a dozen countries had approved the pill, and more than 500,000 patients had taken it in Europe alone.
....(snip)....
How It Works
A medication abortion involves a two-drug regimen. The term abortion pill typically refers to the first drug, mifepristone, because it was specifically designed and approved for that purpose. (Those who read the news in the 1990s may recall its original name, RU-486, a reference to its manufacturer.) The second drug, misoprostol, was developed in the 1970s to treat stomach ulcers. It’s also used to induce labor and stop postpartum hemorrhaging.
When a pregnant patient swallows a tablet of mifepristone, the drug inhibits her body’s supply of progesterone, a vital hormone for a growing pregnancy. Without the support of progesterone, the patient’s uterine lining begins to break down. A day or two later, she takes misoprostol, which causes the uterus to contract and empty, leading to cramps and bleeding akin to an extremely heavy period.
....(snip)....
Post-Roe Possibilities
Conservative lawmakers have done their best to keep abortion patients away from the pill. Despite the FDA’s new rules, 32 states still limit the ability to administer mifepristone to physicians, and in 19 states, the clinician must be physically present to give the patient the drugs. (That restriction is a response to programs developed to serve rural areas, in which a patient can consult with a physician on a video call to get abortion medication.)
But for the first time in history, in 2020, the majority of U.S. abortions were performed via medication. And just last year, the FDA made a monumental move that could prove critical to abortion access after Roe is overturned: It ended the in-person requirement for getting the pill. Now, mifepristone can be prescribed by telemedicine and sent by mail. ...........(more)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/the-abortion-pill-everything-you-need-to-know.html
Even if Roe Is Overturned, the Mail-Order Abortion Pill Will Change Everything
(Slate) In the year 2000, it looked like a bright new day for abortion rights.
The FDA was set to approve the first medication specifically designed for terminating a pregnancy: The “French abortion pill,” as it was called—the name, a nod to the drug’s origins, also happened to convey a whiff of the laissez-faire—was about to come to America.
Abortion rights groups had been fighting to make the drug available in the U.S. since the 1980s, when it was first developed. More than a dozen countries had approved the pill, and more than 500,000 patients had taken it in Europe alone.
....(snip)....
How It Works
A medication abortion involves a two-drug regimen. The term abortion pill typically refers to the first drug, mifepristone, because it was specifically designed and approved for that purpose. (Those who read the news in the 1990s may recall its original name, RU-486, a reference to its manufacturer.) The second drug, misoprostol, was developed in the 1970s to treat stomach ulcers. It’s also used to induce labor and stop postpartum hemorrhaging.
When a pregnant patient swallows a tablet of mifepristone, the drug inhibits her body’s supply of progesterone, a vital hormone for a growing pregnancy. Without the support of progesterone, the patient’s uterine lining begins to break down. A day or two later, she takes misoprostol, which causes the uterus to contract and empty, leading to cramps and bleeding akin to an extremely heavy period.
....(snip)....
Post-Roe Possibilities
Conservative lawmakers have done their best to keep abortion patients away from the pill. Despite the FDA’s new rules, 32 states still limit the ability to administer mifepristone to physicians, and in 19 states, the clinician must be physically present to give the patient the drugs. (That restriction is a response to programs developed to serve rural areas, in which a patient can consult with a physician on a video call to get abortion medication.)
But for the first time in history, in 2020, the majority of U.S. abortions were performed via medication. And just last year, the FDA made a monumental move that could prove critical to abortion access after Roe is overturned: It ended the in-person requirement for getting the pill. Now, mifepristone can be prescribed by telemedicine and sent by mail. ...........(more)
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/05/the-abortion-pill-everything-you-need-to-know.html
May 13, 2022
House coup plotters stand firm — but DOJ and the Jan. 6 committee are closing in
Rep. Scott Perry was up to his eyeballs in the Trump plot, and remains defiant. Will he really get away with it?
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
PUBLISHED MAY 13, 2022 9:50AM
(Salon) Back in December of 2020, according to notes taken by then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donohue, Donald Trump tried to pressure Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to falsely assert that the presidential election had been corrupt and illegal even though the Justice Department had found no evidence of voter fraud. Donohue's notes said Trump told them, "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen." The "R" is shorthand for —well, you know what for. Trump had a plan — and he had accomplices.
Rosen refused to play ball and one of those "R congressmen," Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, had lined up a replacement for him, a relatively obscure DOJ official named Jeffrey Clark who was ready and willing to carry out the plan. Clark allegedly attempted to coerce Rosen to sending a letter to Georgia election officials claiming that DOJ had identified "significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election," telling Rosen that Trump was about to fire him but Clark would refuse to take the job if Rosen sent the letter. Rosen didn't comply, and the White House counsel's office finally told Trump that if he followed through on his plan to fire Rosen and install Clark as acting AG, the entire top level of the Justice Department would walk out. Even Trump could grasp that that wouldn't go well, so he backed off that plan and moved on to the next one.
According to the interim report on the Jan. 6 insurrection by the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was Scott Perry — who was involved in strategy meetings at the White House, along with other members of the House Freedom Caucus — who introduced Jeffrey Clark to Trump. He also took it upon himself to call Donohue, the no. 2 official at the Department of Justice, and demand that he investigate debunked election fraud allegations in Pennsylvania, effectively reading him the riot act for not pursuing all these ludicrous claims. (I can't imagine it's common for congressmen to harangue leading law enforcement officials and importune them to lie. Maybe under the Trump administration it happened all the time.) ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/13/coup-plotters-stand-firm--but-doj-and-the-jan-6-committee-are-closing-in/
House coup plotters stand firm -- but DOJ and the Jan. 6 committee are closing in
House coup plotters stand firm — but DOJ and the Jan. 6 committee are closing in
Rep. Scott Perry was up to his eyeballs in the Trump plot, and remains defiant. Will he really get away with it?
By HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
PUBLISHED MAY 13, 2022 9:50AM
(Salon) Back in December of 2020, according to notes taken by then-Acting Deputy Attorney General Richard Donohue, Donald Trump tried to pressure Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen to falsely assert that the presidential election had been corrupt and illegal even though the Justice Department had found no evidence of voter fraud. Donohue's notes said Trump told them, "Just say that the election was corrupt + leave the rest to me and the R. Congressmen." The "R" is shorthand for —well, you know what for. Trump had a plan — and he had accomplices.
Rosen refused to play ball and one of those "R congressmen," Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, had lined up a replacement for him, a relatively obscure DOJ official named Jeffrey Clark who was ready and willing to carry out the plan. Clark allegedly attempted to coerce Rosen to sending a letter to Georgia election officials claiming that DOJ had identified "significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election," telling Rosen that Trump was about to fire him but Clark would refuse to take the job if Rosen sent the letter. Rosen didn't comply, and the White House counsel's office finally told Trump that if he followed through on his plan to fire Rosen and install Clark as acting AG, the entire top level of the Justice Department would walk out. Even Trump could grasp that that wouldn't go well, so he backed off that plan and moved on to the next one.
According to the interim report on the Jan. 6 insurrection by the Senate Judiciary Committee, it was Scott Perry — who was involved in strategy meetings at the White House, along with other members of the House Freedom Caucus — who introduced Jeffrey Clark to Trump. He also took it upon himself to call Donohue, the no. 2 official at the Department of Justice, and demand that he investigate debunked election fraud allegations in Pennsylvania, effectively reading him the riot act for not pursuing all these ludicrous claims. (I can't imagine it's common for congressmen to harangue leading law enforcement officials and importune them to lie. Maybe under the Trump administration it happened all the time.) ............(more)
https://www.salon.com/2022/05/13/coup-plotters-stand-firm--but-doj-and-the-jan-6-committee-are-closing-in/
May 12, 2022
InfoWars founder Alex Jones had an angry meltdown this week apparently prompted by his viewers not spending enough money at the InfoWars store.
During a rant on his podcast, Jones declared that unnamed forces are "waging a war against you and your family" through "inflation and collapse."
Jones then pivoted to hawking gear on his online marketplace.
"This is life and death!" he screamed. "So go to InfoWarsStore.com and get amazing products... if you don't support us, you're helping the enemy!" ..............(more)
https://www.rawstory.com/alex-jones-2657307917/
Screaming Alex Jones berates viewers for not buying more 'amazing products' from InfoWars store
InfoWars founder Alex Jones had an angry meltdown this week apparently prompted by his viewers not spending enough money at the InfoWars store.
During a rant on his podcast, Jones declared that unnamed forces are "waging a war against you and your family" through "inflation and collapse."
Jones then pivoted to hawking gear on his online marketplace.
"This is life and death!" he screamed. "So go to InfoWarsStore.com and get amazing products... if you don't support us, you're helping the enemy!" ..............(more)
https://www.rawstory.com/alex-jones-2657307917/
May 12, 2022
May 11—Rail on Geary has been a dream since before BART's inception.
BART originally planned to build a line from downtown San Francisco through most of the Richmond and up north to Marin County through a lower deck added to the Golden Gate Bridge, but the idea never materialized. Decades later, San Francisco planners highlighted the Geary corridor in the 1995 Four Corridors Plan that called for surface rail on Geary and expansions on three other major roadways.
Now, the possibility of rail on Geary has again been revived, if only faintly, with a new study by the County Transportation Authority that will examine a potential subway that runs east-west on a portion of Geary and north-south on 19th Avenue.
The study, expected to be finalized by the middle or end of 2023, will be the launching point of what will likely be a decades-long attempt to bring rail to two of the west side's oft-congested corridors and could coincide with other ambitious Bay Area transit projects under the planning pipeline, such as a second Transbay Tube. ................(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/21267433/ca-sf-could-one-day-have-a-geary-subway-heres-what-it-would-mean-for-the-west-side
San Francisco could one day have a Geary subway. Here's what it would mean for the west side:
May 11—Rail on Geary has been a dream since before BART's inception.
BART originally planned to build a line from downtown San Francisco through most of the Richmond and up north to Marin County through a lower deck added to the Golden Gate Bridge, but the idea never materialized. Decades later, San Francisco planners highlighted the Geary corridor in the 1995 Four Corridors Plan that called for surface rail on Geary and expansions on three other major roadways.
Now, the possibility of rail on Geary has again been revived, if only faintly, with a new study by the County Transportation Authority that will examine a potential subway that runs east-west on a portion of Geary and north-south on 19th Avenue.
The study, expected to be finalized by the middle or end of 2023, will be the launching point of what will likely be a decades-long attempt to bring rail to two of the west side's oft-congested corridors and could coincide with other ambitious Bay Area transit projects under the planning pipeline, such as a second Transbay Tube. ................(more)
https://www.masstransitmag.com/rail/news/21267433/ca-sf-could-one-day-have-a-geary-subway-heres-what-it-would-mean-for-the-west-side
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Gender: MaleHometown: Detroit, MI
Member since: Fri Oct 29, 2004, 12:18 AM
Number of posts: 77,114