August 12, 2023

Texas questions rights of fetus in prison guard lawsuit despite arguing opposite on abortion

In defending themselves against a lawsuit, Texas officials have argued that an “unborn child” may not have rights under the US constitution, putting them in tension with arguments made by the state’s attorney’s general’s office as well as Republican lawmakers to support restrictions to abortion.

A guard at the state prison in the community of Abilene filed the lawsuit in question after she asserted that her superiors barred her from going to the hospital while she experienced intense labor pains and what she suspected were contractions while seven months pregnant and on duty.

The guard – who is named Salia Issa – was finally able to leave to go to the hospital two and a half hours after the pain started. She was rushed into emergency surgery after doctors were unable to find a fetal heartbeat, and she ultimately delivered the baby in a stillbirth. The lawsuit claims that if Issa had been able to get to the hospital sooner, the baby would have survived.

Issa and her husband sued the Texas department of criminal justice and three supervisors, arguing the state caused the death of their child. They seek restitution in medical and funeral costs and for pain and suffering.

The prison agency and the Texas attorney general’s office have argued in defense of the lawsuit that the agency should not be held responsible for the stillbirth and that it is not clear the fetus had rights as a person. Both entities advance those positions despite consistent arguments made in lockstep by the attorney general’s office and Texas legislators that “unborn children” should be recognized as people starting at fertilization.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/12/texas-fetus-rights-prison-guard-lawsuit-abortion

Oh Texass. Consistency, thou art a jewel!

August 12, 2023

'Better martyrs': the growing role of women in the far-right movement

Researchers who track how the far right in in the US mobilizes, self-promotes and recruits are reporting that women are playing a growing role in the movement.

They often work behind the scenes to advance conspiracy theories through social media and softly attract new women into the fold. But at the same time, in recent years “alt-right” women have also shifted to influential public-facing roles in rightwing media production and far-right national politics.

They have taken prominent roles in events like the January 6 attack on the Capitol, count US congresswomen in their number and have seen the emergence of powerful new groups like Moms for Liberty.

“[Far-right women] have a lot more power than you think,” said Dr Sandra Jeppesen, a professor of media and communications at Lakehead University in Ontario, Canada.

Despite their seemingly understated presence in extremist groups and far-right politics, they can be effective organizers, responsible for bringing thousands of people to the Capitol for the January 6 ‘Stop the Steal’ rally and now mobilizing against inclusive education.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/12/conservative-women-tradwife-republican

They'll trample them and spit them out is what will happen.

August 12, 2023

Nikki Haley's Hubby Tied to Shadowy Defense Firm

The latest financial disclosures from former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley reveal as much as $500,000 of her husband’s net worth derives from a mysterious “military technical services company”—an apparent shell entity tied to a government contractor seeking tax credits from her successor’s administration.

There is no evidence that Haley or her husband, Michael Haley, have broken any rules. However, the materials suggest the family could benefit financially from state and federal policy, including from the export of military equipment to Taiwan.

When Haley first submitted personal financial forms with the Federal Election Commission in May as part of her presidential bid, she declared among her husband’s “Employment, Assets, and Retirement Accounts” a company called Allied Defense LLC. The initial filing described this entity as a “start-up business, value not readily ascertainable” that had compensated the former Palmetto State first gentleman—a National Guard major who deployed to Africa in June—less than the minimum reportable amount of $201.

But the ex-governor, who gave up the mansion in Columbia to become then President Donald Trump’s United Nations ambassador in 2017, reappraised her spouse’s start-up in a subsequent update from July, now determining its worth to be between $250,000 and $500,000. It also added the “military technical services” descriptor.

The form offers no further details about Allied Defense LLC. But public filings proffer additional insight.

Only three companies nationwide have that name. One is an active shooter training outfit in Michigan, another is a small but long-standing Defense Department contractor now operating out of Florida, but previously based in Maryland and Virginia.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/nikki-haleys-husband-major-michael-haley-tied-to-shadowy-defense-firm-allied-defense-llc

Well, well, Nimrata--care to explain that a little further?

August 12, 2023

Maybe It's Time We Gave This Manson Family Killer a Break

Caroline Leavitt

OK, so most of us are obsessed with true crime. But what happens when the true criminals want to change and reinvent their lives—and we somehow won’t let them?

Leslie Van Houten was released from prison on parole, on July 12, 2023, after serving more than five decades for the brutal Manson family murder of Leno and Rosemary Labianca in Los Angeles in 1969. No one thought she’d ever get out—but she just did, the only Manson family member to do so. And many people aren’t happy.

The murder was committed when she was a teen, just 19, and on an acid trip. Unrepentant and under Charlie Manson’s spell, she certainly deserved prison for her heinous crime. But once inside, she went into therapy, flooded with shame, guilt and remorse, and she became determined to better herself. By all accounts she was a model prisoner, and the older she became, the less of a threat to outside society she became. Yet she was denied parole 16 times.So why is everyone seeming to deny her a future? And why can’t we envision any kind of happy ever after for her? There are no second acts in American life, Fitzgerald famously said, but I kept thinking, he’s wrong. He has to be wrong.

Years back, the Manson story obsessed me into writing a novel set against the brutal murders and trial, Cruel Beautiful World, and that’s when I realized, deep in research, that the Manson girls’ part in all of this was hypnotizing us because they were such sweet-faced young girls besotted in love, even if it was with a maniac. They not only betrayed society, but they also betrayed our notions of what young girls should do and be. The fact that they were female made it even more sensational.

Some former criminals have brilliant afterlives, but still, like a stain, the idea of non-acceptance lingers. A few years ago, a close friend introduced me to a woman friend of hers. “Everyone loves her,” she said. I quickly did, too, but it wasn’t until six months later that I was told her real name—and her real fame, which I promised never to reveal. When she was 15, she had viciously murdered a friend’s mother. She served her time, she was filled with remorse, and when she was let out, she reinvented herself, with a new name, a new profession, and a huge desire to give back to society. When she did tell people the truth, she lost friends, she lost jobs, she lost potential romances. When do I get to be forgiven? she kept asking. When does it get to end?

https://www.thedailybeast.com/maybe-its-time-we-gave-this-manson-family-killer-a-break

Unfortunately the American "justice" system is based on revenge, not rehabilitation. That's why so many people still hate her and Cyntoia Brown and others, who were just kids when they did what they did and had time to repent and rehabilitate.

August 12, 2023

Book-Banning Fever Hits a New Low in a Texas Town

At 9:30 a.m. on Aug. 2, when Assistant Principal Danny Guidry walked past the high school library in Granbury, Texas, he saw two figures moving in the darkened interior.

“There were flashing lights from the phones looking at some books,” he later reported in an email to the district office made public by a parent’s open records request.

Guidry entered and asked if he could be of assistance. He informed the two they were in a restricted part of the building.

“It was dark and difficult to see,” he wrote. “One of the ladies identified herself as Karen Lowery, Board Trustee.”

Lowery is indeed a member of the Granbury Independent School District board. Security video would show that she and another woman, Carolyn Reeves, had entered the library an hour and a half earlier, around 8 a.m., repeatedly switching the lights off when a motion detector turned them on.

Exactly what the two were doing there remains a mystery, and they have failed to respond to requests for comment, as has the school board, the school board president, and the school superintendent.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/book-banning-fever-granbury-texas-school-trustee-karen-lowery-snuck-into-library?ref=home

Who'd a thunk it? A Karen being a Karen! And another one too!

August 11, 2023

I kinda hit the jackpot today

Finishing up cleaning the front half of the stray jail when I spotted some blood on the towel of a cat who was in a feral box. Now I didn't panic, because we've been having a lot of upper respiratory infections recently, and some of the cats can sneeze bloody stuff. I was a little more worried about one tearing themselves up trying to get out, but in either case, I didn't see any blood on the walls of the kennel. So I lifted the feral box out and looked inside, and what did my surprised eyes see but a mama with some brand-new babies--three at least (that's all she would let me see before she got very hissy with me!) and so new they were still wet! I went and got Natalie, the jail boss, and we got her and her offspring moved to the nursery which is much quieter. Medical, who'd processed her just a day or two ago, commented, "We didn't think she was THAT pregnant!" She'll be allowed to rest for a day before the babies are taken to be weighed and gendered she is checked, and then they'll be moved to foster care ASAP.

____

"The happiest days are when babies come."--Melanie in "Gone With the Wind"

August 10, 2023

Student pays off lunch debt, fundraises to eliminate debt at other Missouri schools

DeJuan Strickland, 14, remembered what it was like to be hungry as a fourth grader at Missouri’s McCurdy Elementary, and not knowing how he would eat lunch that day. That feeling made Strickland determined to make sure no one at his former school would feel that way.

Strickland helped pay off his former elementary school’s unpaid student lunch debt this year after posting a GoFundMe fundraiser online with the original goal of raising $200. “This is important to me because sometimes the only nutritious meal for kids is at school,” Strickland wrote in the fundraiser's description.

That goal was doubled with Strickland raising $400 for McCurdy Elementary. The school’s website features a photo of Strickland delivering the check and credits him with the $400 donation.

“They told me stories about how kids, there was a kid who didn't have enough money to pay for school lunch or pay for the pizza, and they were able to pull it from the fund and they're able to have pizza at school that day. It was amazing, and I'm really happy,” said Strickland.

From there, Strickland set his sights higher. He decided to angle the initiative to eliminate school lunch debts in all of the Hazelwood School District, which includes 19 elementary schools, six middle schools, three high schools, and other educational programs.


https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Living/14-year-pays-off-lunch-debt-former-school/story?id=102143179

There shouldn't BE any such thing as "student lunch debt"! School lunches should be FREE for all kids!

August 10, 2023

Pence Says He's 'Deeply Offended' By Vivek Ramaswamy's 9/11 'Truth' Claim

Former Vice President Mike Pence declared that he was “deeply offended” by “conspiracy theories” from Vivek Ramaswamy after his fellow GOP presidential candidate questioned the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Pence, in comments to New Hampshire’s Union Leader newspaper, slammed Ramaswamy for telling conservative Blaze TV’s Alex Stein that he doesn’t believe the government “has told us the truth” about the terror attacks and that he doesn’t believe the 9/11 Commission.

Pence said the 38-year-old Ramaswamy “was probably in grade school” on 9/11 while he was on Capitol Hill.

“I think comments like that, conspiracy theories like that, dishonor the service and sacrifice of our armed forces who fought against our enemies determined to kill us,” Pence said.

Ramaswamy, a biotech entrepreneur who has pledged to pardon Donald Trump if elected, said he had “no evidence to suggest” the moon landing was fake before answering Stein’s question on whether 9/11 “was an inside job or exactly what the government tells us.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mike-pence-9-11-vivek-ramaswamy_n_64d49834e4b0fa822c0dba28

Vivek is as nutty in his way as RFK Jr.

August 10, 2023

Dozens of Reality Stars Accuse Bravo, NBC of 'Grotesque and Depraved Mistreatment'

Last week, after cracking crawdaddies in an Atlanta hotel room, Bethenny Frankel found time to crack some skulls at NBC—or, at least threaten as much. As reported by Variety, the entrepreneur and former star of Real Housewives of New York City sought the counsel of two high-profile attorneys, Bryan Freedman and Mark Geragos, to “investigate the treatment of reality stars” as she called for a union for reality television talent. Anyone who watches reality shows—of the Bravo-variety, specifically—will likely be unsurprised that said investigation allegedly found some bad stuff.

On Friday, TMZ reported that Freedman and Geragos sent a letter to NBC outlining a number of accusations made by an unnamed number of both current and former reality stars who’ve appeared on Bravo programming. Such alleged “grotesque and depraved mistreatment” includes:

— Deliberate attempts to manufacture mental instability by plying cast members with alcohol while depriving them of food and sleep

— Denying mental health treatment to cast members displaying obvious and alarming signs of mental deterioration

— Exploiting minors for uncompensated and sometimes long-term appearances on NBC reality TV shows

— Distributing and/or condoning the distribution of non-consensual pornography

— Covering up acts of sexual violence

— Refusing to allow cast members the freedom to leave their shows, even under dire circumstances

It gets worse. The attorneys then allege in the letter, which was obtained and published by TMZ, that NBC has “threatened [cast members] with ruin should they decide to speak out about their mistreatment.” They also order that NBC retain the reality stars’ private information that includes “nonconsensual pornography in connection with cast members...[and] alleged sexual violence perpetrated by or against cast members ...” Obviously, it’s a concern that certain evidence of any alleged mistreatment or misconduct might be destroyed or modified.

https://jezebel.com/dozens-of-reality-stars-accuse-bravo-nbc-of-grotesque-1850707591

This could get verrrrry interesting!

August 10, 2023

Gloria Johnson of the 'Tennessee 3' Is Coming for Marsha Blackburn's Senate Seat

Tennessee State Rep. Gloria Johnson (D), one of the “Tennessee Three” who led chants for gun reform on the floor of the State House in March, has launched an exploratory committee to run for Senate in 2024. It’s the seat held by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), a shrieking embodiment of conservative victimhood and persistent reminder that women also uphold the patriarchy.

Johnson, 61, is a retired special education teacher who joined State Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson to call for gun reform in March, following a deadly mass shooting at a Nashville elementary school. Johnson, Jones, and Pearson approached the House podium between bills without being recognized to speak in order to lead the chant as protestors packed the galleries. And for this grave sin, Tennessee Republicans moved to expel all three.

The legislature spared Johnson by a single vote but voted to expel Jones and Pearson, who are both Black. According to leaked audio, Republicans were worried about looking racist but did it anyway. (Jones and Pearson were reinstated on an interim basis and they officially won their seats back in a special election last week.)

When CNN asked Johnson about why she thought the legislature treated her differently, she didn’t mince words. “I think it’s pretty clear. I’m a 60-year-old white woman, and they’re two young Black men,” she said.

https://jezebel.com/gloria-johnson-of-the-tennessee-3-is-coming-for-marsha-1850722547

Love me some Miss Gloria! And Marsha needs some "special education" too!