The new anti-abortion law in Texas is not just about abortion; it is about undermining civil rights decisions made by the Supreme Court during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The Supreme Court declined to stop a state law that violates a constitutional right.
This once upon a time Alabama practicing attorney tries to imagine legions of self-righteous pro-lifers shutting down the Texas courts, which have not the personnel nor judges to process legions of private bounty hunter lawsuits.
I try to imagine the self-righteous pro-lifers proving in court that a woman who went to Planned Parenthood, or anywhere, actually had an abortion there. Aren't medical records privileged?
What lawyer would take such a case with only a possible $10,000 bounty reward? Perhaps a lawyer who had hundreds of such cases on a 50 percent contingency fee.
If I were a lawyer defending such cases, I would put the self-righteous plaintiffs on the witness stand and ask them if they are Christians?
After they say, Yes, I ask them if they ever raised on their dime an unwanted baby to prevent an abortion?
After they say, No, I ask them if they ever offered to raise on their dime an unwanted child to prevent an abortion?
After they say, No, I ask them if they are not guilty of not trying to save unwanted babies, thus they killed the unwanted babies?
After they say, No, I ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, based on the plaintiffs' sworn testimony that they are guilty of killing unwanted babies.
If the judge then gleefully dismisses the lawsuits, the plaintiffs can appeal.
If the judge ignores the evidence and does not dismiss the lawsuits, I ask the plaintiffs if they if read the Bible?
After they say, Yes, I ask them if the Bible is the inerrant, literal word of God?
After they say, Yes, I hand them a New King James Bible and ask them to open it to Genesis 2:7 and read it to the court:
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
I ask the judge to dismiss, based on the plaintiffs' sworn testimony life begins with the first breath of life.
If the judge gleefully rules against the plaintiffs, then the plaintiffs can appeal.
If the judge ignores the evidence and rules with the plaintiffs, then I file the appeals.
I get on Oprah.
NPR has me on the air.
I am vilified on FOX News.
I am preached and prophesied against in evangelical churches.
I am shot and killed leaving the courthouse.
The shooter claims it was to prevent me killing any more babies.
The State Attorney prosecutes me in the grave.
I put the State Attorney on the witness stand and ask if he/she's a Christian?
Texas lawyers and pro se defendants adopt my legal strategy.
The Texas courts are choked to death and unable to handle other kinds of cases.
FOX News and he Christian right go haywire.
The US Supreme Court gets a chance to rule on Genesis 2:7.
Once upon a time, Jane Pauley interviewed me on TODAY about my first book, HOME BUYERS: Lambs to the Slaughter? Later, CNN and CBS Morning News interviewed me about my 3rd book, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS? A Clients Guide to Hiring, Firing, Using and Suing Lawyers. All was in italics.
I do not know Oprah or anyone who works for her. Heck, for more than a year I've been asking all my friends to give me a nice introduction to Lawrence O'Donnell, and nothing has come from that yet, either!
My bet is that Oprah knows about Heather. My suggestion is contact Gayle King who works at CBS, I think cohosting their morning show. Gayle and Oprah are besties.
Hi, Stuart. I gave Sloan the option for that and thought he'd jump at the chance, selecting 'plagiarized' to garner some more attention. Why don't you pick the categories that you think apply to your style?
False modesty precludes the possibily of A, H, G and J of course and an inevitable desire for contradictory praise pushes towards B, C and D but i think I'll leave it to others to respond while hoping from time to time that I excel in all categories without necessarily steadily dominating or staying with any of them. Variety is supposed to be the spice of life, Fern. I like joining in the fun, provoking from time to time, informing as much as possible and helping people rise above themselves all the time. Facts and their oft intuitive analysis are always the base rock on which i, like you, wish to stand. Well expressed, they help more people get there.
I feel facts, sometimes, too much. Your reply veers very near Sloan for comedy. Modesty began to disappear after you wrote the letter D, but we stand together on some rock somewhere!
Heh, well, I certainly plagiarized Genesis 2:7. As far as I know, I'm the only person who keeps putting that passage to the religious right. Started doing it in, mmmm, 1994.
Sloan, What do you think -- a counterfeit TONY Award medallion for plagiarism, a scale of injustice plaque for your humor and a sweet treat of your choice for originality?
Well played, sir. I particularly like the Genesis quote with life conferred by the first breath. But... The primary problem I'm seeing is the new law works less as legal mechanism than as a powerful disincentive for any woman to consider getting an abortion, since even making an inquiry puts her at risk of exposure. As well as the bind it puts on any Dr.'s office or facility that offers the procedure, since they now become sitting duck targets of lawsuits. Which will encourage them to cease providing that care, at least until there is some clarity on how to proceed. This law is particularly insidious in multiple ways. I'm not fully aware of its status in regard to the Supreme Court, it seems they simply decided not to decide - yet. I can't imagine it will be allowed to stand once they do. There are, of course, more restrictions coming, as the anti-women's health crowd see their opportunity with the current trump stacked court. The best hope to retain women's medical and privacy rights seems to be Republicans' fear of a popular backlash against their invasive rule-making causing them electoral losses.
As I understand it, the law does not target the woman herself. Some great websites have popped up seemingly overnight. This one was shared by another commenter here: www.needabortion.org
I think you're right. The law still works on a psychological level of fear though. Who can a woman turn to for assistance, when even asking can endanger someone else?
Her healthcare providers. They are legally obligated by HIPAA to protect her healthcare info. Also it’s for $$ not jail time or bodily harm and as Sloan says, it will be a slow slog thru the courts and hopefully by the time any payment is legally determined due it will all be taken care of constitutionally? I don’t have a grasp on all of it but this is what it appears to be.
From reader comments under my comment, it appears abortion providers in Texas have, in the main, stopped providing abortions because of the statute. I can imagine that was what the makers and backers of the statute hoped would happen. Perhaps Lady Karma will see to it that, in their next lifetimes, the makers and backers will be unwanted children in Afghanistan and similar places.
Long time ago and far, far away I grew up in an evangelical church in Wheaton, IL. I love the Genesis 2:7 quote, especially from the "old translation" King James (maybe a gay king). As a teen I even remember that my home church was for making abortion legal, before tricky dick used it to try and split the Roman Catholics. We even were taught that you shouldn't marry a Catholic but my first serious girlfriend was a Catholic so I guess that is were I joined the lost souls.
Long time ago and far, far away I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and my mother finally bolted that church and took me and my siblings with her to a newly formed Episcopal church, and all hell broke loose from her parents and my father's parents and their Baptist ministers, as if my mother had damned herself and her children to hell. Abortion was not an issue back then. By and by, after several passes, I drifted away from churches, and eventually I came to wonder when am I ever not in church? We are in church right now, aren't we?
I meant literally how the lawsuits could be defended by Texas attorneys and/or pro se defendants in civil lawsuits brought under this statute. Such an insurgency could make the Texas civil courts a giant international circus. The U.S. Supreme Court would be hard pressed not to take the case and rule on the statute and on Genesis 2:7.
In my dreaming world, everyone woman in Texas who seeks an abortion and everyone who even tangentially assists them would post public notice of what they've done to make sure there's a huge wave of such cases in the courts. And if the Texas bigots decline to bring suit for all of them, then the friends and spouses of the "offenders" should bring those suits to make sure that Texas courts never again hear another case on any other subject.
Regardless of what happens to the Texas court system, it might be a lot harder for a while, or for a long while, to get abortions in Texas, and it's getting the abortion that triggers the statute and its bounty hunting remedies and penalties. I imagine other red spectrum states will pass similar or same law.
Meanwhile desperate women are left alone again, providers disappearing, empathic counsel threatened, the moralizing field day grinding them down further. No exclusion for RAPE or INCEST?? They’ve gone mad.
Now there’s an interesting thought. Strength in solidarity and at the same time annihilating the shame. In this generation, I can definitely see women who are ready for that.
Absolutely, LK. If you think the Arizona Cyber Ninjas are slow, you should get a look at some courts' dockets, especially now in the midst of our pandemic!
For what it's worth, I think most Christians would counter your initial argument with Jeremiah 1:5, rather than Genesis 2:7. Jeremiah 1:5 is the scripture most frequently cited in anti-abortion arguments - "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee..." Now, of course, the rest of the scripture refers to Jeremiah's pre-ordained calling to be a prophet, but as so often happens, scripture is taken out of context to prove a point. In this case, Christians, at least evangelical Christians use Jeremiah 1:5 to prove that life begins at conception (or even before!). Although I am personally a pro-life Christian (and I mean pro-life, as opposed to the narrow anti-abortion mind-set) I am heartily opposed to the new Texas law and to any attempts to overturn RvW.
Jeremiah 1:5 is about God knowing the soul before it became a human being. Christians tend to read the Bible to suit their perspectives. But since you raised that from Jerimiah, I will ask when does the soul attach to a fetus? Just because it has a heartbeat, does it have a soul? Isn't having a soul what separates human beings from animals? does a soul attach to an embryo? Or, does a soul attach when the embryo is born and takes the first breath of life? I dare anyone to dare to say they know then a soul attaches.
Well, I wasn't expecting a theological debate, nor was I attempting to initiate one. But since you raise the question of souls, from a purely anatomical perspective who can prove that there is even such a thing as a soul, let alone say they know at what point a soul enters a body.
If you lived in my skin a little while, you'd know for a fact that souls exist, and angels, and demons, and God, and the Devil. I have seen ETs, they exist. But that's a bit afield from the Texas anti-abortion statute, which is the handiwork of Christian fanatics, so I meet them on their home turf (they think) and give them their own scriptures and doctrines beliefs in ways that are not convenient to them.
Sloan, I do believe in God, and angels, the devil, and demons from having lived in my own skin, but you're correct - this is all far afield from the statute in question, which violates civil rights and demonstrates the unwillingness of the SCOTUS to uphold the minimal gains that have been achieved in the fight for civil rights.
My a bit cheeky comment, which stirred far more discussion than anything I had published anywhere online, was my best shot at how to go about dealing with the Texas statute on the frontline in Texas. I am willing to bet the ranch that I'm the only lawyer (albeit no longer practicing) in America who even dreamed of taking the approach in court, which I suggested.
This really is about religion, plain and simple. The other side are fanatics, in my opinion. So, I meet them on what they consider their turf, and I put inconvenient facts and questions to them, which are based on their own scriptures and beliefs. Imagine me being allowed to do that on Oprah, NPR, Anderson Cooper, Tucker Carlsen. Bashing them with Genesis 2:7. Asking them when a soul attaches? And when they dare to quote science, I remind them they rejected science during the Covid pandemic; and they rejected evolution theory; the Bible is their science.
There is yet another court, in which everyone stands trial. That court is not of this world. I stand on trial in that court every day of my life. The judges there are not human beings. Their rulings and sentences play out in their own way and time. Karma is very real; sometimes it is quick, sometimes it takes a while.
I heard last night that blue states are considering passing similar bounty hunter laws aimed at people who own illegal guns, and that is freaking out conservative Republicans. Perhaps that threat might influence the very religious justices on the Supreme Court, if it ends up having to deal with the Texas anti-abortion statute?
Meanwhile, mental, emotional and spiritual mayhem perhaps well describes the Texas statute's impact in Texas. Perhaps the ACLU, the National Women's Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, etc., will file lawsuits in Texas, challenging the statute. Or, what about armed insurrection? Well, perhaps not in Texas, where red spectrum folks probably have many more guns than blue spectrum folks.
Shush, you could get burned at the stake in some places for saying that :-)
I think the issue is sentient beings, are animals sentient compared to humans? Perhaps dolphins and whales are, or even more sentient? There was a Star Trek film about that, wasn't there? :-)
Humans have not turned out very expert in judging the sentience of others (starting with women but not ending there) and now scientists are studying the sentience and communication powers of plants. Life is sentient.
Humans indeed have gone down many rabbit holes, but I wonder from your words if you think fetuses are sentient and therefore never should be aborted therefore?
Your comment Sloan brings to mind "To Kill a Mockingbird." I imagine your line of questioning will be objected to by the plaintiff's attorney, and the judge will immediately sustain.
Regarding compensation, there is no shortage of ambulance-chaser-type attorneys who will make fast work of monetizing the bounty hunters against abortionist sinners. Let's not forget, that this law denies equal protection under the law because even defendants who win are denied reimbursement for legal costs. This opens the door to frivolous lawsuits.
I'm guessing, there won't be many cases after the first few when defendants realize that it's pointless to mount a defense in a "legal" system that is hell-bent on punishing them.
Imagine the lives of the defendants. Undoubtedly some of the cases, especially the early ones, will be publicized. Some sanctimonious right wingers somewhere will go further and publish the names of all to shame them.
Yeah, literal vigilante since may R majority states have passed laws allowing guns ANYWHERE including schools and polling places. If other states do likewise in regards to voting, I can easily imagine a Proud Boy with his AK 47 slung over his shoulder and loudly saying something like "Boy, I hope none of these voters make an error on their ballots since they can be sued." Intimidation much?
Heh, I'm Alabama born and raised. To Kill a Mockingbird is maybe the most important novel ever written in America. Yes, I might very well meet that kind of judge in some Texas courtrooms. Hopefully, Texas has other kinds of judges, too. This statute opens the doors of Hell in my opinion. I mean that in the full Biblical sense.
Some days I hope a sniper would take me out and save me from dying of various old age ailments creeping up on me faster now. It really pisses me off that so-called Christians against abortion do not line the block around Planned Parenthood, for just one example, betting to adopt and raise on their dimes, pregnant women's unwanted future babies.
Sloan, I am so glad to have asked the questions I asked, and that you answered the ones I didn't ask but would have if I had thought of them. Thank you so much!
I wondered about this. Plus the funding of it. My understanding is that the 10K truly is the bounty paid to the person making the complaint. The legal fees are also pain in addition to that. I was surprised that clinics stopped providing services at midnight. Is it legal for private fascist donors to pay these bounties and legal fees? Surely Texas tax payers will not stand for it. And yes, frivolous suits clogging up the real justice work?? How will that go over?
I just reported Cecelia Abbott for getting an abortion. When asked how I know, I say that I'm the one who got her preggers. Y'know, that's what guys do...
My guess is that Texas isn't really expecting citizens to act as vigilantes, because many abortion providers will cease performing procedures, and pregnant women will be afraid to seek abortions. As pointed out, this will open the door for other repressive laws, though, and I believe that's the point.
Yes, elections are the best hope, however threatened they may be, if not the only hope, short of a disuniting of the supposedly united states of America. Trouble with 'disuniting' or 'fracturing' as mentioned above is that the split lacks geographic boundaries as the 1861 attempted split did. Where is the 'fracture line' in a State, or a nation for that matter, that is split 60-40? I do not expect an answer in my lifetime.
I too have been trying to figure out what a split would look like. If you're in NJ, you're good to go. But if you're in FL, not so much. Virginia is really split. The denser populated cities make us a blue state, but the rural part is very red.
I agree, Lynell. If we lose the midterms, all hopes will be dashed. BTW, I can't find the earlier post about the women's marches. I want to sign up, and it would save me some time if I could find the link.
I think you are right, Nancy. Lots of abortion providers don't want to be sued, although, not being a pregnant woman who doesn't want to carry the baby to full term, I don't know about how they might proceed. I can imagine crossing state lines, like in the old days; and various not pretty downwind outcomes, while the makers and the backers of this statute are certain where they stand with God.
Thanks, Sloan. The women who can afford to do so will probably cross state lines to find services in a more sympathetic location, although many nearby states have also greatly limited such services. The people who can't afford to leave Texas will be the most affected. Somehow, I don't believe that most of the proponents of this disgusting legislation care a whit about their standing with God. I believe the majority are patting themselves on the back, having placed a foot squarely on the back on women, and are hoping that this legislation will also restrict civil rights in many ways. They must be stopped, and I believe it is now necessary to expand the Supreme Court, as well. Hypocrites, all!
Like I said the other day, out of state providers need to take turns making house calls in Texas. Kind of like Doctors without Borders......solves the problem of women needing to travel, Texas providers getting bagged, and what can the nosy neighbors prove without health records which are protected by HIPPA?
Based on some of the reader comments here, that seems to be the effect in Texas, and I can't imagine hell pregnant Texas women who don't want to give birth already are experiencing internally, nor how they are coping, nor how it will play out later for them and, if they give birth, their children.
I don't know if or how the Texas statue rewards the bounty hunters' lawyers. Because Texas Legislature passed the statute, lawsuits brought under it cannot be viewed frivolous by the courts. I think it's probably legal for private citizens to fund these kinds of lawsuits. Based on all I read online and see on TV, the red spectrum controls most of Texas. I have learned over the years that religious fanatics cannot be reached by logic, and perhaps not even by God. What I wrote was meant to be a blueprint for an insurgency in Texas against this is private hunter law.
My understanding is that once found guilty, the defendants (spouse, clinic, friend, taxi, etc) will be required to pay the $10,000 bounty and legal fees of the accuser. This is why clinics closed so quickly. They are the most obvious target and these costs would bankrupt them.
If the defendant is found not guilty, there will be no compensation for his/her legal fees or any other compensation. Just another layer of the terror.
These clinics provide other healthcare services. All who work at the clinic would seemingly fall under HIPAA laws which should take preempt any state law? So if a woman does not share her personal health info with anyone else who is to know )in any way that can be proven). Or are they simply operating on presumption??
I misspoke. Most clinics aren’t actually closing, they have instead refused to perform abortions over 6 weeks, eliminating 75% of their business. Many had already closed due to multiple restrictions.
Ok good to know. Thank you! So private citizens with deep pockets and religious fervor can fund other private ratfinks without deep pockets but the same religious fervor? I very much appreciate your comment and response
Christy The convoluted situation that you discuss reminds me of the Abbot & Costello skit WHO’S ON FIRST, but what you raise is definitely not amusing.
The Texas statute itself funds the civil lawsuits, private backers (fanatics) can provide even more funding. I can't imagine one Texas civil court judge in his/her right mind worrying about his/her cause load exploding exponentially.
Thanks, William. I tried to use Google search to find the statute and didn't find it. In law school, it was drilled into us when we had anew case to see what the state code (statutes) had to say. Just because the lawmakers who dreamed up this statute are religious fanatics (or politicians seeking to stay in office), doesn't mean they aren't really clever. Crafty works, too. I wonder how clever, or crafty, they will feel when their roll is called up yonder?
Thank you for helping us sort thru this. I can't imagine that abortion providers would stop providing services unless this presented a real threat to them.
oops, very well could have been a Freudian slip. Once upon a time I wrote, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS? A Clients Guide to Hiring, Firing, Using and Suing Lawyers. All was in italics. Published by Prentice-Hall division of Simon & Shuster.
I've been away from internet for 3 days, so I'm late to read/respond. My understanding of the language in the Texas statute is that any person anywhere can bring suit against one who aids or abets a woman in obtaining an abortion. Perhaps we get to gumming up the courts and angering enough Texans to take action in quick order if folks from out of state start picking random Republicans and filing suit against them under this statute. Make them spend the money on expensive lawyers to defend. Under the law, there are no frivolous suits. So being a bit loose with the facts appears to be invited! Texas courts would be at a standstill pronto. As I read the statute, plaintiffs would be out the filing fee but the Republican defendants would be out-of-pocket much more and their tax dollars wasted while the courts sort it out!
I think mean the Republican Plaintiffs? Several comments under my original comment indicated abortion providers in Texas stopped providing abortions, which I think was the statute's true goal.
No. I mean to use their statute as a sword to bring Texas Civil Courts to a complete standstill. Democrat political operatives could provide the names/addresses of Republican voters. Filing fees would be a small price to pay to gum up the works BEFORE providers are sued. Let's be creative in our response to this outrageous affront by Texas and the SCt.
Sloan Bashing, I love it! Do you think your killer, who would probably us an assault rifle, claim a 2nd Amendment defense of his right to use such a rifle, since it is designed only to kill human beings?
Perhaps, but I imagine the shooter's primary defense is the law allows him to use deadly force to prevent someone from killing babies. Perhaps his face might be found in the Jan 6 Capitol mob? Perhaps he knows the QAnon shaman in that mob? Perhaps he attends a mega church in Dallas? Perhaps he becomes a national red spectrum hero and runs for Governor of Texas? Please understand, I belong to no political party and poke what seems to need poking.
The right wing loves religious exemptions so perhaps there should be one here.
This is from Rabbi Danny Horwitz.
I once had to counsel a woman to get an abortion.
Years ago, I was the rabbi of a congregation in greater Kansas City. I knew this woman had preexisting health issues and struggled to take care of the children she already had. Without sharing any other personal details, it was clear to me another pregnancy was going to push her over the edge.
Judaism teaches that potential life is sacred. Nevertheless, our religion also teaches that potential life is not the same as actual life, that a fetus is not a human being. This is directly derived from Scripture. Therefore, even during labor, the pregnant woman’s life has precedence over the life of the fetus. And if we have reason to believe a pregnancy will be a serious threat to the woman’s well-being, whether that be mentally, physically or otherwise, then she will be counseled to abort the fetus, and to do so in a way that maximally protects her own health.
Many books have been written about this, but these are the rules that guide Jewish law and those of us who seek to fulfill it in the practice of our religion. Each case is unique, but the principles remain the same. We would never celebrate the termination of potential life, but neither would we regard it as automatically forbidden. As my doctoral adviser, Rabbi Byron Sherwin, put it, “Judaism is neither pro-life or pro-choice. It depends on the life and it depends on the choice.”
Thus, when this woman came to me for direction, I told her not that she could have an abortion, but that she must have an abortion, that the God of my understanding would want her to do it.
My action would likely be considered a violation of SB 8, the new Texas law making it illegal to assist someone in pursuing an abortion. Thus, this law is a restriction on the practice of my religion. And it would likewise impose a religious standard upon anyone from any religion who believes abortion is not always the evil our state officials believe it to be.
The fallacy, alas, in arguing from the basis of religion is that the fuckers who passed the law don't give a shit about religion: it is just a useful tool with which to attack women, LGBTQ people, and others whose biology or lifestyles they find objectionable.
I fully agree that many of "those fuckers" don't give a shit about religion except as a useful tool. I thought that William Cash was making an interesting point, or perhaps the rabbi's story does, that the constitutionally protected first amendment right to free exercise of religion provides a different leverage point for arguing the unconstitutionality of Texas SB 8 than the Roe v. Wade use of a (stipulated) right to privacy. It doesn't matter if those fuckers don't give a shit about religion - we can still throw that in their face.
I immediately thought of freedom of religion once I started reading William's post, and how that could be, as you say, Bill, a leverage point at least for practicing Jews, if it ever got that far.
It seems more likely to me Linda that everything Republicans do is designed to galvanize their fanatical and extremist base while at the same time crucifying the liberal left. Republicans exploit and manufacture social divisions for the sole purpose of divide and conquer, gain and retain power. Who easier to exploit than religious fanatics, political extremists, and anyone who has harbored resentments and grievances for generations (aka white males.)
Your comment gives me the opportunity to open an entirely different line of thought. I've lived in the deep south for the last half of my life. I moved here for a job and that job was opening to make friends and develop relationships with people who have lived here all their lives and more often than not they are multi-generational southerners.
I learned firsthand that southern women understand and accept that they live in a male-dominated society. Women are essentially treated like possessions (chattel) by men. Is this true in all cases? Of course not, but it represents the thinking of the vast majority of men and women.
The other important observation I've made is that politics in the south is akin to religion. For example, facts and evidence to the contrary (e.g. science) hold no sway over the party faithful. They see and hear what they choose to believe. The south is the bible belt and it is a society that operates solely on faith. People believe in God and Jesus purely out of faith. Politics is a close cousin to religion and they are totally intermeshed.
So Kasumii, it's true women are equal offenders but make no mistake they live in a male dominated society.
I was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. Politics in Alabama, and nearby, IS a RELIGION. Donald Trump recognized that and exploited it, saying what he knew Christian fanatics wanted to hear. They knew he was a very bad man and remade him into an Old Testament bad man prophet. When Trump stood before the Capitol holding up a Bible, when he told them God had sent him to them, they herd angels singing. Not the angels they thought they heard. Trump was pro-choice until he ran president and saw a good way to nab a whole lot of votes by telling the Christian right he would pack the U.S. Supreme Court with their ilk. He brought the American Taliban out Egypt and the wilderness to the walls of Jericho. What they were really like became crystal clear on January 6. That white right mob were proxies for the American Taliban. We know this from the red spectrum's refusal to call for the heads of the white mob and their leader. As much as I admired Ruth Bader Ginsberg, she made a grave mistake not retiring and letting President Obama replace her. Please understand, I am not a Democrat. I belong to no political party. I think belonging to a political party, like belonging to a religion, compromises ability to think and see properly. I very much think God exists. In fact, I know God exists, which is very different from believing it. I know the Devil exists, as well. This is very much a spiritual war, and the American right are not nearly as close to God as they think. The left needs to examine their position with God as well. The left pushed the Roe v. Wade envelop far past what that decision encompassed. The right wing backlash was inevitable.
I have to call you on your last few sentences, Sloan. Sounds like your religious convictions are being pressed upon us, too. I'd be interested in reading how RvW was pushed too far.
But way back to the genesis of this idea of women as chattel...someone or something is benefiting by the continuation of this line of thinking...some system is continuing to reap benefits somewhere and to someones. Women are being exploited but to what end? I am skeptical that it is purely ideological. I think there must be a $ benefit being preserved. That's what I am trying to understand. If women really had power, would it diminish returns on investments? Would the economic system become more equitable? Would it hinder the exploitation of labor whereby a small group can reap outsized profit? There must be something at work in the system that is being protected. At this stage in the machine we call the U.S., things may be baked in and not even recognizable. Why else would everyone not recognize the cruelty behind these TX efforts?
A lot of somebodies are making a killing on women - globally, we have the pink tax, which is the up charge women pay for buying health and beauty aid products, clothing, sporting equipment and more geared for women.
In the US higher insurance premiums for all types of insurance - car, home, life, health; the cost of a simple haircut.
Globally, too, penalizing women because they are women is baked into many cultures - various religions believe a woman is unclean when she menstruates and women are penalized in most places for menstruation by paying a tidy sum for tampons, sanitary pads and cups. So just imagine growing up knowing that once a month you are considered unclean, particularly by men. Women, in a passive way to counter the disgust men regarded them with, took to crafting ceremonies to validate and honor the cycles of their bodies. This may seem like a solution but, IMHO, it's actually caving to make domination in a most cringe worthy manner. And women STILL go through the cleansing rituals men devised fir them centuries ago.
And what about pharmaceutical drug trials? Stroke and cardiac intervention and care for women? Or how women were locked in attic rooms or were institutionalized as hysterics and had ungodly treatments performed on them to "cure" them.
Then there are head coverings and "modest clothing" it's not just Muslim women, but Orthodox Jews and Conservative Christian Sects, Mennonite, Amish, Fundamentalist Mormons.
Then we get to rape and various forms of violence against women where, even today, women choose to not file a complaint against her rapist or abuser because the anguish she will go through because our system is unfairly tilted against her...even when the evidence of rape is incontrovertible, (or you live in a city/county/state where your rape kit ended up on a shelf with thousands of others).
Hiring, wages, benefits, bonuses, promotions. Unequal on all counts.
Car loans, mortgages, credit card interest.
Voting: what of the women who votes the way her husband tells her too? How insecure must one be to walk into a voting booth, draw the curtain and vote the way they were told to vote by their husband?
You ask why EVERYONE doesn't recognize the cruelty behind the efforts in Texas? Because, frankly, most men don't care to address the inequities women deal with on a daily basis. I'm not saying all men but I am saying a significant percentage of men simply don't give a damn. Why rock the boat if it will cause them personal loss or discomfort? Or loss? And truly, when we ask ourselves why the Equal Rights Amendment never passed, we know in our heart of hearts why. Now, go ask a family member, friend or acquaintance with a penis why the ERA never passed. I'm curious what their answers will be.
Usually I'd have citations for this kind of rant. Today I don't because I'm on my cellphone and it's nigh on impossible to flip from one screen to another. I'm sorry.
Actually they just think Trumps base will vote for them in the midterms—we’re just the caste of women— it’s really all about hold on to their mostly white male power at all costs.
Yes, we must not abandon our reason or decide contrary to it, imo. Our reason is part of the natural law and our highest functioning ability. We shouldn't throw it out the window to accommodate religious doctrine which isn't based in science.
Unfortunately, abortion has been made a religious issue when there is no clear biological determination as to when human life begins. So, we must use our God-given reason/reasonableness to make a decision re: abortion. Each woman must do this herself because there are no clear guidelines.
I refer to them as “Convenient Christians “. They kind of pick and choose Who, How, What,When and Where they will ‘ACT ‘ Christian. Notice they dropped the Phrase “ What would JESUS do ?”.
Amen. What would Jesus do? If he were to show up in their midst and carry on like the Gospels say he carried on 2000 years ago, they would string him up.
They believe in a “Second Coming “. You’re right, they won’t know him . No matter what miracle he may choose to prove , w/out an AR-15 they will shout ‘ Imposter !’
Have you ever read Jeff Sharlett's book The Family. The evangelicals he stayed with claimed they spoke to Jesus every day and he made all their decisions for them. If Jesus made the decision, it can't be wrong.
You are right, I don't hear the word Jesus as much but many still claim that they talk to god and god makes their decisions.
I always thought when people talk to an invisible being and hear it talk, they should be in an institution but today they become leaders of a religious sect.
Other than the Catholics I don’t know of any organizations that will support a single woman during pregnancy. Not sure if the rule is to put up for adoption ? Or due to the fact that most, not all companies at least in Fl will fire U if they find out they are PG. No one in FL WILL hire a a woman that is PG. Liability. Married women have no support outside of Medicaid for Dr.Maybe food stamps. But loss of income is just lost.So we see families Homeless with children and a new infant. Did they stop and think perhaps these Mothers maybe have to give up at best the infant if not all their children to the system. No ! Bible in 2021 “ Suffer the little children “. Jesus would say that is wrong ! It’s Pro Birth and literally the buck stops there.Sorry so long.I’m so angry and stressed ever since TFG came down that escalator.And the War on Democracy .
In my experience, if they are Christians, they care a great deal about religion as they perceive and twist it to suit them. They are fanatics, America version of Taliban, and that they do not have God 100-percent on their side never occurs to to them. They are ingrained with the unshakable belief that only people who believe as they believe will die and go to heaven, and everyone else will die and burn in hell forever. They are going to be really surprised when they stand before St. Peter, so so speak, but meanwhile, I can imagine a great many Texas women deeply sympathize with Afghanistan women.
"Judaism is neither pro-life nor pro-choice. It depends on the life and it depends on the choice." That is a marvelous statement, and it really fits for me, a non-Jew. Mind if I borrow it? (I might add, "Oversimplification is a symptom of ignorance.")
If I hadn’t chosen abortion at 19 and 27 I’d have had a really strange life. Luckily I had the right to chooe them and eventually had a wonderful son and great husband. I can’t even imagine how it would be if I were forced to keep the child of a g-d rapist. And that’s the position Abbot and his cronies are forcing poor women into. Boycott Texas.
Everyone should read caste—women have tried refusing sex protesting and there was that really angry one who cut off her husband’s penis—remember her—I think they found it though and sewed it back on. Anyway I will be in the woman caste until I die but now that the book enlightened me I’m actually more accepting of my place. There are much worse castes I could have been born into—or I could be a beautiful young woman in Afghanistan.
William, I think every pro-lifer should be required to read your comment every day until they agree with your or stand before St. Peter, where he reads your comment to them.
In late-breaking news, two things have occurred. Firstly, GoDaddy will not host the online accusation form the Right To Lifers created. They were given 24 hours to take down the site, although it had already been frozen by a shower of bogus 'tips' sent in by the public.
Better still, Planned Parenthood has won a brief respite. The District Court for Travis County granted a temporary restraining order against Texas Right to Life and its associates, stopping them from suing abortion providers and health care workers until September 17.
Gary, thank you so much for finding this and bringing it to our attention. It is so important for me to learn about each and every way that any sort of resistance can be mounted to this wild west vigilante breakdown of civil rights safeguards. There’s so much naked “might is right“ energy, and learning what successfully counters it can mobilize us.
After the election, I was talking to a retired Judge about how relieved I was and now we can start to get back to normal. He said " as wonderful as that sounds, it's the Supreme Court we have to worry about. I have major fears". He was 100% correct and I was 100% wrong. As I think back to our conversation, he foretold what is happening now . Frankly, to a frightening degree.
Abortion is only the guise being used, this is a flat out take over of our rights. This isn't a dramatic overview, its reality. It won't stop here.
I have a special affinity for the local Dems. Others are fine too, like Indivisible and MoveOn. But the Dem Party is where the power, resources, contacts, are
Extrapolation is always dangerous, but this Court "non-ruling" has opened the door to allow states to usurp Federal authority simply by acquiescing to vigilantism. Why stop at abortion? Could not the same argument be made to allow individual citizens to interpret and enforce any law they saw fit? It literally legitimizes anarchy
Couple this with the other legislation just passed in Texas removing gun restrictions and voter suppression, and you have created a toxic brew that will lead to nothing good.
My mood grows increasingly gloomy with each passing day!
As a teacher in Texas, first day of training we were read the house bill that limits the teaching of history. So I feel like we’re not even allowed to teach students any of these things that would educate future voters. We were limited to the documents of the original founding fathers. We were specifically not allowed to teach the 1619 project. Every student must pledge allegiance to our one republic everyday. And we have new board members that will see to it that this is adhered to. And there is a new group of population that will not have their rights infringed upon. Be it a mask or behavior their child will do as they like. These sets of laws were a turning a corner. I cannot even believe the level we’ve sunk too!
How can you remain a teacher in Texas under those conditions?
I own that that is mostly a rhetorical question because we all have obligations in life and are in chains - golden (like a pension to be lost) or otherwise.
I am a retired teacher. To be forced to misrepresent objective truth would have figuratively brought me to my knees. Literally made me mentally unwell.
I never wanted or took the opportunity to proselytize- a teacher has supremely unfair advantage over the minds of her/his impressionable charges.
But to not have the right to teach truth is a bridge too far. I don’t think I could have continued to teach were i in your position. It would have felt like a form of abject surrender.
Let me hasten to add that this is not a recipe for professional life that I would deign to apply to any other person. Everyone’s situation is fraught and I walk only in my own shoes.
I was born contrarian. It was tested and I always held to my principles. But - and this is key - it was never tested with life-altering consequences. I have no idea if my convictions would hold then. In the delightful Texas phrase, I may be, when push really comes to shove, “all hat and no cowboy”.
I wish you well. This is a cruel situation for you.
It’s a struggle. Understatement there. We are not allowed to unionize or strike. We have very little recourse. We are expected to take care of all societal ills. But on the flip side, what would you suggest I do? A few years from retirement that will still have me living in poverty. A job I love and kids I really care about. Walk away from it to what? There are plenty of people blaming teachers for everything from “learning loss” (not a real thing by the way) to the spread of delta variant. Teachers aren’t pulling the strings! Politicians have us wedged!
Thank you for allowing me to see it through your eyes. I can only be thankful for how fortunate I was. Just in case you don’t know, I’m from Canada.
I was never without the protection of a strong union - in fact I got into union executive positions b/c I felt the unions were getting too powerful. But also because we were switched from a local Board negotiating with us to the Government of Ontario (province of about 13 million) bundling it all into one package and there being province wide negotiations.
The results of course were strikes and cutbacks in the form of additional teaching hours. It was a burden, but never, ever was our freedom to pursue truth in our teaching threatened.
There is always the lure of children in the end. They are very hard to turn your backs on if you are dedicated.
I would suspect that there are very few people of Denise Huddle calibre in Texas schools. How could the state possibly attract people of character and learning into such nightmarish and stifling conditions? Teaching must fast be becoming the lure of only those who are found wanting in professions where money is to be made. Even those who enter bright-eyed and bushy-tailed will soon become time servers.
And where is the respect from the public? If the government bullies you, then many parents of a certain type will see teachers as whipping boys as well.
Add to that racial animus, the remorseless surge of social media cutting children to bits at the tween and adolescent age, spineless leaders, and endless other privations and it seems to me time to rise up in righteous wrath.
I am sure you don’t run your classroom by means of scaring kids into submission. It is to weep that you are subjected to this.
Thank you for your posts of what is going on "in the trenches" of Texas education.
Your "group of population that will not have their rights infringed upon" sounds like a horrible batch of spoiled kids raised by spoiled kids who now believe that their little darlings can do ANYTHING THEY WANT. That is a dangerous precedent.
We have such right here in Oregon. Two superintendents have been fired already for no real reason except far right boards. The mess in Newburg is ongoing and they have hired a lawyer to help them write their suppression of what they don't like, so that they can avoid suits. They have violated the public meeting law to do it. Stay tuned.
We sure do. I haven't seen anything out of Newberg (The Register Guard is a shadow of its former self) but we've got shenanigans and monkeyshines here in the south end of the Willamette Valley as well.
The Oregonian has stories on Newberg. I agree the RG has become another Gannett rag just like the SJ. Thankfully, in Salem we managed to elect a slate of progressives to the school board. We will see how it goes when school opens. Just saw a complaint about the public library not being open. It has been closed for a long time for earthquake refitting and redesign. It was supposed to open September 1st, but COVID. At least some of the responses i saw understood why this is happening. We have some restaurants in Salem requiring proof of vaccination, so people are being urged to support them while the antivaxxers (who probably wouldn't patronize either one) want to boycott them. Fine with me. We have a Proud Boy problem here in Salem associated mostly with fundamental churches, so I have long been worried about vigilantism.
Thanks! I keep pushing kindness, integrity, compassion. But I’m afraid that school wide creed will be stricken next. These groups want their child to be able to do whatever they want without any consequences!
Denise, my sympathies for your position. But, as you undoubtedly know, you could teach U.S. History I using only documents from "the founders"--letters, speeches and drafts from the Constitutional Convention, newspapers and records from the state ratification debates, procedures from the first Congress that determined the legal and institutional structures of the new government, etc. There is abundant material available therein to highlight many of the subsequent themes and conflicts that we deal with to this day: the place of slavery in a "republic of liberty," the powers a government must have to operate effectively, class divisions and concentrations of wealth, regional and rural/urban divides, and so on. Of course what your school board zealots want is not to look at the complexity and conflicts of the founding, but a catechism: a short, simple list or required beliefs and practices to be repeated and obeyed, rather than questioned, compromised and amended as the "the founders" did.
Thanks, Tom. You make an excellent point -- use all the resources from the founders, give it an appropriate title, expanding the curriculum to include complexity. Great challenge. from a retired teacher also : )
Like madrassahs, where rote learning of the Koran is a major part of the curriculum. I really like your idea of using the founders' documents to teach the complexity of statehood.
Also in that pledge is the divisive “under god” for those not aware that there are Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists & others in this nation who do not believe that mythology.
In farming psychology, the idea is to REPEAT your vision, and that is: “Liberty and Justice for All.” Liberals would say this as a moralistic vision, as if we had a moralistic basis for our policies. People usually do not vote on policies, but on the values and FEELIN G one has for a candidates. Most people appreciate the values and morals of their candidate. Like, Bernie always spoke in a moralistic manner - but NEVER clearly articulated the basis, and that would be this phrase from our moralistic underpinning, the Pledge of Allegiance. This is simply a wise manner of speaking for a progressive, to another person with whom the speaker wishes to reach
We WILL mean “for All.” Liberals have never turned to the Pledge of Allegiance for our moral compass. NOW it is time. I’m speaking with my state Dem Party to make this phrase THE key phrase for us.
Perhaps NEXT WEEKEND we will have a petition to enlist for now and 2022 for farmers markets across the state, from the NH border to Quebec and New Brunswick provincial boundaries.
Denise, is that pledge to the Texastan Republic or the United States Republic? There was a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1943 (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette) that said students could not be forced to recite the pledge. But in the 1990s I kept seeing news reports that students who refused were being punished (until the ACLU sued to remind the fascists it was illegal). I protested saying the Pledge of Allegiance in my St. Louis high school in 1962 (taking issue with the “under god” divisive part) and there were no repercussions. Apparently, they knew of the ruling, that these backwater states do not or blatantly disregard.
They oddly did not specify but all schools already do both pledges. It has always been my understanding that I could not force a child to stand during the Pledge. I wonder when someone is going to challenge it
I'm just curious......who enforces that every student must recite the pledge every day? If a student just sat quietly or stood silently and was respectful, who would make a stink? Not you. The other kids? Are they teaching kids to be vigilantes in TX as well?
Rob, This is not limited to “backwater states.” Across New Jersey, ACLU-NJ has had to fight municipal lawn sign restrictions. We all must be active and alert.
Denise, Marcy, and Pam, This undoing of our democratic process and equality is going on in Wyckoff, New Jersey, so I suspect the problem is happening across the country. Even though New Jersey is generally blue, Wyckoff is red. A minority of school board members want to limit the teaching of science and history. When new red school board candidates rcvd poor ballot positions in November’s election, our all-Republican township committee announced on a Friday night that on the following Tuesday they would hear a proposal to move the school bd election to April, during vacation week. At the meeting, after two hours of comments against the proposal, our township committee passed it. If their scheme works, Wyckoff’s school board will be controlled by Texas-style members.
And a perfect example of why voting by mail is an essential tool to ensure all voters can vote even if they're going to be out of town on election day. Are voters able to use mail ballots for school board elections?
Seems like help from sympathetic large corporations could help in Texas, if they were willing to take their business elsewhere. Trick is how many are big enough to help and not connected to Texas politics and in bed with de-regulation and tax cuts.
Maybe? I believe this* (*waves hands futilely in the air to represent everything) is also a grift. Fire teachers, get like-minded people on school boards, and -sooner rather than later- end public education and privative it. Billions of dollars to be made! CRT was another nail in the coffin of public education. So are non-mask mandates. So are active shooter drills in schools. Make public education so divisive, so frightening, so filled with anxiety-riddled teachers and staff, and -poof!- much easier to convince voters it is not needed $$$
Sounds like book burning is right around the corner. Agree with Herb, gloomy mood growing. Checking out city and county council meeting schedules. Anticipate attending some lends to action lends to mood improvement. Not sure I can stomach school board meetings right now though. ;)
Same here Herb. I feel like an educated, erudite Berliner in the late 1930s must have felt, watching the madness of the past decade getting more outrageous with each passing day.
This was my first thought. They have deliberately opened the gates to hell (anarchy on many levels) and the Supreme Court endorsed it.
Pelosi and President Biden can talk all they want about passing bills to counteract this but the plain truth is, until President Biden gives up on the filibuster and persuades/convinces Sinema & Manchin to do the same, absolutely nothing will happen in Congress. And, even if Biden did give up on it I highly doubt he'll convince those two to do the same. They are gladly in the pockets of their corporate & individual donors - neither of which care about civil rights.
I couldn't agree with you more! If they don't deal with the filibuster and the reticent senators, voting and all civil rights are toast. Our democracy is toast. I am so distressed by all of this....
I agree with you. President Biden needs to declare Texas an Anarchist Jurisdiction. There is precedent, with Trump's play in New York. But Biden shouldn't just fold like Trumpster did.
We use sanctions to punish other countries. Maybe it’s time to use it on states who fail to follow federal law. Just turn off federal funding until they come around.
Snark alert. It goes on and on. How about laws for dietary preference? Choice of clothing? I can just see it now. "Your honor I am suing for my $10,000 bounty. I am a true American who eats ham and eggs. This person, the defendant, had the intent to purchase, and then consume, a burrito from Jose's Taco Truck in direct violation of the Texisitan Law of American Food Regulation."
Daniel, It was pure snark. However, I get our point. It's a deep-seated fear of 'the other' however defined. And frankly, the psychological foundation of it comes from low self esteem, and an alienated feeling of 'worthlessness'.
Grok it. First differentiation is by color. Next by religion, then they hate anyone "not-from-here."
Imagine hating people just because they descended from a different part of Earth? That fear is primitive; because people were feared from other parts of the world thousands of years ago. They considered folks from away like space aliens. Today the lines have been drawn closer, that's all.
At least here in this herd, there’s many a different-loving neighbor standing side-by-side. Here’s to broadening our horizon, together! (Seems to be an extra shot of positivity in my morning cup)
I’ve always felt we lost the debate when liberals allowed the debate to be framed about “abortion” or “pro life.”
We ought to have always defended “women’s equality”and “women’s health.” But we were cornered into abortion as a “choice.” NO - we are defending equality and freedom for more than half the population.
She doesn’t need softball questions. Go ahead and throw 100 mph fastballs, curveballs and sliders, Psaki hits them all out of the park with intelligence, compassion, and subtle outrage all at once, acknowledging the truths of the matter, as well as some of the nonsense and stupidity of the right wing nuts. I think somewhere in her future she will teach this at one of the Ivy League schools and get paid big for it, and our country will be the better for her service.
Indeed. And Psaki clearly can handle any number of extreme challenges. I only hope the pressure and thanklessness of her current job doesn’t drive her into another one too soon. I get a CHARGE outta watching her. Like fencing.
This amounts to fascism, imho. Let us define fascism in America as the movement to turn neighbor against neighbor in this attempt to restrict the freedoms and liberties of women across this country.
But for a frame to be effective, we must speak consistently, as the right has done since the 1980s on every Culture War issue!
More than speak consistently. Speaking won't do it. We have too much speaking. Congress is owned. And, not by us. People must get over their knee jerk, reactive response to both "capitalism" and "socialism." This is war. And nicely behaved citizens hanging out on the phone with their purchased US Senator and Rep isn't going to move the dial toward strengthening democracy. Haven't you already been doing that? How often have you googled Open Secrets to see just how much Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Real Estate, Wall Street have been paying off the guys/gals you've been choosing? When you're in a war, do you choose a "moderate" for a general? Do you honestly believe Big Business and tiny big money aren't the money source for this coup? Dark money is dark. Dark as malevolent towards the peoples' needs and interests. This is American capitalism doing what it does best. Whooping minds into being nicely behaved and voting "moderate" while rapaciously privatizing your rights, your personhood, your kids education, your water, your utilities, your streets, your fire department, your ambulance service, your prisons, your police department, your courts, your-their army, your-our public lands...Extreme? Absolutely! If a dollar can be made, it will be made specifically for their pocket.
Sadly, Peter, you are dead right. I have relatives who regularly drop hints abt the next Storm-wannabe: “The best is yet to come. A bit bumpy for a while though.” Unbelievably scary times. I PRAY this all really is just an unprecedented “extinction burst.” (See “operant conditioning.”)
They will also be the new poll watchers as more states follow Texas and allow "partisan" poll watchers. Three percenters, Proud Boys, capitol insurrectionists will be policing voting. Heil Trump!
Yeah, and it's very likely they'll show up with their guns so they can intimidate the voters, since many red states have passed laws that guns can be ANYWHERE including schools and polling places. It's come to the point that there is nowhere in public to feel safe.
The two political extremes left and right have always been intrinsically linked to vigilante violence, mob rule. Rule by fear to divide the people has always been their only real path to power.
Seems to me that by empowering people to carry guns add to use them to enforce repressive laws does make vigilantes the handmaidens of fascism. The more that authoritarians collect weaponry to take the law into their own hands with the approval of oppressive states, the more they will press for armed conflict and Civil War. And the less that those of us who describe violence can launch an effective defense of the democratic process. Naturally, I’d love to be proved wrong. The Supreme Court not providing countermeasures to invalidate this development is terribly worrying!
Alison, I think the Court will have to, given the beehive of public opinion and judicial scrutiny they have disturbed. Hopefully! Terrifying otherwise....
To your first concern, it was well planned:
First, the TX lawmakers armed every person in the state, for no apparent reason.
Second, the vigilante maneuver. You do the math.
What comes next is poll watchers with guns? Oh boy....
I hope you're right about the Court but I can't see that the 5 who chose to let SB8 go into effect care a whit about public opinion. After all, they have lifetime tenure so what can public opinion do against them? Does anyone think those 5 have any sense of shame?
Yes, wherever the term "conservative Right" now occurs", we should simply substitute "vigilantist Right" or "vigilante Right" (to avoid the auto-correct). If there are any real and coherent conservatives left in our body politic somewhere, they must all be hiding under rocks.
Ted, it certainly seems now TFG was simply a very convenient pawn in a sinister long range mission to deliver fascism here. Shocking, yes, that they have succeeded
The chickens are now coming home to roost. All so called "moderates" desirous of "incremental" change have by their votes left the barn door open to what is happening. Sure this about oppressing women and non-whites, but it is more about contemporary American capitalism and the consolidation of power in the hands of tiny big money and corporations out to call the shots putting their "economy" in place, forget about workers' "rights" or "public" health or "free" ways. So all who get suckered by the surface shenanigans - hooked into knee jerk reactions by the old propaganda about socialism and communism - the current loss of a woman's right to choose is but a harbinger of life under an authoritarian where you ain't got such things as "rights". Everything including you and your neighbor become "privatized", your degrees of freedom determined - not by your eviscerated vote - but what serves mammon. And bankruptcy courts such as Judge Drain's who gave immunity to the Sackler family, killers who had the asinine temerity to claim no wrongdoing among the tombstones of the dead by opioid addiction. Mr. Biden, the bi-partisan incremental change man, appears deaf and blind to the coup taking place in plain sight - witness the Supremes' decision and all those States with traitorous voter suppression laws. That's okay. He's going after the Afghan bad boys with drones. But, filling up the Supreme Court with those who actually love justice to zap the foolishness of the fascists? Or cutting the rug out from under Manchin and Sinema and NJ's Gottheimer? Nope. We chose a "moderate" an "incremental change" man, a bi-partisan nice guy man who left his teeth on the sink last night.
Selina, your writing is tre-men-dous. Our Pasionaria!
Of course, when I read HCR’s piece this morning, my first thought was…
“CHAAAAAAAARGE!!!”
“Pack the court!”
But here you’re up against well-organized strategists who have been organizing for years, and their movement is getting into high gear.
Biden, too, has a strategy—which makes a change for Democrats, they don’t seem to have had one for years, apart from stealing the enemy’s clothes. Basically, it consists of reviving FDR’s New Deal. That provides some groundwork, but it all comes late in the day, and the enemy invasion is well under way.
Biden may be forced to move faster than he planned, yet he has to proceed step by step.
You’re too like Minucius, Rome’s hot-headed Master of the Horse, who risked his army in a frontal assault against Hannibal, the great setter of traps.
We can only hope that Biden shows the cool skills of Dictator Fabius the Delayer, skills that prevailed against a superior force.
We must hope, too, that America’s enemy within, for all the money invested in the overthrow of the State, will prove to be no Hannibal, one of the greatest generals in history… The planners and paymasters are no fools, neither are the mobsters’ lawyers or their placemen in the Courts… But the enemy has plenty of complete idiots and raving lunatics in the front line. They need little help in hanging themselves.
Well, your point of view sure is interesting. And, unless I'm missing something in your analogy, none of Biden's FDR's plugs for today alters the fundamental structure of capitalism as it is practiced today. Do they?
You—all of us—could do with a quick answer, there’s no time to waste. These questions have been working on me for a long time but I’m slow-witted and, while I’m no believer in economic necromancy, I’m hard put to address issues like why you may be asking the wrong question and, even if you aren’t, you could be asking the impossible of Biden (or anyone else)… Except… isn’t it like asking the driver to carry out repairs on his vehicle without even making a pit stop? Or asking a surgeon to carry out open-heart surgery on someone who’s unwilling or unable to stop for the operation?
Biden’s approach is surely to change the context in which economic agents operate… correcting the wild tilt in the playing field… Meanwhile, neo-liberalism may have failed the world yet still it staggers on, feeding the junkie few and their habit. And most politicians trudge on in ever tighter circles in their mental prison yard.
Finance today is so overwhelmingly powerful that any frontal assault from outside is unthinkable, at least pending the next crash or other circumstances that temporarily disable that power. (But what if the corporate conspirators get the wild men so worked up that they derail the economy and sabotage all attempts to restart it?)
Politer political persuasion has worked no better, for when I said that the operators in question are “no fools”, that was badly worded—they’re good at their game, think they’re the bee’s knees, only both they and their game are mad and grounded in irrelevant premises. It’s hard to persuade wealthy psychotics who think they’re on a winning streak… Like trying to interrupt a great game of poker in a stateroom on the already tilting Titanic.
I hope I’ll have opportunities soon to discuss with persons more in touch than myself issues like whether it is possible to save us, the world, from capitalism as it is practiced today and whether it is conceivable today to achieve FDR’s aim, namely to save capitalism from itself.
I once asked someone doing basic work on financial ethics whether those with the power to make changes would ever pay attention to his novel but practical approach. Yes, he said, when the next crash comes…
Having said all of which, I appreciate your fire, Selena, far more than my mud.
There's overwhelming possibilities to feel defeated. That's the attitude the oligarchy celebrates. Just like a handful of your friends were made by "accident", not design, I know much happens on a grander scale that, too, appear "accidental." If there can be evolutionary "break-throughs" (alphabet, printing press, Einstein....etc....Ghandi, ), there
is absolutely no "reason" to assume evolutionary thrusts have stopped. There are more of us than there are of them. If Hong Kong can muster millions in the streets, we can too. The biggest problem is that you and 98% of people forget they carry the sleeping trajectory of the evolutionary impulse within. Layered on top is a deep stripe of learned helplessness, and below a constricted and rigidified patterned (conditioned)(static) perceptual frame largely shaped by early childhood with built in generational, family complexes. The demands of the time shout - you are deeply connected with everyone, creatures, plants, rivers, oceans - you are in them and they in you. Take a look at environmental activist Jim Britell.com and his "the broccoli that ate Port Orchard". Also - The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Vintage Departures) We must identify old perceptual lenses in order to become clear sighted on today's Reality. Take a look at Michael Meade's podcasts where he demonstrates how to experience relevant myth to understand where you are and the whole world is in the cosmic/ world scheme of things and pick up the cues myth can offer to work with what's wanting to happen on a level far deeper than that which the Fraternity of the Unwise, Grandiose Narcissistic Bully, Self-Server and Sociopath. MICHAEL MEADE MOSAIC VOICES
https://www.mosaicvoices.org. Old forms are dead. Think "evolution". The thing about "mud." Loaded with organic material and potentially the living waters. Many a creation story begins with the humble "mud."
Feeling this, feeling that… All part of feeling alive, being alive.
But “being” defeated… I can’t even conceive of that.
Defeats? Those are things that come and go. Things we pick up as we go along. In the end, we can’t even say they’re “bad” or “good”. They’re what we make of them. But they’re never what we are.
I should just take more care with my words, with my reactions and how they may affect those who are defeatist.
Frederick, I wonder if that framing would have made any difference. I’m rereading The Grapes of Wrath. The book describes a male-dominant societal structure. Women’s rights has never been recognized as a pillar on which to build.
We do not have Steinbeck's character, Ma Joad, to confirm, but Gender roles have changed dramatically since the 1930's particularly starting inside Defense Plants during WWII & even more dramatically in the general work force in the 1950's. My mother went from a Switch Board Operator in a Los Angeles Hospital to the Head of Personnel in a Teaching Hospital in 20 years.
Stanley ~ When Reagan stated “The government is the bad guy” sometime in the 1980s, the movement took off to celebrate personal freedom over Democracy. The Right has defined the debate on women’s health and freedom since then. WORDS mean EVERYTHING.
Frederick, you’re right. Framing is critical, and I did not mean to disagree with that point. Years ago, I read Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff. He opened my eyes to the importance of framing.
But it is your last sentence that truly terrifies.
If every one of us who follow Letters doesn’t (or isn’t already) kicked into gear by this latest Letter and that last sentence, well, I wonder if we don’t deserve what is swiftly headed our way.
I believe that this is when we must all be (or become) actively more engaged. For me that starts with such things as:
* Telling everyone I possibly can about Heather & Letters and encouraging them to do the same;
* Writing/calling Collins, Manchin and Sinema offices (although it admittedly usually feels pointless);
* Writing local newspapers to support specific actions of the Biden administration, protest anti-democratic activities (the latest travesties from TX and SCOTUS for examples) and to take coherent exception to the letters from obvious trumpies and other sadly deranged/deluded types.
Maybe these personal efforts aren’t much - they certainly aren’t “enough” - but for me they are what I can actually DO on a daily basis. If 1M+ of us Letters followers are doing this it starts adding up. And if all of us turn out for demonstrations, marches, protests, etc etc etc as these opportunities arise as we get closer to the midterms, we will, at the very least, know that we have not acquiesced as democracy was being stolen. We will know that we each added at least one grain of sand to the right side of the scales of current history in the making.
Thanks, Ralston, I’m with you! Activism to protect and extend civil rights is essential to our personal and community’s health and needs to be engaged in unconditionally. I need to keep in mind all the time that activists had to plow ahead in dark times with no assurance of success and order to achieve success. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and countless others had no guarantees when they put their lives on the line for humane change and human decency.
Personal efforts add up. Politicians don't read most of our letters. But they do count them. Keep the letters brief, direct and clear. Adamant is good, too. I write to our Senators and House Rep at least twice a week.
Write the letter in a separate word processing doc. Save on the desktop so you can cut and paste.
Bookmark all your representatives' websites.
Then all you do is go to their website, fill out their 'contact form', and then cut and paste your letter in, hit send. Takes maybe 45 seconds once it's set up.
Most browsers will save your data and auto-fill in any form they have.
I actually have several forms: "nice"; slightly miffed; and really pissed off.
In your browser [Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc] find the page where you contact your congressperson - SSS.House.gov/contact -- or whatever = there are many lists on internet of fax# and emails for these people == once you have the page bookmark it in your browser, maybe in favorites, and just click on it every now and then and send out another missive == short, sweet to the point.
What if EVERYONE that reads HCR sent postcards to Manchin and SInema every week, explaining why their refusal to end the filibuster is affecting everyone’s rights in this country, not just their states. I keep thinking we need ot harness the knowledge and the energy of all of us that read Heather daily.
I love writing postcards.........someone please post a message here that I can copy. Different message every week.....I will do the writing. As I am in AZ now, I am ready to respond by flooding mailboxes.
I created a postcard with people and the word IOWA on the front, from a photo I took at an Obama rally [oh the irony] and words "a Note from one of your constituents" and use them to send to Grassley & Ernst from time to time, but also do the website email AND fax letters -=
Exactly -- I just drafted a fax to send to various people in Congress, both sides, and postcards to my own terrible Senators [Iowa] -- squeaky wheels get greased.
As a retired lawyer I wouldn't do that == maybe to thank the dissenters but really what we want is for the justices to read and interpret the Constitution, not public opinion. Unfortunately, there are now 4-6 justices there now who have a crabbed view of rights under the 1789 Constitution - it's as if no amendments were made. I do think though that writing to our local, state [yes get notes to those state Legislators!!!] and federal political officials MAY do something = if not we can and should vote them out.
If everyone [1] went to Senator//Congresspersons website and sent an email Contact Me comment = short sweet to the point that would help [even if that office only counts the comments], [2] their fax numbers are also public so send a fax to their office = short, sweet and FREE [there are companies which allow free faxes via the internet] - again, adds to the count, [3] Letters to the Ed are good - again, the more we speak out the more we educate others and grow a force to be reckoned with. AND note the connection between those who support vigilantism and the Insurrection.
This court has used the "shadow docket" 28 times since Trump was sworn into office, as opposed to it being used 4 times in the 16 years of Bush and Obama. And all 28 found them ruling in favor of Republicans and/or against the Biden Admin - forcing them to keep Trump-era rules, etc.
By using the shadow docket, where they do not need written briefs, evidence, or need to write an opinion, the Six Injustices can take on all the assaults on the constitution and promotion of the right's agenda, without the general public taking much notice, and with no reports on what was done and how or why.
The Six Injustices are directly assaulting the rule of law.
Thanks, again, these counter measures are so important to learn about! As is the larger historical picture. We need to find cracks in their system just as assiduously as they have worked to seek out cracks and the safeguards for civil liberties.
I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the shadow docket was used in cases when there was no time for preparing written briefs and engaging in debate, as with petitions to stay an execution. But there must be room for setting appropriate limits on it.
Yes, there are limits to the "Shadow Docket" (. rushed, no hearing, no signed opinion on substantive legal matters.) As TCinLA stated above & CNN is reporting, now the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings soon.
Ellie, For a better understanding of how the current US Supreme Court is using the 'shadow docket', below are excerpts from Bloomberg article along with links to Bloomberg's piece and an article in the NY Times:
Supreme Court’s recent ‘shadow docket’ rulings:
'... more and more hot-button issues are being resolved there, including several in recent weeks on immigration in reviving the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” asylum policy, and scrapping the Biden administration’s new Covid-related eviction moratorium'
'Some in the legal community are distressed by what they view as hasty treatment of important questions of law by the conservative-majority court, and the potential impact on the credibility of the justice system in an era of deep cultural and political division and growing mistrust of institutions.'
“In all these ways, the majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this Court’s shadow docket decision making -- which every day becomes more unreasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the dissent in the Texas abortion case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson.'
'President Joe Biden also weighed in. “For the majority to do this without a hearing, without the benefit of an opinion from a court below, and without due consideration of the issues, insults the rule of law and the rights of all Americans to seek redress from our courts,” he said in a statement.'
'The ruling comes as the court is set to consider formally overruling Roe and subsequent abortion precedent this coming term, in a case from Mississippi. The court “acquiesced in a State’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent.'
'Calls for an Overhaul'
'The latest maneuver hastened calls for Congress to step in on liberal calls to expand the Supreme Court, something the White House is studying with little expectation anything like that would ever happen.'
“SCOTUS’s increasing use of the shadow docket to issue massive legal decisions is yet another reason why Supreme Court reform needs to be taken seriously,” tweeted Russ Feingold, the former Wisconsin senator and now-head of the progressive American Constitution Society.'
'In addition to adding seats to the court, Democrats have urged Congress to impose term limits on the justices, citing political gamesmanship to confirm three Donald Trump-appointees to the court.'
“For most of its history, the Supreme Court understood that providing considered, reasoned decisions was essential to its legitimacy,” said Amir Ali, deputy director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Supreme Court & Appellate Program. He testified earlier this year before Congress, advocating shadow-docket reform.
But now, Ali said, “this Supreme Court has appeared eager to make quick, unexplained decisions on major political issues.”
'The shadow docket was coined by University of Chicago law professor William Baude to refer to any Supreme Court action taken outside of the court’s traditional “merits docket,” which encompasses the usual process and proceedings. Unlike its merits docket, the justices often don’t explain their reasoning—or sometimes even reveal their votes.'
'The court’s decision on the Texas case was a single paragraph spanning two pages. The four dissents -- written by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan -- were five times as long.'
“Without full briefing or argument, and after less than 72 hours’ thought, this Court greenlights the operation of Texas’s patently unconstitutional law banning most abortions,” Kagan wrote, saying that the ruling is in conflict with Roe.'
'Texas Abortion Law: Joe Biden Orders Response to Supreme Court 'Assault'
'In addition to adding seats to the court, Democrats have urged Congress to impose term limits on the justices, citing political gamesmanship to confirm three Donald Trump-appointees to the court.'
“For most of its history, the Supreme Court understood that providing considered, reasoned decisions was essential to its legitimacy,” said Amir Ali, deputy director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Supreme Court & Appellate Program. He testified earlier this year before Congress, advocating shadow-docket reform.
But now, Ali said, “this Supreme Court has appeared eager to make quick, unexplained decisions on major political issues.” (Bloomberg)
Yes, limits of some sort must be set. When these institutions were established there seemed to have been a deeper commitment to civil and civic responsibility. In one of today’s articles FDR was quoted, “We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution and not over it. In our courts, we want a government of laws and not of men.” With this Republican Party, we can no longer count on such noble and long-term commitment.
I've read little about the shadow docket, and I find it very disturbing that SCOTUS can rule in the dark of night. They don't have to write opinions or even let us know how each voted. I said yesterday that I can no longer trust in the "Supremes". They've become another arm of the right.
The future of democracy in United States of America may be reflected in Texas' abortion law (a woman's right to choose) which isn't just about abortion and vigilantism (civil rights), it is also about the manipulation of Republican State Legislatures by the Koch Bros., Republican packing of the courts; economic inequality, a lack of social cohesion; the power of political non-profits (Dark Money) and more -- a collection of autocratic forces, which are undermining our democratic society.
In five days, on September 9th, the United States of America will mark its 245th year as a sovereign state. Its democratic form of government is going through one of its most difficult periods. States rights, equality, social cohesion and the distribution of wealth are all flashing strong warning signs.
The country's wealth gap is an outstanding example the country's imbalance. The '...basic measure of the dispersion of incomes indicate that American inequality has been rising steadily for 50 years and is at its highest point of the post-World War II era. Inequality is higher in the U.S. than in any other developed country—closer to the level of Mexico or Costa Rica ...'
'Inequality is widening because the economic growth of recent decades has been unevenly shared, with the vast majority of gains going to those already at the top. Over the past 50 years, household incomes have grown three times faster for the top quintile than for the middle'.
'As a result, only the wealthy are accumulating wealth. With income growth concentrated at the top, middle-income households have not successfully accumulated savings in recent decades, which also means they have not shared in the gains from rapidly rising asset values. Over the past 30 years, top-quintile households gained nearly $500,000 in liquid net worth on average (after excluding the top 1%), while households in the middle quintile saw their debt rise faster than their financial assets.' (American Compass).
The enormous wealth gap for a country, which has credited itself for being the world's foremost democracy, indicates the degree of trouble America faces, and trouble is breaking out all over.
'After Trump’s inauguration, Republican state legislators began passing increasingly restrictive abortion laws, banning abortion after 15 weeks or even earlier. In many cases, the architects of these laws believed such restrictions would stand a better chance in court than in years past, thanks to a federal bench populated with Trump appointees, both at the Supreme Court and at lower levels. Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia lawmakers, for example, have all passed “heartbeat” bills that would ban abortions as early as six weeks, before many women even know they’re pregnant.' (Atlantic)
Texas recently passed a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. 'The law in question was ingeniously designed by Texas Republicans to evade interdiction by the courts by making individual citizens, not the government, the enforcement mechanism for the law, giving them bounties to snitch on clinics and even on “abetters” of abortions after six weeks of pregnancy (at a time when many women do not even realize they are pregnant).' (New York Magazine)
'That structure has alarmed both abortion providers, who said they feel like they now have prices on their heads, and legal experts who said citizen enforcement could have broad repercussions if it was used across the United States to address other contentious social issues'.
"It is a little bit like the Wild West," said Harold Krent, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He called it a throwback to early U.S. history when it was common to have privately enforced laws at a time when the government was limited and there was little organized law enforcement.' (Reuters)
'The new anti-abortion law in Texas is not just about abortion; it is about undermining civil rights decisions made by the Supreme Court during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The Supreme Court declined to stop a state law that violates a constitutional right.' (The Letter)
'In 1957, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower used the federal government to protect the constitutional rights of the Little Rock Nine from the white vigilantes who wanted to keep them second-class citizens. In 2021, the Supreme Court has handed power back to the vigilantes.' (The Letter)
Democracy in America is a big subject. The goal of this comment was to point out several important problems in the country, which are reflected in Texas' abortion bill. The issues could not be covered here, but called attention to. Whatever the seeming suddenness of America's decline, systematic racism is not the only systemic problem in America.
Very well put, Fern. So many times HCR has said, "We've been here before." And in some ways, she's right. But that was before social media provided a segment of the population to have 'alternative facts'. When we were all singing from the same hymnal, it wasn't impossible to split public opinion so viciously, but we recognized the basic facts on the ground. We obviously didn't agree with them, necessarily, but we agreed they were there. (Those who supported civil rights for all and those who wanted to deny them for 'those people', at least agreed there was such a thing as civil rights!)
Obviously, social media isn't the only problem, but it makes all the others worse.
Sandra, You have pointed to one of the seeming 'Black Holes". Biden does want to address Face Book. My biggest concern is how entrenched, how well placed and how much money is against us.
Daaamn Fern you’re good. Memba the Virgins Slim commercial ? “She can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never let you forget that you’re a MAN !” Koch funded.It was the Rockefeller’s that really gave us the right to work outside the home. Why ? Lower wages than men but….Hey, we can Tax them.And we still did all the Wifely duties of course pregnant.Family or neighbors tended little children.I was lucky in the fact that while PG I could stay home as long as we lived within our means. And only the rich had Credit Cards back then. Woman today must work. There came a time in my life that between my husband and I we worked 3 jobs sometimes 4.Not because of Debt tho.We were that lower middle class.Never had a savings Acct. Christmas Club was it. Thanks for you’re post. Brought it all back. The struggle was real. But compared to now it was at least do-able.
One of the few ads that I can repeat verbatim! I'll need therapy now that I know it was funded by Koch vermin. You're correct that this is the worst time in many years - or maybe we just didn't understand the threats behind the headlines in the past. HCR wasn't sending her letters.
"...systematic racism is not the only systemic problem in America."
That's for sure, Fern. There are many systemic problems here in the U.S. Whether it be abortion, racism, wealth disparity, perpetual war, veterans' suicides, PTSD, climate change, polluted drinking water, healthcare, housing, corporate-owned MSM outlets, GMO agriculture with its monoculture food and deadly herbicides growing ever stronger, Monsanto, the Koch brothers, and on and on....
I tend to place wealth disparity at a high level in these systemic problems. When people are really scrambling to find basic shelter and food (primal issues), they have little time or will to work on the other problems.
I'm glad you mentioned opensecrets.org. I've often used them in determining political contributions to individual politicians. I don't believe they cover off-shore contributions. We need a brigade of Edward Snowdens to get into those records.
Thanks for the kind words, Fern. Maybe my best traits are honesty and sincerity. I was raised on the mantra "Make a better world." I always try. So, we soldier on.
BTW, I'm about 90% finished with reading/listening to "Dark Money." I keep a pen and paper as well as the ebook version of the book nearby to note issues I need further detail on. There is also a video version of "Dark Money"; I'll check that one out later.
The book is excellent. Jane Mayer has certainly done her homework. While I already considered the Koch brothers to be a sinister pair, I didn't know the depth and history of their machinations to form and control the U.S. government. If they existed in U.S. pre-civil war days, they would have been owners of a very large plantation and many slaves. The Kochs would definitely have supported the expansion of slavery to cover missouri and kansas and then the rest of the country's territories.
Hello, Heydon. Jane Mayer is one of our most crucial journalist/writers. Please post and I will send you a link to her fairly recent article in the New Yorker, if you haven't read it. I hope to walk to the Hudson River when the mild shower here passes. Salud!
I imagine the rain you had today was what we had yesterday here in Indiana. Yes, please send the link to Jane Mayer's article mentioned. My email is: buckandbernice@gmail.com. My website to preview my WWII book about my parents during the war is: www.buckandbernice.com. Many historic photos there. I believe you'd enjoy it. I grew up on the lore of the war. My father was in so many historic situations during the war. In the past couple decades, I began studying more of history, especially from WWII. I was hooked and studied every available source of info on the formation of the WWII army and the army preparing for war. But, I digress.
Heydon, I appreciation your digressions, they open new avenues to learn from. I will email the link to Mayer's article mid-week and will happy explore your website next weekend. Thank you for making it available to me We'll digress again soon.
Think you, Fern. Heather's letter and your post shed new light on what the Texas law and the Supreme Court's most conservative "Justices" really intend. Maybe this will be the tipping point. If not, our democracy is finished, flawed as it is.
Rock ON, Fern! It is about civil rights and the suppression of same. It is about freedom and the denial of it to the oppressed. Perhaps the goal is chaos and an excuse for gun violence. Did yall see what the Taliban did to women today?
kim, before opening the computer, a minute ago, the Texas state legislators were pictured in my mind en mass - in a group together -- kim, I cannot, truly, comprehend what they did. While words, such as 'barbaric' come to mind, they don't pinpoint what these people are. Are there women among them who voted for those bills? I know it's real, they are real, and I come out of people who have been treated as the lowest on earth, maybe that's why I'm unavailable, my age?. I cannot take it in, perhaps, it hurts, too much. I can't get near it. Strangely, thankfully you are the first person I came to and you raised what I saw in my mind, the perpetrators. Let's you and I see one another, take hands and calmly join our friends to work on what we may do. Hello, kim. Here we are. It's Sunday. Let's find the beauty...
Yes, Dear Fern, the beauty is always available to Earthlings. While there are women who serve as 'token torturers' and women who are honorary men, there are more of us who are awake and aware. Calmly and with courage, coming together to act, to advocate, to live our best life in the fullness of time. Onward!
William, The reality and characters behind the passage of gun, voting and abortion bills in Texas are reflective of America’s dystopia. My question punctuated the agony.
Yes, I went to the Fox Nation Tip site and had to join and get through several firewalls. I wanted to name the governor and all TX leaders and the supreme court justices. After many attempts, it was obvious the reporting form has either been taken down or not put up. Hope people flooded it and it had to be taken down.
This historical context is so badly needed and much appreciated. I doubt many Americans know it. The media rarely boils down momentous developments like this to their crystalline essence as you have.
Even though Texas government officials aren't enforcing the state's new anti-abortion law, they passed it. Without their approval, private citizens aka vigilantes would have no grounds to meddle in this most private aspect of women's lives. So the rationale for not blocking the law strikes me as an exercise in legalistic contortions.
What part of the Constitution grants private citizens the right to financially punish other citizens who haven't harmed them? The majority should have written: "the end justifies the means."
We'll see how the court's illegitimate conservative majority rationalizes overturning a half-century of settled law when it rules in the pending Mississippi case and effectively kills Roe v. Wade. Will the male sexual harasser or male sexual assaulter write the majority opinion?
So if a woman is sued, have these legislators who are so pro-men, thought about how a woman would immediately "out the father" for his share of the suit?
It is an increasingly sad and scary time in America (and throughout the world). It is a time of "hate thy neighbor," "make up your own facts," and "disregard everything that is part of the American myth or fiction." It is overwhelming and the other night with the Texas legislation, I felt the walls closing in. How much could we take? How much protesting can we do? How much money can we donate and hours volunteering can we do? Today, I read the story of Bryan Ruby, the only out professional baseball player. Much of my volunteering work is committed to LGBTQ equality, as chair of Hope in a Box, an organization focused on making LGBTQ inclusive education the norm vs the exception. And he gave to me the inspiration to find more strength and resolve. These are collective battles. After all, without us fighting, we'll let the haters win. And America will surely lose even more.
“Top loyalists to Donald Trump, who frequently push lies about election fraud, have joined forces with conservative doctors touting unproven Covid curesand vaccine skepticism, and like-minded evangelical ministers at a series of events across the US this summer.
The conservative “ReAwaken America” tour – featuring ex-general Michael Flynn and top Donald Trump loyalist donors – has held events in Florida, Michigan and other states.
It underscores how Trump’s allies, anti-vaccine doctors and conservative preachers are amplifying baseless claims that are hurting the nation’s public health and its democracy with potentially far-reaching impacts, say pandemic and election experts.“
As David Frum pointed out in an excellent article in the Atlantic about the Conservative dog that caught the car, these people are now going to find out what happens when 60% of the public starts voting on pro-choice as Issue #1 the way the right voted on pro-life. The turnaround is already happening, as HCR has pointed out in this excellent post. This is going to be like what happened when Prohibition came along. The prohibitionists ultimately regretted winning their fight.
😂 I’ve gone through all comments waiting for one to make me laugh. I was so sure I wasn’t going to find one on a “dark day” in the forum. Judge Brewski. Hahahahahahahaha TC has got to be laughing also. He makes the most salient point today about Prohibition and our current censoring Texas debacle.
What I find most chilling is that it relies on people policing each other—the basis of repressive, totalitarian regimes. Think Stalinist Russia. That family members, friends and neighbors will make $10,000 to turn someone in is absolutely horrifying. Next step: the Senate must abolish the filibuster and set to work protecting the nation from our new thoroughly politicized Supreme Court until Democrats muster the courage to bring significant reform to a now corrupt institution with way too much power.
My grandparents lived in Hungary during the rise of the nazis. This is one of the tactics the nazis used to divide people and turn them against each other. It is one of the most traumatic ways to fracture mental health that will result in long lasting generational devastation.
Agree! It was a clever move by the Texas legislature to weasel their way around the law by putting it in the hands of vigilantes; is there a way for federal law to put the kibosh on state-sponsored vigilantism?
yes but it'll take someone to file suit in federal court alleging state action - I do think that delegating the "whistleblowing" to people is an attempted end run that won't work = the state government/judicial system has to serve papers, open a case, take in and send out filings, hold hearings == the vigilantes can't do anything without the state legally == they can shoot people of course and that may be what happens = but once they call on the state judiciary to be involved, that is state action IMHO
I have to admit that this week almost broke me. I am hoping the "almost" qualifier is true because even with some small victories--such as the Washington court of appeals upholding the ban on conversion therapy (this has been bumping around the courts of many states for several years) and upholding protections for trans* children (not as reliable in the courts)--this has been a hella week for women who don't subscribe to the patriarchal bargain that the women who claim to be "pro-life" (they are not: they are part of the death eater cult) embrace. I am sickened and angry and when a Greek girl gets like this, the Medea nature comes out.
I have absolutely no confidence that any of this is going to get better. The only way that might happen is if people actively, visibly, and vocally flout all of the laws restricting access to the polls and restricting women's bodily autonomy. Dems are not great at presenting a unified front. Reports about Joe Manchin already indicate that his pecker is stiffening at the thought of being able to thwart the vital infrastructure legislation that we need to combat the Despicables' intention to reduce us to an autocracy.
And yeah: I know that my language might be objectionable to some but I don't really care. It's important sometimes to be stark in speaking the truth.
No objections here. I've thought the same thing about Manchin. Truthfully, I'm considering getting medical help for PPTSD - in this case, Post and Present Traumatic Stress Disorder. Like you, I'm hoping for "almost."
The link encourages us to join the effort. If we don't, the question is: why not?
People began spontaneously the first night jamming (hilariously) the rat-fink site for turning in your neighbors created by a right-wing citizens group, but already nazi techies are helping them out. Anonymous on the other hand is organized, canny, and very tech-savy. I'm not, so I'm signing on.
Wowsa… The right has certainly used the Internet to flood legitimate sites with misinformation. Particularly given the stockpiling of weapons on the right, I can see how using every cyber means at our disposal to counter vigilantes is an act to protect civil rights. I want to follow these counter efforts more closely… Absolutely everybody who believes in human rights and human dignity needs to identify the ways they can be most effective to advocate and safeguard on behalf of the most vulnerable.
This once upon a time Alabama practicing attorney tries to imagine legions of self-righteous pro-lifers shutting down the Texas courts, which have not the personnel nor judges to process legions of private bounty hunter lawsuits.
I try to imagine the self-righteous pro-lifers proving in court that a woman who went to Planned Parenthood, or anywhere, actually had an abortion there. Aren't medical records privileged?
What lawyer would take such a case with only a possible $10,000 bounty reward? Perhaps a lawyer who had hundreds of such cases on a 50 percent contingency fee.
If I were a lawyer defending such cases, I would put the self-righteous plaintiffs on the witness stand and ask them if they are Christians?
After they say, Yes, I ask them if they ever raised on their dime an unwanted baby to prevent an abortion?
After they say, No, I ask them if they ever offered to raise on their dime an unwanted child to prevent an abortion?
After they say, No, I ask them if they are not guilty of not trying to save unwanted babies, thus they killed the unwanted babies?
After they say, No, I ask the judge to dismiss the lawsuit, based on the plaintiffs' sworn testimony that they are guilty of killing unwanted babies.
If the judge then gleefully dismisses the lawsuits, the plaintiffs can appeal.
If the judge ignores the evidence and does not dismiss the lawsuits, I ask the plaintiffs if they if read the Bible?
After they say, Yes, I ask them if the Bible is the inerrant, literal word of God?
After they say, Yes, I hand them a New King James Bible and ask them to open it to Genesis 2:7 and read it to the court:
"And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being."
I ask the judge to dismiss, based on the plaintiffs' sworn testimony life begins with the first breath of life.
If the judge gleefully rules against the plaintiffs, then the plaintiffs can appeal.
If the judge ignores the evidence and rules with the plaintiffs, then I file the appeals.
I get on Oprah.
NPR has me on the air.
I am vilified on FOX News.
I am preached and prophesied against in evangelical churches.
I am shot and killed leaving the courthouse.
The shooter claims it was to prevent me killing any more babies.
The State Attorney prosecutes me in the grave.
I put the State Attorney on the witness stand and ask if he/she's a Christian?
Texas lawyers and pro se defendants adopt my legal strategy.
The Texas courts are choked to death and unable to handle other kinds of cases.
FOX News and he Christian right go haywire.
The US Supreme Court gets a chance to rule on Genesis 2:7.
I sure did enjoy this, Mr. Bashinsky! I think you should go on Oprah now!
Do you know anyone who works for Opra? :-)
Once upon a time, Jane Pauley interviewed me on TODAY about my first book, HOME BUYERS: Lambs to the Slaughter? Later, CNN and CBS Morning News interviewed me about my 3rd book, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS? A Clients Guide to Hiring, Firing, Using and Suing Lawyers. All was in italics.
Perhaps you could get on Democracy Now! and the Thom Hartmann show.
Don't know how to go about that.
You need to write a letter with descriptions to the producer. They control.
For Oprah it is the same; you can find names on web.
But to find total details, you need to be a member of IMDb pro.
I write several times to Oora some years ago and got no reply from anyone.
I do not know Oprah or anyone who works for her. Heck, for more than a year I've been asking all my friends to give me a nice introduction to Lawrence O'Donnell, and nothing has come from that yet, either!
I wonder if Heather knows Oprah?
Actually, we just learned that someone here in this forum taught Oprah when she was in, I think, junior high or high school!
This the type of entry tgat would peak her interest!!
My bet is that Oprah knows about Heather. My suggestion is contact Gayle King who works at CBS, I think cohosting their morning show. Gayle and Oprah are besties.
thanks
Yep! Would love to see that!
Sloan, I am going to request that the Forum inaugurate the LFAA annual awards show. Twelve winners will be chosen from the following categories:
a) most informative comment
b) least informative
c) most confusing
d) most irrelevant
e) snarkiest
f) kindest
g) best written
h) angriest
i) funniest
j) most original
k) more caring
l) plagiarized
I would nominate 'Sloan's Texas Cases' for three of them.
Me too...but which 3?
Hi, Stuart. I gave Sloan the option for that and thought he'd jump at the chance, selecting 'plagiarized' to garner some more attention. Why don't you pick the categories that you think apply to your style?
False modesty precludes the possibily of A, H, G and J of course and an inevitable desire for contradictory praise pushes towards B, C and D but i think I'll leave it to others to respond while hoping from time to time that I excel in all categories without necessarily steadily dominating or staying with any of them. Variety is supposed to be the spice of life, Fern. I like joining in the fun, provoking from time to time, informing as much as possible and helping people rise above themselves all the time. Facts and their oft intuitive analysis are always the base rock on which i, like you, wish to stand. Well expressed, they help more people get there.
I feel facts, sometimes, too much. Your reply veers very near Sloan for comedy. Modesty began to disappear after you wrote the letter D, but we stand together on some rock somewhere!
Kindred, complementary spirits will always find a place to stand together, Fern. It's a pleasure.
Heh, well, I certainly plagiarized Genesis 2:7. As far as I know, I'm the only person who keeps putting that passage to the religious right. Started doing it in, mmmm, 1994.
Sloan, What do you think -- a counterfeit TONY Award medallion for plagiarism, a scale of injustice plaque for your humor and a sweet treat of your choice for originality?
Heh
Thanks, Wonder how the the Texas red spectrum would vote?
The wouldn't vote because they don't come to this enlightened place.
I'm not going to get on enemy's front line. Sloan, please pick three of the categories as the 'artist's choice' and post. Thanks.
Fern, proposed it, then declined to pony up. So, here's my votes at this moment, subject to further wrinkles in space and time.
snarkiest
funniest
most original
Alternatively
most informative content
best written
most original
Well played, sir. I particularly like the Genesis quote with life conferred by the first breath. But... The primary problem I'm seeing is the new law works less as legal mechanism than as a powerful disincentive for any woman to consider getting an abortion, since even making an inquiry puts her at risk of exposure. As well as the bind it puts on any Dr.'s office or facility that offers the procedure, since they now become sitting duck targets of lawsuits. Which will encourage them to cease providing that care, at least until there is some clarity on how to proceed. This law is particularly insidious in multiple ways. I'm not fully aware of its status in regard to the Supreme Court, it seems they simply decided not to decide - yet. I can't imagine it will be allowed to stand once they do. There are, of course, more restrictions coming, as the anti-women's health crowd see their opportunity with the current trump stacked court. The best hope to retain women's medical and privacy rights seems to be Republicans' fear of a popular backlash against their invasive rule-making causing them electoral losses.
As I understand it, the law does not target the woman herself. Some great websites have popped up seemingly overnight. This one was shared by another commenter here: www.needabortion.org
I think you're right. The law still works on a psychological level of fear though. Who can a woman turn to for assistance, when even asking can endanger someone else?
Looks to me like the Devil walking on the earth, this Texas statute.
Draconian fascist law.
In case you don't know, Georgia is investigating the Texas law, to see how they can amend their heartbeat law to mimic it.
Her healthcare providers. They are legally obligated by HIPAA to protect her healthcare info. Also it’s for $$ not jail time or bodily harm and as Sloan says, it will be a slow slog thru the courts and hopefully by the time any payment is legally determined due it will all be taken care of constitutionally? I don’t have a grasp on all of it but this is what it appears to be.
I do wonder what lawyers will charge for filing and representing these bounty hunters in court?
From reader comments under my comment, it appears abortion providers in Texas have, in the main, stopped providing abortions because of the statute. I can imagine that was what the makers and backers of the statute hoped would happen. Perhaps Lady Karma will see to it that, in their next lifetimes, the makers and backers will be unwanted children in Afghanistan and similar places.
Long time ago and far, far away I grew up in an evangelical church in Wheaton, IL. I love the Genesis 2:7 quote, especially from the "old translation" King James (maybe a gay king). As a teen I even remember that my home church was for making abortion legal, before tricky dick used it to try and split the Roman Catholics. We even were taught that you shouldn't marry a Catholic but my first serious girlfriend was a Catholic so I guess that is were I joined the lost souls.
Long time ago and far, far away I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, and my mother finally bolted that church and took me and my siblings with her to a newly formed Episcopal church, and all hell broke loose from her parents and my father's parents and their Baptist ministers, as if my mother had damned herself and her children to hell. Abortion was not an issue back then. By and by, after several passes, I drifted away from churches, and eventually I came to wonder when am I ever not in church? We are in church right now, aren't we?
Your mom’s rebellion served you well Sloan. ❤️
Terrific logic! And given civil suits are low priority, what are the chances that one will be heard in the next five years? Great post.
I meant literally how the lawsuits could be defended by Texas attorneys and/or pro se defendants in civil lawsuits brought under this statute. Such an insurgency could make the Texas civil courts a giant international circus. The U.S. Supreme Court would be hard pressed not to take the case and rule on the statute and on Genesis 2:7.
In my dreaming world, everyone woman in Texas who seeks an abortion and everyone who even tangentially assists them would post public notice of what they've done to make sure there's a huge wave of such cases in the courts. And if the Texas bigots decline to bring suit for all of them, then the friends and spouses of the "offenders" should bring those suits to make sure that Texas courts never again hear another case on any other subject.
Regardless of what happens to the Texas court system, it might be a lot harder for a while, or for a long while, to get abortions in Texas, and it's getting the abortion that triggers the statute and its bounty hunting remedies and penalties. I imagine other red spectrum states will pass similar or same law.
Meanwhile desperate women are left alone again, providers disappearing, empathic counsel threatened, the moralizing field day grinding them down further. No exclusion for RAPE or INCEST?? They’ve gone mad.
Now there’s an interesting thought. Strength in solidarity and at the same time annihilating the shame. In this generation, I can definitely see women who are ready for that.
Absolutely, LK. If you think the Arizona Cyber Ninjas are slow, you should get a look at some courts' dockets, especially now in the midst of our pandemic!
For what it's worth, I think most Christians would counter your initial argument with Jeremiah 1:5, rather than Genesis 2:7. Jeremiah 1:5 is the scripture most frequently cited in anti-abortion arguments - "Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee..." Now, of course, the rest of the scripture refers to Jeremiah's pre-ordained calling to be a prophet, but as so often happens, scripture is taken out of context to prove a point. In this case, Christians, at least evangelical Christians use Jeremiah 1:5 to prove that life begins at conception (or even before!). Although I am personally a pro-life Christian (and I mean pro-life, as opposed to the narrow anti-abortion mind-set) I am heartily opposed to the new Texas law and to any attempts to overturn RvW.
Jeremiah 1:5 is about God knowing the soul before it became a human being. Christians tend to read the Bible to suit their perspectives. But since you raised that from Jerimiah, I will ask when does the soul attach to a fetus? Just because it has a heartbeat, does it have a soul? Isn't having a soul what separates human beings from animals? does a soul attach to an embryo? Or, does a soul attach when the embryo is born and takes the first breath of life? I dare anyone to dare to say they know then a soul attaches.
Well, I wasn't expecting a theological debate, nor was I attempting to initiate one. But since you raise the question of souls, from a purely anatomical perspective who can prove that there is even such a thing as a soul, let alone say they know at what point a soul enters a body.
If you lived in my skin a little while, you'd know for a fact that souls exist, and angels, and demons, and God, and the Devil. I have seen ETs, they exist. But that's a bit afield from the Texas anti-abortion statute, which is the handiwork of Christian fanatics, so I meet them on their home turf (they think) and give them their own scriptures and doctrines beliefs in ways that are not convenient to them.
Sloan, I do believe in God, and angels, the devil, and demons from having lived in my own skin, but you're correct - this is all far afield from the statute in question, which violates civil rights and demonstrates the unwillingness of the SCOTUS to uphold the minimal gains that have been achieved in the fight for civil rights.
My a bit cheeky comment, which stirred far more discussion than anything I had published anywhere online, was my best shot at how to go about dealing with the Texas statute on the frontline in Texas. I am willing to bet the ranch that I'm the only lawyer (albeit no longer practicing) in America who even dreamed of taking the approach in court, which I suggested.
This really is about religion, plain and simple. The other side are fanatics, in my opinion. So, I meet them on what they consider their turf, and I put inconvenient facts and questions to them, which are based on their own scriptures and beliefs. Imagine me being allowed to do that on Oprah, NPR, Anderson Cooper, Tucker Carlsen. Bashing them with Genesis 2:7. Asking them when a soul attaches? And when they dare to quote science, I remind them they rejected science during the Covid pandemic; and they rejected evolution theory; the Bible is their science.
There is yet another court, in which everyone stands trial. That court is not of this world. I stand on trial in that court every day of my life. The judges there are not human beings. Their rulings and sentences play out in their own way and time. Karma is very real; sometimes it is quick, sometimes it takes a while.
I heard last night that blue states are considering passing similar bounty hunter laws aimed at people who own illegal guns, and that is freaking out conservative Republicans. Perhaps that threat might influence the very religious justices on the Supreme Court, if it ends up having to deal with the Texas anti-abortion statute?
Meanwhile, mental, emotional and spiritual mayhem perhaps well describes the Texas statute's impact in Texas. Perhaps the ACLU, the National Women's Center, Southern Poverty Law Center, etc., will file lawsuits in Texas, challenging the statute. Or, what about armed insurrection? Well, perhaps not in Texas, where red spectrum folks probably have many more guns than blue spectrum folks.
If humans have souls animals do too. They’re living belngs.
Shush, you could get burned at the stake in some places for saying that :-)
I think the issue is sentient beings, are animals sentient compared to humans? Perhaps dolphins and whales are, or even more sentient? There was a Star Trek film about that, wasn't there? :-)
Humans have not turned out very expert in judging the sentience of others (starting with women but not ending there) and now scientists are studying the sentience and communication powers of plants. Life is sentient.
Humans indeed have gone down many rabbit holes, but I wonder from your words if you think fetuses are sentient and therefore never should be aborted therefore?
You rock! Join us! https://www.pacesconnection.com/blog/paces-connection-presents-the-historical-trauma-in-america-series
Will do.
Your comment Sloan brings to mind "To Kill a Mockingbird." I imagine your line of questioning will be objected to by the plaintiff's attorney, and the judge will immediately sustain.
Regarding compensation, there is no shortage of ambulance-chaser-type attorneys who will make fast work of monetizing the bounty hunters against abortionist sinners. Let's not forget, that this law denies equal protection under the law because even defendants who win are denied reimbursement for legal costs. This opens the door to frivolous lawsuits.
I'm guessing, there won't be many cases after the first few when defendants realize that it's pointless to mount a defense in a "legal" system that is hell-bent on punishing them.
Imagine the lives of the defendants. Undoubtedly some of the cases, especially the early ones, will be publicized. Some sanctimonious right wingers somewhere will go further and publish the names of all to shame them.
And to paint bullseyes on them for the more fanatical right wingers to take to a level not contemplated in the Texas statute - vigilante
Yeah, literal vigilante since may R majority states have passed laws allowing guns ANYWHERE including schools and polling places. If other states do likewise in regards to voting, I can easily imagine a Proud Boy with his AK 47 slung over his shoulder and loudly saying something like "Boy, I hope none of these voters make an error on their ballots since they can be sued." Intimidation much?
Heh, I'm Alabama born and raised. To Kill a Mockingbird is maybe the most important novel ever written in America. Yes, I might very well meet that kind of judge in some Texas courtrooms. Hopefully, Texas has other kinds of judges, too. This statute opens the doors of Hell in my opinion. I mean that in the full Biblical sense.
We named our son after Atticus Finch.
Wear a bullet proof vest. I look forward to reading more!!! Lol
Some days I hope a sniper would take me out and save me from dying of various old age ailments creeping up on me faster now. It really pisses me off that so-called Christians against abortion do not line the block around Planned Parenthood, for just one example, betting to adopt and raise on their dimes, pregnant women's unwanted future babies.
Sloan, I am so glad to have asked the questions I asked, and that you answered the ones I didn't ask but would have if I had thought of them. Thank you so much!
I wondered about this. Plus the funding of it. My understanding is that the 10K truly is the bounty paid to the person making the complaint. The legal fees are also pain in addition to that. I was surprised that clinics stopped providing services at midnight. Is it legal for private fascist donors to pay these bounties and legal fees? Surely Texas tax payers will not stand for it. And yes, frivolous suits clogging up the real justice work?? How will that go over?
I just reported Cecelia Abbott for getting an abortion. When asked how I know, I say that I'm the one who got her preggers. Y'know, that's what guys do...
naughty boy!
Dontcha know it!
My guess is that Texas isn't really expecting citizens to act as vigilantes, because many abortion providers will cease performing procedures, and pregnant women will be afraid to seek abortions. As pointed out, this will open the door for other repressive laws, though, and I believe that's the point.
I'm afraid you are right, Nancy. Our best hope is Democrats winning the 2022 election because of this.
Yes, elections are the best hope, however threatened they may be, if not the only hope, short of a disuniting of the supposedly united states of America. Trouble with 'disuniting' or 'fracturing' as mentioned above is that the split lacks geographic boundaries as the 1861 attempted split did. Where is the 'fracture line' in a State, or a nation for that matter, that is split 60-40? I do not expect an answer in my lifetime.
I too have been trying to figure out what a split would look like. If you're in NJ, you're good to go. But if you're in FL, not so much. Virginia is really split. The denser populated cities make us a blue state, but the rural part is very red.
You know who wants a split more than anything?
Russia.
I agree, Lynell. If we lose the midterms, all hopes will be dashed. BTW, I can't find the earlier post about the women's marches. I want to sign up, and it would save me some time if I could find the link.
Is this it? https://womensmarch.com/mobilize
all signed up
Bless you, Lynell! Going there now.
I think you are right, Nancy. Lots of abortion providers don't want to be sued, although, not being a pregnant woman who doesn't want to carry the baby to full term, I don't know about how they might proceed. I can imagine crossing state lines, like in the old days; and various not pretty downwind outcomes, while the makers and the backers of this statute are certain where they stand with God.
Thanks, Sloan. The women who can afford to do so will probably cross state lines to find services in a more sympathetic location, although many nearby states have also greatly limited such services. The people who can't afford to leave Texas will be the most affected. Somehow, I don't believe that most of the proponents of this disgusting legislation care a whit about their standing with God. I believe the majority are patting themselves on the back, having placed a foot squarely on the back on women, and are hoping that this legislation will also restrict civil rights in many ways. They must be stopped, and I believe it is now necessary to expand the Supreme Court, as well. Hypocrites, all!
Like I said the other day, out of state providers need to take turns making house calls in Texas. Kind of like Doctors without Borders......solves the problem of women needing to travel, Texas providers getting bagged, and what can the nosy neighbors prove without health records which are protected by HIPPA?
HIPAA. I do that every damn time.
Based on some of the reader comments here, that seems to be the effect in Texas, and I can't imagine hell pregnant Texas women who don't want to give birth already are experiencing internally, nor how they are coping, nor how it will play out later for them and, if they give birth, their children.
I don't know if or how the Texas statue rewards the bounty hunters' lawyers. Because Texas Legislature passed the statute, lawsuits brought under it cannot be viewed frivolous by the courts. I think it's probably legal for private citizens to fund these kinds of lawsuits. Based on all I read online and see on TV, the red spectrum controls most of Texas. I have learned over the years that religious fanatics cannot be reached by logic, and perhaps not even by God. What I wrote was meant to be a blueprint for an insurgency in Texas against this is private hunter law.
My understanding is that once found guilty, the defendants (spouse, clinic, friend, taxi, etc) will be required to pay the $10,000 bounty and legal fees of the accuser. This is why clinics closed so quickly. They are the most obvious target and these costs would bankrupt them.
If the defendant is found not guilty, there will be no compensation for his/her legal fees or any other compensation. Just another layer of the terror.
These clinics provide other healthcare services. All who work at the clinic would seemingly fall under HIPAA laws which should take preempt any state law? So if a woman does not share her personal health info with anyone else who is to know )in any way that can be proven). Or are they simply operating on presumption??
I misspoke. Most clinics aren’t actually closing, they have instead refused to perform abortions over 6 weeks, eliminating 75% of their business. Many had already closed due to multiple restrictions.
Ok good to know. Thank you! So private citizens with deep pockets and religious fervor can fund other private ratfinks without deep pockets but the same religious fervor? I very much appreciate your comment and response
Christy The convoluted situation that you discuss reminds me of the Abbot & Costello skit WHO’S ON FIRST, but what you raise is definitely not amusing.
The Texas statute itself funds the civil lawsuits, private backers (fanatics) can provide even more funding. I can't imagine one Texas civil court judge in his/her right mind worrying about his/her cause load exploding exponentially.
Here are the words from the statute:
If a claimant prevails in an action brought under this
section, the court shall award:
(1) injunctive relief sufficient to prevent the
defendant from violating this chapter or engaging in acts that aid
or abet violations of this chapter;
(2) statutory damages in an amount of not less than
$10,000 for each abortion that the defendant performed or induced
in violation of this chapter, and for each abortion performed or
induced in violation of this chapter that the defendant aided or
abetted; and
(3) costs and attorney's fees.
(c) Notwithstanding Subsection (b), a court may not award
relief under this section in response to a violation of Subsection
(a)(1) or (2) if the defendant demonstrates that the defendant
previously paid the full amount of statutory damages under
Subsection (b)(2) in a previous action for that particular abortion
performed or induced in violation of this chapter, or for the
particular conduct that aided or abetted an abortion performed or
induced in violation of this chapter.
(d) Notwithstanding Chapter 16, Civil Practice and Remedies
Code, or any other law, a person may bring an action under this
section not later than the sixth anniversary of the date the cause
of action accrues.
Thanks, William. I tried to use Google search to find the statute and didn't find it. In law school, it was drilled into us when we had anew case to see what the state code (statutes) had to say. Just because the lawmakers who dreamed up this statute are religious fanatics (or politicians seeking to stay in office), doesn't mean they aren't really clever. Crafty works, too. I wonder how clever, or crafty, they will feel when their roll is called up yonder?
Public funds, Taxpayers funding private investigations, bounty hunters, vigilantly justice and the lawsuit? Crazy.
You say tomato, I say tomatoe
You sat Crazy, I say Texan
The defendant pays the fine & costs, not the state.
not worrying about
Thank you for helping us sort thru this. I can't imagine that abortion providers would stop providing services unless this presented a real threat to them.
I was tickled by the possible Freudian slip in this part of your post: “The legal fees are also pain…”. :)
Apologies to Sloan, of course.
oops, very well could have been a Freudian slip. Once upon a time I wrote, KILL ALL THE LAWYERS? A Clients Guide to Hiring, Firing, Using and Suing Lawyers. All was in italics. Published by Prentice-Hall division of Simon & Shuster.
I've been away from internet for 3 days, so I'm late to read/respond. My understanding of the language in the Texas statute is that any person anywhere can bring suit against one who aids or abets a woman in obtaining an abortion. Perhaps we get to gumming up the courts and angering enough Texans to take action in quick order if folks from out of state start picking random Republicans and filing suit against them under this statute. Make them spend the money on expensive lawyers to defend. Under the law, there are no frivolous suits. So being a bit loose with the facts appears to be invited! Texas courts would be at a standstill pronto. As I read the statute, plaintiffs would be out the filing fee but the Republican defendants would be out-of-pocket much more and their tax dollars wasted while the courts sort it out!
I think mean the Republican Plaintiffs? Several comments under my original comment indicated abortion providers in Texas stopped providing abortions, which I think was the statute's true goal.
No. I mean to use their statute as a sword to bring Texas Civil Courts to a complete standstill. Democrat political operatives could provide the names/addresses of Republican voters. Filing fees would be a small price to pay to gum up the works BEFORE providers are sued. Let's be creative in our response to this outrageous affront by Texas and the SCt.
Sloan Bashing, I love it! Do you think your killer, who would probably us an assault rifle, claim a 2nd Amendment defense of his right to use such a rifle, since it is designed only to kill human beings?
Perhaps, but I imagine the shooter's primary defense is the law allows him to use deadly force to prevent someone from killing babies. Perhaps his face might be found in the Jan 6 Capitol mob? Perhaps he knows the QAnon shaman in that mob? Perhaps he attends a mega church in Dallas? Perhaps he becomes a national red spectrum hero and runs for Governor of Texas? Please understand, I belong to no political party and poke what seems to need poking.
Oops, sorry Sloan, I wrote your last name incorrectly. "Bashinsky", not "Bashing."
I thought it was metaphor :-)
Could be!
The right wing loves religious exemptions so perhaps there should be one here.
This is from Rabbi Danny Horwitz.
I once had to counsel a woman to get an abortion.
Years ago, I was the rabbi of a congregation in greater Kansas City. I knew this woman had preexisting health issues and struggled to take care of the children she already had. Without sharing any other personal details, it was clear to me another pregnancy was going to push her over the edge.
Judaism teaches that potential life is sacred. Nevertheless, our religion also teaches that potential life is not the same as actual life, that a fetus is not a human being. This is directly derived from Scripture. Therefore, even during labor, the pregnant woman’s life has precedence over the life of the fetus. And if we have reason to believe a pregnancy will be a serious threat to the woman’s well-being, whether that be mentally, physically or otherwise, then she will be counseled to abort the fetus, and to do so in a way that maximally protects her own health.
Many books have been written about this, but these are the rules that guide Jewish law and those of us who seek to fulfill it in the practice of our religion. Each case is unique, but the principles remain the same. We would never celebrate the termination of potential life, but neither would we regard it as automatically forbidden. As my doctoral adviser, Rabbi Byron Sherwin, put it, “Judaism is neither pro-life or pro-choice. It depends on the life and it depends on the choice.”
Thus, when this woman came to me for direction, I told her not that she could have an abortion, but that she must have an abortion, that the God of my understanding would want her to do it.
My action would likely be considered a violation of SB 8, the new Texas law making it illegal to assist someone in pursuing an abortion. Thus, this law is a restriction on the practice of my religion. And it would likewise impose a religious standard upon anyone from any religion who believes abortion is not always the evil our state officials believe it to be.
This law cannot stand forever.
The fallacy, alas, in arguing from the basis of religion is that the fuckers who passed the law don't give a shit about religion: it is just a useful tool with which to attack women, LGBTQ people, and others whose biology or lifestyles they find objectionable.
I fully agree that many of "those fuckers" don't give a shit about religion except as a useful tool. I thought that William Cash was making an interesting point, or perhaps the rabbi's story does, that the constitutionally protected first amendment right to free exercise of religion provides a different leverage point for arguing the unconstitutionality of Texas SB 8 than the Roe v. Wade use of a (stipulated) right to privacy. It doesn't matter if those fuckers don't give a shit about religion - we can still throw that in their face.
I immediately thought of freedom of religion once I started reading William's post, and how that could be, as you say, Bill, a leverage point at least for practicing Jews, if it ever got that far.
But how does all this figure into those you have the right “Freedom from Religion “?
It seems more likely to me Linda that everything Republicans do is designed to galvanize their fanatical and extremist base while at the same time crucifying the liberal left. Republicans exploit and manufacture social divisions for the sole purpose of divide and conquer, gain and retain power. Who easier to exploit than religious fanatics, political extremists, and anyone who has harbored resentments and grievances for generations (aka white males.)
Your point is spot-on but unfortunately, it is not only white males who respond (dive in head first) to the exploitation.
Your comment gives me the opportunity to open an entirely different line of thought. I've lived in the deep south for the last half of my life. I moved here for a job and that job was opening to make friends and develop relationships with people who have lived here all their lives and more often than not they are multi-generational southerners.
I learned firsthand that southern women understand and accept that they live in a male-dominated society. Women are essentially treated like possessions (chattel) by men. Is this true in all cases? Of course not, but it represents the thinking of the vast majority of men and women.
The other important observation I've made is that politics in the south is akin to religion. For example, facts and evidence to the contrary (e.g. science) hold no sway over the party faithful. They see and hear what they choose to believe. The south is the bible belt and it is a society that operates solely on faith. People believe in God and Jesus purely out of faith. Politics is a close cousin to religion and they are totally intermeshed.
So Kasumii, it's true women are equal offenders but make no mistake they live in a male dominated society.
Spot on
I was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. Politics in Alabama, and nearby, IS a RELIGION. Donald Trump recognized that and exploited it, saying what he knew Christian fanatics wanted to hear. They knew he was a very bad man and remade him into an Old Testament bad man prophet. When Trump stood before the Capitol holding up a Bible, when he told them God had sent him to them, they herd angels singing. Not the angels they thought they heard. Trump was pro-choice until he ran president and saw a good way to nab a whole lot of votes by telling the Christian right he would pack the U.S. Supreme Court with their ilk. He brought the American Taliban out Egypt and the wilderness to the walls of Jericho. What they were really like became crystal clear on January 6. That white right mob were proxies for the American Taliban. We know this from the red spectrum's refusal to call for the heads of the white mob and their leader. As much as I admired Ruth Bader Ginsberg, she made a grave mistake not retiring and letting President Obama replace her. Please understand, I am not a Democrat. I belong to no political party. I think belonging to a political party, like belonging to a religion, compromises ability to think and see properly. I very much think God exists. In fact, I know God exists, which is very different from believing it. I know the Devil exists, as well. This is very much a spiritual war, and the American right are not nearly as close to God as they think. The left needs to examine their position with God as well. The left pushed the Roe v. Wade envelop far past what that decision encompassed. The right wing backlash was inevitable.
I have to call you on your last few sentences, Sloan. Sounds like your religious convictions are being pressed upon us, too. I'd be interested in reading how RvW was pushed too far.
But way back to the genesis of this idea of women as chattel...someone or something is benefiting by the continuation of this line of thinking...some system is continuing to reap benefits somewhere and to someones. Women are being exploited but to what end? I am skeptical that it is purely ideological. I think there must be a $ benefit being preserved. That's what I am trying to understand. If women really had power, would it diminish returns on investments? Would the economic system become more equitable? Would it hinder the exploitation of labor whereby a small group can reap outsized profit? There must be something at work in the system that is being protected. At this stage in the machine we call the U.S., things may be baked in and not even recognizable. Why else would everyone not recognize the cruelty behind these TX efforts?
A lot of somebodies are making a killing on women - globally, we have the pink tax, which is the up charge women pay for buying health and beauty aid products, clothing, sporting equipment and more geared for women.
In the US higher insurance premiums for all types of insurance - car, home, life, health; the cost of a simple haircut.
Globally, too, penalizing women because they are women is baked into many cultures - various religions believe a woman is unclean when she menstruates and women are penalized in most places for menstruation by paying a tidy sum for tampons, sanitary pads and cups. So just imagine growing up knowing that once a month you are considered unclean, particularly by men. Women, in a passive way to counter the disgust men regarded them with, took to crafting ceremonies to validate and honor the cycles of their bodies. This may seem like a solution but, IMHO, it's actually caving to make domination in a most cringe worthy manner. And women STILL go through the cleansing rituals men devised fir them centuries ago.
And what about pharmaceutical drug trials? Stroke and cardiac intervention and care for women? Or how women were locked in attic rooms or were institutionalized as hysterics and had ungodly treatments performed on them to "cure" them.
Then there are head coverings and "modest clothing" it's not just Muslim women, but Orthodox Jews and Conservative Christian Sects, Mennonite, Amish, Fundamentalist Mormons.
Then we get to rape and various forms of violence against women where, even today, women choose to not file a complaint against her rapist or abuser because the anguish she will go through because our system is unfairly tilted against her...even when the evidence of rape is incontrovertible, (or you live in a city/county/state where your rape kit ended up on a shelf with thousands of others).
Hiring, wages, benefits, bonuses, promotions. Unequal on all counts.
Car loans, mortgages, credit card interest.
Voting: what of the women who votes the way her husband tells her too? How insecure must one be to walk into a voting booth, draw the curtain and vote the way they were told to vote by their husband?
You ask why EVERYONE doesn't recognize the cruelty behind the efforts in Texas? Because, frankly, most men don't care to address the inequities women deal with on a daily basis. I'm not saying all men but I am saying a significant percentage of men simply don't give a damn. Why rock the boat if it will cause them personal loss or discomfort? Or loss? And truly, when we ask ourselves why the Equal Rights Amendment never passed, we know in our heart of hearts why. Now, go ask a family member, friend or acquaintance with a penis why the ERA never passed. I'm curious what their answers will be.
Usually I'd have citations for this kind of rant. Today I don't because I'm on my cellphone and it's nigh on impossible to flip from one screen to another. I'm sorry.
Hi Don. Thanks for your comment. I do agree with you. I lived in the Deep South for 12 years and came to the same conclusions, generally speaking.
Someone who gets it...
...and, I might add, it's uglier than that.
Safety first is the rule in these circumstances.
Religious fanatics don't give a tinker's damn about what other people think and believe. Ask any Afghan woman.
Actually they just think Trumps base will vote for them in the midterms—we’re just the caste of women— it’s really all about hold on to their mostly white male power at all costs.
I'm not a Democrat, nor a Republican, nor any Party, and I hate to think about the Republicans (Taliban) regaining control of the U.S. Congress.
I’m just a progressive independent
And to keep us off message. We need to be aware
Yes, I was initially hopeful for the "Jewish exemption" from this abortion legislation.
But quickly remembered what "Jewish Exemption" means to these people...
...extermination
Unfortunately, this ^. I can't imagine logic derived from Judaic law will change many minds in the Christian fanatic set.
True, because they are unreasonable. This Jewish law is so reasonable but reason seems to be no part of this issue.
OK. So we maintain reason even in darkness. That is our strength,
Yes, we must not abandon our reason or decide contrary to it, imo. Our reason is part of the natural law and our highest functioning ability. We shouldn't throw it out the window to accommodate religious doctrine which isn't based in science.
Unfortunately, abortion has been made a religious issue when there is no clear biological determination as to when human life begins. So, we must use our God-given reason/reasonableness to make a decision re: abortion. Each woman must do this herself because there are no clear guidelines.
Well, fundamentalist X-tians are taught that Jews are the chosen, so you have that plus.
No theyb will oppose it. They will say we've undermined true religion. That's OK with me because I hate them passionately, so we're now even.
I refer to them as “Convenient Christians “. They kind of pick and choose Who, How, What,When and Where they will ‘ACT ‘ Christian. Notice they dropped the Phrase “ What would JESUS do ?”.
Amen. What would Jesus do? If he were to show up in their midst and carry on like the Gospels say he carried on 2000 years ago, they would string him up.
Not if he looked white
They believe in a “Second Coming “. You’re right, they won’t know him . No matter what miracle he may choose to prove , w/out an AR-15 they will shout ‘ Imposter !’
Have you ever read Jeff Sharlett's book The Family. The evangelicals he stayed with claimed they spoke to Jesus every day and he made all their decisions for them. If Jesus made the decision, it can't be wrong.
You are right, I don't hear the word Jesus as much but many still claim that they talk to god and god makes their decisions.
I always thought when people talk to an invisible being and hear it talk, they should be in an institution but today they become leaders of a religious sect.
We are not dealing with rational people.
It exempt’s them from Personal Responsibility.Dealt with it first hand. I did not read that book but remember what you’re talking about.
Yes, haven't heard that one for several years now.
Other than the Catholics I don’t know of any organizations that will support a single woman during pregnancy. Not sure if the rule is to put up for adoption ? Or due to the fact that most, not all companies at least in Fl will fire U if they find out they are PG. No one in FL WILL hire a a woman that is PG. Liability. Married women have no support outside of Medicaid for Dr.Maybe food stamps. But loss of income is just lost.So we see families Homeless with children and a new infant. Did they stop and think perhaps these Mothers maybe have to give up at best the infant if not all their children to the system. No ! Bible in 2021 “ Suffer the little children “. Jesus would say that is wrong ! It’s Pro Birth and literally the buck stops there.Sorry so long.I’m so angry and stressed ever since TFG came down that escalator.And the War on Democracy .
In my experience, if they are Christians, they care a great deal about religion as they perceive and twist it to suit them. They are fanatics, America version of Taliban, and that they do not have God 100-percent on their side never occurs to to them. They are ingrained with the unshakable belief that only people who believe as they believe will die and go to heaven, and everyone else will die and burn in hell forever. They are going to be really surprised when they stand before St. Peter, so so speak, but meanwhile, I can imagine a great many Texas women deeply sympathize with Afghanistan women.
Yeah—and women generally have greater empathic powers
"Judaism is neither pro-life nor pro-choice. It depends on the life and it depends on the choice." That is a marvelous statement, and it really fits for me, a non-Jew. Mind if I borrow it? (I might add, "Oversimplification is a symptom of ignorance.")
If I hadn’t chosen abortion at 19 and 27 I’d have had a really strange life. Luckily I had the right to chooe them and eventually had a wonderful son and great husband. I can’t even imagine how it would be if I were forced to keep the child of a g-d rapist. And that’s the position Abbot and his cronies are forcing poor women into. Boycott Texas.
Yes, and all women -- refuse sex until the men stand up and say Enough!
Everyone should read caste—women have tried refusing sex protesting and there was that really angry one who cut off her husband’s penis—remember her—I think they found it though and sewed it back on. Anyway I will be in the woman caste until I die but now that the book enlightened me I’m actually more accepting of my place. There are much worse castes I could have been born into—or I could be a beautiful young woman in Afghanistan.
Boycotting Texas reminds me of the movie, Thelma & Louise. Texas reminds me of Afghanistan.
Hey Sloan thanks for reminding me of that movie—you don’t remind me of anyone I know but I picture you like a rabbi of Alabama
Rabbi Horowitz's second paragraph is important.
Excellent explanation! Thank you!
Thank you, William, for this post. Very compelling.
William, I think every pro-lifer should be required to read your comment every day until they agree with your or stand before St. Peter, where he reads your comment to them.
God bless.
I appreciate you explaining this Jewish interpretation— I have a Jewish brother-in-law and had no clue
In late-breaking news, two things have occurred. Firstly, GoDaddy will not host the online accusation form the Right To Lifers created. They were given 24 hours to take down the site, although it had already been frozen by a shower of bogus 'tips' sent in by the public.
Better still, Planned Parenthood has won a brief respite. The District Court for Travis County granted a temporary restraining order against Texas Right to Life and its associates, stopping them from suing abortion providers and health care workers until September 17.
It's not a lot, but it's a start.
see: https://yubanet.com/usa/in-win-for-abortion-providers-texas-state-court-grants-restraining-order-against-texas-right-to-life/
Thanks for these updates.... a foot in the door to prevent it from slamming completely.
Gary, thank you so much for finding this and bringing it to our attention. It is so important for me to learn about each and every way that any sort of resistance can be mounted to this wild west vigilante breakdown of civil rights safeguards. There’s so much naked “might is right“ energy, and learning what successfully counters it can mobilize us.
Gary, spot on yubanet.com Link. Travis County surrounds the City of Austin Texas.
Thank you Heather.
After the election, I was talking to a retired Judge about how relieved I was and now we can start to get back to normal. He said " as wonderful as that sounds, it's the Supreme Court we have to worry about. I have major fears". He was 100% correct and I was 100% wrong. As I think back to our conversation, he foretold what is happening now . Frankly, to a frightening degree.
Abortion is only the guise being used, this is a flat out take over of our rights. This isn't a dramatic overview, its reality. It won't stop here.
I'm pissed. I'm sad. I'm disgusted.
Pack the courts. End the filibuster.
Be safe, be well.
And eliminate the Electoral College.
Totally and soon please.
Linda, I’m re-joining my state and county Dem Party activist roster. Have you already signed-on?
Yes Frederick, we all need to show up in every organization we can. We either use our power now or loose it.
I have a special affinity for the local Dems. Others are fine too, like Indivisible and MoveOn. But the Dem Party is where the power, resources, contacts, are
Yes. I have been.
Pack the courts, end the filibuster exactly!
Extrapolation is always dangerous, but this Court "non-ruling" has opened the door to allow states to usurp Federal authority simply by acquiescing to vigilantism. Why stop at abortion? Could not the same argument be made to allow individual citizens to interpret and enforce any law they saw fit? It literally legitimizes anarchy
Couple this with the other legislation just passed in Texas removing gun restrictions and voter suppression, and you have created a toxic brew that will lead to nothing good.
My mood grows increasingly gloomy with each passing day!
As a teacher in Texas, first day of training we were read the house bill that limits the teaching of history. So I feel like we’re not even allowed to teach students any of these things that would educate future voters. We were limited to the documents of the original founding fathers. We were specifically not allowed to teach the 1619 project. Every student must pledge allegiance to our one republic everyday. And we have new board members that will see to it that this is adhered to. And there is a new group of population that will not have their rights infringed upon. Be it a mask or behavior their child will do as they like. These sets of laws were a turning a corner. I cannot even believe the level we’ve sunk too!
How can you remain a teacher in Texas under those conditions?
I own that that is mostly a rhetorical question because we all have obligations in life and are in chains - golden (like a pension to be lost) or otherwise.
I am a retired teacher. To be forced to misrepresent objective truth would have figuratively brought me to my knees. Literally made me mentally unwell.
I never wanted or took the opportunity to proselytize- a teacher has supremely unfair advantage over the minds of her/his impressionable charges.
But to not have the right to teach truth is a bridge too far. I don’t think I could have continued to teach were i in your position. It would have felt like a form of abject surrender.
Let me hasten to add that this is not a recipe for professional life that I would deign to apply to any other person. Everyone’s situation is fraught and I walk only in my own shoes.
I was born contrarian. It was tested and I always held to my principles. But - and this is key - it was never tested with life-altering consequences. I have no idea if my convictions would hold then. In the delightful Texas phrase, I may be, when push really comes to shove, “all hat and no cowboy”.
I wish you well. This is a cruel situation for you.
It’s a struggle. Understatement there. We are not allowed to unionize or strike. We have very little recourse. We are expected to take care of all societal ills. But on the flip side, what would you suggest I do? A few years from retirement that will still have me living in poverty. A job I love and kids I really care about. Walk away from it to what? There are plenty of people blaming teachers for everything from “learning loss” (not a real thing by the way) to the spread of delta variant. Teachers aren’t pulling the strings! Politicians have us wedged!
Thank you for allowing me to see it through your eyes. I can only be thankful for how fortunate I was. Just in case you don’t know, I’m from Canada.
I was never without the protection of a strong union - in fact I got into union executive positions b/c I felt the unions were getting too powerful. But also because we were switched from a local Board negotiating with us to the Government of Ontario (province of about 13 million) bundling it all into one package and there being province wide negotiations.
The results of course were strikes and cutbacks in the form of additional teaching hours. It was a burden, but never, ever was our freedom to pursue truth in our teaching threatened.
There is always the lure of children in the end. They are very hard to turn your backs on if you are dedicated.
I would suspect that there are very few people of Denise Huddle calibre in Texas schools. How could the state possibly attract people of character and learning into such nightmarish and stifling conditions? Teaching must fast be becoming the lure of only those who are found wanting in professions where money is to be made. Even those who enter bright-eyed and bushy-tailed will soon become time servers.
And where is the respect from the public? If the government bullies you, then many parents of a certain type will see teachers as whipping boys as well.
Add to that racial animus, the remorseless surge of social media cutting children to bits at the tween and adolescent age, spineless leaders, and endless other privations and it seems to me time to rise up in righteous wrath.
I am sure you don’t run your classroom by means of scaring kids into submission. It is to weep that you are subjected to this.
Am I getting something wrong here?
What isn’t a struggle?..
Thank you for your posts of what is going on "in the trenches" of Texas education.
Your "group of population that will not have their rights infringed upon" sounds like a horrible batch of spoiled kids raised by spoiled kids who now believe that their little darlings can do ANYTHING THEY WANT. That is a dangerous precedent.
We have such right here in Oregon. Two superintendents have been fired already for no real reason except far right boards. The mess in Newburg is ongoing and they have hired a lawyer to help them write their suppression of what they don't like, so that they can avoid suits. They have violated the public meeting law to do it. Stay tuned.
We sure do. I haven't seen anything out of Newberg (The Register Guard is a shadow of its former self) but we've got shenanigans and monkeyshines here in the south end of the Willamette Valley as well.
The Oregonian has stories on Newberg. I agree the RG has become another Gannett rag just like the SJ. Thankfully, in Salem we managed to elect a slate of progressives to the school board. We will see how it goes when school opens. Just saw a complaint about the public library not being open. It has been closed for a long time for earthquake refitting and redesign. It was supposed to open September 1st, but COVID. At least some of the responses i saw understood why this is happening. We have some restaurants in Salem requiring proof of vaccination, so people are being urged to support them while the antivaxxers (who probably wouldn't patronize either one) want to boycott them. Fine with me. We have a Proud Boy problem here in Salem associated mostly with fundamental churches, so I have long been worried about vigilantism.
The things they think are problems! I think you haven’t had problems yet! Covid brought them very close for the first time. But now we’re back!
Denise, Hang in there we need you. 🙏🏾🙏🏽🙏🙏🏻
Thanks! I keep pushing kindness, integrity, compassion. But I’m afraid that school wide creed will be stricken next. These groups want their child to be able to do whatever they want without any consequences!
Kindness, Integrity, COMPASSION!
The MALE MUST be MADE RESPONSIBLE for the impregnation of a Woman!
I have found "little" if NO Conversations or News Articles addressing the
Role of the Male. "NEWTERING, CASTRATION."...MUST be part of the
LAW, should ANY LAW addressing the Woman's impregnation.. THE BIRTH of an unwanted, or inability to care for the child BY the Male &/OR Female.
JEOPARDIZES THE LIFE OF THE UNWANTED! CHILD!
Castrations before abortions! That’s in the running for my sign now!
And they wonder why there’s a teacher, nurse, doctor shortage.
Educators need Hazard Pay.
Instead our raises just cover the increase in insurance.
They do indeed— 🙏
Denise, my sympathies for your position. But, as you undoubtedly know, you could teach U.S. History I using only documents from "the founders"--letters, speeches and drafts from the Constitutional Convention, newspapers and records from the state ratification debates, procedures from the first Congress that determined the legal and institutional structures of the new government, etc. There is abundant material available therein to highlight many of the subsequent themes and conflicts that we deal with to this day: the place of slavery in a "republic of liberty," the powers a government must have to operate effectively, class divisions and concentrations of wealth, regional and rural/urban divides, and so on. Of course what your school board zealots want is not to look at the complexity and conflicts of the founding, but a catechism: a short, simple list or required beliefs and practices to be repeated and obeyed, rather than questioned, compromised and amended as the "the founders" did.
Thanks, Tom. You make an excellent point -- use all the resources from the founders, give it an appropriate title, expanding the curriculum to include complexity. Great challenge. from a retired teacher also : )
edit: ...list of required beliefs...
Like madrassahs, where rote learning of the Koran is a major part of the curriculum. I really like your idea of using the founders' documents to teach the complexity of statehood.
In that Pledge, is “Liberty and Justice for All.” THAT could be a progressive mantra, IF we were smart to organize around this Pledge
Also in that pledge is the divisive “under god” for those not aware that there are Atheists, Agnostics, Humanists & others in this nation who do not believe that mythology.
Which was added in 1954, during the Cold War. Not part of the original writing. But definitely part of the minority rule culture.
Absolutely with you!
In farming psychology, the idea is to REPEAT your vision, and that is: “Liberty and Justice for All.” Liberals would say this as a moralistic vision, as if we had a moralistic basis for our policies. People usually do not vote on policies, but on the values and FEELIN G one has for a candidates. Most people appreciate the values and morals of their candidate. Like, Bernie always spoke in a moralistic manner - but NEVER clearly articulated the basis, and that would be this phrase from our moralistic underpinning, the Pledge of Allegiance. This is simply a wise manner of speaking for a progressive, to another person with whom the speaker wishes to reach
If we really went “For All” this time!
We WILL mean “for All.” Liberals have never turned to the Pledge of Allegiance for our moral compass. NOW it is time. I’m speaking with my state Dem Party to make this phrase THE key phrase for us.
Perhaps NEXT WEEKEND we will have a petition to enlist for now and 2022 for farmers markets across the state, from the NH border to Quebec and New Brunswick provincial boundaries.
There’s my sign! Rights for All! No to fascism!
Denise, is that pledge to the Texastan Republic or the United States Republic? There was a U.S. Supreme Court case in 1943 (West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette) that said students could not be forced to recite the pledge. But in the 1990s I kept seeing news reports that students who refused were being punished (until the ACLU sued to remind the fascists it was illegal). I protested saying the Pledge of Allegiance in my St. Louis high school in 1962 (taking issue with the “under god” divisive part) and there were no repercussions. Apparently, they knew of the ruling, that these backwater states do not or blatantly disregard.
They oddly did not specify but all schools already do both pledges. It has always been my understanding that I could not force a child to stand during the Pledge. I wonder when someone is going to challenge it
I'm just curious......who enforces that every student must recite the pledge every day? If a student just sat quietly or stood silently and was respectful, who would make a stink? Not you. The other kids? Are they teaching kids to be vigilantes in TX as well?
Rob, This is not limited to “backwater states.” Across New Jersey, ACLU-NJ has had to fight municipal lawn sign restrictions. We all must be active and alert.
Denise, in feel like every time we hear from you it’s like getting a letter from the front lines!
Marcy, I agree. Denise is on the front lines and is reporting back. It sounds awful for teachers in TX right now.
I’m taking suggestions for signs to carry to the rally tonight. I’m thinking something along the lines of rights. Texas is taking to the streets!
Human rights! Women's rights. Please let us know what your sign says.
I’m so disgusted I want to write a soliloquy!
Ha! Well my women’s group is going to a rally tonight. So kind of!
Denise, Marcy, and Pam, This undoing of our democratic process and equality is going on in Wyckoff, New Jersey, so I suspect the problem is happening across the country. Even though New Jersey is generally blue, Wyckoff is red. A minority of school board members want to limit the teaching of science and history. When new red school board candidates rcvd poor ballot positions in November’s election, our all-Republican township committee announced on a Friday night that on the following Tuesday they would hear a proposal to move the school bd election to April, during vacation week. At the meeting, after two hours of comments against the proposal, our township committee passed it. If their scheme works, Wyckoff’s school board will be controlled by Texas-style members.
Perfect reason for Democratic Party activists to participate in ALL local voting efforts
Exactly. That’s why I was there and at a school bd meeting, even though my kids are older.
And a perfect example of why voting by mail is an essential tool to ensure all voters can vote even if they're going to be out of town on election day. Are voters able to use mail ballots for school board elections?
Yes in Florida. Even if it’s an August primary where a winner can be declared or top 2 to go on to Nov election.
When does your underground classroom begin? The truth of US history must be taught to guarantee our democracy continues!!
Seems like help from sympathetic large corporations could help in Texas, if they were willing to take their business elsewhere. Trick is how many are big enough to help and not connected to Texas politics and in bed with de-regulation and tax cuts.
Sounds similar to teaching in Iowa. If enough teachers refuse to follow these new laws, will they all be fired?
Maybe? I believe this* (*waves hands futilely in the air to represent everything) is also a grift. Fire teachers, get like-minded people on school boards, and -sooner rather than later- end public education and privative it. Billions of dollars to be made! CRT was another nail in the coffin of public education. So are non-mask mandates. So are active shooter drills in schools. Make public education so divisive, so frightening, so filled with anxiety-riddled teachers and staff, and -poof!- much easier to convince voters it is not needed $$$
Sounds like book burning is right around the corner. Agree with Herb, gloomy mood growing. Checking out city and county council meeting schedules. Anticipate attending some lends to action lends to mood improvement. Not sure I can stomach school board meetings right now though. ;)
Same here Herb. I feel like an educated, erudite Berliner in the late 1930s must have felt, watching the madness of the past decade getting more outrageous with each passing day.
These are trash. Plain and simple.I rely on our Federal Government for protection. If they won't, then I rely on New York. I expect New York to stand.
Yes, I agree. I couldn’t help but remember the books that I read about Germany in the late 1930s.
This was my first thought. They have deliberately opened the gates to hell (anarchy on many levels) and the Supreme Court endorsed it.
Pelosi and President Biden can talk all they want about passing bills to counteract this but the plain truth is, until President Biden gives up on the filibuster and persuades/convinces Sinema & Manchin to do the same, absolutely nothing will happen in Congress. And, even if Biden did give up on it I highly doubt he'll convince those two to do the same. They are gladly in the pockets of their corporate & individual donors - neither of which care about civil rights.
I couldn't agree with you more! If they don't deal with the filibuster and the reticent senators, voting and all civil rights are toast. Our democracy is toast. I am so distressed by all of this....
Me too on being distressed. It wakes me up at night & follows me all day.
I agree with you. President Biden needs to declare Texas an Anarchist Jurisdiction. There is precedent, with Trump's play in New York. But Biden shouldn't just fold like Trumpster did.
We use sanctions to punish other countries. Maybe it’s time to use it on states who fail to follow federal law. Just turn off federal funding until they come around.
Snark alert. It goes on and on. How about laws for dietary preference? Choice of clothing? I can just see it now. "Your honor I am suing for my $10,000 bounty. I am a true American who eats ham and eggs. This person, the defendant, had the intent to purchase, and then consume, a burrito from Jose's Taco Truck in direct violation of the Texisitan Law of American Food Regulation."
Is it 5 o'clock somewhere - I mean in the PM?
I feel you (you may not be snarking, however). As a 55-year vegetarian I feel the pain.
Imagine this hippy traveling westward in the early 70s? I felt the vibes even before I received the threats.
They were always intolerant and ugly.
Prepare.
Daniel, It was pure snark. However, I get our point. It's a deep-seated fear of 'the other' however defined. And frankly, the psychological foundation of it comes from low self esteem, and an alienated feeling of 'worthlessness'.
Grok it. First differentiation is by color. Next by religion, then they hate anyone "not-from-here."
Imagine hating people just because they descended from a different part of Earth? That fear is primitive; because people were feared from other parts of the world thousands of years ago. They considered folks from away like space aliens. Today the lines have been drawn closer, that's all.
Sickening truth, Daniel.
At least here in this herd, there’s many a different-loving neighbor standing side-by-side. Here’s to broadening our horizon, together! (Seems to be an extra shot of positivity in my morning cup)
I do believe that the majority will stand together and we will hold. I have seen it before.
😂
Peel me a you know what...
I’m optimistic Breyer is a good enough guy that he sees this court as a perfect ticket to a guilt free retirement
I’ve always felt we lost the debate when liberals allowed the debate to be framed about “abortion” or “pro life.”
We ought to have always defended “women’s equality”and “women’s health.” But we were cornered into abortion as a “choice.” NO - we are defending equality and freedom for more than half the population.
The language is important. I thought Jen Psaki made this crystal clear yesterday. Women have an equal right to make their own health care decisions.
Psaki was brilliant, wasn’t she. As usual.
It’s as if God wanted to create a perfectly tough, brutally honest, 100% informed Press Sec, of integrity for this moment.
She doesn’t need softball questions. Go ahead and throw 100 mph fastballs, curveballs and sliders, Psaki hits them all out of the park with intelligence, compassion, and subtle outrage all at once, acknowledging the truths of the matter, as well as some of the nonsense and stupidity of the right wing nuts. I think somewhere in her future she will teach this at one of the Ivy League schools and get paid big for it, and our country will be the better for her service.
Ted, I couldn’t agree more (doesn’t hurt she’s a kindred ginger either)❣️
Talk about HUGE CONTRAST, Ted!
Her future is bright. Psaki represents the leaders we need at every level of government.
Indeed. And Psaki clearly can handle any number of extreme challenges. I only hope the pressure and thanklessness of her current job doesn’t drive her into another one too soon. I get a CHARGE outta watching her. Like fencing.
Psaki nailed it!
Conservatism can now be defined as “vigilantism". IF, we are wise enough to consistently use this refrain!
This amounts to fascism, imho. Let us define fascism in America as the movement to turn neighbor against neighbor in this attempt to restrict the freedoms and liberties of women across this country.
But for a frame to be effective, we must speak consistently, as the right has done since the 1980s on every Culture War issue!
More than speak consistently. Speaking won't do it. We have too much speaking. Congress is owned. And, not by us. People must get over their knee jerk, reactive response to both "capitalism" and "socialism." This is war. And nicely behaved citizens hanging out on the phone with their purchased US Senator and Rep isn't going to move the dial toward strengthening democracy. Haven't you already been doing that? How often have you googled Open Secrets to see just how much Big Pharma, Big Oil, Big Real Estate, Wall Street have been paying off the guys/gals you've been choosing? When you're in a war, do you choose a "moderate" for a general? Do you honestly believe Big Business and tiny big money aren't the money source for this coup? Dark money is dark. Dark as malevolent towards the peoples' needs and interests. This is American capitalism doing what it does best. Whooping minds into being nicely behaved and voting "moderate" while rapaciously privatizing your rights, your personhood, your kids education, your water, your utilities, your streets, your fire department, your ambulance service, your prisons, your police department, your courts, your-their army, your-our public lands...Extreme? Absolutely! If a dollar can be made, it will be made specifically for their pocket.
You're great.
Keep it up!
Keep up the pressure on those whose job it is to defend us all. You've got your work cut out.
Tribune of the People. Like Danton. Like Tom Paine. Like Dolores Ibarruri.
General?
And yes, the squadristi are raving lunatics.
https://apple.news/AamL6AWo2RHamxMtkaDkvUA
It's the attack dogs' owners that must be found out and targeted.
Squadrismo. Blackshirts, then brown.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Squadrismo
They are already on America's streets.
January 6th may have been an abortive March on Rome but the putsch continues daily, minute by minute.
No time to lose.
The Insurrection Caucus is salivating as we speak!
Sadly, Peter, you are dead right. I have relatives who regularly drop hints abt the next Storm-wannabe: “The best is yet to come. A bit bumpy for a while though.” Unbelievably scary times. I PRAY this all really is just an unprecedented “extinction burst.” (See “operant conditioning.”)
They will also be the new poll watchers as more states follow Texas and allow "partisan" poll watchers. Three percenters, Proud Boys, capitol insurrectionists will be policing voting. Heil Trump!
Yeah, and it's very likely they'll show up with their guns so they can intimidate the voters, since many red states have passed laws that guns can be ANYWHERE including schools and polling places. It's come to the point that there is nowhere in public to feel safe.
This is fascism, and we have moved from opinion to established fact. This makes us "anti-fascists", and proud ones at that.
The two political extremes left and right have always been intrinsically linked to vigilante violence, mob rule. Rule by fear to divide the people has always been their only real path to power.
Yes, and its vigilantism is terrifying!
What equalizes vigilantism?
Seems to me that by empowering people to carry guns add to use them to enforce repressive laws does make vigilantes the handmaidens of fascism. The more that authoritarians collect weaponry to take the law into their own hands with the approval of oppressive states, the more they will press for armed conflict and Civil War. And the less that those of us who describe violence can launch an effective defense of the democratic process. Naturally, I’d love to be proved wrong. The Supreme Court not providing countermeasures to invalidate this development is terribly worrying!
A very distressing group of threads coming together.
Alison, I think the Court will have to, given the beehive of public opinion and judicial scrutiny they have disturbed. Hopefully! Terrifying otherwise....
To your first concern, it was well planned:
First, the TX lawmakers armed every person in the state, for no apparent reason.
Second, the vigilante maneuver. You do the math.
What comes next is poll watchers with guns? Oh boy....
I hope you're right about the Court but I can't see that the 5 who chose to let SB8 go into effect care a whit about public opinion. After all, they have lifetime tenure so what can public opinion do against them? Does anyone think those 5 have any sense of shame?
The Vote.
I hope other states bring new laws punishing those who cross state lines in any attempt at vigilante texass justice.
Yes, wherever the term "conservative Right" now occurs", we should simply substitute "vigilantist Right" or "vigilante Right" (to avoid the auto-correct). If there are any real and coherent conservatives left in our body politic somewhere, they must all be hiding under rocks.
Speaking of which... where’s Liz Cheney on this one?
I’m happy if she just stays grinding away at the insurrection investigation.
Is there any money in it for congress-people? If not...
Trumpsters are proud vigilantes. They will love that
People think Afghanistan fell fast. I shutter to think how far, how fast so many have fallen here . TFG has lead one thing, the degrading of America.
Ted, it certainly seems now TFG was simply a very convenient pawn in a sinister long range mission to deliver fascism here. Shocking, yes, that they have succeeded
The chickens are now coming home to roost. All so called "moderates" desirous of "incremental" change have by their votes left the barn door open to what is happening. Sure this about oppressing women and non-whites, but it is more about contemporary American capitalism and the consolidation of power in the hands of tiny big money and corporations out to call the shots putting their "economy" in place, forget about workers' "rights" or "public" health or "free" ways. So all who get suckered by the surface shenanigans - hooked into knee jerk reactions by the old propaganda about socialism and communism - the current loss of a woman's right to choose is but a harbinger of life under an authoritarian where you ain't got such things as "rights". Everything including you and your neighbor become "privatized", your degrees of freedom determined - not by your eviscerated vote - but what serves mammon. And bankruptcy courts such as Judge Drain's who gave immunity to the Sackler family, killers who had the asinine temerity to claim no wrongdoing among the tombstones of the dead by opioid addiction. Mr. Biden, the bi-partisan incremental change man, appears deaf and blind to the coup taking place in plain sight - witness the Supremes' decision and all those States with traitorous voter suppression laws. That's okay. He's going after the Afghan bad boys with drones. But, filling up the Supreme Court with those who actually love justice to zap the foolishness of the fascists? Or cutting the rug out from under Manchin and Sinema and NJ's Gottheimer? Nope. We chose a "moderate" an "incremental change" man, a bi-partisan nice guy man who left his teeth on the sink last night.
Selina, your writing is tre-men-dous. Our Pasionaria!
Of course, when I read HCR’s piece this morning, my first thought was…
“CHAAAAAAAARGE!!!”
“Pack the court!”
But here you’re up against well-organized strategists who have been organizing for years, and their movement is getting into high gear.
Biden, too, has a strategy—which makes a change for Democrats, they don’t seem to have had one for years, apart from stealing the enemy’s clothes. Basically, it consists of reviving FDR’s New Deal. That provides some groundwork, but it all comes late in the day, and the enemy invasion is well under way.
Biden may be forced to move faster than he planned, yet he has to proceed step by step.
You’re too like Minucius, Rome’s hot-headed Master of the Horse, who risked his army in a frontal assault against Hannibal, the great setter of traps.
We can only hope that Biden shows the cool skills of Dictator Fabius the Delayer, skills that prevailed against a superior force.
We must hope, too, that America’s enemy within, for all the money invested in the overthrow of the State, will prove to be no Hannibal, one of the greatest generals in history… The planners and paymasters are no fools, neither are the mobsters’ lawyers or their placemen in the Courts… But the enemy has plenty of complete idiots and raving lunatics in the front line. They need little help in hanging themselves.
Meanwhile, action stations. At every level.
Well, your point of view sure is interesting. And, unless I'm missing something in your analogy, none of Biden's FDR's plugs for today alters the fundamental structure of capitalism as it is practiced today. Do they?
Touché.
You—all of us—could do with a quick answer, there’s no time to waste. These questions have been working on me for a long time but I’m slow-witted and, while I’m no believer in economic necromancy, I’m hard put to address issues like why you may be asking the wrong question and, even if you aren’t, you could be asking the impossible of Biden (or anyone else)… Except… isn’t it like asking the driver to carry out repairs on his vehicle without even making a pit stop? Or asking a surgeon to carry out open-heart surgery on someone who’s unwilling or unable to stop for the operation?
Biden’s approach is surely to change the context in which economic agents operate… correcting the wild tilt in the playing field… Meanwhile, neo-liberalism may have failed the world yet still it staggers on, feeding the junkie few and their habit. And most politicians trudge on in ever tighter circles in their mental prison yard.
Finance today is so overwhelmingly powerful that any frontal assault from outside is unthinkable, at least pending the next crash or other circumstances that temporarily disable that power. (But what if the corporate conspirators get the wild men so worked up that they derail the economy and sabotage all attempts to restart it?)
Politer political persuasion has worked no better, for when I said that the operators in question are “no fools”, that was badly worded—they’re good at their game, think they’re the bee’s knees, only both they and their game are mad and grounded in irrelevant premises. It’s hard to persuade wealthy psychotics who think they’re on a winning streak… Like trying to interrupt a great game of poker in a stateroom on the already tilting Titanic.
I hope I’ll have opportunities soon to discuss with persons more in touch than myself issues like whether it is possible to save us, the world, from capitalism as it is practiced today and whether it is conceivable today to achieve FDR’s aim, namely to save capitalism from itself.
I once asked someone doing basic work on financial ethics whether those with the power to make changes would ever pay attention to his novel but practical approach. Yes, he said, when the next crash comes…
Having said all of which, I appreciate your fire, Selena, far more than my mud.
There's overwhelming possibilities to feel defeated. That's the attitude the oligarchy celebrates. Just like a handful of your friends were made by "accident", not design, I know much happens on a grander scale that, too, appear "accidental." If there can be evolutionary "break-throughs" (alphabet, printing press, Einstein....etc....Ghandi, ), there
is absolutely no "reason" to assume evolutionary thrusts have stopped. There are more of us than there are of them. If Hong Kong can muster millions in the streets, we can too. The biggest problem is that you and 98% of people forget they carry the sleeping trajectory of the evolutionary impulse within. Layered on top is a deep stripe of learned helplessness, and below a constricted and rigidified patterned (conditioned)(static) perceptual frame largely shaped by early childhood with built in generational, family complexes. The demands of the time shout - you are deeply connected with everyone, creatures, plants, rivers, oceans - you are in them and they in you. Take a look at environmental activist Jim Britell.com and his "the broccoli that ate Port Orchard". Also - The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival (Vintage Departures) We must identify old perceptual lenses in order to become clear sighted on today's Reality. Take a look at Michael Meade's podcasts where he demonstrates how to experience relevant myth to understand where you are and the whole world is in the cosmic/ world scheme of things and pick up the cues myth can offer to work with what's wanting to happen on a level far deeper than that which the Fraternity of the Unwise, Grandiose Narcissistic Bully, Self-Server and Sociopath. MICHAEL MEADE MOSAIC VOICES
https://www.mosaicvoices.org. Old forms are dead. Think "evolution". The thing about "mud." Loaded with organic material and potentially the living waters. Many a creation story begins with the humble "mud."
YOU GO!!
“Feeling” defeated?
Feeling this, feeling that… All part of feeling alive, being alive.
But “being” defeated… I can’t even conceive of that.
Defeats? Those are things that come and go. Things we pick up as we go along. In the end, we can’t even say they’re “bad” or “good”. They’re what we make of them. But they’re never what we are.
I should just take more care with my words, with my reactions and how they may affect those who are defeatist.
But I value the bright spirit you show, Selena.
And this will be true until men can get pregnant.
Amen to that, Stuart!
The Lead named Plaintiff in the application for injunctive relief in the Supreme Court case is "Whole Woman's Health".
Frederick, I wonder if that framing would have made any difference. I’m rereading The Grapes of Wrath. The book describes a male-dominant societal structure. Women’s rights has never been recognized as a pillar on which to build.
We do not have Steinbeck's character, Ma Joad, to confirm, but Gender roles have changed dramatically since the 1930's particularly starting inside Defense Plants during WWII & even more dramatically in the general work force in the 1950's. My mother went from a Switch Board Operator in a Los Angeles Hospital to the Head of Personnel in a Teaching Hospital in 20 years.
Stanley ~ When Reagan stated “The government is the bad guy” sometime in the 1980s, the movement took off to celebrate personal freedom over Democracy. The Right has defined the debate on women’s health and freedom since then. WORDS mean EVERYTHING.
Frederick, you’re right. Framing is critical, and I did not mean to disagree with that point. Years ago, I read Don’t Think of an Elephant, by George Lakoff. He opened my eyes to the importance of framing.
Framing?
You know that you are dealing with men who want women subservient.
Dealing with men who want to make Black people subservient.
Men who want Brown people subservient.
And maybe kill some Jews.
All true and yet somehow they have framed the debate so they appear to be freedom fighters instead of fascists to the ill informed.
Ok then. The messaging must be simple, simplistic; an infomercial would be your best model.
Or use a video game as a guide to the message.
Agree.
Ah, what a brilliant letter, yet again.
But it is your last sentence that truly terrifies.
If every one of us who follow Letters doesn’t (or isn’t already) kicked into gear by this latest Letter and that last sentence, well, I wonder if we don’t deserve what is swiftly headed our way.
I believe that this is when we must all be (or become) actively more engaged. For me that starts with such things as:
* Telling everyone I possibly can about Heather & Letters and encouraging them to do the same;
* Writing/calling Collins, Manchin and Sinema offices (although it admittedly usually feels pointless);
* Writing local newspapers to support specific actions of the Biden administration, protest anti-democratic activities (the latest travesties from TX and SCOTUS for examples) and to take coherent exception to the letters from obvious trumpies and other sadly deranged/deluded types.
Maybe these personal efforts aren’t much - they certainly aren’t “enough” - but for me they are what I can actually DO on a daily basis. If 1M+ of us Letters followers are doing this it starts adding up. And if all of us turn out for demonstrations, marches, protests, etc etc etc as these opportunities arise as we get closer to the midterms, we will, at the very least, know that we have not acquiesced as democracy was being stolen. We will know that we each added at least one grain of sand to the right side of the scales of current history in the making.
This I believe.
Thanks, Ralston, I’m with you! Activism to protect and extend civil rights is essential to our personal and community’s health and needs to be engaged in unconditionally. I need to keep in mind all the time that activists had to plow ahead in dark times with no assurance of success and order to achieve success. Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and countless others had no guarantees when they put their lives on the line for humane change and human decency.
We all expected a court so stacked to the right to do this, so don't be terrified. Be angry and let it show.
I’m both. I hope we all are.
..and you did quite well!
Personal efforts add up. Politicians don't read most of our letters. But they do count them. Keep the letters brief, direct and clear. Adamant is good, too. I write to our Senators and House Rep at least twice a week.
Excellent tactic. Set it up, bookmark the site and then pump out another one every hour or so.
Dumb here.....explain how to set it up.
Write the letter in a separate word processing doc. Save on the desktop so you can cut and paste.
Bookmark all your representatives' websites.
Then all you do is go to their website, fill out their 'contact form', and then cut and paste your letter in, hit send. Takes maybe 45 seconds once it's set up.
Most browsers will save your data and auto-fill in any form they have.
I actually have several forms: "nice"; slightly miffed; and really pissed off.
Hope this helps. Have fun.
Thanks, Charlie.
In your browser [Chrome, Firefox, Safari etc] find the page where you contact your congressperson - SSS.House.gov/contact -- or whatever = there are many lists on internet of fax# and emails for these people == once you have the page bookmark it in your browser, maybe in favorites, and just click on it every now and then and send out another missive == short, sweet to the point.
Thank you.
Also, how to contact Concise County Democrats?
Cochise County Democrats | cochisecodems@gmail.com | (520) 255-6430
https://www.cochisecodems.org/home
Is this what you wanted, Kathy?
I like writing postcards, too. Should we email each other for ideas or maybe meet on Zoom to figure out some messaging? (lanitagrice@gmail.com)
Which County?
Thanks for the reminder. Short and sweet into the point and consistent. It makes it all manageable!
What if EVERYONE that reads HCR sent postcards to Manchin and SInema every week, explaining why their refusal to end the filibuster is affecting everyone’s rights in this country, not just their states. I keep thinking we need ot harness the knowledge and the energy of all of us that read Heather daily.
I love writing postcards.........someone please post a message here that I can copy. Different message every week.....I will do the writing. As I am in AZ now, I am ready to respond by flooding mailboxes.
I created a postcard with people and the word IOWA on the front, from a photo I took at an Obama rally [oh the irony] and words "a Note from one of your constituents" and use them to send to Grassley & Ernst from time to time, but also do the website email AND fax letters -=
Exactly -- I just drafted a fax to send to various people in Congress, both sides, and postcards to my own terrible Senators [Iowa] -- squeaky wheels get greased.
Is it appropriate to send postcards to SCOTUS members?
As a retired lawyer I wouldn't do that == maybe to thank the dissenters but really what we want is for the justices to read and interpret the Constitution, not public opinion. Unfortunately, there are now 4-6 justices there now who have a crabbed view of rights under the 1789 Constitution - it's as if no amendments were made. I do think though that writing to our local, state [yes get notes to those state Legislators!!!] and federal political officials MAY do something = if not we can and should vote them out.
If everyone [1] went to Senator//Congresspersons website and sent an email Contact Me comment = short sweet to the point that would help [even if that office only counts the comments], [2] their fax numbers are also public so send a fax to their office = short, sweet and FREE [there are companies which allow free faxes via the internet] - again, adds to the count, [3] Letters to the Ed are good - again, the more we speak out the more we educate others and grow a force to be reckoned with. AND note the connection between those who support vigilantism and the Insurrection.
Ralston, YOUR letter is also an inspiration. Thank you.
FYI a group of HCR Substackers has formed to turn good discussion here into grassroots action. For more info, email: heathersherd@gmail.com
Ralston P, grateful for this wise lens, inspiring our focus and exposing our individual value.
So do I Peter!!!! WE HAVE TO DO OUR PART!!!🤔
This court has used the "shadow docket" 28 times since Trump was sworn into office, as opposed to it being used 4 times in the 16 years of Bush and Obama. And all 28 found them ruling in favor of Republicans and/or against the Biden Admin - forcing them to keep Trump-era rules, etc.
By using the shadow docket, where they do not need written briefs, evidence, or need to write an opinion, the Six Injustices can take on all the assaults on the constitution and promotion of the right's agenda, without the general public taking much notice, and with no reports on what was done and how or why.
The Six Injustices are directly assaulting the rule of law.
Can the Congress outlaw the "shadow docket" say by mandating written briefs and opinions signed by all the Justices.
The Judiciary committee in the Senate has announced an investigation of this. With "reforms" to be found.
Thanks, again, these counter measures are so important to learn about! As is the larger historical picture. We need to find cracks in their system just as assiduously as they have worked to seek out cracks and the safeguards for civil liberties.
I'm not a lawyer, but my understanding is that the shadow docket was used in cases when there was no time for preparing written briefs and engaging in debate, as with petitions to stay an execution. But there must be room for setting appropriate limits on it.
Yes, there are limits to the "Shadow Docket" (. rushed, no hearing, no signed opinion on substantive legal matters.) As TCinLA stated above & CNN is reporting, now the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings soon.
Ellie, For a better understanding of how the current US Supreme Court is using the 'shadow docket', below are excerpts from Bloomberg article along with links to Bloomberg's piece and an article in the NY Times:
Supreme Court’s recent ‘shadow docket’ rulings:
'... more and more hot-button issues are being resolved there, including several in recent weeks on immigration in reviving the Trump administration’s “remain in Mexico” asylum policy, and scrapping the Biden administration’s new Covid-related eviction moratorium'
'Some in the legal community are distressed by what they view as hasty treatment of important questions of law by the conservative-majority court, and the potential impact on the credibility of the justice system in an era of deep cultural and political division and growing mistrust of institutions.'
“In all these ways, the majority’s decision is emblematic of too much of this Court’s shadow docket decision making -- which every day becomes more unreasoned, inconsistent, and impossible to defend,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the dissent in the Texas abortion case, Whole Woman’s Health v. Jackson.'
'President Joe Biden also weighed in. “For the majority to do this without a hearing, without the benefit of an opinion from a court below, and without due consideration of the issues, insults the rule of law and the rights of all Americans to seek redress from our courts,” he said in a statement.'
'The ruling comes as the court is set to consider formally overruling Roe and subsequent abortion precedent this coming term, in a case from Mississippi. The court “acquiesced in a State’s enactment of a law that flouts nearly 50 years of federal precedents,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent.'
'Calls for an Overhaul'
'The latest maneuver hastened calls for Congress to step in on liberal calls to expand the Supreme Court, something the White House is studying with little expectation anything like that would ever happen.'
“SCOTUS’s increasing use of the shadow docket to issue massive legal decisions is yet another reason why Supreme Court reform needs to be taken seriously,” tweeted Russ Feingold, the former Wisconsin senator and now-head of the progressive American Constitution Society.'
'In addition to adding seats to the court, Democrats have urged Congress to impose term limits on the justices, citing political gamesmanship to confirm three Donald Trump-appointees to the court.'
“For most of its history, the Supreme Court understood that providing considered, reasoned decisions was essential to its legitimacy,” said Amir Ali, deputy director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Supreme Court & Appellate Program. He testified earlier this year before Congress, advocating shadow-docket reform.
But now, Ali said, “this Supreme Court has appeared eager to make quick, unexplained decisions on major political issues.”
'The shadow docket was coined by University of Chicago law professor William Baude to refer to any Supreme Court action taken outside of the court’s traditional “merits docket,” which encompasses the usual process and proceedings. Unlike its merits docket, the justices often don’t explain their reasoning—or sometimes even reveal their votes.'
'The court’s decision on the Texas case was a single paragraph spanning two pages. The four dissents -- written by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Stephen Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan -- were five times as long.'
“Without full briefing or argument, and after less than 72 hours’ thought, this Court greenlights the operation of Texas’s patently unconstitutional law banning most abortions,” Kagan wrote, saying that the ruling is in conflict with Roe.'
'Texas Abortion Law: Joe Biden Orders Response to Supreme Court 'Assault'
'In addition to adding seats to the court, Democrats have urged Congress to impose term limits on the justices, citing political gamesmanship to confirm three Donald Trump-appointees to the court.'
“For most of its history, the Supreme Court understood that providing considered, reasoned decisions was essential to its legitimacy,” said Amir Ali, deputy director of the MacArthur Justice Center’s Supreme Court & Appellate Program. He testified earlier this year before Congress, advocating shadow-docket reform.
But now, Ali said, “this Supreme Court has appeared eager to make quick, unexplained decisions on major political issues.” (Bloomberg)
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-09-02/-shadow-docket-use-in-supreme-court-abortion-ruling-fuels-angst
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/02/us/politics/supreme-court-shadow-docket-texas-abortion.html
Gratitude, Fern! Great info.
And they were historically used in non controversial cases.
Yes, limits of some sort must be set. When these institutions were established there seemed to have been a deeper commitment to civil and civic responsibility. In one of today’s articles FDR was quoted, “We want a Supreme Court which will do justice under the Constitution and not over it. In our courts, we want a government of laws and not of men.” With this Republican Party, we can no longer count on such noble and long-term commitment.
It would appears that currently SCOTUS is ABUSING the concept of the docket, all to benefit the coservatives, not laws.
I've read little about the shadow docket, and I find it very disturbing that SCOTUS can rule in the dark of night. They don't have to write opinions or even let us know how each voted. I said yesterday that I can no longer trust in the "Supremes". They've become another arm of the right.
They've been trained well by the Federalist Society, which takes Dark Money. For background, please read Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse's piece: https://medium.com/senator-sheldon-whitehouse/the-third-federalist-society-f8a3ff2e19fd
The Injustices...
The future of democracy in United States of America may be reflected in Texas' abortion law (a woman's right to choose) which isn't just about abortion and vigilantism (civil rights), it is also about the manipulation of Republican State Legislatures by the Koch Bros., Republican packing of the courts; economic inequality, a lack of social cohesion; the power of political non-profits (Dark Money) and more -- a collection of autocratic forces, which are undermining our democratic society.
In five days, on September 9th, the United States of America will mark its 245th year as a sovereign state. Its democratic form of government is going through one of its most difficult periods. States rights, equality, social cohesion and the distribution of wealth are all flashing strong warning signs.
The country's wealth gap is an outstanding example the country's imbalance. The '...basic measure of the dispersion of incomes indicate that American inequality has been rising steadily for 50 years and is at its highest point of the post-World War II era. Inequality is higher in the U.S. than in any other developed country—closer to the level of Mexico or Costa Rica ...'
'Inequality is widening because the economic growth of recent decades has been unevenly shared, with the vast majority of gains going to those already at the top. Over the past 50 years, household incomes have grown three times faster for the top quintile than for the middle'.
'As a result, only the wealthy are accumulating wealth. With income growth concentrated at the top, middle-income households have not successfully accumulated savings in recent decades, which also means they have not shared in the gains from rapidly rising asset values. Over the past 30 years, top-quintile households gained nearly $500,000 in liquid net worth on average (after excluding the top 1%), while households in the middle quintile saw their debt rise faster than their financial assets.' (American Compass).
The enormous wealth gap for a country, which has credited itself for being the world's foremost democracy, indicates the degree of trouble America faces, and trouble is breaking out all over.
'After Trump’s inauguration, Republican state legislators began passing increasingly restrictive abortion laws, banning abortion after 15 weeks or even earlier. In many cases, the architects of these laws believed such restrictions would stand a better chance in court than in years past, thanks to a federal bench populated with Trump appointees, both at the Supreme Court and at lower levels. Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia lawmakers, for example, have all passed “heartbeat” bills that would ban abortions as early as six weeks, before many women even know they’re pregnant.' (Atlantic)
Texas recently passed a law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. 'The law in question was ingeniously designed by Texas Republicans to evade interdiction by the courts by making individual citizens, not the government, the enforcement mechanism for the law, giving them bounties to snitch on clinics and even on “abetters” of abortions after six weeks of pregnancy (at a time when many women do not even realize they are pregnant).' (New York Magazine)
'That structure has alarmed both abortion providers, who said they feel like they now have prices on their heads, and legal experts who said citizen enforcement could have broad repercussions if it was used across the United States to address other contentious social issues'.
"It is a little bit like the Wild West," said Harold Krent, a professor at Chicago-Kent College of Law. He called it a throwback to early U.S. history when it was common to have privately enforced laws at a time when the government was limited and there was little organized law enforcement.' (Reuters)
'The new anti-abortion law in Texas is not just about abortion; it is about undermining civil rights decisions made by the Supreme Court during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The Supreme Court declined to stop a state law that violates a constitutional right.' (The Letter)
'In 1957, Republican President Dwight Eisenhower used the federal government to protect the constitutional rights of the Little Rock Nine from the white vigilantes who wanted to keep them second-class citizens. In 2021, the Supreme Court has handed power back to the vigilantes.' (The Letter)
Democracy in America is a big subject. The goal of this comment was to point out several important problems in the country, which are reflected in Texas' abortion bill. The issues could not be covered here, but called attention to. Whatever the seeming suddenness of America's decline, systematic racism is not the only systemic problem in America.
links concerning texas abortion law:
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/trump-supreme-court-abortion-ban/619963/
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/09/texas-abortion-ban-supreme-court/619953/
Links re the power of the Koch Bros.:
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/inside-the-koch-backed-effort-to-block-the-largest-election-reform-bill-in-half-a-century
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/sep/26/koch-brothers-americans-for-prosperity-rightwing-political-group
https://www.cnn.com/2019/08/23/politics/david-koch-charles-koch-brothers/index.html
Link for Political Non-Profits (Dark Money)
https://www.opensecrets.org/outsidespending/nonprof_summ.php
Very well put, Fern. So many times HCR has said, "We've been here before." And in some ways, she's right. But that was before social media provided a segment of the population to have 'alternative facts'. When we were all singing from the same hymnal, it wasn't impossible to split public opinion so viciously, but we recognized the basic facts on the ground. We obviously didn't agree with them, necessarily, but we agreed they were there. (Those who supported civil rights for all and those who wanted to deny them for 'those people', at least agreed there was such a thing as civil rights!)
Obviously, social media isn't the only problem, but it makes all the others worse.
Sandra, You have pointed to one of the seeming 'Black Holes". Biden does want to address Face Book. My biggest concern is how entrenched, how well placed and how much money is against us.
Daaamn Fern you’re good. Memba the Virgins Slim commercial ? “She can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan and never let you forget that you’re a MAN !” Koch funded.It was the Rockefeller’s that really gave us the right to work outside the home. Why ? Lower wages than men but….Hey, we can Tax them.And we still did all the Wifely duties of course pregnant.Family or neighbors tended little children.I was lucky in the fact that while PG I could stay home as long as we lived within our means. And only the rich had Credit Cards back then. Woman today must work. There came a time in my life that between my husband and I we worked 3 jobs sometimes 4.Not because of Debt tho.We were that lower middle class.Never had a savings Acct. Christmas Club was it. Thanks for you’re post. Brought it all back. The struggle was real. But compared to now it was at least do-able.
One of the few ads that I can repeat verbatim! I'll need therapy now that I know it was funded by Koch vermin. You're correct that this is the worst time in many years - or maybe we just didn't understand the threats behind the headlines in the past. HCR wasn't sending her letters.
Marcia, I listened to you sing the people's hymn. Thank you for rockin.
👍You work hard for Us and Democracy also.I’ve learned so much Subscribing to HCR.You go Girlfriend !
Preach it, lady, preach it!
So good to see you! Preaching is easier for me than writing, and I do not like doing that either.
"...systematic racism is not the only systemic problem in America."
That's for sure, Fern. There are many systemic problems here in the U.S. Whether it be abortion, racism, wealth disparity, perpetual war, veterans' suicides, PTSD, climate change, polluted drinking water, healthcare, housing, corporate-owned MSM outlets, GMO agriculture with its monoculture food and deadly herbicides growing ever stronger, Monsanto, the Koch brothers, and on and on....
I tend to place wealth disparity at a high level in these systemic problems. When people are really scrambling to find basic shelter and food (primal issues), they have little time or will to work on the other problems.
I'm glad you mentioned opensecrets.org. I've often used them in determining political contributions to individual politicians. I don't believe they cover off-shore contributions. We need a brigade of Edward Snowdens to get into those records.
Hello Heydon. Withal... so, it pitifully is. Still, I am very glad to see you. You bring good nature and caring on this early morning.
Thanks for the kind words, Fern. Maybe my best traits are honesty and sincerity. I was raised on the mantra "Make a better world." I always try. So, we soldier on.
BTW, I'm about 90% finished with reading/listening to "Dark Money." I keep a pen and paper as well as the ebook version of the book nearby to note issues I need further detail on. There is also a video version of "Dark Money"; I'll check that one out later.
The book is excellent. Jane Mayer has certainly done her homework. While I already considered the Koch brothers to be a sinister pair, I didn't know the depth and history of their machinations to form and control the U.S. government. If they existed in U.S. pre-civil war days, they would have been owners of a very large plantation and many slaves. The Kochs would definitely have supported the expansion of slavery to cover missouri and kansas and then the rest of the country's territories.
Hello, Heydon. Jane Mayer is one of our most crucial journalist/writers. Please post and I will send you a link to her fairly recent article in the New Yorker, if you haven't read it. I hope to walk to the Hudson River when the mild shower here passes. Salud!
I imagine the rain you had today was what we had yesterday here in Indiana. Yes, please send the link to Jane Mayer's article mentioned. My email is: buckandbernice@gmail.com. My website to preview my WWII book about my parents during the war is: www.buckandbernice.com. Many historic photos there. I believe you'd enjoy it. I grew up on the lore of the war. My father was in so many historic situations during the war. In the past couple decades, I began studying more of history, especially from WWII. I was hooked and studied every available source of info on the formation of the WWII army and the army preparing for war. But, I digress.
Heydon, I appreciation your digressions, they open new avenues to learn from. I will email the link to Mayer's article mid-week and will happy explore your website next weekend. Thank you for making it available to me We'll digress again soon.
Think you, Fern. Heather's letter and your post shed new light on what the Texas law and the Supreme Court's most conservative "Justices" really intend. Maybe this will be the tipping point. If not, our democracy is finished, flawed as it is.
Rock ON, Fern! It is about civil rights and the suppression of same. It is about freedom and the denial of it to the oppressed. Perhaps the goal is chaos and an excuse for gun violence. Did yall see what the Taliban did to women today?
No. Did not watch mainstream news today. What happened?
Taliban fighters assaulted 100 or so women with rifle butts and metal implements for demonstrating for women to be included in the new government.
kim, before opening the computer, a minute ago, the Texas state legislators were pictured in my mind en mass - in a group together -- kim, I cannot, truly, comprehend what they did. While words, such as 'barbaric' come to mind, they don't pinpoint what these people are. Are there women among them who voted for those bills? I know it's real, they are real, and I come out of people who have been treated as the lowest on earth, maybe that's why I'm unavailable, my age?. I cannot take it in, perhaps, it hurts, too much. I can't get near it. Strangely, thankfully you are the first person I came to and you raised what I saw in my mind, the perpetrators. Let's you and I see one another, take hands and calmly join our friends to work on what we may do. Hello, kim. Here we are. It's Sunday. Let's find the beauty...
Yes, Dear Fern, the beauty is always available to Earthlings. While there are women who serve as 'token torturers' and women who are honorary men, there are more of us who are awake and aware. Calmly and with courage, coming together to act, to advocate, to live our best life in the fullness of time. Onward!
Ah, kim, I won't apply an adjective to your complete evocation of our vision.
Of course some women voted for it. Never forget over 50% of white women supported trump twice.
William, The reality and characters behind the passage of gun, voting and abortion bills in Texas are reflective of America’s dystopia. My question punctuated the agony.
Yep, the shining light of Democracy is steadily dimming.
Wow. Well stated. Overwhelming but we all need to hear this.
Today hackavists clogged the citizen reporting site with reports that Marvel superheroes were getting abortions along with Gov. Abbot.
Pour it on.
Yes, I went to the Fox Nation Tip site and had to join and get through several firewalls. I wanted to name the governor and all TX leaders and the supreme court justices. After many attempts, it was obvious the reporting form has either been taken down or not put up. Hope people flooded it and it had to be taken down.
This historical context is so badly needed and much appreciated. I doubt many Americans know it. The media rarely boils down momentous developments like this to their crystalline essence as you have.
Even though Texas government officials aren't enforcing the state's new anti-abortion law, they passed it. Without their approval, private citizens aka vigilantes would have no grounds to meddle in this most private aspect of women's lives. So the rationale for not blocking the law strikes me as an exercise in legalistic contortions.
What part of the Constitution grants private citizens the right to financially punish other citizens who haven't harmed them? The majority should have written: "the end justifies the means."
We'll see how the court's illegitimate conservative majority rationalizes overturning a half-century of settled law when it rules in the pending Mississippi case and effectively kills Roe v. Wade. Will the male sexual harasser or male sexual assaulter write the majority opinion?
I also wonder what "agency" is providing the bounty. If a governmental agency, then it can be argued that the vigilante is a governmental agent.
You raise a great question: who pays? I found this article that explains it. Not government agencies but individuals and even companies. One lawsuit could have multiple defendants. Each is liable for $10,000 in a single case. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/texas-abortion-law-10-000-penalty-could-incentivize-bounty-hunters-to-make-tens-of-thousands-of-dollars-11630609738
So if a woman is sued, have these legislators who are so pro-men, thought about how a woman would immediately "out the father" for his share of the suit?
Oh, Good grief.
It is an increasingly sad and scary time in America (and throughout the world). It is a time of "hate thy neighbor," "make up your own facts," and "disregard everything that is part of the American myth or fiction." It is overwhelming and the other night with the Texas legislation, I felt the walls closing in. How much could we take? How much protesting can we do? How much money can we donate and hours volunteering can we do? Today, I read the story of Bryan Ruby, the only out professional baseball player. Much of my volunteering work is committed to LGBTQ equality, as chair of Hope in a Box, an organization focused on making LGBTQ inclusive education the norm vs the exception. And he gave to me the inspiration to find more strength and resolve. These are collective battles. After all, without us fighting, we'll let the haters win. And America will surely lose even more.
From The Guardian.
“Top loyalists to Donald Trump, who frequently push lies about election fraud, have joined forces with conservative doctors touting unproven Covid curesand vaccine skepticism, and like-minded evangelical ministers at a series of events across the US this summer.
The conservative “ReAwaken America” tour – featuring ex-general Michael Flynn and top Donald Trump loyalist donors – has held events in Florida, Michigan and other states.
It underscores how Trump’s allies, anti-vaccine doctors and conservative preachers are amplifying baseless claims that are hurting the nation’s public health and its democracy with potentially far-reaching impacts, say pandemic and election experts.“
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/sep/03/trump-loyalists-doctors-ministers-reawaken-america-tour
🤦🏼♂️
Howard, Hope in a Box sounds like our needed norm, along with CRT/Project 1619! Thank you for your efforts.
As David Frum pointed out in an excellent article in the Atlantic about the Conservative dog that caught the car, these people are now going to find out what happens when 60% of the public starts voting on pro-choice as Issue #1 the way the right voted on pro-life. The turnaround is already happening, as HCR has pointed out in this excellent post. This is going to be like what happened when Prohibition came along. The prohibitionists ultimately regretted winning their fight.
I read Frum's article a day or two ago, and posted it to HCR's page yesterday. Here it is again: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/texas-republicans-abortion-ban-backfire/619956/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=atlantic-daily-newsletter&utm_content=20210902&silverid=%25%25RECIPIENT_ID%25%25&utm_term=The%20Atlantic%20Daily
Let's get political: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/09/trump-supreme-court-abortion-ban/619963/
Thanks for that article. Cause for hope
Who said, 'what goes around, comes around? Oh, Justice Brewski.
😂 I’ve gone through all comments waiting for one to make me laugh. I was so sure I wasn’t going to find one on a “dark day” in the forum. Judge Brewski. Hahahahahahahaha TC has got to be laughing also. He makes the most salient point today about Prohibition and our current censoring Texas debacle.
Salud, Charlie. It’s the weekend. Small victory.
What I find most chilling is that it relies on people policing each other—the basis of repressive, totalitarian regimes. Think Stalinist Russia. That family members, friends and neighbors will make $10,000 to turn someone in is absolutely horrifying. Next step: the Senate must abolish the filibuster and set to work protecting the nation from our new thoroughly politicized Supreme Court until Democrats muster the courage to bring significant reform to a now corrupt institution with way too much power.
And in East Germany the Stasi used full-time collaborators (Inoffizielle Mitarbeiter) to monitor, and report on, the activities of their neighbors.
I wonder if Texans realize they have become a police state. Personal freedom? I don’t think so.
Ah yes, and now anyone over 21 can carry firearms in TX.
Gun-carrying vigilantes… what can go wrong?
My grandparents lived in Hungary during the rise of the nazis. This is one of the tactics the nazis used to divide people and turn them against each other. It is one of the most traumatic ways to fracture mental health that will result in long lasting generational devastation.
American Fascism
Mao's Cultural Revolution.
This fits in the the rise of militias. I agree with killing the filibuster and expanding SCOTUS.
Agree! It was a clever move by the Texas legislature to weasel their way around the law by putting it in the hands of vigilantes; is there a way for federal law to put the kibosh on state-sponsored vigilantism?
yes but it'll take someone to file suit in federal court alleging state action - I do think that delegating the "whistleblowing" to people is an attempted end run that won't work = the state government/judicial system has to serve papers, open a case, take in and send out filings, hold hearings == the vigilantes can't do anything without the state legally == they can shoot people of course and that may be what happens = but once they call on the state judiciary to be involved, that is state action IMHO
I have to admit that this week almost broke me. I am hoping the "almost" qualifier is true because even with some small victories--such as the Washington court of appeals upholding the ban on conversion therapy (this has been bumping around the courts of many states for several years) and upholding protections for trans* children (not as reliable in the courts)--this has been a hella week for women who don't subscribe to the patriarchal bargain that the women who claim to be "pro-life" (they are not: they are part of the death eater cult) embrace. I am sickened and angry and when a Greek girl gets like this, the Medea nature comes out.
I have absolutely no confidence that any of this is going to get better. The only way that might happen is if people actively, visibly, and vocally flout all of the laws restricting access to the polls and restricting women's bodily autonomy. Dems are not great at presenting a unified front. Reports about Joe Manchin already indicate that his pecker is stiffening at the thought of being able to thwart the vital infrastructure legislation that we need to combat the Despicables' intention to reduce us to an autocracy.
And yeah: I know that my language might be objectionable to some but I don't really care. It's important sometimes to be stark in speaking the truth.
No objections here. I've thought the same thing about Manchin. Truthfully, I'm considering getting medical help for PPTSD - in this case, Post and Present Traumatic Stress Disorder. Like you, I'm hoping for "almost."
Love it ! You made me LOL ! Needed that.
Anonymous will disrupt Texas. #operationjane
https://youtu.be/K1imuB51394
The link encourages us to join the effort. If we don't, the question is: why not?
People began spontaneously the first night jamming (hilariously) the rat-fink site for turning in your neighbors created by a right-wing citizens group, but already nazi techies are helping them out. Anonymous on the other hand is organized, canny, and very tech-savy. I'm not, so I'm signing on.
Wowsa… The right has certainly used the Internet to flood legitimate sites with misinformation. Particularly given the stockpiling of weapons on the right, I can see how using every cyber means at our disposal to counter vigilantes is an act to protect civil rights. I want to follow these counter efforts more closely… Absolutely everybody who believes in human rights and human dignity needs to identify the ways they can be most effective to advocate and safeguard on behalf of the most vulnerable.
Catherine, THAT link reveals a very powerful, eerie and potentially dynamic threat to the vigilante right
Indeed it does, Frederick. And I applaud it!
Getting up to speed…
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/08/hacker-group-anonymous-returns/615058/
Thanks, Christine!
Thanks for the link, Christine. What an origin story!
Yes.
SO LOVIN' these folks. I'm all in!
Posted to FB along with copy/paste of text from the video.
Wow!