Interview:
Friday, September 30, 2022
Blasphemy is a Victimless Crime (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)
We celebrate International Blasphemy Day by highlighting challenges to Christian Nationalism and the violation of state/church separation by senators and governors. Former Mormon Ray Matthews tells us why he agreed to appear on FFRF’s "I'm an Atheist and I Vote" billboard in Salt Lake City. Then we speak with Adrienne Martin, who testified before her Texas school board in protest of religiously motivated book banning in the public school.
Justices shield spouses’ work from potential conflict of interest disclosures - POLITICO
"The ethical rot at the court continues to spread, and public faith in the court erodes along with it," Whitehouse said. "The questions about financial conflicts of interest are one area of concern among many. There's also the flood of dark-money influence bearing down on the court, from the nameless donors behind judicial selection to the orchestrated flotillas of anonymous amici curiae lobbying the justices to the spate of partisan decisions handing wins to corporations and big donor interests."
Watch: Democrat Delivers Fiery Rebuke to House Republicans Trying to Deprive Veterans of Abortion Rights
U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, Democrat of Michigan, blasted congressional Republicans on the floor of the House of Representatives Wednesday, accusing them of turning a basic, bipartisan bill to help the nation's veterans into "a cold heartless, violent" referendum on the right to abortion...
Michigan election worker charged with tampering with voting equipment
At the Aug. 2 primary, the election worker in Kent County allegedly inserted a USB drive into a computer containing confidential voter registration data, according to local officials…
Abrams fetal heartbeat comments draw GOP ire in House hearing | The Hill
"There is no such thing as a heartbeat at six weeks," she said. "It is a manufactured sound designed to convince people that men have a right to take control of a woman's body away from her."…
"Within the first four weeks of pregnancy, the baby develops a heartbeat, despite, by the way, claims of my home state's gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams, this is not merely a manufactured sound," said Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.).
Abrams comments undercut the rationale for so-called "fetal heartbeat" bills popular among some on the right, which ban abortions after about six weeks, although some women may not even know they are pregnant…
Abrams' comments reflect the position of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), which says on its website: "It is clinically inaccurate to use the word 'heartbeat' to describe the sound that can be heard on ultrasound in very early pregnancy"
The FDA will issue new front-of-package labeling guidance for American food manufacturers - The Washington Post
The announcement comes ahead of Wednesday's White House Conference on Hunger, Nutrition and Health. The conference is the first of its kind since 1969, when a summit hosted by the administration of President Richard M. Nixon led to major expansions of food stamps, school lunches and other programs that have been credited with reducing hunger nationally and providing a critical safety net during the pandemic.
Once finalized, the FDA's new system will "quickly and easily communicate nutrition information" through tools such as "star ratings or traffic light schemes to promote equitable access to nutrition information and healthier choices," the White House said in a statement this week. The system "can also prompt industry to reformulate their products to be healthier," it said...
They tried to shut down Drag Story Hour. A Montana bookstore fought back
Even if the protests and outright attacks continue, Hamilt said interest in drag story hours is unlikely to be deterred. If anything, Hamilt said, the positive reception of the reading events is growing.
"There's lots of queer people and a lot of queer families," they said. "And that's the reality of the world."…
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/sep/28/drag-queen-story-hour-book-store-montana
On impeaching Biden, GOP’s Matt Gaetz makes a post-policy pitch
The obvious question, of course, is why Biden should be impeached, and that's apparently an inconvenient detail that Republicans haven't quite worked out…
Opinion | Forget ‘polarization.’ The problem is right-wing extremism. - The Washington Post
It's not polarization when one party recognizes the results of a democratic election and the other does not. That's radicalization of the GOP. Nor is it polarization when the GOP reverts to positions it has not held for decades (e.g., banning abortion nationwide, ending the protected status of entitlements) while the Democratic Party accommodates its most conservative members as it crafts popular legislation (e.g., paring back proposals to allow the government to negotiate prices for pharmaceutical drugs).
Consider also the parties' different treatment of abortion. Republicans are furiously scrubbing from their websites their extreme positions in favor of forcing women to give birth. Meanwhile, Democrats are loudly touting their support for Roe v. Wade, which more than 60 percent of the public favors. One party is trying to conceal its extremism; the other is advertising its mainstream views...
Thursday, September 29, 2022
10 year old Ohio abortion: 2 more raped minors denied Ohio abortions
The affidavits filed in late August and early September by workers at abortion clinics provide further evidence that child and teen rape and subsequent pregnancy is a problem in Ohio. But so long as fetal cardiac activity is detected, SB 23 requires such victims to either have those babies or scramble out of state and try to find an abortion...
More than $8bn pledged to Joe Biden’s goal of ending hunger
White House officials announced the donations came from private corporations and non-profits alike…
Top Republican urged murder charges for women who defied abortion ban
Republicans including Mastriano have attempted to downplay the issue and focus on economic messaging instead...
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/republican-pennsylvania-doug-mastriano-abortion-murder
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/sep/27/republican-pennsylvania-doug-mastriano-abortion-murder
Opinion | Just how racist is the MAGA movement? This survey measures it. - The Washington Post
"… If we take a clear-eyed look at our history, we see a widespread, centuries-long Christian defense of white supremacy."…
What are ultra-processed foods and why are they so bad for you? - The Washington Post
Ultra-processed foods are extra tasty concoctions that we eat every day. They are also linked with chronic diseases and a higher risk of early death...
Black man shocked with stun gun while restrained in jail files federal lawsuit
Mecca "made a conscious decision to use force in a way that he thought he could get away with," Newman said. "He took Travis' race into account when deciding what kind of excessive force to use against him."…
Kyle Fitzsimons convicted of assaulting police officers in Jan. 6 riot - The Washington Post
Kyle B. Fitzsimons, 39, of Lebanon, Maine, chose a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras rather than a jury trial. After hearing testimony from the three officers in mid-August, but not from Fitzsimons, Contreras elected to deliberate on his verdict for more than a month. The judge then laid out his precise reasoning for guilt findings on each of the counts, including felonies such as obstruction of an official proceeding, using a dangerous or deadly weapon on officers andinflicting bodily injury on officers...
‘Impeachable whatever’: GOP floats impeaching Biden for ... something - The Washington Post
Back in January, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) mused about impeachment on his podcast. He suggested it had become more likely because Democrats had "weaponized" impeachment against Donald Trump. "What's good for the goose is good for the gander," he said.
Cruz's comments turned heads because he seemed to allow that an impeachment might not be properly founded, saying Biden could be impeached "whether it's justified or not." He was effectively acknowledging that such an action could boil down to mere political payback...
From DeSantis to Trump, last week defined Republican Party in 2022
In short, Biden spent the week defending freedom and democracy on the world stage, while his predecessor defended himself from allegations of fraud and claims that he may have compromised national security. Republican governors plotted to fly human pawns to Martha's Vineyard, while Democratic governors unveiled measures to combat the climate crisis. And Republicans in Congress unveiled a "commitment" agenda that just blames Biden and Democrats, while a global community of philanthropists announced specific action items to alleviate poverty, improve health care and economic development and tackle other systemic inequities...
…Neither side is perfect. But one side is trying…
DeSantis-appointed county commissioner resigns after alleged Ku Klux Klan picture emerges - POLITICO
"He never denied at all. Refuted nothing when I showed him the pictures," Young said in an interview…
Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Biden Says Social Security Is on ‘Chopping Block’ if Republicans Win Congress - The New York Times
The fate of America's social safety net programs has re-emerged as a campaign issue ahead of November's midterm elections...
As Russians Flee, Some Find Draft Notices Waiting at the Border - The New York Times
The Kremlin dispatched federal security forces to frontier border crossings packed with Russian men trying to escape the draft by entering countries like Georgia, Kazakhstan and Mongolia...
'Shoot To Kill': Trump Ally Roger Stone Calls For Violence In Chilling Video | HuffPost Latest News
Previously unreleased clips from the documentary "A Storm Foretold" are expected to be featured during this week's Jan. 6 hearing.
The Ungodly Surveillance of Anti-Porn ‘Shameware’ Apps | WIRED
What's common across Covenant Eyes, Accountable2You, and EverAccountable is their zero-tolerance approach to pornography. All three suggest in their marketing materials that not only is watching porn a moral failure, but any amount of porn consumption is bad for your health. Their solution: Promote purity through what they call "radical accountability," a concept wherein a community comes together to confront a person who is living in sin. At its most basic level, the idea is pretty straightforward: Why would anyone watch porn if they are going to have to talk to their parents or pastor about it?…
Opinion | Catholic hospitals are expanding — and denying essential health care - The Washington Post
Some lawmakers are pushing back. One recent bill sponsored by New York state Sen. Michelle Hinchey, which has passed the Senate and awaits an Assembly vote, would require that hospitals publish a list of "policy-based exclusions," detailing the care they will not provide, on their websites. In Oregon, a new law gives state officials the authority to block hospital mergers that would result in restricted health-care access.
But beneath these efforts lies unchallenged the notion that Catholic hospitals are within their rights to deny care. That religious organizations, despite their public funding, do not have to abide by secular standards...
Opinion | Forget McCarthy's Commitment to America. The GOP agenda is revenge. - The Washington Post
Ginned-up investigations, cruel attacks on the marginalized, even a concocted impeachment of President Biden — that's what the nation has to look forward to if Republicans win the House. Those are the only things the party agrees on, except fealty to Donald Trump and an all-consuming desire for power...
‘Completely wacko’ MAGA rioter faces 63 to 78 months in prison for spraying Capitol cops with chemicals - Raw Story - Celebrating 18 Years of Independent Journalism
A Texas man described to the FBI by witnesses as "a "huge white supremacist" and a "complete wacko" has pleaded guilty to assaulting officers with a deadly weapon during the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol...
Republicans have a ‘very first bill’ in mind (and it’s a mess)
Right off the bat, as the House Republican leader surely knows, the Democratic policy in question didn't hire 87,000 IRS agents. In reality, the IRS will be bolstered by new employees, but many of them will simply replace retiring workers, and many more will simply work in the building as IT technicians and folks who answer the phone. McCarthy can jump up and down, shouting about 87,000 IRS agents every day for the foreseeable future, but the repetition won't make his lie any less wrong...
We Are Proud Boys review: chilling exposé illuminates Republicans’ fascist turn
Andy Campbell has delivered a smart, well-written and brilliantly reported book about the street gang allied to Donald Trump and the GOP he commands…
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/25/we-are-proud-boys-review-republicans-fascist-trump-andy-campbell
No, Pelosi didn’t laugh at Armenian genocide memorial - PolitiFact
Pelosi "wiped away tears as she laid flowers" at the memorial, RadioFreeEurope reported. In the video, she can be seen dabbing her nose and eyes, which appear wet with tears. She is not seen laughing…
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Putin's Supporters Complain Old Russians Are Being Sent to War
Not all of Putin's conscripts have been viewed as particularly helpful to his mission either. One 63-year-old man who has diabetes and a severe brain injury was among those called to fight after doctors told him he was fit for service...
Putin’s Top Cheerleaders Panic Over Russian Army ‘Mutiny’
Solovyov pointed out: "All of them have phones and they won't stay silent. If they're being handed rotten things, if they have no helmets, no body armor, no one is going to hide it... I will tell you very politely: don't play games with people… This isn't some liberal riff-raff, these are our people and I refuse to be silent about it." Continuing with the same theme, Simonyan cautioned: "Comrades Commanders, this is not the time for this... don't anger the people!" The head of RT urged those involved in the process of mobilization to remember the story of the mutiny that occurred on the battleship Potemkin, sparked by the crew being fed maggot-infested meat. Simonyan exclaimed: "Let me remind you that in 1905, small things like these led to the first mutiny of an entire military unit in the history of our country. Is that what you want?" She starkly warned: "You're toying with armed people."…
Trump Even 'More Dangerous' Than We Thought, Warns Rep. Adam Schiff | HuffPost Latest News
"His sense was that the people who are in the intel business are incompetent, and he knew better," Kelly told the Post. "He didn't believe in the classification system."
People "work hard" to obtain important intelligence, said Schiff, who is serving on the House panel investigating last year's Jan. 6 insurrection.
"People put their lives at risk to get that information. That information protects American lives. And for him to treat it so cavalierly shows both what a continuing danger the man is, but also how very little regard he has for anything but himself," the lawmaker added...
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Donald Trump’s ‘Special Master’ Delay Is Already Backfiring
…For example, previous court filings disclosed that investigators recovered documents showing that "certain pages of presidential records had been torn up," a violation of 18 U.S. Code § 2071 that bars anyone from ever again holding a political office in the United States. Those same documents could also support the other federal charge they're considering against the former president, 18 U.S. Code § 1519, because the feds "developed evidence that government records were likely concealed and removed from the [Mar-a-Lago] storage room and that efforts were likely taken to obstruct the government's investigation." That second criminal charge carries the threat of a 20-year prison sentence…
Opinion | The GOP’s ‘Commitment’ is to total political warfare - The Washington Post
Here's another thing the Republicans made clear: If they take the majority, they plan to use their power to harass the Biden administration with one hearing after another. Jordan was positively gleeful in describing the long list of subjects the GOP would investigate, urging voters "to make a change in our government so that we can hold those people who've been coming after us, hold them accountable like we're supposed to."
If you don't think our politics are partisan enough now, just wait for Jordan, McCarthy and their friends. They really do have a commitment — to making Washington a pitiless battlefield…
The forgotten history of what California stole from Black families
Stories like Johnson's – and countless other Black families who have been victims of racist and discriminatory policies – are rarely told as part of California's history. But after a reparations taskforce undertook the unprecedented effort to consider redress for Black residents, stories like hers are finally being heard as a more complicated picture of California's past comes to light.
It's one that, despite California's founding in 1850 as a free state, has been marked by "atrocities in nearly every sector" of society over the past 172 years, according to a recent taskforce report, including land confiscation and housing discrimination…
QAnon follower who chased officer on January 6 convicted of felonies
Prosecutors said that Jensen – carrying a knife with a three-inch blade in his pocket – barked at Goodman as well as other officers to "back up" and ordered them to arrest Trump's vice-president, Mike Pence, whom the mob was threatening to hang if he didn't halt the certification of Biden's electoral college win…
…At Jensen's trial, concluding Friday, his defense attorney portrayed him as "a terribly confused man" whose mind was even more twisted by QAnon as well as Covid lockdowns. Jensen's attorney also claimed his client had never physically hurt anyone during his time at the Capitol.
But jurors needed just four hours to convict Jensen as charged of assaulting police, obstructing a congressional proceeding, interfering with law enforcement, entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct with a dangerous weapon, which are all felonies…
Ex-Trump Official Accuses Former President Of Sinister Immigration Plot | HuffPost Latest News
Taylor said Trump directed officials in early 2019 to dump immigrants into Democratic cities and states. However, the president was "much more specific."
"He wanted us to identify the murderers, the rapists and the criminals and in particular, make sure we did not incarcerate them, and we put them in those cities," Taylor said on CNN. "It doesn't take a lawyer or genius to recognize that this would likely be illegal to do."...
Republicans love to talk about our ‘open border' — and then vote against strengthening it
This year, most Senate Republicans voted not to fund the government, thereby choosing not to vote for even 1 cent for the Transportation Security Administration, Customs and Border Protection, and also Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The 2022 omnibus appropriations bill not only funded the nation's border security, but it also had Federal Emergency Management Agency funds for food and shelter to help border communities manage migration. Ultimately, the "no" votes by the majority of Senate Republicans for investing in infrastructure and funding the federal government were overcome, and these massive investments in border security enhancements were signed into law by President Joe Biden…
US anti-abortion extremists are already waging war on IVF | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian
Republicans have made it very clear that they aren't going to stop at abortion: they're coming for birth control and fertility treatments…
East Baton Rouge Students Say They Were ‘Duped’ Into Attending Twisted Religious Event
"In violation of federal law, lunch was conditioned on completing voter registration forms and other election related materials were distributed to students," adds the fundraising page, titled "Fight Back Against 'Day of Hope' Trauma."…
Monday, September 26, 2022
DeSantis portrays himself as champion of immigrants’ welfare after backlash
Yet many have called the action "a vile political stunt" by a man considered a likely frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination. It also appears that it has sinister racist roots that long predate Biden's ascent to the Oval Office and are now designed to inflame white nationalism and xenophobia within the modern Republican party...
Corporate greed, not wages, is behind inflation. It’s time for price controls
The inflation we are now experiencing is not due to wage gains from excessive worker power. It is due to profit gains from excessive corporate power.
It's profits, not wages, that need to be controlled…
Donald Trump and the Birth of QMaga: The Storm Is Coming – Mother Jones
In retrospect, the melding of MAGAism with QAnon—and toss in a helping of Christian nationalism—seemed inevitable. The QAnon conspiracy theory holds that the world is controlled by a cabal of satanic, baby-eating, sex-trafficking pedophiles—which includes, of course, top Democrats, assorted elites, Hollywood celebrities, and the Pope—and that Trump is engaged in titanic combat behind the scenes to crush this evil power and save humanity (and lots of babies). Under assorted variants of this nuttery, Trump is being aided by John F. Kennedy Jr. (who did not die in a 1999 plane crash), and he will be restored to power in a final cataclysmic battle that involves mass arrests of Lucifer's allies (lock 'em up in Gitmo!) and televised executions. Trump fully embraced the QAnon insanity last week, and this means that the Republican Party now supports a man who advances a dangerous derangement that exceeds his Big Lie about the 2020 election and that further delegitimizes American democracy and debases political discourse. And this party has a good shot at gaining control of Congress in seven weeks...
The Super-Rich Are Already Plotting Their Escape From Trumpism – Mother Jones
Fear of authoritarian rule and political violence has led to a run on dual citizenships...
‘Nothing short of ridiculous’: Trump ally Tom Barrack rejects foreign agent claims as trial opens - POLITICO
Assistant U.S. Attorney Hiral Mehta argued that Barrack and his aide, Matthew Grimes, used Barrack's "unique access" to Trump to act as the "eyes and ears and voice" of the wealthy Gulf nation during Trump's 2016 run for president and through the beginning of his administration. They did so, Mehta said, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars' worth of investments from Emirati sovereign wealth funds...
White House Patched Through Call To Jan. 6 Rioter During Violence, Tech Expert Says | HuffPost Latest News
"You get a real 'a-ha' moment when you see that the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter's phone while it's happening," Denver Riggleman, former senior technical adviser for the Jan. 6 House select committee, told CBS host Bill Whitaker...
Alarm as Koch bankrolls dozens of election denier candidates | US elections 2020 | The Guardian
Election watchdogs say Koch's about face after pledging change following January 6 is disturbing given the threats to democracy…
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Why Trump’s latest weird rhetoric about Obama matters
As was reported back in late 2016, the Obama team was transferring the records to Chicago through the National Archives, which legally owns the documents once a president leaves office. Once the documents ultimately reached a warehouse in Chicago, the Obama Foundation was then due to pay the National Archives and Records Administration to digitize the documents. The lengthiness of that process aside, there isn't the faintest hint of legal violations. There is no evidence that Obama has hidden anything from the National Archives or that he didn't go through the processes required to share and protect those documents once they leave Washington...
What much of the GOP doesn’t get about the Martha’s Vineyard story
One of points of the Martha's Vineyard stunt was to prove that liberals would reject migrants. That plan failed. Republicans are now pretending it didn't...
Ken Burns' Holocaust documentary helps put DeSantis stunt in context
Ken Burns' latest series focuses on U.S. anti-immigrant rhetoric during the Holocaust, and it features striking similarities to right-wing behaviors today...
Banned Books (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)
FFRF's Senior Litigation Counsel Patrick Elliott describes the new lawsuit we filed this week challenging 1.5 million dollars in the South Carolina budget to start a Christian school. Then the award-winning author, photographer and lecturer Marty Essen discusses the column against censorship he wrote for Banned Books Week: "Christian Nationalism and Book Banning."
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