MARK JOSEPH STERN, - Slate
Stephan: The Republican Senate captained by Mitch McConnell, working in conjunction with Trump, are trying to restructure the American judiciary system for at least a generation, changing the whole course of American law. This disgusting story is an example of what I mean, and this is why the 2020 election must not only flip the Senate, but do so so dramatically that there are at least 66 Democratic senators. There are 34 seats up for election in 2020 and 22 are held by the GOP. You know what you have to do.
Republican Associate Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch.
Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty
On Monday, five justices of the Supreme Court authorized Missouri to torture a man to death. In the process, they appear to have overruled decades of Eighth Amendment precedents in a quest to let states impose barbaric punishments, including excruciating executions, on prisoners. The court’s conservative majority has converted a once-fringe view into the law of the land, imperiling dozens of decisions protecting the rights of death row inmates, as well as juvenile offenders. Its ruling signals the end of an Eighth Amendment jurisprudence governed by “civilized standards”—and the beginning of a new, brutal era in American capital punishment.
Russell Bucklew is a death row inmate in Missouri who suffers from a rare medical condition called cavernous hemangioma. Due to this disorder, his body is covered with tumors filled with blood vessels. Tumors in Bucklew’s neck and throat, his lips and uvula, which make it difficult for him to breathe. They are highly sensitive and frequently squirt […]
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Ivy Brashear, - Yes! Magazine
Stephan: Because the firewall between church and state has been breached by the christofascists who, as a group, have serious sexual dsyfunction issues, we have ended up in the situation described in this article.
Credit: CBS News
If you’d asked Tanya Turner eight years ago what she’d be doing over the long term, she’d have said she didn’t think she’d still be teaching sex education to young people in eastern Kentucky.
In 2011, she thought it would be a one-time thing during the annual summer gathering of the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project, an initiative that seeks to involve local youth in building Appalachian communities they’d want to continue to live in.
But as word got around that Turner’s “Sexy Sex Ed” workshop created a fun, educational, and nonjudgmental space in which young people could get real answers—and a sense of agency lacking in other aspects of their lives—the gigs started rolling in.
“When somebody calls you and says they have a big group of kids that need sex ed, and they don’t know where else to go, it’s very difficult to turn people down,” Turner said. “It’s taken on a life of its own at this point.”
Requirements for sex education vary broadly across the country. Only 24 states […]
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Elizabeth Weise, - USA TODAY
Stephan: I have just returned from presenting at an anthropology conference where most of the audience were millennials. Two women, assistant professors, I think, in the course of our conversations told me that they felt they would not have children; their vision of the future was so bleak that they could not imagine bringing children into it. It was not the first time I have heard a young woman say that, but it was not until about a year ago that I heard it for the first time. Now it is a growing trend and an existential issue that we should be taking very seriously.
The group Conceivable Future holds a house party discussion in Chicago for people to talk about concerns over having children under the threat of climate change.
Credit: Marya Spont-Lemus
Though Laura Formisano says she never felt a huge desire to have children, she used to presume that would change.
But climate change could make the planet so uninhabitable, she says, she’s not sure she can ever bring herself to become a parent.
“It almost feels like a con, to bring a child into the world when it’s probably not going to be a place we’re really going to want to live,” says Formisano, 30, who manages a co-working space in Los Angeles and has been married for seven months.
Is the future simply too horrific to bring children into? Some couples, frightened by the prospect of droughts, wars, famines and extinctions brought on by climate change, are making that decision.
A Facebook group for women to discuss the idea launched this month, and it’s winning over supporters in Europe and the USA. Conceivable Future, a U.S.-based group, has held more […]
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Stephan: In politics, as in everything else in America, ethics mean very little. What matters is profit, wealth, and greed. And, because that is true, the American government is for sale. Here is the proof. We are a very sick country with a future that is very problematic.
A new, first of its kind study tracks the political leanings of CEOs by examining 18 years of political contributions by more than 3,800 CEOs of S&P 1500 companies.
The big picture: The chief executives of America’s largest public companies are more than twice as likely to lean Republican in their campaign contributions than to favor Democrats.
- Among big energy companies, CEOs’ Republican leanings are even stronger: more than 9 in 10 energy CEOs side with Republicans, and none with Democrats.
- The study, by professors from Harvard Law School and Tel-Aviv University, classifies a CEO as a Republican or a Democrat if they gave at least two-thirds of their campaign contributions to one party or the other. CEOs that distributed their contributions more evenly between the two major parties were classified as neutral.
Why it matters: Money matters in politics — and CEOs wield significant power in America.
- The public trusts CEOs more than journalists and government officials, according to a recent Edelman survey, and 84% “expect CEOs to inform conversations and policy debates on one or more pressing societal issues.”
- They sit […]
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Jon Swaine and David Smith, - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan: Another Trump appointee, another grifter. To everyone throughout the world, but the 42.1% of Americans who support Trump and the Republican mafia -- yes his approval rating has gone up -- it is obvious that the American government is a corrupt kleptocracy. This article from a British paper makes the point clearly.
Stephen Moore
Stephen Moore, the economics commentator chosen by Donald Trump for a seat on the Federal Reserve board, was found in contempt of court after failing to pay his ex-wife hundreds of thousands of dollars in alimony, child support and other debts.
Court records in Virginia obtained by the Guardian show Moore, 59, was reprimanded by a judge in November 2012 for failing to pay Allison Moore more than $300,000 in spousal support, child support and money owed under their divorce settlement.
Moore continued failing to pay, according to the court filings, prompting the judge to order the sale of his house to satisfy the debt in 2013. But this process was halted by his ex-wife after Moore paid her about two-thirds of what he owed, the filings say.
In a divorce filing in August 2010, Moore was accused of inflicting “emotional and psychological abuse” on his ex-wife during their 20-year marriage. Allison Moore said […]
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