A woman physician, an SR reader and an OB/GYN in Ft. Myers, Florida sent me this telling me she was part of a group practice and that they had had two women patients in similar circumstances. She said that was enough, and she was moving her practice to Virginia. In my view, this is what happens when medical decisions are made on the basis of religion or ideology, not medicine that fosters wellbeing.
Ron DeSantis signs Florida’s 15-week abortion ban into law last year. Credit: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/REX/Shutterstock
In a few weeks, a Florida couple will have to bid farewell to their child shortly after the baby is delivered, a gut-wrenching reality created by the US supreme court’s elimination of nationwide abortion rights last year.
Because of a new Florida law that bans abortion after 15 weeks except under certain circumstances, Deborah Dorbert has become one of many women having difficulty accessing necessary abortion procedures after the supreme court overturned the rights granted by the landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
A report by the Washington Post chronicles how Dorbert and her husband, Lee Dorbert, are expecting their second child and have been told by doctors that the baby has been diagnosed with a fatal fetal abnormality known as Potter syndrome. But, they have said, the doctors could not perform an abortion because of their interpretation of a Florida law that took effect after the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.
Potter syndrome is a rare condition related to a fetus’s development in the uterus. The […]
As I read the academic literature, the general media, and watch news channels like BBC, CNN, and MSNBC, and propaganda operations like Fox, what increasingly stands out for me from all these sources is that about a third of the White population in America, particularly the male portion, live in a world of grievance, racism, fear of women, and greed. Incels, can't find a woman willing to have sex with them and are filled with grievances about that, yet never question themselves. Rural Whites are angry and have grievances because they think they are being replaced, and not getting enough attention and help from the government in spite of the fact that under current law, USDA's total outlays for farms and ranches for 2023 are estimated at $209.3 billion. Outlays for mandatory programs are $169.4 billion, 80.9 percent of total outlays. Southern Whites filled with resentment have reached a level of racism not seen in a 100 years, and yet continue to elect the incompetents that are destroying the economies of Southern states, that make them so unhappy.
What I also see is that the christofascists, and the oligarchs who fund them understand all this, and are using it to turn America into a fascist anocracy. My takeaway from all this is that the only way out of this is to change our culture so that its first priority is to foster wellbeing for all. Can we do that, will we do that? I don't know.
Tennessee State Police stand between members of the Proud Boys and counterprotesters during a protest against gender-affirming care by Vanderbilt University Medical Center, at the War Memorial Plaza in Nashville, Tennessee, on October 21, 2022. Credit: Seth Herald / AFP / Getty
Two years after the attempted coup on January 6, 2021, the threat of fascism has only grown. In just the last month, a neo-Nazi couple was arrested for planning to “completely destroy” Baltimore, a majority-Black city, by attacking its power grid; and in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has launched an offensive against public education, particularly Black studies — in an effort described by historian Barbara Ransby as “textbook proto-fascism.”
Across the political spectrum, people sense that the social order is crumbling. Young people feel little hope for a future shaped by climate catastrophe, growing inequality and political violence. The COVID-19 pandemic has intensified the atomization of society and driven people to search for community, oftentimes online. An increasing number of young people, particularly disaffected white men, find comrades in far right forums who encourage them […]
MIKE MALES, Senior Researcher for the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice - Yes! Magazine
Stephan:
This is a very important fact-based article, please read it. It is another take on the Great Schism Trend with very useful data which once again validates that fostering wellbeing is the best cultural option for a society. It always produces the best objectively verifiable social outcome data. We know what works. The question is what are we going to do.
Decades of political decisions and policies have created a massive and growing chasm between the economic and social disaster unfolding in small-town and rural parts of the United States, and the prosperity and safety of cities and suburbs. Many of those successful urban and suburban areas have reaped the rewards of electing largely moderate, competent Democratic leaders. Meanwhile, rural areas have elected Republicans drawn from a party that is increasingly incompetent, corrupt, and willing to engage in outright racism to win elections.
This disparity may affirm progressive ideas about successful and inclusive governance, but it also holds grave implications for the country as a whole.
Anger is roiling in Republican America, along with conspiratorial fabrications about who to blame for their condition. A harbinger of this trend is Antlers, Oklahoma, where I grew up: a once-thriving town in the southeastern part of the state, bordering the lush Ouachita foothills of dense forests, abundant agriculture, and lucrative tourism resources. The town rebuilt after a devastating 1945 tornado, but it has not weathered 21st century politics.
I think this Dominion lawsuit against Fox is a very big deal, and not just in the billion-dollar sum involved. It is going to have all kinds of legal and social implications. Note that the suit has been advanced just as the dissemination of disinformation in the culture has also come to a crisis level.
Fox propagandist Jeanine Pirro Credit: Wikimedia
Judges on New York Supreme Court Appellate Court ruled against Fox News’ attempt to end a $2.7 billion defamation case brought against the network by voting technology company Smartmatic, Associated Press (AP) reports.
Smartmatic sued Fox News hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, former host Lou Dobbs and former President Donald Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell in 2021 “falsely [accusing] the company of helping rig the U.S. presidential election in favor of Democrat Joe Biden,” Reuters reported.
Per AP, Powell was excused from the case “because she doesn’t have ties to New York, where the case was filed,” but the judges did find “’significant allegations” that attorneys Guiliani and Powell maligned the voting-tech firm.
The right-leaning news network argues it exercised its First Amendment right to free speech by claiming “it was informing the public about newsworthy, if controversial, claims from an important figure about a matter of public concern.”
Olivia Rosane and Chris McDermott, Reporter - EcoWatch
Stephan:
President BIden is doing something very important here, he is standardizing, the electronic plugs, just as all the electric outlets in your house have a common design. And it recognizes that if the plugs were made out of the country, and something interrupted the supply, it would cause a crisis. The Biden administration writes very solid laws and regulations that foster wellbeing.
President Joe Biden views an EV charging station at the White House in Washington, DC on Nov. 2, 2022. Credit: Oliver Contreras / Getty
The Department of Transportation (DOT) together with the Department of Energy unveiled new standards
EditSign Wednesday for new charging stations receiving federal funds, including that they must work with all brands of vehicles.
“This is a major step toward a world where every EV user will be able to find safe, reliable charging stations anywhere in the country,” U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a DOT press release. “We’re establishing common, universal standards for EV charging stations just like the ones for gas stations, so that recharging an EV away from home will be as predictable and accessible as filling up a gas tank.”
The standards were expected to impact Tesla in particular, White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu told reporters Tuesday ahead of the announcement, as The Hill […]
