David Badash, Staff Writer - New Civil Rights Movement
Stephan:
The recent Anti-LGBTQ 6-3 Supreme Court decision over the case put forward by Lorie Smith and her attorneys it appears was entirely a fraud. The decision by the MAGAt cabal of justices effects the entire culture by validating prejudice. Here are the facts.
Lorie Smith who brought a fraudulent case to the Supreme Court that validates prejudice. Credit: New Civil Rights Movement
Exactly one day before the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its 6-3 decision in what has been called an “entirely hypothetical make-believe” case pitting conservative Christian beliefs masked as First Amendment speech against the rights of LGBTQ people to exist equally in the marketplaces of both commerce and ideas, a bombshell report revealed one critical fact in the case turned out to be false.
Apparently, so is a second one.
That first false “fact” – a claim in court documents that a San Francisco man, a graphic designer, years ago had reached out to the plaintiff, a Colorado Christian woman, to ask her to design among other items a wedding website for him and his soon-to-be husband, was almost certainly a lie. The man was and is married, to a woman, when the alleged inquiry came in, and had never even heard of the Christian designer, much less crossed state lines and his own Rolodex and […]
Robert Reich, Chancellor's Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley and Senior Fellow at the Blum Center - Raw Story
Stephan:
Robert Reich makes a very important fact-based point, that I am surprised MAGAt world just doesn’t seem capable of understanding. Apparently, they consider the culture war more important than their own wellbeing.
Patriotic Child Saying Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag Credit: Shutterstock
Republicans claim they love America.
But they sure don’t seem to like the American people.
The other day I was standing in line at Rite Aid to pick up a prescription, as the next person in line. The woman ahead of me went up to the counter gave her name and birth date and the person at the counter went into the store room and came back with her prescription, and handed it to her, and I heard her say, “That will be $1800.” The whole room must have heard her response. “$1800. I can’t afford that. I’m retired, I live on my social security, and a tiny retirement policy. I can’t do this,” she said. And as she turned I could see the fear and crisis in her face. Then she said, “What can I do?” The counter woman shook her head, and said. “I am so sorry. I don’t know what to tell you. Maybe you could ask your doctor if there is something else you could take.” The woman put the envelope back on the counter and walked away. As she went past me I could see the tears and anger on her face. It confirmed for me once again that Big Pharma is a system designed for profit not wellbeing.
Advocates hold a vigil outside of Eli Lilly offices in New York City Credit: Erik McGregor / LightRocket / Getty
“Seniors and families already struggling to afford lifesaving medicines are told to brace for further price hikes by the same industry that saw its profits and shareholder rewards skyrocket by billions in a year.”
An analysis published Tuesday shows that the five largest pharmaceutical companies in the United States raked in combined earnings of $82 billion last year and rewarded investors with billions of dollars in dividends and stock buybacks—all while hiking prices for prescription drugs and fighting federal efforts to curb costs.
The new analysis by the progressive watchdog group Accountable.US finds that Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Merck, AbbVie, and Pfizer increased their combined share repurchases and dividends by $4.4 billion and $2.5 billion respectively in 2022 as their profits grew by nearly $9 billion compared to 2021.
Last year, pharmaceutical companies raised the prices of more than 1,100 medicines, according to a tally by Patients for Affordable Drugs.
Here is something Trump wanted that is amazingly stupid, even for Trump and his MAGAt world: Bomb Mexico. And, quite predictably it is being spoon fed to the MAGAts by Fox hosts who seem to have no personal ethics at all. I am hoping that Smartmatic will win its lawsuit against Fox and that this will drive the Fox propaganda network into bankruptcy. Here is the latest on the Smartmatic lawsuit which has been getting virtually no coverage on any of the news networks, “The courts have denied a request by Fox that the court reconsider its earlier ruling on a “newsworthy reporting” claim. This has been Fox’s main defense claim against liability. Fox had asked the court to reassess its ruling or, as an alternative, to leave open a window for Fox to escalate its motion to NY Court of Appeal. The First Judicial Department of New York state’s Supreme Court Appellate Division declined that request from Fox.”
Fox host Greg Gutfeld Credit: Screengrab
During the Wednesday, July 25, segment of Fox News’ The Five, the conservative co-hosts Jesse Watters, Jeanine Pirro, Dana Perino and Greg Gutfeld suggested Mexican drug cartels are behind a shoplifting surge in America, and to combat the alleged issue — the U.S. military should bomb them.
Host Jesse Watters began the conversation saying, “While the liberal media gets a crash course on crime, we’re learning that Mexican drug cartels are fueling America’s shoplifting surge. They’re selling the stolen stuff online and then laundering the profits through, guess where? Chinese brokers. So, Dana, CNN finally discovered crime is a crisis in San Francisco.”
Dana Perino replied, “This is after they made fun of us for pointing it out last year…On this point, I think that finding out that there are Mexican cartels behind this, makes me feel maybe there’s hope that we could figure out a way to do something about it. So the state attorneys general are banding together and they’re like let’s go after it. But also […]
Damian Carrington, Environment Editor - The Guardian (U.K.)
Stephan:
If the Gulf Stream collapses we are going to see really major changes in the earth’s environment that will have dramatic effects on humanity in several countries. The current scientific prediction is this is likely, as this article describes, to happen in less than two years. Meanwhile, we in America are locked in the culture war of The Great Schism Trend.
The Gulf Stream system could collapse as soon as 2025, a new study suggests. The shutting down of the vital ocean currents, called the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (Amoc) by scientists, would bring catastrophic climate impacts.
The new analysis estimates a timescale for the collapse of between 2025 and 2095, with a central estimate of 2050, if global carbon emissions are not reduced. Evidence from past collapses indicate changes of temperature of 10C in a few decades, although these occurred during ice ages.
Other scientists said the assumptions about how a tipping point would play out and uncertainties in the underlying data are too large for a reliable estimate of the timing of the tipping point. But all said the prospect of an Amoc collapse was extremely concerning and should spur rapid cuts in carbon emissions.
Amoc carries warm ocean water northwards towards the pole where it cools and sinks, driving the Atlantic’s currents. […]
