December 2, 2021

Democracy in Tatters? Only 24% of Americans Want Roe v. Wade Overturned

Posted on Thu, Dec 2nd, 2021 by Sarah Jones
Democracy in Tatters? Only 24% of Americans Want Roe v. Wade Overturned


As the Republican/McConnell conservative activist Supreme Court hears a Mississippi abortion case, a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll shows just 24% of Americans want Roe v. Wade overturned.

Just 24% of Americans want Roe V Wade overturned:

The Yahoo News poll shows “more than twice as many Americans (55 percent) say they want the court to reaffirm its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision as say they want it overturned (24 percent).”

A full 61% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases:



Abortion beliefs are much more nuanced than yes or no, but a majority support the general right to an abortion:



Here we are – at the place conservatives have wanted for decades and the place Democrats warned everyone was coming. Yes, the rights of every American to make their own medical decisions are currently at the mercy of not just a “conservative” Supreme Court, but an *activist* *hack-filled* Supreme Court, thanks to Mitch McConnell’s steadfast devotion to destroying democracy so Republicans can grab all of the power voters don’t want to give them.

The 6-3 conservative majority Supreme Court is hearing – and appears eager to uphold – the Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks. This is the law I warned had a much higher likelihood than the Texas law of being upheld by this court, simply because it doesn’t allow liberals to use the precedent to ban guns, etc.

As usual, though, this is actually very unpopular — a big sign that our democracy is under grave threat, as more and more power is grabbed by a few powerful people refusing to implement the people’s will.

more...

https://www.politicususa.com/2021/12/02/democracy-in-tatters-only-24-of-americans-want-roe-v-wade-overturned.html

December 2, 2021

Trump Personally Complained About Conservative Ad That Called Him an 'Idiot,' Says Report

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-personally-complained-about-conservative-ad-that-called-him-an-idiot-says-report?ref=home

Trump Personally Complained About Conservative Ad That Called Him an ‘Idiot,’ Says Report
STICKS AND STONES
Jamie Ross
News Correspondent
Published Dec. 02, 2021 9:37AM ET
Octavio Jones/Reuters

December 2, 2021

The Rude Pundit: The Conservatives on the Supreme Court Want to Punish Women

https://rudepundit.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-conservatives-on-supreme-court-want.html


The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse
12/02/2021
The Conservatives on the Supreme Court Want to Punish Women


snip//

Essentially, Likesbeer is saying that it's okay to force women to have children they don't want in one state because "interests" while they don't have to in another. That's utter bullshit, and Rikelman pretty much said that: "It’s not the right answer because the Court correctly recognized that this is a fundamental right of women. And the nature of fundamental rights is that it’s not left up to state legislatures to decide whether to honor them or not. And it’s true different rules would prevail throughout the country if this court were to overrule Roe and Casey. But what that would mean is that women in those states who are refusing to honor their rights and who are forcing them to use their bodies to sustain a pregnancy, and then to bring a child into the world will have no recourse other than to travel, if they’re able to afford it, or to attempt abortion outside the confines of the medical system, or to have a child, even though that was not the best choice for them and their family." It's as good a comprehensive "shut the fuck up, person who can't give birth, just shut the fuck up" as I've heard.

The liberals really were flailing about at times. Justice Stephen Breyer tried to appeal to the principle of stare decisis, that decisions with long standing are established law. But Kavanaugh, Roberts, and Alito all made strong statements at their confirmations about honoring stare decisis, and now, especially Alito and Kavanaugh couldn't give a fuck about it. Breyer also attempted to bridge gaps between what was being litigated, the Mississippi law, and Roe v. Wade, and he just seemed out of step with the passions involved here.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor was more effective, slamming Mississippi Solicitor General Scott Stewart, who clerked for Clarence Thomas and was a deputy attorney general for Donald Trump, so, basically, a vile shit-slinger. Stewart brought up the "fetal pain" idea as a reason to change ideas about the viability of a fetus. Sotomayor was having none of that noise: "A gross minority of doctors who believe fetal pain exists before 24, 25 weeks is a huge minority, and one not well-founded in science at all. So, I don’t see how that really adds anything to the discussion." Then she further reamed him out: "Virtually every state defines a brain death as death. Yet, the literature is filled with episodes of people who are completely and utterly brain-dead, responding to stimuli. There’s about 40% of dead people who, if you touch their feet, the foot will recoil. There are spontaneous acts by dead brain people. So, I don’t think that a response by a fetus, necessarily proves that there’s a sensation of pain or that there’s consciousness." As she usually is, Sotomayor was great, bringing up the shitty state of medical care for working class pregnant women in Mississippi, as well as telling Webster to shove his idea of when life begins up his bright white ass.

This was one of those hearings where you don't have to read the tea leaves because an air horn was blaring. The best possible outcome here is that Chief Justice John Roberts, who legit seemed queasy at the idea of completely overturning Roe being part of his legacy, convinces four of the other five dickhole conservatives to go along with his narrow decision to support the Mississippi 15-week ban and leave Roe in place, reamed out and wheezing in pain, but still there. But the other five ranged from Thomas and Alito fondling themselves under their robes as they contemplated punishing women to others bullshitting their justification for overturning Roe, all hiding a freakish, extreme Christian agenda that they were put on the court to enforce.

The clock will turn back for women in this country, and it won't be that way for women of means like Amy Coney Barrett. The fallout from overturning Roe will be bloody and brutal and played out on the bodies of women and girls, with conservatives toasting each other for their protection of fetuses while they stand on the corpses. Then they'll move on to banning it altogether because fuck all of us.

December 1, 2021

CNN Public Editor: tabloid tendencies

https://www.cjr.org/public_editor/cnn-public-editor-tabloid-tendencies.php

CNN Public Editor: tabloid tendencies
By Ariana Pekary
November 22, 2021


Since last year, CNN ratings are down 73 percent. Without the daily spectacle of Donald Trump as president, cable news producers appear to be seeking other dramatic narratives. The network’s exaggerated tone and graphic content increasingly pushes it into the realm of tabloid-like material.

This trend emerged in September with the death of Gabby Petito, a young woman allegedly killed by her boyfriend. I’ve been told that producers justified that coverage due to the abundance of available Instagram material. But the accessibility of photographs doesn’t make a story newsworthy––it makes it convenient infotainment.

snip//

We may be living in an era where we’ve lost an understanding of what makes good journalism, not gossip, in TV news. As a reminder, the Society of Professional Journalists provides useful guidance: “Ethical journalism treats sources, subjects, colleagues and members of the public as human beings deserving of respect.”

SPJ states that journalists should:



CNN should use their ample resources to report information responsibly and chase stories that actually matter to the public.

December 1, 2021

Eric Boehlert: Consumers aren't buying the media's inflation hysteria

Consumers aren't buying the media's inflation hysteria
Runaway spending
Eric Boehlert
1 hr ago


snip//

Having spent months breathlessly hyping GOP talking points about inflation and presenting it as the defining economic indicator in America — not huge job gains, record-setting GDP predictions, or raising wages — journalists now are forced to report on runaway consumer spending, as Americans gobble up a record number of electronics, jewelry, and luxury goods.

If the media were to be believed, spooked consumers scared off by rising prices should be home guarding their wallets. Instead, they’re emptying the contents at shops and online.

Retail sales jumped 1.7% in October, rising for the third month in a row. Adjusted for inflation, sales were up 0.7 percent from the previous month, and up 9.5 percent from a year earlier. Consumers overall spent a record $638 billion at stores and restaurants in October, according to the Commerce Department. That’s up 21 percent from pre-pandemic levels.

“After experiencing one of the most severe economic shocks of the past century in 2020, the U.S. economy has displayed one of the most rapid recoveries in modern history,” according to Gregory Daco, chief U.S. economist for Oxford Economics.

But a feel-good story about a red-hot economy in recovery mode is not what the press wants to emphasize. So economic coverage now revolves mostly around inflation reporting, which seems purposely over the top and lacking key context. By constantly doling out sour economic updates in the form of breathless inflation coverage, the press continues to do the GOP’s bidding.

Also, today’s inflation is a global phenomenon, caused by a global pandemic, which warped supply and demand patterns, creating a mismatch that has driven prices higher. That key point often get ignored as the press eagerly depicts the situation as a Democratic problem.

more...

https://pressrun.media/p/consumers-arent-buying-the-medias

December 1, 2021

Jewish Groups Condemn Lara Logan's Comments Comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci To Josef Mengele

Jewish Groups Condemn Lara Logan’s Comments Comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci To Josef Mengele
November 30, 2021 11:37am


A number of Jewish groups condemned Fox Nation host Lara Logan for comments she made comparing Dr. Anthony Fauci to Dr. Josef Mengele, the Nazi doctor who performed cruel medical experiments on Jewish prisoners.



The American Jewish Committee, in a statement posted on Twitter, called Logan’s comment “Utterly shameful. Josef Mengele earned his nickname by performing deadly and inhumane medical experiments on prisoners of the Holocaust, including children. @LaraLogan, there is no comparing the hell these victims went through to public health measures. An apology is needed.”

The Auschwitz Museum said in a statement, “Exploiting the tragedy of people who became victims of criminal pseudo-medical experiments in Auschwitz in a debate about vaccines, pandemic and people who fight for saving human lives is shameful. It is disrespectful to victims & a sad symptom of moral and intellectual decline.”

more...

https://deadline.com/2021/11/lara-logan-anthony-fauci-josef-mengele-1234882194/