Tracker

Stuff like this does not even cause a ripple in the sewage lagoon that is American politics these days, and further evidence that their country has passed the tipping point of no return.

Jeanine cites ridiculously false abortion 'stats' that would mean most women get an abortion every year Fox News propagandist Judge Jeanine defended the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion expected to strike down the constitutional right to abortion by making an extremely false claim that would mean statistically, on average, almost every woman of childbearing age gets an abortion every year. Her numbers are way off. In 2018 there were about 72.7 million women in the U.S. considered to be of “reproductive age,” 15-49, according to The Guttmacher Institute, “a leading research and policy organization committed to advancing sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) worldwide.” According to Judge Jeanine, there are 63 million abortions every year, which is false. “And my stats that I have are that there are 63 million abortions a year in this country. Those are the stats that I heard! That’s a little too much!” She clearly couldn’t be bothered to spend a few minutes googling her stats, which are wrong. In fact, when NCRM googled “63 million abortions” the first result was a Fox News article from 2021 titled: “An estimated 62 million abortions have occurred since Roe v. Wade decision in 1973.” https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/jeanine-pirro/

Ron Johnson falsely claims it 'may be true' that COVID-19 vaccines cause AIDS Although Wisconsin is a battleground state that went to former President Donald Trump in 2016’s presidential election but favored President Joe Biden in 2020, Republican Sen. Ron Johnson obviously has no desire to embrace the center in the 2022 midterms. Johnson, seeking a third term in the U.S. Senate, is running as a far-right MAGA culture warrior — and he was clearly pandering to anti-vaxxer extremists when he said that COVID-19 vaccines “may” cause AIDS. The Wisconsin State Journal’s Alexander Shur, in an article published on May 4, reports that during a recent video interview, attorney and anti-vaxxer Todd Callender claimed that COVID-19 shots “caused vaccine-induced AIDS” and “purposefully gave people AIDS” — something there is absolutely no proof of. In fact, COVID-19 vaccines are saving lives; it’s quite possible to be fully vaccinated and still get COVID-19, but infections among the vaccinated tend to be milder infections. When Callender falsely linked COVID-19 vaccines to HIV and AIDS, Johnson responded, “Let me challenge you there. That’s way down the road. I mean, you gotta do one step at a time. Everything you say may be true, OK. But right now, the public views the vaccines as largely safe and effective, that vaccine injuries are rare and mild. That’s the narrative, that’s what the vast majority of the public accepts.” Johnson continued, “So, until we get a larger percentage of the population with their eyes open to ‘woah, these vaccine injuries are real, why?,’ you know, it’s gotta be step by step. You can’t leap to crimes against humanity. You can’t leap to another Nuremberg trial.” https://www.alternet.org/2022/05/ron-johnson-falsely-claims-it-may-be-true-that-19-vaccines-cause-aids/

Tyrell Ford it is!

Fundamental LGBTQ Rights Also Under Attack In Leaked Supreme Court Draft Amid his criticisms of Roe v. Wade, Justice Samuel Alito eerily ripped landmark civil rights cases that legalized marriage equality and private, consensual sex. Millions of Americans were shocked Monday night by a leaked draft of a Supreme Court opinion to overturn Roe v. Wade — a decision that, if finalized, would reverse 50 years of precedent ensuring a woman’s right to choose to have an abortion. But that’s not the only stunning attack on established constitutional rights in the court’s draft majority opinion, first obtained by Politico. Conservative Justice Samuel Alito, who authored the draft opinion, also specifically criticizes the landmark civil rights cases that legalized marriage equality, Obergefell v. Hodges, and that legalized private consensual sex, Lawrence v. Texas. Referencing those two cases, Alito eerily says that, like abortion rights, “None of these rights has any claim to being deeply rooted in history.” Both Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas have already publicly called for revisiting same-sex couples’ constitutional right to marry. In October 2020, they described the court’s 2015 decision on marriage equality as putting “a novel constitutional right over the religious liberty interests explicitly protected in the First Amendment.” “By doing so undemocratically, the court has created a problem that only it can fix,” Alito and Thomas said at the time. “Until then, Obergefell will continue to have ruinous consequences for religious liberty.” That Alito is now tying his criticisms of marriage equality to an actual draft court opinion to overturn a 50-year precedent on abortion rights should be a blaring siren for anyone concerned about constitutionally protected LGBTQ rights. “The concern for us is what’s next with this right-wing Supreme Court,” Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) told HuffPost. “I can tell you Obergefell is on Justice Alito’s and Justice Thomas’ hit list.” As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern points out on Twitter, at the heart of Alito’s opinion is a scathing repudiation of “unenumerated rights” that are not laid out in the Constitution. “The Supreme Court may only protect these rights, Alito says, if they are ‘deeply rooted’ in history. Abortion is not. Neither is same-sex marriage,” Stern says. https://www.huffpost.com/entry/lgbtq-rights-roe-v-wade-leaked-supreme-court-opinion_n_6271425ae4b01131b127b198

The tricky thing is that healthcare (including abortion services) is provincial area of responsibility, so the Feds must tread carefully.

The Liberals could score some BIG political points right now by introducing a motion in parliament confirming women's right to choose. That would force the troglodytes opposite to support the motion, vote against it or suddenly come down ill and miss the vote.

It has become very obvious for some time that there is literally nothing that the GOP will not stoop to in order to gain or retain power, reward themselves and placate their followers. As an example, in Alabama, if a woman chooses to undergo an abortion, she is required to advise the biological father, even if he impregnated her by rape or incest, and he can apply to have her be refused the procedure.

'Inclined Toward Treason': More And More Russian Soldiers Reportedly Refusing To Fight In Ukraine A stamp that was purportedly placed in the military-service booklet of one soldier who refused to serve in Ukraine. “Inclined toward treason, lies, and deception,” the official-looking stamp reads. “They called me one morning from the office of the division commander in Amur Oblast, where Pavlik served,” said a woman from Russia’s Tambov region who asked to be identified only by her first name, Yelena. “The man said: ‘Do you know that they are searching for your son, that he is AWOL?’ Pavlik was supposed to board a troop train, but he didn’t. And five other soldiers were with him.” Yelena’s son, Pavel, was serving in the Far Eastern Amur region when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. Almost immediately, his unit was sent to the front, and he served almost 40 days in combat. Then his unit was sent back to Russia to regroup, Yelena told RFE/RL’s North.Realities. When his unit was preparing to return to Ukraine, Pavel refused. “If he doesn’t want to go back, am I supposed to push him, to tell him, ‘Grab your weapon and go,’” Yelena said. “Those who haven’t been there have no right judge those who have.” Yelena’s son is one of a significant but unknown number of Russian contract soldiers who have refused to either fight in Ukraine in the first place or who have fought and do not want to return. Lawyer Pavel Chikov, founder of the Agora legal-aid NGO, has written on Telegram that more than 1,000 military personnel and National Guard troops from at least seven regions have refused to go to Ukraine. https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-ukraine-treason-soldiers-refusing-to-fight/31806466.html

The Christo-fascists are doubtless beside themselves with glee. Trump was worth every penny they paid for him, and democracy has taken a body blow in the US.

Depression is something many of us go through and can actually be helpful. Melancholic depression where the individual is actively considering self-harm is the critical one- if the person has a plan and a time, it is time to get that person to a hospital or call EMS or the police. RIGHT NOW. Do not accept that s/he will be all right- someone committed enough to formulate a time and a method will lie.

Country Icon Naomi Judd, 76, Died by Suicide, Report Says Multiple sources have confirmed to People magazine that country star Naomi Judd, 76, took her own life. The news follows an announcement made Saturday by her daughters, Ashley Judd and Wynonna Judd, that their mother had died. “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness. We are shattered,” they said, without elaborating. Naomi Judd was candid throughout her career about her struggles with mental illness and depression, as chronicled in her 2016 memoir, River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope. Regarding suicidal depression, the Grammy winner told People, “Nobody can understand it unless you’ve been there.”

All available experience indicates that you cannot reason with a fanatic. Putin is certainly that as a psychopath.

Apparently Naomi Judd took her own life: “Today we sisters experienced a tragedy. We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness" ,daughters Wynonna Judd and Ashley Judd shared in a Saturday, April 30, Twitter statement. “We are shattered. We are navigating profound grief and know that as we loved her, she was loved by her public. We are in unknown territory.”

Trump Organization accused of hiding witness Michael Cohen, Who knew Donald Trump lied Of all Donald Trump’s legal issues, the 2015 lawsuit over how his company’s security guards beat protesters seems relatively minor. But attorneys in that case now believe Trump’s former fixer, Michael Cohen, was in the room when Trump allegedly ordered guards to attack protesters. That’s a key detail in an ongoing lawsuit in New York City. And, if true, that means the former president lied in his videotaped testimony behind closed doors last October. It also turns out that Trump’s former chief of security, Keith Schiller, also lied when he was similarly ousted in 2016 by lawyers representing battered protesters. The case was essentially on hold while Trump was shielded by presidential power in the White House. But over the past month or so — with the trial only weeks away — lawyers for the upset protesters have discovered that Cohen is a key witness to Trump’s personal involvement in the attack. The Trump Organization “should have known that Mr. Cohen had relevant information and was a potential witness for nearly seven years before he moved forward.” [us] his own,” wrote Benjamin N. Dictor in a court filing Tuesday. (Dictor also represents The Daily Beast’s News Guild.) The company “did not disclose this or identify Mr. Cohen as a person with relevant information at any time,” Dictor explained. On Friday, attorneys representing Trump, Schiller and the company filed the document in court and consider it a completely different story. The attorney, Alina Habba, claimed the defense was “ambushed” by Cohen’s sudden appearance as a prospective witness. And Habba took the opportunity to throw mud at Cohen himself, noting that he was “a disgraced lawyer and convicted of a felony.” She denied any testimony he could give, calling Cohen a “convicted persecutor” with a “well documented supplier” against Trump. Both sides are now preparing to formally question Cohen himself in the coming weeks, and his testimony could prove decisive at trial. Cohen declined to comment on the matter for the time being, citing that he is about to be removed from office. However, court records did explain what he was expected to say.

J.D. Vance Wildly Suggests Biden Is Trying To 'Kill A Bunch Of MAGA Voters' Ohio Senate candidate claims Biden is giving drug traffickers at the border a pass so they can wipe out right-wing voters. " Ohio Senate candidate J.D. Vance has leveled a bizarre new accusation against Joe Biden, suggesting that the president is trying to “kill” MAGA voters with fentanyl sold by drug traffickers. “If you wanted to kill a bunch of MAGA voters in the middle of the heartland, how better than to target them and their kids with this deadly fentanyl?” the controversial candidate pressed in an interview Friday with Jim Hoft, founder of the far-right news site Gateway Pundit. The venture capitalist and “Hillbilly Elegy” author, who was endorsed earlier this month by Donald Trump, did not explain how Biden could accomplish such a horrifying aim. But he implied that drug traffickers crossing into the U.S. from Mexico were expressly not arrested so they could kill right-wing Republican voters. “It’s really a border crisis that has gone all over the country,” said Vance. “It does look intentional,” he emphasized. “It’s like Joe Biden wants to punish the people who didn’t vote for him, and opening up the floodgates to the border is one way to do it.” https://www.huffpost.com/entry/jd-vance-fentanyl-plot-maga-voters-joe-biden_n_626dd0f1e4b0cca67556acf9 (What he is really saying is that MAGA adherents are druggies)

A Public Service Announcement:

You can bet that Chris Jones was the other.

Sooo....someone else gave up the Chase?

Still aren't gonna beat Santa Lucia.

This was predicted- Putin's army is struggling with incompetent leadership, irregular air support, unreliable and outdated equipment (some dating back to WW2), very poor food and sinking morale as more and more of their comrades are killed right next to them. And this is even before the bulk of internationally-supplied armament is deployed in the field. The kill ratio between the Ukrainian forces vs the Russian forces is about 8 dead Russians for each dead Ukrainian. On top of that the top Russian general was meeting with his field commanders near Izium yesterday. The Ukrainian military found out about it and lobbed an artillery at the meeting, apparently killing or injuring many of the officers. General Gerasimov was hit in the leg by shrapnel and immediately departed for Russia. The Russians have had two consecutive days of losing ground along with heavy losses. Further, there are reports that hackers have penetrated the Russian Central Bank's computer records and are threatening to delete them. Russian media are ginning up reports of ethnic Russians being attacked in Moldova, and the Times of London is saying that the decision has been made for Russian troops in Crimea to invade as part of a campaign to seize Odessa. And:

With any luck, Trump will be on trial by then and maybe even under a gag order, but that will not stop him from funneling his bile through intermediaries, and he has a lot of those.

All journeys have a beginning and an end. When we accept this, we free ourselves from the yoke of fear as we do go on forever.

Apparently is has to do with the lingering aftereffects of the infection- reduced attention span, impaired memory, chronic fatigue and so forth. Several people I know are coping with this, and if you return to a demanding job, mistakes will be made.