Satanic Temple Triumphs in Red-State Battle for Abortion Rights

This is just an amazing read, admittedly in the zone of absurdity. It is offered in the spirit of dark comic relief.  Hope you enjoy it eyes wide open.

Under the informed consent law, Doe was required to listen to her unborn child's fetal heartbeat during a 72-hour waiting period prior to her abortion procedure. She also received a booklet that contained information about “the probable anatomical and physiological characteristics of the unborn child at two-week gestational increments from conception to full term." Printed in the booklet was a statement that read, “The life of each human being begins at conception. Abortion will terminate the life of a separate, unique, living human being.”

The Satanic Temple describes itself as a “non-theistic religious organization dedicated to Satanic practice and the promotion of Satanic rights.” Its followers are not Satanists, worshipping at the altar of Beelzebub, but those who “see the biblical Satan as a metaphor for rebellion against tyranny,” according to 9news.com. One of the seven tenets of the Satanic Temple is that, “One’s body is inviolable, subject to one’s own will alone.”

I hope I have baited you into clicking the story below.

Satanic Temple Triumphs in Red-State Battle for Abortion Rights | Alternet:

Robert De Niro Accused of Exploiting Hurricane Irma to Build Resort in Barbuda

Despite De Niro's celebrity, the march of disaster capitalism will accelerate until it is destroyed. Vigilance is our task.  This is the real focus of the intercept article and Naomi Klein is certainly the expert.



FOCUS: Robert De Niro Accused of Exploiting Hurricane Irma to Build Resort in Barbuda:



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Republicans Are Killing Social Security One Tiny Service Cut at a Time

Basically a good expose on subject the long standing assault on Social Security and the underlying economics of the system.  The only problem with the article is the word Republicans in the title as the privitization of social security is a NeoLibral project as popular with many Democrats.  The story is really very simple.  It is not social security's failure that needs to be fixed, it is its success that makes Wall Street's mouth water.  They want the pot of gold and big piece of the action.



For more detail on this from Counter Punch



Republicans Are Killing Social Security One Tiny Service Cut at a Time:



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How Some Cops Use the Badge to Commit Sex Crimes

Just in case you were wondering why a woman might not go to the police or report a sexual assault.  Sexual assault on and off duty is common and hidden from view.

Research on “police sexual misconduct” — a term used to describe actions from sexual harassment and extortion to forcible rape by officers — overwhelmingly concludes that it is a systemic problem. A 2015 investigation by the Buffalo News, based on a national review of media reports and court records over a 10-year period, concluded that an officer is accused of an act of sexual misconduct at least every five days. The vast majority of incidents, the report found, involve motorists, young people in job-shadowing programs, students, victims of violence and informants. In more than 60 percent of the cases reviewed, an officer was convicted of a crime or faced other consequences.

Guys will be guys!



https://readersupportednews.org/news-section2/318-66/47906-how-some-cops-use-the-badge-to-commit-sex-crimes

The Biggest Secret: James Risen on Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror

There is a written interview transcript at the link to review as the video is and hour long.

In his new piece for The Intercept, James Risen also describes meetings between top Times editors and officials at the CIA and the White House. Risen was pursued by both the Bush and then the Obama administrations as part of a six-year leak investigation into his book State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration. His refusal to name a source would take him to the Supreme Court. He almost wound up in jail, until the Obama administration blinked. His answer to that saga was to write another book, Pay Any Price: Greed, Power, and Endless War. Now, in one of his first pieces for The Intercept, he describes "The Biggest Secret: My Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror."

The Biggest Secret: James Risen on Life as a New York Times Reporter in the Shadow of the War on Terror:



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The Telecom Revolution is Mostly Authoritarian

This is very dark but very true.  Read it if you have the stomache for bad news.

All major communications advances have had both liberating and authoritarian uses. And, I believe, every one has been stronger on the authoritarian side than on the liberating side.

There is a widespread myth in our society that Progress is always Good.

It is not. Sometimes it is good, sometimes it isn’t. Generally it is mixed, with bad dominating.

Right now, in much of the world, the good of the telecom revolution seems poised to be swamped by the bad (and this is without even discussing the data coming in showing that the more time you spend on your phone/computer, the unhappier you are. This data is not mixed, it is virtually all bad.)

The Telecom Revolution is Mostly Authoritarian | Ian Welsh:

Israeli Ruling Party Votes to Annex West Bank and Seize Last Palestinian Lands

This will not end well for the Palestinians.  The international community will not accept this but the US probably will and so there will be no international action (saving complaints and vetoed UN resolutions.)  So the long annihilation of Palestinian identity continues.



Israeli Ruling Party Votes to Annex West Bank and Seize Last Palestinian Lands:



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The Year Russian LGBT Persecution Defied Belief

I am using but not recommending this article, and I am not insensitive to victims of hate crimes. On the contrary I am incensed.  I become irrational when confronted with bigotry at this level -- a hater of the the haters -- a knee jerk reaction I have had suffered much of my adult life. Although this New Yorker article shine a light on an ongoing travesty, it in turn willingly become a fear mongering propaganda tool in a media awash with anti Russia hysteria, basicly using suffering to sell an agenda.  The author Marsh Gessen (as Russia baiting as she is) together with the article's only comment however provide an interesting jumping off point for some serious introspection for Americans.  It turns out that Russia and the US have much in common these day.  Trump uses hate and Putin uses hate for the same reason -- it works.  Labels like fascist and dictatorial thug do not put a fine enough edge on this type of crass Machiavellian political expedient.  It our current era, hate after all may be the (not so new) opiate of the Masses



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