Christian fascism, Murdoch media lies, & our ever-more-apparent dystopia

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Christian-fascism-Murdoch-by-Rainer-Shea-Christianity_Dystopia_Fascism_Fascism-Has-Happened-Here-220704-694.html





The "United States" fundamentally lacks the characteristics of a nation. Its people have no shared history, culture, or values, because the country they're in came about artificially. It's a project for building up capital, constructed on land that was annexed in wars of aggression. America's Christian nationalists have no actual nation, only a brand. They compensate for this by promoting the myths which maintain the settler state's illusion of not being an occupation, of being something worth defending. Violence and lies, serving to continue the extraction which fascism's petty-bourgeois base depends upon, are the tools for survival from an empire that's imploding in on its contradictions. Christian fascism provides a cultural foundation for this project, so all of its abuses are seen as acceptable by a ruling class that's increasingly empowering this dangerous tendency.

During capital's unprecedented period of weakening throughout the last half century, where the irrecoverable crash of the 1970s has been responded to through severe austerity, the efforts to conceal the system's weaknesses have grown more aggressive. The ruling class has utilized the propaganda arms, repressive policies, and social leverage of Christian nationalism to wage a perpetual war for counterrevolution. Murdoch's media conglomerate has gained an all-reaching presence, and has weaponized the culture wars towards spreading reactionary paranoia. Erik Prince, one of the most powerful Christian nationalists, has created a private army, currently gaining experience by helping Ukraine's far-right regime. Religious extremists have systematically transformed the courts and legislatures in their image, climbing the structure of a state that's in decline and increasingly vulnerable to reactionary takeovers. The extremists are working to suppress every aspect of society that they see as a threat to their vision for a pure America, terrorizing the groups they target and censoring history which exposes the country's nature as an oppressor.

Now that they've successfully reversed fifty years of social progress by overturning Roe v. Wade, they're accelerating the country's regression in all other areas. The Supreme Court has seized the moment to destroy the Clean Air Act, legalize forced prayer in schools, and decide the settler state can prosecute crimes in Indian country, reversing the land rights victory that Oklahoma's tribes made two years ago. Next it could give partisan officials the power to bend electoral results to their preferences, rewarding Trump's cries of 2020 electoral fraud that have been amplified by the Murdoch media network. This is part of a campaign to suppress every aspect of society that the Christian fascists see as a threat, from the LGBT community to racial minority groups to the labor movement. The militarization of police during the last decade or so, made possible by excess equipment from America's recent wars, has equipped law enforcement to brutally wage war against this last month's protests. The abortion surveillance state that the Roe v Wade decision has created will add onto this intensifying repressive violence, serving to further repress social movements and marginalized communities.

This is the conclusion of what the Murdoch family, the right-wing Christian political machine, and the other actors behind this process have been working towards from the start. Their goal is the defeat of nebulous spiritual enemies that can never truly be defeated, and their strategy for waging this endless war is to stoke all-consuming paranoia. "Donald Trump wove them together and brought them out into the open," Robert Jones, chief executive of the Public Religion Research Institute, has written about this coalition. "Indeed, the MAGA formula "- the stoking of anti-immigrant and anti-Muslim sentiment while making nativist appeals to the Christian right "- could accurately be described as a white Christian nationalist strategy from the beginning."

These demagogues have tapped into the conspiratorial imagination which American settlers have always been susceptible to, and manufactured a movement obsessed with wiping out a myriad of supposed threats: communism or what they perceive as communism, the LGBT community that they view as a product of cultural disease, the racial justice movement that they view as a product of false atrocity propaganda, religious enemies like Muslims and Jews, feminism and secularism in general. They portray a binary world of sinners and the saved, where the righteous are waging war against an all-encompassing evil. Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, has described this massive cult as "a reactionary, authoritarian ideology that centers its grievances on a narrative of lost national greatness and believes in the indispensability of the 'right' religion in recovering that lost greatness. This mind-set always involves a narrative of unjust persecution at the hands of alien or 'un-American' groups. The specific targets may shift. Some focus their fears on the 'homosexual agenda'; others target Americans of color or nonwhite immigrant groups; still others identify the menace with religious minorities such as Muslims, Jews and secular 'elites' or perceived threats against gender hierarchy and sexual order. And of course, many take an all-of-the-above approach."

The latest phase of their cultural war, where they seek to portray transgender people as a product of sinister left-wing indoctrination, is a way to solidify control over the minds and bodies of children. Like the Nazi-influenced regime in Ukraine, they've been banning books that challenge their extremist agenda, leveraging their domination over red state school districts to censor even the most innocuous material that's seen to represent the wrong lifestyles. They're associating queer people with pedophilia, alluding to the white supremacist slogan of "degeneracy" in describing the LGBT community. Florida governor Ron DeSantis has enforced a "don't say gay" law within schools, which has created a dystopian environment where queer individuals must suppress themselves to keep themselves safe. Gay teachers are being made to get rid of pictures of their spouses, gender non-conforming kids are being systematically monitored and scrutinized, and schools are being required to censor any material referencing gender identity or sexual orientation. The same censorship is being applied to information about the history of systemic racism, or about race in general. There's no limit to what the Christian fascists will go after, no point at which they'll be satisfied. When they've suppressed one aspect of freedom or empirical reality, they'll take it even further.

The Democratic Party has proven unwilling to do anything substantial to stop them. Americans learn time and again that whether or not Democrats are in office, they'll let the Republicans keep reversing social progress, won't reverse the neoliberal paradigm that's deepening the people's misery, and won't dismantle the police state that's repressing opposition to these policies. The Biden administration, and centrism more broadly, have discredited themselves, leaving the country open to a total fascist takeover. In this political environment, the vile policies of Ron DeSantis have propelled him to national prominence, making it likely that he'll become either the next president or vice-president. Murdoch media is already promoting him for 2024, and his agenda is being endorsed by influential figures like Joe Rogan. His camp's narrative is that he's only trying to protect children from the left's predation, whatever that means. In reality, he and his adjacent media outlets are advancing a conspiratorial worldview that endangers any semblance of freedom or social equality.



This is a worldview that vilifies science and medical knowledge, something which Murdoch media has been doing across the broader imperialist sphere through Fox News clones like Sky News. That treats its targets through a lens of disgust and blind fear, nurturing ignorance about queer people so that they can be justifiably treated as dangerous in the eyes of the law. That brings white nationalist propaganda like the "Great Replacement" into the mainstream, presenting alternative versions of these ideas through vast platforms. That's exposing the disgusting nature of American exceptionalism by leading the U.S. into becoming one of the most actively anti-democratic countries on the planet, at the same time Washington has already been losing international credibility. The Christian nationalists claim to be the ones who can save America, but they'll accelerate its decline, and therefore the liberation of the world from U.S. imperialism's grip. At that point, they'll be firmly in power, and will react to this dire situation they've created for themselves by taking their repression further than ever.

By Rainer Shea (Page 1 of 1 pages) 1 comment




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We Should Be Afraid of Nuclear Power

https://www.opednews.com/articles/We-Should-Be-Afraid-of-Nuc-by-Robert-Leishear-Ukraine-220704-434.html





As a threat to life, government cover-ups of nuclear power plant explosions perpetuate unsafe nuclear reactor operations.

Stand Against the Explosion Cover-up

The government cover-up of explosion detonations at nuclear power plants is extraordinary. Outside of engineering journals and technical publications, OpEd News stands alone as a forum for public dissent with respect to explosion dangers in nuclear power plants. Many pro nuclear advocates thwart new information to improve public safety, and anti-nuclear press dismisses this work as pro nuclear advocacy.

I am dismayed at the widespread lack of concern for a grave danger to our society and our environment. Some days, challenging an effective government cover-up of nuclear safety dangers seems insurmountable, and giving up the fight for nuclear safety seems appropriate. Not today - my confrontational observations below are an ongoing effort to change public opinion to stop the "next imminent nuclear power plant explosion."



Nuclear Industry Regulators Created and Perpetuate a Nuclear Power Plant Explosion Cover-up

As expected, responses from those responsible for nuclear safety did not respond to legitimate safety concerns when they were provided copies of the OpEd News article "Blasting Into Our Lives - The Three Mile Island Explosion Cover-Up: TV, Myth, and Reality", "The Next Nuclear Power Plant Explosion Bangs at Our Doors", or "Water Hammers Exploded the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plants". Such agencies include the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Agency, the Office of the U.S. Secretary of Energy for the Department of Energy, the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Nuclear Energy Agency in Europe, the Tokyo Electric Power Company who operated the exploded Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plants, and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority in Japan.



These agencies did not respond to these recent allegations about the Three Mile Island and Fukushima Daiichi cover-ups. These agencies did not respond to many earlier allegations about false statements regarding the overall safety of the nuclear industry, where reports falsely claimed that the nuclear industry is much safer than other industries.

In fact, the reports that these agencies depend on claim that nuclear reactor power plants can only meltdown or explode between once in 5,000 years to once in a million years. Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Sl-1, and Fukushima Daiichi stand as explosive proof against the false mathematical proofs that claim such low risks to reactor safety, i.e. multiple explosions detonated in the past 70 years of operations ("Nuclear Power Plants Are Not So Safe: Fluid Transients / Water Hammers, Autoignition, Explosions, Accident Predictions and Ethics").

Also, the nuclear industry falsely claims that nuclear energy is much safer than other industries. Again, distorted data falsely asserts such a claim, where nuclear energy risks equal or exceed the risks of other energy industries. With the exception of nuclear war, the dread risk, or fear, of nuclear power plant explosions exceeds the fear of other disasters and causes of death on our planet. Even so, stopping nuclear plant explosions would certainly improve nuclear energy safety, and ensure nuclear energy as the safest of the energy industries.

The Press is Swept Along with a Well-Executed Explosion Cover-up

For example, a Letter to the Editor that opposed a pro nuclear Washington Post article was turned down by the Post.

"Letter to the Editor: "Who's Afraid of Nuclear Power" [by the Washington Post, 2022] overlook[ed] the facts that explosion cover-ups concealed detonations at Three Mile Island and Fukushima Daiichi. The 43 year TMI cover-up permitted Fukushima Daiichi explosions. Fifteen peer reviewed research publications prove the Three Mile Island cover-up. (See references below).

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) discarded all facts that did not support their preconceived conclusion that a TMI fire occurred. Explosions are bad press. [Discarded facts are listed below].

1) Detonation pressures were measured and ignored.

2) An explosion thud was heard, not the swoosh of a fire, and a shock was felt by operators.

3) Some hydrogen exploded in the reactor system, and other hydrogen exploded in the building.

4) Water blasted from a tank through a blown rupture disc. Since an empty tank did not support their fire theory, the NRC falsely claimed that instrumentation did not work, and dismissed the explosion in that tank.

5) High explosion temperatures were measured inside the reactor piping, and were ignored.

6) Measured temperatures in the reactor containment building were misinterpreted. NRC falsely claimed that temperatures proved that a fire occurred, where explosions were too fast to measure by installed instruments."



Having served as a troubleshooter and research engineer for complex piping system failures at a U.S. Department of Energy plant, I learned that the first rule of science is that one cannot ignore select facts when troubleshooting failures. The omission of facts in NRC reports constituted false documentation for many others to follow. The NRC ignored many facts in the wake of this explosion cover-up, and the NRC still blatantly ignores facts to defend their cover-up of dangerous explosion conditions in the worldwide fleet of more than 400 nuclear reactor power plants.

"Act now. An approaching nuclear power plant explosion can be stopped."



Engineering Professional Societies Defend a Very Effective Explosion Cover-up

The OpEd News article "Blasting into our lives - The Three Mile Island explosion cover-up: TV, myth, and reality" accused the nuclear industry of dangerous cover-ups at Three Mile Island, where this cover-up could have prevented the Fukushima Daiichi explosions. Along with many newspapers and magazines, the American Nuclear Society (ANS) refused to publish important nuclear safety information.

A Challenge to the Explosion Cover-up

The ANS initially responded to the following letter from this author.

"HBO [Home Box Office] made some [false] claims, the NRC made false claims, and ANS compounded the misrepresentation of facts. [With respect to past explosions], OpEd News published an article, which challenges the fictitious ANS article, the NRC, and the HBO TMI production. Although I did not expect the ANS to provide a forum for an opposing point of view, I thought that my emails would have been answered. Perhaps the ANS is unconcerned about nuclear safety."

A Possible Break in the Explosion Cover-up?

In response to this letter, the ANS agreed to reconsider reprinting this OpEd on condition that

"Unless Dr. Leishear can demonstrate, with some technical basis, that the water hammer theory caused hydrogen explosions at Three Mile Island, Fukushima Daiichi, and Chernobyl, ANS will not pursue this further. This was the consensus of experts that have been consulted regarding Dr. Leishear's request because the information provided was insufficient. If he would like to supplement and explain his logic, ANS would further consider his request."

No. The Explosion Cover-up Remains in Place



Subsequently, the ANS refused to respond to letters that included a version of the Letter to the Editor provided above, along with the following proof to explain my logic and a supporting list of comprehensive technical references. The following letter to ANS was unanswered.

"I certainly understand that ANS may not want to reprint this article since this work contradicts a recent ANS video and publication. If ANS chooses, they can certainly publish only one side of the story, but nuclear safety will be jeopardized. Please consider this email to be a request for further consideration since nuclear safety is critical to the industry.

Within the OpEd ["Blasting into Our Lives - The Three Mile Island explosion cover-up: TV, myth, and reality"], titles for numerous peer reviewed articles are referenced, along with the fact that my research covers the past six years at great personal expense. As discussed in detail in my published research, water dissociates into [hydrogen] and [oxygen] at high temperatures, and the superseded theory that only hydrogen was present does not explain that fact that an explosion occurred inside the reactor system, and this explosion was observed at the time. That is, an explosion certainly occurred inside [the TMI reactor system] as documented by facts.

For Fukushima, TEPCO will not release the data to conclusively prove that explosions occurred in the [reactor system], but the similarities to TMI provide that proof. Since, the investigators dismissed the fact that an explosion occurred and called it a fire, oxygen generation was not understood [until many years later]. [The NRC] made other false claims as well, as detailed in my publications (ASME, ANS, Mensa, and BHR Group). The facts have been buried for so long that experts refuse to consider new information as documented in the references below.

As mentioned in my OpEd article, I have spent much of the past 6 years researching this issue. In fact, I completed all the courses required for a Nuclear Engineering Ph.D., numerous combustion courses at [the Princeton, Combustion Institute Summer School], numerous NACE/AMPP corrosion courses, and numerous courses in nuclear reactor design, international nuclear law, and radiology in the U.S. and abroad. All of this dedicated research provides the technical basis to further prove my conclusions. People do not like new ideas, but dislike is insufficient cause to stifle new ideas.

"The next nuclear power plant explosion bangs at our doors" (Leishear, 2022) provides a brief summary of conclusions, and "The autoignition of nuclear power plant explosions" [Leishear, 2020] provides a more detailed summary - however - the series of papers below includes many details that are not included in these two papers. [These two OpEds] that the ANS turned down are the briefest summaries of this extraordinarily complicated problem, where OpEd length precludes much detail. Through extensive research and publications, this theory evolved over many years to prove that the next nuclear power plant explosion is on the way, and that such an explosion can be stopped to improve nuclear safety."

The Explosion Cover-up Goes On

Also, the ANS did not respond to the following letter, which closed this ANS discussion for the moment.

"In view of no response from ANS, the obvious conclusion is that opposing opinions will not be reprinted through the ANS Newswire or elsewhere, regardless of public safety import. The cover-up of this nuclear safety concern expands in scope."

What's Next?

Perhaps the next nuclear reactor meltdown cannot be stopped, but the companion explosions that cause explosive radioactive clouds, radioactive fallout, mass evacuations, some deaths, and cancer for many people can be stopped. As long as this explosion cover-up pervades the nuclear industry, we should be afraid of nuclear power, but the ability to make nuclear power much safer is within our grasp. Stop the cover-up; stop the next explosions.



"References Provided to the ANS:

1. "Blasting Into Our Lives - The Three Mile Island Explosion Cover-up: TV, Myths, and Reality", R. A. Leishear, 2022, OpEd News.

2. "The Next Nuclear Power Plant Explosion Bangs at Our Doors", R. Leishear, 2022, Academia.edu and ResearchGate.com.

3. "Expert View: Water Hammers Exploded the Nuclear Power Plants at Fukushima Daiichi", 2022, R. A. Leishear, ASME Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, pp. 1-29, peer reviewed.

4. "Potential Ukraine Nuclear Power Plant Explosions Can be Stopped", 2022, OpEd News.

5. [Preventable Disasters, Never Give an Inch", R. Leishear, OpEd News, 2022.]

6. "Explosion Differentiation Using Light Emissions: Steam, Water Hammer, Hydrogen, And Hydro-Volcanic Explosions", 2022 ASME, pp. 1-16, in review.

7. "Nuclear Power Plants Are Not So Safe: Fluid Transients / Water Hammers, Autoignition, Explosions, Accident Predictions and Ethics", 2021, R. A. Leishear, Science Publishing Group, pp 1-42, (Click Here ), peer reviewed. "-

8. "The TMI-2 Explosion", ANS Nuclear News Magazine 2019, R. A. Leishear, editor reviewed.

9. "The Autoignition of Nuclear Power Plant Explosions", 2020, R. A. Leishear, ASME Journal of Nuclear Engineering and Radiation Science, peer reviewed.

10. "Pump Start-ups Ignite Nuclear Power Plants, History, Law, and Risk", 2018, R. A. Leishear, Pressures Surge Conference, BHR Group, peer reviewed.

11. "Nuclear Power Plant Fires, and Explosions, Accident Overviews", 2017, R. A. Leishear, American Nuclear Society Winter Conference, peer reviewed.

12. "Nuclear Power Plant Fires, and Explosions, I, Plant Designs and Hydrogen Properties", 2017, R. A. Leishear, ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, peer reviewed.

13. "Nuclear Power Plant Fires, and Explosions, II, Hydrogen Ignition Overview", 2017, R. A. Leishear, ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, peer reviewed.

14. "Nuclear Power Plant Fires, and Explosions, III, Hamaoka Explosion", 2017, R. A. Leishear, ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, peer reviewed.



15. "Nuclear Power Plant Fires, and Explosions, IV, Water Hammer Ignition Mechanisms", 2017, R. A. Leishear, ASME Pressure Vessels and Piping Conference, peer reviewed.

16. "From Water Hammer to Ignition, The Spark That Ignited Three Mile Island Burst From a Safety Valve", 2014, R. A. Leishear, ASME, Mechanical Engineering Magazine, Revised, 2022, Academia.com and ResearchGate.com, peer reviewed.

17. "Explosions: A Fresh Look at Chernobyl, Three Mile Island, the Gulf Oil Spill, and Fukushima Daiichi", R. A. Leishear, December, 2013, Mensa World Journal, Caythorpe, United Kingdom.

18. "Pipeline Explosions, A New Theory", 2013, R. A. Leishear, ASME, Mechanical Engineering Magazine, peer reviewed.

19. "A Hydrogen Ignition Mechanism for Explosions in Nuclear Facility Pipe Systems", R. A. Leishear, 2013, Journal of Pressure Vessel Technology, ASME, peer reviewed.

20. ["Fluid Mechanics, Water Ahmmer, Dynamic Stressesm and PipinG Design, R. A. Leishear, 2013, ASME Press, pp. 1-443, peer reviewed].

21. "Hydrogen Ignition Mechanism for Explosions in Nuclear Facility Pipe Systems", Leishear, R. A., 2010, ASME, Pressure Vessel and Piping Conference, peer reviewed."

(Article changed on Jul 04, 2022 at 8:31 AM EDT)

(Article changed on Jul 04, 2022 at 9:06 AM EDT)

(Article changed on Jul 04, 2022 at 11:21 AM EDT)



















By Robert Leishear (Page 1 of 5 pages) 1 comment

Welcome To The GOP's Era Of Big Government

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Welcome-To-The-GOP-s-Era-O-by-Carl-Petersen-Lgbtq-220704-255.html




"For this reason, in future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court's substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell." - Clarence Thomas on Supreme Court Decisions that protect contraception, sexual freedom, and marriage equality



SCOTUS APRIL 2015 LGBTQ 54663
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When Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed the "Don't Say Gay" bill, he tried to frame himself as a defender of parental rights. According to the presidential aspirant, academic censorship was necessary to ensure that conservative parents maintained the ability to keep their children ignorant about LGBTQ+ issues. Students who sought support while working through gender or sexual identity questions needed to be deprived of confidentiality so that they could be whisked away for conversion therapy as quickly as possible. Religious guilt works best when instilled early.



To no one's surprise, it did not take DeSantis very long to prove himself to be a hypocrite. Being in danger of having his title of Commander in Chief of the Cultural Warriors usurped by a Florida Representative who proposed legislation "to 'terminate the parental rights of an adult and hit them with a felony charge if they bring their children to watch drag shows," DeSantis was forced to weigh in on the subject. He declared that these shows were "not age-appropriate" and stated that he "is considering using child protective services to investigate parents who bring their children to see drag performances."

DeSantis is not the only Republican Governor looking to weaponize Child Protective Services. In an attack on transgender children and their families, Texas Governor Rick Abbott ordered that Texas Child Protective Services investigate families providing gender-affirming care to their children despite the fact that this treatment, provided under the direction of a doctor, does not "meet the standards for physical abuse or medical neglect as laid out in the Texas Family Code." Under this policy, mandatory reporters, like teachers, are obligated to contact protective services when they learn that a child is undergoing this care.

These cases combined with the Republican Party's newly found ability to force women into parenthood establish a new reality where the government will have a say in almost every aspect of our private lives. Newly emboldened, the Right is looking to go further. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has already issued the battle cry to relitigate cases that allowed married couples to use birth control, prohibited states from outlawing sodomy(1), and allowed all couples the right to marry(2).

Most remarkably, Republicans have been able to move us closer to the social policies of Saudi Arabia and Iran while only winning the popular vote in one of the last eight presidential elections. How much longer will the majority tolerate an erosion of the rights they value before they conclude that the American experiment with democracy has failed? Yes, until 2003 oral sex was illegal in nine states, even between heterosexual couples.
For some unknown reason, Thomas did not include Loving V. Virginia, which legalized interracial marriage, in his list of cases that need to be litigated despite the fact that it relies on the same right to privacy as Roe V. Wade.









By Carl Petersen (Page 1 of 1 pages) No comments




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Supreme Court to Progressives - Wake UP

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Supreme-Court-to-Progressi-by-Ted-Rall-Abortion_Abortion-Laws_Abortion-Legislation_Abortion-Rights-220703-199.html





patient at abortion clinic
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The Supreme Court just sent us a wake-up call. Pro-reality Americans, i.e., the 40% of voters to the left of the Democratic Party, should be grateful.

A freedom essential to half the population never should have hinged upon a flimsy and poorly reasoned legal opinion. Congress should have followed the example of other countries where abortion is legal, and passed a federal law decades ago. Instead, neither party acted on behalf of women. And let's not forget men. Many of them want/need their partners to have abortions.

Democrats are not the answer. They had the chance to codify abortion in 2009, when they had a 60-vote supermajority in the Senate and control of the House. Then-President Barack Obama chose not to lift a finger. "Not the highest legislative priority," Obama sneered as he focused on what he cared about, doling out trillions to Wall Street megabanks. Instead, he channeled his inner laissez-faire Republican, urging Americans to "reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies." Women should despise him and the do-nothing Democrats.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade shines a spotlight on other rights that rest upon the shaky foundation of a Supreme Court decision: men's right to have sex with one another, same-sex marriage, marriage between different races, parental rights over child-rearing, and the sale of contraceptives. This is no way to run a government.

Whether or not the right-wing majority of the Supreme Court is mean and stupid is less important than the fundamental truth that has been revealed: The separation of powers is broken.

When something is important, there oughta be a law, not a ruling.



When a majority of voters arrive at a societal consensus on an issue like those mentioned above, a functional political system responds with a corresponding law negotiated and passed by a legislature.

The U.S., however, is too riddled with partisan dysfunction, and corrupted by corporate lobbyists, to effectively address advances in culture and technology. Thus Congress can't or won't accommodate the 7 out of 10 Americans who want a European-style national health care system, and higher taxes on the rich, or the 56% who want to slash Pentagon spending.

Because Congress is impotent, the highest court of the judicial branch has been stepping in to legislate from the bench, rather than limit itself to its intended role as arbiter of conflicts between laws and the constitution.

Americans have accepted the bastardization of the separation of powers because the result tended to respect popular opinion. In 2015, when the Court legalized same-sex marriage, for example, 57% of voters agreed. (Now it's 71%.).

Not anymore. The rightward shift of the court following former President Donald Trump's three appointees, embodied by polls that show voters wanted to keep Roe by a two-to-one margin, and that New Yorkers were 80% in favor of the SCOTUS-overturned state gun law, have exposed the limits of expediency over ordered governance.

"Up until a couple years ago, it used to be the case that where the court fell was well within the lines of the average Americans' positions," notes Harvard public policy professor Maya Sen. "Now we are estimating that the court falls more squarely in line with the average Republican, not the average American."

Short of revolution, "which I favor", those who wish to see American laws represent current American political and social values have one way forward. Forget the courts. Voters must force legislators to legislate, and the president to sign popular bills into law.

The majority isn't always right. Sometimes politicians should lead the people before they're quite ready. In general, however, a representative democracy that ignores the will of the people is a failure.

Americans who support a woman's right to choose an abortion, all women, not just those privileged enough to live in a blue state, or those in red states, with enough money for travel expenses, face a choice.

They can embark on something this country hasn't seen since the 1960s, with the brief exception of the 2021 Black Lives Matter demonstrations, which were unusually intense and effective, because they were fueled by the COVID lockdown - a sustained campaign of angry agitation.

We need a relentless round of street protests. Economic and cultural boycotts should turn red states into backwater pariahs. Voters can exert financial pressure via contributions that makes congressmen and senators on the wrong side of history and public opinion, miserable enough to support a federal law legalizing abortion whether they like it or not.

Republicans are obvious targets because Democrats need at least 10 GOP senators to federalize abortion rights. Democrats who aren't fierce allies of choice (hello, Joe Manchin) should be primaried out, or face voter boycotts. Protests should erupt in every city, every day, loud and disruptive, and terrifying to the powers that be.

Or abortion rights advocates can bemoan the "Handmaid's Tale" - vilification of America, attend one or two photogenic parades on a conveniently scheduled Sunday afternoon, and recite ridiculous fantasies about packing the Supreme Court (you'd need a 60-vote supermajority) or hoping that its conservative members die under Democratic rule. Meanwhile, Southern women will have to drive a thousand miles to terminate a pregnancy.

Roe was unsustainable. The liberal court was never going to last.

Now that the bubble has burst, don't whine. It's time to organize.











By Ted Rall (Page 1 of 2 pages) 2 comments




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Information Anarchism

https://www.opednews.com/articles/Information-Anarchism-by-Caitlin-Johnstone-Information-Manipulation_Journalism_Propaganda_Stenographic-Journalism-220704-755.html







This piece was reprinted by OpEd News with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.

Reprinted from caitlinjohnstone.com by Unknown

Listen to a reading of this article:



❖

Our civilization is built upon lies and obfuscation to such an extent that advocating for transparency and the democratization of information can be a complete political ideology, all by itself.

Rather than claiming to know what's best for society (whether we should move left or right, whether we should espouse this model or that model), it is perfectly legitimate to simply support giving humanity the information tools necessary to know the truth about what's happening so that they can collectively determine for themselves what direction to take.



This would mean supporting the end of the mass-scale manipulations and obfuscations used by the powerful to influence the way the public thinks, acts and votes, and it would mean giving them the democratic infrastructure to steer their civilization in response to the true information they've got access to.

It would mean supporting the end of government secrecy and advocating transparency for any institution with any degree of power over the people. The more power and influence they have, the more transparency should be required of them, whether they be governmental, corporate, or financial institutions.

It would mean supporting the democratization of information and the end of mass media propaganda. It would mean breaking up institutions which have too much information-sharing ability and giving more information-sharing ability to those who don't have enough. Rather than a few plutocrats influencing the public, the public influences the public. The public can collectively uplift individual voices and ideas that they like, but no voice is given an unfair advantage in whether or not that will happen.


Imperial Narrative Control Has Five Distinct Elements

"The powerful manipulate the dominant narratives of our society in five major ways: propaganda, censorship, Silicon Valley algorithm manipulation, government secrecy, and the war on journalism."https://t.co/ojJdjAJ11Z

"- Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) June 24, 2022



It would mean supporting the end of internet censorship and algorithm manipulation, so the information the public sees is determined not by billionaire megacorporations in Silicon Valley but by what's in the zeitgeist and what the public finds interesting.

It would mean calling for an end to the war on journalism and opposing the persecution of publishers like Julian Assange and whistleblowers like Edward Snowden for exposing inconvenient truths about the powerful. All efforts to increase transparency for the powerful and share information in the public interest would be praised, not punished.

In my personal opinion it would also mean supporting the legalization of psychedelics, because giving people the tools to gain information about their inner dimensions is as important for helping them understand the direction society should take as giving them the tools to gain information about their external world.

It would mean the complete absence of any authority controlling people's access to information or ideas in any way. Call it information anarchism, if you like.


Society Is Made Of Narrative. Realizing This Is Awakening From The Matrix.

Life in our society is like the movie The Matrix, except instead of AI keeping us asleep in an illusory world, it's psychopathic oligarchs. And instead of code, it's narrative. https://t.co/mkk41xhtZK

"- Caitlin Johnstone ⏳ (@caitoz) July 13, 2021





Information anarchism is just as radical a goal as any other revolutionary ideology, because information control is so important to the continued existence of our status quo systems that it could never be achieved without drastic measures taken by the collective. The difference is that rather than claiming to know whether ideological models like communism or anarcho-capitalism would be better, for example, one only supports giving the people the means to collectively decide for themselves.

The idea of true information anarchy can be as frightening to the ego as the idea of total societal anarchy, because nobody being in control means there's nobody to stop it from going in a frightening direction. What if ideas I don't like gain popularity? What if people start thinking wrong thoughts and believing wrong beliefs?

But that's kind of the appeal, in my opinion. Really taking the brakes off of the way information moves through our world and letting humanity take full unbridaled advantage of the interconnectedness of our brains at this unprecedented juncture in terrestrial history could lead somewhere very bad, but it could also lead somewhere very good. And whatever ends up happening would be because of our own decisions instead of the decisions of a few powerful manipulators.

And right now the latter is what's happening. We're on a collision course with extinction via environmental catastrophe or nuclear war, and it's because of the decisions made by powerful people who are continuously working to control what ideas and information we consume. If information was really freed up, along with our ability to collectively control the direction humanity takes going forward, it's hard to imagine we'd mess it up any worse than they have.




And whatever world we built together will have been by our own informed consent, instead of the manufactured consent of elite manipulators. If we've seen it all and we still choose our own destruction, then that will have been our choice. Whatever happens will be humanity showing the universe what it's really made of. What we really are as a species.

And in my opinion, that's what real freedom looks like. Giving humanity the tools to go whatever way it wants to go, even if it's the way of the dinosaur. If you really, truly value freedom, in my opinion that's the wisest place to take your stand.

Wanting the truth to be known whatever it may be is a standalone ideology, and it's also a standalone personal philosophy. Wanting the truth to be known not just in the world but in your own life, even if it's uncomfortable or embarrassing. Wanting unhealthy dynamics in your interpersonal relationships to come into awareness. Wanting your unhealed traumas to come into the light of consciousness where they can be healed. Wanting your delusions to be seen so they can be dispelled by truth. Wanting it all to come out into the light: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

It's possible for an individual to live an entire life that is guided by truth and by the desire for truth, and I'm fairly certain it's possible for all of humanity to live that way as well. We can all push for that, if we decide we want it. We can all decide that we're sick of being lied to, sick of being manipulated, sick of the completely backward status quo of secrecy for the powerful and surveillance for everyone else, and we can use the power of our numbers to force it to change.

And from there we can sort out together what kind of world we want to live in, guided by the light of truth, whether toward harmony or oblivion, come what may.

'Bloodbath': At Least 6 Dead, Dozens Wounded in Mass Shooting at Illinois July 4th Parade

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/07/04/bloodbath-least-6-dead-dozens-wounded-mass-shooting-illinois-july-4th-parade


"What freedom do we have if we fear being gunned down at a parade?" asked one progressive politician horrified by the reported carnage.



Brett Wilkins July 4, 2022


Panicked children and adults ran for their lives Monday as at least six people were killed and dozens more were wounded in a mass shooting that took place during a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park.

"Freedom to die at a holiday parade is not freedom."

Veteran Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet—who described the scene of the shooting as a "bloodbath"—said she saw blankets covering three bloodied bodies and five other people wounded and bloodied near the parade viewing stand.

More than 30 people who were wounded—mostly by gunshots but some from the ensuing chaos at the parade—were taken to local hospitals.

"We have an active shooter situation in Highland Park, at their parade. It's been reported that there've been nine people shot," Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said. "I've been in touch with our state police, who are backing up local police and hoping to keep the crowd safe there."


Highland Park resident Miles Zaremski told the paper: "I heard 20 to 25 shots, which were in rapid succession. So it couldn't have been just a handgun or a shotgun."

CBS Chicago digital producer Elyssa Kaufman, who was watching the parade with her family, said that "everyone was running, hiding and screaming."

"It was extremely terrifying," she added. "It was very scary. We are very fortunate, we got out very quickly."

Gun control advocates lamented the latest of more than 300 U.S. mass shootings this year.


"Another horrifying day in America," tweeted anti-poverty activist Joe Sanberg. "We must do everything we can to end gun violence."

Democratic Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker tweeted that "freedom to die at a holiday parade is not freedom," while Ohio progressive Nina Turner asked, "What freedom do we have if we fear being gunned down at a parade?"

Separately, at least nine people were killed and scores more were wounded—with the injured ranging in age from 10 to 90—in Chicago shootings over the July 4th weekend.

Americans Discuss Whether Biden Should Run Again (The Onion)

 Click link for slideshow:

 https://www.theonion.com/americans-discuss-whether-biden-should-run-again-1849113108