Category: Political / Governments / Nations / Countries /

On MSNBC, Angelo Carusone explains that the right-wing echo chamber has been in lockstep reacting to Trump’s latest indictment

https://www.mediamatters.org/angelo-carusone/msnbc-angelo-carusone-explains-right-wing-echo-chamber-has-been-lockstep-reacting

Again thanks to ten Bears for the link.  Hugs  https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/

Carusone: “It’s one of the few weeks we’ve had in a while where there’s almost uniformity. Whether it’s Fox News, or talk radio, or Alex Jones, they’re all saying the same thing.”

WRITTEN BY MEDIA MATTERS STAFF

PUBLISHED 

 
 
**if the video doesn’t show please visit the site to watch it,   Thanks.  Hugs **

From the August 5, 2023, edition of MSNBC’s American Voices With Alicia Menendez

ALICIA MENENDEZ (HOST): With me now, Angelo Carusone. He is the president of Media Matters. Angelo, if you watch right-wing media, if that is what you consume in any form, what is it that you believe happened this past week?

ANGELO CARUSONE (PRESIDENT & CEO, MEDIA MATTERS FOR AMERICA): You believe that the deep state, which the — not just the extremists on the right, but the mainstream Republicans now believe that, that this was sort of the next step in their plan to persecute Donald Trump. And not just Donald Trump, but then that they would then come after you next. That’s what you believe. It doesn’t matter what part of right-wing media you watch. It’s one of the few weeks we’ve had in a while where there’s almost uniformity. Whether it’s Fox News, or talk radio, or Alex Jones, they’re all saying the same thing. And that’s what you believe. You believe this was just another step in a big plot to come at you.

…

MENENDEZ: OK, so I’m so sorry to ask our viewers to watch that. But I think it is important because what you see at the end there is this mainstreaming of the idea of retribution.

CARUSONE: That’s it, revenge. And that’s sort of the fuel that’s here.

…

Because that wasn’t just Jesse Watters at Fox News, that was a very big narrative all across the right-wing echo chamber, was that this is it, this is why you have to get out there and vote. Because Donald Trump is going to be your mechanism for revenge against all of these people. And so, and that I think is a really powerful motivator. So, they’re not just spinning all these lies and conspiracies. You heard about the damage of disinformation. They’re also giving people a call to action. And the call to action isn’t immediately violence, but they are priming that pump as an ends justify the means.

…

So you put that poison into the system, and let’s not forget they have a delivery mechanism. It’s not just the right-wing media. They have all these QAnon figures and all these individuals that are spreading these ideas by word of mouth. They’re just putting the poison into the system, and one by one plucking off the individuals on the margin because there are no antibodies in the system against this type of misinformation, this type of disinformation. And the process that led up to January 6 is playing out very similarly right now in the right-wing media. I’m not trying to be alarmist 
about it, but this is just a reflection of what we’re seeing every single day. 

Sounds Like 1930s Germany To Me …

Sounds Like 1930s Germany To Me …

Seems to me this post says all that is needed to be said, I have nothing to add other than thank you Ten Bears. Hugs

From Ten Bears along with other great posts. https://homelessonthehighdesert.com/2023/08/06/firstday-finding-out/

and why American culture became everything, everywhere, all at once.

Killing Affirmative Action Wasn’t Enough, Now Conservatives Are Coming for Black Women Entrepreneurs

https://www.theroot.com/killing-affirmative-action-wasnt-enough-now-conservati-1850708952

The article link is from Ali, thank you Ali.  The court ruling was all about racism, returning the more affluent whites back to the preferential position while denying underprivileged people of color a higher education.  The end result is classes of mostly or all white people going on to lead businesses or large law firms leading to political power and people of color being regulated to lower income labor servitude jobs.  The 1950s all over again.  It is an attempt by racists to make a white power nation continue.   Hugs

The right-wing activist behind SCOTUS’ Affirmative Action decision is now attacking a venture capital fund that supports Black women-owned small businesses.

By
Jessica Washington
 
 
 
 
ATLANTA, GA - APRIL 07: (L-R) Tobey R. Sanders, actress Keisha Knight Pulliam, and Arian Simone attend the “Festival of Laughs” tour at Philips Arena on April 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.
 
ATLANTA, GA – APRIL 07: (L-R) Tobey R. Sanders, actress Keisha Knight Pulliam, and Arian Simone attend the “Festival of Laughs” tour at Philips Arena on April 7, 2017 in Atlanta, Georgia.
 
Photo: Paras Griffin (Getty Images)
 

Clearly, making it harder for Black and Latino kids to get into college wasn’t far enough for the man behind the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision. Now, he’s coming after Black women with small businesses.

 

On Wednesday, the nonprofit American Alliance for Equal Rights filed a lawsuit against an Atlanta-based venture capital fund that supports Black women and other minority-owned small businesses. The nonprofit was founded by none other than right-wing crusader Edward Blum, who has made it his mission to destroy affirmative action.

The lawsuit filed against the Fearless Fund alleges that the fund is “operating a racially-discriminatory program” in violation of the Civil Rights Act. The Fearless Fund was founded by three Black women — executive Ayana Parsons, actress Keshia Knight Pulliam, and entrepreneur Arian Simone.

As their website notes, less than 2.2.% of all Venture Capital funding goes towards women-founded businesses, and less than 1% of total funding goes towards businesses founded by women of color. And yet, for some reason, folks like Blum are convinced this number should be even lower.

 

It’s worth noting that Blum and his team are clearly riding high from Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision. In fact, they cite it at the top of their lawsuit.

 

Even before this lawsuit, conservatives were looking for ways to weaponize the Supreme Court’s decision in the workplace. In July, 13 Republican attorneys general wrote a letter demanding that Fortune 100 companies stop their affirmative action programs.

The Root spoke to legal experts, who said that as it stands, nothing in the Supreme Court’s decision makes affirmative action within the workplace illegal:

Amalea Smirniotopoulos, NAACP Legal Defense Fund Senior Policy Counsel, says that these Republican attorneys general are trying to make the Supreme Court’s affirmative decision about something it’s not.

“This was another attempt to chill completely lawful efforts to increase diversity, equity, and inclusion by corporations,” says Smirniotopoulos. “By really trying to stretch the meaning of the decision in the Harvard and UNC cases and frankly by also restating things that have always been true about discrimination law and employment.”

However, they agreed that this didn’t make these arguments any less of a threat to diversity efforts in the office:

“This letter is a scare tactic,” says University of New Mexico Constitutional and Employment Law Professor Vinay Harpalani. “And unfortunately, it’s a pretty good one.”

Although the Supreme Court decision didn’t touch on hiring practices, Harpalani says that conservatives will certainly try to use it as a basis for challenging race in employment. “The law, as it is now, allows affirmative action in employment,” says Harpalani. “But if the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, I’m not at all confident that they would continue to allow it.”

The immediate threat is that companies begin to back-away from DEI programs, said Justin Hansford, Executive Director of the Thurgood Marshall Civil Rights Center at Howard University.

 
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“Some of these companies weren’t really doing that much anyway… and what they were doing was done only under pressure,” says Hansford. “This could be an excuse for some companies that already didn’t want to push the envelope on diversity to start walking things back.”

As for the lawsuit against Fearless Fund, an obvious concern is that it could scare off investors who might otherwise want to similarly invest in women of color. However, it’s still too soon to say (especially in this climate) whether the case has legs.

 

But what about Hunter Biden using Hillary Clinton’s email server?

But what about Hunter Biden using Hillary Clinton’s email server?

Well said / written.  It lays bare the hypocrisy of those desperately trying to create some kind of equality and outrage between the very real attempt to overturn a valid election along with other crimes done by trump with a rarely ever charged crime of failure to fully pay taxes which was paid after and a firearms form that is never prosecuted.  All to protect Mr. trump while trying to smear President Biden using his son.   Hugs

Texas Women Win Case Against Abortion Ban

https://jessica.substack.com/p/texas-women-win-case-against-abortion

Thanks to Ali for the link.  Important news.   Hope it holds.  Hugs

Judge’s ruling allows for abortions in dangerous & doomed pregnancies

JESSICA VALENTI
AUG 4, 2023
 
Tonight, a judge ruled in favor of the 15 women who sued Texas after the state’s abortion ban put their health and lives at risk. Travis County District Judge Jessica Mangrum issued a temporary injunction that will stop the law from being enforced against doctors who provide abortions using “good faith judgement” that a pregnancy is unsafe for the pregnant person, or that a fetus is unlikely to survive.

Texas will definitely appeal; but for now, people in the state with dangerous or doomed pregnancies should be able to get care.

I am so grateful for the women who laid their pain bear in public for the chance to change this law just a little—but so distressed that they had to fight so hard to be given this bare minimum of humanity. It makes me feel a bit ill, to be honest, that these are the kinds of ‘wins’ we have to hope for.

The lawsuit, brought by the Center for Reproductive Rights, required women to relive the horrors they were forced to endure because of the state’s abortion ban. One woman, Samantha Casiano—who was forced to give birth despite the fact that her baby had anencephaly and was missing parts of her brain and skull—ended up vomiting while recounting her experience. She said that talking about what happened “just makes my body remember and it just reacts.”

Lawyers defending the state, meanwhile, were extraordinarily cruel. One attorney said, “Plaintiffs simply do not like Texas’ restrictions on abortion.” Another not only frequently interrupted as the women spoke about their experiences, she also asked each one individually if Attorney General Ken Paxton had personally denied them an abortion. Plaintiff Amanda Zurawski, who nearly died after being denied an abortion, said, “I survived sepsis and I don’t think today was much less traumatic than that.”

There is a reason Texas tried to stop these women from telling their stories: there is no arguing with their experiences, no turning away from the horror these laws have caused. As happy as I am for the people in Texas who might be able to get the care they need as a result of this decision, I keep thinking about Terry—the young woman I spoke to in June—and how this ruling came too late to help her:

An American Nightmare: Young, pregnant & living in Texas

JESSICA VALENTI
·
JUN 12
An American Nightmare: Young, pregnant & living in Texas

Content Warning: Descriptions of severe fetal abnormalities Some names have been changed to protect the identities of those interviewed.

Read full story.  https://jessica.substack.com/p/an-american-nightmare-young-pregnant

You can read the judge’s ruling here, and I’ll keep you updated as I find out more about the practical implications of the decision.

A huge thank you to the women who came forward, and to the lawyers and activists who helped them.

To support Abortion, Every Day, consider signing up for a paid subscription:

A few memes while I go do dishes

‘Push Them In The River’ Texas’ Crimes Against Humanity?

Matt & David talk about horrifying allegations of abuse of migrants at the US/Mexico border.

Homocons And Armed Nazis Menace WI Pride Event

Homocons And Armed Nazis Menace WI Pride Event

Compare the actions of the pride attendees and the Nazi thugs.  The pride people were having fun, smiling, laughing, dancing, singing.  The Nazis were screaming threats while brandishing weapons, scaring the kids and others attending the event.   Which one was presenting what was good for children to see, angry face covered armed shouting men or dancing happy singing pride people?  Also these thugs claimed that masks kept them from breathing when it was necessary due to a public health threat now wear them to hide their identity so they don’t get fired for what they are doing.  Notice in one of the tweets, one of the men loaded a round in the chamber to threaten reporters on a public street.  These are the thugs that DeathSantis hires as staff and refuses to denounce.  These are the people that trump claimed were very good people on both sides.   Hugs.

Newsweek reports:

An armed Neo-Nazi group protested a Pride in the Park event in Watertown, Wisconsin, on Saturday afternoon that featured a drag story time and drag shows.

Video journalist Oliya Scootercaster took to Twitter on Saturday to document the protest and wrote, “BLOOD TRIBE group marching in Watertown Wisconsin protesting Pride in the park.” In her videos, one Neo-Nazi group member can be seen carrying a weapon.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Blood Tribe is described as “a neo-Nazi group with semi-autonomous chapters in the United States and Canada. Blood Tribe promotes hardline white supremacist views and openly directs its vitriol at Jews, ‘non-whites’ and the LGBTQ+ community.”

Read the full article.

 

Sam_Handwich 5 days ago

The proud people are the ones not concealing their faces.

The others are coward losers.

David Walker  Sam_Handwich5 days ago

Fortunately, Harrisburg’s Pride had no visible Nazis on Saturday. Just the usual Truly Religious…not there to heckle or incite, of course, just concerned about our souls. They’re just so fucking thoughty, bless their hearts.

customartist  Sam_Handwich5 days ago

Pride organizers must be ready with videographers to document these protests. And news outlets must show videos making the public aware.

April Smith 5 days ago edited

Eventually this menacing won’t be enough for these haters.

It’s just a matter of time before one of these Nazis pulls the trigger.

heleninedinburgh  April Smith5 days ago edited

To be followed by a deafening ‘look what you made him do’ from the media.

April Smith  heleninedinburgh 5 days ago edited

P.S. Sometimes I listen to those right wing talkers on the radio (talk about a soul killing experience). The outrageous and inflammatory venom directed at Transfolks (and those who support them) is going to egg on someone to do violence and they know it.

Nic Peterson  April Smith5 days ago

They know it, they make money off it. And they will make money off of the result of their stochastic terrorism as will their MSM peers. They will make even more money as they squeal about how unfairly they are being portrayed and they cycle continues. Stay safe, my dear.

 

CDC Issues Warning On Rise In Florida Leprosy Cases

CDC Issues Warning On Rise In Florida Leprosy Cases

Yet the governor is focused on wiping out woke, and making the LGBTQ+ disappear from society.  I guess pushing his religious conservative ideology on all students is more important that solving the problems in the state, or helping the people.   Hugs

CDC Issues Warning On Rise In Florida Leprosy Cases

August 1, 2023 Medicine, Science

 

The Hill reports:

Health officials say that cases of leprosy, also known as Hansen’s disease, are surging in Central Florida. In a news release Monday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that Central Florida has accounted for 81 percent of reported cases in the state and almost one-fifth of reported cases nationwide.

Authorities said that several cases in Central Florida have demonstrated no clear evidence of zoonotic exposure or traditionally known risk factors. They also noted that they have reported a case of lepromatous leprosy in the area in a male resident without risk factors for known transmission routes.

More from the CDC alert:

Florida, USA, has witnessed an increased incidence of leprosy cases lacking traditional risk factors. Those trends, in addition to decreasing diagnoses in foreign-born persons, contribute to rising evidence that leprosy has become endemic in the southeastern United States.

Travel to Florida should be considered when conducting leprosy contact tracing in any state. Prolonged person-to-person contact through respiratory droplets is the most widely recognized route of transmission.

A high percentage of unrelated leprosy cases in the southern United States were found to carry the same unique strain of M. leprae as nine-banded armadillos in the region, suggesting a strong likelihood of zoonotic transmission.

A recent systematic review analyzing studies conducted during 1945–2019 supports an increasing role of anthroponotic and zoonotic transmission of leprosy.

However, Rendini et al. demonstrated that many cases reported in eastern United States, including Georgia and central Florida, lacked zoonotic exposure or recent residence outside of the United States.

Given those reports, there is some support for the theory that international migration of persons with leprosy is a potential source of autochthonous transmission.