Slow-walking Texas

benfell

Abortion

The Supreme Court is slow-walking the Texas case[1] in which I think they will ultimately strike down the Texas law because, as Brett Kavanaugh pointed out, allowing its novel approach to enforcement against abortion would enable, for example, California to do the same thing with guns,[2] which is precisely what the latter state’s governor has indicated he intends to do.[3] I’m convinced they’re just waiting to overturn or severely curtail Roe v. Wade with the Mississippi case,[4] before striking down Texas’ enforcement mechanism. In the meantime, the Texas law serves their purpose, so they let it stand while letting challenges work their way through lower courts.[5]

Mark Sherman, “Supreme Court returns Texas abortion case to appeals court,” Associated Press, December 17, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/health-texas-lawsuits-neil-gorsuch-d74dbd6deb60e7e9cd1777328c03dee5

Pandemic

Among the conspiracy theories I’ve heard in my car from Uber passengers is the claim that 5G causes COVID-19.[6] So yes, I absolutely had to laugh when I saw that “[n]ecklaces and accessories claiming to ‘protect’ people from 5G mobile networks have been found to be radioactive.”[7] Honestly, these people fully deserve the horrible deaths that COVID-19 is capable of producing[8] and, as medical systems are again swamped and medical staff are burning out,[9] vaccine-refusers must absolutely be denied medical care, because this is unfair to medical workers and it is unfair to everyone else who needs care.[10]

Paul Waldman wishes to correct me. He seems to think, without offering supporting evidence, that some people are honestly misinformed[11] but the only way we’re getting out of this pandemic is with vaccination, because unvaccinated people are opportunities for the virus to mutate, producing new variants that endanger us all,[12] and even those who have been infected can be reinfected,[13] reproducing the danger. It’s amply clear, as indeed Waldman himself has repeatedly conceded, that many Republicans are refusing to be vaccinated, prolonging the pandemic and endangering even vaccinated people.[14]

So here’s what it’s coming down to: Either they die or we all die. And that’s true whether they’re honestly misinformed or not.

British Broadcasting Corporation, “Anti-5G necklaces found to be radioactive,” December 17, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59703523

Stacey Burling, “COVID-19 may have killed people who never tested positive for the virus, NJ report finds,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 17, 2021, https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/covid-deaths-hospitalizations-new-jersey-home-heart-attacks-stroke-20211217.html

Ann E. Marimow, “Appeals court reinstates Biden’s vaccine policy for businesses, setting up a likely showdown at Supreme Court,” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/17/biden-vaccine-mandate-private-companies/

Paul Waldman, “The red covid wave is here,” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/red-covid-wave-is-here/

Ed White, “Hits ‘keep coming’: Hospitals struggle as COVID beds fill,” Associated Press, December 18, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-detroit-nebraska-kansas-5e98f09c578a231be1411516e9dfff58

Militia

Christy E. Lopez, “Beware the extremist, dangerous and unconstitutional ‘constitutional sheriffs,’” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/constitutional-sheriffs-extremist-dangerous-unconstitutional/

White supremacist gangsWhite supremacist gangs

Pittsburgh white supremacist gangsters (police) killed Jim Rogers on October 14.[15] The investigation is still unresolved, two months later,[16] and a month after the Allegheny County district attorney said it had been dragging on too long.[17]

Look, I get that an investigation isn’t over until it’s over. But I’m thinking of what I saw with the San Francisco white supremacist gangsters, who basically did whatever the fuck they wanted. And I’m thinking I’m seeing the same fucking thing here.

Julia Felton, “Proposal to stop Pittsburgh police from making minor traffic stops moves forward,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 16, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/proposal-to-stop-pittsburgh-police-from-making-minor-traffic-stops-moves-forward/

Julia Felton and Paula Reed Ward, “Family of man who died after being tased by Pittsburgh police calls for charges against officers,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 17, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/family-of-man-who-died-after-being-tased-by-pittsburgh-police-call-for-charges-against-officers/

Christy E. Lopez, “Beware the extremist, dangerous and unconstitutional ‘constitutional sheriffs,’” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/constitutional-sheriffs-extremist-dangerous-unconstitutional/

Ukraine

Julia Ioffe, “Putin’s Post-Trump Tantrum,” Puck News, December 17, 2021, https://puck.news/putins-post-trump-tantrum/

Andrew Roth, David Blood, and Niels de Hoog, “Russia-Ukraine crisis: where are Putin’s troops and what are his options?” Guardian, December 17, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/dec/17/russia-ukraine-crisis-putin-troops-visual-guide-explainer

Minoritarian rule

Kate Huangpu and Angela Couloumbis, “Democrats could make sizeable gains in Pennsylvania legislature under proposed new maps,” Spotlight PA, December 16, 2021, https://www.spotlightpa.org/news/2021/12/pennsylvania-redistricting-state-house-senate-maps/

Jonathan Lai et al., “Is the new Pa. House map better for Democrats or Republicans? We tested it,” Philadelphia Inquirer, December 16, 2021, https://www.inquirer.com/politics/election/inq2/pennsylvania-redistricting-2022-state-house-map-analysis-20211216.html

Larry Hogan, “Mr. Garland, Please Sue My State,” Wall Street Journal, December 17, 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/merrick-garland-please-sue-my-state-maryland-larry-hogan-texas-gerrymandering-voting-rights-11639757168

Donald Trump

Dana Milbank, “‘We are closer to civil war than any of us would like to believe,’ new study says,” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/how-civil-wars-start-barbara-walter-research/

Gig work

Jeong Park, “Sacramento family wants answers, support from Uber after man’s killing in San Francisco,” Sacramento Bee, December 18, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article256688502.html

  1. [1]Mark Sherman, “Supreme Court returns Texas abortion case to appeals court,” Associated Press, December 17, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/health-texas-lawsuits-neil-gorsuch-d74dbd6deb60e7e9cd1777328c03dee5↩
  2. [2]Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court seems willing to allow challenge of Texas’s restrictive abortion law,” Washington Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-supreme-court/2021/11/01/548c7ea2-3b0c-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html; John Bowden, “Kavanaugh flags a major catch in Texas anti-abortion law for conservative gun owners,” Independent, November 2, 2021, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/kavanaugh-supreme-court-texas-abortion-b1949460.html; Irin Carmon, “The Texas Abortion Ban Could Lose at the Supreme Court,” New York, November 1, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/11/texas-abortion-ban-could-lose-at-the-supreme-court.html; Jordan Smith, “Texas Admits Its Abortion Law Puts All Rights Up for Grabs,” Intercept, November 2, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/11/02/abortion-texas-sb8-supreme-court/↩
  3. [3]Sophia Bollag, “Gavin Newsom calls for bill modeled on Texas abortion ban to crack down on gun manufacturers,” Sacramento Bee, December 11, 2021, https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article256524466.html↩
  4. [4]Ed Kilgore, “Is Roe v. Wade Now Doomed?” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/is-roe-v-wade-now-doomed.html; Adam Liptak, “Mississippi asks the Supreme Court to overrule Roe v. Wade,” New York Times, July 22, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/22/us/politics/mississippi-supreme-court-abortion.html; Nia Prater, “Supreme Court to Hear Case That Threatens Roe v. Wade,” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/supreme-court-to-hear-case-that-threatens-roe-v-wade.html; David G. Savage, “Supreme Court agrees to hear major abortion case challenging Roe vs. Wade,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-05-17/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-abortion-case; Ariane de Vogue, “Mississippi asks US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” CNN, July 22, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/mississippi-roe-v-wade-abortion/index.html↩
  5. [5]Robert Barnes et al., “Supreme Court refuses to block Texas law banning abortions at six weeks,” Washington Post, September 2, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-six-week-abortion-ban/2021/09/01/e53cf372-0a6b-11ec-a6dd-296ba7fb2dce_story.html; Robert Barnes, “Supreme Court seems willing to allow challenge of Texas’s restrictive abortion law,” Washington Post, November 1, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-supreme-court/2021/11/01/548c7ea2-3b0c-11ec-bfad-8283439871ec_story.html; Ann E. Marimow, “Appeals court reinstates Texas’s six-week abortion ban, two days after it was lifted,” Washington Post, October 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-appeals-abortion-ruling/2021/10/08/56b9fe9e-2774-11ec-8831-a31e7b3de188_story.html; Ann E. Marimow, “Texas abortion ban remains in effect after appeals court rules against Justice Dept.,” Washington Post, October 14, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-appeal/2021/10/14/de27beda-2c82-11ec-985d-3150f7e106b2_story.html↩
  6. [6]David Benfell, “Doubting the ‘Fox News bubble,’” Not Housebroken, April 28, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2020/09/07/doubting-the-fox-news-bubble/; Stephan Lewandowsky et al., “The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook,” HackMD, December 6, 2021, https://hackmd.io/@scibehC19vax/home↩
  7. [7]British Broadcasting Corporation, “Anti-5G necklaces found to be radioactive,” December 17, 2021, https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-59703523↩
  8. [8]Maria Godoy, “How COVID-19 Kills: The New Coronavirus Disease Can Take A Deadly Turn,” National Public Radio, March 17, 2020, https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2020/02/14/805289669/how-covid-19-kills-the-new-coronavirus-disease-can-take-a-deadly-turn; Tobias Großekemper, “The Violence of the Fourth Wave: ‘One Thing We Have Learned Is that COVID Is an Asshole,’” Spiegel, November 19, 2021, https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-violence-of-the-fourth-wave-one-thing-we-have-learned-is-that-covid-is-an-asshole-a-9da60dbf-6311-472a-9fdf-60a6442b1235; “ICU is full of the unvaccinated – my patience with them is wearing thin,” Guardian, November 21, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/nov/21/icu-is-full-of-the-unvaccinated-my-patience-with-them-is-wearing-thin↩
  9. [9]Ed White, “Hits ‘keep coming’: Hospitals struggle as COVID beds fill,” Associated Press, December 18, 2021, https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-health-detroit-nebraska-kansas-5e98f09c578a231be1411516e9dfff58↩
  10. [10]David Benfell, “What we owe anti-vaxxers in a life-threatening pandemic,” Not Housebroken, November 19, 2021, https://disunitedstates.org/2021/09/28/what-we-owe-anti-vaxxers-in-a-life-threatening-pandemic/↩
  11. [11]Paul Waldman, “The red covid wave is here,” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/red-covid-wave-is-here/↩
  12. [12]Joel Achenbach, “New study on delta variant reveals importance of receiving both vaccine shots, highlights challenges posed by mutations,” Washington Post, July 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/delta-variant-vaccines/2021/07/08/05b1bc5e-df75-11eb-ae31-6b7c5c34f0d6_story.html; Maggie Fox, “Unvaccinated people are ‘variant factories,’ infectious diseases expert says,” CNN, July 3, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/03/health/unvaccinated-variant-factories/index.html↩
  13. [13]Linda Geddes, “Without Covid-19 jab, ‘reinfection may occur every 16 months,’” Guardian, October 19, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/19/without-covid-19-jab-reinfection-may-occur-every-16-months-say-scientists↩
  14. [14]Max Boot, “Republicans are preventing America from reaching Biden’s vaccination goal,” Washington Post, July 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/06/republican-antivaxxers-biden-vaccination-goal/; Philip Bump, “A third of White conservatives refuse to get vaccinated — a refusal shown in polling and the real world,” Washington Post, July 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/07/06/third-white-conservatives-refuse-get-vaccine-refusal-shown-both-polling-real-world/; Dan Diamond, Hannah Knowles, and Tyler Pager, “Vaccine hesitancy morphs into hostility, as opposition to shots hardens,” Washington Post, July 15, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/covid-vaccines-biden-trump/2021/07/15/adaf6c7e-e4bd-11eb-a41e-c8442c213fa8_story.html; Ron Kampeas, “In latest Nazi analogy, Marjorie Taylor Greene invokes ‘medical brown shirts’ in decrying vaccination outreach,” Jewish Telegraphic Agency, July 7, 2021, https://www.jta.org/quick-reads/in-latest-nazi-analogy-marjorie-taylor-greene-invokes-medical-brown-shirts-in-decrying-vaccination-outreach; Dhruv Khullar, “One half of America is protected. The other is approaching a perilous moment in the pandemic,” New Yorker, June 23, 2021, https://www.newyorker.com/science/medical-dispatch/the-delta-variant-is-a-grave-danger-to-the-unvaccinated; Ed Kilgore, “The Willfully Unvaccinated Are the Newest Republican Martyrs,” New York, July 13, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/07/the-willfully-unvaccinated-are-the-newest-republican-martyrs.html; Grace Panetta, “GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert calls Biden’s door-to-door vaccinators ‘needle Nazis,’” Yahoo! News, July 8, 2021, https://news.yahoo.com/gop-rep-lauren-boebert-calls-130015902.html; Ed Pilkington and Lauren Aratani, “US seeing ‘pandemic of the unvaccinated’ as cases rise in every state,” Guardian, July 16, 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/16/covid-19-us-delta-variant-unvaccinated; Greg Sargent, “A vile new Trump-GOP claim about vaccines suggests trouble ahead,” Washington Post, July 19, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/19/vile-new-trump-gop-claim-about-vaccines-suggests-trouble-ahead/; Paul Waldman, “Right-wing anti-vaccine hysteria is increasing. We’ll all pay the price,” Washington Post, July 8, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/08/right-wing-anti-vaccine-hysteria-is-increasing-well-all-pay-price/; Paul Waldman, “The red covid wave is here,” Washington Post, December 17, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/12/17/red-covid-wave-is-here/↩
  15. [15]Patrick Varine, “Protesters block Grant Street, demand prosecution in Jim Rogers’ death,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 12, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/protestors-block-grant-street-demand-prosecution-in-jim-rogers-death/↩
  16. [16]Julia Felton and Paula Reed Ward, “Family of man who died after being tased by Pittsburgh police calls for charges against officers,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, December 17, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/family-of-man-who-died-after-being-tased-by-pittsburgh-police-call-for-charges-against-officers/↩
  17. [17]Patrick Varine, “Protesters block Grant Street, demand prosecution in Jim Rogers’ death,” Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 12, 2021, https://triblive.com/local/protestors-block-grant-street-demand-prosecution-in-jim-rogers-death/↩

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