Sanctimonious Twits

Nationwide Effects of State Decisions

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One of the biggest dangers our country faces today is the creeping fascism of people like Ron DeSantis, Donald Trump and other right-wing extremists. So far, most of the damage has been confined to the conservative red states, but that may not always be the situation. In a current anti-abortion case, the results would affect every state – even those that have upheld a woman’s right to choose.

An anti-abortion group, The Alliance Defending Freedom, has filed a suit that would force the FDA to revoke its approval of mifepristone, claiming it is unsafe. Mifepristone is one part of a two-drug regimen that can be taken in the first 10 weeks of a pregnancy to end it. This is currently the most common form of abortion used in the country.

A judge in Texas is preparing to make a ruling in this case, but just because he’s in Texas doesn’t mean his decision would only impact Texas. If he rules the FDA must revoke its approval, the pill would become unavailable in the entire US. According to Bloomsburg Law:

Medical associations have defended the safety of mifepristone, a drug that studies show is safer than and sends fewer people to the emergency room than Tylenol and Viagra. Many attorneys say ADF’s argument is without merit, though note Kacsmaryk’s track record suggests he’s likely to give a sympathetic ear.

“This would be the first time a court has ever taken a drug off the market over the objection of the FDA and a drug sponsor. It’s just totally unprecedented,” said Greer Donley, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh.

Of particular concern in this instance is that the ADF chose to file their petition in this particular court in order to get this particular judge, Matthew Kacsmaryk, who is a Trump appointee and known to be sympathetic to conservative causes.

The federal trial court judge in the Northern District of Texas has halted federal action meant to protect asylum seekers and tossed rules expanding teen access to birth control. He also rejected a policy that stopped doctors from discriminating against people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

Kacsmaryk now has the opportunity to strip a common drug used in medication abortions of its federal approval and block regulators from enforcing a Labor Department rule that permits private-sector employers to consider environmental, societal, and governance factors when choosing investments for 401(k) plans.

Deliberately filing a case in a district where the plaintiff is most likely going to get a sympathetic judge is known as judge shopping. Kacsmaryk’s court is popular for conservatives to file in, not only because of his own conservative leanings, but because any appeals of his rulings will go to the 5th District Court, which is also notoriously conservative, and from there it goes to our conservative-loaded Supreme Court.

The courts are likely to become one of the biggest battlegrounds in the fight against creeping fascism. President Biden needs to push through as many judicial nominations as he can while we hold the Senate to counter the large number of judged Trump was able to appoint. As for judge shopping, unfortunately, I don’t know of a solution for that. Hopefully, someone more educated in the law will have some ideas.

It’s 3 AM. Do You Know Where Your Violent Protest Is?

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Earlier tonight on his FoxNews show, Tucker Carlson said we need to be afraid of Antifa again because they’re organizing “violence” across the country tonight. He even cited comments by the head of the “Fredericksburg, Maryland chapter” to buttress his claims. But at 3AM, all appears to be quiet in our major cities – or they’re at least not being disturbed by violent hordes of anti-Fascists. The FoxNews webpage has no stories on violent protests happening this evening, nor do CNN’s or MSNBC’s. So, what happened? Where did the protests go?

As may be obvious, there never were any protests planned. The threat was a lie. Antifa isn’t organizing anything. It can’t. Why not? Because Antifa isn’t an organization in any normally understood meaning of the word. There’s no organizational structure, no leader/president/CEO, no headquarters or local/regional chapters (not even in Fredericksburg, Maryland). There’s no way to apply to be a member, no membership fee or donations, no member roster, no membership list, no meetings and – sorry Tucker – no organizational plans. It can’t be a militia, and it can’t be mobilizing to commit violence because it doesn’t exist in that form.

Antifa is a portmanteau used to indicate that someone or something opposes Fascism. It literally means “anti-Fascist” and came into vogue to describe the tactics employed by people protesting Fascism. Some right-wing leaders and broadcasters, however, have made it one of their biggest boogiemen, casting it as an mysterious, violent group dedicated to ruining our way of life (and by their reckoning, “our” means “white people’s”.)

There are sufficient genuine threats in the world that we don’t need either side creating imaginary ones. While it’s possible that some people opposed to Fascism are plotting to engage in violence, “Antifa” as an organization is not. Rather than telling scary stories about large groups planning to riot “on both coasts and in the middle,” wouldn’t it be better to focus on any actual, known threats? The problem with that, of course, is that focusing only on real threats doesn’t scare nearly enough people, and history has shown that one of the most effective ways to get communities to accept an authoritarian, totalitarian, or Fascist government is to keep them afraid, and offer authoritarianism as the best way to protect everyone.

By morning, most who saw Tucker’s breathless fear-mongering will have forgotten there were supposed to be violent riots overnight, but the bit of fear he inflicted upon them as they watched his show will still be there. They’ve been given another reason to fear “Antifa” – whatever that may be – and have subconsciously absorbed it. And that’s how an imaginary “political militia” engages in imaginary “violence” and becomes another reason for people to think they need a strongman government to protect them.

Anti-Woke Idiocy: Pink Floyd Edition

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Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon album jacket, showing a white triangle representing a prism in the center of the image, with a white beam of light coming up to the triangle at a shallow, upword angle and bars in the colors of the rainbow exiting the other side at a shallow, downword angle

Pink FLoyd has long been known as a fairly progressive band – not just musically, but also in terms of their social and political views. Apparently, not all of their “fans” have noticed this.

Pink Floyd recently announced that they’re issuing a special edition of their classic “Dark Side of the Moon” album to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its release, and as part of the packaging, they’ve created a new logo for it:

Pink Floyd 50th Anniversary of "Dark Side of the Moon" featuring the number 50 superimposed over a triangle, with verticle rainbow colored bars filling the zero.
Pink Floyd’s new album logo for the 50th Anniversary of the “Dark Side of the Moon.”
For anyone who’s seen the original cover, the inspiration for the new logo is obvious, even the inclusion of the rainbow colored bars. But as Prog Magazine reported, not everyone who claims to be a Floyd fan is actually familar with (a) their political views and (b) the cover of their most famous album. How do they know this? Because following the reveal of the special logo, Twitter went a bit nuts for a while with people claiming to be long-time fans outraged that Pink Floyd has “gone woke” and is now championing LGTBQ+ causes. A few examples:

Sampling of Tweets complaining about PInk Floyd going “woke”
While several people responded to point out the idiocy of the anti-woke crowd, one person hit the nail on the head, saying

“Some people here took ‘we don’t need no education’ too seriously.”

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