The power of the Supreme Court and abortions wars

Republicans solidly approves of what the 

Supreme Court is doing, Democrats don't

The WaPo reports on increasing anxiety among pro-abortion advocates about a pending Supreme Court (SC) case about abortions. The WaPo writes:

Abortion rights advocates delivered a stark warning to the Biden administration’s top health official in a private meeting last week: It’s time to take seriously “fringe” threats that could wind up blocking abortion access across the country.

Driving their anxiety is a Texas lawsuit brought by conservative groups seeking to revoke the decades-old government approval of a key abortion drug.

The suit has been widely ridiculed by legal experts as rooted in baseless and debunked arguments. But in recent weeks, abortion rights advocates and some in the Biden administration have grown increasingly concerned that the case is likely to be decided entirely by conservative judges who might be eager for a chance to restrict abortion access even in Democrat-led states where the procedure has remained legal since the fall of Roe v. Wade.

“It’s hard to really comprehend the full and terrible impact if what the plaintiffs have asked for in that case is actually granted,” Liz Wagner, senior federal policy counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights, told Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra during the meeting at a Virginia abortion clinic. “It would be catastrophic.”  

Despite a widespread belief among abortion rights advocates that the lawsuit’s claims are baseless, providers have been preparing for their worst-case scenario, with many ready to implement new protocols if they can no longer distribute mifepristone.

Wokeness is cold comfort

It is good to see that public awareness of the Republican SC's unprincipled, hyper-partisan jurisprudence is increasing. In the years before radical right Christian nationalism became a prominent force in the SC's legal reasoning, people reasonably took comfort in legal experts arguing that a pending case is rooted in baseless, debunked arguments, and thus nothing to worry about. 

Those days are over. Now, more people are becoming aware that baseless and debunked arguments don't mean much to this hyper-partisan, Republican Christian nationalist court. People are becoming woke! One of the things they woke up to is the realization that nothing can stop an out-of-control, radical right SC. Neither a president nor a congress can stop it.[1] 

The lawsuit seeks a nationwide ban on misoprostol. A two-drug treatment with mifepristone and misoprostol is now used in about 50% of drug-induced abortions. The anti-abortionists lied in their lawsuit, claiming that misoprostol is unsafe and the FDA should never have approved it. In essence, this lawsuit asks the SC to overrule a drug the FDA approved as safe and effective. 

The SC does not have the expertise needed to independently evaluate all the safety data like the FDA has done. But, the Republicans on the SC hate abortions. They desperately want to find ways to stop abortions nationwide. If they need to rely on lies, they just might do it. The temptation is enormous. Fabricating lies is basically what the SC did in cherry picking history and taking bits of it out of context to strike down abortion rights last year. Relying on lies about a safe drug's alleged lack of safety is not all that big a leap into the mental and moral corruption that characterizes this court. 

How likely will it be that the Christian nationalist SC sinks into the mental and moral corruption needed to ban misoprostol? That's a tough one. Not clear to me. Maybe ~50% chance?

Footnote: 

1. A recent post here pointed out the similarity of this SC with the one that helped pave the way into the Civil War. What that pre-Civil War SC did to nudge the US into war was make pro-slavery decisions that some states refused to abide by. What do you think will happen if this SC eventually completely bans abortions nationwide in a series of decisions? Will everyone just say, OK, that's it -- no more abortions? I doubt it. There will be resistance. How much resistance is not predictable, but it probably won't be trivial. 

That post included this quote: 

But the real Dred Scott moment will be at hand when red states begin trying to extradite people from the blue states for the crime of getting abortions, providing abortions, or providing transition-related care to transgender people. Deep blue states have been creating haven and sanctuary laws to protect women, doctors, transgender people, and parents of trans youth. Both California and Massachusetts have passed sanctuary laws that would prevent people from being extradited for seeking abortions in their states. Given that eradicating abortion and eliminating health care for trans people have become the top social policy priorities for conservatives, the reaction from powerhouses like the Heritage Foundation has been swift: They see these blue-state moves as a direct threat to their agenda.

Just like that old pre-Civil War SC, this modern radical right, Christian nationalist SC is weakening the glue that used to hold America together. It is tearing us apart, one toxic decision after another. 

Israel and the miserable end-game; The military-industrial complex is powerful and immortal

After a far right Jewish zealot murdered Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, I mostly stopped paying attention to the endless Middle East peace process. With Rabin’s death, it was clear that the Palestinians would be forever hosed and trapped in poverty, rage, violence and misery.[1] So far, that prediction has been mostly accurate. The NYT writes on the miserable, God-forsaken end game playing out in Israel: 

In West Bank, Settlers Sense Their Moment After Far Right’s Rise

After a surge in violence, there are fears of a wider escalation in the occupied West Bank. Israeli settlers see an opportunity, and Palestinians fear what’s next.

The remains of Or Haim, an illegal settlement outpost, lie strewn across a windswept hilltop in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Two dozen Israeli settlers erected a few flimsy huts there one night last month, and by morning, the Israeli Army had demolished them.

But the settlers plan to try again. The most right-wing government in Israel’s history, which includes settler leaders among its key ministers, entered office late last year, and the settler movement has been emboldened, sensing a window of opportunity to expand its enterprise faster than ever before.

“Now I expect things to go differently,” said Naveh Schindler, 19, a settler activist leading the effort to build the Or Haim outpost. “If I persevere enough,” Mr. Schindler said, “hopefully the government will build it themselves.”

Settlers like Mr. Schindler hope to build more Israeli settlements across the West Bank, which is illegal under international law, on land that Palestinians hoped would be the core of a future Palestinian state. Palestinians, meanwhile, are watching with fear and anxiety as the settlements expand, and as the number of attacks on Palestinians increase as more settlers come.  

United Nations officials documented at least 22 settler-led attacks and vandalism from Jan. 26 to Jan. 30, while Palestinian officials said the real number was roughly seven times higher. More than 70 settler attacks occurred throughout January, U.N. officials said — a rate that, if maintained throughout the year, would be the highest in at least a half-decade.

Once again, we see that (i) politics and religion do not mix, and (ii) religious extremism is aggressive, will not compromise, and is brutal with opposition, murderous when deemed necessary. There is no reasonable hope for a reasonable Palestinian state. All that is left for the Palestinians is endless poverty, rage, violence and misery.

Footnote: 

1. No, I am not arguing that Israel is the only bad player here. Palestinian leadership leading up to Rabin’s assassination was incompetent, deeply corrupt and self-serving. It probably still is. Despite the Palestinian human garbage that Rabin had to negotiate with, he almost pulled off a miraculous, reasonable settlement. That was why the Israeli radical right hated Rabin's guts and had to murder him. 

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From the ripping off the taxpayers files: The NYT writes about another instance of corrupt politicians forcing taxpayers to spend billions on crap the pentagon does not want and does not work:

The Pentagon Saw a Warship Boondoggle. Congress Saw Jobs.

After years of crippling problems and a changing mission, the Navy pushed to retire nine of its newest ships. Then the lobbying started.

The Pentagon last year made a startling announcement: Eight of the 10 Freedom-class littoral combat ships now based in Jacksonville and another based in San Diego would be retired, even though they averaged only four years old and had been built to last 25 years.

The decision came after the ships, built in Wisconsin by Fincantieri Marinette Marine in partnership with Lockheed Martin, suffered a series of humiliating breakdowns, including repeated engine failures and technical shortcomings in an anti-submarine system intended to counter China’s growing naval capacity.

“We refused to put an additional dollar against that system that wouldn’t match the Chinese undersea threat,” Adm. Michael M. Gilday, the chief of naval operations, told Senate lawmakers.

Then the lobbying started.

A consortium of players with economic ties to the ships — led by a trade association whose members had just secured contracts worth up to $3 billion to do repairs and supply work on them — mobilized to pressure Congress to block the plan, with phone calls, emails and visits to Washington to press lawmakers to intervene.

“Early decommissioning of littoral combat ships at Mayport Naval Station would result in the loss of more than 2,000 direct jobs in Jacksonville,” a coalition of business leaders from the Florida city wrote last summer.

The Navy estimated that the move would save $4.3 billion over the next five years, money that Admiral Gilday said he would rather spend on missiles and other firepower needed to prepare for potential wars. Having ships capable of fulfilling the military mission, he argued, was much more important than the Navy’s total ship count.  

The Freedom-class ships were first conceived of after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks as part of an effort to combat nontraditional threats. They ended up costing more than twice what had been expected, about $500 million per ship, compared with an early estimate of $220 million. It had taken a dozen years longer than expected to get them operational, at which point the Navy’s war-fighting needs had shifted back to countering global rivals.

The Navy and Lockheed are still negotiating how much the contractors should have to pay to resolve design flaws in the ships’ propulsion systems.

But having largely won the battle, at least for now, to keep the Freedom-class ships operational, the contractors who built them have already returned to promoting a new class of vessels with an even higher price tag.

Without any evidence other than past history, I bet that the claimed 2,000 lost jobs the business lobbyists claims is a garden variety capitalist lie. Job losses might amount to about 500. But even if 2,000 is correct, those jobs are for work on something that is broken and cannot be fixed. Some members of congress, including some Republicans, got a prohibition on getting rid of the broken boats put into a military spending bill. That forces the Navy to keep the bad boats. Taxpayers are on the hook for this wasteful spending. 

So when radical right Republicans howl about wasteful spending, that is just more garden variety Republican Party lies and hypocrisy.

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The unrepentant, lying 1/6 traitors: Politico reports on false claims to the judge of contrition about participating in the 1/6 coup attempt. Some say to the judge they are sorry and then publicly say they aren’t:

A Jan. 6 defendant’s boast in an interview this week that he had no regrets about his role in the Capitol riot — just days after he acknowledged his guilt in a federal courtroom — may upend the man’s efforts to resolve the criminal case against him.

U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta issued an order Friday instructing defendant Thomas Adams Jr. and prosecutors to explain why the guilty findings the judge entered on Tuesday, following a brief “stipulated” bench trial should not be overturned in light of Adams’ comments to a reporter the following day.

“I wouldn’t change anything I did,” Adams told the State Journal-Register Wednesday outside his home in Springfield, Ill. “I didn’t do anything. I still to this day, even though I had to admit guilt [in the stipulation], don’t feel like I did what the charge is.”

In a brief order Friday morning, Mehta gave both sides one week to provide reasons “why the court should not vacate Defendant’s convictions of guilt in light of his post-stipulated trial statements” included in the article. The judge also attached a copy of the news report.

Those feisty 1/6 traitors. There’s some exceptionally immoral or evil scumbags in the bunch. 

We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones

 

Bonhoeffer’s “theory of stupidity”

https://bigthink.com/thinking/bonhoeffers-theory-stupidity-evil/

• When we know something or someone is evil, we can take steps to fight it. With stupidity, it is much more difficult. 
• Dietrich Bonhoeffer argues that stupidity is worse than evil because stupidity can be manipulated and used by evil. 
• He also argues that stupidity tends to go hand-in-hand with acquiring power — that is, being in power means we surrender our individual critical faculties.
• • There’s an internet adage that goes, “Debating an idiot is like trying to play chess with a pigeon — it knocks the pieces over, craps on the board, and flies back to its flock to claim victory.” It’s funny and astute. It’s also deeply, depressingly worrying. Although we’d never say so, we all have people in our lives we think of as a bit dim — not necessarily about everything, but certainly about some things.
    
    
    Most of the time, we laugh this off. After all, stupidity can be pretty funny. When my friend asked a group of us recently what Hitler’s last name was, we laughed. When my brother learned only last month that reindeer are real animals — well, that’s funny. Good-natured ribbing about a person’s ignorance is an everyday part of life.

  • • Stupidity, though, has its dark side. For theologian and philosopher Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the stupid person is often more dangerous than the evil one.

      The enemy within

      In comic books and action movies, we know who the villain is. They wear dark clothes, kill on a whim, and cackle madly at their diabolical scheme. In life, too, we have obvious villains — the dictators who violate human rights or serial killers and violent criminals. As evil as these people are, they are not the biggest threat, since they are known. Once something is a known evil, the good of the world can rally to defend and fight against it. As Bonhoeffer puts it, “One may protest against evil; it can be exposed and, if need be, prevented by use of force. Evil always carries within itself the germ of its own subversion.”

      Stupidity, though, is a different problem altogether. We cannot so easily fight stupidity for two reasons. First, we are collectively much more tolerant of it. Unlike evil, stupidity is not a vice most of us take seriously. We do not lambast others for ignorance. We do not scream down people for not knowing things. Second, the stupid person is a slippery opponent. They will not be beaten by debate or open to reason. What’s more, when the stupid person has their back against the wall — when they’re confronted with facts that cannot be refuted — they snap and lash out. Bonhoeffer puts it like this:

    • “Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reasons fall on deaf ears; facts that contradict one’s prejudgment simply need not be believed — in such moments the stupid person even becomes critical — and when facts are irrefutable, they are just pushed aside as inconsequential, as incidental. In all this the stupid person, in contrast to the malicious one, is utterly self-satisfied and, being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack.”

    • With great power comes great stupidity

      Stupidity, like evil, is no threat as long as it hasn’t got power. We laugh at things when they are harmless — such as my brother’s ignorance of reindeer. This won’t cause me any pain. Therefore it’s funny.

      The problem with stupidity, though, is that it often goes hand-in-hand with power. Bonhoeffer writes, “Upon closer observation, it becomes apparent that every strong upsurge of power in the public sphere, be it of a political or of a religious nature, infects a large part of humankind with stupidity.”

    • This works in two ways. The first is that stupidity does not disbar you from holding office or authority. History and politics are swimming with examples of when the stupid have risen to the top (and where the smart are excluded or killed). Second, the nature of power requires that people surrender certain faculties necessary for intelligent thought — faculties like independence, critical thinking, and reflection.

    • Bonhoeffer’s argument is that the more someone becomes part of the establishment, the less an individual they become. A charismatic, exciting outsider, bursting with intelligence and sensible policies, becomes imbecilic the moment he takes office. It’s as if, “slogans, catchwords and the like… have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being.”

      Power turns people into automatons. Intelligent, critical thinkers now have a script to read. They’ll engage their smiles rather than their brains. When people join a political party, it seems like most choose to follow suit rather than think things through. Power drains the intelligence from a person, leaving them akin to an animated mannequin.

    • Theory of stupidity

      Bonhoeffer’s argument, then, is that stupidity should be viewed as worse than evil. Stupidity has far greater potential to damage our lives. More harm is done by one powerful idiot than a gang of Machiavellian schemers. We know when there’s evil, and we can deny it power. With the corrupt, oppressive, and sadistic, we know where we stand. You know how to take a stand.

      But stupidity is much harder to weed out. That’s why it’s a dangerous weapon: Because evil people find it hard to take power, they need stupid people to do their work. Like sheep in a field, a stupid person can be guided, steered, and manipulated to do any number of things. Evil is a puppet master, and it loves nothing so much as the mindless puppets who enable it — be they in the general public or inside the corridors of power.

      The lesson from Bonhoeffer is to laugh at those daft, silly moments when in close company. But, we should get angry and scared when stupidity takes reign.

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    • Share Bonhoeffer’s “theory of stupidity”: We have more to fear from stupid people than evil ones on LinkedIn