To me what is happening with the Supreme Court is a tragedy. Until just a few years ago, I and I expect most of you, considered the Court as close to an institution of of justice as a human democracy could attain. The only previous time in my lifetime there had been a question about a Justice's integrity, was Abe Fortas, and even though he stated he had done nothing wrong, on 15 May 1969, he still decided to resign as an Associate Justice so that there would be no question about the Court's integrity. I was proud of the court. Contrast that with what is going on now.
Former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff Credit: Creative Commons
When the U.S. Supreme Court released the results of its investigation of the leak of Justice Samuel Alito’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, it revealed that it was unable to determine who the leak came from. The Court had touted former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as an expert, and used his endorsement of the probe to validate its results. But according to CNN Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic, the Court did not “disclose its longstanding financial ties with” Chertoff.
Biskupic, in an article published on January 27, explains, “CNN has learned from sources familiar with the arrangements that the Court, in recent years, has privately contracted with The Chertoff Group for security assessments, some broadly covering justices’ safety and some specifically related to COVID-19 protocols at the Court itself.”
I don't think the media or most Americans fully comprehend what a big effect the trend of the country becoming a majority-minority culture is having. You rarely see it discussed in that context, but that is what is driving MAGAt world, and creating so much violence in this country. It may be hard to believe or even comprehend, but there is a significant minority of White Americans who are Nazis, worshipping Adolf Hitler, and who seek to create a generation of children indoctrinated and reared as Nazis. They are building a homeschooling movement to do this. It is part of what is behind the push by Republicans to gut public education in America, and to permit federal tax monies to be used to pay these alternative schools and education approaches. Here are some facts, horrifying as they are.
The Dissident Homeschool channel on Telegram shares “Nazi-approved material” for home schooling. Illustration: Damon Dahlen / HuffPost / Photos: Getty
On Nov. 5, 2021, a married couple calling themselves “Mr. and Mrs. Saxon” appeared on the neo-Nazi podcast “Achtung Amerikaner” to plug a new project: a social media channel dedicated to helping American parents home-school their children.
“We are so deeply invested into making sure that that child becomes a wonderful Nazi,” Mrs. Saxon told the podcast’s host. “And by home-schooling, we’re going to get that done.”
The Saxons said they launched the “Dissident Homeschool” channel on Telegram after years of searching for and developing “Nazi-approved material” for their own home-schooled children — material they were eager to share.
The Dissident Homeschool channel — which now has nearly 2,500 subscribers — is replete with this material, including ready-made lesson plans authored by the Saxons on various subjects, like Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee (a “grand role model for young, white men”) and Martin Luther King Jr. (“the antithesis of our civilization and our people”).
Trends show up in interesting and odd places in a society, and here is an example of what I mean. The population of the United States is the most obese in the developed world. When one travels outside of the United States, the easiest way to identify who is an American is obesity. Including all groups nationally, 41.9 percent of adults are obese. White adults are 41.4 percent obese. Black adults have the highest level of adult obesity at 49.9 percent. Hispanic adults have an obesity rate of 45.6 percent. Believe it or not obesity has become an issue for theme parks. It has gotten to the point that theme parks, as this article describes, are now restricting ridership on their rides on the basis of obesity.
Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge is slated to open next month at Universal Studios Hollywood. Credit: Chris Delmas / AGP / Getty
The newest ride at Universal Studios Hollywood, Mario Kart: Bowser’s Challenge, takes visitors into the classic Nintendo game using augmented reality and animatronics. It also warns that they might not be allowed to ride if their waistline measures 40 inches or more.
The ride, one of several at the California park with that admonition, illustrates how navigating theme parks has grown tougher for plus-size visitors as parks balance accessibility with heightened safety requirements.
Universal Studios, SeaWorld and others are equipping rides with tighter restraints to ensure that small children and others can’t wriggle out from seats. The new seats can be a tight squeeze for some visitors, and riders have said that staff have declined to seat them on some rides because of their size.
“Our first priority is always the safety of the guests and the employees,” says Jim Seay, president of the ride manufacturer Premier Rides, which has built roller coasters for the Six Flags, SeaWorld and […]
Andy Lee Roth and Steve Macek, Associate Director of Project Censored | Professor of Communication and Media Studies at North Central College and a Co-coordinator of Project Censored - truthout
Stephan:
This is getting almost no media coverage but I think it is a very big deal and must be closely watched. Because of our grotesque wealth inequality, as a result of our rigged tax system, we are becoming an oligarchy-driven anocracy. And now, having taken over the Republican Party the oligarchs are, as this story spells out, trying to get control of the media -- the part they don't already own -- so that their nefarious activities don't get covered. Day-by-day the America you and I grew up in is ceasing to exist.
Beto O’Rourke speaks to supporters at Paso Real Hall on November 1, 2022 in Harlingen, Texas. Credit: Sergio Flores / The Washington Post / Getty
A recent Texas lawsuit has opened a new front in the ongoing battle over the reign of money in politics, making it a prime example of how wealthy individuals and mighty corporations seek to wield political influence while avoiding public accountability.
As Jordan Uhl reported in a January 2023 article for The Lever, Kelcy Warren, a Texas billionaire whose fortune derives from gas and propane pipelines, is suing former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke for defamation, because O’Rourke publicly criticized a million dollar donation Warren made to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, in 2021.
On the campaign trail, O’Rourke criticized Abbott for failing to hold Texas oil and gas companies responsible for their role in the disastrous consequences of a February 2021 ice storm that cut power to more than 4.5 million state residents, caused hundreds of deaths — and produced a $2.4 billion profit for Warren’s company, Energy Transfer Partners, according to its first quarter
I have a wealthy woman, whom I know considers herself a progressive, and whom I think of as a friend, who told me she reads SR regularly, and yet who has not supported SR. In talking to my wife she said she didn't support SR because I used words like christofascism. When my wife told me this what stood out for me is that this is one of the fundamental weaknesses of the Democratic Party and its progressive base. They do not appreciate or accept the reality of the passionate closemindedness of that segment of the population that has linked fascist politics, racism, and male dominance with their distorted version of Christianity. It is quite accurately called christofascism. What is happening in the U.S. is the same thing that happened in Germany as Hitler's fascism and distortion of Christianity rose to power, or that is happening in Russia where Putin's fascism has bonded with Russian Orthodox Christianity. The linkage of conservative politics with religion, whether it is Christianity, Islam, or Judaism -- look at what is happening in Israel today -- always leads to violent self-righteous authoritarianism.
Supporters of U.S. President Donald Trump join in prayer with Jeremy LaPointe of Lumberton, Texas (holding cross), outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Credit: Mike Theiler / Reuters / Redux
When Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — many of them carrying Christian symbols like crucifixes, statues of the Virgin Mary and even life-sized portraits of Jesus Christ — a terrible thought occurred to Bradley Onishi: “Could I have been there?”
For much of his young adult life, Onishi had been steeped in the very same mixture of religiosity and radical far-right politics that was on display at the Capitol. After growing up in a secular household in Orange County, California, Onishi joined an evangelical megachurch at age 14. During high school, he led prayer meetings during lunch break and handed out anti-abortion pamphlets to his classmates. By the time he was 20, he had married his high school sweetheart, taken a job as a full-time youth minister and made plans to enter the seminary.
