(New columns will be light and variable for the next week, since Wrongo and Ms. Right are attending grandson Conorâs wedding in NC. Regular programming will resume on July 6.)
âHoboken feels downright roomy. Wander down the wide, busy sidewalks of Washington Street, the cityâs main strip…and one thing becomes clear….A pedestrian doesnât have to play the…perilous game of New York City crosswalk chicken, where you squint through the windows of a massive metal box to catch a glimpse of another speeding metal box whose driver doesnât see you.â
More:
âFew drivers park next to crosswalks in Hoboken because they canât. Those spots are blocked off with bike racks or planters or storm drains or extra sidewalk space for pedestrians or vertical plastic pylons that deter all but the boldest delivery-truck drivers. Stand at a corner, and you can see what is coming toward you, and drivers can see you too, and you donât have to step out into the road and risk your life to do it.â
This concept is called Vision Zero, a strategy that municipalities across the US and abroad have adopted that seeks to alter traffic and engage pedestrians to lessen the severity of accidents. In total, Hoboken has had three traffic fatalities since 2015.
As Hobokenâs streets get safer, the rest of America is getting less safe. Traffic fatalities in NYC were up 44% percent in the first quarter of 2022. Hoboken has empowered itâs pedestrians and every corner makes it clear they have the right of way. Hobokenâs streak of zero fatalities could end at any time, and eventually will, but thatâs no reason for other cities and towns not to enable similar change. On to cartoons.
Somebody should remind the Conservative ideologue Justices that America is a multi-belief country:
Itâs on the ballot in November:
Clarence rewrites the 2nd Amendment:
Now concealed carry has multiple meanings:
The scales of justice get a Conservative makeover:
The J6 hearings have inspired criticism from Texas. The late Molly Ivins referred to Texas as the “national laboratory for bad government”:
Uvalde ,TX failures give new meaning to an old idea:
North River, Marshfield, MA – June 2022 photo by Laurie France
Roe overturned. Gun laws on the books since the Taft administration overturned. Miranda weakened. The separation of church and state required by the First Amendment, no longer Constitutional.
Remember when Republicans railed against âunelected, activist judgesâ? They always meant judges appointed by Democrats. Hereâs a quote from the National Review:
âThe Left views the judicial branch as no different from the executive or legislative branches. To them, judges are supposed to âtake sides,â making sure that some political interests win and others lose.â
âUnelected liberal activist judge delivers Michigan to Big Faggotry.â
As always, Conservatives were projecting their actual views as the views of their opposition.
Today, we do have unelected activist judges running America, and they are Conservatives. Weâre living in an ahistorical time: There are six justices who are practicing Catholics. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Sonia Sotomayor, and Brett Kavanaugh.
Five routinely vote as a bloc. There have only been 15 Catholic justices (out of 115 justices total) in the history of the Supreme Court. Forty percent of all Catholic justices are now sitting on the Court.
The Conservative majority on the Court has walked away from Stare Decisis, the doctrine that courts will adhere to precedent when making their decisions. Stare decisis means âto stand by things decidedâ in Latin.
Hereâs how stare decisis has evaporated: On Thursday, the Court said that the individual right to bear arms is an inviolable fundamental right, meaning states cannot infringe the right to carry a gun. Clarence Thomas held that a NY statute enacted during the Taft administration was not part of the American tradition of regulating firearms.
The right to an abortion, in place for 50 years, was overturned and sent back to the states because itâs just not as fundamental as the God-given right to have a gun which you can use to shoot up elementary schools.
The NY gun law dates from 1913. The right to abortion was decided in 1973. But the radical judges tout the notion that the former violated a fundamental right, while the latter isnât even a thing.
Also on Thursday, the Conservative justices voted 6-3 to block lawsuits against police who neglect to read the Miranda warning, (“You have the right to remain silent”). It also includes language about Constitutional protections against self-incrimination. From Alitoâs opinion:
âA violation of Miranda does not necessarily constitute a violation of the Constitution, and therefore such a violation does not constitute ‘the deprivation of [a] right…secured by the Constitution,'”
Miranda was decided in 1966, but Alito now says itâs a âprophylactic ruleâ, meaning that Miranda warnings arenât required by the Constitution, but are instead judicially-crafted rules designed to protect peopleâs core Fifth Amendment right against compelled self-incrimination. His signal to prosecutors is clear: Miranda is suspect, and weâre willing to entertain arguments that we should do away with it for good.
So the Conservative wing has knocked off three âsettled lawâ items in one week, despite each â John Roberts, Clarence Thomas, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh â all saying under oath some version of what Roberts said during his confirmation hearing:
â…[Roe] is settled as a precedent of the Court, entitled to respect under principles of stare decisis. It is settled.â
You should know that Alito and Barrett didnât lie quite so egregiously about Roe during their hearings, although with hindsight, both were disingenuous. Obviously, a judge who lies under oath should be removed from office, but that wonât happen since âeveryoneâ knew they were lying.
These Conservative unelected activist judges are placing ideology above precedent.
That elections have consequences was the key takeaway from the 2016 presidential election won by Trump. Democrats didnât turn out for Hillary Clinton as much as they had turned out for Obama or that would turn out for Biden. Trump won because he got 78,000 more votes than Clinton in just three counties in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, and thus got to appoint three reactionary justices.
Reactionary justices will issue reactionary rulings. And there are many more to come.
But itâs time to forget (if you can) about the Supreme Court gutting legal precedent for ideology. Itâs time for your Saturday Soother.
Our long-term lawn guy has decided to close his business. Itâs a combination of higher costs that couldnât be passed along to customers and getting too old for outdoor physical labor. So weâre scrambling at the height of the season.
It will be a warm weekend in the Northeast, so grab a seat outdoors in a shady spot, put on your wireless headphones and listen to âAs steals the mornâ composed by Handel in 1740. “As Steals the Morn” is adapted from Shakespeare’s âThe Tempestâ. Amanda Forsythe and Thomas Cooley are the soloists, and their voices are beautiful:
Lyric:
As steals the morn upon the night,
And melts the shades away:
So Truth does Fancy’s charm dissolve,
And rising Reason puts to flight
The fumes that did the mind involve,
Restoring intellectual day.
Chama River, near Abiquiu, NM – 2022 photo by James C. Wilson
Wrongoâs last column spoke about how the Republican Party had become the Party of White Christian Nationalists. And that was before the draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked to the world. It seems that this likely decision is a key example of how radical Christians are assuming a political role in America that isnât dissimilar to the Talibanâs in Afghanistan.
Justice Alitoâs draft opinion reinforces the view that thereâs a very dangerous Christian movement afoot in our nation. Itâs not enough for them to live in a country where they are completely free to practice their own religious beliefs. They require the rest of us to live by their religious code, too.
Two thoughts: First about the Courtâs legitimacy in the eyes of the public when they overturn a 50-year-old precedent. The Editorial Board of the WaPo summarized the damage to the legitimacy of the Court that Justice Alito is likely to inflict:
âThe Courtâs legitimacy rests on the notion that it follows the law, not the personal or ideological preferences of the justices who happen to serve on it at any given time….What brought the Court to its current precipice was not a fundamental shift in American values regarding abortion. It was the [result of] shameless legislative maneuvering of Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell, who jammed two Trump-nominated justices onto the Court.â
For some time, youâve been able to predict the votes of Supreme Court Justices by knowing the Party of the president that appointed them. That is particularly true if the issue is either overtly political or a Culture War proxy for Republican Party doctrine.
The American people want to believe the law is fair and impartial, because everyone wants to live in a just and predictable society. But this isnât what Conservatives want. Their so-called love of religion and love of authority move them to reduce or eliminate voting rights, and now, to eliminate womenâs rights.
Second, Wrongo thinks that the Conservative Court has gone a political bridge too far. Most polls show that the rights granted in the Roe v. Wade decision are broadly popular, even among Republicans. And Americans have lived with those rights for almost 50 years, assuming it was an inviolable Constitutional right, you know, like owning a gun.
Heather Cox Richardson says that the Supreme Court has never before taken away a Constitutional right. That means there will certainly be a political backlash against those who have supported this attack against women specifically, and against privacy rights in general.
Pew reports that women are more likely than men to express support for legal abortion (62% vs. 56%). And among adults under age 30, 67% say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 61% of adults in their 30s and 40s.
This describes the foundation of a political movement: Young women as the vanguard of an anti-Republican crusade (pardon the Christian pun). We also know that young people historically have had the lowest voter turnout, dating back to the 1960s. Hereâs a graph showing what percentage of women have voted by age group:
It was only in 2020 that very young women reached the 50% turnout level for the first time in 50 years. They still lag all other age groups in voting. This means that a wealth of untapped political power lies waiting to be flexed this fall, and overturning Roe is the spark that can light the fire.
Add to that Black and Hispanic women who according to a Guttmacher Institute report are, respectively, three and two times more likely to have an unintended pregnancy than white women. Nationally, Black women had 37% of abortions, white women had 34%, and Hispanic women had 22%. Black women are also more than three times more likely to suffer a pregnancy-related death compared to white women.
Pew also reported that two-thirds of Asian (68%), and Black adults (67%) say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, as do 58% of Hispanic adults.
All of this creates the basis for a national political movement to defeat anti-abortion candidates at local, state, and national levels. Think about how a young woman like Mallory McMorrow who spoke so effectively against the Republican Culture War, could be a leader in the fight.
Larry Sabatoâs Crystal Ball lists seven states that offer the biggest potential for a Democratic backlash driven by abortion rights: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Each of these states has a highly competitive gubernatorial or Senate race on tap for this fall, and several of them have two.
Before you say itâs impossible, remember that in Ireland in 2012, the death of a young woman who had been denied a medically necessary abortion became a rallying cry for the abortion rights movement. In 2018, this Catholic country held a referendum to change their Constitution to legalize abortion, which passed with over 66% support.
The non-Christian-radical path forward is via the ballot box, where women should be poised to lead us to a rebuilt society. Even as the Roberts Court and Republicans turn their backs on the Constitution, we must still embrace it.
The Roberts Courtâs radical Christian majority is, intentionally or not, administering a fatal blow to the Courtâs legitimacy.
Sunrise, Ocean City, NJ – April 2022 photo by Sri Reddy
Jennifer Rubinâs article in the WaPo says that the GOP is not a political party anymore. Itâs become a movement dedicated to imposing White Christian nationalism:
âThe media blandly describes the GOPâs obsessions as âculture wars,â but that suggests there is another side seeking to impose its views on others. In reality, only one side is repudiating pluralistic democracy â White, Christian…who are becoming a minority group and want to maintain their political power.â
These are the people driving the Republican bus. Any progress is soon followed by their claims of victimhood. From Rubin:
âNo one should be surprised that the âbig lieâ has become gospel in White evangelical churches. The New York Times reports: âIn the 17 months since the presidential election, pastors at these churches have preached about fraudulent votes and vague claims of election meddling.âŚFor these church leaders, Mr. Trumpâs narrative of the 2020 election has become a prominent strain in an apocalyptic vision of the left running amok.â
America was founded as a Christian nation, by (White) Christians; and its laws and institutions are based on âBiblicalâ (that is, Protestant) Christianity. As Georgetownâs Phillip Gorski says about Jan. 6:
âChristians waved Trump flags. The âProud Boysâ kneeled and prayed. One man, decked out as a cosplay crusader, clutched a large leather Bible to his chest with skeleton gloves. What looked like apples and oranges turned out to be a fruit cocktail: White Christian nationalism.â
Widening out to society at large, the Republican Christian Right is successfully walking a line between two seemingly contradictory notions: That our nation is the greatest nation on earth precisely because it is a Christian nation; and at the same time, that our nation is overrun with evil forces.
The precepts of Christianity were meant to make us more accepting and humane towards others. Today, Â these people are about doing the opposite of that.
The BJCâs (Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty) report on the Jan. 6 coup includes survey data from February 2021, showing that Christian nationalist ideology (specifically, belief that the founding documents of the US are divinely inspired, or that the federal government should declare the US a Christian nation) were strongly associated with the belief that Black Lives Matter and Antifa started the violence on Jan. 6:
Source: Public Discourse and Ethics Survey, Wave 7 (February 2021) Fielded by YouGov. Survey design by Joshua B. Grubbs and Samuel L. Perr
The graph shows that the more White Americans agree with Christian nationalism, the more likely they were to believe conspiracy theories about the involvement of Black Lives Matter or Antifa.
Since the founding of the country, weâve gradually gained a panoply of rights; rights which could not be infringed by federal, state, and municipal governments. Now, the six Christian conservatives on the Supreme Court plan to gut many of those decisions.
The effort to blur the lines between church and state in America may be reaching its zenith. On April 25, the Supreme Court heard Kennedy v Bremerton School District, the first case involving prayer and public schools to reach the high court since 2000.
Americaâs Constitution promises the âfree exerciseâ of religion; but it also prohibits the âestablishmentâ of religion. Recently the Supreme Court has been strengthening the first guarantee: the right to live your faith free from government meddling, while chipping away at the wall separating church from state.
The issue in the Kennedy case was whether a public school district had the authority to prevent a high school football coach from continuing his practice of leading student-athletes in midfield prayer immediately after games.
Four justices had previously supported Kennedy when the case first came to the Supreme Court in 2019. At oral arguments this time, both Justice Coney Barrett and Chief Justice Roberts also sounded inclined to join the four in favoring free exercise over religion-state separation.
The decision in this case may change our long-held First Amendment rights into something less than they were designed to be.
Time to wake up America! The Culture Wars are the tip of the Constitutional threat iceberg. Weâve all shrugged and walked away from people who think the worst about non-White, non-straight Americans. We canât do that anymore.
To help you wake up, listen to The Juddsâ âLove Can Build a Bridgeâ. Naomi Judd died over the weekend. Here it’s sung by Naomi and Wynonna on April 11, 2022. This was Naomi’s last public performance:
Sample Lyric:
When we stand together, it’s our finest hour
We can do anything (anything)
Anything (anything)
Keep believin’ in the power
Cactus bloom, Tanque Verde, AZ – April 2022 photo by Bel Meader
Since last fall weâve seen headlines about the need for parental control of public school curricula. Itâs been a huge political weapon for Republican governors like DeSantis in Florida and Youngkin in Virginia. The argument is that the way race, gender and history are taught in public school classrooms is outside of the cultural mainstream in America.
A new national poll by NPR and Ipsos shows that those concerns are held only by a minority of Americaâs parents, while the majority express satisfaction with their children’s schools and what is being taught in them. The pollâs findings show that fewer than 20% of parents seem to be concerned about the culture wars, but they seem to be driving 100% of the conversation about K-12 education in America.
The poll surveyed 1,007 parents of school-aged children. Parents answered questions about the impact of the pandemic on their children, academically and socially, and about their schools’ performance:
âThis year’s responses showed positive trends as the nation continues to recover from the worst of the pandemic. Compared to 2021, a growing margin of parents say their child is “ahead” when it comes to math, reading, social skills, and mental health and well-being. Fewer parents say their child is “behind” in those areas. In fact, in 2022, almost half of parents, 47%, agree with the statement: “the pandemic has not disrupted my child’s education.” That’s up from 38% in 2021…â
However, that view is at odds with that of most education researchers, who see big disruptions in indicators like test scores, college attendance, and preschool enrollment. The Ipsos poll shows that parental satisfaction also included culture war topics. In the poll:
76% of respondents agree that “my child’s school does a good job keeping me informed about the curriculum, including potentially controversial topics.”
88% of respondents agree with the statement “my child’s teacher(s) have done the best they could, given the circumstances around the pandemic.”
82% agree “my child’s school has handled the pandemic well.”
Mallory Newall of Ipsos points out that:
“It really is a pretty vocal minority that is hyper-focused on parental rights and decisions around curriculum…. Just 18% of parents say their child’s school taught about gender and sexuality in a way that clashed with their family’s values; just 19% say the same about race and racism; and just 14% feel that way about US history.”
Newall also said that there was a lack of partisanship in the responses:
âThe most partisan issue in our poll was gender and sexuality, but still only a minority expressed any concerns. Republicans are closely divided: 26% say schools are not teaching about gender and sexuality in a way that matches their family’s values, while 22% say schools are (the remainder don’t know or say schools aren’t addressing those topics).
The problem of course is that the vocal, 20+% of American parents are seeking total victory in the culture war. Republican-aligned groups like No Left Turn In Education and Parents Defending Education have continuously pushed these issues into the spotlight. And it’s working.
Ralph Wilson, a researcher who studies how partisan donors back the culture war, says these groups imply that they represent a silent majority of conservative-leaning parents. But that’s not necessarily the case:
“It’s definitely an incredibly small minority that’s being amplified with this large, well-funded infrastructure to appear larger and to appear to have more well-founded concerns than they do.”
The Ipsos poll found that about a third of parents say they “don’t know” how their child’s school addresses sexuality, gender identity, racism, or patriotism. Only 24% of parents believe they have too little say over what is taught or what books are in the library at their kidâs school.
Thatâs enough! Letâs leave the culture wars behind for the weekend. Itâs time for our Saturday Soother, where we gather ourselves for the week ahead. In northwest Connecticut, we canât escape cold weather, so our remaining yard work must wait for warmer nights before planting can start.
Instead, pour a mug of your favorite spice tea, grab a seat by a big window, and listen to âThe Banks of Green Willowâ by the little-known George Butterworth, who was part of the English pastoral idiom. Butterworth and Ralph Vaughan Williams were close friends, and you may hear similarities in their music. Butterworth was killed in 1916 in WWI during the Battle of the Somme; he was just 31.
Here it is played by the  Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under Grant Llewellyn:
Abandoned house, eastern plains of Colorado photo by Daniel Forster
On Sunday, Wrongo talked in passing about how religion may bring some people together, but that it divides many more. And that the lessons about being a good person are too often pushed aside in the service of doctrine.
A fine example of this comes from the Religion News Service, who reported that Daniel Darling, SVP of communications for the National Religious Broadcasters, was fired after making pro-vaccine statements on MSNBCâs âMorning Joeâ.
Darling told Joe Scarborough:
âI believe in this vaccine because I donât want to see anyone else die of COVID. Our family has lost too many close friends and relatives to COVID, including an uncle, a beloved church member and our piano teacher…â
Sounds innocuous, but themâs firing words to the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB). According to its website, the NRB âworks to protect the free speech rights of our members by advocating those rights in governmental, corporate, and media sectors.â Of course they do.
Darling shared his personal experience at a time when White evangelical Christians and Hispanic Protestants are among the faith groups most likely to be hesitant or refuse to get the COVID-19 vaccines, according to a recent survey from the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI). Although the study found vaccine hesitancy has dropped recently, 1 in 4 White evangelicals said they refuse to get a vaccine, while an additional 1 in 5 was hesitant.
So, hereâs an Evangelical Christian trying to do the right thing. Urging others to get vaccinated is something that will help them and our society. But his religious organization, one apparently dedicated to âfree speechâ, fires him for expressing an opinion, something thatâs an obvious good for humanity, Â that is contrary to their policy.
Darlingâs statement is clearly free speech. And his viewpoint doesnât infringe on the rights of either those who are promoting the vaccine, or those who have decided not to get the vaccine. Wrongo has no stake in whether this is wrongful termination. That is a legalistic construction which has nothing to do with what our individual duty is to each other and to society.
Sadly, this is another example that some Christians havenât developed a code of ethics to guide their lives. Instead, they rely on learned doctrine to justify their behavior, even when their actions fly in the face of good humanity.
Letâs also spend a minute thinking about the impact of Hurricane Ida on Louisiana. As Wrongo writes this, the eye is 10 miles in diameter, the storm is over land, and severe damage reports are starting to come in.
Remember too that Louisiana hospitals are just starting to reduce their census of Delta patients after a record surge of Covid infections. Now New Orleans is evacuating because of the Hurricane Ida storm surge, but hospitals have nowhere to send patients.
We should also remember that Ida went from a tropical storm to a Category 4 Hurricane in 48 hours. There are no rental cars, the highways are clogged. The airport in New Orleans is shut down.
Wake up America! Our 21st century horrors rare rarely subtle. And 2021âs horrors range from what weâre seeing in Afghanistan to Louisiana. Maybe that makes firing an Evangelical for speaking his mind about Covid a lesser problem, except for doctrine taking precedence over a good act.
To help you wake up today, letâs listen to âThis is All I Wantâ by Corey Ledet, from his 2021 album, âZydecoâ. Ledet has incorporated Kouri-Vini, a regional Cajun dialect spoken by family members, into songs on his album. Itâs a lot of fun and you should listen to it:
Itâs a sign of the times: 66% of Republicans in 13 Southern states including Texas and Florida are in favor of seceding from the US to join a union with other Southern states. This is what a new YouGov survey conducted on behalf of Bright Line Watch found. Half of independents surveyed in the South agreed, while 20% of Southern Democrats were on board.
And secession is gaining support among Southern Republicans: back in February, 50% told Bright Line that theyâd support such a proposal. This bodes, very, very poorly for the future of American democracy if the trend continues.
Below, the survey results are laid out geographically:
Bright Line Watch tabulated responses from 2,750 Americans from June 16 to July 2, 2021. The survey has a confidence limit of 95%, but they caution that these findings reflect:
â…initial reactions by respondents about an issue that they are very unlikely to have considered carefully.â
It probably makes sense to read the results more as statements of ideology and political identity (e.g., âIâm a proud Southerner and I donât like Joe Biden!â) than as signs of intent to secede. Nevertheless, the sheer number of Americans willing to âblow America upâ as a sign of their partisan loyalty is very troubling.
Secession gets polled frequently, usually in the context of Republicans angry at a Democratic president or vice-versa. But there seems to more going on: This time, a major difference is that Republican elites are now much more active in stoking secession passions.
In the past year, GOP officials and lawmakers in Texas, Wyoming, Florida, Mississippi, and Michigan have publicly discussed the possibility of seceding from the Union. Conservative media voices often cheerfullyamplify their arguments.
Wrongo is having difficulty seeing where America goes from here.
Itâs clear that there are people pushing very hard to create two separate communities within the US. And it isnât clear whether democracy is possible in a society based on two communities who see the world in opposite ways.
Itâs unclear what secessionists think is the upside in splitting up. Government exists to identify and solve the common problems confronted by its citizens. Trying to solve common problems with fewer resources is a very steep price to pay for living in a more ideologically pure country.
Make no mistake, this is about ideological purity. Linda Greenhouse wrote in an NYRB article âGrievance Conservatives Are Here to Stayâ that many conservatives think that the secular state itself must go to bring about Godâs kingdom on earth. These people are known as Christian Nationalists.
Some like Katherine Stewart, whoâs book âThe Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalismâ was reviewed by Greenhouse, think that the culture wars that are dividing us politically are a false flag operation designed to distract mainstream America from understanding what Christian Nationalism is after:
âIt does not seek to add another voice to Americaâs pluralistic democracy but to replace our foundational democratic principles and institutions with a state grounded on a particular version of Christianity….This is a political war over the future of democracy.â
If you doubt this, consider that Pew Research examined 12,832 sermons in Christian churches during the 2020 election campaign. It turns out that 67% of those sermons mentioned the 2020 election at least once. About 20% of them just encouraged voting, but 46% discussed issues, candidates, or parties (which is a violation of their status as tax-free institutions):
âRoughly half of all evangelical Protestant sermons mentioning the election discussed specific issues, parties or candidates (48%), the highest share among the four major Christian groups. And, in discussing the election, evangelical pastors tended to employ language related to evil and punishment at a greater rate, using words and phrases such as âSatanâ or âhellâ at least twice as often as other clergy did.â
Of course, this is against the law (the Johnson Amendment, sponsored by LBJ), but Stewart heard pastors getting advice from lawyers on how to get around the Johnson Amendment.
Replacing American democracy with a Christian theocracy may not be the only thing thatâs driving the secessionists, but the rhetoric of the Christian Nationalists is driving our politics. In particular, their narrative that government is stomping on the rights of Christians and their churches.
Surely, itâs a good thing that there are no troubling historical precedents for what happens when large numbers of Southern conservatives, motivated in large part by grievance and victimhood, want to break away from the Union.
Happy Valentineâs Day! Of course, you may still be bummed out, reflecting on the Senate voting 57-43 to acquit Trump yesterday. While that wasn’t enough votes to convict, it wasn’t an exoneration. Once again, a group of horribly shitty human beings proudly showed themselves to be horribly shitty human beings.
But we need to give this some time. OJ was a pariah after his acquittal, but soon there were a series of state and civil cases that sent OJ away for a few years, and took most of his money. Also, the FBI has charged only 207 people so far. Most of the militia-types haven’t been charged yet. Those FBI charges will lead to people telling grand juries about who organized them to attack the Capitol. And the Democrats in the Senate now have subpoena power, so expect to see some hearings on what Trump knew, and when he knew it.
Letâs start today with other Republican outrages in Georgia and Tennessee. Legislation proposed by members of the Republican Party. You know, the party that says they want to keep the heavy hand of the state off your back. First, Georgia:
âGenitalia assessment boards” will surely win the 10th grade male vote. This could be enough to get Alabamaâs former governor Roy Moore to move to Georgia. Wrongo is pretty sure “assessing” the genitalia of high school freshman girls is his dream job.
Second, in Tennessee, Republican lawmakers have put forward a bill that would grant a man the power to veto a womanâs abortion. Wrongo hasnât read the bill, but couldnât they at least make the man show a deed or a receipt to prove that he is in fact the legal owner of the pregnant woman?
On to cartoons: Many are showing love for the shot:
No worries about injection deniers. GOP has them covered:
Finally, all Republicans decide to wear masks:
GOP experiments with CDC guidance on more masks:
Trump lawyers present false equivalence about what âfightâ means:
Rather than presenting the merits of their case, Trumpâs lawyers delivered sound bites that reinforced what the right-wing media have been echoing for months. They insisted that Trumpâs language leading to the riot was the same sort of rhetoric all politicians use. They claimed Trump was the victim of years of witch hunts by Democrats who hate him. Some Republican Senators bought it.
When you just canât see whatâs in front of you:
Happy Saturday, fellow disease vectors! The Saturday Soother is on break this week. So today, weâre moving far afield from the horrors of the Trump administration and COVID to talk Turkey.
âTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced Friday that Istanbulâs iconic Hagia Sophia would become a mosque once again, brushing aside a legacy of Turkeyâs secularizing modern founder, who converted the site to a museum more than eight decades ago.â
The Sophia represents the intersection of two of the world’s religions. The Sophia was built by the Romans in 360. The dome visible in the photo below was added in 537. Constantine made it the home of the Roman church (and named the city, Constantinople). It was an Eastern Orthodox Church for a short period. And from 1453 to 1931, it was a mosque. Here is a photo of the Hagia Sophia taken by Wrongo in 2013:
Since 1935, the Sophia has been a museum, neither a church nor a mosque. This was the solution devised by Kemal Ataturk, one of the 20th centuryâs great statesmen, to resolve competing claims by the Muslim and Christian communities in Turkey and neighboring countries.
The Sophia shows both additions and subtractions as its religion changed from Christian to Islam. Following the building’s conversion into a mosque in 1453, the minarets were added. Many of its Christian mosaics were whitewashed, due to Islam’s ban on representational imagery. The images were partially rescued by a team of archeologists from Edinburgh University between 1958 and 1962. Since then, there has been a continuing effort to restore and maintain some of the Christian provenance of the building:
2013 photo by Wrongo
Since Islam does not permit Christian-style depictions, it remains unclear whether this uncovered iconography will now be hidden once again. Here is a photo taken inside the Sophia that demonstrates the multi-cultural history of the building:
2013 photo by Wrongo
The medallion on the right above represents Allah, while the medallion on the left is for Mohammad. Behind the medallions is the nave of the original church, with the middle window pointing towards Jerusalem. The lighted arch in the nave was added when the building became a mosque. It points toward Mecca.
The Sophia was designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1985, and receivers 3+million annual visitors. It has been an example of tolerance and pluralism in a world that is rapidly moving away from these concepts.
There is no shortage of mosques in Istanbul. From Reuters: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âFor those who donât know, really near to Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, the Turks built the Blue Mosque, which is newer and big enough for all the Muslims in the area (and then some). Erdogan is just trying to provoke Christians and show to Muslims worldwide he is their leader.â
Until a few years ago, Turkey was held up as an example that Islam is perfectly compatible with multi-party democracy, a pro-Western foreign policy, and healthy economic growth.
Most of that has been weakened under Erdogan, and re-converting the Sophia to a mosque should make many Western countries rethink their alliances with Turkey.
The timing of the conversion is clearly political. Erdoganâs popularity has been sagging under the weight of a damaged economy. His AKP party lost control of Istanbul and Ankara to the opposition in the last elections. Their prospects for the upcoming elections are not very good either, so this current gambit is an attempt to strengthen Erdoganâs chances.
Some Turkish clerics are saying they are ready to whitewash the faces of the Seraphim that surround the dome. Hereâs what they look like now:
2013 photo by Wrongo
It was a massive amount of work to uncover them, and it would be a tragedy if they are again covered up.
First prayers at the Hagia Sophia mosque are planned for July 24. This date is highly symbolic, as that is also the anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne, when Turkey gave up all claims to the remainder of the Ottoman Empire.
The artwork, now over 1500 years old, will most likely be lost again. Once more religious triumphalism will rear its ugly head. Once again, one group can rub another group’s face in the dirt.
The Sophia should keep all of its artwork, and remain open to all.
Lake Blanche, Upper Cottonwood Canyon, UT â 2020 Galaxy S10 photo by criked
On Tuesday, the Supremes issued another opinion. This one narrows the First Amendmentâs separation of church and state. The case, Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, was a 5-4 decision, with the five conservative justices in the majority, and the four liberal justices dissenting.
From Slate: (emphasis by Wrongo)
âThe Montana Constitution contains a âno-aidâ provision that bars the state from providing public funds to religious institutions, as do 37 other state constitutions. To work around this rule, the Legislature granted tax credits to residents who donate money to Big Sky Scholarships, which pays for students to attend private schools, both secular and sectarian. (Montanaâs demographics ensure that the only sectarian schools that participate are Christian.) In other words, residents get money from the state when they help children obtain a private education, including religious indoctrination. In 2018, the Montana Supreme Court found that this program violated the state constitutionâs no-aid clause. But instead of excluding sectarian schools, the court struck down the whole scheme for all private education.â
Chief Justice John Robertsâs opinion revived Montanaâs tax credit scheme when he announced a new Constitutional principle: Once a state funds private education, âit cannot disqualify some private schools solely because they are religious.â
Twenty-nine states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico all provide tax credits or vouchers to families that send their children to private schools. Under Espinoza, they must now extend these programs to private religious schools. More from Slate:
âThis decision flips the First Amendment on its head. The amendmentâs free exercise clause protects religious liberty, while its establishment clause commands that the government make no law ârespecting an establishment of religionâ.â
In essence, Roberts is now saying that the Establishment Clause supersedes the Free Exercise Clause.
Some background: In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris, the Supreme Court ruled that, under the Establishment Clause, states were allowed to fund private schools through vouchers or tax credits. Now the court has declared that, under the Free Exercise clause, most states are compelled to fund private religious schools.
Over the past 18 years, the Courtâs conservative majority has revolutionized church-state law.
How did the court do this? The barrier between church and state took a hit when five justices permitted state financing of sectarian schools in Zelman. It nearly collapsed when the court expanded religious institutionsâ access to taxpayer money in 2017âs Trinity Lutheran v. Comer, which held that states cannot deny public benefits to religious institutions simply because they are religious.
The court claimed that their new rule was actually hidden in the meaning of the First Amendmentâs Free Exercise clauseâeven though, as Justice Sotomayor pointed out at the time, separating church and state does not limit anyoneâs ability to exercise their religion.
More from Slate. Roberts, from the Espinoza opinion: (italics are in the quote)
âA state violates free exercise…when it âdiscriminate[s] against schoolsâ based on âthe religious character of the school.â The government, Roberts explained, has no compelling interest in preserving the separation of church and state beyond what the First Amendment requires. Nor does the government have any interest in protecting taxpayersâ right not to fund religious exercise that infringes upon their own beliefs.â
Said the Chief Justice:
âWe do not see how the no-aid provision promotes religious freedom…â
In theory, states could abolish public funding of private schools entirely to avoid funding religious schools, but thatâs what the Montana Supreme Court did. And Roberts just condemned that decision as âdiscrimination against religious schoolsâ, because Montana had originally funded all private schools.
Roberts may be a master at minimizing losses (hits to the credibility or reputation of SCOTUS), while maximizing returns for his masters (conservative victories). In most of the cases where he has sided with the liberals, his opinion has basically boiled down to “lie better the next time.”
That was true in the abortion and DACA cases this term, and in the Census case last term.
So, based on this decision, religious entities (of the right sort) are not only eligible for government funding, they are entitled to it. That, and more equipment for the military.
This is what the America conservatives want. What could go wrong?
The state requires children to go to school. It also provides a school system for those children in order to meet that requirement. If you choose to send yours to a private, accredited/licensed school instead, that cost should be borne by you, not by the taxpayers.
Public funding for religious schools, along with tax-free status for churches, gives too much political power to religions.
That’s exactly why separation of Church and State is so crucial.
