Overturning Roe v Wade is a death sentence for many women

Overturning Roe v Wade is a death sentence for many women

by Ranting Panda, 26 June 2022

Conservatives are at it again: forcing their religious beliefs and vacuous 'moral' codes on the rest of society. This time, they have managed to overturn the1973 US Supreme Court case Roe v Wade, which had legalised women's rights to access abortion. 

Conservatives think that they are saving lives by banning abortion, although the opposite is true. When former President George W. Bush defunded family planning clinics that either undertook abortion or even gave advice about abortion (the so-called 'Gag' Order), abortions rose by 40% compared to when his predecessor, President Clinton, had continued funding these clinics (Bendavid, Avila & Miller, 2011). Research from the University of Colorado Boulder, indicates that banning abortion will result in a 21% increase in the deaths of women from unsafe abortions (Stevenson 2021). This is replicated globally, in which access to sex education, contraception and medical abortions is essential to reducing the rate of abortion and the likelihood of women dying from the procedure (Amnesty International, n.d.).

All that conservatives have managed to achieve is to drive abortion underground. Perhaps they have forgotten the deaths of women and the horrible disfigurements of babies born after botched backyard abortions. Interestingly, there is a higher rate of abortion in countries that ban it, than in countries where it is legal (Guttmacher Institute, 2018). 

So-called 'pro-life' groups claim they are defending the rights of the unborn, however they are actually creating worse conditions for abortion than if it were legal. Firstly, the main reason that women seek out abortion is because of poverty (Oberman, 2018). Conservatives oppose every means of providing such support. Ever see a Conservative support welfare, community housing, public education, or socialised healthcare? Of course not. These 'pro-lifers' are too selfish to share their income through tax redistribution, not to mention, they are terrified that community programs equate to socialism. They protest against raising the minimum wage, let alone providing welfare to address poverty. Welcome to Capitalism 101: selfishness, avarice and complete disregard for women or the lives of babies born into poverty. Conservatives think that socialism is anything to the left of hunting the homeless for sport.

The religious right has been pushing their agenda of Christian Nationalism for years. The recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v Wade is a major step in progressing Christian Nationalism, which regresses modern society to the days of patriarchal rule, where women were nothing but chattels for men to control and rape. The Supreme Court decision is a highly sexist, retrograde one that makes women nothing but breeding incubators to fulfil the sexual desires of men. Those same men are not held to account for their women they impregnate.  

'Pro-lifers' claim that they are concerned for the lives of children, yet they refuse to part with their precious firearms, even though school shootings are a regular occurrence. The deaths of hundreds of children from gun violence isn't enough to concern the pro-lifers who treat their access access to guns as a basic human right. As at the end of May 2022, the United States has seen more than 250 mass shooting events in 2022. On 24 May 2022, 19 children were gunned down in Uvalde, Texas. Since then, there have been another 38 mass shootings (Ladir & Rabinowitz 2022).  

Access to guns is not a human right. Access to abortion is a healthcare requirement and a basic human right enshrined by the United Nations. Forced pregnancy, including the denial to safe abortion, is a crime against humanity under international law (Amnesty International, 2020, p 10).

Pro-life conservatives bemoan a 'leftist agenda' being thrust upon them. You know, the sort of things that actually don't impact them at all, such as the right for same-sex marriage. Yet, it is conservatives who are constantly thrusting their beliefs onto everyone else in order for control and to appease their sensitive, snowflake feelings of entitlement and supremacy. They are the first ones to whinge about their liberties being infringed if someone so much as wishes them 'happy holidays' instead of 'merry Christmas', or dares to suggest that Black Lives Matter, or that Critical Race Theory shows there's more to history than the white supremacist colonialist fairy-tale. 

The control that these conservative extremists are trying to exercise is nothing short of totalitarianism. They want to dominate others with their nationalist agenda. They claim their religion or morality is superior to everyone else's. They claim they are doing the 'work of the Lord'. They claim they care for others, when they only care about themselves. There's a big difference between caring for others and controlling others. Ironic then, that US conservatives spent decades demonising Islam as depriving women of freedom, only to do the same thing in the name of their perverted 'christian' values and warped sense of 'democracy'. 

Conservatives will not stop at abortion. These extremists will now target same-sex marriage. Justice Clarence Thomas said as much in the decision to overturn Roe v Wade. For conservative Christians there have only been two big issues they are concerned with: abortion & homosexuality. Neither of these issues were even mentioned by Jesus; not that these bible-bashing hypocrites have ever followed Christ's teachings. 

There is also concern that other rights which were enshrined prior to Roe v Wade could be at risk, including the right to contraception and the right to inter-racial marriage (Papenfuss 2022).

It is a dangerous place to be in when conservatives are dominating with their fascist politics. 

References

Amnesty International, 2020, Forced pregnancy - a commentary on the crime in international law', 30 June, viewed 26 June 2022, https://www.amnesty.org/en/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/IOR5327112020ENGLISH.pdf

Amnesty International, n.d., Key facts on Abortion, viewed 26 June 2022, https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/sexual-and-reproductive-rights/abortion-facts/

Bendavid, E, Avila, P, Miller, G, 2011, United States aid policy and induced abortion in sub-Saharan Africa, World Health Organization Bulletin, 27 September, viewed 26 June 2022, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3260902/

Guttmacher Institute, 2018, Highly restrictive laws do not eliminate abortion, 25 September, viewed 26 June 2022, https://www.guttmacher.org/infographic/2018/highly-restrictive-laws-do-not-eliminate-abortion

Ladir, J, & Rabinowitz, K, 2022, There have been over 250 mass shootings so far in 2022, The Washington Post, 8 June, viewed 26 June 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/06/02/mass-shootings-in-2022/

Oberman, M, 2018, Motherhood, abortion and the medicalization of poverty, The Journal of Law, Medicine & Ethics, 18 October, viewed 26 June 2022, https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1073110518804221.

Papenfuss, M, 2022, Decision Destroying Roe Threatens Legal Right To Interracial Marriage, Experts Warn, Huffpost, 24 June, viewed 26 June 2022, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/roe-v-wade-same-sex-interracial-marriage-clarence-thomas_n_62b64cd3e4b0cf43c864baaf#

Stevenson, A, 2021, A research note on the mortality consequence of denying all wanted induced abortions, SocArXiv, 1 September, viewed 26 June 2022, doi:10.31235/osf.io/sb5f2

Conservative logic: Nazis are better than abortion

Conservative logic: Nazis are better than abortion ... to wit 6 January 2021

By Ranting Panda, 31 January 2021

Evidenced by their blind support for Trump & defending his incitement of an insurrection by neo-Nazis & white supremacists.

Donald J. Trump, the most divisive, corrupt and treacherous president the US has seen, was embraced by many conservatives as if he was the Messiah. Why? Because he promised to protect them from the 'socialist' agenda of the woke left ... and he banned abortion. He also supported, empowered, praised and incited white supremacy, domestic terrorism, Nazis, and used fear-mongering to stir up hate against Muslims, Mexicans and migrants ... but conservatives said that he represented their values. This says a lot about conservative values. 

Christian nationalists were chanting 'Christ is King' and flying Christian flags as they joined Nazis and white supremacists to storm the Capitol building on 6 January 2021. Even up until Joe Biden was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States, many conservative Christians believed that Jesus would somehow intervene and reinstate Trump. As an aside, these terrorists were no different to Islamist extremists who chant 'Allah Akbar' (God is great) before murdering innocent people; they are cut from the same cloth: traitors to their religions and countries. 

Trump supporters still believe his lies that the election was stolen, even though dozens of court challenges failed to produce evidence or prove these claims. 

One of the first things that Trump did when he became president, was to ban the funding of women's health centres if they dared to mention abortion. It was a gag rule that cost countless lives as women sought abortion from less ethical means. The removal of the funding didn't just affect abortion procedures, but also meant that contraceptives and pregnancy advice were not carried out. Not providing contraceptives tends to increase the rate of unwanted pregnancies. Trump's policies had the opposite affect that many conservatives wanted: it increased the numbers of abortions, plus risked the lives of more women through backyard abortions. 

This policy isn't new. It was originally introduced by President Reagan in 1985 as the Mexico City Policy, or the 'Gag Rule' and has been the policy of every Republican president since then. This has presented researchers with decades of data to conduct longitudinal studies. Refer to my article of 4 February 2017, which covered this in detail: Trump's Gag Order banning abortion will increase abortion & kill more women. 

A 2011 study by Stanford researchers found that abortion rates in 20 sub-Saharan African nations increased by 40% when Republicans implemented the Mexico City policy.

Impact of Mexico City Policy (Bendavid 2011)

The United Nations has stated that the Gag Rule is 'flawed on evidentiary and public health grounds' (United Nations General Assembly 2018). The report went on to state, 'There is conclusive evidence that efforts to cut back on or deter the provision of quality contraceptive and antenatal services, HIV/AIDS treatment and safe abortion care contribute to increased rates of otherwise preventable death, including maternal and infant mortality and death and injury from unsafe abortion'. It identifies that sub-Saharan Africa is the hardest hit by the Gag Rule.

The evidence demonstrates that the outcome of anti-abortion policy that Trump implemented, is 'significantly increased rates of induced abortion' (United Nations General Assembly 2018).

One would think that this evidence would be enough to convince pro-lifers to consider alternative ways to reduce abortions. The Guttmacher Institute found that ' ... poor women have the least access to family planning services and the fewest resources to pay for safe abortion procedures; they are also the most likely to experience complications related to unsafe abortion' (Guttmacher Institute 2012). One of the primary drivers of abortion is poverty, yet conservatives tend to oppose measures that would more equitably share wealth or raise minimum wages. 

Conservatives take a very black and white view of abortion. That is, ban it and it will go away! However, the opposite is true: it increases! And the conservative response? They don't care. Clearly their reasoning for banning abortion is not to save the life of the foetus, but to control women, even if it means more women die. 

Conservatives, particularly conservative Christians, are driven by two main things: abortion and homosexuality. 

Interestingly, the United Nations also reported that laws banning the provision of life-saving services to LGBTIQ+ people has resulted in increased morbidity and mortality (United Nations General Assembly 2018).

Is it any wonder then, that conservatives ignored everything else that Trump did, simply because he banned abortion and attacked LGBTIQ+ issues? They ignored his blatant lies ... more than 30,000 lies! They ignored his incompetence, which was on a genocidal scale, in dealing with Covid-19 that killed more than 420,000 while he was president. They cheered on the Nazis, white supremacists, and Christian nationalists who stormed Congress on 6 January 2021.

Conservatives were more upset with Biden for reversing Trump's Mexico Policy, than they were with Trump genocidal incompetence killing more than 420,000 people, or him inciting Nazis to attempt a coup that would unlawfully keep him in power, and ended up killing five people, including two police officers. The rest of the world was like, 'what the actual fuck, America???'. Meanwhile, conservatives were like, 'What? It's just a coup for a stolen election. In the name of unity, let's not charge anyone with a crime'. The rest of the world is like, 'It's fucking treason! Charge Trump & the insurrectionists'. 

Imagine if the world did not hold the Nuremberg trials 'in the name of unity'. Trump has the deaths of more than 420,000 people on his hands, plus the untold damage to democracy. He must be jailed for treason and crimes against humanity.

The problem with Trump's lies is that they pandered to the victimhood mentality of conservatives. Their pearl-clutching fear fed by Trump's lies, culminated in Trump inciting them to stage an insurrection and storm Congress, with the intention of assassinating certain senators. This is serious. This is treason. Yet conservatives are so blind, so myopic, that they refuse to see they have been duped by traitor Trump occupying the highest office in the land. 

But yeah, hey abortion, socialism and gays are all bad, but Nazis are good ... according to conservative logic. 

References

Bendavid, E, Avila, P, & Miller, G 2011, 'United States aid policy and induced abortion in sub-Saharan Africa', Bulletin of the World Health Organisation, 27 September, https://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/12/11-091660/en/, viewed 31 January 2021

Guttmacher Institute 2012, 'Facts on induced abortions worldwide', January 2012, https://www.who.int/reproductivehealth/publications/unsafe_abortion/induced_abortion_2012.pdf, published by World Health Organization and Guttmacher Institute, viewed 31 January 2021

SBS News 2021, 'Joe Biden reverses Donald Trump's anti-abortion ‘global gag rule’, citing 'damage' from his predecessor'. SBS News, 29 January, https://www.sbs.com.au/news/joe-biden-reverses-donald-trump-s-anti-abortion-global-gag-rule-citing-damage-from-his-predecessor, viewed 31 January 2021

United Nations General Assembly 2018, 'Promotion and protection of human rights: human rights questions, including alternative approaches for improving the effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms', 73rd Session, Item 74 (b) of the provisional agenda, 7 August, https://undocs.org/A/73/314, viewed 31 January 2021

Sympathy for the Donald in the age of Trumpery

Sympathy for the Donald in the age of Trumpery

by Ranting Panda, 10 October 2020

When Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19, his gullible and deluded supporters expected the world to have sympathy for him. They were surprised and upset that few people cared about the health of their feckless leader.

Perhaps there would have been more sympathy for Trump if he wasn't a fascist pig who corrupted American democracy, the rule of law and is directly responsible for the deaths of more than 210,000 Americans from COVID-19. The biggest damage of Trump's lack of leadership has been his failure to act on COVID-19, claiming it was a hoax, understating its severity, and promoting quack cures for it. A Cornell University study found Trump to be the single biggest driver of misinformation about the pandemic (Stolberg & Weiland 2020). More than 210,000 people are dead as a result. This pathetic excuse for a human, played partisan politics as people died by refusing to distribute personal protective equipment or increase testing in Democrat-led states, which enabled Trump to blame Democratic Governors for the virus (Sykes 2020). The Whitehouse blockaded PPE from states unless they swore allegiance to Trump. Trump even refused to increase testing for the virus because of his childish logic that 'When you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people' (Sykes 2020).

He constantly calls Covid the 'China Virus', but for Americans, it is the Trump Virus'. 

Time Magazine cover - 19 October 2020 edition

The United States accounts for 4% of the world's population, but more than 20% of COVID-19 cases and 20% of deaths globally. 

In 2018 Trump scrapped the pandemic response team that Obama had established. Obama had previously stated that it was just a matter of time before America faced a pandemic, which would be its greatest threat. Trump, in his typical ignorant stupidity and hatred of Obama, axed the program. A program that could have greatly reduced the death toll from COVID-19. 210,000 people dead and we're supposed to feel sympathy because Trump has contracted the very virus that he claimed was a Democratic Party election hoax.

Trump ridiculed a reporter's disability and mocked Hilary Clinton when she suffered pneumonia in 2016, so it's a bit lame that Trump's supporters are demanding sympathy for this narcissistic buffoon (Fisher 2020). Just a few days before being diagnosed with COVID-19, Trump was mocking Joe Biden for wearing masks. Is it any wonder that people have little sympathy for Trump. He is a victim of his own stupidity ... he might recover, but sadly it's too late for the more than 210,000 Americans who died from COVID-19, even as Trump continued mocking the disease and its victims.

Time.com - 9 October 2020

When it came to immigrant families crossing the border into the US, Trump had children torn from the arms of their parents and held in cages. His pathetic, gold-digging wife, Melania, has repeatedly stated that she doesn't care about the children. This much is obvious from them both. In typical Trump fashion, he blamed Obama for the policy of family separations, however, it was yet one more Trumpian lie (Valverde 2019). The only time that children were separated from their families under Obama, was if the child was in danger. Obama's policy was to keep families together. 

Melania, a gold-digging migrant from Slovenia, was caught on tape mocking the very children her husband tore from their families because they dared to want a better life free from poverty and violence. One would think that Melania, being a migrant who wanted a better, would be more sympathetic. Her narcissism is on par with her husband's, so when reporters dared to ask her about the children rather than herself, she cracked with the retort: 'They said, "Oh, what about the children that were separated?" Give me a fucking break' (Pappenfuss 2020). 

Many of Trump's supporters claim that they are pro-life and pro-family, while Trump destroys families and is incompetent on a genocidal scale. (Did I mention more than 210,000 dead). Don the Con's incompetence & corruption are on a genocidal scale, so how about sympathy for his victims, and let's stop this narcissistic conman from killing any more. 

Then there's the little matter of the treatment that Trump received for COVID-19. The experimental drug had been tested using cells from an abortion (Regalado 2020). Abortions don't mean anything to Trump when it comes to his own health ... they're just collateral damage.

 

Trump destroys everything he touches. He inherited billions from his father and yet is more than $300 million in debt (Weber 2020). He refused to release his tax returns when elected, unlike every other president in the modern era. When the New York Times exposed his tax returns, we could see why. It revealed a history of business failure and tax avoidance. He payed no tax in 10 of the 15 years between 2000 and 2015, and just $750 in tax in 2016 (ABC News 2020). He is currently being investigated by the Internal Revenue Service over his tax, with an estimate that he could be responsible for a tax bill exceeding $100 million. This is a man who boasts that he doesn't draw a salary as president. Why would he? He has been fleecing the American tax system for years. Then there's the costs of his golf trips. These are estimated to have cost the American people over $130 million (Date 2020). So Trump not claiming the $400,000 per year presidential salary means nothing when his golf trips alone have cost more than 325 years of presidential salary. He criticised Obama's golf trips and swore he wouldn't spend a day on the golf course. At the same point in their presidency, Obama had spent 96 days golfing, whereas Trump had spent 266 (Dale & Lybrand 2020). Given the number of days he's absent from the job, Trump isn't the Commander in Chief, he is the Thief in Chief.

Trump has destroyed democracy in the US by subverting democratic processes, such as appointing Ruth Bader Ginsburg's replacement to the Supreme Court weeks before the election. He has falsely claimed that the mail voting process is corrupt and is already casting doubt on the validity of the election outcome. He has hinted that if he loses the election, he won't leave office.

Trump is responsible for empowering and emboldening violence from racists and bigots. Trump has consistently called on violence against Democrats and the left-wing. He retweeted that 'The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat' and 'When the looting starts the shooting starts' (Blake 2020). He denies being a white supremacist, but why is that all white supremacists gravitate to Trump's message. It says a lot about his supporters.

Trump is blatantly racist and many of his tweets and rambling speeches dog-whistle to his racist voter base. He has refused to condemn white supremacy. He has described Ku Klux Klan and neo-Nazis as 'good people'. He told the white supremacist incels, Proud Boys', to 'stand back and stand by', which the Proud Boys immediately adopted as their slogan, while they were encouraged by the President to commit violence against those they hate, such as leftists, black lives matter advocates, or other anti-fascist and anti-racist elements (Palmer 2020). 

In August violence erupted in Kenosha, Wisconsin, after police shot a black man, Jacob Blake, leaving him paralysed. A 17 year old boy named Kyle Rittenhouse, illegally armed himself and travelled from the neighbouring state of Illinois, to shoot the protesters. Rittenhouse shot three people, two of whom died. This gutless act of violence was not condemned by Trump, who went on to defend Rittenhouse's actions ... as did most Trump supporters. Department of Homeland Security officials were directed to defend Rittenhouse's heinous crimes (Brewster 2020).

These fascist are no different to the white supremacists who unleashed Kristallnacht in 1930s Germany, empowered and emboldened by Hitler. Trump is paving the way for another dictatorship, another Kristallnacht, another war between fascists and anti-fascists. 

When it was revealed that Russia had placed bounties on the lives of US soldiers in Afghanistan, the ever-tweeting Trump was strangely silent (Savage, Schmitt & Schwirtz 2020). He failed to raise the issue or to condemn Putin over it. He took no action. This is no great surprise. Trump has no respect for the military and has been caught stating that soldiers killed in battle defending the United States are 'suckers and losers' (Hirsh 2020). 

Former Trump aide, retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster states that Trump is aiding and abetting Russian president, Vladimir Putin, by failing to acknowledge Russia's misinformation campaign being waged in the United States (Sanger 2020).

So why do his followers continue defending him? They state that they are patriots, yet grovel at the feet of Traitor Trump as he destroys the nation they claim to love. 

To quote Forest Gump, 'stupid is as stupid does'. Trump is clearly a traitor to his own people. As millions of people were contracting COVID-19 and hundreds of thousands dying from it, he treated it as a joke and mocked those who tried to control it. In mid-September 2020, Trump stated that there would be a COVID-19 vaccine within three to four weeks (Marsh 2020). Three weeks later there was no vaccine in sight ... and Trump was diagnosed with COVID-19. 

In 1977, Pink Floyd released an album called Animals. The lyrics from the song Pigs are extremely apt to Trump, so much so that Roger Waters used it in his 2017/18 world tour: 'Big man, pig man, ha ha charade you are'. Trump is a pig, gorging himself at the trough while America degenerates. Trump is a charade. There was another song on that album, called Dogs, whose lyrics are very descriptive of Trump: 'You have to be trusted by the people that you lie to, So that when they turn their backs on you, You'll get the chance to put the knife in ... And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown'.

Trump is reaping what he has sown. He is the victim of his own stupidity, which tragically has killed more than 210,000 people and will likely kill many thousands more.

Trump is such a liar that many people doubted he had actually contracted COVID-19. He had been hospitalised and on oxygen according to his doctors, but within a few days of the diagnosis, he was back at work saying that COVID-19 was nothing to worry about. 210,000 dead people and their families would likely disagree with this cretin. It's easy for a simpleton such as Trump to tell people, 'Do not be afraid', when he has the best medical treatment that money can buy.

Trump by name, Trumpery by nature. 

Even with his pathological lying, hate-speech, snout-in-the-trough corruption, Don the Con's racist, sexist, misogynistic, white-supremacist snowflake supporters expect people to have sympathy for Trump and his racist wife, Melania, as they are treated for COVID-19.

That isn't going to happen. 

Sympathy for the Trumps?

How about sympathy for their victims.

References

ABC News 2020, 'US President Donald Trump paid no income tax for 10 years, says New York Times report', 28 September, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-28/trump-paid-just-24750-in-us-income-taxes-in-20162c-2017/12709418.

Blake, A 2020, '‘The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.' ‘When the looting starts, the shooting starts.’ Twice in 25 hours, Trump tweets conspicuous allusions to violence', The Washington Post, 30 May, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/28/trump-retweets-video-saying-only-good-democrat-is-dead-democrat/.

Brewster, J 2020, 'Report: Trump Officials Were Directed To Defend Kyle Rittenhouse Publicly, Documents Show', Forbes, 1 October, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackbrewster/2020/10/01/report-trump-officials-were-directed-to-defend-kyle-rittenhouse-publicly-documents-show.

Dale, D & Lybrand, H 2020, 'Fact check: Trump has spent far more time at golf clubs than Obama had at same point', CNN, 25 May, viewed 5 October 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/25/politics/fact-check-trump-obama-golf/index.html.

Date, S 2020, 'Trump’s 29th Trip To Mar-a-Lago Brings Golf Tab To 334 Years Of Presidential Salary', Huffington Post, 15 February, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/trump-golf-mar-a-lago-taxpayers_n_5e4712b9c5b64d860fcab86c.

Fisher, A 2020, 'Trumpworld delighted in cruelty. Now that Trump has COVID, it demands empathy', Business Insider, 3 October, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trumpworld-delighted-cruelty-trump-positive-covid-test-demands-empathy-coronavirus-2020-10.

Hirsh, M 2020, 'Trump Has Mocked the U.S. Military His Whole Life', Foreign Policy, 8 September, viewed 5 October 2020, https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/09/08/trump-mocked-us-military-troops-losers-whole-life/.

Marsh, P 2020, 'Donald Trump says a coronavirus vaccine could be 'three weeks, four weeks' away in ABC town hall interview', ABC News, 16 September, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-16/coronavirus-vaccine-weeks-away-according-to-donald-trump/12669136. 

Palmer, E 2020, 'Video of Proud Boys Founder Encouraging Violence Resurfaces Following Trump's 'Stand By' Comment, Newsweek, 1 October, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.newsweek.com/proud-boys-gavin-mcinnes-trump-video-1535594.

Pappenfuss, M 2020, ''This Is Not Who We Are': Twitter Rages Over Melania's Taped Remarks On Migrant Children', Huffington Post, 3 October, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.huffingtonpost.com.au/entry/melania-trump-kids-in-cages-christmas_n_5f76903ac5b66377b27fca5e.

Regalado, A 2020, 'Trump’s antibody treatment was tested using cells originally derived from an abortion', MIT Technology Review, 7 October, viewed 10 October 2020, https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/10/07/1009664/trumps-antibody-treatment-was-tested-using-cells-from-an-abortion/.

Savage, C, Schmitt, E, & Schwirtz, M 2020, 'Russia Secretly Offered Afghan Militants Bounties to Kill U.S. Troops, Intelligence Says', New York Times, 26 June, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/26/us/politics/russia-afghanistan-bounties.html.

Sanger, DE 2020, 'McMaster, Mostly Silent Until Now, Says Trump Is ‘Aiding and Abetting Putin’s Efforts’', New York Times, 1 October, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/01/us/politics/mcmaster-trump-russia-election.html.

Stolberg, SG, & Weiland, N 2020, 'Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump', New York Times, 30 September, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/30/us/politics/trump-coronavirus-misinformation.html.

Sykes, C 2020, 'Did Trump and Kushner ignore blue state COVID-19 testing as deaths spiked?', NBC News, 4 August, viewed 9 October 2020, https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/did-trump-kushner-ignore-blue-state-covid-19-testing-deaths-ncna1235707.

Valverde, M 2019, 'Fact-check: Did Obama have a family separation policy before Trump?', Statesman, 25 June, viewed 5 October 2020, https://www.statesman.com/news/20190625/fact-check-did-obama-have-family-separation-policy-before-trump.

Weber, P 2020, 'Trump literally can't afford to lose the election', The Week, 28 September, viewed 10 October 2020, https://theweek.com/articles/940021/trump-literally-cant-afford-lose-election. 

Trump: kool-aid, snake oil & genocide

Trump: kool-aid, snake oil & genocide 

or: Thou shalt not Covid thy neighbour

By Ranting Panda, 17 May 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed just how poor Donald Trump's leadership skills are and how vulnerable the general population is to his madness. The COVID-19 pandemic has so far killed more than 100,000 people in the United States and Trump is yet to display any real compassion. He has been more concerned with spinning the numbers to make it look like he is a war-time president who has kicked the virus's sorry ass. More snowflake than man, Trump is prone to puerile Twitter tantrums when someone dares to challenge his incompetence. Sadly, his hyperbole and hubris have contributed to the massive numbers of casualties experienced in the United States.

Republicans screamed blue murder during the Obama presidency, when four Americans were killed in a terrorist attack on the American embassy in Benghazi, Libya in 2012. Yet, many of these same Republicans now deny Trump has any involvement in the 100,000 COVID-19 deaths, while blaming Obama for the horrendous death toll, even though he hasn't been president for three years. They are too ignorant, too partisan and too gullible to accept that their president is a shit leader who is directly responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans. But why be non-partisan, when Trump mocked former President, George W. Bush, for daring to suggest that Americans need to ditch partisanship and work together during this crisis (Starks 2020). GWB was not the sharpest tool in the shed, but is a genius compared to the childish and petulant Trump. And just like a petulant little boy, Trump has refused to unveil a portrait of the previous president, Barack Obama. This breaks a 40 year tradition where the new president would unveil a portrait of the previous president (Haltiwanger 2020). Why? Because Obama was far more popular, intelligent and articulate than Trump will ever be, so Trump makes unfounded accusations of an unspecified crime ... just like a little kid envious of a classmate getting better marks.

Before he was elected, Trump said that he could shoot someone in the middle of Fifth Avenue and people would still vote for him. Well, here we are ... and it's not just one death, but more than 100,000 ... and his supporters still defend him. It's one of the few things that Trump told the truth about. Despite claiming to be patriots, it is clear that his followers have no concern for their fellow Americans, and even less concern for anyone who is not American.

Trump's incompetence and arrogance has resulted in a death toll on a genocidal scale. There is a call for Trump to be tried for crimes against humanity over his handling of the pandemic (Da Silva 2020). Throughout the early stages of the crisis, Trump took little action and instead was more snake oil salesman than president, when he peddled a 'miracle treatment', the anti-malarial drug, hydroxychloroquine. Trump fiddled as thousands of Americans died.

The hypocrisy of Trump's supporter base is they claim that politicians should take responsibility for their actions (except Trump), that politicians should tell the truth (except Trump), that politicians should not be corrupt (except Trump), that presidents should be impeached (except Trump) and that even given all of Trump's moral failures ... abortion! Trump banned abortion, which therefore justifies his corruption, moral turpitude, lies, and ineptitude. It is tragically ironic that his supporters still claim to be pro-life, when they clearly don't give a stuff about the 100,000 innocent victims of Trump's incompetence.

Trump claims that Obama left no plans for dealing with such a pandemic. Yet, Obama left a quaint document entitled, 'Playbook for Early Response to High-Consequence Emerging Infectious Disease Threats and Biological Incidents' (Wilson 2020). You can see what the problem with this document is, can't you? It uses big words ... far too big for Trump's grade 4 vocabulary (Burleigh 2018).

Trump has shown exceptionally poor leadership. He has no emotional intelligence. Instead of caring about people, he is more concerned with firing people who he disagrees with. He has shown incredibly juvenile pettiness at seeking revenge on people he doesn't like. He is corrupt and deceitful. His lack of leadership has cost thousands of lives. He can't argue that this was unexpected, as his January and February 2020 intelligence briefings repeatedly warned of the threat of a virus (Miller & Nakashima 2020). Trump's reaction? Tell the public that it isn't a threat, while failing to prepare for the possibility of a pandemic. Trump's actions since he became president in 2017, have exacerbated the impact of COVID-19 in the United States, and potentially globally. Even though Obama left a guide for dealing with such an issue, Trump failed to make any preparations.

Throughout February 2020, Trump failed to take any significant action to limit the spread of the virus. Instead, he went golfing, he continued his juvenile hate tweeting, and firing people who disagreed with him or on whom he was seeking revenge. For the first six crucial weeks after he was notified of the pandemic, he did nothing. This was the time for him to knuckle down and work with health professionals, state governors, to rally the troops; but he did nothing other than procrastinate and deny (Pilkington & McCarthy 2020).

Republican Steve Schmidt compared Trump's press conferences to those of the Iraqi Information Minister, Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, otherwise known as 'Baghdad Bob' or 'Comical Ali', who became somewhat of a minor celebrity for the ridiculous claims he would make in press conferences during the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. For instance, Trump's denial of the virus's impact is on par with Baghdad Bob, who would often deny the US invasion was occurring, even as US tanks could be seen in the background (Deprang 2013).

Schmidt told MSNBC's Ari Melber that COVID-19 the biggest crisis the world has faced and goes on to describe Trump's response to it as 'the most inept response by the Executive, by the President, I think with regard to any crisis in American history, but certainly any crisis in our lifetimes. And we look at a president who is so clearly in over his head and out of his depth, who has been dishonest, who's been imprecise, who's been inaccurate, and who's deadly indecision will be paid for with the lives of tens of thousands of Americans as this virus escalated to a place where it never need have gone. And that is all because of the wasted month of February where the president was hate-Tweeting, firing people that he was angry with over impeachment, going on campaign rallies and golfing, and now the country is paying the price for that. We should be careful to understand that when the same guy says, 'well, it'll be back in September, but we'll make it go away real quick', is the same guy when there were 15 cases in the country said soon it would be gone to zero and it would disappear like magic. The lack of credibility in these evening news events, is epic and unlike anything we have ever seen. It's a Baghdad Bob show every night of the week. Day after day, the airing of the grievances, the airing of his anger issues, the attacks on the governors we see every night; all the qualities you never, ever want to see in a leader in a crisis where lives are at stake' (Schmidt 2020).

To reinforce Schmidt's caustically correct analysis, Trump tweets about his popularity while more than 100,000 are dead from his dereliction of duty.

Trump accuses his critics of being unhinged and corrupt, yet it is him who is clearly unhinged and blatantly corrupt. Again, with more than 100,000 dead from coronavirus, he claims that he will take down Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google because the 'radical left' are in control of those platforms. (The 'radical left' are clearly very tolerant as they must be providing the platform for his deranged tweets).

As the pandemic was taking hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe, and many thousands of lives in the US, Trump denied it was a problem. He suggested just getting a flu shot to treat coronavirus. Incredibly, he even suggested that perhaps people could ingest bleach and irradiate their bodies with UV light, because bleach and sunlight kill viruses (BBC 2020). Following this particularly doltish comment, the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration issued a warning to people not to ingest disinfectant (Christensen 2020). Not surprisingly, there was a spike in people ingesting disinfectant because of Trump's statement (Sanders & Sommerfeldt 2020).

Drink bleach he says ... more like drink the kool-aid ... and his followers are gullible enough to do it.

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree, as the old adage goes, and nowhere is it more evident than the oafish Trump family. If you thought Donald Trump had an intellect deficiency, then I give you his son ... Eric. Eric Trump believes that coronavirus is a hoax perpetuated by the Democratic Party and it will all go away after the US election on 3 November 2020 (Hawkins 2020). One really has to wonder about the level of stupid in the feral first family. As Forest Gump said, 'Stupid is as stupid does' ... And Trump does a lot of stupid!

Trump has normalised ignorance, manifested by a contempt for education and science. He has ushered in a new Dark Ages, in which the religious right-wing are no better than the superstitious tribes of centuries past. It is ironic that we live in an age with instantaneous access to more information than any society before us and yet ignorance is fashionable, even patriotic. These 'patriotic' followers are whipped into a frenzy through mindless groupthink based around nationalism and religion. It demonises those who are 'different'. It glorifies stupidity over science. It places the bible as the highest law in the land, yet many of Trump's Christian followers completely ignore the very words of the bible ... those things about treating others as you would like to be treated (they call that 'Political Correctness gone mad'), the bible says to share wealth by taking from those who have much and giving to those as they have need (they call this the 'socialist agenda'), the bible says to care for the refugee (they demonise the refugees as terrorists, criminals, rapists, and screech for their imprisonment, torture and banishment).

These same Christians will bang on about how the Book of Revelation warns that the anti-Christ will deceive God's chosen ... and bam! Right in front of our eyes we see them being deceived by a selfish, narcissistic, hate-monger that preys on the vulnerable and boasts incessantly of his own vainglory; clearly anti-christian in his behaviour but supported by Christians the world over. They're not the chosen, they're the deceived.

Just to show how demented some of his followers are, televangelist Pat Robertson claims that COVID-19 is sent by God to punish the world for marriage equality (Quinlan 2020). Yep. The same God who so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son to die in our place for our transgressions, is so filthy about people in love getting married that he has unleashed a pestilence to kill hundreds of thousands of people. Wow!

Forget the faux Christianity of Robertson, let's go to a real Christian. German theologian and anti-fascist, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, penned a letter entitled, 'After ten years'. In it he gives a blunt assessment of groupthink and stupidity that is as appropriate for Nazi Germany, as it is for Trump's America. It isn't just the level of stupid in Trump or his family, or his administration, but also in those who treat Trump as though he is their saviour. How stupid does a person have to be to follow a cretin like Trump! Bonhoeffer's words are incredibly poignant in this post-intellectual world where ignorance and idiocy are glorified:

'Stupidity is a more dangerous enemy of the good than malice. 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 in that it leaves behind at least a sense of unease in human beings. Against stupidity we are defenseless. Neither protests nor the use of force accomplish anything here; reason falls on deaf ears; facts that contradict one's prejudgement 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. For that reason, greater caution is called for when dealing with a stupid person than with a malicious one. Never again will we try to persuade the stupid person with reasons, for it is senseless and dangerous'. (Barnett 2017, p. 22)

'Facts ... are pushed aside as inconsequential' ... remember, when Trump was caught out lying & his press secretary dismissed the facts and tried to spin the lies as 'alternative facts' ... the gullible swallowed this, hook, line and sinker. It was like Bonhoeffer was thinking of Trump when he wrote this: 'In all this the stupid person ... being easily irritated, becomes dangerous by going on the attack'. I can feel another Trump Twitter-storm coming!

Trump dismisses findings of scientists as 'not being balanced' ... think about that ... take all the time you need. Based on Trump's logic, if you're going to teach that the world is round, then you should also teach that it is flat. Whether it be COVID-19, climate change, clean energy, or vaccinations, Trump's anti-intellectual followers have the gall to tell people to do their own research. Of course, research is good ... if it is grounded in actual scientific findings, but their idea of research is to find another anti-intellectual with a dodgy Youtube channel and a moronic conspiracy theory. So let me put it this another way ... all the research conducted by scientific bodies such as the CDC, World Health Organization, NASA, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, can be disproven with a simple Google search conducted by an intrepid half-wit who has been guzzling Trump's kool-aid? I think I'll stick to the quantified, peer-reviewed scientific research, thanks very much. Trump's anti-intellectual idiocy has now extended to him withdrawing funding from the World Health Organization that would have been used to help develop a vaccine against COVID-19 (Woodward 2020). This in itself, is clear evidence of Trump's disdain for science and disregard for human life. His policies are genocidal, but at least his ego gets stroked by showing 'he's the boss'.

How many more lives will this feckless cretin kill because of his incompetence, arrogance, ignorance & corruption. The Trump name will forever be synonymous with moronic behaviour, ineptitude & snout-in-the-trough corruption. Trump didn't drain the swamp, he is the swamp. He rules through nepotism and corruption, firing those who disagree with him and promoting his incompetent family into positions previously reserved people who actually knew what they were doing (Abramson 2018). In the middle of the crisis, rather than showing empathy for the victims of COVID-19, he takes time out to unleash on people who tried to impeach him, even stating, 'The top of the FBI was scum ... human scum' (Connolly 2020). How truly fucked in the head do you have to be to act like this in the worst crisis the world has seen in generations.

Rather than address the horrendous death toll, Trump incites his followers to civil disobedience. While other countries are locking down and socially distancing to prevent the spread of the disease, Trump's followers have marched in large groups to protest the lockdown, putting themselves and others at risk. In a time when we are being warned of the importance of social distance ... to not Covid our neighbour ... these mental giants are getting up close and personal, Covidding their neighbours, putting everyone at risk.

Trump even praised these protesters, describing them as 'good people', when they abused a reporter, accusing him of being an 'enemy of the people' (Lim 2020). This should be a concern to anyone who believes in democracy and free speech. Trump has constantly accused the media of being fake news if they dare to criticise him or his supporters. Trump's presidency has been likened to Hitler's Germany in the early 1930s, when Germans were turned against each other through 'us versus them' hate-speech. By turning Americans against each, Trump isn't a patriot, he is a traitor.  Presidential historian, Jon Meacham, describes Trump as the 'most dangerously ignorant president in history' (Colarossi 2020).

Trump is a wealthy man with the temperament of a five year old child. This is evidenced in his many tweets, where he will often claim to be the 'best in the world, EVER'! He is sexist, racist and bigoted, boasts of sexually assaulting women, demonises refugees, disparages people from other cultures, dog-whistles to white supremacists, is a pathological liar, a bully and a narcissist with an exceptionally fragile ego who can't handle criticism and is always tearing other people down to cover up for his insecurities and incompetence. He is driven by greed rather than a desire to help others, he always has a scapegoat for his shortfalls, he blames others for his misfortunes and mistakes, he hides behind the bible or the flag to justify his bigotry and ignorance, he deals in absolutism and can't grasp nuance or relativism.

So, what sort of people support a person like this?

People just like him.

These people will continue drinking the Trump kool-aid, blaming everybody else for tens of thousands of American deaths ... while Trump treats them like the fools they are, and tragically Americans continue to die because of his benightedness, empowered by the gullible sheep who follow him.

References

Abramson, J 2018, 'Nepotism and corruption: the handmaidens of Trump's presidency', The Guardian, 7 March, viewed 17 May 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/06/nepotism-corruption-handmaiden-trump-presidency.

Barnett, VJ 2017, After Ten Years: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and our times, Fortress Press, Minneapolis MN.

BBC 2020, 'Coronavirus: Outcry after Trump suggests injecting disinfectant as treatment', BBC News, 24 April, viewed 15 May 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-52407177.

Burleigh, N 2018, 'Trump speaks at fourth-grade level, lowest of last 15 U.S. presidents, new analysis finds', Newsweek, 8 January, viewed 17 May 2020, https://www.newsweek.com/trump-fire-and-fury-smart-genius-obama-774169.

Christensen, J 2020, 'Don't eat or inject yourself with disinfectant, warns FDA commissioner', CNN, 23 April, viewed 23 April 2020, https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-pandemic-04-23-20-intl/h_1d2d1c2779b624b151a1f72557aabe0d.

Colarossi, S 2020, 'Presidential historian calls Donald Trump the most dangerously ignorant president in history', Politic USA, 18 April, viewed 19 April 2020, https://www.politicususa.com/2020/04/18/presidential-historian-calls-donald-trump-the-most-dangerously-ignorant-president-in-history.html.

Connolly, G 2020, 'Trump brands FBI top brass ‘human scum’, calls CNN reporter ‘brainless’, and says he’s ‘not a fan’ of Mitt Romney in freewheeling press conference', Yahoo News, 20 April, viewed 21 April 2020, https://news.yahoo.com/trump-brands-fbi-top-brass-104641147.html.

Da Silva, C 2020, 'Trump should be tried for 'crimes against humanity' over hydroxychloroquine remarks, says Ohio state rep.', Newsweek, 6 April, viewed 7 April 2020,
https://www.newsweek.com/trump-crimes-against-humanity-hydroxychloroquine-fauci-coronavirus-tavia-galonski-1496280.

Deprang, E 2013, ''Baghdad Bob' and His Ridiculous, True Predictions', The Atlantic, 21 March, viewed 26 April 2020, https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/03/baghdad-bob-and-his-ridiculous-true-predictions/274241/.

Haltiwanger, J 2020, 'Trump is refusing to unveil Obama's portrait at the White House, breaking a 40-year tradition', 20 May, viewed 20 May 2020, https://www.businessinsider.com.au/trump-refusing-to-unveil-obama-portrait-at-the-white-house-2020-5.

Hawkins, D 2020, 'Eric Trump claims coronavirus is Democratic hoax, will ‘magically’ vanish after 2020 election', The Washington Post, 18 May, viewed 18 May 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/05/17/eric-trump-coronavirus/.

Lim, C 2020, 'Trump praised anti-lockdown protesters after they berated and harassed a local reporter', BuzzFeed News, 16 May 2020, viewed 18 May 2020, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/clarissajanlim/reporter-kevin-vesey-harassed-coronavirus-protest.

Miller, G & Nakashima, E 2020, 'President’s intelligence briefing book repeatedly cited virus threat', The Washington Post, 28 April, viewed 28 April 2020, https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/presidents-intelligence-briefing-book-repeatedly-cited-virus-threat/2020/04/27/ca66949a-8885-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html

Pilkington, E & McCarthy, T 2020, 'The missing six weeks: how Trump failed the biggest test of his life', The Guardian, 28 March, viewed 15 May 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/mar/28/trump-coronavirus-politics-us-health-disaster.

Quinlan, C 2020, 'Deplorable and bigoted: Televangelist Pat Robertson, COVID-19 is punishment for marriage equality', Buzzflash, 21 April, viewed 22 April 2020, https://buzzflash.com/articles/televangelist-pat-robertson-covid-19-is-punishment-for-marriage-equality.

Sanders, A & Sommerfeldt, C 2020, 'A spike in New Yorkers ingesting household cleaners following Trump’s controversial coronavirus comments', NY Daily News, 24 April, viewed 26 April 2020, https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-new-yorkers-household-cleaners-trump-20200425-rnaqio5dyfeaxmthxx2vktqa5m-story.html.

Schmidt, S 2020, '"Baghdad Don: Trump blasted for most inept response to 'any crisis in history'', MSNBC, aired 16 April, viewed 22 April 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_e7QPuNaZo.

Starks, J 2020, 'Trump mocks George W. Bush's call to push aside partisanship', AOL, 3 May, viewed 18 May 2020, https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/05/03/trump-mocks-george-w-bushs-call-to-push-aside-partisanship/24187828.

Wilson, C 2020, 'McConnell puts blame for 2020 coronavirus failure on Barack Obama, in office 2009-2017', Yahoo News, 13 May, viewed 15 May 2020, https://news.yahoo.com/coronavirus-trump-mcconnell-blame-obama-pandemic-140217286.html.

Woodward, A 2020, 'Coronavirus: US will not participate in WHO vaccine project after Trump turned against it', The Independent, 24 April, viewed 24 April 2020, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/coronavirus-vaccine-who-project-trump-us-covid-19-a9483421.html.

Updated 31 May 2020

Abortion caution - patriarchy, pro-birthers and poverty

Abortion caution - patriarchy, pro-birthers and poverty

There are two issues that are guaranteed to mobilise the moralistic masses out of their social justice torpor: homosexuality and abortion. Recently, Australia saw these self-appointed guardians of morality taking time out from their bible studies and prayer groups where social justice is a dirty word, so they could attack marriage equality and bully LGBTIQ+ people while attacking anti-bullying programs such as Safe Schools. It's a pity these guardians of morality don't get as upset about the human rights abuses meted out by the Australian government as they do about people having the choice to marry whom they chose.

But abortion. The other moralistic meat. It is fodder to the self-righteousness of the pro-lifers ... or, more accurately, anti-abortionists ... because their idea of pro-life ends with birth as you will soon see. These anti-abortionists clapped and cheered and waved their flags when President Donald Trump stated he was going to cease funding health care providers around the world, if they gave advice about or provided abortions, even though evidence indicates an increase in backyard abortions when these programs are de-funded⁽¹⁾ and abortion is outlawed⁽²⁾.

Many of the anti-abortion brigade are Christians who will quote the bible as evidence of why abortion is bad. These are mainly scriptures about being formed in the womb, such as Psalm 139:13, 'For you created my in most being, you knit me together in my mother's womb', and Psalm 22:10, 'From birth I was cast on you; from my mother's womb you have been my God'. This scriptures are used by some Christians to argue that human life starts at conception, however, none of them address abortion - either in prohibiting it or in addressing the causes of abortion.

Anti-abortion Christians, often miss some critical scriptures; some to do with the horrid treatment of babies in the bible and some to do with reducing unwanted pregnancies and abortion. Firstly, the bible has some terrible examples of the treatment of children and babies. For instance, 1 Samuel 15:3 is one of many scriptures that advocates killing every man, woman and child.

Psalm 137:9 really sets the scene by declaring, 'happy is the one who seizes your infants and dashes them against rocks'. I can't remember Dr James Dobson ever recommending this as an effective child-rearing technique, so hopefully no-one takes this scripture literally. As an interesting aside, that verse is in the same psalm that gave us the awesome Boney M song from the 1970s, Rivers of Babylon ... but I digress.

Numbers 5:11-31 prescribes abortion for unfaithful wives, or for wives whose husbands are jealous and merely suspect the wife of infidelity (even if the wife has committed no wrongdoing).⁽³⁾ Verses 30 & 31 state 'when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the Lord, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt'. Note, these verses are printed in full at the bottom of this article. SO according to this scripture, if a man is jealous it is all the woman's fault (regardless of whether he has cause or not) and he can force her to have an abortion just because he is jealous - or at least drink poison that will mess up her ability to have kids if she isn't pregnant. She drinks the poison and if she cheated and is pregnant, she will have an abortion. What if she is pregnant to her husband and hasn't cheated? Are we to expect the magic potion can tell the difference? The abortion will happen anyway. The victims here are the wife and the fetus. The man gets away scot free for being unable to keep a lid on his jealousy. Sticking with songs of the 1970s, it's fortunate that John Lennon wasn't an advocate of this scripture ... he even wrote a song about being a Jealous Guy. Poor old Yoko could have found herself in a world of pain.

Numbers 5:11-31 applies to the woman's alleged infidelity. But what of the man's infidelity? This isn't a one off. Centuries later, Jesus rescues a woman who was about to be stoned for adultery. As it takes at least two to tango, where was the man with whom the woman allegedly committed this indiscretion? The society of the day was particularly paternalistic and gave women fewer rights than men. Perhaps referencing the values of such a patriarchal society is not the best thing when discussing a woman's choice to decide whether or not to have an abortion.

And then there's Hosea 13:16 which takes abortion, raises it to murder and then knocks it completely out of the park with 'Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, And their women with child ripped open'. This was a result of the hapless Samaria disobeying God. This disobedience thing comes at a high cost. Hosea 9:16, 'were they to bear children, I would kill the darlings of their womb'. Hmm ... forced abortion ... abortion is murder according to the anti-abortionists.

If one wishes to be anti-abortion, then clearly the bible is not the hallmark to use for defending the fetus.

Given the extremely patriarchal society described in the bible, it should not be used to justify legislation that affects a woman's right to chose what happens to her body. Women should have the right to chose whether or not they get an abortion. Not the church, not the self-appointed guardians of morality who will picket an abortion clinic while thanking God for a conservative government with the fortitude to torture and abuse asylum seekers fleeing persecution and war.

It is understandable that some people find abortion abhorrent and wish to stop it, after all, the fetus represents the potential for a life. But with backyard abortion rates increasing when abortion is banned, the so-called pro-life lobby needs to re-calibrate their position and look to the drivers of abortion if they truly want to stop it.

One of the main drivers of abortion is poverty, which affects the ability for people to afford contraception, thus increasing unwanted pregnancies, as well as the difficulty in meeting the cost of raising children; all of which contribute to an increased rate of abortion for poorer people⁽⁴⁾. It's interesting that many of the pro-life brigade are also opposed to welfare, increasing the minimum wage and penalty rates, Obamacare (or universal healthcare) and cheered on Trump's cuts to funding of programs across the globe that provided contraception and advice on safe abortions: all things that reduce the incidence of unwanted pregnancy, abortion and backyard abortions, thus resulting in fewer terminations and saving the lives of countless women. In fact, most of the pro-lifers aren't interested in the child once it's born. Instead of calling themselves 'pro-life', they should call themselves 'pro-birth', because that is where their concern ends.

Anti-abortionists are more concerned with arguing when life begins than in protecting life once it's born.

Anti-abortionists focus on banning abortion even though the evidence shows this is ineffective. Banning it is quick and easy, but drives it underground and makes the anti-abortionists feel like they are doing something. As long as they can't see it, anti-abortionists are happy. Out of sight, out of mind. So they're not really anti-abortion, they are anti-legal-abortion. If they really wanted to do something they would address the causes of abortion, not sweep it under the carpet. Addressing the causes is more difficult than simply banning it.

It's interesting that so many 'pro-lifers' reference the bible to support their anti-abortion stance, but ignore the scriptures that would actually reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortions. No, not the scriptures about remaining celibate! You know the scriptures. They're the ones that tell us to care for the poor, the widow, the orphan. Yet the moment that the government puts forward programs to do just that, these uber-religious types start looking for a socialist to crucify ... something like they did with Jesus a couple of millenia ago.

It's ironic that the only scriptures of the bible that will help reduce poverty and homelessness, and therefore reduce unwanted pregnancies and abortion, are the scriptures most often ignored by anti-abortion Christians.

References

1. World Health Organization, Eran Bendavid, Patrick Avila, Grant Miller, United States aid policy and induced abortion in Sub-Sahara Africa, 27 September 2011, http://www.who.int/bulletin/volumes/89/12/11-091660/en/. Accessed 28 December 2017.

2. The American Prospect, Nathalie Baptiste, This is What Happens When Abortion is Outlawed, 17 June 2015, http://prospect.org/article/what-happens-when-abortion-outlawed. Accessed 28 December 2017.

3. Bergant, D. and Karris, R., (1992). The Collegeville Bible Commentary: Old and New Testament Set. Liturgical Press, p. 156.

4. Guttmacher Institute, Heather D. Boonstra, Abortion in the Lives of Women Struggling Financially: Why Insurance Coverage Matters, 14 July 2016, https://www.guttmacher.org/gpr/2016/07/abortion-lives-women-struggling-financially-why-insurance-coverage-matters. Accessed 28 December 2017.



Numbers 5:11-31 (New International Version)


11 Then the Lord said to Moses, 12 “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: ‘If a man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him 13 so that another man has sexual relations with her, and this is hidden from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she has not been caught in the act), 14 and if feelings of jealousy come over her husband and he suspects his wife and she is impure—or if he is jealous and suspects her even though she is not impure— 15 then he is to take his wife to the priest. He must also take an offering of a tenth of an ephah[c] of barley flour on her behalf. He must not pour olive oil on it or put incense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, a reminder-offering to draw attention to wrongdoing.

16 “‘The priest shall bring her and have her stand before the Lord. 17 Then he shall take some holy water in a clay jar and put some dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. 18 After the priest has had the woman stand before the Lord, he shall loosen her hair and place in her hands the reminder-offering, the grain offering for jealousy, while he himself holds the bitter water that brings a curse. 19 Then the priest shall put the woman under oath and say to her, “If no other man has had sexual relations with you and you have not gone astray and become impure while married to your husband, may this bitter water that brings a curse not harm you. 20 But if you have gone astray while married to your husband and you have made yourself impure by having sexual relations with a man other than your husband”— 21 here the priest is to put the woman under this curse—“may the Lord cause you to become a curse[d] among your people when he makes your womb miscarry and your abdomen swell. 22 May this water that brings a curse enter your body so that your abdomen swells or your womb miscarries.”

“‘Then the woman is to say, “Amen. So be it.”

23 “‘The priest is to write these curses on a scroll and then wash them off into the bitter water. 24 He shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and this water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering will enter her. 25 The priest is to take from her hands the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the Lord and bring it to the altar. 26 The priest is then to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial[e] offering and burn it on the altar; after that, he is to have the woman drink the water. 27 If she has made herself impure and been unfaithful to her husband, this will be the result: When she is made to drink the water that brings a curse and causes bitter suffering, it will enter her, her abdomen will swell and her womb will miscarry, and she will become a curse. 28 If, however, the woman has not made herself impure, but is clean, she will be cleared of guilt and will be able to have children.

29 “‘This, then, is the law of jealousy when a woman goes astray and makes herself impure while married to her husband, 30 or when feelings of jealousy come over a man because he suspects his wife. The priest is to have her stand before the Lord and is to apply this entire law to her. 31 The husband will be innocent of any wrongdoing, but the woman will bear the consequences of her sin.’”

Church of the Poisoned Mind

Church of the Poisoned Mind

In the 1980s, British pop group, Culture Club led by the inimitable Boy George, had a hit song called 'Church of the Poisoned Mind'. It included the lyric:

Love is hard to find
In the Church of the Poisoned Mind

While the song was more of a love song than a critique of modern religion, the lyrics can certainly be applied to modern Christianity. The religious right has hijacked Christianity from being an inclusive, loving religion to one that is exclusive, hateful, spiteful and driven by greed.

Much of the modern church is a church with a poisoned mind.

The religious right treat abortion and homosexuality as the worst things in the world, they regularly vote for politicians who's primary focus is on the support of big business at the cost of the poor. They vote for politicians who wage illegal wars based on false claims. They vote and campaign for politicians who wilfully imprison and demonise asylum seekers.

It is these policies that are the biggest threat to family values, to the poor, to the downtrodden, to the vulnerable, to the persecuted.

Considering that many conservative politicians claim to be Christian, their treatment of refugees, the poor, the needy, is anything but Christian. Take Australia's abuse and torture of children for example. The United Nations has found that Australia's treatment of asylum seekers breaches the international convention on torture⁽¹⁾. Yet, both the Liberal and Labor parties continue to support the brutal and inhumane treatment of asylum seekers.

Christ said, "suffer the little children". This doesn't mean to make the little children suffer.

While the religious right is distracted with abortion and same sex marriage, children are being tortured and murdered by the very political policies they support. Conversely, less conservative churches, such as the Uniting Church, are protesting against the government's inhumane treatment of asylum seekers.

Abortion is a biblical issue that is younger than the McDonald's Happy Meal ⁽²⁾. As has been pointed out by The Christian Left, abortion was designed by the founders of the religious right in the 1970s to 'coalesce a right wing political movement' ⁽³⁾. It was instilled purely for political manipulation and not from faith.

While abortion maybe unsavoury for many, the religious right's concern for the child ends at child-birth. They oppose welfare, they oppose rises to the minimum wage, they oppose refugee resettlement, they oppose foreign aid but they often support war in third world nations. Each of these factors contributes to the reasons women choose abortion, each of these factors contributes to child mortality and each of these reasons are not consistent with the teachings of the bible that the religious right so voraciously claims to support. The bible teaches sharing, caring, peace and love. These are the things that the religious right either actively campaigns against or at best, pays lip service to.

Opposition to homosexuality is the other key issue that underpins the religious right's narrative and drives their political choices. Given that the bible is not the best role model for marriage, it is strange that the religious right declares that they support the biblical view of marriage.

Let's unpack marriage according to the bible:

Take your pick: rape, incest, polygamy, infidelity, sexual slavery, arranged marriages.

Yeah ... let's go with marriage according to the bible.

Same sex marriage is not going to ruin society. It is no threat to anyone else's marriage. Critics will often argue that it will destroy family values.

What does destroy families is the wilful imprisonment of children. The wilful imprisonment of fathers, mothers, sons and daughters without charge. The wilful demonisation of innocent people based on lies often perpetrated and perpetuated by the religious right in their blind support of politicians who pander to racism, xenophobia, fear.

What destroys family values is hate-driven ideology and slander. Something that a number of Christians are doing without thought of scripture commanding them to love their neighbour. instead, they're happy to spread lies about Islam or twist the words of the Quran in order to justify their own hate and fear. We're seeing an increase in attacks on Muslims and mosques reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Martin Niemöller, a German Baptist minister at the time, firmly blamed the church for the rise of the Nazis, because it tolerated the persecution of communists, the sick, the Jews⁽⁴⁾.

The religious right defends to the death the selfish and unbiblical ideology of capitalism. They believe the bible teaches them they can accumulate wealth without limit and that redistribution of wealth is theft.

Capitalism succeeds through exploitation. It is a fallacy that the rich earned their wealth from their own hard work. Most of the rich got rich through the efforts of people who slaved their guts out for little return: some not even being paid minimum wage. Workers contribute to the wealth of the company. It isn't theft to expect that wealth to be shared at least with those who contributed to it, whether they're the cleaner, checkout operator or the CEO. It is obscene that the executives are paid thousands times more than what their employees are paid. Some CEOs earn thousands of dollars an hour, while their staff barely make minimum wage.

For Christians to support this is anathema to the precepts of the bible. James 5:1-5 condemns the hoarding of wealth and the robbing of the workers through withholding of wages. Interesting then, that the USA's right wing so voraciously opposes lifting the minimum wage to a standard that it can be lived upon:

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you! ² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. ⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. ⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

Much of the Western world is built on the rape of the third world. Corporations are continuing to source their labour from low-income nations to avoid paying higher wages. This doesn't benefit the third world. It only serves to drive a wedge between the rich and poor, it increases poverty and child mortality.

The religious right campaigns for smaller government. It sees taxation as theft. Yet who is going to build the roads and bridges, the schools, hospitals, electricity generators? The west has seen a major drive towards privatisation. This may reduce the tax burden, but privatisation comes at a cost. It is a fallacy to expect competition to drive down prices when consumers are prisoners to the greed of the capitalists who control that competition. Corporations introduce user-pays systems to cover their costs.

Of course, the reality is that even with privatisation, the government doesn't reduce the tax it takes, so consumers are hit double:

Taxation by government and taxation by corporation.

One of the religious right's recent mantras is that government is evil. Yet again, the bible clearly states that the government is the minister of God to do good. Romans 13:1-7 states: ' ... the authorities that exist are appointed by God ... For he is God's minister ... For because of this you also pay taxes, for they are God's ministers ... '

Dare to state that the Bible promotes Socialism and one will be lynched in some Christian circles. Yet the bible consistently tells us to share wealth.

The basic premise of Marxism is biblical. 'From each according to his ability, to each according to his need' is a summary of the bible which states, 'He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack' (Exodus 16:18).

Acts 4:32-35 which speaks of the basic elements of communism - communal ownership and redistribution of wealth:

³² Now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. .... ³⁴ Nor was there anyone among them who lacked; for all who were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold, ³⁵ and laid them at the apostles’ feet; and they distributed to each as anyone had need.

The bible is opposed to capitalism, to the accumulation of wealth while others suffer. Luke 12:33 - 'Sell your possessions, and give to the needy'.

The racism, bigotry and intolerance that permeates the ideology of the religious right is borne of fear. If the religious right read their bibles they'd realise there is an antidote to the fear that consumes them, as stated succinctly in 1 John 4:18:

Perfect love casts out all fear 

Sadly, many in the religious right would rather reference the teachings of arch-capitalist and atheist, Ayn Rand, then reference the teachings of the Christ they claim to follow.

If the religious right is genuine in the love of Christ, they would do well to free and care for refugees, to share wealth and care for the poor, to share love and stop attacking Islam, to promote peace and stop voting for politicians in the mould of George W. Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, who waged war based on lies and fear.

The religious right are happy to twist scripture to support their warped view of Christ, however it is all legalism. All they try to defend is anti-abortion (or pro-life as they misname it, as their concern ends at birth), anti-homosexuality, anti-Islam, anti-immigration. Their view of scripture is 'thou shalt not' rather than 'thou shalt'.

Right wing Christianity is all legality and no morality.

They care more for capitalism and greed than they do for people. They fail to care for the poor, for the refugee, for the least of these as the bible calls it in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats (Matthew 25:31-45): inasmuch as you did it to the least of these, you did it to Me.

The religious right should ditch its poisonous teachings and embrace the socialist teachings of the bible, the teachings of love, peace, caring and sharing.


References:

1. Human Rights Law Centre, 'UN finds Australia’s treatment of asylum seekers violates the Convention Against Torture', 9 March 2015, http://hrlc.org.au/un-finds-australias-treatment-of-asylum-seekers-violates-the-convention-against-torture. Accessed 14 February 2016.

2. Patheos, Fred Clark, 'The "biblical view" that's younger than the Happy Meal', 18 February 2012, http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/2012/02/18/the-biblical-view-thats-younger-than-the-happy-meal. Accessed 14 February 2016.

3. The Christian Left, 'Abortion', 2 February 2015, http://www.thechristianleftblog.org/blog-home/abortion. Accessed 14 February 2016.

4. 'Of Guilt and Hope, by Martin Niemöller', document and analysis by Harold Marcuse, http://www.history.ucsb.edu/faculty/marcuse/projects/niem/Niem1946GuiltHope13-16.htm. Accessed 14 February 2016. This page provides the following quotation from Martin Niemöller:

'When Pastor Niemöller was put in a concentration camp we wrote the year 1937; when the concentration camp was opened we wrote the year 1933, and the people who were put in the camps then were Communists. Who cared about them? We knew it, it was printed in the newspapers. Who raised their voice, maybe the Confessing Church? We thought: Communists, those opponents of religion, those enemies of Christians - "should I be my brother's keeper?" Then they got rid of the sick, the so-called incurables. - I remember a conversation I had with a person who claimed to be a Christian. He said: Perhaps it's right, these incurably sick people just cost the state money, they are just a burden to themselves and to others. Isn't it best for all concerned if they are taken out of the middle [of society]? -- Only then did the church as such take note. Then we started talking, until our voices were again silenced in public. Can we say, we aren't guilty/responsible? The persecution of the Jews, the way we treated the occupied countries, or the things in Greece, in Poland, in Czechoslovakia or in Holland, that were written in the newspapers. … I believe, we Confessing-Church-Christians have every reason to say: mea culpa, mea culpa! We can talk ourselves out of it with the excuse that it would have cost me my head if I had spoken out. … We preferred to keep silent. We are certainly not without guilt/fault, and I ask myself again and again, what would have happened, if in the year 1933 or 1934 - there must have been a possibility - 14,000 Protestant pastors and all Protestant communities in Germany had defended the truth until their deaths? If we had said back then, it is not right when Hermann Göring simply puts 100,000 Communists in the concentration camps, in order to let them die. I can imagine that perhaps 30,000 to 40,000 Protestant Christians would have had their heads cut off, but I can also imagine that we would have rescued 30-40,000 million [sic] people, because that is what it is costing us now'.