Source: Yahoo News

A Texas lawyer is trying to get the names of donors to nine abortion funds in the state, as well as information on every abortion the funds may have assisted with since September 2021, when the state’s bounty-hunter law took effect. He’s seeking the identities of thousands of people in Texas and across the country in a move that advocates say could threaten the operations of the non-profit groups, which are already struggling to raise enough money.

The effort isn’t likely to be successful because the First Amendment protects people’s right to associate, but the lawyer doesn’t need a judge to agree with him in order to cause harm for abortion seekers. Just the act of requesting the information could be enough to scare people out of donating to abortion funds, said Farah Diaz-Tello, senior counsel and legal director for If/When/How, an advocacy organization that helps abortion seekers with legal questions and runs a defense fund for criminal abortion cases.

Jezebel contacted Mitchell for comment about the requests to abortion funds, and he declined to speak on the record. The plaintiff abortion funds said in a press release that “Mitchell and his clients are abusing the discovery process…to subject thousands of people to mass surveillance and harassment.”

Diaz-Tello said that, overall, conservatives like Mitchell are engaging in a “campaign of terror” to manipulate laws against abortion seekers and their loved ones. Of the Mitchell-backed lawsuit where a man is suing his ex’s friends, she said that “it’s essentially abusing the legal system” to scare people out of helping each other: “This is sort of saying that if you do that, if you privately support your friend in a way that is so natural to any of us, that we’re going to expose you, your name is going to be out there, we’re going to come to your place of work and serve you with papers.” It’s threatening to put people through the “humiliating hallmarks of being dragged into the legal system,” to say nothing of the time, stress, and cost of being involved in a court case.

Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/anti-abortion-lawyer-wants-names-182600651.html#:~:text=Jezebel-,Anti%2DAbortion%20Lawyer%20Wants%20Names%20of%20People%20Who,to%209%20Texas%20Abortion%20Funds&text=A%20Texas%20lawyer%20is%20trying,bounty%2Dhunter%20law%20took%

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This is all going too far!

This lawyer must know that he has close to zero chance of obtaining such lists--- he is doing this hoping for publicity, only to intimidate potential donors and women who find themselves with an unwanted pregnancy, or who desperately need an abortion for health reasons...


We need to find a way to strike back at these people! Maybe I will create a list of my own--- including any of their publicly available contact information... This guy is a lawyer... I presume he has an office with a street address...

All these rightwingers are attacking the rights of women, LGT and others, and feel that they can do this without much risk.
That should change!

(I am not advocating violence against these people--- but I absolutely will advocate the exposure of more information about them...
in this instance, no MORE personal details than this lawyer is seeking to obtain....)

(Newsweek- Opinion)
by DOUG GORDON

For many Americans, there are four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. But for many Democrats, and particularly those who write columns and pundits who spend more time in cable news studios than talking to actual voters, there is a fifth season: bedwetting season.

Democratic bedwetting, a term first coined by President Barack Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe in 2008, describes Democrats' ability to irrationally overreact to political events and poll numbers to assume immediate electoral doom and gloom.

For many Democrats, it is a rite of passage. And it is a season that comes every election cycle. And while it is ahead of schedule this cycle, due to a series of polls and one columnist calling on Biden to step aside in 2024, we are now in the thick of Democratic bedwetting season.

The major factor driving Democratic angst at the moment is a series of polls showing President Biden either just slightly ahead or slightly behind Donald Trump, despite the fact that Trump is a walking crime scene and carries more political baggage than the cargo hold of a Boeing 747.

Read more:
https://www.newsweek.com/stop-bedwetting-democrats-biden-right-guy-he-can-win-opinion-1829292



This was a good read, and outlined our many advantages heading into 2024, with President Joe Biden...

https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180709/Wearing-neck-ties-can-reduce-brain-function.aspx

Latest research has shown that wearing a neck tie isn’t such a good idea after all! Researchers have noted that constricting neckwear such as neckties can cause reduced blood flow to the brain and thus it can reduce the proper functioning of the brain.

The latest study results appear in the journal Neuroradiology. These type of clothing, write the researchers at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein in Germany, end up squeezing and constricting the arteries and veins of the neck. This causes reduced blood flow to the brain.

The team of scientists included 30 healthy male participants (average age around 24 years) in their study and scanned their brains. Half of the men were asked to wear open collared comfortable shirts while the other half was asked to wear Windsor-knotted ties which were tightened to cause slight discomfort. The group wearing neckties were scanned three times – once when they were wearing the neck tie loosely around their necks with an open collar, second time when they were wearing the ties tight to a slight discomfort with buttoned collar and third time when the ties and the collars are loosened again. The other group underwent three MRI scans but without a tie and an open collar.

Results of the brain scans or MRIs showed that those who wore the ties had a 7.5 percent less blood flow to their brains. Once the ties were loosened in these individuals, the third MRI showed that a 5.7 percent deficit in blood supply remained. Five of the 15 participants wearing the ties had a greater than 10 percent decrease in cerebral blood flow. Lack of adequate blood supply to vital areas of the brain can cause damage to the areas of the brain and also reduce the functional capacity of the brain as has been seen from earlier studies.


SOOOOOOOOO--

The Congressional dress codes which require ties for men may have actually been causing brain damage to the male members of Congress!

This explains a hell of a lot, doesn't it?!

Also demonstrates why any dress code requiring ties is a STUPID idea...

(Some of their IQs seem to have been low enough already, without causing further brain damage..)

Ron DeSantis is in freefall in New Hampshire.

The Florida GOP governor, who once polled ahead of former President Donald Trump in the first primary state, has now fallen solidly back into the pack, competing in a crowded race with biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for second place in a new survey.

Support for DeSantis cratered to 10 percent in the CNN/University of New Hampshire poll released Wednesday, his worst showing in a public poll of Granite Staters yet, according to the list compiled by polling aggregator Real Clear Politics. He’s down 32 points from the January UNH survey in which he led Trump 42 percent to 30 percent. He now sits 29 points behind the former president.

“The campaign for Ron DeSantis is on life support,” veteran New Hampshire GOP strategist Mike Dennehy said in response to the poll. “He has one shot at resuscitation and that is the debate next week.”

DeSantis finished fifth in the survey, behind Ramaswamy at 13 percent, Haley at 12 percent and Christie at 11 percent. But because of the poll’s margin of error, the candidates are statistically in a four-way tie for second.

Read more:
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/09/20/desantis-on-life-support-in-n-h-plummets-in-new-poll-00117273



Please pardon me if this is considered a "right-wing source", but it is only about a poll, so I will 'take a pass' here...


Regarding DeSantis---- perhaps he needs to wipe snot on more voters?
Or eat pudding with more fingers ???

LMAO

even if he were to manage to score big in the more 'evangelical' state of Iowa,
his New Hampshire results are likely to shut him down...

https://www.advocate.com/politicians/lauren-boebert-date-drag-shows


U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, a far-right Republican known for her homophobic and transphobic rhetoric, is dating a man who co-owns a bar that has hosted LGBTQ+ events.

Boebert and her date, Aspen, Colo., bar proprietor Quinn Gallagher, were forced to leave the Buell Theater in Denver during a performance of the musical Beetlejuice Sunday night because they were disturbing other audience members.

::::snip

The fact that they are dating is “very surprising,” someone described as “a well-placed source” told the Mail. “I always thought Quinn was a cool guy and a Democrat. His parents would be horrified because they are definitely blue,” the source said.

Social media posts show Hooch has hosted LGBTQ+ events, such as a women’s party for Aspen Gay Ski Week and a drag performance called “A Winter Wonderland Burlesque & Drag Show.”

:::snip

https://www.advocate.com/politicians/lauren-boebert-date-drag-shows


JP:
This ought to go over well with her base...

In the midst of all this anti-drag talk and legislation, I finally remembered!!

It was the early 1970s...
There was a Halloween party coming up across the street. I don't remember whose idea it was,
but I liked the idea! I dressed up as a full-blown femme fatale!

I had a bra and big boobs! A wig, a dress and a string of pearls which I swung around!

I regret that no one apparently took a photograph of me that has survived.
My older sister helped me out with the makeup and costume.

Being only a ten-year-old boy, I was damned pretty in drag, if I do say so myself!

I think I may have even flirted with the boys....

(is that "sexualizing"?? I'm not sure, but maybe today the reich-wing would want to bring charges!)

((should my parents have been ARRESTED, for ALLOWING THIS???!!!))



It was all great fun, and nobody got hurt...

and I grew up to be a very straight male,
who on one occasion very much enjoyed dressing up in women's clothing and makeup....


EVERYBODY should try it ONCE, no matter HOW old they are!!!!!

(ESPECIALLY the people who are SO HUNG UP on it!!!!
They are way too up-tight..)


((Much later on, when we were adults, my best friend did it for Halloween kareoke!
He wore a purple dress, and sang "Like A Virgin"... LMAO))

just got it back a couple hours ago--- lost due to the "historic damage" in the Michigan storms last Thursday night...


It sucked anyways. I hope my freezer food is still edible--- a 20-pound bag of ice kept it all at "refrigerator temps" at least..... and has lasted longer than I expected...


I own 2 deep-discharge batteries which, powering a power inverter, allowed me to have a couple hours of TV at night, and one low-watt lightbulb, and a fan for a little while--- but they had not been used for a long time, other than to recharge them about twice a year, they had not been used for about 5 years... (otherwise, I would have gone completely goddam crazy..)
They may be wrecked now, but maybe they need a little distilled water--- but they are far beyond their expiration date if i had been actually using them all this time... (2016, but they were not used very much, only maintained)


Wish I had bought one of those Generac natural-gas generators, when I had the money to do it---
(but how many times do these emergencies actually happen RIGHT HERE where you are? LOL
twice in the last 20 years, but only once did it affect me)


Anyway, glad the lights are back on-- one day early against the previous predictions...

I will give more thought to possible future misfortunes....

Recently the Brevard County Florida Republican Executive Committee voted to declare the Covid vaccine (all of them) biological weapons and urge they be banned from the state. The resolution declares “Covid-19 injections are biological and technological weapons” and that “enormous number of humans have died or been permanently disabled.”

As stunning as that may sound, it’s just part of a growing wave. Over half a dozen Florida county GOP officials has passed similar resolutions.

Not content to interfere in the personal decision to have an abortion, the proposed resolution demands that it be illegal to give or receive Covid vaccinations in the entire state of Florida. This means that the 67% of Brevard residents, and 93% of Brevard seniors, who have already received Covid vaccinations did something that would be regarded as a criminal act after this law is implemented. Thank the Constitution for the prohibition on enforcing ex post facto laws. Florida already bans requiring anyone to get the vaccine. Now they seek to criminalize a decision to get one.

The resolution also demands that all existing doses in the state be seized by the Florida Attorney General for testing “on behalf of the preservation of the human race.”

Read more:
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/17/2181805/-Florida-Republicans-Declare-Covid-Vaccine-A-Bioweapon-Seek-To-Ban-It



So Florida Republicans are stark raving, mouth-foaming INSANE! Gotta love that "Florida FreeDum"!

What's next? prohibiting vaccinations for measles, polio or smallpox ?


I am now less puzzled by DeathSantis' large re-election margin---
Florida Republicans LOVE him, and a lot of Democrats failed to vote, because of hurricane damage and general demoralization....

but glad to see his '24 presidential hopes falling apart!

but I did not play it as well as Van Cliburn, who was my piano hero
( i did see him perform once at Interlochen, Michigan-- the famous music camp
which I attended for several weeks in my youth...)


Fantasie-Impromtu by Frederic Chopin, my favorite artist when I began to mature
(before that I am enamored with Mozart...)

performed by Van Cliburn

In recent days, I was myself also puzzled and troubled by
"mainstream media reports"
that he had recently "appeared in Nazi regalia"....


Well, it seems that this allegation was totally false....

In the film 'Pink Floyd's "The Wall" ', at one point, Waters portrayed himself as a fascist leader,
in a completely fictional scene..... the uniform he wore bore the "crossed hammers",
NOT the swastica....and these scenes have been used by right-wing media to falsely attack him

(picked up by the mainstream media, who do not bother to do any research!)

I was a great fan of this film, back in the early 1980s...

It was an INCREDIBILY ANTI-FASCIST and ANTI-WAR movie!!!!

Now I have seen many attacks on him on this very site,
based on what seems to be very false information,
or regurgitated information from those who are too young to have any understanding,
or older people who had no understanding of 'Pink Floyd'....

(I recall one outburst from my own mother,
who presumed that it was a 'gay band')...

YES, in Pink Floyd's "The Wall" a future fascist leader was portrayed,
but it was not a positive portrayal---


this scene is entirely fictional, for the sake of the movie, and there are NO Nazi "regalia" here---
only an imitation of it--- which has been used by the far-right wing in this country, to SMEAR him,
as some kind of supporter of fascism!

That such tropes have been repeated on this site, is not very good....


In any case, Roger Waters DID NOT EVEN APPEAR in "The Wall" movie---
his role (if any) was portrayed by the lead singer of the 80s 'Boomtown Rats' !!!
so the accusations are entirely false, on their face...


Here is what Roger Waters has to say about all this,
with some news links at the end:


"The elements of my performance that have been questioned are quite clearly a statement in opposition to fascism, injustice, and bigotry in all its forms. Attempts to portray those elements as something else are disingenuous and politically motivated. The depiction of an unhinged fascist demagogue has been a feature of my shows since Pink Floyd’s “The Wall” in 1980."

"I have spent my entire life speaking out against authoritarianism and oppression wherever I see it. When I was a child after the war, the name of Anne Frank was often spoken in our house, she became a permanent reminder of what happens when fascism is left unchecked. My parents fought the Nazis in World War II, with my father paying the ultimate price."



https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/roger-waters-investigation-nazi-uniform-berlin-police-1235341587/

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsuO7H-t9p5/?ig_rid=a6dfd7e4-1523-4f8c-a747-a4385dd5a312

https://www.instagram.com/p/CsuO7H-t9p5/?ig_rid=a6dfd7e4-1523-4f8c-a747-a4385dd5a312


And if you have never seen 'The Wall' by Pink Floyd,
it is about goddamn time that you do!!

(I am sure that you can see it now on YouTube, in its entirety--
but you may have to see it 2 or 3 times before you entirely 'get it'--
because it is very out-of-order.... lol)

(( and smoke one if you are holding one!!! do it for me, I no longer partake! lol))