‘There's no shame in changing your mind’: How this OB/GYN went from anti-abortion to protesting the overturn of Roe v. Wade

Tayler Adigun
·Writer
Tue, August 16, 2022 

Dr. Jennifer Lincoln shared a viral TikTok following the overturn of Roe v. Wade, revealing that she used to be anti-abortion. (Photo: Dr. Lincoln/TikTok)

When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, many rushed to social media to declare their protest over the decision — which took away the constitutional right to abortion — and the devastating effects it would have on the future of reproductive healthcare in America.

But Dr. Jennifer Lincoln, a Portland based obstetrician/gynecologist with over 2 million followers on TikTok, took a trip down memory lane to her anti-abortion past as a way to encourage the progression of beliefs at a time when, she says, it is needed most.

"I used to be anti-abortion — until I learned the whole story," was the caption of the video in which she contrasted her life at 15, when she was writing essays against abortion and believing it to be wholly immoral, to now, and being a vocal pro-choice ally.

OB/GYNs are a foundational rung on the ladder of reproductive infrastructure, ensuring that those seeking abortions, for any reason, can do so safely.

The TikTok, which has received more than 29,500 likes, was her example of a common societal conundrum: challenging lifelong beliefs once presented with new information, especially in the case of religious indoctrination.

"I grew up in Catholic schools and being taught that sex before marriage was wrong, abortion was wrong, that it was a sin, and I sort of just internalized all that without question, because there was no other perspective given," Lincoln tells Yahoo Life.

She grew up in Long Island, New York, and quickly adopted the beliefs presented to her as irrefutable truths, something she took with her to college — where an era of slow-burn metacognition would change how she viewed life, and abortions, forever.

"There were condoms in the bathroom and I remember thinking 'that's so ridiculous, I'm never going to need those. I'm never going to have sex and nobody should have sex,'" she says, admitting it took some time for the unlearning process to begin

Like many who identify as "pro-life," Lincoln grew up thinking abstinence was the best way to prevent unwanted pregnancies, but slowly began to change her tune once those around her — and Lincoln herself — began having sex.

"When I saw that there were other sides to the story that I just hadn't been given, I was not given the information I needed to make really good, informed, safe choices, I started to think maybe things weren't as they had been … taught to me," she says.

She graduated college in 2003 and went on to medical school, where she entered a deeper, anatomical level of understanding that allowed her to see just how necessary safe abortion access is.

"Seeing really what happens to people who are pregnant, have issues, are not prepared, or having mistimed or unplanned pregnancies, and just how medically harmful and dangerous pregnancy can be. But also emotionally and psychologically, if it's not something that we were prepared for, really opened my eyes," she says.

Lincoln's previous beliefs about the immoralities of premarital sex are not exclusive to her upbringing.

According to Planned Parenthood, 37 states have laws demanding abstinence inclusion in the sex education curriculum, but only 18 states require information about birth control.

Sex stigmatization is deeply enmeshed in anti-abortion culture, says Lincoln. But she doesn't think an ethics deep dive is necessary to get people to understand why their religious inflictions have no place in a courtroom.

"It's absolutely fine if you yourself don't agree with abortion. I'm not here to convince anybody that they should — [only] that their opinions are for themselves, and they shouldn't project those onto other people," she says, despite the fact that she was taught to do just that while growing up. "I was taught when I was younger that, because of a religious belief, that this was true for everyone, and there were really no gray zones. And that's the farthest thing from the truth in life."

Arguing with others about their religious affiliations is not at the top of Lincoln's to-do list by any means, but she does stress the importance of encouraging conversations that support rational socio-political perspectives.

"The point is to make them aware that personal beliefs should not be the basis of legislation — especially personal beliefs that are rooted in religion, when we are a country that is allegedly not a theocracy, and allegedly values separation of church and state," she says.

"So whenever I'm talking to people who say, 'Well, I think that's horrible, and I would never have an abortion,' I always say, 'That's great that you know that about yourself, and I'm not here to change your mind. What I'm asking you to do is to understand that you don't have the right to make that choice for somebody else,'" she says.

ZIONIST CHILD MURDERS

Reports: Israel carried out Gaza strike that killed 5 minors


FARES AKRAM
Tue, August 16, 2022 

JEBALIYA, Gaza Strip (AP) — A Palestinian human rights group and an Israeli newspaper reported Tuesday that an explosion in a cemetery that killed five Palestinian children during the latest flare-up in Gaza was caused by an Israeli airstrike and not an errant Palestinian rocket.

It was one of a number of blasts during the fighting that did not bear the tell-tale signs of an Israeli F-16 or drone strike, and which the Israeli military said might have been caused by rockets misfired by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

The five children, aged 4 to 16 years old, had gathered at their grandfather's grave in the local cemetery, one of the few open spaces in the crowded Jebaliya refugee camp, on Aug. 7, hours before an Egyptian-brokered cease-fire ended three days of heavy fighting.

Residents said a projectile fell from the air and exploded in the cemetery. When The Associated Press visited the following day, it saw none of the tell-tale signs of an airstrike by an Israeli F-16 or drone, adding to suspicions that the blast was caused by an errant rocket. Israel said at the time that it was investigating the incident.

On Tuesday, the Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said its investigation of shrapnel and other evidence led it to conclude that the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike.

“This was a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft,” said Raja Sourani, the director of the group, as he displayed pictures of what he said was a fragment showing the missile's serial number.

Israel's Haaretz newspaper meanwhile cited unnamed Israeli defense officials as saying the military's investigation had concluded that the five were killed by an Israeli strike.

Asked about the Haaretz story, the military said it was still examining the event. It said that throughout the the latest round of fighting, it had targeted militant infrastructure and “made every feasible effort to minimize, as much as possible, harm to civilians and civilian property.”

The latest fighting in Gaza began with a wave of Israeli airstrikes on Aug. 5 that killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander as well as several civilians. Israel said it was responding to an imminent threat days after the arrest of a senior Islamic Jihad leader in the occupied West Bank.

Over the next three days, Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes across the narrow, crowded coastal strip. Islamic Jihad fired some 1,100 rockets at Israel, around 200 of which fell short and landed inside Gaza, according to the Israeli military.

Hamas, a larger and more militarily advanced group that has ruled Gaza since 2007, sat out this round of fighting. apparently in order to maintain understandings with Israel that have led to an easing of a blockade imposed on the territory by Israel and Egypt after it seized power. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and several smaller skirmishes over the last 15 years.

A total of 49 Palestinians were killed in the latest fighting, including 17 children. Palestinian rights groups say at least 36 were killed in Israeli airstrikes, with investigations still underway into the deaths of 13 others. No Israelis were killed or seriously wounded.

The Israeli military said early estimates showed that at least 20 of those killed were militants, and that 14 people were killed by errant Islamic Jihad rocket fire. That count did not include the five killed in the Jebaliya cemetery.

The day before the blast at the cemetery, seven people were killed by an explosion on a busy street elsewhere in Jebaliya. The Israeli military blamed it on a rocket misfire by Islamic Jihad, saying the army had not carried out any strikes in the area at that time. The military later released video that appeared to show a militant rocket falling short.

Video footage of the aftermath of that blast showed what appeared to be a rocket casing sticking out of the ground. When the AP visited the site, the casing was gone and the hole had been filled in. Palestinians are usually keen to display evidence of Israeli airstrikes to international media.

Palestinians with direct knowledge of the suspicious incidents have been reluctant to speak on record. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry directed journalists not to report on rocket misfires in media guidelines that were rescinded after an outcry by foreign media outlets.

Many Palestinians view Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other militant groups as freedom fighters resisting decades of Israeli military rule, and believe that criticism of such groups undermines the struggle for independence. Israel and Western countries consider them terrorist organizations because they have carried out scores of deadly attacks on Israeli civilians.

The four Gaza wars have killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, the vast majority of whom died in Israeli strikes. More than half were civilians, according to the U.N. Over 100 people have died on the Israeli side, including civilians, soldiers and foreign residents.

From cow farts to blackouts: The GOP figures circulating wild theories about the new climate bill


Marjorie Taylor Greene
American far-right politician  from the state of Georgia


Ethan Freedman
Tue, August 16, 2022

The US House of Representatives passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on Friday, sending America’s most ambitious plan yet to address the climate crisis to President Biden’s desk to be signed.

While some environmental groups have criticized the bill’s fossil fuel provisions, it’s generally being seen as progress in cutting US domestic emissions. The new legislation will channel $369 billion into climate and clean energy investments and cut US emissions by around 40 per cent by 2030, according to several independent analyses.

The IRA passed Congress on strict party lines with all Democrats voting for it and no Republicans.

The bill has also led to some wild theories promulgating in GOP circles about climate solutions - and the climate crisis at large.

On Friday Donald Trump Jr, son of the former president, disparaged the new bill in a post on Truth Social.

“No, it’s not a joke. On page 529 of the Democrats Inflation Corruption Act, they state that they want to spend YOUR tax dollars to control cows’ farts. And they’re serious!” he wrote on the conservative social media platform founded by his father.

The current version of the bill does not have a page 529. However on page 199, the legislation lays out new funding for agricultural conservation projects, with priority given to trials on diet strategies that reduce methane emissions from livestock.

When cows and other farm animals burp or flatulate, they release methane — a powerful, planet-warming greenhouse gas.

All that methane can add up. More than a quarter of methane emissions in the US come directly from livestock, according to figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2017.

Around the world, cattle release about 100 million tonnes of methane every year, according to the United Nations Environment Programme, making cattle one of the largest single sources of emissions.

Methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide (CO2), warming the planet about 25 times as much as CO2, pound-for-pound over a 100-year period.

Meaning: all those emissions from cattle worldwide warm the planet as much as 314 million homes.

Don Jr wasn’t the only conservative with criticisms of climate solutions. Over the weekend, a video circulated of Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting that solar panels and wind turbines would cause appliances like washing machines to stop working.

“Lord, please God, don’t make me scrub clothes in a bucket and have to hang them out on the line when we switch over to wind turbines and solar panels,” the Republican House member said.

She also seemed to suggest that these technologies would prevent people from keeping the lights on at night.

“I like the lights on. I want to stay up later at night. I don’t want to have to go to bed when the sun sets,” Rep. Greene added.

While solar panels are less efficient at night and wind turbines don’t produce electricity when the wind isn’t blowing, electricity can be stored for later use.

Electricity can be held in battery storage systems and many homes have them attached to solar panels. The Inflation Reduction Act contains a tax break for homeowners who want to buy battery storage systems.

Many climate scientists and activists also acknowledge the limitations of solar and wind power generation and say we need a lot more storage solutions to compensate.

Electricity can also be stored in “pumped hydro” storage. A pumped hydro system has two reservoirs, one higher up and one down below. When you want to store energy, you use electricity to pump water from the lower reservoir into the higher reservoir.

Then, when you want to get that energy back, you release the water from the high reservoir back into the lower reservoir through a hydropower station – recreating the electricity you used to pump it up in the first place.

In 2020, Representative Greene’s home state of Georgia generated about 12 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources like hydro and solar, and 27 per cent of electricity from nuclear.

Wild theories on livestock methane and renewable energy aside, some GOP members continue to espouse that the climate crisis isn’t real.

As the IRA bill was debated on the House floor on Friday, Representative Bob Good, a Virginia Republican, had some choice words.

“There is no climate crisis,” Congressman Good said. “It is a hoax. This is the one crisis that even Democrats couldn’t create. They’ve been crying about the climate sky falling for 40 years now, predicting the world would end in 12 years. It is a lie.”

A recent paper found that 99.9 per cent of scientific studies agreed that the climate crisis is happening and is caused by humans.

As the planet heats up, Virginia will face a higher risk of extreme heat, severe storms and drought, according to the EPA.

This summer, the climate crisis has been linked to destructive flash floods in Kentucky, Missouri and Yellowstone National Park and explosive wildfires in more than a dozen states. Persistent and extreme heatwaves have descended across the US while western states remain in the grips of a 20-year “megadrought”.

Last year was the hottest year on record for the US, and eight of the top 10 hottest years on record have occurred since 1998, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Senate climate bill has West Virginia written all over it

By LEAH WILLINGHAM

August 12, 2022

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FILE - Coal miner Scott Tiller takes shelter from the rain after coming out of an underground mine at the end of a shift in Welch, W.Va., May 12, 2016. The sprawling economic package passed by the U.S. Senate this week has a certain West Virginia flavor. The bill could be read largely as an effort to help West Virginia look to the future without turning away entirely from its roots. 

(AP Photo/David Goldman, File)


CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — The sprawling economic package passed by the U.S. Senate this week has a certain West Virginia flavor.

The package, passed with no Republican votes, could be read largely as an effort to help West Virginia look to the future without turning away entirely from its roots.

The bill contains billions in incentives for clean energy — while also offering renewed support for traditional fuel sources such as coal and natural gas — as well as big boosts for national parks and health care for low-income people and coal miners with black lung disease. That’s no accident. Most provisions were included as the price the Democrats had to pay to win the all-important support of Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who says they will help folks back home.

John Palmer, a 67-year-old retired coal miner from Monongah, says it’s about time.

“We ain’t had too many people care about us,” Palmer said. “We’re always out there fighting for different things. Everybody’s got an agenda, and our agenda was for working-class people. That’s what everybody’s agenda should be, but it’s not.”

Manchin, a conservative Democrat who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was a key vote needed to pass the spending package in the 50-50 Senate and send it to the House, where lawmakers are expected to take it up Friday.

The bill invests nearly $375 billion to fight climate change, caps prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket for Medicare recipients and helps an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.

If those subsidies are not extended, West Virginia is among the states that will lose the most support for people paying for health insurance, according to the Urban Institute, meaning thousands of people could lose coverage.

Kelly Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, said the provision in the bill to cap insulin prices at $35 a dose for seniors will make a big impact in the state, which has the greatest number of people living with diabetes per capita in the country.

“There are people who ration insulin, or who have to make decisions between getting groceries and paying for a drug cost, or paying rent and paying for drug costs,” she said.

But Manchin, who has received more campaign contributions this election cycle from natural gas pipeline companies than any other lawmaker, won concessions on the climate front. The bill includes money to encourage alternative energy and to bolster fossil fuels with steps such as subsidies for technology that reduces carbon emissions. It also requires the government to open more federal land and waters to oil drilling.

In a statement, Manchin said he worked with colleagues to craft the “most effective way” to help West Virginia. He declined to be interviewed for this story.

Manchin also has proposed a separate list of legislation to speed up federal permitting and make energy projects harder to block under federal acts. As part of an agreement with Democratic leadership, he specifically asked that federal agencies “take all necessary actions” to streamline completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project long opposed by environmental activists.

The 303-mile (487-kilometer) pipeline, which is mostly finished, would transport natural gas drilled from the Appalachian Basin through West Virginia and Virginia. Legal battles have delayed completion by nearly four years and doubled the pipeline’s cost, now estimated at $6.6 billion.

Chelsea Barnes, legislative director for Appalachian Voices, an environmental organization that sued to stop the pipeline, said there’s a lot to be excited about in the legislation. But she deemed Manchin’s concessions to the fossil fuel industry “unacceptable.”

“We’d really love to just be celebrating,” Barnes said, “but we know that there’s so much in the bill that is also going to hurt communities.”

Barnes said the bill contains many provisions her organization has wanted for a long time, such as extending and increasing tax credits for clean energy projects, with bonus credits for low-income communities and for communities where a coal mine or power plant has closed.

That means there’s going to be a higher incentive for clean energy developers to set up shop in Appalachia. She said many people she’s worked with on clean energy projects are not excited to see coal jobs disappear but are excited to be part of “the energy economy of the future.”

“They like the idea of retaining that energy-producing heritage, and I think there’s a lot of pride in continuing that role in our society, in our culture,” she said.

Still, she’s concerned about support for carbon sequestration and storage projects in the bill, saying they haven’t been cost-effective compared with clean energy alternatives. She fears that might prolong the life of power plants.

She also said permitting reform in the bill amounts to “permitting destruction” that would damage the environmental review process and silence residents’ voices.

The bill also contains millions of dollars for tourism, long seen in West Virginia as a way to boost the state’s beleaguered economy. West Virginia is home to multiple national park sites, including the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve, which opened in 2020.

The National Park System would receive at least $1 billion in the package to hire new employees and carry out projects to conserve and protect wilderness areas.

The bill also permanently extends the excise tax on coal that pays for monthly benefits for coal miners with black lung disease, which is caused by inhaling coal dust.

Since the program’s inception, more retired miners in West Virginia have received black lung benefits than any other state, with 4,423 people receiving benefits last year. But the fund is $6 billion in debt.

For decades, the tax has required annual legislative approval. Twice in recent years, federal lawmakers failed to extend the tax, most recently for this year. That cut the tax by more than half — a windfall to coal companies that put benefits in jeopardy.

The fund is needed more than ever, United Mine Workers of America Chief of Staff Phil Smith said, with miners being diagnosed with black lung at younger ages than before because of higher amounts of silica dust in mines — something that’s not regulated.

Palmer worked underground for 40 years at the Federal No. 2 Mine in Monongalia County, which went bankrupt and shut down shortly after he retired a few years ago. His father, a coal miner, died of a lung disease, and his younger brother also has black lung. He said knowing the money will be there is a “relief” and that miners earn the benefit — an average of just over $700 a month — when they risk doing dangerous work.

“We went down in these holes that kept the lights on for everybody,” he said. “We’re the ones sacrificing our bodies.”

Conspiracies complicate voting machine debate in Louisiana

By SARA CLINE AND CHRISTINA A. CASSIDY

August 13, 2022

1 of 4

People vote on Election Day at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Charter School in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans, Nov. 8, 2016. The need for Louisiana to replace its voting machines is not in dispute. They were deployed in 2006, the year after Hurricane Katrina struck, and don’t produce paper ballots that are critical to ensuring election results are accurate. What to do about them is another story. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — The need for Louisiana to replace its voting machines is not in dispute.

They are badly outdated — deployed in 2006, the year after Hurricane Katrina struck -- and do not produce paper ballots that are critical to ensuring election results are accurate.

What to do about them is another story.

The long-running drama includes previous allegations of bid-rigging, voting machine companies claiming favoritism and a secretary of state who is noncommittal about having a new system in place for the 2024 presidential election.

Local election clerks also worry about the influence of conspiracy theorists who have peddled unfounded claims about voting equipment and have been welcomed into the debate over new machines.

“It would be a travesty to let a minority of people who have little to no experience in election administration tear down an exceptional process that was painstakingly built over many, many years,” Calcasieu Parish Clerk of Court Lynn Jones told state officials in a meeting this summer. “And for us to throw it out of the window because of unfounded theories is mind-boggling.”

The uncertainty is playing out against a backdrop of attacks on the integrity of elections, fueled by former President Donald Trump’s lies that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him and promoted by a web of his allies and supporters. Some of those same supporters have been trying to convince election officials across the country that they should ditch machines in favor of paper ballots and hand-counts.

Whatever success they have had so far has been limited primarily to GOP-dominated rural counties. But in Louisiana, a heavily Republican state that Trump won by nearly 20 percentage points, they have managed to insert themselves into an already long-delayed process of choosing a new statewide voting system.

Louisiana officials have been trying for at least four years to replace their outdated touchscreen voting machines. Although some counties in four other states still use the machines, Louisiana is the only one where they are in place statewide — some 10,000 in all.

The machines’ main problem, aside from their age and the challenge of finding replacement parts, is that votes are recorded electronically without a paper record of each voter’s selections. That means if a result is in dispute, there are no individual paper ballots to review to ensure the outcome was accurate. Under a new state law, Louisiana’s next voting system must have a paper trail of ballots cast so election results can be properly audited.

“The problem in Louisiana is that if someone were to allege the voting machines had been hacked, there would be no conclusive evidence to rebut that,” said Mark Lindeman, director of Verified Voting, which tracks the use of voting equipment in the United States. “It leaves election officials to prove a negative.”

While election clerks agree the machines are antiquated and there is a need for a paper record, the equipment does not appear to have caused any major problems in recent years.

In 2018, the nation’s top homeland security and cybersecurity officials urged states to replace any remaining voting systems without a paper trail to improve security and increase public confidence. Congress allocated $805 million before the 2020 election to help states pay for security upgrades, including new equipment.

Louisiana officials, in a 2018 report to the federal agency disbursing the money, said they planned to use the state’s share to cover the costs of “a new electronic voting system” and noted the state had already begun the procurement process.

But that same year, the contract was voided amid allegations of bid-rigging. In 2021, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin shelved another replacement attempt after the process was challenged by voting machine companies that claimed favoritism for the state’s current vendor, Dominion Voting Systems.

Following the 2020 presidential election, Dominion was ensnared in a web of conspiracy theories pushed by Trump and his allies, claiming their voting machines were rigged to steal the election. The company has pushed back, filing defamation lawsuits against conservative media outlets and Trump allies, including MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell.

The false claims have taken root in conservative communities, where local officials have been pressured to stop using computer equipment for casting and counting ballots. Nearly two years after the last presidential election, no evidence of any widespread fraud or manipulation of voting machines has surfaced, and courts have rejected dozens of court cases filed by Trump and his allies.

Last December, Phil Waldron — a retired Army colonel who circulated a PowerPoint presentation offering suggestions for how to overturn the 2020 election — was invited to speak to the commission tasked with recommending the new voting system for Louisiana. Waldron gave a 90-minute presentation focusing on counting paper ballots by hand, according to The Washington Post.

More recently, Lindell, one of the most prominent supporters of ditching election machines and counting every ballot by hand, traveled to Baton Rouge to testify before the same commission.

At a June meeting at the Capitol, Ardoin set aside rules limiting public testimony to three minutes per person so Lindell could address the commission at length. During his 17-minute address, Lindell detailed his national quest against “corrupted” voting systems and “stolen” elections.

“We lose everything if we keep even one machine moving forward,” Lindell told the commission. He went on to describe Louisiana as “the tip of the spear” in his efforts to end the use of voting machines across the country.

At the meeting, multiple clerks said they were opposed to what Lindell was advocating -- having every voter fill out a paper ballot and having every ballot counted by hand, a process that would involve tens of thousands of ballots in the most populous counties.

“Don’t mistake not wanting to go back to a pen-and-paper as not wanting to have an auditable vote trail,” said David Ditch, the clerk of court for Iberia Parish. “Everybody -- every political persuasion and everybody that comes into my office -- says the same thing, ‘We love the way we vote now. We just wish we had something to prove it in the end.’”

The commission ultimately voted to recommend the use of either hand-marked or machine-marked ballots or a combination of the two, and for the state to keep electronic tabulators for counting ballots. Commissioners, including Adroin, voted in favor of machine-scanned vote tallies — not hand-counts.

The next move is Ardoin’s.

A Republican first elected in 2018, he has defended the state’s elections as secure even as he has handed a megaphone to some of the most prominent election conspiracy theorists.

In response to written questions, his office said Ardoin was “currently reviewing the commission’s recommendations and will work with his staff as those recommendations relate to the next steps in acquisition of a new voting system.”

When asked whether the goal was to have a new voting system in place before the 2024 presidential election, Ardoin’s office said it was “difficult at this time to say what the timetable will be” but that two years is “probably the closest estimate.”

At a gathering in July of the nation’s top state election officials, Ardoin raised the issue of hand-marked paper ballots while dismissing hand-counting as something that would “extend elections over years.”

His remarks prompted a fellow Republican, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, to tell the group that he had once served as an international observer in Russia and had seen hand-counting up close.

“If you’d like to have an orientation about how that goes, that is the easiest way to cheat that you can introduce to anybody,” Merrill told attendees. “I can assure you that’s not a direction that you want to go. The people that are promoting that are ignorant or ill-informed, period.”

FREE MARKET CAPITALI$M

Some Capitol rioters try to profit from their Jan. 6 crimes

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

August 14, 2022

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 Insurrectionists loyal to President Donald Trump try to break through a police barrier, Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington. Facing prison time and dire personal consequences for storming the U.S. Capitol, some Jan. 6 defendants are trying to profit from their participation in the deadly riot, using it as a platform to drum up cash, promote business endeavors and boost social media profiles. 

(AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File)


Facing prison time and dire personal consequences for storming the U.S. Capitol, some Jan. 6 defendants are trying to profit from their participation in the deadly riot, using it as a platform to drum up cash, promote business endeavors and boost social media profiles.

A Nevada man jailed on riot charges asked his mother to contact publishers for a book he was writing about “the Capitol incident.” A rioter from Washington state helped his father hawk clothes and other merchandise bearing slogans such as “Our House” and images of the Capitol building. A Virginia man released a rap album with riot-themed songs and a cover photograph of him sitting on a police vehicle outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Those actions are sometimes complicating matters for defendants when they face judges at sentencing as prosecutors point to the profit-chasing activities in seeking tougher punishments. The Justice Department, in some instances, is trying to claw back money that rioters have made off the insurrection.

In one case, federal authorities have seized tens of thousands of dollars from a defendant who sold his footage from Jan. 6. In another case, a Florida man’s plea deal allows the U.S. government to collect profits from any book he gets published over the next five years. And prosecutors want a Maine man who raised more than $20,000 from supporters to surrender some of the money because a taxpayer-funded public defender is representing him.

Many rioters have paid a steep personal price for their actions on Jan. 6. At sentencing, rioters often ask for leniency on the grounds that they already have experienced severe consequences for their crimes.

They lost jobs or entire careers. Marriages fell apart. Friends and relatives shunned them or even reported them to the FBI. Strangers have sent them hate mail and online threats. And they have racked up expensive legal bills to defend themselves against federal charges ranging from misdemeanors to serious felonies.

Websites and crowdfunding platforms set up to collect donations for Capitol riot defendants try to portray them as mistreated patriots or even political prisoners.

An anti-vaccine medical doctor who pleaded guilty to illegally entering the Capitol founded a nonprofit that raised more than $430,000 for her legal expenses. The fundraising appeal by Dr. Simone Gold’s group, America’s Frontline Doctors, didn’t mention her guilty plea, prosecutors noted.

Before sentencing Gold to two months behind bars, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper called it “unseemly” that her nonprofit invoked the Capitol riot to raise money that also paid for her salary. Prosecutors said in court papers that it “beggars belief” that she incurred anywhere close to $430,000 in legal costs for her misdemeanor case.

Another rioter, a New Jersey gym owner who punched a police officer during the siege, raised more than $30,000 in online donations for a “Patriot Relief Fund” to cover his mortgage payments and other monthly bills. Prosecutors cited the fund in recommending a fine for Scott Fairlamb, who is serving a prison sentence of more than three years.

“Fairlamb should not be able to ‘capitalize’ on his participation in the Capitol breach in this way,” Justice Department lawyers wrote.

Robert Palmer, a Florida man who attacked police officers at the Capitol, asked a friend to create a crowdfunding campaign for him online after he pleaded guilty. After seeing the campaign to “Help Patriot Rob,” a probation officer calculating a sentencing recommendation for Palmer didn’t give him credit for accepting responsibility for his conduct. Palmer conceded that a post for the campaign falsely portrayed his conduct on Jan. 6. Acceptance of responsibility can help shave months or even years off a sentence.

“When you threw the fire extinguisher and the plank at the police officers, were you acting in self-defense?” asked U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.

“No, ma’am, I was not,” Palmer said before the judge sentenced him to more than five years in prison.

A group calling itself the Patriot Freedom Project says it has raised more than $1 million in contributions and paid more than $665,000 in grants and legal fees for families of Capitol riot defendants.

In April, a New Jersey-based foundation associated with the group filed an IRS application for tax-exempt status. As of early August, an IRS database doesn’t list the foundation as a tax-exempt organization. The Hughes Foundation’s IRS application says its funds “principally” will benefit families of Jan. 6 defendants, with about 60% of the donated money going to foundation activities. The rest will cover management and fundraising expenses, including salaries, it adds.

Rioters have found other ways to enrich or promote themselves.

Jeremy Grace, who was sentenced to three weeks in jail for entering the Capitol, tried to profit off his participation by helping his dad sell T-shirts, baseball caps, water bottles, decals and other gear with phrases such as “Our House” and “Back the Blue” and images of the Capitol, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said Grace’s “audacity” to sell “Back the Blue” paraphernalia is “especially disturbing” because he watched other rioters confront police officers on Jan. 6. A defense lawyer, however, said Grace didn’t break any laws or earn any profits by helping his father sell the merchandise.

Federal authorities seized more than $62,000 from a bank account belonging to riot defendant John Earle Sullivan, a Utah man who earned more than $90,000 from selling his Jan. 6 video footage to at least six companies. Sullivan’s lawyer argued authorities had no right to seize the money.

Richard “Bigo” Barnett, an Arkansas man photographed propping his feet up on a desk in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has charged donors $100 for photos of him with his feet on a desk while under house arrest. Defense lawyer Joseph McBride said prosecutors have “zero grounds” to prevent Barnett from raising money for his defense before a December trial date.

“Unlike the government, Mr. Barnett does not have the American Taxpayer footing the bill for his legal case,” McBride wrote in a court filing.

Texas real estate agent Jennifer Leigh Ryan promoted her business on social media during and after the riot, boasting that she was “becoming famous.” In messages sent after Jan. 6, Ryan “contemplated the business she needed to prepare for as a result of the publicity she received from joining the mob at the Capitol,” prosecutors said in court documents.

Prosecutors cited the social media activity of Treniss Evans III in recommending a two-month jail term for the Texas man, who drank a shot of whiskey in a congressional conference room on Jan. 6. Evans has “aggressively exploited” his presence at the Capitol to expand his social media following on Gettr, a social media site founded by a former Trump adviser, prosecutors wrote before Evans’ sentencing, scheduled for this coming Tuesday,

A few rioters are writing books about the mob’s attack or have marketed videos that they shot during the riot.

A unique provision in Adam Johnson’s plea agreement allows the U.S. government to collect profits from any book he gets published over the next five years. Images of Johnson posing for photographs with Pelosi’s podium went viral after the riot. Prosecutors said they insisted on the provision after learning that Johnson intends to write a memoir “of some sort.”

Ronald Sandlin, a Nevada man charged with assaulting officers near doors to the Senate gallery, posted on Facebook that he was “working out a Netflix deal” to sell riot video footage. Later, in a call from jail, Sandlin told his mother that he had met with right-wing author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and was in contact with podcaster Joe Rogan. He also asked his mom to contact publishers for the book he was writing about the “Capitol incident,” prosecutors said.

“I hope to turn it into movie,” Sandlin wrote in a March 2021 text message. “I plan on having Leonardo DiCaprio play me,” he wrote, adding a smiley face emoji.

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For full coverage of the Capitol riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege

Myanmar executions revive pressure for more sanctions

By ELAINE KURTENBACH

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 Myanmar nationals living in South Korea march to condemn Myanmar's recent executions of activists, at the down town in Seoul, South Korea, Saturday, July 30, 2022. Recent executions of four democracy activists in Myanmar have reenergized efforts to get the U.S. and other countries to impose further sanctions against military leaders who ousted its elected government early last year.

 (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon, File)

BANGKOK (AP) — Recent executions of four democracy activists in Myanmar have reenergized efforts to get the United States and other countries to impose further sanctions against military leaders who ousted an elected government early last year.

Human rights advocates and comments by U.S. lawmakers suggest the Senate is inching toward passage of the Burma Act, legislation already passed by the House of Representatives. Among other actions, it would pave the way for sanctions on Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise, or MOGE, a state-controlled company that is a vital source of hard cash for the impoverished nation.

That makes MOGE a key target in the push to cut off funding for the military’s efforts to quash a widespread public backlash against its February 2021 seizure of power.

Myanmar, also called Burma, has been ruled by the military for most of the past 70 years. The army’s takeover interrupted a gradual transition toward democratic civilian government and a more modern, open economy and resulted in a slew of sanctions against the military, which controls many industries, army family members and cronies.

The hangings in late July of four political activists prompted condemnation and stronger calls from U.S. lawmakers and others f or Myanmar’s neighbors, especially the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, to exert more pressure on the country’s military rulers.

“It is time for them to impose meaningful consequences on the junta in Burma that is literally getting away with murder,” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a supporter of ousted Myanmar civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, said in a recent statement. If Myanmar’s neighbors and ASEAN won’t do more, the U.S. should “turn up the heat” on the army and its sources of financial support, he said.

“This should include sanctions on Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise,” McConnell said.

In February, the European Union announced sanctions against MOGE, saying the military’s control means the company is “contributing to its capabilities to carry out activities undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar/Burma.”

Two of the other biggest Myanmar state companies, Myanma Economic Holdings Ltd. and Myanmar Economic Corp., already have been designated for U.S. sanctions.

Advocates of sanctions say they could make a difference if they are well-targeted and enforced. So far, Myanmar’s economy has been insulated somewhat from the penalties imposed by the U.S. and other Western governments after the military takeover. Most of its trade — especially lucrative sales of gems, rare earths and timber — is with nearby countries, especially China, which has been signaling growing support for the military-controlled government. Most big Western energy companies already have pulled out of oil and gas projects in the country.

That leaves only financial levers. Exports of oil and gas to China and Thailand earn about $2 billion a year, according to reports in its state media, and are a key source of the foreign exchange Myanmar needs to pay for imports of all kinds, including weapons used to fight opposition forces who took up arms after the army crushed peaceful protests.

The EU sanctions led the Bank of China to advise operators of the Shwe oil and gas field in northwestern Myanmar that it will not handle payments in euros to MOGE out of concern they might fall afoul of those restrictions, according to activists briefed by two of the companies operating the project, Posco International and Kogas. Two other people familiar with the situation confirmed that euro payments to MOGE were being kept in escrow accounts. The people spoke on condition they not be identified out of concern over risks for themselves, family members and associates.

The billions that other global banks have paid for violating sanctions against other countries are a strong incentive for compliance.

The EU, in announcing its sanctions, said that since MOGE was controlled by and generates revenue for the military, it was “contributing to its capabilities to carry out activities undermining democracy and the rule of law in Myanmar/Burma.”

A 770 kilometer (475 mile) pipeline connects the Shwe field to China’s Yunnan province. It is the only major project whose contracts call for revenue from gas sales to be paid in euros, rather than U.S. dollars.

A spokesman for Posco International, which has a 51% stake in the project, confirmed that those revenues were being paid into an escrow account. Posco is being paid its share as normal, Song Chan, the spokesman, said in an emailed reply to questions. He said he could not comment on the status of payments to the other companies participating in the oil and gas pipeline.

Otherwise, the project was operating as normal, he said, referring further questions to China National United Oil Co., which buys gas from the Shwe project and pays sales revenue. That company, a subsidiary of state-owned China National Petroleum Corp., did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did CNPC nor the Bank of China.

Korea Gas Corp., which has an 8.5% stake in the Shwe fields, did not reply to a request for comment.

The fact that the Shwe project has continued to send gas to China suggests that sanctions can be implemented without disrupting livelihoods or supplies of natural gas in Myanmar, said Keel Dietz, a policy adviser at the environmental non-profit Global Witness.

Critics of sanctions have often contended that they might harm employees of companies involved in the projects or worsen power shortages in the country. The Burma Act itself calls for assessing the potential impact of any sanctions against MOGE on people in Myanmar. The president could impose such sanctions if they would hinder abuses by Myanmar’s military after ensuring they would be in the U.S. national interest, with benefits outweighing any harm.

Even though the EU sanctions, imposed in February, have only affected the Shwe project, “it’s clear that EU sanctions had a meaningful impact on the thinking of at least one bank in a way that at the very least has raised costs for the junta in accessing their money,” Dietz said. “All of this was done with zero negative humanitarian impacts in Myanmar and Thailand.”

A lack of impact on gas supplies to Thailand from other projects would alleviate concerns that U.S. sanctions against MOGE might harm relations with Bangkok.

The executions that Myanmar carried out recently have deepened frustrations for its neighbors. Human rights advocates say dozens of democracy activists remain on Myanmar’s death row.

“If more executions are conducted, then things will have to be reconsidered,” said Prak Sokhonn, Cambodia’s foreign minister and ASEAN’s special envoy for Myanmar.

Outside ASEAN, the countries with closest ties and most sway over Myanmar, China and Russia, have signaled support for the military and are unlikely to do much to apply pressure.

The nine other ASEAN members are waiting to see what happens in coming months ahead of an annual summit meeting in November, Malaysian Foreign Minister Saifuddin Abdullah told reporters in Bangkok last week.

Saifuddin acknowledged that ASEAN countries, which tend to refrain from imposing economic sanctions against other members, are discussing that option as they search for ways to exert leverage on Myanmar’s military leaders.

“We did discuss this measure, but there was no conclusion,” Saifuddin said.

Senior Liberian officials hit with U.S. financial sanctions

By FATIMA HUSSEIN

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. imposed sanctions Monday on three high-ranking Liberian government officials for engaging in alleged public corruption.

President George Weah’s chief of staff, the nation’s chief prosecutor and the current managing director of the national port authority have been designated by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control for sanctions.

Liberia was battered by back-to-back civil wars that left 200,000 people dead and displaced half of the country’s population. Public corruption has been a persistent problem, which has prevented economic development in an otherwise resourceful country of more than 5 million people.

A Treasury Department statement reads that the U.S. is “committed to working with the people and Government of Liberia to elevate countering corruption as a priority, including by bolstering public sector anti-corruption capacity.”

Sanctioned individuals are Nathaniel McGill, chief of staff to President Weah; Sayma Syrenius Cephus, Liberia’s chief prosecutor; and Bill Twehway, the current managing director of the National Port Authority.

The sanctions are authorized under an executive order signed during Donald Trump’s presidency, which implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act and targets perpetrators of human rights abuse and corruption around the world.

“Through their corruption these officials have undermined democracy in Liberia for their own personal benefit,” said Brian E. Nelson, Treasury’s Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence in a statement.

“Treasury’s designations today demonstrate that the United States remains committed to holding corrupt actors accountable and to the continued support of the Liberian people,” he said.

At the State Department, spokesman Ned Price said, “All three of these individuals have contributed to Liberia’s worsening corruption. These designations reflect our commitment to implementing the United States Strategy on Countering Corruption and to partnering with the Liberian government and people to help the country chart a better course forward.”

The sanctions come after the U.S. government sanctioned Liberia’s ex-warlord and current senator Prince Yormie Johnson for alleged corruption in December also under the Global Magnitsky Act.

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Illegal border crossings fall in July but remain high


This photo provided by the Arizona Governor's Office shows shipping containers that will be used to fill a 1,000 foot gap in the border wall with Mexico near Yuma, Ariz., on Aug. 12, 2022. Two will be stacked atop each other and then topped with razor wire to slow migrants from crossing into Arizona. Authorities say migrants were stopped fewer times at the U.S. border with Mexico in July than in June, a second straight monthly decline. (Arizona Governor's Office via AP)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants were stopped fewer times at the U.S. border with Mexico in July than in June, authorities said Monday, a second straight monthly decline.

Flows were still unusually high, particularly among nationalities less affected by Title 42, a pandemic-era rule that denies migrants legal rights to seek asylum on grounds of preventing spread of COVID-19. In theory, Title 42 applies to all nationalities but costs, diplomatic relations and others considerations usually dictate who is expelled under the public health authority.

U.S. authorities stopped migrants 199,976 times in July, down 3.8% from 207,933 in June and down 6.8% from 213,593% in July 2021, Customs and Border Protection said.

“While the encounter numbers remain high, this is a positive trend and the first two-month drop since October 2021,” said Commissioner Chris Magnus.

Authorities stopped Mexicans, Guatemalans, Hondurans and El Salvadorans less in July than in June. Mexico has agreed to take people from all those countries who are expelled under Title 42, a relatively easy task for Border Patrol agents due to Mexico’s proximity.

People from countries more likely to be released in the U.S. on humanitarian parole or with notices to appear in immigration court were stopped more often. Border Patrol agents stopped Venezuelans 17,603 times in July, up 34% from June and nearly triple from July 2021.

Cubans were stopped 20,080 times by Border Patrol agents, up 25% from June and nearly six times from June 2021. Colombians were also stopped more often.

Del Rio, Texas, was again the busiest corridor for illegal crossings among the Border Patrol’s nine sectors on the Mexico border, with agents stopping migrants 49,563 times in July. Texas’ Rio Grande Valley, which had long been the busiest, was a distant second with 35,180 stops.

Oil barriers to rein in spread of dead fish from Oder River
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Dead fish lie on the banks of the German-Polish border river Oder in Lebus, eastern Germanny, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022. Poland’s environment minister says laboratory tests following a mass dying off of fish detected high levels of salinity but no mercury in waters of Central Europe’s Oder River.

(Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)


BERLIN (AP) — German officials expressed mounting anger Monday at the slow flow of information from Poland as experts raced to discover what killed tens of thousands of fish in a shared border river and put up barriers used to contain oil spills in a bid to rein in the spread of fish carcasses.

German Environment Minister Steffi Lemke demanded a transparent and full investigation into the cause for the massive fish die-off in the Oder River after having met her Polish counterpart in the Polish border city of Szczecin on Sunday evening.

“There would be a massive loss of confidence, especially among the Polish population, but probably also among us, if this (investigation) did not succeed,” Lemke said Monday on ARD television.

The Oder runs from Czechia to the border between Poland and Germany before flowing into the Baltic Sea. Ten tons of dead fish were removed from it last week and people have been asked not to swim in it or even touch its waters. Authorities have not yet found the reason for the massive fish die-off.

Authorities on Monday were putting up sea barriers usually used during oil spills on the Szczecin Lagoon, where the river runs into the Baltic Sea, to prevent a possible spread of fish carcasses there, the German news agency dpa reported.

Since last Friday some 80 tons of dead fish have been collected, said Brig. Karol Kierzkowski, spokesman for Poland’s fire service.

Lemke also announced the two European Union countries have created a task force with experts to exchange updates on the investigation into the ecological disaster.

The state governor of Brandenburg, which borders Poland along the Oder River, criticized Polish authorities for their lack of information on the fish die-off.

The information about the environmental disaster has come only “in dribs and drabs” or “not at all,” Dietmar Woidke said, adding that “this must be dealt with urgently in the coming months,” dpa reported.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki countered Monday that Poland was doing everything to cooperate with German to explain the fish die-off, and said the German authorities also could not yet explain the cause.

The German environment ministry said they were expecting results on possible toxins in the river water later this week. Brandenburg state Environment Minister Axel Vogel said “it may take several more days until we have checked through all the substances that we consider possible.”

There is probably more than one cause for the fish die-off, Vogel said, adding that the current drought and low water levels almost certainly shared part of the blame.

The entire ecosystem of the Oder River has been damaged, he said.

“That’s why we don’t think we have a disaster that can be solved within half a year by repopulating with fish,” Vogel said.

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Follow AP’s climate and environment coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment