P3 PUBLIC PRVATE PILOT 

Boeing astronaut withdraws himself from first crewed test flight of passenger spacecraft

Chris Ferguson is not going to fly on Starliner next year

By Loren Grush@lorengrush Oct 7, 2020

Chris Ferguson, after NASA announced his assignment to the Starliner mission (NASA/Bill Ingalls)


Boeing employee and former NASA astronaut Christopher Ferguson will no longer command the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s new passenger spacecraft, the CST-100 Starliner, slated to carry its first human passengers next year. NASA astronaut Barry “Butch” Wilmore will take Ferguson’s place on the flight, riding along with the two other NASA astronauts already assigned to the mission.

In a video posted to Twitter, Ferguson said leaving the flight was a “difficult and personal decision” he had to make. “Next year is very important for my family,” he said in the video. “I have made several commitments which I simply cannot risk missing. I’m not going anywhere. I’m just not going into space next year.”

“I HAVE MADE SEVERAL COMMITMENTS WHICH I SIMPLY CANNOT RISK MISSING.”

Ferguson has been instrumental in the multiyear development of Boeing’s Starliner, a privately built crew capsule designed to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station for NASA. Ferguson commanded the last flight of NASA’s Space Shuttle in 2011, before retiring from the agency that year. He then joined Boeing and became director of crew and mission systems for the Starliner program. In 2018, Ferguson was assigned as commander of the first crewed flight test of Starliner, along with astronauts Nicole Mann and Mike Fincke who would be joining as crewmates. Since he is technically no longer a NASA astronaut, Ferguson would have become the first private citizen to fly on a privately made spacecraft to orbit.

I’m taking on a new mission, one that keeps my feet planted here firmly on Earth and prioritizes my most important crew – my family. I’ll still be working hard with the #Starliner team and the @NASA_Astronauts on our crew. pic.twitter.com/PgdhPqwYQS— Christopher Ferguson (@Astro_Ferg) October 7, 2020

NASA and Boeing had planned for Starliner’s first crewed flight to happen as soon as this year, but the flight has been significantly delayed due to problems with the program. In December 2019, Boeing launched the Starliner on its debut flight to the space station — with no crew on board — but the mission suffered from numerous software glitches that prompted the company to bring the capsule home early before it could reach the ISS. After a lengthy investigation by NASA, Boeing has been trying to implement a list of 80 recommendations to ensure that no more glitches occur on upcoming flights. And the company is gearing up to perform a second uncrewed test flight of Starliner, currently planned for December.

WILMORE WILL NOW START TRAINING IMMEDIATELY WITH MANN AND FINCKE

Now, Boeing is targeting no earlier than June of next year for the first crewed test flight, and Ferguson indicated to The Washington Post that he had a family wedding and other commitments in 2021. With Ferguson stepping down, Wilmore will now start training immediately with Mann and Fincke. Wilmore was already part of the backup crew for the mission, so he had already been training for the flight in case he needed to be slotted in. “Having had the chance to train alongside and view this outstanding crew as backup has been instrumental in my preparation to assume this position,” Wilmore said in a statement. “Stepping down was a difficult decision for Chris, but with his leadership and assistance to this point, this crew is positioned for success.”

In the meantime, Ferguson will still be very involved with Starliner. He is assuming a new role as director of mission integration and operations, where he will support the astronauts and make sure that their training is adequate, according to Boeing. The company notes that Ferguson will also be one of the last people the crew will see before they leave for space — and one of the first they’ll see when they return.

We finally know why Boeing’s test flight commander bowed out of Starliner test

Image source: NASA/Bill Ingalls
By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
October 9th, 2020 

Boeing’s Starliner crew shakeup gets a little more clear as we learn one of the reasons why commander Chris Ferguson stepped down.

The astronaut had family commitments in 2021, including his daughter’s wedding.

The mission has been delayed so many times, and the coronavirus caused so many issues, that things lined up poorly for the astronaut.

It was a few days ago that astronaut Chris Ferguson announced he would be stepping down from his position as the commander of the first Boeing Starliner crewed test flight in 2021. That’s a big deal, as Starliner has been repeatedly delayed and any further hiccups just serve to put the company even farther behind its rival SpaceX, which has already delivered on its promise to NASA with Crew Dragon.

At the time, Ferguson’s statement was relatively vague. He noted that he had prior commitments that he just couldn’t ignore. Now, there are lots of things that a person makes commitments for, but there aren’t many that couldn’t be canceled for a trip to space. Thanks to a statement from Boeing, now we know what is keeping Ferguson’s feet firmly planted on the ground.

According to a company statement, at least one of his commitments that Ferguson has to attend is the wedding of his daughter. That… makes a lot of sense, actually.

As I mentioned in the first article covering this story, the coronavirus pandemic has seriously messed up lots and lots of plans both in the United States and around the world. In fact, NASA and Boeing have noted that the Starliner program was affected by the pandemic as well, and given the project’s history of delays and setbacks, that’s no surprise.

I’m taking on a new mission, one that keeps my feet planted here firmly on Earth and prioritizes my most important crew – my family. I’ll still be working hard with the #Starliner team and the @NASA_Astronauts on our crew. pic.twitter.com/PgdhPqwYQS
— Christopher Ferguson (@Astro_Ferg) October 7, 2020

On top of that, wedding venues have been notoriously strict about cancellations this year, and from personal experience, I know that there is a shocking number of venues that aren’t accepting reschedules or cancellations without charging massive fees, despite the virus spread. It’s a bad situation all around, and while we can’t know for certain what Ferguson’s circumstances are, I’d hesitate to jump to the conclusion that either the astronaut or his daughter are being “selfish,” as some commenters have argued.

In all likelihood, the original wedding plans (and whatever other commitments Ferguson made for 2021) didn’t interfere with the original planned crewed launch of Starliner. Remember, Starliner’s launches have been delayed many times, and the major setback of the uncrewed test mission glitch pushed back Boeing’s timeline significantly. Now, the launch (as it currently stands) is scheduled for a time that overlaps with Ferguson’s family events, and he’s made the decision to put his family first.

But don’t worry, the way Boeing’s Starliner program has been going, the crewed launch may well be delayed again, so you never know who might be aboard that spacecraft when it finally launches.

Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering breaking news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and future tech. Most recently, Mike served as Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and has been featured in USA Today, Time.com, and countless other web and print outlets. His love of reporting is second only to his gaming addiction.

Tiger King’ star Doc Antle charged with trafficking lion cubs


By Natalie O'Neill

October 9, 2020

Doc Antle Courtesy of Netflix

“Tiger King” celebrity Doc Antle was busted for allegedly trafficking lion cubs between Virginia and South Carolina, authorities said Friday.

The famously ponytailed exotic zoo owner — who was featured as a rival of Joe Exotic in the hit Netflix docuseries — was hit with 15 wildlife trafficking and animal cruelty charges, Virginia’s attorney general announced in a press release.

The agency’s animal law unit spent months investigating Antle’s Myrtle Beach Safari zoo in South Carolina.

Investigators also looked at the Wild Animal Park in Winchester, Virginia, which is owned by Antle’s partner Keith Wilson, the officials said.

Investigators say they found that the partners “violated the Endangered Species Act” by moving the animals between the two zoos — and between states — in poor conditions.

Wilson was also charged with trafficking.

In total, Antle was charged with wildlife trafficking, conspiracy to wildlife traffic and 13 additional misdemeanor charges linked to the animal cruelty and the Endangered Species Act.

His daughters, Tawny Antle and Tilakum Watterson, also face animal cruelty charges.

Details of the charges weren’t immediately clear Friday.

In November 2019, Wilson was previously indicted on 46 counts of animal cruelty.

Law enforcement seized 119 animals from Wilson’s zoo after a judge found he “cruelly treated” tigers, bears, camels and other animals. He will go to trial in June 2021.

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Kyrgyzstan’s political crisis, explained

The Central Asian country faces its greatest political turmoil in a decade.

By Alex Ward@AlexWardVoxOct 9, 2020

Supporters of former Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev attend a rally in Bishkek on October 9. Vyacheslav Oseledko/AFP via Getty Images


Gunfire in the capital. Deadly clashes between protesters and state security forces. Annulled elections. A nasty fight for political power. And a president who’s effectively been missing in action through it all.

Over the past week, these scenes have gripped Kyrgyzstan as the Central Asian country faces its greatest political crisis in a decade — one that could see the third ouster of a president in just 15 years.

Many of Kyrgyzstan’s 6 million people are deeply dissatisfied with the government due to widespread corruption and mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic. The country’s economy is in tatters, and many have no life savings or struggle to find steady work to bolster themselves against the downturn.

So when voters headed to the polls for parliamentary elections on October 4, most expected that the government-linked parties would be voted out.

But though past votes for Parliament in 2010 and 2015 were conducted freely and fairly by most accounts, the presidential election of 2017 saw current President Sooronbay Jeenbekov essentially installed by his predecessor. That led some experts to worry that this year’s election might be flawed.

Those fears grew when the results came in: Parties allied with the president had won the largest share of the votes.

Only four of the 16 parties in the running passed the 7-percent threshold to win seats; two of those four have links to the current administration, and each received about 24 percent support. One of those two parties, Birimdik, featured the president’s brother as a candidate. The other, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan, is backed by a former customs chief who’s reportedly a crime boss.

All the opposition parties that didn’t win seats immediately cried foul, alleging the election was rigged. Protests erupted in the streets of the capital, Bishkek, plunging the country into chaos.

And things just got worse from there.
Was the election rigged? Possibly not, but many are angry at the result.

There is some evidence that the victorious parties bought votes from cash-strapped citizens and placed undue pressure on local leaders to support them, perhaps at the direction of high-level government officials.

But Eugene Huskey, a professor of political science at Stetson University and an expert on Kyrgyzstan’s politics, said that “this election was probably less flawed than other ones in the country.” Though no exit polls have been released yet, he noted that the high returns for the parties that got into Parliament indicate they perhaps have more support than certain polls suggest.

Further, Huskey said the few surveys released before the election didn’t capture many of the changes that came later, like some parties folding or candidates switching allegiances. “This election overall was fair,” Huskey told me.

Still, dissatisfaction with the result drove thousands to Bishkek’s Ala-Too Square on October 5. Some went because they wanted to protest what they deemed to be an unfair election, reports show, while others joined because the party they liked — but that didn’t get enough votes to win seats — pushed them to rally against the result. In fact, nearly all opposition parties pushed for a rally.

The demonstration throughout the day was peaceful. But as night fell, state security services brutally attacked the protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets, killing one person and injuring at least 600 more per the nation’s health ministry.  

Party leaders who failed to pass the threshold in the parliamentary elections yesterday, and their voters gather at in Ala-Too Square to protest the election results, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on October 5, 2020. Nazir Aliyev Tayfur/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Jeenbekov denies ordering the assault, though experts like National Defense University’s Erica Marat suspects the decision to push back on demonstrators was his alone to make. “He miscalculated the mood,” she told me. “He likely felt that if he dispersed the crowd, the whole thing would go away.”

But it didn’t, and instead it made things worse. “That was a major turning point,” Columbia University’s Colleen Wood told me.

A mix of people angry at the assault and provocateurs looking to stir trouble stormed the White House, the main government complex featuring the president’s offices and legislature. They seized the building, named changes to top government posts, demanded a new vote, and even freed political prisoners, including the current president’s predecessor and one-time ally, Almazbek Atambaev.

The past couple of days in Kyrgyzstan: political chaos, government buildings being stormed by protesters, a former president being sprung from jail during the night of October 5-6 -- and, by morning, the annulment of the election results. pic.twitter.com/iHeOGaAuyZ— Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (@RFERL) October 7, 2020

The following morning, the country’s election commission annulled October 4’s results to “prevent tension.” The problem is the decision only increased it.
“The power vacuum has turned violent”

Amid popular pressure, the prime minister of Kyrgyzstan — who is less powerful than the president but still provides some checks on his authority — offered his resignation on Tuesday (and finally had it accepted on Friday).

Since then, a messy political fight has broken out to replace him, that’s roughly contested between a pro-government camp and a pro-reform camp.

First, the pro-government side: On October 6, Sadyr Japarov, a former government official who was in prison before protesters released him the night before, met with a group of 35 parliamentarians at the three-star Dostuk Hotel in Bishkek.

But there are some problems with that, experts say. Thirty-five legislators doesn’t make an official quorum, for example, so the appointment is mostly meaningless as a legal matter.

It’s also unclear he’ll garner much popular support due to his ties to government figures and is a criminal himself. In October 2013, he led a protest that ended with taking a provincial governor hostage. He was charged and then fled the country, only to be arrested upon returning to the country in March 2017.

Experts don’t believe, though, that Japarov somehow planned a coup while in prison — events moved quickly and his connections to some in the legislature helped him gain some support.

As for the pro-reform side — a loose connection of more democratic-minded parties and supporters — Omurbek Babanov, who lost the controversial 2017 presidential election, has enough backing to make a challenge. He fled the country after that race for fear he’d be charged with crimes by the current president, only to come back this year to campaign for his old party which didn’t meet the 7 percent threshold.

That, in part, is why some experts fear he may not garner enough support for the job. Plus, they say Babanov may not be as pro-reform as he claims since one of his backers is Atambayev, the former president who rigged the 2017 election against him and still faces corruption charges.

Despite more people and semi-official commissions pushing others to take the prime minister spot, those two have become the main figures tussling for control. And tussle they have: “The power vacuum has turned violent,” said Columbia’s Wood.

Fist fights broke out in Bishkek between the two factions on Friday, culminating in gun shots heard throughout the capital. Some shots were fired at Atambayev’s car, and while he wasn’t harmed, it’s unclear if the bullets were errant or intended to kill him.

As a result of the violence, President Jeenbekov declared a state of emergency that will last until October 21 and be enforced by the nation’s military. Among other restrictions, movement in and out the capital will be heavily controlled.

That’s a rare move, said NDU’s Marat, as post-Soviet nations in Central Asia typically deploy their armed forces only for external matters. “The military doesn’t really involve itself in pacifying protests,” she said, but it goes to show how worried Jeenbekov must really be.

He’s apparently so worried, in fact, that he hasn’t been seen in days, and may even be hiding on purpose.
A lot rides on an absent president

Jeenbekov — who has yet to be seen in public since the protests began — promised to resign as president once a new prime minister and Parliament is in place, a new Cabinet sworn in, and rule of law restored. Experts aren’t sure if he’s just saying that to minimize anger toward him, or if it’s a serious offer.

Either way, he’s still the president, and the future of his country depends on what he does next, Wood told me. It’s quite tricky for him, she said, because if he intervenes and supports either Japarov or Babanov, then it’ll look like the government once again aims to influence an election. But if he stays silent, the uncertainty and lack of leadership might invite more chaos.

But his time is running out. The country’s election authorities plan to make a decision on when to hold a new vote in November, and it’s possible they will ban the pro-government parties that may have actually won the election this week. If that happens, “I can see this spinning out into even more conflict,” said Stetson’s Huskey, assuming violence doesn’t continue and worsen in the days to come.

Russia, which has immense influence in the country, is also watching events closely. “The situation looks like a mess and chaos,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday, alluding to a treaty between the two countries that aims to avoid a breakdown of governance in Kyrgyzstan. He didn’t say what actions Russia might take, but the signal was clear: Russia might intervene.

The good news, experts said, is that parts of the country are trying to calm the situation down. Posts on social media, they say, overwhelmingly call for both sides to stop fighting. There are even groups protecting homes and businesses from looters, with other bringing those volunteers drinks to keep warm. “They’re trying to stabilize the situation from bottom up,” said NDU’s Marat.

That’s all well and good, but the person in charge of stabilizing the situation from the top down — the president — is still missing in action.

Which means Kyrgyzstan’s political turmoil is likely to last for a few more days — perhaps even longer. If that’s the case, the country may host its third major political revolution since 2005, possibly forcing out Jeenbekov before he’s ready.

Armenia, Azerbaijan Agree on Ceasefire in Nagorno-Karabakh; Big Diplomatic Coup for Mediator Russia

Armenia and Azerbaijan foreign ministers said the truce is intended to exchange prisoners and recover the dead after two weeks of heavy fighting. The announcement followed 10 hours of talks in Moscow sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov

Smoke rises after shelling by Azerbaijan's artillery during a military conflict in Stepanakert, the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, on October 9, 2020. (AP Photo)

ASSOCIATED PRESS MOSCOW
LAST UPDATED:OCTOBER 9, 2020

With Russia's mediation, Armenia and Azerbaijan agreed to a cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh starting at noon Saturday following two weeks of heavy fighting that marked the worst outbreak of hostilities in the separatist region in a quarter-century.

The countries' foreign ministers said in a statement that the truce is intended to exchange prisoners and recover the dead, adding that specific details will be agreed on later.


The announcement followed 10 hours of talks in Moscow sponsored by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, who read the statement. It stipulated that the cease-fire should pave the way for talks on settling the conflict.

If the truce holds, it would mark a major diplomatic coup for Russia that has a security pact with Armenia but also cultivated warm ties with Azerbaijan.


The latest outburst of fighting between Azerbaijani and Armenian forces began September 27 and left hundreds of people dead in the biggest escalation of the decades-old conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since a separatist war there ended in 1994. The region lies in Azerbaijan but has been under control of ethnic Armenian forces backed by Armenia.

The talks between the foreign ministers of Armenia and Azerbaijan were held on invitation from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who brokered the cease-fire in a series of calls with President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan and Armenia's Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian.


Armenia said it was open to a cease-fire, while Azerbaijan previously had made a potential truce conditional on the Armenian forces' withdrawal from Nagorno-Karabakh, arguing that the failure of international efforts to negotiate a political settlement left it no other choice but to resort to force.

Russia has co-sponsored peace talks on Nagorno-Karabakh together with the United States and France as co-chairs of the so-called Minsk Group, which is working under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.


Speaking in an address to the nation Friday hours before the cease-fire deal was reached, the Azerbaijani president insisted on his country's right to reclaim its territory by force after nearly three decades of international talks that "haven't yielded an inch of progress."

"Mediators and leaders of some international organizations have stated that there is no military solution to the conflict," Aliyev said. "I have disagreed with the thesis, and I have been right. The conflict is now being settled by military means and political means will come next."


The current escalation marked the first time that Azerbaijan's ally Turkey took a high profile in the conflict, offering strong political support. Over the past few years, Turkey provided Azerbaijan with state-of-the-art weapons, including drones and rocket systems that helped the Azerbaijani military outgun the Nagorno-Karabakh separatist forces in the latest fighting.

Armenian officials say Turkey is involved in the conflict and is sending Syrian mercenaries to fight on Azerbaijan's side. Turkey has denied deploying combatants to the region, but a Syrian war monitor and three Syria-based opposition activists have confirmed that Turkey has sent hundreds of Syrian opposition fighters to fight in Nagorno-Karabakh.


In an interview with CNN Arabic aired Thursday, Azerbaijan's president admitted that Turkish F-16 fighter jets have stayed on in Azerbaijan weeks after a joint military exercise, but insisted that they have remained grounded. Armenian officials had earlier claimed that a Turkish F-16 shot down an Armenian warplane, a claim that both Turkey and Azerbaijan have denied.

Turkey's involvement in the conflict raised painful memories in Armenia, where an estimated 1.5 million died in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 as Ottoman officials worried that the Christian Armenians would side with Russia, its enemy in World War I.


The event is widely viewed by historians as genocide. Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Turkey's high profile in the conflict worried Russia, which has a military base in Armenia. The two countries are linked by a security treaty obliging Moscow to offer support to its ally if it comes under aggression.


At the same time, Russia has sought to maintain strong economic and political ties with oil-rich Azerbaijan and ward off Turkey's attempt to increase its influence in the South Caucasus without ruining its delicate relations with Ankara.

Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have negotiated a series of deals to coordinate their conflicting interests in Syria and Libya and expanded their economic ties. Last year, NATO member Turkey took the delivery of the Russian S-400 air defense missiles, a move that angered Washington.


A cease-fire in Nagorno-Karabakh would allow the Kremlin to stem Turkey's bid to expand its clout in Russia's backyard without ruining its strategic relationship with Ankara.

While Turkey has aspired to join the Minsk Group talks as a co-chair, the statement issued by Armenia and Azerbaijan contained their pledge to maintain the current format of the peace talks.

 

Groups focused on abortion rights spend big amid SCOTUS fight

• By Eliana Miller
• October 9, 2020 10:10 am

(Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Since President Donald Trump’s nomination of Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, the possibility of overturning Roe v. Wade looms larger. Barrett is not shy about her anti-abortion stance and signed an ad in 2006 that called the 1973 landmark decision “barbaric” and a “raw exercise of judicial power.” 

In fear or excitement, both the pro-abortion rights and anti-abortion groups have funneled money into this year’s elections. While more donations are yet to come, totals haven’t reached 2018 levels, when the confirmations of conservative Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court were front of mind.

Through September, pro-abortion rights groups gave $4.5 million to candidates, party committees and outside groups, six times more than their anti-abortion counterparts. While the 2020 election cycle isn’t over, donation numbers from the 2018 midterm election were higher. Two years ago, pro-abortion rights groups advocates gave a record $8 million to candidates and groups. 

Those who support Roe v. Wade are using their money to help elect Democrats. Pro-abortion rights groups gave primarily to three Democratic nominees: $564,000 to Joe Biden, $77,000 to Maine’s Sara Gideon and $73,000 to Arizona’s Mark Kelly.

Biden has taken a strong pro-abortion rights stance in recent years, though he has swung back and forth on his the issue since 1973, when he entered the Senate and Roe was decided. In a town hall Monday, Biden said if Barrett was confirmed and Roe was overturned, “the only responsible response to that would be to pass legislation making Roe the law of the land.” His running mate Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) echoed that sentiment in Wednesday’s vice presidential debate, saying, “I will always fight for a woman’s right to make a decision about her own body. It should be her decision and not that of Donald Trump and the vice president, Michael Pence.”

The pair are supported by pro-abortion rights committees such as EMILY’s List, which is dedicated to supporting pro-abortion rights women in office. The conduit PAC has spent $58 million so far this cycle and its affiliate group, Women Vote! has spent $24.2 million. Of that, $2.8 million went to supporting Biden, whereas almost $7 million was used against Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). Just last week, the super PAC joined other women-led groups to pledge $10 million in digital ads supporting Harris leading up to Wednesday’s debate. 

National women’s health organization Planned Parenthood has also backed pro-abortion rights candidates. Along with its affiliate super PACs in many states, Planned Parenthood has spent $6.1 million this cycle. In the presidential election, the group has spent $1.3 million against Trump and almost $1 million supporting Biden. 

It’s also released several six-figure digital ad campaigns this summer attacking vulnerable GOP senators. The group’s largest target this election are two women senators from opposite sides of the country. Planned Parenthood has spent $633,000 against Collins and $582,000 against Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.). Collins faces a tight race this year in part because of her views on abortion. Though the incumbent has said she supports abortion rights, Mainers protested her vote to confirm Justice Kavanaugh two years ago. McSally, on the other hand, is staunchly anti-abortion and has repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood. 

The oldest abortion rights advocacy group in the U.S., NARAL Pro-Choice America, has spent $1.7 million thus far, mostly against Republicans. In April, the group launched a six-figure ad campaign titled Pro-Life Hypocrisy with videos saying pro-life Republican congressional members “want to put Americans at risk by ending social distancing.” It has particularly attacked McSally, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) and Ernst.

All three candidates are anti-abortion and support Barrett’s nomination. In January, Ernst signed an amicus brief petitioning the Supreme Court to reconsider Roe v. Wade. Just last week, at a debate she said she is “proudly pro-life,” but added that even if Barrett is confirmed, she doesn’t think Roe v. Wade will be overturned. “I don’t see that happening,” she said.

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Anti-abortion groups push for Barrett confirmation

A 2019 study by the Pew Research Center found that 70 percent of U.S. adults oppose completely overturning Roe v. Wade, while 28 percent support overturning it. A CBS News poll this summer returned similar results. 

Those findings haven’t stopped anti-abortion groups, which donated $742,000 to candidates and groups this election. That is actually far less than previous cycles. Political contributions from anti-abortion groups have declined almost every cycle since 2012. 

Most of this year’s money came from the Susan B. Anthony List, which gave $83,000 to Republican candidates. The conservative PAC backed Trump and several incumbents in toss up elections, including Sen. Ernst, Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.). 

Susan B. Anthony List and its partner super PAC, Women Speak Out PAC, are spending $500,000 in Iowa to re-elect Ernst. This week they put out phone, digital and text ads to inform voters of Barrett’s pro-life views and preserve the pro-life Senate majority. Last week, they released a video supporting Barrett, who would “give our pro-life country the court it deserves.” 

Although Women Speak Out said it has a $52 million budget this election cycle, the super PAC has spent only $4.7 million through October 2020. The super PAC heavily targeted candidates in Texas, North Carolina and Michigan. It spent almost $765,000 attacking five house Democrats in Texas: Candace Venezuela, Sri Kulkarni, Lizzie Fletcher, Colin Allred and Wendy Davis. 

The group has also used $1 million to support Trump and almost the same amount to attack Biden. Right before the Democratic National Convention in August, it released a video calling Biden and Harris “pro-abortion fanatics.”

Much like his oppnonent, Trump has also waivered on the issue of abortion rights. In 1999, he said “I am pro-choice in every respect,” a line used against him in attack ads just four years ago. In office, the president has reversed course and is eager to overturn Roe v. Wade. This January, Trump was the first sitting president to attend the March for Life, an annual rally protesting abortions and the Roe v. Wade decision. 

At Wednesday’s vice presidential debate, Pence said, “I couldn’t be more proud to serve as vice president to a president who stands without apology for the sanctity of human life. I’m pro-life, I don’t apologize for it.” 

Another anti-abortion group, Right to Life, has spent $377,000 this election helping Republicans. The group spent $177,000 backing Trump, $41,000 for Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and $35,000 for Michelle Fischbach, the Republican nominee in Minnesota’s 7th District. Over the summer, the group posted several ads on Facebook attacking Democrats in Congress for their pro-abortion rights views. Currently, they’re running an ad primarily targeting voters in Florida, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Michigan. 

Whether or not Roe is overturned, state legislatures could pass laws designed to protect abortion rights much like those passed in 2019 in Illinois and New York. Just last Friday, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced a similar law, the Reproductive Freedom Act, which protects abortion rights in the Garden State. States could also pass laws in hopes of banning abortion during the first trimester. Alabama and Georgia legislatures have attempted to pass such laws, but the laws are still working their way through the court system and have been blocked from taking effect.

Feel free to distribute or cite this material, but please credit the Center for Responsive Politics.
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365 Brothers Podcast Refutes Pence’s Dismissal of Racially Biased Policing


Black men interviewed from across the United States and from diverse occupations and socio-economic status detail incidents of racial profiling and harassment by law enforcement. The incidents are described in the 365 Brothers podcast, a show dedicated to the stories, wisdom and experiences of Black men.


LOS ANGELES (PRWEB) OCTOBER 10, 2020

The prevalence of racial bias in policing may be difficult to measure, but one podcast provides its audience an opportunity to discover just how widespread the practice of stopping Black men without cause is in the United States. Through interviews with Black men from across the nation and from diverse professions and life experiences, the 365 Brothers podcast paints a broad picture of racial profiling by police.

Las Vegas resident Therman Davis, a retired actuary, described being stopped while crossing in the middle of a street mid- morning with zero traffic in either direction. "An unmarked police car with an unmarked plain clothes policeman in the car...roared up to me like I'd just robbed a bank. He stops and he didn't get of the car. He says 'What the hell are you doing running around the middle of the streets boy?'" The officer harangued him for thirty-five minutes before driving off. No ticket was issued and the officer never exited his car.

From all parts of the nation, the stories of being stopped while Black chronicled on 365 Brothers creates a stark contrast to Vice President Mike Pence’s remark that “This presumption that…law enforcement has an implicit bias against minorities is a great insult to the men and women who serve in law enforcement.” While Mr. Pence denounced the killing of George Floyd in Wednesday’s Vice Presidential Debate, he expressed disbelief in the existence of widespread bias in policing or that it constitutes a type of structural racism.

“In episode after episode, the tales of implicit bias in policing are vividly told,” says host and executive producer, Rahbin Shyne. The listener gets related to each guest before hearing a recount of relevant interactions with law enforcement. “One quarter of the men interviewed report an incident in which a gun was drawn on them by one or more officers during a stop for a minor or non-existent infraction."

The podcast is about their lives, wisdom, loves and experiences, not just their interactions with law enforcement. The interviews are constructed around eleven questions which create an intimate, reflective ark. A favorite question is “If the United States was a woman, what would you say to her?” The message of the podcast is to showcase both the diversity of Black men's lives as well as the unfortunate commonality of having at least one racially-biased incident of intimidation by police.

Four officers approached comedian Papp Johnson as he walked from his car to his home after attending a late night comedy show. They approached him with guns drawn, asking what he was doing walking down the street at 3am. After pointing out that he was walking from where he parked to his home and enduring several minutes of questioning, he was allowed to continue home. Veterinarian Landon Collins summed up the impact of unwarranted police stops this way, "Even if you're not doing the wrong thing, or even if you're doing all the right things, there's still a chance of social injustice and you could be killed...That's the real scary part." When interviewed, Dr. Collins recalled an incident in which he was stopped while walking back from a convenience store during a late night study break while a veterinary school student. They were responding to a report of something stolen from the campus library. Dr. Collins is and was bald. They were looking for a man with dreadlocks. He was interrogated for fifteen minutes though he did not fit the description of the suspect.

To hear more of stories of Black men’s lives, including interactions with law enforcement subscribe to the 365 Brothers podcast. The podcast can be found in all the usual directories including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and at http://www.365brothers.com.

“The woman in Michigan”: How Gretchen Whitmer became a target of right-wing hate

An alleged plot to kidnap the governor is part of a larger pattern of misogyny.

By Anna North  Oct 9, 2020

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Gretchen Whitmer, then a Michigan Democratic gubernatorial nominee, speaks with a reporter after a Democrat Unity Rally at the Westin Book Cadillac Hotel August 8, 2018, in Detroit.

 Bill Pugliano/Getty Images

Earlier this year, a man named Adam Fox recorded a video in which he called Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer a “tyrant bitch” for closing the state’s gyms.

Now, he and five other men known as the “Wolverine Watchmen” have been arrested on conspiracy charges, accused of plotting to kidnap the governor in retribution for her actions to limit the spread of Covid-19.

It’s an extreme, and frightening, version of the attacks Whitmer has experienced for months. Though leaders from New York City to London have seen protests and pushback against restrictions, Whitmer has been a particular target for right-wing protesters — and for President Trump, who dismissively referred to her as “the woman in Michigan” this spring before introducing the more colorful “Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer.”

Whitmer became a lightning rod for protesters in part because, as the governor of a hard-hit state, she instituted restrictions early. She’s also been highly visible in the media, especially when she was floated as a possible running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

\But there’s another reason Whitmer has been the recipient of a particular kind of hatred: her gender. Whitmer isn’t just a Democrat or a governor telling people what to do — she’s also a woman telling people what to do. That’s never been particularly popular with a certain subset of Americans, and it’s especially unpopular now that Trump and others have introduced a gendered element into the politics of Covid response, peddling the idea that it’s manly to ignore the risk of the virus.

Indeed, it’s no accident that Whitmer is being called a tyrant and a bitch. The attacks on her feed into age-old stereotypes about women in power — stereotypes that are especially dangerous now as they undermine some of the very leaders who are trying to stop the spread of Covid and keep Americans safe.

Whitmer has been the subject of right-wing ire for months

The right-wing rage against Whitmer’s Covid restrictions started back in mid-March, when the governor said in a CNN interview that she had sought help from the federal government in obtaining PPE and testing equipment for her state — then the fourth hardest-hit in the country — but had not received it. Trump fired back on Fox News, saying, “I don’t know if she knows what’s going on, but all she does is sit there and blame the federal government.” Then, in a White House briefing on March 27, he claimed that he had instructed Vice President Mike Pence, then in charge of the country’s Covid response, not to call “the woman in Michigan.”

The same day, he called her “Gretchen ‘Half’ Whitmer” on Twitter.

I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic. Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her head, she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 28, 2020

Then, in April, Whitmer introduced new restrictions to battle the virus, including a requirement that large stores close off sections devoted to gardening supplies and furniture. Conservatives in the state said the restrictions felt arbitrary, and on April 15, some 3,000 protesters demonstrated in the state capital of Lansing in what they called “Operation Gridlock.”

The language of many protesters, however, went beyond mere opposition to restrictions on big-box stores. The messages took on misogynistic overtones, as demonstrators carried signs comparing Whitmer to “a tyrannical queen and an overbearing mother,” according to MLive. Some chanted “lock her up!” — Trump’s favorite rallying cry against Hillary Clinton.

Trump, meanwhile, cheered the protesters on, tweeting “LIBERATE MICHIGAN” on April 17. Perhaps not surprisingly, protests continued to escalate. On April 30, armed protesters, many not wearing masks, crowded into the state Capitol and tried to get access to the House floor, as Vox’s Katelyn Burns reported. Some chanted “lock her up” and “heil Whitmer.”

At the MI Capitol pic.twitter.com/IuYoBhstIg

— Anna Liz Nichols (@annaliznichols) April 30, 2020

In May, the state had to close its Capitol and adjourn its legislative session due to a planned protest grimly titled “Judgment Day” as well as death threats against Whitmer.

And in the summer, according to an FBI affidavit released on Thursday, Fox and his associates began planning to kidnap the governor. In a video streamed to a private Facebook group on June 25, Fox referred to her as “this tyrant bitch” and “complained about the judicial system and the State of Michigan controlling the opening of gyms,” according to the affidavit.

On a July call recorded by the FBI, he discussed a plan to kidnap the governor when she was traveling to or from her vacation house or official summer residence.

“Snatch and grab, man,” Fox said, according to the affidavit. “Grab the fuckin’ Governor. Just grab the bitch.” The repetitive language might resonate uncomfortably for some Americans, who recall Trump’s boast on the Access Hollywood tape that he could grab women “by the pussy.”

After the kidnapping, Fox said he and others would take Whitmer to a secure location in Wisconsin for a “trial.”

Fox and five others were arrested this week, as Vox’s Andrew Prokop reports, before any plan could come to fruition. But the comments recorded in the affidavit were the culmination of a months-long pattern of attacks on Whitmer, fueled in part by the president, that cast her as a tyrannical leader illegitimately wielding power over Michigan citizens.

Trump even added fuel to the fire on Thursday night, saying in a rambling interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity, “I see Whitmer today, she’s complaining, but it was our Justice Department that arrested the people she was complaining about.”

“She goes and does her little political act, and she keeps her state closed,” Trump went on. “What she’s doing is a horrible thing to the people.”

The attacks on Whitmer are part of a longstanding pattern when it comes to women in power

Whitmer isn’t the only governor Trump has criticized — back in April, he also fired off “LIBERATE” tweets about Minnesota and Virginia, other states with Democratic leadership.

She’s also not the only public official to face pushback from lockdown skeptics. Indeed, Fox spoke at one point of the possibility that other states might overthrow their governors as well, according to the affidavit: “Everybody takes their tyrants.”

But Whitmer has received a degree of personal attention, both from the president and from opponents in her state, that her male counterparts haven’t necessarily experienced. That may be because, in addition to opposition to lockdown measures, she’s running up against the still widely held belief that any woman seeking or holding power is treasonous, underhanded, or illegitimate.

“She fucking goddamn loves the power she has right now,” Fox said at one point. “She has no checks and balances at all.”

It was reminiscent of complaints against other female leaders or candidates. For example, Fox News commentator Harlan Hill tweeted during the vice-presidential debate on Wednesday that Sen. Kamala Harris “comes off as such an insufferable lying bitch” (Fox News later said he would no longer appear on the network). Asked to comment on the tweet by Mediaite, he doubled down, saying, “I stand by the statement that she’s an insufferable power-hungry smug bitch.”

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, meanwhile, has received intense criticism for imposing restrictions in the face of Covid, including a lawsuit by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, that named her personally. In an interview earlier this year, Bottoms wondered whether she was singled out in part because she is a Black woman and the mayor of a majority Black city. “There were other cities in our state who instituted mask mandates and he did not push back against them,” Bottoms said. “I don’t know if it’s perhaps because they were led by men or if it’s perhaps because of the demographic in the city of Atlanta.”

Historically, female leaders and candidates around the world have often been portrayed as treacherous, two-faced, corrupt, or power-hungry — “willing to do anything at all costs to win,” as Farida Jalalzai, a political science professor who studies women leaders, put it to Vox in January. Indeed, women seeking any political power at all, even the right to vote, have faced stigma — as Vox’s Li Zhou reports, the use of the word “bitch” in literature began to increase after the passage of the 19th Amendment.

And now, women like Whitmer who attempt to use their power to get Covid under control may be running up against those stereotypes. That’s especially true since Trump and his supporters have repeatedly sent the message that the correct — and manly — thing to do is to ignore the virus, refuse a mask, and carry on as normal, regardless of whether you infect yourself or anyone else.

When women like Whitmer try to restrict people’s ability to spread a deadly virus, then, according to far-right protesters, they’re infringing on men’s freedom to be men.

Fox and his associates may be under arrest, but that messaging continues with Trump taking off his mask upon his return to the White House earlier this week and telling Whitmer she should be grateful that “our Justice Department” kept her from getting kidnapped.

As long as such rhetoric continues, it’s going to be hard for Whitmer and other female leaders to do their jobs — which may be exactly what Trump wants.