The GOP Is Coming After Your Birth Control (Even If They Won’t Admit It)

Tessa Stuart

ROLLING STONE
Sat, September 16, 2023 

Last November, voters in Kentucky turned out in large numbers to reject the idea of adding an amendment outlawing abortion to the state constitution. But almost a year later abortion is still illegal in Kentucky — thanks in large part to Attorney General Daniel Cameron, who defended against a challenge to the state’s existing abortion ban in court this year. Now Cameron, the Republican candidate running for governor in November, is signaling not only that he thinks abortion and contraception are virtually synonymous, but he would work to further restrict birth control in Kentucky if elected.

Earlier this year, Cameron filled out a survey from Northern Kentucky Right To Life that asked if he would “actively support” legislation that would make it a criminal offense “to perform, to assist with, or to pay for an abortion.” In a separate question, the survey defines “abortion” as including the emergency contraceptive Plan B and three other types of birth control: Norplant, Depo Provera, and the pill. (Northern Kentucky Right to Life did not respond to multiple inquiries about the survey.)

Cameron answered yes.

He answered yes to several other questions as well, ranging from whether he would support amendments to the U.S. and Kentucky constitutions declaring that personhood begins at the point of fertilization (which would effectively outlaw emergency contraception and some IUDs and represents a much more aggressive amendment than the one decisively defeated last year), to whether he would support the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. (Roughly one-fifth of Kentuckians get their health care through Medicaid, which was expanded under the ACA; Cameron has previously said he would not reverse the Medicaid expansion.)

On Friday, Cameron pushed back against news coverage of his survey responses. “It is absolutely ridiculous to suggest I oppose or want to criminalize birth control or contraception,” he told Bluegrass Live. It’s worth noting that Cameron was not alone: According to the anti-abortion organization that collected the surveys, the Republican candidates for secretary of state, auditor of public accounts, state treasurer, and commissioner of agriculture gave the same set of answers.

The responses — while stunning for mainstream political candidates — track with the growing mission creep among anti-abortion groups and the politicians courting them in the wake of Roe v. Wade’s reversal. Increasingly, those groups, with help from GOP officials they endorse, are targeting access to birth control in addition to access to abortion.

In his Dobbs concurrence last year, Justice Clarence Thomas suggested that the court should “reconsider” a host of landmark decisions — including Griswold v. Connecticut, guaranteeing protection for birth control. Elected Republicans and anti-abortion activists have been picking up what Thomas put down: Last fall, Idaho’s No Public Funds for Abortion Act went into effect, which prohibits health clinics at public universities from dispensing or telling students where to obtain emergency contraception except for in cases of rape. In Ohio this year, 35 Republicans in Ohio’s Assembly have backed a bill that would declare personhood begins at fertilization, threatening access to Plan B and IUDs. And just last week in Oregon, an anti-abortion group filed a lawsuit seeking to invalidate a state law that requires companies to offer insurance coverage for contraception.

Meanwhile, last year in the U.S. House of Representatives, 195 Republicans — 93 percent of the caucus — voted against codifying federal protections for birth control.

At the same time, many Republicans like Cameron have issued statements ridiculing the idea that they are anti-birth control. Cameron justified his opposition to the ACA mandate requiring coverage for birth control by saying he simply believes “in upholding the fundamental right to religious freedom. No one should be compelled to act against their religious beliefs. That includes taxpayers.” Cameron’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment from Rolling Stone, but his survey responses are firmly on brand for the Republican, who has embraced, as attorney general of Kentucky, some of the most hostile positions toward women’s reproductive health as possible.

Earlier this year, the Biden administration implemented a rule blocking state officials from obtaining information about reproductive health care — including birth control and fertility treatments — that residents get outside of their home states. Cameron opposed the rule, joining attorneys general from several other GOP-controlled states in a letter accusing the administration of attempting to “wrest control over abortion back from the people in defiance of the Constitution and Dobbs.”

Cameron has also joined an amicus brief urging the Supreme Court to uphold a lower court decision that revoked FDA authorization for the abortion drug mifepristone. (The Court declined.) He joined a separate letter threatening the pharmacy chains Walgreens and CVS with legal action if they chose to dispense abortion medication. (The letter had an impact: Walgreens declared it would not dispense the medication — an outcome Cameron was “very pleased” by.)

Beyond defending the state’s near-total abortion ban — a law that does not include any exceptions for rape or incest — one of Cameron’s highest-profile efforts as attorney general has been picking a fight with Yelp over its decision to flag for users that crisis pregnancy centers “do not offer abortions or referrals to abortion providers.” For this, Cameron accused the company of “discrimination.”

In addition to securing the backing of Northern Kentucky Right to Life, Cameron has won endorsements from a host of other anti-abortion groups, including National Right to Life, Kentucky Right To Life Victory PAC, and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

On the campaign trail, Cameron has made his views on abortion the centerpiece of his candidacy, declaring his vision for Kentucky is “a vision in which we make sure that those that are unborn are able to reach their God-given potential.”Kentucky, meanwhile, has the second-highest maternal mortality rate in the nation.

Some foreign finance execs in China spending nearly a third of their working time studying 'Xi Thought,' report says

THE RULING IDEAS ARE THE IDEAS OF THE RULING CLASS  

Polly Thompson
Sun, September 17, 2023 

Students display the flag of the Communist Part of ChinaSTR

The study of 'Xi Jinpeng Thought' in state-owned Chinese companies has been mandated.


The CCP is seeking to ensure ideological loyalty in the face of economic headwinds.


But now employees of foreign firms are being pulled into the 'study sessions' as well.

Employees of the global finance firm Blackrock, together with other bankers and business leaders in China, are spending up to a third of their time attending lectures on 'Xi Jinping Thought', per Bloomberg.

Study sessions have now become mandatory for many employees at non-state-owned companies, and those with foreign staff and global offices are being pulled in as well.

In June, employees of financial firms Franklin Templeton and BlackRock were ordered to attend a lecture on sticking to the party's leadership in the industry, Bloomberg reported. Some have reported having to join activities or courses, or read four books written by Xi every month.

First published in 2017, Xi Jinping thought lays out 14 principles by which China will prosper. It follows a pattern of Chinese leaders building on the original Marxist-Leninist teachings. Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin all introduced their own revised teachings on the theory that underpins China's communist political system.

But Beijing's promotion of the doctrine fits into the shift towards prioritising ideology to maintain the party's grip on power as economic pressures have mounted.

China's President Xi JinpingLintao Zhang

In addition to the pressure to study of Xi's doctrine, new laws have limited international banks' abilities to operate as normal in China.

Amendments to the country's counter-espionage laws have hindered typical business practices including gathering information on local markets, potential partners, and competitors, as well as accurate reporting to investors and regulators.

In March, Deloitte was fined $31 million after an official investigation found 'serious deficiencies' in its audit of a state-owned debt management firm, per The FT.

Meanwhile, China's foreign relations law makes clear that foreign nationals will not be exempt from China's increasing control over private business. "Foreigners and foreign organisations in mainland China shall comply with Chinese law and must not endanger China's national security, harm the societal public interest, or undermine societal public order,'" the law states, per The FT.

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE...

Pence: UAW ‘pushing back rightly’ against Biden electric vehicle policies

UAW WANTS 'JUST TRANSITION'

Nick Robertson
Sun, September 17, 2023 

Former Vice President Mike Pence supported the United Auto Workers (UAW) strike, saying the union is “pushing back rightly” on Biden administration policies encouraging electric vehicles (EVs).

The UAW began a first-of-its-kind strike Friday against three major automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis. The union is demanding increased wages, retirement benefits and workplace protections.

Pence said he believes much of the UAW’s concerns are due to the state of the economy, specifically inflation.

“I have no doubt in my mind that all those hard-working autoworkers are living in the same reality every other American is in, and that’s wages are not keeping up with inflation,” Pence said in a CNN interview Sunday.

Inflation hit record highs last year, but it has since cooled amid optimism that the U.S. economy may avoid a feared recession.

In the interview, Pence refused to say whether automakers’ CEO pay is “unfair,” a key argument among UAW members and their supporters.

The former vice president pointed to the Inflation Reduction Act as a driver for autoworkers’ concerns. The act included provisions meant to encourage production of electric vehicles, including tax credits for purchasing them and programs to support new production facilities.

“I also think that this green agenda that’s using taxpayer dollars to drive our automotive economy into EVs is understandably causing great anxiety among UAW members,” Pence said. “These guys are seeing the Green New Deal that was passed under the guise of the Inflation Reduction Act, they’re seeing it drive their industry into EVs, benefiting China that makes most of our batteries.”

“I think they’re pushing back rightly and I also think the American people stand behind them … because we’re all living in the failed reality of Bidenomics,” he added.

The union has shared concerns about the EVs in the past, noting that most of the new EV production facilities are being built in the South and other regions of the country where union support and regulation is weaker.

UAW President Shawn Fain announced the union will not endorse President Biden’s reelection campaign over EV concerns.

“It was a tremendous slap in the face to the UAW to give billions of dollars to these corporations,” former UAW President Bob King said Saturday.

The Biden administration has backed the strike, and Biden encouraged automakers to return to the bargaining table with an increased offer Friday.

“I believe they should go further … Record corporate profits, which they have, should be shared by record contracts for the UAW,” Biden said.

 The Hill.

THE WAR ON PUBLIC EDUCATION
‘We’ve lost our advantage on education’: Democrats grasp for wins on public schools

Juan Perez Jr.
Sun, September 17, 2023

Evan Vucci/AP Photo

MINNEAPOLIS — President Joe Biden’s education chief believes public schools are facing a “make or break moment.” The rescue plan coming from some Democrats, however, rings of policies that have already landed wins for conservatives.

Political skirmishes over classrooms have left Democrats underwater, or dead even, with Republicans among voters in a clutch of battleground states. And as they worried their party has not honed a strategy to reverse declining test scores, enrollment and trust in public schools, liberals watched Republican governors sign historic private school choice laws this year.

The GOP wins and a generational crisis in schooling has convinced some Democrats that the Biden administration needs to promote a liberal version of public school choice in the 2024 campaign, or risk losing votes.

“We’ve lost our advantage on education because I think that we've failed to fully acknowledge that choice resonates deeply with families and with voters,” said Jorge Elorza, the CEO of Democrats for Education Reform and its affiliate Education Reform Now think tank.

The political flak from both the left and right has put pressure on Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, who is campaigning for public schools and — as someone who hopes to stick around if Biden wins a second term — himself.

“If you erase the Department of Education or you fund private schools, what are you doing for the students that are in the local neighborhood school? I have yet to see a plan,” Cardona told POLITICO of conservative proposals while touring schools across the Midwest and Great Plains. “We have a plan.”

Yet despite the mileage the secretary is putting into classroom visits and urging party faithful to "get back on offense," Cardona’s facing allies who are clamoring for a more sweeping reinvention of public education and a more forceful response to schoolhouse culture wars.

“Secretary Cardona is a wonderful, loving, sweet man. He's an educator,” said Keri Rodrigues, the president of the National Parents Union and a member of the Massachusetts State Democratic Committee. “But what we are going through right now is a brutal political moment, and what our kids and American families need is someone with a very specific vision for how we reimagine our American public school system.”

Public schools are confronting significant post-Covid enrollment shifts to private and home schools. Policies that grant students access to school options beyond their traditional neighborhood campus are popular. That has left Cardona to protect the schoolhouse castle, navigate longstanding disagreements between labor unions and liberal education reform groups, and advance a distinctive Democratic vision of education that appeals to families and voters.

“We shouldn't be promoting private schools because our neighborhood schools are not making the grade,” Cardona said as he rolled from an exurban Minnesota technical college toward a city dual-language elementary school. “We should make sure we're working to support our neighborhood schools to make the grade.”

Here’s the thing. Private choice is taking off — and fast.

Republican governors in Arkansas, Iowa, Ohio, Florida and elsewhere are now presiding over major expansions of programs that give families public subsidies to pay for private school tuition and other education expenses. Oklahoma officials are also leading a campaign to open explicitly religious public schools, which some church leaders and conservative advocates see as a monumental leap for school choice and religious liberty.

Public school enrollment meanwhile dropped by 3 percent in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, a plunge of some 1.4 million students. There are also signs liberals have failed to regain the broad trust on education they once held with voters.

“Neither the administration, nor the left, has offered an alternative to the private school choice options that Republicans are offering,” said Elorza, a former mayor of Providence, R.I., who supported then-Gov. Gina Raimondo’s bid to have the state take over his city’s troubled school system and made headlines when he declared his family would not send their young son to the city’s public schools.

Democrats are either trailing or essentially tied with Republicans among voters in four battleground states when it comes to which party is trusted to ensure public schools prepare students for life after graduation, according to polling Elorza’s group commissioned during mid-July in North Carolina, Arizona, Georgia and Nevada. Roughly half of voters and parents in those states said their schools were about the same or worse since before the pandemic.

“What's going to happen if we don't as a party embrace choice is that, as polling shows us, we're going to lose voters to Republicans on this issue,” Elorza said. “We're going to lose elections because of this issue. And policywise, we're going to end up with their version of choice — which is private school choice.”

Elorza points to battleground voters’ support for public charter schools, career academies and magnet schools — and their preference for public options over private schools and voucher programs. He said Democrats should also embrace open enrollment policies that allow students to easily transfer within or between school districts.

The head of the country's second-largest teachers union does not disagree with the general idea.

After all, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said in an interview, an idea like building a massive regional career tech education center would require new inter-district student transfer policies.

“We should be engaged in a robust discussion about how we give kids those kinds of choices within a public system,” Weingarten said. Yet old debates are hard to quell, including unions’ differences with Democrats who want school models to embrace market-based principles.

"The obeisance to competition and to markets doesn't work when you are talking about educating all children,” Weingarten said.

Rodrigues said focusing on disputes between traditional schools, charters or other public options risks “totally missing the moment, and missing where parents are.”

“We're in a moment where Democrats should be really embracing school choice as a tool of equity and empowerment, instead of holding tight to this antiquated neighborhood boundary model,” Rodrigues said.

One part of Democrats’ response to conservatives was embodied in the stops featured during Cardona’s barnstorming, Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) said. They included a community public high school that distributes toiletries and clothing to students who need them in the Mayo Clinic’s hometown of Rochester, Minn. and a sprawling Dakota County Technical College campus an hour’s drive north in Rosemount, Minn.

“The second part of it is to not shy away from understanding that we need to in some ways really reimagine how public education should work,” Smith told POLITICO. “We have a public education system that has traditionally been organized and designed to prepare students for a four-year college education. That is not the best path for every single person.”

Cardona, who graduated from a technical high school instead of his assigned neighborhood campus, says he’s a beneficiary of choice. But he said expanding options should not come at the expense of neighborhood schools that are still responsible for educating millions of children.

“We shouldn't be promoting choice while ignoring the neighborhood schools that still need support,” the secretary said.

“Family choice is critical,” he added. “I don't know that we've ever had a position against it. I just think we have to make sure that if we're talking about how we fund it, we shouldn't do it off the backs of the neighborhood school’s funding.”

Marxists.org

https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/newspape/atc/1708.html

Assaulting Public Education in Canada – Privatization Plague... 

The so-called reforms to public education have been driven by a privatization agenda set by right-wing think tanks and lobby groups like the CATO Institute and ...

Files.eric.ed.gov

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ914667.pdf

The Privatization of Public Education - ERIC 

For the most part, for-profit or privatized schools are funded by the local, state, or federal government and offer free education to public school students ( ...

Rabble.ca

https://rabble.ca/education/how-to-privatize-public-education-system

How to privatize a public education system - Rabble.ca 

Apr 24, 2016 ... The big idea was that public education would provide an equal playing field for all society's children. Children from poor homes could work ...

Washingtonpost.com

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2022/04/18/privatization-of-public-education-gaining-ground

Privatization of public education gaining ground, report say... 

Apr 18, 2022 ... The movement to privatize public education is gaining ground in the United States at a time when traditional public school districts are ...

Reimaginerpe.org

https://www.reimaginerpe.org/19-1/weiner

Privatizing Public Education: The Neoliberal Model - Reimagi... 

As neoliberal policies tighten their grip on governments and capitalism's assault on the living conditions of working people intensifies, schooling becomes an ...

Idahoednews.org

https://www.idahoednews.org/voices/privatizing-public-education

Privatizing public education - Idaho Education News 

Jul 12, 2023 ... Some are driven by profit, others by political ideology, religious beliefs, or a combination of interests. They all share one common goal: shift ...

Edweek.org

https://www.edweek.org/policy-politics/privatization-of-public-education/2004/10

Privatization of Public Education - Education Week 

Oct 5, 2004 ... The privatization of public education is a controversial idea to turn the work of public schools over to private companies.

Alecexposed.org

https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/Privatizing_Public_Education,_Higher_Ed_Policy,_and_Teachers

Privatizing Public Education, Higher Ed Policy, and Teachers 

Back-dooring privatization by creating voucher programs to subsidize unregulated, for-profit schools or religious schools for specific subsets of students, such ...

Policyalternatives.ca

https://policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/National%20Office/2014/07/osos116_privitization.pdf

PrIVATIZATION OF SChOOLS 

The new reforms are aimed at making all primary and secondary education free, reversing the voucher system and public funding for private, for-profit schools, ...

Researchgate.net

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226319298_Privatisation_Of_Education_In_Canada_A_Survey_Of_Trends

Privatisation Of Education In Canada: A Survey Of Trends 

This study analyses initiatives for and processes of privatisation in Canadian education from K–12 to post-secondary levels. In considering how privatisation is ...

Joe Biden, MSNBC and 2024: Is liberal propaganda distorting our perception?

Jeff Cohen

SALON
Sun, September 17, 2023 

Joe Biden Nathan Posner/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

One of the conceits of MSNBC-watching liberals is that while Fox News serves up a steady stream of propaganda, they are getting the straight news from MSNBC.

One of the hallmarks of propaganda is selective outrage. Fox News generally defends the superwealthy (the "job creators") and their tax cuts, but is outraged by one particular billionaire: Democratic donor George Soros. At MSNBC, there is outrage over rich right-wing donors and Russian oligarchs, but not so much over powerful U.S. oligarchs, especially if they lean Democratic.

Another hallmark of propaganda is selective facts. Fox News cherry-picks video clips and factoids to portray President Biden as a weakling who is captive of his party's left wing or the Chinese Communist Party, or both. He's not. On MSNBC, he's portrayed as a transformative agent of change, and sometimes as the second coming of FDR. He's not that either.

To credulous news consumers who reside snugly in the bubble of corporate liberal media (from the New York Times and the Washington Post to MSNBC and CNN to public broadcasting), the Biden administration has racked up powerful, even historic, legislative achievements. Which makes it hard for many liberal news consumers to fathom why the general public seems unaware of Biden's great accomplishments, with his approval rating at 39 percent in the latest CNN poll.

Is it possible that those glued to corporate liberal media — a demographic that skews older and richer than those who tune out the news — are being propagandized and oversold on Biden? Today, pro-Biden outlets report almost daily on how the president has confronted the climate crisis through the Inflation Reduction Act, a small step forward aimed at spurring investment in renewables. This is where selective facts enter the picture. These same outlets keep marginalizing Biden's recent reversals that are worsening the crisis — and summer 2023 was "the hottest season the world has ever seen."

To news consumers snugly inside the bubble of corporate liberal media, the Biden administration has racked up powerful, even historic, legislative achievements.

Here's how Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., summarized those reversals in a Washington Post interview that received little mainstream media pick-up: "The Biden administration has reverted to an all-of-the-above strategy. They are green-lighting one fossil project after another, more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, a new LNG export facility in Alaska, a massive North Sea drilling operation called the Willow Project, the Mountain Valley Gas Pipeline. And they've failed to absolutely educate Americans about the immediacy of the challenge and how dramatically we need to operate in order to take it on."

Merkley mentioned that Washington needs to secure agreements with other countries to stop new fossil fuel projects: "But how can the U.S. ask for that when we're approving a whole lot more fossil projects here at home." The senator concluded: "On this most important issue facing humanity, Team Biden is failing."

Despite massive pressure from environmentalists that began in 2021, including from young activists who will be needed for Democrats to defeat GOP neofascism in 2024, Biden has stubbornly refused to declare a climate emergency. Such a declaration would give him broader powers to act — to move forward instead of in reverse.

On the issue of student loan debt, Biden stubbornly resisted lobbying that began in early 2021 from grassroots groups (and even from Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer) to go big and rely on the Higher Education Act of 1965 to cancel up to $50,000 in debt per person. Even though student debt falls hardest on Black women, Biden opposed cancellation by disingenuously claiming that he didn't want to help rich Ivy Leaguers. After 19 months of pressure from the Democratic base, Biden yielded and his administration canceled some student debt based on COVID emergency legislation — a move ultimately blocked by the reactionary Supreme Court.

Advocates for universal health care are also fully aware of Biden's stubbornness; they remember his stunning comment during the 2020 campaign that if Congress somehow passed Medicare for All, he might actually veto it as president. Candidate Biden did promise to lower the age of Medicare eligibility to 60, a change that would materially improve the lives of millions. But he has taken no action.

The cost of health care — which causes most bankruptcies in our country — is one of those inequality crises that smothers millions of Americans, most of whom don't consume MSNBC or corporate liberal media. Major reforms would be noticed even by these low-news consumers. If you're inside the liberal news media bubble, you've been told regularly how Team Biden and the Inflation Reduction Act are lowering the cost of insulin and 10 other widely-used medications. It's an important step forward. But it's dwarfed by the enormity of the health care crisis and has not yet impacted enough voters. (More federal funds would be available for health care and other domestic needs if Biden and Congress didn't keep enlarging the already-bloated military budget, a topic that gets little scrutiny or criticism from corporate liberal outlets.)

Which brings us to why many MSNBC viewers are bewildered by the lack of public support for a president who they see hailed nightly for his grand achievements. In last week's national poll showing Biden at 39 percent approval, one of the more disturbing numbers is that 58 percent said the president's policies have worsened economic conditions. Sure, some of those naysayers are consuming daily disinformation from right-wing propaganda outlets like Fox News. But most aren't inside the right-wing media bubble.

As prices rise and working-class and middle-class people struggle to pay bills, Biden has been unable to persuade many of them that he's "on their side." While progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders have spent almost two years spotlighting how corporate greed has fueled inflation (with proposals to address "greedflation"), that populist message is not one Biden is able or willing to convey. And it's certainly not a message you'll hear in liberal outlets owned by giant corporations or billionaires.

Given the quasi-fascist threat represented by Trump and the MAGA movement, it's understandable that many who care about democracy feel the need to rally around Biden. But it's long past time for progressives and Democrats to yank their heads out of the sand and quit being pacified by pro-Biden adulation on MSNBC or CNN and their 24/7 all-Trump/all-indictments coverage. These indictments may not stop Trump.

Trump and Trumpism need to be defeated at the ballot box, and we need to confront the fact that Biden would be a weak candidate next year. Putting aside his age, he's weak because he appears incapable of addressing the crises people are experiencing. His re-election campaign team seems clueless about the issues that persuadable voters care about (as shown by their recent Ukraine ad). Most of the public doesn't want Biden to run for re-election. Most Democratic-leaning voters don't want him to run again either — especially those not propagandized nightly by MSNBC.

After a wide-open presidential primary process in 2020, Democrats and progressives came together to defeat Trump. We may need that open process again in 2024 to defeat Trump or Trumpism. For that to happen, Joe Biden would have to step aside. The sooner the better.