“My Beautiful Christians:” Trump’s Pandering to Christian Nationalists

July 29, 2024 /by emptywheel

The other day, during an address to a Turning Point conference, Trump implored,

Christians, get out to vote. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore my beautiful Christians. I love you. I’m [not/a] Christian.You have to get out and vote. In four years, you won’t have to vote again, we’ll have it fixed so good you’re not going to have to vote.

Horse race journalists didn’t care. They found it more important to repeat and therefore magnify Trump’s latest slur on Vice President Harris.

When I first looked at how NYT covered it at 3:37AM ET, this was their headline.

At 8:311AM, this story from Michael Gold was published. It still focused on magnifying the slurs Trump used against Harris.

Only much later, around noon ET, did Gold figure out that the “not have to vote” stuff was far more newsworthy than Trump calling the Vice President a “bum.”

That story included Trump’s comment about voting, along with Gold’s spin of it as a claim that Trump would address the concerns of Christian voters sufficiently that they would no longer have to vote, buried in ¶14.

At the end of his speech, Mr. Trump urged the religious crowd to vote in November, suggesting that if elected he would address their concerns sufficiently enough that they would no longer need to be politically active. Earlier, he had lamented that conservative Christians do not vote proportionately to their size, a complaint he has made repeatedly in recent weeks.

“Christians, get out and vote. Just this time,” Mr. Trump said on Friday. “You won’t have to do it anymore, you know what? Four more, years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

Let it be noted that one of NYT’s allegedly professional horserace journalists believes that the white Evangelical Christians who have been among Trump’s most important supporters vote in disproportionately low numbers or that any Republican would forego that most important part of their coalition. (That said, for demographic reasons Trump can’t change with a speech, white Evangelicals make up an increasingly smaller proportion of the voting public, which poses an entirely different kind of threat than apathy.)

In spite of disinterest by journalists paid to write horserace stories, the clip went viral on social media, setting off a debate about what Trump meant. Right wing trolls pushed the same horseshit claims of low turnout (again, we’re talking about the in-person and TV audience for a Turning Point conference!) that Gold provided. Others attributed it to Trump’s narcissism, a suggestion that he only cares about votes so long as he would be on the ballot.

Three Sunday morning shows dealt with it — all abysmally.

Martha Raddatz for example, let Chris Sununu dismiss the comments as a “classic Trumpism,” without asking what he meant by “this stuff” when he said it “can be fixed.” Then she went back to the horse race.

There are several things people are ignoring.

First, Trump said something quite similar — and he said it at another Turning Point conference — just a month and a half ago, in Detroit.

Only, at that point, before Joe Biden had dropped out of the race, Trump said,

I said, we don’t need votes. And Charlie Kirk is helping. He’s got his army of young people. These are young patriots. They don’t want to see happen what’s been happening in our country.

Thank you Charlie.

[USA chants]

And I said to Charlie, and I said to Michael [Whatley], listen, we don’t need votes. We’ve got more votes than anybody’s ever had. We need to watch the vote, we need to guard the vote.

We need to stop the steal.

In mid-June, before Biden dropped out, Trump wasn’t concerned about turnout. Now he is.

This comment — to the people Charlie Kirk had assembled to listen to Donald Trump — is best understood as a comment about Trump’s plan to win. As the January 6 Committee discovered, when Trump decided in late December 2020 that he was going to speak and march to the Capitol, Carline Wren turned to Kirk to help turn out bodies. Turning Point was also allegedly used to launder speaking fees to Don Jr and his girlfriend. As it happened, Kirk backed out of attending and deleted his boasts about arranging dozens of busses so others could do so. He pled the Fifth rather than explain to the January 6 Committee anything about all that.

But nevertheless, Charlie Kirk got busloads of people to Trump’s insurrection.

To the extent that Trump needs lots of bodies to be somewhere, Charlie Kirk is a key part of that process. And in June, he wanted them out to surveil polling centers, once again mobilizing Stop the Steal. Friday, he emphasized he actually needs some people to show up to the polls.

Trump’s plans for the election — and how they may have changed with Biden’s departure — is an important background for this. As Tim Alberta described it, after Trump took over the RNC, he got rid of the field organization (potentially dooming down-ticket candidates), and replaced it with Big Lie perpetrators.

The Trump campaign’s takeover of the RNC in March—installing the former president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, as the new co-chair, while establishing LaCivita as chief of staff and de facto chief executive, all of it long before Trump had technically secured the party’s nomination—didn’t sit well with many Republicans. Appearances aside, the imperatives of a presidential campaign are not always aligned with those of the RNC, whose job it is to advance the party’s interests up and down the ballot and across the country. “Party politics is a team sport. It’s bigger than Ronald Reagan or Donald Trump or any one candidate,” said Henry Barbour, a longtime Mississippi committeeman, who has fought to prevent the national party’s funds from going to Trump’s legal defense. “Nobody’s ever going to agree on exactly how you split the money up, but you’ve got to take a holistic approach in thinking about all the campaigns, not just one.”

The RNC under Ronna McDaniel, who chaired the national party from early 2017 until LaCivita’s takeover, had become a frequent target of Trump’s ire. He didn’t like that the party remained neutral in the early stages of the 2024 primary—and he was especially furious that McDaniel commissioned debates among the candidates. But what might have bothered him most was the RNC’s priorities: McDaniel was continuing to pour money into field operations, stressing the need for a massive get-out-the-vote program, but showed little interest in his pet issue of “election integrity.”

“Tell you what,” Trump said to Wiles and LaCivita. “I’ll turn out the vote. You spend that money protecting it.”

The marching orders were clear: Trump’s lieutenants were to dismantle much of the RNC’s existing ground game and divert resources to a colossal new election-integrity program—a legion of lawyers on retainer, hundreds of training seminars for poll monitors nationwide, a goal of 100,000 volunteers organized and assigned to stand watch outside voting precincts, tabulation centers, and even individual drop boxes.

When someone fires all the field staff and instead hires Christina Bobb, it’s a pretty big tell that they don’t plan to win the election the democratic way.

They plan to double down on the Big Lie.

Or they did, before Biden dropped out.

As Alberta noted in a follow-up, Trump’s entire plan revolved around Biden. Now Trump is stuck plaintively reminding rally-goers of the six-year campaign, he and Russia, with the help of the entire Republican party, launched against Biden’s kid. “Where’s Hunter? … That was the big one.”

That’s a big part of the background that is missing from discussion of Trump’s comments.

The other is what it means that, after falsely claiming that Christians are being targeted by law enforcement right along with billionaires who engaged in fraud to cover up fucking a porn star, Trump told a bunch of Christian nationalists that they needed to vote just one more time.

As Sarah Posner laid out in a piece analyzing the way right wingers exploited the shooting attempt on Trump, these are people who use apocalyptic tropes to motivate voters and activists.

For the Trump faithful who believe God anointed him president and, after the attempt on his life, that God protected him from death, there are no coincidences — only miracles, signs, and wonders. Charlie Kirk, the founder of the far-right Turning Point USA and a fellow denizen of the conspiratorial fever swamps of X, chimed in on Posobiec’s tweet. “Armor of God,” he replied, just in case Posobiec’s meaning was lost on anyone. “The next verse is this: ‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.’” For good measure, Posobiec replied to Kirk, quoting the next verse, Ephesians 6:13. “Therefore, put on the armor of God,” he concluded, “that you may be able to resist on the evil day and, having done everything, to hold your ground.”

Posner added more in Bluesky this thread.

The point is, Trump’s audience of Christian nationalists do view taking over government in apocalyptic terms. They did, on January 6. And it nearly worked the first time.

This was only a Trumpism, as Sununu called it, to the extent that Trump is an epic conman who knows how to mobilize his audience, even Christian nationalists with whom Trump shares little more than a fondness for authoritarianism.

So sure: Perhaps this was just an attempt to juice more turnout out of a group that already turns out in high numbers, almost exclusively for Republicans. Or maybe — as his comments in June were — it’s part of a larger effort to delegitimize democracy.

But even beyond Trump’s last coup attempt, there’s a context here, one you need to at least acknowledge if you’re going to claim to assess his comments.

Top lawyer says UK should halt arms sales to Israel over unlawful occupation of Palestinian land

A lawyer representing Palestine's team on the International Court of Justice case says the UK should take steps to stop arms trade with Israel.

The New Arab Staff
29 July, 2024

The International Court of Justice issued a landmark ruling on Israel's 57 year occupation of Palestinian land in July [GETTY]


A top human rights lawyer said the UK must stop arms sales to Israel to ensure compliance with the recent ruling from the world court, which found that Israel’s occupation of Palestinian land was illegal.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) said that Israel's occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza was in breach of international law and ordered it to immediately halt and withdraw all settlement activity.

Professor Philipe Sands, a member of Palestine’s legal team for the ICJ case, told The Guardian that the UK should cease arming Israel to comply with the court's 19 July ruling that UN member states should not "render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territories".

Sands, who teaches law at University College London, said that the advisory "precludes sale of military material which could be used directly or indirectly to assist Israel in maintain its unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories".

The landmark ICJ ruling issued a damning verdict on Israel's 57-year-old occupation of Palestinian land, which described the situation in the occupied West Bank as an "apartheid system", and comes as Israel's brutal offensive against Gaza nears its tenth month.

The Gaza war has again returned the spotlight onto Israel’s discriminatory and aggressive policies towards Palestinians and triggered accusations of Israeli crimes against humanity.

Over the course of the war, there have been increasing calls for the UK government to halt authorising weapons or parts of weapons to Israel over concern that it could be used by the Israeli army or air force in its assault on Gaza.

The government has approved over $614 million of weapon sales to Israel since 2015 in so-called single-issue licences, while companies export more under open licences, according to rights groups.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy earlier this month said that his office was carrying out a "comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law".

While he was in opposition, Lammy called on the then Conservative government to suspend arms sales to Israel, particularly in the wake of the Israeli drone attack that killed three British aid workers in Gaza.

Israel is facing accusations in a separate case at the ICJ brought by South Africa accusing it of committing genocide against the Palestinian people in the war on Gaza.
Related

Why the ICJ ruling on Israel's occupation will be hard to ignore

Analysis

Alessandra Bajec

The ICJ had been investigating Israel’s actions in the Palestinian territory since 2022, following a UN general assembly resolution that came about after Palestine was authorised to sit at the UN general assembly.

The new Labour government has yet to issue a formal response to the ruling and has said it is being carefully considered.

It is expected that the UN general assembly will hold a vote on the outcome in the coming months. The UK has previously been accused of opposing the ICJ’s hearing of the case on Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Last August the UK submitted a length legal opinion against the case, which was denounced by Palestinian officials and international humanitarian lawyers.

Sands, who has authored books on genocide and war crimes, said that the UK should not vote against the ICJ advisory opinion “if the government is true to its word on respecting international law”.

The Labour led government has committed to recognising a Palestinian state but has not specified a timeline.

Speaking to the House of Commons on 18 July, Lammy said that Palestinians had been “in purgatory for decades” and “denied the state that is their inalienable right”.

UK should stop arming Israel after ICJ advisory ruling, top lawyer says

Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
Sun, 28 July 2024 

The UN’s top court found that Israel’s settlement policies and occupation of the Palestinian territories were in breach of international law.Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images

The UK should stop arming Israel in order to comply with the historic advisory opinion by the UN’s top court that member states should not “render aid or assistance” to the occupation of the Palestinian territories, a lawyer who represented Palestine has said.

In a broad and damning ruling published this month, the international court of justice (ICJ), found that Israel’s settlement policies and occupation of the territories were in breach of international law. It also said UN member states were under an obligation to neither recognise the occupation as lawful nor abet it.

With the UK already under pressure over the sales of arms to Israel during its military offensive in Gaza, which was launched in response to the 7 October attacks and has killed almost 40,000 Palestinians, Prof Philippe Sands KC, a member of Palestine’s legal team for the case at the ICJ, said the court’s opinion had important ramifications for the UK.

“The most immediate issue is the obligation in the advisory opinion on the states, which includes the United Kingdom, not to aid or assist in the maintenance of the current situation in the occupied territories of the West Bank, including [East] Jerusalem,” said Sands.

“That legal obligation precludes sales of military material which could be used directly or indirectly to assist Israel in maintaining its unlawful occupation of the occupied Palestinian territories.”

The foreign secretary, David Lammy, has said officials are, on his instructions, carrying out a “comprehensive review of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law” and has signalled that he is considering banning some arms sales to the country.

Related: UN court orders Israel to end its occupation of Palestinian territories

Sands said the ICJ’s ruling, as an advisory opinion requested by the UN general assembly, was not directly binding as such on the UK or other individual member states, but would be “recognised as an authoritative statement of the law and one that the UN and its specialised agencies will follow as law”.

Sands, who is a professor of law at University College London and a visiting professor at Harvard law school, said the ruling also affected the legality of imports from Israeli settlements to the UK and other countries.

“Anything that is produced in the occupied territories, such as food, or that is sold there over the internet, is in principle subject to the international prohibition, if it can be said to aid or assist in the maintenance of the unlawful occupation,” he said.

Sands said such ICJ opinions were routinely followed by a vote two to three months later at the UN general assembly as to whether they should be adopted and that the UK’s stance would be instructive. The UK voted against the ICJ referral and then submitted a 43-page legal opinion opposing it.

“How does the UK vote on that [the opinion]?” said Sands. “Will it vote against, or will it abstain? If the government is true to its word on respecting international law, given the nature and detail of the ICJ advisory opinion, you would expect them, at the very least, not to vote against. This could well be an early issue in relations with the United States, which will almost certainly vote against, despite the fact that the US judge was part of the large majority.”

Among the arguments advanced by Sands during the ICJ hearing in February was that on Palestinian right to self-determination. In its advisory opinion, the court referred to “the realisation of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination, including its right to an independent and sovereign state”.

While Labour has committed to recognising a Palestinian state, it has not set a timescale and has said this would be “as a contribution to a renewed peace process which results in a two-state solution”.

Sands said: “Ultimately, the recognition of a state is a political matter, not a legal obligation, so there is a discretionary element. Nevertheless, the ICJ judges have clearly stated that self-determination means that the Palestinian people ‘have the right to an independent and sovereign state’. About 150 states (out of nearly 200) have recognised Palestine as a state, the UK is part of a small and diminishing group that refuses to do so.”

After the ICJ advisory opinion, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said on 19 July it was “considering it carefully before responding” and “respects the independence of the ICJ”.

UK

Campaign groups call on Home Office to stop ‘steady erosion’ of protest rights

Damien Gayle
Sun, 28 July 2024 
THE GUARDIAN

Roger Hallam (centre) was one of five Just Stop Oil activists given a lengthy prison sentence for recruiting volunteers to campaign of non-violent protest.Photograph: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Environmental groups are among 92 civil society organisations who have warned Yvette Cooper against “the steady erosion of the right to protest” in the UK, and called on her to reverse the previous government’s crackdown on peaceful protest.

“The right to protest is a vital safety valve for our democracy and an engine of social progress,” the letter, delivered on Friday, said. “The achievements of peaceful protest are written on the labour movement’s own birth certificate.”

“[We] urge this government to intervene to reverse the crackdown on peaceful protest set in motion under the last government,” the letter continues.


“The responsibility for it lies firmly with the previous administration – but the current government now faces a clear choice between allowing its dire consequences to play out under its watch, or do something to prevent it.”

Related: ‘Not acceptable in a democracy’: UN expert condemns lengthy Just Stop Oil sentences

Signatories include Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Wildlife and Countryside Link and a host of other environmental campaigning organisations, alongside Amnesty International UK, Liberty and dozens of human rights, free speech and social justice groups.

The letter has been prompted in part by the jailing of five Just Stop Oil activists for a total of 21 years after they appeared on a Zoom call recruiting volunteers for non-violent disruptive protests that blocked the M25 over four days in 2022.

But it also notes that the stiff sentences “are not an isolated incident”. Anti-protest legislation passed in 2022 and 2023, and successful efforts by attorneys general to remove legal defences in protest cases, constituted “a deliberate strategy by previous governments to criminalise and shrink the space for peaceful protest,” the letter said.

The groups call on Cooper to join them in roundtable discussions “to hear directly from a selection of key groups across civil society about these issues”.

“We can’t afford to become a country that routinely sends peaceful protesters to jail for years,” said Areeba Hamid, the co-executive director of Greenpeace UK. “Protest can be annoying and inconvenient, but it’s annoying and inconvenient protest that has led to the end of slavery, votes for women, basic workers’ rights and the bans on nuclear testing and commercial whaling.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We recognise the democratic right that people must be free to peacefully express their views, but they should do so within the bounds of the law. Protest organisers should engage fully with the police. The letter has been received and we will respond in due course.”

Home Secretary urged to reverse peaceful protest crackdown

Rebecca Speare-Cole, PA sustainability reporter
Mon, 29 July 2024 

Groups representing human rights and green issues are urging the Home Secretary to “reverse the crackdown” on peaceful protests.

An open letter – signed by 92 organisations including Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace UK, Liberty and Christian Aid – was sent to Yvette Cooper.

It comes after five Just Stop Oil protesters were handed four and five year-prison sentences for their involvement in a protest that disrupted the M25 in London for more than four days in 2022.

The jail terms, which are thought to be the longest sentences ever given in the country for peaceful protest, have been condemned by many including UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk – who described them as “deeply troubling”.

Writing to Ms Cooper, the groups said the sentences are not an isolated incident but the result of a “deliberate strategy by previous governments to criminalise and shrink the space for peaceful protest in our democracy”.

They said the new Labour government now faces “a clear choice between allowing its dire consequences to play out under its watch, or do something to prevent it”.

The signatories cited the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 as two pillars of the Tory government’s strategy, describing them as “gagging laws”.

They also criticised previous attorney generals for removing legal defences available to peaceful protesters, adding that this has led to “the absurd situation of juries being prevented from hearing crucial evidence from defendants about the reasons for their actions”.

The campaign groups referenced the arrest of 630 peaceful protesters in just one month last year, as well as demonstrators being rounded up at the coronation ceremony for carrying placards and 11 people being arrested for holding signs outside court defending the right of jurors to exercise their conscience.

Police closing the M25, where demonstrators from Just Stop Oil, climbed the gantry in 2022 (Just Stop Oil)

The letter said: “The imprisonment of peaceful protesters is hard to justify at the best of times but it seems utterly absurd when the criminal justice system is creaking at the seams and the Home Office is grappling with an overcrowding crisis in our prisons.”

It added that the right to protest is a “vital safety valve for our democracy and an engine of social progress”.

“Without it, we would have no votes for women, no right to a work-free weekend, no freedom to take a walk in the countryside, and no ban on commercial whaling and fracking,” it said.

The letter called on Ms Cooper to attend a civil society roundtable to discuss the concerns.

Areeba Hamid, Greenpeace UK co-executive director, said: “Protest can be annoying and inconvenient, but it’s annoying and inconvenient protest that has led to the end of slavery, votes for women, basic workers’ rights and the bans on nuclear testing and commercial whaling.

“It’s been the engine of social and environmental progress for over a century, and that’s why we can’t afford to become a country that routinely sends peaceful protesters to jail for years.”

Ms Hamid said the crackdown is also “damaging the UK’s standing on the global stage”.

“Labour now faces a clear choice between letting the slow-moving car crash unfold under their watch or taking action to stop it,” she said.

Sam Grant, Liberty’s director of advocacy, said: “The trend of increasingly severe prison sentences for non-violent protesting is incredibly concerning for our democracy, and is a stark reminder of the dire state of our right to protest in the UK.

“We need a Government that listens to, rather than punishes protesters, and for the dangerous legislation of recent years to be immediately overturned.”

The PA news agency has contacted the Home Office for comment.

Home Secretary urged to reverse peaceful protest crackdown

More than 90 organisations including Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace UK, Liberty and Christian Aid, have signed an open letter to Yvette Cooper.


Home Secretary Yvette Cooper (Jeff Moore/PA)

PA Wire
Rebecca Speare-Cole

1 day ago

Groups representing human rights and green issues are urging the Home Secretary to “reverse the crackdown” on peaceful protests.

An open letter – signed by 92 organisations including Amnesty International UK, Greenpeace UK, Liberty and Christian Aid – was sent to Yvette Cooper

It comes after five Just Stop Oil protesters were handed four and five year-prison sentences for their involvement in a protest that disrupted the M25 in London for more than four days in 2022.

The jail terms, which are thought to be the longest sentences ever given in the country for peaceful protest, have been condemned by many including UN human rights commissioner Volker Turk – who described them as “deeply troubling”.

Writing to Ms Cooper, the groups said the sentences are not an isolated incident but the result of a “deliberate strategy by previous governments to criminalise and shrink the space for peaceful protest in our democracy”.

They said the new Labour government now faces “a clear choice between allowing its dire consequences to play out under its watch, or do something to prevent it”.

The signatories cited the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Act 2022 and the Public Order Act 2023 as two pillars of the Tory government’s strategy, describing them as “gagging laws”.

They also criticised previous attorney generals for removing legal defences available to peaceful protesters, adding that this has led to “the absurd situation of juries being prevented from hearing crucial evidence from defendants about the reasons for their actions”.

The campaign groups referenced the arrest of 630 peaceful protesters in just one month last year, as well as demonstrators being rounded up at the coronation ceremony for carrying placards and 11 people being arrested for holding signs outside court defending the right of jurors to exercise their conscience.

 

Peggy Piggott and post-war British archaeology

 

Rachel Pope and Mairi Davies

29 July 2024

In the 2021 Netflix film The Dig, Peggy Piggott was portrayed as a young woman of moderate skill, very much stumbling into archaeology. A media storm ensued, as many archaeologists were dismayed at the poor writing around one of greatest British prehistorians. The authors here had been researching Peggy for some time and set about correcting the record.

Peggy Piggott joined British Archaeology in 1930 at the age of 18. Her career provides a perfect case study on understanding the opening up and closing down of women’s access to archaeology in the early to mid-20th century. In a previous paper on Peggy’s early life and career, we revealed how the coming together of Victorian women’s activism, socialist ideals within the British education system (London, Wales, Scotland) and WWII opened windows of opportunity for wealthy women.

In this second paper, on Peggy’s later life, we discover how post-war domestic politics worked to board up those 1930s windows. Instead, by the mid-late 1940s middle-class men returning from military service gained rapid promotion in British archaeology, with their in some cases more qualified and experienced wives, assisting their professional posts.

By the early 1950s, Peggy Piggott had co-directed and published eight hillfort excavations, advancing our understanding of the development of prehistoric settlement architecture before the advent of radiocarbon dating. Beyond hillforts, she was central to advancing the modern field of roundhouse studies, the skilled excavation of Milton Loch crannog, and to promoting open-area excavation, although these contributions would later be credited to Gerhard Bersu.

Peggy was an early advocate for Late Bronze Age-Early Iron Age continuity – following in the vein of Maud Cunnington and W.J. Varley. Her theoretical understanding opted for Childe’s diffusionism, in contrast to the old invasionist views out of London by Mortimer Wheeler and Christopher Hawkes, which Stuart Piggott sought to extend to Scotland. By contrast, Peggy’s 1940s ideas would ultimately pave the way for the 1960s rejection of invasionism by a new generation of archaeologists. Her focus too on field-based interpretation was also to inspire a new generation of northern prehistorians.

Despite this, Peggy was not considered for a professional post. She had been a very useful archaeological wife, but on parting ways with Stuart in her personal life, she parted too with British archaeology – marrying again and moving to Sicily where she wrote books instead on south Italian archaeology. The result for British archaeology was that Christopher Hawkes and Stuart Piggott spread themselves rather too thinly over her area of expertise. Sadly, we are still working to correct some of the interpretive problems this left to Iron Age studies. Peggy returned to Britain in the 1970s, leading a happy retirement which focused on her study of ancient glass beads, leaving us two field-leading tomes that are still regularly consulted today.

Peggy Piggott was of one our first great later prehistorians in British archaeology and it is good, finally,  to be able to recognise her as such.

Read the associated research ‘Peggy Piggott and Post-war British Archaeology‘ out now open access in European Journal of Archaeology.

Iowa's 6-Week Abortion Ban Takes Effect as Majority of Residents Believe It Should Be Legal

A 2023 poll suggested that only 35% of Iowans support abortion restrictions

By Charlotte Phillipp
Published on July 29, 2024 03:04PM EDT

Iowans supporting access to abortion rally on Thursday, April 11, 2024, outside the courthouse in Des Moines, Iowa.

 PHOTO: HANNAH FINGERHUT/AP


Iowa's new six-week abortion ban took effect on Monday, July 29, after the state previously allowed abortions up to 20 weeks of pregnancy.


In July 2023, the Iowa Legislature approved a law that would severely limit access to abortions by prohibiting the procedure six weeks after conception — before many people know they are pregnant.


The ban was temporarily blocked while a lawsuit played out, but in June, the Iowa Supreme Court ordered the block to be lifted and scheduled the ban to begin on July 29 at 8 a.m.

Iowa House, Senate Pass 6-week Abortion Ban, Sending Bill to Governor's Desk


The legislation — called the Heartbeat Bill — makes some exceptions, including in cases of rape, incest, health risks to the mother and fetal abnormality. It's one of numerous abortion bans that have been proposed or gone into effect since the U.S. Supreme Court's 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ruling, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

Donald Trump Attempts to Walk Back Abortion Stance After Taking Credit for Overturning Roe v. Wade


As with many abortion bans around the nation, Iowa's new restrictions are out of step with public sentiment.


A poll published in March 2023 by the Des Moines Register/Mediacom Iowa and conducted by polling firm Selzer & Co. found that 61% of Iowa adults believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, with only 35% percent of Iowan adults saying it should be illegal in most or all cases.


Iowan women and people under 35 leaned more heavily toward believing the procedure should be legal in all or most cases, with 70% of women and 73% of under-35s supporting abortion access.

President Joe Biden Calls Supreme Court's Decision to Overturn 'Roe v. Wade' 'a Tragic Error'

A Planned Parenthood sign is displayed outside the clinic Thursday, July 18, 2024, in Ames, Iowa.
CHARLIE NEIBERGALL/AP

Many critics of the new ban have also argued that the legislation leaves much to interpretation and is more confusing than necessary.


In Des Moines Register editorial published on Sunday, July 28, the newspaper's editorial board argued that the law's exceptions surrounding rape and incest put doctors in a difficult position when they have to determine if a victim's story is credible, and that health professionals risk discipline if medical governing bodies don't agree with their judgment.

The law also isn't clear about what constitutes a "medical emergency," the editorial board noted, leaving doctors at greater risk of facing punishment.

"Neither the rape timeline nor the demand for sharing exacting detail with strangers comports with what many sexual abuse survivors actually experience," the Register board argued.

Democrats See Florida as ‘Winnable’ After State’s 6-Week Abortion Ban Threatens Women in the Southeast


Sarah Traxler, the chief medical officer of Planned Parenthood North Central States and an OB-GYN based in Minnesota, told the Associated Press that many surrounding states, including Minnesota, are now preparing for an influx of patients traveling out-of-state to obtain an abortion.


"The protections of Roe have just been chipped away at slowly through time," she told the outlet. "This transition is devastating and tragic for the people of Iowa."

AMERIKA

We’ve finally reached herd immunity! But it doesn’t matter.

AuthorKevin DrumPublished onJuly 29, 2024 – We’ve finally reached herd immunity! But it doesn’t matter.

Here's a chart showing how many of us have either gotten COVID or been vaccinated against it:

(Note that the line on the chart shows inverse seroprevalence. That is, the number of people who haven't had COVID and haven't been vaccinated. This allows me to draw a proper trendline, but you have to subtract the numbers on the trendline from one to get the actual seroprevalence.)

The trendline suggests we're now at 99.4% seroprevalence in the US population. We've finally reached the fabled level of herd immunity!

Sadly, it doesn't matter. It turns out that neither vaccines nor previous infections stop the spread of COVID. They just make it less dangerous. Oh well.

POSTSCRIPT: In case you're curious about how this breaks down, roughly 60% of the population has had COVID. (Almost) all the rest have been vaccinated.

 

CRIMINAL CHRISTIAN CAPITALI$M

‘Curses from God’: Church minister accused of forcing parishioners to help with pandemic fraud

Then-President Donald J. Trump’s name is printed on a stimulus check issued by the IRS to help combat the adverse economic effects of the COVID-19 outbreak in this April 23, 2020 photo taken in San Antonio.

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times - Monday, July 29, 2024

Leaders of a Missouri church have been charged with a $1.2 million pandemic fraud scam in which prosecutors say they stole the identities of congregants and then applied for government loans in their name.

Authorities say that when they began to investigate, Kenneth C. Sparks III, who is accused of being the ringleader, bullied church members into turning over information by telling them he was an “apostle of God” and his “actions and decrees could not be questioned.”

“When those same questions were posed by church members to Defendant Sparks, he would threaten church members with ’curses from God.’ Defendant Sparks also regularly scolded church members who inquired about his fraudulent scheme for questioning a ’man of God,’” prosecutors charged.

Sparks told them the money would help the church, Faith Walk Ministry in Paris, Missouri. Instead, the indictment says, he personally siphoned hundreds of thousands of dollars from the scheme and spent it on clothing and cars.

Making matters worse, prosecutors say Sparks submitted a pandemic loan application in his own name, even though he was a convicted felon and facing a new indictment at the time. He had been convicted of sexually abusing a 14-year-old parishioner at a previous church — again using his religious authority to keep her compliant — and then was charged with failing to register as a sex offender when he moved to Missouri.


“We all know the pandemic relief loan programs were created for those whose businesses were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Thomas F. Murdock, the IRS special agent in charge of its St. Louis criminal investigations office. “The American public is tired of hearing about fraudsters using the programs to enrich themselves and they want to know that those responsible are being investigated and held accountable.”

Sparks was arrested Friday.

Prosecutors say Jeffrey Oboite, who submitted his own bogus loan applications, trained Sparks and the church’s administrative assistant, Mya M. McCLain, in how to file. Mr. Oboite was to get a cut of the money.

Also charged in the case are Harold G. Long and Javonte D. Long, both congregants whom authorities said filed bogus applications for Paycheck Protection Program loans.

Prosecutors have asked that Sparks be held without bail, arguing the decades-long sentence he faces if he’s convicted on all charges makes him a flight risk and the type of person who would return to criminal behavior if released.

“In fact, shortly after Defendant was placed on parole for repeatedly sexually assaulting a fourteen-year-old girl, he fled from his Texas parole officer so that he could start victimizing Faith Walk Ministry parishioners,” prosecutors told the judge.

They also said Sparks resisted arrest when deputy marshals caught up with him in Florida, where he’d gone after being charged in Missouri.

The indictment says Sparks spent some of his pandemic money at a Bentley dealership in Chicago and on designer shoes


• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.

FOR PROFIT HEALTHCARE NON PROFIT

Ascension adds nine Illinois hospitals to string of sales

Thursday’s announcement is the latest in a string of other Ascension sale announcements as the system shifts focus to outpatient care and telehealth.

Ascension logo. (Courtesy image)
July 26, 2024
By Aleja Hertzler-McCain

(RNS) — On Thursday (July 25), Ascension, one of the largest Catholic health care systems in the U.S., announced that it would sell nine hospitals and four post-acute and older adult living facilities in Illinois to Prime Healthcare. Eight of the hospitals would be managed under Prime Healthcare’s for-profit wing.

The deal, expected to close in the first quarter of 2025, represents a significant change for both systems. More than half, in a nationwide system that has roughly 140 hospitals, of Ascension’s Illinois hospitals are slated to be sold. For Prime, which has operated 44 hospitals in 14 states, the acquisition would be the biggest in its history.

Thursday’s announcement is the latest in a string of other Ascension sale announcements as the system pivots to focus on outpatient care and telehealth, which typically have a lower overhead cost. The Catholic system incurred significant operating losses in fiscal years 2022 and 2023


In a Monday (July 22) blog post, Ascension President Eduardo Conrado wrote that Ascension’s shifting strategy has “strengthened Ascension and better positioned us to meet community needs while optimizing financial performance and strategic capital spending.”

Conrado wrote that the health care system, like others across the country, had faced several challenges including “lower patient volumes, cost increases, and labor shortages.”
RELATED: Ascension Catholic hospitals outsource staffing to private-equity-owned partners

“In recent divestitures, we recognized that other healthcare providers were better positioned to serve the community through a more integrated local network,” wrote Conrado, saying that divestitures were made “with the utmost seriousness” and “after thoughtful consideration, thorough due diligence, a values compatibility assessment and an ethics discernment process.”


Prime Healthcare logo. (Courtesy image)

The nine Illinois hospitals that Prime plans to buy from Ascension would be the system’s first in Illinois. As part of the acquisition, Prime has announced it will invest $250 million in facility, technology and systems improvements.

“Ascension Illinois has been committed to our Mission of serving all persons, with special attention to those who are most vulnerable,” said Polly Davenport, president and CEO of Ascension Illinois, in a press release. “Prime Healthcare’s Mission and commitment to clinical excellence and health equity will carry on this legacy, ensuring that the greater Chicago area has sustainable, quality healthcare access long into the future.”

In Monday’s blog post, Conrado wrote that “financial stewardship ensures the long-term sustainability of our health services, allowing us to invest in advanced medical technologies, modern facilities and innovative programs that enhance patient care and expand access to healthcare.”

The divestiture announcement comes after Ascension has faced criticism for outsourcing its hospitalist staffing in Illinois hospitals to a private equity-backed firm, high rates of closures of labor and delivery units, high executive pay and its participation in private equity investing. This latest decision has also prompted blowback.

RELATED: Catholic bishops silent as Ascension hospital system shrinks maternity care

M. Therese Lysaught. (Photo courtesy Loyola University Chicago)

“It’s astonishing to see Ascension decimate Catholic health care in yet another Midwestern state,” M. Therese Lysaught, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Life and a bioethics professor at Loyola University Chicago, told RNS, saying that she couldn’t square Ascension’s commitment to Catholic health care and caring for the poor with its track record in the Midwest.

Ascension was founded in 1999 through a merger of two hospital systems founded by women religious. Its Illinois hospitals had also historically been operated by various communities of Catholic sisters.

“It’s sad to watch the historic legacy of Catholic health care in Chicago replaced with a for-profit corporation,” wrote Lysaught, expressing concern that Prime’s acquisition of Ascension hospitals might lead to consequences similar to the meltdown that followed for-profit Steward Health Care’s acquisition of Catholic hospitals in Massachusetts. (The Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee opened a bipartisan investigation into Steward on Thursday.)

Lysaught also said she was concerned about Prime’s ethics because of multiple multi-million dollar settlements the company had previously entered into with the federal government around allegations of paying kickbacks to a doctor for patient referrals and submitting false claims to Medicare.

The bioethicist said that Prime and Ascension seem to be aligned, but not because of their commitment to Catholic values. “Sadly, it looks to me that Ascension’s ethos has become basically a for-profit, private equity venture,” Lysaught wrote.

Elizabeth Nikels, a spokesperson for Prime Healthcare, told RNS that Prime “has a long history of successfully turning around and improving community hospitals, and in fact, has never closed a hospital.” She added, “Prime Healthcare remains guided by its values-driven mission of providing clinically excellent health care that is compassionate and attentive to every person who turns to us for care, including those in the most vulnerable and marginalized communities.”

Nikels emphasized that Prime had previously acquired Catholic hospitals and wrote that “Prime intends to maintain the charity care policies and spiritual care that define the Ascension Illinois mission in its communities.”

The Prime spokesperson also pointed to a letter that Brother Richard Hirbe, director of spiritual care and ethics at Prime’s St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, California, had sent Ascension Illinois, vouching for Prime’s positive impact since it acquired a hospital that had previously been sponsored by the Daughters of Charity.

“I can honestly say that Prime has strengthened our holistic support of mind, body and SPIRIT since the acquisition,” Hirbe wrote, highlighting that his hospital continues to offer daily Mass and prayer, a 24-hour indoor chapel and outdoor shrine to Our Lady of Guadalupe, involvement with the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and chaplaincy services for patients of all faiths.

Hirbe, a Friar of the Sick Poor of Los Angeles, also wrote that “our standard of practice and service to the community, poor, vulnerable, and all in need has not wavered,” adding that several community service commitments have continued.

“If you have any hesitation about Prime’s promise of retaining your tradition of honoring the spiritual and religious needs of your facilities — and service to the sick poor — put that to rest. You are in good hands,” wrote Hirbe.

Prime previously acquired two Ascension hospitals in the Kansas City, Missouri, area in 2015.

This year, St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City and St. Mary’s Medical Center in Blue Springs received B and C grades, respectively, from the Lown Institute’s social responsibility index, which measures health equity, value and outcomes.

While the two hospitals received As and Bs on value and outcomes from Lown, they both received a D for community benefit, which measures “the extent of hospital investment in free care and community health,” and a C for patient satisfaction, which measures patients’ reported satisfaction as opposed to clinical outcomes or safety.

As a nationwide system, Prime’s for-profit wing received an A for social responsibility, with a B for community benefit and a D for patient satisfaction.

Of the seven hospital listings in the Lown Institute’s index that represent Ascension hospitals to be sold in the current Prime deal, three have A grades for social responsibility and four have B grades. Three have A grades for community benefit, with another three B grades and one C. Three have Bs for patient satisfaction, with another three C grades and one D.

RNS asked the three Catholic dioceses impacted by the hospital and facility sales to comment on their role in approving the sale to Prime Healthcare. The Diocese of Joliet in Illinois did not respond to RNS’ request for comment before publication.

The Diocese of Rockford told RNS, “Bishop David Malloy is committed to reviewing the details of the transfer of ownership and the impact on healthcare it may have in some areas of the Rockford Diocese. The Diocese of Rockford reaffirms its long-standing support for Catholic Health Care.”

A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Chicago confirmed to RNS that the archdiocese is aware of the announcement about the intended sale. “As part of the canonical approval process necessary for such a transfer of assets, we are working to ensure that the mission of service to the poor and marginalized continues,” the spokesperson wrote