The Fallen 9000 by Sand In Your Eye

On By peanutgallerynhIn Europe,, Media and Culture,, Military,Leave a comment

“The Fallen Project [made] a visual representation of 9000 people drawn in the sand which equates the number of Civilians, Germans Forces and Allies that died during the D-day landings, 6th June during WWII as an example of what happens in the absence of peace.”


…When we lifted the stencil it revealed a single prone figure drawn into the sand with all of us stood around it. All was quiet and I [realized] then that we had just made together the first of the Fallen 9000.  A representation of a person that once lived, they had parents, family friends.  This person had died prematurely due to a conflict and we were marking his passing.

After that hundreds of people took stencils and rakes in hand and embarked on drawing the 9000.
The Fallen 9000 by Sand In Your Eye

Wow.

Reality Winner is serving 5 years in jail for leaking one document. Her mother says she’s being silenced

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

A US Air Force veteran, was sentenced to prison for more than five years in August 2018 as part of a deal in which she pleaded guilty to leaking a classified NSA document providing details of a 2016 Russian cyberattack on a supplier of US voting software.

…Winner, 27, who worked in the US Air Force’s drone program, is serving the longest sentence ever given to a journalistic source by a federal court, according to the Department of Justice.

…The government secured Winner’s conviction under the World War I-era Espionage Act, though prosecutors do not call her a spy, and in her plea agreement, government attorneys recognize that the document she leaked was sent to a news outlet rather than a foreign adversary.

…Winner-Davis said her daughter should never have been charged or convicted under the Espionage Act. “She’s not a traitor. Reality served her country,” she said. “She protected and defended us.”

“What did she release? She released something that actually helped us to defend ourselves against an attack by Russia,” she said.

…”It was very frustrating for her, day after day, to hear the news, to know that the country was struggling with not knowing the truth, and then seeing that she had the truth right there … in front of her on her desk.

“She printed that document out and she kept it on her desk for a couple of days before sending it. This is not something that she just did on a whim … in her mind, this was the right thing to do for America. This is what needed to be done.”

…”She has paid the price, but I wouldn’t change what she has done because I think that what she did was noble, and I think that what she did was patriotic.”

Reality Winner is serving 5 years in jail for leaking one document. Her mother says she’s being silenced – CNNPolitics

hmmmm

Abortion law: Republican and conservative women don’t all agree

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Media and Culture,Leave a comment

“Republicans don’t have fewer abortions than Democrats or liberals or anarchists or communists. It’s that our political rhetoric paints people who have abortions as largely the same – poor women, young women, irresponsible women, women who hate children,” said Amanda Reyes, president of the Yellowhammer Fund, which provides funding for women seeking access to any of Alabama’s three abortion clinics. “It’s gotten us to a point where we can’t see the fact that we’re all having abortions, and we’re doing it for reasons we personally think matter – and that’s all that matters. Pro-life women are having abortions, too.”

…Polling shows about a third of Republicans say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, according to the Pew Research Center, and more than half of Republican women support keeping Roe v. Wade, according to a poll in 2018 from the nonpartisan public opinion research firm PerryUndem. Nearly 90% of voters say they would support a friend or family member if they had an abortion.

…Roberts had five more children (though she eventually split from her husband) and considered herself anti-abortion until the day she found herself in a Planned Parenthood clinic seeking an abortion. An ultrasound revealed her pregnancy was not viable, and she was told she would miscarry. 

“I realized then I’m not actually better or different,” she said. “I was sitting in the waiting room with all of these women who were just as scared as me. None of us looked like we wanted to be there. Some looked ready to get it over with. Life brought us to be at this spot, on this day, and it wasn’t a value judgment.”

Roberts co-founded the Mississippi Reproductive Freedom Fund, an organization that helps fund abortion access in Mississippi, primarily serving low-income black women. Mississippi has one abortion clinic. 

Roberts said most of the women she takes calls from are religious. 

Abortion law: Republican and conservative women don’t all agree

hmmmmmmmm

Ben Carson’s Ignorance Is Just as Much a Threat to Our Democracy as Trump’s Corruption

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Carson, a groundbreaking pediatric neurosurgeon-turned-failed presidential candidate, may no longer physically hold the lives of children in his hands. But the decisions he and his agency make affect millions of people—many of them low-income children. That he could casually joke away his ignorance is yet another outrage in an outrageous presidency.

But Carson is just an extreme example in an administration full of unqualified appointees, starting at the top. And while much has rightly been made of President Trump’s kleptocracy, the type of behavior Carson displayed is no less problematic.

…There are the garden variety grifters and criminals like former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and former EPA head Scott Pruitt. But then there’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who, during her confirmation hearing, appeared ignorant of a fundamental federal education law and was unfamiliar with one of the biggest debates about education policy. There’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Kathy Kraninger, who had no experience in consumer affairs, financial services or regulation, or government (and who was also thoroughly schooled in a hearing by Rep. Porter).

And then there’s Jared Kushner, poster child for mediocre rich men failing up, who reportedly blocked the views of legitimate State Department experts from reaching his father-in-law, presumably so that he could single-handedly broker Middle East peace.

…There are real consequences of the wall-to-wall incompetence. It’s why the Department of Homeland Security confiscated children from their parents at the southern border with no tracking system or plan in place to ultimately reunite families. It’s why five migrant children have died in U.S. custody in the past six months—when none perished in the previous decade. It’s why Puerto Rico is still suffering the effects of Hurricane Maria two years ago, and why 3,000 Americans died in its aftermath.

Ben Carson’s Ignorance Is Just as Much a Threat to Our Democracy as Trump’s Corruption

sigh….

Shrimp Are Testing Positive for Cocaine and Scientists Don’t Know Why

On By peanutgallerynhIn Drugs & Drink,, Environment,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Cocaine was the most commonly found drug and identified in every sample, as well as the anesthetic lidocaine. This is often used by dealers to bulk up the cocaine, according to the study authors. The scientists believe cocaine could have entered the water because of leakages or overflows from sewers.

Pesticides banned in the U.K. were also discovered, including fenuron. Ketamine, the animal tranquilizer which is used as a party drug, was also identified, as well as the opioid medication Tramadol and an antidepressant.

Shrimp Are Testing Positive for Cocaine and Scientists Don’t Know Why

hmmmm

Hope Hicks is facing an existential question or a subpoena, depending on whom you ask.

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,Leave a comment

Hope Hicks is facing an existential question or a subpoena, depending on whom you ask.

We have gone through the looking glass. A subpoena is not a fucking existential question. The stupid twit (and she is a stupid twit, check out who she was dating when she left the WH) can either follow the law or not, but she’s not a hero for refusing to incriminate herself, she’s a self-interested twit.. “Lock her up”.

Trump quietly shuts down HIV cure research to appease the religious right

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Domestic Affairs,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

A “pause” on research that uses aborted fetal tissue, something Christian conservatives strongly oppose, was announced by the Trump administration this past September. The move will affect numerous biomedical research programs.

Congressional Republicans have tried to ban all fetal tissue research for years to appease the religious right. 85 Republican House members wrote a letter to the head of the FDA asking for a ban on fetal tissue research shortly before the “pause” was announced.

…Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a new Conscience and Religious Freedom Division that would handle complaints from health care providers who did not want to take part in an abortion or treat transgender people.

Trump quietly shuts down HIV cure research to appease the religious right / LGBTQ Nation

Aggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Kansas Supreme Court: Abortion now a constitutional right in state

On By peanutgallerynhIn Chick Stuff,, Local Interest,Leave a comment

The court said the Kansas Constitution gives women the right to make their own decisions regarding their bodies. That means abortions would be legal in Kansas even if Roe v. Wade is reversed at the federal level.

“Our Supreme Court had not made a ruling in that regard until today,” said Robert Eye, a lawyer who represents two abortion doctors in the Supreme Court case.

Kansas Supreme Court: Abortion now a constitutional right in state

hmmm