Friday, September 20, 2024
Iraq snapshot
A discussion of reproductive rights included Hadley Duvall, an abortion rights advocate who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather when she was 12 – as well as members of the family of Amber Nicole Thurman, a Georgia mother who ProPublica reported died in 2022 from a treatable infection due to delays to her medical care stemming from the state’s restrictive abortion law.
Shanette, Thurman’s mother, spoke publicly about the case for the first time during Thursday’s livestream, saying, “Initially, I did not want the public to know my pain.”
“I wanted to go through in silence, but I realized that it was selfish. I want you to know, Amber was not a statistic, she was loved by a family, a strong family,” she added.
Harris, who is set to travel to Georgia on Friday to deliver remarks on women’s reproductive rights, apologized to Thurman’s family.
“I’m just so sorry,” the vice president said. “And the courage that you all have shown is extraordinary, because also you just learned about how it is that she died. … And Amber’s mom shared with me that the word over and over again in her mind, is preventable. Preventable. That word keeps coming to her.”
Abené Clayton and Lois Beckett (GUARDIAN) also note that section of the conversation:
Also in attendance were the mother and sisters of Amber Nicole Thurman, a woman who died after failing to receive prompt medical care in 2022 when she experienced complications from taking abortion pills, just weeks after Georgia’s abortion ban went into effect. A recent report deemed her the first “preventable” death to be confirmed as a result of Georgia’s ban.
Her family blamed Donald Trump and his supreme court picks for her death. “They just let her die because of some stupid abortion ban. They treated her like she was just another number,” Thurman’s older sister said of the medical professionals she had turned to for help.
“You’re looking at a mother who is broken,” Thurman’s mother said, through tears. “It’s the worst pain that a parent could ever feel. I want you all to know that Amber was not a statistic. She was loved by a strong family and we would have done whatever to get our baby the help that she needed. Women around the world need to know that this was preventable.”
Another powerful moment took place when the issue of school shootings took place. Kamala spoke about how she'd been addressing college students and tech school students this year and would ask, at the start, for a show of hands to determine how many had participated in an active shooting drill? She noted that this wasn't normal and shouldn't be treated as though it was. She spoke of growing up with fire drills and, because she grew up in California, earthquake drills. But shooting drills?
Ebony Davis and Fredreka Schouten (CNN) report:
Harris and the livestream audience also heard from 15-year-old Natalie Griffith, a student from Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, who was shot twice during a campus attack earlier this month.
Natalie, who had a cast on her left arm, was joined by her parents, Marilda and Doug, who demanded more action. “We have a job, that job is to protect our children,” an impassioned Marilda Griffith said. “We have to stop it.”
Harris, who discussed owning a gun during her recent debate with Trump, reiterated Thursday that she believes it is a “false choice” to suggest someone is either in favor of the Second Amendment or wants to take everyone’s guns away.
The parents of Natalie Griffith, a 15-year-old injured in the deadly Apalachee High School shooting earlier this month in Winder, Georgia, spoke. Griffith's mother, Marilda, made an emotional plea for a "change to be made" to address gun violence. Her father, Doug — who noted that he was not a registered Democrat — called for metal detectors to be placed inside schools.
Harris did not explicitly say if she agreed with the call for metal detectors, but said "we just need to apply common sense." She repeated her calls for an assault weapons ban and universal background checks. When Winfrey made note of Harris being a gun owner, as she revealed in prior campaigns and repeated in her debate with Trump, Harris said that "if somebody breaks into my house, they're getting shot."
Doug? Doug's response -- messed up by Aaron Navarro -- was that this was a common sense issue. Kamala, when she spoke of that, noted her agreement with Doug that this was basic and common sense. I don't know whether she thinks metal detectors are part of that approach or not but it does Doug a disservice for CBS to report it that way. And Doug's argument there was that metal detectors weren't always in courthouses but we have them there now, they weren't always in airports but we have them now.
Marilda Griffith spoke about getting a call at work asking if she'd heard about the shooting at her daughter's school. She hadn't. She spoke of how her heart dropped, how she had to rush out of work, how she was praying the whole time and then she can't get near the school and has to walk a few miles to get there because it's blocked off. And the whole time she's living in fear that her daughter's dead.
Natalie, still wearing bandages, was accompanied on either side by her parents, Doug and Marilda. She was visibly fighting back emotions as she described being injured in the school shooting.
"Oprah, before that thing, that video, I was very happy, I still am very happy to be here and to tell my story to tell what happened because it was a terrible thing," she said. "And it should have not... um..." The teen trailed off in emotion and reflection.
Natalie was in an algebra class when the shooting started. She was shot twice.
She pointed to the spots on her arm and wrist where she was shot. She was also grazed across the chest.
"I've had intruder drills and fire drills and stuff," the teen said, but added that they had not yet had one at Apalachee that year. She said she wasn't even sure where to go when it happened.
Marilda noted that her daughter was wounded but she was alive; however, some students and teachers were killed in the shooting. In terms of national outlets, Erica L. Green (NEW YORK TIMES) does a strong job covering this exchange:
Also in the crowd at the forum, held outside Detroit, was Natalie Griffith, a 15-year-old student who was shot twice in algebra class by a classmate during a campus attack on Sept. 4 at Apalachee High School, also in Georgia. Her mother, Marilda Griffith, sobbed telling the story of how that day unfolded.
“The whole world needs to hear that we women, that have our children — we have a job,” Ms. Griffith said. “That job is to protect our children. That job is to protect our nation.”
Ms. Harris agreed, citing the “bone-chilling” sight of a sea of students raising their hands when, on tours across the country, she asks if they have participated in active-shooter drills.
There were many other strong moments. Stream it if you haven't already. This morning, WIRED has posted a Kamala video.
Let's move across the aisle now to find out what's going on in the world of MAGA. Here's Ronny Chieng on THE DAILY SHOW last night.
Yes, Moms for Bigotry and Donald Trump suffered a big loss yesterday when their dream boat Mark Robinson got exposed for the liar he is. Alex Bollinger (LGBTQ NATION) explained yesterday:
Robinson's past antisemitic comments have drawn scrutiny and condemnation.[16][47] Prior to running for lieutenant governor, he frequently made Facebook posts that invoked antisemitic stereotypes and downplayed the harms of Nazism.[48][49] He claimed that the Marvel movie Black Panther was "created by an agnostic Jew and put to film by satanic Marxists" that was "only created to pull the shekels out of your Schvartze pockets" (using a Yiddish word for "black people").[14][13] Robinson also appeared at an interview with fringe pastor Sean Moon, who claimed that he planned to become "king of the United States"; in the interview, Moon claimed that the Rothschild family was one of the "four horsemen of the apocalypse" and promoted the antisemitic conspiracy theory of a cabal of Jewish "international bankers" that rule every country's central bank. Robinson endorsed Moon's claim as "exactly right".[47] Robinson's statements, as well as his refusal to apologize for or retract them, drew much concern from the leaders of North Carolina's Jewish community,[16] as well as criticism from the Jewish Democratic Council of America and the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC).[48] Robinson declined to publicly apologize for any of his remarks, although he said he privately apologized to local Jewish leaders in a meeting in 2021.[48] In 2022, Robinson said that his Facebook post about Black Panther was "the only time I've ever apologized for anything I put on Facebook" and said "I knew the truth of what I was trying to say, but I should have chosen different words."[35]
In October 2023, after Hamas attacked Israel, Robinson said he supported Israel and, when asked about his past antisemitic comments, said "I've never been antisemitic...There have been some Facebook posts that were poorly worded on my part, did not convey my real sentiments, and I have addressed those issues and moved on from those issues."[50] When asked if he apologized, Robinson said, "I apologize for the word — not necessarily for the content, but we apologize for the wording."[50] Robinson's opponents in the gubernatorial election questioned the sincerity of the apology and called his prior statements hate speech and antisemitism.[8][50]
In September 2024, CNN reported that Robinson had allegedly used antisemitic slurs on various porn forums from 2008-2012.[17]
Holocaust denial
In March 2023, more of Robinson's past social-media statements emerged, including Facebook posts appearing to call the figure of 6 million Jews perishing in the Holocaust into question;[49] for example, Robinson wrote: "this foolishness about Hitler disarming MILLIONS of Jews and then marching them off to concentration camps is a bunch of hogwash,"[7] and "There is a REASON the liberal media fills the airwaves with programs about the NAZI and the '6 million Jews' they murdered."[49] Both Democrats and Republicans criticized Robinson's statements.[48][7]
Less than 24 hours after CNN published a bombshell report on comments that it said Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate for governor of North Carolina, made on a pornographic website, the Democratic National Committee unveiled new advertisements linking him to former President Donald Trump.
The DNC plans to launch a new digital advertisement and nearly a dozen billboards highlighting how Trump has praised Robinson, who is North Carolina's lieutenant governor, according to a source familiar with the matter and a news release by DNC regional press secretary Kenny Palmer. NBC News was the first to report the new ad push.
By linking Trump to Robinson, Democrats hope to cut into Trump's support in the state, which a Democratic presidential candidate has not won since 2008.
I don't think anyone considers Marjorie Taylor Greene a good judge of anything. However, let me note this video. The man involved is, according to MTG, "a man of high character."
Here's MEDIA MATTERS on Mark Robinson:
Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson is reportedly facing calls to drop out of his race due to an impending bombshell story that could torpedo his candidacy. Some of Robinson's biggest supporters have been prominent right-wing media figures, including people Donald Trump Jr., Dan Bongingo, and Charlie Kirk.
Robinson is a right-wing commentator who became lieutenant governor of North Carolina in January 2021. He has a history of toxic remarks, including about women and LGBTQ people.
Media Matters previously uncovered that Robinson claimed in 2018 that Harvey Weinstein and Bill Cosby were victims of a left-wing “plot” to destroy them for their “so-called sexual crimes.” Robinson also called on his followers to “stand up against” the supposed “plot to build up a climate of fear, to shut people's mouths.” Media Matters also reported that he said mass shootings are “karma” for allowing abortion.
Despite his well-known history of extremist remarks, Robinson has gotten support from numerous Republicans. That list includes former President Donald Trump, who endorsed him by claiming he’s “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Since Robinson began running for governor last year, numerous right-wing media figures have endorsed him with strong praise. Here is a look at those remarks prior to today's reporting about Republicans urging him to leave the race.
Donald Trump Jr. said “we need more” people like Robinson who are “not afraid to say” what they’re thinking. During his Rumble show, Trump Jr. said that he likes Robinson and he’s a “good guy, funny guy, not afraid to say what he is thinking, which I think we need more of.”
Eric Trump: “Amazing, amazing, amazing guy. Amazing guy. … Mark is a wonderful person, a wonderful guy. A person I’ve gotten to know very, very well. And I think not only are we going to win the state, I think he’s going to win the state.”
MAGA is shorthand for? Liar.
A reminder that Donald Trump has endorsed Mark Robinson and considers him a friend.
— Protect Kamala Harris ✊ (@DisavowTrump20) September 19, 2024
Please don’t RETWEET this photo and make @realDonaldTrump look bad! pic.twitter.com/0N8umh6JMM
Today is a good day to show everyone Donald Trump's full and total endorsement of Mark Robinson. Spread this everywhere. pic.twitter.com/wjkGAI96CC
— Aaron Parnas (@AaronParnas) September 19, 2024
Donald Trump on Mark Robinson:
— Republican Voters Against Trump (@AccountableGOP) September 19, 2024
“MLK on steroids.”
“Fantastic.”
“One of the great stars of the party.”
“One of the strongest and bravest new voices in the Republican Party.”
“I’m a great supporter of his.”
“The hottest guy in politics.”
“He’s a great one.”
“He’s got to win.” pic.twitter.com/3lXAWDwkVU
Donald Trump is a magnet for the worst people. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that a lying, racist, misogynist who pays off porn stars and dines with white nationalists, attracts and celebrates people like Mark Robinson in the GOP. https://t.co/4eIBwVNvMj
— Sarah Longwell (@SarahLongwell25) September 20, 2024
The Mark Robinson story is actually a broader story about the Republican Party. When you empower a shameless depraved grifter like Donald Trump as the head of your party, your party will attract other shameless depraved grifters. The GOP is filled with weirdo frauds for a reason.
— Ahmed Baba (@AhmedBaba_) September 20, 2024
The star political reporter at the center of the love triangle involving one-time presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and his Curb Your Enthusiasm star wife Cheryl Hines copped to an inappropriate relationship — but has insisted it was all an online fling.
In declaring the relationship was never physical, New York magazine reporter Olivia Nuzzi, 31, admitted that "the nature of some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal" in a statement issued late Thursday night.
Nuzzi said in a statement to The New York Times on Thursday, without elaborating on the exact nature of their relationship, that "some communication between myself and a former reporting subject turned personal" earlier this year.
She said that despite having covered the subject previously she did not report on him directly during this time.
"The relationship was never physical but should have been disclosed to prevent the appearance of a conflict. I deeply regret not doing so immediately and apologize to those I’ve disappointed, especially my colleagues at New York," she said.
NBC News reached out to Nuzzi overnight for comment.
While neither Nuzzi or New York Magazine named the reporting subject, both CNN and the New York Times have reported that it was Kennedy.
A mutual friend of Junior's had told us earlier in the week about the call that was put in. Was he making a mistake if he endorsed Donald Trump? Yes, the friend told him.
"It was so different from the call a decade ago," he explained. "That time it was him asking if he should marry Cheryl [Hines] and my yes answer got a lot more push back."
Indeed.
Junior raised the issue of Cheryl's name value (not as high as he wanted) and her "horse face" and the dangling boob that was smaller than the other and -- Well, let's leave it there. We don't want to be unnecessarily cruel. Besides we had to jog his memory on the fourth complaint Junior had about Cheryl, he'd forgotten.
We hadn't because Junior
made four calls that time, to four trusted friends, who'd repeated the
story over the years. Three of them didn't think the marriage would
last five years and that Junior would leave her. Fortunately for
Cheryl, with her, he just cheats and, but "she gives him time, [he]
makes it back home." That was from another man he called about whether
or not he should marry Cheryl. When we found out he'd called at least
one about both (whether to marry Cheryl, whether to endorse Donald), we
decided to check and see if he'd called all four.
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Daniel, Me Estás Matando: Tiny Desk Concert4 hours ago
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Mark Robinson gets exposed13 hours ago
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Kamala on the rise13 hours ago
Thursday, September 19, 2024
Iraq snapshot
Thursday, September 19, 2024. Donald Trump gets his money's worth when he pays political whore Jill Stein, that includes purchasing Jill and her supporters' silence when it comes to the deaths of Candi Miller and Amber Thurman, Robert Kennedy Junior makes the case for stricter and continued rules regarding who can have ballot access, and the only grown up in the room, Kamala Harris, addresses the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
There are 46 days until the US presidential election. Again, THE WASHINGTON POST has published an important tool that you can utilize to make sure you are still registered to vote. Very important this year with a record number of people being purged from the rolls. If that happened to you, you may or may not know.
And you might not know that Robert Kennedy Junior lost his bid to get off the Michigan ballot. Craig Mauger (DETROIT FREE PRESS) reports:
A federal judge rejected Wednesday a request from former independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to intervene in the printing of Michigan's ballots and have his name removed as the presidential nominee of the Natural Law Party.
In an 18-page order, Judge Denise Page Hood of Michigan's Eastern District dealt the latest blow to Kennedy's bid to have his name taken off the ballot in the battleground state. Kennedy suspended his campaign and endorsed Republican Donald Trump on Aug. 23.
Hood wrote that Kennedy was "asking the court to interrupt the election process because he no longer wants to participate."
"Reprinting ballots at this late hour would undoubtedly halt the voting process in Michigan and cause a burden to election officials," Hood wrote, three days before ballots must be available to send to military and overseas voters.
To interrupt the election process because he no longer wants to participate?
Exactly.
This is nonsense on so many levels.
But the next time someone wants to run for president from something other than the parties with true ballot access -- that would be the Democratic Party, the Republican Party and the Libertarian Party -- and they whine about how difficult it is to follow the agreed upon rules, grasp that it's idiots like Junior that make these rules necessary.
He wants on the ballot, he wants off the ballot. He's running for president, he's not running for president.
I get what's happening. He wants to give his votes to Donald Trump. I also get that he's not -- and never was -- a real candidate.
He whined, he stamped his feet, he broke FEC rules and laws, he acted like the little bitch that he is and now he wants off the ballot.
It's not enough that he drops out of the race, no, Junior demands that his name be removed from the ballots. And some states are stupid enough to indulge him -- setting a precedent so that other candidates can demand similar treatment in future elections.
Junior's latest temper tantrum is going to impact future elections a great deal.
Now let's turn to another grifter: Jill Stein.
Vlad's pal Jill is running yet again for president yet again on the Green Party ticket.
Let's help her the way we helped Junior when we explained here his latest FEC violation.
Ann's been a Green. We all knew she wasn't voting for Jill Stein because she was opposed to a third run by the same candidate yet again. In "How disgusting is Jill Stein?," last night, she revealed she's not even sure she's ever going to vote for a Green again:
Pretty damn disgusting. Really disgusting. This:
New reporting from CBS News reveals that third-party spoiler candidate Jill Stein’s legal efforts in Nevada and Wisconsin are being aided separately by Jay Sekulow, an attorney who represented Trump during his impeachment trials, and Michael Dean, an attorney involved in lawsuits attempting to overturn the 2020 election results.
Stein’s campaign has admitted it welcomes the support. On Monday, her campaign manager, Jason Call, acknowledged
Trump’s team has ulterior motives for propping up Stein’s spoiler
candidacy and showed no qualms about being used in their political
games.
No.
I was raised a Green. I voted for Jill in 2012 and 2016. And, no, the Green Party does not believe in taking dirty money. The fact that she's doing so now goes to how she is destroying the Green Party.
I am voting for Kamala Harris for a number of reasons but each day, it seems, Jill Stein gives me even more reasons to vote for Kamala.
Ann's correct, that is dirty money. And the Green Party itself is supposed to be against that so don't me the crap about they have no other choice. But more importantly?
Margaret Kimberley has overseen the destruction of BLACK AGENDA REPORT. Maybe she takes comfort in the failed attempts to build the Green Party? She spoke at their convention because she is a Green. And what has she offered in the last 3 days?
21 Tweets and reTweets attacking Kamala Harris -- she's especially enraged that Angela Y Davis has endorsed Kamala. It must be very frustrating for Margaret -- and her raggedy ass hair -- that someone who has made history endorsed Kamala. It just reminds Margaret of how useless she herself has become.
So she offers 21 Tweets attacking Kamala. How many attacking Donald Trump?
Zero.
Now I've got no problem holding my own accountable. This is not -- and has never been -- a site to blow kisses at Democrats.
But Margaret's not a Democrat. We get that, right?
She's a Green.
She's not holding the Green Party accountable. She's not, for example, noting the dirty money that Jill's campaign's surviving on. She's not holding Jill accountable.
But she is trashing the Democrats.
AOC did not attack Jill Stein. This is Feminism 101 and it's been telling -- very telling -- to see how that played out in the press. AOC did a Tik-Tok video. That's not where it started.
Jill and her running mate had been trashing Kamala Harris and attacking the Democratic Party.
As this continued, AOC commented.
The press largely ran with 'cat fight!' because they love to reduce any disagreement between women to a cat fight. But, that's not what it was. The primer on this for feminism is that when you're hit with a two-by-four and you respond to that, you are not starting the fight.
Jill and her crazed goons had been attacking over and over. AOC responded. She did not initiate it.
But political parties are always in conflict!!!!
They should be. But look at Margaret Kimberley's Twitter feed. Even giving her all the space that she so desperately needs to attack Kamala, also allowing for her desire to promote Holocaust deniers and to promote a convicted pedophile (a registered sex offender), that still leaves plenty of room to call out Donald Trump. But she doesn't do that.
Nor does the Green Party as a whole.
That's why the dirty money that Jill Stein's taking matters -- and the pro bono legal work that insurrectionist lawyers are doing for her campaign matter.
They give her free legal, they give money to her campaign and she attacks Democrats.
She's being paid to do so. Grasp that.
She's not an independent candidate, she's someone whose campaign materially benefits from Donald Trump.
She takes the money, she takes the pro bono legal assistance, she takes them gathering signatures for her to be on ballots (an FEC issue) and in exchange she stays silent and does not attack Donald Trump.
You want to pretend that's politics to emulate? She's a paid whore. That's all she is. She's not going to bite the hand that feeds her.
People need to be watching Margaret Kimberley and Holocaust denier and 9/11 Truther Ajuma Baraka
She's reTweeting Jill's running mate and Jill's previous running mate as well -- the latter being the 9/11 conspiracy freak Ajama Baraka and all the other crazies. You'll see these party members doing the same thing -- just by chance, pure chance, you understand -- that Jill Stein does: slam Kamala, slam the Democrats and give Trump a pass.
Why?
Because their paid agents of the GOP -- that's the reality.
Now Margaret loves to pretend to care about Black people. But where is old crusty lips when anyone needs her?
If there's one topic she should be noting -- and we'll get to that topic in greater detail in a moment -- it's the deaths of two Black women in Georgia because of Donald Trump and the Supreme Court. They died. But to note their deaths would require calling out Donald Trump.
And Donald Trump is apparently the only thing keeping the Green Party afloat and alive currently.
Candi Miller and Amber Thurman. They have to be disappeared by Margaret. Apparently, she wants to make clear to the country that BLACK AGENDA REPORT has an agenda but it's not about helping Black people (which does explain what Betty's long noted -- Glen Ford's death resulted in Margaret turning BAR over to non-Black Danny Haiphong).
Candi Miller and Amber Thurman are dead but Margaret Kimberley -- the executive editor of the so-called BLACK AGENDA REPORT -- has ignored them while posting and re-posting over a hundred Tweets since Ann -- a working mother with two young kids -- noted Amber's death in "Thanks to the Crooked Supreme Court, a woman is dead."
So let's all understand what's going on: Donald Trump's pouring money into the Green Party and pro bono work into the Green Party and his purchasing power buys him their silence.
Margaret needs to stop calling others "Uncle Tom." (And she needs to fix that ratty hair.)
From yesterday's DEMOCRACY NOW!
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. I’m Amy Goodman.
We look now at reproductive rights in the United States, which are a key issue in this presidential election, now less than 50 days away. On Tuesday, Republican senators once again blocked legislation to protect access to IVF, in vitro fertilization, and require health insurers to cover the fertility treatment, after Democrats forced a vote.
Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris slammed Donald Trump, her Republican rival, for his role in abolishing national abortion rights after he appointed three of the Supreme Court justices who issued the Dobbs ruling overturning Roe v. Wade. In an interview yesterday with the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia, Vice President Harris cited the case, reported by ProPublica, of Amber Thurman, a 28-year-old Black woman in Georgia who died from a fatal infection after doctors refused to treat a rare complication from a medication abortion.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: I don’t know if anyone here has heard most recently the stories out of Georgia, tragic story, about a young woman who died because, it appears, the people who should have given her healthcare were afraid they’d be criminalized, after the Dobbs decision came down, laws that make no exception even for rape or incest, which means that you’re telling a survivor of a crime of a violation to their body that they have no right to make a decision about what happens to their body next, which is immoral, an approach that doesn’t take into account that — most people, I think, agree you don’t have to abandon your faith or deeply held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling her what to do with her body.
AMY GOODMAN: Georgia’s Maternal Mortality Review Committee found Amber Thurman’s death was preventable and largely due to delays in care. This comes as Project 2025 staffer, former Trump White House personnel chief John McEntee doubted the danger of abortion bans in a TikTok post last Thursday.
JOHN McENTEE: Can someone track down the women Kamala Harris says are bleeding out in parking lots because Roe v. Wade was overturned? Don’t hold your breath.
AMY GOODMAN: McEntee was widely ridiculed as women posted responses about their experiences being denied care.
Well, today, ProPublica published a new report on a second woman in Georgia who died from medical abortion complications. Candi Miller’s family said she didn’t visit a doctor, quote, “due to the current legislation on pregnancies and abortions,” unquote. Overall, deaths due to complications from abortion pills are extremely rare.
For more, we’re joined by two guests. Monica Simpson is with us. She’s executive director of SisterSong, the national women of color reproductive justice collective based in Georgia. And Ziva Branstetter is also joining us, from Walnut Creek, California, senior editor at ProPublica, who helped edit two new reports by Kavitha Surana.
We welcome you both back to Democracy Now! I want to begin with Ziva. Actually, Vice President Harris cited your investigation in her answers to questions from the National Association of Black Journalists yesterday. Can you lay out the stories of [Amber] Thurman and also today you’ve just broke a new story on a second death?
ZIVA BRANSTETTER: Correct. Well, thank you, first of all, Democracy Now!, for having me on to talk about reporting by ProPublica and reporter Kavitha Surana. We have reported two stories. Both deaths of these women occurred in the months following the overturn of Roe v. Wade by the Supreme Court. Both were in Georgia. Both were African American women.
The first case, Amber Thurman, 28-year-old single mother with a 3-year-old son, she died after doctors did not provide care over about a 20-hour period in the emergency room. She had taken abortion medication to end her pregnancy, and fetal tissue remained, which is a rare — a very rare complication of taking abortion medication, very simply solved with a procedure called a D&C, that doctors did not provide over 20 hours in the emergency room. That procedure, in almost all cases in Georgia now and in other abortion ban states, is a felony. Doctors could face criminal prosecution for performing it. We don’t know what was going through their minds, but they did not operate over 20 hours. And she died in August of 2022.
The story that we just published today on ProPublica’s website is about Candi Miller, a 41-year-old woman, also from Georgia, a mother of three, who also self-managed her abortion at home, which is becoming far more regular under abortion bans. She took abortion medication. Again, rare complication. Instead of going to the hospital, she was afraid to seek care, and did not and died at home with a mixture of drugs that her family believes was trying to manage the pain. And she died, as well, in November of 2022. That death has been ruled by the state preventable and, not only that, directly related to the state’s abortion ban, which is the first time we’ve seen this reported.
AMY GOODMAN: And explain the abortion ban in Georgia.
ZIVA BRANSTETTER: Correct. It’s a six-week ban. You know, we classify that almost the same as a complete ban, because many people can become pregnant and don’t know at that point that they are even pregnant. And experts say a six-week ban is tantamount to a complete ban. And there are no health exceptions in Georgia’s ban. Well, Candi Miller had lupus. She had hypertension. She had diabetes. She’s 41 years old. She already has three children. She found herself pregnant. Doctors had told her, “You can’t. Your body cannot survive another pregnancy. It will kill you.” So, she had, literally, no good options under Georgia’s abortion ban.
AMY GOODMAN: Now, can you talk about how rare medication abortion complications are, Ziva?
ZIVA BRANSTETTER: About 6 million people, since the FDA approved abortion medication, have used it, and there have been 31 deaths of any kind, only 11 of those from sepsis. It is 0.0005% of cases that are fatal, which is a lower complication rate than penicillin and Viagra. And so, it’s extremely safe. All medications have risk. There is a simple solution to a complication with abortion medication, and that is a D&C. And abortion ban states, for the vast majority of cases, criminalize that procedure.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to turn to Monica Simpson. You’re executive director of the Georgia organization SisterSong. Can you talk about the levels of Black maternal mortality in Georgia?
MONICA SIMPSON: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me this morning.
We are devastated to hear this news and to see that Black women are still not being treated in the ways that they need to by our healthcare system in Georgia. What is real in the state of Georgia is that we are in a maternal healthcare crisis in our state. We are a state that has yet to expand Medicaid, which means that thousands upon thousands of people are already falling under the radar and not getting access to the care that they need. And on top of that, we are dealing with the fact that we are in this country seeing Black women die at a rate three to four times higher than white women in childbirth, right?
So, we look at that, and coupled with the fact that Georgia has a desert of OB-GYN availability in our state. There are over half of our states that do not — excuse me, half of our counties that do not have access to an OB-GYN, so people are having to travel miles upon miles just to get care. So, when you bring all of that together in this context of a state that is also dealing with a six-week abortion ban — SisterSong is the lead plaintiff in that case against our state; we have been fighting that for many years now, trying to get this ban removed — we are seeing a really dire picture for Black women and for people in general in the state of Georgia.
AMY GOODMAN: In this case that ProPublica talked about today, the story of Candi Miller, Monica, Candi Miller’s health was so fragile — I’m reading the first sentences. “Candi Miller’s health was so fragile, doctors warned having another baby could kill her.” So she was already at high risk. Her previous pregnancy was high-risk. But she was terrified to go to the doctor. Talk about that, what this means. And the number of women who may be suffering or have died that we don’t know, it’s because of their fear of going to the doctor, that they would be criminalized.
MONICA SIMPSON: Absolutely. We hear this story far too often, that we know too many Black women, in particular — right? — are saying that they do not feel safe when they go to their doctor. They don’t feel as if they’re listened to. They don’t feel as if they’re trusted. We have seen this show up in the lives of people who are celebrities, like Serena Williams, right? So, if we have people who have the amount of privilege and resources that a Serena Williams has and they are still not listened to and trusted by healthcare providers, imagine what that looks like on the ground for everyday people who are trying to get access to care. In our membership, we get these stories all the time, that we don’t feel like we’re trusted, we don’t feel like we’re going to get access to the information that we want. And so it silences people. And we know that that silence then drives people inward, and it does not allow them to be able to move towards the solutions that they need for themselves and their families.
So, this is a really sad day in the state of Georgia. Our elected officials need to be on top of this more than ever. And we have to take this very seriously, because we knew and we have been saying, since the Dobbs decision and even before then, that when you remove access, restrict access, ban access to lifesaving care, healthcare that people need, then those who have historically been pushed to the margins will be the ones most affected. And we are seeing that in the state of Georgia, where these Black women have lost their lives to a preventable — preventable — issue that could have been taken care of in real time.
AMY GOODMAN: At the Democratic convention, a ceremonial roll call to nominate Kamala Harris as president included Kate Cox speaking for Texas. She had spoken out after she was forced to flee Texas to get abortion care after learning her pregnancy was not viable. She was introduced by former Planned Parenthood President Cecile Richards, who had an op-ed in The New York Times this weekend headlined “Harris Is Good on Abortion Rights. Now She Needs to Take It to 11.” Other featured speakers included three other women impacted by abortion bans: Hadley Duvall of Kentucky, Amanda Zurawski of Texas, Kaitlyn Joshua of Louisiana. This is Kaitlyn Joshua.
KAITLYN JOSHUA: Two years ago, my husband and I were expecting our second child. Our daughter Lauryn couldn’t wait to be a big sister. I was getting ready for her fourth birthday party when something didn’t feel right. Two emergency rooms sent me away. Because of Louisiana’s abortion ban, no one would confirm that I was miscarrying. I was in pain, bleeding so much, my husband feared for my life. No woman should experience what I endured, but too many have. They write to me saying, “What happened to you happened to me.” Sometimes they’re miscarrying, scared to tell anyone, even their doctors. Our daughters deserve better. America deserves better.
AMY GOODMAN: Kaitlyn Joshua is an African American woman. Ziva, you mention her case in both your ProPublica articles.
ZIVA BRANSTETTER: Yes. Well, obviously, as has been noted by your other guest, the burden of this issue falls heaviest on Black women, on women of color. I think it’s very interesting to note that there have been literally dozens of cases like hers across the country, where women have had to rush across state lines, have been denied care. There are now two confirmed deaths in an abortion ban state that have been ruled preventable by an official committee including 10 doctors. Both are Black women. I don’t think it’s an accident that we’re seeing this pattern. I think there are more cases out there. ProPublica is certainly interested in hearing from people whose loved ones may have died, who have questions about how they died. And we are going to keep looking into them.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to give Monica Simpson the last word. Cecile Richards had spoken at the DNC. She actually is suffering from brain cancer right now. And in this op-ed piece she just wrote for the Times, her headline, “Harris Is Good on Abortion Rights. Now She Needs to Take It to 11.” Do you agree with this?
MONICA SIMPSON: I do think that we are in a time where we have to not just look at where we are. We have to think about where we want to go, right? And what we have been saying for many, many years is that we know that a federal right to abortion is necessary, but access is even more imperative. And so, when we think about the state of where we are in this country, knowing that we don’t have the federal right, and we were already suffering from lack of access to abortion care, we have to think about this at the next level. How do we make sure that we’re not only creating the opportunities for legislation that creates a federal right to be achieved, but that we are expanding access in all the ways [inaudible] —
AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. Monica Simpson, executive director of SisterSong, and Ziva Branstetter, editor at ProPublica. We’ll link to both your pieces. I’m Amy Goodman. Thanks so much for joining us.
Candi Miller and Amber Thurman are dead. But watch the Jill Steiners work over time to ignore that reality and to render those two women invisible.
And then they wonder, these nut jobs, why we won't join them in a death-pact by wasting our vote on The Paid and Bossed Jill Stein.
Again, Donald Trump is getting from Jill Stein and her supporters exactly what he's paying for. Alison Durkee (FORBES) notes:
Key Facts
Jill Stein: Jay Sekulow, working for conservative-leaning legal group American Center for Law and Justice, is listed as the counsel of record in the Nevada Green Party’s Supreme Court challenge against a recent court decision, which ruled Stein and other Green Party candidates should be kept off the state’s ballot due to a paperwork error.
Sekulow’s legal group called the Nevada Democratic Party’s lawsuit challenging the party’s candidates “a blatant attempt to clear the field for Kamala Harris’ campaign,” claiming, “If the legal system can be weaponized against any party or candidate” like the Nevada Green Party, then “it can be used against your preferred candidate.”
Sekulow, who has not yet responded to a request for comment, has long aligned himself with former President Donald Trump and worked as his personal lawyer when he was in the White House, including representing the then-president during his 2020 impeachment trial and in the Mueller investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Stein has also reportedly accepted legal help in Wisconsin from attorney Michael Dean, who previously represented Trump in the state when the ex-president was trying to challenge the 2020 election results.
In addition to legal support, Republican operative Jefferson Thomas and his firm helped gather signatures for Stein in New Hampshire, the Associated Press reported.
The whores are giving Donald Trump exactly what he's paying them for. Jill Stein has destroyed the Green Party.
Kamala Harris isn't trying to destroy the Democratic Party. She's not ignoring Candi Miller and Amber Thurman or rendering them invisible. She's using her voice to call for all to be uplifted and all Americans to be welcome in their own country. This seems to enrage Jill Stein and her cronies. But that's what Kamala's doing -- demonstrating leadership and fighting for all.
Yesterday, in DC she appeared before the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Vice President Kamala Harris: So, thank you both for your leadership and for hosting me this afternoon.
And to all the incredible leaders here, it is an honor to be with you again.
And to everyone, happy Hispanic Heritage Month — (applause) — which, in my book, is every month of the year. (Laughs.) (Applause.)
So, this is a room of long-standing friends. And many of you know my background. My mother arrived in the United States when she was 19 years old by herself. And I spoke about it recently, actually. You know, my mother — I was the eldest child. And as the eldest child, those of us who are, you know you see a lot of things in terms of what your parents go through.
And I would often see how my mother was treated. She was a five-foot-tall brown woman with an accent. And I would see how the world would sometimes treat her.
I’m going to tell you something, and this where I come from. My mother never lost her cool. She never defined her sense of dignity based on how others treated her. She was a proud woman. She was a hardworking woman. She had two goals in her life: to raise her two daughters — my sister Maya and me — and to end breast cancer. She was a breast cancer researcher.
And growing up, our mother taught us certain fundamental values: the importance of hard work; the power of community; and the responsibility that we have to not complain about anything, much less injustice. Right? Because “why are you complaining about it,” she would say. “Do something about it.” And that’s how I was raised: Do something about it.
And those values have guided me my entire career, from, as you heard, being a young courtroom prosecutor in Oakland, California — (applause).
AUDIENCE MEMBER: Bay Area!
THE VICE PRESIDENT: Wh- — Bay Area. (Laughter.) 106.1 KMEL. (Laughs.) (Applause.) That was our local radio station for hip-hop. (Laughter.)
But doing that work — you know, part of the background on why I became a prosecutor was actually when I was in high school, I learned that my best friend was being abused — being molested by her stepfather. And when I learned about it, I told her she had to come and live with us. And I called my mother, and my mother said, “Of course she does.” And she did.
And so, I decided I wanted to start a career and do the work of — in part, just doing the work of making sure that we protect the most vulnerable.
And so, I started my career as a courtroom prosecutor and took on those who would be predators against the most vulnerable.
As attorney general of California, I took on the big banks and delivered $20 billion for homeowners who were middle-class families who faced foreclosure because of predatory lending practices. I stood up for veterans and students who were being scammed by the big for-profit colleges, knowing the — and many of whom were — had an immigrant background and were just simply
trying to — to do the best they could to invest in themselves and their family for their future and — and the subject of — of awful scams.
I have stood up, in my career, for workers who were being cheated out of the wages they were due and for seniors who have faced elder abuse.
And I say all that to say: When I stand here before you today, this is not just something that I decided to do but really is about a lifelong career that has been about fighting for the people — for the people.
And for years, I have been proud to fight alongside the members and the leaders of this incredible caucus — (applause) — in almost all of that work. And the work we have done together has been about so much I just talked about. It has been about defending workers’ rights. It has been about expanding health care for more Americans, including DREAMers. (Applause.) It has been about forgiving billions of dollars in student loan debt, including for many of the folks that we know — friends, relatives — who, again, have been burdened by that heavy debt and just needed to be seen — teachers, firefighters, nurses.
The work we have done together has been to create the National Museum of the American Latino and — (applause) — and, of course, last year, I was proud to be with a lot of the leaders here in Houston for the CHC On the Road tour. (Applause.)
So, I say that to say that, CHC, our work together has always been guided by shared values and by a shared vision. However, at this moment, at this moment, we are confronting two different — very — very different — visions for our nation: one focused on the past; the other, ours, focused on the future.
We fight for a future for affordable health care, affordable childcare, and paid leave. We fight for a future where we build what I call an “opportunity economy,” understanding that the people of our country, the people we know, have extraordinary ambition and aspirations and dreams of what they can be, what they can do, are prepared to do the hard work and put that hard work in, but don’t necessarily always have access to the opportunities to achieve and realize those goals.
So, I see an America where everyone has an opportunity to own a home, to build wealth, to start a business.
I believe in a future — we, together, believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for America’s families so that people have an opportunity not just to get by but to get ahead.
And so, with the work we have done together and going forward, we will continue to lower the cost of groceries, for example, by taking on something that I think is very important to deal with, which is price gouging on behalf of big corporations. (Applause.)
You know, I’ve — I’ve seen that happen before. Many of you who — who have — and are coming from states where y- — we’ve seen extreme weather conditions — in California, wildfires, and other parts of the country — or even in the pandemic, where people are desperate because of these kinds of emergencies, desperate for support. And then some, you know, corporation — and it’s very few of them that do this — but then jack up prices to make it more difficult for desperate people to just get by. We need to take that on.
We need to lower the cost of housing. We don’t have enough housing in our country. The supply is too low, and it’s too expensive both for renters and for folks who want to buy a home. So, we will build together millions of new homes and give first-time homebuyers $25,000 in down payment assistance. (Applause.)
Because, look, people just want to get their foot in the door. I — my mother worked hard. She saved up. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that she was able to buy our first home.
And the American dream is elusive for far too many people increasingly. And that’s why it is part of my perspective that’s let’s just do the work of giving first-time homebuyers a $25,000 down payment assistance. (Applause.) Let them get their foot in the door.
We need to lower the cost of health care and continue to take on Big Pharma and cast the — cap the cost of prescription medications, yes, for our seniors, which we have done together, but for all Americans. Because when we look at drugs like insulin, everyone here knows — first of all, Latinos are 70 percent more likely to be diagnosed with diabetes. And with the support of the CHC, we were able to cap the cost of insulin at $35 a month for our seniors. (Applause.)
In fact, recently, I was in Nevada. I’m — I’m in these streets. Let me tell — I’m everywhere. (Laughter.) But I was recently in Nevada, and a woman came up to me with tears in her eyes, and she showed me the receipts for her mother’s insulin. And it used — she show- — and I was — she showed me many papers, and I said, “Tell me what these are.” And she said, “Well, these are the receipts, and I want you to see where it used to cost us hundreds if not a thousand dollars a month, but no more.”
The work we are doing together, the very purpose of CHC and all of the leaders here includes have a real impact on real people. And I have the blessing of being able to travel our country and see it every day. It’s extraordinary work that is happening because of the leaders here.
We, because of our work together, have finally given Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices with Big Pharma.
And understand, if my opponent, Donald Trump, wins, his allies in Congress intend to end Medicare and end Medicare’s negotiating power. As they remind us again this week, they are essentially saying — check this out, because if — because, you know, you have to ask why, right? So, why would you want to end Medicare’s negotiating power against Big Pharma? And essentially, they’re saying that it’s not fair to Big Pharma. (Laughs.) That’s essentially what they’re saying.
But I’ll tell you what’s not fair. What’s not fair is that our seniors for too long have had to cut pills in half because they cannot afford their full medication. (Applause.) That’s not fair. It’s not fair that our seniors have had to choose between filling their prescriptions and putting food in their refrigerator or paying their rent. That’s not fair.
And that’s why we will continue to do our work together, including fight Project 2025, an agenda that would cut Medicare and increase the cost of health care in our country. (Applause.) Because we stand with the people and on the side of the people.
We will cut taxes for working families, including restoring and expanding the Child Tax Credit. (Applause.) Because we know this is the kind of work that must happen if we are to be true to our values and be true to understanding that — that parents, in particular young parents, need that support. We — when we — when we extended the Child Tax Credit, cut child poverty by 50 percent — by half. Think about what that meant for so many families.
The vast majority of parents have a desire to raise their children well. They love their children but don’t necessarily have the resources to do everything their child needs. I grew up understanding the children of the community are the children of the community, and we should all have a vested interest in ensuring that children can go — grow up with the resources that they need to achieve their God-given potential.
So, I know where I come from. And we have to always put — and I know CHC agrees with this, and this is part of our collective life’s work — we have to put the middle class first; we have to put working families first, understanding their dreams and their desires and their ambitions deserve to be invested in and it will benefit everyone. (Applause.)
And together, CHC, we must also reform our broken immigration system — (applause) — and protect our DREAMers and understand we can do both — create an earned pathway to citizenship and ensure our border is secure. We can do both and we must do both. (Applause.)
And while we fight to move our nation forward to a brighter future, Donald Trump and his extremist allies will keep trying to pull us backward. We all remember what they did to tear apart families. And now they have pledged to carry out the largest deportation — a mass deportation — in American history.
Imagine what that would look like and what that would be. How is that going to happen? Massive raids? Massive detention camps? What are they talking about?
They also will give billions of dollars of tax cuts to billionaires and corporations — massive tax cuts; pardon January 6th perpetrators who attacked our Capitol, not far from here. They would cut Social Security and Medicare. They intend to end the Affordable Care Act and threaten the health care of more than 5 million Latinos in our country. All based on — I’m sure many of you saw the debate — (applause) — so, on that point about the Affordable Care Act — all based on “concepts of a plan.” (Laughter and applause.) “Concepts.” “Concepts.”
Their Project 2025 agenda would pull our nation backward. But we are not going back. We are not going back. (Applause.) We are not going back.
Instead, together, we will chart a new way forward because ours is a fight for the future. And it is a fight for freedom — the freedom to vote, the freedom to be safe from gun violence, the freedom to live without fear of bigotry and hate, the freedom to love who you love openly and with pride, and the freedom of a woman to make decisions about her own body — (applause) — and not have her government telling her what to do. (Applause.)
And understand, on that last point, how we got here. Everyone here
knows. Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States
Supreme Court with the intention that they would do just what they did,
which is to overturn the protections of Roe v. Wade. And now, in more
than 20 states, we have a Trump abortion ban, which criminalized health
care providers — in one state, providing prison for life.
You
guys may have heard the story — many here — about the stories about —
the horrendous most recent story is about what happened in Georgia.
Many of these Trump abortions bans that make no exception for rape or incest, it’s immoral. It’s immoral.
And today, 40 percent of Latinas in America live in a state with a Trump abortion ban.
So, imagine if she is a working woman — understand that the majority
of women who seek abortion care are mothers — understand what that
means for her. So, she’s got to now travel to another state. God help
her that she has some extra money to pay for that plane ticket. She’s
got to figure out what to do with her kids. God help her if she has
affordable childcare. Imagine what that means.
She has to leave
her home to go to a airport, stand in a TSA line — like, think about
this. You know, everybody here is — is — you’re policy leaders. I
always say to my team, especially the young people I mentor, on any
public policy, you have to ask, “How is this going to affect a real
person?” Ask how it would affect a real people. Go through the
details.
So, she’s got to stand in a TSA line to get on a plane,
sitting next to a perfect stranger, going to a city where she’s never
been, to go and receive a medical procedure. She’s going to have to get
right back to the airport, because she — got to get back to those
kids. And it’s not like her best friend can go with her, because the
best friend is probably taking care of the kids. All because these
people have decided they’re in a better position to tell her what’s in
her best interest than she is to know.
It’s just simply wrong.
And
I think we all know one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply
held beliefs to agree the government should not be telling a woman what
to do. If she chooses — (applause) — if she chooses, she will talk with
her priest, her pastor, her rabbi, her imam, but not the government
telling her what to do.
And I pledge to you, when CHC helps pass
a law to restore reproductive freedoms, as president of the United
States, I will proudly sign it into law. (Applause.) Proudly.
Proudly.
So, friends, we have some work to do — in fact, a lot of hard work ahead of us. But we like hard work. Hard work is good work. Hard work is joyful work, I say. And I truly believe that America is ready to turn the page on the politics of division and hate.
And to do it, our nation is counting on the leaders here, your power,
your activism. And so, I thank you in advance for your work to
register people to vote and get people to the polls. Each of us has a
job to do.
As we celebrate this month, we know we stand on broad
shoulders of people before us who have passed us now the baton — those
heroes who fought for freedom who have now passed the baton onto us.
And the bottom line is: We know what we stand for, so we know what to fight for. And when we fight —
AUDIENCE: We win.
THE VICE PRESIDENT: — we win.
God bless you. And God bless the United States of America. Thank you. (Applause.)
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