The full story of 'Roe,' Norma Jean McCorvey

Texas Observer gives its take on the last chapter in the life story of Norma Jean McCorvey — how the "Roe" of "Roe v. Wade" has said she never had a true pro-life conversion but did it for the money, as detailed in "AKA Jane Roe."

Well, I think she did it for two reasons, the second of which she admits through her full story. It was also for the attention. That's even if she didn't want to admit that.

She had it indicated to her, and apparently told to her, she was an unwanted child. She was an adult child of an alcoholic. She was also lesbian.

So she stuck out like a sore thumb all through school.

And, after the Roe decision? Many pro-choice groups, like 1960s and 1970s feminists in general, were wary of lesbians. And, she was uneducated. And poor. And already perhaps a bit mentally unstable.

And, ripe for the picking by Flip Benham. That's the way these people work.

Per the Observer, the CBS documentary does seem to miss something on the alleged conversion explainer. I think it's missing two somethings.

One, it's missing more depth on or about that anti-choice folks. Of course, if many of them refused to talk, there's only so much you can do.

It's missing something from McCorvey, though, as well. Did the antis, like the pro-choice side, toss her away and ignore her after peak political utility.

But of course!

Caitlin Cruz does note that McCorvey's "collateral damages" weren't mentioned.

She ended her romantic relationship with her lover, Connie Gonzales, and they became "just friends." And apparently, even as McCorvey secretly backslid again from the anti-choice movement, for fear of public exposure, that was never resumed.

And, sadly for McCorvey, unless she signed some contractual disclosures that said she'd have to pay back some money if she publicly backslid, she took 15 minutes of fame pseudo-attention over the real attention of a love relationship.

And, that's collateral damages from child abuse.

IndieWire notes the movie also doesn't give more voice to McCorvey, or more insight into her personal life, on the issue of her own children.

==

The antis have spoken elsewhere already, though, re the Observer. They claim that the documentary was manipulative, in a typical pots-and-kettles response. My sister said she was appalled when she heard about the money payments (none of which is denied by the anti-choice zealots). My stance is that being appalled by something is based in part on being shocked by it. Of course, I'm not. That said, it was the Protestant fundy types that were manipulative. Frank Pavone, head of Priests for Life, said he long knew she was a more complicated person, and that he doesn't think she abandoned her "move."

THAT then said, Slate notes that the documentary itself portrays McCorvey as a complex person. Methinks they doth protest too much. And if they don't like it? Make your own "counter-documentary." And, if you want it to be a real one? Per the link above, see if McCorvey's daughter will talk.

Green Party and Facebook censorship, round 2

I posted two weeks ago about some censorship on the Green Party's official Facebook page.

Here's a second installation, and it gets a little bit more to the "why" behind it all.

This post from the group, which is a public group, is a further hint. It also is problematic, in that the OP was able to turn off commenting when it didn't go their way.

People who question trans activism, especially those who support a declaration on women sex workers' rights passed by the Georgia Green Party, are facing more and more attacks over the issue.

Moderators of the FB group have deleted the worst of comments when reported. Nonetheless, things like what I blogged last week, and the handling of the post linked above, when the OP turned off comments when challenged for the first time, seem to indicate where moderators' bread is buttered.

As the Georgia Green Party has indicated it is open to actual dialogue, but NOT to a "terms of surrender" conversation, things connected to that take on new light.

I'll be having yet more in one or two further blog posts as we move closer to this year's national convention, which will now be virtual-only.

This isn't the only censorship. An admin turning off comments on a post about the admin handing off the admin reigns is another.

Texas Progressives: Rounding up the nuttery

Plenty of nuttery going around Texas.

A prominent ConservaDem DA going more and more off the rails.

State political magazines talking about a state political climate that, within the two duopoly parties, still doesn't exist.

And, who knows who will vote where, when and how in runoff primaries or the general in November.

With that cheeriness, let's dig in!

Texas politics

ConservaDem Harris County DA Kim Ogg has now become anti-leaks tyrant Kim Ogg. Shock me. Also "shock me" that the two people who talked did so on condition of anonymity.

Texas Monthly recommends "The Pushback" about an allegedly rapidly changing political landscape. Hey, TM, if Biden beats Trump, THEN it's rapidly changing. If ANY Dem wins a statewide race, THEN it's rapidly changing. And NOT before. Gus Bova has more at the Observer, with a more nuaced take, starting with saying it's got "too much Beto."

The Texas Supremes suspended a state appeals court ruling expanding vote by mail. Oral arguments were yesterday. Related: Off the Kuff offers his take on the latest developments in the state lawsuit over voting by mail. Christopher Hooks wonders why Ken Paxton hates vote by mail so much.

Update: A federal district judge has now said coronavirus fears qualify as disability and has opened back up voting by mail expansion. But Rick Hasan, noting how sweeping it is, expects the 5th Circuit to overturn. And a three-judge panel has done a stay; let's see if this becomes permanent.

Grits has a roundup of mostly stupid Texas criminal justice news.

It's nice, and I really mean that without scare quotes, that a blue collar union guy is running for Congress as a Green. That said, no, Hal (name is perfect for the video about to come!), robots will not be the solution to everything. That said, some of the conspiracy thinking ideas there mean you fit well with many, and likely a growing number, of other Greens.



C'mon, didn't you KNOW I was going there?


National

Justin Amash pulled a Jesse Ventura last Friday. Less than a month after announcing an "exploratory committee" for the Libertarian Party presidential nomination, he pulled back out. Politicus interruptus. His claimed reasons — political polarization at an all time high, and COVID-related issues — were true three weeks ago, and sound as specious as Ventura's. My thoughts here.

Friendly reminder: If you need Tara Reade's sociopathic-sounding claims against Joe Biden as an excuse or out to not vote for him, beyond older creepiness toward women and FAR beyond his politics, starting with putting Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court (maybe Anita Hill was too uppity of a woman for him, black or white) you've got a problem.

SocraticGadfly said this year's Democratic vice presidential nomination is the most important since 1944.

Stephen Young highlights that great Obamacare cheerleader, Sen. John Cornyn.

Paradise in Hell turns his Trump Translator Machine on again.

Jeff Balke reminds us that hurricane season is still a thing that happens.


World

Vox reveals the idiocy and grift behind the failed recent coup attempt in Venezuela — with about all the idiocy and grift being Merikan at end.

Ugly Chinese nationalism over coronavirus, part 3

Following on part 1 and part 2, of course.

The German government says Chinese diplomats tried to get it to spin-doctor Beijing's handling of the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, in part in an attempt to cover its own country's coronavirus failures, Chinese social media — which must, of course, be considered semi-official, is having fun attacking the U.S. over its own COVID problems. This only illustrates again what I said in Round 1 — Xi Jinping and Donald Trump play Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby to each other. Or, per some unofficial Chinese social media, and kicking both Xi and Trump pretty good, that might be Pooh and Eeyore.

In our reality, not the Disney cartoon world, the Pooh of Beijing is strangling, not hugging, the Eeyore of Washington, D.C.

Between parts 1 and 2 of this series, I had a supplement that first looked at the Trumpian response to all this.

It's not just Trump, and not just Americans, though. Sub-Saharan African states were already aware of anti-black racism from Chinese. But, as long as the countries were getting money for Belt and Road projects, and leaders were getting palms greased as needed, it was ignored. But as more and more of it, as part of general (and historic) Chinese xenophobia, pops up, it can't be ignored.

Per that link, it's facing backlash among countries that can do something. The Japanese government is raising money for any companies who want to re-homeland their manufacturing. Problem? Japan, with an aging population, doesn't have the workforce for this. The U.S. does, but likes the cheap Chinese labor and is too shortsided to give full attention to Chinese industrial technology extortion and sometimes outright theft. American greed and Chinese xenophobia are their own Brer Rabbit and Tar Baby: what do American companies do when top management, from the U.S., face that xenophobia when visiting their Chinese plants?

That xenophobia is not reflected by reality. The Guardian, in a piece similar to the above, notes China has the lowest immigration rate in the world. As in lower than Japan's. OTOH, that said, minuscule immigration rates, to reverse the Guardian, are often reflections of already-existing xenophobia. As in Japan.

To riff on Samuel Johnson: Nationalism, even more than patriotism, can often be the last refuge of a scoundrel.

Finally, let's not forget that China's continued bigfooting of Taiwan at WHO, trying to minimize even its observer status, is also problematic. Historical note: At times, the Ming Dynasty had a loose quasi-protectorate relationship to the island. The Qing were the first Chinese mainland dynasty to actually possess the island.

Sidebar: Chinese political leadership is no more meritocratic than in "the west."

Sidebar 2: Despite the self-allegedly outside-the-box left-liberal political pundit stenos (Ames, Levine, Maté, Taibbi, Blumenthal etc.) Han Chinese repression of minorities is not that new, either.

Texas Progressives: Coronavirus, week 10

I said a few weeks ago that I would probably stop splitting the weekly Roundup into two parts. But, I am not quite there yet, though with Memorial Day upcoming, I think we're closer.


Dallas

County Judge Clay Jenkins is squaring off with legally semi-illiterate AG Ken Paxton over the county's coronavirus social distancing regs and enforcement.


Texas

Coronavirus deaths started surging in Texas last week. Given the latency time, this would exactly fit with Gov. Strangeabbott's "reopening" without adequate testing, and without other adequate issues.

I'll take Dr. Peter Hotez over Gov. Strangeabbott on coronavirus testing thoughts. Hotez and other actual health experts go in more depth here, expecting a surge in cases that will require a new set of shelter-in-place orders. Question is, will Strangeabbott actually pull the trigger?

State prisoners self-testing with kits with high false positive rates? And no indication how TDCJ will handle actual positives, anyway. As the Observer notes, Abbott's ignored the growing problem in Texas prisons. Sounds like Pulitzer Prize winner Jeff Gerritt needs to crank up his keyboard again.

TEA is offering an online "STAAR test lite" so parents and schools can check for degree of possible backsliding. Given the percentage of kids who have skipped out on video instruction across the state, refudiating the salvific technologist world's attempts to increase its footprint in education, this could be an actual issue.

Thank doorknobs Danny Goeb doesn't run, nor advise, pro sports teams. He says they should open up games with live (for now, some dead later) fans.

Kuff references Abbott widening the reopening even as daily case numbers in the state continue to grow. More on cases and deaths here.

The Texas Supremes are back to the old normal, saying late rent evictions can start again next month, even though joblessness increased in May over April.

Sanford Nowlin shows a study that warns 4 million Texans could lost health insurance as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.


National

Toady Birx ups her toadying.

COVID antibody tests really don't mean that much.

The Grand Canyon joins Bryce and other national parks in a limited reopening that will likely backfire, but given the Trump Administration's keeping national parks open during the government shutdown, it likely doesn't care about.

Wingnut state AGs (surprised Kenny Boy Paxton has missed this one) and other wingnut lawyers are wasting taxpayer or private client money by suing China.

Surely due to rapid ramp-ups because of the flood of COVID-related claims, state unemployment payment agencies are suffering rampant fraud.

People recovering from severe COVID infections say "too soon" on too much economic reopening.


World

Northeast China's Jilin Province went on lockdown last week.

Related: Here's Week 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13.

Republican depressions, Democratic capitulations

In the past century, we have had:

1. The Great Depression, caused largely by Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon along with tensions between the Fed and the New York Fed, and exacerbated by the Smoot-Hawley Tariff, officially hit the fan under Herbert Hoover, but stock speculation plus farm belt recession was already entrenched under Calvin Coolidge.

FDR did do a fair amount to alleviate it, aided by Marriner Eccles at the Fed, Harry Hopkins and Harold Ickes with relief efforts, and Henry Wallace at Ag. But, he himself, as shown by his 1932 campaign against Hoover, was at heart a fiscal conservative in many ways, and turning off the pump-priming in 1937 led to another dip. In addition, with delayed payments on the Social Security system and other things, the system wasn't fixed that well.

Result? Per that chart, unemployment remained above 14 percent the entire decade. That's contra an implication by Ted Rall that the 25 percent peak was kind of a blip and thus OHMYGOD the coronavirus is worse. Yes, he does say that for "most of the Depression the unemployment rate averaged around 15 percent." That still sells it short. Because, in reality, for ALL of the Depression and even into alleged recovery times, it averaged about 15 percent. In reality, per these year-by-year numbers in text, beyond that, for all of 1931-36, five years straight, it averaged above 16 percent. And for four straight years, 1932-35, it averaged above 20 percent. And it went back to 19 percent in 1938, plus, after steady to strong growth in the GDP from 1934 on, the economy contracted again that year.

(It's not the first time I've questioned Rall's use of economics numbers.)

2. The Great Recession, caused largely by Shrub Bush, along with Fed head Alan Greenspan, who never should have been running the Fed in general, let alone 20 years straight, goosing the economy too much after 9/11 and then not restraining it quicker.

Barack Obama famously did the first post-presidential compromising the compromise away in advance in public when he pegged the stimulus at below $1 trillion. He also caved in by silence when (shades of the first paragraph) New York Fed head Lil Timmy Geithner refused to take direct action against some of the larger banks' grifting.

3. And now, we have what could be the Trump Depression and will surely be the Trump Recession. (The first quarter will likely have an economic contraction, if we haven't already determined that, and the second quarter surely will, thus meeting the official recession definition.)

Assuming Joseph R. Biden is elected (and yes, Dems, shut up, that's an assumption; look back to 2016), does anybody think he'll do even as well as Obama, let alone as well as FDR?

==

Side note — for anybody wondering whether or not the Great Recession was worse than the Carter-Reagan double-dip? It's arguable that, although income inequality wasn't as bad, the mix of the high inflation in the Carter half, plus the Paul Volcker pain in the Reagan half, means it was still worse. And I remember it.

Side note No. 2 —Look at the Panic of 1893 period. Note that the high unemployment actually covered not only all of Grover Cleveland's second presidency but most of William McKinley's first term. Arguably this was the second-greatest economic catastrophe in American history.

Side note No. 3 — the unemployment info doesn't go back to the Panic of 1873 or its aftermath. That said, I don't think it was as acutely bad as any of these others, but it did have the pains of drawn-out deflation.