The Weekly Sift: Overwhelming Threats

The court finds that even those doctors who support abortion, who have training in abortion, and who would be willing to withstand the professional consequences of performing abortion would not agree to perform abortions because the threat of physical violence and harassment is so overwhelming.

-- Judge Myron Thompson of the U.S. court for the middle district of Alabama (8/4/2014)

terrorism, noun: The use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. -- Oxford Dictionaries

This week's featured post is "Not a Tea Party, a Confederate Party". It's the culmination of nearly two years of reading. A more accurate view of key points in American history can change how you see today's politics.

This week everybody was talking about Iraq

President Obama authorized the first American air strikes since our combat mission in Iraq ended. Vox explains what's going on. And on Last Week Tonight, John Oliver nailed Obama's reluctant tone when he announced the strikes: "The President sounds a lot like a girl who is trying to reassure her friends that she is not getting back together with the ex-boyfriend they all hate."

and two abortion rulings in the South

In July, a federal appeals court in Mississippi upheld an injunction that prevents a new Mississippi regulation from closing the last abortion clinic in the state. The State had argued that abortions were still available in neighboring states easily reachable by car. But the court held: "Mississippi may not shift its obligation to respect the established constitutional rights of its citizens to another state."

Last Monday, a federal district court in Alabama ruled on a similar regulation in that state: Doctors in abortion clinics are required to have admitting privileges with local hospitals. This is expected to close 3 of Alabama's 5 abortion clinics. Judge Thompson's ruling (that the regulation puts an undue burden on Alabama women's right to choose an abortion) does an extraordinary job of laying out the full picture of what may superficially seem like a reasonable regulation.

It boils down to this: The history of violence against abortionists in Alabama, and the continuing harassment and intimidation of doctors and their patients, makes it unsafe for an abortion-clinic doctor to live in large parts of Alabama. In the three clinics likely to close, most doctors have their primary practice and residence elsewhere. (One doctor drives to the clinic from another state, using a diverse series of rentals cars rather than his own car, in hopes that he won't be spotted by potential assassins.) That lack of local presence makes them ineligible for admitting privileges at local hospitals. The clinics could stay open if they could recruit new doctors who live and practice nearby, but that is impossible because they would not be safe.

The Alabama legislature, of course, knows all this. (So does the Mississippi legislature. And Texas.) The purpose of these regulations isn't to improve care, but to shut down the clinics. And (if the courts allow it) it will work because the legislature's strategy fits hand-in-glove with the strategy of violent anti-abortion terrorists.

and Benghazi (sort of)

The House Intelligence Committee has voted to declassify its report on Benghazi. Democrats on the committee claim the report concludes that there was no deliberate wrongdoing by the Obama administration. Rep. Mike Thompson says it "confirms that no one was deliberately misled, no military assets were withheld and no stand-down order (to U.S. forces) was given." Republicans are saying ... well, nothing, really.

But hey, there's another committee gearing up to re-investigate. Maybe they'll discover some reason to justify their existence.

and you also might be interested in ...

A Florida judge said two Florida congressional districts violate the state constitution. His ruling rests on an anti-gerrymandering constitutional amendment Florida voters passed in 2010, so the likelihood of this going beyond the Florida Supreme Court is small.

A commenter on last week's summary provided a link to the monthly YouTube series "Global Capitalism" by Marxist economics Professor Richard D. Wolff. (It's relevant to last week because Wolff commented on the Market Basket situation I discussed last week. Wolff gets a few of the background details wrong -- the chain has 25,000 employees, not "hundreds" -- but has some interesting thoughts about the abstract situation, beginning around the 38 minute mark.)

But here's a quote from earlier in the program, when he's talking about inequality, and about U.S.A. Today's calculation that only 1 in 8 American families have enough income to afford the American Dream:

It's really important for Americans to understand that the economic anxieties they feel and the economic difficulties they have are not about them as individuals. ... And don't [go] blaming yourself or agonizing about what you didn't do when you were a student, or courses you didn't take, or majors you didn't choose, or any of those other things. This is not about that. This is a social problem, and an economic problem, and you're just being victimized by it. And the worst thing to do if you're victimized by a social problem is to convert it into an individual problem. ... Trying to solve the economic problem that I'm describing, which is engulfing this society and others, as if you're the one who caused it and you're the one who can fix it is painful to watch. It's not going to work. It's going to make you feel terrible. And meanwhile, you're not helping to build a social movement, which is the only way you solve a social problem.

A bridal shop in Pennsylvania refused to serve a lesbian couple because "providing those two girls dresses for a sanctified marriage would break God’s law." According to ThinkProgress:

Pennsylvania is currently the only state in which same-sex couples can legally marry, but also legally be refused jobs, housing, and public services just because of their sexual orientation.

To me, this is no different from the black waitress who has to serve the guy in the Confederate-flag t-shirt. In a service economy, sometimes you have to serve people you disapprove of or resent. And the fact that other people from your church might resent the same people in the same way doesn't turn it into a religious-freedom issue.

Last week I raised the question of when to call attention to outlandish statements and when to write them off. The Alabama Republican Congressman talking about the "war on whites" ... tough call. I wish I believed the voters in his district were embarrassed by this kind of nonsense, but I doubt they are.