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Dispatches From the Culture Wars – July 16, 2024

Bang! Now what?

Spencer Platt, art by Liz Coulbourn
  1. Bang! Now What?
  2. Poof! Goes Law. Poof! Goes Order
  3. The Big Oops: Project 2025
  4. Worldwide War on Enviro Activists
  5. A “Ceasefire” T-Shirt? Not on This Plane
  6. Black Farmers Target Equipment Manufacturer
  7. Abortion and Gender Rights On the Line
  8. 700 Scientists Oppose Nuke Plan
  9. States With Protest Restriction Laws
  10. Faith Leaders Warn Against White Christian Nationalism

 

Bang! Now What?

By Jason Stanley
Zeteo

The United States is on the precipice of joining the many countries that are ruled by dictators with complete control over school and universities, the press, and the courts, using them to favor their friends and punish their enemies. 

Poof! Goes Law. Poof! Goes Order.

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By Charles P. Pierce
Esquire

Judge Aileen Cannon’s time in the spotlight came to its utterly predictable—and utterly dismal—end down in Florida. Having spent months trying to pick among the many reasons, and all of them preposterous, to dismiss special counsel Jack Smith’s case against the former president in the Pool Shed Papers case. She finally settled on one, and, yes, it was preposterous.

The Big Oops: Project 2025

By Amanda Market
Salon

The MAGA right learned years ago the value of hiding their wicked plans in plain sight. There are promising signs that people who aren't political junkies are starting to hear about Project 2025. Even better, those folks aren't immediately dismissing it as progressive theatrics but may be genuinely alarmed.

Worldwide War on Enviro Activists

A “Ceasefire” T-Shirt? Not on This Plane

By Brant Rosen
Truthout

Louie Siegel, an anti-Zionist Jewish-American, experienced the suppression of anti-Zionist speech firsthand when, during a recent Delta Airlines flight from São Paulo to Chicago, he was told by the flight staff that he would be removed from the plane if he did not take off his pro-ceasefire T-shirt.

Black Farmers Target Equipment Manufacturer

By Wyatte Grantham-Philips and Haleluya Hadero
Associated Press

The National Black Farmers Association called on Tractor Supply’s president and CEO Tuesday to step down after the rural retailer announced that it would drop most of its corporate diversity and climate advocacy efforts. Tractor Supply's decision, which itself came after conservative activists spoke out against the company’s work to be more socially inclusive and to curb climate change.

Abortion and Gender Rights On the Line

  • Kansas   By John Hanna, Associated Press
     
  • Arkansas   By David Ramsey, Benjamin Hardy and Matt Campbell, Arkansas Times
     
  • Anti-LGBTQ Laws   By Sara Youngblood Gregory, Yes!
     

700 Scientists Oppose Nuke Plan

Union of Concerned Scientists

As the Pentagon certified the continuation of the new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic nuclear missile (ICBM), 716 scientists, including ten Nobel laureates and 23 members of the National Academies, are calling for the program to be cancelled. 

States With Protest Restriction Laws

By Elly Page and Alana Greer
Teen Vogue

Since 2017, 21 states across the country have passed new laws that restrict protests — nearly 50 in total — with dozens more being introduced annually. Most of these new laws increase criminal penalties for conduct, like interfering with traffic, involved in some kinds of protests. In states such as Arkansas, Iowa, and Tennessee, protesters can spend up to a year in jail for “obstructing” public sidewalks. 

Faith Leaders Warn Against White Christian Nationalism

By Erik Gunn
Wisconsin Examiner

A cross-section of faith leaders who gathered on the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee campus Sunday disavowed the strain of religion that, they charged, animates Trump’s candidacy. The policies he pursued in his previous term and the agenda he has embraced on the stump, speakers said, are anchored in white Christian nationalism.