1: Women are dying in states with abortion bans, ProPublica has revealed, pregnant women have bled to death, succumbed to fatal infections and wound up in morgues with what medical examiners recorded were “products of conception” still in their bodies. Political leaders who backed the bans have stood in the way of measuring their consequences. They have dismissed committees, slowing down their work. They have weeded out members openly critical of abortion bans and supportive of transparency.
Texas has gone as far as to legally prohibit its committee from reviewing deaths that are considered abortion-related. This could include some miscarriage care, health officials told ProPublica.
In two deaths of Texas women that ProPublica investigated, Porsha Ngumezi and Josseli Barnica had already miscarried when they were given misoprostol to help complete the process. The committee does not review cases that involve that drug because it’s also used for abortions, said committee chair Dr. Carla Ortique: “If they received medication, if they received any procedure, we will not get those records.”
Chris Van Deusen, the spokesperson at the Texas Department of State Health Services, would not say whether Ngumezi’s and Barnica’s deaths would be reviewed. These are the very kinds of cases state maternal mortality review committees are supposed to delve into, determining why they happened and how to stop them from happening again.
But panels in states that have recently imposed strict bans on abortion have done little to uncover whether the laws are contributing to maternal deaths, including tracking delays in care for pregnancy complications and making these problems known.
2: In the blizzard of sinister and sadistic executive orders signed by America's dictator, DJ Trump, 1,500 committed criminals, neo-nazis, etc, the worst of the January 6 offenders, were released, pardoned by the felon in chief. 1,500 federal troops were dispatched to the border, mission as yet largely unstated. Another 8,500 troops are being posited now.
But possibly the most sinister event was a small one: A local TV weather person named Samantha Kuffel was fired for posting criticism on her private Instagram page of the dictator's favorite oligarch, the now-unabashedly Nazi-embracing Elon Musk, who gave a nazi salute from the inaugural stage. A local radio maga shock jock named Dan O'Donnell had access to her page and went after her for noting Musk's nazi salute. She was fired within 24 hours.
This indicates that we are likely about to experience a multi-spectrum attack—from very small to very large, where local capos can bring the ire of maga nation on anyone, for any reason. The taste of blood will only make them thirstier.
This supplements the multi-spectrum military capacity of the oligarchs' regime, from unaffiliated goon squads like the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, etc, a largely deniable force of violent fanatics, through unabashedly fascist law enforcement groups like the Constitutional Sheriffs, and all the way up the military/intelligence chain to fearsome agencies like the NSA, DIA, FBI, and etc.
3: The question on everyone's mind is what will happen in the rank and file military. Will they follow clearly unconstitutional orders? Will there be a granular culling of disloyal soldiers, unit by unit? The experience of the local tv meteorologist Kuffel shows that maga is prepared to cut their meat very small. Other incidents like the one from my local diner are occurring, with patrons threatening staff with deportation. One maga drunk in Texas did almost exactly what the guy in my diner did, with the addition of throwing some fists.
We'd all like to do things that are enjoyable, we'd all like to pursue our little hobbies. But there is no minimizing what we all face now. There is no sand deep enough to bury our heads in.
https://www.propublica.org/article/abortion-bans-deaths-state-maternal-mortality-committees
