Six months in quarantine. Six weeks until election day. How are you doing? Are you holding on? Feeling you might have missed a major story? Stay calm my friends, I’ve got you covered.
Here’s what you might have missed.
Armed vigilantes set up rural checkpoints in Oregon as ‘antifa fires’ hoax inflames social media
By David Neiwert
As firefighters and law-enforcement officers along the rural West Coast scramble to keep the public safe amid the rampaging wildfires that so far have burned 4.6 million acres, destroyed several towns, and killed 35 people, they’ve been forced to make multiple pleas to the public to stop spreading false rumors that the fires have been set by nefarious “antifa arsonists.” Of course, this cause wasn’t helped when an Oregon sheriff’s deputy was caught on video loudly amplifying the hoax.
The primary wellspring of the rumors has been social media, particularly Facebook—which responded Saturday by announcing it was banning all such rumors and disinformation from its pages and would be removing them. By Monday, however, the platform was still ripe with “antifa fires” talk—and armed vigilantes were still setting up checkpoints for travelers in rural areas where they feared the arrival of leftist looters.
This story is truly unbelievable and showcases how deeply harmful the disinformation campaign American right-wing extremism.
Exclusive: Georgia doctor who forcibly sterilized detained women has been identified
By Tina Vasquez
According to the complaint, it appears as if detention center officials transfer women to an outside gynecologist, now believed to be Amin, and that detained women told Project South they do not trust the doctor.
Dawn Wooten, a licensed practical nurse employed by ICDC, has emerged as a whistleblower. “I’ve had several inmates tell me that they’ve been to see the doctor and they’ve had hysterectomies and they don’t know why they went or why they’re going,” the nurse said in the complaint, noting that other ICDC nurses also expressed concern about the gynecologist, whom she referred to as “the uterus collector.”
A spokesperson for the Southern Poverty Law Center, an organization that has represented people detained at ICDC, confirmed to Prism that Amin has seen multiple women represented by the organization. The spokesperson could not currently confirm the extent of those appointments.
The Trump administration has become known for its inhumane treatment of migrant women, pregnant people, and other vulnerable populations in the detention system.
Federal agencies specifically targeted pregnant migrants as part of the “zero tolerance” policy, setting off a chain of events in which hospitals separate mothers from their newborns. Former Office of Refugee Resettlement Director Scott Lloyd forced teen migrants to remain in federal custody because they wanted to access abortion care. He took the battle all the way to the Supreme Court, fighting migrants’ constitutional right to abortion because abortion did not gel with his staunch religious beliefs. Lloyd even blocked teens from accessing care when their pregnancies were the result of rape. ICE also covertly changed its policy regarding pregnant people requiring they be detained instead of released, and Border Patrol has pushed doctors to “clear” pregnant migrants for detention.
According to the whistleblower in Project South’s complaint, Amin recently took out the wrong ovary on a detained woman. “She was supposed to get her left ovary removed because it had a cyst on the left ovary; he took out the right one. She was upset. She had to go back to take out the left and she wound up with a total hysterectomy. She still wanted children—so she has to go back home now and tell her husband that she can’t bear kids,” Wooten said in the complaint, explaining that the woman wasn’t fully under anesthesia when she heard the doctor tell the nurse that he took the wrong ovary.
The women do not appear to be consenting to getting a hysterectomy and they are not receiving translation services when complicated medical information is being conveyed to them. Sometimes nurses try to communicate using Google or by asking another detained person to translate, according to the complaint. In one incident, a woman was given three different explanations as to “what was being done to her body.”
This is unbelievably horrifying. The people responsible for this must be held accountable and all the so-called “pro-life” people should organize to seek justice on what is being done to migrants.
Conservative pastor in a whole lot of hot water after sending gross email to journalist
By Walter Einenkel
The nasty email that Muns sent reads: “How about if we took all the little bitter Asian women and had a lottery and cut their clits like the Muslims do. Not a very classy position is it, neither is your trashy little bitter personality towards white men. Only in a world where journalism is controlled by brain dead Liberals do you people even have jobs.” He signs it “Muns,” and I guess we can forgive him the typos since the email also says it was sent from his iPad. He without sin and all of that.
Muns is the pastor at the Christian Life Church in Macomb Township, and is likely speaking in front of his flock as I write this (he reportedly holds services on Sundays at 10 AM and also on Wednesdays at 7 PM). According to ClickonDetroit, Muns has yet to apologize to Jeong for not only being a tremendous misogynistic racist asshole, but also for attacking her based on a fake quote attributed to her that said white men should be castrated.
Muns reportedly sort of didn’t apologize on Wednesday, saying “My response is terrible, but what I was responding to was simply reversed of exactly what she posted towards white men and I just reversed it and said, ‘How would you feel?’”
Well, not great. How about Muns aims some of that Christian fire and brimstone hatred for the people allegedly sterilizing immigrant women in the name of racism and medical malpractice, under the umbrella of our conservative-run government?
Muns hasn’t really apologized. He’s just said that he shouldn’t have “responded.” Responded to the fake meme? Responded to it if it had been real? It’s interesting for a person like Muns to be caught up in this situation. It’s very revealing. For one, he was wrong. The information he’s pushing out there is as incorrect as the information he’s sending back about “brain dead Liberals” controlling the media. We don’t. Brain dead liberals share the facts and the information that is readily available to anyone with a legitimately critical mind. Sure, the media is controlled mostly by moneyed interests, which includes religious interests.
Another day in which another white man doesn’t know how to apologize. Or better yet, just shut up entirely and not say anything in the first place. Will they ever learn? One can dream.
Speaking of white men who can’t shut up…
Debunking Trump’s Affordable Housing Lies
By Cara Zelaya
I’ve made another video over on our YouTube channel! This time, all on debunking the lies that Trump has tried to perpetuate regarding affordable housing programs. The TLDR is that affordable housing options aren't increasing crime in your neighborhood. Trump's just a racist.
Remember a couple of weeks ago when Trump tried to scare us with Cory Booker of all people?
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Let me know in the comments: What story did you think deserved more coverage this week?
Looking forward to chatting with you all below!