These must be the End Times. I just saw that Paso Robles made it onto InfoWars, which Wikipedia describes as a “far-right conspiracy theory and fake news website owned by Alex Jones.”
The website has claimed 9/11 was a false flag operation, the government staged the 2016 Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting, the 2012 Sandy Hook mass shooting never happened, the U.S. Air Force is creating tornadoes in the Midwest, the FBI was behind the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, Barack Obama is the global head of Al Qaeda, and the U.S. government uses juice boxes to make children gay.
You can’t make this stuff up, but apparently Alex Jones can!
InfoWars reposted a tweet by RNC Research that included a KSBY news report about vandalism at the Tree of Life Pregnancy Support Center in Paso Robles to show how dreadful and violent pro-abortion extremists are, and I’m shocked to admit I sort of agree.
The group thought responsible for the Paso vandalism is Jane’s Revenge, a militant extremist pro-abortion rights group that formed in May 2022 after the draft of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was leaked. On June 24, the landmark 1973 decision that gave women a constitutional right to access abortion was officially deemed unconstitutional. Pro-life 1; women’s rights 0.
End Times indeed, but back to Jane’s Revenge.
First, if you identify as “pro-abortion,” your group has a branding problem. No one in their right mind is pro-abortion. How about pro-bodily-autonomy? And hey, Jane’s Revenge, if you want to protect women’s rights, there are better ways than destruction of private property. How about cruise over to Planned Parenthood and act as counter-protesters to those people harassing women trying to access reproductive health care?
When the left engages in violence, it undercuts our tenuous moral advantage in the reproductive rights debate. The far-right and anti-abortion fanatics are well known for enacting violence against abortion providers. Pro-life extremists have shot and murdered doctors, bombed and burned clinics, and essentially revealed the hypocrisy of their “pro-life” lie. Don’t fall into that trap.
If pro-lifers were really pro-life, they’d advocate for free birth control and comprehensive sex education. They’d support paid parental leave, free child care, and universal health care. They’d back welfare and SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program). Heck, maybe they’d even be anti-death-penalty and anti-war.
The truth is pro-life equates to pro-birth and anti-women’s rights. Nobody in their right mind wants any woman to have to resort to abortion, but no one in their right mind should want the government to have the power to force an unwilling woman to carry a child she doesn’t want to term. By vandalizing Tree of Life, which—among other things—offers pregnancy tests and ultrasounds and gives out baby and maternity clothes, you have set back women’s rights and made liberals look like thugs.
Now I feel obligated to point out people like Maria ForThe Repub on Facebook, who recently linked to a General Dispatch story called “Gutfeld: Guns are in the Constitution, abortion is not,” which tells you all you need to know about the right-wing mindset that believes the unfettered right to guns is more important than the rights of children to go to school without fear of being gunned down in their own classrooms. According to bible-thumping Maria, this shit is God’s will.
She’s also wary of cheating in local elections: “We need more conservatives involved as poll workers at the voting centers in San Luis Obispo County on Election Day, Tuesday, June 7. Conservative eagle-eyes are needed to keep an eye out for any cheating! Can you help?” she asked on June 2.
As County Clerk-Recorder Elaina Cano continues to diligently and carefully tally the vote, local conservatives continue to cry foul even as early Democratic candidates’ leads have eroded. District 2 incumbent Bruce Gibson has seen his lead drop, tallying less than 50 percent of votes, meaning he’ll be facing one of his primary challengers in November. Currently, that’s looking like Bruce Jones. Yes! A battle of the Bruces!
Jones currently has less than 19 percent, but if you add Gibson’s other challengers into the mix, that’s a 52 percent no vote toward Gibson. Jones has already set his sights on November. On his Jones for Supervisor website, he has an info box connected to a radio ad called “The Worst Bruce—Bruce Gibson.”
The ad says, “Why is Bruce Gibson the worst Bruce for Board of Supervisors District 2? Gibson may live in District 2, but his values are way too progressive. He’s soft on crime, parental rights, clean and abundant energy, and homelessness.”
How did “progressive” become a pejorative? And really, Gibson—a huge advocate to solve the impossible-to-solve homeless problem—is “soft” on homelessness? What do you have in mind, Jones? I bet it’s not giving them all a free place to live. And “soft on parental rights”?
“He supports children 12 and older taking COVID vaccines without parental consent,” the ad continues.
Are you kidding me? You think parents should be able to deny their children access to a safe and effective vaccine against COVID-19? Maybe Bruce Jones and Alex Jones can collaborate on a new conspiracy. And maybe you fence-sitters should think about exercising your right to vote. What’s the next right you’re going to lose? Δ
The Shredder is pro-choice. Send threatening letters to shredder@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Jun 30 – Jul 10, 2022.
“How did progressive become a perjorative?”. The same way that ” woke” did – by all of the lunacy coming out of those who label themselves as such. If progressives want respect, they’ll have to “sane-up” a whole bunch, and stop turning themselves into an unintentional self-parody. Using the ids of 14 year olds to set an agenda doesn’t work very well.
Hard to imagine that our Mr. Donegan had any success as an attorney, when you read his pouty screed, above. He claims that the term progressive has become a “perjorative” (sic…check your spelling, counselor) because progressives are “woke,” they exhibit “lunacy,” they have to “sane-up!”, they engage in “unintentional self-parody,” and they “us(e) the ids of 14 year olds (?).” Lacks foundation, vague, argumentative, and definitely represents opinion testimony from a lay witness. It’s just name-calling, really, unless you point to very specific instances where you can argue that progressives do not represent either (a) broad public opinion or (b) established science. In the case of broad public opinion, progressives’ views on abortion, gun control, democracy, same-sex marriage, clean air and drinking water definitely represent the majority. In matters of science, progressives’ views on vaccination, public health, gender fluidity–just to name a few that are timely–are clearly correct. Donegan’s whine is no better than a liberal’s list of adjectives (fascist! racist! misogynist!) if not backed up with facts. Luckily, as we know, facts tend to have a liberal bias.
Never wrestle a pig. You both get muddy and the pig enjoys it. I’ll leave you pigs to yourselves.
I!’ll leave tsankawi to argue on behalf of the soon-to-be BLT. Me, I’m just trying to keep the livestock from hurting themselves.
“lunacy coming out of those who label themselves as such”
What about the lunacy from the right? Their last president wanted to “go to the capitol” after whipping a crowd into hysteria about how the election was somehow stolen—even prompting his people to take down metal detectors so “all his people” could come forward with their Ak-47’s and Glocks. To do what, I ask. Take down the government? Kill government officials? Hoist Trump on their shoulders as the new Emperor, much as they must have done when Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon and took power in Rome?
You mean that kind of lunacy?