Revealed: US conservative thinktank’s links to extremist fraternal order

The president of the rightwing Claremont Institute and another senior Claremont official are both closely involved with the shadowy Society for American Civic Renewal (SACR), an exclusive, men-only fraternal order which aims to replace the US government with an authoritarian “aligned regime”, and which experts say is rooted in extreme Christian nationalism and religious autocracy. …

Alabama is using the notion that embryos are people to surveil and harass women

Could a woman who is pregnant, or could be pregnant, have a right to do things that might endanger her embryo in a situation where an embryo is her legal equal, with a claim on state protection? Could she risk this embryo’s health and life by, say, eating sushi, or having some soft cheese? Forget …

Trump warns of enemies ‘within our country’ to Christian media gathering

Donald Trump told a warmly receptive gathering of religious broadcasters on Thursday that “it’s the people from within our country that are more dangerous than the people outside”, in his latest effort to mobilize Christian fundamentalists who have swung dramatically behind him in recent years. [...] The event spotlighted the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a …

Opinion: The twisted irony in Alabama’s court decision on embryos

The irony in the Alabama court’s decision is that more Americans who want to be parents will be unable to achieve that dream. The ruling is extraordinary not only in declaring personhood before birth but also in applying the idea to embryos that haven’t been implanted in the uterus. But the ruling is not just bizarre; …

Record number of anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in 2023

At least 510 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced in state legislatures across the United States last year — a new record, according to American Civil Liberties Union data as of December 21. That’s nearly three-times the number of such bills introduced in 2022. https://www.cnn.com/politics/anti-lgbtq-plus-state-bill-rights-dg/index.html -CNN; 1/3/2024

Ohio voted to protect abortion rights. Republicans are scheming to undo it

The referendum, which Ohioans passed by 57% of votes, established a constitutional right to an abortion, overriding laws passed by the Republican-dominated legislature to dramatically restrict access. In response, 27 GOP members of the Ohio general assembly signed a statement the next day arguing the abortion rights proposal “failed to mention a single, specific law”, and vowing …

Speaker Mike Johnson [R] calls separation of church and state ‘a misnomer’

“The separation of church and state is a misnomer,” the speaker said in an interview with the TV channel from the US Capitol. “People misunderstand it. Of course, it comes from a phrase that was in a letter that Jefferson wrote. It’s not in the constitution.” Johnson was referring to Thomas Jefferson’s letter to the Danbury Baptist …

Mike Johnson [R], theocrat: the House speaker and a plot against America

Setting aside all of these wildly extreme, religiously motivated policy preferences, there is a more insidious threat to America in Johnson’s embrace of scriptural originalism: his belief that subjective interpretation of the Bible provides the master plan for governance. Religious truth is neither rational nor susceptible to reasoned debate. For Johnson, who sees a Manichean …

Controversial PragerU videos gain educational foothold in a handful of states

Despite its name, PragerU is not a university. It is a conservative nonprofit that produces short videos on historical, economic and climate topics. The organization, formally the Prager University Foundation but known as PragerU, is founded and run by conservative talk-show host Dennis Prager and funded by a number of like-minded philanthropists. [...] At a …

Anti-abortion misinformation mounting ahead of key Ohio vote, experts warn

On Tuesday, Ohioans will vote on whether to amend the state constitution to enshrine the right to abortion. But powerful anti-abortion forces are arguing that the amendment will go beyond guaranteeing access to the procedureto imperil parents’ rights when it comes to abortion and even gender-affirming care.Experts and abortion rights supporters say these claims are …