SAY WHAT? - A mere month after the medieval anti-abortion ruling by a cabal of right-wing "fanatics and vandals" we still call SCOTUS, its effects are already cataclysmic. At least seven states have passed near-total bans and many more are working on them, some with monstrous features like Indiana's call for abortion-providers to serve up to six years in prison; experts predict a devastating impact on women's education, employment and income; a new study says it could lead to a 21% increase in pregnancy-related deaths. The ruling is viewed as so extreme that even Chief Justice John Roberts reportedly tried to reverse at least parts of it; with his failure, suggests Charlie Pierce, he should just resign: "Your work here is done...You've lost control of your majority (and) it's gone barking mad." With the help, one more time, of unconscionable, ever-complicit Susan Collins.
Having landed in this apocalyptic muck, we welcome Australia's newest Honest Government Ad from the satirical Juice Media, this oneripping "the shitfuckery that is the U.S. Supreme Court." An offshoot of the news site Balloon Juice, the Honest Government Ads are "an indispensable public service for translating the mountains of bullshit coming from our duly elected governments." Focusing on "the shitfuckery of the Australian government," the ads took off during the tenure of Prime Minister Scott Morrison, a bumbling "satirist's dream" who, when Australian students went on a climate strike in 2019, called for "more learning in schools and less activism." Amidst raging bushfires with "kids in gas masks, dead animals, dead homes, dead reefs, dead tourism industry," the first ad unveiled, amidst the billowing smoke, Australia's new climate policy: "Get fucken used to it!"
To launch its third season, Juice Media kept its promise to expose "the work of other shit governments around the world" with its cheerfully chilling ad about a SCOTUS that, "even at the best of times, gives zero fucks about democracy." Cue a glossy, smiling woman presenting "your actual government - the Supreme Court." "We answer to nobody, we overrule laws made by Congress, our Justices are appointed for life, and you don't even elect us!" she chirps, happily adding now we finally have enough "Federalist Society nut jobs" to strip multiple hard-won rights - "and we're just getting started!" The ad, "Authorized by the Department for Thinly Disguised Plans to Usher In A Theocratic Christian Regime," stops short of showing the barbaric, in-the-doctor's-office consequences of their judicial atrocities; we have Moms Against Greg Abbott for that. Thanks to the truth-tellers. Bitter balm for the soul.
(Abby Zimet has written CD's Further column since 2008. A longtime, award-winning journalist, involved in women's, labor, anti-war, social justice and refugee rights issues. Email: [email protected])
