Overturning Roe: The Handmaid's Tale takes another giant step towards reality

With the not-unexpected but nevertheless disastrous United States Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade on June 24, 2022, Margaret Atwood's famous dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale, just took another giant step towards being art imitated by life.

And the late great singer/songwriter/poet Leonard Cohen was wrong: it's theocracy, not democracy, that's coming to the USA.

I don't believe that any thinking person on either side of the abortion issue thinks that the theocrats and Christo-fascists are going to stop at Roe, despite implied assurances within the majority opinion that the June 24 decision is solely about the constitutional right, or lack thereof, to abortion. Senior SCOTUS fascist Clarence Thomas, in his concurring opinion to the decision, has called for the overturning of other precedents that are founded in principles such as the right to privacy: specifically, decisions protecting the right to contraception, to same-sex intimate relationships, and to same-sex marriage.

Notably, in his opinion Thomas apparently did not mention the Loving v Virginia SCOTUS decision that, in June of 1967, finally legitimized interracial marriages. A few wags on Twitter have suggested that he add the Loving decision to his list of cases to be reconsidered/overturned, since it would most likely be cheaper than a divorce, should Thomas be considering a break from his seditionist, bat-crap crazy wife Ginni. But I digress.

In their dissenting opinion, Justices Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan made the significance and utter gravity of the SCOTUS decision on abortion very clear:

For half a century, Roe v. Wade, 410 U. S. 113 (1973), and Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey, 505 U. S. 833 (1992), have protected the liberty and equality of women. Roe held, and Casey reaffirmed, that the Constitution safeguards a woman’s right to decide for herself whether to bear a child. Roe held, and Casey reaffirmed, that in the first stages of pregnancy, the government could not make that choice for women. The government could not control a woman’s body or the course of a woman’s life: It could not determine what the woman’s future would be... Respecting a woman as an autonomous being, and granting her full equality, meant giving her substantial choice over this most personal and most consequential of all life decisions....

The dissenting Justices also made it clear that the abortion decision is almost certainly not the end of the line for the theocrats. They're just getting started.

...no one should be confident that this majority is done with its work. The right Roe and Casey recognized does not stand alone. To the contrary, the Court has linked it for decades to other settled freedoms involving bodily integrity, familial relationships, and procreation. Most obviously, the right to terminate a pregnancy arose straight out of the right to purchase and use contraception. See Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U. S. 479 (1965); Eisenstadt v. Baird, 405 U.S. 438 (1972). In turn, those rights led, more recently to rights of same-sex intimacy and marriage. See Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U. S. 558 (2003); Obergefell v. Hodges, 576 U.S. 644 (2015). They are all part of the same constitutional fabric, protecting autonomous decisionmaking over the most personal of life decisions.

In a statement sent to People magazine, Jim Obergefell, one of the plaintiffs in the historic Obergefell v. Hodge case that legitimized same-sex marriage, wrote:

"Clarence Thomas is a Supreme Court justice appointed by humans, he is not the Supreme Deity. The millions of loving couples who have the right to marriage equality to form their own families do not need Clarence Thomas imposing his individual twisted morality upon them. If you want to see an error in judgment, Clarence Thomas, look in the mirror."

Indeed.

All in all, things are looking pretty grim, and on track to get even grimmer. So hold on to your white wimples, Handmaids; it's going to be quite a ride -- and the fight is far from over.

Addendum, June 25, 2022: SCOTUS wrecking ball targeted other issues besides Roe
Unfortunately, Roe wasn't the only matter this past week in which the high court managed to do significant damage to more than a half century of progress. Here are its other major achievements for the week:

June 21, 2022: Kicking another big hole in the wall between church and state (and thumbing its nose at LGBTQ rights)

In a 6-3 vote, the court ruled Tuesday that Maine could not prohibit parents from using a state-funded tuition assistance program to pay for their children to attend private religious schools while permitting them to do so in private secular schools. The two schools cited in the case have a history of homophobic and transphobic policies.

The ruling in Carson v. Makin is a continuation of the conservative-majority court’s recent willingness to poke holes in the barrier between church and state. A number of LGBTQ advocacy organizations and other supporters of queer rights are sounding the  alarm about what the decision signals about the court’s direction, especially when it comes to reconciling religious freedom with safeguarding lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people from discrimination. 

June 23, 2022: Seriously weakening states' rights to impose their own gun control laws

For anyone concerned with the havoc associated with guns in this country, Thursday was a day of highs and lows. The Senate, after decades of inaction, passed a bipartisan gun-safety bill by a vote of 65–33. And the Supreme Court, in its biggest gun ruling in more than a decade, struck down a New York law by a vote of 6the case, New York State Rifle & Pistol –3. The majority opinion in Association v. Bruen, was written by and joined by the Court’s Clarence Thomas five other conservatives, and it is broad and reckless. It will expose any number of well-established laws to similar challenges, and rattle efforts to arrive at a national consensus on guns. If the Senate was the scene of a true breakthrough, the Court was the site of a major breakdown.

June 23, 2022: Kneecapping Miranda

Today, in Vega v. Tekoh, the court backtracked substantially on its Miranda promise. In Vega, the court held 6-3 (over an excellent dissent by Justice Elena Kagan) that an individual who is denied Miranda warnings and whose compelled statements are introduced against them in a criminal trial cannot sue the police officer who violated their rights, even where a criminal jury finds them not guilty of any crime. By denying people whose rights are violated the ability to seek redress under our country’s most important civil rights statute, the court has further widened the gap between the guarantees found in the Bill of Rights and the people’s ability to hold government officials accountable for violating them.

As someone on Twitter wrote, "I went to bed in 2022 and woke up in 1950." If the current SCOTUS majority and the fascist political infrastructure that supports them continue to prevail, the US is going to be plummeted even further back than 1950.

Addendum, July 12, 2022: The worst may be yet to come
The cases above are just a few examples of the destruction SCOTUS wreaked in their latest session. For a more complete review of their "accomplishments," see this.

And the worst may be yet to come when SCOTUS hears and rules on Moore v. Harper, a North Carolina case that is potentially the biggest threat to American democracy since January 6. The case, which will be heard in October 2022, involves independent state legislature doctrine and gerrymandering. If SCOTUS rules in North Carolina's favor, that could seriously impact the outcome of the 2024 presidential election, not to mention numerous local and state elections across the US. In practical terms, it could put the rethuglican party in power in the US indefinitely, regardless of actual popular vote or Electoral College outcomes. And regardless of your party affiliation, that should bother you. A lot. If it doesn't, you are definitely part of a very big problem.

 

Kevin Trudeau and the re-re-branding of GIN: everything old is new again

 

The latest iteration of the web site for serial scammer/fraudster/recently-released convict Kevin Trudeau's mega-scheme GIN (the Global Information Network) has been launched -- and it's looking a lot like vintage GIN. But this "exclusive" and "secret" club is now more exclusive and secret than ever, if we're to believe the hype on the new site, though it remains glaringly transparent for anyone who has even a rudimentary knowledge about scammers and the way they operate.

Currently the top priority for GIN seems to be the revival of the grandiose Utopian visions that suckered so many people into GIN 13 years ago, but what it all boils down to is that Trudeau is intent on getting as many marks as possible to give him as much money as possible as rapidly as possible so he can recreate the lavish lifestyle of his dreams.

Not that Trudeau is necessarily begging directly at this point. It appears that he is still remaining more or less in the background for now, at least on the publicly accessible pages; it's possible that it's a court-order/parole issue and that he's trying, for now at least, to comply with the terms. I'm not sure about the details there, since I don't have any recent court documents, but I'll welcome any input or additional information on this matter. In any case, Kevin Trudeau is clearly guiding the communications, which seem orchestrated to make it appear that his grateful minions are doing all of that mundane fundraising stuff while he devotes himself to (pretending that he is) Humbly Serving Humanity. Optics aside, however, make no mistake: this is the same old grift in a tawdry new suit.

In other words: Caveat emptor.

The launch of the new old GIN site was announced on the official Kevin Trudeau Fan Club page on Facebook on June 7, 2022.

From Kevin: We just launched this today https://globalinformationnetwork.com
Introductory limited time cost of joining is just $10.Read the site and it will answer all your questions. Join and see for yourself the value of membership.

Granted, $10 doesn't sound like much -- until you consider the fact that once upon a time you could join GIN for free for one full year as an "Associate Member." These daze, your "Associate Membership" will cost you $10 up front, and $8.95 a month thereafter. But I suppose inflation has hit the scam market too, so it's going to take more of your hard-earned bucks to get Kevin Trudeau sitting in the lap of luxury again. Suck it up, Buttercup, and remind yourself that it will be well worth the expenditure if Kevin can start wearing $12,500 cuff links again while he is Humbly Serving Humanity.

You may wonder what you get for your Associate Membership. You get this, according to the Membership Levels page:

• Access to the associate Membership sections of the GIN website
• Access to all GIN events
• Other benefits are CLASSIFIED

But what if you want to be more than a mere Associate? You become a Member, of course. As far as I know, there are still only seven extant levels of GIN membership, with Level 8 on the verge of being launched, though the goal, as it has been since GIN began, is to ultimately have 12 levels. Be that as it may, here you go with the (utter lack of) details:

Membership Levels	Qualifications	Benefits	Cash Bonuses “Perks” Rewards
Associate Member	• $10 Initiation Fee • $8.95 Monthly Dues	Access to the associate Membership sections of the GIN website Access to all GIN events Other benefits are CLASSIFIED	None
Level 1 Member	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 2 Member	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 3 Member	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 4 Member	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 5 Member	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 6 Executive Member	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 7 Senior Officer	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 8 Director	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 9 Presidents Club	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 10 Chairman’s Club	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 11 Inner Circle	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED
Level 12 Partner	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED	CLASSIFIED

No doubt, the "Classified" info becomes "Unclassified" as you pay your way up (and up and up and up).

History repeats itself, and so do I
As you know if you've been following this blog regularly, since very early in 2009, I've published hundreds of pages about Kevin Trudeau, aka KT, aka Katie on this Whirled. I first posted at length about GIN in December 2009 (with numerous updates that stretched into subsequent years).

In its heyday, GIN was not only an "exclusive" and "secret" club for success-oriented, like-minded suckers people, but also, and very importantly for Kevin's bottom line, a very expensive MLM (multi-level marketing) scheme. GIN never called its MLM an MLM, but instead dubbed it an "Affiliate" program. But clearly it was an MLM, and a pyramid scheme to boot, although to my knowledge the courts never specifically ruled on whether or not it was an illegal pyramid scheme. The product being MLM-ed was not a tangible physical item such as overpriced laundry products or vitamins; rather, it was an overpriced "Level 1" GIN membership, which cost $1,000.00 for the initiation fee (or, for a while, $1,500.00 if paid over time), with a $150.00 monthly membership fee for as long as one remained a GIN member.

Trudeau's mega-scam machine also offered numerous other "opportunities" for people to give him their money, such as his "Inner Circle" program that cost $50,000 or $75,000 or more, cash upfront, without the bother of working one's way up through the membership "levels." Over the years there were also all sorts of "bonus" and "incentive" schemes that turned out to be scams orchestrated to put money directly into Trudeau's pockets to cover his legal expenses and support his lavish lifestyle.

In case you're wondering, I am not including links here to information about the individual GINcentive programs, or for that matter to sources on some of the other GIN background info I've recapped here, because most of the relevant links were wiped long ago. But if you want more details from a former true believer and "Inner Circle" member who eventually realized he'd been snookered, check out John Foster's self-published book, Kevin Trudeau's Road-Kill Victims He Doesn't Want You To Know About: The $100 Million Pyramid Scheme.

For those who couldn't afford to buy their way into the upper echelons outright, there were of course GIN membership levels beyond Level 1; as I noted above, the original plan, and one that still seems in place though yet to be realized, was for there to be 12 levels. The actual cost for these higher levels, however, was generally kept a deep dark seekrit -- in other words, "CLASSIFIED." However, according to John Foster in the above-cited Road-Kill book (page 50), the upfront costs for the first six levels were:

• Level I: $1,000
• Level II: $1,500
• Level III: $1,500
• Level IV: $3,000
• Level V: $10,000
• Level VI: $25,000

What members were supposedly paying for were, in essence, ascending levels of "Success Mastery" training: a curriculum created/curated by Trudeau, with a lot of help from selfish-help/McSpirituality/motivational material generated over the past century or so. Members presumably had to study the material for each level, and were then required to take a test in order to pass from one level to the next. (There was also a shipload of Scientology-like indoctrination involved.)

Apart from the "Success Mastery" training, members were promised numerous other "benefits," much of which apparently consisted of little more than nebulous promises of exciting things to come, including lots of secret information that just wasn't available anywhere else, such as life-saving info about what would happen when the world ended, or failed to end, in December of 2012. You could find out more details about these exciting things, and you could learn more exclusive life-saving information, if you paid more money so you could be promised yet more details and information if you would pay yet more money... and so forth, and so on. As well, there were all sorts of pricey "tools," aggressively promoted by Trudeau cronies such as Blaine Athorn and Chris McGarahan, that were supposed to help you build your own GIN MLM business rapidly and achieve wealth and bliss beyond your wildest dreams.

If you didn't want to commit any money to GIN at the outset, there was, as I also indicated near the beginning of this post, an option to sign up as a free Associate Member, a membership that was only good for twelve months, and would be automatically canceled when the time was up. If you desired more GIN but couldn't afford the initiation fee, for a while there was a deal that allowed Associate Members to join GIN for free (at least free initiation -- they'd still have to pay the $150 monthly membership fee) if they could successfully sucker four paying members into joining under their personal Information Code. But even or especially if they did nothing, Associate Members could count on being continually pressure-marketed to upgrade to a Level 1 membership. And regardless of how little they paid to get to Level 1, they would pay through the nose to climb to more advanced levels.

On the origin of feces
GIN -- not to be confused (though apparently it often is) with a much older, and legitimate, nonprofit news organization by the same name -- was officially launched in the latter part of 2009, though it had apparently been years in the planning. A blurb on the home page of the new site claims:

The Global Information Network was conceived in Istanbul Turkey at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in 2003 by over 15 global luminaries and formally established in 2009. We currently have Members in over 160 countries.

Not surprisingly, those "over 15 global luminaries" are not named, which is part of that whole "secret and exclusive" appeal, which apparently worked so well in 2009 that it is enjoying new life. Shades of the infamous though nonexistent "GIN Council" that drew in so many gullibles back in the day...

In the years after its launch, GIN continued to grow, raking in many millions of dollars for Kevin and a very few of his very close buddies, though for everyone else... not so much. But the wild party continued, on land and on sea, until in 2013, when the legal sh-t started really hitting the fan for Kevin regarding a longstanding civil-turned-criminal case not related to GIN (the case that eventually led to his being sentenced to a ten-year Federal prison term). GIN was taken over by a receivership, after which the MLM was discontinued for a while. Eventually, in May of 2014, GIN was sold to a group of Trudeau's longtime associates.

The lineup of owners changed over the years, with the most recent group that I know of being Blaine Athorn and chiropractors Ted and Tom Morter, as announced on the Morters' web site in February 2018. In light of Trudeau's apparent release and the rather significant changes to the GIN site, it's possible that ownership has changed yet again, and I'll report that when/if I find out any new information.

The sale of GIN led to a bit of re-branding for the club, including a new web site and a brand new logo consisting of an ultra-modernistic rendering of the letters "GIN." Frankly, I kind of liked the more modern look of that initial redesign, but I've heard buzz that the folks responsible for all of that were fired once Kevin was more free to dictate things from the shadows. I suspect that Trudeau never really cared for the new logo, no doubt preferring the original mock-US-government seal, but while he was cooped up in prison he may not have had full artistic control. (Not that he didn't remain a distinct presence in GIN throughout his sentence; more on that momentarily.)

Following the sale of GIN to Katie's buddies, the MLM remained dormant for a while, though the hustling for members continued. At some point, the MLM was restored, though assertively branded as a "referral" program, and the costs for membership at all levels was significantly reduced.

Though no longer the owner of GIN on paper, Kevin Trudeau continued to run schemes and scams of his own from prison, and he kept in very close touch with his buds who "officially" owned GIN. Towards the end of his prison term, while he was on "home release," it became increasingly obvious that he was, at the very least, shadow-running GIN. And as his release date neared (supposedly the official date was May 9, 2022), the KT fraud machine appeared to be revving up to full speed again.

The new old GIN and its new old secrets
And now here we are. It's a brand new day with the same old same old, with Kevin apparently back at the helm again full time as if he'd never really left. (And, as indicated above, he never really did.) At least the question that I first raised back in December 2019 and then asked again in January 2020 has seemingly been answered for the moment. Those Whirled posts referred to extensive content on some new-at-the-time pro-Kevin sites that had described, in great detail, Kevin's magnificent visions for "The Club," and "The Ship" and whatnot.

The question I raised was whether the un-named Club was GIN, or if Kevin had plans to form his own new club once he was released. It appeared then that he was keeping his options open, and I speculated that he was prepared to stab his stalwart buddies in the back and poach the GIN membership if the cronies didn't do his bidding once he got out. For now, at least. it appears that those grandiose visions are invested in GIN. Why reinvent the wheel?

But the question remains: where are the last-known "official" owners, Athorn and the Morters? The FAQ page on the new site isn't exactly forthcoming about GIN ownership.

Q) Who owns, runs, and manages GIN as an entity?
A) The Club is owned by a small group of “Stewards” all of who have been Members of the Club since its inception. Several are also Founders of GIN. The Club has a number of full-time staff members, all who were high-level members of our Club for many years before they were brought on as full-time staff. We also have over 150 GIN Members who are part of the Volunteer Service Corps. The full-time staff and part-time volunteers, all who have been long-time GIN Members, “run” and manage the Club under the direction of the “Stewards” and the main “Founder” of GIN.

Oooo... more seekrits! "Stewards"... my goodness, that does sound mysterious and important. The main "Founder" of GIN is Kevin himself, of course, though his name is only mentioned on two of the site's public pages.

The Stewards are apparently taking great care to distance themselves from GIN's past MLM scam. From the FAQ page again:

Q) Is this Multi-Level, or are there any “commissions” or some kind of compensation plan for recruiting new members?
A) We are not Multi-Level, nor do we have any “affiliate” program or recruiting bonuses. We do not pay to “recruit”. In fact, we do not recruit. Members do not earn any commissions under any circumstances. Those who want to join our Club must apply for Membership. Not all applications are accepted. Additionally, we have high standards, and a strong Code of Conduct that must be adhered to. Memberships are sometimes cancelled due to violations of our Code of Conduct.

But we outsiders really don't know for sure if any of that is true, because all of those "Benefits" and "Cash Bonuses/Perks/Rewards" and such are "Classified." I would assume that Judges Robert Gettleman and Ronald Guzman -- who presided over Trudeau's civil and criminal cases, respectively -- are paying close attention, though.

The "Kevin Factor" and other bullship visions
As I mentioned above, there are only two pages on the entire publicly accessible GIN site that actually mention Kevin by name -- and it's only his first name. The first is the "Club Vision" page, which, among many other pipe dreams, envisions a global chain of ideal "villages" built by and for GIN members only.

...The whole community will be built using sacred geometry and infused with energy and attractor fields that will make this village “magical”. This will be an “organic” community who respects the Earth.

Everything will be run by renewable energy and “free energy”.

This will be the “greenest” and most environmentally friendly village on earth; a model for the world.

This community is the epicenter of The Club on land (The Club Flagship, Freedom is the epicenter for The Club on the Seas).

Everything will be the best of the best.

Kevin lives in a “Shangri-La” village (and on the ship), and everything will be better than world class!

All the “Shangri-la” villages are “connected” and regular “rallies” are organized between Members of each village to share different view-point, be together in energy and create a “world-connected” community sharing the same vision and ideals.

And the second area where Kevin's name is mentioned is the page devoted to the vision of a floating garbage barge luxury cruise ship, to be named "Freewinds" "Freedom," designed to house Kevin and potentially thousands of minions in splendid opulence. The page features a stock photo of a cruise ship with the name "FREEDOM" and the new old GIN logo photoshopped on. (And yes, I realize my own Photoshopping (or, actually, Corel Photo-Painting) job is even cruder, but the icons for various retouching and blending tools disappeared from my tool bar, and I can't figure out how to get them back, and I don't want to bother my husband Ron because he is busy.)

Some highlights from the bullship page:

Kevin’s New Residence
The Founder of the CLUB and Visionary of this idea of a ship named “FREEDOM” is Kevin.“Freedom” would be Kevin’s main residence and his “Home”.

“A Better Life” for everyone on board.

As a Member of The CLUB, you’ve earned the privilege to live the life you once dreamed you would. FREEDOM could be a multipurpose large ocean liner providing you the opportunity to live the life you deserve.

A “Floating Clubhouse” and World Headquarters for the CLUB.

When in port, FREEDOM could be open to all CLUB Members and their guests to come onboard and enjoy all the amenities on the SHIP including dining, entertainment, seminars, workshops, exclusive “SHIP ONLY TRAINING”, Upper Level CLUB training, meetings, and events...

As I've noted on several previous posts, being on board a world-cruisin' ship full time would certainly make it easier for Kevin to skirt US laws. I'm just saying. Law-skirting aside, the bullship "vision" is a little too close for comfort to Scientology and that whole Sea Org/slave ship thing, given that the big boat will require a sizeable crew to cater to the wishes of Himself and His minions. The current presentation of that part of the "vision" has been softened quite a bit from the way it was back when I first wrote about it, see under the sub-head, "Kevin's big dream: life on a cruise ship..." etc. (Then again, I've been told by more than one person who knows Trudeau personally that he has El-Ron-ish aspirations.)

But wait, there's more -- there's the "Kevin Factor!"

Why is living and working on FREEDOM “A Better Life”?

The SHIP could provide a living, working and vacationing environment that is “better” than anything you have ever dreamed of or imagined.

Everyone on the SHIP could work, live or vacation with Kevin, just like Kevin. Those who have seen first hand how Kevin has lived can imagine the lifestyle you would enjoy with him in the future.

 The “Kevin Factor” means everything in Kevin’s “world” is better than the best, and more glorious than one could ever imagine.

• Everything is better than First Class.
• Everything is grander than Grand Class.
• Everything is finer and more opulent than World Class.
• Everything is even beyond Royal Class.
• FREEDOM could be the world where the “Kevin Factor” reigns supreme.

The “Kevin Factor” mostly means that everything is FUN and that life truly has meaning and purpose.

The “Kevin Factor” means that life is fulfilling and satisfying, and that one has inner peace, joy and bliss.

The “Kevin Factor” is living “A Better Life” than you have ever experienced or imagined. And it COULD be yours!

On the SHIP you might sleep on the finest mattress, on the most luxurious sheets, with the world’s greatest pillow, all that have been cleaned and pressed by your personal maid.

You might wake with the programmed sounds of chirping birds and a special full spectrum lighting system that slowly brings the room into full brightness, just like the rising sun. It is the perfect healthiest way to be awakened from the best sleep of your life.

Your personally selected affirmations play automatically as you are still in your Alpha brain wave state, “programming you for success, health, and happiness”.

You shower in the cleanest, purest filtered, energized water that can be produced....

But this, and all of the other Utopian wet dreams laid out in garish detail on the web site, can only become a reality if you start pumping money into GIN, as soon as possible and as much as possible.

By the way, in case your vibes are so low that you encounter a significant problem with GIN and Kevin and the Stewards, and you decide that you want to take any of them to court, good luck. From the Terms of Use page:

These Terms of Use will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the country of Nevis, without regard to its choice of law provisions.

Nevis...why, yes, of course. It was Nevis from the beginning, and Nevis now. And for good reason.

Some things never change.