#tst news

[queerholmcs]

character of all time btw. if you even care.

[thedepressedjuggalette]

Iowa officials tried to block the Satanic Temple from reading Paradise Lost, only to end up hurting homeless veterans.

[nikosasaki]

FAULTLINES ⭑ a riverdale series

originally released in 2018, Faultlines was a spinoff from the original Riverdale series, following the story of Southsider Benny Bayford and his close friends, the junior Southside Serpents. the series was known for covering serious topics like drug addiction and abuse, but became more known for it's expansive queer representation. the series spanned four seasons and nearly 80 episodes, with the final season showing the main characters reuniting in their hometown of Riverdale after being separated during their college years.

taglist: @kendelias @chlobenet @bravelittleflower @eddiemunscns @purpleyearning @eddysocs @heavenlysurf @arrthurpendragon @nolanhollogay @stanshollaand @lovehermioneforever @raith-way @kiara-carrera @decennia @luucypevensie @waterloou @ginger-grimm @hiddenqveendom @foxesandmagic @jvstjewels @dragonsbone @endless-oc-creations @ginevrastilinski @sunlitscribe @dyhlanobrien @partiallypearl @witchofinterest @fleetwoodmcs @daughter-of-melpomene

[scorchedmazes]

new blog name? new blog name

[queersatanic]

What John Oliver gets wrong about The Satanic Temple and abortion rights

In the most recent episode of HBO's "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver", he made a mention of a particular publicity stunt by a certain satanic for-profit business-cum-church.

In so doing, he demonstrated perfectly the way The Satanic Temple's grift works, and the limitations of "Last Week Tonight" as an actual news program rather than what it is: a popularizer and disseminator of the work done by others.

If the show had done a proper investigation, they would have immediately found huge red flags involving the Temple's clinic that call into question its legitimacy entirely. Since they did not, we'll show you what so many have missed despite being out in the open.

JOHN OLIVER: But also, note that we can still act here. Some have taken some small steps in the last year that are, if nothing else, immensely satisfying. Like this one that was covered by a Catholic news network. > TRACY SABOL: An international group named after Satan will soon open its first abortion business in the United States. > > The Satanic Temple, which claims to not believe in a literal Satan, will provide telehealth screenings and prescribe abortion pills for patients in New Mexico. The name of the soon-to-be facility? The Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic. (AUDIENCE CHEERS) JOHN OLIVER: Incredible. Very well played. Now, is that gonna fix everything? No, of course it isn't. But when it comes to responding to such wide spreading devastation, you could do a lot worse than the single best "your mom" joke of all time. Especially when you add in that one of the group's co-founders even said, "In 1950, Samuel Alito's mother did not have options, and look what happened."

That seems like pretty high praise, and the show moves on without further comment on it.

From this, you would not know that The Satanic Temple fundamentally jeopardized the legitimacy of this telehealth clinic by utilizing fake names on government documents for its New Mexico corporations registry.

"Malcolm Jarry" is the pseudonym of TST co-owner Cevin Soling; despite listing two different addresses and listing him twice, "Lucien Greaves" is the same person as Douglas Misicko.

Doing this is almost certainly literally perjury, as has come up in court for them before.

Actually, several times.

To repeat: You do not get to lie and use a fake name for yourself on government documents, particularly documents establishing legal ownership of your corporation.

In any proper legal challenge to The Satanic Temple's clinic, including anyone who treats TST's marketing as credible and wants to use it as a shield against abortion bans, this would be found out and it would absolutely put the entire endeavor in jeopardy.

Of course, it gets worse.

Here's what the Temple says on its website about this clinic, emphasis added:

Q: Abortion is illegal where I live. Can I still get an abortion with TST Health? A: Abortion is legal in New Mexico. Regardless of where you live, if you are in the state of New Mexico during your video consultation and when you perform your abortion ritual, you will have abided by the law. However, if you travel to a state where abortion is illegal and need follow-up care, there may be some risks. Unfortunately, we don’t have enough information to know how state laws will be enforced. We believe that the religious nature of our care neutralizes this risk, but state courts must affirm this, and we are working toward attaining that confirmation.

And here are the kinds of billboards TST has run around the country and in its Facebook ads in bids for attention and while soliciting money:

“Our religious Abortion Ritual Averts Many State Restrictions”.

Yet, when The Satanic Temple sued a billboard company that was unwilling to run that demonstrably false advertisement, TST owner Cevin Soling had to admit in his deposition that he was not aware of any examples where Satanism had been successfully used to avert a state restriction on abortion, including their own previous attempts:

As of November 2023, The Satanic Temple has lost six (6) abortion-ban challenges, lost them in state and in federal court, lost them at the district court, appellate court, and supreme courts.

TST has never helped someone avert a state law restricting abortion. But they have fundraised heavily off of the idea that they can.

How much? It's very tough to say because "The Satanic Temple, Inc." d/b/a "TST Health Inc." and "Sam Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic Inc." is not a regular nonprofit: it's a tax-exempt church. And as a tax-exempt church, it is under no legal requirement to report its finances.

John Oliver famously created "Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption" in 2015 to highlight the problems inherent with this, so you might argue that TST is just doing the same thing and attempting to bring awareness to a problem with the U.S. tax code.

Except that Oliver shut his corporation down after a month and reported its finances, meanwhile "The Satanic Temple Inc." chugs along year after year soliciting money and providing no financial transparency about how much money is coming in or where it's being spent. (Say, pursuing various SLAPP actions against ex-members; again, Oliver would know something about being on the receiving end of one of those.)

Of course it gets even more complicated.

The Satanic Temple's owners registered their tax-exempt church "The Satanic Temple Inc." in New Mexico as, among other things, "TST Health Inc." and have been promoting merchandise for it as well.

But the merch lacks the "tax-deductible" notification, which is the only way on TST's website to distinguish purchases benefitting the for-profit "United Federation of Churches LLC d/b/a 'The Satanic Temple' " from its nonprofit "The Satanic Temple (Inc.)".

How much money did The Satanic Temple bring in specifically for this telehealth clinic based on its fundraising campaigns? We don't know, and TST's owners won't tell you.

How many people did The Satanic Temple actually help with its telehealth clinic? We don't know — although we did get some idea from TST's failed Indiana abortion-ban lawsuit where TST indicated "over two dozen" people in a state with existing abortion clinics where abortion was legal had been able to be helped between February and June 2023.

Now, as part of the same proceedings, The Satanic Temple claims that it spent "over $75,000 to establish and maintain an abortion clinic" but that number is rather suspiciously the exact number TST needed to claim for damages in order to meet federal jurisdictional requirements, and it's exactly the sort of thing you'd want to see broken down in an audit because it claims it spent this in March 2023, prior to operating expenses actually kicking in.

So if that were true, and again, there's no reason to think it is, it would mean that The Satanic Temple is one of the most inefficient ways for anyone to get fund abortions. This is the sort of thing the group Indigenous Women Rising pointed out at the time in response to TST's announcement.

Even if The Satanic Temple were actually doing this with the best of intentions, and there's no reason to think they are, it would be a bad idea to try to come in from Massachusetts and re-invent the wheel rather than support any of the established organizations operating in New Mexico who have local connections and experience with the challenges of funding abortions for people.

None of this is especially hidden information, you know. Even the court proceedings are out for the public to examine, especially for lawsuits that have gotten so much attention when they were announced, thanks to a TST press release, and at their close, thanks to the Indiana Attorney General's press release.

But they do require doing work, asking follow up questions, and expecting more evidence in response to those questions than, "Just trust me, bro."

So how did the "Last Week Tonight" segment happen? Well, going back to the video, have two news outlets here: the first is EWTN, and the second is the Albuquerque Journal.

The EWTN "News Nightly" segment comes from Feb. 3, 2023, the Albuquerque Journal article from Feb. 6, 2023.

If you look at both, the way they're structured is taking a press release from The Satanic Temple and quoting from it and TST's website. EWTN is a straightforwardly Catholic news agency, so it just talks to Father Steve Grunow, CEO of Word on Fire Ministries for his take on the situation; the Albuquerque Journal is a mainstream, "objective" newspaper, so it quotes Elisa Martinez, founder and executive director of the New Mexico Alliance for Life; and it quotes Joan Lamunyon Sanford, executive director of the New Mexico Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice, while adding in some more details about "The Satanic Temple Inc." being an IRS-recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

Note that no one has yet done actual journalism here. The Catholic news agency has a bogeyman to beat up on and connect to abortion rights more generally, such as Ruth Bader Ginsberg getting a statue. The "straight news" outlet quotes from a press release then plays stenographer for the views of "both sides"; the deepest anyone goes is confirming that TST has an entity that can accept tax-deductible donations.

Sympathetic outlets like Hemant Mehta of "The Friendly Atheist", meanwhile, offer no pushback and just look for more quotes from TST to dutifully transcribe with no pushback or further investigation.

The Satanic Temple's press release and additional quotations from "pro" and/or "anti" abortion rights figures who are basically unconcerned with any particular facts of the situation, just taking TST's framing and reacting to it. When "Last Week Tonight" does a short segment about it, it leans on the work of others who upon deeper examination are actually doing very little work.

Larger media outlets like Jezebel and smaller, local ones like the Riverfront Times, on the other hand, have done in-depth looks at the Temple more generally and discovered that underneath the marketing there is not much of anything.

Prior to this clinic's announcement, we did our own in-depth roundup of abortion access orgs, journalists, legal experts, and actual court outcomes. Again: when abortion rights folks are actually familiar with the specifics of The Satanic Temple and TST's activities, the opinion is skeptical to outright hostile.

It would be really nice if John Oliver and his team were willing to apply the same level of skepticism to glorified press releases about The Satanic Temple that they do to many other topics.

But that takes work, and if local and partisan sources aren't doing the yeoman's work for them, even with HBO's budget, "Last Week Tonight" is like to skip it and make mistakes.

We've been willing to do the work, to be deservedly skeptical, and to compare the claims The Satanic Temple has made in one place versus ones they've made other places. We have limited resources and time as well, and we're not professionals. Unfortunately, it often seems like we're the only ones doing this.

But you can, too. You can watch yourself when a piece of news comes in that tickles your fancy, like someone being rude to an odious Supreme Court justice, and ask yourself a few more questions about what claims are actually being made and whether you ought to have some follow-up questions about it.

For us the most important one remains, "Why doesn't The Satanic Temple have any financial transparency or accountability for what it does with its donations, and why is it not more clear what is a for-profit sale benefiting the owners and what is a nonprofit donation?"

[theskiesthatshimmer]

some traditional art for a change

[onlydylanobrien]

Dylan O'Brien signing autographs for fans at the "Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials" New York premiere at Regal E-Walk in New York City. (September 15, 2015)

📷🎥©: mikeemarino on Instagram: X. X, X

[ssangster]

Lay Me Down by ssangster (5/?)

summary:  After narrowly escaping WICKED once again, Thomas and Newt find themselves stranded somewhere between the Scorch and Cranksville. Armed with only determination and a few meager supplies, they navigate treacherous lands in search for Safe Haven. Amidst the adrenaline-fueled quest for safety, Thomas grapples with his growing feelings for Newt. Together, they face not only the physical challenges but also the ups and downs of their changing relationship. In this intense journey of survival and self-discovery, Thomas and Newt learn that real strength comes from accepting who they are and finding comfort in each other's company.

rating: teen  warnings: no warnings apply word count:  13,848+ status: in-progress

[i’m back to writing!!! something wasn’t sitting right with me with this fic, so i have reworked the chapters that have been posted! enjoy ^o^]

more updates soon to come!

[garkgatiss]

𝕒 𝕞𝕠𝕣𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕣𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝 𝕥𝕪𝕡𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕧𝕚𝕤𝕦𝕒𝕝 𝕗𝕝𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕚𝕤𝕙

[an-onyx-void]

Gaza Health Ministry says war deaths exceed 30,000 as famine looms

Gaza Health Ministry says war deaths exceed 30,000 as famine looms

[ithinkilostitalr]

Will knows Nico so well now that if they were just talking and Nico is smiling and Will glances at him he would be like, "No Nico, you are not about to jump off a cliff "

[ashes-in-a-jar]

The Sheridan Tapes episode 68

I don't know how I feel about Kate being so forgiving about what Sam did to Molly. It feels like it should be a bigger deal...

Sam telling her not to do what he did with Allen and let her family get as far away as they can before it's too late 😭

Goodness that mental breakdown Anna had on tape was intense... Wonder what 1993 was all about, I don't remember.

[rosykims]

if maric theirin has a million haters then i am one of them. if maric theirin has ten haters then I am one of them. if maric theirin has only one hater then that is me. if maric theirin has no haters then that means I am no longer on earth

[queersatanic]

The Satanic Temple cannot help you get an abortion, and it does not deserve your support

For more on that, see this post/zine.

We had to lead with this info because some of you will want to get excited about the news you're about to hear, and you should not do that.

ICYMI: The Satanic Temple registered its tax-exempt church in New Mexico with the "doing business as" name of "Samuel Alito's Mom's Satanic Abortion Clinic Inc. / TST Health Inc."

As the Temple announced in their lawsuit against Idaho, this is intended to be a clinic that prescribes:

mifeprestone and misoprostol (“Abortifacients”) to pregnant members of TST nationwide using telemedicine (“Medical Abortions”)

The legal government name of "Lucien Greaves" is Douglas Misicko.

The legal, government name of "Malcolm Jarry" is Cevin Soling.

These are the two men who own everything in The Satanic Temple.

And yet! TST has—for weeks!—used their pseudonyms on official government documents, including editing the New Mexico official paperwork since sometime in mid-December to not only keep Cevin Soling's fake name "Malcolm Jarry" on it as a director (and exclude Soling as himself) but also add Doug Misicko's trademarked pseudonym "Lucien Greaves" as a director—at a different address than Misicko's government name is listed (also as a director).

Neither the one from December 14, 2022:

Nor from Jan. 31, 2023

Matches how The Satanic Temple most recently filed its paperwork for November in Massachusetts:

Fucking incredible.

God, you wish anyone in a newsroom would bother to pay attention to this stuff, huh?

Moreover, we’re still being sued by The Satanic Temple in federal court. TST is also still suing Newsweek for writing about us. In addition, the Temple is now suing a TikToker in Texas for talking about our case. Check the pinned post for more.

[mizugucci]

having a huge bunch of my favorite flop boys (2016-2019 era) find employment again and redebut.. I have so many emotions..

[eligosvespillo]

Fox News speaking to only the most enlightened and reputable sources on the matter of modern satansim, yet again.

The artistic merit of TST continues to prevail at drawing out the delusional and willfully ignorant that still maintain a major political voice in this country.

Hail Boston and hail Satan.