Tonight, news broke of a leaked draft of what appears to be Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s majority decision overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision establishing access to abortion as a constitutional right. That news is an alarm like the 1857
This moment feels more like "Shots Fired At Fort Sumter" to me.
Many individuals and groups drunk on power throughout history have perceived themselves as being at their apex immediately before they suffer a ruinous loss of power. This looks like over-reach to me.
Ol' Mitch's antics with SCOTUS have ensured that we won't respect their extremist partisan nonsense about women's private healthcare decisions.
Heather Booth was the most influential person I ever worked for back in Washington, DC. She helped create the Jane Collective. We will organize, not agonize.
It is very annoying that women need to win the same rights over and over and over again.
"This is just the beginning...substitute for the word “abortion” any other modern liberty not mentioned in the Constitution: the right to use contraception, same-sex marriage, the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, marriage between different “races,” the right of any consenting adults to engage in sex, the right of unmarried couples to live together, and the rights of LGBTQ people to be treated with equal dignity.
...For Americans who value personal liberties not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, overruling Roe and Casey should be the legal equivalent of the first volleys of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord. There is no logical stopping point for the reactionary majority’s adoption of a conservative Christian agenda or the further cultural radicalization of Republican candidates. We must be the stopping point.
...And we have no time to wallow in despair or mourn what has been lost. We must reclaim our stolen liberty with bold, decisive action.
...If we hope to preserve our remaining hard-won rights and reclaim the right about to be taken from American women, we must be pragmatists and agitators. We must recognize that our personal liberties are on every ballot in every election in every state, county, and city.
...The setback revealed today is not the end. It is just the beginning of our generation’s effort to reclaim American democracy as our own. Every generation before us rose to that task."
The fact that these cretins use “Christian” in their March to tyranny makes them anything but. Chump as a “Christian” is laughable. Wonder how many abortions he has paid for.
The practical outcome in terms of abortion will be that the wealthy will continue to have access and too bad for everybody else. So, we will be back to back alleys and women will die. Then there will be the zealot vigilantes nosing into the private lives of women. Some will be arrested for miscarriages. And once these forced births are here, Rs will have no interest in their well being. That this Supreme Court is going to do this is no surprise. Donate, work for Ds if you can, and vote. I have already voted in the primary here in Oregon. And of course, the local Bernie bot is giving advice to people which should be good news to Rs.
I'm old enough to remember when a woman's death due to pregnancy and childbirth was "God's will." Let's face it, the R's are the party of misogyny, mayhem and money. Nothing else matters.
Will home pregnancy tests have to be signed for like decongestants, but followed by by “pregnancy police” to report the results? Will every piece of mail by a reported pregnant woman—and everyone she knows—have their mail opened?
Before 8:56 pm last night I would have said, "Nah." Today I am convinced these Nazis will do all of that and worse. Protect our daughters and granddaughters.
I wonder how many women, including HCR peeps, might have or could have been caught in the dark times of pre Roe vs. Wade, but for luck. I was in college in the mid sixties, and beyond, married too young I admit, the “in between times” of women’s rights in my limited life. The college health center male physician, of course, would prescribe birth control pills with a gynecological exam and only for married students or those who had a ring and a date. It’s a crime to withhold sex education, Women’s health services including abortion, all that should be part of our insurance and our privacy. With and without private insurance or living in a civilized state or not. It’s not 1965, but we are in a reverse Time Machine.
It is so VERY, VERY, VERY important to interpret the religious and moral imperatives of Christianity as being applied to ONESELF rather than legislated, litigated, adjudicated, otherwise exerted over others. If every self-proclaimed Christian applied the teaching of Jesus to themselves to their best ability, they would literally have no room in their lives to point fingers at others, other than to assist them along their way. It is such a challenge to even poorly fulfill the two most important commandments (love thy God, followed by love thy neighbor) that all the "thou shalt not"s can be understood as more specific interpretations of those two. The essence of Christianity is belief and how one behaves personally as a consequence, not how one stands in judgement over others. Nowhere in the teaching of Jesus will you find justification to use those beliefs to legally constrain the behavior of others. Another core teaching of Christianity; "Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but..." Our judicial systems and religious believes may follow parallel lines of reasoning, but they are distinct, insofar as judicial systems particularly need to be agnostic in a pluralistic society.
There is nothing more draconian at this point in human history than the proposed end of a woman’s right to determine her personal health choice to carry a fetus to term, to require her to usher into this challenging world the life of another she feels unable to properly parent. It is a cruel hardship on all struggling families and individuals. It is a cruel hardship on any child forced into circumstances already diminished by poverty, mental health, or burdening another’s well-being. No woman takes this decision frivolously to decline motherhood in the face of her own limiting circumstances.
Nothing is more evil and divisive than the party behind this threat to our half-century constitutional law to also be the hollow voice crying out for individual freedom, ensuring gun ownership for incompetent individuals resulting in the deaths of vast numbers of innocent population — including much-loved children. Crying out for their own “individual rights”, then declining such rights to women is hypocrisy. That these people label themselves as “Christian” is an abomination on the very values embraced by their exploited name-sake. To call themselves American is an abomination on the founding principles of this country.
I extend my deepest loathing to the current rise of ignorance, self-righteous and blind loyalty to a cult of dog-whistlers— leading to the degradation of democracy we are witnessing in these dark times, brazenly defying the majority of the American people’s wishes through lies, subversive control, and shoddy “news” sites. I’ve never been so disgusted.
Thank you, Berry M., you said it exactly right. I’m feeling really sick right now: it’s the culmination of years of increasing nausea that is now bubbling up to the point of full on vomiting. We all need to seriously fight this abomination so we can start to heal again, lest this really be the beginning of the end of everything, absolutely everything, we have held dear and understood to be tangible proof of human progress.
Indeed, this is larger than abortion. For women. The clause that prohibits abortion even in cases of rape and/or incest reduces women to objects to be used at the whim of men for whatever their sexual proclivities. This is about erasing women, shaming women, reducing their status as members of a democracy who can move about freely and excel at professions of their choosing. I recently watched a documentary about rape and sexual assault in the military. Victims were told that rape and sexual assault were occupational hazards for being in the military. The Supreme Court just made being a woman an occupational hazard.
I was just looking for a Ukraine button online and came across this bumper sticker: "Men should be glad women only want equality and not revenge". I burst out laughing because it is so true.
It’s about calling humans who can carry babies the property of the state. What is wrong with the Supreme Court justices? What is the matter with their thinking? How did they become so warped. These questions are rhetorical really. I bet they think they are defending life. How sad. Very sad.
You are right. I was trying to make a bridge to the fact that once a government has taken ownership over any human bodies (in this case the female ones) it is not a far step to taking power over all bodies. It was clumsy I agree.
Ditto everything you said. Back during the Bush years, when we thought things were bad (!?), I said that 'if I wanted to live in a theocracy, I'd move to Saudi Arabia." The so-called Christians have turned white Christian grievance into an art form, so that now, if anyone tries to refuse to genuflect at their bidding, we are said to be 'discriminating' against THEM! I thought Torquemada died over 600 years ago.
You're fueling my fire Berry and making me feel very anti-Christian! One is supposed to pray for their enemies and I am--praying that one of DeSantis' kids becomes a tranny, another one gets pregnant when she's 12, and--I know this is off topic--Putin dies of dysentery....
People forget freed slaves had the vote 70 years before women, and could buy a car without a male co-signer before women. This is the US—nothing has changed
Much has changed. This world is no longer full of the dark alleys that enabled politicians to hold back women’s rights. More importantly women have battled fiercely winning those steps to equality under the law. Now before you jamb this back down my throat think about the changes women have wrought in the last hundred years. Woman are well educated in all aspects of business, politics, and labor. Most have dual roles to play. This is a very dangerous and losing game, utterly doomed that the Republicans have chosen. They attacked women instead of ideals. Women who are steadily becoming the most solid political force we have ever seen. It is wise to attack a weak point in a battle, but to go head to head against women’s strength is absolutely fatal in this new century. When Trump was elected they shot themselves in the foot. Now they have shot themselves in both feet. Limping is one thing but limping on both feet? The republicans have ghastly under estimated this road we are on. A change has been coming. A tidal wave is no match for the sunami they have summoned.
I, unfortunately, cannot share your belief in the solidarity of women’s voting power. This may spur political activism in red states—but that is not guaranteed. And blue states have, as we’ve seen with the electoral college, the people but not the geography.
Just look at Texas—what are the politics of heavily populated Houston, Austin, and some of Dallas? Yet Gov Abbott and Republicans reign. I hope, I’ll work for it, but the dark money and Catholics/Mormons/Evangelicals that brought this to fruition are more collective than Democrats
Texas will be blue inside of 10 years. The gov will look like Teddy Blue Abbot. I base this on the fact that Jeri lives there. And her hard core cronies. Tough hand to bet against.
Organize! FOCUS4Democracy is my go to. Incredible group drilling down on key states. Heady smart players. Very encouraging how they’re targeting very specific races.
We are organized. We need the help of every man that reads of this upcoming decision to choose to know of our agony, feel what they can of it, and join us in an absolute refusal to not be complacent thinking the government is not going to screw us. That’s one thing men always have done. With little regret.
And every man and woman who continues to be be a Republican bobble head needs to go have the surgery to have their heads removed from their asses before Political stage 4 complications are their end-all. I think we should all walk backwards in massive protest. ‘Across America a new phenomenon is occurring with millions walking backwards, apparently in defiance of what appears to be the political decision to curtail women’s rights by a backwards minded Republican minority.’
I believe there are many good men who are as outraged about this as many women are. Being a man doesn’t automatically makes you a jerk. It’s only men who have a-little-penis-mind syndrome when they need to accrue power from other means, like guns or subservience
I’m assuming you are not a man so while trying to be gracious about generalizing that being a man doesn’t automatically make one a jerk, perhaps give that same graciousness to men who are not born well endowed. I would think it a safe bet that there are plenty of greedy, power hungry men, and women, who choose that path, despite the size of their genitals or breasts. Generalizing is rarely productive. I know I have to stay aware of doing that sometimes.
White men in particular, but they also have misogynistic accomplices like Clarence Thomas and Bill Cosby, have always wanted to persecute, control, and subjugate women. It’s revolting. Where the fuck is the Equal Rights Amendment for Women? We’re living in the goddamn Stone Age.
Men are going to be looking for women that have Drivers Lic. Here U don’t pay support U don’t get to drive. Haha ! Wonder how many of them Proud ones and Oath Fakers have DL ?
Concur. Well said. If this does does not make it clear that rhetoric about "states' rights" is a Trojan Horse for Confederacy 2.0, nothing will. W/r, cdl
So they want to forget about Appomatox and rekindle the war they lost, inspired by Justice Taney's Dred Scott decision, back in 1865 but now they want to fight it in the Courts rather than with guns. So be it. It is time for the Attorney General to start prosecuting those who rebeled on January 6, 2021, those who inspired them, and investigate three Supreme Court justices who may have lied under oath regarding respecting existing precedent at their confirmation hearings. But I suppose oaths mean little to Republicans.
Don’t be too sure that that isn’t a Republican wet dream-an uncivil war that will most definitely lead to martial(yeah, I can spell)law and a completely upside down world run by the United Oligarchs of Amerika.
For anyone doubting the insidious effects of religion on a free, democratic society, this looming decision is your lodestar. Who believes that the court's majority is taking away an established right for the first time in our history (with other rights likely to suffer the same fate) because the Constitution doesn't mention abortion? That's what the opinion says. The actual reason, of course, stems from the justices believing abortion is a sin. Note to justices: lying is sinful, too, as you did in your confirmation hearings about settled law.
Amendment IX in my copy of the Constitution says, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." I understand this as saying that, just because some rights are enumerated in the Constitution, while others are not, does not imply that other rights don't exist. That's almost a quintuple negative and I may be misunderstanding Amendment IX, but the point is: just because it's not in the Constitution does not mean that it doesn't exist. Or, to put it another way, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
And, unfortunately, there are other issues that really need our, and the nation's, attention. Is it about abortion, or is it about watering down efforts on climate change, democracy, etc.
Oh, yes. Climate change. Democracy being a pre-requisite for effective action to deal with it. Republican Putin apologists, has Putin done anything to save our planet? Quite the opposite with his Ukraine onslaught. Our attention goes to immediate tragedy and so we forget about the looming tragedy for our children and grandchildren, around the world. The Republican ideology seems to boil down to Give Greed a Chance. In- groups which laws protect but do not constrain. Out-groups which laws constrain but do not protect. Selfishness now, selfishness forever!
Give Greed a Chance - Wow! What a perfect bumper sticker, with elephants in gold crowns on each end.
And thanks for the clarity about laws protecting vs. constraining. As Krugman noted “freedom” on the right now means being completely free to take advantage of all that has allowed my folks to be on top for so long.
Kim, I think you're on to something. I believe that climate change is our most pressing problem by far. Nothing else will matter unless we solve it, and the window of opportunity for that is closing quickly.
I want to learn more about climate change: its causes, its measurement and how to solve it. Please suggest any research paper/s you have read that you would recommend. Thanks.
Clare, the best I can do right now is to tell you what I have been reading. I see Ellie's list, which looks more like what you are asking, and which will be helpful to me, too.
The way I learn about things is to ask questions, then work my way back to sources of information. I keep in mind the biases of the sources I find, which I check out through websites that evaluate such things, but it is still very helpful to read different points of view that are stated well, as that prompts more questions. I usually start with some smart, experienced person who I believe is being truthful. I then go about trying to prove or disprove to the best of my ability whichever of their assertions particularly interests me. Lately I've been diving from Noam Chomsky, a thinker I particularly admire who has lived a long life and has a lot to say. Here are some of the tabs I still have open from my reading yesterday, if any of these will help you:
Robinson's novels are grounded in known science then built upon. We're seeing the introductory portion of The Ministry for the Future in today's reality in India, for instance, which in fact is experiencing exactly the killing heat waves that The Ministry is seeking to address. It truly is a terrifying novel because it so accurately depicts what we are seeing develop today under climate change and current political realities.
Robinson's other novels also are extrapolated from known climate science. The "Mars" trilogy, written in the 1990s, are fascinating and the political and climate change impacts on Earth addressed in Green Mars and Blue Mars are beginning to be seen and felt in today's world as is true of the Science in the Capitol Trilogy written in the 2000s.
The first of his novels that I read was 2312, published in 2012, which depicts an incredible far future, followed by Antarctica which I later realized to be prequel for The Mars Trilogy. https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/kim-stanley-robinson/
I did not know all that! I am not sure why I read The Ministry for the Future. I almost never read current fiction, though I do read the classics over and over. I guess I don't read it because it just doesn't seem real. But this was so plausible, at least in the beginning. It really was a very interesting read. I might look into the others sometime. Thanks for the info!
A woman's fundamental, legal right to choose an abortion, and hence her autonomy, is absolutely linked to climate change. If women are prohibited a voice when it comes to protecting their bodies, how do we find and believe in our voices to protect against other assaults like those perpetrated against the environment.
If birth control of all types was readily available at no or low cost, no matter someone’s age, the need for abortions would fall sharply. But right-wing pseudo Christians want to block birth control as well. It’s madness. As if the planet needs more people to hasten its precipitous decline.
Not going to research links right now but I believe that abortion stats began dropping soon after Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, and continued that trajectory until, likely, the near future.
Fort Sumter moment indeed. The SCOTUS is working to bring back and affirm the takeover of the Confederacy. May 3, 2022 will be marked historically as the day the USA decends into the CSA by minority action. “Leave it up to the States”, Alito says. You mean those gop gerrymandered states with suppressive gop voting laws?
I think Russia will be contained eventually. The United States, though, is a different matter. It is now well on the way to the biggest face plant in history.
When democracy disappears in your country, and the lunatics have all the keys to the asylum, the reverberations around the world will be devastating.
I continue to be stunned by the speed and recklessness with which this project is being pursued. Granted, it is prototypically American to tilt madly at windmills, but usually sanity is restored at the last minute before self-inflicted wounds become fatal. This time though it appears that warp speed has been reached and madness will prevail.
Eric, This project has gone on for forty years. Starting with the demonization of Jimmy Carter as weak and stupid by Reagan, who WAS weak and stupid.
But, you have to give the Pubs credit. They play the long game to win. Dems are all out their trying to play by the rules, but, turns out, there are no rules.
But the effective “marriage” of social media and the smart phone in 2006-07 sent the project into hypersonic speed. The effect of these technology twins will, I believe, be one of the great historical turning points of all time.
That is precisely why the old way of “playing by the rules” with court cases that drag on for years with both frivolous and not so frivolous appeals and delays is now so spectacularly inefficient. The law is now a donkey competing at an F1 race in vitally important cases.
And not incidentally, this is my sore spot with Merrick Garland and today’s DOJ. I don’t deny they are good people. I don’t deny their belief in the virtues of procedure.
But the bad guys are repeatedly lapping them and doing it brazenly and effortlessly.
I am seriously convinced that it’s about five minutes from game over. And what is an American tragedy will see the world sucked into the abyss it leaves.
This is the wrong time to be a full-on institutionalist. The rules are there and the Democrats are playing by them. But in this world of violently rapid change, the rules are the dog chasing a Ferrari. Sad to say.
On the face of things it's not obvious what the Repugs gain by seeking to make abortion illegal. And even the most rabid Repugs seem to want abortion when their own young daughters become pregnant.
I also wonder if Republican chickens are coming home to roost? Many Republicans have given lip service to the conservative Christian base, but in every day life they have 'enjoyed" access to family planning, women's rights, abortion as a medical procedure, et al. Perhaps they will see that pandering for conservative Christian votes will cut off noses to spite faces.
I tucked my almost 12-year old daughter into bed tonight with a story about the deaths of women before Roe. Any girl who is old enough to become pregnant if raped is old enough to hear these stories.
You are wise and very brave to do this, Eleanor. Sometimes, being frankly, or in this case, brutally honest with our children is the best choice to make to protect our children. To think that you do that because of our government which now poses to rule women instead of honoring them does not make me sad. I am furious. And how dare they manage a “leak” of a draft. For what? Lay the groundwork, rile up women to show how “emotional” they can be? Get our minds off the fight for democracy in other world locations and remind us it’s fading here? And right before Mother’s Day?
Loathesome. Go ahead, lay down your scandalous gauntlet, Supreme Court and treasonous state legislatures.
Make sure your daughter knows that she stands on the shoulders of great women in this country spanning more than one generation.
As far as the “leaked draft” goes……… I believe the opposite of you Christine about their intent. I believe it was a reproductive rights supporter who leaked it. And for exactly the reason you and I are furious this morning: rip the bandaid of apathy off the Americans sitting on the sidelines. This energizes us to finally accept we ARE in a Lexington and Concord moment. Everything really IS at stake. My question to all candidates will be “Do you support coat hangers?” That is my new symbol for our opponents.
I too have thought that the leak probably came from the minority, they have been paying attention all along after all, and they know just who lied in order to get a seat beside them. The outrage this leak has inspired is unprecedented, this is perhaps the hornets nest the nation has needed to align a lot of voices into a roar. I would put good money on a huge turnout in November, this will unite a lot of people with very disparate interests, just how many really want to see a return to the coat hanger era, which I remember all too well.
The very welcome draft leak is horrifying for more reasons than abortion. Using Alito’s reasoning, women’s right to vote may very well be on the line! Blacks right to vote. Same sex marriage. If this doesn’t rile up the country, then we’re in a sorry place. I know my 81 year old self and my 59 year old daughter will be in the protest already planned for next week in Santa Ana, CA. Proven again, the one word to sum up Republican leaders is “liar.”
As awful as this SCOTUS attack will apparently be on “unenumerated” rights - of which there are many - the right to vote regardless of race and gender are protected by the Constitution, in specific Amendments. (States unfortunately have a huge say in how voting actually takes place.)
IMO, as we fight back, we must keep our facts straight in order to have maximum credibility.
Oooo, I like having both possibilities covered, Michele. And your proposed question for all candidates made me throw my phone in the air, clap twice, and then catch it.
I'm organizing a Mother's Day March in Salt Lake City—or trying to. I've got a very busy day today and our big-hitter with Planned Parenthood is out of town for the weekend. But, as I told my League of Women Voters president: I don't want breakfast in bed, I want a revolution.
I do wonder why this leaked. I noticed also that immediately that lots of Ds and other entities were fundraising on it and I hope that the donations flow in. And one friend wasted no time in posting her outrage on Facebook. As I view the posts below, I do wonder if we are going to have an explosive Mother's Day. I already have the image of smokin' grills.
I'm organizing a Mother's Day March in Salt Lake City—or trying to. I've got a very busy day today and our big-hitter with Planned Parenthood is out of town for the weekend. But, as I told my League of Women Voters president: I don't want breakfast in bed, I want a revolution.
Women on Facebook are sharing information about getting help and where to go, what they can do. We’ve been reduced to using social media to get healthcare and reproductive care. Girls getting pregnant are starting to become more visible in high schools. I stated that since there’s a crisis in women’s reproductive care there’s going to be an increase in young girls needing support. A woman asked what crisis? Head in the sand!
I’ve stated on Facebook that 100% of unwanted pregnancies are caused by men. A man said what about the ones caused by women? Hello! Women cannot get themselves pregnant!
I cried when I saw the headline! Controlling women, pulling the rug out from underneath the poor. Upsetting and disheartening!
Reproductive care is healthcare. Healthcare is a HUGE concern for families. Women should be able to determine the size of their families which helps determine the health of their families.
Such spot on comments, Christine. We should all be furious! But I imagine a lot of us on this forum are furious. The malignancy of the R’s must always be fought. They are the American Taliban.
I had this very argument a couple years ago on my fleecebook page. Those that are "true believers" cannot grasp this very simple fact. That argument showed up on my "memories" page; numbering well over 100 interactions, I was reminded why I have quit posting anything (well, almost. I still stray from time to time): I end up giving these chowederheads* free rent in my head and it is counterproductive to my well-being.
*sanitized for what words I really wanted to use, a smorgasbord of profanity, blasphemy, and vulgarity.
I was thinking tonight of the two women students I knew in college pre-Roe who died from botched abortions.
I was also glad that the Friend of Jane I am partners with is too deep in late stage Parkinson's for tonight's news to really register with her. Not fully.
My experience is that all but rich women who were teenagers before 1973 can remember someone who died from a botched abortion. Now, as then, women and girls who have the means to travel will still be able to get an abortion. Women will die from ectopic pregnancies.
Some rich women could not share that they were ever pregnant with the purse string holders in their families and ergo also died from back alley or self done abortions
We talked through many things—and I have been open with her about what it is to have a body, to be a female, and so on. The gravity and details of our talk were different, but it was not too far of a leap from past topics. I was well into adulthood before I realized fully how treacherous life can be—by design. I would rather my daughter learn hard things at home where she can talk through her thoughts and worries than as a woman with nowhere to go for help. My parents are two of the people who have ushered in this era—as far as they are concerned, we are all part of an eternal plan and any difficulties on earth are temporary and mysterious. My daughter will be raised by a parent who believes life on earth is the life we are living and that knowledge is a measure of power. But it’s hard times,
Bless you! I taught my girls the same. They are in their 30’s now and very outspoken about their rights and the rights of others. You are correct, these are very hard times.
I wish I had had a wise mother, myself. I never knew a thing about my body let alone that it was mine and mine, alone. Children are a myth, in many ways, so I don't think there is anything but power to come from letting them in on the realities of life in "age appropriate" ways; my 8 year old is not getting the same talk as the almost-12 year old. All things in time, but they'll learn and be prepared. I'm an older mom at almost-50 and I feel like I'm not prepared—I just hope I can help them be safer and wiser than I ever was.
I remember attending a packed Hendrix Chapel at Syracuse University in 1968+/_ where listened to Bill Baird, a nationally recognized speaker on eliminating laws against abortion. NYS out lawed abortion at the time. Baird described conditions of death and mutilation in the back ally abortion industry that prevailed for desperate women of limited to no means. He explained how affluent, mostly white women, obtained abortions in most states under doctor's care in hospitals and private clinics. I knew doctors performed abortions, because I knew some young women whose parents helped them obtain medical abortions. But I was not aware of the abortion laws and how and where they were applied.
My Republican mother warned me when I was very young not to allow an ambulance to take her to a Catholic hospital while she was pregnant for fear that if any medical treatment risked her or her unborn baby, that they would save the baby over her. She explained, she had three young children and a husband who needed her as a mother.
I am reminded of many stories from women, both devout Christians and atheists who have dealt with the harsh realities of these laws. Women, some of whom, chose not to have abortions. Some when their fetuses were found to be deformed to an unsurvivable degree and abortion was recommended for the mother's health. They suffered serious depression, questioned their responsibilities, torn between their religion and medicine. Got help from their Church for their decision to carry their fetus, and no help when they finally delivered a still born without any human potential. Then went on to adopt a child of color, that was also rejected by their Church. This particular woman after ten years, two still born, one successful healthy birth and one adoption, found a new church, counsels pregnant parents to make their own decisions with their family and doctors, that abortion is a choice and that God does not punish women who make these hard choices, only people who don't know them or don't know anything about women's health, responsibilities or personal situations.
Clearly the US Supreme Court is not qualified to make these decisions for women and their families.
ALL of us guys know at least one guy who ended up not lucky and married at 17, or driving to Mexico for the weekend, or nearly being shot by a father, or simply leaving town before being shot.
Restrictions on "Liberty" (which is what the Republicans are doing while they simultanousely claim they are for "liberty").....
Mike you bring up such an important point. This does affect ALL of us. We now need the men in our lives to talk about this, donate money to support this, and march for this, write to members of congress about this, make phone calls about this, and most importantly: talk to their friends who are men about his. Stop being quiet. If you are a man who wants to flip the situation and be raped, carry an unwanted pregnancy, die in child birth, then ok, support women as owned, forced-breeding-stock beings. But if you can really understand that you would NOT wish that fate upon anyone, start making some noise. We need everyone’s help.
I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this, Mike. Those "men" seemed more interested in their own hides than in considering their "contributions" to the pregnancies. The "lucky" ones are the ones who used a condom to begin with.
It sickens me to see frequent TV ads for CHI (Catholic Health Initiatives). They have been taking over independent hospitals as quickly as they can, using enormous tax-free financial resources. Any opposition to their schemes is characterized as anti-religious bigotry.
David, if your family was living in Syracuse, your Mom was referring to St Joseph's Hospital. Utica has St Elizabeth's. Note how the hospitals have that common factor of " St." In their heyday, nuns were the nurses who padded the hallways with whispers of its Gods will and be a good girl as they brainwashed young women and girls to carrying their unwanted and potentially disastrous fetuses to full term.
Right-o, Linda. Just look at the septic tank full of infant and fetus remains found in Ireland a few years back - I believe it was on the property of an old nunnery or something affiliated with the Church.
Nuns in Ireland made good money selling children to American's who had the money to buy them. Common practice or should I say business. The nuns( Catholic Church) could sell them to Americans because they could be easily integrated into a family here. If they got them here young enough, they could "beat the bragh out of them" so they "sounded" American. An old colleague of mine found out that was where she was from long after her parents had passed and she did her own ancestry. She had no idea.
There were also lawyers here in the States that did the same thing. I know one girl who was 'adopted' that way. Strictly a business deal between someone who wanted something, and someone who could provide it. And some young girl, usually from the Northeast/NY/NJ area, was suddenly on a vacation in sunny Florida for a few months....................
Kathy, can you imagine living your life thinking you were from Dearborn Michigan and your Father worked for the Ford Motor Company and your Mom stayed home to take care of you. Only to find out you really were born in a Convent in Ireland and stayed there until someone with money picked you out. She was no more than a puppy that was chosen from a litter of golden retrievers.
David’s mom was aware of the danger of falling under the control of an anti women hospital. Here’s a service that’s heavily advertised in Nebraska: “CHI Health's My Provider Match tool uses a short quiz to match patients with a set of providers that could best work with their personality and needs.”
Including access to Plan-B pills? Not according to Catholic bishops nor to the hordes of evangelical protestants who follow the bishops’ ideas of morality.
I never agreed with anything out of the Reagan years, with the exception of a comment attributed to Earl Butts, I think, who was Secy of Ag. In re: birth control and the Church, he said of the Pope, John Paul II; "He no play-a the game, he no make-a the rules". Amen!
I was also there, David. A powerful day for a new student on campus. As it was then, Chambers Brothers singing Time Has Come Today, so it is now. Time has come to remove reactionary, fascist rule of the minority.
"He explained how affluent, mostly white women, obtained abortions in most states under doctor's care in hospitals and private clinics." That's probably because they may have been scheduled for a D&C (Dilation and Curetage) to avoid the "disgrace" of an abortion. I'm sure that, in some states, these also will be reported as illegal abortions even when they are prescribed for uterine disorders and not to abort a fetus. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/dilation-and-curettage/about/pac-20384910
The decision by our "Supreme Court" should be seen for what it is, an attack on civil rights. Overturning Roe vs Wade won't end abortions but it will end safe abortions. Women will die but the people who sit on their moral high horse will celebrate. This is a very slippery slope for this court of supposedly intelligent justices (although I would question that), to start dismantling many more of our civil rights.
Meanwhile, the January 6th committee keeps finding out more about the illegal activities of Republicans who are still in office and supporting the big lie. We are in very dangerous waters. Democracy in America is under siege.
And I don't believe they will recognize Stare Decisis any more, probably in EVERYTHING, not just Civil Rights. Since the Constitution mentions slavery, will they go so far as to re-institute that and ignore any Constitutional Amendments they don't like? Who knows?
The labored argument around how the 14th Amendment doesn't apply and is not threatened by this decisions opens up a whole line of future challenges to all of the protections we think of as settled.
We need t-shirts and signs that say NO ROE NO SEX. I have fought too damn hard for over 50 years, to have this constitutional ruling be overturned by traitors! That is what the Supreme Court minus Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, are. They lie, just like the rest of the Republican Party, the party of Sedition, the party of Insurrection. Please don’t tell me there’s nothing we can do that can divert this horrid news. It hits the gut so awfully hard that I can't seem to catch my breath. They will have flows of blood on their hands, coat hangers on their lawns. They deserve every nasty disgusting thing they get. Protest and VOTE!
I'd take it a step further and all women across the country should go on strike, literally. Look at the devastating slaughter of Ukrainians as they fight for democracy. IMO, the very least we can do is not go to work until we retain our rights. Marches are wonderful, but in the end (unless they last for a long time and shut the economy down), they accomplish/change little. The message needs to be much louder!
I agree. Every nonessential pro choice worker should strike for one week. If 20 Ukrainian women and children can survive that hellhole surely we can live without all the privileges we have for one week because we are the majority. Shut it down. Because we are sick of it. Good trouble, remember?
We will always need healthcare workers. I don’t want EMTs, doctors and pharmacists, nurses and healthcare workers to strike. But let’s strike. Like the French. T-shirts don’t make a revolution.
Given how far SCOTUS has gone in IGNORING the Federal Supremacy clause, I wouldn't be surprised if states will try to pass laws that allow rape and SCOTUS would go along with it.
For you Marlene, I’m going to the grocery store. The red Idaho grocery store. I’ll wear my big black cowboy hat with coat hangers on it. I’m going to walk backwards pulling my cart.
They'll be coming after birth control next. I saw a headline saying they will soon be targeting all privacy rights decisions. I assume that will take aim at same-sex marriage. Wasn't that decided as a right to privacy issue? Welcome to the Dark Ages 2.0.
That's exactly right. All you had to do was listen to the Republican inquisitors in the KBJ hearings - they all spoke in favor of going after family planning, same-sex and interracial marriage. Believe them when they tell you what they want to do. And if they win the majority in the House and Senate in November, you can bet your last dime on the first "healthcare" bill they pass being a national ban on abortions to overcome the laws in blue states.
I remember back in 1976, when Willie Brown announced he was going to have the Legislature pass a constitutional amendment for abortion, a bunch of us asked why, since there was Roe. He said "what the court gives, the court can take away." I was suddenly struck tonight, when I remembered that, that all who questioned the need were white, while the guy who saw clearly what was what, was black. That's not coincidental.
This decision certainly goes beyond abortion. I read the 98 page majority ruling last night before going to rest. It is a rambling and repetitive mess, probably because it returns to points of argument and appeals. It is dangerous for three reasons to me. The first two being that it argues that Roe was erigous as it did not in any way base its decision on the U.S. Constitution explicit rights requirements (originalism) and that the majority of states (26, the same 26 now coming forward?) had enacted antiabortion laws in the 18th and 19th century (states rights, each of which is included as an appendix). The third is a labored argument that the 14th Amendment neither applies nor is under threat by this decision exceptd by its introduction establishes the next tranch for undermining settled law around voting, rights implied or decided, protections found in modern liberal societies, and the power of the people as a whole to determine laws that bind us as a union. The 14th Amendment we all know is the amendment to ensures that all people, not just land owning white males, are equal in determining the laws of this nation, but also that the laws of this nation must be applied equally to protect all of us, and cannot be used to favor or control one group over another. This decision, IMHO, sets in motion the potential tumbling of the pillars of a free and democratic society and the beginning of a 21st century confederacy.
I fear it is "when" they win the majority, given the new voting laws enacted by Republicans; i.e., if they don't like the results if an election, they will simply change it.
Willie Brown was absolutely correct about the court. That basically makes the country a
yo-yo, operating differently depending on who is in power. The court needs to be expanded. Nine people, most of whom are Catholic, do not represent the diversity of thought. I am NOT intending to denigrate Catholics, just stating a fact regarding the backgrounds of the justices.
“Simpson put nearly $2-million in the budget last legislative session for the program, but Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed it. Now, Simpson says he’s planning to try again.”
On 12/27/21, The Guardian reported the death of Sarah Weddington, 1 of 2 Texas lawyers that won Roe vs. Wade in 1973. Sarah was 1 of several powerful Texas women that became known as the "Austin Matriarchy". During the Gorsuch hearings Sarah predicted that Roe would be quickly overturned. Sarah remained a strong advocate of womens rights, health, privacy & full citizenship. Miss you very much today, Counsel.
What are chances that a SCOTUS majority may have decided that a distraction is needed now to drive coverage of the January 6 hearings even farther into the background than corporate media is already driving it? Ending Roe vs. Wade is certainly the kind of distraction that has the amperage needed to eclipse the hearings from public attention and keep extensive coverage off the front page and out of prime time.
The January 6 hearings have the potential to send some operatives who loaded the Supreme Court to prison. Even if SCOTUS officially abolishes Roe vs. Wade, no GOP operatives will go to prison for that. I can imagine why the GOP might be engineering this for public consumption now.
That, Ed, was the first thing that flashed across my mind -- why the timing?
After all, if there's one thing that gangsters, crooked politicians and their lawyers are masters of, it is creating diversions.
This, at a time when the noose is tightening around the hoodlum who made it to the White House, him and accomplices...
This at a time of real crisis, war in Europe, major economic trouble, looming bread riots and famine throughout the world and a run-up to fixed elections more worthy of Putin's Russia than mere banana republic shenanigans.
A time, if ever there was one, when America needs what it's unlikely to get, unity and solid support for the country's institutions.
I do hope you are correct, Fern. For now, we have Texas as a beta-test where their governor and their GOP legislature essentially overturned Roe vs. Wade in that state and then blessed vigilantes with the power to enforce the law onto women. Democrats are having no populist landslide there. Instead DC Corporate Dems are endorsing an anti-abortion male elephant in a donkey suit like Cuellar instead of a woman minority progressive like Cisneros. The corporate Democrat cartel is not a particularly hopeful group to rely on to fire up a voting base. Heck. Democrats even have that partisan ace up the sleeve of backing an active war that is on the front pages. In our country with our cartel parties, that has never failed to hand sitting presidents a second term. Despite the fact that Biden seems to have proven himself a remarkably good leader in a terrible challenge, his polls and that of his party are not showing a charged up base that I would trust to overturn even this SCOTUS horror. Believe me when I say that I want to believe this is a blow to the prospects of the gangster cartel party, but it is equally likely that it has galvanized their right wing pseudo Christian base with what they will interpret as ""we are finally winning." Given the gerrymandering, the electoral college, and the monopoly on actual information by corporate news, desires of a majority do not translate into a democracy. Neither does education and ability to reason.
'A majority of Americans say the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last week finds.'
'With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the right to abortion, the survey finds that 54 percent of Americans think the 1973 Roe decision should be upheld while 28 percent believe it should be overturned — a roughly 2-to-1 margin.' (WAPO)
54% is a piddling majority compared to the 70+% majority that favors universal healthcare. That has never translated into power to overturn the system of for-profit health care. Jimmy Carter acknowledged years ago that we no longer are governed by democracy, we are governed by oligarchy. If you want to label Jimmy Carter as dark side too for having courage to speak reality, be my guest. I'm not dark side either in acknowledging that majority rule is not what we have in our governments.
Ed, I am attached to the facts and my comments almost always reflect that. Another fact about me is that I don't examine issues through rose colored glasses. That 54% of Americans are in favor of maintaining Roe v. Wade is not small change, nevertheless, you prefer to focus on it not being 70% , 80% or 90%. I sincerely hope that you are too pessimistic, as I believe that Alito's draft has provided the rights of Americans a boost. We'll see how much we can make of it.
I don't think Scotus or any Republican is worried about Jan 06 committee. That committee is doing great work, Dr. Richardson is keeping us informed, but, in the end, the Jan 06 committee is toothless.
I also don't think any Republican is worried much about Merrick Garland except for the unwise and slow witted guys who stormed the Capital and got caught on video doing so.
Merrick is going after those guys with a vengeance. Those folks are mostly without the means to get a stack of lawyers to delay and defend them. Most of them plead guilty.
Merick is NOT going after anyone white with money, at all. Not at all.
It would appear to me that Garland "knows his place".
Could be. We know from Ginni Thomas that Clarence frequently chats with Ron DeSanTax. It’s a small step to see this shared draft as politically motivated.
‘The opinion, obtained by Politico, is still subject to change and debate up until its official release, which is expected by this summer. Regardless of the outcome, the draft is likely to have immediate consequences for business, thrusting companies further into the political fray.’
‘More companies may be compelled to speak out. This is already playing out at the state level in places like Texas, where a restrictive abortion law has led Yelp, Citigroup and others to pledge to help pay for employees to travel out of state for abortions. (Amazon told employees yesterday that it would provide similar reimbursements.)
The draft opinion just turned this polarizing issue into a pressing midterm election question. That means companies could expect pressure from both employees and consumers to take a stand.’
‘Corporate political spending will get strict scrutiny. Since the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, companies have faced more pressure to align their political contributions with their stated principles. Roe v. Wade is perhaps the most contentious case of this age, so for businesses there is no politically safe decision, and they may have to choose which enemies they can afford to make. Taking a stand, whether by speaking up, contributing to causes or withholding funding from politicians as punishment, can have consequences.’
‘Tension between businesses and politicians may intensify. Disney’s recent battles with Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, over a law prohibiting discussion of gender identity in some public schools cost the company its special tax privileges and good will from key Republicans. Last year, companies that stood up for voting rights in Georgia, Florida, Texas and other states faced political retribution, or at least threats of it. As companies take stances on social and cultural issues that anger people on the right, conservative politicians are spurning their contributions and pushing back. Expect more of these conflicts.’
Ed, I don't this SOCTUS Draft is going to be good for the business of being Republican right now.
I surely hope you are right. Pelosi's endorsing an anti-abortion corporate Democrat in Texas has not helped the cause of Roe vs. Wade or given reason to trust the Democratic party not to throw women to the wolves in the same way they have thrown the entire citizenry to the wolves of for-profit corporate health care and homelessness. Corporate-run government and money seems to be the only issues that party operatives (not rank & file members) support with bipartisan enthusiasm.
Pelosi also endorsed a former Republican Gov in FL who just a couple of weeks ago admitted he's still pro-life! This over a well qualified woman currently serving in the FL cabinet as the only statewide elected Democrat! To say I'm disappointed with Pelosi is an understatement.
As a registered Democrat, I live in a progressive-aligned state and am registered on several partisan Democrat sites. Through all of the justified outrage voiced by women and their supporters, so far not one post on these sites has called for accountability from the senior Democrat operatives like Hoyer and Pelosi for endorsing male anti-choice candidates over women who mostly lean progressive—NOT ONE. I've made it a point to donate to the campaigns of women in other states trying to primary-out the elephants in donkey suits entrenched in our party. Democrats cannot pass needed policy by electing corrupt saboteurs into our ranks, and there's a lot more of them than just Manchin and Sinema.
Pelosi endorsed Charlie Crist for Governor in Florida. Crist spent most of his career as a Republican, including one term as Governor. About 3 weeks ago, he told a reporter that he's still pro-life. Nikki Fried is a life-long Democrat currently serving as one of four statewide positions provided for in the FL Constitution (Commissioner of Agriculture & Consumer Services) where, in her first year, she was able to get the Legislature to pass a law approving medical Marijuana. She also booted the NRA out of its stranglehold over concealed weapons permits. I can't find joy in Pelosi's trip to Ukraine because of this. I've known Nikki for 20 years. I know she would be a fabulous Governor. It is incomprehensible to me that Pelosi chose Crist over a pro-choice woman for Governor of FL.
The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into the party of Trump
News flash: it was NEVER "the Party of Lincoln" or "the party of Eisenhower." Lincoln was not favored by the "inner power structure" of the party, since they weren't able to grift during the civil war the way they got to afterwards when he was gone (see: Grant Administration). As to Eisenhower, the "real" Republicans wanted Ohio Senator Robert Taft, a "traditional," previously America-first isolationist anti-New Deal Republican, and were only barely defeated by the pragmatists who knew they had to run someone actually popular (and who better to get all those ex-GIs' votes than their former commander?) if they were going to get out of 20 years of losing.
THESE PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SCUM. Anything they ever did that was good, stopped in 1865 (the "progressive" wing had enough votes during the war to do the Merrill Act, the Homestead Act, the Transcontinental Railroad - which was the only one the business wing liked, since they could see all the graft opportunities, which they took). There's a reason why Harry Truman said 74 years ago that "the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." The earlier goons only look good in comparison to the modern monsters. Remember, they had no trouble selling out Reconstruction to stay in power.
And while we are mentioning blame, we can blame the last three Republican presidents for tonight. GHW Bush nominated Thomas, GW Bush nominated Alito, and Fatso the Fuckup nominated Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett - the five votes.
And we should also remember who "went along to get along" with his Republican friends, to shepherd the Thomas nomination, denigrating the testimony of Anita Hill, limiting investigation of her charges, and everything else to be a "good guy" to his Republican senate buddies. I believe his name was ... Widen? ... Something like that. Oh, yeah, right - Biden!
How about we blame the 4 Justices themselves, the Racist, the Cultist, the Rapist and the Traitor, for perjuring themselves repeatedly in front of Congress and the American People to get on that bench. How is that Clinton was impeached for being imprecise and misguidedly chivalrous, and these 4 persistently blatant liars get off SCOTUS-free - so they can dig in and dismantle our entire justice system?
TC, good post. I think Dr. Richardson's characterization of the Republican Party as the Party of Lincoln is accurate in terms of the results of Lincoln's Presidency and the rhetoric of his Presidency.
Of course, lots of white men in the both parties in 1857 absolutely felt they were superior to blacks, women, and anyone not born to an easy life of inherited wealth. Having been born priviliged and under the misguided notion that was some kind of divine outcome and that God was on their side, they feel and felt that they can do anything they want to anyone.
Dangerous people for sure.
Luckily, those folks are often as dumb as a dead tree stump and as lazy as a lilly floating on a pond. They DO have money so they CAN hire smart people, but, they often make mistakes because of a huge ego and a tiny brain.
Just like today. Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow.
Sadly, you are right, I don’t blame Joe. He was still of the mindset that republicans were a legitimate political party. Just like Teddy K thought W was someone with whom he could kumbaya. How slow we are to learn that our foundation is made of clay…
Stuart, yes, I just heard a NPR story on how the current DOJ is sticking with a Trump era DOJ decision that Boeing, after lying to the FAA about its 737 MAX and lying to everyone else about its lying to the FAA, is NOT being charged with a crime AND the DOJ is protecting Boeing against lawsuits by the families.
Merrick Garland rushes to protect Boeing management from jail and protect Boeing from lawsuits and is doing everything possible to insure that Trump walks free as well.
Dems are not so much saints. Not really. Although, Biden is fairly free of taint if you don't include how he trashed Anita Hill in favor of our porn loving Clarence Thomas.
TC & Stuart, Sadly, too many pols are attorneys, and most pols begin and end as prostitutes. We expect better, but when we elect these people, we keep getting what we deserve.
I could tell the difference in 1963 when I became a Dem. No brainer…. Still true as Dems have done better and Repubs have raced to the bottom…. Still a no brainer…
Plenty of Dems over the last 30 years have been complicit, too. Clinton and Obama also "went along to get along"; we haven't had a progressive Dem in the Oval Office since Carter. Pelosi and Schumer don't fight, and they silence the Dems who want to fight. The neoliberals are definitely not helping.
No one is perfect, including our President who no doubt now regrets the way the Thomas hearings were handled, if he had a do over, I have no doubt that would be it. Everything we do matters, it has always been that way, think of it as a small rock thrown into a still pond and how it reverberates to distant shores. God help us, but all of our actions have deeper meanings and consequences, today we are watching a manifestation of that principal.
At times like this I can’t help but think of the handful of Democrats and liberal Independents in a couple of states who couldn’t bring themselves to hold their noses and vote for Clinton in 2016.
The optimist in me assumes that the history that has unfolded since that election, especially the leaked SCOTUS opinion, has demonstrated to all the profound consequences of voting only for one’s own notion of political perfection.
Democracy is not about achieving perfection, it’s about achieving the possible. (A nod to the memory of Tip O’Neill.)
This. So much this. The Bernie Bros that stayed home, the upper-middle class that "just couldn't bring myself to vote for her". Every. Last. One. Of. Them. will have this blood (literal) on their hands.
I will have to look for O’Neill’s words about achieving the possible. I read Hillary R Clinton’s graduation speech several times a year for inspiration. From a poem she read that was written by a classmate:
“Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free
Not to save the world in a glorious crusade
Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain
I tried Google for more context on this quote from O’Neill but couldn’t come up with anything. Interestingly though I did find a related pessimistic John K Galbraith quote: “Politics is not the art of the possible; it consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
I was pregnant with my first child when I marched for women to have the right to make decisions about their bodies. My husband was a law student at the time and RBG was his law professor at Rutgers Law School. Both men and women organized and shouted out for our rights. Even when the Court upheld Roe, we knew there would be a day when this would be challenged. We did not worry, for our generation made our voices heard and as Bob Dylan wrote, “we are still marching in the streets, with little victories and big defeats”. We knew the law would protect us. We felt threatened yet safe living in what was then a democracy.
And here we are almost 50 years later, and watching this experiment known as democracy, being shredded by a group
of treasonous Trump cohorts and a bigoted and biased GOP. Three Trump appointed SCOTUS candidates swore in their hearings that they would not change Roe v Wade. These liar Justices now sit on the bench of the highest court in the land. The enemy is once again within.
I have a granddaughter and it is I who will have to explain to her what we fought for for her and the generations which came after us. I am distraught. I will continue the battle, and honor Mother’s Day like never before. God help us all!
Between the Heartless Court's obliterating any right not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution and the Texas anti-abortion law providing the model for states to end around the Constitution through vigilante injustice, we now have anarchy and autocracy and an oligarchic kleptocracy. With rights come responsibilities in a democracy; without rights no one has responsibility. The word woman is not in the Constitution so by this Court's illogic women have no rights. I'm feeling like John Hancock when he signed the Declaration of Independence writing his signature so large. Now to find the leaders who will bring us all together to fight for all our rights and a new Constitution!
I just reread my copy of the Constitution. Although Title IX is most frequently cited in cases like equal rights for women in sports, the actual wording goes far beyond that.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Period
I also found no mention of the right for anyone to marry anyone, no right to inherit property, no right to drive a car, …
In 1988, I was living just south of San Francisco when I find myself pregnant. My then-husband and I received the news happily. Other than bouts of morning sickness, everything went swimmingly through the first trimester. If felt my baby move at around 4 months or so. I went for an amniocentesis test at the recommended 17 weeks.
It took about 2 weeks to get the results, and they are both devastating and unquestionable. My baby girl had a severe genetic defect called Trisomy 13, also called Patau syndrome. Trisomy 13 is a chromosomal condition that causes severe intellectual disability, heart defects, brain or spinal cord abnormalities, poorly developed eyes, additional fingers and toes, cleft lip, and weak muscles. Most infants with Trisomy 13 die within their first days or weeks of life, if they even make it that far.
As much as I wanted her, there was no question of carrying this baby to term. Not only because caring for this ill-fated child would be impossible under our circumstances, but because I was frightened by what had happened to my own mother.
My mother became pregnant with her 4th child when I was 2, and he died in utero at 8 months. Back in the 1950s, the only option available was for her to deliver the baby naturally. So she carried him, knowing he was dead, until he was born at 9 months. The experience drove her into terrible postpartum depression from which she never recovered. By the time I was 5 years old she’d devolved into paranoid schizophrenia. When I was 12, she was institutionalized. She received 35 shock treatments that did nothing to restore her mental health, and died when I was 17.
I felt that I too could easily be driven into unrecoverable depression myself if my situation continued. So I finally received my abortion at 22 weeks after a difficult search for a provider. My milk came in afterwards. I cried for weeks.
The moral of the story is this: forcing a woman to have even a <wanted> but seriously deformed baby can be devastating.
I am equally afraid that no Republicans attending the trip to Ukraine means they are weak on our national security, weak on defending Ukraine, pro Russia and other authoritarians, and likely to withdraw from NATO when they have the chance. The story about the rise and fall of the US of America will only be known in underground museums.
Most Republicans in Congress are voting in favor of arms for Ukraine. But those most active in trying to overturn the 2020 election are not. Trump is not and still burning that Ukraine did not serve his political purposes when asked.
That will have to be a lot more protest, get out the vote and law suits to tie Republicans up in knots like Ukraine is trying to do with Russia.
Rupert will turn the tide in America If his ilk is not shut down. He has been pro-Putin, especially since chump. Wait for it. It’s like Ayn Rand said “the question is not who is going to let me, the question is who is going to stop me.” So far his “journalism” credentials allow his non-stop propaganda screeds. Free press, my arse…
The contours of the 2022-2024 campaigns are laid in Republicans declining to go to the Ukraine with Pelosi: US support was wrong-headed, we were becoming involved in foreign affairs, Biden was screwing us up, inflation is driven by all the Dem spending, including to support some little European country, etc.
To be fair, the Ukraine visit was not announced ahead of time, only the Poland leg was. None of the reps knew they would be visiting Ukraine for security reasons.
Professor, your conclusion is even more succinct, but I could not resist reiterating your analysis: "[The current Supreme Court majority's] attack on federal protection of civil rights applies not just to abortion, but to all the protections put in place since World War II: the right to use birth control, marry whomever you wish, live in desegregated spaces, and so on."
Thank you Heather. This is the most discouraging Letter so far that I've read.
When Biden became President , I said "pack the Courts." I had people tell me that is uncalled for, some said don't be ridiculous. One of my colleagues said, that's an over reaction. Why would you do that? My answer was simple, I had a very terrifying, gut feeling that our Country was going to become a horrendous place to live. I had no idea how horrible and quickly that would happen.
Here we are.
No one said you have to love the country where you were born. Not even like it for that matter. There is no obligation.
I agree, the inmates are taking over the asylum. None of this is a news flash. Instead it feels like a nuclear cloud expanding and settling over us like a prison. And all brought on by the worst examples of humanity. Let no one wonder how Nazi Germany happened…
Yes, Linda, I remember when you said “pack the courts”.
Do it President Biden. As well as drop kicking Manchin and Sinema into a real majority and get some sh*t passed. Gloves off. Chastity belts with Lysistrata penis snippers in place, please.
Christine, I feel we are at the point of making self defense classes for women and girls part of the curriculum for K-12 and college. They may find that to be the most valuable class they will take in their lives.
You are right, there is no obligation to love, like or respect the country one was born in. I have long felt a simmering anger towards the United States. Reading the news about overturning Roe v Wade last night brought my anger to a full boil. I was outraged and in tears at the same time. A while back, another subscriber questioned my patriotism because I had said things they deemed to be anti-American. If voicing anger and disgust toward a government and politicians who are actively tearing apart a democracy is unpatriotic and un-American, I'll eat my hat.
Daria, the first words to my wife this morning were "Let's move to Canada. I'm done with the US." Through tears, my rage boils, like yours. So, I'll join you in being called unpatriotic if I speak up against the mess the country has become.
Daria, although I expected the court to overturn Roe, I didn't expect any news until June when they usually give rulings on cases as sensitive as Roe. The "leak" just knocked me sideways as I wasn't prepared. I don't know what to say now to young women who must learn that their bodies are not their own.
Christine, I can say the same about you!! It's 5:45 here and I'm fixing to have my martini! Here's to you my lovely friend. It is against the law for non citizens to protest BUT I have a couple friends at the US Consulate and I'm going to see if it's legal to protest in front of the Consulate (US property? Yes? No?)
Daria, tonight at 5 PM we lifted wine to the women in this country who will not let this go...to you and Christine, Lynell, Ellie, Fern (I could go on and on), and the millions of others here on LFAA who will not be silent. But, tonight....I am soooo sad/mad.
Daria, I completely agree. Where you were born has nothing to do with your convictions. Patriotism is a misnomer. I see many Ukrainian flags flying from houses here in New York State as I travel thru. It doesn't mean that they are Ukrainian or they are entrenched with the Country. It's just what they see fit to do at this point in time.
We should all be upset and disgusted by this Conservative power play. We should shout to the highest mountains. This is wrong.
This moment feels more like "Shots Fired At Fort Sumter" to me.
Many individuals and groups drunk on power throughout history have perceived themselves as being at their apex immediately before they suffer a ruinous loss of power. This looks like over-reach to me.
Ol' Mitch's antics with SCOTUS have ensured that we won't respect their extremist partisan nonsense about women's private healthcare decisions.
Heather Booth was the most influential person I ever worked for back in Washington, DC. She helped create the Jane Collective. We will organize, not agonize.
It is very annoying that women need to win the same rights over and over and over again.
As Robert Hubbell writes tonight:
"This is just the beginning...substitute for the word “abortion” any other modern liberty not mentioned in the Constitution: the right to use contraception, same-sex marriage, the right of same-sex couples to adopt children, marriage between different “races,” the right of any consenting adults to engage in sex, the right of unmarried couples to live together, and the rights of LGBTQ people to be treated with equal dignity.
...For Americans who value personal liberties not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, overruling Roe and Casey should be the legal equivalent of the first volleys of the American Revolution at Lexington and Concord. There is no logical stopping point for the reactionary majority’s adoption of a conservative Christian agenda or the further cultural radicalization of Republican candidates. We must be the stopping point.
...And we have no time to wallow in despair or mourn what has been lost. We must reclaim our stolen liberty with bold, decisive action.
...If we hope to preserve our remaining hard-won rights and reclaim the right about to be taken from American women, we must be pragmatists and agitators. We must recognize that our personal liberties are on every ballot in every election in every state, county, and city.
...The setback revealed today is not the end. It is just the beginning of our generation’s effort to reclaim American democracy as our own. Every generation before us rose to that task."
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/this-is-just-the-beginning?s=r
The fact that these cretins use “Christian” in their March to tyranny makes them anything but. Chump as a “Christian” is laughable. Wonder how many abortions he has paid for.
The ones where he used her credit card.
I have my coffee cup down, so no spitting....but LOL.
I should have know better by now😉
Oh my God Christine you made me spit coffee on my phone ! So effing funny. Most likely true.
LOL - Good one, Christine! And no doubt true.
The practical outcome in terms of abortion will be that the wealthy will continue to have access and too bad for everybody else. So, we will be back to back alleys and women will die. Then there will be the zealot vigilantes nosing into the private lives of women. Some will be arrested for miscarriages. And once these forced births are here, Rs will have no interest in their well being. That this Supreme Court is going to do this is no surprise. Donate, work for Ds if you can, and vote. I have already voted in the primary here in Oregon. And of course, the local Bernie bot is giving advice to people which should be good news to Rs.
I'm old enough to remember when a woman's death due to pregnancy and childbirth was "God's will." Let's face it, the R's are the party of misogyny, mayhem and money. Nothing else matters.
I call them the party of death.
Be careful , 3M May sue. 🤣
Yep! I agree.
Michele,
There will also be myriad “helpers” who will work together to get those in need across state lines. I will seek to be one.
Same. Safe Harbor Home.
Will home pregnancy tests have to be signed for like decongestants, but followed by by “pregnancy police” to report the results? Will every piece of mail by a reported pregnant woman—and everyone she knows—have their mail opened?
Before 8:56 pm last night I would have said, "Nah." Today I am convinced these Nazis will do all of that and worse. Protect our daughters and granddaughters.
“And once these forced births are here, Rs will have no interest in their well being.” So true in every state. In our government.
Yes. Their interest in fetal viability extends only until the day of birth, and doesn't include prenatal care.
Well, let's see what happens when rich white boys will be turned in for abetting their girlfriends' abortions....
😥 and this is "Christian" because?
Nothing in the NT about abortion.
Many, many and will continue to do so, Taliban of the US, or not…
Their march to tyranny, indeed.
I wonder how many women, including HCR peeps, might have or could have been caught in the dark times of pre Roe vs. Wade, but for luck. I was in college in the mid sixties, and beyond, married too young I admit, the “in between times” of women’s rights in my limited life. The college health center male physician, of course, would prescribe birth control pills with a gynecological exam and only for married students or those who had a ring and a date. It’s a crime to withhold sex education, Women’s health services including abortion, all that should be part of our insurance and our privacy. With and without private insurance or living in a civilized state or not. It’s not 1965, but we are in a reverse Time Machine.
It is so VERY, VERY, VERY important to interpret the religious and moral imperatives of Christianity as being applied to ONESELF rather than legislated, litigated, adjudicated, otherwise exerted over others. If every self-proclaimed Christian applied the teaching of Jesus to themselves to their best ability, they would literally have no room in their lives to point fingers at others, other than to assist them along their way. It is such a challenge to even poorly fulfill the two most important commandments (love thy God, followed by love thy neighbor) that all the "thou shalt not"s can be understood as more specific interpretations of those two. The essence of Christianity is belief and how one behaves personally as a consequence, not how one stands in judgement over others. Nowhere in the teaching of Jesus will you find justification to use those beliefs to legally constrain the behavior of others. Another core teaching of Christianity; "Christ did not come into the world to condemn the world, but..." Our judicial systems and religious believes may follow parallel lines of reasoning, but they are distinct, insofar as judicial systems particularly need to be agnostic in a pluralistic society.
"Nowhere in the teaching of Jesus will you find justification to use those beliefs to legally constrain the behavior of others." Good point.
Jeri, you took the words right out of my keyboard.
My thought exactly.
Maybe this will finally wake up the 50% of Americans who never vote.
And exercise that right before it no longer counts.
How about this for a tradeoff: You can have your right to carry guns that kill if I can have the right to choose what happens to my body and live....
The irony.
There is nothing more draconian at this point in human history than the proposed end of a woman’s right to determine her personal health choice to carry a fetus to term, to require her to usher into this challenging world the life of another she feels unable to properly parent. It is a cruel hardship on all struggling families and individuals. It is a cruel hardship on any child forced into circumstances already diminished by poverty, mental health, or burdening another’s well-being. No woman takes this decision frivolously to decline motherhood in the face of her own limiting circumstances.
Nothing is more evil and divisive than the party behind this threat to our half-century constitutional law to also be the hollow voice crying out for individual freedom, ensuring gun ownership for incompetent individuals resulting in the deaths of vast numbers of innocent population — including much-loved children. Crying out for their own “individual rights”, then declining such rights to women is hypocrisy. That these people label themselves as “Christian” is an abomination on the very values embraced by their exploited name-sake. To call themselves American is an abomination on the founding principles of this country.
I extend my deepest loathing to the current rise of ignorance, self-righteous and blind loyalty to a cult of dog-whistlers— leading to the degradation of democracy we are witnessing in these dark times, brazenly defying the majority of the American people’s wishes through lies, subversive control, and shoddy “news” sites. I’ve never been so disgusted.
Thank you, Berry M., you said it exactly right. I’m feeling really sick right now: it’s the culmination of years of increasing nausea that is now bubbling up to the point of full on vomiting. We all need to seriously fight this abomination so we can start to heal again, lest this really be the beginning of the end of everything, absolutely everything, we have held dear and understood to be tangible proof of human progress.
🤮
Indeed, this is larger than abortion. For women. The clause that prohibits abortion even in cases of rape and/or incest reduces women to objects to be used at the whim of men for whatever their sexual proclivities. This is about erasing women, shaming women, reducing their status as members of a democracy who can move about freely and excel at professions of their choosing. I recently watched a documentary about rape and sexual assault in the military. Victims were told that rape and sexual assault were occupational hazards for being in the military. The Supreme Court just made being a woman an occupational hazard.
I was just looking for a Ukraine button online and came across this bumper sticker: "Men should be glad women only want equality and not revenge". I burst out laughing because it is so true.
And why don’t women want revenge? Hmm? Reminds me of the Jennifer Lopez movie “Enough.” And “G.I. Jane.” Highly recommend BOTH.
I always keep JLopez “Enough” in mind when I get a certain furious glint in my eye.
Sante, Roland. You are a good man.
Not to mention Lorena Bobbit.
The Supreme Court proved that it’s just a bunch of scummy old misogynists, the Republican appointees
It’s about calling humans who can carry babies the property of the state. What is wrong with the Supreme Court justices? What is the matter with their thinking? How did they become so warped. These questions are rhetorical really. I bet they think they are defending life. How sad. Very sad.
"humans who can carry babies" ? I think that may be misgendering.
You are right. I was trying to make a bridge to the fact that once a government has taken ownership over any human bodies (in this case the female ones) it is not a far step to taking power over all bodies. It was clumsy I agree.
Ditto everything you said. Back during the Bush years, when we thought things were bad (!?), I said that 'if I wanted to live in a theocracy, I'd move to Saudi Arabia." The so-called Christians have turned white Christian grievance into an art form, so that now, if anyone tries to refuse to genuflect at their bidding, we are said to be 'discriminating' against THEM! I thought Torquemada died over 600 years ago.
I’m starting to believe in reincarnation. There are too many truly evil people crawling out of the proverbial woodwork these days.
You're fueling my fire Berry and making me feel very anti-Christian! One is supposed to pray for their enemies and I am--praying that one of DeSantis' kids becomes a tranny, another one gets pregnant when she's 12, and--I know this is off topic--Putin dies of dysentery....
Wouldn’t AIDS be more fitting in Putin’s case?
This is hate speech.
Yes, and I'm not proud of it....
Well said!
"We will organize, not agonize". "It is very annoying that women need to win the same rights over and over and over again."
Great attitude projection with these two sentences. Absolutely great.
People forget freed slaves had the vote 70 years before women, and could buy a car without a male co-signer before women. This is the US—nothing has changed
Much has changed. This world is no longer full of the dark alleys that enabled politicians to hold back women’s rights. More importantly women have battled fiercely winning those steps to equality under the law. Now before you jamb this back down my throat think about the changes women have wrought in the last hundred years. Woman are well educated in all aspects of business, politics, and labor. Most have dual roles to play. This is a very dangerous and losing game, utterly doomed that the Republicans have chosen. They attacked women instead of ideals. Women who are steadily becoming the most solid political force we have ever seen. It is wise to attack a weak point in a battle, but to go head to head against women’s strength is absolutely fatal in this new century. When Trump was elected they shot themselves in the foot. Now they have shot themselves in both feet. Limping is one thing but limping on both feet? The republicans have ghastly under estimated this road we are on. A change has been coming. A tidal wave is no match for the sunami they have summoned.
I’m not sorry to see them go!
I, unfortunately, cannot share your belief in the solidarity of women’s voting power. This may spur political activism in red states—but that is not guaranteed. And blue states have, as we’ve seen with the electoral college, the people but not the geography.
Just look at Texas—what are the politics of heavily populated Houston, Austin, and some of Dallas? Yet Gov Abbott and Republicans reign. I hope, I’ll work for it, but the dark money and Catholics/Mormons/Evangelicals that brought this to fruition are more collective than Democrats
Texas will be blue inside of 10 years. The gov will look like Teddy Blue Abbot. I base this on the fact that Jeri lives there. And her hard core cronies. Tough hand to bet against.
Hope so. But not as sure as you are Texas will respect the actual election results, gerrymandering, etc
I’m pretty sure our next president will be a grand slam. A woman.
I agree
Awesome reply. Agreed!
Focus4Democracy.org
Drilling down on key states w/incredible brains behind the numbers figuring how we can all get the biggest bang for our donation bucks.
Organize! FOCUS4Democracy is my go to. Incredible group drilling down on key states. Heady smart players. Very encouraging how they’re targeting very specific races.
Abortion is a constitutional right in California. Other states should follow suit - as soon as the republicans are voted out of office.
"Organize, don't agonize" is the best response. Thank you for your inspirational clarity.
We are organized. We need the help of every man that reads of this upcoming decision to choose to know of our agony, feel what they can of it, and join us in an absolute refusal to not be complacent thinking the government is not going to screw us. That’s one thing men always have done. With little regret.
United, Ellie.
And every man and woman who continues to be be a Republican bobble head needs to go have the surgery to have their heads removed from their asses before Political stage 4 complications are their end-all. I think we should all walk backwards in massive protest. ‘Across America a new phenomenon is occurring with millions walking backwards, apparently in defiance of what appears to be the political decision to curtail women’s rights by a backwards minded Republican minority.’
A backward Conga line, hard to do but a blast to see!
Only you! Imagine. NYC sidewalks.
Start on B'way, Pat. I'll take your picture
❤️
I believe there are many good men who are as outraged about this as many women are. Being a man doesn’t automatically makes you a jerk. It’s only men who have a-little-penis-mind syndrome when they need to accrue power from other means, like guns or subservience
I’m assuming you are not a man so while trying to be gracious about generalizing that being a man doesn’t automatically make one a jerk, perhaps give that same graciousness to men who are not born well endowed. I would think it a safe bet that there are plenty of greedy, power hungry men, and women, who choose that path, despite the size of their genitals or breasts. Generalizing is rarely productive. I know I have to stay aware of doing that sometimes.
Is that the same as the teeny-tiny syndrome?
White men in particular, but they also have misogynistic accomplices like Clarence Thomas and Bill Cosby, have always wanted to persecute, control, and subjugate women. It’s revolting. Where the fuck is the Equal Rights Amendment for Women? We’re living in the goddamn Stone Age.
Men are going to be looking for women that have Drivers Lic. Here U don’t pay support U don’t get to drive. Haha ! Wonder how many of them Proud ones and Oath Fakers have DL ?
Where is “here”? I didn’t know this. That gives new meaning to riding shotgun. Hey! Look! There’s an abuser!
FL. They go to jail first, see a Judge. Get told to pay support or lose their DL. Not sure If all states do it ?
Concur. Well said. If this does does not make it clear that rhetoric about "states' rights" is a Trojan Horse for Confederacy 2.0, nothing will. W/r, cdl
So they want to forget about Appomatox and rekindle the war they lost, inspired by Justice Taney's Dred Scott decision, back in 1865 but now they want to fight it in the Courts rather than with guns. So be it. It is time for the Attorney General to start prosecuting those who rebeled on January 6, 2021, those who inspired them, and investigate three Supreme Court justices who may have lied under oath regarding respecting existing precedent at their confirmation hearings. But I suppose oaths mean little to Republicans.
Don’t be too sure that that isn’t a Republican wet dream-an uncivil war that will most definitely lead to martial(yeah, I can spell)law and a completely upside down world run by the United Oligarchs of Amerika.
For anyone doubting the insidious effects of religion on a free, democratic society, this looming decision is your lodestar. Who believes that the court's majority is taking away an established right for the first time in our history (with other rights likely to suffer the same fate) because the Constitution doesn't mention abortion? That's what the opinion says. The actual reason, of course, stems from the justices believing abortion is a sin. Note to justices: lying is sinful, too, as you did in your confirmation hearings about settled law.
And lying under oath is not only a sin but perjury — a crime.
Then we can both disbar and excommunicate the judges at the same time.
Amendment IX in my copy of the Constitution says, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people." I understand this as saying that, just because some rights are enumerated in the Constitution, while others are not, does not imply that other rights don't exist. That's almost a quintuple negative and I may be misunderstanding Amendment IX, but the point is: just because it's not in the Constitution does not mean that it doesn't exist. Or, to put it another way, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
Is that clear?
Excellent point!
CLEAR!!
And, unfortunately, there are other issues that really need our, and the nation's, attention. Is it about abortion, or is it about watering down efforts on climate change, democracy, etc.
Oh, yes. Climate change. Democracy being a pre-requisite for effective action to deal with it. Republican Putin apologists, has Putin done anything to save our planet? Quite the opposite with his Ukraine onslaught. Our attention goes to immediate tragedy and so we forget about the looming tragedy for our children and grandchildren, around the world. The Republican ideology seems to boil down to Give Greed a Chance. In- groups which laws protect but do not constrain. Out-groups which laws constrain but do not protect. Selfishness now, selfishness forever!
Give Greed a Chance - Wow! What a perfect bumper sticker, with elephants in gold crowns on each end.
And thanks for the clarity about laws protecting vs. constraining. As Krugman noted “freedom” on the right now means being completely free to take advantage of all that has allowed my folks to be on top for so long.
Kim, I think you're on to something. I believe that climate change is our most pressing problem by far. Nothing else will matter unless we solve it, and the window of opportunity for that is closing quickly.
I want to learn more about climate change: its causes, its measurement and how to solve it. Please suggest any research paper/s you have read that you would recommend. Thanks.
Clare, the best I can do right now is to tell you what I have been reading. I see Ellie's list, which looks more like what you are asking, and which will be helpful to me, too.
The way I learn about things is to ask questions, then work my way back to sources of information. I keep in mind the biases of the sources I find, which I check out through websites that evaluate such things, but it is still very helpful to read different points of view that are stated well, as that prompts more questions. I usually start with some smart, experienced person who I believe is being truthful. I then go about trying to prove or disprove to the best of my ability whichever of their assertions particularly interests me. Lately I've been diving from Noam Chomsky, a thinker I particularly admire who has lived a long life and has a lot to say. Here are some of the tabs I still have open from my reading yesterday, if any of these will help you:
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/07/23/on-climate-change-republicans-are-open-to-some-policy-approaches-even-as-they-assign-the-issue-low-priority/
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/26/too-many-new-coal-fired-plants-planned-for-15c-climate-goal-report-concludes
https://www.axios.com/india-pakistan-heat-wave-climate-change-records-a59a1070-e367-43ba-aedc-296670267294.html
https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/house-resolution/109/text?format=txt
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/24/qa-could-putin-use-russian-gas-supplies-to-hurt-europe
https://www.theguardian.com/profile/fiona-harvey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H50KKyYfvOQ
https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1117272
https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2022/03/oil-gas-companies-fossil-fuel-industry-ukraine-russia-war-profits/
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2020/6/30/21305891/aoc-climate-change-house-democrats-select-committee-report
Clare, if you want to scare yourself to death with some compelling fiction reading on climate change, grab a copy of Kim Stanley Robinson's The Ministry for the Future. Horrors! https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50998056-the-ministry-for-the-future?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=Af2c07fTjL&rank=1
Thank you Becky
Robinson's novels are grounded in known science then built upon. We're seeing the introductory portion of The Ministry for the Future in today's reality in India, for instance, which in fact is experiencing exactly the killing heat waves that The Ministry is seeking to address. It truly is a terrifying novel because it so accurately depicts what we are seeing develop today under climate change and current political realities.
Robinson's other novels also are extrapolated from known climate science. The "Mars" trilogy, written in the 1990s, are fascinating and the political and climate change impacts on Earth addressed in Green Mars and Blue Mars are beginning to be seen and felt in today's world as is true of the Science in the Capitol Trilogy written in the 2000s.
The first of his novels that I read was 2312, published in 2012, which depicts an incredible far future, followed by Antarctica which I later realized to be prequel for The Mars Trilogy. https://www.bookseriesinorder.com/kim-stanley-robinson/
I did not know all that! I am not sure why I read The Ministry for the Future. I almost never read current fiction, though I do read the classics over and over. I guess I don't read it because it just doesn't seem real. But this was so plausible, at least in the beginning. It really was a very interesting read. I might look into the others sometime. Thanks for the info!
The grassroots climate crisis organizations have educational material along with ways to become involved. Here are a few:
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/
350.org
https://350.org/bill/
Sierra Club
https://ballotpedia.org/Sierra_Club
Citizens Climate Lobby
https://citizensclimatelobby.org/
Thanks Ellie
A woman's fundamental, legal right to choose an abortion, and hence her autonomy, is absolutely linked to climate change. If women are prohibited a voice when it comes to protecting their bodies, how do we find and believe in our voices to protect against other assaults like those perpetrated against the environment.
Agree. Distract and create chaos. It is the fascist way.
If birth control of all types was readily available at no or low cost, no matter someone’s age, the need for abortions would fall sharply. But right-wing pseudo Christians want to block birth control as well. It’s madness. As if the planet needs more people to hasten its precipitous decline.
Not going to research links right now but I believe that abortion stats began dropping soon after Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, and continued that trajectory until, likely, the near future.
Well put, Caroline. I have always thought that women make better world leaders.
Fort Sumter moment indeed. The SCOTUS is working to bring back and affirm the takeover of the Confederacy. May 3, 2022 will be marked historically as the day the USA decends into the CSA by minority action. “Leave it up to the States”, Alito says. You mean those gop gerrymandered states with suppressive gop voting laws?
And the SCt has refused to opine on gerrymandering!
I think Russia will be contained eventually. The United States, though, is a different matter. It is now well on the way to the biggest face plant in history.
When democracy disappears in your country, and the lunatics have all the keys to the asylum, the reverberations around the world will be devastating.
I continue to be stunned by the speed and recklessness with which this project is being pursued. Granted, it is prototypically American to tilt madly at windmills, but usually sanity is restored at the last minute before self-inflicted wounds become fatal. This time though it appears that warp speed has been reached and madness will prevail.
America, the world DESPERATELY needs you.
Eric, This project has gone on for forty years. Starting with the demonization of Jimmy Carter as weak and stupid by Reagan, who WAS weak and stupid.
But, you have to give the Pubs credit. They play the long game to win. Dems are all out their trying to play by the rules, but, turns out, there are no rules.
I agree.
But the effective “marriage” of social media and the smart phone in 2006-07 sent the project into hypersonic speed. The effect of these technology twins will, I believe, be one of the great historical turning points of all time.
That is precisely why the old way of “playing by the rules” with court cases that drag on for years with both frivolous and not so frivolous appeals and delays is now so spectacularly inefficient. The law is now a donkey competing at an F1 race in vitally important cases.
And not incidentally, this is my sore spot with Merrick Garland and today’s DOJ. I don’t deny they are good people. I don’t deny their belief in the virtues of procedure.
But the bad guys are repeatedly lapping them and doing it brazenly and effortlessly.
I am seriously convinced that it’s about five minutes from game over. And what is an American tragedy will see the world sucked into the abyss it leaves.
This is the wrong time to be a full-on institutionalist. The rules are there and the Democrats are playing by them. But in this world of violently rapid change, the rules are the dog chasing a Ferrari. Sad to say.
These films need to be released NOW!! https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1075836338/sundance-festival-2022-roe-vs-wade-the-janes-abortion
On the face of things it's not obvious what the Repugs gain by seeking to make abortion illegal. And even the most rabid Repugs seem to want abortion when their own young daughters become pregnant.
I also wonder if Republican chickens are coming home to roost? Many Republicans have given lip service to the conservative Christian base, but in every day life they have 'enjoyed" access to family planning, women's rights, abortion as a medical procedure, et al. Perhaps they will see that pandering for conservative Christian votes will cut off noses to spite faces.
I tucked my almost 12-year old daughter into bed tonight with a story about the deaths of women before Roe. Any girl who is old enough to become pregnant if raped is old enough to hear these stories.
You are wise and very brave to do this, Eleanor. Sometimes, being frankly, or in this case, brutally honest with our children is the best choice to make to protect our children. To think that you do that because of our government which now poses to rule women instead of honoring them does not make me sad. I am furious. And how dare they manage a “leak” of a draft. For what? Lay the groundwork, rile up women to show how “emotional” they can be? Get our minds off the fight for democracy in other world locations and remind us it’s fading here? And right before Mother’s Day?
Loathesome. Go ahead, lay down your scandalous gauntlet, Supreme Court and treasonous state legislatures.
Make sure your daughter knows that she stands on the shoulders of great women in this country spanning more than one generation.
I honor all women as mothers.
Salud!
As far as the “leaked draft” goes……… I believe the opposite of you Christine about their intent. I believe it was a reproductive rights supporter who leaked it. And for exactly the reason you and I are furious this morning: rip the bandaid of apathy off the Americans sitting on the sidelines. This energizes us to finally accept we ARE in a Lexington and Concord moment. Everything really IS at stake. My question to all candidates will be “Do you support coat hangers?” That is my new symbol for our opponents.
I too have thought that the leak probably came from the minority, they have been paying attention all along after all, and they know just who lied in order to get a seat beside them. The outrage this leak has inspired is unprecedented, this is perhaps the hornets nest the nation has needed to align a lot of voices into a roar. I would put good money on a huge turnout in November, this will unite a lot of people with very disparate interests, just how many really want to see a return to the coat hanger era, which I remember all too well.
My son just told me he hung a coat hanger in his car window this morning.
"Do you support coat hangers?" Excellent question, Michele, excellent!
The very welcome draft leak is horrifying for more reasons than abortion. Using Alito’s reasoning, women’s right to vote may very well be on the line! Blacks right to vote. Same sex marriage. If this doesn’t rile up the country, then we’re in a sorry place. I know my 81 year old self and my 59 year old daughter will be in the protest already planned for next week in Santa Ana, CA. Proven again, the one word to sum up Republican leaders is “liar.”
As awful as this SCOTUS attack will apparently be on “unenumerated” rights - of which there are many - the right to vote regardless of race and gender are protected by the Constitution, in specific Amendments. (States unfortunately have a huge say in how voting actually takes place.)
IMO, as we fight back, we must keep our facts straight in order to have maximum credibility.
Hi, Uncle.
Maximum credibility is an absolute must, come h€ll or high water.
Oooo, I like having both possibilities covered, Michele. And your proposed question for all candidates made me throw my phone in the air, clap twice, and then catch it.
🙋🏻🙋🏼🙋🏽🙋🏾🙋🏿
I have two bags of unused wire coat hangers, which I'm tempted to ship to the Supreme Court.
Ruth Brinton, I now have a vision of mountains of wire coat hangers landing on the steps of the supreme court.
Agree. And right before the first primary elections. Opportunity for Dems, if we (they, them, herselves, himselves) don't screw it up.
I wondered that too because the outrage was immediate. And yes, coat hangers came to mind.
COAT HANGERS!
Yep, how to channel our rage on "Happy Mother's Day."
I'm organizing a Mother's Day March in Salt Lake City—or trying to. I've got a very busy day today and our big-hitter with Planned Parenthood is out of town for the weekend. But, as I told my League of Women Voters president: I don't want breakfast in bed, I want a revolution.
Woo hoo! As Christine in FL would say, sizzlin'!
Sizzlin', Christine - sizzlin'!! :-)
Yep. My griddle is smokin’ hot this morning, TC.
I do wonder why this leaked. I noticed also that immediately that lots of Ds and other entities were fundraising on it and I hope that the donations flow in. And one friend wasted no time in posting her outrage on Facebook. As I view the posts below, I do wonder if we are going to have an explosive Mother's Day. I already have the image of smokin' grills.
Information doesn't "leak".
This should not be available to the public, but somehow it is and so that's how this process is described...a leak.
I'm organizing a Mother's Day March in Salt Lake City—or trying to. I've got a very busy day today and our big-hitter with Planned Parenthood is out of town for the weekend. But, as I told my League of Women Voters president: I don't want breakfast in bed, I want a revolution.
I'm circulating that, OK?
Women on Facebook are sharing information about getting help and where to go, what they can do. We’ve been reduced to using social media to get healthcare and reproductive care. Girls getting pregnant are starting to become more visible in high schools. I stated that since there’s a crisis in women’s reproductive care there’s going to be an increase in young girls needing support. A woman asked what crisis? Head in the sand!
I’ve stated on Facebook that 100% of unwanted pregnancies are caused by men. A man said what about the ones caused by women? Hello! Women cannot get themselves pregnant!
I cried when I saw the headline! Controlling women, pulling the rug out from underneath the poor. Upsetting and disheartening!
Reproductive care is healthcare. Healthcare is a HUGE concern for families. Women should be able to determine the size of their families which helps determine the health of their families.
Such spot on comments, Christine. We should all be furious! But I imagine a lot of us on this forum are furious. The malignancy of the R’s must always be fought. They are the American Taliban.
I had this very argument a couple years ago on my fleecebook page. Those that are "true believers" cannot grasp this very simple fact. That argument showed up on my "memories" page; numbering well over 100 interactions, I was reminded why I have quit posting anything (well, almost. I still stray from time to time): I end up giving these chowederheads* free rent in my head and it is counterproductive to my well-being.
*sanitized for what words I really wanted to use, a smorgasbord of profanity, blasphemy, and vulgarity.
The Greek play "Lysistrata" gives us one means of moving forward.
I was thinking tonight of the two women students I knew in college pre-Roe who died from botched abortions.
I was also glad that the Friend of Jane I am partners with is too deep in late stage Parkinson's for tonight's news to really register with her. Not fully.
She will feel it in her female energy, TC. Keep her close.
My experience is that all but rich women who were teenagers before 1973 can remember someone who died from a botched abortion. Now, as then, women and girls who have the means to travel will still be able to get an abortion. Women will die from ectopic pregnancies.
Totally relived taking a friend to get a back ally abortion in 1967. She lived, but boy did she bleed.
We need to spread the news to young women who don’t know what it was like back then.
Some rich women could not share that they were ever pregnant with the purse string holders in their families and ergo also died from back alley or self done abortions
my heart breaks for her to hear this, but yes, you are correct.
We talked through many things—and I have been open with her about what it is to have a body, to be a female, and so on. The gravity and details of our talk were different, but it was not too far of a leap from past topics. I was well into adulthood before I realized fully how treacherous life can be—by design. I would rather my daughter learn hard things at home where she can talk through her thoughts and worries than as a woman with nowhere to go for help. My parents are two of the people who have ushered in this era—as far as they are concerned, we are all part of an eternal plan and any difficulties on earth are temporary and mysterious. My daughter will be raised by a parent who believes life on earth is the life we are living and that knowledge is a measure of power. But it’s hard times,
Bless you! I taught my girls the same. They are in their 30’s now and very outspoken about their rights and the rights of others. You are correct, these are very hard times.
Dang! Eleanor, I wish we all had a wise mother like you!!!!
I wish I had had a wise mother, myself. I never knew a thing about my body let alone that it was mine and mine, alone. Children are a myth, in many ways, so I don't think there is anything but power to come from letting them in on the realities of life in "age appropriate" ways; my 8 year old is not getting the same talk as the almost-12 year old. All things in time, but they'll learn and be prepared. I'm an older mom at almost-50 and I feel like I'm not prepared—I just hope I can help them be safer and wiser than I ever was.
You are more prepared than you think, Eleanor! You have lived a life and now you are helping your children live theirs. Can’t get better than that!
So now, along with black parents who have to sit their children down for “the talk”, we will also have to have a “talk” with our young daughters.
Ouch
😢
I remember attending a packed Hendrix Chapel at Syracuse University in 1968+/_ where listened to Bill Baird, a nationally recognized speaker on eliminating laws against abortion. NYS out lawed abortion at the time. Baird described conditions of death and mutilation in the back ally abortion industry that prevailed for desperate women of limited to no means. He explained how affluent, mostly white women, obtained abortions in most states under doctor's care in hospitals and private clinics. I knew doctors performed abortions, because I knew some young women whose parents helped them obtain medical abortions. But I was not aware of the abortion laws and how and where they were applied.
My Republican mother warned me when I was very young not to allow an ambulance to take her to a Catholic hospital while she was pregnant for fear that if any medical treatment risked her or her unborn baby, that they would save the baby over her. She explained, she had three young children and a husband who needed her as a mother.
I am reminded of many stories from women, both devout Christians and atheists who have dealt with the harsh realities of these laws. Women, some of whom, chose not to have abortions. Some when their fetuses were found to be deformed to an unsurvivable degree and abortion was recommended for the mother's health. They suffered serious depression, questioned their responsibilities, torn between their religion and medicine. Got help from their Church for their decision to carry their fetus, and no help when they finally delivered a still born without any human potential. Then went on to adopt a child of color, that was also rejected by their Church. This particular woman after ten years, two still born, one successful healthy birth and one adoption, found a new church, counsels pregnant parents to make their own decisions with their family and doctors, that abortion is a choice and that God does not punish women who make these hard choices, only people who don't know them or don't know anything about women's health, responsibilities or personal situations.
Clearly the US Supreme Court is not qualified to make these decisions for women and their families.
ALL of us guys know at least one guy who ended up not lucky and married at 17, or driving to Mexico for the weekend, or nearly being shot by a father, or simply leaving town before being shot.
Restrictions on "Liberty" (which is what the Republicans are doing while they simultanousely claim they are for "liberty").....
those restrictions affect us ALL. Men and women.
Mike you bring up such an important point. This does affect ALL of us. We now need the men in our lives to talk about this, donate money to support this, and march for this, write to members of congress about this, make phone calls about this, and most importantly: talk to their friends who are men about his. Stop being quiet. If you are a man who wants to flip the situation and be raped, carry an unwanted pregnancy, die in child birth, then ok, support women as owned, forced-breeding-stock beings. But if you can really understand that you would NOT wish that fate upon anyone, start making some noise. We need everyone’s help.
I'm afraid I can't agree with you on this, Mike. Those "men" seemed more interested in their own hides than in considering their "contributions" to the pregnancies. The "lucky" ones are the ones who used a condom to begin with.
Connection Pam. However, I would substitute responsible for "lucky."
So what are you going to do about it? What are you going to urge other men to do about it?
How true
It sickens me to see frequent TV ads for CHI (Catholic Health Initiatives). They have been taking over independent hospitals as quickly as they can, using enormous tax-free financial resources. Any opposition to their schemes is characterized as anti-religious bigotry.
David, if your family was living in Syracuse, your Mom was referring to St Joseph's Hospital. Utica has St Elizabeth's. Note how the hospitals have that common factor of " St." In their heyday, nuns were the nurses who padded the hallways with whispers of its Gods will and be a good girl as they brainwashed young women and girls to carrying their unwanted and potentially disastrous fetuses to full term.
Right-o, Linda. Just look at the septic tank full of infant and fetus remains found in Ireland a few years back - I believe it was on the property of an old nunnery or something affiliated with the Church.
Nuns in Ireland made good money selling children to American's who had the money to buy them. Common practice or should I say business. The nuns( Catholic Church) could sell them to Americans because they could be easily integrated into a family here. If they got them here young enough, they could "beat the bragh out of them" so they "sounded" American. An old colleague of mine found out that was where she was from long after her parents had passed and she did her own ancestry. She had no idea.
There were also lawyers here in the States that did the same thing. I know one girl who was 'adopted' that way. Strictly a business deal between someone who wanted something, and someone who could provide it. And some young girl, usually from the Northeast/NY/NJ area, was suddenly on a vacation in sunny Florida for a few months....................
“Christians” would have you believe adoption is all unicorn and rainbows.
It. Is. Not. Normal. to be separated from your origins !
$$$$ to adopt
Kathy, can you imagine living your life thinking you were from Dearborn Michigan and your Father worked for the Ford Motor Company and your Mom stayed home to take care of you. Only to find out you really were born in a Convent in Ireland and stayed there until someone with money picked you out. She was no more than a puppy that was chosen from a litter of golden retrievers.
Yes - a nunnery.
David’s mom was aware of the danger of falling under the control of an anti women hospital. Here’s a service that’s heavily advertised in Nebraska: “CHI Health's My Provider Match tool uses a short quiz to match patients with a set of providers that could best work with their personality and needs.”
Including access to Plan-B pills? Not according to Catholic bishops nor to the hordes of evangelical protestants who follow the bishops’ ideas of morality.
I never agreed with anything out of the Reagan years, with the exception of a comment attributed to Earl Butts, I think, who was Secy of Ag. In re: birth control and the Church, he said of the Pope, John Paul II; "He no play-a the game, he no make-a the rules". Amen!
I was also there, David. A powerful day for a new student on campus. As it was then, Chambers Brothers singing Time Has Come Today, so it is now. Time has come to remove reactionary, fascist rule of the minority.
(Let's add in those who just don't CARE about what happens to the "little people".)
"He explained how affluent, mostly white women, obtained abortions in most states under doctor's care in hospitals and private clinics." That's probably because they may have been scheduled for a D&C (Dilation and Curetage) to avoid the "disgrace" of an abortion. I'm sure that, in some states, these also will be reported as illegal abortions even when they are prescribed for uterine disorders and not to abort a fetus. https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/dilation-and-curettage/about/pac-20384910
The decision by our "Supreme Court" should be seen for what it is, an attack on civil rights. Overturning Roe vs Wade won't end abortions but it will end safe abortions. Women will die but the people who sit on their moral high horse will celebrate. This is a very slippery slope for this court of supposedly intelligent justices (although I would question that), to start dismantling many more of our civil rights.
Meanwhile, the January 6th committee keeps finding out more about the illegal activities of Republicans who are still in office and supporting the big lie. We are in very dangerous waters. Democracy in America is under siege.
And I don't believe they will recognize Stare Decisis any more, probably in EVERYTHING, not just Civil Rights. Since the Constitution mentions slavery, will they go so far as to re-institute that and ignore any Constitutional Amendments they don't like? Who knows?
They are ignoring the 14th Amendment already, in saying state legislatures are above constitutional rights.
The labored argument around how the 14th Amendment doesn't apply and is not threatened by this decisions opens up a whole line of future challenges to all of the protections we think of as settled.
Good Christians have a way of explaining away . . .
We need t-shirts and signs that say NO ROE NO SEX. I have fought too damn hard for over 50 years, to have this constitutional ruling be overturned by traitors! That is what the Supreme Court minus Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, are. They lie, just like the rest of the Republican Party, the party of Sedition, the party of Insurrection. Please don’t tell me there’s nothing we can do that can divert this horrid news. It hits the gut so awfully hard that I can't seem to catch my breath. They will have flows of blood on their hands, coat hangers on their lawns. They deserve every nasty disgusting thing they get. Protest and VOTE!
Time for the comeback of the Ancient Greek comedy Lysistrata.
No Roe, no peace, no entry.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysistrata
Exactly what I was going to write!!
But who is going to be the modern Lysistrata or even Xanthippe?
Man, every woman!
One of my favorite plays!
I'd take it a step further and all women across the country should go on strike, literally. Look at the devastating slaughter of Ukrainians as they fight for democracy. IMO, the very least we can do is not go to work until we retain our rights. Marches are wonderful, but in the end (unless they last for a long time and shut the economy down), they accomplish/change little. The message needs to be much louder!
I agree. Every nonessential pro choice worker should strike for one week. If 20 Ukrainian women and children can survive that hellhole surely we can live without all the privileges we have for one week because we are the majority. Shut it down. Because we are sick of it. Good trouble, remember?
Make that every essential worker strike for as long as it takes to remove these evil bums from office. https://www.hmd.org.uk/resource/first-they-came-by-pastor-martin-niemoller
We will always need healthcare workers. I don’t want EMTs, doctors and pharmacists, nurses and healthcare workers to strike. But let’s strike. Like the French. T-shirts don’t make a revolution.
Unfortunately, if it is not made painfully uncomfortable, nothing will change.
LOL.
No Roe, No Sex.
GREAT Tshirt.
But sadly this encourages more rape. And even after rape no abortion.
I hope nothing encourages rape.
Texas idiot Abbott has outlawed rape, hahaha. Just like he outlawed common sense…
Oh and he rounded up the rapists.
Given how far SCOTUS has gone in IGNORING the Federal Supremacy clause, I wouldn't be surprised if states will try to pass laws that allow rape and SCOTUS would go along with it.
And here I thought Governor Abbot was gonna get rid of rape. How's that going, Texas?
Should be more than a T-shirt. It should be the action of women in all red states. Fight the republican taliban.
I have to credit my dear sister for that slogan!
For you Marlene, I’m going to the grocery store. The red Idaho grocery store. I’ll wear my big black cowboy hat with coat hangers on it. I’m going to walk backwards pulling my cart.
I love you, Pat!!🥰
They opened this door and now they have no way to close it. We are going through!
They'll be coming after birth control next. I saw a headline saying they will soon be targeting all privacy rights decisions. I assume that will take aim at same-sex marriage. Wasn't that decided as a right to privacy issue? Welcome to the Dark Ages 2.0.
That's exactly right. All you had to do was listen to the Republican inquisitors in the KBJ hearings - they all spoke in favor of going after family planning, same-sex and interracial marriage. Believe them when they tell you what they want to do. And if they win the majority in the House and Senate in November, you can bet your last dime on the first "healthcare" bill they pass being a national ban on abortions to overcome the laws in blue states.
I remember back in 1976, when Willie Brown announced he was going to have the Legislature pass a constitutional amendment for abortion, a bunch of us asked why, since there was Roe. He said "what the court gives, the court can take away." I was suddenly struck tonight, when I remembered that, that all who questioned the need were white, while the guy who saw clearly what was what, was black. That's not coincidental.
This decision certainly goes beyond abortion. I read the 98 page majority ruling last night before going to rest. It is a rambling and repetitive mess, probably because it returns to points of argument and appeals. It is dangerous for three reasons to me. The first two being that it argues that Roe was erigous as it did not in any way base its decision on the U.S. Constitution explicit rights requirements (originalism) and that the majority of states (26, the same 26 now coming forward?) had enacted antiabortion laws in the 18th and 19th century (states rights, each of which is included as an appendix). The third is a labored argument that the 14th Amendment neither applies nor is under threat by this decision exceptd by its introduction establishes the next tranch for undermining settled law around voting, rights implied or decided, protections found in modern liberal societies, and the power of the people as a whole to determine laws that bind us as a union. The 14th Amendment we all know is the amendment to ensures that all people, not just land owning white males, are equal in determining the laws of this nation, but also that the laws of this nation must be applied equally to protect all of us, and cannot be used to favor or control one group over another. This decision, IMHO, sets in motion the potential tumbling of the pillars of a free and democratic society and the beginning of a 21st century confederacy.
Thank you for the CliffNotes, I mean FredNotes. Clarifies the nonsense.
🤣
Did you sleep well, Fred?
Nope. You apparently neither. What a mess.
Fred, You read it for me. Thank you. I wish I could get your legal analysis of it on Fox News and in National Review.
I fear it is "when" they win the majority, given the new voting laws enacted by Republicans; i.e., if they don't like the results if an election, they will simply change it.
That too!
That’s a profound memory is what that is, TC.
Willie Brown was absolutely correct about the court. That basically makes the country a
yo-yo, operating differently depending on who is in power. The court needs to be expanded. Nine people, most of whom are Catholic, do not represent the diversity of thought. I am NOT intending to denigrate Catholics, just stating a fact regarding the backgrounds of the justices.
They also want to overturn interracial marriages. They want Gilead, make no mistake.
Will be interesting to see Clarence Thomas’ take on that one.
LOL!🤣
Perhaps they'll write in a grandfather clause just for him.
I'd go D.C. to follow him around and take pictures.
Already happening…
“Simpson put nearly $2-million in the budget last legislative session for the program, but Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed it. Now, Simpson says he’s planning to try again.”
https://news.wfsu.org/state-news/2022-02-22/floridas-senate-president-wants-to-increase-access-to-contraception
On 12/27/21, The Guardian reported the death of Sarah Weddington, 1 of 2 Texas lawyers that won Roe vs. Wade in 1973. Sarah was 1 of several powerful Texas women that became known as the "Austin Matriarchy". During the Gorsuch hearings Sarah predicted that Roe would be quickly overturned. Sarah remained a strong advocate of womens rights, health, privacy & full citizenship. Miss you very much today, Counsel.
Thank you for this history, Bryan.
What are chances that a SCOTUS majority may have decided that a distraction is needed now to drive coverage of the January 6 hearings even farther into the background than corporate media is already driving it? Ending Roe vs. Wade is certainly the kind of distraction that has the amperage needed to eclipse the hearings from public attention and keep extensive coverage off the front page and out of prime time.
The January 6 hearings have the potential to send some operatives who loaded the Supreme Court to prison. Even if SCOTUS officially abolishes Roe vs. Wade, no GOP operatives will go to prison for that. I can imagine why the GOP might be engineering this for public consumption now.
That, Ed, was the first thing that flashed across my mind -- why the timing?
After all, if there's one thing that gangsters, crooked politicians and their lawyers are masters of, it is creating diversions.
This, at a time when the noose is tightening around the hoodlum who made it to the White House, him and accomplices...
This at a time of real crisis, war in Europe, major economic trouble, looming bread riots and famine throughout the world and a run-up to fixed elections more worthy of Putin's Russia than mere banana republic shenanigans.
A time, if ever there was one, when America needs what it's unlikely to get, unity and solid support for the country's institutions.
This is, finally, a blow to the Republican mid-term candidates. I think you're having a 'fake' dream.
I do hope you are correct, Fern. For now, we have Texas as a beta-test where their governor and their GOP legislature essentially overturned Roe vs. Wade in that state and then blessed vigilantes with the power to enforce the law onto women. Democrats are having no populist landslide there. Instead DC Corporate Dems are endorsing an anti-abortion male elephant in a donkey suit like Cuellar instead of a woman minority progressive like Cisneros. The corporate Democrat cartel is not a particularly hopeful group to rely on to fire up a voting base. Heck. Democrats even have that partisan ace up the sleeve of backing an active war that is on the front pages. In our country with our cartel parties, that has never failed to hand sitting presidents a second term. Despite the fact that Biden seems to have proven himself a remarkably good leader in a terrible challenge, his polls and that of his party are not showing a charged up base that I would trust to overturn even this SCOTUS horror. Believe me when I say that I want to believe this is a blow to the prospects of the gangster cartel party, but it is equally likely that it has galvanized their right wing pseudo Christian base with what they will interpret as ""we are finally winning." Given the gerrymandering, the electoral college, and the monopoly on actual information by corporate news, desires of a majority do not translate into a democracy. Neither does education and ability to reason.
'A majority of Americans say the Supreme Court should uphold Roe v. Wade, the landmark ruling that established a constitutional right to abortion, a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last week finds.'
'With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the right to abortion, the survey finds that 54 percent of Americans think the 1973 Roe decision should be upheld while 28 percent believe it should be overturned — a roughly 2-to-1 margin.' (WAPO)
54% is a piddling majority compared to the 70+% majority that favors universal healthcare. That has never translated into power to overturn the system of for-profit health care. Jimmy Carter acknowledged years ago that we no longer are governed by democracy, we are governed by oligarchy. If you want to label Jimmy Carter as dark side too for having courage to speak reality, be my guest. I'm not dark side either in acknowledging that majority rule is not what we have in our governments.
Ed, I am attached to the facts and my comments almost always reflect that. Another fact about me is that I don't examine issues through rose colored glasses. That 54% of Americans are in favor of maintaining Roe v. Wade is not small change, nevertheless, you prefer to focus on it not being 70% , 80% or 90%. I sincerely hope that you are too pessimistic, as I believe that Alito's draft has provided the rights of Americans a boost. We'll see how much we can make of it.
Ed, I don't think you have stay on the dark side. Good or bad that this draft was leaked now? Why dismiss a break when we get one?
I don't think Scotus or any Republican is worried about Jan 06 committee. That committee is doing great work, Dr. Richardson is keeping us informed, but, in the end, the Jan 06 committee is toothless.
I also don't think any Republican is worried much about Merrick Garland except for the unwise and slow witted guys who stormed the Capital and got caught on video doing so.
Merrick is going after those guys with a vengeance. Those folks are mostly without the means to get a stack of lawyers to delay and defend them. Most of them plead guilty.
Merick is NOT going after anyone white with money, at all. Not at all.
It would appear to me that Garland "knows his place".
And what “place” would that be? His grandparents fled antisemitic pogroms in Russia. He was raised in Conservative Judaism.
Your comment receives a “plop” from me.
Holy Schitt, you make a good point, he says not, but he needs to prove it.
Could be. We know from Ginni Thomas that Clarence frequently chats with Ron DeSanTax. It’s a small step to see this shared draft as politically motivated.
From: The DealBook/ New York Times
‘The opinion, obtained by Politico, is still subject to change and debate up until its official release, which is expected by this summer. Regardless of the outcome, the draft is likely to have immediate consequences for business, thrusting companies further into the political fray.’
‘More companies may be compelled to speak out. This is already playing out at the state level in places like Texas, where a restrictive abortion law has led Yelp, Citigroup and others to pledge to help pay for employees to travel out of state for abortions. (Amazon told employees yesterday that it would provide similar reimbursements.)
The draft opinion just turned this polarizing issue into a pressing midterm election question. That means companies could expect pressure from both employees and consumers to take a stand.’
‘Corporate political spending will get strict scrutiny. Since the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, companies have faced more pressure to align their political contributions with their stated principles. Roe v. Wade is perhaps the most contentious case of this age, so for businesses there is no politically safe decision, and they may have to choose which enemies they can afford to make. Taking a stand, whether by speaking up, contributing to causes or withholding funding from politicians as punishment, can have consequences.’
‘Tension between businesses and politicians may intensify. Disney’s recent battles with Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Republican governor, over a law prohibiting discussion of gender identity in some public schools cost the company its special tax privileges and good will from key Republicans. Last year, companies that stood up for voting rights in Georgia, Florida, Texas and other states faced political retribution, or at least threats of it. As companies take stances on social and cultural issues that anger people on the right, conservative politicians are spurning their contributions and pushing back. Expect more of these conflicts.’
Ed, I don't this SOCTUS Draft is going to be good for the business of being Republican right now.
I surely hope you are right. Pelosi's endorsing an anti-abortion corporate Democrat in Texas has not helped the cause of Roe vs. Wade or given reason to trust the Democratic party not to throw women to the wolves in the same way they have thrown the entire citizenry to the wolves of for-profit corporate health care and homelessness. Corporate-run government and money seems to be the only issues that party operatives (not rank & file members) support with bipartisan enthusiasm.
Pelosi also endorsed a former Republican Gov in FL who just a couple of weeks ago admitted he's still pro-life! This over a well qualified woman currently serving in the FL cabinet as the only statewide elected Democrat! To say I'm disappointed with Pelosi is an understatement.
As a registered Democrat, I live in a progressive-aligned state and am registered on several partisan Democrat sites. Through all of the justified outrage voiced by women and their supporters, so far not one post on these sites has called for accountability from the senior Democrat operatives like Hoyer and Pelosi for endorsing male anti-choice candidates over women who mostly lean progressive—NOT ONE. I've made it a point to donate to the campaigns of women in other states trying to primary-out the elephants in donkey suits entrenched in our party. Democrats cannot pass needed policy by electing corrupt saboteurs into our ranks, and there's a lot more of them than just Manchin and Sinema.
Pelosi endorsed Charlie Crist for Governor in Florida. Crist spent most of his career as a Republican, including one term as Governor. About 3 weeks ago, he told a reporter that he's still pro-life. Nikki Fried is a life-long Democrat currently serving as one of four statewide positions provided for in the FL Constitution (Commissioner of Agriculture & Consumer Services) where, in her first year, she was able to get the Legislature to pass a law approving medical Marijuana. She also booted the NRA out of its stranglehold over concealed weapons permits. I can't find joy in Pelosi's trip to Ukraine because of this. I've known Nikki for 20 years. I know she would be a fabulous Governor. It is incomprehensible to me that Pelosi chose Crist over a pro-choice woman for Governor of FL.
The party of Lincoln and Eisenhower has now completely devolved into the party of Trump
News flash: it was NEVER "the Party of Lincoln" or "the party of Eisenhower." Lincoln was not favored by the "inner power structure" of the party, since they weren't able to grift during the civil war the way they got to afterwards when he was gone (see: Grant Administration). As to Eisenhower, the "real" Republicans wanted Ohio Senator Robert Taft, a "traditional," previously America-first isolationist anti-New Deal Republican, and were only barely defeated by the pragmatists who knew they had to run someone actually popular (and who better to get all those ex-GIs' votes than their former commander?) if they were going to get out of 20 years of losing.
THESE PEOPLE HAVE ALWAYS BEEN SCUM. Anything they ever did that was good, stopped in 1865 (the "progressive" wing had enough votes during the war to do the Merrill Act, the Homestead Act, the Transcontinental Railroad - which was the only one the business wing liked, since they could see all the graft opportunities, which they took). There's a reason why Harry Truman said 74 years ago that "the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies." The earlier goons only look good in comparison to the modern monsters. Remember, they had no trouble selling out Reconstruction to stay in power.
And while we are mentioning blame, we can blame the last three Republican presidents for tonight. GHW Bush nominated Thomas, GW Bush nominated Alito, and Fatso the Fuckup nominated Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Barrett - the five votes.
And we should also remember who "went along to get along" with his Republican friends, to shepherd the Thomas nomination, denigrating the testimony of Anita Hill, limiting investigation of her charges, and everything else to be a "good guy" to his Republican senate buddies. I believe his name was ... Widen? ... Something like that. Oh, yeah, right - Biden!
How about we blame the 4 Justices themselves, the Racist, the Cultist, the Rapist and the Traitor, for perjuring themselves repeatedly in front of Congress and the American People to get on that bench. How is that Clinton was impeached for being imprecise and misguidedly chivalrous, and these 4 persistently blatant liars get off SCOTUS-free - so they can dig in and dismantle our entire justice system?
Your words have an accurate flow, Liz. Thanks for that.
TC, good post. I think Dr. Richardson's characterization of the Republican Party as the Party of Lincoln is accurate in terms of the results of Lincoln's Presidency and the rhetoric of his Presidency.
Of course, lots of white men in the both parties in 1857 absolutely felt they were superior to blacks, women, and anyone not born to an easy life of inherited wealth. Having been born priviliged and under the misguided notion that was some kind of divine outcome and that God was on their side, they feel and felt that they can do anything they want to anyone.
Dangerous people for sure.
Luckily, those folks are often as dumb as a dead tree stump and as lazy as a lilly floating on a pond. They DO have money so they CAN hire smart people, but, they often make mistakes because of a huge ego and a tiny brain.
Just like today. Just like yesterday and just like tomorrow.
Yes to all, dammit.
Things look a little bad now TC. But, there are lots of ways to get involved to fight back.
Reading Dr. Richardson's posts is sort of passive BUT being informed is important.
There are more active and action oriented ways to fight back and channel your anger TC. Go find those active ways.
In our society today, if you can think and type, you can change things.
Definitely, engage your anger to action TC.
I believe you'll see me saying that over at TAFM. :-)
Very good. I will head over and read. Thank you.
TC, Stupendous on TAFM, a dynamic engine at rapid speed. Thank you.
Sadly, you are right, I don’t blame Joe. He was still of the mindset that republicans were a legitimate political party. Just like Teddy K thought W was someone with whom he could kumbaya. How slow we are to learn that our foundation is made of clay…
Given the ease with which the foundations are being destroyed i think sand would be more appropriate
Hate rules where I live in TX. All in the name of Christian love. Orwell would be astonished, or would he…
He would not be astonished. At all.
Unfortunately, the "sainthood" of the Dems is somewhat recent as the Party has been just as guilty as the Republicans over the centuries.
Stuart, yes, I just heard a NPR story on how the current DOJ is sticking with a Trump era DOJ decision that Boeing, after lying to the FAA about its 737 MAX and lying to everyone else about its lying to the FAA, is NOT being charged with a crime AND the DOJ is protecting Boeing against lawsuits by the families.
https://www.npr.org/2022/02/11/1080163021/doj-families-victims-killed-boeing-crashes
Merrick Garland rushes to protect Boeing management from jail and protect Boeing from lawsuits and is doing everything possible to insure that Trump walks free as well.
Dems are not so much saints. Not really. Although, Biden is fairly free of taint if you don't include how he trashed Anita Hill in favor of our porn loving Clarence Thomas.
That's an insidious story about Garland and the Boeing cover-up.
TC & Stuart, Sadly, too many pols are attorneys, and most pols begin and end as prostitutes. We expect better, but when we elect these people, we keep getting what we deserve.
I could tell the difference in 1963 when I became a Dem. No brainer…. Still true as Dems have done better and Repubs have raced to the bottom…. Still a no brainer…
Hopefully they haven't upturned the egg timer. Bottom becomes top, top becomes bottom. The eternal cycle.
The bottom is fast becoming the ruling entity, just like Hitler.
Plenty of Dems over the last 30 years have been complicit, too. Clinton and Obama also "went along to get along"; we haven't had a progressive Dem in the Oval Office since Carter. Pelosi and Schumer don't fight, and they silence the Dems who want to fight. The neoliberals are definitely not helping.
No one is perfect, including our President who no doubt now regrets the way the Thomas hearings were handled, if he had a do over, I have no doubt that would be it. Everything we do matters, it has always been that way, think of it as a small rock thrown into a still pond and how it reverberates to distant shores. God help us, but all of our actions have deeper meanings and consequences, today we are watching a manifestation of that principal.
Up vote for 'Fatso the Fuckup'
At times like this I can’t help but think of the handful of Democrats and liberal Independents in a couple of states who couldn’t bring themselves to hold their noses and vote for Clinton in 2016.
The optimist in me assumes that the history that has unfolded since that election, especially the leaked SCOTUS opinion, has demonstrated to all the profound consequences of voting only for one’s own notion of political perfection.
Democracy is not about achieving perfection, it’s about achieving the possible. (A nod to the memory of Tip O’Neill.)
This. So much this. The Bernie Bros that stayed home, the upper-middle class that "just couldn't bring myself to vote for her". Every. Last. One. Of. Them. will have this blood (literal) on their hands.
I couldn’t agree more. The writing was on the wall. All one had to be was literate, and not stupid…
I will have to look for O’Neill’s words about achieving the possible. I read Hillary R Clinton’s graduation speech several times a year for inspiration. From a poem she read that was written by a classmate:
“Earth could be fair. And you and I must be free
Not to save the world in a glorious crusade
Not to kill ourselves with a nameless gnawing pain
But to practice with all the skill of our being
The art of making possible.”
❤️
Thank you for the poem.
You’re most welcome Ralph. I forgot to attach a link. The poem was a bit longer than those few lines. This also includes HRC’s speech which includes a bit about what is possible. https://www.wellesley.edu/events/commencement/archives/1969commencement/studentspeech
Tip O’Neill said, “Politics is the science of the possible.”
I tried Google for more context on this quote from O’Neill but couldn’t come up with anything. Interestingly though I did find a related pessimistic John K Galbraith quote: “Politics is not the art of the possible; it consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.”
I was pregnant with my first child when I marched for women to have the right to make decisions about their bodies. My husband was a law student at the time and RBG was his law professor at Rutgers Law School. Both men and women organized and shouted out for our rights. Even when the Court upheld Roe, we knew there would be a day when this would be challenged. We did not worry, for our generation made our voices heard and as Bob Dylan wrote, “we are still marching in the streets, with little victories and big defeats”. We knew the law would protect us. We felt threatened yet safe living in what was then a democracy.
And here we are almost 50 years later, and watching this experiment known as democracy, being shredded by a group
of treasonous Trump cohorts and a bigoted and biased GOP. Three Trump appointed SCOTUS candidates swore in their hearings that they would not change Roe v Wade. These liar Justices now sit on the bench of the highest court in the land. The enemy is once again within.
I have a granddaughter and it is I who will have to explain to her what we fought for for her and the generations which came after us. I am distraught. I will continue the battle, and honor Mother’s Day like never before. God help us all!
To Bobby [Dylan] by Joan Baez
𝘓𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘧𝘭𝘰𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘰𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘳
𝘞𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘴𝘢𝘺𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘵 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘵𝘰 𝘥𝘰
𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘦'𝘳𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘣𝘪𝘨 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘴
𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘫𝘰𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘱𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘢 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘺𝘰𝘶
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VVWX_PpI6t0
I hear you loud and clearly, Barbara. United!
Christine, Together we are stronger!
Between the Heartless Court's obliterating any right not explicitly spelled out in the Constitution and the Texas anti-abortion law providing the model for states to end around the Constitution through vigilante injustice, we now have anarchy and autocracy and an oligarchic kleptocracy. With rights come responsibilities in a democracy; without rights no one has responsibility. The word woman is not in the Constitution so by this Court's illogic women have no rights. I'm feeling like John Hancock when he signed the Declaration of Independence writing his signature so large. Now to find the leaders who will bring us all together to fight for all our rights and a new Constitution!
I just reread my copy of the Constitution. Although Title IX is most frequently cited in cases like equal rights for women in sports, the actual wording goes far beyond that.
“The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.” Period
I also found no mention of the right for anyone to marry anyone, no right to inherit property, no right to drive a car, …
In 1988, I was living just south of San Francisco when I find myself pregnant. My then-husband and I received the news happily. Other than bouts of morning sickness, everything went swimmingly through the first trimester. If felt my baby move at around 4 months or so. I went for an amniocentesis test at the recommended 17 weeks.
It took about 2 weeks to get the results, and they are both devastating and unquestionable. My baby girl had a severe genetic defect called Trisomy 13, also called Patau syndrome. Trisomy 13 is a chromosomal condition that causes severe intellectual disability, heart defects, brain or spinal cord abnormalities, poorly developed eyes, additional fingers and toes, cleft lip, and weak muscles. Most infants with Trisomy 13 die within their first days or weeks of life, if they even make it that far.
As much as I wanted her, there was no question of carrying this baby to term. Not only because caring for this ill-fated child would be impossible under our circumstances, but because I was frightened by what had happened to my own mother.
My mother became pregnant with her 4th child when I was 2, and he died in utero at 8 months. Back in the 1950s, the only option available was for her to deliver the baby naturally. So she carried him, knowing he was dead, until he was born at 9 months. The experience drove her into terrible postpartum depression from which she never recovered. By the time I was 5 years old she’d devolved into paranoid schizophrenia. When I was 12, she was institutionalized. She received 35 shock treatments that did nothing to restore her mental health, and died when I was 17.
I felt that I too could easily be driven into unrecoverable depression myself if my situation continued. So I finally received my abortion at 22 weeks after a difficult search for a provider. My milk came in afterwards. I cried for weeks.
The moral of the story is this: forcing a woman to have even a <wanted> but seriously deformed baby can be devastating.
My gloves are off.
I'm in your corner for bare-knuckle fighting.
My heart goes out to you, Bronwyn, and to your mother. That so many women and children—children!— may now be forced to carry to term is horrifying.
Mine too. I will fight for you, your mother, and every woman’s right to choose.
Thank you for sharing your heart-breaking story, Bronwyn. Yes, I will fight with you!
I am equally afraid that no Republicans attending the trip to Ukraine means they are weak on our national security, weak on defending Ukraine, pro Russia and other authoritarians, and likely to withdraw from NATO when they have the chance. The story about the rise and fall of the US of America will only be known in underground museums.
Most Republicans in Congress are voting in favor of arms for Ukraine. But those most active in trying to overturn the 2020 election are not. Trump is not and still burning that Ukraine did not serve his political purposes when asked.
That will have to be a lot more protest, get out the vote and law suits to tie Republicans up in knots like Ukraine is trying to do with Russia.
Rupert will turn the tide in America If his ilk is not shut down. He has been pro-Putin, especially since chump. Wait for it. It’s like Ayn Rand said “the question is not who is going to let me, the question is who is going to stop me.” So far his “journalism” credentials allow his non-stop propaganda screeds. Free press, my arse…
I hear a rumor that the Republican Party convention will be held in Hungary this year with Orban as the keynote speaker.
It’s annual CPAC mtg that has Hungary as its venue this year. Orban as keynote with Tuckems doing MC duties and freely giving it free advertisement.
Rupert rules, all over the world
The contours of the 2022-2024 campaigns are laid in Republicans declining to go to the Ukraine with Pelosi: US support was wrong-headed, we were becoming involved in foreign affairs, Biden was screwing us up, inflation is driven by all the Dem spending, including to support some little European country, etc.
To be fair, the Ukraine visit was not announced ahead of time, only the Poland leg was. None of the reps knew they would be visiting Ukraine for security reasons.
Professor, your conclusion is even more succinct, but I could not resist reiterating your analysis: "[The current Supreme Court majority's] attack on federal protection of civil rights applies not just to abortion, but to all the protections put in place since World War II: the right to use birth control, marry whomever you wish, live in desegregated spaces, and so on."
Thank you Heather. This is the most discouraging Letter so far that I've read.
When Biden became President , I said "pack the Courts." I had people tell me that is uncalled for, some said don't be ridiculous. One of my colleagues said, that's an over reaction. Why would you do that? My answer was simple, I had a very terrifying, gut feeling that our Country was going to become a horrendous place to live. I had no idea how horrible and quickly that would happen.
Here we are.
No one said you have to love the country where you were born. Not even like it for that matter. There is no obligation.
I don't. I hate it for what it will soon become.
Be safe. Be well.
I agree, the inmates are taking over the asylum. None of this is a news flash. Instead it feels like a nuclear cloud expanding and settling over us like a prison. And all brought on by the worst examples of humanity. Let no one wonder how Nazi Germany happened…
Yes, Linda, I remember when you said “pack the courts”.
Do it President Biden. As well as drop kicking Manchin and Sinema into a real majority and get some sh*t passed. Gloves off. Chastity belts with Lysistrata penis snippers in place, please.
United, Linda!
Christine, I feel we are at the point of making self defense classes for women and girls part of the curriculum for K-12 and college. They may find that to be the most valuable class they will take in their lives.
You are right, there is no obligation to love, like or respect the country one was born in. I have long felt a simmering anger towards the United States. Reading the news about overturning Roe v Wade last night brought my anger to a full boil. I was outraged and in tears at the same time. A while back, another subscriber questioned my patriotism because I had said things they deemed to be anti-American. If voicing anger and disgust toward a government and politicians who are actively tearing apart a democracy is unpatriotic and un-American, I'll eat my hat.
Daria, the first words to my wife this morning were "Let's move to Canada. I'm done with the US." Through tears, my rage boils, like yours. So, I'll join you in being called unpatriotic if I speak up against the mess the country has become.
Pam, I am still pretty stunned by the news. 50% of the US population will no longer have full citizenship.
Daria, although I expected the court to overturn Roe, I didn't expect any news until June when they usually give rulings on cases as sensitive as Roe. The "leak" just knocked me sideways as I wasn't prepared. I don't know what to say now to young women who must learn that their bodies are not their own.
Girl, you are a fabulous woman, scholar, compatriot, and patriot.
I toast my 5:00 martini to you. Already an event at the Courthouse in my city today at 5:30 organized by Women’s March. Not a second to waste!
Salud. United!
Agreed about Daria, Christine. Also agree….not a second to waste.
❤
Christine, I can say the same about you!! It's 5:45 here and I'm fixing to have my martini! Here's to you my lovely friend. It is against the law for non citizens to protest BUT I have a couple friends at the US Consulate and I'm going to see if it's legal to protest in front of the Consulate (US property? Yes? No?)
Salud!!
Daria, tonight at 5 PM we lifted wine to the women in this country who will not let this go...to you and Christine, Lynell, Ellie, Fern (I could go on and on), and the millions of others here on LFAA who will not be silent. But, tonight....I am soooo sad/mad.
Pam, here's to all of us who believe in our right to choose and believe in our right to have agency over own bodies and healthcare.
Daria, I completely agree. Where you were born has nothing to do with your convictions. Patriotism is a misnomer. I see many Ukrainian flags flying from houses here in New York State as I travel thru. It doesn't mean that they are Ukrainian or they are entrenched with the Country. It's just what they see fit to do at this point in time.
We should all be upset and disgusted by this Conservative power play. We should shout to the highest mountains. This is wrong.
No obligation....I agree, Linda, kind of like I'm not obligated to love the family I was born into.
Precisely.