The claim of being “pro-life” becomes a complete hypocrisy in the case of the 10-year-old child who was raped, became pregnant, and could not have an abortion in her own state. The life of the young girl, a child, was not at all important to the “Pro-Lifers”. Is this case a chilling premonition of things to come? I hope not, but I’m afraid so. Clay Jones sums it up far better than I ever could …
Republicans’ first talking point after learning a ten-year-old girl had to cross state lines to get an abortion after being impregnated by a rapist was to say it wasn’t true.
A child was raped and impregnated. She couldn’t get an abortion in her home state of Ohio because the GOP in that state banned abortions after six weeks with no exceptions for rape or incest. She was pregnant for six weeks and three days. So, she went to Indiana for the procedure. Republicans said this story was “too good to be true” for Democrats.
In saying the story was too good to be true, in that Democrats could use it politically against the GOP’s stupid backward knuckle-dragging cave-dwelling anti-women policies, Republicans were admitting that forcing a ten-year-old to give birth to her rapist’s baby is fucking horrible and an outrage. That’s the policy they support but they don’t want you…
Karl Marx said of religion that it is the ‘opiate of the masses.’ In other words, it is the thing that keeps people in line, keeps them obeying rules that they are told by their respective churches are the rules of some higher power. A disclaimer here: While I am a non-believer, I fully respect the right of others to believe as they will so long as they do no harm and do not impose their beliefs on others. But this is where the problem comes in.
I’ve railed long and loud about the evangelical Christians who would impose their will on us all if given half a chance. They have cherry-picked their own religious tome and loudly proclaim those parts that suit their own conveniences, while ignoring other parts, such as “do unto others …” But today, I am equally disgusted by the Catholic religion that is trying to do the exact same thing as the evangelicals, only on a grander scale.
From an article in The Washington Post …
Catholic bishops on Friday voted to create guidelines on the meaning of Communion, a move that could be an early step toward limiting the serving of the Eucharist to President Biden and other politicians who support abortion rights.
The bishops voted 168 to 55 to punish the President and other politicos who support women’s rights. Let me tell you what this means in basic terms. President Biden is a dedicated Catholic to whom receiving communion on Sundays is important. This is a personal choice of his, he was raised in the Catholic church and is dedicated to his faith, as he has every right to be. However, it IS a personal decision and cannot cross into his professional duties as President of the United States. But this is exactly what the Catholic church is attempting to do … to threaten and bully our president into changing his stance on a critical human rights issue in order to appease the church. BULLSHIT!
Make no mistake … the issue here and also with the evangelicals is not … I repeat NOT … about abortion per se. The Catholic bishops and the evangelical leaders couldn’t care less about a fetus. It is about women’s rights. Period. Back in the Dark Ages that ended only a couple of decades ago, women were considered chattel … they were dominated by males, were basically maids, cooks, and baby-making machines. We finally got sick and tired of that status, rose up and demanded and fought for equal rights, and while we still aren’t quite to the point of being considered the equal of men, we’ve made one hell of a lot of progress, no thanks to most religions or church leaders.
President Biden is now faced with a decision … to obey the tenets of his church (new tenets, as it were, designed only to coerce him and other politicians who defend women’s rights) or to follow the will of We the People. I have full confidence that President Biden will do the right thing, but sadly his personal religious life may never be the same. A man (or someday, hopefully, a woman) should not be forced away from their religion in order to do their job! They should not have to choose between their faith and their job!
The Catholic church, the various evangelical churches … they cannot be allowed to dictate whether or not women have the right to control their own bodies. And isn’t it interesting that NONE of the churches seem to object to a man having a vasectomy, or conversely, a man asking his doctor for a prescription for Viagra so that he can … er … perform. Again … women’s rights are on the chopping block if churches have their say. Ask me again why I eschew religion, why I agree with Karl Marx, that religion is a tool that is used to suppress that which certain elements of society do not wish to allow.
What’s next? Will the churches next demand that only men be allowed to vote? Or that Blacks be relegated to the back of the bus once again? Or that … well, use your imagination. For every step forward we take, the religious right tries to shove us two steps back.
This nation has people of many different religions: Muslim, Protestant, Hindu, Catholic, Mormon, Jewish, Buddhist, and others, as well as those of us who are agnostics or atheists. We all pay taxes, we all vote, we all have the same constitutional rights. The U.S. Constitution calls for a separation of church and state, which means that while people have the right to believe as they wish, no religion should define the laws that bind us all. However, that is exactly what is happening when the U.S. Supreme Court rules discrimination is legal as has happened numerous times recently, the most notable case being the Masterpiece Cakeshop v Colorado Civil Rights Commission case.
I rarely condemn a certain religion, but today I am condemning the Catholic church for trying to leverage our President to return women to a state of chattel. Harsh? Sure, but also true. As a woman, I’ll be damned if I’ll sit back and let a bunch of old, white men who wear 10th century garb and funny things on their heads tell me what to do with my body, with my life. Were I to see a priest at the grocery store today, I would likely aim a head of cabbage at his head!
It seems these days that republicans, in general, don’t much like facts, but prefer right-wing rhetoric. Roe v Wade shouldn’t be the major issue on the docket for the 2020 election, but for a large portion of the republicans, it seems to be the only issue. But, they have their facts all wrong, so our friend Xena has done her homework and sets the record straight for us all. Thank you, Xena!
I’ve never been one to vote based on issues that are not relevant to my life or the betterment of this country, such as climate change. For at least two decades, I’ve personally heard Republicans say they were voting for a politician because they are anti-abortion and/or anti-gay rights. I always asked if they planned to have an abortion and if they are gay? To that, they wanted to quote from the Bible, in which I had to remind them that the United States does not have a theocratic government.
Frankly, I’m tired of hearing Republicans say that they don’t understand how Christians can be Democrat when Democrats made abortion legal in the United States. That is simply not true. At the time of Roe v. Wade, six (6) of the Justices on the Supreme Court were appointed by Republican presidents.
Voting because of wanting laws that control the lives…
Let’s talk a little bit about voters and issues. While we could categorize voters in numerous different ways, there are basically two kinds of voters: those who vote based on issues, and those who vote based on personality.
It was often said that the biggest reason John F. Kennedy won the 1960 election was his charisma. I was nine years old at the time, and I certainly found him charming … I loved listening to him speak (my family didn’t have television yet in 1960, so I rarely saw him)! And that’s fine for a nine-year-old child, but by the time one reaches voting age, one really ought to be considering what the candidate stands for rather than what he or she looks like, or how they speak. I also heard it said in 2016 that part of Trump’s success was a result of his charisma, but I have a hard time with that, for he isn’t nice to look at, and his speech is filled with vitriol, so … where’s the charisma?
At any rate, there’s little to be said about those who would vote based on the candidate’s personality, so let’s instead start talking about issues. Jeff and I have debated whether it is too soon to start to delve into the issues and the candidates’ views/platforms/ideologies, but after some thought, we’ve decided that with the primaries already in full swing, and Super Tuesday right around the corner, the time seems to be ripe. Next Tuesday, March 3rd, fourteen states and one U.S. territory will hold nominating contests to award a total of 1,357 delegates, or 34% of all delegates nationwide. If you are eligible to vote in the primary or caucus for your state, you will soon need to make a choice between the remaining candidates. So … what issues are most important to you?
The majority of voters are most concerned with the issues that most directly impact them and their everyday lives, such as healthcare, or if they have children, education. The economy and jobs naturally impact everyone. In 2016, Donald Trump was able to form a large enough base by creating a fear on an issue that, until then, was largely a non-issue to most people: immigration. He made it personal … he told people that immigrants were mostly all bad people – terrorists, murderers and rapists. And even the good ones, he said, were taking your jobs! He created a fear, then proposed a solution: a wall and a travel ban. It was largely hyperbole, but people bought it.
All of which points up the fact that sometimes people listen to one view or another without fully understanding the issues or their candidates’ stance on them. The more information you have, the better able you will be to make informed, wise decisions.
For today, I just want to give a bit of information about each of the major issues, and then in two weeks, I will begin to address each of the candidates’ views on the issues, so you can see which nearly match your own viewpoint. At the end of this post, there is a poll that I hope you’ll take a minute to check which issues matter most to you, as a voter.
The Issues:
Abortion
The abortion issue is among the most polarizing in the nation. Pro-life vs Pro-Choice. The question of whether certain groups have the right to force their will on women, or whether women have autonomy over their own bodies.
Civil Rights
This covers a myriad of sub-issues involving equality for all in the areas of housing, education and employment for minorities, religious groups, the LGBTQ community, and women. It is another highly polarizing issue, as certain groups attempt to claim that the rights of the LGBTQ community are in direct contrast with their own rights.
Economy
The economy is about more than just jobs and the stock market. It is also about things like wage levels and inflation. Trump claims bragging rights for the stable economy, but in reality he inherited a growing economy and, as we’ve seen over the past week, it is not built on a very solid foundation. The federal minimum wage has not been raised in more than ten years, while the cost of living has risen each year.
Education
The quality of education in the U.S. has been declining in recent years, as schools are increasingly focused on preparing students for a career more than teaching them to think for themselves, to use their imaginations, to create. College has become cost-prohibitive and students leave after four years with a mountain of debt that will take them decades to repay.
Election Reform and Security
A number of Supreme Court decisions over the past years have corrupted our elections. McCutcheon v FEC, Citizens United v FEC, and a number of others involving campaign finance have opened the door to large corporations and lobbying groups literally buying a candidate. There is also the issue of election security. It is a proven fact that the Russians interfered in our 2016 election, and our own intelligence community has given us warning that the same is happening again this year. The House of Representatives has passed bills to restore the security of our elections, but the Senate has thus far refused to bring them to the floor.
Energy/Environment/Climate Change
This may arguably be the single most important issue nationwide today, though many seem oblivious. Trump has rolled back so many environmental regulations that this nation remains the single largest emitter of CO2 per capita in the world! The U.S. is also the only nation on the globe that is not part of the Paris Climate Accords and that is not doing virtually anything, as a nation, to protect the environment, endangered species, etc.
Foreign Policy
While ‘globalization’ has been demonized by some, it is a fact of life. In today’s world, we must interact with other nations in many areas, not the least of which are trade and shared security. How we treat our allies and how we react to others is critical to keeping not only our nation, but the world safe. Understanding of world affairs is imperative at the highest levels of government.
Free Trade
Free trade agreements allow goods to cross borders without tariffs or special taxes, and are a key element in keeping the cost of consumer goods low. It should be a win-win for all parties involved, but in recent years, the U.S. has made it a competitive game, which hurts everyone in the long run.
Government reform
Unhappy with the way the government is being run? This largely ties into campaign finance reform, for much of the problem with our government today is that rather than representing all the people, they often seem to represent only the wealthy, leaving the other 99.9% of us out in the cold. In addition, the leaders of both the House and Senate seem to have entirely too much power, coercing our elected officials to do things their way, rather than to follow their conscience.
Gun Control
This is one of the biggest issues in the U.S. The vast majority of people, including gun owners, are for sensible gun legislation, such as expanded background checks, waiting periods, and even an assault weapons ban. But, due to the power and influence the NRA has over our politicians, nothing is being done, and more and more people die from guns every single day in this country.
Health Care
I can’t even begin to summarize this one. ACA, the Affordable Care Act that was initiated during the Obama administration, ensured that everyone would have access to basic healthcare, regardless of income level or pre-existing conditions. Much of that has been gutted and there are now some 20 million people in this country with no health care insurance. Meanwhile, the Pharma industry, doctors, labs, and others are charging exorbitant fees. A nation that cannot or chooses not to take care of its people … all its people … has a government that is deficient.
Immigration
Immigration reform is one of those things like the weather … everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything. In the last three years we have seen all the wrong things done: children separated from their parents and put in cages; billions of dollars wasted building a ridiculous wall that can be sawed through and falls down on a windy day; highly discriminatory travel bans. Young people who were brought to this country as babies by their immigrant parents are in danger of being deported, even though many are contributing to the economic and social well-being of our nation.
Infrastructure
Roads and highways, water systems, electric grids, bridges, public transportation all fall under the heading of infrastructure. All need upgrading and continual maintenance, but we have fallen far behind. Remember Flint, Michigan and their water crisis? Well, guess what? It is still not resolved, there is still lead in the drinking water, and the latest is that rather than replace the system, the EPA is proposing rule changes that would change the way testing is done for lead and copper in water supplies.
Tax Reform
The tax structure at present puts more of the burden on the working class than on the wealthy. Wealthy individuals and corporations pay a far lower percentage in taxes than the average worker, some companies paying not one single dime, and some even getting refunds. Meanwhile, the national debt is out of control and the government has plans to further cut the very programs that the people of this nation rely on.
Technology
A number of things fall under this broad umbrella, some of which affect us all, such as online privacy, broadband, social media, wireless communication, and more. Perhaps the most important to most of us is internet security, that took a big hit when net neutrality was repealed in 2018.
Welfare & Poverty
This is one that many people don’t think about … until they themselves are in need. The official poverty rate in the U.S. is 12.3%. Think about that one for a minute … one in every eight people in this nation live in poverty, and it is estimated that there are more than a half-million homeless people in the nation. Yet, Trump proposes cutting the very programs that help these people!
Well, there you have the issues and a brief summation of each. There are more, but I’ve already exceeded the length Jeff and I agreed on, and taken up too much of your time. In coming weeks, I will be writing expanding on these issues and giving you the views of the most viable candidates. So that we can focus on the issues that are most important to you, we ask that you take just a minute to check off the three issues that are most important to you in the short poll below.
Note: Even though the poll will show only the last answer you ticked, it is recording all three. I apologize, for I know it is confusing, but I cannot seem to find a way to leave all choices marked.
Yesterday, Planned Parenthood announced that it would withdraw from the federal family planning program known as Title X. The Title X Family Planning program was enacted in 1970 as Title X of the Public Health Service Act. Title X is the only federal grant program dedicated solely to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. The Title X program is designed to provide access to contraceptive services, supplies, and information to all who want and need them. By law, priority is given to persons from low-income families.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), under Trump’s hand-picked Alex Azar, attached a new condition on receiving Title X funding – that the recipients, such as Planned Parenthood, can no longer make abortion referrals. This, my friends, is nothing more than the federal government attempting to inflict the beliefs of the Christian evangelical community, a vocal minority of the population, on everyone in the nation. It is an attempt to make religious beliefs into public policy. It is a huge step away from being the secular nation that we started out to be, that we need to be.
But let’s be clear … while the intent may be to deprive a woman of the right to have an abortion, this is not about abortion. This is not about whether a woman has a right to decide what is right for her, in some cases having an abortion. This is about whether a woman has a right to live or not. Planned Parenthood is not just about helping a woman get an abortion, and in fact that is a very small percentage of what they do.
As you can see, money spent on providing abortions is a mere 3% of their total, AND … NO FEDERAL MONIES are spent on abortion. Now, look at some of the other things they do …
STD and HIV testing and treatment
Birth control
Screening for reproductive cancers (like breast, cervical, testicular, and prostate cancers)
Pap tests and well woman exams
Vaccines
PrEP and PEP (medicines to help prevent HIV)
Pregnancy services and prenatal care
Transgender health services, including hormone replacement therapy (HRT)
Vasectomy and other sterilization services
Condoms
Planned Parenthood saves lives. In many rural areas, they are the only provider of the above services that may save a woman’s life. Or a man’s, for you may note they also do screening for testicular and prostate cancers. They provide prenatal care … the anti-abortion group might do well to consider that they are robbing that fetus they care so much about of such things as the vitamins to ensure they are healthy, and regular screenings to detect any potential problems that might be avoided with timely treatment.
Evangelicals have been calling for the government to ‘de-fund’ Planned Parenthood for decades, but instead of de-funding it, the government set a criteria that they could no longer make abortion referrals. Planned Parenthood said, in essence, “Okay, keep your money then … for there are times that a woman’s life and health depend on abortion.”
There’s a certain irony here, too, that a large portion of what Planned Parenthood does involves birth control and family planning education, both of which significantly lower the need for abortions, and yet those who claim to be “pro-life” are depriving women of those services as well.
I do not applaud Planned Parenthood’s decision, but I do support it … it was the right thing for them to do. However, I do not support the government’s imposition of the criteria, I do not support the evangelicals who coerced the government into setting the criteria. Those evangelicals call themselves “pro-life”, but they are not. They are not considering the lives of the thousands of women who rely on Planned Parenthood for birth control, annual checkups, family planning services, and much more.
There will be backlash over this. I do not know what the end result will be, but somehow, we must continue to fund Planned Parenthood. They do not provide abortions with Title X funds, but only with private funding. They provide a tremendous service to women, they save lives of both babies and mothers, and they are an integral part of women’s healthcare, especially among lower income women.
I came across a short video on Scottie’s Toybox that I think explains the issue quite well … please take a minute or two … well, actually 7 minutes, but it is well worth the time spent.
Are we going to be held hostage in other areas by the evangelicals? Are we going to let them dictate, for example, that there must be mandatory religious classes in schools? Are we going to let them tell us that it is okay for employers to discriminate against LGBT people? The United States is, appropriately, a secular nation, not as some would believe, a Christian nation. Twenty-five percent, fully one-fourth of this nation are non-Christians. We are Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, atheists and agnostics. We have a voice, too. We pay taxes, too. We contribute our skills and ideas as much as any. And 50.52% of this nation are women. We pay taxes and have a voice, too.
Abortion is not the root of all evil. Often a woman has an abortion because she is unable to provide for her child. The world is already over-populated and the last thing we need are more hungry mouths to feed. Those same people who call for an end to all abortions, also fight against their tax dollars going to help feed and shelter those children once they are born. Pro-life??? I don’t think so … just anti-women. If you ever doubted that it’s still a man’s world, doubt no more.
Failed Texas Bill Would Have Made Death Penalty Possible in Abortion Cases
Say WHAT??? You have got to be kidding me?!?!?! The story …
A bill considered by members of the Texas House of Representatives this week would have criminalized abortions and opened up the possibility for women and physicians to receive the death penalty.
The bill would have allowed women who obtained an abortion or doctors who performed one to be charged with assault or criminal homicide, the latter of which is punishable by death in Texas. It would have allowed no exceptions for abortions in cases of rape or when the health of the mother is at risk.
Yes, the bill failed to pass the Texas state legislature, with even some legislators who identify as being strongly “pro-life” feeling it went too far. But I find the fact that somebody even thought of it to be chilling.
So, a young mother who already has two children, works two jobs to support them and still struggles to put food on the table and pay the rent, gets pregnant. Knowing that she cannot possibly manage to support yet another child, she struggles, searches her soul, sheds many a tear, but at the end of the day she sees no choice. She has an abortion. Does anybody honestly think she should be punished at all, let alone be treated in the same way as a man who goes on a shooting spree in a mosque, or an African-American church and kills 10, 15, 20 people? WHERE is the logic in this?
Worse yet, picture the woman who discovers, at the same time she finds she is pregnant, that she has cervical cancer and carrying the fetus to full term would likely cause her death. Somebody in Texas thinks this woman should be arrested, sent to prison and put on death row for having an abortion in an effort to save her live? Again I ask … WHERE is the logic in this?
Nobody can dispute that the U.S. has moved backward in terms of civil rights over the past two years. Bigotry in all its ugly forms has expanded, obviously including misogyny. One of Trump’s selling points in his campaign was that he would put judges on the bench who would be willing to overturn Roe v Wade, and he has placed two such judges on the Supreme Court so far. What happens if Roe v Wade is overturned? If we have people who honestly think that abortion is akin to murder, then folks, we are in deep trouble.
Women make up only 28.7% of all state legislatures in this country. There are 127 (23.7%) women in the U.S. Congress. It’s an improvement, but still not what I would define as equality. I repeat what I said not too long ago … how would men like it if women decided whether or not they should be allowed their Viagra prescriptions? Ponder on that one for a while.
Oh … one last thing here. All those who claim to be “pro-life” … why aren’t they out there fighting hard for universal healthcare, for an expansion of social services to protect and preserve the lives of those who are living below the poverty line? And why aren’t they vociferously speaking out against the death penalty? If they aren’t doing those things, if abortion is the only area in which they are concerned about human life, then they aren’t ‘pro-life’, but rather they are misogynists, considering women to be second-class citizens.
I actually had another post on the schedule for this afternoon, but I saw this one by Gronda late last night (early this morning) and couldn’t resist sharing it with you! Thanks, Gronda, for the much-needed smile! 😊
I couldn’t resist sharing the following piece in full as it just hit home for me. A Democratic Georgian female legislator has obviously reached her limit in having to fight off GOP’s attempts to to control the lives of women’s bodies. She has decided to return the favor to her male colleagues who seem to be overly obsessed with women’s private parts as they attempt to draft new more restrictive anti- abortion laws, with her own legislation that she has introduced to restrict men’s testicular activities.
“Georgia Republicans are at it again, trying to control women’s bodies through the law—but this time, state Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick is replying in kind with her “Testicular Bill of Rights” showing…
Every now and then I let my mind run loose … take it to the park, unsnap the ol’ leash, and just give it free rein to run amok. This happened today and the ol’ mind took off at warp speed. It was a while before I saw it again, and when it returned, it was more than a little bedraggled, and was covered in snark. And so … tonight you get a dose of whatever came from my mind … you may want to don your pith helmets …
And the Most Admired Woman is …
That’s right, folks … none other than the role model of class, style and grace, Michelle Obama!!!
And to really ice the cake, the Most Admired Man in 2018 … none other than the male counterpart role model of class, style and grace, President Barack Obama!!!
I cannot think of two people more worthy of the honour. What does gall me, however, is that Donald Trump came in second for Most Admired Man … why??? However, even so there is a bright spot, for he is only the second president not to win the top honour during his presidency … the other was Gerald Ford. Eat your heart out, Donnie!!!
Abortion
It isn’t my intent to have another discussion on when a cell becomes a life … there are plenty of those going ‘round and frankly, each side continues to make the same points, and nobody is listening to the other side, so why even bother? But I have some questions for those who are so vehemently against abortion based on their religion.
I want you to think about seven-year-old Jakelin Caal and eight-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo (shown above). These two children both died in the past week while in custody of the United States government. They died because of inadequate care and insufficient medical treatment. Both of their deaths were preventable. These were children, not fetuses. Growing, living, breathing children in the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP). And yet, I don’t see people protesting, carrying signs and demanding that the children in custody of the U.S. government, children who have in many cases been taken from their parents, be treated with care and compassion. Where is the outrage of those who call themselves “right-to-lifers”? Whose life? Is it only unborn white babies whose lives you will fight for?
And the next question … who or what gives you the right to determine what is right for the rest of us? If you believe abortion is wrong and you don’t choose to have one, fine. Don’t have one. This isn’t Nazi Germany (yet) and nobody will force you. Have 20 children for all I care, but do not ever try to impose your values on others. Not everyone believes in the same god you do, not everyone shares your set of values. And … AND … not everyone has the same opportunities you have such that they can raise a child, afford food, medical care, clothing and shelter to keep that child safe, happy & healthy. Don’t judge others’ situations using your own as a moral compass.
Adoption, you say? Well, let see … domestically, approximately 99,900 children were adopted last year (another 35,000 were adopted from foreign countries). Okay, so almost 100,000 kids adopted … sounds good, right? Wrong. On any given day there are some 438,000 children in foster care, and in the course of a year, some 687,000 children spend at least some time in the system.
My point? Two of them, actually. 1) No single life has more value than another. Those who are determined that a fetus qualifies as a life should be equally concerned and willing to act on behalf of those immigrant children at our southern border, the children being killed all over the world – in Syria, Greece, Saudi Arabia. And those people should be out there advocating for children stuck in a foster care system that barely functions. 2) Freedom of choice belongs to each of us. I will not force you to have an abortion, but don’t tell me that I cannot until you have lived in my shoes.
Statistics, statistics, statistics …
Politico published a set of year-end data that can be used to fact-check some of Donald Trump’s braggadocio. I found these statistics fairly interesting and thought you might too. Naturally, I couldn’t resist adding a bit of snark …
Number of campaign rallies Trump held in 2018: 44 (Note that the next presidential election will not take place until November 3rd of 2020 … more than two years from the time these rallies were held)
Number of times he visited one of his golf clubs: 67 (Remember how he said Obama played too much golf and that when elected, he, Trump, would be too busy working to have time for golf? Ahem …)
Number of war zones visited: 1 (And that was only because the heat in the kitchen at home was getting to be too much for him. When he went to Iraq earlier this week, rather than a positive talk focusing on the troops, he lied to them about their pay raise, and made the rest of his speech all about him. It was a photo op, that’s all)
Number of 2018 general election candidates Trump endorsed: 90. Percentage of those candidates who won: 55%. (Some candidates, wisely, asked him to stay the hell out of their states)
Percentage increase in the number of tweets from 2017 to 2018: 32% (He has tweeted more than the first forty-three presidents all combined!!!)
Percentage increase in references to “witch hunt” from 2017 to 2018: 620% (Holy Smokes, Batman!!! Does this dude ever w-o-r-k???)
Number of Cabinet secretaries who were removed or quit: 10 (And those were the lucky ones who got out while they still had at least a modicum of sanity)
Percentage of Trump’s executive staff that has turned over in first two years: 65% (In most corporations, a manager with a turnover rate of 65% would have been long since out the door!)
Number of presidents who’ve had more than one chief of staff in their first two years: 4. Number of presidents other than Trump who have had three: 0 (He certainly is a record-setting president, isn’t he?)
Percentage increase in U.S. trade deficit since Trump took office: 18% (Hmmm … seems I remember something about how he was so appalled by the trade deficit under Obama and he, Trump, was going to reduce it? Perhaps I imagined it.)
Yessir, a record-setting president … too bad none of his records are good for the country, yes?
And so, I shall save any remaining snark for another day. Have a lovely Friday, my friends!
It is likely that the fight over the next Supreme Court nominee will boil down to a single issue: abortion. Some claim that the entire 2016 election was largely about the issue of abortion and a lead-up to this moment. Now mind you, the abortion issue as per the historic 1973 Roe v Wade decision, is far from being the only human rights issue that is endangered by the threat of yet another ultra-conservative ideologist on the Court. Same-sex marriage, LGBT rights, freedom from religious mandates, immigration, and many other issues stand to be endangered. I will deal with each of those in the coming week or two, but the initial fight will likely center around Roe and abortion. As usual, I have a few thoughts on the matter …
The issue of abortion is … or at least ought to be … a personal one. Roe v Wade was not about abortion as much as about the right of a woman to have a say about what happens to her body and in a broader sense, her life. Now here’s the thing … if you are a religious person and believe that life begins at the exact moment of conception, believe that a fetus is a sacred being, that is certainly your right. Nobody is trying to challenge your beliefs, nobody is trying to take away your rights, and nobody is ever going to force you to have an abortion! Your right to give birth to as many children as you wish is safe. BUT … the rest of us have rights also, and while we are carefully not trampling on yours, we ask that you not trample on ours. Live and let live. Women do not choose abortion lightly … it is an agonizing decision for each woman, and one that she will live with for her entire life. Don’t make it harder for her with your holier-than-thou protests and denigrating remarks. Just sit down and shut up.
Why do women choose to have an abortion? In most cases it is because they are not able to take care of a child at this point in their lives. The reasons may be immaturity, i.e. the high school girl who was careless and found herself pregnant while still a child herself. Financial reasons are a major factor … consider the single-mother who already has 2-3 children and is struggling to keep a roof overhead and food on the table. In some cases the mother’s health may be in danger. The bottom line is that none of us are in that one woman’s shoes or can know what factors are driving her decision, and it is not our place to take the decision out of her hands, forcing her to possibly endure a lifetime of hardship.
One of the things that puzzles and annoys me most about this argument is that the anti-abortionists claim to feel a responsibility to the ‘life’ of a fetus, to give it an ‘opportunity’ to live, but then once a child is born, they wash their hands of it. It is for this reason that you will not see me calling them “pro-lifers” as they call themselves, for they only advocate for a life for nine months, after which … “oh well”. Almost every person who is against abortion is also against their tax dollars going to help support that child, to ensuring it has medical care, a home, and food to eat. They sniff loudly, turn their noses toward the sky and claim that the mother is simply too lazy and deserves no help. It is rather akin to adopting a puppy to keep it from being killed, and then allowing it to die from neglect and malnutrition in your garage! I have known people who did exactly that!
Those who would take away a woman’s right to choose are fond of saying that there is the choice to put the baby up for adoption. Obviously none of these people have gone through the adoption process at any stage in their lives. It is a long, arduous and often painful process, not to mention expensive. Because of the cost, it generally turns out that children are not adopted by those who most want a child, who would be the best parents, but rather by those who have the single qualification of wealth. I do note that there are exceptions. Children placed for adoption often end up in the foster care system that, while the intent is noble, the actual implementation is a nightmare rather than a success story. Look up the statistics of children in the foster care system who are abused or neglected.
Then there is the consideration that the world is already over-populated and it is simply unconscionable to bring into it another child that has an uncertain future. The world’s population is growing by 1.1% per year, or approximately an additional 83 million people annually. From 2017 to 2050, it is expected that half of the world’s population growth will be concentrated in just nine countries: India, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Pakistan, Ethiopia, the United Republic of Tanzania, the United States of America, Uganda and Indonesia (ordered by their expected contribution to total growth).
“Because of the abundance of our nation’s resources, we have long been careless about our level of consumption, but it is the precipitous rise in the U.S. population over the last four decades that has resulted in our outstripping of our national resources. We are living beyond our means and are doing so increasingly as our population expands. This is a serious problem with major implications for future generations.” — Fairus
Still feel good about protecting that potential, as yet un-formed, unborn fetus?
At one point during Trump’s 2016 campaign, he claimed that women should be ‘punished’ for having an abortion. Let me tell you something … women ARE punished for having abortions … they punish themselves every day for the rest of their lives! We do not need the courts and law enforcement to add insult to injury, and we do not need the religious right to shame them.
If your religion teaches you that it is wrong to have an abortion, then fine, don’t have one. But understand that not everybody ascribes to your religion. Understand that ours is a secular government and that our laws are not driven by the Bible, the Quran, the Vedas, the Torah or any other religious text. Jews and Muslims do not eat pork, but they do not try to keep the rest of the nation from eating pork, nor do they lobby the government for laws to make pork illegal! Realize, anti-abortionists, that your beliefs are not the only legitimate beliefs.
Groups on either side of the abortion debate are poised to spend big bucks … tens of millions of dollars … in advertising their position in the upcoming debate over the confirmation of a nominee to fill the Supreme Court vacancy. It is, without a doubt, the most watched issue of the day. It is a sad state of affairs, if you ask me, that the law of the land will be determined for the next several decades based on a single religious group’s stance on a woman’s right to control her own body. It shouldn’t even BE an issue! It is not your right to choose for another. It is not the right of the U.S. Supreme Court to tell me what I must do with my body. We all need to understand that we do not live in a perfect world and that sometimes people make mistakes, but that they should not be forced by a group of nine men and women to have their lives ruined because of a single mistake.
I call on the U.S. Senate to block any Trump nominee for the vacant seat on the Supreme Court. Every woman in this country stands to lose if they do not. Every member of the LGBT community stands to lose. Every Jew, Muslim, Hindi, atheist or agnostic stands to lose. We the People stand to lose.
The National Review, founded by William F. Buckley and in publication since 1955, is a semi-monthly conservative editorial magazine focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. Since its founding, the magazine has played a significant role in the development of conservatism in the United States, helping to define its boundaries, while establishing itself as a leading voice on the American right. Though I disagree with most of its ideas, I have respect for a number of the contributors to the National Review, such as George Will, Jonah Goldberg, and Charles Krauthammer. One contributor for whom I have absolutely no respect is Kevin Williamson.
The Atlantic, formerly The Atlantic Monthly, has a good reputation. While its focus was once on literary and cultural commentary, it has shifted focus towards political commentary and reporting in the 21st century. It has been around since 1857 and, as I mentioned, has a very good reputation for quality reporting and for presenting opposing points of view in a relatively unbiased manner. “We reach thinking people — and make them think harder” is their motto. The Atlantic just hired the aforementioned Kevin Williamson from the National Review.
Who is Kevin Williamson? He is either one of the biggest jerks in the world, or else he is playing at being one of the biggest jerks in the world. Either way. Interestingly, while Williamson is a virulent racist, a bigot, and an uber-conservative, he is an anti-Trumpeter. But let us look at some of the things he has said over the years, for his words speak volumes.
In 2014, Williamson tweeted that “the law should treat abortion like any other homicide” and “women who have had abortions should face capital punishment, namely hanging.”
“The fictitious rape epidemic is necessary to support the fiction of “rape culture,” by which feminists mean anything other than an actual rape culture … ‘Rape culture’ simply means speech or thought that feminists disapprove of and wish to suppress.”
He said that that Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has a “desire to see as many poor children killed” as possible through abortion.
“From an evolutionary point of view, Mitt Romney should get 100 percent of the female vote,” including “Michelle Obama’s vote,” because “the ladies do tend to flock to successful executives and entrepreneurs.”
“As every female police officer knows, there is something maddeningly sexy about a woman enforcing rules, and something sexually repugnant about a woman without any rules at all. Miss Manners is sexy for the same reason that librarians and teachers and nurses can be sexy: she is an authority — it’s fun to play with authority.”
Williamson attacked transgender actress and advocate Laverne Cox, writing that she was “not a woman, but an effigy of a woman,” because transgender identity is a “delusional tendency.”
“The left always needs an emergency because they can’t get this stuff done through normal democratic means.”
Williamson compared Senator and former presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to a Nazi.
Williamson declared that the epidemic of campus sexual assault “is a fiction” and compared efforts to curb the crime to “mass hysteria” during the Salem Witch Trials. “There is no epidemic of rapes on American college campuses. The campus-rape epidemic is a fiction.”
In the words of Slate’s Jordan Weissmann …
“These are not views one would typically associate with The Atlantic, which has a long, unique history in American intellectual life that’s partly bound up with the advancement of civil rights — it was founded by abolitionists, published Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail,’ and helped make Ta-Nehisi Coates a leading American voice on race … He reacted to Black Lives Matter with an O’Reilly-esque rant about ‘race-hustling professionals’ and black-on-black crime that I have a hard time picturing sharing space with a TNC essay.”
In reference to a young black child, he wrote:
“Hey, hey craaaaaacka! Cracka! White devil! F*** you, white devil!” The guy looks remarkably like Snoop Dogg … raising his palms to his clavicles, elbows akimbo, in the universal gesture of primate territorial challenge. Luckily for me, he’s more like a three-fifths-scale Snoop Dogg, a few inches shy of four feet high, probably about nine years old …”
So why would a 161-year-old, well-respected publication hire such a jerk? According to The Atlantic editor, Jeffrey Goldberg …
“The larger question is this: What am I trying to accomplish by having Kevin write for us? The first answer is this: He’s an excellent reporter who covers parts of the country, and aspects of American life, that we don’t yet cover comprehensively. I happen to think that conservatives made ideologically homeless by the rise of Trump are some of the most interesting people in America, and I want to read them whenever I can.
As our staff knows, because I go on about this ad nauseam, I take very seriously the idea that The Atlantic should be a big tent for ideas and argument. It is my mission to make sure that we outdo our industry in achieving gender equality and racial diversity. It is also my job is to make sure that we are ideologically diverse. Diversity in all its forms makes us better journalists; it also opens us up to new audiences. I would love to have an Ideas section filled with libertarians, socialists, anarcho-pacifists and theocons, in addition to mainstream liberals and conservatives, all arguing with each other.”
Diversity, an exchange of opposing views … I am all for those. But Williamson is a first-class jerk, plain and simple … a racist, a bigot and a man with no moral filter for his words. Many have already criticized Goldberg’s decision to hire Williamson, to which he responds:
“I don’t think that taking a person’s worst tweets, or assertions, in isolation is the best journalistic practice. I have read most, or much, of what he has written; some of his critics have not done the same. I would also prefer, all things being equal, to give people second chances and the opportunity to change. I’ve done this before in reference to extreme tweeting (third chances, too, on occasion), and I hope to continue this practice.”
Thing is, Williamson has absolutely no intention of ‘changing’, for in his farewell letter to the staff at the National Review, he commented that …
“… I will be an apostle to the Gentiles. I am very much looking forward to raising a brand new kind of hell.”
I wish The Atlantic luck with this one … personally, I will not be reading his columns.
As you can see, money spent on providing abortions is a mere 3% of their total, AND … NO FEDERAL MONIES are spent on abortion. Now, look at some of the other things they do …
I couldn’t resist sharing the following piece in full as it just hit home for me. A Democratic Georgian female legislator has obviously reached her limit in having to fight off GOP’s attempts to to control the lives of women’s bodies. She has decided to return the favor to her male colleagues who seem to be overly obsessed with women’s private parts as they attempt to draft new more restrictive anti- abortion laws, with her own legislation that she has introduced to restrict men’s testicular activities.
GEORGIA’S STATE HOUSE 
That’s right, folks … none other than the role model of class, style and grace, Michelle Obama!!!
And to really ice the cake, the Most Admired Man in 2018 … none other than the male counterpart role model of class, style and grace, President Barack Obama!!!
Filosofa's Word 