I hope Ashley Caswell wins a huge judgment against Etowah County. Pregnancy is too complicated to legislate, but what sane person would not send a person in labor to the hospital? They are so full of sh*t! It's all about punishing women they disapprove of.
So they arrest a woman for "child endangerment" because she is an addict. From what I've read, she has been an addict for a number of years and has other children. It seems to me that the man who impregnated her also knew that she was an addict and yet he gave her his sperm, KNOWING that she was still an addict and she could become pregnant. So why isn't he also in prison for "child endangerment"? Imagine that you hire a school bus driver, knowing that they were addicted to drugs, and allow that person to drive innocent children to school. Are you culpable if they get high and crash, harming or killing the children?
I can tell you were a good teacher because you always know the right questions to ask. That's something that's so important to learn, and I think that far too many (on both sides, but we know which one is worse) don't do that.
Yeah that would be something, wouldn't it? They'd scream and holler over showing such gruesome "graphic" images, - of reality -, but actually torturing women, they're okay with.
Jessica said: “As Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told Rinkunas, it’s massively dangerous to allow state AGs to decide what’s “harmful,” given how many of them are anti-abortion. “. Am I the only one who thought this sentence was going to end differently? E.g., given how many of them are totally ignorant of female physiology. This is meant to give you a wry chuckle.
Poland's election is on Sunday. It would be a good thing for Poland, for Europe, and for the world, if PiS lost its power and Poland could preserve what's left of its democracy, but I'm not holding my breath.
Yeah what worries me is I think wherever it is, reporting tends to overrepresent liberal, urban, cosmopolitan voters in the mental image of the electorate. And the lesson of the last decade is that the rural and smaller city rubes can cause a lot of trouble. Poland is too important of a country in Europe to continue on this path, but we'll see what happens.
I wonder what other countries think about the USA? I’m starting to travel abroad again and I’m embarrassed I must confess to tell people I’m from Texas.
Hopefully there's empathy because unfortunately there's trouble all over. Not necessarily related to reproductive rights, but dysfunctional institutions and the rise of far right politics and disinformation. We're all in danger together.
I have felt more empathy than judgment, yes. But nobody would call the United States the greatest nation on earth. They don’t trust us. And why should they when the certain nominee of a major political party is a fascist, and our house is shut down to slow the progress of investigations and lawsuits against him. AND VIRTUALLY EVERYONE KNOWS THIS.
Yeah. The problem is that for the past couple of centuries, when worse comes to worst you could always flee your country and seek refuge in the United States. What happens when we're the ones you need to flee from? We still have the world's strongest military and even more importantly we're in charge of the world's currency, the dollar. "Too big to fail", in other words. The damage beyond our borders could be as bad or worse than the damage within.
We are planning to leave, but Zach is right. If 2024 goes the wrong way, nowhere will be safe. This far-right/populist/fascist trend is a pandemic in its own right.
Yes. The catch-22 has been that keeping the fascists out of power because they ARE so dangerous, also hasn't allowed them to unequivocally fail. That would do far more than anything else to reverse their popularity. But they have to take power for that to happen.
I have very little doubt that if the Republicans sweep the 2024 elections, they would become extremely unpopular within a matter of weeks. But then what? Could Americans bring down a government through civil action, the way other countries have sometimes been able to? Because I don't see how we could 'just wait until the next election'. I hate to think that a Republican win is the only thing that will focus the country's efforts, but it may end up being.
I'm 71 and have been retired since 2019. I own a century-old but paid-for house - nothing fancy by anyone's standards, but it's a place to live. My wife passed in 2014. I'm just too old to pick up and start over again, something I've done several times over the course of my life. At this point, as Kenny Rogers put it, the best I can hope for is to die in my sleep. (hopefully before I run out of money)
Yeah I guess history does suggest that's the best option. I spent a week in Canada a decade ago (one of the best weeks of my life) and an overnight there years earlier as a kid, but that's the full extent of my travel beyond U.S. borders so far. So that probably affects my perspective. Still nowhere else looks particularly durably safe right now.
Yeah, and the way we know we're not safe, is they mock us for saying we don't feel safe. When that kind of aggression becomes the norm, it's a bad sign.
Having spent the past 6 months in a Spanish language school, I can tell you Europeans don’t equate our dysfunction with red states versus blue. They don’t understand that the United States is essentially like Europe: a bunch of different cultures trying to get along. We represent ourselves to the world as one nation. And we are a nation that is failing on every front. Internally and externally. Not that the 45 worshippers care. If they can just feel powerful, nothing else matters to them.
As the number of millionaires and billionaires continues to rise right along with the percentage of the population barely making it, the idea that “we’re all in this together” has been taking quite the beating of late.
That is partly because of the grievance issues pushed by the billionaire-owned MSM. It is, as you know, the uber-wealthy against the rest of us, but those fed a steady diet of (two minutes) hate, cannot see past the hate-mongering.
I say this all the time. As Americans, we should really be furious with our corrupt campaign finance system and our bought-and-paid-for politicians. It’s an issue that should unite us, regardless of party.
I think Chris Rock said if the average American knew how rich people live, we’d have another French Revolution. I’ve had peeks into that world, and he’s right. The excess and sense of entitlement, not to mention how they look down on the rest of us as “common,” are staggering and infuriating.
The funny thing is Trump's voters -do- care about that; they've just somehow identified all the rich as 'liberals' and leftists, which is (pun intended) rich.
True. Although even the way that they live, the difference between their wealth and ours is much greater than the difference between their consumption and ours. A billionaire has 1,000 x the wealth of a millionaire, but he (because you know it'll be a he) doesn't consume 1,000 x the goods and services. Rich people have a lot of assets (stored wealth). The reason that's important is that even if you could redistribute the wealth, what matters is the goods and services that people can get, not their bank account balances, and that's a much trickier problem. We definitely need to do something about it but it's a much harder problem than it looks.
We don't. We only care about our own kind. I'm as guilty as anyone since the vast majority of the time I think people who voted Republican are beyond help and I wish they weren't here.
I hope Ashley Caswell wins a huge judgment against Etowah County. Pregnancy is too complicated to legislate, but what sane person would not send a person in labor to the hospital? They are so full of sh*t! It's all about punishing women they disapprove of.
So they arrest a woman for "child endangerment" because she is an addict. From what I've read, she has been an addict for a number of years and has other children. It seems to me that the man who impregnated her also knew that she was an addict and yet he gave her his sperm, KNOWING that she was still an addict and she could become pregnant. So why isn't he also in prison for "child endangerment"? Imagine that you hire a school bus driver, knowing that they were addicted to drugs, and allow that person to drive innocent children to school. Are you culpable if they get high and crash, harming or killing the children?
I can tell you were a good teacher because you always know the right questions to ask. That's something that's so important to learn, and I think that far too many (on both sides, but we know which one is worse) don't do that.
That is one of the nicest compliments I've ever received. Thank you!
With these 15 week bans, I just don’t understand why journalists don’t show images of the anomalies that are the cause of many late abortions.
Yeah that would be something, wouldn't it? They'd scream and holler over showing such gruesome "graphic" images, - of reality -, but actually torturing women, they're okay with.
Well said Zach!!
Jessica said: “As Eva Galperin of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) told Rinkunas, it’s massively dangerous to allow state AGs to decide what’s “harmful,” given how many of them are anti-abortion. “. Am I the only one who thought this sentence was going to end differently? E.g., given how many of them are totally ignorant of female physiology. This is meant to give you a wry chuckle.
Poland's election is on Sunday. It would be a good thing for Poland, for Europe, and for the world, if PiS lost its power and Poland could preserve what's left of its democracy, but I'm not holding my breath.
Agreed. I’m hopeful.
Yeah what worries me is I think wherever it is, reporting tends to overrepresent liberal, urban, cosmopolitan voters in the mental image of the electorate. And the lesson of the last decade is that the rural and smaller city rubes can cause a lot of trouble. Poland is too important of a country in Europe to continue on this path, but we'll see what happens.
I wonder what other countries think about the USA? I’m starting to travel abroad again and I’m embarrassed I must confess to tell people I’m from Texas.
Hopefully there's empathy because unfortunately there's trouble all over. Not necessarily related to reproductive rights, but dysfunctional institutions and the rise of far right politics and disinformation. We're all in danger together.
I have felt more empathy than judgment, yes. But nobody would call the United States the greatest nation on earth. They don’t trust us. And why should they when the certain nominee of a major political party is a fascist, and our house is shut down to slow the progress of investigations and lawsuits against him. AND VIRTUALLY EVERYONE KNOWS THIS.
Yeah. The problem is that for the past couple of centuries, when worse comes to worst you could always flee your country and seek refuge in the United States. What happens when we're the ones you need to flee from? We still have the world's strongest military and even more importantly we're in charge of the world's currency, the dollar. "Too big to fail", in other words. The damage beyond our borders could be as bad or worse than the damage within.
I’d leave if I could. No question about it.
We are planning to leave, but Zach is right. If 2024 goes the wrong way, nowhere will be safe. This far-right/populist/fascist trend is a pandemic in its own right.
Yes. The catch-22 has been that keeping the fascists out of power because they ARE so dangerous, also hasn't allowed them to unequivocally fail. That would do far more than anything else to reverse their popularity. But they have to take power for that to happen.
I have very little doubt that if the Republicans sweep the 2024 elections, they would become extremely unpopular within a matter of weeks. But then what? Could Americans bring down a government through civil action, the way other countries have sometimes been able to? Because I don't see how we could 'just wait until the next election'. I hate to think that a Republican win is the only thing that will focus the country's efforts, but it may end up being.
I'm 71 and have been retired since 2019. I own a century-old but paid-for house - nothing fancy by anyone's standards, but it's a place to live. My wife passed in 2014. I'm just too old to pick up and start over again, something I've done several times over the course of my life. At this point, as Kenny Rogers put it, the best I can hope for is to die in my sleep. (hopefully before I run out of money)
Yeah I guess history does suggest that's the best option. I spent a week in Canada a decade ago (one of the best weeks of my life) and an overnight there years earlier as a kid, but that's the full extent of my travel beyond U.S. borders so far. So that probably affects my perspective. Still nowhere else looks particularly durably safe right now.
Agreed Zach. It’s frightening. I don’t feel safe...
Yeah, and the way we know we're not safe, is they mock us for saying we don't feel safe. When that kind of aggression becomes the norm, it's a bad sign.
Having spent the past 6 months in a Spanish language school, I can tell you Europeans don’t equate our dysfunction with red states versus blue. They don’t understand that the United States is essentially like Europe: a bunch of different cultures trying to get along. We represent ourselves to the world as one nation. And we are a nation that is failing on every front. Internally and externally. Not that the 45 worshippers care. If they can just feel powerful, nothing else matters to them.
I agree. As a nation we do not demonstrate we collectively care about each other. Extreme individualism.
As the number of millionaires and billionaires continues to rise right along with the percentage of the population barely making it, the idea that “we’re all in this together” has been taking quite the beating of late.
That is partly because of the grievance issues pushed by the billionaire-owned MSM. It is, as you know, the uber-wealthy against the rest of us, but those fed a steady diet of (two minutes) hate, cannot see past the hate-mongering.
I say this all the time. As Americans, we should really be furious with our corrupt campaign finance system and our bought-and-paid-for politicians. It’s an issue that should unite us, regardless of party.
I think Chris Rock said if the average American knew how rich people live, we’d have another French Revolution. I’ve had peeks into that world, and he’s right. The excess and sense of entitlement, not to mention how they look down on the rest of us as “common,” are staggering and infuriating.
The funny thing is Trump's voters -do- care about that; they've just somehow identified all the rich as 'liberals' and leftists, which is (pun intended) rich.
True. Although even the way that they live, the difference between their wealth and ours is much greater than the difference between their consumption and ours. A billionaire has 1,000 x the wealth of a millionaire, but he (because you know it'll be a he) doesn't consume 1,000 x the goods and services. Rich people have a lot of assets (stored wealth). The reason that's important is that even if you could redistribute the wealth, what matters is the goods and services that people can get, not their bank account balances, and that's a much trickier problem. We definitely need to do something about it but it's a much harder problem than it looks.
We don't. We only care about our own kind. I'm as guilty as anyone since the vast majority of the time I think people who voted Republican are beyond help and I wish they weren't here.