I want to take a moment to rekindle this post by Jessica in light of something I heard today on MSNBC. On a panel by anchor Chris Jansing with a Politico reporter and a OBY-GN advocate for women's health rights Jansing asked the following question to the Oby-Gyn (in paraphrase): "A ten year old is on average about 4'8" tall and 75 pounds, what would pregnancy do to her?" Now I understand the motive of her question, to strike a bit at the appalling nature of the National Right to Life position that the ten year old should have the baby, but I was nauseated and appalled by the question. What are we evening talking about here? What the hell is going on in the media? This is even a fkg question? What does pregnancy do to a 10 year old child. This is some sick shit from the media. Really. Just lurid Taliban-esque grotesqueries from sober "liberal" MSNBC. We indeed CANNOT learn to live with this situation.
My hatred of Republicans started in the early Eighties and has escalated with each month. I see no hope that this nation will survive as long as there is a Republican, i.e., Fascist waiting to go full Nazi party. My sense is that too many Americans don't know the danger in which we live. I wish I knew the mind set of Germans in the Twenties and Thirties. I wish I had examples of what the German people were doing and not doing as Hitler rose to full power. I fear history is being repeated. I wish I had a way to fight what is going on.
From a retired librarian: Read Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. It is a beautifully and thoughtfully written fiction book about a small town in Germany in which the author tries to answer your questions for herself, sympathetically expressing the varying attitudes of Germans leading up to the Holocaust and during WWII. Other fiction worth reading are The Book Thief, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Sometimes fiction can get to the heart of the matter better than a factual report when you want to know how people feel and react,
There is another book that is not for the faint hearted that explains exactly how a well developed propaganda machine can persuade people to believe what they want to believe, can persuade others that their only and safest option is to keep their heads down and their mouths shut, and can persuade others to actively engage as participants. If you think you can bear it, read Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Goldhagen. My husband read it and recounted the contents to me. Here is what Amazon has to say: This groundbreaking international bestseller lays to rest many myths about the Holocaust: that Germans were ignorant of the mass destruction of Jews, that the killers were all SS men, and that those who slaughtered Jews did so reluctantly. Hitler's Willing Executioners provides conclusive evidence that the extermination of European Jewry engaged the energies and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of ordinary Germans. Goldhagen reconstructs the climate of "eliminationist anti-Semitism" that made Hitler's pursuit of his genocidal goals possible and the radical persecution of the Jews during the 1930s popular. Drawing on a wealth of unused archival materials, principally the testimony of the killers themselves, Goldhagen takes us into the killing fields where Germans voluntarily hunted Jews like animals, tortured them wantonly, and then posed cheerfully for snapshots with their victims. From mobile killing units, to the camps, to the death marches, Goldhagen shows how ordinary Germans, nurtured in a society where Jews were seen as unalterable evil and dangerous, willingly followed their beliefs to their logical conclusion.
Yes, there's so much on everyone's plate right now. Which is the good news, and the bad news.
The good news is that this attack on women is not an isolated event. It's happening in conjunction with a wave of other bad things; it's part of a bigger plan. And so I think it's less likely to get ignored or accepted when it's part of a much bigger story that's threatening to many more people.
And that's the bad (worse) news. We're facing a full assault on democracy in this country and it's quite likely that we won't be able to have fair or meaningful elections in 2024. Not sure if we can be pulled back from the abyss before then. And it would be rather uncharted territory. Somehow we're going to have to overturn this order and create an entirely new one, because trying to make progress kindly and gently and gradually has failed, as we're up against an enemy with an entirely different mindset and tactics. Never expected to be at that place in this country in my lifetime, but here we are.
I haven’t written here in a while because I’ve had to take a break. I am fatigued. Don’t worry, I will never give up. But sometimes I need to recharge. Thank you for everything everything everything that you do Jessica.
We need to keep the pressure on Democrats and Biden to get off their collective asses and do something. Many plans have been already proposed but no action has been taken. Do not just send checks. Ask them what they are doing before you provide support.
It may be that no one's sure what they can do, legally, because the opponent has learned to optimally weaponize our constitution against us. We probably need to think outside the box, and look for inspiration.
I will NEVER concede, and yet we have no single point of action upon which we can all agree. You know that cartoon where all the little fish swim together in the shape of a shark? We have not figured out how to be the fucking shark.
We have no leader bcz we're so proud of being "leaderfull" & non-hierarchical. So our rage is channeled into thousands of small-fish charities and marches instead of assembling a shark.
How COULD we? Will Rogers joked in the last century that he wasn't part of an organized political party, he's a Democrat.
Dems aren't churchy people like the ChristoFascists of the GOP, so we are not getting the propaganda and a community holding us accountable two or three times a week in the name of Jesus. (See "Battleground" documentary for how the Jesus girls worked for generations to stop women from having dominion over their own bodily functions.)
All the people who know the rules say we're generations away from building the kind of power we need for the revolution we want.
So...WTF are we going to do NOW? Who's articulating any vision that resonates?
Ok, you got me to subscribe. I have to be able to talk to other people who feel this way. I know LOTS of people are angry and upset, but they are silenced by the people in their lives around them. It IS exhausting to talk about it all the time. I also know people in red states are scared. I'm in Texas and if I were younger, I would also be scared. I'm not scared, though. I need a place where we can openly discuss organization around arranging underground access and fighting through advocacy.
Women and the men who care about them need to understand that living in a blue state will not protect them and that it isn't "just" about abortion or even "just" reproductive healthcare. My daughter was recently very clearly sick, feverish and coughing, and had a pharmacist at a major chain in a blue state demand she show him a negative pregnancy test before he would fill the prescription written by her doctor. He was ready to deny her healthcare based entirely on the fact that she is a young woman.
Blue state - can he be sanctioned? I hope so. Gotta at least try to hold the wall in the blue states, to have a base to work from, I think. Hope your daughter's gotten better.
Yes, she is well, thank you. She made a complaint to the chain and her doctor’s practice. I’m also seeing accounts by women unable to fill prescriptions for their meds for lupus & rheumatoid arthritis
Oddly enough the more that happens it might be encouraging. If they had precision targeted elective abortion the public might acquiesce more readily. Instead they've majorly fucked up all kinds of health care, and that's a story that ought to resonate well beyond just feminists. Idk just hoping that a major backlash is brewing.
I’m torn when it comes to sharing the things I’ve been looking into. I’m thinking of partaking in some underground activities, but reluctant to expose those I may be involved in them with. I wonder how we will create safe underground networks now? Social media isn’t safe, and even ostensibly friendly newsletters could be infiltrated by trolls (or worse). How are we going to be doing this? Anyone thinking about this?
I’m reading through all the options on signal, which I only used a couple times two years ago when I had a friend fearful of a cyber stalker. Now’s the time to brush up on all the security modalities.
Unfortunately, safe is going to be a relative term going forward. I would think to look for the people who demonstrate courage, and then follow and support what they're doing. Perhaps you're even one of them yourself.
Yes Carolita --I too am thinking about this all the time. And I think about how WWII underground was organized without social media. They did this and so can we. We cannot give up. Every thing we do counts. While important to show up at protests, we have a MORAL underground current that we have to strengthen.
I want to take a moment to rekindle this post by Jessica in light of something I heard today on MSNBC. On a panel by anchor Chris Jansing with a Politico reporter and a OBY-GN advocate for women's health rights Jansing asked the following question to the Oby-Gyn (in paraphrase): "A ten year old is on average about 4'8" tall and 75 pounds, what would pregnancy do to her?" Now I understand the motive of her question, to strike a bit at the appalling nature of the National Right to Life position that the ten year old should have the baby, but I was nauseated and appalled by the question. What are we evening talking about here? What the hell is going on in the media? This is even a fkg question? What does pregnancy do to a 10 year old child. This is some sick shit from the media. Really. Just lurid Taliban-esque grotesqueries from sober "liberal" MSNBC. We indeed CANNOT learn to live with this situation.
Perhaps an unforeseen result not anticipated by Republicans is that apparently more men are getting vasectomies.
My hatred of Republicans started in the early Eighties and has escalated with each month. I see no hope that this nation will survive as long as there is a Republican, i.e., Fascist waiting to go full Nazi party. My sense is that too many Americans don't know the danger in which we live. I wish I knew the mind set of Germans in the Twenties and Thirties. I wish I had examples of what the German people were doing and not doing as Hitler rose to full power. I fear history is being repeated. I wish I had a way to fight what is going on.
From a retired librarian: Read Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi. It is a beautifully and thoughtfully written fiction book about a small town in Germany in which the author tries to answer your questions for herself, sympathetically expressing the varying attitudes of Germans leading up to the Holocaust and during WWII. Other fiction worth reading are The Book Thief, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, A Thread of Grace by Mary Doria Russell, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows. Sometimes fiction can get to the heart of the matter better than a factual report when you want to know how people feel and react,
There is another book that is not for the faint hearted that explains exactly how a well developed propaganda machine can persuade people to believe what they want to believe, can persuade others that their only and safest option is to keep their heads down and their mouths shut, and can persuade others to actively engage as participants. If you think you can bear it, read Hitlers Willing Executioners: Ordinary Germans and the Holocaust by Daniel Goldhagen. My husband read it and recounted the contents to me. Here is what Amazon has to say: This groundbreaking international bestseller lays to rest many myths about the Holocaust: that Germans were ignorant of the mass destruction of Jews, that the killers were all SS men, and that those who slaughtered Jews did so reluctantly. Hitler's Willing Executioners provides conclusive evidence that the extermination of European Jewry engaged the energies and enthusiasm of tens of thousands of ordinary Germans. Goldhagen reconstructs the climate of "eliminationist anti-Semitism" that made Hitler's pursuit of his genocidal goals possible and the radical persecution of the Jews during the 1930s popular. Drawing on a wealth of unused archival materials, principally the testimony of the killers themselves, Goldhagen takes us into the killing fields where Germans voluntarily hunted Jews like animals, tortured them wantonly, and then posed cheerfully for snapshots with their victims. From mobile killing units, to the camps, to the death marches, Goldhagen shows how ordinary Germans, nurtured in a society where Jews were seen as unalterable evil and dangerous, willingly followed their beliefs to their logical conclusion.
Thank you. I'll get copies. Thanks again.
You are most welcome.
Yes, there's so much on everyone's plate right now. Which is the good news, and the bad news.
The good news is that this attack on women is not an isolated event. It's happening in conjunction with a wave of other bad things; it's part of a bigger plan. And so I think it's less likely to get ignored or accepted when it's part of a much bigger story that's threatening to many more people.
And that's the bad (worse) news. We're facing a full assault on democracy in this country and it's quite likely that we won't be able to have fair or meaningful elections in 2024. Not sure if we can be pulled back from the abyss before then. And it would be rather uncharted territory. Somehow we're going to have to overturn this order and create an entirely new one, because trying to make progress kindly and gently and gradually has failed, as we're up against an enemy with an entirely different mindset and tactics. Never expected to be at that place in this country in my lifetime, but here we are.
I haven’t written here in a while because I’ve had to take a break. I am fatigued. Don’t worry, I will never give up. But sometimes I need to recharge. Thank you for everything everything everything that you do Jessica.
We need to keep the pressure on Democrats and Biden to get off their collective asses and do something. Many plans have been already proposed but no action has been taken. Do not just send checks. Ask them what they are doing before you provide support.
It may be that no one's sure what they can do, legally, because the opponent has learned to optimally weaponize our constitution against us. We probably need to think outside the box, and look for inspiration.
I will NEVER concede, and yet we have no single point of action upon which we can all agree. You know that cartoon where all the little fish swim together in the shape of a shark? We have not figured out how to be the fucking shark.
We have no leader bcz we're so proud of being "leaderfull" & non-hierarchical. So our rage is channeled into thousands of small-fish charities and marches instead of assembling a shark.
How COULD we? Will Rogers joked in the last century that he wasn't part of an organized political party, he's a Democrat.
Dems aren't churchy people like the ChristoFascists of the GOP, so we are not getting the propaganda and a community holding us accountable two or three times a week in the name of Jesus. (See "Battleground" documentary for how the Jesus girls worked for generations to stop women from having dominion over their own bodily functions.)
All the people who know the rules say we're generations away from building the kind of power we need for the revolution we want.
So...WTF are we going to do NOW? Who's articulating any vision that resonates?
Yes that vision has got to come in the next three months or it gets much much worse.
Ok, you got me to subscribe. I have to be able to talk to other people who feel this way. I know LOTS of people are angry and upset, but they are silenced by the people in their lives around them. It IS exhausting to talk about it all the time. I also know people in red states are scared. I'm in Texas and if I were younger, I would also be scared. I'm not scared, though. I need a place where we can openly discuss organization around arranging underground access and fighting through advocacy.
I am very glad to have you here, and very sorry it is under these circumstances.
I am glad you aren't scared, and I'm right there with you. I think lots of folks are just looking for ways to help, no matter what that looks like...
Women and the men who care about them need to understand that living in a blue state will not protect them and that it isn't "just" about abortion or even "just" reproductive healthcare. My daughter was recently very clearly sick, feverish and coughing, and had a pharmacist at a major chain in a blue state demand she show him a negative pregnancy test before he would fill the prescription written by her doctor. He was ready to deny her healthcare based entirely on the fact that she is a young woman.
Are you fucking serious??
Blue state - can he be sanctioned? I hope so. Gotta at least try to hold the wall in the blue states, to have a base to work from, I think. Hope your daughter's gotten better.
Yes, she is well, thank you. She made a complaint to the chain and her doctor’s practice. I’m also seeing accounts by women unable to fill prescriptions for their meds for lupus & rheumatoid arthritis
Oddly enough the more that happens it might be encouraging. If they had precision targeted elective abortion the public might acquiesce more readily. Instead they've majorly fucked up all kinds of health care, and that's a story that ought to resonate well beyond just feminists. Idk just hoping that a major backlash is brewing.
I’m torn when it comes to sharing the things I’ve been looking into. I’m thinking of partaking in some underground activities, but reluctant to expose those I may be involved in them with. I wonder how we will create safe underground networks now? Social media isn’t safe, and even ostensibly friendly newsletters could be infiltrated by trolls (or worse). How are we going to be doing this? Anyone thinking about this?
Are you on Signal?
I’m reading through all the options on signal, which I only used a couple times two years ago when I had a friend fearful of a cyber stalker. Now’s the time to brush up on all the security modalities.
Yes.
Unfortunately, safe is going to be a relative term going forward. I would think to look for the people who demonstrate courage, and then follow and support what they're doing. Perhaps you're even one of them yourself.
Yes Carolita --I too am thinking about this all the time. And I think about how WWII underground was organized without social media. They did this and so can we. We cannot give up. Every thing we do counts. While important to show up at protests, we have a MORAL underground current that we have to strengthen.