Thanks as always for a superlative assessment of what’s going on around the country and for seeing the underlying meta issues in all of this.
One thing that I am seeing when I read on the ground reports is how many women are UNAWARE OF THE LAWS GOVERNING THEIR ACCESS. Those of us who avidly consume the news. I wonder what would be involved to put together a marketing campaign to inform non news consumers? What about circumventing the usual social media by enlisting influential singers, entertainers, clergy, etc? Might someone contact super female funders? I know there’s precious few weeks but there’s so many rural and inner city kids who are stunned when they discover that the abortion they thought they could get is prohibited
Yes I know this is half-assed given the constraints of time and funding. But it’s so painful to read about how many women go to these birth centers that lie and disassemble about what they do.
That Rick Scott quote is especially maddening considering what they are actually talking about with the post-birth nonsense is palliative care for infants, isn't it? It makes me want to scream.
And I really appreciated this Ms. magazine piece from Lynn Paltrow, founder of Pregnancy Justice, who warns against relying on language like ‘decisions’ when talking about reproductive healthcare because it “unintentionally reinforces the profoundly misleading idea that pregnancy is something human beings can completely control through deliberate and informed decision-making.”
What is going on? Why would somebody pose the variables exposed in any decision, any decision at all, as somehow undermining the whole idea of making decisions as a necessary force in anyone's life? Just because you cannot control absolutely every possibility in the decisions you make in controlling fertility or terminating pregnancy does not mean that decisions themselves are not at issue.
A lot of the social engineering existing around sexuality and sexual reproduction evolve around the decisions that people make. Pressure is applied person to person, advancing bad and misleading information, making it impossible for people to make good decisions. This starts in childhood, but it doesn't end there.
Anti-abortionists advance their cause by making good, life affirming decisions to get an abortion illegal. They also do it by filling people's minds with nonsense about sex, sexual reproduction and what pregnancies really mean, making it impossible to make life affirming decisions to get an abortion. For every woman traumatized by a pregnancy gone bad, threatening her life, there are many more forced to bear children they never wanted, ruining their lives, the lives they bring into the world and the societies where they are forced to do this.
If we thought trump was evil, Vance is more evil and he is young. We can't let this fucker take over ever -- if trump wins, you better believe that the techbro immigrant billionaires and P2025 people will push him aside and install this puppet.
{added: when people with more followers are tweeting the same thing:
Students should make sure registering to vote in another state wouldn't impact the terms of their tuition, loans, or financial aid. (I know it would impact my son who goes to school in AZ)
Yes! My kids went to school in DC & Ann Arbor, MI when we lived in NC & they voted absentee so they could vote for Obama in NC & against the appalling Virginia Foxx. (Who, unfortunately, is still in the House) Students should register where their vote will do the most good.
How about a national campaign to send letters to the editor of local papers? We’d need draft language for each state. And the letter content could change each month as needed. I’m not the one to take this on, but Jessica would surely have ideas for that!
I’m a nurse practitioner and I am horrified that nurses are being targeted and falling for it. Even if we don’t have abortion in our curriculum, it still goes against everything we learn and stand for to turn someone in for self managing an abortion of miscarrying: I have also seen it with the anti vax movement and it boggles my mind. I met a nurse last year who said that she distrusted the Covid vaccine because she knew a relatively young woman who had a heart attack and died and she associate me it with the vaccine but what I suspect was the case instead was that the woman likely died of a complication of Covid itself (or a completely unrelated thing).
Yes, the younger gens don't buy into the holy altar of consumerism, so the press slams them. They actually just have different priorities and that is not a bad thing.
It's harder for young people to vote, because they move more often. Republicans know this and they know young people despise them, so they try to make it harder to register to vote. Along with other suppression techniques.
To the point about nurses, we're decades behind in this fight, and I don't know how quickly we can catch up. I used to think more deaths with names attached would help, but anymore I'm not so sure. What a rotten and wicked country we inhabit.
Nursing is one of the few Fundamentalist approved careers, so you get quite a few uber-religious ones in the OR and ER. I was constantly running afoul of them with my ribald sense of humor.
The problem in this election is that everyone seems determined to pretend there is a choice between two options when there is not, so there's an insistence that Republicans are not quite beyond the pale when they clearly are. What we're voting on is whether we're going to keep having elections, and freedoms, human rights - that kind of stuff - or whether we're just going to say, nah, fuck it. Most people don't want to admit that. Maybe because it's scary? Or maybe because it would mean acknowledging that 45% of our fellow voting Americans DO want a fascist dictatorship? Whatever the reasons, that's what's behind all of the excusing of Trump and the Republicans. And if it happens, that denial will be why.
ProPublica has an article about how Missouri offers a tax write off for donations to fake crisis pregnancy outfits. Some of the money is funding protestors outside abortion clinics in other states. It's a lot of money. (There's also a scheme in some states targeted at defunding public schools using similar tax deductions.)
"On its website, Coalition Life has called itself 'America’s largest professional sidewalk counseling organization.' The group’s revenue has surged in recent years, thanks in part to a lucrative Missouri tax credit for pregnancy resource centers, of which it is one. Following a massive expansion of the tax credit program by the state legislature in 2019, donors to Coalition Life and similar nonprofits can receive tax credits worth 70% of their donation amount, significantly boosting the groups’ fundraising efforts across Missouri."
"The tax credit has led to a growing financial cost to Missouri taxpayers, with over $11.2 million in tax credits authorized in the past year alone. Before the change, the tax credit had been capped at $3.5 million a year. When combined with the $8.6 million the state directly allocates to pregnancy centers, Missouri has become a leader in per capita investment in anti-abortion centers."
Have you seen that horrific article in the The Atlantic about how Trump has done more for abortion rights than any one else? I won’t link to that drivel here.
You stated in your newsletter that a survey in Missouri "finds that 52% of likely voters support protecting abortion rights in the state constitution". That makes me happy, but an article about this in the local paper also stated that many of the republicans in the legislature that got us in this mess are leading in their polls. Joshua Hawley is also leading in his polls according to those same articles. Several times Missouri voters have voted for such measures as abortion rights but put in the legislature people that will chip away at those rights until they are basically gone or worthless (i. e. gerrymandering, puppy mills).
Senator Rick Scott (aka "Bat Boy") has a female opponent in 2024: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. If you can, send her some $! Every bit helps. Also, Florida? Every chance you get, vote out those assholes who are dumbing down your education system and denying climate change is real and are failing to report the true stats on COVID infections, long-haul COVID cases, and deaths. Vote out the corrupt turds like Scott who want to remove females' ability to make their own medical choices and decisions. Florida turned "red" politically but it doesn't have to stay that way. Vote as if your lives and those of your friends and neighbors depend upon it, because this time they DO.
Thanks as always for a superlative assessment of what’s going on around the country and for seeing the underlying meta issues in all of this.
One thing that I am seeing when I read on the ground reports is how many women are UNAWARE OF THE LAWS GOVERNING THEIR ACCESS. Those of us who avidly consume the news. I wonder what would be involved to put together a marketing campaign to inform non news consumers? What about circumventing the usual social media by enlisting influential singers, entertainers, clergy, etc? Might someone contact super female funders? I know there’s precious few weeks but there’s so many rural and inner city kids who are stunned when they discover that the abortion they thought they could get is prohibited
Yes I know this is half-assed given the constraints of time and funding. But it’s so painful to read about how many women go to these birth centers that lie and disassemble about what they do.
That Rick Scott quote is especially maddening considering what they are actually talking about with the post-birth nonsense is palliative care for infants, isn't it? It makes me want to scream.
Quote from above:
And I really appreciated this Ms. magazine piece from Lynn Paltrow, founder of Pregnancy Justice, who warns against relying on language like ‘decisions’ when talking about reproductive healthcare because it “unintentionally reinforces the profoundly misleading idea that pregnancy is something human beings can completely control through deliberate and informed decision-making.”
End quote.
The article again, is here:
https://msmagazine.com/2024/08/26/democrats-abortion-health-miscarriage-fertility-ivf-rape-sexual-assault/
What is going on? Why would somebody pose the variables exposed in any decision, any decision at all, as somehow undermining the whole idea of making decisions as a necessary force in anyone's life? Just because you cannot control absolutely every possibility in the decisions you make in controlling fertility or terminating pregnancy does not mean that decisions themselves are not at issue.
A lot of the social engineering existing around sexuality and sexual reproduction evolve around the decisions that people make. Pressure is applied person to person, advancing bad and misleading information, making it impossible for people to make good decisions. This starts in childhood, but it doesn't end there.
Anti-abortionists advance their cause by making good, life affirming decisions to get an abortion illegal. They also do it by filling people's minds with nonsense about sex, sexual reproduction and what pregnancies really mean, making it impossible to make life affirming decisions to get an abortion. For every woman traumatized by a pregnancy gone bad, threatening her life, there are many more forced to bear children they never wanted, ruining their lives, the lives they bring into the world and the societies where they are forced to do this.
If we thought trump was evil, Vance is more evil and he is young. We can't let this fucker take over ever -- if trump wins, you better believe that the techbro immigrant billionaires and P2025 people will push him aside and install this puppet.
{added: when people with more followers are tweeting the same thing:
https://x.com/Angry_Staffer/status/1829538575052046575 }
A tip for young people I saw somewhere was to register in the state you go to school if the school is in a swing state.
Students should make sure registering to vote in another state wouldn't impact the terms of their tuition, loans, or financial aid. (I know it would impact my son who goes to school in AZ)
Yes. And similarly stay registered in your home state if it's a swing state. I always stayed registered in Ohio despite going to school in Michigan.
Yes! My kids went to school in DC & Ann Arbor, MI when we lived in NC & they voted absentee so they could vote for Obama in NC & against the appalling Virginia Foxx. (Who, unfortunately, is still in the House) Students should register where their vote will do the most good.
I’m assuming one of your kids when UM? That’s where I went :)
good point.
How about a national campaign to send letters to the editor of local papers? We’d need draft language for each state. And the letter content could change each month as needed. I’m not the one to take this on, but Jessica would surely have ideas for that!
I’m a nurse practitioner and I am horrified that nurses are being targeted and falling for it. Even if we don’t have abortion in our curriculum, it still goes against everything we learn and stand for to turn someone in for self managing an abortion of miscarrying: I have also seen it with the anti vax movement and it boggles my mind. I met a nurse last year who said that she distrusted the Covid vaccine because she knew a relatively young woman who had a heart attack and died and she associate me it with the vaccine but what I suspect was the case instead was that the woman likely died of a complication of Covid itself (or a completely unrelated thing).
Nurses don’t need to report anything except where required by law.
This isn’t about a communicable disease, a dog bite, or gunshot wound.
The last I knew “unexplained vaginal bleeding” was not reportable.
Sanctimonious jerks.
Yes, the younger gens don't buy into the holy altar of consumerism, so the press slams them. They actually just have different priorities and that is not a bad thing.
It's harder for young people to vote, because they move more often. Republicans know this and they know young people despise them, so they try to make it harder to register to vote. Along with other suppression techniques.
To the point about nurses, we're decades behind in this fight, and I don't know how quickly we can catch up. I used to think more deaths with names attached would help, but anymore I'm not so sure. What a rotten and wicked country we inhabit.
Nursing is one of the few Fundamentalist approved careers, so you get quite a few uber-religious ones in the OR and ER. I was constantly running afoul of them with my ribald sense of humor.
I suppose. They can't all just rely on their Good Christian Husband's income 🙄 (and yeah that's why they want to maga).
The problem in this election is that everyone seems determined to pretend there is a choice between two options when there is not, so there's an insistence that Republicans are not quite beyond the pale when they clearly are. What we're voting on is whether we're going to keep having elections, and freedoms, human rights - that kind of stuff - or whether we're just going to say, nah, fuck it. Most people don't want to admit that. Maybe because it's scary? Or maybe because it would mean acknowledging that 45% of our fellow voting Americans DO want a fascist dictatorship? Whatever the reasons, that's what's behind all of the excusing of Trump and the Republicans. And if it happens, that denial will be why.
I think it is closer to 36 %, or maybe it is now as low as 33% but it was never 45% they were voting agent orange out of greed. Not desire for facism.
Pretty sure they're getting at least 45% this time so idk what that says about this country, but it's nothing good 🤷
ProPublica has an article about how Missouri offers a tax write off for donations to fake crisis pregnancy outfits. Some of the money is funding protestors outside abortion clinics in other states. It's a lot of money. (There's also a scheme in some states targeted at defunding public schools using similar tax deductions.)
"On its website, Coalition Life has called itself 'America’s largest professional sidewalk counseling organization.' The group’s revenue has surged in recent years, thanks in part to a lucrative Missouri tax credit for pregnancy resource centers, of which it is one. Following a massive expansion of the tax credit program by the state legislature in 2019, donors to Coalition Life and similar nonprofits can receive tax credits worth 70% of their donation amount, significantly boosting the groups’ fundraising efforts across Missouri."
"The tax credit has led to a growing financial cost to Missouri taxpayers, with over $11.2 million in tax credits authorized in the past year alone. Before the change, the tax credit had been capped at $3.5 million a year. When combined with the $8.6 million the state directly allocates to pregnancy centers, Missouri has become a leader in per capita investment in anti-abortion centers."
https://www.propublica.org/article/missouri-anti-abortion-tax-credits-pregnancy-crisis-centers-coalition-life
Have you seen that horrific article in the The Atlantic about how Trump has done more for abortion rights than any one else? I won’t link to that drivel here.
You stated in your newsletter that a survey in Missouri "finds that 52% of likely voters support protecting abortion rights in the state constitution". That makes me happy, but an article about this in the local paper also stated that many of the republicans in the legislature that got us in this mess are leading in their polls. Joshua Hawley is also leading in his polls according to those same articles. Several times Missouri voters have voted for such measures as abortion rights but put in the legislature people that will chip away at those rights until they are basically gone or worthless (i. e. gerrymandering, puppy mills).
Yes, Florida has the same problem, stupidity of cause and effect.
Senator Rick Scott (aka "Bat Boy") has a female opponent in 2024: Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. If you can, send her some $! Every bit helps. Also, Florida? Every chance you get, vote out those assholes who are dumbing down your education system and denying climate change is real and are failing to report the true stats on COVID infections, long-haul COVID cases, and deaths. Vote out the corrupt turds like Scott who want to remove females' ability to make their own medical choices and decisions. Florida turned "red" politically but it doesn't have to stay that way. Vote as if your lives and those of your friends and neighbors depend upon it, because this time they DO.
I have always found a measure of comfort from these lines from Ella's Song:
To me young people come first
They have the courage where we fail
And if I can but shed some light as they carry us through the gale
The older I get the better I know that the secret of my going on
Is when the reins are in the hands of the young, who dare to run against the storm