Total Chaos: What A Palestinian American Doctor Saw In Gaza
Thaer Ahmad then walks through his assessment of the already shaky state of the healthcare system in pre-October 7th Gaza, as well as his relationship to the healthcare system, as a first-generation Palestinian-American doctor, before tackling the extensive effort it took to get into Gaza as a healthcare worker. Next, Dr. Ahmad explores the extreme changes in quality of life in Southern Gaza from his previous experiences providing healthcare, parsing through the impact of mass displacement into Rafah alongside the dwindling number of functioning hospitals in the region creating a system of severely overworked, underfunded, and under-resourced healthcare workers.
Dr. Ahmad explores the extreme changes in quality of life in Southern Gaza from his previous experiences providing healthcare, parsing through the impact of mass displacement into Rafah alongside the dwindling number of functioning hospitals in the region creating a system of severely overworked, underfunded, and under-resourced healthcare workers. After looking at the impact of the mass starvation and water scarcity on health, Thaer explores the constant siege on hospitals, even in the south of Gaza, and the clear goal of extending the ethnic cleansing until Gaza is gone, also expanding on the massive impact of the violent occupation on children in Gaza.
The Alabama Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that an embryo created through in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is a “minor child” and is no different under the law from an unborn child in the womb.
I don’t understand this ruling at all. How even religious extremists could find a frozen embryo or any embryo a “minor child” defies all medical knowledge of biology. Of what cells are, of what happens in the reproductive track through the stages of fetal development. Hell I don’t even know it all to be honest and I read up on it. But medically at the point where it is not even implanted in a host it is not even a potential child. And that is all a pregnancy is until viability, a potential possible future maybe child that the body could expel at any time. There is no mystery that medically this makes no sense. So the real question is in 2024 is the US going to be governed by dark age superstitions or real medical science? But as always religious extremists can never be happy to win the right to force their views on some people, they must drive on until they have the right to force their religious superstitions on everyone. Yet they claim being forced to use a trans person’s preferred pronouns are an infringement of their civil rights, but the right to control female bodies and other people’s reproduction / sexual choices is normal and their right. Hell these people won’t take a vaccine to save hundreds of thousands of people from dying, they won’t wear a mask because it violates their civil rights. But telling people who they can have sex with, how they may dress, and what kind of sex they are allowed, and of course preventing life-saving medical procedures for pregnant people are somehow fine for them to do? I don’t have the stomach to repost the rant of the religious bigot group as they now try to use the Alabama ruling to force the state of Florida to disallow the abortion ballot measure. Please go to the link above and below to read them. Hugs. Scottie
The Alabama Supreme Court on Friday reversed Mobile County Circuit Court Judge Jill Parrish Phillips’ decision to dismiss a lawsuit in which a couple sued an Alabama fertility clinic and hospital for the “wrongful death” of their frozen embryos in a ruling that was riddled with theology. The ruling pointed to the Alabama Constitution Section 36.06, which argues that each person was made in God’s image, meaning each life has an incalculable value that “cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
The Supreme Court of Alabama just ruled that life begins at conception and that every human—including the preborn baby—is made in the image of God.
The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen, unimplanted embryos qualify as human children under state law.
IVF has long been in the crosshairs of the anti-abortion movement, and this unprecedented decision immediately imperils all IVF access throughout Alabama. https://t.co/w0F6ttm6FY
The Republican-appointed Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen, unimplanted embryos qualify as “children,” threatening access to IVF across the state.
I want to thank Rawgod for this post. See, it is hard for me to hold the information in my head of all of Biden’s hard fought achievements and the ones he is still fighting to accomplish. But Rawgod put it in an easy to read and understand format. See that is what the republicans are trying desperately to obscure. They need and want to keep the public from seeing all the good Biden has done because their candidate screwed everything up only helping out the wealthy with a huge tax cut that benefited … him with large cutouts for real estate developers. WTF! Nothing Biden has managed to do profits him personally, but tRump did. Hugs. Scottie
When you think of disinfecting a space, what comes to mind? Wipes? Gels? Sprays? Maybe air purifiers or effective HVAC systems? All of these are great defenses against viruses and bacteria, but one thing has been missing from the toolkit despite our knowing about it for over a century: light.
Ultraviolet light is an incredibly powerful disinfectant. Study after study has proven that it can obliterate viruses and bacteria, and yet it’s not often thought about as a defense against germs. In fact, when most people think of UV, they think of the harmful rays from the sun that cause cancer — not the PR you want when advertising, obviously. Luckily, a few years after the pandemic lockdowns, researchers have found a type of UV that isn’t strong enough to penetrate human skin but still effectively stops the germs. Could it be our next defense? Check out the video above to learn more.
Erin Reed, author of the Erin In The Morning newsletter on SubStack, discusses the state of anti-trans legislation moving its way around the country in 2024.
Erin Reed then joins, diving right into the busy 2024 in state-level anti-trans legislation in the US, first parsing through the media’s insistence on emphasizing bigoted and misinformed perspectives – as seen in the New York Times’s recent piece by Pamela Paul – and how the arguments seen in those texts are perfectly reflected in the statehouse hearings in red states.
I like how he shows the lies and misinformation tweets that the right uses as an excuse to pass these laws. He shows how she mentions trans women don’t belong on women’s teams because a clearly bigger and stronger trans woman picks up an opposing player and body slams her. But here is the thing. There was no trans woman. The person in question was born female. Not male, born female. Assigned female at birth. Hey some people are bigger than others. That is because sexual mix in the body shows that it is rare to be completely male / completely female. Sex is a spectrum no matter what your reproductive organs are. He also points out that only 23 people under the age of 18 had breast surgery and it is not known if they were because of medical issues or pain. Many girls have breast augmentation or reduction before 18. Plus a lot of girls have cancer of the breast or other such issue requiring removal. And remember in Canada like in the US a minor requires a parent or guardian to approve of medical treatments. He also points out the newest study find 94% of trans people happier after transitioning. Also I love his calm collected delivery. Lance of the serfs points out knee surgery regrets are as 30%, yet no one is protesting outside those doctors offices. Hugs. Scottie
Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre has come to the defence of Alberta’s Premier and United Conservative Party leader Danielle Smith following her announcement of new transgender restrictions for the province.
Please notice the legislators use their religious beliefs to force their religion on all people in the state. My god doesn’t make mistakes so you have to put your body at risk having your rapists baby even if you are a little child yourself, and you have a different faith than mine. My god, my god, my god, they scream as they stamp their feet. Worship my god the way I do they yell at people.Women are nothing but vessels for a man’s use, pleasure, and birthing his off spring. She should be happy to be property. I know it is so because I believe it is what a mythical being told me that I follow. They don’t get that not everyone goes to their church and wants to live by their idea of god’s laws / church doctrine. I can not decide if it is pure ego that thinks they have a right to force their religious views on everyone, if it is ego that makes them ignore all science in favor of belief, or if it is a desperate need to please their god and show it that they are worthy of him. Like a child desperate to please an abusive parent. Hugs. Scottie
Missouri was the first state in the nation to ban abortion and seemingly remains determined to be as cruel as possible.
Missouri state Sen. Rick Brattin said forced pregnancy and birth could be “the greatest healing agent” for rape victims in his arguments against adding a rape exception to the state’s abortion ban.
Photo: Rick Brattin/Facebook
In 2022, Missouri was the first state to ban abortion when Roe v. Wade was overturned, and anti-abortion lawmakers in the state are continuing their streak of cruelty. On Wednesday, across party lines, Republicans rejected an amendment that would have added rape and incest exceptions to the state’s total ban. Democratic state Sen. Tracy McCreery proposed the amendment by pleading with her colleagues to “show an ounce of compassion” for victims. As it currently exists, McCreery said the ban tells victims, “We’re going to force you to give birth, even if that pregnancy resulted from forcible rape by a family member, a date, an ex-husband or a stranger.”
As if voting to reject McCreery’s amendment weren’t insulting enough to victims, state Sen. Rick Brattin (R) explained his vote by arguing that being forced to carry their rapist’s baby could be “healing” for victims. “If you want to go after the rapist, let’s give him the death penalty. Absolutely, let’s do it,” Brattin said. “But not the innocent person caught in-between that, by God’s grace, may even be the greatest healing agent you need in which to recover from such an atrocity.” Seemingly trying to make his comments as horrific as possible, Brattin also managed to compare abortion to slavery.
Another Republican, state Sen. Sandy Crawford, argued against rape exceptions because “God doesn’t make mistakes”: “Even in some of these very horrific cases, there was a reason that God allowed there to be a child out of this situation,” Crawford elaborated. Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Bill Eigel—who’s running for governor—inexplicably claimed McCreery’s proposed amendment would “bring back the institution of abortion so that kids can get abortions in the state of Missouri,” stating, “A one-year-old could get an abortion under this.” To this, a Democratic senator returned, “I don’t know that a one-year-old could get pregnant, Senator.” I really don’t know what to say to any of this, except that Republican lawmakers clearly have no good arguments in support of their heinous laws and the violence they’re inflicting on survivors and pregnant people—and that becomes clearer every day when they start inexplicably invoking pregnant one-year-olds.
Missouri legislators’ rejection of a rape exception comes after, last month, new research estimates that in states that have banned abortion since the Supreme Court overturned Roe in June 2022, there have been an estimated 64,565 rape-induced pregnancies. Of these 64,565 pregnancies, 91% were in states with bans that lacked rape exceptions.
Missouri Republicans’ arguments against a rape exception are the latest contribution to anti-abortion politicians’ hall-of-shame hits on the topic of rape and abortion. Over a decade ago, failed Missouri U.S. Senate candidate Todd Akin gave us “legitimate rape” (his claim that there’s no need for rape exceptions because “legitimate rape” won’t result in pregnancy). And ever since—certainly, after the Supreme Court overturned Roe—it feels like every other month there’s a new outlandish, wildly offensive comment from anti-abortion officials about abortion and rape. Shortly after Roe fell, a Utah Republican said she “[trusts] women enough to control when they allow a man to ejaculate inside of them and to control that intake of semen,” therefore negating the need for abortion for rape victims.
Also in 2022, a Michigan Republican candidate said he told his daughters “If rape is inevitable, you should just lie back and enjoy it.” A Republican state lawmaker in Ohio called pregnancy from rape “an opportunity.” Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) acknowledged the abortion ban in his state could force child rape survivors to carry their rapist’s babies, but shrugged off the idea of personally doing anything about it: “I would prefer a different outcome than that, but that’s not the debate today in Arkansas. It might be in the future, but for now, the law triggered with only one exception … in the case of the life of the mother,” he said in June 2022. In other cases, Republican lawmakers have refused to even address rape victims speaking out against their laws altogether.
McCreery introduced the proposed rape exception as an amendment to a Republican-sponsored bill that would continue Missouri’s ban on taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. Democratic lawmakers in other states have also run into problems trying to add exceptions—including rape exceptions—to their state abortion bans, and rape victims and advocates have argued that the processes to access rape exceptions are too cumbersome for victims. “It may not be today or tomorrow, but down the line, this could happen to someone you love,” Hadley Duvall, a rape survivor who’s helping to lead an effort to add a rape exception to Kentucky’s ban, told Jezebel in January about the prevalence of sexual violence. “And if you can look them in the eye and tell them ‘You don’t deserve this medical procedure, even though your innocence was taken from you, your health is in danger’—I don’t know how they live with themselves.”
Per Jezebel, Brattin went on to compare abortion to slavery. Brattin first appeared here in 2017 when he declared that there’s a “distinction” between human beings and LGBTQ people. That earned him a scathing rebuke from the editorial board of the Kansas City Star. In December 2023, Brattin appeared here when he authored or co-sponsored nearly two dozen anti-LGBTQ bills. One of his bills would make it a felony to perform drag in the view of children, another would institute a K-6 “Don’t Say Gay” law.
In 2014, Brattin introduced a bill that would require women seeking abortion to get written permission from the father of the fetus. In 2022, Brattin ran for the US House, finishing second in the GOP primary.
My aunt had a former student who was a result of a rape. He is now in prison as a result of several acts of violence against different people due to anger issues. Anger issues brought on in large part by his mother who made no secret of the fact he wasn’t wanted and how much she resented him. This fucker has no clue what he is talking about. P.S. Even in ones with “happy endings” the woman in each story made clear it was HER choice and no one else should get to make that for them.
This is the result and fear of the minority when they try to rule over the majority. Think of it. The majority of the voting public, the people, want this right. So republicans being a minority based on misogynistic religious ideals want to deny the majority the right to have a say. That is the republican right wing maga in its entirety. That is the mom’s of liberty, the mom’s of TikTok, it is the idea that a racist bigoted repressive regressive oppressive religious minority trying desperately to force their ideas on the rest of society. I am so sick of these anti-democracy theocratic republican minority trying to force the rest of the country to live by what their preacher says. Hugs. Scottie
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