“I don’t want a baby” is as good of a reason to have an abortion as “I am a rape survivor.” Similarly, “I have no desire to procreate” is as good of a reason to take birth control as “I have endometriosis.” It’s an ob/gyn office not a church.
Conservative SCOTUS’ can’t connect all their beliefs because they are all bullshit religious opinions. Right to privacy? Not this time. Freedom from religion? Not this time.
Christofascism is here. ACB proves it
The misogyny of patriarchy.
Trump was against masks because it would mess with his orange make-up.
The right wing has nothing new to offer so they keep trying to scare their viewers, the cult base, with misleading cartoons. It has been pointed out that tRump added nearly 8 trillion to the debt with not a complaint from the right nor care of base. The plans of the Biden administration have been vetted to add to the income of the treasury and the increase the economy unlike tax breaks for the wealthy. When the GOP is running the show, not one Conservative cartoonists brings up “debt, big government (Trump did make the Government bigger during is term), or any “noise” about reckless spending”. And yet this Congress hasn’t come any where near the debt levels created by the GOP sponsored 2017 tax cuts that benefited no one but the wealthy. Now change ‘big government’ to ‘big military’ and see if it flies better. Hugs
Lisa must not have had anything worthwhile to draw to day, so she filled it with this. VPs tend to not do much unless you think of Dick Cheney and his highly profitable manipulation of Shrub. She is perceived as a real threat, that’s while all the attacks. They amount to a good recommendation. The media is already trying to stir up a nomination fight between her and Buttigieg for the ratings they hope to get. It is all about the click, the money, for corporate media. Hugs
Wow the projection is stunning. It has become a game for the right now to just blame everything their side / tRump did on Biden. It is a complete denial of reality. It is kid stuff with the rubber glue chant. Fingers in ears I don’t want to believe you shit. It gets tiring to respond. But I keep trying. Hugs
Here is the comment I left on the cartoon site. Every time I do this I get some clown tRump cult member with limited vocabulary and lack mental agility attacking me with the most tiresome fake right wing media talking points, at least the ones they can remember. Hugs
The unity problem is more the result of unrelenting nonsense attacks by right wing media, often simply made up stuff they know their base will not check. Law and order is actually better as the tRump admin used unidentified illegal squads to kidnap people off the streets who were using their constitutional right to protest. These people were taken to hidden locations, illegally questioned, detained, their items searched with out permission, never charged with a crime and then released often with out their phones or other property. Reporters protected by law and the 1st amendment were attacked and their equipment destroyed all to please the wannabe strongman dictator, tRump. The US has far more world respect now with Biden president than when tRump (also known as TFG, the former guy) was in office. TFG destroyed long running friendships with democracies and tried to start friendships with only authoritarian governments. The world reacted badly to that. The laws and people enforcing the borders have not changed despite Biden and the people want them too. The US is still violating the rights of those seeking refuge status as they did before. We still have freedom and some of us are still sane. Talk about nonsense phrases meaning nothing and everything. And before someone shouts Covid as a loss of freedom fact is the SCOTUS found a century ago the government had a right to enforce health laws / requirements. And lastly fuel prices. Fuel prices started coming down right after TFG approved selling the Saudi’s weaponry that every other US president refused, for good reason. But the Saudi’s put lots of money in both tRump’s and his son-in-law’s pockets so who cares about indiscriminate killing, right. Then came the pandemic with Covid ended a lot of need for fuel, travel mostly stopped, office buildings were empty, prices of fuel fell from lack of demand and over supply. Now that demand is rising and the OPEC nations throttling the supply to make up the profits they lost prices of fuel were rising. That is no more. For the last three weeks fuel prices, the cost per barrel of oil has fallen. If you are not seeing it at the pump it is because of price gouging and profit taking. Facts matter. These are the facts. Scottie
Not even close but nice to see the right wing trying hard to demonize those they disagree with. In case you don’t know the story Toobin He exposed himself during a Zoom call with colleagues in what he says was an accident. Toobin claimed “I didn’t think other people could see me,” and it seems that he was masturbating.
People familiar with the matter said that Toobin exposed himself when he began masturbating during the Zoom, apparently as part of a different video call. The people said that they did not believe he intended his colleagues to witness it.
It seemed to me to be an accident he did not intend to expose his sexual activity to others, he was removed from his jobs, he under went reviews and The New Yorker did not find any other forms of misconduct by him during its probe of his 27 years at the magazine.
It is well known that what Chris Cuomo did was completely different. Cuomo did try to deliberately deceive his co-workers, his bosses, and the viewers. He was doing things he knew his contract forbid and were against the company polices. But having said that why is the right wing so upset with Cuomo and Toobin but ignoring the many violations of rules by Fox News hosts? Fox news hosts go on stage at tRump rallies to promote tRump, and have since tRump was president. Cuomo was trying to help his brother, but Fox hosts were doing far more for tRump. When these cartoonist show the same outrage over that I will listen to their fake outrage over CNN. Hugs
The road to fascism is lined with people telling you to stop overreacting.
A member of Congress thinks that cancer is contagious.
Republicans love the ignorance. Rather than cast out the idiots, they become the idiots.
So kind of the WSJournal opinion editors, Misters Gigot and Heninninger, to find 3 other Misters to respond to their editorial advising the Supremes strike down Roe v Wade. pic.twitter.com/3iFnHNZp2X
Who needs science or data when you only follow predetermined narratives?
Great article on a great injustice. Anthony Broadwater was wrongfully convicted of raping Alice Sebold four decades ago — and fought to get his life back https://t.co/JD6xHPQO99
This all comes just as the DOJ has determined that Alabama prisons have not improved over the past two years despite the ongoing lawsuit against them – and frankly it seems like rodents are the least of their problems. https://t.co/6komO9Dlcl
Why does the right wing media blame Biden for what the Republicans are doing. Oh yes they are the misleading lying right wing media. The Build Back Better bill had money to help people buy electric vehicles that Republicans wouldn’t support. Same with the infrastructure bill that again Republicans fought. So electric cars too expensive for most people, blame Republicans. Hugs
This cartoonist is one of the most rabid right wing I have the displeasure to read. In order to slam a Democrat elected governor he insinuates that crime only happens where and when a Democrat is in charge. This is false. Any life experience and a quick google search will show that. Crime is driven not by politics but by other factors such a poverty, income inequality, housing, and other basic needs being unmet. Hugs
So are school shootings and every other goddam kind of shootings. Only the Boys in Blue matter. the rest are collateral damage or the fault of the ’libs”. I noticed he wasn’t as compassionate towards the Capital Police that were injured during the Insurrection. It is a tragedy when any officer loses their life when on the job. Also tragic, and likely more preventable, is how many have lost their lives due to Covid:https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/16/us/police-vaccine-covid-deaths/index.html COVID-19 killed more police officers in the last 18 months than guns. That was 100% preventable if they would get vaccinated and wear masks. Perhaps there would be fewer shootings if the gun makers and their propaganda puppets in the NRA worked on promoting proper gun safety, responsibility, and use instead of telling gullible Americans that a handgun under the Christmas tree is a great gift for children. Hugs
He said he was pulling the hammer back at the direction of Halyna Hutchins, and when they had the angle right, he let the hammer go and the gun went off. You need to work on your comprehension skills, and if you believe there is no such thing as an accidental discharge of a gun, your history of gun accidents. No one has shown any motive he may have had to murder anyone, and witnesses agree it was an accident. What is really disgusting is the way neocons are gleefully dancing on Halyna Hutchins’ grave because it advances their narrative. Alec Baldwin mocked the God Emperor tRump on a TV comedy show. That’s really all you need to know here. Hugs
For around $150, plexiglass, water, lenses, and ordinary mirrors, professor of Physics at the University of Rochester John Howell built an uni-directional optical cloaking device: This video shows one of the devices and two of his sons… sometimes: https://t.co/H1NPb6RPjApic.twitter.com/4lupYhLejI
For the hearing impaired everything the man says is spelled on the screen. For the parts where Shapiro is talking you will need the CC turned on. There is some really useful information about gender and sex. Hugs
Buffy Wicks speaks out about emergency procedure amid threat to Roe v Wade: ‘This story is not uncommon’
Buffy Wicks with her daughter at the state capitol in July. Photograph: Rich Pedroncelli/AP
Early one morning this fall, the California state assemblywoman Buffy Wicks felt a type of pain she had never experienced before.
Wicks, 44, found herself doubledover in pain, barely able to walk or get her daughter ready for school. At her doctor’s shortly after, she learned that she was pregnant and having a miscarriage and would need an emergency abortion. Twenty-four hours later she had the procedure.
Wicks shared the deeply personal account of what happened that September morning on Twitter on Thursday, following oral arguments in the most significant abortion rights case heard by the US supreme court since Roe v Wade.
Wicks decided to tell her story to illustrate the urgency of easily accessible reproductive care and warn of the risks this care faces if a Mississippi abortion law is upheld by the nation’s highest court, she told the Guardian.
“We often debate these policy matters in theory, but in reality people like me experience the outcomes when lawmakers and policymakers make these decisions,” Wicks said.
“I think this is a story that is not uncommon,” she said. “I have a platform that I want to use to help further the cause and say: ‘This is my body and I can make my own decisions.’”
In her tweets, Wicks described how hard it had been to process what was going on – working through intense emotions while feeling intense pain. She described asking her doctor whether she would have had access to the procedure she was undergoing had she been in Texas, which this year banned abortions once cardiac activity is detected.
The doctor told her that even though the procedure would have been legal, given access issues, it could have been very difficult to obtain.
“Think about the cruelty involved in making it your aim to make life more difficult for someone in that situation: in great pain, bleeding profusely, barely able to walk, confused about what’s happening to them, unsure about where to go, and then forcing them to endure multi-state drives or frantic rushes to the airport for the next flight to a state where getting the medically necessary healthcare they need is still *legal* & *available*,” she wrote. “And that’s assuming they have the privilege & means to get those options.”
‘It’s earth-shattering’: Democrats and allies vow midterm fight over abortion
Similar issues are at stake with the abortion case in front of the supreme court, Wicks said. On Wednesday, the court heard oral arguments in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which pits the leadership of the state of Mississippi against the state’s last abortion clinic. The state seeks to ban abortion after 15 weeks gestation and is asking the court to overturn Roe v Wade.
“When I was coming of age as a young adult, I thought Roe v Wade was the law of the land and that we had overcome oppressive draconian measures. But here we are again,” Wicks said.
In the hearings on Wednesday, the majority of the court appeared supportive of the Mississippi rules, with the newest supreme court justice, Amy Coney Barrett, asking whether women could simply “terminate their parental rights” at the end of pregnancy by giving a child up for adoption, instead of seeking an abortion.
Under the Mississippi law, Wicks would still have been able to get an abortion, but similar to the situation in Texas, the impact of closing clinics due to restrictions would make it hard for women to access care in their own communities, even in emergency situations like hers.
But if the Mississippi law is upheld, women across the nation may have to travel for hours to find a hospital or clinic, which can make abortions inaccessible for low-income women who are in need of care, she added.
“I was doubled over in pain at 4am. I had never experienced that, there’s no way I could have gotten on an airplane or driven miles to get care,” she said.
*** I forgot to thank Nan for the link. Thanks Nan. Hugs
We harbor no illusion that an appeal to reason will change many hearts in Hastings, the normally bucolic town downriver from St. Paul. The great majority of people there probably find recent events involving a school board member and her transgender child abhorrent, as do we. Those who do not find them abhorrent probably find them delightful. This is an issue with scant middle ground.
As reported by CNN and other outlets, the school board president, Kelsey Waits, ran for re-election this year and lost. She is now finishing the remainder of her term. One of the positions that may have led to her defeat was her vote in favor of a mask mandate in the Hastings public schools. Taking a stand in favor of public health during a pandemic should not be a political liability, but here we are.
Some of Waits’ antagonists in the community pilloried her in a Facebook group, with evident relish. Then the Facebook posts took a turn.
Waits belonged in jail for child abuse, declared one of her critics, because the younger of her two daughters is actually a boy. Rather than recoiling at the group member who had so repugnantly crossed a line, others rushed to cross it too. They piled on.
Waits and her husband, who serves in the Naval Reserve, were stunned. Their transgender child, just 8 years old, had expressed a wish to pursue life as a girl. The parents had been cautious in revealing the development to family and friends, and had held it close as a confidential family matter — or, as Waits told CNN, “my most precious secret.”
In interviews, Waits points out that transgender kids are at increased risk for suicide. Statistics back her up; a 2021 survey by the Trevor Project found that more than half of nonbinary and transgender youth had considered suicide. To Waits, those who outed her daughter were endangering a child’s life.
“We appealed for decency within the community, and we were rejected every time,” Waits told MPR News.
Those who, in the name of politics, would intentionally expose an 8-year-old to the hatred that often confronts transgender people are contributing to a dangerous downward slide in American discourse. They are wallowing in the same mud puddle as those who stage demonstrations at a public official’s home. Their message is simple and threatening: Public service entails risk — not only to you, but to those you love and to any sense of privacy they might hold dear.
“This isn’t about policy anymore,” Waits told MPR. “This is about gossip. This is about causing pain. This is about personal attacks. This is about winning at all costs. It’s no longer about working for what’s best for the country.”
Waits and her family are moving from the home they built in Hastings because they no longer feel safe there. It’s hard to fault their decision, but there is plenty to lament about it. For one thing, they are obviously a family that values public service, a quality that every Minnesota community should want to nurture. For another, their departure will strike Waits’ detractors as a victory. Tactics like theirs should bring rebuke, not reinforcement.
Perhaps some of that rebuke will show up Saturday, when a “Rally for Transgender Kids” is scheduled to take place at a riverfront park in Hastings. We hope so. And we hope that those who decided to out a child will be moved to consider the harm they are doing to that child — and to the conduct of politics.
Truly one of the most disturbing things I’ve witnessed in a long time. A Congressman, in a bid to overturn Roe V Wade and deny American women reproductive rights. Publicly referred to them as “Earthen vessels, sanctified by Almighty God.” Give me strength. pic.twitter.com/LvYM46GRVN
You cannot watch this and say the United States is not filled with religious extremists. Just because it’s disguised by religious platitudes of familiarity, does not make it any less dangerous. Before America tackles extremism worldwide, it would be best to look within.
Good morning and Happy Saturday to everyone who knows that Women are not "earthen vessels" as the far right extremist Madison Cawthorn describes, and we're determined to defeat him in 2022 so that they all get that message.
Madison Cawthorn sure didn’t treat “earthen vessels” with much respect when he briefly went to Christian college. According to his inane analogy the other day, I guess he was trying to force them to make a bunch of “Polaroid photos” https://t.co/jEsIMPit8d
Seems a lot of reporters are missing this rise in hours. It is a huge deal. It fits a story where employers can't hire workers, so they increase the workweek of the existing labor force https://t.co/b5LhSL2467
Russia is the guy in the tank, the tank is flying the Russian flag. Hugs
Interesting to learn that some people cannot distinguish supporting sex workers by making the job much safer vs supporting sex work. Sex work doesn’t need my support. Marginalized and criminalized people need my support. And yours.
— Cathy Reisenwitz (51/100 sketches) (@CathyReisenwitz) December 4, 2021
Because there are more guns than people in America? Why are guns readily accessible by kids? Oh that’s right. The only nation in the world that has more guns than people in its country and suffers from more gun violence than any other country. What could those other countries be doing besides blaming the kids? Hmmm. They are killing other kids because that is what they have been taught. Because Republicans glorify guns and the right to shoot people. Hugs
Who is holding up a full spending bill, oh yes the Republicans. Aren’t the obstructionist Republicans the ones behind all these stopgap funding schemes all the way back to nasty Newt and his contract on America?
On the one hand you have folks whose intent is to try to do the best thing they can for their constituents. And who enjoy it when the manage to do something useful, or even nice. On the other hand you have folks whose intent is to accumulate power and wield it to pay off the corporate “donors” who effectively own them. And whose greatest joy is “prevent”… and siphoning taxes from the middle class into the bank accounts of the obscenely wealthy (taking a cut for themselves in the process). This piecemeal hackery is (part of) EXACTLY what they want: Make the process look so artificial and contrived that everyone will lose interest in the whole political process. Which is the only way they get to KEEP the power they now have. Also, it helps them in their fight to rid America of democracy. Hugs
Dr Fauci uses science to judge the incoming data. Data changes and he reacts to those changes. Just because the Bible has not changed, and is not a health book never should be used for medical science, doesn’t mean we should ignore the changing information on viruses. Hugs
This one is here because I see far too many argue this way and think they are winning on right wing media and misleading political cartoons. Trolling and insulting is thought to show brilliance and mastery of both subject matter and the other people. My though on this is if you have to resort to insults you have already lost, with the exception of the rare bit of sarcasm. Hugs
Scottie's Playtime 
On the one hand you have folks whose intent is to try to do the best thing they can for their constituents. And who enjoy it when the manage to do something useful, or even nice. On the other hand you have folks whose intent is to accumulate power and wield it to pay off the corporate “donors” who effectively own them. And whose greatest joy is “prevent”… and siphoning taxes from the middle class into the bank accounts of the obscenely wealthy (taking a cut for themselves in the process). This piecemeal hackery is (part of) EXACTLY what they want: Make the process look so artificial and contrived that everyone will lose interest in the whole political process. Which is the only way they get to KEEP the power they now have. Also, it helps them in their fight to rid America of democracy. Hugs