Today was an important day to be paying attention. In many ways, we seem to be going backward. Only our votes can ultimately change that. Senate Republicans blocked a measure that would have created a federal right to contraception access today. That seems like it should have been noncontroversial. It’s 2024. But it was not. It failed to pass, with Republicans saying the legislation was both unnecessary and government overreach. I suppose it’s only unnecessary if you don’t care about the right to contraception going the same way as the right to get an abortion.
If Judge Cannon rules in Trump’s favor on the question of the legality of the Special Counsel, perhaps Special Counsel Smith finally has the ammo he needs to persuade the 11th Circuit to remove Judge Cannon from the classified records case?
I am with you! I keep telling myself to quit reading/watching so much political news but I am struggling. All suggestions for diversion are welcome & appreciated!
Bit of a visualisation thingy I do when the online noise becomes too nauseating:
Find a patch of bare earth/grass.
Lie down upon it.
Close your eyes and feel the Earth through your back as a living force.
Breathing in and out -in breath takes in the Earth’s energy -out breath sees all of the global electronic and digital aerial activity as an enormous cirrus cloud above you. With each Earth empowered in breath blow away the web of clouds above you with your exhalation. 🐈⬛
In a similar vein, Monnina, I go outside to work in my garden. I specifically go outside to pull weeds. There is a certain amount of accomplishment in removing those unwanted plants that rob nutrients and moisture from the plants I do want. The weeds are like Aileen Cannon, Kenneth Cheseboro, etc. who are trying to steal justice from the rest of us.
My last post has now been bothering me. I only uproot those nettles that grow outside their boundaries. I have several designated nettle patches both for the wildlife they support and the iron rich tisane they make.
Moderation in all things. Developing a taste for annihilation in whatever area of life will eventually fatally bite you back in the ass 🐈⬛
It would be nice if taking the high road, living your good life, and return with kindness were enough. Finding the effective balance is difficult. The Dems are always faulted for not fighting nasty enough, but if they did, could our country take doubling the negative energy?
Oh, I SO get that. We have nettles and they have these extraordinary interlocked root systems. I like to see these as such enemies and their root system as all those complicit institutions and people enabling them when I pull them from the earth. 🐈⬛
I'm beginning to see the true value of all the invasive plants we have. Here in Ct.they're bittersweet, garlic mustard, knotweed, even kudzu. They give infuriated liberals a way to vent our frustrations by pulling out these unwanted plants by the roots! Seriously - I have several friends who swear by Bittersweet Therapy! It's a useful activity that channels the urge to nurture the good plants and root out the plants whose only goal seems to be to proliferate endlessly and choke out everything else.. Sometimes it's better than consuming yet more news and analysis, no matter how informative.
Susan, you make me wish I had the wherewithal to tackle the Bermuda grass that invades the plants I want. Unfortunately, at my age, it has become difficult to get up and down for that kind of activity, and the plants tend to be very prickly (cacti and yuccas). Our triple digit daytime hours are also a bit of a deterrent.
Hey, here's great place to pour your political anxiety. Sign up to write postcards to voters (the most effective way to communicate with them!) with the Progressive Turnout Project. Like I said, handwritten postcards are far and away the most successful way to reach voters. You can do it piecemeal on your own when you're not knitting or have a group of friends over for a potluck or coffee or cocktails and make it a party. They will mail you the postcards and you provide the stamps. Warning: stamps increase in price again thanks to the evil Louis DeJoy's campaign to destroy the post office so order them now!
Yes! Writing postcards is therapeutic! Sometimes for an extra mental health boost I will use my imagination to create a little story in my head about the addressee and their family/life. For the green thumbs in this thread I would imagine writing post cards to be like watering the plants you are growing, nurturing! 😊
I took up knitting because of Joyce and I needed something I could do while recovering from rotator cuff surgery. I have yet to make an acceptable sock and I don't know if I'll like to wear them if I do. So I'm maybe going to find out. Watching news while knitting is probably the reason they have so many mistakes.
Socks are not that easy! I suggest a cowl—you need circular needles for one but, depending on the pattern, you can knit all day without the purls or the difficult combinations. It’s build your confidence.
Jen, a good sock pattern will give you socks you will enjoy wearing. I mostly knit socks, because we don't have really cold winters. If you are interested, I like sock patterns by Wendy Johnson, that are mostly toe up patterns knit on 2 circular needles. If you don't want to do anything fancy you can omit the fancy stuff and just do plain socks. Happy knitting!
I read Jessica Craven for a positive fix each day. She lists all the good stuff that is happening that the media ignores. I also hug my cats and wait for the rain. Cause you can’t tell when and how long the storms will come but you can always learn how to dance in the rain. 🌦🌤☀️ https://substack.com/home/post/p-145171974?r=2exwlc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Linda, we've found a good way to stop watching the news: in the evenings we watch two episodes of "The Zoo" from the Bronx Zoo. If you have on demand with your TV service, you should be able to find it. We go through all five seasons in a month (we've watched it almost every evening for 4 years now), and the programs are both calm and inspiring. You get to meet great people and great animals. I highly recommend the program.
Read a great book -- currently reading the classic "Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese. Next up, his "The Covenant of Water." Total mind absorption!
I feel the same. I picked up a book to read instead of reading about trump and politics ad nauseam. There's just so much to be concerned about. I struggle as well!
Lots of really good ideas. I take a news vacation for a week or two when I feel overloaded from the news. I don't read any news during that time. I let it go. The world will carry on just fine. I take extra walks, I get out more and get errands done, organize my closets, research good restaurants in nearby cities, go to lunch with someone, and plan on discussing non-news things, also a good time to get out to a museum of any kind.
I should take a news vacation but I have a feeling Something's going to happen that may change the political landscape. I actually check my phone every morning to find out if ConvictedFelonDonaldTrump (that's his new name and should be pronounced correctly every time it's on the news) has dropped dead or had an episode of freezing that lasted so long they took him off the stage. Either one is likely. My superstition is, I have to know.
Since so much of what we are experiencing seems like bad fiction, I lose myself in criminal mystery novels by Michael Connelly (Bosch) and Daniel Silva and the Women’s Murder Club by James Patterson.
May I recommend the soon-to-be 11 book series featuring Flavia de Luce, the world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth by Alan Bradley. Also the estimable "Bernie Gunther" 14 book series by Philip Kerr, with its long-suffering anti-Nazi detective in Nazi-era (and beyond) Germany. And the grand 18 book series (including short story collections) by Christopher Fowler, with London Golden Age detectives Bryant and May and their peculiar colleagues of the "Peculiar Crime Unit," charged with investigating cases that could cause national scandal or public unrest.
Sharon, I like those too and get them through NPR on my local Public radio station. Check out "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," also NPR. It gives a really funny slant to the week's news and by the weekend it is needed.
Bonnie - courage and positivity and neutrality and blocking out the noise which is meant to prevent all of us from voting. We must stand strong as those brave soldiers did on D-Day 80 years to save America and the world from autocracy and they did. So can we 🗽🇺🇸🗳️🌎☀️🕯️💙🙏🙋♀️🏄♀️🇺🇸🎉
She and all of the other legal scholars (sarcasm supplied) even considering this nonsense don't have a leg to stand on --- apart from the fact that two Republican AGs under Trump appointed special counsels. Setting aside the hypocrisy, while SCOTUS hasn’t specifically ruled on the constitutionality of special counsels, legal rulings about their predecessors — independent counsels — suggest that special counsels are compatible with the Constitution. They operated outside the DOJ and had more freedom than special counsels do today (which is part of why the practice of appointing them was discontinued). But even with that greater level of freedom, SCOTUS ruled that independent counsels were constitutional and recognized them as “inferior” officers, not “principal” officers.
Laura, I still feel sad when a woman gains some level of power, then turns out to be a total jerk, often worse than the guy who would have been in her place. We do keep promoting those jerks and they keep disappointing us, but cheering the Republican men and a few other women who dished them up. And, they get to do their dirty work against our rights for a lifetime.
Ruth, I totally agree. For better or worse, the spotlight is always on women who attain positions of power. It angers me when those women abuse that power. It’s as if they failed all women!
All the unqualified judges Moscow Mitch pushed through while trump was in office are an embarrassment. Not only to the bench but to the rule of law as well.
One would certainly think so since she's again showing the same bias that caused the 11th Circuit to chastize her previously. Even if she does make a surprisingly rational ruling and dismisses trump's desparate motion, I hope Jack Smith moves soon to recuse her anyway so he (hopefully) can move forward with a fair judge.
Dave, I am sure Cannon's handlers are feeding her with every single time limit possible and she will take them all to benefit her Baby Donnie. She has no idea that once he has gotten what he wants from her, he will have only contempt for someone who could be so easily manipulated. When will the Trumpers and Trumpettes understand how he works?
Ruth, I'm not certain he would have contempt for someone so easily manipulated, because he seems to really like people who will go along with anything he says or does. That said, I also wonder when his followers will figure out how he works.
Common sense - Jack Smith deserves a win and so do the American people. We are up against pure evil. We must hang in there for America and the world 🌎 🇺🇸🗽🌻🥁🕯️🏄♀️
Laura, I don't even understand how a judge appointed by Trump could possibly sit on a case that involves felony charges for Trump. That is certainly a conflict of interest and IS covered by the judicial code of ethics or should be. I am guessing appointing judges is supposed to be random, but that is nonsense when something as clear as the case with Cannon's conflict of interest (I am sure there is a better legal term), she should have been passed over in favor of someone not appointed by the guy being tried, and with more experience; Cannon had none and was appointed just to serve the Republican causes.
Excuse me, but does the contraception bill include condoms? And of course, condoms are a defense against disease, but that doesn’t matter to those people because men bear no responsibility at all for contraception or pregnancy or anything.
Jude Ellen, I have been reading that vasectomies have increased significantly in the past 2 years. Two members of my family have chosen that method of birth control and are glad they did. I would not be surprised, though if vasectomy becomes a target of the rabid Republicans. They are about controlling people's lives. They are not worried about getting someone pregnant or transmitting an STI. They are rich enough and hypocritical enough to "fix it," and hide their hypocrisy. If found out, they will have an Alito excuse "she made me do it."
Yeah, but Ruth, control doesn't apply to white men. Or at least it doesn't seem to based on what I've been seeing and hearing. Do you really think they'd do something to control themselves??? From what I've seen, control only applies to women, trans, lgbtq, and blacks of either gender.
Susan, I do not think GOP/conservative white men can control themselves. They have decided to remain toddlers, so I don't imagine those in power who are against women's rights will control themselves at all. They love being able to force others to do their will and since they are not being stopped lately, they are completely out of control. We need a Lysistrata moment where women refuse to sleep with anyone who does not stand for women's bodily autonomy. It should be national and last 3 days to start with just as a trial run, then go on for as long as it takes. It would get a lot of press and maybe people, women especially would see that they have some power and do not always have to bow to whiney white boys whose egos are huge and not matched by their talents, abilities, and care for anyone but themselves.
Shelley, the sad and scary part is that it is not about birth control per se. It is about controlling women's lives and keeping us out of men's way unless we can be used by them, you know the guys in conservative power. Men need to wake up to see that they are victims of this power grab because they will be responsible for paying for all these children being born and STIs transmitted by and to them. We need more male voices loudly stating that this is all BS and men in power need to back off and take some time and grow up! I don't expect I will hear that any time soon, unfortunately.
Even more so, it affects everyone in chilling their rights. If the Commissar might come to your house inquiring, that’s a threat to whatever they want to know.
Douglas, in Griswold v. Connecticut, wrote that over the enumerated rights, there exists a penumbra, of which privacy is one, of protection which are needed to effect these rights. That’s been a target for years.
I haven't read the bill but from this description, it seems like its language actually means abortion but was left to be broad to drive home the point that Republicans are willing to interpret broadly against any kind of contraception in the absence of specific language. It's insulting to women that Republicans don't concern themselves, in any way, about making any distinction between abortion and contraception. No need. Women will simply do as the Republicans tell them to do. Since Roe v Wade was decided, the world has seen the vast improvement in women's lives because they had reliable contraception. So, now a majority male institution has decided to become the final arbiters of women's health and personal freedom.
Common Sense, banning birth control was always a goal after abortion. These whiney white Republicans are evil. They just keep noticing what they can get away with, then take it a step further. What comes after birth control is not clear. I think they are hoping for renewed slavery with them as the masters. We don't have to take it, but we are going to have to do some serious organizing to stop them. Waiting for November is not going to cut it. We need to find ways to get things moving to stop them now!
Jack, you are so right about being unconstitutional, but these days, our SC conservatives (cons) care little for the Constitution. They warp it out of shape, ignore any of the amendments they don't like (1, 13, 14, 15, 19, and 26 in particular) and pump up ones that mean exactly opposite of what they and their rich white friends want (2nd). For those guys and one gal, birth control is just a means to power over women and even Barrett is caught up in it. When Trump's cronies nominated her (through Trump) they knew she would betray women in an instant, claiming it was god made her do it and knew she would be able to find a way to go along with the misogynistic male justices because, well, she wants to be one of them, but alas, was born in a female body (I think).
Joyce is usually superb at explaining fine distinctions. It should be recognized that pro-life supporters make a distinction between two kinds of contraception.
A true contraceptive prevents conception--these include the Pill, birth-control implants, spermicide, and barrier methods.
Other methods are called contraception, but they do not prevent conception. They prevent the establishment of a pregnancy by preventing the fertilized egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus. Something like preventing a drowning person from grabbing the side of a boat. Birth control methods that fit into this second category include the morning after pill and intrauterine devices.
No pro-life advocate would be willing to vote for a law that proclaimed a right to every form of contraception, because they want to preserve the distinction between the two types.
Very curious that you would compare a human egg prevented by medication from attaching to the uterus to "a drowning person." Somehow this comparison suggests that a woman seeking to prevent a pregnancy is killing a real person. I doubt that this reading is accidental. It is unacceptable.
We geld all kinds of animals. Men are no different, especially those who impregnate a woman and walk away. Men are after all responsible for babies. Women ovulate all the time without producing an embryo.
nevoustrumpezpas, yep the whole egg as person is the next step in the stupidity of white evangelical/Catholic pseudo-christianity. They just make up stuff as they go along. They can't claim it is part of Jesus' message because people didn't understand the whole birth process back in the day. It seems men just have to pretend they got some kind of revelation about it over time; they didn't. They just make stuff up, then lie about it as a way to control other people's lives to make themselves feel brilliant, holy, and important. It's all a lie but alas, a bunch of people believe the BS. No, an embryo is not a child! No, conception is not magically creating an instant child! No, birth control is not killing babies! No, IVF is not against nature! No, those frozen embryos are not children! We need to be saying "no" more often and a whole lot louder, then get the word out of the real purpose of the Republican "prolife" stance; it's control of other people's lives for the gain of those Republican mostly white males. There is no god in this or love or any of the things Jesus taught. It is all them and their power-grabbing. There is money in it too, of course! !
Many millions of Americans and other millions throughout the world believe that a fertilized egg is indeed a human being. You know that this is a fact. What are you going to do with that group of people? Heap scorn on them until they feel so devalued as human beings that they never open their mouths again?
If people believe that, then they shouldn't use contraceptives. But, they do not need to force their views in the form of a law so nobody can use them. This is a power and control issue over women. It's wrong. Republicans never think long term. What will happen to all of these unwanted babies? Will Republicans help with social programs for those who were struggling before adding a child to their lives? Of course not! I wonder how many Republican women use birth control? This whole issue is a MYOB one.
The problem with religious zealots is they lack the intelligence to imagine that there is any other reality but theirs. Their heads blow up when they hear there are hundreds of gods.
Oh please. Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump is worthy of the presidency. You know that this is a fact. And yes, we are going to heap scorn, mockery, and logic on them with everything we have. It’s not a constitutional obligation to suffer fools gladly. Sorry. Not sorry.
Guess what? If I disagree with you, I will still treat you with courtesy. I can see that you are quite intelligent, but there is a wisdom of thought that is deeper than the spirit of the age.
If you fight with dehumanizing weapons, even if you win, you will wake up in a dehumanized world.
Kathleen, most religions disagree with each other. Millions of people believing “this way, not that way”. Using the argument “millions believe this way” is not a persuasive argument when used in conjunction with individual rights clothed in the Constitution. The belief of Millions extend only to the boundary of their personal space and safety, and shall not be imposed on others who hold different beliefs. Freedom exists because “majority rule” is overcome by the enlightened reasoning that protects, by law, the rights of the minority. Your argument fails the freedom test
People have a right to their own beliefs and to act accordingly for themselves. But frankly, it’s nobody’s damn business if I choose to use contraceptions or not. I’m not heaping scoring on anybody. This is not a value judgment. This is a law that will adversely affect millions of women, and in the end, protect no one. Choice is the only choice.
I agree with you that if someone sincerely believe that a fertilized egg is a person then we should respect that. We shouldn't heap scorn on them simply because of their belief. But, once they claim that their belief trumps everyone else's then it becomes a different story. What about those people who sincerely believe life begins at first breath? Why should Christian religious beliefs be written into law and theirs ignored? No one is telling anyone that they can't consider a fertilized egg to be a person; but they have no right to tell others that they have to.
I said 'if someone sincerely believe' for a reason. Let's get real here, the actual Evangelical objection to Plan B is that it allows women to slut it up and avoid the consequences. For obvious reasons that argument isn't a winning one. But, claim that fertilized eggs are people and that Plan B is an abortifacient then suddenly there's a plausible, but completely disingenuous, argument that can be used.
Don't shoot the messenger. I may have expressed the idea a little more sarcastically then necessary, but that's exactly the argument I have seen Evangelicals use against Plan B. Evangelicals insist that all non-procreative sex is a terrible sin. They believe that pregnancies are a gift/punishment from God. For them abortions and contraceptives interfere with God's will. Plan B is especially reviled since in their minds it encourages women to be reckless about having sex since they can use it to 'escape the consequences'.
I think that we make decisions in this country through the democratic process. Thus, if a majority of people want to outlaw something then they should have the right to do it., even if they are acting on a religious motivation. I am happy to have these issues decided through our existing democratic processes. The abolitionists were by and large motivated by religious beliefs. Religion is one of the ways that people make decisions. I want all of us to feel free to speak up for our point of view without being trolled, because you never know what will become the majority view in the future.
Actually, no, the majority shouldn't be allowed to outlaw anything they want. The minority has rights also that should be respected.
But if the majority is allowed to have a say on reproductive rights then they aren't in any danger. However, the anti-choice crowd has no interest in letting the majority have its way. They've already loaded the judiciary against the people's will. They've also loaded state legislatures. They are convinced they know what's best and aren't going to let a pesky little thing like majority opinion stop them.
As for religion, it's worth noting that while the abolitionists may have been influenced by religion, the southern enslavers were absolutely dependent on it to justify their position.
Call bullshit on the propaganda fed to them by their pastors/preachers/priests/fathers/brothers disguising the real motivation behind the “Pro-Life” movement : control.
So, everyone who disagrees with you is a brainwashed moron. I'd call that stereotyping. I bet these pastors and priests wished they had that much power.
Try to explain the development of the egg is all I can think of. Anyone who has studied biology knows two cells become 4 etc. People who are sublimely ignorant may be able to be educated.
It is fascinating. Did you know at one point an embryo has rudimentary gills? That the "heartbeat" is bullshit because there is no heart to beat?
Even their own book has the magic sky daddy saying life begins when he (it's always a him) breathes the breath of life into the newborn.
I would like all of them to give up the magic sky daddy nonsense but when it's legal to indoctrinate children with Santa Claus and Jesus that's not going to happen.
I'm fully aware that a preborn human has rudimentary gills at an early point in development. And did you know that there are primitive animals out there with a circulation system but no heart? Blood is circulated because the largest artery begins to pulsate, just the way it does in a human being before the heart develops.
Clearly, it would be more accurate to describe it as a as a “circulatory system begins to function bill," rather than a heartbeat bill.
This description of “contraception” misses the fact that conception does not automatically happen just because sperm and egg are in the same place. Far from it, statistically. So banning IUDs and emergency contraceptives (eg PlanB) forces EVERY woman to wait to see if she becomes pregnant, whether she wishes to or not. IUDs are highly effective at preventing abortions because they are so very effective at preventing unintended pregnancies !
Kathleen, yes, there is a distinction between types of birth control, but most "prolifers" and people in general have no clue what that means. The "prolifers" just know what they are told to stand for by their pastors or other powerful men in their lives and mouth what they are told, "no birth control." The distinction is medical and should be seen by ordinary people as nonsense, because stressing it is to justify a warped understanding of how the world works as defined by white male pseudo-christians. They don't care about the distinction, just the control they think they would have over women and men who aren't rich enough to travel to somewhere to help their partner have an abortion or to buy contraceptives on the black market which will surely arise. Yep, they are looking for another war on drugs since the first one was so successful. Yo private prison owners, a whole batch of folks are coming your way that will keep you guys in business for a long time! (not if we who care have a say, though)
Mr. D. I also commend Joyce Vance for this high-quality thread. I have been listening to Joyce's commentary on MSNBC for a long time, but only recently, about 5 months ago realized she had a Substack thread. I finally figured out how to subscribe, or rather had my sister help me subscribe since the process is not easy for a blind person using a screen reader. I wish Joyce many more years of sharing her wisdom and perspective with us from down in deep red.
I'd love a bumper sticker like your flag! Just lost my post but take 2. Re birth control issues, why have men not been mentioned? That embryo was conceived with their help. If women are forced to give birth, the "father's" should be forced to pay all expenses for each child and mother for the next 18 years. If that was law, it may make birth control available forever. And of course, if they should try to leave the state to escape their responsibility, they will be jailed with charges of abandonment and child neglect as will anyone who helps them commit these crimes.
THIS!!!! I guess my other problem with this issue is- besides your excellent point that men are many times not held responsible and take no part in raising a child! - but I’m not quite understanding what is the problem that the republicans have with contraception? Is it really based on strict religious beliefs?? I just can’t get my head around that. Anyone else understand their logic to vote against a common sense solution? The ledge I’m on is getting so scary!!!
I could not sleep last night. The scenarios just kept rolling around in my head. The GOP said something to the effect that it wasn’t necessary to codify this issue because it would never be an issue. What do the women of this country have to say? Not necessary because it would never be challenged? Well a constitutional right was overturned! SCOTUS cannot be trusted. It is a panel of
Bought and paid for men with three exceptions. And Amy coney Barrett is no friend of women because of her wing nut religious beliefs. Welcome to The handmaids tale.
Everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs but they are not entitled to legislate them for all of the Country. Women this is more than scary…this is real danger.
Also!!! While I’m past the child bearing age now - I clearly recall the benefits that birth control pills did to help manage my monthly period pain. It used to be debilitating- at least knocking me out of being a normal productive person for a day or two. This is just madness! Vote them out PLEASE!
I wish I could drink, but two medications I'm on prevent that. I tried it in small quantities for 2 days before it became obvious that alcohol and my meds don't get along. I don't need any more misery…
"Only our votes can ultimately change that." Yet the polls show the two party nominees to be neck and neck. One day historians may have an explanation for this, but for now the answer is elusive. Maybe it's the years of dumbing down our schools paying off; no one is reading Orwell anymore.
The Republicans committed political suicide today! Democrats have a very strong argument to protect abortion rights, but now there is an even stronger political argument to protect the right of contraception! So Marsha Blackburn, Ric Scott, Ted Cruz, Josh Harley, Deb Fischer in Nebraska (opposed by Pro Choice Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn), Kari Lake and many other Republicans opposed to Pro Choice and Pro Contraception Democrats are toast! Let’s make it happen folks! We can get it done!
Marsha Blackburn actually had the nerve to state that the Right to Contraception Act was ‘constitutionally unsound.’ How would she know anything about the Constitution? She’s a hairdresser!
Have faith. Between now and election day the work is voter turn-out and pressing the message that hysterically attacking the justice system reflects Trump’s pending implosion. President Biden is doing his share; we must each do our part to support voter turn-out in Swing states.
You know who has been busy attacking public schools, Republicans. They don't fund schools properly, divert money to private and charter schools, attack teachers, the curriculum, etc. Public schools helped my family to have a decent life and be self supporting.
Don't forget banning (burning) books. Read the MAGA comments to X, Youtube, and Fox News and they are replete with grammar errors as well as the usual "alternate facts".
Republicans are all of a sudden very busy disrupting our institutions all over the USA. Yesterday, out of the blue, trump decided to reverse course on mail in ballots. He was against them, thinks that's why he lost in 2020; now he wants his voters to use mail in ballots. Pardon me if I smell a LARGE RAT, named trump or some of his cronies, who will probably inundate states with mail in ballots that we sure as heck need to investigate to be sure Republicans aren't casting numerous ballots/votes for their Fuhrer trump. As we all know, when a Democrat attempts to cast a ballot when they are out on supervised probation, they are not allowed, but when they are told they could cast a Provisional Ballot, and do so, they are arrested in Texas and hit with a 5 yr prison term (she was black). She appealed and won, I think I recall, but still. Several Repubs not only tried to vote numerous times, they got away with it for a short time, but when caught, they received no jail time and only slapped on the wrist. So, here we have trump who is obviously a guy who has been a criminal most of his adult life as he used casinos to launder money for the mob, the Russians, etc., and more, but when caught and FINALLY held accountable, it is OMG witch hunt, convicted on 34 counts, oh, I'm gonna get that Biden guy and all these judges. Well, yes, if he gets back in the WH, he'll fire everyone he can and replace them with his crooked cronies. Okay, rant over. One more item: contraception is a no go? So does that mean men won't be allowed to buy condoms? Isn't that against business? And if the pharmaceutical companies are getting hit in their pocket books, might they not donate to Dems instead??? I yield back my time.
Bill, most of the mail in ballots are scanned for signature before they are even opened. I saw some of these machines at work, they grab a stack of mail (robotic arms) feed them into the scanner and process hundreds per minute - and that was before AI. In California mail-in ballots are counted as they arrive, the numbers are not released until election day. But with Ballot Trax, I cannot imagine how they could be subject to fraud.
What about the 11th circuit stopping from accepting complaints of Cannon I posted in yesterday’s newsletter comments? They have to know what she’s doing if 1000 people complained.
No it was mostly from the public that saw what cannon was doing by dragging her feet and some of her decisions to hold hearings for every single objection the defense brought as justice delayed a is justice denied.
Hard to believe (and to stomach) that a right to contraception has to be defended in 2024. Hard to believe we're not back in 1924. The extent of the extremist right wing lashing out is a measure of how threatened they are by us. But they're making us more angry and determined with every lash. "I am woman, hear me roar."
Back in 1924 women had had the right to vote for only four years, since the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. Logically should not the far right challenge this right, too, as soon as they have disposed of the right to contraception?
I vaguely recall reading that this is a proposed policy for some. I also know from MAGA types here in Northern Ireland that the hardcore believe Feminism and therein women’s rights are akin to Satanism. Although you would be hard pressed to ever hear them say this outside what they consider their safe talking shop siloes. Don’t ask how I know this. I have had a ‘fractured & complicated’ life. 🐈⬛
"... Republicans saying the [guaranteed access to contraceptives] legislation was both unnecessary and government overreach." is reminiscent of Justice Robert's opinion in Shelby v Holder. He argued, essentially, that times had changed: the racism which previously required pre-clearance for proposed voting laws no longer existed. Turns out, that argument was like stating: "that hundred-foot high dam's unnecessary; why look, that water hasn't budged in decades!"
This is mind boggling and what is more mind boggling is these senators will likely be re-elected in most states. This is a time when the Democratic Party ready needs to shift into an ever wider tent accepting moderates who are locked out of the Republican Party in these red states and picking up critical voters in swing states. This is why Biden works - he’s not very left of center. But Republicans label and Fox pounds it into the brainwashed mass as truth. The breakthrough is to grab the center, hold the left and crush the MAGA party right out of electoral relevance.
Abortion rights and now Contraception rights are at great risk so the moderates have a very strong reason to reject the Republicans from the top of the ticket to the bottom!
Joyce, although your commentary re the contraception vote was to the point, you missed the most essential point in the continuing fight between the Western Enlightenment (WE) vs. Authoritarianism:
Self-determination or Liberty vs. ownership or possession of human beings through adverse possession of their private parts.
Consider: Forced labor in the uterine field for months, followed by vaginal rape from the inside-out (forced birth). Compare with forced labor in the cotton or tobacco fields and with rape from the outside-in (sexual rape). Both kinds of rape require the attackers to take adverse possession of the victims' supposed-to-be private parts. Possession means the right/power to manage, use, utilize, control, and dominate the possessed object. That is what Republican politicians are all about with their laws.
Feminists warned in the '90s that contraception would be next after abortion. This is a message which needs to be strongly propounded to men as well, as it bears upon their right of self-determination to use condoms for the penis and THEIR free will whether or not to become fathers (or again).
In the clash between the animal drives to reproduce people BY FORCE vs. keeping it voluntary (free will), slavery by Republicans seizure of peoples' private parts through their laws must fail. In this election season, the stakes have to be presented in the grand terms of ideology that address the core issue of freedom of the individual vs. tyranny of the slavers. Individualism vs. collectivism. In emotive and persuasive effects, that kind of speech will trump (no pun intended) merely adducing the economic impacts of slave labor reproduction. (And bring in the men, too! Their freedom and their duties to defend the family must be articulated. Appeal to man protecting his young daughter and his wife/partner, his family and his honor.) Sorry that this got to be so long. Differentiating Christian Scripture from the pre-Christian Pythagorean cult doctrine of a spirit of life in the product of conception for another time.
I love the concept of inside-out rape and the comparison with slavery. Obviously men from all parts of the country are for this, but I find it interesting that the interest is concentrated in the South…
Hi Susan, Always ask: “Where is everyone coming from?“ 1. From the Confederate South with its long culture of slavery and domination (slaves are cheaper labor than low paid white labor - worship of the True Lord - Lord Mamon.) 2. The Vatican City clergy with its ascension to power over the whole Roman Empire by conquering the mind of the ruler (Church-State tyranny). 3. The greatest American-born misogynist left his mark on the Salt Lake City clergy. 4. More fundamentally, it’s when there is conflict between either (or both) of the sexual and reproductive drives without a moral boundary vs. the drive for autonomy and self. When the victim loses the struggle and is forced to submit, that’s rape - sexual or reproductive. 5. Finally, there is religious or other ideological rape as when one is forced to be obedient to a version of religion not believed by the victim or suffers forced obedience to atheism. This is relevant because much tension exists between different versions of the Doctrine of Ensoulment, very roughly, the beginning of Human Life (vs. A Human Life).
If you think this may interest others, feel free to forward our whole conversation. I would appreciate feedback, especially criticism.
Ken, I find the concept of religious rape very interesting. Listening to a lot of the so-called christians, I wonder if that's what's happened to them. Not sure if the source is their church, or the convicted rapist djt… or both.
Ken, when I post any reply, I find it takes a significant amount of time for it to show up on the thread. I did get notification of your post, and it is here now.
Right, but I wasn't addressing that problem. Some men are responsible and anti-condem laws strip them of their self-determination right as well. But note the Republican organ distinction: they just want to ban post-fertilization/pre-implantation measures because they follow the pre-Christian (Pythagorian) Doctrine of Ensoulment (There is a "Spirit of Life" in the product of conception-fertilized egg.) So they consider emergency contraception as the murder of a single-cell infant. Biblical scripture has it that even a fetus is not yet a human life, although a pregnant woman is (Exodus). Science: There is no life of a human being without at least the beginning of mental function. That requires a goodly number of neuronal circuits in the grey matter of the brain (Neocortex). The first circuits begin to appear at 29-31 gestational weeks. But you need many. It's safe to say that there is still no person there prior to at least 29-31 weeks of gestational weeks, and quite a bit longer to get a sufficient number for the commencement of human mentality. The "one-cell baby" delusion just expresses the extreme lust for the reproduction of our species without moral boundary, but with human slavery.
After reading more about Judge Cannon's modus operandi, I am becoming convinced that she is getting advice from a lawyer (or other judge) as to how to slow this proceeding down without getting whacked by the 11th Circuit. Allowing amicus briefs from Ed Meese, etc. doesn't seem like a rookie move. See here: https://www.rawstory.com/aileen-cannon-2668460431/
I have been thinking the same thing!!!!! Someone is either pulling her strings or coaching her on a ‘slow it down’ strategy - and it is outrageous in my opinion.
Very good example why we cannot change the US from inside the system. Revision to our constitution to build a real democracy here can only be extra democratic. This is why if the GOP is successful with a coup this time, the silver lining is that it may be the only way we make the radical change necessary to realize the founder’s plan for this country.
Somebody above her on the 11th Circuit, which goes all the way up to Clarence Thomas. Similarly, if Trump appeals the manhattan case to the Supreme Court, he has to go through Sonja Sotomayor. Just my guess.
If Judge Cannon rules in Trump’s favor on the question of the legality of the Special Counsel, perhaps Special Counsel Smith finally has the ammo he needs to persuade the 11th Circuit to remove Judge Cannon from the classified records case?
I've become so cynical; my first thought is that makes too much sense to actually happen. But hope springs eternal.
I am with you! I keep telling myself to quit reading/watching so much political news but I am struggling. All suggestions for diversion are welcome & appreciated!
Bit of a visualisation thingy I do when the online noise becomes too nauseating:
Find a patch of bare earth/grass.
Lie down upon it.
Close your eyes and feel the Earth through your back as a living force.
Breathing in and out -in breath takes in the Earth’s energy -out breath sees all of the global electronic and digital aerial activity as an enormous cirrus cloud above you. With each Earth empowered in breath blow away the web of clouds above you with your exhalation. 🐈⬛
In a similar vein, Monnina, I go outside to work in my garden. I specifically go outside to pull weeds. There is a certain amount of accomplishment in removing those unwanted plants that rob nutrients and moisture from the plants I do want. The weeds are like Aileen Cannon, Kenneth Cheseboro, etc. who are trying to steal justice from the rest of us.
My last post has now been bothering me. I only uproot those nettles that grow outside their boundaries. I have several designated nettle patches both for the wildlife they support and the iron rich tisane they make.
Moderation in all things. Developing a taste for annihilation in whatever area of life will eventually fatally bite you back in the ass 🐈⬛
It would be nice if taking the high road, living your good life, and return with kindness were enough. Finding the effective balance is difficult. The Dems are always faulted for not fighting nasty enough, but if they did, could our country take doubling the negative energy?
Oh, I SO get that. We have nettles and they have these extraordinary interlocked root systems. I like to see these as such enemies and their root system as all those complicit institutions and people enabling them when I pull them from the earth. 🐈⬛
Wow. What a perfect analogy. And those root systems include Russia, the MSM, bought judges, the Heritage Foundation, mobsters, and so much more.
I'm beginning to see the true value of all the invasive plants we have. Here in Ct.they're bittersweet, garlic mustard, knotweed, even kudzu. They give infuriated liberals a way to vent our frustrations by pulling out these unwanted plants by the roots! Seriously - I have several friends who swear by Bittersweet Therapy! It's a useful activity that channels the urge to nurture the good plants and root out the plants whose only goal seems to be to proliferate endlessly and choke out everything else.. Sometimes it's better than consuming yet more news and analysis, no matter how informative.
Susan, you make me wish I had the wherewithal to tackle the Bermuda grass that invades the plants I want. Unfortunately, at my age, it has become difficult to get up and down for that kind of activity, and the plants tend to be very prickly (cacti and yuccas). Our triple digit daytime hours are also a bit of a deterrent.
I pour my endless stream of political anxiety into knitting and sewing. Not that it solves anything, but at least I'm making things!
Hey, here's great place to pour your political anxiety. Sign up to write postcards to voters (the most effective way to communicate with them!) with the Progressive Turnout Project. Like I said, handwritten postcards are far and away the most successful way to reach voters. You can do it piecemeal on your own when you're not knitting or have a group of friends over for a potluck or coffee or cocktails and make it a party. They will mail you the postcards and you provide the stamps. Warning: stamps increase in price again thanks to the evil Louis DeJoy's campaign to destroy the post office so order them now!
Yes! Writing postcards is therapeutic! Sometimes for an extra mental health boost I will use my imagination to create a little story in my head about the addressee and their family/life. For the green thumbs in this thread I would imagine writing post cards to be like watering the plants you are growing, nurturing! 😊
I took up knitting because of Joyce and I needed something I could do while recovering from rotator cuff surgery. I have yet to make an acceptable sock and I don't know if I'll like to wear them if I do. So I'm maybe going to find out. Watching news while knitting is probably the reason they have so many mistakes.
I tried telling jokes while knitting, after which I was called a knit-wit.
Socks are not that easy! I suggest a cowl—you need circular needles for one but, depending on the pattern, you can knit all day without the purls or the difficult combinations. It’s build your confidence.
Jen, a good sock pattern will give you socks you will enjoy wearing. I mostly knit socks, because we don't have really cold winters. If you are interested, I like sock patterns by Wendy Johnson, that are mostly toe up patterns knit on 2 circular needles. If you don't want to do anything fancy you can omit the fancy stuff and just do plain socks. Happy knitting!
I love crochet. Found it very healing at a difficult time in my life. My grand daughter has just discovered it for similar reasons 🐈⬛
Laurie. This is how I’m dealing with the chaos of judges
https://davedalton1.bandcamp.com/track/red-tide-risin
excellent advice! It works every time!
I read Jessica Craven for a positive fix each day. She lists all the good stuff that is happening that the media ignores. I also hug my cats and wait for the rain. Cause you can’t tell when and how long the storms will come but you can always learn how to dance in the rain. 🌦🌤☀️ https://substack.com/home/post/p-145171974?r=2exwlc&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web
Simon Rosenberg. Hopium Chronicles. He has well-thought-out reasons to be of good cheer. Be like a Ukrainian. Refuse to give in.
Hopium Chronicles by Simon Rosenberg gives an optimistic POV. https://open.substack.com/pub/simonwdc/p/making-june-count-trump-is-a-bad?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=13ceb
He's smart, but his stuff is beyond Pollyanna I'm not sure he's living in the real world.
And I urge you to do at least one thing that Jessica suggests per day. So easy, so empowering and satisfying!!
I need help too! I’m overdosing on news and I can’t stop!
Linda, we've found a good way to stop watching the news: in the evenings we watch two episodes of "The Zoo" from the Bronx Zoo. If you have on demand with your TV service, you should be able to find it. We go through all five seasons in a month (we've watched it almost every evening for 4 years now), and the programs are both calm and inspiring. You get to meet great people and great animals. I highly recommend the program.
It's like being stuck in traffic with a view of a railroad bridge ahead and watching a plane about to crash into the bridge. You can't stop watching.
Read a great book -- currently reading the classic "Cutting For Stone" by Abraham Verghese. Next up, his "The Covenant of Water." Total mind absorption!
I feel the same. I picked up a book to read instead of reading about trump and politics ad nauseam. There's just so much to be concerned about. I struggle as well!
Lots of really good ideas. I take a news vacation for a week or two when I feel overloaded from the news. I don't read any news during that time. I let it go. The world will carry on just fine. I take extra walks, I get out more and get errands done, organize my closets, research good restaurants in nearby cities, go to lunch with someone, and plan on discussing non-news things, also a good time to get out to a museum of any kind.
I should take a news vacation but I have a feeling Something's going to happen that may change the political landscape. I actually check my phone every morning to find out if ConvictedFelonDonaldTrump (that's his new name and should be pronounced correctly every time it's on the news) has dropped dead or had an episode of freezing that lasted so long they took him off the stage. Either one is likely. My superstition is, I have to know.
Since so much of what we are experiencing seems like bad fiction, I lose myself in criminal mystery novels by Michael Connelly (Bosch) and Daniel Silva and the Women’s Murder Club by James Patterson.
May I recommend the soon-to-be 11 book series featuring Flavia de Luce, the world’s greatest adolescent British chemist/busybody/sleuth by Alan Bradley. Also the estimable "Bernie Gunther" 14 book series by Philip Kerr, with its long-suffering anti-Nazi detective in Nazi-era (and beyond) Germany. And the grand 18 book series (including short story collections) by Christopher Fowler, with London Golden Age detectives Bryant and May and their peculiar colleagues of the "Peculiar Crime Unit," charged with investigating cases that could cause national scandal or public unrest.
Thank you!
I'm reading James Patterson's and Cynthia Fagen's The House of Kennedy. It's interesting. I've only just started reading it.
Is it nonfiction?
I paint and listen to podcasts. Some of my favorites: Wiser than Me, Hidden Brain, Milk street Kitchen, The Moth.
Sharon, I like those too and get them through NPR on my local Public radio station. Check out "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," also NPR. It gives a really funny slant to the week's news and by the weekend it is needed.
Yes! I love Wait Wait!
Find a dog rescue and volunteer to walk the dogs. You'll both feel better.
Watch Aerial America and view what a magnificent country we live in! (Smithsonian Channel I think)
Ma Nature is always welcoming. Just don't take her for granted or disrespect her. We have seen what happens when we do.
"I try to be cynical, but I just can't keep up." -- Lily Tomlin
Bonnie -
Bonnie - courage and positivity and neutrality and blocking out the noise which is meant to prevent all of us from voting. We must stand strong as those brave soldiers did on D-Day 80 years to save America and the world from autocracy and they did. So can we 🗽🇺🇸🗳️🌎☀️🕯️💙🙏🙋♀️🏄♀️🇺🇸🎉
She and all of the other legal scholars (sarcasm supplied) even considering this nonsense don't have a leg to stand on --- apart from the fact that two Republican AGs under Trump appointed special counsels. Setting aside the hypocrisy, while SCOTUS hasn’t specifically ruled on the constitutionality of special counsels, legal rulings about their predecessors — independent counsels — suggest that special counsels are compatible with the Constitution. They operated outside the DOJ and had more freedom than special counsels do today (which is part of why the practice of appointing them was discontinued). But even with that greater level of freedom, SCOTUS ruled that independent counsels were constitutional and recognized them as “inferior” officers, not “principal” officers.
Absolutely! She’s a sychophant and an embarrassment to the bench.
Laura, I still feel sad when a woman gains some level of power, then turns out to be a total jerk, often worse than the guy who would have been in her place. We do keep promoting those jerks and they keep disappointing us, but cheering the Republican men and a few other women who dished them up. And, they get to do their dirty work against our rights for a lifetime.
Ruth, I totally agree. For better or worse, the spotlight is always on women who attain positions of power. It angers me when those women abuse that power. It’s as if they failed all women!
Laura, it's amazing how much damage one woman can do to all of us. I wonder why it doesn't work the same way for men.
I have wondered that also.
Her bias is plain as day.
All the unqualified judges Moscow Mitch pushed through while trump was in office are an embarrassment. Not only to the bench but to the rule of law as well.
One would certainly think so since she's again showing the same bias that caused the 11th Circuit to chastize her previously. Even if she does make a surprisingly rational ruling and dismisses trump's desparate motion, I hope Jack Smith moves soon to recuse her anyway so he (hopefully) can move forward with a fair judge.
She knows how she has to rule, but she also knows how many weeks she can take to do it
Dave, I am sure Cannon's handlers are feeding her with every single time limit possible and she will take them all to benefit her Baby Donnie. She has no idea that once he has gotten what he wants from her, he will have only contempt for someone who could be so easily manipulated. When will the Trumpers and Trumpettes understand how he works?
Ruth, until they get “Cohaned” by trump, they won’t understand. Then they will. Then it’s “too late”
Funny how that works
Jaba the Hut in real time
Ruth, I'm not certain he would have contempt for someone so easily manipulated, because he seems to really like people who will go along with anything he says or does. That said, I also wonder when his followers will figure out how he works.
Exactly.
Common sense - Jack Smith deserves a win and so do the American people. We are up against pure evil. We must hang in there for America and the world 🌎 🇺🇸🗽🌻🥁🕯️🏄♀️
Is this possible?
Laura, I don't even understand how a judge appointed by Trump could possibly sit on a case that involves felony charges for Trump. That is certainly a conflict of interest and IS covered by the judicial code of ethics or should be. I am guessing appointing judges is supposed to be random, but that is nonsense when something as clear as the case with Cannon's conflict of interest (I am sure there is a better legal term), she should have been passed over in favor of someone not appointed by the guy being tried, and with more experience; Cannon had none and was appointed just to serve the Republican causes.
Ruth, I’m not sure exactly how the docketing process works in Florida federal courts, but I’m sure Judge Cannon jumped at the chance if she had that opportunity! See also that Trump appointed hundreds of federal judges. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_federal_judges_appointed_by_Donald_Trump
She might rule by december
Excuse me, but does the contraception bill include condoms? And of course, condoms are a defense against disease, but that doesn’t matter to those people because men bear no responsibility at all for contraception or pregnancy or anything.
Does it include vasectomies? Just asking.
Jude Ellen, I have been reading that vasectomies have increased significantly in the past 2 years. Two members of my family have chosen that method of birth control and are glad they did. I would not be surprised, though if vasectomy becomes a target of the rabid Republicans. They are about controlling people's lives. They are not worried about getting someone pregnant or transmitting an STI. They are rich enough and hypocritical enough to "fix it," and hide their hypocrisy. If found out, they will have an Alito excuse "she made me do it."
Yeah, but Ruth, control doesn't apply to white men. Or at least it doesn't seem to based on what I've been seeing and hearing. Do you really think they'd do something to control themselves??? From what I've seen, control only applies to women, trans, lgbtq, and blacks of either gender.
Susan, I do not think GOP/conservative white men can control themselves. They have decided to remain toddlers, so I don't imagine those in power who are against women's rights will control themselves at all. They love being able to force others to do their will and since they are not being stopped lately, they are completely out of control. We need a Lysistrata moment where women refuse to sleep with anyone who does not stand for women's bodily autonomy. It should be national and last 3 days to start with just as a trial run, then go on for as long as it takes. It would get a lot of press and maybe people, women especially would see that they have some power and do not always have to bow to whiney white boys whose egos are huge and not matched by their talents, abilities, and care for anyone but themselves.
I have been wondering about this for ages and have heard no discussion.
Women put their very lives on the line during pregnancy. Men can, and often do, walk away afterwards.
Absolutely!
Shelley, the sad and scary part is that it is not about birth control per se. It is about controlling women's lives and keeping us out of men's way unless we can be used by them, you know the guys in conservative power. Men need to wake up to see that they are victims of this power grab because they will be responsible for paying for all these children being born and STIs transmitted by and to them. We need more male voices loudly stating that this is all BS and men in power need to back off and take some time and grow up! I don't expect I will hear that any time soon, unfortunately.
Even more so, it affects everyone in chilling their rights. If the Commissar might come to your house inquiring, that’s a threat to whatever they want to know.
Douglas, in Griswold v. Connecticut, wrote that over the enumerated rights, there exists a penumbra, of which privacy is one, of protection which are needed to effect these rights. That’s been a target for years.
Shelly, you must remember, MAGA does not believe in disease
I haven't read the bill but from this description, it seems like its language actually means abortion but was left to be broad to drive home the point that Republicans are willing to interpret broadly against any kind of contraception in the absence of specific language. It's insulting to women that Republicans don't concern themselves, in any way, about making any distinction between abortion and contraception. No need. Women will simply do as the Republicans tell them to do. Since Roe v Wade was decided, the world has seen the vast improvement in women's lives because they had reliable contraception. So, now a majority male institution has decided to become the final arbiters of women's health and personal freedom.
Common Sense, banning birth control was always a goal after abortion. These whiney white Republicans are evil. They just keep noticing what they can get away with, then take it a step further. What comes after birth control is not clear. I think they are hoping for renewed slavery with them as the masters. We don't have to take it, but we are going to have to do some serious organizing to stop them. Waiting for November is not going to cut it. We need to find ways to get things moving to stop them now!
Any effort by any state official to make or enforce any so-called law outlawing contraception would be not only unconstitutional but anti-constitutional. See, e.g. "The Dobbs Fraud by SCOTUS's Fake Originalists (Part VI)" https://blackcollarcrime.substack.com/p/the-dobbs-fraud-by-scotuss-fake-originalists-106?r=30ufvh.
Jack, you are so right about being unconstitutional, but these days, our SC conservatives (cons) care little for the Constitution. They warp it out of shape, ignore any of the amendments they don't like (1, 13, 14, 15, 19, and 26 in particular) and pump up ones that mean exactly opposite of what they and their rich white friends want (2nd). For those guys and one gal, birth control is just a means to power over women and even Barrett is caught up in it. When Trump's cronies nominated her (through Trump) they knew she would betray women in an instant, claiming it was god made her do it and knew she would be able to find a way to go along with the misogynistic male justices because, well, she wants to be one of them, but alas, was born in a female body (I think).
Joyce,
I have only been a subscriber for a few months but wish all the long term followers and especially you, a happy second anniversary.
I look forward to many more instructive, informative and, on occasion, funny postings.
Thank you.
Joyce is usually superb at explaining fine distinctions. It should be recognized that pro-life supporters make a distinction between two kinds of contraception.
A true contraceptive prevents conception--these include the Pill, birth-control implants, spermicide, and barrier methods.
Other methods are called contraception, but they do not prevent conception. They prevent the establishment of a pregnancy by preventing the fertilized egg from attaching to the wall of the uterus. Something like preventing a drowning person from grabbing the side of a boat. Birth control methods that fit into this second category include the morning after pill and intrauterine devices.
No pro-life advocate would be willing to vote for a law that proclaimed a right to every form of contraception, because they want to preserve the distinction between the two types.
"If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would Be a Sacrament"
- Gloria Steinham
Very curious that you would compare a human egg prevented by medication from attaching to the uterus to "a drowning person." Somehow this comparison suggests that a woman seeking to prevent a pregnancy is killing a real person. I doubt that this reading is accidental. It is unacceptable.
And once again --- if they want to go this route and easy fix would be vasectomies for all boys!
We geld all kinds of animals. Men are no different, especially those who impregnate a woman and walk away. Men are after all responsible for babies. Women ovulate all the time without producing an embryo.
Jen, thank you for a good laugh based on truth. Very well said!
nevoustrumpezpas, yep the whole egg as person is the next step in the stupidity of white evangelical/Catholic pseudo-christianity. They just make up stuff as they go along. They can't claim it is part of Jesus' message because people didn't understand the whole birth process back in the day. It seems men just have to pretend they got some kind of revelation about it over time; they didn't. They just make stuff up, then lie about it as a way to control other people's lives to make themselves feel brilliant, holy, and important. It's all a lie but alas, a bunch of people believe the BS. No, an embryo is not a child! No, conception is not magically creating an instant child! No, birth control is not killing babies! No, IVF is not against nature! No, those frozen embryos are not children! We need to be saying "no" more often and a whole lot louder, then get the word out of the real purpose of the Republican "prolife" stance; it's control of other people's lives for the gain of those Republican mostly white males. There is no god in this or love or any of the things Jesus taught. It is all them and their power-grabbing. There is money in it too, of course! !
I agree.
This sounds like the conception begins at erection crowd.
An embryo is not a person and has no right to life.
Many millions of Americans and other millions throughout the world believe that a fertilized egg is indeed a human being. You know that this is a fact. What are you going to do with that group of people? Heap scorn on them until they feel so devalued as human beings that they never open their mouths again?
If people believe that, then they shouldn't use contraceptives. But, they do not need to force their views in the form of a law so nobody can use them. This is a power and control issue over women. It's wrong. Republicans never think long term. What will happen to all of these unwanted babies? Will Republicans help with social programs for those who were struggling before adding a child to their lives? Of course not! I wonder how many Republican women use birth control? This whole issue is a MYOB one.
The problem with religious zealots is they lack the intelligence to imagine that there is any other reality but theirs. Their heads blow up when they hear there are hundreds of gods.
Oh please. Millions of Americans believe that Donald Trump is worthy of the presidency. You know that this is a fact. And yes, we are going to heap scorn, mockery, and logic on them with everything we have. It’s not a constitutional obligation to suffer fools gladly. Sorry. Not sorry.
Guess what? If I disagree with you, I will still treat you with courtesy. I can see that you are quite intelligent, but there is a wisdom of thought that is deeper than the spirit of the age.
If you fight with dehumanizing weapons, even if you win, you will wake up in a dehumanized world.
Kathleen, most religions disagree with each other. Millions of people believing “this way, not that way”. Using the argument “millions believe this way” is not a persuasive argument when used in conjunction with individual rights clothed in the Constitution. The belief of Millions extend only to the boundary of their personal space and safety, and shall not be imposed on others who hold different beliefs. Freedom exists because “majority rule” is overcome by the enlightened reasoning that protects, by law, the rights of the minority. Your argument fails the freedom test
Guess what...the sixties are over...
People have a right to their own beliefs and to act accordingly for themselves. But frankly, it’s nobody’s damn business if I choose to use contraceptions or not. I’m not heaping scoring on anybody. This is not a value judgment. This is a law that will adversely affect millions of women, and in the end, protect no one. Choice is the only choice.
I agree with you that if someone sincerely believe that a fertilized egg is a person then we should respect that. We shouldn't heap scorn on them simply because of their belief. But, once they claim that their belief trumps everyone else's then it becomes a different story. What about those people who sincerely believe life begins at first breath? Why should Christian religious beliefs be written into law and theirs ignored? No one is telling anyone that they can't consider a fertilized egg to be a person; but they have no right to tell others that they have to.
I said 'if someone sincerely believe' for a reason. Let's get real here, the actual Evangelical objection to Plan B is that it allows women to slut it up and avoid the consequences. For obvious reasons that argument isn't a winning one. But, claim that fertilized eggs are people and that Plan B is an abortifacient then suddenly there's a plausible, but completely disingenuous, argument that can be used.
Plan B allows women to slut it up?
How fucking offensive to even say that.
There are no children without men. It is men who need to be regulated. Women ovulate all the time with no embryo.
Don't shoot the messenger. I may have expressed the idea a little more sarcastically then necessary, but that's exactly the argument I have seen Evangelicals use against Plan B. Evangelicals insist that all non-procreative sex is a terrible sin. They believe that pregnancies are a gift/punishment from God. For them abortions and contraceptives interfere with God's will. Plan B is especially reviled since in their minds it encourages women to be reckless about having sex since they can use it to 'escape the consequences'.
I think that we make decisions in this country through the democratic process. Thus, if a majority of people want to outlaw something then they should have the right to do it., even if they are acting on a religious motivation. I am happy to have these issues decided through our existing democratic processes. The abolitionists were by and large motivated by religious beliefs. Religion is one of the ways that people make decisions. I want all of us to feel free to speak up for our point of view without being trolled, because you never know what will become the majority view in the future.
Actually, no, the majority shouldn't be allowed to outlaw anything they want. The minority has rights also that should be respected.
But if the majority is allowed to have a say on reproductive rights then they aren't in any danger. However, the anti-choice crowd has no interest in letting the majority have its way. They've already loaded the judiciary against the people's will. They've also loaded state legislatures. They are convinced they know what's best and aren't going to let a pesky little thing like majority opinion stop them.
As for religion, it's worth noting that while the abolitionists may have been influenced by religion, the southern enslavers were absolutely dependent on it to justify their position.
Call bullshit on the propaganda fed to them by their pastors/preachers/priests/fathers/brothers disguising the real motivation behind the “Pro-Life” movement : control.
So, everyone who disagrees with you is a brainwashed moron. I'd call that stereotyping. I bet these pastors and priests wished they had that much power.
Try to explain the development of the egg is all I can think of. Anyone who has studied biology knows two cells become 4 etc. People who are sublimely ignorant may be able to be educated.
It is fascinating. Did you know at one point an embryo has rudimentary gills? That the "heartbeat" is bullshit because there is no heart to beat?
Even their own book has the magic sky daddy saying life begins when he (it's always a him) breathes the breath of life into the newborn.
I would like all of them to give up the magic sky daddy nonsense but when it's legal to indoctrinate children with Santa Claus and Jesus that's not going to happen.
I'm fully aware that a preborn human has rudimentary gills at an early point in development. And did you know that there are primitive animals out there with a circulation system but no heart? Blood is circulated because the largest artery begins to pulsate, just the way it does in a human being before the heart develops.
Clearly, it would be more accurate to describe it as a as a “circulatory system begins to function bill," rather than a heartbeat bill.
Yes
Yes
This description of “contraception” misses the fact that conception does not automatically happen just because sperm and egg are in the same place. Far from it, statistically. So banning IUDs and emergency contraceptives (eg PlanB) forces EVERY woman to wait to see if she becomes pregnant, whether she wishes to or not. IUDs are highly effective at preventing abortions because they are so very effective at preventing unintended pregnancies !
Why may I ask is that distinction necessary?
Kathleen, yes, there is a distinction between types of birth control, but most "prolifers" and people in general have no clue what that means. The "prolifers" just know what they are told to stand for by their pastors or other powerful men in their lives and mouth what they are told, "no birth control." The distinction is medical and should be seen by ordinary people as nonsense, because stressing it is to justify a warped understanding of how the world works as defined by white male pseudo-christians. They don't care about the distinction, just the control they think they would have over women and men who aren't rich enough to travel to somewhere to help their partner have an abortion or to buy contraceptives on the black market which will surely arise. Yep, they are looking for another war on drugs since the first one was so successful. Yo private prison owners, a whole batch of folks are coming your way that will keep you guys in business for a long time! (not if we who care have a say, though)
Mr. D. I also commend Joyce Vance for this high-quality thread. I have been listening to Joyce's commentary on MSNBC for a long time, but only recently, about 5 months ago realized she had a Substack thread. I finally figured out how to subscribe, or rather had my sister help me subscribe since the process is not easy for a blind person using a screen reader. I wish Joyce many more years of sharing her wisdom and perspective with us from down in deep red.
I'd love a bumper sticker like your flag! Just lost my post but take 2. Re birth control issues, why have men not been mentioned? That embryo was conceived with their help. If women are forced to give birth, the "father's" should be forced to pay all expenses for each child and mother for the next 18 years. If that was law, it may make birth control available forever. And of course, if they should try to leave the state to escape their responsibility, they will be jailed with charges of abandonment and child neglect as will anyone who helps them commit these crimes.
1000%, Kay.
Embryos don't happen at all without a man. Contraception should be mandatory. Rite of passage for males: a vasectomy.
THIS!!!! I guess my other problem with this issue is- besides your excellent point that men are many times not held responsible and take no part in raising a child! - but I’m not quite understanding what is the problem that the republicans have with contraception? Is it really based on strict religious beliefs?? I just can’t get my head around that. Anyone else understand their logic to vote against a common sense solution? The ledge I’m on is getting so scary!!!
I could not sleep last night. The scenarios just kept rolling around in my head. The GOP said something to the effect that it wasn’t necessary to codify this issue because it would never be an issue. What do the women of this country have to say? Not necessary because it would never be challenged? Well a constitutional right was overturned! SCOTUS cannot be trusted. It is a panel of
Bought and paid for men with three exceptions. And Amy coney Barrett is no friend of women because of her wing nut religious beliefs. Welcome to The handmaids tale.
Everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs but they are not entitled to legislate them for all of the Country. Women this is more than scary…this is real danger.
Also!!! While I’m past the child bearing age now - I clearly recall the benefits that birth control pills did to help manage my monthly period pain. It used to be debilitating- at least knocking me out of being a normal productive person for a day or two. This is just madness! Vote them out PLEASE!
Just tryin' to make more white people....
I don't understand. I think contraception would be unavailable for women. Please explain your post.
I've wondered about that too.
"The "father's" should be forced to pay all expenses for each child and mother for the next 18 years."
Actually, that is the law. Some states are very aggressive in helping women collect child support payments.
Lately, between expletives, I’ve taken to moaning “god make it stop!” whenever Trump or one of his ilk are given air time on the news.
Be strong! I don't even say the T-monster's name, just refer to him as TFG. Drinking (in moderation) also helps on some particularly gruesome days.
Good suggestions
- I prefer a dry red with the news myself
I wish I could drink, but two medications I'm on prevent that. I tried it in small quantities for 2 days before it became obvious that alcohol and my meds don't get along. I don't need any more misery…
"Only our votes can ultimately change that." Yet the polls show the two party nominees to be neck and neck. One day historians may have an explanation for this, but for now the answer is elusive. Maybe it's the years of dumbing down our schools paying off; no one is reading Orwell anymore.
The Republicans committed political suicide today! Democrats have a very strong argument to protect abortion rights, but now there is an even stronger political argument to protect the right of contraception! So Marsha Blackburn, Ric Scott, Ted Cruz, Josh Harley, Deb Fischer in Nebraska (opposed by Pro Choice Independent Senate candidate Dan Osborn), Kari Lake and many other Republicans opposed to Pro Choice and Pro Contraception Democrats are toast! Let’s make it happen folks! We can get it done!
Hawley! Marsha is the worst of the worst!
Marsha Blackburn actually had the nerve to state that the Right to Contraception Act was ‘constitutionally unsound.’ How would she know anything about the Constitution? She’s a hairdresser!
Have faith. Between now and election day the work is voter turn-out and pressing the message that hysterically attacking the justice system reflects Trump’s pending implosion. President Biden is doing his share; we must each do our part to support voter turn-out in Swing states.
You know who has been busy attacking public schools, Republicans. They don't fund schools properly, divert money to private and charter schools, attack teachers, the curriculum, etc. Public schools helped my family to have a decent life and be self supporting.
Masses who can't read are easily controlled.
Don't forget banning (burning) books. Read the MAGA comments to X, Youtube, and Fox News and they are replete with grammar errors as well as the usual "alternate facts".
Republicans are all of a sudden very busy disrupting our institutions all over the USA. Yesterday, out of the blue, trump decided to reverse course on mail in ballots. He was against them, thinks that's why he lost in 2020; now he wants his voters to use mail in ballots. Pardon me if I smell a LARGE RAT, named trump or some of his cronies, who will probably inundate states with mail in ballots that we sure as heck need to investigate to be sure Republicans aren't casting numerous ballots/votes for their Fuhrer trump. As we all know, when a Democrat attempts to cast a ballot when they are out on supervised probation, they are not allowed, but when they are told they could cast a Provisional Ballot, and do so, they are arrested in Texas and hit with a 5 yr prison term (she was black). She appealed and won, I think I recall, but still. Several Repubs not only tried to vote numerous times, they got away with it for a short time, but when caught, they received no jail time and only slapped on the wrist. So, here we have trump who is obviously a guy who has been a criminal most of his adult life as he used casinos to launder money for the mob, the Russians, etc., and more, but when caught and FINALLY held accountable, it is OMG witch hunt, convicted on 34 counts, oh, I'm gonna get that Biden guy and all these judges. Well, yes, if he gets back in the WH, he'll fire everyone he can and replace them with his crooked cronies. Okay, rant over. One more item: contraception is a no go? So does that mean men won't be allowed to buy condoms? Isn't that against business? And if the pharmaceutical companies are getting hit in their pocket books, might they not donate to Dems instead??? I yield back my time.
Bill, most of the mail in ballots are scanned for signature before they are even opened. I saw some of these machines at work, they grab a stack of mail (robotic arms) feed them into the scanner and process hundreds per minute - and that was before AI. In California mail-in ballots are counted as they arrive, the numbers are not released until election day. But with Ballot Trax, I cannot imagine how they could be subject to fraud.
Can't AI be programed for anything ?
Yes of course.
Not sure, Patricia. I retired in January 2021 just before AI leapt boldly into the marketplace. An that is a field I have not kept up with
What about the 11th circuit stopping from accepting complaints of Cannon I posted in yesterday’s newsletter comments? They have to know what she’s doing if 1000 people complained.
Wait - what? The complaints I hope were submitted by senators and Garland!
No it was mostly from the public that saw what cannon was doing by dragging her feet and some of her decisions to hold hearings for every single objection the defense brought as justice delayed a is justice denied.
Hard to believe (and to stomach) that a right to contraception has to be defended in 2024. Hard to believe we're not back in 1924. The extent of the extremist right wing lashing out is a measure of how threatened they are by us. But they're making us more angry and determined with every lash. "I am woman, hear me roar."
Back in 1924 women had had the right to vote for only four years, since the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. Logically should not the far right challenge this right, too, as soon as they have disposed of the right to contraception?
I vaguely recall reading that this is a proposed policy for some. I also know from MAGA types here in Northern Ireland that the hardcore believe Feminism and therein women’s rights are akin to Satanism. Although you would be hard pressed to ever hear them say this outside what they consider their safe talking shop siloes. Don’t ask how I know this. I have had a ‘fractured & complicated’ life. 🐈⬛
Yeah. Sheesh.
"... Republicans saying the [guaranteed access to contraceptives] legislation was both unnecessary and government overreach." is reminiscent of Justice Robert's opinion in Shelby v Holder. He argued, essentially, that times had changed: the racism which previously required pre-clearance for proposed voting laws no longer existed. Turns out, that argument was like stating: "that hundred-foot high dam's unnecessary; why look, that water hasn't budged in decades!"
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote that it was like throwing your umbrella away in a rainstorm, because up to that point you had not gotten wet.
Perfect! That's better. Concise and comic in its obviousness.
Thank you as always, Joyce. Love the Civil Discourse swag!
This is mind boggling and what is more mind boggling is these senators will likely be re-elected in most states. This is a time when the Democratic Party ready needs to shift into an ever wider tent accepting moderates who are locked out of the Republican Party in these red states and picking up critical voters in swing states. This is why Biden works - he’s not very left of center. But Republicans label and Fox pounds it into the brainwashed mass as truth. The breakthrough is to grab the center, hold the left and crush the MAGA party right out of electoral relevance.
Abortion rights and now Contraception rights are at great risk so the moderates have a very strong reason to reject the Republicans from the top of the ticket to the bottom!
Bobert is 35 points ahead of her opponent! No explaining stupid.
That is scary!
Isn't there anything Jack Smith can do to get Judge Aileen Delay to move this trial along?
You are something else, Joyce! Okay, let me go to to your site because my 48th wedding anniversary is coming up on the 12th.
Joyce, although your commentary re the contraception vote was to the point, you missed the most essential point in the continuing fight between the Western Enlightenment (WE) vs. Authoritarianism:
Self-determination or Liberty vs. ownership or possession of human beings through adverse possession of their private parts.
Consider: Forced labor in the uterine field for months, followed by vaginal rape from the inside-out (forced birth). Compare with forced labor in the cotton or tobacco fields and with rape from the outside-in (sexual rape). Both kinds of rape require the attackers to take adverse possession of the victims' supposed-to-be private parts. Possession means the right/power to manage, use, utilize, control, and dominate the possessed object. That is what Republican politicians are all about with their laws.
Feminists warned in the '90s that contraception would be next after abortion. This is a message which needs to be strongly propounded to men as well, as it bears upon their right of self-determination to use condoms for the penis and THEIR free will whether or not to become fathers (or again).
In the clash between the animal drives to reproduce people BY FORCE vs. keeping it voluntary (free will), slavery by Republicans seizure of peoples' private parts through their laws must fail. In this election season, the stakes have to be presented in the grand terms of ideology that address the core issue of freedom of the individual vs. tyranny of the slavers. Individualism vs. collectivism. In emotive and persuasive effects, that kind of speech will trump (no pun intended) merely adducing the economic impacts of slave labor reproduction. (And bring in the men, too! Their freedom and their duties to defend the family must be articulated. Appeal to man protecting his young daughter and his wife/partner, his family and his honor.) Sorry that this got to be so long. Differentiating Christian Scripture from the pre-Christian Pythagorean cult doctrine of a spirit of life in the product of conception for another time.
I love the concept of inside-out rape and the comparison with slavery. Obviously men from all parts of the country are for this, but I find it interesting that the interest is concentrated in the South…
Hi Susan, Always ask: “Where is everyone coming from?“ 1. From the Confederate South with its long culture of slavery and domination (slaves are cheaper labor than low paid white labor - worship of the True Lord - Lord Mamon.) 2. The Vatican City clergy with its ascension to power over the whole Roman Empire by conquering the mind of the ruler (Church-State tyranny). 3. The greatest American-born misogynist left his mark on the Salt Lake City clergy. 4. More fundamentally, it’s when there is conflict between either (or both) of the sexual and reproductive drives without a moral boundary vs. the drive for autonomy and self. When the victim loses the struggle and is forced to submit, that’s rape - sexual or reproductive. 5. Finally, there is religious or other ideological rape as when one is forced to be obedient to a version of religion not believed by the victim or suffers forced obedience to atheism. This is relevant because much tension exists between different versions of the Doctrine of Ensoulment, very roughly, the beginning of Human Life (vs. A Human Life).
If you think this may interest others, feel free to forward our whole conversation. I would appreciate feedback, especially criticism.
Ken, I find the concept of religious rape very interesting. Listening to a lot of the so-called christians, I wonder if that's what's happened to them. Not sure if the source is their church, or the convicted rapist djt… or both.
I posted a lengthy reply to yours’, but don’t see it. Did you receive it in your inbox or? Ken Adler
Ken, when I post any reply, I find it takes a significant amount of time for it to show up on the thread. I did get notification of your post, and it is here now.
You seem to think that lack of contraception affects men's freedom.
Have you been impregnated by a man who just walked away? They do it all the time.
Right, but I wasn't addressing that problem. Some men are responsible and anti-condem laws strip them of their self-determination right as well. But note the Republican organ distinction: they just want to ban post-fertilization/pre-implantation measures because they follow the pre-Christian (Pythagorian) Doctrine of Ensoulment (There is a "Spirit of Life" in the product of conception-fertilized egg.) So they consider emergency contraception as the murder of a single-cell infant. Biblical scripture has it that even a fetus is not yet a human life, although a pregnant woman is (Exodus). Science: There is no life of a human being without at least the beginning of mental function. That requires a goodly number of neuronal circuits in the grey matter of the brain (Neocortex). The first circuits begin to appear at 29-31 gestational weeks. But you need many. It's safe to say that there is still no person there prior to at least 29-31 weeks of gestational weeks, and quite a bit longer to get a sufficient number for the commencement of human mentality. The "one-cell baby" delusion just expresses the extreme lust for the reproduction of our species without moral boundary, but with human slavery.
After reading more about Judge Cannon's modus operandi, I am becoming convinced that she is getting advice from a lawyer (or other judge) as to how to slow this proceeding down without getting whacked by the 11th Circuit. Allowing amicus briefs from Ed Meese, etc. doesn't seem like a rookie move. See here: https://www.rawstory.com/aileen-cannon-2668460431/
I have been thinking the same thing!!!!! Someone is either pulling her strings or coaching her on a ‘slow it down’ strategy - and it is outrageous in my opinion.
You’re just realizing this?
Yes, I’m slow. Do you know who’s coaching her?
Very good example why we cannot change the US from inside the system. Revision to our constitution to build a real democracy here can only be extra democratic. This is why if the GOP is successful with a coup this time, the silver lining is that it may be the only way we make the radical change necessary to realize the founder’s plan for this country.
Somebody above her on the 11th Circuit, which goes all the way up to Clarence Thomas. Similarly, if Trump appeals the manhattan case to the Supreme Court, he has to go through Sonja Sotomayor. Just my guess.
Vincent Canon is the orange man’s go to Judge