Hekate
Hekate's JournalRoe v Wade had restrictions built in from Day One, something the anti-choice fanatics lie about
They lie.
The restrictions placed in Roe were based largely on common societal attitudes of the time, oddly enough, in which there were no restrictions during the first trimester, then increasing restrictions as the second trimester advanced, and only for profound medical reasons in the third trimester.
Throughout history, the 4th month was considered the time of "quickening," when the fetus first makes itself felt in little flutterings. What happened before then was generally a private occurance.
Medical reasons that were part of Roe had to do with life and health of the mother, the viability of the fetus, rape, incest, and so on.
Never has there ever been a legal-abortion policy or law that allowed women to walk into a clinic and demand an abortion of a healthy fetus a week before her due date. Never.
Third trimester abortions are vanishingly rare, but have been demonized by anti-choice fanatics as "partial birth abortion" and infanticide. They are for when the mother will die if she is not delivered immediately; they are for when the fetus is already dead, or is so profoundly deformed that it will die in days. Anencephaly is one such condition. There literally is no brain: most die immediately, some live a whole week. They aren't "retarded" or "developmentally delayed" -- they have NO brain and soon forget to breathe.
He was engaged in civil disobedience (so-called to distinguish it from criminal disobedience)...
...and passive resistance.
The entire movement was not about saying "Howdy do, folks, thanks for breaking my skull and firehosing my friends into the street."
It was about expressing your right to live in civil society, go to school, ride a bus, and be served coffee at a public counter -- standing, sitting, walking where racists do not want you to be, and passively letting them hurt you and arrest you in front of cameras for the whole world to see.
This is street theater where people get hurt and even die. It does not work without mass media present to inform the world of the appalling injustice of the larger society.
Mahatma Ghandi developed it and used it for this exact reason, and ultimately the British couldn't take it any more and let India go. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. studied Ghandi and adapted the method for use in this country -- and the rest of the country was appalled. I was a little kid when the images of snarling police dogs and faces twisted with hate came into our living room via TIME, LIFE, and a b/w tv.
Civil disobedience is not the same as civilly passing the crumpets to a racist in your home. By the same token, you get to decide what sort of behavior you are willing to speak out against wherever you are. Publicly Shaming a member of this nakedly fascist regime seems like an idea whose time has come -- just be prepared to take the consequences.
NB: The issue of passively taking the beatings got to be old for some in the movement after several years. See: Malcolm X, Huey Newton, et al.
I admire the Clintons. I don't know where they get their strength to keep going...
They have energy, grit, determination, heart, and tremendous intelligence.
And for some reason, way back in Arkansas when they were young the Right Wing took a dislike to the both of them. Not just a dislike, a real contempt, a hatred. And the RW nurtured, cultivated, and distorted that hatred until it crossed State lines and became what Hillary called (accurately, it turns out) a Vast Right Wing Conspiracy.
And here we are today, with all of the Republicans and a chunk of the Left having been infected with Clinton Derangement Syndrome. The RW (and some on the Left) projects every vile thing possible on Hillary, year after year after year. I hate to see this poisonous crap regularly showing up on DU.
I am not a Southerner, and God knows I've never been in Arkansas, but I have watched this bizarre show since the Clintons came to Washington in the 1990s.
All I can say is: speak up, oppose the lies, teach the younger generation what really happened.
I lay a lot of this right at Newt's feet with his 1990s memo Language: A Key Mechanism of Control
Enjoy.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4443.htm
"Language: A Key Mechanism of Control"
You are sadly wrong about abortion. Anti-choice fanatics have proven they are willing to kill, maim
...and commit arson to shut down every clinic in the country. They have killed a number of doctors and nurses, have put up Wanted posters, have stalked the children of clinic personnel and have put information online about their schools and schedules.
And lie. They tell their followers and politicians that contraceptives (including The Pill) are abortifacients. They say no woman can die of pregnancy or childbirth in this day and age (another lie). Abortion is completely unavailable in the majority of counties in the US -- in Texas, there is one (1) clinic -- putting a tremendous burden on women who must travel overnight, arrange childcare, lose pay, and tell someone what they are doing, exposing them to risk.
They have pushed for "conscience" legislation, allowing doctors and pharmacists to refuse prescriptions and to refuse to fill prescriptions for everything from contraceptions to Plan B to pill-induced abortions -- the latter 2 are very time-sensitive.
It is a war they have engaged in ever since Roe v. Wade was handed down. They are fanatics and don't care who gets hurt.
And now, they will win.
A cry from the heart that I share. There are two people who were in my life that I hope...
...I never see again. One had been a long time colleague in local social justice and peace work, the other is a very narrow hyper-intellectual who only knows mathematics. Both these women are about my age, which is 70, and well old enough to know better.
The last -- the very last time -- I had lunch with my old colleague, a bright Latina with heart, she parroted the anti-Hillary screeds from the Left. "Hillary Rodham" is more dangerous than Trump because she knows where the levers of power are, and that kind of crap. What made it worse was I know which group of vets she was spending all her time working with, because during the Bush2 years I worked with them too.
The other woman I have only encountered a handful of times and she has always irritated me, but the last time was right after the Comey "revelations." She went out of her way to needle me hard about Hillary's supposed criminality. Talk of Trump's character left her unmoved. "We'll see," she said. "We'll see what the next week brings."
How could they? How could one I thought I knew be so blind? How could the other one be that arrogant? And here's the final kick in the ass: they are both financially marginal.
Last week I phoned an old friend from graduate school and spent an hour talking her down from her anxiety about the fascist, trying to give her some hope. She's poor and lives in senior housing, with a son dying in a nursing home far away in Wisconson. Trump is a disaster for such as they -- this is reality. She's like me, she voted for Hillary, absolutely no question about it.
A few days later I phoned my sister and it was even worse. She's Dem to the bone, like me. I felt like I was trying to talk someone down off a ledge for over an hour. I did my best. She's in upstate New York and I am in California. I can't just drop in. Aside from the galloping fascism, Trump's destruction of the ACA is impacting her husband, herself, and their virtually disabled adult son that she brought home to live with them -- this is real. She wants to leave the country, but can't.
Then for me, something more about the children -- maybe it was Senator Elizabeth Warren's write-up of her visit to the cages -- My eyes leaked all day. Again, insomnia.
Damn, now I seem to be dribbling tears on my iPad. Sorry if it makes the ink run. Sorry if I said too much.
The blouse is called a "pussy bow": the type of ribbon put on kittens because so cuuuute...
I don't know how long "pussy" has had a double meaning, but you can go back centuries in nursery rhymes to its use meaning soft cuddly kitty. When I was in fashion retail (college, 1960s) the term was in use for both the blouse with attached bow and the separate scarf tied just so.
That said, I completely agree that Melania was playing off her husband's dirty words. I no longer have any fucks to give for that woman.
Didn't Truman also integrate the US military? Complicated is right.
My first US Senator fought in a segregated unit, the 442nd, and left his arm in Italy. We have come a long way since then. Still very imperfect, but a long way.
I have few heroes, and I will not name them in this abominable thread, but when I stopped being a child I realized that all of them (pardon me for the following cliches, but they convey what I mean) had feet of clay, and none of them were plaster saints. In other words they were mortals with mortal flaws.
I began to understand history and context. I began to understand how to weigh heroism, vision, intellect, and striving for the good of others -- against whatever wrongs and errors of judgment they made in an imperfect world. Maybe I change my mind; maybe I'm disappointed but don't change my mind.
My first degree was in history, and I am always happy to engage in fact-based discussions. But you are right: the OP is not in that category.
This op and this thread are some prime shit-stirring. Fucking false equivalencies, whataboutism...
This is not an invitation to a historical discussion about great men and their flaws -- this is an invitation to view Franklin Roosevelt through the same lens as Donald Trump and call them both the same.
I want to know why this was posted and why so many people are falling for it. This absolutely reeks.
Divide. Divide and conquer.
Christ on a trailer hitch.
I'm sorry you have not noticed that The Resistance is alive and well...
The Washington Post is crowdsourcing info from around the country as to the locations of child detention centers and foster care -- and publishing the maps
Airline attendants have spoken out about being lied to
A lawyer is working pro bono to assist federal employees who refuse to be complicit
Mayors and governors all over the country are refusing to cooperate with Trump/Sessions
A law firm is working pro bono to help immigrant detainees
A small non-profit put up a Go Fund Me page to collect $1,500 for one person's bail, and was inundated with $17,000,000. Yes, count the zeros.
Newspapers and tv journalists are telling the story.
Hope is alive. WE are not yet those people Trump wants us to be.
Source: Rachel Maddow, this evening.
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