Tuesday, May 3, 2022

over it and those fucking fuckers


This toe has interrupted the flow of my life and I am totally over it. I'm bored. I'm tired all the time from the inactivity, stiff and achy and I don't feel good. I don't even feel like doing the things I can do, like work on the drawing for the box. I've been on my foot more and more but after an hour or two my toe is a little more swollen and weepy so I go in, soak it, and spend the rest of the day reading or watching TV.

Haven't done my yoga at home or in class since I had the toenail removed but this morning I rolled out my mat and did an abbreviated routine. Most of the asanas were fine; down dog, up dog, plank, anything on the toes I sort of skipped over. Not that it hurt exactly, just twitchy. Anyway, I already feel a little better having done what I could and managed to get the grocery shopping done.

Marc mowed yesterday, going around the clumps of things still blooming even a single plant like this yellow coneflower and larkspur, and the yard looks so much tidier and when I can get out there and trim around the flowerbeds it will look even better.


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Well, the shit has hit the fan with the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe vs Wade. Consider this...two justices who sit on the highest court of the land lied under oath during their confirmation hearings when they claimed that R v W was settled law but the Chief Justice thinks leaking the draft of their decision is the “most egregious betrayal” instead of two justices saying one thing under oath and then proceeding to undermine what they considered settled and reaffirmed law. The Court wants to send abortion access to the individual states because the right for women to have bodily autonomy is not specifically listed in the 1st amendment as an 'inalienable right' as if the right for a woman to control when or if she has children has nothing to do with “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness”. Many of the rights our citizens currently have fall into this category. This is just a ploy to enable the far religious right to impose their opinions and beliefs on all women. There are 20+ states that already have laws on the books banning abortion, many ban them with no exceptions, ready and waiting for the Supreme Court to overthrow R v W. They are perfectly happy for a woman to die from ectopic pregnancies, for an 11 year old victim of incest to have that baby, for a dead fetus to rot in the womb killing the mother, for a woman to carry a severely malformed fetus to term that won't survive past birth, for a victim of rape to have the baby of a man she doesn't know and who won't be around. And they won't stop there, these religious fanatics. There is language in the draft that opens the door to overturn the right to birth control, the right to interracial marriage, the right to not be sterilized against your will, among other things, using the same rationale they are using to overturn R v W. You can be sure they will go after birth control, interracial and same sex marriage, making certain sex acts and positions illegal as well as any gender identity that they don't approve of, integration, all things that were illegal until they were challenged in the courts.

Ladies, and you men as well, this imminent decision won't affect those of us that are past childbearing age but it will our daughters and granddaughters. My daughter would be dead from an ectopic pregnancy if these restrictions were already in place and many of your daughters and granddaughters will die if abortion is left up to the individual states while women who spontaneously miscarry will be criminalized because these states do not value the lives of women. Whether or not you personally are in favor of abortion, the fact is that it's a massive invasion of privacy and no one's business but the woman who finds herself unwillingly pregnant or willingly pregnant but unable to continue the pregnancy for whatever reason. If you support this invasion of privacy don't be surprised when the courts decide your privacy isn't worth protecting either. 

The majority of Americans are in favor of legal safe abortion but the Republican controlled states don't care what their constituents want and they have gerrymandered their districts, engaged in voter suppression, passed laws that enable them to put aside the results of free and fair elections if they don't like the outcome in order to remain in power, for the minority to rule the majority. And so the midterm elections are just as important if not more important than our last national election. If the Republicans regain the House and Senate they will get rid of the filibuster (they've done it before) to guarantee that they and only they will remain in power...the minority ruling the majority and that will be the end of our democracy.


 

28 comments:

  1. America is not majority rule so long as we keep the antiquated electoral college, negating the popular vote and so long as we keep the equally imbalanced two senators for each state where podunk states of little population continue to elect conservative flakes. This partisan SCOTUS will continue to crap on individual rights for a long time to come.

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    1. We've probably had the last truly free and fair election when we elected Biden. Republicans have passed so many voter suppression laws, more extreme gerrymandering, and electoral process rules giving them the power to negate any result they don't like. Hopefully the moderate conservative women are now alarmed.

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  2. I'm linking this post on my post tonight. The only thing I disagree with you about is that I do not believe that most of the effort to end abortion rights come from religious beliefs. I believe that it directly stems from the patriarchy feeling threatened. And of course, most religions are all about the patriarchy. So, perhaps we even agree on that.

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    1. Also, of course- thank you. And I'm so sorry that your toe is causing you such grief and disruption. Your body needs time to hear from the shock of what happened.

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    2. Religion is a tool of the patriarchy, I'd say.

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    3. I think it's sort of like which comes first the chicken or the egg. Judaism is patriarchal but it does give women some rights. Christianity on the other hand doesn't recognise a woman's value beyond producing children, preferably sons, and she is supposed to be quiet and subservient. Dominionists are especially dangerous and they have been working for decades to turn this country into a theocracy. I would think the patriarchy would be more threatened by the rising power of women and our independence with the right to vote, the right to own land, the right to have a bank account and a credit card, the right to higher education, etc. Being able to control when and if we have children has helped but having children hasn't prevented us from having these other rights. But yeah, the patriarchy is definitely feeling threatened. I sincerely hope this drives the moderate conservative women away from the Republican party, at least until the Republican party becomes sane.

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  3. Wasn't it three lying under oath about Roe being settled law? Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Amy Comey Barrett? I am so pissed, they're going to come for Griswold next. There is no settled law, there is only autocracy.

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    1. That's what I thought too but apparently, as far as I could discover, she just steadfastly refused to answer any questions about abortion or R v W.

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  4. The United States is inching ever closer to a theocracy and if voters don't wake up soon and get rid of Republicans it will happen. Banning abortion does not prevent abortion of course, it simply removes safe, medically supervised abortion as an option for women. As a man it sickens me that any man should seek to impose his moral or ethical standards on a woman. The mere premise is simply absurd,

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    1. We women appreciate the support of men like you David. If Republicans regain and remain in control Americans will lose many hard fought rights. And not just women. I think the white supremacist christian nationalists would gladly bring back slavery if they could.

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  5. We can only vote our way out of this. And the thing I learned in the 2016 election, to women afraid to vote D, your husband, boyfriend, father does not need to know. You can lie if you must.

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    1. Here's something else that's not in the Constitution...9 members of the Supreme Court. If this court wants to determine cases based solely on the original constitution, let's start there and add more justices. Also get rid of the lifetime appointment.

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  6. Every time I heart the whiny voice of Trump promoting the Republicans in the state of Georgia (our news is out of Atlanta) I want to scream. I loathe that man and everything he stands for! That Taylor Greene woman is another I can't stand. I am sorry your toe is giving you fits, it will heal faster than our country. Small consolation.

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    1. Hopefully Stacey Abrams will get elected governor. That Margery Taylor Green is a seditionist wacko. It's bad enough the shit she spouts but she believes it. And I would love to slap that smug look off her face.

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    2. That sounds like a great idea to me...slapping her smug face...

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  7. 12% are against R v W. A loud and stinky 12%.

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    1. Dominionists have been working for decades to take over this country. Who cares what the population wants.

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  8. Men are so scared of women that all they have left is this hate. White men in your case.

    As for your toe, be patient, All your body wants is to heal. All the time

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    1. I think you're right. Sometimes I think it's instinctual like the fear of snakes only in this case the root is seeing women produce life, make babies before humans understood how pregnancy occurred. That must have been a scary and awesome sight, the power to expel a human being from your body. And for other men it's just a power trip.

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  9. I agree with everything you've said. It's an incredibly destabilizing decision and shows utter contempt for women and their personal goals and desires (and those of many couples and families). It's shocking how thoroughly the religious right has been able to hijack the country -- a country founded specifically to respect religious freedom. I feel like I'm in upside-down land.

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    1. There's been an underground movement to take over this country for decades. I just don't understand their need to impose their religious beliefs on the population at large. Their own lives aren't hindered. And these states that want to ban all abortions no exceptions based on their total ignorance of the medical need for abortions is a death sentence for some women.

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  10. It is a mess now, isn't it? You have expressed my feelings very well, Ellen.
    Hope your toe heals faster!

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    1. Hopefully the more moderate women who vote republican will wake up now.

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  11. It's all deeply disturbing that our Nation is going backwards instead of positive forward movements, back to archaic practices, oppression of Women, Minorities, Immigrants and the LGBTQ Community, and extremists controlling what everyone has the Right to based on THEIR Belief systems. I'm angry that the hard fought Freedom and pursuit of Happiness is being steadily eroded by radicalized individuals who are hungry for control and power over us all, robbing this Country of it's Democracy and having twisted Fantasies of Fascist Rule being preferable. I would like to send every Fascist leaning individual to a Country that has already spend Generations under such Rule, so they get a taste of the Reality of it, rather than having their wet dreams about the Fantasy of it they imagine and isn't tethered to Reality at all.

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  12. I so agree with you about the insanity. And I don't have a lot of hope left because of all the gerrymandering & voter suppression laws. I'm often glad I don't have kids, but I DO have nephews and a niece, and friends with children, and this is so scary for all of them!

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  13. Damn, and double-damn. It's hauling us back to the cave-man era, "barefoot and pregnant" may as well be the national slogan. What is it about equality that some people won't understand or accept?? This is the tip of the iceberg of women's rights, being chipped away, one thing at a time.

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  14. I hate that the Democrats stand on such misguided principle sometimes. I swear they need to start fighting fire with fire. These are scary times.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.