Authoritarians and Abortion

The thing to do with these Folks, if you want to remove them from your own life and from the body politic, is call them on their strange habits.

Authoritarians think their opinion about my sexual life should be relevant and potent. I do not even talk to my Mother about my sexual life. My sexual life is private and not subject to public or religious review. 

Authoritarian Anti Abortion Zealots, many of them religious, suffer from a paraphilia that seems to combine symptoms of voyeurism, exhibitionism, and sexual sadism. Think about what they do. They carry snuff porn around shopping centers.  The snuff porn is offensive to women who are opposed to abortion. It is also offensive to others whose beloveds cannot avoid looking at the snuff porn while driving down the street or prevent their beloveds from being attacked by fetus fetishists. Malignant scrupulosity is so ugly. 

These ForcedBirth folks sing, dance, pray and pinch women outside the offices of women's health care providers. They shout things like "The blood from your crotch will rise up and kill you, you Whore!" Normal folks simply cannot take it anymore.

And yet, one does not find these Forced Birth Folks picketing fertility clinics, where implanted embryos are "selectively reduced." Those embryos are not attached to a woman they feel they can stalk, insult and intimidate. They might get arrested. If you are a pervert or nuts, that takes all the fun out of picketing evidently.

Watch these Folks in action. The video below is long and the narrator's contempt for the protestors is obvious. It is still worth watching to get a flavor of the real American Circus. To quote Vonnegut: And so it goes. 

The second video has the 'regular guy' protestors, for the sake of fairness. They do not think I should be using birth control. They picket women's medical clinics that do not even do abortions. They want to be sure to let me know they hate condoms. Really, it is too much information.

Womb Sniffers, my term for the really earnest category of Religious Authoritarians, assassinate and maim people they don't agree with. And they assert that God approves. Their site comes complete with martyrs for the cause. 

Tell me, do you want ANY of these people in charge of your family, your sex life and your body functions?  Or those of your Daughter, your Wife, your Sister or your Mother?  Do you want them assassinating your gynecologist at the women's clinic? Why is it that an American woman cannot walk unmolested down any street and enter into any building she chooses to without harassment and intimidation in the USA?

I do not get it. If a strange person came up to me on a bus and started talking to me about my sex life, tried to show me weird pictures and/or pinched me, s/he would get arrested. If the strange person did that in a public thoroughfare, a boardroom, a meeting, or a public building, the strange person would get arrested.

Could an exhibitionist (or assassin or a voyeur) of ordinary stripe avoid arrest by pleading "You can't touch me or stop me, Cop, because I am religious! Stalking that woman while I show her the (penis, gun, snuff porn) is what God wants me to do."

When I discuss this issue, I feel like the kid pointing to the Emperor's nakedness. Religious Authoritarians do not occupy the moral high ground. They have not clothes on. Point it out. Okay, rant over now.

The NRA's Two Second Amendment Lies

J Nagarya:

The NRA's Two Second Amendment Lies

The gun industry political front NRA tells two lies about the intent of the Second Amendment.  

1.  That the Second Amendment protects an "individual" "right" to possess guns.  

Comparison with the several prior Supreme Court decisions, and the legislative history -- the Congress' Debates of the writing of the Amendment, which are LEGAL AUTHORITY -- shows that Scalia's "Heller" decision is an outlier.  In "Heller" he falsely held that the Amendment protects an individual right -- for which he was excoriated by legal experts across the political spectrum for ignoring this adjudicatory standard:

When a conflict over the interpretation of a law cannot be resolved within the text of the law, one reverts to the legislative history of the law -- in this instance Congress' Debates of the writing of the Amendment.  

The facts from those Debates:

The subject of the Amendment is well regulated Militia, and its purpose to establish a National Defense, relying on that Militia.  The Militia is not an individual, and is a public institution, regulated under both Federal and state constitutions and laws; thus the Amendment is irrelevant to the issue of private, individual gun ownership:

James Madison is called "the father of the Constitution," and the gun industry/NRA claims that Madison wrote the Second Amendment.  If both of those are facts, then the word "people" is consistent in meaning from beginning of the Constitution to the end of the first 10 Amendments.  The first three words of the Constitution are "We the people," not, "We the individual".

This is the first draft of that which became the Second Amendment, which the gun industry/NRA calls the "Madison" Amendment -- but which it never quotes.  [Here I clarify it for the logic-impaired]:

"The right of the people [PLURAL] to keep and bear arms [this phrase is the well-regulated Militia, and was drawn from four state constitution Militia Clauses] shall not be infringed; a well armed, and well regulated militia being the best security of a free country: but no person [INDIVIDUAL] religiously scrupulous of [AGAINST] bearing arms [in well-regulated Militia] shall be compelled [INVOLUNTARY] to render military service [in well-regulated Militia] in person." 

Source: Creating the Bill of Rights: The Documentary Record from the First Federal Congress (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, Paperback, 1991), Edited by Helen E Veit, et al., at 12.  (This volume is readily available from Amazon.)

Note the word "compelled": Militia service was a DUTY -- not a "right".  And note the words "people" and "person": if a person -- individual -- claimed "religious" exemption from that DUTY, his case was scrutinized individually. 

The only "individual" "right" Congress debated was that last clause -- "but no person religiously scrupulous of bearing arms shall be compelled to render military service" -- and it was obviously dropped from the proposed Amendment before it was ratified.  Thus the Second Amendment obviously does not protect "individual" ANYTHING. 

Only by ignoring the legislative history -- Congress' Debates of the writing of the Amendment, which are LEGAL AUTHORITY -- could Scalia falsely hold that the Amendment protects an "individual" "right".

2.  That the purpose of the Amendment was to establish a "right" to "take up arms" against the gov't -- which is refuted by the Constitution itself:

Art. I., S. 8., C. 15. The Congress shall have Power To provide for calling forth the Militia to . . . SUPPRESS INSURRECTIONS.

The Founders themselves twice established the precedent on the point:

Under the Articles of Confederation, "Shays's" rebellion was suppressed by the state's legitimate well-regulated Militia, and the rebels charged with, tried for, and convicted of, TREASON, and sentenced to death.

And under the Constitution, AFTER the Second Amendment was ratified, the "Whiskey" rebellion was suppressed by Federalized Militia, lead by George Washington, and the rebels charged with, tried for, and convicted of, TREASON, and sentenced to death.

The Congress, as a co-equal branch of gov't, has the authority and power to overturn Supreme Court decisions.

Overturn "Heller".

PLEASE CIRCULATE INTACT.

        Posted at 8:13 5/19/2022 - I pay for this publishing service monthly. Disqus where are you? It is now 8:47.

I like this guy for Pennsylvania Senator.

Working Class Hero

Fetterman understands that the only legitimate role of government is to 'provide for the general welfare.'

Fetterman walks the walk; he does not make 'talk talk talk' and do nothing. I like that in a person. I especially like that in my Senators.

Toomey is a tool. And Toomey is majorly responsible for the last terrible train crash in Pennsylvania near my home in Frankford. Toomey also voted to defund Planned Parenthood. That made it personal. I have daughters.

In an interview on Hardball, Toomey said, “I think that Roe v. Wade was wrongly defined, wrongly decided and I think states should be free to restrict abortion and I would support legislation in Pennsylvania that would ban abortion and I would suggest that we have penalties for doctors who perform them if we were able to pass that law.” [MSNBC, 8/5/09]

Sestak is boring but acceptable progressive. Nothing to dislike about Sestak except he lost to Toomey. Can he win? Be good if he did. Katie McGinty seems good. I feel John Fetterman. Hmmm. Maybe I got the hots for John Fetterman. Desire never dies.

Fetterman is the real creative energized caring deal. He has the fire. Fetterman is the working class hero. My kind of guy.

ART BY TERRY BRADLEY.

Republicans are not a Protected Class. Neener neener neener. UPDATE AGAIN.

Okay, finally I can laugh at the bloody mess we are in. Thank you God. I was getting tired of alternating despair/anger/shock. 

Tucker Carlson takes on Mathew Blachfield, the anti-Trump CEO of "1st in SEO" who is refusing to do business with anyone who supported Donald Trump. (November 23rd, 2016)

All Tucker's argument is a mix of shaming, blaming and misquotation. Weak. So weak. Republicans are not a protected class. You think they are feeling a bit threatened? What if everybody does not go along to get along? Bwah ha ha ha ha. Breathe. Ha ha ha ha ha. 

UPDATE - FUX SNOOZE does not want you to see this clip. They reached into this small insignificant blog to snatch it out of the article for 'copyright issues.' Something in this FUX does not want folks to know maybe. I just noticed the change. So I thought would be an excellent idea to run it again. I think I have a right as a reporter and cultural icon, to use things if I have an educational or journalistic purpose. Maybe I should run my OCCUPY banner again. 

Another small business shuts down the fascist hate machine.

The American Family Association is calling for a boycott of Target after the retail giant said it would allow men to use the women's restrooms and dressing rooms in their stores.
On its web site, Target announced, "[W]e welcome transgender team members and guests to use the restroom or fitting room facility that corresponds with their gender identity. ...Everyone deserves to feel like they belong."

2nd Vote wanted to remind shoppers where not to spend their Black Friday dollars. Turns out, their web hosting company didn’t take too kindly to the campaign and made the unilateral decision to shut 2nd Vote’s website down!

Leadpages, the company in charge of keeping the site up and running, pulled the plug after the #AnywhereButTARGET movement started gaining steam. In a letter from the company’s director of operations, Leadpages accuses 2nd Vote of being “hateful” and “discriminatory” for wanting to protect consumers from sexual predators. - Tony Perkins press release courtesy of JoeMyGod. Read the entire press release at link.

Bernie Sanders is a Work of Art - UPDATE

Portrait of Bernie Sanders by Buddy McCue

UPDATE: BERNIE DOING HIS BERNIE THING

Burlington Snow

written for Bernie Sanders by Allen Ginsberg

Socialist snow on the streets
Socialist talk in the Maverick bookstore
Socialist kids sucking socialist lollipops
Socialist poetry in socialist mouths
—aren’t the birds frozen socialists?
Aren’t the snowclouds blocking the airfield
Social Democratic Appeasement?
Isn’t the socialist sky owned by
the socialist sun?
Earth itself socialist, forests, rivers, lakes
furry mountains, socialist salt
in oceans?
Isn’t this poem socialist? It doesn’t
belong to me anymore.

What is a Pussy Grab? - Repeated for the Gymnasts testifying.

We talk about PUSSY GRAB but nobody really defines the event. It does not sound all that bad. Sounds kind of cute and a bit funny. Some Republican said "What assault. There was no sex. Nothing really happened. She got away."

Anybody want to tell me this event is not sexual assault? I was frightened and humiliated. Did I get away?

The Cartoon Artist in this article is Steve Stack. Man is a SuperStar. Say his Name. 

I was 15 and babysitting for my Mother's friend, Ada Jean. I admired Ada Jean's collection of sparkly dangly earrings and thought her so sophisticated and glamorous. Ada and Hubby were dressed for dancing. I had my PJs on and was about to go to sleep. Her husband came into the bedroom. He pussy grabbed me and told me he would "be back to see me soon."

This is how a pussy grab works. You put your thumb at the top of the cleft, press hard to get through the vaginal lips with another finger, and stick the finger(s) into the vagina as far as the PJs will go and scratch the inside lining of the entrance to the vagina with a fingernail. I was a virgin. He hurt me for fun. I said nothing to my Mother. I felt confused and ashamed. I had no idea what sex was. That was how you kept girls pure in 1950s; you kept them ignorant. Soon came a week later.

Nobody locked their doors in 1958. I was home in curlers by myself. Manpig came into the house with his trousers unzipped, a hard on in hand with condom and said "See, I wore this just for you." I was calculating how I was going to defend myself when he inexplicably left without further ado. Never saw him again. Never saw a grown man's penis before that. No big deal, right?

I told my Mother. My Mother called Ada Jean and I listened to the conversation. His wife and my Mother knew he did things like that. They knew. They did not protect me but at least they believed me. Mom believed me because the Sexpig grabbed her by the pussy. Did anybody call the cops? Nope. Nothing happened, right? Little pussy grab.

TROLL DISAPPOINTED

“. . . it's dangerous to fool yourself into believing the online world is 'virtual' and the person behind the keyboard can't inflict real-life harm.”
― Ginger Gorman, Troll Hunting: Inside the World of Online Hate and its Human Fallout

“Certainly it constitutes bad news when the people who agree with you are buggier than batshit.”
― Philip K. Dick

Although it may not be obvious at first, your Troll has a goal. Never give it satisfaction or success once you have figured out what it wants. The simplest and best response of all is NO THANK YOU.

Do not feed Trolls. Take this aphorism to the maximum. Do not feed political Trolls and Ivanbots on social media. Peace must begin here at home where we live and have our being. I thought this Talk was useful. 

That said, I must admit I Troll the Internet. My Jessica said "Face it, Mom. You are a Troll." Yeah, well I am a Troll for Good. If you want to beat them, join them. 

Infant and Mother Mortality in America

The Artist is Favianna Rodriguez.

Anthropologically speaking. H. sapiens has three strategies and three strategies only for control of reproduction (births) = contraception, abortion and infanticide/child abandonment. All three strategies are practiced around the world in every culture, currently and historically.

Those who restrict abortion and contraception make infanticide and maternal death inevitable. We have many in vitro examples of this. The one that haunts me the most at the moment is the mass grave of infants at Tuam. Anti Choice Zealots do not occupy the moral high ground.
https://humandefense.com/un-declares-abortion-a-human-right/

More American women are dying of pregnancy-related complications than any other developed country. Only in the U.S. has the rate of women who die been rising.
https://www.npr.org/2017/05...

Our infant mortality rate is a national embarrassment
https://www.washingtonpost....

Texas’ maternal death rates top most industrialized countries. Infant mortality rates vary by race.
https://www.usatoday.com/st...
http://www.houstonchronicle...

Reproduction is serious business for women. Abortion and contraception are human rights, both part of comprehensive health care for women.