“I want to speak to the handful of witnesses who have been outliers in our investigation, the small number who have defied us outright, those whose memories have failed them again and again on the most important details, and to those who fear Donald Trump and his enablers, Because of this courageous woman and others like her, your attempt to hide the truth from the American people will fail. And to that group of witnesses, if you heard this testimony today and you remember things you could previously recall, or there is some details you would like to clarify, or you discover some courage you had hidden away, our doors remain open.”
– Mississippi Representative Bennie Thompson, June 28, 2022
“Gonna be very weird if Supreme Court ends a constitutional right to obtain an abortion next week saying it should be left to the states to decide, right after it just imposed a constitutional right to concealed carry of firearms, saying it cannot be left to the states to decide.”
–Neal Katyal, the Paul Saunders Professor at Georgetown University and the former Acting Solicitor General of the United States, June 23, 2022
Win elections. If this doesn’t light a fire under our base’s ass, I don’t know what will.”
– Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the chairman of the House Rules Committee who led one of several hearings on two proposed gun reform laws, shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling overturning Roe
1.
I don’t post political content on Facebook anymore. I used to but it doesn’t (and didn’t) seem to gain any traction, especially when people’s minds are made up. That’s one of the reasons I started this blog. The ramblings below were most likely responses, on Facebook, to other potential voters when I was attempting to make the case for Hillary over Trump waaaay back in 2016.
July 31, 2016
We’ve been seeing the gutting lately of over fifty years of hard work with the derailing of the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and Citizen’s United, to name but three. If Trump and his ilk are the appointees of the next 2-3 justices, the gutting will continue, among other civil rights atrocities. Yes folks, the democratic machine is run by a flood of private money but Clinton is running with the campaign finance laws we have, not the ones we wish we have. It will take time and hard work to turn those laws around but there is no chance in hell of that possibility with a Trump presidency. Guess what happens when voters punch the ticket for third party representatives in a national election? We get more paid-for politicians that don’t give three shites about anyone in the middle or lower classes.
October 12, 2016
I’m not a huge Hillary fan but if you consider the very real possibility of a bigot and a racist being voted into the White House, and set aside that the GOP wants to destroy Social Security, Medicare, Health Care, collective bargaining rights, the right to vote, safety and health regulations, banking regulations, the EPA, the Department of Education, and who are determined to privatize the entire public sphere, and who claim granting basic civil liberties to LGBT folks is an assault on their religion, oppose equal pay for women, are anti-minority, anti-science, and anti-worker, then think of the future of the Supreme Court. The next administration could possibly put 2-3 justices in place in the next four years. If you’re a fan of the knife being taken to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Citizens/United, then vote for Trump…or help him by wasting your vote on a third party candidate. Those are the reasons I’ll be checking the Hillary box in November.
October 23, 2016
One is not voting so much for the person than what the party stands for. For better or for worse, you need major parties to run a democracy. Like it or not, that's a fact. The Democratic Party is everything that the GOP is not. The GOP wants to destroy Medicare, Health Care, collective bargaining rights, the right to vote, safety and health regulations, banking regulations, the EPA, the Department of Education, and who are determined to privatize the entire public sphere, and who claim granting basic civil liberties to LGBT folks is an assault on their religion, oppose equal pay for women, are anti-minority, anti-science, and anti-worker. Then there’s the Supreme Court. The next administration could possibly put 2-3 justices in place in the next four years. If you’re a fan of the knife being taken to the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Citizens/United, then vote for Trump, chumps. I don’t need to cite sources. This is observable reality to anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the history of the two parties in this country.
2.
In Arizona, we have the Abortion Fund of Arizona that works to ensure abortion access. They view the right to abortion as a fundamental human right, essential for equality, health, and dignity. They help offset the cost of a safe and legal abortion for those who cannot afford one. Restrictions on abortion access and funding are discriminatory, and these restrictions especially burden low-income patients. They oppose all efforts to restrict abortion rights and are committed to fighting for access to abortion. They also seek to educate the public about abortion access in Arizona and connect all people in the state with the resources they need to obtain abortion care. Donate here.
And in New Mexico, just 3 of 33 counties statewide have clinics that provide abortion services: Bernalillo, Santa Fe and Doña Ana counties. This according to the Las Cruces Sun News.
Here’s a list of many of the non-profits and grassroots organizations that seek to protect the heath, safety, and reproductive freedom of all people with uteruses, regardless of background or socioeconomic status. Donate to any and all if you’re able.
Planned Parenthood’s mission is to ensure all people have access to the care and resources they need to make informed decisions about their bodies, their lives, and their futures. Founded in 1916, Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider, educator, and passionate advocate here in the U.S. as well as a strong partner to health and rights organizations around the world. Each year, Planned Parenthood delivers vital sexual and reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people. Donate here.
The Guttmacher Institute envisions a future in which all people can realize their rights and access the resources they need to achieve sexual and reproductive health. This vision is aligned with a progressive and evidence-based definition of SRHR (https://www.guttmacher.org/guttmacher-lancet-commission/accelerate-progress-executive-summary), grounded in human rights, which holds that sexual and reproductive health is not merely the absence of disease, dysfunction or infirmity but a state of physical, emotional, mental and social well-being in all aspects of sexuality and reproduction. Donate here.
NARAL - Pro-Choice America
The 2.5 million members of NARAL Pro-Choice America fight for reproductive freedom for every body. Each day, we organize and mobilize to protect that freedom by fighting for access to abortion care, birth control, paid parental leave, and protections from pregnancy discrimination. Donate here.
National Black Women's Reproductive Agenda
National Black Women’s Reproductive Justice Agenda, in partnership with eight state Black women's Reproductive Justice organizations, works to ensure that all people have access to abortion care, contraceptive equity, and comprehensive sex education. Donate from the main link above.
RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization. RAINN created and operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline (800.656.HOPE) in partnership with more than 1,000 local sexual assault service providers across the country and operates the DoD Safe Helpline for the Department of Defense. Donate here.
NAF (National Abortion Federation)
The mission of the National Abortion Federation is to unite, represent, serve, and support abortion providers in delivering patient-centered, evidence-based care. Donate here.
Center for Reproductive Rights
The Center for Reproductive Rights uses the power of law to advance reproductive rights as fundamental human rights around the world. Donate here.
Ipas (Partners for Reproductive Justice)
Ipas works with partners to build sustainable abortion ecosystems. Their comprehensive approach works across institutions and communities and recognizes there are multiple factors that influence a person’s ability to access abortion—including individual knowledge and power, community and political support, trained and equipped health systems, and laws and policies that uphold the human rights to health and to bodily autonomy. Donate here.
National Network of Abortion Funds
The National Network of Abortion Funds builds power with members to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access by centering people who have abortions and organizing at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice. Donate here.
NWLC (National Women’s Law Center)
The National Women’s Law Center fights for gender justice—in the courts, in public policy, and in our society—working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. They use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us—especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. Donate here.
3.
“I prefer a future with less abortion, not more. To preserve existing limits on late-term abortions, requirements parents be notified when minors seek abortion and prohibitions on using taxpayer funds to pay for abortion, I will join with other pro-life Kansans in casting my vote for Value Them Both,” said Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt, a Republican candidate for governor, and a man who has expressed fake outrage about CRT being used to target education about our nation’s racist past and was instrumental in dividing one of the state’s most diverse communities (gerrymandering) in a bid to thwart the reelection of Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids.
What’s at stake, as Kansas now has a constitutional right to abortion, is a proposed constitutional amendment on the August primary ballot offering a vote to rescind the right. Rep. Jennifer Day, D- Overland Park stated “Abortions are and will remain safe, regulated and accessible in Kansas, thanks to our state constitution. We will maintain those rights when we vote NO on the constitutional amendment question on ALL ballots on August 2nd.”
So, these proposals can be worded in such a way that, if not read carefully, you may just vote for the opposite of what you intended. A NO vote will keep the constitutional right to abortion in place, folks. Because power is being stripped on the federal level and being turned over to the states, you need to turn out and vote!
An update in yesterday’s Reflector whereas the author, Clay Wirestone, wrote to Schmidt asking if he believed the U.S. Constitution protected the right to birth control access, same-sex intimacy, and gay marriage, and if he didn’t believe the Constitution protected these rights, would he support and sign state legislation that did so? The response from Schmidt campaign manager CJ Grover: “The critics of the ruling advancing those concerns are simply not correct. Nothing in Dobbs implicates any of those other precedents that have recognized different constitutionally protected rights. The Court was very clear on this point.”
In Clay’s words, In other words, those who feel alarmed about the prospect of the Supreme Court stripping other rights from Americans have abundant reason to do so. Ending a half-century of precedent has a way of focusing the mind on what outrages might come next. Schmidt’s campaign, however, would rather you not worry about it.
4.
You must know by now that…Every Sperm Is Sacred.
5.
Brian Colker is the California Director for Code Blue and was responsible for organizing and overseeing an 11-district field program in the 2018 midterms. He has organized fundraisers for over a dozen Democratic House Candidates and Senators. He had this to say about the Supreme Court recently:
Defiance. That's the word of the day.
The Supreme Court is now illegitimate. There's no pretense of legal theory behind any of five justices, and they don't serve in the public's interest. So DON'T JUST ACCEPT THEIR RULINGS.
I hate the doom-saying. Hate it. You know women will die as a result of this ruling? Commit to doing something about it. You don't have to do anything crazy. Just do some research on the many organizations that already have plans for helping women, and email one of them. You can support them financially, or you can volunteer for them.
Start by telling yourself you will not accept this new reality. Fuck SCOTUS, and fuck forced birth governors. I will not obey them.
You think gay marriage will be overturned? Is that going to make you think less of your friends' marriages? Will you just acquiesce and invalidate them? No. You will not. You will help your friends find good estate attorneys. You'll pay attention to how health insurance companies change definitions of dependents. You'll throw anniversary parties for your friends.
You will not let a rogue group of religious fanatics change how you perceive gay marriage. Defy them. I will not obey them.
There are a lot of ways to fight. Build power, obviously. Support institutions that are fighting back. But we need to start with defiance: an internal commitment to fight them, in small ways and large.
6.
One of the most important question you’ll ask your youngsters is…should we Teach Kids About Straight People?
7.
I try to remain optimistic and positive about reversing the road that Republicans have been pushing us down for the last 50 years (see lists in my 2016 rants above) but a lot of the times I just throw my hands in the air with a hearty WTF?!?!? With that in mind, one of the two people who have inspired me over the last 7-8 years to pay more attention to politics, and write about it, is ex-KC-now-LA drummer man Gary Durrett (the other is Mike Finnigan, RIP). Both of them are/were able to cut right to the chase with just the right language, whether you agree with them or not.
Durrett just posted this after yesterday’s EPA Supreme Court verdict:
Today’s chapter in the just-getting-warmed-up horror show … the McConnell court guts the EPA. With a climate asteroid screaming toward earth, the corporatists (who also financed the party who just shit-canned Roe) drew a bulls-eye on it & literally hit the gas. Another big “atta-boy” to the Democratic party who’ve stood by for 40 years with their thumbs up their asses while the Republicans played 4 dimensional chess & made fools of them at every critical juncture. Who knew that “give us money and be sure to vote” wasn’t a very effective motivator or strategy? The even better news is - when the Democrats are eviscerated in November, they’ll become the forever political version of the Washington Generals with the Globetrotters dribbling circles around them & bouncing basketballs off their faces. All that will be left is for Mitch to sign his masterpiece & hand the wheel to the ruling class. Honorable mention to King Coal Manchin and Kyrsten (what the fuck AM I?) Sinema for the final, impotent shove off the cliff. The Dems had better gag up some sort of “W” for the home team in short order - because the rank & file aren’t enjoying this daily sodomizing and are fed up with excuses and pearl clutching. Good job, team. Good job.
He then added on in the comments:
McConnell understood one thing: he who owns the courts, owns the world. When you construct a comically partisan federal court system, full of very young, very radical flying monkeys - accountable to no one, with lifetime tenure, everything the opposition attempts to do has to go through them. The Dems can hang on to congress, kill the filibuster, pass abortion rights legislation, voting rights legislation, climate legislation - good luck getting it past Clarence Thomas. We have a rogue court system - and the only remedy is challenging them ... in the courts. Mitch will go down in history as the most consequential politician since FDR - and job one will be to dismantle every progressive program since then. Glad I didn't have kids.
*Sigh* … Just. Vote. Blue. … I think …
And now…