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Monday, April 11, 2022

Let's end the insanity!

Half and more of the population of this country is subjugated to the will of others. 

A woman in Texas was charged with murder following a miscarriage. The hospital where she had the miscarriage turned her in, when she said she had induced the miscarriage. 

This all happened according to Texas law. 

Everyone involved followed the Texas law. The hospital turned her in.  The grand jury indicted her. A sheriff arrested her. The woman went to jail. The county prosecutor dropped charges; the woman is freed. The prosecutor said he could find no Texas law under which to prosecute her.

This is insane. That any of it happened is insane. As insane as Republican gerrymandering maps still be thrown out for gerrymandering. As insane as voter suppression laws.

What will be made illegal next? Oh, wait. Being gay. Talking about human sexuality. Reading about it in books that have been in print for half a century. "Don't say gay" legislation has just been introduced in my state. In Ohio! 

The oppressors on the whole are white men, and some men of color who seem to enjoy the power of oppression. They are holding women in this country to their will. Progressive voters must clear higher and higher hurdles.  Children who know from the day they can tell a parent they want a ballerina costume, not cowboy, that they are in the wrong body.

The only solution I know is to convince all eligible voters to vote. Erasing the bigotry of powerful men will not happen over night; it will take time. But it's time for the rolling tide of enlightenment to overtake, sweep away the lawmakers whose laws punish most everyone except themselves.

40 comments:

  1. I can't believe this B.S. is happening in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. What is wrong with those politicians!!!!!!!

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  2. In fifty years, or even less, what's left of the conservative movement in America will wonder where it all went wrong.

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  3. I definitely agree that voting, and getting out the vote and supporting the people trying to throw out vote suppression laws, are our priorities.

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  4. Actually, there was no law they were following which was why they had to drop the charges. It was pure harassment. The hospital was probably unsure of the law. I don't know how far along this woman was but the law says no abortions after about 6 weeks. It also does not say a woman can be arrested and charged for having an abortion. What it does do is gives permission for anyone to file a civil suit against someone who they think had an abortion or miscarriage (as I assume they think all miscarriages are induced). The state has no power to charge, imprison, or punish a woman for having an abortion. they wrote it this way so that the higher courts couldn't throw it out since abortion is a federally legal procedure. It's totally fucked up. Abbott and his thought and morality police, banning books, banning abortion, banning parents from providing gender affirming care for their juvenile children and having them investigated for child abuse if they do support their children in their sexual identity. I imagine banning birth control is not that far away. And now their new dog whistle, 'grooming, groomer', if you talk about gender and sexual identity and different families, not allowed to give them honest answers to their questions. What the fuck does that even mean? Such hate for such a small percentage of the population. We made some great strides in equal rights. I can only hope that this is the last gasp of these far right religious assholes who think they have the right to impose their demented and hateful attitudes on everyone else and codify it into law. The American Taliban. We need another massive turnout this November and in two more years as well. Or else women will be barred from wearing pants next.

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  5. "Get up, stand up- stand up for your rights", The orange slime emboldened this massive crowd of tiny brained cretins that seem to have taken over texas entirely, foot in the door elsewhere. Slam that door hard, take their damned feet off.

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    1. Not Texas entirely. Just the fucking crazy ass republicans and the rural communities. The big cities trend blue. Plenty of us don't like what's going on.

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  6. Hari Om
    I hear ya Joanne (and Ellen!) While not to this extent in the UK, there are other factors here that are definitely regressive and it just makes me cringe in every corner of my being... yet I still Hope. YAM xx
    J=Jade

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  7. The U S. is sounding more like Gilead in The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. It is scary to think it really.

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  8. It is frightening and disheartening. I am so very angry! I agree with your post 100%!

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  9. It's unbelievable to me how crazy it has become. Old white men are bound and determined to take us back to the 1950s when men could rape their wives and beat their children with immunity.

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  10. Oh, you are so right! Change will happen if all voters do their job. Vote.

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  11. I'm horrified at the speed your country is going backward, way back into the dark ages; when women didn't go to work and weren't allowed to vote type dark ages. How can this happen in the 21st century??
    Yes, voting will help, but only if ALL votes are allowed to be counted.
    I don't know what else to say.

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  12. The future is too scary to think about.

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  13. It is chilling to contemplate what is happening in your country, Joanne. Surely the voters can rise up and stop this madness. I also realized that I have not been receiving your posts in my blog feed, and it appears that somehow I was deleted from your followers' list. I have signed back in and hope that resolves the issue.

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    1. Thank you. You'd mentioned "unfollowing" when I had the housekeeping issue. I lost two over that. Tom Stepheson has yet to reup.

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  14. Well said. The politicians are going backwards in social justice issues.

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  15. I totally agree with you and I always vote but it is so infuriating to keep seeing our country going backwards!

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  16. Hiss and expletive spit. Amnesty (who I support) sent me a link to a woman imprisoned for having a miscarriage. Imprisoned in a third world country, not yours.
    How I hope that this travesty of justice can be changed. And quickly.

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  17. Some years ago I read how a thirteen-year old girl had been raped multiple times In a country where religious law was supreme, and when she sought redress, she was found unable to prove that it happened against her will. What was clear, however, was that she had participated in sex outside of marriage and she was taken out, buried up to her neck in hot sand and stoned to death. Is there where the religious zealots in the USA are headed?

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  18. The American Taliban, emboldened by Dump. It makes me furious.

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  19. It is unbelievable.
    And yet gerrymandering and crazy laws are trying to creep in here too...

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  20. Craziness abounds in this world we live in.

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  21. Joanne, I admire your passion. And of course you are right. I am honestly constantly stunned at the things going on. I think that Trump was the obvious result of what began much earlier with the religious right. And it's not going to end any time soon.

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  22. What also boggles my mind is the WOMEN who vote for this crap! Things are going backwards..I’m in PA and I can see it going that way next....

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    1. When there are an equal number of batshit crazy women voting on these laws in congress and in legislatures as there are batshit crazy men making these laws, I will believe the will of the majority has prevailed. We are light years from being this unenlightened.

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  23. This is horrifying to me, but I must tell you that Jackson being sworn into SCOTUS was hugely encouraging to me. It made me believe that these things will be addressed by a bipartisan court and (hopefully) knocked down. I believe the Republican party is dying, and that their wounds are self inflicted.

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  24. I am sure that it is men who are at the forefront of this, but I think we can’t forget that it is conservative religion which is probably the key element.

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  25. I have always been proud of being from Texas - a 4th generation Texan. No longer. I was shocked that a woman going for medical help was arrested based on stupidity. For shame, gov abbott.

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  26. I agree with you, Joanne. It is scary.

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  27. That the legal action over the miscarriage got as far as it did is appalling. Thank heaven the County Prosecutor exercised some common sense. There are a lot of scary things going on in a lot of American states. The legal situation in the UK is not so extreme. The big crisis here is the cost of living which is shooting up at an alarming rate, with the government doing little to mitigate it.

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  28. I am sick and tired of these old white guys doing everything they can to take away the rights of women, LGBTQ people, and just about anyone else who doesn't agree with their sick vision of how life should be. They scream "FREEDOM" at the top of their lungs over vaccine and mask mandates put in place for their own good but have no problem passing laws that strip the rights of others. It won't be long before they take a run at banning birth control and taking away women's right to vote. These people are batshit crazy and we need to wake up and vote them all out. They are dangerous. Full stop.

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  29. Oh dear I sometimes think the worlds gone mad, books that were considered classics are banned I hear, in some US states.. why? Not here in UK but there are always rumblings my husband and I are always careful as to what to talk about, when we're out, who knows who's listening.

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  30. Voting is the only recourse, but also realize that the far-left is also contributing by their over-the-top demands, and be careful who you vote for.

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  31. Dear Joanne, I so agree. But how do we get out the vote? I take a daily column from a noted historian Heather Cox Richardson. She puts what's happening in Washington, D. C. and in many states in context for me. She gives perspective and I'm learning so much--in accessible prose--what has happened in our country and to those men, mostly Republicans, who are burning their bridges behind them and letting us all sink or swim in their poisoned river.

    HCR recently wrote about the media that is doing so little to get the news out about what the Biden administration is accomplishing for all of us. The media seems to want to emphasize only that which will cause fear and disillusionment. It's a fine column.

    But my question remains: how do we get out the vote. I knocked on many doors for the 2004 election. I did this for MoveOn.org. I was 68 then. Now I'm 86 (numbers reversed!!!!) and I doubt I could make the effort. So, Joanne, what do we do? Peace.

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  32. Sad and disturbing times we live in. Have to say I think The Donald made it o.k to say and do whatever you want in the name of freedom. It's like people have lost their common sense.

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  33. Loved your post, Joanne. I could feel the passion and anger while I was reading your words. I am also looking forward to the rolling tide of enlightenment to overtake the people that still thinks it is OK to oppress others.

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