October 4, 2021

This!

I'm really tired of not being able to say what I really think of her because of the DU rule about not bashing Democrats. Bashing Sinema is not the same thing, imo. We should be free to bash people who pretend to be Democrats while figuratively giving the finger to our REAL Democratic president and all the REAL Democrats in both houses of Congress!

October 3, 2021

Holy Mother of God, this could not BE more relevant right now!

I missed this last year. VERY glad you reposted. Thanks for this!

I have some memories to share, too. I remember being being a pregnant college student in 1972 and being grateful that I was able to rake together enough money to fly from my Midwestern campus to New York, where abortion was legal. I remember the huge sense of relief that flooded every fiber of my being after my safe, legal procedure. I remember hoping abortion would be soon be legal for all women, all over the U.S.

Four months later, I got my wish when the Supreme Court handed down the Roe v. Wade decision. "Hurray!" I thought. "Problem solved."

If someone had told me then that we'd still be fighting this battle almost 50 years later, I would never have believed it. Now I feel like the lady in this picture.

October 2, 2021

Oh my fucking God, get the fucking vaccine already, you fucking fucks!

This piece probably won't convince any antivaxxers to get vaccinated, but I found it to be hilarious as well incredibly cathartic to read. I hope you do, too.

OH MY FUCKING GOD, GET THE FUCKING VACCINE ALREADY, YOU FUCKING FUCKS
by WENDY MOLYNEUX

Hi, if you are reading this essay then congratulations, you are still alive. And if you are alive, then you have either gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, or you still have the opportunity to get the vaccine against COVID-19. And holy fuck, if you aren’t fucking vaccinated against COVID-19, then you need to get fucking vaccinated right now. I mean, what the fuck? Fuck you. Get vaccinated. Fuck.

The fucking vaccine will not make you magnetic. Are you fucking kidding me? It just fucking won’t. That’s not even a fucking thing, and that lady who tried to pretend the vaccine made her fucking magnetic looked like a real fucking fuckwad and a fucking idiot, so get fucking vaccinated. Jesus. Fuck.

The vaccine also doesn’t have a fucking 5G chip in it. What the fuck do you think a fucking 5G chip is, fucknuts? You think it’s like some invisible nanotechnology they can suspend in a liquid and then just put in your fucking blood and then it what, exactly? Fucking floats around in your body going on Instagram and telling the government you went to the grocery store? No one fucking cares where you go, you absolute fucking fuck-barf. Fuck off with that. Fuck.

*snip*

Look, if you have been forwarded this essay from a friend or loved one, then there are two possibilities. Either you are a normal, regular, sensible fucking person like me who got fucking vaccinated at the first possible moment, and this essay channels all your fucking rage and sadness and is therefore cathartic OR, and I really hope this isn’t the fucking case, you AREN’T fucking vaccinated, and someone sent it to you because you fucking fucking fuck, you need to get fucking vaccinated.

*snip*

Go here to read the whole fucking thing: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/oh-my-fucking-god-get-the-fucking-vaccine-already-you-fucking-fucks

September 29, 2021

Biden officials finalize a rule making it harder to kill birds, reversing Trump

BumRushDaShow posted this in Latest Breaking News today:

"Biden officials finalize a rule making it harder to kill birds, reversing Trump"
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10142806574

Sharing it here in case anyone missed it!

September 29, 2021

Mississippi AG: Curtailing reproductive rights will empower women

Yes, you read that right. No, I did not make that up.

MADDOWBLOG
Mississippi AG: Curtailing reproductive rights will empower women

Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch believes women will be empowered if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Reality tells a different story.

Sept. 29, 2021, 9:26 AM EDT
By Steve Benen

In just a couple of months, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, a case that will test the constitutionality of Mississippi's latest abortion ban. It's the first key showdown on reproductive rights since conservatives gained a dominant, six-member majority on the high court.
It's also, of course, a case that puts the future of the Roe v. Wade precedent in great jeopardy.

As The Mississippi Free Press reported this week, Mississippi's Republican attorney general is already imagining the societal landscape in the event the justices scrap the nation's existing reproductive rights.

"Think about this: the lives that will be touched, the babies that will be saved, the mothers that will get the chance to really redirect their lives," Fitch said last week. "And they have all these opportunities that they didn't have 50 years ago. Fifty years ago, professional women, they really wanted you to make a choice. Now you don't have to. Now you have the opportunity to be whatever you want to be. You have the option in life to really achieve your dream and goals, and you can have those beautiful children as well."

The Mississippi attorney general added, "Just think about the uplifting, the changing of course for women that have for these new babies, these women. And everyone knows it's all right, it's acceptable. You can have these beautiful children and you can have your careers. And so this really gets into, how do we empower women? How do we prepare for that next step? And we have to look at it with this whole vision and strategy. And I just think God has given us this opportunity to be here."

In other words, women will have amazing choices just as soon as the government forces them to remain pregnant against their will. The key to "empowering" women, the argument goes, is to curtail their reproductive rights.

[SNIP]

https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/mississippi-ag-curtailing-reproductive-rights-will-empower-women-n1280328

The whole article is well worth reading, imo. (And there's no psywall!)

Posting this without comment, because the whole thing makes my brain feel like 🤯.

September 29, 2021

Why do I get a "gateway timeout" message when searching DU?

This happens frequently when I use the "search this forum" feature.

This is not a constant problem for me, but it happens often enough to be really annoying. Anyone know what causes this?
"

September 26, 2021

Teacher's aide wore blackface to school as a covid protest. Sort of.

Yes, you read that right. It's actually more complicated than that, but these subject lines don't allow enough characters to spell it out more fully.

What happened was, an actual, real live teacher's aide in Oregon created a major kerfuffle by showing up at school in blackface one day. Her excuse? Being unvaccinated for covid, she was told to practice social distancing while in the classroom, and her tiny white brain reached the conclusion she was experiencing segregation. Yes, I KNOW it doesn't make any sense. But here's a video where she tries to explain herself, and the multiple layers of epic stupidity are a wonder to behold.

Article here: https://www.nbc11news.com/2021/09/24/school-employee-suspended-wearing-blackface-protest-districts-vaccine-policies/

So, this woman thinks that being required to keep her distance from vulnerable children due to being an unvaccinated plague rat is exactly the same thing as Rosa Parks being told to give up her seat on the bus to a white person. Also, she is evidently completely unaware of the offensiveness of a white person wearing blackface. And that is on top of being a vaccine refuser, which presumably means she is also a Trump worshipping conspiracy nut. Like I said, multiple layers of stupidity. And that's not even counting the school administration's stupid policy of allowing unvaccinated staff in classrooms with kids who are too young to be vaccinated.

September 20, 2021

This is nicely done, but I have one problem with it.

I'm not crazy about the idea of making vaccinated people responsible for convincing the unvaxxed to do the right thing. It's not our job!

The more people get vaccinated, the better it is for everybody. I get that. I just don't feel like taking on yet another responsibility, on top of masking, social distancing, and getting myself fully vaxxed.

I don't know what the answer is. Obviously, they need to be convinced, but not all of them are convinceable. I believe there is a subset of the vaccine resistant who might be swayed, using the right approach(es). But I don't know how to do it, and being vaxxed myself actually works AGAINST any credibility I might have with these people.

And getting back to what I said in the beginning, it's not my job to convince stupid people to get vaccinated, and I kind of resent the idea of the Detroit Free Press, or anybody else, telling me it is. As I also said above, I don't know what the answer is. I just don't like the idea of somebody trying to dump this in MY lap and make it MY job, just because I had enough sense to get vaccinated myself.

I will always speak out in favor of getting vaccinated, and I will always encourage people to get their jab if the opportunity presents itself. The recipients of any information I provide will then decide what to do with it. I am NOT responsible for getting them to change their minds.

Maybe I'm just overreacting and being weird about this. I don't know. All I know is how I feel right now, and how I feel is, well, everything I just wrote!

September 20, 2021

People who say things like that are invariably massively uninformed

about what the nazis were REALLY like.

A venn diagram with one circle representing people who know what REALLY happened during the Holocaust and another curcle representing people who say stuff like that quote would look like this: 🅾️🅾️

September 19, 2021

Especially if you are in certain parts of the country.

Where I live (a purple county in a blue state), it's not nearly so bad. Cases started going up when Delta came to town, but we have a governor who wasn't afraid to bring back the mask mandate for indoor spaces, and we have a pretty high vaccine rate as well. Covid cases are still up compared to July, but nowhere near what they are in places like Texas, Florida, and all the other red states with loons for governors.

Of course, the farther south you go in this state, the redder it gets, the lower the vaxx rate is, and the worse the covid statistics are. Those areas are also more rural and much less densely populated, but the most densely populated (and bluest) part of the state (Chicago/Cook County and the so-called "collar counties" that surround it) has a much lower per capita rate of covid cases and deaths than some southern Illinois counties, which says a lot to me.

When I read about what's going on down south and in the northwest, I feel like I'm living on a different planet. My heart goes out to all of you who are having to deal with having your own health care needs neglected due to the unvaccinated hordes that are clogging up the health care system.