Hekate
Hekate's JournalYou are sadly wrong about abortion. Anti-choice fanatics have proven they are willing to kill, maim
...and commit arson to shut down every clinic in the country. They have killed a number of doctors and nurses, have put up Wanted posters, have stalked the children of clinic personnel and have put information online about their schools and schedules.
And lie. They tell their followers and politicians that contraceptives (including The Pill) are abortifacients. They say no woman can die of pregnancy or childbirth in this day and age (another lie). Abortion is completely unavailable in the majority of counties in the US -- in Texas, there is one (1) clinic -- putting a tremendous burden on women who must travel overnight, arrange childcare, lose pay, and tell someone what they are doing, exposing them to risk.
They have pushed for "conscience" legislation, allowing doctors and pharmacists to refuse prescriptions and to refuse to fill prescriptions for everything from contraceptions to Plan B to pill-induced abortions -- the latter 2 are very time-sensitive.
It is a war they have engaged in ever since Roe v. Wade was handed down. They are fanatics and don't care who gets hurt.
And now, they will win.
A cry from the heart that I share. There are two people who were in my life that I hope...
...I never see again. One had been a long time colleague in local social justice and peace work, the other is a very narrow hyper-intellectual who only knows mathematics. Both these women are about my age, which is 70, and well old enough to know better.
The last -- the very last time -- I had lunch with my old colleague, a bright Latina with heart, she parroted the anti-Hillary screeds from the Left. "Hillary Rodham" is more dangerous than Trump because she knows where the levers of power are, and that kind of crap. What made it worse was I know which group of vets she was spending all her time working with, because during the Bush2 years I worked with them too.
The other woman I have only encountered a handful of times and she has always irritated me, but the last time was right after the Comey "revelations." She went out of her way to needle me hard about Hillary's supposed criminality. Talk of Trump's character left her unmoved. "We'll see," she said. "We'll see what the next week brings."
How could they? How could one I thought I knew be so blind? How could the other one be that arrogant? And here's the final kick in the ass: they are both financially marginal.
Last week I phoned an old friend from graduate school and spent an hour talking her down from her anxiety about the fascist, trying to give her some hope. She's poor and lives in senior housing, with a son dying in a nursing home far away in Wisconson. Trump is a disaster for such as they -- this is reality. She's like me, she voted for Hillary, absolutely no question about it.
A few days later I phoned my sister and it was even worse. She's Dem to the bone, like me. I felt like I was trying to talk someone down off a ledge for over an hour. I did my best. She's in upstate New York and I am in California. I can't just drop in. Aside from the galloping fascism, Trump's destruction of the ACA is impacting her husband, herself, and their virtually disabled adult son that she brought home to live with them -- this is real. She wants to leave the country, but can't.
Then for me, something more about the children -- maybe it was Senator Elizabeth Warren's write-up of her visit to the cages -- My eyes leaked all day. Again, insomnia.
Damn, now I seem to be dribbling tears on my iPad. Sorry if it makes the ink run. Sorry if I said too much.
The blouse is called a "pussy bow": the type of ribbon put on kittens because so cuuuute...
I don't know how long "pussy" has had a double meaning, but you can go back centuries in nursery rhymes to its use meaning soft cuddly kitty. When I was in fashion retail (college, 1960s) the term was in use for both the blouse with attached bow and the separate scarf tied just so.
That said, I completely agree that Melania was playing off her husband's dirty words. I no longer have any fucks to give for that woman.
Didn't Truman also integrate the US military? Complicated is right.
My first US Senator fought in a segregated unit, the 442nd, and left his arm in Italy. We have come a long way since then. Still very imperfect, but a long way.
I have few heroes, and I will not name them in this abominable thread, but when I stopped being a child I realized that all of them (pardon me for the following cliches, but they convey what I mean) had feet of clay, and none of them were plaster saints. In other words they were mortals with mortal flaws.
I began to understand history and context. I began to understand how to weigh heroism, vision, intellect, and striving for the good of others -- against whatever wrongs and errors of judgment they made in an imperfect world. Maybe I change my mind; maybe I'm disappointed but don't change my mind.
My first degree was in history, and I am always happy to engage in fact-based discussions. But you are right: the OP is not in that category.
This op and this thread are some prime shit-stirring. Fucking false equivalencies, whataboutism...
This is not an invitation to a historical discussion about great men and their flaws -- this is an invitation to view Franklin Roosevelt through the same lens as Donald Trump and call them both the same.
I want to know why this was posted and why so many people are falling for it. This absolutely reeks.
Divide. Divide and conquer.
Christ on a trailer hitch.
I'm sorry you have not noticed that The Resistance is alive and well...
The Washington Post is crowdsourcing info from around the country as to the locations of child detention centers and foster care -- and publishing the maps
Airline attendants have spoken out about being lied to
A lawyer is working pro bono to assist federal employees who refuse to be complicit
Mayors and governors all over the country are refusing to cooperate with Trump/Sessions
A law firm is working pro bono to help immigrant detainees
A small non-profit put up a Go Fund Me page to collect $1,500 for one person's bail, and was inundated with $17,000,000. Yes, count the zeros.
Newspapers and tv journalists are telling the story.
Hope is alive. WE are not yet those people Trump wants us to be.
Source: Rachel Maddow, this evening.
"La Llorona" a folk tale I know from Clarissa Pinkola Estes, is the avatar of the bereaved woman...
So many women are now embodying La Llorona that the outrageous sorrow is transmitted to anyone wih a soul
MSNBC/Katy: Trump ran on this, he promised this, yet no relevant department was prepared. NOTE....
She is asking:
WAS THIS CHAOS ACTUALLY PART OF THE PLAN ALL ALONG? Also, where are the girls and toddlers?
The MSNBC staff seems to be pretty much woke.
Read, print out. DUer Mucifer has posted this a couple of times already
• The ACLU is litigating this policy in California.
• If you’re an immigration lawyer, the American Immigration Lawyers Association will be sending around a volunteer list for you to help represent the women and men with their asylum screening, bond hearings, ongoing asylum representation, etc. Please sign up.
• Al Otro Lado is a binational organization that works to offer legal services to deportees and migrants in Tijuana, Mexico, including deportee parents whose children remain in the U.S.
• CARA—a consortium of the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, the American Immigration Council, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association—provides legal services at family detention centers.
• The Florence Project is an Arizona project offering free legal services to men, women, and unaccompanied children in immigration custody.
• Human Rights First is a national organization with roots in Houston that needs help from lawyers too.
• Kids in Need of Defense works to ensure that kids do not appear in immigration court without representation, and to lobby for policies that advocate for children’s legal interests. Donate here.
• The Legal Aid Justice Center is a Virginia-based center providing unaccompanied minors legal services and representation.
• Pueblo Sin Fronteras is an organization that provides humanitarian aid and shelter to migrants on their way to the U.S.
• RAICES is the largest immigration nonprofit in Texas offering free and low-cost legal services to immigrant children and families. Donate here and sign up as a volunteer here.
• The Texas Civil Rights Project is seeking “volunteers who speak Spanish, Mam, Q’eqchi’ or K’iche’ and have paralegal or legal assistant experience.”
• Together Rising is another Virginia-based organization that’s helping provide legal assistance for 60 migrant children who were separated from their parents and are currently detained in Arizona.
• The Urban Justice Center’s Asylum Seeker Advocacy Project is working to keep families together.
• Women’s Refugee Commission advocates for the rights and protection of women, children, and youth fleeing violence and persecution.
• Finally, ActBlue has aggregated many of these groups under a single button.
This list isn’t comprehensive, so let us know what else is happening. And please call your elected officials, stay tuned for demonstrations, hug your children, and be grateful if you are not currently dependent on the basic humanity of U.S. policy.
Update, June 17, 2018: Thanks to readers who updated us with more organizations fighting this policy. Other good work is being done by the following:
• CLINIC’s Defending Vulnerable Populations project offers case assistance to hundreds of smaller organizations all over the country that do direct services for migrant families and children.
• American Immigrant Representation Project (AIRP), which works to secure legal representation for immigrants.
• CASA in Maryland, D.C., Virginia, and Pennsylvania. They litigate, advocate, and help with representation of minors needing legal services.
• Freedom for Immigrants (Formerly CIVIC), which has been a leading voice opposing immigrant detention.
• The Michigan Immigrant Rights Center represents all of the immigrant kids placed by the government in foster care in Michigan (one of the biggest foster care placement states). About two-thirds are their current clients are separation cases, and they work to find parents and figure out next steps.
• The Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is doing work defending and advancing the rights of immigrants through direct legal services, systemic advocacy, and community education.
• Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights works for the rights of children in immigration proceedings.
• The Women’s Refugee Commission has aggregated five actions everyone can take that go beyond donating funds.
• And finally, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP)—which organizes law students and lawyers to develop and enforce a set of legal and human rights for refugees and displaced persons—just filed suit challenging the cancellation of the Central American Minors program.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/06/how-you-can-fight-family-separation-at-the-border.html
Given the number of faith groups speaking against this heinous policy -- a lot
Los Angeles Times, Saturday, June 16, 2018, page A2
Decrying 'zero tolerance'
Faith leaders call Trump policy of splitting migrant families sad, sinful
US Conference of Catholic Bishops
African Methodist Episcopal Church
Southern Baptist Convention
Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism
Franklin Graham
Poor People's Campaign
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Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 90,829
