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Sunday, May 26, 2019: Roe v. Wade Is More Than A Right To Privacy
Imposing restrictions on abortion is more than just a right to privacy issue. In my opinion, it is also a First Amendment issue. Those who want to restrict access to abortion are doing so on religious grounds, not any constitutional grounds. From a constitutional perspective, the fourteenth amendment says that a state may not "deprive a person of life". The argument that the unborn are people is a religious one. There is nothing in the constitution that defines a fetus as a person, nor should there be. It is fine for those who believe in personhood from the point of conception to be against abortion, but they should not be allowed to impose their religious beliefs on those who do not hold that same belief.
The First Amendment also guarantees freedom FROM religion.
Saturday, May 25, 2019: The Twitter Troll In Chief
A twitter troll is a person who sows discord by tweeting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll's amusement. To the extent that the tweets are false, then there is the additional question as to whether they are libelous defamation.
So I ask this, why isn't the twitter troll in the oval office guilty of defamation? Are not some his tweets libelous? Has he not intentionally and with malice attempted to damage individuals who disagree with him?
Wednesday, May 15, 2019: What I Want For America
As a democratic socialist, what I want for America is simple. I only want what many western countries already have - a fair and compassionate society that has no unsustainable burden on the national economy.
- where the cost of health care per capita is far lower than it is now and yet coverage is universal
- where life spans are longer
- where working people are not made destitute by serious illnesses
- where a choice between food or pharmaceuticals need never be made
- where the poor cannot be denied treatments by insurance companies
- where pre-existing health conditions can never be denied coverage
- where most people have far more savings and much lower levels of debt than is the case here
- where very few families live only a paycheck away from total poverty
- where wages generally keep pace with inflation
- where every worker has decent vacation time each year
- where suicide and opioid addiction are not the default lifestyle of the working poor
- where homelessness is exceedingly rare
- where children are not food insecure
- where retirement care is humane and comprehensive
- where our public schools are immeasurably better than they are today
- where affordable child care is available to all parents
- where military grade weapons are not available on every street corner
- where our children are not slaughtered at regular intervals in their schools
- where places of worship are again sacred and not killing grounds for racists and xenophobes
- where women are truly equal and have the right to control their own reproductive destiny
- where war is not the answer to every international crisis - real or fabricated
- and where democracy really means of the people, by the people, and for the people
Wednesday, May 8, 2019: When All Else Fails, Start A War
In a blatant abuse of power, Herr Trump has asserted so called executive privilege to block portions of the Mueller report from being released to congress. Mueller accepted the premise that a sitting president cannot be indicted (probably not true) and expected congress to follow-up on his findings related to Trump. Blocking congressional subpoenas for all of Mueller's relevant material is nothing more than a continuing obstruction of justice.
What's scary is what Trump might be willing to do to thwart efforts to nail his ass to the wall. In a little noticed announcement, Trump has deployed a carrier strike force toward the Middle East. The White House announced last Sunday, May 5th, that "The Trump administration is deploying a carrier strike group and bombers to the Middle East in response to troubling "indications and warnings" from Iran and to show the United States will retaliate with "unrelenting force" to any attack, national security adviser John Bolton said on Sunday."
Trump wants a war and why not Iran. War is the ultimate exercise of power. So his first step was to withdraw from the nuclear accord with Iran. That clearly didn't provoke the response he wanted, so now he is sending a carrier strike force and bombers to further aggravate the situation. Iran's response has been to put pressure on the other signers of the accord to ignore Trump's unilateral sanctions. Folks, this is going to get ugly.
The neocons are thrilled at the prospect of a war and Trump sees armed conflict as a potential way to divert attention from his criminal activities and cement his position as tyrant-in-chief. In the interim, he is having great fun fucking up the economy. Oh, it isn't obvious yet, but my friends it soon will be. Me thinks it is time to put your money in your mattress for safekeeping.
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