“This day doesn’t just celebrate the past. It calls for action today.”
President Joe Biden, upon signing the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act on June 17
“You are courageous leaders and American patriots.”
Vice-President Kamala Harris, praising a group of Texas Democrats for walking out on a state legislative session in protest of a strict new voting bill
“Without a national standard for voting rights and voting reform, states are going to just chip away at the rights of voters state by state. Hopefully, this might inform minds and shape opinions when folks are in that Senate cloakroom wrestling over how they’re going to proceed with HR1 and HR4.”
Texas State Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, about the Texas Democratic walk-out
Chief Writing Wolf 
Yes, states are chipping away at our rights, but that’s been going on for years. I’m just glad I’m post-menopausal so at least they can’t take birth control or abortion from me.
In the past I couldn’t bring myself to support abortion. I believed more in greater personal responsibility – for both women AND men. It always amazes me these men who are suddenly shocked their girlfriends (or one-night stands) turn up pregnant. But I’ve come to realize it would actually be better for a woman to end a pregnancy she doesn’t want or isn’t prepared to deal with than to bring a child into the world who is unwanted. Children who are unwanted often end up being unloved. It’s not an easy choice, but no one has the right to interfere in anyone else’s health.
That’s why I know that male circumcision is wrong and immoral. If grown women have the right to autonomy of their bodies, then why shouldn’t infant and toddler males? I’m also highly offended – angered actually – that all these right-wing folks talk about individual freedoms, but feel they have leeway to dictate other people’s physical and emotional health. Don’t tell them what firearms they can own! Suddenly, you’ve crossed the line, if you do that!
I also want to see how all these anti-abortion types would support those children. And where they hell are they when children need education and health care? It seems, at that point, they become freeloaders.
The hypocrisy is outrageous!
To them that’s Jesus’ and the mama’s problem. Not theirs. When I worked in a juvenile correctable I saw many a tough teen cry himself to sleep worrying about his younger siblings. He was their caregiver just as I was for my younger siblings, and they feared for how those siblings fared while they were incarcerated. How could juvenile courts not see those kids were doing what they were doing to survive? How was incarceration any kind of answer? But the rush to mass-incarcerate poor and nonwhite children starts young.
That’s the conservative response to most every problem: punish and incarcerate. The new police chief of Dallas, Eddie Garcia, stated earlier today that “we can’t incarcerate our way out of this problem”; meaning the increased crime rate in the city. He mentioned most of the factors that contribute to a city’s crime dilemmas: unemployment, underemployment, food deserts, lack of health care, etc. I realized we need more people in law enforcement like him; people who truly comprehend the scope of the problem and that lethal force isn’t always the right answer.
At one time the largest mental health facility in the US was the Miami-Dade Co Jail. I don’t know about now. But what we downs where we spend our money says who we truly are and what we truly believe.
I just saw that Stonewall Inn is banning the sale of Anheiser-Busch products during Pride Week because while they wave their rainbow flag they funnel donations to politicians who support laws that discrimination against LBGTQ people. Good for them.
I’m on a roll with those typos tonight. 🙄