There are no words to describe Ho’s opinion on “being denied enjoyment” of the birth of a child. There is no logic in his half-assed logic. Please, women unit- become pregnant so some Dr can enjoy your delivery experience. OMG - what have we become?
It is once again extreme narcissism pretending to be virtue. He says "In cases where the government “approved some action—such as developing land or using pesticides—that threatens to destroy…animal or plant life that plaintiffs wish to enjoy,”, it is not, I would hope, my personal opinion of animal or plant life that would sway a sane court decision but many other factors such as species endangerment, and other factors that impact the integrity of the environment and society. It may impact what is done with a section of land, but does not otherwise impact how a person lives their own life. It's a trumped up rational for claiming the right to run the life of another.
J L, as you, I’m trying to understand, grasp, the logic between the comparison of “using pesticides” and the birth of a child? Where is this justices’ thinking, really? Is this narcissistic idiot actually comparing the use of pesticides to control pest and unwanted insects on land to the birth of a child or not?
I’m not getting that logic. I was born, and raised on a farm. I lived in that farming environment my first 21 years of my life. What’s even more interesting. After my law enforcement and firefighting career I returned to the agriculture field, so to speak, and have been reporting agriculture news since 1995. I have seen, first hand how agriculture in this country has evolved since the early 60s to now. Believe me, it’s evolved probably as much as birthing children.
Now that’s a field I have absolutely no expertise in.
A. I’m a man, so obviously I’ve never experienced childbirth, and probably won’t ever.
B. I have no natural children I’ve fathered, so, I’ve not had to experience childbirth with my wife, or woman.
C. I have enough brains to know that the medical field has evolved over the past 6 decades, just as the agriculture field has evolved.
I have enough sense to know that a woman becoming pregnant is the “evolution of life”. BUT, I also have enough brains to know that I’m the event something happens, beyond this woman’s control, this child may not be able to be carried to term, it may become medically necessary to “terminate the pregnancy” for the good of the mother or some other reason, medically. Plus, I also know first hand that there are young women that become pregnant through some type of rape, or incest, and fir the young woman to live, that pregnancy must be terminated.
As I have said above, I have absolutely no expertise in this medical field. All I’ve ever had to do with childbirth is birthing a child in the backseat of my patrol car in the early 70s while transporting a woman to the hospital, and my experiences while with the fire service as an EMT, birthing children in patients homes, or the back of the ambulance. That’s it! And even that field has evolved tremendously since I was in it!
So, all this said, I’m going back to my original question. Where does thus Justice get off comparing the birth of a child to a farmer, or homeowner for that matter, spraying pesticides to control pest and insects on their land?
I can just about guarantee that there’s no comparison at all!
What needs to happen is the legislators need to keep their noses out if the medical field. Last I looked, a majority of them have little, to no, medical training or education. I’ve probably had a hell of a lot more than the majority of them, and I leave all my medical decisions for me, for my body, to my doctor!
Thank you for sharing your real world experiences. These trump judges are checked out living in a solipsistic state of mind We need a tidal wave rejection of GOP and restoration of sane governance
I really wish everyone of the bastards would have to switch jobs with a person doing hard physical labor for food for one full year. It would be the best thing that ever happened to this country.
In 2021 there were 144,000 rapes in the U.S. 1 in 20 rapes results in a pregnancy. Imagine a 26-year old wife and a 28-year old husband having to carry that pregnancy to term. What does that do to their lives?
Why do men rape? Sexually harass, grope, intimidate? We spend our time talking about the horrific outcomes of rape, but never how to stop men from raping in the first place.
The “enjoyment” of a natural piece of land - or any natural aspect of our existence - is NOT the legal rationale for maintaining that element.
Why were laws made to stop me from “enjoying” weed? Magic mushrooms? And on the order of how people’s bodies are used, how about the sexual favors of people who don’t want to share theirs with me …
EGAD, this “judge” needs to be taken out of the practice of jurisprudence!!! He’s totally off his rocker.
This is why the Republican filled so many position when tfg was in the White House! They are corrupt! Apparently we have a lot of corruption in the Republican Party. What a shame it is! They know how to brainwash the public! Thankfully there are more of us than there are of them!
This current makeup of SCOTUS has been working on preventing use of green energy sources; so why would they allow outlawing pesticides from being used? https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1121782
Then when insurance companies deny claims saying they won't pay because the procedure is for cosmetic reasons, then by Ho's logic, the patient suffers an "aesthetic" injury. What bullsh*t! He's out of his mind.
Exactly. Depriving them (whole independent persons) of their inalienable rights. "Narcissism pretending virtue." That is apparently the gop litmus test for potential leaders and justices. The 'party' of law and order my azz... They seem to intend mockery of established law with the intent to disrupt any semblance of order.
"Narcissism" popped into my mind too, along with "misogyny." I also can't wait for Judge Ho to apply his "logic" to the "conscience injury" and "aesthetic injury" perpetuated by racist laws or, for that matter, laws that force a woman to bear a child whether she wants to or not.
Donna, I couldn't agree more. This was a real gag a maggot opinion. "Judge" Ho is just another far right wing nut. It is certainly one of the worst opinions I have ever read. So women should get PG to make some anti abortion doctors happy and to have an abortion is to deprive them of that pleasure. May Ho be a poor woman in his next life with an unwanted pregnancy.
And I doubt seriously that this judge would be all in favor of the EPA and the Clean air and water acts, either. And would not even see any contradiction in that. 🙄
Extreme narcissism perhaps. But there is no correlation (in this argument) between the worlds of plants or animals and the world of humans. Wonder if this guy lost his train of thought along the way.....?.....
Trying to grasp the logic of these right wing judges and justices is a fool’s errand. Most of their loony opinions are retrofitted contortions of law aimed at supporting their activist agenda and pleasing their deep pocketed supporters allied with the Federalist Society. They act like they are in a debate club, with no regard for the real human lives their decisions might destroy. Putting personal aesthetics or individual moral superiority above human life is the height of crass elitism. I thought I had no words for this outrage, but apparently I do.
True, it's a fool's errand, but I appreciate being exposed to their so-called logic because I'd have a hard time imagining it otherwise -- or realizing how deeply misogynistic, racist, and anti-democratic the whole right-wing project is. As we used to say back in the old days, "The truth will set you free -- but first it will piss you off."
If I'd read it in a reputable newspaper 8 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it -- and this isn't because I was born yesterday, or lack an imagination.
Do you wonder about their wives? I always wonder what kinds of lives they have. Time to dismantle the “Heritage” Society before we have no “uncontaminated” lawyers left.
As we learned from the failure to pass the ERA for so many decades, there are women who have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in the right wing rhetoric, they have come to ally themselves with their captors, as it were. A kind of Stockholm Syndrome. I suspect many of the wives are there.
Yes! Have been thinking lately about the path of women in Christendom since the Roman Catholic Church gave us souls in the 12th century. Loved reading the footnotes in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy about pre-Christian women. Also there’s Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” which needs revival. First novel was written by a Sumerian woman, contemporary of Aristophanes or earlier(?).
I repress the memory of Phyllis Schafley. It’s too offensive now as it was then. But today an excellent reminder of historic Republican horrors. Thank you.
(And don't you just love being compared to animals who give the observer pleasure? That comparison made me cringe with the obvious patriarchy /voyeurism of this guy.)
Impregnate them against their will. Brand them with a "P" to prevent them from circumventing the "law", then put them in a caged theater for the "pleasure" of the observer. Ah no, that might sound a bit too harsh, let's say: "for their "own protection" from their imperfect wills". Act three, release them and their "crop" to the world to figure it all out on their own while the audience swoons with aesthetic pleasure and moral superiority.
Considering that this bunch already thinks that animals - domestic & wild - as just some resource placed here for their "use" - no surprise that we - women - (in his feeble mind) should be put to the same "use", is it?
This guy is an idiot - just think - HE is a judge - entitled (?) to decide OUR issues! This "decision" - IN HIS WORDS - should be on a billboard!
This loon has twin children, and one of them is a daughter. Let that sink in. He actually thinks some rando doctor's voyeuristic pleasure in these ultrasounds (ew) means more than his own daughter's health, mental and physical, and her personal freedom. I weep for her.
What do you think about not using the term 'patriarchy' as a disparagement which does harm to the concept of fatherhood and that, instead, we would use 'predation'?
The definition of patriarchy is a system of society or government, not fatherhood. Yes, patriarchy, the word is based on a word meaning father, but the word is not used to mean father.
Roxanna, have to disagree. "Fatherhood" is a perfectly good word for fatherhood, and "patriarchy" is an instantly recognizable, carefully curated word to express the horrors —very much starting with predation — that it encompasses. We need to be not reinventing the wheel, rather building on the ground we've gained.
Thanks, Alexandra. It's something I've pondered for a while and am really glad to have had a chance to converse with people about it. I've come to realize exactly what the word means and why it exists.
Hi Roxanna, I do think I could have chosen another word, and your point is well taken. For me, even the concept of patriarchy is loaded with negativity such as "authoritarian," "patronizing," (that is the word I should have used,) controlling and condescending.
That may be my wounds speaking. Fatherhood stands alone as a great word and concept.
I agree with the loading that makes memories too heavy since we could probably more easily live without that. Patronizing is terrific! I tried predatory because the people I'm thinking about seem to be going in for the kill, not just the control. But, maybe that's the Ukrainian in me, especially during this time.
Refugees from Central American starvation and/or gang murders. That is who is in "their" waters. Hung up on razor wire, or drowned under murder balloons.
Thomas, Crow, Cruz, and Ho, words fail me (that are for polite company) that can thoroughly describe this gathering. The only pleasure I would gather is if they were in a caged jail cell for their multiple crimes against the Constitution and the citizens of our country.
When I was young I used to wonder about this thing called the “male patriarchy”. I am male and was raised by a principled mother. In our house her word was reasonable and final. My dad loved and respected her.
I had strong female teachers through all my schooling. Not exclusively female, but lots of them.
I thought the concept of “male patriarchy” baffling until I was maybe in my Thirties. Then I understood.
Today Justice Ho did a paint by numbers for the doubting in his less than specious meandering. I found it difficult to read the text without wondering if he was joking. Good God.
Actually, from their perspective, the role of White women is to have babies so as to avoid White people being replaced. And this whole issue with abortion is designed to distract people from the fact that Republicans are trying to destroy our democracy, such as it is, so that they can hold on to power and stuff their pockets and those of the already monied classes.
“Republicans are trying to destroy our democracy, such as it is, so that they can hold on to power and stuff their pockets and those of the already monied classes.” Republicans answer to who funds them which would be the Uber wealthy
I think it depends upon which Republicans you are talking about. The Republican Elite, which I take to mean the very wealthy and their legislative representatives know exactly what they are doing. The folks who voter may not realize how much they have been influenced.
Ho should indulge his “enjoyment” by being forced to intimately observe (AND FEEL) the lifetime injuries incurred by forcing a child to give birth from rape.
Or at least to consider the aesthetic injury of a thirteen year old unable to enjoy seventh grade because she’s a mom now, completely against her will.
Absolutely the heart of the trauma....but it is one that will live forever in that child and all those who love her. May they be able to love her hard enough to ease the pain of a double rape, once by an animal and secondly by the state.
And may there be food for her AND her mother. May she be able to finish school and realize her dreams for herself and her child. Now if she were financially secure... .
Judge James Ho quoted an anti-abortion doctor who putatively declared “When my patients have chemical abortions, I lose the opportunity … to care for the woman and child through pregnancy and bring about a successful delivery of new life.”
When I decide not to buy a shiny used car, do I cause the salesperson to lose the opportunity to instill in me the joy of tooling around the neighborhood in a shiny new set of wheels?
Here, we are talking about staking the fundamental lifelong right of a woman's corporal autonomy against the temporary aesthetic sensibilities of a doctor.
By this reasoning, it is the doctor, not the mother, with the overriding interest in such a case. Absurd? Yes, but less absurd than Judge Ho's argumentation because his is presented as serious.
IKR? To hell with what the woman--who does the actual bearing of the supposed "joyous viewing by the obstetrician"--has to go through, mentally, physically and financially or that carrying a fetus with significant birth defects may not be the joy that Judge Ho thinks it must be. I have to wonder what convoluted maze he wandered through to come up with such a screwy, irrational argument.
I totally agree...all the ulta right-winger judicial opinions are clearly shaped into the same mold by the 'oh-so-wonderful' Federalist Society. It's all reactionary Catholicism with plenty of added racism and misogyny for the pleasure of the yt male patriarchy.
Joyce, This should give you some words: “Judge James Ho, who was sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow’s library in 2018...”. Looks an awful lot like oligarchical influence couched as religious pablum to me.
I think Judge Ho should be investigated to see how many children he has fathered, or how many abortions he has paid for. A man with such deep "insights" must have had several such traumatic experiences himself. Hypocritical? Never user the banner of god.
When I delivered my first child, even with the help of (some might say because of) the episiotomy, I ripped all the way to my rectum. (I know, TMI). My doc cussed as it happened. I could give way more unwanted "TMI" to discuss the aftereffects of that situation. I would love ANY anti-abortionist to experience that with me.
Almost all men, which I am a man, don't have a clue to what women go through in way too many ways. I have some through watching Call The Midwife and seeing a very dear lady to me and what she goes through in too many ways.
Women, please, unite and take more control - correct this male shit!
Stephen, I am a bit amused that much of the trials that tRump is going/about to go through is due to strong, black, WOMEN.
Not all men are bad--I count my father, husband, son, nephews and nephews in law. And some very good men I have had the pleasure of knowing in my decades on this earth.
My husband did watch all three children being born. One memory of that first birth is of pushing as hard as I could, and hearing my husband frantically saying "she's turning blue!!"
If you've been commenting on this forum for a while, I might have missed you. There's way too many comments to keep up with them all. That being said, there are SO MANY great people who read and comment on here! (yeah, some a-holes too but not many) They have truly been a blessing to me.
Women AND Men must unite to transform this Pathological Patriarchy. You see how courageous individuals of both genders work together in grassroots organizations like Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence AND in the superb series: THE HANDMAID'S TALE
His reasoning is obscene. Using that non-logic, a woman's body isn't her own at all and is subject to the whims of the observer.
I realize this is their goal and I am enraged. They deserve the fate in the woods of the Joseph Fiennes character in the televised version of "Handmaid's Tale".
Popcorn? 3-D glasses? or like in the Rocky Horror Picture Show where everyone gets dressed up in surgical garb and masks (oops no masks-they wouldn't wear them any way)
Just one word needed to describe Judge James Ho and others of like him: Perverts! He, and those like him, must immediately cease & desist, because his warped thinking and actions are causing me an aesthetic injury due to his interfering with my enjoyment of living in a sane and normal world!
If SCOTUS rules in favor of Ho's interpretation the next step would logically be to challenge birth control--because if "aesthetic considerations " of voyeuristic doctors are all that counts, then they cannot be denied ANY potential opportunity for more ultrasounds of fetuses to be provided for their enjoyment. A whole new type of pornography...
"The Handmaid's Tale" is no longer fiction. Perhaps all women in America will need to be placed in pre-natal zoos during their pregnancies for the optimal fetishistic experiences of sickos like Ho.
.... All our daughter's required to regularly submit menses records to some appropriately designated gop appointed authority... Dystopian doesn't quite cover it.
I immediately thought of Handmaid's Tale as well. Unbelievable that Ho can write this opinion with a straight face, and no mention of the harm that may come to a mother from having an unwanted child for the enjoyment of her doctor.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood : Inspired by US politics surrounding the issue of abortion in the 80's as viewed by this Canadien writer extrapolating about how this movement might play out in the near future . A quick review, via WIKI, I know, but it comes with substantial links, brings those years and the struggles all back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale#cite_note-:12-17
Per Margaret Atwood while discussing "Oryx and Crake". "As with The Handmaid's Tale, I didn't put in anything that we haven't already done, we're not already doing, we're seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are already in progress... So all of those things are real, and therefore the amount of pure invention is close to nil."
IMHO....The court and legislative action today is positively dripping the Atwood's brilliant "Handmaid's Tale", souped up with the anti abortion movement's 40 year stealth takeover of SCOTUS (and state governments) all in direct service to their goal of removing a woman's choice over her own body. Going further, they have moved to the horror of forcing a 13 yer old rape victim to go through 9 long months of a pregnancy, endure the fright (to a 13 yr old) and risk of delivery and a live birth, not to even mention, the complex issues to follow. With this judgement, the uterus is a ward of the state, and punishment remains open to anyone attempting to violate "their aesthetic pleasure".
I admit that I am terribly exercised over this. I hope to revisit reason soon. But definitely, there is no way to question the brilliant prescience of Atwood's tale.
This is exactly their plan. The ultimate Republican utopia is to have complete control of women's bodies and minds (such as we possess). No doubt many see the "Handmaid's Tale" as a user's guide.
Seems the plot of the Handmaids Tale is the handbook (or one of the handbooks) the Christian Fascists in America seek to implement in the USA. No doubt Ho is one of those CF’s.
“The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic dystopian novel….set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, white supremacist, totalitarian theonomic state….which has overthrown the United States government.”
Definition of theonomic:
“Theonomy (from Greek theos "God" and nomos "law") is a hypothetical Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law. Theonomists hold that divine law, particularly the judicial laws of the Old Testament, should be observed by modern societies.”
“The precise definition of theonomy is the presumption that the Old Covenant judicial laws given to Israel have not been abrogated, and therefore all civil governments are morally obligated to enforce them (including the specific penalties).”
yes and any doc who can claim an "aesthetic injury" by not performing an abortion on a 13 year old who was raped is one sick SOB who needs serious mental help.
My sentiments exactly. Unless you’ve had to see the trauma inflicted on a raise victim, then keep your mouth shut in ruling against medical care that their physician believes that young woman needs.
This is exactly like insurance companies to me. We have insurance companies that have people sitting behind their big mahogany desk making medical decisions whether a person needs a procedure or not, even with multiple doctors agreeing through their examinations and testing that the procedure is necessary for life.
This is exactly the same thing. Here you have a justice comparing the birth of a child, or the pregnancy “process” to a farmer, landowner, homeowner, spraying pesticides to control pest and insects!
A. This justice, to my knowledge isn’t a farmer.
B. I’m guessing he’s a homeowner, so I’d hate to go into his home, especially if he hadn’t ever used any pesticide of any type to control the creepy crawlers, or the flies, etc in his home.
There’s no comparison between the two. None.
What needs to happen is all these legislators, and justices, keep their noses out if the examining room of the physicians. That’s no place for this type of nonsense. Let the doctors do their jobs and leave the decisions of childbirth, pregnancy, and everything else between the doctors and the patients!
Thanks, Patricia. This 💩💩💩💩pisses me the hell off every time I read something , or hear about, one of these idiot politicians or justices, or SCOTUS, making a ruling or trying to implement another dumb-ass law like this idiot has done. They have already backed up women’s rights over 130 years, voting rights back to pre-1909, and it sucks! What we have in Congress right now is a joke, and they have split this nation worse than it was during slavery, and just before the Civil War. It’s my fear that they, the Trumpublicans in Washington, and Frumpy, are going to keep going until some of their ‘sheep’ grab their guns and start shooting people willy-nilly. Then the war will be on!
Judge Ho should be required to care for that young Mississippi girl’s child 24 hours a day for the next 18 years (i.e. through adolescence). Every 2 a.m. feeding. Every diapering. Cleaning up every spit-up. Cooking every meal. Staying up with every fever. Helping with homework. Being there when the teenager says, “whatever” to everything. All of it. (In real life I would not want to inflict that man on any child. And on few adults.)
Why are we not playing up the monetary bump these doctors achieve by delivering an unwanted child vs the pregnant person ending the pregnancy? Of course the doctor would want to deliver! Soooooooo much more money.
Anti abortion gyn professionals surely have no business in that particular specialty. Compelled to cater to the state, as well as their personal belief structure, they are not able to deliver full care to the woman.
By that logic, denying a transplant doctor the opportunity to do transplant surgery by not donating an organ should be outlawed—and it would also save a life! Oh, wait—that would not be an unborn life—never mind.
I cannot find the words to express my sadness at this decision on mifepristone. I simply cannot fathom how a judge could be so cruel. That the issue is even before any court is troubling: the decision (to have an abortion) is only between the woman and her doctor, and her counselor, should she have one she trusts. The judge should have no authority here, nor should any court.
Originalism Schmoriginalism. These guys just make it all up as they go along. Remember when conservatives used to decry ‘unelected, activist judges legislating from the bench? Turns out they just wanted the opportunity to do it their way.
That was always the case Mark; control freaks all - the entire gop leadership. Every single thing they've accused dems of doing, they now do their way, including actually effectively gaming nearly the entire system from voting to activist judges.
The "gop" has become all about demanding complete impunity from constraints of any sort devised by others (such as democratically crafted policies and laws) while simultaneously claiming their own inherent right to impose their preferences on everyone else. The daily news is filled with it. I can see a certain sick attraction to that frame of mind, but it's tyranny, responsible for most of the avoidable suffering of our own species.
"Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
Yes, I'm aware of that. I would like to think that Lincoln, who also seemed phobic of black people, even though he defended them, was fair-minded enough to learn, had he lived into the modern age. Many struggled to promote awareness that many of us now take for granted; and still resistance remains. Lincoln had a gift for ordering priorities and hitting the nail on the rhetorical head. Many Americans have identified components of a free and just society, but at least from my own limited experience, none have as precisely expressed a more filled-out vision of this than Lincoln. Interesting that Abolition and women's suffrage movement overlapped. The passage above brought a tear to my eye the first times I encountered it. "you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors". That's vivid with a gut-punch, and reason enough to pay more attention.
Is this payback for indicting Trump? Because this isn’t contortion, pretzel logic, or any kind of medical, moral or intellectual reasoning or even insanity. It’s another hit job on women.
A full fledged fairytale of evil queens, trolls and poisonous apples.
I will say Republicans are digging their own graves at a pace that is unprecedented.
The Democratic Party needs to keep this in the front pages and in everyone’s face.
Amazing the pretzel logic that is put into play to deny a person the right to make a medical decision for themselves about their body and future. My sincere hope is that some group, advocacy or lawyer somewhere has a case prepared to go after Viagra. There is no need for that medication as that denies women the right to find a more "robust and able" male to procreate with.
What the actual hell? Denying healthcare to women so people can enjoy “viewing” more babies? Is that really what he said? Also, I’m a teacher, and when school boards ban books, I lose the opportunity to care for my students. Shakespeare plays read in full are a source of profound joy to those who read them. Is that all I have to say to get these people off our backs?
Preach on, Tara! One profession I absolutely respect is that of an educator!
By your comment, I’m guessing you are an educator from Florida. The education process, under Governor DeStupid, has gone to hell in a bread basket! He has completely dismantled it to the point where you, the educators, have nothing left to teach. If I was a student there, in a college or university, I’d transfer out if the state to another campus where I could get a proper education. And, on the flip side of the coin, if I was an educator, I’d move outbid the state. There’s way to many openings in this nation for educators to stay in a state that has turned totally authoritarian. Let the Governor and his wife teach all the students!
Doubtful Tara. Those jackboots care nothing of your nor our opinion, much less legal arguments - quite obviously. Graceful compliance is all that's required of us.
Well stated. While many, even most, experience "profound joy" while viewing pictures of unborn babies (i.e., ultrasounds), there are too many instances where viewing those pictures results in profound sadness and dispair. The actual purpose of the ultrasouns is to monitor the developmental progress of a fetus. The profound irony is that people like Judge Ho would deny a woman the opportunity to to get the treatment that could save her life, her health, and the well beimg of her family.
Thank you for what you do, Tara. I knew young that a career as a teacher was not something I was cut out for (Mom was an English teacher), and I profoundly admire those who do.
To be blunt, the answer to your question about getting these people off your back is to say it is robbing you of the profound joy of reading Shakespeare's plays is "no"; it does not fit their would view of women as chattel baby producers.
The fact that judges are allowed to make decisions about abortion in 2023 is appalling at best. Forced pregnancy is a lifelong sentence for a woman. No one addresses that issue. There is not a 13-year-old on planet earth that is capable of raising a child. These forced-birthers care not at all about the human damage they leave behind.
So true Ally. Our history includes many laws and norms designed to control and disregard women’s rights including voting, owning property, attending college, preaching in church pulpits and more.
Women’s employment was restricted too (secretaries not executives) and of course the pay differentials are legend.
In most states a man could beat or rape their wives and not suffer any consequences. And we have the nerve to criticize the Taliban, Saudis etc who continue to deny women’s rights.
These crazy and unjustified rulings on our reproductive rights-control over our bodies-is the ultimate affront to our humanity.
The cards are about to get passed out , we’ve obtained enough info , indictments, lauded down edicts , to say if ‘24 does say how WE THE PEOPLE FEEL it’ll pretty much be over at least for a long time. There are some whose terms doesn’t end until 26 ,but with full control of the house and senate , and the White House we can pass laws to have this draconian stuff either reversed , and like Newsome got dealt ( which failed -he is awesome ) with a special vote to impeach him ?perhaps that can happen in Fla., Tx., and other states. DeSantis looks to be in denial about his fast ,furious , and failing free fall.
No surprise here.
The dissent is loud and growing from that state .
But the cleanup needed is mind blowing though many are likely to be implied, indicted, and included in the ‘conspiracy gang ‘ ...it’s just a matter of time..the writings on the walls of Michigan , Az, Georgia.
Patricia, I swear, you are a woman after my heart. I absolutely love the way you are preaching lady! If we can get everyone as fired up as you are, we have got this in the bag.
What we have to do now, is keep Biden/Harris in the White House, replace the Republicans that are running in ‘24, again in ‘26 and ‘28. Plus get all the republicans replaced in these states. We just might be able to get this country turned around. Since the past midterm election, not one if Biden’s agenda items has even been debated, brought up for discussion, nothing. The House hasn’t passed one bill to the Senate since midterm!
If we don’t get a ‘super-majority in the House and Senate, we are screwed. It’s been made extremely clear what the Republicans are doing. Wasting taxpayer dollars doing nothing!
Yes, Daniel.Eactly. The Federalist Sociiety and Heritage Foundation are just two of large think tanks who work insidiously to undermine and create havoc - they’re dangerous. They are only two of many entities with skills which I would hope would come into ‘useful striving ahead for solutions ‘vs subterfuge. They’ve been in play for a long time. And covertly.
We don’t make enough noise nor do I FEEL it’s necessary I like to see progress instead of obstructionism and underhanded conspiracy.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the gentle persistent walk of citizens striving on good paths. Staying the focus on honest delivery and SOLUTIONS. We’ve always had problems , we’ve made mistakes ( and admitted them) , we’re works in progress and succeed to get better and betterer😉)
This ERA has been mind boggling. It requires the little yous and mes to get on fire for our country , our world populations, our existence.
President Biden is , as said before,doin’ ….’one helluva job’. This weekend is just another example of cohesion in the making..he’s quite the master at it..let’s focus on that, getting the quiet but steady unity building coalition ramped up and join the push needed.
🕺<Daniel >Pat💃 = Team work Daniel….( on the winning team)
Simon , Ruth, Charlie, Heather, Steve, Dan, Joyce …mentors extrodinaire and our growing nation of TEAM DEMOCRACY … togetherness , unity, facts, consistency , truth…right into your living room ……🗣️now bring it to the ballot box friends
BIDEN WINS BY A LANDSLIDE 11/2024. DEMOCRATS HAVE UNPRECEDENTED SWEEP
I would advocate that the Catholic Church lose their 501(c)3 status as it (the church) as a whole has insinuated itself into politics for years. In fact, the catholic church in Kansas helped write the attempt to stop abortion in my state. And, helped fund the anti group. The citizenry soundly defeated the attempt.
I pray , write, share, we do again ...🗣️hail all you citizens we got to do this ‘ soundingly defeating’ AGAIN! Let it be the cry for our children, grandchildren, let the youth carry its banner high! 💙SOUNDLY DEFEAT THEM💙...thanks Diana🙌
In my experience, they tend to be quieter than the screaming repub cretins. A male friend said to me that he didn't think politics should keep people from being close. I said that I can't think of anything that tells a person's character more. These days, it's way more than a policy or issue thing.
James Ho is a Judicial "Ho." Some third party thinks-he's-god doctor has no fooking rights in the decision of a woman about what she does with her life, and to suggest otherwise is to demonstrate what misogynist scum these wingnut assholes are.
What Ho is endorsing is that the misogynist-right-wing-nut-doctors who filed this suit are entitled to get their jollies delivering unwanted babies. Utterly grotesque.
"When my patients have chemical abortions, I lose the opportunity…to care for the woman and child through pregnancy and bring about a successful delivery of new life.” ....
'Melania Concerned That Trump Will Be Unavailable to Attend Divorce Proceedings'
'PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Shortly after a Georgia grand jury indicted Donald J. Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, Melania Trump expressed concern that her husband’s mounting court dates could make him unavailable to attend' “any divorce proceedings that might come up.”
'Stressing that she was speaking “totally hypothetically,” Mrs. Trump said that the former President’s blizzard of court appearances would present scheduling challenges “if someone wanted to divorce him.”
“I know that stealing documents, falsifying business records, and subverting democracy are serious matters, but should prosecuting him mean—and, again, I’m just spitballing here—that someone should have to be married to him a day longer than she can stand?” she asked. “There’s a human cost to this.”
'Mrs. Trump urged the judges overseeing her husband’s multiple trials to delay them until after any divorce proceedings are concluded.' “I think that be best,” she said. (Satire, NewYorker)
I have not found a source but someone on NPR once claimed the Mark Twain said the the secret to his humor was to "tell the truth, but exaggerate". Whether "Twain" said it or not, I have since noticed many examples. Humor can be both a way to lie and to deliver truth, especially about "elephants in the room'.
She should have divorced his ass back when she moved out of the White House years ago. She’s milked that stake cow long enough. Her court proceedings can wait!
The post, Daniel, is a satire. It is made-up sarcastic fun by Andy Borowitz with The New Yorker Magazine. You can read that at the end of the post. Andy is well known, very smart and funny.
I know, but I’m just saying. She, and Frumpy’s not been living together since the second year he was in the White House. That’s been known for years. I have yet to see her in any if his trios like she used to travel and be seen with him.
I know this was a satire, but I’m looking at it as a reality. Where is she? Why isn’t she “standing by her man”? Why isn’t she seen with him at all his public appearances?
Personally, I think there’s ‘trouble in paradise’.
Hi Daniel, I think she may be protecting Barron. Not sure what deal she made with Trump before the last election but it was to give Barron equal inheritance. Maybe kicks in at 18 or 21??? On the other hand she may be " tied" to a contract too!
Well it was a bit entertaining ...I’m sure the marriage agreement/commitment was liberally incentivized , she was arm candy and likely one of his many props/pons . It sells well.Hope she enjoyed.
I’d best make this short Daniel, I gets me does and don’t s confused after 3 pm and likely many other sentence structures. Forgive me folks 😉🤣 you got to give us ol’folk some leeway. 🥰
Hahaha 😝! I feel ya, Patricia! I hope they give us old folks a lot of leeway!
I have suspected for a long time about their “marriage”. Let’s gave it. She was “First Lady” for crying out loud. If you were First Lady, would you go sleep and live at your parents?
The only thing that kept my first cup of coffee from making a precipitous exit during a guffaw was the timely warning that it was from the Borowitz Report.
That child will have to deal with the trauma for years upon years. One can only hope she was treated with the best, gentlest, and most loving care by her healthcare team. I can’t begin to describe the rage I feel. WHERE was the respect for this 12 year old’s life?
And in all of this discussion about this totally appalling opinion, no one is mentioning the likely life that that unwanted child, of rape or otherwise, will have. What happens when the child learns that it was the cause of its mother's death, or severe ill health for the rest of her life? Or its mother's devastated emotional health, inability to get or keep a job, permanent dependency on the state or on some man (or, goddess forbid, some sequence of men)? Or was the product of rape when its mother was 12? How does a person live with that knowledge? To say nothing of the people (once born) forced to endure an existence tormented by severe disabilities - mental or physical or both - and pain and suffering, for however long or short a time that person lives? (I do not say that all persons born with defective bodies or incapable minds suffer, or that their existence is torment for their families, either. But it is undeniable that some such people do suffer, and live in some kind of pain, and often don't live very long, and that their families suffer as well.)
All this to avoid committing some sort of voyeuristic "aesthetic injury" on some random doctor?
Self-centered "Republicans" favorite trick is to pull execrable stunts wrapped up is some pretentious, phony justification. The whole canon of their ongoing rap is straight out of Orwell. Evidence and logic don't enter into it so long as there is self-justifying narrative to hide behind and push ad nauseum. I works on the incurious, and frankly it is my impression that our sales-oriented society does not encourage curiosity nearly enough, at any stage of life, but especially in adulthood; and though there are counterexamples to be sure, this site being one of them. Lawyerly John Adams remarked that “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” a conviction at the root of the scientific method. A blastula potentially on it's way to becoming a fully sentient being; but certainly is not one. The "heartbeat' thing is pure fantasy; is a person with an artificial heart technically dead?
To my horror we (I say "we", but I do not include myself in this - I just mean the world at large, as in the French word "le monde" - the human world) seem to live in a world in which "alternative facts" are considered just as valid, as real and reliable, as actual facts, and in which some person's opinion, based in whatever facts or fancy appeals to that person, is considered to be a "fact" - as the blastula as a human, as the electric signal a "heartbeat" in the absence of a heart. I'm both incredulous and heartbroken for my country, for humans and for the environment. Thank you for the citation to John Adams.
Thank you Steve, you've neatly encapsulated the cause of thousands of years of suffering brought about by the perceived greater importance of all our little aristocracies' (based on race, gender, wealth, etc) pleasure or comfort over the lives and health (not to mention personhood) of...everybody else. That sounds insane and inhuman because it *is* insane and inhuman.
JL, what you say is true - and yet for centuries it's been excused, justified, and taken for granted as conforming to what was seen as the natural order of things. Consider, for instance, the custom of foot binding, with its attendant pain and crippling. Or the way corseting wreaked havoc with womens' internal organs. Or the still-practiced custom of female genital mutilation (see https://www.unfpa.org/news/top-5-things-you-didnt-know-about-female-genital-mutilation for the horrifying details) And all for the aesthetic pleasure of the perceived-to-be superior portion of the population, in the above 3 cases women's' "Lords and Masters." Malignant Narcissism has been with us for a long time.
Useful to the whims of malignant narcissists. That is what just governance is about; discouraging and intervening on abuses of power, whether with a six-gun or a fountain pen.
Of course, corrupt, self-serving, autocratic government can be the very worst of offenders. Despotism is a double crime, both against the victim and humanity. Contrast to Lincoln's view that "The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities."
He'd prefer bringing about a successful delivery of unwanted new life, than seizing the opportunity of caring for the woman (or schoolgirl) through surgical abortion?
no one goes into medicine to be a voyeur they go into medicine to save lives. This Judge is saying that certain Men's pleasure and morality is superior by law than women's or even other "lesser" men?
In line with their contrived absurdist position,, “Originalists” view women as birthing vessels and domestic servants and Blacks as 3/5 of a person. Apparently, Ho has been steeped in this putrid reactionary stew for many years, but his arguments citing aesthetics and moral righteousness take it to a new level.
'James Chiun-Yue Ho (born February 27, 1973) is a Taiwanese-born American attorney and jurist. He was nominated to serve as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Donald Trump, and took office in 2018. Ho formerly served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2008 to 2010.'
'Ho was born in 1973 in Taipei, Taiwan. He moved to the United States with his parents as a toddler and was raised in San Marino, California.'
'After graduating from the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Ho studied public policy at Stanford University, graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts with honors. After spending one year at California State University, Sacramento as a California Senate Fellow, Ho attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He graduated in 1999 with a Juris Doctor degree with high honors and Order of the Coif membership.'
'He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice, first in the Civil Rights Division (2001) and then in the Office of Legal Counsel (2001–2003).[1] He was Chief Counsel to subcommittees of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2003 to 2005[1] under Republican Senator John Cornyn.[5] He was then a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 2005 to 2006.'
'From 2008 to 2010, he was Solicitor General of Texas in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas,[1] replacing Ted Cruz in that position. As Texas solicitor general, Ho led the state's lawsuits against the Obama administration.'
'Ho has worked as a volunteer attorney with the First Liberty Institute, a religious legal advocacy organization. He has held multiple positions as a member of the Federalist Society since 1996.'
'Ho described abortion as a "moral tragedy" in one of his rulings which upheld a Texan law that required abortion facilities to bury or cremate fetal remains.[25]
'In 2019, Ho authored a concurring opinion in the Mississippi abortion case Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Dobbs, 945 F.3d 265 (2019), criticizing the lower court for failing to respect the State's arguments in support of the Mississippi Gestational Age Act. This case later went to the Supreme Court and was the occasion for Justice Alito's 2022 opinion that declared Roe v. Wade and "Casey" overruled.'
'On February 22, 2023, Ho wrote a sharply worded dissent from denial of rehearing after the 5th circuit granted qualified immunity to officials who jailed their critics. Ho wrote that the 5th Circuit left Americans "vulnerable to public officials who choose to weaponize criminal statutes against citizens whose political views they disfavor."
'On September 29, 2022, Ho delivered a speech at a Federalist Society conference in Kentucky and said he would no longer hire law clerks from Yale Law School, which he said was plagued by "cancel culture" and students disrupting conservative speakers. Ho said Yale "not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it.", and he urged other judges to likewise boycott the school.[19][20] U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth L. Branch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed her participation in the Yale boycott in a statement to National Review. Branch told the National Review that Ho raised "legitimate concerns about the lack of free speech on law school campuses, Yale in particular," and that she would not consider students from Yale for clerkships in the future.' (Wikipedia) See link below.
What does he know of the inner feelings of obstetricians? His opinion makes it sound like he delivers babies himself , but I see he is only quoting one doctor. He obviously knows nothing of the feelings of a woman carrying and delivering a fetus she does not wish to, or can not do in health.
And the feelings of the doctors and nurses that are delivering a baby that they know is causing great psychological harm to the mother? One would this that might make for an aestheticly displeasing situation for them. What about their feelings?
Thank you, Fern. I realize he’s been around, but he sees (or is pretending to see) only through rose-colored glasses. The picture he portrays does not represent the reality for a large sector of the American population whose socioeconomic challenges he appears (or pretends) to ignore.
We see abortion, healthcare and, perhaps, other aspects of life and governing differently than Judge Ho does. I think it is a matter of different political philosophies.
Thank you, Fern. I was going to look him up when I finished reading this letter. He is one, scary bench-holder. He needs to be flushed out, as do Thomas, Alito, and Cruz...the Despicables.
"Ho described abortion as a 'moral tragedy' in one of his rulings"
I understand this to mean that he considers all abortions to be elective and related to women having sex for enjoyment instead of procreation. This is the bottom line to all anti-abortion legislation, isn't it?
With regard to documentation of the existence of a plot to steal the election. I think it’s reasonable to argue this started far earlier.
Forbes: May 2020
President Trump, who is concerned Democrats would benefit from such measures, tweeted Tuesday morning that there is "NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent," and definitively declared that "This will be a Rigged Election."
This month, the President has intensified his attacks on mail voting; last week, he threatened to cut federal funding to Michigan and Nevada, falsely claiming that the states were sending "illegal" absentee ballots to voters.
Democrats have argued that Trump's primary motivation is depressing voter turnout, by any means necessary, instead of uncovering and preventing fraud.
Most research, including the most recent Brennan Center's seminal report The Truth About Voter Fraud, demonstrates that the majority fraud allegations turn out to be baseless and that most of the few remaining claims reveal irregularities and other forms of election misconduct.
TheHill: August 2020
President Trump on Monday further cast doubt on the U.S. election process, claiming falsely that the only way he would lose in November is if the election is “rigged.”
Trump made the remark at the end of a speech to supporters in Oshkosh, Wis., on Monday afternoon as he implored them to vote. It follows months of Trump claiming without evidence that widespread mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic would invite fraud into the election.
“We have to win the election. We can’t play games. Go out and vote. Do those beautiful absentee ballots, or just make sure your vote gets counted. Make sure because the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” Trump told the group of supporters at the outdoor campaign event. “Remember that. It’s the only way we’re going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful.”
“The only way they’re going to win is that way. And we can’t let that happen,” Trump said just hours before Democrats are set to begin their 2020 convention to formally nominate Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate.
Biden leads Trump nationally and in a number of key swing states, according to recent polling.
Democrats are increasing their scrutiny of the U.S. Postal Service after it warned states last week that it could not guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election would arrive in time to be counted even if voters follow state guidelines.
The disclosure came after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy adopted several changes to the agency, such as eliminating some mail-sorting machines, that have attracted criticism. DeJoy has cast the moves as cost-cutting measures meant to help the agency, which has long faced financial problems.
NBCNews: September 2020
At rally, Trump says 2020 election will be ‘rigged’ if he loses.
At an outdoor rally in Nevada with throngs of people, bucking state COVID-19 guidelines, President Donald Trump attacked polling that shows former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead in the battleground state and repeatedly sowed mistrust in the election process.
CNN: September 23, 2020
September 23 news conference: "Well, we're going to have to see what happens. You know that. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster ... We want to have -- get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very trans- -- we'll have a very peaceful -- there won't be a transfer, frankly; there'll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it," he said.
CNN: September 23
Trump says the election will be decided at the Supreme Court
September 23 Oval Office: "But in terms of time, we go to January 20th. But I think it's better if you go before the election because I think this -- this scam that the Democrats are pulling -- it's a scam -- this scam will be before the United States Supreme Court. And I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation, if you get that," he said.
Conclusion? He knew he was losing. This was plan B. All along. Create a huge disparity in %of his voters vs Biden voters using mail in ballots. Undermine mail in balloting through rule changes and DeJoy’s USPS shenanigans. Create expectation of fraud among his base. On election night, call win early before all mail in ballots are counted. Point to later changes in totals as fraud. Invent dozens of crackpot scenarios. File dozens of losing but press generating lawsuits. Create a climate of mistrust and doubt. Hatch fake elector plan. Gin up angry mob rally - it will be wild, stop the steal, stand back and stand by, etc. Get Pence or if not, Grassley, to certify fake elector ballots. Occupy White House and defend with 5-4 or better Supreme Court. And it almost worked.
Oh Jeri... I'm so sorry to learn that. I 'know' and have felt that torturous pain. My Mom came down with early onset Alz; Dad retired early to care for her. Having had my family later in life, I / we were still raising our two daughters into who are now productive and needed medical professionals. One suburb south, Mom and Dad struggled, and I was ever watching, helping if / when I could spare time. In short order (retrospectively) the pressure on Dad led him to have a hemorrhagic stroke, which led to vascular dementia. Following some years of costly and personally painful litigation, I became their guardian till the end of both their days - Mom just passing beyond us a year and a piece ago. I've never been through such anguish. Let's endeavor to hobble forth supporting each other to kick arse shall we.
Thank you for your kind reply. Seeing a man who could do anything become a man who could do nothing over 15 years was indeed torturous pain. How horrible about your Dad as well. I can't imagine. I was able to be with him every day for most of those years. He was a good man who deserved love and care to the end, as do all so afflicted. Hope I have some energy left to kick a few arses.
Governments have no damn business meddling in anybody's private medical treatment except to make sure that unqualified people do not practice medicine, drugs are safe, and to prevent the killing of babies capable of surviving out side the womb. Yes, it's complex, but generally not government's business! Remember, forced pregnancy is a WAR CRIME under international law. (Yes there was a Nuremberg Trial.). Women have legally become second class citizens! Who's next?
Governor Abbott is killing people in the Rio Grande River. Why isn't he charged or in jail pending trial and his program already terminated? Where are the "decent Texans?" Is Eisenhower the last President who will enforce the law? Who else can we drown or shoot, Canadians? English?
Abbott also sent a bus load of immigrants to Chicago recently and a sick 3 year old child died when the bus crossed into southern Illinois. The bus had stopped there waiting on an ambulance, but it was too late as the child died while in transport to a nearby hospital. Abbott should be charged for murder for that too. He is cruel, evil, no good SOB, and he needs to be in prison. It's beyond me why people re-elected this cretin to be their governor. I just don't get it. I also read where 3 people were found dead near the booby trap he set in the Rio Grande River. Fascist Rethuglicans seem to enjoy people suffering and dying.. These are the kind of scumbags that want to take over the United States and seeing more innocent people die. Despicable and outrageous is what this is.
What I’m not understanding about Governor Abbott is staggering.
What’s his heritage? His ancestry?
There’s not one person in this nation that has a heritage/ancestry of their family coming from the United States. Not one! Not even the Indian people. So, what’s Abbotts reasoning here.
My point is this. According to the history of this great nation, it was built by immigrants. Immigration from the countries across the oceans. It was discovered by the likes of Columbus and others, after which this country was populated by people from England, France, and other countries shortly thereafter.
So, Abbott has to have ancestry from another country. These people seeking asylum here have just as much right to be here as he does. Probably more because most of them are coming to work the fields in the agricultural sector. Most of them will do jobs in the agricultural industry that most of the white people here refuse to do, and do it for a hell of a lot less pay!
And yes, I agree that when he violated the law putting up that razor wire barrier in the river and people died, he should have been arrested, and jailed, right then.
When is this country going to start treating these politicians like we are treated germ we violate a law. Nobody is above the law. Nobody is exempt from sitting their ass in jail until trial. That includes EVERY politician. Trump and Abbott included!
Some people like looking at baby pictures, ultrasounds, women holding pregnant bellies and so forth, but many others do not. Is this any reason to have laws forcing continued pregnancy? Men who need this dopamine jolt to bring on the happy make me go ewww.
Roger Stone was not saying anything new in November 2020 when he outlined how Trump and his allies could steal an election. That plot had been out there for a while. See The Atlantic, "How Donald Trump Could Steal the Election," Jeffrey Davis, March 29, 2020, and, in the same magazine, "The Election that Could Break America," Barton Gellman, Sept. 23, 2020. The blueprint was there for all to to see. Both articles cited the gaps in the Constitution that could make the stolen election possible. We should be grateful to the people who had the integrity and backbone not to let it happen.
Roger Stone is another slimy, sleaze bag that should be indicted, arrested, and convicted and thrown in prison, They don't get anymore slimy and sleazy as he is. He is one of the worst. Donald TUMP is the worst.
Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for obstructing an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and that sentence was commuted by the former president in 2020.
That figures that TUMP would commute the sentence of one of his crime buddies. All of these Fascist Rethug clowns are truly rotten to the core. Stone should have gotten 40 years instead of just 40 months, but TUMP would have commuted that sentence too. My God, these people are evil and corrupt.
"Indeed, Ho wrote, “It’s well established that, if a plaintiff has ‘concrete plans’ to visit an animal’s habitat and view that animal, that plaintiff suffers aesthetic injury when an agency has approved a project that threatens the animal.”
So pregnant women and teens are animals in a "habitat" now? Pretty soon to be put in zoos for the aesthetic pleasure rights of Judge Ho and his doctor friends? This tops even The Handmaid's Tale, I believe.
It would please me to learn that Judge James Ho resigned. For him to deny my enjoyment would be an aesthetic injury.
There are no words to describe Ho’s opinion on “being denied enjoyment” of the birth of a child. There is no logic in his half-assed logic. Please, women unit- become pregnant so some Dr can enjoy your delivery experience. OMG - what have we become?
This is the weirdest reasoning I've ever heard. 🤯
It is once again extreme narcissism pretending to be virtue. He says "In cases where the government “approved some action—such as developing land or using pesticides—that threatens to destroy…animal or plant life that plaintiffs wish to enjoy,”, it is not, I would hope, my personal opinion of animal or plant life that would sway a sane court decision but many other factors such as species endangerment, and other factors that impact the integrity of the environment and society. It may impact what is done with a section of land, but does not otherwise impact how a person lives their own life. It's a trumped up rational for claiming the right to run the life of another.
J L, as you, I’m trying to understand, grasp, the logic between the comparison of “using pesticides” and the birth of a child? Where is this justices’ thinking, really? Is this narcissistic idiot actually comparing the use of pesticides to control pest and unwanted insects on land to the birth of a child or not?
I’m not getting that logic. I was born, and raised on a farm. I lived in that farming environment my first 21 years of my life. What’s even more interesting. After my law enforcement and firefighting career I returned to the agriculture field, so to speak, and have been reporting agriculture news since 1995. I have seen, first hand how agriculture in this country has evolved since the early 60s to now. Believe me, it’s evolved probably as much as birthing children.
Now that’s a field I have absolutely no expertise in.
A. I’m a man, so obviously I’ve never experienced childbirth, and probably won’t ever.
B. I have no natural children I’ve fathered, so, I’ve not had to experience childbirth with my wife, or woman.
C. I have enough brains to know that the medical field has evolved over the past 6 decades, just as the agriculture field has evolved.
I have enough sense to know that a woman becoming pregnant is the “evolution of life”. BUT, I also have enough brains to know that I’m the event something happens, beyond this woman’s control, this child may not be able to be carried to term, it may become medically necessary to “terminate the pregnancy” for the good of the mother or some other reason, medically. Plus, I also know first hand that there are young women that become pregnant through some type of rape, or incest, and fir the young woman to live, that pregnancy must be terminated.
As I have said above, I have absolutely no expertise in this medical field. All I’ve ever had to do with childbirth is birthing a child in the backseat of my patrol car in the early 70s while transporting a woman to the hospital, and my experiences while with the fire service as an EMT, birthing children in patients homes, or the back of the ambulance. That’s it! And even that field has evolved tremendously since I was in it!
So, all this said, I’m going back to my original question. Where does thus Justice get off comparing the birth of a child to a farmer, or homeowner for that matter, spraying pesticides to control pest and insects on their land?
I can just about guarantee that there’s no comparison at all!
What needs to happen is the legislators need to keep their noses out if the medical field. Last I looked, a majority of them have little, to no, medical training or education. I’ve probably had a hell of a lot more than the majority of them, and I leave all my medical decisions for me, for my body, to my doctor!
Thank you for sharing your real world experiences. These trump judges are checked out living in a solipsistic state of mind We need a tidal wave rejection of GOP and restoration of sane governance
I really wish everyone of the bastards would have to switch jobs with a person doing hard physical labor for food for one full year. It would be the best thing that ever happened to this country.
In 2021 there were 144,000 rapes in the U.S. 1 in 20 rapes results in a pregnancy. Imagine a 26-year old wife and a 28-year old husband having to carry that pregnancy to term. What does that do to their lives?
Why do men rape? Sexually harass, grope, intimidate? We spend our time talking about the horrific outcomes of rape, but never how to stop men from raping in the first place.
Simple answer…..destroy it, and their marriage.
The “enjoyment” of a natural piece of land - or any natural aspect of our existence - is NOT the legal rationale for maintaining that element.
Why were laws made to stop me from “enjoying” weed? Magic mushrooms? And on the order of how people’s bodies are used, how about the sexual favors of people who don’t want to share theirs with me …
EGAD, this “judge” needs to be taken out of the practice of jurisprudence!!! He’s totally off his rocker.
This is why the Republican filled so many position when tfg was in the White House! They are corrupt! Apparently we have a lot of corruption in the Republican Party. What a shame it is! They know how to brainwash the public! Thankfully there are more of us than there are of them!
"Us"? Meaning women? YES!!!
Someone should file a lawsuit outlawing all pesticides using Dr Ho’s argument.
This current makeup of SCOTUS has been working on preventing use of green energy sources; so why would they allow outlawing pesticides from being used? https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1121782
Thank you for your account. Few could have the experience to have written it and fewer the skill. Ho is as ridiculous as SCOTUS and all the rest.
Then when insurance companies deny claims saying they won't pay because the procedure is for cosmetic reasons, then by Ho's logic, the patient suffers an "aesthetic" injury. What bullsh*t! He's out of his mind.
Jenn, this will surely be identified as an “Alito-ism”
🤣🤣🤣 Well said
Exactly. Depriving them (whole independent persons) of their inalienable rights. "Narcissism pretending virtue." That is apparently the gop litmus test for potential leaders and justices. The 'party' of law and order my azz... They seem to intend mockery of established law with the intent to disrupt any semblance of order.
what about the moral injury to defendants when they go in front of such a judge?
Can they ask for a change of venue since they might not get an impartial trial?
"Narcissism" popped into my mind too, along with "misogyny." I also can't wait for Judge Ho to apply his "logic" to the "conscience injury" and "aesthetic injury" perpetuated by racist laws or, for that matter, laws that force a woman to bear a child whether she wants to or not.
I couldn't find the words to explain how his argument made me, as a women, feel, but yours sure did! Also this picture does too.
Donna, I couldn't agree more. This was a real gag a maggot opinion. "Judge" Ho is just another far right wing nut. It is certainly one of the worst opinions I have ever read. So women should get PG to make some anti abortion doctors happy and to have an abortion is to deprive them of that pleasure. May Ho be a poor woman in his next life with an unwanted pregnancy.
And I doubt seriously that this judge would be all in favor of the EPA and the Clean air and water acts, either. And would not even see any contradiction in that. 🙄
Extreme narcissism perhaps. But there is no correlation (in this argument) between the worlds of plants or animals and the world of humans. Wonder if this guy lost his train of thought along the way.....?.....
Or his train of mind?........
Perhaps not, but I'll bet he's hoping we will.
Trying to grasp the logic of these right wing judges and justices is a fool’s errand. Most of their loony opinions are retrofitted contortions of law aimed at supporting their activist agenda and pleasing their deep pocketed supporters allied with the Federalist Society. They act like they are in a debate club, with no regard for the real human lives their decisions might destroy. Putting personal aesthetics or individual moral superiority above human life is the height of crass elitism. I thought I had no words for this outrage, but apparently I do.
True, it's a fool's errand, but I appreciate being exposed to their so-called logic because I'd have a hard time imagining it otherwise -- or realizing how deeply misogynistic, racist, and anti-democratic the whole right-wing project is. As we used to say back in the old days, "The truth will set you free -- but first it will piss you off."
Very good point. Every day we hear real stuff leaving their mouths that - if a novelist or playwright wrote it - would normally be unbelievable!
If I'd read it in a reputable newspaper 8 years ago, I wouldn't have believed it -- and this isn't because I was born yesterday, or lack an imagination.
Right??? Judges are supposed to listen to the arguments and decide, not craft an argument?
Do you wonder about their wives? I always wonder what kinds of lives they have. Time to dismantle the “Heritage” Society before we have no “uncontaminated” lawyers left.
As we learned from the failure to pass the ERA for so many decades, there are women who have been so thoroughly indoctrinated in the right wing rhetoric, they have come to ally themselves with their captors, as it were. A kind of Stockholm Syndrome. I suspect many of the wives are there.
Yes! Have been thinking lately about the path of women in Christendom since the Roman Catholic Church gave us souls in the 12th century. Loved reading the footnotes in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” trilogy about pre-Christian women. Also there’s Aristophanes’ “Lysistrata” which needs revival. First novel was written by a Sumerian woman, contemporary of Aristophanes or earlier(?).
my sister :' (
Surely, handmaids themselves to Phyllis Schlafley and her devoted followers.
I repress the memory of Phyllis Schafley. It’s too offensive now as it was then. But today an excellent reminder of historic Republican horrors. Thank you.
Thank you, you found the words for a lot of us :)
(And don't you just love being compared to animals who give the observer pleasure? That comparison made me cringe with the obvious patriarchy /voyeurism of this guy.)
Impregnate them against their will. Brand them with a "P" to prevent them from circumventing the "law", then put them in a caged theater for the "pleasure" of the observer. Ah no, that might sound a bit too harsh, let's say: "for their "own protection" from their imperfect wills". Act three, release them and their "crop" to the world to figure it all out on their own while the audience swoons with aesthetic pleasure and moral superiority.
Hard to hit "like" when what you describe is so awful. Masterfully said.
TY Ally House. This has awakened the sleeping giant of feminine injustice from the 80's.
A modern Greek tragedy. However, remember who it is who is doomed by hubris - it wouldn't be the women in this scenario.
Wow, that is all too descriptive and horrifyingly too close of an observation. Yet that is exactly what the judge seems to described in his “opinion”.
Handmaids Tale anyone?
K Barnes, you nailed it perfectly, expertly, sadly.
That hit me too! As,Susanne Sturgis said above, " The truth will set you free . . . but first, it will piss you off!
I love animals, and, let's face it, we humans are animals. BUT the intent is all too ckear: women exist for men's pleasure and enjoyment.
BARF!!!
Considering that this bunch already thinks that animals - domestic & wild - as just some resource placed here for their "use" - no surprise that we - women - (in his feeble mind) should be put to the same "use", is it?
This guy is an idiot - just think - HE is a judge - entitled (?) to decide OUR issues! This "decision" - IN HIS WORDS - should be on a billboard!
This loon has twin children, and one of them is a daughter. Let that sink in. He actually thinks some rando doctor's voyeuristic pleasure in these ultrasounds (ew) means more than his own daughter's health, mental and physical, and her personal freedom. I weep for her.
Sure would be interesting to hear his wife's opinion, wouldnt it?
What do you think about not using the term 'patriarchy' as a disparagement which does harm to the concept of fatherhood and that, instead, we would use 'predation'?
The definition of patriarchy is a system of society or government, not fatherhood. Yes, patriarchy, the word is based on a word meaning father, but the word is not used to mean father.
Thanks for helping me figure this out, Mary Ellen.
Roxanna, have to disagree. "Fatherhood" is a perfectly good word for fatherhood, and "patriarchy" is an instantly recognizable, carefully curated word to express the horrors —very much starting with predation — that it encompasses. We need to be not reinventing the wheel, rather building on the ground we've gained.
Thanks, Alexandra. It's something I've pondered for a while and am really glad to have had a chance to converse with people about it. I've come to realize exactly what the word means and why it exists.
Hi Roxanna, I do think I could have chosen another word, and your point is well taken. For me, even the concept of patriarchy is loaded with negativity such as "authoritarian," "patronizing," (that is the word I should have used,) controlling and condescending.
That may be my wounds speaking. Fatherhood stands alone as a great word and concept.
I agree with the loading that makes memories too heavy since we could probably more easily live without that. Patronizing is terrific! I tried predatory because the people I'm thinking about seem to be going in for the kill, not just the control. But, maybe that's the Ukrainian in me, especially during this time.
Its men(?) like this that do harm to the concept! But have to agree, predation sure does fit.
What Maggie said!
This the most absurd and wonky logic I have ever heard! Ever! It would be laughable if real people WOMEN were not the object of this argument.
Texas seems to have become the state of "Do Harm Unto Others." What the hell got into their Republican waters?
Refugees from Central American starvation and/or gang murders. That is who is in "their" waters. Hung up on razor wire, or drowned under murder balloons.
Reasoning? It’s a word salad. He took communication lessons from tfg.
Thomas, Crow, Cruz, and Ho, words fail me (that are for polite company) that can thoroughly describe this gathering. The only pleasure I would gather is if they were in a caged jail cell for their multiple crimes against the Constitution and the citizens of our country.
When I was young I used to wonder about this thing called the “male patriarchy”. I am male and was raised by a principled mother. In our house her word was reasonable and final. My dad loved and respected her.
I had strong female teachers through all my schooling. Not exclusively female, but lots of them.
I thought the concept of “male patriarchy” baffling until I was maybe in my Thirties. Then I understood.
Today Justice Ho did a paint by numbers for the doubting in his less than specious meandering. I found it difficult to read the text without wondering if he was joking. Good God.
It is not reasoning, it is spewing poop from the mouth for the American people to step into.
The Handmaid’s Tale? Actually the role of women to have babies was a key plank of the Nazi Party.
How very fascist of Judge Ho.
He may as well have written “blessed be the fruit”.
Actually, from their perspective, the role of White women is to have babies so as to avoid White people being replaced. And this whole issue with abortion is designed to distract people from the fact that Republicans are trying to destroy our democracy, such as it is, so that they can hold on to power and stuff their pockets and those of the already monied classes.
“Republicans are trying to destroy our democracy, such as it is, so that they can hold on to power and stuff their pockets and those of the already monied classes.” Republicans answer to who funds them which would be the Uber wealthy
And the racists/misogynists brutes who bow and pray to their neon gods, their golden calf. Or are they merely misguided fools???
I think it depends upon which Republicans you are talking about. The Republican Elite, which I take to mean the very wealthy and their legislative representatives know exactly what they are doing. The folks who voter may not realize how much they have been influenced.
I have always thought that the aim of the anti-abortion movement is racist, to birth more white babies so whites won't be "replaced."
You have a point.
"The Handmaid’s Tale" -- Exactly what popped into my mind also. -- Dystopian fiction has become reality.
Ho should indulge his “enjoyment” by being forced to intimately observe (AND FEEL) the lifetime injuries incurred by forcing a child to give birth from rape.
Or at least to consider the aesthetic injury of a thirteen year old unable to enjoy seventh grade because she’s a mom now, completely against her will.
Absolutely the heart of the trauma....but it is one that will live forever in that child and all those who love her. May they be able to love her hard enough to ease the pain of a double rape, once by an animal and secondly by the state.
And may there be food for her AND her mother. May she be able to finish school and realize her dreams for herself and her child. Now if she were financially secure... .
Pure unadorned Piggy doo-doo.
Judge James Ho quoted an anti-abortion doctor who putatively declared “When my patients have chemical abortions, I lose the opportunity … to care for the woman and child through pregnancy and bring about a successful delivery of new life.”
When I decide not to buy a shiny used car, do I cause the salesperson to lose the opportunity to instill in me the joy of tooling around the neighborhood in a shiny new set of wheels?
Here, we are talking about staking the fundamental lifelong right of a woman's corporal autonomy against the temporary aesthetic sensibilities of a doctor.
By this reasoning, it is the doctor, not the mother, with the overriding interest in such a case. Absurd? Yes, but less absurd than Judge Ho's argumentation because his is presented as serious.
Holy guacamole!
IKR? To hell with what the woman--who does the actual bearing of the supposed "joyous viewing by the obstetrician"--has to go through, mentally, physically and financially or that carrying a fetus with significant birth defects may not be the joy that Judge Ho thinks it must be. I have to wonder what convoluted maze he wandered through to come up with such a screwy, irrational argument.
It’s the large and small intestine maze. He went through head first.
Think about the recent "supreme" court decisions & their "reasoning"!
I totally agree...all the ulta right-winger judicial opinions are clearly shaped into the same mold by the 'oh-so-wonderful' Federalist Society. It's all reactionary Catholicism with plenty of added racism and misogyny for the pleasure of the yt male patriarchy.
It's grotesque.
That’s the exact adjective for the unaesthetic!
Joyce, This should give you some words: “Judge James Ho, who was sworn into office by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in his billionaire benefactor Harlan Crow’s library in 2018...”. Looks an awful lot like oligarchical influence couched as religious pablum to me.
I think Judge Ho should be investigated to see how many children he has fathered, or how many abortions he has paid for. A man with such deep "insights" must have had several such traumatic experiences himself. Hypocritical? Never user the banner of god.
Total bullshit.
When I delivered my first child, even with the help of (some might say because of) the episiotomy, I ripped all the way to my rectum. (I know, TMI). My doc cussed as it happened. I could give way more unwanted "TMI" to discuss the aftereffects of that situation. I would love ANY anti-abortionist to experience that with me.
Almost all men, which I am a man, don't have a clue to what women go through in way too many ways. I have some through watching Call The Midwife and seeing a very dear lady to me and what she goes through in too many ways.
Women, please, unite and take more control - correct this male shit!
Stephen, I am a bit amused that much of the trials that tRump is going/about to go through is due to strong, black, WOMEN.
Not all men are bad--I count my father, husband, son, nephews and nephews in law. And some very good men I have had the pleasure of knowing in my decades on this earth.
My husband did watch all three children being born. One memory of that first birth is of pushing as hard as I could, and hearing my husband frantically saying "she's turning blue!!"
True. It's frustrating to me that there are way too many A-holes out there that think they have the tougher jobs...
If you've been commenting on this forum for a while, I might have missed you. There's way too many comments to keep up with them all. That being said, there are SO MANY great people who read and comment on here! (yeah, some a-holes too but not many) They have truly been a blessing to me.
I believe better times are coming!
If you are fairly new to the forum, welcome!
Women AND Men must unite to transform this Pathological Patriarchy. You see how courageous individuals of both genders work together in grassroots organizations like Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence AND in the superb series: THE HANDMAID'S TALE
Or Barbie
I haven't seen it yet but hear it's frustrated many a manly man...
His reasoning is obscene. Using that non-logic, a woman's body isn't her own at all and is subject to the whims of the observer.
I realize this is their goal and I am enraged. They deserve the fate in the woods of the Joseph Fiennes character in the televised version of "Handmaid's Tale".
I prefer ‘ they’ to the aforementioned ‘we’.
💙💙VOTE THEM OUT ,FOLKS💙💙
Popcorn? 3-D glasses? or like in the Rocky Horror Picture Show where everyone gets dressed up in surgical garb and masks (oops no masks-they wouldn't wear them any way)
It’s very creepy!
Because it’s all about him.
Just one word needed to describe Judge James Ho and others of like him: Perverts! He, and those like him, must immediately cease & desist, because his warped thinking and actions are causing me an aesthetic injury due to his interfering with my enjoyment of living in a sane and normal world!
If SCOTUS rules in favor of Ho's interpretation the next step would logically be to challenge birth control--because if "aesthetic considerations " of voyeuristic doctors are all that counts, then they cannot be denied ANY potential opportunity for more ultrasounds of fetuses to be provided for their enjoyment. A whole new type of pornography...
"The Handmaid's Tale" is no longer fiction. Perhaps all women in America will need to be placed in pre-natal zoos during their pregnancies for the optimal fetishistic experiences of sickos like Ho.
Good catch. The Handmaid's Tale was, like 1984, inspired by existing threatening patterns in life.
.... All our daughter's required to regularly submit menses records to some appropriately designated gop appointed authority... Dystopian doesn't quite cover it.
I immediately thought of Handmaid's Tale as well. Unbelievable that Ho can write this opinion with a straight face, and no mention of the harm that may come to a mother from having an unwanted child for the enjoyment of her doctor.
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood : Inspired by US politics surrounding the issue of abortion in the 80's as viewed by this Canadien writer extrapolating about how this movement might play out in the near future . A quick review, via WIKI, I know, but it comes with substantial links, brings those years and the struggles all back. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Handmaid%27s_Tale#cite_note-:12-17
Per Margaret Atwood while discussing "Oryx and Crake". "As with The Handmaid's Tale, I didn't put in anything that we haven't already done, we're not already doing, we're seriously trying to do, coupled with trends that are already in progress... So all of those things are real, and therefore the amount of pure invention is close to nil."
IMHO....The court and legislative action today is positively dripping the Atwood's brilliant "Handmaid's Tale", souped up with the anti abortion movement's 40 year stealth takeover of SCOTUS (and state governments) all in direct service to their goal of removing a woman's choice over her own body. Going further, they have moved to the horror of forcing a 13 yer old rape victim to go through 9 long months of a pregnancy, endure the fright (to a 13 yr old) and risk of delivery and a live birth, not to even mention, the complex issues to follow. With this judgement, the uterus is a ward of the state, and punishment remains open to anyone attempting to violate "their aesthetic pleasure".
I admit that I am terribly exercised over this. I hope to revisit reason soon. But definitely, there is no way to question the brilliant prescience of Atwood's tale.
"The Handmaid’s Tale" -- Exactly what popped into my mind also. -- Dystopian fiction has become reality.
I hope these ‘free speech’ drivel dribbles become the first inklings of a criminal act...and so prosecuted ...just sayin’
Here's a Rastafarian perspective:
"Legal murder they call abortion"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=5L45toPpEv0&feature=share9
And here's a song by a famous rock star whose baby (fetus -- so it's not really "his") got aborted:
"Blood is the rose of mysterious union"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=6lnoM25D-js&feature=share9
He sang about the encounter that led to the abortion in this song:
"Now I'm so alone, just looking for a home in ev'ry face I see"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=SaO0b-DvJU8&feature=share9
That seems to have tipped his life course into its slow-motion alcoholic death spiral:
"I promised I would drown myself in mysticated wine"
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8RyC-azVYX8&feature=share9
This is exactly their plan. The ultimate Republican utopia is to have complete control of women's bodies and minds (such as we possess). No doubt many see the "Handmaid's Tale" as a user's guide.
Seems the plot of the Handmaids Tale is the handbook (or one of the handbooks) the Christian Fascists in America seek to implement in the USA. No doubt Ho is one of those CF’s.
“The Handmaid's Tale is a futuristic dystopian novel….set in a near-future New England in a patriarchal, white supremacist, totalitarian theonomic state….which has overthrown the United States government.”
Definition of theonomic:
“Theonomy (from Greek theos "God" and nomos "law") is a hypothetical Christian form of government in which society is ruled by divine law. Theonomists hold that divine law, particularly the judicial laws of the Old Testament, should be observed by modern societies.”
“The precise definition of theonomy is the presumption that the Old Covenant judicial laws given to Israel have not been abrogated, and therefore all civil governments are morally obligated to enforce them (including the specific penalties).”
(Both the above quoted from Wikipedia)
yes and any doc who can claim an "aesthetic injury" by not performing an abortion on a 13 year old who was raped is one sick SOB who needs serious mental help.
My sentiments exactly. Unless you’ve had to see the trauma inflicted on a raise victim, then keep your mouth shut in ruling against medical care that their physician believes that young woman needs.
This is exactly like insurance companies to me. We have insurance companies that have people sitting behind their big mahogany desk making medical decisions whether a person needs a procedure or not, even with multiple doctors agreeing through their examinations and testing that the procedure is necessary for life.
This is exactly the same thing. Here you have a justice comparing the birth of a child, or the pregnancy “process” to a farmer, landowner, homeowner, spraying pesticides to control pest and insects!
A. This justice, to my knowledge isn’t a farmer.
B. I’m guessing he’s a homeowner, so I’d hate to go into his home, especially if he hadn’t ever used any pesticide of any type to control the creepy crawlers, or the flies, etc in his home.
There’s no comparison between the two. None.
What needs to happen is all these legislators, and justices, keep their noses out if the examining room of the physicians. That’s no place for this type of nonsense. Let the doctors do their jobs and leave the decisions of childbirth, pregnancy, and everything else between the doctors and the patients!
Get ‘em Daniel... hear hear! 🙌🫶👏
Thanks, Patricia. This 💩💩💩💩pisses me the hell off every time I read something , or hear about, one of these idiot politicians or justices, or SCOTUS, making a ruling or trying to implement another dumb-ass law like this idiot has done. They have already backed up women’s rights over 130 years, voting rights back to pre-1909, and it sucks! What we have in Congress right now is a joke, and they have split this nation worse than it was during slavery, and just before the Civil War. It’s my fear that they, the Trumpublicans in Washington, and Frumpy, are going to keep going until some of their ‘sheep’ grab their guns and start shooting people willy-nilly. Then the war will be on!
Whewww!! That statement needs to be on billboards across this country.
Resign to write fiction. He's clearly a talent.
Judge Ho should be required to care for that young Mississippi girl’s child 24 hours a day for the next 18 years (i.e. through adolescence). Every 2 a.m. feeding. Every diapering. Cleaning up every spit-up. Cooking every meal. Staying up with every fever. Helping with homework. Being there when the teenager says, “whatever” to everything. All of it. (In real life I would not want to inflict that man on any child. And on few adults.)
...and footing the bill and paying for college education...
And the years of psychiatric treatment of likely PTSD
Judge Ho has enabled me to truly understand the meaning of being flabbergasted!
Why are we not playing up the monetary bump these doctors achieve by delivering an unwanted child vs the pregnant person ending the pregnancy? Of course the doctor would want to deliver! Soooooooo much more money.
Anti abortion gyn professionals surely have no business in that particular specialty. Compelled to cater to the state, as well as their personal belief structure, they are not able to deliver full care to the woman.
By that logic, denying a transplant doctor the opportunity to do transplant surgery by not donating an organ should be outlawed—and it would also save a life! Oh, wait—that would not be an unborn life—never mind.
gobsmacked
🤣🫶
I cannot find the words to express my sadness at this decision on mifepristone. I simply cannot fathom how a judge could be so cruel. That the issue is even before any court is troubling: the decision (to have an abortion) is only between the woman and her doctor, and her counselor, should she have one she trusts. The judge should have no authority here, nor should any court.
Originalism Schmoriginalism. These guys just make it all up as they go along. Remember when conservatives used to decry ‘unelected, activist judges legislating from the bench? Turns out they just wanted the opportunity to do it their way.
That was always the case Mark; control freaks all - the entire gop leadership. Every single thing they've accused dems of doing, they now do their way, including actually effectively gaming nearly the entire system from voting to activist judges.
The "gop" has become all about demanding complete impunity from constraints of any sort devised by others (such as democratically crafted policies and laws) while simultaneously claiming their own inherent right to impose their preferences on everyone else. The daily news is filled with it. I can see a certain sick attraction to that frame of mind, but it's tyranny, responsible for most of the avoidable suffering of our own species.
"Our defense is in the preservation of the spirit which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands, everywhere. Destroy this spirit, and you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors. Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises."
- Lincoln
I only prefer that he would've used the word humankind. It was likely his meaning, but common usage and practice in those days was the singular.
Yes, I'm aware of that. I would like to think that Lincoln, who also seemed phobic of black people, even though he defended them, was fair-minded enough to learn, had he lived into the modern age. Many struggled to promote awareness that many of us now take for granted; and still resistance remains. Lincoln had a gift for ordering priorities and hitting the nail on the rhetorical head. Many Americans have identified components of a free and just society, but at least from my own limited experience, none have as precisely expressed a more filled-out vision of this than Lincoln. Interesting that Abolition and women's suffrage movement overlapped. The passage above brought a tear to my eye the first times I encountered it. "you have planted the seeds of despotism around your own doors". That's vivid with a gut-punch, and reason enough to pay more attention.
I'm so happy that you * responded this way JL; I'm gonna save it as one of your greatest hits good sir.
Their criticism of Democrats and Progressives as being "control freaks" was (is) nothing more than projection.
Projection and/or distraction.
Sigh. I know. But they used to at least pretend.
No more pretense, they think they can control us all at this point.
And have their own rules for their families (and daughters)
Exactly, will never understand why women put up with such cretins.
Is this payback for indicting Trump? Because this isn’t contortion, pretzel logic, or any kind of medical, moral or intellectual reasoning or even insanity. It’s another hit job on women.
A full fledged fairytale of evil queens, trolls and poisonous apples.
I will say Republicans are digging their own graves at a pace that is unprecedented.
The Democratic Party needs to keep this in the front pages and in everyone’s face.
EXACTLY! IOIRDI.....(It's Okay If Republicans Do It)
Amazing the pretzel logic that is put into play to deny a person the right to make a medical decision for themselves about their body and future. My sincere hope is that some group, advocacy or lawyer somewhere has a case prepared to go after Viagra. There is no need for that medication as that denies women the right to find a more "robust and able" male to procreate with.
I say hit them where it hurts. Fair is fair.
Sister, you nailed it!
I hear that the new replacement for LOL or LMAO is now "IJBOL"--"I just burst out laughing"---and I DID!!
The Cruelty is the Point.😡
..and further would we venture how many women were in on that ‘jury of decisions’? Or am I just being rhetorical ?😏
What the actual hell? Denying healthcare to women so people can enjoy “viewing” more babies? Is that really what he said? Also, I’m a teacher, and when school boards ban books, I lose the opportunity to care for my students. Shakespeare plays read in full are a source of profound joy to those who read them. Is that all I have to say to get these people off our backs?
Preach on, Tara! One profession I absolutely respect is that of an educator!
By your comment, I’m guessing you are an educator from Florida. The education process, under Governor DeStupid, has gone to hell in a bread basket! He has completely dismantled it to the point where you, the educators, have nothing left to teach. If I was a student there, in a college or university, I’d transfer out if the state to another campus where I could get a proper education. And, on the flip side of the coin, if I was an educator, I’d move outbid the state. There’s way to many openings in this nation for educators to stay in a state that has turned totally authoritarian. Let the Governor and his wife teach all the students!
Doubtful Tara. Those jackboots care nothing of your nor our opinion, much less legal arguments - quite obviously. Graceful compliance is all that's required of us.
Well stated. While many, even most, experience "profound joy" while viewing pictures of unborn babies (i.e., ultrasounds), there are too many instances where viewing those pictures results in profound sadness and dispair. The actual purpose of the ultrasouns is to monitor the developmental progress of a fetus. The profound irony is that people like Judge Ho would deny a woman the opportunity to to get the treatment that could save her life, her health, and the well beimg of her family.
Thank you for what you do, Tara. I knew young that a career as a teacher was not something I was cut out for (Mom was an English teacher), and I profoundly admire those who do.
To be blunt, the answer to your question about getting these people off your back is to say it is robbing you of the profound joy of reading Shakespeare's plays is "no"; it does not fit their would view of women as chattel baby producers.
The fact that judges are allowed to make decisions about abortion in 2023 is appalling at best. Forced pregnancy is a lifelong sentence for a woman. No one addresses that issue. There is not a 13-year-old on planet earth that is capable of raising a child. These forced-birthers care not at all about the human damage they leave behind.
Diana, that lifelong sentence is the point. If it were about life, there'd be no death penalty. It is about the control of women, pure and simple.
So true Ally. Our history includes many laws and norms designed to control and disregard women’s rights including voting, owning property, attending college, preaching in church pulpits and more.
Women’s employment was restricted too (secretaries not executives) and of course the pay differentials are legend.
In most states a man could beat or rape their wives and not suffer any consequences. And we have the nerve to criticize the Taliban, Saudis etc who continue to deny women’s rights.
These crazy and unjustified rulings on our reproductive rights-control over our bodies-is the ultimate affront to our humanity.
The cards are about to get passed out , we’ve obtained enough info , indictments, lauded down edicts , to say if ‘24 does say how WE THE PEOPLE FEEL it’ll pretty much be over at least for a long time. There are some whose terms doesn’t end until 26 ,but with full control of the house and senate , and the White House we can pass laws to have this draconian stuff either reversed , and like Newsome got dealt ( which failed -he is awesome ) with a special vote to impeach him ?perhaps that can happen in Fla., Tx., and other states. DeSantis looks to be in denial about his fast ,furious , and failing free fall.
No surprise here.
The dissent is loud and growing from that state .
But the cleanup needed is mind blowing though many are likely to be implied, indicted, and included in the ‘conspiracy gang ‘ ...it’s just a matter of time..the writings on the walls of Michigan , Az, Georgia.
Whose next?
Stay tuned.....and
💙💙VOTE💙💙
Patricia, I swear, you are a woman after my heart. I absolutely love the way you are preaching lady! If we can get everyone as fired up as you are, we have got this in the bag.
What we have to do now, is keep Biden/Harris in the White House, replace the Republicans that are running in ‘24, again in ‘26 and ‘28. Plus get all the republicans replaced in these states. We just might be able to get this country turned around. Since the past midterm election, not one if Biden’s agenda items has even been debated, brought up for discussion, nothing. The House hasn’t passed one bill to the Senate since midterm!
If we don’t get a ‘super-majority in the House and Senate, we are screwed. It’s been made extremely clear what the Republicans are doing. Wasting taxpayer dollars doing nothing!
Yes, Daniel.Eactly. The Federalist Sociiety and Heritage Foundation are just two of large think tanks who work insidiously to undermine and create havoc - they’re dangerous. They are only two of many entities with skills which I would hope would come into ‘useful striving ahead for solutions ‘vs subterfuge. They’ve been in play for a long time. And covertly.
We don’t make enough noise nor do I FEEL it’s necessary I like to see progress instead of obstructionism and underhanded conspiracy.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE the gentle persistent walk of citizens striving on good paths. Staying the focus on honest delivery and SOLUTIONS. We’ve always had problems , we’ve made mistakes ( and admitted them) , we’re works in progress and succeed to get better and betterer😉)
This ERA has been mind boggling. It requires the little yous and mes to get on fire for our country , our world populations, our existence.
President Biden is , as said before,doin’ ….’one helluva job’. This weekend is just another example of cohesion in the making..he’s quite the master at it..let’s focus on that, getting the quiet but steady unity building coalition ramped up and join the push needed.
Oh boy is there ever this push needed.
Love being part of it too.
Stay the course Daniel !
💙💙 VOTE💙💙…and bring some friends with ya!
Absolutely! Thanks, Patricia. Hell yes!
VOTE 💙💙💙 BLUE 💙💙💙IN ‘24,’26, ‘28, all in between and beyond!🧢🧢🧢🧢🧢🧢 (gotta throw the “UNITED WE STAND for DEMOCRACY” blue 🧢!
🕺<Daniel >Pat💃 = Team work Daniel….( on the winning team)
Simon , Ruth, Charlie, Heather, Steve, Dan, Joyce …mentors extrodinaire and our growing nation of TEAM DEMOCRACY … togetherness , unity, facts, consistency , truth…right into your living room ……🗣️now bring it to the ballot box friends
BIDEN WINS BY A LANDSLIDE 11/2024. DEMOCRATS HAVE UNPRECEDENTED SWEEP
They are all members of the “Federalist Society”. Does that tell us anything about this group of clowns?
A. Trumpsters
B. Communistic thinking at the least.
C. Authoritarian
D. No concern for American Democracy
E. Hell bent to destroy the Constitution of the United States
Need more be said about any if Frumpy’s judicial appointments, including the 5 to SCOTUS?
And Catholic Church.
I would advocate that the Catholic Church lose their 501(c)3 status as it (the church) as a whole has insinuated itself into politics for years. In fact, the catholic church in Kansas helped write the attempt to stop abortion in my state. And, helped fund the anti group. The citizenry soundly defeated the attempt.
I pray , write, share, we do again ...🗣️hail all you citizens we got to do this ‘ soundingly defeating’ AGAIN! Let it be the cry for our children, grandchildren, let the youth carry its banner high! 💙SOUNDLY DEFEAT THEM💙...thanks Diana🙌
You leave out 2 more important headings underpinning it all: religion and misogyny
Best. Retort. Ever. Diana
And no mention of a man. Fortunately, I found an old, white man who was a jewel. Not one to be found in Repub land.
I found a jewel, too. They are rare.
In my experience, they tend to be quieter than the screaming repub cretins. A male friend said to me that he didn't think politics should keep people from being close. I said that I can't think of anything that tells a person's character more. These days, it's way more than a policy or issue thing.
Yes. It does speak to character and held values.
We need to bring RICO charges against the Federalist Society goons.
Appropriate if any justice
Judge Ho's analogy of fetuses and children to animals in a zoo is grotesque, as if the purpose of childbirth is entertainment of obstetricians.
Grotesque, as is so much of MAGA-world's histrionic characterization of personal, private medical care decisions.
Ho dramatizes and infantilizes both abortion and childbirth.
It's likely - indeed obvious - he knows nothing about either.
One might easily mistake Ho’s judicial opinion for a Borowitz satire, albeit a cruel and unfunny one.
It’s about the $$$$$$$$
Forced birth and Medicaid reimbursement.
And they say they don't like government-funded health care.
Are there any Republican women out there that will read this scumbag’s ruling and justification of it and rise up and revolt?
James Ho is a Judicial "Ho." Some third party thinks-he's-god doctor has no fooking rights in the decision of a woman about what she does with her life, and to suggest otherwise is to demonstrate what misogynist scum these wingnut assholes are.
No kidding.
What Ho is endorsing is that the misogynist-right-wing-nut-doctors who filed this suit are entitled to get their jollies delivering unwanted babies. Utterly grotesque.
"When my patients have chemical abortions, I lose the opportunity…to care for the woman and child through pregnancy and bring about a successful delivery of new life.” ....
So?
'Melania Concerned That Trump Will Be Unavailable to Attend Divorce Proceedings'
'PALM BEACH (The Borowitz Report)—Shortly after a Georgia grand jury indicted Donald J. Trump for trying to overturn the 2020 election, Melania Trump expressed concern that her husband’s mounting court dates could make him unavailable to attend' “any divorce proceedings that might come up.”
'Stressing that she was speaking “totally hypothetically,” Mrs. Trump said that the former President’s blizzard of court appearances would present scheduling challenges “if someone wanted to divorce him.”
“I know that stealing documents, falsifying business records, and subverting democracy are serious matters, but should prosecuting him mean—and, again, I’m just spitballing here—that someone should have to be married to him a day longer than she can stand?” she asked. “There’s a human cost to this.”
'Mrs. Trump urged the judges overseeing her husband’s multiple trials to delay them until after any divorce proceedings are concluded.' “I think that be best,” she said. (Satire, NewYorker)
Snort!!! Guffaw!!!!
Perfectly expressed, Brava!!!
Andy B. makes me snort on the regular! 😂😂😂😂
I have not found a source but someone on NPR once claimed the Mark Twain said the the secret to his humor was to "tell the truth, but exaggerate". Whether "Twain" said it or not, I have since noticed many examples. Humor can be both a way to lie and to deliver truth, especially about "elephants in the room'.
😅😅😂 “I think that be best”!!!
She should have divorced his ass back when she moved out of the White House years ago. She’s milked that stake cow long enough. Her court proceedings can wait!
The post, Daniel, is a satire. It is made-up sarcastic fun by Andy Borowitz with The New Yorker Magazine. You can read that at the end of the post. Andy is well known, very smart and funny.
I know, but I’m just saying. She, and Frumpy’s not been living together since the second year he was in the White House. That’s been known for years. I have yet to see her in any if his trios like she used to travel and be seen with him.
I know this was a satire, but I’m looking at it as a reality. Where is she? Why isn’t she “standing by her man”? Why isn’t she seen with him at all his public appearances?
Personally, I think there’s ‘trouble in paradise’.
Hi Daniel, I think she may be protecting Barron. Not sure what deal she made with Trump before the last election but it was to give Barron equal inheritance. Maybe kicks in at 18 or 21??? On the other hand she may be " tied" to a contract too!
Knowing him, that’s highly possible. She’s likely under contract instead of a ‘loving marriage’!
Well it was a bit entertaining ...I’m sure the marriage agreement/commitment was liberally incentivized , she was arm candy and likely one of his many props/pons . It sells well.Hope she enjoyed.
I’d best make this short Daniel, I gets me does and don’t s confused after 3 pm and likely many other sentence structures. Forgive me folks 😉🤣 you got to give us ol’folk some leeway. 🥰
Hang on!
💙💙VOTE💙💙
Hahaha 😝! I feel ya, Patricia! I hope they give us old folks a lot of leeway!
I have suspected for a long time about their “marriage”. Let’s gave it. She was “First Lady” for crying out loud. If you were First Lady, would you go sleep and live at your parents?
Thank you!! I needed this!
I feel the same way, Joy. Cheers!
The only thing that kept my first cup of coffee from making a precipitous exit during a guffaw was the timely warning that it was from the Borowitz Report.
I knew from the first line that it was Borowitz!!! Hits the mark every time :)
🤣🤣🤣
"Well, the woman and child are there for my esthetic pleasure, aren't they?"
[Hint: Judge Ho - you just described titillation - childbirth tickles the fancy of the faux/pseudo-Hippocratic doctor's organization]
And the 7th-grader with a child from violation by an uncontrolled stranger - whose esthetic pleasure will be the greatest?
That child will have to deal with the trauma for years upon years. One can only hope she was treated with the best, gentlest, and most loving care by her healthcare team. I can’t begin to describe the rage I feel. WHERE was the respect for this 12 year old’s life?
There is no concern for any living breathing girl and woman, in the Republican agenda. Instead they focus on blastulas, embryos and fetuses.
And in all of this discussion about this totally appalling opinion, no one is mentioning the likely life that that unwanted child, of rape or otherwise, will have. What happens when the child learns that it was the cause of its mother's death, or severe ill health for the rest of her life? Or its mother's devastated emotional health, inability to get or keep a job, permanent dependency on the state or on some man (or, goddess forbid, some sequence of men)? Or was the product of rape when its mother was 12? How does a person live with that knowledge? To say nothing of the people (once born) forced to endure an existence tormented by severe disabilities - mental or physical or both - and pain and suffering, for however long or short a time that person lives? (I do not say that all persons born with defective bodies or incapable minds suffer, or that their existence is torment for their families, either. But it is undeniable that some such people do suffer, and live in some kind of pain, and often don't live very long, and that their families suffer as well.)
All this to avoid committing some sort of voyeuristic "aesthetic injury" on some random doctor?
Self-centered "Republicans" favorite trick is to pull execrable stunts wrapped up is some pretentious, phony justification. The whole canon of their ongoing rap is straight out of Orwell. Evidence and logic don't enter into it so long as there is self-justifying narrative to hide behind and push ad nauseum. I works on the incurious, and frankly it is my impression that our sales-oriented society does not encourage curiosity nearly enough, at any stage of life, but especially in adulthood; and though there are counterexamples to be sure, this site being one of them. Lawyerly John Adams remarked that “Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” a conviction at the root of the scientific method. A blastula potentially on it's way to becoming a fully sentient being; but certainly is not one. The "heartbeat' thing is pure fantasy; is a person with an artificial heart technically dead?
To my horror we (I say "we", but I do not include myself in this - I just mean the world at large, as in the French word "le monde" - the human world) seem to live in a world in which "alternative facts" are considered just as valid, as real and reliable, as actual facts, and in which some person's opinion, based in whatever facts or fancy appeals to that person, is considered to be a "fact" - as the blastula as a human, as the electric signal a "heartbeat" in the absence of a heart. I'm both incredulous and heartbroken for my country, for humans and for the environment. Thank you for the citation to John Adams.
Seems the weight of the ruling has more to do with a doctor's personal issues doesn't it.
It's like something out of a dystopian novel.
It IS something out of a dystopian male fantasy (although for male Republicans it isn't dystopian, is it?).
Not hers, that much is for sure.
Thank you Steve, you've neatly encapsulated the cause of thousands of years of suffering brought about by the perceived greater importance of all our little aristocracies' (based on race, gender, wealth, etc) pleasure or comfort over the lives and health (not to mention personhood) of...everybody else. That sounds insane and inhuman because it *is* insane and inhuman.
Malignant Narcissism.
JL, what you say is true - and yet for centuries it's been excused, justified, and taken for granted as conforming to what was seen as the natural order of things. Consider, for instance, the custom of foot binding, with its attendant pain and crippling. Or the way corseting wreaked havoc with womens' internal organs. Or the still-practiced custom of female genital mutilation (see https://www.unfpa.org/news/top-5-things-you-didnt-know-about-female-genital-mutilation for the horrifying details) And all for the aesthetic pleasure of the perceived-to-be superior portion of the population, in the above 3 cases women's' "Lords and Masters." Malignant Narcissism has been with us for a long time.
Useful to the whims of malignant narcissists. That is what just governance is about; discouraging and intervening on abuses of power, whether with a six-gun or a fountain pen.
Of course, corrupt, self-serving, autocratic government can be the very worst of offenders. Despotism is a double crime, both against the victim and humanity. Contrast to Lincoln's view that "The legitimate object of government, is to do for a community of people, whatever they need to have done, but can not do, at all, or can not, so well do, for themselves -- in their separate, and individual capacities."
He'd prefer bringing about a successful delivery of unwanted new life, than seizing the opportunity of caring for the woman (or schoolgirl) through surgical abortion?
no one goes into medicine to be a voyeur they go into medicine to save lives. This Judge is saying that certain Men's pleasure and morality is superior by law than women's or even other "lesser" men?
How can I buy my boat if she aborts using a simple pill, instead of my expensive obstetric service?
That was certainly my first thought.
Nauseating!
Ho is full of bullsh*t. Comparing a woman and an embryo to animals is disgusting. Women do not function just to delight obstetricians.
In line with their contrived absurdist position,, “Originalists” view women as birthing vessels and domestic servants and Blacks as 3/5 of a person. Apparently, Ho has been steeped in this putrid reactionary stew for many years, but his arguments citing aesthetics and moral righteousness take it to a new level.
Well said, Ms. Osborne.
It is childlike and doesn’t consider all the stakeholders in his “decision”. It doesn’t treat women as complete sentient humans.
“Expectant parents eagerly share ultrasound photos with loved ones. Friends and family cheer at the sight of an unborn child.”
HO, HO, HO! Sounds like someone has never been outside of Barbieland!
'James Chiun-Yue Ho (born February 27, 1973) is a Taiwanese-born American attorney and jurist. He was nominated to serve as a U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit by President Donald Trump, and took office in 2018. Ho formerly served as Solicitor General of Texas from 2008 to 2010.'
'Ho was born in 1973 in Taipei, Taiwan. He moved to the United States with his parents as a toddler and was raised in San Marino, California.'
'After graduating from the Polytechnic School in Pasadena, Ho studied public policy at Stanford University, graduating in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts with honors. After spending one year at California State University, Sacramento as a California Senate Fellow, Ho attended the University of Chicago Law School, where he was an editor of the University of Chicago Law Review. He graduated in 1999 with a Juris Doctor degree with high honors and Order of the Coif membership.'
'He then joined the U.S. Department of Justice, first in the Civil Rights Division (2001) and then in the Office of Legal Counsel (2001–2003).[1] He was Chief Counsel to subcommittees of the Senate Judiciary Committee from 2003 to 2005[1] under Republican Senator John Cornyn.[5] He was then a law clerk to United States Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas from 2005 to 2006.'
'From 2008 to 2010, he was Solicitor General of Texas in the Office of the Attorney General of Texas,[1] replacing Ted Cruz in that position. As Texas solicitor general, Ho led the state's lawsuits against the Obama administration.'
'Ho has worked as a volunteer attorney with the First Liberty Institute, a religious legal advocacy organization. He has held multiple positions as a member of the Federalist Society since 1996.'
'Ho described abortion as a "moral tragedy" in one of his rulings which upheld a Texan law that required abortion facilities to bury or cremate fetal remains.[25]
'In 2019, Ho authored a concurring opinion in the Mississippi abortion case Jackson Women's Health Organization v. Dobbs, 945 F.3d 265 (2019), criticizing the lower court for failing to respect the State's arguments in support of the Mississippi Gestational Age Act. This case later went to the Supreme Court and was the occasion for Justice Alito's 2022 opinion that declared Roe v. Wade and "Casey" overruled.'
'On February 22, 2023, Ho wrote a sharply worded dissent from denial of rehearing after the 5th circuit granted qualified immunity to officials who jailed their critics. Ho wrote that the 5th Circuit left Americans "vulnerable to public officials who choose to weaponize criminal statutes against citizens whose political views they disfavor."
'On September 29, 2022, Ho delivered a speech at a Federalist Society conference in Kentucky and said he would no longer hire law clerks from Yale Law School, which he said was plagued by "cancel culture" and students disrupting conservative speakers. Ho said Yale "not only tolerates the cancellation of views — it actively practices it.", and he urged other judges to likewise boycott the school.[19][20] U.S. Circuit Judge Elizabeth L. Branch of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit confirmed her participation in the Yale boycott in a statement to National Review. Branch told the National Review that Ho raised "legitimate concerns about the lack of free speech on law school campuses, Yale in particular," and that she would not consider students from Yale for clerkships in the future.' (Wikipedia) See link below.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_C._Ho#:~:text=Ho%20was%20born%20in%201973,Bachelor%20of%20Arts%20with%20honors.
Taught by Cruz and Thomas, two worms of the lowest order.
What does he know of the inner feelings of obstetricians? His opinion makes it sound like he delivers babies himself , but I see he is only quoting one doctor. He obviously knows nothing of the feelings of a woman carrying and delivering a fetus she does not wish to, or can not do in health.
And the feelings of the doctors and nurses that are delivering a baby that they know is causing great psychological harm to the mother? One would this that might make for an aestheticly displeasing situation for them. What about their feelings?
Thank you, Fern. I realize he’s been around, but he sees (or is pretending to see) only through rose-colored glasses. The picture he portrays does not represent the reality for a large sector of the American population whose socioeconomic challenges he appears (or pretends) to ignore.
We see abortion, healthcare and, perhaps, other aspects of life and governing differently than Judge Ho does. I think it is a matter of different political philosophies.
Wow. Judge Ho has turned into a typical Repubbie reactionary. In other words, a total jerk.
What a waste of a potentially rich education! This man cannot think his way out of a paper bag.
His wife is also a member of the Federalist Society and works for corporate “ citizens”.
Thank you, Fern. I was going to look him up when I finished reading this letter. He is one, scary bench-holder. He needs to be flushed out, as do Thomas, Alito, and Cruz...the Despicables.
Thx Fern.
Didn’t Thomas go to Yale?
"Ho described abortion as a 'moral tragedy' in one of his rulings"
I understand this to mean that he considers all abortions to be elective and related to women having sex for enjoyment instead of procreation. This is the bottom line to all anti-abortion legislation, isn't it?
What he meant to say is, „It cuts into my bottom line by denying me the income from doctor‘s fees I wouldn’t be able to charge them.“
That at least would make more sense.
Bingo!
With regard to documentation of the existence of a plot to steal the election. I think it’s reasonable to argue this started far earlier.
Forbes: May 2020
President Trump, who is concerned Democrats would benefit from such measures, tweeted Tuesday morning that there is "NO WAY (ZERO!) that Mail-In Ballots will be anything less than substantially fraudulent," and definitively declared that "This will be a Rigged Election."
This month, the President has intensified his attacks on mail voting; last week, he threatened to cut federal funding to Michigan and Nevada, falsely claiming that the states were sending "illegal" absentee ballots to voters.
Democrats have argued that Trump's primary motivation is depressing voter turnout, by any means necessary, instead of uncovering and preventing fraud.
Most research, including the most recent Brennan Center's seminal report The Truth About Voter Fraud, demonstrates that the majority fraud allegations turn out to be baseless and that most of the few remaining claims reveal irregularities and other forms of election misconduct.
TheHill: August 2020
President Trump on Monday further cast doubt on the U.S. election process, claiming falsely that the only way he would lose in November is if the election is “rigged.”
Trump made the remark at the end of a speech to supporters in Oshkosh, Wis., on Monday afternoon as he implored them to vote. It follows months of Trump claiming without evidence that widespread mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic would invite fraud into the election.
“We have to win the election. We can’t play games. Go out and vote. Do those beautiful absentee ballots, or just make sure your vote gets counted. Make sure because the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” Trump told the group of supporters at the outdoor campaign event. “Remember that. It’s the only way we’re going to lose this election, so we have to be very careful.”
“The only way they’re going to win is that way. And we can’t let that happen,” Trump said just hours before Democrats are set to begin their 2020 convention to formally nominate Joe Biden as the party’s presidential candidate.
Biden leads Trump nationally and in a number of key swing states, according to recent polling.
Democrats are increasing their scrutiny of the U.S. Postal Service after it warned states last week that it could not guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election would arrive in time to be counted even if voters follow state guidelines.
The disclosure came after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy adopted several changes to the agency, such as eliminating some mail-sorting machines, that have attracted criticism. DeJoy has cast the moves as cost-cutting measures meant to help the agency, which has long faced financial problems.
NBCNews: September 2020
At rally, Trump says 2020 election will be ‘rigged’ if he loses.
At an outdoor rally in Nevada with throngs of people, bucking state COVID-19 guidelines, President Donald Trump attacked polling that shows former Vice President Joe Biden is ahead in the battleground state and repeatedly sowed mistrust in the election process.
CNN: September 23, 2020
September 23 news conference: "Well, we're going to have to see what happens. You know that. I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots. And the ballots are a disaster ... We want to have -- get rid of the ballots and you'll have a very trans- -- we'll have a very peaceful -- there won't be a transfer, frankly; there'll be a continuation. The ballots are out of control. You know it," he said.
CNN: September 23
Trump says the election will be decided at the Supreme Court
September 23 Oval Office: "But in terms of time, we go to January 20th. But I think it's better if you go before the election because I think this -- this scam that the Democrats are pulling -- it's a scam -- this scam will be before the United States Supreme Court. And I think having a 4-4 situation is not a good situation, if you get that," he said.
Conclusion? He knew he was losing. This was plan B. All along. Create a huge disparity in %of his voters vs Biden voters using mail in ballots. Undermine mail in balloting through rule changes and DeJoy’s USPS shenanigans. Create expectation of fraud among his base. On election night, call win early before all mail in ballots are counted. Point to later changes in totals as fraud. Invent dozens of crackpot scenarios. File dozens of losing but press generating lawsuits. Create a climate of mistrust and doubt. Hatch fake elector plan. Gin up angry mob rally - it will be wild, stop the steal, stand back and stand by, etc. Get Pence or if not, Grassley, to certify fake elector ballots. Occupy White House and defend with 5-4 or better Supreme Court. And it almost worked.
He deserves years of jail time.
And the USPS is still a mess. Ben Franklin would be appalled.
Why is deJoy still in position?
As he would be with the Kansas newspaper raid and its results.
Great notes Matt ! All that checks off. RICO level conspiracy from the get go. Didn't Stone's promulgation even predate all that ?
Roger has always been first with the schemes. Remember 2000
I do Jeri. My disabilities haven't completely hampered my recall or notes.
Nor has my age, sadly Alz took away my husband's recall of most things. But I still want to kick arse.
Oh Jeri... I'm so sorry to learn that. I 'know' and have felt that torturous pain. My Mom came down with early onset Alz; Dad retired early to care for her. Having had my family later in life, I / we were still raising our two daughters into who are now productive and needed medical professionals. One suburb south, Mom and Dad struggled, and I was ever watching, helping if / when I could spare time. In short order (retrospectively) the pressure on Dad led him to have a hemorrhagic stroke, which led to vascular dementia. Following some years of costly and personally painful litigation, I became their guardian till the end of both their days - Mom just passing beyond us a year and a piece ago. I've never been through such anguish. Let's endeavor to hobble forth supporting each other to kick arse shall we.
Thank you for your kind reply. Seeing a man who could do anything become a man who could do nothing over 15 years was indeed torturous pain. How horrible about your Dad as well. I can't imagine. I was able to be with him every day for most of those years. He was a good man who deserved love and care to the end, as do all so afflicted. Hope I have some energy left to kick a few arses.
Thank you, I remember all this but apparently not many do.
Wow, an annotated history of TFG's plan.
To summarize….anything that does not benefit trump…is illegal
The ex-pres also claimed that he won the “actual” popular vote in 2016 because millions of ballots were cast illegally.
Governments have no damn business meddling in anybody's private medical treatment except to make sure that unqualified people do not practice medicine, drugs are safe, and to prevent the killing of babies capable of surviving out side the womb. Yes, it's complex, but generally not government's business! Remember, forced pregnancy is a WAR CRIME under international law. (Yes there was a Nuremberg Trial.). Women have legally become second class citizens! Who's next?
Governor Abbott is killing people in the Rio Grande River. Why isn't he charged or in jail pending trial and his program already terminated? Where are the "decent Texans?" Is Eisenhower the last President who will enforce the law? Who else can we drown or shoot, Canadians? English?
Abbott also sent a bus load of immigrants to Chicago recently and a sick 3 year old child died when the bus crossed into southern Illinois. The bus had stopped there waiting on an ambulance, but it was too late as the child died while in transport to a nearby hospital. Abbott should be charged for murder for that too. He is cruel, evil, no good SOB, and he needs to be in prison. It's beyond me why people re-elected this cretin to be their governor. I just don't get it. I also read where 3 people were found dead near the booby trap he set in the Rio Grande River. Fascist Rethuglicans seem to enjoy people suffering and dying.. These are the kind of scumbags that want to take over the United States and seeing more innocent people die. Despicable and outrageous is what this is.
What I’m not understanding about Governor Abbott is staggering.
What’s his heritage? His ancestry?
There’s not one person in this nation that has a heritage/ancestry of their family coming from the United States. Not one! Not even the Indian people. So, what’s Abbotts reasoning here.
My point is this. According to the history of this great nation, it was built by immigrants. Immigration from the countries across the oceans. It was discovered by the likes of Columbus and others, after which this country was populated by people from England, France, and other countries shortly thereafter.
So, Abbott has to have ancestry from another country. These people seeking asylum here have just as much right to be here as he does. Probably more because most of them are coming to work the fields in the agricultural sector. Most of them will do jobs in the agricultural industry that most of the white people here refuse to do, and do it for a hell of a lot less pay!
And yes, I agree that when he violated the law putting up that razor wire barrier in the river and people died, he should have been arrested, and jailed, right then.
When is this country going to start treating these politicians like we are treated germ we violate a law. Nobody is above the law. Nobody is exempt from sitting their ass in jail until trial. That includes EVERY politician. Trump and Abbott included!
Abbott is descended from white Europeans; whereas most people crossing our southern border are not.
Some people like looking at baby pictures, ultrasounds, women holding pregnant bellies and so forth, but many others do not. Is this any reason to have laws forcing continued pregnancy? Men who need this dopamine jolt to bring on the happy make me go ewww.
It's a new right-wing legal right - the right of misogynist-right-wing doctors to titillate through forced birth.
Roger Stone was not saying anything new in November 2020 when he outlined how Trump and his allies could steal an election. That plot had been out there for a while. See The Atlantic, "How Donald Trump Could Steal the Election," Jeffrey Davis, March 29, 2020, and, in the same magazine, "The Election that Could Break America," Barton Gellman, Sept. 23, 2020. The blueprint was there for all to to see. Both articles cited the gaps in the Constitution that could make the stolen election possible. We should be grateful to the people who had the integrity and backbone not to let it happen.
Roger Stone is another slimy, sleaze bag that should be indicted, arrested, and convicted and thrown in prison, They don't get anymore slimy and sleazy as he is. He is one of the worst. Donald TUMP is the worst.
Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 months in federal prison for obstructing an investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, and that sentence was commuted by the former president in 2020.
That figures that TUMP would commute the sentence of one of his crime buddies. All of these Fascist Rethug clowns are truly rotten to the core. Stone should have gotten 40 years instead of just 40 months, but TUMP would have commuted that sentence too. My God, these people are evil and corrupt.
Stone helped steal the 2000 election. And Gore was feckless and naive
Peter, I am grateful every day for that.
"Indeed, Ho wrote, “It’s well established that, if a plaintiff has ‘concrete plans’ to visit an animal’s habitat and view that animal, that plaintiff suffers aesthetic injury when an agency has approved a project that threatens the animal.”
So pregnant women and teens are animals in a "habitat" now? Pretty soon to be put in zoos for the aesthetic pleasure rights of Judge Ho and his doctor friends? This tops even The Handmaid's Tale, I believe.
Yep, he makes Margaret Atwood tame…
with 20 years of data available regarding the use of mifepriston, why can't the FDA just reapprove the drug before it reaches the Supreme Court.?