Okay, so I saw this headline —-

The guy got eight months. Not bad for felony terrorism, if ya ask me.

Okay, so you break into the Capitol threatening to overthrow the United States government by force and you’re carrying a Trump flag with a sharp point, not unlike the flag used to stab a police officer, but some lawyer can bully you? Some damn fine soldier for freedom you are, sir.

That’s him, Paul Hodgkins, right there bullying members of congress.  Yeah, most of them are older than dirt and don’t carry around stick poles.

And they call us snowflakes?

Remember James O’Keefe?  The guy who makes up the stuff he “investigates” and selectively edits video to make Democrats look guilty when they are innocent?  Yeah, that guy.

Today we get a silver lining to the horrible hurricane floods.  More details here.

Hurricane Ida obliterated the offices of conservative undercover operative James O'Keefe and his Project Veritas group. Even "Retracto," the stuffed alpaca O'Keefe uses as his mascot, was destroyed. pic.twitter.com/nC5M1BD3id

— Will Sommer (@willsommer) September 3, 2021

January 6th is burned into the memories of billions of people around the world where thousands of angry white guys, enraged by bullshit fed them by the president of the United States and his cronies, violently stormed the US Capitol with the intent of halting  the certification of an election, the result of which they didn’t like.  They stormed both chambers of Congress with the intent of making “citizens’ arrests” of duly elected representatives who they also didn’t like.

Win Mcnamee/Getty Images

The notion of vigilantes “arresting” people they don’t like or disagree with is not just silly fantasy; it’s an extremely dangerous behavior, coddled in many states like Texas, Georgia, and Arizona where gun nuts and goofballs control the politics.  Said gun nuts and goofballs, fed a continuous stream of nonsense about their “rights” on rightwing social media and television, actually believe they are somehow deputized to enforce non-existent laws they unilaterally have decided violate their absolute right to do what they want.  Law enforcement and elected officials have let them get away with it, and that’s how you get dozens of “militias” marching into cities to “provide security” during racist demonstrations and brainwashed extremists storming the Capitol with zip tie handcuffs to “arrest” elected officials.

It happened again last week when a father and two of his friends showed up at an elementary school in Arizona brandishing zip tie handcuffs to “arrest” the principal for “breaking the law”.  The supposed law she broke was asking the father to quarantine his son after he was exposed to a COVID positive classmate at the school.  The brainwashed father was outraged by public health policy established to protect citizens, and in his libertarian fever dream believed he had the authority to stop that public policy by “arresting” the principal.  Lord knows what would have happened to her had they accomplished their self appointed task.  The principal stood up to them and when they refused to leave, called police.  The man had one of his friends stream the confrontation on Instagram, stupidly incriminating himself and his pals.  He was later arrested, and charges were being prepared for the other two goons.

This latest episode of brainwashed extremists acting as vigilantes is yet another example of the danger of disinformation and cynical use of propaganda to achieve political success.  Republicans in Congress are actually attempting to conceal the conspiracy with Trump to overturn the election, and others are using non-existent voter fraud, disinformation about public health policy, and the divisive abortion issue to keep the base in a froth and as an excuse to enact cruel public policy to serve their own political ends.

I keep waiting for the political pendulum to begin swinging back the other way, but it keeps its inexorable climb on the far right end of the arc towards more insanity and cruelty.  Short of a complete collapse of the GOP, I fear this won’t end well as violence seems to be the default response to sane public policy.

Susan Collins said that Kavanaugh won’t overturn Roe v. Wade.  Here ya go …

Now that Brett Kavanaugh just voted to virtually end Roe v. Wade, here are all of the times that Susan Collins said Brett Kavanaugh won’t overturn Roe v. Wade. pic.twitter.com/ShHiEn7Hcm

— No Lie with Brian Tyler Cohen (@NoLieWithBTC) September 2, 2021

And here’s where you can contact Susan Collins to remind her that Kavanaugh screwed her, too.

So if he was lying to Collins, ya think maybe he was lying about Christine Blasey Ford, too?

Here are the Texas lawmakers who passed the anti-abortion bill.

(Click on the picture to see it full size.)

You’ll notice how the white men trapped the seven women in the middle so they couldn’t escape even if they wanted to.

And you’ll also note that Greg Abbott can’t even make the little heart thingy correctly.  Monkey see; monkey can’t even do.

Who is going to keep count of the number of deadly Covid cases that were carried outside this room to the vulnerable population?

Those of you who have come here regularly know my personal feelings on the subject of religion. It is very difficult to approach an issue like abortion without talking about religion. So many of the justifications either way are based on religious views. However, I know so many readers are tired of religion. I get it. So, I will do my very best to avoid the subject completely.

My main source of frustration with this subject is how each side has been mislabeled. The pro-life side is not and really never has been pro-life per se. They are pro-birth. The issue of life is a continuum. It includes quality of life issues for children in general, it involves issues with access to health care, and it involves issues as it pertains to the death penalty and wars of choice. Obviously, it also involves end of life issues. Whatever the source of one’s beliefs, it is very difficult to defend a position of pro-life if one is against easy access to health care, easy access to food and shelter, against the sanctity of life for those accused of murder and other crimes, and against abstaining from international conflicts we have no business of being a part of. To be pro-birth and then anti everything else is really cherry-picking the pro-life position.

Pro-choice is not really a good label either. In an absolute sense it is. Abortion is a privacy issue where each person has dominion over their own bodies. So, the essence is correct in that I acknowledge there is a choice and I acknowledge that it isn’t mine. From there it gets dicey because the opposition wants to call pro-choice people pro-abortion. I don’t know anyone that is pro-abortion. None of us run around and recommend abortions to random strangers. Simply put, if I’m not involved then it’s none of my business.

What is so maddening is that most people want the same thing. In the general sense, we all want fewer abortions and when you look at abortion rates, they consistently have gone down during Democratic administrations. In fact, the rates have fallen more under Democrats than they have under Republicans. That could be random, but I think it has more to do with policy choices and posturing. If you want to reduce the rate of abortions then you reduce the demand for abortions.

You do this through comprehensive sex education and easy access to birth control. You acknowledge that abstinence is the preferred choice, but you also acknowledge that people are going to be sexually active. They might as well know how to do so safely while also knowing the physical and emotional implications of sex. That includes both the good and the bad.

After someone becomes pregnant they should get easy access to top-notch medical care. They need to be treated with love, grace, and respect. That means calmly and lovingly laying out all of the choices they have before them. It means giving them the facts about all of those choices and not alternative facts. If we want them to make the “right” choice then we need to make sure none of the choices are beyond their capabilities. Most importantly, it means completely removing shame from the process.

That’s been the best way and the only way to reduce the amount of abortions that occur in the United States and Texas. Instead, the good folks in the legislature and the governor have chosen a path that won’t really reduce abortions and will just criminalize behavior that’s perfectly normal and reasonable. More than the criminalization is the shame that’s getting attached. Pregnancy is a scary enough time for anyone. Including shame is just cruel and hateful.