Texas as Gilead; more states will follow

I know you all know the depth of my fury and disgust right now. I am absolutely apoplectic, incandescent, shivering, and nauseous with rage. Not only are women in Texas being mistreated in hideously misogynistic, paternalistic ways, not only do most women have NO idea they’re pregnant at six weeks, Texas makes no exception for women seeking abortion after rape or incest.

The state is also offering $10,000 bounties to those who identify and turn in those who they think may have attempted to seek abortion. Not that it is anyone’s damn business, but some are seeking abortion because they have been raped by their father or brother or cousin or grandfather. Some are seeking abortion because they were raped by a stranger, a lover, or an abuser. In all cases, the woman no longer has any choice in what to do with the result of the incestuous, violent act: she must carry the baby to term unless she can figure out that she’s pregnant in the blink of an eye. What if she has a miscarriage? How does she prove she didn’t try to abort? Why should she have to? This is grotesque misogyny, y’all. Evil cruelty that is so far beyond the pale that I struggle to articulate it.

Don’t even get me started in this hideous ways this will impact poor women and women of color.

If she wants the child, if she doesn’t want the child, if the child is dying inside of her or will die soon after birth or will live a life beset by horrific medical challenges, she must carry the baby to term. If her inseminator doesn’t want the baby, won’t help care for the baby, may abuse the baby, doesn’t know about the baby, he’s off scott free, but she has to carry the baby to term. If she is poor or sick or lacks steady housing, if she knows Texas won’t help feed, educate, or care for her child AFTER it’s born, she must carry the baby to term. And if she tries to do anything, someone else gets $10,000. Who’s paying those? Taxpayers? The Kochs?

After Texas passed the law, SCOTUS declined to comment on it until the time to do so expired. Then, in a 5-4 decision, the smug fucks below shat upon their own Court’s 1973 ruling granting women a constitutional right to abortion. Though they, this same majority, had in April (yes, mere months ago) used an “indisputably clear” argument to block “California’s Covid-based restrictions on in-home gatherings based upon a ‘new’ interpretation of the Free Exercise Clause,” they turned around and under cover of darkness blatantly ignored the ‘indisputably clear’ fact of Roe. As UTexas law professor Steve Vladeck wrote, “When you put these rulings by the same 5-4 majority side-by-side, you see much of what’s wrong with the Texas decision: A Court untroubled by procedure went out of its way to expand religious liberty, but hid behind procedural questions to refuse to enforce a right already on the books.”

clockwise from top left: Beer, Handmaid, Smug Fuck, Gilead Leader, Wordless Idiot

The people who said we shouldn’t worry when McConnell stole a SCOTUS seat from Obama; when trump was elected; when Beer Kavanaugh was pushed through to a lifetime appointment after a sham hearing at which a woman was ignored, disrespected, and retraumatized for bravely sharing the story of her sexual assault by the man in question; when RBG died and Barbie Handmaid was shoved into her spot despite having a stunning lack of judicial experience…those people were so wrong and right now, they need to sit down and stay quiet unless they want to fight the fights that desperately need to be won by progressive, inclusive folks dedicated to equality and justice.

Our world is burning and dying, fools are ingesting horse dewormers, cancer patients and others who need medical attention are being shunted aside because of the immediate needs of desperately ill Covid patients, the vast majority of which have refused vaccination, and now women in Texas must live Under His Eye. Don’t kid yourself into thinking other red Christo-nationalist wannabe states aren’t working up their own such draconian laws now. SCOTUS had already agreed to hear Mississippi’s 15-week abortion plan later this fall, and you know Alabama and Florida are hot on their heels. I’d bet my ass Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Georgia won’t lag far behind those.

Oh wait, Florida has just announced its intentions:

Please read this article by Dahlia Lithwick, and do not even consider suggesting I calm down, not least if you are male and not completely on Team Women’s Rights. As Lithwick writes, “You only do the thing in the dead of night, without care or effort, because you believe women are so used to being gaslit that you expect them to just tolerate it. You only do the thing in the dead of night without care or effort because you genuinely believe that they’re only women, and they deserve what they get.”

I refuse to calm down or sit down in the face of such repulsive mistreatment. And Democrats, you need to do something you strategically-challenged….I can’t think of any sort of decent word to put there. Fill in the blank yourselves. Like Elizabeth McLoughlin, this is how I feel right now:

And, to stay fired up, please read Justice Sotomayor’s dissent, excerpts from which can be found in this article and this one.

If you want to donate/act, here are some incredible organizations and resources to support:

Lilithfund

West Fund (West TX)

Fund Texas Choice

Frontera Fund (in the Rio Grande area)

Jane’s Due Process

The Afiya Center (geared towards Black women)

Whole Women’s Health - TX-based

Whole Women’s Health Alliance - national with one clinic in Austin, TX

My heart hurts.

19 April 2020: Daily

Yesterday marked the start of our 6th week at home. It feels both longer and shorter than that, as if time has changed meaning in some way, has morphed from a way to order and navigate a day towards something infinitely more nebulous. I am sorry I didn’t write yesterday, but humor seemed MIA, and in light of all the terribleness, a day of somber stun seemed in order.

Yesterday in my state, hungry citizens waited for hours in lines outside MegaMarts, hoping to secure a bag of food or $30 food voucher for their families. I spent $22 to get four bags of fresh bread delivered to my doorstep, trying to support a struggling local bakery and broaden the offerings for my perennially hungry children. When I saw the videos of the food lines, I felt like such an asshole: to live in this country of such wealth and abundance, to live in a well-resourced county of a variably well-resourced state and not think of $22 as anything but helping someone nearby and feeding my children. Which is good and all, but shit. What so many would give for four fresh loaves of bread.

thank you, sharon

Yesterday, today, in many states, tons of people gathered in sardine fashion to angrily, vehemently oppose shelter-at-home orders and to sun themselves on beaches. Alex Jones attended one protest, he the deplorable liar successfully sued by Newtown shooting victim parents for spreading conspiratorial lies about the murder of their children and invalidating and profiting off their pain at every turn. Our “president” lies constantly about everything and urges states to “LIBERATE” themselves from stay-at-home orders all while refusing to provide enough tests for our country. His bimbo press secretary, naturally a blond culled from Fox, spouts his lies and pathetic “accomplishments” as victories. “We have tested 4 million Americans!”

Well, that’s about 1% which is a pitiful drop in the bucket and matters extremely little. Iceland has tested 12%.

Today welcomed more protests for “liberation,” more lies, more death, more frontline medical overwhelm. I became so rattled while reading the newspaper that I got dressed and went to work in the yard before accompanying Oliver to his first weeding job to provide guidance, intentionally leaving my phone at home. I stayed outside, working hard, without phone, for hours. We all did. I took my new chainsaw for a whirl, weeded, and tended, Jack mowed three lawns, Ol did four hours of weeding work at two different homes, and Tom mowed and parceled felled limbs.

Today is also the first anniversary of the day my friend’s son was killed in the Sri Lanka Easter bombing. We gathered via Zoom to sit with her, and despite the horror and loss, it was lovely to be present.

This is really hard, y’all, in unexpected and expected ways. I find myself invoking perspective and privilege a lot, trying to remind the boys how good they have it while not minimizing the ways their rugs have been pulled from under them. And if you, too, feel thankful, lucky and also like a hot mess, that is TOTALLY normal, valid, and OK. We have no leadership, the economy is in free fall for most, we all miss the family and friends we treasure, we don’t know when things will feel normal again or how, and not a few of our fellow citizens are acting like spoiled brats who got sent to the time-out corner but -stamping feet- don’t wanna go. Grow up, you self-indulgent twats. Do the right thing for the collective, for the United states you profess to love so dearly.

I do feel so much better after a day in nature, working, tending, seeing others from afar. But I know that nothing is certain and that mood and kilter are transitory.

Be kind, be generous, cry and rage when you need to, laugh when you can, make something pretty. I’ll get the laugh tracks going again asap, but for now let’s all take a minute to hold all the loss in our hearts and the light, honor it all, and release some good to the world beyond.