My title is too clever by half, but Republicans really row Roe up the river

 By Hal Brown

Original uploader was Brett Weinstein (Nrbelex)
 at en.wikipedia - Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons

I grew up in a suburb of New York City where everyone knew what up the river meant. Up the river referred literally to Sing Sing Prison which was about 30 miles up the Hudson River from New York City. 

Going up the river had nothing to do with navigating against the current. Inmates obviously wouldn't arrive on a boat. If they came from New York City they might arrive in one of these:

The virtual museum of the American Police Car

When I was a kid Ossining was rural. We used to go on picnics at nearby Pound Ridge Park and there probably were campgrounds in the area (they currently have them). Quite obviously, anyone sent up the river was decidedly not a happy camper. 

Now we have the ass-backwards position that the GOP has adopted as a major part of their positioning as they campaign for the 2024 elections to represent the country 2024.

They are rowing up the river against the current, meaning the majority opinion about favoring abortion with various restrictions. More than any other of the GOP positions their anti-abortion stance is the one that most Americans are against.

If you've every rowed a rowboat or are into skulling you know that you literally sit backwards as you row. Thus they are leading with their asses.

Public domain from Wiki

The boat they are rowing is certain to capsize. Even the Coast Guard won't be able to save them:

Put another way, they have hitched their campaign cart to asses that are, well, too stubborn to go anywhere.

Adapted by author

Remember how the Democrats defined the tendency to shoot themselves in the foot when it came to campaigning? For example, Hillary and her basket of deplorables comment might have cost her the election.

"Basket of deplorables" is a phrase from a 2016 presidential election campaign speech delivered by Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on September 9, 2016, at a campaign fundraising event. She used the phrase to describe "half" of the supporters of her opponent, Republican nominee Donald Trump, saying, "They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic". The next day, she expressed regret for "saying half", while insisting that Trump had deplorably amplified "hateful views and voices". Wiki.

It isn't only the Republican candidates and their anti-abortion extremism that is rowing them up the river against the majority of the beliefs of the population. The entire so-called anti-woke agenda earns a hokum ho-hum from the majority, some of whom don't even know what woke or elements of woke like Critical Race Theory are.

Add to that the fact that the majority don't see LGBTQ+ people as carriers of a disease deadly as diphtheria and drag as dangerous as dengue fever. Quite the opposite, so many people have friends, family, and acquaintances who are members of the LGBTQ+ community that they know from personal experience that they are just as human as everyone else.

The pundits I follow lean towards saying that Trump would be an easier candidate for Biden to defeat and express concern than DeSantis would be more difficult. In fact because both of them, and also all of the other candidates described as likely GOP candidates, are embracing and running on, positions and policies not supported by the majority.

This is why I say they should dig their dumbass ditch deeper and deeper because the more they do so no ladder will be long enough for them to climb out of.

Thanks for reading. Scroll down to make comments and share on social media. The archives and tags are on the bottom of the main page. If you are reading on Booksie,Substack, or Medium click below to go to the blog web page. 

Click to go to main blog. Updates will be posted here rather that on Booksie, Substack, or Medium.

If you don't see the Disquis section below and want to comment this is the best place to do it. Click here and scroll down the page.

It seems way to early to say "thank you, Brian," based on Justice Alito's abortion pill ruling

 By Hal Brown, MSW, retired after 40 years of practicing psychotherapy. Formerly director of a mental health center and in psychoanalytically oriented private practice.

By chance when this news (see article in Raw Story: "Justice Alito temporarily blocks court ruling revoking abortion drug)" broke I was at a friend's house where her 9 year old grandson was watching Monty Python's Life of Brian, hence my title and illustration. The New York Times used the word "briefly" and both The Washington Post and Raw Story used the word "temporarily". HUPPPOST was more specific:

Click above to read article

What all this means is impossible to determine except that given that this is the far-right vehemently anti-abortion justice dominated Supreme Court I am not about to thank Brian or any particular deity some people believe exists in a realm up there in the sky somewhere.

If you aren't familiar with who Brian is, he's Brian Cohen, a young Jewish-Roman man who is born on the same day as—and next door to—Jesus, and is subsequently mistaken for the Messiah. He is played by Graham Chapman. 

At first the abortion pill appellate court ruling headlines looked somewhat positive, but then I read the fine print.

By Hal Brown, MSW, retired after 40 years of practicing psychotherapy. Formerly director of a mental health center and in psychoanalytically oriented private practice.

Here's the HUFFPOST article shown above.

I was feeling happy about yesterday's news that Justin Pearson joined his colleague Justin Jones in being returned to the Tennessee House of Representatives. This morning, could it be that I'd be reading happy news two days in a row?

I had a fleeting moment of feeling good when I saw the first part of the headline above but then reading the italicized "tighter rules" part I held my breath as I clicked to read the article.

"Tighter rules" indeed. Make that "insane rules" instead. Consider:

When the drug was initially approved in 2000, the FDA limited its use to up to seven weeks of pregnancy. It also required three in-person office visits: the first to administer mifepristone, the next to administer the second drug misoprostol and the third to address any complications. It also required a doctor’s supervision and a reporting system for any serious consequences associated with the drug.

If the appeals court’s action stands, those would again be the terms under which mifepristone could be dispensed for now.

Prior to the ruling of Texas Judge Kacsmaryk women could have the drug prescribed up to 11 weeks of pregnancy and could use Telehealth for doctor visits and have the pill sent by mail.

Just mentioned on MSNBC, previously the generic version was allowed. Now it isn't.

Women who want to terminate a pregnancy in the safest way and the doctors who now have to see a doctor three times are having to, at least for the present, go though, to say the least, a medically unnecessary hassle.

Have you tried to get into see your primary care doctor for an urgent problem recently? It's not like they have lots of free time to squeeze you in for an appointment within a week, let alone on the same day. 

This is why there are so many urgent care centers where people generally see a nurse practitioner or physician assistant who they've never seen before.

It is odd that the two Trump appointed judges who were responsible for the ruling of the three judge panel mostly likely believe that using any means to terminate a pregnancy is morally wrong and the equivalent of murder, while I would bet the farm that Donald Trump would throw a woman off a cliff if she got inconveniently pregnant with a child he wanted to get rid of.

Related: 

How the appeals court ruling makes medication abortion access more complicated, CNN

Update:

Click above to read article

Thanks for reading. Scroll down to make comments and share on social media. The archives and tags are on the bottom. 

Stats don't count those who read on 
Booksie and Medium