what will it take for Americans to treat #HealthCare as a Human Right and not a commodity?
someone cancelled my #chemo and didn't think to tell me. what's worse? the hospital doesn't have a protocol for dealing with these kinds of screw ups beyond a 'sorry.'
it's not the in-take clerk's fault that i had to demand they pay for my ride back home because i cannot take mass transit as a #cancer patient. it's the job of the administration to foresee these errors and have a contingency plan. /1
Americans have so normalized #cruelty in everything related to #HumanRights they call it efficiency.
i shouldn't have to demand the hospital pay for my cab ride back home. errors happen. am not mad about the mistake.
am exhausted because i had to ask for the minimum of courtesy AS A CANCER PATIENT. it costs me $40 to get to chemo. money i do not have for food or anything else because the chemo is making me too ill. have no savings either.
THEY KNOW THIS; but efficiency says, make them beg. /3
TELL PALMA, SPAIN THAT BULLFIGHTING IS CRUELTY — NOT CULTURE
In a merciless move, the city of #Palma, #Spain, has declared itself a bullfighting-friendly city with a claimed “obligation” to promote the intentional torture of sentient bulls.
The city had made a compassionate change in 2015 to not champion the gruesome #bullfighting events, in which #bulls are harassed, speared repeatedly, and left to wallow in their own gushing blood before cheering crowds.
It’s time for #Palma to continue its former progressive legacy for #bulls by focusing on a path forward that’s rooted in #compassion — not a retreat backward into undeniable #cruelty. We must let the council know now that the world is watching and opposes this tragic reversal.
Jill Lawrence reflects on Hannah Knowles' report from Trump's rally at Fort Dodge, Iowa, last Saturday, and the challenge that the culture Trump has unleashed present parents trying to raise decent children who respect others. How do you raise children in this culture?:
"Trump has, for his followers, made it okay to say anything, whether it’s praising Nazis and dictators or attacking U.S. troops and military heroes."
"He’s also made it okay to do anything, including to beat up police defending the U.S. Capitol, smash windows to get in, smear feces on the Capitol walls, and go after elected officials in the Senate chamber. …
My own take in 2016 was hypothetical but frightening: A nation of Trumps would be a nation of bullies. It’s actually turned out much worse."
"And outside the packed venue, vulgar slogans about Biden and Vice President Harris were splashed across T-shirts: 'Biden Loves Minors.' 'Joe and the Ho Gotta Go!' One referred to Biden and Harris performing sexual acts. …
One supporter Knowles quoted by name, Lori Carpenter, said Biden has to go 'and the ho shouldn’t have been there in the first place.' … Carpenter, who called Kamala Harris a 'ho,' called herself a Christian who could 'look past' Trump’s flaws."
Here's Hannah Knowles on what she saw at the rally:
"Children wandered around in shirts and hats with the letters 'FJB,' an abbreviation for an obscene jab at President Biden that other merchandise spelled out: 'Fuck Biden.' . . .
One of Trump’s introductory speakers from the Iowa state legislature declared anyone who kneels for the national anthem is a 'disrespectful little shit,' quickly drawing a roaring response."
Impressive acrobatics, but I am deeply suspicious as to how they were achieved - launching places just are not there. No cat appears to ‘perform' more than once 🤔
People might remember a photograph of a cheetah hunting baboon and catching it in the open. Guess what - it was staged and the animals released from cages in a carefully prepared arena. The bar steward who ‘took the photo’ got away with it.
“Secrecy is given top priority, not merely because of the proprietary research being conducted at the center, but also out of fear that the public will respond poorly—perhaps violently—to images of the macaques being experimented on.”
@parismarx I don't understand why anyone would want to connect #chips to their #brain. The prospect of creating a new #market and the associated #greed seems like one motivation. #research (in any field) should never cause #harm. I really hope that #animaltesting and #cruelty towards #animals in general will end soon. ❤️
"I’m Jewish. I believe in Israel, and I’m aghast at what Hamas did to so many innocent people on October 7. I strongly support the use of force against the killers. But as thousands of innocent people die in Gaza—not as targets, but as victims of relentless bombardment in a war they didn’t choose—I can’t accept the bigotry, zealotry, and callousness these [Republican] candidates are espousing."
#Christianity is about #lies and #cruelty. If you want more people to believe, you need to come up with a better #story. Because the story you're pushing is full of holes and #absurdities. And the people who most fervently spread that story are the most intellectually and morally #bankrupt people on the planet.
I get asked this question from time to time. People forget Trump completely turned ICE loose during his presidency on communities all over the US. They would roll in to towns, set up roadblocks, then go from business to business arresting people. ICE also patrolled the streets doing the same. So, yeah, he's really that dangerous.
"By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that the Biden administration could take down Gov. Greg Abbott’s floating razor-wire migrant death traps along the border."
What is Australia's fair share when it comes to financing the necessary climate transition?
In a headline today, the Australian government has pledged AU$150m in #ClimateFinance for Pacific nations.
Good news, right? Isn't this PM Anthony #Albanese "ending the #ClimateWars" by actually doing what #Australia ought to have done years ago? Let's consider that assumption.
Back in 2009 at the much hyped, but ultimately deeply disappointing international climate negotiations in #Copenhagen known as #COP15, one step forward that was agreed, even as more comprehensive or ambitious agreements slipped away was that the wealthy nations of the world (including #Australia) collectively pledged to be providing US$100b each year to help the poorer nations transition away from #FossilFuels (#ClimateMitigation) and develop in ways that help societies adapt to the warming that cannot be mitigated (#ClimateAdaptation).
1/8
When the #GreenClimateFund was being established, Australia's Prime Minister was #TonyAbbott, a #ClimateDenier, who had won the 2013 federal election promising to dismantle the baby steps towards a #ClimatePolicy the previous #Labor government had made.
So there was little surprise when PM Abbott announced in Nov 2013 that #Australia would be contributing a massive sum of $0 to the Green Climate Fund.
At the time, he claimed Australia would chip in AU$200m (then =USD$187m) over four years, but since this was merely a rebranding of existing #ForeignAid, it clearly didn't count as "new and additional funding", a fact that most journalists blithely ignored, falling for the bait-and-switch. Or we might say instead that the Australian government was overstating its foreign aid commitments by $200m over those years.
Nonetheless, the four years were soon gone, as was Tony Abbott, as well as his successor #MalcolmTurnbull, who in turn had been replaced as PM by #ScottMorrison. When it came time to pledge again in 2018, Morrison announced Australia would be pulling out of the Green Climate Fund entirely, a path also taken by the #Trump administration at the time, whom Morrison was often cribbing notes from when it came to what kinds of #cruelty and #selfishness he could get away with.
5/8
"The most pressing issue for Christians in the United States isn’t being persecuted for our faith. Rather, it is those who are using our faith as a tool to control and even persecute others in the name of Jesus. Until we Christians can collectively reckon with this reality, we have no hope of reclaiming any integrity."
Why is there evil, and what can scientific research tell us about the origins and persistence of evil behavior?
Baumeister casts new light on these issues as he examines the gap between the victim's viewpoint and that of the perpetrator, and also the roots of evil behavior, from egotism and revenge to idealism and sadism.
How do #parents, who aren't also sadists, justify staying in these #redStates where their #children will be given an objectively sub-standard #education, and be subject to arbitrary #cruelty by people who should be looking out for their welfare? If I was a #Texas parent, I would sell every possession to fund moving to a blue state.
There are many reasons some #homeless people prefer to camp rather than move into a shelter, according to advocates, including bug infestations, filth and on-site violence. Some #shelters also do not allow couples or pets, or provide a secure place for belongings.
York pointed out that even jails have basic on-site #necessities such as toilets, something that would not be required for #evicted#encampment residents.
Nothing says colonial cruelty like turning a family park into a giant sandbox for genocidal colonizers to play in whilst supposedly looking for hostages.
Israeli tanks have carved a giant star of David into what used to be Katiba Park in Gaza.
What's not going on in the minds of people who say "A great number of homeless people have mental illness issues" to suggest mental issues are the reasons why people are homeless (on average)
It's more plausible that, for example, someone lost their Job, couldn't pay the rent, got evicted, & was forced to live on the streets ("homeless"), and that harsh environment caused that person to develop #MentalHealth issues
"The four candidates — pharma entrepreneur Ramaswamy, former New Jersey Gov. Christie, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — spent two hours moving from denigrating one marginalized group to the next, targeting each for hate and xenophobia. Occasionally they’d make a disparaging remark about President Biden, but their real enthusiasm was saved for demagoguing marginalized people and spewing bigotry."
"One of the overlooked portents of 2020 (many Democrats were too relieved to notice) was that the election was still extremely close. Trump received 74 million votes, nearly 47 percent of the electorate. That’s a huge amount of support, especially after such an ordeal of a presidency—the 'very fine people on both sides,' the 'perfect' phone call, the bleach, the daily OMG and WTF of it all."
Peter Wehner wants us to believe that "Donald Trump has made the Republican Party cruel, xenophobic, exclusionary, and bigoted."
The reality is, Republicans themselves have made their party all of those things, with Trump as its face — with Trump as their face.
Republicans have, with Trump as their face, pandered to cruelty, xenophobia, bigotry, for years now. We are all reaping the whirlwind from their sowing of the wind.
Florida Republican proposes bill to ban sale, distribution of lab-grown meat in the state (www.actionnewsjax.com)