MariaHill

MariaHill, 9 months ago to random

In Texas, a fetus is a person when it can be used to punish pregnant woman or prevent her from getting an abortion.

In Texas, a fetus is not a person if it means the pregnant person carrying said fetus inside her body would need to do anything inconvenient or with any kind of minimal cost to the state, such as be relieved from work to go to the fucking hospital.

https://apnews.com/article/texas-fetus-rights-prison-lawsuit-6c4fa19793cd56e5edade436d1392d90

MariaHill, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

You couldn't make this up: an antisemite accidentally commits a hate crime against a group of antisemites. In Indianapolis, a woman thought a Radical Hebrew Israelite school – a group that is antisemitic, anti-LGBTQ, misogynistic, etc. – was an "Israel school" (i.e., Jewish school) so she drove her car into it.

Just today's reminder that Jewish people and facilities are indeed being targeted. (And even if another group hates me, I don't want their kids hurt.)

https://apnews.com/article/indianapolis-building-car-drove-woman-arrested-36d4d8ee1deb3b412e82a8b8b2a863a7

MariaHill, 7 months ago to random

This is the best take yet I've seen on Israel right now. I'm Jewish and I find it really hard to talk about because there are so many terrible takes. So much justification of killing Israelis in the name of liberation, and also so much justification of killing Palestinians in the name of defense. I don't want any lives lost, no one tortured nor hurt, not Israelis and not Palestinians. I want everyone to have a safe place to call home. I want leaders to figure that out.

https://www.vox.com/world-politics/23911550/israel-hamas-war-gaza-palestine-leftist-democrats

MariaHill, 22 days ago to random

According to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, religious freedom means being able to prevent other people's access to contraception, so he had to veto a bill that would have enshrined rights.

He also vetoed bills ending tax breaks for the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the issuance of new Confederate license plates.

This is what you get when you elect Republicans, no matter how affable or moderate they pretend to be before an election.

https://apnews.com/article/youngkin-virginia-general-assembly-vetoes-skill-games-771aaae0d34b31bbd7008d8e396c71b6

MariaHill, 7 months ago to random

Mike Johnson having "the least enemies within the conference" is not exactly a vote of confidence. What's the over-under on this guy lasting as long as McCarthy?

Considering that McCarthy got ousted for daring to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government, don't hold your breath for getting anything accomplished between now and January 2025.

Vote for Democrats in November 2024 and every election.

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2023/10/25/congress/johnson-takes-it-00123512

MariaHill, 10 months ago to random

Another federal judge issues another (temporary) injunction against another state law making it a crime to give minors "harmful" books and allowing anyone to challenge any material a library has that they don't like, this time in Arkansas.

I'm glad there are judges who remember that we still have the First Amendment, even if state legislatures and authoritarian governors like Sarah Huckabee don't like anyone exercising constitutional rights other than having guns.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/07/30/arkansas-book-ban-judge-injunction/

MariaHill, 2 months ago to random

We don't need any more evidence that Mitch McConnell is the worst, but here it is anyway.

The policymaking arm of the federal judiciary is cracking down on the judge-shopping that allows for one Texas judge (not a doctor) to decide that despite what the FDA decided 20+ years ago, mifepristone is unsafe.

McConnell, who is responsible for stacking the judiciary with conservatives, is mad that anyone would get to have an impartial judge, of course.

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republican-reaction-mcconnell-kacsmaryk-judge-shopping-rcna143610

MariaHill, 1 year ago to random

Fear of LGBTQ+ people is so strong with Republican governors like Oklahoma's Kevin Stitt that they'll kill their own disaster preparedness to make sure no one watches a show with LGBTQ+ content.

Oklahoma Educational Television Authority (OETA) is the most-watched PBS station in the country, but Stitt will take that away. The veto means Oklahoma will lose funding for its emergency alert system. Recall that the Tulsa area also just had devastating tornadoes last month.

https://ktul.com/news/local/gov-stitt-axes-pbs-funding-over-shows-with-lgbt-content

MariaHill, 1 year ago to random

Rachel Maddow mentioned this document from Georgetown Law. We have First Amendment rights to gather at Pride. Private paramilitary groups have no authority to detain, attack, or police drag or gender non-conforming people and all 50 states prevent private paramilitary groups from activities reserved for state militia. This document tells organizers how to protect the community.

As Maddow said, "Happy Pride, everybody. We're not going anywhere." 🏳️‍🌈 :trans_flag:

https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2023/05/Pride-Guidance-5.17.23.pdf

MariaHill, 1 year ago to random

Merck wants to make sure your parents (or you, if you're on Medicare) can't afford their diabetes and cancer medications.

Other countries have similar, yet more robust, rules to the drug-negotiating ones Congress recently passed, which won't take effect until 2026 and are only for 10 medications. But Merck needs more and more profit, so it's suing the Biden administration to keep charging whatever it wants for its drugs.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/06/06/merck-medicare-price-controls/

MariaHill, 4 months ago to random

Economists now say inflation was due to supply chain issues and that Biden stimulus policies kept us out of a recession.

The increase in crime during the pandemic has dropped now that schools and social services have returned to normal.

Why do polls show that most Americans think there’s more crime and the economy is still bad? Wonder if it's local news leading with murders every night and lots of economic fear-mongering. We need more coverage like this instead.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2024/01/crime-and-inflation-decline-theories/677152/

MariaHill, 10 months ago to random

130 years ago, Mississippi said the quiet part out loud about maintaining white supremacy in the state through disenfranchising the Black population. Today a 2-1 majority of a panel of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals said that lifetime voting bans for felonies violates the United States Constitution. The ruling only applies to the circuit (Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi) unless SCOTUS decides the same.

https://www.mississippifreepress.org/35243/mississippis-lifetime-felony-voting-ban-unconstitutional-appeals-court-rules

MariaHill, 1 year ago to random

Florida, a state where the education is so top-notch that the Department of Education has nothing better to do than investigate a teacher for showing a Disney movie to fifth graders. The movie, Strange World, has a boy who has a crush on another boy in it. It's Disney. How scandalous could it be?

Elect Ron DeSantis or anyone like him and we'll get more of this.

Not what I want my state Department of Education or the federal Department of Education doing, thanks.

https://www.npr.org/2023/05/16/1176334055/florida-investigating-teacher-disney-movie-gay-character-desantis

MariaHill, 9 months ago to random

Since Texas state officials haven't figured out how to control all women's bodies yet, they'll violate the constitutional right to travel (Article IV, Section 2).

If you're a Louisiana resident, you have the right to travel to New Mexico for abortion care. Texas counties can't decide you can't use their roads.

Some Texas women – conservative Republicans – who hold local public office don't want travel restricted in their towns. Extremists want these laws badly.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/09/01/texas-abortion-highways/

MariaHill, 6 months ago to random

Nothing but rank antisemitism, and it's a hate crime.

These are American Jews with a menorah outside their synagogue. It was pried off its base and toppled yesterday.

I never expected to see this in liberal east coast suburbs where I used to feel safe. When I was a teenager, I argued with my father and told him antisemitism in the USA was over. He told me it would come back some day and I would see.

I'm sure my dad wishes he were the one who was wrong, not me.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2023/12/08/montgomery-county-synogogue-vandalism/

MariaHill, 11 months ago to random

Roberts, in the 6-3 SCOTUS majority opinion, says Harvard and UNC discriminated against white and Asian applicants by considering race in admissions and must eliminate that discrimination. Sotomayor gave the first oral dissent in four years and lambasted the majority for "closing the door of opportunities."

If the USA had an educational system where all kids had access to the same P-12 education, universities could consider only grades and test scores. Fix that first.

https://www.politico.com/news/2023/06/29/supreme-court-ends-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions-00104179

MariaHill, 1 year ago to random

If you are so freaked out by merchandise not meant for you like glasses that say "Cheers Queers" and especially swimsuits made for trans women, just shop at Hobby Lobby. Don't threaten Target employees and make up rumors. (And even if the store were selling bathing suits for trans children, so what? It's no one's business if a child is trans except their family's and trans kids are allowed to have swimsuits too.)

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/target-removes-lgbtq-merchandise-stores-ahead-june-pride-99556434

MariaHill, 3 months ago to random

Better be willing to be surveilled, say Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr and Deputy AG John Fowler, or you're a criminal.

Protest is a First Amendment right. Carr is trying to squelch protest against a new military police training facility by trying protesters under RICO. He must not have much else if "didn't have any data on their phone" is all the state has on Ayla King.

It would be terrible not just for these defendants though, but as precedent for all of us.

https://georgiarecorder.com/2024/02/12/georgia-ag-claims-not-having-a-phone-makes-you-a-criminal/

MariaHill, 3 months ago to random

Earlier today I read a fearmongering headline about how Democrats would see how bad 2024 would be based on the outcome of today's New York special election (perhaps assuming Republicans would hold the seat George Santos was expelled from; I didn't read the story).

At the moment, Steve Kornacki is on my TV talking about how not only is NBC News calling the race for the Democrat, Tom Suozzi, but that he may win by double digits.

Don't give up on Democrats, and vote.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/democrat-tom-suozzi-wins-ny-special-election-replace-george-santos-rcna138548

MariaHill, 10 months ago to random

Pregnant Texans shouldn't have even had to sue to be able to have abortions in life-threatening situations. If you're pregnant anywhere, it should be your choice to carry the pregnancy to term, period. But in 2023, in the state that kicked off the end of Roe v. Wade, it's a relief when a a judge decides that doctors won't be jailed if they help an ill pregnant woman or one carrying a fetus with a fatal anomaly (pending the March 2024 trial on the case).

https://www.npr.org/2023/08/04/1192324395/texas-abortion-bans-lifted-temporarily-for-medical-emergencies

MariaHill, 1 year ago to random

Eight more Texas women join the lawsuit for forcing them to give birth to stillborn babies or ones who would only survive for hours after they found out that they were carrying fetuses with fatal abnormalities.

A woman who rejected pastoral care but was visited repeatedly by religious counselors. A woman told to pray instead of getting real care. A woman given antibiotics to keep her from infection then told those antibiotics kept her too healthy to have an abortion.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/texas-abortion-ban-forced-birth-1234739485/

MariaHill, 3 months ago to random

It doesn't surprise doctors that women's mental health is worse in states where they can't get abortion care, and probably doesn't surprise anyone else either (except out-of-touch legislators who think they know what is best for the rest of us).

Women are more anxious and depressed when they can't to control their reproductive choices.

Anxiety and depression are at record highs among young adults. The fear of forced motherhood is a great way to make them worse.

https://www.vox.com/24071802/abortion-roe-overturn-trigger-ban-states-mental-health

TonyStark, 2 months ago to random

Trump and Republicans get the blame for this. This ruling would have been unconstitutional under Roe, but Trump is proud that he stacked SCOTUS with anti-abortion justices who overturned it. There are many effects of losing those protections, and this is one of them.

As always, don’t listen to what they say, watch what they do. #AbortionRights

Arizona abortion law: State Supreme Court upholds near-total ban:
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2024/04/09/arizona-abortion-law-state-supreme-court-upholds-near-total-ban/73251148007/

MariaHill, 2 months ago to random

Non-Muslim nominees to the federal bench are not asked to condemn terrorism, and Mangi's hearing is a callback to how Republicans treated Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson in her confirmation hearing.

Joe Manchin won't support Mangi because of bullshit "bipartisanship," and two Democratic senators say he's anti-police (echoing McConnell), so despite Mangi's excellent qualifications and support from diverse groups, the first Muslim nominee to the federal bench won't serve.

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/treatment-first-muslim-federal-appellate-nominee-has-damaged-our

MariaHill, 1 month ago to random

These guys again. Though the policymakers of the federal judiciary are trying to stop judge-shopping, indicted Texas AG Ken Paxton and right-wing Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk will ignore that in order to make sure LGBTQ+ people aren't protected.

Paxton wants to stop Title IX protections from covering students based on gender identity and not just biological sex.

Ken Paxton shouldn't get to pick a judge guaranteed to issue an injunction that will apply to the whole USA.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/29/politics/texas-title-ix-lgbtq-students-kacsmaryk/index.html