Lunatic Fringe
Americans
tout the blessings inherent with living in a nation founded on equality
that fosters individuality they argue is the antipathy of being in a
place where one lives under the power or authority of others. In fact,
the Declaration of Independence was the Founding Fathers affirmation
that colonists had no duty to be in subjection to England as an
inalienable right even though they, like conservatives through history,
never intended to extend that right to all Americans. Chief among
Americans destined to perpetual subjugation under the law is half the
population, and despite women’s progress over the past century,
repugicans have set returning them to second-class status as one of
their primary goals since they rose to power after the 2010 midterm
elections. America is, and always has been, controlled by a patriarchal
mindset throughout its history, and repugicans have found an incredibly
powerful and successful means to put women in their historically
subservient place with little opposition from the public and support
from an untouchable power source.
The most efficient means to
suppress and control a segment of the population is to eliminate their
ability to achieve economic independence, and to keep women out of the
workforce and dependent on men for their subsistence, repugicans are
creating a scenario that either a woman is celibate, or stays in a
perpetual state of pregnancy. The attacks on women’s reproductive health
choices in repugican-controlled states have no justification that is
not founded in patriarchal belief that men are born to control women,
and regardless the arguments proffered to regulate women’s reproductive
health, it all boils down to keeping them in subjection to men.
The
rash of states abolishing women’s right to choose their reproductive
health have not given any justification for their actions that are not
easily refuted. There is no scriptural justification in the bible to ban
abortion or contraceptives, but they have garnered universal support
from President Obama, all Democrats, the National Organization of Women
(NOW), and even Planned Parenthood who are mortified to cite the
unconstitutionality of imposing a religious edict on a specific segment
of the population. The unwritten commandment that, regardless the
atrocities committed by a religion (except Islam) on half the
population, it is a mortal sin to cite the Separation of cult and
State’s prohibition on legislating from the bible even though the holy
book belies pro-life advocates sanctity of life argument.
There
is also absolutely no medical, biological, or scientific justification
for banning contraceptives or abortions until a fetus is viable outside
the mother’s uterus; not that pro-life fanatics acknowledge biology or
medical science. The recent 20-week abortion ban in Texas, soon to be a
6-week ban, denies
biological proof
that there is zero chance for a fetus’s survival outside the womb at
20-weeks, but viability is not the issue; forcing women to stay
perpetually pregnant and giving birth is, and the intended result is
forcing them to remain sequestered at home economically dependent on a
man. Ohio’s personhood measure defining a zygote as a fetus worthy of 14
th amendment rights violates biological reality, subverts a woman’s 14
th amendment rights, keeps them out of the workforce, and forced to be stuck at home serving as indentured servants to men.
There
is no economic advantage to women, the government, or their families to
control when and how often they produce children, and in fact it is
economic terrorism to condemn women to an existence as brood mares. The
best way to keep women in economic despair is forcing them to give birth
several times during their child-producing years instead of working,
and the cost
of carrying, delivering, and raising even one child for eighteen years
can be the difference between a woman living in abject poverty or having
a financially secure existence.
The repugicans have spent years
opposing equal pay for equal work, the Equal Rights Amendment, gender
equity in healthcare costs, and attack teachers’ unions specifically
targeting women who
make up
82% of all teachers in the nation. The repugicans hate union labor, but
they do not attack police officer, firefighter, or correctional officer
unions because their ranks are overwhelmingly male. The repugicans have had
relative success in blocking Democratic attempts to give women their
constitutionally guaranteed equal rights, but repugicans have found the
“silver bullet” to women’s rights with their assault on reproductive
rights.
It is apparent that women have become too powerful for
repugicans to easily control, so they are passing legislation to send
half the population back into the home with no means of escape. By
neutering women economically, repugicans control half the population
and keep their voice out of government. In the past two years,
repugicans have questioned the wisdom of “giving” women the right to
vote, and the next best thing to eliminating their electoral power is
keeping them overwhelmed with childrearing duties or a perpetual state
of pregnancy not unlike livestock producers keeping cows, sows, and ewes
producing.
America’s women are a threat to repugicans, and
dealt them a crushing defeat in the last election due to the sustained
attacks that began at the start of the 112
th Congress. It is
likely that most repugicans could not care less about evangelicals’
so-called sanctity of life frenzy, but they do care about keeping women,
all women, out of any position of power that is borne of economic
success. There is a contingent of conservatives who believe women should
leave the workforce, surrender their jobs to men, and return to their
kitchens to subject themselves to their husbands and fulfill the
position patriarchs assign them, and repugicans are doing their best to
put women “in their place” at home birthing children.
Women are
far from powerless, but they are facing an aggressor that sees an
opening to set women’s rights back several decades, and they have
powerful allies in corporate leaders entrenched in evangelical
fanaticism. For example, the retail chain Hobby Lobby convinced a judge
that their “belief” that contraceptives are
abortifacents,
or chemicals that cause abortions, is sincere leading him to rule the
owner’s religious belief informs that birth control pills abort fetuses,
and although it is patently false, Hobby Lobby prevailed. Large
retailers such as WalMart lobby to keep women from earning the same pay
as a man, and they prevailed two years ago when the wingnut Supreme
Court ruled against women suing for equal pay.
With
no religious, economic, and scientific justification for denying women
the right to choose their reproductive health, it is obvious the
repugican’s goal is exerting control over women. The repugicans are so
terrified of the power women have gained they could not care less how
they control them, but forcing them to be perpetually pregnant, unable
to earn an education, and incapable of economic independence forces them
to be in subjection to men’s will and if successful, repugicans will
have won the war on women.
The Consumer Finance Protection Bureau has released a set of templates
for letters to send to harassing debt collectors. These letters contain
the binding language required by fair debt collection laws and should
cause debt collectors to back off. What's more, they remind debt
collectors of the penalties for ignoring such a letter and let them know
that you know your rights and are willing to enforce them against the
hounds.
Your
chances of escaping poverty differ quite a bit by what region of the
United States you live in. The map shown plots the chances of a child
born into a family in the bottom fifth of income in America rising to
the top fifth in income during adulthood. The data is from a study by a group of economists from Harvard and UC Berkeley.
It's
the gateaway triathlon: 23-year-old Illinois man named Brion Adam Kriss
ran, rode a bike, and swam in the ocean to flee the police.
