Dangerous Precedents

A terrifying thread on Twitter this morning caught my attention: a series of posts warning that the GOP in the United States is not finished with their overthrow attempts, despite appearances.

Just as Adolf Hitler didn't give up after his first coup attempt in 1933, the same goes for the Republicans.  If one were to swap today's GOP with the one that existed six months ago and re-ran the election, there would be an entirely different outcome.  There would be dueling slates from all the swing states sent to the Electoral College.

That's how fast things are moving and it's showing no signs of slowing down.

Many predict that if Trump were to run for President again in 2024, all red states that Biden had clinched with a slim margin would send Trump electors to the College authorized by those state legislatures.  The American Constitutional order doesn't seem to have a good way to deal with dueling slates.  Therefore, Trump might very well seize the office through a House vote.

It's shocking enough that the GOP is openly signaling that they will do this, even if such a move would be massively unpopular.  They will try if given the chance.  It's clear that they are using an authoritarian playbook.  All the Democrats seem to be doing is hoping that it won't happen, which increases the likelihood of it actually happening.

The GOP has learned from its mistakes and found out that so far there hasn't been much of a consequence to attempting to overthrow the government.  So they will be be better equipped and prepared next time.  And the general public might not even notice until it's too late because it's too boring to listen to an explanation of the complexities of an electoral shuffle.

Already there are states that have passed laws to make voting more restrictive and complicated.  Already there are rumblings about cancelling state primaries.  Already the GOP is moving to oust its own conference chair because she dared to tell the truth.

President Biden might be in a tough bind with all this, but the reality is that catastrophe is looming and action must be taken NOW to defuse it.

Minefield Made by Men

I've written many times about the difficulties women have to navigate a patriarchal world that mostly regards them as sexual tools and not people.

This latest article is further proof that we have a very long way to go to achieve true equality.

Intern of Idaho State Representative is now being stalked.

A 19-year old intern who accused Aaron von Ehlinger (R-ID) of raping her was promptly attacked by other GOP lawmakers, doxxed, and threatened with litigation.

What kind of world are we living in now where survivors of rape might be hauled into court for calling out said reprehensible behaviour?  As if they don't already have enough to deal with.  This only adds to the many reasons why women don't report the rapists:

- Not being believed by the authorities
- Having their personal details made public
- Being harassed by relatives and friends of the accused
- Penalties levied in the workplace
- 'Revenge assault'
- Being forced to marry the rapist
- Being forced to have a child conceived by rape
- The accused receiving only a pittance of a sentence if convicted

It's all about protecting the rights and reputation of the individual man or the organization involved, be it a sports team, corporation, church, or government.

A young man caught in the act of raping a woman only got a slap on the wrist because it would tarnish his potential career.  A doctor who raped a sedated patient lost his medical license but got no prison time.  A woman who had actual photos of her own rape was told it wasn't enough to indict.  And so on.

People who try to pass counterfeit money get harsher punishments than rapists do.

Something must change.  And that something is: more women need to step up to the plate.  Protest.  Run for public office.  Buck the patriarchy.  It's already started: Jennifer McLellan is vying to become the first Black female state governor.

Remember Liberia in 2003?  Women forced the country to end the civil war there by going on a sex strike.  Maybe that's what could happen in America too.  Then men might start to get the message.

Counterproductive

This is a rant by a friend of mine, copied from Facebook with permission.

"TFW medical racism, medical sexism, and medical ableism are your long-time special interests, and you see all of this conspiracy around vaccines being the cause of autism, altering your DNA, and now thousands of privileged babies marching in Montreal causing a vaccination clinic to close preemptively on Saturday.

Because besides making things worse RIGHT NOW, you are holding up actually useful research and findings about the subjects you claim concern you.

You are holding up justice and medical equity when you:

Cite real experiments like the Tuskegee Experiment in THE WRONG CONTEXT. Clearly you don’t understand how this horrific experiment was conducted, if you cite it as reason for Black people to not be vaccinated. You perpetuate misinformation, and erase the actual mistreatment Black people suffered.

When you say that vaccines cause autism. This was debunked YEARS AGO. REPEATEDLY. This is currently the go-to in the largest grift related to vaccine misinformation. Scaring parents into “curing” autism, increasing snake oil salesmen’s monetized social media platforms, completely changing the narrative around autism... redirecting huge amounts of research dollars to disprove what we already know, still changing the focus to “why are these people broken” in a lot of research instead of what autistics would like to be researched about themselves.

When you spew all of this unfounded, imaginary bull&^%, I don’t get to learn more about what is REALLY HAPPENING. You don’t need conspiracies if you really want to help make people accountable for science and to encourage people who science well. Good science needs people who have good science literacy, are willing to ask good questions, and follow up on them. Also, people to admit when they don’t know as much as they think they do, to be quiet and find out more until they do.

There are a ton of resources about the science of vaccines and medication, and lots of valid questions about how trials have been carried out in the past, and people still have safety and efficacy concerns. All of this is cockblocked by the crowd who thinks vaccines are part of a world plot.

Because beyond the illogic, you feel the rest of the world is unsafe, but at the moment you are making the world less so. We should still contour research good and bad effects of the vaccine. The first Quebec/Canadian death related to the vaccine occurred in April. This is a low number but it is still important. This was a real person, whose life touched others. While still less risky than other medications that cause blood clots, it’s a concern. Funnily enough, the same people who will point to this, downplay the number of deaths due to Covid constantly. I mean...

Stop it. With your misinformation and lack of logic and super-spreader events, you are going to make other people sick, and you’re also making my friends cry, who have lost people and have family sick right now.

I have a hard time forgiving you for that."