Self delete to consider how I'm saying what I'm saying. But I think you are right.

Who was at DU during Hurricane Katrina? And, where is Swamp Rat? I was here & it was intense...

Please forgive if someone has already posted this question. It was so intense.

That's what *already* happened. Hospitals & morgues were overwhelmed, med personnel attacked...

… docs & nurses died (my allergist, when I came in: “Three of my fellow doctors have died of Covid” ) and some docs & nurses committed suicide.

All of the Bad Things have already happened before, under Trump’s first term.

Emergency supplies grossly insufficient in America; supplies sold to China.

Medical supplies air-shipped inside the US literally stolen off the tarmac by some form of government agents — so much so that suppliers and recipients resorted to subterfuge in labeling, packaging, and shipping manifests. Kind of like some WWII spy drama.

We got to thinking that ventilators were absolutely necessary and none were to be had. Finally woo-hoo! Some showed up, to be shared out among the states. California’s share: two (2)

How many died? Well that certainly will never be known in Florida, seeing as how DeSantis fired the State statistician.

And propaganda and lies galore. Dr. Fauci, who deserves our gratitude and respect forever, has been under nonstop death threats ever since.

The Stupid won. And since Trump is in the WH again, The Stupid is definitely back

This is interesting: Rick Wilson on Dem's falling numbers of voter registration--PAY the volunteers; we have the money!

Spoken like an old-style GOP pol, and a very successful one at that. That comment is a couple of minutes in. What do you think?

TY to those like LMSP who took the time to give a detailed reply to the disturbed. It is important to know...

…who these nutballs are and what their plans for America are. I was raised to “respect other people’s religions” — but in the last 25 years I’ve made a mature decision that some are not in that category, and here’s why.

Very short version: they are dangerous now, and in the halls of power now, and we have to recognize and understand them. Skip the rest if you don’t want to know the history.

When I was a child, certain Christian sects (and in the 1950s this was a largely Christian country; also largely white, but that is a different tale) were on the fringe — the far fringe — but as long as they stayed away from the rest of us sinners, it was live and let live. Sure, I knew some adults who made snide remarks about Holy Rollers and Snake Handlers, but no one was trying to hunt them down, for pete’s sake. It was like being an anti-vaxxer — nearly everybody else knew that polio, whooping cough, and all the other killers were not “God’s will” but the products of microbes and viruses, so the vast majority of parents made sure to hold their babies tight while the doc gave them a jab.

Here’s the difference today: those religious fringe groups are now in the centers of power. Speaker of the House Johnson is absolutely one of them. People like Trump don’t believe in anything holy, but they certainly find the religious fanatics (or as some here have always called them, the religiously insane) useful in their quest for ultimate worldly power, and vice versa. Same with Musk.

Hegseth, for instance has found a “god” who affirms his lust for dominance. I do think he is sincere, in his drug and alcohol soaked mind, but he is also extremely dangerous. He is purging women, LGBTQ+ , and I suspect anybody Black or brown from the military hierarchy. He believes women and trans people have no business being in the US military. He, like Trump, has a caveman image of a “war fighter” — a male all bulked up and ready to kill with his bare hands. The fact that wars are now fought with brains and electronics escapes him. He also believes women have no business being able to vote. He is a White Christian Nationalist.

The federal government and military are now run by (pay attention) White Christian Nationalists and those who find them useful. Just for fun, explore Christian Dominionism (Hegseth, Johnson, et al) and its ties to home schooling, politics, the End Times, and all that. Because of the many conversations around Dominionism in the early years of DU, I took a dive into research from reliable liberal sources, and went down a rabbit hole to where I felt I was staring into the Abyss, the Heart of Darkness. I remember it pretty vividly, but I’ve never been able to return because it made me sick. You all, however, should take a look.

Our Supreme Court, after decades of GOP maneuvering, has a majority of Roman Catholics. I have no problem with Roman Catholics per se, since all 4 of my grandparents were, but several if not most of the conservatives on our High Court are Opus Dei, and that is a cult. Opus Dei, if I recall correctly, skirts the Pope. Not everything called “Catholic” is kosher (oops, wrong culture, LOL) . As far as anyone can tell Roberts, Alito, Scalia, and Thomas for sure…

We need to talk about them sometimes so we can see them coming — and they are here now.

I am a member. Don't bother telling me to quit -- this is a deviation from their customary decency ...

…and I believe worth fighting. Someone got to them, and they need to hear differently. I have many questions about how they came to this decision, and I am sure they’ve been fed a lot of — well, let’s just call it lies and be done with it.

If they think it’s not asked for a lot — well, the pharmacists at my local have gone out of their way to get me OTC medications that Costco doesn’t carry, when I request them.

If they think Mifepristone is used solely for killing darling babies by wicked, wicked women, they need to be informed differently. I have written at length about the changing goalposts in my lifetime regarding what abortion is. By the time the “pro-life” people got to IUDs and The Pill, and moved on to lifesaving procedures I recall from my own mother’s era, I knew damn well the forced-birthers had an agenda that would kill women — and that is happening now.

If they think it has no purpose beyond abortion, they need to be told the many chronic diseases it can be used for:

AI Overview from query about mifepristone and chronic diseases
Mifepristone, while primarily known for its role in medical abortion, is also used to treat a variety of chronic conditions due to its effects on progesterone and glucocorticoid receptors.
Specifically, mifepristone is used or being investigated for the following chronic diseases:
Cushing's Syndrome: Mifepristone is FDA-approved to manage hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) associated with Cushing's syndrome in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus or glucose intolerance who have failed surgery or are unable to undergo surgery. It blocks the effects of cortisol, a hormone overproduced in Cushing's syndrome.
Uterine Fibroids (Leiomyomas): Studies suggest that mifepristone can shrink uterine fibroids, which are benign growths in the uterus, and alleviate related symptoms like pelvic pain and heavy menstrual bleeding. This offers a non-surgical alternative for some women.
Endometriosis: Mifepristone's ability to block progesterone receptors is being investigated for its potential to treat endometriosis, a condition where endometrial tissue grows outside the uterus.
Psychiatric Disorders: Mifepristone has shown promise in treating conditions like psychotic depression, major depressive disorder, and potentially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) | (.gov). It may help regulate stress signals in the brain by blocking the receptors that stress hormones bind to.
Certain Cancers: Ongoing research suggests mifepristone may play a role in treating hormone-sensitive cancers such as breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer by interfering with hormone-dependent tumor growth.
Adenomyosis: Clinical trials suggest that mifepristone might be an effective and safe treatment option for adenomyosis, characterized by endometrial tissue growing into the uterine muscle wall.
It's important to note that while some of these applications are well-established, such as in Cushing's syndrome, others are still under investigation and may be considered off-label uses. Further research is ongoing to fully understand the benefits and mechanisms of action of mifepristone in treating various chronic diseases.

Here’s a link for contact
https://customerservice.costco.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/828

Here’s more
Costco Wholesale
P.O. Box 34331
Seattle, WA 98124
Finally, feel free to call us at 425-313-8100. We’re available Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m. PT.

DON’T GIVE UP WITHOUT A FIGHT

All part of the plan, afaict. For white men who grouse about "unfair" competition with DEI candidates....

…51% of the population is being removed from said competition. Will this make the poor widdle guys happy? I doubt it. They never wanted to share — they want it all, and sharing anything with anyone else is just sooooo unfair.

Dobbs was the giant earthquake under the ocean. The waves of the tsunami are being felt bit by bit. If contraception is made illegal/unavailable once more, that really will be the Great Wave that washes away all of our gains over the last century and a half.

We will be enslaved by our biology, just as the First Wave Feminists pointed out 2 centuries ago. But not men —tra-la.

Nothing Is Wasted. / You speak for me, MM. Your life has been so much more adventurous than mine ...

…and I so admire that. You have been a voice for action, reason, and progress here and everywhere you’ve lived.

I have done what I could, and felt it was to good effect. Yet a month or two ago I said to some people who know me IRL that “It was all for naught, “ and it shocked the hell out of them. Remind me not to do that again to my friends, no matter what whispers to me in the dark depths of night.

And — let me say this to you, to myself, to everyone here: Nothing Is Wasted.

First, America is not alone in stupidity. The world itself is in some measure regressing, as I saw during Trump’s first term. Fascism apparently is a Siren call for many across the world. It’s bad, it’s rotten, and it’s here as well. It seems to be some kind of historical cycle, and though it may pass, we are in it and it may not pass in our lifetimes. This is exacerbated beyond belief by technology, especially AI. I saw this during Trump’s first term.

Second, Americans who see what’s happening are not alone in resisting. It’s just that people overseas and across the border are not able to fix our country for us.

Third, our generation is passing, though we’re not gone yet.

Somehow it seems our cohort has been singled out as troublemakers forever — and it’s been useful to liars and political manipulators. I remember when it was “our” fault that classrooms were overfull. Then we were “all” dope-smoking sex-crazed hippies. Then “we” burned our draft cards and bras, respectively. Then, even as our brothers and friends were sent to Vietnam to be slaughtered wholesale, we were “all” bomb-making molotov-cocktail throwing anti-war rioters.

And now that all of us are certifiably old, “we” are accused of having taken more than our “share” , of still taking more than our share, and “we” are collectively responsible for the stomach-churning backlash occasioned by/but not caused by the election of Barack Obama. This does not even comport with the facts.

During the BushCheney admin I would shake my head in bafflement and ask “Who does this serve?! “ and my friend Dottie, an accountant who was volunteering along with me with the local VFP, would say, “Follow the money. “

I feel ground down. I feel like the powerful of the world, who acknowledge no borders, nor allegiance to any laws, have made clear to me that I and we are small and they are Big. They most certainly followed the money!

I am tired — it truly is becoming a task for the next gen and the next. I’m still here and will try to do what I can, though I feel diminished as my energy flags. I sincerely hope the generations who are so eager to replace us are up to the task. They will have to be.

Optimism? Not much any more. Yet 30 years ago when I was applying for grad school and trying to, I dunno, justify my work and achievements for an academic setting, I realized: Nothing Is Wasted. I got in, did the work, earned my 2 grad degrees, then marched off to anti-war instead of continuing in academia. In doing and doing I forgot my modest epiphany, but I emphasize its truth again.

My dear friend — and all who may read this — hold to this: nothing you have done is wasted. The coming generations will have to do their best, is all.

Nothing is Wasted

Nothing is Wasted

Nothing is Wasted

The America of 2025 is not the America of 1948, as well....

The America of 2025 is not the America of 1948, as well…

When my brother and I were born in California, he in 1948 and I in 1947, we grew up in a nation that had a legitimate claim to righteous heroism. The US played a large part in defeating the Axis, and the crimes of our enemies were not a secret from us. The country we were born into was having a surge of optimism.

When my husband was born in a shattered Europe to older parents who had lost nearly every relative and barely knew each other when they were introduced and decided to get married, Israel was the shining hope.

Pragmatically, his parents chose to take their 3 little boys to America in 1953, to NYC where my MIL’s surviving sister & husband had already moved. But Israel… the post-war founders of Israel also had a legitimate claim to righteous heroism. Israel shone like a beacon…

Here we are in 2025. In our household we understand one another — our hearts are broken. We each have a sense of an ending of something we held dear. For me, the America I thought I knew. For him, the Israel founded in such hope when he was only a year old. The loss is double for him, really — a naturalized citizen since early childhood, served in the US Air Force during the Vietnam era, built an entire life here.

And to whom do I turn to sort out this sorrow? Certainly not DU.

I thought Nixon was our worst & we'd never see worse. Congresswoman Barbara Jordan said...

… “My faith in the Constitution is whole, “ is what I remember her saying. But she went on to say of her faith in our system: “it is complete; it is total. And I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution. “

I will never forget her — I can hear that beautiful deep, resonant, voice in my mind to this day. Through her and the members of the Committee, my faith in the Constitution was restored.

When Nixon resigned, my relief was immense. I thought this was proof that our Constitutional system worked — that the House, Senate, and the Court would not fail us in the future. That we surely would have serious disagreements, but that there was honor there.

Yet each GOP president from then has been worse. The Senate and Congress included members who really did not believe in democracy, many of whom burrowed in and are still there, ancient but powerful. The Court itself cracked 25 years ago when it took on the case of Bush vs. Gore, and lied when they claimed that action “set no precedent. “ The Court fully broke when in this past decade they began the process of undoing all the progress we had made and they had endorsed in the entire second half of the 20th century, and in many cases the entire 20th century. SCOTUS broke.

Barbara Jordan tragically died young. My old Senator, Daniel Inouye, who gave his arm for this country in WWII, lived on, still serving the country, and is now gone. I am glad neither is alive to see this day, to see what we have become.