25- F’in 5th circuit appeals court

Double F today.

Last week, the rage baiting 5th circuit appeals court. Yes, the same one that has been used as a basis for a Supreme Court judgement superhighway. You know, forum shopping. Also known as court shopping where the right judgement can be bought by choosing the right judge and getting on their calendar.

According to Merriam Webster, forum shopping is the “practice of choosing the court in which an action from among those courts that could properly exercise jurisdiction based on a determination of which court is likely to provide the most favorable outcome”.

The favorable outcome is, of course, a case to be adjudicated by the wildly biased and conservatively weighted Supreme Court. Then the Supreme Court can issue a for or against ruling, depending on the circumstances, that will warp this country to the will of the people who were court shopping.

We know their game. We have seen it in the relentless battering of some people against things THEY personally don’t like and don’t agree with. After all, why should people be allowed to love who they love. And marry them. I am looking at you people who want to overturn Obergefell. Or the shrill voices who pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed and pushed against Roe v. Wade for fifty years until they got the result they wanted.

Remember?

Yeah, so those same judge (forum) shoppers are also against books that they don’t like. We’ve seen it in the book bans. No matter that they don’t have to read the books, the book banners want no one to have to right to read whatever the reader wants. They bleat save the children when it really isn’t about the children, never has been. But that’s a rant for another time.

Book banning at schools has reached a fever pitch over the last forever. Well, at least, that’s what it feels like. They are a slow erosion of America’s rights. And I think contribute to the dumbing down that we’ve been experiencing in society.

Yeah, yeah, Kate, we know. But did you know the newest gambit?

Last week the 5th Circuit Appeals Court effectively said that books in schools were the purview of the government and not subject for 1st Amendment rights.

The government is arguing that the books are the property of the government and therefore are immune from 1st Amendment rights arguments.

That is not a typo. I just find it so outrageous that I had to type it twice.

The Fifth Circuit Appeals court has fired a missile against a citizen’s right to receive and have information. In fact, Judge Kyle Duncan wrote those very words in the judgement, “that the First Amendment of the US Constitution does not grant a right to receive information.”

Are they reading the same U.S. Constitution that I am? Or is it the thought that we can have free exchange of information uninfected by harmful rhetoric and without bias that they object to?

I am chilled by the idea that words are not freely expressed in a written format are not, in fact, free. And that I, as an American citizen born in this country, does not have the right to information that they might object to.

Do they know how words work? Or are they just a shill for their corporate overlords who want the book banners to control what is written and read by EVERYONE and is trusting in the slow drip of poison getting them their way.

After all, it worked against Roe.

This is screaming capitals DANGEROUS!

Trust me, I’m a woman and I’ve seen this before. I’ve watched my right to own my body be dismantled. Even though we could see the train wreck coming and tried warning against it. For literal years.

Listen to Uncle Steven (King) on the subject, kids. “What I tell kids is, Don’t get mad, get even. Don’t spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don’t walk, to the nearest non-school library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned.”

FFS Friday 5/23/25- f’in cowards- part 2

Well that vote finally happened with the conclusion that they all wanted.

215- yea.

214- nay- including two republicans. Good for them and thank you.

There was also two that just didn’t vote and 1 who voted present. I guess so they can look themselves in the mirror tomorrow. Or brag to those they will BEG to reelect them, promising to do better next time. They are the real villains of this piece.

Except for those 2 the vote was on party lines. Too bad for the Democrat representative that died this week. Gerry Connolly of Virginia.

RIP. You should have retired. Did you learn nothing from the lesson of Ruth Bader Ginsburg? And why oh why does this keep happening. The last 8 congressional deaths were democrats. Maybe look to the younger candidates instead of wiping the assess and mouths of the gerontocracy.

But I digress.

This fucking bill- Why?

Because this is a fucking abomination of a bill.

It strips money from suffering people in so very many ways.

It strips healthcare away from struggling people. By ending Medicaid. Fun fact, Medicaid has many different names depending on the state. There are going to be a LOT of angry and desperate people when their medications suddenly quadruple or higher.

It takes food out of the mouths of babies and children. By nearly ending SNAP benefits. I have known people on SNAP and they were 1) struggling and 2) working. What now?

It kicks grandma out of the retirement home. Because of the decrease in Medicaid. Which we fucking told you was fucking coming. Better clear out the spare bedroom because she’s coming home.

It is a death knell to the declining hospitals in the rural South and everywhere because it ends Medicaid. The already high number of hospital closures is about to go to stratospheric numbers.

But don’t worry there is some good in it. For those who want to buy a tanning bed. The excise tax on it has been decreased. Of all fucking things, of course.

Here is the end of democracy, have to put a cherry on it for their corporate masters.

It is cruelty and project 2025 marked up pretty like. So that they could lie and make pretty speeches about while picking your pocket at the same time.

The end goal is to provide a multi-trillion dollar tax break to those who DO NOT NEED IT! The billionaire class that Nixon started and Reagan fostered and the current president has egged on. Because he is one?

Next it heads to the Senate.

Upon wake up to this piece of bullshittery, I immediately wrote the two senators in my state.

I told them to vote no on the senate bill.

I told them to find their balls.

I told them their grandparents and grandkids would be ashamed of them.

I told them that I, a citizen of their state, wanted them to vote no. This is to take care of people who are citizens in their state, who failing and will fail harder with a yes vote.

I also did a hand written series of cards with a lot less nice wording on it.

I lambasted the reps in my state.

Being the OR nurse that I am I have to wonder what is their end-game?

Slavish obedience to their one true god of a president.

Slavish obedience to the people whose money they will NEVER reach.

Or is the cruelty the point?

Cowards, the lot of them.

Grow a set, will you?

And also get a replacement rep in there ASAP.

The time for mourning will come but now is the time for action.

Write and call as much as you can.

Remind them that they work for us, not the billionaires.

Remind them that they have to be reelected in 18 short months.

Remind them that while some in their district won’t have the energy or the capacity to remember who is to blame for their new worse circumstances, some of us have fucking long memories and will be sure to remind them.

Over and over and over and over.

Your grandparents and grandkids are ashamed of you kicking the other old people and stealing food from the babies.

For shame!

Tuesday Top of Mind 5/20/25- Adriana Smith, a cautionary tale

Somewhere in a hospital in Georgia a woman lies dead. Her body is being illegally hijacked by the state’s abortion bill and is serving as a dead host to a parasite. Without her permission, against her family’s wishes and permission.

It does not matter that this parasite is a child to be.

It does not matter to the state that she was a nurse.

It does not matter to the state that she was a mother to a five year old little boy who is now confused and

It does not matter to the state that she was a daughter.

It does matter matter to the insurance company who will not pay this astronomical hospital bill because the policyholder has been declared brain dead 12 weeks ago.

It matters that her headaches were not treated appropriately.

It matters that her five year old son cannot conceive that his mother is dead and he thinks that she is sleeping.

It matters that the fetus has been without stimulation from the mother for 12 weeks. No one knows what that does to the fetus.

It matters to women everywhere because we knew this was coming and were unable to stop it.

This is medical experimentation of the worst kind. This smacks of Henrietta Lacks and her immortal cancer cells.

Be mad for her.

But be mad at the crazy politician who wrote the abortion ban in such a way that allows for the state to deny this woman a peaceful passing.

Be mad at the mad scientist who just wants to see what they can do with the bill and how far they can push medical knowledge.

Be sorrowful for Adriana Smith’s family, especially the 5-year old, and the mother who has to watch her child be experimented on with no consent granted.

But be mad at the political machinery that has been put in place to prey upon this woman and her family and the child who may never be.

Most importantly, when this fails and this fetus dies a horrible death, stay mad.

Most importantly, when this fails and this fetus survives into a family that is shocked and appalled at this science fiction bullshit, stay mad.

I have written it before and often. This kind of chicanery is about control.

Only now they have added medical experimentation on top of it.

But stay mad.

Stay vocal.

Tell the mad scientists that there will be no more experimentation without consent. Tell the mad scientists that we are ashamed of them and their ancestors are ashamed of them.

Call this what it is, Handmaid’s Tale bullshit.

A nugget of information that I learned very recently is that Margaret Atwood was intentional about the scenes that she wrote. Nothing that happened to any of the women, to any of the Handmaids, was plucked from history.

Be careful out there.

Tuesday Top of Mind 5/6/25-Missouri is trying to pull a fast one on abortion rights that they just got back

Send abortion rights back to state? That was the plan after the supreme court released the Dobbs decision, right? After all, restoring the power back to the states would make sure that your state made the right decision. Well, right in more ways than one.

Changing the state constitution or passing an amendment protecting a woman’s right to bodily autonomy is never done quickly. It takes a lot of time to gather signatures and gin up support. It takes more time to get the regular public excited about the measure, hopefully enough to get out to the polls.

There were seven states that passed abortion right legislation in the November 2024 election. There were 10 states with abortion related constitutional amendments with on their ballots. The states that wanted to protect abortion rights and enshrine them into the state constitution were Montana, Nevada, Missouri, Colorado, Arizona, Maryland, Wyoming, and Florida. The state that wanted further curtailing of a woman’s right to bodily autonomy was Nebraska. Wyoming and Florida were unable to pass their measure but so was Nebraska. Nevada has a 2 election pass/fail test, and they are half way there. These states join Ohio and Kansas and California and Vermont and Michigan in protecting abortion rights.

Of the seven states Missouri’s state legislature is throwing a temper tantrum. It’s not fair, they whined. People didn’t know what they were voting for, they cried! We deserve a mulligan, they challenged.

Eye roll.

I mean they’ve done everything a spoiled brat would do except stomp their little feet and threaten to hold their breath.

Pouty McPoutyton.

Well, they are kind of doing the last one.

They have put in place as many roadblocks as they possibly could. Including many bills in the state legislature about classifying abortion pills as a controlled substance, and legislation to treat abortion as a homicide. Also they have stopped allowing abortion pills to be prescribed.

But their favorite is crying foul on the Amendment 3. The amendment showed that women will be dying in hospital, unable to receive medical care.

Show me the lie.

Better yet, ask Texas or Georgia.

Best yet, google deaths post Dobbs decision in states that outright ban abortion. Cough, cough, Texas.

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

But the women who need this often life saving care can’t.

Women have died, are dying, and will continue to die without access to abortion.

FFS 5/2/25- Funding, slashing of

Well, there has been a lot of funding slashing in the government in the last 100 days.

All without congressional approval. All at the whim of the mad dictator.

Libraries, defunded. This will need congressional approval.

Vital research to keep us healthy, defunded. This will need congressional approval.

Needed aid to the poorest countries of the world, defunded.

Consumer protection bureau, defunded.

Medicaid that provides healthcare to millions of lower income Americans, not yet defunded but through the machinations of the House Republicans cutting Medicaid is the only way to do what is in the bill they presented. Basically defunded.

NPR and PBS, defunded. You bet I increased my sustaining member contribution to NPR immediately. This is basically an attack on the first amendment. But to the mad dictator is is striking back against people who tell the truth about him.

This is your reminder that 1% or less of the NPR and PBS funding comes from the government. The bulk of the rest is made up of sustaining members and fundraising. My first ask of the post- Join your local NPR and help them resist.

All of this is by executive order as the mad dictator goes around one of the branches of the government.

He is getting hung up by the third branch though. There are lawsuits, so many lawsuits, protesting his illegal actions. Two hundred and twenty to be exact.

There have been protests, nationwide protests against his administration and many of the companies who fell into line to his wishes. The latest was yesterday, 5/1/25.

Down to brass tacks this is a tantrum by a spoiled brat who doesn’t like it when people tell the truth about him and his friends. Well, I say friends.

A lot of this is distraction from the real work of dismantling the constitution that is going on at 1600 Pennsylvania.

They just hope that we aren’t paying attention.

They just hope that by torturing those who they deem lesser than themselves, of those countries they deem lesser than the US, that we are so distracted by the crap that’s going on we don’t pay attention when it counts.

My second ask of the post- Let them know, however you can, that we as American citizens ARE paying attention and that WE DON’T LIKE IT.

My third ask of the post is to ignore what you can, while paying attention. This kind of bottom feeder antics are to generate attention. Because that is what they want, attention. Don’t give it to them.

But Kate, aren’t you giving into their attention whoring with this post?

Yes, but it is a small amount of attention that hopefully spurs others to ignore their bullshit. There is a reason that I only post about political nonsense on Fridays. And healthcare nonsense on Tuesdays. I don’t want to give them the oxygen to fan their flames into a maelstrom.

But the reason that no Republican congress or president has dared to defund PBS is that no one wants to go on record as killing Big Bird.

Make them feel seen.

Make them feel shame.

Or pointing and laughing has always belittled the bully.

School Me Saturday 4/19/26- Fight Fiercely Harvard!

Yeah, I know that Fight Fiercely Harvard isn’t Harvard’s real fight song. But I don’t think 10,000 Men of Harvard sets exactly the right tone.

It’s sexist for one thing and since Harvard is fighting for independence for all of its students, not just the men, I thought Fight Fiercely Harvard was a better fit.

Fight Fiercely Harvard is a satirical song written by an alum, Tom Lehrer. Another song of his that you may be familiar with is The Elements. It is a lilting song with the elements from the periodic table. It is only clocked at 1 minute 26 seconds.

This week Harvard said no, thank you to pressure from the president of the United States. He would not bend the knee and bow to extreme pressure.

Of course, the president whined and threatened (typical). He even went so far as to threaten Harvard’s tax exempt status. This is a “punishment” meant to be punitive for violating tax law. There is no evidence that Harvard has violated tax law.

Side question, if it can be done so quickly, why can’t we do the same to churches and political organizations? I digress.

Apparently there are now pacts between schools where there were rivalries both in the classroom and on the playing field.

According to the Guardian newspaper at least 18 universities have united to defend academic freedom in the fact of these attacks and threats. The universities include 8 universities that comprise part of the Big 10 academic alliance include the University of Illinois, Indiana University, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, University of Oregon, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University-New Brunswick, University of California Los Angeles, University of Southern California, University of Washington and the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Some of these schools are in red states and some are in blue. To me this is indicative that academic freedoms are cherished, no matter the political leaning.

It also indicates that academic freedoms are to be protected.

Good for them. I hope other universities join and I hope they keep their courage.

I hope that this message is heard loud and clear.

Now I have to learn all of their fight songs too.

But, but, Kate, what about their billion dollar endowments? Why do they need support?

Those endowments are the emergency fund and the funding for programs that allow the universities to continue to admit students from the lower-economic echelons. And to create scholarships to fund these students. And to create labs that make the discoveries that are why these universities have earned the world class reputation that they have.

Maybe, just maybe, they don’t like being told what to do, or who to listen to, or what to teach, or what to read.

It all goes back to book banning, doesn’t it?

Fight Fiercely Harvard! You are not alone.

Tuesday Top of Mind 4/15/25- This is not a drill…we in danger

There is a scene from the movie Ghost when Oda Mae Brown (played to great comedic effect by Whoopie Goldberg) says to the grieving Molly Jensen (played by Demi Moore) where she says “Molly… you in danger, girl.” This is meant to be a communication from the titular character Sam Wheat (played by Patrick Swayze).

It is meant as a warning to Molly as she is being stalked by Carl Bruner (played by Tony Goldwyn). Sam is desperate to give Molly a warning before something terrible can happen to her at Carl’s hands and whims.

The scene has been meme’d many, many times. Just saying “you in danger, girl” is meant to evoke the danger that whoever it is being said to finds themself.

America…you in danger, girl.

I don’t say this lightly.

But the constitution is in danger.

Therefore our country is in danger.

The current WTF is about a man who is legally living in the country, is married to an American citizen, and is the father of an American citizen. I am writing, of course, of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

If you don’t know his name you have not been paying attention. Kilmar Abrego Garcia was disappeared off the streets (which is terrifying enough), not given due process (which is the most terrifying of all), and spirited off to El Salvador to a concentration camp. There is no other name for it. The Supreme Court says that the White House has to “facilitate” bringing him back.

And the White House has not done so.

In fact the White House feted and presented and paraded the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who then said that there was no way to “smuggle a terrorist into the US”. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is not a terrorist. His entire story is of a boy threatened by thugs and gangs in El Salvador and he fled to the only place that he thought might take care of him.

Little did he know.

In fact, on a hot mic, the current president told Bukele to prepare for incarcerating “home growns”. These are American born citizens that might be spirited away without due process because we have displeased the current administration.

How much louder can we be?

How much danger is America in?

This is a test and we are failing.

This is a test of how far the current administration can go before there is mass protest.

This is a test of how the current administration can go in ignoring the courts, including the Supreme Court.

This is a test and we are failing.

America… we in danger.

Tuesday Top of Mind 4/8/25- The little boy judge in NC who doesn’t like being told no

This is happening in my state.

There was a race for the state Supreme Court. And there were two people running Allison Briggs, a Democrat, and Jefferson Griffin, the aforementioned little boy that doesn’t like being told no.

All the votes of the November 5th election were counted. And recounted. And recounted again. Each time Allison Briggs was the winner by 700+ votes. And each time Jefferson Briggs raised his hand and said I object.

And he pressed all the pedals of the judiciary that he could. Appeal after appeal, defeat after defeat.

This has been going on since the November election.

He finally hit on what he believes is a winning strategy.

To disenfranchise 60,000+ votes of voters who voted according the laws at the time of the election. He wants to take their votes and declare himself the winner. This would shift the balance of the NC state Supreme Court in the Republicans’ favor.

Make no mistake, this is a test case for how to steal elections by stamping feet and shouting NO as loudly as can be. It is akin to a tantrum by a snot nosed, streaming eyes toddler who is red in the face about NOT getting what they want, regardless of how fair it is.

This is a test case for how the heavily Republican state legislature can change the rules in December and have it count for an election that took place more than a month prior.

How else to put their thumbs on the levels of power and swing what should have not been contested into the “appropriate to them” direction?

This is disgusting. And unworthy of a grown man.

How much louder can we be?

Our elections that is a founding tenet of this country of ours are under attack (but not from the fictitious illegal voter) and our duly cast votes are in danger.

Are you paying attention yet?

There are so many hateful shenanigans afoot I feel that we Democrats and the people who are non-political but still paying attention are going crazy trying to plug all the itty bitty holes. Not unlike Hans Brinker in the 1865 novel The Silver Skates where he plugged up the hole in the dike with his finger and sent his brother to get help.

It is just as easy to die from a thousand cuts as it is to die from a slashed neck. Blood loss is blood loss and eventually the loss of blood will cause the heart of the republic to stop.

For North Carolina voters, please check the The Jefferson Griffin’s List site at https://thegriffinlist.com/.

Make sure that your vote is not stolen by a spoiled brat who can’t hear the word no.

Gee, I wonder who he learned that from?

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/25/2025- It is a marathon, not a sprint

However you have arrived to the conclusion, you must admit that we are in danger.

Not only singular we as a personal group of one or two, but we as a nation.

This is mainly by design. Their design.

The chaos, the mass firings, agency by agency.

All those lives ruined.

All those career civil servants who keep the lights on, and the airplanes where they need to be, who kept the national parks open and safe for visitors – gone.

No matter where you sit on the political aisle, no matter who you voted for, or why you voted the way you did, does this feel good to you? Is this what you wanted?

The number one thing that was cited over and over and over and over and over about why the votes were the way they were was the price of eggs. I know that this was a red herring, after all, the price of eggs is higher than it has ever been.

How is that working for you? You realize now that this is a ridiculous argument, right? Right?

We can get mad and scream and shout accusations.

Or we can get to work.

After all, resistance is not a sprint, but a marathon.

I am ready to weigh in with my purchase power. Are you?

Time to let the companies know that the American people mean business. As in, no business to them on those days.

This Friday is the first organized pocketbook protest. It is a no-buy day.

Nothing.

Nada.

Not even a stick of gum.

One of my friends lives near a shopping center and has told me they are going to keep watch on the cars going toward the shopping center on Friday. They hope that the amount of cars will be less. Time will tell.

The Montgomery bus strike lasted over a year. 381 days to be exact. I am prepared to go the long haul.

I have emptied my Amazon cart and most of my lists. The only things that are left are things for school and books for school. I haven’t bought anything from them since Christmas.

We can do this; we’ve just gotten lazy with the ease and convenience of it all.

It is time to make a new plan. I have curated a list of places I will be buying from, of small businesses that get our money. I have made planting plans for the spring, summer, and fall, and plan for the utilization of our fridge and freezer.

And protest with our buying power. A world in which I can make purchases easily but have a boot on my neck politically is not a world I want to live in. This is how we protest, small ripples that become a wave.

My protest begins with a single action. No-buy on Friday. This is the first action step in what will be a marathon of protesting.

It is time to be prepared.

Sometimes the beginning of the protest comes at a shout, like at some of the town halls that happened this last week.

Sometimes, the beginning of the protest comes with a snap, like the closing of the wallet.

What 5 things did I do last week for my employer? I’m not going to tell you.

Tuesday Top of Mind 2/18/25- ripping the wings off of butterflies and laughing about it

There is something laddish about going into government computers and programs and ripping out the guts. And leaving a big mess.

Of course, this time the mess equates to the suffering of many, many people.

It brings to mind the episode of Star Trek the Next Generation called The Naked Now. An affected by the virus that makes everyone act as if they are drunk leads Wesley Crusher to disable the engines just as the Enterprise is in dire straits.

Sound familiar?

It takes Data, the android, who is also affected, to rise to a goad to put the pieces that Wesley has destroyed back in working order.

If that isn’t a metaphor for today’s US I don’t know what is.

A kid gets drunk. Are you with me? Not unlike the teenage and young 20s young men who are playing havoc in our systems. Reminder, the frontal lobe doesn’t finish developing until age 25 or so. Of course, they are charged with this task by an older man who just wants to break things.

Not a perfect metaphor.

A kid disables the engine, leading to peril. If it hasn’t happened yet, see the plane crashes since inauguration day, it will soon.

An android, one who is a valuable member of the crew but one at first who was looked upon with derision and scorn and fear, is the one to right the ship. Oh, and did I mention that he struggles with identity through so much of the series? There is definitely a trans allegory there.

But, I fear, that we will no one who has been othered around to help. Because they have been deported or are living in fear.

They are pulling the wings off the butterfly that is the U.S. And laughing maniacally while doing so.

I wouldn’t be able to plot this and no one would read it because it is so implausible.

But here we are.

Our international reputation is shredding, not unlike the wings of the butterfly.

There is no one coming to save us.

People are suffering. Including people who voted for this madness.

I am trying to find sympathy for them.

I have no sympathy for the government.

But I have a real fear of our standing in the world and the utter trainwreck that Democrats have to right after this. Because it is always up to the Democrats to fix what the Republicans broke while giving billions and billions of dollars to those who do not need it.