Posts by TonusOH

173

Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court!

by Simon in

i know there was a leak a few weeks back, but this really does seem to have come out of the blue.. the anomaly was the original decision.

it clearly had no basis in law or the constitution, and was a flimsy, ridiculous ruling.

plus the whole thing was based on a fraudulent case in the first place.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898.

TonusOH

The argument I’ve heard is the words “liberty and pursuit of happiness” in the constitution which is the grounds for gay marriage and everything else under the sun including abortion.

The freedom to live your life as you choose is an important protection that the Constitution was meant to protect, with the understanding that your decisions did not impact others in a way that was unfair or unjust. Many of our civil rights, including those which protect gays, are codified into law (or added as amendments) because they were not clearly delineated in the Constitution. Gay marriage has been left to the states to decide, in the same way that abortion will be now. That is how it works, ideally.

To me, the issue around abortion is the fact that you are ending a life, and that should never be done lightly. If there is a question of the life/safety of the mother, that strikes me as the one thing that would be a clear priority. The issues of body autonomy and circumstances of the pregnancy should be secondary to that. We should first consider that to kill a baby that is viable is effectively murder, or I'd want to hear a good reason that it would not be. We can work our way back from there, but that should be the start point: do we value human life, or don't we?

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

That looks like Paul Grundy.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

Emily consistently dishes out the best burns in this topic.

173

Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court!

by Simon in

i know there was a leak a few weeks back, but this really does seem to have come out of the blue.. the anomaly was the original decision.

it clearly had no basis in law or the constitution, and was a flimsy, ridiculous ruling.

plus the whole thing was based on a fraudulent case in the first place.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898.

TonusOH

I think it's a constant back-and-forth. In the 80s, Reagan moved the Republican party more to the right and empowered the religious factions within it, and they made a strong push for more legislation and more control. I think this eventually led to the pushback that got us where we are today, and the pendulum is beginning to swing the other way again. If the Supreme Court had ruled that abortion was illegal in 1973, we'd probably be hearing the opposite arguments from each political wing today.

At some point, the pendulum will swing so far in one direction that the structure will topple, instead of correcting itself.

173

Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court!

by Simon in

i know there was a leak a few weeks back, but this really does seem to have come out of the blue.. the anomaly was the original decision.

it clearly had no basis in law or the constitution, and was a flimsy, ridiculous ruling.

plus the whole thing was based on a fraudulent case in the first place.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898.

TonusOH

It IS a significant ruling and significant change, because abortion is no longer protected by federal decree. The decision is the correct one, as the Constitution itself states that any rights/restrictions not enumerated within the document are left to the states to decide. The recent ruling regarding the Second Amendment was a reminder that states cannot decide which parts of the Constitution they can ignore (through restrictions designed to get around it). This ruling is a reminder that the federal government must not use the Constitution as a way to expand its reach and power. It is long overdue.

I don't think the USA will survive as a democratic republic in the long run, because our system has been under constant assault from all sides, pretty much from the start. It is a credit to the founding fathers that it has held up as long as it has, but it's become clear in the last 40-50 years that there are now enough people willing to overturn it that it is only a matter of time. I'm hopeful that this doesn't happen in my lifetime, or that we learn enough in the next couple of decades to come to appreciate what we have and protect it. But I am not optimistic about that.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

Facebook --like so many social media these days-- is infested with fake accounts looking to get people to click links and enter personal info so that their ID can be stolen and used to defraud others. It has gotten out-of-hand the last few months.

But they did seem to pick the right photo to get him to click, lol.

173

Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court!

by Simon in

i know there was a leak a few weeks back, but this really does seem to have come out of the blue.. the anomaly was the original decision.

it clearly had no basis in law or the constitution, and was a flimsy, ridiculous ruling.

plus the whole thing was based on a fraudulent case in the first place.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898.

TonusOH

It won't happen, they are controlled by the left and the left are currently in power and things are already bad enough without them making things worse.

I hope you're right. But I don't think those groups will see that. The extreme left wing seems to be taking the approach that they have to act now, and this would be an attack against a court that may have a conservative majority for a pretty long time. They must also be concerned that, if 2022 and 2024 lead to a Republican President with majorities in both houses and a friendly court, much bigger changes may be coming. Changes that they will not like at all.

This might be their last real chance to do a lot of damage and unleash violence and destruction with relatively little cost to themselves. That is a very tempting opportunity for a group that believes that their cause is so important that any action is moral and just.

173

Roe vs Wade Overturned by US Supreme Court!

by Simon in

i know there was a leak a few weeks back, but this really does seem to have come out of the blue.. the anomaly was the original decision.

it clearly had no basis in law or the constitution, and was a flimsy, ridiculous ruling.

plus the whole thing was based on a fraudulent case in the first place.. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-61928898.

TonusOH

I think that most states will quickly make abortion legal, while a small number will heavily restrict it or make it illegal. It will take some time for it all to get sorted out, but I think that in the long term, abortion will be legal in all 50 states, with restrictions similar to the ones in effect when it was federal law.

I won't say that it is much ado about nothing, but for a large majority of Americans this will have very little effect. We will need to deal with the wave of coming violence from left-wing extremists, but we've dealt with that before when far-right nuts were targeting abortion clinics. The perpetually aggrieved will always find a reason to act out against people who have not done anything to harm them.

11530

It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars

by Newly Enlightened in

original reddit post (removed).

TonusOH

That sounds accurate. He has tried to minimize his actions by claiming that they weren't worse ('didn't kill anyone, didn't drown puppies, etc') and that he's no different from any other 'flawed individual.' He has also said that he knows that he is a good person.

So, in a way, he is "identifying as a moral person." This is the basis for his pushback against criticisms and accusations of misconduct. And it comes down to a similar approach- claim you are one thing, regardless of the evidence, and use the disputed claim to attack everyone else as bigots and haters.

13

Big Win in Supreme Court of the U.S. today for all of the 2nd Amendment folks

by StoneWall in

jw
friends

i'm so happy about this.this will have major implications for states such as california and their laws not only new york.let freedom ring!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nv70otfd8ck.

TonusOH

I think the real significance of this ruling has nothing to do with guns-- the court affirmed that states cannot simply carve out exceptions to Constitutional rights. Want to "fix" or remove the Second Amendment? There are procedures in place to do so. Overriding the Constitution with additional laws/rules/regulations is dangerous.

As I've said before, if you want to strip a populace of its rights and freedoms, you start by working on things that are unpopular. Lots of people are too eager to cheer for this attempt to undermine the Constitution, because the Second Amendment is involved. But this kind of thinking assumes that the government will stop there, instead of going ahead and weakening the Fourth Amendment. Or the First.

Authoritarians believe two things: that the populace doesn't need much freedom or many rights, and that they are the ones who know how to run things the best. They also think that they are the ones who will be in charge when the smoke clears, but that is almost never the case throughout history. So when they weaken the Constitution, they think they're making it easier for themselves to rule, but they're really just making it easier for the real monster, whose first action is usually to get rid of the people who made their ascension possible.