All Purpose News and Politics Thread Part IV: The Center Cannot Hold

[Tendrin]

I mean, that doesn't really happen in the USA despite the fearful depicitions of it by provocateurs.

[JCAll]

I’d suggest that “compromise” on abortion law must be possible..because it’s exactly what happens in most countries that allow abortion.

Does any country really give mother unlimited freedom to women to terminate at any point up to point of birth??

In UK for example..the termination rights of the mother depend on the age of the foetus...after 24 weeks abortion can only proceed in exceptional circumstances.

Yes, that's how it is in the states too. But the anti-abortion activists don't see that as a compromise, they see it as an unconditional failure that they spent decades trying to correct.

[Tendrin]

Yes, that's how it is in the states too. But the anti-abortion activists don't see that as a compromise, they see it as an unconditional failure that they spent decades trying to correct.

Up to the point where threats on the life of abortion doctors are commonplace and murders are tragically not unheard of.

[numberthirty]

I’d suggest that “compromise” on abortion law must be possible..because it’s exactly what happens in most countries that allow abortion.

Does any country really give mother unlimited freedom to women to terminate at any point up to point of birth??

In UK for example..the termination rights of the mother depend on the age of the foetus...after 24 weeks abortion can only proceed in exceptional circumstances.

On compromise...

You've got to look at what some people are actually proposing like it should be seriously considered.

The approach some want to take to sex education is "Abstinence Only"...

Serious question, the same Bible that say sex before marriage is sinning also says that murder is a sin. Factoring that in, would anyone in America have taken Christians seriously if they had said "We have to object to basic training for anyone going into the army on the basis of that murder is a sin. We are just going to wish them luck and equip them when they go into battle."?

As for there being more compromise than is built in at the moment, there is a hitch there. While I wouldn't actually be against the idea of a Christian group getting a half hour each month of a school year to talk to kids that were past puberty about what their beliefs are. That said, it's going to be a hitch in the US because of the fact that it separates church and state.

[JCAll]

I mean, that doesn't really happen in the USA despite the fearful depicitions of it by provocateurs.

Just the fact that "late-term abortion" was allowed to slip into the common lexicon is a great disappointment. Because it's not really a thing, people don't carry a pregnancy that long without intending to carry it to term (or being forced to). But, no, we have King Moron running around telling everyone about HRC wanting to rip babies out of wombs days before birth (and presumably eat them), a turn of phrase that persists right up to today. Emergency medical complications, with fatal side effects, and it's just completely politicized now. I hate it.

Or maybe that's not the problem, and we just need to fight the stigma against the word "abortion", I dunno. I don't know anything anymore.

[PwrdOn]

Yes, that's how it is in the states too. But the anti-abortion activists don't see that as a compromise, they see it as an unconditional failure that they spent decades trying to correct.

That's because the pro-life crowd doesn't even really care that much about abortions, or else they wouldn't be fighting birth control pills and condoms and would be pushing for more generous maternity leave and child care policies to make having babies more attractive to mothers. The entire anti-abortion movement is just a poorly disguised way of trying to put women back in their place and reminding them that that their rights and freedoms can be taken away at any time.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

The latest in the U.S./Iran kerfluffle:

Congressional Leaders Get Classified Briefing On Iran

Donald Trump On War With Iran: ‘Hope Not’

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Trump Unveils A New Immigration Plan That Is Going Nowhere

“If it doesn’t get bipartisan support, there’s no chance,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley. The gist of Dolt45's plan can be summed up thusly: "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free....provided you have a 4.0 grade average, otherwise, stay the **** out!" No wonder it wasn't all that well received by both sides.

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I’m From Alabama And Gave Birth To My Rapist’s Child Because I Couldn’t Get An Abortion

I will tell you what I know of the way silence grows roots inside of a person, until all that is left is a brutal, crushing vacancy where a voice ought to be.

I was 17 when I was raped by a classmate. He was someone I knew, someone I trusted, but in the end, none of that mattered. I would not find out until eight months later that I was pregnant as a result of the assault. My daughter, Zoe, would grow inside of me with a fatal congenital birth defect that took away her ability to think, or emote, or connect to the world in all the fundamental ways that make a life worth living.

I was forced to give birth to the child of this rape, always connected in some way to the man who took so much from me. I lived in Alabama, which this week welcomed a draconian new abortion law, but the state’s politicians have never borne any ethical compunctions about controlling women and subverting their agency. To them, we are collateral in a game of politics, and the suffering they inflict matters very little ― if at all ― to them. They have no interest in perspective or stories like my own, but I must speak ― or else the woman behind me might not.

Everyone needs to read this article to best understand the horrors women in Alabama denied their right to choose by this abominable bill face. Meanwhile....

With Abortion Under Attack, These States Are Fighting To Protect It

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Nancy Pelosi Won’t Even Take A Position On Contempt, Let Alone Impeachment

The Trump administration is escalating its standoff with Congress. Speaker Pelosi decidedly is not. My take? Pelosi is worried that playing the impeachment card could backfire on Democrats at the voting booth next year, possibly resulting in a second Trump victory.

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Michael Flynn: People Tied To Trump, Congress Tried To Sway What He Told Mueller

The former national security adviser told the special counsel of several possible attempts to influence his cooperation. Nice guys, right?

[Tendrin]

Michael Flynn: People Tied To Trump, Congress Tried To Sway What He Told Mueller

The former national security adviser told the special counsel of several possible attempts to influence his cooperation. Nice guys, right?

ten bucks in addition to everyone on twitter says its Nunes.

[Username taken]

When I first watched "The Handmaid's Tale" i was horrified and felt a slight comfort that such a thing could never happen in life.

But lo and behold, it seems that a lot of "conservatives" (young and old) in the US are really determined to control female bodies in their totality.

[numberthirty]

One other telltale sign that reducing abortion is actually the aim in the instance that we are discussing?

While having an abortion will carry a sentence north of fifty years rape or statutory rape will not carry a first offense death penalty.

[Tendrin]

No cross over between anti-abortion activism and white nationalism, no sir. That's just crazy talk and assumptions.

Anti-abortion groups are distancing themselves from a prominent writer, activist and thought leader in the movement who has leaned into white nationalism since Donald Trump’s election.
Kristen Walker Hatten, former vice president of the anti-abortion group New Wave Feminists and a contributor to The Dallas Morning News, has spoken at universities and events around the country about the need for mainstream feminism to embrace women who oppose abortion rights. She has written articles for Live Action News, the organization behind the heavily edited “sting” videos that inspired Republicans in Congress to investigate Planned Parenthood, and gained media attention in early 2017 when New Wave Feminists was ousted from a partnership with the Women’s March.

Hatten wrote in late 2016 that she found Trump to be so “creepy, gross and tacky” and such a “repugnant chauvinist” during his campaign that she quit the internet for a while to avoid reading about him. But after he won, something changed. Hatten began sharing white supremacist content on social media. She self-identified on Twitter as alt-right and “ethnonationalist” ― the same term used by white nationalist icon Richard Spencer. She mused on Facebook that immigrant “invaders” are replacing white Europeans in their own countries, and shared a post imploring Trump to grant “asylum” to white South Africans.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/krist...A_3APWvQ-EWsIF

[Username taken]

How is it that everyone on the conservative side in these threads ends up becoming the very boogeyman they claim are made up by the left? Like I have followed this since before the 2016 election and I can't think of a single instance of a conservative coming in here to debate you guys about misconceptions of the right that didn't end up backing those very things when push came to shove. It's surreal...

It's simple, most "modern conservatives" simply regurgitate talking points without bring anything new table. Intellectual conservatism is on the decline and what we see more and more of these days is people that are simply threatened by minorities and women and immigrants lashing out a changing environment.

What's happened in the US is that conservatives are bringing back talking years and probably decades old talking points without addressing issues directly in front of them in a logical manner. It's just the same old thing with these guys- lower taxes for the rich, oppose any and all form of social progress, treat and label immigrants as "monsters" and try to whip up racist sentiment against them, oppose gun control (of any kind), oppose abortion e.t.c. There's a reason why the GOP has only won the popular vote just once in Presidential elections in the last 20 years or so.

It was something that Andrew Neil brought up in his discussion with Ben Shapiro (which showed how shallow Shapiro is), the left has brought up so many ideas that are actually relevant to a changing world as opposed to the conservatives that are seemingly opposed to everything without any relevant solution.

[WestPhillyPunisher]

Just saw this item on Facebook which illustrates to perfection the irony, and hypocrisy of the madness that's vomited out of Alabama:

"White Alabama men are fighting for the rights of a bunch of cells inside a woman's uterus. But, if those cells turn out to be gay, lesbian, bi, trans, a woman, black, brown, Muslim....suddenly they won't fight for them, they will literally fight against them. Insanity."

[KOSLOX]

I’d suggest that “compromise” on abortion law must be possible..because it’s exactly what happens in most countries that allow abortion.

Does any country really give mother unlimited freedom to women to terminate at any point up to point of birth??

In UK for example..the termination rights of the mother depend on the age of the foetus...after 24 weeks abortion can only proceed in exceptional circumstances.

That's already the way it works here.

[KNIGHT OF THE LAKE]

I’d suggest that “compromise” on abortion law must be possible..because it’s exactly what happens in most countries that allow abortion.

Does any country really give mother unlimited freedom to women to terminate at any point up to point of birth??

In UK for example..the termination rights of the mother depend on the age of the foetus...after 24 weeks abortion can only proceed in exceptional circumstances.

That’s exactly what we have here and no anti abortion activists view it as a compromise. They view it as a total loss.