Random Thoughts
Someone who really believed in "America First" would want America to be first in education, to have the finest and most prestigious academies and universities and the most well educated population. Wanting America to be "First" would mean wanting excellent public education available to all.
It is horrifying to me to see how often "peace officers" are unable to control their emotions and will start screaming and using threatening body language toward civilians over trivialities or imaginary incidents.
What kind of country turns the military against its own citizens? What kind of government arrests people for asking questions?
Someone who really believed in "America First" would want America to be the healthiest nation. That would mean making great health care accessible to all. It would mean supporting medical research, having excellent hospitals, employing the best professionals, educated here and recruited from abroad.
There were countries I didn't visit, because they were dangerous for tourists. Now I live in one.
Someone who really believed in "America First" would want us to be first in science and technology. This would mean promoting excellent public education, encouraging universities and industries to perform high-quality research, and attracting the best minds both from home and abroad.
Someone who really believed in "America First" would take pride and pleasure in our great national parks and public lands. This would mean embracing the responsibility to care for and preserve our unique natural resources, keeping them safe now and for the future.
Death Without Dignity
Think about these matters for a minute.
We are all encouraged to have a will - a document that directs how our property will be distributed or disposed of after we die. A person's right to control their property, even after death, is legally recognized and traditionally honored.
Most societies consider it important to treat the dead with respect. That includes, not only a deceased person's property, but also their physical remains. Desecration of a corpse is considered especially detestable. Abusing, mishandling, or improperly disposing of a corpse carries both civil and criminal penalties.
When it comes to organ donation (using a person's body and its parts after death), once again, we are encouraged to express our wishes prior to death. If a person has not given permission for their organs to be used by other people, then it is illegal to use those organs. In some cases, family members are permitted to grant permission ater the person's death, but, in any event, it remains illegal to take organs, or to use a body in medical research or experimentation, without proper permission.
Traditionally, grave robbing - taking a body out of its grave - is considered a particularly vile crime. In times past, professional grave robbers would supply freshly dead bodies to medical schools where they were dissected for the purpose of teaching anatomy and surgery. This practice was widely condemned, and laws were enacted to control the acquisition of cadavers and to ensure that bodies used in medical education would eventually receive a dignified burial or cremation.
Unfortunately, we now find ourselves living in a society where some people are no longer allowed the respect and dignity that comes with making one's own choices regarding the handling and use of the body after death. Specifically, there is a trend to treat women as less than fully human, a lower caste of beings who do not enjoy the same rights as men when it comes to basic decisions regarding their own bodies. For some time, there have been persons openly advocating for the use of female corpses in bizarre medical experiments. Until recently, one might expect that a woman, just like a real person, could choose to grant - or not - permission for her body to be used in research and experimentation, and that, in the absence of such permission, her remains would be handled and disposed of in accordance with her and her family's wishes. In the year 2025, this is not true.
A woman who happens to be pregnant at the time of death may end up as a sort of living corpse, her body connected to machines that force some of her organs to continue functioning, so that her body can be used as an incubator for the nonviable fetus that, under normal circumstances, would have died with her. This has just been done to the remains of a woman who did not give permission for organ donation or medical research, against the wishes of family members who wanted her to be treated with dignity.
As it happens, in this case, the mad-scientist experiment seems to have succeeded, in that an extremely premature infant, weighing less than two pounds, was extracted from the woman's body and placed in intensive care. Infants delivered at this stage have about a 10% chance of survival and, if they survive, are likely to face severe medical problems.
They May Be Aiming at You
So-called "non-lethal" weapons are really just "less lethal", and law enforcement terminology now acknowledges that.
Rubber bullets aren't bouncy rubber. They are metal with a rubber coating, intended to be very painful and knock someone down. They can blind you permanently, give you a concussion, damage major organs, cause limb injury requiring amputation, and may cause death.
"Bean bag" bullets do not use the bean bags you're familiar with. Instead of beans or plastic, the bags are filled with metal balls! They are supposed to be aimed low, to hit the legs or feet, but cops usually aim for the torso or head. These will always knock you down, and can cause very severe injuries, leading to permanent disability or death.
Tear gas is deployed in grenades or cannisters that emit the gas as a spray or mist. If you are hit by the cannister, it can cause serious injury or death. The gas itself is extremely irritating to mucous membranes. It causes coughing, difficulty breathing, throat pain, eye pain, and temporary blindness. It may trigger asthma attacks. In some cases, it can cause permanent damage, including death. Tear gas is considered a chemical weapon and is outlawed in international warfare, yet police in the U.S. are allowed to use it on civilians.
All of these weapons are used to injure, maim, and "accidentally" kill unarmed citizens. If you are struck by any of these projectiles, get medical help as soon as possible, even if you think your injury isn't serious. You can have a concussion or internal injuries that aren't immediately obvious.
We need laws that restrict the use of these weapons against unarmed persons, and we need the ability to hold police accountable when these weapons are abused -- such as deliberately aiming for the head, shooting people in the back, firing on children or disabled persons, attacking pregnant women and elderly folks, etc.
This Movie Gives Me Nightmares
Such a ghastly scenario is too gruesome for most horror writers. Even Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein, only envisioned dead bodies being rebuilt with spare parts so that they could be brought back to life.
In recent times, there have been occasional suggestions from researchers or politicians that brain-dead women or women in persistent vegetative states could be used as surrogates, or "fetal containers" for couples using IVF, or for fetuses transferred from women seeking abortions.
Now think about zombies.
Horror movies and TV shows portray zombies as angry dead people who have come to life, or people infected by a bizarre epidemic, who relentlessly attack the living, often with an appetite for brains. But the original zombies were less spectacular. They were dead people reanimated through voodoo, who were used as slaves.
It's happening now. Without consent, and against the family's wishes, a brain-dead woman is being used to incubate a fetus. If this horrifying procedure results in a live birth, there is a good chance the baby will face serious medical problems and disabilities. But that won't stop the mad scientists from trying it again.
What we are seeing is the zombification of women's bodies.
- Suggestion to use brain stem dead women's bodies for surrogate pregnancies sparks huge backlash
- Zombification Process
- Sponsor of Georgia abortion ban spared trauma of watching brain dead loved one carry fetus
Whose Body Is It, Anyway?
Imagine this. A young man falls ill, experiencing some kind of seizure, or perhaps a stroke, that releases blood clots into his brain, ultimately causing his death. His brain is not functioning, and the attending physician has declared him dead. However, because he was connected to life support equipment in the hospital, some parts of his body are still functioning in a machine-like way.
An examination reveals that his testicles are still producing viable sperm cells. A state agency notifies the hospital that the man must not be disconnected from life support, even though the local medical board officially confirms that he is dead. According to a recently-passed state law, destroying or discarding potentially viable gametes is "equivalent to terminating human life" and carries heavy penalties. The hospital is required to maintain the man's body and to retrieve the sperm.
The man was single, and there is no one in his family who wants to use or preserve his sperm. In fact, his family members have refused to give permission for any further medical treatment, and have requested that the life support equipment be removed. State officials suggest that the sperm can be frozen and stored at a sperm bank, although it is unclear who would be responsible for the costs involved. Further, without the man's consent (impossible to get at this point), the sperm cannot be used in a fertilization procedure. State legislators introduce a bill that would make "orphaned or unclaimed gametes" wards of the state, to be donated as directed by state health officials.
In the meantime, the man's dead body continues to be operated by machines, using resources that otherwise would go to living people in critical condition whose lives might be saved.
Sounds crazy, doesn't it? But is it any crazier than artificially maintaining a dead woman's body so she can be used as an incubator?
- Hospital tells family brain-dead Georgia woman must carry fetus to birth
- Georgia woman’s plight reveals anti-abortion forces’ endgame
- Dear America: women’s bodies are not state property
Vanishing Health Care
Around 20% of Americans rely on Medicaid for their health care coverage. Depending on the location, it may be somewhat more or less than that. Medicaid covers 41% of births and about 60% of nursing home patients.
Even if you don't use Medicaid, because you have good insurance or you are able to pay out of pocket, Medicaid affects you. How? The clinic or hospital where you get your treatment depends on those Medicaid payments. If those patients disappear, the facility can't afford to stay in business and continue to provide your care.
This is an even bigger problem if you live in a rural area or an underserved town. There already aren't enough doctors, and if the hospitals and medical practices are forced to close because they lose Medicaid, there will be none. You won't enjoy driving 300 miles to get routine care in a far-off city. and if you have a heart attack, 911 can't send an ambulance that doesn't exist to take you to an emergency room that closed two years ago.
Random Thoughts
Savonarola's execution in the Piazza della Signoria, painting by Filippo Dolciati (1498)
Spiro Agnew was born too soon. He had to take bribes quietly, and eventually it cost him his job. If only he could be a part of today's Republican administration, he'd probably be put in charge of the Treasury.
If I wanted to make a big impression on an 8-year-old, I'd have a huge parade with fancy cars, guys with swords, prancing horses, and marching camels, lots of camels.
Sometimes, all I want from the people around me is to just stop talking.
According to the ACLU, "U.S. citizens do not have to carry proof of citizenship on their person if they are in the United States." Further, federal agents do not have a legal basis to suspect someone of an immigration violation just because of their race or ethnicity (or having an accent, or speaking a language). Even so, in light of current events, it may be a good idea for people of certain demographic groups to have proof of citizenship with them.
There were countries I didn't visit, because they were dangerous for tourists. Now I live in one.
If you just want to use the restroom, and a fascist demands you "prove" your gender, what should you do?
a. tell him "you first"
b. invite him to join you in a stall
c. call 911 and report him for invading the ladies room
d. sing "I Enjoy Being a Girl"
What kind of country has a special police force, with no restrictions on its power, that can arrest and detain anyone, anytime, without explanation?
Flooded
"Flooding the zone." They throw so much stuff at us, we are overwhelmed, unable to prioritize.
What should we deal with first? People kidnapped in broad daylight by masked thugs? Insane policies that make international trade nearly impossible, and cause prices to skyrocket? The end of life--saving medical research? Laws that prevent women from voting? The end of food safety? The destruction of national parks? Deliberate starvation of poor children? A president who openly takes bribes? People imprisoned, without trials, in foreign countries? Our personal data handed over to who-knows-who for who-knows-what purposes? Book-banning? Competent public employees fired, replaced by unqualified sycophants or by nobody? Deliberate erosion of air traffic safety? Lost access to health information? The erasure of historical records? Rising death rates for women and infants? Attempts to make dissent a crime? Arresting public officials for doing their jobs? Threatening judges? Extorting law firms? Representatives of the president blatantly lying to the public about everything? The end of product safety? Reporters afraid to report? Elected officials afraid to speak up? All the other nightmares I haven't listed here?
There is so much, it can have the effect of paralyzing people, because they just don't know what to do first. That's the idea. They want us frozen in place, unable to take action. One reason for flooding the zone is to present us with so much terrible stuff, that even if we do fight back, we won't be able to stop all of it, and many things will get by us.
It's like being attacked simultaneously by army ants, locusts, Hitchcock birds, and zombies. Some of them are going to slip through the cracks.
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