Supreme Court

Waiting – ND #134

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 4 Comments
Silver Lining? – Photo: L. Weikel

Waiting

We’re all waiting. Waiting for the inevitable betrayal of women in the United States by a radical, extreme, and activist Supreme Court.

We don’t know for sure, but it seems likely that tomorrow (Friday, 24 June 2022) women in the United States are going to experience (via the Dobbs decision) being thrown back to a time most of us have only read about in disbelief. A time when women were second-class citizens, unable to make decisions about our own bodies because somehow we can’t be trusted with such weighty decisions as whether and when to bear a child.

It’s quite likely that tomorrow we will be told that, contrary to what we may have believed all our lives, we are not, in fact, citizens who enjoy equal rights with our male counterparts. No. We are vessels. Mere incubators.

Expendable

We’re also expendable. In many ways, that’s the most chilling takeaway from the potential decision that may be handed down from on high tomorrow. It does not matter one whit whether a pregnancy might kill the incubator. The potential ‘life’ of the fertilized egg takes precedence over the woman in which it may or may not become implanted. She is expendable.

When you think about the stark truth of this attitude, it’s sickening. And it makes no sense.

That’s because this entire issue has nothing to do with the sanctity of life. If it did, there is no way any sane person could venerate a clump of cells over a woman who has lived long enough to at least mature enough to produce an egg that can be fertilized. It’s highly likely this egg producer has dreams, hopes, some education (and perhaps the desire for more), possibly other children already, as well as a myriad of other responsibilities.

But to be fair, the clump of cells could become President someday.

The carrier? Meh. She’s expendable. (God forbid she might become President someday.)

Power

Don’t let anyone tell you this issue is about cherishing ‘life.’ We know the truth. All we need to do is look around and see the disdain and disrespect accorded women attempting to raise children on their own. School lunches? Feh. Moochers. You say you need help paying for daycare so you can work? Stay home and take care of your kids, bitch. Why didn’t you keep your knees together if you knew you couldn’t support a child?

No, removing a woman’s right to determine exactly what she can do with her body whenever she wants to do it is all about power. Power over. It’s about other people telling you what you can and can’t do with your own body.

And since this is an issue that fundamentally comes down to power, then it’s time for women to wield the power they have. Is it our ‘fault’ for getting pregnant? Then perhaps those who are equally responsible for creating a zygote need to discover women still (as of this writing) have the ability to say no. They have the ability to stop. having. sex.

Yeah, sure, if engaging in sex and the expression of sensuality, affection, and perhaps even love, by indulging in that activity, is pleasurable to you, swearing off it for a while would be a sacrifice. But wow – if we’re going to take a stand and abstain from something, surely reclaiming (or perhaps in truth finally claiming) our equality is the best reason to do so. You know: until there’s either an amendment to the Constitution explicitly stating that women have exclusive authority and autonomy over their own bodies, maybe we don’t need to share those bodies with anybody else.

Or maybe, given this whole insane Second Amendment guns-have-more-rights-than-people-do-to-life attitude of the Supreme Court, we need a re-do on the whole Constitution.

Threat

People think it’s hyperbole to state that once Roe is overturned, the Radical Right will go after contraception, miscegenation, gay marriage, and a whole host of other rights. They used to think that about Roe, too. “Oh, we’ll never go back to those Dark Ages.”

Yeah. Right.

Perhaps you assume this whole thing doesn’t apply to or affect you in any way.

If you’re not a white Christian male, just wait. Once Roe falls, you too will very shortly enjoy the prospect of having rights you’ve always considered inalienable stripped away. And yes, even white Christian women. You may think you’re safe, protected by your men and your God. But just remember: you’re only safe as long as they deem you worthy of their largesse. You’re only safe as long as you don’t pose a threat.

And the greatest threat to weak men is the prospect of living amongst educated women with sovereignty over their own bodies.

All I know is, I will not allow activist judges on an illegitimate Supreme Court tell me I am not equal to men. Nor will I passively remain silent and allow them to tell that lie to anyone else.

(T+134)

Mockery – ND #105

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 1 Comment
Twisting the Process and Making a Mockery – Photo: L. Weikel

Mockery

I’m trying really hard to stay away from commenting on the confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. The mockery that’s being made of this process, our judiciary, our Senate, and our country as a whole is at once infuriating and devastatingly sad. It’s also just plain wrong.

It is maddening to witness the histrionics and pearl clutching these Republican Senators are engaging in, when the entire time, they are brazenly accusing Democrats of doing precisely what Republicans did. Over and over again, too. While their whataboutisms are astoundingly off-base and hypocritical, they engage in them nevertheless.

It’s exhausting.

They Count On That

And the depressing thing is, they count on regular people becoming exhausted by their endless switching things around, denying things, and harping on snippets of information they very cynically mischaracterize and then propagandize until the cows come home.

Is this any way to run a country? Is this any way to rule the world? (Apparently some think it is: the Putins, Xes, Trumps, and Kim Jong Uns of the world, to name a few.) It’s not the way our country is supposed to operate, but when civility and the ability to agree upon fundamental tenets of reality and facts disappear, we end up with performative government. And that’s where we are today.

It’s never a good sign when I yell at the tv. And, to be fair, I engage in that extreme behavior far less often than I used to, when we were subjected to TFG’s relentless lying on a regular basis (i.e., whenever we turned the tv on and news came on). But it’s extremely difficult to refrain from berating the garbage being broadcast when I see white men with pedigreed educations acting as if they can’t read or have lost all ability to hold a reasonable thought in their heads. Or whining and grandstanding about how other candidates were treated. (Less qualified and credibly accused of awful behavior that should have been investigated, too.)

As if any of that has an iota of relevance to, or can be opined on, by the current nominee.  And Marsha Blackburn trying to ‘trap’ the judge by asking her to define ‘woman.’ Good grief. I just can’t.

Performative Ignorance

It enrages me to hear Ted Cruz or anyone else bring up Critical Race Theory and act as if they don’t understand what it is or that it is taught in graduate school (not grade or high school). And even if it were taught in high school, for instance, it is telling the truth about racism in our country. And it describes how racism has been perpetuated and built into the fabric of our country to such an extent that we don’t even realize its profound implications or insidious effects.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again. I do not know how Black women (especially) maintain such an overall calm and patience with the state of life in the United States. Their husbands and sons are at risk when they walk out the door. Hell – let’s face it. Black people and people of color aren’t safe in their own houses. And yes, I know they’re not monolithic. But it’s also true that there is a ton of shared trauma and outrage amongst them.

How do they abide this, day in and day out?

And now, to watch the utterly disgusting double standard being heaped upon this Supreme Court nominee simply because she is a black woman?

I’m ashamed of the level to which our country has sunk. I would pity the obvious insecurities of Republican party members if I weren’t so incensed that they’ve sold our country out on so many levels.

Oops

I guess the rant escaped anyway.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson needs to be confirmed. She deserves a unanimous consent. Anyone voting against this eminently qualified individual is afraid she will treat them the way she has been treated. Luckily for them, she has integrity.

We need to pay attention. The fringe is getting perilously close to seizing the reins of power.

(T+105)

A Most Perfect Time – Day 1030

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XI – Strength – The Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

A Most Perfect Time

A new moon in the sign of Virgo occurred this evening at 8:51 p.m. Eastern Time. New beginnings. Setting new goals. A most perfect time to change things up in our lives, make fresh commitments, and start actively dreaming a new world into being.

The power of this particular new moon is magnified, of course, by the fact that it also marks the beginning of the Jewish New Year celebration of Rosh Hashanah, which began at sundown. The added ritual, prayer, and sacredness being brought to this month’s new moon precisely because of its significance to our Jewish brothers and sisters only adds to the power of this moment.

Yes, every new moon is a new beginning of one sort or another. But we’re also quite aware of the fact of power in numbers. There’s an energetic upgrade to our thoughts and efforts when we gather together to envision our future. So now more than ever it feels essential to our survival to work together toward imagining greater understanding, facilitating peace, and perhaps even seeking justice.

Spiritual Miracle Gro®

I asked for a card to serve as a form of fertilizer for the seeds we’re planting at this powerful new moon and New Year. The card that revealed itself from my Tarot of the Crone deck was Strength.

Perhaps this message can serve as a meditation or point of reflection this week:

“I am Spirit

Making a body

Is what I do

 

I am Body

Expressing a spirit

Is what I do

 

You are Primal

You are Sublime

 

You are the Strongest

When both are One

In Strength is the image of a woman arising from the belly of a golden cobra. The background is the red of healthy power and passion. Strength is enlightened flesh, the life force flowing from your heart, from your belly and from your spirit. Strength is the power of kundalini, the energy ‘snake’ that uncoils from the base of the spine and rises up, bringing healing and knowledge. This is not about spirit taming the body, or lusts of the body overpowering the spirit; this is integration; this is knowing these are not separate things. Spirit and will are not attributes of the mind alone. Emotion is not felt only by the heart. Your body holds them all.

Whatever shape your body is in right now, it’s time to celebrate its life. Know that every breath you take feeds your power and infuses you with goodness and inspiration. Every breath you take is a victory over the forces of destruction. Feel how each cell of your body is an entire endless universe and how al of it, all of it, belongs to you.”

A Thought

It occurs to me as I share these words of Ellen Lorenzi-Prince (creator of The Tarot of the Crone) that this specific interpretation of the Strength card could not be more perfect for the times we find ourselves in.

Given the misogynistic ‘law’ passed by the Texas legislature ripping power over women’s bodies away from women themselves and handing it over to random religious zealot vigilantes, I have a feeling we’re going to see the Power of Woman rise up. It’s going to be a new day in Texas and this country.

Women will not knuckle under to this fear-based oppression. On the contrary, now that the stakes have been set, and the gauntlet thrown (thank you, Supreme Court), we will rise up from the belly of the cobra – precisely like the woman in the Strength image. It is a most perfect time for us to do so. Our bodies hold our spirits, will, and emotion. And I guarantee we will not relinquish our power to the fear-based minority (the forces of destruction) who quake at what they do not know or understand.

(T-81)

Take Shelter – Day 1025

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Before the tornado warnings – Photo: L. Weikel

Take Shelter

Well. I’m not sure where to start this evening. At the moment, the small, barely noticeable creek across the road from my house sounds like a roiling cataract. Sirens plaintively called out a couple of times tonight – a worrisome sound any time (especially when one lives out in the country). But they sounded especially lonely and dire as our cell phones simultaneously bleated out tornado warnings – entreating us to take shelter below ground, if possible.

I’m sorry. Where do we live? Last I looked, it was amidst the farms, fields, and woodlands of Pennsylvania. Not Kansas or Oklahoma. Yet here we are. From what I can tell, it sounds like there may have been two or three tornadoes touching down in our area earlier tonight.

Here’s a snippet of an astonishing video of a tornado winding its way up the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River just tonight. Is it because we usually see videos of tornadoes touching down and moving along vast acres of flat land that we have a distorted sense of how fast these beasts actually move? Watching that video feels unnatural.

Quite honestly, it feels like everything – not just the weather – is totally askew and out of balance.

Photo: L. Weikel

Speaking of Catastrophic Events

In addition to my profound concern over everyone who is impacted by the torrential rains, the terrifying and devastating tornadic activity, and the current and impending flooding that will only get worse over the next few days, there’s…Texas.

Honest to goodness, the complete disregard of the Constitutional rights of women in Texas makes me want to throw up. Inelegant, I’m the first to admit. But the unbelievable cruelty of empowering vigilante-citizens to essentially hunt women for a $10,000 bounty is insane. Add to that the American Taliban’s* determination that anyone aiding any woman who may be seeking an abortion beyond six weeks gestation can also be sued?

It is no wonder we needed to withdraw from Afghanistan. Good grief. We have our very own American brand of dehumanizing and debasing women, thank you very much. Perhaps we should mind our own ability to treat women as sovereign citizens with equal rights before we preach it anywhere else.

Not a creek, not a stream – Photo: L. Weikel

Crumbling Foundations

Remember how I’ve commented a number of times in the blogs of 2021 that this year is all about navigating the astrological phenomenon of ‘Saturn squaring Uranus?’ The old paradigms being shattered by sudden blows to their foundations? Unexpected transformations of traditional ways of being and ‘the way things have always been done?’

Well here we are. We are receiving absolute clarity on two major issues facing our country and the world:

Climate change is real.  And oppression and subjugation of women is an agenda paramount to the (not my father’s) Republican party.

The time is now to save ourselves. And it’s stunningly clear (if not a sad commentary on what we all knew if we’ve been paying attention) – we cannot rely on the Supreme Court of the United States to enforce the rights of women.

Think about the ramifications of that statement.

If we don’t take action now to defend what we know is right and true, more than the foundations of our homes will be swept away.

*affiliate link

(T-86)

Dark Day – Day 715

Posted on by Lisa Weikel 2 Comments
Incoming  – Photo: L. Weikel

Dark Day

While not unexpected, this is indeed a dark day. The shameless behavior of the Republicans in the U.S. Senate this evening will have repercussions that reverberate into the very foundation of our country.

There are few people in this country who are paying attention to the startlingly hypocritical maneuverings of Mitch McConnell (and his compatriots that vote in lock step with him) who cannot know, deep in their bones, that our country is broken. This brazen and disgustingly transparent and craven manipulation of our system is unsustainable.

Shocking Revelations of Intentions

I’ve been writing occasionally about the dramatic alignments and aspects of the planets that we’ve been experiencing, particularly since right around December, 2019. The position of three of the four major outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto) in Capricorn and their going forward and then retrograding and now moving forward again very recently have shown quite a correspondence with the arrival and response to Covid-19. These ‘big three’ are not done with us yet. However, more large-scale aspects are starting to come into play now as well.

For instance, we’re starting to feel the effects of planetary interactions (aspects) with Uranus, which usually signals revelations and expositions that feel like lightning strikes. Ripping away lies and revealing harsh secrets and truths can be expected, especially with Mercury currently retrograde, because Mercury is all about communication, and when retrograde, we’re going back over old ground. Digging up stuff that’s been hidden – until now.

I see that happening in two major areas affecting all of us in the United States:

First of all, the Administration is admitting now that they have no intention of fighting the spread of Covid-19. That’s actually a fact that’s been obvious since the very beginning, but driven home by the relentless refusal to advocate the simple precautions of wearing masks and social distancing. The refusal to utilize the Defense Production Act to ensure that the entire country has plenty of PPE and test kits was also (and continues to be) a dead giveaway. The mind boggles at the sheer ghoulish disregard for human life that these architects of a deliberately inept response to a pandemic show toward all of us.

The second example of the ripping away of any veneer of continued lies is the utter hypocrisy of the Senate. And I’m not speaking solely of this disgusting installation of a blatant ideologue onto the Supreme Court (for the second, if not third time). No, I’m speaking of the deal with the devil that Mitch McConnell and the far-right-wing dinosaurs made with DT to attempt to yank our country back into the 1950s, if not further back into our ignominious past. It’s all becoming all too harshly transparent.

Let Him Run Roughshod

The deal? Let him run roughshod over all the basic norms of civil society and a government based upon everyone at least having a modicum of honor and an agreement as to fundamental values of fairness, respect, truth, and integrity, thereby distracting the populace. Let him destroy our alliances, enter into dubious (at best) relationships with dictators and enemies of our country, all the while distracting us from seeing that they (the Republicans holding all the power in the Senate) were fulfilling a 50 year long game of installing right wing ultra conservatives into the judiciary.

This little screed of mine is just scratching the surface of what’s being revealed. But the fact that the Senate left Washington D.C. this evening and will not reconvene until a week after the election – without providing any economic relief to either the states or the millions who are on the brink of losing everything as a result of this pandemic – screams their ill intent from the rooftops. And now we can look forward to the prospect of this newly installed ‘justice’ participating in a decision that will almost certainly obliterate the Affordable Care Act and most certainly shaft every single person who has a pre-existing condition.

But not a single one of those Senators needs to worry. Nope; you betcha – they have top of the line, Cadillac health insurance. And steady paychecks. And investments in the vaunted stock market that are doing oh-so-well. (Shall we take bets on how long it will take before an investigation reveals that some – or many – of them have lots of money in the companies working on the proposed vaccines or touted ‘therapeutics’ for Covid-19?)

Vote

All I can say is, I hope beyond hope that I’m not tempted to have ‘Dark Day’ as my post title next Tuesday, too.

And while I’m sure I’m preaching to the choir: please, please, please: VOTE.

(T-396)

Holding My Breath – Day 596

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A Little Bird Told Me – Photo: L. Weikel

Holding My Breath

As this week unfolds, we’re awaiting the publication of more decisions by the United States Supreme Court. One case I think a lot of people are on the edge of their seats over is whether the president will be compelled to release his tax returns to Congress. I’m both holding my breath in anticipation of the decision and not holding my breath for actual justice to be dispensed.

It makes me sad to admit how skeptical I am that this Supreme Court will do its job and rein in this president’s belief that he is above the law. And that is the Supreme Court’s job. The existence of our three co-equal branches of government and our system of checks and balances are integral and unique to our country’s identity and success.

Simply put, if he is given a green light to essentially thumb his nose at the subpoena power of Congress to engage in legitimate oversight, we are in for a most calamitous decline.

But let’s face it: we’re already there. The decline is real and it is precipitous.

Eclipse Season Revelations

The behavior of this administration is relentlessly exhausting. I know I’m not saying anything new or tipping you off to a perspective that’s unique. But you have to admit that, if eclipses are said to bring to light information that’s been hidden, we’re certainly experiencing horrifying revelations on a daily basis.

First (and obviously, this is not the ‘first’ exposure – it’s simply one of the more recent major issues uncovered since this eclipse season began at the beginning of this month) was the overt racism and fascistic response to the Black Lives Matter protests. The militaristic reaction to mostly peaceful protests and the use of tear gas, rubber bullets, and astounding threats of force against our own citizens were beyond the pale.

Then there is the admission that the nationwide availability of the testing for Covid-19, which is essential to helping our professionals accurately track, trace, and isolate the spread of this virus, is being deliberately ‘slowed down’ at the behest of the president.

Worse Yet?

And now we have an abundance of reporting that our president has known since February that Russia was putting a bounty on the heads of our troops in Afghanistan – and yet he has taken no action to defend our troops or retaliate in any way. The president has done absolutely nothing about this heinous attack on our troops. Not only that – he has gone out of his way to advocate on behalf of Putin for Russia to be readmitted to the G-7 (making it the G-8), as well as throw him other astonishing bones, such as unilaterally declaring our withdrawal of troops from Germany.

All of these things are cascading out of the dark boxes in which they’ve been hidden. The level and extent of the abuse our country is sustaining at the hands of the man charged with protecting us and having our best interests at heart seems to know no end.

Tax Returns?

As a result of everything we’re witnessing right now, from everything I mentioned above to the horrific spikes in Coronavirus cases, and now hospitalizations, in Florida, Texas, and Arizona (to just name the three worst cases at the moment) and the reality that they are caused by states slavishly following the demand of DT to ‘reopen the country,’ I do not have a good feeling.

If he is ordered to release his tax returns – what will he do to distract us?

If he is allowed to circumvent Congress and not forced to release his tax returns – what will he then feel emboldened to do next?

Either way, I’m holding my breath.

Photo: L. Weikel

(T-515)