Today's Dana

Some pretty great insight in this.

Today's Dana

We are in need of some national therapy - and maybe that's what we're doing.

I've been thinking lately that In the past, so many "on the left" criticized this country so harshly, that it made a lot of people "on the right" knee-jerk their way into thumping their chests and wrapping themselves in the flag and doing all those annoying love-it-or-leave-it things they used to do.

Well, kids, the script done flipped. "The left" is where you find the flag-wavers now. The pundits said it after the Dems' convention: Democrats have reclaimed the flag, and patriotism, and love of country as a badge they can wear on their sleeve.

And that leaves an asshole like Trump to further twist that old patriotism on the right into an even uglier configuration so he can go on taking advantage of otherwise decent folks, leading them to believe they're righteously justified in tearing down the one thing that makes it possible for Trump (and them) to behave like such assholes in the first fuckin' place.

There's a lot more "political thinking" crashing around in my brain right now, but it's such a big roiling jumble that I can't unravel it - I can't get it to smooth out enough to make it sound like anything but foil-hat nonsense.

(Not that I think anything I ever say makes any sense to anybody. Shit - I can't make even get it make sense to myself half the time)

Anyway - therapy

Today's Dana

Womenfolk

note: there may be some major problems with the way the numbers are reported, the data is processed, and then what the studies actually are able to conclude.

But that doesn't change the facts on the ground in most instances:

Between 2019 and 2022, the death rate among pregnant women in Texas went up 56%, compared with 11% across the US.

Again, there are discrepancies, etc. But we know the number of women dying during pregnancy is up in a state where there have been some pretty shitty changes in how pregnant women are treated when they present with health problems.

So the question is: How bad does it have to get before we kick in a few doors and make some of these assholes change the fucking law?

Today's Essay

"Well, I'd love to come to your house and redecorate it - my style is better."

"If you think America's default setting is your Sunday rituals, then you need to get out more."