Sam (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
l33tminion) wrote2022-06-25 06:55 pm
l33tminion) wrote2022-06-25 06:55 pm
Egregious
Another post that's many posts because I don't get around to things. Let's see...
Father's Day was last weekend, and Erica planned quite an exciting day for us (including drawing out a map of the day's adventures). We went to a yakitori restaurant at Assembly for lunch, headed down to the Boston location of Taiyaki NYC for ice cream, and then went to the Children's Museum for some family time (where Erica and Julie enjoyed making origami by the Japanese House, Julie's really good at it).
Erica went to climbing camp at Boston Bouldering Project this week and really enjoyed it.
Today, Julie and Erica left early in the morning to visit Julie's family, giving me a few days of blissful alone time. (I'll be taking kid in turn and visiting my parents at the end of the summer.) I went to the aquarium by myself today (very relaxing), played a bit of Ingress, had some nice food.
Transit in Boston is currently completely screwed by a construction site disaster at the Haymarket Garage demolition partially closing several T routes and service cuts by the short-staffed MBTA in the aftermath of several accidents. At least the weekend closures of one of the airport tunnels has been delayed. First train from Union no-showed at the scheduled time this morning, causing Julie some stress. At least they made it to the airport.
Watching the January 6th hearings has been really interesting. Thought a lot of it would be old news, but there are still new things coming out of the investigation. For example, it was news to me that Trump was far enough in a plan to replace the head of the DOJ with someone who would go along with his "just declare the election corrupt" plan (to the point of prematurely referring to Clark at the "Acting Attorney General" in WH logs) and that he was dissuaded by the prospect of mass resignations. Also notable that several members of Congress explicitly asked for Presidential pardons. (Gaetz in particular was especially eager to get a blanket pardon for absolutely everything for all time.) That last impeachment may have actually done some good in preventing a post-coup pardon spree. Certainly would have been a bad look.
The rest of politics was mostly a cavalcade of the most extreme conservative activism in Supreme Court rulings: Limiting people's recourse if they are not informed of their Miranda rights, declaring gun restrictions like those in NY and MA unconstitutional (and basically all gun restrictions presumptively unconstitutional, possibly including the very minimal bipartisan bill just passed by the Senate), requiring that state money go to religious schools if charter schools are allowed (with that if next up on the chopping block), and of course, overturning Roe v. Wade.
Coercing someone into carrying a pregnancy to term for any reason is tyrannical. The restrictions enabled by the Dobbs ruling will lead to egregious violations of privacy and liberty. They will also require people to wait to no benefit until impending medical emergencies become actual ones. (Or even until actual medical emergencies reach a final, fatal resolution.) They will require people to take on risks that far exceed the baseline risk of pregnancy (e.g. being forced to put off treatment for cancer or other serious disease). They will prevent women from accessing necessary medical care after miscarriages, and require them to carry to term pregnancies that are not viable. They will restrict access to birth control and fertility treatments.
It's a disaster, and Thomas's concurrence with the ruling makes it clear that they're coming after Obergefell and Lawrence and even Griswold next. He makes it clear that he wants to get rid of the idea of substantive due process entirely. The originalist view leads to a very anemic version of constitutional protections, protecting just the liberty people from centuries past enumerated, as enjoyed by just the people they considered worthy of consideration. Except it's not even that. Judges are generally not historians, and we're ruled not just by originalism but shitty originalism. (e.g. it's not just interpreting the law as if it were still 1791 or 1868 or whatever (which it's not), but specifically a cherry-picked version of that which flatters the biases of J Thomas et al.)
Father's Day was last weekend, and Erica planned quite an exciting day for us (including drawing out a map of the day's adventures). We went to a yakitori restaurant at Assembly for lunch, headed down to the Boston location of Taiyaki NYC for ice cream, and then went to the Children's Museum for some family time (where Erica and Julie enjoyed making origami by the Japanese House, Julie's really good at it).
Erica went to climbing camp at Boston Bouldering Project this week and really enjoyed it.
Today, Julie and Erica left early in the morning to visit Julie's family, giving me a few days of blissful alone time. (I'll be taking kid in turn and visiting my parents at the end of the summer.) I went to the aquarium by myself today (very relaxing), played a bit of Ingress, had some nice food.
Transit in Boston is currently completely screwed by a construction site disaster at the Haymarket Garage demolition partially closing several T routes and service cuts by the short-staffed MBTA in the aftermath of several accidents. At least the weekend closures of one of the airport tunnels has been delayed. First train from Union no-showed at the scheduled time this morning, causing Julie some stress. At least they made it to the airport.
Watching the January 6th hearings has been really interesting. Thought a lot of it would be old news, but there are still new things coming out of the investigation. For example, it was news to me that Trump was far enough in a plan to replace the head of the DOJ with someone who would go along with his "just declare the election corrupt" plan (to the point of prematurely referring to Clark at the "Acting Attorney General" in WH logs) and that he was dissuaded by the prospect of mass resignations. Also notable that several members of Congress explicitly asked for Presidential pardons. (Gaetz in particular was especially eager to get a blanket pardon for absolutely everything for all time.) That last impeachment may have actually done some good in preventing a post-coup pardon spree. Certainly would have been a bad look.
The rest of politics was mostly a cavalcade of the most extreme conservative activism in Supreme Court rulings: Limiting people's recourse if they are not informed of their Miranda rights, declaring gun restrictions like those in NY and MA unconstitutional (and basically all gun restrictions presumptively unconstitutional, possibly including the very minimal bipartisan bill just passed by the Senate), requiring that state money go to religious schools if charter schools are allowed (with that if next up on the chopping block), and of course, overturning Roe v. Wade.
Coercing someone into carrying a pregnancy to term for any reason is tyrannical. The restrictions enabled by the Dobbs ruling will lead to egregious violations of privacy and liberty. They will also require people to wait to no benefit until impending medical emergencies become actual ones. (Or even until actual medical emergencies reach a final, fatal resolution.) They will require people to take on risks that far exceed the baseline risk of pregnancy (e.g. being forced to put off treatment for cancer or other serious disease). They will prevent women from accessing necessary medical care after miscarriages, and require them to carry to term pregnancies that are not viable. They will restrict access to birth control and fertility treatments.
It's a disaster, and Thomas's concurrence with the ruling makes it clear that they're coming after Obergefell and Lawrence and even Griswold next. He makes it clear that he wants to get rid of the idea of substantive due process entirely. The originalist view leads to a very anemic version of constitutional protections, protecting just the liberty people from centuries past enumerated, as enjoyed by just the people they considered worthy of consideration. Except it's not even that. Judges are generally not historians, and we're ruled not just by originalism but shitty originalism. (e.g. it's not just interpreting the law as if it were still 1791 or 1868 or whatever (which it's not), but specifically a cherry-picked version of that which flatters the biases of J Thomas et al.)