Democrats despair of Biden’s muted Roe v Wade response

Joe Biden’s passivity in the face of the Roe V Wade reversal has riled activists who say he should be doing more than prompting voters to take action at the Mid Terms. Frustrated Democrats say the responses by party leaders have been inadequate and they aren’t fighting or willing to push boundaries.

Progressive lawmakers like Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have suggested building abortion clinics on federal land, funding people to seek abortions out of state, limiting the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction or expanding its membership and ending the filibuster. Warren called on Biden to declare a national medical emergency. White House officials say the administration has moved to protect access to the abortion pill and the president has pledged to protect women who seek to travel across state lines to get an abortion.

  Abortion rights supporters say Republicans have routinely broken the rules in recent years for example, by blocking Obama’s Supreme Court pick — and that for Democrats to continue observing the niceties amounts to unilateral disarmament.

 The Moon, ruler of the feminine realm, is badly aspected in the Biden Administration chart. Hidden in the 12th house it is conjunct the explosive Mars Uranus conjunction and square Pluto, Midheaven, Sun and Saturn. So perhaps it isn’t surprising that a woman’s issue has become one of the key trigger points for aggravation. The Term Moon is stressed this year and next by tr Pluto square and really won’t be settled throughout his run.

  The Moon on his personal chart is not well situated or integrated either. In Taurus, it is on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Neptune sextile Venus, Sun and is also square Pluto. Tierney describes a Yod-al Moon as overly defensive, habitually self-defeating. It can be transformed (in some cases) to become caring – but it will always be an overly-sensitive and vulnerable area of his chart. It picks up the transiting Pluto square in 2024/2025 putting more pressure on his weak spot (which will also include children aka Hunter).

  His relationship with Elizabeth Warren is fraught and bad tempered exactly now as tr Saturn opposes their composite Mars through till later this month; and a disappointing tr Neptune opposition the composite Venus throughout this year into early 2023. Relations between them will blow up altogether with tr Uranus square the Mars come 2024.

 He’s not popular with Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez either with tr Neptune conjunct the composite Saturn and opposition Pluto this year and next; worsening through 2023/24 with tr Pluto square the composite Mars.

  Solar Arc Saturn will move to close the aggravated square on Biden’s Administration chart  by mid 2023 which will stress the already strained Term Moon – which could be other Presidential complications as well – but doesn’t bode well for this issue.

  There is a dispiriting sense in the US, echoing the UK, of having voted in the wrong leaders who are incapable or unwilling to face up to problems.  Voters’ remorse doesn’t make it any easier to live with.

   

107 thoughts on “Democrats despair of Biden’s muted Roe v Wade response

    • Marjorie always includes her own considered perspectives on psychology, politics, and situations, and it looks like she’s always been open to the discussion including that as long as commenters don’t attack each other. The astrology here only matters exactly because it’s an extremely important political event. Why wouldn’t people comment about the politics of it? What’s amusing about Marjorie allowing that?

      • Also to add that sometimes the non astrological comments give context and even supports the astrology. Key as examples of the astrology in action I think.

  1. Thank you Marjorie, I agree that the true Tories are pragmatists they give way when necessary and compromise when needed but only under duress, good old Britannia sails on.
    Cinthia Harrod-Eagles has written novels depicting the developments in the country through the centuries and it is always about keeping the status quo whilst granting “privileges”.

  2. The Irish republic completely banned abortion in 1983 by referendum – 66.9% voted to ban abortion! (In neighbouring Britain abortion had been legal since 1967 for foetuses up to 24 weeks – there might have been an element in Ireland of “we must do the opposite of those godless Brits”).

    In 2018 they had another referendum where 66.4% voted to reverse the ban and permit abortion up to 12 weeks (which is still restrictive).

    So it’s not just New Zealand. Poland too is restrictive (abortion only allowed in the event of rape).

    In Germany abortion is illegal but not punishable in the first 12 weeks, and illegal and punishable after 12 weeks. Saudi allows abortion up to 16 weeks

    The UK is an outlier in liberalising so early and allowing abortion to 24 weeks. It was done under Ted Heath’s govt. Rule of thumb is that social laws passed by Tories tend to be uncontentious because other parties are not likely to reverse them on the grounds of “We must be more conservative than the Tories”! Other examples: John Major banning guns, David Cameron legalising same-sex marriage, William Wilberforce banning slavery. All Tories.

    Tories are not really conservative. They have just one ideology, which is to keep the good ship Britannia steady, and at key points they move to compromise to keep the country stable.

    • It is astonishing the stuffy old UK managed to be so liberal so early on. The Abortion Bill of the late 1960s introduced by David Steel, the liberal, for which I campaigned went through. And even earlier after Wolfenden the 1957 act freeing homosexuality came in on a Tory government.
      Interesting point about the Tories Candy.

      • Yeah – the 1967 Abortion Act was David Steel’s backbench bill. But the Tories had the majority in that Parliament and voted it into law.

        As for the Tories, you don’t last 300 years and counting by being rigid and ideological, but by being ruthless and pragmatic. Look at the way they killed off UKIP which was genuinely conservative (anti-abortion, anti-gay).

        The chart for the Tory Tamworth Manifesto (18th Dec 1834) has the moon at 16 Cancer 37. Very close to the moon in the 1801 UK chart. I wonder if this accounts for their caution and pragmatism, but also the speed at which they sense when the public mood on social issues is turning.

  3. I recommend an article by Charles Moore in today’s Daily Telegraph explaining the Roe Vs Wade in clearer terms than I have yet come across and the heated passions that it is causing.
    For once he makes a distinction between the judicial and the legislators etc. and the federal nature of the USA as opposed to the unitary government here in the UK.
    The intriguing question is why in star terms it is happening now.

    • I am not a fan of Charles Moore and I think he may be a touch ingenuous. What he is saying is strictly accurate but I suspect it was special pleading on the part of the SCOTUS right-wing theocrats to give them an excuse for weaselling out of their confirmation promises.
      But if it give voters pause when they elect state politicians so much the better.

  4. Yes kt according to a article about Leo Leominster,he created the wedge issues that taken America a decade back before our civil war here in the states,which means. our calendar should say 7-1_1851,instead of 7-1-2022,how did such a antidemocratic guy like Leo,get to decide future generations,I feel his life was a mess.,which seems to be cruel irony.

  5. If you guys want to see how the US Supreme has become anti choice,and anti democratic just go to the blog church and state,and read about a guy named Leo Leominster.

    • Hi Anthony, do you mean Leonard Leo? I have been fussing about him for years. And yes, you are right to be concerned about him.

  6. You guys would love to read Jude Cowell’s view in her stars over Washington blog about what the US Supreme court did to roe v wade,it shows how much fear some groups have to the rest of us,and I feel greta thunburg is going to not like the Supreme court of the US,either since according to today’s news they just reversed the US epa on some of its stuff,related to planet climate,it seems a shame some of us as groups feel the larger group has no choices in how live our lives,that they as the smaller group gets to decide our future paths,even if should be about choice for all of us not just a few.

  7. Thank you for the questions about New Zealand. Women in New Zealand organised trips to Australia which had liberalised its abortion law. They were called Sisters Overseas. A number of New Zealand women died from back street abortion previous to 1977. There was no abortion pill in the seventies. The question about the USA, both Democrat and Republican parties need to respect each other and find consensus for the sake of American women now and in the future.

    • Delia, our Republicans are steeped in racism, misogyny, homophobia, and more—and it’s all wearing a “Christian” dominionist robe. They don’t care a fig about consensus or respecting others. You should really think of the U.S. as being rather like Middle Eastern country as far as religious influence goes. While we are “officially” secular, we are culturally and socially steeped in many of the most toxic aspects of our country’s “majority” religion. Maybe not as bad as Saudi Arabia on the surface… perhaps more like Turkey or Jordan. Our fundamentalists do not have us wearing clothing akin to abayas and hijab… yet.

    • It does seem like we’re running out of safe harbors, doesn’t it. There’s also the climate crisis hanging over all of that, which we really should be concentrating our energy on fighting. At the same time, perhaps our (read “human”) self-destruction is a part of nature’s reaction/adaptation/resolution to the climate crisis.

      • @WiAS, especially with the latest Supreme Court ruling saying the Environmental Protection Agency can’t regulate greenhouse gases.

        They’re truly set on taking the US back to the 18th century or before.

  8. @Liz
    You are correct: “The creation of an authoritative, all-powerful world order is the ultimate aim towards which we must strive.”
    “Without a United Europe there is no sure prospect of world government. It is the urgent and indispensable step towards realisation of that ideal”.
    Churchill speaking in London on 14th May 1947, this has also been the view of many USA governments for a long time, it may be part of the general malaise.

    • Churchill was for a ‘Council of Europe’ (despite initial misgivings) but didn’t support the EEC (Common Market) and is unlikely to have ratified the Treaty of Lisbon which set up the EU. The ideal was of course the UN – a world government.

      Of more relevance to this article under discussion is the attitude of the Council of Europe to abortion. It has until recently been considered a matter for the member states: 41 European countries allow abortion on a woman’s request or broad social grounds but 6 European countries do not – including Andorra, Liechtenstein, Malta, Monaco, Poland and San Marino.

      Recent legal reform processes have allowed some liberalization of laws in Monaco and the UK jurisdictions of Gibraltar and Northern Ireland but the laws in Poland are still under scrutiny – especially in relation to refugees from the Ukraine who have been violated by Russian soldiers. Developments in Poland (a Catholic country) after it’s recent regressive legislation in respect of abortion are worth watching.

      The arguments for a consensus across all the member states of the Council of Europe are complex but essentially, giving individual states nearly unlimited discretion in abortion regulations runs counter to harmonization, the stated aim and purpose of the Council. I can only wonder that the Supreme Court of the United States of America does not take more account of the need for consensus and harmonisation of law across the states in such matters.

      • We’re in the Winners-Takes-All model. Pretty sure that won’t easily change, since the same people embracing that also believe in winning at any price. That’s not party-specific.

        • Forgot to say, those people who employ those methods are, of course, displaying a lot of insecurity in the righteousness of their beliefs, which is the ultimate irony.

          It would be good for political strategists who are fighting against this to make that as widely understood as possible (by the public, but also by those who are using them as well).

          • Worry not. We have Ms Markle to the rescue – or should that be Mrs Harry Mountbatten-Windsor.

            Now she has the abortion cause, she will get the millions she wants from Netflix, Spotify, Oprah Winfrey or wherever. Definitely a ‘winner-takes-all’ exemplar – in the USA at any rate. Few UK media folk are fans.

  9. *** REVISED POST ***

    (sorry, I used my smartphone instead of my desktop to type up my previous comment. I noticed a number of grammatical errors that needed to fixed, so I made the revisions and decided to re-post).

    Marjorie,

    I read your last post about the United States possibly entering a rather long period of messy and hyper-partisan politics. It’s interesting that you mentioned 2032 as being the year where you saw a more joyful election. My Mother (who is also an astrologer) and I were discussing this many years ago when she (and I) read an astrology magazine piece back in 2009 where there was another astrologer (I cannot remember his name; my Mother might remember) predicted that the United States would likely enter a period extreme conservatism by the late 2010s and would probably last up until the mid-2030s.

    At the time, neither my Mother nor myself took his prediction seriously because this was back in 2009 and President Barack Obama had been elected the year before and it just seemed like we were moving forward as a society. However, even though my Mother is also an astrologer, she chooses not to do political astrology since she finds it very complex and feels there is too much room for error – she focuses on personal readings instead. I’m still a student of astrology and I’m still taking classes to learn areas of astrology I’m most interested in (like Harmonic astrology). So, neither of us took the time to explore that one astrologer’s prediction.

    I wonder if we still have that magazine issue (we have many astrology magazines going back to the 1990s in our house – it’s possible we still have some from 2009) and if I find it, I need to reread it and see if I find any comparisons to your previous posts about the future of U.S. politics.

    • Hi Chris,

      I am not sure if this is the article you are referring to, but there is a 2006 article in Vanity Fair by Michael Lutin called Horoscope U.S.A. He may have written a followup one at some point.

      Best,
      sg

      • @ Starless Galaxie,

        Thank you so much for the heads up! That name, Michael Lutin, does sound awfully familiar. You might be right, he could be the astrologer I was referring to. However, I could have sworn my Mother and I read the prediction in The Mountain Astrologer Magazine (we used to subscribe to that magazine back in the 2000s) sometime back in 2009 (because it seemed like Obama had been in office for a few months when we read it).

        It’s possible, like you said, if Michael Lutin is the astrologer who made that prediction, he could have originally made the prediction in 2006 and had published in Vanity Fair before writing a up a follow up piece and had it published in another magazine sometime in 2009.

        I’ve been going to through our archive of The Mountain Astrologer magazines and, so far, I haven’t been able to find that piece….so, maybe it was never published in that magazine to begin with. It’s been so many years.

  10. I live in New Zealand that apparent bastion of progressive politics. It was only in 2019 that abortion was liberalised. From 1977 any woman who wanted an abortion had to go to a panel of two doctors to decide if she were to mentally unwell to carry the pregnancy. They could refuse it and did. Previous to that it was banned. Bet you did not know that. I believe the abortion situation will be sorted out by women and men who believe in protecting women’s health, because for some states it is utterly draconian and the judges who were so self satisfied seem unable to grasp the terrible situation, they are helping put so many women in.

    • Nope, Delia, did not know that.
      Was there an under-the-table market for termination pills or covert procedures? I ask because I can’t imagine thousands of women carried pregnancies they didn’t want. Of course well heeled persons could always seek treatment outside of their country, but the average person…how was it typically sorted, if you know?

    • Fascinating–thank you Delia! I knew NZ went through a lot politically (since the 80s?) to get to its much-admired state today, so I wonder if we can find some solutions to our (U.S.) authoritarian trajectory through studying NZ’s recent history.

  11. For those who might not know, The Tor Project (torproject.org) offers free software, including a web browser, built to protect privacy and keep your information safe from snoops. It is slower than regular browser and a bit more difficult to use, but if your circumstances make you prefer to not give away all your information to people and organizations who track, monetize, and sell it, it can be good to know about. The nonprofit is 1/3 funded by the U.S. government, using technology originally created for military security, and is now very involved in helping people in countries that “lock down” the Internet to gain full access. Windows, Mac, Android, Linux versions all are a free download.
    For free email that is also slow, but free of tracking, malware, advertising, data reselling, etc., and under Swiss rather than U.S. privacy laws, protonmail.com offers free basic accounts, good for a low volume of email.

      • Duckduckgo is obviously a more privacy-conscious *search engine* than say Google or Bing and it is recommended to use Duckduckgo rather than the other two.
        But that only keeps your search terms relatively secure. The moment you click through on a link, the opening website(s) open up and download a load of trackers and cookies, etc that can track your visits online.
        Tor, recommended by Chris above, is much more comprehensive in its protection, as not only does it have its own browser (which allows it to control what kind of trackers and cookies are downloaded, etc), but also routes the data across the Internet differently, which makes it harder to track over all.
        The only downside to it that you should remember is that if you have been reading about the Dark Web and the drugs and pedophilia lurching there, etc, Tor operates in that space. And you may accidentally come across content that you may find disturbing.
        I used to work at an ISP and we were given a talk by a cyber-security person, who told us not to do it at home, etc, and he then took us onto a tour of the Dark Web and it was disturbing.
        So, be cautious in what you expect.

        • The technology for Tor was originally for U.S. military to be able to view web sites without being tracked, and for dissidents in countries opposed to U.S. principles to be able to have free speech, even behind national firewalls that try to pen in the people by controlling what they can learn about or express.
          “Dark Web” is a mostly meaningless term tossed around by journalists who might not know what they’re talking about. Connections made with Tor are extremely difficult to track. It might or might not be impossible for the U.S. government to crack it. It’s nearly certain that nobody with a smaller budget could eavesdrop on connections made through Tor. Because of that, some people use it for evil purposes, but many don’t. I use it to connect to Marjorie’s web site, as I think my cell phone provider has no legitimate interest in tracking which astrology blogs I like to read.
          Tor only deals with the connection between your computer and the site you visit. If that site asks for all your information and you provide it, well, that site has your information. One lesson of this century is that businesses with web sites are often not very good at protecting information that users gave them.
          Because Google wants to track you and build a dossier for ad sales and the government, they hate Tor connections. Visiting Google-based sites through Tor, they often throws up wave after wave of outrageously confusing Captchas, or totally block access.
          I find it amusing that the federal government that funds Tor also funds the national weather service, whose web site gives me a “not allowed” error half the time, and happily shows me the forecast the other half of the time when I visit it through Tor. I’m not sure who at the weather service imagines that Ukraine will be lost if the Russians could have an untrackable way to learn that it will a nice 75 degrees on the California coast for Independence Day.

  12. Politics aside, Biden is catholic. Six of the Supreme Court justices are catholic.
    Biden also chaired the Thomas hearings/Anita Hill. So his rather weak response
    is expected.

    • There’s catholic and there’s Catholic. Of the 5 people I know who received abortions the break down is 2 Catholics, 2 Jews, 1 Christian of unknown denomination. I think Biden’s faint mojo has more to do with his “chi” then his god – he’s pretty bland across the board. The “justices” though…couple mighty Catholics for sure.

  13. @Liz
    Not totally relevant but the first steps to set up the EU were made a lot earlier, in 1922 Count von Coudenhove -Kalregi together with Otto von Habsburg founded in Vienna the Pan-Europa movement for European Union, he failed to interest Masaryk or Mussolini but found more success later in the USA where like Jean Monnet he became acquainted with many of the elite. Later with the help of Churchill the Council of Europe was set up in 1949 by the Treaty of London.
    So you see it has been done step by step.

    • The Council of Europe is quite separate from the EU. The idea of convening the European assembly first arose at the Congress of Europe, held in The Hague on 10 May 1948 by the International Committee of the Movements for European Unity. The subsequent negotiations between European nations are complicated – but, as you say, the organisation’s Statute entered into force in London on 3 August 1949

      It has 46 members (it used to have 47 until the Russian Federation was thrown out, or jumped first, on March 16th 2022 as a consequence of it’s invasion of the Ukraine). It is primarily committed to human rights through the ECHC (European Court of Human Rights/European Convention on Human Rights).

      All 27 member states of the EU are also members of the Council of Europe but the EU itself is not a member and has no voting rights since it is not (yet) a superstate. The UK has left the EU but is still, at the present time, a member of the Council of Europe. After the ECHC ruling on refugees being sent to Rwanda, the continued UK membership of the Council of Europe is though in doubt.

      It is confusing – not least because the Council of Ministers which governs the EU is often referred to as the European Council of Ministers.

  14. The problem is as long as Manchin and Sinema refuse to eliminate the filibuster what Biden thinks doesn’t matter.
    As someone posted the other day, if Republicans win back the White House, Senate and HoR, McConnell will have no problem eliminating the filibuster to impose a national abortion ban.

    • We’re an image-obsessed country Roderick. Public rhetoric matter. DJT understood that and used that to get what he wanted. GOP has learned that during the DJT’s term and are using it to their advantage. Dems need to better learn from that without straying into illegal territory–it’s a more difficult job, and they need to point that out publicly in some ways without sounding like they’re making excuses for anticipated failures.

      • Your posts are driving me nuts – they keep going to be moderated which they shouldn’t do. Can you try one or two with a different name?

  15. You know….honestly, Dems should stop being foolish in attacking their own. Leave that mindset to the GOP and focus on getting more Dems elected up and down the ballot from Senators to State legislators. Manchin may be a pain in the ass but he has a point. Taking a hatchet to Senate rules is not the solution. How do you think Trump was able to push through 3 SCOTUS Justices so quickly? Because the former Dem Senate leader, the late Harry Reid, abolished the filibuster specifically for confirming Justices during his tenure; hence, a simple majority sufficed. This is what Manchin is afraid of with a full filibuster abolition or even more “carve outs”. If the GOP gain a simple majority like the Dems have now, but without the filibuster, they would gleefully send America back to the 50s’. So taking the easy approach is never the long term solution. The President is not a King, so stop blaming Biden and get your lackadaisical asses out there and vote. There’s no reason WI, OH, FL, NC and ME should have GOP senators. Georgia has proven Dems can capture both Senate seats. Georgia!!. So follow GA’s lead and Dems will have a filibuster proof majority to codify things into law and reduce the power of SCOTUS. This is gaining power the extemely difficult but prudent way.
    Stop the whining and get to work to get out the votes.

    • Troy, Republicans forced Reid to do that because they were filibustering even Obama’s nominees for cabinet positions. So please don’t leave out why Reid did that.
      Uh Troy Republicans are using the conservative supermajority to take America back to the 50’s so the Democrats need to take extreme measures to stop this madness in its tracks.

      After McConnell refused to give Merrick Garland even a hearing after Scalia died and stated that it was because it was an election year and then four years later pushed ACB onto the court less than two weeks before the 2020 election.

      Democrats need to stop playing by the rules because Republicans don’t give a damn about rules or the future consequences-all Republicans care about is raw and unadulterated power.

      It is time that Democrats realized that simple fact.

      • @Roderick: And this is the fundamental problem with this type of thinking; it’s short sighted. Going to extremes as a counter measure is never the answer. You ever heard the expression “if you wrestle with a pig in the mud, you’ll always lose”? You don’t stoop to their level if you’re wiser than them. Regardless of Harry Reid’s reason, what was the end result? 3 GOP Justices. React with wisdom, not emotions. Easier said than done, yes. But doing something the proper way is often never easy. Adherence to Rules are what separate modern man from barbarians. The “desperate times call for desperate measures” mantra is not rooted in wisdom. Circumspective and fervent action is key.
        The Jan. 6 committee is not sinking Trump by playing dirty. Their doing it by playing hard. Not the same thing. Calm down and take a page from them.

        • I have to say I agree with Troy on this and definitely wished Reid had found another way of circumventing GOP blockage.
          I still think letting the Progressive Dems have at it will at least let Dems be the lead on negotiations rather than reacting to GOP’s.

          • That’s nice, but uh the problem is that at least the House Democratic leadership won’t give up the reigns of power and allow progressives like AOC and the rest of the Squad have a voice.
            Pelosi and the rest of the Democratic House leadership have refused to teach the next generation the ins and outs of legislation and it is going to be a clusterf*ck when they die and none of the Democrats understand how to operate the levers of power.

        • Shortsighted?

          If the Democrats don’t get anything done before November they can forget about getting anything done over the next two years because they are going to be in the minority in the House and Senate.

          And at least 20 Dems in the Senate are up for re-election in 2024 several of them in red states like Tester in Montana.

          Supposedly Manchin is going to retire from the Senate and run for governor but hey WV already has a Republican governor so what do they need with a Republican lite governor.

          If Sinema runs for a second term I hope she gets primaried.

          The closest Democrats will ever come to a filibuster proof majority in the Senate was after the 2008 election when they had 59 seats but Kennedy was battling brain cancer.

          Look Republicans have been very strategic and have gained strong-holds in low-population red states which means that the best Democrats can hope for is to hold 54-56 Senate seats, and they have made sure to dominate Florida and Texas so they can gerrymander their way to control of the HoR.

          As for the January 6th Committee no one is watching it regardless of the dramatic testimony and nothing that has been uncovered that is surprising given how open Trump has been about his thuggishness.

          You say calm down, but I am a black gay man living in the Deep South. You have no clue.

          • Well your last sentence would explain your pessimism. Bottom line, wisdom lies in the middle, not the extremes of left or right. If you want to stick to your fight fire with fire schtick, that’s your right.
            I’d rather fight fire with a flood….of votes; for Centre-left candidates that can actually win!

          • @ Troy it isn’t pessimism–it’s reality.

            Did you happen to miss Thomas’s concurring opinion and the laws that he wants to ‘revisit’?
            Two of the three directly impact me.

            I don’t have any use for marriage right now but I live in Alabama and I don’t want the police busting down my door because one of my nosey neighbors told them that I had an overnight guest.

            Troy the problem is that the voting thing is the chicken/egg conundrum.

            If Democrats don’t pass some meaningful legislation no one is going to vote for them in November which means Republicans take control and nothing happens for the next two years and Democratic voters are left with no reason to vote for Democrats in 2024.

          • Unfortunately Machin is the best we Dems can hope for from West Virginia, which used to vote Dem and had two good Dem senators for years (Byrd — yes, I know he was a Klansman in his early years but he reversed course — and Rockefeller) but now is ruby red. The current governor, Jim Justice was first elected as a Dem but changed parties.

          • @Nicole.

            My point is that Manchin is increasing his popularity in West Virginia at the expense of Democrats by blocking any and all legislation and when he abandons his senate seat to run for governor a Republican will replace him.

            Manchin is a selfish troll.

    • I’m in Wisconsin. You don’t have a good grasp of the politics here. This is one of the “battleground” states. The populace are split pretty much 50/50, between moderate/liberal and conservative. Outside of Madison and Milwaukee, it is heavily conservative Republican leaning. And before you claim otherwise, most of the population lives in small towns and rural areas throughout the state which means there are strong conservative voting patterns here. I strongly suspect that to be true for most of the other battleground states as well. The abortion issue will be very prominent in the next several elections especially so for energizing female voters against the hard right politicians — and — the Republican party bigwigs know and fear this as it would sabotage all their political efforts.

      • @carson: If you were from Ohio I could understand your argument. You do realise you have a Dem Senator(who’s gay!) and a Dem Governor right?! I’ll repeat, If GA has two Dem Senators….with a GOP Govnr., your State has no excuse. Select a good candidate and get out the vote. Ron Johnson is an easy target right now.

        • I’m well aware. You said we should not have any Republican senators which is silly. We have had one of each (Dem./Repub) for most of my 67 years. We are split politically, as I pointed out, pretty evenly left/right though leaning more conservative. Getting both senators elected as Democrats is very difficult in WI. The governorship has been Republican for most of my adulthood. Most all the local political offices are Republican held so few Democrats get to show leadership on issues and gain both experience in governing as well as public recognition. Walker as the last Republican governor p.o.ed much of the general public off with his stridentcy. Thus the current governor Evers won narrowly because of Walker rather than him (Evers)being more popular. (IMO). Most Wisconsinites could care less if Baldwin is a lesbian. Her predecessor was Kohl a closeted gay. No one outside of the hard right cared then either. In the current election there are no good Dem candidates. At least ones that can appeal to the broad public. Mostly goofballs. The best situation is Johnson puts his foot further down his throat and turns off the moderate suburban voters. His Jan 6th involvement might do it. As stupid as this might sound on the surface — Power to the People.

          • @ carson, doesn’t WI (MI) have a trigger law that has banned abortion since Roe was overturned Friday?
            What’s wrong with the Democratic Senate candidates?

            I can’t imagine anyone in WI voting for a Republican after the mess they have made trying to prove that Biden didn’t win WI in 2020.

            Even that goofball former Republican Supreme Court Justice who was hired by the Republicans to ‘investigate’ the 2020 election has shown himself to be incompetent.

          • Roderick:

            Well…
            Democratic candidates for the Senate are generic lefties mostly who the public doesn’t identify with. Last poll I saw was “generic Republican” versus each of the Dems. The highest Dem percentage was 19% vs the generic Republican. And obviously that Republican will be Ron Johnson. So losing 19% to roughly 70% suggests to me that it’s not good odds. Democatic party support is quite low in WI. Dem party insiders are largely AOC type left which is very unpopular here, even among Dems. Interestingly enough Bernie Sanders, “the democratic socialist”, is well respected here, even by Republicans! The Democratic party in WI has a base in social activists, Native Americans, African Americans, Jewish people, teachers, some of the Latino and Hmong vote. The rural areas are heavily Republican. That’s maybe 25-30% of the voting population. The 3 main cities are strongly Democratic. The suburbs are largely Independents but vote Republican ( but not as uniformly like the rural areas). Unions officially are Democrat supporters but the working class membership votes strongly for Republicans. The only union vote that goes heavily for Dems are the schoolteachers who have been harassed and dumped on by the Republicans over the past oh 30 years.

            “I can’t imagine anyone in WI voting for a Republican after the mess they have made trying to prove that Biden didn’t win WI in 2020.” Well maybe as a gay Black man in Alabama you wouldn’t understand a wacky state like WI. You wouldn’t be afraid of being lynched in WI, just snubbed by some. (Mostly other Blacks) The Republican vote will go for the “conservative” candidate in any case. They don’t care about the January shenanigans. The independent voters, who are the key swing voters here and are probably 40% of the electorate are the key voting bloc. They generally lean to the right but Ron Johnson being a Trump acolyte and strongly anti-abortion, anti gay marriage, anti this and that… Possibly women will vote him out because of Roe v Wade. Nobody knows how the abortion/contraception/gay issue will play out. Firearms laws won’t be a serious issue here since 70% of the population owns guns, 50% go hunting and almost 20% hold a concealed carry permit as well. Out of 5 million residents. This is a seriously pro-gun state. Alabama is too, right?

            Gableman was a smug A-hole as a Supreme Court justice. He was shown up when in his reelection campaign his ads all but shouted “I’m the conservative values candidate” which matched his voting record. And the public turned thumbs down. Voters here don’t want politicians and political philosophy on their courts; they want the laws properly adjudicated by logic. His “investigation” did not show him to be incompetent just a LIAR and a true GRIFTER.

            Lastly to the biggie. The 1849 law did outlaw abortion, except to save a mothers life. But the rules required not 1 but 3 doctors opinions on that from what I have read locally. It’s not a recently enacted trigger law though. It punishes the provider not the mom. Our governor and State attorney general have pledged to not enforce the law now and pardon providers too. So we are in stasis. Planned Parenthood, etc are referring patients to neighboring states of Illinois and Minnesota for any procedures. The American Medical Assn, Evers(the Gov) and Kaul (Atty general) have filed suit to get court verdict that 1849 law is moot. That’s because after R v W, the WI legislature passed various laws about abortion that imply that abortion is legal. To wit: No elective abortions after x weeks, scan required, 24 hour wait required, abortion “counseling” required, etc. Logically that would not be required if abortion is prohibited. Not sure if that will fly with our conservative WI Supreme Court.

            Go Packers!

  16. @Ava: As an American I appreciate your views on America and agree with many of them. I dont know if the comments to you come from American who feel free to criticize other nations while cringing at criticism of America from people from other nations, but I do know that many Americans do just that. I know this thread is about the Biden administration’s weak response to the SCOTUS abortion ruling, but I have to say that the day before SCOTUS struck down a century old gun law in NY which now pretty much allows American to carry guns in public everywhere except in sensitive areas like courthouses. If there was a response from the Biden administration it was even weaker. To all of you from nations other than America, please do feel free to comment on America, your views are valued; and as a caution, do not visit here unless you’re comfortable being among Americans carrying guns in public. I fear my country is about to implode with even more gun violence and it would be wise to avoid coming here.

  17. I certainly can’t weigh in on any US debate but I wondered how Lilith played into all of this astrologically. I am not convinced about the asteroids generally but I know Sun/Lilith are v close right now and that Lilith is in Cancer. I plugged Lilith into the First Term chart and was surprised and not surprised to discover it is as prominent as it can be. Within 0-2 degrees of the Ascendant.

    • Louisa, that’s a good point re: Lilith. I just found this on Sally Kirkman’s site: “On the day of the New Moon, Lilith sits at 8° Cancer. next to the Sun & Moon at 7° Cancer – a tight conjunction. It’s not difficult to see the significance of Lilith here when she’s often termed a ‘she-demon’. She was Adam’s first wife who was banished from the Garden of Eden for refusing to be subservient. It’s time for this patriarchal dominance in our society to stop and for women to be granted equality and handed back their human rights.”

    • Louisa, is the inauguration chart the same as the “First Term” chart? I see BML at 10 Taurus in the I-chart, close to the AC. Synastry-wise, it rather closely conjuncts Biden’s 12th house natal Mars at 12 Taurus. Interesting. It does suggest an aggravation he’d rather not have to deal with, which would partly explain his lukewarm response. TBH I’ve long thought of Biden as merely a closeted Republican. *shrug* I voted for Bernie, the times I had that option, having long lost any hope that “centrist” Democrats were interested in doing anything other than increasing and preserving their own wealth.

      • Thanks for mentioning BML and the asteroids. You (all) prompted me to take a look. I’ve generally reserved judgment on the asteroids, but often find their patterns to be apt and descriptive.

        Today, the political and strategy asteroid Pallas is 27 Taurus – trining USA Pluto, and conjunct the fixed star Algol – a symbol of female outrage if ever there was one.
        Asteroid Vesta (home and autonomy), at 6 Pisces, is square US Uranus in Gemini (8), with Gemini Venus approaching there too. Also relevant to Biden’s natal Saturn and attitudes to the law?
        Juno, representing marriages and alliances, is at 19 Pisces, opposing the USA BML at 19 Virgo – a real women’s healthcare theme there I think.
        Black Moon Lilith (the mathematical point) is at 8 Cancer, conjunct tr Sun, with the asteroid Lilith at 10 Cancer. Asteroid Hades, king of the underworld, happens to be at 11 Cancer. Curiously, these move to oppose Orpheus in Capricorn, who went looking for his beloved wife in the Underworld….Minor planet Ceres, partly representing the fertility of the land, and of human beings, is 18 Cancer, trine Juno in Pisces. Looks like the asteroids have a story to tell.

        • Sun and New Moon in Cancer conjunct Black Moon Lilith possibly symbolic of two challenging news stories involving women this evening. The passing of Deborah James from cancer and the 20 year sentence handed to Ghislaine Maxwell for the sex trafficking of girls.

          • That’s interesting, SK. I wonder how the wild nature of BML operates in Cancer? Is it the fierce maternal instinct? Certainly very emotional in a powerful way I imagine. Howling at the Moon?! Perhaps it relates, symbolically, to the Moon card in the Tarot.

            Ghislaine Maxwell’s own Lilith is in Virgo, conjunct Pluto – very Death and the Maiden on so many levels. And her natal Mercury in Capricorn is opposed by transiting Sun, New Moon, and BML in Cancer right now!

  18. Dear Ava:

    Since you know all, you’re probably already aware that the words you want are “altar,” not “alter,” and “flaunt,” not “flout”; apparently the vastly superior nation of Canada is experiencing a dictionary shortage. And please, enough with the hackneyed “Merica”–that one jumped the shark about five years ago. (Look it up if you don’t know what I mean.)

    That said, you’re both right; KT that Biden’s hands are somewhat tied by the federal system, Ava that his response is insufficient; and unfortunately, Ava is somewhat right about the United State generally (although don’t kid yourself–the U.S. has committed far more resources than the rest of the NATO allies, including–it goes without saying–Canada, in the fight against Russia’s monstrous attack on Ukraine).

    Also, when you’re done patting yourself on the back for being Canadian, maybe give a thought to the issues in your own country. You have your own home-grown Jethros–especially in the backwoods and places like Manitoba–who would be white supremacist gun-nuts even if the U.S. didn’t exist; as well as longstanding issues with oppression of First Nations peoples, pervasive rape culture (no doubt outside of that beacon of enlightenment, Toronto, which has elected successive Ford brothers), and the passivity of the police in investigating crimes against women. You may look slightly better in comparison with us right now, but at least we’re being forced to face *our* horrible problems–and sadly, your day is coming. Look to your own house before throwing stones at ours.

    • This forum has, for as many years as I’ve followed it, been international in nature. Sometimes, it’s better to get an “outsider” perspective because we’re so in the weeds, we don’t know that they’re better models out there. So, it’s really horrifying to see these overly self-defensive counter-arguments that use nationalistic rhetoric and personal attacks (spelling mistakes/differences, seriously?) when the U.S. is clearly showing that all the years of hypocrisy displaying public idealism while we conducted witch hunts both within and outside our borders (with dire global consequences) are coming back to bite us.
      People all over the world seem to have a better grasp of American politics than we do of our own, never mind theirs. Why? Cause we are an outsized nuclear-armed geopolitical force (with veto power at the UN and fingers in so many pies) that was already making a mess of geopolitics via our unilateral foray into Iraq before we, defying all logic, elected a tantrum-driven ego-maniacal dribbling man-child at the helm (because we just can’t bring ourselves to elect a woman, no matter how qualified!) that all too many are still willing to reinstall in office via an extrajudicial political tornado that’ll destroy everything in its path if they have to. I’d be wary too if I were Canadian.
      It’s Pluto, Uranus and Neptune, remember, the less you fight them, the less painful the transition will be.

      • I like your comments, WiAS. We Americans can be so sanctimonious in our attitudes, especially when vile (and, IMHO, unjustified) “American exceptionalism” kicks in.

        But, @Ava, why such anger at, seemingly, all Americans? Such a broad stroke. We’re not all bad. And some of us are actually activist progressives and feminists, even among American men.

  19. I would like to see a stronger response from Biden as well. Just to note that he was the Senate Judiciary chair during the Anita Hill – Clarence Thomas hearings and did Hill a great disservice in his management of those hearings, not to mention to the rest of us in allowing Thomas to proceed to the Supreme Court bench. Saturn was squaring his Moon in October 1991 when the hearings happened. So there’s another example of his afflicted Moon. Biden has done a lot of good things, and thank the gods he’s in and not Trump, but he has his weaknesses.

    Meanwhile, the anger of women seems to be swinging the polls more towards the Dems, according to latest polls, so hopefully that will impact the mid-terms this November. And various women’s groups and abortion care groups are stepping up with things like mobile clinics on borders of states outlawing abortion and other measures such as travel funds to other states. They’ve been anticipating this for a long time, plus dealing with the already in place bans and clinic closures. Women have always accessed abortions even when illegal and dangerous, but with safe medication abortions now hopefully for at least some women it will help as a stopgap until legal abortion can be codified into law .

    • @ Les
      Angela Wright was another woman who was waiting to testify that Clarence Thomas has harassed her, but after Thomas’s high-tech lynching speech the cowardly Dems on the Judiciary committee pulled her as a witness.

      As for medicinal abortions those same states that have outlawed surgical abortions have also forced women who want medicinal abortions to go to a doctor to obtain the medications and now they are going to start peeking into people’s mail.

  20. I understand Biden is abroad working diligently with allies to help NATO, and he’s an old man and with that comes a lessening of vitality. However, he has the first woman VP who is strongly committed to reproductive rights for women and I dont understand why he has not given her free reign to engage on this issue; in fact, he seems content to keep her light under a shade. I think AOC and Elizabeth Warren have some good ideas and think it would be wise for our VP to convene an organizing and planning session with all elected women at all levels who are dedicated to women’s equality and reproductive rights. But nothing is heard except the pleas for money and votes. It is very very frustrating for many of us Americans who care deeply about this.

    • You’re expecting the Democratic-party’s equivalent of Trump to really give a damn about women? Oh he loves women, when he can use them to show off HIS powers and achievements. (He gets to go into the history books for picking the first female & POC VP whom he doesn’t let shine, the first Black & gay female WH Press Secretary, the first Black female SCOTUS judge–what good will KBJ do in a 6-3 court?–and make up for his endorsement of the 1994 Crime Bill, which disproportionately disadvantage the African-American population.)

      Remember how he helped Clarence Thomas during his nomination hearings? And the fact that, apart from co-sponsoring the Violence Against Women’s Act, all his years (47!) in Congress didn’t amount to much, especially in terms of women (https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-achieved-40-years-politics-1541278)? These were brought up in the debates, which people dismissed, as they did the rape accusation, along with all his public displays of inappropriate behavior toward women and girls. (Again, the demand for a perfect victim! Although she was a stalwart Dem, they let the Republicans use her, so they can call her their pawn.)
      I have no idea how the party got Warren or AOC and the Squad to compromise to endorse him. They traded in their moral high ground for fear that the moderates would only vote for a Trump light and just like DJT, Biden tested his party’s willingness to win at any cost and they showed women in America, and the world, their true colors.
      Similar to the U.S., his chart shows a grand-sextile that culminates on Neptune (ruler of the 4th, in the 10th, no less), with a tighter Venus, Sun, Mercury (3rd decan, so would present cancerean qualities) on one end trining a Jupiter (exulted in Cancer) on the other (the man’s Catholic, remember?). Biden and the U.S. are of the same/similar nature, except the U.S. really does want to help, at least ideologically (Neptune in Virgo), where as Biden is a tried and true politician (Neptune in Libra–so slippery!)–just look at how much more he was doing as a VP, in preparation for a Presidential run (the first attempts of which he failed over lies he told!).
      The ironic thing is that DJT was not only holding Democrats/liberals hostage, but the GOP/conservatives as well (McConnell like what DJT was delivering–ALL the judicial appointments, for instance, but hated his self/party-destructive instability and his inability to control DJT, both of which were becoming more apparent the longer he was in office). So the Democrats could’ve gone for a more progressive candidate, and given all the issues Warren has been willing to fight for on behalf of the American people, she would’ve been great and had many good marketing points for poor conservative voters to latch onto! But since the entire American political spectrum is more conservative-leaning, her willingness to clean house would’ve scared off a lot of the establishment politicians.

      • @WIAS
        The problem with progressives which was especially obvious in the 2020 Democratic primaries is that there were too many progressive candidates and they split the vote and allowed Biden to become the nominee.

        There was no reason for Warren, Harris and Sanders to have been candidates in 2020. Two of them should have dropped out and supported the third then we definitely would have had a more progressive president than Biden.

        But it isn’t all Biden’s fault. The problem is that Democrats only have a majority in the Senate due to Biden being president and Machin and Sinema sabotaging everything Schumer attempts to do.

      • So you think a more progressive Dem could have won in 2020?

        I backed Elizabeth Warren, but she like all others flamed out. There’s no way Bernie could have won. California Liberal that I am, I grew up and worked in politics in then- more conservative Virginia. You have to recognize the bulk of the US is at best a moderate to moderate-conservative country taken over by radical right-wingers who’ve hijacked government through gerrymandering.

        A true liberal would have been painted as a “radical socialist” or communist and soundly defeated.

        I’m aware of Biden’s limitations, but many of you who are slamming him — and I agree we need a far more forceful response from Biden and the rest of the administration on the Supreme Court’s wrecking ball behavior — fail to understand the legal limitations on his power. Yes, Trump routinely broke the law, but Biden has made a point of restoring respect for the rule of law. Please be realistic in what he can do legally — but the bully pulpit is always available to him and he needs to use it far more forcefully.

        • @Roderick and @Nicole, I think the GOP realized they had more to risk than they let on. It would’ve been a game of chicken, for sure, but I think they would’ve blinked first. GOP also needs stability to do their behind-the-scenes dirty work. Why do you think they presented Clarence Thomas or Amy Coney Barrett? They’re like that poor Republican public servant who they stuck in a child’s desk in front of all the old men during their/her questioning of Christine Blasey Ford. These people make their party seem palatable after all the accusations of racism and misogyny, and ironically, moderate Dems are ready to buy that as well, which shows you how conservative both party establishments are.
          Democrats do not need to break the law to gain more ground. They need to be less conservative instead of catering to the likes of Machin and Sinema. Biden needs to galvanize and he’s not doing it, and he’s not letting Harris do it either, which is self-serving (the insecure moon?) and really dumb.
          They need to break the anchoring effects of the GOP–that’s why being more progressive would be important. It’s like they’re being led by the nose by the ultra-right. Dems should point to all the compromises, accepting encroaching limit after limit post RvW. Sure, it won’t make them look good, but maybe a mea culpa is what the public need before we’d be ready to back their new strategy–give us some good, logical and progressive ones that we can compromise on without feeling like we’ve lost the farm. Let the progressives lead/set the agenda, so at least the GOP is put on the defensive.
          @Roderick, Harris is not a progressive, she’s a centrist. The progressives think she’s a cop, for good reason, based on her AG days not going after big corps, who were taking advantage of regular Californians.
          @Nicole, Warren lost, mysteriously, like Bernie did in 2016. So, I think it was a party decision, by the more fearful conservative side. There was a M retrograde during the elections, so they needed a known factor, but a number of those who ran were well-known, including Warren and Bernie.

        • “A true liberal would have been painted as a ‘radical socialist’ or communist and soundly defeated.”

          Sorry, the fact that GOP will be ready with a smear campaign doesn’t excuse Dem’s unwillingness to embrace more progressive candidates. It’s an excuse that the likes of Stacey Abrams has shown can be overcome by grassroots campaigns that make the candidates’ records more relatable to regular Americans.

          As I’ve already written, Warren fought for the little people, whose record the Dems could and should have used to engage rural conservative voters, who are, like so many average Americans, interested in how the government they elect will solve their kitchen-table issues, like inflation, rather than slap a political label on them and ignore their needs until there’s a critical election in their region.

          I still think Warren was sidelined because she was willing to clean house and the establishment on both sides have gotten too comfortable doing not enough while collecting pay checks, which they thought they could get back to, if they’d just elect Biden, whereas the ultra-conservative is wagging the country by getting both their own party and the rest of us to pay attention.

          The Dems need to be willing to give up the fat so that average citizens believe they’re serious about bring back a stable and livable/affordable country, which I don’t feel like they’re doing or at least not marketing what they’re doing well. If DJT can make his millionaire-at-eight-self relatable to these people, Dems should be able to as well (like Biden did with his frequent invocation of his rural PA origins), without resorting to his divisiveness, which will be difficult, absolutely, but they’ve gotta try, before it’s too late.

        • Absolutely accurate analysis. Americans are moderate to conservative leaning, politically. The influence of conservative religious belief strongly colors our politics here. A strong leftist/socialist candidate would get crushed in the general election here. Much as I would prefer otherwise.

  21. Biden bashing. He is fighting a war in Ukraine – a proxy war with Russia – helped to right the ship after Trump. January 6 committee prosecutions. AOC is highly over rated, and hasn’t really done anything other than complain. She is not all that – and yet gets all this attention due to “Glamour”. Lots of us are jut not a fan and she gets too much attention. The democrats had a chance to codify abortion rights into law and blew it. It would have been a narrower law focused on the first four months.
    https://www.politico.com/newsletters/politico-nightly/2022/05/05/the-bipartisan-abortion-bill-dismissed-by-dems-00030346

    The progressives don’t know how to compromise, have taken hard lines, and have walked away with nothing. Please do not blame all of this on Biden.

    The president has to work with the Senate and the House.

    I love Joe Biden and I dread the future election cycles and future Supreme Court decision now that we have installed on the court people who have no concern about established precedent. This whole discussion is about States Rights versus Federal Rights – and if you want to understand the United States you need to understand that nuance and what it means.

    Biden cannot make sweeping Federal Legislation like that. It is for the same reason that Trump could not put us all under Martial Law. How it is done here is State’s rights under the protection of Federal Law – and the reasons we came together as the United States in the first place was economics between states and open borders between states and Federal protection of borders.

    Leonard Leo of the Federalist Society has done this – and if you want to understand what will happen understand that agenda.

    I don’t think Biden Bashing helps. At all. Maybe making Rupert Murdoch retire would.

    • Responses like that make me continually grateful to be a woman on this side of the border. Oh, and btw, all the G7 is helping Ukraine fight Putin’s war, not just America (though heaven forbid the rest of the world shouldn’t fall at the alter of American militarism) and yet you don’t see us flouting that as an excuse to being passive on women’s rights over their own bodies, or worse yet, dismissing it as “Biden bashing”. What a joke. And you’re wrong, women’s bodily rights of autonomy aren’t for the individual states to decide, nor SCOTUS for that matter – NOBODY has the right to tell a woman what she can or can’t do with her own damn body!!!!

      • I am glad you are over the border as well. Foreigners really should not weigh in on how the USA works, and tell us how we should do things, if they don’t know how the USA works. States Rights.

        • Ah, yes, Merica first! Do what you want and eff your neighbours! Here I thought we were supposed to be allies, silly me. Never mind that the three dissenting judges made reference to the fact that American women would now be forced to seek abortions in Toronto… “The challenge for a woman will be to finance a trip not to ‘New York [or] California’ but to Toronto.” or that Canada has to keep tightening our own gun laws to prevent your weaponry from crossing our border illegally.

          Every Canadian knows more about American politics than the average American. We know that Obama was blocked by Mitch McConnell from inserting Merrick Garland on SCOTUS after Scalia died because there was less than a year left of his term, but when when RBG died, McConnell had no problem inserting Serena Joy (ahem, Amy Coney Barrett) despite there being less than two months left of Trump’s term. We also know that Southern Republicans are quite fond of gerrymandering electoral boundaries to skew voting districts in the their favour, and suppressing black votes, but hey, no need to get upset about a human rights as long as the rights of individual states are protected!!! The rest of the world can see that the American empire is shrivelling fast than Trump’s ass but all you’re concerned about is Biden bashing. As for the Federalist Society, the fact that you even bring them up shows how lame your Republic has become – both they and Joe Munchkins have more power than Biden and the dems have these days.

          Sad that you think women’s rights over their own bodies are at the mercy of the state (federal or individual states). Here I thought they were at the discretion of the women themselves.

          • There is a useful article in the Guardian today – at least for those of us in the UK who don’t fully understand the situation. It makes some of the same points you have just made.

            https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jun/28/why-were-democrats-caught-flat-footed-by-the-end-of-roe-v-wade

            BTW. I agree with you that decisions taken in the USA have consequences and ramifications in neighbouring countries. However, I would have thought the private insurance schemes operating in both the USA and Canada would have had some limiting effect. In the end it is the poor who will pay the price (in more ways than one).

            For some reason I am reminded of a Rugby song (sung in the bar after matches).

            It’s the same the whole world over,
            It’s the poor what gets the blame,
            It’s the rich what gets the pleasure,
            Isn’t it a blooming shame?

            The rest of the song is unprintable – but polite versions are available.

          • If you hate the United States so much, why do you feel compelled to weigh in on anything we are doing? Why don’t you stop trying to control us, and go clean up your own house in Canada? Why don’t you just ignore us? Why does anything we are doing concern you? Yes, every American knows that McConnell blocked Garland. If you don’t think that is true, then you really do not understand at all. I think it is a little prideful on your part to think you know more about what is going on in the United States than people who live here do.

    • “This whole discussion is about States Rights versus Federal Rights – and if you want to understand the United States you need to understand that nuance and what it means.” @KT

      I’ve been saying something similar in respect of the EU and Brexit for years: if you want to understand Brexit you need to understand the relationship between the laws of EU member states and the laws of the EU.

      The boundaries between States/Federations and between States/Supranational Organisations (ie the EU) are very fluid. Most legal decisions are also, to some extent, political decisions, whether recognised as such or not.

      • Thanks Liz. There was a big fight about it – at the beginning of the country – Federal Rights and States Rights. We were not always joined together. There was a whole series of papers written by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay called the Federalist Papers. The Federalist Society – which has now packed the Supreme Court – is named based on that. There is this ongoing argument between the power of the states and the power of the Federal Government.

        I am very interested in what the EU is trying to do, and how that will work out. Seems like Europe has been trying to hash out these various relationships with each other for a while.

        • Whatever anyone might say (and I have made similar comments under other articles) the movement in Europe is/was from the ECSC (the European Coal and Steel Community) after WW11 to the Common Market (primarily concerned with trade and investment) and the EU as a more political entity as result of the Treaty of Rome, the Maastricht Treaty and the Treaty of Lisbon.

          The EU is the only supranational organisation, ever, and I don’t believe it is sustainable as such in the long term. The movement is definitely towards a United States of Europe. We have a lot to learn from the historical evolution of the USA and it’s current political issues.

          Attitudes in the EU towards Russia and the Ukraine are interesting and will probably define it’s future political direction. The Ukraine is certainly not applying to join the EU for trade and investment purposes only.

          • Thank you. I am making an effort to learn more about this. I have studied World War 2 and the Cold War, and I am learning more about World War 1. I would like to understand the direction Europe will end up heading into. My father lived in Europe for half my childhood, and really enjoyed it. it was in the 60’s and 70’s, so different then.

    • Thank you Marjorie.

      @kt There is no Biden bashing, it is an astrological interpretation like it or not. One cannot escape the stars, is what is is. “The progressives don’t know how to compromise“ they are just standing up to Manchin and the republicans who barely compromise at all and as a result Democrats allow themselves to get taken for a ride every time.
      That said… in the end the fault is with the entire American governing system which is breaking down because of its enormous flaws, from minority rule to the electoral college system, to the court system which is allowing federalist society to interfere and the special interest groups “political factions” which the founding fathers feared would tear the nation apart, but didn’t make any provisions about. The oldest democracies are parliamentary systems, and while no system is perfect, there is reason why every emerging democracy over the centuries has adopted a parliamentary system with proportional representation instead of the US system. The current US system is unsustainable, hence Pluto is exposing what needs to be exposed and will take care of what needs to be taken care of, most probably in the form of some sort of split or breakup. Biden just happens to be part of the moment.

      • I agree that the Parliamentarian System has a lot of benefits, up to and including not putting into power someone who has no experience in Government like Trump. There seems to be a mentoring that happens.

        Dig deeper into what is going on with the progressives and the other democrats. Jim Clyburn brought in the election to Joe Biden, and is a wonderful pragmatic moderate. There are many new Representatives that are being overlooked like Abigail Spanberger https://spanberger.house.gov/ in favor of some of the other individuals. Media works on advertising dollars. The more they can get people worked up – the more “eyeballs” they get. Someone doing their job and doing a good job does not attract the same amount of attention.

        Compromise is what moves things forward. In all this mess no one seems to have notices that the first major gun legislation in 28 years has passed the Senate – is on the way to the house and is going to be signed by Joe Biden. This was helmed by Chris Murphy (D-CT) – another moderate. Ever heard of him? No. Media eyeballs.

        I get tired – which is why I usually just ignore the whole thing when I can.

  22. Though Canadian, listening to Biden’s pathetic response to SCOTUS’ decision on RvW, I was aghast at how insufficiently angry he was compared to the enormity of the ruling. You’d think he was upset because they’d told him to stand in a corner!!! But hey, they managed to push through a single, minuscule piece gun legislation (minus any bans on AK-47’s!!!) for the first time in decades, so hey, let’s give ourselves a pat on the back for that, women be damned!!!! I guess I shouldn’t expect much from someone so willing to return Afghan women’s rights to warlords and militants. It’s just sad that if this response is all American (and Afghan) women can illicit from the president of the “free” world, where do they go from here? How do women not despair when even the leader of the liberal side of this baloney debate acts as if he has nothing more than a fly in his tea?

    • It’s more a sense of resignation by Biden and the Democratic leadership. They are well aware that the Republicans have them stalemated by controlling the vast majority of the state legislatures and governors. So little in the way of state legislation will emerge from the states. At the federal level, the Republicans control the House of Representatives and are equal in the Senate. And obviously the Judiciary as lead by the Supreme Court is very fundamentally conservative now. The President does NOT have overwhelming power as in other countries, there are significant limitations to that position. There is little he can do that could be undone by the courts or the legislature. His main power base is the general citizenry who best can project power at the election cycle. Midterms are not until mid 2024. There will be a lot of public frustration but little action to change things in the interim. Crazy ideas like building abortion clinics on federal land aren’t possible as the law now (via the Hyde amendment) is NO federal funding for abortions. Since the Democrats do not control the Senate or House then that will not change. In other words there will be a lot of harsh words from both sides but no action to change things except in a few states. ( not many). Sad for those women in need. The big push will be preserving abortion pill availability and travel to receive abortions in other states where it is still legal.

      • That is exactly right. I think Biden is trying to preserve the political capital he has for a fight he can win. He can’t win this one. The USA is not a monolith. It is a collection of states with great economic power.

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