continuing proofs America is wacko [3]

That's odd, I would have thought there would be more mass shootings in the scary bit in the middle, but it looks like the two coasts are the worst from that map.

more people on the coasts. People tend to become more community oriented as the density decreases, and though you may find more wild talk it's mainly focussed on theoretical "others" outside the community.

'A massive multi-agency manhunt including the FBI and U.S. Marshals continued Monday morning stemming from a shooting on Sunday in Austin and an armed former sheriff's detective is wanted for killing at least three people near an apartment complex.'

'A Chicago dad was seriously injured, and his seven-year-old daughter was killed by gunshots while they were sitting in a drive-thru at a McDonald’s Sunday afternoon.'

'At least five people were hospitalized Sunday following a shooting in Shreveport, Louisiana, according to reports.'

{{ And thats all in just one day. Its not even that these shootings are a monthly horror any more, or weekly, they seem to be daily now. In fact multiple in a single day. }}

It's become normalized among the fringe that's prone to this kind of thing.

{{ I have 2 basic questions for the US folk here after todays Supreme Court ruling-

1. Whats the difference between this and the Taliban enforcing how and what women can do? What now seperates the US from any other religous nutjob country?

2. How can America claim to be a democracy when there is no seperation between Government and Courts? How can it be a democracy when unelected political appointee judges can rewrite law and overturn the elected will of the people based on religous belief?


As an addition I also note one of the Trump appointees says this is only the start and gives the examples of the right to contraception, sodomy being legal, and same sex marriage as the next targets to overturn.

America as far as social policy goes may as well be Saudi, or Iran or Afghanistan.
I grew up with this idea of America as the Home of the Free, a stalwart bastion of modern society and individual liberty and freedom. That was utterly dismantled and destroyed today. }}

Don't get me started on this shit. If they ban contraception they have gone full on Handmaids Tale.

I was wondering when somebody was going to bring this up.

So far the Supreme Court hasn't banned anything except an interpretation of the constitution that says abortion of non-viable fetuses is a given right. Where they may go from there is anybody's guess, but I don't think Clarence Thomas's fever dreams about contraception will take root.

I've always considered the court case in question (Roe v. Wade or more correctly the one that followed it that nobody remembers) something that would have made excellent compromise legislation of a difficult topic but was in fact very shaky constitutional law. Unfortunately I don't see congress filling the void with equivalent legislation in my lifetime. We're going to get a morass of varying state level legislation instead, with further division.

the Supreme Court hasn't banned anything- Halfwise

{{ The overall effect for millions of American women is the same as if they had, and they knew that. As soon as this passed entire States instantly made it a crime with years in prison and massive fines. May as well be the Taliban as far as all the women in those states are concerned.

As to the 'fever dream' its already started with this, I honestly see nothing now to prevent the Trump judges from going ahead as they say and going after other 'liberal' policies they dont like because of their nutty religious beliefs. }}

yep, what is there to stop them banning contraception. But can't Biden do an executive order and enlarge the court to include more liberal Democrats to nix the nutters little plans to turn women into brood cows?

Biden can't do it, only congress can.

As for whether abortion has been banned, It's a subtle distinction.  The court decision says states are not obligated to make abortion legal.  Granted as Petty says many states immediately made it illegal and the Supreme Court of course knew this would happen. But on a national level it's not banned and I doubt it will be.

The thing is that I agree there is nothing in the constitution that clearly pertains to abortion, much less a compromise rule.  I think it will be at least a decade before the most conservative states see the pain a strict ban causes and come up with compromise legislation, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

America has become more and more a third world country, with the large disparity between rich and poor, barely existent nationalized healthcare, poor infrastructure, large numbers of guns floating among the population, loss of faith in the election process and mobs attacking the capital.  This will just add to it.

{{ If Im not mistaken the right is attached to the 14th Amendment. In which case its a right protected at the federal not state level. Giving it to the states to decide would be like giving the states the decision on making fire arms completely illegal- which I am sure republicans would oppose and fight on the basis its a protected national right under the Constitution and states cant do that. }}

You mean 2nd amendment.

{{2nd is guns isnt it? I mean the 14th- the one abortion was tied to as a right protected under the constitution in the original Roe v Wade ruling.
To clarify my point was if the court ruled states could decide if guns were legal or not Republicans would go nuts saying its protected nationwide by the 2nd amendment.
Even though abortion was too under the 14th. }}

You're getting into a murky part of constitutional law.  The fifth and 14th amendments say that no-one can be deprived of liberty....without due process.  (5th pertains to the federal government; 14th extended this to state and local governments).  "liberty" was eventually interpreted to include privacy, and restrictions on abortion were seen as a matter of privacy.  But agreeing that governments also had a responsibility to protect children, the freedom of abortion was declared not absolute, and was first limited the first trimester, then redefined in terms of fetal viability.

You can see how much of a stretch this all is.  Nobody can shake the 5th and 14th and anybody's face and say "see! abortion is a constitutional right!"  It's simply not obvious and has always been controversial. It really demands congressional legislation, but that's pulling back from calling it a right.  There is no easy road ahead.

Haha, what a great week.

Turns out that Angela Davis is directly descended from the first people to go over on the Mayflower. You know, the people who founded one of the first European colonies. She was not chuffed. irony is some weird shit.