‘But I am very poorly today & very stupid & hate everyone & everything’

- Charles Darwin. Letter to Charles Lyell, 1 October 1861

Everything else aside let's talk about how completely fucked and tone deaf it is for them to over turn the right to an abortion in the middle of a huge formula shortage. Like sure we're going to force you to carry these kids but good fucking luck feeding them. That's not our fucking problem. It makes me so damn sick.

Like number one, no one should be forced to be pregnant.

But also, if you're going ti try and push that rhetoric of oh but the children, then idk approve and fund social services that'll actually make it feasible to raise them. Instead of sentencing women to a life of poverty while the man can just fuck off with no responsibility. It's just so ludicrous and backwards and I don't get how anyone can support that thinking. Or why they feel the need to care about what anyone else does. Like if Susie q gets a damn abortion what effect does it have on your life Karen? Oh that's right, none.

Sorry for venting. I just am do mad right now.

No need to apologize. Anyone who isn't absolutely fucking furious right now isn't paying attention.

First, like... everyone knows that the baby formula crisis is also Trump's fault, right? His Shiny Special Deal in 2018 to replace/override NAFTA had a specific provision that banned the importation of baby formula from abroad, especially from Canada. (Because you know, America First.) So when the plants had to shut down earlier this year due to contamination, that made it literally impossible to supplement with supplies from other countries. Hence, the crisis. And yet, of course, nobody in the media mentioned this in their coverage of the situation, because that, like everything else in existence, was obviously Biden's Fault!!!

Next, as other people (and myself) have pointed out, the total lack of social services, funding, paid parental leave, affordable childcare, or literally anything else that would make raising a baby easier, is also by design. First, the Republicans don't give a shit about the kid after it's born; they only pretend to care about it beforehand for fake moral cred. Once it's born, that sucker is on its own, man! Especially if they can blame the mother for being a Loose Wimmen who shouldn't have dared to have sex if she didn't want to get pregnant. So yeah, who cares if you can afford to feed the kid, or clothe it, take care of it, or send it to school/daycare? That's up to you, slut! PULL YOURSELF UP BY YOUR BOOTSTRAPS!!!

As I have also said, and so has everyone else, this has absolutely nothing to do with "life," given as Republicans hate gun safety, vaccines against deadly and contagious diseases, or anything else that is designed to, you know, protect life. They don't care that abortion is a necessary medical procedure used to treat a wide range of failed pregnancies, and that women can and will die when it's withheld. They also don't think women have any function aside from serving as incubators for the next generation of Christofascist foot soldiers. This is why it is so fucking stupid to claim that "rich white women will always be able to get abortions!" They have been equally bald and obvious about stating that they want more white babies. The racist asshat who massacred African-American grocery shoppers in Buffalo literally referred to falling white birthrates and the white supremacist "replacement theory" that Tucker Carlson and his fellow slime have been spouting off about for years. That is literally what the "you will not replace us" slogan MEANS: they are terrified of becoming the numerical plurality in America, let alone the minority, and are desperate to force more white women to have more white babies, to outnumber all those pesky people of color. As I have said, Fascism 101.

Likewise, the evangelical Christian adoption industry makes big, big bucks, they want more grist for the mill, and if you give your baby to them, they will be happy to raise it as a cheery little fascist. This is also why they don't want to give any support to people who find themselves stuck in an unwanted pregnancy, and like to push the "you can just give it up for adoption!!" line so hard. They likewise don't care about the bodily trauma and life-changing medical experience that it is to be pregnant for 9 months and then being forced to give birth. Because they are fucking monsters.

Anyway. It's all so disgusting and terrible on every level. I don't know what else to say apart from that, so... yeah.

It’s RSV Season — Please Keep Your Sick Kids Home

It happens every winter.

Sniffling, runny nose, coughing so badly he can’t sleep. It’s like I can measure the change in seasons by the change in his health.

I pull the nebulizer from a cabinet in the hall. Hello old friend, I think.

He cries when he sees it. “Do I have to?” he asks. 

“Yes, buddy,” I say. “It will make you feel better.” And so we put on the mask.

This has been our ritual since my son was two years old. He’s seven now, so you would think we would be ready for it by now. But every year it sneaks up on us. 

You see, when he was just barely two, my son contracted RSV. When he first showed signs, I took him to urgent care to be checked out just in case. I was the crazy first-time mom who was always taking her coughing baby to the doctor. It’s probably just a cold, they told me. 

But 48 hours later, I knew something wasn’t right. He had only gotten worse, and I could see his little chest puffing in and out, working hard to get air into his lungs. We went to the pediatrician, and that is when we got the news: It was RSV. 

His blood oxygen levels were low and the pediatrician ordered a breathing treatment to help clear his lungs. He sent us home with a prescription for albuterol, a nebulizer, and strict instructions to conduct breathing treatments every four hours. 

And he wanted to see us back first thing in the morning to check Andrew’s blood oxygen levels again. 

This repeated for a whole week. Constant breathing treatments. Trips to the pediatrician every day to check the blood oxygen levels. If they dropped, we would have to go straight to the hospital.

Thankfully, they never did. 

But this was our new reality. Maybe he had asthma all along and the RSV just aggravated it. Maybe we would have always ended up with a kiddo who struggles to breathe when the weather changes and has to endure breathing treatments to get by.

We got so lucky. There are many families who aren’t as blessed. They end up with babies in the hospital, hooked to monitors, fighting for their lives.

The thing about RSV is that it is SO dangerous, and SO contagious. For an older kid, it’s just a cold. But it is so much more deadly for newborns and younger kids. 

I know so many parents who see their coughing child as just an inconvenience. They send them to school or daycare anyway because they aren’t running a fever.

Andrew never ran a fever with RSV. 

This time of year, please be mindful. Your kiddo could have RSV and you don’t even realize it. They could be spreading this virus, endangering every child they come into contact with.

Please, please, please keep your sick kids home.

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