Pro-Lifers will Kill if they must?

Pro-lifers will kill anyone that gets in their way. I'm serious. And that's their disconnect with reality and what makes every one of them look so clueless...they look dumb.

The arrogance of the religious right and its narrow vision of pro-life has always baffled me. Thankfully, everyone is now confronting these phonies with a list actual pro-life issues like health care, clean air, clean water, safe food, vaccinations, and climate change into the discussion, dumbfounding these one issue misinformed zealots who don't seem to understand the consequences of their actions. 

This Piers Morgan moment says it all, and should be made standard practice for anyone confronted by such emotionally disconnected people:  

Speaking to pro-life guest Becky Gerritson, host Piers Morgan questioned her about why she doesn't believe a rape victim should have the right to terminate a pregnancy. He added: "Do you support the death penalty?"

When Becky said that she did, Piers continued: "So you aren’t actually pro-life then. You take life left, right and center. Life is life. Alabama legally takes people's lives when they do things wrong."

Becky responded, "One is in punishment for a crime and it’s justice, it’s completely different. I have a right to carry a gun and I do carry a gun at times and I hope that I never have to use it."

Piers Morgan asked, "You would shoot someone if you had to?"

Becky said she "absolutely" would.

Piers: "People in Alabama would take life with guns, they would take life with executions, and yet they want us to think that if a woman is to have an abortion if they are raped or get impregnated through incest is because you are pro-life, I get it."

The Pro-Life Lie Busted, and Trump's Chinese 2020 reelection U.S. Flags! Blame Robots for WI Clinton Loss!!!

Here's a couple of topics I want to clear off the table as the new week begins:

As President Donald Trump levies tariffs and threats against China for “stealing American jobs,” a Chinese factory says it’s been hired to manufacture flags for Trump’s 2020 campaign, according to a Tuesday episode of NPR’s “Indicator” podcast.

Factory owner Li Jiang told NPR that his workers are producing hundreds of thousands of blue and white Trump flags similar to those they manufactured for his 2016 campaign.

Pro-Life they Ain't: For years I've been saying supposed pro-life groups really aren't what they say they are, since so many more people are dying from guns, lack of healthcare, and polluted air. They could equally take on these issues if they wanted to but instead chose to totally ignore life after birth. Thank you, Michelle Wolf, the right wings latest declared enemy of freedom: 

“I know some people call themselves ‘pro-life,’ but pro-life is a propaganda term that isn’t real, like healthy ice cream and handsome testicles,” she said on “The Break.” “Get the terminology straight.” Then she really unloaded:

“First of all, these people are anti-abortion, which means they’re anti-woman. If these people were actually pro-life, they would be fighting hard for healthcare, childcare, gun control, education and protecting the environment. But these anti-abortion people do not care about life, they just care about birth.

Robotics/Automation killed Clinton's chances in Wisconsin: While most of us still get angry over offshoring and cheap overseas labor replacing the U.S. workforce, we never noticed...the robots:

The big picture: In a new paper in the Oxford Review of Economist Policy, U.K. economist Carl Frey and two co-authors argue that the 2016 U.S. presidential election — and the effects of industrial automation during the decades before — may be a signal of worse to come.

1. From 1979 to 2013, productivity rose by 65% but hourly wages for 80% of the workforce were up by just 8.2%. Since they were also working more hours as well, they may have lost ground.

2. And from 2000 to 2013, wages for 70% of workers were either flat or fell.

To assess any link between automation and the 2016 election, the authors used local mechanization data from the International Federation of Robotics and county-level voting data from Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. They say they controlled for other factors in joblessness — like offshoring of manufacturing and trade deals. Among their results:

1. There is a correlation between automation in the years before the election, and how people voted.

2. At a 10% lower robot exposure, Michigan would have swung in favor of Clinton.

3. If robots barely increased in the years leading up to 2016, Clinton would also have won Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

Pro-Life says Abortions cause boyfriends to beat up women.

A bizarre Tweet...

...sent me to this story that quite frankly, left me stunned. Want to know what "pro-life" really means to conservative? Let's just say that bad women who get abortions bring this on themselves....

They love life don't they? Time to blame the victim. Check out the sick concluding paragraph:

Despite her obvious injuries and unconscious state, Billinger, 51, chose not to call for help and instead sat down in the living room of Ms Granger’s Newlyn flat. Ms Granger, who was ill with serious liver disease at the time of the assault, was taken to hospital where it was discovered that she had also suffered a perforated liver in the vicious beating. Garth Richardson, for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Her prognosis is not good.”

While abortion activists like to talk about how abortion is supposedly beneficial for relationships, this is one of countless stories LifeNews has reported over the years showing either a partner engaging in violence towards a wife or girlfriend who has had an abortion or a husband or boyfriend attacking his partner because she refused to have an abortion. Either way, it’s additional evidence that abortion is not beneficial for women or their relationships.

GOP presidential candidates speak in service of narrow and politicized Faith & Freedom Coalition's interests!

On the heels of hearing every Republican presidential hopeful criticize Pope Francis’ latest statements about climate change and capitalism, the three-day Faith & Freedom Coalition saw these same hypocrites preaching the gospel of Christ, the conservative supply side Jesus they know and love so much. Hell, who does the infallible Pope think he is anyway? Politico: 

The ones who found particular favor with their audience described a conservative Christian community under siege by government, Democrats and an increasingly godless society. Rand Paul called for cutting foreign aid to countries that “persecute Christians.” And Ted Cruz warned that a Supreme Court decision legalizing gay marriage would amount to “naked and lawless judicial activism.” Gov. Bobby Jindal warned of an “assault on religious liberty” in America. 

Jeb Bush invoked Terri Schiavo ... (ending with)“If we act on our faith everyday, we’re going to create a more just, more loving world.”

A truly contradictory statement after Jeb Bush stated this the other day:

"I don't think we should politicize our faith … I don't get economic policy from my bishops or my cardinals or my pope … I think religion ought to be … less about things that end up getting in the political realm.

And yes, after bashing the Pope unmercifully…

The candidates are betting that the moment is right to mobilize evangelicals and other Christians worried about the erosion of religious values in America. 

Think they lack a little self-awareness? 

The Pope's encyclical centered on a very broad pro-life agenda, a point missed by our Republican pharisees. Despite Chris Christie's lack of concern for climate change, which will have a major effect on food supplies and result in millions of premature deaths around the world, the concept he has of being pro-life missed the mark: 

Gov. Chris Christie said, “I believe if you are pro-life, as I am, you need to be pro-life for the whole life. You can’t just afford to be pro-life when the human being is in the womb.”

Republicans let Babies Die in Wisconsin!!!

And they care so much about fertilized eggs? My how the value of life changes after birth.

Oh, and wouldn't you know it, Wisconsin Right to Life, Pro-Life Wisconsin, Choose Life America haven't said a thing ever. No fight to choose life, save babies.  

jsonline: Two Republican committee chairs are blocking bipartisan legislation that would require all newborn babies in the state to be tested for critical congenital heart disease, the number one killer of infants with birth defects, despite a federal recommendation by medical experts two years ago. The quick, non invasive test costs $4 per baby. Across the nation, at least 32 states have followed the federal recommendation and passed laws mandating testing.

Yet these phony protectors of fertilized eggs, our self-righteous “pro-life” politicians, think it’s silly and are showing their true colors just by their lack of concern and footdragging:

State Rep. Erik Severson (R-Star Prairie), an emergency room doctor who chairs the Assembly's committee on health, says he considers the heart disease bill unnecessary and "kind of silly" as many hospitals are screening babies voluntarily.

National Treasurer of ALEC, Sen. Leah Vukmir, is even more outrageously confused over what you would assume is an easy one. Hell, it's just a life saving $4 test...for babies for gods sake:

Contradiction #1: She believes decisions about newborn screening should be made by an existing committee of medical professionals, not state lawmakers. But the expert committee ... "strongly" recommended screening all infants in Wisconsin for critical congenital heart disease, two years ago.

Contradiction #2: According to Vukmir, Wisconsin law does not allow this committee to recommend tests completed at the hospital.

Contradiction #3: Now, the senator says she is preparing a new measure to ensure that the heart disease test is decided in the same manner as other newborn screening tests. But that process still leaves final approval to the group Vukmir believes ill-equipped to decide such questions: the state Legislature.

A bit confused?

Big Money Hospitals put Profits over Babies: Yes, the Wisconsin Hospital Association is against it. Something about the horror of mandates.

"We are disappointed that a bill that would create a well-intentioned but unnecessary mandate on hospitals, physicians, nurses and their patients..."

A mandate on "patients," like they would object to spending $4 to save their baby?

Yet politicians did mandate a forced and unnecessary medical procedure like an ultrasound, but this mandate gets debated?

Here's what's at stake:

The heart association says about 544 of the 68,000 babies born in Wisconsin in 2010 had a congenital heart defect. In 136 of the babies, the defect was critical and required early detection and intervention.

"With up to 30 percent of (critical congenital heart disease) cases going undetected in the delivery center, that means nearly 40 newborns in Wisconsin may have been discharged in 2010 with an undiagnosed critical congenital heart defect," the heart association said in a statement.

…undiagnosed critical congenital heart disease face consequences ranging from death to brain damage and a lifetime of disabilities, said Berger, the pediatric cardiologist … "It's all preventable."

Vukmir and Severson ideologically detest mandates, even this one, and that's all that matters now in our red state. Mandate supporters just aren't making any sense:

state Sen. Jerry Petrowski (R-Marathon), the bill's lead sponsor in the Senate. "I am disappointed it is not a reality already. Doing this testing will save lives."

"We're not the Third World," said state Sen. Tim Carpenter (D-Milwaukee), a co-sponsor and member of Vukmir's committee. "This is just something that's such a no-brainer. It costs so little....And it's a huge cost-preventor."

I think this mother said it best for all of us:

Buena-Franco, the Oak Creek mother whose son was saved by the test, said she can understand how a false positive might upset a parent.

But "as a parent," she said, "you'd be more (upset) going into your child's bedroom and finding out that they've passed in their sleep."

Republican Legislators to form "Choose Life Wisconsin" with Pro-Life License Plate.

Did you ever hear of "Choose Life Wisconsin?" It doesn't exist, yet! You won't believe this.

"Choose Life Wisconsin" will be created by Republican lawmakers. Our one party government is creating it's own conservative advocacy groups now. And this is only the beginning of what will be a very slippery slope. 

The money collected from that annual fee would go directly to Choose Life Wisconsin, a private, pro-life organization.

"Choose Life Wisconsin" will be is a far right wing anti-abortion/anti-contraception state creation, funded by a taxpayer mandated personalized license plate fees. Let's be clear; this is a big government attempt to control women's health care by "get government out of health care" Republicans. It doesn't matter whether the plate is something a person chooses to buy or not. This is state sanctioned zealotry via licensing fees.  

A Republican state lawmaker wants Wisconsin to produce and sell a license plate to promote pro-life views. Rep. Andre Jacque (R-Bellevue) introduced an Assembly bill that would allow Wisconsin to add a special license plate that reads "Choose Life," with child-like drawings of two children's faces. There would be an added charge of $15 for the specialty plate, and an annual fee of $25.

But this was the buried headline in the story below from WKOW. 

The money won’t go to public health services, but instead it would go to a what would be a fringe “pro-life” organization. But it’s a nonprofit. Since when should a state fee be given to any controversial group like Choose Life Wisconsin? Wasn't that the reason Rep. Robin Vos gave for pulling state funding from Planned Parenthood? Yes, that's what Vos said. 

I’d also like to point out the way WKOW chose to phrase the following paragraph, portraying the Democratic response as “stoking the flames?” Wrong. Isn't Rep. Andre Jacque doing that? 

In response, Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) is stoking the flames even more. She's introduced legislation to establish a specialty plate that would read: Support Planned Parenthood.

Even worse, Jacque’s agenda becomes even “more transparent” when he decides for us what non-profit volunteer organization “people recognize” as positive for the community. And he’s not talking about Planned Parenthood. Big surprise?

"I think that's maybe a little more transparent as to what their goals are, but this really is to just provide assistance to these non-profit, volunteer organizations that I think people recognize do very positive things for the community," said Rep. Jacque.

I liked this comment at RH Reality Check:

“Now I have to petition my state representative to introduce an amendment to the bill that would simultaneously create "Choose Freedom" license plates to fund the as-yet-non-existent charity Choose Freedom Wisconsin, which will help fund contraceptive and abortion care and combat anti-abortion propaganda centers (also known as "crisis pregnancy centers").”

I'm also wonder if the Wisconsin Catholic Conference, who advocates against the death penalty, will like the use of their name?  

Finally, is Rep. Jacque proposing this now to fire up the base for the upcoming recall election?

"Black Children are in Danger" Billboards Race Baiting Campaign by Pro-Life Wisconsin.

You would think that "choice" would mean just that, the choice of women to continue a pregnancy or not. Any disparities in the number of black and white abortions is based on choice, and not on any policy Planned Parenthood has in place. But you would never see that same common sense and logic applied to policies coming from of Pro-Life Wisconsin, as their billboard campaign reveals.

CapitalTimes: Pro-Life Wisconsin has teamed up with a national anti-abortion campaign to place 13 billboards in the city of Milwaukee blaming the high numbers of African American abortions in our state on what the groups claim is "Planned Parenthood's history of racism and the continuing eugenics movement in Wisconsin."

"Wisconsin is the eighth lowest state nationally in the number of abortions, but the racial disparity in its numbers far exceeds the national trends," said the communications director of Pro-Life Wisconsin. There are two different billboards.

The first billboard states "Black Children are in Danger: Too Many Aborted," in enormous letters on a black field; the second states "Black and Beautiful: Too Many Aborted."

These are sick crazy people on the fringe of society.

Related articles

• Controversial Anti-Abortion Education Campaign at UNT (speedofcreativity.org)