this post was submitted on 25 Feb 2024
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The senator did not seem to understand that the ruling on embryos would lead to fewer children being born, not more.

One of the most maddening aspects of the Republican plot to control women’s bodies is that, in many cases, these people couldn’t pass a ninth-grade biology class (and oftentimes, it’s more like fifth grade). Yes, from claiming an ectopic pregnancy can be reimplanted to suggesting that the anatomy of a human female is no different from that of, say, a dog or a horse, the conservatives trying to take away reproductive rights and bodily autonomy often have no idea what the f--k they’re talking about. And Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville is obviously no exception.

When asked on Thursday if he had “a reaction to the Alabama Supreme Court ruling on the fact that embryos are children,” Tuberville said, “Yeah, I was all for it. We need to have more kids, we need to have an opportunity to do that, and I thought this was the right thing to do.” Informed that IVF is a method by which people are able to have children when they otherwise could not, and that some clinics have paused the procedure as a result of the ruling, Tuberville responded, “Well, that’s for another conversation. We need more kids. We need people to have the opportunity to have kids.”

After another reporter asked what he had to “say to the women right now in Alabama who no longer have access to IVF, and will not, as a result of this ruling,” a clearly stumped Tuberville answered: “That’s a hard one. It really is. Really hard. ’Cause, again, you want people to have that opportunity…. We need more kids.”

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Except for the fact that ‘village idiot’ doesn’t narrow it down much with the GOP, that is a good name for him.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (3 children)

personally, i would like to know why more kids are needed exactly?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

America's economic system depends on impossible infinite growth. Gotta have an infinitely growing population to keep that rolling.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Globally, while the world doesn't need more humans, and a decrease wouldn't be a bad thing, the birth rate needs to be close enough to the death rate that the population doesn't drop too fast. If it does, an aging population will suffer as there aren't enough working age people to support the retired. Boomers will be fine, as will genx most likely, but Millennials and Zoomers would get hit.
Globally the population is still rising, but some parts of the world already have the issue with not enough children being born to support the current workers. The solution is immigration, which is where the likes of Tubberville take issue. They're concerned that the right kids are being born.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago

We need more grist for the mill.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

More disturbing, is that I was scrolling past this post, and went back because I thought that was Bill Murray in the image and wanted to know what he did.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (3 children)

There needs to be a "federal tutor" position that collates, issues, and grades tests given to the idiots voting on these laws. If you fail, your vote doesn't count.

No, a senator shouldn't have to know differential calculus nor a govenor, endocrinology. But they should be able to source people who can supply them with the right answers.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

While I understand where the sentiment is coming from, the country has a really racist history with tying voting to tests. Literacy tests were illegally used to stop black people from voting in the wake of the civil war, because black people were (at the time) fresh out of slavery and largely illiterate.

Black people had recently been given the right to vote, but states went “ah but you need to either own land (which was only white people, because the freshly freed slaves couldn’t afford to buy land,) or pass a written test (which was designed so literate white people could pass, but illiterate black people couldn’t) first.” It was a blatant way to disenfranchise the new black voters and prevent them from having a voice and representation in congress.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

They have access to such people any time they want. The problem is that experts never seem to tell them what they want to here.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

A random hick with a mail order extremist evangelist pastor diploma isn't a real expert? Who would have thought.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What you are describing was the original definition of “lobbyist.” They were supposed to be experts from their field who would assist and inform legislators in crafting related laws and regulations.

What they became was a legalized bribery machine.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Ah, there we go. I was sure it would be corrupted in some way to be shitty. I was banking on bullshit complaints about the nature of correctness, whenever some idiot failed the test. But buying it out directly is smarter.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 8 months ago (1 children)

His name conjures up a fetid town of incestuous slack-jawed yokels.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

I see you've been to his constituency.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago

Republicans: He's got my vote!

[–] [email protected] 26 points 8 months ago

"But it's got what plants crave!?"

[–] [email protected] 46 points 8 months ago (1 children)

"it's the birth rates. It's the birth rates. It's the birth rates."

  • Christchurch murderer's "manifesto"

Hey look, behind the tissue-thin facade of the 'sanctity of life' is not only deep-rooted misogyny but, whaddya know, more racism.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

And they're so goddamn fucking stupid that they can't even do it right, and pass a law that does the fucking opposite.

At least until they get their handmaids assigned to them in a few years I guess.... Then there will be plenty of (white) kids!

[–] [email protected] 51 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

They just want to make sure that the law banning abortion is so layered that removing it will be nearly impossible. The ones in power cheering this on can travel wherever they want to take care of whatever they need so it's not a law that applies to them.

The amount of energy wasted on this topic to distract us from all the other practical ways they fuck us is astounding. We should be talking about healthcare reform. We should be calling for major reform / bans on PAC money. We should be reversing things like sales taxes in favor of wealth taxes. We should be enshrining more labor rights in the fucking constitution.

Nope, let's all just focus on abortion and IVF. Problems that truly will never exist for the affluent (read: politically powerful or influential)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Sales tax is fine, with carve outs for food and essentials. Do you live somewhere that charges sales tax on food? Campaign for removing that and see if you can help.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

The rich spend a far lower proportion of their income than the poor. Which is why they like sales taxes.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Sales tax is fine

Show me how this does not disproportionately effect the bottom 50% and how it doesn't strongly favor the wealthy and then i'll agree with your statement that justifies the rest of what you're saying.

Sales tax is not fine. The poor pay more than the rich. This is a problem that lets the rich get richer while the poor have less and less.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 8 months ago (1 children)

In theory, sales taxes are great because they apply at the point where any given thing is entering the economy and not when it is produced (in effect, super efficient from a macroeconomic tax policy standpoint). In reality they have the largest negative impact on the poor/middle class and almost no impact on the rich. Basically, they take from those who can least afford it which is the opposite of an ideal tax system.

Sales taxes are also some of the biggest government bureaucracies that exist. The most complicated tax laws are all about sales taxes because they're the perfect place to punish types of consumption that are bad for society (e.g. cigarettes, gas guzzler taxes, etc). This leads to endless specifications about how much and whether or not sales tax should apply to any given good.

Income taxes are much better from an, "ideal tax system" standpoint. The only major flaw with them is the endless exemptions and loopholes that the US version has built up over time. If there weren't so many exceptions, exemptions, and complexity it would benefit everyone... Even those that endlessly lobby to lower their tax burden.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

imo wealth taxes make the most sense. Tax every organization and individual equally. The ones with the most pay the most. The ones with nothing pay nothing.

Encourages spending what you have and not hoarding onto wealth for the sake of hoarding wealth.

imo the nonprofit system and tax exemption is broken. That's why you have incredibly affluent people who own and operate a "foundation" where all their wealth resides, because putting the wealth there was a tax writeoff and they are still the owner, beneficiary and controller of the assets that are no longer "theirs". Sauce: https://www.propublica.org/article/how-private-nonprofits-ultrawealthy-tax-deductions-museums-foundation-art

[–] [email protected] 28 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Oh he knows what it actually does- it effectively criminalizes the sort of health care tangentially related to abortion, and when you've driven reproductive health care out of your state and made it illegal to travel to get it, you're that much closer to having total control over women's bodies. He doesn't give a shit about babies, he knows that defining embryos as babies will give reactionaries and jurists the ability to treat women of child-bearing age as presumptively criminal if they don't seem to know 'their place'.

The whole pretending-to-care-about-babies or life is just a pretext to make pursuit of the thing they really care about- controlling women- socially respectable.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago

Something else to think about.. IVF is expensive, so often only done by well-educated adults who have enough disposable income to go through with the procedure. This would result in well-fed, educated, healthy children, who we all know will be more likely to vote progressive, not join the military, not end up in the prison system etc. He doesn't just want babies, he wants poor babies.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I don't disagree with your point but this guy is really really dumb. I wouldn't put it past his narcissistic ass to not even read an article let alone follow legal cases.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Remember when trump was “predisent” and this kind of batshit turd circus was, like, a Wednesday?

I do not miss that. At all.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 8 months ago (2 children)

Rate we're going unless Trump strokes out its going to be another 4 years of this shit.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

I'm also worried that if he doesn't win, he will run in every election for the rest of his life

[–] [email protected] 12 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Putin has all hands on deck to make sure his boy gets back in but he is much sneakier this time. Well organized or well financed protests against Biden aren't as "spontaneous" as it seems. Many news articles that attack or deride Biden will be subtly influenced. Most will never suspect - that's the mark of good cyops and Russia may be the best.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

*psyops - from psychological operations

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago (1 children)

No no no! It’s “spy” misspelled to hide it, and -ops from Octopus, because Putin and the spyze are like the testicles, wriggling around.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

the study of E. T.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Isn't this the guy who was arguing over the definition of white nationalism while saying he was against racism?

Oh, he changed his mind..

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