Hi Dannyboy, glad your journey resulted in the twins. Here you can have 12 months unpaid maternity leave with the option to take a further 12 months unpaid leave. The 18 weeks is paid but as I said before at the minimum wage. It would be good if parents could have that 12 months paid so they can bond with their child. It seems the world over that both parents need to work and juggle child rearing.
Best wishes
@thebeast No worries! No offense was taken. I will definitely be happy for her to find ones to cherish her when she crosses over to Home! I will make her as peaceful and easy as can be while here...but I know that there are no liver transplants for cats and that all I can do is love and help her here until she goes Home. Perhaps a little selfishly I do not look forward to the hurt my heart will feel when she leaves. Even though I know love never dies it just changes form... it still hurts when they leave for that better place...leaving me behind until I get to go back there.
Who wants some good news?
It was a rough election night for many in our community here . As I was listening to the dark election projections this wonderful and bright news alert hit my phone. I offer it as a message of hope for all who are disappointed and depressed right now.
The Arizona Supreme Court did something fantastic on this election eve. It gives me hope and shines a bright light as a reminder that when we are experiencing unconscionable political actions and mind-boggling inhumane legislative acts, it is important to hold on to hope. Justice and sanity CAN prevail.
The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state Legislature illegally passed a ban on mask mandates and other COVID-19 protocols by adding a series of measures in unrelated budget bills.
The unanimous decision was announced just two hours after the high court heard arguments in the state's appeal.
The landmark decision, upholding a lower-court ruling against the Republican-controlled Legislature, has both short- and long-term impacts:
- State laws banning COVID-19 mandates by schools, universities and governments remain on hold.
- The ruling appears to nullify several controversial bills that have nothing to do with spending but were stuffed into this year's state budget. Among them: a ban on mandatory COVID-19 mitigation strategies, including the use of face coverings; limits on the Democratic secretary of state's powers; and restrictions on what schools can teach about race.
- In the long term, the ruling could bring to an end the Legislature's way of getting things done. The lawsuit took aim at the practice of "logrolling" - trading votes on a budget in exchange for a lawmaker's pet piece of legislation that might have nothing to do with a budget.
In affirming the lower court ruling, the Supreme Court agreed that the practice of stuffing budget bills with unrelated policy legislation violated the state Constitution's "single-subject rule" for bills.
Wanted to share this with y'all, I found this deeply helpful and enlightening view at the democratic party. I think I've always idolized Obama a bit too much because of who came before and after him so this was a good "check" for me. Let me know what y'all think.
So I was randomly talking to someone on an gaming channel and one thing led to another and the topic of Babylon 5 and a storyline in the first season of the show, in the episode Parliament of Dreams, came up.
There is something super touching about this and I wanted to share it. Its about the plurality of human faith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAWI2Ue0uDA
@blackandwhite Good read and good points but I do have some issues.
As far as my personal beliefs on Obama, I was disappointed after his first term but thinking about it after everything that has happened, I would gladly take 8 more years of Obama. I went through my libertarian phase. I voted third party as a protest vote since I knew Obama was probably going to win reelection anyways. When you run on change we need and nothing really seems to change then disappointment sets in. The pizza order analogy is a good one. But it's not like I jumped off the deep end and started kissing Trump's fat rear end.
First off, I have a problem with the FDR analogy. FDR had a major, major mandate and majorities in Congress for over a decade plus The Great Depression and WWII. Today's parties could only dream on having those types of majorities. FDR also didn't have the other major party basically state it was going to oppose EVERYTHING he was going to do. Plus even if he did, he had filibuster proof majorities. Come on people quit with the FDR comparisons.
Secondly, talking about the majority that Obama did have, it was technically enough to overcome a filibuster in the Senate until January 2010 but it was not a progressive majority. Democrats won back the majority in Congress in 2006 and expanded in 2008 plus special elections but let's not act like this was a progressive blue wave. Many Democrats won because they were moderate Democrats or so called Blue Dog Democrats. Once again not a mandate to dismantle the system and rebuild.
Thirdly, Obama was the first African American president in our history or half if you want to get technical. He not only had to represent himself but an entire race. If he started actually making major changes every racists and/or Republican would have been screaming this what you get for electing a black (I'm sure they would have used another word) president. We told you so! He had to balance on a tight rope and even then part of the Republican party lost their crap and literally wanted to go back 3 centuries. Also, questioned if he was even born in the U.S. because of the color of his skin. Racism is alive and well.
That being said, Obama did use a lot of political capital and time on passing the ACA and even tried to work with Republicans. Republicans negotiated in bad faith, wasted time, and just delayed it. A misstep by the Democratic party and Obama when other things could be in the works. It's easy to criticize with hindsight of the current iteration of the GOP. But let's not kid ourselves that there was going to be sweeping legislation that would make major changes. Democrats are still beholden to corporations and money. I point out my previous issues with the podcasters debating he could have been the next FDR! They are looking at it through a 2021 lens.
I will be very impressed if Biden can get $2.25T in new social and infrastructure spending given the slimmest of majorities. You still have idiot Democrats living in 2009 trying to be moderate and compromise with Republicans. You got the bipartisan bill with $500b in new infrastructure spending ( working with Republicans check) plus the $1.75 in social spending (appealing to progressives check). I think given circumstances that's about as good as it gets. I'll argue that is better than nothing. Democrats do not have a major mandate at this time.
I think the podcasters' ideas need to used in the present and going forward and not retroactively put back on Obama.
@herukane https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IydexlGiAxA
I personally like this one, don't know why.
""The past tempts us, the present confuses us, the future frightens us, and our lives slip away moment by moment, lost in that vast terrible in between...."
@jsr78 Its a good one. Honestly Bablyon 5 is full of moments like that. Of both quiet introspection and loud bangs. Speeches and speeches galore. Its a great series. And it shows us to hope.
Also a lot of what the Minbari talk about could be applied to this site. That and the Rangers and the mysterious things said by the Vorlons (when they were on the more good side of things, hehe).
I love the show so much.
@herukane The Vorlons are the people that I've always thought that if aliens were out there they would look like the Vorlons. Kosh was awesome and then they went nuts out of grief after Kosh died. It had everything; science, technology, prophecy, psychics, older alien races and younger ones and how they interact. It was so alien yet so human. My all time favorite scifi show, Deep Space Nine was a close second.
@polarberry I recommend reading this part of this post by @herukane :
Oh, on the element of the Judicial Department I really really, REALLY, have to strongly urge everyone here not to be upset about the slowness. Justice is not always swift. Not when it wants to be an ironclad case. This was part of the problem of TFG - everything he did was for show and so most of it was thrown away by the courts etc. Biden's administration - including Justice - is not that way. They take their time. They dot the i's and cross the t's. They make sure paperwork is filed correctly and organized properly. They add citations. They make sure all ducks are in a row. EVERYTHING is done in a way that makes so that when the courts look at it they can't, due to the clear reading of the law, give anything but the proper answer - even if they wanted to.
This is why the Biden administration has had victory after victory.
When it goes towards the insurrection and such things they start at the bottom and work their way up. This way that the cases get built upon each other.
Not to be that guy but when it comes to justice what is a year. There have been murder convictions for crimes committed decades before. A year is nothing. Let them do it right.
That said I get politics. I get that for that world a year is a looooooooooooooooong time. Its why the sausage making of law annoys so many people...Everything is done slow and steady, is done with procedural expertise, and is done at the proper time an in the proper place.
Swift justice is not thorough, and thorough justice is not swift.
I saw that, tgraf66, thanks for posting, and it is 100% correct. Ironclad cases against all treasonweasels is a must. No room for error.
Problem is, all that only applies if justice is actually being pursued.
I pray that it is.
Also, what is or isn't going on behind the scenes at the DOJ is separate from Bannon, imo. Subpoena denied. Enact the consequences without delay, like the rethugs would do if the situation were reversed.
Also, what is or isn't going on behind the scenes at the DOJ is separate from Bannon, imo. Subpoena denied. Enact the consequences without delay, like the rethugs would do if the situation were reversed.
Yes, the subpoena refusal is a separate issue, but whether we like it or not, if we are to claim "rule of law", there is a procedure that must be followed, and it *is* being followed. The committee referred it to the the full House, the house voted to refer it as a criminal charge to the DOJ, and the DOJ is completing it's part before proceeding.
Why follow all those procedures instead of just arresting him and jailing him until he testifies? Because this isn't about trying to force him to testify; the committee doesn't actually need his testimony, and Rep Schiff has already said that Bannon would likely have lied to them anyway, so his testimony is immaterial. No, this is about punishment and sending a message to any others who might think refusing a subpoena is a good idea. And it's working. Several others who were instructed by TFG not to testify have been defying him and cooperating with the committee.
In addition, by refusing to obey the subpoena he committed a federal felony, and that must be indicted and prosecuted by the DOJ. It will happen, but no prosecutor worth his salt is going to go in front of any jury - grand or otherwise - with anything but an irrefutable, t's crossed, i's dotted case that - as @harukane said - can only be decided one way. Federal prosecutors have a 96% conviction rate, and they didn't get that by rushing into courtrooms.
Makes sense, and I very much hope you are right.
Here's what I see. The DOJ has Bannon dead to rights on the subpoena charge. He knows it and they know it. That is 100% provable, prosecutable, and he will go to prison for it. What they didn't have - and maybe still don't yet - is concrete proof that he was directly involved in the criminal conspiracy to plan and orchestrate the insurrection. They backed him into a corner on the subpoena charge knowing full well what he would do, he did it (or didn't, as the case may be), so now he will go to prison, full stop.
Prosecutorial discretion is a thing. Prosecutors at all levels can decide whether and/or when to press charges on any crime depending on how strong they think the case is. Since they know they have him exactly where they want him with an irrefutably provable criminal charge that he can't escape, now they are in the process of gathering the evidence to indict him on the conspiracy/sedition charges. If they can get enough other testimony and evidence from other sources to feel that they can solidly prove those in court, they can either add those charges to the evading the subpoena charge, or put the subpoena thing on the back burner while the other case is prosecuted.
That way, even if for some bizarre reason they can't make the conspiracy charges stick in court, he can still be prosecuted for the subpoena thing and he will still go to prison.
From your lips to God's ears.
I'm not naive, just impatient. I know how crucially important it is for prosecutors to have all their ducks in a row and leave no gaps. It's been four years of rethug bs, only this time they stopped hiding their true colors.