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.