What's there to say?

What's there to say? 

Other than that - even though I'm never going to need an abortion - I feel fortunate to live in a state where abortion is legal.

Sure, we knew it was coming. 

Still, it's shocking. It's seismic. It's stomach churning. It's gut wrenching.

To have our days and nights consumed by fear for women and girls in those benighted states where those impregnated by rapists will have to carry their pregnancies to term. Where a little girl raped by a family member will be forced to give birth. Where a woman who's had a miscarriage will be subject to invasion of her privacy, and possible prosecution. (Was that really a miscarriage? What did you do to cause it?) Where someone with an ectopic pregnancy will be refused care and bleed to death. Where someone who crosses the state border to get an abortion will be subjected to arrest and prosecution. Where the provision of reproductive rights services will be criminalized. Where those who have an abortion will be tried for murder. 

To have our days and nights consumed by fear for the already marginalized communities that will bear the brunt of this ruling. 

To have our days and nights consumed by fear of what else this SCOTUS could do.

This SCOTUS on which at least two of the "justices" - Gorsuch and Kavanaugh - lied about Roe v. Wade in order to get voted onto the Supreme Court. 

So, what is there to say? 

That I feel fortunate to live in a state where there are common sense gun laws, and a low rate of gun violence.

That I feel fortunate to live in a state where those arrested are likely to retain their Miranda rights. 

That I feel fortunate to live in a state where contraception - whatever Clarence Thomas can pull off on the radical, hyper-conservative SCOTUS he so smugly sits on - is legal. Where sex between same-sex couples - whatever Clarence Thomas can pull off in the radical, hyper-conservative SCOTUS -  is legal. Where marriage between same sex couples - whatever Clarence Thomas can pull off in the radical, hyper-conservative SCOTUS - is legal. 

That I feel fortunate to live in a state that promotes rather than suppresses voting rights. 

To live in a state where climate change is acknowledged, and where there are laws protecting the environment. 

FOR NOW.

Because despite all the "here and no further" protestations, there's no reason to believe that SCOTUS stops here. Sure, they said that abortion rights should be decided by the states. So why can't gun laws be the province of the states, too? Didn't they just overturn a NY state law (lightly) protecting gun protection?

This has been in the making for years, but this radical bunch is just out of control.

Easy to imagine that, if Trump and Co. had succeeded in getting the legitimate 2020 election outcome tossed by Congress by getting his bogus elector slates put in place in swing states, this crew would have been all "states rights, okay..." 

And here comes 2024, when a lot of these R-controlled states are implementing rules to throw out the popular electoral results in favor of whichever corrupt authoritarian and/or christofascist the R's nominate next time around. 

That will okay Texas latest plan to implement a state-level electoral college that will guarantee that a popularly elected governor - if such a person happens to be a Democrat - will have their election overruled by a set up that privileges the vote of rural, conservative voters over urban, liberal voters.

It's pretty clear by now that the forces of reaction aren't going to ease up and compromise. They're all or nothing - if they can't win legitimacy; if they can't win the hearts and minds - they'll take and keep powers by whatever means possible.  

Something's got to give, because the flaws of our system-  flaws that allow for the tyranny of the minority - are just too much to bear. At some point, the voice of the majority needs to be heard. 

I'm old. I'm probably not going anywhere. But if I were younger, I'd be looking for a way out. 

Maybe the differences between the Red States and Blue States are just insurmountable. Sorry for the folks in Red States who are stuck there, but if New England became a Canadian province, I'd be down with that. O, Canada and all that. 

This is not a matter of one law being overturned. It's a scary pattern that's been in the making for decades, with the Trump regime bringing it to the fore. And I don't believe for a Massachusetts minute that the tyrannical minority will come gunning for the states they resent. 

In the meantime, "When women's rights are under attack, what do we do? Stand up. Fight back!" Donate to Planned Parenthood. Get out the vote. Support companies like Dick's Sporting Goods that are promising to pay travel expenses for employees who must travel out of state for reproductive healthcare.