“One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away — unless it is surrendered.”

— Michael J. Fox

The Cowboys in D.C. are fretting over the low birth rate and are concerned that not enough suckers will be available to buy the goods they produce and fund what’s left of our dwindlng social net. While the “criminals” are forced out of town as the concept of Exile is further investigated, there’s a lot of hand-wringing over who will be left to buy goods produced by the oligarchs who need bodies to pay the freight, bodies for the armed forces, workers to replace the immigrants being deported, and compliant but decidedly stupid voters to put whomever they buy into office. Anyone who has a pulse absolutely knew what was coming, And we, in America have gotten what we deserve.

The brilliant solution supported by the current crop of DC misogynists is to offer each potential birth mother an incentive to compensate for nine months of pain with a government working on dwindling reproductive health care, ignoring incel hostility, criminalizing abortion to save a woman’s life, eliminating post-natal care, destroying the social net and eliminating subsidies for public education. Plus firing hundreds of thousands of workers deemed unnecessary while fostering a Depression to line the pockets of those who had insider trading info on the latest whims of our Leader. Can you imagine trading in an income, independence, and reliable healthcare for twenty years of social abuse and hostility while bringing up a child — for the munificent sum of Five grand? Not to mention being the target of those who admire Russia where domestic violence is no longer a crime?

As one woman wrote to me about the situation:

Why would we want to have children in this country when no one can afford groceries;

If your kid is autistic they’ll be listed on a registry;

If your kid is trans they’ll be targeted;

If your kid gets sick the medical debt will destroy you;

Your kid might get shot at school;

If the pregnancy goes wrong they’ll let you die!

One wonders how the evangelicals will package this — but God knows they’ll try. And, some may swallow the KoolAid.