Pregnant people in New York would have 40 hours of paid leave to attend prenatal medical appointments under a new proposal by Gov. Kathy Hochul after the state’s legislative session kicked off this week.
The Democrat’s plan to expand the state’s paid family leave policy, which would need to be approved by the state Legislature, aims to expand access to high-quality prenatal care and prevent maternal and infant deaths in New York, an issue that especially affects low-income and minority communities.
The U.S. infant mortality rate, a measure of how many babies die before they reach their first birthday, is worse than other high-income countries, which experts have attributed to poverty, inadequate prenatal care and other possibilities. The U.S. rate rose 3% in 2022 — the largest increase in two decades, according to a 2023 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Don’t forget Ukraine. And we have military bases everywhere. All on the backs of the common folk.
The difference is that defending Ukraine actually has value for the Western world.
Israel is an albatross around the neck of everyone supporting it.
Amazing how people don’t understand the dynamics of a proxy war with Russia, but let me explain it. Russia wants to invade our allies, and if they attack a NATO country (which they absolutely want to, Ukraine was geographically in their way) it would cost us so much more money and lives. Fighting this proxy war, and defeating Russia, is the the absolutely cheapest and best possible outcome for US interests (i.e. the US is not doing the fighting, it’s supply a fraction of what the US was absolutely going to have to spend if Russia was successful).
Now funding Israel’s land grab n’ genocide is a whole other thing, just as us funding the house of Saud (the guys who have spare billions laying around to bride presidents…).
Israel has great importance to US imperial interests. If you’re making a moral argument, there’s no comparison between Ukraine and Israel, but from a strategic/imperial perspective, well, still different, but there’s solid justification in both cases.
Please go into detail what these interests are. I want sources too and not general statements like “we need a strong ally on the middle east”
Four off the top of my head would be the Suez Canal, Intel fabs, Gulf Arab oil, and Iran’s aspirations for regional power & nuclear tech. I’m sure you could come up with hypotheticals about why Israel, specifically, is not the ideal ally, but it’s what we’ve got.
Defensive vs offensive wars, not comparable
From a moral perspective…