Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Republicans cannot even be trusted with their own money.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

‘Museums aren’t America’s attic for its racist shit.’

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

When they say they’re pro-life, they don’t mean yours.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

This blog will pay for itself.

After dobbs, women are no longer free.

Books are my comfort food!

No one could have predicted…

You cannot shame the shameless.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The lights are all blinking red.

You are here: Home / Peggy Olson’s blues

Peggy Olson’s blues

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I watched the first season of Handmaid’s Tale. I kept telling people “I know that this sounds crazy, but this show feels real to me, it honestly taps into how a certain portion of the right thinks.” Well, Trent Franks.

My prediction as all these Congressional sex scandals come out is that there will be a roughly equal number of Democrats and Republicans involved, but that the Democratic scandals will involve run-of-the-mill fucked up behavior, while the Republican scandals will involve more exotic stuff. I won’t be surprised if wetsuits and dildos make their way into the storyline. I sincerely hope that we don’t hear about any hanging or eye-gouging, but I’m not sure I’d bet against it.

Look, I know that outside the elite liberal Acela corridor, people bear their bosses’ children all the time. Go to any exurban Panera Bread west of the Hudson and you’ll hear folks talking about it. But this thing just got rolling and we’ve already got one pedophile and one character from the Handmaid’s Tale. The media’s going to have a tough time spinning all the perversion that comes out as reg’lar heartland behavior.

Reader Interactions

103Comments

  1. 1.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    You be surprised how often I hear this at Applebee’s salad bars in real america.

  2. 2.

    Doug R

    Atwood has said herself that EVERYTHING in that book is based on something that has already happened.
    She didn’t want to be accused of “having an imagination and making up things”.

  5. 5.

    Corner Stone

    My prediction as all these Congressional sex scandals come out is that there will be a roughly equal number of Democrats and Republicans involved, but that the Democratic scandals will involve run-of-the-mill fucked up behavior, while the Republican scandals will involve more exotic stuff.

    It may end up roughly even D to R. But what we’ll actually have is a bunch of D reps that did something inappropriate but not full on evil. And a bunch of R’s that had the pentagram drawn and the soon to be formerly live chicken ready to go when his aide was dropped blindfolded into the room by leather masked men.
    And all the D officials will be harried immediately out of the office and the R’s will have a couple go because they are already rich and don’t need this shit any more. It’s gonna be great!

  6. 6.

    Corner Stone

    @Doug!: Thought that may be it but have never watched the series and it’s been way too long since I had to read the book. Didn’t seem like any kind of good kink someone thought they could get away with.

    ETA, Heck, it looks like I may need to tune in to try and help myself figure out what the hell kind of timeline we’re actually living in now.

  7. 7.

    mike in dc

    Wasn’t Roger Stone into swinging and some other freaky shit? Since his profile has been raised, why not delve back into that now?

  8. 8.

    sukabi

    Well Doug!, considering the past scandals it’s a fools bet that this time around would be any different… The repubs have a long, “colorful” history of kink and degeneracy (Hastert, Vitter, wide stance guy, and the 2 wetsuits and a buttplug guy, and a whole parade of others)..while the dems are run of the mill “missionary style” adulterers and dickpic senders.

  9. 9.

    Hunter Gathers

    Out here in flyover country, AKA ‘Real America’, all women who don’t submit to their husbands, throw flowers at our feet or refuse to fuck us at a drop of a hat deserve what they get.
    They’re all stupid, money grubbing, stuck up whores. That’s why you need to marry them at 15 or 16. That way they know their role and keep their mouths shut while you go looking for their replacement after they turn 30. Grab ’em young. They’ll pick your ducks.

  10. 10.

    Chyron HR

    The media’s going to have a tough time spinning all the perversion that comes out as reg’lar heartland behavior.

    No, they won’t.

  11. 11.

    Corner Stone

    @sukabi:

    while the dems are run of the mill “missionary style” adulterers and dickpic senders.

    I swear the first time I read that it said, “run of the mill “missionary style” adults wearing suspenders”

  12. 12.

    sukabi

    @mike in dc: yes he and his wife were “swingers”…dragging that back up would only elevate his “sheet cred” with the rest of the degenerates in the gop.

  16. 16.

    germy

    I had a co-worker once tell me “If they’re old enough to bleed, they’re old enough to breed.” And he wasn’t joking.

    Yes, I’ve worked in some pretty fucked up places with some pretty fucked up people.

  17. 17.

    Roger Moore

    I’m inclined to share Sherlock Holmes’s view:

    The pressure of public opinion can do in the town what the law cannot accomplish. There is no lane so vile that the scream of a tortured child, or the thud of a drunkard’s blow, does not beget sympathy and indignation among the neighbours, and then the whole machinery of justice is ever so close that a word of complaint can set it going, and there is but a step between the crime and the dock. But look at these lonely houses, each in its own fields, filled for the most part with poor ignorant folk who know little of the law. Think of the deeds of hellish cruelty, the hidden wickedness which may go on, year in, year out, in such places, and none the wiser.

  19. 19.

    PPCLI

    And let’s not forget that yesterday yet another woman came forward with a credible accusation against Trump. This time a former FOXNews talking head who said he tried to kiss her while she was with him in an elevator. And it’s just more background noise to be ignored, to judge from media coverage.

  20. 20.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: @sukabi: The estimates coming out of social media is that the stories that CNN and WaPo and other big outlets are trying to nail down and that everyone expects to drop sometime in the next ten days or so will have no less than 20 and possibly upwards of 40 members of Congress accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault and/or rape or other sexual improprieties (I’m guessing involvement with abortion while publicly claiming abortion is a sin and life begins at conception). And that these will be from both parties and in both chambers. It will be interesting to see how this falls out especially if the severity, which one would expect would lead to resignations and/or expulsions (and hopefully criminal investigation and potential prosecution), has the potential to put either or both chambers majority in flux for even a short period of time. If McConnell loses just three GOP senators to this, he could temporarily lose the majority before their replacements are named. Similar dynamic in the House. Panic is going to set in quick. And if this story breaks sooner that panic will completely consume Congress and everything becomes unlikely to pass: whatever emerges from conference committee on the tax cut stupidity, continuing resolutions to keep the government open, etc, etc. etc.

  21. 21.

    debbie

    I didn’t read the book until a couple months ago. We do seem to be heading in that direction.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @sukabi: Actually he likes watching African American men have sex with his wife and is rumored to at least be a submissive in these menage a trois if not actually bisexual. While you or I may not care about these details, and preferred not to have read about them in reporting on Stone, the people he associates with get all wrapped around the axle about this stuff.

  26. 26.

    mike in dc

    @sukabi:
    My feeling is that with a guy like Stone, having a lifestyle like that, it’s probably not hard to find someone who had some kind of unpleasant, less than mutually consensual experience with him. Turnabout–>fair play.

  27. 27.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    Yeah, I think you’re dead on here. It wouldn’t shock me to see a Republican or two get caught skull fucking kittens. And whatever they do, the 27% will stick with their Republican kitten skull fuckers, but more and more, they’re going to lose everybody else. People can weep and wail about how unfair it is that Roy Moore molests children and looks to take a seat in the Senate, even as Al Franken steps aside. And, yeah, it is unfair. But people can see this shit. They can see who’s doing what, and which party is saying ¡adiós! to its creepy dudes and which one is rallying around theirs. This is going to make a difference. I think maybe we’ve forgotten what really put Democrats over the top in 2006. It wasn’t Bush or the wars, it was Mark Foley. People do care about this shit, and they can now see who’s getting serious about this and who doesn’t give a shit.

  28. 28.

    LurkerNoLonger

    there will be a roughly equal number of Democrats and Republicans involved

    Both sides! But I think you’re right, this is a bipartisan problem.

  30. 30.

    B.B.A.

    @LurkerNoLonger: I have to assume there will be more Republicans than Democrats involved, because the Republicans have a majority and the Democratic caucus isn’t as disproportionately male.

    However, only Democrats have the capacity for guilt or shame, so only Democrats will step down.

    Fuck the world.

  31. 31.

    sukabi

    @Adam L Silverman: well THANKS for putting that picture in my head…grrrrr???¤

    Wouldn’t have pictured him as a submissive…if that’s his kink then yeah, wouldn’t go over at all.

  32. 32.

    Corner Stone

    @Adam L Silverman: I am wondering if the recent attempt to discredit CNN with the DJTJ/Wikileaks mal-info is one more way to get ahead of this oncoming scandal. The R’s will all scream FAKE NEWS and the D’s will be left with their shorts literally around their ankles.

  33. 33.

    cokane

    these scandals are going to start popping up in heartland statehouses and governors’ cabinets. that’s where the real strange stuff will come out

  36. 36.

    scott (the other one)

    The media’s going to have a tough time spinning all the perversion that comes out as reg’lar heartland behavior.

    But guldarn if they ain’t gonna do their very best anyhoozle.

  37. 37.

    scott (the other one)

    @Adam L Silverman: So what you’re saying is that Roger Stone is, in fact, literally that cuck Trumpistas like to sneer about?

    It’s always projection with that crew…

  42. 42.

    Roger Moore

    @Doug!:

    And even then, it’s one teen-age girl, not six.

    One that we know of. I never assume it’s just one with somebody like that.

  44. 44.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Corner Stone: Jr’s lawyer has floated that this was a planned hit by the Democratic House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence members on Jr. and the President. That Schiff or Sewall or the other committee Democrats were the sources for CNN. And since CNN isn’t going to give up it’s sources, these will move from Futerfas to the fringe – they’ve already been reported by the Daily Caller attributed to Futerfas – to the mainstream. By next week Nunes and the President and the President’s allies will be calling for Schiff and Sewall and others to resign from Congress.

  45. 45.

    Kay

    The NYtimes is running the pre-release of their upcoming book deal on Trump. Did their readers know they were negotiating a book deal when they were supposedly covering Donald Trump?

    Gross. “What makes Donald Trump TICK- from the insiders who know him best!”

    Can’t we just draw our own conclusions from his incessant bellowing and public actions? He never shuts up. Why do we need self-interested translators and narrative-builders?

    The NYTimes role in Donald Trump’s rise needs examination, preferably by someone outside the NYTimes. That’s the “insider account” I want to read- why these people promoted and promote him.

  48. 48.

    BellyCat

    @Kay:

    That’s the “insider account” I want to read- why these people promoted and promote him.

    It’s the FTFNYT, Kay. They did it for CASHMONAY!

  49. 49.

    Chip Daniels

    I’m thinking about Jonathan Haidt’s theories about moral thinking, and how the six types of moral values.
    While his categories seem persuasive, I think he misunderstood how our stress on values rises and falls over time.

    Conservatives have increased their sense of group loyalty to where it overrides even the ideas of purity and care, and I don’t see liberals making the case for radical individuality, and instead stress the authority of group norms.

  50. 50.

    Roger Moore

    @scott (the other one):

    So what you’re saying is that Roger Stone is, in fact, literally that cuck Trumpistas like to sneer about?

    It’s always projection with that crew…

    They wouldn’t have started using it as a slur if it cuck porn weren’t popular enough in RWNJ circles that the meaning would be obvious.

  53. 53.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kay:

    The one comfort I have about that book is knowing that it will sink like a stone upon its release and hit the remainder tables within 3 months. Nobody wants to read it — liberals aren’t interested and conservatives won’t want to give any money to anyone associated with the NYT.

  55. 55.

    germy

    @Mnemosyne:

    liberals aren’t interested and conservatives won’t want to give any money to anyone associated with the NYT.

    True. It won’t be bought up in bulk by a right wing think tank and distributed at conferences. That’s how fox news talkers get their books on the bestseller list, apparently.

  56. 56.

    Bill Arnold

    Look, I know that outside the elite liberal Acela corridor, people bear their bosses’ children all the time. Go to any exurban Panera Bread west of the Hudson and you’ll hear folks talking about it.

    (Edit: DMCK at first comment beat me. But I’m still wondering.)
    Are you mocking David Brooks here? Just wondering. (And LOLing.)

  57. 57.

    joel hanes

    @sukabi:

    Hastert, Vitter, wide stance guy,

    Foley
    who did have to stand down for preying on the pages, IIRC
    Hastert was supposed to be the clean-as-a-hound’s-tooth replacement that restored Republican respectability

  58. 58.

    efgoldman

    @Adam L Silverman:

    no less than 20 and possibly upwards of 40 members of Congress accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault and/or rape or other sexual improprieties (I’m guessing involvement with abortion while publicly claiming abortion is a sin and life begins at conception).

    Yeah, and that RWNJ hypocrite congresscritter from Tennessee (DeJarlais?) is on record as having forced his girlfriend to get an abortion. Re-elected twice since i came out.

  60. 60.

    B.B.A.

    @Ladyraxterinok: Just because Republicans believe ridiculous conspiracy theories whenever it’s convenient, doesn’t mean we have to start doing the same. Here in consensus reality, Weiner is in prison, and rightly so.

  62. 62.

    joel hanes

    BTW, nice post title again.

    But, not having watched the show, I’m having a hard time extending the analogy.
    What’s the Mad Men/Peggy equivalent of a pocket full of kryptonite ?

  64. 64.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    @B.B.A.: The most I heard was that she asked Sydney Leathers – who Weiner first sexted – for guidance on what to do, and then divulged it to the authorities. And most of what I’d read indicated that she’s liberal or at the least anti-Trump. All of this is completely Weiner’s fault, of course.

    Also, I take it you haven’t been on the Franken threads?

  66. 66.

    efgoldman

    @aimai:

    I really doubt that enough people will be forced out, or forced out in time, to do other than damage the dems. The republicans will hang tough.

    Think of it not as a tsunami, but as another nail in the coffin. People are pissed at the RWNJs. Dens have won state and local races in places they haven’t in decades. I am optimistic.

  67. 67.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The estimates coming out of social media is that the stories that CNN and WaPo and other big outlets are trying to nail down and that everyone expects to drop sometime in the next ten days or so will have no less than 20 and possibly upwards of 40 members of Congress accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault and/or rape or other sexual improprieties

    Any idea of the level of skew in party affiliation? (Assuming it will skew significantly Republican.) And have you spotted any similar effort on the radical right? They seem to have the discipline and political awareness to time releases for effectiveness, e.g. a few of the recent https://twitter.com/SethAbramson threads.

  68. 68.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    EVEN IF she was coached, getting a 15-year-old to strip for you is still illegal. It’s like when they send out female cops to pretend to be hookers — dudes still get arrested and convicted of soliciting a prostitute even though it was a sting and she was only pretending to be a hooker.

  69. 69.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bill Arnold: Haven’t seen anything. Also, don’t rely on anything Abramson posts. He’s not Mensch/Taylor level of whacked, but he’s close.

  71. 71.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.): Problem is, just so many Evangelicals fervently believe GOP means ‘god’s own party.’ Also, they’ve become much more rabid since Foley. Wheaton College isn’t near so rabid, but note how long it took for them to kick Hastert off Regents and get his name off a major building. Think they were mainly reacting to donors and parents warning against caving in to ‘godless liberals.’

  72. 72.

    SgrAstar

    @Kay: disagree, sadly. That NYT piece offers astonishing, embarrassing insight into the minutiae of trump’s life. His daily diet coke intake- 12 cans!!!, the extent of his TV fixation, the emotional lability, the inability to process information beyond his very limited preconceptions…it is fascinating, and utterly damning. I definitely share the predominant BJ view about the trainwreck of NYT political coverage, but I think this new piece on trump is deeply unflattering. YMMV

  73. 73.

    Wild Cat

    @scott (the other one):

    I’m shocked nothing of Rudy Giuliani’s homosexuality has come out. Christ on a cracker, he married his cousin to beard it—and then was “cucked” (thank you, fascists!) by an AA college professor, which may explain his uber-hatred toward black humans.

  76. 76.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Also, don’t rely on anything Abramson posts. He’s not Mensch/Taylor level of whacked, but he’s close.

    OK. Was just pointed there today (been ignoring him), will stay twitchy.

  77. 77.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @LurkerNoLonger: I keep remembering shocked and worried expressions on senators’ faces during the Anita Hill hearings. Wondering and worrying that what they thought was just funning around might not have been so funny to the women present.

    And yes, mamy women have not forgotten Biden’s less than stellar performance as chair of the committee.

  78. 78.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Bill Arnold: He takes contemporary reporting and sourcing and builds elaborate conclusions that may or may not be verified or validated by the data.

  79. 79.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @cokane: Some scandals already in OK. Think it was a GOP legislator who was a leader in T’s OK campaign. Boys in motels, IIRC.

  80. 80.

    GregB

    The entire Alabama congressional delegation is praying that sheep can’t be called in for deposition.

    On the brighter side…as NH has the only all female delegation in the nation, I think we can rest assured there won’t be any shoes, wetsuits or dildos dropping.

  81. 81.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @Kay: Anyon investigated NYT staff’, owners’, managers’, stockholders’ investment in Trump or Kushner compenies? Or their cover companies? Sure seems like major financial stake in him and his family and their brands.

  82. 82.

    Marcia

    I’d advise anyone who hasn’t read the book yet to do just that. The scenes where the title character finds out that her country has been taken over by religious fanatics are especially chilling and it has a very imaginative ending though one that’s inconclusive on a few points.

  84. 84.

    bystander

    This whole discussion elides the one key principle: IOKIYAR. Mitch McConnell will never expel any repub from the Senate. Ryan can afford to pick and choose a few. Trent Franks looked about as useful as a bump on a log, likewise future beachball model Blake Farenthold.

  85. 85.

    Bill Arnold

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Thanks. Seth appears to be making cardinality and identity and motive assumptions about players, to start with. (Lawyer-style argumentation.) Riveting material though.

  87. 87.

    bystander

    BTW, anyone know of a way of knowing when Flynn will be appearing in court in advance? I would gladly take the Amtrak to DC for the day to join the Lock Him Up Chorus.

  88. 88.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @germy: Also, see Mark Driscoll, former head of mega- church Mars Hiil in Seattle. One of the things that finally brought him down was congregation learning he’d given about $200,000 to a company to get his book (the one about marriage, I think) on the NYT besrseller list. The money was given for missions, IIRC.

    Driscoll was notorious for, among other things, teaching that the OT book Song of Songs advocates oral and anal sex. Some contend he was attracting hipster Seattle males with a congregation of ‘primed’ young women. A modern day fertility cult.

    D thinks the church has way too many women, is womanized and ‘pussified.’ The church needs guys like him who are tough and fight and wouldn’t be caught dead following the weak, namby-pamby Jesus taught in the womanised church.

    Driscoll now has a new church in AZ and a blog at patheos. Many blogging there are angry and some have left. It’s claimed new owner of site is super conservative ‘christian’ as D claims he is.

  92. 92.

    charon

    And yes, mamy women have not forgotten Biden’s less than stellar performance as chair of the committee

    Not only women..

  93. 93.

    Mnemosyne

    @Ladyraxterinok:

    Was he there before or after Mars Hill drove Rob Bell out for saying that Hell doesn’t exist?

    If it was after, well, they made their theological decision.

    ETA: Hang on, two different Mars Hill churches? Bell’s was in Michigan. Were they related?

  95. 95.

    Kathleen

    @Corner Stone: Media will find a way to twist it somehow into “heartland values”. NYT puff piece headline: “Republicans Prove That People Really Want To Have Sex With Them As God Intended”

  97. 97.

    Wild Cat

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):
    Gay people I work with who attended gay-themed parties he attended in the 1970s. Give me your contact info and I’ll put you in touch wiith them.
    Marrying a media-shill for his second-go for positive news publicity; can’t prove if the kids were in vitro.
    Starting a “romance” with Judith Nathan, his third family-values church affair, when he was undergoing prostrate-cancer treatment.
    Being Graham Chapman after Graham Chapman passed away.
    His best friends, a gay couple, who hosted him after his second family-values divorce. He divorced them when he was shilling to be the GOP’s presidential nominee.
    O yeah . . . his bosom buddy . . . those Trump/Cohn theatre-going photos . . . hmmmm. And his friend, Roger Stone, is as straight as Harvey Fierstein.

  98. 98.

    Mom Says I*m Handsome

    Props once again to Doug! for the excellent title. I happened to hear Spin Doctors’ “Jimmy Olsen’s Blues” last week & was delighted by this song, which tells of Jimmy Olsen’s unrequited love for Lois Lane:

    “I can’t believe my dilemma is real
    I’m competing with the Man of Steel”

  99. 99.

    John Fremont

    @Ladyraxterinok: Something similar goes on in the Cathoic church.Leon Podles wrote a bestseller about the “feminization” of the Catholic Mass, while Donna Steichen wrote one called Ungodly Rage about the corrupting influence of feminism on Catholic theology . There is also the whole theory that the priesthood has suffered due to too many homosexuals infiltrating the seminaries. A few speakers I have seen like Christopher West and Gary Popcack have run with the late Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body and turned it into a cottage industry within the Catholic marriage and family life circuit. They have steered many parishes into being a fertility cult with stained glass artwork!

  101. 101.

    HinTN

    @efgoldman: That’s our rep alright. There’s a strong woman running D for the seat and if we are half the folks that elected Al Gore as our rep we will elect her and throw Dr Desjarlais on the trash heap where he belongs.

  102. 102.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Adam L Silverman: Since most state governors are Republican and would presumably refuse to appoint Democratic interim replacements (as with Conyers), but would be fine with Republican ones, this could strengthen the Republicans’ majorities even if the resignations are evenly distributed.

    (Though for the House, I doubt the governors of most Reps are Republican, so that argument may not work there.)

  103. 103.

    Wild Cat

    @Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD):

    O yeah, dude, and that fucking lisp. He’s grifted so much from 9/11, you’d figure he’d have seen a speech therapist by now.

    Also, using a CP meme ias a Greek acronym for a screen name was as tedious as his penny-a-word memes. Congrats on changing it.

    And BTW, even if every word I’ve written on this post is 100% unadultered bullshit, treasure it. Punching down on these fascist motherfuckers whenever you can is an optimal strategy.

    But believe me, in NYC we knew everything about about Trump and Giuliani. And if you’re in the media like me, you know more.

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