Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Within six months Twitter will be fully self-driving.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / Friday Morning Open Thread: *Someone* Has to Be the Grown-Up

Friday Morning Open Thread: *Someone* Has to Be the Grown-Up

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And Ms. Minaj has literally millions of devoted followers, in a great many countries, currently following the social-media saga of her cousin’s friend’s inflated / deflated wedding tackle…

Elsewhere — Tax the Rich!

Readership capture:

P.S. If you haven’t read the overnight threads yet, I’m in a better mood this morning because there’s good news about Asiangrrl / Minna.

Reader Interactions

180Comments

  2. 2.

    debbie

    Nicki won’t budge. They ought to tell her the truth about the fiancee. He got caught out cheating on his bride-to-be and was shown the door.

  3. 3.

    debbie

    Refusing to utter the “T” word is nothing compared to what the previous administration must have called President Obama.

  4. 4.

    Tony Jay

    Are we going to continue with an economy where the overwhelming share of the benefits go to the top? Or will we choose a new path? One that invests in this nation and creates growth that benefits everyone.

    Jesus, Joe. Don’t you know that that kind of crazy left-wing talk is toxic outside of New York’s deep-blue hipster, liberal enclaves?

  5. 5.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    “What a fucking asshole,” Biden once said of Trump, according to the authors.

    Who among us . . . ? Also, once?

  7. 7.

    Hellbastard

    Like how Biden “discovers” rooms in the White House, like it’s some huge, spooky manor with rooms and wings lost in the history of time.

  8. 8.

    Tony Jay

    @debbie:

      He got caught out cheating on his bride-to-be and was shown the door kicked so hard in the bongo-bongos they swelled up like hamster cheeks.

    Fixed for my own sick amusement.

  10. 10.

    Tony Jay

    @Hellbastard:

    Countdown to some over-paid and under-skilled ‘Independent thinker’ being given space in the FTFNYT to tut-tut about the Liberal Media covering up for a man so mentally decrepit he gets lost wandering around the White House and verbally lashes out when confronted with evidence of his predecessor’s sporting prowess.

  12. 12.

    Ken

    It may be just me, but I’m hearing a lot of subtext in Psaki’s “Our hope is that anyone who has a big platform is going to project accurate information”.  Or rather, I’m imagining her glaring at particular reporters in the room.

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    Biden is correct — we are at an inflection point, and we could choose a better path. (And also, that Trump is a “fucking asshole.”) But depressingly, it’s looking like 100% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats are determined to “continue with an economy where the overwhelming share of the benefits go to the top.”

    It won’t take the wind out of my sails as a voter, volunteer and donor because I understand we’ve got a wolf at our throats. Here’s hoping it doesn’t cause more loosely affiliated voters to lose heart.

  15. 15.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think your percentage of Dems is high, I think it’s in the single digits.  And “not as progressive as we’d like” doesn’t not mean “Republican.”

  16. 16.

    Splitting Image

    I’m sure no one here needs to be reminded, but remember that the former guy spent one day out of every four on an actual golf course. His time on the virtual golf course came out of the time remaining, during which he was supposed to be doing his job.

  18. 18.

    Jay

    Best news about Asiangrrl, makes up for a shitty week.

    Love u all, so much.

    I guess swollen ball jokes are back in, other than for Patriots fans, whom I hear like them slightly shrunken.

  19. 19.

    John S.

    @Baud:

    I also think Betty’s percentage for Republicans is just a tad high. There are a tiny handful of not quite so batshit crazy Republicans also numbering in the single digits.

    I postulate that the the ratio of non-crazy Republicans to crazy Democrats is roughly 1:1.

  22. 22.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    Thanks. Justice Thomas was out yesterday proclaiming that the Supreme Court is credible – I guess they think if they say it often enough it will become true- so the “debate” is still incredibly stacked toward the views of elite and hugely powerful  Republican lawyers, but I’m glad the LA Times found a woman who lives in Texas to interview.

    I wonder how long it will take before the other side gets a hearing- no rush. Next year, year after that, whatever. It’s just women and girls so not important.

    Next we’ll hear from Kavanaugh because there can’t be enough commentary from GOP lawyers. By the time the other side gets a hearing the GOP lawyers will have worked harder on spinning that case in the media than they did issuing their sloppy, midnight order overturning Roe without a hearing.

  24. 24.

    Suzanne

    “What a fucking asshole”

    Truer words. His mouth to FSM’s ears.
    Sometimes the old-fashioned non-Scottish invective is the best.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I’m not calling them Republicans; I’m calling them conservative Democrats who want to protect donors by refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations — a proposal that the vast majority of Americans support.

  27. 27.

    Ken

    @NotMax: “I’m a vapid nobody who the voters of Indiana were going to throw out of office before TFG’s handlers asked me to be vice-president. Then according to the GQP base I betrayed him by certifying the election, and have had my life threatened for that. Please send money.”

  28. 28.

    Suzanne

    @Splitting Image:

    His time on the virtual golf course came out of the time remaining, during which he was supposed to be doing his job.

     

    And that was in addition to “executive time”, aka “watching TV”.
    Laziest dumbfuck ever, which turned out to be a mixed blessing, I suppose.

  29. 29.

    Betty Cracker

    @Kay: It’s small comfort, but the fact that they’re fanning out to defend the court’s credibility signals that they understand it’s in question and find that distressing.

  31. 31.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Splitting Image:

    remember that the former guy spent one day out of every four on an actual golf course. His time on the virtual golf course came out of the time remaining, during which he was supposed to be doing his job. 

    And millions of taxpayers’ dollars for the Secret Service to watch his fat, orange, fascist ass cheat at golf on his own courses.

  32. 32.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Baud:

    I’ve always felt we should be grateful for TFG’s laziness. 

    I agree with ya there, Baud.  Someone as corrupt but willing to put some effort into the corruption could’ve fleeced the country much more.

  33. 33.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think this is traditionally when they do their public appearances so it is WHEN they would do it anyway but I agree they are defensive.

    They seem to have settled on a campaign theme- both Barrett and Thomas used it- the theme is people believe they are political hacks because people don’t understand “originalist” legal philosophy, which is loftier and more intellectually challenging than the icky, low brow “realists”.

    They’re scolding us.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @Betty Cracker:

    They talk too much. The Court speaks thru it’s orders. They issued the order overturning Roe. I’m not interested in their political spin on the order nor do I care about their defensive, patronizing explanations of far Right legal theory.

    If they want to speak still more they can hold a real PUBLIC hearing on the merits and issue an opinion. At least then the other side also gets a chance to be heard.

  38. 38.

    RedDirtGirl

    @debbie: It may also be a convenient distraction from the fact that NM’s husband just pleaded guilty to not registering as a sex offender.

  42. 42.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    It’s my understanding that every proposal on the table would raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations to pay for benefits for regular folks.  The only issue is the size of the package. (Insert swollen balls joke here.)

  43. 43.

    germy

    Americans are flocking to defunct uranium mines in Montana for what many believe is a fountain of youth gushing with radioactive gas, in defiance of the advice of health officials.https://t.co/duR9uPrl12 pic.twitter.com/ys5JH3bfXB— Stuart Wallace (@StuartLWallace) August 11, 2021

    nuclear semioticians have been working for decades to devise a way to ensure the danger of radioactive dump sites is clear to people thousands of years from now, a task perhaps rendered moot by the fact that humans won't even respect the signs they can read now https://t.co/uDTpT8jlxh— molly conger (@socialistdogmom) September 13, 2021

  48. 48.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Betty Cracker: More like we’ve been in an inflection point for a decade now, consider Gay Marriage, it was an absurdity in the ’00s and now it’s done and so common people seem think gays could always get married. The reactionaries will dig in their heels, pout and when it happens and it turns out the world didn’t end move on.

  50. 50.

    Nicole

    It just dawned on me: Trump spent an awful lot of time playing and practicing golf, and still regularly cheated. What kind of a failure must one be to spend that much time working on something and never get any better at it?

  54. 54.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Baud: My take on the abortion stuff is different. I think that’s being driven by control freak, religious fundamentalist elders who have been abandoned by their adult children and grandchildren and they want a way to impose themselves.  Remember Dan Savages advice to young gays that if they parents won’t accept their sexuality to just cut their parents off?  Well with this law mom and dad, can sue their kid’s friends as baby killers.

  56. 56.

    sab

    @Kay: I like that they are out there defending the credibility of the Court. It provides us all with frequent reminders that the Court’s credibility is very much in question.

    There was a reason that the Warren Court worked so hard to have its big change decisions be 9-0 or 8-1.

    5-4 decisions by a Court appointed by presidents elected without the majority of the popular vote just won’t cut it in the long run. The courts’ credibility took credibility took centuries to develop. It is a lot easier to break things than do build them.

  59. 59.

    John S.

    @sab:

    Especially when 3 of those 5 justices were appointed by a twice-impeached con-man and confirmed under highly dubious circumstances.

  60. 60.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @Betty Cracker: [D]epressingly, it’s looking like 100% of Republicans and 10% of Democrats are determined to “continue with an economy where the overwhelming share of the benefits go to the top.”

    Someone once said that a large chunk of not-rich Americans vote to make sure no one else gets a cut of that MegaMillions jackpot they’re absolutely convinced they’re gonna win any day now.

    (I say again, the human race will go extinct due to its inability to grasp basic probability and statistics on an emotional level.)

  62. 62.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    After his 15-minute campaign, that money will buy Pence a nice mansion in McLean and get him started on his life as a corporate figurehead.​

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    Makes me think that The Former Guy is That Fucking Guy, sanitized.  Another point for Biden.

    Good morning, jackals.  Back from Colorado Springs.  I loved it out there.  100 degrees with no humidity feels like 75 degrees in central VA.  Beautiful landscape, dog-friendly culture, lots to do.  Met several recent transplants, as in weeks and months long.  Hmmm.

    Hello to the Manitou Springs jackal.  Did not get to do a meetup, but maybe next visit.  I love your little city.  The steep streets give one pause about winter conditions, but most charming.

  64. 64.

    hueyplong

    @Baud: “I’ve always felt we should be grateful for TFG’s laziness.”

    I had that conscious thought each and every day of the pig’s tenure, except on Jan 6, when it was more clear than at any other time that evil people were supplying plans and support that might actually work to harm the nation.

    Those people need to be hunted like animals.  That’s the real task of this Jan 6 commission.  Get the people who made Trump’s fever dream a near reality, pour encourager les autres.

  65. 65.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: My understanding is there are so-called “pay fors” for every dime of spending, which should but mysteriously does not alleviate the deficit vapors. So why whittle the package down to a nub? My guess is it’s more about eliminating the need for tax increases than controlling spending. We’ll see how it shakes out.

  66. 66.

    Kay

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    I know the invocation of the progress on same sex marriage is intended to be aspirational – this too shall pass- but it’s difficult for me to hear it over and over when women are losing rights now, today, this moment. It’s great that we’ve gone forward on some things but it just seems like the regular response to women who are alarmed by how we are lurching backward in this country is “wait- it’ll all come out okay in the end, look at marriage equality!” It bothers me. There’s been little to no progress on women’s rights since I was a girl. We’re now going backward. That’s the reality for women.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  Sadly, the USSC’s credibility is not in question.  Would seem to be settled business.

    My dream:  voters go big for Democrats in the midterms, and Biden expands the Court.  They’re just too dangerous as constituted, much as several of the conservatives have pleasantly surprised by respecting precedent and the actual law.  (Does not apply to Alito.)

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    @Nicole: Also, he always plays on his own courses, which is strange. I am a really shitty, infrequent golfer, and even I would get bored playing the same courses over and over.

  71. 71.

    SFAW

    @Tony Jay: 

    Jesus, Joe. Don’t you know that that kind of crazy left-wing talk is toxic outside of New York’s deep-blue hipster, liberal enclaves?

    Lissen, you bleedin’ Brit — who the eff are you to comment on polite society? Why’n’t you spend some time commenting on bleedin’ British politics?
    Which reminds me, person whose nym/nom I’ve never seen before ….
    etc etc blah blah blah yadda yadda
    [Of course, the astute reader will wonder how I somehow knew that a “person whose nym/nom I’ve never seen before” was a bleedin’ Brit.]

    Anyway, I hope you’re well, Tony.

  74. 74.

    Danielx

    @Nicole:

    Turn that inside out – why bother to get better when you already know you win by cheating? You actually have to want to improve to get better at something, and as with everything else, TFG already KNOWS all about golf.

  75. 75.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    And “not as progressive as we’d like” doesn’t not mean “Republican.”

    It doesn’t, but if the results are the same as if they were, does it matter? [Yes, I know that’s overstating Manchin’s effect a bit, but it would be nice if he didn’t make things easier for the Rethugs so often, red state Dem or not.]

  77. 77.

    Ken

    @Betty Cracker: I have heard (“people are saying”) that TFG is barred from a bunch of courses, because he does things like driving his cart on the greens.

    Also, if he goes to someone else’s course, he can’t bill his Secret Service detail for the golf cart rental.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @Enhanced Voting Techniques:

    Meagan looked tired, wearing a Bob Marley T-shirt, sweatpants and sandals, her light brown hair loose around her shoulders. She said she worried that the Texas clinics she consulted might get her in trouble under the new law. When she asked the staff at one of the clinics where she could get an abortion out of state, she said they told her they couldn’t help. When they called to find out where she was going, she stopped answering.“I cut off all contact with those clinics when they continued to ask what my plans were,” Meagan said, her voice raspy from morning sickness. “Is your name going to be reported? You don’t know. It’s still a new law.”

    Another says she chose the state she traveled to based on her estimation of how likely it was that she would be followed to the clinic and harrassed and surveiled by anti-abortion vigilantes.
    They’re afraid. Right now.

  81. 81.

    hueyplong

    @Dorothy A. Winsor: Yes, and it’s not the only thing.  The defense of the Capitol won’t be in the hands of Trumpists (at the top) starving resources for the people on the ground.

    Think of the surveillance video we’ve seen of the prior event and, at times, in nearby hotels/motels and think about how it will be even better on the second go round.

    And, of course, think about how the much lower likelihood of success combined with stronger defense/observation might affect the scum who funded and provided logistics for the Jan 6 seditionists.

    And, finally, there is the example of the most brazen of the Nazis sitting in jail right now.  They appear to be unavailable for flagpole swinging this time.

    The chances of random, copycat violence in smaller areas might be a bigger concern than DC this time.

  82. 82.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker: ok, fair point.

    So why whittle the package down to a nub?

     

    I’ve noticed that every time Machin says he won’t vote for $3.5 triillion the media asks about a $1 trillion package, as of there are no numbers in between. I don’t know where that’s coming from, and I don’t think something that low can pass.

  83. 83.

    sdhays

    @rikyrah: The increased use of the shadow docket points to just how busy the Supreme Court is. It sure seems like they could use some help from, say, 6 more Justices.

  84. 84.

    hueyplong

    @Kay: A minor point straying from the substance of the story, but it’s noticeable that it’s always important to detail a female interviewee’s hair and clothing.  WTF?

  86. 86.

    SFAW

    @Kay:

    I think they’re doing it because they “realized” they may have fucked up a bit. Without the RWMFCOTUS providing themselves cover, the hoi polloi may start to wake up and pay attention, and their precious reputation(s) as The World’s Second Greatest Deliberative Body might get tarnished.

    Of course, given the nature of the electorate (short attention span, etc.), the RWMFCOTUS doesn’t need to worry about that.

  87. 87.

    sdhays

    @Nicole:

    What kind of a failure must one be to spend that much time working on something and never get any better at it?

    A “spectacular” one?

  89. 89.

    Tony Jay

    @SFAW:

    That is suspicious. You Deep Staters must have better satellite surveillance coverage than my organisation suspects. Excuse me while I report this to my Cell Mentor.

    While I’m doing that, all is fine. Still back in the #%&@# office thanks to my bloody Tory-voting, Brexit-supporting, C19-restriction dismissing Manager having a ruddy heart attack, but what’s a guy gonna do? Got an award ceremony tonight where the local Festival we’ve (as in, my other half, the lady of the house) organised is somehow down to the final three candidates. How that happened we do not know, but I have a shirt, a tie and a gaping hole where the swanky free meal is going to go, so I am going to be there.

    And the Festival itself is tomorrow. All day. Followed by a 50th birthday party. Busy. Busy. Fricking busy.

  91. 91.

    SFAW

    @Baud:

    I semi-agree. But if his “drama and delay” results in a severely weakened bill (or set of bills), then it’s (potentially) a big problem for Dems and the country in general. [Yes, I know we don’t yet know how weakened any bill(s) is/are; we’ll just have to see the end result(s). At least he’s not Collins (I hope) — lots of blather pretending she’s going to do the right thing, then voting party-line with the rest of the Party of Traitors.]

    ETA: Re: the Collins “analogy”: meaning he would vote with the Bad Guys, not vote straight party-line Dem. Gotta work on my analogies.]

  92. 92.

    citizen dave

    @Steeplejack: fyi It was reported locally that the Pences bought a $1.93 million house in Carmel Indiana in July.  I guess it happened but haven’t seen anything further.  Maybe he needs to get moving advice from Dan Quayle.

  94. 94.

    lee

    Here is a woman that wants to be pregnant but the new Texas law is already screwing her over.

    Fairly long twitter thread. In which she goes into detail.

    I’ll just post the link in case FYWP eats trying to embed it.

    Link

  95. 95.

    SFAW

    @Tony Jay:

    First of all, I’m more like a Derp Stater.

    I guess I’ll now have to look up “C19-restriction,” must be a sodding Brit thing.

    Congrats (if I parsed your comment correctly) on 50! You young pup. I hope reaching that advanced age does NOT mellow your commentary.

  96. 96.

    Another Scott

    @Tony Jay:

    Good Morning, the time according to Brexit Imperial is 14/12s of a Forkin past the Gimlet.

    — HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) September 17, 2021

    Happy imperial time to you, courtesy of BoJo’s upcoming reinstatement of non-metric units!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Betty Cracker

    @Baud: I was kind of hopeful that it was a song-and-dance for the No Labels gang at first too, but Manchin’s WSJ editorial was damned discouraging. Basically, it was a kick in the balls to the admin. And now this “Biden bombs with Manchin” crap from Axios — it’s Manchin’s camp that’s feeding them that horseshit.

  98. 98.

    germy

    an unvaccinated person died (crowd cheers) but they were unvaccinated because of their disability (crowd boos) but they were a republican voter (crowd cheers) but they were a mother (crowd boos) to a future school shooter (mixed reaction from crowd)

    — DIESEL ⛽️ (@ThinDieselle) September 16, 2021

  99. 99.

    germy

    https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/us-judge-rules-trump-cannot-stop-rape-accusers-lawsuit-proceeding-2021-09-15/
    NEW YORK, Sept 15 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Wednesday said former President Donald Trump cannot delay a lawsuit accusing him of defaming former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll after she claimed he raped her in the mid-1990s.
    In a one-sentence order, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan refused to put the case on hold while Trump appeals an earlier ruling he made.

  100. 100.

    Baud

    @Betty Cracker:

    The White House guy on MJ this morning seemed dismissive about the Axios piece.  Hard to know whether he was just putting on a brave face, or if the media is playing up drama for clicks.  The op/ed didn’t come up in what I saw.

  101. 101.

    SFAW

    @germy:

    I guess it’s supposed to be a dark-humored comment on fickleness of the libs or something, but I can’t recall any lib cheering about an unvaccinated person dying from COVID.

     

    Of course, I might make an exception, depending on the dead person (e.g., McConnell, Hawley, Cucker).

  102. 102.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: IIUC, UK businesses have always been free to label in firkins, furlongs, and fortnights, but they also had to include the metric units. The change means they can skip the metric.

    From what little analysis I’ve read, this means that the few companies that market exclusively in the UK might drop the metric units, but companies with any sort of external market likely won’t bother with the expense of two sets of labels.

  104. 104.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    And Ms. Minaj has literally millions of devoted followers, in a great many countries, currently following the social-media saga of her cousin’s friend’s inflated / deflated wedding tackle…

    I was reading what the medical stuff says are possible cases are a swollen testicles and they said the most common cause is E. Coil infection, which would most likely happen because of unprotected anal sex (E. Coli normally resides in human and animal intestines). And that’s assuming Minaj isn’t just a lying sack of shit.

  106. 106.

    Suzanne

    @Kay: 

    There’s been little to no progress on women’s rights since I was a girl. We’re now going backward. That’s the reality for women.

    It’s definitely getting worse. The current right-wing freakout is that women (by which they really mean white women) aren’t having enough babies to continue America’s growth (by which they mean change their old white man asses when they soil their adult diapers in their dotage). Couple that with the freakout about women outnumbering men at institutions of higher education, making more money, and having careers that delay childbearing. They really, really do want us back in the kitchen, barefoot and pregnant.

    So many white men got lazy and nonstrategic. Just expected to show up for a job — whatever job — make a good wage, marry whomever, live wherever, and that it would all be easy and okay. On the one hand, yeah, it should be this easy for everyone. OTOH, it was only ever this easy for mediocre white men, and that was okay with them. It’s only once minorities and women start out-working and out-strategizing them that it becomes problematic. And their sour grapes are toxic AF.

  108. 108.

    germy

    @SFAW:  but I can’t recall any lib cheering about an unvaccinated person dying from COVID.

    There were seven (or was it eight?) MAGA talk radio hosts who bit the dust, and I saw much laughter and applause.  Not here, though.  Mostly on reddit and places like that.

  109. 109.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay: Go read up on who wrote the law. It’s all old religious loons in the Texas panhandle who consider Fort Worth the New Babylon.  Now ask yourself, in the story you just quoted; who is most likely to know that woman is getting an abortion; a pack of grifters phoning it in as part of their Anti-Abortion scam, or her crazy bible humping uncle?  And which of those two groups more likely to sue a barely employed twenty something with no money, a bunch of grifters looking for a pay day, or her crazy bible humping uncle?

  111. 111.

    Ken

    @Suzanne: OTOH, it was only ever this easy for mediocre white men, and that was okay with them.

    “This is not what I understood meritocracy to mean!”

  112. 112.

    Edmund Dantes

    @Betty Cracker: 

    Or they know what they plan to do this term. So might as well preemptively here out ahead of it.

    Can’t wait till we are living under Lochner again. And a pre-Reynolds vs Sims world again. In addition to no more Roe v Wade.

  114. 114.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @rikyrah: Thanks for bringing this to our attention, R.

    It’s frustrating that, AFAIK, not a single person in authority simply stated “The event is being investigated and, if facts support it, the miscreants will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

    Bring the fucking hammer down. Nothing else will work at this point.

  115. 115.

    Suzanne

    @Ken: I grew up very tenuously middle class, and I have shared about my high school friend group before. When I reflect on them and who has been successful and who has not, what stands out to me in retrospect is that so many of my white dude classmates just didn’t seem worried at all about the future. Like, I was always stressed about if I didn’t do well in school that I wouldn’t get into college and I would have to work at McDonald’s forever. But the white dudes seemed very content to let life unfold and have a good time. In many respects, that’s healthy and a great attitude…. but it isn’t a competitive attitude. So when I see white men express resentment that life is harder than they expected or that they aren’t as successful as they expected, a significant part of me is really incredulous at their stupidity.

  116. 116.

    Tony Jay

    @SFAW:

    Not quite, it’s a cousin of ‘Er Indoors, but not far off at all. I only wish I did have more time to rant on here, but this is the busiest I’ve been since I was a press flak for Nikki Minaj’s cousin’s ‘friend’s’ left testicle.

    “Lefty would like to thank Righty for all of the love and support over the years, but situations change, people are forced apart, and Lefty simply feels like they’re not on the same journey any more. Now I’m going to throw the floor open to questions, please raise your hands… yes, you there in the red cap.”

    “Hi, John Sopel, BBC, if Lefty could say anything to Doctor Fauci or President Biden, what would it be, and how badly would their tepid response let him down?”

     

    @Another Scott:

    Happy imperial time to you, courtesy of BoJo’s upcoming reinstatement of non-metric units!

    That sploshy, rattling, gurgle-hiss sound you can hear is yet another dead-cat being tossed onto the altar of 24 Hour News to distract from rising Covid numbers, a big hike in taxation on workers to shield the inheritances of the very wealthy and the latest in a series of Brexit humiliations. Since Flobalob can’t get his wine-stained mitts on Emma Raducanu for a grope and a photo-op he’s reduced to tossing out nonsense like this to keep the outrage level sky-high.

    It won’t happen, but just for suggesting it the oily little anus can go pound an Imperial foot of fuck right off up his three-shillings and sixpence.

  117. 117.

    Another Scott

    @Ken: My impression from IamHappyToast’s retweets is that it is a shiny object for the UK Uber Alles press, and an attempted distraction from the continuing train-wreck that is Brexit.

    Its every reporters duty during interviews with any conservative MP to include a question testing them on weights and measurement conversion.

    — HappyToast ★ (@IamHappyToast) September 16, 2021

    Ok, chap, a quarter hogshead of brown ale, that’ll be 27 quarter guinea and a spur ryal.

    :-/

    [eta:] or what Tony Jay just said!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  120. 120.

    Ken

    @Another Scott: Heh, one of the “related tweets” has this:

    Brexit Britain.

    “I’d like to buy a pound of apples, a pound of bananas and 8 ounces of grapes please.”

    “I’m terribly sorry, but we’re completely out of fresh fruit.”

  121. 121.

    Ken

    @Baud: I reject any system that doesn’t have me at the top of it.

    In this we are in total agreement, thanks to the pronoun “me”.  (Raymond Smullyan practically made a career out of pronoun reference.)

  122. 122.

    Tony Jay

    @Baud:

    I reject any system that doesn’t have me at the top of it.

    “Then have I got just the system for you!”

    Vlad IV Dragulya (who was a lot funnier than his biographers give him credit for)

  123. 123.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Kay:

    It’s great that we’ve gone forward on some things but it just seems like the regular response to women who are alarmed by how we are lurching backward in this country is “wait- it’ll all come out okay in the end, look at marriage equality!” It bothers me.

    It should bother you. LGBT+ people didn’t just wait for those things to happen. They came out, at risk of assault and career damage. They organized and put their money behind friendly candidates.  That change was hard won.

  124. 124.

    Tony Jay

    @Ken:

    I’ve seen that one, and it is funny, but given that this is Brexit Britain we’re talking about…

    “I’d like to buy a pound of apples, a pound of bananas and 8 ounces of grapes please.”

    “I’m terribly sorry, but we’re completely out of fresh fruit.”

    “Bloody immigrants!”

    ….that’s more verisimilitudey.

  125. 125.

    rikyrah

    @Kay:

    They seem to have settled on a campaign theme- both Barrett and Thomas used it- the theme is people believe they are political hacks because people don’t understand “originalist” legal philosophy, which is loftier and more intellectually challenging than the icky, low brow “realists”.

    They’re scolding us.

     

    All the while they hide behind the phucking shadow docket.

    No, I don’t think so, muthaphuckas.

    You are the lowlife right-wing hacks that we believe you to be.

  126. 126.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    The U.S. has the highest maternal mortality rate among developed countries.

    We don’t give a shit about women in this country other than policing and correcting them. The main accomplishment of “me too” seems to be ousting Democratic politicians. A me too charge probably boosts a GOP candidate’s chances – their base considers it a badge of honor. We’re going to be worse off as a practical matter – we’ll still have harrassment in the workplace and we won’t have basic privacy rights or bodily autonomy. Backwards.

  127. 127.

    rikyrah

    @Suzanne:

    So when I see white men express resentment that life is harder than they expected or that they aren’t as successful as they expected, a significant part of me is really incredulous at their stupidity.

     

    But,

    It was true for them..

    All they had to be was WHITE, and they could have a good middle-class existence. Now, that that’s not the case, they are upset.

  128. 128.

    Bluegirlfromwyo

    @Kay: If Clarence and Amy want to devine original intent, they’re welcome to go back to church and do so with their bibles. Leave the rest of us alone. Their rulings have pragmatic consequences no matter how icky their beautiful minds think that is; they should leave legal rulings to people who at least consider them. They should have become theologians, not judges.

  129. 129.

    Edmund Dantes

    @SFAW: plenty. But it’s usually because the person was an active spreader of anti-vaccine stuff. Plus have you not seen the Herman Cain subreddit or bloggers that bring the juicier ones up?

  130. 130.

    Kay

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    It should

    Ah, “should”.

    Really not in the mood for a lecture.

    Funny how these conversations about basic civil rights for women always end up with women either being told scolded and told they’re doing it wrong or told “the arc of history bends towards justice”. There’s a real reluctance to discuss the practical reality of what is happening today, with these laws specifically. 

    But thanks. I’ll keep that in mind. That the way to secure civil rights is to work for them. As the civil rights I and other women worked for are stripped away. Are you getting the difference yet? HAD then GONE. That’s the difference.

  131. 131.

    James E Powell

    @Kay:

    There’s been little to no progress on women’s rights since I was a girl. We’re now going backward. That’s the reality for women.

    This always leaves me perplexed. More women than ever in college, in professions, in politics, etc. More presence and awareness of women’s rights. The ‘Me Too’ movement that would never have existed in the 60s. All that and yet . . .

    I’m not defending the Great White Male mentality, nor am I letting men, generally, off the hook. But from the data I’ve seen, the majority of white women voted for Trump. Both times. I have no idea what to do about that.

    Abortion rights are necessary for women to be free, but the majority of white women either don’t see it that way or figure they will be fine without them.

  132. 132.

    Montanareddog

    @Baud:

     

     

    Cheating is in his blood.

    Agreed. He doesn’t cheat to win. He cheats because he thinks he is getting one over his opponent.

  133. 133.

    Suzanne

    @rikyrah:

    All they had to be was WHITE, and they could have a good middle-class existence. Now, that that’s not the case, they are upset. 

    White DUDES, specifically. This only ever worked for white men. They are just as destabilized by finding out that white women don’t want to be housewives and don’t want to have a slew of babies.

    My grandfather, who was my father figure (as my own father took off rather than pay child support), thought that there were exactly three acceptable jobs for a woman to hold outside the home: secretary, nurse, and teacher.

  134. 134.

    Kay

    @rikyrah:

    It’s insulting that Barrett and Thomas think we’re all incredibly stupid:UPDATE:

    @fedsoc
    has changed name of 9/18 panel w Judge Ho from “The United States v. Texas” to “Representing the State of Texas” & description from “The focus on this panel will be on litigating against the feds including current litigation vs. Biden administration”

    Team GOP on the federal bench are putting forth their social issues agenda for the session. There are two specific areas they focus on and have been wildly successful on- stripping voting rights and policing women’s bodies.

    We can all pretend this is a broad and unfocused attack on civil rights but it isn’t- two specific groups have lost federal protections in the last ten years.

  135. 135.

    Suzanne

    @Kay: Conservative white men are terrified right now that white (Christian) women are not having enough babies. Ross Douthat regularly bleats about it in his column, and conservative media freaks out about it at least weekly. They see this as civilizational collapse. They intend to change this via draconian control. It is sick.

  136. 136.

    taumaturgo

    @Betty Cracker:  I’m calling them conservative Democrats who want to protect donors by refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy and corporations — a proposal that the vast majority of Americans support.

    Amen!

  137. 137.

    SFAW

    @Edmund Dantes:

    As an old fart, I don’t do reddit, but the comments I have seen here and elsewhere indicate its population includes a good chunk of the left-side equivalent of the Red Staters, QAnoners, etc., rather than non-trolls. [Yes, I realize that it’s not only left-siders on reddit.]

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @James E Powell:

    More presence and awareness of women’s rights

    Oh, yes, the soft and unenforceable “presence and awareness” which I guess is supposed to replace actual laws and rights. What an absolute joke of a trade we made, huh? Suckers.

  139. 139.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: I wrote to Bloomberg editors and asked them to start actually interviewing and giving voice to the real victims… we can put pressure on the media- also Clarence Uncle Thomas is getting ratioed badly on Twitter for what it’s worth. The Supremes are basically a bunch of hacks, we see them

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    @Suzanne:

     

    They see this as civilizational collapse. They intend to change this via draconian control. It is sick.

    And, they are COMING FOR BIRTH CONTROL.

    Why this isn’t obvious perplexes me.

  141. 141.

    SFAW

    @James E Powell:

    Abortion rights are necessary for women to be free, but the majority of white women either don’t see it that way or figure they will be fine without them.

    In that context, it will be interesting to see what happens if/when Griswold is reversed

    ETA: rikyrah @ 140: Jinx!

  142. 142.

    Kay

    @Suzanne:

    As you know I live in a rural and very conservative area and that too is more specific. Plenty of white women and girls are having babies. They’re just the wrong kind of white women and girls. They’re not married, for one, they’re not religious, and they’re all low income.

    It’s just amazing to me how none of this ever changes. My entire life high status high income women like Justice Barrett have been pronouncing that it’s easy to have children and a job. Easy for her. It’s fantasyland. We’re being told to accept an inspiring narrative rather than legal and contract protections. It’s for suckers. We’ve been played.

  143. 143.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    I think it’s true that they’re hard to find. They’re scared and they should be. Texas Right To Life proudly proclaims they’re monitoring women. The pregnancy police force are watching them.

  144. 144.

    Suzanne

    @rikyrah: I KNOW!!!! We have foresight! We understand that the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior!

    This is why I have so little sympathy for the mediocre white dudes of America. Did they really not see social change coming?! Did they really, genuinely, not see that the world was getting more competitive?! I mean, I went to a very working-class school, with all of the urban problems that are familiar….. and I still had it drilled into my head that shit was changing, that I could not expect to finish high school and coast through life.

  146. 146.

    Suzanne

    @Kay: They are correct that the birth rate, including the white lady birth rate, is falling.  But instead of making it easier to have children, and understanding that many women want advanced education and to be mothers, they try to force women into parenthood via these terrible laws and try to devalue college so we cannot support ourselves.

  147. 147.

    Ksmiami

    @Kay: I just don’t see how we get out of this without turning the bs pro life tactics back on them. Let’s show the pictures of women bleeding out, the suffering babies that live for 2 days in pain – the truly tragic face of all of it. Time to be as uncivil as they are goddamit

  148. 148.

    Kay

    @Ksmiami:

    Well, maybe it’s somewhat positive that we’re having to do it again. We’re back to 1973. Maybe by 2050 we’ll be back to 2010, although I think it’s more likely we’re at 1947.

  151. 151.

    Cameron

    @Kay: I don’t think finding activists is a problem – it’s a double whammy of medieval government and useless media.  And I’m afraid I don’t have any solutions for either of those things, except (maybe) expanding the Supreme Court and (maybe) Federal protections for voting rights.  Not that I advocate doing nothing, I just am not sure what I can do.

  152. 152.

    Kay

    Here’s what I would do. Accept that we lost the Supreme Court through a combination of stupidity, ego, arrogance and incompetence and we now have a far Right court and we’re stuck with it.

    Focus on state races. Because state law is the last line of defense a lot of us, really most of us, will have.

  153. 153.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @germy: some days I am convinced the human race is to stupid to live.  I only hope these radioactive morons do not decide to then go home and have kids, or worse go when pregnant.

  154. 154.

    Cameron

    @Kay: That makes sense to me, although in my case it’s more theory than practice.  I live in a very red county in Florida.

  155. 155.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Ksmiami: No, because whether a person decides to get an abortion because their fetus has serious medical issues, OR because they just do NOT want to have a child, ever OR  at that point in their life, is no ones business.  I am tired of having to hear safe, legal and rare

    Safe, legal, and affordable, period

  157. 157.

    Kay

    @Cameron:

    I do too, but Democrats raise a lot of money. They can strategically deploy it in these states but they’re going to have to focus on that and make it a priority.

    The Court is never going to be expanded. There are too many “instituionalists” who are doing just fine with the status quo and will never admit it needs to be changed. I think they’re misguided- that they have lost the point of the exercise- it was never about propping up the institution when the thing was unsound in order to “protect it”. It was supposed to be substantively worth protecting.

    What are we “protecting” with this Court? Integrity? The Rule of Law? You can’t defend something that isn’t there. By the end of they’ll be “protecting” a really nice building with columns and a narrative that is no longer connected to actions of the people who make up the institution. They focused on the wrong part.

  158. 158.

    Kay

    @Cameron:

    It’s funny because it really does go back to Bush v Gore. Actions have consequences. The last real defender of the integrity of the SCOTUS was Al Gore. I think we didn’t know at the time that was the last gasp, but it really was.

    It’s a funny world, right? The individual who was arguably the most personally screwed by the hacks tried to save them. He believes in what they supposedly stand for more than they do.

  159. 159.

    J R in WV

    @Baud: ​
     

    I’ve noticed that every time Machin says he won’t vote for $3.5 triillion the media asks about a $1 trillion package, as of there are no numbers in between. I don’t know where that’s coming from, and I don’t think something that low can pass.

    Every time a politician, who should know better, talks about a $3.5 trillion package, they are lying out in public — it is a $350 billion package annually, probably too small to deal with climate change alone, much less all the other things it is supposed to support. And I would say that Manchin is ambulatory pond scum, except that remark demeans the pond scum.

  160. 160.

    Cameron

    @Kay: What I’d really like to see for the Supreme Court is something similar to what some states have.  The Senate gives you a lifetime appointment, but the House has to reconfirm it every 10 years.  If not, you get a well-deserved (?) retirement.

  161. 161.

    laura

    @rikyrah: As goes birth control, so goes privacy.

    And can I just add that Kay is killing it today – just bringing the fire to what we’ve long known, women’s rights someday but never today for some reason. I don’t care if it’s religion or competition in the workplace or the loss of free labor that benefits men in ways we rarely talk about or it’s a replacement birthrate or it’s old men with pussy fever or it’s a hatred of women in general. I DONT CARE ABOUT THE REASONS, I’m fed up, all the way up about the absolute absence of agency – no one gives shit one about what women may want or need or deserve or have a right to and I’m done with the framing that includes the glaring absence of women’s voices and full participation.

  162. 162.

    AM in NC

    @Kay: Exactly.  Why did gay marriage pass?  Because rich white men are gay too.  My progressive husband and his male progressive friends just do not get the deep, deep fear, rage, and dread I and my female friends (wives of many of my husband’s friends) feel, and the women are the ones volunteering to change this shit sandwich.  The men vote, and that’s about it. Their rights, as rich, white men will always be protected in our current system, or if the GOP gains even more power.  It is the Handmaid’s Tale.  Even most of the “good” men will kind of shrug until it’s too fucking late.  Listening to how the FBI dealt (refused to deal) with the sexual abuse by Larry Nassar brings this point home again.  It wasn’t until 2 female detectives took the case that anything got done.  The rightwing men at the FBI?  It wasn’t an issue worth pursuing for them. How much is a girl or woman worth? Not much, judging by the evidence of our treatment and mistreatment.

  163. 163.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: I’ll keep that in mind. That the way to secure civil rights is to work for them. As the civil rights I and other women worked for are stripped away. Are you getting the difference yet? HAD then GONE. That’s the difference.

    To me when I find a person who says “you just have to work for it” they know NOTHING about the history of the feminist movement. People seem to believe that women first talked about getting the right to vote in 1848, then magically it happened in 1920, as if there was nothing at all in between! Women died demonstrating for the right to vote, but that history is rarely taught in schools. Same way with abortion – little is taught about that history at all, about how hard-fought that was and how many women were injured or died before we had legal abortion in this country. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as so many women who actually remember those things are passing away, abortion rights are being eroded with nothing more than a shrug from a lot of the press and the public. They assume that we have always had legal abortion, so we’ll always have it. Young women are suddenly getting a rude shock, realizing that just because they had something doesn’t mean it can’t be taken away.

  164. 164.

    Sasha

    “All fellow members of the Roman senate hear me. Shall we continue to build palace after palace for the rich? Or shall we aspire to a more noble purpose and build decent housing for the poor?”

  165. 165.

    Gravenstone

    @J R in WV: I dropped this in the tail end of a dying thread a couple days ago, but that works out to < $3/person/day for the life of the bill. I’d be happy if my government wanted to spend that pittance on me and my fellows to hopefully make everyone’s lives better.

  166. 166.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @EmbraceYourInnerCrone:  As a man, I hesitate to step into this, but I have to say that you are right. It’s no one’s business but the woman and her doctor. Once you start characterizing some as better than others, you surrender to the right wing idea that there is something wrong with it.

  167. 167.

    laura

    @AM in NC: “Is that all?” That phrase ought to be flung in the face of the FBI until the end of time. Casual dismissal of repeated child sexual assault. How does one do that unless one considers the repeated sexual assault of children the way things are meant to be and it seems to be pretty damn common.

  168. 168.

    Soprano2

    @James E Powell: the majority of white women either don’t see it that way or figure they will be fine without them.

    No, they believe that they and their friends have enough money to still have access to abortion; prohibiting it is a way to control “those sluts” who they believe don’t even try to prevent pregnancy, and instead have many abortions as birth control. It’s a way to control “those women’s” sex lives. They believe that if they or their friends ever need an abortion it’s for a justified reason, while those other women have to be prevented because they abuse it. I’m not kidding about this, it’s how they think.

  170. 170.

    Kay

    @AM in NC:

    Listening to how the FBI dealt (refused to deal) with the sexual abuse by Larry Nassar brings this point home again.

    Agree wholeheartedly. Also- how the lower status girls in the Epstein rape cases were sold down the fucking river by the DOJ because they were impressed by Epsteins high powered celebrity lawyers so gave them everything they demanded. THAT was a chummy little set up. Gross. Someone should have been fired.

  171. 171.

    Soprano2

    @rikyrah: And, they are COMING FOR BIRTH CONTROL.

    Why this isn’t obvious perplexes me.

    Well, it’s been obvious to me for years that this is what they want. The “tell” is that literally none of the anti-abortion groups promote safe, effective birth control as a way to prevent abortions.  Some of them would mandate that no white woman could use birth control while forcing all non-white women to use it, but they’ll settle for keeping all women from accessing any safe, effective methods. They want to leave us with condoms, foam, and diaphragms only, saying that every other method causes abortions.

  172. 172.

    J R in WV

    @Suzanne:

    Conservative white men are terrified right now that white (Christian) women are not having enough babies. Ross Douthat regularly bleats about it in his column

    Isn’t Ross D the guy who wrote of his inability to maintain an erection after his date told him she was on the pill?

    What a loser!

    No wonder he’s a Republican…

  173. 173.

    Soprano2

    @Kay: It’s funny because it really does go back to Bush v Gore.

    ITA. That’s when they flushed their credibility down the toilet with their desperate ruling to make Bush president but to then weakly say “This decision is not a precedent of any kind”, as if we are all stupid. You will NEVER hear me say that W. was elected in 2000; he was appointed president by the Supreme Court, period. It was illegitimate, and the more you read about all the shenanigans that went on in various Florida counties the more you realize just how illegitimate it really was.

  174. 174.

    Kay

    @Soprano2:

    Trust is like a bank account. They’re handed it, unearned, when they take the seat and they can either let it sit there and earn interest or make deposits or make withdrawals.

    All they do is take out. Then they wake up last week and hit the speaker circuit “why don’t we have any trust?!” – because you were handed it unearned and pissed it away? They have to DO something to earn it back. It’s not a limitless well. People, individuals on that court, earned it. That’s where it came from.

    It’s much much harder to get it back once you’ve blown it. It will involve more than demanding it over and over again. People GIVE it, and they can take it away.

  175. 175.

    Suzanne

    @J R in WV: 

    Isn’t Ross D the guy who wrote of his inability to maintain an erection after his date told him she was on the pill?

    Yes, but only after describing her as fat.
    This is entirely about their sadz that they don’t get to own women to make their babies. In addition to abortion laws, the war on college education is part of this. The war on immigrants is part of this. Brett Kavanaugh is part of this. Women’s liberation has been so unbelievably destabilizing to a huge swath of American men.

  176. 176.

    Mary Ellen Sandahl

    @SFAW: ​I looked it up and felt derpy: it’s “CoVid 19 restrictions”, y’know like can you go maskless to your local whatever, that sort of thing. Pretty straightforward, unlike most Brit acronyms, which no one who wasn’t born with a teeny half-pt of bitter in their little fist can ever expect to figure out.

  177. 177.

    A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)

    @Betty Cracker: Good point, which I had never really thought about until now.  Maybe in his mental decline, familiar courses are all he can handle.  I’ve read that familiar places are comforting to Alzheimer’s patients (as, to be fair, they are to most of us).

  179. 179.

    sab

    @Bluegirlfromwyo: Our Founding Fathers grew up under a system where Catholics (except in Maryland), Baptists and various Evangelicals were outside the Pale. In general the only acceptable religions were Congregational (modern UCC) in New England and Episcopalian in the South. Oh yeah, Quakers in Pennsylvania. Nobody on the current Supreme Court except Gorsuch would even be considered acceptable.

    Where do these Originalists get their “facts?”

  180. 180.

    sab

    @Cameron: I hate that idea. Ohio has term limits, so every Democrat hopes to use state office as a springboard to federal office, and every Republican knows they will only keep their position on the big donors’ gravy trains by toeing the line exactly. The two parties used to talk to each other, but the Republicans dare not do so any more.

    Ohio passed a constitutional amendment with a whole mechanism against gerrymandering. The redistricting commission just produced a completely Republican plan. Four of the five Statewide Republican officeholders on the commission said it was a shame that the plan did not meet the new constitutional test, but they all voted for it anyway because they are Republicans, and their political future depends on the approval of party donors not on voters.

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