If I could, I would take out a line or two from this video. Otherwise, I think it’s darn near perfect.
Hey, Republican Party. Go f—k yourselves. pic.twitter.com/i7HiCDDUMf
— MeidasTouch.com (@MeidasTouch) May 8, 2022
What do you guys think?
Maybe more of this and less doom?
I’m hearing that maybe Justice BeerBong will allow us to keep the right to an abortion up to 15 weeks.
We don’t need your scraps of hope, we need our fucking rights.
Baud
Only until the November elections.
debbie
I thought the whole thing was good and heard nothing that needed to be removed. ??♀️
WaterGirl
@debbie: I felt like she was dissing on Democrats partway through the video
narya
Listened to Imani Gandy and Jess this morning, and they correctly point out that 15 weeks still overturns Roe and is still going to cause great harm.
Dee Lurker
Of course we need that hope and positive energy. The more of that the better. We could also use with less civility bullshit coming from the leadership. This is a life or death issue for women, and if we don’t fight this with the utmost intensity, the rest will follow. I, for one, don’t want to be stuck having to put up portraits of Ron DeSantis in my house in order to get a food ration card.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
If it happens, it wouldn’t surprise me, Beerbong is a drunk after all so, a coward. He would be the weak link when the Corporate Cons start screaming “You are there to protect Corporate Citizenship, remember?”
I also suspect Alito deliberately wrote that draft of his to be a complete disaster so it would be rejected or overturned by Congress just so he can pose as a Catholic Martyr.
Martin
That’s Roberts rumored position. He sides with MS on the ruling, but doesn’t sign onto Alito’s opinion.
I’m not holding out hope – the leak along with the leaks to the WSJ have all been about either locking in or breaking up this coalition. Anything is possible here. The warfare within the GOP is going to be apocalyptic if the opinion doesn’t look like what was leaked, though.
Electorally, this is all good for Dems. Real change requires suffering. I suspect truly enshrining those rights won’t come without more suffering. That doesn’t mean not stepping up and fighting through, though.
WaterGirl
@narya: absolutely agree. I wonder if they are hoping that it will look good to us compared to losing everything
hint: it’s not working that way for me.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Martin: Yes, even if Beerbong McCrybaby “saves” Roe, enough of this shit. These clowns need to go with their constant drama. This the Courts, not a reality TV show.
WaterGirl
@Dee Lurker: can you fill me in on what the administration has said? Because every time i hear Jen Psaki answer that question, she says they support peaceful protest.
What did I miss?
Steeplejack
Betty Cracker
Personally, I wouldn’t change a goddamn word — well done, PoliticsGirl. (That’s her Twitter name.)
RaflW
So the leak(s) is/are to try to shore up a wavering Boof? Not surprised.
Seems like the Chief Justice’s investigation is likely to ‘hit a wall’ and come up empty (the Gini Thomas protection plan must not be breached).
Jeffro
@debbie: seconded!
Run it every 10 minutes from now ’til November. The chips are indeed down, Dems: let’s goooooooooo!
Dee Lurker
@WaterGirl: The unanimous consent Senate passage of protection for SCOTUS families. This buys in to the false story of Alito having to “flee” his home. Also, Pelosi’s remarks about a better Republican party… the last thing we need is some centrist civility garbage that gives the GOP the right to set the narrative. The leadership needs to energize and motivate dissent, not attempt to peel away moderate Republicans. The issue of bodily autonomy is too important for the safe DLC route.
JoyceH
Fortunately for us, the GOP is too feral to even play it cool until after the midterms. State legislatures are already putting forward legislation to make abortion after fertilization felony murder, in states with death penalties. And legislation making it illegal to leave the state to get an abortion in a state where abortion is still legal. So we’re not scaremongering in the least when we say they want to execute women and girls and doctors, when we say females between the ages of ten and sixty are going to have to show a negative pregnancy test in order to board a flight. The public is on OUR side, though many of them will have to be prodded to actually get out and vote. But I think they will this time – they’re scared and they’re mad. And unlike the other guys, we’re scared and mad about reality, not some fever-dream fantasy.
Miss Bee
@Betty Cracker: I think Politics Girl’s rant is brilliant–comparing the Republicans to the Russians, and urging Democrats to be like the Ukrainians, to get on the side that’s winning, is very persuasive.
Ishiyama
@debbie: Not one word. The kids are alright.
trollhattan
@narya: 15 weeks is still caving. Looking for their counteroffer? “Fifteen minutes, and that’s all.
EarthWind&Fire (formerly bluegirlfromwyo)
Is that like conservatives everywhere allowing me my opinion? Fuck that bullshit with a rusty spade too.
Ishiyama
@WaterGirl: Deservedly so. She didn’t say don’t vote for their candidates. The world-historical strategic and tactical blunders of the leaders of the Democratic Party should not remain unexamined. How did Obama lose his landslide mandate, e.g.?
Kay
They wrote “please”, chalking a sidewalk is legal in Bangor, and she called the police.
Really interesting to me to see this absolute freak out when women speak, in a country that has had nothing but demonstrations for the last 4 years. If anyone wanted to know how telling women they don’t own their own bodies changes things, just look at the insane over reaction every time they open their mouths. Get used to it. They’re taking us back 50 years, legally AND culturally.
Jeffro
I think he wrote it as bait, to see who he could invite into his Matthew Hale fanfic club.
trollhattan
@Kay: “Law enforcement stunned when internet uses locate Maine senator’s home in Maine.”
Omnes Omnibus
Personally, I think that we need more doom posting. It’s really helpful for motivating people. Nothing fires people up like saying everything is hopeless and everyone should be preparing their exit strategies.
debbie
@WaterGirl:
She’s not wrong about that. Enough of the kumbaya moment; it’s gotten us nowhere.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Our side tends to pick things apart far too often.
Kay
@trollhattan:
It was such a good, direct, message. They told her to “clean up your mess”, which must have pissed her off beyond belief.
True though. I hope they weren’t arrested for directly addressing The Queen.
There is no pro womens’ autonomy speech that is acceptable. Only the anti-choice side may be heard. Women may not speak directly- they may petition their elected representives, perhaps with letters or telegrams.
Dee Lurker
@Kay: That is what has gotten under my skin. The current narrative is that these (largely female) protestors are unhinged and need to be condemned. They are using the BLM rhetoric immediately and trying to box critique into a safe little cage where it can starve.
Jeffro
Yeeeup.
That’s why they flip out any time we have a protest of any kind – kneeling, pink-hatted march, BLM, peaceful protest outside a justice’s house. The minority is supposed to tell us how it’s going to be and there’s NO TALKING BACK (much less voting about it)
so let’s have more protests!
debbie
Rick Wilson’s in on the tweeting thing, with this thread about TFG’s possible return to Twitter. I think it’s worth reading:
And to those whose precious eyes can’t bear such a possibility, there’s this:
Kay
@trollhattan:
“Women had 5 whole days to complain about this. Who can bear their incessant talking?”
Betty
This comment fit better in the previous post, but I wanted to take the opportunity to mention an important election in Pennsylvania besides the top two. My candidate, and Adam’s friend, Rick Coplen will, I hope, be running as a Democrat against the execrable Scott Perry, Chairman of the Freedom Caucus and boss of Matt Gaetz, Marjorie Taylor Greene and company. The primary is next week. If Rick makes it through, I hope some loose change can be found to support him. Just a heads up.
Anyway
@WaterGirl:
JenPsaki’s tweet:
“@POTUS strongly believes in the Constitutional right to protest. But that should never include violence, threats, or vandalism. Judges perform an incredibly important function in our society, and they must be able to do their jobs without concern for their personal safety.”
Didn’t think this was necessary …
debbie
@Anyway:
Why? Otherwise, the GOP will paint a very ugly picture of the Democrats. Again.
Sure Lurkalot
@Omnes Omnibus: Hillary warned us again and again.
Ruckus ??
@JoyceH:
And unlike the other guys, we’re scared and mad about reality, not some fever-dream fantasy.
It’s more like a extremely shitty nightmare that they suffer from, by “thinking” that massive restrictions on human life make it better. That as long as you can’t do what they do, your life will improve enough that you won’t notice that they are screwing you so that you will feel as bad as they do because they think that all life is great and wonderful so why do they act like such shits.
And yes that makes zero sense. But it’s probably somewhere in the bible – if you squint real hard and are trying to read a copy in Latin, which you have never learned. I’ve read the thing cover to cover and never found that passage but still it might be in there someplace. And I did take Latin for a year.
OK it is actually simpler than that, this is all a gigantic fucking scam to make money by employed slavery – working for an unsustainable low wage so that you are always locked into hunger and having zero hope of better while your employer makes multiples of Gulfstream Jet money producing crap. Per week.
Martin
Sending up the Watergirl bat signal because I think this is right up her alley.
She needs to put a spotlight on this twitter thread (I know what I said earlier – shut up) because she’s helping to turn this site into a vehicle for doing what is described. It may give her ideas of where to move us next.
Hoodie
@Jeffro: It’s possible that Roberts suckered him into writing that because he knows that he’s a kook and will eventually alienate at least someone. Roberts could have easily brokered some sort of compromise with the hardliners to mostly neuter Roe but not in the scorched-earth manner Alito does. For example, he could have put forth some sort of position where the states have to leave some sort of kernel of choice, e.g., require exceptions for rape and incest or something that would not impact most birth control. He chose not to do so. When Roberts decided not to join the five, that meant that Thomas, as the senior justice, got to pick who wrote the majority opinion. Given that opportunity, he just couldn’t help himself. The logical choice would have one of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh or Coney-Barrett. Everyone knows that Alito is a rancid old fart, but so is Thomas, so he picked Sam.
The latest leak about Kav is somewhat plausible. Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Coney-Barrett are all weirdos of various types who are not very susceptible to outside, non-conservative social pressure. In the hothouse environment in their litter corner of the world they might get somewhat normalized, but when their views get full public disclosure you really can see what a group of wackos they really are. Boof seems like a clubby kind of guy who wants to have friends in Harvard/Yale type legal circles and hire nice-looking female clerks, most of whom will be particularly unhappy with this ruling. He probably doesn’t like that his toney DC neighbors are protesting in front of his house and associating him with lunatics like Misogyny Sam. Thus, he would seem to be more susceptible to social pressure on this issue. One possibility is that the draft opinion was leaked not to keep Kav in line with the conservatives but to scare him into a compromise with Roberts and the liberals as he sees the backlash to Alito’s medieval views.
WaterGirl
@Dee Lurker: Thank you. I had missed the unanimous consent thing on SCOTUS families. Politically, I don’t see how we could have voted against that because of optics, but it still sucks.
Politics is the art of the possible.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Yes, yes, she was.
I’m sorry, but I find the comparison to Ukraine flippant.
This also reminds me of how excited I got about that “Holy shit, you’ve got to vote” video, which ultimately I guess was counterproductive.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Well, I did post this on the front page of an almost top 10,000 blog, and I indicated that I loved nearly every word of it.
So I wouldn’t exactly call that letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. :-)
Betty Cracker
@debbie: They always do, always have and always will. That statement made it sound like there was something to condemn.
Martin
@Ruckus ??: Simpler yet:
It took them, what, 72 hours to pivot off of banning abortion to banning birth control. The domestic supply of white babies has crashed. The GOP needs to spin up the birth factories, by force if necessary.
The Bible says that life begins at first breath. None of this is in the Bible. Slavery is all over the Bible though, so you’re right on that part.
zhena gogolia
@Anyway:
Oh, and looky here, the part you left out.
Cacti
The very concerned WaPo issued a very concerned Op-ed yesterday that sure, Sam Alito and friends want to make women into birthing chattel, but interrupting his dinner is wrong.
FelonyGovt
I liked the video. Cringed a bit about her remarks about Dems being ineffectual, but she’s not 100% wrong there, and she’s still urging voting for our candidates.
Pretty much ALL the women I know are now furious and riled up. I think (hope) that the Repukes have really, really overreached and that this will backfire on them tremendously.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Watch the rest of the answer, at #45.
ETA: She was asked about it, what the hell is she supposed to say? “Burn, baby, burn!”?
Anyway
@zhena gogolia:
Good I didn’t see that part.
zhena gogolia
@Anyway: Took me about 3 seconds to find it.
Cacti
I can’t help but notice that most of the Beltway flacks saying “this is wrong and bad optics” are biological males.
I also can’t help but notice that there’s an overwhelming tone of “girls, just lie back and take it and wait for us to rescue you” to their comments.
sdhays
The people who have been wanting to “burn everything down” sure seem upset when their own homes might (proverbially) be burned down.
Hmm…
stacib
@Anyway: You didn’t read / hear the entire quote, and yet, you came on here to tell us how shitty it was. The doom and gloom from “our side” is damn depressing, especially when it’s based on partial truths and unacknowledged facts.
Kay
@Cacti:
It doesn’t matter where they protest. The objective is to shut them up. They may lodge a formal complaint with their elected representives, thru the mails.
“Oh, my GOD, are they still going ON AND ON about this!?” That’s the attitude. You can just tell they’re all desperate to move on, and promote the next Trump tell-all book.
Again- if anyone wants to see how women will be treated post Roe, watch this concerted, team effort to shut them up.
Anyway
@zhena gogolia:
Yay! Good for you.
Kay
@Cacti:
If it were even that. It’s “we won’t help you and you may not help yourselves, because you do it wrong”
Bex
@Anyway: Those poor hack judges and the ever-whining Susan Collins complaining about their “personal safety?” I’m going to send them all a stern letter…and I’ll probably be arrested.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: How about stopping after the first sentence? Or maybe add the word “peaceful” before “protest” in that sentence and leave it at that?
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: In what way do you see it as flippant. I see it as watching the way the leaders of Ukraine and the people of Ukraine did not listen to “you’re going to lose” and are fighting like hell for their lives and their country and their right to be free.
I see it as watching that using their strength as inspiration. Is there any part of that that you see as flippant?
Anyway
@stacib:
One was a posted tweet, the other was a clip from a briefing. It’s not like I deliberately chopped off a portion. i posted the entire tweet from Psaki.
Dangerman
@Martin: If the leaked decision is softened in any way, the Right will absolutely lose their shit.
Kay
Good answer.
Ken
@Kay: I wonder if Schumer could have truthfully added “And those protestors are carrying guns.”
Matt McIrvin
@Steeplejack:
They kept it going in South Africa for quite a while!
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: I worry that she was jinxing Ukraine. They haven’t won yet. It’s not a given that they will.
On the thought that the Court might settle on 15 weeks: the view from our side, Um, no, not good, that’s not full rights for women, women will suffer. And die if there is no provision for the pregnant person’s health.
From the other side: Yeah, why not? Still hurts women, reminds them they have less than full autonomy, keeps the anti-choice folks all riled up and we need their votes. Might mollify enough of those pro-voices that they quiet down.
From this angle, 15 weeks is an elegant solution (please note, this idea revolts me).
Cacti
@Kay: The reaction of the public vs. the reaction of the political elite just hammers home that they believe they should live by a different set of rules than us mere mortals.
They think it should be illegal for you to make them feel uncomfortable in their upper class neighborhood. But the slutty sluts should be prepared to run a gauntlet of threats, saliva, and verbal abuse from religious nuts, to end an unwanted pregnancy. Medical providers should just accept being doxxed, stalked, harassed, and murdered if they provide abortion services, etc.
the pollyanna from hell
@zhena gogolia: American women have been dying under forced-birth small-print catch-22’s for decades, and are now being threatened in the tens of thousands. Illegal and violent political terrorism is part of forced-birther strategy. Comparison to a Russian invasion is hyperbolic, but I wouldn’t call it disrespectful to Ukraine.
Hoodie
@Martin: It’s always been a bit strange that people who have these racial views are not in favor of more abortion, given that something like over 50% of abortions involve black or hispanic women and, god knows, they really don’t give a shit about fetuses. Of course, the real purpose is to put white women in a position of subservience to mediocre white men like Gibson. You can usually assume most of their ideas arise from being pissed about not getting the sex they think they deserve, all those white women out there on birth control whoring around with everyone but them.
Barbara
I have no sympathy for judges worried about protesters. When I escorted my sister for an abortion we were swarmed by people who had no idea that my sister had a medical condition that made it dangerous for her to carry a pregnancy untreated and dangerous for the fetus for her to get the treatment she needed. No, I shouldn’t have to explain that to random strangers angrily telling me that there was always an alternative to abortion. And never mind people like me who have to endure it once, the people who work there are being harassed constantly, day in and day out. You think people have a basic right of safety or they don’t. The Supreme Court doesn’t think the rest of us do, so F them.
As for what Justice Beer Pong will do, my assumption is that Roberts’ tactic is to uphold this specific statute (and any other, no matter how draconian) and not discuss what it means in terms of overturning this or that precedent. It does not mean that they are going to find that women have a right to an abortion up to 15 weeks of gestation.
That’s what he is trying to get at least one other justice to do so that there is no specific plurality for the Alito view — so in SCOTUS speak, there would be 6 justices voting for the specific result, but only four (Thomas, Barrett, Alito and Gorsuch) taking the lunatic “King Charles II” rules us all standard that defines what torture states should be able to inflict on pregnant women.
That just tells me that Roberts is desperate because unless he persuades the rest of them to hold back, there is going to be an opinion that pretty clearly shows us where things are headed. The only difference here is that Roberts is politically stealthier.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
Amusing notes from the exurban/rural campaign trail:
Kay
@Ken:
There have been nothing BUT protests in this country for the last 5 years. Just super interesting how these protests must be immediately shut down.
Schumer’s answer is good because it’s neutral. It’s fair.
Matt McIrvin
@Martin: They’re gunning for the Republican Hispanic vote, I see.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I’m uncomfortable with comparing what we’re going through with what Ukrainians are going through.
Betty Cracker
@Anyway: Here’s Psaki handling something really well TODAY:
That said, you should be able to criticize a tweet or whatever without people flipping out, but The Great Nitpickening is upon us.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom:
This too, although I don’t believe in jinxes. But Slavs do!
Cacti
SCOTUS literally threw a barricade out in front of their building to provide themselves the sort of buffer they ruled it was unconstitutional for Planned Parenthood to have.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Did I flip out, or did I provide some context?
Kay
@Barbara:
Wait until the Washington Post finds out that women who present with a miscarriage in Texas are now subject to an interrogation. They’d have to go to Texas and talk to some women, though. Icky.
Barbara
@Kay: Yeah, that was grotesque.
gene108
This stupid trope about how Democratic politicians do not do messaging*.
Republican messaging is handled by think tanks, right-wing media figures, and their ability to dictate the narrative to the MSM.
What makes Boebert and Greene so jarring is they have stepped into the sort of poo flinging at Democrats that’s usually the provenance of right-wing media figures, like Carlson, Malkin, etc. or think tank hacks like “economist” Steven Moore, or whatever astroturf group Americans for Prosperity spins up.
How much actual messaging does Mitch McConnell do? Or Kevin McCarthy? They’re rarely drawing attention to themselves, or holding rallies, or holding press conferences, or making any sort of public utterances, but they’re “great” at messaging all by themselves.
There is a massive structural imbalance in favor of Republicans that conservative billionaires have spent 45+ years building up.
I doubt Democratic voters want to be that beholden to billionaires, so I’m not sure how to combat it, but it’s not all on the politicians.
*One thing Republican politicians do better than Democrats is with message discipline. They get a script of what to say to the media, and they all stick to it almost word for word. The politicians aren’t writing those scripts, though. They come from right-wing media and operatives, like Rufo.
TheTruffle
Regardless of what Beer Pong decides, we still gotta expand the court.
Cacti
@Kay: Wouldn’t be surprised if Texass required women of child bearing age to register their wombs with the county sheriff.
debbie
I went back and listened to the clip. She wants Democrats to fight back like Ukrainians. It’s a very high bar, but I don’t see it as anything more than a call to action.
Chip Daniels
She’s right in that the anti-abortion folks just wanted it more.
As in, they made anti-abortion their litmus test that every Republican had to pass.
They didn’t care about taxes.
They didn’t care about foreign policy.
They didn’t care about crime, or the economy, or infrastructure, or anything else. They were willing to accept incompetence, graft, corruption and anything else, but would never, ever, let a pro-choice politician get their vote.
And they weren’t mollified with lip service, they demanded action.
We need to be like that with women’s rights, democracy and the rule of law. No more mild mannered bleating about civiity. Lets take the fight to them and be as vociferous about keeping rights as they are at taking them away.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Here’s what you said to me:
That sounds kinda flip-outty to me. ;-)
CaseyL
I have definitely noticed a change in rhetoric coming from the WH. There is more, and consistent, pushback against the GOP. Repetition of “Ultra MAGA,” repeated mention of Rick Scott’s travesty of a budget, repeated mention of the verbal abuse and harassment patients are subjected to when they go to family planning centers.
More name-checking of GOPers, as when some cretinous reporter asked Psaki whether Rick Scott’s budget proposal was really the GOP’s position.
More taking the fight to the GOP, fewer inspirational odes to a spirit of bipartisanship.
I hope we’ll see more of this.
Cacti
@Chip Daniels: No less than progressive deity Bernie Sanders endorsed an anti-choice candidate for Mayor of Omaha, because we had to do that to “be a 50 state party”.
Those types of endorsements need to disappear forever.
Bex
@zhena gogolia: Ukranians are going through hell. The question that they had to answer was, what would their lives be like if they didn’t fight? That should be our question too.
eversor
@Barbara:
The same holy rollers saving babies for Jesus want to make protesting Churches and their anti abortion clinics illegal as well.
Their view of religious liberty as that the allows them to do whatever they want and everyone else not only has to obey they aren’t allowed to complain about it. The entire, freedom of religion not freedom from religion.
cain
@Matt McIrvin: A number of them think they are white or identify as such.
cain
@CaseyL: How do we boost these messages just like those troll farms do for TFG?
Immanentize
@Ohio Mom: I have to add my nod to this -+ I am fighting for full Roe (if that is such a thing) but “until viability” which is the part of Roe that would be overturned by a 15 week law, would not overturn a woman’s right to decide up to that point — and more importantly, would not overturn the legal basis for all the other rights we rightly feel are threatened — sex with whom you want, pregnancy protections in the workplace, types of sex you may want like oral sex can’t be criminalized, marry who you want (gender or race or whatevs), contraception, right of Indian parents to not have their children adopted out of the tribe, etc.
Yes, the Mississippi law is horrible. But it doesn’t immediately threaten all our other rights of bodily autonomy and personhood. Now, there is no guarantee the Court would stop at 15, but it is emerging as an international time period for abortions (as Roberts discussed during arguments). And that impediment might wake up the voters who have missed the news.
Finally, “viability” as a legal standard is absolutely a dangerous basis for a personal right. What if Dr. Mengele III comes up with an external uterus that allows fertilized eggs to survive soon after conception (or without human hosts at all)? Is the right to abortion then by technological fiat over? And from what I know of genetic sciences today, this is a “when” not an “if.”
So, fight for the status quo! But don’t die in the battle and live to continue to fight.
FelonyGovt
OT- and I hope you all don’t mind a hyper-local post. For my fellow LA County jackals- who are you voting for for Sheriff? I want to get rid of the execrable Villanueva (who snookered us Dems into voting for him and turned out to be a mini-Trump). But I would like to vote for the challenger who has the best chance of getting to November.
Betty Cracker
@CaseyL: I’ve noticed that too, and it’s a good thing.
Ruckus ??
@Martin:
They say babies. They really mean low wage future workers. They don’t give a fuck about abortion for themselves, they give a fuck about their bank accounts. (I’m talking the conservative leaders) They can’t say what they mean they have to use their version of religion as cover for what they want. Money, no matter it’s form, has been the conservative standard for everything since the inception of language. They have just used religion as a cover for that. They don’t give a damn how they get that money, they only care about how much they have. They tell their followers that religion is the premise because otherwise they’d be targets. They don’t see equality of humans as a positive, they see bigger bank accounts as the only positive. Think how many followers they would have if they said money was the key. They are lying sacks of shit who don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves and where they stand in the pecking order.
WaterGirl
@debbie: That is my takeaway, too. The people of Ukraine are fierce, strong, courageous, determined in the face of attack. And they did not listen to the narrative that they were going to lose. That it was going to be over in two days. And so on.
PoliticsGirl is suggesting that we stop listening to the narrative that it’s hopeless and start being fierce, strong, courageous and determined in the face of this attack on our right of self determination.
I guess we see it differently if you find the offensive. I find it inspiring.
Another Scott
@Dee Lurker: Yeah, it’s a political stunt by Cornyn, but it’s not so bad.
SB 4160:
That’s it.
It’s a little surprising to me that they don’t have that protection available already. Souter was mugged once while out jogging, apparently.
Pass it and move on.
Cheers,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Betty Cracker: Timing is everything! And ramping up direct oppositional attacks on the GOP (and the Court) just before the term’s final decisions land seems like excellent timing.
FWIW, I will be talking with an offshoot from the 1619 project tomorrow about rape and race. I’ll let you know how it goes.
MisterDancer
YES TO THIS!
Democrats in power oftentimes are talking with no damn backup, no coordinated pushback from advocacy groups. Many of those are strapped for time/cash, plus the media is turned to turn them out because “Libs be always whining, not winning.” Even when you say the right thing, it’s a small group who notices.
And that makes it harder when someone of good will slips, and we do need to have an honest, and honorable, discussion.
It’s a hard problem to solve. The GOP solved the “Solid South” problem in the 20th Century by selling their souls to White Supremacy, and then building a Legion of Doom of interest groups like Evangelicals.
Big Tent, Open Heart Democrats — Progressives — have not that option. And we should factor that in, when we’re considering why someone on “our” side makes the moves they do.
eversor
@Chip Daniels:
The base of the right firmly believes that if they do not live in a society that conforms to Christianity, enforces Christianity with the power of the state, and prohibits people from critizing Christianity than they cannot practice their faith. Full stop. And that argument animates the entirety of the Christian intellectuals, and public servants such as Bill Barr and Sam Alito.
And they will never stop. And they fully believe that anything they do to get this is fair play. Sure, they’ll both pass away but then the next generation will step into place with the same exact demands.
Omnes Omnibus
@CaseyL: @Betty Cracker: Switching gears from trying to get legislation passed mode to election season mode.
Kay
@Cacti:
I don’t think women yet understand that this changes their entire relationship to health care providers in the area of reproduction. But it does. It has to. I don’t even really blame them. Everyone is just trying not to get arrested.
Soprano2
@narya: True, but it doesn’t activate laws like the one in MO that will immediately ban IUD’s and Plan B. Plus, now we know what they intend to do – it’s not theoretical anymore. Anyone ever tells me again I’m “hyperventilating” or “being hysterical’ when I talk about all the things we’ve known Republicans want to do for decades, my response will be “go fuck yourself, you liar”.
WaterGirl
@CaseyL: Yes to all of that.
Immanentize
@Ruckus ??:
FTFY
Baud
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
?
stacib
@gene108: I saw an interview with Jon Tester a couple weeks ago, and he was saying that during a conversation with his constituents, about all the good things that have happened for farmers. The interviewer asked how did they react to knowing this was specifically due to the Biden administration. Tester’s response, he didn’t mention either Biden or this administration because they “wouldn’t have liked that”. How in all hell will Democrats ever move forward if our own team won’t promote the good stuff and give credit where it’s due?
Bill Hicks
I think this song is awesome and appropriate:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el1QWfnYy_c
Immanentize
@MisterDancer: I may have said this before (I did!) — But the way to fix the EC (and improve the Senate by indirect extension) is by vastly increasing the number of members of the house of representative. Pick a number of people represented, rather than a fixed number of House members. This would balance out the representation of states in the house to a much more proportionately representative number giving high population states more voice in the House (as it was designed to do). It would also increase the number of EC votes of high population states because EC is senators (2) plus # of house members.
Ruckus ??
@FelonyGovt:
Human beings don’t seem to mind being screwed over as long as they think there is a good reason. Take away that “good” reason and show them it’s bullshit and all bets are off. And yes I know that the change was forever overdue 50 yrs ago but the change happened and now conservatives want to change it back because. They have no valid reason to go backwards, any more than they had reason to have this position before. But they lost the position of control. They can not abide that, the position of control. I think, if you read my post above, that they don’t actually give a fuck about any kind of religious BS or tortured politics they might use to justify their position. Because the “leaders” of the political right don’t give a fuck about religion because that’s not the basis of their desires. Religion is the language they use to justify their position.
Cameron
@Kay: Why would they need to do that? What’s wrong with interviewing a bunch of retired white men in a diner in rural Ohio?
Immanentize
@Omnes Omnibus: exacatickatackily.
Kay
@Cacti:
It’s especially amusing to me because we’ve been subject to endless lectures about “free speech” and “cancel culture” and how the Canadian truckers were “unheard” – it’s a cottage industry- they try to outdo one another defending whatever the fuck the Right is screeching is about – but two days of protests by (mostly) women and it’s “shut it down!”
We’re THAT scary.
Cacti
@Immanentize:
Call it the Wyoming rule.
No single Congressional district can represent more people than the Congressional district for the least populous state.
Kay
@Cameron:
Texas Tribune and LA Times have been great. The rest suck. I think the subject bores them.
Ruckus ??
@Matt McIrvin:
It went on in this country for a long time as well.
Another Scott
@Barbara: +1
Them all spiking the football at Bony-Carrot’s superspreader party should have made it clear that they were all going to go for the maximalist outcome as soon as they’re able. Yeah, Roberts is sneakier about it and he sees the GQP electoral benefit of “just” continuing to chip away at abortion and reproductive rights and “religious liberty” stuff until the end of time. “We didn’t overturn Roe, it’s just the Magic of the Marketplace and Religious Liberty comes first…” Alito doesn’t care. He and too many of the others want to burn it all down if they don’t think it was on the vellum in the 1790s.
I obviously have no inside information. But all that we know about these 6 people does not point to them having a secret somehow “moderate” side on these issues. They are a bunch of pecksniffs who are intent on imposing their religion on us and destroying our system of government.
Grr…,
Scott.
The other RWNJs on the court know what they want and will try to push it through. That’s why they’re there, after all…
Grr…,
Scott.
Immanentize
@Cacti: i would be even a bit more extreme and say the least populous state shall have two House members (to equal the Senate) and the base district is 1/2 least populous state.
ETA but calling it the Wyoming Rule, whether absolutely accurate, would be great.
MisterDancer
I submit, again, that this Draft’s leak has trapped The Court in a political Schrödinger’s Box.
If they push on as-is, the panic noted by some GOP lawmakers will abate. But if you read the full reporting on McConnell’s infamous “National Abortion Ban” remarks, it was a lot weaker than the headlines implied, plus he even more recently backtracked.
I submit few of the high-ranking Federal-level GOP people want to actually pass a full ban. They know — now, if not before — the rage they will get — real rage, that they can’t simply wave aside or mock, for one. They risk losing that “national ban” fight, and they hate losing — it’s why they sold out in the first place!
And on the other hand, I think a lot of us on the side of good and light underestimate how enraging a 15-week ban would be…from the Evangelical movement’s POV. As soon as Roberts validated that the Draft was real, it became clear that the Court could give forced birth assholes, the whole game game!
Remember these are beyond True Believers, y’all. There are tons of people in the forced birth side with no damn life outside of protesting and advocating for the end of Abortion. And although you don’t hear it in “public,” many of them know the GOP has been yanking their chains for decades, for ever since Reagan!
The Court pulling the football back to 15 weeks would, in my opinion, ignite a firestorm from that side. It might not be a “big” one from our POV, but my gut says that it might well shake that alliance, and impact the overall Conservative agenda in ways we can’t predict, yet.
That’s the Box the Court finds itself in, today, with this leak. Pull back and anger the “conservative” base, or press on and awaken an angry group of Americans.
However: At the end of the day, of course I’ll take a 15 week ban, because that’s less harmful to marginalized people that a “Roe‘s gone, everyone back to the states” approach. No matter what silver lining the other approach might have, we have to keep in mind the cost of these draconian measures to the people we are supposed to support.
Immanentize
@MisterDancer: So, we have to hope for totally getting rid of the right to abortion to “heighten the differences?”
Kay
I always love the dryness of police reports compared to hysterical egomaniac callers :)
I guess she doesn’t have a hose. He should have said that “do you have a hose?” She’s a flinty New England person, right? Self sufficient? Maybe a pushbroom too. They really laid on the chalk :)
MisterDancer
@Immanentize: I know I write a lot. However: Please go back and re-read my last paragraph, It was written specifically for this question, because I realized how my words could be implied, and I want NONE OF THAT.
Thanks.
UncleEbeneezer
@FelonyGovt: My local Dem group (ACT) is endorsing Vera. But the LA Times makes a good argument for Luna.
I haven’t done much research yet but I’m squarely in the anyone-but-Villanueva camp.
Immanentize
@MisterDancer: I did, but all the paragraphs up to that point suggested that it would be an almost equal option to energize folks.
If I wrote five columns on how the Democrats suck, but in para 73 admit that the Republicans are bad, even maybe worse, what is my NYTimes point?
Almost Retired
@FelonyGovt: I’m leaning towards Robert Luna, who is (was?) Chief of Police in Long Beach. He seems to be the emerging consensus choice of knowledgeable Democrats that I’ve canvassed, and he got the LA Times’ endorsement. I would write in Buford T. Justice for Sheriff before I’d vote to reelect Villanueva.
Steeplejack
@Martin:
That story is from 2006.
Immanentize
@Kay: John Kerry waste worst of this type. Or maybe he just aligned with his wife for maximum family peace? But he famously, once he became Senator, had the City move a fire hydrant in front of his Beacon Jill home so he could have more convenient parking. Long before 9/11 and our security freakout. He did it because he could.
Ruckus ??
@zhena gogolia:
I agree.
To a point.
Yes Ukraine is being attacked by another country that is trying to steal their country and killing them to do so. Yes that is incredibly wrong. But the conservatives of this country are trying to take away something that is none of their business, the health and well being of half of the citizens of this country, which includes some of their own.
IOW the premise is the same, it is different by degree, which is not unimportant in the least, which is why, while I agree with your concept of comparison, I see that living human lives are at stake here as well and how someone could make that connection.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I think people worry because Democrats giving ground always ends up really far Right. They’re not going to be satisifed with “15 weeks”. You know that. And you will have handed them the first round. Maybe it’s worth it, maybe it’s not but they will take it as a concession and concessions to them are just openings to push all the way. There’s no reciprocity. 95% of them won’t give an inch. They just pushed the boundary out further Right in the last 6 months. Rape, incest and health of the mother. Gone.
That’s what they’re afraid of. Understandably. That they give ground and in two years end up standing on nothing.
Immanentize
@Almost Retired: please just don’t write in “Jubilation T. Cornporn”
Ruckus ??
@Betty Cracker:
The banner headline for BJ.
The Great Nitpickening is upon us.
I mean what the hell else are we here for?
Immanentize
@Kay: I know. I agree! But fighting for ground is better than just ceding ground. The Alito draft has let loose every right wing religious male fantasy around. If it was squelched, sure they would ask for Roberts’ and Kavanaugh’s (and I’m not counting out Gorsuch yet) heads — but it is a base from which to work, which “no right to privacy” is not.
MisterDancer
I honestly apologize if you took that I was trying to make an explicit “this is how we should play it” point, in terms of actual preferred outcome. It’s honestly hard to try to be an advocate for things AND try to speak outside of that advocacy, and say something that’s just a set of observations. I’m not smart enough to make that call to begin with, just notice a thing. But moreover, I’m not the kind of person who can make the moral calculations to drive that. I’m not built to do the Solomon work, if you will.
I’m a person who’s trying to write with, yes, some intellect — but I’m also honestly kind of scared. It’s part of why I’ve not put anything on the Front Page in a bit, to be really blunt; I want to be helpful, and not harm people in the main — my bluntness, aside.
This was about a weird and honestly ugly situation on all ends. It’s not meant to be a policy statement, or direction; if it was, I would be up-front and say so, not hide behind a wall of words. I promise you that.
Lacuna Synecdoche
RaflW:
I’m still inclined to think Alito leaked it, maybe through an intermediary. I suspect Alito was just so damn proud of it that he couldn’t bear the thought of it not being published if he couldn’t maintain a majority for it.
P.S. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being Ginni instead.
Soprano2
@Dee Lurker: They think we’re hysterical for saying straight out what Republicans are talking about doing to us in the open. If anyone other than a senator had called the police about that, they would have had their face laughed in. “You want us to come to your house because of what? Chalk on the sidewalk? Are you daft?”
Steeplejack
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:
A lot of Republicans must be running over a lot of dogs. Someone here or on Twitter reported a female Republican candidate telling that exact same anecdote a week or so ago.
Ramona Rosario
@Immanentize: I have often thought about how undemocratic the ratio of 330M population to 435 House representatives is. A while ago, I compared population to representative numbers in other countries and the US stood out as being really low among my small sample.
Can Congress pass a law that the House be expanded proportionally after every Census?
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: I agree with you on both your points.
Immanentize
@Lacuna Synecdoche: There is a funny (totally insider-y) story about Larry Tribe. During the (in)famous Texaco/Pennzoil case, Tribe was an expert on one side or the other (who cares?) At some point, Harvard discovered Tribe’s phones had been tapped. My colleague said, “I’m sure Tribe tapped himself, he didn’t want to miss a word he said.”
So it is with Alito.
Ken
@Steeplejack: Perhaps a consultant polled a Republican focus group, and reported “They really like it when candidates say they killed a dog”?
Ruckus ??
@FelonyGovt:
Villain-nueva is of course out. We don’t need an asshole deluxe who thinks he’s god’s gift to humanity.
I just got my ballot and am starting research to find a suitable replacement. On first read of the candidates, I see no one that stands out so I think it’s likely we’ll have to choose the least bad. IOW, at this point I got nothing.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: I’m flipping out and I’m a nitpicker.
debbie
@Kay:
I think we know what she does with her constituent mail.
Immanentize
@Ramona Rosario: Absolutely! Congress alone has the right to set and calculate the number of reps. The current number (435) was set by Congress after WWI, even though our population has tripled since.
Here is a good explainer from:
538. Ha ha!
trollhattan
@Martin: Geez.
This putz was born 1946. Evidently the world was too busy to guess population that year but 1950 shows about 2.5 billion. Today? Try 8 billion.
But Gibson was misled, so we still have 2.5 billion, yo.
Sorry, Japan and Italy and Korea, you’re hosed.
WaterGirl
@Ken: “Sorry I killed your dog, gotta run, people are waiting for me.”
Geminid
@Almost Retired: This is a general problem with challenging incumbents. They tend to have a support level that will reelect them if there are more than one viable challenger. Runoffs would be good, and while I’ve been skeptical of Ranked-choice Voting I’m come around to favoring it also.
Some states require a runoff if no candidate gets more than 50%. Since these states are most often in the South this method is disparaged as a vestige of segregation. But David Perdue and not Jon Ossoff would be a Georgia Senator if the Libertarian candidate had not won enough votes to hold Perdue below 50% in the November, 2020 general election.
New York City used ranked-choice voting in last year’s Mayoral election. Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams got 32% of the first choices, and narrowly edged out the next two candidates when the other choices were distributed. Under the previous system, there would probably have been a runoff because Adams did not exceed 40%.
But I think California has “jungle” primaries. In this case the vile Villeneuve won’t be reelected LA County Sheriff without a runoff.
Immanentize
@MisterDancer: Fair enough, and I apologize for jumping on your comment But as you know “heightening the contradictions” is itself a poor path favored by many who will quickly hurt Dems if they can (Susan Sarandon, Brie Brie, etc.) I am overly sensitive to it’s appearance as an argument — if only a part of one.
There is no moment when heightening contradictions as a strategy does not now lead to authoritarian control.
schrodingers_cat
@zhena gogolia: FWIW I don’t think you are a nitpicker. Or if you are than so am I.
I am not into these Twitter personalities I don’t need a “politics girl” to explain politics to me. I have her muted, this is not the first time her take has set my teeth on an edge.
We seem to be in a minority here though.
zhena gogolia
@schrodingers_cat: Yeah. It’s okay. I don’t expect to see her again and I doubt it will have any impact one way or another.
Ramona Rosario
@Immanentize: Thanks!
MisterDancer
Yep. Thanks for understanding.
eversor
@Immanentize:
There are plenty of church going women who are famously anti choice as well. One of them is on SCOTUS!
The anti-abortion movement isn’t really predominantly male either. It’s just overwhelmingly Christian.
Lacuna Synecdoche
@Immanentize:
Exactly. And that is a great story.
Ruckus ??
@WaterGirl:
I think the problem is degree.
Our battle is one that is vital but Ukraine’s is one that is horrific and is way past real. Alito’s leak is real, it is important but it is at this point has not changed the law and might not.
We have to fight, for human rights and we have to be vigilant about keeping up the battle. Ukraine is fighting for it’s very existence and that of all of it’s citizens. It is different. And of course that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t fight, we have to, there is no question. But while our fight is real, vital, is about life as well, the differences are stark and the damages in Ukraine are immediate and massive for all. Both are very important, one is a future, quite possibly soon, the other is current.
I also have another point. It seems, throughout my life that conservatives are far more than willing to go to war and see thousands/millions of living killed for some point of control, as long as it is someone somewhere else that dies. But to allow a medical practice that has gone on for centuries to protect a living being, they are willing to demand that it stop. And here I thought that my life was free of religious controls.
Dumbass me.
Ruckus ??
@Immanentize:
Thank You!
A good change. I’m trying not to fucking swear or type dirty shit all the time. I’ll likely get over it soon…..
eversor
@Another Scott:
Alito reached back farther than the 1700’s by a few hundred years. He doesn’t give a rats ass about the consitution, he only cares about religion.
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: I’d hoped the smiley face would convey the humor intended behind the remark! The Nitpickening wasn’t directed solely at you; other people took the person I was responding to to task for what I thought was a harmless and topical observation. It feels nitpicky to even have to explain this, which is part of the nitpicking problem. Reminds me of that quote about academic power struggles being so vicious and bitter because the stakes are so low.
VFX Lurker
I still have to consult Voter’s Edge for the full list of endorsements, but the Los Angeles Times endorsed former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna:
I’ll vote for anyone who can beat Villanueva and who won’t make things worse.
FelonyGovt
@Ruckus ??:
@Almost Retired:
@UncleEbeneezer:
ETA and VFX Lurker
Thanks, folks. Yes, I found the LA Times endorsement of Vera, the former (I think) Long Beach Police Chief interesting and persuasive. I just hope that at least one Democratic challenger gets into the runoff against the cowboy hat blowhard fake Dem we have now.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@eversor: It is overwhelmingly human too.
Those darn humans – they’re always fucking everything up.
Almost Retired
@Geminid: Yeah, if Villanueva doesn’t reach 50%, there will be a runoff in our jungle primary system. I’m cautiously optimistic that he won’t get a majority, but virtually certain that someone else isn’t getting to 50. So there will almost for sure be a run-off. Probably in our mayoral election, too, thanks to the late entry of a well-funded billionaire.
Ruckus ??
@Immanentize:
I like. I was going for any rep can’t have more than the one from the least populated state, but 2 for that state and then every rep shall have within +/- some small amount (there has to be some variable) and that the reps area has to be as close to a square as possible, IOW can’t look like the worst jigsaw piece ever. A side of the square can change because of state lines but not population.
Ken
@WaterGirl: Or perhaps “Gee, offisher, I think I mighta hit a *hic* deer. Came righ’ thru my winsheel. Here’s thu *hic* eyeglashesh it wash wearin’. Thangs *hic* for the ride home.”
“No problem, Mr. Attorney General, sir.”
(And I see that whole mess is moving along about as I would have expected, from either Dakota.)
Kay
@Immanentize:
I think it’s important to portray this to people as an attack. It is an attack. We were minding our own business, paying our taxes, raising our families, whatever, and 5 religious extremists on that court snatched away a right that has been in place, and relied upon, for 50 years.
As you know they took that case up eagerly. They didn’t even have to hear it. They wanted to show us how powerful they are. I see it as much, much bigger than abortion. I think it ripples in all kinds of ways. This is a culture war to them. They want to change the culture, from one of opportunity and possibilities for women to a much more constricted role, to a culture where when a woman goes in for an ordinary medical check after a miscarriage she is treated like a suspect, because her one and only role is to produce children. She’s a walking, talking uterus. I won’t accept it. I think it’s terrible for woman and girls. It’s terrible for woman and girls in every country where that conservative, male dominated culture operates and it won’t be any different here. We’re not special. We can’t have a lesser legal status for women and enjoy all the benefits of modern culture, freedom, autonomy, agency. The two things are tied. Along with their far Right laws comes their far cultural restrictions. The cultural restrictions inform the laws they write. They’re bound together. They couldn’t impose a far Right culture democratically so they are doing it by decree, but it’s chicken/egg. It doesn’t matter which comes first. We end up at the same place- 50 years back.
Kay
@Immanentize:
I’ve read them a lot over the years, anti-abortion (mostly) woman and I just cannot even describe how offensive I find the whole ethos. It’s the language of people talking to children. They will “care” for us, show us “mercy”, give us “homes”. I don’t want to be “cared for”, and god only knows NOT by them. I want to take care of myself. I am not their charity case. I am not their ticket to heaven to atone for whatever horrible fucking things they have done. I want them to leave me and mine alone.
It grated on me at six years old with religious people and my gut was right. It is not about me. It is about THEM.
Another Scott
The infamous Deep State has been letting us down on this and other issues for a really long time. Kinda relatedly, American Experience:
Yeah, the monsters always, eventually go too far. But too many people suffer while the system waits for the monsters to reach that point.
Here’s hoping that that the point where the curve bends towards justice is at hand.
Cheers,
Scott.
TeezySkeezy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
That logic does not follow.
VFX Lurker
Glad to help. ? I want to emphasize that the LA Times endorsed former Long Beach Police Chief Robert Luna. Another organization upthread endorsed Vera. Both candidates qualify as “not-Villanueva.” ?
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: I agree with you on this 100% that was also the 6 year old me.
Another Scott
@Martin: +1
It’s in there, pretty close to the beginning.
Genesis 2:7 (KJV) – And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Breathing seems pretty important to having a soul, there.
Grr…,
Scott.
Another Scott
@FelonyGovt: I don’t think we’re the audience. I think she’s after people who are disconnected from politics, or are Republican-leaning and have never really considered voting against them before.
We’re a big tent; if she drives voters away from the GQP, then more power to her.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Dangerman: They’ll do that anyway. That’s the way they rile up their voters to show up in November. It’s what they do.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@schrodingers_cat:
I’d get this suffocated feeling. Squirmy, like they were crowding me. I think the 6 year old gut is pretty good.
Kay
Bangor police acting very professionally amidst the embarrassing ruckus Susan Collins caused.
Subject line is “sidewalk chalk” :)
Hi Russ
As of this date, we are in receipt of your request of documents pursuant to the Maine Freedom of Access Statute. We are in the process of reviewing your request and searching our records for the requested information. Once identified, the information will be reviewed to determine if any material is deemed confidential under the statute. Pursuant to 1 M.R.S.A. §408(1), we will provide the information within a “reasonable period of time” but without unnecessary delay. We will contact you prior to the reproduction of documents to inform you of the anticipated fee for copying, as well as the fees, if any, for the actual searching, retrieval, and compiling of the documents, including any redaction of confidential or investigative information.
Thank you for your inquiry.
Please feel free to contact us if we can be of any further assistance.
I will include you in group email response to all who have requested information.
Sergeant Wade Betters
Public Information Officer
Bangor Police Department
gene108
@stacib:
@MisterDancer:
Stacib, to expand on MisterDancer’s point:
I think there needs to be coordination between Democratic aligned advocacy groups and the Democratic Party, with regards to things like infrastructure, farming, environmental issues, etc. Unfortunately, groups aligned with the Democratic Party often work at cross purposes from each other.
Getting a farm trade associations (a more realistic example would be labor unions) to start talking about what Biden has done for farmers would prime them for Sen. Tester to reinforce that point.
Donald Trump got booed at a MAGA rally for promoting the COVID vaccines. Even his most faithful groupies wouldn’t accept pro-vaccine comments from their hero, because they’ve been primed to be hostile to vaccines.
The problem Democrats face is getting farm trade associations to talk up Democrats will probably irk environmentalists, because agriculture isn’t always eco-friendly.
Organized labor and the NAACP could coordinate messages on worker’s rights to promote what Democrats have done, but they stay in their own silos. Some advocacy groups seem hostile to Democrats.
As President Obama said, IIRC, we the people need to move politicians to actions, to build the support to allow politicians to pass our agenda.
I don’t know how to do this.
The advantage Republicans have is the evangelicals support the petroleum industries push against environmental regulations, and Big Oil doesn’t get in the way of culture war stuff. They push out their messages in coordination with the Republican Party.
Ksmiami
@Kay: tell all the Tom Nichols of the world who are clutching their pearls at our protests that this is a fucking war and we will not relent.
schrodingers_cat
@Kay: Yes I get that feeling when my MIL wants to rope me into performing religious ceremonies I don’t understand.
schrodingers_cat
@Ksmiami: Borscht Nichols can go fuck himself.
taumaturgo
Democrats come across as servile, with the latest example the condemnation of peaceful protest in front of the houses of the folks that are about to rescind women’s right to choose. The servile democrats joined -bipartisanship reigns supreme – the GQP to order the erection of barriers surrounding the SC, the same institution that ruled buffers around an abortion clinic was a violation of the 1st amendment right to protest. When would they get it right? After the next election?
Ksmiami
@schrodingers_cat: the fact that they are getting squeamish means we are doing something right… – the only way to deal with right wing lunacy is to push back harder and beat them senseless rhetorically and or physically
Vbreakwater
@VFX Lurker: I am a bit confused by the rancor directed at Villanueva. I know he’s a bit of a cowboy, but he saved my town, Venice, from a homeless apocalypse and our evil council member Mike Bonin.
prostratedragon
Cautionary tale from WWII France: A Story of Women [Une affaire des Femmes] (ytube with English subtitles). I really had to restrain myself in a movie theater once from punching someone out when a couple of ignorant young asswipes cheered at the end.
Ruckus ??
@UncleEbeneezer:
I don’t know how close the Times is to the truth but on the surface Luna has the record and experience to be the best choice. We thought that about Villainueva though. Maybe it’s best not to just listen to the candidate, but at the time just getting rid of his predecessor was the goal. I like the Times review of the other candidates as well, it gives hope that there may actually be at least one good candidate.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
It isn’t the 1970s. We can DNA test and identify the father. He will have no choice but to financially support the result of a forced birth. While Justice Blackout may not care about the impact on women, he might have some concerns about how this could hurt his fellow men.
Burnspbesq
It’s fairly easy to see the needle that Roberts wants to thread: he wants to hold for Mississippi on the ground that the burden(s) imposed by the statute are not “undue.” If the definition of a good compromise is one that leaves both sides equally unhappy, that’s a fucking perfect compromise. It keeps rabid dogs like Paxton more or less on the leash, while allowing Respublikans to continue to fundraise off the issue.
schrodingers_cat
@Burnspbesq: Heh just the person I wanted to see. Have seen 83? If you haven’t do watch it. I think you will like it.
H-Bob
@WaterGirl: Funny how they passed by unanimous consent the “thing on SCOTUS families” but they didn’t and won’t do the same to protect the Capitol, Senators, Representatives and staff.
Ohio Mom
@Immanentize: Those are good points I hadn’t thought of, that 15 weeks protects other rights based on privacy, and that viability as a yardstick could one day become moot.
I was mostly trying to say that 15 weeks might allow the Right to have its cake and eat it too.
Obligatory: other contries with 15 week limits have universal health coverage. It’s easier for those women to get contraception and early abortions.
Another Scott
@Kay:
(via Popehat)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Another Scott:
+1
Cheers,
Scott.
Jinchi
I’m pretty sure this is the same quote used against every immigration surge in US history. Just swap out ‘Irish’, ‘German’ or ‘Italian’ …etc for ‘Hispanic’. Fear that the foreigner is going to outbreed ‘real’ Americans has always been the go-to argument from the nativists.
Ohio Mom
@schrodingers_cat: Are you still here?
I saw an interesting Twitter thread the other day on maternal mortality, which I remember you asking about:
“One of my favourite things I ever learned is that women did not start dying in childbirth in high numbers until the 17th century, when male doctors took over from midwives. Midwives prioritised the life of the mother over the child all through the Medieval period…
“…also a JSTOR article here, if you can access, that talks about the shift in locating expertise in childbirth from midwives to male doctors, and at the end discusses the shift from prioritising mothers to prioritising babies: https://jstor.org/stable/20685350?fbclid=IwAR14Om9uZGS2YMd3NaYRsUCw_Uxr8907nWi4zniqOxAbr87oEAZvWR5YWDc
It’s from Rafaella Marcus
@RafaellaMarcus
May 7
Kay
@Another Scott:
I think what makes it funny is it’s so familiar and I associate it so much with kids. It’s the mildest thing in the world, sidewalk chalk.
I just had a conversation about it with my daughter, who bought some for her daughter. It’s better than it was in the old days- nice thick line, clear, bright colors. It used to skip it was so hard so you really had to bear down.
Another Scott
@Jinchi:
BalllsAndStrikes has a new piece up on this very topic.
They lie about everything. It’s all about raw power for the GQP.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Another Scott:
But it’s not a distraction. They’re telling you over and over that is not just about abortion. It is about much wider cultural changes they hope to effect. They say this daily. The Right wing religious op ed writer in the NYTimes told us it was about men’s place in the family and workplace. They want a new set of norms for women- narrower, more constraints, less opportunity, quite literally less freedom. They want a traditional hierarchy that puts white men at the top of the heap. We can TELL them it’s about this or that, but they know damn well what they fought a 50 year war over and it wasn’t about abortion. It’s a culture war. They call it that because they hope to defeat liberal cultural norms and replace them conservative norms.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Kay:
I think they’re going to find out it won’t be that easy to do so
Kropacetic
Yawn. Decades old argument, NEXT!!!
Dopey-o
Once these pecksniffs impose Catholic sexual mores, will they go all-in for the Catholic doctrine of the Seamless Garment?
No death penalty.
No nuclear weapons.
Guaranteed minimum income.
Healthcare for all.
Immigration reform.
I’ll just stop here.
Skepticat
With good reason. We on the left have let yourselves been stepped on because we don’t want to stoop to the Rethuglicans’ level. All it gives them is a clear path to … just what they’re going.