.@SpeakerPelosi: "I want the Republican Party to take back the party to where you were when you cared about a woman's right to choose, you cared about the environment. Here I am, Nancy Pelosi, saying this country needs a strong Republican Party. Not a cult." pic.twitter.com/h12SSFQKdk
— The Hill (@thehill) May 9, 2022
It’s hard enough keeping the Blue Dogs, the Progressives, the Squad, the Congressional Black Caucus, the unparseables like Sinema, etc. more or less on the same page. Pelosi would be just as happy, thankyouverymuch, if the ‘sensible’ Republicans would make some effort to round up and rein in the loose cannons, grifters and Qrazies on their side of the aisle!
Did she say she thought this would happen?
She is a devout Catholic who said (I think sincerely) that she prayed for Trump. Does anyone think she was soft on Trump? https://t.co/VLRnChGMM5
— Dana Houle (@DanaHoule) May 10, 2022
The Rosetta Stone to understanding the discourse is knowing we gender the parties because the first government we encounter is our parents. It all flows from that.
— The Substack of Boba Fett (@agraybee) May 9, 2022
Oh come on, at least make me work for it. https://t.co/XNf4RiQAgY
— The Substack of Boba Fett (@agraybee) May 9, 2022
(That embedded tweet *does*, IMO, get to the heart of how Williamson has been able to enthrall so many willing customers; she reassures damaged individuals — of which there is never a shortage — that every vile, damaging idea their elders imbued them might just turn out okay if they can tilt their vision juuuust so. Incurable illness? Intractable situation? Well, maybe I need to adjust my attitude, like my abusive parent always told me!)
Steeplejack
Off topic—boom!
Wordle 326 2/6
??⬜⬜?
?????
Watching Lawrence O’Donnell and getting caught up on the day’s news.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Steeplejack:
Congrats! ?
HumboldtBlue
Not every ejaculation deserves a name.
piratedan
so Nonna speaks to those people that have been too cowardly to speak out because of a decades long coddling of their own political ID, using discourse to try and prop up those who know that what is being pushed by those that supposedly fund this shit show to grow some stones and stand up and do what they know is right and NOW those said same folks that have been sniping from the sidelines over the last decade feel compelled to say that any attempt to pull anyone from the brink of their own self-immolation is now a sign of “weakness”.
couldn’t we better use our hot-take punditry to better use with a pair of gloves and some trash bags to pick up the garbage along the highway, at least they would FINALLY be doing something to make something better.
eclare
@HumboldtBlue: George Carlin, always right, always brilliant.
Dangerman
Sensible Republican? Where?
Tell me which recent Republican President or nominee for President could be nominated today. Maybe Nixon but he was from California so he gets DQ’d. Reagan was from Hollywood so he gets DQ’d faster. Either Bush or Romney? As if. Maybe Dole could get nominated…
…else it’s back to Eisenhower.
NotMax
@Dangerman
♫ “Mister, we could use a man like Herbert Hoover again.”
//
prostratedragon
@Dangerman: There were some between then and Reagan, they just never got near the Presidency.
Baud
@piratedan:
They are hecklers. That is their value-add to society, if you value hecklers.
If you want intellectual substance, look elsewhere.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
So, we’re supposed to get mad at mom if dad is an asshole? Like, my dad was kind of an asshole when I was growing up. This was in the 1970s when corporal punishment was still at least somewhat en vogue or at least not completely frowned upon. He did not ever lay a hand on my mom but he had a hair trigger temper which caused him to lash out verbally at her, me, and my sister very frequently. He also spanked me and my sister – not with anything other than his open hand and never hard enough to cause actual welts or bruises or any physical harm, so IMO it did not qualify as actual abuse, but the real issue was him getting mad at us and yelling at us for just about anything and everything depending solely on what would set him off at that moment. I recall many, many times thinking “sheesh what an asshole” to my self when I or my mom or sister was on the receiving end of these verbal attacks.
He’s mellowed a lot but still has a little bit of that dysfunction in him. My mom has the patience of a saint and honestly I have no idea how or why she’s been able to put up with it all these years. But, that said, I’ve never once blamed my mom for my dad’s behavior. I put the blame where it is due – on him. Blaming the Democrats for not being able to stop Republicans from being assholes…well, that’s misplacing the blame. The national news media is guilty of it perpetually but that doesn’t mean everyone else has to go along with it. If Republicans are assholes blame them and vote for Democrats. Or, failing that, just accept that you’re going to be on the receiving end of abuse from those assholes and stop complaining. It’s not that fucking hard to figure that out.
Betty Cracker
I can understand people’s negative reactions to that clip because some of the wording was unfortunate, particularly, “so rather than saying we have to defeat them, no, let’s try to persuade them.” But the operative word in the clip is CULT, and Pelosi has said that before: “take back your party from this cult.”
She’s not wrong when she says America needs a strong Republican Party. We’re a two-party system, and the fact that one of our two parties has given up on democracy and governance is a grave threat to the democratic experiment. It drives half the electorate to ever more extremist acting out. Ironically, it threatens the cohesion of the Democratic Party too, and I think Pelosi knows that.
Pelosi isn’t a great public speaker, but she has rare gifts that we are going to miss when she’s gone. Her ability to herd cats is legendary, but to me, one of the most impressive things about her is that she sees people and situations for what they are.
When Trump came to DC, Pelosi immediately recognized what he was and what a threat he posed. While everyone else was still trying to figure out what it all meant, Pelosi saw things clearly.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
I hate to disagree with you, Betty, but she IS wrong.
First of all, this is the only Republican Party we’re going to get. If it changes, it will only be for the worse.
What we need is to discredit this appalling excuse for a political party to the point where it’s a fringe party, and the Democratic Party’s centrist and liberal wings can each become their own party in a rejuvenated two-party system. That’s the only way I can see to a healthy two-party system in this country.
I’ll be lucky to live to see that happen. Between now and then, we need an increasingly weak GOP, so that the Democratic Party is strong enough to address our many real problems.
(FWIW, her language was unfortunate, saying we NEED a strong GOP, but we only WANT it to have these improved attributes.)
Gvg
Theoretically I support a healthy Republican Party too but I am not going to get it anytime soon. I actually would prefer this sick collection of nuts lost every election and died out and the Democratic Party won every thing. Then, human nature and our countries structure would cause the Democratic Party to split in 2 parts and birth a new second party. We would each pick up some of the former republicans but they would potentially not be as toxic if divided up and not concentrated. The civil right era reorganized who was in the parties before. Remember the Republican Party originally was the party of Lincoln and the Democratic Party was more racist back a long time ago. Before the democrats decided to push for civil rights, both parties had some of the racists. They weren’t all concentrated in one party.
Anyway the party of treason needs to lose big for multiple election cycles in order to learn the lesson I need, treason should not be rewarded.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
What the United States needs is an opposition party that is strong, moral, ethical, principled, and loyal to the country, and the GOP in the 21st century fails on most or all of those counts and is unlikely to ever again be moral, ethical, principled, or loyal to the United States. The Capitol Hill lynch mob was the point of no return. If there is to be a strong, principled Republican Party, it will have to be built from scratch, after the current Republican Party has been burned down to its foundations and the poisoned ground salted so that no poisoned trees and poisoned fruit can grow there.
Yeah, yeah, I’m mixing metaphors, but we’re at the point where the GOP dies or America dies, and I’m not willing to accept the latter.
SectionH
Nancy was not at her best with that but, flying to Ukraine, and fuck it,. Or = distances it happens.
The conversation we had today about Nancy here in the hellhole (GO AWAY) of San Diego was about Nancy P The young-ish guy (he is younger than my kid, not by much) started out with him saying how much he’d just decided he loved Nancy: a lot. And how much he thought Mitch McConnell was the worst person ever. OMG, did we dish dirt to him about that fish-faced asshole (I hate it that ppl insult turtles by comparing that POS to turtles). and oo
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: & @Gvg: I don’t disagree with either of you, and I don’t think Pelosi does either, but she expressed it poorly. She used the word “cult” to describe the deranged, treasonous people who are ascendant in the GOP now, and that’s accurate. But I wish she hadn’t said persuade rather than defeat because I agree with y’all — only utter defeat can persuade. That’s the only remedy for fascism.
NotMax
Pelosi is good – very good – at her job, within the confines of the Capitol. Her public utterances, however, tend to lean heavily towards the clumsy. Always have.
Betty Cracker
@NotMax: True. Hakeem Jeffries is reportedly next in line, and he seems really good at speaking and dealing with the media. Whether he’s as good at the behind-the-scenes stuff that Pelosi excels at remains to be seen. I have my doubts, but we’ll see.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Seconded.
Raven
In a stunning turn of events my bride is going on a 4 hour bay fishing trip with me this morning! Besides being an adventure it means we can keep twice as many fish!
Baud
@Raven:
?
brantl
@Dangerman: Eisenhower was the last one who personally didn’t suck ass, and he gave us Nixon. (Spit!)
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker: I would think that all that inside-baseball stuff would be the whip’s job. Certainly the Dems need to hand off that role to someone other than the Speaker/Minority Leader (depending on whether we’re in the majority or not) because we’re no longer in a world where the Congressional leaders don’t have to be skilled communicators with the public.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: Wow — hope y’all both have fun!
lowtechcyclist
On another topic, I get emails (at my junk email address, not my friends-and-family address) from R. Emmett Tyrell’s rag, the American Spectator. The header on today’s email: “Spectator Update: The Left’s Addiction to Violence.” Projection much?
eclare
@Raven: Cool!
Raven
@Betty Cracker: She’s taking Artemis on a long walk before we go. The poor thing doesn’t like being left and has a tendency to howl but she’ll get a bone and have to hang in there!
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
Self-defense is a form of violence.
Betty Cracker
@lowtechcyclist: I agree it’s important for the speaker to have great communication skills, probably more so now than ever. Pelosi has never been a great public speaker or media maven.
That said, I think the speaker role is a lot more than the arm-twisting behind the scenes we associate with the whip’s role. I’m no expert, but I think you need clear vision (a historical context, a sense of what’s possible, a sense of where the country is, etc.) plus an accurate and dispassionate read on your caucus.
It’s rare that one person can do all that well. Pelosi succeeded a lot more than she failed and will go down in history as one of our most effective speakers, IMO. Her successor has big shoes to fill.
Betty Cracker
@Raven: Where are you guys?
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Agree on all points.
Mimi Haha
@brantl: I don’t think Eisenhower was given a choice about Nixon.
Baud
@brantl:
Why did Ike choose Nixon?
Jesse
@lowtechcyclist: Are they referring to people writing sidewalk messages with chalk?
Jesse
@Baud: I think it’s because Ike and/or his advisors saw that you need to serve up that anti-commie (the red meat of the day) to the base. Nixon fit the bill.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I think Hakeem Jeffries will do fine. As Caucus Chairman Jeffries has already been one of Speaker Pelosi’s chief cat herders.
Jeffries had been in Congress a little under six years when his colleagues selected him to be chairman of their caucus. At that point his public profile was fairly low, but Jeffries’ interpersonal skills must have impressed the Representatives he worked with.
One thing I’ve noticed during the last two Congresses is that for all the brickbats that outsiders have been flinging at the various factions in the Democratic Caucus, caucus members themselves have been very restrained in their public criticisms of each other. With such a narrow Democratic majority, caucus members can’t afford bitter public fights and so far they have (almost) entirely avoided them.
When leadership decided to decouple the Infrastructure and BB Bill, there was a tidal wave of recriminations among outsidre observers. It was relatively modulated among actual Democratic Representatives, though. I attribute this to the steady influence of the leadership team Jeffries is a key part of, and to lessons learned from the bitter blow up over emergency border funding in July, 2019.
Baud
@Jesse:
Thanks.
lowtechcyclist
@Jesse: Dammit, now you’ve got me clicking through! Here’s their intro:
So they take three incidents and call it a pattern, is basically what it amounts to.
Never mind their daily harassment for decades at abortion clinics, with the occasional firebombing and a dozen murders. Never mind their harassment of election workers, local health workers, and school board members all over the country over the past few years. Never mind incidents of violence from the OKC bombing to the assault on the U.S. Capitol just sixteen months ago. Never mind their people asking if it’s time yet that they can start shooting the people they regard as domestic enemies. Never mind the fact that they’re the ones who stockpile guns and ammo to the point where there are more guns than people in the U.S., and most of us would just as soon not have a firearm in the house unless we’re hunters.
Crazy.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I think there is a real possibility that these instances of vandalism were not the work of women’s rights advocates. Some people already hypothesize they come from “pro-life” people trying to gin up sympathy for their cause and animus towards their opponents. Another possibility is that they come from the kind of anarchist “accelarationists” who were behind a lot of the arson associated with protests in the summer of 2020.
The one thing I’m certain of is that whoever wrote that warning outside the Madison, Wisconsin office has executed a lot of graffiti. They did a better job with a spray can and wood siding than I could ever do with pen and paper!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
After reading all those Democratic strategist scolding the protesters over chalking sidewalks I get now how the messaging on Abortion when from “a citizen’s right to privacy” to “girl power to tell daddy no”, It was these clowns and their out of control egos that did that.
Schmidt, for all his ragem is a poster child of this. his arrogance just oozes threw everything he been tweeting. Worth nothing for all his screaming at Meghan McCain since 2008, she clearly hasn’t listen to a word of what he said.
So many petty, angry, mediocre little white bois these days.
Another Scott
(Something seems off about the tweet embeds on this thread. Brave on Android on WiFi. The text appears and clears, the Hill logo appears, but nothing else. On the next one, about half the video box appears. Nothing different on refresh. It works fine on FF. All the other threads look fine on Brave, and I haven’t seen this behavior before today.)
Cheers,
Scott.
Procopius
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?:
I agree, but there are so many other things to blame the Democrats for. I.e., Joe Biden still owes me $600. The Democrats couldn’t even hold to their promise to pass the Build Back Better program when it was paired with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Program. Had to pwn the “left” (which I consider the real centrists). The Blue Dog/New Democrat/CIA/LEO/ Liberals are well right of center and despise the working class. Right now there’s a lot of screaming about Roe v. Wade, but nothing is going to come from it. There’s much more, and this space is too small.
Betty Cracker
@Geminid: You’ve sung Jeffries’ praises before when the speaker/leader succession topic comes up, and I hope you’re right! He seemed to relish (and have a talent for) intramural squabbles as a member, which is a teensy bit troubling in a future speaker.
But it’s true the leadership team, including Jeffries, mostly kept that bullshit to a minimum in the last two terms. Can they when Pelosi exits? That’s the question I have.
Or maybe Jeffries will redefine the role completely and manage to accomplish what needs to be done in a style that is less dispassionate and collaborative than Pelosi’s. That would be fine too — it’s the getting shit done part that ultimately matters.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Geminid: There is going to be revenge killings if their Roe overturn goes threw. Grieving families aren’t going be in a forgiving mode when they watch their daughter/wife/girlfriend/aunt/niece go from a happy expectant mother to dying slowly from septic shock because she miscarried and these religious trolls forced her to keep the dead baby in her.
Baud
@Procopius:
The bolded parts are lies. The rest have some truth to them, and you’ll have to decide how you want to deal with it. I will continue supporting Dems who are fighting the good fight.
Betty Cracker
Regarding the alleged pattern of pro-choice attacks on anti-choice buildings, I suspect some of it is either an inside job or overblown. The graffiti Geminid mentions at #39 looks like something a person who wasn’t in a hurry because they didn’t fear getting caught would do. The damage to one building that was “firebombed” looked like a display you’d put up if you wanted to garner sympathy without ruining anything important. And this bullshit the anti-choice “Life News” was trumpeting as a firebombing, well, come on…
I guess it’s possible pro-choice hooligans from coast to coast are all just really incompetent firebombers. But that’s the “pattern” I’ve noticed.
Kay
I think it would be worthwile to highlight how arrogant anti-abortion political/lobbying leaders are. I’ve been focusing on how they talk about women’s health and I think they’ve been inside these groups for so long, speaking exclusively to other religious fundamentalists that a thorough airing of their views to the broader public might be helpful to their opponents (us).
This is from an NPR article on how physicians are reluctant to treat miscarriages in Texas because of the abortion ban:
To allow. Wow. Recognize he’s not talking about abortion here- this is miscarriage- 25% of pregnancies.
They are just jamming themselves into all medical care that involves reproduction and setting this incredibly low standard where physicians are only “allowed” to make life and death decisions.
So unless it’s a “life and death decision” where they will graciously allow the physician to use their own judgment when treating women, they will be all but inside the exam room, monitoring, and dictating treatment that may be offered.
Incredibly arrogant, incredibly intrusive, and like I say they have operated inside this fundie bubble so long they speak like this regularly. It would be good to promote their comments. The more they talk the better.
Incidentally, Seago is not a physician. He went to Bible school and then to graduate school in medical ethics. But he is supremely confident he and his fellow religious zealots should direct and monitor medical care for miscarriages.
Kay
We need a clear statement from the anti-abortion lobby on miscarriages. Who will be making the decision on intervention in miscarriage – the medically trained people women choose or graduates of bible colleges women don’t choose- and is their religious standard (the mother in a “life or death” situation) now the medical standard on miscarriage in Texas and other states that have allowed this “movement” to draft their laws?
Life or death isn’t the standard for intervention in miscarriage. It is insane to deliberately allow women to reach that point purely to satisfy fundamentalist religious decrees. No other medical care operates like that, where situations are allowed to progress and worsen deliberately. If you’re pregnant in Texas can you get ordinary, modern, best practices medical care in Texas or is that now off the table?
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: When it comes to primaries, Congressional advocates of different candidates have taken the gloves off. Jeffries is no exception there, especially when it comes to defending members of the Black Caucus like Joyce Beatty from challengers. But Jeffries has kept a low profile in intra-caucus disputes.
One exception here would be how, in the aftermath of the border funding blowup, Jeffries dropped an anvil-like tweet on the chief of Representative Ocasio-Cortez’s staff. Whatever political issues may have been behind it, the tweet “From the office of the Caucus Chaiman,” took issue with the CoS’s excessive familiarity regarding Congresswoman Sharice Davids. Mr. Chakrabarti had had a long twitter debate with First Nations advocate Julian Brave Noise-Cat over whether Chakrabarti did Ms. Davids an injustice by lumping her in with “the New Southern Democrats” he denounced after his side lost a vote on emergency border funding. In the course of the debate Chakrabarti referred to Representative Davids as “Sharice” and Jeffries made that the issue over which to drop the anvil. There was more behind the tweet, though.
A month later Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez’s office announced that her Chief of Staff and her Press Secretary were moving on to outside jobs. The two had made a lot of enemies during their 8-month tenure.
Kay
Can anti-abortion lobbyists/activists point to a line or limit where women won’t be subjected to their intrusive monitoring of pregnancy related medical care? Is there somewhere they won’t be butting in and replacing medical standards with their religious standards?
Because they plan on monitoring and directing every miscarriage. They’re already inserted themselves into that, which used to be wholly private. Is there a line they won’t cross on privacy and butting into peoples personal lives, or are we just all now subject to their inexpert oversight in all aspects of pregnancy?
Betty Cracker
@Kay: So infuriating. That’s an effective line of attack you’ve laid out there: who gets to create standards of care for treating the 25% of pregnancies that end in miscarriage — women and their doctors or religious zealots? It’s a great question.
Kay
@Geminid:
Labor people consider Jeffries anti-union. They’ll oppose him. I think the Party has become more supportive of labor and collective bargaining and workplace rights over the last couple of years, not less, so it may cause him some trouble. Sometimes there’s a shift within the party that makes a position that would have been acceptable less so.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
I was suprised they walked right into it, but again, incredibly arrogant and with that bland certainty that so many religious fundies have, where they live within the bubble so long they can’t talk to normal people anymore. I recognize it because I’ve experienced it so many times.
But they aren’t shying away at all on weighing in on how their pregnancy monitoring encompasses miscarriages. It’s an opening for their opponents. 25% of all pregnancies and could be ANY pregnant woman.
Geminid
@Kay: The Party has has shifted on labor, but I bet the pragmatic Jeffries has shifted with it.
Some labor people might still oppose Jeffries. I know his past openess to charter schools is held against him. But unless someone can find a larger pattern of anti-union action I think Jeffries will have substantial support from organized labor. Just like he will have support from the less “progressive” caucuses even though he is himself a member of the Progressive Caucus. When it comes to an office as consequential as Speaker (or Minority Leader). people want effectiveness more than anything else.
Now, I’m not saying that when the leadership contest occurs, Jeffries won’t be the target of a flood of abuse by people who claim to speak for various causes. He’ll be called a PINO, a CorporateDem, and all the other usual epithets. But I think various party stakeholders, including organized labor, will get behind him.
Although this will be a big battle among the usual suspect polemicists, I expect Democratic caucus members will easily confirm Jeffries as leader, and will likely vote in Katherine Clark (MA) and Joyce Beatty (OH) to take Hoyer’s and Clymer’s places.
Kay
@Geminid:
Well, I hope it isn’t as done a deal as you’re presenting it here and it’s just a matter of next in line. I think Democrats could use a new generation of leadership and I don’t mean chronological age. Open it up.
Another Scott
@Another Scott: (Page is loading fine in Brave on Android now. Gremlins vanquished!!)
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
There’s a foundation of US law that says you’re entitled to know what news laws encompass because you’re entitled to some certainty- you will rely on it and make decisions based on it.
But if anti-abortion groups are presenting these laws as strictly concerning abortion and instead intend to apply them to every miscarriage, women are entitled to know that so they can leave the state that allows religious dictates to drive medical decisions and move to a modern state.
You’re entitled to a warning on who is going to be in the examining room with you and doctor. If one of these people is peering over doctors shoulder, you need to know that.
They need to clarify their position on miscarriage immediately, in real terms that ordinary people can understand and not all larded up with religious jargon. This is reaching the point where they are tricking women with careful language selection.
Geminid
@Kay: I am not saying this is a done deal. There certainly will be an open contest, followed by a secret ballot. I’m predicting that Jeffries will win it. Jeffries may be next in line but if he is, he got there on his merit and not just because leadership tapped him.
It will be a busy couple of weeks between next November’s election and the meeting of the next Congress’s Democratic Caucus, when they will elect their leadership. The electrons will be flying, both here and in the larger Democratic world.
artem1s
@Betty Cracker:
Let’s try again.
Stop apologizing for your praise of women leaders. She is exceptional and groundbreaking. period. No need to preface or negate your statement. Would you do it if she were popular and young and sexy? or male? could turn a phrase like a Kennedy? Was John Lewis? Had great hair like Mayor Pete? How much more popular and successful does she have to be to get unapologetic, unqualified praise?
Betty Cracker
@artem1s: You’ve hit upon a type of reply that is especially irritating to me — the “lEt mE fIx tHaT fOr u” genre, which I find patronizing as fuck. But I’ll try to put that aside and answer as if I didn’t feel patronized as fuck.
[deep breaths]
This is a blog where we discuss politics, including occasionally missteps and foibles of politicians we like. That’s what was happening here before you barged in and decided to enforce the commenting standards of the Nancy Pelosi Fan Club. Which I would totally join. But this isn’t that site.
The Lodger
@lowtechcyclist: Still waiting for the American Spectator to merge with the Weekly Standard, calling itself the American-Standard.
Paul in KY
@What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?: Hear, hear!!!
brantl
@Baud: to placate the anti-commie wing
Feckless
Nancy passed every single budget for Trump she made his “administration’ possible, without her, his total inability to govern would have been exposed
I don’t know what softer than that her enabling trumps fascist government
planetjanet
@Feckless: There was no budget under Trump. We had continuing resolutions for four years. It was absurd.