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A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

“Jesus paying for the sins of everyone is an insult to those who paid for their own sins.”

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

This blog will pay for itself.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

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Everybody saw this coming.

A Senator Walker would be an insult to the state and the nation.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Afternoon Open (Rage) Thread

Afternoon Open (Rage) Thread

by | 169 Comments

This post is in: 

First, something good you can do if you have a little extra scratch:

Here’s an article about them from the Star Tribune — they’ve been planning for this. (H/T David Anderson)

Besides being enraged about the U.S. Supreme Court consigning me and tens of millions of other American women to second-class citizenship, I’m also caught between hope and fear today. My hope is this will galvanize us to come together and turn out in droves in the midterms, overturning all of those confident Beltway predictions of a Republican romp to give America a fighting chance.

I fear that the hopelessness (which I fully understand) and tiresome infighting (less so) that have plagued seemingly large groups of people who are roughly on the same political side I am for months will foreclose that possibility. I have no idea which is more likely, but in a way I’m grateful to Justice Thomas and the other radical clerics on the court for making their intentions so clear. There’s no mistaking their goal now.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

169Comments

  4. 4.

    SpaceUnit

    As always, I am glad to live in what is now a dependably blue state.

    My condolences to those who will be impacted by this terrible judicial decision, especially the women breeding stock.

  6. 6.

    Feathers

    Seriously, someone needs to come up with a better term than “people with uteruses” to describe people who have the bodily ability to give birth. Defining women by their reproductive ability has a long, dehumanizing, and hateful history. Seeing it splashed everywhere, especially today, in the name of inclusivity, really stings.

    Trans people should have rights, all the rights. There shouldn’t even be a question about it. But mainstreaming what has always been misogynist rhetoric isn’t the way to go. Something else needs to be found.

  7. 7.

    Alison Rose

    I’m currently raging on FB in response to this comment from some fucking asshole bro in Puerto Rico (where I am unclear if this ruling applies or not):

    I’m just waiting for you all to finally do something about all of this. It seems people of the USA don’t fight back as hard as they could when it comes to taking away basic human rights. Aren’t some of you of French decent? What did your ancestors do to bad rulers?

    I told him to fuck the fuck off, and I had to stop myself from typing a mile long rage-scream.

  8. 8.

    Elizabelle

    NPR (in the car) at 3 pm:  in a story about abortion: mentioning in passing that the Republicans were expected to make gains in the midterms.

    Why NPR?  Why?

  9. 9.

    Alison Rose

    @Feathers: It’s not defining people by their reproductive ability, it’s defining who are the people targeted by the ruling. It’s not just women but anyone who has a uterus. It’s no different than saying “pregnant people” or something. I would rather use a slightly clunky phrase that is inclusive of all people at risk, personally.

  10. 10.

    greenergood

    ‘I’m grateful to Justice Thomas and the other radical clerics on the court for making their intentions so clear. because the goal is not to make women second-class citizens.’ The goal is to determine that women are not citizens at all, but subjects, who are under the control of their masters. Sounds overloaded now, but just think: as states start to fine doctors for $10,000 – 100,000 because they ‘assist’ terminations, and are hunted down by Texas-type abortion hunters, HOW many student doctors will opt for ob/gyn consultant specialities/postitions if they think they’re going to be stalked by, e.g., Texas police? So there goes a whole layer of women’s health care – not abortion related, but just female what-happens-when-you’re-pregnant/menopausal related, because no doctor worth their insurance is going to deal with ANY pregnancy/fertility issue if they lose their license because the texas police are going after them. Thanks Supreme Court, you’ve not only set back women’s rights back back fifty years – you’ve also screwed with our health on every single level – just to keep to keep your old white boys happy.

  12. 12.

    JMG

    @Elizabelle: Because it’s a Beltway article of faith based on Biden’s poll numbers. Did they add the phrase “as of now”? That’d be lazy, but OK.

  13. 13.

    Hungry Joe

    Even the near future has so many forking paths; impossible to game this out with any real expectation of accuracy. Still, I’ll take a shot at one of the ramifications: The underground-ish railroad — transportation to pro-choice states for abortions, appropriate drugs via mail, courier, whatever — will be huge, and fairly (though not entirely) successful. The forced-birth states will try to thwart it. How? Dunno. More restrictive laws passed, vigilante oversight, maybe even attempts at travel restrictions and mandatory pregnancy tests. The last two seem like a stretch, but …

  14. 14.

    Elizabelle

    I think reactionary decisions like this one, the one about guns (more in your workplace now); the feared eviscerating of the EPA:  I think these are deeply destabilizing decisions.  They separate us from other advanced nations.

    I wonder if we will see some stock market turmoil.

    Do you want to take a job in Arkansas, or Florida, or Texas?  What kind of protections and rights will your family members have?

    This is pulling the country apart.  It comes down to where you live.  A woman a state or two away does not have the same human rights.  That is wrong. We are a nation.  I guess conservatives don’t believe in that.

    And we all deserve clean drinking water, a safe environment, and freedom from gun massacres or threats.  Seeing someone walking around with a gun unnerves me.

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne

    Every motherfucking Berniebro who told me in 2016 that I was “blackmailing” them when I told them that the Supreme Court would do this exact thing if Trump got elected is cordially invited to go fuck themselves with a rusty pitchfork.

    (Hi! Yes, it’s really me. I’ve been super busy with romance writing, have three anthologies coming out this year. I put my Linktree under “website.” Thanks again to the folks who checked in on me, including Adam, Yogi Inji, opiejeannie, and Ruckus.)

  16. 16.

    Another Scott

    @Elizabelle: It could just be the lazy “the president’s party usually loses seats in midterm elections”, as if history counts more than the present reality.  It could be the reporter trying to help the GQP.  It could be everything in between, and more.

    Direct your annoyance in productive directions.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  17. 17.

    Felanius Kootea

    @greenergood: Not everyone will simply comply.  I think you way underestimate the rage and backlash this will create.

    It’s one thing to have never had a right and to fight to get it.  It’s a whole other thing to have a right taken away from you.  There are people who never paid attention to politics before today that just woke up (sad but true).

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @Another Scott:  It just always feels like they’re reporting as though it is inevitable.  All they really have to say is that we have midterms this fall.  Period.

  19. 19.

    Betty Cracker

    @Feathers: “Women and anyone else who needs reproductive healthcare should have access to it.” There’s a pro-choice statement that doesn’t erase women and is inclusive. I’m trying to stick to that sort of formulation until I see a better one.

  22. 22.

    Starfish

    @Feathers: It’s usually birthing people, and the people trying to hash language today are showing that they have not been in the discussions.

  25. 25.

    HeleninEire

    I just raged crazy on my FB page. An Irish friend sent me a text asking me to explain how the hell this could happen. 6 texts later as I tried to explain I asked her to please stop asking. Send me pics of your niece and nephew.  I am losing my shit.

  30. 30.

    Feathers

    @Starfish: I’ve never heard “birthing people” and I’ve been following the discussions. And birthing people is very bad language to use about people who do not want to give birth.

  33. 33.

    Immanentize

    @Elizabelle: Do parents want their daughter’s to go to colleges in anti-abortion states? I wish I had the money for a full page NYTimes ad explaining there is still time to change your higher ed. plans….

  35. 35.

    trollhattan

    Meanwhile, in our other battle, the one to save the planet, progress on battery storage. Do not be triggered by mentions of PG&E and Tesla.

    PG&E, in collaboration with Tesla, the pioneering electric vehicle and lithium-ion battery manufacturer, began operating the 182.5 megawatt (MW) site on April 7 of this year. The facility, which can provide enough electricity for about 275,000 homes for up to four hours, is part of a dramatic ramping up of battery resources on the California grid as it continues to transition from fossil fuels to more renewable power. Electricity generated by the lithium-ion batteries, charged during the day when solar energy is usually abundant, is typically dispatched after the sun has set and solar is not available.

    “This capability is particularly helpful on hot summer evenings when temperatures are high in California and in other regions, which creates sustained very high demand for electricity and actually limits our ability to import electricity from other states,” Elliot Mainzer, president and CEO of the California Independent System Operator, said at the Moss Landing event. “So that ability to reinject that power right after sunset is super valuable from the perspective of reliability. It’s a key part of our strategy going forward.”

    Mainzer called the influx of battery storage capacity on the grid over the past year “an incredible growth curve, an incredible success story,” adding that “We’ve entered a golden age of energy storage here in California.” The ISO now has more than 3,160 MW of battery storage connected to the grid and is expected to add another 700 MW by the end of June.

    Almost two-thirds of the state’s electricity is now coming from clean, carbon-free sources, he said, and California is adding about 100 electric vehicles to the roadways per day. “It’s more important than ever that as we do that, the electric grid is stable, the electric grid is reliable, and that’s what you’re seeing right here,” Hochschild said.”

    In addition to the environmental benefits of being able to dispatch clean power that does not emit greenhouse gases, Poppe stressed the economic advantages of storing solar energy when it’s abundant and relatively inexpensive for use later in the day. That’s often when the electricity is most needed and when PG&E would otherwise have to pay more for the energy it requires to meet net-peak demand for customers.

    “Just this year already, back in April, just days after being fully energized and connected to the grid, we were charging the battery at $10 a MW/hour midday when we had ample, abundant renewable clean energy resources,” she said. “Fast forward to peak that very same day, power was selling at $100 a MW/hour and this resource was dispatching to the grid.

    “That saves money for our customers and brings clean energy that otherwise would have been diesel-generated fossil-fuel-powered resources. People I think sometimes speculate, is California going too far with clean energy? Heck no, we’re just getting started and a facility like this makes it possible. And that day back in mid-April proved it.”

    Other economic benefits were highlighted as well. Hochschild stressed the good jobs and careers that are being created in California as the state shifts to greater electrification and a clean grid. And Michael Snyder, Tesla’s director of energy projects and engineering, said the 256 Tesla Megapack battery units at Moss Landing were manufactured at Tesla’s new “mega-factory” two hours away in Lathrop. When that factory is at full capacity, it will be able to produce enough batteries to build the equivalent of 50 of the Moss Landing facilities per year for use in California and around the world, he said.

    With the Moss Landing site now online, PG&E officials said the utility currently has 955.5MW of battery storage capacity connected to the grid. Contracts have also been executed for large-scale battery systems that can generate more than 3,300MW of capacity by the end of 2024. “The good news,” Poppe said, “is we’re not stopping here. The clean energy transition is happening and it’s happening here and PG&E is leading the way and we couldn’t be more excited.”

    This is yuge, and indicative of how “excess” solar generation can be stored and then expended during the 5-8 peak demand period, eventually reducing the need for as many gas “peaking” plants.

  39. 39.

    livewyre

    I’m wary of deciding on a canonical term to use on everybody capable of pregnancy – feels too prescriptive, and don’t get me started about prescriptivism. Self-description and self-discovery need to be taken into account lest we get wrapped up in definitions of womanhood and adjacent fraught things, and we know a little more today about how that goes.

  41. 41.

    trollhattan

    Oh goodie, the fat orange fuck is heard from.

    June 24, 2022 at 4:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard

    Former President Donald Trump told Fox News that divine intervention was responsible for the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.

    Said Trump: “God made the decision.”

  42. 42.

    Almost Retired

    @Elizabelle:  It really does come down to where you live.  And, I suppose, Texas and Florida are large and appealing enough to still attract residents and investment.  But it seems like this trend could puncture current deep red state darlings like Boise, Huntsville or NW Arkansas?  Or maybe even Raleigh or Nashville?

  43. 43.

    opiejeanne

    @Feathers: I am a person without a uterus because I had a hysterectomy after my 3rd live birth (2 of whom were unplanned), losing at least one pregnancy before I knew I was pregnant, and dealt with the result of a rape BECAUSE I HAD A CHOICE.

    I was not a “vessel”, I was not defined by having a uterus but I am who was targeted by this decision.

  46. 46.

    Betty Cracker

    @trollhattan: This is why I keep a bottle of champagne chilled at all times — for the minute I hear the news Tangerine Baal has taken a dirt nap. I don’t care if it’s at 6 AM. I don’t care if I’m in the middle of a conference call for work. I am popping that bubbly!

  47. 47.

    Elizabelle

    Some good news on a local Virginia story:  a Virginia Beach (retired) couple who went sailing to the Azores has been located, safe and sound, by the Coast Guard.

    Their sailboat was damaged by lightning in heavy weather and they had to turn back for VA; they were out of touch with her daughter, who expected them back days ago.  But: safe and off the coast of Chincoteague, so they’re not that far away.

    https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/local/mycity/virginia-beach/virginia-beach-couple-found-safe/291-24681b4e-8214-4429-9ca9-d7329d71ada9

  48. 48.

    trollhattan

    @Almost Retired: There will be consequences intended and not. To your point this ain’t ripples in a pond, it’s an ocean wave we won’t know the size of until it approaches the shore.

    If I were pondering a jerb offer in Texas (as if, but anyway) and had a family I sure as hell would take this into consideration, even if I had not paid it scant attention before.

    “Great access to Dave and Busters” slides pretty far down the amenities list.

  49. 49.

    MisterDancer

    @Alison Rose : “people” is what I generally use, as well. As someone who got into this when the Draft was released, it’s a balancing act and we need to work through this with compassion.

  51. 51.

    trollhattan

    @Betty Cracker: You and me both, sister. As I pop it I’ll be calling the boss, “I won’t be in on account of a hella hangover I’m busy constructing.”

  52. 52.

    Elizabelle

    @trollhattan:  Although, the FTF NY Times assures us that TFG has said, in private, that this decision is bad for Republicans.

    Probably why he had to come up with that crap.

  55. 55.

    Elizabelle

    @Betty Cracker:  I want to see a perp walk for TFFG (pop a cork) and prison (pop another cork).

    Death is too easy for him.  I want more suffering and the imprisonment he so richly deserves in this vale of tears.

  56. 56.

    Mike in NC

    Maybe now some women legislators in a few red states will introduce bills calling for castration of men over age 50. Puts the shoe on the other foot, OK?

  58. 58.

    frosty

    @Mnemosyne: Hi there! I’m not surprised you got so much done when you backed away from B-J. I bet I’d be really productive if I didn’t spend 3+ hours reading all the comments.

  59. 59.

    Elizabelle

    @O. Felix Culpa:   I have missed Alexandra Petri.  Wondered where she was. A cereal and a board game. I love her.

    Let me draw you a chart: Here is conception, when we have decided life begins. Sacred, exquisite, beautiful life. Life, than which nothing is more precious. Life, a concept popular enough to sell as both a board game and a cereal. Life! Which everyone ought to have!

    Here, we have the halcyon period during which nothing is too good for you and you must be saved and protected at all costs. Anything you want, you must have. Someone else’s body, even at risk to her life? You got it! We owe you that much. We have no way of knowing you won’t be Shakespeare, or invent foaming hand soap. Up until the moment of birth, you are a glistening orb of magical potential. You might become a president, or better yet, the man who picks the president by deciding which electoral votes get counted.
    And then here is birth, after which you are on your own.

  63. 63.

    Elizabelle

    @O. Felix Culpa:   I had guessed that!  Lucky baby.

    Please tell me the daddy was not Bill Stepien.  There is still a mystery baby out there.  (Or not.)

  64. 64.

    Ealbert

    @Alison Rose : So glad YOU don’t mind it. For a whole lot of people it is one tiny step short of incels calling us “bleeders”. In trying to be inclusive you have managed to insult the vast majority of us by naming us by our genitals.

  66. 66.

    The Moar You Know

    My office Republicans are appalled.  This was supposed to be done quietly, by the continued chipping away at the right, not the full-on repeal.  They are praying for “more BLM-style riots” because otherwise they believe (I hope it’s true) that they’re going to get destroyed in November by this

    ETA:  I do find it extraordinary that they didn’t think their party of choice would do the thing it has been promising to do for almost 50 years.

  67. 67.

    drew

    @Elizabelle:

    Why NPR?  Why?

    What’s your point in shooting the messenger? Every single poll and article I’ve sign about the midterms predicts the Democrats are all but certain to lose the House and possibly the Senate. Are they simply supposed to ignore this angle because of today’s SCOTUS ruling?

  68. 68.

    Baud

    @The Moar You Know:

    I don’t know if it’s true, but I’ll enjoy their interim fear.

    :  I do find it extraordinary that they didn’t think their party of choice would do the thing it has been threatening to do for almost 50 years

     

    How many libs said the same thing?

  70. 70.

    Captain C

    @Elizabelle:

    Why NPR?  Why?

    Nice Polite Republicans.

    SATSQ

    (Also, they’re probably more afraid of getting their funding pulled than of offending their Nice Polite Centrist listening base.)

  71. 71.

    Delk

    Go Dicks!

    DICK’S Sporting Goods will provide up to $4,000 in travel expense reimbursement to travel to the nearest location where that care is legally available. This benefit will be provided to any teammate, spouse or dependent enrolled in our medical plan, along with one support person.

  73. 73.

    Kelly

    Planned Parenthood of Oregon has rented space in Ontario, OR. They are keeping a low profile but Ontario is on the Idaho border about an hour east of Boise.

    https://www.opb.org/article/2022/04/14/planned-parenthood-moving-into-town-on-oregon-idaho-border/

    For those feeling less constructive Home Depot has manure forks for $37.98. Very similar to a pitch fork but sturdy enough to handle bull shit. If you insist it must be a rusty pitch fork a bucket of vinegar with a bit of salt will add the patina you desire.

    https://www.homedepot.com/p/Razor-Back-5-Oval-Tine-Forged-Manure-Fork-2826500/204476211

  74. 74.

    frosty

    @raven: playing guitar, learning the harmonica, figuring out how to use my camera better, decluttering the house. Gardening. All the usual except fishing. Or golf.

    ETA not that there’s anything wrong with those!

    ETA2 Writing an autobiography so I can remember who I was if the dementia sets in. Like my Mom did.

  76. 76.

    Scout211

    This is the first Roe v Wade thread that I’ve entered so this probably was talked about in the earlier threads, but this is significant:

    Attorney General Garland:

    US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday that states can’t ban the abortion medication mifepristone “based on disagreement with the FDA.”

    The US Food and Drug Administration had already ruled on the pill’s “safety and efficacy,” and that decision could not be overturned by states seeking to limit access to abortion, he said.

    Garland’s comments came moments after the US Supreme Court handed down a decision overturning 50 years of precedent over Americans’ right to abortion.

    “Women who reside in states that have banned access to comprehensive reproductive care must remain free to seek that care in states where it is legal,” Garland said. “Moreover, under fundamental First Amendment principles, individuals must remain free to inform and counsel each other about the reproductive care that is available in other states.”

  77. 77.

    Ealbert

    @Alison Rose : So glad YOU don’t mind it. For a whole lot of people it is one tiny step short of incels calling us “bleeders”. In trying to be inclusive you have managed to insult the vast majority of us by naming us by our genitals.

  78. 78.

    Scout211

    We are prepared in California:

    SACRAMENTO, Calif. —In an emotional display of opposition, Gov. Gavin Newsom, California’s attorney general, top legislative leaders and state abortion rights advocates responded to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Newsom signed a bill during Friday’s news conference, AB1666, that immediately protects patients and health providers in California from civil lawsuits based on other states’ laws.

    “This is a dark day for our little girls and all our children, who will now come of age in a nation with fewer rights, fewer freedoms and fewer protections than the generation before them,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said. “That is not progress. But on days like this, I’m more determined than ever to fight like hell for my daughters and yours, for all pregnant persons all those who deserve a future with more rights, more freedom, not fewer.”

  79. 79.

    gene108

    @Elizabelle:

    I think reactionary decisions like this one, the one about guns (more in your workplace now); the feared eviscerating of the EPA: I think these are deeply destabilizing decisions. They separate us from other advanced nations.

    I think there’s a group of conservatives, like Bannon and Stephen Miller, who want things to become unstable, because they think it will give them an excuse to wipeout the undesirables and consolidate power during the chaos, because they have the guns and more willingness to use them.

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mnemosyne: ​

    Every motherfucking Berniebro who told me in 2016 that I was “blackmailing” them when I told them that the Supreme Court would do this exact thing if Trump got elected is cordially invited to go fuck themselves with a rusty pitchfork.

    Amen.
    Good to see you. Glad you’ve been well – and apparently very busy/productive.​

  81. 81.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @MisterDancer: Thank you.  This is one of those cases where intent really does matter and it’s usually pretty easy to tell who is acting in good faith vs who is being a troll.

  82. 82.

    Alison Rose

    @Ealbert: It is in no way shape or form the same thing. I am not naming a person by their genitals. We’re talking about a broad group and how to refer to them easily as a group. I mean, technically, woman could also be said to define people by their genitals. Per the dictionary, “woman” is defined as “an adult female person” and female being defined in part as “of, relating to, or being a person with a certain combination of sex characteristics, commonly including two X chromosomes in the cell nuclei, a vagina, a uterus and ovaries, and enlarged breasts developed at puberty”. Now, I don’t love these definitions because I believe identity is more complex than that, and I believe that trans women are women no matter what bodies they have. But it’s not like the word “woman” has nothing to do with reproductive organs. And since I know numerous trans and enby people who will be impacted by this ruling and who are very understandably frustrated by how often they are ignored in the discussions, I would rather try to use terms that include them.

  83. 83.

    Kirk Spencer

    So the way I look at it (older white male), these six justices just voted to kill my wife. 31 years ago the miscarriage did not evacuate and due to medical follies and the state of Georgia the evacuation was delayed. It wasn’t till they removed the tissue that it was discovered to have turned septic, and we spent some time dealing with that little issue. Had this ruling been in place, I’d have been a childless widower.

    There will be people who die due to the fear and confusion this causes. Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, and Barrett will bear that blood on their hands, and I doubt any of them will care. that said some of this — no, I — will care.

    I’m angry, and I’m about as ‘safe’ from this as it gets. Because they voted to kill my wife.

  86. 86.

    Mallard Filmore

    @trollhattan: One needs to be careful about buying an electric car.  The batteries can have propitiatory connections.  The batteries may be single sourced.

    If the car company does not want to maintain the parts supply for older electrics, you have a large paperweight.

  87. 87.

    mrmoshpotato

    @The Moar You Know: ​

    My office Republicans are appalled. This was supposed to be done quietly, by the continued chipping away at the right, not the full-on repeal.

    Your office Republicans are assholes.

    They are praying for “more BLM-style riots” because otherwise they believe (I hope it’s true) that they’re going to get destroyed in November by this.

    Assholes.

    I do find it extraordinary that they didn’t think their party of choice would do the thing it has been promising to do for almost 50 years.

    They’re also complete idiots.

  88. 88.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Felanius Kootea:

    It’s one thing to have never had a right and to fight to get it.  It’s a whole other thing to have a right taken away from you.

    I am childless and don’t want to put the onus on people with daughters, but it also bears impressing upon them that their mothers had rights that they do/will not have. And the true object of the right’s unbridled love, the gun, has gained more rights while we lose ours.

  90. 90.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    I love George Takei

    The problem with SCOTUS looking to whether a “right” is “deeply rooted in our history or traditions” is that our history and traditions are filled with genocide, slavery, brutality and misogyny. Why should we limit our “rights” to things that have only existed for those in power?— George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) June 24, 2022

  92. 92.

    Elizabelle

    I generally hate reading anything much about TFG, but this was actually pretty interesting.  By Maggie Access Haberman.  (And, FWIW, I would say Mitch McConnell is most responsible.  But …)
    The Man Most Responsible for Ending Roe Worries That It Could Hurt His Party

    The end of the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling was the culmination of decades of work by Republicans and social conservatives — one that came to pass only after a thrice-married former Democrat from New York who had once supported abortion rights helped muscle through three Supreme Court justices.
    Publicly, former President Donald J. Trump heralded the Supreme Court’s ruling on Friday ending federal abortion protections as a victory. Yet, as he faces possible prosecution over his efforts to subvert the 2020 election and prepares for a likely 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump has privately told friends and advisers the ruling will be “bad for Republicans.”
    When a draft copy of the decision leaked in May, Mr. Trump began telling friends and advisers that it would anger suburban women, a group who helped tilt the 2020 race to President Biden, and would lead to a backlash against Republicans in the November midterm elections.

    In other conversations, Mr. Trump has told people that measures like the Texas state law banning most abortions after six weeks and allowing citizens to file lawsuits against people who enable abortions are “so stupid,” according to a person with direct knowledge of the discussions. The Supreme Court let the measure stand in December 2021.

    For the first hours after the decision was made public on Friday, Mr. Trump was muted in response, a striking contrast to the conservatives who worked in his administration, including former Vice President Mike Pence. Mr. Pence issued a statement saying, “Life won,” as he called for abortion opponents to keep fighting “in every state in the land.”  [The hero of January 6th speaks.  Arf.]

     
    For weeks in advance of the ruling, Mr. Trump had been just as muted. In an interview with The New York Times in May, Mr. Trump uttered an eyebrow-raising demurral in response to a question about the central role he had played in paving the way for the reversal of Roe v. Wade.
    “I never like to take credit for anything,” said Mr. Trump, who has spent his career affixing his name to almost anything he could.

    Pressed to describe his feelings about having helped assemble a court that was on the verge of erasing the 1973 ruling, Mr. Trump refused to engage the question and instead focused on the leak of the draft opinion.

    “I don’t know what the decision is,” he said. “We’ve been reading about something that was drawn months ago. Nobody knows what that decision is. A draft is a draft.”
    By early afternoon on Friday, Mr. Trump put out a statement taking a victory lap, including applauding himself for sticking by his choice of nominees. All three of Mr. Trump’s appointees to the court — whom he pushed through with help from Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader — were in the majority in the 6-to-3 ruling. He left unspoken the fact that he repeatedly attacked the court for not interceding on his behalf after he lost the 2020 election.   …
     

    And then a lot of political strategizing talk.  The Republican Senatorial Committee is going to try to portray Democrats as extremists who believe in late term abortions, etc. etc. etc.  The GOP is actually the party whose views are based in “compassion and reason.”

    Let them reap the whirlwind. Fuck ’em.

  93. 93.

    Geminid

    I think today’s decision will help Democrats in some of the relatively few swing districts. One of my first thoughts when I heard was that in my new district, the Virginia 7th, Abigail Spanberger is now almost certain to win reelection. It could also make the difference for Elaine Luria in the 50-50 2nd CD down in Tidewater. The decision could turn some close Senate races as well.

    So there may be a silver lining, but it’s in a very dark cloud. Women will die because of what the Court did today.

  94. 94.

    Feathers

    @Alison Rose : Agree with everything you are saying here. However, language is not inclusive if it has a history of being used in a dehumanizing manner, which the language you are defending has.

    “People” works until some better term is found. Which people can be inferred from context.

  95. 95.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Mnemosyne: I started commenting here about the time you left. I enjoyed your insights while a lurker and hope to again.  Congratulations on your writing accomplishments!

  96. 96.

    gene108

    @Feathers:

    with a great handling of inclusive language

    What is the inclusive language? I read the article and nothing jumps out at me as being different than what’s usually said.

  99. 99.

    Felanius Kootea

    A friend moved to Portugal after Trump was elected, loves it there and has no desire to ever return permanently to the US.

    You all reminded me today that Portugal is where it is today because people fought back after ~35 years of dictatorship between 1932 and 1968.

    We need to fight here too and the best part is we outnumber these freaks. The structural problems with the system that allow a conservative minority to wield outsize power can be overcome but it won’t be pretty.

    I’m not volunteering to move from California to Kentucky but it’s probably going to need something of that nature to finally end the madness.

    In the short term, we need to keep the House and get at least two new Dem senators in the Senate come November.  I think that is absolutely doable.

  100. 100.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Elizabelle:

    If you’re an abortion provider in New Mexico, do you risk providing services to a Texas resident, knowing that even if you’ve never stepped foot there, you may be subject to a Texas lawsuit? Sure, you can seek to remove it to Federal court and do a venue argument there, but who wants the expense (or risk, considering how many federal judges are Leonard LEO’s puppets).

  101. 101.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    Roger Taney was genuinely surprised that his wasn’t the accepted last word on slavery, citizenship and the territories. He was under the impression that people would accept his decision and meekly comply with the majesty of the law.

    Here’s what Lincoln had to say to his face at his first Inaugural Address:

    “A majority held in restraint by constitutional checks and limitations, and always changing easily with deliberate changes of popular opinions and sentiments, is the only true sovereign of a free people,” Lincoln said, in the inaugural address he gave that day. The rulings of the Court, he said, were binding. “At the same time,” he went on, “the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal.”

  102. 102.

    Feathers

    @gene108: A mix of terms, including the words woman and women, with no language reducing anyone to their genitalia.

    And it wasn’t missed!

  103. 103.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @raven:

    I thought Dick’s at least chose to only sell sporting, self-defense  and hunting weaponry. They’re out of the AR15 business.

  105. 105.

    stacib

    @Alison Rose : I believe this is a bad day for everyone, but I’m confused here.  Who, besides women, have a uterus, and why is it offensive to say that?

  106. 106.

    jnfr

    @Feathers:
    I’ve been saying “anyone who can get pregnant”, which seems like a basic statement of facts. Any other ideas?​

    I also really agreed with something a trans acquaintance said today, at least if I were still in my reproductive years (which I am not), I wouldn’t want to cuddle up with anybody who produces sperm right now.

  107. 107.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @Feathers:

    People are justifiably angered and frightened over the enshrinement of religious dogma as law in order to impose moral order regarding intimate decisions, and you’re worried about what language they use and having a pedantic fit?

    Learn to read the room.

  108. 108.

    Feathers

    @Delk: The issue here is statute of limitations. Are you really going to trust that you’ll be able to take the money from your employer without your local prosecutor finding out about it? Especially with the snitch bounties being passed. Travel to another state for an abortion and you’ll have to be worried about them catching up with you until it’s so long ago they can’t prosecute. And there’s no statute of limitations on murder.

    Yeah, I’ve watched a lot of film noir, which is so often about corrupt local law enforcement and prosecution. So the imagining of all this comes very easily to me.

  109. 109.

    Nelle

    • @Mnemosyne: I’m tempted to drive three and a half hours to where I used to live, bang on the door of my Bernie loving neighbors who, in October of 2016, scoffed at me when I brought up the Supreme Court.  I was accused of being manipulative and hystrionic.  I can’t think of anything more effective to say than “How do ya like them apples,huh?”
  110. 110.

    MisterDancer

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Roger Taney was genuinely surprised that his wasn’t the accepted last word on slavery, citizenship and the territories. He was under the impression that people would accept his decision and meekly comply with the majesty of the law.

    He was, wasn’t he?

    That’s what comes of living in a bubble of bullshit.

  112. 112.

    artem1s

    @O. Felix Culpa: ​

    Gaaah! What horrible reductionist language, effectively doing the christo-fascist thing of turning people with reproductive capacity into vessels. Do. Not. Like.

    Agreed. Same with uterus. I’m not a fucking body part. Do we talk about people with penises when we talk about men’s health care? And this isn’t just about birth or uteri. It’s about health care as it pertains to reproduction. Which, the last time I checked, all humans need at some point in their lives even before and after they are no longer able to reproduce. It’s a stupid conversation and only feeds the notion that this only affects someone else, who I’m free to define as not me, is obviously not worthy to have health care rights.

  115. 115.

    Feathers

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: You learn to read the room. I’m having my reproductive rights being taken away and having people demanding the use of dehumanizing language to describe it. So many people are offering great suggestions here. Some are insisting that language also used by incels and extreme women-haters is “inclusive.”

  117. 117.

    Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

    My non-binary child has a uterus. They aren’t a girl/woman like their sister. I’m afraid and enraged for both of my children.

    I appreciate the trans-inclusive language that is being used by many, and would rather not read a bunch of comments telling trans people to put their own existence on the back burner when they’re affected by this ruling too. This day is shitty enough already.

  120. 120.

    Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg

    @trollhattan:

    I’m seeing it now being called “the Alito Court”, which has to be giving the institutionalists who love the “majesty of the law” and talk about various doctrines as if they were actually meaningful a bad case of the vapors.

    Every new opinion day should be done to a soundtrack of Yackety Sax. People should wear clown suits to SCOTUS protests, and the institution should be roundly humiliated by that sort of imagery.

    Take them down some pegs – they earned it.

  121. 121.

    Mnemosyne

    Is today really the best day to argue that women who are afraid of being turned into walking incubators are the real problem because their language isn’t inclusive enough?

  122. 122.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg:

    Menfolk don’t get to tell women how to feel on this day, including about language that they find dehumanizing. Try a little kindness, and failing that, STFU.

    It’s a worthy (necessary!) goal to develop inclusive language that is respectful and honoring to all interested parties, and it appears to be a work in progress. People are allowed to express their feelings about terms that are under consideration. Including on this day, when women have been declared second class citizens by this fucking court.

  124. 124.

    Immanentize

    @Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Why do people resist more inclusive language? What do they gain?

    Here is an example from my own litigation life. When I was a newby attorney, “retarded person” was considered completely acceptable. By the time we were litigating mental retardation (old usage) and the death penalty, we had evolved to the much better “persons with … (The disability, like then-mental retardation)” language to better describe a disability as not coextensive with personhood. Now, of course, “mental retardation” does not exist in accurate language and has been replaced with the less value ridden and more accurate and inclusive, “person with a cognitive or developmental difference.” Is that horrible? No, it is better.

    Gender specific identifiers only exist to separate, not to enhance our understandings. Mrs. Miss Ms. Is one such positive evolution. This year I committed to use “M.” exclusively for all people in my classes when I was formally using last names. So far, only young men have complained, which suits me as it offers a good teaching opportunity.  I’m an old, yet I am still improving.

  127. 127.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Immanentize:

    I mostly agree, with the caveat that the new terms should be  actually better and more affirming than the old language. Some of the well-intended language proposed for women in order to rightly include non-binary and trans people is not quite there yet, and I think that those of us who are in the newly labeled group(s) should be allowed a voice in its development.

  129. 129.

    stinger

    Today feels like 11/08/16 all over again. Gut punched.

    I haven’t read the comments in this thread; had to step away for a while. Will read them now, my peeps.

  130. 130.

    CarolPW

    @Alison Rose : Except for the X chromosomes (I assume I have those) I am missing every other one of the attributes you consider pertinent to womanhood, and I have some pretty spectacular scars to show for it. I still consider myself a woman.

    I favor pregnant people (both in terminology, in deciding to carry to term if possible, and in deciding to terminate).

  131. 131.

    Mnemosyne

    @Immanentize:

    I’m more fond of adding people to groups and saying things like, “women, transmen, and non-binary people” rather than trying to come up with a single all-encompassing term that covers all three groups, because someone is going to end up disgruntled by the attempt to squeeze everyone onto one label. But that’s just me. ‍♀️

  132. 132.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @Geminid:

    Women will die because of what the Court did today.

    Yes and per the NYT, many of those women will leave children motherless:

    Six in 10 women who have abortions are already mothers, and half of them have two or more children, according to 2019 data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

     

  133. 133.

    Immanentize

    @O. Felix Culpa: i agree with all of that, and oh how many discussions I have had about the current variations! And, like i tell my students, for all the people who do not want to be gender identified, there is another who has worked very hard to claim their gender and identity and that should not be ignored. It’s just not up to me what their choices should be.

  134. 134.

    Immanentize

    @Mnemosyne: I agree with this too. The language has twisted us and I doubt we will untwist language before my own elevation to sexless angel or reduction to dirt.

  139. 139.

    kalakal

    @Immanentize:

    This year I committed to use “M.” exclusively for all people in my classes when I was formally using last names.

    “M.” – I like that, totally inclusive.

    At the moment I am filled with rage at this bunch of authoritarian bigots. On an immediate personal level their religous “freedom” imperils the health of my daughter, granddaughter, numerous cousins, friends etc. and reduces them to second class citizenhood. It does the same to half the fucking population. Anyone who supports this is toxic. Anyone who thinks it doesn’t affect them, damage them and those around them is, at best, a delusional idiot. The US maternal death rate is already a disgrace.

    Here’s an ongoing story of the horror of abortion bans, I put it up earlier a few posts below but it was a dead thread and I think it’s important.

    https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/jun/22/us-woman-left-traumatised-after-malta-hospital-refuses-life-saving-abortion?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

  141. 141.

    Starfish

    @Feathers:

    @O. Felix Culpa:

    Y’all need to knock off this nonsense. The language has been decided. The activists AND the people putting together policy have decided. It is written into policy already.

    A person who does not want to give birth who avoids pregnancy is not a birthing person. A person who does not want to give birth but is pregnant is affected by birthing issues and may be a birthing person.

    Women who are post-menopausal or cannot have children are not birthing people.

    Trans-men who can give birth are birthing people.

    It is not that hard. You sound like Boebert with this nonsense.

  143. 143.

    Feathers

    @Immanentize: And now people, especially autistics, are saying that the “people with” language is offensive. It’s a real issue because groups decide on terms, but they may or may not “work” in the wider world. I think the situation with autism is that there is so little trust between adult autists and the professionals and the parents of autistic children that the adults are rejecting the language used by the other two groups. I think the person first language is still OK when talking about broader groups.

    I am pro inclusive language, but it has to be actually inclusive.

  144. 144.

    Starfish

    @Ealbert: “Birthing” is not a genital. It is a bodily state that only a subset of the population can achieve, and restrictions to it affect that group of people.

    That people want to go to such levels to exclude care for trans-men is really gross.

  146. 146.

    Sister Golden Bear

    Trans woman here. I’m honestly don’t think it’s useful to refer to “people with uteruses” because it reduces people to their anatomy, and more importantly doing so misses the main point that they are “people who can get pregnant” (or “people who get pregnant” or “people who are pregnant,” depending on context).

    I’ll defer to trans men and any assigned female at birth non-binary folks, but I’m also fine with “women and other people who can pregnant.”

  148. 148.

    gene108

    @Felanius Kootea:

    I’m not volunteering to move from California to Kentucky but it’s probably going to need something of that nature to finally end the madness.

    Expand the House of Representatives to take away the advantage enjoyed by rural districts.

    I can’t organize much, so I don’t know how to get this on Congressional Democrats radar for the 2030 census, but it’s something that’s legal, Constitutional, and was done every 10 years until 1929.

  150. 150.

    Feathers

    @Starfish: The “birthing person” was created by a UK hospital to be inclusive of trans men and non-binary people who were patients giving birth at that hospital. It got picked up by TERFs as something to be outraged about. It’s not a bad term for women, trans men, and non binary people who are pregnant and want to give birth. It is a terrible term for women, trans men, and non binary people who are pregnant and don’t want to remain pregnant.

  154. 154.

    Starfish

    @Mnemosyne: People on this blog have been on their TERF nonsense for a while.

    The journalists covering reproductive health and the health care professionals have all changed their language to account for it for at least five years. There are a lot of people who have not been following this issue for years who are talking about it because it is relevant now.

  155. 155.

    Mnemosyne

    @sab:

    It’s really me! I couldn’t resist the temptation to say “I fucking told you so“ to any remaining Berniebros.

    And thank you to everyone who commented for the warm welcome back. I appreciate it. Buy my books if you like romance!

  156. 156.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Starfish:

    Decided? By whom and with what authority? I want inclusive language, but “birthing people” is awful. Not yielding to your say-so, even on this nearly top-10,000 blog.

    ETA: I believe that black people had an active voice in how they should be called. I do not yield my voice on how I get called just because someone on the internet has declared it “decided.”

  157. 157.

    Mnemosyne

    @Starfish:

    IMO, “pregnant person” makes way more sense as a gender-neutral term when discussing abortion than “birthing person.” As others have pointed out, not every pregnant person or person with the ability to become pregnant wants to actually give birth, as demonstrated by the reaction to today’s news.

    It may be good for doctors and midwives to use as a term for people who have decided they want to give birth, but not so much for people who fall pregnant when they don’t want to be.

  158. 158.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Mnemosyne:

    I much prefer your suggestion, for all the reasons you cite. Also, not every pregnant person is able to carry to birth, and yet they are pregnant. A much more accurate and useful term.

  159. 159.

    Feathers

    @Mnemosyne: This. “Birthing person” is intended for hospitals and health professionals to use as inclusive language for their patients who are giving birth. It was never intended to be used more broadly.

  161. 161.

    Anyway

    @gene108:

    Expand the House of Representatives to take away the advantage enjoyed by rural districts.

    This. Ds need creative, strategic thinking (not talking about elected Reps – but D-aligned think tanks and money people) to counter the Repub ruthlessness with which they have made use of every opportunity. I hate when people say Hillary won the popular vote — so what?1 What did that get us? We need to come up with a way of making that count.

  162. 162.

    Feathers

    @Starfish: I have been following this issue since getting to know a trans co-worker in the 1990s. I’ve been fighting  against TERFism before the TERF terminology was even invented, when there were the calls to boycott the Michigan Womyn’s Music Festival back in the early 2010s. There had been calls before that, I just became aware of them after 2011. I’ve been vocally anti-TERF since then.

    AND if an ally is using misogynist language, or borrowing language used by misogynists in other situations, or using tactics common in misogynist circles, I will call it out. Especially someplace like BJ, which is supposed to be an inclusive space.

  163. 163.

    Immanentize

    @Omnes Omnibus: “Em” I tell the students in first class that is my plan. I also explain that I don’t just use first names because

    1) Courts and employers are not there yet, and
    2) I really hate when professors of adult learners simply use first names of students without thought while they expect students to call them, “professor.” I try to go more colleague, but I understand that is not really achievable.

  164. 164.

    Tony G

    @Feathers: I agree. “People with uteruses” sounds like a description of livestock.  Just call women women for Christ sake.  It’s just asinine to deal with this nonsense when the health and lives of women is at stake.

  165. 165.

    Tony G

    @Tony G: How about saying “women and other people with uteruses”.  Is that inclusive enough?  That includes transgender men and non-binary people.  It is also such a cumbersome, clunky phrase that it is very unlikely to be used outside of academia.  Word games.

  166. 166.

    Feathers

    @Tony G: “People with uteruses” is what kicked off the whole discussion. It’s awful. Your construction is better, but still bad. A real part of the problem is that people seem unaware that the woman-hating corners of the internet would talk about how there were decent, traditional women, who deserved respect, as opposed to ugly women, feminists, and other women they didn’t want to fuck, who were just “people with uteruses/vaginas.”

    If you object to this becoming “inclusive” language, you’re now a TERF, apparently. But please just use a more elegant terminology if you have the space (The New Yorker article I linked above has several good ones). If you’re on Twitter where every character counts, you can just use people and let context make clear who you are talking about.

  168. 168.

    Jesse

    Just set up a recurring donation to a local WY org I found thanks to Betty’s list. I had set up a recurring donation to another, also local, WY org back when the draft decision was leaked. Thanks. Will be working today doing phone banking to get Dems to the polls.

  169. 169.

    Daoud bin Daoud

    • @Elizabelle: No, conservatives do not see us as a nation. Their tribe is the Straight White Christo-fascist Nation, and icky girls are not welcome in their tree house!

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