Aravosis – now there’s a blast from the past, sort of like a constipated fart. He’s billed as a “Democratic consultant” on his Wiki bio. I hope Democrats aren’t listening to this out-of-touch old gay white guy. I guess I’ll wait to see who screams louder when the Supremes reverse Obergefell: Aravosis or Andrew Sullivan. These guys are deluded enough to think that they’ve won their struggle and don’t have any real skin in the game anymore, so they can erase trans folks. Good luck with that.
As for Kinzinger, the day I take political advice from him is the day I’ll voluntarily commit myself to memory care, since I’ll have definitely lost the plot. This guy didn’t even have the grit to lose his re-election campaign fair and square, unlike Cheney. Stay in your lane, which is 1/6 until your replacement arrives, quitter.
Anyway, VP Harris was addressing a group of blind people and everyone introduced themselves the way she did. She was just being polite. Of course the right wants to scream and yell about this because they’ve decided that “pronouns” is what they’re running on, instead of “dead women”. I understand that when all have is chicken shit, you do have to try to make chicken salad, but I’ll be god damned if I supply the mayo. Trans kids kill themselves at a frightening rate and the Democrats, as usual, are the party that cares. Republicans don’t care if kids, women, the elderly, or, really, anyone else dies, as long as they have power. Simple but true.
If you want to read something interesting instead of dreck about “the middle”, this thread from Oliver Willis about the butthurt that conservatives feel about Bork and Romney is worth your attention.
Baud
What Adam K is basically saying is that Americans are horrible, evil people.
Thanks for the context. Kind of relevant that she wasn’t at a cabinet meeting. (I was wondering about the blue suit bit).
Kropacetic
There are definitely fora where pronouns and the extra effort for trans sensitivity are more or less appropriate.
Decrying these tendencies all the time in every instance is telling the uninitiated that they *should* be mad. This is hateful and hurtful.
Ignoring the context of an event for blind people that makes these things clearly necessary? Deplorable.
Old School
I was a Democrat until Kamala Harris introduced herself at a meeting.
Baud
@Old School:
“The party left me (he/his)!”
Yutsano
Kinzinger is the lamest of lame ducks. Let him quack into the void. Because of course he either didn’t research the context (he just retweeted clickbait) or he just doesn’t care. Either way, he’s only got the microphone because of the January 6th committee. Stay in your lane Adam.
Ten Bears
Threatened me, Aravosis did, a long time ago. I haven’t forgotten.
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Exactly. But they play the victim when you call them out on it. AK does this in advance in his tweet.
Kropacetic
@Baud: If I thought we could get any mileage out of caricaturing the positions of the other side like they do, I’d be out there insisting they want to ban all pronouns.
First offense for not using a proper noun, $100, jail for repeat offenders.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
It’s very typical now for people to provide image descriptions in their captions on Instagram and such, for people with visual impairments who use screen readers. The descriptions will usually include a physical description of the people in it, including clothing colors and such, just like the VP did. But color me shocked that these whiny babies who are so terrified of pRoNoUnS also don’t give a shit about blind folks.
Egorelick
@Baud: exactly. The Left often loses elections because the American people (and news media) are truly horrible. Humans s*ck and we can go about trying to govern ourselves in ways that don’t reflect that horrible truth or we can give into it. We don’t have to embrace the s*ckitude like those criticizing Harris, but ignoring it and pretending there isn’t some of it in all of us doesn’t work either. It’s a harder job than being in the Right, which is why the Left always has to work harder.
Gin & Tonic
Somewhere via a Twitter rabbit hole I found this, which is helpful. Assuming you don’t want to be butt-hurt.
Baud
Baud will never again use pronouns in Baud’s comments.
Devon Sullivan
“The left can’t win elections,” he cries as he sits in a Congress run by Democrats, presided over by a Democratic President.
Baud
@Egorelick: Well, I don’t agree with Adam K given that approximately half of Americans aren’t horrible and are kind of awesome. I’m just saying that’s the implication of what he said, at least about the “middle.”
ETA: Fixed
Well, Baud doesn’t agree with Adam K given that approximately half of Americans aren’t horrible and are kind of awesome. Baud is just saying that’s the implication of what Adam K said, at least about the “middle.”
satby
Oh, the comments on the original tweet from Breaking 911 will absolutely convince you. After the statement is made that it’s accommodation for disabilities present in the room, they doubled down on the mocking.
I have a Trans support poster at my booth, as I’ve mentioned. Normally I get a person or two per day thanking me. Yesterday, I had one ask what it meant, so I knew the Fauxrage batsignal about transgender people must have gone up again in MAGA land.
piratedan
The Right keeps tossing all this shit out there in an effort to get people pissed off and it works. My brother, a squishy middle, went off on this pronouns issue and I had to talk him down from the ledge simply because he’s an old like me. I had to patiently explain to him that this is simply the new “politeness”, where people finally feel free to self-identify and the use of this type of address simply means that you respect them and see them as a person, nothing more, nothing less. I reminded him of what it was like in high school, it was still a bad thing to come out as gay and the strides that we’ve made with allowing people to be whoever they have chosen to identify as, is seen as progress. Much in the way that the right is reflected in Eric Cartman’s “respect mah authoritah”, this is allowing people the ability to be seen as whoever they are… and yes, nothing is static, people can change and evolve as they discover more about themselves.
I also assured him that I am still getting used to it, as multiple decades of habit, do not simply wash away in a single moment of clarity.
Paul in KY
@Baud: Anti-pronoun Baud is.
trollhattan
@Baud: I introduce myself as “dude” or “dudester.”
RaflW
The right wing is always just a few dance-steps from fucking eugenics:
“How dare VP Harris treat blind people to a one sentence description of herself and her outfit! Blind people are sooo needy! They should just quietly be glad we let them live in public! I feel uneasy because Kamala made it obvious that I don’t accommodate difference. So maybe we should shut these disabled people away so I don’t have to feel uncomfortable.”
Cameron
I wouldn’t take any advice from Kinzinger, but I don’t fault him for leaving. He and his family have been receiving tons of death threats from Wingnutland.
Baud
Up till now, I had assumed that when speaking to blind folks as president, I wouldn’t have to get dressed.
Paul in KY
@Baud: At least below desktop level…Was what I thought too.
SiubhanDuinne
@Kropacetic:
There’s a Florida woman running for Congress — sorry, I’ve forgotten her name — who recently sent out a pair of tweets stating flatly that “there are no pronouns in” the Bible/the Constitution, respectively. One commenter pointed out that the very first word of the Constitution is a pronoun.
ETA: Lavern Spicer is her name.
scav
So, after all the assaults on women, trans and assorted LGBTQIA+ rights are over, their next headline target is all the stifling “rights” “awarded” to the “disabled”? (They’ll also be going after the benefits of the olds, but those won’t be highlighted in the same way for obvious reasons. Foreigners and people of color are classics, so assaulting those rights are always on the menu.)
satby
@Cameron: his extended family have been extremely hostile to Kinzinger, the story goes. You would think that would have him reevaluating all his assumptions, but no. Still glad he’s an anti-tfg, but he isn’t one of the good guys otherwise.
RaflW
And I know Republicans are selfish sh*ts, but not a single one of them thinks about what their own life will be like when they’re old, have macular degeneration, a bad hip, and bladder control issues.
Fuck ’em.
trollhattan
@SiubhanDuinne: Lavern? Shirley you jest.
narya
@piratedan: How did your brother respond?
lowtechcyclist
Wait, before you lump Aravosis in with Sully, gimme something to justify it. I see him around on Twitter or other places every now and then, and at least from these brief contacts, he seems to have his head on straight.
OTOH, I’d figured out by about 2005 that Andrew Sullivan was pretty much worthless.
Yutsano
@trollhattan: Of course not! And don’t call me Shirley. :P
CaseyL
@RaflW: Heh. Their own kids will shuffle them off to a cheap nursing home and forget they exist.
Ben Cisco
With these two clowns, it’s a matter of:
Kadir beneath Mo Moteh
Ben Cisco
With these two clowns, the only appropriate response is:
“Kadir beneath Mo Moteh“
RaflW
@CaseyL: They better not turn on the second audio “descriptive video” option! That’s wokeing your TV! Not gonna do it.
(I discovered it a long time ago and would sometimes turn it on when I was cooking and couldn’t closely watch, say, Mystery on PBS.)
SiubhanDuinne
@trollhattan:
My name’s not Shirley. Don’t call me it.
Betty Cracker
I’ve got what is politely called a “whiskey voice,” meaning sometimes strangers on the phone call me “sir.” So, if I were at an event that included visually impaired people, it would probably be a good idea to describe myself as a woman (in a ratty gray Cobra Kai t-shirt).
Ramalama
@RaflW:
I need to paste this somewhere for a quick ‘grab ‘n go’ whenever someone grumbles (or worse) at me aboat my politics, which are now informed by Canada so therefore no longer applicable to ‘Merica.
Old School
@scav:
There are already lawyers reluctant to file lawsuits currently out of fear that it’ll give the Supreme Court an opportunity to set back disability rights.
Brachiator
Yep. Context matters.
This crap is also part of an ongoing smear by some pundits to depict VP Harris as a not serious person who should not be considered as a possible president. This nonsense is just tiresome.
I vaguely remember when some people had a problem using Ms instead of Miss or Mrs. I guess there might have been hand wringing op-ed pieces about how this was bad for Democrats.
Edmund Dantes
@scav: the ADA has been hated for a long long time on the right. Since it’s inception in 1990.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Fetterman has Steve Van Zandt pitching for him:
insert clever nickname here mistermix
@lowtechcyclist: I haven’t seen much of anything from Aravosis for years, and he’s not a skull measurer like Sully.
But that tweet is all about trans erasure. He doesn’t add any context and doesn’t recognize that there are plenty of contexts where someone who we all know is not trans might say her pronouns to make the audience feel comfortable.
So in the context of tolerating trans exclusion from what he believes (wrongly) is a secure platform, he’s like Sully. In other ways, I’m sure he isn’t.
Hope that makes sense.
Al Rennick
mistermix,
This post is almost as dumb as your screen name. You’re not fit to shine John Aravosis’ shoes.
You’ve reached peak toolishness.
RaflW
Oh, and that Oliver Willis piece linked from the top, wow, did teddy Kennedy have a time machine. He’s describing the GOP in 2022 to an absolute ‘T’.
Lyrebird
Used to read Aravosis’ stuff regularly. Long ago. I have disagreements with him and I am sorry he threatened @Ten Bears: because that is awful and wrong.
I still don’t see him in the same class as Sullivan, who has promoted white supremacist pseudoscience long past when he should’ve known better with sfaik no apology. Horrible horrible horrible stuff.
lollipopguild
@trollhattan: Stop calling me Shirley!
JustRuss
You are Jeff Bridges and I claim my five pounds!
Cameron
@JustRuss: I’m a German nihilist.
JoyceH
@RaflW: I’ve always said that based on the policies they support, everybody thinks they’re going to be rich, and nobody thinks they’re going to be old.
trollhattan
@Cameron: Nice marmot!
Miss Bianca
Oh, Betty. If you’ve ever wondered why we love you so, here’s a reason why: your way of framing a truth that manages to be both deeply incisive and deeply hilarious at the same time.
Ben Cisco
@RaflW:
TAG!
Miss Bianca
@trollhattan: Ha, I’m wearing my “Nice Marmot” t-shirt right now!
(No joke, it was the name of a band I was in about ten years ago!)
ETA: Why yes, it *was* a band made up entirely (besides me) of men twenty years younger than I was who were all huge Big Lebowski fans, however could you tell?
trollhattan
@Al Rennick: I call fake. Everybody knows he goes barefoot 24/7/365.
Yutsano
@Al Rennick: Noted, your opinion is.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
The Continuing Story of
Bungalow BillMy PriusWhen we left the saga, last week, my Prius was sitting out on the street in front of my house and wouldn’t start(go into “read mode”). I got a ODBII bluetooth code reader and it gave me a code indicating a problem that seemed to point to a failing inverter(that’s the thing that converts the power from the main battery to the voltage needed to drive the electric motors). I had it towed to the local Toyota dealership and they found that the inverter has indeed failed. But there is good news! Several years ago, Toyota had seen a number of problems like this and put in place an extended warranty(15 years, unlimited mileage), so the repair will not cost me anything. Of course, I have to wait for the part to arrive,
In previous episodes, my Prius got it’s catalytic convert stolen and then wouldn’t start after I had it back from getting the cat replaced.
Yutsano
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
Wait…what did the cat do?
Egorelick
@Baud: you are way more optimistic about the awesomeness of people. People like punching things. The horror some of my friends feel about punching Nazis is a frustration. I’m on the Left because I like to think I choose my targets more thoughtfully and compassionately, but, I’m not so awesome that I wouldn’t enjoy seeing McConnell’s (or any number of American fascists) head on a spike.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Yutsano: Cat==catalytic converter.
glc
@Baud: Nobody said you have to get dressed. The choice of how and what you present is yours. But in any case be prepared to offer a verbal description.
Barbara
I know this wasn’t the specific “point” of this practice but those pronoun indicators are very handy when I am corresponding with someone who has a non-gendered or non-English name that I have not encountered before — because I can address them correctly in writing. I suspect if you are, let’s say, Korean and your given name is Eun, it’s great to know that you won’t be addressed as “Mr.” just because your correspondent doesn’t know that Eun is a woman’s name in Korean. But then, maybe Adam Kinzinger doesn’t know anyone like that.
Barbara
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: My 2009 Prius is undergoing similar agonies. Converter was stolen — an occurrence that leads me to advise potential car buyers to skip the Prius unless they can put it in a garage at night. Then, there was an issue with the battery, but I am not sure it was the inverter. We had the dealer fix the battery, but went to a local shop to replace the converter at half the price offered by the dealer. We just need it to last another year or two. I think I’m going to contact the dealer and ask whether the repair might have been covered by the extended warranty.
Peale
John Avorisis is a former gay republican who came to the party when it became apparent that the GOP was serious about its attack against gay rights. But then zoomed right passed “moderate” to use his platform to accuse Obama of being the most homophobic president ever when Obama’s DoJ filed the brief in support of DOMA, back when support of gay marriage was well under 50% with that ‘middle.’
James E Powell
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
@StevieVanZandt is a treasure. His work with Teach Rock makes this old teacher very happy.
Very strong recommendation for his memoir, Unrequited Infatuations. Essential rock history.
Peale
@RaflW: The proper thing for her to do is to sneak up on them and say “on your right” and then move to their left and when they bump into her say “why don’t you watch where you’re going.” And then when they don’t laugh at her “just funning with you,” repeat the punchline ever louder until they chuckle a bit in the hopes that she’ll leave them alone.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@Barbara: The extended warranty is just for the Gen3 models(2010-2014). Mine is a 2010. I ordered the plates to cover the cat, so it might help deter future theft.
Citizen Alan
I genuinely think most republicans would steal a blind man’s cane and then laugh at him when he fell down if given the chance.
James E Powell
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA:
That’s great news. My own Prius battery died during peak COVID isolation. It was expensive, it took weeks.
Leto
Doug Mastriano going full Christofascist and shouting the quiet parts loud enough for the dead to hear.
“I want Pennsylvania to be the Florida of the north.” Motherfucker.
sdhays
@Baud: You don’t. You can tell them you’re wearing a smart blue pantsuit and they’ll never know that you’re lying!
Just don’t tell them what pronouns to use. That would be the end of America.
Wapiti
I was having breakfast with my dad recently and he starts staring at a couple of people in another booth who are signing back and forth. Like he’s wondering what they’re doing. He’s never seen this before (so he says).
Uh, Dad, it’s probably American Sign Language. Deaf people use it to communicate. It’s often on television when a politician speaks. So either someone at the table is deaf, or since there’s a university branch in town, it might be students practicing their vocabulary.
Some people just freak out at anything that is unfamiliar.
Baud
@Leto:
That’s a nice compliment to Jews and non-Christians.*
*I know Jews are non-Christians, but I am following the headline.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@James E Powell: When I plugged in the ODBII and fired up Dr. Prius, I could see the battery, so that was good news. It is not in great condition, I’ll give it a full test once the inverter is replaced.
Salty Sam
@trollhattan: How are you on that whole “brevity” thing?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Most people don’t like change, and the right wing is exceptionally good at capitalizing and amplifying that. It is also true that upwards of 95% of Americans are cis gendered. Many cis gendered people do not feel that they need to clarify their gender identity, and some feel insulted if you aren’t able to instantly perceive it. I don’t believe there is a recognition yet, that there may be trans people, friends of trans people, or parents of trans people in what they consider to be ‘cis’ spaces.
Baud
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
I’m not trans, but I’m not at the point where I’m offended that someone doesn’t affirmatively identify their gender. But getting insulted and angry when someone does do that is beyond the pale.
West of the Rockies
@Baud:
Going full Elmo on us…
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@Baud:
There is a world of difference between being a deliberate jerk to someone because you don’t like the fact the world has changed versus being annoyed that people are asking you to change.
JCJ
@SiubhanDuinne: Of course everyone knows your name isn’t Shirley. It is Subaru.
Geminid
@Leto: I wonder if Mastriano has responded yet to Gab CEO Gabriel Tor’s live stream. Tor claimed that Mastriano shared Tor’s media policy of not giving interviews to non-Christian reporters and media outlets. Seems like Mastriano has some ‘splaining to do.
UncleEbeneezer
For podcast fans, I just listened to the first episode of Heather McGhee’s The Sum of Us podcast and it is very good. The episode is aptly titled Why We Can’t Have Nice Things.
The Moar You Know
@Citizen Alan: I was a “puppy raiser” for Guide Dogs for the Blind for many years. You would not believe the daily atrocities visited upon blind people. And their guide dogs. Nobody here would.
There is a reason that one of Guide Dogs largest expenses is for 24/7/365 nationwide legal service. Their clients need it.
I will simply say this; you can’t break down the offenders by political party and frankly the answer to “who the fuck would do that” would make a lot of folks pretty sad, so I won’t.
dm
The other day Ted Cruz, at some right wing confab, introduced ass-self saying, “My pronouns are ‘kiss my ass'”. While I’m not sure which words ass wants us to use for which part of speech, I’ll just use “ass” for all of them, since “my” is clearly confusing (though I somewhat like the ambiguous implication of “Ted Cruz’s property and salary is mine”). I suppose “kiss” used as a pronoun might become obvious from context.
But I’m happy to use “ass” to refer to Cruz. It seems uncharacteristically generous of ass to suggest we do so.
zhena gogolia
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: Yes, this is now standard practice.
The Moar You Know
@dm: I’ve been referring to ass that way for years; I suspect that’s true of most Americans. Glad ass has recognized reality and is so accepting.
UncleEbeneezer
Also, Allison Gill’s (MuellerSheWrote) Daily Beans podcast has a great episode up covering all the DOJ developments from this week. She has Peter Strzok (26 years with the FBI) as a guest for the whole thing.
Kent
There are also six pronouns in the very first chapter of Genesis alone. I just checked.
JaneE
This.
What the right calls “woke” is basic politeness and courtesy, or it was when my mother was teaching me how to behave.
Describing yourself to people who cannot see you lets them have a better “view” of you instead of being a disembodied voice. Telling people who are transgender what gender you prefer is treating them with the courtesy of not having to ask. And you would be surprised (or not) at how many cisgender individuals are mistaken for the opposite sex part of the time, so telling your audience how you see yourself really should not be an issue.
Matt McIrvin
Getting incensed at accommodations for the disabled, as if they are hurting other people somehow, is an old, alarmingly frequent play by right-wingers (or, as this guy calls them, “the middle”). Paul Harvey liked to get worked up about them. (They put Braille on a drive-up ATM! They put a wheelchair ramp on a roller rink! The world has gone mad!)
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
How to tell people you have never read either the Bible nor the Constitution, without saying exactly that… poor woman, Lavern Spicer is so, so sad, and just a little bit ignorant of what a pronoun actually is.
Some people…
divF
@Baud: A simple solution to your problem is to always refer to yourself in the first person plural.
Ohio Mom
@Old School: Thank you for that link to the opinion piece on the future of disability rights. I learned a few things. I knew RBG wrote the landmark Olmstead decision but I did not know Clarence Thomas wrote the dissent. As if I didn’t already despise him…
LeftCoastYankee
I’m guessing the Change Toddlers™ never studied German, with it’s 3 genders.
“I was canceled by my German teacher!”
/
The Lodger
@SiubhanDuinne: Yeah, I can see Rachel Maddow asking the production crew to put up a picture of the first page of the Constitution now.
Geminid
@Geminid: Then again, Mastriano might not distance himself from Gabriel Tor’s hatred. His opponent Josh Shapiro is Jewish and Mastriano may be hoping that anti-semitism will help him win. That prejudice is still with us, although few people express it as openly as Tor does.
Another Pennsylvania Governor, Milton Shapp, was originally named Milton Shapiro. Growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, Shapp was a ham radio operator and followed his interest to Case Institute of Technology. His engineering degree was no help in the Depression and Shapp drove coal trucks for a living.
Shapp served in the Army Signal Corps during the Second World War, and then founded a successful electronics company. Shapp was an early supporter of John Kennedy for President in 1960, and later wrote a memo to Robert Kennedy that helped start the Peace Corp. Shapp served two terms as Governor of Pennsylvania in the 1970s.
@Leto:
UncleEbeneezer
Gravenstone
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Let’s hear it for extended warranties/recall coverage. Years ago I had a Plymouth Laser (basically a rebadged Mitsubishi) that spit the timing belt at less than 10k miles. Get it fixed (with functionally an engine rebuild) under warranty and am back on the road. Fast forward a couple years and the replacement belt pukes, forcing another rebuild. Fortunately it was still covered under the previous recall order, so no money out of my pocket for either instance.
Kropacetic
@Al Rennick: John, is it?
If not, don’t worry I understand allyship. So should John and Rep. Kinzinger.
trollhattan
@Yutsano: It knows what it did.
I know from neighbors’ bad experiences that a catless Prius will be the loudest fucking car within a half mile when it starts up (presuming it starts).
Have watched enough Ring videos to learn a van with roving converter thieves can roll up, jack up the car and snag that thing in a couple minutes. Prius converters once got two or three times as much as common ones on the black market, but the precious metal prices are so high now I wonder if there’s any difference?
NB, if you have a pickup or SUV, they don’t need the jack.
ian
@Al Rennick:
Is this still a thing? What are the qualifications for shoe shining? It seems degrading, wouldn’t you want someone you think is an idiot doing it? Or are we worried mistermix will somehow destroy the precious shoes? Or are we worried mistermix would be taking jobs from orphans?
geg6
@Leto:
Well, if I had needed anything else to put it all on the line supporting Shapiro, this would be it. I fucking hated Florida even before it went insane and I will fight to my last breath to keep my beloved state from becoming anything like that hellhole.
Kropacetic
@ian: It’s a metaphor. As in “Al Rennick is not fit to shine mistermix’s shoes.”
dm
When I first heard about the Vice President’s self-introduction, I was a puzzled by the “I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit”. What’s that about?
So, the right-wing fauxtrage was a teaching experience (I’m not likely to have heard that bit of her talk otherwise).
Sister Golden Bear
@Gin & Tonic:
Given everyone’s now building sex rooms, some people do want to be butt-hurt. Oh wait, not in that way. //
Kropacetic
@Sister Golden Bear: If it hurts badly, you didn’t prime correctly.
Another Scott
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Excellent that it will be fixed under warranty! It’s a pain to be without one’s wheels though. Thanks for the update.
The final parts that I think I may need to fix my VW (ignition key won’t turn in lock) is due to arrive Monday. Maybe I’ll get it back on the road soon after that…
Good luck!
Cheers,
Scott.
Leto
@geg6: Same. I’m sure Mastriano’s beliefs will play well in the Pennsyltucky region, but I don’t think it will outside of there. Regardless, I’m heartened by the fact I’m seeing more Shapiro/Fetterman signs going up in my neighborhood.
Uncle Cosmo
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Keep in mind, ya can’t type BOZO without typing OZ.
elliottg
@J R in WV:
Be careful about talking grammar when referring to texts sourced from other languages. It’s often the translator’s call in these cases. You can certainly argue that the King James version is the only one this woman knows or cares about.
geg6
@Leto:
I have mine but haven’t put them up yet.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:
They hate it because it disrupts their sense that they’re “normal,” and trans people are the “weird other.” I.e. it’s decentering cisgenderedness. And not immediately perceiving that they’re cis enrages them, because it’s put them in the “weird other” category.
As I say when I do outreach, when people say they’ve never met a trans people before, they in fact have at some point in their life — it’s just that the trans people didn’t desire to be out, and/or didn’t feel safe to be out. The fact that we can pass as cis also freaks them out, hence all the “jokes” about trans women “tricking” cis het men into having sex with them (looking at you Dave Chappelle.)
Another Scott
@UncleEbeneezer: “Before” is one of those funny words that seems to invite confusion. When I was younger, I would spend time puzzling how better to express those signs you see on the highway “Bridge Freezes Before Road”. Before = Earlier/Sooner – in time. Before = In front of/Attended meeting with – in space.
“The bridge freezes in front of the road??!” – that doesn’t make any sense! Oh, they mean Earlier!!
;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
cain
@Baud: I suppose you could go for a soft porn description then
“I have supple hips, a long chin, deliciously machismo moustache and dark and menacing eyes”
Just to be clear, that’s not how I imagine you to be :D
J R in WV
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Well, it isn’t Stevie Ray Vaughn, but it will do for today, right? Right!
Really funny 29 seconds! Thanks for sharing!
ETA: Steve sounds just like my buddy from North Philly — no surprise there~!
MattF
Florida man.
Old School
@cain:
That’s how I imagine every commenter at Balloon-Juice.
trollhattan
@MattF: There is no Peak Florida Man but this guy gets an achievement award, to be sure.
How could it not be an F150?
UncleEbeneezer
@Another Scott: Ah yes, I think you’re right. I misread. My bad.
cain
@Old School: Weirdo! :D
Darkrose
@JaneE: It’s just an update from ‘political correctness’. I always figured “I’m not politically correct” = “I am an inconsiderate jerk.”
Another Scott
ICYMI, Wonkette:
She’s raised over $300,000 – so far (it’s only been a little over 2 days) – for her group.
Well done.
Here’s hoping that Florida does the right thing and sends him packing in November.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kay
I did a phone bank for Marcy Kaptur- remote- out of Cleveand I think – but I was calling local and it’s just kind of discouraging to have Democrats be such jerks abut callling them.
I have like elephant skin – I’m impossible to offend at this stage of my life- so I’m just charging ahead but if someone calls you be nice :)
If you’re voting for the person say so and I’ll be gone in ten seconds. Just interrupt with that. Thanks for your vote and…done.
Matt McIrvin
So I guess one question is, did Aravosis know the context of this clip–is he just assuming Kamala Harris is talking funny for no reason? Or is he saying that we always have to avoid accommodations to the situation and speak as if video of us will be taken out of context by hostile actors, to avoid angering “the middle” (a particularly stifling form of political correctness)? Or is it just the pronoun bit that’s triggering him?
SiubhanDuinne
@J R in WV:
Yup. Or do a quick count of the pronouns in a familiar, short passage, Psalm Twenty-Three. I counted 27 (KJV) and I expect I missed a few.
NotMax
@Another Scott
A memorable sign encountered which is along the same lines:
SLOW
CHILDREN
AHEAD
.
Old School
@Matt McIrvin:
Matt McIrvin
@Baud: I put “he/him” in my Twitter bio and that’s a really reliable way to piss off a certain kind of douchenozzle, even though all I’m doing is indicating that my gender identity is pretty much what they’d expect. When people bring it up in an argument I know I don’t need to listen to them any more.
Old School
@SiubhanDuinne: If I encountered the no pronouns in the Bible claim, I’d ask about John 3:16.
trollhattan
@Kay: Sounds frustrating, I can’t imagine myself cold calling people.
Straight question: does phone banking work in 2022? We still have a landline and any call not IDd by the digital voice lady is selling an extended car warranty or telling us we have a warrant out for our arrest. So we don’t answer.
My cell, now the same thing. If I do not know the caller I do not answer. The car warranty pitches clog my voice mail.
Who answers their phone, today?
Kay
They’re obsessed with transgender people and cancel culture. It’s an entire cottage industry.
Let’s remember who they are so we never have to take them seriously again. Anyone who thinks the Oberlin dining hall or Yale Law School is reflective of the United States is an idiot. They’re moral panic creators- panics aways, always ends badly and this one will too. Skip it. You’ll be glad you did.
J R in WV
@Al Rennick:
You aren’t fit to have space for your words on my computer screen — welcome to the pie safe, fool !!!
NotMax
@Old School
Not to mention those pesky thou shalt nots.
;)
Kay
@trollhattan:
About one in ten answer, but that’s baked in. Older people are the most polite. I think it works. I mean, you hear political junkies bitching about it but I know they’ll vote. Most people aren’t political junkies, which is fine – not everyone has to be. Kaptur is a pro so if she thinks it works I take her word for it. This is not her first election – they keep trying to knock her off but she survives :)
Baud
@Kay:
I dislike calls and visits as a yellow dog Dem but I do try to be kind to the staffer and not waste their time.
Miss Bianca
@Old School: Is this guy for real?
Kay
@trollhattan:
It’s a really good campaign. She’s hard working. She’s also got this thing going where she’s bringing out Democrats to rural area parades (parades are big in Ohio- every burg has one) which is smart. People follow other people. If it looks like she has support (she does) she’ll do better.
Kay
@Baud:
They’re really grateful when people thank them, because it’s so rare. It’s an easy way to be kind. But I’m not mean to salespeople either- everyone needs a job :)
Geminid
@Kay: Are you seeing anything from Kaptur’s opponent? Do local Republicans seem enthusiastic about him?
FelonyGovt
@Barbara: For sure. Many years ago I was dealing with a Japanese trademark attorney. I hadn’t heard from the person in a while and when I got an email from someone else in that firm, I asked about the whereabouts of Mr. So-and-So. I got back a polite response that Ms. So-and-So was away on maternity leave. (I now know that most Japanese first names ending in -ko are female… but didn’t then.)
J R in WV
@elliottg:
Yes, that was my bet. They all think that was the Bible Jesus used… or something like that. I didn’t count the pronouns, just went to the first one… Vs 5.
Lepercorn
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah I see Avarosis commenting on things. I havn’t noticed any anti-trans stuff. He seems pretty solid center left.
Kropacetic
@trollhattan: Cold calls can help in some cases. It’s a lot of rejection with rare instances of rallying anywhere from one person to an entire family.
I’ll be canvassing this weekend for Maura Healey (MA governor). Hopefully people are receptive there.
There is something to be said for personal contact.
Frank Wilhoit
There is no middle.
It may be superfluous to say more.
But we have lost control of the messaging about identity in a manner that is catastrophic and very possibly irretrievable. It is not about identity; it is about equality before the law, and the equal protection of the law. In a single word, it is about lynching: every form of lynching, violent and nonviolent, against any victim, including surrogate victims. We say no lynching — or we would say if we durst, which, hitherto, we haven’t. So it has been framed exclusively by the other side, transformed from the single, simple, sacred principle of equality before the law into an infinite laundry list of special privileges.
Credibility depends upon consistent and timely messaging. Everything we say today about the Republican Party was equally true in 1980, but we didn’t say it then, so there is no credibility in saying it now. Everything we could say today about lynching or about any form of persecution has been true for centuries. We know how we got where we are, but we didn’t connect the dots from the start, so it is at least going to be supremely difficult to connect them now, when even those who might be willing to listen have the attention span of goldfish.
phdesmond
@Al Rennick:
your rennet runneth over.
Kropacetic
Too busy cowering in the face of the almighty backlash. We were so eager to cede points to Republicans in the 80s and 90s. It’s a big part of why our culture just assumes Republicans are correct by default, while nothing could be further from the truth.
raven
Washington (CNN)After months of internal debate, the Biden administration has offered to exchange Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker serving a 25-year US prison sentence, as part of a potential deal to secure the release of two Americans held by Russia, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan, according to people briefed on the matter.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
as ever, I’ll believe it when I see it, but…
Does he speak for Sinema and the Gottheimer Gang?
Omnes Omnibus
@Frank Wilhoit: Meh. Non-assholes get it. If someone starts in, you just say, “Come on, she was talking to blind people.” If they don’t change their tune, then they are an asshole. FWIW I believe there are more of us than there are of them. YMMV
Jim, Foolish Literalist
kinda pretty to think so….
Riverboat Pelosi is on board, sounds like
J R in WV
@SiubhanDuinne:
Yep. King James used the same language Jesus used, just ask any uneducated theocratic fascist. . . . ;~)
Sure Lurkalot
Don’t hold your breath of course but the FTFNYT has dinged me to say that Joe Fucking Manchin has reversed course and now supports a tax and climate deal, claiming it will calm inflation.
Sure Joe. Let me know when the big Joe signs the legislation.
Sister Golden Bear
@Lepercorn: If he’s changed his tune, that’s great. He used to be the stereotypical gay man who hated trans people because he thought we may gays — and by that he meant gay men only — look disreputable. Plus back in the day he advocated to throw trans people under the bus by making a deal to cut us out of a federation employment anti-discrimination bill, so that LGB people could get protections.* We haven’t forgotten.
*I’m sure he would’ve also gladly cut lesbians and bisexuals out as well if needed.
@Miss Bianca: Yes, he is. He’s an asshole.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I think Gottheimer just wants the SALT deduction raised, but I think he’ll take what he can get. The House Democrats have been pretty unified so far this Congress.
Kropacetic
I just wish more people with non-asshole instincts saw the value in voting.
Perhaps we can portray voting as an act of kindness and solidarity.
As far as the context of this situation, unfortunately we can’t possibly know the full context of every situation the right chooses to abuse.
Kayla Rudbek
@Barbara: and on the flip side, I really don’t want to include or use my pronouns at work because I have dealt with decades of gender discrimination, so I prefer to sign off my work with my initials and last name. I would joke that I should go to the county courthouse and change my first and middle names from feminine to masculine so that I would be taken more seriously. Not my gender, just my legal name. So far with the new job, it’s not as bad, but I should probably look at changing my entire signature to be gender-neutral.
Apparently this is where I am going to fall into stick-in-the-mud mode, in terms of “why let people know your gender if they don’t have to, and why disadvantage yourself in that way if you can get away with a gender-neutral name/presentation?”
Geminid
@raven: I hope that deal goes through. It’s giving into hostage taking, but I don’t care that much about Bout. It’s not like he’ll be the only armstraficker running free. And we at least showed we could put him behind bars.
mrstealyour
Oliver stinks now man.
J R in WV
Don’t ever trust Manchin’s “word” — he won’t remember you tomorrow.
When he became Governor of WV I was a hiring manager in an IT department with active major systems development ongoing. I was way dismayed when we received a memo from the central personnel agency instructing us to ask potential hires the minimum salary they would accept to take a position. When we did that, the max authorized salary was ALWAYS several thousand annually less than the ask by the potential employee.
This is NO way to hire competent technical staff. Only a determined bully would dream up such a perverted hiring scandal. I often toyed with the idea of sending the HR email to potential hires to alert them to inflate their ask, but was in the end way too honest to go there. Or even showing them a post-it note telling them to do the same in the interview. Nope, I’m way more honest than Joe Manchin.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Heh. Just tell me when the votes are being cast. Everything else is wankery.
Kropacetic
@Baud: I’m already convinced Manchin is completely untrustworthy. If this initiative fails, I’ll be further convinced he thinks this is fun.
Geminid
@Baud: I’m not counting on anything either, but I’m still interested to see what’s in the proposal.
Baud
@Kropacetic: Oh Manchin’s definitely untrustworthy. But junior Hill staffers were camped out in Schumer’s office. What was Schumer supposed to do? :-)
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I assume it’s the same thing that RollCall is talking about:
Lots and lots of moving parts, but good things could be happening.
(I’m reminded that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 (HR 3590) started its final legislative life as Charlie Rangel’s “Service Members Home Ownership Tax Act of 2009”.)
We’ll see what happens; it’s not over until it’s over.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kropacetic
A two page document, the first page is Lucy (of Peanuts fame) holding a football…
AWOL
@Ten Bears: A lot of people aren’t happy about your nauseating anti-Semitism. Your insistence that “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was written by Jews to create Israel via German genocide is insane and repugnant.
Kropacetic
@AWOL: Wait, what? Link?
Baud
@Another Scott:
Ah, what could have been with two more Senators. Oh well.
Another Scott
@Baud: Progress is always (infuriatingly) incremental.
It’s not “what could have been”, it’s “what we can and will do”.
Cheers,
Scott.
Eolirin
@Another Scott: It does not seem to be that. This is a full, completed thing, text being submitted to the parliamentarian tonight, with a vote next week.
I do not think Schumer does this if he doesn’t think he has everyone on board, but we’ll see if it blows up at the last minute soon enough.
Another Scott
@Baud:
RollCall has more, and seems to be closer to what the rest of you folks were talking about than my previous RC linky:
We’ll see!
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Eolirin: Yup. I was confused, and RollCall was slow. See above.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: It’s so delicious that this progress is happening so quickly after Moscow Mitch said NoHow NoWay the CHIPS bill was going to pass if the Democrats did a reconciliation bill…
Deadlines, and upcoming elections, focus the mind.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
WH.gov:
Good, good. Get it done, and build on it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
👍
Kay
@Geminid:
I only watch local news so I haven’t seen anything but Ryan ads. Marcy Kaptur is really well known – she’s like a brand. Hard working, serious and if D’s are in a majority she’s powerful. The complaint about her used to be she is genuinely frugal with budgets so she didn’t “bring home bacon” but I think she’s given up on that since Republicans started spending so much and never paying for anything. Fuck that. If they can spend she can too. I say that, not her :)
I want them to raise taxes on wealhy people. I don’t think the tax system is fair and I think it has to be somewhat fair to be credible and continue to get so much voluntary compliance. All these Right wing assholes yelling “Greece!” for 5 years. They’re gonna get Greece if they don’t even up the tax code. I want the Trumptax cuts repealed. They’re irresponsible and unfair.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: Yup, one step at a time. I am waiting to see exactly what those energy investments are.
Also: Closing the infamous carried interesting loophole!
Gin & Tonic
@Another Scott: I trust Manchin just as far as I can throw him.
schrodingers_cat
OT: I have suggested making a beach town the base for our southern temple tour. Husband kitteh is on board we still have to convince SIL and MIL. It has a neat history, it was the location of the Danish presence in the subcontinent
I can lounge at the beach in addition to gaining spiritual enlightenment.
Baud
@Gin & Tonic:
I would pay good money to throw him.
Could be a good fundraising opportunity for the DNC.
sab
Driving around my town today I saw gas prices from $3.65 to $4.05 per gallon, with the widest difference at the same brand of gasoline. So a significant part of the gouging or whatever we want to call it is from local merchants, not just the oil companies or world events.
Kropacetic
Reads a little like shade. Manchin definitely contributed to the extraordinary effort.
Geminid
@Kay: Thanks. It’s good to hear from an astute observer who’s on the ground.
I don’t know much about the Republican except he’s a newcomer who beat two officeholders, I think with trump’s endorsement. He and Vance would make two interlopers trump has stuck Ohio Republicans with. That can’t be good for morale.
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Ha!
Kropacetic
@Baud: Don’t tell Manchin. He’s a delicate little flower.
Geminid
@sab: A friend who used to work for a large gasoline retail chain told me during another high price period that merchants have to base their price on the “laid in” cost of their last shipment. So some but not neccesarily all of those price disparities may be caused by which station’s wholesaler delivered recently. But generally speaking, I think there has been some oligopoly price fixing going on with the big oil companies and their wholesalers.
One item I heard on the radio today is that President Biden is authorizing the sale of 20 million more barrels from the Strategic Oil Reserve.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Yes.
Kim Walker
At work, we were asked to put in “he/him” or “she/her” with out name and position (if we were comfortable with that). I really felt uncomfortable with that. I don’t really care how people refer to me (can’t they just use my name)? If someone said he or him (in reference to me) I just couldn’t care less and would certainly not take offense. My husband thinks I should make these designations, but I worked in disability for a long time and we said, and I believed it to be true, that “nothing about us without us”, so it seems very odd for me personally (why is anyone talking about me long enough to need to use a pronoun), but if other folks want to do that I’m fine with it. Am I a jerk for being uncomfortable with stating my preferred pronouns?
Kropacetic
@Kim Walker: Not at all. Just please respect those that do.
Personally, I never announce my own. I’ll respond to anything clearly intended towards me. My dating profile asks and I state an openness to anything.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: GOP leadership whipped against the Infrastructure Bill too, and that didn’t work then. I’m not sure what leverage the team of McCarthy, Scalise, and Stephanik have over purple district Reps. The national Chamber of Congress is probably for the Chips Bill, and they gave Republicans some cover on Infrastructure.
There might even be a few Republicans voting for the Reconciliation package. Provisions like those on prescription drug pricing, closing tax loopholes etc. are widely popular. And it’s not like Kevin McCarthy’s gonna save Don Bacon’s bacon with a trip to Omaha. Bacon can’t rely on Republicans having the majority in the next Congress, but even if they do that won’t matter to him if he loses in November. Others like Valadao in California and Herrera Butler in Washinton have to make a similar calculation.
Baud
@Geminid:
Plus, voting against a bill because the majority party will pass some other bill is all kinds of nutso. But they’re GOP so the media doesn’t care.
Kropacetic
@Baud: Wouldn’t they need some D buy-in* to defeat the bill?
*Sell-out?
Geminid
@Kropacetic: I don’t have a dating profile. But when I get around to putting a Twitter header together I think I may put “Whatever” in the pronoun spot. Make me sound like one of the youngs.
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Yes.
prostratedragon
Thanks, @Ben Cisco, for the link to the Tamarian language page.
Kropacetic
Happily committed or shy or third component of false trichotomy?
Baud
@Kropacetic:
Married to Balloon Juice.
dm
@Darkrose: Back when that was a thing wingers brought up, I often replied “PC — that stands for ‘Polite and Considerate’, right?”
Kropacetic
@Baud: Well, that sounds like an open/poly relationship if I ever heard of one.
Geminid
@Kropacetic: I think the Dems have only a four vote majority in the House since a Republican won that special election in Texas. The vote will be tight, and Bernie Sanders opposed the Chips bill as a corporate giveaway. He has some acolytes in the House who might want to vote against the bill too. I think enough will vote for it though. And there may be a few Republicans voting for it anyway.
Kim Walker
Thank you Kropacetic. I feel better about it. And I’m very respectful of those who do. It’s important to them, so their preferences are important to me.
livewyre
@Kim Walker: If it helps, I think of this along the lines of affirmation vs. assignment – always chosen, never imposed. Much like gender identity overall, in fact. On that principle, it’s for each of us to choose what to present and whether to present it, and to make space for each other to do the same.
Matt McIrvin
@Old School: “That’s not how it works! That’s not how any of this works!”
Geminid
@Kropacetic: Shy probably. And I’m fairly happy alone.
Baud
@Geminid:
Pelosi can count votes. Hopefully, we don’t have a shortage on our side of the aisle.
Kropacetic
@Geminid: Oh somehow I was thinking of children’s healthcare not semiconductor chips. I’m not one to want to line the pockets of giant corporations, but we definitely need to develop our own capacity to manufacture these.
Lord knows the big multinationals have little loyalty to the country and I don’t want to be reliant on countries with sub-par labor standards…more sub-par than our own.
Eta: This merits a call to ny Rep.
Geminid: Happy is the key. 😊
Baud
@Kropacetic:
I don’t know that much about it, but it’s supposedly a really popular bill.
Geminid
@Baud: I don’t think we will. This has all happened fast and there hasn’t been time to sort everyone out, so there may be a little uncertainty. But as Caucus Chairman Jeffries likes to say, “Spread Love, it’s the Brooklyn Way.”
Matt McIrvin
@Kim Walker: I did it on Twitter not because I care so much what pronouns people use for me, but just because a number of trans/NB people pointed out that if a lot of cis people did it, it would normalize the practice and make it easier for them. So I did, as an expression of solidarity. It also turned out to be really useful as an indicator of a particular type of asshole, who would get REALLY MAD if they saw someone else doing it, as I said above.
I know asking for pronouns is somewhat contentious because there are a lot of nonbinary people who want to normalize it, but also some trans people who say being asked gives them gender-dysphoric feelings, and there have been hard feelings over that. But offering them is less controversial, at least among people worth listening to.
Omnes Omnibus
@Matt McIrvin:
That was my reason as well.
Miss Bianca
@Kim Walker: I don’t think so. I don’t designate, personally, but I don’t judge those who do.
gwangung
Doing the pronouns is awkward and a bit self conscious for me.
On the other hand, it’s WAYYY more self conscious for trans and non-binary folks.
I don’t really understand trans and non-binary concerns….but awkwardness and self consciousness? I understand THAT quite well. And I understand that it’s a lot less trouble for them than for me. So…
@Omnes Omnibus: Yeah, that too. Pissing off insecure conservatives is a plus in my book.
Josie
I am constantly surprised that people want to force others to act in a certain way when it doesn’t concern or affect them at all. These people must lead very boring lives if they find others’ personal decisions so important. They really need to get a hobby.
Geminid
@Kropacetic: I’m ambivalent about federal subsidies for industry generally, but I think there is justification for this initiative.
And it’s a winner politically I think. Senator Warnock of Georgia has already been talking up the bill and it’s the kind of “forward looking” measure that can appeal to many Georgians. I think it can help Tim Ryan in Ohio also.
Geminid
@Geminid: Catherine Cortez-Masto (NV) and Mark Kelly (AZ) should also do well campaigning on the Chips bill. Neither of their states have enough water for a big chip plant, but they have industries that use them. And there is a nice tie-in to national security.
WaterGirl
@🐾BillinGlendaleCA: Yay for the free fix!
The Lodger
@Geminid: I don’t know about the chip industry in NV but Intel has a rather large presence in AZ. This won’t hurt Kelly.
Soprano2
@The Moar You Know: That makes me so sad. A guy one year ahead of me in college was blind; he was also a music major. He was an amazingly talented singer and musician; I think he still plays in a band. He got his PhD, and he’s the deputy provost at our local state university. The stories about him were legendary. I heard he got some high school friends to let him try to drive a car! I know for a fact that he tried to ski on the beginner slope when we were in the French Alps on a choir tour. It makes me furious to think about people messing with someone who’s blind. What’s wrong with people?
Soprano2
@Kay: Plus, raising taxes would help tamp down inflation. Notice how you rarely hear that mentioned.
Another Scott
@Kim Walker: Late to this part of the thread, but another thing to maybe consider is: Kim can frequently be a man’s name. E.g. Kim Crawford (New Zealand).
I don’t list my pronouns anywhere, mainly because it hasn’t come up, but I would do so if asked (for the inclusive reasons cited earlier).
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@The Lodger: I guess if Arizona wants more chip making capacity they could irrigate less cotton. Or maybe shut down a couple golf courses.
Villago Delenda Est
News for you, Adam Kinzinger. You’re WRONG, fuckface.