It turns out, Ms. Bowdwin was tough enough.
This made me laugh so hard the other day that I literally scared an alligator away. Open thread!
On The Road – Kabecoo – Botswana in the FallReader Interactions
505Comments
Comments are closed.
Come for the politics, stay for the snark.
Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.
Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.
A lot of Dems talk about what the media tells them to talk about. Not helpful.
Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.
Republicans in disarray!
There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.
Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.
Another missed opportunity for Jamie Dimon to just shut the fuck up.
If you are in line to indict donald trump, stay in line.
Tick tock motherfuckers!
A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals
I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.
People really shouldn’t expect the government to help after they watched the GOP drown it in a bathtub.
I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.
Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.
Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.
If West Virginia and San Francisco had a love child.
When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.
If marriage is the equivalent of selling yourself into slavery, women with self respect should reject the offer.
It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.
A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.
It looks like winning debates is a black job!
An unpunished coup is a training exercise.
Come on, man.
Baud
Sounds like a model citizen to me.
chrome agnomen
he knows in his guts they’re nuts.
eclare
Baud
@eclare:
Apostate!
WereBear
I have been laughing like a Jeremy Irons villain much of yesterday, and look forward to more.
eclare
@Baud:
Hahaha…proud to see that the blog achieved a TBogg.
debbie
@WereBear:
I know that laugh!
Betty Cracker
I saw two news items disputing Hutchinson’s testimony. Eric Herschmann says he was the one who wrote the note that Hutchinson says she wrote. Neither disputes the significance of the content, but it goes to credibility. I don’t know if handwriting analysis could settle this or not. Apparently Herschmann had already testified in a deposition that he was the author.
The other item is a source who told NBC that the secret service agent and limo driver say Trump never tried to grab the steering wheel or assault the agent and that they’re prepared to testify under oath to dispute that claim. They should do so.
RandomMonster
From your typing fingers to Crom’s ear, Betty.
Spanky
@eclare: Sadly, it never got close to a Tbogg. Most comments were 346 on the “Jesus take the wheel” post.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Weird to have a dispute about who wrote a handwritten note.
Good to remember that all the players are Republican.
Spanky
Did she state as fact that he grabbed for the wheel and choked out a SS agent, or did she testify that she was told that?
Baud
@Spanky:
She was told that.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: That is odd. I can always immediately identify my handwriting and figured everyone else could recognize their own too.
oldgold
@Betty Cracker:
The key here is that these 2 are Secret Service Agents in name only. Really they were and are the Short Fingered Vulgarians bagmen. A fact not lost on Pence and Company on January 6th.
Geminid
I thought the hearing cut both ways for the Republican party. Trump’s discreditable behavior will certainly rub off on their brand. But Trump’s a weight on the party already and I think these revelations will help them get out from under him.
Spanky
@Baud: Yeah, just now heard a Maddow replay that said she was told that by the WH Deputy COS.
eclare
@Spanky: I was referring to the two posts on the hearing added together
I think that counts!
Baud
Interested in seeing what the July hearings have in store for us.
eclare
@Baud: Exactly. If this is just a preview…wow.
Spanky
@Baud: And July starts on Friday!
Baud
@Spanky:
cmorenc
As to potential wingnut reaction to yesterday’s Hutchinson bombshell testimony:
Fox News has already totally buried news about Hutchinson’s 1/6 committee testimony yesterday, except for a small blurb with the lead-in there are “conflicting accounts” about Trump grabbing the wheel: “Secret Service agents willing to testify Trump did not lunge at steering wheel”. Also, Fox viewership of its live coverage yesterday dropped to 1/3 of its normal same-time-slot viewership, but quickly resumed to normal levels when Fox cut away to its regular 5pm show “The Five” with RW hack Greg Gutfield.
Bottom line: for a strong majority of Fox Viewers, nothin’ to see here (in the 1/6 hearings). Keep in mind, however that peeling off even mid-to-high single digits of otherwise R-inclined voters is enough to cause huge swings in election results.
Montanareddog
@Spanky: Now being reported that Ornato is denying he told Hutchinson that trump attacked the SS agent
Shimon Prokupecz
ETA: off the record sourcing, of course
Geminid
@Baud: We’ll finally get to see Elaine Luria (VA 2nd CD) take her turn on the national stage. I’m looking forward to this and one reason is that it may help her reelection. Luria’s redrawn coastal Virginia district was made about 50-50, R to D, and Republicans will throw a lot of resources behind her opponent.
Both Luria and the Republican are retired Navy officers.
Kay
The far Right Lords and Lady on that court no longer bother to hear cases or issue opinions. They just issue unsigned orders.
Wonder how the leak investigation is going? Not a peep out of the Imperial Chamber.
Baud
@Montanareddog:
Our side believes in truth. But it has to be under oath or it doesn’t count. We’re not going to litigate by tweet.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
So if the MAGA hats think with a TV then their image of Trump is Vito Corleone from The Godfather, but this hearing showed Trump is just Immortal Joe in Mad Max Furry Road. Stupid way to look at the world but that’s the Red Hats problem.
Steeplejack
Amen on the GQP incurring some real damage. Here’s hoping. I was bummed to see that Lauren Boebert won her primary yesterday. Should have expected it, I guess. But jeez. I try to picture what her Dem counterpart would be on the left end of the spectrum, and I just can’t. They would be so far past Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez you’d need the Hubble telescope to see them. But in the GQP Boebert is just business as usual. (“Business” is rhetorical; not like she actually does anything but work on her “brand.”)
Montanareddog
@Montanareddog:
@Baud:
Jake Tapper reporting that there are accusations that Ornato, when not under oath, has lied about such stories before
Betty Cracker
I see Ginni Thomas has rescinded her offer to testify before the panel. Subpoena time!
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Do note no one is denying Trump throws his hamburgers at the wall like a toddler having a temper tantrum. That is way funny and get passed any Conservative media ban on the hearings.
artem1s
This is how bad it was. Whatever she testified will be view by the usual misogynists as suspect if not outright lies. She better hope Liz has a job for her because she’s basically toast with the GQP part of the party. The media will do their part to help downplay the crazier parts of that day in the Oval. But it was great TV and there are enough unfiltered online sources that many typically unengaged folks will go to check out the ‘must-see’ parts their friends are talking about. Whether they believe her will depend on how receptive they are to hearing a woman’s voice.
As to how the MAGAts will receive it, be prepared for TFG to weave tales about how he risked bodily harm and was physically restrained from getting to march with his supporters down to the Capitol. It will be his own personal D-Day. He will do reenactments at all his rallies. :P
Biggest take away – no one who has been paying attention the last 6 years was really surprised to see ‘ketchup running down the wall’ on their Trump Administration Bingo Card.
Another Scott
Lawyer comment at Wonkette says TFG did the Actual Treason.
https://www.wonkette.com/-2657576125#comment-5901675341
IANAL, and lawyers can and do get paid to argue about anything, but I find this plausible.
Cheers,
Scott.
catclub
@cmorenc:
Not possible with his tiny tiny hands.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I don’t know. They weren’t that interested in her before she volunteered. We’ll see.
mrmoshpotato
@Steeplejack: You’re looking for the impossible I think. :)
Kay
Sotomayor’s dissent in the case where the football coach insisted he has the right to proselytize/coerce on religion to his players while on the public payroll is interesting. She obviously dissents from the opinion, but she goes further – she implies they do poor, shoddy analysis.
I think that will become harder and harder to deny as this continues by even the most ass kissing, careerist legal commentators. These opinions are poorly reasoned junk with no bright lines and no logical or consistent “tests” and lower courts are going to find them impossible to figure out and follow.
Baud
@Kay:
More circuit conflicts means more overrulings.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
If I remember correctly, it was sort of block printing. Might be harder to identify than longhand?
Spanky
Today’s APOD would have made a great OTR, if Billin were shooting from Chile.
Baud
@Steeplejack:
I don’t know. That’s how I write. I can see it being hard to identify if it’s a work of art like by a calligraphy expert. But I think I would be able to identify my own scrawl. Unless by chance you had two people whose handwriting were very similar.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Regarding the district maps consigned to the shadow docket, I can’t remember enough details to find this via Google, but it seems like SCOTUS told Dems who were challenging a map that they couldn’t take up a case because it was too close to an election but made rulings favorable to Republicans despite that earlier logic. Is that right? It seems too shoddy even for these hacks, so maybe I’m misremembering…
eclare
@Steeplejack: I know memory can be faulty, I remember printing, but I thought it had disparate angles, etc. Not what I would call block printing.
Kropacetic
But all the complicity; in the administration, in Congress, in the media, in the money…this ought to taint the whole party.
zhena gogolia
Good to hear this, Betty.
As I go back over it in my mind, I’m just shattered that the country is at least half in the power of these truly evil people.
Kay
@Baud:
She says that they didn’t overrule the Lemon test- they “abandoned” it – which of course means to me they left a murky mess that courts will interpret every which way. Chaos, baby. That’s what the radicals want and that’s what they’re creating. The public may rely on nothing, the rule of law is whatever each judge says it is in each case. Could be anything. No tests, no bright lines, just whatever is in heavy play on Fox that month.
But then, that’s what authoritarians do. They want us off balance, insecure in our rights, subject to radical changes at any time. Cowed.
zhena gogolia
@Spanky: She was told that in the presence of the person who had been choked, and he didn’t contradict it.
Spanky
@Kropacetic: 40% of Americans love the taint.
zhena gogolia
@cmorenc: Ginni Thomas was “willing to testify” too. Means nothing.
narya
@Kay: On the Strict Scrutiny podcast, Murray, Littman, & Shaw pointed out that the dissent to Dobbs was (a) a single opinion, which gives it more force in some ways (according to SCOTUS culture) and (b) said “we dissent” rather than “we respectfully dissent,” which is another big deal. Kagan and Sotomayor are seriously calling out their colleagues, basically saying, you are doing this ONLY because you have a super-majority. (They’ve also invented a new cocktail, the GinniTonic.)
Edit to correct typo.
Gin & Tonic
@Betty Cracker: I wonder who her lawyer is – the Pot Brothers or Immanentize? Both are on record, sort of, with STFU.
eclare
@zhena gogolia: Exactly.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Yes. That’s part of it. The lack of logic across the voting rights cases. But in this case they had a lengthy circuit court ruling with a full opinion deciding that the maps violated the VRA from a conservative circuit. They jammed it in anyway using their new favorite political tool- the shadow docket. They want the racist map in place for the midterms. GOP advantage.
At some point the fancy lawyers are going to have to admit that Alito just isn’t very bright. This stuff is garbage.
zhena gogolia
@Kay: This is the experience of people in Russia.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Alito’s intelligence or lack thereof is irrelevant. He–and the reactionaries who put him on the court–are getting exactly what they wanted. That’s what matters.
Betty Cracker
@Gin & Tonic: Sounds like the lawyer is a personal friend/sycophant, according to the NYT:
Of course, you don’t have to be a lawyer to know a person should take every opportunity to STFU in a situation in which she may incriminate herself. Even I know that!
I get the impression from Ms. Thomas’s kooky, cultish emails that she’s 1) not very smart, and 2) a weak-minded individual, i.e., the type of person who easily surrenders her will to another. Trumpism wasn’t her first cult, so no real surprise there.
Layer8Problem
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Even if that’s a voice recognition mistake, it’s a winner.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: That’s the thing about memory, it’s not always reliable. I would believe that someone else wrote the note, but you’d think if they had testimony to that effect it wouldn’t have come up yesterday. Perhaps it’s a “he said/she said” dispute where they really don’t know for sure who wrote it. The important thing is the note, not the author. And yeah, if someone wants to go under oath and dispute the limo story, they need to do it – live, in public. I read that Oranato has lied about things people said happened before, saying they didn’t happen when they did.
Soprano2
@Spanky: She said she was told that, and that another person in the room who would have been in the limo didn’t contradict the story.
Geminid
I was glad to see the statement Rep. Marie Newman issued last night after her 6th IL CD primary contest with Sean Casten was called in his favor. Newman gave Casten her full endorsement and called for Democrats to unify behind him. They are both good Reps and I’m sorry that one will not be in the next Congress.
Elsewhere in Chicagoland, Jonathan Jackson, one of Jesse Jackson’s sons, won the primary to succeed Bobby Rush, the IL 1st CD Congressman. And in the 7th CD, Rep. Danny Davis seems to have turned back a challenge by Keena Collins, although Collins vows to fight on until the last vote is counted. President Biden endorsed Davis the day before the primary.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: My handwriting looks a lot like my mother’s, except hers was better. If I remember right, the note was printed. I might have a harder time with printing, but women’s and men’s handwriting is usually quite a bit different.
TS
@Betty Cracker:
This is what the trump supporters will believe. They now believe that trump wanted to lead them into the capitol, so they will be upset if anyone testified that it did not happen.
Soprano2
@cmorenc: Dedicated Fox News viewers aren’t the target audience for these hearings, though – it’s “normies” who somehow still think the Republican Party is normal, like it was 10 or more years ago. I really think a significant amount of it is directed at the press, to convince them of this too, although at this point they shouldn’t need convincing.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Lawyers are, as my friend Barb says, “rule people”. Consistency is really important to them for practical reasons because some of they try cases and they need a plan of attack with clear battle lines but IMO it’s also temperamental and intellectual- it’s how they think. I think you’ll see more and more alarm as these 6 throw out all precedent and replace it with sloppy mush that can’t be applied in any rational and consistent way.
I have a long term colleague who is a conservative. He’s really smart. An Indiana lawyer and I’m Ohio so we work together about once a year or so because our cases cross between the two states and if we have one like that one calls the other. I asked him what he thought of the opinions- the work– and…. long pause and then “Justice Barrett is a very good writer”. He didn’t answer the question. If he thought it was good, solid work he would say so.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: Least surprising result, of course. She got a bunch of press for saying that, I wonder if her rescinding it will get as much play.
O. Felix Culpa
Here’s a Rachel interview on the topic of Tony Ornato and the Secret Service posted by a commenter yesterday: https://twitter.com/MaddowBlog/status/1541963870100676609
It doesn’t (and can’t, yet) definitively address the accuracy of Hutchinson’s account of what happened in the limo after Trump’s rally speech, but it does point out Ornato’s loyalty to Trump and elements of the SS operating as the “Palace Guard.”
Baud
@Kay:
Everyone is like “a Muslim teacher should now lead students in prayer.”
As if the GOP 6 wouldn’t use that opportunity to allow states to violate the Establishment Clause and create official religions.
Ocotillo
@Kay: A few weeks back, they threw out the New York gerrymander and these orders appear to favor GOP state gerrymanders, go figure.
If this happens to a blue state with a shadow docket dictum, a Governor is going to have to stand up to them and say, no, we didn’t get a hearing, we don’t take orders from an unelected council.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
What about the driver? He might be able to testify.
Another Scott
@Soprano2: It also looked like the writing was rushed and the writer was upset, to me, so it may not match the writer’s normal writing. Understandable, given the circumstances.
But it’s a distraction. It’s Kerning 2.0, IMHO.
Eyes on the prizes.
Cheers,
Scott.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: No, you are not misremembering. They’re ruling in a political way in redistricting cases, period.
Scout211
@Betty Cracker:
Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is an attorney, so she should have known better. (This was discussed somewhat in the late night threads). But she is also a political activist, a lobbyist and a policy analyst (according to the internet). She had to pander to her donors and her fans first and foremost. The boastful first statement was for them. Apparently she believes her new attorney will clean up her initial statement and at least delay the process.
This is why I don’t worry that much about the possible minor mistakes in Hutchinson’s testimony. The impact of her initial statements will reverberate through the media and have an impact. And the normies are still watching the news these days so I do think Hutchinson’s testimony will be effective.
As for Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s initial statement, I will be surprised if it will be an issue for the committee.
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
Agreed about rules and lawyers. One of my sons is a lawyer and a “rule person” since toddlerhood.
My point is that with the ideologues on the SC, they couldn’t give a flying fuck about rules and consistency in achieving their revanchist aims. They want what they want, and they’ll torture the rules…and the law…to get them.
Steeplejack
@Soprano2:
Testifying under oath trumps [ugh] spouting off via anonymous sources.
Ocotillo
@catclub: Yeah, someone somewhere was saying something about him punching holes in the wall. Not that orange tub of goo could manage to penetrate sheetrock, but if he could, it would leave a golf ball size hole.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
Good question. Perhaps they’ve talked to him already? Dunno. I would expect–and hope–that the Jan. 6 Committee had enough corroboratory evidence that they felt it was ok to proceed with Hutchinson’s testimony.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: Agreed — the content is what’s important, not the author. It seems unlikely Cheney would have pointedly asked Hutchinson if it was her handwriting if Cheney knew that was contradicted by earlier testimony — I assume she and the committee wouldn’t have wanted to take the focus off the content with a tangent pitting two cooperative witnesses against each other. It’s a small thing that might have been overlooked in all the reams of testimony they’ve received. Or maybe the committee knows Hutchinson’s version is correct? I don’t know. I guess it’s not really worth much attention.
O. Felix Culpa
@Betty Cracker:
My recollection…FWIW…is that Herschmann dictated the note, which Hutchinson wrote down. So technically Herschmann’s the author and Hutchinson the scribe.
Geminid
@Ocotillo: It was the New York State Court of Appeals that rejected the Democrat-drawn redistricting maps.
Baud
@O. Felix Culpa:
No point trying to figure out the facts here. We don’t have nearly enough information.
O. Felix Culpa
@Baud:
Agreed on both the issues of the limo and the note.
It is interesting, though, that Mike Pence and his detail didn’t trust elements of Trump’s SS and refused to get in the limo during the riot because they were afraid the driver would take Pence away and not bring him back to the Capitol to complete the count. That much is established fact.
Soprano2
I saw a post on Twitter last night from a young woman who said she was taken off RA meds by her doctor because they could have bad effects on the fetus if she became pregnant. She’s in SC; they passed a law saying doctors could refuse non-emergency medical care that conflicts with their beliefs, so evidently her doc can refuse to prescribe the meds she needs because if she gets pregnant it might affect the fetus. Her only alternative is to find another doctor. I hope Democrats highlight stories like this, how more and more the government feels free to meddle in the doctor/patient relationship.
Soprano2
@Steeplejack: Yes, it does, and to me this supposedly contradictory testimony should be in public under oath on TV in order to replicate the pressure she was under. Her life will never be the same; can you imagine the danger she is in right now, and for the foreseeable future? No matter how much we might disagree with her politically, we have to admire her courage in being willing to do this, because it took a lot of guts. Cipillone should be ashamed that he’s unwilling to do what she did.
Geminid
The limo incident and the flying cheeseburger are certainly sensational and they get attention accordingly. I thought Hitchinson’s revelation about the weapons screening for the Ellipse rally was as or more important, though.
Soprano2
@Geminid: Yes, I think that’s not only the most shocking revelation but the most important one, and you notice no one is rushing out to contradict that!
Ocotillo
@Geminid: Thank you for correcting me.
Soprano2
@O. Felix Culpa: Oh, that would absolutely make sense, that a secretary would do that. And it would mean actually no contradiction.
Baud
@Geminid:
@Soprano2:
Agreed. And no one is contradicting the information about Trump’s advanced knowledge of the plan.
Geminid
@Ocotillo: As the youngs say, no problem. I’ve been deep in the redistricting weeds. I’m surprised I haven’t picked up any ticks.
Skepticat
It will be interesting to hear a report of the wingnutz’ responses; however, these people seem totally immune to rational thought and facts, so my hopes are not high that any walls of ignorance have been breached.
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Barb, the friend I was referring to, was active in Democratic politics here and is a proud, admitted “rule person”. She moved to Texas when her husband was transferred but we had the “rule people” convo outside a D meeting (out of earshot of those inside) because herding the Democratic cats was driving her fucking crazy :)
She’s still an active Democrat, in Texas. I hope they made her the boss. Whip them right into line.
MisterDancer
@Soprano2: Do you have a link to the RA meds tweet? Trying to find stories like this for a FP post.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Further:
Baud
@Kay:
Tell her to use guns. It’s the Texas way.
MisterDancer
And the fucking abuse! The waves of doxxing and death threats and bullshit Islamphobia that’ll run down like acid rain the moment any Muslim tries to even pray in a public school — much less file a case.
People say all kinds of shit that they don’t realize isn’t just about getting a lawyer, but the very real threats to livelihood and life.
Betty Cracker
@O. Felix Culpa: Yes, that squares with my recollection too.
Bugboy
My condolences to your husband. My entire staff (18 including me) might not all be wingnuts, but I can’t think of more than one or two that aren’t “wingnut curious”…
Baud
@MisterDancer:
Tell them that they need to vote for a liberal Dem once every two years, however, and they lose their minds.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
I think Dave Wasserman did a real disservice with announcing that the gerrymandering advantage Republicans had was mitigated. It was premature and now it isn’t true. My sense is they don’t want to admit that R’s have an advantage so they go out of their way to deny it. Just tell the fucking truth and don’t make predictions. Now most Democrats believe it’s a more level playing field and it’s really not.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: I agree, and I suspect shaming Cipillone into cooperating is a major goal for the committee. Cheney certainly made that plain in the previous session and again yesterday. The committee members must have reason to believe he’s capable of shame.
zhena gogolia
@Geminid: To me that was the most important.
Omnes Omnibus
@narya:
I know he is about to retire, but you shouldn’t forget about Breyer.
Another Scott
@Geminid: I have a distinct recollection that very early on, like within a week, some congressman (Andy Kim?) was saying that there were people armed with rifles and handguns on January 6 – they weren’t just carrying flagpoles, and the weapons weren’t just in trunks of cars.
This information has been known a long time; we’re just now seeing all of the information presented in a clear, concise presentation. But, yeah, the magnetometer stuff is an important detail.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mike in NC
Headline in the local paper today: “Trump wanted to join crowd”. I think “mob” would have worked better. But he was too fat and slow to have been filmed actually smashing some Capitol Police officer’s skull with a fire extinguisher.
Geminid
@Kay: Dave Wasserman purports to be an objective, data driven analyst but he is not. When he called the Oregon 5th CD primary for Jaime Mcleaod-Skinner over Curt Schraeder he also annpunced that Cook Political Reports was changing that district’s rating from “Lean-D to “Tossup.” I thought that Wasserman was pushing a political narrative here that had scant objective basis.
eclare
@Mike in NC: Wow that is an awful headline.
Another Scott
@MisterDancer:
Relatedly, …
(both via Popehat)
Grr…,
Scott.
MisterDancer
@Another Scott: Thanks — I hadn’t seen the 2nd incident/tweet yet.
Planetjanet
@Spanky: I thought a Tbogg was 300. Or has inflation ruined that as well?
O. Felix Culpa
@Planetjanet:
TBogg is 500.
cmorenc
@Soprano2:
True, but I was addressing Betty Cracker’s question about how her husband’s RW (and likely Fox-watching) co-workers will react to yesterday’s 1/6 hearing.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Yes! It should be okay to say that the house is on fire when the house is actually on fire.
Ballotpedia has the capital-H House currently at 220-210 for the Dems (with five vacancies). We can’t afford to discount any gerrymandered seats.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Maybe I have been exceptionally unobservant (not unheard of), but the hearing yesterday was the first time I remember hearing of AR-15s being open-carried on January 6, and I don’t remember seeing any pictures. That would have been big news, since D.C.
iswas a no-carry jurisdiction. (Now rectified—thank you, SCOTUS!)I don’t even remember seeing pictures of people with Glocks in waistbands, which also would have been a big deal.
ETA: I do remember a rep (maybe Kim) saying that people had been carrying firearms, but I thought he sort of got dismissed.
Ksmiami
@O. Felix Culpa: and that is why we need to quash the Court… they have gone rogue
Geminid
@Steeplejack: I think there were some firearms, but they were carried in backpacks and fannie packs. More substantial firearms caches were in car trunks or stashed in hotel rooms across the river in Virginia.
Soprano2
@MisterDancer: No, I tried to find it but couldn’t. The best I could do was link to a story about the change in SC law. You might search Twitter for it, that’s where I saw it.
MisterDancer
@Soprano2: Thanks for trying!
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
Yeah, I got that. I pass by that Comfort Inn in Ballston quite often. A mere three miles from my modest rooms in Threadkill Lane.
ETA: I didn’t doubt that there were firearms; I just hadn’t seen any pictures.
Geminid
@Steeplejack: I don’t think there were any pictures of people carrying firearms openly. They would have been shown a zillion times.
Is the Ballston Comfort Inn the place where the Oath Keepers stashed their arsenal? I read that their hope was that trump would declare martial law and then they would somehow be deputized so they could bring their weapons across the river. I think a couple are now cooperating, so maybe we’ll see this plan laid out in detail.
Miss Bianca
@WereBear: “Mine is an evil laugh!”
Kay
Liberals all knew this and have been reporting it for years, but I think it’s good NBC is finally picking it up a decade after the fact.
I think the next frontier for the anti-abortion crusaders is to have these religious/political indoctrination “crisis centers” they run and fund privately switched over to public funding.
Anti-choice states won’t expand public entities to assist mothers and childrens. Instead they will direct public funding exclusively to Right wing ideological/political organizations like these fake clinics.
Think of it like a full employment act for religious conservatives, all on the public dime. Unregulated, privately run and managed but all publicly funded and all ideological/political. Government contractors.
Another Scott
@Steeplejack:
Here’s a March 2021 NPR story that came up in a quick search:
Yes, there were many more important details yesterday, but we knew that there were armed people who were there for TFG’s insurrection.
Cheers,
Scott.
Steeplejack
@Geminid:
Yes, that Comfort Inn is right next to I-66. You can hop on it and be in the District in under 10 minutes.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
Yes, I get that! I have always thought that there were firearms in the mob, at least easily concealed handguns. But I hadn’t heard about AR-15s there or in the surrounding area (except for the militia’s stash across the river). And I’m wondering why we never saw any photographs, since it seems like it would have been a newsworthy thing.
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
I think you have remembered this sequence of events correctly, and identified a total lack of consistency on the part of the R-Fascist “Justices” on the bench at the Supremes. After all, conservatism consists of law that protects the wealthy but does not bind them, and law that binds everyone else, but does not protect them.
And here we are, with the Supreme Court actively and bluntly ruling just that requirement into our legal system…( Frank Wilhoit’s law?) ~!!~ Democrats can never challenge an electoral map because of reasons, R-Fascists can challenge any electoral requirement at any time or place for any reason and will win.
The Lodger
@Kay: The Dobbs decision, as much as I’ve been able to read of it, was hot garbage. I knew I’d see a Kay comment on it sooner or later. Thanks! You didn’t disappoint.
SWMBO
@Soprano2:
Is this the one?
https://twitter.com/Daviemoo/status/1541463173831839745
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@chrome agnomen: Wow, that took me right back to the 1964 – Johnson – Goldwater campaign! You must be my age :-)
Baud
Alleged photo of gun from reddit.
https://i.imgur.com/FctjAts.jpg
raven
Nicole
And whichever of those fine specimens of humanity wins the GOP primary is going to get at least 40% of the vote in Michigan’s general, purely by having the golden “R” after their name.
Though I wouldn’t hold acting in horror films against a candidate.
Matt McIrvin
I see nothing wrong with the amateur horror actor, sounds like something I might have gotten involved with myself.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
My brother and his husband are visiting here in Denver for a week.
July 4th evening as we were walking 3 blocks from our house to get a better vantage on the massive amount of illegal fireworks being launched into the night sky, a shooting took place behind us, probably 75 feet away. Couldn’t tell how many shots over all the fireworks. Nobody dead that I know of.
Then yesterday, we’re at a craft brewer at 22nd and California when we heard around 9 shots, very clear. Somebody mused “is that a nail gun?” because everybody who’s moved here from suburbia always seems to think that gunshots are either fireworks (no matter the time of year) or backfires (and when was the last time you heard a car backfire, much less backfire 9 times in succession?).
Denver pohlice cordoned off an area 2 blocks from us. My wife went down and gawked. No ambulance (apparently the victim had already been taken to the hospital and isn’t dead yet) but 7 pohlice cars.
So I’m not sure if my brother and his husband brought this with them or we just wanted to show them everything Denver has to offer.
Tony Jay
@Matt McIrvin:
You’re taking it for granted that the genital munching was in the script.
ArchTeryx
@Matt McIrvin: The problem isn’t the amateur horror acting, the problem is the “R” after their name. The junk-biting zombie probably has more humanity than this dude.
Baud
How come Biden hasn’t bitten off anyone’s genitals? It’s time to take the gloves off and fight!
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
Abe is a controversial figure. He led Japan for many years, but his stance on wanting to change the Constitution to allow Japan’s military to engage offensively caused considerable consternation. He also visited Yasukuni Shrine, which has been a point of contention, as it houses those classified as war criminals. Then again, just about every LDP politician visits the shrine.
That said, an assassination like this has been shocking. How it will impact the country has yet to be seen.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
Clearly these repug candidates in Michigan are suffering from economic anxiety
NotMax
All that’s missing is a guy claiming to be Napoleon.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Hahaha! Maybe he has. Did you ask Corn Pop?
ETA: There was a reply I loved last night to the tweet saying that Biden was going to make an abortion-related announcement this morning. “He must have knocked somebody up.” I think it came from the hostile camp, but I thought it was funny and fit into the “Trans-Am Joe” persona.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone
bbleh
Michigan Republicans are notoriously extreme. Like the red parts there are RED. May the most extreme candidate prevail in the primary!
As to DeSantis, yes Fascists will lock arms and goose-step because that’s what they DO, but I swear the guy would have SERIOUS problems in a general because he’s SO unlikeable. I mean, he is a whining creep, without any of, say, Trump’s air of bonhomie or Jordan/MTG’s bluster or Gaetz’s oiliness. He’s just a whining nasty creep. A lotta people vote their impressions of character, and he leaves a very bad one.
rikyrah
@Baud:
Homemade gun
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
NotMax
‘@Tony Jay
“My record regarding penile reform speaks for itself.”
//
Baud
I was going to link to the NYT cuz y’all like it so much, but their headline was offensive.
zhena gogolia
@bbleh: My husband agrees with you. He has the same feeling about Pence, for different reasons. He keeps saying, “None of them has Trump’s charisma.” And although for us it’s a negative charisma, it is real.
Cacti
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat):
I’m curious to see how this plays out in Japan also. I think the last time there was a major political assassination was in the 1930s.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
I agree. Trump had TV presence. Which has nothing to do with likeability or defency.
Ken
@Tony Jay: In a couple of days we’ll learn that it wasn’t so much “low-budget horror” as “hardcore porn with monster makeup”.
Matt McIrvin
@bbleh: I no longer wish for extreme candidates to win the other party’s primary. There are times when that’s a winner.
(I think it’s interesting that when people cross party lines to vote in the other party’s primary, they usually do it to vote against a particularly hated candidate, rather than to vote FOR the hated candidate as general-election sabotage. It suggests that regular voters don’t have the too-clever-by-half tendencies of some political writers.)
zhena gogolia
@Baud: I went to their site and can’t find anything about Biden. But in general, any of their headlines that mentions Biden has to include the words “struggling,” “trying,” or “floundering.”
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
“Under pressure”
Soprano2
@Baud: And TFG knew how to read a crowd, and how to play to it. My husband noticed early on that he would say something and then wait to see how the crowd reacted. If they cheered or otherwise reacted positively, he would repeat what he said and incorporate it into other speeches. I don’t know if he can still do that though, because he seems to be stuck on certain “talking points” in his speeches and never deviates from them regardless of how the crowd reacts.
Soprano2
So Brittney Griner pled guilty to what she was charged with. Does anyone have any read on whether this was her truly saying she was guilty, or is it a political play or an effort to get the proceedings over with? It sounds like everyone was blindsided by her plea, including her attorneys.
zhena gogolia
@Baud: Typical.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@Cacti: There’s an article up on the BBC that said 1960s. In that case, someone used a sword. I’ve been here nearly 30 years. This has shattered the idea of Japan being so peaceful.
Mike S (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
I don’t know if this got mentioned yesterday, but here in PA apparently Gubernatorial Candidate Doug Mastriano (R-MAGA land) is too extreme for enough old style Republicans a growing group is endorsing Josh Shapiro (D) for Gov.! Publicly! There have been more since this headline.
9 Republicans announce support for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro
Another Scott
@Soprano2: Supposedly the russians only start the prisoner swap process after an official conviction, so her team is trying to get the process over with ASAP. No idea if that is in fact true, but that’s the speculation I heard on an NPR show.
Cheers,
Scott.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@Soprano2: One of Dump’s flunkies said he was assigned to monitor hate radio and detail the callers’s grievances so Dump could reflect them in his appearances – which he stated is how Dump latched on to Birtherism.
Geminid
@bbleh: Michigan’s 3rd CD primary will be another test of Republican extremism. One of the 10 House Republican Impeachers, Peter Meijer of the grocery chain family, is challenged by a former Trump administration official. What little polling there is showed Meijar down.
One poll showed Meijer beating Democratic candidate Hilary Scholten in a general election matchup, and his challenger losing. This probably won’t matter to the Republican radicals in Meijer’s district; they’re like zombies, stumbling around and muttering, “we need brains…”
Scholten lost her 2020 contest by 6 points. Wikipedia tells me that the Grand Rapids-based district (former numbered the 5th CD) has been in Republican hands all but 35 months since 1913.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: It’s hard to tell if DeSantis has the crowd-reading thing down or not. He appears frequently in front of friendly crowds to announce culture war bullshit initiatives or take credit for federally funded programs, but everything appears tightly stage-managed. I hope the folks who say he’ll flop nationally because he’s an asshole are right, but he’s built his own MAGA cult in FL, so I’m not counting on that.
wenchacha
Being that it is already hard to get a gun in Japan, I am curious if existing laws will be tightened. I imagine security will be increased for pols and execs and celebs.
My son is visiting in Japan right now with his wife and son. I have been thinking about how much safer they are in Japan, wondering if they will move there at some point.
I heard a blurb that this was not political, but some personal gripe the assassin had with Abe.
Geminid
@Geminid: The 34 years-old Meijar was thought to be an up-and-comer in Republican politics until his impeachment vote. The three other midwestern Impeachers- Fred Upton (MI), Anthony Gonzales (OH), and Adam Kinzinger (IL)- all retired.
Baud
@Geminid:
A lot of Dems lost their seats because of the ACA vote.* Sucks when people get punished for doing the right thing.
*But to my knowledge, no Dem lost a primary because of it.
different-church-lady
370k new jobs, unemplyment at 3.6%… this has gotta be more bad news for Biden somehow…
Baud
@different-church-lady:
The Gods demand it.
NotMax
In other news, searching for confirmation the universe is WIMPy
More interesting stuff about liquid xenon.
different-church-lady
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch: I’ve always said he had his finger on the wingnut pulse because he was a consumer as much as a producer.
different-church-lady
@Baud: Welllll…. how do we know he hasn’t?…
p.a.
@Betty Cracker:
As crappy as the MSM is, people have pointed out that many (but not enough) Rethug pols have a hard time answering even MSM slow-pitch questions after getting their name recognition responding to Murdoch/hate radio etc creampuff “interviews”.
different-church-lady
@tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat): Have you had more mass shootings than days in the year? No? You’re still relatively good.
Brachiator
This is tame compared to what you see on a typical episode of The Boys on Amazon Prime.
And just dumb to include this as any kind of political liability.
Betty Cracker
@p.a.: I think that’s true. Everyone of them should be asked if they agree a 10-year-old rape victim should have to carry the rapist’s fetus to term under the no-exceptions laws they support, including DeSantis. They should also have to go on the record about whether Biden was legitimately elected, which DeSantis has dodged.
different-church-lady
@Betty Cracker: He also has that “You’re the hater” thing down when he gets even the slightest challenge on anything.
different-church-lady
@NotMax: I’m surprised Unobtanium isn’t involved.
NotMax
‘@p.a.
Yup yup. Remember Palin being asked “Which newspapers do you read?”
Baud
@NotMax:
Not the NYT, Katie.
NotMax
‘@different-church-lady
“Every supplier we’ve tried lists it as out of stock.”
:)
Geminid
@Baud: At least one of Michigan’s Democratic Reps will lose their seat next week. Andy Levin and Haley Stevens both are running in the redrawn 11th CD. Levin comes from a political family; his father Sander Levin represented the old 9th CD before Andy Levin took over, and uncle Carl was U.S. Senator.
Haley Stevens won the old 11th in 2018, at age 38. Stevens flipped a suburban district as did Ellise Slotkin nearby. Most of the other 38 Democrats who flipped red districts in 2018 did so in suburban areas.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
Dump also benefited from 45years of free media incorrectly promoting him as a self made man with a financial golden touch, which fit into the media’s decades long position that government should be run like a business and their more recent position that rich people are better than others because they are “job creators”.
Desantis doesn’t have any of that going for him.
tokyocali (formerly tokyo ex-pat)
@wenchacha: I think there will be a lot of scrutiny over the SP (Japanese version of Secret Service) and how they failed to protect Abe. The Japanese are very good at creating rules that either have you spinning in circles or hopping through infinite circles. If there’s a way to make it harder, they’ll find it.
@different-church-lady: No argument. We know we have it way better, especially us Americans. My colleagues from other native English parts think America is the land of the crazy. Not that the politics isn’t nutso elsewhere (looking at you, UK), but when you factor in the Roe decision, January 6th, and so on, we leap ahead.
One of my closest friends here just messaged that she’s thinking of renouncing her citizenship. She and her partner haven’t been back since the pandemic started and now with the way things appear, she doesn’t feel like America wants her. Makes me sad.
Edited to try to eliminate unnecessary line space.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
@different-church-lady: I’m old enough to remember how the media would fawn over Dubya’s rotten job reports showing the addition of 120k jobs.
different-church-lady
Rotating tag nomination!
Brachiator
@different-church-lady:
Headlines and news stories are mostly positive so far.
Geminid
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch: The Biden administration has also cut the federal deficit by a very large amount. Some people are ambivalent about deficit cutting. I think they conflate it with austerity. But this deficit drop has nothing to do with austerity. It comes from increased spending, and validates the fiscal promise of trickle-up economics. I think this will be a good issue for Democratic candidates this year if they make it one.
Soprano2
@Geminid: I agree, there are certain voters that a message about reducing the deficit would appeal to.
Josie
@Geminid: Is there a way to explain this to people like me whose eyes glaze over when economics is talked about? I would really like to understand it better.
Ken
@Geminid: Hmm, I’ve just come up with a new economic theory: Smaller deficits fuel inflation, so the government should increase deficit spending.
It has some slight disagreement with historical data, but as I understand it, that’s not a bar in economics. The true measure of its worth will be whether I can find a deep-pocketed donor who likes the idea enough to endow a chair for me in some University economics department. That should be easy enough, once I note that the deficit spending could be in the form of contracts with the donor’s companies.
different-church-lady
@Geminid: Ambivalent? Some leftists are overtly hostile to the concept.
pluky
@zhena gogolia: Infamy is still a form of fame.
different-church-lady
@pluky: it’s the famy form.
catclub
I think all of trumps charisma is because he has (or appears to have) money. Go look at Jon Huntsman’s campaigns. The ONLY reason he was noticed ( a lot) and got prime interviews was money. See also Mike Bloomberg.
Geminid
@Josie: Well, someone could contrast the Democrats’ approach to the Republican’s “trickle down” economics that they claimed would reduce the deficits but only worsened them.
Democrats could also quote what Will Rogers said about Herbert Hoover and austerity:
Or they can just celebrate that Democratic investments in our human capital are paying off, giving examples from their districts, and warn voters that they need to keep the Republicans from turning the clock back.
different-church-lady
@Geminid:
Hoover may not have understood it, but Reagan knew it full well.
Josie
@Geminid: “Democratic investments in our human capital are paying off.”I like the sound of this and the idea of using local examples.
Geminid
@Geminid: I probly should have said, “Democratic investments in our infrastructure and in our human capital.” The Infrastructure bill was another accomplishment that some Democrats might be ambivalent about, but practical politicians like Val Demings and Tim Ryan were quick to seize on it as a campaign issue.
VOR
IIRC both Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, principals in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, were affiliated with the Michigan Militia.
Geminid
@Josie: That’s why I want Democrats to push educational initiatives with wide scope, like free community college and universal Pre-K. Knowledgeable observers like Magdi Semrau (aka Mangy Jay) say Universal Pre-K would be a “game changer” for public education.
ExpatDanBKK
@Cacti:
I guess that it depends upon your definition of high profile. In 2007, Nagasaki mayor Ito Itcho died after a gunman shot him. Wife and I were in Osaka when that happened. Others listed here:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2022/07/08/editorials/shinzo-abe-assassination/
ExpatDanBKK
@different-church-lady:
Indeed. The rate of firearm deaths per 100,000 people in Japan is 0.01; for comparison, the US rate is >4 per 100,000!
Technocrat
@Geminid:
40 years on and I still think the best term for this was “Voodoo Economics”. It’s telling that came from a Republican.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch:
This is why I keep saying that New York should really have a newspaper. Maybe someone could start one there.
different-church-lady
@Technocrat: A Republican who would later work for the Trickle-Down guy.
Geminid
@Technocrat: I’m not sure about “Voodoo Economics.” It’s somewhat abstract, and I don’t think the guy who coined the term got much traction out of it. “Trickle down” is maybe a better abract modifier. “Tax cuts for Corporations and the Rich” is a very punchy way to indict Republican deficit policy. That was the messaging suggested to Congressional candidates by Jeffries, Bustos and Cicilline, the trio running the House Democrats’ communications effort. That and defending of the Affordable Care Act.
Ruckus
@Geminid:
I think that tinkle down is a better phrase, because for sure the bottom layer might as well be pissed upon, for all the good their trickle down economics does.
misterpuff
@NotMax: They’re coming to take me away to the governor’s house
where life is beautiful all the time
and I’ll be happy to see those nice white men in their clean white skin.
Technocrat
@different-church-lady: Yeah a whole lot of irony there.
Math Guy
Good morning all!
sab
Can’t decide whether I dislike Paul Ryan or Mark Leibovich more. I think Leibovich is even more smugly cynical. He wrote a whole book about how utterly cynical he and his ilk are.
Gin & Tonic
Poor baby.
Nora
Would this be the same Paul Ryan who did a photo opp of himself washing clean dishes at a food pantry? The man never had a soul, did he?
Skepticat
Cue the world’s tiniest violin.
New Deal democrat
Yesterday there was some discussion about the records of Presidents whose fathers wre also Presidents, and a few comments about John Quincy Adams were posted. For those who know little about him, he deserves more recognition. He may have been the most intellectually brilliant President ever. Personally he was a goodie-two-shoes and, well, dour and prissy.
What did he accomplish? Well . . .
His boyhood alone was pretty amazing:
– he accompanied his father in the latter’s mission to France to secure funding from the monarchy.
– While in Paris, he was tutored by, among others, several fellows named Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson.
– He became fluent in French — then the language of diplomacy — and could read and write Latin and Greek. On the voyage home, at age 13 he in turn tutored the first French consul in English.
– Subsequently he also accompanied his father to London, where he also witnessed the peace negotiations that ended the war
– at age 16 accompanied the first US delegate to Russia as his private secretary.
– At 17 he was entrusted as a diplomatic courier by Sweden and traveled alone 1000 miles across Europe from Russia to The Hague.
After obtaining a law degree from Harvard, in the 1790s, George Washington recognized his diplomatic talent, and selected him to be the first ambassador to Portugal and Holland
– his father made him ambassador to England.
– he served was US Senator from Massachusetts during Jefferson’s Presidency
– President Madison made him the first US Ambassador to Russia, from which he observed Napoleon’s march across Europe and catastrophic invasion of Russia.
– he became the lead negotiator for the Treaty of Ghent that ended the War of 1812.
– Upon his return to the US, President Monroe made him his Secretary of State. In that time he negotiated the Florida Accession, and the US-Canadian border at the 49th parallel.
– After his Presidency, in 1830 the local citizenry persuaded him to accept election as a member of the House of Representatives, where he became the relentless opponent of the expansion of slavery
– he successfully argued the “Armistad” case before the Supreme Court (popularized by the Steven Spielberg movie)
He suffered a fatal stroke at his desk in the House of Representatives in 1848 as he opposed the aggressive Mexican War. His funeral committee in the House included a young member named Abraham Lincoln.
And two final things of note:
– he drafted what became the Monroe Doctrine.
– he argued that if the South ever seceded, the President would have the right as Commander in Chief to abolish slavery in the rebellious States. In other words, he is the intellectual author of the Emancipation Proclamation.
For more on John Quincy Adams, read “John Quincy Adams: American Visionary,” by Fed Kaplan.
Shalimar
@sab: Ryan spent decades actively destroying the country. Leibovich writes print profiles most people never read. I’m not sure which is the bigger asshole, but Ryan definitely is the one most of us should hate more.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
Self serving
Baud
This right here.
The best evidence that the GOP is moving past Trump is that tbey are starting to talk about “entitlement reform” again.
VOR
I wonder who Ryan thinks is going to buy his book. The MAGAts wouldn’t, even if they could read, because Ryan disrespected the great Tang Emperor. He’s not currently in office so the lobbyists won’t. I suppose Fox News employees.
Maybe it is a way to keep his name in the mix in case he decides to run in 2024 or 2028.
Van Buren
Annoying neighbor advice sought: My house faces west, across the street, house faces north, thus we are looking at her side yard. She has a hedge running the length of her property. She does not give a shit what it looks like on the street side of the hedge- we see litter and dead leaves from the fall, still unraked. The leaves blow over into our front garden bed, which is Mrs. Van Buren’s pride and joy.
So, my choices are: just live with it; say something ( we asked her once to move a car that had been parked across from our driveway for days, making it tricky to get in and out of our driveway, she did so, but did not hide her annoyance) or just rake the area myself, which would take 10 minutes tops.
Anyone care to chime in?
Geminid
@Nora: Paul Ryan was smart to distance himself from the Republican train wreck by retiring in 2018. He’ll be back, though, rested and ready for 2028. If Ryan doesn’t have any grey in his hair by then he’ll have it put there.
Shalimar
@Nora: The same Paul Ryan who said he was a big Rage Against The Machine fan. to which Tom Morello basically said, “Seriously? That asshole is the machine.”
Baud
@New Deal democrat:
Righteous dude.
sab
@Shalimar: Good point.
Shalimar
@Van Buren: From your description, it seems a lot easier to just rake it yourself and get it over with.
Gin & Tonic
@Van Buren: If it bothers you, just clean it up.
Jeffro
@New Deal democrat:
can relate =)
LOL
Seriously though – I had no idea he was such an interesting guy!
Geminid
@Van Buren: Get out your rake. Or buy a blower. The new battery powered blowers are plenty powerful, and light weight. You might be able to inadvertently blow some of the leaves back onto her property.
Jeffro
The Paul Ryans and Glenn Youngkins of the GOP bother me to no end. They are out there, circling, counting on Americans’ short memories of Republican vandalism. They’re sitting there, grinning their friendly little smiles, suckering the snooze media and gleeful for the chance to cut rich people’s taxes yet again.
Van Buren
@Geminid: What’s funny is that she has a yard crew that meticulously blows her front yard, but never come around and clean the side-seems to me she told them not to.
I’m just going to do a stealthy rake.
Geminid
@Shalimar: Paul Ryan also used to cite Ayn Rand as an intellectual influence. Then a Democratic opponent brought this up and showed video of Rand bragging about her atheism. Since then, when asked about intellectual influences Ryan says, “Augustine.”
raven
@Van Buren: roundup
Geminid
@Van Buren: Have you seen those metal rakes where the tines can be expanded or drawn in tight, and the handle telescopes from 30 inches to 5 feet? That would be handy if you really wanted to be stealthy. They’re great tools to have anyway. The variable width of the tines make them good for raking tight spaces.
Chief Oshkosh
I used to think “I cannot believe this guy is from Janesville…” because my experience with people in that region had been that they were no-nonsense farmers and mechanics/machinists (lots of Northern European descendants with union or union-like proclivities). About the time of Shrub, grievance politics started to take over. Sadly, they’re a bunch of whiny ass witty babies these days.
Not a single thing these people believe in these days will make life better or strengthen the country. They’re just re-programmable meat bags.
Salty Sam
Favorite Paul Ryan memory?
Joe Biden laughing him off the stage during the 2012 VP debate…
different-church-lady
Ryan might have some fragments of a moral compass buried under the rubble of his misguided conservatism, but one must wonder if he understands he shares responsibility for the creating the conditions that allowed Trump’s rise.
Chief Oshkosh
@Shalimar: Meh. A can of gas and a match will both remove the eyesore and send the proper message.
It’s the only way to be sure.
Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg
@Van Buren:
Leaf blower at 6 am, using an older gas powered blower you acquired from a pawnshop.
Geminid
@Jeffro: At least Foungkin Youngkin has Senator L. Louise Lucas to cut him down to size. You can tell she has fun doing this, and her Youngkin-slamming tweets get wide circulation nationally.
mali muso
@Geminid: Her twitter clapbacks give me life!
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone
Spanky
@Deputinize Eurasia from the Kuriles to St Petersburg: Yeah, fuck stealth. She already sent you a message. Numerous times. I wouldn’t be too worried about her feelings.
germy shoemangler
Kropacetic
@germy shoemangler: Oof.
germy shoemangler
@Kropacetic:
that was my reaction
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
pluky
@Van Buren: Pick your battles. A ten minute rake will be quickly forgotten.
jonas
Aww. Paul Ryan has hurt fee-fees over Jan 6? Well, maybe that’s what happens when you coddle a dangerous, unqualified fascist president for two years because his legions of orc followers were politically useful to you. Your portrait goes right up there with McConnell, Graham, and McCarthy’s in the gallery of History’s Greatest Cowards for all time and a few half-hearted, phoned-in regrets at this stage of the game do nothing for you. *spits on ground
Professor Bigfoot
@New Deal democrat: WOW.
I love learning these little tidbits of history. I’d always thought of JQAdams as one of the “good guys,” but never knew what an intellectual badass he was.
Professor Bigfoot
@Van Buren: Have you ever watched the “reality” show Neighborhood Wars?
10 minutes of labor to keep the missus happy AND avoid the ire of the obnoxious neighbor? It seems like an obvious choice.
Ohio Mom
@Van Buren: Next door neighbors and in-laws. Two character-building sets of relationships.
Jeffro
@Geminid: yes – she is a blessing, and fun one too
BUT
it’s going to take some sustained beating on the snooze media if we’re going to have a prayer of derailing this ‘second coming of Reagan’ that the Rs seem to be aiming for with ol’ Glenn.
Slippery Glenn? Stealth Glenn? I dunno. I just want him pinned down on his religious right nuttiness, his uber-plutocrat background, and his sorta-embrace of trump & related trumpistas
(also a pony, I want a pony too =)
Barry
@VOR: “I wonder who Ryan thinks is going to buy his book. ”
Donors, as always.
Wapiti
@Van Buren: I’d first ask her if she minds if you rake it or tell her you’re going to. You can impress that it isn’t a big deal and that you understand “out of sight out of mind”.
I enter and leave my house from an alley so only sporadically think of the front of my house. But my neighbor across the alley is a single mother and I just offered that I could rake up the leaves against her fence because “I have plenty of room in my yard waste bin.” Always include a “because” if you want something.
zhena gogolia
Very bummed out. I’m having a setback with my hip, and the only appointment I could get was tomorrow at 10 AM, which I realize is the same time as the Jan 6 hearing.
Leto
Our ongoing post Roe world:
Also a California doctor has proposed building a floating clinic out in the Gulf of Mexico for people in southern states to continue to receive abortion healthcare. Just things a reasonable, normal country does.
Betty Cracker
@Jeffro: I don’t follow VA politics closely, but from where I’m sitting, Youngkin seems to be marketing himself as an alternative to DeSantis — a product that boasts 25% less overt fascism. But maybe that’s only because he doesn’t have a wingnut supermajority statehouse like DeSantis does. Youngkin campaigned on the same Rufo-approved bugaboos.
Geminid
@Jeffro: I think Virginia Democrats can let some air out of the Youngkin balloon in next year’s legislative elections. Democrats did pretty well under the old Republican-drawn map, and I like our prospects with a new, more neutrally drawn one.
This year, Youngkin has a chance to show his clout in Virginia Congressional races. I think that Spanberger will win in the 7th CD, but Elaine Luria has a very tough fight down on the coast. Youngkin will probably campaign a lot with Luria’s 2nd CD opponent, and he and his buddies will put a lot of money into that race.
satby
@Van Buren: if she’s a PIA just do it yourself. Faster gratification. She’s obviously the kind of property owner that only maintains inside her boundaryline, not the edges. My neighbor and I take turns mowing the dirt alley, because the city doesn’t and there’s not enough traffic to kill the weeds, for example.
Just One More Canuck
@Geminid: @Van Buren: Geminid has it right – blow everything into her yard, maybe spray some water on them so they stay put for a while.
satby
@Van Buren: or, having read that about the yard crew, try doing the cleanup to time with them being there, and see if it spurs them to just leaf blow that part too. My yard guys are always much more persnickety than I am about stuff. If they feel like a neighbor is seeing less than stellar work they may do it just to keep their business rep up.
JML
@Professor Bigfoot: One of my favorite JQA stories is part of the old capitol tour that I went on (don’t know if they still tell it) but they walked us through the old house chamber and showed us where JQA’s desk was and told us that during caucus, JQA used to nap at his desk with his head to the side. then they showed us how the acoustics of the place were such that someone at JQA’s desk could here a quiet conversation from the other side of the room where the opposition part caucus met. JQA was listening in on them while pretending to be sleeping!
The acoustics bit is 100% true. The JQA bit may be apocryphal, but I don’t care. He was easily clever enough for to be true, lol.
terben
Who came up with the ‘zombie-eyed granny starver’ description for Paul Ryan? Genius!
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: Youngkin is a slick guy and I think his use of the critical threat of Critical Race Theory showed this. It may not have grabbed many swing voters, but it served him well as a shiny object that distracted radical base voters from their favorite issues of abortion and guns. Youngkin shrewdly kept those issues in the background where they wouldn’t hurt him with moderate-conservative Independents.
The bible thumpers and tea party cranks were willing to go along with this, I think, because they were tired of getting their asses kicked by the state’s Democrats. They accepted the bone Youngkin threw them, and they could growl and look tough as they chewed on it.
Youngkin also spread a lot of money around and that cheered Republicans up. He’s doing this on the national level now, but I think he’ll wait for 2028 to make his Presidential run.
Spanky
@terben: Charlie Pierce, iirc.
Ken
It would be greener to use an electric blower and a boombox playing the sound of a gas blower. Plus you can add more external speakers.
Cameron
@terben: IIRC, it was Charles Pierce. ETA: late to the rodeo again.
Nelle
@zhena gogolia: I don’t know your time zone, but they did move the time of the hearing to later in the day, didn’t they?
zhena gogolia
@Nelle: Oh, I hope so! I’ll try to find out. I know the Thursday one is in prime time, which works better for me.
1:00 PM! Great! Thank you.
Jeffro
@Betty Cracker: he’s definitely trying to be the smiling face of otherwise harsh conservatism, as opposed to DeSantis’ constant scowl, true.
in VA, Youngkin and his team keep pulling bully shit with state employees and institutions, which has the double benefit (for him) of base-signaling without drawing flak for being a RWNJ on abortion and gun issues
catclub
flame thrower from the safety of your own yard.
mrmoshpotato
Well said, BC. Well said. Fuck Paul Ryan and his crocodile tears.
Mai Naem mobile
Somebody needs to tell Paul Ryan that his hero John Galt wouldn’t have been crying.
J R in WV
@Van Buren:
If you decide to clean it up yourself, perhaps you should seek permission from the owner, lest you be accused of trespass and theft of valuable mulch?
Sounds like a difficult and self-centered (narcissistic?) person across the street.
Is there a HOA with rules about maintenance?
mrmoshpotato
@Van Buren:
Sounds like she blows.
J R in WV
@zhena gogolia:
Hope your hip is dong better, sorry to hear of any problems. Unfortunately, wife’s first PT appointment to start post-op rehab is at 1:30 tomorrow, and is a 45 drive from home…
So we’ll be watching a youtube video rather than live coverage.
Darn!
zhena gogolia
@J R in WV: I hope she’s doing well!
I guess I overdid the exercise. I didn’t get much guidance. It seems to be improving at a glacial pace. Very frustrating, since I had virtually no pain the first two weeks.
ETA: Maybe it will be a boring one. They’re probably saving the good stuff for prime time Thursday.
Mai Naem mobile
@Van Buren: you could call your city neighborhood code compliance peeps. They’ll send her a ticket giving her some time to fix it and they won’t tell her who the complainant was.
J R in WV
@New Deal democrat:
That J. Quincy Adams guy was really busy from an early age, wasn’t he? OCD anyone?
JanieM
@New Deal democrat:
I read biographies of Abigail and John not long before my son went to China for the first of the five years he spent there. I thought about the differing circumstances a lot.
John and John Q got on a ship, and it took them three months (give or take) to cross the Atlantic, and another three months for word to come back to Abigail that her husband and 12-year-old son had made it safely to France. Never mind that anything could have happened in the intervening three months.
Meanwhile, I was talking to my son in China every couple of days on Skype, with video, for free.
trollhattan
@Van Buren: Sorry, no advice. Literally every neighbor here has a Hispanic mow-and-blow crew, each working a different day and redistributing blower debris with every visit. The ones who do the yard to our east (Mondays) are serial winners of the Who has the loudest possible blower? contest, and deploy a brace of them to ensure the homeowners know they’re earning their keep.
It’s chaotic but never static.
EarthWindFire
@germy shoemangler: Maybe he hadn’t had enough beer. Poor baby.
Ruckus
@Nora:
“The man never had a soul, did he?”
He might actually have had one. Likely born with it. But he likely sold it for far more than it was worth, which is why he no longer does. Money, power, notoriety may not be what a soul is worth, but they get sold for that all the time. A lack of “soul” is that view that the bigger picture doesn’t apply to me, that I can be far more selfish than in any way necessary for survival, that fame, power and money are more important than the one thing that counts the most – humanity.
karensky
@Salty Sam: I had forgotten that. Thanks.
StringOnAStick
@Van Buren: I vote for the previously mentioned suggestion that you take it while her yard crew is there. It gives you cover in several ways and solved the problem of leaves and litter blowing into your yard.
Gretchen
@terben: Charlie Pierce at Esquire is the source of the zombie -eyed granny starved sobriquet for Ryan.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I hope the doctor sues them
Greg
These stories need to be shouted from the mountain tops. Every GOP candidate needs to be made to own these results. Hang these stories around the necks of every GOP candidate for office.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: That doctor should sue each one of these scumbags for all they’ve got. Take every last dollar.
Jerzy Russian
Is there anyone involved in this story on their side that doesn’t have a punchable face?
matt
Remember, the good guys are the ones who lie about everything. That’s in the Bible.
narya
What is most appalling is that they truly cannot comprehend the trauma of a 10-year-old sexual assault survivor who is pregnant. Their internal narrative of it must be “her” fault, always, starts to fall apart, but they carry on with it. I’ve seen some threads from women who were assault survivors talking about the horror they felt when they began menstruating and were told oh, now you can have babies!
cmorenc
OTOH I recall multiple times when the malignantly awful nature and impact of Donald Trump on people’s lives was blindingly obvious, and it didn’t move as substantial a % of the electorate to reject him as it seemingly should have. Otherwise, Biden would have, should have won by north of 20 million votes, not just north of 7. Multiple truly awful GOP congresscritters and senators won election despite the impact of their awful nature being glaringly obvious. Unfortunately, too many of our fellow citizens actually like and revel in the abrasive awfulness of their GOP candidates and officeholders.
indycat32
@Dorothy A. Winsor: her lawyer says she’s considering it.
HinTN
@narya: THIS, but our side has to dot every i and cross every t to ensure their hair on fire accusations are, indeed, baseless. That’s our world for the future.
SFAW
@Jerzy Russian:
It’s a little scary (or maybe reassuring?) to me that I’m not the only/first one who thought the same thing.
My admittedly-vague recollection of Rokita from his Congress days is/was that he was one of the more MAGA-esque Rethug motherfuckers.
Semi-related Philosophical question: if I — as a lifelong, devout atheist — decided to become religious (or at least, believe in God), would that mean God would heed my prayers to smite all these Husnockin motherfuckers? Because I might be willing to make the sacrifice.
debbie
Rachel Martin of NPR can go fuck herself with a rusty chainsaw, following her 11-minute interview of White House Gender Policy Coordinator Jennifer Klein, practically blaming the Biden administration for anticipating nothing of the Right’s or the Court’s planned treachery and what can be done IMMEDIATELY to fix this. Amazing that only one side is pock-marked with errors or that Biden couldn’t possibly have any plans for a permanent fix. Absolutely maddening; I’m up to here expecting better from you NPR.
Ohio Mom
If anyone is interested, I found the original Indianapolis newspaper article that set this all off: https://www.indystar.com/story/news/health/2022/07/01/indiana-abortion-law-roe-v-wade-overturned-travel/7779936001/
It’s stunning to me that a few lines in a nothing newspaper (don’t be insulted IndyStar, that’s also how I characterize my Cincinnati Enquirer) could go so viral so fast.
Basically, it’s an article about people now traveling to Indiana for abortions, some locals are interviewed, and Dr. Bernard is one of them. She briefly mentions the Ohio ten year old as an example. That’s it. If you skim the article, you might miss it.
RedDirtGirl
Squishable thread? Aren’t those usually cute animal posts?
daveNYC
Are they in a panic? I hope so, but a gish gallop of bullshit is Plan A for Republicans these days, so I wouldn’t take their denials of reality as evidence that they’re panicking.
debbie
Ohio’s third rapid cycle: “That was not our intent.” If this doesn’t get the assholes booted out of office, I don’t know what will.
Dorothy A. Winsor
This whole story disturbs conservatives’ sense of moral superiority
OzarkHillbilly
That is the product the GOP is selling and the addicts can’t get enough. It’s better than drugs.
p.a.
In more utterly predictable news from this fucking timeline, Manchin comes out against Democrats’ environmental protections and increases in taxes on the rich and corporations currently under consideration in Congress.
Betty Cracker
Some forced-birth ghoul at a Congressional hearing yesterday denied that the procedure the 10-year-old underwent was an abortion. Rep. Swalwell treated that magical thinking with the contempt it deserved, calling it disinformation.
RedDirtGirl
Regarding the Eric Swalwell clip going around yesterday where he was questioning the forced birther…
If terminating that 10 year old’s pregnancy wasn’t an abortion, what the f@ck would that woman like to call it? Divine intervention?
I am so damn angry!
zhena gogolia
I have to do boring exercises, so I started listening to the Jan 6 hearings from the beginning. Somehow I had missed Bennie Thompson’s very moving intro to the first hearing, where he talks about how Lincoln was prepared to peacefully hand over power in the middle of the Civil War, even though he knew his successor would “wave the white flag.” Very powerful.
Betty Cracker
Here’s the clip referred to in #19:
zhena gogolia
@RedDirtGirl: Words mean what I want them to mean, isn’t that in Alice in Wonderland somewhere?
OzarkHillbilly
I doubt that very much.
@SFAW: God doesn’t take sides in football or politics.
Jinchi
Their stories collapsed because they never made the slightest effort to confirm them. That would be bad enough for a random tweet by a minor Congressman, but Fox news, which commented extensively on it, and the AG of Indiana, who publicly threatened the doctor that performed the abortion, both have extensive resources to check the facts before shooting their mouths off about it.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: IMO, they see it as a potential threat to the political gains they expect to make in November.
WereBear
@OzarkHillbilly: They sell rage.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Maybe Dems should abandon their attempts to codify abortion rights and instead pass a bill that would guarantee the right to conduct intentional miscarriages.
Baud
@WereBear:
And fear.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Which god knows it should be
Soprano2
Republicans, the members of the party that wants to force 10-year-old rape victims to have babies. If Democrats can’t campaign on that, I don’t know what they can campaign on. Normal people are repelled and appalled at the thought of this. “Make 4th graders have babies after they’re raped” doesn’t have a big constituency, although shockingly enough it does have one.
Ken
@Baud: “Our clinic doesn’t perform abortions, which would of course be illegal in this state. We perform a medical procedure which, we have been informed by Congressional testimony, is not an abortion.”
Baud
@SFAW: Which god? You really have to shop around to find the best deal.
Kay
They did it to intimidate and let the next person know not to dare mention the effects of these laws or the real people caught up in them.
They want to shut down any discussion post-Roe, and if it takes bringing in a thuggish AG to threaten a physician with a loss of license they will do it.
The average base salary for a reporter in Columbus, Ohio is $44,317. Imagine how many we could hire to cover real news with the lavish resources of the WSJ, WaPo and NYTimes who did NO original reporting at all and instead seem to be in the employ of the Right wing activists working to bury these stories.
There’s something wrong this market. It’s failing. Sloppy garbage gets paid a ton and solid work earns peanuts.
The women and girls will disappear from this new pregnancy regulation regime and we’l hear only from overpaid, gasbag editorialists and lying far Right activists.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: I listened to that, it was truly jaw-dropping. I would have thought she meant to say something like “It wasn’t an illegal abortion”, but she said it twice! Do they honestly believe that taking abortion pills don’t cause an abortion?
OzarkHillbilly
Alex Murdaugh Charged With Killing His Wife And Son
If that name doesn’t ring a bell, he is at the center of quite a saga of murder, fraud, and corruption in SC’s low country.
The author of that piece, Liz Farrell, is quite the story of dogged determination in investigating this one man crime wave. I wish like hell I could remember the piece on her and the obstacles that were laid in her path by the powerful in persuing it.
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: We don’t even have to fabricate stories, the way they do. There are going to be many, many stories.
zhena gogolia
@SFAW: Doesn’t work that way.
Baud
@Kay:
“Anti-abortion activists speak out about fear of being canceled for speaking out.”
NYT headline, soon.
Baud
@zhena gogolia:
“Too good to be true”
OzarkHillbilly
@Betty Cracker: Absolutely, but their sense of moral superiority is just as strong as ever. It’s how they justify breaking the 9th commandment with their every utterance. “We are lying in service to our Lord, and only he knows what is in our hearts.”
Soprano2
I hope you’re wrong, but based on the history of coverage of this issue I’m afraid you’re right. Medical privacy laws don’t help with this, either. The other day I said that part of the problem with this issue was that (mostly male) Democrats have felt that abortion is an “icky women’s issue”, and wanted Democrats to somehow come to an agreement (that was never going to happen) with right-wingers on enough restrictions to get them to stop talking about it, so they could stop talking about it too. Well, now we see the fruits of that type of strategy. I do think they’ll have a hard time suppressing the first death of a elementary child due to being forced to bear a child in one of these “no abortion even to save the life of the mother” states. It could happen in Missouri for sure.
Today the MO governor says there is no need to call a special session to clarify the (deliberately vague) abortion law for doctors. He actually had the gall to say that the decision of whether or not a woman’s life is in danger from a pregnancy should be left up to doctors, after spending decades passing laws that try to do the doctor’s job!!! He also claimed that access to contraception is in no danger in spite of the fact that last year a Republican House member tried to get a law passed that would have prohibited Medicaid from paying for IUD’s or Plan B.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: Somewhere along the line I read that the correct medical term for a miscarriage is “spontaneous abortion”.
Kay
Since local news is hollowed out are any of these prestige news orgnaizations planning on allocating any resources or real work at all to the post-Roe legal regime in the US?
Maybe they can trim some of their giant Trump Family/celebrity coverage budget, get off their ass, and find out what’s happening out there?
Or are women and girls so unimportant it simply won’t be covered at all other than as circle jerk media discussions about how they fucked up?
Are they afraid of the far Right? Is that why they aren’t covering this other than bullshit, gasbag opinion?
Jinchi
@Soprano2: Agreed this answer she gave to Swalwell was utter BS:
If that were the actual standard that Republicans held on abortion, the repeal of Roe would be little more than a technicality.
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly: I’ve heard that term used in that context.
debbie
Someone needs to sit down the Federalist Society and ask them what the fuck they think would happen.
Baud
@debbie: What they thought would happen is what is happening. They want this 100%. The only thing they don’t want is an electoral backlash.
Betty Cracker
@OzarkHillbilly: I figured Murdaugh was the killer the first time I read the story about the murders. His corrupt life was unraveling, and his wife and son just happened to be murdered by some rando when he was visiting his mother? Yeah, right.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Do you have someone in mind? I’ve never witnessed this.
Kay
The Washington Post uses their ridiculous, gimmicky “fact checker” to cover abortion.
In case it isn’t clear how little they care about this issue, that’s all you really need to know.
The fucking Pinocchio guy. That’s who women and girls get. Cheap junk. Whichever otherwise unemployable moron is hanging around the newsroom and has opinions.
OzarkHillbilly
Texas sues over White House guidance on providing emergency abortions
I wonder if Texas will ever abort the felonious paxton’s political career? My gut says “No.”
Geminid
@cmorenc: I think that a substantial number of Republican voters are motivated by the dynamic of negative partisanship, and vote against the Democratic party more than they are for the Republicans. They are persuaded that the Democrats are run by radical “woke” leftists.
That’s bullshit of course, but a steady diet of conservative propaganda bamboozles them. Some of my Republican customers did not like or respect trump but voted for him as the lesser of two evils.
I’m not sure how to counteract this, besides talking up the initiatives Democrats have passed that have broad majority support, and making campaign issues out of similar proposals that we haven’t passed. Climate change legislation and Universal Pre-K come to mind here, but there are others.
Political scientist Rachel Bitecofer is one of many people who advocate Democrats try counterbranding tactics, making the “Republican brand” stink. It already does here, but not neccesarily among some of the voters we’re trying to motivate. Bitecofer has turned to political engineering now, and Arizonans may see some advertising along these lines put out by an Arizona political outfit she is working with, Majority Strategies..
Dorothy A. Winsor
I think that a lot of anti-abortion activists think the way that woman does. They somehow reason that some medical procedure is not an abortion. I suppose that if you define pregnancy as a fertilized egg implanted in the uterus, then you could argue that an ectopic pregnancy wasn’t really a pregnancy and therefore the procedure wasn’t an abortion. But they’re the ones who said that once a sperm penetrated an egg, the woman was pregnant.
AliceBlue
@Baud: They’ve already run a story about the poor “pro life” activists in blue states who are going to have to keep “fighting”. There’s an excerpt over at Wonkette.
Jinchi
I learned that through personal experience on a medical record.
Brachiator
A traumatized child is supposed to be as calm, collected and responsible as an adult? And an adult would be traumatized as well. These people are cruel, hateful fanatics.
Denali
‘@Kay,
Yes, they are afraid of the far right. The far right has the power. We are living in dangerous times.
Jinchi
And then there’s this guy, proving what they really think:
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: William Zanzinger moves to the Palmetto (Bug) State?
Jeffro
“Abortion, guns, and insurrection…abortion, guns, and insurrection…abortion, guns, and insurrection…” from now ’til November
(PLUS, where applicable: “simply inSANE and unFIT candidates for Senate” – you hear me PA, OH, and GA?)
Soprano2
@Baud: No one in particular (although the ones jabbing us about the too “woke” Democrats being a problem are probably in that camp), just a feeling over the years that many of the more conservative Dems wished that abortion as an issue would go away because it was “icky”, that if only we could agree to enough “reasonable” restrictions the other side would be satisfied and quit trying to make it illegal again. For many years this issue was in the background, and when women would talk about their fear of Roe being overturned many (mostly male) pundits would say we were being silly to worry about such a thing, it would never happen, and besides we needed to spend our time on issues the voters really care about like taxes. “Women’s issues” have been seen as secondary and incidental for decades now, it’s nothing new.
SFAW
@OzarkHillbilly:
Except it’s far beyond politics; it’s pretty much an existential threat. And, unfortunately, I don’t think I’m being hyperbolic. Well, not much.
Kay
@Denali:
Chickenshits. The local reporters who dared to cover the story are much more at risk from far Right extremists in Ohio and Indiana than any of these prima donnas watching this play out remotely from their (safely) liberal bastions.
Immanentize
@OzarkHillbilly: Their Bible was the Readers Digest Condensed version and only has 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6. Half! All that covetting, stealing and lying stuff is user optional.
Also, no image is more graven than blue eyed rock star Jesus.
Steeplejack
@p.a.:
Joe Manchin in January: “The climate thing is one that we probably could come to an agreement much easier than anything else.”
The linked Politico story is a maddening catalog of Manchin’s foot-dragging and obstructionism. (Not reported as that, of course.)
Nelle
My sister doesn’t want to discuss it beyond saying that it’s not a clump of cells; it is a God-created being. But that is a religious argument in a sectarian country. So I won’t discuss it with her. She was free to avoid abortions, but she can’t tolerate that anyone else commits “murder” with impunity. So she actually needs to admit that she wants to control others and have them live by her religious definitions. Someone close to her had an abortion and my sister still grieves for this lost “child.” Doesn’t she realize that subsequent children, whom she loves, wouldn’t exist, if that abortion hadn’t taken place?
One of the things happening is the sacrifice of privacy under the pressure to “tell one’s story” now. People can tell or not tell. I’m not trusting that if the christo-facists take power, they won’t rifle through medical records hunting for past evidence, even when it was legal. Precedent? Laws? Piffle. They are so smug and righteous with their God of Hate.
Baud
@Steeplejack: Manchin also lied about wanting to end the Trump tax cuts.
I’m not mad. I reset expectations after last time. He is untrustworthy.
Immanentize
@Baud: Some Fed Soc folks want this, some don’t. Some enjoyed the Chicago School economics promises of FedSoc, but Leonard Leo (or Leo Leo as I call him) is full on Opus Dei.
Ksmiami
@Baud: I just want to make him irrelevant. My contempt for Sinemanchin is boundless. But yes, I did predict that they would be the failure point.
Kevin
The need to be right or have everyone agree with their worldview with these assholes is truly childish and disgusting. But not at all surprising. Party of freedom my ass.
Ken
I’m sure leading the list would be any such procedure that they, or a family member, may have had.
Immanentize
@Kay: Brilliant insight, thank you as I am taking it to the world.
Capri
Rokita is the Ted Cruz of Indiana. When the rest of the state’s GOP is trying to stay out of the press, he’s grabbing the limelight and making as much national news as he can.
Baud
@Immanentize:
Maybe historically. But the econ guys generally have to the social control guys.
prostratedragon
@OzarkHillbilly: You beat me to it. Talk about a shoe finally dropping!
Cacti
How many days until Republicans doxx this 10 year old and call her a slut?
Over/under 7?
Immanentize
@Dorothy A. Winsor: They are not going to be allowed to get away with such sophistry. If the law says life begins at conception, all zygotes got rights!
Jeffro
Yes. This.
In their effort to try and go with their ‘biblical’ interpretation (which is really just their interpretation, since it controls women’s rights), they have ended up at the most extreme and unsupportable position possible.
If you allow exceptions, well, you’re not really controlling women – those conniving women, they can’t be trusted, they’ll ALL say it was rape or incest just to keep having those abortions! – and controlling women is the point.
CaseyL
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Much the same way, if they or their near relative needs a pregnancy terminated, it’s not really an abortion. It’s always “different” for them.
Infinitely flexible value system, always to serve their need at the moment.
Steeplejack
@Baud:
My anger is that anyone treats him as a serious negotiator or “stakeholder” on anything. The media, mostly, because I guess Chuck Schumer has to deal with him at some level.
God, we cannot get two or three more Dem senators soon enough.
Immanentize
@Jinchi: There seems to be dictionary dispute about this. Some sources say “termination” of a pregnancy (therefore miscarriages are abortions) while others say “purposeful termination” of a pregnancy (so not including miscarriages). The problem is that the State will want to investigate all terminations to determine whether they were purposeful.
OzarkHillbilly
FTFY, no charge for a fellow Miserian.
Jeffro
@Steeplejack:
@Baud:
I hereby call on Senator Biden to quit negotiating with President Manchin, and focus on getting us a true Senate Democratic Majority.
(or what Steeplejack just posted at #81 =)
Immanentize
@Brachiator: the raped child was NOT a woman which is another good reason to use the terminology “pregnant person.” Also, saying that makes Senator Hawley cry.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I trust you were not including me among “those jabbing us about ‘woke’ Democrats.” I did speak of a “woke” Democratic party at #53, but only as an artifact in Republican minds.
OzarkHillbilly
Not for god.
Immanentize
@Jeffro: That may be one of the political effects Biden understood when negotiating so long with Manchin? Biden does not seem to work on the “next news cycle” timeline. And he and his team seem pretty good at both governing and knowing the political calendar.
Citizen Alan
@Jinchi: All republicans are presumptively rapists and pedophiles. Thankfully cothankfully, most of them are also cowards and are too afraid of getting caught and prosecuted to act on their perverted urges. But at this point, I think the overwhelming majority of Republicans would rape a child if they could get away with it. Prove me wrong.
Baud
@Jeffro:
I think this round, it’s mostly been Schumer.
Citizen Alan
@Jinchi: All republicans are presumptively rapists and pedophiles. Thankfully, most of them are also cowards and are too afraid of getting caught and prosecuted to act on their perverted urges. But at this point, I think the overwhelming majority of Republicans would rape a child if they could get away with it. Prove me wrong.
Immanentize
@Baud: if I understand your sentence, yes, the econ guys thought they were just tolerating the religious nuts in FedSoc because they needed them for political power purposes. But to Posner etc al., They were an icky necessity — the help. Oops! Look who is actually at the head of the class! Typical for right wing economic law dudes to think they are the power players when they are the bench.
Jeffro
@Immanentize: I doubt he understood that long, fruitless negotiations with Manchin (and in other cases/issues, Sinema) would dishearten Dems and contribute to really low approval ratings?
He is good at governing in most all cases (and great in many others). But he’s really been rope-a-doped by Manchin for over a year now.
Spanky
I’m giving money to Manchin’s opponents next cycle, including, if necessary, a Republican in the general.
Fuck him. Fuck him hard.
artem1s
@narya:
As awful as this is, and it truly is, there is a more horrific reason for denial by Xtian Conservatives. They are prepared to defend a white mans right to impregnate any female under his control. NO MATTER WHAT THEIR AGE. We have seen the GOP defend a man’s right to ‘date’ underage children over and over. They have defended pedophiles who practice forced marriage in court based on religious preferences. The GOP openly advocated for One Vote Households at their convention last year. Women are nothing but cattle as far as they are concerned and their children are the property of their fathers. Especially their girl children.
Baud
@Spanky: Yeah, that’s super dumb, no matter how valid the sentiment.
p.a.
@Immanentize:
The econ guys (BigMoneyBoyz) kept feeding the leopard red meat through the cage bars, then one day (Falwell Sr. era maybe?) the leopard ripped their zookeeper’s arm off, escaped, and has been feasting on everyone’s faces since.
Kay
The funniest part of the whole thing is the rank, slimy collection of liars they all treated as presumptively “credible”- Yost, the Ohio AG liar, DeWine, another Ohio liar and the Indiana AG liar.
Odd how that works, huh? A powerful Right wing man declaring some absolute bullshit he just pulled out of his ass is repeated as fact by these truth seekers but any ordinary (and especially female) person is assumed to be lying.
UncleEbeneezer
@Geminid: Yup. And again, this is one of those asymmetries that makes things exponentially harder for our side. We can’t even take that approach without a large swath of Progressives getting into a huff about “we can’t just be against Republicans, we have to be for something. This is why I won’t vote for Democrats.”
It makes no sense. Just this forced birth bullshit alone should be more than enough for any decent person (and certainly anyone who claims to have progressive values) to say “You know what, there is no fucking way I’m letting these assholes stay in power. Ever.” Rinse/repeat for just about every issue. Keeping bigoted Fascists out of power should be all anyone needs to support Dems wholeheartedly. Period. And it sure as hell should be one of the biggest lessons we take away from 2016.
But our side is too busy coming up with justifications to refuse to vote for Joe Biden in 2024…
O. Felix Culpa
@Kay:
QFT. Especially by the big-boy media “fact checkers.” Ptui!
zhena gogolia
@Spanky: Oh, a Republican would be better? You are out of your mind.
UncleEbeneezer
@Jeffro: If Biden at any point had simply walked away from negotiations with Manchin, he would have been castigated endlessly for not fighting hard enough. Absent Manchin doing an about face and allowing BBB to pass, there was absolutely no path Biden could take that wouldn’t have Dem voters angry/disappointed in Biden.
O. Felix Culpa
@UncleEbeneezer:
Exactly. Fucking strategery, how does it work?
Jinchi
Can you actually name any of the “large swath of Progressives” who say this?
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
The Indiana AG, Rokita, is a liar. But for some reason he was presumptively more credible to them than anyone else involved.
Oh, well. I hope they all enjoy going back to working on “the womens pages” in newspapers where they can cover sewing and gardening and thrifty meal planning because that’s exactly where this backwards country is headed, and fast.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I just tried to look it up and something like 50% of fertilized eggs fail to implant. The stats vary somewhat, but that’s reasonable. I guess the laws just ignore those?
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s all in the hands of God.
Geminid
@UncleEbeneezer: I think we are taking the approach of passing broadly popular measures and advocating for more. As for those pushing the line that Democrats still haven’t earned their votes, some are on “our side” and some are not.
Scout211
I am slightly encouraged that this story and the awful reporting on it has caused many journalists to take a long look at how these stories get reported. (Does not apply to the right wing media, obviously. They will continue to do what they do).
Starting with the commentary by Laura Hazard Owen in NeimanLab.com (linked several times here over the past few days) and now this morning a piece by Morgan Sung on the front page of NBC.com.
. . .
. . .
Steeplejack
@Betty Cracker:
I have a friend who is intensely into the true-crime genre, and any time I send her a story I think she might find interesting I get an incensed reply that she’s way ahead of me, here’s the latest details, etc., etc. So I know more than I need to know about a lot of these cases. But the Murdaugh case is epic.
The latest thing I sent her:
Comments are funny too.
Spanky
@Baud: Yeah, I always thought so too. But fuck him.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Speaking of Glenn Kessler:
O. Felix Culpa
@Scout211:
I’m not able to read the full article right now, but does it address the issue of MSM “journalists” like the WaPo’s Kessler joining the mob?
ETA: I mean, we don’t need explanations for why the conservatives reported (aka, lied) as they did. That’s “water is wet” territory. More germane…and troubling…is why supposedly serious mainstream journalists joined in.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Scout211: It may be just me but I feel our side did the same thing around the failure of the Uvalde police. Our outrage shifted to that rather than the fact that the presence of a weapon of war played a role both in the murders and in the police respons
IOW, it’s the guns
Scout211
@O. Felix Culpa: The Laura Hazard Owen commentary has more examples than the NBC story, but it did cover Kessler:
Paul in KY
@SFAW: If that worked, they’d already have been smiteded.
O. Felix Culpa
@Scout211:
Thanks. I expect that Kay or other people familiar with the law and social service agencies can comment on Kessler’s efforts and subsequent doubt-casting.
Cameron
@Kay: You’re being very unfair to Our Liberal Media. I have it on good authority that the NYT has assembled a team of crackerjack reporters who are already on their way to Asswhup Creek, a small Pennsylvania town in America’s Heartland. There they will interview members of the local Republican Men’s Senior Club when they meet on Thursday evening at Winky’s for a burger and a beer. We’re going to find out what real Americans think about real issues!
Paul in KY
@Jinchi: they expect their dupes to just read their false stories and then move on to other ‘outrages’ and never figure out that they were lying to them (as they will never correct the facts).
Betsy
@Dorothy A. Winsor: It’s all about their ability to control other people. They want to say when it’s all right – not for the woman to decide.
O. Felix Culpa
@Paul in KY:
Speaking of which, did Kessler publish a retraction?
Soprano2
@Immanentize: That’s what I keep thinking, that if someone is challenged on that just say “do you believe a 9-year-old is a woman?”
Eunicecycle
@Scout211: Maybe it was someone here, but I saw pointed out that a similar thing has happened with the Cassidy Hutchinson testimony. Immediately there were stories where an anonymous person (single source?) said she was lying and they would testify under oath! So she got branded as a liar. But now it seems she was telling the truth. The right knows most people only see the first story and not the followup. And of course no one went on the record against her.
Jinchi
@O. Felix Culpa: Kessler has this annoying habit of “fact checking” things he doesn’t actually know the answer to.
So he heavily implied that Biden was using deceptive talking points by commenting on a story that “was too good to confirm”, but thinks nothing of doing the same himself.
Soprano2
@Geminid: No, I’m talking about pundits. Has no one but me noticed that for a long time there have been a lot of more conservative Democratic men trying to push abortion into the background as an issue? There was a feeling that talking about it turned off “moderate” independents. I feel like I must be crazy, because this definitely happened.
Betty Cracker
@Soprano2: You’re not crazy; it did happen.
Eunicecycle
@O. Felix Culpa: sort of a whiny “well single source couldn’t confirm (of course no one will confirm due to confidentiality!)” kind of thing.
Ksmiami
@artem1s: something something national divorce… I don’t want to be in a country with these monsters…
Jinchi
He issued an update, not a retraction:
Kay
@O. Felix Culpa:
Pinocchio man was randomly calling Job and Family Services sites in Ohio and inquiring into an abuse neglect and dependency case. They are county agencies with strict confidentiality rules and it isn’t a criminal case. Is he a moron?
That they have not bothered to figure out the difference between an ABUSE case, which is a civil matter in Ohio and a RAPE case, which is a criminal matter is I think an indication of the absolute garbage work they are going to churn out.
Just leave it to the local reporters who make 40k a year. They’re better at it. If they’re not going to COVER the new pregnancy regulations with original reporting then just go do the 50th “cancel culture” column and let local reporters do all the work. Then the NYTimes, The WaPo and the WSJ can CRITIQUE the output of the working journalists. They can “analyze” while sitting on their ass in deep blue NYC, safe as houses.
Scout211
@O. Felix Culpa:
Here’s his “detraction.” Added to the top of his original story.
Geminid
@Soprano2: Ahh, I misread your remark. I guess I am having a prickly Friday. Perhaps I should offer up a prayer to Freya for more detachment.
Geminid
@Scout211: Magdi Semrau put up a series of very incisive tweets on the Kessler matter. She related it to larger questions concerning reporting on the abortion crisis. Mr. Immanentise(sp?) put up a link yesterday , on the morning thread I think.
Kay
@Jinchi:
He still has it wrong. The referral is made to the county prosecutor and then police open a criminal investigation.
Undertsand something though- these cases are complicated. It could well have been WEEKS before a referral was made to take to a criminal matter because it’s an entirely different system with a higher bar for opening an investigation.
They did not bother to understand anything about the work they were doing. They are sloppy and lazy.
I mean, people are SURPRISED this idiot “fact check” gimmick hire couldn’t crack the case? WTF? Why is he doing work he’s completely unqualified to do? Just throw some shit out there randomly?
We all know what happpened here. Mr. Kessler hoped to become a Right wing hero for discrediting the icky (liar) lady abortion doctor. But he’s not even good at that.
There go two miscreants
@Spanky: Unless you are extremely wealthy, you can do more good with your money elsewhere (lots of down-ballot races that can use the $$).
Immanentize
@Soprano2: To test this theory, perhaps Rep. Spanberger can be asked about her position on abortion. She is, in my mind, the most ‘attuned’ Dem political moderate around. Maybe she has already public ally discussed the issue?
Brachiator
@Immanentize:
A raped child is a raped child. Not a pregnant person.
I do not understand why some liberals always feel a need to come up with new, often abstract words to describe simple reality.
Reminds me of the George Carlin bit on euphemism. “In World War 1, some traumatized soldiers experienced shell shock. Simple and to the point. In World War 2, it became battle fatigue. Four syllables. Now it’s post-traumatic stress disorder.”
O. Felix Culpa
@Jinchi:
@Kay:
@Scout211:
Thanks, all, for your updates. “Detraction” is an excellent word! I’m feeling a little salty about the lack of accountability and harm done by our media betters.
Scout211
Re: Kessler. He has reopened comments on the article. Just saying . . .
https://mobile.twitter.com/GlennKesslerWP/status/1547345327983734784
Immanentize
@Eunicecycle: i gotta add — his first comment about “no child or police agency confirm” turned out to be “I never reached anyone like that” in his subsequent explanations. Kessler knew exactly what he was doing.
Immanentize
@Brachiator:
Well my point just went right the fuck over your head.
Someone raped can also be someone pregnant
Not all raped people get pregnant.
See how the Venn works?
VOR
@OzarkHillbilly: The term “rapid unplanned disassembly” or RUD means it blew up in aerospace lingo.
louc
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s correct. Abortion was a medical term. It was spontaneous abortion for miscarriages and “induced” abortion for medical interventions to terminate a pregnancy. Somewhere down the road, someone decided to equate the word abortion with only the second kind.
It’s just like how anti-abortion types also don’t pay attention to the medical/scientific definition of pregnancy. A pregnancy begins when the fertilized egg implants in the uterus.
Geminid
@Immanentize: Of course Abigail Spanberger has forthrightly championed abortion rights! If you were interested in this Democrat as other than a punching bag you would know this.
O. Felix Culpa
@Scout211:
I’m not sure what that move accomplishes, especially since the article retains the same doubt-casting title.
Kay
@Steeplejack:
Omnes Omnibus
@Brachiator: @Brachiator:
I am not going to touch on the pregnant person part of this, others are better qualified to do so. On the PSTD side, you know that these changes have come about because people used get shot for cowardice because of PTSD and, as out understanding of the human mind as improved, we are doing less of that. We have a way to go on this as there are still people who minimize the effects of PTSD or who try to limit it to soldiers who have been in combat. Trauma can have profound effects on the mind, and trivializing it is shameful.*
*Yes, Carlin was comedian and I usually find him funny and on point. This one misses the mark.
Soprano2
@Betty Cracker: Thank you!!! I’ve been challenged about that, but it was a real thing. Especially back in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.
O. Felix Culpa
@Soprano2:
It definitely was a real thing.
Ksmiami
@Citizen Alan: they are the ultimate groomers
Gravenstone
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The forced birthers tend to get pretty hostile when you point this out. “God is the biggest abortionist of all, what with half of all fertilized eggs failing to take root?”
opiejeanne
@Greg: Up to 50 years ago, there were many stories of little girls so young they were clutching a teddy bear as they were wheeled into the delivery room. 8 and 9 year olds, too young to be mothers and yet here they were. Those stories tapered off a little after Roe, but they were still out there, girls whose parents had denied permission to terminate the pregnancy, and many times the father or step-father was the child’s rapist, but it wasn’t referred to as rape back then even though that’s what it was.
Geminid
@Soprano2: I think that back then there was still a cohort of “prolife” Democratic voters. After the polarization of the last couple decades, they are now mostly on the other side. Maybe except for those like my Atlanta friend. He considers himself prolife but firmly believes that government has no right to impose this belief on women.
Subsole
@Greg:
I say again:
There is NO difference between these guys and those whacknut backwood “preachers” who set up compounds out in the wilderness that eventually get raided by the Feds for preschool polygamy.
Chris Rufo and his party would gleefully be screwing kids in a DIY concrete Rapture bunker on some jacknob’s ranch if they could.
It’s David Koresh shit.
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Alas — AGs usually have the protection of sovereign immunity, even for outrageous statements like that. So my expectations are low, but it’s possible that whoever stenoed his statements without checking could be liable. Note that the Fox outlet looked for the documents because unlike the AG, it does not have sovereign immunity and understood that making such a claim without checking would be defamatory.
Geminid
@Gravenstone: The general rate of miscarriages also tends to undercut the belief that there is a deity that wants all fertized eggs to result in a live birth. I guess the bible thumpers would argue that this would not be the case if Eve had not disobeyed the deity and fell from grace. That woman sure brought a lot of trouble into this world!
Subsole
@SFAW: Nah. If that’s your angle, convert to Roman paganism. Or something similar. They don’t mind you bargaining over worldly things.
The newer gods expect you to bargain over your happiness in the next world, not this one.
If you’re gonna try to bribe a god, bribe one that takes bribes, is what I’m sayin’.
Paul in KY
@Betty Cracker: I had been leaning at first to revenge over the lady being killed by son. However, nothing was coming from that & I’m sure the po po was investigating that heavily, so I began lately to start suspecting him. Was it for insurance? His kid seemed like a really entitled young man, but I’m sure didn’t deserve being shotgunned down by his own father! I’m sure his wife didn’t deserve it either.
Paul in KY
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m for keeping Republicans as a small minority party for the rest of eternity. I think that is a noble cause.
J R in WV
First I want to point out that I’m pretty sure “Senator” Manchin isn’t running for re-election in this cycle, so voting against him isn’t actually possible right now.
Also, the state Democratic Committee here in WV has been taken over by actual activist Democrats, so Manchin is no longer either de facto nor de jure chairman of the State Committee. This comment was requested by Wife, who read the thread, and had this to say regarding that.
I used to tell everyone I’m a Yellow Dog Democrat, meaning I would vote for that Yellow Dog sleeping over there before I would vote for a Theocratic-Russo-Repugnant. I would vote for the Yellow Dog over Manchin, also.
Paul in KY
@O. Felix Culpa: Do not know, but I’m giving 1-5 odds of: no.
different-church-lady
@Brachiator:
Neither do I, but I hope we figure it out soon, because it’s absolutely killing us politically.
Paul in KY
@Brachiator: A raped kid. That’s what the poor girl is.
Paul in KY
@Subsole: Good point. Will have to start praying to Jupiter!
opiejeanne
@Nelle: California had a law (briefly) that required hospitals to ask women under their care how many pregnancies they’d had, and how many live births, and the information was merely a survey, totally anonymous.
The nurse who was required to ask me, just after I’d given birth to my third child came to collect my information and I asked if I had to answer the questions. She smiled and told me I didn’t have to answer, and left.
California returned to sanity not long after, but the idea of that survey was enraging
Anonymous, my eye.
opiejeanne
@CaseyL: Their abortions are always “moral”. All others are sought by sluts who should have kept their legs closed.
gvg
@Steeplejack: He is an elected Senator so everyone has to treat him as a negotiator….until he loses. Doesn’t mean the press couldn’t get in some digs against him. Senator never keeps his word moves the goal posts again. Other democrats try to find other votes….Manchin won’t accept big $ project for West Virginians but show interest in contract that benefits his company…..?I don’t know, that might just lose us a Senate seat without gaining us another.
We need them to go harder after the even more corrupt GOP individual politicians before we can really go hard after Manchin. But we could get some digs in, just so he didn’t think we were fooled.
Steeplejack
@Kay:
Impeccable credentials!
Speaking of “local reporting,” this is a triggering issue for me. I started out of J-school 50 years ago this fall as a reporter on a middle-sized Southern newspaper (in Mobile, AL). My first beat was the county courthouse (except for big trials), which included General Sessions Court (preliminary hearings) and the county agencies (tax assessor, etc.). It was good experience and it was a valuable part of “the news.”
The paper had a political reporter who covered the county commission and the city government, and when the legislature was in session (in Montgomery) we had one or two reporters doing full-time coverage. All of this in a city of about 200,000.
And all of that is pretty much gone. The paper went from daily to three times a week in 2012, with greatly reduced staff, of course. I don’t think newspapers are sacred—they are dinosaurs that in most cases didn’t adapt to the loss of advertising revenue caused by the Internet—but I really mourn the loss of “local news.” So much corruption and miscellaneous shit is going under the radar bacause of its lack. There must be a viable model for it, but I don’t know what it is. Maybe it’s a “press trust,” where some liberal billionaire plunks down a billion or two to fund $40,000-a-year reporters across the country. Hell, give ’em $50,000!
The Lodger
@SFAW: A lot of us non-atheists are already praying for a bit of smiting to be done to these MAGA mofos, and we aren’t getting it so far. Do what feels right.
scav
@Geminid: Nah, Their God rigged the game: built the setting, set up the rules and created the players. All so he could get absolute obedience and worship 100% of the time or work off a few of his smiting and torture fantasies. That God is one twisted individual. And they pride themselves in being created in his image.
James E Powell
@Kay:
I don’t believe they are sloppy or lazy. They do these things deliberately.
Subsole
@Kay:
A rant:
I think, if you really study them, what makes the media so sloppy and useless and just insufferably awful at their jobs is their utter lack of curiosity.
They are the most lazy, vacuous, cringing, sycophantic, incurious people I have ever seen.
They care about being famous. That’s it. That’s all. Anything that does not directly and obviously advance that aim is not on their radar.
Of course they aren’t talking to the women. It never occurred to them to talk to the women because the women aren’t gonna make them famous or get them another zero on their book advance or get them an in at the next weekend beltway chardonnay mixer. Which means the women, quite frankly, never occurred to them.
They look at the world and say “how does this grow my brand?”
It’s why we have to sit and roll our eyes at all of those absurd, stumbling, demi-baked “gotcha” attempts from the WHPC. They’re not there to ask informative or insightful questions. They’re there to generate soundbites. That’s all.
They don’t think about how these laws impact ordinary people because they aren’t there to think about ordinary people. They’re there to get famous among famous people by talking to famous people so other famous people will like them and be their friends and tell them they’re famous too. Or so it seems to me.
Put it this way: normal people hear gossip and think “Do I know the people mentioned? How do I know them? Do my friends know them? Is it true? Why do I care?” They try to fit the gossip into the world. To connect it to what surrounds it.
The media just asks itself if repeating what Terry said about Suzi means Buzz will ask them to sit next to Kuymbirleigh at the koolkidz table. If only as an object of mockery.
They never wonder about the subject of the gossip, because the people aren’t real. The gossip is what’s real, to them.
They’re basically an entire industry full of discount-rack Kardashians who somehow manage to be vastly, impossibly worse…
Scout211
I still think some sort of messaging around the forced birth of child rape victims should be pushed by the Dem messaging machine. Or do we even have one of those these days?
Forcing children to give birth=child abuse
Your state is abusing children.
Your state is enabling child rapists.
Your state is perpetrating abuse on child victims of rape.
Sigh. None of them have the same catchy tune of “lock her up!”
Subsole
@Nelle: Men get the gods they deserve…
Subsole
@Immanentize: So was (is?) Barr, if memory serves.
The Lodger
@Jinchi: The PII of the abortion in Indiana should have been been hard to obtain for three very commonly accepted reasons:
The Indiana AG’s staff didn’t want to do the work to overcome these restrictions, so they claimed the abortion was not reported. They were willing to bullshit the public to avoid the consequences of their own laziness.
Subsole
@CaseyL:
There is a difference between people who carry their faith, and people who hide behind it.
wenchacha
@Nelle: Yeah, my abortion story isn’t mine, it belongs to my husband and his high school girlfriend. Without abortion, he and I wouldn’t have met, most likely. Fortunately, they lived in NYS, and could legally get one in 1974.
Subsole
@Scout211:
With respect, horseshit.
We discount stuff after verifying it.
They don’t.
That ain’t two echo chambers.
That’s a sniveling hack pretending there are two echo chambers so they don’t have to point out the actual echo chamber that actually exists in the actual world around one of the two groups of people being discussed – and risk being exceedingly uncomfortable next time their skeeve-ass little drinking buddies in the GOP comms shop are doling out nice, soft, pre-digested talking-point gossip nuggets…
opiejeanne
@Paul in KY: Correct. And because she had recently had her 10th birthday, she was probably raped when she was 9.
9 year olds who turn 10 in the spring are almost always in the 3rd grade.
J R in WV
@Kay:
And now we have learned that their “fact checker” is actually a theocratic fascist pretending to be an honest reporter. That guy needs to be put on the front door desk as a receptionist, if they can’t bring themselves to just plain old fire the incompetent bastard.
Subsole
@Cameron:
I mean, I know this is snark, but great gods below, it is everything wrong with the media.
Seven years now we’ve been hearing from these folks.
Seven. Fucking. Years.
Seven years of interviews, and roundtables, and soft-focus full-page specials.
And not once – not once – did any of these hamfisted, slackjawed, beetlebrowed, clout-scrabbling asswipes think to ask themselves who the hell all these Trump voters were when they were at home.
I mean, look at how many journalists are looking at the day’s hortors and righteously intoning that “this is just so shocking!”
How in the thundering, purple-headed fuck is it shocking?! You. Have. Been. Talking. Non-stop. With. These. “People”. For. Almost. A. Decade. Now.
Shocking? Kiss the blackest part of my hairy white ass…
EarthWindFire
@artem1s: Yep. This is why Fox pivoted to illegal immigrant as soon as the rapist confessed. It’s not rape if it’s done by a red blooded white American male.
Subsole
@Paul in KY: Eh, I guess a town in Florida’s as good a thing to pray to as any…
The Lodger
@CaseyL: This has been going on since the Vice Presidential debate when Dan Quayle said a (hypothetical) female relative going in for a D&C wasn’t the same as having an abortion. Do they do a lot of that terminology in Indiana?
billcinsd
It’s like they thought, the Uvalde cops got it right — let’ do that
J R in WV
@O. Felix Culpa:
Yet more troubling is how an incompetent dick like Glenn Kessler ever got hired by a respectable news organization. “Supposedly serious” is way too kind a description for Kessler !! He deserves to man the reception desk at the front door, and answer phone calls to put a classified ad in.
J R in WV
And from Kay I learn that
Hmmm. Sounds conservative AND wealthy to me. Like Tuckums Carlson, only more so. Added to his incompetence it equals an embedded traitor to journalism and all the standards journalism once stood for.
Paul in KY
@Subsole: You might actually get more by praying to the city, rather than the Roman god.
Subsole
@Paul in KY: True.
Given what usually happened to mortals whom the gods noticed, the city might be safer…
misterpuff
@Betty Cracker: THIS!
In two different hearings (One including Senator Hawley’s wife as an “expert”) they are redefining “abortion” as the morally wrong taking of life on a whim as opposed to medicially needed procedure to save the mother (in ectopic pregancies) or what was done prior with the exceptions ( life of the mother, rape and incest).
Our experts say no no no that’s still an abortion, its still medical care, no you can’t sidestep the issue that many of the state laws, basically ban abortion after a tiny acceptable period and force undue burdens on women.
Anyhoo, I am heartened by the fact that people are using the word. Abortion. I always felt that Roe made it a right and we as Dems should protect rights, but many were queasy about using the word. It’s abortion, it’s the right to control your own body, it’s your right to privacy with out the Government (state, local or federal) interceding.
misterpuff
Of course, this would be the argument if it was their 10 year old little princess. But everyone else is doing it for kicks or to own the wingnuts.
EmbraceYourInnerCrone
@opiejeanne: sadly this girls mother apparently lives with the rapist and still defends him: 10 yr old pregnant rape victims mom defends rapist
@opiejeann
TriassicSands-
Republicans probably have nothing to worry about. The vast majority of Americans aren’t paying any attention to a 10-year-old rape victim. But they are horrified at what Biden has done to the price of gasoline. And they deal with that every time they fill up their Ford F-150, 250, or 350 pick-up truck on their way to do an unnecessary errand.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
eclare
Good morning!
Baud
@rikyrah:
@eclare:
Good morning.
Liminal Owl
@rikyrah: Good morning!
@eclare:
@Baud:
WereBear
Good morning, afraid to link everyone. Isn’t there a limit?
oatler
Where’s the Blecch guy?
Amir Khalid
Awesome story. Brava, Phyllis Bowdwin!
KSinMA
Great story!
HinTN
“And we both thank you.”
Oh hell yes!
cope
What a great story, wonderfully told. I’ve never been able to articulate my distaste for mimes because, hey, what has a mime ever done to me but this certainly gives anecdotal support for my feelings about them.
However, it does occur to me that maybe the awakening of her fiery second self did energize her to nail the interview.
Anyway, thanks for this start to my morning.
rikyrah
@oatler:
🤣🤣🤣🤣
Betty Cracker
@oatler: Probably waiting for the REAL morning thread. One doesn’t want to deposit one’s precious blecch in a temporary receptacle.
Betty Cracker
I first heard Phyllis Bowdwin’s story on The Moth podcast, which is well worth checking out if you love a good story. The stories aren’t all great, and most storytellers aren’t in Ms. Bowdwin’s class, but it’s a consistently amusing and/or compelling podcast.
I have an uncle who is a world-class storyteller (IMO), and I’ve been bugging him to pitch one of his tales to The Moth for a while now. His would be one of the funny ones, but the stories featured aren’t always funny. Some are sad or infuriating or whatever. I enjoy the funny ones the most.
Steve in the ATL
@oatler: @Betty Cracker: let’s not dishonor our favorite grumpy carpenter—it’s “blech”!
Nelle
Thanks. I’ve had some challenges of late that were starting to wilt me. I needed that. Good timing, Betty Cracker.
schrodingers_cat
@rikyrah: Did you finally get my email ? It was to your aol account. I sent it twice.
WereBear
I loved that story! I remember feminism in 1979. I worked in NYC in 1981…
Tough room.
Kristine
really good story to start the day.
zhena gogolia
That story made me cry.
O. Felix Culpa
Great story and brilliant ending. I like to think that the crowd would react differently to such grotesque harassment today. Dunno, but hope so.
WereBear
@O. Felix Culpa: I was thinking the same thing :)
Currants
Wonderfully told and a great story. ❤️ Thank you, Betty!
Wag
Phyllis is awesome.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
That was fucking brilliant. Fuck men who think they can get away with shit like that.
Spanish Moss
Loved it!