Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

“I was told there would be no fact checking.”

We are builders in a constant struggle with destroyers. keep building.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

“Loving your country does not mean lying about its history.”

They traffic in fear. it is their only currency. if we are fearful, they are winning.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Pessimism assures that nothing of any importance will change.

The real work of an opposition party is to oppose.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Bark louder, little dog.

Compromise? There is no middle ground between a firefighter and an arsonist.

Fundamental belief of white supremacy: white people are presumed innocent, minorities are presumed guilty.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

Democracy is not a spectator sport.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

I don’t recall signing up for living in a dystopian sci-fi novel.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

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144Comments

  1. 1.

    Spanky

    If an unwanted pregnancy is an act of God, impotency must be an act of God.

    Well sure! That’s just science!

    Or, at least, logic.

  2. 2.

    Raoul Paste

    Increasingly, it seems like the GOP is invoking God to make their arguments.  Well, at least people like MTG

  6. 6.

    SiubhanDuinne

    FTFNYT just gets more blatant by the day. Here’s a headline and sub-head to an article co-written by (of course!) MagaHabs:

    In Senate Battle, Democrats Defy Biden’s Low Standing (for Now)

    “The billion-dollar question,” as one Republican pollster put it, is whether Democratic candidates in crucial Senate races can continue to outpace the president’s unpopularity.

  11. 11.

    Ken

    I’m reminded of the bit in Idiocracy where scientists, instead of working on declining human intelligence, concentrate on medicines for erectile disfunction and hair loss.

    Speaking of which, there is at least one men’s hair-loss medication which warns that women who are pregnant should not take the pills or handle broken pills. I wonder if those will be banned, or if the state’s overriding interest in hairy men men’s health will take precedence?

  19. 19.

    Eolirin

    None of these bills will ever pass and it’s highly unlikely they’ll even be noticed by most people, or that highlighting the hypocrisy they’re trying to point out will change anyone’s mind. The right won’t be shamed by hypocrisy, the squishy middle will think the people suggesting this are being ridiculous, and the left is already all in on protecting access.

    In the mean time, abortion restrictions will continue to pass and women will continue to be maimed and killed by them.

    So as much as things like this are cute, they’re also entirely pointless and not a solid basis for, or even meaningful component of, a strategy to try to deal with this crisis.

    Dem state legislators would be better served grandstanding on actual abortion access issues and the consequences of the new restrictions

    Which to be fair, they are doing during debate on abortion restriction bills. We’d be better served signal boosting the stuff that just happened in the Indiana state legislature on this. Including reps successfully shutting down an amendment to that law that would have required women to carry non viable fetuses to term.

  22. 22.

    Ken

    @Starfish: I’m a little annoyed with some of the reporting of that, since it make it sound like the scientist published fake data (a la Retraction Watch). It was a tweet! The worst I would say of it is that the scientist should have posted the “it’s sausage” follow-up faster.

  23. 23.

    Lums Better Half

    Finally!!

    I hope we can all recognize that men’s sexual health is not a real thing. In fact, we probably have too much of it around already.

  24. 24.

    JPL

    Eli Lily has already notified the state, that future expansion would be out of state.  Or what Starfish said above.

    Until states with draconian laws are punished by corporations, it won’t change.

  25. 25.

    Kent

    Yeah, I find the Viagra legislation kind of pointless too.  I expect the percentage of abortions that were the result of Viagra is vanishingly small.

    If we want to have grandstanding legislation, how about stripping churches of their tax-exempt status and dedicate the tax revenues towards child welfare and child and maternal healthcare?  Something like that?

    Something that would actually accomplish good things if passed.

  26. 26.

    Layer8Problem

    @SiubhanDuinne:  I saw that, saw the byline, spent forty-five seconds hemming and hawing whether I’d give the FTFNYT the boon of a valuable click, and then dove in.  I may have missed it since I was rage-reading, but I didn’t see any background delphic TFG/Ivanka-whisperer crap.  Is MAGA Habes trying to broaden her remit?

  28. 28.

    Immanentize

    I actually don’t like these types of bills. They really trivialize the privacy rights involved in banning abortion. It is a version os dum dum “what aboutism” to me that no one really ever picks up on as a real thing. It is just like Republicans saying “checkmate libtards!” Then again, Beavis and Butt-Head are making a come back.

    And, as policy it is wrong. At least one of the points of the Roe arguments is that patients and their doctors should not have state interference in the most personal of matters. Also, not being able to maintain a boner is not impotence, just FYI, clever clever fellows.

    So, I see this as a mirror image of all the worst of the right’s “logic” spewed these days. I don’t like it and I don’t support it and no Democrat should.

    YMMV

  29. 29.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @SiubhanDuinne: one thing I’ve noticed with Biden’s constantly promoted poll numbers, back in the Clinton/Bush II days, much was made of “job approval” vs “personal approval”. I’ve never seen that for Biden, and thinking about it, I don’t remember seeing it about Obama either

  31. 31.

    Eolirin

    @Starfish: It is, but industry pulling out of these states is unlikely to work in our favor.

    We have an electorate problem, and brain drain and less economic opportunity is going to make that worse, not better in those places.

  32. 32.

    Starfish

    @Immanentize: I think the point that he was making was more interesting. If you are going to do these things, what are you going to do about the men who cause pregnancies?

    A lot of these states do stupid things like:

  33. 33.

    Lapassionara

    @Math Guy: Bingo! I have thought for a long time that the best explanation for the fact that some men are so hell bent on banning abortion is their basic assumption that their sperm are sacred.

    in other news, today is one of the anniversaries of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima.

  34. 34.

    Starfish

    @Eolirin: That’s true. Business pulling out of these states is bad for both the people who live there and the future of politics.

  37. 37.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @The Pale Scot:

    Now, weeks after Israelah posted the video in a Facebook post detailing her “fun” encounter with police on July 7, Deputy Chief Sean Case said Worland and Bowe violated department policy and were both placed on administrative leave for 11 days.

    does administrative leave mean “paid vacation”?

    “I told him that I back the blue and showed him my Born To Ride For 45 vest with a #backtheblue patch,” she wrote. “It was so fun.”

  38. 38.

    Immanentize

    @OzarkHillbilly: but that is just an argument for everyone to be super shitty to everyone else. It’s not a serious proposal, it is not “equal” it is not helping actually overturn the abortion bans and makes our side look foolish too by floating loser “own the Gopers” proposals.

    Good for a blog snigger, I suppose, but bad politics. As I said, YMMV.

  40. 40.

    Ric Drywall

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    That’s the kind of point that plays better among the online initiated than among general voters, who may think Dems really want to ban Viagra.

  41. 41.

    Eolirin

    @Kent: This would be better, even though it also wouldn’t ever pass. At least it’s pointing at a real problem.

     

    @JPL: Corporations have far less leverage than you think. GOP pols aren’t running on improving people’s lives, so they don’t need to care about impoverishing their constituents. Most of that growth would accumulate to cities anyway, not the rural areas that are their power base.

    More economic growth and prosperity weakens the GOP, as it leads to more bother education and city growth. More poverty helps them. The more they can get city dwellers and educated people to leave the better their electoral positions are.

    We’d honestly be better off if there were massive population inflows to some of these states of highly liberal people and businesses. Some of these states are so small that we could completely flip statewide outcomes with just 100-200k extra people.

  43. 43.

    Immanentize

    @Starfish: Those are very important issues, absolutely trivialized by attacking other people’s treatable medical conditions. So, propose laws that actually increase father accountability, rather than going for the yuk yuk, pwn.

    Funny thing is, the super anti-abortion folks would probably support this type of State sponsored medical intrusion, while making it illegal to ever get a vasectomy.

  44. 44.

    Starfish

    @Eolirin: Corporations have PACs that they use to fund campaigns. They cannot be completely invested in one party or another if they want to get supportive legislation, but they can quit funding some of the worst people.

    These companies that are touting their diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to their employees while funding candidates spouting critical race theory nonsense and anti-LGBTQ legislation are starting to get flak from their employees as they should.

  45. 45.

    jonas

    @Starfish: ​
      The legislatures passing these laws don’t seem to have considered the fact that the hi-tech industries they hope to attract to their states are suddenly going to find the idea of locating in a no-choice state *highly* unattractive, particularly when it comes to getting high-skilled talent to move there. What young female engineer in her right mind would move to Ohio or Indiana (or about half a dozen other states) now? Same goes for university faculty. Sucks to be a search committee at OSU now, I bet.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    @Eolirin:

    @Starfish: It is, but industry pulling out of these states is unlikely to work in our favor.

    We have an electorate problem, and brain drain and less economic opportunity is going to make that worse, not better in those places.

    I disagree.  People have agency and decisions have consequences.

    Local politicians are less likely to pass egregious crap if their own economic well-being is likely to be threatened.

    The reason why the GOP in states like Indiana is passing this culture war crap to cater to their primary voting base is because they don’t believe there will be any negative consequences.  If they face actual economic consequences for their actions it will chip away at their support and majorities

    You might as well make the same argument about trade with  Russia or Saudi Arabia.  That “disengaging with Russia” will be counterproductive.  A lot of people do make that argument like Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany who desperately wants to keep buying Russian natural gas.  Just like the GOP in Indiana, Putin thought he could get away with invading Ukraine without meaningful consequences because he did so before in 2014.

  47. 47.

    scav

    I mean, there is God, their Lord and Savior trying to help the sinful man by putting his shameful Tool Of Shame & Debauchery entirely out of commission thereby putting him the wretch, into a state of grace and future assured blessedness, but then insurance companies (boo!!) scientists (hissss!!) and doctors (spawns of Satan!!!) are handing back to the poor man, forcing down his throat even!,  the little blue pills of his eternal damnation.

  48. 48.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @OzarkHillbilly: Our side allegedly believes in actually governing, in making lives better.  Stunt bills don’t help.  They merely make our side look like a mirror image of the GOP and fuel the both-siders.

  49. 49.

    lollipopguild

    @Math Guy: If every sperm is sacred then they need to outlaw male masturbation. Get some bounty hunters to help enforce the law. (I am a guy).

  51. 51.

    Eolirin

    @Starfish: Sure, I’m not saying they have no leverage. But they’re heavily constrained, especially when it comes to business investment.

    And there are enough super wealthy people that are ideologically aligned with the right to continue to provide sufficient campaign donations and line politicians’ pockets that simple withdrawal of donations won’t cause that much course correction.

    A concerted effort to fund left leaning candidates by large numbers of corporations might make more of a difference, but we aren’t seeing a move toward anything like that right now. It’s scary to think how much worse things would need to get for that to happen if the current moment isn’t enough already. To the point that I’m not sure it’d matter anymore by the time conditions got bad enough for them to want to try. Much easier and less risky to just relocate to friendlier enviornments.

    I don’t see a future where business interests come to our rescue.

  52. 52.

    JPL

    @Eolirin: There’s a problem with that though, corporations are not going to flock to Alabama, because of the school systems.

    GA is not as extreme, so was able to attract businesses.   I live north of Atlanta, and you could see the change starting.   I am horrified that Walker is within 4 points of Warnock though.

  53. 53.

    p.a.

    IIRC these bills  mocking the forced-birth crowd were common the last time the god-bothering freaks were feeling their oats, post 11/2010 maybe?  Remember women texting Rethug governors for advice on gynecological issues?

    There were a few viagra ‘laws’ proposed.  Click my nym for a couple examples from the intertubes of other stuff from the past mocking the christofascists.

  54. 54.

    Another Scott

    Meanwhile, … STATNews:

    WASHINGTON — Democrats will likely have to axe two provisions from their drug pricing plan to fit in with Senate rules, both of which would have brought down drug prices for people who get health insurance through their jobs.

    Democrats had hoped to cap insulin costs for patients with employer-sponsored health insurance in the massive climate, tax, and health bill they’re hoping to advance as soon as this weekend. They also wanted to protect the same pool of people, who get health insurance through their jobs, from bearing the brunt of future drug price hikes.

    But the Senate’s rules referee said early Saturday that neither would be allowed under the complicated rules that govern the fast-track process Democrats are using to pass the package without Republican support, according to both public statements and a Senate aide who shared further details.

    The parliamentarian also ruled that Democrats have to tweak an enforcement mechanism for their Medicare negotiation process, a separate Senate aide said, but it likely won’t have much practical impact.

    The changes likely won’t affect Democrats’ unanimous support for the bill, but they significantly narrow the number of people who will actually benefit from the prescription drug pricing reforms. The Senate is planning to begin voting on the package as soon as Saturday. Now, the package will likely only lower drug prices for people who are covered by Medicare.

    […]

    Incremental progress is important.

    Yet another argument for having enough Democrats in the Senate to pass bills via “regular order”. And yet another argument for revisiting the Byrd Rule and the power of the (un-elected) Parliamentarian…

    Get it done, celebrate the win, and build on it.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  55. 55.

    Layer8Problem

    @Eolirin:  Part of me is like “Hah!  Skewer them with LOGIC and whataboutism!”  The rest of me is, like, shouldn’t we be working on stuff a little more useful?  I mean it’s higher on the utility scale than colorful huge papier-mâché puppets in a protest, but not by a lot.

  56. 56.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @jonas: Which OSU? Ah, never mind. It sux for both OH and OK search committees.

    Similarly, I know of at least two entire research programs that are moving from forced-birth states (UT to CA and FL to PA). I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s dozens or eventually hundreds. Unfortunately, as others have here have noted, this just makes red states redder…and dumber, and doesn’t alter blue states much.

  57. 57.

    Eolirin

    @Kent: No, that’s not an accurate analogy to my position. Trade to Russia and Saudia Arabia does not flow back down to the people of Russia or Saudia Arabia, and besides those are not democracies and are not responsive to their people anyway.

    Cutting off trade with them makes it harder for their ruling parties to inflict damage to the rest of the world. It’s an indisputable good.

    But just like economic value to Saudia Arabia and Russia doesn’t flow down to its people, the economic harm of companies pulling out of states like Indiana rarely reaches up to the politicians creating the laws that cause that economic damage. They’re insulated from the economics of their states. The people harmed by their policies are not them. And not being the ones to suffer economic harm, their behaviors won’t be affected by it. See also Manchin, Sinema.

    And it’s not just that they won’t pay a price for focusing on culture war, it’s that doing so helps them win. Both directly, by turning out their base, and indirectly, by driving out the people who disagree.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Immanentize: Well, I’m not a politician so I don’t have to worry about that part. What I am is a person who has infrequent but infuriating encounters with bog standard ignorant troglodytes and what I want is to smack them upside the head with something that demonstrates what complete idiots they are in a way they can’t ignore. This won’t do that, but it will shut them the fuck up and that is good enough for me.

  60. 60.

    Eolirin

    @JPL: Yeah, I know. It’s just that that’s what would help. It’s not saying it’s realistic to expect. And yeah, if Georgia and North Carolina can be prevented from falling into rigged elections, the fact that there’s a solid business interest in locating in those places is part of what will turn them blue, or at least blueish, like Virginia.

    Unfortunately, a lack of abortion access might result in a significant slow down if not outright reversal of that trend in both states.

  61. 61.

    Chief Oshkosh

    @Another Scott: Nobody elected the goddamned parliamentarian, Harry Reid’s gift that keeps on given. C’mon Schumer, can her ass. This isn’t the first time the little twit has fucked around with a hugely popular, and needed, Democratic bill. I’d pray that she gets insulin-dependent diabetes, but I’m an atheist and she’d always be able to afford the prescription anyway.

    Hm. Maybe I’ll talk to Jesus over coffee tomorrow morning and suggest both diabetes and poverty be visited upon the Senate Parliamentarian.

  62. 62.

    Wapiti

    @Starfish: Yeah, pushing bills that require the state to crack down on child support, or forbidding rapists any custody rights make more sense than the viagra bills.

  63. 63.

    Spanky

    @Layer8Problem: This is a democrat in the Indiana Senate. The Republicans have a majority, if not super-majority (I ain’t looking).

    Nothing the Democrats offer up is going to pass. The best they can do is make the Republicans own the hypocrisy.  This is laying a marker for the future. There’s little hope it’ll be useful outside of shining a light on said hypocrisy, but what else is the minority party to do?

  64. 64.

    Eolirin

    @Chief Oshkosh: If firing the Parilmentarian makes even a single Democratic senator blink, the whole bill fails. Now is not the time to be fucking around with rules.

    We take the win and see if we can’t get an expansion via other means.

  65. 65.

    Another Scott

    @Eolirin: It may be a unique situation, but I’m reminded of the bidding war that Amazon pushed when they were deciding where to put their “HQ2” a few years ago.  NoVA won and among the conditions was substantial investment in “tech education”:

    NOVA’s Talent Pipeline

    The centerpiece of Virginia’s proposal for HQ2 was a performance-based, statewide investment in computer science and related programs to more than double Virginia’s tech-talent pipeline, which will benefit tech employers across the Commonwealth. Locally, the investment triggered the creation of innovation campuses for George Mason University in Arlington and Virginia Tech in Alexandria, which will add new tech talent to the region’s already robust tech workforce.

    Big companies can help governments make the right choices when it comes to things like education. And it’s very much in their interests to do so, but the pressure to only look 3 months out is strong….

    IOW, yes, companies that can will run away when the political environment is bad enough. But they can also help shape the future to make the political environment better. Good companies recognize that a race to the bottom doesn’t help their futures.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  67. 67.

    Eolirin

    @Spanky: Making them own the hypocrisy doesn’t mean anything when it’s this goofy.

    Highlighting the lack of support for children is a better way of highlighting forced birth hypocrisy. For children up until they’re born. Bring up a law increasing child support enforcement. Bring up expansion to financial support for mothers. Make them vote against denying rapists parental rights. Make them vote against exemptions for underage rape victims.

  69. 69.

    p.a.

    @Another Scott: Don’t know anything about the school certification organizations, but tweaking school systems by giving them the equivalent of BBB bond ratings when they try to go wingnut can’t hurt.
    And if the usual suspects; Ivies, Stanford, UChicago, Northwestern start making noises about downgrading student applicants from whackaloon districts (as they have in the past) they will get the attention of a socioeconomic audience with the potential to nip the stupidity quickly.  I would assume public universities are in a more complicated situation about these actions.

  71. 71.

    Ken

    @Lapassionara: If you mean Onan, his sin was failing to obey the law requiring levirate marriage (Deuteronomy 5). That is, after his brother died, he refused to impregnate his brother’s widow so that the brother would have an heir — the child being legally the brother’s, not Onan’s.

    (I’m not aware of any push to get that Biblical law back on the books.)

  72. 72.

    Eolirin

    @Ken: Yes, but that story is widely used to justify classifying masturbation, under every context, as a sin, by those seeking a rationale for doing so.

    There have been GOP candidates who have used it to propose exactly such a ban, in fact. Can’t even parody them on this.

  73. 73.

    kalakal

    @Another Scott: Or the Dems could do what the Repugs did in 2001 when the Senate Parliamentarian got in the way of Shrub jrs legislation and sack and replace them with someone more amenable

  74. 74.

    Raoul Paste

    WRT Eli Lily, if I were a highly qualified organic chemist, bio chemist, or medical professional, would I want to move to Indiana?   Attracting the best talent doubtless impacts the profitability of a pharmaceutical company, and one has to wonder if this is a consideration

    On the other hand Tesla is moving to Texas, so……

  75. 75.

    patrick II

    Abortion as murder probably means a state with such a law may want to charge you with murder for an out of state abortion when you return. An out of state abortion may be legal in another state, but no state has a law protecting murder.

    The logic is kind of screwed up, but I won’t be surprised if it happens.

  76. 76.

    Kent

    @Eolirin: The analogy is much more apt that you give credit.

    First, oil revenues in countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia most certainly do trickle down to the population.  A lot is skimmed off by oligarchs, but a lot isn’t.  The median household income in Saudi Arabia is probably 20x that of Sudan across the Red Sea.  That is “trickle down” wealth.  That is how those governments maintain control.  They provide enough prosperity to keep their support.

    Second, red states that are gerrymandered to within an inch of their lives are no longer effectively democracies.  What makes you think that Republican politicians in Indiana are any more subject to majority opinions that Putin or MBS?

  77. 77.

    Tony G

    @Raoul Paste: If “God” exists and is omnipotent then literally every thing that has ever happened is “God’s” will.  It’s an idiotic, sadistic belief system.  No wonder Republicans pretend to believe it.

  78. 78.

    Captain C

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    It’s the Vichy Times.  These assholes published puff pieces on Hitler in 1939.

    And also Walter Duranty’s puff pieces on Stalin in the 1930s.  During the Holodomor and the Great Purges, no less.

  79. 79.

    Kent

    @patrick II:

    Abortion as murder probably means a state with such a law may want to charge you with murder for an out of state abortion when you return. An out of state abortion may be legal in another state, but no state has a law protecting murder.

    The logic is kind of screwed up, but I won’t be surprised if it happens.

    Do states charge people for actual murders conducted out of state?  Can California, for example, charge the cops who murdered Breonna Taylor with murder since Kentucky chose not to?

    No they cannot.  Because they have no jurisdiction.  And it would make zero difference if Breonna Taylor had happened to be a California citizen visiting Kentucky.

  80. 80.

    Poe Larity

    Exxon, Chevron, Shell Report Record Profits on High Energy Prices

    Oil giants post $46 billion in combined profit in latest quarter, as they cashed in on rebounding energy demand

    Why do Republicans hate America and Capitalism? Can the paper of record tell us?

  81. 81.

    ian

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    “Hey Jesus, I know you are like into healing the sick, but could you, ya know, like go the other way and give this person diabetes?”

    “Don’t you Americans already do that yourselves at the largest rate in human history?”

    “Ya, but Jesus… the thing is, I need to score political revenge.”

    “Here is the card for a good voodoo doctor in New Orleans.”

  82. 82.

    CraigM

    @Ken: That would be Finasteride or Dutasteride. Both are used in treating benign prostate hyperplasia (which is only “benign” in the sense that it isn’t cancer yet) , and prenatal exposure will cause birth defects in male fetuses, specifically a badly deformed penis. It’s not clear how to assign the impact across genders – males use the drug and are the potential victims of misuse.

    I believe that merely handling the pills would give sufficient exposure, and men on that drug are barred from donating blood for a year after discontinuing the drug. Since there are women of childbearing age in my household, the drug gets treated as the most toxic substance in the house. It should not be legal for vanity purposes such as hair growth. Men need to learn what women are starting to be assert – just as women of all sizes and shapes can be attractive, bald can be beautiful.

  85. 85.

    Kirk Spencer

    @Immanentize: To me this is a walk and chew gum issue. For some people hitting the funny bone leads to refrigerator moments. And nobody said we can’t do these and the serious arguments. But since the end goal is maximizing the number of people in our camp, so long as we can use both tools then inelieve we should.

  87. 87.

    Jay

    @Kent:

    States can charge murder against anybody they want.

    just the process of being charged is a major burden, if you can afford it.

    Can they how ever, convict?

    If the State has a Fetal Personhood Law, it can be argued that Person A, took Person B out of State, to murder them.

    I can see a Federalist Judge accepting that argument and allowing the case to go to trial.

    Cruelty is the point.

  89. 89.

    sab

    @jonas: Even if they only hire male engineers, a lot of those guys have wives.

    I know women in Ohio who are now afraid to try for another child because a high risk pregnancy has become too dangerous. They will be able to go out of state to abort an unwanted pregnancy, but they are really at risk now if they  miscarry and can’t get a timely D&C.

  90. 90.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jay: No, a state can only pass laws affecting people and things within its jurisdiction.

    ETA:  Okay, it can pass anything is chooses, but those laws would have no more effect than Baud declaring himself king of the world.

  91. 91.

    Danielx

    @Starfish:

    Legislators from shitkicker districts, in unison:

    None of MY constituents work for Eli Lilly!

    Sane Indiana residents:

    That’s because your constituents are too stupid to qualify for Lilly jobs! If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be your constituents!

  94. 94.

    CraigM

    @Kent: If states could charge out-of-state abortions as murder in a place like Georgia, businesses such as Delta Airlines would have to reorganize their operations and ATL could no longer be a hub, because a huge number of women would not be safe changing planes there (no statute of limitations on murder).

    That might make travel easier for locals briefly, but the loss of 90 percent of its flights would make the airport a very expensive ghost town.  I’m not sure there is enough gate space available at safe airports, so Delta (and possibly other airlines) would quite possibly fail as businesses.

  95. 95.

    Kent

    @Danielx:

    @Starfish:

    Legislators from shitkicker districts, in unison:

    None of MY constituents work for Eli Lilly!

    Sane Indiana residents:

    That’s because your constituents are too stupid to qualify for Lilly jobs! If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be your constituents!

    No, but they clean the houses, repair the cars, fix the plumbing, mow the lawns, and pump the gas of people who work for Eli Lilly!

  96. 96.

    Kent

    @Jay:

    @Kent:

    States can charge murder against anybody they want.

    just the process of being charged is a major burden, if you can afford it.

    Can they how ever, convict?

    If the State has a Fetal Personhood Law, it can be argued that Person A, took Person B out of State, to murder them.

    I can see a Federalist Judge accepting that argument and allowing the case to go to trial.

    Cruelty is the point.

    I don’t disagree.  Crazy GOP legislatures can pass any insane and cruel bullshit they want.  It is a huge hassle, and it will take effort and court cases to unwind and neuter it.   But it doesn’t mean they actually have the authority to regulate activities beyond their borders.

    For example, I would love for my home state of Washington to prosecute coal companies in West Virginia for environmental crimes and lock up all the coal executives in West Virginia.  Or haul them off airplanes in chains if they ever change planes in Seattle.  But alas, that isn’t going to happen.

  98. 98.

    danielx

    @Kent:

    No, but they clean the houses, repair the cars, fix the plumbing, mow the lawns, and pump the gas of people who work for Eli Lilly!

    Trust me, people who work at Lilly wouldn’t have the denizens of Lower Buttscratch at their houses on a bet.

  99. 99.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Jay: Whatever.  You clearly understand everything far better than I do, so I will leave you to it.

  102. 102.

    Emma from Miami

    @eclare: my first political science prof in college urged us to read the NYT because that way “we would know what the bastards were up to.” That was in the early 1980s.

  103. 103.

    trollhattan

    Somebody’s dream to become a reality.

    August 6, 2022 at 11:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

    A North Carolina school district said it plans to put AR-15 guns in every school in the event of a future mass shooting, the Asheville Citizen Times reports.

    Said Sheriff Buddy Harwood: “I do not want to have to run back out to the car to grab an AR, because that’s time lost. Hopefully, we’ll never need it, but I want my guys to be as prepared as prepared can be.”

    Guessing Buddy and his buddies will be running back to their cars, regardless of what guns are where. We have an apt example.

  104. 104.

    Kelly

    @trollhattan: Running back to the car? The officers responding won’t already know there’s an active shooter? The school gun safe will be easier to find and open than the car?

  105. 105.

    Poe Larity

    @trollhattan: What about body armor? And radios? And a battering ram. And a strategy manual. And public relations specialist. And Fraternal Order steward. And a lawyer. And zip ties for parents.

    Why not a substation in every school?

  106. 106.

    realbtl

    There won’t be no silly gun lockers, they’ll be like fire extinguisher in those plexiglass nooks.

  107. 107.

    Subsole

     

     

    @SiubhanDuinne: Y’know, I was trying to figure out just what the media’s (primary) malfuntion is.

    Why the appalling standard of coverage, lo these few decades?

    I thought of Xenophon. This was a guy who adored Sparta. Wrote glowing puff pieces about them and their virtue and what a wonderful, noble, manly people they were. Total fanboy. Which is funny, because our boi Xenophon was an Athenian. The people who fought an apocalyptic 27 year war with Sparta. Who brutalized well over 90% of their populace. The people who were basically the Stalins of ancient Hellas. He wrote all that frap not because it was accurate, but because he was using Sparta as a cutout to criticize what he didn’t like about life in democratic Athens.

    Maybe that’s the issue: maybe they are a bunch of well-off, insulated liberals ensconced in a liberal social and professional bubble, inside liberal urban culture, inside the liberal coasts. They hold up those rubes in diners to make a sly commentary about their own social circle.

    Or maybe it’s daddy issues. These folks sell a very specific vision of conservatism. One where middle class upscale suburban strivers are lauded for their simple, uncomplex wisdom and simple, uncomplex views, inculcated by their simple, down-home uncomplex work. (The simple, uncomplex minds sonehow never figure in…) Maybe they think if they just suck enough Nazi bunions these people will finally accept them – and dad will finally have to acknowledge that they have real jobs, even if The Boss never sang a song about what they do.

    Or maybe they’re just a bunch of soulless, glassy-eyed little social climbers, who will watch the earth burn if they get to be famous.

    Or, we could just apply Dr. Ockham’s Patented Depillatory Implement, and conclude they all just agree with their slimebag buddies in the GOP comms shop that blacks, Jews, gays, Muslims, women and all the rest of us don’t deserve to be American.

    Dunno. It all ends up in the same place anyway. Collaborators.

  109. 109.

    Subsole

    @Lapassionara: I assure you, these people do jot yhink sperm is sacred at all. They have tossed way too many rags to have any illusions.

    Besides, if sperm is sacred, then the guy it belongs to has a responsibilty for it. And these boys are not here for that. 

    The entire point of all this ugly shit is to make women the only responsible party on reproduction. Make them carry ALL of the burden. For both parties.

    The entire purpose of modern conservatism is to make everyone but you responsible for what you did, why you did it, and cleaning up the mess.

  111. 111.

    Suzanne

    The point of abortion bans is to make women financially dependent on men and to drive them out of the workforce, so that below-average men will be more likely to find wives and women are driven out of high-status jobs and education.

  112. 112.

    cain

    @Eolirin: That bill is going to affect Purdue and IU enrollment. Nobody is going to want to send their kid to a place where a rape could ruin their kids life.

    Also, if any of those programs want to attract stellar athletes… good luck with that. They’ve killed their basketball and football programs.

  114. 114.

    Citizen Alan

    @Ken: The fact that (IIRC) the Bible is completely silent on whether Onan’s brother’s widow actually wanted to have sex with Ona is just the chef’s kiss.

  115. 115.

    Subsole

    @Eolirin:

    This.

    The GOP is the poverty party.

    Sad thing is, it only works because the utterly supine media goes aling with it. Jesus Hephaestus Christ, these people shut down the government how many times? And somehow the Beltway blamed…Obama.

  117. 117.

    Immanentize

    @Poe Larity: I suggest the robo cop model that is not part human in every K-12 class. Sure Billy might get mowed down for turning in homework late and Janet might get crushed for passing a note on class; but freedom ain’t free, people!!

  118. 118.

    FastEdD

    Eli Lilly is a great company-I inherited stock in Lilly from my folks who have held it for many years. It has gone up from $50 to over $300. My advisor told me to sell it years ago and I told her to pound sand. I was right. OTOH, I know about the evil that big pharma does, and I figure one way to battle obscene drug prices is to own some of the company that is gouging me. Make them pay for it. Lilly was hit with a fine of $183 million two days ago for Medicare fraud, not a good look. I wholeheartedly approve of them moving future production out of state if Indiana has been turned into Dumbfuckistan.

  119. 119.

    Subsole

    @Kent:

    The problem I see there is that a lot of the current Gomers don’t actually seem to be from/living in the states they are applying to rule…

    /s (but not really)

  122. 122.

    Immanentize

    @Tata: And that goes for the men who make the person pregnant as well. I think this is an overlooked reality of such a world.

    I am one of the people who think Handmaidens Tale analogies are not helpful (Imani Gandy is declaring a ban on them before 2023 starts) but two details necessary to that story we’re some ubiquitous infertility among men, and the fact that all the men seemed to go along with the new world order, abandoning their wives in the process. The story itself was hyperbolic analogy; more The Prisoner and less a real possibility.

    But the men (and their henchwomen) who like that imaginary world (I get to have sex with hot young women while my old wife holds them down!) are dead set against any consequences for making a person pregnant.

  126. 126.

    Immanentize

    @cain: I agree — but I think it will take about 4-6 years (college recruitment/enrollment time plus a few years) for that to start hitting the bottom line of some universities.

    Of course, the real true believers don’t care, except for the football teams, maybe.

  127. 127.

    Subsole

    @Chief Oshkosh:

    That’s not really his sphere. He’s more the curative type, I believe.

    Maybe try Apollo Smintheus? That guy do not play around when it comes to plague.

    Heck, if that’s outside your comfort zone, just talk to the ol’ Tetragrammaton Himself. Pharoah gave him a solid reference on plagues. Apparently Big J’s Old Man is a dab hand at pestilence.

    (Or smoting your enemies with emerods in their secret parts, if that’s your flavor.)

  130. 130.

    Subsole

     

    @Ken: Give ’em a few years.

    I bet these folks’ search histories would make harrowing  interesting reading.

  131. 131.

    Tata

    @Immanentize: And that goes for the men who make the person pregnant as well.

     

    No. No sperm donors will die because of an abortion ban – except in those teen suicide pacts or the murder/suicides we sometimes hear about. But other than that no sperm donors will die.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    OpenThread:  Billin recently reported good news on getting his Prius repaired.  Today I finally was able to spend some more time on my 2004 VW Jetta TDI.  A couple of weeks ago I went to start it and the ignition key wouldn’t turn.  I tried all the usual things (rocking it back and forth, rocking the steering wheel, spraying some silicone spray in the lock, trying a different key) and nothing helped.  Since replacing they key cylinder or the column lock housing (which has a habit of breaking internally and jamming up) requires being able to have the ignition in the ON position, this was a bit of a problem…

    I’ve been waiting for ordered parts to arrive (a new ignition lock requires keying to the code on the RFID chip on the fob which has to match the code sent by the instrument cluster or the Immobilizer circuit will turn off the car after it’s been running a few seconds, and doing the lock programming/keying took over a week), I’ve been looking at more videos and reading more stuff.  Someone mentioned that 2005.5s have had a problem with a plastic bit in the lock breaking off and getting jammed in the bottom of the lock preventing the key from being inserted all the way.  Hmm…  Could something similar be happening here??

    I made a small bend in some ~ 1 mm brass art wire to use as a digger/hook.  I went out to the car and tried the key again – still no luck.  So, I started seeing if I could dig stuff out of the keyway on the lock.  Hmm…  More stuff (lint, grey stuff) here than I would have expected.  Spent a few minutes doing that, then blowing out the lock with canned air.  Try the key again, still no luck.  Try the digging again, hmm, more stuff is coming out.  Try the key again, still no luck, but what’s this, it seems like I felt a tumbler or something loosen up and move!  Spray some silicone in the keyway, move it in and out and around, keep trying to rotate it, maybe a little progress.  Dig some more with the brass hook.  Try the key some more, … Zooks!  Dash lights!  Woo hoo!

    Leave the key on, unhook the battery negative terminal.  Leave the key in the lock and get tools ready to start taking things apart.  Let 20+ minutes go by, take off the airbag from the steering wheel (easier than I expected – the trick is to aim the medium-size screwdriver at the post correctly), quick break to look to see how to disconnect the wiring from the airbag – Ok the connector just pulls straight up.  Photos to document the orientation.  Ok.

    Drats.  I need a funky M12 spline socket to take off the steering wheel (to gain access to the fasteners holding on many of the plastic bits covering the lock cylinder).  I can have that here tomorrow sometime.  Ok.  Clean up, put things away, close the hood and lock up the car.

    But what to do about the key??

    (sigh)  Ok, here goes nothing.  Key off.  Hear satisfying CLUNK inside the lock assembly – just like it’s supposed to.

    Insert key, turn on, works fine.  Cycle it 5x, take it out, repeat several times.  Lock the column (by turning it until the column lock engages), unlock the ignition fine (by turning the wheel to take tension off the lock).  Repeat the other way.  Repeat turning and locking and unlocking many times.  Seems to be working perfectly.

    I’ll let it sit a few hours and think about whether it’s “fixed” enough now or whether I should install the new parts I have (ignition switch, housing, ignition lock, break-away safety mounting bolts).  If all goes well, I’ll probably looking at another 3 hours of work if I want to replace everything, and that’s not fun inside a 100+F car…  I’m cautiously optimistic that the “fix” was cleaning out and lubricating the lock cylinder.

    Maybe the stars are aligning for some of us??

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  135. 135.

    cain

    @Immanentize: Of course, the real true believers don’t care, except for the football teams, maybe.

    For Indiana, it’s basketball. They might think they’ll just get the local talent – but not being able to attract the best for anything is going to have a chilling effect. You can also bet that these fascists will also be going after the liberal arts curriculum next.  The so called party of “small government” is going to be wanting expansive government powers to go after everyone.

  136. 136.

    Eolirin

    @Kent: State wide offices are not subject to gerrymandering, and gerrymanders break when there are significant population shifts.

    Votes are, for now, still being tallied rather than entirely made up. Opposing political parties are not yet being jailed. Population in flows and out flows matter to policy outcomes.

    And while that wealth may trickle down, some, in places like Saudia Arabia and Russia, it is very little, there’s still rampant poverty for normal people, even if there are even worse places to be. But it still doesn’t really matter as there’s no mechanism for people to push for changes to policy, short of threatening revolution, so the mood of the country and population in flows and outflows do not matter to policy outcomes, unless the population literally overthrows the government.

    A more correct analogy is that these sorts of population outflows are like a bloodless, semi-voluntary purge, something every fascist dictatorship engages in a more violent less voluntary version of to solidify power.

  137. 137.

    sab

    One of the jackals, I think it was Ozark, said call my out of state sensible sister.

    Amazingly good advice. Thanks OH.

  140. 140.

    Ksmiami

    @Omnes Omnibus: I see you’re up to your regular condescension… it’s a day ending in Y… Just keep on doing you…

     

    @Suzanne: Ding ding ding… there is nothing good that will come out of abortion bans. Republicans really don’t care if this country sinks.

  141. 141.

    J R in WV

    @Villago Delenda Est: ​
     

    It’s the Vichy Times. These assholes published puff pieces on Hitler in 1939.

    Actually, they started in 1922, and kept it up until war was declared by Hitler against the US… sad!

  142. 142.

    J R in WV

    @Another Scott: ​
     

    …Virginia Tech in Alexandria…

    Funny, I coulda sworn I’ve been to lots of Va Tech games in Blacksburg, Va… never in Alexandria, tho. Money talks, I bet they opened a campus where the money is…

  143. 143.

    J R in WV

    @Omnes Omnibus: ​
     

    those laws would have no more effect than Baud declaring himself king of the world.

    But, but, but…. wait, I’ll come back in ;~)

  144. 144.

    FredW

    Nina Turner introduce a similar bill back when she was a State Senator in Ohio. It said married men couldn’t get an ED prescription without their wife’s approval.

    That was the first time I had heard of her and I had such high hopes, soon to be dashed…

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