Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Proof that we need a blogger ethics panel.

Prediction: the GOP will rethink its strategy of boycotting future committees.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

They’re not red states to be hated; they are voter suppression states to be fixed.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Only Democrats have agency, apparently.

No one could have predicted…

American History and Black History Cannot Be Separated

“Squeaker” McCarthy

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

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Motto for the House: Flip 5 and lose none.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

T R E 4 5 O N

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

I really should read my own blog.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

The truth is, these are not very bright guys, and things got out of hand.

You are here: Home / Jan 6: Hearings / Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Everything All At Once

Wednesday Morning Open Thread: Everything All At Once

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This story deserves its own post, but there’s so much news right now…

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223Comments

  1. 1.

    satby

    The big winter storm advisory for my area is predicting between 12-18 inches of snow, followed by plunges in the temperature for Christmas. So glad I already pulled the plug on going anywhere anyway because I was sick. Going early to get more cat food, then getting ready to hunker down from tomorrow afternoon on.

    Big storm over most of the country, so everyone stay safe!

  3. 3.

    OzarkHillbilly

    “an intangible that’s hard to explain to men.”

    Hmmmm… I have no problem understanding it.

  6. 6.

    Ken

    “some Senate Republicans feel they probably should spare [House Republicans] from the burden of having to govern.”

    I wonder what One Weird Trick he has in mind to spare them. Getting a half-dozen Representatives to switch parties seems unlikely.  Perhaps he’s planning to send a nice salmon mousse to the House Republican Christmas party?

  8. 8.

    David ⛄ 🎅The Establishment🎄 🦌 🕎 Koch

    Sanders says it’s mistake for Democrats to go all in on abortion battle.

    Wagging his finger to the bitter end

  10. 10.

    Soprano2

    Today is going to be normal weather here, then the awfulness begins. They’re forecasting 2-4″ of snow, which I’m not worried about but will make a lot of people here go nuts. I’m more worried about the temps; lows below zero and wind chills in the -30 degree range. That’s dangerous! Luckily they’re coming today to clean our chimney. Should have done it in October, but I kept forgetting to call

    Time to break out my long down coat!

  11. 11.

    Amir Khalid

    Biden was more honest with that little girl than most politicians ever are, with each other or with the public.

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    Strange glowing orb appeared in the sky mid-afternoon yesterday when the storm clouds abated*.

    Oh, that was the Sun. On trotting down to the mailbox on the street, saw the mother of all rainbows.

    *Temporary situation, as there are multiple cold fronts in play, all with stormy weather associated, and the winds have shifted to westerlies.

    In the meantime, for no reason other than pleasure, the Nicholas brothers.

  13. 13.

    OzarkHillbilly

    [email protected]
    🛩🎄 This is the most detailed Christmas tree we’ve ever seen drawn with an airplane. Presents, ornaments, and star! Well done.

    📼

    Link

    Even a Scrooge like me can appreciate the effort that went in to this

  15. 15.

    Betty Cracker

    “The fight for Ukraine is the fight for democracy itself.” — Speaker Pelosi

    That’s the truth, and I think this state visit is in part about making it harder for House Repubs to go wobbly. I will write to my crappy GOP congressman about it.

  16. 16.

    Suzanne

    Our stupid weather will be on Friday and Saturday. Lows of 5 degrees. HOT YOGA TIME! I love sweating when it’s cold.

    Today is Spawn the Younger’s birthday. Woohoo!

  17. 17.

    Low Key Swagger

    I have two homes to secure against the coming temps, any ice here and the situation gets bad quickly.  We’re just not geared for it.  I have to make sure the horses have something to eat if the pastures ice over.  Cancelled Christmas plans which makes me sad since we actually have both kids close enough to come visit, but I don’t want them on the roads.  Bah.  Grateful I’m not sick and stocked up well in advance.  The grocery stores were a complete shit show.  Still, bah.

  18. 18.

    Elizabelle

    @satby:   Good to hear you are on the mend.  Inside, with pets, under blankets.  While the world outside is blanketed with snow.

    I would love if jackals shared photos of the major snowfalls in their area.  The world looks so perfect after a big snow.

    Undriveable, perhaps, but a sort of perfect.

  19. 19.

    Suzanne

    As for abortion…. I still maintain that the conservatives’ end goal with it is to drive women out of public life and back under the financial control of men. It’s about a reversal of the social order that makes women less dependent on mediocre and bad men. It is evil.

  20. 20.

    NotMax

    @NotMax

    And sure enough here comes Act II. Rain now beating on the metal roof of cottage so loudly it drowns out the sound from the TV. Expect multiple such events to blow in and out through Xmas.

  21. 21.

    geg6

    Pittsburgh and Penn State are in deep mourning this morning .  The great Steeler running back and all-around good guy, Franco Harris has died.  He was set to have his jersey retired at Saturday’s game, only the third Steeler ever given that honor.  It is also the 50th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception, which set him on his path to greatness:

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=H1l5aTUK228

  22. 22.

    Geminid

    @Ken: For various reasons there aren’t six or even four House Republicans right now who would switch parties. There will be a faction of purple district caucus members, though who will try to dig in against the radicals. They’ll have to depend on a majority of their caucus for support if they are to keep the most unpopular measures off the House floor. If unsuccessful, those purple district members can be pressured  to vote for the toxic bills, but they cannot be compelled to vote for them.

    Then there could be defections on roll call votes and maybe even from the caucus. David Valadeo (CA) and Dan Newhouse (WA), for instance won reelection even after voting yes on the second Impeachment. They represent purple districts in jungle primary states and they could probably win reelection as Independents. That route might even be the easier one.

    Don Bacon (NE) will probably retire and he might rather retire as an Independent. If turmoil in the Republican caucus brings the House into deadlock and discredit, these three might lend their votes to reorganize the House under a new Speaker. Bacon has already said that in principle he’s open to the idea. This could actually be done with a couple more defectors.

    But in the meantime I expect House Republicans to organize the House with their own Speaker, and I think that Speaker will be Kevin McCarthy. Managing this crazy caucus will be a challenge that a politician of far greater ability would be hard pressed to meet. McCarthy might possibly hold the Speaker’s gavel the entire two years of this Congress, but he very well may be the last Republican Speaker this decade. 

  23. 23.

    Spanky

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    “an intangible that’s hard to explain to men.”

    Hmmmm… I have no problem understanding it.

    Exactly! I laughed when I read that, because I know exactly which kind of men. And glad I am that I ain’t one of ’em.

  24. 24.

    Spanky

    @geg6: Oh! You broke the news to me. As a Pittsburgher and Penn State alumni this cuts deep, especially on the eve of the 50th anniversary.

    I was on a PAT bus on my way to my job during Christmas break (Kaufman’s downtown toy dept!) when that play went down. A couple of passengers had radios. It was chaos.

  26. 26.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: Re your last prediction, from your keyboard to the FSM’s delicate, al dente orecchiette!

    @geg6: That is sad news. He was a legendary player, and from what I’ve heard over the years, a good guy off the field too.

  29. 29.

    geg6

    @Betty Cracker:

    He was a truly good guy, very charitable and a staunch Dem.  He married a girl I went to high school with and they stayed married all these years.  He lived locally and everybody loves him.  I’m feeling very emotional about this.  Those 70s Steelers were such a huge part of my adolescence/young adult life.

  30. 30.

    mrmoshpotato

    @satby: Get stocked up for yourself and the kitties.

    We’re hunkering down here for the Christmas K-O-L-D and the wind that’s supposed to join it.

  32. 32.

    OzarkHillbilly

    A 12-year-old who sold more than $56,000 in popcorn through his Boy Scouts troop recently spent more than 20% of those earnings buying presents for children in foster care in his region of Minnesota, delivering one of the Christmas season’s most heartwarming stories.

    Jonathan Werner’s act of kindness became possible after he emerged as the top Boy Scouts popcorn seller in Minnesota and one of the top three in the US, the local news outlet KARE reported Monday.
    ……………………………..
    He raised $46,194 in 2021. This year, that number swelled to $56,396, an increase of more than $10,000, KARE reported.

    Werner could have used his share of the money on a new bicycle, camping gear, video games, or whatever else the hearts of 12-year-old Boy Scouts desire in his community of Cambridge, which is populated by fewer than 10,000. But instead, he and his mom spent $11,300 during a multi-day shopping spree at Kohl’s, Walmart, Fleet Farm and Amazon buying 600 gifts for local children in foster care. He wrapped up the toys, cosmetics and clothing that he bought for children he had never met at a party in early December where his fellow Boy Scouts – equipped with tape, scissors and wrapping paper – helped him wrap the gifts.

    The bounty is hefty enough to provide a gift for every foster child in four counties, as well as for some in a fifth, KARE reported. His mother, Serena Kolk, told the station that Werner read over every one of those children’s written wishlists before going shopping. “He reads what every kid writes and tries to find something he thinks they are specifically going to like,” Kolk added.
    …………………………………..
    “I just want to … let them know they are loved and appreciated,” Werner said.

    Damned dogs are downstairs cutting onions again.

  34. 34.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Spanky: I watched it on my family’s black and white TV.

    I, a hard core Raider fan at the time, was screaming at the TV, “NO! No no nononono…. AAAAAUGH!!!” and collapsed into a heap of despair.

  39. 39.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Elizabelle: I would love if jackals shared photos of the major snowfalls in their area.  The world looks so perfect after a big snow.

    I just might.  Time – and snow – and the amount of dancing it inspires – will tell.

    (I don’t shovel.  I rent.)

  42. 42.

    geg6

    @Elizabelle:

    I would, but we are supposed to get more ice than snow here.  I have to run out today to get Lovey’s insulin refill before I can’t get out of the driveway because the ice weather will turn to sun-zero weather and who knows how long it will take for the roads to be safe.  Ugh.  Good thing we were planning a quiet Christmas at home.

  43. 43.

    PST

    I question how much the opposition of white evangelical Protestants to abortion has to do with religious belief. I have MAGA relatives with no discernable religious convictions whatsoever who have become just a radicalized against abortion even though they cared nothing about it 15 years ago. Those white evangelical Protestants are mostly MAGA republicans now and are happy to proclaim what team they adhere to any chance they get. I wonder how a poll about abolishing the FBI would break down by religious persuasion.

  44. 44.

    Scout211

    Interesting article on CNN this morning about the security lapse at the Pelosi family home in SF. The home had not had a security assessment by the Capitol police for four years.

    In a November letter exclusively obtained by CNN, Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of California, the chair of the House Administration Committee, asked the USCP for detailed answers about the lack of security at the Pelosis’ home, including why the residence had not received an assessment in the previous four years.

     

    It’s unclear what recommendations Capitol Police made in 2018 and which ones were approved by Congress to be implemented. But the USCP has assessed the Pelosis’ home since the attack and will perform the security assessments more frequently, Manger told CNN.

     

    In 2021, Pelosi was the subject of 632 threat cases opened by the USCP, according to Lofgren’s letter, more than 6% of all threat cases overseen by Capitol Police last year. At least 24 of those threats were presented to the Justice Department for possible prosecution, according to the letter.

  45. 45.

    PAM Dirac

    @OzarkHillbilly:

    Billie Jean would be a basket case if that ever happened to her​

    I don’t know how well our dog would handle it, but I know that I would be a basket case. I’d probably be a basket case even before the mistake.

  49. 49.

    Soprano2

    @Low Key Swagger: For some reason everyone goes nuts before the first storm of the year, even if it’s only going to be an inch or two of snow which doesn’t affect your ability to go to the store at all!

  50. 50.

    Barbara

    @Spanky: ​It wasn’t on TV locally because of the “black out” rule. We heard it on the radio and walking outside I could hear cheering up and down the street.

  51. 51.

    PAM Dirac

    @Elizabelle:

    I would love if jackals shared photos of the major snowfalls in their area. The world looks so perfect after a big snow.

    It’s not supposed to get really cold here until after the precipitation, so rain only is forecast. It does look nice and while people are hunkered down it can get beautifully quiet as well.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @geg6:

    the ice weather will turn to sun-zero weather

    “Sun-zero” perfectly describes it. The first car accident I ever had was on ice in the middle of a brilliant sunny day, but -10.

  56. 56.

    SFAW

    @Suzanne: ​ 

    As for abortion…. I still maintain that the conservatives’ end goal with it is to drive women out of public life and back under the financial control of men. It’s about a reversal of the social order that makes women less dependent on mediocre and bad men. It is evil.

    Yeah, I would say you’re pretty much 200 percent correct on that.​

  57. 57.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Suzanne:

    I still maintain that the conservatives’ end goal with it is to drive women out of public life and back under the financial control of men.

    Oof.  I mean, they want this.  They say it out loud!  It’s one of those things that gets memory-holed when they do, I guess because so few people (especially in the press) want to believe how extreme Republicans are.

    I think abortion itself is primarily more elemental.  It’s slut-shaming.  As my mother quoted the attitudes of her evangelical family in the 50s, “You play, you pay.”  They believe sex is evil and women should be punished for it.  They think blacks are irresponsible breeders and should be punished for it.  They get a hate fix, they get to be cruel, and they get the ego rush of being valiant heroes battling the baby killers.

    That this meshes perfectly with their belief (and goal) that women have no legitimate role except wives and mothers is just a big bonus.

  58. 58.

    Low Key Swagger

    @Soprano2: That’s partly true, but for a lot of us rural dwellers, even a thin sheet of ice can make getting out of our hills and hollers impossible, so we stock up.

  59. 59.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Soprano2: (Some of) The kids are alright.
    @gvg: A few years back someone found a human skull atop one of the entrance piers to the old Bourbon Cemetery.I don’t think they ever figured out where it came from or to whom it had belonged to.
    @mrmoshpotato: Some day you’re gonna pay for that.​

  60. 60.

    AM in NC

    @Suzanne:  I agree 100% with this analysis.  It’s Christianist enforcement of the patriarchy, no doubt.

    The sad/scary part to me is how many non Christianists are kind of, “eh doesn’t affect me directly, whatevs”.  Very much including “good, liberal men.”

    My hubby and his friends (ALL of who voted for Democrats, don’t get me wrong) were very much like the head in the sand male GOP strategists. Our guys all initially assured us wimmenz that “no way the USSC overturns Roe” when we women KNEW it was under threat because the women all pay much closer attention to the ins and outs of the political shit FOR EXACTLY THIS REASON.   Then when it was overturned, guess which of us postcarded, phone banked, and knocked doors?

    These are liberal men, highly educated, well off, reliable Democratic voters with liberal/progressive views and politically-active wives, and we couldn’t get the men to do anything other than vote.  Patriarchy is real. It is pervasive. It extends into our most intimate and our most public spaces.

    And I understand now, in my middle 50s why so many older women are angry – after almost a half century of having to fight off unwanted sexual advances/harassment/cat calls and violent assaults; of having to prove yourself over and over again to men who assume you’re a ditz while accepting your idiot male colleague as awesome until he proves his incompetence; after decades of doing more work around the house because it’s the cultural norm and systems work to support those gender roles; after watching how our media treats male and female power-seekers differently; and after being told for the first 20 years of your lives that women are equal and can do anything – to then run into the buzzsaw of the reality of patriarchy once you exit college and begin work and family life? WE ARE SICK OF THIS SHIT.  WE ARE ANGRY. And we FINALLY have the bandwidth, after the kids are grown, to give space to this anger.  It’s not an accident that the vast majorities of divorces are initiated by women.  And it’s no accident that some states and some Republican groups are already going after no-fault divorce.

    Atwood was right in how so many “good people”, including many liberal/progressive men, will look the other way as women’s rights are choked off – either because they deep-down know they benefit from these gender relations, or because they feel it’s not their place to insert themselves into a “women’s issue”.

    What we need is ALL good people fighting together against Christofascist White Supremacist authoritarianism.  I will NOT allow these fascist fuckers to win.

  61. 61.

    Soprano2

    @Frankensteinbeck: Right after Roe was overturned, I heard an older woman interviewed on the radio who said something like “Now those young women will have to think about who they have sex with. They won’t be able to open their legs to just anyone”. This is really what they believe, that it was only young single women who ever had abortions, and they only had them because they had too much sex they shouldn’t have been having. It’s crazy!

  63. 63.

    SFAW

    @Geminid: ​
     

    Managing this crazy caucus will be a challenge that a politician of far greater ability would be hard pressed to meet. McCarthy might possibly hold the Speaker’s gavel the entire two years of this Congress, but he very well may be the last Republican Speaker this decade. 

    Bill Parcells once said that perhaps the best job he did as a head coach was when he coached the Jets and Ray Lucas (a decent QB, but not, shall we say, Brady/Rodgers/Manning material) to an 8-8 record after Vinny Testaverde was injured (and out for the season) in Game 1. With a healthy Vinny, the Jets almost-certainly would have gone deep in the playoffs that year; losing him pretty much destroyed much of their offensive capabilities. Herding the Rethug “caucus” will require management at an even higher level, unless they ALL agree to become the Partei of Fascism.
    I feel pretty comfortable opining that McQarthy couldn’t (as we used to say) “carry Parcells’s jock” in that regard.

  65. 65.

    Mai Naem mobile

    Anybody seen this. Reno mayor who just won her reelection had a GPS tracker put on her vehicle by a private investigator.

    https://thenevadaindependent.com/article/lawsuit-private-investigator-placed-gps-tracking-device-on-reno-mayors-vehicle

    There’s a Robert Beadles guy,ofcourse part of the MAGat world, who was running outside ads in the Reno mayoral race but no actual proven connection.  https://www.rgj.com/story/news/2022/03/14/robert-beadles-california-washoe-county-politics/9419737002/

  66. 66.

    AM in NC

    @AM in NC:  Adding to my comment to say I know not all men act like this, and many men do actively support women’s rights outside of the bare minimum of not voting for Christofascists.

    It would be nice to see those men also do the work of convincing their fellow dudes that those of us who make up the majority of human beings on the planet should be treated as if we are as fully human as our sons, brothers, fathers.

    And yes, I have pretty much HAD IT with you’re swimming in it sexism at this point.

  67. 67.

    Scout211

    Did you know that the Big Cat Safety Act became law yesterday? I was reading a local online news site and read about it. Our county has a performing animal rescue center, PAWS.

    The Performing Animal Welfare Society (PAWS) in San Andreas is applauding the Big Cat Public Safety Act that became law today after being signed by President Biden. It prohibits keeping big cats as “pets” and bans contact between them and the public.

     

    For nearly 40 years, we have been working to protect big cats and other captive wildlife from exploitation and abuse,” said PAWS President and CEO Ed Stewart. “We are very pleased that the Big Cat Public Safety Act has become law, as it will end cruel cub petting operations, save countless animal lives, and protect the public from the danger posed by privately held big cats.”

     

    Currently, PAWS cares for eight rescued tigers at its ARK 2000 sanctuary in Calaveras County, with most of them coming from a cub petting facility. Two others were featured in the Netflix docuseries Tiger King, where the owner relinquished his rights after being shut down by the federal government,as earlier reported here. Another one was bred to be sold as an exotic “pet.” In fact, PAWS states that there are more tigers held in captivity in the U.S. than there are worldwide remaining in the wild.

    . . .

    “PAWS is very proud of the contributions we have made to ensure the Big Cat Public Safety Act became law, including collaborating with organizations such as the Big Cat Sanctuary Alliance,” said Stewart. “Our ultimate goal is to end the use of captive big cats for entertainment, and the Big Cat Public Safety Act is a significant step toward achieving that objective.”

  68. 68.

    SFAW

    @Josie: ​
     
    They’ve made if fairly obvious for a long time that they don’t want the wimminz to have unapproved sex* and banning contraceptives is all part of that. The whole “a fertilized egg is a BABY!!!!” thing is just one of the mechanisms they’re using; I’m sure they will think up others.
    * Of course, the definition of “unapproved sex” is something that varies from man to man, and from (RWMF) woman to woman, but I think it may boil down to “sex that the woman wants, but with someone other than ME!” There’s probably a Cleek’s Law parallel to be made.

  69. 69.

    Soprano2

    @SFAW: For the evangelicals, it’s sex outside a marriage they have endorsed as legitimate. They want the man to have some control over the woman’s life. They hate hate hate that women can now be independent of men

    And I’ve been saying for years that after they got Roe overturned, conservatives would go after safe, effective hormonal birth control with the “logic” that it causes abortions. They do not want women to be able to easily control their fertility, period. They honestly believe that before hormonal birth control most people didn’t have sex outside of marriage, or if they did then they had to get married. They know that it was birth control that finally allowed women to have control of their own lives, and they want that gone.

  73. 73.

    Suzanne

    @Frankensteinbeck:

    Oof.  I mean, they want this.  They say it out loud!  It’s one of those things that gets memory-holed when they do, I guess because so few people (especially in the press) want to believe how extreme Republicans are. 

    There’s a few social phenomena circling right now that are all colliding on the conservative right. There’s “the Great Replacement” fear, which is race-based, but also there’s a related fear that Americans are just not having enough kids/tradlives. This is related to the “falling away from Christianity” trend.

    Then there’s the big decline in marriage rates for those without a college degree (assortative mating by educational level is much stronger now than in previous generations). Related to the more-women-doing-better-at-college-than-men issue. (I will note that this cohort is strongly trending Democratic.) Which is part of the women-getting-to-be-more-selective thing that they HATE.

    So none of this really bodes well for dudes who don’t want to go to college and who want a tradwife. There’s fewer women who want to do that, because it leaves you vulnerable economically. And the people who are increasingly having successful marriages are…..college-educated liberals.

  74. 74.

    Betty Cracker

    @AM in NC: Amen to all you said. I think one thing that impedes progress toward full equality is that so many women have bought into the patriarchal framework. In most civil rights movements, there’s near-unanimity among the affected group. There are exceptions (Kanye West, Log Cabin Republicans, etc.), but the overwhelming majority supports progress. About a third of U.S. women are anti-choice. It’s not a majority, but it’s a lot.

  78. 78.

    Paul in KY

    @AM in NC: I (as a dude) have always (from my teenaged years on) felt that it is only a women’s decision, as she does the heavy lifting. Men’s opinions on abortion really shouldn’t matter, IMO.

  79. 79.

    AM in NC

    @Betty Cracker: Yes, patriarchy is a helluva drug. And women are soaking in patriarchy, same as men, from birth.

    It is especially difficult when these power relations (because, let’s be honest, that’s what we are talking about here) play out in our most intimate relationships, where love and family and even self-definition are involved.

    Plus, you’ll always have the Phyllis Schlafly types who will throw anyone and everyone under the bus for their own personal power.

    That’s why I hope those of us who genuinely want to undo these oppressive systems can work together (not always perfectly because we are all always learning, but effectively) to beat back the authoritarians.

    And thanks for responding – I was worried that my comment would be alienating because of the anger expressed.

  80. 80.

    cmore

    @Suzanne:

    As for abortion…. I still maintain that the conservatives’ end goal with it is to drive women out of public life and back under the financial control of men. It’s about a reversal of the social order that makes women less dependent on mediocre and bad men. It is evil.

    The below is based on long in-depth conversations with some relatives (male & female) who are evangelical anti-abortionists.

    The primary goal for a majoity of them is / was abortion itself, rather than suppresing women per se.  THAT SAID, they are perfectly ok with the inevitable collateral effect that pregnancy, wanted or unwanted, planned or not, compatible career.moment or not, forces many women to drop out of career paths or independent self-determination and into the role of primary caretakers for children instead.  That’s why many of them are ok-ish with some women who are past childbearing age or have sufficient means to hire caretakers being in powerful poliical office (e.g. Nikki Haley, MTG, SCOTUS Justice Barrett).

    Not saying here there isn’t a substantial plurality of Evangelicals or other hard-core anti-abortionists for whom putting women back in their 19th century place isn’t an equal goal.  But for the majority of them, the theological belief of life at conception is the main driving force, with the collateral effects on women being an unavoidable collateral consequence of this moral stance.

    Which of course, works out to nearly the same practical end – the difference is in whether the inevitable mysogynistic effects are directly intended, or else unavoidable indirect collateral consequence.

  81. 81.

    Geminid

    Reports from yesterday were that at this point the omnibus spending bill includes around $45 billion for aid to Ukraine. Once completed the bill will still have to be passed by both Houses It likely will be and apparently aid to Ukraine will not be a stumbling block.

  82. 82.

    AM in NC

    @Paul in KY:  Yes,  I agree and thank you for your stance that it is a woman’s choice because it is her body.  But we women ALSO need your votes, energy, and help in getting laws passed or blocked that will affect our basic rights.  Unwanted pregnancies also affect men in profound ways, and I think that voice has been woefully under-represented.  A lot of men want abortion kept legal as well and we need those voices to be heard too.  Plus, we need to hear that men publicly, loudly, visibly have our backs and will work with us to fight patriarchal oppression of our literal bodies.

    I would definitely let my sons and husband make the decision for themselves about having a vasectomy or any other decision about their bodies (even when my husband’s decision has serious, serious potential implications for me), but I would also be out in the streets fighting like hell for their right to control their bodies if there were a political threat to this from the Christofascists.    That’s what I want to see from men regarding MY rights to bodily autonomy.

  83. 83.

    Suzanne

    @cmore:

    But for the majority of them, the theological belief of life at conception is the main driving force, with the collateral effects on women being an unavoidable collateral consequence of this moral stance. 

    I believe that they believe that about themselves. I believe that’s the story they tell themselves in order to live.

    I don’t believe that about them, though. I believe they tell themselves comfortable lies. I don’t think they genuinely have a consistent ethic of lifesaving and self-sacrifice. I believe that those lies they tell themselves are motivated reasoning, motivated by desire for control and status and moral superiority and a comfortable (white Christian patriarchal) society.

  87. 87.

    Soprano2

    @Suzanne: To me the “tell” is their attitude about things like Covid measures. Many of the same people who will tell you that life from conception onward is sacred and must be protected at all costs were also the loudest voices hollering that masks, distancing and vaccines don’t work and aren’t worth doing because Covid isn’t any worse than the flu. They only care about “life” when they feel it’s personally beneficial to them in some way.

  89. 89.

    Betty Cracker

    @AM in NC: To paraphrase an old saying, if you’re not angry, you’re not paying attention.

    @Suzanne: Yep. It’s a lot more socially acceptable to wail about the baybeees than admit your goal is to control women.

  90. 90.

    Starfish

    @Paul in KY: Men need to talk to each other and share these beliefs with each other. The beliefs have to be so strongly held that when someone is being terrible, you can tell them they are being terrible.

    It is rare that men will stand up against other men like that.

    Most of the Balloon Juice demographic is beyond the age of needing to do all that, but it would have been nice to see some of this from men in their teens to forties.

    I think men are getting better at this.

  91. 91.

    Betty Cracker

    @Geminid: The timing of President Zelensky’s address to a joint session of Congress tonight is no coincidence. I’ve been paying less attention to political stuff on TV lately as part of my multiyear quest to become more of a normie, but I will be watching that speech with great interest!

  95. 95.

    Ken

    @Soprano2: I think a bigger “tell” is Walker getting nearly 50% of the vote in both the election and runoff, after multiple reports that he pressured women into having abortions and paid for them.

  99. 99.

    Citizen Alan

    @Betty Cracker:

    I think it is because the patriarchy can affect women as a class differently then  Conservativism in general does other unfavored classes.  If you are LGBT or a member of a racial or religious minority,  Then under the social conservative framework you are nearly certain to be a member of a despised lower class if not someone on the fringes of society.  But if you are a woman, it is much easier to find a niche that is supported by the patriarchy that can lead to a fairly comfortable lifestyle.  Or even a wealthy one, if you are, say, a female Fox News personality or the wife of a wealthy televisionist.

  100. 100.

    Citizen Alan

    @Suzanne:  I agree. They don’t care about the unborn. They just enjoy the visceral thrill of screaming that their political enemies are baby killers.  But the Venn diagram of people who say women should not be allowed to have abortions and people who are opposed to every aspect of the social safety net because “why should my tax dollars have to pay for somebody else’s mistake” is a perfect circle.

  101. 101.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @AM in NC: Thank you for the righteous rant.  The thing that has been the hardest crush on my soul since 2016 has been not the number of MAGA/Nazis in our society (which is horrific) but the tremendous amount of complete APATHY from people who should care.  After Dobbs my FB timeline was wall-to-wall angry rants from all the incredible women in my circle.  But very few Men uttered a peep.  Only a handful of guys said anything.  It was just pathetic.  And this is in a space where everyone is very pro-choice.  I don’t have any Republican friends.  Still, the dudes were/are always content to stay on the sidelines.  I’ve been running an Indivisible group since 2017 and I’d say that it has always been 60-75% women who were willing to show up and do the work.  Privilege is a hell of a drug.  Getting Men to stand with, support, follow and let Women lead, is really fucking challenging/frustrating.  I do what I can with my influence over the Men (and boys, as I’m a tennis coach for a lot of kids) in my world, but it usually feels like shoveling sand against the tide.  About the only sad consolation (in a fairly depressing sense) is that it’s just as hard to get White People to stand up/take action for Black People, and probably even harder to get anyone to stand up for Transgender People.

  103. 103.

    artem1s

    @Soprano2: ​
     

    This is really what they believe, that it was only young single women who ever had abortions, and they only had them because they had too much sex they shouldn’t have been having.

    The whole Sandra Fluke testimony was a shitshow, IMO. Good girls need the pill too because of ‘health care reasons’ was flat out bad messaging. Why for the love of the FSM can’t we just say out loud, “women have sex and like it”. Because the east coast ivy league, country club set are still sending their daughters out into the world with the idea that only bad trashy girls like sex. It’s obscene that the argument for including basic health care for women in ACA was based on the idea that Dems can’t go all in on abortion because that means we believe it’s OK for women to have sex with no consequences. And yet even after 2020 we still have Wilmer wagging his finger in our faces telling us to keep our mouths shut when it comes to discussing sex. grrrr!

  105. 105.

    Alison Rose

    I assume both Zelenskyy’s press conference and address to Congress will be carried live on the news channels–hoping we might get a post here for them?

    I wish that poll about abortion had separated out Judaism rather than lumping it in with “non-Christian religions” because the vast majority of Jews in this country don’t just support abortion rights but actively campaign for them and work to protect them. Abortion is not only permitted in Judaism but is actually essentially required if the pregnant person’s physical or psychological health is at risk. (Not *actually* required, a rabbi isn’t gonna come to your house and drag you to an abortion clinic.)

  106. 106.

    Betty Cracker

    @Gin & Tonic: Perfectly understandable! I don’t think anyone will ever forget the remarkable Zelensky, but I do hope his eventual successor inherits a nation that is so peaceful and prosperous and unmenaced by a neighboring psychopath that most Americans don’t know his or her name.

  108. 108.

    rikyrah

    @Suzanne:

    As for abortion…. I still maintain that the conservatives’ end goal with it is to drive women out of public life and back under the financial control of men. It’s about a reversal of the social order that makes women less dependent on mediocre and bad men. It is evil.

     

    tell it to those in the bleacher seats.

  110. 110.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Starfish: When I look at the behavior of my adolescent students it gives me hope since, in general, the boys are SO MUCH better and more respectful towards girls than my Generation (X) was at their age.

  111. 111.

    Betty Cracker

    @Citizen Alan: I agree, but even women who find such a niche are second-class citizens. They might lie to themselves about that, but the truth is even women who made millions of dollars at Fox News were groped and sexually harassed by their bosses.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    Am I misremembering or wasn’t there an abortion-by-transporter in an episode of Star Trek?

    May have been in one of the fan-produced productions for online consumption rather than in canon on a commercial network?

  114. 114.

    Betty Cracker

    @NotMax: I’ve seen all of the original series more than once, and I think I’ve seen all the movies but don’t recall that. Maybe it’s in one of the spin-offs?

    Funny you should bring that up because the other day, hubby and I were rewatching the first Star Trek movie with Chris Pine, and in the opening sequence, James T. Kirk is being born. His mother was screaming in agony, and my husband said, “Why don’t they just BEAM the baby out?” Genius!

  116. 116.

    MomSense

    @satby:

    Please take care. Last Friday middle kid picked up youngest at Logan airport in Boston in a terrible snowstorm.  He didn’t see a single snow plow except for the 15 minutes he was on the Maine turnpike just before he got home.  It took them 5 hours to drive a 2 – 21/2 hour drive.  They saw tractor trailer trucks, cars etc off the road.  I only drove a 20 minute drive home that night and it took me over an hour.  Not a single plow truck in sight.
    I thought it was strange and then today I saw an article about a sever shortage of plow truck drivers.  I’m guessing a bunch of them died or have long COVID.  I don’t know how else to explain it. Those Dept. Of Transportation snowplow driver jobs are really good jobs.

  119. 119.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    since abortion is a topic, I thought this short thread was interesting because it was based on an open-ended question

    Matt Grossmann @MattGrossmann
    In an open-ended ?, we asked 1,000 Michigan residents to name the largest policy change made by any federal branch of government over the last 2 years. Abortion dominated other issues, perhaps explaining why thermostatic backlash against congress was limited.

    also

    We also asked respondents to name the largest policy change made by state government in Lansing. They mostly said abortion or couldn’t think of anything. No state policy changes we tested in closed-ended questions were salient. State elections also nationalized around abortion.

    so… nothing about Whitmer’s allegedly bigly controversial Covid measures

  121. 121.

    rikyrah

    @Suzanne:

    As for abortion…. I still maintain that the conservatives’ end goal with it is to drive women out of public life and back under the financial control of men. It’s about a reversal of the social order that makes women less dependent on mediocre and bad men. It is evil.

     

    And, like, women can’t see this.

    And, will act accordingly.

    Like I’m going back to a time, or will subject Peanut to a time, when women didn’t have their own agency, and couldn’t even get a credit card, let alone a house, in their own names.

    Outside of that body autonomy ‘issue’.

    PHUCK OUTTA HERE!

  122. 122.

    NotMax

    @Betty Cracker

    I have multiple bones (no McCoy pun intended) to pick with that ultimately sloppy reboot attempt. Another time, perhaps. One ought to be charitable at holiday season.

  124. 124.

    Kay

    Jennifer Berkshire
    @BisforBerkshire
    ·Dec 17
    ChatGPT: explain the Montgomery bus boycott to kids in Florida without mentioning race (because Florida law now prohibits it) h/t @FLFreedomRead

    “A woman named Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a public bus for another passenger because of a law. She was arrested”.

    Jesus Christ. These poor kids getting fed this dumb, nonsensical garbage to protect the feelings of whiny, middle aged white people who write editorials. It’s insane. They’ve stripped all the context out so it makes no sense at all.

    Thanks, anti-woksters! Excellent work on education there. The next generation will be very confused morons. This is why you don’t let people who oppose public education ideologically set public education policy- it’s garbage.

  126. 126.

    SFAW

    @sdhays: ​
     
    Well, unless she decides she wants to have sex with an incel or other MAGAt. Then it’s OK.
    Of course, others might question her sanity, but that’s neither here nor there.

  128. 128.

    Kay

    @sab:

    I have to tell you, I think you were right and I was wrong about Ryan. Columbus area turnout was down 50k compared to 2018. I didn’t see anything for Cleveland or Cincinnati but I assume it tracks (was down).

    Urban turnout was down across the board for D’s but it didn’t matter in PA and MI because suburbs swung to D. It mattered in Ohio. Ryan probably should have paid more attention to his base.

  129. 129.

    Citizen Alan

    @NotMax:

    Am I misremembering or wasn’t there an abortion-by-transporter in an episode of Star Trek?

    I don’t recall that. I do recall an appalling 2nd season episode in which Troi was impregnanted against her will by some alien entity, and when Security Chief Worf noted that this was obviously a potential threat to the ship and they should consider terminating the pregnancy, everyone looked at him like he was evil. Troi herself was largely oblivious to the fact that she had effectively been raped.

  131. 131.

    M31

    @rikyrah:

    and the ‘women can’t get credit cards’ thing lasted until the 1970s, and when I tell that to young (lol as in under 40) women they are flabbergasted

  132. 132.

    NutmegAgain

    I just looked at the Guardian coverage of Pres Zelensky travelling to the US. They had a shot of him seated in a big white SUV, and they circled his head. As in, “paint a target on me boys!”  I’m sure he’s long out of that vehicle etc, but, you know, really?? Grumble growl et cet

  134. 134.

    James E Powell

    @AM in NC:

    The sad/scary part to me is how many non Christianists are kind of, “eh doesn’t affect me directly, whatevs”.  Very much including “good, liberal men.”

    How many people vote to protect other people’s rights? I mean, sure, many do. But most do not & our elections are determined by small numbers.

    When voting for president, senate & congress, many voters who say they are pro-choice – men & women – do not consider abortion rights to be a deal breaker. That is, they will vote for a rabid, anti-choice candidate.

    In Kansas, on August 2nd, abortion rights won by about 60% pro-choice. Three months later, the anti-choice senator won by 60%.

  135. 135.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: I’d be real tempted to use it as an exercise in critical thinking:

    “Here’s a picture of Rosa Parks who broke a law that she couldn’t sit in the front of the bus.  Everyone look at Ms. Parks and look at the man she sat in front of and ask yourselves ‘what could possibly be the reason they were treated differently by the law?’  Unfortunately, I can’t give you the answer to that because a majority of voters in Florida have literally made it against the law to do so.  So ask yourselves ‘who makes up the majority, 70%, of Florida voters?’ and ‘why would they not want us going into greater detail about what precisely caused Ms. Parks to protest the unjust laws of her day?'”  Then I’d be fired, lol.

  138. 138.

    Kay

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    That’s great. I think kids have a very solid intuitive sense of fairness. If they marched under a flag, it would say “fair” on it. They are not always fair but they know what it looks like, and from a very young age. They’ll figure it out (or go to TikToc school) but wouldn’t you have contempt for your school and teachers spouting this tortured bullshit?

  139. 139.

    Kay

    @Alison Rose:

    They’ll be puzzled by “refused to give up her seat to another passenger”. So- they didn’t just kick her out for fare dodging or eating on the bus, she had to formally “give up her seat”…to someone else?

  142. 142.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Kay: a children’s book about Wilma Rudolph has been targeted— by an English teacher– because it might make white kids feel bad about Jim Crow

    Judd Legum @JuddLegum

    2. One book challenged by the teacher, Vicki Baggett, is When Wilma Rudolph Played Basketball The book is about the childhood of Rudolph, a sprinter who won three gold medals It covers how she overcame physical limitations and racial prejudice in the 40s to become a champion
    4. In an interview, Baggett said the book “trashes and puts down those who are not black.” She describes the book, which is a true story of Rudolph’s experience, as “very anti-white.”
    10. Baggett said she posted the flag because “everyone in my clan fought in the Civil War” and she was not “ashamed of that.” Baggett added that she was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, which has been designated as part of the Neo-Confederate movement.

  143. 143.

    NotMax

    @Citizen Alan

    when Security Chief Worf noted that this was obviously a potential threat to the ship

    That’s Worf all over.

    “Look, it’s the Good Humor ship making its rounds, right on schedule. Get your dimes out, people.”

    “It could be a threat, Captain!”

  144. 144.

    opiejeanne

    @OzarkHillbilly: I hope the “wrong dog”, the one that was not Bluebell, found its actual owners. I wish the article explained who owned that pup and what happened to it.

  147. 147.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I’d say he’s leading with his chin, then I remembered he doesn’t have one (that’s why he grew the beard)

    David Corn @DavidCornDC 1h
    A daddy’s boy who met with a foreign adversary that was attempting to subvert an American election is daring to denigrate a true hero battling Putin & defending his nation from a genocidal war? This may be the dumbest remark ever from Junior. And that’s quite an accomplishment.

    Donald Trump Jr.@DonaldJTrumpJr 1h
    Zelensky is basically an ungrateful international welfare queen.

  148. 148.

    Soprano2

    @MomSense: Our city plows are staffed by people who do other jobs most of the time, like driving dump trucks or operating backhoes or other heavy equipment. I don’t know how the state does it, but I can’t imagine they hire people just to drive snow plows. I believe there is a shortage of workers for state jobs just like everywhere else.

  149. 149.

    Kay

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I pass a house in a rural area on my courthouse legal rounds and it has two huge “all lives matter” signs- like a whole sheet of plywood big.

    I just can’t imagine hearing “Black Lives Matter” and immediately saying “don’t white lives matter?”

    The ideology is bad but it’s the whining and “look at ME, what about ME?!”  that kills me. How fucking self centered do you have to be to think a lesson on Rosa Parks is about you. 

  150. 150.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @SFAW:

    Well, unless she decides she wants to have sex with an incel or other MAGAt. Then it’s OK.

    No, actually.  They deride women who do have sex with them, and want those women to suffer.  They approve of a situation in which the woman has sex with them, but still believe that the sex inherently degrades the woman.

  154. 154.

    Geminid

    @James E Powell: And Governor Laura Kelly had a very close call in her reelection.

    Sharice Davids managed to win reelection in the Kansas 3rd CD despite Republicans redrawing the district redder. From what I saw Davids leaned heavily into the reproductive freedom issue.

    Plus she has been tirelessly working the district, touting the benefits of Democratic legislation and promoting local efforts to improve people’s lives. We don’t hear about this from national media sites but Davids gets a lot of good coverage from local and state media outlets, which matters more.

    Now I think Sharice Davids will be able to hold that seat for the rest of this decade. Demographic and political trends should be in her favor, and she seems to have built a lot of good will among her constituents.

  155. 155.

    Kay

    The gf of my youngest is visiting from Wisconsin and she brought home made  marshmallows that she and her mother made. Apparently marshmallows are supposed to be this delicious but I didnt know having only had the commercial kind :)

    She started to tell me how to make them but I wasn’t listening. I’m never making them but I will happily eat hers.

  156. 156.

    trollhattan

    Bro made if out of Manchester (NH) this a.m. at the ungodly hour of 5 (we are not a morning people) and has landed at Midway for a layover roughly twice the tour time of the SS Minnow, then headed to California where we ain’t got no snow, hardly know what the stuff is. My worst problem will be afternoon airport traffic.

    Hard to guess what awaits him on return on the new year.

  161. 161.

    Paul in KY

    @sab: He was stupid there. You saw the light and changed your previously bad position and now are pro-choice. Campaign on that!

  163. 163.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:  Daughters of the Confederacy- Lying about history for a couple hundred years:

    “Rolph said their lasting impact was on the narrative of history they rewrote in textbooks to embellish what really happened in the Confederate states before and during the Civil War.

     “The longest and deepest impact these women have is rewriting history textbooks to reflect their version of why the war happened,” Rolph said.

    Rolph said the organization endorsed textbooks teaching lessons like the “War of Northern Aggression,” that the Civil War was fought over states’ rights, and the “Lost Cause,” which argues slavery was morally correct because it brought about economic prosperity. UDC’s versions have been proven to be historically inaccurate by several scholars.”

  166. 166.

    andy

    @Soprano2: well, that’s dread, because everybody has forgotten how to drive in it, and there’s always some dipshit who thinks they don’t have to learn, either, because their jacked up pickup is supposed to provide the judgement and experience for them.

  169. 169.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @andy: where I am it’s always  usually the people in giant pick-ups and SUVs who won’t slow down, even a little, but the snow seems to make them nervous enough that they have to take their half of the road out of the middle

  170. 170.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Kay: Agreed on the sense of fairness.  I think this is why conservative parents are so afraid of their kids learning anything about accurate US history and making some of the connections about how things are so unfair in our society, how they got that way and how they stay that way.

  173. 173.

    Betty Cracker

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I subscribe to Legum’s newsletter and read that yesterday. What a wretched piece of crap that woman is. She’s also gone after a children’s book about two male penguins in a zoo who adopted an abandoned egg and raised a chick (true story!) because she’s afraid a second-grader might think that reflects positively on the “gay lifestyle.” Part of me wants to research where Baggett got her English degree, but I’m afraid it might be the same place I got mine, so…

  174. 174.

    WaterGirl

    @AM in NC: Just think about all those women who wrote the letter of support for the Rapist Beer-Drinking-Boofing Supreme Court Justice.

    *I think we need a new name.  The Supreme Court is no longer supreme.

  175. 175.

    Faithful Lurker

    @AM in NC: I’m very late with this but…what a glorious rant. It’s exactly on the point. I’m 77 years old and grew up with the dress code that kept women in their place. The rage that most women hold in their hearts would fuel the most of the country’s energy needs for a decade.

  177. 177.

    trollhattan

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Watching a monster pickup traveling down the road, sideways, never fails to stimulate the cardiovascular system.

    Try as much as possible to time my trips into the mountains between storms, not during. Sometimes one gets caught, though.

  179. 179.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl: ​

    *I think we need a new name. The Supreme Court is no longer supreme.

    Diana Ross? Nah, that doesn’t work. Does Taco Bell have a Chalupa Supreme on the menu?

  180. 180.

    Josie

    @Faithful Lurker: ​
     Your mention of the dress code brought up the memory of my sophomore year at the U of Texas. During a severe freeze, the women attending the University had to receive permission from the dean of women to wear pants on campus. This was given due to the fact that so many of us had to walk to campus from our dorms. My walk was 30 minutes. Can you believe it? We needed permission.

  184. 184.

    James E Powell

    @sab:

    I looked at the results of the Ohio senate election, I thought about who Ryan is & who Vance is, and I concluded that Ryan never had a chance. He lost Mahoning & Trumbull counties! Those people have been voting for him for years. If the people you went to high school with don’t vote for you, you cannot win.

    Abortion rights had nothing to do with it. It’s white supremacy & almost nothing else.

  189. 189.

    sab

    @Kay: I grew up in Florida at the tail end of Jim Crow. The terror black people felt for white people was palpable. Even as a little kid I could feel it.

    ETA : buses, the beach, movie theaters, drinking fountains. Everywhere was no go or limited access. It was a routine fact of life.

  190. 190.

    trollhattan

    @sab: ​ At some point one stops reconciling the state they wish for with the state they live in. Plus, moving to where one no longer shovels snow can be a big plus too, just have to make it one of the safe landing spots and not most of the Sunbelt.

  191. 191.

    UncleEbeneezer

    DOJ has FINALLY secured a cooperation agreement with the 1/6 Committee for them to provide DOJ with all of their evidence, testimony, videos etc.  Honestly, I will never understand why it took this long, knowing that there was no way DOJ would proceed with high level indictments before they could review this crucial information.  And it frankly makes the complaints that DOJ isn’t moving fast enough, from Schiff and others on 1/6 Committee look pretty bad, since 1/6C’s reluctance to share their work product is part of the reason for the slowing down the process of proceeding to actual Indictments.

    Michael Popok also explains that the whole debate over who was ahead, 1/6 Committee vs. DOJ in their investigations was silly.  The answer is: in some ways 1/6 Com, in others DOJ, because they have different powers…duh.

  192. 192.

    JustRuss

    @Kay: A coworker brought home made marshmellows to work once.  They were amazing, and I don’t really care for marshmellows.

  193. 193.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Josie: I had to wear pants underneath my uniform jumper in Minnesota in the winter as a preteen (Catholic grade school). At least my high school was sensible and let us wear trousers as alternatives to the skirts. I hear you on the rage.

  194. 194.

    Faithful Lurker

    @Josie: I can believe it. I went to an all girls school in Missouri where we were required to wear heels and hose and nice dresses to dinner every night. That was fun walking to the dining hall in an ice storm in 3″ heels. I almost got expelled for wearing a pair of khaki pants in the library.

  196. 196.

    Faithful Lurker

    @sab: I grew up in Florida during the height of JIM Crow. It was brutal and even as a young child I could see it. My father and I fought about the bigotry at the dinner table from when I was 4 years old until he died. He called me Hard Rock because I wouldn’t accept his perverted view of the world. When I was 5, my parents went out of town for 2 weeks and left me with our black maid, Lavinia. Who I adored. We had to go to uptown Jacksonville to run some errands, which meant taking the bus. We did this fairly regularly without any problems but on this trip we ran into a particularly virulent racist driver. He forced Lavinia to sit in the back and wouldn’t let me sit with her but made me sit in the seat behind him. I screamed all the way, probably 45 minutes, while Lavinia sobbed in the back. Served the fucker right.

  197. 197.

    Geminid

    @Geminid: While I say I think Kevin McCarthy will be elected Speaker that is not a certainty, at least according to the reporters who contributed to this morning’s Politico Playbook.

    They describe Republican Reps approaching Steve Scalise, who holds the number two leadership spot, and asking him to be ready to run for Speaker if McCarthy cannot get to 2018 votes. The idea is that the anti-McCarthy faction would be content with taking Kevin’s head, at least long enough for Republicans to elect Scalise.

    McCarthy’s adherents still insist he must be Speaker. So this could turn into a game of chicken and we might not know who veers away until January 3rd.  Or maybe no one backs down and Republican control of the House will start and end the same day with a big wreck.

    My current Congressman, Bob [No-]Good (VA-5), is one of the leaders of the small anti-McCarthy faction. If I could, I’d give two big bags of Christmes cookies to the special redistricting masters who moved Greene County out of Good’s 5th CD and into Abigail Spanberger’s 7th. Bob Good makes my skin crawl.

  198. 198.

    Another Scott

    @OzarkHillbilly: I don’t see anyone else being a Grinch about this, so I guess it’s up to me.

    I absolutely hated having to go door-to-door to sell stuff when I was in the Boy Scouts.  In my day, it was a bunch of weird stuff from a cardboard suitcase.  These days it’s vastly overpriced popcorn and candy bars.

    12 year olds shouldn’t be salesmen.

    I don’t know the solution – organizations obviously need to fundraise, but these little kids having to sell stuff for private companies (Weaver’s owns Trail’s End and Weaver is private) invites all sorts of abuses.

    [ /soapbox ]

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  199. 199.

    Cmorenc

    @Suzanne:

    Agree there is a lot of convenient self-deception in their claim to be anti-abortion, and not out to suppress women to a subordinate role such as prevailed a century ago.  Many of these men are quite happy about  the additional income to the family when their wives are situated to work.

    My main point was that for a large portion of anti-abortion men (and women) the prime motivation is their extreme view of life from conception, rather than as a means to put women in a subordinate place, even though that is an inevitable consequence of legally imposing their anti-abortion principles on everyone else.  The self-denial (or lie) they tell themselves is denying blame for the natural consequences if their actions, and throwing it entirely upon women for having sex when pregnancy is a natural risk of their actions (which does carry misogynist slut-shaming implications that tie many of them in dissonant knots in cases of rape or incest).

  200. 200.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Paul in KY: Sorry, a majority of FL voters, and I think you know who I mean (nudge, nudge, wink, wink), decided that I can’t legally even answer that question.

  203. 203.

    Paul in KY

    @Faithful Lurker: I’m so sorry Lavinia and all the other black people were forced to obey those evil laws. I hope she was able to see the end of Jim Crow.

    What a sick society we had back then.

  204. 204.

    sab

    @Cmorenc: Except that one in five pregnancies ends in miscarriage, so D & C (aka abortion) is a fact of life in all fertile aged women’s life cycle.

  208. 208.

    The Lodger

    @WaterGirl: Actually, John Paul II was a former member of the Polish ski patrol and thus was probably the last known Pope to shit in the woods.

    That WAS your question, wasn’t it?

  209. 209.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    @Suzanne:@cmore:

    “But for the majority of them, the theological belief of life at conception is the main driving force, with the collateral effects on women being an unavoidable collateral consequence of this moral stance. ”

    I believe that they believe that about themselves. I believe that’s the story they tell themselves in order to live.

    They believe it is a woman’s duty to have babies. They pity women who can’t and are genuinely offended when women don’t want to have kids. The fact that women have an out from doing their duty must be stopped.

  210. 210.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Another Scott: I always hated that stuff too. I remember we had school funding drives that involved selling magazine subscriptions door-to-door, and the sales-hype assemblies we had to go to to “motivate” us were just so transparently garbage, like cult meetings. I ended up refusing to do a lot of it.

  213. 213.

    Soprano2

    @Another Scott: I think mostly now their parents sell the stuff to co-workers, or they set up a table at the local WalMart. I don’t think they go door-to-door much anymore. I remember doing that with my sister, who was a Campfire girl and so had to sell candy. My mom made me go with her sometimes. A couple of times my dad bought enough boxes of candy for gifts for his teachers that she didn’t have to sell anymore. She always sold enough to get a free week at camp, because it was hard for my parents to afford to pay for that.

  215. 215.

    Faithful Lurker

    @Paul in KY: Me, too. I think about her often. There was so much bad feeling floating around then, it was like swimming in a poisonous ocean. Nobody, black or white, came out undamaged. But the damage wasn’t evenly distributed. And I wouldn’t be too sure that things are that much better now. It’s just been driven underground. I was shocked by the blatant racism that I saw in southern Oregon 10 years ago. I don’t even want to think about the ugly racism in Colorado or Michigan, very recently.

  217. 217.

    The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion

    @cmore: Horseshit.  There is no theology of abortion in the Protestant traditions.  Every major Protestant denomination in the world either endorsed abortion as an option for women, or held that it was between the woman, her husband, and their God, throughout the majority of the 70’s.  Abortion was introduced to Protestantism as a Grave Sin in order to get American Catholics to support the agenda of Christofascists like Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell.  This is all fairly well-attested, publicly documented history.  There is no Biblical theology of abortion, either, which is why many Jewish religious organizations are suing to ensure that their congregations have access to abortion as an aspect of their faith.  The whole thing was made up out of whole cloth because it was a politically convenient bloody shirt to wave, because idiots can’t think any further than “abortion=killing babies, and while I am a worthless piece of shit who has never for one moment of my selfish, hypocritical existence embodied any aspect of the Gospel, at least I can say I’m not a baby-killer”.  Your evangelical relatives would swear fervently to any damned nonsense their pastors with their third-grade reading levels tell them about .

  218. 218.

    Cmorenc

    @sab: agree they tie themselves in knots of willful blindness to contradictions in many of the perverse contradictions in their extreme, simplistic anti-abortion stances.  I am well-aware of the risks and incidence of miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies etc since both my wife and father are ob-gyn physicians and daughter has had career as RN both in hospital labor & delivery and ob-gyn office.

  219. 219.

    Cmorenc

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:

    My post is about what many hard core anti-abortionists tell themselves, not about an accurate view of history nor what the true agenda of folks who talked them into adopting those views is, nor whether their views are consistent with some messy realities.

    if you really want to tie the followers in knots in a seemingly civil, non-confrontational way, start a discussion about in vitro fertilization for infertile couples.  That involved fertilizing multiple eggs and selecting the most viable for implantation to pregnancy.

  220. 220.

    Cmorenc

    @The Very Reverend Crimson Fire of Compassion:

    My post is about what many hard core anti-abortionists tell themselves, not about an accurate view of history nor what the true agenda of folks who talked them into adopting those views is, nor whether their views are consistent with some messy realities.

    if you really want to tie the followers in knots in a seemingly civil, non-confrontational way, start a discussion about in vitro fertilization for infertile couples.  That involved fertilizing multiple eggs and selecting the most viable for implantation to pregnancy.

  222. 222.

    AM in NC

    @M31: Same experience here.  Telling my teenaged kids and their friends that in my lifetime women could not get credit cards or take out loans in their own names without a man signing for them, and watching their young minds get blown open is really something.

    in one sense, it’s great that we have made such progress in a generation that this is inconceivable to them. But it also sure brings home how recent and tenuous all of these gains are.

  223. 223.

    sab

    @Cmorenc: I assumed you knew facts of life. We just need to point out facts of life at every opportunity because they have been ignoring them for several generations.

    It has been interesting to watch my Catholic school educated nieces change their minds as they grow up and have kids and learn medical facts of life, many miscarriages and a couple of ectopic pregnancies along that road.

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