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You are here: Home / Politics / Proud to Be A Democrat / Saturday Morning Open Thread: Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Reproductive Rights Are Human Rights

by Anne Laurie|  February 25, 20235:07 am| 200 Comments

This post is in: Proud to Be A Democrat, Something Good Open Thread, Vice-President Harris, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

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Extremist so-called leaders have taken unprecedented steps to restrict access to abortion medication.

Today, I convened leading medical experts and reproductive rights advocates to make clear: @POTUS and I stand with them in the fight to protect reproductive health care. pic.twitter.com/mOHaEFVmH0

— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) February 24, 2023

Today the @VP is convening a meeting to discuss attacks on medication abortion.

She will address unprecedented attacks that are attempting to undermine the authority of the FDA & take away reproductive health care for women — no matter where they live. https://t.co/9hNv56Fm3q

— Rachel Palermo (@RachelPalermo46) February 24, 2023


Vice President Kamala Harris defended the abortion drug mifepristone on Friday, calling attacks against it another attempt to attack fundamental rights in the United States, as some activist groups work to end American sales of the pill…

Medication abortion has drawn increasing attention since the U.S. Supreme Court last year reversed its landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which had guaranteed abortion rights nationwide.

Democratic President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to expand access to medication abortion in response to the decision, which has allowed more than a dozen Republican-led states to adopt new abortion bans.

Harris met with reproductive rights groups on the topic at the White House, and said attacking the drug is akin to going after the very foundation of the American public health system and is not just an attack on women’s fundamental freedoms…

Mifepristone is approved for medication abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortion accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions.

The FDA has said that pulling mifepristone from the market would force women to have unnecessary surgical abortions and greatly increase wait times at already overburdened clinics.

Major medical organizations, including the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, weighed in on the side of the government, saying mifepristone “has been thoroughly studied and is conclusively safe.”

The GOP — which, admittedly, is used to voters who meekly take orders, however contradictory — is discovering an ancient political truth: Given enough social control, it’s possible to deprive a population of a particular right almost indefinitely, but people hate giving up a ‘privilege’ they’ve been used to exercising.

maybe they should have waited to lock in minority rule *before* doing something underwater in *Idaho* https://t.co/mBg1XAm3Ub

— the abbot of unreason (an archaeologist) ?? (@merovingians) February 23, 2023

We have numbers for all 50 states + DC in this report. Abortion legality and support/oppose overturning Roe

Also, we tracked how opinion moved on voting on abortion as an issue through the yearhttps://t.co/V7haIn96mQ

— Natalie Jackson (@nataliemj10) February 23, 2023

NBC First Read: "Abortion rights support remains a major challenge for the GOP, poll finds … 64% of Americans [believe] abortion should be legal in all or most cases – up from 55% who said this in 2010 … We can't remember another political issue where https://t.co/V0w1LdLrvU… https://t.co/03QqBhhMeZ

— Ben LaBolt (@BenLaBolt) February 24, 2023

Ed Kilgore, at NYMag, “The Backlash to the Reversal of Roe v. Wade Is Getting Stronger”:

During the near half-century in which the Supreme Court precedent of Roe v. Wade protected the right to choose abortion, public-opinion research on the topic tended to be of questionable value. Respondents were asked to categorize themselves as “pro-life” or “pro-choice,” depending on their subjective self-definitions. Polls asked people to engage in hair-splitting on the degree to which they wanted abortion to be legal or illegal. And the whole subject was overshadowed by the fundamental reality that political maneuvering on abortion policy had limited consequences for a majority of voters (though not for those who couldn’t access or afford abortion services).

With Roe gone, the basic laws governing reproductive decisions depend to an enormous extent on where one lives, and abortion policy is a central and urgent political decision (at least outside those few states that have re-enshrined abortion rights in state constitutions). So it’s getting easier for pollsters to weigh how the public feels about what should happen on abortion policy.

There’s already clear evidence that the abortion backlash had a tangible effect on the 2022 midterm elections and the underperformance of Republicans compared to historical precedents. But the effect on political preferences is ongoing…

Given these realities, it’s unsurprising that the anti-abortion activists whose battle cry for decades was to let the people decide are now beginning to rely on right-wing judicial activists determined to ban abortion from the bench, or a bit down the road, a Republican trifecta in Washington willing to override the states and ban abortion nationally. The stakes for 2024 are rising steadily.

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    200Comments

    1. 1.

      Balconesfault

      February 25, 2023 at 5:29 am

      I’m convinced that the primary value in hammering on this issue isn’t to persuade anyone who has consistently voted R.   They’ve already gone through enough cycles of cognitive dissonance that they are locked in for the foreseeable future.

      But damn, there’s a lot of non-voters who have taken their rights for granted, and are needing to get over the cynical both siderism and accept that yes … there is a fundamental difference between a D and an R and not voting says you don’t care about that difference.

      Reply
    2. 2.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 5:37 am

      @Balconesfault:

      there is a fundamental difference between a D and an R and not voting says you don’t care about that difference.

       
      QFT

      Reply
    3. 3.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 5:48 am

      Mifepristone is approved for medication abortion in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy in combination with another drug, misoprostol. Medication abortion accounts for more than half of U.S. abortions

      Time to talk about banning gas stoves again.

      Reply
    4. 4.

      Splitting Image

      February 25, 2023 at 5:57 am

      The most important thing to hammer home about abortion is that it is not the only health care service the Republicans are intent on taking away. It was the wedge issue they used to get the votes out, but they are and always have been opposed to anyone they don’t like getting any kind of health care treatment.

      Abortion was only the beginning. They are working to make health care for trans people illegal. They want vaccine mandates made illegal, if not the vaccines themselves. They want to abolish Medicare. They want to abolish Medicaid. They want you to die, plain and simple.

      Reply
    5. 5.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 6:06 am

      Here goes my blood pressure again.

      Reply
    6. 6.

      Frankensteinbeck

      February 25, 2023 at 6:19 am

      I was told for decades that Republican politicians were cynically pretending to want to overturn Roe vs Wade to manipulate the rubes.  It turns out, elected Republicans are also true believers.  Are the ‘libertarian’ Koch brothers complaining, or are all their major plutocrat owners hard cultural conservatives as well as wanting to not pay taxes?

      Reply
    7. 7.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 6:23 am

      @Frankensteinbeck:

      Are the ‘libertarian’ Koch brothers complaining, 

       

      Only about the electoral fallout.

      Reply
    8. 8.

      Betty Cracker

      February 25, 2023 at 6:28 am

      @Splitting Image: We won’t know the true scope of the damage Republicans have done to public health with anti-mask and anti-vaccine demagoguery until the next public health crisis.

      Reply
    9. 9.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 6:30 am

      @Splitting Image:

      Florida county Republican Party votes to ban the COVID-19 vaccine

      Reply
    10. 10.

      danielx

      February 25, 2023 at 6:36 am

      @Baud: ​
       How soon they forget those halcyon days of refrigerator trucks in hospital parking lots….

      Reply
    11. 11.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 6:36 am

      @Splitting Image:
      @Baud:

      Pro-Life my ass.

      Reply
    12. 12.

      NotMax

      February 25, 2023 at 6:37 am

      Weekend open thread respite.

      While some may find it ultra creepy, the ceilings are magnificent.

      Reply
    13. 13.

      Anne Laurie

      February 25, 2023 at 6:40 am

      @Splitting Image: The most important thing to hammer home about abortion is that it is not the only health care service the Republicans are intent on taking away. It was the wedge issue they used to get the votes out, but they are and always have been opposed to anyone they don’t like getting any kind of health care treatment.

      The voters we’re targeting here don’t care if Those People are denied medical care.   Gender alignment care? They don’t (think they) know any transgender people.  Medical access for poor people?  ‘I can’t pay my own medical bills, why should I be forced to support freeloaders?’ 

      But reproductive care — it’s been forced upon their attention:  Their trusted GOP wants to take away their health care, and their kid’s / grandkid’s.  No more Plan B, no more medical abortions, no more swift resolution of miscarriages or failed pregnancies.  That was not what they thought they were voting for — they just wanted to punish ‘sluts’ and ‘perverts.

      Reply
    14. 14.

      Betty

      February 25, 2023 at 6:43 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: Exactly right, OH. The list of anti-life positions they hold is very long.

      Reply
    15. 15.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 6:43 am

      @Anne Laurie:

      they just wanted to punish ‘sluts’ and ‘perverts.

       
      I wish they’d just let me be.

      Reply
    16. 16.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 6:45 am

      @Frankensteinbeck:

      I was told for decades that Republican politicians were cynically pretending to want to overturn Roe vs Wade to manipulate the rubes

       
      Those people were trying to manipulate our voters.

      Reply
    17. 17.

      evodevo

      February 25, 2023 at 6:48 am

      @Anne Laurie: ​
        Just like with Prohibition…people thought they were only going to ban hard liquor, not beer or wine…oops!

      Reply
    18. 18.

      NotMax

      February 25, 2023 at 6:48 am

      @Frankensteinbeck

      Are the ‘libertarian’ Koch brothers complaining,

      Nary a peep from David, who died in 2019.

      Reply
    19. 19.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 6:49 am

      After an 80-year-old janitor had to return to work after his rent was increased, Texas high school students raised more than $250,000 to help him retire.

      The janitor, known to students as Mr James, returned to work in January after his rent shot up by $400 a month, according to KDFW. The students at Callisburg high school, about 80 miles (130km) north of Dallas, started their campaign last week and shared it on TikTok, hoping to raise $10,000. As of Friday afternoon, it had received nearly $270,000 from more than 8,000 donors.

      “When I saw him in the hall, it broke my heart,” Greyson Thurman, a senior who started the campaign, told KTEN. “Nobody at that age should be working; they should be living the rest of their life, you know?”

      The kids are alright.

      Millions of Americans are working into the years when they would typically retire – by 2030, the number of people aged 75 and older in the workforce is expected to grow by 96.5%, according to the US Bureau of Labor and Statistics. People aged 75 and older are the only age group for whom the labor force participation rate is expected to rise over the next decade.

      This country on the other hand…

      Reply
    20. 20.

      JWR

      February 25, 2023 at 6:49 am

      This one hits close to home. (She’s my Rep!) NBC LINK

      Rep. Judy Chu, the chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, blasted GOP Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas on Thursday over his comments this week questioning her loyalty to the U.S.

      Chu, D-Calif., issued a statement in response to Gooden’s remarks in a Fox News interview Wednesday night, when he suggested Chu should not have a security clearance or access to classified briefings. Chu had defended Dominic Ng, a Biden appointee featured in an article by the conservative Daily Caller that alleged Ng has ties to a Chinese Communist Party front group.

      […]

      Gooden said in the interview, “I think that Judy Chu needs to be called out.”

      “I question her either loyalty or competence. If she doesn’t realize what’s going on, then she’s totally out of touch with one of her core constituencies,” he said. “I’m really disappointed and shocked that someone like Judy Chu would have a security clearance and entitled to confidential intelligence briefings until this is figured out.”

      What’s next? Revive the WWII-era Internment Camps? That’s where this idiot is heading.

      Reply
    21. 21.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 6:54 am

      @JWR:

      Disloyalty? Again, always projection.

      Reply
    22. 22.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 7:05 am

      A US family has demanded an investigation after its patriarch reportedly died within days of having a stroke in his home and being found but left on the floor by a real estate agent who never called anyone for help.

      Loved ones of the dead man – 69-year-old Randy Vaughan of North Carolina – are raising questions about whether the realtor should have been expected to do more. The state agency that oversees realtors in North Carolina has indicated it is opening an inquiry into the case and is scheduling interviews with Vaughan’s family about his death, the Winston-Salem Journal newspaper reported Friday.

      “It’s about basic decency, caring for your fellow human beings and being a professional,” Vaughan’s brother, Doug, said to the Journal.

      The realtor, for her part, reportedly told the Journal she has “an attorney involved” and has “no liability”.

      Her only concern is her liability, must be a Republican.

      Reply
    23. 23.

      lowtechcyclist

      February 25, 2023 at 7:10 am

      @Frankensteinbeck:

      I was told for decades that Republican politicians were cynically pretending to want to overturn Roe vs Wade to manipulate the rubes.

      That may have been true for decades, just not this one or the past one.

      My take (hardly an original thesis, I know) is that the 2010 election marked a sea change.  The wave of new GOP Congresspersons elected that year had been listening to Rush Limbaugh for their entire adult lives, or close to it. And of course watching Fox News when that came into being.

      They’d been drinking the Kool-Aid from the get-go, they were true believers, and a LOT of them came into Congress in that wave year.  And since then, new GOP Congresspersons have been even further down the rabbit hole.  And fewer and fewer of them are from the Mitch McConnell generation that was happy to cynically use the rubes for their own ends, but weren’t drinking the Kool-Aid themselves.

      Reply
    24. 24.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 7:13 am

      Kings outlast Clippers 176-175 in double overtime

      That must of been quite the game.

      Reply
    25. 25.

      A Ghost to Most

      February 25, 2023 at 7:17 am

      Christian fascists are traitors to American democracy.

      Reply
    26. 26.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 7:21 am

      I want to see a Scopes Trial effect. After they were globally humiliated, fanatical cults laid low for a while.

      Reply
    27. 27.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 7:24 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: Tell me about it.  It never ceases to amaze me how much these bastards hate most of their fellow humans.

      Reply
    28. 28.

      satby

      February 25, 2023 at 7:28 am

      @Anne Laurie: Their trusted GOP wants to take away their health care, and their kid’s / grandkid’s.  No more Plan B, no more medical abortions, no more swift resolution of miscarriages or failed pregnancies.  That was not what they thought they were voting for — they just wanted to punish ‘sluts’ and ‘perverts.

      So true! Plus, they never connect that the medical care for miscarriages and non-viable pregnancies is the same as abortion care. Unless it happens to you, it doesn’t come up, but now the horror stories are getting publicized.

      @NotMax: @Baud: 😘 This is the content I keep coming back for.

      Reply
    29. 29.

      Princess

      February 25, 2023 at 7:29 am

      The religion Republicans want to punish the sluts and control women.

      The economics Republicans want a mass of desperate workers who will do anything for crap pay and for this they need more poor babies.

      Criminalizing abortion suits everyone.

      Reply
    30. 30.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 7:36 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:

      Pro-Life my ass. 

      Everyone’s ass is pro-life.  Without the anus, we’d poison ourselves from digestion.

      Reply
    31. 31.

      Matt McIrvin

      February 25, 2023 at 7:36 am

      I hope they have a plan to somehow get mifepristone re-approved if the courts just yank it over a procedural objection.

      It’s the pattern we saw in the attempts to overturn the ACA: autocratic rule through RWNJ federal courts using bad-faith arguments exploiting procedural loopholes that generally don’t touch the merits of the case.

      I wonder if to some extent this is a projection-based tactic inspired by the idea that liberal courts are always using “technicalities” to protect bad people.

      Reply
    32. 32.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 7:37 am

      @mrmoshpotato:

      I would like to subscribe to your Ass Facts newsletter.

      Reply
    33. 33.

      satby

      February 25, 2023 at 7:40 am

      @WereBear: But historically, that was more a result of the leading figure of the religious right at the time, William Jennings Bryan, dying five days after the end of the trial rather than the trial itself. Without a strong figurehead, the fundamentalists movement fractured. Despite the movie, Scopes lost and anti-evolution prevailed at trial, and influenced teaching almost into the 60s.

      Reply
    34. 34.

      BretH

      February 25, 2023 at 7:41 am

      The anti-abortion fanatics have had one tactic from the outset: Never an inch backwards, always forward. I can’t claim ownership of that because I read it several decades ago, but it has proven to be 100% true.

      There will be no stopping until women are under the full control of these people.

      Reply
    35. 35.

      Mousebumples

      February 25, 2023 at 7:42 am

      I believe WaterGirl is planning another postcard/music post for tonight if anyone wants to stop by.

      If you want to write for the Wisconsin State Senate race, check out this thread from Tuesday.

      We’re still working on the details for the Supreme Court race, but #PostcardsToVoters is working with WisDems and already has that campaign started. Email [email protected] or text JOIN to 484-275-2229 to get started with them

      P.S. The 1849 Wisconsin abortion ban is up for state Supreme Court review – I think later this year. With Roe being overturned, it’s now in effect…

      Reply
    36. 36.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 7:42 am

      @BretH:

      They won’t stop until they are stopped.

      Reply
    37. 37.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 7:44 am

      @mrmoshpotato: I’ve got a sew complaints about my ass.

      Reply
    38. 38.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 7:45 am

      @Baud: I’m pretty sure you don’t want to subscribe to my ass facts newsletter.

      Reply
    39. 39.

      Cameron

      February 25, 2023 at 7:46 am

      @mrmoshpotato: Did you just invoke Anus, the dreaded Egyptian god of the Dark Void?

      Reply
    40. 40.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 7:52 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:

      That deeply shocks and sickens me.

      How anyone could be so callous

      Reply
    41. 41.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 7:56 am

      @Baud: The paper that gets to the bottom of every story

      Reply
    42. 42.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:02 am

      @kalakal:

      The reporters have inside access.

      Reply
    43. 43.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 8:05 am

      @satby: Yes, but that cross-examination lived on :)

      But I wasn’t saying the South changed, because it lives to not change :) Texas continued to have an outsized influence.

      It’s probably the embrace of modernity in the 20s which did the most to broaden the culture at the time. And women getting the vote!

      Reply
    44. 44.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 8:06 am

      @Baud: Exactly.

      Reply
    45. 45.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 8:07 am

      @Cameron: Fear him! He wants your shit!

      Reply
    46. 46.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:07 am

      A strong contender for “Appalling idea of the day” shambles out of the murk.

      Boris Johnson wants to become head of NATO

      Reply
    47. 47.

      scribbler

      February 25, 2023 at 8:11 am

      @Mousebumples: Thanks so much for the reminder.  So excited for this race and the possibility for positive change in the state!

      ETA:  I mean, THESE races!!

      Reply
    48. 48.

      Jeffro

      February 25, 2023 at 8:11 am

      @Splitting Image:

      The most important thing to hammer home about abortion is that it is not the only health care service the Republicans are intent on taking away. It was the wedge issue they used to get the votes out, but they are and always have been opposed to anyone they don’t like getting any kind of health care treatment.

      Abortion was only the beginning. They are working to make health care for trans people illegal. They want vaccine mandates made illegal, if not the vaccines themselves. They want to abolish Medicare. They want to abolish Medicaid. They want you to die, plain and simple.

      All of this is true…and yet, it’s incredibly important that we stay focused on this one issue by itself.

      I don’t want people thinking about vaccines, or trans issues, or Medicare, or Medicaid, or anything else: we already have big majority support on the simple, single issue of womens’ reproductive freedom.  I don’t want to confuse low-info voters with all these related issues, I don’t want weirdo anti-vaxxers feeling like they can’t support abortion rights, I don’t want to lose people who for whatever reason are squicked out by trans issues, I don’t want folks to be thinking about “moochers” on Medicaid.  (All their takes, btw, not mine).

      Just take this one issue and run with it.  Run hard with it.  It will kill the GOP most everyplace.

      Reply
    49. 49.

      lowtechcyclist

      February 25, 2023 at 8:11 am

      @WereBear: ​

      Fear him! He wants your shit!

      He can have it – that shit is fucked up and bullshit. ;-)​

      Reply
    50. 50.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:12 am

      @Baud: Not afraid to dish the dirt

      Reply
    51. 51.

      Matt McIrvin

      February 25, 2023 at 8:13 am

      @satby: What also made it a little different back then was that in some ways, Bryan’s movement was the religious left.

      My impression is that while schools may have still been pushing creationism through the mid-20th century, it had lost intellectual juice. You weren’t going to win a lot of support in mainstream media, etc. by claiming that evolution was a lie and the earth was 6000 years old. But by, say, 1983 that had all turned around and you could.

      I recall reading Martin Gardner’s Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, a book he wrote about various pseudoscientific movements in the 1950s, and the chapter on scientific creationism was interesting–it described it as a moribund, nearly dead movement, of which George McCready Price was the last great advocate. It was sad to read in the late 1980s because of course at that point “creation science” had made a roaring comeback, was endorsed by national Republican politicians and was trying to reestablish itself as the default in American schools.

      Reply
    52. 52.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 8:14 am

      @Baud: Oh gawd… The puns are as painful as my hemorrhoids.

      Reply
    53. 53.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:15 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:

      So the puns are more painful than your buns?

      Reply
    54. 54.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 8:15 am

      @kalakal: He will do for NATO what Brexit has done for Britain.

      Reply
    55. 55.

      Mousebumples

      February 25, 2023 at 8:16 am

      @scribbler: Trust me, I know! On Wisconsin!

      Reply
    56. 56.

      lowtechcyclist

      February 25, 2023 at 8:18 am

      @Jeffro: ​
       

      Just take this one issue and run with it. Run hard with it. It will kill the GOP most everyplace.

      And let’s give it a go with Virginia this fall. Their entire state legislature is up for re-election, and the GOP there fought to preserve the right of government officials to know about people’s menstrual cycles. Fuck those panty-sniffers.

      Reply
    57. 57.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 8:18 am

      @Baud: They’re getting worse even as I type.

      Reply
    58. 58.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:19 am

      @Jeffro:

      Agree.  We should avoid needlessly complicating our message.

      Reply
    59. 59.

      Anyway

      February 25, 2023 at 8:19 am

      @Baud:

      I would like to subscribe to your Ass Facts newsletter

      Std Disc:     IANAL

      Reply
    60. 60.

      Amir Khalid

      February 25, 2023 at 8:23 am

      @kalakal:

      The idea of BoJo holding any public office again is risible.

      Reply
    61. 61.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:24 am

      @Anyway: In depth journalism

      Reply
    62. 62.

      Ksmiami

      February 25, 2023 at 8:25 am

      @Jeffro: yep. The current revanchist GOP needs to be destroyed for this country to have a chance

      Reply
    63. 63.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 8:26 am

      @Baud: LOL!

      Reply
    64. 64.

      Chief Oshkosh

      February 25, 2023 at 8:26 am

      @Baud:

      QFT

      Quantum Field Theory

       

      ETA: I am not aware of all internet traditions.

      Reply
    65. 65.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:27 am

      @kalakal:

      On ass-ignment.

      Reply
    66. 66.

      Jeffro

      February 25, 2023 at 8:27 am

      @lowtechcyclist:And let’s give it a go with Virginia this fall. Their entire state legislature is up for re-election, and the GOP there fought to preserve the right of government officials to know about people’s menstrual cycles. Fuck those panty-sniffers.

      I could not agree more.  For multiple reasons, it’s vital that Blue Virginia turns out in overwhelming numbers this fall.

      Reply
    67. 67.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:27 am

      @Chief Oshkosh:

      Quoted for truth.

      Reply
    68. 68.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 8:28 am

      @Cameron: I ummm….. don’t know.

      Reply
    69. 69.

      Matt McIrvin

      February 25, 2023 at 8:28 am

      The abortion issue worked in favor of Republicans for decades and it’s now clear that it’s because Roe existed. Not because there was anything wrong with Roe, but because it meant that the people who wanted some form of legal abortion felt safe that it wasn’t going away, so they didn’t have to be single-issue voters about it. The salience and the intensity on the pro-abortion-rights side was low, and most of the passion that could turn out voters was on the anti side.

      (The antis were also really good at working the refs, so that the mainstream media promoted the impression that Democrats were crazy extreme on this issue and the center was fairly restrictionist. Surely some kind of Grand Bargain could be struck!)

      The conventional wisdom that most people don’t really care about this issue unless they’re anti-abortion should have evaporated the moment Dobbs came down.

      Reply
    70. 70.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:28 am

      @Jeffro:

      Decent people need to defend their bodily autonomy the way right wingers defend their guns.

      Reply
    71. 71.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:31 am

       

      @Jeffro: Agree. Keep the message simple, to the point, and ram it down their throats.

      Reply
    72. 72.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:32 am

      @Matt McIrvin:

      It will take years for the media to catch up.  We can’t count on them to visit our diners.

      Reply
    73. 73.

      SFAW

      February 25, 2023 at 8:34 am

      @kalakal: ​
       

      A strong contender for “Appalling idea of the day” shambles out of the murk.

      Boris Johnson wants to become head of NATO

      I eagerly await Tony Jay’s comments as to why this is a (more or less) great idea.

      Reply
    74. 74.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:36 am

      @Baud: Unafraid to expose what no other journalists will

      Reply
    75. 75.

      SFAW

      February 25, 2023 at 8:37 am

      @Baud: ​
       

      It will take years for the media to catch up. We can’t count on them to visit our diners.

      “Our diners”? Are those the ones where the “House Specialties” include arugula, Belgian endive, and Grey-Poupon-encrusted everything?

      Reply
    76. 76.

      rikyrah

      February 25, 2023 at 8:38 am

      Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊

      Reply
    77. 77.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 8:38 am

      @rikyrah:

      Good morning.

      Reply
    78. 78.

      rikyrah

      February 25, 2023 at 8:38 am

      Our Vice-President is always working👏🏾👏🏾

      Reply
    79. 79.

      SFAW

      February 25, 2023 at 8:38 am

      @Baud: ​

      Get thee behind me, Satan Baud.
      No, wait, that didn’t come out right.

      Reply
    80. 80.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:39 am

      @SFAW: Personally I’d be happy with him being made head of SATO* for life. They could give him a nice office on St. Helena

       

      * Created just for him

      Reply
    81. 81.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:39 am

      @rikyrah: Good morning

      Reply
    82. 82.

      SFAW

      February 25, 2023 at 8:42 am

      @kalakal: ​
       
      For some reason, I always thought St. Helena was a lot closer to France and England. Thanks for increasing my knowledge!

      Reply
    83. 83.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 8:42 am

      @Baud: and worse…

      Reply
    84. 84.

      Ken

      February 25, 2023 at 8:43 am

      @Amir Khalid: The idea of BoJo holding any public office again is risible.

      You’re never going to become a pundit with opinions like that.

      Reply
    85. 85.

      Anyway

      February 25, 2023 at 8:44 am

      @satby:

      So true! Plus, they never connect that the medical care for miscarriages and non-viable pregnancies is the same as abortion care. Unless it happens to you,

      I don’t understand why the medical community isn’t more vocal about this  — that they can’t provide women’s healthcare with the restrictions passed by Rethug legislatures. Gun owners scream all the time about every imagined infringement on their rights — here we have real women facing dangers to their health and its not leading the news.

      Reply
    86. 86.

      Chief Oshkosh

      February 25, 2023 at 8:45 am

      @kalakal:

      A strong contender for “Appalling idea of the day” shambles out of the murk.

      Boris Johnson wants to become head of NATO

      BoBo and the rest of Brexit crew ought to be wretches in some penal colony off the north tip of Scotland.

      Reply
    87. 87.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:48 am

      @Chief Oshkosh: You’re kinder than me: see comment 80.

      Though Rockall would do nicely

      Reply
    88. 88.

      Chief Oshkosh

      February 25, 2023 at 8:49 am

      @Baud: Ha! It worked! Now everyone thinks Baud is quoting something I said because it’s true! My soash meads stock just went up!

      Reply
    89. 89.

      Chief Oshkosh

      February 25, 2023 at 8:50 am

      @kalakal: I’m still waiting on someone here to connect “tip” and “penal” in the intended entendre.

      ETA: I’d take St. Helena over an island north of Scotland. I think…

      ETA2: and thanks for the link to Rockall. Weird and wonderful things you learn these days.

      Reply
    90. 90.

      NotMax

      February 25, 2023 at 8:51 am

      @OzarkHillbilly

      I, for one, tend to shy away from dabbling in ass cracks.
      :)

      Reply
    91. 91.

      Matt McIrvin

      February 25, 2023 at 8:53 am

      @SFAW: The first place they exiled Napoleon was Elba, which is just off the Tuscan coast. That turned out to be way, way too close to mainland Europe.

      Reply
    92. 92.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 8:58 am

      @NotMax: ​ and worse…

      Reply
    93. 93.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 8:58 am

      @Chief Oshkosh:

      I’ve come around to thinking Rockall would be a better place to dump that wretched crew. It seems cruel to inflict them on the good folk of St. Helena.

      And Rockall does have an appropriate recommendation

      There can be no place more desolate, despairing and awful.

      Reply
    94. 94.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 8:59 am

      I should’ve known my reply to OH would cause this avalanche of shit.

      Reply
    95. 95.

      Suzanne

      February 25, 2023 at 9:00 am

      I have noticed a strange behavior (well, at least I think it’s strange) around the issue of abortion, and I have noticed it in other contexts, too. That is: some people genuinely seem to think that nothing bad will ever happen to them. I’m not sure if they just face facts and then subsequently assume/hope for the best, or if they just push thoughts out of their minds to mentally “avoid confrontation”. I remember reading a quote from a commander in the military who said that, if he told ten soldiers that nine of them would die on a mission, each of them would think, “Wow, I’m really going to miss those guys!”. I am sure that dumbass delusional optimism is some sort of evolutionary strategy when faced with an immediate threat, but hot damn if it is seriously maladaptive in other contexts.

      It relates to abortion because we will say things like, “What if that was your/your wife’s/your daughter’s miscarriage and she couldn’t get care?”, and it is not persuasive because they just genuinely think that nothing bad will happen. Or, like, when we said, “Little girls who are raped by their family members will get pregnant and that’s terrible”…..they didn’t believe us until it happened to that poor girl in Ohio. I have noticed that evangelicals are terrible at this. I’m not sure if they honestly think that God will keep bad shit from happening to them (even though the Bible is full of bad shit happening to good people).

      It’s a failure of empathy, but it’s more accurately a failure of imagination that comes prior to empathy. Like, if you cannot even imagine yourself in a tough situation, there’s no way to even elicit a response from a hypothetical.

      Reply
    96. 96.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 9:02 am

      @mrmoshpotato: You surely didn’t expect us to turn the other cheek?

      Reply
    97. 97.

      Scout211

      February 25, 2023 at 9:06 am

      This happened earlier this week, so it may have already been posted. But it fits this thread, so I am posting it here.

      Twenty-One States Announce Historic Governor-Led Reproductive Freedom Alliance

      The Alliance is a non-partisan coalition of 21 Governors committed to protecting and expanding reproductive freedom in their states, the largest such coalition ever convened. The Alliance will work together to strengthen reproductive freedom in the face of an unprecedented assault on abortion access and other forms of reproductive health care by states hostile to abortion rights and judges who are advancing their ideological agenda. All Governors who support reproductive freedom are welcome to join the Alliance.

      Major funding for the Alliance is provided by the California Wellness Foundation with additional support from the Rosenberg Foundation.

      Reply
    98. 98.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 9:08 am

      @Scout211:

      Awesome. We need those types of stories.  Not just the bad stuff. Especially because of the bad stuff.

      Reply
    99. 99.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 9:10 am

      @Suzanne: You’re right. It is a a total lack of imagination, their world view is so closed it’s almost as if their cognitive faculties never got as far as object permanence . They’ll scream about how social security/medicaid/medicare should be cut and then be shocked when their social security/medicaid/medicare is cut.

      It leads to a weird circular logic only bad/weak people should suffer negative consequences and that’s because they’re bad/weak people.

      It’s the old deserving and undeserving poor thing and everybody except them is undeserving.

      As an extra bonus should one of them suffer the rest instantly invoke ‘no true scotsman’

      Reply
    100. 100.

      oldgold

      February 25, 2023 at 9:12 am

      The party of “limited government” has  shown its true colors once again. This week Lee County Florida’s Executive Committee has voted & passed the “Ban the Jab” resolution, asking Governor DeSantis to ban the sale and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. Some members  of the Committee referred to the vaccine as a “bio-weapon.”

      Reply
    101. 101.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 9:13 am

      @Suzanne: I have noticed that evangelicals are terrible at this. I’m not sure if they honestly think that God will keep bad shit from happening to them (even though the Bible is full of bad shit happening to good people).

       
      It’s a kind of, “No one I know voted for Nixon!”

      In highly conforming societies, secrets are kept and a facade is polished with devoted care. This hobbles their experience and their critical thinking skills, as we see with the Evangelicals who easily lose it over what we think is the most trivial differences.

      Reply
    102. 102.

      Soprano2

      February 25, 2023 at 9:14 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: What is wrong with her? I mean, you find someone on the floor, you try to figure out if something is wrong with them, isn’t that common sense?

      Reply
    103. 103.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 9:15 am

      @WereBear:

      It’s a kind of, “No one I know voted for Nixon!”

       
      Or the more generalized “both parties are the same.”

      Reply
    104. 104.

      EarthWindFire

      February 25, 2023 at 9:16 am

      @Splitting Image: They want you to die, plain and simple.

      It’s worse than that. They want to pat themselves on the back for “letting”you be born, then work you until you’ve outlived your usefulness. Why give anyone health care? You got sick? Just means you’ve outlived your useful life.

      For a bunch of folks who don’t believe in Darwin, they sure practice survival of the fittest.

      Reply
    105. 105.

      delphinium

      February 25, 2023 at 9:18 am

      @Suzanne:  Republicans/conservatives/Christians get abortions too, but somehow that is overlooked in the discussions. As others have pointed out, these folks think that if they do need an abortion that it is justifiable and all will be forgiven by God and their family, unlike anyone else who gets one. So besides lack of empathy/imagination it is also the usual hypocritical stance that this is fine for me but not for thee.

      Reply
    106. 106.

      Kay

      February 25, 2023 at 9:19 am

      @Scout211:

      Democrats at the state level have been great. Really pleased at their response, both rhetorical and in terms of concrete actions. They did quite well in the midterms with it – they should keep pushing.

      Reply
    107. 107.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:20 am

      @mrmoshpotato: And worse…

      Reply
    108. 108.

      delphinium

      February 25, 2023 at 9:22 am

      @Scout211: This is great news! I hope these types of alliances can be formed for other issues as well. We need to keep looking forward regardless of what Republicans do.

      Reply
    109. 109.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 9:22 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:

      I wish I could assuage your pain.

      Reply
    110. 110.

      Joey Maloney

      February 25, 2023 at 9:24 am

      @kalakal: Boris Johnson wants to become head of NATO

      There’s no possibility that Flobalob came up with that idea on his own. He’s got to be acting on instruction from his Russian handlers.

       

      @kalakal:

      Reply
    111. 111.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 9:25 am

       

      @Baud: All things must pass

      Reply
    112. 112.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:26 am

      @Suzanne:I’m not sure if they honestly think that God will keep bad shit from happening to them

      For some reason or other this puts me in mind of Tevye’s plea to God: “I know, I know. We are Your chosen people. But, once in a while, can’t You choose someone else?”

      Reply
    113. 113.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 9:26 am

      @kalakal:

      You have been a real asset to this discussion.

      Reply
    114. 114.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:26 am

      @kalakal: And worse….

      Reply
    115. 115.

      sdhays

      February 25, 2023 at 9:28 am

      @kalakal: Did…did no one tell him that most of the leaders of NATO countries are also leaders of EU countries?

      Reply
    116. 116.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 9:28 am

      @Baud: Glad to be of assistance

      Reply
    117. 117.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 9:29 am

      @sdhays: Boris is well known for his mastery of detail.

      And he’s already got his command bunker  prepared

      Reply
    118. 118.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 9:29 am

      @Soprano2: It’s downright eerie. It’s a phone call

      I would expect the scandal would be she would have left and called from the car as her way to the next appointment.

      But this person doubled down.

      Reply
    119. 119.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 9:31 am

      @sdhays:

      He probably just wants access to vegetables.

      Reply
    120. 120.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:32 am

      @Soprano2: ​ She thought he was drunk. She asked him if he was OK and when he was unresponsive just assumed it was confirmation of her assumption. The fact of the matter was the man didn’t even drink.

      As for her, she is a broken person and should be kept far away from the rest of society.

      Reply
    121. 121.

      Suzanne

      February 25, 2023 at 9:32 am

      @kalakal: It leads to a weird circular logic only bad/weak people should suffer negative consequences and that’s because they’re bad/weak people.

       
      I have literally met people who have said, “I’ll never get cancer”. Uhhhhh, like, that’s a thing that happens to a lot of people. Probably many that they know, who they likely consider “good people”.

      I am somewhat neurotic, and I have to be reminded that the worst outcomes in any given situation are somewhat unlikely. So I don’t relate to this mindset at all.

      But it’s really toxic, because if you can’t imagine bad outcomes happening to you/your loved ones, then you have no cognitive empathy. I would like to think that social-emotional learning would help get past this mindset, but also just BASIC-ASS REALITY must slap them upside the head at some point.

      Reply
    122. 122.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:34 am

      @Baud: and worse…

      Reply
    123. 123.

      Chief Oshkosh

      February 25, 2023 at 9:36 am

      @kalakal: There’s a dark horse joke in there somewhere.

      Reply
    124. 124.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:37 am

      @kalakal: and worse…

      Reply
    125. 125.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 9:37 am

      @Baud: ​ And worse…

      Reply
    126. 126.

      eclare

      February 25, 2023 at 9:41 am

      It is gray, drizzly, and 45 here in Memphis, so I am going to sit on the couch and binge the most recent season of Great British Baking Show.  I’ve been saving it for a day like this.

      Reply
    127. 127.

      Suzanne

      February 25, 2023 at 9:42 am

      Very O/T: has anyone watched Cocaine Bear? I’m mildly curious.

      ETA: I really enjoy the incredibly straightforward title.

      Reply
    128. 128.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 9:44 am

      @Suzanne: Part of it is that we all live in a world of scams now. Decades of trying convince us what is good for profits is good for the rest of us has devolved into obvious lies.

      I’m not surprised people seek alternative sources when everything we encounter about something contradicts the last thing we were told. Many chronic disease sufferers are the people who help the most, because they aren’t getting on the fad of the moment. They are doing science, not getting funded by drug companies.

      Which I don’t call science, but that’s another thing Republicans have tried to ruin, by forcing Ayn Rand Rules.

      Reply
    129. 129.

      EarthWindFire

      February 25, 2023 at 9:45 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: She thought he was drunk. She asked him if he was OK and when he was unresponsive just assumed it was confirmation of her assumption.

      She’s ok with people showing up drunk to her home showings then. WTAF?

      Reply
    130. 130.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 9:50 am

      @Suzanne: For the most part it’s toxic and results in a callous lack of empathy.

      I have seen it’s tragic flip side when bad things happen to people eg cancer and they assume it must be their own fault.

      Many years ago I used to work in a hospital for people with learning disabilities ( one of the old asylums that thankfully no longer exist)  and many of the parents of the residents broke your heart. They were convinced that they were somehow to blame for their child having NiemanNiemann Picks or PKU or whatever and their child suffered for something they had done. Often they felt shame for having ‘abandoned’ a child they could never have cared for due to lack of support. They had been wracked with guilt for decades.

      In point of fact the society of time had largely dictated their actions but they felt it was their own personal sin.

      Needless to say this is not the attitude of our modern MAGA fundy nothing is ever their fault. They are the real victims

      Reply
    131. 131.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 9:54 am

      @kalakal: I’m 99.99999% sure that Jesus wasn’t talking about getting slapped on both ass cheeks.

      Reply
    132. 132.

      Dorothy A. Winsor

      February 25, 2023 at 9:56 am

      Obviously, the people are most shocked by the life-threatening cases where abortion is denied, so it’s good politics to highlight them. But it’s such a retreat on abortion rights. It makes me sad.

      Reply
    133. 133.

      zhena gogolia

      February 25, 2023 at 9:57 am

      @Suzanne: Very astute comment.

      Reply
    134. 134.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 9:58 am

      @zhena gogolia:

      I see what you did there.

      Reply
    135. 135.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 9:58 am

      @sdhays: Hahaha.  “What’s the EU?” asked BoJo.

      Reply
    136. 136.

      WereBear

      February 25, 2023 at 9:59 am

      There was a chat on Mastodon that pointed out to me just how much sludge is out there to be waded through, and how difficult it is for someone who doesn’t have much in the way of assessing sources or evaluating the science to find out what they need to find out, and trust it when they think they do.

      Especially, as I saw so much growing up, their culture punished them for “too much thinking.”

      Reply
    137. 137.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 10:00 am

      @EarthWindFire: It was the homeowner on the floor.

      Reply
    138. 138.

      Cameron

      February 25, 2023 at 10:01 am

      @SFAW: Are we talking veggie platters or crudites?

      Reply
    139. 139.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 10:01 am

      @mrmoshpotato: and worse…

      Reply
    140. 140.

      Barbara

      February 25, 2023 at 10:04 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: ​She has clearly been advised to say nothing that could be construed as an admission of liability, so this is what she came up with. I’m not defending her because I obviously don’t know any details, but I do think a woman’s reaction is more likely to be affected by worry over inherent threat potential (drunk guy is pissed to find a stranger in his house) than a man’s, and that this kind of fear often never even occurs to men.​

      Once in a position of safety she probably should have called her employer, if not the authorities.​​​

      Reply
    141. 141.

      Omnes Omnibus

      February 25, 2023 at 10:04 am

      @kalakal: ​  Who amongst us wouldn’t hide in a ‘fridge to avoid Piers Morgan? It is one of the most relatable things Boris has ever done.​

      Reply
    142. 142.

      Jeffro

      February 25, 2023 at 10:06 am

      @Suzanne: I saw the trailer on YouTube, and I was kind of surprised how gory and f-wordy it was.  But then again, it was YouTube, not in a theater.

      I can’t decide if it’ll be worth it just to see Ray Liotta (RIP) again.  (He actually has a few more posthumous releases coming out this year and next – wild)

      Reply
    143. 143.

      Barbara

      February 25, 2023 at 10:09 am

      @EarthWindFire: ​ He owned the house.

      Reply
    144. 144.

      Suzanne

      February 25, 2023 at 10:10 am

      @Omnes Omnibus:

      Who amongst us wouldn’t hide in a ‘fridge to avoid Piers Morgan? 

      OMG Piers Morgan is just disgusting. Just a total trash human. Watching him continue to be garbage to Meghan Markle because she wasn’t into him reminds me that some people are just 100% incapable of reasonable behavior and probably shouldn’t be let off-leash.

      Reply
    145. 145.

      Suzanne

      February 25, 2023 at 10:11 am

      @mrmoshpotato:

      I’m 99.99999% sure that Jesus wasn’t talking about getting slapped on both ass cheeks.

       

      Rotating tag: NOMINATED.

      Reply
    146. 146.

      OzarkHillbilly

      February 25, 2023 at 10:14 am

      @Barbara: ​ 911.

      Reply
    147. 147.

      Baud

      February 25, 2023 at 10:14 am

      @mrmoshpotato:

      What happens in Galilee stays in Galilee.

      Reply
    148. 148.

      WaterGirl

      February 25, 2023 at 10:15 am

      @Suzanne: So tempting!

      Balloon Juice, come for the politics, stay for the ass jokes.

      Reply
    149. 149.

      mrmoshpotato

      February 25, 2023 at 10:15 am

      @Suzanne: I’m asstounded!

      Reply
    150. 150.

      eclare

      February 25, 2023 at 10:16 am

      @OzarkHillbilly:   Yeah.  I don’t get that at all.

      Reply
    151. 151.

      Barbara

      February 25, 2023 at 10:22 am

      @OzarkHillbilly: Of course, in retrospect she should have called. Not clear she understood the gravity of his condition.​ I like to think I would have done better.

      Reply
    152. 152.

      Scuffletuffle

      February 25, 2023 at 10:24 am

      @NotMax: what a gorgeous place!!!!

      Reply
    153. 153.

      Barbara

      February 25, 2023 at 10:27 am

      @Jeffro: ​It has an R rating so I assumed it wasn’t just a lighthearted comedic send off.

      Reply
    154. 154.

      narya

      February 25, 2023 at 10:32 am

      @Suzanne: I think it’s more that acknowledging that they/a family member might need this care would cause cognitive dissonance on a massive scale. They’ve been taught, and believe, that only slutty-mc-slut-sluts ever need this care; realizing that they need it or want it upsets the whole apple cart. And upset apple carts are way too difficult to handle–if THIS one thing is wrong, what if other things are wrong, too? My personal observation is that one of the big dividing lines is how/whether people handle ambiguity; folks who need there to be VERY CLEAR RULES THAT APPLY ALL THE TIME have a much more difficult time dealing with any information that challenges those rules; they’ll discount the information rather than examine the rules. (We all do this to some extent, of course.)

      Reply
    155. 155.

      BlueGuitarist

      February 25, 2023 at 10:37 am

      @Mousebumples:

      Thanks!
      yay for postcards!

      We can make a difference with postcards to Get Out The Vote, especially in relatively low turnout elections like Wisconsin April 4, 2023

      We/Postcards can help flip the Wisconsin Supreme Court

      and help prevent a 2/3 R majority in the state senate by flipping WI-SD-08 – which won’t be easy because Republicans have gerrymandered it, but doable, especially with a great candidate:
      https://www.jodiforsenate.com/

      is there a Rosie the Riveter We Can Do It postcard gif?

      Erin Brockovich was in East Palestine talking activism and mentioned her book, “Superman’s Not Coming: Our National Water Crisis and What WE THE PEOPLE Can Do About It.”
      (she didn’t say postcards are our superpower, but still….)

      Reply
    156. 156.

      eclare

      February 25, 2023 at 10:38 am

      @Barbara:   To me the weirdest thing is that she assumed he was drunk and passed out.  So does every man in her life get drunk and pass out?

      My first thought would be some sort of diabetic reaction.

      Reply
    157. 157.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 10:38 am

      @mrmoshpotato: that’s just an assumption

      Reply
    158. 158.

      Formerly disgruntled in Oregon

      February 25, 2023 at 10:45 am

      @Barbara: Or a musical…

      🎶 Cocaine Bear! 🎶

      Reply
    159. 159.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 10:45 am

      @Omnes Omnibus: They should have let Morgan in the fridge with him and shut the door.

      Reply
    160. 160.

      J R in WV

      February 25, 2023 at 10:46 am

      My first thought would be / is a “medical emergency” call 911.  At my former place of work, long ago in a time before history, the network guys had a contractor in to upgrade server systems in the network center. As they exited that secure facility, the contractor fell over with a heart attack. Fortunately the HR people had sponsored courses in CPR, and had heart machines all through the giant building. Plus only 4 minutes from a fire department with paramedics and rescue trucks.

      They had the poor guy into a cardiac hospital in 15 minutes, he survived, and returned to work to complete that task before taking his retirement. As opposed to this “person” who had no thoughts at all, and just left a situation where they could have saved a life with a brief phone call.

      Pretty strange.

      No humanity there at all.

      You have to wonder, do they have a family? How is that working for them?

      Reply
    161. 161.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 10:47 am

      @eclare: Mine would be a stroke or cva but yes, some medical event.

      She’s not just despicable, she’s seriously off

      Reply
    162. 162.

      Nelle

      February 25, 2023 at 10:49 am

      @eclare: My uncle was found passed out on the street (well before medical bracelets) and carted off to a hospital, where he was shunted off to the side until they could get to the “elderly drunk.”  He died of diabetic shock in the hospital he helped to found.

      His funeral, in a small, German speaking Mennonite church was attended by the mayor of the city and a bevy of nuns in their habits.  He had made it a life practice to aid the needy.

      Reply
    163. 163.

      James E Powell

      February 25, 2023 at 10:50 am

      @lowtechcyclist:

      I agree with your analysis. The 2010 midterm election marks the death of the Reasonable Republican. Similar to the way that 1994 midterms marked the death of “we agree on goals, but differ on how to get there.”

      Because it’s so obvious & central, because it’s been talked about so much, people sometimes want to look away or outright deny what the election of a black president did to the minds of the majority of American white people.

      Reply
    164. 164.

      Suzanne

      February 25, 2023 at 10:53 am

      @narya:

      I think it’s more that acknowledging that they/a family member might need this care would cause cognitive dissonance on a massive scale. 

      Well, yes. But what I’m talking about is the kind of magical thinking that creates a mindset in which someone can convince themselves of what you’re talking about. It’s not limited to abortion or political hot topics. It’s not limited to religious people (though I see it a lot from them). I’m talking about people who literally never think they’ll get sick, or at least won’t ever entertain the idea. That they’ll speed and never get in a wreck.

      Reply
    165. 165.

      James E Powell

      February 25, 2023 at 10:53 am

      @oldgold:

      In American political code, “limited government” always meant stop giving free stuff to black people and don’t make us live with them or or make our kids go to school with them.

      Reply
    166. 166.

      eclare

      February 25, 2023 at 10:54 am

      @Nelle:   Oh I’m so sorry.  What a wonderful person.  Diabetic shocks can mimic a lot of things, and nothing is an excuse.

      Reply
    167. 167.

      lowtechcyclist

      February 25, 2023 at 10:56 am

      @kalakal: ​
       

      A strong contender for “Appalling idea of the day” shambles out of the murk.

      Oh, that’s nothing. You want to hear the winner? (At least, I hope there isn’t any idea crazier than this one today.)

      The latest thing on the right is that the whole war in Ukraine is an invention, a Wag-the-Dog sort of thing. Elmo’s buddy, catturd, is one of the leading promoters of this bullshit. They claim there’s no video evidence of this war, like there has been of other recent wars. (There’s tons of video. And photographs. And so forth.)

      If that turns out to be the runner-up (or worse) for the day, I don’t want to hear what the winner is.

      Reply
    168. 168.

      Enhanced Voting Techniques

      February 25, 2023 at 10:58 am

      It’s all fun and games until some woman in one’s family dies from septic shock during a miscarriage because some god bothering assholes who think car alternators run on magic, blocked the abortion she need to survive, eh GOPers?

      Reply
    169. 169.

      UncleEbeneezer

      February 25, 2023 at 10:58 am

      NBC News confirms: Special Counsel Jack Smith has asked a federal judge to compel the testimony of Mike Pence before the federal grand jury investigating the circumstances surrounding Jan. 6. The motion to compel was filed in D.C. District Court before Judge Beryl Howell.

      Reply
    170. 170.

      UncleEbeneezer

      February 25, 2023 at 11:00 am

      We just learned that Judge Howell said it’s ridiculous for Scott Perry to claim speech or debate clause protection for communications he had with exec branch officials prodding them to interfere with the electoral vote count like a seditious king would. 

      Reply
    171. 171.

      zhena gogolia

      February 25, 2023 at 11:00 am

      @UncleEbeneezer: Somebody replies, “Now do Dan Quayle.”

      Reply
    172. 172.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 11:01 am

       

      @lowtechcyclist: Are they calling their Big Daddy Vladdy a liar? And his representative on earth Tucker?

      And who’s going to break the news to Elmo?

      Birds aren’t real!

      Reply
    173. 173.

      kalakal

      February 25, 2023 at 11:04 am

      @Nelle: Oh how awful. He sounds like he was a wonderful man

      Reply
    174. 174.

      evodevo

      February 25, 2023 at 11:06 am

      @Suzanne: Yes…the evangelicals I know definitely think “stuff” will not happen to them.  When I mentioned global warming to one woman, her response was “I don’t care. Jeezus will take care of MY family!”  Her parents were also talibangelicals, so she was indoctrinated early.  Almost all of them think this way, until the bad shit happens to them, and then they whine and moan about it as if they were being singled out for undeserved consequences.  They literally DON’T CARE (like Melamine’s jacket said)…

      Reply
    175. 175.

      RevRick

      February 25, 2023 at 11:06 am

      @Suzanne: Imagination is the last thing Evangelical churches want since they’re built on the shaky foundation of justifying the unjustifiable. They are, after all, the literal or spiritual descendants of the churches that vociferously defended slavery, advocated for secession and Civil War, and supported Jim Crow laws and its violence. The irony here is that when Northern Baptists first entered the South’s upcountry, they opposed slavery, as their Northern Puritan cousins would increasingly do. But the Southern planter aristocracy would have none of that, so a deal with the Devil was made where the Baptists would shut up about slavery in exchange for full power to police personal behavior. Of course, this “tolerance” became intolerable, until you have Evangelicals making full-throated apologies for slavery. But to do so they had to adopt a frozen interpretation of the Bible across the board.
      Which includes views on hierarchy, gender roles, purity and the like. And so they say things like, “The Bible says…” meaning shut up. And in further service to this lack of immigration they scream, “Abortion is murder!”, which of course presupposes a fetus is a person. Which in their eyes has the added bonus of taking that status away from women.

      Interestingly, the ancient rabbis never adopted this view, in part because of a weird scenario in Exodus 21, in which a pregnant woman intervenes in a fight between two men and subsequently miscarries. Now, Evangelicals like to argue the technical term for miscarriage isn’t used, so the death penalty for harm must refer to a dead fetus. But here’s where a little imagination helps.
      Suppose the woman’s almost at full term. She’ll likely deliver a live baby. But if she’s only at seven months, it’s a dead baby and then the death penalty? The penalty is worse for a less-developed fetus? Reason says this is backwards, so the references to harm must refer to the mother-to-be. Extending this logic further, the rabbis concluded that abortion was mandatory in cases where the woman’s life was in danger. The life of the one who is, trumps the life of the one who might be.

      Reply
    176. 176.

      OverTwistWillie

      February 25, 2023 at 11:13 am

      This post 19th amendment progressivism is so troubling. Can’t we just throw up some bull about Sherman Anti-trust and Walmart, or whatever, so as to transform the rurals of our imagination into Trotskyites?

      Reply
    177. 177.

      Enhanced Voting Techniques

      February 25, 2023 at 11:14 am

      @Matt McIrvin: What also made it a little different back then was that in some ways, Bryan’s movement was the religious left.

      Big part of it was evolution was being used as the justification for eugenics.  The modern creationist use the same argument that evolutionary theory de-sanctifies human life and leads to drugs, rock in roll, model railroading, cross dressing, union membership, poverty, uppity women, racism,   altruism, teen pregnancies and other social horrors.  Once as a tragedy, second time as a farce.

      Reply
    178. 178.

      Kirk Spencer

      February 25, 2023 at 11:15 am

      @James E Powell:

      To that end I’ve been wondering what we will see when we finally get a female president.

      I think we’ll see more negative reaction than we did with a black man. Thing is that Obama’s experience gives all an idea what we need to prepare for .

      Reply
    179. 179.

      Jackie

      February 25, 2023 at 11:21 am

      Apparently ALL news outlets are demanding McCarthy share J6 Capitol Hill footage.

      Can’t wait to see his justification to deny access.

      Reply
    180. 180.

      Omnes Omnibus

      February 25, 2023 at 11:25 am

      @Jackie: ​
        Because fuck you, that’s why.

      Reply
    181. 181.

      Barbara

      February 25, 2023 at 11:30 am

      @eclare: ​Well, even elderly drunks shouldn’t be shunted aside like that.

      Reply
    182. 182.

      Peke Daddy

      February 25, 2023 at 11:32 am

      @Enhanced Voting Techniques: ​
       
      Also being used to bolster economic Darwinism, per Herbert Spencer. Bryan strongly opposed it, the “Cross of Gold” speech was a prime example of that.

      Reply
    183. 183.

      davecb

      February 25, 2023 at 11:37 am

      @OzarkHillbilly, @Soprano2: ​

      She thought he was drunk. She asked him if he was OK and when he was unresponsive just assumed it was confirmation of her assumption. The fact of the matter was the man didn’t even drink.

      Were I a woman, I might not want to go into a place with a partially-dressed man collapsed on the floor. I think I’d call 911 or at least my boss for advice

      Reply
    184. 184.

      narya

      February 25, 2023 at 11:46 am

      @Suzanne: Yeah . . . I cannot quite wrap my head around it, tbh. It’s like they create a reality in their head and then stick to it, regardless of any evidence that would counter it, and they no-true-scotsman their way out of any such evidence.

      Reply
    185. 185.

      Lulymay

      February 25, 2023 at 11:53 am

      @Anne Laurie: Bingo!!!

      Reply
    186. 186.

      Sure Lurkalot

      February 25, 2023 at 11:56 am

      @James E Powell:

      Because it’s so obvious & central, because it’s been talked about so much, people sometimes want to look away or outright deny what the election of a black president did to the minds of the majority of American white people.

      Hell yes. And Obama’s re-election was the last frontier of the already rock bottom level of reason most of them tenuously held on to.

      Reply
    187. 187.

      UncleEbeneezer

      February 25, 2023 at 11:58 am

      @zhena gogolia: Might happen.  Worth trying to get Pence’s direct testimony first, but if that takes too long, no reason not to go to Quayle.

      Reply
    188. 188.

      Bill Arnold

      February 25, 2023 at 11:59 am

      @JWR:
      Hah. I was replying to “Rep. Lance Gooden of Texas””s tweet on the matter of Judy Chu, and it was deleted right while I was composing the reply. Mr. Lance Gooden,, anti-American POS, must be feeling some heat.

      Reply
    189. 189.

      Manyakitty

      February 25, 2023 at 12:03 pm

      @Baud: one hopes they personally experience the wages of their sins. 😐

      Reply
    190. 190.

      dmsilev

      February 25, 2023 at 12:10 pm

      @Jackie: If nothing else, can’t the Senate give the same access?

      Reply
    191. 191.

      Jim, Foolish Literalist

      February 25, 2023 at 12:11 pm

      @JWR:  @Bill Arnold: I think Rep Gooden’s every public utterance is going to come under scrutiny in the next few days, and odds are things are going to get uncomfortable for him

      Reply
    192. 192.

      UncleEbeneezer

      February 25, 2023 at 12:13 pm

      @James E Powell: Absolutely.  The book I’m reading, Mothers of Massive Resistance really brings this home as you watch organizations of white women (United Daughters of the Confederacy, Daughters of American Revolution, Pro-America etc.) of  continually shifting their slogans (Parental Choice, Christian Nation, Local Control, Small Govt, Traditional Values, States’ Rights etc.) but always in the goal of maintaining racial segregation of schools and preventing the expansion of rights for Black People.  Tellingly, these organizations/campaigns always had support from and even worked with, the KKK.

      Reply
    193. 193.

      Redshift

      February 25, 2023 at 12:16 pm

      @UncleEbeneezer:

      Might happen.  Worth trying to get Pence’s direct testimony first, but if that takes too long, no reason not to go to Quayle.

      Unfortunately, there is. Pence is a witness, Quayle is hearsay. His testimony wouldn’t add anything to what they’ve got from the Pence aides.

      More likely, of the Pence challenges don’t get knocked down quickly, they’ll agree to exclude questions about conversations when he was at the Capitol. There’s no way he’ll get a speech or debate exemption for talking about the count at other times.

      Reply
    194. 194.

      Omnes Omnibus

      February 25, 2023 at 12:25 pm

      @Redshift: ​
        Pence’s statements to Quayle could qualify under a couple of hearsay exceptions.

      Reply
    195. 195.

      James E Powell

      February 25, 2023 at 12:25 pm

      @UncleEbeneezer:

      Tellingly, these organizations/campaigns always had support from and even worked with, the KKK.

      In some places they were probably the same people.

      Reply
    196. 196.

      James E Powell

      February 25, 2023 at 12:28 pm

      @Omnes Omnibus:

      It’s been a long time since I checked, but I think hearsay is admissible in federal grand jury proceedings.

      Reply
    197. 197.

      Redshift

      February 25, 2023 at 12:29 pm

      @lowtechcyclist: I agree that was a tipping point, and Obama’s election was a big shock to their system, but a lot of it was also a slow progression. They used to be mostly cynical manipulators (I always remember Reagan telling the so-called March for Life “I am with you”… remotely, while sitting out of sight inside the White House a block away), but the younger people they inspired to run were true believers. And then, I think, the manipulators started realizing they could have more money and influence (which is all they cared about) outside of government, like DeMint moving to Heritage, and they abandoned government to their nutcase heirs.

      Reply
    198. 198.

      Redshift

      February 25, 2023 at 12:32 pm

      @James E Powell: I wasn’t saying it’s not admissible, I was saying it’s not a substitute for Pence’s testimony because it’s not stronger than evidence they already have.

      Reply
    199. 199.

      Jim Appleton

      February 25, 2023 at 1:24 pm

      Proudly claiming part of the tail end of this thread …

      Reply
    200. 200.

      Matt McIrvin

      February 25, 2023 at 2:16 pm

      @Kirk Spencer: The Democrats nominating Hillary Clinton seems to have been a berzerk button for a lot of people, and not just Republicans.

      Many will argue, this wasn’t just any woman, it was that woman. But the thing is, the hate-cult around Hillary Clinton started with people who were shocked by her overt feminism and political ambition. A political wife wasn’t supposed to act like that; it made her Lady Macbeth. I do think many in younger generations were brought up absorbing that hate without really realizing where it originally came from

      I’m also struck by how much of the anti-Hillary rhetoric just got shifted wholesale to attacking Kamala Harris.

      Reply

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