The Senate will vote on the Equal Rights Amendment this week — 100 years after it was first introduced in Congress. The proposed legislation would remove arbitrary seven-year deadline on the ratification process and allow the Constitution to be amended. https://t.co/oUXM1oAzJ3
— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) April 25, 2023
The ‘deadline’ was right-wing bullsh*t when it passed, and it remains a stain on its promoters. Unpaywalled (gift) link:
… Schumer, speaking at Hunter College in New York, argued that the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade and efforts to limit access to the abortion pill mifepristone, as well as state-level actions to roll back women’s rights, have made the ERA and its protections more critical than ever.
“In this ominous hour of American history, the Equal Rights Amendment has never been as necessary and urgent as it is today,” Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement Monday…
To be added to the Constitution, the ERA must receive a two-thirds vote in Congress and then three-fourths of states — 38 — must ratify it on their own. When Congress sent the ERA to the states in 1972 for ratification, it placed a seven-year deadline on the ratification process. That deadline was extended to 1982, but only 35 states ratified it by that time.
The 38-state threshold was met on Jan. 27, 2020, when Virginia became the 38th state to ratify the ERA following a revived effort to amend the Constitution that saw Nevada and Illinois also ratify the amendment in 2017 and 2018, respectively.
The ratification, however, came decades after a 1982 deadline set by Congress for the necessary three-quarters of states to approve a constitutional amendment…
The Senate is expected to vote this week on a bipartisan resolution introduced by Sens. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that would remove the arbitrary deadline of 1982 and, thus, would recognize the ERA as a valid amendment to the Constitution.
“The ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment would finally provide a constitutional remedy against sex discrimination — pushing our country one step closer to finally achieving equal justice under the law,” Schumer said on Monday. “It has been exactly 100 years since the first ERA was proposed in Congress. American women cannot afford to wait 100 more.”
President Biden has previously voiced his support for the amendment, saying in January 2022 that “it is long past time that we put all doubt to rest.”
“I am calling on Congress to act immediately to pass a resolution recognizing ratification of the ERA,” Biden said when the House announced a resolution to advance the ERA. “As the recently published Office of Legal Counsel memorandum makes clear, there is nothing standing in Congress’s way from doing so.”
Yes, it’s ‘only’ symbolic, but sometimes symbols have power. As the GOP Death Cultists do their best to roll back everyone’s civil rights, we as Democrats need to point out that we really are the alternative. Come with us, if you want to live…
In the campaign to kill the Equal Rights Amendment, many Schlafly-aligned state groups called themselves "Women Who Want to Be Women" on the grounds feminists, by advocating for a life outside the home, were denigrating what it meant to be a "real woman" https://t.co/bv8P2xQ70q
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) April 24, 2023
(Because there’s always a grift involved… The ad is selling beer koozies. Cool beer koozies, not like all those Bud-Light-wrapping ordinary coozies!)
Literally nothing changes ever pic.twitter.com/7hpw9FSBsI
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) April 24, 2023
Didn't even change the nouns https://t.co/QTVlF2Ka70
— Gillian Branstetter (@GBBranstetter) April 24, 2023
War for Ukraine Day 426: Another Day Another Batch Of Russian War Crimes
Sister Golden Bear
Absolutely. Republicans want to vote it down… then make them own it.
Aj
Please please pass this and now a voting rights amendment (no restrictions just 18 yr + and citizen)
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Sister Golden Bear:
Exactly make them own it.
On a related note, if Ohio Republicans revive the August election for this August to raise the citizen ballot initiative process victory threshold from 50% to 60%, I hope there’s a national postcard campaign for it. I’ll write as many postcards as possible for it. It’s bullshit for them to try to do an end run around a potential abortion vote victory.
This diminishes voting and constitutional rights in general further in Ohio
Origuy
Has anyone mentioned that on May 4th, Carrie Fisher’s star will be put in the Hollywood Walk of Fame?
japa21
@Origuy: Makes sense.
Chetan Murthy
@Origuy: I don’t follow these things, but …. I’m somewhat shocked that she didn’t have a star there already I mean …. if fucking TFG has one, you’d think Carrie Fisher would be a shoo-in.
bbleh
Yes make them own it LOUDLY and PUBLICLY. Don’t stop at “symbolism.” Pass it and then YELL about it. Link it to reproductive freedom and Dobbs, link it to economic justice, link it to the ongoing campaign by Christianist ethnonationalists to impose a Taliban-like patriarchal theocracy. Get people angry and — yes — fearful. We should be! There is no downside to it! Aux barricades!
cmorenc
Wouldn’t count on the current 6 RW SCOTUS justices to uphold the validity of a constitutional amendment where ratifications from states #36, 37, & 38 were obtained only after the original statutory deadline had expired decades earlier. They may declare that such deadlines cannot be retroactively extended post-expiration, because *mumble* *mumble* the passing of the original deadline extinguished the earlier 35 ratifications and they cannot be retroactively revived decades later – instead the amendments must be freshly considered by contemporary legislatures, not the composition thereof decades ago. Anyhow, that would be the essential reasoning. I predict Roberts will write the main opinion, with Alito and Thomas concurring but complaining that Roberts didn’t go far enough to make it more difficult to mount any future effort to enact an ERA.
Suzanne
I have to tell y’all, because I’m so excited….. I went trail running after work in a park about 20 minutes further out, and I encountered the most beautiful pair of wild turkeys. They let me get so close. OMG JUST AWESOME.
bbleh
@cmorenc: concur. But that doesn’t blunt it as a political issue. Indeed, if if ever came to that, it would sharpen it!
I would like to see ACB’s concurrence to an opinion striking down ratification — as though she would ever write one.
Another Scott
@Sister Golden Bear: +1
Meanwhile, … BusinessInsider.com:
Via Fudzilla.com:
Yup.
My dad worked for Lockheed as an engineer in the 60s – 80s – a notoriously boom-and-bust period in aerospace. He occasionally told stories about having nothing to do but sit around and play cards at work. His managers knew they were doing that, but also knew that his engineers had skills and knowledge that would be difficult or impossible to replace in the future when the boom days returned if he had to let them go. Lots and lots of businesses and industries are like that, but too many business school MBAs seem to think that the only essential part of a corporation is the people in the executive suites…
(It’s kinda ironic that the story is in BusinessInsider as Insider is in the news over proposed layoffs and employee protests…)
Cheers,
Scott.
cmorenc
@bbleh:
She’ll probably duck writing any opinion in this hypothetical case about ERA ratification, but she will vote with her RW flock nonetheless.
Quinerly
Yes, I know…Politico. But good piece, imo.
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/pentagon-officials-cheer-tucker-carlson-ouster-00093819
kindness
@Quinerly: You’d think the DOD would hate Tucker’s guts simply because he supported Putin at every opportunity. Look what Murdoch has done to Republicans. They support Russia over America now.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Quinerly:
Good article, but this bit was disturbing:
Imagine soldiers thinking the likes of Tucker Carlson was worth listening to. A far cry from the Vietnam-era where widespread mutinies affected the war’s course
eclare
@Quinerly: That was good, thanks!
Quinerly
Paywalled but I got around it with that 12ft ladder site.
“Eight people familiar with the situation tell Rolling Stone that Fox News and its communications department — long led by the notoriously aggressive Irena Briganti — has assembled damaging information about Carlson. One source with knowledge calls it an ‘oppo file.’ Two sources add that Fox is prepared to disclose some of its contents if execs suspect that Carlson is coming after the network. ”
https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/fox-news-tucker-carlson-secret-dossier-oppo-file-1234723855/
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Quinerly:
Or perhaps running for high public office?
Quinerly
Reposting
My favorite theory so far on Carlson’s firing:
“Rupert Murdoch was perhaps unnerved by Carlson’s messianism because it echoed the end-times worldview of Murdoch’s ex-fiancée Ann Lesley Smith, the source said. In my May cover story, I reported that Murdoch and Smith called off their two-week engagement because Smith had told people Carlson was ‘a messenger from God.’ Murdoch had seen Carlson and Smith discuss religion firsthand. In late March, Carlson had dinner at Murdoch’s Bel Air vineyard with Murdoch and Smith, according to the source. During dinner, Smith pulled out a bible and started reading passages from the Book of Exodus, the source said. ‘Rupert just sat there and stared,’ the source said. A few days after the dinner, Murdoch and Smith called off the wedding. By taking Carlson off the air, Murdoch was also taking away his ex’s favorite show.
Smith did not respond to a request for comment.”
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/tucker-carlson-fox-news-rupert-murdoch
The piece also mentions Fox had to settle the Dominion case when it did because Rupert is so senile that his testimony would have been a disaster.
Gabe Sherman supposedly is the go to guy on all things Murdoch and Fox. I have to think his sources are solid.
It’s a soap opera…..
bbleh
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m not sure it would be bad if he runs for higher office. Talk about a combination of juicy target and prominent symbol of MAGA degeneracy! And yeah he might win in, I dunno, Mississippi or Missouri, but what a poster-boy for what most of America seems to be rapidly coming to dislike …
@Quinerly: I don’t disagree that Carlson’s uncontrollability was an issue for the Murdochs, and more generally that he had become more of a liability than an asset, but I’m not so sure about senility: I might have made the same decision in his shoes with his values. It was time to dump him.
Quinerly
@bbleh:
I took a spin around Tucker’s dad’s Wiki page the other day. Interesting read. Not just the stuff about the second wife…the frozen food heiress. Worth a peek re the dad’s backstory. Tucker’s biological mom sounds like a cool chick.
H.E.Wolf
A good friend of mine had a bumper sticker that said:
“E.R.A.
Equal Rights. Amen.”
Quinerly
@bbleh:
I like the part about Rupert depriving his ex of her favorite on air personality.
Jeffro
I’m still on the fence about buying a pair of Kay Ivey can coozies. Seems like a conversation piece (or pieces, rather) for the ages.
Redshift
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
We don’t have to imagine. It’s outrageous, but a network advocating the overthrow of the government is on TVs all over military bases and Pentagon offices:
Redshift
@Redshift: I haven’t checked recently, but when I was more frequently in touch with friends who worked at the Pentagon, they confirmed that was true.
bbleh
@Quinerly: awww, c’mon, everybody knows that Rupie is just a cuddly ol’ grandpa!
Jesus H. W. Christ what a viper. Somebody drop a cinderblock on him.
WaterGirl
@Jeffro: why give these awful people your $$$?
Quinerly
Ok…I’m not Tucker obsessed. I’m getting caught up after 2 days of working in JoJo’s side yard. (All turf is down….1000 sq ft, very little waste; 2 sunflower beds dug along the latilla fence, small drought tolerant pollinator space mulched, and a small area dug out, soil added and amended for lavender plants).
I never watched Tucker’s show. Had no idea his speciality was nutjobs.
https://www.wired.com/story/tucker-carlson-fox-news-disinformation/
JoJo loves this new space. He has room to really enjoy his green herding ball. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would end up living at 7000 ft with fake grass and a bilingual Australian Cattledog mix.
Quinerly
@Jeffro:
That Ultra Right Beer grifter found a brewery in Georgia that will brew his piss beer. Looks like it still will be about $36 a six pack.
I guess nothing really shocks me anymore.
bbleh
@Quinerly: The more they spend on this, the less they have to spend on ammunition.
@Redshift: Bad, but not necessarily a reliable indicator of what’s going on in the military at large. The Pentagon is a truly rarefied environment. Lite-colonel-rank gets coffee, colonel-rank doesn’t get an office with walls, one-stars are almost-but-not-yet important. It’s mostly political, and much older and more White than the military at large.
Jeffro
@WaterGirl: it’s the only thing holding me back!
Maybe I’ll just buy some blank ones and draw Kay’s face on them? I’m sure I can get it right.
Raoul Paste
“ come with us if you want to live….”
kinda applies to the climate change issue also
Jeffro
@Quinerly: how’s a guy supposed to buy enough ammo to repel the Dark Brandon Deep State Attack Hordes when the ‘right’ kind of beer is $36 a six pack?
Also: Dems, I think I know how we’re going to defeat these clods…just make stuff they like, brand it NOT WOKE, and sell it for 6x the usual price.
It would be funny as hell if basic (hyper) capitalism is what eventually defanged and defunded the MAGA morons and made progressives everywhere rich!
eclare
@Quinerly: The side yard sounds great, glad JoJo approves!
Quinerly
@bbleh:
I read somewhere how Jerry Hall was so devoted to keeping him safe and alive during Covid Times….afraid he would catch it. Oddly, I guess she genuinely cared for him. And, I guess we all have read how she was truly surprised when he started divorce proceedings. He sent her an 11 word email telling her the marriage was over.
Redshift
@bbleh: It’s not just the Pentagon, according to the article, it’s enlisted common areas on military bases. The Pentagon is just the part that I have personal knowledge about.
NS
You can’t retroactively extend deadlines, as if the Congress that actually had the 2/3 vote is immaterial in this regard. RBG specifically disavowed this idea before her death. It might be good politics, but it is absurd law.
Quinerly
@eclare:
Thanks!
He is a very happy boy. And I’m very pleased with how it is turning out. It was all pea gravel when I moved here one year ago. So much dust. I moved buckets and buckets and buckets of the gravel for months by hand. From the back to the front from May until this past Jan. Because of steps, walls, paths….the only way to move it was in drywall buckets walking it around. Used a lot of it to make cactus gardens out front. Also, made a big pile that looks like I buried 3 bodies.
This weekend I have my help back. We are laying a pallet of flagstones. Hoping to finish up Sun.
UncleEbeneezer
The added scare wording in that last tweet about “gender identity” should really be all the proof anyone needs that the War On Women and the War On Transgender Rights are absolutely connected in the eyes and strategic goals of these evil fuckers. I hope people who have even a whiff of TERFiness in their world vies are thinking long and hard about the fact that this odious FRCAction organization is using the exact same language, that TERFs (not to mention Nazis) are constantly pushing all over the internet.
Manyakitty
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): one more reason to ban fox noise from all public TVs in US government facilities, especially those related to the military.
Quinerly
@Jeffro:
I like the way you think. Have you thought about starting a newsletter? 😈
Nelle
@Redshift: TGere is a group of veterans trying to get Fox banned from military bases.
sdhays
I’m at the “Bye, Felicia!” phase of Tuckums’ firing. I’m somewhat curious about exactly what was the trigger, but I’m ready to forget about him until he pops up again. As others have pointed out, while BillO and Glenn Beck aren’t out on the streets, they ceased to be not movers and shakers in the movement the moment they were shitcanned from Fox.
For now, I expect Tucker to be the same.
rikyrah
Everybody and his mother, musically, was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson
Great montage
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRTGJsN2/
Quinerly
@sdhays:
If he is a true believer he’ll move to Hungary or hook up with RT.
I’m still getting a kick out of the reporting that the decision to fire him was made Fri, but they waited to tell him 10 mins before they released the news to the public.
Sister Golden Bear
@Another Scott:
Translation, they’re collecting hiding the bad bets and bad decisions made by their CEOs and management under the rubric of “economic concerns” and social contagion layoffs. I.e. if you’re the only company doing layoffs, Wall Street is gonna hammer you. If everyone’s doing layoffs then there’s safety in numbers.
Plus a healthy dose of “need to put those uppity employees back in their place.”
Jackie
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Didn’t TFG require all military bases common rooms have Faux TV set as the default channel? I don’t know if that’s been undone under Biden’s tenure.
JoyceH
So – Abby Grossberg is this year’s Cassidy Hutchinson. Got it.
But when and WHY did drink cozies become ‘coozies’?
Sort of like how all of a sudden in the past decade, a large segment of documents or money became a ‘tranche’. WHY?
danielx
@Another Scott:
Truth: and in point of fact, there are not enough skilled workers for the jobs we’ve got. Truly bizarro case in point – right now, at least so i’ve heard, department of defense ( i know, nyuck nyuck) is overseeing major effort to overhaul, eh, strategic weapons and associated delivery systems. To wit, missiles. It’s a given that these are intended to produce mass death. Assuming that one is willing to associate with that, a major issue with the whole program is that the country no longer has enough skilled machinists, pipefitters. metal fabrication experts, etc etc….you get the idea.
danielx
@JoyceH:
Language of finance creeping (and I do mean creeping) into common talk. It’s an old word meaning slice or portion in French, courtesy of the g machine.
As i have been told, it can refer to various portions of a financial arrangement that can be arranged to be paid at different times during the course of a financial transaction.
Among many other interpretations. It’s a very flexible word that sounds hip, or so i would assume. Just sharing knowledge, not mansplaining.
Jackie
Thank you, Governor Inslee!♥️
“Washington state became the 10th state in the U.S. to ban assault weapons on Tuesday when Gov. Jay Inslee signed a bill passed by this year’s legislature as part of a sweeping package of proposals aimed at reducing gun violence,” the Olympianreports.
“An emergency clause in the assault weapons bill means that the manufacture, importation, distribution, sale, or offer for sale of any assault-style weapon are immediately banned in the state of Washington.”
My Very Red Eastern WA constituents are undoubtedly throwing hissy fits.
danielx
@Quinerly:
Wait wait wait…7000 feet, gotta be Santa Fe, but okay. But bilingual? Speaks both Australian and American English?
And 36 bucks? Last I heard it was 20 and from what i heard that angel piss Coors Light would be a step up.
Quinerly
@danielx:
The $36 includes shipping.
JoJo understands Spanish. My Poco died just before my 1/2020 annual drive about NM trip. I ended up adopting JoJo from Espanola Humane Society on that trip in 2/2020. He, 9 siblings, and his mother had been dumped in Espanola in Dec, 2019. The puppies probably had been born in October. JoJo’s back leg was badly broken and they first thought he would lose it. He lived with the vet and the vet’s Spanish speaking family until I adopted him. I didn’t realize in the beginning that JoJo only understood Spanish. He now understands English but he and the guys (Miguel and Bogart) helping me with my yard “converse” in Spanish behind my back.
My life changed quite a bit with the start of Covid Times…….
Jo Jo las Orejas
@danielx:
¿Mamá te explicó?
karen marie
@Jeffro: I’d have to hate mysellf more than I do to give a Republican money. Giving money to World Central Kitchen will be a positive use of your money rather than a negative.
danielx
@Jo Jo las Orejas:
What can I tell you, it’s been lo these many years since I had even a nodding acquaintance….
prostratedragon
Sometimes one is just on: “Le Moribond [
Seasons in the Sun],” Jacques Brel.West of the Rockies
@JoyceH:
Isn’t a coozie a… something else?
Ruckus
@Redshift:
A lot of the concept of the military is at least somewhat conservative. I don’t necessarily mean today’s right wing BS but conservative in the concept of protecting the status quo and it is/can be far more strict/orchestrated than civilian life. A complete structure from lowest to highest rank, with a separate class for leadership. Now I was in a very long time ago but I’d bet it isn’t a lot different today, if only because some of that is necessary for the operation and concept of the business of the military.
Anne Laurie
Apparently it’s a trademark that’s become a household name, like ‘kleenex’ or ‘scotch tape.’ Although I remember, from its emergency in the early 1980s, that some people thought the ‘k’ was to distinguish it from, yes, confusion with a vulgar anatomical term.
NotMax
Looks to be a bumper crop of nutballs this year.
Sebastian
@Quinerly:
Thanks! Have you seen this article?
https://www.politico.com/news/2023/04/25/neil-gorsuch-colorado-property-sale-00093579
Another shady real estate deal, this time Gorsuch.
Baud
@NotMax:
Threw away his life for nothing.
Glad no one was hurt.
Quinerly
@Sebastian:
Saw that yesterday. Also, glanced at a headline about Roberts declining to testify before Congress.
Quinerly
Potty mouth Tuckems….
“Several weeks ago, as Fox News lawyers prepared for a courtroom showdown with Dominion Voting Systems, they presented Tucker Carlson with what they thought was good news: They had persuaded the court to redact from a legal filing the time he called a senior Fox News executive the c-word, according to people familiar with the matter.
Mr. Carlson, Fox News’s most-watched prime-time host, wasn’t impressed. He told his colleagues that he wanted the world to know what he had said about the executive in a private message, the people said. Mr. Carlson said comments he made about former President Donald Trump—’I hate him passionately’—that were in the court documents were said during a momentary spasm of anger, while his dislike of this executive was deep and enduring.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/tucker-carlsons-vulgar-offensive-messages-about-colleagues-helped-seal-his-fate-at-fox-news-e52b3cc5?mod=djemalertNEWS
lowtechcyclist
@NS:
This. Shoulda just started the process all over again during one of those times when we had control of both houses of Congress. Definitely should do it the next time.
@Aj:
And this too. Fuck yeah!
Seriously, whether they can pass or not, make Republicans vote against them, make Republican-controlled state legislatures refuse to consider them. Make them remind people of just who and what they are.
Gvg
I have wanted the eta restarted for at least a couple of years. It’s obvious we need it. Try telling me I don’t have equal rights, buddy. As for extending the deadline, well they didn’t put a deadline on other amendments, just the one giving women equal rights. That right there was another example of misogyny and an unfair handicap again. So Congress set the deadline, Congress can undo it, period. I am not in the mood to accept excuses.
I need to write all my Congress people state and Federal to ratify. It’s Florida so they will ignore me but I should try to tell them how angry they are making me.
Baud
Ooh, Joe Biden TV ad on MSNBC.
I like it.
Tony Jay
Equal Rights vs Caste Supremacy. Ding-Ding-Ding! Round Eleventybillion.
lowtechcyclist
@Gvg:
It’s in the wording of the amendments themselves in the 18th, 20th, 21st, and 22nd Amendments.
lowtechcyclist
@lowtechcyclist:
Too late for ETA:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/artV-4-2-1/ALDE_00013054/
Kay
Women can’t get standard, best practices health care in Oklahoma.
Anti choice group didn’t bother to comment on this NPR story. Too busy accepting tens of millions of public money to open and staff fake pregnancy clinics. They’re putting every religious fundamentalist in the state on the public payroll to open fake clinics where women get substandard care while women bleed in parking lots, refused entry to the hospital.
Baud
@Kay:
Women, meet Kafka.
ETA: Contrast this with how conservative judges are deeply concerned about industry regulators having the slightest bit of discretion.
Kay
State just gave them 7 million more dollars so they can hire more GOP religious fundamentalists to staff the brainwashing centers. Women have to endure fundie sermons and political speeches promoting Republicans in order to get a 40 pack of diapers. All on the public dime.
Baud
@Kay:
It’s not socialism when the money goes to your buddies.
Kay
@Baud:
Yup. Paid to proselytize for religious fundamentalism and to promote GOP candidates. Easy to open and run because there are no qualified medical workers there at all. Low quality, cheap staffing leaves plenty of funding for lavish salaries going to well connected Republicans in managing the centers.
catclub
@Suzanne:
We have flocks as large as twenty of wild turkeys in our yard. I also saw an otter cross the road.
catclub
@Kay:
I think the departure of Ob-gyns from anti-healthcare states will happen. But slower than I would like. Also how about training in medical schools in those states?
Anne Laurie
Careful what you wish for… here in the Boston area, wild turkeys have become urban pests!
Kay
@catclub:
Their work is so sloppy and slipshod. Garbage. They drafted and passed 3 abortion laws that contradict each other? It shows how little they care about womens survival. They just jam this crap thru without a thought on how it will impact heath care in the state.
AWOL
@Origuy: Most “stars” pay for it as self-promotion. I guess she needs some attention.
evodevo
@JoyceH: And I’m old enough to remember that “cooz” was slang for female genitalia in my day…
NotMax
Late (early?) to thread. Semi-obligatory.
;)
Quinerly
A must read.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/dy3gnq/what-is-moms-for-liberty
JPL
@Quinerly: Horrifying! You might consider passing it on to Water Girl so she can front page it.
Miss Bianca
@Jackie: Christ. You got your assault rifle ban passed, and Colorado didn’t.
StringOnAStick
@AWOL: I doubt Carrie Fisher is paying for a Hollywood star for attention since she’s been dead for several years.
Yutsano
@Quinerly: Well they seem nice…