• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This blog will pay for itself.

Republicans do not trust women.

The willow is too close to the house.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

People are complicated. Love is not.

The arc of the moral universe does not bend itself. it is up to us to bend it.

Disappointing to see gov. newsom with his finger to the wind.

Shut up, hissy kitty!

America is going up in flames. The NYTimes fawns over MAGA celebrities. No longer a real newspaper.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

If a good thing happens for a bad reason, it’s still a good thing.

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

Disagreements are healthy; personal attacks are not.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

🎶 Those boots were made for mockin’ 🎵

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

These are not very smart people, and things got out of hand.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Quote tweet friends, screenshot enemies.

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

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Open Threads / MYOB (Open Thread)

MYOB (Open Thread)

by Betty Cracker|  July 16, 20234:18 pm| 141 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity

FacebookTweetEmail

I have no idea how this ad will go over in Ohio, but I like the message behind it: Repubs are all up in our business, and we have to vote them out so we can live our lives without their arrogant, unwanted interference:

I have the keen political instincts of a concussed garden snail, but I think when an entire party is snarling into microphones about their God-given right to dictate what everyone else can do, say, watch or read, a mind your own business message is likely to resonate.

Open thread!

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: «John Manchester – Music! John Manchester – Music!
Next Post: Medium Cool – Walked Out, Turned It Off, Or Stopped Reading Medium Cool – Walked Out, Turned It Off, Or Stopped Reading!»

Reader Interactions

141Comments

  1. 1.

    MattF

    July 16, 2023 at 4:23 pm

    I like it. Gets the message across.

  2. 2.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 4:24 pm

    Hopefully, it’ll get young people to come out.

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 4:25 pm

    I love it! The casting of the politician is so good.

  4. 4.

    Betty Cracker

    July 16, 2023 at 4:27 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Yep — the creepiness factor is off the charts!

  5. 5.

    RepubAnon

    July 16, 2023 at 4:28 pm

    One could start a whole series of these – a library where only one book is allowed would be next on my suggested list.

  6. 6.

    ShadeTail

    July 16, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    I’m no politician either, but another one I’d like to see: “Republicans are perverts who want to check your kids’ genitals before allowing them into school.”

  7. 7.

    Denali5

    July 16, 2023 at 4:30 pm

    @RepubAnon,

    Well, obviously the one book could not be the Bible- too much sex in that one.

  8. 8.

    Kay

    July 16, 2023 at 4:32 pm

    I like it too.

    I feel good about the referendum. I know you guys are superstitious but I’m not, so no, I’m not “jinxing” it, you woo-woos :)

    SEN. TOM COTTON (R-NE) on Sunday shrugged off questions about his opposition to the Pentagon paying for service members to travel to receive an abortion, smearing the policy as unlawful “abortion tourism” and insisting that women should just use some their allotted time off.

    They are absolutely furious that women are (still) permitted to travel interstate without male
    permission/supervision. I know not everyone can do it and I’m not judging (at all) anyone who stays but I think women and girls should get out of the states where they have lesser rights. It’s just too much to demand of us.

  9. 9.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 4:32 pm

    You would think people concerned about what Dems might do to their gas stoves would at least raise an eyebrow at what Republicans want to do to their private lives.

     

    @zhena gogolia:

    Agreed.

  10. 10.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 4:33 pm

    @Kay:

    I feel good about the referendum. I know you guys are superstitious but I’m not, so no, I’m not “jinxing” it, you woo-woos :)

     
    You need to fight like your 15 points behind, Kay.

  11. 11.

    dmsilev

    July 16, 2023 at 4:42 pm

    @Baud: Pro tip: don’t put a condom on your gas stove. Or an electric one either.

  12. 12.

    dr. luba

    July 16, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    @zhena gogolia: My first thought was….Joe Lieberman, is that you?  But on close up, it’s a standard GOP representative from central casting (i.e. old white guy).

  13. 13.

    Ben Cisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️

    July 16, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    I have the keen political instincts of a concussed garden snail

    Love this!!

  14. 14.

    mrmoshpotato

    July 16, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    I love it! The casting of the politician is so good.

    @Betty Cracker:

    Yep — the creepiness factor is off the charts!

    So which actual Ohio Rethuglican answered the casting call?

  15. 15.

    FastEdD

    July 16, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    One of my favorite books from years ago is Ain’t Nobody’s Business If You Do, by Peter McWilliams. The title was from a Billie Holiday song. The gist of it is that society has no business policing morals and policemen become “clergymen with guns.” We should have laws to prevent people from harming others and we should enforce them as a just society, but if you do something that may harm yourself that is your business. For example, if you get blotto drunk and pass out on a street corner, you should be left alone. If you get drunk and get behind the wheel of a car, yep that’s a crime because you’re going to hurt someone else. The author wrote a bunch of foo foo self help books, but the sad irony is that he got desperately ill and tried to use pot to deal with the symptoms. They busted him and threw him in jail as he was dying.

  16. 16.

    dmsilev

    July 16, 2023 at 4:45 pm

    @Kay:

    “abortion tourism”

    I’m sure some spin doctor came up with that phrase to try to make people think that this is all about whims and women going off on a lark to have an abortion. It’s just, no, reality is not like that.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    July 16, 2023 at 4:46 pm

    @Kay: I’m wearing a baseball hat inside out and backwards right now, so I got you covered. 🤔

  18. 18.

    MattF

    July 16, 2023 at 4:47 pm

    @mrmoshpotato: It’s directed at the ‘I wanna get laid’ demographic, which I’d estimate to be pretty big.

  19. 19.

    Parfigliano

    July 16, 2023 at 4:49 pm

    Run that commercial everywhere.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    July 16, 2023 at 4:50 pm

    You left out the F for Mind Your Own Fucking Business.

    I love that ad, and I hope Mind Your Own Business and/or Keep Republicans Out of Your Bedroom takes off.

  21. 21.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 4:52 pm

    @dmsilev: We can call what Tom Cotton wants to do as the Fugitive Woman Act.

  22. 22.

    tobie

    July 16, 2023 at 4:53 pm

    @RepubAnon: I like the idea of an ad like this showing how Republicans are banning books.

    You could have a Mom saying to her kid, “I loved this book when I was your age,” only to have a Republican come and rip To Kill a Mockinbird out of her kid’s hands. Ditto for The Diary of Ann Frank, The Bluest Eye, Animal Farm and so on. Republicans aren’t only destroying your kid’s education. They’re destroying the opportunity to bond with your kid about books you read and loved in school.

  23. 23.

    Elizabelle

    July 16, 2023 at 4:54 pm

    “Abortion Tourism.”

    That is such an insulting term.  I hope that young people hear it, far and wide, and hear that it came out of Republican Tom Cotton’s mouth.  And probably some other Republicans’, too.  We should keep an ear out on that.

  24. 24.

    Elizabelle

    July 16, 2023 at 4:56 pm

    @tobie:   That is a great idea, too.

    Hit back at those Moms for Liberty types, hard.  They want to control YOUR/OUR kids, and not just their own little spawn.

  25. 25.

    pat

    July 16, 2023 at 4:56 pm

    Condoms?  Really?  That does seem a bit farther than they are going right now, but heck, maybe that is the next step.

  26. 26.

    Cameron

    July 16, 2023 at 4:56 pm

    @Baud: Dems are insisting that gas stoves use condoms?  Damn, that’s harsh.  ETA: Too late to the party again, I see….

  27. 27.

    skerry

    July 16, 2023 at 4:57 pm

    I shared with my millennials/Gen Zer. I hope they share it with their friends.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    July 16, 2023 at 4:57 pm

    Music to mock Republicans by?
    :)

  29. 29.

    Kay

    July 16, 2023 at 4:59 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    I’ll make Ohio voters “complacent” – with my mind.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    July 16, 2023 at 5:00 pm

    @Kay:  Tom Cotton is the creepy, pencil-necked senator from Arkansas. Perfect name for a neo-Confederate busybody.

  31. 31.

    Alison Rose

    July 16, 2023 at 5:00 pm

    @pat: They’re aiming this at the “you should only be banging if you want to have a baby” sector of the GOP, which is not an insignificant portion. Sure, thus far, they haven’t said they want to ban condoms (AFAIK), but many of them do want to ban birth control pills, and one of the main reasons to use a condom is to prevent pregnancy. So if they’re against the one, it stands to reason they could be against the other. The point of the ad is that yes, it would seem ridiculous for a politician to say you can’t use condoms…just as ridiculous as it is for them to say you can’t have birth control pills.

  32. 32.

    tobie

    July 16, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    @Elizabelle: Exactly. Republicans are injecting their ideology into the bedroom, into schools, into child rearing, the doctor’s office, research, etc.

  33. 33.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    Wow! Nice.  Because remember, Dobbs chipped away at the right to privacy — it didn’t say anything about fetal personhood.

    Once the right to privacy is gone, the state legislatures  can ban birth control,  ban all abortion, but not only that — they can force you to terminate a pregnancy, or force you to begin one.

  34. 34.

    Jackie

    July 16, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    Hank Williams has/had the perfect song:

    “Why don’t you mind your own business and you won’t be minding mine!”

    Seems like the perfect theme song for Democrats this next election cycle!!

    https://youtu.be/JSeuDDzjIB8

  35. 35.

    Cameron

    July 16, 2023 at 5:02 pm

    Isn’t it perverse that these folks are OK with teachers carrying firearms into school, but will bust them if they’re carrying the “wrong” (as defined by Moms For Liberty) book?

  36. 36.

    NotMax

    July 16, 2023 at 5:03 pm

    OT.

    Detected a whiff of skepticism regarding the name when previously mentioned a Coming Soon sign seen for a new eatery here. Well, they’re open.

  37. 37.

    Geminid

    July 16, 2023 at 5:03 pm

    Maybe someone can come up with an ad showing scary-looking people on a front stoop, going through a family’s UPS deliveries and mail.

    A child sounds the alarm: “The-e-e-y’re back. The Porch Pirates are back!” to which a parent replies,”No, honey, they’re not Porch Pirates. They’re Republican Politicians.”

  38. 38.

    artem1s

    July 16, 2023 at 5:06 pm

    @dr. luba: ​
     
    I think he’s meant to look like Mike DeWine maybe

  39. 39.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 5:06 pm

    @FastEdD: Bessie Smith.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AJwEFyWOzA

  40. 40.

    HumboldtBlue

    July 16, 2023 at 5:07 pm

    @dmsilev:

    Pro tip: don’t put a condom on your gas stove. Or an electric one either.

    It’s this sort of wisdom, this sound insight, deep experience and understanding of the world around us, that drives us to read this blog.

  41. 41.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 5:08 pm

    @Denali5: Can’t wait til the Republicans start fighting over WHICH Bible.  The Catholic one?  The Protestant one?  What about the Tanakh?

    Back to the 1500s we go, just like Sam Alito always wanted.  Love a good religious war!

    Maybe they can hang some more Quakers on Boston Common.

    Oh shit, that was the 1600s.  Too advanced.

  42. 42.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 5:09 pm

    @zhena gogolia: As I learned from Lady Sings the Blues, in which Billie listens to Bessie’s version.

  43. 43.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 5:09 pm

    Has anyone noted the passing of Jane Birkin?

  44. 44.

    pat

    July 16, 2023 at 5:10 pm

    @Alison Rose:

    Ah yes, that makes sense.  “if you don’t want an abortion, don’t have sex.”

  45. 45.

    bbleh

    July 16, 2023 at 5:10 pm

    @ShadeTail: yeah, same creepy guy at the entrance of a school, taking little girls — only little girls — aside, away from their parents, behind a screen, and then just silhouettes of him lifting their skirts &/or pulling down their pants.

  46. 46.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    July 16, 2023 at 5:11 pm

    @HumboldtBlue:
    Come for the politics, stay for the science? @dmsilev is a scientist you know.

  47. 47.

    Alison Rose

    July 16, 2023 at 5:13 pm

    @NotMax: me, a vegetarian seeing the sign: [homer backing into the hedge gif]

  48. 48.

    SuzieC

    July 16, 2023 at 5:14 pm

    I believe that ad was used in Greg Landsman’s  successful campaign in OH-1.

  49. 49.

    Dan B

    July 16, 2023 at 5:15 pm

    @Alison Rose:  I agree that birth control is next, although there may be Griswold and Lawrence next.  The Condom is a clear visual that BC pills could not.  I love the line that the GOP guy is going to make sure they’re not doing anything “illegal”.

  50. 50.

    MomSense

    July 16, 2023 at 5:16 pm

    @RepubAnon:

    The BBC did a brilliant one about “she’s asking for it”.

  51. 51.

    scav

    July 16, 2023 at 5:16 pm

    @ShadeTail: It’s not just schools, the creepy politician would show up at sporting events and bathrooms etc for the mandatory genital check.  Also on the side of stages, making sure all performers genitals match their costumes.  Showing up in your closet every morning for same.

  52. 52.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 5:19 pm

    @pat: It’s absolutely the next step — not the banning of condoms, but the undoing of  the constitutional right to privacy, established in Griswold v Connecticut, which conservatives think does not exist in the constitution.

    Once the Extreme Court gets rid of the (liberal-found) right to privacy like Alito and Gorsuch desperately want to, that clears the way for any state legislature  to ban whatever birth control they see fit.

  53. 53.

    Geminid

    July 16, 2023 at 5:22 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I had not noticed the news of Ms. Birkin’s passing. I did see this obituary in the Washington Post July 9:

    Susan Love, 75

      Surgeon spent decades crusading against breast cancer 

    It’s quite a read, maybe worthy of a front page post. Dr. Love was a pioneer in many ways.

  54. 54.

    jonas

    July 16, 2023 at 5:22 pm

    @Baud: IIRC, didn’t some pro-choice group a little while back (maybe even before Dobbs came down) cut a really good ad showing a car on a dark road with a nervous-looking woman and her teenage daughter in the front seat pulled over by these thick-necked state troopers shining lights in their faces and asking what they’re doing heading over the state line at this time of night?

    That one was really good, too, and really visceral. Didn’t even need to be explicit about what it was about — everyone knows.

  55. 55.

    FastEdD

    July 16, 2023 at 5:23 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I didn’t know that. Thank you.

  56. 56.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 5:25 pm

    @jonas: That ad was terrifying— and educational.  I had told my younger female family members I would ALWAYS be there for them if they needed help with access.

    Then I saw that ad.  And only then realized with a chill what the stakes could be.

  57. 57.

    HumboldtBlue

    July 16, 2023 at 5:25 pm

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    Of course! Half the commentariat are deep-dyed nerds of one stripe or another.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    July 16, 2023 at 5:27 pm

    @Mike in NC:

    It enrages me. His big sanctimonious face scolding us – “blah, blah me, me”. Ugh. Performative. They just love bothering people. They exist to bug people.

    Can we just give the enlisted people some dignity? Let’s NOT discuss their reproductive issues on cable tv with a fake debate between a pundit and a pol.

  59. 59.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 5:27 pm

    @FastEdD: It’s a great song.

  60. 60.

    waspuppet

    July 16, 2023 at 5:29 pm

    Can’t wait for Politifact or Glenn Kessler to have a heart attack over this ad: “No Republican legislature has banned condoms! Especially in Ohio! Eleventy-billion Pinocchios!”

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    July 16, 2023 at 5:29 pm

    Only the best (not).

    Who is pounding the pavement for DeSantis? (If nothing else, only need to watch the first 50 seconds of the video.)

  62. 62.

    pat

    July 16, 2023 at 5:29 pm

    @Betsy:

    Wasn’t there a decision about mixed race marriages?  Could be wrong, but… that would be a great show.

  63. 63.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    July 16, 2023 at 5:30 pm

    More, coming from other angles but along the same lines. That the Republicans no longer believe in freedom and that they seek to control minorities and women so that old white men can give young white men hope for a racist, misogynistic future where they get to put the boot to those they hate.

    I love it! More!!

  64. 64.

    Kay

    July 16, 2023 at 5:30 pm

    This is Red Wine and Blue – it’s a womens group – the counter to the fascist moms group. They’re doing a lot in Ohio on both Issue 1 and the reproductive rights initiative.

    NOT POLITICAL? NO PROBLEM. IN FACT, IT’S PERFECT.

    We are a sisterhood working to change the world together, one suburb at a time. Red Wine & Blue provides everything women need to successfully organize in their communities and beyond. Want to get stuff done and have fun along the way? Join us.

  65. 65.

    Ksmiami

    July 16, 2023 at 5:32 pm

    @Cameron: They prioritize violence over intelligence because they are ignorant fools.

  66. 66.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 5:33 pm

    @pat:
    Loving (2016 film)
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loving_(2016_film)

  67. 67.

    gene108

    July 16, 2023 at 5:34 pm

    Good ad. A condom is the one thing men can do regarding safe sex and/or birth control.

    Hopefully it gets 18 to 29 year old men to pay attention to the upcoming amendment vote.

  68. 68.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 5:35 pm

    @waspuppet: Meanwhile Clarence Thomas outlined how he’d overrule Griswold (which established the right to birth control) in his part of the  Dobbs opinion

  69. 69.

    smith

    July 16, 2023 at 5:35 pm

    I have no doubt they will go after birth control next — some of them have said so openly. Specifically, they will target birth control pills and IUDs using the argument that those are actually forms of very early abortion.

    However, I doubt they will go after condom use, for the very important reason that men necessarily have a large say in deciding whether to use condoms. Although it is certainly preferable that couples jointly decide on their contraceptive strategy, in practice men may not even know if their female partners are using birth control pills or an UID.

    The whole point of GQP sex crusades is to control women’s sexual agency, and  banning birth control pills and UIDs helps accomplish that. But no way will they ever interfere with a man’s agency in regard to sex.

    Still it’s a great ad, and if it gets men thinking about what it’s like to have a politician make these kind of decisions for you, all the better.

  70. 70.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    July 16, 2023 at 5:35 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    At first glimpse I had the impression of Orrin Hatch…lol!

  71. 71.

    pat

    July 16, 2023 at 5:36 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Yes!  Loving!  Quick, someone think up a case to take to the not-supremes!

     

    eta, OTOH, that could really affect a LOT of people.  So maybe don’t…

    eta2:  In 1967??  Wow.

  72. 72.

    Ksmiami

    July 16, 2023 at 5:37 pm

    @Betsy: this court needs to be disbanded or something- Monsters.

  73. 73.

    smith

    July 16, 2023 at 5:39 pm

    @pat: Quick, someone think up a case to take to the not-supremes!

    Well, apparently you no longer need to have any actual standing to bring a case, so why not argue you are harmed by Clarence and Ginni’s marriage?

  74. 74.

    Odie Hugh Manatee

    July 16, 2023 at 5:39 pm

    @RepubAnon:

    A school where creepy old men in small rooms are greeting children back to school and telling them they’re there to examine their genitals before allowing them into school for the year.

    @ShadeTail:

    This.

  75. 75.

    Betty Cracker

    July 16, 2023 at 5:40 pm

    CNN says DeSantis is doing an interview with Jake Tapper on Tuesday. DeSantis almost never leaves the wingnut media bubble, so this could be an opportunity for normie America to get an unvarnished look at the angry kumquat.

    But I doubt Tapper is up to the task. Maybe he’ll surprise me.

  76. 76.

    Jackie

    July 16, 2023 at 5:40 pm

    @pat: Ironically, overturning Love would personally effect Thomas.

  77. 77.

    Martin

    July 16, 2023 at 5:40 pm

    @Betsy: There was a town hall debate in either 2012 or 2016 where some Republican voter got a question and demanded the candidates affirm that the King James Bible was the only true bible. Good times.

  78. 78.

    pat

    July 16, 2023 at 5:43 pm

    @Jackie:

    That was exactly why I proposed it, you know.

  79. 79.

    Kathleen

    July 16, 2023 at 5:44 pm

    @Kay: FWIW I went to Hamilton County Dem HQ on Friday to write postcards and volunteers jammed 2 floors of the building, which is a renovated house. Energy and spirits were high. I really enjoyed it. They’ve stopped the post cards and are getting into phone bank/canvassing mode. I’m will volunteer to pass out pamphlets at BOE and my precinct on election day.

  80. 80.

    Ella in New Mexico

    July 16, 2023 at 5:46 pm

    @Kay:

    SEN. TOM COTTON (R-NE) on Sunday shrugged off questions about his opposition to the Pentagon paying for service members to travel to receive an abortion, smearing the policy as unlawful “abortion tourism” and insisting that women should just use some their allotted time off.

    I’m betting the women who would be affected will use their medical or annual leave for the time they’re away from their post. That’s not the fucking issue,Tom. 

    The issue is if they cannot legally obtain abortion or related healthcare services at the location in which they are stationed, the military has ALWAYS helped service members with the costs of getting to a location where they are provided. Its just how it works for ALL covered medical services.

    And as a veteran he knows this and if for fucking once he got interviewed by someone who challenged him, he’d mover closer to saying what he really means but tried to avoid above: women not only don’t belong in the military, they should not have any autonomy over their own bodies.

  81. 81.

    dmsilev

    July 16, 2023 at 5:47 pm

    @Jackie: Thomas voting to overturn Loving would have to be the most elaborate long-game ‘I want a divorce’ move of all time.

  82. 82.

    Kathleen

    July 16, 2023 at 5:47 pm

    @Alison Rose: Catholic Church forbids contraception because the only people who are allowed to have sex are married Catholics trying to have a child.

  83. 83.

    Kathleen

    July 16, 2023 at 5:50 pm

    @Odie Hugh Manatee: The job title should be “Inspector Genitals”.

  84. 84.

    Kathleen

    July 16, 2023 at 5:51 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Must flee TV.

  85. 85.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 5:53 pm

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    Exactly. The solution to abortion tourism is to restore abortion rights everywhere.

  86. 86.

    Honus

    July 16, 2023 at 5:54 pm

    @Mike in NC: I believe “Bobble throated slapdick” is Charlie Pierce’s apt term for senator cotton.

  87. 87.

    pat

    July 16, 2023 at 5:59 pm

    I just went back to the Wikipedia article about Loving and it is amazing, almost unbelievable, that until 1967 !!! there were states where “interracial” marriage was prohibited. I grew up in a small town in the northern midwest and there was maybe one Black family in town, so I was never actually thinking about these things.

    “Anti miscegenation” laws. These days it is almost as unbelievable as…….. well, outlawing birth control.
    We’ve come a long way in my lifetime, and now we seem to be on the way back. So many things that my generation came to take for granted, now up for cancellation.

  88. 88.

    Betty Cracker

    July 16, 2023 at 5:59 pm

    @Honus: Hard to improve on that. It captures the essence so well.

  89. 89.

    Urza

    July 16, 2023 at 6:00 pm

    I’ve been telling people they’re coming for birth control right after abortion for years and no one really believes it even with the sound clips.  No one truly wants to believe there is no stopping point for groups that try taking things away from you.  Once one gets taken they have to pick a new reason why things aren’t perfect yet, be it birth control or a new outgroup like trans that are obviously not doing anything to anyone.

  90. 90.

    scav

    July 16, 2023 at 6:02 pm

    When they do the one where the parents walk into their child’s bedroom, it might also be apt to include a Mom for Liberty rifling the bookshelf and toybox for inappropriate materials.

  91. 91.

    Cameron

    July 16, 2023 at 6:02 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Well, DeSantis isn’t up to it, either.

  92. 92.

    Kay

    July 16, 2023 at 6:05 pm

    @Kathleen:

    Oh that’s great. I have a Zoom thing for them Monday night and then the live event in Toledo. I  wonder if Toledo will be good turnout – Lucas County. They dropped off during covid but were back last cycle – Marcy Kaptur, their gal. My middle son votes there. I’ll have to bug him.

  93. 93.

    p.a.

    July 16, 2023 at 6:07 pm

    I know he’s bullet proof but I’d love to see an ad like: “when Mitch McConnell was first elected he was worth $X and Kentucky ranked 47th, 44th, 47th in x, y, z.  Now Mitch is worth $X^3 as Senate Majority Leader and Kentucky still ranks 47, 44, 47 in…”

  94. 94.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 6:12 pm

    @Urza:

    I like the ad in the OP, but I don’t see the point of focusing on the next thing the Republicans will do. What they are doing now is pretty awful.

  95. 95.

    Kathleen

    July 16, 2023 at 6:12 pm

    @Kay: For some reason Cincinnati is not one of the locations.

  96. 96.

    Urza

    July 16, 2023 at 6:18 pm

    @Baud: What they’re doing has been awful since forever, but people get used to hearing about it.  Pointing out the next thing they’re going to take away keeps it fresh.  And birth control affects everyone that isn’t an insane religious sect.  Something everyone can get on board with even if they’re against abortion or trans kids.  And something that shows just how crazy conservatives are getting since no one considers birth control up for debate, at least not condoms.

  97. 97.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 6:18 pm

    @Martin: Gah!!!!

  98. 98.

    Heidi Mom

    July 16, 2023 at 6:20 pm

    @scav: Maybe a “Mom for Liberty” could be the monster under the bed or in the closet.

  99. 99.

    Betsy

    July 16, 2023 at 6:21 pm

    @Urza: Exactly how it works!

  100. 100.

    LiminalOwl

    July 16, 2023 at 6:22 pm

    @pat: They have already cited Griswold as a case that shouldn’t stand, snd that was a case specifically about condoms.

  101. 101.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 6:22 pm

    @Urza:

    Abortion laws are still pretty fresh.  I personally find talking about the next thing speculative.  Do whatever you feel works, but by your original comments, it sounds like it isn’t landing with people.

  102. 102.

    ema

    July 16, 2023 at 6:26 pm

    Speaking of birth control, the FDA just approved the first OTC OCP, the OPill, a progestin-only brand. So, stock up I guess.

  103. 103.

    TriassicSands

    July 16, 2023 at 6:27 pm

    The ad might be even better if there were six people dressed in black robes standing behind the Republican politician — if they cast six look-alikes they could show their heads nodding in agreement/approval.

    However, simplicity is often better and in the short term defeating Republicans is the key, because it is more likely than changing the court. But, I do like giving credit when it is earned and the SCOTUS Six have empowered the Republicans.

  104. 104.

    Urza

    July 16, 2023 at 6:28 pm

    @Baud: Hard to land when they’re not hearing about it yet.  State legislature news pointing to their national trends isn’t exactly something most people want to know about.  More playing the long game though, if you can point the trends they can’t pretend its not bad when it comes up later.  Making sure they understand the creeping fascism is as important as todays problem.
    If they get privacy overturned to do birth control then imagine what they can do with all your data that you’ve lost control of long ago.

  105. 105.

    Alison Rose

    July 16, 2023 at 6:32 pm

    @Kathleen: Yeah. But what I’ve always wondered about that is — what about after the woman has gone through menopause? Do married couples just never get to fuck again? Or what if there are fertility issues with one or both partners? No sex ever for the rest of their marriage?

  106. 106.

    Dan B

    July 16, 2023 at 6:35 pm

    @Alison Rose:  No sex ever because if you are not fertile it’s because you have been inhabited by a demon!!

  107. 107.

    Alison Rose

    July 16, 2023 at 6:37 pm

    @Dan B: And since Catholics also generally look down on divorce, I guess those people would be required to remain in a sexless marriage for the rest of their lives, even though they both want to have sex, but they’re not allowed because it won’t make a baby. I’m pretty sure God would be like “y’all this is dumb, let them smash”.

  108. 108.

    smith

    July 16, 2023 at 6:38 pm

    @Alison Rose: Well, if we go by the Bible, that’s when he takes a concubine.

  109. 109.

    MagdaInBlack

    July 16, 2023 at 6:41 pm

    @Alison Rose: Raised Catholic, I reached the opinion ” y’all, this is dumb” about a lot of the “teachings” at about age 12.

  110. 110.

    Brachiator

    July 16, 2023 at 6:43 pm

    @Alison Rose:

    The point of the ad is that yes, it would seem ridiculous for a politician to say you can’t use condoms…just as ridiculous as it is for them to say you can’t have birth control pills.

    I am relatively ancient, I guess. I was talking to my sister about the history of birth control. When I was a pre-teen and teenager, condoms were not sold at every drug store. But strangely enough, you could buy them in vending machines in gas station restrooms and in the rest rooms of most movie theaters. This was in Texas.

    The condoms were labeled “For Prevention of Disease Only.” The manufacturers had to tell a polite lie about contraception in order to sell them.

    And this is what some people insist were the good old days.

  111. 111.

    LiminalOwl

    July 16, 2023 at 6:46 pm

    @Kathleen: According to whom? Not that it’s much better, but the canonical language is that sexual intercourse must be open to the possibility of conception, not that it has to be for the purpose of conception. Also, that marriage (their definition of it) is a natural sacrament, so all (heterosexual, married) couples can legitimately have sex, even under the  most stringent Catholic dogmas. To the best of my knowledge, there has never been Catholic theology saying sex was only for Catholics.

    (Even more esoteric trivia: in Familiaris Consortio, JP2 declared that the mutual comfort and relationship of spouses was sufficient to legitimize [married, hetero, open-to-conception] marital sex. At 5he time, I knew Opus Dei members who wereshocked and offended that he would say such a thing.)

  112. 112.

    Alison Rose

    July 16, 2023 at 6:47 pm

    @MagdaInBlack: Unfortunately, you probably weren’t given “voice of God” status in the church :P

  113. 113.

    MagdaInBlack

    July 16, 2023 at 6:49 pm

    @Alison Rose: Thus I am a heathen 😉

  114. 114.

    LiminalOwl

    July 16, 2023 at 6:51 pm

    [deleted]

  115. 115.

    phdesmond

    July 16, 2023 at 6:52 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    yes.  sad to see Jane Birkin go.

  116. 116.

    Dan B

    July 16, 2023 at 6:53 pm

    @Brachiator:  The good old days were when you had to make your own condom from pig intestines as Dog intended!

  117. 117.

    Bupalos

    July 16, 2023 at 6:55 pm

    Freedom is our message. Freedom and equality. That is America.

  118. 118.

    Bupalos

    July 16, 2023 at 7:01 pm

    @Alison Rose: mmmm…. I’d say the mistake here is insisting that it make sense and be coherent.

    It doesn’t make sense and can’t be coherent. You’ll misunderstand our opponents if you suppose it must make sense. Abortion legislation and all this conservative freakout stuff is much simpler and stupider than they pretend, and then most of us suppose. It’s an attempt to go back in time to an imagined past. None of it has anything to do directly with the issues at hand. They don’t want to “save babies” in the positive telling or “hate women” in the negative version. They just want to go back to a time they think they would understand and in which they would be valuable. They literally are just daydreaming about timetravel because they are incapable of processing the present and are terrified of the future. Maybe that scenario they’re wishing to go back to would involve controlling women and getting to say the N-word and so forth, but that isn’t really what they’re after. They don’t know what they’re after. And it doesn’t really matter, because it’s a total impossibility that they or we every go to this vague neverland. They know what they want to flee. Reality. The future.

    A very different and even more cartoonish version of the same phenomena is happening in Russia and Hungary. It’s a global phenomena with different details written in, and different levels of destruction, in the different places. But it’s at heart the same thing.

  119. 119.

    Baud

    July 16, 2023 at 7:02 pm

    @LiminalOwl:

    the mutual comfort and relationship of spouses

     

    I didn’t know the church was so cool about swingers.

  120. 120.

    Alison Rose

    July 16, 2023 at 7:08 pm

    @Bupalos: Well, you and I and most people here are aware of all of this. My point is to make the people who insist that the only sex anyone should be having is sex that could end in a pregnancy answer these very basic questions. They don’t want to because they know it would trip them up right quick, but those questions still exist.

  121. 121.

    Frank Wilhoit

    July 16, 2023 at 7:13 pm

    No one in Ohio cares about their own business, but only about other people’s business. Issue 1 will fail, and the following initiative will pass, both comfortably, as such things go today, i.e. maybe 52-48; but it will immediately be nullified by the legislature. (Why do you think the whole FirstEnergy thing was able to happen? No one was paying any attention to anything other than the heartbeat bill.)

  122. 122.

    Bupalos

    July 16, 2023 at 7:14 pm

    Big props to the director for leaving in the full 3 beat rest after the guy pants out “illlehhhgal…”

    There is some effective silence!!! Could have been a full 2 measures, that would only get better.

  123. 123.

    Lynn Dee

    July 16, 2023 at 7:17 pm

    I like the implication of the reference to “our bedroom.” I.e., don’t think you’re safe from panty-sniffing Republican pols just because you’re married.

  124. 124.

    Bupalos

    July 16, 2023 at 7:18 pm

    @Frank Wilhoit: Huh?

    Issue 1 will fail, the constitutional amendment will pass, and the legislature will somehow override? Game that out for me homes.

    And “No one in Ohio” cares?

    You drunk?

  125. 125.

    Bupalos

    July 16, 2023 at 7:22 pm

    @Alison Rose: Well, but those folks aren’t here.

    But who IS here is a lot of people who think there is some coherent rationale behind this winger backlash. And keep convincing themselves it’s about the things these wingers babble about, and try to translate it into coherent, evil thought.

    It doesn’t translate. They’re crying babies that think they can get a personal time machine if they lash out hard enough, if their tantrum lands some blows.

  126. 126.

    Subsole

    July 16, 2023 at 7:47 pm

    @Bupalos:

    Beautiful summation of the issue.

  127. 127.

    Brachiator

    July 16, 2023 at 7:48 pm

    @Dan B:

    The good old days were when you had to make your own condom from pig intestines as Dog intended!

    Saran-wrap.

    Tin foil if you were desperate.

  128. 128.

    zhena gogolia

    July 16, 2023 at 8:02 pm

    @Bupalos: I want that on a billboard!

  129. 129.

    thruppence

    July 16, 2023 at 8:05 pm

    Apple used Delta 5’s song “Mind Your Own Business” in an ad a couple of years ago. Seems appropriate here too.

    https://youtube.com/watch?v=xGDBTLdxZZw&feature=sharea

  130. 130.

    dr. luba

    July 16, 2023 at 8:13 pm

    @artem1s: I have no idea what DeWine looks like……and I’m old, so it was Lieberman for me.  But really, a caricature of the old white guy who runs on “freedom” but is all about control.

  131. 131.

    Citizen Alan

    July 16, 2023 at 8:14 pm

    @Bupalos:

    Well, the Florida legislature has already demonstrated that republicans don’t mind. Simply ignoring a decisive outcome in a referendum. And the Mississippi Supreme Court used absurd logic to essentially abolish state referendums the second they resulted in an outcome conservatives didn’t like. I don’t think it’s historianic to suggest that the iowa legislature would use similar bullshit to simply invalidate a constitutional amendment they opposed.

  132. 132.

    Miss Bianca

    July 16, 2023 at 8:17 pm

    @Kay: Love it!

  133. 133.

    AnonPhenom

    July 16, 2023 at 8:32 pm

    Love it.

    One quibble, to make it more accurate, I’d have the congressman taking out his cellphone towards the end and setting his camera to video record.

    (Not for prurient purposes of course! Evidence. To be entered into the congressional record…see: Purple Pamphlet )

  134. 134.

    Elizabelle

    July 16, 2023 at 8:48 pm

    @Kay:  Thank you re Red Wine and Blue.  They just launched in Virginia.  I signed up.

  135. 135.

    Lyrebird

    July 16, 2023 at 9:35 pm

    @jonas: I thought that was a Meidas Touch ad, but I’m not sure.  It was very effective.

     

    @Brachiator: See below, but lordamitey I hope you are joking about tin foil.  Or you had affairs with alien women with cowhide uh you know.

    @LiminalOwl: Thanks Liminal!  My parents told me that when they grew up the condoms were always behind a counter, you would have to ask the pharmacist for them.  No privacy, and pprobably no luck if the people running the drugstore did not like something about you.

  136. 136.

    rikyrah

    July 16, 2023 at 11:50 pm

    @Kay:

    It’s why they are furious about the abortion pill. People being able to do this in their homes. No need to actually go to a clinic…engaged them

  137. 137.

    Kathleen

    July 17, 2023 at 3:04 am

    @Alison Rose: I do not know. I’m just saying how this was communicated to me in my 17 years of Catholic schooling.

  138. 138.

    Kathleen

    July 17, 2023 at 3:05 am

    @LiminalOwl: I had 17 years of Catholic education in the 50’s and 50’s. I’m communicating what was taught to me.

  139. 139.

    evodevo

    July 17, 2023 at 5:57 am

    @Alison Rose: Well, back in MY day (lol – the Fifties and Sixties in a Red State), you could only get condoms from a pharmacist, or at a gas station/truck stop men’s restroom dispenser, which had a sign on it that said “for prevention of disease, only”…that is what the religious right wants to return to…

    Or what Lyrebird said..

  140. 140.

    Matt

    July 17, 2023 at 8:39 am

    The problem with this ad is that there’s a huge chunk of the state that would lick that guy’s asshole while he fucks their wife and then thank him afterwards, because it made their wife cry.

  141. 141.

    jimmiraybob

    July 17, 2023 at 8:44 am

    @Betsy: ​
     

    “Maybe they can hang some more Quakers on Boston Common.”

    I’d always wondered why their Christian brethren in the bigger sects were so harsh on them. I’m starting to realize, after a whole lot of reading about our colonial history, that it’s probably about the Quaker’s growing opposition to chattel slavery.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road -  ?BillinGlendaleCA - Gold! 1
Image by BillinGlendaleCA (5/10/25)

Recent Comments

  • Geoduck on Wednesday Night Open Thread (May 14, 2025 @ 8:22pm)
  • prostratedragon on Wednesday Night Open Thread (May 14, 2025 @ 8:21pm)
  • Bupalos on Brief Media Note (Open Thread) (May 14, 2025 @ 8:21pm)
  • Dr Daniel Price (Saint Vincent) on On The Road – frosty – 2024 National Park Road Trip – Canada (1/3) Banff (May 14, 2025 @ 8:20pm)
  • Percysowner on Wednesday Night Open Thread (May 14, 2025 @ 8:19pm)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Meetups

Upcoming Ohio Meetup May 17
5/11 Post about the May 17 Ohio Meetup

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Hands Off! – Denver, San Diego & Austin

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

PA Supreme Court At Risk

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!