Biden visits FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C. to thank workers for assisting in recent disasters:
“We're not this engaged this often. But these last couple of years, with climate change and really kicking in, you guys are going 24 hours a day and 365 days a year.” pic.twitter.com/W1eLkIunx9
— The Recount (@therecount) August 31, 2023
When doing the right thing is also doing the smart thing…
Biden called for lawmakers to provide significantly more emergency funding for natural disaster recovery after Idalia's landfall.“We’re going to need a whole hell of a lot more money to deal all you’re taking care of,” he said at FEMA. via @gardnerakayla https://t.co/u5f0qNLM1L
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) August 31, 2023
New: Pres. Joe Biden tells reporters at FEMA HQ he plans to travel to Florida Saturday after Hurricane Idalia battered the state, repeated calls on Congress "to make sure [FEMA's] able to have the funds to be able to continue to show up and meet the needs of the American people." pic.twitter.com/xbhHl6wjfc
— DJ Judd (@DJJudd) August 31, 2023
President Biden makes unannounced stop at FEMA and says he spoke again with Gov DeSantis of FL and Gov McMasters of SC. The president is thanking FEMA HQ staff.
— Kelly O'Donnell (@KellyO) August 31, 2023
Reporter: Mr. President, a government shutdown, how would that affect FEMA?
Biden: It would be a serious, serious problem. I'm hoping that there's greater maturity to prevent that from happening pic.twitter.com/4PngQgvpnJ
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 31, 2023
Peter Baker: What, no paper towels to throw? Doesn’t Biden understand photo ops?
The president came with a pizza delivery for FEMA workers, per WH.
— Akayla Gardner (@gardnerakayla) August 31, 2023
President Biden visited FEMA headquarters for the 2nd time this week, with the clear undertone to the media of "I can't expect you people to otherwise reasonably cover the work 1000s of professionals are doing on the ground, so here is your big shiny object, you dumbasses." pic.twitter.com/NVICzFRef1
— The Biden Accomplishments Guy (on Threads) (@What46HasDone) August 31, 2023
On The Road – Winter Wren – Newfoundland (part 2) – Witless Bay and Cape Bonavista area
Matt McIrvin
What, no openly contemptuous punishment of states that didn’t vote for him in 2020?
Baud
Undertone? You mean he didn’t say that out loud? Very un-Bidenlike.
Narya
That last one is very funny. And sad, because it’s true.
Maxim
@Baud: Clearly not enough dumbass reporters asked him enough dumbass questions.
Kay
I don’t even know what to say anymore. They’re now planning on imprisoning all the women who are currently inside conservative jurisdictions.
Women really deserve an apology from all the people who minimized this.
Baud
@Kay:
Don’t hold your breath.
ETA: Or travel on interstate highways.
Betty Cracker
I visit Cedar Key fairly often — it’s about an hour and change from where we live. There’s one business on Dock Street that is plastered with anti-Biden and pro-DeSantis signs. I avoid the place because they obviously don’t want my business.
But during a stay with friends there last November, one friend spotted an item she was interested in and wandered into the store, so I followed her. She noticed an anti-Biden sign inside and unfavorably remarked on it to me. The proprietor overheard, took offense and got into a shouting match with my friend until I pulled her out.
This morning while looking at post-storm photos, I saw that shop wrecked. You could still see a tattered anti-Biden sign on the front. I bet the wingnut asshole who runs it will be happy to take Biden Bucks to rebuild!
Jeffro
Should be in red bold, 72-point type on the headlines of every American newspaper. Complete insanity.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
God works in mysterious ways.
OzarkHillbilly
Consider my Fruede to be thoroughly schadened:
Jeffro
On a side note, I was sitting in my car dealer’s waiting room and the TV had been left on some Newsmax-ish channel. I was alone in there, so I grabbed the remote and switched it to ABC News just in time for President Biden’s remarks to the FEMA folks.
It was nice not having commentators, pundit panels, or anyone else chiming in to try and tell me what to think. (In either/any direction!). Also, ABC then followed it up with…other news. Non-political news. Ahhhhh.
I might have to do that more often.
Kay
@Baud:
It almost doesn’t need to be said at this point but in this as in all of their work, they’re antiabortion people so of course they’re lying to women. They lie constantly. It’s a measure of how little they respect women – how often they blatantly lie to them:
Professional anti abortion activists drafted the local proposals before the Texas health care for women ban passed- he knows exactly what it says and does. They just choose to lie to the public about it.
Jeffro
Great campaign/debate stage line there – it’s there for the taking, GOP candidates!
eclare
Does anyone know if there is a reason Joe sounded out of breath at FEMA? Disclaimer: I believe that Joe is in great shape and hate all of these repugnant attacks on him over his age. Is it just presidentin’ is hard? Did anyone else notice?
Eta>totally willing to admit it might just be me.
Baud
@Kay:
I have deep respect for the 20% of people in these places that voted for Biden.
NotMax
REMINDER
NYC Meet-up
Sunday, September 3rd, 4 – 8 p.m.
The Baylander
Take the A or the 1 subway to 125th Street, then the M125 bus west to 12th Avenue/ St. Claire Place stop (or can walk west). The Baylander is on the Hudson River at 125th street. Open air venue.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: Mind-boggling. This passage jumped out at me:
She’s thisclose to getting it!
eclare
@Kay:
So now we have caravans of women seeking legal abortions?
tobie
@Kay: The Taliban are preventing women from traveling to countries where they’ve received scholarships to study at a university.
How is what Texas is doing any different? Essentially pregnant women are no longer permitted to travel out of state, as any travel could be construed as abortion travel and, if nothing else, women could face legal battles for moving across state lines. State ownership of the womb is terrifying
ETA: I see that offering a ride to a pregnant woman could also result in the accusation of “abortion trafficking” so pregnant women really are stuck in a hellhole.
eclare
@Betty Cracker:
She was brave to say that in public.
Kay
@Betty Cracker:
Conservative women are delusional. They say “everyone” in town gets along fine except for issues around the far Right takeover of the schools, library and now the ban on women traveling.
Women are doing just great in Texas unless they want an education, to read freely without a censor, or to travel without a male custodian. Okay doke. Keep telling yourself that, sister.
SFAW
@Kay:
Didn’t the Thirteenth Amendment ban slavery?
When I become God-Emperor of this place, I’m shipping all those mofos to a nice “resort” at the bottom of the Marianas Trench. The only downside to that: possible sea level rise.
ETA: I don’t know why, but a John and Yoko song popped into my head. Something about how Woman is the something
sdhays
@OzarkHillbilly: Or maybe nothing happened to Rudy and these masters of the universe are just shit judges of character and shouldn’t participate in politics (or anything, really) at all because they’re so incompetent and shitty.
“America’s Mayor” put the disaster command center inside the biggest terrorist target in his city, one that had been bombed only years before, so that he could use it for sexual trysts with his mistress. There’s a lot more, but you don’t need to know any more to know that Rudy was a shitty mayor and a shitty person and should have only ever been known as “America’s Shit”.
Kay
@tobie:
90% of abortions are in the first 12 weeks. How do they know they’re pregnant? They’ll have to surveill and track all women of childbearing age. There would be no other way to know. They’ll be doing trash pulls outside their residences looking for home pregnancy tests.
Princess
@Jeffro: But NPR is concerned about which stairs Biden uses to get into AF One.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊😊😊
frosty
@Betty Cracker: This winter we’ll park our trailer at the Low Key Hideaway in Cedar Key for the third time. We like the place, I hope it survived. The Tiki Bar has a great Rum Manhattan if you want to drop by sometime!
ETA Do you have a link to the post-storm photos?
SFAW
@Princess:
I read that they’re also concerned about how Moscow Mitch’s (seeming) stroke means President Biden will also have one (or maybe already has had one, but the Deep State is covering it up).
Kristine
@Kay:
Can a local jurisdiction block travel on interstate highways? It seems to me they are overstepping big time, but IANAL
tobie
@Kay: aaargh. I’m just waiting for the Texas Board of Education to approve routine pregnancy tests for all girls 14 and older. The state owns the womb. It dictates what can be done with it.
SFAW
@Baud:
The Rethugs will work hard to make sure those persons are no longer classified as “people,” at least not in their Jeebus-loving county.
NotMax
FYI.
Often given a plug here by Steeplejack, retro TV service MeTV rolls out over the air broadcast stations in certain markets.
sdhays
@Princess: And I’m certainly grateful. I don’t know how I functioned without knowing all these years.
Geminid
@Kay: They won’t just go through trash. Porch pirates will be issued Letters of Marque.
OzarkHillbilly
Sure, the fascist libtards are going around kidnapping pregnant women off the street and talking them across the country for forced abortions. I suspect he has no idea how stupid he sounds.
sdhays
@tobie: What a good idea! They can wrap genital inspections into the pregnancy tests too so that they can be 100% sure no transgender people are around! //
I really hope the line that conservatives need to cross in order for them to lose elections in places like Texas is at least close or (hopefully) already crossed. This shit is awful.
lowtechcyclist
@sdhays:
This. And fuck Time Magazine for throwing out their standards for Person of the Year, which their standards say is supposed to be the person who made the biggest difference in the world, for good or for evil.
Apparently they were still smarting from the outrage when Ayatollah Khomeini was their PoY in 1979, and decided they couldn’t let bin Laden be their PoY in 2001. So they groped around for a ‘good’ honoree and fucked up by going with Rudy.
Kay
@Kristine:
In Texas, laws controlling women (and only laws controlling women) can be enforced by any random person:
Literally anyone in Texas has more power and autonomy and agency over any targeted womans body than the woman herself.
eclare
@NotMax:
That place looks fun!
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: Raccoons with letters of Marque? What will they think of next.
Jeffro
@Kay: not to be obnoxious, but it’s actually 93% in the first 12 weeks.
99% in the first 20 weeks.
You either trust women or you don’t, GOP.
Chris T.
@Kay: Can a woman sue herself? Clog up the courts with millions of bogus lawsuits…
Betty
@sdhays: Thank you for reminding us about Rudy’s actual record v. the propaganda.
Kristine
@Kay:
I would look into holding back their federal highway money. There has to be a stick somewhere.
tobie
@sdhays: All this is so beyond the pale. But freedumb = surveillance of everyone/everything I don’t like.
I wish I had faith that conservative voters would finally say, “This is a bridge too far,” but I don’t. Uvalde overwhelmingly voted to reelect Greg Abbott after his horrific response to the elementary school shooting there. They supported the guy who did nothing, and even praised the inept police, after their kids were mowed down. What is going on?
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
lowtechcyclist
One nation, divisible: if states can block entry into or exit from their state for reasons like being suspected of being pregnant and wanting an abortion, what can’t they seal off their borders over?
Part of being one nation, indivisible, is being able to travel unimpeded between states. ISTM that interfering with that is an unhealthy fraction of the way towards secession. I can’t see how this can possibly be Constitutional.
eclare
@Kristine:
Feds did just that to get states to raise the drinking age to 21, otherwise Louisiana never would have raised the age.
Kay
I just think women should pay attention to how far this has already gone- they’ve banned exceptions to their laws for rape or incest (or to save the life of rape victim 10 year old girls), women are being refused best practices” modern medical care for miscarriages and high risk births in states like Texas and Florida, and we now have two states (Texas and Alabama) considering bans on travel for women.
Relying on an eventual lawsuit under the 14th Amendment, especially with the far Right Supreme Court, seems to me unwise. If there is a panic button it might be time to hit it.
artem1s
I’m hoping for a greater maturity…
Dark Brandon really knows how to throw the shade
Jeffro
There is a clear majority of support for reproductive rights in America. Vast majorities of Ds, slight majorities of Is, and a significant % of Rs (39% want it legal in most or all cases) – significant enough to peel off many of their voters.
from 2022:
ie, the group that is (all-too-slowly) dying out is anti-abortion; the fastest-growing group in America (the “nones”) support reproductive rights.
It’s just right there for the taking-and-running-with-it, Ds!
SFAW
@tobie:
Hate is a powerful drug, for some, and they need to keep that high.
SFAW
@artem1s:
If Dark Brandon has his own version of Luther, Luther would have said “Grow the fuck up! Pass the spending bill, mofos!”
WaterGirl
@NotMax: I have a reminder post set to go up at noon today.
Jeffro
just before Dobbs, here’s where things stood:
There’s that crazification factor, almost! And “2 to 1” needs repeating (and repeating, and repeating)
Also – we don’t hear much about this part, do we?
And here I am thinking of any number of D politicians who throw this out there once in a while, but don’t lean into it. They should!
tobie
@lowtechcyclist: IANAL…but wasn’t the Supremes support for SB8 so important because it basically allowed for vigilante justice? SCOTUS said it’s okay for private citizens to sue anyone who provides abortion services or who assists a person in getting an abortion in contravention of the state’s ban. The SCOTUS decision deeming SB8 constitutional allows for private suits, and it’s the threat of being sued that’s supposed to keep women in their place.
SFAW
@Jeffro:
That tells me that three-quarters of white evangelicals need to be deported or thrown in jail.
No, I’m not serious, but sometimes I wonder if the metaphorical (or is it “figurative”?) leopards eating their faces would cause an attitude change.
Narrator: It wouldn’t.
Kristine
@SFAW: Biden should have an Anger Translator like his former boss did.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Pod Save America says that the House is likely to open an impeachment inquiry into Biden when they come back from the Labor Day recess. If so, that will be interesting. Also infuriating.
Soprano2
@Kay: Yes, they do. It was entirely predictable that these religious fanatics would do things like this to try to force their religious beliefs about abortion onto all of us. What I wonder is, how will they enforce a law like that on cars traveling through the town? How will they even prove that you’re travelling to get an abortion? They’re nonsensical laws whose only purpose is to scare people. ETA – I’m sure you noticed that it was two women who stopped that from becoming law in that town. They know it’s nuts.
Kay
Trump actually tipped their hand. Remember “there has to be some form of punishment”?
The anti abortion movement lie to women. They lied to women about womens ablity to access modern, best practices healthcare after these laws go in and they are now lying to women about their goal – which is to punish women with criminal sanctions.
Chief Oshkosh
@OzarkHillbilly: Meh. Fuck these fuckers. Anyone who thought Rude Ghouliani “did a great job” prior to Trump is a horrible human being.
Betty Cracker
@frosty: I think I know the place — right side of the road on the way into town? I hope it survived too! Cedar Key Fire & Rescue has a ton of photos on their Facebook page here.
Kay
@Soprano2:
It’s to send a message to women – “we’re watching you and we control your movement” – our bodies.
It’s intended to chip away at womens autonomy and agency- how they see themselves and operate in the world. It will work, too.
tobie
@Dorothy A. Winsor: The GOP has no ideals, no vision, no lofty goals. Their only hope is to cover everyone so folks low info voters will say, “Both sides are so corrupt.” The tit for tat with this impeachment could not be more obvious.
SFAW
This discussion (re: the Llano laws) makes me think that, had the J6 insurrectionists been better organized, we’d be living in Gilead right about now.
Well, actually, I’ve been thinking that for awhile. I’m sure one of the usuals will tell me I’m being hysterical.
Kay
@Soprano2:
Because men aren’t playing any role in the volunteer effort to help women who live in states that have resricted access to health care get health care. It’s all women. Anti abortion lobbyists know this because they’re watching us. They’re aware that women are helping women, that there are networks, and they’re watching them to target them.
The goal is always, always to control women. To take us back to a time where we had no agency and autonomy.
prostratedragon
@SFAW: Where is Robert Ryan when we need him?
Chief Oshkosh
When they try to apply this to security inspections at airports, life is going to get interesting.
delphinium
@tobie:
New Texas motto: All your uteri are belong to us
Frankensteinbeck
@SFAW:
It would not, because they believe their own case is special and the law doesn’t cover it. They will still believe that after they are punished. The problem won’t be the law, it will be that someone didn’t recognize that they are a member of the in-group who should never be punished for anything.
Hell, why do you think they’re so pissed about Trump’s being charged? The whole principle of It’s Okay If You’re A Republican is being challenged!
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
This was how I felt about Michigan in 2016. The Republicans destroyed the water system of a major city then used its distressed status as an excuse to strip them of self-government. So Michigan, in part, rewarded Republicans with the Presidency.
OzarkHillbilly
@Chief Oshkosh: No, they just weren’t paying attention, which is true of about 60% of the electorate.
Maxim
@Frankensteinbeck:
Witness all the forced-birth proponents who go in for their own abortions, and then go back to picketing the clinic.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Frankensteinbeck: If they can arrest Trump for [diverting government funds for political benefit] and for soliciting crimes from others and for fomenting an insurrection, why, they could arrest anyone…😱😱😱
Eta: My mistake. He was only impeached and wrongfully acquitted for the government funds. The first arrest was for misallocation of campaign funds.
So much unethical behavior, so little time.
frosty
@Betty Cracker: That’s the place!
I’ll take a look at the photos. From the news it sounds like it didn’t get hit as bad as the Weather Channel Doom’n’Gloom stand-ups were expecting.
AlaskaReader
@Jeffro: When I get ahold of remotes in places other than my home, (as in your example), I just go ahead and ban or block viewing of several networks, Fox, Newsmax, OAN, Sinclair, etc.
J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian)
@OzarkHillbilly:
Wait, am I the only one with a Soros-funded van with mileage reimbursement and a per deim? I just assumed everyone had these. I guess I have been living in a bubble all these years.
Mike in NC
Most Republicans want to abolish the IRS and the FBI, so why not FEMA as well?
Dorothy A. Winsor
@AlaskaReader: You are my hero.
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Kay: I just don’t understand the argument that the Bill of Rights doesn’t protect a person from the violation of those rights by another private citizen. What is the Bill of Rights worth if yeah, sure the government or an agent thereof can’t restrict your right to travel but any rando who is not an agent of the government can do so?
Like, that’s kidnapping. It violates your right to freedom of movement, arguably protections against search and seizure. There is no interpretation of the Constitution that says it’s OK for some rando to take those rights away from another citizen.
I honestly would love to have a window into an alternate reality where TFG won re-election so I could see the SCOTUS reasoning for why the first amendment doesn’t apply to even mild criticism of our dear leader. It would be hilarious but is harrowing to know that we’re as close as we are to that happening.
Spanky
Won’t surprise me if the war between the sexes turns into a hot, shootin’ war.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@J. Arthur Crank (fka Jerzy Russian): It’s conceivable that the prospective father may try to coerce the mother into an abortion. I doubt the sincerity of any Texas Republican trying to make that argument, but this is actually a good reason why medical privacy is important.
Spanky
@OzarkHillbilly:
Bears.
Tony G
@Kay: These psychopaths. However, how would they actually implement this scheme? Set up physical roadblocks on all highways and roads that lead out of the state or to an airport — and then arrest any woman at the roadblock who “looks pregnant”? Or arrest ALL women at the roadblock until a pregnancy test can be administered? I have a tiny suspicion that this is not a practical plan at all, and is instead a performative stunt to make their idiot followers happy while scaring those hussies and harlots who might consider an abortion in another state. Meanwhile — good luck running a modern economy in Texas with no educated women.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Every night. Sometimes two, three times. That’s how the babies happen; bang, bang, bang.
jonas
At least they’re not being asked to wear masks. I hear that’s the real tyranny.
prostratedragon
@Spanky: Probably should give the Lysistrata thing a try first, though on second thought that might be what kicks it off.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
A whole lot of media people are also deeply uncomfortable with the idea that It’s Okay If You’re A Republican might not be true. Watch them scramble for some reason why “Come on, you can’t charge Trump for the crimes he’s admitted. That’s crazy!”
H.E.Wolf
Yes; it’s been true for decades that this is the case. I’ve linked to this article before; here it is again for anyone who’s interested.
“The Only Moral Abortion is My Abortion: When the Anti-Choice Choose” (and pay attention to the accounts of abusive anti-choicers who vilify the health-care workers whose services they are using):
https://www.prochoiceactionnetwork-canada.org/articles/anti-tales.shtml
mrmoshpotato
Fixed, Mr. President.
(Biden really needs his own anger translator.)
Jeffro
“But I didn’t mean to abolish FEMA in my state, just before Hurricane Leopard-Eating-My-Face hit!” – every MAGA ever
FAFO, indeed.
Frankensteinbeck
@Tony G:
I could see it as a way of allowing husbands/boyfriends/family members to force a woman to carry an unwanted child. They would likely know why the woman traveled out of state, or have enough suspicion to level a law suit. I think the law is performative, a declaration of their evil beliefs rather than something they think they can enforce, but it might be exploited* that way.
*As in, not the way the creators thought it would be used, but they would love it being used that way.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Frankensteinbeck: Admitted? Some of these crimes he even committed on camera. It’s like it doesn’t count.
I’m beginning to believe he could shoot a man live on the 5 o’clock news and he wouldn’t lose any support, media or voter.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@mrmoshpotato: I get that, but I also think that sometimes a question like that is meant to let the president point out how damaging a shutdown would be. Or even if it’s not meant to do that, it does it.
Doug R
@Matt McIrvin: This also gets to the heart of bad business/politicians who PUNISH people who don’t “buy” their product.
A SMART politician helps people who didn’t vote for them, it might change their mind AND it’s the RIGHT thing to do.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Tony G: I can imagine them being suspicious of any car with two women in it.
AlaskaReader
@Kay:
You mean to say that in all the individuals, private and non-profit clinics, women’s health centers, physicians’ offices, and hospitals in the U.S. and Canada who support the National Abortion Federation, the National Network of Abortion Funds, the Center for Reproductive Rights, Planned Parenthood and their affiliates, there are no men involved?
Chris
@tobie:
“When they love their own children more than they hate us, then we’ll have peace.”
One may or may not agree with Golda Meir’s quote in its original context. If you apply it to blue staters and red staters, though, it’s bang on.
Doug R
@Kay: It’s UNCONSTITUTIONAL.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Fascinating.
Nelle
@Kay: There is a volunteer organization of private pilots, mostly men, who are quietly ferrying women who need access for reproductive health care out of states where that access is limited. Usually from smaller airports to other smaller airports. No passenger manifests. At the pilot’s own expense.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
There has to be a provision in the PATRIOT Act about that…
More seriously, I wonder what I would have to do to get a pilot’s license.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
I don’t think he would. He’s a Republican. He’s THE Republican, the figurehead representing conservative white men. Punishing him for any crime threatens their status as Elect. The worse the crime, the more you’re directly challenging the principle that they are superior and nothing they do is wrong.
Caveat: He would lose some support. There are people who don’t think about things until some line is crossed or straw breaks the camel’s back. But for the most part, the people angry he’s being punished now would be angry at him being punished for anything. Absolutely anything.
mrmoshpotato
@Dorothy A. Winsor: Hopefully, and it’s just not being asked by a complete numbskull. :)
Jeffro
I understand the impulse, but I probably wouldn’t do that.
Oh who am I kidding? I couldn’t do that if I wanted to. I’d screw it up and make those the permanent channels somehow.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Frankensteinbeck: I get it, but how many more lines can Trump cross? He’s an habitual line stepper
Kay
@AlaskaReader:
The people who will be prosecuted are the women who are driving other women to get abortions. That’s why the laws target specific highways. It’s an effort to stop the informal networks of women that have sprung up.
sdhays
@Doug R: But will the current Supreme Court rule that it is unconstitutional? I wouldn’t place any bets with this court.
Frankensteinbeck
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
It’s a very good question, but a lot of people are so blind it is boggling. Many more have short memories. Humans swing back to old behavior without a lot of effort. So there are probably a chunk of people who will repudiate Trump temporarily when he does something absolutely unacceptable. Republican congressmen who he tried to have killed, for example. But then ‘It’s Okay If You’re A Republican’ demands their loyalty again.
Doug R
@sdhays: They mention the Mann Act. But I’m willing to lose that version of the Mann Act if it’s modified to state what’s illegal IN BOTH STATES.
Ohio Mom
Off topic but I see that Eminem has told Ramaswamy to quit using his music. Read that in the Cincinnati paper, which means that happened days ago.
tobie
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: I don’t know how we get out of this pattern of “break government, then blame government.” I’m in the Philadelphia media market. Gov Shapiro and Pres Biden fixed the collapsed portion of I95 in 2 weeks…and yet even here that accomplishment has been forgotten. No one notices govt when it works. In some ways that’s how it should be. You should be able to rely on public services. But since Reagan that’s been turned around, and the GOP has a strategy of sabotaging govt and then blaming it for failures. That must have been crazy-making to witness in Michigan in 2016.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Frankensteinbeck: Please, Sir, lynch me again. I didn’t finish last time. /Pence
geg6
@Nelle:
Yes, a friend of mine’s husband (I’ll not identify where they are) is involved in a group like this for pilots.
Kay
@AlaskaReader:
What they’re “frustrated” about is women helping other women. The goal is for women to feel helpless- that they need some official org or permission to operate a network. The laws are specifically designed to stop the informal networks that provide transportation. They’re not funded by anyone other than individual women – the drivers themselves- partly because it’s safer for women to operate underground.
OzarkHillbilly
Today in news from Nebraska: US driver pulled over with huge African bull riding shotgun in car
Converted vehicle stopped in Nebraska with gigantic-horned Watusi bovine called Howdy Doody as passenger
video at the link
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@tobie: I would really like to see more reporting on the work of legislative bodies and local governments. There’s too much of a disconnect between the every day work of government and the shiny object media economy.
It should be easier to connect politicians with their individual ongoing work, their party’s work, the work of legislative committees, and what it means in brass tacks for the rest of us.
Hell, half the time it’s a pain in the ass just finding a good explanation of a roll-call for bills being voted on. And I would consider that the minimum.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@OzarkHillbilly: I saw that video yesterday. People have to look to get an idea of what that bull looks like. Hoooly cow. So to speak.
AlaskaReader
@Kay: I see your cited ‘informal’ networks of these women drivers exist for you but, for instance, men involved in the actions of the Brigid Alliance are not to be recognized.
Duly noted.
Mai Naem mobileI
@OzarkHillbilly: Cooperman was the POS who compared Obama to Nazis when Obama talked about hiking taxes on the wealthy.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dorothy A. Winsor: I have to laugh. Just thinking about how he modified the car so the bull would fit into it is a laugher.
Ohio Mom
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: That Golda Meir quote turned out to be projection.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
@Ohio Mom: More fascinating, still.
I know the name, but I’ll have to go remind myself who this individual is. My brain is making a loose association with Israel.
OzarkHillbilly
Man who shot Black teenager Ralph Yarl must stand trial, Missouri judge rules
Seeing as Lester was never threatened, I really don’t see how that is going to work.
lowtechcyclist
@Jeffro:
One thing I’ve proposed from time to time is single-payer birth control. If we made sure that all women could have and use the birth control method of their choice, without having to worry about cost, that would surely reduce the number of unwanted pregnancies, and with it the number of abortions sought for non-medical reasons.
Maybe the road to single-payer health care in general is too complicated, but ISTM that we could do single-payer just for birth control.
AlaskaReader
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation: Was a time when most newspapers had fairly comprehensive and regular legislative updates, the media monopolies, (mostly conservative), have ended that.
Informed consumers are no longer desired by those pedaling their brand of ‘infotainment’. …(in other words, propaganda)
OzarkHillbilly
@lowtechcyclist: That’s a good idea, therefor the evangelicals and their GOP serfs will never allow it.
lowtechcyclist
@tobie:
Yeah, that was a monstrosity, to say the least.
But vigilante justice and freedom to travel between states are two distinct issues, and I can’t see that using the former to do away with the latter isn’t more valid than any other means.
If people can’t freely travel from state to state, we aren’t one country anymore, we’re fifty of them. There’s really no getting around that.
Geminid
@OzarkHillbilly: That bull is famous! He made it on to social media platforms all over the world.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Maybe time to run for Congress and do the job in-house.
Or form a coalition of citizen journalists.
smith
@lowtechcyclist: Before Dobbs , there was already a downward trend in abortions, probably due in part to increased access to birth control. It didn’t do anything to slake the forced-birthers’ desire to control women.
In addition,making birth control free doesn’t address pregnancies due to birth control failure, or rape, or incest. Nor does it deal with wanted pregnancies that endanger the mother’s life or health, or pregnancies in which the fetus has no chance to live outside the womb.
Then, of course, there’s the fact that many forced-birthers consider birth control to be just another form of abortion, and they intend to do something about that next.
Your proposal is an excellent one on its own merits, but it is unlikely to do much about abortion politics.
lowtechcyclist
@Kay:
From your quote box:
I guess suing the state that passed the law giving enforcement powers to private citizens has already been tried and failed.
Matt McIrvin
@Doug R: While these days the Mann Act is mostly used against pedophiles, it has a long and terrible history of being used to crack down on interracial relationships and anything Anthony Comstock would disapprove of. I’m not surprised it’s being leveraged here.
Chris
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
The former Prime Minister of Israel. In context, she was talking about its Arab neighbors, which is why I noted that it was debatable, at the very least, in its original context. It stuck in my head because it really pretty well describes blue staters’ situation WRT red staters, though.
OzarkHillbilly
@Geminid: He appears to be all sweetness.
smith
@lowtechcyclist: Isn’t that how it got to SCOTUS in the first place, so they could issue that abomination of an opinion? This is why, I think, there may be hesitation to challenge these pregnant women incarceration laws, because we might find out the full extent to which women’s bodies are deemed by the Dirty Six to be property of the state.
Kay
@geg6:
It’s fine and welcome, but women operating in a red state (or a town like the town depicted in the article) can’t register with any org or accept funding from any org because then there’s a record and they’ll be targeted.
They can use other methods to reach organizations with bank accounts and non profit filings- subpeonas, records demand, etc. To reach individual, self funded women volunteers they have to block highway travel. It’s safer for the volunteers if they self fund w/in the group. Then they’re just buying gas or paying for a motel room. That isn’t tracked. I don’t think they should accept funds from an abortion linked group. That puts them at risk.
cain
@tobie: going to criminalize while pregnant.
I suppose you could just put a “pro-life” bumper sticker on your car and then drive over state lines.
Of course, now that the law is out there – a lot of those “my abortion is an exception” people are going to fuck around and find out.
UncleEbeneezer
@geg6: Also worth noting that all of this shit also targets Transgender Men and NB people too. And it’s not just this that they are dealing with from this shithole state:
Kay
And I think the womens networks piss them off more than anything. It’s direct defiance- disobedience – and it’s LOCAL. That’s what’s triggering them to propose these laws. There are women in that town who have gone to New Mexico for an abortion, other women helped them, and the mayor is aware of it because he as much as admits he’s watching their movements. How the fuck else would he know why women were using a highway?
UncleEbeneezer
@Kay: Do you have a list of any more or less under-the-radar orgs people can donate to, to support these efforts from other states? This shit is so gross and outrageous.
cain
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
They’ll have to do it in private because if they did it in public – they’d just embarass themselves. Since there is no proof of anything – it’s just performative ass – while the impeachment of Trump has clear evidence of wrong doing and it is going through the courts.
Once Hunter Biden goes to jail – there is going to be no interest in anything. People are going to look back at stupid shit like how Hunter’s pornographic images were presented in the House. Good one, MTG!
smith
It’s infuriating that in 2023 we have to resurrect the Underground Railroad to help fugitive women escape to free states.
Alison Rose
I haven’t read many articles about this so I’m asking in good faith — has DeSantis said a single word publicly in thanks or recognition of the Biden admin’s work on this? Anything at all?
Alison Rose
@UncleEbeneezer: Abortion funds! They will often provide money for people who need to travel or stay somewhere overnight, or pay for childcare, etc. You can donate to the National Network of Abortion Funds, or on that site, you can look up local funds by state to donate to directly. They are crucial in this arena and every dollar that goes in will go back out to help someone in need.
UncleEbeneezer
@smith: Yup. And families of Transgender kids. It’s disgusting.
cain
@OzarkHillbilly: Florida man is going to feel threatened by Nebraska.
UncleEbeneezer
@Alison Rose: Thank you! I know our local PP was involved in some efforts shortly after Dobbs.
smith
@Alison Rose: I’m sure he remembers what happened to Chris Christie’s political career when he hugged Obama after Sandy, so there’s no way he’d even recognize any federal role in hurricane relief.
cain
@OzarkHillbilly:
That said – what better expression of love could their be that you would modify your car to take your best friend with you everywhere?
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
donald trump happened to the nation.
Just goes to show that not all humans have kept their noggins where the sun does shine.
At least some of the ones that helped pay for him to destroy the nation have zipped their wallets shut. Maybe racism and hate, while still a staple concept of some has shown that it’s not a viable governing policy. One can hope.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: Biden really should say that to their faces. The Press really needs to be snapped out of the Doomporn Nihilist Gossip Rag it’s turned into.
smith
@Ruckus: I’m guessing it’s the criminality, or more exactly, getting caught at the criminality, that turns them off more than the bigotry.
Alison Rose
@UncleEbeneezer: And from what I know from a friend who has run a fund for years, they are very good at going under the radar as far as delivering funds. The folks at these groups know all too well the level of surveillance and danger they might be in, especially in red states.
Uncle Cosmo
@OzarkHillbilly: Jeebus H Cripes on a Harley, who TF names “half a ton of angry pot roast”** Howdy Frackin’ Doody?
** Tom Lehrer, “In Old Mexico.” You could look it up…
Miss Bianca
@AlaskaReader: You sound like the guys I know who used to bitch about “Take Back the Night” rallies being by women, for women. Like, way to miss the point, dude.
FFS. I will never understand why *some* folks have to go all #notallmen *every single fucking chance* they get.
Kay
@UncleEbeneezer:
They can’t (and shouldn’t ) accept donations because to be legal donor orgs have to record and file and conduct transactions thru financial institutions – that’s as it should be BUT that would allow the women to be identified and targeted where they live, in red states and counties. Each volunteer funds herself, or women within the group fund an individual drivers trip expenses. Anti abortion extremists like the mayor in the story (and 6 of the 7 local lawmakers) are upset they can’t control local women- the women who they feel they own. After all, they could be (and are) their own daughters, sisters, aunts. THat’s what enrages them. It’s one thing if women in NYC or DC are disobedient and won’t follow orders- it’s another if it’s one of the local women they claim title to.
Matt McIrvin
@Alison Rose:
It destroyed Chris Christie’s national political ambitions when he did that.
Ruckus
@Kay:
They just choose to lie to the public about it.
They are losing control. They are losing the plot. Their type have been in control in many areas for a very long time. They feel justified to basically live in a time when they controlled – everything. But that time has actually past. This is supposed to be a free country, where we make our choices, ourselves. The conservative powers that shouldn’t be in this country are screaming about losing the powers that they NEVER should have had over others. I believe they know that their time is over and they are grasping at concepts that have way out lived their time, because that concept of control, in a country that is supposed to be based upon an individual’s rights, not on control of others. This continuum of demanding obedience and control is against the entire basis of our founding and principals of this nation. It was wrong 250 yrs ago and it’s wrong now.
RaflW
@Jeffro: I know it’s “tired” to reference the Handmaid’s Tale, but damn if this hemming women in so they can’t travel isn’t exactly what was predicted.
Alison Rose
@Miss Bianca: Yeah. I get the impulse, but while there are some cis men pitching in with these efforts, by and large this is being done by women and trans/nonbinary folks who are the ones whose bodies and lives are at risk. Even among men who definitely support abortion rights, there’s not often much actual work by many of them.
When I lived in SF and was a clinic escort at PP, over the course of the few years I was there we probably had a total of 150-200 volunteers who would be in the pool for various stretches of time. And I would say maybe a dozen or so were men. So…not very many! Interestingly, most of them were gay men. The first time I had a shift with a guy, I thanked him for doing it, and he said that he didn’t want to sound like a douche, but that he hoped his presence (he was a tall, fairly buff guy) would help to dissuade protestors from getting rowdy.
matt
@Betty Cracker: I guess these folks are going to have to choose between Jesus and people.
Subsole
@Betty Cracker:
And yet, somehow, she won’t.
AM in NC
@Spanky: It already is. Who is most likely to be shot by a gun? Someone in your own home, and (except for suicide) overwhelmingly that means the bitch getting shot by her man because she just didn’t know her place.
The number one predictor of mass shooters is domestic violence. That’s what these people have in common most often. Hatred of and desire to control women.
Citizen Alan
@prostratedragon: Lysastrata would not work in red states because republicans believe husbands have the right to rape wives who don’t want to have sex.
scav
@matt: Most of those people have their hands firmly up the baby jebus’s backside and are making his lips flap. “My sins are forgiven! Yours are mortal!” They’re convinced they know the very mind and will of God.
Subsole
@Kay:
Oh, they are far from delusional.
They think they know how to game patriarchy. And they aren’t about to let you come in and change the rules on them now after all the shit they had to eat to get where they are.
It is not delusion. It is a cold-blooded, clear-eyed decision to shaft the rest of the country so they can advance themselves.
An entire fucking political alignment full of Clarences Thomas. The mind positively reels.
AM in NC
@Citizen Alan: Maybe another reason women’s happiness overall declines when married. Men’s happiness improves when marriage.
Paul in KY
@cain: That would be a ‘pro-tip’: Have your car look like a that of an Anti-Choice zealot. Sorta like cosplaying. Could dress up in most whitebread outfits imaginable, etc.
Bill Arnold
@Soprano2:
This is legalized, for-profit, vigilante justice.
Since profit is involved, there will for example be data entrepreneurs, who (tossing this out as a hypothetical) somehow acquire period data for women of childbearing age (including children), look for missed periods, link to actual persons, and then buy or otherwise acquire open-market location tracking data for the people involved. Maybe filter by political affiliation, or political affiliation of parents. It needn’t be entirely accurate, just enough to cheaply build up a list of potential targets.
There will also probably be entrepreneurs who buy tips for cheap, or get them for free, and then investigate and monetize them.
If this happens, then it would also be possible, in fact ethically mandatory, to arrange for a vigilante shop that specializes in suing Republicans.
Identify an anti-abortion Republican politician who’s daughter or granddaughter misses a couple of periods then does not deliver a baby? Sue them. One has a duty to maximize profits!
Elizabelle
@The Kropenhagen Interpretation:
Yes he would. A lot of these poll respondents are just stubborn about answering, or fucking with the pollsters.
And too many in the media are whores, plain and simple.
A lot of this is psy ops. Lotta awful polls out there, badly constructed and conducted in bad faith.
Subsole
@Kay:
Good God, the divorce lawyers alone should be howling over this piece of shit, because I imagine their business is about to take a steep dive.
I mean, it just goes on, and on, and on. Every abusive asshole of a husband now has yet another way to make his ex miserable. Which means abusive relationships are now harder to escape.
scav
Maybe TX is just prepositioning itself as the future adoption hotspot of the real America. With all the records these upright citizens will be keeping on the breeding stock, they’ll be able to provide top-notch reports on the pedigree of all the excess births. It’s just the Range Wars all over again. The age of free range females in TX is coming to an end.
Feathers
Anti-abortion activists are already noting the license plate numbers of all cars that enter abortion clinics’ parking lots. All they need is cameras with license plate trackers on these highways and they can start filing their lawsuits.
These jurisdictions are already used to filling their own pockets by abusing asset forfeiture and stopping cars on these highways. Can’t see them stopping now.
Chris
@Bill Arnold:
The ultimate endpoint of modern conservative lawyering is to effectively deputize the entire Republican voter base, so that any Republican anywhere in the country can exert their will over any Democrat (or person presumed to be) anywhere in the country.
Sister Golden Bear
@sdhays:
I know you’re being sarcastic, but one of the leading TERFs in the UK has said the that 0.2% of population who are trans must be “reduced” to zero.
So yeah, I definitely could see the Christofascists supporting forced abortions is there was reliable way to predict a child would grow up to LGBTQ+. Because that’s what Jeebus would want.
Seriously, that’s actually be a concern for years regarding scientific research into whether there’s a “gay” gene or a “trans” gene.
El Muneco
@Tony G: The irony being that, in most cases, pregnancy doesn’t visibly show until the second trimester, so even if the law was “15 weeks”, _the vast majority of abortion travelers wouldn’t “look pregnant”_!
matt
@scav: you’re right – Jesus is really just their will to power, desire to dominate and control other people.
Soprano2
@OzarkHillbilly: Isn’t having a black kid you don’t know on your porch enough of a threat? /s/s/s/s/s/s For some people it is, sadly.
rikyrah
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What are the charges
Sister Golden Bear
@rikyrah: Presidenting While Demonrat.
Bill Arnold
@Sister Golden Bear:
What percentage of the population is TERFs of this sort? Might be optimal in a utilitarian sense to reduce their population percentage to zero.
Subsole
@matt: Yep. If they can’t blame Satan, they will absolutely blame Jesus.