Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

The problem people have with Biden’s age is the color of the VPs skin.

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

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Putin dreamed of ending NATO, and now it’s Finnish-ed.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Not all heroes wear capes.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

American History and Black History can not be separated.

It’s a doggy dog world.

My right to basic bodily autonomy is not on the table. that’s the new deal.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you don’t.

Donald Jessica Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

Innocent people don’t delay justice.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

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Reader Interactions

227Comments

  1. 1.

    WaterGirl

    Now the the thread is up, i see that what I wrote in the title isn’t exactly true.  I do have a bit of contained rage at the speaker vote, but I’m about to dive into some work so I can stop thinking about it.

    One last thought…  it seems like overall maybe the BJ women are a bit more worked up about this than the males?  Could be that’s because this is personal.

    Here is Mike Johnson railing against Roe v. Wade, arguing that if women were forced to give birth to more “able-bodied workers,” Republicans wouldn’t try to cut Social Security and Medicare.

    I mean, really, what woman doesn’t like the idea of being forced to give birth to make some more able-bodied workers?

  2. 2.

    moops

    There were 220 votes for Johnson and 209 votes for Democrat Hakeem Jeffries.  He’s elected, and we will all suffer from his Speakership.

  5. 5.

    Alison Rose

    My windows look down over the courtyard behind the building, and for a few weeks now, there’s been a bike chained up to the rack, and it never moves. It’s there early in the morning, late morning, afternoon, evening, nighttime…

    These apartments are small and there wouldn’t really be a spot to keep a bike inside (all the units are the same), but it still seems weird.

  7. 7.

    trollhattan

    @WaterGirl: Having been patted on the virtual noggin and assured the covenant marriage thing is a consensual nothingburger, it’s up to him to reveal the Real Mike Johnson [the jokes, they write themselves] once he has All the Cameras whenever he pleases.

    I give it three days.

  8. 8.

    Ohio Mom

    I was vacuuming and missed the news as it happened. Can’t help but think it’s true, timing is everything. Or maybe it’s the fourth try is the charm. If Johnson had been the first candidate voted on, would he had won?

    He will stink and do damage but which one of them wouldn’t?

  9. 9.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    McCarthy was slightly less bad, but he couldn’t be trusted and stabbed us in the back first opportunity. His strings were being pulled by the honest, true believer fanatics. This guy actually is an honest, true believer fanatic. It’s out front and in view, instead of hiding behind a more reasonable seeming but completely dishonest facade. No matter what, the lunatics were still pulling the strings. I doubt Johnson will do as good of a job of pretending to be reasonable for the media. He won’t pull his punches and now we won’t have to either

    Don’t get me wrong. I’m still mad. I just expected to be.

  13. 13.

    MisterForkbeard

    @WaterGirl: I’m pretty angry about it, but I think this was baked into the cake. He’s not going to be that different from McCarthy (who was really awful) but will be noticeably more bad in a few places.

    At this point, I’ll just be happy if we can get a media that’ll describe him (and the R congress) as far-right incompetent.

  14. 14.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: I think a broad range of people and groups will be worked up when they understand Speaker Johnson’s history.  That may be one of the reasons that this vote was lickety split and the Republicans were yelling at journalists to “shut up” and refused to answer policy questions.  His history of bigotry against many groups was not well known and they wanted to get the vote done before all of it got out.

    Earlier today, K-File uncovered some of his extreme anti-gay bigotry.

    Speaker of the House Mike Johnson has a history of harsh anti-gay language from his time as an attorney for a socially conservative legal group in the mid-2000s.

    In editorials that ran in his local Shreveport, Louisiana, paper, The Times, Johnson called homosexuality a “inherently unnatural” and “dangerous lifestyle” that would lead to legalized pedophilia and possibly even destroy “the entire democratic system.”

    And, in another editorial, he wrote, “Your race, creed, and sex are what you are, while homosexuality and cross-dressing are things you do,” he wrote. “This is a free country, but we don’t give special protections for every person’s bizarre choices.”

    Apologies if this has already been covered downstairs.  I was out all morning.

  15. 15.

    Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony

    It seems like whenever the margins are tight, its only people on our side who end up dying or getting seriously ill. Maybe that’s just my perception.

  17. 17.

    Chris

    @Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony:

    This reminds me…

    One of the milestones in my political education was McCain selecting Sarah Palin for VP.  (Well, really, all of 2008 was).  At the time, I was already a liberal, but I was also young and naive enough to believe all the media crap about John McCain, Moderate Extraordinaire.  The rest of the campaign up to that point already did a lot to bury that belief, but the Palin selection is when it finally occurred to me that it didn’t even matter whether McCain was “really” a moderate; even if he was, he’d have to offer so much to the extreme-right just to stay where he was that he’d be indistinguishable from a “real” extreme-right-winger.

  18. 18.

    catclub

    @Ohio Mom: If Johnson had been the first candidate voted on, would he had won?

     

    No. It has taken 18 votes or so for the GOP to learn that the candidate of the GOP for speaker MUST get unanimous support in the actual HOUSE vote for speaker. This is not sophisticated politics.

    they finally have figured that out.

  19. 19.

    Alison Rose

    Oh, how nice, the ref finally remembered that he’s supposed to call fouls made against Newcastle players, too

    Also it is pouring rain there and soccer in the rain always gets funny because everything is so slippy.

  21. 21.

    Mr. Bemused Senior

    Josh Marshall at TPM wrote about the dynamics of the relationship between the crazy [“Freedom”] caucus and the speaker. McCarthy was a sane-seeming front but the crazies pull the strings.

    Now the mask is off. We’ll see how it goes. I expect a major meltdown soon.

    ETA yesterday I predicted a “no” vote so you see what my predictions are worth.😁

  22. 22.

    Brachiator

    @trollhattan:

    Having been patted on the virtual noggin and assured the covenant marriage thing is a consensual nothingburger.

    Not quite true. I am one of the people who said that we do not know what Johnson’s wife thinks about this.

    I think that the entire idea is bizarre. I also don’t trust anyone being in Congress who believes in this crap. I think that Johnson’s beliefs will affect the type of legislation that he favors and will be bad for the country.

    But instead of assumptions and speculations, I would like to know what his wife and other women who agree to this think about it.

  23. 23.

    H.E.Wolf

    Their loathsome viewpoints will help us bury them at the ballot box… if we do the work to GOTV.

    Postcard party this Saturday night, 8 PM East Coast (blog) time. Write before, during, or after. Let’s stomp ’em on Nov. 7th, and again in Nov. 2024.

    Video is courtesy of schrodingers_cat. Stomping with flair!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_MyUGq7pgs

  24. 24.

    Barbara

    @Brachiator: Would it help to know that a lot of churches in Louisiana won’t agree to let you marry in their church unless you agree to a covenant marriage?  The whole concept is coercive, but my assumption is that both parties are usually on the same page about it.

  25. 25.

    trollhattan

    @Mr. Bemused Senior:

    McCarthy was at least nominally not openly pro-Putin–this guy I’m thinking is probably very much enamored with autocrats like Putin, Orban, Erdogan, Xi and the like.

  27. 27.

    Eyeroller

    @Mai Naem mobile: That special election already happened.  Upthread the NYT says the missing Ds were from PA, CA, and TX.  I thought I read that one was ill (though not dead) but can’t find anything about it right now.

  28. 28.

    Barbara

    @H.E.Wolf: The Virginia site postcards for voters isn’t handing out names anymore.  I posted my last batch on Monday, and was planning to do more.  I could write for other elections or for other groups.

  29. 29.

    mvr

    @schrodingers_cat:

    It’s all pretty personal for that and so many other reasons.

    But I’m a bit in the I have to detach a bit to function mode this week. And also since they all vote the same anyway, I’d prefer their awfulness to be fully and publicly represented in the things they say so that they can’t duck responsibility and we can point at them and say “there it is; this is what you should be voting against,”  to the people who aren’t as mad as I am.

  32. 32.

    Scout211

    On another subject, Sam Bankman-Fried will testify in his own defense, now that he has enough Adderall. His testimony will come as early as tomorrow.   Link

    Bankman-Fried’s decision to testify came after federal prosecutors and his defense team were able to secure the alleged fraudster an adequate supply of his ADHD medication. His defense had previously argued before the court that inadequate access to the medication impugned his ability to participate in his defense.

    It is widely considered to be a risky maneuver. While his defense team will be able to question him, and the former billionaire would be able to provide his own narrative as to the collapse, it also opens up Bankman-Fried to a cross-examination by federal prosecutors. So far, the prosecution has called up several of Bankman-Fried’s top executives to testify, including Nishad Singh and Caroline Ellison, his one-time romantic partner and former CEO of Alameda Research.

  34. 34.

    WaterGirl

    @Eyeroller: Oh, one of ours was ill and missed a vote last week.  That explains one, anyway.

    I think our leadership knew which was the vote was going when Pete remarked that the temp speaker guy seemed happier than for the other votes.  Maybe that’s why the Ds didn’t have much of a nominating speech.

    Just as I was clicking to close the CSPAN video tab, I saw Hakeem with a smile on his face, seeming to be walking to congratulation the new speaker. I could be wrong about that because I just caught that as the window was closing.

    He didn’t looked surprised, let alone shocked or thrown off his game.  Hakeem is a quality leader.

  35. 35.

    Ruckus

    I need to vent.

    I had a dental appointment today. It’s across town at UCLA so I take the train to get there. Easy peasy, costs 35 cents for a senior to go 45 miles on the train. Costs $3.00 to park at the station. Lot was full, went to next station 5 miles away which has a bigger parking garage. The street with the parking entrance was blocked off. I’ve been driving around for an hour trying to find a place to park to take the train which runs every 12 minutes. I’m home now and called and informed the dental clinic that I can’t get there today.

    It might be easier to walk. And faster.

  36. 36.

    karen marie

    @WaterGirl: Meanwhile, those newly birthed “able-bodied workers” have to be fed, clothed and educated at someone’s expense, and good old Mike is solidly against helping with any of those things. And after all the usefulness can be wrung out of them, they’d better die quickly.

    It’s hard to believe this country supports this shit but here we are.

  37. 37.

    FelonyGovt

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: Yes, I’m oscillating between being furious and upset at a misogynistic homophobic bigot being elected Speaker, and thinking that they’re now going to have a harder time concealing what they really are. McCarthy wore an affable “nice guy” human suit, all the while kowtowing to the crazy. This guy IS the crazy.

  38. 38.

    Mai Naem mobile

    He’ll hopefully  do the full Ginsburg and not just FOX  and hopefully  he’ll get some tough questions from at least Margaret Brennan. Maybe somebody can have Carville and Mitch Landrieu on since they’re both from Louisiana. Landrieu’s been pretty good doing the PR on infrastructure.  It would be nice to Secretary Pete on FOX this weekend.

  39. 39.

    Dan B

    @WaterGirl: Youll find lots of LGBTQ people who are taking Johnson’s nomination personally.  There’s talk in the blogs of immigrating.  Portugal and Equador get high marks.

  40. 40.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Barbara: WaterGirl has a link in the sidebar on the home page for various postcard writing groups.

    I do know that PostcardsToVoters.org has addresses for the Ohio pro-choice ballot issue, and for 2 or 3 other campaigns.

    If you aren’t signed up yet, email [email protected] and you’ll get walked through the sign-up process. Should be pretty quick.

    If you’re already signed up, email [email protected] and put “Send me [# of] addresses” in BOTH the Subject line and the body of the email. The email bot (Abby the Address Bot) will do a Q&A with you to find out what campaign you want to write for. :-)

  41. 41.

    Brachiator

    @WaterGirl:

    One last thought…  it seems like overall maybe the BJ women are a bit more worked up about this than the males?  Could be that’s because this is personal.

    I have always hated the GOP assault on women’s reproductive rights and their disregard for women’s dignity.

    I think it is an odd weakness of some leftist positions that concern for the working class seems to downplay women’s rights.

    I also thought it was odd that some pundits were focused on Roe and ignored the relentless attack on reproductive rights at the state level.

    I am deeply concerned that Johnson and other Republicans will try to make their repugnant ideas about women and relationships into law.

  42. 42.

    karen marie

    @Scout211: It is ALWAYS a bad idea for a defendant to testify. When they do, it’s a sign they know it’s going badly but they’re delusional enough to believe a jury will be swayed by their personal charm.

    I recently transcribed a defendant’s testimony in a murder case. It did not go well.

  43. 43.

    JMG

    I have to believe Johnson will avoid media appearances outside the RW bubble as much as possible. He’s got the same tiny majority McCarthy did, and he’ll face the same dilemma. To simply fund the government, he’s going to have to compromise with Democrats, earning the scorn and enmity of the nihilist caucus. And if he doesn’t do that, he’ll earn the enmity and scorn of the big donors.

  45. 45.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: Representatives miss votes for all sorts of reasons all the time. Given that Jeffries was never going to be chosen, I don’t get too worked up over it.

    But let me reassure you that there are plenty of male allies out there. When it was in existence back in the 80s, I was part of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights. (My denomination, the United Church of Christ came out in favor of a woman’s right to choose in 1971, two years before Roe).

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @Barbara: I wonder how young the girls are when they enter into those covenant marriages.  Guessing that it’s quite possible that they don’t really understand what they are getting into.

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @Barbara: Ohio!  Issue 1!  I have addresses!  Mine are from the wonderful people in OH who wrote postcards for Wisconsin with the Voces addresses we had.  Nice to be able to return the favor.

    Alliances matter.

    edit: And so does Postcards to Voters.

  50. 50.

    H.E.Wolf

    @eclare: ​
    @H.E.Wolf:
    That is a lot of flair!

     I like to imagine the video is all the male jackals in active allyship.

    Solidarity and community action is where it’s at. (See also: Revenge, dish, best served cold.)

    Off to write my 100th postcard for the Ohio campaign, as a two-fingers-up to the new speaker.

  51. 51.

    Dan B

    Johnson was just on the TV claiming that the voting machine software was from Hugo Chavez.

    Nutty right out of the starting gate!

  52. 52.

    Barbara

    @H.E.Wolf: Is this the same group that did Wisconsin elections earlier this year?  I did a bunch of postcards for them as well so I might be signed up.  I’ll check it out, anyway.   Thanks.

  53. 53.

    kindness

    Well, the new Speaker will be able to wave his freak flag shortly.  I suspect he’ll try to separate aid for Israel from that of Ukraine.  I suspect he’ll also run over the drop dead day of the CR in order to try and get things more to his way of thinking.  In other words, get ready for the House to be a crisis government operator till after the 24 elections.

  54. 54.

    Ken

    @Scout211: Oh good, I was worried that the popcorn I bought in anticipation of another three weeks of Speaker elections would go to waste.

    @karen marie: When they do, it’s a sign they know it’s going badly but they’re delusional enough to believe a jury will be swayed by their personal charm.

    This seems to be the consensus among those paying attention to the trial, at least for the “going badly” part — having four former associates plead guilty to felonies and implicate you tends to have that effect.

    The “delusional” part, not as much, except insofar as Bankman-Fried has excessive faith in himself. Oh, and some really odd ideas about risk assessment.

  55. 55.

    RevRick

    @kalakal: Given that from a theological perspective, all marriages are covenants (which just means mutual vows and mutual consent), I suspect that it’s really an Evangelical rigidity formula added of no divorce under any circumstances ( and the husband gets to boss his wife around).

  57. 57.

    H.E.Wolf

    @Brachiator: I am deeply concerned that Johnson and other Republicans will try to make their repugnant ideas about women and relationships into law.​

    President Biden, who is pro-choice, holds the veto pen. Another good reason to GOTV and re-elect him.

    ETA: Not minimizing the concerns! However, such a law would generate a blue wave the like of which we’ve never seen. Pro-choice is undefeated at the ballot box since Roe was overturned.

  58. 58.

    Bupalos

    @WaterGirl: This was always the most likely result.  There is a simple math drawing that party towards anti democratic escalation. That has to be figured in and I think Jeffries had figured it in. Dems participating in this was essentially a “heighten the contradictions” move. We’ll see next year if it was worth the price.

  60. 60.

    WaterGirl

    @Barbara: Hi Barbara.  That group is the one that has the addresses I am handing out.

    You don’t have to formally sign up.  Just send me an email and let me know how many addresses you would like.

    I have their starter script in the link in the sidebar, along with the rest of the postcard info.

  61. 61.

    MisterDancer

    @Brachiator: I am one of the people who said that we do not know what Johnson’s wife thinks about this.

    Well:

    Johnson’s wife, Kelly, told ABC that the arrangement “shows me that he wants it to be forever.”

    “I think that it would be a pretty big red flag if you asked your mate or your fiancé, ‘Let’s do a covenant marriage,’ and they said they don’t really want to do that,” said Kelly Johnson.

    Source.

  63. 63.

    New Deal democrat

    No GOPer who got the gavel was going to be a Magical Moderate. The most we can hope for out of this House, and this Congress, is that they keep them lights on through December 31, 2024.

    None of Johnson’s culture warrior ideology is going to be signed into law. So, for now just take deep breaths.

  64. 64.

    bbleh

    Well here’s something a little more satisfying.  The judge in the NY civil fraud trial “unexpectedly” called Trump to the stand to explain, under oath, his deprecating remark outside the courtroom about “the person sitting next to” the judge.  Trump and his lawyers said no no, he was talking about Cohen.  The judge said “as the trier of fact I find that the witness is not credible,” and fined him $10,000.

    Hee hee hee.

    Gift link:

    https://wapo.st/40bLJEb

  65. 65.

    Brachiator

    @Barbara:

    Would it help to know that a lot of churches in Louisiana won’t agree to let you marry in their church unless you agree to a covenant marriage?

    No, it would not help much at all. It tells me little about individuals.

    I was born in the South, and have known people who are deeply religious and who also depend on their social connections to various Christian denominations to define their lives.

    But I know other people, including most of my family and relatives who have given a big “fuck you” to religion when it tries to get into their business.

    And a lot of folks I personally know who have let religion negatively control their lives have been Catholics outside the South.

    I know people of EVERY major religion, except maybe Buddhism, who have been damaged by extremist aspects of their faiths.

    But today, I think that Christian extremism coming from Republicans may soon become a danger to women’s rights and to democracy.

  68. 68.

    Mai Naem mobile

    @Dan B: I saw a blurb that Ecuador just voted for a center right president. I think its more of anti corruption deal post-Correa rather than some Christian Nationalist garbage but you never know if this guy will turn out like the El Salvador guy.

  69. 69.

    cain

    @Mr. Bemused Senior: I expect a meltdown as well. There are still divisions within the GOP caucus. The rule to eliminate the speaker based on something as little as flatulence is still in.

    Might be harder to boot him off – I am sure that the GOP does not want a repeat of what just happened again.

  71. 71.

    Brachiator

    @MisterDancer:

    “I think that it would be a pretty big red flag if you asked your mate or your fiancé, ‘Let’s do a covenant marriage,’ and they said they don’t really want to do that,” said Kelly Johnson.

    Thanks for this. If she truly is up for this bullshit then that’s her business, which is what I said in a previous post.

  72. 72.

    Scout211

    @MisterDancer: That’s rich.

    I agree with Mrs. Johnson on this part, though.

    “I think that it would be a pretty big red flag if you asked your mate or your fiancé, ‘Let’s do a covenant marriage,’

  73. 73.

    schrodingers_cat

    Are people so naive that they expected a Speaker better than McCarthy? Rs always get worse because their core demographic, white people keeps voting for them. They are not going to improve unless they pay a price electorally.

  74. 74.

    MisterDancer

    @WaterGirl: One last thought… it seems like overall maybe the BJ women are a bit more worked up about this than the males? Could be that’s because this is personal.

    My rage about this is that, once again, there’s no true moderates in the GOP. That any issues with GymBo were about his asshole attitude and threats, not his abborant actions in any real way.

    For decades, now, the GOP has been getting away with ripping away any and every right so long as they are polite and nice when they do it. They insist that, so long as someone smiles as they rip apart your world, allow others to do anything to you, then they must be OK people because who looks like “that” when they are “racist”?

    It seems to me this Johnson is made from that stuff. And so long as he directs his rage away from his fellow GOPers in any real capacity, they’ll accept him. After all, they are all only it all this, in politics, for themselves at the end of the day. All the people they advocate to harm, or allow others to harm without a muttering word? They never cared about, and so far as I can tell, never will.

    The GOP is the Party of Pharoahs, to a person their hearts hardened as in the Book of Exdous. And when that happens, yes, all manner of ugly and shitty behavior is “OK”.

    We have a right, and a duty, to be enraged that they do this, every damn time.

  77. 77.

    Brachiator

    @kalakal:

    Covenant Marriage.

    From Wikipedia:

    Covenant marriage is a legally distinct kind of marriage in three states (Arizona, Arkansas, and Louisiana) of the United States, in which the marrying spouses agree to obtain pre-marital counseling and accept more limited grounds for later seeking divorce (the least strict of which being that the couple lives apart from each other for two years).

    Louisiana became the first state to pass a covenant marriage law in 1997; shortly afterwards, Arkansas and Arizona followed suit. Since its inception, very few couples in those states have married under covenant marriage law.

    As of the nationwide legalization of same-sex marriage, covenant marriages now can be contracted by either opposite- or same-sex couples.

  81. 81.

    Scout211

    More from the fraud trial today in response to Cohen’s testimony. Link

    Donald Trump stormed out of his civil fraud trial after Michael Cohen backtracked in his testimony about whether he was lying to Congress in 2019 when he said that Donald Trump had never directed him to inflate financial payments

     

    But on Wednesday afternoon, Cohen said in response to additional questions that he did in fact stand by his congressional testimony that he had not been directed to inflate Trump’s financial numbers.

    “So Mr. Trump never asked you to inflate the numbers on his financial statement,” Trump attorney Cliff Robert asked.

    “Correct,” Cohen said.

    Trump and his attorney Alina Habba threw up their arms at Cohen’s response. Robert then asked the judge for a directed verdict to dismiss the trial because Cohen was a key witness in the case.

    Judge Arthur Engoron denied the motion. Trump then said “I’m leaving,” and walked out.

    LOL.  Cohen is not turning out to be a strong witness, for either side.  I guess like Trump, he does better in front of cameras.

  82. 82.

    eclare

    @Dan B:

    I talked with an old friend for the first time in years this past Sunday.  She isn’t gay, but she and her husband have bought a place in Nova Scotia (currently in NC) for their escape.  Her husband is Jewish, and they have a transgender daughter.  She said they’ll leave once the youngest starts college.  Or if TFG is elected, whichever comes first.  I plan to visit next summer.

  83. 83.

    Brachiator

    @schrodingers_cat:

    The Buddhism of Sri Lanka and Myanmar shows that extremist elements exist in Buddhism too.

    Totally agree. But here I was just referencing my personal experience with some religious people.

    I wonder if there are any extremist Jains?

  86. 86.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @WaterGirl:

    I noticed early on during roll call there were several Ds who didn’t show. I wonder if they purposely stayed away and refrained from voting just so this long sorry farce could conclude.

  87. 87.

    Mike S

    Just got an NYT breaking news email that Thomas never paid his RV loan back because the $200k was forgiven by his billionaire benefactor.

  88. 88.

    Brachiator

    @Ruckus:

    I’ve been driving around for an hour trying to find a place to park to take the train which runs every 12 minutes.

    Been in a similar situation before. I feel your pain.

  89. 89.

    Citizen Alan

    @MisterDancer: Conservatives are the worst. But Conservative women are the worst of the worst. Kelly Johnson hitched her wagon to a form of Patriarchy that would make a Shiite Mullah smile, and she’s never letting go. Whether her husband makes that decision for her when some cute young intern catches his eye is another matter.

  90. 90.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    The thing that’s most frustrating is that most Americans don’t know who the Speaker of the House is, or what party they’re from, or what they’re doing. They don’t even know who their own Representative is. I say that as someone who was unsure of that when I was young because I wasn’t paying attention.

  91. 91.

    Martin

    Well, I’m surprised the GOP were able to pick a speaker. So far we’ve seen that every embrace of opposition to women’s rights have hurt the GOP, and I expect Johnsons views to feature quite prominently in the next election. At the same time, as Speaker, he doesn’t gain any power to legislate those views, so in practice this should pay off for Dems. Doesn’t make it any less traumatic to see someone like that elevated to power.

    But overnight something pretty alarming happened. The Cat 5 hurricane that hit Acapulco is raising alarms. Not only is it the most powerful storm to hit the eastern Pacific, it went from tropical storm to Cat 5 in 12 hours – so much for hurricanes giving plenty of time for people to prepare – and on top of that, none of the forecasts thought it would get stronger than a weak Cat 1.

    Climate change is coming for us all.

  92. 92.

    RevRick

    @WaterGirl: I hear your fury. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve called MAGA chuds over on X “God-damned fascists.”
    My wife and I both had Jewish grandmothers, and our daughter is married to a Jewish man, so I have my own valid reasons for going ballistic. But then fascism ties all bigotry and oppression together. Jim Crow, after all, was it’s first modern expression.

  93. 93.

    Citizen Alan

    @Barbara:  I am fantastically unlikely to ever get married for a variety of reasons, but if I did, under no circumstances would I do it in any church or in front of any preacher of any religion or denomination. A justice of the peace if we’re feeling fancy. Any one of several friends of my who’ve gotten ordained by the Universal Church of Life over the internet if we’re not.

    BTW, my will stipulates cremation with no church services. Just a private wake, preferably to be held at a karaoke bar. People are allowed to speak but not preach.

  95. 95.

    Barbara

    @Citizen Alan: Well, what I was trying to get at is that Johnson and his wife are no doubt part of a religious ecosystem that coerces their membership into adopting a coercive form of marriage.  I doubt if the wife sees it any differently.

  97. 97.

    Ken

    @Scout211: Judge Arthur Engoron denied the motion. Trump then said “I’m leaving,” and walked out.

    I suppose this is allowed in a civil trial, but he shouldn’t make a habit of it. The bailiffs would restrain, or worse, a criminal defendant who tried to leave the court.

  98. 98.

    Scout211

    More news from the trials and tribulations of TFIG: Link

    Fulton County prosecutors have discussed potential plea deals with at least six additional co-defendants charged alongside Donald Trump for attempting to subvert the 2020 presidential election, multiple sources tell CNN.

    The strategy by District Attorney Fani Willis’ office is clear: get as many co-defendants as possible to flip on the former president, leaving Trump and perhaps a few close allies on the hot seat.

    Pro-Trump lawyer Robert Cheeley is among those who have been offered a plea deal in the Georgia case but, according to his lawyer, turned it down.

    “To say that we are currently in discussions with the DA’s office would be an inaccurate representation of what is going on. They made us an offer some time ago and we declined it,” Cheeley’s attorney Richard Rice said.

    Former Coffee County, Georgia, elections supervisor Misty Hampton and former Trump campaign official Mike Roman have also been in contact with the DA’s office about a possible deal, multiple sources said.

    CNN has confirmed that three other defendants have also discussed a potential plea deal with Fulton County prosecutors but agreed not to name them after sources expressed concerns about speaking about the case at this phase.

    [Spoken in a game-show host voice] Co-conspirators, come on down!

  99. 99.

    Citizen Alan

    @Central Planning:  I have always maintained that most fundie Christians would have been perfectly fine living under Sharia Law if somebody went through the code and replaced every reference to Allah with God and ever reference to Mohammed with Jesus Christ. Deep down, the only philosophical objection fundies have with Sharia Law is that it forbids loans with interest, and since fundies really worship Mammon but are too dumb to admit it, that’s blasphemy.

  100. 100.

    Barbara

    @Martin: I’m not surprised.  Apparently members of Congress have been receiving a lot of phone calls from angry constituents.

    Yeah, Otis is alarming but it’s not the first time this phenomenon has happened recently — Hurricane Michael, in 2019,was slower moving but it intensified greatly in the last few hours before making landfall as a category 5 near Panama City, Florida.

  101. 101.

    Tony Jay

    Oh dear. I look away for a few hours and return to find that America has had a Johnson of its own thrust upon it.

    This is a shame, but it’s totally on the GOP and, frankly, does anyone genuinely see the various Republican Parties hanging together under the leadership of Tenth Choice Torquemada? Anyone? Seriously?

    This will not end well. (Most) Johnsons never do.

  102. 102.

    Brachiator

    @Mike S:

    Just got an NYT breaking news email that Thomas never paid his RV loan back because the $200k was forgiven by his billionaire benefactor.

    This reminds me of one of the many little scandals involving former UK prime minister Boris Johnson.

    When Boris Johnson was prime minister, he was offered a loan of up to £800,000 to top up his income.

    One source who worked with Mr Johnson in Downing Street said the former prime minister was not an “extravagant person” but that amount of money was “not a lot” to sustain his lifestyle during his premiership.

    What infuriates me about this crap is that American and British conservatives are always blaming poor people for being irresponsible or for ignoring “easy” ways to escape poverty. And most of all, they blame poor people for being too stupid and too lazy to better themselves.

    But Johnson worked his Eton connections to get a big ass loan. And Thomas cultivated a relationship with a plutocrat who could do him favors.

    These craven parasites who can beg money from friends instead of earning it themselves are always the first to jibber jabber about meritocracy and the need for the squalid underclass to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.

  106. 106.

    Citizen Alan

    @Mike S: I remind everyone once again that Abe Fortas was denied the Chief Justice chair and later hounded off of SCOTUS in shame over a matter of $30k in speaking fees, thus allowing Nixon four SCOTUS appointments and reshaping the Court unto the present day.

  109. 109.

    Captain C

    @Scout211: So, a narcissistic, Dunning-Krugerized ass testifying in his own defense, probably against the advice of his lawyers, while hopped up on speed.  This should be fun.

  110. 110.

    Tony Jay

    @Alison Rose:

    They’re over there next to the 40 brand new hospitals he promised, the billions in ‘levelling up’ money for the North and the many, many benefits of his Brexit.

    OMG, he was lying? How out of character. /s

  112. 112.

    Frankensteinbeck

    The only thing that will happen in the House before 2025 that has any meaning are spending bills.  Everything else will be performative, and that was the situation we were in already.

    Johnson is slime, but the only thing that matters in his being Speaker is what spending bills he will allow on the floor.  Even how he personally will vote doesn’t matter.  Until now he was such a nobody that we don’t know.

  113. 113.

    Captain C

    @Scout211:

    “I think that it would be a pretty big red flag if you asked your mate or your fiancé, ‘Let’s do a covenant marriage,’

    Since all you have to do to stay in a marriage is not file for divorce, I would suspect that any partner who wanted this wanted to make it harder for me to get out when they started abusing me.

  115. 115.

    Manyakitty

    @RevRick: fair enough. There is definitely a whiff of brimstone about the whole thing. (Okay, fine, I’m Jewish and we don’t worry much about that whole hell thing. Nevertheless.)

  116. 116.

    C Stars

    @Martin: Right. He looks less crazy than Jim Jordan but he’s actually more crazy. How is this going to help them? Will the house now hold up the budget until covenant marriages are the law? So dumb…

  120. 120.

    Brachiator

    Also, a repost from the previous thread about Trump’s latest fine.

    @WaterGirl:

    $10K IS NOTHING.

    Trump is a cheap bastard

    Trump has less money than his base believes

    Trump hates losing. He hates being held accountable. He hates being told that he can’t do something. He hates being punished.

    A $5 fine would get under his skin and set him off.

    I’m happy to see him slapped down.

  122. 122.

    Geminid

    I just heard that the B-52s will play the White House tonight, at the State Dinner honoring Australian PM Anthony Albanese.

  125. 125.

    eversor

    @Brachiator:

    The women who agree to it are Christian.  Jesus himself is very clear that gender roles are iron clad, patriarchy is demanded, and women must submit and do as told and not talk back.  They are just following the core of their religion and Jesus.  Anybody who does not think this is how everything must work is not Christian or is a bigger liar than trump.  And anybody who is no t anti Christian is anti woman.

  127. 127.

    Redshift

    @WaterGirl: I’m pretty pissed off that this was the one that got through. He’s horrible in so many ways. Many of them don’t directly affect me personally, but that doesn’t make them any less offensive, the world he wants to create is deliberately harmful to so many I care about.

  130. 130.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @Brachiator:

    @kalakal:

     Here’s the complete article. I’ll note that many churches, not just fundygelical ones, and also many non-Christian celebrants are strongly in favor or pre-marital counseling; that’s not the concerning part of the legislation. It’s the rest of it.

  131. 131.

    Redshift

    @FastEdD:

    I want my MTV. Is the one vote Motion To Vacate still in place?

    I’m not convinced it’ll happen (though I’ll be happy if it does.) The MTV was always a tool of the nihilist rule breakers who don’t care what comes next. Maybe this guy will piss off the majority who wouldn’t support Jordan enough that they’ll use it, but it’s all too likely they’ll put up with him to get a House that’s nominally functioning if they have no prospect of getting anything better.

  132. 132.

    rikyrah

    @WaterGirl:

    One last thought…  it seems like overall maybe the BJ women are a bit more worked up about this than the males?  Could be that’s because this is personal.

     

    Everything with Republicans is personal. Their values are not my values. Their values want to erase all of my rights.

    Of course, it’s personal.

  134. 134.

    Another Scott

    @SiubhanDuinne: Fritschner is one of my rep’s (RepDonBeyer) people.  Beyer got there just after his name was called.  They apparently went into the roll call much quicker than expected.

    Dunno about the others.

    HTH!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  135. 135.

    sab

    @Brachiator: I was once, briefly, a divorce lawyer in a no fault state. You couldn’t contest fault.

    I would never want to enter into a covenant marriage, but Ohio law back when I married for the second time was in some ways  pretty close.  There was amicable mutual consent divorce, but if one party wanted to stay married somebody else had to be adjudged at fault and they paid through the nose in the property settlement and custody.

    I can see a young woman planning to spend her life in a very traditional marriage opting for a covenant marriage, because it also traps her husband into good behavior

    Ohio changed its law after a couple of huge corporation CEOs moved their companies out of state because our law was so unfriendly to them dumping the wife.

  137. 137.

    JaySinWA

    @Dan B:

    Johnson was just on the TV claiming that the voting machine software was from Hugo Chavez.

    Nutty right out of the starting gate!

    Is this current or a replay from his past election was stolen performances?

  138. 138.

    Anyway

    @Redshift:

    I’m pretty pissed off that this was the one that got through. He’s horrible in so many ways.

    Yep. Same here.

    Whatever happened to Rep Charlie Dent getting called to be speaker? Johnson’s so much worse and got 220 R votes. ugh.

  139. 139.

    Miss Bianca

    @WaterGirl: Hey, Mike Johnson, with the accent on the “johnson” – you know what *else* would reduce the need for more social services? Castrating guys like you so you couldn’t spawn more useless drains on the public purse.

    Why yes, I am feeling salty af about the new Republican normal, why do you ask?

  143. 143.

    Suzanne

    LOL, covenant marriage.

    So. When Mr. Suzanne and I were getting married (in AZ), we were looking for a venue. There was an Assembly of God church that had an incredible open-air chapel, and we were curious about maybe using it for the wedding (but we wanted to use a Unitarian or Methodist pastor). The Assembly of God church said that outside clergy were allowed, but only covenant marriages.

    I object to it for many reasons, one of which is that I think it’s violating the boundary between church and state.

    I have an ex-friend who is super-Evangelical. She told me years later — privately, of course — that she and her husband had a civil marriage license and that she kept that hidden from her family, because they would be disappointed. “Sometimes you just need to get out,” she said.

  144. 144.

    Scout211

    This is a newsy day today.  This one seems wrong.

    Link

    Democratic Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York has been charged by the DC attorney general with triggering a fire alarm in a House office building when there was not an emergency.

    Bowman has been summoned to appear in DC Superior Court 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, when the congressman will be booked, fingerprinted and processed.

    The congressman said following the incident late last month that it had been an accident.
    “I was trying to get to a door. I thought the alarm would open the door, and I pulled the fire alarm to open the door by accident,” Bowman said at the time.

    “I was just trying to get to my vote and the door that’s usually open wasn’t open, it was closed,” Bowman added.

  145. 145.

    Miss Bianca

    @Brachiator: I personally don’t fucking care whether a woman has AGREED to be part of a chattel marriage or how she happens to feel about it – it’s a sick fucking thing and a step backwards for ALL women no matter how they “feel” about it.

     

  146. 146.

    CarolPW

    @Geminid: In the piece I read about the menu (WaPost?) it said they had been asked to play. Because of the solemness of current events they were not going to play but were coming as guests.

  147. 147.

    Brachiator

    @eversor:

    The women who agree to it are Christian.  Jesus himself is very clear that gender roles are iron clad, patriarchy is demanded, and women must submit and do as told and not talk back.

    This is easily refuted by many of the teachings attributed to Jesus and by the activities of the early church.

    If you have read through my earlier posts, it is clear that I note the anti-women extremism that can be a part of many religions and many cultures. It’s not just a Christian thing.

    I understand your focus on Christianity. But your emphasis and conclusions are simply not supported by any fair reading of history or even theology.

  148. 148.

    trollhattan

    @Tony Jay: Ours evidently doesn’t own a hair blender and I’ll wager went to Bibble Skool in lieu of Eton, but nevertheless we can expect Big, Big Things from our Johnson.

  149. 149.

    Scout211

    @brantl: whoever used impugned, doesn’t know what the word means.

    Yeah, I figured whoever said it or whichever reporter transcribed it, meant to say/write “impinged.”

    But I don’t rule out that the person didn’t know the difference.

  150. 150.

    cain

    @schrodingers_cat:

    @Brachiator: The Buddhism of Sri Lanka and Myanmar shows that extermist elements exist in Buddhism too.

    Medieval Japan had some pretty interesting martial Buddhism. Never made sense to me. Like Europe, every ruler or magistrate had some kind of Buddhist advisor.

  152. 152.

    JPL

    My oldest was born in Louisiana in 1976 and at the time both my husband and I had similar jobs.   I could not get a credit card without hs permission.  Pretty much you couldn’t divorce unless you could prove a felony or other charges similar to covenant marriages.   Years later we lived in Springfield, IL and the boys doctor noticed I had lived in LA. Her daughter was in a messy divorce, and she asked me if it was possible that her daughter had no rights, and I answered yes.  I then said you just need to encourage her to leave

    They didn’t even call up females for jury duty unless they registered.

  153. 153.

    Wyatt Salamanca

    While reporting from Tel Aviv, CNN’s Jake Tapper weighed in on the newly-elected speaker of the House Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA), calling him a smooth operator.

    “I have known Mike Johnson, speaker Johnson, for about 18 years,” Tapper began. “I covered a story in Louisiana back in 2005. There was a parish that kept on bringing Christian priests into their parish to do school prayer, even though courts kept on telling them not to do so. And the ACLU kept on challenging the school district in that parish to stop.” Tapper continued:

    And he was, Mike Johnson at the time worked for a conservative group called the Alliance Defense Fund, I believe it was called. And at the time, I remember being impressed at how smooth an operator he was. And at how he was able to present very conservative viewpoints, very religious conservative viewpoints, in a very mild-mannered and smooth way. And I remember thinking, this is going to be a congressman someday.

    I did not, I will confess, did not think he would be speaker of the House within 20 years of that moment. But it’s not entirely a surprise that he has risen so quickly. He has an ability to seem a lot more mainstream than I think his ideology actually is. So, it is not entirely a surprise that he has been able to rise so quickly. And I think the American people will see, he seems very mild mannered. He’s very smart, he’s very charming.

    His ideology is very far to the right. He’s very conservative. He is a true believer.

    https://www.mediaite.com/news/cnns-tapper-calls-new-house-speaker-mike-johnson-a-smooth-operator-with-ability-to-seem-more-mainstream-than-he-is/

  154. 154.

    Dan B

    @JaySinWA: Oops.  I just reread and it was Johnson’s statement from 2020.  He’s most recently gone Christian Nationalist so he’s moving ahead.

  155. 155.

    sab

    I don’t think Johnson is any worse than any other potential Speaker. We knew any acceptable to them Speaker would be bad. All we can hope for is not a government shutdown. Bad legislation can be vetoed. And this guy is all their guy. Nobody can blame Democrats for what they do.

    Unfortunately this was the best we could hope for.

    Hopefully we will be able to scare them in the November off year election that maybe they are off track.

  158. 158.

    Another Scott

    @WaterGirl: Yes, they go through the names of those who didn’t vote the first time.  All 209 Democrats there eventually voted for Jeffries.  (As mentioned, Brendan Boyle Pa. 2nd Absent,  J. Luis Correa Calif. 46th Absent, Vicente Gonzalez Tex. 34th Absent according to WaPo.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  159. 159.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @WaterGirl: Thank you for the wonderful work you do for the rest of us who read Ballon Juice. You, Betty Cracker, Annne Laurie and others are working tirelessly on this site without compensation. Thank you.

    You wrote: “. . . It seems like overall maybe BJ women are a bit more worked up about this than the males?”

    While you are obviously correct about men not being as “worked up,” but men care about abortion access, contraception, and the ability to make healthcare decisions without wingnuts dictating what women can and cannot do with their own bodies. Men may not have commmented on abortion as much as women in earlier threads, but men care about women being able to seek the care they need when they need it whether the need is routine or extraordinary. In the past few months, a few men dared to comment on the issue and were told quite harshly to butt out, that it isn’t men’s issue so men can keep their opinions to themselves. Perhaps a man’s comment did not sit comfortably with the prevailing wisdom on this site. Emotions of men run high, too, but we have been disciplined, quite harshly sometimes, for daring to step into this minefield. I realize by commenting I have nearly stepped into that minefield here and the Kraken is about to be released on me, but it happened. Men were clearly told to shut up so don’t be surprised that men seldom dare to comment on women’s health. It’s not because men don’t  care.

  161. 161.

    sab

    @JPL: I remember back in my twenties through college with a real job and having to have Dad co-sign for my credit card because I had not yet married.

    Young women really need to talk to us olds about how things used to be. My dog and I had similar rights, except she could be euthanized against her will.

    ETA And the fight to get me health insurance was epic.

  162. 162.

    Geminid

    @sab: I think you are right. It is better for Democrats if they are not responsible for this Republican caucus’s decisions. It’s not like Democrats were offered anything in return for supporting McCarthy anyway.

  164. 164.

    Brachiator

    @sab:

    I was once, briefly, a divorce lawyer in a no fault state. You couldn’t contest fault.

    I’ve never really thought about this before. Couldn’t you simply go to another state to get a divorce if you lived in a state that required fault? Are laws which could be seen as unfair or imposing an undue burden be legally binding?

    I would never want to enter into a covenant marriage, but Ohio law back when I married for the second time was in some ways  pretty close.  There was amicable mutual consent divorce, but if one party wanted to stay married somebody else had to be adjudged at fault and they paid through the nose in the property settlement and custody.

    Seems crazy. But I think I understand.

    I can see a young woman planning to spend her life in a very traditional marriage opting for a covenant marriage, because it also traps her husband into good behavior.

    I would try to warn the person that traps work in unexpected ways and you cannot always count on rules to constrain behavior.

  166. 166.

    kalakal

    Johnson sounds like he should be banned from the human race for pushing*

    What an odious authoritarian little creep

    *Hat tip to Terry Pratchett

  167. 167.

    Queen of Lurkers

    Given how Christianist/fundie Mike Johnson is, what are the chances that there are skeletons in this closet that will emerge with increased scrutiny?

  168. 168.

    sab

    @Brachiator: States really don’t want to divorce non-residents. You have to move to the other state and then prove you actually reside there.

    That is why Ohio CEOs moved their headquarters elsewhere (mostly to NC) disrupting thousand of employee lives, so that one overpaid executive could get a beter property and alimony settlement in his divorce.

  169. 169.

    Geminid

    @Wyatt Salamanca: Virginia Governor Youngkin is another politician who can cloak very conservative views with an affable, reasonable demeanor. I wouldn’t call Foungkin Youngkin a true believer though. He is more of an opportunist who knows which way the wind blows among the Republican base, and messages accordingly.

  172. 172.

    Geminid

    @CarolPW: That’s too bad, but I can see why they are doing that with the B-52s. They’ll probably get to meet the PM and his partner. Albanese might be a fan.

  173. 173.

    TriassicSands

    @Brachiator:

    Some women may feel protected by a covenant marriage.  i don’t see that, but I’m neither a woman or interested in covenant marriage.

    Three states have covenant marriage and in all three at least 99% of all marriages are non-convenant. When a marriage is truly broken, for whatever reason, I see no reason to create any impediments to a swift resolution. No fault divorce makes sense to me, since there are countless reasons why marriages break.

    According to Wikipedia:

     A spouse desiring a divorce must also prove that one of the following is true:

    • The other spouse has committed adultery.
    • The other spouse has committed a felony.
    • The other spouse engages in substance abuse.
    • The other spouse has physically or sexually abused the spouse or a child.
    • The spouses have been living separately for a minimum amount of time specified by law (one or two years, depending on the law of the state).

    Pretending that those are the only reasons to justify a divorce is ridiculous. Also, sometimes people know what is happening but might not be able to “prove” it. Can’t prove your husband is a junkie? Tough. Don’t have photos of him in bed with another woman? No deal. If the husband or wife is robbing banks, does the divorce have to wait until a jury or judge delivers a guilty verdict?

    I just don’t see how this improves the prospects of a marriage, but it could make getting out of a bad marriage much, much harder, which is something no one needs. One of the ideas behind covenant marriage is making divorce more difficult.

  174. 174.

    WaterGirl

    @Mike in Pasadena: Yeah, I didn’t mean to sound like I think men don’t care, especially that the guys on BJ don’t care.

    I was really responding to just having participated in the thread where it felt to me like the women who were commenting, myself included, were more wound up than the guys who were commenting.

    I did post it as a question in case anyone else saw it differently.

    By the way, I am not one who will criticize someone for being an ally!

    Thanks for your kind words for us, much appreciated

  175. 175.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: How so? Was there any prospect of anyone better? Or will they still shut down the government with Johnson?

    There are a few normal people in Congress with Republican labels, but they are hiding like mudbugs in a creek. Not running for anything visible.

  176. 176.

    West of the Rockies

    I saw a pic on Mediaite where it appeared to be Jeffries handing the gavel to Johnson.   Shouldn’t it have been McCarthy or Bowtie Boy?

  179. 179.

    jimmiraybob

    “‘The Bible is very clear that God is the one that raises up those in authority,’ he said. ‘He raised up each of you, all of us.'” – Mike Johnson

    And yet apparently the GOP/Trump/MAGA pro-insurrection election-denialist “I think/speak for God” coalition holds exclusive superior authority to veto God’s authoritative choices.  Mind boggling.

  180. 180.

    Eolirin

    @sab: Scalise or Emmer. They gave up immediately but they did get the noms.

    I wonder if the reason both of them dropped things before it came to a floor vote was because it was possible the Dems could vote for them and they really didn’t want that outcome.

  181. 181.

    WaterGirl

    @sab: There were R options that were less bad than Johnson.

    Support of funding for Ukraine, for one.  I have written about it in several comments on this thread and the last one, I have run out of energy to repeat it.

  182. 182.

    sab

    @TriassicSands: Agreed. My first marriage at the end I was so tired of the sight of him (and he of me) that every time he left town I was thrilled and when he came back I was disappointed.

    Also too everyone around us thought he was gay and cheating on me, but I cared about him enough that no way would I throw that up to whack his family (parents and children)  and him in the face.

    Times have changed.

  183. 183.

    sab

    @WaterGirl: Support for Ukraine has become a stupid partisan litmus test. Biden wants it so bad. All we can do is clobber them at the polls. Until then, I don’t know how the pesuade the Republican caucus of anything sensible.

    I am in Ohio and where were our supposedly multitudinous Slavic voters last year? Voting R.

  185. 185.

    Eolirin

    @TriassicSands: The “best” bit is that the abuse clause requires that the person adjudicating the claim doesn’t reflexively side with the husband. Clear evidence of abuse is often disregarded by cops, and clear evidence of rape by juries.

  186. 186.

    JPL

    @sab: I already had a credit cards.  Once you were married in LA your husband had to give permission.   They followed a form of Napolianic code at the time

    At the time the most shocking thing to me was laws pertaining to wills.   Pretty much the in laws could challenge it.

  188. 188.

    sab

    @JPL: Y ou guys out west under Napoleanic and Spanish codes were lucky. Wives were partners! Back east we were livestock.

  189. 189.

    TriassicSands

    I’m lying in my hospital bed with a needle stuck in my arm getting fluids. I’ve been coming here regularly for the last 12 years to get blood transfusions, infused medications, fluids, and iron infusions. The nurses in what is called “Short Stay” are almost all wonderful, caring people who do their very best.

    At the other end of the building is the on-going disaster known as the Emergency Department. Last year, one ED doctor had a legal problem, so the CEO fired the organization that provided all of the hospital’s ED doctors, who are not hired individually. The new doctors’ parent organization had an “F” rating from the Better Business Bureau” and one doctor who now works for the hospital, but had previously worked for that organization stated publicly that the organization was an absolute nightmare. That has been proven repeatedly in the past year.

    Meanwhile, in Short Stay, I usually have a good time no matter how badly I feel. The hospital has a great kitchen and meals are free. Because I’m on a liquid diet, I order lunch, but after chewing everything thoroughly, I spit it into a cup and toss that in the trash. It is a welcome change from a horribly inadequate diet and at least getting to taste different foods and experience the mouth feel of different textures is better than the alternative.

    The nurses are all lefties and we discuss politics regularly. The only  real problem I’ve had with a nurse in Short Stay is with one who is no longer here, but insisted on praying for me — on his knees — and then going into a long tale of how he came to know the “Lord.” Sheesh. Apparently, I was not the only patient who objected.

  192. 192.

    Brachiator

    @TriassicSands:

    I think we agree that covenant marriage is stupid.

    I remember reading about and seeing movies where people had to become residents of Reno, Nevada or some cities in Mexico in order to get a divorce. And there’s some movie whose title I forget that contained a major plot point about setting up fake adultery scenes in hotels and photographing the results so that people could get divorced.

    But I also know that even when divorce was difficult, but legal often women still ended up oppressed.

    And Republicans want to return to this? Madness.

    But marriage and social culture can be perverse. I once had a coworker who was a young woman. But in here family culture, she could not retain respect if she had moved out and lived on her own after age 18. So she ended up marrying a man she really did not care for just so she could move out of the family home.

    The marriage failed and she later got brave enough to finally separate and ultimately divorce.

    Life and marriage should not be this hard.

    ETA. Also, good luck with your health issues. Take care.

  193. 193.

    sab

    @cain: And in the real world, wives in abusive relationships feel they have failed, and hide serious battering for years. Also too some husbands. So when they finally go for divorce there is no proof. Years of stumbling into cupboards and down stairs and just clumsily bashing themselves walking around the house. All documented by wary spouses.

  194. 194.

    Geminid

    @TriassicSands: I am reluctant to give advice because I figure you’ve heard plenty already. But can you drink “half and half” milk? That’s pretty nutritious and might go down easily.

  195. 195.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Dan B: Yep. I’m dusting off my exfil plans to escape to Portugal if Republicans win a trifecta in the next election.

    Which is bad enough, but there’s real concerns Republicans would force trans people to retroactively change their names and gender markers on their passports* (as Kansas has done with drivers licenses birth certificates). Or worse simply cancel our passports — for “lying” on our passport applications — leaving trans people stateless.

    *Enabling trans people to get passports under their true gender is strictly an administrative policy, and could be overturn either by an executive order, or a new law. IIRC, you have to get a legal name change to get a password with your new name — but that was true of drivers licenses and Kansas still ignores that.

  196. 196.

    eclare

    @TriassicSands:

    I read about your health issues on the prior thread, and I am sorry you have to deal with this.  At least it sounds like the hospital is a calm place, where you are.

  197. 197.

    sab

    @JPL: Alternative is no credit or anything. So still livestock.

    I lived this. Went to college. Went to law school. Still had to get an adult male to sign on to a credit card. Amazing wonder I could get a bank account and a credit union  account. And health insurance was out of the question.

  198. 198.

    JPL

    @sab:  After my sons doctor spoke to me about LA law, I realized she trusted me.   She was a respected doctor and couldn’t believe that a state still had archaic rules.

  199. 199.

    TriassicSands

    @Eolirin:

    Yes, and since the main impetus behind covenant marriage seems to be religious, then isn’t the husband automatically “in charge” and his wife has to follow  his orders? (Or are they “wise instructions?”) At least for true believers like the Amy Phony Barretts of the world.

    The way to strengthen marriage is to have a good marriage and that depends on two people remaining compatible and everything else involved — kids, employment, extended family, the economy, etc. I don’t see how making it more difficult to get a divorce improves anything.

  201. 201.

    JPL

    @sab: I was fortunate because I was raised in the north east.   Truthfully I shrugged and laughed it off .   It wasn’t til the boys doctor  quizzed me on how difficult it would be for those not able to escape.

  203. 203.

    kalakal

    @WaterGirl: You’ll get no argument from me 😄

    It’s useful in that it’s equally accurate no matter how often how often they play musical chairs

  204. 204.

    Tony Jay

    @trollhattan:

    Adds “Hair blender“ to notes.

    Its time will come.

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    I saw that before. Presumably Christendomic refers to Christianity during the Roman Dominate, the period after Diocletian dragged the Roman Empire out of its 3rd century near collapse by turning it into an absolutist monarchy where the entire State existed only as a machine to support the Army?

    That’s… odd. Christianity wasn’t even particularly legal in the 3rd century. It wasn’t until the 4th and 5th centuries that it became the centrally-enforced State religion and started stomping the everliving fuckity out of all the other… ahhhh, now I see what they’re going for.

  205. 205.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @WaterGirl:

    One last thought…  it seems like overall maybe the BJ women are a bit more worked up about this than the males?  Could be that’s because this is personal.

    Guys, as someone who’s lived on both sides of the gender binary, no matter how you think you understand women taking this personally, trust me, you don’t. Even I don’t fully understand, because even though I’m a woman, I can’t get pregnant (and never was).

    My best analogy was the different between having an intellectual understanding of women’s safety issues being out in public vs. being catcalled or having a man follow me back to my car late at night. Over time, fears about getting sexually assaulted, or worse, permeated down to my very bones.

    This isn’t to diminish your feelings, rather it’s just a reminder that how much rage you feel about it, women feel that rage — and fear — far, far more.

  207. 207.

    TriassicSands

    @eclare:

    It is calm at this end of the building. The nurses make all the difference. That is the one part of the health care system that is working — at least as well as the system will allow.

    A few months ago, a very senior nurse, with whom I had a great relationship, retired. I was sad to see her go, but I didn’t blame her and she seems happy to have the “system” behind her. I don’t know how nurses cope with what is happening, especially since the pandemic.

    I’ve had very real trouble getting good care in hospitals. There is so much incompetence and so many rules that have nothing to do with patient care. A much larger hospital, about 75 miles from where I live, can’t manage medications, at least mine, for in-patients. I was hospitalized there in July for a bowel obstruction and they screwed up my medication so badly it was almost unbelievable. It took a nurse to get things straightened out. Still, I left the hospital with instructions to take 4x the dosage of one med I had been taking before my admission and twice the dosage of another. When I got home, I returned to the original dosing. The only effect was that severe problems I had while in the hospital went away. If the nurse hadn’t intervened, I would have had additional problems.

    I think a lot of nurses would be better doctors than many of our current doctors. They are generally much better listeners

    ETA: And the problems were much worse than what I described. Dangerously worse. Both times I have been admitted to that hospital, they have caused me significant harm. They wouldn’t let me take my own medication because the pills weren’t in the original pill bottle. But the way you identify a pill is by looking at the imprint on the pill, not the label on the bottle. No amount of argument made any difference. So, they gave me medication I had never had before, and it caused serious problems for me.

  210. 210.

    JaySinWA

    @Dan B: Thanks, I was under the impression he was “hiding his lights under a bushel” to get past the speaker vote and would be surprised if he was throwing that out now, especially after Dominion has taken FOX down and is going after others.

    I’m sure he is all wink wink nudge nudge with the hard core denialists.

  211. 211.

    FelonyGovt

    @Brachiator: My mom was a legal secretary back in the 60’s and 70’s in New York. Adultery was the only ground for divorce then. The lawyers she worked for routinely hired private investigators who would arrange a photo of one of the divorcing parties (usually the husband, to be “chivalrous”) in bed with a third party hired by the P.I.

  212. 212.

    sab

    @Sister Golden Bear: Actually as a woman I don’t think we feel your rage. This is the extremely unpleasant but normal background of our lives. Scary ugly wallpaper. But always there, so mostly background.

    I have assumed that you came into womanhood hopefully and expectantly as I did, but much later and with more barriers overcome. So you were more hopeful. And then, just a woman. But I am probably wrong.

    I was thirteen and biology and psychology just happened in synch.

    You were much older and it all  was different and out of synch.

    I was in synch and so much of it felt wrong. Not yet! I am a child.!

  213. 213.

    Brachiator

    @Sister Golden Bear:

    Guys, as someone who’s lived on both sides of the gender binary, no matter how you think you understand women taking this personally, trust me, you don’t.

    We are human beings. It is not biologically possible that we are so different that we cannot understand or empathize with one another. We can communicate with and listen to each other.

    And even if you want to insist that there are some mysterious and ineluctable differences, I can only say, So what? We are all what we are. We only have each other on this tiny planet.

    We have to do the best we can.

    Hell, I don’t always understand myself and I have been living with me for a long ass time.

  214. 214.

    FelonyGovt

    @TriassicSands: Late in a possibly dead thread, but I also just read about your health issues in the prior thread. I’m so sorry our miserable healthcare system has failed you so spectacularly. Wishing you peace.

  215. 215.

    Mike in Pasadena

    @WaterGirl: Thank you for understanding how my comment was meant to be taken. I posted it because of my misinterpretation of your meaning. Which is why I wanted to explain my feelings, though I risked understandable flamethrowers. I feel I have a stake in the abortion question. For example, it’s a short step from telling women they cannot take a safe and simple pill to end an ectopic pregnancy to barring gay men and women from taking PREP to avoid contracting a disease. Although I am married and not having partners outside of my marriage, I want my fellow gay men to be able to prevent disease. When Republicans ban contraception for heterosexuals, ready availability of condoms can also be lost. Again, they’ll ban an easy tool for disease protection to force pregnancies on women or to prevent sexual relations. These are only two examples, admittedly selfish, explaining why I am an ally in this fight. I am working to elect men and women advocates of women’s health and more broadly everyone’s health.

    Thanks again for your hard work educating me and my fellow BJers. Without your work and the work of others, I would miss many important developments.

  216. 216.

    artem1s

    @JaySinWA:

    Our starting point is not the individual, and we do not subscribe to the view that one should feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, or clothe the naked….Our objectives are entirely different: we must have a healthy people in order to prevail in the world.
    —Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda, 1938

    sounds a lot like our new speaker

    Here is Mike Johnson railing against Roe v. Wade, arguing that if women were forced to give birth to more “able-bodied workers,” Republicans wouldn’t try to cut Social Security and Medicare

  219. 219.

    Gvg

    @Brachiator: how can there be two kinds of marriage? I don’t care if the woman “agreed “ to it, it seems to me marriage and divorce laws would be set by the state and there would not be two kinds. I can see a prenuptial agreement for property holding up, but a divorce would follow divorce law. And if you move to a different state, the law can be different.

  220. 220.

    cain

    @sab: Yes, I can see that. Years of covering up your husbands beatings as accidents is used against you in divorce court.

  224. 224.

    The Lodger

    @trollhattan: Reminds me of a T-shirt company I haven’t thought of in years: http://bigjohnson.co

    ETA: “The sexual innuendo has been controversial leading to court rulings banning sales in federal buildings and corporate decisions banning wearing the shirts.” So don’t expect to see Big Johnson merch in the Congressional gift shop.

  226. 226.

    Sally

    @Miss Bianca: I agree with this.  The (naive) notion that a woman thinks it’s a good idea because it keeps her husband behaving (faithful) is ridiculous. He only needs to be sufficiently discrete that she can’t prove it to the satisfaction of a tribunal. Which may not even be particularly discrete.

  227. 227.

    Another Scott

    @TriassicSands: I’m very sorry you’re going through all that, and that the system seems designed to prevent you from getting better.

    Unfortunately, sometimes you have to be your own expert.

    (IANAMD.)

    Here’s a recent review article on Crohn’s that might help you speak the language of the system, see where things stand, and maybe get them to give you better care.

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10488639/

    J Clin Med. 2023 Sep; 12(17): 5595.
    Published online 2023 Aug 27. doi: 10.3390/jcm12175595
    PMCID: PMC10488639
    PMID: 37685662

    Unmet Challenges in Patients with Crohn’s Disease
    Katharina M Scheurlen,1 Mary A Parks,1 Anne Macleod,1 and Susan Galandiuk1,2,*

    Abstract

    Patients with Crohn’s disease can present with a variety of clinical manifestations; treatment strategies should focus on long-term remission and improvement of quality of life. There is no standardized process of diagnosing, predicting prognosis, and treating the disease. This narrative review was based on a literature search using PubMed, Embase, and Science Direct. Data on unmet challenges in patients with Crohn’s disease were extracted from identified manuscripts. The aim was to discuss present research on standardized processes in the management of patients with Crohn’s disease and to identify the unmet needs in clinical evaluation and treatment approaches. There is no consensus on standardized diagnostic, treatment, and surveillance algorithms, particularly in assessing complications of Crohn’s, such as stricturing disease, intestinal cancer risk, and cutaneous manifestations. Complications and treatment failure rates of conventional, interventional, and surgical therapy place emphasis on the need for standardized treatment algorithms, particularly in the case of acute complications of the disease. Research on standardized clinical approaches, reliable biomarkers for disease diagnosis and therapy monitoring, and new treatment agents is necessary to improve therapy and reduce complications in patients with Crohn’s disease.

    Keywords: Crohn’s disease, inflammatory bowel disease, tumor necrosis factor inhibitors, biomarkers, endoscopy

    HTH a little. Hang in there, and good luck!

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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