Last night, I listened to a recent Talking Feds podcast.
Last night, at the end of the podcast, they were asked: Who is Mike Johnson, second in line for the presidency? and they have to answer in 5 words or fewer.
The NBC journalist answered Speaker of the House which is the perfect representation of everything that is wrong with the mainstream media.
Even former senator Heidi Heitkamp said unknown political leader, which is also cowardly bullshit.
Harry Litman replied: “all that’s true, but man, the more you learn about his religious views they’re really kind of astonishing, even in today’s Republican party, so I’m gonna go with religious absolutist dressed as accountant.”
The best answer was Alex Jones in sheep’s clothing, which I thought was both perfect and perfectly true.
🌼
Quick recap of yesterday’s legal news related to the Jack Smith Jan 6 case, courtesy of (fake) Jack Smith:
SCOTUS petition to adjudicate question of presidential immunity + separate motion for an expedited briefing. (Translation: Do it + do it fast)
SCOTUS agrees to expedite consideration of petition. Trump required to respond by 12/20 (Translation: We hear you)
Motion for appellate courts to expedite adjudication of presidential immunity appeal (Translation: LFG!)
Appellate courts respond in the affirmative. Trump required to respond to the motion by 10 a.m. THIS Wednesday.
DOJ reply due by 10 a.m. this Thursday. (Translation: It’s on like Donkey Kong)
Separate filing to disclose experts who have analyzed Trump’s cellphone data + geolocation data + Twitter usage during J6 (Translation: He should’ve kept my wife’s name outta his goddam mouth)
PS: It’s only Monday. (Translation: BUCKLE UP)
🌼
I have been wondering who or what entity is going to step up to bring a case for Kate Cox. Has that already happened, did I miss it? This has sailed way past abortion rights or even the right to self-determination. We are now in life or death territory, as we always knew we would be, but hopefully more eyes are starting to open.
Who would bring a case like this? Because Kate Cox should not have to fight this alone, and neither should Brittany Watts in Ohio. Just as with Christine Blasey Ford, I feel that we need to know their names. We need to say their names.
That’s a bit about what I’m thinking about this morning. How about you guys?
Open thread.
Burnspbesq
Cox has been represented by the Center for Reproductive Rights.
JWR
Plus there’s Jane Doe in Kentucky. She’s challenging that state’s trigger law. Fortunately, she’s got the ACLU and Planned Parenthood on her side.
OzarkHillbilly
I am trying to keep my blood pressure under control. Not doing a very good job of it.
WaterGirl
@Burnspbesq: So they are representing her personally in the legal case against her> I wasn’t clear, but I am thinking more proactively, like a case being brought – against the various states – on behalf of women who are being put in grave danger because of the terrible laws with even worse interpretations.
WaterGirl
@JWR: I must have missed reporting on the KY trigger law. What is that?
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Literally, like trying to do that with eating or exercise or drugs? Or related to all the stressful news we are bombarded with?
beckya57
I’m wondering if Cox gets sued under the bounty hunter law as soon as she returns to TX? IANAL and not sure how the “law” “works,” but that would totally not surprise me. I think there’s going to be a strong interest among TX officials to teach her a lesson and try to discourage anyone else from coming forward.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: Both today.
eta: last couple times at the doc it was reasonable.
Burnspbesq
@WaterGirl:
There is another case pending in the Texas Supreme Court, Zurawski v. Texas, in which 20 women plaintiffs have challenged the denial of essential care due to the current state of the law.
As long as a******s like Paxton have free rein to second-guess good-faith medical decisions, Texas will remain a dystopian hellscape for women of reproductive age.
The only answer is to sweep Republicans from office at all levels of government.
RobertS
Cox left the state to get medical care elsewhere.
The TX supremes vacated the injunction that the lower court issued on Cox’s behalf, and made it clear that they weren’t going to get involved with lots of cowardly weasel words to the effect of “The Doctors are in charge” while declining to take a stand on what the TX law actually means or whether the Doctors can be prosecuted under Cox’s terrible circumstances. These people are monsters.
The legal types over at LG&M interpreted it as a message to the lower courts in TX that the lower courts had better not get involved, either.
The “Exceptions” that the misogynists tout as an escape hatch to oppressive laws have always been a scam. The TX court just made it more clear.
In other words, Cox would have lost.
Betty Cracker
I know Alex Jones is crazier than a sprayed roach and a malignant turd, but is he a religious nut? Because that’s central to Johnson’s character, so it’s important to capture. I think Litman had it right.
WaterGirl
I’m still pissed about the answers at the end of the podcast, which I listened to right before i got out of bed. NBC journalist only describing Mike Johnson as Speaker of the House? Former Democratic senator calling him “unknown political leader”? People who are in a position to sound the alarm, or at least to inform people, uttering bullshit non-answers. Kudos to the guy who at least called him what he was. And as far as religious absolutist, that term could also be used to refer to at least one of the Supreme Court-6.
The Central Park 5 were much better people that they are.
NotMax
@WaterGirl
Equanimity is my co-pilot.
schrodingers_cat
The Speaker of the House is a far more important and powerful position than whatever it is that Alex Jones does. Plus is Jones a religious fundamentalist? IDK.
Torquemada dressed as an accountant is more fitting.
schrodingers_cat
@Burnspbesq: That’s good to hear. I hope that Watts in Ohio also gets good representation.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I think Mike Johnson is a religious nut and a dangerous, malignant turd, but you’re right. Religious nut with a crazy amount of power is foremost.
The fellow actually said “I was going to say Gym Jordan in sheep’s clothing, but it’s worse than that, it’s Alex Jones in sheep’s clothing.” So that’s where the sheep’s clothing bit came from
Anonymous At Work
Center for Reproductive Rights will take Cox’s case to State SCOTUS on merits. There’s ample precedent for continuing cases involving pregnancy through the entire legal gamut because of the transitory nature of pregnancy, along with a few other things, like required blood transfusions for children of Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc. Basically, repeatable but short-term events where you want (normally) to decide the legality and Constitutionality. For Abbott and the anti-choicers, they don’t want that, just the fear from providers.
WaterGirl
@beckya57: I wondered yesterday whether there is any limit to the number of people who can claim the $10,000 bounty on the same woman. Or is it first come, first served?
Do they have to show how they know in order to get the money?
WaterGirl
@Anonymous At Work:
I’m not exactly sure what you’re getting at there.
JWR
@WaterGirl:
Yesterday, via Jezebel:
Betty Cracker
@WaterGirl: Sometimes I think a Jordan speakership would have been better for Team Donk because Jordan is such a repulsive loudmouth. No need to define him! Johnson is every bit as horrible but has a more pleasant manner, so yeah, sheep’s clothing fits for sure.
Scout211
@WaterGirl:
Here is a list of some of the legal work that the Center for Reproductive Rights has been doing nationwide. Their attorneys have represented Kate Cox all along. They were the ones to announce that she left the state for the abortion so I assume that they have a legal plan to continue to represent her when she returns.
azlib
The shattering silence we hear from Texas Republicans on the Cox issue is deliberate. I suspect a lot of them are really pissed Paxton stuck his nose into the issue. If the lower court stay had not been overruled then the issue would have simply gone away. Now it is going to be used by every Dem as the poster child for why abortion restrictions enacted by Republicans are simply cruel and inhumane. The issue is perfect, since the woman wanted the pregnancy to be successful.
NotMax
Five words or less?
Anthony Comstock two point o.
artem1s
I’ve been asking for decades why the AMA doesn’t have a stake in this fight? How many doctors have to be murdered in cold blood before they decide enough is enough? If the state can jail one doctor they won’t stop at ObGyn’s. And everyone involved should be suing the TX AG for violation of constitutional rights to conduct commerce and travel across state lines. Religious hospitals are going to toe the line, but for-profit hospitals are going to take a hit because of this shit. Do they really think TX won’t try to putting out a warrant and/or expedite the Admins from whatever state she goes to? TRAP laws are going to be a factor even in states like MI that have passed pro-choice legislation.
Burnspbesq
@WaterGirl:
Ordinarily, Cox’ abortion would moot her challenge to the anti-abortion law, because it’s no longer possible for the court to grant her the relief she’s seeking. Roe v. Wade established an exception to the usual rules about mootness for things that are transitory but capable of repetition—and as far as anybody knows, that aspect of Roe survives Dobbs.
lowtechcyclist
@Betty Cracker:
Also, Alex Jones was notoriously a Sandy Hook denialist. As horrible as Johnson obviously is, AFAIK that’s not among his sins
ETA: I too would go with Litman.
Ten Bears
Be a real shame if some of those manly Texas men were dragged into the street by a mob of angry women and ripped to shreds, few of ’em hung from the nearest lamppost, heads on a pike
Jinchi
Please don’t wish that on us. Everyone knew Jordan was a repulsive loudmouth and it’s a good thing that cost him the Speakership. He was established with a politically potent following and he lost. That’s a good thing.
Mike Johnson was elected because nobody outside the caucus knew who he really was. He’s hard evidence that there are no “moderates” in the Republican party.
trollhattan
@Jinchi: The whole “covenant marriage” thing is creepy as fuck. Imagine learning your life insurance agent lives with Peoples Temple.
Joe Falco
I was trying to somehow fit William Jennings Bryan in describing Johnson, but religious dogma aside, Johnson couldn’t hold a candle to Bryan’s influence or oratory skills.
Jinchi
That was my take too, but then they didn’t drop the case, they ruled against her.
Whatever vague undefined protections they pretended were in the abortion law before that are now gone. They’ve drawn a bright line in the sand, and it’s likely that nothing short of a woman literally being on the operating table at the edge of death would pass muster.
…. Who am I kidding. If the woman didn’t die it would be considered “proof” that she was never on the edge of death and if she did die it would be “proof” that the abortion was unnecessary to save her.
Jackie
Repeating this nugget from yesterday:
Bupalos
I just finished a front page NBC news article about hunger in America and if anyone wants to see the platonic ideal of the kind of well-meaning left journalism that is killing us politically, check it out!
Among the things we learn by way of completely unexamined claims from interviewees is that that 5 bags of groceries used to cost 50 dollars, but now 1 bag does. It helpfully concludes with an interviewee’s prediction that a depression is coming.
Danielx
@azlib:
Far as Paxton is concerned, it was fellow Republicans who almost got him thrown from office a few months back. He doesn’t give a fuck about their electoral prospects.
Marmot
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve seen Jones since his cable TV public access show, and he has no real beliefs.
But he’s never professed any particular religious beliefs beyond labeling some things “Satanic” (with a long first “a”), like the Bilderburg group’s owl skit or whatever. He also “helped to rebuild” the Branch Davidian church (building? complex?) in Waco because he’s always been anti-government (unless it’s fascist).
Jinchi
@trollhattan: Agreed. I spent a summer in New Orleans when I was engaged and was told I had the option to get a real (covenant) marriage instead of a fake one if I got married in Louisiana.
WaterGirl
@JWR: Thanks for the reminder! So many travesties, I start to lose track!
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: I thought Jordan would be the worst possible choice. I had no idea that the entire Republican caucus would vote in a religious zealot – unanimously – and then would leave him in that spot once they figured out who he was.
Or maybe they already knew? I don’t know which is more horrible.
WaterGirl
@Scout211: Thanks for that!
What I’m trying to get at is that this isn’t just REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM. It’s life and death. It’s being a full citizen and not a full citizen. That’s why I’m looking for some entity to take this on in a broader way.
WaterGirl
@artem1s:
Yes!
Physicians take an oath, and now some of them are throwing it out the window because they are afraid they will get sued or fined or thrown in jail.
But no, they are not speaking up, They are just moving their practices. I get that the AMA is a political entity.
But Why aren’t physicians fighting all of this? Why aren’t they suing because the government is interfering with their ability to fulfill the oath they took?
sdhays
It pisses me off that this is true. People should be able to fucking live their lives without being names “everybody knows”. Some people desire fame, but most don’t. Particularly for how their pregnancy didn’t go well.
WaterGirl
@Burnspbesq: Oh, thank you for that background! I wasn’t aware of those details.
WaterGirl
@lowtechcyclist: @Betty Cracker:
I actually would, too! I had remembered what the other 3 had said, so I started writing the post. Then I had to go back to the podcast to get the actual words, since I was quoting them, and Harry Litman’s did stand out as the best to me, too. But I had forgotten that I had previously said the other one was the best.
Note to self: always go back and check your work a second time. :-)
trollhattan
@WaterGirl: Recalling “back in the day” when AMA hired one Ronald Reagan to lead their campaign against Medicare. Still don’t trust them to do the right thing.
WaterGirl
@Ten Bears: What a lovely thought for a Tuesday morning. //
Pretty sure there is a better way.
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: But they kept him after they figured out who Mike Johnson really was. Or they knew all along!
Either way, not looking like the fools they were was more important to them than a little thing like separation of church and state.
Mike Johnson is much more dangerous than Jim Jordan, in my opinion.
Ksmiami
@Ten Bears: fun times in Gilead…
WaterGirl
@Bupalos: I agree that what passes for journalism these days is appalling.
What makes you think that NBC is a source of well-meaning left journalism?
All I can say is thank god for ProPublica and other media that are actually committing journalism.
smith
@sdhays: Of course, anyone whose name is released is in for a world of hurt from the flying monkeys. Death threats, endless online and in person vitriol, publication of their addresses and phone numbers. They will have to move to blue states, and even that won’t be enough. We talk about the repression that will come if the GQP is able to establish their fascist dystopia, but for all practical purposes it’s already here.
New Deal democrat
@Anonymous At Work: If we had an actual non-partisan US Supreme Court, the case could ultimately be appealed there as well.
That’s because state statutes that do not fairly apprise an individual of what might be criminal conduct violate the US Due Process clause, which requires fair notice of what is right and wrong. The blurb by the TX Supreme Court is almost a textbook example of such a violation, a/k/a “void for vagueness.”
Betty Cracker
@Jinchi: My guess is Jordan lost because he’s a prick who had personally alienated some of his GOP colleagues, and others correctly perceived he’d be a political liability to the party. I agree Johnson’s elevation proves there are no moderates in his caucus. He’ll be no better than Jordan on policy. But for the low-info voters who unfortunately decide our elections, Johnson carries less baggage.
MomSense
In other legal news, yesterday I saw a post by the ACLU saying they are representing the NRA before SCOTUS in its case against the New York Department of Financial Services. This time a first amendment case.
UGH I get it but I don’t like it especially since the proliferation of guns has scared so many ordinary people such that they don’t feel safe exercising their first amendment rights.
Harrison Wesley
Mike Johnson? Norman Bates carrying a Bible.
Jackie
Happening now: Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) scolded his Republican colleagues on Tuesday for moving forward with what Democrats described as a “sham” impeachment hearing.
m.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=16&v=yfHEbG_rNUU&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww…
smith
Wouldn’t it be lovely if it turns out that TFG was in direct communication with leaders of the riot? That’s just one way this data could contain a raft of smoking guns. The fact that it includes data from the phone of a staff member suggests that that person is cooperating and can testify as to who was using the phone at what time.
CaseyL
So far, it seems that the ACLU and the Center for Reproductive Rights are leading the legal charge agasint these laws.
I have some issues with the ACLU. They will support even horrible organizations whose rights they deem to have been violated, like the NRA case, and I’m no longer in a place where I think being even-handed like that is a good and admirable thing. But the ACLU is effective, damn them, and I may have to support them despite my misgiviings.
The Center for Productive Rights I’ve heard of but don’t know much about. They’re certainly leading the good fight here. Does anyone have an informed opinion on their record, win/loss rate, and overall effectiveness?
Not at all parenthetically, though I may be missing it somewhere, but AFAICT National Planned Parenthood is notable for its absence in these cases. WTF?
Anoniminous
@Bupalos:
Peter Drucker was wandering around Germany in the early 30s after getting his Ph.d. and ran across an election rally. He recalled
The US Ruling Class and their Congressional lickspittles, toadies, and tick birds – on both sides of the aisle – have returned to a classic to rile up the mob.
UncleEbeneezer
@MomSense: I know some good people at ACLU but I must say they have the lack of nuanced thinking that is usually found with a twelve year old. They are big purity ponies and think that something like choosing not to represent Nazis (who ultimately restrict free speech by bullying everyone else) is some sort of moral weakness so they MUST get in and defend the worst people on Earth. And their arguments for Free Speech Absolutism often get as strained and ridiculous as Elon Musk’s hypothetical ticking bomb that can only be stopped by someone using the N-word. I generally love the ACLU, but not this side of them.
UncleEbeneezer
Exactly!
cain
@azlib:
Also, the GOP establishment is scared shitless of Paxton. They made a play to get rid of him and it failed so he’s out to use the power of the state against them as well.
sdhays
@UncleEbeneezer: Not to mention, an organization like the NRA can pay for big fancy lawyers to represent it in court. ACLU donor money doesn’t need to support them in this.
MomSense
@UncleEbeneezer:
I’m confiicted about it. I understand why they feel like the first amendment has to be defended even for evil organizations, but my heart says fuck the NRA.
smith
@cain: Can anyone explain how someone who’s been under indictment for, I think, 7 years has not yet faced trial?
Cheryl from Maryland
Mike Johnson – Believes Jesus rode dinosaurs.
smith
@cain: The fact that Paxton was acquitted suggests he has some powerful blackmail material in his back pocket.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
Aren’t cocks well enough represented?
UncleEbeneezer
@sdhays: Exactly. Like why choose that fight, when there are so many better ones and only so many resources?
gvg
@WaterGirl: I see that they were told they can’t sue on behalf of their clients, but I want to see them sue on their own behalf. This is seriously messing with their ability to give all kinds of care, not even just around pregnancy. The conservative idiots are not interested in things like many drugs have multiple uses, and health is complicated. They have denied drugs they say are abortion drugs to men. They are repressed crazy let loose, and not safe to be trusted with blunt scissors. All the medical groups and hospitals and insurance companies should have standing to tell these legislators and citizens that they have no business making these laws and threatening doctors for giving good care.
UncleEbeneezer
@MomSense: Right but as sdhays wrote above: somebody else will step up to represent the NRA. You can count on that. It doesn’t have to be the ACLU, who could be putting their resources to better use by representing any number of other clients who are truly in need.
Nelle
@WaterGirl: I refuse to talk about “abortion” anymore. Just “reproductive health care.
WaterGirl
@Nelle: I agree with you on that.
Only I take it a step further – it’s gone way beyond reproductive health care. It seems to me that it’s really health care for women
I cringe every time I hear someone say “abortion care”. Though I know they mean well.
RaflW
re: Johnson, Tiger Beat on the Potomac (aka Politico) had an item up yesterday saying Mr. Christian Speaker is going to bring the lie-filled impeachment investigation authorization to a floor vote in January.
This will put pressure on the ‘Biden 18’ (Repubs in districts Biden won). I’d like to suggest that we think about setting up a BJ “The 18” thermometer and be ready to launch it on impeachment floor vote day. No matter which way each of these 18 guys with their nuts in a vice vote, this sets up a heightened vulnerability for them. Good. Let’s go.
Barbara
@Burnspbesq: It’s not moot if she remains in jeopardy because she had a well-publicized abortion that was held to be presumptively illegal by courts in Texas. On the other hand, there are courts that would force her to wait to be arrested first.
JWR
@UncleEbeneezer:
Reminds me of the anti-war group A.N.S.W.E.R.. They were apparently great at getting people out to the Iraq protests, but they didn’t have any filters. They would keep the 11 AM rallies going to all hours of the night, just so long as anyone wanted to speak, and well after the A-listers had all gone home. But the morning FM shock jocks had a field day with the crazies, the leftier-than-thou types, and they would use those speeches to discredit the entire anti-war movement.
EireIAm (formerly Fled the US)
I stopped my donations to the ACLU a while ago for reasons I don’t quite remember. But it was along the lines of “some bad people don’t need to be defended by a public organization”. Much like the NRA / Free Speech issue. Had I not done it, finding out that my donations were going to support the NRA would have been the reason.
It’s not even clear that the regulator did anything wrong or even attempted to silence “speech”.
Yeah, done with the ACLU, but I’m glad they’re defending women.
Nelle
@WaterGirl: Are you aware that many states have online sites that are connected through a consortium that are committing journalism? Kansas Reflector covers Kansas, Iowa Capitol Dispatch covers Iowa. See if you can find something for your state.
Barbara
@smith: This seems unlikely, only because those leaders have already been tried and their cell phone data has almost certainly been analyzed. Many of those people have tried to defend their conduct as being sanctioned by Trump. If they had a record of phone calls you would think those would have been placed in evidence.
Most likely, the calls were to elected officials at both the state and Federal level — people like Jim Jordan, for instance or Mike Lee of Utah.
Old Man Shadow
I’m thinking, “It’s only nine more working days until my winter vacation.”
If all goes well, it will be ten blessed days of doing nothing.
rikyrah
I love Jack Smith pulling the Joker on The Joker
rikyrah
Johnson is a right-wing lunatic. Period. And, crooked as a muthaphucka.
WaterGirl
@Barbara:
I’m not sure I agree with that. I believe a judge is having too comb through Perry’s messages one by one, and I think there will be a lot of really great information in there. So it’s delayed, but not denied.
Once Jack Smith et al are able to go through it, I think some other Reps will be on the line, as well. If not thru phone data then because I think they will indict the 6 un-indicted co-conspirators who will likely or at least possibly give up some peeps in the House. We’ll see.
JWR
I hadn’t heard about this. Maybe it was discussed in the recent Taylor Swift post? From Middle East Eye, (thanks, Geminid!):
Expecting them both to be dragged before the House so Elise Stefanik can snarl at them.
smith
@WaterGirl:
There’s also the possibility that he was in contact with someone like Roger Stone, not (yet) indicted, but certainly involved. Could also be Ken Chesebro, giving reports from on the ground and apparently willing to testify as to what TFG said.
lowtechcyclist
@Old Man Shadow:
May it be as you hope!
My countdown has kept moving along: my last full day of work, ever, is the day after tomorrow. Technically I’m working Friday, but all I’ll be doing is driving in to turn in my laptop, badge, and parking pass.
I still can’t quite believe it.
Barbara
@WaterGirl: I mean Stewart Rhodes and Enrique Tarrio and their ilk.
trollhattan
@JWR: Stefanik vs. TayNation is a battle I’ll pay good money to watch.
Brachiator
@UncleEbeneezer:
I am not a First Amendment absolutist, but I tend to support the ACLU in these efforts. I do not want to ever see the government deciding on what speech is acceptable. We already see mischief from conservatives.
Tangentially related to this, I am happy to see that Harvard is backing their president despite her clumsy remarks to the Congressional panel.
Jackie
@JWR: Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez would break Stefanik without breaking a sweat.
Stefanik is now being called out for plagiarism:
sab
@WaterGirl: Most physicians active in the AMA are themselves are Republicans and many of them are also RWNJs. They are still mad about Obamacare. And mostly they aren’t ob/gyns. The abortion stuff with legislatures interfering with doctor/patient relations does bother some of them, but tax breaks mean more.
Also too, not all physicians are active in the AMA. My dad despised them. He said their continuing education was more about cruises and trips to cool places than about actual medical education
ETA It is kind of like the American Bar Association. It pretends to represent all lawyers, but it really represents only a certain type of lawyer.
WaterGirl
@smith: Yes, both of those!
IIRC, Cheese-bro was the one doing some signaling on the ground on Jan 6. Like you, I thought of Roger Stone because he has direct links to the Proud Boys, or one of those groups; they have sort of blurred together in my mind.
JWR
@trollhattan: Me too! And it’s just what the Repubs ordered: ticking off (ever more of) the yoots.
sab
Duplicate
Marmot
@sab: That’s about how it was in the mid-aughts; lots of right-wingers with more sway than you’d think, declining membership among younger doctors and minority doctors, surprising ethical blind spots.
cain
@smith: It’s some fucked up shit I can tell you that. They have a literal lawbreaker as SoS
narya
@lowtechcyclist: Friday it will be a year since I turned in my stuff–good luck to you!! A friend helped me haul everything in, and then insisted that we go have a post-working-life beer, even though it was barely noon. He took a picture, too, and, I have to say, I already looked more relaxed. So: whatever else you do, find some small way to celebrate (lunch at a favorite restaurant, a fermented or distilled beverage if you enjoy them, whatever).
Chief Oshkosh
@azlib:
The issue is perfect, since the woman wanted the pregnancy to be successful, is already a mother of two, and is caucasian with blond hair.
IOW, just like a huge swath of white, middle class women who keep voting Republican. Maybe, just maybe, a couple of them will FINALLY BUY A FUCKING CLUE. Dog knows that the men voting R are beyond redemption.
narya
@WaterGirl: I’ve also wondered if they’ll ever be able to get to Stone. Chesebro is interesting to me–he’s taking his testimony on the road these days, and he was in the room for a whole lot of whack-job long-shot attempts at stealing the election. I don’t know if Jack can make use of him, but, if he can, I can see him being a big old smoking gun.
Spanky
@lowtechcyclist: I was going to ask about that.
It is a bit difficult to believe at first. Seems like a long weekend at first, then a couple of weeks of lazy vacation, then it starts to sink in.
Josie
@smith: His trial has finally been scheduled for April 15 in Houston. The holdup has been arguments over payment for the special prosecutors and choice of venue. Paxton’s lawyers, like Trump’s, are masters of throwing stuff into the gears to keep them from turning. Hopefully, this judge will actually move things forward.
ETA: texastribune.org/2023/10/30/ken-paxton-securities-fraud-charges-trial/
Chief Oshkosh
@Harrison Wesley: Good, but even creepier.
What was the name of the wacko in Silence of the Lambs? Not Hannibal Lector, but the guy who kidnapped women for their skin.
THAT is the comparison to Mike Johnson, IMO.
hitchhiker
@Betty Cracker:
What’s interesting is how much print Liz Cheney gave to Mike Johnson in her new book — gone to publishers long before the Republicans decided to blow up Kevin McCarthy.
She flat calls Mike out as a dangerous liar, describing conversations she had with him and moves he made during the post-2020/pre-inauguration period.
Now she’s saying that not only must trump not be allowed to win, but the House majority must go back to the Democrats, because Johnson cannot be in place when Congress has to ratify the 2024 results.
smith
@narya: His was the only proffer video of the co-defendants in GA who pleaded out that was not leaked. Since the leaker was an attorney for another conspirator it’s likely what he had to say left none of them with any defense whatsover.
rikyrah
Marc E. Elias (@marceelias) posted at 0:52 PM on Mon, Dec 11, 2023:
If you live in one of these 21 states, your Republican Attorney General is trying to eviscerate private enforcement of the Voting Right Act in court.
AL, AR, AK, FL, GA, IA, ID, IN, KS, KY, LA, MS, MO, MT, ND, NE, OK, SC, TX, UT, WV
(https://x.com/marceelias/status/1734285138140287238?t=dyONTXWJIxqxhygRf6H5Dg&s=03)
smith
@Josie: Thanks for the update. Think Paxton is trying to influence the jury with his current grandstanding?
Soprano2
@Bupalos: I feel for those people, but when I read that the first woman in the story has 7 kids I can’t help but think “why do you have so many kids?”. Plus, she says 3 of her daughters are graduating high school. Are any of them working to try to help support the family? The story doesn’t say. Plus, there was ZERO mention of the record profits many food companies have been pulling in the past two years.
ETA – I have to say this – I was kind of shocked yesterday to see multiple people defending people stealing from stores as no big deal because maybe they’re in need. I understand the sympathy, but what if everyone who came into the store stole something? Pretty soon there wouldn’t be any store, because they would go out of business. Even if you hate the company, like WalMart, it’s wrong to steal from them even if you’re in need.
JWR
Wow, dude just can’t help himself.
Josie
@smith:
Maybe, but I don’t think it will help him much with a Houston jury pool. We are one of the most progressive and diverse big cities around.
Scout211
I have mixed feelings about this. I worry that “reproductive healthcare” as a general descriptor can be easily co-opted by the anti-abortionists, (as they have done for decades with their fake pregnancy counseling services). It’s so general that it could be mean anything to anyone, unless it is accompanied every time with “like birth control, medical abortions and pharmaceutical abortions.”
I am more of a mind to make abortion a word that merely represents another medical procedure with no negative connotations for those who choose the procedure. I guess I think we should use the word abortion often in our public discourse, even in families (where too often the males in the family never know that the young pregnant person has had an abortion). It still is seen as a word and a procedure that needs to be hidden, not just private, but hidden.
I guess I am thinking that saying it often in everyday language and in our political discourse could make it more mainstream and more “normal.”
Betty Cracker
@hitchhiker: I didn’t know that. Fascinating.
Harrison Wesley
@Chief Oshkosh: Buffalo Bill
john b
I’m failing to see the downside here. . . .
...now I try to be amused
@JWR: Rudy’s mouth continues to write checks his ass can’t cash.
artem1s
@smith:
My money is on McCarthy as well as Dense. MTG? Gaetz? others? Who was it that said he was going to be in charge of the vote (assumed that Dense would be escorted out of the building)?
Lots of people sh*tting their pants over the possibilities.
JPL
@artem1s: Ginni Thomas’ was involved, so expect Clarence to play coy.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@JWR: semi-serious question: When the Moss-Freeman lawyers go looking for the money, can their subpoena override whatever NDA Judi Giuliani signed as part of the divorce settlement?
smith
@artem1s: I fervently hope that before this is all over, Smith will test the limits of the speech and debate clause for protecting treasonous members of Congress.
dnfree
@WaterGirl: My opinion on abortion has radicalized as the opposition has radicalized. I used to have conditions like health of mother, fetal abnormalities, stage of pregnancy. My new position is based on what the pregnant person wants. You want that baby? I hope all goes well, you should have access to needed care. You don’t want that baby? Your body, your decision.
cain
@Scout211: Hard to do that given that one side has spent 50 years turning into a dirty word.
I mean, the same thing with liberal – which is why we are now progressives which works out better IMHO.
I would rather we call it women led heatlhcare. Making sure that it is women forward. It’ll stop men from trying to co-opt it.
CaseyL
It seems a reasonable bet the GOP would have preferred their oligarcho-fascist takeover of the US continue along the genteel lines of W, with folks like Liz Cheney happily going along and no one with a big enough megaphone sounding any alarms.
Any of the other GOP contenders in 2016 would have fit the bill perfectly well, but then Chaotic Evil got the nom, and the White House.
Provided we manage to hold off TFG and his sponsors/enablers/supporters, I wonder if we’ll owe him a back-handed thanks for luring the GOP into letting its freak flag fly so openly.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Bupalos:
These same people have been predicting an impending recession for nearly two years now and it hasn’t come yet. I saw a headline how, thanks to the good economic news last week, many analysts think now the US will avoid a recession. They could be wrong and something unexpected could come up, of course.
Despite all of this doommongering about the economy, Dems have still managed to have two good elections in a row, especially considering historic election results
Jim, Foolish Literalist
this appears to be a real thing:
I mean, even The Beast has to be just laughing at his own marks at this point.
The Kropenhagen Interpretation
I’d wager that’s how the whole thing started.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@Anoniminous:
Both sides!? What the fuck are you talking about!?
stinger
@lowtechcyclist:
So happy for you!
smith
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Fake Jack Smith has the perfect response.
Soprano2
@john b: Where are you going to get the things you need to live if there are no stores anymore because everyone thought it was OK to steal from them?
BeautifulPlumage
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: and if you put all the pieces together after “the suite” is sold you’ll find enough material for 10 suits.
geg6
@Chief Oshkosh:
Jame Gumm or Buffalo Bill
eclare
@JWR:
Please proceed, Elise. Take on the Swifties.
geg6
@cain:
Nope. It’s abortion or nothing, AFAIAC. Just as I am not a progressive. I’m a liberal and proud as fuck to be one.
lowtechcyclist
@narya:
Thanks for your good wishes! My wife is taking me out to lunch afterward. And since she’s driving, I will be enjoying an adult beverage or two.
scav
@smith: Good, but there’s also the line of saints relics to be tugged on. A Make America Great Again Reliquary! to store your fragment of the Holy Suit! Supplies limited! Or, imagine the bidding war over the skull of Trump the Golfer at 15. All his digital trading cards now sold on black velvet!
Evangelical market fodder.
JWR
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Now yer thinkin’ on all four cylinders! ;)
geg6
@lowtechcyclist:
I am sooooo jealous! I’d like to wait another 2 years, but considering how things are going here in this particular corner of academia, it may be sooner. Congratulations and enjoy your retirement!
Old School
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The MugShot Suit: “The Most Historically Significant Artifact in United States History”
Well, I don’t see how anyone could dispute that.
eclare
@lowtechcyclist:
Great plan!
WaterGirl
@smith: That is LOL funny.
NotMax
@scav
Obligatory?
;)
Scout211
True. It will be hard to do, but this actually is making my point. We need to take back the word and make it a medical procedure again, not a dirty word that the anti-abortionists made in into.
That’s what I’m talking about!
lowtechcyclist
@Soprano2:
Six kids, actually. It says “family of 7” which generally includes any adults living at home, including her. And later it specifically says 6 children.
Apparently her husband was deported to Mexico in 2012, which likely made a dent in the family finances; it might’ve been tenable before that.
OTOH, judging by her photo in the article, she can afford high-quality cosmetics.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Does anybody else find it a little scary that despite the backlash they’ve faced for their radical anti-abortion/anti-woman and anti-woke/book banning positions, Republicans keep doubling down and getting worse? It boggles my mind that they’re not rethinking any of this
dnfree
@john b: If you lived in an area where thefts are common, and there aren’t many stores, you’d see the downside.
trollhattan
@lowtechcyclist: Live the dream!
Barbara
@Brachiator: The ACLU sued the City of Charlottesville because it would not provide a permit to allow a march in the specific city park the right wing group asked for — specifically identifying issues of safety and security, and the ability of police to keep opposing protesters separated from each other.
The city wasn’t refusing to grant any permit just one that was for a place that was too small to accommodate the expected crowd. Documented concerns to public safety are supposed to be factored into First Amendment analysis.
It was a low point for the ACLU IMO.
Hob
@JWR: A.N.S.W.E.R. were “the crazies, the leftier-than-thou types.” I mean, I’m sure well-meaning people also got involved in their efforts, but as an organization they were an offshoot of the Workers World Party and the International Action Center, so cranks and grifters were the rule rather than the exception; it’s not that they simply neglected to filter them out of an overly long rally. They figured out early on that they could pretend to be a significant political movement by taking a marquee role in organizing protests and literally nothing else; some actual activists with things to say would generally be featured up front, but the group was infamous for refusing to work with any left organizations who had real experience. The fact that every event quickly devolved into a platform for 25 random revolutionary-cosplayers was by design, not by accident.
CaseyL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Yes, it alarms me greatly. NONE of their policies are popular, and yet they sledgehammer on.
It worries me because they obviously think they have the fix in. Massive, unremitting voter suppression in 2024 (armed attacks on polling stations) or massive vote count fraud in swing states (ballots miscounted or just thrown out). Everything they accuse us of, they will actually do.
And then I think about their incompetence, the corruption that has them hiring cronies instead of people who know what they’re doing, and their misplaced confidence in their own intelligence… and worry a little less.
But I do still worry.
trollhattan
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
Nah, it’s all on brand and SOP for Republicans since the Reagan “revolution” admitted fundies into their Big Ol’ Tent. Nobody’s in charge.
Personally feel their natural endpoint is preordained by demographics, which is why they’re openly trying to create an autocratic state with a SCOTUS firewall. Minority majority rule, or however one frames it.
thruppence
@Harrison Wesley: Buffalo Bill was his nickname in the press. If I recall, Jamie Gumb was the character’s given name. /pedant
Barbara
@geg6: Seriously, we have spent the last 50 years with anti-choice zealots framing the issue as indifferent women deciding at week 30 to get rid of a pregnancy. Having this poor woman being the face of second trimester abortion — because her situation is probably pretty similar to many others — should not be obfuscated. This isn’t “women led healthcare.” She needs to terminate her pregnancy. This is a catastrophe for her personally and she would probably have given just about anything not to be in this situation even before Texas made it infinitely worse for her and her family.
lowtechcyclist
@stinger:
Thanks!
@geg6:
Thank you very much! And good luck with your situation. Academia used to be more of a safe haven, but not so much these days, I know.
@Spanky:
We should get together for a relaxed beverage sometime!
Sure Lurkalot
@Soprano2:
All sorts of stealing going on, some by very not so hungry people:
latimes.com/business/story/2023-08-30/column-businesses-keep-complaining-about-shoplifting-but-wage-…
john b
@Soprano2:
Never Walmart, which is the part that I was (jokingly) referring to.
jowriter
Deleted comment
Subsole
@Chief Oshkosh:
That would be Buffalo Bill.
lowtechcyclist
@Barbara:
I agree: let’s take this back. Gays did it with ‘queer’ which had an equally long history of being used as a derogatory term. Lately, we stole “Brandon” out from under them.
These people would risk this woman’s life, would willingly leave her two children motherless, just to force her to take a nonviable fetus to term. I can’t see how anyone could defend that. So we should be throwing this at them at every possible opportunity.
scav
@NotMax: The flock is there to be fleeced. If not served up with a tasty mint sauce.
Ruviana
@thruppence: *Jame* Gumb. He was really picky about there being no “s”.
Hob
@Soprano2: “I was kind of shocked yesterday to see multiple people defending people stealing from stores as no big deal because maybe they’re in need. I understand the sympathy, but what if everyone who came into the store stole something?”
I’ve read every comment on that post, and you’re exaggerating. Alison Rose was the only commenter whose point was anywhere near what you’re saying, and not even that near– in context she was saying that it was never plausible to think most theft was done by organized gangs, since it’s so common for people to steal things solo to benefit themselves. She did express sympathy for people who are in extreme need, and suggested that going after such people might not be the best use of an underpaid and overworked store employee’s time. But literally nobody outside of your imagination said that it should be totally fine for everyone to steal from stores.
Martin
I came to this idea too late, so here’s California’s Legislative Advent Calendar – all of the good things coming in 2024. I’ll add new entries in the coming days.
1: AB 1228: Increases the minimum wage for fast food workers to $20 an hour starting in April. It also establishes a fast-food council that will operate for five years and determine future wage increases and working conditions.
2: SB 525: Raises the minimum wage of health care workers to $23 an hour by June of 2024. The law applies to nursing assistants, medical technicians and janitorial workers. The minimum wage would increase by $1 each of the next two years until the base wage reaches $25 an hour.
3: SB 4: Removes regulatory barriers to allow churches, religious organizations and non-profit colleges to build affordable housing on their land.
4: AB 413: Aims to make crosswalks safer by prohibiting stopping or parking a vehicle within 20 feet of a vehicle’s approach to a marked or unmarked crosswalk, or 15 feet from a curb extension. Drivers will only get warnings for now, but citations can be issued starting in 2025.
5: AB 899: Requires baby food manufacturers to test its products once a month for arsenic, cadmium, lead and mercury. Test results will have to be posted on the manufacturer’s website beginning in 2025.
6: AB 1138: Requires that California colleges and universities provide free and anonymous transportation to and from sexual assault treatment centers that offer sexual assault forensic exams. Services may include medical care, emergency contraception and the collection of DNA evidence that may be used to prosecute rape cases.
7: SB 345: Provides legal protections to doctors and health care practitioners who are based in California and mail abortion pills or gender-affirming treatment to patients in other states. The law forbids authorities from cooperating with out-of-state investigations and bans bounty hunters from apprehending doctors or pharmacists in California to stand trial in another state.
8: AB 28: Imposes an 11% tax on the sale of firearms and ammunition. The money generated would fund gun violence prevention and school safety programs. The law takes effect July 1, 2024.
9: AB 360: Prohibits coroners, medical examiners and physicians from listing “excited delirium” as a cause of death. Criminal justice reform activists say the term has been used by law enforcement to justify the death of a person while in police custody. Law enforcement officers are also banned from using the term to describe someone’s behavior.
10: AB 2188: Makes it illegal for an employer to discriminate or penalize an employee based on the person’s use of cannabis off the job and away from the workplace. A similar law, SB 700, makes it illegal for an employer to ask a job applicant if they’ve used cannabis.
11: SB 699: Expands the prohibition of non-compete contracts in California by making them unenforceable by the employer. This applies even for agreements signed in another state. A similar law, AB 1076, requires employers to notify employees hired after January 1, 2022 that their non-compete clauses are void.
12: SB 567: Modifies the state’s “no fault just cause” eviction to make it harder for a landlord to dislodge a tenant. Starting April 1, the law will require that if a tenant is evicted for an owner move-in, the property owners or their family members must move into a property within 90 days and live there for at least 12 months.
What presents did your legislature leave for you?
geg6
@lowtechcyclist:
I am very lucky, I know, in that it’s not the craziness that everyone in the Ivies and such are dealing with. This is more of an administration that thinks a university should be run like a business (even though it is nominally a public one) and new campus leadership who I don’t have much faith in but may be too old and set in my ways to welcome as I would have 20 years ago (I’m not sure which it is, them or me). I’m just tired of the whole thing at this point. 34 years in higher ed and I’m pretty much done.
Jay
@Soprano2:
Retail shrinkage is 1% to 1.5% of listed inventory.
The highly questionable “claim” of 45% loss to “theft”, is 45% of that 1% to 1.5%.
Martin
@Sure Lurkalot: I’ll let Kimberly Jones give my views on it.
danielx
Color me unsurprised: a piece in WaPo from none other than Megan McArdle titled
Here’s a sample.
Well, okay then. Megan, dahling, the reason people don’t want to hear or read you is your penchant for opining on topics about which you have no fucking clue.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Scout211: I agree. We need to take back the word “abortion”, the way gay activists took back “queer”.
Martin
@Jay: Shrinkage, best as any study I’ve seen, says it’s pretty stable at ⅓ employee theft, ⅓ shoplifting, ⅓ damage due to negligence, etc. (breakage). It’s been that way for decades. And that’s the fraction of the ~1.5%-2% shrinkage rate that has stayed pretty steady that entire time. I think 1%-1.5% was true during Covid when shrinkage fell a bit because stores were closed so shoplifting didn’t happen as much, but the other two categories remained largely unchanged.
eclare
Wow, I am checking local news and an elementary school in Memphis is getting an After School Satan Club, offshoot of The Satanic Temple.
It’s a new day. I hope the kids have fun and don’t get harassed.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@cain: fuckem. We need abortions to be available, when women need them (as the woman defines need), and fuckem if they don’t want to hear the word. I’m also not pleased that people still run from the word “liberal”. Let’s take back our words from the RWNJs.
Jay
@Soprano2:
all the big Grocery chains here, increased their profits by 45% in 2023.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@geg6: yes!
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@lowtechcyclist: Good for you! When I retired, i expected it to feel like a long vacation for a while, but discovered i had always had a clock in the back of my mind when on vacation counting down to when i had to go back to work. Two weeks, one week, five days … suddenly, the clock stopped dead.
NotMax
@eclare
Unfortunate acronym, though. ASS Club.
Gretchen
@Soprano2: I felt the same about the story. She has 7 kids, mostly high school age, and her grocery bills are a lot higher than they were years ago. Yes, high school kids, especially boys, eat a lot more than 6 year olds. And I’m not believing the 1 bag of groceries is $50 unless it’s all meat.
eclare
@NotMax:
Hahaha, I hadn’t noticed that! Should be great humor for the kiddos.
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
@sab: The physicians I know were happy about Obamacare. It meant more of their patients were insured and they would get paid. I have never understood why some doctors were mad about it.
MagdaInBlack
@Sure Lurkalot: Funny, during that whole conversation here yesterday, I was thinking about that very thing. Wage theft and how much money that involves.
Ruckus
@Jinchi:
…. Who am I kidding. If the woman didn’t die it would be considered “proof” that she was never on the edge of death and if she did die it would be “proof” that the abortion was unnecessary to save her.
This. How absolutely fucking shitty are these people? Maximum absolutely fucking shitty. This is, I believe, worse than life was 50-60 yrs ago. Yes things were coat hangers in back allies and against the law, but the ability to work around the law wasn’t out in the open and could at least happen. Now look at the absolutely shitty results of absolutely shitty laws that take citizenship, medical care, medical decisions, out of the hands of the affected human being. Didn’t we decide that woman were free beings, able to make absolute decisions about their lives, and that it is NO ONE ELSE’S DECISION? How are we going backasswards 80 yrs? And what the hell are these shitheads doing telling other humans what they HAVE to do with their bodies? I feel like we have regressed at least 75 yrs. I didn’t know it was even possible for entire states to regress that far. And if it actually isn’t possible then why isn’t the federal government shutting them down? Do we have to find a poor woman that needs/wants an abortion and make her a federal case for the right to her own bodily autonomy?
I believe that if this was happening to men we’d already be at the guns and ammo stage.
Barbara
@Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony: Class allegiance can blind you to your own self-interest. Traditionally (no idea if it has changed) GM has opposed health reform initiatives such as the ACA, even though it lamented constantly how much more expensive American cars were because employers had to pay for health care, and health costs were higher in the U.S. than anywhere else. One would think that GM executives could connect the dots a little better, but when they meet the COC types at wherever it is they meet, they want to be rewarded for all their pro-Republican donations and what have you.
Glidwrith
@lowtechcyclist: Johnson is a religious fanatic and therefore a denialist of the lowest order:
He denies vaccines
He denies women as humans
He denies climate change
He denies Ukraine the right to defend itself
That’s a lot of dead men, women and children piling up.
zhena gogolia
@Glidwrith: Yep.
Mousebumples
Lol, and here I thought that was an intentional backronym by the students.
lowtechcyclist
The article says 6 kids.
Barbara
@lowtechcyclist: So the article might have referred to them as a “family of seven,” which could be misinterpreted as the number of kids, when it also includes the mother in that number.
Martin
Court rules NY has to redraw their maps for next year’s elections.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Ruckus: So it’s like being a witch. If you throw her in the water and she doesn’t drown, that proves she’s a witch.
Baud
@eclare:
I want a satanic school to get vouchers.
Barbara
@Dorothy A. Winsor: In which case, you can burn her at the stake. And if she does drown, well, no loss, because she’s better off in heaven. Either way, she is no longer around to bother anybody.
Jay
@Martin:
Retail has crappy inventory policies, so the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 is just a guess
In Tech manufacturing, everything got counted and audited, through daily cycle counts and audits. For us, the #1 cause was computer errors, eg. (shortage entered on a work order being back filled, but not processed), the #2 was Engineers taking stuff for projects and not filling out the paperwork, #3 was supplier error, #4 was physical damage, #5 was BOM errors.
Everything was counted and audited completely, every quarter.
When I worked Retail, at a Big Box store, an inventory count was done once a year, by an outside company, during store hours, by people who had no clue where stuff was or what stuff was, and the counts were never audited.
Meanwhile, every day we had half a dozen or more Associates wandering the isles, climbing the ladders, or using a forklift or picker, trying to find a product for a customer that the computer said we had, but didn’t. And don’t get me started on the night stockers.
I take retail claims of shrinkage with a big bag of salt.
During Covid, the Corp took the Covid Relief funds, gave us a $0.90 raise and used the rest, (95.5% of the relief funds) to do a $4.8 billion dollar stock buy back, pushing the stock up over the high $300’s to the $425 range.
Yes, we had shoplifters, we had runners, we had customers trying to hide merch from the cashier.
We also had Returns that were unchecked, (gas powered products returned abused), and the notorious case of the Walther toilet return. $657 dollar high end toilet returned, “sealed” in it’s box, full customer refund. Toilet went back on the shelf. A few weeks later, a customer went to buy it, opened the box with an Associate to make sure it was in good shape, (no chips, no damage, no missing hardware). Guess what, 1970’s Crane toilet with poop still in it.
If “shrinkage” was a real problem for Retail, they would have the policies and staff to deal with the issue.
Baud
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
What if she flies like Katie Ladecky?
Anoniminous
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):
If you would educate yourself you’d know: Yup both sides.
JWR
@Hob:
Ahh, I did not know this. Thank you! But they consistently drew impressive crowds and featured some pretty big wigs on the leftier- than-thou circuit, people like Michael Moore, probably Cornel West, and etc., and even some “normal” lefties, like Daniel Ellsberg, but those A.N.S.W.E.R “after dark” speakers were, to put it mildly, bugfuck nuts.
Barbara
@Martin: I read an article on the decision, and it’s more like the legislature is permitted to redistrict, not that it is required to.
Baud
@Ruckus:
Correct. Compared to men, a lot of women have been raised not to value themselves and their independence.
Baud
@JWR:
It seems to me that good lefty movements have a bad habit of getting hijacked by unproductive leadership.
Baud
@Barbara:
The rich definitely do class solidarity and warfare better than regular folks.
Partly a large number problem.
Anoniminous
@Baud:
There’s a plenitude of reasons Lenin called people of that ilk the “the infantile Left.”
Yarrow
@Ruckus:
When, exactly, did this happen?
The reactionary rightwing doesn’t hide the fact that they want to take away rights from women. They’ve done it with abortion so women don’t have authority over their own bodies. They’re coming for birth control next. They are talking about taking away the right for women to vote, which they couch in “only the head of household/property owners should be able vote.” Along with that they talk about men controlling the money (read: women can’t have their own bank accounts/credit/property) and women shouldn’t work. They want men to own women and they don’t hide that.
UncleEbeneezer
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): Here’s a great “Say Abortion” tee shirt that I’m currently that you can purchase from Planned Parenthood :)
sab
@lowtechcyclist: Just be careful in weeks ahead. Do not overcommit on volunteer work. Some of the best retirees do that, and end up working harder than when they worked for pay.
sab
@Yarrow: Even when punishing a woman, I still don’t see the point of letting a non-viable fetus develop into a still non-viable baby that will feel a lot more pain as it dies right before or after birth.
Not attributing those ideas to you. I just don’t understand the fundies obsession for women suffering through childbirth as more important than any other consideration.
Yarrow
@sab: Women suffering is the point. Childbirth is but one means.
JWR
@Baud:
IOW, it’s the ol’ ‘head up the arse and loving it’ syndrome.
stinger
@Martin:
I’m sitting here scrolling through your list and saying “Wow… wow… wow!”
Darkrose
@Marmot: I just watched a YouTube essay on the “War on Christmas” that featured Alex Jones in downtown Austin screaming “Merry Christmas” at people and ranting about Jesus, and how the secularists are trying to set up an Islamocommunist dictatorship, so I think he considers himself Christian.
lowtechcyclist
@Barbara:
This thread is the first place I can recall having seen it misread like that. Anyway, sorry for being snippy about it.
lowtechcyclist
@sab:
Good suggestion! Yeah, I’m planning to hold off until spring, at least, before I make any nontrivial time commitments. Once I have a feel for what my days are like and how much time I really have, I’ll have a better idea of what I can take on (and what I’d *like* to – I’m not going to volunteer in a way that it feels like a job all over again). But right now, while I’ve got some plans for the next few months, one of those plans is to take time to just be.
Marmot
@Darkrose: I hadn’t seen that. It’s a bit like his “Satanic” screaming about the Bilderburgers. It works on his crowd. But your example is more explicit.
I mean, he’s posing that way, but the man is an empty hole.
Darkrose
@Marmot: Oh, for sure! He would lose what’s left of his mind if he ever met Josh Josephson, and scream at him for being a commie.
(I highly, highly recommend Hbomberguy’s video on this, BTW. Or any of his stuff–he’s great.)
H-Bob
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Can’t somebody here use a piece to make a voodoo doll?
Marmot
@Darkrose: Cool. I’ll check it out.
(And given the discussion, I should note I’m not a believer in the supernatural, but I do believe in principles and truth and goodness and puppies. Kind of the opposite of Jones.)
sab
@Darkrose: My first husband, Jewish, always called Jesus “Joshua Josephson” with a fair amount of respect. Husband didn’t like Christians or Christianity, but he did respect Josh as a good Jewish boy in difficult times.
I thought then and think now my ex was a whack job, but I have always agreed about Jesus/Josh as an important religious person.
The Lodger
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’m getting a definite vibe of Martin Luther calling out Holy Mutha Church for selling relics for cash. How much for the True Necktie of the Martyred St. Donald?
Marmot
@Darkrose: Wow. That was a journey. Thanks for introducing me to it!
WaterGirl
@The Lodger: It is beyond creepy that people want pieces of his clothing. Even as I type that I can feel my face crunching up into the face I would be making if I had just stepped in dog poop barefoot.
It’s like mass psychosis, or something. I guess orange jesus isn’t all that far off the mark.
RaflW
@Scout211: I’m a liberal and a progressive. But in a dessert topping/floor wax sort of way.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
It’s a lot tougher than it sounds. Ask me how I know…..
Good luck with it.
Ruckus
@OzarkHillbilly:
My goes from great right to HOLLY SHIT.
And then sort of saunters back to great.
Ruckus
@Ten Bears:
If those texas assholes want to control women’s reproductive organs then texas men should have their reproductive organs controlled. I’m not sure how but I’d bet that texas women could come up with a few methods….. I mean I have ideas and I haven’t been to texas in a couple decades and don’t have any plans to go but I really do not want to practice what I’m preaching.