Optional soundtrack for the post:
Big storm coming in off the Gulf of Mexico today. It has tropical components, so I’m having a bad hair day but my orchid (the sole bit of flora I am responsible for on the property) is loving it.
***
I finally got a chance to read the much-discussed NYT behind-the-scenes look at how the corrupt FedSoc-captured SCOTUS vaporized equal citizenship for half the U.S. population and guaranteed that tens of millions of women of childbearing age lost access to modern healthcare. Here’s a gift link to the piece, authored by Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak, if you want to read it too.
Spoiler: all the GOP judges are shifty shit-weasels, but Alito is the slimiest, most conniving prick of all. The NYT doesn’t say this, but I am 100% convinced the investigation of the Dobbs draft leak was inconclusive because everyone knows Alito did it, and no one wanted the court to take that reputational hit.
It’s almost worth eating fucking KALE to improve my already excellent odds of outliving Alito, that revolting, smug shart in the shape of a man. I want to read his obit with great satisfaction one fine morning.
Also, I am heartily sorry Justices Kagan, Jackson and Sotomayor have to share a workplace with such a pompous popinjay. No matter how great the catering and coffee, it cannot possibly be worth it.
***
Is anyone watching the latest season of “The Crown” on Netflix? I’m down to the last two episodes. I think they should have quit after season four.
The cast is excellent: Imelda Staunton, Jonathan Pryce and Lesley Manville in particular are great, IMO. But the writing went downhill last season. (Could they have bludgeoned us over the heads with the Queen = HMS Britannia analogy any harder? We get it, man!) The storylines for QE2’s grandkids are not compelling, at least to me. It’s become a tedious soap opera with high production values.
I think show creator Peter Morgan mentally checked out after season four, which is too bad because his signature project started off strong. Maybe it was easier for him to create narratives for a period further back in history, before his own time.
Now the mystery is gone, and it’s just celebrity click-bait. Arguably, it was all along.
***
To wrap up with something less depressing or cynical, here’s a classic that asks the right questions and offers great advice:
Open thread!
rikyrah
This was glaringly obvious that it was him.
And, he’s offended that half the population isn’t taking the stripping of their body autonomy quietly.
I mean, he’s offended.
NotMax
Wow. Speed watching . Second half of season 6 only dropped on Thursday.
N.B.: Never watched nay of it. Not my bag.
Kay
Oh the bravery of the anti abortion movement. Here’s Ted Cruz running away from a question on why they no longer allow women to receive medical care in Texas without permission:
Reporter: Are you supportive of the court decision that prevented Kate Cox from getting an abortion after she learned her fetus was not viable?
Ted Cruz: Just call my press office
Reporter: I have for 2 days with no answer
Cruz: Thank you
New Deal democrat
FWIW, Alito is 73 years old. Clarence Thomas is 75. There’s a pretty good chance Biden gets to replace at least one of them if he is re-elected, and at some point in the next 5 years we have a Senate majority. Of course, to really make a change you need 3 consecutive Presidential terms.
Also, between abortion and contraception the red States are doing their best to remind everyone of why they need to keep GOPers out of office
ETA: and for those who may have missed it, by indicating that it is likely to cut interest rates 3 times next year, the Fed has already driven mortgage rates down by about 1%, and auto loan interest rates are likely to go down as well. This bodes well for the economy next Election Day, and should help BIden.
Betty Cracker
@New Deal democrat: I read somewhere the other day that Kellyanne Conway is urging Repubs to promise expanded access to contraception if elected in 2024. Jesus, has she met her base?
Kay
Just so everyone is clear – Texas could add an exception for the health/life of the mother at any time.
They won’t because they don’t care if women are sacrificed for religious dogma.
These sloppy, thrown together and careless abortion bans are the work of the Best and Brightest in the Right wing legal community. Garbage.
Scout211
Betty C, do you have any thoughts about your state’s abortion rights ballot initiative? Floridians protecting freedom
Its getting closer to qualifying for the ballot next year. But there is opposition from the GOP.
Marcopolo
Well, I actually like kale. Secret is to harvest it small—baby kale is great. And go lacinato (curly kale) if you have the option. If all you can find is full grown kale, destem it, rip it into silver dollar sized pieces, steam it a few minutes, then sauté it with garlic and walnuts. Pretty damned good. No garlic or walnuts, just throw those kale pieces in your soup.
/this message has been brought to you by the In Defense of Kale Advisory Board.
Also, I join Elie Mystal in being enraged how Alito & Leonard Leo rigged the Dobbs decision.
FastEdD
I’m with you BC on the Kale. Vile weed!
Kay
Does everyone now understand that there is no real distinction between exceptions for the health of the mother and exceptions for the life of the mother? Republican lawmakers and justices and far Right religious leaders are not qualified to determine what is life threatening in an individual case and what is not. They aren’t qualified to split these women into two groups and deny one group medical care and allow it for the other.
JML
getting old is hell. worked all 6 ceremonies for my school’s winter commencement (wild day; water main broke in the building where we were holding the festivities and we had to shut off the water to the building. when they called staff in to talk about it everyone had such a grim look on their faces I thought there’d been a bomb threat or something!) and my legs are absolutely killing me from standing for most of 12 straight hours.
thank god for a weekend. Now, if I can just get some xmas shopping done for the fam…
Anyway
Did the authors allude to the role the FTFNYT played in Dumpf ekeing out a win and getting to appoint THREE of the justices responsible for Dobbs?
As for the storm the forecast calls for 2 in of rain in 24 hours. Here’s hoping the sump pump can hold up…
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: I’ve read other legal analysis that suggested Moody’s argument was crap, but I am not a lawyer. In FL, ballot initiatives need 60% of the vote to pass. If it’s allowed to stand, I think this initiative has a good chance. But as we’ve seen with other ballot initiatives, the wingnut supermajority statehouse doesn’t respect the will of the voters, so who knows.
Kay
@Anyway:
It’s hard to surprise me but even I was suprprised by how quickly and completely media dropped their intense concern about the security of mail communications once they successfully knocked off Clinton.
Just shameless. Not a WORD about it. I saw Trump took some more classified documents and hid, sold them, whatever, two years ago. Where were the crack team of NYTimes political reporters/communications security specialists?
It’s like how we haven’t heard a word about Afghanistan since they all told us they were devoted to the Afghan people forever.
AM in NC
Two Words: Kale Chips
1.De-stem kale and roughly chop into approx 2×2 in. pieces.
2.Spread out on baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper; stir to coat and re-spread out on sheet. (You can also add garlic powder and/or a sprinkle of lemon juice)
3. Cook at 325 for 8-10 minutes. Turn oven off and let kale sit in oven until it is crispy. I just eyeball this since each batch is slightly different timing.
Two more words: Fuck Alito
Harrison Wesley
@Betty Cracker: Yep. I’m immediately reminded of how the leg overrode the will of the electorate on restoring ex-cons’ voting rights.
Love kale, but since I take warfarin I can only eat about a teaspoon of it.
Geminid
@New Deal democrat: Do you think spending from the Infrastructure, CHIPS+ and IRA bills is having a substantial impact on the overall economy?
Brachiator
The closer you get to the current time, when more of your characters are living, the closer you get to a lawsuit.
I’ve read a number of biographies of royalty and aristocrats, but have never seen an episode of The Crown. For me, it takes a little distance to make these people interesting. And you have to find authors who are not protective of the reputations of their subjects.
eversor
@rikyrah:
God, Jesus, both the Old and New Testament, along with hundreds of years of Church doctrine all state that women must submit. And are second class citizens.
So if women are not submitting Alito cannot freely practice his faith. He’s been open about this. So has Bill Barr and all the rest. So unless you want Christianity gone, Alito cannot follow Jesus or Christianity if women have a say in anything.
And since you won’t get rid of Christianity, than yes Alito does get to tell everyone in the US what to do and by Jesus they do have to submit and obey. That’s the core of Christianity.
Brachiator
@New Deal democrat:
Yep. Good point.
This is also why the GOP is hitting relatively hard on the culture war thing and the slimy impeachment nonsense.
Anoniminous
@Kay:
You can read Jacques Ellul’s book Propaganda: The Formation of Men’s Attitudes or really and deeply grok the tl;dr version by Joseph Goebbels, “we do not talk to say something, but to obtain a certain effect.” The follow-on is once that effect is realized the message and narrative can be dropped down the memory hole.
HinTN
That’s a great video from The Eurythmics. As to the question of kale, I’m in the affirmative. All the rest is rehash. Stay dry, Ms Cracker, and worry not about that hair. 😎
Villago Delenda Est
The bottom line here is that the Federalist Society needs to be annihilated.
Betty Cracker
@eversor: Your receipt, sir.
Scout211
Speaking of the slimy impeachment, the Senate GOP are not exactly 100% on board. Senator Markwayne Mullins was widely quoted yesterday stating that Biden may not be eligible for impeachment.
We know that won’t stop the House from their brave impeachment quest, but it does take the shine off of the slime.
New Deal democrat
@Geminid:
Yes. In particular, spending on building manufacturing plants has skyrocketed:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/TLMFGCONS
It has more than doubled, and added over $100 million to the economy just by itself, without counting any of the downstream effects of re-shoring. And I sincerely hope Biden and Dem Senators and Congresscritters pose in front of the many infrastructure projects that have started, and run TV ads ad nauseum saying “I did that!”
Chacal Charles Calthrop
Last word on the leak of the Dobbs opinion, AFAIK:
https://www.theonion.com/alito-thomas-share-laugh-after-discovering-they-both-l-1850012714
the secret to kale is to blanch it first in boiling water and drain off the water (there goes the bitterness). This bitterness is why kale is not used for making stock. Take the blanched kale and add it to anything, or just dry it out by cooking it over low on a back burner and add whatever flavorings you like (I like anchovies, or lemon, or cook it in bacon grease).
H.E.Wolf
À propos of nothing in particular, one of my college courses introduced me to the writings of Mary Daly and Rosemary Radford Ruether.
More recently, I’ve been reading Danya Ruttenberg and Yolanda Pierce with great interest. I have only minimal connection with their areas of expertise, so I read their work specifically to learn something I don’t know.
Scout211
Huh. For some reason, I thought The Onion was a parody site.
Splitting Image
The earliest episodes in the series take place when the royals were still trendsetters. The personalities of individual members of the family were interesting because they had a ripple effect on the rest of society.
Over time, the royals became the sort of people who would doggedly persist in doing everything the way it was done 20 or 30 or 50 years ago. By the time she passed away, Elizabeth was basically the last little old lady who matched her handbag to her hat and gloves. The more recent history of the royals will always seem more gossipy than socially relevant.
MattF
@Harrison Wesley: Didn’t know that eating kale is discouraged if you take a blood thinner (too much vitamin K). Thinners are prescribed for a lot of things, but then no one knows exactly when (or if) to stop taking them.
Ksmiami
@rikyrah: a Pelican Brief solution would be too kind for Alito. He’s a prick.
Miss Bianca
@AM in NC: Mmm, haven’t made kale chips in a while, I should try that again!
rikyrah
@New Deal democrat:
It’s the least they could do. I swear, I think they’ve been trying to cause a recession.
Harrison Wesley
@MattF: I’m on them for life. I’m waiting for Eliquis to go generic (cardiologist told me sometime soon) so I can afford it and don’t have to screw around with INR readings every month
ETA: also so I can eat anything I want.
Anoniminous
In late stage Capitalism Commodification, the process of converting human, social or cultural value into market value, applied to goods, services, ideas, and other forms and products of human creativity that do not initially possess a market value so they can be bought and sold, becomes a dominate economic activity. We can see this with ChatGPT which stole work from content creators, e.g., novelists, and turned it into the basis for a text generator program spewing word salad at the speed of elections which can be sold in a variety of markets. Commodified women are not valued for their human characteristics, so their health, physical integrity, and well-being lose their importance, but as objects with exchange-value to satisfy the insatiable needs of a capitalistic patriarchy. In this context the Patriarchy can not allow women access to abortion because it allows women agency over their bodies.
ETA: note the same general process also applies those not conforming to the, so called, “Gender Norms.”
Brachiator
@Scout211:
This is reasonable, and a better response than my preferred reaction, yelling at Republicans and calling them a bunch of fools.
rikyrah
@Kay:
tell that truth
PaulWartenberg
As a Florida resident, I signed and submitted the form to get the pro-choice amendment on the ballot, so here’s hoping that happens!
On a personal note, I self-published a short story collection on Amazon this week. (grin)
David Wetzel
Spoilers: In this season of the Crown they kill off a major character…
Harrison Wesley
@PaulWartenberg: Congratulations!
Bupalos
@Geminid: A huge chunk of the IRA spending is not in effect and won’t be until after the election. It now dawns on me that one of the ways Manchin probably was brought on board was leaving a bunch of the administratiin of it up to states where iy can get slow-walked to nowhere. No one seems to be noticing and there seems to be zero commitment from the admin to push it forward. Maybe because they were actually trying to slow the economy in 2023?
Splitting Image
Speaking of the Eurythmics, I’ve been listening to them a lot over the past five years or so after not hearing their stuff much since the ’80s. I think it’s amazing how well their music has held up. Lots of deep cuts that I tended to skip over when I bought the LPs back in the 80s. Ah to be young and foolish again.
MagdaInBlack
@Betty Cracker: 🤗🤗🤗🤗
Eta: weird, I don’t remember removing that one from the pastry filter.
Omnes Omnibus
@eversor: A GOP voting bigot says what?
Villago Delenda Est
@David Wetzel: Are they bringing in Sean Bean just for the killing off?
Another Scott
You know that feeling when someone you kinda know does something that makes you wonder if you got transported to an alternative universe??
I knew someone, not well, who later clerked for Alito. Fortunately, they no hand in the Dobbs decision.
Still… :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Kay:
Running away to Cancun with his mistress to get her an abortion? I don’t know why any reporter would ask Shithead Ted anything. He’ll just be an asshole about it.
HinTN
I do love the various emojis that present for pie. 😎
Juice Box
@Harrison Wesley: A generic form of Eliquis has just been approved. Eliquis went off patent at the end of November, so you should be having a kale feast within the next few months.
You could also feast on any of the many tastier members of the cabbage family.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@PaulWartenberg: Congrats! It’s on its way to my kindle.
Matt McIrvin
@Splitting Image: They were absolutely one of the best bands of the 80s. Not too long ago we heard “Love Is A Stranger” being played in a restaurant somewhere and were just marveling at what a banger that song is.
Bupalos
@eversor: ugh. You again.
If you were molested by a priest, you need to work through that with a counselor. Excreting your trauma here isn’t going to help anyone.
Geminid
@Bupalos: I’m not sure what “a huge chunk” means here. I’ve seen plenty of announcements for factories producing batteries, electrolysers etc that were prompted by the IRA. Some haven’t broken ground yet but some are already operating, like the Cummins electrolyser plant in Fridley, Minnesota.* I think a lot more will be started in the next year.
But some estimates are that the IRA will trigger $3 trillon in private investment so I guess a large amount will be invested from 2025 on.
*Cummins added the electrolyser assembly line to there existing Fridley plant. When the line started operating a few weeks ago, Governor Walz, Senator Smith and Rep. Omar attended the ceremony. Rep. Omar touted the benefits the good jobs would bring to the community.
Juice Box
@Marcopolo: Spigariello is much, much nicer and looks like a plant drawn by Dr. Seuss. I spend a lot of time in Italy and none of my Italian friends have ever heard of it. It is however, well worth growing.
https://www.growitalian.com/cavolo-broccolo-spigariello-foglia-riccia/
https://www.growitalian.com/cavolo-broccolo-spigariello-foglio-liscia-25-91/
Harrison Wesley
@Juice Box: Thanks for the info! After almost 10 years of warfarin, I’m definitely ready for a change.
mrmoshpotato
@Betty Cracker:
There’s a name I was good without seeing for a long time. :)
Old School
@eversor:
Can you cite where exactly in the Bible Jesus says women must submit? You must have a different copy than me.
Omnes Omnibus
@Old School: Also, where does the Bible say anyone must obey Alito?
ETA: Perhaps in Judges?
Harrison Wesley
@Old School: I believe it’s the Many People Are Saying edition.
grubert
@MattF: I take warfarin daily for post-thrombotic syndrome, and eat vitamin K heavy brocolli daily too. Supossedly bad for the blood thinner action but my doc and I have concluded it’s why my INR has been so stable.
INR variability being a problem with warfarin
Old School
@Harrison Wesley: “It’s somewhere in the middle.”
grubert
@Harrison Wesley: my comment above might be interesting to you.
The extra K in the diet might push the platlet response curve into a flatter region.
My docs theory. All I know is I’m virtually always in range.. 2.0 – 3.0
mrmoshpotato
@Harrison Wesley: Is that the King Lying Asshat edition?
Harrison Wesley
@grubert: The main thing is consistancy – roughly the same amount of K daily. Before I moved to Florida, I set myself on such a rigid diet that I ate exactly the same things every day. Fuck that; time for a change.
moonbat
I’m an anti-monarchist so The Crown always looked like a Masterpiece Theater makeover of British tabloid stories to me. Piers Morgan ass-kissing writ large and thrown a bunch of Emmys.
This country’s obsession with British royalty and the urge to label political families in this country as “royalty” has always baffled me.
The Kennedys are not “royalty” but everyone blathering about Camelot and telling them they are for a couple of generations is why we have Mr. Pet My Falcon trying to spoil a serious election with his faux royal aspirations. See also Mrs. DeSantis trying to put herself across as the next Jackie O.
Blergh! More coffee!
grubert
The wives submit thing:
https://goodnewsuk.com/bible-helps/ephesians-522-33
Harrison Wesley
@mrmoshpotato: There are several newer versions: Fox, OAN, ONAN, etc.
M31
@Harrison Wesley:
lol the ONAN edition, thought that was frowned upon
trollhattan
@Old School:
“And sayeth Jesus unto Matthew: ‘Forsooth, looketh Mary not exceptionally hawt this Sabbeth?'”
Harrison Wesley
@grubert: That ain’t Jesus, though – that’s the Blessed Paul the Wanker, who added a WHOLE lot of ideas of his own.
Kathleen
@Anyway: They did not. I wanted to post a comment with the point you made but didn’t see a comments section. I’m curious to know if BC saw one.
Omnes Omnibus
@moonbat: I am anti-monarchist as well, but watching a well done show about a royal family doesn’t mean that someone wants a monarchy. I have seen good performances of Oedipus Rex, but I don’t want to kill my dad and marry my mother. Pace Freud.
grubert
@Harrison Wesley: I supose of course everyone has diff response, but I always had this thing of eating raw broccoli before bed cause it helped my smoker’s lungs and breath.. a lot. When I went on warfarin my doc said stop eating broc, but I disobeyed.
Over the years she was impressed with my stability and I eventually confessed my sin:eating brocolli.
But it’s only a theory :)
grubert
@Harrison Wesley: ah.. true dat.
Of course, *real* Xtians don’t differentiate. Paul being a tool of God and all that.
Harrison Wesley
@grubert: I’ve gone through several docs over the years, and the consistancy thing really seems important. When I had roughly the same K intake daily, I hit a 2.5 INR every month for several years. Since I started screwing around with my diet, I’ve been all over the place. And that ain’t cool. Hence my interest in Eliquis.
moonbat
@Omnes Omnibus: To each his/her own re: what you prefer to watch. I don’t think that being the royal family automatically makes people interesting/worthy of the level of attention that silly show has garnered. Peter Morgan’s latest project, because he cannot seem to kick his royals habit, is centered around the interview which saw Prince Andrew admitting to being a rapist pedophile. Wow. Cool. //s
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Haha.
Re The Crown: We just watched the first episode of the second half of the last season (whew!). We stick with it for the superb acting and the production values. Elizabeth Debicki was amazing, and Dominic West is really crushing it. Of course, we’re not dealing with Winston Churchill and WWII any more, so it feels much less consequential, but each episode seems to have at least one fantastic acting scene, like Will confronting Charles. Yes, it’s a high-class soap opera. What’s wrong with that?
Omnes Omnibus
@zhena gogolia: It seems to be monarchist. I am wondering if that is better or worse than imperialist? Or if, being British, the two are so intertwined as to be indivisible.
Harrison Wesley
@grubert: I’ll confess that my particular flavor of Christianity is Church of the New Jerusalem, so Paul doesn’t do it for me. While Swedenborg thought the Bible was a holy book, the four Gospels and the Book of Revelations were the only parts of the New Testament that he addressed. If I want pious lectures, I don’t need to read Paul’s letters, I can just call up Moms for Liberty.
zhena gogolia
@Omnes Omnibus: I am not a monarchist! But I am interested in human psychology, and Morgan seems to be able to elicit the universally human aspects of these stories, and the actors really dig into it.
ETA: I’m the daughter of a Slovak peasant socialist who couldn’t believe I was watching Diana’s wedding. I believe i heard him mutter “Goddamn bloody English kings and queens” or something to that effect as I swooned over dreamy Charles.
mrmoshpotato
@Harrison Wesley: True.
Miss Bianca
@Omnes Omnibus: You’ve seen good performances of Oedipus Rex?
I’ve only seen one, and it was so terrible that I ended up giggling almost all the way through it. Only time I’ve ever been loudly shushed in the theater, which just made me laugh harder.
(It was a UM Theater Program production, which partly explains it – I always thought their program was terrible, even tho’ I took a bunch of performance classes there. I figured the shush-er was a friend of one of the hapless performers.)
rikyrah
@Kay:
Too busy holding onto it so that they could put it in their BOOKS.
That’s another tell that the emails were bullshyt. If it had been real, they would have held onto it so that they could put it in their phucking books.
Omnes Omnibus
@Miss Bianca: I was exaggerating for effect. I have read it though.
Hoodie
@New Deal democrat: That Fed announcement was very good news, the GOP must be spinning furiously to somehow make that into bad news. Seems like this would be a good time for Biden and Dems to come up with some sort of plan for addressing housing costs and availability, especially for entry-level buyers. Looks like inventories are still historically low. Maybe something incentivizing local govs to loosen up zoning and encourage denser housing for entry-level buyers. At least around here there are lots of older upper end R-1 neighborhoods with big lots and older owners. Right now, those lots mostly turn into upper end infill because the lots are too expensive to justify building smaller single homes. Those lots could be used more efficiently for things like quadplexes, flats or townhouses. The main option that younger buyers have around here now is to buy in sprawl developments that are in outlying areas. How about something like “Young America Zones” or “American Future Zones”?
eclare
I finished seasoned one of The Bear last night. Wow, what a tour de force. It took several tries for me to watch it because the show kept rattling my nerves, especially the “omg kitchen emergency!!!” music, so I would give up. Glad I finally made it through.
Curious to start season two.
WhatsMyNym
@grubert: The old ‘husbands get your act together’
eclare
@MattF:
My mom took warfarin and had to go in for blood work about every six weeks.
JoyceH
Hate to be a downer but I’m seriously bummed. Yesterday I took both dogs to the vet – Whimsy to get her puppy shots and Jazzy to have them look at a growth on her foot and schedule taking it off. I figured the growth was a cyst or a wart or something, but plot twist – the vet seems to be pretty sure it’s cancer. And if it is, best case is she loses her leg, and worst case is it’s already too late to do anything. So… dang.
zhena gogolia
@JoyceH: Oh, I am so sorry! Poor Jazzy. I hope they can help her out. She is such a lovely dog.
Harrison Wesley
@Hoodie: Are you familiar with Strong Towns? It argues for making towns and cities more friendly for residents rather than for parking spaces.
Miss Bianca
@Hoodie: I think there would have to be something at a national level, because local governments will *never* agree to give up their zoning fetishes. CO tried a state-level initiative to override local governments’ land use restrictions, and local government officials pitched such a fit that it got defeated.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@JoyceH: Oh no! I’m so sorry.
Harrison Wesley
@eclare: I have to go every month, and it’s gotten really, really old after 9+ years.
Miss Bianca
@JoyceH: Oh, no! Oh, no! What awful news. I am so sorry to hear it.
cmorenc
When Pres. George W. Bush was considering who to nominate to replace retiring Justice Sandra O’Connor, two of the top candidates considered were Alito and Michael Luttig (the now retired federal appellate judge on the 4th Circuit). Luttig would undoubtedly have been a very conservative justice had he been chosen, but instead Bush chose Alito, who was known as a firm, hard-edged RW ideologue. Although we in the progressive community would have disliked many of Luttig’s votes and opinions, a fundamental difference is that Luttig is a jurist of undoubtable integrity who would have refused to accept lavish, expensive fishing trips or other gratuities from RW billionaire influencers.
Can’t help wondering whether Leo’s court-lobbying group influenced George W Bush to pick Alito over Luttig – Luttig’s votes on SCOTUS would not have been as reliably consistent nor open to LEO society influence as Alito, and they wanted to take zero risk of the nominee turning out to be unreliably conservative like David Souter unexpectedly did for George W’s father George H. Bush.
eclare
@JoyceH:
Oh no! Here’s hoping it’s nothing, or if it must be something, losing a leg. I am so sorry.
rikyrah
@JoyceH:
So sorry :(
MagdaInBlack
@Harrison Wesley: Yes! I am familiar “Strong Towns.”
Harrison Wesley
@MagdaInBlack: I have very limited resources, so I only donate to a couple organizations and even then it’s only $10-15/month. Strong Towns is one of them.
RevRick
@eversor: I hate to burst your bubble, but misogyny as well as racism and class bigotry predate Christianity… by a lot.
Here’s how Thales, the preSocratic philosopher, put it:
There were three blessings for which he was grateful to Fortune — “First, that I was born a human being and not one of the brutes(slaves); next, that I was born a man and not a woman; thirdly, a Greek and not a barbarian”
Such sentiments were commonplace in the ancient world. Rabbi Judah delivered this old cliche with a Jewish twist.
“There are three blessings one must pray daily:
Blessed art thou, who did not make me a Gentile;
Blessed art thou, who did not make me a woman;
Blessed art thou, who did not make me uneducated.”
Of course, we have lots of evidence of antisemitism in the preChristian world.
But we do have evidence that the early Church rejected these claims. In Galatians 3:28, Paul wrote: “There is no Jew or Greek, there is no slave or free, there is no male and female.” And from the context of this, written about 50 C.E., it’s clear Paul is quoting a baptismal creed.
But most of all, I want to say to you I’m sorry for whatever hurt was inflicted upon you by the Church.
trollhattan
@eclare: Season 2 does not disappoint, but holy hell does it up the ante. [spoiler, just wait to meet mom.]
Baffled at its GG nom under musicals and comedy, but it deserves SOMETHING.
ljt
@Harrison Wesley: I actually work for Strong Towns. Your donation is greatly appreciated ♥️
wjca
No, the bottom line is that the leaders and funders of the Federalist Society need to be annihilated.
trollhattan
Serial fuckup Kevin McCarthy remains consistent.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Almost Retired
@trollhattan: was he presumably the strongest candidate?
wjca
That’s also the one where the “Prosperity Gospel” (greed is good) turns up.
Harrison Wesley
@ljt: Very cool!
Scout211
He actually was the second choice for the GOP. Link
McCarthy took too long to make his announcement.
RevRick
@grubert: Yeah, this was written sometime in the 2nd century when the Church was furiously backpedaling on its earlier anti misogynistic stance. The Church had started to appear on the Empire’s radar screen and that spelled trouble. So they went out of their way to appear super normal.
They already had to deal with rumors that they ate bodies and drank blood (of children?) in their sacrament of Communion.
Two communications between Pliny the Younger and the Emperor Trajan illustrate the danger.
In the first, Pliny asked if it was okay for local firefighters to form their own brotherhood. Trajan replied, absolutely not. Give them ladders and buckets, but do not allow them to meet in private, because that’s how conspiracies against the Empire start.
In the second, Pliny says he’s apprehended to slave women who are bishops in the Church, and asks if he can torture them to get more information. Trajan says no, because torture victims are unreliable sources, and furthermore, if the Christians are not being publicly defiant, don’t go hunting for more, as that may stir up trouble in other communities. (Rome had a policy of scattering and resettling defeated peoples).
Betty Cracker
@JoyceH: Damn. Hoping for the best outcome for the poor critter.
way2blue
Good grief. 100+ comments and I’m still eating breakfast. Saturdays… I’m listening to a LP podcast with Reed Galen & George Conway. George mentioned writing a Forward for Joe Conason’s new book (not out till July—I just checked) even though they’re on opposite ends of the political spectrum. Anyway. The book focuses on how Republican grift started way back. Joe McCarthy; Roy Cohn 1950s back. With their ‘witch hunt’ as a means to enrich themselves by scaremongering. And here we are…
Joe Conason / The Longest Con: How Grifters, Swindlers, and Frauds Hijacked American Conservatism / July 2024
trollhattan
@Almost Retired:
@Scout211:
My assumption, knowing zero details, is McCarthy’s attempt to put somebody in the chair who then would be beholden to Kev. Well, looks to have gone sideways.
Nothing opens the seat to the Dems, since it’s an R+16 seat. Just root for injuries and hope we don’t send an actual Proud Boy to congress.
NotMax
@Omnes Omnibus
Best remembered episodes of Real Housewives of Thebes.
;)
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: Nothing at all wrong with a well-done soap! Seems to me Morgan blended historical elements into the plot more effectively in the earlier seasons, but I’m still watching it. :)
FelonyGovt
Forgive me (1) if this has already been posted and (2) because Politico , but this is kind of delicious- what was previously the T**mp Hotel in DC is now a Waldorf Astoria and has become a Democratic stronghold as a kind of “fuck you” to T**mp.
MomSense
@Splitting Image:
Have you listened to Annie Lenox’s Bare? Absolutely gorgeous. She was going through a rough time in her life when she made the recording, so it’s not an easy or upbeat listen. It’s just beautiful.
NotMax
@way2blue
::cough:: Father Coughlin ::cough::
Want to go back further? Shall toss in Madame Blavatsky.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: I was surprised by how absorbed he got me in the Diana story. Debicki and Abdalla really sold it. I’m sure it’s not too historically accurate, but he made it into a moving story.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@David Wetzel:
Not true. They kill off Lord Mountbatten in season 4.
MomSense
@JoyceH:
I’m so sorry.
raven
@MomSense: We saw her open for Sting and she blew him away!
brantl
@eversor: If you think that’s the core of christianity, you’re an idiot. JFC.
NotMax
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
As said above, didn’t watch but presumably some mention was made of Prince john (died at age 13 in 1919).
trollhattan
@David Wetzel:
A major character? Count again! :-)
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@Omnes Omnibus:
I just don’t get the hostility towards the Kansas City Royals
zhena gogolia
@NotMax: No, I don’t think that got into the script. But the Mountbatten sequence was great — love me some Charles Dance.
zhena gogolia
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: They’re pretenders! A’s all the way!
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@trollhattan:
I don’t think they kill John Major off this season.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
@zhena gogolia:
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin’-fishes play,
An’ the dawn comes up like thunder,
outer China ‘crost the Bay!
RaflW
I seem to be behind on many of these things — confirmed by just showing up on this thread at comment 132. I watched The Crown episode about Dodi Fayed and his dad (Mou Mou, Season 5, aka last year) a couple nights ago. I held my interest, but I noted how little that hour contained any actual royals.
I left me web searching for info about how Mohamed Al-Fayed went from a street vendor & son of a teacher to having 600M GBP to toss at Harrods. Paling around with noted gun runner Adnan Khashoggi I guess.
I imagine I’ll complete the series, though I don’t look forward to Diana’s death and aftermath. I wasn’t a huge fan of her back then, just sort of mystified by all of the royals fascination.
Sidebar: I lived in London for 6 months in the late 80s, and really only thought fondly of the Queen Mum. In no small part because our Local was affectionately called that (though in fact was The Queens Head, in Stepney) because HRH Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes-Lyon drew a hand pumped pint of beer behind the bar there once, when at an advanced age she decided to visit one of these quintessentially British establishments for the first time in her upper crust life.
If The Crown is to be believed, the Queen Mum seems like she was far more terrible, calculating and cold than she gave off. Who could have imagined?!
MomSense
@raven:
I bet!! She’s amazing.
Uncle Cosmo
Recall a Playboy cartoon from, oh I dunno, 50 years back, featuring an Arab lady sitting just outside a tiny oasis looking up at the evening sky while a guy in a burnoose is half-hidden in the foliage doing – um – something…
Caption:
(It seemed droll at the time.)
wjca
Who knows. If a) there are lots of Republicans on the primary ballot, a Democrat might be one of the top two who make it to November. And if b) the Republicans contrive to have their guy be someone who runs primarily focused on a national abortion and contraceptive ban. (And you can’t say there aren’t such crazies out there.) Then, a surprise (to put it mildly!) might happen.
I mean, if Alabama could elect a Democratis Senator is exceptional circumstances, something equally improbable could happen here. And what a fitting cap to McCarthy’s career.
RaflW
@Kay: If we had a press who gave more of a shit, they’d henceforth say in any news articles about Teddy, “Sen. Cruz, who refuses to answer policy questions of great interest to his constituents, gave the following statement about his vote on corn ethanol subsidies in the farm bill…”
IOW, it’s obscene that anyone of the 100 people who have as much power over our lives as Teddy does can get away with such a bullshit brushoff. Fuck. Him.
wjca
Maybe the folks in Kansas City want the Athletics back? (With a different owner, obviously!)
EDT Dang! Zhena got there first.
narya
@JoyceH: I’m so sorry; that’s terrible.
Jeffro
Has it been thoroughly disinfected, though?
I mean, thoroughly?
JWR
@cmorenc:
Some newspaper, I think in the St. Louis area, did a big, in depth rating of all the jurists Shrub had to choose from, and they rated Alito dead last, meaning he was the most Conservative in the bunch. By a long shot. And I’d guess you’re probably right about at least some Leo pressure having been brought to bear.
PS. Well how ’bout this? (From Wikipedia):
RaflW
@trollhattan: I sure hope a judge points out to Mr. Fong that he is a lawmaker. And that his failure to follow California law enacted by the body he currently serves is … f’ing hilarious.
(I’m assuming that if he had thought to dot his t’s and cross his eyes, withdrawing his CA lege application before submitting his US house papers could have done the trick?)
NotMax
@Jeffro
More to the point, swept for bugs of the electronic ilk?
trollhattan
@David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch: On the topic of PMs, guy playing Blair is convincingly reptilian.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: Bertie Carvel. Michael Sheen was even better in The Queen.
Josie
@RaflW:
Cruz and Cornyn both have been super silent on this issue. I suspect Colin Allred from Dallas will be the Dem who runs against Cruz next year. I hope he remembers this and pushes it to the max.
Cheryl from Maryland
@Jeffro: I do know that Jose Andres has opened a restaurant there, the food is delicious, and there are many front of the house Hispanic workers. I don’t think any of them would be there without it being properly disinfected and exorcised.
WaterGirl
@JoyceH: I am so sorry to hear that. Devastating.
cmorenc
@New Deal democrat:
I wish I could be more confident that at 73 and 75 ys old, if Biden is reelected and has a D-majority senate, a re-elected Biden will get a chance to replace either Alito or Thomas. The only way either will likely leave SCOTUS is in a coffin or during a time with R president and senate. Consider that RBG doggedly held on into her 90s despite serious illness, because from 2014 onward, Ds did not have a span where they controlled both. Not that the analogy of Thomas/Alito to RBG goes any farther than that.
Ruckus
@Jeffro:
Steam cleaned with very strong disinfectant every square inch, top to bottom…… While wearing air/water tight suits with oxygen supplied.
(That’s just my guess of course but anyone with any smarts…..)
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker: It would have been tactically better for the drafters of the Fla abortion rights initiative to pick a specific number of weeks in the 16-20 weeks range rather than “viability” because there would have then been no basis for the DeSantis-friendly Fla supreme court to claim the language too vague. True, to find “viability” too vague would be maliciously dishonest an interpretation, but with generous, but specific weeks as the standard, there would be no way for the Fla Supreme Court to reject the initiative except a raw “we simply aren’t going to permit abortions as unconscionable sins, not properly subject to popular vote.”
Betty Cracker
@zhena gogolia: That post-coup attempt scene with Dance as elderly Mountbatten and Jane Lapotaire as Princess Alice was amazing. I loved how she laughed in his face about the Queen dressing him down, and yet there was such tenderness between them. First rate acting! ETA: Erin Doherty as Princess Anne in the middle seasons was also fabulous, and Claudia Harrison was great too.
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Agree on all counts.
trollhattan
Turns out getting yourself elected doesn’t firewall you against law enforcement making a fuss over your shady bidnez practices. Pity.
We can sure pick ’em.
wjca
Weeeeell, new mattresses would obviously be necessary.
kalakal
@RaflW:
She made damn sure Eddy VIII stayed in exile. She loathed him for running off and landing her totally unprepared husband with the monarchy and never let that loathing lapse.
She was also the freebie Queen. She would get a flunky to write to various manufacturers hinting that if they would kindly provide some free samples , who knows , they could get “By Royal Appointment, Suppliers of…” status. They never did but she got a lot of upmarket stuff for free out of them until they wised up.
Her main thing seems to have been losing money at the track. Liz had to sub her big time in her old age, which considering she lived in a palace all expenses paid with over a £100,000 a year for spendies was quite the feat. The mind boggles at what she went through as a teenager
grubert
@Harrison Wesley: got it.