Six Senate Dems in the freshman class. We’ve gotten a tour of the Senate floor and cloakrooms, taken ID pictures, gotten briefed on employment rules and laws, and had a lunch with sitting members on starting up an office. pic.twitter.com/ml1MiheWOd
— Elissa Slotkin (@ElissaSlotkin) November 12, 2024
Left to right: Lisa Blunt Rochester, Adam Shiff, Elissa Slotkin, Andy Kim, Ruben Gallego, & Angela Alsobrook
******
More news worth sharing:
Very early medication #abortion found to be effective and safe @nejm https://t.co/FakUrL4jrv
— Medical Xpress (@medical_xpress) November 6, 2024
Goddess bless modern medicine, and the people who respect it. Per Medical Express:
Clinics and hospitals currently defer medication abortion until ultrasound confirms a pregnancy inside the uterus. However, a large international study led by researchers from Karolinska Institutet now indicates that treatment can be equally effective and safe even before the sixth week of pregnancy. The study is published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
A total of 35,550 abortions took place in Sweden in 2023; over 60% of them before the end of the seventh week of pregnancy.
Often, the procedure is held off until intrauterine pregnancy is confirmed by vaginal ultrasound to rule out the possibility of an ectopic pregnancy, in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus, usually in the fallopian tubes. An ectopic pregnancy is not terminated by a medication abortion and can be life-threatening for the woman. Ultrasound reveals a pregnancy in week five to six.
“Women often find out very early if they’re pregnant, and a majority also know if they want a termination and if so, want it to take place as quickly as possible,” says the study’s first author Karin Brandell, gynecologist at Karolinska University Hospital and doctoral student at the Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden…
The VEMA (Very early medical abortion) study included over 1,500 women at 26 clinics in nine countries who requested an abortion before ultrasound was able to confirm intrauterine pregnancy. They were randomly assigned to either a delayed abortion once pregnancy could be confirmed in the uterus (in week five to six) or to early abortion (in week four to six). Both groups received two drugs—mifepristone and misoprostol…
“Very early medical abortion was just as effective and safe to perform, even in the case of an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy,” says Kristina Gemzell-Danielsson, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the same department at Karolinska Institutet, senior physician at Karolinska University Hospital and project leader of the VEMA study…
The women in the early group reported less pain and bleeding. In both groups, the women also expressed a desire to have the abortion performed as quickly as possible.
“Abortion is a political as well as a medical issue,” says Dr. Brandell. “In Sweden, a woman can repeat the procedure a week after a failed early abortion. But a woman in Texas, where abortion is banned after the sixth week, can’t. It was therefore important to show that early abortion is equivalent to current standard procedure at a later stage of pregnancy.”
The researchers now want to test if a new combination of drugs for early abortion is also effective for ectopic pregnancies. They are also developing new contraceptives based on one of the components of current medical abortions, mifepristone.
“It can be taken in a lower dose than for abortion to prevent unwanted pregnancies in the form of one tablet a week, or when needed,” says Professor Gemzell-Danielsson.
******
Elsewhere… the Worst People are fighting with each other, again:
??SCOOP: Hardline conservatives are plotting a plan to challenge Johnson for Speaker at Wednesday’s internal election.
They want to nominate an alternative candidate. Talks are underway about who. One source said plan is “loose.”
Details @thehill:https://t.co/KyWO3XYoA3
— Mychael Schnell (@mychaelschnell) November 12, 2024
Confusion to our enemies, who are pretty confused already!
Hard-line conservatives are plotting to challenge Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for the gavel during Wednesday’s internal House GOP elections, four sources familiar with the matter told The Hill.
The sources — who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive internal deliberations — said the conservatives are planning to nominate an alternative candidate to Johnson for Speaker during Wednesday’s internal GOP elections.
The sources said they are still discussing whom to nominate, and one source cautioned that the opposition could fall apart.
“There will be a nomination,” one of the sources said.
The intent is to show opposition within the House GOP to Johnson’s bid to continue as Speaker, one of the sources said…
During an interview on Fox News over the weekend, Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) said there are “a lot of Republicans” who are concerned with Johnson’s leadership effort.
“Mike Johnson is going to have to demonstrate that he can corral this Republican conference to deliver for the American people and deliver for President Trump. That needs to happen over the next several weeks,” Roy said. “And I’m gonna be sitting down with Mike this week, sitting down with other members of the conference, but we have no choice but to deliver.”
“We’ve got to deliver, no more excuses. That’s what I want to hear out of the Speaker. But he’s got a lot of Republicans who are still concerned,” he added. “We’ve got to figure out how to get everybody on the same page.”
Johnson faced an ouster threat in May — led by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) — which failed overwhelmingly after Democrats and Republicans joined forces to kill the effort. A total of 11 GOP lawmakers, however, voted against tabling the measure, a sign of some resistance to the Speaker’s leadership.
Those talking about backing an alternative to Johnson likened the situation to what occurred in November 2022, when Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) challenged then-Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) for the Speakership nomination.
That effort failed but highlighted opposition to McCarthy’s leadership, and foreshadowed his later struggles to officially secure the gavel and his eventual ouster.
The final vote was 188-31, and McCarthy went on to face opposition on the House floor in January, which forced the Speaker race to run for 15 rounds over several days.
Good times, good times (says the Trickster God).
Baud
Hopefully people will see that our caucus is younger.
Not that it helped Harris.
The Truffle
So the new administration is stumbling out the gate and the House GOP is in disarray. Who? Didn’t? See? This? Coming?
At this point, step back and let them sabotage each other.
trnc
Like so much stool.
I supported Dem votes to keep Johnson because it got us a budget deal, but it’s probably time to let repubs make their own shitty choice because I don’t think we’ll get anything anyway without control of the senate.
trnc
@Baud:
It probably did help Harris.
Belafon
Now, what scientists need to figure out is a recipe to make those medications at home.
Kristine
Narrator: He can’t.
Crossing fingers for backstabbing from the get-go no matter who the Speaker turns out to be, with the usual suspects scuttling to the White House to inform the T-word and his minions about all the goings-on, then returning with their sealed orders.
And yet another round of true believers learns that no matter how far they bend over, it’s never ever enough.
lowtechcyclist
Our freshman Senatorial class looks like America – 3 women and 3 men, and from a variety of different racial and ethnic backgrounds.
I bet all the new GOP Senators are a bunch of white dudes. Including those not yet picked by DeWine and DeSantis to replace couchfucker and L’il Marco.
Omnes Omnibus
@lowtechcyclist: They all look kind of short.
John S.
@Baud:
Gender > Race > Age
zhena gogolia
SCHIFF ALSOBROOKS
narya
It’s heartening so see such variety. I try to explain to my younger nephew (who is interested in space, etc.) that Back in My Day the control rooms at NASA were all white men, that the variety visible now was NOT a thing. And I’ve tried to tell him a little about how challenging it can be to imagine a path when you don’t see anyone who looks like you on that path. No clue how much gets through, though maybe more than I think.
Belafon
@narya: Find the picture showing Katherine Johnson in the actual control room, where she’s the only black, and one of the few women, in the room.
WereBear
Sure, it’s all fun and games until you get elected and your own voters blame you for what they voted for.
Proceed, Speaker.
SiubhanDuinne
This isn’t in any way a surprise — in fact, it could probably have been predicted — but for some whatever reason, I am incandescently enraged that fucking Melania declined Dr. Jill’s kind, and customary, invitation to meet at the White House today. The arrogance never ends with any of these horrible people.
zhena gogolia
@SiubhanDuinne: ME TOO
Butch
@Kristine: I quoted the same words but for a different reason: “…corral this Republican conference to deliver for the American people and deliver for President Trump.” Those two goals are diametrically opposed, Mr. Roy. They contradict. If you do one you’re not doing the other.
Bupalos
@narya: I think in broader political terms, none of that is getting through anymore. I agree with you that representation is incredibly important. Younger generations simply aren’t going to be able to understand that the way we can, because of the better world we’ve made. It’s like trying to get people to appreciate the lightbulb. It just makes you sound old and like you come from a different world.
narya
@Bupalos: I have a really good relationship with him–he calls me at least once, often two or three times, a week–and we talk about all kinds of shit. And he and I have a LOT of conversations about cooking and baking, which is sooooo much fun. He went through some shit a few years ago (which I will not even outline here), and I’m possibly the family member who knows the most about it; it’s nice to be trusted that much
ETA: he’s not only Dem-voting, he apparently also talked to my brother and SIL and got them to vote correctly as well.
Soprano2
@SiubhanDuinne: Didn’t she do that to Michelle Obama too? She’s uncouth IMHO.
ETA – I went to the doctor for my new shoulder pain yesterday. He’s got me on a 12 day regime of prednisone and daily meloxicam. He thinks I have rotator cuff tendinitis because I still have full range of motion with that arm and shoulder, and that this should fix it. I feel like I should warn everyone I’m taking prednisone. I’ve never taken it before, but I’ve heard horror stories about how it can affect people. I’ll report back in a day or two, I took the first dose this morning.
narya
@Soprano2: @zhena gogolia: @SiubhanDuinne: She’s one of those people who just thinks they know everything they need to know. Just tacky AF, with no style at all.
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: 12 days probably won’t do much in terms of personality changes. You’ll probably get some good relief.
Baud
@Bupalos:
Then why are they so woke?
SFAW
@SiubhanDuinne:
SD –
I loves ya, but why are you letting yourself be enraged? You/we knew Melanie is as classless a piece of shit as her husband, so it’s about par for the course. I’m a little amazed Fuckhead didn’t decline President Biden’s invite, but I expect he sees it as a dominance thing.
SFAW
@Soprano2:
On the other hand, pred can make you feel really good.
TBone
Christmas carol for Mike Johnson 🎶
narya
I have this fantasy that Scranton Joe will be present at the meeting with TCFG today.
SiubhanDuinne
@Soprano2:
Nope. From the FTFNYT November 10, 2016:
I’m sorry about the rotator cuff and having to be on Prednisone. Hope it does the job.
TBone
@narya: with his Irish up!
Butch
@Soprano2: You’ll probably have a little trouble sleeping (I did) but it won’t turn you into Jekyll and Hyde.
SiubhanDuinne
@SFAW:
I think I’m just so angry at the whole thing, and the Melania news simply put me over the top with rage. Honestly, it could have been anything.
Kristine
@Butch: Yeah, I could’ve cut my quote off just before the “to.”
narya
@TBone: Exactly.
Bupalos
@Baud: In my experience (coaching hs softball, a trio of bupalettes) young people’s political commitment to conscious equity in representation is a mile wide and a quarter inch deep. On the other hand they simply expect this kind of equity to exist and believe it does exist. They don’t even have the idea that going into computer science or civil engineering or architecture or… really anything… has any gender complications. If anything, they understand being underrepresented in a field as conveying advantages.
I think this is part of why our emphasis on identity language is now bringing us negative political returns.
TBone
WQSU college radio going hard today. Hozier 🎶
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PVjiKRfKpPI
🖤
frosty
Consider this idle speculation. She was so glad to be out of there four years ago and she hates the fact that he won and she’ll have to go back. So her decline of the invitation is just stalling before she has to face That Building again.
Old School
@Soprano2: Sorry about the shoulder pain. On the plus side, now you can finally tell off the people that annoy you.
You can always say, “I said what?! Must have been the Prednisone.”
Shakti
I’m happy for the people who have these new Democratic senators representing them. Congratulations to Arizona, California, Delaware, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey.
I know of Reuben Gallego and Adam Schiff, but am not generally aware of the other new senators.
Shakti
@SiubhanDuinne: At least Melania saved Dr Biden the effort of putting a mask of civility and pleasantness for a farcical wretched social occasion in a world where all these fuckers have been mask-off all the time.
Jackie
@SiubhanDuinne:
Jill is probably relieved. She won’t have to fake a welcoming smile.
Melania, at this time, has no intention of moving back into the White House. She’ll probably show up to “must attend” events – or not.
TCFG has Musk and Habba. Melania isn’t needed.
Betty Cracker
A test to see if it’s possible to embed Bluesky posts here. Please excuse the wretched subject matter:
zhena gogolia
@Betty Cracker: Yeah, he knows Biden won’t send a mob to the Capitol.
SiubhanDuinne
@frosty:
This is quite likely accurate. Still doesn’t excuse her unmitigated arrogance and rudeness to the First Lady. As rikyrah says, smh.
Hoodie
@Bupalos:
Some of that may be a product of the compressed timelines of the alternate reality created by modern communications and media. There may be a perception that the developments we witnessed in the late 20th century are old news and that older generations are stuck in time. They perceive changes occurring at a much faster pace and, thus, are not particularly patient. Of course, those perceptions may be distorted because they tend to be virtual and kind of ignore history of anything that occurred before the last few years.
I’ve been an engineer and patent attorney for three decades. When I first started, innovation was more in the nature of tangible things. Now a lot of it is internet bullshit. There is still a lot of real innovation, but Silicon Valley back then was much more hardware and/or core software concepts, now it’s a lot more SAAS, subscription model stuff often just recycling content without adding any particular new magic. For example, a lot of AI is just recycling old content using models of existing language.
I remember going to Kennedy Space Center back in the early 2000’s with some French friends who were visiting the US. I’d never been there before. What struck me viscerally was how fucking primitive that technology was. However, they still did something profound 60 years ago because they had to develop a whole universe of tech to do that, e.g., materials, communications, computing architectures, etc., basically from scratch. Skum is mostly just refining that and marketing the shit out of it as a great breakthrough when it’s kind of normal incremental development. There’s not much in the way of breakthrough tech spinning off of that because he’s just using tech that was developed after the space program to do the same stuff we’ve been doing since the 60’s in a more efficient manner. He’s still pretty much offering the same pie in the sky promised back in 1950’s science fiction and in the process he’s filling the atmosphere with more junk and spewing more pollutants into that atmosphere to put it there. Even his EVs are a kind of a bad joke because they don’t deal with the real problems of transportation and general lifestyle in a world facing climate change. An EV is still a car, and cars were first developed in the early 20th century. The Cybertruck is an indication of what a dead end this may be; it’s pure pornography. Crypto and a lot of AI apps kind of fall into the same category.
Jackie
@Betty Cracker: I don’t see any link.
nebber mind, it finally popped up
Sure Lurkalot
@frosty: I agree with you 100%. Trump’s spouse is now stuck for another 4 years. Our vaunted media never addressed the devoted wife’s absence for the past 3 or so years, but she will have to be by his side and live in DC away from her kid too. Unfortunately, her misery is just cold comfort but I hope it’s deep and profound.
tam1MI
I still think DeSantis is going to pick himself.
Jackie
@Sure Lurkalot:
Jeffro
Go Lisa Blunt Rochester! First State for the win!! =)
Geminid
@Shakti: Elissa Slotkin and Andy Kim caught my attention in 2018, when they were two of the forty Democrats who flipped red seats that year. Rep. Slotkin had worked for the CIA and Department of Defense, and Rep. Kim had worked for the State Department.
At 48 years old, Slotkin is 26 years younger than the Senator she replaces, Debbie Stabenow (74). Kim is 42 years old, and will replace Robert Menendez (70), a 28 year swing.
Lisa Blunt Rochester is 62 years old and replaces Tom Carper (77), a 15 year difference in age. At 44, Ruben Gallego 4 years younger than Whats-Her-Name. Angela Alsobrooks (53) is 27 years younger than the retiring Ben Cardin (80), while Adam Schiff (64) is 26 years younger than the late Dianne Feinstein was when she passed away in September, 2023.
So there will be a net swing to the younger of 126 years over six seats.
TBone
Joint Chiefs of Staff military head Charlie Brown (that’s his real name, Charles Q. Brown) first up to the chopping block.
I guess the Michael Q Flynn family is advising…
FTFNYT but except for this article
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/23/us/politics/donald-trump-michael-flynn-qanon.html
zhena gogolia
@Sure Lurkalot: I don’t like to be a conspiracy theorist. But why were they so confident? Why didn’t they think they had to involve his wife, his daughter, etc.? Why was the campaign schedule so lackadaisical?
Jeffro
@Jackie: #PartyOfFamilyValues
The list of things that don’t seem to matter much anymore in our presidential candidates* is getting longer by the hour…
(*GOP ones, I mean)
TBone
@Sure Lurkalot: she has too much money and not enough brain cells for that kind of emotion.
Kristine
@Betty Cracker: I won’t watch his Inauguration Day speech, but I am really wondering what shape he’ll be in and how—not if, but how—he will go off-script. In front of a world-wide audience.
Soprano2
@zhena gogolia: I hope you’re right on all counts. I’ve heard it makes you want to eat because it elevates your blood sugar. I’ll have to guard against that!
TBone
@Soprano2: do you have access to any edibles to take the edge off? Weed helped me through a prednisolone prescription, but it will make you hungry. Prednisone took my appetite away and weed helped me to eat and sleep when things got rough.
AWOL
@SiubhanDuinne: I’m horrified the fascist was invited.
zhena gogolia
@Soprano2: Yes, again, I think that is more common when a person is on it for a long time.
Soprano2
@TBone: I do if I really need it, but I’m going to try not to because I had a bad reaction to pot when I tried it a long time ago.
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Layer8Problem
@rikyrah: Good morning!
emjayay
@Kristine: I expect a lot of weird shit.
Mark Regan
@Omnes Omnibus:
This is not fair to him, but it’s probably the only photo of six adults in which Adam Schiff is the tallest subject.