Nancy Mace is a terrible, malignant narcissist. Her gleeful campaign against newly-elected openly trans Rep Sarah McBride is an attempt to become the main character in a caucus of main characters. Steve M:
They like winning. They like punching down. They like rallying their voters with manufactured rage, and they really like the votes and money they get as a result.
And most of their voters aren’t really angry either. You can see that at Trump rallies. It was very obvious at the 2020 boat parades, which, by definition, were attended by Trump supporters who were quite well off. […]
What’s the point of the Trump presidency? They’re happy. We’re miserable. That’s the whole point.
Sarah McBride’s response is interesting [sign-in required link*]:
House Democrats then had to have their leadership elections for the next term. The same lawmaker told NOTUS that before the elections started, several Democrats across the ideological spectrum approached McBride to tell her they would support her however they could.
The congresswoman-elect, the lawmaker said, reiterated that Republicans’ messaging was a “distraction” and that this isn’t “her first rodeo” dealing with anti-trans rhetoric.
Another House Democrat said they’ve personally talked “extensively” with McBride and “she doesn’t want to be seen as a victim.”
“She wants us to focus on the work we’re going to do and she nobly is saying, ‘Yes, dismiss it, but also … we got work we need to to do, don’t forget that,’ and that’s what she’s telling a lot of members,” the Democrat said.
From the same piece, I also like Rep. Jim McGovern’s response:
Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern, ranking member of the House Rules Committee, said Mace’s bill was “disappointing” and that he was “not going to react to every single crazy thing these people do.”
When asked if Democrats should respond if Mace’s bill were added to the rules package next year, McGovern, right on cue, said, “I don’t want to waste all my time talking about the shit that they’ve put forward on an hourly basis.”
I hope Sarah McBride’s strategy works in this specific instance. Like most narcissist bullies, Mace will dial it up to 12 when she doesn’t get the attention she wants from her target. And other shitbirds who see the attention Mace is getting will get into the act (as MTG has already done.)
In general, the “right” way to respond to malignant narcissists who hold power over us is never easy or clear. Not rising to every piece of bait is good general advice, especially since Steve Bannon’s tactic of flooding the zone with shit is in full effect, as evidenced by the latest clown car of appointments. Still, we want lower information folks to understand the hate and stupidity inherent in the coming administration.
Related to this, here’s Molly Jong-Fast on her strategy to deal with the next Trump administration and not get as distracted as she was during the first.
* This link goes to a site called notus.org which is a site funded by the former publisher of Politico. It seems like a training ground for Politico journalists, and from what I can tell, basically a bunch of interns going around covering Capitol Hill. You need a free sign-in to read it.
Steve LaBonne
As in this case, when marginalized people are involved I take my cues from them (as McBride’s colleagues are doing). That’s a fundamental part of being a good ally.
Belafon
On bsky, it’s split as far as I can tell about 50-50 among the trans people I follow between those who think her advice is good and her advice will cause significant damage to their efforts.
frog
If the GOP gets their way, can McBride use the Congressional pool topless?
Belafon
@frog: Mace is trying to get her barred from all of that stuff.
lowtechcyclist
One thing I’d hoped the WaPo or some other paper would do is maintain a list of the 10 worst things Trump had done or was attempting to do, just to keep some focus on those, and keep them from getting lost in the Gish gallop of awfulness that was the first Trump administration.
Might not be a bad idea now.
SiubhanDuinne
Evidently, Mace believes that some men are happy to undergo lengthy, painful, and costly treatments including hormones, surgery, and psychological counseling — not to mention their willingness to face a lifetime of mockery, abuse, and threats — for the sole purpose of stalking/assaulting women in public restrooms.
Mace is an utter monster.
ETA: MJ-F article is paywalled
Belafon
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s basically the position of the transphobe people anywhere.
Old School
I saw the headline and though DougJ had written a post. He frequently breaks character as Pitchbot to write about dealing with narcissists.
cain
It will be important not to give MAGA any kind of oxygen. I agree.
They still have paymasters to regulate their behavior so they think they can use social issues to create pain and suffering against the libs by going after minorities.
The entire underground railroad thing was about ignoring the laws.
Don’t give these people any satisfaction. They want us to rage and cry.
artem1s
Greying is the correct first step. Make it clear they are on their own when it comes to creating a firestorm over their particular issue. After that, I’ve seen legislators make good use of the ‘looking for a problem that doesn’t exist’ statement to address these loons. I find it hard to believe with the age of the capitol that there aren’t multiple single stall, sex undesignated bathrooms that were adapted for ADA purposes (and women who weren’t accommodated at all before the 20th century). If missy tranphobe can’t stand being in a bathroom with ‘them’ maybe designate facilities for just her use, several floors away from her office.
Repeatedly pointing out how loony and pointless their demands are is also helping. Narcissists may want attention at all cost but they can’t deal with attention that calls their self identity into question. They hate being proven incompetent or wrong almost as much as they hate not getting any attention.
WereBear
@cain: I’m waiting for pregnant women issued ankle monitors. Since attacking women won’t be illegal.
Texas is losing half their OB/GYNs by end of year. They can get a job anywhere.
WereBear
@artem1s: Why they love culting “their” people. They get both.
artem1s
@SiubhanDuinne:
these bathroom and locker laws are especially stupid when you take into account that they wouldn’t have prevented priests from being pedophiles or Jerry Sandusky from raping middle school boys in Penn State’s locker rooms.
NotMax
Far as I’m aware, women’s facilities are equipped with stalls. With doors.
What is she terrified she might see?
Old Man Shadow
And then they went out and voted for an actual rapist to lead.
WereBear
@Old Man Shadow: Once you understand that they can believe contradictory things with the same brain in the same sentence…
you are on the way, Grasshopper :)
There is no context there. Every single thing is everything single thing, and the combinations are endless!
They never learned how to use their imagination, either. And it gets weird.
E.
@lowtechcyclist: Like those lists that rearrange themselves as time passes and gradually items that were way down the list move up, others move down. At some point the Gaetz appointment won’t mean so much as other outrages mount.
WereBear
Let the MAGA and the Trumpists and Republicans get outraged. It’s their party.
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: It wasn’t paywalled for me.
Suzanne
@Belafon:
Which means that she’s just a person and doing her best in a difficult situation, and not a spokesperson for an entire movement.
I see her point: she was elected to represent her constituents, and that’s her primary responsibility.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: We can’t ask every member of a minority group to be a standard bearer for their group.
Baud
We haven’t given sufficient kudos to the people of Delaware for breaking this particular glass ceiling. First State indeed.
Belafon
@Suzanne: Yep
@Omnes Omnibus: Yep
Torrey
There’s a simple solution for Mace’s concerns. Congress should install a gender-neutral single-toilet bathroom, same as every home in America has, same as most hospitals have, same as many gas stations have, and that way, if Nancy wants to make sure that only people exactly like her are in the bathroom when she is, she can use it.
Belafon
@NotMax: Someone should ask Mace why she runs around the restroom with her dress pulled up over her head.
Starfish (she/her)
@frog: There is a Congressional pool? How do we defund it?
Quinerly
Oh, goodie!!! New Ambassador to NATO played in the Rose Bowl!!!
Baud
@Starfish (she/her):
Defund the Poolice!
SiubhanDuinne
@artem1s:
ZACKLY
Starfish (she/her)
@Baud: 😂
Reimagine poolicing
Almost Retired
Bring back the Ally McBeal big unisex restroom! Look how great it was for informal collaboration at the sink!
Jackie
@Old Man Shadow:
Plus at least three rapists (that we’re aware of thus far) to cabinet positions.
JerseyBeard
Good morning everyone. This is an incomplete thought, but one I’m swirling over and over in my head. We have two objectives going into the new year: 1) draw our coalition closer together – no throwing anyone under the bus, 2) drive wedges into the opposition including large helpings of using “good-trouble” tactics to do so.
Like I said, incomplete thoughts.
Geminid
@SiubhanDuinne: Nancy Mace purportedly believes all this, but I’m not sure she believes in anything besides her own advancement. Lindsey Graham’s Senate seat comes up in 2026, and Mace will say or do anything that she thinks will help her win that Republican primary.
SiubhanDuinne
@NotMax:
I’ve been using women’s public toilet facilities for the better part of eight decades. I have never ever in all that time observed anyone else’s private body parts. And no one has ever peered at, molested, or even particularly noticed me. I include the occasional (male) janitor who comes in to mop.
SiubhanDuinne
@Geminid:
Where can I donate to her opponent?
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone 😊 😊 😊
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
rikyrah
One of the things that just irritates the phuck outta me when it comes to this wretched woman is how long the MSM shilled that she was a ‘moderate’ Republican.
They shilled that swill long and hard.
She’s nothing but a rotten, type-A Miss Ann.
Geminid
@SiubhanDuinne: That’s a problem, because the other Republican hopefuls will likely try to out-Mace Rep. Mace.
If she wins the nomination, Mace will have a Democratic opponent you can toss a few bucks at, but I think Sen. Tom Tillis’s opponent in neighboring North Carolina will attract the big money.
Another Scott
I agree that Sarah McBride has probably seen as much or worse from others. Similarly with Danica Roem. Mace, indeed, wants attention. The best way to counter her is to not take the bait, and to support McBride, Roem, and everyone else who is the victim of punching down.
Hang in there, everyone. Eyes on the prizes.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Eural Joiner
@SiubhanDuinne: like so much that comes from the GOP these days, it’s (fake) outrage over a problem that everyone knows is not a problem. It fits the overall fascist model – Trump is lying, they know he is lying, but they pretend he is telling the truth to be included in the tribe. Some serious mental gymnastics going on there…
way2blue
For people who don’t have a malignant narcissist in their extended family or have never knowingly crossed paths with one—their behavior can be extremely disorienting. And how best to react—when you can’t simply walk away—is uncomfortable. We get to watch our media-verse deal with these issues in realtime. Albeit, they never quite figure out the dynamic. [One of my sons had a sociopathic stalker. Took multiple approaches to finally shut her down. Leaving me convinced that this stuff should be taught in school… ]
TBone
Thanks for that great read by Molly Jong-Fast as well as your lucid commentary, MM!
cope
What I am curious about is how all those male MAGA shitstains will react to having McBride walk into THEIR restroom if Mace has her way.
rikyrah
There’s a young Black woman from Houston who discusses politics on TikTok.
someone in her comments asked her about the GOP pivoting to try and include Latinos since the Orange Menace got such a good showing from them in 2024. I disagreed with her response.
You don’t hire Stephen Miller (de-naturalization) and that other creep who said ‘ the entire family can be deported together’ if you’re trying to go after the Latino vote.
She might not remember that George W. Bush got 40% of the Latino vote.
The man who lied us into not one, but TWO WARS Failed and could not get Immigration Reform passed. And, the GOP was not nearly as insane back then as it is now. The red meat to the base is those deportations.
ArchTeryx
@way2blue: At least he survived the encounter. Some of the malignant narcissists never give up until they’ve gone on a murder-suicide spree. The Madden Tournament mass shooting by David Katz in 2019 is an all too common example.
Belafon
Maybe Mace would agree to letting all of the women in the House decide on how their restroom gets used. I’m sure she has enough female colleagues to help win her case, right?
TBone
@JerseyBeard: I like where you’re headed.
Sister Golden Bear
Like many of other “firsts” Sarah McBride is having to take the high-road, and also being a gray road—similar to what VA state Rep. Danica Roem and MT state Rep. Zooey Zephy—who in 2023 was banned from the state House floor after speaking out against LGBTQ+ bills. (Zephy just won re-election).
I get why McBride is taking this tactic, but…. a bathroom ban wouldn’t just affect her, but also any other trans women (and trans men — who the Right never seems to mention) working in, or just visiting, the Capitol. It’s also a first step, like banning trans athletes,* towards normalizing more extensive discrimination against us. So please, please call your representatives to ask them to push back.
Worth noting that as recently as 2021, that Mace who’s posted at least 126 times in the past day or so, vocally supported trans rights (via Joe.My.God).
*FWIW, there are an estimated 40 trans athletes competing at the college level, out of roughly 520,000 million total college athletes.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
?
Sure Lurkalot
@lowtechcyclist:
WaPo? Surely you jest, maybe Alexandra Petri.
Here’s a very comprehensive catalog from McSweeneys.
https://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/the-complete-listing-atrocities-1-1-056
Geo Wilcox
On this issue she was talking out of the other side of her mouth before her election. She supported LBGTQ+ stuff back then.
Sister Golden Bear
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s about “women’s safety in bathrooms” about as much as Jim Crow was about drinking fountains.
We have extensive internal documents from the Right back when they first started pushing the issue in the mid-2010s that 1) they realized that they’d lost the battle on anti-gay issues, specifically marriage equality, 2) so they decided to target trans people as a way to create a wedge issue, and then once they got support, expand that to broader attacks on LGB people (as we saw with the “groomer” attacks, and 3) they decided bathrooms bills would be the first line of attack.
Gretchen
Mace seems to be aging rapidly. Hate does that. Problem is that her whole personality is how many men are chasing her, and women like that don’t realize how that attention drops off with age, and don’t deal well with it when it happens.
I knew someone like that who men were falling over themselves to do things for her just to be near her. Then she divorced some years later, told a guy she was interested in that he could come over and do her yard work. She was surprised when he asked why he would do that?
I think Mace is about there and won’t like it. MTG is about there too.
Old Man Shadow
Survival…
rikyrah
Jeff (Gutenberg Parenthesis) Jarvis (@jeffjarvis) posted at 0:31 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
Here is the entire segment from CNN last night when I argue that it is all the more important now to cover fascism as fascism and that Joe & Mika betrayed their colleagues by commandeering the lifeboat to Mar-a-Lago.
https://t.co/uGKelW0x3p
(https://x.com/jeffjarvis/status/1858941107318481218?t=gqM9U-9MtcC2NE7uIkRXwQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Michelle_BYoung (@michelle_byoung) posted at 8:09 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
The GOP keeps running the culture war play because it works on working class w folks and has for 60 years. It’s ENTRENCHED white people who don’t fall for it need to work on how to deprogram the ones that do or bring new (apathetic) white voters into our fold that’s the way out
(https://x.com/michelle_byoung/status/1859237675426845103?t=Uv8ntsHT3ieiDqJS7pBLGA&s=03)
rikyrah
Will Stancil (@whstancil) posted at 4:39 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
I can’t get over this story about a GOP candidate who won his seat while being charged with sexual assault, only for it to emerge, post election, that the victim was his daughter.
Until that moment he was just a normal MAGA Republican – criminal sex assault par for the course. https://t.co/gBiOyuOISf
(https://x.com/whstancil/status/1859184818077958419?t=GomdKt-PPIhsZP1Yq6Zv3w&s=03)
scav
@Baud: For certain definitions of athletics?
Gretchen
I read that all congressional offices have their own bathroom so she’s really making up a problem that doesn’t exist so she can be mad about it.
BlueGuitarist
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett @repjasmine.bsky.social
·
1d
If House Republicans really wanted to protect women, they’d release the Ethics Committee report on Matt Gaetz’ alleged sex trafficking – not try to ban their colleagues from using the bathroom. Stop the bigotry and release the report.
Sure Lurkalot
@artem1s:
Won’t prevent a person from acquiring a semi-automatic and shooting innocents in a grocery store or school or concert venue or nightclub when Nancy votes against any gun control legislation.
Won’t prevent people from dying from lack of health care when Nancy votes to abolish the ACA.
Republicans are really good at making people obsessively fear imaginary threats and ignore (yea, even promote) real ones.
Sister Golden Bear
@Baud: There’s 520,000 college athletes, per Athlete Ally, a LGBTQ athletic advocacy group. Of those, an estimated 40 athletes are trans, a microscopic 0.007%. It’s possible the denominator was misquoted, but the larger point is that there’s a tiny handful of trans athletes. When Utah’s governor veto’d the first proposed ban on high school trans athletes (unfortunately he signed the second one), he noted there was exactly one high school trans athlete in the state at the time.
Stat from this article in the SF Chronicle (I’m a subscriber, so it might be paywalled) about how San Jose State’s volleyball team has had several opponents forfeit games rather than play them because the team includes a trans player.
Gretchen
@BlueGuitarist: best response yet. Jasmine Crockett is good at this.
Miss Bianca
@Old Man Shadow: good list. Words to live by. Or aspire to, anyway.
Brant Lamb
@E.: Chronicle them all; there is going to be some rage for just how many things these shitsticks will do.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
Gotcha. The “million” was the typo.
different-church-lady
That first one will change.
rikyrah
Angry Woke Democrat (@BlueSteelDC) posted at 5:06 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
To clarify, the white working class has not been supporting Bernie or Bernie style candidates.
They typically don’t trust conversations about expanding social safety nets beyond the current programs.
(https://x.com/BlueSteelDC/status/1859191492625019247?t=iy_XDLrU1KTETP97WNPfqQ&s=03)
Baud
No, not propaganda at all.
Sister Golden Bear
@Sister Golden Bear: Also worth noting that the Olympics, the NCAA and CIF (CA’s high school sports federation) have allowed trans athletes to compete for two decades and there just isn’t a tidal wave of boys posing as trans girls (again transphobes never seem to acknowledge trans boys exist) in order to compete.
There’s been exactly one trans woman athlete who qualified for the Olympics (in Japan) and she lost in the first round. And that was in weightlifting. There have been non-binary athletes, one of whom won a medal in a team sport, but they’ve all been folks who were assigned female at birth.
Short version, removing trans girls/women from sports won’t make your 5th place-finishing daughter swim any faster.
rikyrah
NO.BETTER.FOR.THEM.
The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) posted at 2:31 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Numbers show that after Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski broke their Trump meeting news shortly after 6 a.m., 38 percent of those in the 25-54 demographic had stopped watching by the next hour. https://t.co/TQrkG6cjnd
(https://x.com/thedailybeast/status/1859152458347368937?t=_Oi2WPV_hK6QO6dhZALF-A&s=03)
The Audacity of Krope
And are they really? Or is there some base emotion approximating happiness, but more crude, that is activated by their cruelty?
My Dad has been MAGA since before MAGA and only seems further enraged in victory.
Baud
@rikyrah:
So 38 people?
rikyrah
Domo (@DapperDomo) posted at 7:53 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
Dear white liberals & leftists: Black folks vote the way we do because we discuss politics at home. If you’ve got energy for Kamala, save some for calling out your racist Trump-voting memaw. Change starts at your own table.
Keep that in mind this holiday season.
(https://x.com/DapperDomo/status/1859052477200347140?t=hYbltd_OvJNZWN1DAOvn4A&s=03)
different-church-lady
@Baud: Well why the fuck did Biden wait until this week to fix the economy?
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: 19, actually.
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 6:59 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
imagine being the Senator-elect in a swing state and before you even get sworn in you’re already yapping about “identity politics” and essentially kicking sand in the faces of the Black Democrats who’d helped elect you
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1859220006434709512?t=mFIC5oFscrLm82IZKyREyQ&s=03)
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Forgot to factor.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s a happy anger.
The Audacity of Krope
@different-church-lady: The best part of the darkest timeline is your dark humor.
different-church-lady
@The Audacity of Krope: Thanks, I think…
Archon
Do Trump and his supporters truly believe they are the good guys in this story?
Baud
Small ray of hope from Mississippi.
rikyrah
Stuart Stevens (@stuartpstevens) posted at 0:59 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
RFK, Jr. opposes all mandatory vaccines in schools. All of them.
It’s not clever or interesting to present a contrary opinion that serves to justify policies that will kill people and reduce the chances for a healthy life for millions. It’s stupid and evil.
RFK, Jr. is one of
(https://x.com/stuartpstevens/status/1858948116516352417?t=ahgIKOEWM4xQSCx7bsUnBQ&s=03)
p.a.
I wiki’ed Renée Richards to learn more about the first trans athlete I can remember and the article had this fucking nugget:
The Audacity of Krope
@rikyrah: RFK is the Trump hire that gives me hope that people will learn fast, the hard way.
rikyrah
TrumpsTaxes (@trumpstaxes.bsky.social) (@TrumpsTaxes) posted at 8:44 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
There are now *four* Trump Cabinet nominees who have been accused of committing or permitting sexual abuse:
Matt Gaetz
Pete Hegseth
RFK Jr.
Linda McMahon
Bring on the confirmation hearings for all of America to see.
(https://x.com/TrumpsTaxes/status/1859065331169296397?t=9I-F96M7NTnR3sN0DEZehQ&s=03)
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 5:38 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
“….but if we throw gay people, trans people, Black people, and brown immigrants under the bus, maybe we can get back enough of those voters to eke out an Electoral College win in 2028…”
Do you already see how f–k–g stupid that sounds? It’s how to get blown out next time.
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1859199674592198756?t=ZDmhKxngEW-RhU3T9VwRUw&s=03)
The Audacity of Krope
Noteworthy addition; she, the “permitting” member of that group, was selected for education. Presumably due to the presence of a second X chromosome.
Also, too, Tulsi Gabbard presented herself as Mata Hari.
Hoodie
@Baud: Yeah, they’ll explain some of that away by saying that their sense of well-being is prospective, that they feel better already knowing Trump will be in charge. I imagine that, for some of them, they thought that the increase in their wealth was a product of their own virtue and not government action (e.g., the Biden stimulus) and/or luck, and that the risk of a Harris admin would be that all of that would be taken away and given to undeserving people. This is why it might have been a mistake to cast Trump as a threat to democracy (which a lot of people discount or simply don’t care about) instead as a corrupt, unstable and incompetent nut who could jeopardize everything they have.
TBone
Digby up with a good read:
As always, there is much more to it than what I selected to quote…
https://digbysblog.net/2024/11/20/project-2025-enters-stage-right/
BlueGuitarist
Matthew Whitaker, bd toilet salesman and briefly acting AG named ambassador to NATO.…
Soprano2
@Baud: One of the people interviewed in the USA Today story I read where they interviewed TCFG voters said he’s had 9 people buy cars since the election. He credited TCFG winning because people felt better about the future. Of course, the truth is that those people could have bought those cars the week before the election if they wanted to. People believe what they want to believe.
Baud
@Soprano2:
Agreed.
The Audacity of Krope
I think the thinking there, agree it’s probably erroneous, is that “Democracy” works as a stand in for for “everything we have, the American way of life, et c.”
realworldrj
She is vile person and like the rest of her party, trash. Looking back lovingly at this May 2023 New York Times story about her being a moderate
LOL.
lowtechcyclist
@E.:
True. The important thing is that it won’t be a whole new list every few days, which is how it effectively is these days.
Geminid
@Geo Wilcox: Mace had a different electoral calculus back in 2020. The 1st CD was held by Blue Dog Joe Cunninham who in 2018 became the first Democrat to hold the district since the post-Civil Rights Act political realignment. Cunningham got in because a tea-party crank knocked Rep. Mark Sanford out in the primary.
It was still an R+ district, and once Mace dispatched the crank who beat Sanford in the primary she had a clear path to victory as a “moderate conservative.” Then some friendly redistricting added Republican voters to Mace’s district and she could drop the “moderate” part of the profile in 2022 and begin positioning herself for the 2026 Senate primary. The fiercest conservative will likely win that one.
Mace hasn’t said she’s running for Senate, but I assume she is because she’s very ambitious, and very few young House members do not want to advance to the next level.
Mike E
@way2blue: document, document, document… ignore the hype, avoid the back n forth, incorporate your record keeping with all the mundane ledger stuff (“I was at the local market buying household supplies [receipts enclosed, so n so was the mgr that morning when she accosted me in the parking lot) in order to establish your thoroughness in methodology, this plays well with the police/judge.
JerseyBeard
@Soprano2: lol. They bought them now because they know tariffs are gonna jack up the cost of everything on Jan 21. Hell, just the thought of tariffs is going to raise prices.
Mike E
@Belafon: clearly repubs see McBride as a women since they are restricting her options to control her body
dc
Donald Trump is the Rapist-in-Chief, the Racist-in-Chief, and the Robber-in-Chief. The RIC cubed.
Baud
Blue sky servers straining with all the new sign ups. Probably explains why I haven’t gone viral yet.
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Agree. She is elected to do a job, and she should be judged primarily on how well she does that. We shouldn’t burden her with more expectations.
Hoodie
@The Audacity of Krope: Yeah, that’s way too vague, to the point of malpractice. I think we’re seeing the reality of the Trump admin now. He’s appointing mostly a bunch of scammy and/or incompetent boobs to cabinet positions, along with selected goons to pursue his specific revenge fantasies and/or racial animosities. This shows his very disdain for the idea that government can do anything valuable and that it’s just a vehicle for expressing his whims. That doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with democracy. After all, he was democratically elected.
Citizen Alan
@Sure Lurkalot: There’s a part of me that kind of hopes the Post fires Petri and Jennifer Rubin so they won’t even have the tiniest fig leaf of being anything other than Republican shills working to get Bezos’s taxes cut.
scav
@Soprano2: Or, people may have decided to rush buy cars before the tariffs hit. So yup, people believe what they want to. (Especially if no information is provided about comperable past car-buying behavior or the criteria for judging moor from it. Would selling seven cars indicate grief for Harris? Or, is it an even-odd car sales based rule?)
Citizen Alan
I am baffled that any heterosexual male could find MTG attractive. I have never seen a picture of her in which she looks genuinely human let alone sexually appealing. Maybe some Republican men are turned on by the thought of sex with a howling rabid poo-flinging chimpanzee that has been strategically shaved and then dolled up with a cheap blonde wig and too much make up. It would hardly be the most disturbing fetish any of those creeps have displayed.
Citizen Alan
@Gretchen: I assume the issue was bathrooms near the floor for the convenience of MoCs when voting is ongoing and they don’t have time to go back to their offices (some of which, IIRC, are in a different building than the actual Congress building).
lowtechcyclist
@Sure Lurkalot:
That’s a good reference, I’m sure (I doubt I’ll read through it all), but the point I was making was that there needs to be a way of keeping the genuinely worst Trump initiatives in plain view on a continuous basis in order to focus on them, to reduce the extent we run after every last new thing they throw into the public discourse.
ETA:
Back in 2016-17, I had a higher opinion of the WaPo than I do now. Hell, they even somewhat deserved it while Marty Baron was the editor-in-chief.
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: They also compartmentalize socialist programs from which they benefit from “Socialism” as a GOP boogie-man.
Keep the government’s hands off my Medicare! Get rid of Obamacare but leave my ACA benefits!
Fucking idiots.
dc
@Citizen Alan: The point of all this is to stir up hate and get attention. The object of this hate knows that.
https://www.comicsands.com/clymer-mace-transgender-women-capitol?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=infeed&utm_campaign=linkprogram
Citizen Alan
@The Audacity of Krope: They are addicted to the dopamine rush of being constantly angry. I am trying to wean myself off of it. I have finally deleted my Facebook account because it existed only to piss me off. Ironically, it was almost never conservatives anymore because I had pared my Facebook friends list down to about 25 people. Rather, it was Cosplay Marxists who infested my feed because I have one self-professed Communist friend who hit Like on every single Communist and DSA meme that crossed his path and it would show up to piss me off.
Still trying to figure out how to delete my Twitter account.
rikyrah
🖤@[email protected]💛 (@Penny_J_Thomas) posted at 11:16 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Question…
Why is it the white working class need special messaging?
(https://x.com/Penny_J_Thomas/status/1859284599022498105?s=03)
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 11:35 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
That’s actually a good question.
None of the white people who keep saying this have an explanation beyond the code words; none of them acknowledge that the working class as a whole will become majority-minority by the end of the decade.
So why worry about only the white people
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1859289575581155413?s=03)
rikyrah
ProPublica (@propublica) posted at 7:00 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
ProPublica recently reported on two women — Josseli Barnica and Nevaeh Crain — who died in Texas after they couldn’t access timely reproductive care.
Now, more than 100 Texas OB-GYNs have signed a letter blaming their deaths on the state’s laws.
https://t.co/Dc4EQ9ubAq
(https://x.com/propublica/status/1859220224404255036?s=03)
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 11:28 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
In a way, patriarchy is more vocal than racism because only patriarchy is universally open about loving it when women lose something. It’s vile.
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1859287626592944219?s=03)
Dorothy A. Winsor
As many of you know, I live in an over-55 condo building. My book club of 11 women recently discussed a book with a trans character, and it emerged that two of us have trans women among our friends and family. That seems high, given how low the percentage is, but it’s certain. The discussion, btw, was respectful and curious.
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: There’s a close House election near you, in CA16 (I think). Democrat Adam Gray has closed to within 250 votes of Republican Rep. John Duarte with 94% of the votes counted. Gray was down 2200 votes yesterday.
In 2022, Duarte won the district by less than 1000 votes.
Ed. Gray and Duarte are running in the 13th CD, not the 16th. And per Wikipedia, Rep. Duarte is a “businessman and pistachio farmer.” I think it’s time the 58 year-old Duarte spent more time with his nuts.
rikyrah
Ari Berman (@AriBerman) posted at 9:27 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Last night gerrymandered NC GOP House passed massive power grab in lame duck session stripping power from Dem gov & AG and giving GOP control over state and county election boards. Incredibly dangerous and anti-democratic https://t.co/QTFjZ5jrUc
(https://x.com/AriBerman/status/1859257380803936460?s=03)
Citizen Alan
@rikyrah: I have long maintained that most anti-choice people secretly hold that position because deep down they know they are utterly awful people, and the idea of socially acceptable abortion causes them existential angst because they know the world would demonstrably be a better place if their mothers had aborted them.
The Audacity of Krope
@Citizen Alan: Again going back to people people being more discerning about their information; if people knew what socialism was, that wouldn’t work. Nowhere in a simple definition of socialism is the government even mentioned.
We treat learning like it’s something you finish in this country. You just don’t. We grow as a society by sharing knowledge, but people get by thinking they know everything. Meanwhile informal avenues of learning are weak and formal education for adults is treated as a privilege.
The point of view that it’s better to understand things and be open is central to our sides’ argument. We need to make learning be perceived as cool again.
This should be doable. Learning can be empowering, lucrative, awe inspiring, social, and I could probably go on.
Take “woke” back.
rikyrah
Drew Comments (@sjs856) posted at 8:56 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Education and expertise magically became “elitist” once Black people acquired them
(https://x.com/sjs856/status/1859249398657483158?s=03)
rikyrah
Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) posted at 10:12 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Same Republicans who say they live in fear for their teenage daughter going into a bathroom with a trans woman…
would be perfectly fine leaving that same teenage daughter alone with Matt Gaetz.
(https://x.com/acnewsitics/status/1859268676865675639?s=03)
p.a.
Open thread, so here’s a WTF. Chinese boat in Baltic may have purposefully cut two submarine fiber optic cables…???
https://www.tumblr.com/mapsontheweb/767683488845611008/danish-navy-intercepted-chinese-ship-linked-to
Citizen Alan
@Geminid: Near is a relative term. CA-16 is on the coast and appears to be over 200 miles from Fresno, which is deep in the heart of (Califfippi? Missifornia?).
rikyrah
Jen Psaki told Tim Miller that Democrats need to stop being the party of white coastal elites —
I agree so shouldn’t Jen give up her TV show to a non coastal elite who can speak the language of the working class?
Country over career![]()
(https://x.com/BanquoDyar/status/1859140685028626449?s=03)
Citizen Alan
@The Audacity of Krope: Your argument presumes that the other side is arguing in good faith but is simply misinformed and ignorant. That is incorrect. They scream that we Democrats are SOSHULISTS because in 2024, they know they can’t get away with openly calling us race traitors. The GOP would overwhelmingly support Scandinavian style Socialism if only white people got it.
lowtechcyclist
@Baud:
Or if you’re current on your vaccinations, that might explain it too. ;-)
The Audacity of Krope
While absolutely correct, they aren’t my concern. I’m talking about Janet and John Workaday.
Geminid
@Citizen Alan: Yeah, I got the CD number wrong. It’s the 13th CD, which looks like it’s adjacent to Fresno.
TBone
@rikyrah: those NC bastards snuck it into a hurricane relief bill! 😤🤬
Linky:
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2024/11/the-north-carolina-gop-just-snuck-a-massive-anti-democratic-power-grab-into-a-hurricane-relief-bill/
The Audacity of Krope
@TBone: The daring, the chutzpah, the gall, the unmitigated…I’m out.
Redshift
@Sister Golden Bear: One pivot I’ve seen that I’d be interested in your opinion of – “if you think you need to be afraid of men pretending to be women to sneak into women’s restrooms, you have a problem with men, not with trans people.”
It feels like it’s a way not to ignore the attack, but not to fight it on their terms, but I don’t assume I know enough to be sure.
TBone
@The Audacity of Krope: article says the NC Senate is expected to pass the bill TODAY.
Geminid
@p.a.: There is a lot of reporting on that particular ship. It sounds like the cable-cutting vessel was Russsian manned and only recently was transferred to nominal Chinese control.
The Audacity of Krope
@TBone: Bastids.
Bill Arnold
@SiubhanDuinne:
I’ve been using men’s public toilet facilities for many (but fewer) decades, and the experience has been similar.
No genital inspectors at the doors, or at all.
TBone
@The Audacity of Krope: farking corksuckers!
The Audacity of Krope
@TBone: And not those fine, upstanding fahckin cahksuckas like I am.
TBone
@The Audacity of Krope:
The Audacity of Krope
@TBone: 👏👏👏
Subsole
@The Audacity of Krope:
Saw somewhere on the net:
“Why is MAGA angrier after they won? This time, there’s no marches, no wailing Libs, no gnashing teeth, no outrage. Just a flabby, whiny, bitch-made gameshow con-artist with a bad combover who is about to make everything obscenely expensive while chopping everyone’s takehome in half.”
Bill Arnold
@JerseyBeard:
Always. Democrats/liberals are usually quite squeamish about such tactics, even in a tit-for-tat fashion.
It will very shortly be a new era. The Rules of Opposition under authoritarianism (/fascism) are different; ruthlessness (largely within the law, because the law (as interpreted by authorities) very much still applies to the opposition) will be proper behavior.
Subsole
@The Audacity of Krope:
I agree with the sentiment. But…
As someone who is going to be up to my eyeballs in all the rolling outbreaks, in an industry that was left to fend for itself during the last catastrophe and is still crawling out of the last wave of retirements and burnouts…I am less than sanguine.
The Audacity of Krope
@Subsole: Perfect. They don’t even get regard for their ideas as far as I’m concerned.
The Audacity of Krope
Understood entirely. And I don’t look forward to the days that their malpractice and malice catch up with my little circles in life. History needs periodic good, strong reminders that the stove is hot, evidently. Sweating it does no good while I wait for the empirical evidence to add up and dawn to break over Marblehead.
Jon
@artem1s:
I’m guessing Mace would be fine with this, and her proposed rule would allow it. It still separates and others trans women.
Subsole
@rikyrah:
Racism has to at least pretend the chosen women will be co-rulers with their menfolk.
Patriarchy is not so constrained.
EarthWindFire
@Soprano2: Or it could be because they’re afraid tariffs will increase the price of cars and wanted to get one ahead of inauguration day. Tomato, tomahto.
Edit: I see scav got there first.
Subsole
@The Audacity of Krope:
Yeah. I’m basically urging everyone to get every shot they can. Start stocking up on covid tests, N 95s. Any medicine you might need.
It is going to hit us extra hard. The Muslim ban, the deportations…I don’t think people realize how many of our nurses and doctors are immigrants. It is going to have some nasty effects on healthcare in this country…
The Truffle
@WaterGirl: This piece is vague in terms of real alternatives. As for the guy who brays about “the end of the woke agenda”: who wants to bet people are just saying things to him to keep him happy?
Geminid
@Soprano2: My landlord was shopping for a Chevy Bolt in 2020 but held off until after the election because his girlfriend didn’t want him to buy a car and help Trump’s economic statistics. She told Bill she’d stop talking to him if he did. If it had been me, I’d have been down to the Chevy dealer when it opened the next morning.
bluefoot
@Old Man Shadow: thanks for this. It’s essentially where I am. I’m trying to figure out how to build resilience in anticipation of the suffering I (we) will witness and experience. And build strength for getting in the way of what’s to come.
frog
@Starfish (she/her): There is a pool for Senators.
https://www.bustle.com/p/women-senators-say-the-capitol-pool-used-to-be-off-limits-to-them-for-the-most-absurd-reason-8807643
frog
@JerseyBeard:
A merchant’s sale price today has to buy the stock of what he sells tomorrow. Gotta raise the price today to cover the extra expense of a tariff tomorrow.
frog
@rikyrah:
Killed by the state without a trial.
Chief Oshkosh
@rikyrah: Now how am I supposed to figure out how to “deprogram” someone? Seems…unhelpful.
Chief Oshkosh
@BlueGuitarist: Man I wish every Democratic Congressperson was like Jasmine Crocket.
Barry
@artem1s: “these bathroom and locker laws are especially stupid when you take into account that they wouldn’t have prevented priests from being pedophiles or Jerry Sandusky from raping middle school boys in Penn State’s locker rooms.”
More like ‘carefully tailored’
Citizen Alan
@Subsole: I don’t even think it has to do that. Racism is inextricably intertwined with RW Christianity which was invented to justify racism during the slave era. Racist RW women are mostly fine with being subordinate to white RW men so long as their status remains above that of everyone else.
Glidwrith
@rikyrah: I have been talking politics with my bigoted parents for at least twenty years. There’s no change, no give, no gee that’s right!
I can’t reach them. They won’t listen and worse can’t even shut up with the right wing shit. The best I’ve managed is to hang up or make clear that crap is unacceptable and still take the emotional damage with having to face off.
I’ve raised my kids to be better. At least the generational bigotry stops here.
MikefromArlington
All the democrats should accompany her to the toilet and stand guard outside while giving the bird to anyone who confronts them.
evodevo
@Soprano2:
Well, I don’t know about the MAGAts, but we just replaced our farm truck because we figured we wouldn’t be able to when the Trumpian crash hits the country. AND most business people I have interacted with lately are VERY pessimistic about what the economic fallout will be from his touted “policies”. I didn’t inquire about who they voted for LOL
Kayla Rudbek
@Citizen Alan: the GenXers are the children that the Boomers and Silent Generation were trying not to have, and are more conservative and cynical than previous generations. There’s something to your argument, I think.
George
@way2blue:
This likely is a dead thread, but I echo your comment that unless a person has dealt with a malignant narcissist–or a sociopath or a psychopath–first hand, then it will be difficult to identify and predict their behavior.
But once a person has dealt with a narcissist, et al., they are easy to spot.
Jacqueline Squid Onassis
If folks want to raise the money for me to visit all the bathrooms at the Capitol early next year, I’m up for it.