Reader Interactions
Commenters
No commenters available.
- @mistermix.bsky.social
- A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
- Another Scott
- apocalipstick
- ArchTeryx
- artem1s
- AWOL
- Baud
- Belafon
- Betty Cracker
- BlueGuitarist
- Brant Lamb
- cain
- CarolPW
- Citizen Alan
- dm
- Emily B.
- Geminid
- Geo Wilcox
- Honus
- Hoodie
- hrprogressive
- Jacel
- Jackie
- JML
- Josie
- JoyceH
- karen marie
- Kathleen
- KatKapCC
- Kelly
- Kristine
- Layer8Problem
- Lily
- Lobo
- lowtechcyclist
- Martin
- Melancholy Jaques
- Old Dan and Little Ann
- Old Man Shadow
- Old School
- Omnes Omnibus
- Princess
- Professor Bigfoot
- prostratedragon
- RaflW
- Ramona
- RevRick
- rikyrah
- Ruckus
- sab
- satby
- sentient ai from the future
- Shakti
- Soprano2
- Steve in the ATL
- Steve LaBonne
- Suzanne
- tam1MI
- TBone
- The Audacity of Krope
- Trivia Man
- Trollhattan
- UncleEbeneezer
- Villago Delenda Est
- villiageidiocy
Filtered Commenters
No filtered commenters available.
Settings
233Comments
Leave a Comment
To reply to more than one person, click the X to save & close the box.
The Audacity of Krope
How dense does hypocrisy need to grow before a black hole consumes the Earth?
rikyrah
Candidly Tiff (@tify330) posted at 11:25 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Republican code words:
Woke = Black
DEI = Black, POC, Women, LGBTQ
CRT = Black History
They use coded words because they don’t want to be judged but we know what they mean. Yet Dems are like no “identity politics” you fools just play right into their hands. I am sick of it.
(https://x.com/tify330/status/1859287017332391949?t=H7L7SXYLA0iDXRFOopCYgA&s=03)
RevRick
@rikyrah: There’s no identity politics quite like white identity politics.
karen marie
Will there be a genetic test booth outside of the House bathrooms? Can we see the results for Nancy Mace? She may be female but she’s no lady.
Steve LaBonne
@RevRick: – That’s some catch, that unmarked-category catch.
– It’s the best there is!
Steve LaBonne
Jen Sorenson’s latest, great as always.
Belafon
@rikyrah: Because I can’t click on the link at work, I’m curious what evidence is being used in support of
ArchTeryx
My hope remains the same. That Sarah McBride tells Johnson and the Bathroom Police to go stuff their heads up each other’s asses and use the women’s room like she is legally entitled to do. What is he going to do, tell the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest her? Her reaction should be, “Bring it on, motherfuckers.”
Call a press conference. Have the whole country witness Johnson having someone arrested for using a bathroom. And if that fails, piss on his desk.
Belafon
I think Democratic women should ask why Johnson gets to control their bathroom.
Professor Bigfoot
@rikyrah: White people never have had any problem with “identity politics” as long as the “identity” was straight white Christian male.
KatKapCC
I hope Rep McBride pees in a bottle and then tosses it in Johnson’s and Mace’s faces.
ArchTeryx
@Belafon: The House majority sets the rules of that session of Congress, but this is an abuse of power that I don’t think should be allowed to stand. It’s time to make some good trouble. Using a bathroom is a human right that has gone without legal protection way, way too long.
Republican speakers have long abused their power. Anyone remember the hearings in the House basement where Democrats were herded into, then that smarmy shit Paul Ryan had the lights and microphones turned off and they walked out of the meeting? I do. The Majority Leader of the House can get away with a lot of things, but that should be a bridge way too far.
Trollhattan
They should also ban “sex pests” from all women’s rooms.
rikyrah
Mr. Weeks (@WonderKing82) posted at 8:44 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
No matter how many times we congratulate Trump voters, they turn around and transform into a very angry person. We can’t even say congratulations to y’all? Why, aren’t you happy for new policies and cabinet nominees? Don’t dare say, we hope he’s a very successful president.
(https://x.com/WonderKing82/status/1859065234746388900?s=02)
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 0:10 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
“rhetorical segregation”:
~when white people engage in closed-caste, all-white conversations when POC are present but at the same time never once speaking to them
the technique is meant to motivate whites to think & act in ways that shut out all others, and on purpose
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1859116976162914761?s=02)
rikyrah
Brian Rosenwald (@brianros1) posted at 7:28 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
Democrats need to start making clear to the Teamsters, the firefighters, and other unions that if they’re going to be bipartisan, Democrats will no longer be killing themselves to protect union interests.
(https://x.com/brianros1/status/1859046199975964958?s=02)
Kristine
If every GOP member of the House submitted to chromosomal testing, I bet there would be more than a few surprises.
rikyrah
I have no sympathy. Because, when they thought they different things, they knew SOMEONE was benefitting from Obamacare, and they didn’t give a second thought to voting to take that away from someone else…
so, phuck them.
👑 Mr. Weeks 👑 (@WonderKing82) posted at 11:47 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
Y’all, they’re crying on tik tok because they thought Obamacare and Affordable Care Act were two different things…. lmaoo … whats so sad a lot of them pre-existing conditions… someone voted for Trump not realizing it was Obamacare protecting his mother with stage 4 cancer.
(https://x.com/WonderKing82/status/1859111429028065684?s=02)
TBone
@Trollhattan: somehow the word “pests” in that context strikes me as diminishing the intent of the term. It is too mild. It relates to “pestering.”
Predators is what they are.
Honus
@ArchTeryx: who’s going to check? And how do you tell?
Think about the logistics of this for a minute. Make Johnson explicitly define what exactly is transgender.
rikyrah
Gary Chambers (@GaryChambersJr) posted at 4:54 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
I joined @Bakari_Sellers for the post-election WTF episode of his podcast, where we unpacked James Carville’s comments about identity politics.
Let’s be real—anyone saying Trump didn’t use identity politics is lying. His entire strategy was weaponizing identity to divide people into groups and pit them against one another.
Carville and those who think like him are exactly why we’re failing to connect with Black voters. It’s why 15 million fewer people voted in 2024. Sure, a broken clock is right twice a day, so he sprinkles in just enough facts to seem logical—and mainstream media keeps giving him a platform. Meanwhile, I beat the Democrat he backed in the U.S. Senate race after he called me an idiot.
I don’t hold a grudge against the old man. My issue is with the folks who still listen to him.
At some point, you have to ask: are they Elders, or just Old? Elders offer wisdom and genuinely invest in the next generation. Old people pick favorites and label everyone else as clueless.
This “Carville logic” infects too many consultants, and it’s part of why turnout keeps dropping. Yes, we need a strong economic message, but we also need to embrace the diversity of this nation unapologetically. We need to deliver for the real working class—Black, white, brown, and everyone in between.
People show up for leaders who make them feel seen and heard. Until we get that, we’ll keep losing ground.
… https://t.co/wsj57hHS2k
(https://x.com/GaryChambersJr/status/1859007470364225899?s=02)
Omnes Omnibus
@rikyrah: As I said on BlueSky: I am working very hard to be a good person in situations like this, but it can be difficult.
Geminid
@Belafon: I think this refers to remarks made yesterday by Michigan Senator-elect Elissa Slotkin.
ArchTeryx
@Honus: I wouldn’t put it above him to station the Sergeant-at-Arms at the bathroom specifically to keep Rep. McBride out. As she’s the only transgendered person in the House at the moment, it’d be far too easy to do.
That doesn’t mean she should respect it. At all. Shove him out of the way and use it anyway. Be ready to call that press conference. Make good trouble. That’s what you do when confronted with abuses of power.
Villago Delenda Est
All these vile individuals will someday face their Place de la Concorde.
hrprogressive
@ArchTeryx:
Co-signed. It’s all performative bullshit, and if it isn’t, it’ll get tons of negative press coverage
TBone
@Villago Delenda Est: it’s a comforting thought. Hope I live to see it.
ArchTeryx
@rikyrah: Yeah, they were doing that in 2017, too, The House’s response was to hold a kegger on live TV to celebrate the millions of deaths, including of their own people, that they had just unleashed.
Try to imagine what the death toll during COVID would have been like with no ACA and Medicaid block-granted at best and repealed at worst.
rikyrah
Booker G. Washington (@BookerGWash) posted at 4:21 PM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
Notice how nobody is saying “voting is a scam” now that Trump won?
Voting always works just fine, when Republicans and white conservatives win.
(https://x.com/BookerGWash/status/1858999175503081937?t=RObyF_RqxU1MRns7fbWM-A&s=03)
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: Meanwhile, the Rethugs embrace the identity politics of white male straight “Christian” nationalists who are racist, xenophobic choads.
rikyrah
Donald Trump is a white DEI hire (@Needle_of_Arya) posted at 11:08 AM on Tue, Nov 19, 2024:
see and perceive in real time that the white far left is popping champagne over Trump’s victory as if they themselves were MAGA Republicans
Republicans in (total) power (thos time, for maybe decades) give them life, as now, the grift can continue
(https://x.com/Needle_of_Arya/status/1858920263280168986?t=8QntJSzv8OmzP4hXM7dtsA&s=03)
prostratedragon
@Kristine: Finding your roots …
Villago Delenda Est
@rikyrah: The election of Democrats is ironclad proof of voter fraud. Always.
Betty Cracker
@Belafon: Maybe it’s stuff like this comment from Sen.-elect Elissa Slotkin, D-MI:
I think I know what she’s getting at, but I can also see why people perceive it as a call to throw coalition members under the bus.
Old Man Shadow
Okay… I don’t know how comfortable she would be doing it, but she should follow Mike Johnson into the men’s room every time he goes there. Greet him loudly every time.
Old Man Shadow
Why is it just politics when white people vote for their own identity issues and identity politics when other groups do the same?
KatKapCC
I wonder if they’re also going to force her to follow the dress code for men? Like, how far are they gonna take this shit?
Villago Delenda Est
Never forget that Carville sleeps with a Sith Apprentice.
KatKapCC
@Betty Cracker: “Identity politics” is not a thing. And the reason you know that is because it is almost always white people complaining about it.
ArchTeryx
@Old Man Shadow: That just gives him the win, validates what they are asserting and puts herself at risk. Do Not Obey. That’s how you make good trouble.
Honus
@ArchTeryx: again, how exactly does he know she’s “transgender”? Has he examined her? Is he taking her self-identity as such as proof? Has he obtained her medical records, which would be clearly criminally illegal?
And since the ban can’t be a bill of attainder, how will it be enforced against other transsexuals? If they want to use the “assigned at birth” standard, fine, then I want to see the birth certificate of everyone that uses the congressional facilities, each time they enter
To be clear, I’m not trying to be technical, just pointing out how stupid Johnson and this bigotry is.
ArchTeryx
@KatKapCC: However much Rep. McBride lets them get away with it.
RaflW
@The Audacity of Krope: It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but it seems like a bit more than half the current voters just do not care one whit about hypocrisy.
And I say this not to point out any one BJ commenter, but to say that at least as a point of trying to peel off swing voters, I’m not at all sure it gets any traction.
Kvetching about hypocrisy to just marvel and bemoan, that’s fine with me.
The Audacity of Krope
Any bathroom
ArchTeryx
@Honus: Bills of Attainder are passed laws, not House rules. The Majority Leader, with majority backing, could insist they all vote naked if he wanted. He can, unfortunately, make a rule targeting a specific individual and trying to argue semantics isn’t going to change that.
I’ll die on the hill that the only answer is open disobedience. It’s time to take a stand.
The Audacity of Krope
💯
KatKapCC
@ArchTeryx: I don’t think that’s a fair way to word it. You’re making it sound like she’s to blame for what they’re doing if she doesn’t put up enough of a fight. She’s one person just trying to do her job. She’s probably dealt with this crap ever since she came out (not sure when that was). And most of the time, transphobia is notably intractable. What exactly do you think she can do against the whole GOP
It is the Democratic Party as a whole that ought to be fighting this, not McBride alone.
Omnes Omnibus
@Old Man Shadow: Maybe we shouldn’t be calling for marginalized people to do performative gestures for us. She will do what she thinks is right.
RaflW
@Old Man Shadow: White people: “Your identity makes me uncomfortable about my politics.”
ArchTeryx
@KatKapCC: She’s not going up against the whole GOP. She’s going up against two bigots who think they can dictate the use of the members’ bathrooms.
But she absolutely should have the backing of Hakeem Jeffries and the Democratic caucus, or as many of them as can be rallied. When you’re making good trouble, the more, the merrier
If the rest of the GOP caucus tries to gang up on her (which they probably will), that’s when Rep. Jeffries needs to get involved. But she needs to initiate it.
Omnes Omnibus
@KatKapCC: She has asked Congressional Dems not to make a huge fuss.
KatKapCC
@ArchTeryx: While I’m sure there are some in the GOP who aren’t in support of this crap, it is most certainly not only Johnson and Mace who are.
@Omnes Omnibus: Right, but if she tries to use the bathroom and starts getting screamed at and attacked, I would hope they would say something rather than twiddling their thumbs.
sentient ai from the future
powerful people, of any party or type, complaining about “identity politics” are bosses insisting that employees dont need a union, they can just negotiate their own pay and benefits individually.
ArchTeryx
@Omnes Omnibus: Especially performative gestures that would do no good. I’m just one guy with a bunch of transgendered folks in my found family that knows how to make good trouble over shit like this. I hope that Rep. McBride has equally good people advising her.
Baud
If she doesn’t take a shit on Mike Johnson’s desk, I’m voting for Jill Stein.
ArchTeryx
Self-deleted
Betty Cracker
@KatKapCC: Another way of looking at it that doesn’t contradict your statement: ALL politics is identity politics. Here’s another statement from Slotkin (same source as linked above):
As someone pointed out on Bluesky, invoking the “assembly line” and conveying disdain for the “faculty lounge” is also a form of identity politics.
That said, I think I understand what Slotkin is saying, and it’s not throw POC, women, the LGBTQ community, etc., under the bus. I believe her point is that voters don’t necessarily think about themselves in the same context or use the same language as activists do.
Ramona
@ArchTeryx: She should flash the sergeant in arms if he tries to stop her from entering the bathroom. That would confuse the fuck out of him!
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
I could probably word smith her statement, but I agree that’s likely what she meant.
ETA: I have felt there’s an increasing disconnect between activists and voters.
Steve LaBonne
@Omnes Omnibus: All of the antiracism training I have had has made it clear that my job as an ally is to follow the lead of marginalized people, and certainly not to tell them what they “should” be doing.
The Audacity of Krope
@KatKapCC: Shorter: trust her to navigate her own life. It’s politics to us, she’s living it.
apocalipstick
@rikyrah:
Unions voted overwhelmingly for Harris.
Baud
@apocalipstick:
Union leadership did. Members, probably not, although I haven’t seen stats.
Geminid
@Betty Cracker: I think Rep. Slotkin got it right, at least in principle. People are very wary of the practical applications these post-election takes though, and there is a tendency to wonder, “What did Slotkin really mean?”
But I assume Michigan Democrats chose Slotkin to run for Senator because she would be an effective legislator, not some wise pundit, so I’m not going to worry about her remarks concerning “identity politics” unless she makes this some sort of a crusade, which I doubt she will.
Personally, I favor retiring the concept of “identity politics” because I’ve heard complaints about it for years now and the critics can’t really explain what it means.
I don’t hear it’s proponents explain it either. In fact, I’m not sure there are any proponents. It’s what I call a “straw herring.”
RaflW
@rikyrah: I have very little good to say about anybody still doing politics that got introduced to the nation via Bill Clinton’s runs for high office.
Bill was an okay president for his times. Not great, but ok. It is well past time for folks like
SkeletorCarville to retire quietly to their pipe and fireplace.Suzanne
@KatKapCC: Agree. As much as we would enjoy her standing up to these bullies…. she’s elected to do a job for her constituents. And the GOP is trying to make this a big dividing issue and play into culture war bullshit.
ArchTeryx
@Baud: I think it hugely depended on the union. White trade unions always went pretty heavily for Trump IIRC. Service-oriented unions, which are mainly BIPOC, went overwhelmingly for Clinton and Biden.
Baud
@Geminid:
As always, the question is how we deal with the fact that anything we do to protect people from unjust treatment will be labeled by Republicans as identity politics.
Trivia Man
@ArchTeryx: I remember an incident like that from Sensenbrenner. Another WI jackass, he was committee chair of that meeting.
KatKapCC
@Betty Cracker: True. It’s weird how people want to act like you only have an identity if that identity is a minority.
apocalipstick
@rikyrah:
That’s a real part of this issue: working class isn’t just white. Most fold in my neck of the woods assume that all Black people are in the NBA or on welfare. They literally do not understand that Black people work at jobs.
Josie
@ArchTeryx:
It’s easy for someone who is not in the situation to argue for what they think should be done. A better way to look at it is to find out how the person involved wants to handle it and support them in that decision.
Omnes Omnibus
@KatKapCC: Both Clark and Jeffries have made statements already. I am sure they will fight if it comes to it. Let’s not condemn them until they fail.
The Audacity of Krope
@Baud: Worth noting that different unions likely voted differently as well.
Honus
ArchTeryx
The reason I speak the way I do is because I’ve faced this very situation. I’ve got Crohn’s Disease. That requires me some times to seek out bathrooms with little time to argue. Because of all the anti-homeless initiatives or liability issues, many businesses will not let customers use their bathroom. In Michigan, I actually was given a card that gave me the right to use ANY bathroom in a public accommodation – including private businesses. Some of them tried to bar me anyway. So I made good trouble and dared them to arrest me – and break the law protecting my right to use a bathroom. The fines for breaking that were quite hefty. They inevitably backed down.
New York, blue state or none, has no such law, but occasionally I have to do this anyway. I tell ’em either they let me use a bathroom or I shit right there on their floor, because my body won’t allow anything else. It works a surprising amount of the time.
I can’t say what the right move for McBride would be. I know what I’d do, because I’ve used the technique successfully. But her situation is different. Still, if they physically try and bar her from using a bathroom, then I don’t see much choice BUT to make good trouble.
sentient ai from the future
at this point in history, even using the phrase “identity politics” is a right-wing dogwhistle, much like “politically correct” anytime after about 1992.
it is a surrender to right-wing framing.
it is giving up on shared struggle for equality. it is the denial that there might exist people who have a comparable or even more serious claim to redress of grievances than you do, based on historical harm.
if thats not what you mean by the phrase, use a different fucking phrase.
Baud
@The Audacity of Krope:
Agreed.
villiageidiocy
@ArchTeryx: I suggest that all the (D) women reps should use the men’s room. Record their arrests. Pick a day and time to do it at the same time. Baffle them with a public display of obstinancy. Do it with dignity and let them gnash and wail. Do not take this passively, but respond with the public statement it requires.
KatKapCC
@Omnes Omnibus: Not condemning, just hoping. And damn it, I really wish people weren’t so frigging hateful that this has to even be a thing.
Suzanne
@apocalipstick:
Do you have data on this to share? (Not snark, legit question.) The data I saw — which is from early days — was that she lost a lot of union support, that union members appear to have voted almost exactly the way the electorate did as a whole.
I am also in western PA, and it appears that construction tradesmen went significantly for Trump, even if their union endorsed Harris. That makes me skeptical that unions are effective partners.
Baud
Equal dignity politics is probably a more accurate phrase.
Belafon
@rikyrah: Thanks. Yes, I am tired of the people who think we’re going to win a middle by being bipartisan. That has not moved anything. I don’t mind, like how Biden did, calling for bipartisan but still pursuing policies without believing the other side will be there. But trying to govern by choosing bipartisan first isn’t going to work.
Geo Wilcox
@karen marie: Mace is just jealous because McBride is far more attractive than she is.
Lily
If my hope came true, all D members + at least all R members with trans friends, families, employees, teachers, doctors, nurses, pet and child sitters, baristas (…), would simultaneously block entrances to every off-limits bathroom at noon. Repeating whenever they can.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: I sort of like that phrasing.
KatKapCC
@Baud: I like it.
Belafon
@Baud: I’m sure the UAW union where I worked voted for Trump.
Honus
@ArchTeryx: rather than taking the position that another person should individually take the risk of openly disobeying an unfair rule, I prefer to attack the perpetrator of the unfairness and stupidity, and to oppose the rule on its obvious lack of merit.
Betty Cracker
@Baud: “Fairness” could work too. Or “freedom,” as in your color, gender, etc., shouldn’t limit your freedom. I think Gretchen Whitmer used that sort of language to blunt the culture war bullshit and win a trifecta, and Harris-Walz leaned into it as well. I don’t think the latter example means it doesn’t work. With the benefit of hindsight, I think it was always going to be a steep uphill climb to win in 2024. That it was as close as it was is a testament to the great campaign Harris and Walz ran.
Kathleen
@Omnes Omnibus: Oh, why not? Preemptive criticism of Dem cowardice and perfidy is a lucrative business model – a subsidiary of “Demonize Dems LLC”.
Baud
@Betty Cracker:
Freedom doesn’t work for things like anti discrimination laws, where you’re restricting the freedom to be bigoted in order to enhance the freedom of others to exist in society. Fairness is fine.
Another Scott
Assistant Speaker Clark – Request for Gender Neutral Bathrooms on Capitol Grounds (from June 2022).
Architect of the Capitol – Single Occupancy Restrooms List.
It includes House office buildings.
Not to minimize this horrible punching down, but there are (AFAIK) still alternative facilities so Mace and Johnson don’t necessarily get to choose the time and place of the response. We don’t have to fight them on their timeline.
Corrections welcome.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Kathleen:
👍
Lobo
As someone stated, it might be easier to go from the general to the specific. I like going from shared interests/values to the specific. For example in this case,
Interest: We respect the humanity of everyone and build upon inclusivity.
Specific: In this case, we support transgendered persons in living their life with dignity and respect.
Therefore: All restrooms should be gender neutral. In fact, all facilities should be gendered neutral to the broadest practical extent.
Forgive me, if I didn’t articulate that in the best way.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kathleen: This is why I am not rich.*
*Well, one of many reasons.
Belafon
@Josie: Which, right now, is what Democrats are doing. They asked her what she wanted, and right now it is to not bite.
rikyrah
Republican-led Bill Would Give Trump the Power to Squash Arts Nonprofits
Everyone from museums and nonprofit galleries to universities and art publications should be concerned.
Hrag Vartanian19 hours ago
Elections have consequences. The House, which will continue to be under the control of Republicans along with the Senate and the White House next year, is already considering a new bill, the so-called Stop Terror-Financing and Tax Penalties on American Hostages Act (or HR 9495), which would grant the US secretary of the treasury the power to strip nonprofits of their tax-exempt status if they’re designated to be a “terrorist-supporting” organization — essentially allowing the Trump administration to arbitrarily target nonprofits viewed as political enemies.
Introduced by Republican Representative Claudia Tenney of a district in Western and Upstate New York that hugs Lake Ontario, the bill has been described by Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O’Brien as troubling because it provides no safeguards to prevent it from being misused to harass or intimidate organizations for exercising their rights. “In any other context, this legislation would be seen for what it is, a play from the authoritarian leader’s playbook,” he said in a statement.
https://hyperallergic.com/967860/republican-led-bill-hr-9495-would-give-trump-the-power-to-squash-arts-nonprofits/
Jacel
How sweeping is Johnson’s decree? Does it only apply in the Capitol to one elected representatives? Or does it also lock out a greater number of staffers and visitors from any bathroom in the facility?
Soprano2
I’ve felt this way for a long time. Activists push their specific ideas, but if voters don’t think those ideas will improve their lives they don’t seem to care about them even if they’d have long-term benefits. How many people will realize that the IRA Biden got passed has improved their lives – probably not too many. We need to do a better job of connecting these things in voter’s minds.
Melancholy Jaques
@Steve LaBonne:
No cable show is going to have you on as a guest pundit with that attitude.
Martin
I don’t know even what we are doing.
Trump ally says the president-elect has begun a “hostile takeover” of Washington
The president-elect has disregarded nearly all the customs typically associated with a peaceful transfer of power
If they are telling us openly that they are defying the rules and order, why is that not a call for the public to openly resist this? It seems to me there are no conditions that will cause the public to actually push back – we’re going to let everyone including the media and others tell us this is fine, they will fight this through the conventional institutions. How? If the rules of the conventional institutions are being ignored, you cannot fight according to those rules. Voting against a nominee in Congress only works if there’s a vote, and it only works if should the vote fail, the candidate isn’t put in that agency anyway, and if they refuse to stand down, who is going to stop them? Nobody has the authority to physically remove an unconfirmed head of DOJ who isn’t controlled either by the unconfirmed head of DOJ or the guy who put him there. We’re being told that the rules we set up, we voted for, for 200 years are out the window and they will decide what rules suits them.
These people are not going to respond to snarky comments and social media posts, not strongly worded letters by our representatives.
Layer8Problem
@Martin: You going to be the first to call for a general strike?
Another Scott
Meanwhile, CookPolitical.com‘s latest numbers:
Harris: 74,296,538 48.24%
DJT: 76,831,007 49.89%
Total: 154,011,806
Difference: 2,524,469 (1.64% of the total)
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
AWOL
They’re insane and beyond therapy and will do a thing or two to outrage people of conscious every nanosecond.
We don’t have to react to every provocation and destroy our minds and bodies and each other.
That’s what they want.
This is a Civil Rights issue. There’s a template for dealing with it. X-ref Black People. As for this particular issue itself, it’ll take years to resolve.
I’m sure Ms. McBride has a plan to deal with these bastards. For one, I’m sure she knows all bullies are cowards.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: Is anyone suggesting that our snarky posts here are stopping Trump?
TBone
@KatKapCC: Ask Senator Jawn Fetterman! He was forced to comply.
Baud
@AWOL:
Agree. They want to lead us by the nose.
Layer8Problem
@Omnes Omnibus: Snarky posts are all very well, but they won’t know we mean business until the serious hand-wringing starts.
Omnes Omnibus
@Layer8Problem: Martin has been in the burn it all down caucus for a while now.
Another Scott
@Martin: People can say anything. Instantly jumping at everything some flunky for some monster says is a good way to burn out everyone on our side.
Biden is still President for 61 more days.
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
apocalipstick
@Baud:
Union households voted for Harris 55/43.
karen marie
@sentient ai from the future: Thank you.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
He’ll get his wish, because that is what Trump and the Republicans will do.
Baud
@apocalipstick:
Thanks. What’s your source?
dm
Speaker Johnson’s and Rep. Mace’s obsession with outer people’s genitals is kind of creepy.
Villago Delenda Est
@Geminid: “Identity politics” means Blacks having a right to vote.
Trollhattan
@Baud:
Because tariffs give them a pretext to raise prices, they will raise them beyond what’s necessary and then see elevated revenues and profits as consumers stagger at the wallet. Our commerce secretary will be thrilled with every little detail then go hunt for more things to tariff.
Can remember candidate Trump lecturing us on how the nation hit by tariffs pay the cost of those tariffs. Already memory-holed.
Martin
@Layer8Problem: Nobody is going to listen to me.
karen marie
@Baud: It’s going to be “supply chain” price increases all over again. Companies are going to raise prices greater than and sooner than necessary. I can’t wait to see how Republicans blame it on Democrats.
KatKapCC
@TBone: But that’s a completely different situation. Asking a man not to wear shorts and a hoodie to what is essentially their office is one thing and is not bigotry of any kind. Forcing a woman to wear a man’s suit because they refuse to believe she’s a woman is a whole different issue.
Layer8Problem
@Martin: And yet here we are, engaging with you. Welcome back, by the way.
Martin
@Trollhattan: US corporate profits increased faster than inflation even during the worst period of inflation. Democrats couldn’t be bothered to point out the real reason people were paying more at the store because they’re afraid of pissing off the billionaires as well.
TBone
I’m gonna go watch Lyle, Lyle Crocodile.
Tom Sullivan pointed to where we’re headed with the “tariffs inflation”:
https://digbysblog.net/2024/11/19/chickenization-of-the-economy/
Monopsony.
BlueGuitarist
@Baud:
News consortium exit poll has
2024 Union household vote as
19% of electorate, 53% D, 45% R.
Same 8 point margin as 2016.
2020: 20% of electorate 56% D, 40% R.
apocalipstick
@Suzanne:
Union households went 55/43 for Harris, roughly the same percentage as for Biden.
Baud
@BlueGuitarist:
Appreciate it. Good to see we got a majority of that group.
ETA: Little disappointed it didn’t increase because of Biden’s efforts on labor.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: Aha, I didn’t realize that I had imagined the Dems who were pointing out the increases in corporate profits during that time. It was a stressful time so my hallucinations were probably understandable.
rikyrah
Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) posted at 11:03 AM on Wed, Nov 20, 2024:
Today in Oversight:
Republicans are advancing a bill that would fire all government workers – including Veterans – from offices related to diversity, equity, and inclusion, banning them from being reassigned.
How does firing qualified workers and Veterans improve efficiency?
(https://x.com/RepJasmine/status/1859281302412984689?t=pati59MjR36OOtqb-Tj8ZA&s=03)
Geminid
@Villago Delenda Est: That may be what the phrase means to you, but that’s not what Rep. Slotkin meant.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Didn’t the media mock Harris for proposing a price gouging law to deal with corporate price hikes?
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: No, you imagined that.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
Makes sense. I am AI.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud:
I question the “I” in your statement.
cain
@Martin:
This rings true since it seems like Dem donors were the ones that got the train going for Biden to step down.
Omnes Omnibus
Geminid
@Martin: Will Katie Porter listen to you, or Representative-elect David Min? Your Congress member is in a better position to do something about these dangers than anyone here is. I’m assuming here that you are still in CA47.
cain
@Trollhattan:
But wouldn’t it all collapse when nobody has income? I don’t see how these people can continue to reap profits. Maybe that’s a 2026 Q1 problem, eh?
Old Dan and Little Ann
From an ABC online article. Phrasing! “Gaetz, who was tapped last Wednesday by President-elect Donald Trump”
Martin
@TBone: We are already so close to that. Farmers are fucked because the supply chains they sell into are so consolidated that there’s effectively no competition – and there’s definitely tacit collusion taking place in a wide range of markets from cars to groceries to energy to transportation.
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Have you seen any numbers indicating how Independents voted in this election?
Layer8Problem
@Baud: Goddamnit! I can’t get away from those things!
Baud
@Steve in the ATL:
While AI may not possess human-like consciousness or emotions, it can still demonstrate intelligence in specific tasks. AI systems are designed to process vast amounts of data, recognize patterns, and solve problems within defined domains, often achieving results that surpass human capabilities in speed and accuracy. This type of intelligence is sometimes referred to as “narrow” or “weak” AI because it excels at particular functions (like language processing or playing chess), but it doesn’t exhibit general intelligence or self-awareness like humans do.
The critique that AI is not intelligent often stems from misunderstanding its purpose and limitations. AI’s intelligence is task-specific, and its success depends on how well it’s trained and the complexity of the problem it addresses. While it doesn’t “think” in the same way humans do, it can still perform tasks that are traditionally considered to require intelligence, such as driving a car autonomously or diagnosing diseases from medical images. Thus, AI can be seen as an intelligent tool, capable of solving problems efficiently within the scope for which it is designed.
Belafon
@cain:
1. They don’t get that.
2. They have figured out they can charge higher prices to fewer people to make up the difference.
I have often complained that part of the reason things have gotten more expensive here in the DFW area is that a lot of people don’t actually know how much something should cost.
cain
@rikyrah:
Rich people love donating to non-profits, makes them feel good. It also gives them a nice tax break. I’m not sure they would appreciate seeing their favorite non-profit get screwed.
Ultimately, they can move the non-profit to other countries and so will the taxes income.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not saying _nobody_ did, but why wasn’t there the kind of concerted messaging that resulted in the entire fucking country blaming Biden for the price increases?
I’m not saying ‘a democrat’ didn’t say that. I’m saying ‘Democrats’ didn’t say that – they did not turn their collective focus on corporate profits, Congress did not take actions to address that, they did not campaign on it.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: So it’s not that they didn’t say it, it’s that they didn’t say it the way you wanted them to. That’s a bit different, isn’t it?
Melancholy Jaques
@Soprano2:
My hot take on the last seven presidential elections – along with most of the midterms in between them – is that voters do not vote based on ideas that will improve their lives.
apocalipstick
@Baud:
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/06/harris-democrats-union-harris-votes-00187943
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls?amp=1
https://www.foxnews.com/elections/2024/general-results/voter-analysis
Baud
@apocalipstick:
Thank you.
satby
@Martin: They not only pointed it out, including Pres. Biden; they tried to pass legislation on price gouging that was blocked by Republicans.
lowtechcyclist
Deleted – enough other people already made this point.
Suzanne
@apocalipstick: That’s households, not members. Do we have data on how members voted?
Melancholy Jaques
@Baud:
I can’t tell whether you’re “ay-eye” or a guy named Albert or something.
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
The NBC etc news consortium has independents as
34% of the electorate
D: 49%
R: 46%
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-elections/exit-polls
Baud
@Melancholy Jaques:
We were discussing the need for serifs earlier.
Baud
I still don’t understand why Biden allowed Dobbs to happen. Own goal.
Steve in the ATL
@Melancholy Jaques: once again, sans serif fonts are ruining our lives!
Trollhattan
@cain:
SWAG corporations wish to shed the Biden jobs growth so they can lower pay as people return to competing for shitty jobs.
Unemployment good! Then, if less traffic = fewer sales while price hikes and wage cuts retain their revenue and margins, we have the Trump trifecta.
Layer8Problem
@Baud: A problem he could have solved with the stroke of a pen, but he just didn’t care enough.
Trollhattan
@Baud: If the president had “taken out” a couple key justices before Dobbs was decided, then the remaining justices still declared that nothing a president did could break the law….
I’ll come in again.
lowtechcyclist
@TBone:
I don’t get it. Here’s Tom Sullivan:
I routinely see boneless, skinless chicken breasts on sale for $1.99 a pound, if you don’t mind buying a two or three pound package of them. Maybe what Sullivan describes is happening somewhere, but it’s not happening with chicken.
ETA: Point being that if someone describes a phenomenon but can’t come up with a legit example of it, there’s every reason to be skeptical. Remember “they’re eating the dogs, they’re eating the cats” ? Like that.
JML
@BlueGuitarist: it’s also important to remember that police unions are still considered union households. even if all of us in Labor don’t consider them part of the coalition.
but it’s complicated for unions, unfortunately. union leadership doesn’t have as much control over the rank and file as they used to…and while that’s a good thing (and has prevented old school corruption, moved more women and BIPOC folks into positions of leadership, etc) it’s also meant that endorsements don’t move the needle like they used to for voting behavior. Public sector unions are strongly in favor of democrats (except for cops), but the trades have slipped as union-busting has hampered them, and they’re sold things like pipeline development as a jobs bill to keep members employed. beyond that, they’ve been heavily white and male, and often multi-generational and we’re seeing members vote on cultural issues and fear.
People also underestimate how much it hurt when the non-members of a union stopped having to even pay fair share amounts for contract support. While it didn’t crush membership like the right-wing judges and GOP scum hoped, it did make it easier to free ride
unions aren’t perfect, but we still voted for Harris. (and there ain’t nearly enough of us in places like GA, NC, or AZ…)
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Thanks. I’ll be checking out the numbers for Indies myself before too long, and comparing them to how they voted in 2020. I think Biden-to-Trump Independents were a factor this year but I couldn’t say how big a one.
Ed. Arizona might bear study. There were enough ticket-splitters that Gallego carried the state while Harris did not. Indies, I suspect. They can be a fickle bunch, and Arizona has more registered Independents than Democrats.
BlueGuitarist
@apocalipstick:
hmm
Interesting.
Since you had different numbers from the NBC/news consortium exit poll, i looked at the Fox “new”/Associated Press analysis, which has:
Union Members 11% of the electorate, 57% D, 41% R.
Union member in household but not union member:
7% of the electorate 50% D, 48% R
And combining both as union household:
18% of the electorate, 54% D, 44% R.
(tried to find it from AP instead of Fox, but that might take a little more time)
https://www.foxnews.com/elections/2024/general-results/voter-analysis
karen marie
@TBone: Shit. Last time I got air in my tires, the tire guy said I need new tires based on their age. I laughed. But I guess I’d better do it now.
Another Scott
@Baud: (Haven’t clicked the link.)
(Not shooting the messenger here.)
Wouldn’t it be incompetence of their management if they weren’t working on plans to address possible tariffs on the goods they sell? Don’t they claim to be worth their giant pay packets because they’re always looking ahead for strategic dangers to the business?
(March earnings call with investors: “No, we didn’t read any of the news that DJT wanted to put giant tariffs on imported goods. We were completely blindsided!” Stocks drop 50% and institutional investors demand that the board and management be fired, etc., etc.)
I’m reminded the the US military had plans to go to war with the British Empire. Planning doesn’t mean that it will happen, but planning for all kinds of things is routinely done by large organizations.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott:
Of course. They’re not going to eat the increased costs solely out of their profits.
KatKapCC
@Old Dan and Little Ann: Reminds me of an article a while back that said something about Putin’s initial goal in the war was capturing Kyiv and “topping Zelensky’s government” and I was like…I do not think that is the word you meant to use there, buddy man.
BlueGuitarist
@Geminid:
Most people who say they are independents are partisans, so surveys often ask a follow up about leaning to a party, with most people indicating leaning to a party, and the remainder are “pure independents.”
That Fox analysis i mentioned above (at least at a quick glance) doesn’t report the independents/leaners separately, just puts the leaners with their party, so has independents as
6% of the electorate, 48% Harris, 42% r
https://www.foxnews.com/elections/2024/general-results/voter-analysis
sentient ai from the future
@Baud: if you can’t debug it, it’s a liability, not an asset.
TBone
@TBone: Didn’t make it through Lyle very long! Not my cuppa T.
TBone
@karen marie: I would!
Hoodie
@Melancholy Jaques: In my experience, they generally act based on (1) what they think will hurt people with whom they don’t identify and (2) fear about what might happen to them personally. In other words, people tend to be selfish and to lack a broad empathy. Trump exploits both. Exploiting (1) is kind of out of bounds for most liberals (it wasn’t so much for old style Dems), but one mistake the Dems might have made this election is not exploiting (2) enough. When did W really hit the skids? Certainly not when he was killing thousands of Iraqis. No, it was when he threatened Social Security and acted like a deer in the headlights during the financial crisis.
Jackie
@KatKapCC:
Make it a large bottle so there’s enough piss to encompass MTG.
tam1MI
Harris lagging behind Biden’s 2020 numbers by 6,986,963. If she had kept those voters on board she would have won easily. Trump has actually outperformed his 2020 vote totals.
Another Scott
@lowtechcyclist: Relatedly, I recall from a while ago some chicken conglomerate bigwig saying that he wanted someone to come up with a 4 or 6-footed chicken because they can sell every single foot they raise to China and it’s an insatiable market. The meat from the rest of the bird was an afterthought in his story.
Brazil is a big player now.
FWIW.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Martin
@Geminid: Not how Min rolls (I know both of them from when they were teaching). Maybe Katie. Laphonza I think is most likely.
I can’t help but escape this feeling that we’re going to be passive voiced into calamity by the media, and that elected Democrats are too institutional to even consider fighting outside of them. They’ve never deviated from that, nor have we. But we’re being told that there is an explicit effort to operate outside of them and you can only fight that outside of them. I’m not sure elected officials are the right people to turn to here.
I’m experienced fighting inside of institutions, not outside. I’m the kind of guy Trump is trying to fire because I would know how to grind his plans to a halt and would be organizing that effort right now if I was inside. I don’t know how to fight outside of them, how to organize or lead outside of them. I would just go do something stupid and ineffective, get arrested, and that’d be that. But my institutional organizer brain is on fucking fire right now but I’m retired and powerless – and I hate that. I hate that so much.
Baud
Funny
Old School
@lowtechcyclist:
Restaurant chicken.
Skimming through the transcript of the first linked podcast, Wingstop gets mentioned frequently.
Kelly
@Jackie: Peeing into a balloon would be best but seems impractical. More fun to throw.
TBone
@Martin: that’s the point of the article. We’re already there.
Featured at link:
Beak capitalism, Part 1:
https://youtu.be/clra9x1Qvac
Part II:
https://youtu.be/eIdGsAsHjEs?si=Tt_LCpIDeGhAP_zG
Part III:
https://youtu.be/zYLHTlbl50s?si=dKAwm-v35SBbEGLa
Old School
@TBone:
That’s too bad. My daughter used to watch that movie a lot and I was always amused by the antagonist arguing that Lyle wasn’t even that good of a singer. “You’re only impressed because he’s a crocodile!”
Disclaimer: I’ve never watched the entire film.
Martin
@Omnes Omnibus: I give up with you. I should just pie you given how reflexively oppositional you are to anything I post. If you can’t understand the difference between a rant on MSNBC and policy, that’s just you being an asshole. You are smart enough to understand the point if you had an interest in understanding it.
Melancholy Jaques
@Geminid:
Speaking of Katie Porter, it looks like Dave Min managed to keep CA-47 (her former congressional district) blue.
Congratulations to George Whitesides flipped Mike Garcia out of CA-27, a D+ district he should never have won in the first place.
Fingers crossed for Derek Tran who is currently showing a 314 vote lead over odious Republican incumbent Michelle Steel in CA-45.
Geminid
@BlueGuitarist: Polital scientists have done a fair amount of research into Independents and they find pretty much what you describe. Most Independents consistently vote with one party or another even though they are wary of the brand. “True” Indepenfents are a smaller cohort, maybe 10-20% of the larger group.
That’s still enough to swing elections. Wason Center* polls ask Virginia voters to self-identify, and Independents consistently claim a 31-32% share. That would mean around 5% of the Virginia electorate are swing voters.
i thought these voters accounted for much of the 12 point swing from Biden’s 10 point win in 2020 to Youngkin’s 2 point win in 2021. Youngkin’s campaign seemed like it was engineered to attract Independents.
* The Wason Center is affiliated with Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Their polls seem pretty solid (although I haven’t yet read their final poll for this election). Rachel Bitecofer used to design Wason Center polls before she parted ways with CNU in 2020.
Another Scott
@Martin:
With respect, don’t you think that the folks working in the House and the Senate and in federal institutions for decades, the folks like Marc Elias who have been working through the courts, also know how to grind plans to a halt?
I’m not sanguine. There are difficult days ahead.
But just because some politicians make anodyne comments about bipartisanship or are not burning up TikTok with rage videos, doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking and planning for what happens come 1201 PM on January 20.
There are things like the Continuing Resolution expiring on December 20 that have to be considered too. And the Farm Bill. And other things.
Hang in there.
Best wishes,
Scott.
Melancholy Jaques
@Layer8Problem:
I thought all he really needed to do was give a bellicose speech on TV or some other performative bullshit thing. The bully pulpit or the jawbone of an ass or something like that.
UncleEbeneezer
@rikyrah: It’s a shitty bill obviously intended to allow Republicans to declare any group/org they don’t like by branding them as being “terrorist-supporting.” Which would be trivially easy for them to weaponize. But I do kinda have to laugh at the fact that so many of the people I see, rightfully objecting to this, are perfectly fine with doing the exact same thing to “Zionist” organizations, non-profits etc., and calling it BDS and using slightly different language. But it’s the exact same energy, imo.
Shakti
Nancy Mace probably was assaulted and I believe that happened for the simple reason that assault is so very common.
But I do not believe she has any empathy for assault victims outside of herself whatsoever because if she did she would not be a member of the most blatantly pro sexual assault party in living memory. It’s not in the least bit subtle.
She is only interested in mentioning her assault in the context of making the Republican party not look as horrid (maybe we need at least a 6 week ban) or as a bludgeon to push through anti-trans shit.
I have seen stories of women holding their pee and getting UTIs because they were afraid to go to the bathroom and get assaulted (eg this story 2010) But the culprits were other fellow male soldiers who weren’t trans and definitely not gay (or out) in Iraq and Afghanistan. (DADT was in effect from February 28, 1994- September 20, 2011 ; she graduated from the Citadel in 1999. Pioneer!) She’ll probably disown going to the Citadel at this rate.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: If you post something I agree with I won’t be oppositional. I just fundamentally disagree with your basic take on the election.
TBone
@Old School: I prolly didn’t give it a fair chance! Hubby was fidgeting when he realized what I’d gotten us into 😆 and I will try again through On Demand when he’s asleep.
Melancholy Jaques
@tam1MI:
Any idea what MVP Harris might have done to convince those seven motherfucking million people to show up & vote?
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@rikyrah: this!
tam1MI
@rikyrah: I thought that bill already came up for a vote and was narrowly defeated? There was a Wonkette article being passed around here a few days ago about it. Or was that a different bill?
@mistermix.bsky.social
Here’s McBride’s response.
Emily B.
@rikyrah: Seconding this. Call your House reps and tell them to vote NO on HR 9495, which would allow the Treasury Department to end tax-exempt status for any nonprofit that the department claims supports terrorism. The ACLU, the NAACP, the Sierra Club, the American Library Association, and many other nonprofits oppose the bill.
Why hand the incoming administration a tempting new tool that could be used to silence some of the very institutions that we’re counting on to fight autocracy?
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: If Derek Tran pulls this one out I’m calling him “Tsunami Tran.”
The race in California’s 13th CD is tight also. As of this morning AP reported that Democrat Adam Gray had pulled within 300 votes of Republican incumbent Rep. John Duarte, with ~95% of votes counted. Gray was down over 2,000 votes yesterday. The 13th CD is in the Central Valley.
Emily B.
@tam1MI: As per Indivisible:
Last week, Republicans tried to rush through this legislation by voting under a “suspension of the rules.” That meant the bill needed a 2/3 majority to pass.
This week, they’re doing it the standard way, meaning it’ll only need a simple majority to go through. So although we defeated the bill 256-145 the first time around, this time 256 votes will be more than enough to pass it. We cannot assume that everyone who voted “no” last time will stand strong again, and we need to peel away some of those yes votes. So it’s vital we keep up the pressure.
Princess
@KatKapCC: FWIW, Joan of Arc was burnt at the stake for dressing in a gender non-conforming way. After her first trial she was ordered to stop wearing the clothing men wore. They accused her of “relapsing” and had her killed. She was declared a saint in the early 20th century promoted by a right-wing Catholic French nationalist faction.
Geminid
@Melancholy Jaques: Some of those 7 million 2020 Biden did show up, but they voted for Trump. I’m thinking here of Biden-to-Trump Independents.
tam1MI
I have a horrible suspicion that the answer to this is is: “Not be black and female.”
My other thesis was that it was pissed-off Biden voters angry at the way he had been defenestrated making their displeasure known the only way they could.
Either way, there is a very strong possibility that those votes were lost before Harris even started campaigning, and nothing she could have done would have won them back.
KatKapCC
@@mistermix.bsky.social: I’m worried for her if this means she is going to use the men’s room. Because I would not be the least bit surprised if some of the men in there decided to make their feelings about her well known through whatever means possible.
tam1MI
One of the things I wish that elected Dems would point out is that anti-trans bathroom bills are founded on the idea that all men are rapists and that they will gleefully rape women and girls anywhere if given half a chance. I would love to see an elected Dem make a speech that says, “Is Speaker Johnson a rapist? Is Representative Bergman a rapist? Is ex-Representative Gaetz a… oh, never mind, moving on…”
CarolPW
@Kelly: That’s what basters are for.
KatKapCC
@tam1MI: Isn’t it interesting that when women talk about being scared to walk past a man on a dark street or something, we’re screamed at and called man-hating feminazis who think every man is a rapist…
…but then if a woman does get sexually assaulted by that man on the dark street, she’s screamed at and called an idiot for not being more careful.
However, in this case, it’s hinky because it’s impossible to tell if they think trans women are just cis men who are rapists pretending to be trans women to gain access to women (as though the only place rape occurs is in public, multi-stall bathrooms open only during the day where other people are coming in and out all the time) or if they do to some degree think that trans women are different from cis men but that said difference is that they are all psychotic perverts or something.
Trollhattan
@Another Scott:
So frickin’ weird but maybe explains the 20-kilo boxes of frozen “chicken paws” for sale at the nearby Costco Corporate Center.
CarolPW
@KatKapCC:
A male staffer or colleague could accompany her. I suspect there would be lots of volunteers.
Suzanne
@Shakti: Honestly, I have really mixed feelings on this bathroom stuff. I don’t think anyone should care about anyone else’s junk, but I also think that restrooms are really vulnerable spaces (not just regular bodily functions, but also crying, potentially embarrassing bathroom accidents or vomiting, needing to get away from people, etc.) and I don’t think it’s entirely possible to be rational about it.
This is why I keep saying that we could just…. make them better. The way they are designed now is very much to satisfy the needs of the building owner — to keep them small and inexpensive to build. They are not designed, in most places, for a good experience.
FYI, multi-stall bathrooms don’t have to be the way forward!
KatKapCC
@CarolPW: And imagine how demeaning and dehumanizing that must feel. She needs a bodyguard to use the bathroom because people insist SHE is the dangerous one.
Fuck the GOP.
Shakti
@Shakti:
…(read the rest of Mace’s wikipedia page)
I know, we should focus on making sure this transparent attempt to reduce the amount of Democrats in the House and discriminate against McBride for being trans — fails.
Martin
@satby: Right but price gouging is only a narrow component of the problem. Egg pricing during bouts of bird flu being a good example. (And RFKs ruminations against industrial farming have some merit in that a return to more local supply chains would probably stabilize these problems to a large degree. It would raise the cost to produce eggs and likely lower the cost to buy them because you wouldn’t have these intermediates with shareholder demands working the market.)
But McDonalds jacking up prices and then admitting in an earnings call that they went too far is not price gouging – it’s just shareholders being greedy – redistributing money from the working class to the investor class. But Democrats aren’t proposing limiting profit taking to lower prices for consumers or any policy that would indirectly lead to that (as much as I like Warren’s wealth tax, I don’t think that would reduce profit-taking – it would produce funds for welfare programs though). They won’t speak to this in class warfare terms – which would be a reasonable counter approach to the GOPs culture war.
JoyceH
Johnson is not a Christian, he’s just a mean little snot. Because that’s all this policy is – mean. Does anyone honestly try to say that McBride’s presence in the ladies room threatens them? If they say so they’re lying. But on the other hand, would using the men’s room threaten McBride? Uh….yeah! These GOP troglodytes would be sure to make her feel mighty damn unwelcome.
I think McBride should go to the men’s room escorted by twenty other women representatives. They could explain to the Speaker and the news media that the other women aren’t “using” the men’s room, they’re protecting the one woman who Johnson’s bigoted policy is requiring to use the men’s room.
Martin
@Melancholy Jaques: CA-45 is closer than I thought it would be. Again, notable that Trump picked up share in OC, but down ballot Republicans aren’t faring better.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Some humans need to be part of a group to justify, accept, have a concept of life. How many animals seem to like living in herds? And get pissed when they see/meet another herd? Why should humans be any different? Because we are smarter? (And yes I’ve met animals that are smarter than some humans…) Also human life has changed a hell of a lot in the lifetime of many alive today – like me. Born shortly after WWII, I’ve watched a hell of a lot of change in this country and in humanity. Some of it good and some of it not so good at all. We as a society have elected shitforbrains as president TWICE. How demeaning is that to humanity? Besides fucking completely.
Shakti
@Suzanne: When I worked in retail, I cared about who used the bathrooms, mainly men would often barge right into the first bathroom (for women), and they clogged the fucking toilets to hell and back. They’d even run right past out of order signs (when it was genuinely out of order b/c cloggage or mess. There was only one toilet in each section.
This was an issue for me because I was there all day often by myself, so if some man clogged up the women’s toilet, I couldn’t go for 12 + hours.
TBone
@lowtechcyclist: obvs you didn’t read the article. It’s not solely about the price of chicken at the supermarket.
Please don’t minimize like that without having read the article. I’m not eating the dawgs and cats!
Shakti
@Suzanne: Bathrooms could be designed much better — but this isn’t the way and imho Nancy Mace is nothing but bad faith all the way down.
Pity.
Ruckus
@JoyceH:
I can see why a strange female and male situation would not be practical, reasonable or realistic.
An ACTUAL gay male shouldn’t be an issue. However – how do you actually know that this person would actually be gay or possibly pretending for access for nefarious/illegal reasons? Seems to me that while many could be OK with it, all it takes is one complete and utter asshole for it to be bad. And it’s not like the world doesn’t have at least a few complete and utter assholes in it.
Melancholy Jaques
@tam1MI:
My thoughts exactly.
Suzanne
@Shakti: Nancy Mace is a piece of shit and if she told me the sky was blue I’d go check for myself.
I just think we accept framing a bit too readily at times. Like, the fights about bathrooms are, for a lot of people who aren’t Nancy Mace, genuinely underlined by a sense of fear about being in public space. I have that fear a lot. Not regarding trans people, but regarding a lot of others. I’ve been a violent crime victim, as have many of the women I know. Like, it really is reasonable to want privacy and security when using the bathroom — where it becomes unreasonable is when you harm someone else to get that. If we didn’t frame it as allowing others into your personal space, but instead about making better personal space for everyone, I think it would seem less scary.
Rights and dignity aren’t a pie that gets carved up. We could create more for everyone.
Suzanne
I will also note that, IMH architectural opinion, multi-stall restrooms with partitions that don’t go floor-to-ceiling are a significant security risk in the era of the cellphone camera.
Geminid
@Shakti: Mace is bad faith all the way down and raw political ambition all the way back up. I figure she wants to succeed Senator Graham in 2026, and I look at anything she does or say in that light.
sab
@Honus: Transgender person who wanted their birth certificate changed just lost their case in the Ohio Supreme Court.
sab
@Omnes Omnibus: Yes. She seems to be doing well so far using her own approach.
Tangentially related, Emilia Sykes used to be blocked (by whatever we call our statehouse police in Ohio) from the state capitol building because they didn’t believe that that pretty little black woman was actually a state legislator. She would miss hearings and committee meetings. I believe it even happened once when she was the minority leader.
Citizen Alan
@Melancholy Jaques: Magically become a white man?
Citizen Alan
@Emily B.: i wonder if this would apply to the tax exempt status of churches. Probably not, but I can always dream about a future.Democratic president ordering that every fundamentalist church that has any affiliation with operation rescue, lose its tax exempt status.
artem1s
@rikyrah:
Forget about screeching about The Arts.
Focus on how this could impact the tax status of organizations that people rely on and impact them every day. Organizations like social service agencies (Red Cross), membership organizations (ABA), private schools (daycare, private K-12, and higher ed), recreation organization, and churches, temples, and mosques. Non-profits are everywhere – they are about 10-11% of our economy. And mostly people who use them adore the ones they identify with. Trying to politicize that will piss a lot of people off.
Brant Lamb
@ArchTeryx: She needs to go in the womens’ bathroom with 10 other women, as a marching guard for her. And if any one tries to stop the group the group steps into the people trying to stop her, and shunts them to the side, and then follow her in.
She needs a squad.
Brant Lamb
@apocalipstick: So, 43% have no idea which side their bread is buttered on. Good to know.
Brant Lamb
@Geminid: You read minds now, do you?
Geminid
@Brant Lamb: The commentersimplied that Rep. Slotkin meant that Black people should not have the rIght to vote. Or as he put it, “Blacks.” That is a baseless smear.
I have followed Elissa Slotkin’s career for over 6 years now, through her first campaign and her three terms in Congress, and I have not seen one iota of evidence she has ever or would ever call for Black people to be denied the right to vote.
That, not telepathy, is what my comment was based on. I was not the one reading minds, “Villago” was.