At their core, they are all just assholes:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered the Navy to take the rare step of renaming a ship, one that bears the name of a gay rights icon, documents and sources show.
Military.com reviewed a memorandum from the Office of the Secretary of the Navy — the official who holds the power to name Navy ships — that showed the sea service had come up with rollout plans for the renaming of the oiler ship USNS Harvey Milk.
There’s no just no reason other than being an asshole because you can.
Again, this is the Idiocracy:
Evil and stupid is quite the combination.
Now that we have covered the drunken manboy kid rock crowd with Hegseth, and the mouthbreather crowd with MTZG, let’s check in with the christofascists, this one pretty local:
Raleigh County Prosecutor Tom Truman, perhaps unknowingly and unintentionally, opened Pandora’s Box late Friday in an interview with Beckley television station WVNS.
The station reached out to Truman seeking clarity on a provocative and troubling question: Could women in West Virginia who miscarry at home be charged with crimes related to the disposal of fetal remains? The inquiry followed reports from Mercer County where 36-year-old David Lee Agnew allegedly discarded a container holding fetal remains during a domestic dispute, later running it over with an ATV. Agnew is charged with disinterment/displacement of a dead body and other offenses stemming from multiple incidents.
The case is disturbing on its own. But the broader legal implications revealed in the interview generate pause.
WVNS reporter Jessica Farrish asked whether women who miscarry and then flush or bury fetal remains could face criminal prosecution. According to the report, Truman said that “a number of criminal charges under state code, including felonies, could be levied against a woman who flushes fetal remains, buries them, or otherwise disposes of remains following an involuntary abortion, also called a miscarriage.”
Truman went further per the report indicating “a number of prosecuting attorneys in the state have discussed with him and other prosecuting attorneys their willingness to file criminal charges against women in pregnancy loss situations, by using state law related to disposal of human remains.”
He told the station:
“The kind of criminal jeopardy you face is going to depend on a lot of factors. What was your intent? What did you do? How late were you in your pregnancy? Were you trying to hide something, or were you just so emotionally distraught you couldn’t do anything else?”
“If you were relieved, and had been telling people, ‘I’d rather get run over by a bus than have this baby,’ that may play into law enforcement’s thinking, too.”
Lovely. Your miscarriage, if this guy has his way, can be prosecuted for murder because of thought crimes.
I think that covers all the bases. Whoops forgot the broligarchs:
Elon Musk lashed out on Tuesday against the far-reaching Republican bill intended to enact President Trump’s domestic policy agenda, posting on X that it was a “disgusting abomination” and telling House members who voted for it: “You know you did wrong.”
The tech billionaire criticized the bill, one of Mr. Trump’s top priorities, in a series of about 10 posts. In them, Mr. Musk reshared commentary from lawmakers like Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah, two Republicans who had sided with him in opposing the rising U.S. deficit.
So sad. Obligatory:
I am done- I need to get back to Andor. Although given the current political climate, the stormtrooper shit is hitting a little close to home.
Hey, Night Shift, This is Your Chance (Open Thread)
Baud
The best people make great points all the time, but they are taken for granted.
chemiclord
Meanwhile, after months of trying to impress the Trumpist crowd, Santa Ono still gets knifed in the back by the people he was trying to impress, rejecting his bid to become President for the University of Florida.
Turns out, even after all his actions, he still wasn’t the right color.
Eat shit, Ono.
dmsilev
It gets worse. It’s brilliant TV, but parts of it are …not easy viewing.
Melancholy Jaques
Make sure you have Rogue One teed up & ready to go when you finish.
hells littlest angel
Good old Swalwell.
NeenerNeener
Speaking of hitting too close to home…I’m watching “Mountainhead” on Max. Four broligarchs talking about taking over the world, starting with the US. Their AI products are inciting chaos around the world by releasing violent deep fakes and they don’t care. You can imagine Musk and Thiel having these same conversations.
Suzanne
WTF ELSE IS SOMEONE SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THEM?!?!
Not to be gross, but…. like…. do these fuckers know how much, uh, stuff comes out in a miscarriage?! (And live birth, for that matter.) What do they think is the right way to deal with it?!
Maybe the nation’s women can mail the contents to Tom Truman and he can deal with it.
dmsilev
@Suzanne: Didn’t Rick Santorum and his wife keep fetal remains from a miscarriage in a jar or something very very weird like that?
Chetan Murthy
John, I’m here to put your mind at ease: the worst person in the world did not make a good point: his reason for opposing the BBB is that it will increase deficits. Not because it will cut services and the safety net. What he wants is -more- pain, not less.
RSA
This captures the Trump administration and modern Republicans better than any other description I’ve been able to come up with.
Just finished watching The Residence. Funny, well-crafted. Political junkies may enjoy watching Al Franken playing a U.S. senator totally against type.
TS
@Suzanne:
Exactly, I know few woman who have NOT had a miscarriage. I had one, my mother had 3 – all before 12 weeks, all flushed – what else are you supposed to do?
Then you go see the doc & have a D&C. The GOP are making normal life illegal – if you don’t die pregnant you die in prison.
YY_Sima Qian
As a follow up to some of the conversation in a previous thread, if the South Korean right wing had not split it vote, the left wing candidate’s margin would have been extremely slim (or could have lost by the slimmest of margins):
The start gender divide among the 20s demographic:
Very bad sign for the future.
bbleh
… the stormtrooper shit is hitting a little close to home.
Just wait til the economy turns seriously south. (Ok I give 15% it won’t at all, and 20% mild, but that still leaves 2/3 moderate or worse.) They’re gonna need scapegoats and TV footage to keep their people distracted, and you can bet they’re not gonna stop with renaming ships or violent immigration raids. LGBTQ folks, uppity women who don’t obey the rules for vessels — imagine the political mileage they’ll get out of us. (I’m sure Stephen Miller has.)
Unless we get really lucky, it’s gonna get considerably worse before it even CAN get better …
Scout211
No, no, no. You’re getting this all wrong, Suzanne.
See, it depends on how to feel about losing the baby. And it depends on what you are hiding when you dispose of the remains or accidentally flush the toilet. And it depends on your emotional state at the time of flushing the toilet. It doesn’t matter how you do it, it only matters what your intent is as you commit the heinous crime of losing a baby at home and flushing the toilet.
You know, Law and Order: Criminal Intent.
Steve LaBonne
@chemiclord: That news was a major injection of Schadenfreude right into my veins.
Fair Economist
Well, it *is* bad that this bill raises the deficit. Not the worst thing in the bill, but with the deficit already around 7% of GDP, increases are bad.
Steve LaBonne
@TS:
Who cares if a replaceeable walking incubator ceases to function?CHRISTOPHER H GREEN
Gee, I knew about the AI regulation thing >a week ago, and I don’t have a staff that is paid by the govt.
Steve LaBonne
@Scout211: Doubleplusungood crimethink.
Steve LaBonne
@CHRISTOPHER H GREEN: You don’t expect her to read the lying anti-Trump media, do you?
Nukular Biskits
It used to be considered bad luck to rename a ship.
Rusty
Deport all immigrants but for white Afrikaaners, rename the Harvey Milk, but our press still won’t call them bigots, racists and homophobes. That would be impolite. Any less than dressing up in a Klan robe and screaming the n-word won’t get someone labeled a racist. Anything less than dragging someone through the streets screaming the f word won’t get you labeled a homophobe or a bigot. Hell, scream homophobic slurs, shoot and kill someone and it gets labeled a dispute between neighbors by our press.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Has anyone renamed a woke ship before though?
BigJimSlade
I thought Lone Skum was just upset that the bill didn’t delete most federal agencies and discretionary spending absolutely.
Steve LaBonne
@BigJimSlade: And direct all of the remaining discretionary spending into his companies’ coffers.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Hmmm. Good question.
Trying to think of the names of ships, both real/historical or literary that might be considered woke.
persistentillusion
Eff all these lowlifes. I miscarried in my first pregnancy at, as many are, about 3 months. We were at his aunt’s house in FL, there to celebrate a new life beginning. Didn’t stop bleeding for 4 days. They don’t know or worse, care about the pain, or anguish. And nobody talks about what the father goes through.
Baud
@Nukular Biskits:
Didn’t the HMS Pinafore have an all gay crew?
sab
@Suzanne: Since 1/3 of pregnancies end in miscarriages, women have been coping with this for thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and all of a sudden these guys have a problem?
Just another way for some men to make money on funeral services.
When my dad (an agnostic or atheist) was a medical resident in his youth he worked at a Catholic hospital where he, by order of the presiding nun, did all the baptisms of the muscarriages and stillbirths because the Catholic doctors all refused to do so.
TS
And what is happening re women’s health in the US has repercussions world wide. Australian politicians are now quoting RW misinformation in the NSW State Parliament in an attempt to emulate the GOP views on abortion/birth control
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-04/dubious-abortion-report-eppc-nsw-parliament/105367324
A dubious report on medical abortion was cited in NSW Parliament. Where did it come from?
The document was published by a US-based conservative think tank named the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). … (Comment below from a doctor)
“This study in America was not published in a reputable journal,” she said “It’s not really clear … where the data came from, how it was analysed. It hasn’t been peer reviewed. “It’s misinformation and it’s just propaganda,” she said.
scav
This is going to hand such power to domestic abusers — the potential of accusations of miscarriage and abuse of remains equips them with all the weight of social and legal condemnation. And with law enforcement and prosecutors salivating to prove their loyalty to the brave new order (and reaping some sweet sweet publicity along the way)?
hells littlest angel
@Baud: You’re thinking of the Good Ship Lollypop.
Sally
@Steve LaBonne: Or perhaps she is lying. She is playing defence, pretending she would have voted “no” if only she had known.
Steve LaBonne
@Baud: “The traditions of the Royal Navy are rum, sodomy, and the lash.”
Baud
@hells littlest angel:
Right. And the Yellow Submarine has the lesbian crew.
Nukular Biskits
@Baud:
Which reminds me:
Ray Stevens – “The Pirate Song” (The Country Comedy Hour)
Sister Golden Bear
The one downside to Pride Month in the last couple years is the Republicans deliberately time their most unhinged, hysterical anti-LGBTQ+ screeds and actions to coincide.
Kirk Host: Pride Is “Disgusting, Coercive, Repugnant, Cultural Tyranny, We Must Get Rid Of It Altogether”
GOP Resolution Declares June To Be “Family Month” Because LGBTQs “Confuse Children And Dishonor God”
Thankfully after local officials pushed back, Trump Again Chickened Out with his plans to shut down Dupont Circle during this weekend’s WorldPride celebration in D.C.
sab
On a brighter note, we had three blimps flying around my end of town this afternoon. They flew/floated right over our house.
Found out later that they were celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the first Goodyear blimp flight. They will be all over town for the rest of the week.
You can’t buy a flight on a blimp. You have to win it at a charitable event.
RevRick
@RSA: Evidently, I should have saved the post I made in Cole’s earlier rant for now. Evil and stupid describes the story of the Tower of Babel.
Baud
@Sister Golden Bear:
Children do get confused because they haven’t learned to hate yet.
TONYG
The MTG statement is even stupider than it sounds. I was aware of that part of the bill pertaining to “AI” — because it was reported on the news. In addition to not reading the damn bill, MTG probably never reads a newspaper (on paper or online). She may, in fact, be illiterate.
Steve LaBonne
@Sister Golden Bear: I’m so fucking tired of their imaginary “god” who somehow shares all of their bigotry. It and they can cram it.
Timill
@Nukular Biskits: Droits de l’Homme?
Jackie
@Nukular Biskits: LOL! I’ve never seen that before! I loved Ray Stevens music videos of The Squirrel, The Streaker, Get Tarzan, Ahab the Arab, and I’m sure others I can’t remember off the top of my head…
Kelly
@RSA:
I concur
Nukular Biskits
@Timill:
Now THAT would be woke!
Suzanne
@dmsilev: I thought they brought their stillborn child home from the hospital so their kids could see him/her, or something,
twbrandt
@chemiclord: My Michigan alumni peeps have been enjoying heaping helpings of schadenfreude pie over Ono’s defenestration.
Nukular Biskits
@Jackie:
I grew up listening to Ray Stevens.
It really made me sad to find out that he was a big W fan and, if I’m not mistaken, borderline conspiratorial when it came to COVID.
Scout211
. . .
You know, ICE Barbie is so, so ,so much worse than I thought she would be. She is weird and creepy and brutally cruel. It takes a lot of nerve to spend hours on her makeup and hair everyday to look like a model 20 years her junior only to be cruel, ugly and heartless to so many.
Kayla Rudbek
@Nukular Biskits: I was just about to say this, and I am a midwestern landlubber of an Army brat and even I know this (I probably picked it up from the Horatio Hornblower series or Star Trek, or maybe Honor Harrington which started out as Horatio Hornblower In Space. Patrick O’Brian being a bit too much jargon for my tastes, but I should give him another chance).
Kayla Rudbek
@Nukular Biskits: anything named after a woman or a non-white man for starters…
TONYG
@Baud: “dishonor God” too, apparently. Gee, I don’t know. I’m pretty sure that the Creator of the Universe — the omnipotent and omniscient being the exists in a dimension outside of space and time — really does not care very much what a weird species of primates on an obscure planet does with their genitals.
prostratedragon
@Scout211:
Sometimes life is just sickening.
Baud
@TONYG:
That’s the sort of thinking that led society astray with heliocentrism.
BigJimSlade
@Steve LaBonne: Oh, right, the good and efficient government spending!
Marc
It’s kind of funny, I’m absolutely convinced that Rogue One is the best of the Star Wars movies, but it’s not one that I ever had any desire to see again. Likewise, I really liked the first two seasons of Andor, but I’ll probably never watch the third.
Chacal Charles Calthrop
@Nukular Biskits: I think the bad luck has already happened to us, and more of it is baked into the future with this administration.
fun meaningless fact: the reason the English use Norse god names for the days of the week is because the Norse believed that if a ship launched on the day sacred to Thor, god of thunder, it would be plagued by storms. This superstition made it very important to know exactly which day of the week was sacred to Thor, and, for good measure, the name of the god to which to two preceding days & the following day were sacred, just so that you could be sure, and so we wound up with Tyr’s day (Tuesday), Woden’s day (Wednesday), Thor’s day (Thursday) and Friya’s day (Friday). I got this out of an ancient compendium of “myths of the sea.”
Im guessing that other three days reflect classical learning of the monks who made the first calendars.
Jackie
@Nukular Biskits: It’s hard when celebrities and politics overlap. It used to be one had no idea of how their favorite sport stars or singers or actors voted. Now, everyone’s either rabid Blue or rabid Red. It’s really sad.
Joelle
“A Garbage-tine to my Betrothed” by Joelle
I missed thee tonight John G. Cole.
I stood there in the carport and looked at the recycling ♻️ bin. And I remembered I saw a bunch of bins out on the trike ride home tonight. I guess that means that tonight has got to be recycling ♻️ night. And I have no big burly man’s to drag this behemoth of a recycling bin down the driveway into the street. Cuz that big burly man is in WV. Likely kidnapped and locked in a WvU broom closet by his faculty recruitment team in an effort to make sure he shows up tomorrow.
Slipping into the role of Garbage Man would not be a serious stretch for Cole. With the beard and the cop glasses and the overalls and the cool aloofness with which he carries himself. One day I suspect he will swing himself up onto the rear of the city’s oldest filthiest garbage wagon, give me a jaunty salute through the front living room window and then rumble away down the street into the sunset. Wearing his noise canceling headphones. Content within his own world. Blissed out that he’s not dealing with people and their inherent horribleness, just their junk.
rikyrah
They are EVIL, Cole😡😡😡
zhena gogolia
@Joelle: So sweet.
cain
@Joelle: lol – you two are going to have the best time going forward :D
cain
@Scout211:
We’re talking about someone who unapologetically shot a puppy.
cain
@hells littlest angel:
Good ship what now? Never heard of it ;)
NaijaGal
@Marc: The third “season” of Andor is Rogue One :). I agree that they’re the best but I don’t want to rewatch either.
dnfree
@sab: I have flown in one of the Goodyear blimps! It was for the 30th anniversary of the plant I worked at, selected by lottery. I felt a little guilty for winning the drawing, since I hadn’t worked there long.
cain
That’s some fucked up shit with the miscarriage. As I said, they are going to need a 50 state surveillance on women everywhere in order to make sure that nothing untold happens. They’ll be busy jailing them. For profit prisons are gonna be great again.
Old School
@Marc:
No one probably will watch a third season.
rekoob
@Joelle: Somehow, I see J.G. Cole as Donald Sutherland’s character in “The Dirty Dozen”, helping to guide the waste management vehicle in the proper direction and on to morning…
Jackie
@Joelle: Awww 🥰
Dirk Reinecke
@Marc: There are only two seasons of Andor.
The second season ends with Cassian essentially going into the start of Rogue One
The Lodger
@Nukular Biskits: Where is Iain M. Banks when we need him?
YY_Sima Qian
Oh the irony:
YY_Sima Qian
The benefit of the PRC’s “overcapacity” in renewable energy (gift link to FT article below):
A similar dynamic is playing out in South Africa, in the wake of crippling power shortages over the past few years, caused by gross mismanagement of its power grid.
At least in renewable energy, PRC “overcapacity” is entirely the wrong framing. The issue is insufficient global demand in face of the enormous challenges caused by AGW. “Overcapacity”, “involution”, price wars among the PRC producers is the main reason for the rapidly growing adoption of renewable energy across the world, & the main cause for the PRC’s carbon emissions hitting long term peak in ’24 – ’25.
Paul in KY
They are the most petty jerkwads ever.
Paul in KY
@Steve LaBonne: A great quote still!
Paul in KY
@Joelle: A window into Mr. Cole…
Matt
Elmo did not “make a great point”, any more than somebody who declares “the Holocaust was terrible, THEY DIDN’T FINISH” would.
He’s pissed about the bill in part because it takes away some of the tax credits that prop up his zombie car company, but mostly because it doesn’t hurt enough people.