Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Every decision we make has lots of baggage with it, known or unknown.

Also, are you sure you want people to rate your comments?

The Giant Orange Man Baby is having a bad day.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Michigan is a great lesson for Dems everywhere: when you have power…use it!

The press swings at every pitch, we don’t have to.

Fear and negativity are contagious, but so is courage!

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

We will not go quietly into the night; we will not vanish without a fight.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Anne Laurie is a fucking hero in so many ways. ~ Betty Cracker

Putting aside our relentless self-interest because the moral imperative is crystal clear.

A snarling mass of vitriolic jackals

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The line between political reporting and fan fiction continues to blur.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

No one could have predicted…

You are here: Home / Archives for Justice / Women's Rights / The War On Women

The War On Women

Another Weekend Update: Epstein & His Victims

by | 45 Comments

This post is in: , ,

the maxwell transfer is a distraction from the epstein story which is a distraction from the tariffs which is a distraction from the deportations which is a distraction from the BLS chaos which is a distraction from the fed business which is a distraction from doge which is a distraction from

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 1, 2025 at 7:06 PM

===

THEY KNEW. “the worst kept secret in the social society circles in both Palm Beach and NY. It wasn’t just Trump who was there. There were people in the media…in science. There were tons of people that were at these events and at these parties with young girls”
open.substack.com/pub/contrari…

[image or embed]

— Jen Rubin (@jenrubin.bsky.social) August 1, 2025 at 11:02 AM

===

well, that should tamp down the speculation, great work everyone
[image or embed]

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 1, 2025 at 5:41 PM


===

it’s completely fucking crazy that ghislaine maxwell got a favorable transfer which she legally did not qualify for, based on a conversation with the deputy AG who used to be the president’s personal lawyer, that does not seem like it will ever become public, let alone be used in a prosecution

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 1, 2025 at 6:14 PM


===

fwiw, i’m not sure how likely it is, but i do think it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they just quietly release her without any paperwork and no one figures it out until she’s left the country
[image or embed]

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 1, 2025 at 6:30 PM


===

you can’t really pardon her, politically, it’s a fucking disaster; you can’t really kill her, that just pours a river’s worth of accelerant on an already-dangerous fire; but what if you could do a secret, third thing (functionally disappear her)

— GOLIKEHELLMACHINE (@golikehellmachine.com) August 1, 2025 at 6:34 PM

===

Brown: Brad Edwards deposed Epstein’s accountant—she worked for Epstein’s modeling company
She gave more detail than we had heard before, including the fact that when Epstein formed that company, he told her he wanted it to be set up just like Trump’s modeling agency.
[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) August 2, 2025 at 5:09 PM


===

show full post on front page

Another Weekend Update: Epstein & His VictimsPost + Comments (45)

Party Boys

by | 145 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

We know the Fox News personality Trump nominated to run the Department of Defense, Pete Hegseth, is a creep who abuses women. Heck, his own mother said so, as Anne Laurie covered in a recent post. In case you missed it, Penelope Hegseth emailed the following comments to her son (source is the NYT):

“On behalf of all the women (and I know it’s many) you have abused in some way, I say … get some help and take an honest look at yourself,” Penelope Hegseth wrote, stating that she still loved him.

She also wrote: “I have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his own power and ego. You are that man (and have been for years) and as your mother, it pains me and embarrasses me to say that, but it is the sad, sad truth.”

She took it all back when contacted by the Times for comment and claimed Hegseth is a good husband and father. That’s the mother’s version of a horndog politician’s wife standing stoically next to her man during a press conference called to address a gross sex scandal.

Women are routinely expected to endure this sort of humiliation to preserve men’s hold on power. There’s no payoff for them, of course. Just ask Hillary Clinton.

I thought maybe that would change eventually, but we’re going backward in this country on women’s equality. An adjudicated rapist will put his tiny hand on a bible soon and be restored to the highest office in the land. The parade of sex offenders around the sex pest in chief is a big FUCK YOU to women, whether they acknowledge it or not (and many do not).

But the Hegseth nomination is also a giant FUCK YOU to basic competence, as The New Yorker’s Jane Mayer revealed in an article published yesterday. I suppose it’s paywalled, but here’s a link. Excerpts below:

…Hegseth’s record before becoming a full-time Fox News TV host, in 2017, raises additional questions about his suitability to run the world’s largest and most lethal military force. A trail of documents, corroborated by the accounts of former colleagues, indicates that Hegseth was forced to step down by both of the two nonprofit advocacy groups that he ran—Veterans for Freedom and Concerned Veterans for America—in the face of serious allegations of financial mismanagement, sexual impropriety, and personal misconduct.

A previously undisclosed whistle-blower report on Hegseth’s tenure as the president of Concerned Veterans for America, from 2013 until 2016, describes him as being repeatedly intoxicated while acting in his official capacity—to the point of needing to be carried out of the organization’s events. The detailed seven-page report—which was compiled by multiple former C.V.A. employees and sent to the organization’s senior management in February, 2015—states that, at one point, Hegseth had to be restrained while drunk from joining the dancers on the stage of a Louisiana strip club, where he had brought his team. The report also says that Hegseth, who was married at the time, and other members of his management team sexually pursued the organization’s female staffers, whom they divided into two groups—the “party girls” and the “not party girls.” In addition, the report asserts that, under Hegseth’s leadership, the organization became a hostile workplace that ignored serious accusations of impropriety, including an allegation made by a female employee that another employee on Hegseth’s staff had attempted to sexually assault her at the Louisiana strip club. In a separate letter of complaint, which was sent to the organization in late 2015, a different former employee described Hegseth being at a bar in the early-morning hours of May 29, 2015, while on an official tour through Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, drunkenly chanting “Kill All Muslims! Kill All Muslims!”

To sum up, Hegseth is a blackout drunk who sexually harassed female employees and tolerated the same behavior from other members of his team. He’s an accused rapist and alleged bigot. That would normally be a problem for the potential leader of the DoD, but “norm” flew out the window a long time ago. However, Hegseth’s incompetence is disqualifying even if the character issue is moot these days:

Margaret Hoover, a Republican political commentator and political strategist who worked as an adviser to V.F.F. between 2008 and 2010, recently told CNN that she had grave concerns about Hegseth’s ability to run the Pentagon, the largest department in the federal government, given his mismanagement at V.F.F. “I watched him run an organization very poorly, lose the confidence of donors. The organization ultimately folded and was forced to merge with another organization who individuals felt could run and manage funds on behalf of donors more responsibly than he could. That was my experience with him.” Hoover stressed that V.F.F. was an exceedingly small organization, with fewer than ten employees, and a budget of between five million and ten million dollars. She told CNN, “And he couldn’t do that properly, I don’t know how he’s going to run an organization with an eight-hundred-and-fifty-seven-billion-dollar budget and three million individuals.”

Good question, Ms. Hoover.

One amusing aspect of this disgraceful mess: Hegseth allegedly lied to the Trump people and said no skeletons would tumble out of his closet if he were nominated, so they were “blindsided” when the rape accusation and payoff surfaced.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump’s transition team was blindsided by the sexual-assault story because Hegseth had failed to disclose anything about it, including the fact that he had paid off his accuser. He also failed to disclose that he had received a copy of the police report in 2021, long before the Monterey police’s recent release of it. The series of damning revelations has reportedly infuriated the transition team. “When we ask, ‘Is there anything else we need to know about?’ that is usually a good time to mention a police report,” a Trump adviser told Rolling Stone. “Obviously he remembered that this all happened and there is no way—I don’t think—he could have believed this wouldn’t come out once he got nominated.”

Well, maybe Hegseth is yet another scumbag following the corporate ethos of an organization led by Donald J. Trump, so he felt no need to disclose anything. If the boss can sexually assault and defame women with impunity and be reelected, why should Hegseth see his own sordid history as an obstacle to an important job?

The truth is, a critical mass in this country despises women and scoffs at basic standards of competence — or else is so indifferent that it amounts to the same thing. That’s not a hot take; it’s been cooling on the windowsill like a rancid pie for decades.

Open thread.

Party BoysPost + Comments (145)

SoCons Bemoan Dwindling Relevance

by | 159 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

These are the people who make my favorite Harris/Walz tagline, “Mind your own damn business,” resonate so deeply: (NYT)

As opposition to their social agenda grows, particularly on abortion, many conservative Christians are experiencing whiplash as they grapple with an uncertain future…

By all indications, conservative Christians are poised to vote again overwhelmingly for former President Donald J. Trump in November. But now, they are facing the reality that many of their views are not widely held, and that to advance their goals nationally they need power at the highest levels — power that Mr. Trump suddenly seems less inclined to give.

In that way, the coming election feels like a referendum on the role of conservative Christianity in American public life. And some conservative Christians worry that it is a race that is harder and harder to win.

Forcing women who are miscarrying to bleed out in hospital parking lots until local theocrats are satisfied patients are close enough to death to warrant medical attention isn’t broadly popular! Nor is using the apparatus of the state to harass queer people, whitewash history and ban books.

It’s not surprising that social conservatives are whining about their dwindling cultural relevance even as they hatch anti-democratic plots to impose their views on people who don’t share them. That’s who they are. It’s always been who they are.

But their access to power is more durable than they let on in that article, unfortunately. The SCOTUS majority’s whiny, entitled and thoroughly corrupt justices (most notably Alito and Thomas) perfectly embody the larger SoCon movement. They will be a millstone around America’s neck until they die off during a Democratic administration (with a trifecta) and/or are diminished by an expanded court.

In a sense, this makes their whining and aggrievement even more insufferable. It would be lovely to see voters resoundingly reject the radical clerics who have a growing portion of the country under their thumbs, so here’s hoping their worst nightmares come true with regard to their cultural influence. May the “everything Trump touches dies” axiom apply to this group.

That is necessary, but it’s not sufficient. We’ll be battling the already embedded SoCons’ pernicious authority for the rest of our lives, in the courts and in antimajoritarian institutions like the U.S. Senate. And our children after us. Maybe this resentful group’s fears about the future are justified because more people see that now? November will provide important clues on that.

Open thread.

SoCons Bemoan Dwindling RelevancePost + Comments (159)

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: GOP Out of Our Uteri!

by | 217 Comments

This post is in: , , , , ,

Putting it in terms that the low-info voter can understand…

Senate Democratic campaigns are launching a month-long blitz on reproductive rights, pressing Republicans on abortion as the second anniversary of the fall of Roe v. Wade approaches, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Republicans have suffered at the ballot box since the Supreme Court overturned the landmark abortion rights case, and Democrats will elevate it as a top election issue this year.

– Campaigns in all battleground states will partake, a Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee aide told Axios.

– The blitz will include paid advertising from the DSCC, events hosted by campaigns and local organizations, and social media activity.

The big picture: Senate Democrats will also spend this month voting on reproductive rights bills, marking an all-encompassing barrage from the party on abortion rights.

– The bills have no chance of being considered in the Republican-controlled House, but aim to put Republicans in the tough position of voting against federal protections for contraception…

Remember: Sharing is caring!

show full post on front page

TGIFriday Morning Open Thread: <em>GOP Out of Our Uteri!</em>Post + Comments (217)

Report From Sunny Gilead

by | 85 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

The editorial boards of two Florida dailies, the Orlando Sentinel and Sun Sentinel, marked the May 1 imposition of the state’s 6-week abortion ban by jointly publishing an editorial titled, “A frightening tyranny over Florida women.” It’s paywalled, but here are a few excerpts:

Much of the nation — including Florida now — resembles a theocracy where women’s bodies belong to the state, not to themselves…

The greatest immediate danger is denial of emergency care to women with pregnancy complications. Physicians will necessarily think twice about what care to provide, even if delaying it might have lifelong consequences.

Many are to blame for Florida’s theocracy, starting with former President Donald Trump, who boasts of appointing the Supreme Court justices who repealed Roe v. Wade.

There are the six justices who did it; the Florida legislators who took advantage of what they did; Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose state Supreme Court appointments were as maliciously purposeful as Trump’s; the six Florida justices who signed an intellectually corrupt opinion excluding abortion from the protection of Florida’s constitutional right of privacy; and Attorney General Ashley Moody, who maintains that the privacy right applies only to the disclosure of information, not to police-state control of personal conduct…

Like Roe, Griswold and Obergefell depended upon the Constitution protecting the people of the United States from government intrusion into their private lives.

But now, many millions of women in the U.S., and in Florida particularly, are the handmaidens of theocrats who are doing just that.

The opportunities for so many people to do so much harm owe to fundamental fault lines in the constitutional order, and the triumph of “state’s rights” in the defeat of democracy…

Thomas Paine wrote, “tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered.” But in Florida today, the tyrants are winning.

Exactly right. Floridians have an opportunity to defeat the theocrats and restore abortion rights by passage of an amendment to the state constitution via a ballot initiative in November. But it needs 60% to pass, which is a tall order. We’ll see.

Meanwhile, Politico is still trying to make DeSantis happen. The latest is an article with the dumb title, “Has the DeSantis comeback already begun? His next act: Republican money machine.” An excerpt:

TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Gov. Ron DeSantis is poised to take the most public steps yet to rebuild his political future after dropping out of the 2024 presidential race, campaigning for GOP candidates in Florida and beyond in the coming months — and taking a leading role in fighting an abortion-rights referendum in his home state.

Puts me in mind of a quote from Beatrix in Kill Bill, “Bitch, you don’t have a future.”

That said, DeSantis doesn’t really have another play except to align himself with the fanatical opponents of Florida’s grassroots abortion rights initiative. He knows the supermajority threshold makes passage difficult, so he’s positioning himself to take credit if the initiative fails to clear that hurdle.

DeSantis is inextricably connected with the abortion ban regardless — it was a presidential primary stunt that he 100% owns. I don’t think it bodes well for his political future beyond the most fanatical outposts of the wingnut welfare circuit, but who knows?

Politico goes on:

After months of sniping with Donald Trump, DeSantis will soon use his connections and fundraising network to help the former president — and is expected to bring in millions of dollars. But he’s also raising money for members of Congress, including Reps. Chip Roy (R-Texas) and Laurel Lee (R-Fla.). Both backed his bid for president.

Someone in comments the other day made an excellent point about the so-called DeSantis funding juggernaut. They noted that DeSantis was the generic not-Trump into whom Trump-weary GOP donors collectively poured their funds for the 2024 primary. Mostly on the strength of idiotic media hype and ignorance about Florida’s bizarre politics.

DeSantis has since proven to be a dud. Will GOP donors contribute to a slush fund so the dud can play kingmaker? Stranger things have happened in the Disarray Party, but color me skeptical.

Open thread.

Report From Sunny GileadPost + Comments (85)

Supreme Court Oral Arguments at 10 am – Does Idaho’s Need to Control Women Trump the Existing Law that Guarantees EMTALA

by | 213 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Should women with pregnancy emergencies in Idaho be left to die rather than receive life-saving emergency treatment?

Should a state law be able to trump a federal law?   (which goes against a very basic legal principle)

That’s really the issue that is in front of the Not-So-Supreme Court today.

First off:  EMTALA stands for Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act

The Biden administration argues that EMTALA – which requires emergency rooms that participate in Medicare to provide “necessary stabilizing treatment” – supersedes an Idaho law that makes it a crime to provide an abortion except in a handful of narrow circumstances, including to save the life of the mother or in cases of rape or incest.

Listen to audio at SCOTUS.

We talked about EMTALA earlier this week:

Not-So-Supreme Court Argument – Spitting Rage

I am not a lawyer, but I am a woman, and as far as I can tell, Idaho’s position is fuck yeah, let the women die.

SCOTUSblog article

An audio feed of  oral arguments is live-streamed on the Court’s website, and the Court posts the audiolater in the day. On the afternoon of each argument, the Court posts transcripts of that day’s arguments.

Supreme Court Oral Arguments at 10 am – Does Idaho’s Need to Control Women Trump the Existing Law that Guarantees EMTALAPost + Comments (213)

Not-So-Supreme Court Argument – Spitting Rage

by | 60 Comments

This post is in: , , , ,

1

The (Not-so) Supremes will be talking about the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA) this week, so let’s have a go ourselves, shall we?

The title of the piece is mine, the rest is Argiope.

Not-So-Supreme Court Argument  – Spitting Rage

by Argiope:

EMTALA passed in 1986 to prevent hospitals from turning away people who couldn’t pay during things like heart attacks or giving birth. It also requires hospitals to stabilize people with pregnancy emergencies, like ectopics and inevitable miscarriages with a high risk of sepsis, both of which are best treated by ending the pregnancy.

Along came post-Dobbs Idaho, where an extreme abortion ban was ready to go into effect the minute Roe fell.

Common-clay-of-the-new-West Idaho authoritahs decided not to honor EMTALA, and to direct their state’s physicians NOT to perform abortions that could save the health of the mother when doing so would go against Idaho’s bans.

The Biden administration then sued Idaho for non-compliance with EMTALA.

Meanwhile, Texas said, “Hold my beer, Idaho,” and sued the Biden administration back. They wanted to tie their own doctors’ hands similarly to Idaho, and conveniently forgot that Article VI, Paragraph 2 of the Constitution means that federal law overrides state law when these are in conflict.

That all leads us to April 24, when SCOTUS will hear the federal case against the state of Idaho and Solicitor General Preloger will try to legally prevent Idaho’s women from suffering unnecessarily.

Justices Alito and Thomas, who are not doctors but stayed in a Holiday Inn last night, will:

  • Holler “State’s Rights” very loudly and insist that Idaho has a perfect right to cause infertility, hysterectomy, sepsis, and near death for its pregnant citizens.
  • They’ll say Idaho has a right to prevent its physicians from doing what their Hippocratic oaths, medical judgment and common sense say they should.

Justice Fundy Baby Voice will of course:

  • Acknowledge that ladies do have parts and be very concerned
  • yet resolute in her conviction that fetal people have even MORE parts that count than grown-ass women do.

This is your regular reminder that safe, effective abortion pills are available by mail in all 50 states, and Idaho and Texas need them.

These pills are not gonna solve the issues EMTALA is meant to address, but they speak to why the Comstock Act, passed in 1873, needs to stay unenforced. Better yet, Dems should overturn the Comstock Act as soon as we have a trifecta again in January.

I am so sick of this Supreme Court.  How did it even get this far?

Federal Law > State Law.  End of story.

Update at 2:20 pm: I pulled this earlier as soon as I realized it was Day 1 of the NY Election Interference trial.  Posting again now.  First comment after repost is #14.

Not-So-Supreme Court Argument – Spitting RagePost + Comments (60)