SUCH a great day!!! And quotes of the day (after):
“Women don’t want to die for Mike Johnson’s religious beliefs.” —Molly Jong-Fast
And from Jessica Valenti:
"I wish I was the kind of person who wins gracefully. Really, I do. But when you spend a year writing about raped children being denied care and women forced to carry doomed pregnancies to term, you tend to lose your magnanimity.
So to every Republican politician who tried to keep voters from having a say on abortion, and to every anti-choice activist who worked to keep women under the government’s thumb:
God bless you and Jessica Valenti. I spent all of yesterday absolutely floating with vindication and am not sorry.
Considering the press coverage: I am happy that the pundits have figured out the face-slappingly eye-rollingly hair-on-end obvious fact that reproductive rights matters to everyone, is a paramount concern and isn't just, like, a trend, gurl! But I am frustrated that they *still* are not fully grasping that it is not *just* the damn abortion bans that are driving up Demicratic turnout. It is so much more than that.
Dobbs was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the apex and culmination of the Christian-fundamentalist-nativist-nationalist madness that the Republican party has spent most of our lifetimes cultivating in our population for their own divisive ends. It was the moment that everything else became sharply clarified for a lot of people who were not previously willing to see the personal, visceral danger of these peoples' agenda of open authoritarianism on their lives. The threats to democracy are NOT abstract, nor are you immune from their effects, and the danger is not just stemming from Von Tweeto but the party as a whole. When folks hear about an abortion ban it sets off a little *ping* in their brain that "Oh yeah, AND ALSO the book banning, and the telling people what to wear, and the gay bashing, and the open carry rifles (my kid has a clear backpack now!), and the insurrection, and the Nazi marches, and the forced family separation, and the million dead from Covid because you wouldn't wear a damn mask, and oh God I guess these people are all truly insane and maybe the extra 60 cents at Starbucks isn't the biggest problem after all!"
Ronna McDaniel was on the news saying how the party needs to make it clear how they value exceptions and nuance, and need to demonstrate "compassion" through more "pregnancy centers" and "viable adoption." Ugh. Lady, you are NOT GETTING IT. There is no nuance here. It is the 21st Century. Adults have sex. Having sex is FINE. Sometimes a woman gets pregnant, doesn't want to be a Mom yet. That is FINE. Get over it. That woman doesn't feel like spending a year of her life having her body put through hell and then the rest of her life knowing the kid she gave up is wandering out there, when the alternative is a SIMPLE COMMON MEDICAL PROCEDURE that removes some cells and lets her get on with her own destiny. Kindly stop shoving your hateful medieval judgement you learned from your magic book up her uterus.
Fuck you, we win.
Edit: Oh, and progressives ALSO have better ideas than the reactionaries about putting more money in the pockets of regular people. That too! (That isn't new, though.)
And stop defining zygotes as babies. All cells have potential but many fall short. Republicans fall short of that reach for humanity every day. Just like in 2012, when they heard the same advice “need a change of message,” they doubled-down and hugged right. And the money flowed in. Ronna McDaniel will NEVER get it. It’s power, pure and simple. One thing is for sure, the zealots will never admit defeat. Neither can we.
Jeri (and Will): Yes! AND stop defining women's bodily autonomy as only abortion. The issues having to do with women regaining legal control over their bodies is far more vast than that. What we need is ERA. And we also need to demand that this Christofascist focus on the "fault" of women for getting pregnant when they have intercourse be corrected. Pregnancy cannot happen without a (wait for it: I beat this drum on a regular basis) PENIS being involved. And yet all these white boyz are convinced that somehow their insertion of their favorite organ into a woman's vagina is not the problem. What I love is the fact that the book burning morons are being hoist on their own petard. My motto for years has been "Never EVER mess with librarians." We have to begin at the bottom and work through the system methodically. The Democratic machine is terrible at this, but it could be that we have some momentum.
"We have to begin at the bottom and work through the system methodically. The Democratic machine is terrible at this, but it could be that we have some momentum"
Thank you for this. I am chair of a local Dem committee, and on the county exec committee. You caught the Dem problem spot on. I have worked with groups, both political and non-political, for decades, and I know that people need to feel part of the process. But over and over again I hear people complaining that the only time they hear from the Dem party is when they want money. This is pretty much the truth. So I set out to give people in my committee a sense of having a voice and agency, knowing that they would take that out into the community to others. Yesterday, I was informed at county meeting in no uncertain words that the party is about raising money for in-state candidates, period. Yeah, we need the money, because we don't have the anonymous PACS the Republicans do. But before people give money, they have to feel like the organization hears them and is responsive to them. So while I will keep on chairing and toeing the line, I want to offer outside "work-sessions" for the folks in my committee who want to actually DO something to ensure we get the voters out, not just here, but in our neighbor states where close races WILL determine whether we have a functioning Congress. The old days of just having big event fund-raisers just don't cut it anymore. We want democracy back, and we want to be part of it- including our own political party.
I've experienced exactly what you're saying. As a result, every time I get an email from the DSCC or DNC or other establishment Washington-based Democratic group, if a text I type STOP and if a phone call I tell them to forget it, I never give money over the phone.
As we get into 2024 I'll donate to individual candidates - all Dems of course - but won't ever pay the overhead of institutionalized and out of touch Democratic groups in D.C.
I love you work to create a New Democratic Party. The old way is why we are in the fix we are in.(it’s not just that the gop went nuts). I want my support and action to be a part of that new bottom up rebuilding. I want us to win AND make a positive difference! Thank You Annie for chairing your local Dem committee. Here’s wishing you get better leadership higher up.
I think they are working on it at the national level. Keep in mind that each state has its own Dem organization and by-laws, and that, I think, is where the significant move toward change must happen. Also keep in mind that people all up and down are doing the best they can. We are almost all volunteers; the few staff we are able to hire are not well-paid for the level of work they do- and they do work hard. Nobody goes into this without a sense of commitment. It's just that people burn out, and new people tend to pick up on what they have seen, so old ways of doing things get perpetuated. Change takes time, and it's often hard. I believe that the amazing grass-roots activity outside the party the past several years will be one of the big drivers for change in the Democratic party. It already is a new Democratic Party. And the proof is the amazing results in recent elections. We each can do some small thing that will make a difference. One of the big ones is getting the media to pay attention to the important things. Write letters to journalists to let them know when they are off, but as important- let them know when they've done a good job. Best way to create change.
Yes! There is no pregnancy without a penis! 50% of the genetic makeup of each child belongs to the father. So, my suggestion to the pro-life extremists is that for every child born, the biological father is financially responsible for the child’s food, housing, clothing, healthcare, education through college, sports, etc. Let’s put that on the ballot along side their draconian anti-abortion bills. That’s only fair. The truth is, they don’t give a damn for those babies once they’re born. And they prove that by cutting SNAP and Medicaid benefits to poor women and children. This isn’t about being pro-life and it never was. It’s about keeping women powerless second class citizens.
Ramasmarmy was telling some reporter before the debate that the answer to abortion was "male sexual responsiblity." Which on a certain level is acknowledging the obvious that immaculate conception isn't suuuuuper common, but really is just another way of saying that the acceptable solution is to stop having sex, which is not going to happen and doesn't need to happen, because *adults have sex,* and always have and always will, and there is nothing WRONG with having sex whenever you want with another consenting adult, and the idea that you need to live with the "consequences" and "take responsibility" for having sex, like it is some grave weighty life choice you are making is goddamn ludicrous to everyone who knows what goddamn century it is.
Rami is dubiously offering a red herring. No doubt more male sexual activity responsibility would solve a LOT of world problems, but abortion will always be necessary health care. Responsible people get unwantedly pregnant. Responsible people have obstectric crisises that abortions will medically remedy. Pregnancy - even when resulting from responsible action - is still -and always will be- dicey business. Leave the decision where it should most responsibly be: with the pregnant person and the medical professional chosen to accept help from. NONE of this stops other women or men from chosing how to act personally. If you are against abortion, don’t get one. Or don’t have sex with someone who will get pregnant. Nothing is stopping someone from exercising their personal choice to carry their pregnancy to term. Nothing. As well, Nothing should stop a pregnant person from making the personal choice that is best for the pregnant person.
Susan, you must not live in a state like Missouri. Where the Dem machine is so afraid of losing their comfy relationship with the neofascists they won't support progressive candidates. Where they are fielding a primary opponent who wants to get rid of Cori Bush, probably one of the most remarkable Congresswomen around. Where they deliberately sank the nomination of a viable candidate in the last senatorial race (Lucas Kunce, who is now running to run against Hawley) in favor of a completely incompetent candidate whose only claim to fame was that she was a beer heiress with ties to St. Louis. And then lied about Lucas in order to primary him out of the picture. Where, outside of KC where I live and where we bleed blue, the Dem machine won't support their own electorate in favor of maintaining what piddly power or influence they have. Dem machine doesn't mean Democratic voter. Dem machine is the organization that ceded the grassroots to the Reaganites. That allowed the neofascists and Christofascists to take over local government. That is interested mostly in maintaining its own institutional power. Machines are all corrupt. I am interested in voters. In people. In pushing against the whole machine politics situation. Ironically, although Biden has been a team player most of his life, hhe has been out ahead of his own party for years--including as VP--in ways that the Dem machine has found objectionable. Why do you think they are being so coy? Talking about replacing him? Not amplifying his message?
Sorry for the screed but I just can't let this one go. I have never EVER voted for a Republican--and I remember and liked John Lindsey. But I won't call myself a member of the Democratic Party (except perhaps in Will Rogers's famous phrase: "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat") because I have been abandoned by the machine more times than I have been supported.
Thank you Linda! I am a lifelong Democrat, and I know it is important for us to call out the corruption in our own Party. I never give to the DCCC or the DSCC precisely because, as you said, they so often support candidates who are acceptable to corporate donors rather than those who really work for us.
That said, I have yet to see a Republican candidate who really gives a d@mn about real people, so I will continue to support Dems. Of MY choice.
Thank you for elucidating (is that a word?!) the situation in MO.....it’s bad enough fighting our enemies, but our “friends”? It must be doubly depressing
Wow...I'd like to copy your message and send to some friends in NY who are so frustrated with the NY Dem. machine. Would that be ok?
I'm encouraged by the young folks, especially women, I see who are truly progressive and working hard at the grass roots level. Old Dems will die out (I'm 78, and I'm sure of this!) so we have to keep fighting the good fight and supporting these young folk. Blessings,
Thank you for this post. Around here it is the more progressive people who are often Bernie bots and believe the label socialist can win who have dissed Biden. i don't hear that so much now, so maybe a few of them have reformed.
Have you heard Michael Moore’s podcasts about blue dots in a red state? His tips made sense to me, tho I live in NM which is blue, although there are a lot of MAGAs here….
Susan, the people doing the most effective work right now are the kitchen table Democrats: all the people writing postcards, making calls, going to the local town hall meetings, reaching out, showing up. We do need the organization of the party to pull it all together, but they let us down at the local level if all they do is constantly ask for money. In recent times, the most effective fund-raising has been for small amounts. I don't mind getting asks from candidates, because it costs to run a campaign. But it's pretty off-putting to be asked to give without being given a sense of why, and of being given the sense that We the People have no role in the process other than as money raisers.
First...I'm a radically independent moderate, I've voted for candidates and positions supported by both D and R.
Second...regarding the D. When they had the majority, when they had the House, the Senate and POTUS they did NOT pass the legislation that many of us want:
- right to reproductive control
- proper gun control
- right to register and vote
I think I see the R party self imploding on abortion and guns and extreme extremists, and am hoping to see D's have success in local, state and national elections in 2024.
Will the D's have enough discipline and self-control to advance the legislation that the MAJORITY of Americans (members of D and R and INDEPENDENTS) want?
"Will the D's have enough discipline and self-control to advance the legislation that the MAJORITY of Americans (members of D and R and INDEPENDENTS) want?"
I think it is key to remember that there is no particular amount of "self-discipline and control" that can mind-magic any given egotistical Senator into going along with the plan, especially when they feel they stand to be rewarded for NOT doing so, and if you have literally no people to lose then that is that. 273/275 Dems voting the same way (99.5% agreement) is pretty freaking "disciplined". Too bad those 2 were in the wrong place. If that doesn't happen next time, then all these nice things will happen next time.
Nicely put. It's been woman' fault since Eve. I recently read Gilgamesh and found out it was a woman (a temple prostitute) who spoiled Enkido's natural ways and made him a human so he could pal around with Gilgamesh who wasn't exactly a good ruler. I will give the ancient writers kudos though for not beating around the bush and telling exactly what happened. No euphemisms.
I have seen bits of whole Christian seminars based around the message that women need to keep themselves chaste because they have no idea how hard it is for men to control themselves when women are alluring, essentially laying the shame and responsibility for "sin" in the world at women for not keeping *themselves* oppressed enough.
I found it offensive as a man, though, because I have absolutely no problem keeping my business in my pants upon seeing a nice lady specimen, and I don't need any help from her (or Jesus) to not be a creep, thank you very much.
Love this, Will. On Christmas Eve we listen at 7am to the Readings and Carols from King's College Chapel, Cambridge. I love it, except the first bit about the Garden of Eden. Available, btw at 7amPST Christmas Eve on all classical.org to stream.
I find the work of Dr. Kristin Kobes du Mez very interesting. She is the author of a book Jesus and John Waynehttps://www.google.com/search?q=Kristin+kobes+du+mez&sca_esv=581440190&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwio1oOQrruCAxXfjokEHWLiDN0Q_AUoBHoECAMQBg&biw=2219&bih=1051&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:41264421,vid:nLBgAimpnKs,st:0
Thanks for saying this Will. I have long been perplexed (and angry) that some theocratic countries keep women home-bound, shrouded head-to-toe when outdoors and “controlled” by men because-- what?—the men can’t control their urges? That screams to me of “moral weakness” and lack of self-agency….poor darlings, so sad & silly! Sometime ago I read The Power by Naomi Alderman, a fiction thought-experiment about the male/female power dynamic…an interesting read & btw was one of Obama’s favorite reads for 2017 (also NYT’s Book Review one of 10 best for 2017). I am grateful that for my trip-round-the-sun I landed in a relatively free society, if still somewhat misogynistic. And I hope to see the ERA finally passed before I shuffle off to star dust.
This summer my goal was to read as many banned books as possible ( including several children's books). To honest some I wouldn't care for in a high school. I think there would be other books which would cove the topic. The Handmaid's Tale and the Giver affected me the most. My general impression is they don't like anything that presents a possible authoritarian tendencies. Any thing LBGTQ is definitely out even if no sex is mentioned. and why is Where the Wild Things Are on the list?
Right on about the zygotes, Jeri. I've never seen any R sobbing over the more than 40% of zygotes that never take and get flushed down toilets all over the world every day. That's REALITY. Don't tell me those clumps of cells have souls.
If they cared about babies, they would CARE ABOUT BABIES, and children, and the damaged vets, and the immigrants who could contribute to our society, and... Well, I could go on and on.
How can you say you value all life when it is a zygote in utero but not when it is a Black man on death row for the same things white men get away with?
This is true, but you don't even have to go that far! They think that the life of a fully functioning women should cede its own exercise of free will the second an unformed zygote appears.
They clearly value some of "all lives" more than others.
Girls and women are sinners, and the men are just bystanders. NOT. Glad I have known some wonderful men or I could be a hater. I'm a hater of hypocrisy instead.
What is a soul? This much we know: all bodies are temporary no matter in what stage of development. If a soul is the point where the body plugs in to life, and the body dies, life is not the poorer for it.
Those right wing extremists are NOT the ones protecting life. Women and girls are suffering emotional trauma and dying because the Republican Taliban is practicing medical care without a license. The Republican Taliban voted to increase child poverty and wants to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, SNAP, and every social safety net program while letting their legacy children into college and keeping kids with few financial resources out.
The ONLY good Republicans are pushing up daisies. Right on Harry Truman.
So many have been traitors for decades. The Coup of 1933 was the first I heard of. But not the last. Things that never made it into our history books. No wonder DeSatan wants to "protect" us from what republicans have done to our democracy. Now Santorum says it out loud.
Here in Ohio, the Republicans changed the wording of the Issue 1 amendment on the ballot, substituting “unborn child” for the word “fetus”, I suppose thinking fewer people would vote for that. Our issue wasn’t just about abortion. It includes the right to contraception, infertility treatment, and miscarriage care. It also forbids the state from punishing those who either seek abortions or help those seeking them.
While I’m thrilled that both Issues 1 and 2 passed, I find it pretty awful that turnout was less than 50% for such an important election. I get that that’s high for an off year, and all we voted for were a couple of magistrates, school board (and thank god our far right crazy lost), and our two issues, but ugh! Come on people, vote!
Had a conversation with my grand girl who seemed to think that since she uses contraception for other than birth control, she would be safe. Disabused her of that notion. It matters not. Also told her that things might not always be in her control. My ex bff has three daughters and one d-in-l. All were raped as teens, two working in restaurants, one at Oxford during a semester abroad, and one at college. None reported it. Shocking to me, but apparently more common than any know. Yet girls and/or women wear the Scarlett Letter.
My Mom was pregnant 13 times. She has 2 children. She wanted more, but that is life. Miscarriage is common and devastating, and she is the strongest person I know. I am so glad that she didn't have to think about what state she was living in while going through that near-decade of trying, and anyone who thinks it is ok for a woman having to consider such a thing in such a situation deserves an express ride to the very particular neighborhood in Hades.
My wife was 1 for 6. Two of those were in Missouri and one in Nebraska. She nearly died on one of them that happened when abortion was legal in those states.
If a woman in those states had miscarriages at the same point in their pregnancies that my wife did, there is a good chance they would die if this happened now.
I haven't spent time in Ohio since the 2002 election, but at that time, I noticed that daytime NPR always focused on music in the day time and all the news was pushed into the evenings, whereas in New York City, you could get NPR news all day long. I was volunteering for a group sponsored by George Soros (no demon in my book) rather than the Kerry campaign, but it seemed to me that some timely news would have been helpful, because the Republican narrative was out there unchallenged.
We’re seeing it play out now… “Within MAGA Republicans’ refusal to admit that their far-right positions are unpopular is a disdain for those voters who disagree with them.”
Sounds like the unnamed official in the George W. Bush administration who said “(you’re) in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”
Otherwise known as "alternative facts." Yep, W and Dickie were great at creating their own reality. We suffer mightily for their insanity today. W laughingly said "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." Chump signed on and here we are.
Don't forget W. had a lot of help from Karl Rove, who, if I'm not mistaken, first used the term reality-based community. And no, in reality, Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, and we've been paying for it ever since.
Zealots or true believers of any ilk never admit defeat because they would have to give up the essence of themselves....the idea that only they have the truth and the hatred and disdain for anyone else who doesn't. It's a horrible way to go through life in my opinion, but we find it all over the world in various guises.
I think we can mostly thank death star for giving haters and in your face folks carte blanche to do this. Also I find that society in general is much less civil in everyday life.
The fact is, the Bible says the soul does not enter a body until the first breath is taken; these evangelical extremists have no biblical evidence for their stance against a woman’s rights.
Well said. It is the zealous quest of power. But the fervor is driven or rationalized by an irrational sense of rightness. And it's a sense that self-justifies immoral and unethical actions. It's frightening.
5 1/2 months for a baby to be able to survive outside the women. Something like 90+% abortions are done before 13 weeks. No one is ripping, screaming live babies from anyone.
But that's the lie the right-wing nut cult is pushing. I think chump actually said that. Worse than that, they think that no egg should go unfertilized. Birth control is as evil as abortion at any time. But sperm, just let it flood the land. Insanity rules the fools and has since God was a baby.
Great post, Will. You are so right about that "ping" setting off the remembrance of all those other oppressions. I think the thing is, forced birth is a constantly looming horror that affects more than half the population ALL THE TIME, so it galvanizes more people faster. And also, as HCR has often pointed out - Dobbs TOOK AWAY a Constitutional right. That is a five alarm fire.
Yes, things were looking pretty bleak, but nothing should tarnish the positivity of these elections. The message is clear. One of my favorite lines of this newsletter:
"As Greg Sargent noted in the Washington Post, right-wing culture wars appear to be losing their potency as opponents emphasize American principles."
No, Will, the anger will NOT subside…I have kept mine since the mid-60’s based on personal pre-Roe experience & that branded my advocation for reproductive bodily autonomy on my soul. For women the thrum of danger lives just beneath our skin, always—even when ones’ childbearing days are past . We do not forget.
And there is a potential link to so very many babies born with syphilis and lack of reproductive care. There have been increasing numbers for a decade but up 32% last year. Unforeseen consequences of the anti abortion movement and ruling of the Supreme Court.
It’s not well enough known..those figures! Rural care especially and in poor states is shocking ! Thanks Ally for doubling that fact.
WE need to focus on incentives for health care revamped , another Biden from the bottom up approach.. the tops echelons are evident , sorely needing hauled up by the short hairs and restructured equality.
Just another in the long list of us awakening , rolling up our sleeves, and holding those elected accountable for addressing long overdue inadequacies.
Will, thank you for info on GOP plan to push “ pregnancy centers” and “viable adoption”. Adoption should not be messaged as the answer.
My oft repeated rant.⬇️ ( Thanks for kindly “listening”.)
A woman or child who faces a pregnancy, included one that is forced or traumatic, may have the option to: 1)carry the pregnancy to term, or,2) have a medical procedure to terminate the pregnancy. Some may have absolutely no say in the decision,including those who have been human-trafficked.
Fetuses cannot be adopted. Adoption is an option only once there is a living child as birth mothers have rights up to and after birth.. If a person carries a pregnancy to term, even if this decision was not freely chosen, the decision is to :1)parent the child, or,2) relinquish the child for adoption.
Many birth mothers who suffer the life-long trauma of relinquishment,as well as adoptees, should not be used as political pawns.
And “Right To Lifers”, please stop telling adoptees they should be grateful they weren’t aborted. This “pro-life” gaslighting only serves to promote a false equivalence.
If these right to lifers want to stop abortion and rather the pregnant woman give up the baby up for adoption , what about all those kids that are in orphanages now ! I don't see these kids being adopted by these right to life people ! I just see them bullying pregnant women !! There is no care after the baby is born, daycares are expensive and not enough of them ! Medical insurance is thru the roof and people go into bankruptcy because of these issues !! So the repugnants don't give a rat's ass about the people but care only about their wealthy donors and keeping their evangelical asshats happy , so expect more bullshittery come from the douche bag repugnants !!
Kimberlee, quite some years ago my sister was accompanying a friend to a Planned Parenthood clinic & there was a protest outside. Miffed, my sister walked over to a fellow holding a particularly offensive sign…she asked him how many adopted kids he was raising…crickets…”I thought so” she said & advised him to walk the talk or shut up.
So maybe RBG's death broke the dam, her last great act might have been to ignite the fight just in time for the 2020/2022 elections. For without her death could they have so brazenly taken a right away? Could McConnell have been so brazenly hypocritical to make a supreme court appointment and not let the voters decide and ignore Obama's appointment? While I'm contemplating how the world can be reshaped by unexpected or by what may appear to be untimely events leading to calamity, including the dump of Hillary's emails, COVID etc, (because there is a good chance that without both events the horror of the four years of Trump might be now with Xi and Putin running wild). Also, while I'm thinking a little mystically about all this, is there any chance McConnell could be accused and prosecuted for failing to uphold the Constitution for blocking Obama's ability to appoint a justice? Is Tuberville doing the same thing by exploiting a weakness?
I haven't heard any mention here of the Front Line exposure of McConnell. I saw it on Utah PBS, so I can't imagine that it wasn't aired everywhere. It was chilling to see how the little boy with polio developed into a consummate high school politician and with seeming ease moved from a moderate Republican into a tool of the far right.
There is also the matter of fomenting an insurrection 2021, and all of its concomitant crimes.
Reproductive rights are the focus now because it is really the largest issue facing us today. Access to safe, legal reproductive healthcare is only a small part of the financial, legal, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of women's lives under threat today. Republicans have made it very clear where they stand on all these issues. Make no mistake, this is really an existential threat to our culture.
The only arguably more existential threat is global warming and the tandem issue of climate inequity. Should Republicans regain control of the country those in charge of mitigating this threat will be the petrochemical oligarchs who brought us here in the first place. I no longer separate the Republican party into MAGA and non-MAGA camps (the media seems to make a sport of 'moderate Republican' sightings - kind of like bird watchers and the Ivory
Billed Woodpecker), as it seems to be long past the time (the weeks after 1/6/21) when, if the will was really there, they could have rid themselves of DT and his minions.
Steve, what is mostly flying under the radar is how human impact, not just climate change (tho it’s all interconnected), but use of chemicals, plastics & toxic environmental degradation is affecting fertility (primarily sperm production) and is increasingly, subtly, altering the physical expression of sex organs in babies. Hard to know the eventual outcome of this “forced evolution” of our species.
Thank you, Will, for this excellent post outlining the many reasons the party of death has it wrong. I find it interesting that they still do not get it at least in their public pronouncements although their attempt to suppress the vote tells me that they in fact do because they know they have nothing to offer. In the hopes that death star who aided and abetted this mess and gave carte blanche to people to be awful loses his assets and goes to jail.
the magic book doesn't even condemn abortion. on the contrary it instructs how to do it with poison (as a punishment and prevention of scary extramarital breeding!)
Based on ancient writings on the subject, it is told there was a very effective abortifacient herb (aka poison) growing wild but it was over harvested (!) to extinction (learned this in a series of herbalism classes but can’t recall the source material). Obviously must have been quite popular.
Does she not realize that there are over 100,000 children in foster care? and the republicans want to cut social services. Maybe the pro life people should adopt or take in a foster child. I read an article about how bipartisan committees are being formed to address needs of all the extra babies to be born. What the ----what about the ones who are here now? Repubs have lots of toys to play with, toss them aside, and now want new ones.
Perhaps you/Valenti might consider "We have just begun to fight!" as opposed to the proposed quote?
As an old guy who, yes, has used profanity after whacking myself with some tool, not winning the lottery, watching rain fall on a recently cut hayfield and the like.....I do mostly try to limit the use of the word since, to my old guy ears, it sounds too much like modern America. Crass, profane and, well, kinda "low" as Michele Obama might say.
In general, I try to use language for the situation at hand.
"We" have not won. "We" had a good day. And? I can tell you.
I have just begun to fight, and, my energy IS focused and I know who to fight and a bit more about how now than when I started involvement two years back. My eyes are open to the Republican Party now.
Just something to think about Ms. Sokoloff. I do like the sentiment though.
But maybe, considering the import of the moment and the more-than-understandable fury that many of our citizens are experiencing, just maybe usage of an uncouth syllable is not a problem worth addressing but instead an objectively harmless catharsis fully warranted.
Catharsis fully understood and accepted here. Your humor too.
thanks!
But, I think we are at the front end of the fight, we have not won, and it is a long slog ahead.
Lastly, given the growing number of voices openly expressing, on various public forums like News Max, Fox News and Pravda, that "Democracy is not how you run a country".
We have a real fight ahead.
I had dinner and a beer with a long time Republican Friend this past Tuesday. In that conversation:
1) he voiced full throated support for Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.
2) indicated that the Palestinians "deserve to be oppressed".
3) said: "Democracy is failing in the US and the Communists need tossed out" and WE need to run the country.
He knows I was once a Republican and he knows I no longer am. He is totally OK telling me, after only one beer, that we need to ditch democracy.
Today, he is the same guy.
I have just begun to fight Ms. Sokoloff. Because, the fight is coming to me.
Mike, your friend is saying essentially, “the will of the voters is fine until its not, democracy is fine as long as “WE” get to use power and greed and legalese to override it, that Freedom is not for everyone, but rather for people who earn it AGREEING WITH US”. When espousing that a group of people “deserve”to be oppressed, he basically checks every definition of a racist soul. He’s you who he is. I’m confident you believe him
The problem that I have with this (among many) is “how did this willingness to openly embrace the idea that prejudice and caste type superiority is in line with purported American values and Constitution language, unfold?”
I know you’re gonna tell me our history shows its always been lurking under a rock, but now its a badge of honor. How many people walk around boasting “I’m a bully, its the American way!!!”; but this is where we are today. This is now normalized and without shame
I used to be paradoxically heartened when I heard some neo-Nazi deny that the Jewish Holocaust ever happened. After all, their words at least showed that they considered genocide something to be ashamed of. Now, I think they are coming to embrace it.
Dave, “how did this willingness to openly embrace the idea that prejudice and caste type superiority is in line with purported American values and Constitution language, unfold?”
I think the presence of people who claim superiority is something like an evolved trait in EVERY human. I have met way too many people who have told me that they are:
1. Genetically superior because of x, y, z. (yes, one of our family friends, even today, will still tell me this after 20 years of me sneezing BS every time).
2. Smarter than average.
3. Stronger than average.
4. More attractive then average.
5. Closer to God than X.
Dave, you name it, humans think it when it comes to being superior.
The inner perception of "I am superior" just must be an evolved trait. Everyone thinks they are better than everyone else.
Mike, if you are ever in Michigan, we should bbq some burgers and have a beer, the worldview that I get from you aligns quite similar to mine. I have never thought that my condition was superior to others, just different. The only thing I think I’m really good at is music and I ain’t no Woody Guthrie
There’s a difference between self confidence in one’s own abilities and perspective vs exhibiting an aura of superiority. There’s always someone smarter, quicker, stronger….. so what? We, you and I, are in a battle of values with people who demonstrate none. Its hard not to feel a “little” better than the average bloak
Mike S - "Ms. Sokoloff, Perhaps you/Valenti might consider 'We have just begun to fight!' as opposed to the proposed quote?"
Will, from Cal - "But maybe, considering the import of the moment and the more-than-understandable fury and many of our citizens are experiencing, just maybe usage of an uncouth syllable is not a problem worth addressing but instead an objectively harmless catharsis fully warranted."
Not "worth addressing" mainly because that word has become so common that it has lost any meaning. Did Ms. Valenti really offer to have sex with her opponent or would, indeed, have "We have just begun to fight!" been more appropriate... and more effective?
My therapist tells me swearing is a sign of higher intelligence. And I swear like a mother fucker. My Italian grandmother's swear words are floating in space somewhere. They were poetry. It would bring a tear to your eye. I miss her.
Then I must be a genius. Damn, these days I can only rave to myself though. When I was young, I didn’t understand the need. Now they are like old friends. Can’t fathom that it’s a sign of intelligence though, just frustration to the core of my being regarding the Nazi cult which calls itself the Republican Party.
Funny story about swearing. When my youngest was 3, I was driving him to preschool when he said to me in his sweet little voice, “Mommy, I have to tell you something.” Expecting something cute like I love you, or I want pumpkin pie for supper. I said, “Sure, Sweetie.” He told me, “I just love to cuss!”
As we pulled into the church parking lot where his preschool/daycare was located, I had a brief moment where I laughed, sobered up and said, “Don’t do it in school.” He said, “I know, I won’t.”
He’s 35 now and makes a great living as a truck driver for one of the bigger dairy companies in our area. Who didn’t see that coming?
Someone I knew gave their kids the rule that it is ok to swear, but it is not ok to swear *at people.* That seemed reasonable to me, and I adopted it for myself. But boy is it difficult sometimes.
I tried that, too, but I've been called out by my daughter and by step-son, so I try to bite my tongue, even though it took me decades to learn to swear.
Lisa, there was just an article yesterday in I think the WaPo about children swearing more these days - it cites studies of swearing being empowering. If that's true, the 5 YO is close to superhero status....
I recently finished writing a novel where much of the action is inside a high school. I asked my hs teacher daughter for a few contemporary slang terms.. She told me that slang is mercurial, and IF I ever get the (fucking? LOL) thing printed, it would be out of date. Also that slang is spawned by TikTok now, and it is often regional as well.
Had she any thoughts as to what word(s) I could use that wouldn't hopelessly date my work? She said that they all--boys and girls--use "fuck" liberally.
Let me tell you, from the stories she relates, many of these kids are far from geniuses.
I think this is the thing that Stephen King is masterful at. When you read his older novels, he absolutely nails the dialogue of the day. It’s evocative.
I tried to explain to my 75-yo Dad the other day the difference between "extra" and "basic" and why neither is desirable, and had to add the caveat that this may already be out of date since I left college a few years ago and aren't on "the Gram." Today's lesson was in how being a "drip" is no longer something to avoid, but having "drip" is now something to attain. Same with "dope." Language is fun.
I think the thing with "fuck" is at this point in vernacular English it has attained the same versatility as "damn," but still maintains a greater sense of "naughtiness." So a lot of middle school kids would of course overuse it all the time because they think it makes them seem adult and rebellious and in-control when amongst the other middle school kids. Then you get older and realize it has no emphasis if you overuse. So swearier adults might be smarter, but swearier kids are almost always dumb showboats.
I think you're right about the versatility/naughtiness combo. It's being incredibly overused in streaming right now. I just quit watching another series because characters were saying it literally dozens of times per episode. That's just way too distracting.
My Italian husband is completely fluent in English, almost without an accent despite coming here as an adult. But he almost never swears in English. His Italian curses are long, imaginative, and funny.
In English we swear about sex and excrement. Italians tend to swear about penises, testicles, and religion. I don’t often hear women swearing in Italian. I cannot imagine what your Italian grandmother swore about!
She taught me how to say, fuck you in Italian. That and cooking out of a box was a sin. She swore about everything. She was 5ft tall and 4ft wide. She was brawler. She never backed down. Everybody says I'm just like her. I love it!
Apparently my Norwegian great grandmother was known both for her eccentricity and her incredible swearing capability. Norwegians don't have "bad words" per se. About the worst word they say is "fæn", which means "hell" (sort of) and is used like we use "fuck". They get VERY creative with their swearing, like the Irish do.
It is fascinating how in different countries and cultural contexts - even other English-speaking ones! - the effect of certain swears is so different. In the UK, "bloody" is a mild swear, while in the US people will ask if you need to go to the doctor. In the UK/Ireland/Australia, c*nt merely is a strong swear that can be used playfully outside of polite company, while in the US it seems to hit like a brutal slur. F*g in the US actually IS a slur, while in the UK it is a thing you order from behind the counter.
I’m pretty fluent in Italian, and I don’t know how to say fuck you! Feel free to teach me! Vaffanculo maybe? Which obviously translates a bit differently.
I wish I was fluent in Italian. It's a beautiful language. My great grandfather's name was Pasquale Santini. They came here around 1890. I wish I would've tapped her brain for more stories. Too busy playing with my 21 cousins.
Weekly visits back in the day to my Italian-born aunts and uncles; all gathered around the dinner table to gossip. Your posts make me wish I sat with them instead of playing with all my cousins!
Hey, "fuck" is my favorite angry word! I find it so very versatile!
I told my kids when they were teenagers that they could swear all they wanted to, that they are just good old Anglo-Saxon words that society made a pact to be horrified by, but they damn well better have a good vocabulary to support those swear words!! :D
Mine too. I even have my Pandemic dish towels that say, 'oh, the fuckery'. The other half of my family is full Irish. We didn't have a snowballs chance in hell from not swearing.🤣 We have a few dumb ones that went through the Florida school system. The rest are pretty bright though.
Hi Mike - I always appreciate your posts, and I'm not much of a swearer myself. But here's something for you to think about: You seem to be more disturbed by Valenti's use of the word "fuck" than by her citing the actual rape of children.
Will has expressed it very well, below. This female fury is going to flare up in catharsis. (Personally, I've written a six-book series about women who are taking their fury out on oppressive and predatory men by doing a whole lot more than swearing, and so far the catharsis of it has kept me from killing anyone. So far...)
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Multiply by half the population and that’s a lot of pissed off women, even considering the ones who subscribe to second class status.
Same here, I remember the joy of seeing Obama inaugurated, and the immediate fear of reaction of my old party plotting to make him a one term President by any means they could imagine. I'd seen enough by 1996 when I realized the disgusting Newt Gingrich/Frank Luntz GoPac memo "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" was not going to be rejected, indeed it seemed to really start to take off, and repeatedly returned to no matter how badly they lost any election.
They truly do want to Rule instead of Represent, and we have to keep adapting to their greater efforts following each loss.
I too am a reformed mop (my old party). (I love that and will use it in the future if you don't mind.)
Fascists Rule as you said. They feel the 1st amendment gives them the right to lie about everything and the 2nd amendment allows them to kill the children they say have a right to be born.
Frank and Newt used Rupert to “Goebbels” our population. Watched it happen to the smartest woman I ever knew. Thank you for that memo ref., I’m sure the Tea Party cretins used it to kneecap Obama from day one.
So hard not to call them what they are proud to be, we can celebrate our good day, but they have not reflected and changed anything. Abortion rights will never be on a ballot in Texas. As Santorum said, democracy is no way to run a country. Or something like that. Results of an election mean nothing to them. They think the cult should speak for all of America. They fight against the majority. I say FU, we will roar.
Mike, you say many good things, but I have a quibble with you schooling Ms. Solokoff about her use of language. Let her have one, you know? She was just venting, and she doesn’t do that very often!
Mike, as a 60-year-old woman, I read this advice like a man telling a woman to smile more (with or without the added clause of "so you'll be more attractive) or other phrases along those lines. You may not have intended your comment in this way, but it sounds condescending to women in my opinion, telling us how to feel, how upset we have a right to be, and how to express it.
What a great way to start my day - again!. Two excellent quotes, and a declaration of victory my two 30-something daughters would heartily approve!! But there is more good news that folks here would appreciate.
The only thing I had to vote on yesterday was school board. I was at the polls by 8:30am and was frankly surprised to see that 303 people put their ballots into the machine before me. With only school board elections to consider, I could only hope folks would take the time to read up on the candidates and get to the polls.
There were ten candidates on the ballot. Four of the ten were endorsed by Moms for Liberty. !
The four candidates endorsed by the local teachers union won.
I’m trained as a journalist. Spent my career in communications and fundraising for environmental nonprofits. Don’t use profanity very often in my writing.
Moms for Liberty’s politics are dangerous if not downright fascist.
Since I don’t use the B word when talking/writing about other women, “Fuck you, we win” felt like a great compromise. Thank you. 😎
Alexandra, when the pro-life persons decide that the government should force people to donate bone marrow and blood to save lives, I’ll believe them that preventing abortions is not about disregarding a woman’s choice whether or not she wants to put her health at risk to carry a baby to term. It’s obviously a combination of punishment for women for having sex coupled with the idea that only women should sacrifice their health to save lives.
Alexandra, thanks for posting Jessica Valenti's remarks. I try but I can't put myself into the thought processes of the American Taliban's concept of what a female human being is. It's as though females have no brains, no feelings, no say in what happens to their own persons. Forcing a woman to carry to term a fetus that is already dead, or to compel a 10-year old girl who is impregnated by a rapist to carry the pregnancy to term are for reasons beyond my comprehension. What are they thinking?
Richard, I appreciate your reference to the "American Taliban." But given the view of women held by those who hold to contorted conceptions of their own power and righteousness, I call "Christian" Nationalists the "Christian Taliban."
Melinda, "Christian Taliban" instead of "American Taliban" - I agree, it is closer to the point. Mixed in with it are elements of the KKK - White Protestant supremacy. Have you read Timothy Egan's book yet, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's? Griping and it casts a strong beam of light onto what the MAGA Republicans are.
Richard, thanks for the book recommendation. Strangely relevant to today, in high school (oh so many decades ago!) I did a research paper for a history class on the rise of the KKK in Indiana in the 1920s. It was most illuminating and, sadly, it is time to revisit that history.
I didn't read the book, but saw the History Channel's (when they still WERE about history) documentary on it. VERY eye opening. I'll have to look for the book.
I rarely speak from a feelings-based perspective. They are too évanescent, too empty of content to be of much worth. Today is an exception.
The last week has felt like having a bucket of cold water dumped over one’s head, only to warm up and then have to endure another one. The Times/Siena poll was devastating for Americans who work hard to see democracy survive at a moment when it is teetering. The consolation in that poll could only come when it was teased out by a fine-toothed comb, and at that it was thin gruel. It seems that Kennedy might take votes away from Trump. Wow.
Then we find out that the Democrats are split over Israel/Hamas, with 22 of them joining with Republicans to censure Rashida Tlaib. American has been showered with massive protests over the government’s seemingly intractable support of Israel. Biden, as if he needed to hear the news, learns that he is seeing the youth run away from him as if he was leprous, and even the Black vote appears up for grabs.
Now I happen to believe that Biden’s position on the conflict is deeply nuanced. What has been said by Blinken and other of his representatives behind closed doors is the antidote to what we hear in public. He and the protesters are closer by far than they know. It could hardly be otherwise - he loathes Netanyahu and the path he has taken Israel down.
Bidenomics is reflexively unpopular with the loud crowd. It’s an awful name, true, but the better he does for America the more he is hated. You just can’t argue with that wooden-headedness. It’s worthy of Mike Johnson.
Behind the scenes the Democratic political class is wringing its collective hands desperately trying to conjure up a plan for Biden to be skipped aside.
There is some solace in the votes on Tuesday. Republicans were taken to the woodshed in an almost unparalleled way. Locally those results will endure. At the national level they will be forgotten by Friday.
But here I come to my persistent gut feeling. I cannot help but believe that a year from now the Democrats will win the Presidency resoundingly. The smashing of Trump looks like it won’t happen in the primaries. But after that, the air is going out of the balloon. By Election Day we won’t be asking whether he’ll lose. The question will be how badly.
Believe! Believe! Believe!
But act as if you don’t. One more year of fighting at the ballot box will do it. Trump and the Republicans are a driving a dump truck overloaded with liabilities. The American system will hold. And America will be strengthened.
Give what you can. Do what you can. Your energy will be infectious.
Another Beau OTFC for a different viewpoint on the nature of diplomacy and how what you hear said in the media may be part of a wider strategy that is going on behind the scenes. Does Biden want Bibi to distance himself from war crimes? Yes. Is Bibi likely to do it? Not if he has to appease the far right nationalistic members of his coalition. So time for some pressure from people in Congress so Biden can say, Look it's not up to just me, Congress has to approve the funding. If Bibi wants the military aid he will have to take that step back.
As Beau says, diplomacy is about power and leverage. Biden is on the side of protecting as many lives as he can and getting aid to innocent Palestinians as quickly as he can while keeping the conflict from expanding. He also knows how to exert leverage and, more to the point, unlike Trump, he does not need to have a purported win. There is much that you see like that with Heather's post on solving the immigration crisis that went on behind the scenes, out of sight, and totally under the radar of the media.
At some point we have to remember that Joe has a pretty damn good track record of making good stuff happen. And, as a bonus, he doesn't need to tell you how great he is while he's doing it. A major change from the previous administration.
SUCH a great day!!! And quotes of the day (after):
“Women don’t want to die for Mike Johnson’s religious beliefs.” —Molly Jong-Fast
And from Jessica Valenti:
"I wish I was the kind of person who wins gracefully. Really, I do. But when you spend a year writing about raped children being denied care and women forced to carry doomed pregnancies to term, you tend to lose your magnanimity.
So to every Republican politician who tried to keep voters from having a say on abortion, and to every anti-choice activist who worked to keep women under the government’s thumb:
'Fuck you, we win.' "
God bless you and Jessica Valenti. I spent all of yesterday absolutely floating with vindication and am not sorry.
Considering the press coverage: I am happy that the pundits have figured out the face-slappingly eye-rollingly hair-on-end obvious fact that reproductive rights matters to everyone, is a paramount concern and isn't just, like, a trend, gurl! But I am frustrated that they *still* are not fully grasping that it is not *just* the damn abortion bans that are driving up Demicratic turnout. It is so much more than that.
Dobbs was the straw that broke the camel's back. It was the apex and culmination of the Christian-fundamentalist-nativist-nationalist madness that the Republican party has spent most of our lifetimes cultivating in our population for their own divisive ends. It was the moment that everything else became sharply clarified for a lot of people who were not previously willing to see the personal, visceral danger of these peoples' agenda of open authoritarianism on their lives. The threats to democracy are NOT abstract, nor are you immune from their effects, and the danger is not just stemming from Von Tweeto but the party as a whole. When folks hear about an abortion ban it sets off a little *ping* in their brain that "Oh yeah, AND ALSO the book banning, and the telling people what to wear, and the gay bashing, and the open carry rifles (my kid has a clear backpack now!), and the insurrection, and the Nazi marches, and the forced family separation, and the million dead from Covid because you wouldn't wear a damn mask, and oh God I guess these people are all truly insane and maybe the extra 60 cents at Starbucks isn't the biggest problem after all!"
Ronna McDaniel was on the news saying how the party needs to make it clear how they value exceptions and nuance, and need to demonstrate "compassion" through more "pregnancy centers" and "viable adoption." Ugh. Lady, you are NOT GETTING IT. There is no nuance here. It is the 21st Century. Adults have sex. Having sex is FINE. Sometimes a woman gets pregnant, doesn't want to be a Mom yet. That is FINE. Get over it. That woman doesn't feel like spending a year of her life having her body put through hell and then the rest of her life knowing the kid she gave up is wandering out there, when the alternative is a SIMPLE COMMON MEDICAL PROCEDURE that removes some cells and lets her get on with her own destiny. Kindly stop shoving your hateful medieval judgement you learned from your magic book up her uterus.
Fuck you, we win.
Edit: Oh, and progressives ALSO have better ideas than the reactionaries about putting more money in the pockets of regular people. That too! (That isn't new, though.)
And stop defining zygotes as babies. All cells have potential but many fall short. Republicans fall short of that reach for humanity every day. Just like in 2012, when they heard the same advice “need a change of message,” they doubled-down and hugged right. And the money flowed in. Ronna McDaniel will NEVER get it. It’s power, pure and simple. One thing is for sure, the zealots will never admit defeat. Neither can we.
Jeri (and Will): Yes! AND stop defining women's bodily autonomy as only abortion. The issues having to do with women regaining legal control over their bodies is far more vast than that. What we need is ERA. And we also need to demand that this Christofascist focus on the "fault" of women for getting pregnant when they have intercourse be corrected. Pregnancy cannot happen without a (wait for it: I beat this drum on a regular basis) PENIS being involved. And yet all these white boyz are convinced that somehow their insertion of their favorite organ into a woman's vagina is not the problem. What I love is the fact that the book burning morons are being hoist on their own petard. My motto for years has been "Never EVER mess with librarians." We have to begin at the bottom and work through the system methodically. The Democratic machine is terrible at this, but it could be that we have some momentum.
"We have to begin at the bottom and work through the system methodically. The Democratic machine is terrible at this, but it could be that we have some momentum"
Thank you for this. I am chair of a local Dem committee, and on the county exec committee. You caught the Dem problem spot on. I have worked with groups, both political and non-political, for decades, and I know that people need to feel part of the process. But over and over again I hear people complaining that the only time they hear from the Dem party is when they want money. This is pretty much the truth. So I set out to give people in my committee a sense of having a voice and agency, knowing that they would take that out into the community to others. Yesterday, I was informed at county meeting in no uncertain words that the party is about raising money for in-state candidates, period. Yeah, we need the money, because we don't have the anonymous PACS the Republicans do. But before people give money, they have to feel like the organization hears them and is responsive to them. So while I will keep on chairing and toeing the line, I want to offer outside "work-sessions" for the folks in my committee who want to actually DO something to ensure we get the voters out, not just here, but in our neighbor states where close races WILL determine whether we have a functioning Congress. The old days of just having big event fund-raisers just don't cut it anymore. We want democracy back, and we want to be part of it- including our own political party.
I've experienced exactly what you're saying. As a result, every time I get an email from the DSCC or DNC or other establishment Washington-based Democratic group, if a text I type STOP and if a phone call I tell them to forget it, I never give money over the phone.
As we get into 2024 I'll donate to individual candidates - all Dems of course - but won't ever pay the overhead of institutionalized and out of touch Democratic groups in D.C.
BRAVA Annie!!!!!!!!!!! You give me hope.
I love you work to create a New Democratic Party. The old way is why we are in the fix we are in.(it’s not just that the gop went nuts). I want my support and action to be a part of that new bottom up rebuilding. I want us to win AND make a positive difference! Thank You Annie for chairing your local Dem committee. Here’s wishing you get better leadership higher up.
I think they are working on it at the national level. Keep in mind that each state has its own Dem organization and by-laws, and that, I think, is where the significant move toward change must happen. Also keep in mind that people all up and down are doing the best they can. We are almost all volunteers; the few staff we are able to hire are not well-paid for the level of work they do- and they do work hard. Nobody goes into this without a sense of commitment. It's just that people burn out, and new people tend to pick up on what they have seen, so old ways of doing things get perpetuated. Change takes time, and it's often hard. I believe that the amazing grass-roots activity outside the party the past several years will be one of the big drivers for change in the Democratic party. It already is a new Democratic Party. And the proof is the amazing results in recent elections. We each can do some small thing that will make a difference. One of the big ones is getting the media to pay attention to the important things. Write letters to journalists to let them know when they are off, but as important- let them know when they've done a good job. Best way to create change.
Yes! There is no pregnancy without a penis! 50% of the genetic makeup of each child belongs to the father. So, my suggestion to the pro-life extremists is that for every child born, the biological father is financially responsible for the child’s food, housing, clothing, healthcare, education through college, sports, etc. Let’s put that on the ballot along side their draconian anti-abortion bills. That’s only fair. The truth is, they don’t give a damn for those babies once they’re born. And they prove that by cutting SNAP and Medicaid benefits to poor women and children. This isn’t about being pro-life and it never was. It’s about keeping women powerless second class citizens.
Ramasmarmy was telling some reporter before the debate that the answer to abortion was "male sexual responsiblity." Which on a certain level is acknowledging the obvious that immaculate conception isn't suuuuuper common, but really is just another way of saying that the acceptable solution is to stop having sex, which is not going to happen and doesn't need to happen, because *adults have sex,* and always have and always will, and there is nothing WRONG with having sex whenever you want with another consenting adult, and the idea that you need to live with the "consequences" and "take responsibility" for having sex, like it is some grave weighty life choice you are making is goddamn ludicrous to everyone who knows what goddamn century it is.
Rami is dubiously offering a red herring. No doubt more male sexual activity responsibility would solve a LOT of world problems, but abortion will always be necessary health care. Responsible people get unwantedly pregnant. Responsible people have obstectric crisises that abortions will medically remedy. Pregnancy - even when resulting from responsible action - is still -and always will be- dicey business. Leave the decision where it should most responsibly be: with the pregnant person and the medical professional chosen to accept help from. NONE of this stops other women or men from chosing how to act personally. If you are against abortion, don’t get one. Or don’t have sex with someone who will get pregnant. Nothing is stopping someone from exercising their personal choice to carry their pregnancy to term. Nothing. As well, Nothing should stop a pregnant person from making the personal choice that is best for the pregnant person.
I guess that birth control is out of the question in some states. Even crossing the state is a no no (one of the southern states-Mississippi I think)
very well said
Funny comment, Linda. Never say the Democratic machine is terrible, ok? Please? Democrats are the loves of my life right now.
Susan, you must not live in a state like Missouri. Where the Dem machine is so afraid of losing their comfy relationship with the neofascists they won't support progressive candidates. Where they are fielding a primary opponent who wants to get rid of Cori Bush, probably one of the most remarkable Congresswomen around. Where they deliberately sank the nomination of a viable candidate in the last senatorial race (Lucas Kunce, who is now running to run against Hawley) in favor of a completely incompetent candidate whose only claim to fame was that she was a beer heiress with ties to St. Louis. And then lied about Lucas in order to primary him out of the picture. Where, outside of KC where I live and where we bleed blue, the Dem machine won't support their own electorate in favor of maintaining what piddly power or influence they have. Dem machine doesn't mean Democratic voter. Dem machine is the organization that ceded the grassroots to the Reaganites. That allowed the neofascists and Christofascists to take over local government. That is interested mostly in maintaining its own institutional power. Machines are all corrupt. I am interested in voters. In people. In pushing against the whole machine politics situation. Ironically, although Biden has been a team player most of his life, hhe has been out ahead of his own party for years--including as VP--in ways that the Dem machine has found objectionable. Why do you think they are being so coy? Talking about replacing him? Not amplifying his message?
Sorry for the screed but I just can't let this one go. I have never EVER voted for a Republican--and I remember and liked John Lindsey. But I won't call myself a member of the Democratic Party (except perhaps in Will Rogers's famous phrase: "I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat") because I have been abandoned by the machine more times than I have been supported.
Thank you Linda! I am a lifelong Democrat, and I know it is important for us to call out the corruption in our own Party. I never give to the DCCC or the DSCC precisely because, as you said, they so often support candidates who are acceptable to corporate donors rather than those who really work for us.
That said, I have yet to see a Republican candidate who really gives a d@mn about real people, so I will continue to support Dems. Of MY choice.
Thank you for elucidating (is that a word?!) the situation in MO.....it’s bad enough fighting our enemies, but our “friends”? It must be doubly depressing
the "Democratic" National Committee
is a Private Corporation and is
'democratic' in name Only:
.
they're vastly Too com-
fortable to Afflict the
Comfortable and
Comfort the
Afflicted.
Wow...I'd like to copy your message and send to some friends in NY who are so frustrated with the NY Dem. machine. Would that be ok?
I'm encouraged by the young folks, especially women, I see who are truly progressive and working hard at the grass roots level. Old Dems will die out (I'm 78, and I'm sure of this!) so we have to keep fighting the good fight and supporting these young folk. Blessings,
Thank you for this post. Around here it is the more progressive people who are often Bernie bots and believe the label socialist can win who have dissed Biden. i don't hear that so much now, so maybe a few of them have reformed.
There are not enough 'Likes' for me to express my appreciation for your comments Linda.
I see. Thank you for the history from your neck of the woods and also your point of view.
Have you heard Michael Moore’s podcasts about blue dots in a red state? His tips made sense to me, tho I live in NM which is blue, although there are a lot of MAGAs here….
Mayor John Lindsay was the only Republican I ever voted for.
Wow! Thank you for these clear examples of the failings of the Democratic Machine. I did not understand the complaints until I read your post here!
Spot on. It is like watching a Trojan Horse. The R's infiltrated. Corporate agents.
Linda I am with you. And Mr Rogers.
Susan, the people doing the most effective work right now are the kitchen table Democrats: all the people writing postcards, making calls, going to the local town hall meetings, reaching out, showing up. We do need the organization of the party to pull it all together, but they let us down at the local level if all they do is constantly ask for money. In recent times, the most effective fund-raising has been for small amounts. I don't mind getting asks from candidates, because it costs to run a campaign. But it's pretty off-putting to be asked to give without being given a sense of why, and of being given the sense that We the People have no role in the process other than as money raisers.
Thank you, Annie.
First...I'm a radically independent moderate, I've voted for candidates and positions supported by both D and R.
Second...regarding the D. When they had the majority, when they had the House, the Senate and POTUS they did NOT pass the legislation that many of us want:
- right to reproductive control
- proper gun control
- right to register and vote
I think I see the R party self imploding on abortion and guns and extreme extremists, and am hoping to see D's have success in local, state and national elections in 2024.
Will the D's have enough discipline and self-control to advance the legislation that the MAJORITY of Americans (members of D and R and INDEPENDENTS) want?
"Will the D's have enough discipline and self-control to advance the legislation that the MAJORITY of Americans (members of D and R and INDEPENDENTS) want?"
I think it is key to remember that there is no particular amount of "self-discipline and control" that can mind-magic any given egotistical Senator into going along with the plan, especially when they feel they stand to be rewarded for NOT doing so, and if you have literally no people to lose then that is that. 273/275 Dems voting the same way (99.5% agreement) is pretty freaking "disciplined". Too bad those 2 were in the wrong place. If that doesn't happen next time, then all these nice things will happen next time.
Nicely put. It's been woman' fault since Eve. I recently read Gilgamesh and found out it was a woman (a temple prostitute) who spoiled Enkido's natural ways and made him a human so he could pal around with Gilgamesh who wasn't exactly a good ruler. I will give the ancient writers kudos though for not beating around the bush and telling exactly what happened. No euphemisms.
I have seen bits of whole Christian seminars based around the message that women need to keep themselves chaste because they have no idea how hard it is for men to control themselves when women are alluring, essentially laying the shame and responsibility for "sin" in the world at women for not keeping *themselves* oppressed enough.
I found it offensive as a man, though, because I have absolutely no problem keeping my business in my pants upon seeing a nice lady specimen, and I don't need any help from her (or Jesus) to not be a creep, thank you very much.
Love this, Will. On Christmas Eve we listen at 7am to the Readings and Carols from King's College Chapel, Cambridge. I love it, except the first bit about the Garden of Eden. Available, btw at 7amPST Christmas Eve on all classical.org to stream.
I find the work of Dr. Kristin Kobes du Mez very interesting. She is the author of a book Jesus and John Waynehttps://www.google.com/search?q=Kristin+kobes+du+mez&sca_esv=581440190&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwio1oOQrruCAxXfjokEHWLiDN0Q_AUoBHoECAMQBg&biw=2219&bih=1051&dpr=2#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:41264421,vid:nLBgAimpnKs,st:0
Thanks for saying this Will. I have long been perplexed (and angry) that some theocratic countries keep women home-bound, shrouded head-to-toe when outdoors and “controlled” by men because-- what?—the men can’t control their urges? That screams to me of “moral weakness” and lack of self-agency….poor darlings, so sad & silly! Sometime ago I read The Power by Naomi Alderman, a fiction thought-experiment about the male/female power dynamic…an interesting read & btw was one of Obama’s favorite reads for 2017 (also NYT’s Book Review one of 10 best for 2017). I am grateful that for my trip-round-the-sun I landed in a relatively free society, if still somewhat misogynistic. And I hope to see the ERA finally passed before I shuffle off to star dust.
You rock, Linda, telling it like it is!
This summer my goal was to read as many banned books as possible ( including several children's books). To honest some I wouldn't care for in a high school. I think there would be other books which would cove the topic. The Handmaid's Tale and the Giver affected me the most. My general impression is they don't like anything that presents a possible authoritarian tendencies. Any thing LBGTQ is definitely out even if no sex is mentioned. and why is Where the Wild Things Are on the list?
Right on about the zygotes, Jeri. I've never seen any R sobbing over the more than 40% of zygotes that never take and get flushed down toilets all over the world every day. That's REALITY. Don't tell me those clumps of cells have souls.
If they cared about babies, they would CARE ABOUT BABIES, and children, and the damaged vets, and the immigrants who could contribute to our society, and... Well, I could go on and on.
How can you say you value all life when it is a zygote in utero but not when it is a Black man on death row for the same things white men get away with?
This is true, but you don't even have to go that far! They think that the life of a fully functioning women should cede its own exercise of free will the second an unformed zygote appears.
They clearly value some of "all lives" more than others.
It is the ultimate irony, Jeri, that Rs cannot give a fig about living humans. They only have plans to matters worse for ordinary people.
It's not babies. It's CONTROL of women.
Read somewhere - you can tell Democrats by the people they want to help. You can tell republicans by the people they want to hurt.
Absolutely.
AMEN!!!
"Don't
tell me those
clumps of cells have souls."
.
those who love
to proclaim 'Corporations
are too People!' keep using
that term. they haven't a Clue
what a Soul is or there'd Never
BE any more Executions. Zygotes
.
are
NOT
"Babies."
Dig it. Zygotes are not babies, baby.
&
Corps're
NOT Peeps.
oh
and
EVERY
Sperm
Is Sacred.
.
so let's
have some*
Ceremonies
for those that
Don't Make It.
.
*Mandatory!
Girls and women are sinners, and the men are just bystanders. NOT. Glad I have known some wonderful men or I could be a hater. I'm a hater of hypocrisy instead.
hate the Hipocrisy
AND Hate the
Patriarchy:
.
Women
hold Up
1/2 the Sky.
Man-datory, man. Eschew the idle unless your name is Eric.
Hahahaha…I see what you did there Les!
What is a soul? This much we know: all bodies are temporary no matter in what stage of development. If a soul is the point where the body plugs in to life, and the body dies, life is not the poorer for it.
I see the soul as a useful word for the awareness of right and wrong, as used by Tolstoy.
Those right wing extremists are NOT the ones protecting life. Women and girls are suffering emotional trauma and dying because the Republican Taliban is practicing medical care without a license. The Republican Taliban voted to increase child poverty and wants to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, SNAP, and every social safety net program while letting their legacy children into college and keeping kids with few financial resources out.
The ONLY good Republicans are pushing up daisies. Right on Harry Truman.
So many have been traitors for decades. The Coup of 1933 was the first I heard of. But not the last. Things that never made it into our history books. No wonder DeSatan wants to "protect" us from what republicans have done to our democracy. Now Santorum says it out loud.
I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. MAGA.
Right on, JennSH!
Here in Ohio, the Republicans changed the wording of the Issue 1 amendment on the ballot, substituting “unborn child” for the word “fetus”, I suppose thinking fewer people would vote for that. Our issue wasn’t just about abortion. It includes the right to contraception, infertility treatment, and miscarriage care. It also forbids the state from punishing those who either seek abortions or help those seeking them.
While I’m thrilled that both Issues 1 and 2 passed, I find it pretty awful that turnout was less than 50% for such an important election. I get that that’s high for an off year, and all we voted for were a couple of magistrates, school board (and thank god our far right crazy lost), and our two issues, but ugh! Come on people, vote!
Had a conversation with my grand girl who seemed to think that since she uses contraception for other than birth control, she would be safe. Disabused her of that notion. It matters not. Also told her that things might not always be in her control. My ex bff has three daughters and one d-in-l. All were raped as teens, two working in restaurants, one at Oxford during a semester abroad, and one at college. None reported it. Shocking to me, but apparently more common than any know. Yet girls and/or women wear the Scarlett Letter.
Jeri, how heartbreaking. It makes my blood boil.
Mine too
Thank you KR for mentioning miscarriages and the danger to women who want their pregnancy to be viable but have to terminate it.
KR, thanks for sharing the "inclusions" of contraception and miscarriage care.
My Mom was pregnant 13 times. She has 2 children. She wanted more, but that is life. Miscarriage is common and devastating, and she is the strongest person I know. I am so glad that she didn't have to think about what state she was living in while going through that near-decade of trying, and anyone who thinks it is ok for a woman having to consider such a thing in such a situation deserves an express ride to the very particular neighborhood in Hades.
My wife was 1 for 6. Two of those were in Missouri and one in Nebraska. She nearly died on one of them that happened when abortion was legal in those states.
If a woman in those states had miscarriages at the same point in their pregnancies that my wife did, there is a good chance they would die if this happened now.
Fuck you Alito and the other CINOs on the USSC.
❤️
The prospect of the Handsmaid’s Tale coming to life feels too real.
It’s no longer a movie/book it’s a movement ....
And DYING....
***Applause for GOTV, Democrats Awakening ❤️😉, voting, donating, holding onto tried and truth , ACKNOWLEDGING our errors and corrective action.***
I haven't spent time in Ohio since the 2002 election, but at that time, I noticed that daytime NPR always focused on music in the day time and all the news was pushed into the evenings, whereas in New York City, you could get NPR news all day long. I was volunteering for a group sponsored by George Soros (no demon in my book) rather than the Kerry campaign, but it seemed to me that some timely news would have been helpful, because the Republican narrative was out there unchallenged.
That is still true.
We’re seeing it play out now… “Within MAGA Republicans’ refusal to admit that their far-right positions are unpopular is a disdain for those voters who disagree with them.”
Sounds like the unnamed official in the George W. Bush administration who said “(you’re) in what we call the reality-based community,' which he defined as people who 'believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.' [...] 'That's not the way the world really works anymore,' he continued. 'We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”
Otherwise known as "alternative facts." Yep, W and Dickie were great at creating their own reality. We suffer mightily for their insanity today. W laughingly said "You can fool some of the people all of the time, and those are the ones you want to concentrate on." Chump signed on and here we are.
Don't forget W. had a lot of help from Karl Rove, who, if I'm not mistaken, first used the term reality-based community. And no, in reality, Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, and we've been paying for it ever since.
I’ll never forget Rove. Texas went to hell when he foisted W on the state. I told off more than a few people who defended that WMD crap.
'We're an empire now,
and when we act, we
create our own reality.”
.
with a Ginormous
Assist from Rupert 'Uncle
Snoopy' Mudroach, killer of
Democracies planet-wide and
his FOX facts-FREE teevee: ''the
Scum also rises.'' --Hunter S Thompson
and don't forget the Koch Kleptocrats and their $15 billion spent on psyops games, like creating the Tea Party in the shadows.
when your Empire
rests on the same
Fossil Fuels that
are Destroying
the Planet you
GOTTA Work
at undermin-
ing Democ-
racy & the
Kochs are
Experts
in that
field.
Omg, did that really happen?! So bad to be in a “reality-based community”!
Zealots or true believers of any ilk never admit defeat because they would have to give up the essence of themselves....the idea that only they have the truth and the hatred and disdain for anyone else who doesn't. It's a horrible way to go through life in my opinion, but we find it all over the world in various guises.
So true, but in my long life, I have never experienced the "out in the open" viciousness that exists today in our "tolerant country/"
I think we can mostly thank death star for giving haters and in your face folks carte blanche to do this. Also I find that society in general is much less civil in everyday life.
So true
The fact is, the Bible says the soul does not enter a body until the first breath is taken; these evangelical extremists have no biblical evidence for their stance against a woman’s rights.
Well said. It is the zealous quest of power. But the fervor is driven or rationalized by an irrational sense of rightness. And it's a sense that self-justifies immoral and unethical actions. It's frightening.
That self-righteousness identifies dangerous zealots who want to control your life
5 1/2 months for a baby to be able to survive outside the women. Something like 90+% abortions are done before 13 weeks. No one is ripping, screaming live babies from anyone.
But that's the lie the right-wing nut cult is pushing. I think chump actually said that. Worse than that, they think that no egg should go unfertilized. Birth control is as evil as abortion at any time. But sperm, just let it flood the land. Insanity rules the fools and has since God was a baby.
Great post, Will. You are so right about that "ping" setting off the remembrance of all those other oppressions. I think the thing is, forced birth is a constantly looming horror that affects more than half the population ALL THE TIME, so it galvanizes more people faster. And also, as HCR has often pointed out - Dobbs TOOK AWAY a Constitutional right. That is a five alarm fire.
Yes, things were looking pretty bleak, but nothing should tarnish the positivity of these elections. The message is clear. One of my favorite lines of this newsletter:
"As Greg Sargent noted in the Washington Post, right-wing culture wars appear to be losing their potency as opponents emphasize American principles."
"Will voters still care in a year's time, or will the anger subside as other issues come into the picture?"
I DON'T KNOW, WILL EVERY WOMAN IN AMERICA STOP HAVING HER PERIOD EVERY SINGLE MONTH? PRETTY CONSISTENT REMINDER OF THIS "ISSUE", WOULDN'T YA SAY?
No, Will, the anger will NOT subside…I have kept mine since the mid-60’s based on personal pre-Roe experience & that branded my advocation for reproductive bodily autonomy on my soul. For women the thrum of danger lives just beneath our skin, always—even when ones’ childbearing days are past . We do not forget.
And there is a potential link to so very many babies born with syphilis and lack of reproductive care. There have been increasing numbers for a decade but up 32% last year. Unforeseen consequences of the anti abortion movement and ruling of the Supreme Court.
The US stats scream for better health care period.
Included in that is maternal care, post partum care.
The US stats regarding health care are abysmal. The US stats regarding pregnancy and birth care are worse than that.
It’s not well enough known..those figures! Rural care especially and in poor states is shocking ! Thanks Ally for doubling that fact.
WE need to focus on incentives for health care revamped , another Biden from the bottom up approach.. the tops echelons are evident , sorely needing hauled up by the short hairs and restructured equality.
Just another in the long list of us awakening , rolling up our sleeves, and holding those elected accountable for addressing long overdue inadequacies.
Thanks again….EVERYONE 💙☮️🫶
Will, thank you for info on GOP plan to push “ pregnancy centers” and “viable adoption”. Adoption should not be messaged as the answer.
My oft repeated rant.⬇️ ( Thanks for kindly “listening”.)
A woman or child who faces a pregnancy, included one that is forced or traumatic, may have the option to: 1)carry the pregnancy to term, or,2) have a medical procedure to terminate the pregnancy. Some may have absolutely no say in the decision,including those who have been human-trafficked.
Fetuses cannot be adopted. Adoption is an option only once there is a living child as birth mothers have rights up to and after birth.. If a person carries a pregnancy to term, even if this decision was not freely chosen, the decision is to :1)parent the child, or,2) relinquish the child for adoption.
Many birth mothers who suffer the life-long trauma of relinquishment,as well as adoptees, should not be used as political pawns.
And “Right To Lifers”, please stop telling adoptees they should be grateful they weren’t aborted. This “pro-life” gaslighting only serves to promote a false equivalence.
Very well said, thank you!
If these right to lifers want to stop abortion and rather the pregnant woman give up the baby up for adoption , what about all those kids that are in orphanages now ! I don't see these kids being adopted by these right to life people ! I just see them bullying pregnant women !! There is no care after the baby is born, daycares are expensive and not enough of them ! Medical insurance is thru the roof and people go into bankruptcy because of these issues !! So the repugnants don't give a rat's ass about the people but care only about their wealthy donors and keeping their evangelical asshats happy , so expect more bullshittery come from the douche bag repugnants !!
Kimberlee, quite some years ago my sister was accompanying a friend to a Planned Parenthood clinic & there was a protest outside. Miffed, my sister walked over to a fellow holding a particularly offensive sign…she asked him how many adopted kids he was raising…crickets…”I thought so” she said & advised him to walk the talk or shut up.
So maybe RBG's death broke the dam, her last great act might have been to ignite the fight just in time for the 2020/2022 elections. For without her death could they have so brazenly taken a right away? Could McConnell have been so brazenly hypocritical to make a supreme court appointment and not let the voters decide and ignore Obama's appointment? While I'm contemplating how the world can be reshaped by unexpected or by what may appear to be untimely events leading to calamity, including the dump of Hillary's emails, COVID etc, (because there is a good chance that without both events the horror of the four years of Trump might be now with Xi and Putin running wild). Also, while I'm thinking a little mystically about all this, is there any chance McConnell could be accused and prosecuted for failing to uphold the Constitution for blocking Obama's ability to appoint a justice? Is Tuberville doing the same thing by exploiting a weakness?
Odd, Martha, how all this heady acquired power has gone straight to their gonads & IMHO made big dicks of them all….just sayin’.
I haven't heard any mention here of the Front Line exposure of McConnell. I saw it on Utah PBS, so I can't imagine that it wasn't aired everywhere. It was chilling to see how the little boy with polio developed into a consummate high school politician and with seeming ease moved from a moderate Republican into a tool of the far right.
I will look for it here on our PBS streaming. That sounds interesting. Thank you for the direction.
I love your comments, Will. And today it’s like you are inside my 70 year old brain. Except you say it better.
Cheri, 74 here & totally agree…Will is chill!!!
Great post. You made my day. I wish you were on the MSM.
Preach it Will!
There is also the matter of fomenting an insurrection 2021, and all of its concomitant crimes.
Reproductive rights are the focus now because it is really the largest issue facing us today. Access to safe, legal reproductive healthcare is only a small part of the financial, legal, physical, social, and spiritual aspects of women's lives under threat today. Republicans have made it very clear where they stand on all these issues. Make no mistake, this is really an existential threat to our culture.
The only arguably more existential threat is global warming and the tandem issue of climate inequity. Should Republicans regain control of the country those in charge of mitigating this threat will be the petrochemical oligarchs who brought us here in the first place. I no longer separate the Republican party into MAGA and non-MAGA camps (the media seems to make a sport of 'moderate Republican' sightings - kind of like bird watchers and the Ivory
Billed Woodpecker), as it seems to be long past the time (the weeks after 1/6/21) when, if the will was really there, they could have rid themselves of DT and his minions.
Steve, what is mostly flying under the radar is how human impact, not just climate change (tho it’s all interconnected), but use of chemicals, plastics & toxic environmental degradation is affecting fertility (primarily sperm production) and is increasingly, subtly, altering the physical expression of sex organs in babies. Hard to know the eventual outcome of this “forced evolution” of our species.
Thank you, Will, for this excellent post outlining the many reasons the party of death has it wrong. I find it interesting that they still do not get it at least in their public pronouncements although their attempt to suppress the vote tells me that they in fact do because they know they have nothing to offer. In the hopes that death star who aided and abetted this mess and gave carte blanche to people to be awful loses his assets and goes to jail.
Cheeto von Tweeto
Perfect comment, Will.
the magic book doesn't even condemn abortion. on the contrary it instructs how to do it with poison (as a punishment and prevention of scary extramarital breeding!)
Based on ancient writings on the subject, it is told there was a very effective abortifacient herb (aka poison) growing wild but it was over harvested (!) to extinction (learned this in a series of herbalism classes but can’t recall the source material). Obviously must have been quite popular.
Edit: Found this https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silphium#:~:text=Silphium%20had%20a%20remarkably%20narrow,that%20led%20to%20its%20extinction.
Rethugs vowing to double down is an added bonus. Dobbs is the gift that keeps on giving. What irony!
Does she not realize that there are over 100,000 children in foster care? and the republicans want to cut social services. Maybe the pro life people should adopt or take in a foster child. I read an article about how bipartisan committees are being formed to address needs of all the extra babies to be born. What the ----what about the ones who are here now? Repubs have lots of toys to play with, toss them aside, and now want new ones.
YES, a resounding YES!!
Ms. Sokoloff,
Perhaps you/Valenti might consider "We have just begun to fight!" as opposed to the proposed quote?
As an old guy who, yes, has used profanity after whacking myself with some tool, not winning the lottery, watching rain fall on a recently cut hayfield and the like.....I do mostly try to limit the use of the word since, to my old guy ears, it sounds too much like modern America. Crass, profane and, well, kinda "low" as Michele Obama might say.
In general, I try to use language for the situation at hand.
"We" have not won. "We" had a good day. And? I can tell you.
I have just begun to fight, and, my energy IS focused and I know who to fight and a bit more about how now than when I started involvement two years back. My eyes are open to the Republican Party now.
Just something to think about Ms. Sokoloff. I do like the sentiment though.
Mike, I appreciate you here. We all do.
But maybe, considering the import of the moment and the more-than-understandable fury that many of our citizens are experiencing, just maybe usage of an uncouth syllable is not a problem worth addressing but instead an objectively harmless catharsis fully warranted.
Just my m@+h=rf#○k!ng 2 cents.
:-)
Catharsis fully understood and accepted here. Your humor too.
thanks!
But, I think we are at the front end of the fight, we have not won, and it is a long slog ahead.
Lastly, given the growing number of voices openly expressing, on various public forums like News Max, Fox News and Pravda, that "Democracy is not how you run a country".
We have a real fight ahead.
I had dinner and a beer with a long time Republican Friend this past Tuesday. In that conversation:
1) he voiced full throated support for Israel's bombing campaign in Gaza.
2) indicated that the Palestinians "deserve to be oppressed".
3) said: "Democracy is failing in the US and the Communists need tossed out" and WE need to run the country.
He knows I was once a Republican and he knows I no longer am. He is totally OK telling me, after only one beer, that we need to ditch democracy.
Today, he is the same guy.
I have just begun to fight Ms. Sokoloff. Because, the fight is coming to me.
Mike, your friend is saying essentially, “the will of the voters is fine until its not, democracy is fine as long as “WE” get to use power and greed and legalese to override it, that Freedom is not for everyone, but rather for people who earn it AGREEING WITH US”. When espousing that a group of people “deserve”to be oppressed, he basically checks every definition of a racist soul. He’s you who he is. I’m confident you believe him
The problem that I have with this (among many) is “how did this willingness to openly embrace the idea that prejudice and caste type superiority is in line with purported American values and Constitution language, unfold?”
I know you’re gonna tell me our history shows its always been lurking under a rock, but now its a badge of honor. How many people walk around boasting “I’m a bully, its the American way!!!”; but this is where we are today. This is now normalized and without shame
Your response him must have been vexing
I used to be paradoxically heartened when I heard some neo-Nazi deny that the Jewish Holocaust ever happened. After all, their words at least showed that they considered genocide something to be ashamed of. Now, I think they are coming to embrace it.
Like I said, a badge of Honor; similar to AR15 lapel pins
Dave, “how did this willingness to openly embrace the idea that prejudice and caste type superiority is in line with purported American values and Constitution language, unfold?”
I think the presence of people who claim superiority is something like an evolved trait in EVERY human. I have met way too many people who have told me that they are:
1. Genetically superior because of x, y, z. (yes, one of our family friends, even today, will still tell me this after 20 years of me sneezing BS every time).
2. Smarter than average.
3. Stronger than average.
4. More attractive then average.
5. Closer to God than X.
Dave, you name it, humans think it when it comes to being superior.
The inner perception of "I am superior" just must be an evolved trait. Everyone thinks they are better than everyone else.
Mike, if you are ever in Michigan, we should bbq some burgers and have a beer, the worldview that I get from you aligns quite similar to mine. I have never thought that my condition was superior to others, just different. The only thing I think I’m really good at is music and I ain’t no Woody Guthrie
There’s a difference between self confidence in one’s own abilities and perspective vs exhibiting an aura of superiority. There’s always someone smarter, quicker, stronger….. so what? We, you and I, are in a battle of values with people who demonstrate none. Its hard not to feel a “little” better than the average bloak
And me, and all who hold our freedoms dear. No exceptions
Hey! Don’t diss my favorite word!
Great f#@%king post Will!
Mike S - "Ms. Sokoloff, Perhaps you/Valenti might consider 'We have just begun to fight!' as opposed to the proposed quote?"
Will, from Cal - "But maybe, considering the import of the moment and the more-than-understandable fury and many of our citizens are experiencing, just maybe usage of an uncouth syllable is not a problem worth addressing but instead an objectively harmless catharsis fully warranted."
Not "worth addressing" mainly because that word has become so common that it has lost any meaning. Did Ms. Valenti really offer to have sex with her opponent or would, indeed, have "We have just begun to fight!" been more appropriate... and more effective?
"Did Ms. Valenti really offer to have sex with her opponent[?]"
I dunno Ron, when I say I call bullshit on this, am I actually warning you not to step in excrement originating from a male bovine?
Acceptable Will , thanks for your support. 🫶 I’d emphasize that by making another word politically more appropriate ..it’s even sexy 😉😉☮️
My therapist tells me swearing is a sign of higher intelligence. And I swear like a mother fucker. My Italian grandmother's swear words are floating in space somewhere. They were poetry. It would bring a tear to your eye. I miss her.
Then I must be a genius. Damn, these days I can only rave to myself though. When I was young, I didn’t understand the need. Now they are like old friends. Can’t fathom that it’s a sign of intelligence though, just frustration to the core of my being regarding the Nazi cult which calls itself the Republican Party.
Maybe you are.
Funny story about swearing. When my youngest was 3, I was driving him to preschool when he said to me in his sweet little voice, “Mommy, I have to tell you something.” Expecting something cute like I love you, or I want pumpkin pie for supper. I said, “Sure, Sweetie.” He told me, “I just love to cuss!”
As we pulled into the church parking lot where his preschool/daycare was located, I had a brief moment where I laughed, sobered up and said, “Don’t do it in school.” He said, “I know, I won’t.”
He’s 35 now and makes a great living as a truck driver for one of the bigger dairy companies in our area. Who didn’t see that coming?
Yeah, I told my girls they could swear, just not at school and not in front of Grandma and Grandpa! :D
Someone I knew gave their kids the rule that it is ok to swear, but it is not ok to swear *at people.* That seemed reasonable to me, and I adopted it for myself. But boy is it difficult sometimes.
I tried that, too, but I've been called out by my daughter and by step-son, so I try to bite my tongue, even though it took me decades to learn to swear.
That's priceless, Karen! This article also said that kids are really good at code switching. Your son obviously knew how at 3!
What a story!
Lisa, there was just an article yesterday in I think the WaPo about children swearing more these days - it cites studies of swearing being empowering. If that's true, the 5 YO is close to superhero status....
I recently finished writing a novel where much of the action is inside a high school. I asked my hs teacher daughter for a few contemporary slang terms.. She told me that slang is mercurial, and IF I ever get the (fucking? LOL) thing printed, it would be out of date. Also that slang is spawned by TikTok now, and it is often regional as well.
Had she any thoughts as to what word(s) I could use that wouldn't hopelessly date my work? She said that they all--boys and girls--use "fuck" liberally.
Let me tell you, from the stories she relates, many of these kids are far from geniuses.
Slang is hard to get right in fiction! Too much is really annoying. Hope you do get a publishing deal for it!
I think this is the thing that Stephen King is masterful at. When you read his older novels, he absolutely nails the dialogue of the day. It’s evocative.
Thank you. I have come to have even greater respect for authors, as writing the "fucking" thing is merely the tip of the iceberg! ;-D
I tried to explain to my 75-yo Dad the other day the difference between "extra" and "basic" and why neither is desirable, and had to add the caveat that this may already be out of date since I left college a few years ago and aren't on "the Gram." Today's lesson was in how being a "drip" is no longer something to avoid, but having "drip" is now something to attain. Same with "dope." Language is fun.
I think the thing with "fuck" is at this point in vernacular English it has attained the same versatility as "damn," but still maintains a greater sense of "naughtiness." So a lot of middle school kids would of course overuse it all the time because they think it makes them seem adult and rebellious and in-control when amongst the other middle school kids. Then you get older and realize it has no emphasis if you overuse. So swearier adults might be smarter, but swearier kids are almost always dumb showboats.
I think you're right about the versatility/naughtiness combo. It's being incredibly overused in streaming right now. I just quit watching another series because characters were saying it literally dozens of times per episode. That's just way too distracting.
That's funny. My grandkids certainly feel empowered.
So happy for this chuckle. Thank you!
Lowell George wrote “Eloquent profanity rolls right off my tongue”. Roll Um Easy---Little Feat
If what you say about intelligence and swearing is true, then I must be a genius
https://youtu.be/b7TLnRThxL0?si=cKqLy6JyyQgV0lIK
Love your playlists here!
My Italian husband is completely fluent in English, almost without an accent despite coming here as an adult. But he almost never swears in English. His Italian curses are long, imaginative, and funny.
In English we swear about sex and excrement. Italians tend to swear about penises, testicles, and religion. I don’t often hear women swearing in Italian. I cannot imagine what your Italian grandmother swore about!
She taught me how to say, fuck you in Italian. That and cooking out of a box was a sin. She swore about everything. She was 5ft tall and 4ft wide. She was brawler. She never backed down. Everybody says I'm just like her. I love it!
Apparently my Norwegian great grandmother was known both for her eccentricity and her incredible swearing capability. Norwegians don't have "bad words" per se. About the worst word they say is "fæn", which means "hell" (sort of) and is used like we use "fuck". They get VERY creative with their swearing, like the Irish do.
It is fascinating how in different countries and cultural contexts - even other English-speaking ones! - the effect of certain swears is so different. In the UK, "bloody" is a mild swear, while in the US people will ask if you need to go to the doctor. In the UK/Ireland/Australia, c*nt merely is a strong swear that can be used playfully outside of polite company, while in the US it seems to hit like a brutal slur. F*g in the US actually IS a slur, while in the UK it is a thing you order from behind the counter.
I’m pretty fluent in Italian, and I don’t know how to say fuck you! Feel free to teach me! Vaffanculo maybe? Which obviously translates a bit differently.
I wish I was fluent in Italian. It's a beautiful language. My great grandfather's name was Pasquale Santini. They came here around 1890. I wish I would've tapped her brain for more stories. Too busy playing with my 21 cousins.
Yep!
Weekly visits back in the day to my Italian-born aunts and uncles; all gathered around the dinner table to gossip. Your posts make me wish I sat with them instead of playing with all my cousins!
Hey, "fuck" is my favorite angry word! I find it so very versatile!
I told my kids when they were teenagers that they could swear all they wanted to, that they are just good old Anglo-Saxon words that society made a pact to be horrified by, but they damn well better have a good vocabulary to support those swear words!! :D
Mine too. I even have my Pandemic dish towels that say, 'oh, the fuckery'. The other half of my family is full Irish. We didn't have a snowballs chance in hell from not swearing.🤣 We have a few dumb ones that went through the Florida school system. The rest are pretty bright though.
Floriduh
Hi Mike - I always appreciate your posts, and I'm not much of a swearer myself. But here's something for you to think about: You seem to be more disturbed by Valenti's use of the word "fuck" than by her citing the actual rape of children.
Will has expressed it very well, below. This female fury is going to flare up in catharsis. (Personally, I've written a six-book series about women who are taking their fury out on oppressive and predatory men by doing a whole lot more than swearing, and so far the catharsis of it has kept me from killing anyone. So far...)
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Multiply by half the population and that’s a lot of pissed off women, even considering the ones who subscribe to second class status.
Same here, I remember the joy of seeing Obama inaugurated, and the immediate fear of reaction of my old party plotting to make him a one term President by any means they could imagine. I'd seen enough by 1996 when I realized the disgusting Newt Gingrich/Frank Luntz GoPac memo "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control" was not going to be rejected, indeed it seemed to really start to take off, and repeatedly returned to no matter how badly they lost any election.
They truly do want to Rule instead of Represent, and we have to keep adapting to their greater efforts following each loss.
Rule instead of represent. Need a bumper sticker. As good as “when republicans win, we all lose.”
I too am a reformed mop (my old party). (I love that and will use it in the future if you don't mind.)
Fascists Rule as you said. They feel the 1st amendment gives them the right to lie about everything and the 2nd amendment allows them to kill the children they say have a right to be born.
Thanks for the great quotes today Professor.
MOPs certainly more descriptive than GOP. Grand no more.
For sure. Maybe Grumpy old Party? But I like MOPs
Wish they were grumpy. They were and are Machiavellian manipulators, master class...
Frank and Newt used Rupert to “Goebbels” our population. Watched it happen to the smartest woman I ever knew. Thank you for that memo ref., I’m sure the Tea Party cretins used it to kneecap Obama from day one.
GOTV is working. Hello Freeport Maine , 🗣️this ex-MAINAH still loves ya 🫶 .
Waking up to the threat took some time,staying a course FOR THE PEOPLE is and will be winning results , so proud to be ‘a part of..’ CONGRATULATIONS 💙
So hard not to call them what they are proud to be, we can celebrate our good day, but they have not reflected and changed anything. Abortion rights will never be on a ballot in Texas. As Santorum said, democracy is no way to run a country. Or something like that. Results of an election mean nothing to them. They think the cult should speak for all of America. They fight against the majority. I say FU, we will roar.
Mike, you say many good things, but I have a quibble with you schooling Ms. Solokoff about her use of language. Let her have one, you know? She was just venting, and she doesn’t do that very often!
Mike, as a 60-year-old woman, I read this advice like a man telling a woman to smile more (with or without the added clause of "so you'll be more attractive) or other phrases along those lines. You may not have intended your comment in this way, but it sounds condescending to women in my opinion, telling us how to feel, how upset we have a right to be, and how to express it.
add me to the "Nope, couldn't disagree more" column.
What a great way to start my day - again!. Two excellent quotes, and a declaration of victory my two 30-something daughters would heartily approve!! But there is more good news that folks here would appreciate.
The only thing I had to vote on yesterday was school board. I was at the polls by 8:30am and was frankly surprised to see that 303 people put their ballots into the machine before me. With only school board elections to consider, I could only hope folks would take the time to read up on the candidates and get to the polls.
There were ten candidates on the ballot. Four of the ten were endorsed by Moms for Liberty. !
The four candidates endorsed by the local teachers union won.
Fuck you, we win!
Sheila, that's excellent! Thank you for reporting. Moms for Liberty my ass. (I've decided I can swear today. Tomorrow it's back to asterisks.)
I’m trained as a journalist. Spent my career in communications and fundraising for environmental nonprofits. Don’t use profanity very often in my writing.
Moms for Liberty’s politics are dangerous if not downright fascist.
Since I don’t use the B word when talking/writing about other women, “Fuck you, we win” felt like a great compromise. Thank you. 😎
Great quotes, Alexandra! Thanks for highlighting.
Alexandra, when the pro-life persons decide that the government should force people to donate bone marrow and blood to save lives, I’ll believe them that preventing abortions is not about disregarding a woman’s choice whether or not she wants to put her health at risk to carry a baby to term. It’s obviously a combination of punishment for women for having sex coupled with the idea that only women should sacrifice their health to save lives.
Alexandra, thanks for posting Jessica Valenti's remarks. I try but I can't put myself into the thought processes of the American Taliban's concept of what a female human being is. It's as though females have no brains, no feelings, no say in what happens to their own persons. Forcing a woman to carry to term a fetus that is already dead, or to compel a 10-year old girl who is impregnated by a rapist to carry the pregnancy to term are for reasons beyond my comprehension. What are they thinking?
Richard, I appreciate your reference to the "American Taliban." But given the view of women held by those who hold to contorted conceptions of their own power and righteousness, I call "Christian" Nationalists the "Christian Taliban."
Melinda, "Christian Taliban" instead of "American Taliban" - I agree, it is closer to the point. Mixed in with it are elements of the KKK - White Protestant supremacy. Have you read Timothy Egan's book yet, "A Fever in the Heartland," about the rise of the KKK in the Midwest in the 1920's? Griping and it casts a strong beam of light onto what the MAGA Republicans are.
Richard, thanks for the book recommendation. Strangely relevant to today, in high school (oh so many decades ago!) I did a research paper for a history class on the rise of the KKK in Indiana in the 1920s. It was most illuminating and, sadly, it is time to revisit that history.
I didn't read the book, but saw the History Channel's (when they still WERE about history) documentary on it. VERY eye opening. I'll have to look for the book.
The book will not disappoint you, Karen. Guaranteed.
I've got the Kindle version on hold at the library. Thanks!
"Christian Wahhabi" works, too.
My new mantra: Fuck you, we win!
I rarely speak from a feelings-based perspective. They are too évanescent, too empty of content to be of much worth. Today is an exception.
The last week has felt like having a bucket of cold water dumped over one’s head, only to warm up and then have to endure another one. The Times/Siena poll was devastating for Americans who work hard to see democracy survive at a moment when it is teetering. The consolation in that poll could only come when it was teased out by a fine-toothed comb, and at that it was thin gruel. It seems that Kennedy might take votes away from Trump. Wow.
Then we find out that the Democrats are split over Israel/Hamas, with 22 of them joining with Republicans to censure Rashida Tlaib. American has been showered with massive protests over the government’s seemingly intractable support of Israel. Biden, as if he needed to hear the news, learns that he is seeing the youth run away from him as if he was leprous, and even the Black vote appears up for grabs.
Now I happen to believe that Biden’s position on the conflict is deeply nuanced. What has been said by Blinken and other of his representatives behind closed doors is the antidote to what we hear in public. He and the protesters are closer by far than they know. It could hardly be otherwise - he loathes Netanyahu and the path he has taken Israel down.
Bidenomics is reflexively unpopular with the loud crowd. It’s an awful name, true, but the better he does for America the more he is hated. You just can’t argue with that wooden-headedness. It’s worthy of Mike Johnson.
Behind the scenes the Democratic political class is wringing its collective hands desperately trying to conjure up a plan for Biden to be skipped aside.
There is some solace in the votes on Tuesday. Republicans were taken to the woodshed in an almost unparalleled way. Locally those results will endure. At the national level they will be forgotten by Friday.
But here I come to my persistent gut feeling. I cannot help but believe that a year from now the Democrats will win the Presidency resoundingly. The smashing of Trump looks like it won’t happen in the primaries. But after that, the air is going out of the balloon. By Election Day we won’t be asking whether he’ll lose. The question will be how badly.
Believe! Believe! Believe!
But act as if you don’t. One more year of fighting at the ballot box will do it. Trump and the Republicans are a driving a dump truck overloaded with liabilities. The American system will hold. And America will be strengthened.
Give what you can. Do what you can. Your energy will be infectious.
Believe!
Believe! Believe! Believe!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gT-mWwaxl2E
Another Beau OTFC for a different viewpoint on the nature of diplomacy and how what you hear said in the media may be part of a wider strategy that is going on behind the scenes. Does Biden want Bibi to distance himself from war crimes? Yes. Is Bibi likely to do it? Not if he has to appease the far right nationalistic members of his coalition. So time for some pressure from people in Congress so Biden can say, Look it's not up to just me, Congress has to approve the funding. If Bibi wants the military aid he will have to take that step back.
As Beau says, diplomacy is about power and leverage. Biden is on the side of protecting as many lives as he can and getting aid to innocent Palestinians as quickly as he can while keeping the conflict from expanding. He also knows how to exert leverage and, more to the point, unlike Trump, he does not need to have a purported win. There is much that you see like that with Heather's post on solving the immigration crisis that went on behind the scenes, out of sight, and totally under the radar of the media.
At some point we have to remember that Joe has a pretty damn good track record of making good stuff happen. And, as a bonus, he doesn't need to tell you how great he is while he's doing it. A major change from the previous administration.
Sentence for sentence, I think you’re bang on. Thanks for the read.
Beautiful, Eric, thank you. I BELIEVE.
Eric, I have a small poster on my front porch which reads: “Courage is as contagious as fear”. Let’s make it so!
Beautiful.
Make it bigger. :)