House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has responded to news stories about his plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) by claiming his comments at the closed-door campaign event on Monday were taken out of context.
Imagine if all those Harris endorsements showed up on Foxy! The right-wing reaction to the Dems' messaging women married to Magas can discreetly vote for Harris without telling their partners shows just how much patriarchy still thrives in America. Thanks for letter, Heather, I hope those endorsements, both now and earlier, make a difference! This thing shouldn't seem too close to call!
If a woman does not feel comfortable discussing who she intends to vote for with her partner, that is a problem with the relationship, not the Democratic party. When it comes to bodies and voting booths - mind your own damn business!
My sister had a husband who watched Fox News. Wanting peace at home she did naught. I came to visit one day to find him watching Fox hi volume. I Lost it and ordered him to turn it off immediately. As he did I said, “How can you watch that station with a wife you say you love knowing how awful it is for her?” He’s no longer in this realm. I like to imagine even he’d be disgusted with t& cronies.
Maybe he's tuned into the Fox Eternal channel, only in jest mind you. My neighbours have two tvs in the house, one for "her", one for "him", but they're both rabid Dem supports, more or less like myself.
Frank, we have one TV. We turn off the news when we can't stand like last night when we watched no national news. We are both ardent Ds and I can't even imagine living with a person voting for death star. As we have mail in ballots, we sometimes discuss how to vote especially on ballot measures. Across the street is our male R neighbor who doesn't speak to us and his D wife who loves to discuss politics and does when she is at our neighbors without him. He once told her to stop listening to some radio station that she liked and she told him to get lost.
I asked a dear friend if I really knew his heart like I thought I did. He seemed to think about it but got out of answering me when he died just before the 2016 election. I still wonder... I feel for your situation, such can rip you apart. in so many ways
Trump took Bernie's message to the working class, twisted it, and deployed it. The Democratic Party fenced Bernie out, and because Americans liked Trump's fake-gold bravado and bullying, we got as criminal as a result.
We don't talk about it l, either. I'm almost certain he know how I feel/how I'll vote with how I've been clapping back at family, but he takes a "logical minded" approach and only looks at comparisons of candidates' policies and then votes for the one he likes most. His family is historically Republican, so he has a bias to get over as well that I don't think he acknowledges.
He doesn't follow news, social media, or, unfortunately, HCR.
I understand it, to some extent, and I would like that to be the way of things, but it isn't.
Hitler's policies sounded good on paper too - look where that got us.
Thinking I might need to have a conversation in my house and am dreading it. I hate conflict.
If I may presume to give you advice: approach it gently, and talk about how YOU feel without accusations. How you feel disrespected by TFG, scared about the future of women, etc. Bring "receipts" - proof of what he said, preferably videos. But mostly how he scares you (all of us) if he's elected. Good luck.
You could share some/all of the major U.S. economic news magazine/publications headlines this week about how our current economic health is the envy of the world.
I feel this way about my parents. They live 3 miles away and I haven't been able to bring myself to reach out to them for a month. Of course, they haven't reached out to me either.
LATE BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN : IN A SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS, HALF OF DONALD TRUMP’s FACE FELL OFF AFTER HIS ORANGE MAKEUP HARDENED AND PULLED FROM HIS FACE REVEALING AN EMPTY CRANIAL CAVITY WHERE THE RESIDUE OF WORMS ONCE INCUBATED.
Apparently whatever women are doing, they are doing it in the voting booth in greater numbers than men. I appreciate the optimism, and here is more. 5 reasons for hope.
It’s the same reason women do better in school, they pay attention, persist, move ahead, makes plans, stick to them, write down their ideas, organize, talk to their friends, and contribute 100’s of billions of unpaid hours to our society.
It’s what they do! Men could do to, but they would have to take responsibility, think, and care to make a difference.
While volunteering to handout the Democratic slate pamphlet at an early voting site, I observed many maga couples walking male leading a few steps ahead of the female with adult children trailing!
Campaigning here in Wisconsin. I've seen the oversize glossy flyers a GOP group is mailing out for Jill Stein. Front side environmental issue lies against Harris, backside environmental issue lies for Stein. I canvassed my first self identified Stein voter yesterday, a young woman living in an enclave of McMansions. She said 'sadly this time I'm not voting for any Democratic candidates.' She seemed uneasy but urging herself on. I don't try to dissuade any Trump aligned voters because they can get defensive and dig in. But, I did feel sad. I think her concerns may have to do with Gaza. Electing Trump won't help. Anything.
Trump's policy point-man on the NE - Jared Kushner - has proposed 'bulldozing the Negev desert, building camps for Palestinians' and developing valuable [and Palestinian free] Gaza waterfront property.' Exactly the solution racist right wing religious extremist real estate thugs would pursue.
I have a friend in a RED state who is voting for Stein; she wouldn't if she though it would affect anything..... BUT I've heard the Green Party statements that they are DELIBERATELY going after Harris/Walz and it sickens me...that's not issue driven, it's just hubris and stupid!
Pax, Stein voters will get drowned out so have no worry. It’s too bad that your friend cannot see that Stein is a Russian agent. Does she know her own kids won’t even speak to her and begged her not to run?
I start my election polling work tomorrow morning….(Maricopa County), I’m sure I will see similar sights. I am always saddened by the ultra-MAGA women, especially when they bring their children with them…what messages What messages already imprinted.😢
Your business is your business, but ... I'm a fast walker, too. When I am walking with someone I care about, I slow down to their pace. Just sayin' ...
My father-in-law was a slow walker and his girlfriend a fast walker. They lived in NYC and took a walk every day. She would walk her pace to the end of the block, then turn around and walk fast back to him, and so on. They lived together in a NYC apartment. They had plenty of together time.
I know that story, i'm inherently a little slower thanks to ageing hardware, but i smell "the roses" with camera in tow, pretty much umbilical at this stage.
my ex wife tended to walk behind, hardly what i wanted, then she went off her meds, end of that story. Almost kidding. My current gf, hardly a rebel or "feminist", generally ends up maybe 3-4 paces ahead of me, mainly she can walk a little faster, me slower, and admittedly, with a camera in hand. Dont take this too seriously
I imagine he was a slow and patient walker. Until the crowds became too large and then climb into a boat, and speak without profanity to the burgeoning crowds. (grin)
Steve, of course you are right. I'd voice my political opinions, regardless of what my husband thought, and woe be to anyone - man or woman - who demanded otherwise. Of course, I don't discuss controversial subjects or politics with people whose opinions differ from mine, or those who don't reveal their preferences. However, any woman who can't voice her political opinions to her spouse should find a good divorce lawyer.
That comment by that “Christian” pastor… My jaw hit the floor. In what day and age is that man living in?? In 1312 or something?? Vote, women of America, vote! Vote like your life depends on it (because it does)! Vote for Kamala, vote out the misogynist!
Some clear examples of why religion (patriarchy) and the R party aren’t rocking it with women. Waters of Fox said lying to your husband about whom you voted for is JUST LIKE having an affair!!! Oh please.
My thoughts exactly, Daniel, shouldn’t he, ahem, be visited by by the FBI for those clear threats of violence? He’s getting bolder, older, more “out there” and desperate by the minute. If he’s not careful the stress and all those “hamberders” will give him a Big MacAttack🍔!
He ought to be placed under a hold for psychiatric observation. An ordinary citizen making murderous insinuations is a danger to self and others. We all know these are dog whistles for his racist, misogynistic base to act on his behalf. Trump is a dangerous, demented man.
Well, Trump named her to the ambassadorship of the Vatican, so it’s unlikely he’d risk getting to live in luxury at some embassy or other in the next 4 years.
Rickey, I have long wondered why so many men—and some culturally ingrained misogynistic countries/cultures (women covered head-to-toe, can’t speak in public, travel w/o male accompaniment, etc.)—are so freakin’ scared of women that they have to keep their boot on women’s neck. Are they that weak that they can’t control themselves in women’s presence? Maybe I’m dense, but the root motivation for this confounds me and makes zero sense. I’ve posted this rec here before, but may I suggest the thought-experiment novel by Naomi Alderman “The Power”.
I've wondered the same... Maybe this is what we Dutchies call "de knuppel in het hoenderhok gooien", but are still so many men afraid of intelligent women, because they think they won't get any sex if women get to decide such things for themselves? It won't be any problem if you're interesting and self-conscious enough as a man, but maybe that's the point? They somehow sense their own insecurity and project that onto (their relationship with) women?
Barbara, many of the men around here on Cape Cod I meet, say their wives are smarter than they are. So. There’s hope? I think this attempt in our present world to go backwards culturally is the effect of the rise of women in not only politics but also in access to education. It reminds me of the rise of nationalism as the world is impacted by the internet and more that has virtually threatened cultural differences. Reflexive! Repressive. And yes deeply fearful. ‘Close the border, close the society!’ Who are The real Americans? Only the native Indians are as you know it, as most of us on this site know. My favorite saying (as a Winslow) is NO ONE INVITED US HERE!
🤮🤬……and here I wait and wait and wait….for the ERA to finally be ratified. Maybe once Harris is POTUS it will come to pass….kinda like folks have forgotten about it…. Not unlike how SCOTUS decimated the Voting Rights Act cuz “we’re all good now, right?”…..um, wrong…so wrong.
NPR contained an article with an interview with a pastor of a Pentacostal church. He played the ‘hate the sin, forgive the sinner card’ when he commented that
“And so you can have some people with some pretty deep moral struggles who are upholding a platform that we support. And I tell our people, don't pay as much attention to the struggles — pay attention to the platform. “
The words of Pentecostal church pastor Chad Harvey, whose sermons — often to weekly crowds of about 3,000 — usually feature on Cross Assembly's social media channels.
“And I tell our people, don't pay as much attention to the struggles — pay attention to the platform. Because here's what the Bible says: There's none righteous. No, not one. We're all messed-up people. “
“Some pretty deep moral struggles…”!! Seriously Chad!
Cheated on each of his 3 wives
Advocates sexual assault on women
Convicted of sexual assault
Convicted of financial fraud and election fraud
Deadly incompetent management of US policy during covid crisis leading to over 1,000,000 Americans death
Disdains laws that impede his pursuit of avaricious greed.
Lead and participated in the organization of the Jan 6 assault on our election process.
Dear Chad:
The creature trump is running for the office of POTUS not some low level municipal office!
‘We’re all messed…’ however your position is reckless!
PS.... how did i get up so early to be a "first commentator"! Well back to bed, my two kitties who moved out to the living room sofa, will likely follow suit. Still need another hour's zzz.
Frank, I call LFAA my Late Night University….. What I SHOULD learn is NOT to log on in the middle of the night when I awake & can’t fall back to sleep…but it’s not unlike cracking a good book…same “down the rabbit hole” results…enjoyable but tiring in the end!!! Good thing I’m retired!!!! [Some years ago I went to bed & picked up a book I’d been reading…read late-ish—11:00 or so—and thought uh-oh I need to get to sleep so I won’t be too tired at work……wait!!! OMG! I’m retired now and don’t have to be at work in the morning…lol….read until I finished the book…it was 4 a.m., and I then slept past noon. It was my first retirement epiphany!!!!😁]
Barbara, I used to have to get up anytime between 2:30 and 4:00 am to get to work. There are some difficult parts of this time of time, but oh boy do I love not worrying about the clock to head into work!!
lol. I'm still a "7 am" kind of riser, but pee breaks lead to 4am events. My watch says that even with a couple of them and an hour or so of looking at LFAA and commenting a little, i clocked nine hours 1 min zzzz . I'm not sure how accurate the gadget is, to be honest. I get back to sleep usually by putting on an audible, something not too intense or even boring. Put it on a timer, usually don't get through 30 minutes.
Satanic cults never sleep.......MAGA........Opus Die/Heritage Foundation are at the Gates of Hell right now, readiy to open the doors wide open..... after waiting and planning for decades. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS...YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE.
So does she sleep in? In Atlantic Canada, one hour ahead of Eastern, Heather's letters sometimes don't hit til 6 am. I was wondering if some kind of automation delay.
I suspect she's not in the Eastern Time Zone right now. My Letters, which usually arrive between 9-11 p.m. were arriving at 1 a.m. when she was in Portland, OR.
Once in a while my sleep clock goes haywire and I am awake when Heather posts her letter. Amazing how many of her followers are up. And how eager we seem to be to respond to her consistently excellent presentation of events tying them together. Enjoy your snooze.
Frank, wishes do come true: George Conway (Kelly Anne’s ex,) who had been involved in the Lincoln Project, started the Anti-Psychopath PAC, and ran ads highlighting Trump’s cognitive decline on Fox; the Golf Channel and other networks he watches. Other ads, which some might find triggering, recount the words of women he (allegedly 🙄) assaulted. The pac specifically bought time in the Florida market including West Palm Beach. It also bought billboards reading “Attention golfers: Trump cheats,” visible from his golf courses in Florida and New Jersey. A similar one was also scheduled to be bought near Mara Largo this month.
I am amazed at how much better George looks! I don't like to judge people by their appearances, but he reminds me of when coworkers would retire, then come in to visit. We'd always remark how good retirement made them look! I think that Kellyanne must have been miserable to live with. Good for George!
Glad to see you as first out of the gate, Frank. Honestly, I think the idea of patriarchy is overblown. I used to believe it until I did counter-insurgency field-work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those experiences convinced me that, notwithstanding all the bluster by men, changing a culture entails working with the women.
Inasmuch as I differ on one word, Frank, my reaction about this essay coincides with yours, on the level of feeling. My exasperation with the large gender gap is that so many men still buy into candidate Trump's aggressively and Senator Shady J.D.'s pedantically macho-mouthed scheiße. The divide should be close and favouring President Harris.
When she talks about American women making voting decisions for themselves, she nabs former House Speaker Newt Gingrich going apoplectic that women might have voting choices of their own -- as if such a moral possibility invokes the Q as to: "what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?” Of course, Heather started the para by reminding us of the far greater cheating Newt had practiced on his first two wives -- no Dems needed to spur his depravity.
No end to the hypocrisies, lies, exaggerations, deceptions, and other chicanery normal now in the circles of the political party running a convicted criminal and court-adjudicated rapist for president.
But it's not just idiocy and madness informing Heather's mirth. Remember, she's author of books looking levelly at the presence throughout U.S. history of slave-owning classes for whom human dignity has always stopped at the questions of ownership and short-term profit that comprise the sum total of any possible ethics for both the slave owners and their current varieties of nihilist, cynical, and others of supreme vulgarity.
Yes, the women seem to be pouring out. Let's hope that trend continues, to relegate to history and its dustbins all the patriarchal charades still pontificating, lying, attempting newest forms of oldest slavery.
Thank you Ellie for posting this clever approach to common sense. I will never understand how anyone can find anything admirable in that sleaze bag liar. Some of Heather’s reporting is new to me and shocks me after all these years of his 💩💩💩💩. How can this race be close? Beam me up Scotty! There’s no intelligent life on Earth has never felt more accurate. 💙🙏🏼💙🙏🏼. Think Positive Thoughts for a peaceful transition. 💙🙏🏼💙🙏🏼
"MAGA bro pals," Ellie -- love how human decency stands out in this little video.
And I'm accessing this of yours (your kindness in providing link) at a time when I've just seen the newest of the orange felon in a rally hosted by Tucker Carlson. There the exhausted, deranged, vitriolic criminal convict does nothing but intersperse venom for others with rank public masturbation for himself.
Nothing but? No, Ellie, because in his latest sinking to new lows he now urges Liz Cheney be put up before a firing squad, nine rifles aimed at her head for newest display of the icky fat, fat felon's murderous sickness.
It’s a further demonstration of Trump’s sociopathy, sadism, and mental decay. There is no bottom with Donald, no low he will not reach. He doesn’t want to get his own tiny hands messy with the blood of others, so he encourages his MAGA maniacs to violence.
Almost didn’t post this, Phil, but your choice of words brought to mind an image I can’t unsee based on something some comic (I think) said. Not unlike now always hearing accordion music in my head when TFFFG does that back ‘n forth thing with his hands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S65jqrHQi_c). Anyway, some comic said TFFFG’s fist-pumping “dance moves” looks like he’s jerking off two guys at once. Can’t. Unsee. That. Image. When he makes those moves!
Are we a nation of cowards. I may be on chump’s enemies list, but anybody who knows me likely knows my sentiments. And I know theirs, we used to coexist, W and the tea party started to change that. Chump ripped that all to hell, with republicans on board all the way.
The "soft" racists allied with the gun-toting militia nuts in Texas and changed the dynamics, with help from Moscow Mitch. I was shocked at some "friends" during that period.
MAGA bros think they want a strong man. Some ideas from Timothy Snyder on that. . .
Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.
Another pleasant illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation. But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don't. He will define one group after another as the enemy. This might feel good, so long as you feel that you are on the right side of the line. But now fear is the essence of life. The politics of us-and-them, once begun, never ends.
We dream that a strongman will let us focus on America. But dictatorship opens our country to the worst the world has to offer. An American strongman will measure himself by the wealth and power of other dictators. He will befriend them and compete with them. From them he will learn new ways to oppress and to exploit his own people.
At least, the fantasy goes, the strongman will get things done. But dictatorial power today is not about achieving anything positive. It is about preventing anyone else from achieving anything. The strongman is really the weak man: his secret is that he makes everyone else weaker.
It's a shame that some have to hide how they vote to stay in good grace with their social crowd, but that is human nature. People frequently avoid telling the exact truth to their friends and family so they can simply get along.
Men must pour out FOR Harris and against Trump, too. We are counting on our husbands, sons, brothers, nephews, cousins and colleagues to have our female backs!
Everything ol’ Newt says applies to Republicans, not Democrats. He’s been a stain on our political life for years, and he should just go away into private life.
How about he finally go to hell. The hypocrite is as vile now as he was when he and Tom Delay, and a host of other monsters, soiled our country. Liz and Adam are two of a precious few who now recognize the reality of the garbage dump they have created, in our own back yard.
Darn it, Ellen, you unleashed my junior high brain. It went to another piece of human anatomy, all brown and wrinkly, way south of the neck and on the backside.
they are threatening every human alive with every degree of invasion of people's lives, to dictate their morals from on high. and to keep the patriarchal order going where men do what they want and make the rules and definitions and laws, when all reason suggests, and history tells us is contra their entire weak spin of history and science. AND a distorted and dis-informational relation to factual knowledge, empirical science.
Is it any wonder that these people fear academia and scientists so much?
They're hyper-paranoid and all worked up about shit that aint none of their bidnisss.
Bodily autonomy is bodily autonomy, like identity is identity and consent means consent, never the other. Voting is the same way.
If that's the position they take, then you know for real you're dealing with fascists.
I don’t appreciate their right to be butting into other people’s private lives, even though I am not doing anything more than hard work and being a single and happy cat lady. Vance is my senator and I didn’t vote for him, and can’t stand him. What I’m concerned about is losing the election to Trump, and losing our good Senator Sherrod Brown to a dishonest car salesman. Moreno and Trump are both grifters.
Just to let you know that this 90-year old did 200 GOTV postcards to OH voters on Sherrod Brown’s behalf and sent him more contributions than she could afford. (Virginian, currently in IL.)
I too am as much concerned about your Senate race as well as others (Montana, PA, TX, etc)..way easier for repubs to win in such red states (not so much PA)
I'm not sure, Nate, that they "fear academia" ("and scientists").
The primal document, the Powell memo of 1971, shows they have contempt for academe. But back then academe still had humanities thriving in it. Still had decent, generous amounts of interdisciplinarity, room for essays, for personal anecdote, patience for citing wider perspectives -- and the literacy for acknowledging apt humanities in many ways.
But that, Nate, is exactly what all members of our latter-day enslaving classes hate.
They want to control. And the first steps to dehumanizing others is to enforce on oneself all of the neutered, abstracted language, all the group think and categorical smallness, all the parades of shrunken, shriveled linearity as if life were ever nothing more than replicating, repeating, monotonous units the living dead can package, themselves first, then others with vengeance.
Yes, Nate, as you say: "they are threatening every human alive with every degree of invasion of people's lives, to dictate . . .."
Funny, too, Nate, how everything you say of our latter-day enslaving classes also applies to all the instruments of their standardized testing by which they've also killed the schools.
They don’t want us to think for ourselves, which humanities encourage. I’ll admit there may be some crazy individuals in academia, but they hardly make up the whole, which is what these modern day philistines want you to believe.
Philip, I know you are an avid advocate for the return of the humanities in education. The business model has been super-imposed on higher ed such that data gathering to assess effectiveness is now a primary task for educators. This, i believe interferes with an actual education as numbers, not ideas gain primacy. We forget the etymology of the word educate: e, a contraction of the preposition ex meaning out from, and ducare, the verb to lead. To educate meant to lead out the person, to allow and promote self-actualization. Now education has turned into an avenue for pecuniary gain, rather than a path to fulfillment.
I enjoyed the Dr. Richardson's humor as well. For the rest of this campaign, I am chilling out on reacting to what they say. No more being aghast, fearful, outraged, stunned, sleepless or hopeless.
VP Harris ran a flawless campaign. The Country is coming together for her. I have never in my 57 years of voting seen endorsements pour in from everywhere like this. Even the dastardly media is somewhat off her back. We have a movement on our hands, folks. One reason I have become so positive is that I have become a devotee of watching VP Harris' rallies. Oh man! The energy! Watch them for a boost in these final days.
We've got this. Our lawyers are as prepared as theirs. Our Democratic President is Commander in Chief of the Military, and he falls under the immunity clause courtesy of SCOTUS too.
Well, I think if church pastors are going to be admonishing and insisting their attendees to vote in federal elections for a certain party, their churches ought to be paying taxes. I’m really tired of them sticking their nose in my business.
Tho’ I am a religious “none”, when tragedy struck dear friends in 2012, a group of their friends, colleagues and neighbors assisting at the estate sale held at their Victorian era house they were renovating, the group of us looked at each other and said “we’ve got this”, and proceeded to work for over a month to finish what they’d started, in hopes of giving the surviving daughter a nest egg from the sale of the house to finish college. I shared with folks that working on the house and garden was like a prayer to me and kept them close in my heart. So, to me, two hands working CAN be a prayer as well. ☮️
Barbara, this choked me up reading it. My dad lived in his own small home till he passed in it age 93. His back yard had a long row of hostas, the offspring of plants he'd dug up from his sister's yard in Indiana, and transplanted into his about 20 years before. The spring before he died, he remarked about how overgrown they'd become, and needed to be thinned. I offered to help him, as although he still was able to do all his housekeeping, marketing, shopping, etc, this was a bit much for him. He said "let's do it in the fall."
He passed in August of that year. My sister, who inherited the house, and me, worked like dogs to get it ready for sale. IShe worked full time, while I worked part-time, so in September, for two days I worked alone, digging up and splitting these compacted plants. The roots went below the thin topsoil into what was more clay than dirt, very difficult to dig up, but the exhausting work was cathartic. I replanted them in his yard, and took a bunch to mine, and they were well watered with tears.
It's stories like yours that make me angry when Trump calls our nation "garbage" that needs to be "made great again." It is great, because of people like you.
Thanks, Gail, it was hard leaving their house once the work was completed…I felt so close to them while there. Nowadays, every once in awhile, I drive by the house to see what changes the new family living there have made. Makes me smile to think that if their spirits—father/mother/son—linger, the new family has the Best. Ghosts. Ever.
My dad's old house (not my childhood home, my folks moved to be closer to my home and my sister's condo) is a 5 minute walk away. I rarely go by it, but the new family put up a tall, cedar fence. I wish I could see if the hostas are still there, but I don't want to intrude.
My aunt and uncle both born in 1920 respected each other to vote however they wanted without having to divulge their voting preferences. That’s how it should be. Women are not chattels and we are not going back
I’d hate to think that I lived with and loved someone who agreed with chump about anything. This election would not have been the first clue, me thinks…
My husband and I voted opposite of each other a couple times. We both had our reasons for our choices, we each respected that and life went on normally. Being married does not mean a woman has to vote against her own feelings.
A few years ago (election 2022) my husband and I were getting ready to deliver our mail in votes in person. Me: You’re voting for X, right? He: No, I voted for Y. After my initial blow up, I sat down and explained why a vote for Y was a vote that would harm me, and my daughter, among other things. When we got to the courthouse he changed his vote. Love that man!
Here is something I've been posting on my social media forums for a few weeks:
. . . You know you should abandon the trump crazy train before it's too late.
We know it's very hard to leave the cult -- not unlike getting off alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs, but help is available -- some of the best help comes from the many sane republicans who are (at least this time) supporting Harris.
In any case, if you're not ready to 'come out' for Harris, you don't have to admit your Harris vote to family and friends -- vote in secret for Harris -- admitting the truth to yourself is a very good start in recovery ;-)
A reminder that all those ‘white women voting for Trump’ was not necessarily an example of free choice but rather another glaring example of domestic abuse, denying women the right to selfhood.
I heard a news story last week about an 80 year old woman voting for the FIRST TIME because her husband had died. He had always told her that there was no reason she needed to vote. Hearing what those pastors were saying about women being “unfaithful” if they vote differently than their husbands makes me nauseous.
My mother and father have always voted, and Mom never tells what her vote is. My parents have always respected each other’s right to privacy. Mom’s father educated his family about the importance of voting, and Mom has done the same. I have been a regular voter as an adult.
My late parents also voted their own way. On the way home from voting they would discuss and laugh as sometimes they voted the same and sometimes different.
I agree but the now very public suggestion that women can keep their vote private or can lie to their partners about their vote makes me very nervous. Raising this idea in this way casts suspicion on all women. I'm very worried that this could trigger the paranoia and anger in men that leads to domestic assault. The message should simply have been that in America, one's vote is private. But I really wish that it had just been left to women themselves to figure that out. Now, it's a thing, a big thing. I won't be surprised if it becomes an issue at the polls with some men demanding that they be able to watch their partner vote. I'm sure that women who live with domestic assault might very well be afraid to vote now. Note that I'm not saying or implying that all domestic abusers are Republicans. They exist in both parties.
Sadly, the anger and paranoia among men -- especially WHITE men -- already exists among the MAGA crowd. Their racism and misogyny is why they support TFG in the first place.
Abusers don’t abuse because of how their partner voted. No one causes another to abuse them. It reminds me of the woman who said, “No, my husband never hit me. I never gave him reason to.”
Hi Jean. I'm not sure I understand your answer. Domestic assault is only about control through violence. A person who assaults their partner could very well assault her for how she voted. They assault her for whatever reason they think she deserves to be assaulted for - how the pasta was cooked, talking to a man or her sister, not being home when he phoned, how she looked at him. There is no reason only an excuse. They just want to do it. Please clarify your thoughts.
We are trained as poll workers not to let anyone watch someone vote. They may assist in case of disability only. However, I can't prevent them from looking at each other's paper ballot if they are in line together at the scanner. But I would hope they can finesse a way to not be in line together if they truly need to hide.
IN my area, they put a cardboard cover over the ballot as they feed it in. I assumed it was that way everywhere. Even at my very busy polling place, there was no line for this, so nobody looking over my shoulder.
That's too bad. I thought there were rules allowing one person at a time at the ballot station. For the future, you may want to suggest to those in charge of the polls to consider a regulation for their polls of one person at a time at the ballot station.
Perhaps I was unclear or perhaps your State's voting process is different. The rule IS one person per voting machine. Georgia has voting touchscreens that print out a paper ballot to be used in any recounts or audits. Only when that paper ballot is scanned into the scanner is the vote actually cast. In most precincts, there are multiple touchscreens (our precinct has 12) but only 1 scanner. So sometimes a small line can form. That line is always monitored by a line scanner.
Living in Alaska I usually hold up late enough to read your letter. Your history and perspective ends my day with a positive note. Thank you for your thoughtful analysis of daily events measured with our country's history. The pendulum is always in motion. I believe it will continue to swing to the light.
Ally, after the LFAA and comments, I generally go to this site. I know that you are a respectful atheist (and I'm not trying to convert you). I know you have some real MAGA former colleagues, and while it might surprise them for you to post such a link, maybe this would make them think, assuming that they identify as Christians?
This website fills a void for me, as I can't tolerate the marriage of religion and politics.
There are no Harris signs in my neighborhood, and I find myself feeling hateful at the Trump-flag-bearing homes, without even knowing who lives in them. That's not the person I aspire to be, and it's really, really, hard.
Tonight, I have only one question: “Why have Republicans spent so much time and energy on trying to cancel the ACA?”
There are so many issues and challenges for our country that it just seems they could be better served by reaching across the aisle to solve problems. They simply demonstrate no willingness to govern for the people of this country. Instead, they cater to special interests and the moneyed class. Such a waste of time, like a drumbeat that has lost its melody.
The ACA is scaled up Romneycare; but it's connected to Obama, so Republicans have to hate it, and even compared it to "Nazi Germany". If Obama had found a generic cure for cancer, Republicans would be calling it the work of the devil*. Everything they do is labeled "good" and everything outside the cult is alleged to be "evil". It keeps the public off their guard while plutocrats pick their pockets.
*Vaccines, masks, and distancing empirically save lives, but in the depths of a million+ casualty pandemic, Repubs sought to demonize preventive care, and even make it illegal. Some even publicly said that it was selfish of older people to protect themselves by sheltering in ways that impeded maximal commerce.
You've probably seen the meme - something along the lines of: The Democrats want to increase our rights, the Republicans want to take them away. Seriously, the Republicans thrive on hatred and negativity. I'm so sick of it.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”— Frank Wilhoit
John D.: I found myself asking the same question this morning because, of course, we haven't heard anyone who opposes the ACA seriously and thoroughly lay out the objections. I have to assume the opposition to the ACA comes from opposition to a successful government program. To see the government effectively handle a problem and even become popular with the people undercuts the Reagan contention that "government is the problem."
They like to pick up, and pick upon, the easy issues. It's something that can be denigrated in a simplified way. For simplified people. Like the Nazis did with what they called "The Jewish Problem."
Why have they spent so much time trying to cancel ACA? That’s an easy one. It’s so they can renew their full subscription with their holy trinity of Big Pharma/Private healthcare companies/Partisan control of choice.
Agree, except when they pull shenanigans that affect who can vote & if they can vote & how they can vote….and how those votes are tabulated (gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc.). We mustn’t forget that TFFFG never, not once, won the popular vote….probably won’t this time either, but that’s no guarantee he won’t “win”.
I am not unaware of all the voter suppression efforts and the legislatures that condone and support those efforts. Records reflect most, if not all, of these efforts occur in states with red/MAGA legislatures!!! Another reason to vote blue all the way up and down the ballot!
Disgusting, the hypocrisy of the MAGA Rethugs. Also, tffg blatantly threatening violence against Liz Cheney, isn't that a violation of a gag order? Consequences are hopefully in the works. Almost 2am now, and time to sleep. Like most others here, just tired of the ongoing tffg nonsense and have been intentionally consuming fewer Substack articles.
Elon is being sued in state court for running an unlawful lottery. Musk immediately moved to transfer the case to federal court despite the legal fact that the issue is a pure state law matter. Delay, delay, delay to 11/6.
LOL….Abby, when I saw “age of Orange” my brain went straight to the toxic Agent Orange!!!! Maybe a song Agent Orange Man sung to the tune of Secret Agent Man!!!
Nate, it arose from President Biden calling his predessesor "the former guy". The additional "f" can stand for any adjective you'd like. My junior high brain suggests a profane description of an act of copulation, but my very principled friend who does not swear uses "freaking".
Ally, I now use 3 “F’s”: Former Felonious Fu*king (sometimes I switch up the order)…TFFFG! Just think of Hannibal Lector pronucing it…..you know enunciating the “ffffffff”…..with a bottle of Chianti!!!
The flaws and failures in our judiciary are revealed on a grand scale these days...esp with the obvious leniency and favoritism awarded to rich white, misogynist, racist scum such as the felon / rapist. We need a review of much of how this country is run, we need regular people to get involved so the criminals in charge no longer have any power.
One of the other commenters noted that if any of the rest of us made such a threat, we would be arrested. I guess that incitement to violence is permissible for billionaires.
I saw David Hogg on a panel/conversation and was impressed. He started "Leaders We Deserve" https://leaderswedeserve.com/. I'm glad to know about how they're thinking long term.
If I’m up late enough for the letter to arrive a big hole is blown in the next morning! Thankfully the comment section has populated by then. I’m so grateful for all of you here!
Interesting that the Right is telling religious women to be directed by their husbands where USA voting is concerned. These men are instructing women to relinquish their secret ballot, which is a USA free right, to the men who control them. They are being instructed to go against the United States freedom to vote. That tells us all we need to know about the religion of the Right. It is anti-USA freedom. Of course, it is anti-USA religious freedom, guaranteed in our Constitution. They are against our Constitution and Freedom. Women are their slaves.
I follow a lot of women on social media who used to be part of extreme right religious groups and who are now speaking out against the abuses they suffered while in those groups. It’s eye opening and appalling.
The only way my wife could betray this 78 year old white male would be for her to vote for the 78 year old white male who should be in jail rather than trying to lie his way to the White House.
Garbage man or McDonald’s may be the only jobs for which he is qualified!
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Seriously……WTF is wrong with this demented little prick‼️‼️‼️
JDinTX, I had the opportunity to watch dementia with several friends who went through it with their spouses, and an occasional glimpse professionally when the patient exceeded the caregiver's abilities. My friend (a former pastor) and his sweet wife, who stayed just as sweet and charming as she always had been and a former supervisor, whose spirited and energetic wife became a banshee. I only got called to the violent and uncontrollable ones professionally. One I will never forget is a man whose wife's father had dementia and they were caring for him in their home. The Dad went 'round the bend, and the husband had to physically restrain him as Dad was going for the gun cabinet. Dad went to the hospital, I took a detailed report, and made sure the husband had my contact info, and was well aware that DHS would be investigating. He wrote my supervisor a letter that was one of the most kind and complimentary citizen contact replies I ever got.
We just never hear about the ones who never go "dark". I've never seen a jerk flip the switch to nice, however. My father-in-law was awful, even worse than he had been when dementia hadn't taken his mind.
My MIL is slipping onto “the dark path”. I’ve only witnessed one other loved one travel the dementia path, my grandfather, and he stayed sweet and nonviolent. The paranoia and anger of my MIL is tough to navigate.
What a path you have traveled, you have been a strong advocate for sanity, even though it may have been problematic. A position on the point of a pin. I do admire our helpers of all stripes, bravery equal to any who put their lives on the line. And never know what to expect from some “in the throes…”
Thank you, JD. I was once told (by a bean counter supervisor) “It’s really too bad you can’t measure your strengths with statistics. You’d get better evaluations.” Sigh.
Imagine if all those Harris endorsements showed up on Foxy! The right-wing reaction to the Dems' messaging women married to Magas can discreetly vote for Harris without telling their partners shows just how much patriarchy still thrives in America. Thanks for letter, Heather, I hope those endorsements, both now and earlier, make a difference! This thing shouldn't seem too close to call!
If a woman does not feel comfortable discussing who she intends to vote for with her partner, that is a problem with the relationship, not the Democratic party. When it comes to bodies and voting booths - mind your own damn business!
Can’ imagine being with someone who would vote chump. Hell in my home wouldn’t fly at all.
It’s tough — we don’t talk about it.. I can’t understand how he could go from supporting Bernie to the orange grifter - it’s like living w a traitor -
Oh, sorry, Susie! It must be tough!
Oh condolences 💐
My sister had a husband who watched Fox News. Wanting peace at home she did naught. I came to visit one day to find him watching Fox hi volume. I Lost it and ordered him to turn it off immediately. As he did I said, “How can you watch that station with a wife you say you love knowing how awful it is for her?” He’s no longer in this realm. I like to imagine even he’d be disgusted with t& cronies.
Maybe he's tuned into the Fox Eternal channel, only in jest mind you. My neighbours have two tvs in the house, one for "her", one for "him", but they're both rabid Dem supports, more or less like myself.
Frank, we have one TV. We turn off the news when we can't stand like last night when we watched no national news. We are both ardent Ds and I can't even imagine living with a person voting for death star. As we have mail in ballots, we sometimes discuss how to vote especially on ballot measures. Across the street is our male R neighbor who doesn't speak to us and his D wife who loves to discuss politics and does when she is at our neighbors without him. He once told her to stop listening to some radio station that she liked and she told him to get lost.
I asked a dear friend if I really knew his heart like I thought I did. He seemed to think about it but got out of answering me when he died just before the 2016 election. I still wonder... I feel for your situation, such can rip you apart. in so many ways
Trump took Bernie's message to the working class, twisted it, and deployed it. The Democratic Party fenced Bernie out, and because Americans liked Trump's fake-gold bravado and bullying, we got as criminal as a result.
We don't talk about it l, either. I'm almost certain he know how I feel/how I'll vote with how I've been clapping back at family, but he takes a "logical minded" approach and only looks at comparisons of candidates' policies and then votes for the one he likes most. His family is historically Republican, so he has a bias to get over as well that I don't think he acknowledges.
He doesn't follow news, social media, or, unfortunately, HCR.
I understand it, to some extent, and I would like that to be the way of things, but it isn't.
Hitler's policies sounded good on paper too - look where that got us.
Thinking I might need to have a conversation in my house and am dreading it. I hate conflict.
If I may presume to give you advice: approach it gently, and talk about how YOU feel without accusations. How you feel disrespected by TFG, scared about the future of women, etc. Bring "receipts" - proof of what he said, preferably videos. But mostly how he scares you (all of us) if he's elected. Good luck.
You could share some/all of the major U.S. economic news magazine/publications headlines this week about how our current economic health is the envy of the world.
I feel this way about my parents. They live 3 miles away and I haven't been able to bring myself to reach out to them for a month. Of course, they haven't reached out to me either.
Indeed it is. I am so sorry.
LATE BREAKING NEWS BULLETIN : IN A SURPRISING TURN OF EVENTS, HALF OF DONALD TRUMP’s FACE FELL OFF AFTER HIS ORANGE MAKEUP HARDENED AND PULLED FROM HIS FACE REVEALING AN EMPTY CRANIAL CAVITY WHERE THE RESIDUE OF WORMS ONCE INCUBATED.
MORE NEWS AT 11.
Empty suit, empty head. Sorry worms
If only!
🤣🤣🤣! Thanks, Bill.
Maggots are fly larva, not worms…easy to miss.
oh Jeez, Bill lol
LOL, Bill.
Apparently whatever women are doing, they are doing it in the voting booth in greater numbers than men. I appreciate the optimism, and here is more. 5 reasons for hope.
https://kamala4prez.substack.com/p/5-reasons-for-hope
He’s right…women ARE kryptonite to Repubs and especially to MAGA!
The know what bleach is actually good for! Sorry…
Thanks! I needed that.
It’s the same reason women do better in school, they pay attention, persist, move ahead, makes plans, stick to them, write down their ideas, organize, talk to their friends, and contribute 100’s of billions of unpaid hours to our society.
It’s what they do! Men could do to, but they would have to take responsibility, think, and care to make a difference.
No to toxic masculinity!
It’s WWTD, like Tim does!
Thanks for sharing this link, simple and powerful.
While volunteering to handout the Democratic slate pamphlet at an early voting site, I observed many maga couples walking male leading a few steps ahead of the female with adult children trailing!
I saw that too! I couldn’t help but feel a little pity.
Campaigning here in Wisconsin. I've seen the oversize glossy flyers a GOP group is mailing out for Jill Stein. Front side environmental issue lies against Harris, backside environmental issue lies for Stein. I canvassed my first self identified Stein voter yesterday, a young woman living in an enclave of McMansions. She said 'sadly this time I'm not voting for any Democratic candidates.' She seemed uneasy but urging herself on. I don't try to dissuade any Trump aligned voters because they can get defensive and dig in. But, I did feel sad. I think her concerns may have to do with Gaza. Electing Trump won't help. Anything.
If it was Gaza, she's about to get some hopes dashed. Some time ago he remarked, let the Israelis finish it....
Oh they went beyond 'finish it...'
Trump's policy point-man on the NE - Jared Kushner - has proposed 'bulldozing the Negev desert, building camps for Palestinians' and developing valuable [and Palestinian free] Gaza waterfront property.' Exactly the solution racist right wing religious extremist real estate thugs would pursue.
I have a friend in a RED state who is voting for Stein; she wouldn't if she though it would affect anything..... BUT I've heard the Green Party statements that they are DELIBERATELY going after Harris/Walz and it sickens me...that's not issue driven, it's just hubris and stupid!
Pax, Stein voters will get drowned out so have no worry. It’s too bad that your friend cannot see that Stein is a Russian agent. Does she know her own kids won’t even speak to her and begged her not to run?
I start my election polling work tomorrow morning….(Maricopa County), I’m sure I will see similar sights. I am always saddened by the ultra-MAGA women, especially when they bring their children with them…what messages What messages already imprinted.😢
Good luck and thank you for doing this.
digging is the tribal name of the game here, Carol, i guess well you know.
We walk like this because my husband is a faster walker than I am and I like to take my time enjoying my surroundings. We are liberal voters.
Your business is your business, but ... I'm a fast walker, too. When I am walking with someone I care about, I slow down to their pace. Just sayin' ...
My father-in-law was a slow walker and his girlfriend a fast walker. They lived in NYC and took a walk every day. She would walk her pace to the end of the block, then turn around and walk fast back to him, and so on. They lived together in a NYC apartment. They had plenty of together time.
I know that story, i'm inherently a little slower thanks to ageing hardware, but i smell "the roses" with camera in tow, pretty much umbilical at this stage.
I’m gonna borrow “aging hardware”, Frank. I like that explanation. 👏🏼👏🏼
Carla, this is us. My hubby has long legs and he has always led because I refuse to run to keep up.
Well, perhaps his vote will be canceled out (and more) by his family.
my ex wife tended to walk behind, hardly what i wanted, then she went off her meds, end of that story. Almost kidding. My current gf, hardly a rebel or "feminist", generally ends up maybe 3-4 paces ahead of me, mainly she can walk a little faster, me slower, and admittedly, with a camera in hand. Dont take this too seriously
Jeezus
I imagine he was a slow and patient walker. Until the crowds became too large and then climb into a boat, and speak without profanity to the burgeoning crowds. (grin)
They waste no time turning women into handmaidens!
Steve, of course you are right. I'd voice my political opinions, regardless of what my husband thought, and woe be to anyone - man or woman - who demanded otherwise. Of course, I don't discuss controversial subjects or politics with people whose opinions differ from mine, or those who don't reveal their preferences. However, any woman who can't voice her political opinions to her spouse should find a good divorce lawyer.
Exactly!!!
That comment by that “Christian” pastor… My jaw hit the floor. In what day and age is that man living in?? In 1312 or something?? Vote, women of America, vote! Vote like your life depends on it (because it does)! Vote for Kamala, vote out the misogynist!
Some clear examples of why religion (patriarchy) and the R party aren’t rocking it with women. Waters of Fox said lying to your husband about whom you voted for is JUST LIKE having an affair!!! Oh please.
Right. But if you ACTUALLY cheat on your wife, you're qualified to be POTUS.
On Hallows Eve, Trump asked his people to execute his political enemies.
Trump on Liz Cheney: ‘Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her’ https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2024/10/31/2024-elections-live-coverage-updates-analysis/trump-rips-liz-cheney-00186693
Fight. https://events.democrats.org/
Yes, and if you or I made that same statement, we'd be arrested.
My thoughts exactly, Daniel, shouldn’t he, ahem, be visited by by the FBI for those clear threats of violence? He’s getting bolder, older, more “out there” and desperate by the minute. If he’s not careful the stress and all those “hamberders” will give him a Big MacAttack🍔!
Isn’t Trump on supervised release in NY prior to sentencing?
In my business I am required to place a person on a mental health hold to be hospitalized if he/she threatens to kill someone.
problem is, this encourages wannabe proxies, often just the emotionally vexed, amped up by the endless rhetoric and grand standing.
He ought to be placed under a hold for psychiatric observation. An ordinary citizen making murderous insinuations is a danger to self and others. We all know these are dog whistles for his racist, misogynistic base to act on his behalf. Trump is a dangerous, demented man.
I was hoping Foxy's dump would be something of an end to Tucker, foolish me!
At least if you are a republican....
Touche
Or be a host on Fox
I wonder if Gingrich has told his third wife that he's also cheated on her
Well, Trump named her to the ambassadorship of the Vatican, so it’s unlikely he’d risk getting to live in luxury at some embassy or other in the next 4 years.
Exactly! I felt i got swiped by a time warp.
What a detestable histrionic little man, it’s all for show and of course for a fat pay check.
Welcome to the world of weak men. Mark Cuban was right about these right wing men being scared of string intelligent women.
Rickey, I have long wondered why so many men—and some culturally ingrained misogynistic countries/cultures (women covered head-to-toe, can’t speak in public, travel w/o male accompaniment, etc.)—are so freakin’ scared of women that they have to keep their boot on women’s neck. Are they that weak that they can’t control themselves in women’s presence? Maybe I’m dense, but the root motivation for this confounds me and makes zero sense. I’ve posted this rec here before, but may I suggest the thought-experiment novel by Naomi Alderman “The Power”.
I've wondered the same... Maybe this is what we Dutchies call "de knuppel in het hoenderhok gooien", but are still so many men afraid of intelligent women, because they think they won't get any sex if women get to decide such things for themselves? It won't be any problem if you're interesting and self-conscious enough as a man, but maybe that's the point? They somehow sense their own insecurity and project that onto (their relationship with) women?
Barbara, many of the men around here on Cape Cod I meet, say their wives are smarter than they are. So. There’s hope? I think this attempt in our present world to go backwards culturally is the effect of the rise of women in not only politics but also in access to education. It reminds me of the rise of nationalism as the world is impacted by the internet and more that has virtually threatened cultural differences. Reflexive! Repressive. And yes deeply fearful. ‘Close the border, close the society!’ Who are The real Americans? Only the native Indians are as you know it, as most of us on this site know. My favorite saying (as a Winslow) is NO ONE INVITED US HERE!
Barbara, Samani, i think you're dead on about a massive cultural shift underway, and a lot of males are at sea.
I think you're pretty close dead on, they're manning the patriarchal ramparts.
That “Christian” pastor’s ‘father who art in heaven’ is patriarchal bullshit. The fear and dominance he’s spreading needs to die.
It was dieing for centuries but is not dead yet...
Keep sharing this 1 min video as Charlie Kirk,”Christian” pastor Webon and others say the silent part out loud ! 📣
https://x.com/senecaprojectus/status/1810372496878874790
🤮🤬……and here I wait and wait and wait….for the ERA to finally be ratified. Maybe once Harris is POTUS it will come to pass….kinda like folks have forgotten about it…. Not unlike how SCOTUS decimated the Voting Rights Act cuz “we’re all good now, right?”…..um, wrong…so wrong.
NPR contained an article with an interview with a pastor of a Pentacostal church. He played the ‘hate the sin, forgive the sinner card’ when he commented that
“And so you can have some people with some pretty deep moral struggles who are upholding a platform that we support. And I tell our people, don't pay as much attention to the struggles — pay attention to the platform. “
The words of Pentecostal church pastor Chad Harvey, whose sermons — often to weekly crowds of about 3,000 — usually feature on Cross Assembly's social media channels.
“And I tell our people, don't pay as much attention to the struggles — pay attention to the platform. Because here's what the Bible says: There's none righteous. No, not one. We're all messed-up people. “
“Some pretty deep moral struggles…”!! Seriously Chad!
Cheated on each of his 3 wives
Advocates sexual assault on women
Convicted of sexual assault
Convicted of financial fraud and election fraud
Deadly incompetent management of US policy during covid crisis leading to over 1,000,000 Americans death
Disdains laws that impede his pursuit of avaricious greed.
Lead and participated in the organization of the Jan 6 assault on our election process.
Dear Chad:
The creature trump is running for the office of POTUS not some low level municipal office!
‘We’re all messed…’ however your position is reckless!
https://www.npr.org/2024/10/29/nx-s1-5165535/trump-christians-evangelical-harris-support
Ahmahgerd... Being so misogynistic and on top of that he has the name "Chad", too? The guy is a living meme...
The living embodiment of toxic masculinity.
That is the Christian, patriarchal, literal Bible believing way of Christian nationalism. It’s a brain washing cult.
He's only 39 and a former "entrepreneur". That should tell you something.
Oh. A """"succesful"""" businessman like the Convicted Orange Felon, more likely...
Me too! I copied it and posted the comment on my FB feed with HCR credit of course.
Good on you! This blatant misogyny needs to be exposed as much as possible.
1312 or Idaho; same thing.
YES🤯
PS.... how did i get up so early to be a "first commentator"! Well back to bed, my two kitties who moved out to the living room sofa, will likely follow suit. Still need another hour's zzz.
Heh . . . I’m out in Hawai’i where it is 22:47 and I’m heading to bed! Nite! 💤
We need to start a Hawaii chapter of the Letters from an American club
It's not early in Hawai'i, but you still beat me ;-)
I'm currently in the UK
Frank, I call LFAA my Late Night University….. What I SHOULD learn is NOT to log on in the middle of the night when I awake & can’t fall back to sleep…but it’s not unlike cracking a good book…same “down the rabbit hole” results…enjoyable but tiring in the end!!! Good thing I’m retired!!!! [Some years ago I went to bed & picked up a book I’d been reading…read late-ish—11:00 or so—and thought uh-oh I need to get to sleep so I won’t be too tired at work……wait!!! OMG! I’m retired now and don’t have to be at work in the morning…lol….read until I finished the book…it was 4 a.m., and I then slept past noon. It was my first retirement epiphany!!!!😁]
Barbara, I used to have to get up anytime between 2:30 and 4:00 am to get to work. There are some difficult parts of this time of time, but oh boy do I love not worrying about the clock to head into work!!
lol. I'm still a "7 am" kind of riser, but pee breaks lead to 4am events. My watch says that even with a couple of them and an hour or so of looking at LFAA and commenting a little, i clocked nine hours 1 min zzzz . I'm not sure how accurate the gadget is, to be honest. I get back to sleep usually by putting on an audible, something not too intense or even boring. Put it on a timer, usually don't get through 30 minutes.
2:49 a.m. here in CA just about nodding off
Kitty!! Kitties!!
Late riser at 5, kitty on my lap. Enjoy
Hah! Right, does she not sleep? Either a strict Calvinist or on freebase (kidding!) Seriously though.
Satanic cults never sleep.......MAGA........Opus Die/Heritage Foundation are at the Gates of Hell right now, readiy to open the doors wide open..... after waiting and planning for decades. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS...YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE.
I think her hours must be somewhat vampiric these days!
So does she sleep in? In Atlantic Canada, one hour ahead of Eastern, Heather's letters sometimes don't hit til 6 am. I was wondering if some kind of automation delay.
I suspect she's not in the Eastern Time Zone right now. My Letters, which usually arrive between 9-11 p.m. were arriving at 1 a.m. when she was in Portland, OR.
Once in a while my sleep clock goes haywire and I am awake when Heather posts her letter. Amazing how many of her followers are up. And how eager we seem to be to respond to her consistently excellent presentation of events tying them together. Enjoy your snooze.
Having an enlarged prostate would explain....😄
🤣
Frank, wishes do come true: George Conway (Kelly Anne’s ex,) who had been involved in the Lincoln Project, started the Anti-Psychopath PAC, and ran ads highlighting Trump’s cognitive decline on Fox; the Golf Channel and other networks he watches. Other ads, which some might find triggering, recount the words of women he (allegedly 🙄) assaulted. The pac specifically bought time in the Florida market including West Palm Beach. It also bought billboards reading “Attention golfers: Trump cheats,” visible from his golf courses in Florida and New Jersey. A similar one was also scheduled to be bought near Mara Largo this month.
https://www.psychopac.org
I always smile when I read anything about or by George Conway!
I am amazed at how much better George looks! I don't like to judge people by their appearances, but he reminds me of when coworkers would retire, then come in to visit. We'd always remark how good retirement made them look! I think that Kellyanne must have been miserable to live with. Good for George!
This article from Scientific American explains why polls are far less reliable these days:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-election-polling-has-become-less-reliable/
Doug, thank you for this!
Many thanks, i've heard as much.
@Frank Loomer. YOU can send them to Fox comments on their websites. On Fox social media. To Fox outlets. What's stopping you?
Glad to see you as first out of the gate, Frank. Honestly, I think the idea of patriarchy is overblown. I used to believe it until I did counter-insurgency field-work in Afghanistan and Iraq. Those experiences convinced me that, notwithstanding all the bluster by men, changing a culture entails working with the women.
Inasmuch as I differ on one word, Frank, my reaction about this essay coincides with yours, on the level of feeling. My exasperation with the large gender gap is that so many men still buy into candidate Trump's aggressively and Senator Shady J.D.'s pedantically macho-mouthed scheiße. The divide should be close and favouring President Harris.
Love the sense of humor in Heather's today.
When she talks about American women making voting decisions for themselves, she nabs former House Speaker Newt Gingrich going apoplectic that women might have voting choices of their own -- as if such a moral possibility invokes the Q as to: "what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?” Of course, Heather started the para by reminding us of the far greater cheating Newt had practiced on his first two wives -- no Dems needed to spur his depravity.
No end to the hypocrisies, lies, exaggerations, deceptions, and other chicanery normal now in the circles of the political party running a convicted criminal and court-adjudicated rapist for president.
But it's not just idiocy and madness informing Heather's mirth. Remember, she's author of books looking levelly at the presence throughout U.S. history of slave-owning classes for whom human dignity has always stopped at the questions of ownership and short-term profit that comprise the sum total of any possible ethics for both the slave owners and their current varieties of nihilist, cynical, and others of supreme vulgarity.
Yes, the women seem to be pouring out. Let's hope that trend continues, to relegate to history and its dustbins all the patriarchal charades still pontificating, lying, attempting newest forms of oldest slavery.
Enjoy this counterpart to the women's sticky notes: Narration by George Clooney that men's votes are private from MAGA bro pals!
https://www.threads.net/@johnlcorbett/post/DBz4pPDOPJ1?xmt=AQGzUthLl8HzKBwef8EwgxFAqtDxcjP2mX__p9_lV3rHZw
Thank you Ellie for posting this clever approach to common sense. I will never understand how anyone can find anything admirable in that sleaze bag liar. Some of Heather’s reporting is new to me and shocks me after all these years of his 💩💩💩💩. How can this race be close? Beam me up Scotty! There’s no intelligent life on Earth has never felt more accurate. 💙🙏🏼💙🙏🏼. Think Positive Thoughts for a peaceful transition. 💙🙏🏼💙🙏🏼
Gigi, maybe THAT’S why we’ve never been visited by aliens…..they cruise by, take a good look & say “nope, let’s not waste our time”…..
"MAGA bro pals," Ellie -- love how human decency stands out in this little video.
And I'm accessing this of yours (your kindness in providing link) at a time when I've just seen the newest of the orange felon in a rally hosted by Tucker Carlson. There the exhausted, deranged, vitriolic criminal convict does nothing but intersperse venom for others with rank public masturbation for himself.
Nothing but? No, Ellie, because in his latest sinking to new lows he now urges Liz Cheney be put up before a firing squad, nine rifles aimed at her head for newest display of the icky fat, fat felon's murderous sickness.
It’s a further demonstration of Trump’s sociopathy, sadism, and mental decay. There is no bottom with Donald, no low he will not reach. He doesn’t want to get his own tiny hands messy with the blood of others, so he encourages his MAGA maniacs to violence.
And Newt of all people espousing morality?? What a joke!!
This is NOT normal political discourse. It is a vicious threat, and he knows it well.
And yet the GOP expresses their [faux] outrage at Biden's gaf
Oh hell. Remember they had a cow when Obama wore a tan suit?
Almost didn’t post this, Phil, but your choice of words brought to mind an image I can’t unsee based on something some comic (I think) said. Not unlike now always hearing accordion music in my head when TFFFG does that back ‘n forth thing with his hands (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S65jqrHQi_c). Anyway, some comic said TFFFG’s fist-pumping “dance moves” looks like he’s jerking off two guys at once. Can’t. Unsee. That. Image. When he makes those moves!
Bill Maher says that always.
Are we a nation of cowards. I may be on chump’s enemies list, but anybody who knows me likely knows my sentiments. And I know theirs, we used to coexist, W and the tea party started to change that. Chump ripped that all to hell, with republicans on board all the way.
Yeah, JD, I was just thinking the other day about the Tea Party being the noticeable beginning of the fraying of the Republican Party.
The "soft" racists allied with the gun-toting militia nuts in Texas and changed the dynamics, with help from Moscow Mitch. I was shocked at some "friends" during that period.
Great link, Ellie! Thank you!
OH MY GOD!
Ellie--this is, wow, no words this is so GOOD!
Thank you for sharing this, I hope all who have social media will put up this link!!!
MAGA bros think they want a strong man. Some ideas from Timothy Snyder on that. . .
Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it.
Another pleasant illusion is that the strongman will unite the nation. But an aspiring dictator will always claim that some belong and others don't. He will define one group after another as the enemy. This might feel good, so long as you feel that you are on the right side of the line. But now fear is the essence of life. The politics of us-and-them, once begun, never ends.
We dream that a strongman will let us focus on America. But dictatorship opens our country to the worst the world has to offer. An American strongman will measure himself by the wealth and power of other dictators. He will befriend them and compete with them. From them he will learn new ways to oppress and to exploit his own people.
At least, the fantasy goes, the strongman will get things done. But dictatorial power today is not about achieving anything positive. It is about preventing anyone else from achieving anything. The strongman is really the weak man: his secret is that he makes everyone else weaker.
It's a shame that some have to hide how they vote to stay in good grace with their social crowd, but that is human nature. People frequently avoid telling the exact truth to their friends and family so they can simply get along.
Men must pour out FOR Harris and against Trump, too. We are counting on our husbands, sons, brothers, nephews, cousins and colleagues to have our female backs!
You know what I've noticed though (just a hunch?) there's more of us out there than they're able to count.
🤞
Everything ol’ Newt says applies to Republicans, not Democrats. He’s been a stain on our political life for years, and he should just go away into private life.
How about he finally go to hell. The hypocrite is as vile now as he was when he and Tom Delay, and a host of other monsters, soiled our country. Liz and Adam are two of a precious few who now recognize the reality of the garbage dump they have created, in our own back yard.
Your first sentence made me lol. That’s the best idea yet for Mr. sanctimony.
Newt is the poster child for Republican hypocrisy and evil. More so than chump
I don't know, Jeri, I think they're neck and neck 😆
Darn it, Ellen, you unleashed my junior high brain. It went to another piece of human anatomy, all brown and wrinkly, way south of the neck and on the backside.
Newt was the first to make it sort of OK. I was shocked in the 90's, more so by repubs than Bill and his zipper idiocy.
they are threatening every human alive with every degree of invasion of people's lives, to dictate their morals from on high. and to keep the patriarchal order going where men do what they want and make the rules and definitions and laws, when all reason suggests, and history tells us is contra their entire weak spin of history and science. AND a distorted and dis-informational relation to factual knowledge, empirical science.
Is it any wonder that these people fear academia and scientists so much?
They're hyper-paranoid and all worked up about shit that aint none of their bidnisss.
Bodily autonomy is bodily autonomy, like identity is identity and consent means consent, never the other. Voting is the same way.
If that's the position they take, then you know for real you're dealing with fascists.
I don’t appreciate their right to be butting into other people’s private lives, even though I am not doing anything more than hard work and being a single and happy cat lady. Vance is my senator and I didn’t vote for him, and can’t stand him. What I’m concerned about is losing the election to Trump, and losing our good Senator Sherrod Brown to a dishonest car salesman. Moreno and Trump are both grifters.
Brown deserves support, and I did donate. Good man
Me too!
Same here, JDinTX.
Just to let you know that this 90-year old did 200 GOTV postcards to OH voters on Sherrod Brown’s behalf and sent him more contributions than she could afford. (Virginian, currently in IL.)
Me too!
I donated!
I too am as much concerned about your Senate race as well as others (Montana, PA, TX, etc)..way easier for repubs to win in such red states (not so much PA)
I'm not sure, Nate, that they "fear academia" ("and scientists").
The primal document, the Powell memo of 1971, shows they have contempt for academe. But back then academe still had humanities thriving in it. Still had decent, generous amounts of interdisciplinarity, room for essays, for personal anecdote, patience for citing wider perspectives -- and the literacy for acknowledging apt humanities in many ways.
But that, Nate, is exactly what all members of our latter-day enslaving classes hate.
They want to control. And the first steps to dehumanizing others is to enforce on oneself all of the neutered, abstracted language, all the group think and categorical smallness, all the parades of shrunken, shriveled linearity as if life were ever nothing more than replicating, repeating, monotonous units the living dead can package, themselves first, then others with vengeance.
Yes, Nate, as you say: "they are threatening every human alive with every degree of invasion of people's lives, to dictate . . .."
Funny, too, Nate, how everything you say of our latter-day enslaving classes also applies to all the instruments of their standardized testing by which they've also killed the schools.
They don’t want us to think for ourselves, which humanities encourage. I’ll admit there may be some crazy individuals in academia, but they hardly make up the whole, which is what these modern day philistines want you to believe.
Philip, I know you are an avid advocate for the return of the humanities in education. The business model has been super-imposed on higher ed such that data gathering to assess effectiveness is now a primary task for educators. This, i believe interferes with an actual education as numbers, not ideas gain primacy. We forget the etymology of the word educate: e, a contraction of the preposition ex meaning out from, and ducare, the verb to lead. To educate meant to lead out the person, to allow and promote self-actualization. Now education has turned into an avenue for pecuniary gain, rather than a path to fulfillment.
I enjoyed the Dr. Richardson's humor as well. For the rest of this campaign, I am chilling out on reacting to what they say. No more being aghast, fearful, outraged, stunned, sleepless or hopeless.
VP Harris ran a flawless campaign. The Country is coming together for her. I have never in my 57 years of voting seen endorsements pour in from everywhere like this. Even the dastardly media is somewhat off her back. We have a movement on our hands, folks. One reason I have become so positive is that I have become a devotee of watching VP Harris' rallies. Oh man! The energy! Watch them for a boost in these final days.
We've got this. Our lawyers are as prepared as theirs. Our Democratic President is Commander in Chief of the Military, and he falls under the immunity clause courtesy of SCOTUS too.
Enjoy the Autumn. It's so ephemeral.
Please, please, please, may it happen as you say. Men need to join women in standing against this vile misogyny! Thanks for what you write.
trump has always had the white woman vote. I'm hoping that even they can't tolerate the republican hate of women.
Eloquent!
Get ‘em Phil👏
Well, I think if church pastors are going to be admonishing and insisting their attendees to vote in federal elections for a certain party, their churches ought to be paying taxes. I’m really tired of them sticking their nose in my business.
Madalyn Murray O’Hair.—-“Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.”
Tho’ I am a religious “none”, when tragedy struck dear friends in 2012, a group of their friends, colleagues and neighbors assisting at the estate sale held at their Victorian era house they were renovating, the group of us looked at each other and said “we’ve got this”, and proceeded to work for over a month to finish what they’d started, in hopes of giving the surviving daughter a nest egg from the sale of the house to finish college. I shared with folks that working on the house and garden was like a prayer to me and kept them close in my heart. So, to me, two hands working CAN be a prayer as well. ☮️
Barbara, this choked me up reading it. My dad lived in his own small home till he passed in it age 93. His back yard had a long row of hostas, the offspring of plants he'd dug up from his sister's yard in Indiana, and transplanted into his about 20 years before. The spring before he died, he remarked about how overgrown they'd become, and needed to be thinned. I offered to help him, as although he still was able to do all his housekeeping, marketing, shopping, etc, this was a bit much for him. He said "let's do it in the fall."
He passed in August of that year. My sister, who inherited the house, and me, worked like dogs to get it ready for sale. IShe worked full time, while I worked part-time, so in September, for two days I worked alone, digging up and splitting these compacted plants. The roots went below the thin topsoil into what was more clay than dirt, very difficult to dig up, but the exhausting work was cathartic. I replanted them in his yard, and took a bunch to mine, and they were well watered with tears.
It's stories like yours that make me angry when Trump calls our nation "garbage" that needs to be "made great again." It is great, because of people like you.
Miselle, I get it. Hostas are iconic to me. Thank you.
That’s beautiful, Barbara.
Thanks, Gail, it was hard leaving their house once the work was completed…I felt so close to them while there. Nowadays, every once in awhile, I drive by the house to see what changes the new family living there have made. Makes me smile to think that if their spirits—father/mother/son—linger, the new family has the Best. Ghosts. Ever.
My dad's old house (not my childhood home, my folks moved to be closer to my home and my sister's condo) is a 5 minute walk away. I rarely go by it, but the new family put up a tall, cedar fence. I wish I could see if the hostas are still there, but I don't want to intrude.
❤️❤️❤️
Hadn’t thought of her in years! Thank you.
Way past time. Left Methodist for that reason long, long ago
Agree 100%.
My aunt and uncle both born in 1920 respected each other to vote however they wanted without having to divulge their voting preferences. That’s how it should be. Women are not chattels and we are not going back
I’d hate to think that I lived with and loved someone who agreed with chump about anything. This election would not have been the first clue, me thinks…
Yep! 🩵
My husband and I voted opposite of each other a couple times. We both had our reasons for our choices, we each respected that and life went on normally. Being married does not mean a woman has to vote against her own feelings.
A few years ago (election 2022) my husband and I were getting ready to deliver our mail in votes in person. Me: You’re voting for X, right? He: No, I voted for Y. After my initial blow up, I sat down and explained why a vote for Y was a vote that would harm me, and my daughter, among other things. When we got to the courthouse he changed his vote. Love that man!
My parents, born in 1921 and 1923, had a policy of not telling each other who they voted for.
Yessss! We're not going back!
Here is something I've been posting on my social media forums for a few weeks:
. . . You know you should abandon the trump crazy train before it's too late.
We know it's very hard to leave the cult -- not unlike getting off alcohol, nicotine, or other drugs, but help is available -- some of the best help comes from the many sane republicans who are (at least this time) supporting Harris.
In any case, if you're not ready to 'come out' for Harris, you don't have to admit your Harris vote to family and friends -- vote in secret for Harris -- admitting the truth to yourself is a very good start in recovery ;-)
If only, sort of like trying to leave Scientology. May need a sane friend…
A reminder that all those ‘white women voting for Trump’ was not necessarily an example of free choice but rather another glaring example of domestic abuse, denying women the right to selfhood.
I heard a news story last week about an 80 year old woman voting for the FIRST TIME because her husband had died. He had always told her that there was no reason she needed to vote. Hearing what those pastors were saying about women being “unfaithful” if they vote differently than their husbands makes me nauseous.
My mother and father have always voted, and Mom never tells what her vote is. My parents have always respected each other’s right to privacy. Mom’s father educated his family about the importance of voting, and Mom has done the same. I have been a regular voter as an adult.
My late parents also voted their own way. On the way home from voting they would discuss and laugh as sometimes they voted the same and sometimes different.
I can’t help but realize that in the “olden days” the vote didn’t reflect democracy vs. autocracy.
I saw that too and was dumbfounded.
Damn, you’re right, Marilyn… I didn’t look at it that way before, but, coupled with the comment from that “Christian” pastor, I think you’re right.
I agree but the now very public suggestion that women can keep their vote private or can lie to their partners about their vote makes me very nervous. Raising this idea in this way casts suspicion on all women. I'm very worried that this could trigger the paranoia and anger in men that leads to domestic assault. The message should simply have been that in America, one's vote is private. But I really wish that it had just been left to women themselves to figure that out. Now, it's a thing, a big thing. I won't be surprised if it becomes an issue at the polls with some men demanding that they be able to watch their partner vote. I'm sure that women who live with domestic assault might very well be afraid to vote now. Note that I'm not saying or implying that all domestic abusers are Republicans. They exist in both parties.
Sadly, the anger and paranoia among men -- especially WHITE men -- already exists among the MAGA crowd. Their racism and misogyny is why they support TFG in the first place.
Abusers don’t abuse because of how their partner voted. No one causes another to abuse them. It reminds me of the woman who said, “No, my husband never hit me. I never gave him reason to.”
Hi Jean. I'm not sure I understand your answer. Domestic assault is only about control through violence. A person who assaults their partner could very well assault her for how she voted. They assault her for whatever reason they think she deserves to be assaulted for - how the pasta was cooked, talking to a man or her sister, not being home when he phoned, how she looked at him. There is no reason only an excuse. They just want to do it. Please clarify your thoughts.
We are trained as poll workers not to let anyone watch someone vote. They may assist in case of disability only. However, I can't prevent them from looking at each other's paper ballot if they are in line together at the scanner. But I would hope they can finesse a way to not be in line together if they truly need to hide.
IN my area, they put a cardboard cover over the ballot as they feed it in. I assumed it was that way everywhere. Even at my very busy polling place, there was no line for this, so nobody looking over my shoulder.
That's too bad. I thought there were rules allowing one person at a time at the ballot station. For the future, you may want to suggest to those in charge of the polls to consider a regulation for their polls of one person at a time at the ballot station.
Perhaps I was unclear or perhaps your State's voting process is different. The rule IS one person per voting machine. Georgia has voting touchscreens that print out a paper ballot to be used in any recounts or audits. Only when that paper ballot is scanned into the scanner is the vote actually cast. In most precincts, there are multiple touchscreens (our precinct has 12) but only 1 scanner. So sometimes a small line can form. That line is always monitored by a line scanner.
Really thoughtful comment, Cindy.
And subtle pressure from a more nuanced monster (made sure not to leave visible bruises).
Living in Alaska I usually hold up late enough to read your letter. Your history and perspective ends my day with a positive note. Thank you for your thoughtful analysis of daily events measured with our country's history. The pendulum is always in motion. I believe it will continue to swing to the light.
Swing to the light!
She starts my day , keeps me sane, sort of…
I love starting my day with LFAA, and then the comments section.
A blessing in red nut land
Me, too!
Have a great weekend, Ally! Let's hope the "promised land" is only a few days away.
Yes, indeed!!!
Ally, after the LFAA and comments, I generally go to this site. I know that you are a respectful atheist (and I'm not trying to convert you). I know you have some real MAGA former colleagues, and while it might surprise them for you to post such a link, maybe this would make them think, assuming that they identify as Christians?
https://cac.org/daily-meditations/spiritual-practice-and-social-renewal/
This website fills a void for me, as I can't tolerate the marriage of religion and politics.
There are no Harris signs in my neighborhood, and I find myself feeling hateful at the Trump-flag-bearing homes, without even knowing who lives in them. That's not the person I aspire to be, and it's really, really, hard.
Me, too!
Sort of…so true!
Tonight, I have only one question: “Why have Republicans spent so much time and energy on trying to cancel the ACA?”
There are so many issues and challenges for our country that it just seems they could be better served by reaching across the aisle to solve problems. They simply demonstrate no willingness to govern for the people of this country. Instead, they cater to special interests and the moneyed class. Such a waste of time, like a drumbeat that has lost its melody.
The ACA is scaled up Romneycare; but it's connected to Obama, so Republicans have to hate it, and even compared it to "Nazi Germany". If Obama had found a generic cure for cancer, Republicans would be calling it the work of the devil*. Everything they do is labeled "good" and everything outside the cult is alleged to be "evil". It keeps the public off their guard while plutocrats pick their pockets.
*Vaccines, masks, and distancing empirically save lives, but in the depths of a million+ casualty pandemic, Repubs sought to demonize preventive care, and even make it illegal. Some even publicly said that it was selfish of older people to protect themselves by sheltering in ways that impeded maximal commerce.
You hit the nail on the head. MAGAs are all about money and power and not about governance.
You've probably seen the meme - something along the lines of: The Democrats want to increase our rights, the Republicans want to take them away. Seriously, the Republicans thrive on hatred and negativity. I'm so sick of it.
“Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.”— Frank Wilhoit
John D.: I found myself asking the same question this morning because, of course, we haven't heard anyone who opposes the ACA seriously and thoroughly lay out the objections. I have to assume the opposition to the ACA comes from opposition to a successful government program. To see the government effectively handle a problem and even become popular with the people undercuts the Reagan contention that "government is the problem."
They like to pick up, and pick upon, the easy issues. It's something that can be denigrated in a simplified way. For simplified people. Like the Nazis did with what they called "The Jewish Problem."
Exactly, I said so long ago
It has the name “Obama” in it.
Only because Republicans put "Obama" there!
Obama himself called it the Affordable Care Act.
Think "bidenomics."
Why have they spent so much time trying to cancel ACA? That’s an easy one. It’s so they can renew their full subscription with their holy trinity of Big Pharma/Private healthcare companies/Partisan control of choice.
Salud, John!
🗽
I would like to see their health care plan to comparison shop it beside the ACA. You know, free market.
Cause a Black man created it...pure racism.
Yet a stupid electorate keeps putting them back in office! You get what you deserve.
Agree, except when they pull shenanigans that affect who can vote & if they can vote & how they can vote….and how those votes are tabulated (gerrymandering, voter suppression, etc.). We mustn’t forget that TFFFG never, not once, won the popular vote….probably won’t this time either, but that’s no guarantee he won’t “win”.
I am not unaware of all the voter suppression efforts and the legislatures that condone and support those efforts. Records reflect most, if not all, of these efforts occur in states with red/MAGA legislatures!!! Another reason to vote blue all the way up and down the ballot!
Disgusting, the hypocrisy of the MAGA Rethugs. Also, tffg blatantly threatening violence against Liz Cheney, isn't that a violation of a gag order? Consequences are hopefully in the works. Almost 2am now, and time to sleep. Like most others here, just tired of the ongoing tffg nonsense and have been intentionally consuming fewer Substack articles.
I agree -- his Liz Cheney "firing squad" threat seems to blatantly cross a legal line? Does anyone know of legal repercussions?
There are no legal repercussions for rich people. Two tiered justice system. If we’ve learned anything in the age of Orange, it’s that.
Elon Musk knows it too.
Exactly. Once you reach the level of “fuck you money”, nothing can hurt you anymore. And Darth Musk definitely is “fuck you money”-level rich…
Elon is being sued in state court for running an unlawful lottery. Musk immediately moved to transfer the case to federal court despite the legal fact that the issue is a pure state law matter. Delay, delay, delay to 11/6.
Liz should get a restraining order against Trump
But he has so many to carry out his hints, Carlson may not be so protected
Rich men - look what happened to Martha Stewart.
LOL….Abby, when I saw “age of Orange” my brain went straight to the toxic Agent Orange!!!! Maybe a song Agent Orange Man sung to the tune of Secret Agent Man!!!
🎶 An [orange] face can hide an evil mind. ... They given you a number & taken away your name.🎶
But, ... "Get Smart ... We are not going Back".
There's a man who put's the land in danger; the garbage that he speaks is even stranger.
If it's not (a violation), then what is? I trust it's been noted appropriately. When is the sentence?
Learn something new every day. I had to google tffg; it came up as the airport in Saint Martin!
Did not know that. I assume you mean Trump, however, please do tell. It sounds like a good-one. Hey, St. Martin: a good place to go, just in case.
Nate, it arose from President Biden calling his predessesor "the former guy". The additional "f" can stand for any adjective you'd like. My junior high brain suggests a profane description of an act of copulation, but my very principled friend who does not swear uses "freaking".
Ally, I now use 3 “F’s”: Former Felonious Fu*king (sometimes I switch up the order)…TFFFG! Just think of Hannibal Lector pronucing it…..you know enunciating the “ffffffff”…..with a bottle of Chianti!!!
The flaws and failures in our judiciary are revealed on a grand scale these days...esp with the obvious leniency and favoritism awarded to rich white, misogynist, racist scum such as the felon / rapist. We need a review of much of how this country is run, we need regular people to get involved so the criminals in charge no longer have any power.
How the heck can he get away with threatening Liz Chaney like that?
That's perhaps the most appalling thing I've seen so far.
On top of a long list.
One of the other commenters noted that if any of the rest of us made such a threat, we would be arrested. I guess that incitement to violence is permissible for billionaires.
He gets away with everything. 😠
Hopefully…..until he DOESN’T. Not holding my breath tho’.
Everyone is going to sleep just as I'm waking up.
Come on, I want someone to talk to. 😉
I can say that most young women who just came into voting age, hate the donvict.
He's crass, vile and lies like he breathes and most young women look at that a go, oh hell no.
Who knows, maybe this will lead us into the future where people are accepted by their character and their deeds not their skin color or religion.
I've always wanted to live in the star trek universe. Who knows, maybe by the time my grandson has grandkids of his own, that universe will be there.
If you haven't already, VOTE and make sure everyone you know does too.
#NotGoingBack
I saw David Hogg on a panel/conversation and was impressed. He started "Leaders We Deserve" https://leaderswedeserve.com/. I'm glad to know about how they're thinking long term.
David Hogg shows incredible leadership talent.
Beth, this old woman looked at him back in ‘16 and said “oh hell no!” Said it much louder in ‘20. Screaming it at the top on my lungs in ‘24!
Some of us are getting up even before dawn breaks
<raises hand>. Dawn won't break here for another 2 hours.
Dark OK for me and Lulu the kitty. She thinks it’s play time
Yes and now 5 hours later, Woody, my kitten is out like a light! 😂
If I’m up late enough for the letter to arrive a big hole is blown in the next morning! Thankfully the comment section has populated by then. I’m so grateful for all of you here!
As am i
Interesting that the Right is telling religious women to be directed by their husbands where USA voting is concerned. These men are instructing women to relinquish their secret ballot, which is a USA free right, to the men who control them. They are being instructed to go against the United States freedom to vote. That tells us all we need to know about the religion of the Right. It is anti-USA freedom. Of course, it is anti-USA religious freedom, guaranteed in our Constitution. They are against our Constitution and Freedom. Women are their slaves.
I follow a lot of women on social media who used to be part of extreme right religious groups and who are now speaking out against the abuses they suffered while in those groups. It’s eye opening and appalling.
Tia Levings is a great read on that score. I recommend her book “The Well-Trained Wife,” about her abusive first marriage.
Indeed, and not uncommon
If I were Trump or Gingrich, I’d keep my mouth shut regarding what women should do! Both have been disloyal and disrespectful!
But a malignant sociopath thinks that ignoring compassion and conscience makes them "smart".
“Smart” and “strong”. Don’t forget the manly strong part.
With “tears in their eyes” and “sir”…….
They are too stupid to keep their mouths shut.
The only way my wife could betray this 78 year old white male would be for her to vote for the 78 year old white male who should be in jail rather than trying to lie his way to the White House.
Garbage man or McDonald’s may be the only jobs for which he is qualified!
I would never trust a food item prepared by those tiny hands.
Not too sure I'd trust my garbage, either. . .he's probably dump it at the nearest beauty spot to avoid the waste site fees.
Hmmm.......... he is NOT qualified to do that very important work. If you have ever spent time on the handle end of a shovel, you will understand that
And could not do…
Thanks, Dr Richardson,. love the positive vibes.
“Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”
Seriously……WTF is wrong with this demented little prick‼️‼️‼️
Well, you answered your own question.
He's demented.
Dementia can turn people who have been vicious bullies all their lives into pussy cats. And it can turn sweet little old ladies into banshees.
Trump - it has just left him the way he's always been - only more so. Expect to see a sharp increase in the nastiness as his dementia deepens.
I know - you didn't think he could get any nastier, did you? Trump - "Hold my beer. . ."
I lived with dementia for 15 years, NEVER did my husband degenerate into that evil bastard…
JDinTX, I had the opportunity to watch dementia with several friends who went through it with their spouses, and an occasional glimpse professionally when the patient exceeded the caregiver's abilities. My friend (a former pastor) and his sweet wife, who stayed just as sweet and charming as she always had been and a former supervisor, whose spirited and energetic wife became a banshee. I only got called to the violent and uncontrollable ones professionally. One I will never forget is a man whose wife's father had dementia and they were caring for him in their home. The Dad went 'round the bend, and the husband had to physically restrain him as Dad was going for the gun cabinet. Dad went to the hospital, I took a detailed report, and made sure the husband had my contact info, and was well aware that DHS would be investigating. He wrote my supervisor a letter that was one of the most kind and complimentary citizen contact replies I ever got.
We just never hear about the ones who never go "dark". I've never seen a jerk flip the switch to nice, however. My father-in-law was awful, even worse than he had been when dementia hadn't taken his mind.
My MIL is slipping onto “the dark path”. I’ve only witnessed one other loved one travel the dementia path, my grandfather, and he stayed sweet and nonviolent. The paranoia and anger of my MIL is tough to navigate.
What a path you have traveled, you have been a strong advocate for sanity, even though it may have been problematic. A position on the point of a pin. I do admire our helpers of all stripes, bravery equal to any who put their lives on the line. And never know what to expect from some “in the throes…”
Thank you, JD. I was once told (by a bean counter supervisor) “It’s really too bad you can’t measure your strengths with statistics. You’d get better evaluations.” Sigh.
My witness is that those in dementia become more of whatever they were before the decline.
HEH! HEH! HEH!