They planned what?

I see the comments on Tuesday’s hearings are starting to come in on the previous post, so here’s a new one:

OMG these fucking hearings.

For me, the record scratch was when the former chair of the state GOP said this, of the Michigan fake electors:

“He told me that the Michigan Republican electors were planning to meet in the Capitol and hide overnight so that they could fulfill the role of casting their vote per law in the Michigan chambers, and I told him in no uncertain terms that that was insane and inappropriate.”

The He here was a lawyer working with the Trump team. Under state law, they have to cast their votes in the Capitol building itself, and that was their plan. I am happy with the headline I wrote for this brief I banged out about it: Sedition Sleepover: Michigan Fake Electors Considered ‘Hiding In The Capitol Overnight’ To Get Inside

One of these clowns was 81 years old. It would have served this crew right to have him get chest pains in the middle of it all. As it was, they didn’t sleep over and instead walked as a group to the Capitol and asked to be admitted. The state trooper at the door told them they weren’t on the list, and to get lost.

The Freep dug up its old video of that priceless moment. I don’t think I’ve heard the word “constitution” spoken so much in my life.

Later this week I take my training for the next election. I asked to be moved to the absentee counting boards, which I predict will be less action-packed than in 2020, but you never know. We’ll see what they tell us in training.

Beyond Laura Cox’s mic drop on the sleepover, I think the most excruciating part was listening to Trump harangue Raffensberger about Georgia. The depth of this man’s willful ignorance is mind-boggling. Unfortunately, he has so many enablers, reality doesn’t penetrate his thick skull.

I owe thanks to whoever posted the story about Marvella Bayh the other day, which I finally got around to reading yesterday. Marvella was the wife of the late former senator Birch Bayh, a Hoosier Democrat and maybe the very last Hoosier Democrat (although his son, Evan, served as governor and senator himself, but voted like a Republican). Bayh Senior was instrumental in passing Title IX and two count ’em two constitutional amendments. Imagine that: A U.S. Senate that actually passes laws and gets shit done. The mind boggles.

I think Title IX would be a non-starter in today’s climate. I really do.

OK, midweek blog update done. I should talk about the Texas police cowards, but I don’t have the spirit for it right now. You guys, feel free.

Posted at 5:57 pm in Current events |
 

74 responses to “They planned what?”

  1. Jeff Borden said on June 21, 2022 at 7:48 pm

    I honestly believe Title IX was one of the most significantly positive legislation in my lifetime. Two generations of women have benefitted and millions more are in the wings.

    No doubt the Texass QOP would never approve.

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  2. Bitter Scribe said on June 21, 2022 at 8:36 pm

    My record-scratch moment was when Rudy Giuliani said the mother election worker passed “a USB port” [sic] to her daughter “like it was a vial of crack.” And he reminded us that he knows illegal handing off when he sees it because he was a prosecutor.

    My God. I already knew the man was a racist piece of shit, but it’s like he’s not bothering to hide it any more.

    Trump was so obviously fantasizing and free-associating on those calls. Too bad no one had the balls to say, “Mr. President, you’re living in a dream world! You’re making shit up!”

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  3. Sherri said on June 22, 2022 at 12:11 am

    Hey, one piece of good news: Jason Ravnsborg, the SD AG who ran over a man and killed him and said he thought it was a deer despite the man’s glasses being found inside his car, has been impeached and removed from office and will not be allowed to hold office in SD again. It’s unfortunate that he’s not in jail; he was only charged with a couple of misdemeanors to which he pleaded no contest.

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  4. Jason T. said on June 22, 2022 at 12:44 am

    Bitter Scribe at #3 said:

    Trump was so obviously fantasizing and free-associating on those calls. Too bad no one had the balls to say, “Mr. President, you’re living in a dream world! You’re making shit up!”

    I read the transcript of the call with the Georgia secretary of state and it reminded me strongly of two bosses I’ve worked for — one was the managing editor of a newspaper, the other was a high-ranking academic official.

    In meetings, both men had the same M.O.: They would bury you in bullshit and flattery. If that didn’t work, they’d just threaten you. Then, they’d switch back to the bullshit, then back to the threats, alternating between threats and lies.

    They’d also talk continuously so that you couldn’t get a word in edgewise. By the time you’d responded to one lie, they’d be five lies further along and you’d never catch up.

    At the end of a meeting with either one of them, you’d have a migraine and you’d have no idea what you had agreed to. And it didn’t really matter, because afterward, they’d lie about what you’d agreed to, anyway.

    Trust me, it wouldn’t matter if you told either one of those men, “you’re full of shit.” I know, because I tried it. In one case, all it got me was a ticket out of the company and a lasting enemy who tried to get me fired from my next job after I’d left and moved on.

    Trump is a run-of-the-mill high-functioning sociopath. A democratic system is poorly equipped to handle someone like him, and now one of our two major political parties has embraced sociopathy as a ethos.

    And yet the Democratic Party and the media still think they can reason with the sociopaths. I feel like I’m watching a horror movie where the characters keep going into the basement where the ax murderer is waiting, and the audience is yelling at the screen “DON’T GO IN THERE!” but needless to say, the characters don’t listen and keep getting slaughtered.

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  5. alex said on June 22, 2022 at 7:01 am

    Jason, if I didn’t know you had never lived in Fort Wayne I’d say you just described my current boss. In addition to insincere flattery, he also throws religious piety into the mix and tells people how he’s praying for them regarding whatever. It occurred to me long ago that he’s got the malignant narcissist gene in spades.

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  6. Jim said on June 22, 2022 at 8:04 am

    One way or another, Mr IQ4.5 HAS to be in the spotlight .

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  7. Mark P said on June 22, 2022 at 9:29 am

    I’m pretty sure I have said before that these days seem impossible. It’s like an alternate reality. Donald Trump cannot possibly have been elected president. There cannot possibly be a national political party in the US that openly embraces christofascism, homophobic, and racism. I don’t see how this can turn out well

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  8. Jeff Borden said on June 22, 2022 at 12:02 pm

    These fucking people. . .

    Rusty Bowers, who tugged at your heart with his testimony yesterday detailing how his family –including his daughter dying of cancer– was targeted and harassed by MAGA assholes, has declared he will vote for tRump I 2024 if he’s the nominee.

    Seriously. These fucking people are crazy.

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  9. Scout said on June 22, 2022 at 12:31 pm

    I was captivated by Rusty Bowers’ testimony yesterday, and felt so bad for him and his family, even while knowing the kinds of undemocratic things his caucus constantly pulls in our state. All my sympathy went down the crapper as soon as he rushed to assure MAGAland that he still lurves him some trump and will vote for him again.

    The testimony that really hit a nerve was Shaye Moss and her Mom, Lady Ruby. To think, they were being targeted and harassed by trump goons and the FBI simply told them to hide. I just can’t even fathom this.

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  10. Deborah said on June 22, 2022 at 2:04 pm

    I read somewhere online this morning that the last 24 hrs there has been an uptick in threats to the Jan 6 committee and that they are getting around the clock security. Does Trump ever come out and tell his base to cut that crap? Do any of the Republican legislators? Or do they all hope to encourage it to make the committee, the former Trump staffers and Dem legislators intimidated to keep them from telling the truth? What a horrible policy if so.

    It continues to rain in Northern NM which is fantastic, it is raining currently and forecast to keep going most of the day. It started at around 2am and it’s noon MDT.

    LB is visiting her friend in LA for a while to help her pack up to move to her new job in Key West.

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  11. Bob (not Greene) said on June 22, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    Deborah,

    One of my sons is in your neck of the woods on wildfire watch at the Cuba Ranger District of the Santa Fe National Forest. He’s based out of Gifford Pinchot National Forest in Washington, but his wildfire crew were sent to New Mexico a week ago as kind of a reserve unit in case any new fires popped up, but it started raining a couple days after they got there so I think it’s been pretty quiet for him.

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  12. brian stouder said on June 22, 2022 at 10:13 pm

    Deborah’s concern about awful-awful is one that I share completely. The Good Gals and Guys must be engaged in a nightmarish dreamland Reverse-Easter-egg Hunt, where they seek the hidden horribles (as opposed to hidden goodies), all across the social media-scape. This is front-of-mind just now, as I have the news on, and yet again saw more video from Insurrection at our Capitol building….since violent aggrieved idiots in 2022 apparently cannot resist the idea of immortality (even if infamy/prison/gallows be the price) and selfie/video/post ad-nauseum. After all, think of the video LH Oswald could have made and posted – leaving Zapruder in the shade – if he had Wi-Fi in 1963

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  13. Deborah said on June 23, 2022 at 12:00 am

    Bob NG, I hope your son likes his job, the country needs more people willing to do that kind of work, especially as we move more and more into climate change. Those guys are heroes around here. I hope they realize that. It seems like an opportunity to travel around and see a lot of the country, but the work is dangerous and must be exhausting. Hats off to your son.

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  14. Dexter Friend said on June 23, 2022 at 2:54 am

    Lady Ruby was passing her daughter a ginger mint. For the record, Rudy, and Trump. Those were not suitcases, but wheeled carts used for transporting ballots about the office.
    Personally, I suffered from age discrimination on Wednesday. Renewing my driver’s license, I opted for the new (as far as I know) 8 year license. “Oh no, sir, you’re over 65.” I said it says on that giant poster we have the option for 4 or 8 year licenses. Old fucks only get 4 years. I am making light of this, of course; I know many old people have no business driving.
    I passed the eye test without glasses. I am nearly 73. I was feeling that I’d need my specs…nope. One glitch, I followed a dirty man, just off a shift in a foundry, obviously, who greased the vision checker so badly that when the clerk cleaned it she inadvertently smeared the right eye lens. Geez, I couldn’t see shit!
    She came back and thoroughly cleaned it and I was in like Flynn.

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  15. Dexter Friend said on June 23, 2022 at 3:23 am

    Trumpet the bloodhound. Blue ribbon. https://nypost.com/2022/06/23/westminster-dog-show-trumpet-becomes-1st-bloodhound-to-win-best-in-show/

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  16. basset said on June 23, 2022 at 5:45 am

    Yesss! A real dog, not some little foo-foo toy something.

    https://www.npr.org/2022/06/22/1106957236/trumpet-the-bloodhound-wins-westminster-kennel-club-dog-show

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  17. basset said on June 23, 2022 at 5:54 am

    And his show name is GCHB CH Flessner’s Toot My Own Horn.

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  18. Jeff Gill said on June 23, 2022 at 6:13 am

    Lots of rain right across northern New Mexico this week; the Philmont opening programs have been under cover more than my son likes. Bob (not Greene), I hope your son over on the other side of the Jemez is enjoying the break! We have Deborah bracketed with sons.

    If you can find a patch of eastern sky tomorrow (Friday) morning, it is definitely worth getting up a bit before sunrise, say 5:15 am, and taking a look. The planets are not only aligning, they’re doing so in order, with a rare clear shot at seeing Mercury just over the horizon, then in a shallow diagonal to the right/south, Venus, the Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and then nearly to the south Saturn. Quite a sight, and Mercury is a planet many have never seen. Even if you can’t see low enough to pick up Mercury, the other five are a quietly stirring sight.

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  19. LAMary said on June 23, 2022 at 10:43 am

    Thank you for that tip, Jeff. I live on the western side of a hill but I think I can find the stamina to get up early and walk uphill to a spot where I can look east. I need to see planets aligning. Everything else is looking pretty sucky these days.

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  20. Suzanne said on June 23, 2022 at 11:09 am

    SCOTUS just made it easier for any of us to be randomly shot to death.

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/18/supreme-court-guns-ruling/

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  21. Mark P said on June 23, 2022 at 11:20 am

    It’s easy to ask other people to be brave, but I would like to see New York simply ignore the Supreme Court ruling. The court is now a huge middle finger and a loud FU to the people, especially the people of New York.

    I don’t see this turning out well.

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  22. Jeff Borden said on June 23, 2022 at 11:30 am

    Is it too much to ask that the obnoxious Jockstrap Gym Jordan gets taken down by a documentary based on a Sports Illustrated expose of sexual abuse of athletes at Ohio State? He has been ducking this for a long, long time.

    https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/hbo-george-clooney-ohio-state-abuse-documentary-1235160576/

    Mark P is correct. SCOTUS is drunk with power and subtlety has been shown the door. The five radical right-wingers –Alito, Barrett, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Thomas– have no restraints and are openly dunking on Chief Justice Roberts, who is almost as terrible as they are but not quite so obnoxious in displaying his stripes. As we choke on our blood and bury our children at a rate the rest of the civilized world finds astonishing, these pricks will make it even easier for ammosexuals to flash their firepower.

    This fucking country. . .

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  23. Suzanne said on June 23, 2022 at 11:52 am

    I am utterly disheartened right now. I am trying to fend off cancer, but if my treatment is successful, what then? I get shot to death at the grocery? Sitting at a restaurant? Going to a concert?

    What keeps me going is the hope of returning to normal life, but normal life according to the Supreme Court is being the target for anybody who wants to carry a weapon anywhere.

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  24. Deborah said on June 23, 2022 at 12:05 pm

    I don’t get this: SCOTUS can decide that states do not have the right to control which citizens get to “concealed carry”, but States do have the right to ban abortion in all cases including rape, life of the mother etc.

    edit: Time to expand the court, way past time actually.

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  25. Jeff Borden said on June 23, 2022 at 12:49 pm

    Neither party has a monopoly on hypocrisy, but after decades of conservatives decrying “activist courts,” they have themselves an activist court on steroids. Ol’ Clarence Thomas is in heaven, baby. He’s been waiting for this moment for decades.

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  26. Dave said on June 23, 2022 at 1:59 pm

    What Jeff Borden said.

    I was struck by the testimony of the last hearing where the AZ Speaker of the House said he believes the Constitution was divinely inspired. What a crock, I’m sure he was sincere in his belief but it was a group of well off white men writing a document in conformity with the times they lived in and those times have passed us by. Believing it was divinely inspired would require you to believe God doesn’t like women (and reading the Bible, maybe He doesn’t), God has no use for people of color and you’d better arm yourself. No, not divinely inspired.

    Oh, and he’d vote for TFG again???

    I really hate where this is going.

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  27. Sherri said on June 23, 2022 at 2:04 pm

    I said after 2020 that Dems had a narrow window to save democracy, but that I doubted they had the guts to do what needed to be done. They needed to kill the filibuster, pass voting rights legislation, and expand the court. None of those things got done, and what is happening now is a consequence.

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  28. Jeff Gill said on June 23, 2022 at 2:10 pm

    Dave, the Latter-day Saints (aka Mormons) have a specific doctrinal statement from Joseph Smith on this, hence the particular belief members of that church have about the Constitution. Few evangelicals would say it’s “divinely inspired,” but for a Mormon it’s in a book which is scripture right up there with “The Book of Mormon,” called “Doctrine & Covenants” in section 101, verse 80:

    https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/scriptures/dc-testament/dc/101?lang=eng

    Meanwhile, I really do recommend you plan to get up and look east about a half hour before sunrise, 5:30 am in my neck of the woods. It’s a nice counterpoint to the 24 hour news cycle.

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  29. Mark P said on June 23, 2022 at 3:30 pm

    Sherri, if not for the two DINOs in the Senate, progress might have been made. Might, but probably not. There’s not enough vision for action that bold.

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  30. Sherri said on June 23, 2022 at 4:02 pm

    Have the Dems done anything to those two DINOs to punish them for blocking their agenda? Would McConnell stand by and let two Republicans stop his agenda?

    Maybe Manchin would flip and caucus with the Republicans, but they can’t make him chair of the Senate committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Why have the Dems allowed Senator Coal to retain this chair? Will the DSCC fund his re-election bid in 2024? Why aren’t they looking for a new candidate?

    Because The gerontocracy in charge of the Dems still thinks that Tip O’Neill and Ronnie Reagan are going to be buddies and make everything okay, even though it didn’t happen back then, either.

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  31. Deborah said on June 23, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    I watched the hearings today again and finished polishing the silverware while it was going on. I was impressed with Kinzinger, I have to admit I was nervous when I found out he was going to be the lead questioner today. But he was focused and articulate, maybe he was just reading from the teleprompter but he did it well. I realize he’s a major conservative and doesn’t vote the way I wish he would, but I give him credit for today. He did right.

    The facts revealed today are damning just as they have been for each hearing. Hopefully this will make Americans wake up and smell the coffee.

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  32. susan said on June 23, 2022 at 5:43 pm

    Amurkans can’t smell the coffee while Big Covfefe is still brewing.

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  33. Julie Robinson said on June 23, 2022 at 6:01 pm

    Kinzinger is from the Illinois district next to my hometown, and even though a conservative, he pissed off his party sufficiently that they gerrymandered his district away. He isn’t running for reelection. He’s made it clear he isn’t done with politics, but he’s paid a high price and I respect that.

    As others have noted, the Supreme Court can’t even be consistent in the rights of states to make and enforce laws. This is exactly what I feared during the 2016 election. Actually, it’s what I feared when Obama decided to run in 2008. I thought he was too young and unseasoned, which proved to be true when he tried to make nice with the Republicans and lost his power. Hillary should have been the candidate with Obama her vice-president. Alas.

    Anyway, I’m going to do my bit against anyone claiming voter fraud in the this particular corner of Orlando and help with the election. At least I’m going to try it out for the primary in August, because the idea of getting there at 6 am does not appeal one bit. (The sloth of the retiree!)

    In fact, our entire family will be working the poll, except for my mom. My job will be the help desk, tracking down when someone isn’t at the right spot or their name isn’t in the records. I’m a little nervous about the responsibility of this, but I will attend a four hour training session, and my daughter, who is in charge of the whole poll, has assured me it’s well within my capabilities.

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  34. David C said on June 23, 2022 at 7:34 pm

    I’m not real sure about delaying the hearings. I know they keep criming so there’s more evidence to go through. It seems like that calls for more hearings not more spread out hearings though. When you’re enemy is drowning, throw them an anchor.

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  35. Deborah said on June 23, 2022 at 8:50 pm

    Again when I refer to Americans waking up and figuring it out I’m not referring to the MAGAs, I’m talking about the vast middle, and the ones who usually don’t vote, they are the ones we need to reach, the MAGAs are a lost cause we’re not going to convince them and neither should we waste our time trying.

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  36. Peter said on June 23, 2022 at 10:28 pm

    Sherri, you could argue that McCain, Murkowski, and Collins were stopping old Mitch from doing whatever he wanted – hard to remember those days, but the only thing Congress got done was a tax cut and appointing nut jobs to the court. Then again, despite all the yelling, that’s probably all they wanted to get done.

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  37. Jeff Borden said on June 24, 2022 at 9:59 am

    Not that it matters to a group of zealots who enjoy lifetime appointments, but American confidence in the Supreme Court has fallen to just 25 percent in a new poll. Citizens now regard the court as an unelected legislative branch with unlimited powers to tamper with our lives with no repercussions.

    The degradation of our governmental institutions begun under St. Ronald of Reagan is accelerating. This fucking country. . .

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  38. Julie Robinson said on June 24, 2022 at 10:21 am

    It’s happened. Roe v Wade overturned. Get out your red cloaks.

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  39. Deborah said on June 24, 2022 at 10:22 am

    Goodbye Roe. What are we going to do about it? Hopefully expand the courts ASAP.

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  40. Dave said on June 24, 2022 at 10:24 am

    As expected, Roe v. Wade has been overturned. I dread to think what kind of country my grandchildren will be living in.

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  41. LAMary said on June 24, 2022 at 10:55 am

    Trump is the gift that keeps on giving. If I had any sick days I would take one today. This braying trash bag from Queens is responsible for so many terrible things it boggles the mind and his zombie army of mouth breathers keep supporting him. Ugh.

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  42. Sherri said on June 24, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    But her emails.

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  43. Icarus said on June 24, 2022 at 1:03 pm

    It certainly doesn’t help when Democrats do this

    The Texas Democratic Party announced the results of a recount in the race on Tuesday, which found Cuellar ahead by 289 votes.

    Cuellar, like other Democratic moderates during this year’s primaries, benefited from a surge of outside money and the backing of party leaders in Washington. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Majority Whip James Clyburn, who traveled to Texas to campaign for Cuellar, all stood with the congressman despite frustration from pro-abortion rights voters.

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  44. Heather said on June 24, 2022 at 2:15 pm

    News flash: Dems will do nothing in the face of the loss of Roe. Time for another approach.

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  45. Deborah said on June 24, 2022 at 2:24 pm

    This is weird. I got an email supposedly from one of my nieces (one of my right wing sister’s 3 daughters). First the email had a warning on it that this niece had never sent me an email from that address before and to be wary of it. So in the email my niece said that 20 years ago I told her if she ever needed an abortion I said I would help her, that I had her back and that she greatly appreciated that. I don’t remember ever saying that to her at all. She also said she read a book about 10 years ago about women’s rights history, which totally sounds like her, and that book made her realize what women had to deal with and now they’re unfortunately going back to those time. I have no idea what to think about this. I would very much like to email her back but because of the warning I’m worried that it would open a whole can of worms for me regarding my email account.

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  46. Icarus said on June 24, 2022 at 2:42 pm

    Deborah @ 45: you may have figured it out already but if there is another way to contact the neice — text, or Facebook Messenger*, or get a message via word-of-mouth to contact you, that is the route to go.

    * I think you deleted your FB account but in case you didn’t.

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  47. susan said on June 24, 2022 at 2:43 pm

    Deborah, why don’t you call your niece. That would be safer.

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  48. Deborah said on June 24, 2022 at 2:52 pm

    I don’t have my niece’s phone number. I tried emailing her from a previous address I had for her and it was returned saying the address was no longer functional. I emailed her sister and told her about the email and asked if the email from the questionable address was a new one or what. Anyway I hope to clear up the mystery soon.

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  49. Sherri said on June 24, 2022 at 3:04 pm

    Abortion is still legal here in Washington, and we are preparing for an influx of new patients. A trigger law in Idaho has made abortion illegal there. There were already challenges with abortion access in Eastern Washington, though, and the primary provider of abortions there is already reporting a 4 week wait for appointments.

    Dobbs isn’t the final opinion for this term. SCOTUS also still has to issue a decision in West Virginia v EPA, in which it is likely to gut the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Because of course, we should all live with whatever West Virginia is willing to tolerate for clean air.

    Texas keeps talking about seceding, but I tell you, the West Coast would like to have a word.

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  50. Deborah said on June 24, 2022 at 3:37 pm

    Abortion is still legal in NM and IL, thank god. I have so many friends in St. Louis from when I lived there, who have young daughters. I’m sure those daughters wont stick around and live in MO after they are out on their own. Why would they?

    Five men and a religious nut decided that women can not have control of their own bodies. How absurd.

    I’m not getting much done today, my text notifications are dinging like crazy.

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  51. A. Riley said on June 24, 2022 at 3:55 pm

    Women, if you are capable of conceiving, it’s time to ask your doctor about long-term effective birth control, either reversible or not. IUD, implants, tubal ligation, whatever works for you. Because you know the bastards are coming after contraception next. Clarence Thomas so much as said it.

    The justices have made it clear that they don’t think women have rights that need to be respected, which means they don’t think we’re actually human beings. Just like that poor zoo elephant, remember? The New York Supreme Court ruled that since she isn’t a human being, she doesn’t have rights that have to be respected. Well, the United States Supreme Court just ruled that we’re not human beings with rights that have to be respected, either. Nope. The Supreme Court today declared that in the eyes of the Supreme Court, we are livestock.

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  52. Jeff Borden said on June 24, 2022 at 3:58 pm

    Kill the filibuster.
    Pack the Supreme Court.
    Ram in four wild-eyed, flaming liberal justices.
    Statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico.
    The other side doesn’t play by the rules. Neither should we.

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  53. Sherri said on June 24, 2022 at 4:13 pm

    Any sign that Manchin or Sinema is interested in killing the filibuster? Everything else is noise without that. It’s been obvious what to do, but it’s been equally obvious that the Dems have no will for the fight. Biden didn’t want any part of expanding the Court; he appointed a do-nothing panel to make that go away.

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  54. brian stouder said on June 24, 2022 at 4:37 pm

    Wow. I mean, really…..wow. What a terrible blast of hypocrisy and out-and-out tyranny. See these “rights” you think are ‘inalienable’ and/or ‘fundamental’ and/or ‘human’? News-flash: Nope. I guess this falls under the “if you can keep it” rubric one of our Founders referred to

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  55. Deborah said on June 24, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    Another good one by Alexandra Petri https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/06/24/supreme-court-protect-life-conception-birth-satire/

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  56. Deborah said on June 24, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    Is this true? I read on Twitter that Merrick Garland said that states can’t ban the abortion pill “the FDA has approved the use of the medication Mifepristone. States may not ban Mifepristone based on disagreement with the FDA’s expert judgment about its safety and efficacy”. What is going on here?

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  57. susan said on June 24, 2022 at 7:31 pm

    Deborah, yes.

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  58. Jeff Borden said on June 24, 2022 at 9:32 pm

    Just got banned on FB for profanity, apparently, and invoking Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.” See you in two days.

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  59. LAMary said on June 25, 2022 at 2:34 am

    But her emails and but Hunter.

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  60. Deborah said on June 25, 2022 at 11:29 am

    That link is quite something, Susan.

    So I replied to my niece, here’s hoping it won’t get my email hacked. I contacted her sister and her mom to find out if it could be legit. Her mom (my sister) didn’t reply but the other niece did and it sounds like a legit email. So I’m hoping I can reconnect with this niece, we kind of fell out of touch for a while. She seems to have made quite a break from her rightwing upbringing.

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  61. annie said on June 25, 2022 at 12:08 pm

    I’m keeping some optimism knowing that things go in cycles and eventually we’ll go back to legal abortions. The protesting young people give me hope. (In my next life, however, I’ll move to Canada when I’m young)

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  62. Deborah said on June 25, 2022 at 1:16 pm

    While it’s nice that companies like JPMorgan will pay for employees who will need to travel to get an abortion, imagine what it would feel like as an employee to have to go to HR or where ever and ask them to sign you up for this. I can’t imagine how mortifying it would be to have to go through that rigamaroll with the company you work for. None of that is their business whatsoever.

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  63. Heather said on June 25, 2022 at 1:57 pm

    A lot of people are going to be unpleasantly surprised when hospitals have to let their friends, mothers, sisters, wives, daughters etc. die because the treatment for their condition is abortion, or they can’t undergo chemo or other treatments while pregnant.

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  64. David C said on June 25, 2022 at 3:45 pm

    I hope they have some mechanism other than going to HR when someone wants to travel for their healthcare. It should go through insurance just like any other covered medical procedure without any contact with the company at all.

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  65. Deborah said on June 25, 2022 at 4:14 pm

    I hope so David C.

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  66. Deborah said on June 25, 2022 at 6:06 pm

    If you want to get something really cool and give to The National Network of Abortion Funds, for $100 (which all goes to the fund) you can get this limited edition, signed and numbered little book by the illustrator Maira Kalman called “Bed” https://mairakalman.com/. I love Maira Kalman, have been following her for ages. Her late husband was Tibor Kalman a famous Graphic Designer from way back, they had a company called M&Co (the M stands for Maira). She has illustrated a bunch of books for both children and really anybody. She has a quirky visual language that is unique and she’s funny to boot. Give and get something precious, win win.

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  67. Sherri said on June 26, 2022 at 12:55 am

    The real message of the Dobbs opinion is that if you’re not a white male Christian property owner, your rights are not inalienable, they’re granted by whim and sufferance from your betters, and you’d better remember it. Clarence Thomas may fool himself that they’ll leave his marriage alone, but only as long as he serves their purposes.

    We’re wandering in the wilderness, friends, and there’s no quick exit. Yes, we should vote, but that’s just to hopefully slow things down; the Dems have shown that they’re incapable of the actions needed to actually turn the tide. It’s going to get more turbulent, I fear.

    https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2022/06/red-and-blue-state-divide-is-growing-michael-podhorzer-newsletter/661377/

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  68. Deborah said on June 26, 2022 at 10:46 am

    Nancy Pelosi says she has no intention of bringing a measure to expand the courts to the floor. And Biden has said he is not in favor of it but he did authorize a study to reform the courts and to look into the number of justices etc and Pelosi says she supports that study. The reason there are 9 justices decided in 1869 is because back then there were 9 circuit courts and now there are 13. So it seems logical to me to expand to at least 13.You know as well as I do if it were the other way around, the Republicans would expand the court in a New York minute. That and dump the filibuster, you can bet if they win Congress in the midterms, you can count on it. Maybe the Dems are waiting until after the midterms so as not to rock the boat. It’s not cheating to expand the court, but it’s perfectly constitutional for Congress to do so, has been done 5 or 6 times in the history of the country.

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  69. Jeff Borden said on June 26, 2022 at 1:59 pm

    I’m an old coot of 71 so I think I’m allowed to say this: Democrats need to get rid of all these old people who still think Congress is functioning as it did 40 or 50 years ago.

    Biden, bless his heart, was elected more because we were terrified of what that orange bloat would do in his unfettered second term than because we were anxious for him to lead. He’s a decent man, but he is locked in the past and still seems unable to grasp just how wicked, organized and well-funded the radical right is these days. Pelosi is wicked smart and has been an effective speaker at times, but again, she cannot free herself from the notion Dems can work with the QOP –even in its current state of degradation. Ditto for Schumer.

    These old institutionalists are too captive to history. The QOP will not stop until this nation is returned to the 19th century, where white christian males were the only power and industry ruled itself. Roe is only a start.

    Gen Z is the largest voting bloc in the nation now. Gen X and Millennials have little appetite for the kind of theocratic conservatism extant in the red states. But how do senior citizen politicians well past their sell-by date engage them? How do they mobilize these voters to the polls? How do they make them understand the stakes at risk here? (Bernie Sanders is the exception that proves the rule.)

    We need a youth movement. I wish I knew how to start one.

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  70. Sherri said on June 26, 2022 at 3:05 pm

    There have been lots of articles bemoaning that the ACLU has changed and lost its way, but let me tell you, this right here, this thing we’re all lamenting, this is why the ACLU changed. The ACLU took that Trump bump of money, and invested it in getting younger and more diverse, and in building up areas of advocacy outside of litigation. They weren’t waiting for the decision to begin working, they’ve been working since the case was granted cert. we’ve known this day would come since Kennedy stepped down, which makes it all the more galling that the response of House Dems was just singing God Bless America on the steps of the Court.

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  71. Deborah said on June 26, 2022 at 3:33 pm

    I’ve heard that the singing on the steps was for the “bipartisan” gun bill, but none the less it was tone deaf to still go ahead and do it after what SCOTUS had released that morning. Plus what were they thinking that by singing God Bless America they would appeal to some fundies or something? As if the evil religious right would suddenly come to Jesus and praise the Dems for their faithfulness? Who are they kidding? Plus it was just schmalzy, I’m sorry but it was.

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  72. Mark P said on June 26, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    The time for action was before the decision. That’s when a bill to expand the court should have been introduced. It might have reined in the christofascist justices before they went all out. A credible threat to neuter them might have been all it would have taken then. Now they’ll actually have to do it. And we know how likely that is.

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  73. brian stouder said on June 26, 2022 at 5:10 pm

    Well, I’m tempted to think that term-limiting Supreme Court justices would be good….and then I think ‘noooooo….’ because we’d probably spiral into a whack-a-mole era of Constitutional ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ where people elect morons who promise to appoint like-minded know-nothings who will zonk ‘all the right people’……….which, come to think of it, is where we are. Well, hell! I guess this is what was meant by “if you can keep it”, way back when

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  74. Sherri said on June 26, 2022 at 6:30 pm

    I don’t care if singing God Bless America was supposed to be about the weak sauce gun bill, it was political malpractice to do it the day Dobbs was announced. Can’t anyone here play this game?

    Dems should have been ready the instant the decision was announced with something like what Josh Marshall recommended here: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/06/opinion/democrats-midterms-abortion-roe.html

    Gavin Newsom, Jay Inslee, and Kate Brown were prepared with a video and an announcement of a multistate compact on what they were going to do. Because we had plenty of time to prepare for what was going to happen.

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