Well.
I was going to take a quick few minutes to update the blog on Friday morning, and then, well, you know what happened. I decided to wait through the weekend, just to see how it went. A few things are coming clear:
** Ginni Thomas was the draft leaker, maybe even without her husband’s knowledge (although probably not). Getting the opinion out weeks earlier pushed Kavanaugh into the majority. As someone said on Twitter, we’ll know it was her when no one else is publicly named (or the name leaks, ha ha) and punished for it.
** Speaking of Boof Kavanaugh, how amusing that his opinion had that air of brushing off his hands and walking away, having left abortion “to the states.” :::imagine another bitter chuckle here::: Not for nothing are the Republicans talking about national anti-abortion legislation. Already.
** Meanwhile, we know who the real victim is. Yes, Rudy Giuliani.
Photo editing mine. But you gotta love New York City, where a guy picking up a few essentials at the ShopRite can get a chance to lay hands on one of the biggest assholes on the planet (at the moment, anyway):
The ex-mayor told ABC the slap felt like “somebody shot me,” and, “Luckily, I”m a 78-year-old who is in pretty good shape.
“If I wasn’t, I would have hit the ground and probably cracked my skull.”
The former federal prosecutor told The Post he felt it was his duty to call the cops — likening the decision to his tough-on-crime policies as mayor.
“I say to myself, ‘You know something? I gotta get this guy arrested,’ ” he said. “I talk about ‘broken windows’ theory all the time. You can’t let the little things go.
Jesus, what a douchebag.
I was listening to some NPR egghead today when my inner feminist rose up and growled. It was the eighteenth mention of “pregnant person” that did it. Look, I know this is the new term of art, that trans men might need abortions someday too, but goddamnit: THIS IS ABOUT WOMEN. Uterus-havers, who may have sex with sperm producers, whether by choice or force, and get pregnant when they don’t want to be. Women, in other words. Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for language policing right now. We’re here arguing about incrementalism, and Republicans incrementaled a constitutional right right out from under us.
Fuck all this shit. Yeah, I’m still pissed. And will be, for a while.
LAMary said on June 26, 2022 at 9:00 pm
Is there a Go Fund Me for the guy who hit Giuliani?
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Peter said on June 26, 2022 at 9:14 pm
Oh LA Mary, I can only hope.
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Carl said on June 27, 2022 at 8:33 am
“Women, in other words. Sorry, I’m just not in the mood for language policing right now.” — That is the truth.
Jennifer Rubin has written some good things lately, but this one landed in the oh come on get real bin. Based on the title, haven’t read.
“How Susan Collins can repair the damage she has wrought”
https://wapo.st/3QUR7GS
(gift article)
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JodiP said on June 27, 2022 at 8:37 am
Nancy right there with you with pregnant people. I think it’s a legit critique. The language obscures the fact that this is about largely and issue for women, and in so doing minimizes our political voices even further.
I highly recommend the podcast ep from Marketplace Tech from Friday, about how tech companies are going to have to take a stand on privacy because there are already two women who miscarried who were charged with some flavor of homicide after law enforcement tracked their info from online data.
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Maria said on June 27, 2022 at 9:57 am
As a dedicated leftie, it pains me to acknowledge that NPR has become a parody of itself.
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Jeff Borden said on June 27, 2022 at 9:59 am
A well-reported story about the last abortion clinic left in Mississippi goddamn reminds us that the so-called “pro life” movement isn’t. The state is absolutely the worst place in ‘Murica for kids with the highest rate of infant mortality. It’s No. 2 in teen pregnancies. It refuses to expand Medicare through the ACA meaning many of its poorer citizens lack access to decent pre- and post-natal care.
Meanwhile, Peggy Noonan, who has milked every drop from her brief service as a speechwriter for St. Ronald of Reagan, actually said on “Meet the Press” that the QOP should become a party devoted to women, which actually led the entire panel to break out laughing. Pretty telling.
I’m so disgusted with our country. I may not fly the flag for the 4th of July this year as it’s hard to find much to celebrate at the moment. We’re regressing while most of the developed world is moving forward. It’s both sad and maddening.
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Julie Robinson said on June 27, 2022 at 10:13 am
Thank you for the Giuliani levity. As the video clearly shows, it wasn’t so much a slap as a tap, certainly nothing that a “78 year old in pretty good shape” couldn’t handle. And isn’t it sad that apparently he has to go to the grocery store to find supporters (sycophants)? Or was he hoping someone would pay for his groceries? Cameo not paying off anymore?
What’s the source of the Ginni Thomas info? I had to stop reading stories for my mental health. Our daughter said Ginni is what’s known as a messy b*tch, and I think it fits perfectly.
Because if Ginni was the source, whether Clarence knew or not, it’s grounds for him to be removed. If he knew, he’s complicit. If he didn’t, he’s leaving confidential files and papers around where *anyone* could access them.
Think I’ll go swim and work off some anger in the water.
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LAMary said on June 27, 2022 at 1:17 pm
Rudy Giuliani was in a Staten Island Shop Rite with his son who is campaigning for the GOP nomination for NY governor. His son’s white house position was something like Special Assistant to Trump and Sports Liasion. Basically he got paid to golf with Trump and say, “nice swing, sir” a lot.
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Deborah said on June 27, 2022 at 1:58 pm
Got back from Abiquiu this morning. It has been raining almost nonstop there and here in Santa Fe, which is glorious but now some areas that have burn scars are worried about mud slides and flooding. It’s crazy.
I’ve been depressed since Friday, strange how we all knew it was going to happen and it still feels like a punch in the gut. I can’t bring myself to read Alito’s opinion, my husband did and was appalled, he’s never read a full opinion from SCOTUS before and really neither have I.
I’ve been having a lively correspondence with my niece, I’m so glad she contacted me, we both needed some family connections.
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Sherri said on June 27, 2022 at 2:16 pm
Ah yes, Rudy’s son Andrew, who was so obnoxious the Duke golf team kicked him off the team.
Today’s SCOTUS ruling says “what establishment clause? I don’t see any establishment clause!” in regards to the Bremerton football coach leading prayers on the field. Christian prayer, of course. You don’t think they’d rule the same way for a Muslim prayer, do you?
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Scout said on June 27, 2022 at 2:48 pm
I’m trying very hard to contain my incandescent rage. Since Nov 2016 I have been in a semi-permanent state of depression and anger. I want to move out of this country but feel I cannot until my very healthy 84 y/o Mom is no longer living.
One bright spot is that I am all signed up and ready to roll with Medicare on 9/1. But of course, if Dems lose the midterms, even that will be in danger.
Legal MJ helps. Yay for that until the jackasses try to take that away too.
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Little Bird said on June 27, 2022 at 4:36 pm
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/26/1107710215/roe-overturned-mary-miller-historic-victory-for-white-life
They’re not even trying to hide it anymore.
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Jeff Borden said on June 27, 2022 at 5:32 pm
Well, of course, the religious zealots on SCOTUS ruled a school district cannot punish a football coach for convening a group prayer at the 50-yard line after a high school game. Christian theocracy is on the March, kids!
Course, just trying rolling out a prayer rug and bowing to Allah at the 50-yard line, though I hope someone does it.
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Colleen said on June 27, 2022 at 5:36 pm
Yeah, the pregnant person thing is a bit much right now. I mean, I get inclusive language and all, but a comment I saw online sums it up for me….someone was scolding for using “women” instead of “pregnant person”, and was told that now is really not the time for that…the house is on fire, we don’t need to be arguing about light fixtures.
There are bigger fish to fry, imo.
Heard a lot of criticism of NPR coverage giving too much time to the anti choicers and their “alternative facts.” I listen to Progress on Siriusxm. I am totally in my progressive bubble these days….
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Sherri said on June 27, 2022 at 6:24 pm
I’ve read a number of things saying I shouldn’t blame the Democrats for this and they’ve never had the chance to codify Roe, and it’s the Republicans’ fault, etc, and you know what? Bullshit.
I never expected the Republicans to do anything but what they did. That’s what they said they were going to do for the last 40 years, that’s what they’ve clearly been working towards for the last 40 years, and why would I expect Susan Collins to be anything other than who she’s always shown herself to be? There might still be a pro-choice Republican around somewhere, but I don’t expect there’s any Republican around willing to risk any political capital looking out for the rights of anyone other than white Christian men. Why would they? That’s who their base is.
Dems, on the other hand, win elections on the backs of black women, yet spend their efforts trying to lure those white men to vote for them, even though they haven’t in 40 years. Our rights are always a plank in the party platform, but there’s always something more important than us when it’s time to get something done.
So I’ve got plenty of anger to go around for everybody. I’ve got a whole fucking lifetime of anger of not being regarded as full person with autonomy and agency.
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Julie Robinson said on June 27, 2022 at 7:03 pm
The January 6 committee has announced a bonus hearing tomorrow with new information they’ve just received. I’m hoping it will be video from the documentary they were getting last Thursday.
The hearings have been the one positive thing happening right now in this country.
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Mark P said on June 27, 2022 at 7:20 pm
Sherri, I agree. They are being Chamberlain Democrats when we need all-out war.
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LAMary said on June 27, 2022 at 8:24 pm
So a six month contract gig ended in March and I immediately got a three month gig which ended today. Got another offer and I hope I have at least a week off in between. One thing I have learned from the last two jobs: your manager has more to do with your success and your satisfaction with your job than any other factor. That might seem screamingly obvious but the last two jobs started out ok. In the first one my manager got promoted. I got a new one who had no clue about what we did. She got canned. I got another one who sucked. Second job: got a manager who seemed a little crazy when she interviewed me. Spent most of her time telling me about what jerks the guys in administration were. Who was gay, who was straight, who was racist etc. She got fired two days after I started and they put someone with no experience in my department in charge. It was not pleasant. I hung in because the bucks were good but I was very happy when that contract ended. Got a call today and I’ve got another job. Fingers crossed it will not be the shit show the last two were.
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Colleen said on June 27, 2022 at 9:02 pm
The Dems really need to stop trying to court the white guy in the diner….he ain’t gonna vote Dem.
I read a book last year that talks about our changing demographics and what Democrats need to do to capitalize on the situation. It’s called “The End of White Politics” by Zerlina Maxwell, and it was quite illuminating.
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Alan Stamm said on June 27, 2022 at 9:19 pm
Language policing trips into self-parody lately.
In a NYT op-ed a day after your post, a UC-Irvine law professor criticizes “… the court’s indefensible disregard for the lives of women, girls and people capable of pregnancy.”
This nonsense has gone too far, truly.
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alex said on June 27, 2022 at 10:13 pm
As a person incapable of pregnancy, I’m seeing myself in a whole new light.
So maybe they’re calling Ginni to the stand tomorrow. That oughta be fun.
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john (not mccain) said on June 27, 2022 at 10:53 pm
Nothing says Democrat more than taking a pause from the outrage to shit on people you need.
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Dexter said on June 28, 2022 at 3:22 am
The praying coach story only makes the news because it is a wedge in the door to pry it open to classroom prayer in public schools. Pete Williams, the SCOTUS expert reporter at NBC confirmed this.
Jeff, Muslims don’t need a prayer rug, I see Mohamad Salah drop to the pitch and pray every time he scores for Liverpool.
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Dexter Friend said on June 28, 2022 at 4:24 am
I found this picture-best-costumes story uplifting and special: San Francisco’s Pride Parade, June 26, 2022:
https://www.sfgate.com/local/article/Photos-of-San-Francisco-Pride-s-best-costumes-and-17267069.php
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Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 8:01 am
Holy Cow, John Eastman lives in Santa Fe! https://www.abqjournal.com/2511956/motion-fbi-seized-phone-from-trump-campaign-lawyer.html
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FDChief said on June 28, 2022 at 8:49 am
Re: the Democratic surrender…my suspicion is that the sclerotic DLC leadership is 1) terrified of being tabbed as the party of the Others – they cling to the fantasy of the New Deal white ethnic voters like Blanche DuBois to the fantasy of a more genteel past, and 2) unwilling to accept that the GQP wants rule or ruin. Because if they then don’t want to be ruled it means civil war.
And they’re choosing to be ruled.
I can certainly understand not wanting civil war. But if the alternative is to be ruled by scum like the Thomases?
Fiat bellum, ruat coelium.
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Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 10:48 am
Complain about the Dems, sure. But vote vote vote blue. And we all know that Repubs stick together in lock step, and they cheat but they hold on to power that way, unfortunately. We have to keep the House and the Senate, that’s the important thing right now.
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Julie Robinson said on June 28, 2022 at 11:25 am
The geriatric Dems are in positions of power because they’re moderate, but moderation is getting steamrollered by the Repubs. Time to try something else, as my son has been saying for years.
LAMary, I was thinking of you when my SIL was bemoaning their lack of staff and the long hours she’s working. After her body got worn out by psych nursing (lifting patients, patients beating her up), she went over to the dark side of insurance. Now she helps qualify patients for admittance to psych units and programs. There’s a shortage in the department and even after they hire it takes two months of training before they’re on calls by themself.
Stories in the local news indicate hospital nurses caring for 10 patients when it should be five. So I hope this job works out and you get to hire lots of wonderful medical helpers. Clearly there’s a huge need.
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Sherri said on June 28, 2022 at 12:03 pm
The Dems need to remember that the New Deal was almost a century ago, and was only accomplished by accommodating segregationists and throwing Black people under the bus. That is no longer a path to victory for Dems. LBJ understood this over 50 years ago he signed the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. You’d think that our gerontocracy would at least learn from the past they seem determined to live in.
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Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 12:41 pm
Heather Cox Richardson wrote this on Twitter today, she was quoting someone who wrote “How Democracies Die”
“…rising dictators never have majority support. They have a huge opposition that fights among itself rather than joining- however briefly- to get rid of the dictator”.
Let’s keep our eyes on the prize, keeping the House and the Senate.
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Alan Stamm said on June 28, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Dana Milbank of WashPost on the douchebag:
“We may never understand what makes a man like Giuliani tell a lie when it can be so easily disproved. … Maybe he can no longer tell the difference between fact and fiction … a man so morally confused that even a trip to the supermarket means loading his cart with lies and conspiracies.”
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LAMary said on June 28, 2022 at 1:07 pm
John Eastman spoke at the Jan. 5 rally wearing a cowboy type duster coat and and I think it was a leather cowboy hat, Deborah. I’m sure you know the type. If he’s married the wife probably has the giant squashblossom necklace thing going on.
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Suzanne said on June 28, 2022 at 1:28 pm
I am watching the J6 hearings. This Cassidy Hutchinson, who is only 26, has given testimony that is already pretty damning. They all knew, they all planned for violence. Giuliani, Meadows, both deeply in on it.
Damn.
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Sherri said on June 28, 2022 at 1:56 pm
The President of the United States knowingly sent an armed mob to attack Congress in order to retain power.
Let’s face it, we already failed the “peaceful transition of power” part.
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David C said on June 28, 2022 at 2:14 pm
So President Stable Genius throws his food like a two year old. Some things surprise you, that didn’t. The description of him as a manbaby is pretty spot on.
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Sherri said on June 28, 2022 at 2:35 pm
Here’s what I’ll say about the language policing around pregnant people vs women: if you don’t realize that this fight is not just about women and abortion, then you’re not getting it. Anybody who is not a white straight Christian property-owning man who conforms to their ideology is at risk. Do not throw trans men under the bus; trans people have been under attack from these people longer than we have.
We’ve been thrown under the bus before, by both left and right, let’s not do it ourselves.
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LAMary said on June 28, 2022 at 2:37 pm
He also tried to attack his security guy because they would not let him go join the rioters. He also wanted the armed protesters admitted to his pre riot rally to make the crowd larger. This guy needs to go to prison.
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Deborah said on June 28, 2022 at 4:09 pm
LAMary, knowing that Eastman lives in Santa Fe (part time) makes more sense after seeing what he wore to the rally. So many old white guys walk around town trying to look like cowboys, they usually wear a lot of Native American silver jewelry and their wives especially do, as you said. Some people on Twitter who live in Santa Fe have been trying to figure out which restaurant it was. I’m pretty sure it’s Jinja an Asian Restaurant near me that Gene Hackman’s wife used to own, she sold it recently as I recall. The food was OK when LB and I went there, but nothing spectacular. It’s in a strip mall.
I watched the hearings and my oh my, it was super damning.
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Sherri said on June 28, 2022 at 4:19 pm
What if you tried to stage a coup and nobody held you accountable?
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LAMary said on June 28, 2022 at 4:23 pm
Those guys were around in the seventies, Deborah. Your friend Harry’s father, whom I knew from University of Denver, described their wives as entrants in the Rita Coolidge look alike contest.
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nancy said on June 28, 2022 at 4:41 pm
Sherri, declining to negate my gender by referring to the overwhelming majority of those affected by the overturning of RvW as “women” is not throwing trans men under the bus. If they find themselves unexpectedly and unwillingly pregnant, they have my full support. But I will not call myself a “person” when it’s women who are taking the shaft on this. (And girls, yes, but biological females.) “Whippoorwill” is a better word than bird, and “women” is more descriptive of those in the direst peril now than “person.” Sorry.
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Lily said on June 28, 2022 at 11:39 pm
I hate what has happened with the Supreme Court decision, but if there is a very small silver lining, it is the hope that this clears out the muddled, misogynistic pronouncements/demands that being a woman is a feeling, a manner of dress, and a subjective, internally held belief. NO! Women are adult, human females, and we have been oppressed for millenniums because of our female sex. We cannot “identify” out of our oppression, and the men always seem to have no problem figuring out who the females are when it is time to rape, harm, or mutilate our bodies.
If a female wants to consider herself a man, have at it. (Although just MAYBE the explosion in girls identifying as men MIGHT have something to do with the sexualized cesspool that is today’s culture, and just maybe the solution is not to mutilate and sterilize those girls with wrong-sex hormones and surgeries.) But the fight for women’s freedom and autonomy, as a sex-based class, REQUIRES that we speak in plain, clear, accurate language about the category of people who are female. We are women.
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Brandon said on June 29, 2022 at 4:47 pm
ICYMI, R. Kelly sentenced to 30 years in prison.
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