A Brand New Crisis from 1868

In catching a rare break from the Supreme Court, we can see the blatant racism that governs the MAGA movement. When SCOTUS found that the 14^th Amendment to the Constitution was constitutional (duh), the speed with which the MAGAts moved to capitalize on the moment was eye-opening.

Almost immediately, the talking points were obvious, with multiple talking heads and inside sources postulating fantastical stories about citizenship mills and birth tourism, all designed to replace white people in this country. They must have had this stuff already locked and loaded before the decision, with versions for either outcome. Steven “the Ghoul” Miller’s fingerprints are all over this.

Late last week, there was a letter to the editor in the formerly reputable Baltimore Sun, in which the letter writer decried this new “can of worms,” just opened to destroy America. In fact, many of the blurbs put out on social media employ this raging fallacy.

What makes it a fallacy is this: If the decision lets the 14^th Amendment stand, which has been in place for over 158 years, how in the bloody hell is this opening a “can of worms” if it's already been open for longer than anyone has been alive? There is exactly nothing new being put forth, just the clearly written law of the land, which states, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” Where is the wiggle room? Where is the “interpretation?”

There is no “interpretation” without making up a bunch of far-fetched crappola drawn out of thin air.

They talk about what they think the writers intended. I say if there were any caveats, they would have been written in, but they weren’t. It just says, in plain English, if you’re born here, you’re an American. Case closed.

Remember, these are the people who cling to a literal reading of (part of) the 2^nd Amendment, insisting that the rules made to cover single-shot, hand-loaded rifles were designed to expand to include guns that fire hundreds of rounds per minute, so no further interpretation is permitted. “The right to bear arms shall not be infringed,” that’s what they repeat and contend that it covers everything. (Of course, they always ignore the “well-regulated militia” part.) They are only constitutional “originalists” when it serves their purpose. Otherwise, like when it comes to brown foreigners entering the country, they’ll twist any explicitly written statute until it says the opposite of what was intended at creation.

All of these new doomsday predictions, in the wake of the decision, were just as possible two weeks ago, yet no one was talking about them. Apparently, it just wasn’t that important. But now, when the headlines go against the Administration’s stated goals of whitening America, they want to rally support for new legislation. After picking through the dissent of the three fascist-supporting judges, I’m sure they will find an angle that would be upheld under constitutional scrutiny. That’s what these guys do, even when a Republican measure fails; they leave breadcrumbs for the next time.

And there will be a next time. Republicans don’t have anything to offer in the way of economic or environmental relief, just tax cuts and support for the rich. So they need to produce something to draw votes, and racism, sexism, and homophobia are consistent winners. And best of all, it doesn’t cost rich people anything.

“Wait,” you say, “Won’t it cost business owners by removing all the people who work cheap?”

Yes, it would, except they’re already getting replacements lined up, namely, people like us. Look at the massive cuts to state and federal jobs. Look at AI and robotics taking over jobs done by humans. Look at brick-and-mortar stores that have disappeared in favor of E-tail. Suddenly, there is a glut of people looking for work. Do you think they’re all going to train to be coders? With the prices rising like they are, people who normally wouldn’t lift a shovel will be fighting to work on road crews and farms, just to keep the lights on.

It’s a theory, anyway. And I wouldn’t put it past these bastards to see it through. After all, Project 2025 sounded pretty far-fetched at one time. Now its contents are found in the daily news.

Kirk Out

 I first saw the news on Facebook that Charlie Kirk was shot while I was at my first baseball game of the year. My first thought was, "If this were one of ours, there's going to be hell to pay." And that thought was confirmed within minutes as the threats and promises of retaliation against Democrats, Liberals, and Trans people (aka "them/they") came flooding out. It was almost as if they already had this stuff in the chamber, ready for the first provocation. 

Now, for the obligatory disclaimer, I'm neither celebrating nor calling for anyone to be killed. No Democrats are, really, outside of the delusions of the Right Wing bubble. Although I'll admit that many will not be too broken up if a certain orange charlatan takes one too many bites of well-done steak, a chunk of cholesterol breaks off and lodges in a cardiac artery. But no one is actually condoning violence, except the usual suspects, including the recently deceased. 

South Park really had this guy down in their second episode of the season. One of the subplots involved Cartman fighting with another student, whom he accused of "stealing my schtick" of being aggressively anti-gay, anti-minority, anti-trans, pro-gun, etc. They showed Cartman going to campuses and "debating" college students, where he would basically dismiss everything they said, change the subject to one where he could spout off one of his familiar talking points (one for which the student was neither prepared nor interested), and then claim victory over another stupid college student. I understand the network has since pulled the episode from streaming. I'm sure it was the network. Matt and Trey never would have considered it.

I'm not celebrating, I'm just saying that the world is better off without a guy who says stuff like that. Every single point up there is abhorrent. But for the outrage and vitriol spewed forth online, you'd think someone dropped a log on Rush Limbaugh's grave.

I saw a lot of posts hurling accusations at "Them," like, "They killed Charlie Kirk, wait until we start killing them." Remember that at that time, no one knew who the killer was. All the death threats and impending violence were predicated on an assumption, and you know what happens when you make an assumption... "You make an ass out of you, and umption." (Per Samuel L Jackson in The Long Kiss Goodnight.) In fact, every MAGA post from the time of the shooting to the time they identified the suspect was WRONG. Wrong in facts, wrong in tone, and wrong in morality. It was as if they were all just waiting for the right cover to start taking people out, rolling out the military, and declaring martial law.

The Democrats I know and saw were saying things like, "Let's see what happens, let's wait until we have a suspect, let's not jump to conclusions." But things like "waiting" and "facts" aren't really in the MAGA arsenal.

Let's get this straight. This is a brief record of violence coming from the Right. 

Just try to think of a notorious violent act perpetrated by someone on the Left, for political reasons. And I mean real things, not like the usual Fox "News" allegations that the Clintons had people murdered and unsubstantiated garbage like that. I can't think of a single one. Modern political violence is solely the province of the radical Right and the MAGAs.

So, then we had a couple of days of FBI announcements that proved to be untrue, from having a suspect in custody (they didn't) to claims of anti-trans messaging on the shell casings (it wasn't). Law enforcement went from withholding all available information to eventually pleading for help from the locals. It wasn't until a nearby resident and his minister convinced his son to turn himself in that federal and local law enforcement had any degree of success. 

It turned out that this killer was just like so many of his predecessors: Male, white, straight, Christian, Conservative, gun enthusiasts. How very cliche. 

It turned out that this guy was a follower of Nick Fuentes (whose devotees are known as "groypers"), as evidenced by the groyper catch-phrases etched on some of the bullet casings. Groypers apparently had beef with Kirk followers after Kirk called for the Epstein files to be released. One can only conclude that this whole episode is inter-family MAGA on MAGA violence.

Many people thought this would calm the Right Wing fury raging through the nation, as evidenced by these memes:.. 

But that would be wrong... Because the Right never admits when they're wrong, nor do they accept blame for anything, ever, they began looking for angles to keep the blame on the Left. 

One angle was that by alleging that the killer's trans-female roommate, for some reason, radicalized him. The even funnier angle was blaming his one semester at a Utah state university, several years ago, for brainwashing him into a Radical Left activist. That's right... one semester, at a Utah university. Totally a hotbed of liberalism. It was either that or the trade school he's been attending since then. 

This is what it's come to: relying on their own cloistered echo-chamber to drum up believable lies for their followers to latch onto. This is one of the reasons why they spend so much time denigrating higher education: it makes a great instant scapegoat and requires no nuance or detail. Just blame college.

I think this, too, will eventually die down, and we'll go back to watching in horror as the current occupant destroys another sector of the country, the way his ICE-holes just did down in Georgia, costing them a multi-billion dollar factory. You have to hand it to him: he fucks with his own people just as badly as his opponents. 

He set up an apparatus where it only took one "concerned citizen" to report that there were a bunch of foreigners hanging around this building. No one bothered to research what was going on there, or they might have found that a team of South Koreans (our allies) was there to train Americans on battery production for a fabulous new business. But no, they just sent in the Gestapo to round up the ferners and treat them like war criminals. They were bound, bent over, humiliated, deprived of daylight, let alone liberty, all without due (or any) process. And then the asshole wants to be surprised when they refuse to come back.

Jesus H. Christ, these people are idiots. I'm starting to think that the best thing that can happen is that the government does get shut down at the end of the month. At least that might limit the damage they're doing to the country.

90-Days to the Dark Ages

I still can’t get over how Muslims were moving over to voting Republican. This is even though TFG’s first move last time was to ban all immigration from Muslim countries. Well, except from Saudi Arabia. Even though they provided 19 of 20 9/11 attackers, he thought he could get a tower with his name on it built there. Money always wins out over prejudice with these guys.

Anyway, I was watching some more of those 90-Day shows last night when it all suddenly made sense.

Back in September, I wrote about getting hooked into the 90-Day Fiancé world. I even mentioned one storyline where a 41-year-old American woman was going to Jordan to marry her 22-year-old beau, who immediately began putting restrictions on her dress and behavior. (And somehow, despite the existence of the internet, she never saw coming.)

I’d only seen the first installment of their story when I wrote the post, but it’s continuing as one could foresee. The guy’s demands generate all kinds of conflict, while this woman who is old enough to be his mama is expected to do as he tells her and stop questioning him about it.

I told Sweetpea last night that they need to let me write her a speech to deliver. Something like, “Listen Anand, I was a 19-year-old woman on the day you were delivered screaming in your diapers and knew more about the world outside your insular little bubble than you’ll ever know. You did NOT gain superior wisdom by the mere happenstance of being born with a dick. Now treat me like a grown-ass modern woman or you can take that dick and find someone else for it to disappoint.”

Yes, I know she’s never say that, because she’s got “feelings” and shit about the guy, but I can dream.

There’s another storyline where a woman went to see her Arab boyfriend in South Africa for the first time but was so nervous about flying she brought her ex-boyfriend with her, which was an unbelievably stupid idea, guaranteed to cause a major fight. And it did, leading to the boyfriend storming off, shouting profanities, and wanting nothing further to do with her.

As it usually goes, they coaxed him back to talk with her, and they ironed out that little wrinkle with a heart-to-heart talk. But last night, she got to meet his friends, who immediately called her out for having bare arms and midriff and tattoos. They told her she’d be expected to become Muslim to continue to date the guy, which was not something that had previously been discussed. 

They always wait until they feel the woman is hooked before telling her about their primitive expectations.

So, now looping back to the election...

Last night it all made sense. This is why the Muslim vote is migrating to the Republicans. They’re not just a “socially conservative” society, but one that would gravitate to the kind of medieval society Republican bible-thumpers are pushing. They want women on their backs and failing that, in the kitchen. They want them docile, obedient, pliant, and unquestioning, like a pet retriever. One who lives to serve the man. They certainly weren’t going to vote for one for president.

I’m sure they also like the persecution of gays, heretics, and liberals as well; anything that cements the notion of male superiority. However, they probably underestimate the degree to which they will never fit in with the MAGAs. Even if they agree with all the policy points, they’ll never be anything more to MAGA than another raghead to deport.

“Thanks for the vote, though!”

Apocalypse Eve?

Welp, here we are on another precipice. Tomorrow night we’ll get a good look at what our future may bring, if not certainty. We’ll get to see who’s been right all along and who’s full of shit. Are the polls right and this will be a photo-finish horse race? Will the Libs be correct that large pockets of undeclared Blue Voters have been keeping their leanings to themselves? Or will the MAGAs be right (shudder) and their guy wins in a landslide?

And if the Left is right, how far will TFG guy go to overturn the election, and can such an effort possibly be successful?

Last week, Martin Longman at Progress Pond wrote one of the scariest “What-ifs” I’ve seen to date, outlining the most likely chain of events that would lead to The Former Guy becoming The Returning Guy.

The basic idea is that the Republicans win the House and then with voter fraud accusations being thrown around (by themselves and their proxies) stall on electing a speaker. We KNOW they won’t have a problem with that, given how long it took them to come up with a Speaker under ordinary circumstances. If they can stall until January 20^th, when the current administration expires, there will be no president or vice president in office. Then they elect TFG as Speaker and the chain of succession elevates him to the presidency. (There are other sub-factors, like having to win some court battles, but that’s the gist of it.)

I find this scenario terrifying, not only because it follows established law, but the GOP would have no qualms about seizing power this way. The one giant snag here is that they have to win the House and that’s a big IF. I’d be surprised if the Dems hold the Senate, but the House seems attainable. Over the past two years the gap has narrowed so it won’t take that many flipped seats to change the control. And because every House seat is up for renewal every year, there can be big turnover when there’s a major change to the status quo, like the Dodd decision.

Suffice it to say that every seat is important in this election. Every win will be huge and every loss, devastating.

I don’t know what more there is to say about it; we just have to wait to see if sanity will reign or we’ll be plunged back into chaos.

I expect that I’ll have another post out on Wednesday or Thursday, depending on how and when things shake out. Although in fair warning, if TFG wins, my post won’t be anything more than withering profanity and guttural howling.

See you on the other side…

 

The Long Game

 Earlier in September I wrote about the crap-TV shows I can’t stop watching, the 90-Day Fiancé franchise. I mentioned how I chafe at the storylines involving American women marrying Arab/Muslim/African men who expect obedience, subservience, and second-class citizenship. Describing the storyline that’s just developing this season, I wrote:

“There is a couple this season, where the 40ish American woman is going to Jordan to marry her 22–year–old beau on the very day she arrives because his religion won’t permit them to be alone together in a room. This story is just getting underway and she has no idea what he will expect of her. This is basically a “boy” who told the cameras he wants her to always obey his wishes and not question him as the man of the house. And he needs her to cover up with loose clothing

I think she ought to spank his 22-year-old ass and send him to his room without dinner. These stories always seem to end up the same way, with the American women taking a powder either before or shortly after the wedding.”

Well, they did, indeed, get married the day she arrived and as expected, she’s chafing at the new rules about which she’s just now finding out.

To me, it’s beyond comprehension that someone intending to marry into this (or any) foreign culture didn’t take five minutes or so to Google what it’s like for a woman to live in Jordan (or wherever.) The guy always seems to hold back on the details of his expectations until after it’s too late. In last night’s show, the woman reacted harshly after finding out the rules her boy-husband gave her did not apply to him.

She was upset because

·         She was told she couldn’t hug or shake her long-time (male) friend’s hand, yet he shook her hairdresser’s hand immediately after.

·         He criticized her outfit as being too revealing (there was the faintest hint of cleavage) while his shirt was unbuttoned to his midsection.

·         He wouldn’t listen to her concerns.

·         He occupied their room getting himself dressed, (meaning she couldn’t because he had his friends there), and was then furious because he had to wait for her to change.

·         He insisted she be covered to his approved level wherever she went, whether in Jordan or back in the US. But he can wear whatever he wants.

He was upset because:

·         Her clothes were too revealing, and when they did conceal what he wanted, they were too tight.

·         She insisted on sitting up front in the car with him, while his brother had to sit in the back.

·         She questioned him about his “rules,” rather than happily accepting them.

·         She was not swayed by his and his brother’s default explanations, “But I’m the man.”

Meanwhile, I’m left yelling at the television, saying, “Honey, what the hell do you expect? How did you not check this out beforehand? How it is possible that no one you know told you this might happen?”

I mean, for Pete’s sake, take some initiative and responsibility.

At least, I take some comfort in knowing this is one set of people and there were probably side issues regarding the creation of TV episodes, with which I’m not familiar. You can’t take everything at face value with these shows. They want you to get all worked up about it.

But it got me thinking about how this dynamic is exactly what our modern conservatives are trying to recreate in this country. Every new law or movement that restricts the rights of women, no matter how small or isolated in scope, is a chip away from the fading standard of gender equality. It’s a bedrock principle of the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society types. They want women out of the workplace and back in the kitchen with babies on each hip, leaving men to remain free to make all the important decisions, so they don’t have to worry their pretty little heads.

I recall our Democratic presidential nominee once asking a prospective Supreme Court Justice/Bro, “Can you name any laws that place restrictions on what a man can do with his own body?”

The Republican gambit is that if you control the health care, you control the women. Hence Sen. Vance (SS/OH) is resurfacing this old tactic:

This is why you can’t believe them when they say, “But we’re not after birth control.” Yes, they are. Just watch their actions. Plus, one of the SCOTUS Bros has already made it clear they want to go after Griswald.

Constrict health care.

Limit birth control.

Ban abortions.

Limit post-natal aid, child care, SNAP.

Attack women’s very right to vote.

Attack breast-feeding in public.

How long before they try to repeal the laws that gave women the right to hold property, get loans, or credit cards? How long before they start selling petticoats and bloomers at Forever 21?

These things add up to putting women under duress, in a state where all they can do is fight to survive, unless, of course, they can find a man to take care of them.

And there it is… The Incel’s wet dream… to rescue a woman who must then submit to his control.

This is where the GOP is taking us… to a place not so far from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, or Iran, as far as how they treat their female citizens. Well, maybe not citizens… more like pleasant-smelling property.

The Republicans are playing the long game. They started immediately after the Roe decision and never let up until it was reversed. It took over 50 years but they kept at it, collecting enough state legislatures, governorships, and occasional presidencies until they had a willing Supreme Court. They created “news” outlets to radiate their toxic point of view, be it with misdirection, propaganda, or outright lies.

And because they’re playing a long game, they’re counting on young people growing up with abortion restrictions being seen as commonplace, while those who remember winning reproductive freedoms are dying off. Eventually, the whole struggle will be limited to history books, and we know what they do with those when they include history the Right doesn’t care to remember.

And here we are. They’re not done and neither should we be done resisting, for as long as it takes. The very fate of our mothers, sisters, and daughters is riding on it.

"90-Days" of Conflict

 Even with its current pervasiveness, I’ve never been a big watcher of reality TV. For 20 years, I only watched the Big Three: Survivor, Big Brother, and The Amazing Race, all of which I picked up in their respective first seasons. By 2024, I picked up a couple more, “Bar Rescue” and “Naked and Afraid,” which I may post about some other time. And there’s one other.

Now, my wife, Sweetpea, predominantly watches what she calls, “murder shows.” You know, the true crime series like First 48, Forensic Files, Dateline, and the like. I’m ok with them once in a while, but I prefer more escapist fare. Because we don’t have many shows that we both like, it’s hard to find things to watch together. Because she gets up insanely early and goes to work before I’m out of bed, she also goes to bed early, so we don’t have a lot of downtime together. After dinner, she’ll usually put on a murder show and promptly fall asleep. When she can’t find a murder show she hasn’t seen, she’ll opt for MTV’s Catfish or TLC’s 90-Day Fiancé.

I figured I could tolerate those so I began recording them with the DVR, so we can watch together at our leisure. Catfish is straightforward enough. It’s like a true crime show where the hosts investigate people who get into relationships with other people via dating sites but refuse to meet or ever be seen on camera.

But the 90-Day stuff? Wow. What a mess of humanity… that I can’t stop watching. It’s basically nationally televised voyeurism.

There are several 90-Days brands. The original is 90-Day Fiancé, which centers on couples who date internationally. One will bring the other to the US via a K-1 visa, and will then have 90 days to get married or the visitor has to go back. That’s always the focal question: Will they get married or will it all blow up?

Another variation is Before the 90-Days, which focuses on the lead-up to the travel to America, as they begin exploring an international relationship. There’s also 90-Days – Happily Ever After? which shows the lives of some of the couples after they’ve gotten married and are going about their lives. Then there’s the Bizarro World version, 90-Days – The Other Way, which is where an American goes abroad to marry and live in a vastly different culture.

And if all that isn’t enough, there’s a parasite series called Pillow Talk, which runs right after each of the other shows, featuring several pairs of former 90-Day participants who watch the show and provide commentary.

The whole organization is its own self-contained world, like an Earthbound Marvel Universe, whose occupants have staged adventures and bitch at each other.

I had no idea what I was getting into when I started. I fully admit that this is crap TV and I’m probably dumber for having watched it. It’s just that you get sucked into these people’s lives. There are some you love but many more that you love to hate. And there are some real pieces of work on these shows.

The reason I’m bringing this whole thing up is that I find there are a lot of the same themes that flow through each of these series and most of the dating pairs. There are three main categories of conflict:

·         Money

·         Jealousy/Insecurity

·         Religion

Money? That’s obvious and applies universally. As British comic Spike Milligan once said,

Everyone wants/needs more money. Some lie about it, some cheat to get it, and some think it’s owed to them.

To me, the biggest thing keeping these couples apart is jealousy (and the insecurity that leads to jealousy). Women go ape-shit any time their man talks to, texts with, bumps into, or acknowledges the existence of another woman.

Director’s DVD Commentary: I’m not being sexist; it goes both ways. I just don’t care to bother with the verbal gymnastics of keeping all terms unisexual.

One woman doesn’t want her fitness instructor boyfriend to have women as clients, even though they make up over 90% of his business. Another guy is crucified for “cheating” by receiving sexy videos from women he’s never met. Men flip out any time they find themselves near their women’s previous boyfriends, with whom they are still friendly. One girl got upset because her guy went to church, and there were women there. She also didn’t want him to hang out with his sisters, because they might have friends around. And on it goes…

If I were on that show, my stories would be as dull as dishwater. Most of my friends are women. Anyone I was dating would have to understand that, and if they flip out about it, I’m out. It’s non-negotiable. I will be friends with women. And my mate is free to be friends with men. I’d never be a hypocrite about it. I’m fully trusting until I have a reason not to be. (And I’m quite fortunate that Sweetpea is fine with this.)

I think these “cast members” would ease a lot of their own misery if they just decided to trust their partner and assume the best rather than the worst. And if they do stray, for real, cut them the eff loose and move on. (Those who do bugger off invariably find a line-up of men (or women) who want to go out with them, after having seen them on TV.)

The last obstacle is religion and it’s almost always bout Middle-Eastern or African men wanting to control American women. They never seem to tell their prospective wives all the details of what their lives together might look like, or what she might look like after she’s covered head to toe. They know that if they let on they expect a life of obedience, servitude, and child-bearing at the outset, the American dating pool is likely to dry up

One Egyptian guy was coming to live with his American wife in California, and they had a fight that led to their breakup because she was wearing a dress that, while it went up to her neck, down past her knees, and had long sleeves, it bared a couple square inches of her back. He couldn’t live with such a tawdry display of wantonness. Because of religion.

There is a couple this season, where the 40ish American woman is going to Jordan to marry her 22–year–old guy on the very day she arrives because his religion won’t permit them to be alone together in a room. This story is just getting underway and she has no idea what he’s going to expect of her. This is basically a “boy” who told the cameras he wants her to obey his wishes at all times and not question him as the man of the house. And he needs her to cover up with loose clothing

I think she ought to spank his 22-year-old ass and send him to his room without dinner. These stories always seem to end up the same way, with the American women taking a powder either before or shortly after the wedding.

I don’t see how they didn’t research the culture the second they made contact with their foreign beaus. It would have saved them a lot of heartache and a pile of cash.

Or maybe they just reeeeeally wanted to be on TV.

But that’s the worst part. I can’t even comprehend allowing TV cameras to film every part of my life, every argument, every mistake, every emotional moment, and broadcast it nationwide. And when these fights happen, everything is in play, from bathroom habits to sexual inadequacies to masturbatory quirks. Nothing is off-limits.

And I make room for the fact that producers are egging them on or providing angles to assert to keep the fights going. You can see by their casting choices that they’re counting on the conflict, the louder and more warped the better.  That’s too bad because I’m sure there are viewers like Sweetpea and me who really enjoy seeing decent people overcome international obstacles and go on to live happily ever after. (These people tend to end up on the Pillow Talk series.)

At the end of every season, they stage a multi-episode “Tell All,” where all the cast members get together in New York to answer questions from a moderator and each other. They all get to know one another; some become real-life friends, others bitter enemies. This helps build the 90-Day ecosystem

It’s hard to watch sometimes because they poke and prod for every bit of controversy and conflict, even those that have already been resolved. They ought to call these episodes, “Pulling at Scabs.” It’s seldom pretty.

The bigger point is that we, as a people, are being conditioned to become our ugliest forms of ourselves. We’re guided to be vain, jealous, insecure, snarky, mean, over-reactive, and without empathy. Is this the public influencing the media or the media influencing the public?

Either way, we’re a mess and we don’t seem to be getting any better.

Maybe the next iteration ought to be “90 Days – Incel.” That’s where they take some anti-social, obnoxious misfit out of his parents’ basement, send him on a date with a real woman, and film the inevitable disaster. They just need to make sure the crew has tasers ready. They’ll need to be able to guarantee the woman’s safety.

So yeah, I’m up here on my soapbox, but I’ll still be watching Sunday nights. Damn it.

The Republican War on Sex

I don’t know how I missed this last February but this should have been a major story, if not for the dereliction of journalistic duty on behalf of mainstream media. Behold this social media post from the Heritage Foundation:

There is so much to unpack here. But first off, let’s remember that the Heritage Foundation is a Republican think tank and funding source that has its tentacles into every level of GOP government, forever pushing for ways to go back to the “Good Olde Days” when women were in the kitchen, Blacks were in the fields, and Gays were in the back of the closet. Back when men did what their bosses told them to do and accepted whatever pay was deemed appropriate. They’d like all of that back again, except without the 90% corporate tax rate. They want that to be zero. They are funded by men who are filthy rich and intend to keep it that way, for themselves and their silver-spoon-fed offspring.

But back to the tenet at hand… keeping women under men’s thumbs. They think the best way to do that is to keep them pregnant. They are for “returning consequentiality to sex.” As if the clap wasn’t enough…

“Senseless use of birth control.” Seriously? There is literally no such thing because if a woman or a couple don’t want to become pregnant, that’s all the sense it requires. Everyone else can piss off!

Ultimately, they frame their points as a religious and moral argument.

Like “restoring sex to its true purpose.” When the hell was that? People have been screwing like minks since the dawn of time. Sometimes it may have been under the radar, so to speak, but it was happening. And there have always been these religious pricks trying to make everyone behave.

“You people stop boning and get back in the fields!”

These people don’t give a flying fig about religion, not for real. Not about the messages of the Bible, anyway. No, they need a way to control people yet still appear to claim the moral high ground. So they wrap themselves in some of the most out-of-touch pieces of the Bible and use it to insulate themselves from examination.

And for other religions? Well, none of those count, obviously. Theirs is the only “real” religion, as if there’s such a thing.

Back in the eighties, Republicans figured out that they could count on the vote of Evangelical Christians if they became the Morality Party and campaigned against abortion, sex, and secularity. It worked for them because it gave them a voting base beyond the rich people they were obligated to placate. And if the Evangelicals didn’t get what they wanted? Who cares? All the more to rile them up for the next election. Most importantly, it didn’t cost the 1% any money. They can always find an abortion if some rich guy’s mistress needs one. This was a great way to get people to vote against their own economic interests.

The Heritage Foundation is knee-deep in all of this. And here they are, actually posting their plans to keep people from having sex.

Well, good luck with that. Have you ever noticed that the states (or cultures) that are the most legally constricted have the highest porn usage? There’s no keeping a cork in that bottle; it’s going to pop one way or another.

So, this is real. The Republicans are coming for sex. They want to restrict or ban contraception, outlaw abortion, and track women’s periods so they can police the whole thing to keep them from exercising their own free will. And they have six justices on the Supreme Court who came with Heritage Foundation endorsements, so whatever religious restrictions Republicans can dream up will be rubber-stamped into the laws of the land.

For “freedom” of course. Complete, flag-wrapped freedom, which really means the freedom to live, think, and act like they tell you.

Amen.

From The “I Called It” Dept.

In a post two weeks ago, I wrote the following:

Last week, VP Harris unveiled her plan to cap price gouging and offer assistance for first-time home buyers. And what did the GOP do? They promptly opposed all such measures.

"...completely preposterous for government to play a role in setting food prices," he said. Unlike the GOP campaign messaging which castigates the Biden Administration for not doing just that.

So the next time one of your friends is complaining about the “Biden Economy,” ask him what, exactly he thinks should be done about it. Because solving the actual problem seems to be a non-starter.

Just like with the border, Republicans don’t really want to solve the problem, they just want to blame their opponents for it. They have zero intention of lowering prices because that wouldn’t be in the best interest of their big donors.

More "News Wheel of Fortune"

With Pat Sajak newly retired, it’s bedlam at the ole Spinning Wheel, so I’ll step up with my ongoing audition for the News Wheel of Fortune. There have been a lot of stories from the last month upon which I haven’t been able to comment. So let's give the wheel a spin and see what comes up.

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Republicans went from not having a platform to having one and it’s still the same platform: Whatever TFG says it is. While they did try to soften their abortion stance, we have to remember that this is a political document, intended to get them elected. What they’re actually going to do is another matter. (See Project 2025.) So, minimized or not, abortion is still in danger of a national prohibition if Republicans regain power. Watch what they do, not what they say.

Let’s take another spin.

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Somewhere, a photo editor suggested that the famed “bloody-faced fist pump” shot might be considered partisan and probably shouldn’t be used by unbiased outlets. So naturally, Fox “News” takes umbrage because the whole point of what they do is biased towards gathering and maintaining conservative power. They’re basically making the editor’s point in that the shot has become iconic in Republican circles and to use it is to endorse TFG. This shows why you can’t take Fox seriously as a news organization.

And speaking of Fox “News” distorting a story, consider:

Ooh, this looks bad for the VP and nominee. The lead sentence of the article: “MSNBC host Symone Sanders-Townsend suggested she had a bad experience working for her ex-boss, Vice President Kamala Harris.”

Uh-oh, we could have a new scandal here. But then, the article goes on to talk about how hard it is to represent a woman in politics because of how much abuse gets thrown her way from misogynistic haters. That’s not at all what the headline implies and it’s just one more way Fox “News” skews their coverage. They know that far more people skim the headlines than read the article, so why not leave the masses with the impression that Madame K is a bitch to work for. Never trust anything with a Fox byline. Oh, and there’s more!

This is the same deal, only in print, made possible now that the founder of conservative “news” outlet Sinclair Broadcasting bought ownership in the Baltimore Sun.

The headline screams that a major donor is abandoning Harris. The actual story says that the guy already gave the Biden/Harris campaign a million bucks, which they can keep, but he’s not giving them anymore. Shit, after a donation like that, I’d be done too. That is NOT a lack of support, it’s a statement of prior support. But they framed it as a blow to the Dems in the headline, again knowing that it would leave a lasting impression on more people than those who read the story. Conservatives game the system at every opportunity! OK, that was three stories for one spin. Let’s spin again:

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Herein lies one of the major differences between modern Republicans and Democrats. When a Dem fucks up, he’s out of the club. Have you seen or heard any stories about Dems denying the guy took bribes (in gold bars), saying his trial was rigged, that there was no influence peddling or any other excuse? No, you didn’t because we don’t play that shit. All you saw were calls for him to resign. He got caught and was proven guilty, so he’s gone. That’s how it is and how it should be. We don’t want crooks like this tarnishing the brand. Let’s spin again:

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Boy, talk about a way to get people angry at you, try suggesting that childless people should be treated as second-class citizens. What a maroon, as Bugs would say. They should get on their knees and thank childless people for continuing to fund things like public education, even though they only get the peripheral benefit from it having a less ignorant population. And while they’re at it, thank us for picking up that slack at work when they go on maternity or paternity leave and dump all their work on their single or childless friends. I’m not saying they shouldn’t have leave, but how about a little something for the effort here?

And how smart is it to alienate the nation’s cat ladies not to mention one of the biggest social forces in the country, the Swifties, by smearing their idol, the Single Cat Lady in Chief? This guy looks like a bigger boob with every news cycle. If they ever had a chance to peel off some of the Swiftie votes, it’s gone now. Somewhere, there’s a countdown going, ticking down to when this putz gets replaced on the ticket by Governor Nikki. We’ll spin again:

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And there it is, my friend. TFG is finally speaking the unspeakable truth about his intentions if he were to win in November. I know his handlers are trying desperately to spin this as a joke, but we all know that this guy doesn’t joke. He smears. And this wasn’t a smear, it was a statement. It’s what he thinks because we also know he has less filter than a carton of old Pall Mall reds. He knows exactly what’s in Project 2025 and he’s behind it all the way, no matter how hard he tries to distance himself from it. It just keeps creeping back.

This is what Republicans are defending: a guy who intends to install himself as a dictator by any means necessary and stay there for life. After replacing everyone at Justice with his lackeys and reconfiguring the military…

…who’s to say he doesn’t disband Congress? With his own law enforcement operation, lacking civil laws to keep him in check, and a Congress to impeach, we’ll be stuck with him until he has a massive heart attack. Or someone comes along who’s a better shot than that jagoff from PA. Who knows what damage he’s prepared to inflict on the country before then, or how much of the US Treasury he and his enablers will be able to loot?

That’s it for our show tonight, go forth with your eyes open, engage your mind, and believe nothing you hear from the conservative media (which is basically everything now).

Now one last spin, just for shits and giggles:

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This is a picture from the intro to this year’s MLB All-Star Week Home Run Derby. Is it me, or does this look like they’re in the Hunger Games? It’s like suddenly a siren is going to sound and they’ll all start hitting each other with bats. Which would be no doubt more entertaining than the Home Run Derby.

How To Rig the System (to get what you want)

There was a big article in today’s paper about the lengths that forced-birth enthusiasts are taking to overturn the will of the people.

From inside today’s Baltimore Sun. Click the pic to embiggen.

The evangelical right has taken notice of how statewide referendums enshrining or defending reproductive freedom have passed easily in seven out of seven elections. That’s bad for their brand. So what are they doing about past and future referenda?

·         Contesting and removing signatures.

·         Creating competing ballot initiatives to confuse voters.

·         Filing lawsuits over language used in the measures.

·         Doxxing people identified as canvassers for abortion rights.

·         Allowing campaigns to convince people to withdraw signatures already provided.

Notice how none of their strategies involve trying to change people’s hearts and minds, or reason with anyone. Instead, they’re just going straight to manipulating the system to create minority rule.

The issue referendum is about as pure a democratic measure as we have. It’s not a matter of personalities or politics, but merely taking a measure of what citizens think about an issue that affects their state, county, and community. What the majority says, should go.

How toxic is it that when faced with a clear message from the populace, a small but loud set of zealots intend to substitute their own narrow view over that of a significant majority? They don’t care about people’s values or morals; they are bent on installing their own.

That’s as undemocratic and un-American as you get.

I can see why they do it, too. They have a hard time winning on science, facts, or reality. They can’t even win on morality, not in the big picture. When championing the rights of a small blob of cells over the free will of the women carrying them, without taking a single step to help that same organism once expelled from its mother, it’s a massive dent in their claims to value of “life.” No food benefits, no day care, no medical care; none of it is supported by their political party. And that’s where all the high-minded outrage of the “sanctity of life” collapses.

But rather than take the “L” and look for solutions (like actually providing some of those things for children and mothers) they instead try to rig the process to force their beliefs on an unwilling majority. They know that spending money on children will never fly with their own party bosses, who are only interested in siphoning money upward, into the coffers of their rich friends.

Next Stop, the Warring 20s

There can be no doubt that Republicans are coming for women’s rights to reproductive self-determination. All signs are pointing in the same direction: to the 1920s.

We already know about Dobbs overturning Roe v Wade, which sent the abortion issue back to the states. We know that the Red States immediately began to see who could produce the most draconian laws to punish those who dared to make a choice with which The State did not agree. We’ve got total bans, 15-month bans, 6-month bans, travel bans, and lawsuits encouraged in which there is no recourse from having to pay for counsel, regardless of merit.

But that’s not good enough. Now the MAGA Bible-thumpers running the Republican Party are seeking a federal regulation that a legal human life begins at conception, now that the backward Alabama Supreme Court has so ruled.

While it doesn’t say so specifically, that put an end to In-Vitro Fertilization (IVF) in the state because there were no provisions for the disposal of extra fertilized cell clumps. Storing them in perpetuity was also a no-go.

Banning IVF was not the goal. The real idea was getting human life defined as the moment of fertilization because THAT’s how they’re going to start attacking contraception. IUDs? Gone. Day-After pill? Gone. Birth control pill? Gone.

Why the birth control pill? If I remember from my old health classes, taking The Pill prevents ovulation, so there is no egg to fertilize. BUT, it also thins the lining of the uterus so there is less chance of implantation (same as an IUD). The implantation of the fertilized egg is when medical science considers a pregnancy to be happening. But, now with the new legal definition of “life” beginning at the moment a little swimmer pierces the outer rim of an ovum, any interference with the implementation becomes murder.

It’s clear that all of these moral and philosophical hurdles are not meant to “save babies.” Republicans don’t give a shit about babies. This is about controlling women to promote patriarchy, just like we had in the Old Days.

Most Repubs won’t admit that now, but don’t follow their words, just watch their actions. Like in 2022, after the Dobbs decision, there was a bill in play to codify the right to contraception. 194 Republicans voted against it.

Voted against contraception, in this day and age. Sure, they’ll tell you that it was because they thought it was unnecessary, or they were protecting the rights of pharmacy workers to withhold treatment from you due to their own beliefs. It was amazing they could spew such nonsense after Roe had just been done in, with one justice openly stating that he wanted to go after Griswold next (which enshrined the right to privacy decision that ensures access to contraception). It’s funny how they talk out of one side of their mouth about how something “isn’t necessary,” while from the other side, back actions that make it VERY necessary.

The bill never saw any action in the Senate. But the next year, a nearly identical bill passed the House again, by almost the same margin. (All Dems and a smattering of Republicans who were retiring.) The bill was eventually squashed by Senate Republicans before it could be brought to a vote.

At this point, you can’t be fooled by any single, seemingly “reasonable” Republican. They have become a monolithic entity… you’re either with them or against them. Any digression from the expected dogma and they stick you straight into the “against them” pile. And right now, regardless of what they say, their actions are coming to ban abortion and several kinds of contraception. And no Sex Ed, either. They don’t even want kids to know the correct terminology for their own anatomy. All they have to offer are platitudes about the “sanctity of life,” even as they watch hundreds of thousands fall into poverty, despair, and even death, for lack of family planning and reproductive health options.

This isn’t about you obeying your own sense of morality, it’s about obeying theirs. They don’t give a shit what you think about when life begins.

This campaign against reproductive freedom and for the subjugation of women is the only reason one needs to vote straight Democratic in November. It’s that important.