Odd Bits - The Germ-Ridden Edition

Last week’s post about fake assassination attempts ran longer than I initially intended, so I omitted some other news events I wanted to cover. I’ll address them today.

One Flu Over the Sniper’s Nest

SecDef Whiskey Pete removed the requirement that all troops receive flu shots, making them optional. I’m wondering if this is a new war strategy. Given his lack of safety precautions for the various bases in the Middle East, which have been left exposed and have taken heavy damage, he may be counting on some of his guys getting captured. His hope could be that rather than intel, they’ll give the enemy the flu. Or at least get gross bodily fluids all over enemy camps.

He says it’s about the principle that one can’t force a man to do things to his body against his will. And the “a man” part is a telling factor because these MAGA goons certainly don’t recognize the bodily autonomy of a woman. This is just more evidence that the new Conservatives consider women to be second-class citizens/property. Only men’s rights are worth fighting for. More on this in a bit.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Double Standard

The state of Virginia voted to approve a new Democratic-skewed congressional map, which was immediately nullified by a Republican judge. Shortly after, the Supreme Court voted to allow racial and any other kind of gerrymandering, as long as the developers of the map don’t explicitly state that they want to screw the minorities. As with most Republican legal positions, they want it to be legal when they do it but illegal when anyone else does.

Now, I’m in favor of eliminating gerrymandering of all kinds. I think there should be a bipartisan commission in each state that draws fair and representative districts. BUT, as long as the Republicans are cooking the books in Texas, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and the other Red States, I think the Democrats need to do the same. Standing on principle is pointless if you’re the only ones doing it. I refuse to take the noble stand while the opposition flouts the rules of decency and amasses enough power to retain it for generations. We can already see that their goal is to create a rich, white, male utopia at the expense of everyone else. They’re not even hiding it any longer. We need to avail ourselves of every tactic there is to seek a more even playing field. Otherwise, our vaunted Democratic Republic will disappear in a swirl of grift, racism, and religious fervor.

Texas Tea-ching

The state of Texas has been cleared to require the posting of the Ten Commandments in every classroom, breaking many decades' worth of precedent separating church and state. “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…” That sounds pretty clear to me, and requiring the posting of religious tenets of one religion is obviously in violation.

If I were a teacher in Texas, I’d find a way to add the tenets of Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and Pastafarianism to my classroom wall décor.

To me, the best take on the Ten Commandments came from legendary comedian George Carlin, who, using logic and common sense, whittled the Ten Commandments down to two:

·         Thou shalt be honest and faithful…

·         Thou shalt try real hard not to kill anybody.

I was going to embed the video, but it no longer seems to be on YouTube in its entirety.

SNAP Crappola and Pop

The GOP is trying to work up more requirements on what one’s meager SNAP benefits can be used to purchase. The latest attempts would eliminate, among other things, soda and rotisserie chicken. Republicans won’t be happy until all that poor people can get from the government is a thin gruel, preferably after waiting in a blocks-long line. To them, if you’re poor, it’s your fault, and this is all you deserve.

I’m looking for the next proposal, where someone creates a poor-folks’ MRE, like the military’s “Meals Ready to Eat.” Then the government could pass out boxes of these pre-approved rations and be sure they couldn’t possibly be enjoyed. Obviously, they will be produced by whichever giant agri-business greases the right politicians. Mark my words, it’s coming.

United States Male Service

A federal court has upheld Louisiana’s ban on receiving the abortion pill by mail, which will somehow affect the rest of the country. It is a major piece in the GOP agenda to keep women pregnant and under male control. See, much like mail-in voting, by eliminating the mailing of the abortion pill, women have to go to places that provide such services. That’s where the Republican suppression techniques kick in. They can harass people coming and going, legislate against such places via zoning restrictions or other capricious legal maneuvers, or continue the effort to ban specific drugs and procedures. It’s another way for a small portion of Americans to impose their religious inclinations on the rest of the country, regardless of anyone else’s moral or ethical code. It’s the Republican mantra: agree with me, or you’re not a “real” American.

Passport Trolling

When I read that the president is pasting his scowling puss onto American passports this summer, I was overjoyed that I already applied. In fact, my new passport came last Friday, sans the mug of the Orange Troll. That’s the last thing I’d want to flash around in various international ports. Talk about making yourself a more obvious target. There should be an option where on the first page it says, “Please don’t blame me, I didn’t vote for him.”

Despite all the warnings that this would take a good bit of time, I received my passport roughly three weeks after I applied. Now I’m just waiting for them to return my old junior high school passport.

Funny thing though… Sunday morning, I received a status update email from the government, saying they just mailed my passport and I’d receive it on Tuesday, the passport I’d already received two days earlier. Just goes to show, this Administration can’t even succeed without looking like a screw-up.

Odd Bits - The Housekeeping Edition

As we did in October, the wife and I attended our neighborhood’s little No Kings protest on Saturday. Last time, it drew about 70 people at its peak. This time, it was about half that. I attribute that to the fact that it was about 40 degrees out with a brisk wind, rather than a lack of enthusiasm on the part of the locals. I was kicking myself because I stood in front of our closet for ten seconds, wondering whether I should bring gloves or not. Within five minutes of being out there holding a sign in that wind, I knew I had chosen poorly.

The cars were honking enthusiastically at the signs, which ran along the same general lines as they did in October, only with a few added pleas for peace. Sweetpea and I reused the same array of signs we made before. My favorite signing came from a protest I saw online (I failed to note where):

Now, “Over The Rainbow” would be a bit of Commie Leftist propaganda rather than a timeless classic.

From the Department of “I Totally Called That”

Over the weekend, TFG mentioned that they are building a large military complex under the new East Wing.

Yeah, no kidding. I pegged that in October:

“Since he was having it all rebuilt from scratch, I figured there would have to be some secret 'special rooms,' something he’d need to be off the books. Something like a protective bunker, something built with today’s best tech, where he could hide out indefinitely, all the while being able to surveil his domain and keep track of what’s being shown on TV. Maybe even have a studio in there from where he could get himself onto Fox and Friends. He could install a special safe to hold the Epstein files that only he could access. And, of course, his own McDonald's.”

Now he’ll have a place that, if his voter-suppression tactics and outright denial of results don’t work, he has a burrow from which someone will have to pry him, like a rabid badger down a hole. I’d recommend one of our famous bunker-busting bombs, if we have any left. Come to think of it, I bet he’ll make sure we’ve used them all up, maybe blowing up some “underground South American druglord fortresses” in October of 2028.

Never forget that the presidency is the only thing keeping him out of jail, and his loyalist Justice Department is doing the same for his family, cronies, and Cabinet. He has zero motivation to leave peacefully, and we need to expect as much. There is no line he won’t cross to keep this gravy train rolling. I bet there will be a helipad within waddling distance, too, so if he must flee, he can get airborne quickly, to shuttle off to Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, or some other friendly dictatorship that offers him quarter.

Paper Chase, Cont’

Just to let you know how it turned out with my newspaper subscription, from last week’s post, the situation has been resolved, temporarily.

I called last Tuesday afternoon, and after fighting through a voicemail system that definitely did NOT want anyone speaking to a human, I finally reached an East Asian call center and got my discount reinstated to $159/month. That works out to $5.12 per paper, as opposed to $6.80, undiscounted, which is still crazy but less insane. Cover price is $4.00... I remember paying anywhere from a quarter to a dollar on the street downtown, on days my paper wasn't delivered before I left for work.

I expect I'll have to do this every six months from now on until I die or tell them to screw it and go to weekends only.

Like I said, I mainly keep the paper for the comics and puzzles. I know there are alternatives, but I have my reasons for still wanting the paper. Getting a paper is really an ingrained habit. My parents always got a daily paper or two, so I grew up with it. I’ve had a paper delivered for my entire adult life, save for the 4 years I spent in a particular apartment complex that didn't allow indoor delivery (mid to late 80s).

I've tried doing crosswords online, but I just don't like it. And printing them from online would also cost me a fortune (in paper and toner). I like the daily routine of doing my puzzles during lunch (away from my computer desk) or weekend breakfasts. Sweetpea and I both do them. I do the Baltimore Sun puzzle (which is actually the syndicated LA Times puzzle), the NY Times, the Jumble, and the Sudoku.
I've been doing the puzzles at lunch continuously since 2010, and even started a results-tracking sheet in 2016. Yes, really. I used to keep track on my desk calendar, but started a spreadsheet in 2016 to look for the longest streaks and other personal records.

Someone got me a crossword puzzle book about 15 years ago, and I couldn't use it. It was a book of NY Times puzzles, but they were from the early 1970s. I couldn't complete a single one... it was like they were from another planet.

I like that the puzzles are up to date, always changing, and keep me sharp. Or at least, make me a fountain of useless trivia.

Also, this is Baltimore, and I married a native. We need newspapers to line the tables on blue crab night.

By the way, the paper never mentioned anything about local No Kings protests, including only an article about the big one in Minnesota and all the star power that appeared there. And they didn’t cover much about Speaker Johnson killing a vote on funding DHS and the TSA before sending everyone home on vacation. So remember that when you see the next troll blaming the Dems for long airport lines.

 

Odd Bits – The Unintended Consequences Edition

I haven’t done one of these in a long time, but I have several subjects circling the drain in hand, but none substantial enough to whip into a dedicated post. So here goes…

TACOS to Go

While I’ve been greatly amused by the memes and comments referring to TFG as a TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out), I hope they don't stay too long. Sure, I love that it annoys the hell out of him, but there’s a problem.

We NEED him to “chicken out” on his bonehead plans and ideas. If he doesn’t “chicken out,” then it creates more pain for everyone (who’s not rich). If he’s going to float more economy-bombing tariffs, we need him to put things back to normal. We need him to back out of invading Greenland or Panama. We need him to not abandon NATO or Ukraine.

The thing with this guy is that he’d rather blow everything up than come off looking unmanly. His ego won’t allow his image to be tarnished in such a way, so he’d rather endure the collateral damage than be seen as weak. That’s why the other autocrats can play him like an orange clarinet; they know how to puff up an ego to get what they want.

Even to the extent that his claim that all this is a negotiating strategy… asking for the outrageous and “settling” for what he wanted in the first place, I believe he’d scuttle it all if he thought it made him look soft. After all, this is a guy spending millions in tax dollars for a self-glorifying military parade!

So yeah, we’ve had our fun, but let’s not cut off our collective nose to spite our face. We need him to step away from his most destructive ideas, so maybe we shouldn’t dare him to stand firm.

Besides, there are still other avenues to be used to make a guy uncomfortable.

Family Feud

I’ve also enjoyed the blowup between Elon and TFG. It’s not like watching Mommy and Daddy fight; it’s more like watching those degenerate neighbors down the street out in the yard throwing used auto parts at each other. This is a cockfight between two of the biggest dicks in Washington, so there’s not exactly anyone to root for.

It’s funny how NOW Elon brings up the Epstein list. And no matter how much we’d like to get a look, you know it’s never coming out without heavy scrubbing. If this administration ever releases it, it will contain only Democrats and Republican never-Trumpers.

Is anyone really surprised that TFG is allegedly on the list? Hell, there are only 17,000 pictures floating around of him and Epstein or his Madame hanging out together. You think they were only talking about the real estate market?

Elon should be careful about backing the opposition. That’s one more tool TFG could use to postpone or cancel the mid-terms or the 2028 elections. “They’re trying to buy the election,” he’d scream. “I have no choice but to shut it all down.”

I still think that’s the plan all along. As I’ve said before, they’re all acting like they will never have to be re-elected again. They’re being openly racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, and all the other phobics. I say they already know the fix is in.

LA Law

You could consider the escalating unrest in Los Angeles as a test run for the next election season. TFG commandeered the National Guard to have them go in and terrorize protesters. The fact that none of the protests were likely to become violent until the Gestapo showed up won’t gain any traction in the newly compliant news media. They’ll dutifully show the most lurid bits, which TFG will use to claim he needs to declare martial law and shit-can the election.

He’s just getting us all used to this kind of thing; once again, creating the problem and then wanting to take bows for “solving” it.

Good News and Bad News

It’s great that Abrego Garcia is coming back home, but you knew it wasn’t going to be cut and dried. The administration brought him home only to make up some new charges out of whole cloth, so he’s essentially going from one jail to another. All the better to make an example of here at home, I guess.

At least he’ll get a trial now, but who is going to defend him? He’s going to need a good lawyer at a time when the legal profession is under tremendous pressure to not cross the government, lest they face career-killing consequences. I hope there’s at least one sharp legal eagle out there who’s itching to do some high-profile pro bono work. This guy’s going to need it.

Odd Bits - Editia Latina

Republicans are still bellyaching over the president daring to help the lives of ordinary citizens by easing their debt load. As usual, misinformation, misdirection, and outright lies take center stage.

Misinformation: this meme.

One of the main points of the debt relief order is that just getting a job does not solve the problem of paying off the debt. Between the high interest and the structuring of the payment process (to pay interest before principle), it takes a truly high-paying job to make a dent, let alone pay it all off. Lots of people struggling with student debt have jobs. But they also have life expenses like housing, groceries, medical issues, and utilities, all of which are at all-time highs. Unlike non-executive wages.

The simplistic notion of “Just get a job” doesn’t do justice to the situation. In fact, it pretends that’s the solution when it clearly is not. “Just get a job as a CEO or Hedge Fund Manager” would be much more accurate, but sadly, there are not tens of thousands of such job openings.

I saw a commercial last week that was intended to mock the notion of student debt relief. In it, they had people portraying various manual laborers sarcastically talking about how they don’t mind paying for other people to go to college. This brings us to:

Misdirection: Talking about how all these “college graduates” get a free education on the backs of the rest of them.

One of the glaring problems with the whole situation is that student debt is hardly limited to people that got their degrees. When I went to school, I was told that only about a quarter of the freshman class would ever graduate. Assuming those stats are accurate, or close to accurate, that leaves a buttload of people who took out the loans but never earned that degree that was supposed to be key in paying off the loan.

Sure, some partied their way out of school, and others couldn’t hack it academically, but there are also many who had to drop out for other reasons, like having to go to work to support a family, medical issues, or getting pregnant and starting a family. Or any of a myriad of reasons that don’t involve a lack of effort or attention. So right out of the gate, they have to find entry-level (and usually low-paying) jobs and still service a high-interest loan.

Also, consider that $10,000 doesn’t necessarily pay off a student loan. While a reduced payment is welcome, the payment structure is still the same and the lendee still has to make payments aggressively if they are to ever pay down the balance.

Republicans don’t want you to think about those sides of the story, they’d rather you concentrate on getting angry over supporting basket-weavers, navel-gazers, and partiers.

The commercial actors also mention paying the loans for “rich guys,” which brings us to:

Outright Lies: The advertiser knows very well that there is no debt relief in this order for anyone making more than $125,000 a year, which hardly qualifies as “rich,” so this is an outright lie. That’s what bothers me so much; that these guys are broadcasting a 100% verifiable lie, knowing a segment of the population will eat it up. They do this just to make more tax money available for being grifted by the banking industry. Keeping a boot on the necks of the working poor is just a fringe benefit.

Free Speech

You may have heard that President Biden gave a speech last week. Not many heard it first-hand, as none of the major networks covered it live, but the reverberations were massive. Immediately there was a great crying-out from the Radical Right, for having just been called out as fascists. Gee, all they did was try to overthrow the government, there was no need for name calling!”

I saw a conservative Facebook friend writing about this as the most incendiary and divisive speech ever. I was like, “Have you ever HEARD TFG speak before? Perhaps you’ve heard the crowd mooing back about “Brandon?” Christ, the cognitive dissonance is off the charts. Like most bullies, these people love to dish it out but they cry like babies when it’s thrown back. Perhaps it’s because it’s got that extra sting of truth.

I say it’s about time the Dems take the gloves off and go toe to toe. I’d rather be aggressive and win (by telling the truth) than turn the “other cheek” and get pasted.

Free Press

I came across a little editing snafu within the Baltimore Sun this weekend. It seems the Chess column was designed for a niche audience: Popes.

The text is in Latin. Not “Latin-American,” but Latin Latin. Like, Ancient Rome Latin. Medical School Latin. Ancient English Teacher Latin.

And not only that, what’s up with the chessboard moves on the right? They look like redacted nuclear codes sent by TFG. I think they’re playing it a little fast and loose in the page design room.

Local Poop

We’ve had a bit of stress over the last week… our dog came down with a case of the runs. We’re so fortunate I work from home because on Monday, the boy came to me every 60-90 minutes to be let out for a squirt. If we were both away from home for work, well I don’t even want to think about what kind of fresh hell we’d return to at the end of the day.

Sweetpea scheduled a vet appointment for Saturday so until then, we tried to fix things through diet. No more kibble and scraps, our boy dined on chicken breast, rice, broth, and a probiotic at every meal.

Our new preoccupation became trying to get glimpses of what the dog was producing and how to describe it, which wasn’t always easy or successful when he had to go out after dark. And we had to make extra sure we wore shoes out in the yard.

His frequency of going tapered off as the week went past until Friday when he never attempted a poop at all, so we were beginning to worry about the opposite condition taking hold. Like what if he now had a big chunk of rice holding up the works? We wanted to cancel the vet appointment, (“Put him on bland food for the week. That’ll be $300,”) but we didn’t want to be foolish about it.

Then when I got up Saturday morning, Sweetpea was out grocery shopping, but I found this note:

* "At the Loin” refers to the local “Food Lion,” which we always refer to as the “Food Loin” or just “The Loin.”

But yes, that was the top story, that we had finally achieved “poop.” Huzzah!

When she got back and gave me the rundown, she said she’d “Never been so glad to see a piece of shit in her life.”

What really cracked me up is the “we” part of the note, because it read to me like she was crouching down right alongside him. I’m sure the neighbors with Ring cameras would have been shocked. Or amused.

 Director’s DVD Commentary: The post title “Editio Latina” translates to “The Latin Edition.”

  

Odd Bits - The Running Man Edition

It is appalling in this day and age that something like the right to contraception is even debatable. But there they were, 194 Republican representatives voting against a measure that guaranteed Americans’ right to contraception.

There were also votes on bills to codify rights to same-sex and inter-racial marriages and to bar prosecution of women who travel out of state for an abortion. Again, an overwhelming majority (if not all) of Republicans voted against passage.

The bills all passed from all Democratic and a smattering of Republican votes.

I heard one weasel saying later that he voted against the bill because he thought it was unnecessary and was merely a publicity stunt on the part of the Democrats.

I would say that all those Republican “No” votes are what makes it necessary because they obviously can’t be counted on to uphold a very basic freedom, one supported by all but the wingnut fringe.

People like Mike Pence speaking to conservative gatherings and pushing for a national ban on abortion make it necessary. And this angle is how you know the Right’s draconian abortion laws aren’t really about saving lives but control. If it was really about eliminating abortion, they’d be all in on contraception, the number one way to prevent pregnancy aside from celibacy. But they’re not; they’re gearing up for a fight on contraception as soon as they can reach a majority in Congress and the presidency.

I agree with every word of this message:

Or in fewer words, Big Business Republicans love to support restrictions on abortion because it doesn’t cost them anything. And in return, they reap the votes from the Religious Right. It’s the perfect issue, as long as they don’t care about the quality of Americans’ lives. (And they don’t.)

I find the prospect of travel restrictions to be particularly onerous. Are we really going to become a country with checkpoints at every state border, with some uniformed prick asking for papers? Papers dealing with one’s medical health? And they want to talk about “Freedom” and “Liberty,” while pushing banana republic crap like this? The freedom to travel unhindered through this country is one of our signature benefits. I’m hoping once some of these proposals start circulating, the backlash will be fierce. But given our gnat-like attention span, I’m not optimistic.

This Week in Duplicity

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis' administration announced he's reallocating some COVID-19 relief funds and sending $450 a child directly to struggling families in the state.

Yes, I think that’s a fine idea. But remember, just last week, I ran a quote from Mitch McConnell where he said the reason for the current “labor shortage” is that people are flush with government cash handouts? This just shows that Republicans don’t really have any specific principles, like “giving away money is bad.” It completely depends on who’s doing the giving. This week, apparently giving away money is good. Maybe they’ll get back to us again next week when a Democrat does it and they’re against it again.

More on the Hearings

The hearing in prime time last Thursday was the mid-season finale, designed to hold us until they air the next episodes in September. Thursday’s hearing focused on what TFG didn’t do, from the time his speech ended to the time he finally released a video telling people to go home, over three hours later. Meaning, that he did nothing to stop the violence. In fact, as he watched it all unfold, by himself in the West Wing dining room, he made calls to various senators, pleading with them to stop the vote counts.

It wasn’t until the National Guard finally showed up, at the Vice President’s behest, and all the Senators and Representatives were safe, that he finally consented to tell his fans to end the siege and go home. In other words, not until after it was clear that his last-ditch effort to overturn the election had failed.

One of the more visceral impacts was hearing that Pence’s Secret Service detail was calling out last goodbyes to their loved ones over the radio, as they were about to make a break for safety. That’s how serious the threat of violence was. It was a far cry from the political tourism angle first proffered by Republican apologists for the Capitol attackers.

The side-trip to take a whack at Josh Hawley was interesting because it had so little bearing on the big picture. I think some of the people on the committee, (probably Liz Chaney) just wanted to put a little hot sauce on his ass, just for being a punk. So there he was, egging on the crowd from a safe distance one minute, and Hawling Ass through the Capitol hallways the next, trying to flee the surging mob he just saluted. Naturally, it spawned a cottage industry of Running Josh memes. These were my two favorites:

Frame-by-frame capture of Josh Hawley’s escape.

It was also shown, via White Housel logs, that there were no phone calls noted from the President during those three hours. That can’t be an accident, all calls are to be logged for posterity. There were also no photographs allowed. The White House photographer was barred from the room where TFG was staying. This is also irregular.

This lack of record-keeping jibes with the Secret Service texts that somehow disappeared. I find it inconceivable that their deletion was an accident… just a big “oopsie” during the course of refreshing their tech. Funny how they didn’t disappear until after they were requested by the committee.

My favorite take I read on it was that what was on those texts must have been immeasurably bad to be worse than the heat they’re taking for deleting them. This should get people fired, if not prosecuted.

Although to hear the Republicans tell it the last few years, the only problem with the Secret Service is that two of their agents had sex with each other and neither one liked Trump. That’s the real institutional bias!

My guess is that if these texts ever surface, they’ll show that there was, in fact, a plan to remove the Vice President from the Capitol and keep him away, so to scuttle the vote count.

I don’t think there was ever any doubt that TFG wasn’t going to call in any military muscle to repel the attack. They were doing exactly what he asked them to do, and it was unfolding exactly the way he wanted, other than that he wasn’t there in person to continue to rally his mob. But it shows exactly how cavalier he was about the lives of others. There was no concern about physical harm coming to friends, enemies or allies alike.

“They’re not here to hurt me…” that should be on his tombstone.

It also came out that a couple of his campaign aides were upset that he never acknowledged the death of Officer Brian Sicknick. The committee had their texts, one of which said, “If he talked about the deceased officer, he could be implicating himself… If he acknowledged the dead cop, he’d be implicitly faulting the mob. And he won’t do that, because they’re his people. And he would also be close to acknowledging that what he lit at the rally got out of control.  No way he acknowledges something that could ultimately be called his fault. No way.”

That, my friend, is TFG in a nutshell. Never acknowledge, never admit, always deflect, always point the blame elsewhere. If you say it enough times, people will believe it.

I loved the outtakes from his videos, the “Go home, I love you” speech on 1/6, and the follow-up on 1/7. Anyone who sees that can never again talk about how Biden can’t read a teleprompter or has someone feeding him his speech. This guy can’t even say the word “yesterday.”

Maybe if he’d only listened to more Paul McCartney.

Odd Bits - The Dead Pool Edition

Let’s talk about some things that happened:

The Mitch is Back

I saw that Mitch McConnell thinks the labor shortage will end once people run out of stimulus money. He said: “You've got a whole lot of people sitting on the sidelines because, frankly, they're flush for the moment. What we've got to hope is once they run out of money, they'll start concluding it's better to work than not to work."

Right. The $1400 they gave out a year ago is keeping unemployed people from getting jobs. People talk about politicians being removed from the common man but this guy embodies entitled ignorance. How far does this guy think $1400 goes when you’re not working for a year or more? Even considering that some states paid out higher amounts in unemployment, and that stopped ages ago.

No, Mitch, people are tired of scraping for loose change earned by doing shitty jobs. People can’t get child care for less than they’d make doing menial part-time work.

Mitch just pines for the good old days when people would flop all over each other trying to pick up the tidbits tossed out by the rich, like so many carp in an amusement park pond. He couldn’t be further removed from the average Kentuckian if he was assembled from a kit and lived in a crate under his desk.

“Did I Do Thaaat?”

Big surprise… That guy whose plight was carried by all the right-wing “news” outlets because his garage was burned and defaced with spray paint saying “Biden 2020”, and blamed it on Antifa and Black Lives Matters, actually staged the whole thing himself. It was an attempt to scam $300,000 out of his insurance company, $61,000 of which was actually paid out.

See, this is why conservatives’ first reaction to any obvious malfeasance on their own part is to claim it was a false-flag operation. Why? Because that’s what they do, over and over again. The longer I observe, the more obvious it becomes that whenever Republicans make accusations against Democrats, it’s something that they’re already doing.

I presume TFG, down in Mir-a-Lago, asking if he can get this guy on the payroll.

And Speaking of TFG…

Who had Ivana Trump in the death pool? That was kind of a surprise. And the timing of it, right before The Donald and his spawn were due to testify under oath? I’ve seen a small undercurrent of liberals wondering if maybe she was “helped” down the stairs as a way to keep kicking that “under oath” thing down the road. But there’s been nothing from the big players.

Can you imagine if the pump was on the other foot and something similar happened to Hillary before ex-President Clinton was supposed to testify about something? The entirety of the right-wing political and media apparatus would be howling about it being evidence that Clinton is an evil, murderous, mastermind. Hell, Rush Limbaugh would come back from the dead just to get in on that feeding frenzy.

Come to think of it, maybe the authorities should look into this situation more aggressively. It totally IS something Republicans routinely accuse Democrats of doing (mostly the Clintons), and as I just posited above, they’re not blaming if they’re not already doing it themselves. I wonder if they still have a tap on Roger Stone. This seems like his kind of dirty work.

Now Hear This

The January 6^th Committee just keeps stacking the bricks, don’t they? Last week they brought on a 2-pronged offensive. First, Pat Cipollone basically confirmed everything Cassidy Hutchinson said the week before, and I presume much more. They only presented him confirming prior testimony but said they’d feature him more in the next hearing. So we have THAT to look forward to, which is nice.

They really raked Sydney “The Kraken” Powell over the coals, and deservedly so. She seemed nuttier than a shithouse rat, and that was based on recorded testimony. Who knows what kind of crazy is released behind closed doors.

The telling thing to me is that when she was defending herself against the Dominion lawsuit, she said, “No reasonable person would think what (she) said was true.” But there she was, selling that bullshit to the President and his legal team, right there in the Oval Office. So obviously we can conclude that TFG isn’t a reasonable person, although there’s a lot more than just this incident on which one can make that assessment.

He actually wanted to put her in charge of analyzing the fraud charges they were drumming up, despite her having zero applicable experience. The only qualification she needed was being a complete toady, who would draw conclusions first and then make the facts fit later on. Had she been the Georgia Secretary of State, she definitely would have found those 11,000 votes he was looking for.

The other prong was the testimony of two outsiders, one guy who worked with the Oath Keepers, who testified to their essential nature. (White nationalism and racism.)

The other guy was just a random schmo who showed up in DC for the rally and followed the crowd into the Capitol building. He said he really believed the election was stolen because that’s what he heard on Fox “News.” But by doing further investigation, he realized that he’d been lied to. (Imagine that.) All it cost him was his job and his house.

When asked if he learned anything from his experience, he said, "Take the blinders off and see what’s going on.” That will never happen to anyone who continues to rely on Fox for their information.

I hope these guys got into the Witness Protection program when they were done because they’re just regular guys who don’t get a security detail. Both of their lives are going to become a living hell of harassment, intimidation, and death threats. I wish them well.

The Voting Bluz

Tomorrow is Election Day for Maryland’s primaries. Sweetpea and I have already turned in our ballots. We got them in the mail a few weeks ago, and once completed, we submitted them at a drop box about a mile down the street. You can also mail it but I like that finality of putting it in the box ourselves. I wish every American could vote that easily but judging by all the barriers erected by the Red States, that’s the last thing Republicans want.

Sweetpea and I know we're fortunate that we live in a state that works to make it easier to vote, rather than suppressing it. We signed up online to have ballots mailed to us in perpetuity. (There was also an option for just this year but we like this method of voting and plan for it to become our norm.)

Primary Day is the de facto BIG election around this reliably Blue state, except when it comes to the governor’s race. You never know who’s going to pop for Governor. In the recent races the Republicans won, I thought the Democratic candidates were empty suits, devoid of personality. They were aggressively unmemorable. One was a woman, and another was Black. Neither characteristic drove people to the polls.

There was a whole slate of Democrats running for the nomination. Frankly, I’d be happy with several of them. I ended up voting for Peter Franchot, who is our current Comptroller. He’s not the most inspiring but I figured he knows how State government runs and should be able to step in and be effective right away. Tom Perez would also be a fine governor, but former Obama cabinet members don’t seem to have much juice when running on their own. Wes Moore is backed by the teachers' unions, so I’d be OK with him too. Having a solid Education guy would make Sweetpea (the elementary school teacher) happy. I haven’t heard any of them speak or debate and you can’t really go by their commercials, so I have no idea who may be a stiff and who is not.

It’s kind of a cage match on the GOP side, with Trumper Dan Cox vs Gov. Larry Hogan cabinet member Kelly Schultz. I think the Democrats are involving themselves in this one to promote Cox because he’d be much easier to beat. Larry Hogan won two terms because he’s a non-wingnut Republican (who knows he has to deal with a veto-proof legislature). I’m sure things will clarify long before this November.

Odd Bits - SCOTUS, Spotify, and Cornhole

Fox “News” is predictably up in arms over President Biden’s advance declaration that he intends to nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court. “Reverse Discrimination!” they cry, which is the only discrimination they ever acknowledge. Oh, those poor oppressed White men, who have landed all but seven Supreme Courts seats throughout the country’s history. Such an oppressed segment of the population, no?

Naturally, people like Sean Hannity are complaining that proclaiming a race/gender qualification ahead of time is a big deal, much like everything else Democrats do. The revered St. Ronald of Hollywood stated in advance that he was going to place a woman on the Court, and followed through with Justice Sandra O’Connor. No one said diddly about that, then or now. The Former Guy also spoke of putting another woman on the SCOTUS bench. Again, no one said boo.

I’m starting to think the issue here is the Black part and not so much the Woman part. Just a hunch.

Sen. Susan Collins waded into the mess too, calling out a “clumsy handling” of the nomination process. Gee, thanks for weighing in there, Senator. And tell me, how graceful were the last few nominations? Like nominating a drunken frat boy with a rapist past, or stonewalling one nomination for 10 months while hustling the next one through in two weeks.

Listen, Susie, the next time I want your opinion, I’ll just ask the Federalist Society. The death of Roe vs Wade will be laid at your feet because you could have stopped it.

See Spot Run

I’m enjoying following the ongoing Spotify controversy, wherein Neil Young and Joni Mitchell both asked to have their work removed from Spotify if they continue to host Joe Rogan’s meathead podcast. They take issue with the deadly misinformation that streams forth from said podcast, which has resulted in the continuation of the COVID pandemic.

So far, in a move that is not remotely surprising, Spotify has granted their requests. I’m sure they’re doing the math and as soon as the amount of money lost due to principled artists pulling their music tops the income brought in by Rogan’s podcast, THEN they’ll do something about it. But until then, dream on because money talks!

I’m not sure how much of an impact the music from a couple old hippies will have on Spotify. Maybe if additional artists, more current or popular artists join in, they may have to rethink things.

And of course, the protests from the Right about freedom of speech are as misguided as they are short-sighted. The First Amendment protects speech from government interference and does nothing to require that private companies support or not support any given speech. It’s purely a free market issue and the market ultimately answers to the people. I find that Republicans consider the free market the answer to everything, right up until it infringes on something they like. Then it’s a race to claim victimhood and cry “Oppression!”

Hole in One

When looking over the cable TV menu the other day, I came across this surprising viewing option:

Seriously? They have freakin’ cornhole on TV now? What’s next, televised church bingo? The World Yahtzee Championships? Professional Solitaire?

I mean, I have nothing against cornhole. It’s a lot of fun to play. But watching someone else play while I sit on my couch? Please. To me, it’s the same with bowling, billiards, poker, fishing, and golf… fun to do yourself, mind-numbingly dull to watch others play.

I am a bit surprised that they didn’t find a new name for it, given the risqué nature of its original name. If they really want to jazz it up, they should make a few changes… like play with Jarts. At least then you’d have a chance at seeing a serious impaling. Or have a drink requirement, like whichever team loses a round has to drink a shot or chug a beer. Anything to break up the monotony of watching people toss beanbags into holes.

Please, if you ever find me watching people play cornhole on TV, just put me out of my misery right then and there. It would be a mercy killing.

More Dad Stories

At my dad’s memorial gathering, we invited people to share their stories about him. One such person was Dad’s oldest friend Sam. They knew each other since first grade, having lived across the street from each other. Sam was as Irish as Dad was Italian. Both went to the local Catholic school. This was one of Sam’s stories:

“One time Jimmy and I decided we were going to go to one of the dances in (a predominantly Jewish suburb of Pittsburgh), and see if we could pick up some nice Jewish girls. Unfortunately, they seemed completely uninterested in these two Irish and Italian boys. So we decided we’d change our names so they couldn’t tell. The next time we went back, I became “Sammy Greenbaum” and he was “Jimmy Diamond.”

But even with our new names, we still struck out completely.

As we headed home, I asked Jimmy, “Do you think maybe we should have taken off our St. Christopher medals?”

Odd Bits - The Cursed Edition

I Swear

Last week there was a minor stir on the campaign trail when Joe Biden told a Michigan auto-worker he was full of shit (in response to having his gun rights position aggressively mischaracterized by the guy.) This immediately brought me back to 1972 and a similar dust-up in Michigan, only with George McGovern.

I was 11 and when I saw the clipping in the paper, I thought it was the funniest thing ever. In fact, I pressed it into a photo album I was making, which I still have and will lovingly display for you here today.

The salient part:

A youth told (McGovern), “He will beat you so bad that you’ll wish you never left South Dakota.”

McGovern said, “I’ve got a secret for you.”

As the youth leaned forward, McGovern whispered in his ear, “Kiss my ass.”

The young man recoiled and said, “He said a profanity!”

Oh, such innocent times.

I hope this the only facet that will be shared by Biden and McGovern. Must be something about Michigan that makes a guy want to swear. (And as a former Ohioan, I have some pretty good ideas about what it could be.)

Republicans can’t make much hay out of this, not with the way their golden boy swears in public. Either way, this is the kind of thing to which I don’t pay any serious mind. It just amuses me. All I care about is what someone is going to do once they’re in office.

Truth Serum

One thing the coronavirus is doing is exposing where politicians’ priorities lie. For the Republicans, it brings their “Big Business” tendencies right to the front. Doesn’t it seem that every remedy the GOP supports is for the top end? And every solution for us working people, they oppose?

Like the payroll tax, for example. Sure, everyone would like a little extra cash in their pocket, but how does this solve the pandemic problem? That “little extra cash” is not going to pay for testing or treatment (IF you can even find testing). And people who are thrown out of work or have their hours slashed are not going to benefit from it at all.

BUT, weakening Social Security IS one of the long-range plans from the GOP, so they can commence with privatizing it and opening the money spigot to Wall Street.

Yes, it’s Still Racism

Did you notice how the conservatives are calling it the China coronavirus? Rahm Emmanuel may have said they should “You never let a serious crisis go to waste*,” but the Republican line might be, “Never pass up a chance to hang a racist smear on the enemy.”

They do this “China” thing the same way they always called him “Barack Hussein Obama.” And the rednecks always hit that “sein” part extra hard, so that you couldn’t miss that they were tagging the President as “Other,” as someone apart from themselves.

Which is right, I suppose. They were nowhere near as smart as he was.

*The oft-omitted rest of the quote: “And what I mean by that it's an opportunity to do things you think you could not do before.”

Poll Vaulting

While it’s nice that polling shows that Biden has a comfortable lead over Trump in a prospective matchup, please be aware that it doesn’t mean jack shit. Hillary had a big lead too, but the problem is that national polls are meaningless.

What are important are the state by state polls, because that’s how we elect presidents… state by state through the Electoral College. (Which the Republicans will NEVER give up because it’s their only means of winning the presidency, given demographic trends.)

So take national polls with a grain of salt. It’s nice to hear good things, but the devil is in the details. It’s more important for Biden to be ahead in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, or any of the other states that Hillary was supposed to win but didn’t.

Pork Barrel Politics

The spread of the GOP Coronavirus reminds me of all the possible-pandemics that came before, Avian Flu, H1N1, Ebola, SARS, and the lot. Back when we were all worried about the swine flu I found solace in this cute little graphic.

I think it’s getting to the point where hand sanitizer and masks aren’t enough. We have to go full-on Naked Gun.

Debunkery

Speaking of cheap graphics, let’s look at some misguided Facebook memes, shall we?

Oh, how things have changed in just 6 and a half short years. This, from a guy who won’t take responsibility for anything that doesn’t end up in ticker-tape parade in his honor.

Are you fucking kidding me? His whole presidency has been for sale to the highest bidder. He never detached from his hotel business, he just pushed it to his sons for safekeeping until he returns. His administration has been a hallmark of self-enrichment, from foreign governments buying up entire hotel floors (without using them) to repeatedly bringing his whole staff and security entourage to his own golf resorts, spending more time golfing than any president in history, and billing the taxpayers for the whole thing. His daughter is cleaning up on recently granted Chinese trademarks. He pushes tax laws that directly benefit his hotel business.

Hell, Trump can be “bought” just by telling him how great he is. The creator of this meme is so removed from reality he probably thinks Trump’s hair looks good too.

Also, are we still pretending that the “Deep State” is a thing? The “Deep State” is a fever dream whipped up by conservative conspiracy theorists as an excuse/scapegoat for whatever they don’t like. Every administration is made up of staffers who agree and don’t agree with the president. Slapping a name on one set does not make it a thing.

With problems like these, it’s not even worth bringing up spelling mistakes.

So, we’re saying that the taxpayers all have to agree with whatever the government spends money on? Great. Now they’ll never spend another dime because someone will always disagree. Or is it that only their side has to agree?

Look, the government spends billions on things most citizens wouldn’t agree to. For example, I don’t agree to spend money on energy company subsidies, Big Pharma subsidies, or abstinence classes. Why is eliminating student debt such a special area?

My theory is that this meme is designed to provide cover. If they just said, “We shouldn’t eliminate student debt because I’m not getting any of benefit,” it would just sound greedy and selfish from a party that claims to be the true moral center of the country.

Odd Bits - The Ghetto Steak Edition

Ten Years of Lying

I saw this meme on Facebook the other day… it was so bad it had to be a domestic product. The Russian troll farms produce better propaganda than this.

When the hell did anyone reputable ever say that these things were going to happen “in 10 years?”

I’ve been reading about “global warming/climate change since the terms were invented and I never once saw anyone claim that “in 10 years” one of these things would happen.

This is a “Straw Man Fallacy” because the creator mischaracterizes his foe’s argument and then attacks that, rather than looking at the consensus coming from experts in the field.

Plus, we can look around us most any week and find new symptoms of a destabilizing planet, from Australia wildfires, to massive ice bergs breaking off, to 70-degree temperatures in Antarctica, to every year setting a new record for global high temperatures.

This meme also doesn’t account for efforts mankind has taken to avert these catastrophes.

Out of oil? We’ve gotten a lot better at finding and extracting oil. At the moment, there seems to be plenty. That won’t last forever, of course. Oil is a finite resource. We won’t run out of oil, but at some point, it will become too expensive to extract it.

Another Ice Age? Frankly, I think the author pulled this one out of his ass. I’ve never, ever, heard anyone prognosticate that another Ice Age is on the horizon. He probably just needed something for the 70s.

Acid Rain? Cutting carbon emissions and other poisons previously released into the atmosphere has been the work of the EPA, right up until the Trump* administration neutered it. Without environmental regulations being what they were, acid rain would have become a more common problem.

Ozone Layer? Same there. Notice how you rarely see aerosol cans anymore. The EPA again worked to get ozone-destroying chemicals out of common products (or at least greatly lessen the amount).

Ice caps gone? I think that one’s too fresh because we’re losing ice cover at the poles at record speed. There’s no easy fix there because the ice caps are disappearing due to the end result of all our activity raising the temperature all over the world.

Then the part about taxes? Taxes go up, taxes go down, they get allotted all over town. But that’s always the big concern, isn’t it? “Oh my God, I might have to pay for something that doesn’t benefit me tomorrow.”

Maybe not tomorrow, but a big bill is coming due in our lifetimes. If we don’t figure out a way to get everyone on board, it’s going to suck all the joy out of being able to tell these climate-deniers “I told you so.”

A Modern Fable

The weekend before last, Sweetpea was out running errands. When she came out of the liquor store, she saw I guy hawking his wares out of his car. He had fish, steaks, and ribs, and was selling them cheap. He told her she could have a package of 9 steaks for $25.

She called me from her cell and asked me what I thought. I said, “$25 is a good price for 9 steaks. Take a look at them and if they look good, buy them.” He showed her the top two in the package, they looked good so she came home with the steaks.

Right off the bat, upon unwrapping the package, she saw that there were only eight of them. “Still,” I said, “$25 for eight steaks is a good deal too.”

Upon further inspection, they were awfully thin too, only about a half-inch thick. Plus, some of them were pretty narrow.

OK, so they weren’t very substantial. But what was there looked pretty good. We decided to grill them the next night. How bad could they be?

Worst steak in the world. Sweetpea knows her way around a grilled steak so I know it wasn’t her methods. But these things were tough, like shoe leather. And about as tasty. I could barely even cut through it. I had to hold the bone, sink my teeth in and pull just to get a bite. It was quite a mandibular workout. I wonder if it was even cow.

Plans now are to boil the rest down, mince them up, and give them to the dog.

The moral of the story: No matter how good the deal is, never trust ghetto steaks from a liquor store parking lot.

Bluz on Film

Over the last couple of months, I’ve seen a lot of new movies. Not that the movies were necessarily new but new to me. Saw some on the movie channels, a couple on new DVDs, a couple in the theater. I figured I’d give some quick impressions, which may be helpful if you’ve ever considered seeing any of these.

Star Wars – The Rise of Skywalker: (Theater) I don’t know why so many people gave this such a hard time. I guess expectations were just so high… high enough that there’s no way some people won’t be disappointed. I liked it just fine… it was what the Star Wars movies are supposed to be: action-packed popcorn movies.

1917: (Theater) I mentioned this here, when Sweetpea and I had our Baltimore Staycation. I thought it was superb, and I marveled the whole time about how they can maintain the “one-unbroken-shot” motif throughout the whole movie.

Men in Black – International: (Pay-cable) Fun movie but it just doesn’t have the same snap without Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones.

Long Shot: (Pay-cable) Very funny movie. Seth Rogan plays a schlubby guy who becomes a speechwriter for Secretary of State and presidential candidate, Charlize Theron. (She used to babysit for him, in their youth). I love when the schlubby guy gets the girl, even though I know damn well that it’s as unrealistic as no innocent bystanders getting shot in a Die Hard movie. And by God, Charlize Theron may be the most gorgeous woman on earth.

Godzilla – King of the Monsters: (Pay cable) Also on cable. Monsters fight each other while the government tries to decide which ones are on their side. I love creature features but I have no idea how a movie with so many monsters could be so dull and slow-moving.

Zombieland 2: (DVD) If you liked the first one, you’ll like this one. The big difference is that their angle on the zombie genre is no longer new, so it loses that little “zing” of originality. Still, there were some big laughs.

Terminator – Dark Fate (DVD) I’m a big fan of the franchise, but I don’t see why everyone was so down on this movie. I liked it. It’s what you expect from a Terminator movie. It picked up following T2 and ignored everything else. I wanted to see it in the theater, but it wasn’t there long enough. Three weeks and gone.

Birds of Prey (the Harley Quinn movie) (Theater) In my review of Suicide Squad, a few years back, I said, “I would watch a whole movie about Harley Quinn.” And so I did. In this R-rated DC Comics film, The Joker’s ex finds herself missing his protection when all those she wronged before are looking to get even. Another apparent bomb at the box office, I liked it anyway. People are so hard to please anymore. I find the character, as brilliantly played by Margot Robbie, audacious, hilarious, vulnerable and ultimately fascinating. One part of me thinks I could “fix” her, while the other part knows I’d just get screwed over in the end.

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot (DVD): I love the New Jersey series of Kevin Smith movies (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, etc.) This guy was running the continuing arc of a multi-film universe long before Marvel ever started theirs with Iron Man. Anyway, this one is basically one long series of recurring cameos by stars from the other films. There’s lots of meta-moments and inside jokes that we’ve come to expect. I loved it.

Odd Bits - The Downbound Train Edition

Sorry I’m a day late. Had a holiday happy hour Monday night and wasn’t up for pontificating when I got home. Tonight is another story.

Baltimore Blue Redux

First, I want to follow up on a post I ran in June about the arrest of a Baltimore City policeman after he and another officer tackled and arrested someone who made a comment about another arrest that was going on, while walking by.

Friday’s Baltimore Sun reported that this officer has now been indicted on 32 additional counts of false imprisonment, assault, and misconduct in office, based on a “pattern and practice of harassment and intimidation.” The charges included 11 counts of second-degree assault, 11 counts of false imprisonment and 10 counts of misconduct.

After the first incident, the State’s Attorney, Marilyn Mosby, requested past body camera footage from the officer in question, which led to the additional charges. What they found was a pattern of unlawful conduct.

In my original post, I said, “I can only assume that incidents like this in the past were covered up and the tapes “disappeared.”” According to Deputy State’s Attorney, Janice Bledsoe, the state’s attorney’s office normally only receives body-camera footage related to arrests.

If I’m with the state’s attorney’s office, I’m requesting a whole bunch more body-cam footage, just to spin through and look for more such malfeasance. I guarantee this guy isn’t the only one on the force who’s swingin’ his balls around on the beat like he's King Shit of Turd Mountain.

Again, I’m happy that new police Commissioner Michael Harrison is not putting up with this kind of stuff. Here’s to hoping the word spreads through the ranks. As long as the cops are lacking in trust and credibility, they cannot truly do their jobs.

As of now, there are over 300 Baltimore police officers on a list with the State’s Attorney’s office as non-credible witnesses, who cannot be put on the stand. Until that changes, the cops can arrest as many as they want, but they’ll end up right back on the street if they can’t be convicted.

Now on to some debunkery...

Leave Greta Alone!

Hey, you misspelled “Person of the Year Greta Thunberg is a...”

The knives are really out for poor Greta. Nothing pisses off the GOP/Proud Boy/Incel crowd like a young girl getting credit for something.

Top half: "She has no practical solution"… yet "her ideas would cause devastation?" What ideas? You said she had none. Or do you mean “practical” like “we can reverse climate change with practically no change to our habits and for practically no money?” You think addressing climate change will cause devastation? Wait until you see what happens when we don’t.

Bottom half: Sounds like a good idea. Why aren’t the rich GOP donors funding this kid’s idea? They could get a whole fleet of these plastic skimmers online. But they don’t really give a shit. Funding environmental projects doesn’t help next quarter’s bottom line. It’s a lot easier to denigrate others who threaten to upset the balance sheet.

Cleaning the plastic out of the Pacific is just one small subsection of addressing the climate crisis. Anything that makes an impact is going to be financially destructive, there’s no getting around that. It’s just that doing nothing is going to be more so. We can pay now and handle it in an effective and thoughtful way, to set our world up for the future, or we can throw money down the toilet later, when Miami, the Outer Banks, and Long Island are under water.

This one is just a mess.

“Riding on a diesel burning train…” She’s traveling across Europe, what’s she supposed to do, para-sail? Getting hundreds of people from place to place on public transportation IS a benefit to the environment, regardless of the fuel source.

Single use plastic (this that and the other)…  Which can be recycled or reused. Who says it’s single use? (You can’t really tell anything from the picture.) Besides, she’s still a 16-year old girl. I’m sure she used what the train service gave her. She’s not the Queen, traveling with her finest cutlery.

Here’s the macro flaw of most of these kind of attacks: Greta doesn’t have to be an expert on environmental science, she doesn’t have to be the paragon of reusable resources. She’s allowed to have flaws and human faults. That doesn’t make her wrong in what she’s doing, which is taking 99% of climate scientists at their word and demanding the powers that be take action, to preserve some kind of world for her generation.

Obviously, if she wasn’t so effective, climate deniers wouldn’t be so scared of her that they make up mile-wide-and-inch-deep memes to undermine her message.

Back to Square One

Last week, the Supreme Court let a Kentucky law stand that forces doctors to show the woman an ultrasound and give her a detailed description of the fetus, even if she doesn’t want to listen.

Yes, it’s another law passed by white men who insist they know what’s better for a pregnant woman than she does, herself.

If the Supreme Court is going to start upholding these (and many other) onerous, sadistic, misogynistic laws, the only recourse now is to go back to the grass roots and elect people to state legislatures and governorships who will revoke these destructive laws. Local jurisdictions put these laws in; they’ll have to be the ones to take them out too.

That takes the five Republican men of SCOTUS out of the doctor’s office, for good (we hope).

Not for long, motherfucker, not for long. #President*