Today’s young female recipient of right-wing finger-wagging is Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-15), who told some constituents that “we’re going to impeach the motherfucker”. Which, of course, is a swear and only white men can mutter that under their breath or in private, preferably with a cigar and scotch in hand.
Anyway, Pelosi’s response is exactly right: “I probably have a generational reaction to it, but in any event, I’m not in the censorship business.”
I’d suggest that the group of newly sworn in female Members of Congress utter a public obscenity every day so each of them gets better known by the media. Maybe after a few days of that, the idiots at CNN won’t publish horseshit like this:
When I think of all the (meaningful) norms that Trump has busted, saying “fuck” in public is so far down the list I’m out of the god damned paper I need to write it down.
Cheryl Rofer
Moving the Overton Window.
Served
Of course it was written by Chris Cillizza, of Mad Bitch Beer fame.
CarolDuhart2
I think Trump has made us all cruder. I used to wince about writing curse words and even hearing a few. Now I’m muttering ” fuck” under my breath and am trying to find a way to drink that pinot noir I left out on the counter since Christmas. I used to consider myself somewhat of a lady.
Nicole
First, it’s so lovely to see your posts again. Yay!
Second, yeah. I’m so tired of decorum trolling of politicians who commit the grievous error of being women.
Nicole
@Served: Ashely Feinberg described him thusly: “Chris Cillizza, CNN editor-at-large, an ongoing experiment in what happens when you lobotomize a golden retriever and prop him up near a keyboard…”
laura
Back in the Bush the lesser years, the CA DMV issued me an ITMFA license plate. When President Obama took office I turned it back in figuring we were in for better times. Wish I had it back.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@Served: Thanks for taking one for the team. I just saw that in my Google search when I looked up her district. Should have figured it was that moron.
VeniceRiley
Cillizza is the absolute WORST. I’ve been saying what Tlaib said for 2 years straight.
CarolDuhart2
After Trump, we could have a (male) President who scratches his butt crack and guzzles a quart of gin, and if he’s smarter and kinder than Trump (when sober) we probably wouldn’t give a damn. He could let farts in the Oval Office, have Hustler.com as one of his bookmarks, and we would consider it an improvement.
Served
@[Individual 1] mistermix: I just saw screenshots on Twitter, so thankfully no browser histories were harmed in the making
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Served:
Just when I think some of the old school Villagers who are in the Top 10 of Tumbrel Numbers never to drop lower, Cilizza makes a public comment and then I rethink the rankings.
Charlie Pierce said it best: “When the Smithsonian opens its American Museum of Feckless Journalism, the Cillizza exhibit is going to be right there in the lobby, across from the statues of Maureen Dowd and David Brooks.”
Actually, these attacks by the right wing noise machine are to be expected. New blood in the Democratic ranks, vibrant, active, dynamic pols need to be hammered up early and often. The fact that they’re women means the vitriol is ratcheted up to 11. Typical, GOP propaganda/working the refs. And all too often, it works, (see Clinton, Hillary, Presidential Campaigns).
All it takes anymore is for me to start reading the days politics and I start using phuck like a comma.
MattF
And, importantly, she’s right.
PPCLI
Dear Chris Cillizza:
As Dick Cheney said, on the floor of the Senate, to Patrick Leahy: “Go fuck yourself”.
The Other Bob
Proud to know her and have donated a few bucks toward the Congresswoman Tlaib’s election.
I once testified before a State House Committee where she was Vice Chair. She disagreed with the position I held on a bill. In the end, she was right.
Barbara
The video of AOC dancing on the rooftop of a building along with the BC mascot and a bunch of (mostly white) friends is really fun to watch. The idea that someone saw this and thought it would cast her in a bad light shows you how old and hidebound most of these “professional” conservatives are. Without music, it looks like it could have been an up with people Disney video, except with a school mascot instead of Daffy Duck dancing alongside. Where do these people come from?
TaMara (HFG)
I second this. How do we get this movement started?
@Cheryl Rofer: And that made my entire morning.
Steeplejack (phone)
Funny thread here:
bystander
(Take the nitro pills, heart sufferers:) Andrea Mitchell is covering the MF comment in depth.
Should somebody contact Chris Hayes to alert him less than 24 hours after his call for better political coverage after the debacle of 2016?
Kay
You all knew norm enforcement would come roaring back once Democrats took some power.
Next up- concern for the deficit.
Kay (not the front-pager)
@CarolDuhart2:
Ain’t that the truth. My new year’s resolution is to try to cut down my cursing to 2016 levels.
@Cheryl Rofer: AOC is such a political star. I’m not talking about her policy chops, I’m saying she knows how to do politics like a boss. Everything GOPers do to try to make her look bad she turns around on them. It doesn’t help that they don’t seem to understand what is appealing or attractive to ordinary people. I almost hope they continue to pick on her, they only give her visibility.
randy khan
One of the factors that makes me consider voting for Gillibrand for President is that she swears in public.
(Please don’t start a discussion of why you can’t vote for her in response to this entirely lighthearted and not at all serious comment.)
jonas
As long as the GOP bench in Congress is boasting eye-wateringly idiotic asshats like Louis Gohmert and Steve King (both of ’em) — to say nothing of their moronic traitor of a president — critics of Tlaib or AOC are welcome to have a nice, steaming cup of STFU.
Kay
@bystander:
Is uniformly, consistently terrible at political reporting. There’s some kind of broken incentive system operating in that job- bad work makes a lot of money.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Cheryl Rofer:
What, are they all living in 1690s Salem, or something?
Ignatius Donnelly
@PPCLI: And, of course, daughter Liz has already put on her shocked face and administered a royal tut-tutting to Tlaib. Because, of course, it’s different.
jonas
@bystander:
Yes, but we really don’t know how serious a gaffe it was until Cokie Roberts weighs in.
bystander
@Barbara: I’ve seen the video and it strikes me that AOC is deliberately provoking dirty thoughts among the trumputinites. In short, she is asking for it.
dmsilev
tobie
@PPCLI: Thanks for this reminder. I recalled Cheney said something to Leahy but couldn’t remember exactly what it was.
Keith P.
@PPCLI: As Donald Trump said “Listen, you motherfuckers.” MF is fair game now.
Brachiator
I might give a shit if CNN berates Trump for his insults directed not only against other politicians, but against citizens and bystanders.
Actually, I wouldn’t give a shit even then.
Spanky
@bystander: I’ll bet she pulled the extra string of pearls out of her top desk drawer just for the occasion.
You know, the thing I noticed about the AOC dance video is that she was one of the better dancers in it. The RWNJs are really grasping at straws now. And falling flat.
Adam L Silverman
I’m not really sure the fuck your feelings crowd has really thought this through…
WaterGirl
What makes you so sure that the problem is with the swear word? Perhaps the scandal is with the word “impeach”.
[Individual 1] mistermix
@bystander:
Mitchell is in her 70s, as is Pelosi. The difference between the two is that Pelosi is self-aware enough to understand that her generation no longer rules the earth and therefore perhaps a little tolerance is in order.
@Ignatius Donnelly:
The best thing that ever happened to Democrats is safe seat carpetbagger Liz getting a GOP leadership position. Her political skills – if they exist – are all insider skills. Zero point zero charisma.
Paddock Calls
President Pussygrabber’s reaction: “How dare she call me that. After Melania gave birth I was so disgusted I wouldn’t go near her!”
grandmaBear (fka glaukopis)
OT: I’m back from the shift with my granddaughter, littleBear, in Cincy, where she’s settling in with the chemo routine now. Cincy Children’s seems to be a pretty great place – a music therapist who played guitar and sang both funny and reassuring songs and brought her an electric piano to practice on, and a PT who played physical games with her in the rec room. Next week she’ll get to do some ‘cooking therapy’ where she can bake cookies or pizza of her own design. They have a staffed playroom with every craft item, book, game or movie she’d want to use or checkout. But I think FaceTiming with friends and family is probably going to be the saving grace, since visiting her is pretty restricted. But brotherBear still gets to visit as long as he’s healthy. So far it’s going pretty well.
Brachiator
@Barbara:
It’s not that these people might be old. This is one of the things I hate about the Internets. Fox News and Republican politicians stirred up this anti-AOC sentiment, but it is now approaching stalker-level proportions and is extremely hard, if not impossible to turn off.
The AOC haters are clearly delusional and don’t realize how stupid they look. But their actions are similar to other Internet-fed hate often directed at women. After a certain point, these cowards are so steeped in their own insecurities about women that they can’t see straight.
And this brings us back again to the Fox News culture. Once they have decided that someone is an enemy of the people, they cannot back down, take anything back or apologize.
And worst of all, Trump feeds on Fox News, a perfect circle of stupidity and sexism.
Mnemosyne
@Cheryl Rofer:
Oh noes! Women dancing! Women cursing! Dogs and cats, living together! Where does it end!?!
Along the same lines, I saw this very sweet story of sisterhood among the new representatives (Katie Hill is the newly elected rep from CA-25, my Swing Left district):
https://www.refinery29.com/amp/en-us/2018/12/219775/ayanna-pressley-shirley-chisholm-office-swap-katie-hill?
Quinerly
@CarolDuhart2: Well, welcome to the fucking club! Shot of tequila?
?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What’s the big deal about calling Trump a mother fucker? I’d believe the guy is such a self propelled penis that he attempted to rape his own mother.
Peale
@randy khan: I’m jumping on the Inslee wagon just because he isn’t a senator and I’m tired of Democrats running Senators, current or former. There’s no reason for me to be tired of Senators, honestly, and Inslee has 0% chance of winning and even he seems to think he’s a vanity candidate. If I can arbitrarily back a candidate because he’s not a Senator, you certainly can back one for cussing.
rikyrah
I got 99 Problems, but a Congresswoman calling the traitor in the WH a Muthaphucka
sure in hell ain’t one.
donnah
Someone just used the term “ass head” in a tweet and I am so going to steal it.
delk
A congresswoman uses the word fuck and it is a scandal.
The First Lady poses nude simulating the act with another woman and she brings class back to the Whitehouse.
The Moar You Know
Representative Tlaib didn’t say anything I don’t say every single day. And for that matter, that any Republican said between 2008-2016.
Media grasping at straws here. Just wait until they finally figure out that since Republicans threw away the rule book, Dems have figured out we don’t need to follow it either.
Of course this was Chilliza. Fuck, that guy is consistent, gotta give him that. If there’s a Republican with boots to be licked, he is ON IT.
Quinerly
@randy khan: ???
Enhanced Voting Techniques
While it is Trump whose utter scum and likely attempted to sexually assault his own mother we’re talking about, you can’t have it both ways by demanding people avoid trigger words AND use then go use those same words yourselves.
Spanky
Also, I couldn’t help but notice that the rooftop dance locale happens to be where the Astronomy Dept has tripods permanently set up for telescopes. Plus domes in the background. So bonus points to the RWNJ originator for the subliminal science promotion as well.
Brachiator
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I don’t demand that people avoid trigger words.
I’ve got my finger on the trigger
Love is in control
I’ve got my finger on the trigger
I ain’t lettin’ go
Ian G.
Tlaib should know the president isn’t a motherfucker. He’s a daughterfucker.
Sorry, I had to.
Anyway, children in cages vs swear words is obviously the same kind of norm violation. Carry on.
Mnemosyne
Also, too, this is reminding me that CBS thought they had a slam-dunk win against Eliza Dushku’s sexual harassment lawsuit because the tapes showed that she used swear words sometimes, so therefore it was A-OK for her costar to relentlessly harass her in front of the cast and crew.
Of course, those very tapes are what ended up proving her case and convincing the arbitrator to award her over $9 million. Because it turns out that relentlessly harassing someone in the workplace is worse than cussing.
glory b
@Spanky: Clearly, none of you have seen the majorettes during an HBCU football game.
Not only is the dancing better, it’s waaaay more risqué.
Cheryl Rofer
@Kay (not the front-pager): AOC indeed is great at politics. And I’m glad to see her policy positions. I don’t agree with every one in detail, but we need to move the Overton Window so that, say, improvements to Obamacare look good to conservatives and independents in contrast to Medicare for All. That’s the way to move the country.
Mnemosyne
@Ian G.:
Why not both? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
Peale
@Brachiator: Like at least edit in a new soundtrack so she’s dancing to some kind of offensive gansta rap kill the police and all the whitey’s hippity hop anthem. (Although technically, the Fox News Crowd is convinced all rap music is gansta rap kill the police and all the whites anthems, so any Will Smith track will do). I mean, that might make sense. Or have her dance to Pat Boone, showing once and for all that she’s really not all that “urban” and is a complete fraud who’s stirring up the race war for political gain. Anything…but no. They’re just lazy now. It looks like they are being run by the Primitive Baptist Convention.
Barbara
@Brachiator: “The woman I would like to date but am professionally obligated to hate . . .” Life must be so, so miserable for people like this.
delk
@Mnemosyne: have you seen his mother??
bemused
@CarolDuhart2:
My language went to hell during the GW era.
Barbara
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Indeed. I believe it was Trump who said, and I quote, “Wouldn’t you love to see one of these NFL owners, when somebody disrespects our flag, to say, ‘Get that son of a bitch off the field right now. Out! He’s fired. He’s fired!’”
The Midnight Lurker
Is this better, Andrea?
From the Google Latin to English translator (which I have been told by a Latin scholar, sucks): Qui arguunt: matrem irrumator praetor!
Granted, it’s not as catchy as Sic temper tyrannis, but I think Rep. Tlaib captured the spirit of the decent people of these United States of America.
Barbara
@bemused: Every time I see a story about Jerry Falwell Jr. or any of the other professional fraudulent “Christian” leaders, it takes me a good 30 minutes to stop saying “fuck” over and over in my head.
Brachiator
@glory b:
Two words: Iris Chacon.
Cheryl Rofer
@Peale: There is an account on Twitter in which someone is editing the video to every song, AOC Dances to Every Song.
bemused
@Barbara:
Nothing but reflexively hostile to people not like them plus political motivation.
bemused
@Barbara:
Oh yeah. Phony christians are the worst.
Kay
@The Midnight Lurker:
It’s so transparently about power. The civility police ONLY come out when a powerful person is attacked.
Trump can say anything about anyone- hell, Kavanaugh announced he’d be ruling against the entire “Left”.
But, boy, you go after one of them and the volunteer police all suit up and man the barricades.
It’s the opposite of what I was taught. I was taught that treating people who are NOT powerful well is the measure of civility. Which makes sense! Media have turned this norm on its head and made it about protecting the MOST powerful.
It’s obscene. It’s a complete misunderstanding of the norm. They don’t get it, so how can they protect it?
Mnemosyne
@Barbara:
Yup. Like I was saying yesterday, these incel dudes are obsessed with her because they want to fuck her but know she would never give them the time of day. So they channel that frustrated desire into hatred instead.
??? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ??
@Kay:
Probably good old boy network connection. They don’t call her Mrs Greenspan for nothing
Mnemosyne
@delk:
It would be like looking in a mirror for him. That makes it even more likely, IMO.
Mart
Few weeks back awesome HI Senator Mazie Hirono live on Chris Hayes said about Trump, wall, shut-down – “any effort on his part to blame the Democrats will be such bullshit that as I said before I would hardly be able to stand it.”
I am All In for this kind of talk.
piratedan
well, if Trump had paid Stormy Daniels money to fuck him and she was already a Mother at the time, how does this make the Congresswoman’s identifier inaccurate?
Ruckus
@CarolDuhart2:
Saying fuck does not make you less of a lady.
Wanting people who don’t look like you, to die does.
So not to worry.
rikyrah
Not nary one person in her district gives a phuck what she said either.
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
Not to gross you out, but I guarantee you that every conservative dude who wrote nasty things on Twitter about that AOC video also jerked off to it multiple times. They hate themselves for wanting to fuck her, but they still want to do it.
Brachiator
@Peale:
Someone high up at Fox News decided that they would deliberately appeal to racists and racism in order to keep their white conservative viewers riled up.
As a related aside, I rarely read the stories, but often see Fox News headlines attacking Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex, and deliberately taking the side of her white family members and demanding sympathy for them. And they seemed to have stepped up the negative coverage after her pregnancy was announced. This stuff is so blatant that it should be embarrassing, and stands out even more because there is nothing political about Markle.
Of course, these dopes would probably pick Pat Boone doing his cover of Little Richard’s Tutti Fruitti.
Uncle Cosmo
@VeniceRiley: Per Wiki, the Silly Zilla “is of Sicilian and Irish descent.” Figures: the two nastiest late-to-these-shores-but-fuck-anyone-behind-us ethnicities in the nation. (Trust me on this – I’m half the former & spent a couple of decades hanging out with the latter.) And a rich-kids boarding school & Georgetown graduate. “Worked as a novelist” – WTF does that mean? That he worked at writing a novel that was laughed out of editorial offices across the globe? – & then as a flunky for George Fucking Will.
SIlly Zilla is a constant reminder that we may well run out of rope &/or lampposts before we get this shit cleaned up.
Mike G
Anyone who voted for or even tolerates Trump needs to STFU about Sunday School manners, decorum and comity forever.
Cheryl Rofer
Slightly off topic, but for those who have wanted the Democrats to throw “Mexico will pay for the wall” in Trump’s face, here’s Chuck Schumer:
bemused
@Mnemosyne:
I remember when you first commented this and laughed out loud. Of course they did, poor rejected boys.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
They come from the lowest depths of hell, if you believe that sort of thing.
If you don’t, think of them as scum sucking assholes.
On a side note, my phone spell check has finally learned most of the important swear words. Ahhh, modern life.
patrick II
Yeah, Republicans not cussing is the important difference between them and democrats. All that stuff about taking away medical care, suppressing the vote, making sure the rich have more money while they starve the poor may seem more important, but Republicans don’t use foul language while they crush the average person’s hopes and dreams, so that’s what really counts.
The Midnight Lurker
@Kay:
Another motherfucker we’re going to have to impeach.
Adam L Silverman
@The Midnight Lurker: She could just go with yikhrab baituch.
rikyrah
@grandmaBear (fka glaukopis):
thanks for checking in. Sending all of you prayers.
Mart
For proper context, Tlaib’s Detroit Free Press editorial explaining why the motherfucker needs to be impeached without the cussing.
JPL
@Cheryl Rofer: My favorite is AOC dancing to “let’s go crazy”.
Mnemosyne
@grandmaBear (fka glaukopis):
Good luck! I hope it all goes as smoothly as possible and the worst side effect for granddaughterBear is boredom.
Mnemosyne
@bemused:
We were all thinking it anyway. ?
The Midnight Lurker
@Adam L Silverman: Yes. And, yes I had to look it up. I thought it was Yiddish.
Tazj
@grandmaBear (fka glaukopis): I’m glad your granddaughter is being well taken care of and you were able to visit her.
JPL
@grandmaBear (fka glaukopis): I’m pleased for you and your family that treatment is going well so far. It’s going to be a long few months for you, and your family though and I really feel for you.
Gin & Tonic
While Dick Cheney telling Pat Leahy to go fuck himself on the floor of the Senate is a-ok, I suppose.
Suzanne
@Kay (not the front-pager):
Yes, she is. Policy is only important to a few dorks like us. She knows how to connect with people in a meaningful, fresh, authentic way. That is the quality that, more than any other, shifts the national conversation the most, and makes what we want even possible. Setting the agenda, focusing the lens of attention where we want it, and getting people lined up on your team.
This is the quality that I am most interested in for 2020.
scav
I’d certainly enjoy a joyous flashmob of dancing swearing wimminz et al right now. Actually, I go for many of them: I’m not exactly sure the exact degree of menace I’d like as an undercurrent.
WaterGirl
@Mnemosyne: I had the same thought but I was so disgusted I couldn’t bring myself to type it out.
J R in WV
I suppose it is totally incorrect of me to admit that most all of the new female members of congress are totally attractive in one way or another. And saying “lets impeach that motherfucker already…” — which is a slogan appearing on tee shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and buttons for at least two ears already — is one more attractive thing to me!
Young and old those women are smart, canny, prepared to work hard, and successful in their chosen work. More power to all of them!!!
Then there are the people we elected here in WV…. sad. Just sad.
Robert Sneddon
@CarolDuhart2: The site I was working at yesterday had Helena as the gang boss. She drives a telehandler (a fork lift truck on steroids), works twice as hard as any of her all-male gang and swears three times as much. You do not, repeat, not give her any shit or the folks in the next town over will hear about it.
The job is getting done, the site owners will get the site back today after everything is out after the breakdown is complete. And you can fucking well take that to the fucking bank.
glory b
@Brachiator: Exactly! now imagine anywhere from 10 to 40 of her, costumes just as sparkly and daring, on a football field during halftime.
About half the crowd at HBCU games are there for the half time show, rather than the game.
Or they entertain each other.
I can’t do it, but google “Ball and Parlay” and Tuskegee University (my alma mater, yay!).
Gex
@Suzanne: I like how deftly she turns their bs around on them. Frankly, few Democrats have had that skill and it confuses me. They tend to cower instead.
Fair Economist
@Peale: It’s kind of weird that Inslee is rated as so far back in the horse race. By traditional standards he should be near the top – experienced and influential governor from a large state in tune with party members on issues. Plus he looks good, which shouldn’t count, but does. Still, he’s rated behind people who’d never held statewide office, people old enough for the nursing home, one person who isn’t even a Democrat (and is old enough for the nursing home), and a slew of Senators most of whom have good resumes but normally would be expected to come behind a governor also with a good resume. Just strange.
notoriousJRT
@Nicole:
First belly laugh of the new year.
Barb 2
@Fair Economist:
Before Inslee was Gov of Washington state he was a Congressman from WA. He was one of the best Congressional Reps ever! He is one of the good guys. The thing about Inslee is that he can hit the ground running and not need a lot of on the job training. He also has a good comprehension of world politics – not like the current fuckface in the WH.
AnOuthouse
“Go f*** yourself ”
— Dick Cheney
mapaghimagsik
@Cheryl Rofer: I’m really liked the cut of this lady’s jib.