I went down a rabbit hole this afternoon, watching the proceedings of the North Dakota House from yesterday, when they voted to expel a member for the first time in history due to a pattern of harassing women. That member, Luke Simons, sounds like a real piece of work.
One of his main targets was a 29 year-old woman, Rep Emily O’Brien, also a Republican. When she was pregnant a couple of years ago, she had to move her desk on the floor as far as possible from Simons to avoid his constant harassment. Her floor speech is a little hard to find (start here and look for her name on the right), but here’s her statement on Facebook. Her speech was brave and painfully honest, relating how he embarrassed her in front of a guest she had brought to the floor of the House, and how his comments about a dress she wore led her to never wear it again.
She also told a story about Simons mentioning that his wife liked to wear thongs, and sometimes he did, too. This was in the context of his discussion of being kicked out of a shopping mall in Montana for open carrying. (That’s an asshole trifecta: disclosing your wife’s underwear choice, telling people yours, and open carrying.) O’Brien’s speech (and statement) also had a long list of stupid sexist remarks like Simons’ deep insight that she would make a good secretary since she could type so well.
O’Brien represents Grand Forks, a university town, and her seat was held by a Democrat a couple of sessions back. A quick look at her website shows a pretty anodyne, relatively apolitical set of good government positions. Frankly, I could see some independents and Democrats voting for her simply because it’s better to have a decent Republican representing you in a very Republican legislature, than a Democrat who’s part of a tiny 14 member minority in a 94 seat body.
When we talk of flipping state legislatures, you have to realize that being a small state rep is an incredibly shitty job. The salary for a member of the North Dakota House is $515 per month plus per diem while they are in session. There’s one House member for every 6,194 adults in the state. The House is in session during odd-numbered years for the four coldest months of the year (January-April), when temperatures in Bismarck regularly hit -20 F, and blizzards are frequent. It’s no mystery why jerks like Simons end up in the job, since he probably didn’t have a lot of competition.
(If you want to see another example of the kind of person who gets elected to these small state legislatures, be sure to have brain bleach handy before you click that link.)
germy
He played the Bart Card!
Baud
Anyone else read the title and think the post was about Cole?
germy
This conservative account offers what they believe is a defense of Simons:
catclub
I was expecting O’Brien to get ejected by the GOP legislature.
Steve in the ATL
@Baud:
I was just grateful that it wasn’t about me this time
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@germy: One of the interesting things about this whole debacle is that the ND leg adopted an anti-harassment rule during the last session, and it was cited quite a bit in the floor debate that I watched. I’m guessing that part of the reason that rule was adopted was this asshole’s behavior.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
Not being familiar with the ND Constitution and potentially relevant legal codes governing this, they toss his ass out, then what happens? Who names a replacement? Special election? Could this asshole simply run again in a special election?
JoyceH
I’d need more context for this conversation but if this was in context of what one was wearing at a shopping mall, I feel the need to point out that thongs is another term for flip-flops. I’d think flip-flops would be more visible than underwear in a mall setting.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@catclub:
What happens in these far right states is that there’s a group of somewhat reasonable Republicans, and another group of shitpost lib-owning Republicans. In ND, it looks like the 55 of the Republicans are relatively reasonable, and 25 of them are shitpost lib owners. (The vote was 69-25. Net the 14 Democrats out of the 69 and you have 55 somewhat reasonable Republicans.)
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@JoyceH:
It was underwear — I watched O’Brien’s speech and it was clear. Also, nobody in the Dakotas calls flip-flops “thongs”. I believe that’s what Australians call them.
Mary G
I know it intellectually, but I still get gobsmacked when I see the ND numbers. I live in a Southern California town that still likes to consider itself a village, and each member of the city council represents approximately 13,000 people.
Gravenstone
@germy: Gee, wonder why he feels compelled to record so many conversations? Unfortunately NoDak is a single party consent state when it comes to such recordings. I was hoping he’d get slammed for that admission.
Brachiator
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
That sounds about right.
Jerzy Russian
Christ, what an asshole!
Steve in the ATL
@JoyceH: men wearing flip flops is almost as bad as the rest of his behavior.
Brachiator
Should not even have been necessary. There should at least be senior reps who have some power to enforce rules of decorum.
Another Scott
Speaking of embarrassing Republicans… BlueVirginia.US:
Republicans in Disarray!! Heh.
Cheers,
Scott.
JoyceH
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
That’s what we called them in Southern Illinois in the 50s and 60s. First time I hear ‘thong’ in reference to underwear, I was baffled.
Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix
@JoyceH:
Interesting. Someone needs to make a “thong vs flip-flop” map similar to the pop vs soda map.
feebog
Pretty clear from the link that the Republican leadership enabled him for years. Then the lawyers got involved, no doubt letting them know they might have personal liability unless they took action, and they lowered the boom.
Leto
@Another Scott: lets keep the trend going:
State Department aide appointed by Trump stormed the Capitol, beat police with a riot shield, FBI says
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: Queen’s English speaking people call them “thongs”, so wide swarth of people.
Comrade Colette
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: That map needs to show evolution over time. We called that footwear ‘thongs’ in Hawai’i in the early-mid 60s, but only the floppy rubber kind – to distinguish them within the larger category ‘slippahs.’
JoyceH
@Leto:
Plus, if you’re discussing what’s actually on your body, you’d say ‘thong’ if it was the underwear and ‘thongs’ if flip-flops.
citizen dave
There is just no need for two Dakotas.
I get that so many of these incidents and various insurrections are perpetrated by whites, but I’m getting really tired of white bashing, or “any” bashing. Everyone is an individual. Also over the use of “karen” to mean a certain type of woman. It’s lazy.
Geminid
@Another Scott: I sometimes think the Republican State Central Commitee set the convention up to fail. That way they themselves will have to choose the nominees. They are terrified that State Senator Amanda Chase would come out on top with a plurality if they hold a primary. She could even win a ranked choice convention vote. Either way, they fear, Chase would drag the rest of the ticket into the Dismal Swamp.
Death Panel Truck
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: My third-generation Norwegian-American mother, who was born, lived and died in the state of Washington, always called them thongs, and so did everyone I knew who wore them. Flip-flops were unheard of.
Brachiator
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
When I was in college it would get on my nerves to hear people say “pop” instead of soda.
It also irritated me when people talked about standing on line instead of getting in line.
But then I realized what a small linguistic bubble I previously had lived in.
hells littlest angel
Jeffrey Dahmer’s trove of pictures of himself not eating people didn’t help his case, either. There’s no justice in this world.
hells littlest angel
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: I’m pretty sure that in the dakotas, “thong” refers to knee-length long-johns.
Chat Noir
@Mary G: Out of curiosity, I looked on Google Maps to see what town this asshole represents. It’s just off I-94 due west of Bismarck, out in the sticks. The town has a population of around 17,000. I think Los Angeles County alone has a population similar to that of 8 western states combined.
Mathguy
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix: You were not kidding about the brain bleach needed for clicking on that link. I now can’t unsee that picture, and the rest….wow.
Freemark
From the WP article:
In that article I correctly misread ‘Bastiat Caucus’ as ‘Batshit Caucus’ the first time through.
Xavier
Love my state rep. And actually the lege is pretty good overall.
trnc
@Mary G: And yet they get 2 senators. Thanks for nothing, President Harrison.
brantl
Perfectly understandable, and probably 99% the same.
trnc
I’m not even sure there’s a need for one.
Jay
Jackals, they are sandals. Thongs are underwear, flip flops are spineless people.
Boris Rasputin (the evil twin)
@citizen dave: I agree on the use of the name “Karen” like that, as the women named Karen that I’ve known are all very decent ladies. We should call the insufferable sorts “Ivanka”.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
What kind of man mashes on a pregnant woman? Clear violation of man law.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Baud: Nah, Cole would be “Yet another middle age white male embarrassing injury”
trollhattan
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
I learned them to be “zori” as a kid, since that’s what they were labeled in stores. Then Chinese kids started calling them “Jap flaps” and all kinds of trouble ensued.
So yeah, would be an interesting little cultural research project.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@trollhattan: I have a vague memory of seeing zori in a book and having to look it up– Stephen King? When I was a kid in the midwest in the 70s, they were thongs. Then flip-flops.
Van Buren
Saw the headline and thought it would be about me.
Geminid
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I remember this kind of footwear being called zoris the few years a lived in Southern California as a kid. But as to the question of what the State legislator was talking about wearing at the mall, I doubt very much that he was talking about flip flops. Especially since he is a farmer and a Republican.
There go two miscreants
Yeah, my mother always called them zoris; my sisters wore them when we were younger. I also recall flip-flops being common. The first time I heard them called thongs was in the Beach Boys song (from possibly defective memory):
Tee shirt, cutoffs, and a pair of thongs,
We’ve been havin’ fun all summer long.
(Also, yay, Visual Tab for the first time today)
Ruckus
@Chat Noir:
LA county has a larger population than the least populated 41 states. And yes more than the smallest 8 combined.
Roger Moore
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I will point out that Cole’s rate of embarrassing injuries has plummeted since he stopped drinking.
RSA
@JoyceH:
From O’Brien’s FB page, where she posted a copy of a letter addressed to the members of the ND Assembly:
RSA
@germy:
Unsurprisingly, this turns out to be a conservative media lie.
Bnad
I see a Republican presidential nomination in Luke Simons’ future.
Rand Careaga
@trollhattan: “Zori” was the usage when I was a nipper in suburban Southern California in the fifties and sixties. I had ceased to wear these long before I ever encountered the other nomenclatures.
Ronno2018
Just combine N and S dakota and call it a day.
andy
@Leto: the bit about him losing his red cap was ~~chef’s kiss~~
SFAW
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Also native (as opposed to you Auslaenders) New Yorkers of a certain age.
SFAW
@Four Seasons Total Landscaping mistermix:
Land doesn’t vote, so clearly “soda” is used by more people.
SFAW
Simons: “I didn’t get due process!”
Sane persons: “OK, fine, but we’re going to try you for something where the penalty is 20 years in prison”
Simons: “Uh, about that ‘due process’ thing …”