Women's Rights

‘The Russia Bitch’

by Betty Cracker| June 23, 20201:11 pm| 153 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Politics, Republican Stupidity, The War On Women, Trumpery, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

It’s been 500 years or so since the impeachment, but remember Fiona Hill, formerly of the National Security Council? There’s a fascinating piece by Adam Entous in The New Yorker: “What Fiona Hill Learned in the White House.” If you were intrigued by Hill’s testimony, wondered about her background or are curious about how a no-nonsense public servant like Hill ended up working for Trump and Bolton, it’s worth a read.

Hill doesn’t seem to buy into the theory that Trump does Putin’s bidding because he (Trump) is compromised in any direct sense. She appears to believe Trump is a credulous ignoramus who is impressed by autocratic power and unaware of how the presidency functions. He follows his instincts — unleavened by knowledge of history or geopolitical considerations — and thus treats U.S. foreign policy decisions as personal transactions for his own gain. None of that surprised me.

Neither did my biggest takeaway from the article: that Trump is every bit as egregious a sexist pig as I imagined. But I’m seething over that aspect of his misrule anew after reading the article. Hill tells a story about her first day on the job, when she accompanied then-Secretary of State Tillerson and National Security Advisor McMaster to the Oval Office to debrief Trump after a call with Putin.

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As the Russia expert, Hill thought she would be contributing to a “substantive discussion about the call.” But Trump was preoccupied with editing a press release someone had written about the call, and he evidently mistook Hill for an administrative assistant. He momentarily confused her by waving the annotated press release at her (I’m imagining “YOUR EXLENCY” and “VERY” and “VERY STRONGLY” inserted via gold Sharpie). When Hill looked baffled, Trump said, “Hey darling, are you listening?”

Her male colleagues left her hanging, perhaps afraid that it would anger Trump if they told him Hill’s actual White House function. Ivanka got huffy about it for some reason and thought Hill was being rude to Trump, maybe because Hill didn’t immediately leap up to do the press release edits? Who knows. But Hill found herself in Stepford right from the start and tried to fit in, sort of:

Until that point, Hill said, she had always let her work speak for itself. But she had noticed that women in the West Wing wore designer dresses and more makeup. After the meeting, she went out and bought a few new outfits, “just so I wouldn’t be conspicuous in my dowdiness.” It was well known that Trump put inordinate stock in appearances, particularly when it came to women. “Central casting is a real thing for him,” a longtime Trump adviser told me. Trump addressed his female aides as “honey,” “sweetie,” and “darling.” If he didn’t like how an adviser looked, he would say, “Honey, you look so tired.” Trump would sometimes say of his female advisers, “They look O.K. in person, but on TV they look really bad. Why do they look so bad?”
After Betsy DeVos, the Education Secretary, was interviewed on “60 Minutes,” Trump complained that she wasn’t attractive enough. When officials were discussing the possibility of a new position for Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, Trump said he didn’t like how her cheeks looked. He complained to officials that Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of Homeland Security, wasn’t sufficiently aggressive toward migrants—and she was too short. When Trump insulted a female adviser, the men in the room would look away. “It throws you off your game,” a former female adviser told me. “It deflates you.” Another former White House official, a man, told me that Trump was “rougher with women. He has a problem with women.” It was soon evident that Trump had a problem with Hill. “Forgive me, Fiona’s attractive, but he doesn’t trust women that are kind of non-players in his world,” the former official said. He added, “Anyone who takes notes is suspect.” A former national-security official told me that, after the incident in the Oval Office, some of Trump’s top advisers, including Reince Priebus, his chief of staff, began referring to Hill as “the Russia bitch.”

I think we can all guess what the unnamed former male official meant when he said Trump “doesn’t trust women that are kind of non-players in his world.” Among the women who are “players” in that world are the empty-headed pouty wife and vacuous grifty daughter and vacant lying press secretary. I don’t believe for a minute he trusts any of them either but likely considers them interchangeably fuckable (except the wife, who is probably considered too old now).

It’s so hard to focus on any single aspect of Trump’s personal awfulness. He’s such an irredeemable asshole in every respect. His behavior is so consistently inappropriate and outrageous that it’s impossible to catalog it all, let along pause to acknowledge each horrendous and destructive aspect of it, at least in real time. It’s more difficult still to comprehend all the ways Trump’s elevation to the presidency cheapens and shames this country and demeans and alienates tens of millions its citizens.

But some day, damn it, we need to have a reckoning about Trump creating a low-rent escort service environment in the White House and the gross toadies like Reince Preibus who eagerly joined in. We should know the names of the cowardly shits — men and women — who not only did not oppose this outrageous behavior but didn’t even think it was worth mentioning. Hill didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know about Trump and the organization he runs, not during the impeachment hearings, and not in this article. But if we’re making a list of the things Trump wrecked that need to be fixed, I hope the vile misogyny he exuded and enabled at least makes the top fucking 5.

‘The Russia Bitch’Post + Comments (153)

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her Worth

by Anne Laurie| May 21, 20206:40 pm| 115 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Excellent Links, Post-racial America, Voting Rights

90,000 Americans are dead.
1,400,000 confirmed U.S. cases.
36,000,000+ unemployment claims filed.
Trump had plenty of warning, but he failed to act to slow the spread of the pandemic.@StaceyAbrams takes us back in time to explain Trump’s failed coronavirus response: pic.twitter.com/wbOODu1vB9
— CAP Action (@CAPAction) May 18, 2020

The Washington Post did an anodyne and extremely predictable beat-sweetener on “The Power of Stacey Abrams” last week, and it completely unhinged that portion of the Very Serious Commentariat which would predictably come unhinged at the very possibility that a voting-rights activist might be getting serious attention. Give Jen Rubin her due, she can hear the dog whistles:

There is now a whole genre of right-wing punditry declaring, in hysterical and angry tones, that Stacey Abrams would be the worst pick in the history of vice-presidential picks. No, really. The people who defend their vote for President Trump, who support the most unqualified Cabinet in history and who think political experience is overrated now see a catastrophe if the former minority leader of the Georgia state House, the founder of Fair Fight and Fair Count and a rising star in the Democratic Party is picked as the Democratic vice-presidential nominee…
Why all the venom? Let’s begin with the assumption that it is perfectly reasonable to argue she is not the best VP choice or that her lack of national experience would weaken the ticket. But the anger, the determination to ignore her accomplishments (she did found a voting rights group, deliver a response to the State of the Union and hold the minority leader position in her state for more than half a decade), the resentment over her insistence on calling out voter suppression as the reason for her loss and feigned offense at her ambition (horrors!) smack of racism. I suggest the tone of these voices — How dare she?! — would be far different if, say, Pete Buttigieg or Beto O’Rourke were promoting themselves for the job.
Abrams has committed the cardinal sin for an African American woman in the eyes of the right: She will not accept the legitimacy of elections won through voter suppression, and she will not be appropriately docile and humble. Unfortunately, I fear that this is just the beginning of the thinly disguised racism that we will see should former vice president Joe Biden select an African American as his running mate…

Abrams’ political style is “Person Who Is Never Afraid to Demand What Her Constituents Need”, which puts her squarely in the camp of such political stars as Shirley Chisholm (“If they won’t give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair”), Bella Abzug, and Ann Richards, among others. The current Democratic quest for Biden’s VP gives her a space to advocate for her goals, and she’s out there doing the work.

Some samples: From the AP, Q&A: Stacey Abrams is ready to serve but not on top court

… AP: The pandemic has elevated calls for mail voting. Can states make the changes necessary for that by November?
ABRAMS: No-excuse absentee balloting has to become the law of the land. It’s so critical that the next (pandemic response bill from Congress) include the $4 billion or $3.6 billion to help every state scale (up their absentee mail balloting.) The reality is we cannot afford not to do this. We have no excuse not to comply and not to meet our responsibilities for democracy, and it’s absolutely possible if we scale it up.
AP: The president said recently that people “cheat” by mail voting. How do you compete with that given his platform?
ABRAMS: I would ask journalists to tell the truth, which is that voter fraud is almost nonexistent. Donald Trump voted by mail. It is actually the safest and most accessible way of voting. In 2017, Donald Trump convened a voter fraud task force. It was so impossible to prove rampant voter fraud that they disbanded the committee before they had to issue a report…
AP: Can you talk about black identity politics and what might seem to be a more accepting environment for “blackness” in politics today?
ABRAMS: Writ large, identity politics simply means I can see you, and I understand that there are barriers to your ability to access what is considered a general good.
I enter this space as a black woman with natural hair, who does not look like everyone else. That doesn’t diminish my capacity to be effective, but it heightens my responsibility to be vocal.
Going back to COVID-19, black people are dying at a higher rate here in Georgia: 32% of the population, 54% of the deaths. That’s directly tied to identity, and if we do not acknowledge it, we are never going to find the solutions to address it. And so I think identity politics is a necessary part of our politics, but it’s also not new.
This nation began with identity politics. White men who owned land were allowed to vote and no one else was. That is the most strident degree of identity politics I think you can imagine, and what makes America such an important country is that we evolve, we continue to expand who is a part of our narrative and who has access to leadership (and) access to opportunity.
AP: The bottom line for November – do you believe that 50 states will be able to put together a fair election, an accurate count of the public will?
ABRAMS: Yes, we can have a free and fair election if, one, we have federal investment in those state elections now. Because this is a matter not simply of will, but of capacity. What I want everyone to pay attention to is that as Democrats work to expand access to the right to vote for all Americans, Republicans are doing their level best to limit that access. Why would we want to limit access to our democracy? That should be a question every person asks.

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From the NYTimes, Stacey Abrams Wants More Than the Vice Presidency:

… Traditionally, Democrats have sought a vice-presidential pick that appeals to swing voters, those suburban whites whose operative variable is not whether they show up to the polls, but whether they go blue or red upon arrival. Such a priority this year would elevate the appeal of a running mate like Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota or Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan.
But there is another, oft-overlooked slice of the electorate that Ms. Abrams argues is equally crucial to the party’s success, voters who grapple with a different binary: voting Democratic, or not voting at all.
“The focus on persuasion has often been trying to persuade someone to shift from their conservative ideology to a more moderate or liberal ideology,” Ms. Abrams said in an interview. “But for voters of color, it isn’t about shifting ideology — it’s persuading them that voting actually will have an effect.”
These other swing voters, oscillating between voting Democratic or not at all, are the Americans — largely racial minorities and young people — whom Ms. Abrams has devoted her career to reaching. As she explains it, there are overt voter suppression tactics, and then there is this more insidious thread, often unwittingly perpetuated by her own party, that tells this segment of swing voters that they are less worthy of courting…
Since 2018, Fair Fight, along with its nonprofit arm, Fair Fight Action, has raised millions of dollars and funded teams at state Democratic parties across the country. In 2019, for example, Fair Fight helped Kentucky Democrats file a lawsuit that restored to the rolls some 175,000 voters who had been purged by the Republican governor. And amid the pandemic, the organization has shifted its focus to the expansion of voting by mail.
Ms. Abrams stressed that these efforts can matter little if citizens do not buy into the act of voting itself — in other words, if the barrier to participation is not so much a law or policy but a belief that the system has never valued one’s voice to begin with…

And a coda, from Georgia native Ed Kilgore, at NYMag — If 2020 Doesn’t Make Stacey Abrams Veep, It Could Propel Her to the Governorship of Her State:

… Kemp, whose coronavirus policies have been nearly as ignorantly erratic as the president’s, is presently in the midst of an extremely perilous gamble wherein he is risking a fresh wave of coronavirus infections and deaths due to premature reopening of Georgia businesses that managed to earn a rebuke from Trump. A recent Cygnal survey of Georgians commissioned by a Republican rival showed Kemp with an approval/disapproval rating of 43/52; 54 percent of respondents gave a thumbs-down to his handling of the pandemic. Kemp’s appointee as U.S. senator, Kelly Loeffler, appointed in no small part to fund Republican-coordinated campaigns this year and in 2022 (when Loeffler, in the unlikely case she wins the November special election, would be up for a full term), has been a human dumpster fire politically, generating constant negative media coverage (fanned by Republican as well as Democratic opponents) for apparent conflicts of interest involving her and her husband’s vast wealth and stock holdings.
It’s a long way until 2022, but you have to say Brian Kemp, who ran an abrasive, borderline-racist campaign in 2018 as a “politically incorrect conservative” who enjoyed offending people, doesn’t have the sort of personality that would lift him to a second term absent a strong performance as governor. And his dubious handling of COVID-19 has given Abrams all sorts of opportunities to gain local and national attention, completely aside from her veep aspirations. She’s taken advantage of it, too…
The political landscape in 2022 will certainly depend on what happens this November; if Abrams’s party loses, with or without her on the ticket, she’ll have the consolation of the midterm advantage the “out party” normally enjoys. She’ll also have had some more time to joust with Kemp and other Georgia Republicans over voter-registration rolls and other familiar issues, and figure out how to improve on her excellent 2018 turnout operation.
Any way you look at it, the immediate future looks challenging for Georgia, and promising for the politician who may become the first woman and African-American to serve as its governor — unless she happens to be otherwise occupied in Washington.

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her WorthPost + Comments (115)

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Wishcasting for VP

by Anne Laurie| May 19, 202010:03 pm| 37 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Biden For President, Election Year, Excellent Links, Open Threads, Post-racial America, Proud to Be A Democrat

This is the political equivalent of believing that Michael Jordan’s true talents lay on the baseball diamond. https://t.co/BnFChXY49s
— Peter Wolf (@peterawolf) May 17, 2020

Of course Nancy Pelosi is right where she and the Goddess intended her to be, but let’s take some time away from the Inevitable Ugliness(es) to discuss Biden’s potential partner.

Right now, assuming she wants the job, Kamala Harris is my personal favorite — she’s ready, she’s tested, and she’ll drive the Squatter-in-Chief even further out of his nasty rotted little mind. My favorite senator Elizabeth Warren, I get the feeling, is salivating at the chance to head up the Democratic Senate rooting out corruption the minute Lord Smallgloves (and, it can only be hoped, #MoscowMitch) flee DC (possibly for dachas in the glorious motherland, where Vlad the Interferer can better keep an eye on them). To which I say: You go, Liz!

But Biden has any number of excellent options, including no doubt some that we’re not yet aware of…

ICYMI: "A Biden-Duckworth ticket would emphasize Biden’s key selling points without taking on any new risks. Duckworth would help Biden stay the course and stay ahead in this race — which is exactly what he needs."https://t.co/vHHJ5oLe7t
— VoteVets (@votevets) May 16, 2020

if at this point anyone still thinks Republicans are the “law and order” party, then by “law and order” they mean “white people rule,” and I don’t think Val Demings is going to win them over. https://t.co/D3cRuyEtrD
— Jamison Foser (@jamisonfoser) May 18, 2020

Excellent read from Jonathan Capeheart, in the Washington Post — “Biden has four great options for a black female running mate. One is his best”:

… Biden knows how important it is to have an empowered governing partner who commands respect inside and outside the White House. That’s who he was as vice president to former president Barack Obama, and Biden is right to want the same for himself.
Before I list some popular choices, let me obliterate an argument that has cropped up in response to my first post. When folks say that whomever Biden selects should be the most qualified or that “identity politics only gets you so far,” they should be aware of how that hits the African American ear. Since Jim Crow, such sentiments have been used to question our abilities and snuff out our ambitions. No matter how brilliant we are, we are never brilliant enough in a world that still believes someone not straight or white or male (usually all three) is inherently unqualified for any role, let alone being a heartbeat away from the presidency.
The four black women most often mentioned as a possible Biden running mate defy that racist notion. They are worthy of the speculation…

You wanna know his pick, you’ll have to read the whole thing.

Just gonna throw this out there: Biden's VP pick is going to be Terri Sewell and within 24 hours there will be no less than a trillion articles about how picking a black former corporate lawyer shows the shallowness of identity politics.
— Tentin Quarantino (@agraybee) May 19, 2020

Hmmm. Per Wikipedia:

Terrycina Andrea “Terri” Sewell (born January 1, 1965) is an American lawyer and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, she has served as the U.S. Representative since 2011 for Alabama’s 7th congressional district, which includes most of the Black Belt, as well as most of the predominantly black portions of Birmingham, Tuscaloosa, and Montgomery. Alongside U.S. Senator Doug Jones, Sewell is one of two Democrats in Alabama’s congressional delegation. A native of Selma, Sewell is a graduate of Princeton University, Harvard Law School, and Oxford University. Before entering politics, she was a securities lawyer for Davis Polk & Wardwell. She is the first African-American woman to have been elected to Congress from Alabama, and, along with Republican Martha Roby, was one of the first women elected to Congress from Alabama in a regular election…

As I said: Lotsa fine choices available!

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Wishcasting for VPPost + Comments (37)

Viewing Note: Roe v. Wading Into the Controversy, Again

by Anne Laurie| May 19, 20206:34 pm| 107 Comments

This post is in: Women's Rights Are Human Rights

Posting this not at all currently relevant story about an attention seeking idiot who got showered with money and fame for volunteering to read scripted lines handed to her by reactionary ratfuckers while playing the victim.https://t.co/slkETyf0sd
— Galar Regional Medical Director (@weedlewobble) May 19, 2020

All subtext aside, I may have to sign up for Hulu to watch this. (Thinks about the Netflix account I haven’t streamed in months now… ) Norma McCorvey was never the Sanctified Victim both sides might’ve wished her to be, but she can surely stand as an exemplar for millions of women caught between their own (sometimes misjudged) actions and ‘the rules’. From Deadline:

… In one jaw-dropping part of the Nick Sweeney-directed docu, McCorvey, who was interviewed a few months before her death in 2017 was asked if she was being used as a trophy by anti-abortion groups. “I was the big fish,” she admitted. “I think it was a mutual thing. I took their money and they’d put me out in front of the cameras and tell me what to say. That’s what I’d say.”
She gave an example of what she was told to say as the “former Jane Roe,” then she admitted it was all an act. “I did it well too. I am a good actress,” McCorvey said in the docu as people watched the footage in shock.
The documentary feature follows the true story of McCorvey in the landmark ruling on abortion rights. The docu features interviews with people she worked closely with on the pro-life and pro-choice side of things — including Gloria Allred and Operation Rescue. The conflicting arguments paint the nuanced complexities of McCorvey and a culturally significant part of history that still affects the country today…

Viewing Note: Roe v. Wading Into the Controversy, AgainPost + Comments (107)

Mors et Veritatis

by ruemara| May 7, 20206:29 pm| 113 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, The War On Women, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

This probably the first, last and only thing I’ll have to say about the Tara Reade issue, largely because I like to let a thing play out, so I can work with all the facts.

The “Me Too” movement was started by Tarana Burke in 2006, to raise awareness not on sexual violence, but on it’s pervasiveness. Because of the nature of the sexual violence & harassment, despite it’s ubiquity, it feels unique. It’s happening to you, to your body, to your mind. And it traps you there. Yet, sexual violence and harassment is pretty much something every woman has experience with and a lot of men as well. We live in a world where corrective rape is a thing, for god’s sake. When the #MeToo movement had a surge due to the hashtag’s use on social media and it’s connection to the Harvey Weinstein case, it really felt like a damn had finally burst and a lot of toxic silence as well as the enabling behavior of people towards powerful abusers was about to end.

Fast forward to 2020 and for a second time, a presidential candidate stands accused of sexual assault. Others have done a lot of work examining the accusation and it’s inconsistencies, so I won’t go into that. What I’m more concerned about is the idea that the accusation is enough to demand that Biden step down and more disconcerting, that investigating the accusation and finding inconsistencies is being a rape apologist. Me Too came about to shine a light on the prevalence of sexual assault & violence, particularly in being heard, believed and to have these crimes investigated so there could be consequences. At least, that’s what it means to me. Has it changed? And what does it mean if we should believe without question?

Interpersonal interactions are not easy to navigate. What one person says and feels will not be what another person says and feels. That’s partially why dealing with sexual harassment has been hard. As we evolve as a society, interactions that were ok by a dominant group to a sub group are now not ok. I’ve had my share of unwanted hugs from people who were huggers and could mandate that as an interaction. Frankly, I’ve always found touchy, handsy people irritating because there is no concept of “this is cool for me, but I should ask if it’s cool for you”. Is it easy to believe Joe touched in a way that Reade didn’t like? Sure. Does that equate to believing he’s a rapist? No. Does that mean her claims shouldn’t be investigated? No. Does it mean it’s impossible it happened? No. In fact, to know the truth of the matter, we must investigate. Whatever details she can provide, her full truth must be heard so we, the voters, can make a decision on whether or not this is credible and therefore, actionable. Yet, I am seeing that the search for the truth means you’re ignoring sexual assault.

Truth is the most important thing to base our decisions on. Truth must inform our actions. And even when those truths are inconvenient, we must listen to the truth. It’s disturbing to see that Biden has been condemned in multiple corners of the internet based on an allegation. It’s even more disturbing that inconsistencies and interference from some of the people who broke the story are being reframed as rape apology. Aren’t we on the left supposed to be focused on facts? If we abandon facts in favor of what we want to believe, then we’re in trouble. There’s also another troubling question. Why aren’t we supposed to ask questions and instead supposed to simply react? I do believe we’re witnessing right now the destruction of our country by an entire party that’s given up on facts, truth and only reacts wildly to everything. How would aping that benefit any effort to stop it?

When I started this, the Eva Murry accusations of Biden ogling her breasts when she as a 14 year-old attended the Gridiron Dinner in 2008 just hit Twitter through Sasha Pezenik of ABC. The accusations fell apart pretty fast, but it’s starting to show a pattern of weaponizing Me Too and the natural instinct to punish sexual predators in power. Today, Jacob Wohl & his partner Jack Burkeman have been exposed in an attempt to take down Dr. Fauci (I beg forgiveness for the Reason link), using emotional manipulation of the accuser, knowledge of her past as an assault victim and plain old cash payments. It’s incredibly typical to take good things, necessary things and twist them so they’re no longer good.

For far too many cases of sexual assault & harassment, corroboration with tangible evidence is not likely. Women have had to have the presence of mind to preserve things like torn clothes, nasty emails, voicemails – you get the gist. And that’s to be believed. Reade’s story seemed like she had corroboration – until we learned that they had been carefully helped to remember. Reade herself has shifted her story, multiple times. From just anger at unfair treatment, to now, a rape charge. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. It could be true. She could be a crook, a fraud, an attention hound and she could be telling the truth, for once. Due to the people who have latched onto it for entirely political purposes, we may never know. That’s the trap. Weaponizing Me Too for political purposes.

Any hope of justice is gone. The waters are too muddied. The people who want to believe Biden is guilty of rape – either because they can’t bear the idea that someone could lie about something as awful as sexual assault for attention or power or perfectly fine with spreading a lie for power – don’t want to hear anything except acquiescence. The people who don’t want to believe Biden is guilty of rape, well, kinda in the same boat. Vox’s latest article covers Laura McGann’s efforts for a year, to get the story from Tara – who maintained in her Intercept interview that no media would talk to her. Turns out a lot of media would & did talk to her. Many of the details McGann took from her initial statements changed. Many of the corroborating people said one thing at first, then updated statements later to match the new story. You can’t take down the powerful like this.

Greyscale Detail, Dimensions of Black Exhibit

I feel the same knot in my stomach now as when I first heard of this. I’d like to know the truth. I mean, to a certain degree, I am always certain when I’m in the company of the powerful, I am in the company of people who have abused the weak. In small ways, in big ways, but in some ways. I guess I’ve seen a little too much to avoid having such a prejudice, but I acknowledge my prejudice and work to let people exist and judge only their actions. Biden will be fine, whether he wins or loses. I firmly believe if we win the Senate – supermajority style – and keep the House, the Presidency is less important. Disagree with me, I don’t care about that. What I care most about is that some on the left seem to have abandoned truth unless it services their purposes. The Biden story is just the latest iteration. It’s why there’s literally nothing the GOP does that isn’t met with “And Pelosi does nothing about it!”. If you push back on it, you’re a neolib moderate or rape apologist. If you say nothing, it’s tacit approval. We’ve adapted labels to stifle healthy discourse and intellectual approaches to tough issues. And I don’t know where this will lead. No one will bear a consequence for it. Too many factions who use internet bullying and courts of public opinion to control narratives. Controversy itself is a profitable brand. But we must make sure the Me Too movement survives and if possible, make it sacrosanct as a tool for gain. Women, men, non-binary people and all the marginalized groups who fit in those categories need it. It cannot be used like this. It’s too important. Everyone Me Too took down, went down under the weight of tons of evidence. Not flat belief. It took courage, it took persistence, it took years. That’s what the power of Me Too is. A demand to listen, support and investigate so every person is accountable. I’d love to believe this will be the last time anyone, at least on the lefty media side, does this. But I see the same people refusing to hear and I see the right wing media picking up the ball and running with it. All I know is, I’m furious and betrayed. I guess it might just be too much to ask that people stop reading content they want to believe and start reading content that presents enough facts to be believable. We’ll see what happens from here on out. I hope Ms. Reade finds peace, whether manipulated, or conwoman or both. It would be nice if many people familiar to us who immediately were sure Biden was credibly accused of assault said, “Hey, you know, I may have jumped the gun.” That won’t happen, of course. I hope we find the truth as much as we can even, as we focus on the goal of preventing more death and destruction in America. Because truth is worth protecting and fighting for.

Mors et VeritatisPost + Comments (113)

ForPol After Dark Open Thread: NorKo Dragon Princess Yo Jong

by Anne Laurie| May 2, 202010:24 pm| 137 Comments

This post is in: Foreign Affairs, Popular Culture, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

please enjoy this cursed content contributed by @Pasha_Spider pic.twitter.com/5iCPZf2xzv
— James "Stay In. Make Masks. Test People" Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) April 30, 2020

For those of you who don’t watch anime / read manga: That poster is hilariously, tragically on-point. BUT!…

In the first report of Kim Jong Un's public appearance for weeks, the North Korean state news agency said the leader attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony for a factory https://t.co/0mbnaO9pgr pic.twitter.com/KKG3zPpHkw
— Reuters (@Reuters) May 2, 2020

So — this time — ‘we’ don’t have to worry about the succession. (Here’s a good BBC explainer: Kim Jong-un and the brutal North Korea rumour mill.)

And yet, some of y’all dudes be weird. The WSJ guys Foreign Policy discusses are not (just) otaku amateurs:

Foreign Policy tackles the issue of our day: the Internet's worrying horniness for Kim Yo Jong.https://t.co/FgaFVwN4rz
— James "Stay In. Make Masks. Test People" Palmer (@BeijingPalmer) April 30, 2020

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As soon as speculation started about the unknown fate of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, the internet began heaving with a disturbing appreciation of Kim’s younger sister and possible successor, Kim Yo Jong. The idea that the 32-year-old would soon ascend to North Korea’s top spot triggered a range of fantasies. Internet users expressed their wish for Kim to torture them, choke them, or sentence them to hard labor; others were inspired to transform her into a winsome anime heroine or produce high-octane video montages in the style usually reserved for K-pop stars…
Long before any of these women were born, the West had a fascination with a woman whose image mirrors Kim Yo Jong’s more closely than anyone else: Empress Dowager Cixi, the original “dragon lady.” Cixi ruled, at least in name, over China during the dying decades of the Qing dynasty, a period during which foreigners were making inroads into the Middle Kingdom and finding themselves frequently and violently repelled, as in the Boxer Rebellion. Westerners were desperate to understand the inner workings of the Manchu court, but information was scarce, thus providing fertile ground for apocryphal tales, speculation, and outright fantasy…
… A century before Twitter memes and DeviantArt, “Cixi became one image among many that could be bought and consumed, sent in postcards around the world with captions in foreign languages.”
It’s not surprising that a similar erotic fascination has followed Kim Yo Jong, who could become the leader of the most tantalizingly mysterious nation in the world. From the time of her debut on the international scene in 2018 at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, Kim has been by turns characterized in foreign media as a harmless angel and a terrifying dragon lady. A columnist for a South Korean paper complimented Kim’s “fit and nimble” physique; international media analyzed her outfits and makeup; some even likened her to Ivanka Trump—a female presence softening the image of the authoritarian man in charge. “If Kim Jong Un had intended to deploy his baby sister as a weapon, he was gambling that the world believes in the image of young, Asian women as incontrovertibly obliging,” Jiayang Fan of the New Yorker wrote at the time.
But, as Fan noted, the media narrative about Kim flipped in less than two days, with Western press suddenly ascribing to her sinister motives. A Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “Kim Yo-Jong is a Twisted Sister” warned that Kim, “with her freckles and enigmatic smile, is a trained and trusted royal brainwasher for a family regime.”
Once again, Western anxiety about an unknown regime is being channeled into fear and fantasy about sexual manipulation by a female sovereign—compounded by internet thirstiness that puts extremely hot and extremely online women (“e-girls”) on a pedestal and fetishizes male subservience. At any rate, as long as North Korea remains a nation of danger and mystery, the internet will keep simping for Kim Yo Jong.

ForPol After Dark Open Thread: <em>NorKo Dragon Princess Yo Jong</em>Post + Comments (137)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: When You’re An Icon, They Let You Do… ANYTHING

by Anne Laurie| April 25, 20206:38 am| 361 Comments

This post is in: C.R.E.A.M., NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

Light the TBogg Signal!…

Ten years from now they’ll be writing books about when God-Empress Shakira discovered the will to power. https://t.co/IPKnA20xEU
— Starfish Who Had Fun For An Hour (@IRHotTakes) April 24, 2020

I’M SORRY, WHAT ?https://t.co/TbOc6PizC0
— Milli Lake (@MilliLake) April 24, 2020

… While Parton was not herself credited as a producer on the long-running fantasy series, a company she co-created and owned was responsible for it coming to television.
Sandollar Entertainment, which is listed on the end credits of every episode of the show, was created by Parton and her friend and former business partner Sandy Gallin in 1986. It produced a number of films, including Father of the Bride (1991) and Fly Away Home (1996), as well as several Parton projects – most recently her Netflix anthology series Dolly Parton’s Heartstrings.
It also produced the original Buffy the Vampire Slayer movie, released in 1992 to dismal reviews. It was Gail Berman, then an executive at Sandollar, who still believed there was potential in the property, and proposed launching the concept as a TV series.
Both Berman and Gallin are credited as executive producers on the Buffy series, along with its spin-off series Angel, though Parton herself is not. She did, however, play a fundamental if often forgotten role in bringing Joss Whedon’s creation to the screen.
While it has never been confirmed, some have suggested that Buffy Summers’ on-screen birthday (19 January) is a secret tribute to Parton – the country star herself being born on the same day…

Seriously, though… If Parton’s name had been associated with Whedon’s project, would it have gotten the attention it drew? Or would it have been dismissed as ‘more Hallmark channel pap for the chicks’?

.
Speaking of icons:

‘There will not be a bill without state and local’ aid, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned Republicans, on a fifth coronavirus-response bill that is being readied https://t.co/MQTgew9Q0i https://t.co/ksoo2NSX0E
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 25, 2020

.
Not an icon, but a favorite BJ chewtoy. I’d like to believe this is a joke, but…

Megan McArdle is an absolute machine of bad takes. https://t.co/zRbgI2PUfV
— Galar Regional Medical Director (@weedlewobble) April 25, 2020

Sorry, to be clear: noise is a problem because when it is noisy, people raise their voices to be heard, which facilitates droplet transmission. I'm not suggesting that, like, noise gives you covid.
— Megan McArdle (@asymmetricinfo) April 24, 2020

Stuff McArgleBargle hates (noisy restaurants, ucch) are bound to be dangerous, obvs. It’s not like she was telling you to drink bleach, people!

Saturday Morning Open Thread: When You’re An Icon, They Let You Do… ANYTHINGPost + Comments (361)

Democratic Primary Debate Open Thread Part II: VP Biden Breaks Some News

by Adam L Silverman| March 15, 20209:18 pm| 347 Comments

This post is in: America, Domestic Politics, Election Year, Open Threads, Politics, Women's Rights, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

VP Biden has now committed that if he is the nominee, his vice presidential running mate will be a woman. And that he is committed to putting the first African American woman on the Supreme Court. Senator Sanders has committed to most likely choose a woman as his running mate were he to get the nomination, but he needs to ensure that it is a progressive woman.

Open thread!

Democratic Primary Debate Open Thread Part II: VP Biden Breaks Some NewsPost + Comments (347)

Election Year Regrets Open Thread: What Might’ve Been

by Anne Laurie| March 12, 20206:04 pm| 101 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Warren for President 2020

The intersection of a complex, unexpected health crisis causing an unusual form of recession is exactly the kind of thing Elizabeth Warren would've been unusually good at handling.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 10, 2020

It was the financial crisis, with all its chaos and uncertainty, that launched her political career in the first place. If the next president is entering into a similar situation, she would've been well suited for it.
— Ezra Klein (@ezraklein) March 10, 2020

(Here’s hoping President Biden enters office with her already ramping up a full task force… )

This is from ~8 days ago and still is a gold standard for planning strategically around the rapidly unfolding crisis. https://t.co/uGzBaRAE65
— Mike Konczal (@rortybomb) March 10, 2020

This was only a week ago!

WARREN: Biden “is exactly who he says he is. He is a decent guy… and it comes through in pretty much everything he does.”
MADDOW: “U have disagreements with him on a number of policy issues?”
WARREN: “Yup. And agreements in a number of core policy issues.”
— Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou (@misyrlena) March 6, 2020

Of all sad words of tongue or pen…

Elizabeth Warren was the perfect test case: as smart or smarter than Hillary, just as prepared, just as qualified.
AND she didn't have her baggage,
AND she was a known progressive hero,
AND she turned out to be a fantastic campaigner.
And still. and still. and still.
— jess mcintosh (@jess_mc) March 5, 2020

That is what makes this particularly stinging, once again we followed everyone's advice, we checked all the boxes, and it didn't matter. We didn't get the job.
And that's tough, today. But we keep getting close, and we keep breaking through. Warren mattered. Kamala mattered.
— jess mcintosh (@jess_mc) March 5, 2020

We are so much farther today than we were in 2016 — it took us months to even recognize the role sexism played in Hillary's loss, and now it's such a given it's in a hulu documentary.
We talked about "likability" and "electability" — we didn't solve it, but we named it.
— jess mcintosh (@jess_mc) March 5, 2020

And a whole generation of girls are growing up only knowing presidential contests with smart, funny, wonderful women who look presidential as hell.
It will be easier next time.
— jess mcintosh (@jess_mc) March 5, 2020

Election Year Regrets Open Thread: What Might’ve BeenPost + Comments (101)

Chris Matthews Taps Out

by Adam L Silverman| March 2, 20207:53 pm| 270 Comments

This post is in: Media, Open Threads, Popular Culture, Women's Rights, Women's Rights Are Human Rights

About 45 minutes or so ago, depending on when I hit post, Chris Matthews has retired from MSNBC.

pic.twitter.com/ZKwShVaTWE
— Hardball (@hardball) March 3, 2020

It was so abrupt and sudden and, apparently, unexpected that when they came back from commercial, Chris Kornacki was sitting in front of the camera, looking like he was going to cry, and clearly at a loss for words. He took the show immediately back to another commercial so they could figure out what to do for the rest of the hour.

A lot of people are going to start to opine that Matthews was forced out because of his confusing Jamie Harrison who is running to unseat Senator Graham in South Carolina for Senator Scott, who is the junior senator from South Carolina. Or that his comparing Senator Sanders’ victory in the Nevada caucus to Hitler’s invasion and subsequent occupation of France by going around the gap in the Maginot Line. But the reality is that Laura Bassett’s courage was the coup de grâce.

At the end of last week, Bassett wrote an article and got it published that specifically recounted how Matthews had sexually harassed her on multiple occasions when she was booked on Hardball as a commenter. The safe play for Bassett was to continue to not publicly discuss it, even as many people knew that something had happened according to her recounting events in her article based on an earlier article about a not named cable news host who had harassed her.

In 2017, I wrote about a cable news host being gross and inappropriate with me. I was afraid to name him at the time. I'm not anymore; it was Chris Matthews! And his sexist exchange with Warren this week inspired me to revisit those moments and name him https://t.co/oBWXXJDPhR
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) February 28, 2020

Here is Bassett’s response to his resignation:

Guessing this is not a retirement. https://t.co/pbwDM2UtUG
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) March 3, 2020

No, I have more to say than that. Since calling out Chris Matthews, this week has been really rough. The harassment has been invasive, cruel and personal. And it’s all worth it if he will never have the platform to demean and objectify us again. https://t.co/YS1FxW25zt
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) March 3, 2020

And here response to his on air apology that was not specifically addressed to her:

Wow https://t.co/U9X4ZIrBub
— Laura Bassett (@LEBassett) March 3, 2020

Open thread.

Chris Matthews Taps OutPost + Comments (270)

Election Year Open Thread: The Vast Mystery of Elizabeth Warren

by Anne Laurie| February 24, 20206:28 pm| 252 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Open Threads, Warren for President 2020, Daydream Believers

To win, you moron. https://t.co/TkcgVQHBKg
— Julia Rosen (@juliarosen) February 24, 2020

I clicked the link, so you don’t have to. She’s picking on Mike Bloomberg! Doesn’t she know how much money he has?!?

… Beginning five days ago at the ninth presidential debate — this one in Las Vegas ahead of the state’s caucuses last Saturday — Warren has made it her mission to savage the billionaire businessman (and former mayor of New York City) at every turn.
“I’d like to talk about who we’re running against,” she said in that debate. “A billionaire who calls women fat broads and horse-faced lesbians, and no I’m not talking about Donald Trump, I’m talking about Mayor Bloomberg.”
Which is a sick burn! And made some sense for Warren to do, because Bloomberg was surging in national polling and there was a concerted effort at that debate to slow him down! Except that Warren has kept it up, even in the wake of Sanders’ crushing victory in Nevada, a win that has made plain that he is now the favorite be the Democratic standard-bearer against President Donald Trump this fall.
Asked directly by reporters Sunday night whether Sanders is a risky nominee for the Democratic Party, Warren said this: “I think Michael Bloomberg is the riskiest candidate.” Interrupted by another reporter to note that the question was about Sanders, not Bloomberg, Warren replied “I heard you,” before continuing on in her attack against the former New York City mayor…
Why ignore a chance to attack the front-runner in favor of hitting someone who won’t even appear on the ballot until March 3? Especially what that front-runner is harvesting the very voting bloc — liberals — that Warren needs to start reclaiming if she wants to have a chance at relevance after finishing third, fourth and fourth in the first three votes of 2020?…

Because Cillizza is a sexist as well as a professional moron, he has two possible answers: Either Warren’s just out to destroy Bloomberg personally, because she hates rich people, like the nutty elitist Harvard professor lady-person she is; or else she’s “angling” to be Bernie Sanders’ vice president, because it’s her only chance of getting on the ballot. Hey, it’s not like she’s running a real campaign, is it?

Watching Chris ‘Mad Bitcher’ Cillizza swallow his own tongue, live & on camera, would absolutely make the celebration of Warren’s nomination even more joyful.

Warren, in a line that is probably also directed at Bernie Sanders:
"I am not in this fight to talk about change. I am in this fight to make change."
— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) February 23, 2020

FWIW I think Warren has cracked this code, if people would follow her lead. Her issue is *corruption* and the anti-corruption measures that have to go into effect to get things like health care/climate action.
That's agenda, but also a referendum. https://t.co/SLhsHiIO3b
— Mike Caulfield (@holden) February 23, 2020

Another heartwarmer (from a virology-related twitter feed, in case you’re wondering who science people stan):

This is one of the most heartwarming, real, sincere and fantastic personal endorsements of @ewarren I’ve read. It speaks to Warren’s unshakable values and the depth of her humanity—the small ways she recognizes peoples’ struggles and touches their lives.https://t.co/BJwdVVrEeN pic.twitter.com/ywlqpROPTm
— Jeff Yang (@originalspin) February 15, 2020

Extremely entertaining, but NSFW:

Elizabeth-Warren-dot-you-just-got-knocked-the-fuck-out-dot-org now redirects to Elizabeth Warren's campaign website https://t.co/xCbFJPXIrj
— ryan teague beckwith (@ryanbeckwith) February 24, 2020

I can definitely feel @ewarren’s debate momentum here in San Diego tonight.
Super Tuesday is right around the corner, and these folks are ready to dream big and fight hard. pic.twitter.com/3EqoLqfh7K
— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) February 23, 2020

Election Year Open Thread: The Vast Mystery of Elizabeth WarrenPost + Comments (252)

The Disappearing Of Elizabeth Warren

by Cheryl Rofer| February 18, 20206:14 pm| 134 Comments

This post is in: Domestic Politics, The War On Women

New NBC poll shows Sanders in the lead, with a four-way tie for second place.

NEW @NBCNews National Poll:

Sanders: 27%
Biden: 15%
Warren: 14%
Bloomberg: 14%
Buttigieg: 13%
Klobuchar: 7%
Steyer: 2%https://t.co/ULecm4CBI6
— Matt Rogers 🎙 (@Politidope) February 18, 2020

But let’s see how they tweet it.

Hypothetical matchups for just the states of AZ, CO, FL, ME, MI, MN, NV, NH, NC, PA, WI (combined):

Biden 52%, Trump 44%
Sanders 49%, Trump 48%
Bloomberg 48%, Trump 46%
Klob 48%, Trump 47%
Buttigieg 47%, Trump, 47%
— Mark Murray (@mmurraypolitics) February 18, 2020

Someone missing, no? And do they shorten the men’s names to Bloo or Butt? I think not.

Jeez, NBC. Do better.

The Disappearing Of Elizabeth WarrenPost + Comments (134)

Election Year Open Thread: Klobuchar-mentum!

by Anne Laurie| February 11, 202011:00 am| 151 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Open Threads

She’s not my dream candidate, but it wouldn’t give me pause to vote for her. (I would particularly enjoy a Warren / Klobuchar, Cagney-Lacy ticket, but we all know why that’s not gonna happen.) She’d also be great as a VP candidate — someone on twitter referred to her ‘powerful Vice Principal energy, which I both respect and fear.’

That may actually be her best position, as the race stands right now: VOTE CANDIDATE X — DON’T MAKE AMY COME AFTER YOU. On the other hand, it’s early to suggest that she should settle for second place, correct?

In Salem, ?@amyklobuchar? sets the tone for the next two days in New Hampshire as she barnstorms the state:
“I have been bolted down and I am finally unleashed.” pic.twitter.com/gnePkSXFe2
— Jasmine Wright (@JasJWright) February 10, 2020

“And by the way, I’ve got a plan for the Midwest – and we can include NH as well. We’re going to build a beautiful blue wall around these states, and we’re going to make Donald Trump pay for it,” Klobuchar says in Nashua.
This starts chants of “AMY! AMY!”
— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) February 9, 2020

The last time I saw Klobuchar on the stump was deep into the impeachment trial in Iowa, when she was clearly frustrated about being pulled from Iowa.
Her speech in NH today is strikingly different: more energetic, more focused, and better received by a much-bigger crowd
— Molly Hensley-Clancy (@mollyhc) February 9, 2020

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… Pundits have been predicting the moderate Minnesota senator’s rise in the Democratic primary since October, as she racked up supposed debate wins and endorsements and built a campaign on her own “electability” in the states Democrats desperately need in 2020. For months, though, there was little sign among voters of that surge. Polls remained stagnant, and small, quiet crowds often tailed her in Iowa.
But this time, after the latest Democratic debate and just before New Hampshire votes in the nation’s first primary, there’s serious evidence that the Klobuchar is becoming a threat to the other moderates in the race: record-sized crowds, impressive fundraising hauls, and polls that suddenly show her in third place, ahead of Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden.
Her delight at this fact, at a succession of diners and packed rallies across New Hampshire, is palpable…

SOME OF US REALLY LIKE PLAUSIBLE AGENDAS. https://t.co/HuPbr0YiGC
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) February 10, 2020

So, despite my earlier misconception, pretty clear she & Buttigieg are not gonna be running buddies. But she’d certainly be a good backup for Good Ol’ Uncle Joe, who likes to think Repubs can be ‘reasoned with’. And if Bloomberg somehow manages to buy the nomination (still think it’s the longest of long shots, but who knows, after Trump), well — he’s gonna need somebody who knows where the bodies are buried in the Capitol, and I don’t think Amy’s too ‘pure’ to work with a guy like Mike, despite his not-always-savory NYC tenure…

The response she generated seems to be a reflection of how much Klobuchar showed up last night looking to assert and insert herself. Does it translate to actual votes? Maybe with Biden all but conceding the state 3 days before the primary? That’s what she’s trying to sort out
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) February 8, 2020

Asked about McConnell, Klobuchar says “nobody anticipated” that his goal would be making Obama a one-term failure. "My job will be to anticipate that,” she says, focusing early on judicial appointments.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) February 8, 2020

Surging in neutral is the brand, actually. https://t.co/4eB882JsHg
— Mig Greengard (@chessninja) February 10, 2020

HANOVER, N.H. — Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) sprinted through New Hampshire this weekend, trying to use a widely praised debate performance — and an ensuing infusion of donations — to exceed expectations in the upcoming primary and beef up her skeletal organization in the races to come.
Hours after the debate, her campaign announced it had raised $1 million. By Saturday afternoon, they revised that number to $2 million. But Klobuchar, who has had strong debate performances in the past, acknowledged the challenge she faces at this inflection point: Can she turn a moment into momentum?…
“I know I’m not the candidate that’s number one right now, but we are surging,” she told voters at Dartmouth, her third of four campaign events Saturday. “Someone told me in a text with an auto-correct that went bad: ‘congratulations on your insurgency.’ ”
Klobuchar is competing for moderate voters along with Buttigieg, who claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses, and Biden, who placed a disappointing fourth. To standing-room-only crowds, she sold herself as a Goldilocks for those who believe the 77-year-old Biden is past his political prime and the 38-year-old Buttigieg is too young and inexperienced…

We are all @amyklobuchar #Apictureisworthathousandwords #democratdebate pic.twitter.com/e10KYwhM6v
— Tom D'Angora (@TomDangora) February 8, 2020

Election Year Open Thread: Klobuchar-mentum!Post + Comments (151)

Election Year Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren in the Arena

by Anne Laurie| February 9, 20206:03 pm| 73 Comments

This post is in: A Woman's Place Is In The House, Election Year, Open Threads, Warren for President 2020

Ultimately, what you do—coming to town halls, knocking on doors, calling voters—is an act of optimism. It's an act that says: If we get out there and fight from the heart, we'll save our democracy and our country.
I believe in that optimism. That's why I'm in this fight.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) February 5, 2020

Finish the old proverb for me: For a woman to succeed, she must work twice as hard to do half as well…

My husband showed me a headline that was "Buttigieg and Sanders lead in Iowa, Biden trails in 4th" and said he read it and just yelled at his desk.
— Elizabeth Deanna Morris Lakes (@exclamate_) February 6, 2020

Just got Warren’s reaction to the partial results out of Iowa showing the senator in third place — she says she is “top three” there, and says “this is an operation that’s built for the long haul.”
Also asked about the significance of NH, her neighboring state: pic.twitter.com/zaGcItHpBp
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) February 5, 2020

(Shout-out to Senator Jeanne Shaheen! Who is another gifted politician who’s shattered glass ceilings in New Hampshire… and also a woman who defeated Scott Brown.)

.@ewarren is asked at the #CNNTownHall whether the men in the 2020 race believe they have a better chance to win because of their gender.
“I believe they think so but they’d be wrong,” she responds and then the audience laughs.
— Daniella Díaz (@DaniellaMicaela) February 6, 2020

The reactions to this Iowa mess have been so instructive.
Biden: cast doubt on legitimacy of result
Sanders: let surrogates spread conspiracy theories, sulk
Buttigieg: just keep declaring victory
Warren: help the state party confirm data, get back to work
— Shannon (@TheStagmania) February 5, 2020

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Election Year Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren in the ArenaPost + Comments (73)

Thursday Morning Open Thread

by Anne Laurie| January 23, 20206:35 am| 194 Comments

This post is in: Economics, Election Year, NANCY SMASH!, Open Threads, Republican Venality, Trumpery, Women's Rights, All Too Normal

47 years after #RoevWade ensured women's control over their reproductive health, our message is clear:
We will not go back.
We will not rest until all women have access to the comprehensive health care they need and are treated equally under the law. https://t.co/SCQ0Z5o02W
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) January 22, 2020

Another betrayal – President Trump admits he wants to pay for the cost of the #GOPTaxScam by cutting Social Security and Medicare. https://t.co/MAAwVd0enG
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 22, 2020

Where Trump admits to CNBC’s Joe Kernen this AM that he is looking to CUT Social Security and Medicare at the end of this year. https://t.co/Ce1mkhB2RA pic.twitter.com/pV6AuNAtcm
— Jennifer Baty (@JenBaty) January 22, 2020

We knew this was their plan all along. https://t.co/1X2xRfJL1m
— Sherrod Brown (@SenSherrodBrown) January 22, 2020

Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders — excuse me, Sanders *supporters* — attack Joe Biden for using the word ‘adjustments’, which is the same term Sanders used, regarding Social Security funding.

At this point I have to believe that Trump's remaining base solely consists of people who are constitutionally incapable of admitting that they got played for a fool.
— An Antic Disposition 🍩 (@pavanvan) January 22, 2020

Thursday Morning Open ThreadPost + Comments (194)

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

We can agree to disagree, but I’m right.

Women: They Get Shit Done

Not all heroes wear capes.

Saul Alinsky is my co-pilot

Dinky Hocker Shoots Smack!

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Too inconsequential to be sued

Militantly superior in their own minds…

Usually wrong but never in doubt.

This blog will pay for itself.

The revolution will be supervised.

Shock troops for the Unitarian Jihad.

Lighten up, Francis.

Also, too.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Good luck with your asparagus.

A snarling mass of vitriolic vicious jackals

Just a few bad apples.

Screw the Judean People’s Front. Splitters.

I thought we were promised Infrastructure Week

This blog is Obama’s Katrina.

Word salad with all caps

An army of rabid, anonymous commenters

‘The Russia Bitch’

Election Year Open Thread: Stacey Abrams Knows Her Worth

Tuesday Evening Open Thread: Wishcasting for VP

Viewing Note: Roe v. Wading Into the Controversy, Again

Mors et Veritatis

ForPol After Dark Open Thread: NorKo Dragon Princess Yo Jong

Saturday Morning Open Thread: When You’re An Icon, They Let You Do… ANYTHING

Democratic Primary Debate Open Thread Part II: VP Biden Breaks Some News

Election Year Regrets Open Thread: What Might’ve Been

Chris Matthews Taps Out

Election Year Open Thread: The Vast Mystery of Elizabeth Warren

The Disappearing Of Elizabeth Warren

Election Year Open Thread: Klobuchar-mentum!

Election Year Open Thread: Elizabeth Warren in the Arena

Thursday Morning Open Thread