For Our Readers Who are Hurting or Who are Trying to Help Others Who Are: Contact RAINN

by 11:02 pm. It has 6 Comments.

I know from reading comments in relation to both the allegations against Judge Kavanaugh and how the GOP majority in the Senate, the President, and their surrogates in the media are responding to them are negatively effecting a number of our readers and commenters. Or friends and/or family members of our readers and commenters. If you or someone you know is having trouble right now, especially if it is after hours or you can’t get to a professional mental health care practitioner for a face to face appointment, please call RAINN! They have personnel available 24 hours a day, seven days a week at:

1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

or

RAINN’s Online Chat

For those who want to check things out online, here’s RAINN’s terms of service:

The National Sexual Assault Online Hotline

Chat online with a trained staff member who can provide you confidential crisis support.

Your privacy and safety are crucial. Please make sure you are in a safe place and that you are using a secure device and Internet connection. Please note that while we have taken numerous measures to keep your communications safe while using our site, no Internet transmission is 100%  secure.

LEARN MORE

Terms:
During your session, we will not ask for information that would identify you (such as your name or address) and we will not record the chat. However, if you disclose your name and location and are under 18 or if we fear that you are in danger of committing suicide (or otherwise as required by law), we may have to provide information you have given us to the appropriate authorities.

At that link is a button for online chat if that is preferable/easier than speaking to someone on the phone.

RAINN’s front page is at this link.

Here’s the link to finding local, in person help if you need it.

And here’s the link for tips for survivors regarding consuming news and entertainment media.

Here’s the link to RAINN’s information on flashbacks.

And finally, here’s the link for self care for friends and family.

You’re not alone! You don’t have to be alone! There is help out there! And you deserve that help if you need it!

Here’s some more on RAINN for those not familiar with the organization.

I know I speak for all of the other front pagers, but if you need something, please reach out to one of us using the contact a front pager tool at the top right of the page.

Open thread!

 


Open Thread: This Is Absolutely One of the Worst Timelines

by 6:31 pm. It has 173 Comments.

“Better truth-seeking”, sigh…


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The President Had Quite the Morning at the UN

by 1:27 pm. It has 209 Comments.

The President’s speech to the UN General Assembly this morning was basically a modified rally speech. He started off with his usual vigorous patting himself on the back, which was received well…

So that went well. But as the speech went on, it went someplace weird. And not just weird, but obscurely weird.

We already know that globalism is the code that Stephen Miller and Steve Bannon use to refer to not just the current global system of international trade, international relations, and international security agreements, but to Jews. It is intended to be understood, if I may, literally by the majority of people who aren’t anti-Semites or anti-Semitic curious and figuratively by the President’s supporters who are. But what is this Doctrine of Patriotism? The Doctrine of Patriotism was proposed by Charles Spurgeon a mid to late 19th Century Calvinist Baptist from London.

Specifically, Spurgeon wrote (emphasis mine):

Patriotism is an instinct which is found, I think, in every true Englishman. And most of the other nations of the earth can also boast of their patriots. Let it never be said that the Church of God has no feeling of patriotism for the Holy City, for the Heavenly Land and for her glorious King enthroned above. To us, Christian patriotism means love to the Church of God, for—

“There our best friends, our kindred dwell, There God our Savior reigns.”

Let us have loyalty, by all means, but, chiefly, loyalty to Christ! Let us have true patriotism, but, especially that patriotism which consists in love to “the land of the living” of which Christ is the one King and Ruler.

So here too we have the President using a phrase that is going to either just get a “hmm, that sounds a bit odd” or “what does he mean by that” from most listeners, including scholars of international relations and security and national security professionals and that is going to be heard and understood differently by a very specific group of the President’s base: white Evangelical Christians. Moreover, this concept dovetails with a lot of Putin’s attempts to use and leverage the Russian Orthodox Church to promote himself to white American Evangelicals, as well as a variety of American and European white supremacists, neo-NAZIs, neo-fascists, and neo-nationalists. The President’s use of the doctrine of patriotism, like his use of the term globalist, is meant to be taken figuratively by his base and fellow travelers, but literally by everyone else who doesn’t speak in this coded jargon.

Aside from the fact that realism can’t really be principled by its very nature, neither of these two things – principled realism and the doctrine of patriotism – are actually the Trump Doctrine. The Trump Doctrine, as we’ve discussed here extensively, is “I will be treated fairly or else and only I can ensure that America will be treated fairly or else and only I can ensure that the forgotten men and women of America will be treated fairly or else.”

I’m sure tomorrow’s UN Security Council meeting is going to go very smoothly…

Open thread.


General Morning Outrage

by 10:26 am. It has 270 Comments.

I hate these people.  If you’re on Twitter, feel free to go express your outrage. (If that tweet disappears, I have a screenshot)

UPDATE: I’ve added my tweet with the screenshot

My morning started on a frustrating note. At 7 am I received a text from my niece/goddaughter. She’s not quite 12. She received a “code violation” this morning and to quote her “had to take time out of learning to change my clothes.” She knows the score.

For the last three years, she and I have had the tradition of going back-to-school shopping together. Fewer tears when you’re doing it with Auntie. If you’re a mom, you understand.  We’ve gone from shopping in the kiddie section of Target and Old Navy, to the Juniors section. And with those changes, the conversation changes. To code violations.

Seriously, before she was 11 years old, she was being told she couldn’t wear things because they would distract the boys. Luckily, she has me, her mom and my brother, who know bullshit when we hear it. So her response is a sassy, “oh, look, do my shoulders distract the boys? Maybe that’s their problem.” And we put that sweater back and look for another.

She’s promised to call me when she’s free today  – she’s a competitive dancer who just tried out for the school play, is in band and choir and is on the honor roll, so free time won’t be easy. But really, what the ever fuck? This is how it starts. This is what our girls are up against.

Okay, rant over.  Open thread.

ETA: Because Feathers said it so much better than I ever could

I am more and more convinced that these dress codes are all about teaching boys to abuse and harass girls, and later women.

Think about it. Why don’t we let the girls wear what they want and punish the boys if they tease or touch them. That would be far better than teaching them that girls are responsible for boys bad behavior, and will, in fact, be punished for being girls daring to exist in a world where boys are still the norm.

Note: there can be room for a dress code, but it cannot be one which excludes what is being sold in the stores that year. If you are banning mainstream clothes being sold at Target or Walmart, then you are just taking your anger at the changing world out on the young women in your care.

It also teaches boys that girls don’t have a right to be in the class as human beings. Their inclusion is reliant on correct performance of femininity.

TLDR: Whatever a school punishes girls for, the boys are learning is what the acceptable excuse for getting away abusing and harassing them later.





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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Soldiering On

by 6:32 am. It has 77 Comments.


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On the Road and In Your Backyard

by 5:00 am. It has 18 Comments.

Good Morning All,

On The Road and In Your Backyard is a weekday feature spotlighting reader submissions. From the exotic to the familiar, please share your part of the world, whether you’re traveling or just in your locality. Share some photos and a narrative, let us see through your pictures and words. We’re so lucky each and every day to see and appreciate the world around us!

Submissions from commenters are welcome at tools.balloon-juice.com

Have a wonderful day!

—

Lots of submissions are coming in, hurrah, but do keep submitting.

 

Troubleshooting  We have an improved setup and plans for further development. I hope the new setup works as well for you as it has in testing, but should you have issues, please email sitefixer@balloon-juice.com This new submission tool is one of many more we’ve got planned, and your feedback helps us craft them to your needs.

 

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Repub Horrorshow Open Thread: A Clown Car Full of Pennywises

by 4:57 am. It has 47 Comments.

The entire Republican party has devolved into an authoritarian cult where aging white men vow to destroy the world to protect the purity of their essence. And now everybody within earshot of the national news knows it!

Mr. Charles P. Pierce, “I am living in the middle of a pornographic Allen Drury novel—Advise And Lack Of Consent“:

…Anybody who tells you that they know what happens next is lying. So far, El Caudillo Del Mar-A-Lago is making brave noises. Senator Dianne Feinstein wants all hearings into the nomination postponed until an FBI investigation into this mess is concluded but, at the moment, there’s no stomach for what an FBI investigation might reveal. Senator Mitch McConnell, who warned the White House that Kavanaugh would be a tough sell, knew about the Ramirez allegations a week ago, so it is fair to assume that, whatever else may be out there, he already knows it, and yet he told the Values Voters Summit last week that he was going to “plow on through” with the nomination, which is a very unfortunate metaphor in this context. In addition, McConnell’s response to the news that the latest allegations were going to come up was to try and put the nomination into hyperdrive. However, McConnell is also pragmatist enough to know when to cut bait. If the Republicans decide to pull this nomination, it has to happen early in the week. Waiting until Wednesday—or, worse, until Thursday, when Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee—is completely untenable…

Fox News reporter:


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