October 28, 2022

Yes, this all goes back to him.

SO MUCH goes back to Trump, from January 6 to the armed vigilantes watching ballot drop boxes to all the scads of election deniers running for office in this election. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. The list of fires he's poured gasoline on would easily fill a shelf full of books. It's insane how much anger, hate, violence, and other horribleness this one asshole has unleashed on this country, and he is nowhere near finished.

The worst part, to my mind, is that his sole motivation for all of this goes back to his desperate need to bolster his giant yet incredibly fragile ego, starting with his desire to get back at Obama for embarrassing him at the 2011 White House Correspondents dinner. Just look at what's happened since then. How many people have DIED, and how many others have been harmed in a multiplicity of ways, all because of ONE malignant narcissist who couldn't take a joke?

And as I alluded to above, he's not even close to being done. Even IF he were arrested tomorrow, his influence will be with us for at least as long as as any members of his "fan club" remain in office. That's why the stakes of this election are so incredibly high. God knows how much more havoc he'll be able ro wreak if we don't hold on to AT LEAST one house of Congress.

I refuse to even entertain the notion of his running in 2024, much less anything beyond that. There's a finite amount of abject terror that my brain can process at one time, and it's maxxed out for now. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil therof."

October 27, 2022

#%$@!& Republicans!

I need to vent! I just got a handful of of those stiff cardboard mailers that political candidates are sending out--from the Repuke opponent of my Democratic state representative, and I'm ticked! Three in one day, on top of the one I got yesterday, and all are full of lies and distortions!

My rep, Suzanne Ness, has been doing a great job in Springfield, and I thought she was a shoo-in for reelection, especially since I've hardly heard anything out of her opponent, Connie Cain. Now, all of a sudden, after early voting has already started, Cain and a PAC that supports her are showering voters with this disgusting garbage.

I don't know what to make of this sudden onslaught. I HOPE it means Cain is getting worried sbout her chances. All I really know about her is that she's an extreme forced birther who issued a celebratory statement when Roe was overturned.

Ugh, this election is getting ugly. Thanks for letting me rant!

October 22, 2022

Who's planning to watch The Good Nurse on Netflix?

I am really looking forward to it, especially to seeing Eddie Redmayne as Charlie Cullen.

More info here: https://people.com/crime/the-good-nurse-true-story/

October 19, 2022

No, Republicans even are NOT pro-life. Not one teeny tiny bit.

They are only pro-fetus, and when there's a choice to be made between a living, breathing woman and a dying, doomed fetus, they'll pick the fetus every time! They have to "protect the lives of the unborn," you see, at the cost of anything, everything, and anyone else that might be involved.

They'll allow a woman's life to be saved if a doctor can prove beyond a doubt that there is absolutely no fetal life inside her, but otherwise, forget about it!

Saving a woman's possible future fertility is even less important to them. Most of them probably believe that any woman who would have an abortion doesn't "deserve" to be a mother anyway.

"Even if the abortion was needed to save her life?" you ask. Ha! They don't believe that's even a thing that happens!

The "pro-life" label is a huge lie in general. If it wasn't deliberately coined to slander those who believe in choice, it might as well have been. After all, what's the opposite of "pro-life"? That's right, pro-death! Every time they refer to themselves that way, they're implying the rest of us are "pro-death"! That's why I absolutely refuse to use that label. They're pro-fetus, pro-making women staying pregnant, and anti-choice.

Pro-life? Not by a long shot!

October 19, 2022

In a word, yes.

That's exactly what they would do and what they are already doing in Texas and elsewhere. It's horrifying and unconscionable, and a nationwide ban would be much, much worse, because crap like this would be happening EVERYWHERE in the U.S. instead of just certain states.

October 18, 2022

I think that's a little unfair.

She called him because she was desperate. She was literally at death's door (or pretty close) and grasping at straws.

I don't think most anti-choicers really believe that something like this can happen, that an abortion can really be needed to save someone's life, until it happens to them. Even if they recognize that such a possibility could exist, they assume such things are vanishingly rare and don't ever expect to confront such a situation personally.

Also, many (if not most) support putting an exemption in the law to save a woman's life. They just assume the law MUST provide for such things and are completely taken by surprise when they learn that in fact it doesn't (or if there is an exemption, it's so vaguely worded that applying it to a specific situation is well-nigh impossible.

This woman wasn't being hypocritical. She was ignorant and uninformed, and terrified when she found herself caught in a situation she was utterly unprepared to deal with. She also went through absolute hell, so I think we need to cut her some slack.

October 16, 2022

I think that's what some white people like about him.

He fits the stereotype of the goofy, slap happy black characters depicted in minstrel shows and 1930s comedy shorts. Walks around with a big old "Aw, shucks" grin on his face. Not too bright, but always cheerful and respectful to the white folks. Gross? Hell, yes, but some white people eat that stuff up. Combine that with his feats on the gridiron, and he's a certain type of white person's ideal black man.

They don't care about the domestic violence or the multiple children to whom he is an absentee father, because those things fit their stereotyped expectations of how black people behave. Paying for that abortion? What abortion? He said it didn't happen, you heard him! /sarcasm

Warnock is the polar opposite of Walker. He's well educated, articulate, dignified, and erudite; all qualities that some white people find disagreeable and intimidating in a black man and view as "uppity." (Just ask Barack Obama if you don't believe me.)

In short, Herschel Walker is the kind of black man Republicans are comfortable with, and because he is black, they get to pretend they're not racist when they vote for him.

I'm sure he has no clue how Republican election strategists see him. He's basking in the attention he's receiving by running for the Senate and is oblivious to the fact that people like us DUers think he's a laughing stock. It's actually very sad the way he's being used by the GOP to try to block Warnock from retaining his seat. Very sad and very racist.

October 16, 2022

No, they don't understand those things.

Most contemporary Americans do not take the risks of pregnancy and childbirth anywhere near as seriously as they should.

There was a time when giving birth was a total crapshoot, and everyone knew it. For most of human history, no woman who got pregnant was able to take it for granted that either she or the baby would survive the birth, much less both survive and go on to live healthy lives. The dangers were, of course, greatest for poor women, but no one was exempt. (Case in point: Princess Charlotte of Wales, whose father would later become King George IV, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Charlotte_of_Wales_%281796%E2%80%931817%29?wprov=sfla1)

Modern medicine has now progressed to the point where, with proper medical care, few women die as a result of childbirth and pregnancy, and even babies who are quite premature can often be enabled to survive. This has lulled far too many people into assuming that those risks have been eliminated altogether, which has led to uninformed lawmakers enacting abortion bans that are predicated on the misconception (pun intended) that having babies is a "perfectly safe," routine activity which poses few, if any, risks to either mother or child.

These lawmakers see no need to provide exemptions for risks that they regard as non-existent, and they are both shocked and skeptical when anyone tries to point out situations where saving a woman's life literally depends on terminating the pregnancy she carries.

People who have never entertained the notion that an abortion might ever be necessary to protect a pregnant person's health, much less prevent them from dying, often have a very hard time grasping the fact that this can and does happen, much more often than they ever imagined possible. And so, as the saying goes, here we are.

October 15, 2022

Aww, thanks!

I don't know what got into me!

As I was writing about Nancy and the others making those phone calls, it suddenly hit me full force just how close the Bloated Tick came to getting her and a lot of other people murderered in cold blood, and (even worse) how happy it would have made him if he'd succeeded. It was nothing I didn't already know, of course, but seeing that video made me FEEL it in a whole new way. And that made me see and FEEL how incredibly evil he is more sharply and clearly than ever before.

I am positive that he would literally have been thrilled to see Pence swing from that gallows and suffused with glee if Nancy and any of the other Dems had been tortured and murdered. I'm not sure if I was fully convinced of that before, but I sure am now.

October 15, 2022

Yes, he was enjoying it all right. Reveling in it.

And Nancy damned well knew it, and so did Chuck and all the other Dems, which was why she took over. And thank whatever gods may be that she did, too. If she hadn't, who knows how much worse it would have gotten and how would many have been murdered on the spot by those marauding maniacs before help arrived, if Nancy and the others hadn't started working the phones when they did.

Trump is lower than dirt for siccing those shitweasels on our nation's Capitol. Lower than slime mold, lower than the putrid crud between Steve Bannon's filthy toes. Compared to Trump, the contents of a cesspool looks like precious jewels and smells like gardenias. He IS filth, slime, and putrefaction all rolled up in one hideously revolting package!