US Politics: Ruthless Aggression

[DMC]

Correcting Kal's mistake, as usual.  Also, since Henry Clay in 1852, there have now been 34 people that have lain in state, including three unknown soldiers (four people have lain in honor, including Rosa Parks).  Ginsburg today was both the first woman and the first Jewish person.  Figured she deserves two threads.

 

[Tywin et al.]

You deserve a Ric Flair chop across your chest. 

[Fragile Bird]

My congratulations, as it looks like you’re going to have your very own Handmaiden on the SCOTUS!

With 7 children I wonder how Barrett ever found time to be a judge. Apparently that child count for a sitting judge comes second only to Scalia, who had 9 children. But of course, he never actually had any of them. She had 5, 2 are adopted.

And in other news, Florida is now 100% open for business and there will be 73,000 stupid people attending the Super Bowl!

38 days until the election.

[ThinkerX]

how 'defunding the police' got derailed: 

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/how-a-pledge-to-dismantle-the-minneapolis-police-collapsed/ar-BB19rj9J?ocid=ob-fb-enus-580&fbclid=IwAR2Cq64wxkArpUll9b-zEPJGvTim4asDtx14WRtNTuzk6lCk_0Dsi7dwVt0

[DMC]

The false link between Amy Coney Barrett and The Handmaid’s Tale, explained:

Quote

One of the weirder ways this debate has played out since Barrett was first discussed as a potential Supreme Court nominee is the fight over whether or not People of Praise, the group of which she is a member, is also one of the inspirations for The Handmaid’s Tale. [...]

Asked about her inspiration for The Handmaid’s Tale by Politico as the controversy heated up, Atwood said she wasn’t sure which group she was talking about in 1987. Her archive of work and research is at the University of Toronto, where she can’t currently access it due to Covid-19 restrictions. But she’s on the record as going through her Handmaid’s Tale archives for journalists plenty of times in the past, and during those interviews, she’s always cited People of Hope, a different Catholic charismatic spinoff that calls women handmaids.

Specifically, People of Hope is a fundamentalist group in New Jersey that some former members have said behaves like a cult and which has allegedly arranged marriages between teenagers. The People of Hope call wives “handmaids,” and when Atwood saw that word in an Associated Press clipping about the group, she underlined it in pen. It’s rumored that it’s here that she developed the idea of using the name to begin with.

 

[DMC]

7 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

You deserve a Ric Flair chop across your chest. 

It'd be as impotent as your attempts at shit-talking.

[Tywin et al.]

12 minutes ago, DMC said:

It'd be as impotent as your attempts at shit-talking.

Pretty rich coming from a guy who linked a video of John Cena.....

[DMC]

2 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Pretty rich coming from a guy who linked a video of John Cena.....

..you do realize I'm making fun of John Cena by posting that clip, right?

[Fragile Bird]

14 minutes ago, DMC said:

The false link between Amy Coney Barrett and The Handmaid’s Tale, explained:

 

The group Barrett belongs to used to call women handmaidens as well, only changing that title once Atwood’s book became popular. I didn’t say that group influenced her. There are other stories that reference the fact that the Old Testament called women handmaidens. See the stories about Jacob’s wives, and the fact the older sister, the one he was forced to marry first, could bear children and the younger sister, the one he loved, could not, and her handmaiden was used as a substitute to bear “her” children.

[DMC]

Just now, Fragile Bird said:

The group Barrett belongs to used to call women handmaidens as well, only changing that title once Atwood’s book became popular. I didn’t say that group influenced her.

Oh I wasn't referring to your post, just the general inaccuracy of reports - plus the fact that the timing doesn't work out and it appears Atwood herself may be exaggerating the inspiration.  Obviously, as you said, the inspiration for both groups and Atwood using the term handmaiden ultimately simply comes from the bible.  From the above link:

Quote

The inaccurate link between the People of Praise and Atwood’s story, perpetuated by a series of confusing coincidences and uneven fact-checking, first emerged in a Newsweek article and was later picked up by Reuters. Both articles have since been corrected, but the right was furious at both. [...]

In a weird wrinkle, the timing of the lore here doesn’t quite work out. Reporting for the Star-Ledger in 2017, Tom Deignan found that the story didn’t hit the AP until after The Handmaid’s Tale came out in 1985, meaning that Atwood couldn’t have pulled the word “handmaid” from that mythical news article after all. But regardless, the AP clipping in Atwood’s archives, the one that she always shows reporters, is about People of Hope. And while it’s plenty plausible that Atwood has indulged in a little self-mythologizing about her creative process over the years, it’s not really that relevant to any questions about Amy Coney Barrett and her religious leanings today.

 

[DireWolfSpirit]

The Shiny New USA

 

[Mindwalker]

There seems to be a sliver of hope regarding those tax returns...

 

[Tywin et al.]

2 hours ago, DMC said:

..you do realize I'm making fun of John Cena by posting that clip, right?

Making a mockery of the first Jew to be lain in state with a John Cena punchline has ramifications.

Lucky for you,  Yom Kippur is tomorrow. 

[DMC]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

Making a mockery of the first Jew to be lain in state with a John Cena punchline has ramifications.

Um, the mockery was definitely not directed towards Ginsburg.

[S John]

11 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

With 7 children I wonder how Barrett ever found time to be a judge. 

Money.

[Zorral]

For something more pleasant, even a bit optimistic, but definitely politics, again, from a friend on MD's Eastern Shore:

Quote

Despite rain, Democrats did great yesterday [Zorral here -- meaning at the weekly Farmer's Market, where the local Dems run a table for both voter registration and donations every weekend] ....we had our tent out and up and a massive amount of RBG buttons which flew off the table....J-- B-- who makes them lives up the street and made two trips home to make more! The Republicans didn't have enough volunteers show up to put up their tent and were noticeably glum in their headquarters next door...........there are Biden signs all over town and up in what remains of the 'hood....something we've never seen before ("Don't stick your head up or your neck out") so very gratifying. The Rs were set to have a boat flotilla last evening in RH,,,,but forecast wasn't great. Since the former mayor is our Delegate and his wife is now Mayor, I'm sure there was a lot of noise....motors roaring, etc. My favorite part of yesterday was at the end when an elderly, mostly toothless black lady came up to me, balanced on her cane, waved at the milling people and asked me, "Is it today that we vote?" I replied "No, October 26 is when early voting starts.....at the library." and pointed.....She replied, "I be there at 8 o'clock!" "  Amen Sister! "Love, --

 

[DMC]

Lots of polls out today - all Big 3 networks came out with some, as well as NYT/Siena.  The most interesting to me were the CBS/YouGov polls on NC/SC/Georgia.  Biden is up only 2 in NC, but down only 1 in Georgia.  Also, while Biden's only up 2 in NC, Cunningham is up 10.  However, both Biden and Cunningham are at 48% - the difference is Trump is at 46 while Tillis is at 38.  Then there's SC, where Trump is up 10 but Harrison is only down 1 (45/44) - while in Georgia Perdue is up 5 (47/42).  Now try making sense of all that.

[Zorral]

https://medium.com/indica/i-lived-through-collapse-america-is-already-there-ba1e4b54c5fc

Quote

 

....If you’re waiting for a moment where you’re like ‘this is it’, I’m telling you, it never comes. Nobody comes on TV and says ‘things are officially bad’. There’s no launch party for decay. It’s just a pileup of outrages and atrocities in between friendships and weddings and perhaps an unusual amount of alcohol.

Perhaps you’re waiting for some moment when the adrenaline kicks in and you’re fighting the virus or fascism all the time, but it’s not like that. Life is not a movie, and if it was, you’re certainly not the star. You’re just an extra. If something good or bad happens to you it’ll be random and no one will care. If you’re unlucky you’re a statistic. If you’re lucky, no one notices you at all.

Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is....

 

 

[DMC]

Saw this last night, really enjoyed the playful premise - The Jerk Who Gave Me a C+ in English Could Cost Democrats the Senate:

Quote

Remember eighth grade? I don’t. Being 13 was embarrassing, and I’ve mostly blocked out my memories of that year. Until this week, when my eighth-grade teacher—the only person to ever give me a C+ in English—made headlines for insisting on staying in the Georgia Senate race. Matt Lieberman, son of former senator and notorious spoiler Joe Lieberman, is siphoning just enough support from Rev. Raphael Warnock, a progressive Black pastor, to boost the campaign of Republican incumbent and COVID-19 stock-dumper Kelly Loeffler. Lieberman has withstood pleas from dozens of other Democratic politicians, multiple Jewish groups, and even Barack Obama asking him to leave the race. He recently attacked celebrated voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams for “candidate suppression.”

In the last three polls, Monmouth has Collins (R), Loeffler, and Warnock tied at 23 with Lieberman at 11.  NYT/Siena had Loeffler at 23, Collins and Warnock tied at 19, and Lieberman at 7.  And UG has Loeffler 24, Collins 21, Warnock 20, Lieberman 11.  Only the top two advance to the runoff.  House Lieberman:  Still trying to fuck the Democratic party.

[Zorral]

My Dem phone banking friend is doing PA today.  He did Kentucky yesterday, where it seemed to break generally 50-50.  When he did AZ it was nearly 100% Biden.  When he did this the last presidential election the numbers in AZ and KY were nearly all for shoggoth.  Of course, being the time of day and so on, nearly every single person he speaks to is 'elderly.'  Thus he finds the change in AZ of particular interest.