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US Politics: Roe, Roe, Roe you’re gone? (Hope not)


Ser Scot A Ellison

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I lived comfortably for years on an income most would consider to be a joke...and I have known others who made triple my pay - or better - and were sweating bullets financially. Credit cards all maxed out, barely making the mortgage, juggling bills - all that while making decent pay. Much of this is the old maxim that 'necessary' expenses rise with one's income level. Another big part is no concept of budgeting or self-discipline. 

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'necessary' expenses rise with one's income level.

we might imagine someone whose annual aesthetic management regimen exceeds the value of the median income in the US, assuming a full battery of hair, nails, lashes, fashionable clothing, botox injections, and so on. as this is normally a gendered set of expenses, it is intrinsic to the quantitative evaluation of the gender privilege precisely because the expenses are incurred as a matter of felt necessity by those burdened by the privilege; beneficiaries of the privilege will by contrast experience them as frivolous trifles.

the gender critique is easy.  what's more occult is the class differential--only the most wealthy can afford these things, and the expectation of compliance with the rules of weberian class distinction don't apply generally. everyone else who goes without extravagant aesthetic management may feel the necessity a priori as a matter of marxist class ideology dissemination, but can overcome the affective regime a posteriori when the costs are not to be borne and life nevertheless goes on despite failure to participate in markets for haute couture and high end cosmetology.  we might therefore hear the wealthy bourgeois complain bitterly about the costs of complying with class discipline just as virulently as the proletarian who may be evicted next month with a genuinely equal sincerity.

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Why crypto currency has such wealthy and determined advocates, particularly the extremist-fascist-authoritarian-xtian-white supremacists-nationalists working so hard here in the USA, including supporting in every way mayors (such as soon to be NYC mayor, Eric Adams) and governor (such as Florida's DeSantis).  Get rid of national/state currency and one is rid of the state too, along with pesky expensive elections, votes and democracy.

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... Foreign Policy magazine’s national security reporter Jack Detsch tweeted yesterday that, according to Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, the U.S. is considering sanctions that could “[isolate] Russia completely from the global financial system.” That’s a threat to cut Russia out of the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), a banking cooperative in Brussels that facilitates financial transactions around the world. European leaders considered cutting Russia off from SWIFT after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2014 but decided against it because the effect on Russia would be so extreme: Russia relies on SWIFT to move its payment for petroleum exports. 

SWIFT also makes sanctions effective. Since more than 40% of global transactions through SWIFT—and almost all oil purchases—take place in dollars, they are cleared through American banks. This means the U.S. can claim jurisdiction over them, giving the U.S. government financial and legal power to add muscle to foreign policy. ....

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/08/rights-rationalization-putin-colors-russia-ukraine-tension/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/russia-ukraine-invasion/2021/12/03/98a3760e-546b-11ec-8769-2f4ecdf7a2ad_story.html

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2 hours ago, sologdin said:

this is normally a gendered set of expenses

No longer.  Not in the USA, anyway.

In fact, yesterday I passed several manicure-pedicure places, as one does here, marveling that all of them were packed with people getting their nails done in this time of raging covid. Could not help but notice too, at least half of the people in the chairs were male.  Just as a goodly percentage of the shoppers in the Sephoras are male.  And no, not at all necessarily, 'gay.'

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does that indicate progress regarding the gender privilege, insofar as purported man persons feel liberated to obtain desirable services such as manicures and no longer stigmatize it by gender? or could it by contrast signify an arrogation of something 'belonging' to purported woman persons while maintaining the stigma? or is it an equality of everyone racing to the bottom in feeling compelled to engage in trifling aesthetic management?

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9 minutes ago, sologdin said:

does that indicate progress regarding the gender privilege, insofar as purported man persons feel liberated to obtain desirable services such as manicures and no longer stigmatize it by gender? or could it by contrast signify an arrogation of something 'belonging' to purported woman persons while maintaining the stigma? or is it an equality of everyone racing to the bottom in feeling compelled to engage in trifling aesthetic management?

I'm voting for the last one.

edit: I mean that mostly tongue in cheek.  An ascetic tongue in a cheek filled with foraged nuts and berries and roadkill.

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1 minute ago, sologdin said:

crushed under market imperatives, yes. that's my inclination, too.

What about just realizing that they, too, enjoy being painted and groomed by slaves, er, I mean servants, or uh... employees? That's the word. Employees! Or is it Grooming Artist now? I'm never hip to the latest corporate nounening, I fear.

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Instagram, Zoom, tiktok, etc.  People are 'on' all the time, on some form of screen.  Looking better gives one an edge, whether it be in finance, flogging one's latest book, conspiracy theory, anti-vax, etc.  Men here at least, having been doing lots of stuff with their hair for a long time already, not just styling, but products as well. Men too are judged on their appearance.  Goes along with the hours spent at the gym getting that 6-pack. Shrug.  Inevitable, ya.  Plus, you know the joys of the old-school barber shop that did all sorts of grooming beyond hair, including, yes, the manicures and facials -- and even baths.  Recall a staple scene in westerns and mafia tv and films in which the guys are getting full service.  Not the baths, but we see all that returned to the high end men's styling places here -- and one does see it because of the big windows.

What is concerning though are the advances made by crypto-currency into national and international finance of elections, military, etc.

 

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14 GOP Senators voted for the procedural measure that will allow the Dems to raise the debt ceiling.  That's up from 11 back in October.  Two who voted for it in October didn't this time (Rounds and Shelby) while McConnell got five new votes (Burr, Ernst, Romney, Tillis, and Wicker).

For all the talk of how many things Congress had to pass this month, looks like they'll have plenty of time to debate and pass the reconciliation bill.  Or, ya know, not.

Oh, also, Tish James dropped out of the governor's race.  Well then.  Hochul should cruise to the nomination unless she royally fucks it up.

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39 minutes ago, Kalsandra said:

Thank goodness dems have stopped some of that abhorrent gerrymandering. Finally the us will be...uh...more unbalanced as a whole. 

I didn't read the article, nor have I looked at the new maps for each state, but currently the California congressional delegation is 42 to 11 Dem.  New Jersey is 10-2, Washington is 7-3, and Virginia is 7-4.  These splits mirror the GOP gerrymandered states, for the most part.  The only map that actually looks like it was drawn by a neutral/independent commission is Colorado, which is 4-3 Dem.

Where non-gerrymandering will hurt in these states is that a number of the Dem held seats are competitive or even slightly GOP-leaning.  This is the main problem come November.

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6 minutes ago, DMC said:

I didn't read the article, nor have I looked at the new maps for each state, but currently the California congressional delegation is 42 to 11 Dem.  New Jersey is 10-2, Washington is 7-3, and Virginia is 7-4.  These splits mirror the GOP gerrymandered states, for the most part.  The only map that actually looks like it was drawn by a neutral/independent commission is Colorado, which is 4-3 Dem.

Where non-gerrymandering will hurt in these states is that a number of the Dem held seats are competitive or even slightly GOP-leaning.  This is the main problem come November.

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But given the narrow margins, the commission states matter. In Colorado, where President Joe Biden won by 13 percentage points last year, the nonpartisan commission released a preliminary map on Friday which could lead the two parties to evenly split the state’s eight congressional seats. In contrast, some Democratic maps split 6-2 in their favor. The difference, a net of four congressional seats, is half the current Democratic margin in the House.

In Virginia, where Democrats control the legislature and hold the governor’s office, party leaders are worried the bipartisan commission could deadlock, kicking control of redistricting to the state Supreme Court, dominated by GOP-appointed judges. The court would likely hire experts to draw the maps determining the political composition of the state’s 11 congressional districts and its state legislative seats.

And in Oregon, a solidly blue state that is gaining a congressional seat, the Democrats who control a supermajority in the state legislature agreed to evenly divide their redistricting committee between Democrats and Republicans.

 

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Yeah I'm aware of the fear in Virginia going to the GOP-dominated courts, but obviously that's not technically a problem with the "bipartisan" commission's map.  Oregon currently has 4 Dems and 1 GOP.  Two of the Dems are in safe seats (as is the GOP member) while the other two are in competitive districts.  We'll see how the new map shakes out, but again, that's more a problem with having competitive seats currently held by Dems.  As for Colorado, the choice would almost certainly be between making it 5-3 or 4-4, not 6-2.

Anyway, my point is Wasserman's analysis is misleading first because I bet he's basing his analysis on the partisan makeup of the seats - not who actually holds the seats which is why the Dems are vulnerable in a bad cycle.  Second, he's assuming each of these Dem states would adopt a strategy of maximizing their amount of seats. 

As we saw in Texas and even Florida, this isn't really what the GOP is doing this time around, instead opting to secure their incumbents' seats.  I suspect this is what would be done if the Dem legislature controlled redistricting in these states as well.  Indeed, progressives were/are upset the Illinois map wasn't aggressive enough - because the legislature opted to secure their incumbent's seats instead.

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