“Today, in 2024 in America, women are being turned away from emergency rooms and forced to travel hundreds of miles for health care, while doctors fear prosecution for providing an abortion. And now, a court in Alabama put access to some fertility treatments at risk for families who are desperately trying to get pregnant. The disregard for women’s ability to make these decisions for themselves and their families is outrageous and unacceptable.
Make no mistake: this is a direct result of the overturning of Roe v Wade. I know that folks are worried about what they’re seeing happening to women all across America. I am too. I hear about it everywhere I go. My message is: The Vice President and I are fighting for your rights. We’re fighting for the freedom of women, for families, and for doctors who care for these women. And we won’t stop until we restore the protections of Roe v. Wade in federal law for all women in every state.”
1.
Republican Senator almost, and accidentally, showed empathy towards a trans kid. According to Erin Reed, on Feb. 6, a group of families met to lobby senators on issues affecting the local transgender community in Georgia. One mother, Lena Kotler, decided to take her two children with her to give the topic a human face. While waiting to meet with Democratic Sen. Kim Jackson, who they had heard was a big supporter of LGBTQ+ rights, another senator passed by — Republican Sen. Carden Summers, the primary sponsor of the state’s bathroom ban bill. Little did he know that one of the children he would be interacting with, Aleix, 8 years old, was a transgender child.
According to Kotler and other families who were present, the senator stopped to say hello. That’s when Kotler spoke to Senator Summers about how she was there with her kids to “talk to legislators about keeping her kids safe.” Although she did not mention that one of her children was trans, they were present with LGBTQ+ signage - something the Senator apparently missed when he knelt down in front of Aleix and said, according to Kotler, “Well you know, we’re working on that and I’m going to protect kids like you.”
Kotler then replied, “Yeah - Aleix is trans, and she wants to be safe at school, she wants to go to the bathroom and be safe.”
That is when, according to multiple witnesses, Sen. Summers stood up and fumbled his words, repeating, "I mean, yeah, I'm going to make sure she's safe by going to the right bathroom," continuing to use the correct pronouns for Aleix. When asked if he would make her go to a boy's bathroom, he then allegedly backed away, saying, "You're attacking me," turned around, and walked off quickly.
Unfortunately since she posted that story, you’ve probably read about the young gender fluid trans kid in Oklahoma who died at the hands of three girls in a high school bathroom. How can this not happen when elected representatives put out trash like the video below calling transgender youth in bathrooms “an assault on truth” and dangerous to other kids. Hate and intolerance are passed down from one generation to the next…and on it goes.
And just so the Republicans in the House don’t feel left out of the State Hate game, on Wednesday the House “Freedom” Caucus published a letter threatening a government shutdown in which it outlines a number of policies that are needed to supposedly avert such a result. Listed among these policies are restrictions on gender affirming care, transgender participation in sports, DEI programs, and defunding Planned Parenthood. Increasingly, Democrats and LGBTQ+ organizations have applied pressure on the Biden administration and Democratic leadership not to accept any deal that includes anti-LGBTQ+ riders. In a letter signed by 163 Democratic members of congress, they state that bans on gender affirming care, pride flags, DEI initiatives, and discrimination should not be on the table for negotiation.
2.
And speaking of the Republican wankers, Russell Vought, president of The Center for Renewing America, part of a conservative consortium preparing for Fuckleroy’s return to power, is preparing to infuse ‘Christian nationalism’ in his second administration. Christian nationalists in America believe that the country was founded as a Christian nation and that Christian values should be prioritized throughout government and public life. Even though Fuckleroy is not a man of faith, he formed a political alliance with evangelicals during his first run for office, delivered them a six to three conservative majority on the Supreme Court and is now espousing the Christian right’s long-running argument that Christians are so severely persecuted that it necessitates a federal response.
With all the hot air espousing FREEDOM as their GAWD-GIVEN right, Republicans qualify as either Christian nationalism sympathizers (33%) or adherents (21%), while at least three-quarters of both independents (46% skeptics and 29% rejecters) and Democrats (36% skeptics and 47% rejecters) lean toward rejecting Christian nationalism. Republicans (21%) are about four times as likely as Democrats (5%) or independents (6%) to be adherents of Christian nationalism. As Robert Reich writes, The underlying issue is whether government can interfere in the most intimate aspects of people’s lives — not only barring people from obtaining IVF services but also forbidding them from entering into gay marriage, utilizing contraception, having out-of-wedlock births, ending their pregnancies, changing their genders, checking out whatever books they want from the library, and worshipping God in whatever way they wish (or not worshipping at all). All of these private freedoms are under increasing assault from Republican legislators and judges who want to impose their own morality on everyone else. Republicans are increasingly at war with America’s fundamental separation of church and state.
Heather Cox Richardson also wrote about this last night, sending out more alarm bells, writing the Alabama Supreme Court on February 16, 2024, decided that cells awaiting implantation for in vitro fertilization are children and that the accidental destruction of such an embryo falls under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act. In an opinion concurring with the ruling, Chief Justice Tom Parker declared that the people of Alabama have adopted the “theologically based view of the sanctity of life” and said that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.” There are already memes galore floating around the facialbook showing eggs as passengers in the HOV lane, etc…
Although, according to Politico, Speaker Mike Johnson’s recent sermon, er, uh, speech at a weekend GOP retreat where he contended that when one doesn’t have God in their life, the government or “state” will become their guide, referring back to Bible verses, did not go over all that well with other GOP lawmakers. Johnson, a devout Christian, attempted to rally the group by discussing moral decline in America — focusing on declining church membership and the nation’s shrinking religious identity. A couple people, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said “I think what he was trying to do, but failed on the execution of it, was try to bring us together. The sermon was so long he couldn't bring it back to make the point.” And another said “I’m not at church.” I’ll take anything positive at this point to separate church and state…
3.
In a win for the Navajo Nation, federal energy officials took the unusual step of denying permits last week to several proposed pumped hydropower projects on Navajo land. Nicole Horseherder, executive director of the Navajo nonprofit Tó Nizhóní Ání, or Sacred Water Speaks, said in a written statement “It is encouraging to see federal decision-makers honoring the trust responsibilities to Native American Tribes. Historically, that has not been the case. These projects would have damaged vital groundwater sources that have already been harmed by 50 years of industrial overuse from coal mining.”
Heather Tanana, an attorney specializing in water policy and a member of the Navajo Nation, said the FERC ruling does not mean the end of development proposals – including hydropower projects – on Navajo Nation, but it does represent a shift in how regulators decide whether they should go forward. “I do think it’s fair to say that the community is in the driver’s seat now,” she said. “Unless they’re the ones pursuing development that they view as beneficial to their community, it’s going to be a lot harder to happen.”
4.
Speaking of fumbling words (were we?), once again my most eloquent and die-hard liberal/drummer/video editor friend, formerly from KC/LFK, now of LA composed his humorous take on our President’s public speaking prowess (or lack thereof):
For the love of god - will someone please hire a speech pathologist or therapist or acting coach a la The King's Speech for Biden? It doesn't matter how competent, engaged and focused he is behind closed doors if he can't even read off of a fucking teleprompter without the sound of the gears in his head slipping and smoke coming out of his ears - punctuated by an off the script "listen, folks" as every Democrat in the country holds their breath in anticipation of him calling the prime minister of England Harry Truman.
He has all the charisma of the head of an Elks lodge reading the upcoming calendar of events after a half dozen Jim Beam & sodas. How does he counter public opinion that he's too old & daffy to be president when he looks like he just filled his Depends & walks off the stage like a marionette?
It doesn't matter how great of a job you're doing ... IT'S HOW YOU SELL IT! It's showbiz, folks - and Idiot 'Murica is primed and ready, once again to listen to right wing psychobabble shot from the screaming head of a mentally ill circus clown rather than the calm, mature voices of those goddamned competent Democrats whose only apparent defense against the 24/7 fire hose of sewage is to complain on MSNBC.
The thought of Biden debating Trump keeps me awake at night.
Now check out Robert Reich’s Substack posted yesterday where he had posed the question: Should Joe Biden step aside and allow a Democrats to have an open convention to choose their candidate? Follow the thread for more debate on the subject, and also from Ezra Klein.
5.
And in the spirit of quoting other folks today, Here’s a piece from Rebecca Solnit worth reading…
A few years ago a friend of mine got married, and when I pulled up to the rustic wedding site, a man I didn’t know positioned himself behind my car to make dramatic hand signals. I didn’t need or ask for help, but he was giving it, and I’m sure he thought the credit for my success in parking my small car in this very easy spot was at least partly his. In a very minor and undoubtedly unwitting way, he was trying to rob me of my sense of competence to bolster his own.
It’s not impaired by one clown, but I’ve had hundreds or maybe thousands of experiences like this, of unwanted, unsolicited intrusion in the form of help, advice, and granting approval (or its opposite). It all too frequently takes the form of some man saying “correct” when I or other women say something aloud or online, as if we needed their approval, as if they were the authorities in the room, as though it wasn’t true or right until it had their imprimateur. When I wrote a social media post about the phenomenon, the response was like that scene in Giant when they drill for oil and it spouts skyward. Torrents of stories from other women gushed out.
Professor Sarah Detweiler told me, “I’m an artist. I often need to use hardware stores. I’ll ask, where are the caulk guns or some other such item. I didn’t ask how to use them, wasn’t running my project by anyone, and inevitably I’ll get ‘whatcha gonna do with that’ or ‘what you need that for’ and I’ll smile and say ‘what aisle?’ Male workers have gone so far as to walk me to them, stand in front of them blocking my way asking again what I’m working on as I couldn’t possibly know. I’ve had it happen nearly everywhere and hear it happening to other women all the time.”
They discussed the defensiveness belittlement generates, the sense that you need to brandish your credentials and qualifications in the face of this, which happens when you’re treated over and over as incompetent, and of how a lifetime of it can breed undeserved self-doubt. One wondered if other women get, “an additional sense of demoralised deflation afterwards, even though the intellect tells you to ignore the subtle put down?,” adding that “sometimes it just wipes me out even though I know I’m capable and accomplished”.
A distinguished scientist told me about the men who feel the need to repeat what she’s said as though it’s their idea or not valid until a man says it or cite other sources that repeated what she said in her area of expertise. It’s exhausting and demoralizing. Obviously there are worse forms of oppression out there, and other categories of hostile assumptions specific to other categories of people – for example, I can think of a Latina head of a literary non-profit assumed to be the maid at a gala, of way too many Black men assumed to have stolen their car or bicycle. But this pervasive misogyny does have an impact.
Writer and editor Meredith Jacobson told me, “Aside from the millions of instances of dudes bizarrely taking the time to comment ‘You’re correct’ on social media, what it brings to mind is the time when, as a young grad student, I had a flat tire outside my apartment. I dug out the car manual, read the instructions on changing a flat, pulled out the spare and the jack, and began working through the steps, feeling capable and proud of myself for doing it. Just as I was tightening the last lug nuts – in the proper cross pattern, just like the manual said – my middle-aged-dude neighbor came out and gestured for me to hand him the wrench. I kick myself for it now, but at the time I automatically responded to the gesture by handing him the wrench, and he proceeded to go through the motions as if tightening the bolts himself, though they were already fully tightened. He said, ‘Good job’ and handed me back the damned wrench as if he were a priest conferring some kind of patriarchal benediction I never asked for. Decades later it still rankles, because it was the first time I’d ever changed a flat and I was enjoying the feeling of accomplishment before he inserted himself.” Like the man playing air-traffic-controller while I parked, he was pretending to help her in ways that helped himself, or his self-conception, and undermined her.
6.
One more quote from singer and songwriter Nick Cave from his Red Hand Files. This one is in response to two letters from artists who have lost their ‘muse.’ Here are the letters he received:
My muses have left me and I have lost all motivation to create as a film and music maker. Have you ever felt alien to yourself and your identity as an artist?
TAM, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA
Every time I set foot in my studio, intentions blazing, I crumble with pathetic and flaccid paralysis. Do it, paint. No. Fuck. Why not? I can’t get my brain right in that space anymore, and I thought my whole life was going to be devoted to my art. I don’t know how to reconnect or reconcile making art in a world made of war and cruelty, how would painting a fucking picture ever help. How do you create in this environment?
DAN, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA
And his reply:
Dear Tam and Dan,
What makes our particular job so exceptional that it requires inspiration or a muse to do it? We are artists and we labour in the service of others. It is not something we do only if and when we feel motivated – we create because it is our responsibility to do so. In this respect our occupation is no different than that of most people. Does an ordinary adult go to work only if they feel in the mood? Do doctors? Do labourers? Do teachers? Do taxi drivers? We are duty-bound to do our job, like everyone else, because the space we occupy depends upon our participation and breaks down if we don’t. A committed artist cannot afford the luxury of revelation. Inspiration is the indolent indulgence of the dabbler. Muses, Tam, are for losers!
The idea that you can’t paint because the world is 'made of war and cruelty' has to be the lamest and most faint-hearted excuse not to work I have ever heard, Dan. How will painting a fucking picture help? — it will help because art is the noble and necessary rejoinder to the sins of the world. When the world rushes toward us with all its streaming wounds – wanting, needing – do we cover our eyes and shrink away, do we sit and wring our hands in despair, do we run and hide, or do we hasten toward it, like we hasten toward an injured child, with our arms outstretched?
If we are to call ourselves artists then we must avoid the myriad excuses that present themselves and do our job. Yes, the world is sick, and yes it can be cruel, but it would be a whole lot sicker and a whole lot crueler if it were not for painters and filmmakers and songwriters – the beauty-makers – wading through the blood and muck of things, whilst reaching skyward to draw down the very heavens themselves.
These are perilous and urgent times. This is not the hour to sit around moaning about the condition of the world — leave that to the posturing inhabitants of that most morbidly neurotic of spaces, social media — and nor is it the moment to fruitlessly wait for inspiration to find us. It’s time to get to work, to reach up and tear the divine idea from its heavenly cradle and proffer it to the world. Create, Tam! Create, Dan! Create like your life depends on it, because, of course, of course, it does!
Love, Nick
7.
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday happened to be somewhat open days to experiment with drugs. So on Monday I got poked in my left arm with the Shingrix vaccine and my right with an updated COVID booster. I am recalling the time I fell off the side of my ol’ granddaddy’s pickup truck and the rear wheel grazed my head a bit. And the time my brother talked me into getting into one of those old metal trash barrels with giant wheels, then giving me a nudge down a hill with the barrel spinning round and round like a cheap carnival ride. Fun times. That’s how my body reacted for a couple days. Much better yesterday and today…
And now…
Does Greg still make brazen attempts to kill you?