319 Comments

"Why was it okay for Higgins to spread a racist lie at all?"

Because they believe that their freedom to say horrible things is also the freedom from the consequences of saying horrible things. Besides, Johnson's statement "We believe in redemption around here.” shows that as long as there is the Public Apology to the Ceiling, if there are any consequences, they should be very light.

It is telling that Johnson didn't call out the racism, just the optics of being so blatant about it. It's as though Christian Nationalism goes hand in hand with white supremacy.

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They constantly fall back on praying to invisible,undetectable Jeebus as their get out of jail free card… Why doesn’t their all powerful, all knowing god make the hurtful words disappear? Why doesn’t he change their hearts and minds and make them more christlike? Their mysterious god is going to mystery himself out of a job.

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𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑤ℎ𝑖𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑖𝑓𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑖𝑠ℎ𝑎𝑏𝑙𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑜𝑚 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑑𝑜𝑛'𝑡 𝑒𝑥𝑖𝑠𝑡.

-- Matt Dillahunty

And something that doesn't exist cannot act. Funny thing, that.

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Well, they're just Dunmanifestin, is all.

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That which does not exist is as a blank slate upon which they write the words of their hearts on which they act.

"By their deeds, you will know them." - Matt 7:16

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"It's as though Christian Nationalism goes hand in hand with white supremacy."

It does. It really does.

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I never had any doubt. The KKK burned crosses.

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Like mayonnaise with Wonder Bread.

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I don't want to know what wonder bread is, if it can be associated with culinary abomination number 1.

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It is a very dry, boring, tasteless, thin, manufactured bread.

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A brand of white sandwich bread.

https://images.app.goo.gl/XCzD9AVHmrrT13Li9

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And here I thought that Christian Nationalism = White Supremacy. Silly me.

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When you hold your left hand with your right hand, that's still hand in hand, right?

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"Right-handed guys don't hold it with their left. It's just one of those things."

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That's why I wonder if I was born left-handed and traumatized at an early age to do things right-handed. I also eat left-handed.

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WTF‽‽‽

Hold on a minute! 😒

Oh, okay. I must be right-handed.

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Christian nationalism and white supremacy is a difference without a distinction.

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" shows that as long as there is the Public Apology to the Ceiling, if there are any consequences, they should be very light. "

Ceiling cat disagrees.

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Ceiling cat puts the red dot on the forehead and leaves the rest to zir minions.

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Jesus.

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"No one has ever doubted his sincerity"

I do. He uses God as a tool to advance his own interests, control others, and shield himself and other vile men from criticism.

And he weaponizes forgiveness in a way that abusive motherfuckers do. "You have to forgive them! They said they were sorry to Jesus!"

I mean... it's fucking bullshit. Sermon on the mount: If you're on your way to prayer and you remember you've done something against someone, stop, go to them and make things right first, then go to prayer.

No, there is no fucking other in the religion of Mike Johnson. It's all about him. Why should he apologize and make amends to victims of his bullshit? Why should anyone? That would require genuine contrition, empathy, and a desire to atone for one's sins. Nope. Just psychically apologize to Jesus and who gives a fuck what the person you've actually hurt thinks! In fact, they're in the wrong now because they haven't forgiven you!

What a great fucking faith... if you're an abusive shithead.

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We all know it's not the racism he thinks Higgins needs forgiveness for- the headline could as easily have read: "Mike Johnson forgives racist colleague for 𝘢𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘩𝘪𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥𝘭𝘺."

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Using forgiveness as a copout for one's abusive ways is NO WAY to be sincere in repentance. It's just a way for anyone to justify criminal actions by using religion and "forgiveness" as a "Get out of jail free" card. And that's entirely wrong right here.

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Indeed

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“I asked God for a bike, but I know God doesn't work that way. So I stole a bike and asked for forgiveness.”

― Emo Philips

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Cruel gods make cruel people.

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People make gods that act like them.

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Since the people made up the gods (they are not REAL) I think that should be the other way around

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Their religious Get Out Of Jail Free card only works while faith continues to be a virtue. It's a big "if," but if we can knock the pins out from under that ill-considered belief, we MIGHT just at least start to get back to something resembling a proper comeuppance for the likes of Higgins and his kind.

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Sure. Other people don't matter, only Christians. They're Special People.

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𝑊𝑒 𝑏𝑒𝑙𝑖𝑒𝑣𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑟𝑒𝑑𝑒𝑚𝑝𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑟𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒𝑟𝑒.

For rich conservative Christian white guys you do. All others must be punished for their offenses.

𝑊ℎ𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑀𝑖𝑘𝑒 𝐽𝑜ℎ𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑛 𝑙𝑦𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑜𝑛𝑒?

Because it's September 27 in an election year, and winning matters more than honesty.

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They will allow for redemption for people that don't check off all the boxes. The more boxes you check off, the less punishment you get before redemption is given. Conservative Christian white male, but not rich? Do 10 hours community service before the Public Apology to the Ceiling. Poor black liberal atheist woman? Bury the body without a grave marker.

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Well…rich, Black football legend with two abortions and multiple simultaneous sex partners on his record…elect him to the US Senate.

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The only box he missed was "white", and he promised them more power, so the Public Apology to the Ceiling was sufficient.

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What does the date have to do with it? Winning always matters more to people like Johnson than honesty. Honesty ranks so far down, it's fallen off the end of the list.

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That's exactly right.........they think their god allows them to operate above the law (his law and US law).

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Few people ever did a better job of demonstrating the idea anything can be justified in the name of Religion, than Mike Johnson. Johnson is a true believer who would be more than happy to impose his brand of Christianity on the country if he only could, and lying and defending bigotry are just part of that process. It takes a profoundly stupid person to believe any religion could be imposed on this country with a happy ending.

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"lying and defending bigotry are just part of that process."

Best example of it is Johnson defending Dumb Idiot Ham's right to discriminate against anyone he perceives as enemies of God as a lawyer in court years ago.

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Once people become convinced they're operating under divine sanction, they're capable of almost any horror.

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Funny how often that divine sanction matches what they wanted to do in the first place...

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Yup. God never tells them they got it wrong.

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But it's for their own good! Jeezy would want it that way!

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𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑡’𝑠 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑎 𝑔𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑑𝑜.

Really. I wonder if it's occurred to Mike Johnson OR Clay Higgins that a gentleman would not have posted anything even remotely approaching what Higgins put up in the first place! Seems like it's the usual deal, though: Republicans falling in formation when crap like this comes down. Praying about it is just one more no-op that is meant to allege that positive action is being taken when it isn't.

This is just one more symptom of the same disease the Republicans have had since the Orange Nightmare came to town ... and the way to inoculate against it is TO CALL THEM ON IT, and I mean EVERY LAST TIME!

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Why is the instruction always NOOP and not HACF? The programmer is an idiot.

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For those that don't know, an old joke in Computer Science is an low-level command HACF which stands for 'Halt and Catch Fire'

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I wondered what it was. I only know ID10T error......as in *Idiot*

Lol

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Sadly, the Christians who practice prayer as a non-operative cure rarely if ever actually catch fire.

Our loss, drat it! 🤣

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I'm surprised Johnson didn't try to spin this and find some idiotic jedi mind trick way to blame the Democrats for what Higgins did.....

Mike Spin Doctor Johnson

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"It's all true. I can put up another controversial post tomorrow if you want me to. I mean, we have freedom of speech. I'll say what I want."

Like consequences. Higgins? Because you do not possess freedom from consequences. And "I'll say what I want" leaves you open to someone turning the tables and saying something nasty about YOU. You just gonna shrug your shoulders if that happens? Why do I get the feeling that THAT woud be "different" to you somehow?

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The key word here is, indeed, "consequences." Higgins and Johnson think they can bypass any hint of consequences by filtering Higgins' faux pas through their faith, and they are at least partly right ... for those who share their faith.

For us? Not so much.

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As Hemant mentioned, even some Republicans (god-fearin' folk) condemned Higgins for his racist vomit.

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That tells me that the bullshit excuses are starting not to work so easily anymore, and that should be good news for EVERYONE.

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Johnson can do whatever he wants because when his own team tried to get rid of him the Democrats voted to keep him. Why would he worry about anything? Both sides want him where he is

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Higgins won in massive landslides in 2020 and 2022, taking >60% of the vote compared to his nearest contender's 18% (2020) and then 10% (2022) in a many-contender field. He will face zero electoral consequences for his racist posts. Even if Trump goes down in flames and there is a massive Dem resurgence (I don't believe this scenario, but just to explore it), this guy survives the election no problem.

Which is probably why he isn't playing the 'look nice before November and don't alienate the moderates' game that Johnson wants his fellow GOPs to play. Higgins looking like a racist right-winger might be an electoral problem for *other* GOPers who are trying to portray the party as more moderate, but he just doesn't care because he doesn't need to do that.

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When I was working, I used to have to travel for my job and many times that would find me in LA. It is a hell hole and den of racist clowns.

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Every rat for himself, eh?

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Any representative sitting on top of a 60-10 vote in the last election probably isn't going to care much about 'party image'.

In the past, the GOP has been known for being superb team players (...for their team. Not yours). Much better than the Dems at internal organization and consensus building. But in Trumpers, that seems to have broken down.

I guess we should be kinda happy about that? Much as I dislike MTG, if she and her friends are preventing another 'contract with America' Congress because nothing the other Republicans cook up is ever right wing enough for them, well, that's a good thing.

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Because it is different, that's why. Higgins is above anyone's reproach no matter how vile he is.

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“All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.”

Implicit bordering on explicit threat.

“Digging in, Higgins continued: “It’s not a big deal to me. It’s like something stuck to the bottom of my boot. Just scrape it off and move on with my life.””

Is he talking about the backlash over his threatening tweet? If so, he’s right. We’ve slowed this type of rhetoric to become so common that the worst thing to happen to Republican politicians who spew this vicious nonsense is to face a news cycle of anger, but then nothing happens to them. No consequences for their vitriol. Most of them go on to have lifelong careers in politics, moving up in powerful positions afterward.

Threatening a population is not free speech. “But the threat was so general we can hold him accountable.” Bullshit. The position he is in should never shield him from consequences of his violent rhetoric.

And don’t forget, if he’s willing to target Haitian immigrants, who are here legally let’s remember, then he’s probably got a list of other US citizens he’s also willing to target. If Congress doesn’t hold him accountable then the voters ought to. (I know, Louisiana, they probably will throw him a parade for it.)

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“All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.”

Apparently, all the thugs share a single ass.

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His name is J.D. Vance.

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Need any more proof that evangelicalism/Christian nationalism is just the excuse-making, quasi-religious branch of the MAGA Party? Both of these garbage humans know exactly what Higgins was doing, and their 'do-unto-others' Jesus was apparently OK with it.

Give me an atheist with a strong moral compass any day of the week.

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This is why Barbara Ehrenreich said that ethical people get their morality from atheism, not from religion. If you're religious, there's always an "out" if you harm another person (or another species, or the planet.) You can apologize to someone who wasn't even harmed or involved, you can get out of this life and go on to another (sometimes better--but not always: you might reincarnate as a cockroach, but neither you nor any other cockroach would actually care), you can apologize to a deity's proxy, but you never have to take any action to make right what you've done. If you're an atheist you don't get one of those "get out of jail free" cards, so you have to deal with reality. You have to make things right: heal the suffering, clean up a toxic waste dump, work your ass off to reintroduce an almost extinct species--not just mouth a couple of hail marys. It means taking responsibility, something many religious people find very difficult. They'd rather continue to "be as little children" than to grow the fuck up.

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I sort of got into ecology and related matters when I was in high school. There were a couple of clubs that promoted raising awareness about pollution and recycling. Then a church acquaintance said something along the lines of me being "more concerned about the physical world than the spiritual world." I don't remember what I said in response. I kept doing what I was doing, but without the same level of enthusiasm. It was so easy for that person to plant a seed of doubt, and I had to expend effort in ignoring it.

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Evidence of how little the spirtual world cares about life. Despite all the cries about the "gift of life" or the "miracle of life"

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It’s actually a death cult. Those people jump into comments on stories about murdered children to say “He went to Jesus, it’s fine!”

These psychopaths just want to send everyone to Jesus faster. It’s literally a death cult

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It's amazing how many of those who claim to be 'more concerned about the spiritual world than the physical world' do an awful lot of gathering up as much material wealth as they can.

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Well said. Thanks.

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I've never heard about Barbara Ehrenreich. Now I have to look her up.

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Oh, my goodness! Ehrenreich died a short while ago, but she was a prolific feminist writer. One of her best-known books is "Nickled and Dimed", which is about working in minimum wage jobs. I remember being introduced to her work back in 1978, when she and Deidre English published their short work "Witches, Midwives and Healers" about women who gave medical care to women in the pre-modern times. That was always my favorite--though it may be out of print now. Good reading!

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Brava, Dianne! Very well put!

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Thank you. As Ehrenreich said, "Mercy is up to us."

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This is the same crowd that would justify the death of a young woman who needed but could not obtain medical intervention due to a compromised pregnancy. The same crowd that would support Herschel Walker for US Senate - a man known for having demanded and having paid for two abortions (that we know of) of “children” he had fathered. The same crowd that wanted a 10 year old rape victim to be forced to carry her rapist’s fetus. The same crowd that wants a “National Abortion Ban” law in the country while trumpeting “states’ rights” (there isn’t even a “National ban” against murder…they leave that up to the states unless the murder occurs on a federal enclave or incident to another federal crime). I was raised Mormon and practiced the religion for decades while evangelicals like Mike Huckabee tried to slur the religion by saying it wasn’t “Christian.” Now I wear that “slur” like a badge. Christians absolutely disgust me. I am so glad I only have grandsons and no granddaughters over whom religionists are now claiming Biblesque ownership. How far we have fallen!

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You seem to be participating in the patriarchy just as much as the Christians. Don’t Mormons marry children and support forced births?

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"And he pulled the post down. That's what you want a gentleman to do."

A gentleman would never have put such a hate-filled rant UP, you deluded moron.

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Never judge a person by zir treatment of those higher in the heirarchy, judge zir by zir treatment of those lower.

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When I was young and courting, treating waiters with disrespect was always a dealbreaker for me. Not that I had to break the deal very often. But it certainly put me off friendships as well.

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The “waiter test” is one of my bride’s go-tos. She tells that to young women all the time.

One time she was at a gas station fueling her car. A young couple pulled up behind her. The young man started hassling her about how she had pulled the car up to the pump or some such. She politely tried to explain that she had pulled up as far as she could behind the vehicle that had been in front of her but which was now gone. He hassled her more. She went over to his car and said to the young woman in the passenger seat: “This is how he will treat you in a few years. If you aren’t married, dump him. If you are, divorce him.”

My bride is not to be fucked with.

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OT: Warning! This is going to make your heads explode! From RawStory

Trump's senior adviser Jason Miller says that under a second Trump presidency, "it's 'going to be up to the states' whether or not they set up regimes to monitor women’s pregnancies so they can prosecute them for getting out of state abortions."

During a Wednesday Newsmax interview, the conservative interviewer asked, "[Trump] wouldn't support monitoring pregnancies even if a state decided to do that?"

Miller replied, "Well, he's made it very clear that he's not gonna go and weigh in and try to push various states in how they want to go and set up their particular rules and restrictions. That's gonna be up to the states."

Conservative and Bulwark founder Charlie Sykes replied: "Oh" Talking Points Memo founder John Marshall commented: "Trump kingpin Jason Miller gives the thumbs up to states that want to set up full menstrual surveillance departments" Marshall added, "JD Vance is a major Menstrual Surveillance proponent.

But the Trump camp has been fairly good and at avoiding the issue. This explicit green light from Miller changes that. Walz shld definitely bring this up at his debate with Johnny Donuts and Harris campaign shld pounce generally."

Won't happen when Kamala Harris becomes President and we VOTE to elect her.

Everything about women and their private life is absolutely NONE of everyone's dang business!! Period!

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Gotta order some tampons from Amazon. That will set them watching me. LOL.

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I use the period tracker on my phone, I’m infertile on purpose, but also I’m outside of the childbearing years so maybe they wouldn’t bother with mine, but I do like the idea of distracting them with menopause, when it finally comes for me.

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Now, just exactly what form is this "menstrual surveillance" supposed to take? Because I sure as hell don't see how this can be done in any way that is legal or even practical. Are there going to be "period police" randomly checking women's underwear in "stop and frisk" operations? Are women going to be forced to report to a clinic every month to be examined? How does this affect underage girls? Will they have to report to the school nurse's office once a month to be screened for their periods?

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NEVER put anything beyond religious zealotry. People died for having wrong gods. And god murdered every living thing cuz some people sinned. Looks like they want it back again.

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I don’t think they have to, I’m pretty sure they can figure out who’s buying tampons or pads unless we’re going into stores and paying cash and not using those stupid rewards cards.

Actually I take that back, they’ll be able to tell that we buy them at Walmart now that it’s all self check out and we are all on camera checking ourselves out.

As long as we keep buying the products I’m sure we’re fine, but when they see you aren’t buying tampons anymore they’ll be coming to your home to check on your pregnancy status

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I guess they are too stupid to know about moon cups.

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I wish I had your hope about the election. The polls are close, and today I'm feeling pessimistic about the thought of sexists not wanting to admit in polls that they won't vote for a woman no matter what.

The line of questioning gets a "meh" for me. It's a right-wing virtue test which has zero chance of going anywhere (Art IV, Sect 1 of the Constitution, the 'full faith and credit' clause: a state can't prosecute a person for doing something in another state which is legal there), and Trump's campaign guy is just dodging the question since we're in the general election. Nothing much to see here.

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"Higgins told CNN he stood by his demeaning comments."

How Christian of him

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With god on their side, all hatreds are wonderfully ordained.

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You can do better than that.

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What a guy.

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'Salopards de tous bords, unissez-vous et montrez à quel point vous êtes merdiques.

Jerks from every side, unite and show us how much shitty you are. Maybe the only thing social media are good for.

"our President and VP"

It seems drumpster dementia is more contagious than the bubonic plague or Covid.

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What it boils down to is The Old Boys Club ... where everyone covers for everyone else and the ONLY honor (if you can call it that) is maintaining their insularity.

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What's the point of power if you can't shit on the people you don't like?

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VP always reminds me of this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=Lshh4zE7ooA

NB even fifty years ago it was something of a joke among people who had tasted real sherry.

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Together.

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How does Mike Johnson feel about Islamists who fly planes into buildings in ostensible but absolutely sincere service to their god

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They are evil, OTOH christians who threaten or kill doctors who help women getting an abortion are good s/

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Cuz god is scary?

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You can't be both a scary and loving Father. It's one or the other.

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Daddy is spanking you because he loves you.

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That actually has some validity. Discipline of a child is an act of love. Spanking is not a good form of discipline. It is also a method with significant ethical problems, which become obvious when framed in the right way and people actually think about it. But it is often the best way parents know.

My point is that we need better education of prospective parents, and that spanking doesn’t automatically make a parent a monster.

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"This hurts me more than it hurts you." 🙄

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Yours certainly, it's why I prefer Dogesses.

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Well, they can't go back and pray about it.

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WRONG gods. LOL

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That's why they need world domination , to make sure everybody worships the "right" god.

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"𝘐’𝘮 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘢𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵𝘴 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘥."

Firin' up the 'ol Bullshit-to-English Translator...

"𝘐 𝘳𝘦𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘨𝘶𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘦𝘵 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘭𝘰𝘶𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘮𝘢𝘥𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘦𝘹𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘭𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘤𝘶𝘮 𝘸𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦."

That's more like it.

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The Evangelicals' embrace of Trump, and all that that has exposed, has done far more damage to their religion and especially their god than all us atheists could ever hope to do.

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