603 Comments

You'd think if the GOP wanted more women having babies, that they'd support policies like these that make it more feasible for women to have babies, right?

/s

Expand full comment

Ta, Dok. My union, 1199, is affiliated with SEIU and we've endorsed Kamala.

Expand full comment

"[utility infielder to be named later]"

A baseball reference? In MY Wonkette? My lands...

Expand full comment

And why not? Isn't it still America's Pastime? What could be more red-bloodedly American than Wonkette?

Expand full comment

This piece is a definitive rebuttal of JD Vance's smear of Harris as incapable of acting in the interests of future generations for not having biological children. But I think it is at least as important to recognize what that Vance smear says about Vance and his followers, because, for conservatives, the fault they find with others is almost always a reflection on themselves. If your own most fundamental motivation is "what's in it for me" then your theory of mind is going to be that that must also be the fundamental motivation of everyone else. So Vance and his followers are actually saying "the only way I can be motivated to have any concern for making the world better in the future is on behalf of my own personal genome, what's in it for me, and so that must be the case for everyone." Vance's smear of Harris is actually an indictment of himself and those who buy the smear, an expression their own ugly, pinched, narcissistic world view.

Expand full comment

I was watching Melinda Gates on the CBS morning show today, and she spent a considerable amount of time explaining why Kamala Harris should be our next President. What surprised me was how the three co-hosts were just testifying to that instead of going "both sides." They'll probably get reprimanded for that, but it was a nice time viewing.

Expand full comment

If you want to win over voters, the make a viable plan for lowering childcare costs and expanding the child tax credit like it was mentioned.

That would be a huge win for many families in the nation.

Expand full comment

America has needed a female President for over 200 years.

Expand full comment
founding

The more I learn about Kamala Harris, the more I like her.

Expand full comment

My hope for the first female president in history is that we get a nationwide version of Roe that basically says "all abortions, all the time, no reason, fuck you, is why." And then an actual Supreme Court made up of people instead of monsters, and they uphold the law and tweak it to say "no pigfuck GQP governor or state house and no pigfuck GQP future president or Senate majority can fuck with it, ever, amen."

Expand full comment

agreed. dump Roe's trimester requirements, since many women may not know they're pregnant in the first 12 weeks and/or problems may not yet have arisen, and allowing for some government interference in the second trimester is just begging for trouble.

Expand full comment

Story about care-giving. My unit has two charge nurses that basically run the unit (when people ask what I do I often say I am air traffic control for inpatient beds - who is being discharged? Who is being admitted and why?). OTHER CHARGE nurse I worked with was a mother who just gave birth to her second kid. Husband who is a physical therapist was home taking care of kids. Husband had opportunity for a new good job - they priced child care - it was cheaper for her to quit and care for kids. I am glad she could do that. - but that left me in the lurch of being the ONLY charge RN. Thank all the GODDESSES that I have a new companion charge nurse. Back to my charge RN friend who quit - rather INTERRUPTED her career - because 12 weeks leave is NOT ENOUGH TIME for new mom. Because the US really is NOT invested in helping young families though they talk like they are.

Expand full comment

woulda helped us a lot.

When hubs got a gig that was super good, we had to move pretty rural. And having 2 kids that meant one of us would need to be part time only, and because he got a good gig, that someone was me

But no where in a rural area had any part time job that would have even made up for the day care to have a part time gig.

So I took a couple years off til youngest started school. We were pretty damn poor. Not no roof over our heads poor, because our landlord was a good guy and would let us be late with the rent, but pay day loan cycle poor for nearly that entire time.

Expand full comment

OT: Finished my final class for Summer semester. Then went and got my hair did for Wonkette meetup on Saturday. It has been a long week and I'm exhausted - I'm headed for nappy land here in a few.

Expand full comment

Who could have seen that coming, besides everybody.

Expand full comment

This is also going to impact women outside of their childbearing years because gynecological conditions will not be diagnosed early. Women in red states are going to have very bad healthcare outcomes soon.

Expand full comment

RW: Who cares? They're just girls - they're not important.

Expand full comment

Also, it's God's will. What did you do to make Him angry?

Expand full comment

The right wingers have always been really bad at anticipating consequences, and doubling down on stupid ideas.

Expand full comment

I've always thought right wingers lack imagination. One example is that at the beginning of the COVID pandemic, some of them (Abbot of Texas, I believe was one) said that, well, because only old people get it (early info), just let them die and the rest of us go on with their lives. Can you imagine what it would be like if there were suddenly millions of corpses, millions of mourning families, millions of job vacancies? Millions of vacant homes depressing the housing market? Millions of people not spending their retirement money? Yes, the pandemic was horrible, but allowing it to go unchecked because "Hey, it's only old people who'll die!" would have been incredibly worse. But people like Abbot lacked the imagination to see any downside of it.

Expand full comment

Hmmm..So much for Democrats Death Panels under Obama.

Expand full comment

Yeah and us old people wouldn't have been too happy about it either.

Expand full comment

Absolutely zero foresight. Knee jerk morons.

Expand full comment

The way VP Harris has advocated for caregivers all of her life, shows that she has a stake in this nation's future, in spite of having never given birth.

Expand full comment

In the vein of " would you want to have a beer with this - MALE Presidential candidate- I most definitely would love to have a beverage with VP Harris. I suspect it would be a very fun and enjoyable conversation

Expand full comment

I would dearly love to have a glass of pinot grigio or two with VP Harris. I think I'd laugh a lot, and I'm not that much of a laugher.

Expand full comment

Well, it being Friday, I intend to lift a glass of Mount Gay and lime in her honor tonight!...

Expand full comment

If Toomush believes that it's Friday, then it's Friday for them.

NO CALENDAR SHAMING!

Expand full comment

I hate to burst your bubble.........

Expand full comment

I would love to be bathed in the sound of her lovely laughter.

Expand full comment

Just saw an electronic billboard in downtown Atlanta driving back from work:

TRUMP IS A CRIMINAL

The law still matters!!

Most excellent - I couldn't quite make out who is funding the sign - but fucking A - remind EVERYONE DAILY he's a convicted felon, rapist, POS.

Expand full comment

I wonder if it was Mad Dog

Expand full comment

My dream for this election is Trump losing so badly, it’s embarrassing. I want him to flop so hard, all his cultists start to hide or throw away their paraphernalia. Trump presidency, what Trump presidency? I wouldn’t vote for that guy, did you see what he did?

It won’t happen, naturally, but it’s fun to think about.

Expand full comment

I want the Republican Party to end up like the “40 mile long column” on its way to topple Kyiv in three days; a smoking pile of twisted wreckage.

Expand full comment
founding

Bush 2 has entered the chat

Expand full comment

Me too, and actually, it could happen. Harris could break this thing open like Obama did. She has a lot of tailwinds now and I do not trust conventional wisdom that this is a tight race. I don't think it ever was actually.

Expand full comment

Oh, I'll be a coin flip right to the end but I like our chances a lot better now.

Expand full comment

If you look at how Democrats have over performed in nearly every race since 2020...

Expand full comment

Exactly. The tell is the huge explosion of support and frankly joy when Harris took over, like nothing I've ever seen. Project 25 has scared the shit out of people, they could bury trump. With votes. Literally.

Expand full comment

Also gained a lot of admiration, sympathy and support for Old Joe. That dude may well have saved the republic with what I feel was a masterstroke.

Expand full comment

He turned a horrendous negative into a positive anyway.

Even folk like me who thought the entire thing was horseshit and are pissed off at the right and the media (and a list of 20 or so Democrats) are more than willing to throw all in behind Harris.

Cause fuck them and also, when we voted for Biden, we were also voting for Harris.

Expand full comment

I hate like anything that the nation he gave his entire life to turned on him - but I knew before the speech last night that he understood that one man's ego is not worth losing democracy. How few of our so-called leaders get that. Imagine a GQP-er saying something like "I'm leaving office for the good of the nation." It would never, ever, ever happen.

Expand full comment

Feel exactly the same.

Expand full comment

I intend to work damned hard in an effort to make exactly THAT happen.

Expand full comment

An then all the MAGAs would actually lose what's left of their minds!...

Expand full comment

Not just that - but for repubs to lose, and lose badly, all down the line.

Expand full comment

We can do it - but I think mid-terms are crucial. That always seems where the fascists gain ground - republicans vote in every election.

Expand full comment

this is far more important to me. They have so successfully infiltrated all lower aspects of political life.

Expand full comment

They were always there. Trump’s ascendancy gave permission to be more outwardly transgressive.

Expand full comment

JD Vance blames poor people for their plight. Joe Manchin piled on, claiming they would spend that sweet, sweet child tax credit on drugs. If these jerks trusted the folks they claim to represent, maybe they wouldn't treat them like stooges.

Expand full comment

Everyone knows only poor people spend money on drugs.

Upstanding folk would NEVER do such a thing.

Expand full comment

Well, to be fair, Vance had that as an example while growing up.

Expand full comment

Some of them would, most would not. Some people rob banks, most do not.

Expand full comment

Sure, some of them would (and great point about not generalizing, which the GOP seems to not understand), but I think there have been studies for years that have shown such mis-use of government funds just doesn't happen all that often.

There's really really low fraud rates in the SNAP program, for example, despite the constant GOP narrative to the contrary.

Expand full comment

And do we care? As a society, what should we be more worried about? That, say, 5% of people who get assistance use the money unwisely or illegally, or that 40% of children in this country sometimes go hungry? I personally am more worried about the people in my community who stand at the roadside with cardboard signs saying things like "any help appreciated" (with that last word sometimes misspelled) - more than once when I've handed them money they've replied "there's my room for the night." It might be a lie. They might be going to buy a pint or some meth. But I don't care, because I'd rather help five get what comfort they can take from something like that than miss the opportunity to help the one who really is just trying to feed himself and get out of the cold.

Expand full comment

Simon Sinek tells a story of a homeless woman who spent all day collecting her $45/day she needed to live. He had her change her sign, and she made her $45 in less than an hour, then stopped. You can take this 2 ways, most people would say she was being lazy. My take is she didn't enjoy doing it, and didn't want to take more than she needed. Maybe she was thinking of others in her situation and got out of the way for them. This concept is foreign to Americans.

Expand full comment

I love this comment, just had to say that because an upvote didn't seem enough. This is how I feel when people have lectured me recently about giving homeless people money. Fuck that noise.

Expand full comment

I am more uncomfortable with the idea that I know best what someone else should do for themselves with a gift of $5 than I am with someone actually using that $5 gift differently than me.

I suspect that “help” with strings attached is in part why so many remain unhoused as it is.

Expand full comment

i'm grateful to have some extra money to give away sometimes. sure, maybe i'm a sap sometimes, but i prefer not to think about that. i hope that the recipient experiences a bit of happiness, or relief, or adds this to their memory bank of good things.

Expand full comment

You have a good heart. And yeah I'm also a sap then! My view is, they have it much worse than me if they are out in the heat (or cold) trying to get some money. I don't care if they aren't actually "homeless," as some people seem to believe.

Expand full comment

What a load of fucking shit.

I'm so sick of these scumbags and their disgusting narratives.

Expand full comment