Five Things To Get Rid Of In February! Tabs, Mon., Feb. 19, 2024

Is one of them 'being fifty'? Morning news roundup!

It’s not till Sunday, but I’m taking the week off for staycation anyway! So I’ll see you next Monday again! Tabs gif by your friend Martini Glambassador!

Happy Presidents’ Day to Beyonce, and Beyonce only!

I know, I know: boobs. But the rest of us are enjoying the absolute jam.

SER yells at Ezra Klein a lot about Klein’s fantasy of Joe Biden dropping out and leaving it to the DNC Chicago delegates. (Nothing bad ever happened at a Chicago Democratic National Convention!) And it’s not just so SER can go deep on season six “West Wing,” although it is also that. (The Play Typer Guy)

Here’s Kamala Harris at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, and here’s Heather Cox Richardson talking about it, Putin murdering Navalny, and the now-flagging resistance to his invasion of Ukraine.

New York state didn’t outlaw abortion until 1829, nobody tell Justice Alito. Anyway, the most hated woman in New York, Madam Restell, the merry abortioness. (New Yorker)

Trump wants a 16-week abortion ban, for the excellent reason that it is a perfect number and everyone will love it. Importantly he wants exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother (an exception that does not work … yet!) and no exception for there being anything wrong with the fetus, because what kind of selfish murder whore thinks she’s better than holding a dying newborn in her arms? (CNN)

“Child neglect” can be a life in prison sentence in Oklahoma. (?!) And they’re prosecuting women for it for using marijuana, legally, while pregnant. (Marshall Project)

Alabama supreme court ruled that frozen IVF embryos are people, and the chief justice wrote a concurring opinion that is allllll about God and his frozen embryo son Jesus. (Opinion)

I’m sorry this is subscriber-only, because it’s important. But if you’re a reader of the LA Times, how the plastic bag ban failed — the state now has 50 percent more plastic bags by weight than before the ban — and how they can (and why they need to!) fix it. It’s not at all hopeless; when later states passed their own bans, they saw the loophole and closed it, and now California can too. (LA Times)

And speaking of all the shit we put in the earth and oceans, here’s a sweet story about the people who teamed up for 10 days to track, find, trap, and free a deer with a jar on her head. She wasn’t able to eat or drink the entire time, and she kept trying to put her head down and eat with her pack :/ (Patch NY)

From the comments, old and not apropos of anything, but this on a Japanese airline mass food poisoning incident is fascinating! (Hundreds were sickened, but the only death was the suicide of the manager in charge.) — Wikipedia

Here’s a Smithsonian deep read for Black History Month on Sojourner Truth, even though she wasn’t even a literal spy for the Union! (Re: Harriet Tubman right there, I didn’t know she also met with John Brown and helped recruit for the raid on Harper’s Ferry.) (Smithsonian)

Five things to get rid of in February! It’s pretty obvious stuff, but you can read it if you want to! No, “husband/wife” are not in the list, Family Feud-style BZZZZZ! (Real Simple)

On Saturday, Suzanne Vega’s “Left of Center” came on the car radio. “THIS IS MY MUSIC,” said Donna Rose. Oh honey, do I have more for you, I told her, because I do. So we spent our Sunday doing ‘80s girl folk: Tracy Chapman, Ani, Michelle Shocked, 10,000 Maniacs. (With “My Name Is Luca,” we had two in a row about child abuse! Because in the ‘80s they still had to tell people child abuse is bad.) And then we did 50 more. Here’s one for you.

I love you too. See you all next week! Be good for Evan and Robyn and Dok and Gary and all the new crew of freelance kids!

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