TWGB: It's Raining Shoes!

 

It certainly has been a minute, hasn't it? So, what brings me out of self-imposed blogging exile, if not something very relevant to my obsessions? Is it that the POTUS's favorite she-pimp seems to be getting favorable treatment, with the expectation of more of the same? Well sure, that's pretty heinous, given what she has done, and you would certainly be right to wonder why, but there's of course more, because this is TrumpWorld--and of course, there are emails, lots of them, indicating Trump knew about the girls. 

I don't think any mature rational person, knowing what we know about Trump and women (and girls) who isn't pretty sure how well he knew either--it was not a well-kept secret.

But if you know me by now, you know all roads go back to Moscow. Or really, anywhere kompromat on this scuzzy, flabby-brained bag of crapulence can damage this country's national security. Because fine, MAGA does not give a tiny, constipated shit for women and girls--understood. From "Moses Mike" Johnson to the lowest Q-creep, they can pretend to moralize all they want, but at the end of the day, they can, will and do compromise their morality for the sake of politics. 

But Epstein was letting the Russians know what of course they already knew--how to handle Trump. Epstein was talking with the Russians and people in Trump's circle at a period of time that is MIGHTY inconvenient. 

Makes you wonder, doesn't it? I don't want to wonder, though--we need to see what else in in these Epstein files, and not whatever version has been redacted to death (so we have heard). The American people deserve the truth. 

(As for me, I'm still writing--I'm doing my usual November poetry challenge. )

Big Men in Kids' Pants

 

Anyway, last night I didn't blog about Trump possibly referring to himself as a king over interfering with New York local politics over "congestion pricing" or with his daft, ahistorical and ignorant ravings over whether Ukrainian president Zelenskyy is a "dictator" (while Vladimir Putin has ruled Russia for a quarter century, and no, the temporary interregnum of Nukesy-Pukesy the Drunken Hate-America Elf does not count). I wrote a short science fiction story instead because it gave my brain a rest from what can only be described as imprecatory cursing bordering on being entered on several watchlists, from Homeland Security to St. Peter's. 

But my problem coalesced for me in the above picture of our US Vice-President, JD (Jimmy Donuts?) Vance, sitting there with his Little Lord Fauntleroy awkward short-looking trousers. Jello Dildo Vance never learned how to buy pants. When I say "Big Men in Kids' Pants" I am not talking about in a Matt Gaetz way or a Tate Brothers' way--although their pants truly also don't fit and make them look stupid and juvenile. Also, they fuck underage girls. (That's called "statutory rape" in law-and-order world.) 

I mean they have never learned to pull up their big boy pants and pretend they have a "crisis of manhood" when they have a crisis of not figuring out --not the "man" part--but the "adult" part. 

Donald Trump and Elon Musk are the real machers, so I will leave Vance alone for a minute--and he's used to it! And they never earned a callous between them. Billions of dollars, yes. Did a 70 hour week of physical on your feet pallet jack and register banging work-no. Never climbed poles, fought fires, worn a hardhat but never used the equipment but for show. Their work is investing. 

Trump Sexual Abuse Verdict Upheld

 

A federal appeals court has issued a written opinion upholding Trump's defamation verdict which found him liable for the sexual abuse of E. Jean Carroll:

"We conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the 2nd Circuit said. “Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”

There is something about this case that fascinates me: the first defamation case found him liable with a $5 million dollar verdict. The second, at which he briefly testified, awarded an additional $83.3 million in damages. Something about Trump was very unsympathetic to a jury. 

Gaetz Pulls Out

 

Having viewed at least some portion of the iceberg of dirt set to crash his Titanic nomination for AG, Matt Gaetz has graciously stepped aside for someone else who might slip past senatorial review. 

I'm kind of joking. When I say "graciously stepped aside", I guess I'm still wondering at the hubris that let Matt Gaetz keep his name in knowing of his ethics investigation and probably being well aware of whether he paid for sex with a minor once or a few times or whatever--or whether he was always ass deep in hookers and blow. 

Before we get on to the quandary of Pam Bondi, the recipient of Trump money to forget about any prosecution against Trump University, which defrauded down on their luck folks of all sorts who thought lessons from real estate stable genius Trump would change their fortunes, not leave them even more immersed in debt, as the new Gaetz--let's think about the old one:

How Can a Man Seem Less R@pe-y?

 

Four men chosen by President-elect Donald Trump for top positions have been accused of varying degrees of sexual misconduct. https://t.co/9tcKslmkxy

— CBS News (@CBSNews) November 20, 2024

You know this is an old joke--it was used by Rodney Dangerfield in "Back to School": "How do you seem slimmer?  Hang out with fat people!"

Well, how does Trump, of the problematic penis, seem less like an adjudicated rapist who needs to give E. Jean Carroll her money and whose hush money trial sentencing has been set back in light of his election win, seem less like a problematic human? Surround himself with rapey people, I guess. Normalize the shit out of predation. 

The would-be protector is actually an obvious predator. It really does seem like there are more pictures of Trunp with Jeffrey Epstein than there are with his kids, but as an added bonus, there are pics of Trump with Epstein and his kids. 

TWGB: It's the Great Bumpkin, Charlie Brown!

 

Trump apparently can't stop touching his nose and mouth and has fucked up his make-up, but clearly he is being some kind of nightmare squash for Halloween. It's a nice touch that his campaign decided he should be wearing a reflective work vest in case he goes wandering off.

So, yes, the actual response of his campaign to the furor of Puerto Rico being called a floating garbage island and his lately referring to the whole country as a garbage can is to play dress-up as a sanitation worker and literally be seen in a garbage truck labelled "Trump/Vance". 

I’m sorry, everyone else saw him straight up miss the door handle and nearly fall over, right? pic.twitter.com/Au2mmulLcD

— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) October 30, 2024

In addition to looking absurd and infirm, this working-class drag stuff really has to stop. I mean, we just recently watched him trying to serve McDonald's while smelling like a flame-boiled Whopper, and this, too, stinks. (Of course, they are trying to make it about the thing Biden never did say, because they want to be martyrs thrown to lions except, we all know who bites.) 

TWGB: Back to the Scene of Every Crime

 

Donald Trump calls this "a day of love" and said no one died. pic.twitter.com/hEYF7aw2OM

— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) October 17, 2024

Trump pretends there were no guns and maybe no one died or maybe only one person did.  And he wants to pretend they all did come out--the people he calls "we" and sometimes "hostages", for reasons that had nothing to do with his campaign quite openly promoting "Stop the Steal" and having campaign events after the election was over. He helped the disaster that followed because it was a little violence party held in his honor. And he did feel honored. Never try and tell me he didn't. 

He even has his current running mate saying he thinks Trump might have won in 2020. I want someone to ask Vance very pointedly which of the dumb things he believes in: is it the Italian servers? The Chinese thermostats? The German servers Gina Haspel nearly died to defend? Is it the bamboo ballots shipped in from China--or the ballots shipped in from North Korea? Is it the Dawn of the Dead voting by so many deceased people that no one could check it, or was it the supposed hordes of immigrants with some kind of very authentic fake ID? What incredibly stupid conspiracy theory of all the incredibly stupid conspiracy theories that flew about in 2020 does JD Vance want to swear to ascribe to? And what is his proof? 

If he wants to lie so pathologically out of any one of his two pathologically lying faces, I need notes. 

Does the RNC Situation Look Bad?

 

Here's a fun thing we learned today--the RNC seems to have an agreement with the TrumpWorld Powers That Be to the effect that Trump legal fees get paid first, and then I guess the RNC biscuits just get whatever gravy slops over the plate. That's just beautiful. To put it in perspective, Save America PAC, the slush fund out of which Trump's legal fees are getting paid, has a burn rate that is way crazy--$230K a day on legal fees. And in the meanwhile, Trump's struggle-campaign can't afford campaign stops in probably not-crucial states like (checks notes) Arizona. (Was that a big deal in 2020? Let me think back....)

To put this all further in perspective, Nikki Haley, though out of the race, has more cash on hand as of the end of February than the RNC did. She didn't have the same issues with raising money or overspending because her campaign as a challenge to Trump in part rested on being a choice, without annihilating him via negative campaigning. 

You'd think this might make Haley a great option for VP, yes? After Trump decided she's a birdbrain and she decided he's probably senile, I kind of doubt it. She didn't endorse and I don't think it's likely he'll ask--but what if--?

As Goes Ohio? Kansas? Arizona?

 

If Nikki Haley, who dropped out weeks ago, is pulling 20% in the GOP primary against Trump in Ohio--this is a worrisome thing for him. Here's what I'm thinking--it's well-educated and female voters who realize that Trump is an appalling person. Some of these people will end up voting for Biden. Some will stay home. But this is an issue that Trump actually CAN'T address. 

What do I mean by that? Take the E. Jean Carroll defamation suit. He counter-sued and lost, because what in the hell is the difference between assaulting someone digitally vs. with a penis? He's going back in against ABC and George Stephanopoulos because Nancy Mace kind of made him do it.  So we are now going to be talking about Trump's being a rapist and Trump INVITED it. 

We are going to go back to the Ukraine issue in the first impeachment because Trump invited that, too. We are going to se him condition Jewishness as it relates to Zionism, for a degree of Zionism that truly is anti-Palestinian. We are going to question what he REALLY wants done at the border because he stopped the border deal. We are going to question whether he understands foreign policy because after all--Russia is being expansionist, dare I say, imperialistic? And there's stupid tyrant fanboy Trump, wanting to be recognized by the Big Kids Dictator Club. 

Third Time's a Start, Mr. Trump (UPDATED)

 

The above court sketch is Trump pleading not guilty at his third arraignment. His defense plan is to re-litigate the 2020 election, which doesn't sound like a great idea because, as I recall, his campaign legal team lost over 60 cases, and his supporters floated easily debunked lies about the dead voting and more ballots being submitted than had been requested than were requested, and some outright weird stuff regarding Italian satellites, German servers, Chinese thermostats, and Venezuelan voting machines haunted by the ghost of Hugo Chavez. 

In retrospect, the 2020 defense he wants to make still reeks of desperate batshittery and I guess I wonder what sort of lawyers are happy to make this case. But let's face it, Trump is going through lawyers like Kleenex at the moment.

For a fun glimpse into how it's going so far based on yesterday, the case is being made that the DOJ has to demonstrate that Trump knew he lost and that these charges are about Trump's freedom of speech, not his entering into a conspiracy to defraud. Well. That's supposed to be the case. But Alina Habba admitted that everyone knew Trump lost, and John Lauro admitted that Trump did enter into a conspiracy to delay the congressional proceeding on the basis of his false claims. 

So, you know. It's going gggggrrrreeeeeaaaattt.

Oh well. It's Trump fans that should be questioning his representation since, you know, they're paying for it. Same as they paid for the suit that clarified that yes, it is fair to call Trump a rapist. And the way they will pay for the hush money trial and the case against Michael Cohen that could incriminate Trump some more and the stolen docs trial....

UPDATED: Trump thought he'd be cute the very next day:

Donald Trump swore in court yesterday he would not attempt to influence or intimidate witnesses, retaliate against anyone, or in any other way attempt to obstruct the administration of justice.

“Are you prepared to comply?” the magistrate judge asked.

“Yes,” Trump replied. pic.twitter.com/UWxcz0nZ1d

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) August 4, 2023

We all know what he was trying there; I've pointed out that he doesn't have to be explicit for his little fan club to get the jist and that gagging him because of his fat mouth was always a likelihood--one Trump also would have expected. The above Truth Social post for all the world looks to me like he's threatening retaliation on prosecutors and witnesses, etc. And I would say there's a good argument for pre-trial detention because this unfit man either can't or won't help himself from doing and saying such things. 

TWGB: It's A Bad Week. For Trump, That Is.

 

This is a short one, but Trump got told to shut his face, he really is considered a rapist by regular folks, and also, too, he can't move his hush money trial to federal court because why even?  

So, I know, I know, these aren't the biggest things on the big old list of Trump fails, and especially not while we're awaiting the 1/6 indictments or looking forward to his charging in Georgia, and so on. But I just wanted to point out that Trump is definitely getting his time in court for his huge, big, being a sleaze stuff. 

Which people are noticing more and more. 

UPDATE: You know it's bad when he's like this:

Donald Trump says that it would be "very dangerous" for Jack Smith to put him in jail because of his "passionate" supporters. pic.twitter.com/DsWNbRMWZR

— Republican Accountability (@AccountableGOP) July 20, 2023

Is that a threat? Maybe he should be charged for making threats. It really feels like all the more reason why he, and the unreasonable and violent people who like him, should be held accountable, right? Because he's going off.  Off like old raw bacon in the sun. 

UPDATE: If Trump was going to do something he never did before, what would it be? Please a woman? Tell the truth? Give to charity? Be entirely honest? Act like an adult? Pick up the tab? I am sure he's trying to be threatening, but um. There's an awful lot Trump can be trusted to have not ever done before.

TWGB: The Quality of Mercy is Priced at $2 Million

 

So, lawsuit against Giuliani just got really graphic, and if you want to read the whole thing, I recommend having a sick bag or bucket handy because the parts where he emotionally and physically abuses a female employee is nasty and I wish my read on him didn't feel validated. She says she has texts and emails and even recordings of his abusiveness and more.

But the part I notice is the claim that she can validate that Giuliani was asking $2 million for pardons, because this wasn't new. It's just amazing we have validation now. Also, it appears that as early as 2019, Trump was scared enough of Dark Brandon that he was going to have a plan for losing, but claiming the election was stolen anyway. 

Wow: In *Feb. 2019*, Giuliani had "voter fraud" claim planned if Donald Trump lost the election, according to the complaint.

"Giuliani told Ms. Dunphy that Trump’s team would claim that there was 'voter fraud' and that Trump had actually won the election." pic.twitter.com/qU0pDJUwIK

— Frank G. Runyeon (@frankrunyeon) May 15, 2023

And if that doesn't remind me of anything?   

Yeah. We knew. It was always about fuckery. Undermining democracy. Damaging what makes our democracy effective and unique. 

TWGB: April is the Cruelest Month

 

I guess Trump's indictment cherry having been popped, he has no reason to expect the rest of this month to be great, but wow--I don't think it's going to be good for The Donald! For one thing, just this Thursday, he's sitting down again with Leticia James and her crew regarding his NYC civil case over his business practices, and since he repeatedly pled the 5th the first time around, this time isn't going to go any better. See, the thing is, in civil trials there's a thing called adverse inference which means what it says on the label: if someone is pleading the 5th because their testimony might incriminate them, take it at face value that the truth would not set them free. 

He's also facing the E. Jean Carroll civil suit in NYC over his defamation of self-described rape victim E. Jean Carroll. The judge in this case has agreed to anonymity for the jury based on Trump's already egregious behavior regarding judges, prosecutors, witnesses, you name it.  Because he acts like a mafioso. As with the Bragg case in Manhattan, this case highlights how horrific he is to women. 

I really wish people were more aware of this. 

Anyway, there is still the potential for indictments to drop in either the Georgia grand jury case, where racketeering and a broad cast of characters being looked at for indictment figure, and the obviously bad Mar-A-Lago documents case. I am not actually crouching on a case of champagne waiting for those things, but it would be neat, right? 

And then there's the odd thing about Trump filing to block Mike Pence's testimony to the Special Counsel regarding J6--why? Is there a problem with the very honest man Trump had as his Vice-President testifying about what might had led up to that day? And if so why? 

Enquiring minds would like to know. After all, it always has struck me as strange that Trump's impulse is always to obstruct or delay the release of facts about whatever it is he's been up to while he claims he's a pure as the driven snow, and his little fan club hasn't yet caught on and said: "Put up or shut up." 

Anyway, I think it's already been demonstrated that executive privilege appeals are going to fizzle. And with interesting results. I know Trump wants to plead all his cases to the Supreme Court because he picked a third of them, but OTOH, has he offered any really good vacations lately? (I mean really!) 

Anyways, it is starting to look like the season of finding out for Donald Trump, and the season of fucking around is going to have to stop (I know that Trump is loving the idea of courting a gag order re: his running down the DA and judge in his Manhattan case, and I bet his attorneys would LOVE THAT FOR HIM. Also he kinda is earning it.)  

And in other weird news, why hasn't he filed his financial disclosure  yet? (Truth Social is a bit of a struggle-launch, isn't it?)  He's going to be like this the whole election, isn't he? His supporters better start asking the questions that are logically piling up. And just deal with the reality that they don't really know if they are funding a campaign for president, or just the legal fees for a serial criminal. 

Who's That Girl?

 

This snippet from Trump's deposition in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case is very interesting: he mistakes Caroll for Marla Maples, his second wife, in a photograph. It's pretty funny to me that he confused a woman that he  insists is "not his type" with a woman he actually married. She's a tall, slender blonde. That seems to be his type. And he also doesn't want to render his DNA. But then again, he tried to pretend he didn't know her at all. 

But the more disturbing thing in the released deposition is that he tries to maintain that she enjoyed the idea of being raped:

Trump called Carroll “sick, mentally sick”. And he mischaracterized an interview Carroll had given on CNN, falsely claiming she had talked about enjoying being sexually assaulted. “She actually indicated that she loved it. OK? She loved it until commercial break,” Trump said. “In fact, I think she said it was sexy, didn’t she? She said it was very sexy to be raped. Didn’t she say that?”

Trump’s political fate may  decided – by a Georgia gran jury

Read more

Kaplan then tried to elicit from Trump that he had raped her client.

“So, sir, I just want to confirm: it’s your testimony that E Jean Carroll said that she loved being sexually assaulted by you?”

Trump answered: “Well, based on her interview with [CNN’s] Anderson Cooper, I believe that’s what took place. And we can define that … I think she said that rape was sexy – which it’s not, by the way.”

What Carroll had described is that she prefers to use the word fight, not rape because some other people “think rape is sexy”.

It doesn't escape me that rapists often tell themselves that their victims really wanted it, and that a narcissist might have a hard time understanding that if he was feeling it, that his victim wasn't also feeling the same way. And the way his response is constructed disturbs me, because it can be interpreted that he acknowledges something happened. 

TWGB: It's Bad

 

The conviction of the Trump Organization for 17 counts of assorted tax fraud charges is, to put it mildly, a bit of a setback for the presidential candidacy of former president Donald J. Trump, although of course, he's appealing it. And we can look back and note that the sad ends of Trump University and the Trump Foundation didn't scathe Trump's image as a successful (and definitely not a con artist) businessman. (They totally should have.) It's hard to say that what should be a bit of a (to use a term) legal coup against a corrupt real estate scion is even the beginning of the end of Trump--the man, the myth, the mofo. 

But why not say it is? Because whatever is going down around him--it isn't good. 

I wonder about little gestures in TrumpWorld, like the revelation that Trump's lawyers have a team investigating whether there were still classified government documents to be found on Trump properties, and while they did find a couple in a storage unit, they are pretttttttyyy sure Trump's usual haunts are clean. 

My favorite bit is where the FBI decline to watch the search:

The team also offered the FBI the opportunity to observe the search, but the offer was declined, the people said. It would be unusual for federal agents to monitor a search of someone’s property conducted by anyone other than another law enforcement agency. Federal authorities have already searched Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s primary residence, and he spends almost all of his time at those three properties, advisers say.

They would like to watch a search at Trump Tower or Bedminster, is my guess, but doing it when expected is not how this is going to go down.  I just have the vague suspicion that this story is Team Trump trying to get out in front of something.  I mean, Trump;s lawyers say he's got all the clasified docs out of his sstem but they've been wrong before, right? 

TWGB: Trump the Loser

 

This previously unseen footage shows Congressional leaders—both Republicans and Democrats—as they were taken to a secure location during the January riot.

Everyone involved was actively working to address the violence. All of them did what President Trump refused to do. pic.twitter.com/fcF4zBLGWm

— January 6th Committee (@January6thCmte) October 13, 2022

The violence on 1/6/2021 was premeditated, serious, and was addressed by Congressional leadership while they were under siege and working to ensure that the business of state--the confirmation of the legitimate vote, was continued. This leadership included Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who indeed tried to get the National Guard of nearby states to respond to the affray. 

(I am pointing this out because people who were actually there later had the stones to imply that she--who would be every bit the target of such a mob, was the one responsible for rejecting the assistance of the National Guard. They knew better and they lied to protect their little gutless loser President.) 

That mob was inspired by Donald J. Trump, who made up his mind before the election that he would just declare victory and lie his ass off about the results. Why? Vanity? Spite? Fear of his house of bottom-dealt cards falling in?

A little bit of all of the above?  This was a man who spent his entire presidency surrounded by scandals of his own making that he dearly wanted to blame others for. Like the Russian collusion mess. The one he seems to be using as an excuse/pretext for his stolen documents problem right now (which is unresolved in that he may still have documents not yet turned over and is being investigated under the Espionage Act).  (Also too, he's already in deep because he seems to gone out of his way to obstruct justice multiple times on this one, so, he knows they are not his docs and he is too dumb and bad to just give the game up.)

I know, right? We're back to "Russia, Russia, Russia"--oh, honey, we have never left. After all, the first impeachment in part was about trying to get Ukraine to investigate whether Ukraine, not Russia, actually interfered in the 2016 election to set things up to look like he was really colluding with Russia, which is pretty rich and barkingly mad on its face given the state of things. And this is the kind of bullshit line of inquiry DOJ's John Durham is, groaningly, doggedly, pursuing to this day.  (It's not going great and it was never going to. It's a conspiracy theory ginned up to pave over the obvious and already documented truth covered by several volumes of a Senate Intelligence committee.) 

Only 52

 

I screen capped the above Tweet and am linking it because I kind of think it will be deleted, but a Washington Post columnist just recently on Twitter said "Only 10% of girls even get their period. Only 52 girls under the age of 14 got abortions in Ohio last year--and 10 is a long way from 14." 

How many should there be before you give a shit? I wonder, when I see that. See, I know girls as young as five have conceived. Girls who are, say, eleven years old, have been forced to have caesarian births.  At 11 years of age.  Only 10% of girls under 11 even get their period. Only. Only 52 girls under the age of 14 got abortions in Ohio in 2021. 

Only 52--one a week, just in Ohio. Just in Ohio. This is a figure that doesn't look at the Ohio children whose families made them give birth. This is looking at just one state. 

And I don't even know what to do with "10 is a long way from 14." Like, in terms of the child's innocence? In terms of how fucked up it is that she was likely impregnated by a grown man? How does anyone say something like that--as if implying that 14 years olds ate capable of consent and bearing and parenting a child. 

It's still very fucked up and not right, at ten, or fourteen, or really ever for someone to experience a nonconsensual sexual experience. 

I'm trying to not wonder if McArdle even understands what kids are, she of the imagined school shooter kiddy pile-up. She didn't understand what assault rifles did then and doesn't understand what birth for a tween means now. Whether their pelvis can handle it, what it means for the future fertility of the child, whether it is traumatic, how the delivery is made (cut from hip to hip?) how the pregnant child processed the trauma of all of it. 

It's strange to see an argument that was supposed to make the situation of pregnant tweens seem less horrific only--only--hammer home how traumatic and wrong it actually is. And how strange the word "only" can seem when appended to a tragic number.

Russia Has No Moral Defense

 

There are worse pictures one could see today than the one I have chosen, of brave Ukrainian women who were released as a POW exchange, their heads deliberately shaven as if to humiliate and unsex them. They are crowned with courage which is far better than hair. They dealt with hardship and sacrifice--their heads are those of warriors. I chose to look on these faces, determined and hopeful, to remind us that people endure and persist despite unfathomable fuckery, because the other images we have today are so dire.

In the re-taken towns of Bucha and Irpin, is has become clear that Russian forces committed mass murder of fighting-aged Ukrainian men. They have clearly been targeting civilians previously, but it is clear the goal is total war. And while the tales of poor Russian military members looting goods they had no access to previously, and trying to capitalize on their war crimes is an almost ironic indictment of the poverty of Russia's kleptocracy trickling down, some of these same "poor rural Russians" are committing atrocities beyond picking clean the houses of corpses and even their bodies. 

Maybe He Should Have Started With That

 

This is an incredibly bizarre statement. When asked why sex assault victims who get pregnant have to carry to term under TX law, first Abbott says they have 6 weeks to get abortion, then says he is going to eliminate rape by arresting all future rapists. pic.twitter.com/OYFH11xT1G

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) September 7, 2021

If that's a thing he could do--I mean, honestly? What was stopping him? Of course it's just twaddle. People who don't care about reproductive choice are pretty notoriously unconcerned with consent, either.

UPDATE: Although the real problem is--even in the case of an exception for incest or rape, we're conditioning a pregnant person's rights on what someone else has done or what someone else deems to be morally abhorrent, not on what that person needs for their own care. Why should someone have to establish they "deserve" a right that should simply be theirs?

UPDATE 2: For Abbott's primary challenger, Don Huffines, even the 6 weeks allowed under the new law is way too much. I would suppose he's also no fan of Plan B. He's a piece of work.  But he demonstrates that as bad as this legislation is, there's the potential for worse.

But Why This Case?

ICYMI: The Justice Dept. will keep fighting to defend Donald Trump against writer E. Jean Carroll's defamation case.

Biden had criticized this effort last year on the campaign trail. Key phrase in DOJ's filing last night: "institutional interests" https://t.co/LTuq3vv58F

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) June 8, 2021

I joke that I am no sort of Suzy Silverlinings, and I try to maintain a fair amount of cynicism, but when it comes to this case, I genuinely hope that the claim that this is to protect "institutional interests" is with the hope that the case fails in this instance. Of all Trump's "l'etat c'est moi" bullshit, the idea that the DOJ had any business in what was wholly a case of Trump's gross personal life is exceptionally egregious.