No Red Wave. No Blue Wave. No Fascist Takeover. No Democracy Dying in Darkness. The 2022 midterm elections came; they’ll take almost a month to sort out (including a runoff in Georgia) — but things are generally about as bad (and good) as they were before the election.
Happy Veterans Day to all the other vets in the Fifdom! I served in the 1st Brigade Reconnaissance Troop (C 1 CAV), 3rd Infantry Division, US Army 2002-2004 and went to Iraq in 2003. (Fuck, 20 years goes by quickly!)
Wisconsin voter here. I’ve been a registered Democrat for all my life and I voted blue down ballot again. I’d imagine my vote my 2024 will be more purple if the GOP moves away from Trumpism, hard lines on abortion, and idk, gives even the faintest glimpse of moving in a socially liberal direction. I really didn’t care for anything on my ballot this cycle, I just know I didn’t want any Trump related garbage taking over the state i hold dear to my heart.
True story- I was just listening to the start of the episode while I was walking my dog when Moynihan brought up the idea of Trump debating Fetterman in the next presidential election and I did a combination laugh/choke/gasp/spit-up as I was walking past one of my neighbors. She gave me a look as if she didn’t know whether to call 911 or run away screaming.
Thanks for costing me a chance at a friend Moynihan.
Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but I was a bit ticked off by a couple things on the Fifth this morning. Listening to the latest pod is usually a highlight of my day.
First off, elections are under local control! Not much Biden can do about that. He may not know what day it is, but come on man.
The delays in counting and the resulting confusion are a feature, not a bug. Where I live the Republican state legislature made it illegal to count absentee ballots before the polls close on election day. They work furiously to get such ballots thrown out.
And the other thing: trans stuff. I don't get how everyone doesn't have their hair on fire about this. Somehow mass medical experimentation is being allowed to take place on kids. These treatments- which have no evidence backing them up- include sterilization, removal of penises, testicles, breasts, a complete re-configuring of the urinary tract, and giving cross-sex hormones. Oh yeah- and these kids are also often left with an inability to orgasm. The complication rate of these treatments is huge!
My husband is a former Olympic women's coach. He sees that letting men compete with and against women will mean the end of women's sports. Women worked for so long get their own teams and athletic programs going, and Title 9 changing from sex based protections to gender based is going to destroy that.
Writing honestly about these things is like walking into a buzz saw, I get it, and I feel for you.
But I honestly think this thing is a a bigger scandal than the forced sterilizations and lobotomies that occurred in the past. It's just a huge story.
Sorry- I did say I was crabby. I'm much more pleasant on the blocked and reported threads!
I had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of blue-collar guys from rural Connecticut, two days after the election. All of them thought Trump was a liar and all of them expressed admiration for John Fetterman. These were guys who hated Hillary Clinton and voted for Trump in 2016. I found it interesting that they would be aware of a race in another state.
The dismissal of people cheering at protecting women's sports based on the perception of people's enthusiasm for volleyball seems to miss the point. I'm sure the people simply being pulled in by the giant vacuum that is the culture war issues around trans issues are legion, but there are actually a lot of people who believe in the spirit of Title IX and the ability of girls and young women to compete in sport. Whatever your opinion on the issue, dismissing people who claim support of "protecting women's sport", even through applause, seems to be the exact type of illiberalism regularly decried on the Fif'.
I have officially realized (yes it is embarrassingly late) that punditry is like the guys on the NFL Sunday shows picking winners, or Jim Kramer picking stocks; Everyone is always wrong except the people who were right out of sheer dumb luck. Then everyone tells a story after the fact: "abortion was bigger than we thought...Trump lost big....Dr Biden and Dr Oz are both real doctors." Yet, somehow, the fact that people are all wrong all the time does not stop them from reading tea leaves and saying more idiotic crap. And we eat it up. It's all made up and the points don't matter. Call me when the results are in. Oh and I still won't care because what the fuck can I do about it.
As a Brit who has been under a deluge of midterm coverage, I'm wondering if there are any Americans who care about British politics, and what sort of media coverage we get. Is there someone in Buttfuck, Idaho who stayed up all night for the result of the Chesham and Amersham by-election?
If Pharma & "people" they purchased in Congress have their way, Brandy Melville will soon have an aisle for Plan B, puberty blockers and x-sex hormones.
Pharma presents the "unique opportunity" of adolescent transgender market growing from $300mm in 2010 to $1.9 billion in 2021 to $5.3 billion in 2030. This is a US 11.9% CAGR from 2022-2030.
Only Purdue Pharma had better CAGR projections.
Who among us, wasn't capable at 14 of deciding to become a life long Pharma patient while simultaneously giving up our sexual functionality?
At 14, I definitely understood the consequences of a decision that included, giving up healthy bones, healthy eyes, inability to experience and provide sexual gratification, inability to have an orgasm and inability to reproduce. Because the immediate affirmation I am getting in return from all my peers who celebrate me as a courageous hero, makes it all worthwhile.
Imagine how happy I will be when I turn 22 and realize I am a functional Eunuch? Thank god, I'm a lifelong Pharma patient for companies with a 11.9% CAGR.
For the last 100 years transgender was MTF and represent 0.01% of the population.
As a social contagion since approx. 2015, it is 2-5% of the adolescent population with the overwhelming majority being female-to-male (FTM). What we see in adolescents is NOT being repeated in adult women. 2-5% of 30, 40 & 50 year old women are not transitioning from FTM.
Transitioning teen's, has nothing in common with being gay, except in the billion dollar activist community who need a pivot after settling gay marriage (all those jobs and billions in donor money needed a new home)..
Perhaps the hosts don't care about single sex sports. Their prerogative.
But is Kmele okay when some dude who identifies (not transitioned, but merely says "I am therefore you most accommodate me") as a women, hanging out in a female only locker room with his wife and 4 year old baby girl? Or worse, if your adolescent or young female adult child, is sexually assaulted and she is forced to be examined & get counselling from a biological male, who identifies as a female.
We aren't supposed to ask what kind of fucked up dude wants to hang out naked in a locker room full of kids or listen to a women repeat the horrors of her rape? No, we can't ask that question. We are only allowed to ask what MM asked; why are we are so bigoted that we don't see that sexual orientation and transitioning teens are the same thing?
I have nothing of any value to add to this conversation about the US Midterms, EXCEPT...
... I think the observation by friend of pod Jeff Blehar - “Don’t make politics your religion; your gods will always be overthrow” - is most apposite here in politics; but also, and more so, importantly, in life.
FYI as a Michigander, its good to remember that the reason the election looked like it did is because conservative folks vote for people they LOVE, and apparently liberal folks will vote against people they HATE but in the case where neither measure is met, folks stay home on a relative scale. Could just be my little cross section (villiage of like 4k people) but most folks were "meh" about the whole vote thing this election. I for one am sad we lost Mr. Meijer, I just hope he sticks around in any capacity that he is able. A smart guy tied down to the land like the Meijer family is to me surely something we could all get behind. But what do I know, I did afterall go to Michigan public schools, which should be a recognized disability in the DSM.
It still blows my mind that the same dude who was able to convince my mother-in-law to spend hundreds of dollars on a substance called 'raspberry ketones' was a candidate for the United States Senate in PA.
Happy Veterans Day to all the other vets in the Fifdom! I served in the 1st Brigade Reconnaissance Troop (C 1 CAV), 3rd Infantry Division, US Army 2002-2004 and went to Iraq in 2003. (Fuck, 20 years goes by quickly!)
Wisconsin voter here. I’ve been a registered Democrat for all my life and I voted blue down ballot again. I’d imagine my vote my 2024 will be more purple if the GOP moves away from Trumpism, hard lines on abortion, and idk, gives even the faintest glimpse of moving in a socially liberal direction. I really didn’t care for anything on my ballot this cycle, I just know I didn’t want any Trump related garbage taking over the state i hold dear to my heart.
True story- I was just listening to the start of the episode while I was walking my dog when Moynihan brought up the idea of Trump debating Fetterman in the next presidential election and I did a combination laugh/choke/gasp/spit-up as I was walking past one of my neighbors. She gave me a look as if she didn’t know whether to call 911 or run away screaming.
Thanks for costing me a chance at a friend Moynihan.
Woke up at 5, still drunk from yesterday’s Daddy Yankee concert. A notification popped up and I proceeded to listen to this.
Zero retention. Nothing. Am now listening again.
I need to correct myself.
Maybe I got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning, but I was a bit ticked off by a couple things on the Fifth this morning. Listening to the latest pod is usually a highlight of my day.
First off, elections are under local control! Not much Biden can do about that. He may not know what day it is, but come on man.
The delays in counting and the resulting confusion are a feature, not a bug. Where I live the Republican state legislature made it illegal to count absentee ballots before the polls close on election day. They work furiously to get such ballots thrown out.
And the other thing: trans stuff. I don't get how everyone doesn't have their hair on fire about this. Somehow mass medical experimentation is being allowed to take place on kids. These treatments- which have no evidence backing them up- include sterilization, removal of penises, testicles, breasts, a complete re-configuring of the urinary tract, and giving cross-sex hormones. Oh yeah- and these kids are also often left with an inability to orgasm. The complication rate of these treatments is huge!
My husband is a former Olympic women's coach. He sees that letting men compete with and against women will mean the end of women's sports. Women worked for so long get their own teams and athletic programs going, and Title 9 changing from sex based protections to gender based is going to destroy that.
Writing honestly about these things is like walking into a buzz saw, I get it, and I feel for you.
But I honestly think this thing is a a bigger scandal than the forced sterilizations and lobotomies that occurred in the past. It's just a huge story.
Sorry- I did say I was crabby. I'm much more pleasant on the blocked and reported threads!
Just finished the Megyn Kelly episode. She doesn’t have the smartest callers, does she?
I had the opportunity to talk to a bunch of blue-collar guys from rural Connecticut, two days after the election. All of them thought Trump was a liar and all of them expressed admiration for John Fetterman. These were guys who hated Hillary Clinton and voted for Trump in 2016. I found it interesting that they would be aware of a race in another state.
The dismissal of people cheering at protecting women's sports based on the perception of people's enthusiasm for volleyball seems to miss the point. I'm sure the people simply being pulled in by the giant vacuum that is the culture war issues around trans issues are legion, but there are actually a lot of people who believe in the spirit of Title IX and the ability of girls and young women to compete in sport. Whatever your opinion on the issue, dismissing people who claim support of "protecting women's sport", even through applause, seems to be the exact type of illiberalism regularly decried on the Fif'.
Besides, volleyball is fucking awesome.
I have officially realized (yes it is embarrassingly late) that punditry is like the guys on the NFL Sunday shows picking winners, or Jim Kramer picking stocks; Everyone is always wrong except the people who were right out of sheer dumb luck. Then everyone tells a story after the fact: "abortion was bigger than we thought...Trump lost big....Dr Biden and Dr Oz are both real doctors." Yet, somehow, the fact that people are all wrong all the time does not stop them from reading tea leaves and saying more idiotic crap. And we eat it up. It's all made up and the points don't matter. Call me when the results are in. Oh and I still won't care because what the fuck can I do about it.
I'm behind on my Fif' listening but I'm gonna move this to top of the list while it's still fresh.
And speaking from Georgia, I'm glad I was able to do my part to extend the madness for another month.
As a Brit who has been under a deluge of midterm coverage, I'm wondering if there are any Americans who care about British politics, and what sort of media coverage we get. Is there someone in Buttfuck, Idaho who stayed up all night for the result of the Chesham and Amersham by-election?
If Pharma & "people" they purchased in Congress have their way, Brandy Melville will soon have an aisle for Plan B, puberty blockers and x-sex hormones.
Pharma presents the "unique opportunity" of adolescent transgender market growing from $300mm in 2010 to $1.9 billion in 2021 to $5.3 billion in 2030. This is a US 11.9% CAGR from 2022-2030.
Only Purdue Pharma had better CAGR projections.
Who among us, wasn't capable at 14 of deciding to become a life long Pharma patient while simultaneously giving up our sexual functionality?
At 14, I definitely understood the consequences of a decision that included, giving up healthy bones, healthy eyes, inability to experience and provide sexual gratification, inability to have an orgasm and inability to reproduce. Because the immediate affirmation I am getting in return from all my peers who celebrate me as a courageous hero, makes it all worthwhile.
Imagine how happy I will be when I turn 22 and realize I am a functional Eunuch? Thank god, I'm a lifelong Pharma patient for companies with a 11.9% CAGR.
For the last 100 years transgender was MTF and represent 0.01% of the population.
As a social contagion since approx. 2015, it is 2-5% of the adolescent population with the overwhelming majority being female-to-male (FTM). What we see in adolescents is NOT being repeated in adult women. 2-5% of 30, 40 & 50 year old women are not transitioning from FTM.
Transitioning teen's, has nothing in common with being gay, except in the billion dollar activist community who need a pivot after settling gay marriage (all those jobs and billions in donor money needed a new home)..
Perhaps the hosts don't care about single sex sports. Their prerogative.
But is Kmele okay when some dude who identifies (not transitioned, but merely says "I am therefore you most accommodate me") as a women, hanging out in a female only locker room with his wife and 4 year old baby girl? Or worse, if your adolescent or young female adult child, is sexually assaulted and she is forced to be examined & get counselling from a biological male, who identifies as a female.
We aren't supposed to ask what kind of fucked up dude wants to hang out naked in a locker room full of kids or listen to a women repeat the horrors of her rape? No, we can't ask that question. We are only allowed to ask what MM asked; why are we are so bigoted that we don't see that sexual orientation and transitioning teens are the same thing?
I can confirm that the majority of Michiganders are indeed insane.
I have nothing of any value to add to this conversation about the US Midterms, EXCEPT...
... I think the observation by friend of pod Jeff Blehar - “Don’t make politics your religion; your gods will always be overthrow” - is most apposite here in politics; but also, and more so, importantly, in life.
FYI as a Michigander, its good to remember that the reason the election looked like it did is because conservative folks vote for people they LOVE, and apparently liberal folks will vote against people they HATE but in the case where neither measure is met, folks stay home on a relative scale. Could just be my little cross section (villiage of like 4k people) but most folks were "meh" about the whole vote thing this election. I for one am sad we lost Mr. Meijer, I just hope he sticks around in any capacity that he is able. A smart guy tied down to the land like the Meijer family is to me surely something we could all get behind. But what do I know, I did afterall go to Michigan public schools, which should be a recognized disability in the DSM.
It still blows my mind that the same dude who was able to convince my mother-in-law to spend hundreds of dollars on a substance called 'raspberry ketones' was a candidate for the United States Senate in PA.