I’m sorry, E. Jean. Normally, I can say funny things here, but I am really devastated by this ruling. It isn’t as if we can fix it with a Constitutional Amendment BECAUSE THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION FOR PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY. It’s the opposite of the intentions of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The justices just made this up. They have violated their oaths of office. We have a huge and unprecedented problem. This is actually worse than the Dred Scott Decision in that we don’t know if we can sustain this system of government if Presidents can operate like Roman Emperors.
They also made it legal for civil servants to take bribes as long as the reward came after the corrupt action.
They are so powerful as it is, the Supreme Court justices, and they have violated the very notion of rule of law.
I am more than worried. My husband and I are considering whether to move to Canada. I have graduate student loans I am paying off through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and consequently need to stay at least three more years working in a public service capacity (as a college professor in my case) in order to pay off the loans. In an America where no one is above the law, this was a joy, not just a duty.
I respect Mr. Biden saying he would not commit crimes in office even if he could not be prosecuted for them. I appreciate that. How many presidents are we going to have to trust this way?
Congresswoman Occasio-Cortez is bringing articles of impeachment to DC after the Independence Day break. I wholly support her, but do you really think Mike Johnson is going to bring these to the floor for a vote? And if he were to in an actual “Moses” moment do so, do we think they would pass?
I am sticking around to vote in the next election. I am sticking around to work off my student loans, as I am a woman of my word. I will obey the laws of this nation and hope to bless those with whom I come into contact. But what IS law when the people who determine its highest application simply invent things without respecting precedent or the black letter words of the Constitution they are intended to arbitrate, taking actual bribes from actual billionaires with actual Hitler memorabilia?
I am a woman of faith, and I am praying for this nation. I pray for you, E. Jean. I pray for the Confab. I pray for uppity women everywhere.
A word about this prayer for uppity women everywhere:
I am a Christian. I have written this prayer in my tradition. If that’s not your tradition I still wish you well.
Heavenly Father, it is written the 46th Psalm that you are a very present help in times of trouble. I am grateful to you that while My uppity sisters and I go through a time of trouble you are very present and ready to help.
The psalm goes on to say this:
“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.”
God, my uppity sisters and I are indeed a river. We are self invented, flowing into the cities where we invent ourselves. I call you Creator, hence inventor of me, but not all my uppity sisters do. Nevertheless, Most High God over our circumstances, I am boldly declaring that I believe that the stream of us makes your city glad, that there is a scaredness in the dwelling places you make in our hearts, a type of the holy tabernacles, a place to abide. That you are in the mist of us despite whatever fears we may have, and we are unmoved even as we as a river flowing through a city go from one place to another like bright streams, bringing refreshment to our communities, bringing pleasure to our communities, making you glad, imperfect as we are.
I further say, Most High God, that these my uppity sisters experience you in the midst of us so that we shall not be moved by the fear that might move us in this hour. That we who believe in you know that you will help us, your bright river of women, and that right early.
Lord, we reclaim the possibility of encountering you from all the people purporting to speak in your name who believe we are not part of your family. We claim you as family. We know you are almighty, that those who use your name to hate others rather than to love others — they are not speaking for you. It is written that in the last days, you will tell such people, even as they cry out to you, reclaiming their churchy but empty works engendering hatred and hard-heartedness, “I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Lord, we admit we are not perfect. We make mistakes. We have done things that disappoint ourselves and like disappoint you. We are grateful you are a perfect God, that you love us despite our imperfections, and if we humbly ask to be forgiven for the things we have done wrong and turn away from things we have done that are harmful to others or to ourselves, you will forgive us.
Lord, I stand in the gap, as it is said, for those who do not know better, not because I am in any way better, but because I know YOU are better, and I humble myself with all uppity women flowing in a stream that gladdens your heart and repent on behalf of our whole nation. We are a nation where there is violence, genocide, rape, robbery, degradation, cruelty, greed, and other evils. Lord, not because I am at all perfect but because you are wholly loving and merciful, utterly perfect, I ask you to forgive this nation for our lies, or robberies, our acts of violence, our betrayals, and our injustices. I ask you repenting wholly that you would heal this our land. I know you are faithful and just to forgive us, and I thank you in advance.
Please encourage this stream of uppity women that are too often unwelcome in church, misunderstood by all but you in our secret hours, where we sponge off the makeup, take off the shoes that pinch our feet, and rub our aching limbs. Please liberate us from these attempts to negate us by making us second-class citizens, even in your city, O God, and in our own land. Protect us from workers of evil and iniquity. Help us to rebuild our nation, hopefully with some uppity men as brothers along side us as well, to be a place where we greet one another like family, encourage one another, lift each other up, and foster respect and love.
I pray this prayer, asking you in Jesus’ name to deliver our nation from liars and thieves, and people of violence. Deliver us from those who wish to steal our natural rights which inhere from you. Restore law and order in our land. Restore equity to our land. Restore even the environment in our land. Heal our land, o lord. Heal us. Save us from people who would harm us or others. And teach us to bless our neighbors, even as we love them as ourselves.
All of this I ask in the name of your Son, whom I call my Lord and Savor. Amen.
May it be. Thank you so very much for this prayer. May the Good in all of us join in making it so. It feels like evil shouts in our world every day, and Good whispers. But when we are joined, whispers can become a storm to drown out any shout.
If you and I spent the evening consuming whiskey and telling truth, you would hear how often a prayer was about all that got me through a bad situation. I have a practice of praying passionately. It was that or go mad sometimes in my life.
We are all in despair. I have cried until I have no tears left. Despair is not a new emotion for women rather it is a strangling yoke we have worn for eternity. But, we have women from generations past who wore that yoke for us. It is our privilege and honor to the warrior women who fought for our right to vote to pick up the yoke and carry it now..
I don't want to squander their sacrifices or wallow in self-pity anymore over where we are. Let's remember where we came from and fight as they did. We are descended from battle-born women. We would not be able to cast a vote if not for them.
Remember and honor Abigail Scott Duniway, suffragist 1834-1915
"The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future."
I keep saying "it was fiction, not a guidebook." She is one of my favorite writers and "The Handmaid's Tale" is one of my favorite book. It is so sad that we're getting closer and closer any day. I'm actually working on a screenplay that is a dystopian story set in a few years in Alabama...
Oh dear Michele! Did you know Musk’s maternal grandfather? That’s the Musk who is being paid to destroy the ISS and is formerly known as the fresh prince, oh no wait, that’s someone else, hails from Saskatchewan, too. And that the constant gardener revealed the dirty bomb plans of the AIDS epidemic in Africa? Yup you are write Saskatchewan politics is deep state
Miss them so much. As a college frosh in the 80s, I read two Atwood titles in a feminist lit class chock full of eye-opening books. A bookseller tipped me off to the forthcoming Handmaid's Tale, and I saved up my pennies, stalking the store in the meantime. I was so sure then that society would only keep moving forward. That's youth, of course. Then you learn the painful way that progress and regression cycle and it's actually dangerous to think "At least THAT (insert bad thing here) can't happen again."
I would like to be immune from religion. Better yet, I would like to spray immunity all around me to the entire world so that we can collectively leave behind the notion that some invented benevolent being watches us constantly and requires utter devotion to “scripture”. I don’t care what fantasies the people around me engage in so that they can get through their day—I vehemently object to their belief that I should also engage in their delusions, which then rises to the level of laws, false morality, and intransigence.
Is it wrong to LOL at the thought of bottling some Qcommunity Immunity Spray marketed to, um, folks I think might enjoy that? I could start an Etsy. Red-and-white labels for one demographic, blue-and-white for another.
I gave up wearing bras during covid. I wear stretchy camisoles. When I want a little lift I use a camisole with a built in bra of sorts. I am very casual but I am professional and work in city hall.
Seriously though, I feel quite troubled by the so-called conservative majority of SCOTUS. They have proved themselves to be liars of the worse order. Justice delayed is Justice denied.
AND the NC fascist Capitol policemens' rules whereby they arrest any citizen showing the tiniest signs of protest -- including uttering one single sound, or holding up any signs, or moving an inch from one's seat while in the upstairs gallery looking down on the corrupt proceedings of the illegitimately ruling GOP majority in the state House and Senate. I got arrested with 30 others including Rev. Barber in 2017 and had to do 25 hours of community service and be called "rabble-rousers" by a GOP judge, all unconsitutional. Dozens of others have been arrested since for participlating in our democracy through lawful, peaceful protest.
I'm with you on the first! But wow, I'm horrified about the second. I had no idea NC was so awful. I lived in Rocky Mount in 1981. My first child was born there, the only one in both our families born below the Mason/Dixon line. She did a report about her "Tar Heel" State in middle school back in NJ (where we're from originally). I'm so sorry you have to go through that, but I sure like that "rabble-rouser" label.
Tizz, I was born in Rocky Mount. We left the state when I was around five years old, because my father found a better job elsewhere. My relatives who still live there are mostly my age, so we know how hard it is to pick up and move these days. They tell me that the Tar Heel State has changed enormously, and not in a good way.
Kudos to your daughter for writing that report.
I've never had the pleasure of meeting Sarah. She's very "gutsy." Gloria Steinem would be proud!
Thanks, Dianne. I have never met Sarah either. This Conflab feels very easy to talk here with E. Jean so I talk to everyone. (Not like that IRL a'tal.) We moved a lot back then (80s) with her dad's work, so I was only in NC for a short time. I loved it, but it took a few weeks to understand what people were saying. My neighbor said, "Hey!" one morning and I asked her what was wrong. In NJ that isn't a greeting, but usually a warning! But when we left we were saying "Hey!" to everyone, too. The people I met there were really welcoming and warm.
Nancy, wouldn't it be nice if every country had such a law. I know it will never happen (for obvious reasons), but I can dream. Unless SCOTUS finds a way to outlaw dreams, too.
There are many but the first one that comes to mind is to be exempt from getting mad as hell! How many times in life I was told by men not to be so angry. Or this misdemeanor one, due to my natural RBF, men telling me to “smile.”
Now, that’s power! I’ve got the middle finger but having spent my childhood growing up on a boat, building and renovating houses, and a past career as a goldsmith, I’ve got what Jerry Seinfeld called, “mans hands!” 🤣
“In an ideal world . . .” Yeah. When pigs fly. Haha. This happened for YEARS when I lived in NYC. It was during a time in my life when I was deemed (by men) to still be viable (as in, sexual) and thus worthy of their (crass) attention and “expected” response. Not all men, mind you. I’m married to a wonderful, caring, enlightened guy. I’m not a man hater, BUT, I do hate a lot of men! 🤣 And, as a mother of an 18yr old daughter, I am even more concerned that it’s become, and WILL continue to get worse—just read project 2025) for her and her peers—than it was when I was her age. It may seem that I’ve veered off topic, but it all starts, like I mentioned in my own experience, with a man’s (it’s always been a man— I’ve never had a woman tell me to smile, lighten up, or to stop being so angry—) sense of entitlement and the false belief that he has the right to tell a woman how to act, behave, or respond. It’s taken me a lifetime to come into my own and while I am at an age when men don’t even bother to look my way, I have no problem telling them to fuck off, and, more importantly, have taught my daughter that NO ONE has the right to tell you how to feel or respond or react (even though we have a bunch of old, decrepit white guys in Congress who are doing their best to maintain the status quo!) Whew! That was probably longer than necessary. I guess E. Jean’s prompt and your insight that we don’t live in an ideal world and that it is shrinking by the minute, prompted this reply. 🤣 Since the Supreme Court seems to think it can change the constitution, I say they should add total immunity to all women who display RBF’s and who, like in the movie, Network, are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! That’s an immunity I can support!
Somehow it doesn't even seem right/fair to you or any young woman to attribute this kind of attention to having RBF. Betting your face, and its expression, was/is just fine, and you were just minding your own business--not looking at them and scowling.
The overfamiliarity and intrusiveness of people ordering a stranger to smile was always mind-boggling to me--especially when I was young--but it's so common, isn't it? I wonder why they do it.
My two sisters and I laugh about this very question and have concluded that it’s simply about control. I wished I had learned this when I was younger and navigating my life as an actor and model. The most powerful weapon in my arsenal is the ability to laugh. And I mean that, not as a way to push the insult away, but to use it as a ballistic missile, obliterating the insult, and leaving them dazed and confused!
The Electoral College. If you don't live in a swing state, your vote means nothing, regardless of how you vote. In addition, the EC has the negative affect of dividing the UNITED States into red or blue states. We are told every vote counts, but in reality, only those votes in 6 or 7 states really count.
Second: the law of weight gain - consume more calories than you burn and you gain weight (insert sad face).
If I had one wish it would be to abolish the electoral college. I’m an Oregon resident (dems all the way) and part time Arizona ( the sun melted their brains) and it’s so frustrating!
And I am about to write what will absolutely eradicate any chance of finding favor here with anyone. I am comfortable with rules. I like knowing the boundaries in most cases. It's always true in my public life and it would sure be nice if people were more vocal with me about their boundaries. Waiting for me to violate them is just tricky and have lost friendships. It may be I lack insight, sensitivity, common sense, but I don't think so. I am quirky, an old hippie, swear too much, yada. yada. I am also kind, generous, loyal, non-judgmental, fun and bright enough (?). BTW, SCOTUS and Cannon have demolished the trust I had for our judicial system. Laws should protect the just not facilitate the lawless. E. Jean, at least you will "always have Paris." You beat the wretched man.
Exactly!!! That's one issue that makes my blood boil. All men (AND women) are created equal, whether or not someone or some group of people (SCOTUS, for example) tells you otherwise.
While I'm sure that legal scholars could spend months analyzing all the nuances and theoretical applications of this decision, this case really boils down to the very basic legal concept of ultra vires acts, i.e. acts committed outside the scope of one's duties.
Here, the issue boils down to: For each of the acts alleged in the indictment, were those acts performed/committed within the scope of Trump's official duties as the President of the United States or were they performed or committed as a candidate running for election, and in this case, for re-election?
Certainly acts committed in furtherance of a conspiracy to fabricate false Electoral College Electors were committed by Trump as a candidate to be President again.In addition, Trump's call to Mike Pence to violate his duty to certify the valid Electoral College results, which was purely an administrative act that conferred no discretion on Pence, was an attempt by Trump as a candidate to get Pence to throw the election to him. Let's not forget that when Pence balked, Trump told him that he would no longer be his friend.
I think that the Special Prosecutor's case confines itself to alleging that Trump committed crimes that were outside the scope of his official duties as President and were only committed in furtherance of promoting his own personal candidacy for re-election.
That's my thought, and it will be up to Judge Chutkan. Sadly, her decisions about what acts were ultra vires will go back up to SCOTUS and they are likely to overrule her.
E. Jean, that photo is PERFECT! Brilliant! HA! The women are astonished at the crazy making behavior certain male species cause!!! And they're looking for the light at the end of the tunnel!
From a gentle yet inquisitive stance they are shaking their heads while they wait for the anvil they rigged up just above them ALL to come down upon the present evil.
I never thought I'd say this, because I think it's cool being American - but what reigns SUPREME here is a bunch of greedy, sociopathic racist dangerous morons killing the dream.
"EXEMPT from having others kill everybody's right to the Dream"
I want to immune from anxiety related to mundane, everyday things. Sheesh your car overheats one time, so now every car I drive needs an OCD ritual before I can even start it. Also, immune from all laws. I wouldn't break them anyway, but it would be nice to be treated with that much deference.
I’m sorry, E. Jean. Normally, I can say funny things here, but I am really devastated by this ruling. It isn’t as if we can fix it with a Constitutional Amendment BECAUSE THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISION FOR PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY. It’s the opposite of the intentions of the signers of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. The justices just made this up. They have violated their oaths of office. We have a huge and unprecedented problem. This is actually worse than the Dred Scott Decision in that we don’t know if we can sustain this system of government if Presidents can operate like Roman Emperors.
They also made it legal for civil servants to take bribes as long as the reward came after the corrupt action.
They are so powerful as it is, the Supreme Court justices, and they have violated the very notion of rule of law.
I am more than worried. My husband and I are considering whether to move to Canada. I have graduate student loans I am paying off through the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program and consequently need to stay at least three more years working in a public service capacity (as a college professor in my case) in order to pay off the loans. In an America where no one is above the law, this was a joy, not just a duty.
I respect Mr. Biden saying he would not commit crimes in office even if he could not be prosecuted for them. I appreciate that. How many presidents are we going to have to trust this way?
Congresswoman Occasio-Cortez is bringing articles of impeachment to DC after the Independence Day break. I wholly support her, but do you really think Mike Johnson is going to bring these to the floor for a vote? And if he were to in an actual “Moses” moment do so, do we think they would pass?
I am sticking around to vote in the next election. I am sticking around to work off my student loans, as I am a woman of my word. I will obey the laws of this nation and hope to bless those with whom I come into contact. But what IS law when the people who determine its highest application simply invent things without respecting precedent or the black letter words of the Constitution they are intended to arbitrate, taking actual bribes from actual billionaires with actual Hitler memorabilia?
I am a woman of faith, and I am praying for this nation. I pray for you, E. Jean. I pray for the Confab. I pray for uppity women everywhere.
Anne, could you write us a special short prayer for "uppity women everywhere?"
In poetry, a very short collection (20 poems or so) is called a chapbook. My first chapbook that got published was called Uppity Poems.
I just saw this. I will gladly write one. Give me about 24 hours.
As promised, E. Jean:
A word about this prayer for uppity women everywhere:
I am a Christian. I have written this prayer in my tradition. If that’s not your tradition I still wish you well.
Heavenly Father, it is written the 46th Psalm that you are a very present help in times of trouble. I am grateful to you that while My uppity sisters and I go through a time of trouble you are very present and ready to help.
The psalm goes on to say this:
“There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early.”
God, my uppity sisters and I are indeed a river. We are self invented, flowing into the cities where we invent ourselves. I call you Creator, hence inventor of me, but not all my uppity sisters do. Nevertheless, Most High God over our circumstances, I am boldly declaring that I believe that the stream of us makes your city glad, that there is a scaredness in the dwelling places you make in our hearts, a type of the holy tabernacles, a place to abide. That you are in the mist of us despite whatever fears we may have, and we are unmoved even as we as a river flowing through a city go from one place to another like bright streams, bringing refreshment to our communities, bringing pleasure to our communities, making you glad, imperfect as we are.
I further say, Most High God, that these my uppity sisters experience you in the midst of us so that we shall not be moved by the fear that might move us in this hour. That we who believe in you know that you will help us, your bright river of women, and that right early.
Lord, we reclaim the possibility of encountering you from all the people purporting to speak in your name who believe we are not part of your family. We claim you as family. We know you are almighty, that those who use your name to hate others rather than to love others — they are not speaking for you. It is written that in the last days, you will tell such people, even as they cry out to you, reclaiming their churchy but empty works engendering hatred and hard-heartedness, “I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
Lord, we admit we are not perfect. We make mistakes. We have done things that disappoint ourselves and like disappoint you. We are grateful you are a perfect God, that you love us despite our imperfections, and if we humbly ask to be forgiven for the things we have done wrong and turn away from things we have done that are harmful to others or to ourselves, you will forgive us.
Lord, I stand in the gap, as it is said, for those who do not know better, not because I am in any way better, but because I know YOU are better, and I humble myself with all uppity women flowing in a stream that gladdens your heart and repent on behalf of our whole nation. We are a nation where there is violence, genocide, rape, robbery, degradation, cruelty, greed, and other evils. Lord, not because I am at all perfect but because you are wholly loving and merciful, utterly perfect, I ask you to forgive this nation for our lies, or robberies, our acts of violence, our betrayals, and our injustices. I ask you repenting wholly that you would heal this our land. I know you are faithful and just to forgive us, and I thank you in advance.
Please encourage this stream of uppity women that are too often unwelcome in church, misunderstood by all but you in our secret hours, where we sponge off the makeup, take off the shoes that pinch our feet, and rub our aching limbs. Please liberate us from these attempts to negate us by making us second-class citizens, even in your city, O God, and in our own land. Protect us from workers of evil and iniquity. Help us to rebuild our nation, hopefully with some uppity men as brothers along side us as well, to be a place where we greet one another like family, encourage one another, lift each other up, and foster respect and love.
I pray this prayer, asking you in Jesus’ name to deliver our nation from liars and thieves, and people of violence. Deliver us from those who wish to steal our natural rights which inhere from you. Restore law and order in our land. Restore equity to our land. Restore even the environment in our land. Heal our land, o lord. Heal us. Save us from people who would harm us or others. And teach us to bless our neighbors, even as we love them as ourselves.
All of this I ask in the name of your Son, whom I call my Lord and Savor. Amen.
Amen!
Anne! When you write a prayer, the Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Conflabbians gather round!!!
May it be. Thank you so very much for this prayer. May the Good in all of us join in making it so. It feels like evil shouts in our world every day, and Good whispers. But when we are joined, whispers can become a storm to drown out any shout.
Amen!
Amen Om Shanti “Uppity Sister” and Amenti Rising too Thank you over and over in your prayer , prayers heard, prayers answered, forward
E. Jean, I have written the prayer you asked me to write for uppity women. See below:
Anne! It is a daring and virtuosic prayer!
If you and I spent the evening consuming whiskey and telling truth, you would hear how often a prayer was about all that got me through a bad situation. I have a practice of praying passionately. It was that or go mad sometimes in my life.
I too feel your despair Anne. I cannot wrap my head around the fact DJT could possibly have his felony conviction overturned. It is simply sickening.
We are all in despair. I have cried until I have no tears left. Despair is not a new emotion for women rather it is a strangling yoke we have worn for eternity. But, we have women from generations past who wore that yoke for us. It is our privilege and honor to the warrior women who fought for our right to vote to pick up the yoke and carry it now..
I don't want to squander their sacrifices or wallow in self-pity anymore over where we are. Let's remember where we came from and fight as they did. We are descended from battle-born women. We would not be able to cast a vote if not for them.
Remember and honor Abigail Scott Duniway, suffragist 1834-1915
"The young women of today, free to study, to speak, to write, to choose their occupation, should remember that every inch of this freedom was bought for them at a great price. It is for them to show their gratitude by helping onward the reforms of their own times, by spreading the light of freedom and of truth still wider. The debt that each generation owes to the past it must pay to the future."
Having sworn, when I joined the Navy, to defend the Constitution of the United States from ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic, I totally understand.
America needs no kings...except Stephen, and MLK Jr.
🙏
I would like to be exempt from the 2016 Electoral College law that made Donald "president" and caused ALL THIS INSANITY!!!
Great Point Caroline 👉
I’d like to be immune from the calories consumed/calories burned rule.
Eggggzactly!!
You beat me to it!
That’s mine, too
Oh yes, genius!
Same, but I would be fine with narrowing the immunity specifically to ice cream.
Don't we all miss the days when Margaret Atwood was a fiction writer instead of an Oracle?
Oh, your comment just shook me, Maris!
I keep saying "it was fiction, not a guidebook." She is one of my favorite writers and "The Handmaid's Tale" is one of my favorite book. It is so sad that we're getting closer and closer any day. I'm actually working on a screenplay that is a dystopian story set in a few years in Alabama...
That screenplay could be set in Saskatchewan, Canada
Oh dear Michele! Did you know Musk’s maternal grandfather? That’s the Musk who is being paid to destroy the ISS and is formerly known as the fresh prince, oh no wait, that’s someone else, hails from Saskatchewan, too. And that the constant gardener revealed the dirty bomb plans of the AIDS epidemic in Africa? Yup you are write Saskatchewan politics is deep state
Damn that was a gut punch. Needs to be emblazoned on posters, bill boards, and yard signs.
Miss them so much. As a college frosh in the 80s, I read two Atwood titles in a feminist lit class chock full of eye-opening books. A bookseller tipped me off to the forthcoming Handmaid's Tale, and I saved up my pennies, stalking the store in the meantime. I was so sure then that society would only keep moving forward. That's youth, of course. Then you learn the painful way that progress and regression cycle and it's actually dangerous to think "At least THAT (insert bad thing here) can't happen again."
That grabbed me Maris as I recently reserved a gift from a friend: The Testament by Margaret Atwood, of all frightening things.
That would be RECEIVED not RESERVED.
Well said!
I would like to be immune from religion. Better yet, I would like to spray immunity all around me to the entire world so that we can collectively leave behind the notion that some invented benevolent being watches us constantly and requires utter devotion to “scripture”. I don’t care what fantasies the people around me engage in so that they can get through their day—I vehemently object to their belief that I should also engage in their delusions, which then rises to the level of laws, false morality, and intransigence.
" . . . . engage in their delusions."
I will never be immune to your brilliant language, Ellen!
Same Ellen! Let's start a new eau de cologne called, "Immunity."
What should be the base scent?
Floral with notes of wit
🥰🤩🥳
A gentle rain on a summer day.
Is it wrong to LOL at the thought of bottling some Qcommunity Immunity Spray marketed to, um, folks I think might enjoy that? I could start an Etsy. Red-and-white labels for one demographic, blue-and-white for another.
🤗🙃
Well said.
I would like to be immune from having to wear a bra when I leave home. But I will continue to wear one for modesty’s sake.
Ha! Carol Ann!
Same! Or clothes for that matter, JK.😆 Seriously, I'm going bra-less more and more.
Beware though, they do stretch! Take it from Flying Bra - hence, they're flying!
Ha! Love the visual.
LOL, Laura.
Me too
YAY!! FROM FLYING BRA!!!!! YES! Get one that flies!
Brilliant Laura!
I haven’t worn one for decades. If I wear something see-through I wear a silk or cotton camisole.
No… I’m far too big for that!
I gave up wearing bras during covid. I wear stretchy camisoles. When I want a little lift I use a camisole with a built in bra of sorts. I am very casual but I am professional and work in city hall.
That's a great one. Unfortunately I cannot go braless outside the home.
my sister called them "over the shoulder boulder holders", she and I got the boobs, my other two sisters got religion.
Ha ha good one, Linda!
You definitely got the better deal than those "other two sisters!"
free the nipple!!
Seriously though, I feel quite troubled by the so-called conservative majority of SCOTUS. They have proved themselves to be liars of the worse order. Justice delayed is Justice denied.
The law of bodily and mentally aging.
AND the NC fascist Capitol policemens' rules whereby they arrest any citizen showing the tiniest signs of protest -- including uttering one single sound, or holding up any signs, or moving an inch from one's seat while in the upstairs gallery looking down on the corrupt proceedings of the illegitimately ruling GOP majority in the state House and Senate. I got arrested with 30 others including Rev. Barber in 2017 and had to do 25 hours of community service and be called "rabble-rousers" by a GOP judge, all unconsitutional. Dozens of others have been arrested since for participlating in our democracy through lawful, peaceful protest.
Oh my YES!!
It is a badge of honor to be a Rabble-Rouser. All hail to you!
Hear, hear! And to be arrested with Reverend Barber, mad respect!
Sigh...I live in NC and think about how best to escape daily.
I love that you are a rabble-rouser. The latest votes that overruled Cooper's vetoes have me very concerned.
I'm with you on the first! But wow, I'm horrified about the second. I had no idea NC was so awful. I lived in Rocky Mount in 1981. My first child was born there, the only one in both our families born below the Mason/Dixon line. She did a report about her "Tar Heel" State in middle school back in NJ (where we're from originally). I'm so sorry you have to go through that, but I sure like that "rabble-rouser" label.
Tizz, I was born in Rocky Mount. We left the state when I was around five years old, because my father found a better job elsewhere. My relatives who still live there are mostly my age, so we know how hard it is to pick up and move these days. They tell me that the Tar Heel State has changed enormously, and not in a good way.
Kudos to your daughter for writing that report.
I've never had the pleasure of meeting Sarah. She's very "gutsy." Gloria Steinem would be proud!
Thanks, Dianne. I have never met Sarah either. This Conflab feels very easy to talk here with E. Jean so I talk to everyone. (Not like that IRL a'tal.) We moved a lot back then (80s) with her dad's work, so I was only in NC for a short time. I loved it, but it took a few weeks to understand what people were saying. My neighbor said, "Hey!" one morning and I asked her what was wrong. In NJ that isn't a greeting, but usually a warning! But when we left we were saying "Hey!" to everyone, too. The people I met there were really welcoming and warm.
I want the WORLD to gain immunity from excess testosterone > No wars, rapes, power trips. Gene-splicing?
Hear! Hear!
Doing away with glass ceilings, and treating women like we're second-class citizens who are here only to have babies.
Yes!!!
Same here in Canada 🇨🇦
Nancy, wouldn't it be nice if every country had such a law. I know it will never happen (for obvious reasons), but I can dream. Unless SCOTUS finds a way to outlaw dreams, too.
Exactly
I believe gender parties should occur when the person tells you what gender they are, be that 3, 7, 15, 27… Sorting people is so Hogwarts.
Good one, Sward!
I never really noticed that before - fitting the author, sorting people. As you said, not a good thing.
I call them "genital reveal" parties...
Yes! 🙌🏻
Almost sounds x-rated. That wouldn't bother me, as long as I don't have to gross everyone out if I had to "participate."
What or who is hogwarts?
🌈
There are many but the first one that comes to mind is to be exempt from getting mad as hell! How many times in life I was told by men not to be so angry. Or this misdemeanor one, due to my natural RBF, men telling me to “smile.”
In an ideal world .... which neither your or I live in .... one could reply with a smiling, "Fuck you."
I’ve always enjoyed giving people my perfectly manicured middle finger!
Heeee!
Now, that’s power! I’ve got the middle finger but having spent my childhood growing up on a boat, building and renovating houses, and a past career as a goldsmith, I’ve got what Jerry Seinfeld called, “mans hands!” 🤣
That would be extremely beneficial, especially if you had on a coat with a hood and the other person couldn't see your face.
❓
“In an ideal world . . .” Yeah. When pigs fly. Haha. This happened for YEARS when I lived in NYC. It was during a time in my life when I was deemed (by men) to still be viable (as in, sexual) and thus worthy of their (crass) attention and “expected” response. Not all men, mind you. I’m married to a wonderful, caring, enlightened guy. I’m not a man hater, BUT, I do hate a lot of men! 🤣 And, as a mother of an 18yr old daughter, I am even more concerned that it’s become, and WILL continue to get worse—just read project 2025) for her and her peers—than it was when I was her age. It may seem that I’ve veered off topic, but it all starts, like I mentioned in my own experience, with a man’s (it’s always been a man— I’ve never had a woman tell me to smile, lighten up, or to stop being so angry—) sense of entitlement and the false belief that he has the right to tell a woman how to act, behave, or respond. It’s taken me a lifetime to come into my own and while I am at an age when men don’t even bother to look my way, I have no problem telling them to fuck off, and, more importantly, have taught my daughter that NO ONE has the right to tell you how to feel or respond or react (even though we have a bunch of old, decrepit white guys in Congress who are doing their best to maintain the status quo!) Whew! That was probably longer than necessary. I guess E. Jean’s prompt and your insight that we don’t live in an ideal world and that it is shrinking by the minute, prompted this reply. 🤣 Since the Supreme Court seems to think it can change the constitution, I say they should add total immunity to all women who display RBF’s and who, like in the movie, Network, are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore! That’s an immunity I can support!
"Shrinking by the minute....." Those are word I will carry into my night, Jr Roessl!
Somehow it doesn't even seem right/fair to you or any young woman to attribute this kind of attention to having RBF. Betting your face, and its expression, was/is just fine, and you were just minding your own business--not looking at them and scowling.
What's it going to take for equality to happen?
Oh, but you can
The overfamiliarity and intrusiveness of people ordering a stranger to smile was always mind-boggling to me--especially when I was young--but it's so common, isn't it? I wonder why they do it.
My two sisters and I laugh about this very question and have concluded that it’s simply about control. I wished I had learned this when I was younger and navigating my life as an actor and model. The most powerful weapon in my arsenal is the ability to laugh. And I mean that, not as a way to push the insult away, but to use it as a ballistic missile, obliterating the insult, and leaving them dazed and confused!
Power and control
I feel this one in my bones, kstratt.
OH YES!
The Electoral College. If you don't live in a swing state, your vote means nothing, regardless of how you vote. In addition, the EC has the negative affect of dividing the UNITED States into red or blue states. We are told every vote counts, but in reality, only those votes in 6 or 7 states really count.
Second: the law of weight gain - consume more calories than you burn and you gain weight (insert sad face).
With you on the "Law of Weight Gain," Chris!
If I had one wish it would be to abolish the electoral college. I’m an Oregon resident (dems all the way) and part time Arizona ( the sun melted their brains) and it’s so frustrating!
Hello from Silverton, Oregon 👋🏻
Agreed... from California
And I am about to write what will absolutely eradicate any chance of finding favor here with anyone. I am comfortable with rules. I like knowing the boundaries in most cases. It's always true in my public life and it would sure be nice if people were more vocal with me about their boundaries. Waiting for me to violate them is just tricky and have lost friendships. It may be I lack insight, sensitivity, common sense, but I don't think so. I am quirky, an old hippie, swear too much, yada. yada. I am also kind, generous, loyal, non-judgmental, fun and bright enough (?). BTW, SCOTUS and Cannon have demolished the trust I had for our judicial system. Laws should protect the just not facilitate the lawless. E. Jean, at least you will "always have Paris." You beat the wretched man.
You find big Big favor with me, S73, for being "non-judgmental."
I'm tripping all over that claim with the media, the flushable wretch, and SCOTUS. So thanks - don't judge me for failing that one! lol
Hey, you're only human. Do you see anyone wearing a halo? Nobody has the right to judge another person.
BTW, I liked your comments. Count me among those who love the fact that E. Jean beat that . . . . . (fill in the blank) . . . . .
I’m a rule follower so I’m ok with rules as long as everyone has to follow them, there lies the problem.
Yup! There lies the problem.
Exactly!!! That's one issue that makes my blood boil. All men (AND women) are created equal, whether or not someone or some group of people (SCOTUS, for example) tells you otherwise.
While I'm sure that legal scholars could spend months analyzing all the nuances and theoretical applications of this decision, this case really boils down to the very basic legal concept of ultra vires acts, i.e. acts committed outside the scope of one's duties.
Here, the issue boils down to: For each of the acts alleged in the indictment, were those acts performed/committed within the scope of Trump's official duties as the President of the United States or were they performed or committed as a candidate running for election, and in this case, for re-election?
Certainly acts committed in furtherance of a conspiracy to fabricate false Electoral College Electors were committed by Trump as a candidate to be President again.In addition, Trump's call to Mike Pence to violate his duty to certify the valid Electoral College results, which was purely an administrative act that conferred no discretion on Pence, was an attempt by Trump as a candidate to get Pence to throw the election to him. Let's not forget that when Pence balked, Trump told him that he would no longer be his friend.
I think that the Special Prosecutor's case confines itself to alleging that Trump committed crimes that were outside the scope of his official duties as President and were only committed in furtherance of promoting his own personal candidacy for re-election.
That's my thought, and it will be up to Judge Chutkan. Sadly, her decisions about what acts were ultra vires will go back up to SCOTUS and they are likely to overrule her.
Unfortunately, you may be right.
E. Jean, that photo is PERFECT! Brilliant! HA! The women are astonished at the crazy making behavior certain male species cause!!! And they're looking for the light at the end of the tunnel!
From a gentle yet inquisitive stance they are shaking their heads while they wait for the anvil they rigged up just above them ALL to come down upon the present evil.
I never thought I'd say this, because I think it's cool being American - but what reigns SUPREME here is a bunch of greedy, sociopathic racist dangerous morons killing the dream.
"EXEMPT from having others kill everybody's right to the Dream"
THAT is a most excellent "exemption," Laura!
Thank you E.Jean 🩵
Gravity. Clearly.
'I believe I can fly...'🎵
Good one!
I want to immune from anxiety related to mundane, everyday things. Sheesh your car overheats one time, so now every car I drive needs an OCD ritual before I can even start it. Also, immune from all laws. I wouldn't break them anyway, but it would be nice to be treated with that much deference.
That would be heaven, Hope!