Speaker Mike Johnson has been against no-fault divorces for years. It’s one of the far-right’s big priorities nowadays, to do away with no-fault divorces, to force women to stay in abusive, unsafe or unhappy marriages forever. [Jezebel]
What Hollywood could learn from Taylor Swift. [Pajiba]
Alexander Skarsgard & Jack McBrayer are BFFs?? [Just Jared]
Is Greta Gerwig wearing Gucci pajamas? [RCFA]
Ah, so this is the plot of David Fincher’s The Killer. [LaineyGossip]
Taylor Swift looked so cute in these Prada boots. [Go Fug Yourself]
Diablo Cody has returned with Lisa Frankenstein. [OMG Blog]
Southern Charm’s Dani Baird is pregnant. [Starcasm]
Cup Noodles will finally be microwaveable. [Seriously OMG]
These are some really soap-opera-level family secrets. [Buzzfeed]
Did you hear his swearing in speech, absolutely chilling. It was like he was at the pulpit preaching. We are effed.
He was one hundred percent at the pulpit preaching.
Mike Johnson is closeted and taking his self-hatred out on the rest of us.
It is clear that he hates women but I did not expect that he may be closeted. Could explain a lot. How do we allow him to pose such a danger to 50% of the population?
@twin I’ve thought the same.
I am hoping there is more reporting on his adoption of a 14 yo boy (at age 25). This is not about his being closeted or gay (which , yea agree he might be)— this is about clarifying specifically his behavior and making sure nothing more sinister there.
Yes, they now adult “adopted son” is in his early 40s and has 4/5 kids (I think I’ve seen both numbers) and lives in California. I find it so disturbing that Johnson and Gaetz both (although right now Gaetz remains more disturbing because Nestor is still in the picture) have sketchy adoptions of vulnerable kids.
I know a ton of people in a lot of family situations, and I only know of one family that foster adopted in their early/mid 20s. They adopted a pair of brothers who were 9 and 11? But they full on adopted them through the foster system, went through the “red tape” that was too complicated for two congress people as young broke kids who never finished college. (Side note, I’m not slamming them. The husband was one of my brothers friends who grew up with parents who were in multiple unstable relationships. He was in foster care briefly and wanted to help as soon as he felt like his life was stable.)
I guess what I’m saying is, the chances that they were genuinely doing this out of kindness is very low, and the chance they were somehow exploitative is very high. Having secret surprise kids who aren’t in pictures is bizarre.
Johnson adopted a 14-year-old Black man when he, himself was 24/25 years old and not yet married to his wife, though dating.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/whats-up-with-speaker-mike-johnsons-black-son
And, the child never was in family photos.
A 14 year old is a child, not a man. Don’t age up that little boy. It’s bad enough when society does it to justify what happens to Black children.
The teenager wasn’t legally adopted. The articles that I’ve read don’t clearly define the legal relationship that the teen had with the Johnsons.
Didn’t Gaetz also adopt (‘adopt’ ?) a minor as a single man in his 20s?
https://people.com/politics/matt-gaetz-tells-story-boy-he-raised-as-a-son/
The only example I know of someone adopting a young man like this that isn’t a Republican politician is that family from The Blind Side (at least that situation turned out fine, right?).
@tiffany: You are correct and I apologize. I was thinking of the son, underage at 14, in age in present-day terms, but I should have been more careful.
@Blithe: you are correct, “adopted” is conjecture because as far as I know, there have been no documents produced.
@smistrs: Yeah, the Gaetz situation is a parallel that is disturbing
It’s so obvious that is hatred of women and LGBT is because he was raised to hate his inner feelings because of his hateful religion.
Yep. That is all I need to know.
Agreed.
Well if we give up and don’t fight for congress AND the senate in 2024 and the special elections in between we are dead. Not just f!cked. We have to vote blue. They are telling us what they have planned and I don’t understand how folks are not serious about this election. I don’t get it.
Some people are too woke and precious to vote until it’s too late.
Truer words have not been spoken.
I can only hope that the number of good people in the background who will do the right thing far outnumber this lunatic fringe coterie that’s unfortunately given all the attention.
One thing that I was seeing a lot this past weekend was the vote blue to save America hashtags. It was in full force. I hope it sticks. Many people have just found out about this guy and do not like what they see.
Ye gods America, what the hell is happening to your beautiful country! Is it the same as the UK, the lunatics really have taken over the asylum? I hate to think what the future holds for all of us if this march of the despots continues
@Mary – Yes, the lunatics have taken over the asylum, but we should acknowledge that the U.S. was designed to favor white men, especially rich white men, and our system of government has not changed even in the face of massive improvements in human and civil rights over the last 100 years. The electoral college gives significantly more power to voters in small, predominantly white states, which determines the level of power white men have in the Senate, and thus in the Judicial branch, especially the Supreme Court. The electoral college makes sure that the U.S. will never truly be a representative democracy and there’s almost no way to abolish it.
Legislating marriage and women’s bodies is largely about upholding power for white men in a number of ways.
All of this, BettyRose.
LOL @Mary Pester. Ye gods is right. I saw his face and my first thought was, is that the Wasp, the Bee or the Fly?
This man being so close to the Presidency is absolutely terrifying. I hope the skeletons in his closet start coming forward now, everything about this man screams 🚩”Red Flag”🚩
The thought that this man is two lives away from the presidency is terrifying.
haven’t cup noodles always been microwaveable? I remember the instructions that say peel back, add water, microwave for 3 min.
You should never microwave styrofoam. They are switching to paper cups which is why they can now be microwaved.
Pot Noodle have been microwaveable as they were always in plastic pots, I think the US equivalent was styrofoam (that stuff should be banned).
I graduated from high school in 1993, and promptly left for college. This may be how Gen X dies, from ingesting whatever the fuck is in the styrofoam in the cup o’ noodles, after we nuked them.
It’s news to me that it was never intended to be microwaved.
I know not to microwave styrofoam *now*. As in over the last 10-15 years, but the instructions are definitely on there to microwave and we absolutely did growing up
I never called the police on my abuser. I never initiated a police report of his assaults on me. When I was in the hospital after delivering Kiddo, the hospital had him arrested for his behavior and he was jailed.
That breathing room allowed everyone and my common sense to get through to me (with heavy leanings about the safety of Kiddo) and I filed for divorce (and a restraining order.) Without no fault divorce, I would have been dead years ago, and probably Kiddo too.
F^ck Johnson and all his women hating cronies.
I really need to hug you, from afar. I am so sorry this happened to you, and I am glad you aren’t still in it. Fuck everyone on the planet that thinks women don’t have and deserve a voice, all of the time.
When no fault divorce was made legal in 1969, the suicide rate for middle aged women plummeted.
And, without realizing it, probably the Aqua Tofana rate for husbands, too.
Dear God, I just looked that up….. I think you are right.
Back in the 90s, I knew a couple who couldn’t get a no-fault divorce in Illinois. It wasn’t an abusive marriage. It just wasn’t a good one. One of them had to move to another state. Whatever one’s opinion on the divorce rate in the U.S., what possible value is there to forcing people to stay in an unhappy marriage? But yeah that’s the least of it. Forced births and forced marriages are nothing short of a way to steal agency and independence from women.
Thanks for posting this about the no-fault divorce. What this will do is deter any person (especially women) who isn’t solely getting married for a huge and imminent divorce settlement / alimony and child support windfall from getting married at all (and it will probably deter the small amount of people who are solely getting married for that reason too). It will also probably make a lot of people (especially women) file for divorce before it’s too late. CB community: Let’s keep each other updated on that info if it is about to / does change in any way on the state and / or federal level, so those who want or need to file for divorce before they can’t anymore are able to! FYI I’ve talked to many on the left and right (although not extremists in either party) and no one I know thinks this is good and everyone is sick of most of our reps / senators. The general sense is why can’t everyone be more in the middle and get reasonable things done.
The women who are genuinely frightened for their child in a split custody scenario will not file now even though they want (need) to.
Back in the day there were long term mental institutions men could say whatever to the psychiatrist and get their “crazy” wife institutionalized and insurance would pay them he could effectively be single again and while she would get ripped from her life, at least she would be away from that jackarse. Insurance will not foot the bill for that one again so what will be the pressure release valve then?
The majority of divorces (70%) are initiated by women. If that was reverse, I bet there wouldn’t be politicians fighting to end no fault divorce.
It is incredibly common for a man to have an affair and continue it once the wife finds out, and yet the cheating husband then sits on his butt and waits for the betrayed spouse to do all the heavy lifting with filing. Obviously, in those cases it wouldn’t be considered “no fault”, the divorce would be on the grounds of adultery. But I wonder how many of the 70% of women who file are doing so in a way that leaves their husband blind-sided vs filing for divorce BECAUSE their husbands did something heinous that was marriage-ending, and clearly wanted OUT but was just too lazy to file first?
Laziness yes, but also so that they can place blame on the wife for the divorce, as in “she was the one who wanted the divorce, not ME!” Men seek to preserve a good guy image over anything else, it’s waayyy more vital to them to have that image than to treat their wives like any decent human being should. If there’s a bad guy in this situation, it’s going to her, never HIM, if he can help it. They’ll do any number of rat bastard things, but she’ll still be held as the one responsible, cause that’s what they want to present to the world. I’ve known too many good women who didn’t get what they deserved in a divorce, for the sole reason that they were just desperate to get out, while the guy just went on his merry way. Oh, and F* Mike Johnson.
What it might also do is force women who are in danger, or whose kids are in danger, to take matters into their own hands instead of going to the courts. And the Supreme Court’s rulings on gun possession will only make it easier. I mean, if that’s what republicans want?
Good. People give up way to easy. If you arent willing to take marriage seriously, dont get married. Its not that hard. No one is enforcing marriage on you!
Seriously. We live in a culture where failure is being almost praised
@Katie T Every single couple I know who got divorced – including my own parents – tried for years to make it work, long after it was clear there wasn’t anything worth saving; even the women who were in an abusive relationship tried and tried and tried. All of them took the marriage seriously when they got married. I find it baffling that you seem to think people just up and file on a whim. Sometimes people change over the years, and not in a good way. Sometimes, psychopaths hide who they truly are until you live with them 24/7. And sometimes, things that just seem like annoying “quirks” when you are dating end up driving you insane after years of dealing with it. Divorce is costly, time consuming, and even when people agree, it’s usually emotionally devastating. Beyond all of that, what does it matter in your life if a random couple who you will never meet decides to divorce because of “no fault” – especially when you do not and cannot know the circumstances in their lives? Why do you care, other than some mythical idea of “cultural failure” and that people “give up way to easy” (sic). How does it effect your life in any way shape or form? I can tell you all the ways my parents’ divorce effected mine as a pre-teen… and I’m sure you’re going to clutch your pearls at this but it was ALL GOOD effects. I was far more traumatized by what happened in their actual marriage back then than the divorce. The divorce was a huge release and relief.
I say this as someone who has been happily married for almost 30 years: mind your own business and get your nose out of how other people live. It has ZERO bearing on your life if other people, for whatever reason, decide to end their marriage.
Word.
Actually, @Katie T, many people do the opposite— too many. And you’re wrong. Sometimes it IS that hard.
@Katie T, Here are some abuse stats for you. Assume that they are underreported. Probably vastly underreported.
Perhaps you can work on developing a bit of empathy for the kids who suffer while their parents struggle to understand that creating safer, happier, better family circumstances for their kids is so Not a “failure” of any kind.
https://www.aamft.org/Consumer_Updates/Domestic_Violence.aspx#:~:text=Domestic%20violence%20is%20very%20common,behavior%E2%80%94is%20even%20more%20common.
https://dvcccpa.org/fast-facts-statistics/#:~:text=Emotional%20and%20Psychological%20Abuse,psychologically%20abuse%20them%20(5).
https://lifesavingdivorce.com/1in4/
“People give up way to easy.”
Are you speaking of yourself, because no one I have ever known who has gotten a divorce would describe it as “way [to, doesn’t know that it is actually too] easy”, including myself.
Sincerely, go back to your people, I’m sure they are glad to have you.
@Katie T If our society wasn’t so pushy about marriage then sure. But they are. I have seen so many people get married because they reached a certain age and don’t want to be left out societally or they want kids. I am considered odd that I stuck to my guns and didn’t marry the 3 long term partners that I have had and remain unmarried at 42 waiting for it to feel right. First LTR became verbally abusive, second became an alcoholic, third was a video game addict and had ED issues. You can’t seriously believe that everyone would be like me and not marry. It is unrealistic. Plus, some people don’t reveal themselves until they live with them and or marry them and then it is too late.
Well Katie T got everyone riled up there…..
While getting ready for work this morning it occurred to me that all of the physicians are expected to turn up as fresh as the day they finished training. Lots of work? Oh well. New material to get on top of? Oh well.
Can you imagine what everyone would say if a physician suddenly started dropping anything that resembled a standard, but expected the contract to stay just because terminating would be “the easy way out?”
If a guy wants to drop all standards, continue despite ongoing objection from his partner, and be nothing that resembles what he advertised at marriage, he deserves to be fired from the relationship.
Oh well.
Spoken like someone who’s never been in a bad relationship or marriage. Would we all be as fortunate as you, my dear. Bless your heart.
Just read the article on what HW can learn from TS. In a related note, we can also learn a lot from TS, Beyoncé and Barbie. Thanks to them it helped fuel the growth of the US economy and managed to divert a Recession .
I also have to give credit to Biden as well for the big 3rd qtr growth that I’m sure shocked Republicans 🙄.
Or…hear me out – women won’t get married in the first place. As I told my teenage niece the other day – ever wonder why they have to sell it to us so hard? The dresses, the big wedding, the “goal” of a ring…the way it’s so hyped up (still) and so much media pushes it on women as the way to be “happy.”
Worth adding – I grew up very conservative Christian and she’s being raised Christian so yeah…
As someone raised in the “Bible belt” – and who had that “dream day” nonsense shoved down her throat since I was toddler, albeit not by my parents thankfully – it took me until I was nearly 40 to finally figure out that I actually didn’t want to get married. I had been utterly convinced by society that I *should* aspire to being a wife, getting married, having a big wedding and all that jazz. And I finally figured out that I don’t even want a relationship, let alone a marriage.
People have blamed the “trauma” of my parents’ divorce on my still being single. It was just pushed and pushed on me that MARRIAGE&KIDS was like the pinnacle of life or something, and I’d be happy if I could only get married. I already knew I never wanted kids – I don’t know why it never occurred to me that the marriage part was optional as well.
I have a standing offer from the sister of a friend of mine in Ireland to marry her at any time to get out of the USA. Neither of us are gay, but she is terrified about the way the USA is going. I’ve turned her down so far, but even with my strong feelings against marriage, I might take her up on it if 2024 seems like it will go sideways. And then when I’ve stayed the requisite number of years, we’ll get divorced. LOL
🎯
I’m a feminist from WAY back and I just never saw this. Just … never saw it. Princess for a day, indeed.
The republican party is full of no fault divorces. It’s mainly for them. Rural kid gets tricked into marriage. Just like abortion was decriminaliz for them.
They will have to reverse these decisions in the future. Their kids will start dying again.
Well marital rape is now prosecutable (practically speaking, we would add, in blue jurisdictions).
Ha ha ha. Can we now assume that Mike Johnson’s wife had a headache for the past decade?
He is a wretched, horrid man. Did not want to acknowledge Biden win of election, for national abortion ban, against gay union and horrifically homophobic, Jim Jordan’s lackey and a Trump MAGA loon… plus much more, look it up. This is terrible and shame on the Republicans for putting him in there. Get ready to vote blue big time next time everybody!
Women revolted against the terrible Dobbs decision and shockingly voted down red state anti abortion laws. This idiots extreme anti woman philosophy may again galvanize women and guarantee dems win back the house.
He’s also been trying to ban anal sex for years🤣🤣what a CLOWN.
I think I read with *yourself* as well? It was insane.
He’s totally the type of guy who looks at you with that annoyed, impatient face while you as a woman have the temerity to speak. What a small pathetic little man.