“The trump criminal trial has so much drama.” John Buss @repeat 1968
Good Day, Sky Dancers!
Last night was ladies’ night in the Congressional House Oversight Committee meeting. And oh, what a night! The sidewalk display outside the Trump Hush Money Trial wasn’t much better. And then there was the Kansas City Ball Kicker who gave a commencement speech at a small Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas. It’s been a sad week for women in leadership positions or those who strive for leadership positions. It’s been a week of sexism and misogyny unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
I’m going to start with the Ball Kicker. This analysis is from Vox, written by Li Zhou. “The controversy over Harrison Butker’s misogynistic commencement speech, explained. Butker’s address was a textbook case of conservative sexism and homophobia.”
NFL kicker Harrison Butker is facing widespread backlash after giving a college commencement speech that casually dabbled in misogyny and homophobia.
Butker, who has won three Super Bowls with the Kansas City Chiefs in recent years, delivered the address at Benedictine College, a private Catholic institution in Kansas, on May 11. In it, he criticizes everything from women prioritizing professional careers to Pride Month to abortion access.
An outspoken conservative who is close with leading right-wing figures including Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), Butker’s speech closely echoed Republican rhetoric and fixated on issues that have been popular fodder for conservatives as they try to mobilize their voters ahead of the 2024 election.
“I think it is you, the women who have had the most diabolical lies told to you,” Butker said in his speech. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world, but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world.”
The Chiefs have not commented on Butker’s remarks and the NFL league office distanced itself from them. “His views are not those of the NFL as an organization. The NFL is steadfast in our commitment to inclusion, which only makes our league stronger,” Jonathan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, told People.
Butker’s speech advances the same agenda that the GOP has been pushing not only in its rhetoric but through policy. At least 21 Republican-led state legislatures have approved laws that ban or restrict abortion access and at least 20 have approved bills that curb access to gender-affirming care for minors. Butker’s remarks — which emphasized people “staying in [their] lane” — are the latest attempt to weaponize religion to achieve the same goals.
Butker’s speech is being characterized by the usual suspects as just “expressing unpopular opinions.” It’s more than that.
Below are some of the lowlights:
On women’s careers: One of the sections getting the most attention is Butker’s comments about the importance of women’s roles in the home. Singling out the women in the audience, he argued that they’re likely more eager to become wives and mothers than to have successful careers.
“I can tell you that my beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say her life truly started when she started living her vocation as a wife and as a mother,” he said.
In addition to speaking on women’s behalf, Butker also reduced the primary goal of their lives to one biological function. Being a homemaker is an important role that should be celebrated, but it’s far from the only one a woman can choose — a key reason his remarks spurred such backlash. Butker also described women’s roles very differently than he described men’s: While he touted the virtues of being a present father, he did not say that being a dad was likely the primary goal of a man’s life.
In recent days, a parade of Republicans have shown up at the Manhattan courthouse where Donald Trump faces criminal charges related to the hush-money scheme he concocted to deceive American voters during the 2016 election. The goal of those MAGA allies is simple: to make it unimpeachably clear that their primary fealty is to Donald Trump over the rule of law.
Unfortunately, some of media coverage has obscured these fundamentals. Some accounts describe these Republicans as “currying favor” with Trump or showing “loyalty” to him, as if they are just demonstrating personal support for him at a trying moment. Others have noted that some making this pilgrimage—none more odiously than Ohio Senator J.D. Vance—are really vying to be his running mate, which might be true but reduces all this to a form of political jockeying that seems fairly conventional.
If we are going to treat this as a story about loyalty signaling, let’s frame the question this way: Loyalty to what, exactly? Not just loyalty to Trump. This episode—and others like it, such as the stampede of Republicans backing Trump’s refusal to commit to accepting the 2024 election results—is better seen as a statement of ultimate fealty to Trump over and above our institutions, as a declaration that he is paramount and they are thoroughly dispensable.
“This trial is a scam and a sham, and it shouldn’t happen,” Trump raged on Thursday at the court, with Representative Matt Gaetz and other Republicans standing behind him. Gaetz proudly posted a picture of himself “standing back and standing by” for Trump at the courthouse, deliberately echoing the language Trump used about his paramilitary goons in the first 2020 debate.
This comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson descended on the courthouse this week and attacked presiding Judge Juan Merchan’s daughter, who fundraised for Democrats, blasting the proceedings as a “sham.” Vance and Florida Senator Rick Scott similarly attacked Merchan’s daughter. Many Republicans blasted the credibility of Michael Cohen, the former Trump fixer and chief prosecution witness. Still others slammed the lead prosecutor, based on an absurd, convoluted theory about his previous work at the Justice Department, as a tool of President Biden.
If Republicans were merely criticizing the prosecution on the facts and the law in substantive terms, it would be one thing. But here they are attacking the judge, his family, the witnesses, and the line prosecutors as actors in a fundamentally illegitimate proceeding.
Those are things the gag order on Trump prohibits him from doing, which has some commentators asking whether he is surreptitiously inducing his boosters to carry out those attacks to circumvent it. There is some evidence of this, but as Brian Beutler writes, that question misses the point: Either way, the surrogates wouldn’t be doing any of it if Trump didn’t want them to, and they are echoing Trump’s own precise language and claims.
To grasp the real force of this, it’s worth recalling the reason we don’t want proceedings like these subjected to demonization campaigns in the first place: It threatens to sabotage public confidence in the justice system’s integrity and makes it harder for good-faith actors to play their roles in it without fear or favor. And so, the whole point of these GOP depravities is to dramatize, in the form of spectacle, that their fealty is to Trump over and above those rules and norms, the ones that make the system work at the most fundamental level.
Rep. Lauren Boebert made headlines with her show of support at former President Donald Trump’s hush-money trial on Thursday, but has been conspicuously absent for her own son’s court appearances, according to multiple reports.
The Colorado congresswoman joined a gaggle of Freedom Caucus loyalists at the Manhattan criminal court on Thursday, writing on X: “I’ll never stop standing up for President Trump, even if I’m the last one standing.”
Speaking at a makeshift press conference outside the court, Boebert was heckled with chants of “Beetlejuice” — a reference to when she was thrown out of a Denver theater showing the film after vaping and apparently groping a male companion.
While Trump is facing criminal charges of falsifying business records in relation to a hush-money scheme to silence porn actor Stormy Daniels, Boebert’s 19-year-old son Tyler has also had court dates.
Tyler Boebert was arrested in February on multiple felony charges including the criminal possession of identity documents, criminal trespass, and possession of a financial device.
He’s had two court hearings to date — one on April 11 and another on May 9.
During the April hearing, Boebert was in Congress voting against the passage of the Sea Turtle Rescue Assistance and Rehabilitation Act, records show.
Trump took advantage of the photo op and whining in court by appearing at Barron’s graduation today. He’s headed off for a fundraiser tonight in the Twin Cities. He’s probably airborne, as I write. Another MAGA governor is getting slammed for being more interested in appearances than Governing. They’re the most emotionally abusive group of misfits I’ve ever seen or read about. “‘A Governor Who Doesn’t Seem to Have Much Interest in Governing Arkansas.’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ increasing number of critics think she’s too worried about her national profile.” This is in Politicoand reported by Dana Liebelson. If she was that worried about her profile, you would think she’d stop wearing outfits suggesting she’s about to board a Prarie Schooner to Oregon. Still, I can’t see this kind of coverage of Jeff Landry, our governor, down here in Lousyana.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders assumed a podium on a recent spring morning in Arkansas, her familiar voice instantly evoking her pugnacious press conferences under Donald Trump. That day, there were no reporters to spar with, nor culture wars to wage, only a few dozen Arkansans who’d come to applaud millions in ongoing state grants for playgrounds and parks. “When my kids were younger, we could plan a huge trip just to find out that our kids would prefer to actually play on a jungle gym or a swing set,” she said. The 41-year-old governor wore an above-the-knee metallic skirt and pumps, a millennial-friendly outfit that matched her refreshed brand as the youngest governor in the country. She reminisced about her husband, Bryan, planning outdoor adventures with their three children, “some of which I am glad that I went on.” The crowd, which included Bryan, laughed.
Sanders was a long way from the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in 2018, when she sat silently, a rictus fixed on her face, as comedienne Michelle Wolf joked about her burning facts and using the ash “to create a perfect smoky eye.” The former White House press secretary made her name defending Trump’s version of reality, while whittling down the actual press briefing. To her supporters, she played the outsider in Washington who couldn’t be corrupted by the D.C. establishment.
Now that she’s returned home, they say she still puts Arkansas first. In a close-knit state where some of Sanders’ colleagues have known her since college or younger, they insist her time with Trump didn’t fundamentally change her. Washington was one of her adventures, some of which she’s glad she went on. And many people in Arkansas love her for the same reason her national audience does: “She’s a fighter, an amazing communicator, and people connect to her,” Chris Caldwell, her 2022 campaign manager, told me.
But she has brought her experience in Trump’s Washington back with her. She shows little trust in the media. She cruises between events in a black SUV with tinted windows, accompanied by a state police detail in suits and a comms director who worked for Trump and his 2020 presidential campaign. At open-press events, she takes so few questions, Arkansas reporters are fatalistic about the idea of asking many. Instead, as befits a national figure with national ambitions — she’s shown up on lists as a possible running mate for Trump — she reaches her audience on her terms, including on Fox News, or Instagram and Elon Musk’s X, where she has over 2.3 million collective followers. At times, she seems to govern for the latter. Arkansas may not share a border with Mexico, but she has traveled to Eagle Pass, Texas, and talked about the border crisis on Fox & Friends. And sent down the Arkansas National Guard. Arkansas has long allowed gender-neutral IDs, of which there are a few hundred issued, but she justified banning them in the state, using the same playbook from the Republican war on trans rights.
Criticism of a member’s “fake eyelashes” and another’s intelligence. A question about discussing a member’s “bleach blond, bad-built butch body.”
A House Oversight Committee meeting Thursday night devolved into chaos amid personal attacks and partisan bickering in a rare evening session that was supposed to center on a resolution recommending Attorney General Merrick Garland be held in contempt of Congress.
The already tense hearing was derailed when Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., responded to a question from Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, by saying, “I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you’re reading.”
Democrats, led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, immediately moved to strike Greene’s words from the record and make her apologize to Crockett.
“That is absolutely unacceptable,” Ocasio-Cortez said over cross talk. “How dare you attack the physical appearance of another person?”
Greene taunted Ocasio-Cortez, asking, “Are your feelings hurt?”
“Oh, girl? Baby girl,” Ocasio-Cortez shot back. “Don’t even play.”
Greene attacked a second member just minutes after she criticized Crockett, asserting that Ocasio-Cortez did not have “enough intelligence” for a debate.
Greene had asked Ocasio-Cortez, “Why don’t you debate me?”
Ocasio-Cortez responded that she thought “it’s pretty self-evident.”
“You don’t have enough intelligence,” Greene said as members of Congress audibly groaned at her attack.
Greene agreed to strike her comments toward Crockett but vehemently refused to apologize for the evening’s attacks, declaring, “You will never get an apology out of me.”
Green asked if any member of the Democrat party was employing Judge Marchand’s daughter, which had nothing to do with the committee topic, which was supposed to be about AG Merrick Garland.
I’d like to hear your thoughts on all of this because I’m “hopping mad,” as my mother would say. It seemed to be an equal opportunity week to discuss why women should return to the kitchen and nursery. Sometimes, I’d like to be wherever David and Warren are, packing my guitars and piano with me and ignoring this world for a while.
I have one thing to bring to your attention. This is from the Texas Monthly. “Why Did Greg Abbott Pardon a Racist Murderer? The governor didn’t offer much of a rationale in granting clemency to Daniel Perry, who killed a Black Lives Matter protester in 2020, but apparently the enemy of his enemy is his friend.” It was written by Christopher Hooks. May all the wisdom beings protect every living thing and person in a red state.
What’s on your reading and blogging list today?
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They appear to have taken out the twitter addresses so twitter no longer will show up here as the full thing. This is about Alito’s statement on the upside down flag on his house.
STATEMENT: Alito’s Ugly Flag Display Demands Investigation, Recusal from Insurrection Cases
“Wouldn’t you know, it is the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, co-founders of Benedictine College, who on Thursday issued the definitive response to Harrison Butker’s commencement address there. The sisters, of course, are among those whose vital contributions to the world, to the church and to the college are not just discounted but erased — poof, gone — in Butker’s view of women who are not wives and mothers: He doesn’t see them at all.
“How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career?” he asked women graduates. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. My beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.” I’m not being snide when I say I thought life truly started in the womb; all people at all stages of life and in all walks of life are valued in the Catholic faith, and I see nothing traditional about his implication that only marriage and parenthood confer true worth on women. Neither do the sisters, whose statement I’m going to quote in its entirety: “As a founding institution and sponsor of Benedictine College, the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica find it necessary to respond to the controversial remarks of Harrison Butker as commencement speaker. “The Sisters of Mt. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested. “Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers, and through their God-given talents in leadership, scholarship and their careers. “Our community has taught young women and men not just how to be ‘homemakers’ in a limited sense, but rather how to make a Gospel-centered, compassionate home within themselves where they can welcome others as Christ, empowering them to be the best versions of themselves. “We reject a narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic. We are faithful members of the Catholic Church who embrace and promote the values of the Gospel, St. Benedict, and Vatican II and the teachings of Pope Francis. “We want to be known as an inclusive, welcoming community, embracing Benedictine values that have endured for more than 1500 years and have spread through every continent and nation. We believe those values are the core of Benedictine College.” Butker owes these women who’ve dedicated their lives to living those values an apology. Other things the Kansas City Chiefs kicker said were far afield from Catholic teaching, too: “When you embrace tradition,” he said in his address, “success, worldly and spiritual, will follow.” That’s the Prosperity Gospel embraced by some evangelicals but pretty much the exact opposite of what Jesus said about what would happen to those who follow him. He also told graduates, “Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.” No, it couldn’t. He’s talking about House Republicans passing a bill that threatens federal funding for colleges that don’t crack down on antisemitic speech, including “claims of Jews killing Jesus.” Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks that’s basic, but Catholics don’t: The church has long since repudiated those claims, rejecting the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s crucifixion in 1965. In 2011, Pope Benedict made even more explicit that Jews were not responsible. On its own terms, Butker’s address went badly awry. If he’s the strong man he said in his speech that he is, he’ll call those sisters and tell them he’s sorry. ”
Funny how these throwbacks, who think women are service animals, whose husbands are the all-knowing masters bearing the burden of deciding everything, hide behind their wives at the first sign of trouble.
Alito and his flag, Menendez and his gold bars, Thomas who has nothing to do with whatever the little woman gets up to in between watching soaps, etc etc etc.
According to the NYT story, neighbors who took the photo said the flag had been upside down for several days. Alito tried to blame his wife and claimed the flag was only like that for a brief time. Several days is not brief in my book.
Alito is as bad as Thomas and it sounds like his wife is another activist like Ginni.
I didn’t have enough time to explore this today but wow, it’s important to know that there are two supreme court justices and their wives actively working against democracy and our constitutional form of government. He’s the worst on the bench and that says a lot. Gorsuch is awful but manages to avoid the spotlight. Thomas is shameful too but Alito just makes shit up for what he wants as the rule of law and I have no doubt he lies whenever it suits him.
Whether it's Paul Pelosi being permanently injured by a hammer attack in his own home or Martha Alito suffering the pain of seeing of the words Fuck Trump, both sides have had to withstand devastating injuries. https://t.co/FkbYiukkcf
— emptywheel (not a bill) (@emptywheel) May 17, 2024
The Sky Dancing banner headline uses a snippet from a work by artist Tashi Mannox called 'Rainbow Study'. The work is described as a" study of typical Tibetan rainbow clouds, that feature in Thanka painting, temple decoration and silk brocades". dakinikat was immediately drawn to the image when trying to find stylized Tibetan Clouds to represent Sky Dancing. It is probably because Tashi's practice is similar to her own. His updated take on the clouds that fill the collection of traditional thankas is quite special.
You can find his work at his website by clicking on his logo below. He is also a calligraphy artist that uses important vajrayana syllables. We encourage you to visit his on line studio.
athan Beane, the NFL’s senior vice president and chief diversity and inclusion officer, told People.
These last 10 years have taught us that we may have come a long way from not being able to vote, but the party of Troglydites can send us right back to being chattel and slaves in a matter of years. Women, the GLBT community, immigrant populations, and America’s black community are having basic rights stripped from them daily. The shit show in front of the Manhattan Courthouse yesterday was appalling. “MAGA Rage at Trump’s Trial Just Got Darker and More Dangerous. Republicans aren’t just showing “loyalty to Trump.” They’re saying that Trump is more important than the rule of law.” This is from Greg Sargent writing for The New Republic.
“Matt Gaetz evokes ‘standing by’ language adopted by Proud Boys as he attends court with Donald Trump.” They all basically helped Trump avoid his gag order. If they were ordered by Donald to do it, they are all in trouble. Boebert also made a huge fool of herself and, once again, showed her “family values.” This is from Business Insider. “Lauren Boebert skipped Congress to support Trump’s trial, but didn’t show up to her own son’s hearings: reports.”
Trump took advantage of the photo op and whining in court by appearing at Barron’s graduation today. He’s headed off for a fundraiser tonight in the Twin Cities. He’s probably airborne, as I write. Another MAGA governor is getting slammed for being more interested in appearances than Governing. They’re the most emotionally abusive group of misfits I’ve ever seen or read about. “‘A Governor Who Doesn’t Seem to Have Much Interest in Governing Arkansas.’ Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ increasing number of critics think she’s too worried about her national profile.” This is in Politico and reported by Dana Liebelson. If she was that worried about her profile, you would think she’d stop wearing outfits suggesting she’s about to board a Prarie Schooner to Oregon. Still, I can’t see this kind of coverage of Jeff Landry, our governor, down here in Lousyana.
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There’s also this mess. Alito and Thomas need to be impeached.
https://x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1791407069544829156
They appear to have taken out the twitter addresses so twitter no longer will show up here as the full thing. This is about Alito’s statement on the upside down flag on his house.
STATEMENT: Alito’s Ugly Flag Display Demands Investigation, Recusal from Insurrection Cases
https://www.americanprogress.org/press/statement-alitos-ugly-flag-display-demands-investigation-recusal-from-insurrection-cases/
Alito basically said, his activist neighbors made his wife do it.
Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica rebut Harrison Butker as no one else could | Opinion
Read more at: https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/melinda-henneberger/article288540845.html#storylink=cpy
“Wouldn’t you know, it is the Benedictine Sisters of Mount St. Scholastica, co-founders of Benedictine College, who on Thursday issued the definitive response to Harrison Butker’s commencement address there. The sisters, of course, are among those whose vital contributions to the world, to the church and to the college are not just discounted but erased — poof, gone — in Butker’s view of women who are not wives and mothers: He doesn’t see them at all.
“How many of you are sitting here now about to cross this stage and are thinking about all the promotions and titles you are going to get in your career?” he asked women graduates. “Some of you may go on to lead successful careers in the world but I would venture to guess that the majority of you are most excited about your marriage and the children you will bring into this world. My beautiful wife Isabelle would be the first to say that her life truly started when she began living her vocation as a wife and as a mother.” I’m not being snide when I say I thought life truly started in the womb; all people at all stages of life and in all walks of life are valued in the Catholic faith, and I see nothing traditional about his implication that only marriage and parenthood confer true worth on women. Neither do the sisters, whose statement I’m going to quote in its entirety: “As a founding institution and sponsor of Benedictine College, the sisters of Mount St. Scholastica find it necessary to respond to the controversial remarks of Harrison Butker as commencement speaker. “The Sisters of Mt. Scholastica do not believe that Harrison Butker’s comments in his 2024 Benedictine College commencement address represent the Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts college that our founders envisioned and in which we have been so invested. “Instead of promoting unity in our church, our nation and the world, his comments seem to have fostered division. One of our concerns was the assertion that being a homemaker is the highest calling for a woman. We sisters have dedicated our lives to God and God’s people, including the many women whom we have taught and influenced during the past 160 years. These women have made a tremendous difference in the world in their roles as wives and mothers, and through their God-given talents in leadership, scholarship and their careers. “Our community has taught young women and men not just how to be ‘homemakers’ in a limited sense, but rather how to make a Gospel-centered, compassionate home within themselves where they can welcome others as Christ, empowering them to be the best versions of themselves. “We reject a narrow definition of what it means to be Catholic. We are faithful members of the Catholic Church who embrace and promote the values of the Gospel, St. Benedict, and Vatican II and the teachings of Pope Francis. “We want to be known as an inclusive, welcoming community, embracing Benedictine values that have endured for more than 1500 years and have spread through every continent and nation. We believe those values are the core of Benedictine College.” Butker owes these women who’ve dedicated their lives to living those values an apology. Other things the Kansas City Chiefs kicker said were far afield from Catholic teaching, too: “When you embrace tradition,” he said in his address, “success, worldly and spiritual, will follow.” That’s the Prosperity Gospel embraced by some evangelicals but pretty much the exact opposite of what Jesus said about what would happen to those who follow him. He also told graduates, “Congress just passed a bill where stating something as basic as the biblical teaching of who killed Jesus could land you in jail.” No, it couldn’t. He’s talking about House Republicans passing a bill that threatens federal funding for colleges that don’t crack down on antisemitic speech, including “claims of Jews killing Jesus.” Marjorie Taylor Greene thinks that’s basic, but Catholics don’t: The church has long since repudiated those claims, rejecting the idea of collective Jewish guilt for Christ’s crucifixion in 1965. In 2011, Pope Benedict made even more explicit that Jews were not responsible. On its own terms, Butker’s address went badly awry. If he’s the strong man he said in his speech that he is, he’ll call those sisters and tell them he’s sorry. ”
Funny how these throwbacks, who think women are service animals, whose husbands are the all-knowing masters bearing the burden of deciding everything, hide behind their wives at the first sign of trouble.
Alito and his flag, Menendez and his gold bars, Thomas who has nothing to do with whatever the little woman gets up to in between watching soaps, etc etc etc.
Pathetic.
Typical abusers … she made me do it
According to the NYT story, neighbors who took the photo said the flag had been upside down for several days. Alito tried to blame his wife and claimed the flag was only like that for a brief time. Several days is not brief in my book.
Alito is as bad as Thomas and it sounds like his wife is another activist like Ginni.
I didn’t have enough time to explore this today but wow, it’s important to know that there are two supreme court justices and their wives actively working against democracy and our constitutional form of government. He’s the worst on the bench and that says a lot. Gorsuch is awful but manages to avoid the spotlight. Thomas is shameful too but Alito just makes shit up for what he wants as the rule of law and I have no doubt he lies whenever it suits him.