Today's Belle

In 2008 they told McCain that if he was more than 5 points underwater with women, he was gonna lose. He was, and he did.

And I'll say it again:

Women will save us. All we have to do is stay the fuck outa their way and let 'em do it.

Go get 'em, ladies.

I'll hold your stuff

while you fuck 'em up.

I'm right behind you,

and I'll be here when you're done.

A Poem

... by Danielle Coffyn

If Adam Picked The Apple

There would be a parade,

a celebration,

a holiday to commemorate

the day he sought enlightenment.

We would not speak of temptation

by the devil, rather,

we would laud Adam's curiosity,

his desire for adventure

and knowing.

We would feast

on apple-inspired fare -

tortes, chutneys, pancakes, pies.

There would be plays and songs

reenacting his courage.

But it was Eve who grew bored,

weary of her captivity in Eden.

And a woman's desire

for freedom is rarely a cause

for celebration.

She's Gonna Need It

Women Will Save Us

and I'll be

standing right

behind them

holding their stuff

while they fuck you up. 

Dear Mr Butker

The Yankee Farm Wife would like a word

Mic Drop, Bitch

... like 3 or 4 times.

Get Wise

I wasn't fully aware of it back then, but I do remember the time when women were all but invisible outside the confines of their marriage, and their kids, and managing their households.

PoliticsByTabitha

Pushback

Mahsa Amini at 22 years old

Yeah - she's like really dangerous,

what with her insistence on

making her own decisions and all.

Assholes

People will be free. Even if we vote ourselves into bondage, there's always a kernel of dissent - a small group who won't knuckle under - who won't be fooled, and who will eventually bring the others around.

When the size of that kernel is potentially half of your population, you'd best be paying attention.

I'll say it again: Women will save us from ourselves - if we can figure out how to get the fuck outa their way.

The story of Iran’s Mahsa Amini uprising told through its most iconic images

It was a movement that began with the death of a young Iranian woman from a small Kurdish town. Over the next year, it spread on social media and captured the attention of the world.

This is the story of Iran’s uprising through its most memorable images.

1 Mahsa Amini’s death

On Sept. 13, 2022, Mahsa Amini was visiting her brother in Tehran just days before her 23rd birthday when she was stopped and taken away by the country’s infamous “morality police,” for allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.

View this post on Instagram

Within hours, Amini lay in a coma in a hospital bed, with Iranian police claiming that she had suffered a heart attack. Her family said she was beaten. The image of her shared on social media shook the country.

Three days later, she died.

2 Removing the headscarf

The protests began on Sept. 16, the day Amini died, with crowds gathering outside the Tehran hospital where she spent her final days.

As she was laid to rest in her hometown of Saqqez the following day, women took off their headscarves in protest. They chanted “woman, life, freedom” — a slogan that would soon be heard across the country.

پرچم مازنی‌ها ✌️👏
ساری، ۲۹ شهریور؛ مراسم روسری‌سوزان!#مهسا_امینی #مهساامینی pic.twitter.com/b2sAPJGIyV

— Pouria Zeraati (@pouriazeraati) September 20, 2022

translated:
Mazniha's flag ✌️👏
in Sari, 29 September; Burning scarf ceremony!
#Mehsa_Amini #MehsaAmini 

Some women took off their headscarves, waving them in the air or setting them on fire. Others cut their hair in public, openly defying the morality police.

کرمان، میدان آزادی#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/wk535lhtr9

— Kayhan (@cosmos196196) September 20, 2022

translated:
Kerman, Azadi Square

3 Targeting images of Khamenei

Images of the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, are everywhere in Iran, a symbol of his unquestioned authority.

As anger rose, protesters tore down posters and burned billboards featuring his face. “Death to Khamenei” became a rallying cry.

Burning Khamenei's billboard in Yazd with a Molotov cocktail. One way to show how much he is hated inside Iran.
#MahsaAmini #مهسا_امینی #IranRevoIution pic.twitter.com/0Kv85GIo4k

— Omid Memarian (@Omid_M) November 8, 2022

4 Rising up in universities

Universities became hubs of protest as young people became leaders of the movement. Campuses were raided by security forces. The government cut off the internet. Some students were detained or forced to abandon their studies.

When Iran’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, visited one university in an attempt to calm protests, he was greeted by angry students yelling “get lost.”

Students at Al-Zahra University—an all female uni in Iran—shout in protest upon President Ebrahim Raisi’s visit:

“Death to the oppressor, whether it is a king or a [supreme] leader”pic.twitter.com/PyoCPQIgr8

— Assal Rad (@AssalRad) October 8, 2022

In one clip, a group of young women can be seen singing the song “Baraye,” which became an anthem giving voice to protesters’ grievances and received a Grammy award for Best Song for Social Change.

5 Remembering Amini

In late October thousands of people made their way to Amini’s grave to mark the 40th day after her death — known as a “chehellom,” an especially important moment in the Iranian Shiite funerary tradition.

A photo of a young woman standing on a car without a headscarf became an iconic image.

6 Taking the protest to sports

Acts of protest weren’t confined to Iran. A number of Iranian athletes appeared to support the uprising on the world stage. Climber Elnaz Rekabi took part in a competition in South Korea without wearing a headscarf — mandatory for all women representing the country abroad.

Concerns for Rekabi’s welfare grew after a stilted message posted on her Instagram account claimed she was unintentionally not wearing a headscarf. She later returned home to crowds of supporters.

In November, members of Iran’s men’s soccer team at the World Cup refused to sing the national anthem during their first match against England, widely interpreted as a gesture of solidarity with the protesters back home.

Sardar Azmoun, a forward on the team, has been the most vocal champion of the uprising. “I don’t care if I’m sacked,” Azmoun wrote in a since-deleted post on Instagram last September. “Shame on you for killing people so easily. Viva Iranian women.” He later issued an apology on Instagram.

When the team was eliminated from the competition, protesters at home erupted in celebration over what they viewed as a symbolic defeat for the Islamic Republic.

سنندج شادی مردم پس از باخت تیم فوتبال جمهوری‌اسلامی.#مهسا_امینی pic.twitter.com/uCn7FWZ1E0

— +۱۵۰۰تصویر (@1500tasvir) November 30, 2022

translated:
People's happiness in Sanandaj after the defeat of the football team of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

7 Showing global solidarity

در مراسم خاکسپاری جواد حیدری، از کشته‌شدگان اعتراضات به قتل #مهسا_امینی، خواهر او موهایش را بر مزار برادرش کوتاه میکند. pic.twitter.com/g3lg4fUsqq

— +۱۵۰۰تصویر (@1500tasvir) September 25, 2022

translated:
At the funeral of Javad Heydari, one of the victims of the murder protests #مهسا_امینی , his sister cuts her hair at her brother's grave.

As the death toll rose during protests, a video shared on social media showed a woman cutting her hair over the grave of her brother, Javad Heydari, who was killed during the demonstrations. The gesture is found in ancient Persian literature as a sign of protest, anger or grief.

Women around the world, from members of the Iranian diaspora to politicians and celebrities, cut their hair in solidarity.

And BTW - "morality police"? How in the blue-eyed buck naked fuck does that make sense to somebody?

Today's Champion

Sha'Carri Richardson got stiffed really bad four years ago when they kicked her off the US Olympic team for testing positive for marijuana.

It would appear she's just about all the way back.

See ya in Paris next year, kid - tear 'em up.

The Return

Vice President Harris joined Brittney Griner (top)

 and several members of the Phoenix Mercury

in the locker room before the game

(Mario Tama/Getty Images)

To be sure, I don't care all that much about a basketball game, or a basketball league, or a basketball player.

But there's something more important about the Brittney Griner thing than simply one shitty thing that one shitty government did to one individual American. That's not trivial, but it's not all that unusual either.

The thing is that the US government went out of its way, stepped up big, and helped a woman of color who was being fucked over for no better reason than "We've got the power - we do whatever we want - so fuck you."

My government did good things for a woman of color. That's not something that lands on the front page very often here in USAmerica Inc.

Brittney Griner’s improbable WNBA return was accompanied by a sense of triumph

LOS ANGELES — Brittney Griner crouched slightly at the half-court line, leaped and extended a long arm over her lean 6-foot-9 frame to easily bat the ball backward to her teammate. It was one of several movements — the tip-off to start the game — that Griner has performed hundreds of times over the past decade as the dominant center for the Phoenix Mercury.

But doing it again, and this soon — in a fired-up arena with the vice president in attendance — would have been nearly impossible to picture less than a year ago, when Griner was shackled in a Russian court, being sentenced to nine years in prison.

By the scoreboard alone, Griner’s return Friday to professional basketball, as Phoenix took on the Los Angeles Sparks to open the 2023 WNBA season, was a rout. The Sparks claimed a 94-71 victory, and Griner had 18 points, six rebounds and four blocks in 25 minutes. But her return cemented one of the most unlikely comeback stories in sports history — and one of the most unusual.

Griner, a top star in her league, faced a dark future in a penal colony as a pawn in international relations after customs officials in Russia, where she played for a professional team during the WNBA offseason, found vape cartridges with cannabis oil in her luggage. She ultimately spent 294 days in Russian custody before being returned to the United States in December in a controversial prisoner swap for convicted arms trafficker Viktor Bout. Friday’s season opener was her first WNBA game since Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on Oct. 17, 2021.

Following the game, Griner, 32, said that her incarceration caused her to “appreciate everything a little bit more” — which included a warm welcome in an opposing team’s arena and a surprise visit to the locker room by Vice President Harris. But the sentimentality had its limits.

“Not good enough,” Griner said to sum up the game. “We didn’t get the dub.”

The night at times felt like a celebration accompanied by a basketball game. Before tip-off, Griner’s every movement was followed by a gaggle of video and still photographers. Fans waved cutout photos of her face, and the announcer led the arena in a chant of, “Welcome home BG!” Griner motioned to her heart as she received a standing ovation. The vice president walked on the court and waved, and several celebrities, including former Lakers all-star Pau Gasol, Hall of Famer Magic Johnson and tennis champion Billie Jean King, sat courtside.

Griner stood with her teammates during the national anthem, a departure from her stance pre-incarceration, when she refused to take the court during the anthem. Her protest, which started amid national uproar over police brutality and racism in 2020, attracted conservative ire when she then required rescue from the American government. Griner explained after the game that the anthem “just means a little bit more to me now,” saying of her incarceration: “I was literally in a cage and could not stand the way I wanted to.”

Griner said that she still supports her teammates who choose not to stand for the anthem, adding that making such decisions for yourself “actually makes you more American."

Mercury Coach Vanessa Nygaard echoed that sentiment before the game, calling Friday a “day of joy" that made her proud of her country. “We brought home this woman, this Black gay woman, from a Russian jail,” Nygaard said. "And America did that because they valued her. ... It makes me very proud to be an American. And even though there are people for who that doesn’t make them proud, for me, I see [Griner], and I see hope.”

Griner was stopped at a Moscow-area airport on Feb. 17, 2022 — a week before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — but her detention was not reported in the press for weeks afterward. For most of 2022, the American public — and Griner’s family and teammates — only received sporadic glimpses of her plight via images of her in chains or behind jail cell bars. An eight-time all-star who helped lead the Mercury to a championship in 2014, Griner sometimes seemed forgotten — which Nygaard tried to combat last year by starting every news conference with a new tally of how many days she had been incarcerated in Russia.

Nygaard said that Griner’s freedom was a result of the persistence of those within the league. “When one of their sisters was in this predicament, this terrible situation, they used their voice and they amplified it,” Nygaard said. “I think it was the voices of the WNBA and the fans of the WNBA that finally got the Biden administration until they said, ‘You know what, let’s make this happen.’ ”

In December, President Biden authorized the swap of Griner for Bout, a Russian national serving a 25-year sentence in American prison for arms trafficking. In remarks announcing Griner’s return, Biden said that Griner “didn’t ask for special treatment,” and that her only request was that his administration not “forget about me and the other American detainees.” Griner has since attempted to put a focus on those detainees still in Russia by posting messages to her social media encouraging “everyone that played a part in bringing me home to continue their efforts to bring all Americans home.”

Griner’s saga has shed light on the compensation of the world’s best female basketball players, whose relatively paltry pay — WNBA salaries top out at just over $200,000 — has forced even the greatest of them to moonlight overseas, as Griner was when she was detained. And even with all of the pomp for Friday’s game, which was broadcast on ESPN and attracted national sports reporters, the empty upper decks of the Crypto.com Arena did not escape the attention of players and the Mercury coach. “Honestly, c’mon L.A. — we didn’t sell out the arena for B.G.?” Nygaard said. “It was great, it was loud, but how was it not a sellout?”

Griner expressed hope that the media focus on her will bring new fans to the WNBA. “Hopefully everybody tuning in to see me now will see somebody else,” she said.

Griner scored 11 of her points in the first half but appeared to tire in the second half, and after the game discussed improving her stamina to the point in which she could play 40 minutes if necessary. These are the sorts of problems — basketball problems — that, Griner acknowledged after the game, she sometimes thought she would never experience again.

“Me personally, I look at it as the worst case scenario so I don’t get hopes up,” Griner said of her perspective while incarcerated. She then added with a wink: “I’ll elaborate on that a little bit more, just make sure you get a copy of the book.”

C'mon Ladies

 By Karen Attiah - WaPo (pay wall)

Opinion - White Southern women are holding us back

Pour one out for us in Texas. We’re really hurting this week. So this newsletter is a little on the short side. …

The state voted overwhelmingly Republican during Tuesday’s midterm elections, even more so than in 2020. Incumbent GOP Gov. Greg Abbott soundly defeated his Democratic challenger, former congressman Beto O’Rourke. Republicans also retained all of the major statewide positions, including Attorney General Ken Paxton — who has long been under legal indictment. Sigh.

Before I begin, I know what many of you think. That Texas should be given back to Mexico. Or at the very least that none of y’all would miss us if we seceded. Yeah, I read your comments on my pieces!

It’s true that Texas’s statewide outcomes seem even more hopeless for Democrats here, considering that a “red wave” slaughter of Democrats did not materialize nationally, as many pundits predicted. But to be honest, it’s hard to feel happy about a smaller-than-predicted national tide, when Texas’s red ocean levels only seem to be rising.

The question a lot of non-Texans are asking is: “Why?” Why would the state reelect the same leadership after our deadly power-grid failure, after the Uvalde school shooting, after the criminalization of reproductive rights?

I don’t have all the answers. Voter suppression is a factor, and there’s the sheer size of the Republicans’ war chest. Voter polarization is a powerful force. It’s tough to overcome all of that.

White men vote Republican; we all know that. But there is another group that consistently supports the GOP’s anti-woman, do-nothing-about-dead-kids stance, and that is White women. Seriously, what gives?

White women (64 percent) voted for Abbott in about the same numbers that White men did (69 percent).

Black women, on the other hand, went 90 percent for O’Rourke. We held it down. As usual.

A similar story played out in Georgia’s gubernatorial race, in which White women overwhelmingly voted for Republican incumbent Brian Kemp and Black women voted for his challenger, Democrat Stacey Abrams:

And, of course, we all remember that a majority of White women voted for President Donald Trump in 2020.

There is a lot of focus in media circles on how Latinos will vote. There has long been an assumption that an increase in the number of non-White voters could dislodge the GOP’s stranglehold on my home state. But the reality is, Southern White women are the lady foot soldiers of the GOP’s agenda. We will not get free until that changes.

There is, of course, a long history of White women serving the conservative agenda of the Southern patriarchy. I mean, the United Daughters of the Confederacy and their funding are a large part of why many Confederate monuments still stand in the United States.

If there was ever a time for White women to mobilize at the ballot box, it should have been the year that Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization overturned abortion rights. I’ve seen and reported on Black women who are fighting for all women’s rights, children’s rights and better education. And yet those favors and efforts are not returned to us. And the polls consistently show that.

White women’s political behavior, especially in the South, makes it difficult, if not damn near impossible for meaningful change to occur. The racists, misogynists and anti-LGBTQ forces in the GOP have been banking on this for a long time — and they are clearly still reaping the rewards.

Something I Learned Today

While reading about the 10 year anniversary of "Pitch Perfect", I learned there's a thing called The Bechdel Test.

And the Reverse Bechdel is:

Two men

talk to each other about

nothing but women

BTW, Pitch Perfect is a personal fave for me - something special about a cappella, and something extra special about lady voices singing a cappella.

This one makes me cry.

Here's Millie Mae Healy's piece in yesterday's Harvard Crimson:

‘Pitch Perfect’ at 10: ‘Not Like Other Girls’

“Pitch Perfect” has a difficult legacy. It’s a wonderful, hilarious, and empowering film that by all accounts should have been an offensive fail. Ten years on, its flaws are more obvious than ever, but it also stands out as a triumph of late-2000s comedies.

The biggest weakness in “Pitch Perfect” is its laziness. There’s a misogynistic radio host, and that’s the entire joke. Consistently, there is a reliance on harmful stereotypes in constructing characters who are racial minorities or queer. All in all, this should culminate in a really redundant, stale, and derivative rom-com, but somehow it gets two things really, really right.

First, “Pitch Perfect” is not a musical. All of the music is diegetic; it’s actually happening in real time for the characters. They don’t wail and dance about their feelings; they yell at each other like contemporary people in the real world. But in addition to the great vocal performances and iconic cover choices, the music is a great vehicle for the plot. The a cappella group the Barden Bellas sound discordant when they are struggling to mesh as a group. Their use of “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” and “S&M” in the Riff Off are iconic even today, and deftly establish the world and community of a cappella in the film. The audition scene is particularly spectacular for this: The rendition of Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone” holds up today while also doing an incredible amount of legwork to establish all of the minor characters and the role of a cappella on this college campus. The music adds another dimension to what would otherwise be a college comedy, creatively providing an avenue to express the characters’ feelings and growth, as well as being engaging in its own right.

Secondly, “Pitch Perfect” successfully utilizes an unlikeable protagonist to create a story about female solidarity and kinship. The protagonist Beca, played by Anna Kendrick, sucks. She’s obnoxious, self-centered and judgemental. She’s sullen about getting a free college education because she’s mad at her dad for not funding her real dream, which is to head to L.A. by herself with no plans. She looks down on other characters for having interests and caring about things, and only deigns to join the Barden Bellas because her dad makes her. Because she’s the super special protagonist, co-head of the Bellas, Chloe (Brittany Snow), desperately wants her to join. Though she has some valid criticisms of Bella traditions, her refusal to participate and engage means she can’t have a positive impact on the group.

Yet, after self-destructing all of her relationships, Beca is made to reckon with her attitude and also her actions. She admits that she cares about something and that she wants to be a part of this group. And after everything, the revelation is simple: She’s just like other girls. Once Beca gets over herself and respects her friends and the institution she wants to belong to, she’s able to positively contribute and help lead the Bellas into the future.

But more than that, despite the toxicity that makes their relationships so compelling, the female characters care about each other as people. Yes, unfortunately this is a notable bar. It passes the Bechdel test with flying colors — and passes the reverse Bechdel test too. Despite having a romantic subplot, the focus is still on the dysfunctional, fun, and complex relationships between these women who love to sing. Thanks to the music, and the unapologetic focus on a group of young women engaging in an off-beat niche that they happen to love, there is a substance to this film that is just lacking in a lot of comedies. It has something to say, and it does so in an imaginative way that is joyful to watch.

“Pitch Perfect” remains extremely watchable today, and is genuinely hilarious for most of its runtime, so it’s a shame that it has some glaring flaws. And it’s a shame the sequels course-corrected in the wrong direction.

Oops Again, Republicans

Hoping this is another sign that Republicans have badly over-reached, and that the ladies are coming out to show these idiots what happens when you fuck over half the population.

Judge who denied Florida teen an abortion citing grades loses reelection

A state judge who, in a highly publicized case, denied a 17-year-old an abortion in part because of her grades lost his election in a Florida primary on Tuesday.

Jared Smith, who was appointed to Florida’s 13th Circuit Court by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in 2019, narrowly lost his nonpartisan primary against attorney Nancy Jacobs.

Jacobs received roughly 51.9 percent of the vote, beating Smith by about 3.7 percentage points, or roughly 7,900 votes.

Smith had ruled in January that the 17-year-old, who was kept anonymous in court documents, could not receive an abortion, citing her grades. An appeals court overturned the ruling.

“While she claimed that her grades were ‘Bs’ during her testimony, her GPA is currently 2.0,” Smith ruled. “Clearly, a ‘B’ average would not equate to a 2.0 GPA.”

Florida is one of six states that require both parental notification and consent for minors to obtain abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute. The teen had asked the court to waive the requirement.

Under Florida law, a judge can waive parental consent if it finds by “clear and convincing evidence” that the minor is “sufficiently mature” to decide to have an abortion. In considering those requests, judges are required to assess factors like the minor’s age, overall intelligence and emotional stability.

The statute has led to multiple high-profile cases, including one earlier this month in which a Florida appeals court ruled a 16-year-old did not demonstrate she met the maturity requirement to circumvent the parental notification and consent requirements.


Smith received an array of endorsements in the primary race, including former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez (R), the Tampa Bay Times’s editorial board and multiple retired judges who served on the circuit.

Democrats have hoped the Supreme Court’s overturning of the constitutional right to an abortion in June will help energize voters in this year’s midterm elections and avoid steep losses for the party as it seeks to maintain control of Congress.

Voters in Kansas, a traditionally red state, rejected a ballot question earlier this month that would remove abortion rights from the state constitution.

As voters headed to the polls in Florida on Tuesday and defeated Smith in his circuit court race, New York’s simultaneous primary showed another sign of the potential impact of the abortion ruling.

Pat Ryan (D), who made supporting abortion rights a cornerstone of his campaign, defeated Marc Molinaro (R) in the state’s 19th Congressional District, a bellwether district that voted for former President Obama in 2012, former President Trump in 2016 and President Biden in 2020.

Saving Us

I don't know that I can call it more than a slow roll right now - though it may well be an honest-to-golly trend - but there are signs of a (continuing) power shift.

Remember back in 2017, when the Pussy Hat Gang rose up to warn "conservatives" that electing Trump was prob'ly going to turn out to be a big mistake, and then proving it by bringing down the hammer in the 2018 midterms, and then stomping him in 2020, in spite of all the shit the GOP tried to pull.

So yeah - it could be a trend.

People Magazine:

Miss America 2018 Cara Mund, Inspired to Protect Women's Rights, Launches Bid for Congress in North Dakota

Mund, a 28-year-old recent Harvard Law School graduate, is collecting signatures to get her name on the November ballot as an independent. “I'm not a party — I'm a person,” she says

The 28-year-old announced her candidacy Saturday and quickly began gathering signatures to get her name on the November ballot. She'll need to collect 1,000 from North Dakota residents and hand them over to the secretary of state by Sept. 6, according to The Forum, a Fargo-area newspaper.

She hopes to run as an independent for her state's only seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. If she wins, she'll make history.

"On the 57th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, I am proud to announce that I am seeking to be North Dakota's first female in the U.S. House of Representatives," Mund said in a Facebook post on Saturday.

5 Things to Know About the New Miss America Cara Mund

It will be tough, though, in North Dakota, where Republicans hold every statewide office and conservative values run deep.

"I already know it's an uphill battle, and some people likely aren't even going to vote for me because they think there's no shot, but you don't know until you try," Mund told The Bismark Tribune. "I think the best part is I can take the best of both parties and find what's best for North Dakotans."

Mund says she decided to join the race out of concern for the waning reproductive rights of American women since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending the constitutional guarantee of abortion access across the country.

She told the AP that the ruling for her was "just a moment where I knew we need more women in office."

Most abortions are set to become illegal in North Dakota later this month. The AP reports that the state's only abortion clinic is preparing to move from Fargo to a location across the border in Minnesota.

Forcing people seeking an abortion "to travel across state lines is going to impact women, and women of lower social economic status," Mund told the AP.

"I don't think the government should be in your bedroom. I don't think the government should be in your doctor's appointments. It's your right to privacy, and as the first woman running for this position, I recognize the importance of that and the importance of having a woman's voice heard," Mund said in an interview with The Forum. "It's an individual's choice."

Mund, who's entering the race just months before Election Day, will be her own campaign manager and reportedly lacks the fundraising capabilities of her would-be opponents, Democrat Mark Haugen and Rep. Kelly Armstrong, the Republican incumbent who won reelection in 2020 in a landslide, according to The Forum. The GOP has held North Dakota's House seat since 2011.

But Mund, a Bismark native who attended Brown University and recently graduated with honors from Harvard Law School, is up for the challenge and feels most comfortable running as an independent. "I'm not a party — I'm a person," she said, adding that she agrees with Republicans on some issues and with Democrats on others.

She points to her experience representing her state at countless public appearances during her reign as Miss North Dakota and later as Miss America.

Also, Mund believes she has essential skills that apply to business and public service thanks to a nonprofit fashion show she started at age 14 that benefitted the Make-A-Wish Foundation during its 10-year run.

As an undergrad at Brown University, Mund sought leadership positions at various extracurricular groups, The Forum reports. And at Harvard Law School, she performed more than 1,000 hours of pro bono work and won an award for "her commitment to justice, her advocacy, compassion for her clients, and stellar representation of each of those clients."

Mund is in it to win it but said there are other benefits to launching a long-shot bid for Congress. Campaigning will give her the opportunity to hear from voters across North Dakota and to hold elected leaders accountable, she noted to The Forum.

"I want women in our state, especially after the [Supreme Court's] Dobbs decision, to know that they have an avenue to be heard," she said.

Here's Beau's take:

It's possible

that women will save us -

if we can just stay the fuck

out of their way.

Today's Today

Were you born OK?

Were you properly tended to thru your childhood - immunizations, growth charts, nutrition, etc?

Look up a few nurses and buy them some flowers and some candy and a sports car and a condo.

We go 50 or 60 or 80 years being looked after and comforted and cared for mostly by nurses, and it's the doctors who make all the money and get the fond remembrances written up in the local newspapers when they croak.

Don't get me wrong - docs are in there pullin' hard, and they deserve recognition and reward.

But it's the nurses who carry the heavy end of the boat. Without them, modern healthcare doesn't work for shit. The payoff for them is always more than a little short.

Florence Nightingale May 12, 1820 - August 12, 1910

Simon Whistler with a biography: 

Today's Tweet

Given the chance, women will save us - but we keep getting in their way.

I knew I should have made Eve first

— God (@thegoodgodabove) May 11, 2022

Dawn Staley For President

Dawn Staley has won just about everything there is to win on a basketball court.

I remember Staley from her playing days at UVa as a fiery point guard who ran the team on the floor like she was out for a Sunday drive - or operating a backhoe - or making tiny little sutures with a surgeon's laparoscope - or whatever it took at the moment to solve the puzzle in front of her and engineer something out of almost nothing if she had to.

She was all piss-n-vinegar, but with a brain that worked overtime, and what she couldn't get herself or her teammates to do, she did anyway. She's always struck me as one of those competitors who never lose - they just run out of time before they can beat your ass.

She took another big step last night up into some even more rarified air.

WaPo: (pay wall)

Dawn of an era: Staley and South Carolina now set the standard

MINNEAPOLIS — Twelve seconds remained when Geno Auriemma started walking toward Dawn Staley. The uncertainty was over, and so was Connecticut’s unblemished record on national championship night. For the first time, on the final evening of a women’s college basketball season, Auriemma ambled over to an opposing coach, humbled and congratulatory.

Auriemma, who has led Connecticut to 11 titles, had stood still with his arms crossed for several minutes. He was so stiff you couldn’t even tell he was breathing. He wasn’t stunned; it was more like resigned. For the first time, he stared out onto a championship court, saw a dominant team in unfamiliar colors and could only bow to South Carolina’s greatness.

As Auriemma embraced Staley, the clock hit zero and the confetti flurries began, signifying that the baddest women’s team in the sport this season had usurped the great Connecticut dynasty with a 64-49 victory Sunday night before 18,304 at Target Center.

“They were the best team all year,” Auriemma said, repeating what he told Staley as they hugged. “When you’re dealing with that all year long, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. They did a magnificent job managing all that and the expectations that go with that.”

Said Staley: “We weren’t going to be denied.”

It’s premature to consider this a torch-passing event. However, South Carolina yanked something away from Connecticut on this night. The Huskies, who endured a snakebit season full of injuries, retreated like they haven’t since they became a supernova program. They didn’t take the lead the entire game. They were tied for only the first 22 seconds. The Gamecocks scored first, and for the next 39:38, they pounded the most acclaimed team in the sport. They led 22-8 after the first quarter, and Connecticut was playing catch-up the rest of the way. While the Huskies made a few runs and capitalized several South Carolina scoring droughts, it never felt as if the Huskies had a chance.

“They were just too good for us,” Auriemma said.

South Carolina point guard Destanni Henderson danced around the court and scored a game-high 26 points. Aliyah Boston, the national player of the year and the tournament’s most outstanding player, had 11 points and 16 rebounds. Paige Bueckers, who had 14, was the only U-Conn. player who scored in double figures. The Gamecocks had almost as many offensive boards (21) as the Huskies had total rebounds. As a result, they scored 22 second-chance points while limiting Connecticut to five. At times, it looked unfair.

It feels like a seminal moment in the sport’s hierarchy. Since the end of Pat Summitt’s run at Tennessee, Connecticut has dominated without a peer that could truly trade punches with the Huskies over a long period of time. In truth, even Tennessee strained to keep pace, and it’s astounding because Summitt won five of her eight national titles after Connecticut began its championship hoarding in 1995. In the past 27 years, plenty of other elite teams have emerged and been able to smuggle some moments. But the Huskies have kept most of them from enjoying long reigns. Their dynasty, overpowering and unfathomable, grates on others’ greatness.

For all the past talk about Connecticut’s dominance being bad for the game, the Huskies actually have elevated the sport because the standard for winning a championship is higher than it has ever been. At the same time, like any wicked good ruler, they have kept other great programs from maximizing their excellence.

Connecticut didn’t just enter Sunday night perfect in 11 championship games. They were unbeaten despite facing some of the best of the best. Summitt would have been the first college basketball coach since John Wooden to win double-digit titles, but the Lady Volunteers lost four times to Connecticut in championship games. Notre Dame Coach Muffet McGraw, another bitter rival of Auriemma, won two titles in her Hall of Fame career but lost in the final game twice to Connecticut. The Huskies turned back Stanford and Tara VanDerveer, owner of three championship rings, once. Louisville Coach Jeff Walz has built a top-five program, but he’s still looking to cut down the nets partly because the Huskies have defeated the Cardinals two times on the last night of the season.

“Unfortunately for us, both of those U-Conn. teams would probably be ranked in the top five of all women’s basketball teams ever,” Walz said. “We just had a sucky year to have to play them.”

There are several elite teams, and access to that level is less exclusive than it used to be as parity builds in the sport. But there is one superpower, and worthy challengers have had to face that reality again and again.

Except for South Carolina.

Before the title game, Staley responded to questions referencing the Huskies’ 11-0 title-game record by joking, “We’re 1-0, so we’re 100 percent, too.”

Make it 2-0, with both triumphs coming in the past five years. That makes the Gamecocks (35-2) the most successful team in the game over that span. In tearing apart Connecticut, they completed a season in which they went wire to wire as the nation’s No. 1 team.

“Our team had the fight of champions all season long,” Staley said. “All season long.”

She called the victory “divinely ordered.” South Carolina never backed down from the pressure of being expected to win. Staley looked at Connecticut and saw possibility, not a team to be feared. And for now, even if it lasts a short time, Staley’s program is the new standard in women’s college basketball.

“I think a lot of what we’re able to do and get is off the backs of their success,” Staley said in appreciation of Connecticut. “I think the people up at U-Conn. treat their women’s basketball team as a sport. They’re forced to because of all the winning and all the success, but you could take a page out of their book.

“If you invest in it, you could end up having similar success. Actually, not even similar success. Just you could actually scratch the surface and have some success.”

The surface has been scratched. Now, with two titles in five years and two No. 1 recruiting classes on this roster, South Carolina has a chance to go higher. Asked about the goal for next season, Boston was simple and direct: “Same as this year.” After watching the Gamecocks on Sunday night, one thing about them is even clearer: They won’t be afraid of greatness. They’re chasing greater. They’re grating on the Connecticut dynasty now.

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IWD

I'll say it again:

Women will save us

if we can stay out of their way

and let 'em do it.

How Great I Art

Yeah, there's a bit of self-congratulating to be done here, but I think the real point is that I tweeted about wanting to take down Brett Kavanaugh, and the thing kinda blew up.

First of course - I know the response is not exactly monumental, but it's pretty damned great for a putzy little nobody like me.

Second though, it's not just the number of people who jumped on it - they retweeted it and they liked the fuck out of it - which is, in itself, gratifying and all - but the thing I've noticed is that most of the people doing the liking and the retweeting are women - like a huge percentage of them are women.

So maybe I don't get to draw big conclusions just from that, but I can't help but think there's a boatload of women out there in Voterland who're still very much engaged, and still pretty fucking mad about what's been happening.

And maybe they're willing to save our dumb asses one more time.