Let’s check in on Slate…
The Women Who Wanted to Leave Their Husbands Over Politics
For a few glimmering moments in 2024, it seemed as if white women—Trump’s second-biggest voting bloc, who are often married to white men, his first-biggest voting bloc—were going to learn their lesson from 2016. They organized Zoom calls and raised millions upon millions for Kamala Harris’ campaign. But many seemed primed to use their personal lives as the ultimate political leverage: Moderate and Democratic women were considering divorcing their Trumpian husbands. Last year, divorce was being discussed as a means of resistance. Whispers on- and offline suggested that women across the country were finally fed up with their Trump-voting husbands, that a second Trump term would mean their marriages were beyond repair.
In October, 54-year-old Beth was a few weeks away from celebrating two decades married to her husband—that is, if they’d be able to make it to their anniversary in November.
When they met, as is true for a lot of now-unhappy couples, their relationship felt breezy. “I was already accustomed to dating men like that, the redneck vanilla guys. He was typical of the pool of eligibles that I fished in as a Midwestern gal,” she said about meeting him in the early aughts at a college alumni event. The two of them eventually wed and settled down in Colorado. “People are inclined to say, ‘You knew what you were getting.’ You don’t. I didn’t realize what I was getting into.” She’s had a divorce attorney on the line since 2016, though it hasn’t gone beyond a few preliminary phone calls.
For 30-year-old Annie, a veterinarian from the U.K. who had a baby earlier in the year with her 37-year-old husband, their conflicts were less about his politics and more about how much disregard he had for half the country. Not the half that votes for Democrats, but rather: women. Her husband’s views were often pretty liberal; the two of them agreed that the U.S. needed to stop giving Israel arms to bomb Palestinians—they were both hoping for an immediate ceasefire—and he also believed in accessible health care for all. But they kept having arguments about gender, and he just couldn’t get his head around voting for a woman. “I’m not sure I really picked up on the misogyny when we first met,” she said. “He wouldn’t think of himself as someone who doesn’t like women or thinks women are less than.” But Annie is an immigrant, living stateside in California as an immigrant, with paperwork tied to her husband. To leave him is to also leave the country, where her baby is a citizen.
Originally from New York—which you can still very much hear in her staccato accent—but now living in Pennsylvania, freelance writer Heather has been married to her husband for 24 years. They have two kids, and she tolerated his uninhibited support for Trump through his first administration, even after one of their children came out as nonbinary and started fighting with their dad about politics. But this time around, things have been harder, particularly with how trans people have been targeted by the Trump campaign, and how much that weighs on their nonbinary child. “They were like, ‘I’m going to show him Project 2025. I’m going to convince him out of it,’ ” Heather said. “I thought I could appeal to his decency, to who he was before. But I can’t look at a person who’s OK with vile racism and vile misogyny and sexual assault and disgusting xenophobia.”
Spoiler alert: None of them leave their husbands, their poor, poor husbands.
How To Identify Deer By Their Butts
I. White Tail
II. Mule Deer
III. Black-Tailed Deer
IV. Elk
V. Red Deer
Laugh all you want, but one day this information might save your life.
N,N-Dimethyltryptamine (DMT or N,N-DMT) is a substituted tryptamine that occurs in many plants and animals, including humans, and which is both a derivative and a structural analog of tryptamine.[1][2][3] DMT is used as a psychedelic drug and prepared by various cultures for ritual purposes as an entheogen.[9]
I would have tried DMT if I could have ever found it. I don’t think it will come as a surprise to any of you that I’ve done recreational drugs (but I was like this long before drugs, so I can’t blame drugs.) But the machine elves give me pause.
Entities perceived during DMT inebriation have been represented in diverse forms of psychedelic art. The term machine elf was coined by ethnobotanist Terence McKenna for the entities he encountered in DMT “hyperspace”, also using terms like fractal elves, or self-transforming machine elves.[34][35] McKenna first encountered the “machine elves” after smoking DMT in Berkeley in 1965. His subsequent speculations regarding the hyperdimensional space in which they were encountered have inspired a great many artists and musicians, and the meaning of DMT entities has been a subject of considerable debate among participants in a networked cultural underground, enthused by McKenna’s effusive accounts of DMT hyperspace.
My friend and I used to low-dose ‘shrooms and listen to Terrence McKenna talk about his experiences a little too often.
Self-Transforming Elf Machines
“These things mob you, like badly-trained Rottweilers. They come bounding forward by the dozens, by the hundreds. They jump into your body, they jump out of your body.”
You know, if you are trying to intimidate the pimp running your taxi dancer establishment, maybe aggressively shaking your boobs is not really the best way to go about it. (Not that I have anything against aggressive boob-shaking.) See 3:20
Also, that is the most cartoonishly-pimpish Hispanic pimp in music video history.
I know that a pimp’s love is not like a squares, but the gold tooth really sells the whole character.
Played by the actor/dancer Gary Chryst, who is credited in imdb as “Pimp (uncredited)” which seems like a paradox.
Well, they left reality behind — probably couldn’t afford another departure.
Glad to see the music was precisely what I expected from the article title.
Perhaps they need a little DMT?
Or a whole lot.
As soon as they find out that if they leave, they don’t get alimony, the divorce threats start to die off.
Pretty sure that’s state by state.
I don’t think that’s how no-fault divorce works.
You guys are real good at stepping on a joke…
OK, I’m gonna leave when he makes me start to wear the Margret Atwood get-up!
“the redneck vanilla guys. He was typical of the pool of eligibles that I fished in as a Midwestern gal”
Holy crap.
“But they kept having arguments about gender, and he just couldn’t get his head around voting for a woman.”
I strongly suspect it was more “that woman” than “any woman”.
“I’m going to show him Project 2025.”
Look, I already decided to vote for him. You don’t have to sell me on it.
And, as we all know, non-binary is another word for bullshit.
As if to fit a script for the insane, all the lefty women in my family said exactly “I’m going to show [you] Project 2025.”
Yep. People forget that by 2000, folks were getting pretty tired of the Clintons — especially her.
“He feels that elevating the rights of others, specifically people of color, erodes his rights,” she said. “That’s been a discussion around Harris as well, that maybe they picked her because she’s Black and she’s a woman.”
LOL they did all of that and said so openly.
Non-binary == people too insecure to go about life without a label.
I actually soldiered through most of that, all the way to “one of their children came out as nonbinary and started fighting with their dad about politics”, and then it was either stop reading – or blow my fucking brains out.
JFC, Slate.
I should ask how my nieces are enjoying the camps
‘I should ask how my nieces are enjoying the camps’
Nice one, in an alternate reality where I didn’t care about my relationship with them I’d totally do that.
Got a big smile from me. A reminder of a simpler age, of MTV and Reagan and quarters in video games and D & D sessions and shit.
As long as Swiss doesn’t decide to jump in and educate us on the fine differences in breeds of Felis catus.
Swiss would mistake a deer for a Shamwow.
“You’re gonna love my nuts!”
*shudder*
My beloved (who’s in town for the first time in nearly 2 months) gifted me with a bottle opener made of a kangaroo scrotum.
He said “It’s the perfect Australian gift. One day you’re merrily hopping along, and the next day some bloke is opening a beer with your nutsack.”
Link to roo ball bottle opener
https://www.amazon.com/Australian-Design-Kangaroo-Scrotum-Bottle/dp/B07QBG4JHX
Actually it does.
I figured recreational drugs do you when they want to hallucinate.
That is some quality sucking up, right there.
Maybe he’s trying to hallucinate?
Spoiler alert: None of them leave their husbands, their poor, poor husbands.
Here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?
I’m going to speculate without evidence and suggest that some of these marriages had fracture lines before 2016.
That’s more generous than my guess that none of those people actually exist.
(Not that I have anything against aggressive boob-shaking.)
As primate display behavior goes…
Somehow I doubt he wants to see the male Glibs shaking their moobs.
Is that a dude shaking his boobs on the right? Maybe Pat Benatar was woke before there was woke.
But many seemed primed to use their personal lives as the ultimate political leverage: Moderate and Democratic women were considering divorcing their Trumpian husbands.
Something something never stick it in crazy.
Unfortunately, most of them are crazy.
I never liked Flat Megatar, her face looks kinda pushed in,
Played by the actor/dancer Gary Chryst, who is credited in imdb as “Pimp (uncredited)” which seems like a paradox.
I think “uncredited” in IMDb parlance means no on-screen credit in the movie/other medium in question. Lots of small parts in 1930s movies were played by character actors who didn’t get credits. So no paradox.
Only a minuscule fraction of music videos had opening or closing credits.
“I didn’t realize what I was getting into.” OK, honey. Care to give us some details, or are we just supposed to know what you mean?
“But Annie is an immigrant, living stateside in California as an immigrant, with paperwork tied to her husband.” – I’m not sure what this means. If she’s a citizen there’s nothing to worry about. If she has a permanent green card, again, she has nothing to worry about. Even if she has a conditional green card, she probably still has nothing to worry about.
“I’m going to show him Project 2025. I’m going to convince him out of it”. Yeah, sure you’ve read all 900 pages of Project 2025.
What sad people.
They’re not sad, they have purpose, they’re fighting against an existential threat that can only be fought by posting memes on social media!
I’m going to show him what they told me about Project 2025 on the View. That’ll convince him… to hate me.
I think for Slate readers “immigrant” just means something like “noble”.
Probably. If one views the world through the lens of oppressor and oppressed, then immigrants would be viewed as oppressed and therefore automatically good.
So, not colonialists? I am confused.
*aggressively shakes man-boobs at SugarFree*
*closes tab*
There was the Glib-Wednesday mental image I didn’t need.
Stop it. – MJ
SF,
I encourage you to email me so you can find me on FB. There are some groups on there that may help you on your journey.
We have this weird situation at work.
Our union rep’s tongue is tickling the back of Trump’s teeth in the greatest display of “its okay when my guy does it”.
Until the contracts are abolished legally, they are there. We follow our rules, management/government follows theres.
This guy claims he ‘knows Trump’ cause ‘I follow his religiously’.
I cant tell if he thinks that will save his worthless ass from RIF or what.
Its so, contradictory.
OK, honey. Care to give us some details, or are we just supposed to know what you mean?
Too gruesome to put into words. Just indulge your most lurid fantasies.
If you’re of a certain age, and have a dirty mind (like me) you’ll get this immediately.
Not the eyes!
too-ra-loo-rye-aye
I meet the requirements but I dont get it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7C3c2PqBM3U
Ah. I knew it had something to do with that song but I was never a fan and couldn’t remember the title or lyrics.
Reference
Damn you Potter! Get the cloak of invisibility away from my replies!
Reference:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vxyiq8NRXYY 🎶☘️
(reference to the reference)
They don’t get it. They intentionally break everything and find out who screams and figure out what to turn back on. It’s like corporate cost cutting 101.
DOGE Cuts Off Government PACER Access Because They Are The Dumbest People On The Planet
I don’t think it is for cost cutting — but that does also seem to be the way our IT folks treat Engineering and R&D…. “What can we change and see how loud they scream? It isn’t like their work is adding value to the company or anything…..”
FWIW if nobody comes up and takes responsibility for some piece of software than nobody seems to be using and we don’t want to support anymore, there is no easier way to deal with it.
rhywun:
That’s it. First thing I generally suggested whenever there was a migration of reporting systems, to leave off all of the scheduled reports, and only put on the ones that people ask about. Far too many automatically e-mailed reports are just ignored.
I don’t know what any of that means but… “All the people in charge of nuclear weapons” are probational? I didn’t bother researching the other ridiculous claim in that turd.
abovethelaw dot com….how much do they get from USAID?
We have tons of stuff in our data centers that nobody can identify, but we’re afraid to touch. Every now and then we have a project to refresh hardware, move servers around or close a data center, and we have no option but to turn the stuff off to see if someone screams.
U.K. Imam Opens Service With Land Acknowledgment Of Indigenous Britons That Once Inhabited London
https://babylonbee.com/news/uk-imam-opens-service-with-land-acknowledgment-of-indigenous-britons-that-once-inhabited-london
Dayum. Zing.
*sigh* I’m sitting in a department meeting. One of our mid-level admins is taking Q&A from the faculty. One faculty member wanted to know what they should do if/when ICE enters their classroom to arrest one of their students.
Fortunately, I’d just turned off my video so my head-shaking and eye-rolling wouldn’t be seen.
“Wave a convincing gun-shaped object at them while shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’.”
Shout at the Feds that if they have a problem with said student — Yo, they’ll solve it.
I was going to do Motley Crue.
Vanilla Ice is a better choice.
Please tell me your meetings start with Land Acknowledgements.
Glib Zooms should be started with land acknowledgements.
Not the department ones but some of the campus-wide things do.
I first saw that before an AFL match lol. Couple years before it got big here.
I don’t zoom, but I acknowledge that I’m on land, not in flight.
They intentionally break everything and find out who screams
Reminds me of one of my professors, who said, “If you want to know if your reports are worth anything, stop sending them out and see if anybody asks for one.”
I did that after a restructure. I had a report that took probably 16 hours to make once a month.
I just stopped sending it and never heard a thing.
What you didn’t know is that there was actually a poor schmuck assigned to read it — and he was just so happy to get the hours in his day back he didn’t complain!
As usual it went to like 10 people. Prior management thought it provided huge value.
Funnily enough this week we forgot to attach the report to the notice and people noticed.
Admittedly, the mistake was made by the new guy… who’s been here over a year now and should know how to handle monthly reports.
Probably should not have gone to 3:20 and played it (and replayed it, a few times) on my work computer. Worth it.
Well…
To be fair, it does sound like he left her because she became insufferable, rather than her leaving him.
Remember when you took your marriage vows? I remember when I gave mine. I swore to keep her first and above all others no matter what came. Good, bad, agree, disagree I would still be her husband until I die. I knew what I was saying and I meant it. I am on her side even if I think she is wrong. have kept my word and will keep on keeping it.
When you traded your husband for a very fucked up ideology you broke your vows the same as if you were out kicking up your heels with every Tom Dick and Hairy.
Sometimes seeking dominion over others doesn’t quite work out like one hoped.
“She’s moved over to Bluesky.” Of course she did.
I thought Bluesy was imploding. Didnt that turn into a shitshow of people scolding each other and having each other banned?
Again, none of this is real. These are composite characters the author made up.
I used to think that. I used to think ‘no way that is true’. It is a parody, right? After a while I realized two things: stereotypes exist for a reason and the difference between sanity and insanity is that sanity has limits.
I do have to wonder how a reporter would go about finding these people.
Why does no one ever acknowledge the Cro-Magnon? Homoerectus? And what is Neanderthal, chopped liver?
Great, now I am gonna get sued for leaving out Denisovan and the Hobbit peolple…and the other dozen we dont even know about.
Where are their reparations?
Chop chop
ABC News staffers began packing up their desks Wednesday amid layoffs as the embattled network restructured its programming that include merging “20/20” and “Nightline,” and consolidating its “Good Morning America” productions, The Post has learned.
Parent company Disney reportedly planned to lay off around 200 people from its ABC News Group division as well as its Disney Entertainment Networks unit — a move that constitutes cutting some 6% of the combined staff of the two units.
——-
“As we’ve often talked about, streamlining our operation to best serve our viewers and continue to position ourselves as a leading news organization has been a goal for some time,” the ABC News boss wrote in the email, a copy of which was obtained by The Post.
“Rethinking the way we work to future-proof our team regrettably includes reductions to our extraordinary staff,” Karamehmedovic wrote, adding: “These decisions are incredibly challenging and today will undoubtedly be difficult for our organization.”
Good luck with that tiktok thing. We’re all counting on you.
They’re all good. They can open SubStacks and get a huge audience.
No mention of The View? That thing must survive on hate watches.
I swear, I thought that show stayed on the air from a USAID grant. Clearly they must get money right from Soros because they are still going.
OMG, another 6% cut. They’re going to be destroyed just like NOAA!
4 percentage points to decimation!
Decimation! Aghhh
[Psst] Try “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
The ABC News president added that “it bears repeating how profoundly grateful and proud I am to be leading a truly remarkable team that consistently delivers the best our profession has to offer.”
“As we look ahead, I remain confident in our ability to continue to set the bar for journalistic excellence. I am so proud of all that you do,” he wrote in the memo.
Everybody but Stephanopopulus, anyway. Fuck that guy. This is all his fault.
One casualty of the cost-cutting measure is the FiveThirtyEight data news site — the operation founded by Nate Silver which came to prominence in the 2008 and 2012 elections for accurately predicting the results.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the entire site is being axed and all 15 of its employees will be handed pink slips.
Laurene Jobs should offer them two dollars for it.
“I fought for eight years against Trump, because I felt it was the right thing to do. Where did it get me? Trump is president, and no marriage.”
*outright prolonged laughter*
She traded what should have been the most important thing in her life for a thing that should have been trivial.
Some people specialize in poor decision making.
Regrets, I’ve had a few…”
from Imgflip Meme Generator
I see a lot of those ’round here,
I cannot imagine being in a mixed-philosophical marriage, either religious or political.
I mean, if you start out together and drift apart over the years, I guess that needs examination.
My wife is a progressive democrat albeit one in remission.
We love each other dearly, and are totally able to have civil conversations about politics. In my wife’s case, she recognized 15 years ago that the progressive news sources were causing her chronic stress and anxiety and decided to stop consuming them (hence being in remission). She is also a hard worker who was born into poverty and is now the president of a business unit of her employer thanks to her talent and hard work. She got her first job on her 16th birthday and has always had a job ever since. In fact, she paid off her college loans by supplementing her salary as a junior insurance underwriter by cashiering at a supermarket in the evenings/weekends, working 65 – 70 hours a week between the two jobs. This makes her very open to calling bulshit on the current issue when it becomes idiotic. Anti-price-gouging laws on roof repair in the aftermath of a hurricane? A-OK for her. Encourage autistic adolescent girls to cut off their breasts and take male hormones? She calls it child abuse.
Our secret is that we both assume the other is a good person and we listen to each other’s points and don’t seek to convert each other but to understand each other. We even tease each other about it.
My wife says “you don’t need to love the same things, but you need to hate the same things.”
My wife voted Trump 3 times. 2 more times than I did (I hadn’t voted since 2012 until 2024).
Should I have left her for being a racist misogynist? Where did I go wrong?