Texas Republican congressman Keith Self is chair of a a House Foreign Affairs subcommittee and during a hearing, he turned to Sarah McBride, a member of the panel and is transgender and referred to her as “Mr. McBride”, deliberately misgendering her because he is, of course, a transphobic bigoted jerk and this is what the Republican party now consists of.
I have got to hand it to McBride. Without missing a beat or showing any outward sign of anger, she replied “Thank you, madam chair’.
A fellow Democrat on the panel Bill Keating of Massachusetts then interjected and demanded that Self refer to McBride properly. Self tried to bat away the implication that he was a bigot by the usual evasion ‘that he was only following orders’ to argue that he was merely doing what the House of Representatives had decided but Keating was having none of it and kept insisting that Self refer to McBride properly. Self then adjourned the meeting.
Watch.
Self: I now recognize the representative from Delaware Mr. McBride
McBride: Thank you Madam chair
Keating: Mr. Chairman can you repeat your instruction?
Self: We have set the standard on the floor of the House.
Keating: You are out of order. Have you no decency?
Self: We… pic.twitter.com/8ODn3kBvad
— Acyn (@Acyn) March 11, 2025
I wonder what would happen if every Democrat deliberately misgendered every Republican whenever they spoke on the floor of congress or in committees. But Democrats seem to be too timid to try such things.
The polices that Trump-Musk and the GOP are adopting are bad enough but they are also being utterly obnoxious about it. The anger is rising in the country, mostly because of the mass firings of federal workers, as this Republican congressperson discovered at a town hall in his district. when an angry veteran confronted him. The congressperson ordered security to take him away, but the man was cheered by many in the audience. Meanwhile there was a large crowd of people outside who could not get into the 300-seat auditorium who beat on the doors and chanted slogans such as “Do your job”.
Watch.
JD Vance and his wife Usha also got booed loudly at a classical music concert the Kennedy Center of all places, a venue known for its sedate upscale audiences.
As the normal pre-concert announcements got under way, the vice-presidential party filed into the box tier. Booing and jeering erupted in the hall, drowning out the announcements, as Vance and his wife, Usha, took their seats.
Such a vocal, impassioned political protest was a highly unusual event in the normally polite and restrained world of classical music.
Vance ironically acknowledged the yelling and shouts of “You ruined this place!” with a smile and a wave.
Many such angry confrontations have already occurred and Republican leaders of congress, fearful that this will escalate, are telling their members not to hold in-person town halls but to do them virtually. So suddenly, after causing much turmoil by ordering all federal workers to stop remote work and return to their offices, they have decided they they like telework but just for themselves.
That feels to me like the sort of direction anyone can easily ignore.
“Oops, sorry, I respected our colleague. Oops, sorry, I did it again.” No one is likely to call you out for doing this. If they do, I doubt it would work out very well for them. There’s a point where grandstanding gets a little too obvious and you start to lose your audience.
“Democrats seem to be too timid to try such things.”
And those cowards are supposedly the best you’ve got to represent you, what with the only available alternative going full Nazi and cowering at home in case someone uses harsh language. Land of the free, home of the *at best* chickenshits.
“Many such angry confrontations have already occurred and Republican leaders of congress, fearful that this will escalate, are telling their members not to hold in-person town halls but to do them virtually”
So much for their return to office. Although i would expect town hall meetings in Republican areas are more likely to have people with guns around than a classical music concert
Also it’s nice to see rep Keating standing up for a trans woman
Does no one know what the word irony means any more?
@4: see “Isnt it ironic?” by Alanis Morrisette, a series of questions/situations to which the answer is *always* “no -- what you have just described is not an example of irony”.
Comedian Ed Byrne said the only ironic thing about that song is it’s written by someone who doesn’t know what irony is.
So it’s a common problem, although not an ironic one.
Cross-posted from Pharyngula:
https://proxy.freethought.online/pharyngula/2025/04/03/infinite-thread-xxxv/comment-page-1/#comment-2260414
This is incredible: A transgender woman in Florida (who happens to be a devout Catholic) notified authorities that she intended to engage in civil disobedience by breaking a law banning trans women from women’s restrooms in the state capitol building. She told them the date and time. She said she fully expected to get arrested, sent a male prison, and raped. She sent a photo so they could identify her!
https://www.erininthemorning.com/p/trans-woman-arrested-sent-to-mens
Officers were waiting to arrest her when she arrived. She did it anyway. She went in and washed her hands, they arrested her, they sent her to a male prison.
As I’m sure will be no surprise to anyone, trans women have been raped and murdered in male prisons. They prison guards deliberately place them with violent men. That last one was in California. My blood runs cold at what will happen to her in Florida.
I’m just astonished any human being can have such courage.
Her name is Marcy Rheintgen. She’s a Rosa Parks for our time except more so. She’s barely 20.