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Jane in NC's avatar

The vote by senate republicans against the burn pit bill is especially galling as at least 4 of them are Iraq/Afghanistan veterans themselves. I hope people from their old units are contacting them in droves and nailing them to the wall over this. Jon Stewart is right in his criticism. He fought the same fight over funding for 9/11 first responders' medical treatment. It's beyond shameful that sick veterans and first responders have to fight at all to get the care they've earned.

On another subject, is it me or do MAGA world men have an obsession with their lack of manhood? It seems the least 'manly' men in that sphere spend the most time talking and now writing about it. But then, these people think Donald Trump is the epitome of manliness, so......

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David Johnson's avatar

Jonah Goldberg published at The Dispatch, in the last day or two, a terrific piece on the Trump-as-avatar-of-masculinity notion. I like a lot of Goldberg's pieces (but by no means all), but that may be the best I have ever read--well-reasoned, well-crafted, funny, and uncompromising.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Not a huge JG fan, but I'll check out his article. I'm glad to know people see through Trump's act.

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R Mercer's avatar

A lot of these men are VERY insecure about their masculinity--so they overcompensate in a lot of ways (and few of them having to do with actual manliness). It is a very adolescent type of behavior--which shows where a lot of these people's development stopped.

This insecurity is one of the reasons that gay men are so threatening and why women who don't act "properly" are so threatening. It also feeds into the whole gun culture in some ways.

If you think that TFG is the epitome of manliness then you have no idea what actual manliness is. He is about as far away from that as you can get.

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Terry Hilldale's avatar

Eleven years ago a study found that plastic food containers leach hormones including estrogen. https://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134196209/study-most-plastics-leach-hormone-like-chemicals "Most plastic products, from sippy cups to food wraps, can release chemicals that act like the sex hormone estrogen, according to a study in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study found these chemicals even in products that didn't contain BPA, a compound in certain plastics that's been widely criticized because it mimics estrogen."

Who knows how these estrogen-like compounds are influencing people's gender identity or leading to early puberty.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Very well put.

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Badger1848's avatar

Jon Stewart nails it on the hypocrisy charge. I have a conservative friend from grade and high school who is also an army war veteran and isn't shy about waving that flag when it suits her. She posts A LOT of political stuff on FB. Sometimes it's about how Dems are unsupportive of LEOs, military, etc. Much of it is the right wing media outrage du jour. She dabbled (hopefully past tense) in Q. So just for fun I decided to check in on her FB profile to see if there was any outrage at the GOP tanking the PACT Act. What I found instead were posts attacking Gov. Whitmer as "anti-woman and anti-babies" for vetoing an adoption funding bill, another one about residents from progressive blue cities supposedly flocking to Arizona to escape evil liberalism, and another mocking Mayor Lori Lightfoot's attempt to keep the Bears from moving to the suburbs. Apparently she's not wearing her veteran cap this week.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Those types are the worst. Proud to wave her veteran credentials but has nothing to say when republicans, again, blocked health care for victims of burn pit illness. Also, that trope about people 'fleeing blue cities' has been around for years. It's the right-wing's political version of the Hook Man.

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Mary Brownell's avatar

I wonder the same thing about MAGA men who spend so much time and emotion ranting about how horrible gay men are. If they were secure in their sexual identity, I don't think they'd spend so much time talking about it.

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Nancy Marzano's avatar

Exactly, Mary! What are they so afraid of??

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Victoria Meyers's avatar

You're so right. What sort of political party harbors a creep like Jim Jordan who helped shield a creep who was sexually abusing students? Why isn't Jordan in prison?

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sld's avatar

Toxic masculinity is seen as a virtue by men who are malignantly toxic [aka, white Christian supremacists/women haters/among others]. Also by the toxically masculine wannabes, i.e., GQP voters.

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Jane in NC's avatar

Masculinity turns toxic when it's based on fear. Fear of non-christians, women, gays, POC, etc., and especially fear of losing what they consider their natural position atop the pecking order. Actually having to compete - for jobs, in eduction, in elected office - scares them to death. So they retreat into their victimhood and blame everyone else for their inadequacies.

The remarkable thing to me is watching Ivy League graduates like Cruz, Hawley, Vance and others playing the victim card - from their cushy jobs and mansions, which somehow can't manage to compensate for what's lacking inside.

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Victoria Meyers's avatar

The only way we can right the ship that is (was) America is if we put Trump in prison for life, and give sentences to his kids as well. Otherwise America has lost its moral foundations. We sold our foundations to a psycopath thief from a crime family. How does that feel? Not good.

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Jane in NC's avatar

I have to disagree with 'we.' Some people sold out their foundations to a psychopath and his crime family, but the majority did not. I do agree, though, that Trump and all the people who abetted him need to be convicted for their crimes.

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Roderick's avatar

As far as MAGA men masculinity, it reminded me of that study that concluded that the most homophobic attitudes were held by men that were most aroused by male porn. A little like the neighbor in American Beauty.

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Eva Seifert's avatar

Dems need to hammer the facts of the R's not voting for bills they supported, especially to veterans and the people affected. As they're clearly showing, they're all in on the cruelty. Truly sick.

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Jane in NC's avatar

YES! When it comes down to it, republicans don't give a damn about cops, veterans or anything else, especially if they stand in the way of a good spiteful tantrum. They're a grievance party. Nothing more.

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Victoria Meyers's avatar

WRONG: Republicans are 100% in 'public service' to make money through graft. Why do you think they all supported Trump ('Build the Wall! Ha ha ha! You mean the wall that Trump farmed out to a contractor who kicked back $millions to him, while never bothering to install a foundation? That Wall?) Has America ever had a bigger 'King of Graft'? If America survives as a country, 100 years from now people will read about Trump, his many crimes, and how Americans were too incompetent to hold this creep accountable, and scratch their heads. That's a very big 'IF'.

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SoCal's avatar

To Jane,

Or babies!

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knowltok's avatar

I don't know the rules of the senate, but were it me, I'd be putting that bill up for a vote every week. And when it passes, have the press releases ready, "Republicans cave to Jon Stewart and Veteran anger and do the right thing."

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Mary Brownell's avatar

Jon Stewart's speech made me cry.

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Don Gates's avatar

Donald Trump is the alpha male, and he's the only one you can trust to tell you the truth.

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Deutschmeister's avatar

The truth as Trump sees it anyway, since we know that almost everything that tumbles out of his fried chicken hole is a flat-out lie. Not sure how masculine that is, but at least he is consistent at it. For whatever that is worth.

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Jane in NC's avatar

It's hard for me to think of anyone as manly - or even grown-up or mature - when they spend so much time whining.

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Ben - MD, VA, NE Florida.'s avatar

Yet he's the greatest winner that ever lived, let me tell you. Trump never loses!

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Jane in NC's avatar

My favorite, by far, are the doctored Sly Stallone pics with Trump's gourd photoshopped on them. It's always amazed me that people who go to those lengths to make Trump appear manly have never stopped to think why they need to.

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JF's avatar

Irony is dead. Trump killed it.

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