Trying to turn 61 losses into a win is good strategy?

How well would women do if they were able to run the world? Would they do worse or better than men? Would they able to shed the social hierarchy that produces toxic masculinity? I think women would do better, which is why, when given the choice on a ballot, I frequently vote for the woman. I also came up with the idea for a novel. In my scenario the number of boys being born drops from 50% to 1%. The effect lasts a few generations. I came up with a long list of questions. In that time is toxic masculinity driven out? Will boys see women in leadership roles as natural? Will gay men making frequent donations to sperm banks be enough to allow them to love who they want? Will the small number of boys still be trained to think they’re entitled? Will men be banned from combat and the priesthood so a supply of sperm isn’t lost? Will women still prize motherhood so highly? Since so many women won’t be tied to children what will they accomplish in the business world? What will the shortage of men do to monogamy and marriage? Will the social hierarchy be discarded? Yes, I’ve thought about this a lot. All these and many more questions are intriguing. But I’m quite aware turning these questions into a plot, deciding which characters do what, and figuring out what scenes are necessary to drive the plot and develop the themes is a significant level up from a list of questions. I don’t think I’m equipped to do that. My training is in computers and music. As much as I want to read such a novel and have it out where other can read it I want someone else to write it. So if any one is or knows of a novelist looking for an idea please contact me. My terms for a partnership will be very generous. That’s a log way of introducing the book I just finished. No, someone didn’t write the book I envision, at least not quite. It’s A World of Women by J.D. Beresford. This book was first published in 1913. It is part of the new series Radium Age put out by The MIT Press. It’s goal is to feature science fiction stories from the time of Marie Curie, who discovered radium in 1903 and died of cancer in 1934. This is the time between H.G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback and isn’t remembered my most science fiction fans. The story opens with an approaching plague. Astra Taylor, in her introduction, is well aware of the similarities to what we just went through. This plague is selective – it kills mostly men, to the point where in England there is about one man per thousand women. Before the plague strikes there is the usual dismissal of severity we’ve come to know well. It’s not going to be that bad, people say. One character, Jasper Thrale, says we must close off Britain to the world. Another says if we do that we will have only a month of food – quite ignoring that losing half the population would be much worse. Much of the story is focused on the Gosling family. Father George is an accountant in a prestigious firm, so has a decent salary. His wife (always, “Mrs. Gosling”) keeps house. Their two daughters Blanche and Millie are trying to get more from Dad to keep up with the latest fashions and attract suitors. They fit in their culture quite well but are unprepared for what’s coming. Then comes the day when the citizens of London realize this pandemic thing is real, it will be bad, and it is close. They panic and flee. Pretty soon no gas (this is before most homes have electricity) and no water. Also soon, no trains. Civilization has collapsed. George realizes he is no longer under the constraint of civilization. His family figures he must have been killed by the plague. They realize they can’t stay in London and follow the migration out. Along the way Mrs. Gosling can’t figure out the response she gets when she asks for something and says, “I’ll pay.” A character replies If I can’t eat it, wear it, or start a fire with it I have no use for it. They end up at a community of women where Thrale serves as the guy keeping the machinery (most steam driven) running. He rebuffs so many women I began to wonder if he was gay, though that concept would not have been known in 1913. As the community works to get the harvest in they realize that many social conventions, especially the social hierarchy, don’t matter anymore. Having been the wife of a Peer is useless – if you don’t work you’ll be asked to move on. Yeah, there are hints of what I am proposing with my own novel. But a lot of what I want to explore is just hinted at the end (and the end seems to be a bit of a cop-out). My idea doesn’t deal with the end of civilization, more with how it will have to evolve over the generations. Overall, it was a good read. Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported the nasty guy has a defense plan against the charges from his efforts to overturn the 2020 election – argue he had a right to overturn the election. That means re-litigating all 61 court decisions that went against him in 2020 and 2021. His lawyers think trying to turn 61 losses into a win is good strategy? And Democrats are saying, sure, bring it on. Go ahead if the nasty guy wants to make this the conversation for the next 16 months.

If Republicans are fretting about being forced to focus on Trump’s lies about his loss again, Democrats are poised between pleasure that an opponent is dragging himself down and concern for the democracy he’s undermining. “Swing voters in a general election are not looking for celebration of an attempt to overturn an election and overthrow a government,” Democratic pollster Geoff Garin told The Washington Post. “Swing voters and voters generally take our democracy very seriously and don’t want their votes to be made irrelevant by politicians that want to overturn elections.”

Hunter of Kos explained that the nasty guy had a terrible, horrible, really bad day when he went into Washington for the arraignment. The judge kept him waiting, which is frequently seen as a power move. The judge, a female, didn’t address him as president, but as mister. And unlike when he was in the White House his motorcade had to weave through traffic with certain fingers waved by other commuters. His jet had to wait in line to take off. And when back in Bedminster he had to wait for goats on the road. I have no sympathy. Media has talking a lot about the nasty guy getting a bump in the polls every time he’s indicted. Perhaps he needs a fourth indictment to guarantee a win. In a pundit roundup for Kos Greg Dworkin quoted Matt Robinson of Newsweek:

The indictments aren't helping Trump and they aren't the reason he's increasing his lead. For that, you can thank the fact that Ron DeSantis is a historically terrible candidate. As the second place contender, he's widely viewed as the most likely Trump alternative, and as he has gotten more exposed in the national press, he's dropped half of his support. From March 10 through August 1, DeSantis went from 31.4 percent to 15.6 percent. And where did those voters go? That ain't exactly rocket science either. Surveys show that Trump is the second choice of around 40 percent of DeSantis supporters. Lo and behold, as DeSantis has sunk, about 40 percent of the 15 point evaporation in his support has now shown up in Trump's column.

Of course, in the comments of the roundup Denise Oliver Velez posted several cartoons about the indictment. One by Madeline Horwat shows a flying saucer from “Law Offices of Blorp and Glorg” with two aliens handing out a business card and saying, “Take us to your indicted leader.” And a cartoon by Jimmy Margulies showing a clerk in a paint store saying, “Whitewash? I have regular, extra thick, and Florida school textbook...” Joan McCarter of Kos reported that Senate Judiciary Committee Democrats have sent Chief Justice John Roberts a letter. It starts by throwing Roberts’ words back at him:

Since 2011, you have argued that the Supreme Court can police its own ethical conduct. Yet, this year has been marked by revelation after revelation of justices receiving lavish gifts that they failed to disclose as required by law or otherwise using their offices and taxpayer-funded resources for personal gain.

Roberts had his colleagues sign a Statement of Ethics. And Alito and Thomas have acted as though it doesn’t apply to them. Which means the Statement of Ethics is not enough. It is more pressure put on Roberts but he also knows while Republicans hold the House and can filibuster in the Senate Congress can’t impose anything stronger.