First, a rant. By this time next week we will know whether we will have elected the first woman president of the US, or perhaps the most misogynistic president/vice president pair in history. Why this is even a question is beyond me though I recognize some of the reasons — racism, misogyny, the normalization of Trump’s outrageousness and deterioration, righteous indignation at the Biden administration’s continued arming of the genocide in Gaza, the continuation of an alternate reality in which too many people live, failure of the media to cover all this fairly, cowardice of most Republicans in government.

All these are factors but this couldn’t be happening without a good deal of simple denial that none of this is normal. The main thing is for every sane person to turn out to vote — it won’t be the crazies who decide this election, it will be the sane ones who realize or don’t realize that there is only one sane way to vote this year. Here in Arizona, it matters.

I already voted, and checked online to see that my ballot was accepted. But there are some sane ones who may not feel free to vote, and it fits with this series all too well. Rabecca Solnit wrote in The Guardian : Lots of memes and tweets and posts and videos are popping up, assuring women that they can keep their votes secret from their husbands and boyfriends.

The unspoken assumption is that lots of women are bullied, intimidated or controlled by their partners, specifically in straight couples when s.