As much as I hate comparisons to the handmaid's tale, I keep thinking about the opening in the series when women wake up one day and find themselves locked out of their bank accounts.
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I had a conversation with my adult kids recently about the need to keep some cash on hand, in case bank accounts become inaccessible for any reason. I had that scene in my head at the time.
Meanwhile Rep Glenn Grothman reported on the House flooor that he was headed home this weekend to "reread" Fatherless America blaming the decline on the nuclear family to feminists & BLM. We are living in incredible scary times.
@repgrothman.bsky.social is a never married man who supports 2 men that have fathered scores of children with many different women. He calls them geniuses FFS
I’ve been thinking about taking cash out, but what am I thinking? Like, I’m not going to close my bank account. This world is so hurtful and stupid right now.
I'm also planning to take a little out of my very meager savings so I have SOMETHING. I'm also worried about a general crash, especially since I'm sure they'll gut FDIC.
The chick at the title company who tried to leave my name off the house when we refinanced it ("it's not that big a deal, your husband's name is on it, we're closing in 15 minutes") is seeming a lot more sinister these days.
Also, by not having the refi docs with both owners’ names, the lender does not have a proper lien on the home. This is basic real estate law 101 which is what the bank pays the title company for!!!! (At least until women aren’t allowed to own property any more)
🤯🤬🤬🤬 Is there a licensing agency that person can be reported to? 🤔 Or maybe it’s a big title company so you can look up the general counsel and send that person a letter.
We're scruffy nobodies but my husband was room mothers together with their regional VP when the kids were tiny. We'd stopped to chat w/her when we arrived. As we squabbled with the staff about botching my name, she stuck her nose in to see what the fuss was. The staff chick minimized it to her boss
but D --my husband-- said "I'd rather leave MY name off than HER name, it's just the principle. I'm gonna call the bank and see if they'll extend the rate one more day so we can redo the papers." Gets out phone.
But the boss --his fellow bake sale coordinator, yay public schools-- grabs the sheaf.
I'm the one with the JOB for god's sake. My salary bought that house. D was the stay-at-home parent.
The boss fixed the papers, shooed off the still-hovering staff chick, and did the whole signing process with us. Performatively. Apologizing several times.
A whole lot of retired old women are worried right now whether their Social Security checks will be deposited. Many live month-to-month and are widowed.
ima change my name to Bob & hide my $ in tampon boxes (meanwhile whenever I have dreams of splitting up w/husband cause he does something terrible, I empty bank account right away (he's nice irl tho)
As women I do think we need to realize we are the low hanging fruit. They never legislated our rights to equality - we’re not in the constitution even as an amendment…
The craptastic job we do educating people. I grew up marching with my mom for the ERA, went to weekly NOW meetings. My 20-something kids have no clue. They do t teach history past WWII, no civil rights, no imperialist US, no recent history.
Keep em dumb and docile.
I've spent my life trying to educate everyone around me. Unfortunately, I may have gone too far too fast with my kids, and now depression is a common theme. That may just be a result of the world we live in, though.
Both of my kids would punch a Nazi so at least we've got that going for us.
Makes sense. Create ID discrepancies. Accuse us of fraud, or something along those lines. Establish rules that force us into a limbo where banks won’t give us accounts.
When I was a kid my father put me on his checking account. After he died, my sister took over paying bills out of the account for a few months and bounced some checks. I sorted it out. But the next year, I decided to open an unrelated credit union account in my own name and they wouldn't let me.
Huh. Hadn’t thought of that. Illinois changed drivers license so they’d mail it to your residence. Since judge threw me out of my own residence, have had great difficulty getting DL. Homeless shelters will *help* you if you capitulate to their curfew, religion, and other controlling rules
No help?
i have full confidence that the people currently attempting to do a hostile takeover and corporate restructure if america are smart enough to arrive at this idea on their own, and probably already did many years ago
Funny you should mention RealID.
After Roe v Wade was overturned, I thought it could be used to track women leaving their anti-abortion states to travel to receive safe abortion care.
So, I think you're right, too!
I’m sure blue states are willing to stand by and doing nothing in certain instances, but also think a situation where the NYPD is rounding up trans people because Trump said so is many, many, many, many steps removed from where we are currently.
Yup. I think of this every time I see men saying they are putting women back in their place, which I've seen quite a bit on social media since January 20 :-(
I think they are going down a list. I think Black people seem to be at the top as of now. Immigrants seem next, then women. I think this reorganization is due to Musk.
(Before Musk’s meteoric ascent, it seemed it was immigrants then women then Black people)
If I was an American woman, I’d withdraw all my money except enough to keep the account open, and hide it in a safe in my basement.
But hey, that’s just me overreacting, right?
Anytime I can’t access my bank account or my card won’t run when I know I have money in the account, I always feel a mild panic and think of that scene.
Nah the author just could predict the trajectory of abuse of power by men and unchecked psychopathy … plus she was alive in the seventies when a man had to co-sign for bank account or credit cards for women !
This episode has been living rent free in my head. The worst part of it for me is the dinner party where her husband (who we already know is dead bc this is a flashback ep) says "I don't know why you're worried. I'll protect you."
I rage quit the show an episode or two later. I've read the book.
The other thing that sticks with me from that episode is the guy in the coffee shop who just calls the women bitches and sluts just because he can. The rampant misogyny in the MAGA movement is just so painfully obvious and disgusting.
For me it’s a scene in the tv show where June (Offred) is threatened that she will lose her child as a bad mother because she gave her kid Tynenol & sent her to school so she could go to work, something innocuous that so many parents have done because they have no other choice.
Also, Jesus Christ, how the fuck is that book practical advice? Live in a walled community, hope that it doesn't get compromised, when it eventually does, watch everyone die horrifically?
I just figured out the thread order. Yes, the walled community invasion and (almost) everyone dies horrifically happens like 1/3rd of the way through the book. It is not the end. She survives.
A tough read and realistic about how bad things will get. It is also about joy and empathy and survival.
One of the most powerful books I've ever read. Short summary: the USA is on fire, society collapses. The main character, seeing it coming, prepares, survives and builds new community.
Often people focus on the scarily accurate predictions of collapse. But ultimately, it is powerfully hopeful.
ive been thinkin about my money a lot....... it's all vulnerable now. everything is data. the fabric of our society is stitched with 1's and 0's. whats left when they lock us out of it all?
Honestly same. I used to think we were headed more for the "oryx & crake" dystopian future but now I don't know why I didn't think about both those futures happening simultaneously 🥲
I said this right after he got elected. I (loudly, so my Republican dad could hear) said "I guess I should just go spend all my money, because soon I won't be allowed to have it." And now that Musk has taken who knows what info from government agencies...
I divorced my first husband because he made me want to kill myself, the car insurance folk sent two men to my house to tell me I couldn't have car insurance anymore because I was divorced, and therefore probably depressed and might hurt myself. I told them that I was free now and happy. Canceled.
The way that freedoms were just being stripped away and people just stand there watching it, until the people that the christofascists target suddenly lose their rights... and then it's too late. The Handmaid's Tale just keeps feeling more relevant, and it's garish to watch.
Do you think a future British government will also strip wome and minorities of their rights like in America, or is there just far less to no support for old-school religious patriarchy over here than in the States?
sadly, you don't make a comparison to a piece of speculative fiction; just ask your mom about her legal and financial reality any time prior to the mid-1970s...
Probably the only thing that will prevent that for us is that so many of us employ autopay.
I think this administration would love to devastate American women like this. Love it! And a whole lot of men in this country would love to do it, too—if it wouldn’t immediately tank US businesses.
If it makes you feel better it'll probably be everybody who makes less than $250K getting locked out of their bank account. Women will just get an alert that calls them "silly broads" or something.
I’m bracing myself. It’s clear as day he’s coming for us, if only the fact that “woman” and “female” were on the list of disqualifying terms for the medical funding list thing. I can’t help but remember that in the 70s, women in Afghanistan were dressing freely and getting and education.
I keep thinking someone will decide that I (or any woman) should not have my own social security or my own income because my husband should be responsible for my livelihood. Women used to end up in the poorhouse or on the streets because of this. They really don’t want us to have any options.
Me too. I opened a new account today that I will never give to the government. Keeping my old one used for taxes as a burner acct since that's my bank acct of record.
Do people think it is worth it to open an account outside of the US? It almost seems too simple, open a Canadian bank account and try to funnel money to it?
I’ve been thinking about that a lot. When June and every woman in her company gets fired at once. Later we realize women in Gilead are not allowed to work in any professional setting, no doctors, no professors, no government workers and no woman is allowed to read. Chilling.
no, The Heart Goes Last
about a community in which half of the people work at a prison & the other half are imprisoned and every 6 months they trade places.
Another thing it's right on about is the number of privileged white women who gleefully support Christian fascism and find out too late that their men's hatred of women doesn't stop at marginalized women.
Or the massacre at the prominent MSM office, the police shooting at protesters, all women losing their employment etc. Americans may not like looking in a mirror but a slippery slope is a slippery slope.
Ever wonder what is NOT in Project 2025?
Been thinking about this every day. Many years ago I would get paid and immediately do the ATM hunt to withdraw it all and put it in a safe. I’m thinking … might start doing this again
I too think about this. It wasn’t that long ago that women couldn’t open their own checking accounts. In the new version of the U.S. women must have equal rights
Kinda like they're doing now in regards to all the illegal things taking place. I think of that part of the scene so much. Just totally nailed how people let it happen.
Yes, totally! I find it one of the most haunting scenes, bc you see people acknowledging that it isn’t right, but also just sort of shrugging and being like “well but y’know how bad can it be? It’ll be fine. I’m sure someone else will fix it. Not me though. *I* can’t fix it. No no.”
People in general have a severe lack of personal efficacy, and it becomes really obvious in situations like what's happening around us and what happened on the show. It's sad.
Yes, this exactly. The most terrifying parts of that whole series, imo, are the beginning when things start to change, because that's the world we can relate to.
I read (& heed) a lot of dystopian fiction. That detail always seemed implausible, bc how would they even do that?Now I'm like: OH. This is how. Musk has our banking details & the levers of treasury. Sci-fi is the playbook. Next up, shock collars and an annual bloodsport competition for children. 😬😞
Ask the ghost of Mary Richardson Kennedy. RFKjr ignored divorce court order to timely pay credit card, he blew off court order; card declined when she tried to pay pediatrician bill, friends were buying gas and groceries
I think this was also the start of the Holocaust too, wasn't it? Suddenly Jews couldn't own anything? I don't know maybe, but it's definitely not looking good.
But I just called my senator (Cruz) and begged him to stand up for our country against Musk and Kennedy etc so I'm sure it'll all be fixed
The only reason to hate comparisons is if one is still embroiled in internecine conflicts from a decade ago. The majority of white women who affiliate with feminism also embrace intersectionality. Please foreground solidarity. We’re in this together and most of us left-of-center know it.
I think about that all the time. Do not let up if you live in a red state call your congresspersons, they are in the majority and giving away their legislative power.
Margaret Atwood is a genius. As a Canadian reading her Handmaids Tale was part of our Canadian literature studies. As far fetched as it was a few decades ago, looks like it’s now closer to reality.
I was at the bank today for a home equity loan closing. Had a moment of panic when it took the man 25 minutes to come back with my ID after leaving to make a copy of it. Totally irrational; except for what's happening in the country right now.
I could not watch the series after I think season 2. It was just awful, scary and made me feel gross. We are now staring at ideas, bills, laws, with something similar in mind. Sickening.
I hate the comparisons (because those things have BEEN happening irl to Black & Indigenous Women) but i can’t stop thinking about the part where all the women are told to leave work in the middle of the day. feels a bit too much like that’s not beyond the scope of reality.
Me too. And then they just kinda go about their day. I think about all the disaster/dystopia shows. There’s one where thousands of people are committing mass suicide. And characters see this on TV and are absolutely appalled and then are essentially“ So what are we doing for lunch?” That’s us now.
They can take money out of your account without telling you. My sister was dying during a long hospital stay near the end of the month her social security check was deposited. She died a couple days later & social security had taken back the deposit leaving zero reachable funds to bury her with.
My mother died on the 31st. Her Social Security was deposited the next day. Her bank accounts were frozen almost immediately after, but the Social Security Administration was able to claw back the deposit during the time her accounts were frozen. I didn't care, and was expecting that we would have
to pay the money back. I was surprised that the Social Security Administration was able to access her bank account when I couldn't as the executor/personal representative.
Feels like a lot of women are about to either find out the hard way or be reminded that until 1974, we weren't allowed to have credit cards and that it wasn't until 2010 that all states had adopted no-fault divorce laws.
Still going on. My aaa car insurance renamed my husband as a primary account holder the minute I added him 20 years ago and repeatedly ignores our requests to redo the “mistake”. My ex was able to close my BofA bank account he wasn’t even on. We live in a shyte hole.
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Yes.
I've also been thinking a LOT about the epilogue of that book and how cassette tapes are popular again.....
Always have some cash squirrel away with copies of documents
https://www.reddit.com/r/ireland/comments/7tqyph/running_away_money_its_pretty_important_i_think/
A different conversation was how worthless all her insurance policies turned out to be when she died in '04. Seriously got a check for $.08.
The pigs have taken over the farm after overthrowing their cruel and violent HUMAN masters, only to become 100 times worse themselves.
This regime is no different. "For the good of the country" while skimming off the workers to enrich themselves
But the boss --his fellow bake sale coordinator, yay public schools-- grabs the sheaf.
She and D chatter cheerfully at the printer, about how their respective moms would rise from their graves if this paper went through that way.
The boss fixed the papers, shooed off the still-hovering staff chick, and did the whole signing process with us. Performatively. Apologizing several times.
While the staff chick hovered.
But I’m also scared to move it. Ugh.
Keep em dumb and docile.
Both of my kids would punch a Nazi so at least we've got that going for us.
No help?
After Roe v Wade was overturned, I thought it could be used to track women leaving their anti-abortion states to travel to receive safe abortion care.
So, I think you're right, too!
And maybe 6 months ago we thought it could never happen, but after the last 2 weeks of DOGE, it very much could.
It could happen one person at a time.
No need to 'round us up' en masse.
And then I think about Jan 6 & how they're all released now.
kinda like what they are trying to implement now with everyone that isnt straight white and male
(Before Musk’s meteoric ascent, it seemed it was immigrants then women then Black people)
But hey, that’s just me overreacting, right?
Right?
I rage quit the show an episode or two later. I've read the book.
A tough read and realistic about how bad things will get. It is also about joy and empathy and survival.
Often people focus on the scarily accurate predictions of collapse. But ultimately, it is powerfully hopeful.
No bank accounts for anyone.
I'm re-watching it at the moment. Too many similarities to today. In some ways I actually wonder if they've used it for inspiration!
The Principle, hung, for being gay.
The airport scene where everyone is trying to get the hell out, and the lesbian couple are quoted 'the' law.
The protest where live rounds are used.
The boss forced to let women go whilst men just shrug their shoulders.
I think this administration would love to devastate American women like this. Love it! And a whole lot of men in this country would love to do it, too—if it wouldn’t immediately tank US businesses.
about a community in which half of the people work at a prison & the other half are imprisoned and every 6 months they trade places.
because musk can do that now.
This is freaking grim.
Ever wonder what is NOT in Project 2025?
THIS THIS THIS
THIS THIS THIS
THIS THIS THIS
And also how all the dudes just sort stand there all bewildered, like “sorry, there’s nothing I can do.”
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5129158-elon-musk-cms-access/
https://bsky.app/profile/genmhayden.bsky.social/post/3lh6a65lgx226
But I just called my senator (Cruz) and begged him to stand up for our country against Musk and Kennedy etc so I'm sure it'll all be fixed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vV84p5eUkgQ&t=10s
It's coming.
When you're a star, they let you do it. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
By all means, feel how you feel about the courts stopping this.
I'm not nearly as confident as you are.