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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Squishable Friday Morning Open Thread

Squishable Friday Morning Open Thread

by WaterGirl|  April 29, 20228:15 am| 94 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads

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This thread is totally squishable, as Betty likes to say when she puts up a morning thread when we haven’t seen Anne Laurie working on a morning thread in the backroom.

Here’s a little morning Henry to get the day started.

Squishable Friday Morning Thread

You may not be able to tell because they are so close to the same color, but Henry has dragged not one but two of his babies into bed with him.  I know he misses Tucker terribly, but I can’t bring myself to even think abut getting another dog yet.  So he makes do with me and the kitties and all his furry babies.

In these times, I guess we all need to learn to comfort ourselves.

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Reader Interactions

94Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2022 at 8:16 am

    Good Morning Everyone ???

  2. 2.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2022 at 8:18 am

    Had a rough day yesterday.

    Friend got a call from the hospital.

    They are putting her daughter in hospice.?

    The end of her 13 year long battle with cancer is coming to the end.

    She is only 31.???

  3. 3.

    JPL

    April 29, 2022 at 8:21 am

    @rikyrah: Sometimes there a no words.     hugs

  4. 4.

    brendancalling

    April 29, 2022 at 8:24 am

    @rikyrah: that’s a terribly sad thing to read. Parents shouldn’t outlive their kids.

  5. 5.

    WaterGirl

    April 29, 2022 at 8:29 am

    I have an update for everyone on Imm and the Immp – because Imm wants you guys to know what’s up but his energy is pretty much zapped.

    Good news first, Imm and the Immp are both home at last!

    But it has been a very rocky road.  I’ll use his own words for this next part:  Please tell them things went bad again, but things got better and we are both home.

    Rather than write one long comment, I’ll share a few bits in various comments.  I thought it best to cut to the chase right away so folks won’t be as worried when I share more details.

  6. 6.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 8:34 am

    Math textbooks axed for their treatment of race; a viral Twitter account directing ire at LGBTQ teachers; a state law forbidding classroom discussion of sexual identity in younger grades; a board book for babies targeted as “pornographic.” Lately it seems there’s a new controversy erupting every day over how race, gender or history are tackled in public school classrooms.
    But for most parents, these concerns seem to be far from top of mind. That’s according to a new national poll by NPR and Ipsos. By wide margins – and regardless of their political affiliation – parents express satisfaction with their children’s schools and what is being taught in them.

    The polling on schools has been consistent for 30 years. It always looks like this. Not that that fact will change the minds of any of the people promoting the CRT panic or the pedophile panic or the “gay teachers should all be fired” panic.

    And 82% agree “my child’s school has handled the pandemic well.”

    Twitter isn’t “real life”, that’s for sure, if “Twitter” means the main stream political media and Right wing “influencers” who have pushed these panics around schools. Most people don’t agree with them. Most people aren’t freaking out about masks or “cancel culture” or “CRT” or gay teachers in schools. That’s a center Right and Right wing pundit obsession.

  7. 7.

    martha

    April 29, 2022 at 8:38 am

    @rikyrah: oh Rikrah, I’m so sorry. ?? Living with cancer for thirteen years (especially at a young age) is so hard on everyone. Our neighbors went though something similar with their daughter and watching their hope and pain and anguish made me feel both helpless and so impressed by their strength.

  8. 8.

    skerry

    April 29, 2022 at 8:38 am

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for the news on Imm. Glad to hear they are home.

  9. 9.

    OzarkHillbilly

    April 29, 2022 at 8:39 am

    @rikyrah: @WaterGirl:

    I think I’ll keep my complaints to myself today.

  10. 10.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 8:41 am

    Here’s an opinion you never hear. Here’s a parent in a Texas district who thinks the history taught in his public schools leans too far Right:

    Jim Ondelacy is a Native American and a Democrat living in North Richland Hills, Texas, outside Fort Worth. He wishes his son’s high school went more in depth and taught more about the nation’s history of racism and oppression.
    Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs
    “It’s more of a water-down effect … [the teachers] kind of whitewash the way that history is taught to their kids,” he says.

    Good for NPR for allowing this “cancelled” opinion to be expressed. There may be a lot of Jim Ondelacy’s, given how many Right wing states and school districts there are in the US. I guess we’ll never know. Only the “schools have been seized by Marxists” opinion is permitted.

  11. 11.

    SFAW

    April 29, 2022 at 8:42 am

    @rikyrah:

    That’s awful. I don’t know how I’d bear it if it were one of my children.

  12. 12.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2022 at 8:47 am

     

     

    LarryO broke it down ?? ?? ??

    THEE Hercules Mulligan (@johnvmoore) tweeted at 7:39 PM on Thu, Apr 28, 2022:
    Lawrence O’Donell breaks down the idiocy of the “relieve my student loan or else” crowd. I think Joy got it but she didn’t want to. https://t.co/O5yqVCxFvS
    (https://twitter.com/johnvmoore/status/1519838707473334272?t=Cvr1Iacc4BkDnYJGr8i2gw&s=03)

  13. 13.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2022 at 8:48 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Thank you for the update

    ??????For Imma and Little Imma

  14. 14.

    SFAW

    April 29, 2022 at 8:48 am

    Semi-relevant to the “schools suck and are teaching things I don’t like” discussion: I am apparently on the “Conservative Intel” e-mailing list. [We’ll ignore the oxymoronic — and I do mean moronic — org name for the nonce.] A recent e-mail invited me to take a poll re: whether certain books should be banned in schools (and maybe libraries?) Apparently the results are in. I tried viewing them — the link times out before they display — but it appears that about 80 percent are in the “Fuck YEAH!” camp.

    Thank FSM fascism Can’t Happen Here.

  15. 15.

    SFAW

    April 29, 2022 at 8:53 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Glad they’re home and (more-or-less) OK. Keeping my fingers crossed that everyone’s back to full health ASAP.

  16. 16.

    MomSense

    April 29, 2022 at 8:55 am

    @rikyrah:

    Oh no!  I’m so sorry. What a tragedy.

  17. 17.

    Betty Cracker

    April 29, 2022 at 8:55 am

    @rikyrah: Unbearably sad for your friend.

    @WaterGirl: They’ve been through so much. I hope they catch a break now, damn it.

  18. 18.

    Geminid

    April 29, 2022 at 8:56 am

    @Kay: There is an article on tbe Ohio Senate race in Politico this morning. Polls are showing Vance up, and Dolan up too. Gibbons has dropped, and Timken has gone dark on the airwaves. Mandel is hanging in there and will campaign with the dynamic Ted Cruz this weekend.

    The Dolan campaign gets a lot of attention in the article. The reporter noted that Dolan trailed early on, and the top four candidates attacked each other and not Dolan. Meanwhile Dolan gave his campaign $10 million to run positive ads about himself. Polls now show Dolan a close 2nd to Vance. One even showed Dolan ahead Vance by one point, 18% to 17%.

    Gibbons lent his campaign $16 million. I guess he hoped to get the money back by winning the next Tuesday and again in November.

  19. 19.

    MomSense

    April 29, 2022 at 8:58 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Oh no!  I had it in my head that he fell on the ice and needed shoulder surgery. But it seemed he was gone too long for shoulder surgery so I was getting worried.
    I’m glad things are better again and that he was able to get some support from you.

  20. 20.

    WaterGirl

    April 29, 2022 at 9:00 am

    @SFAW: It’s gonna be a long road, I think.  But they are glad to be home.  All the time in the hospital with life-threatening complications, up and down, isn’t just worrisome, it’s exhausting.

    Even trying to get home, with August just barely able to travel, they waited in the airport for 8 hours – which is hard enough when you are in perfect health – before the airline finally cancelled the flight, and then they had to stay overnight in a hotel and then do it all over again the next day.

    I was so relieved when they finally had their feet back on the ground in the Boston area, and they are now back at home with the cat.

    And in the midst of all of this, Imm had to pack up the Immp’s apartment at school.  Beyond exhausting, physically and emotionally.

  21. 21.

    JPL

    April 29, 2022 at 9:00 am

    @WaterGirl: Thank you for the update and let him know that we are thinking of him.

  22. 22.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 9:05 am

    @rikyrah: Oh I’m so sorry, that is rough. Blessings for your friend.

  23. 23.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 9:06 am

    @Geminid:

    Yeah, I saw that Vance was up after the Trump endorsement and Mandel was down. I though the far Right religious woould stay with Mandel because he has so pandered to them, but either I was wrong and they switched to Vance or there are fewer far Right religious in the OH GOP as a whole.

    Our local county D org made contact with Marcy Kaptur’s campaign I think a month ago. We have another meeting with them Tuesday. There are 4 Republicans in the primary seeking to replace her.

  24. 24.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 9:06 am

    @Kay: Ah, you already posted what I came here to post. I immediately thought of you, Kay, when I heard this story. It’s true that most people don’t pay attention to Twitter or blogs or right wing media, but they are so loud that in the mainstream press they drown everyone else out, so people think they’re the majority.

  25. 25.

    WaterGirl

    April 29, 2022 at 9:08 am

    @Betty Cracker: That’s what I think every time, too.  They need to catch a break.  And then the next thing happens, and the next.

    But it’s a great sign that the docs finally felt he was able to travel, and he made it through the 2-day travel ordeal, with no immediate ill effects from that.

    It’s everything, of course, that the Immp made it through.  So grateful for that.

  26. 26.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 9:09 am

    @Kay: I noticed that right away too. When I heard them say that equal amounts of liberals and conservatives are unhappy with how their schools are teaching on these subjects, I thought “The liberals think it’s too much pablum, but this program will never say that”. I was happy to be proven wrong.

  27. 27.

    Betty Cracker

    April 29, 2022 at 9:09 am

    @rikyrah: The linked Reid and O’Donnell conversation captures so much of what’s frustrating and ultimately unknowable about our current electoral perdicament. LO says Republican voters aren’t transactional, and it’s true that they’re repeatedly shafted by their leaders on policies that would materially improve their circumstances. But JR makes a good point when she says they get the mean-spirited psychological victories they want, i.e., Muslim ban! Build the wall!

    I think JR’s point about voters’ perceptions of policy victories is borne out by the data we have, and thus there’s a need for the party to address that. But how many voters really make it a straight-up transaction, i.e., an “if I don’t get student debt relief, I’m not voting in the midterms,” ultimatum? Is that really a widespread thing? I don’t know.

    I suspect it’s more about voter malaise than anger on the Democratic side. Yelling at them about how they should be more grateful won’t help. Taking a shot at materially improving their circumstances where possible (which is what the Biden people are sincerely trying to do, IMO) is the way to go, plus being realistic about what needs to change to get more.

    tl;dr: It’s more complicated than either faction in this particular spat admits, IMO.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 9:10 am

    @Geminid:

    I think Kelly Anne Conway was managing Timkin’s campaign – probably paid a TON to do it- so it’s kind of funny that Timkin just disappeared.

    Every time I read George Conway about how Republicans are insurrectionists, admittedly not often, I think “except for that huge flow of campaign cash flowing into the Conway household”. That he likes.

  29. 29.

    SFAW

    April 29, 2022 at 9:14 am

    @WaterGirl: 
    I remember some of the in-the-hospital-but-having-setbacks updates, and thought that things were touch-and-go for awhile. But that airport/airline thing, plus things in general, are, as you noted, exhausting.

  30. 30.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 9:14 am

    @Kay: Kelly Anne is busy, because my rep Billy Long is also paying her to help him with his Senate campaign.

  31. 31.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 9:15 am

    @Soprano2:

    I just makes sense. There are 25 Republican-run states. There are about 15 states that are far Right. There are +10,000 school districts in the US. A lot of these school districts are run by Republicans and have conservative boards. If you’re a centrist or a liberal in that district you think it’s too far Right. But for some reason none of this was considered. They all just ran with “public schools have been taken over by Marxists”. Mine hasn’t. It’s Right wing. Unsurprisingly. This is a 65% R county and the whole school board are Republicans.

    I think it’s partly that pundits and anti cancel culture warriors live in blue cities and states. They simply don’t see a national map, or acknowlege that in Right wing areas local government is RIGHT WING. It’s blinders- not to ideology but to geography and numbers.

  32. 32.

    Geminid

    April 29, 2022 at 9:16 am

    @Kay: I wonder if those evangelicals used the Trump endorsement as an excuse to drop Mandel for Vance. Now that Dolan is (apparently) in contention the hard right may coalesce around Vance.

    I hope they do. I think Dolan would be a tougher oponent for Tim Ryan than Vance would be.

  33. 33.

    MomSense

    April 29, 2022 at 9:18 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Oh no.  I feel sick thinking about what they have been through. Sending all the healing and rest to them.

  34. 34.

    Ohio Mom

    April 29, 2022 at 9:20 am

    @WaterGirl: Thank you for the executive summary. Ohio Dad has a tendency to start all stories at the chronological beginning and over the years, my resulting anxiety has taken a significant amount of time off my life span.

    Glad to hear Immp is on the mend, however slowly.

  35. 35.

    debbie

    April 29, 2022 at 9:25 am

    @Kay:

    I thought that was a pretty good report overall. That damn noisy minority. School boards should have checked every person to ensure they had kids in the district. I think very few of the loud complainers did belong there.

  36. 36.

    debbie

    April 29, 2022 at 9:26 am

    @WaterGirl:

    Poor guys. I hope they both get a long stretch of boringness so they can regain their energies.

  37. 37.

    debbie

    April 29, 2022 at 9:27 am

    @rikyrah:

    Absolutely heartbreaking. I’m so sorry.

  38. 38.

    Ohio Mom

    April 29, 2022 at 9:27 am

    @Kay: That was certainly my complaint about the neoliberal economics curriculum Ohio Son was subjected to.

    I’ll repeat my favorite example, “A public good is a business run by the government.” I think it’s my favorite because it requires the least set-up and context. There were plenty of other egregious moments.

    For a while I kept a file folder of them as a coping device. Sort of the way those tiny Guatemalan worry dolls work.

    But I loved his schools and didn’t hold the state-mandated curriculum against them.

  39. 39.

    geg6

    April 29, 2022 at 9:27 am

    @Soprano2:

    Super busy.  She’s also working for Jake Corman’s gubernatorial campaign here in PA.  They are featuring her in the commercials.  Of course, he’s a shithead state senator and current President Pro Tempore of the PA Senate.  As MAGA as MAGA gets.

    TFG hasn’t endorsed in the governor’s race, I don’t think.

  40. 40.

    WaterGirl

    April 29, 2022 at 9:28 am

    @SFAW: Yeah, there were even more setbacks in the hospital than he talked about here.  When things are hard and are moving fast, you just don’t have the energy to tell people what’s up.  Imm said I can answer questions if anyone has them

    When I texted Imm to ask if their plane had landed yet and he wrote back about the 8-hour delay and then cancellation, my response was “Really???”  I mean seriously, the universe should have been embarrassed, piling that on them after everything else.

  41. 41.

    dww44

    April 29, 2022 at 9:29 am

    @rikyrah:  Sorry to hear such sad news.   So difficult to lose a child no matter the age but this is particularly sad to me.  Hugs to all.

  42. 42.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 9:30 am

    @Geminid: Well I made up my mind on Ohio Dem candidate for governor. Our paper ran one of those questions for candidate stories. I think the questionnaire was sent by USA Today which seems to have an interest in a number of Ohio newspapers.

    Not a single Republican candidate bothered to answer. Didn’t surprise me, since that has been their norm for about the last fifteen years. But on the Democratic side Nan Whaley’s campaign also couldn’t be bothered to answer. So she is off my list. Either disorganized or arrogant. I don’t care which. Voters need info and they couldn’t be bothered

    ETA They switched my vote by neglecting that.

  43. 43.

    kalakal

    April 29, 2022 at 9:30 am

    @rikyrah: That is so terribly sad. So very cruel

     

    @WaterGirl: I’m glad to hear they’re both home. It’s been so tough for them. I hope it’s all upwards from now on

  44. 44.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 9:30 am

    @Kay: It’s a similar effect to what I see here, which is too many people who can’t imagine that there could be other places that are different from here, so how on Earth could Joe Biden get so many votes? To them hardly anyone supports Biden, so he couldn’t have won.

  45. 45.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 9:32 am

    @debbie: We had a guy from Alabama come here last August and address our city council. If I had been on the council I would have asked why they should care what he thinks, since he doesn’t live here! Too many people from outside want to cause trouble where there isn’t much.

  46. 46.

    debbie

    April 29, 2022 at 9:33 am

    @sab:

    I voted for her in the primary and will vote for whoever’s the candidate in November.

  47. 47.

    debbie

    April 29, 2022 at 9:35 am

    @Soprano2:

    I heard Boston accents at the board meetings shown on the local news. As if. ?

  48. 48.

    Ohio Mom

    April 29, 2022 at 9:36 am

    @rikyrah: Hoping your friends daughter has a peaceful transition to the next world, and that your friend finds the solace she deserves.

    As the traditional curse goes, Fuck cancer.

  49. 49.

    germy

    April 29, 2022 at 9:36 am

    Postmaster General Louis DeJoy had the opportunity to buy a new fleet of electric @USPS trucks.

    Instead, he’s choosing to buy up to 165,000 gas-guzzling trucks that will hurt our planet.

    I'm suing to protect our communities and block the @USPS from purchasing these vehicles.

    — NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) April 28, 2022

  50. 50.

    zhena gogolia

    April 29, 2022 at 9:36 am

    @WaterGirl: Thanks so much.

     

    @rikyrah: So sad. I am so sorry.

  51. 51.

    SW

    April 29, 2022 at 9:41 am

    He needs a puppy.

  52. 52.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 9:42 am

    @debbie: Me too for November. Haven’t voted in primary yet, so her campaign just chaged my vote. I have been offended by Republicans deciding these newspaper questionnaires are beneath them. We have little enough info to go on. So I am equally offended by her campaign’s decision.

    I had been ambivalent before. I liked her. I liked her opponent. Also too gender solidarity although leery because Ohioans don’t vote for women to top jobs. But the newspaper questionnaire is one of the rituals of running for office. I don’t think she would run a good campaign. She hasn’t so far.

  53. 53.

    germy

    April 29, 2022 at 9:45 am

    Trump has inspired a whole new generation of leadership:

    Ron’s biggest mistake: thinking his ability to con Trump supporters into believing he was a secret agent would somehow carry over into the real world.

    But Ron has the charisma you’d expect from a guy who collects samurai swords & spends all day on 8chan.pic.twitter.com/r2E2IYbWOY

    — Mikael Thalen (@MikaelThalen) April 28, 2022

    When I saw the video I thought he was parodying one of the Benchley “How To” MGM short subjects.

  54. 54.

    Geminid

    April 29, 2022 at 9:53 am

    @sab: I wonder if those non-responding campaigns underestimate the reach of USA Today. Maybe they think it’s just a paper given out for free by motels. Most of the small town daily newspapers in my area feature a page or two of national news and world news. Sometimes it’s from AP, but more often it’s from USA Today. And USA Today is sold in most convenience stores. Some people buy it because it has a decent sports section with a national focus.

  55. 55.

    The Golux

    April 29, 2022 at 9:53 am

    WaterGirl,

    One thing I’ve been meaning to comment on is the new(ish) policy of limiting the number of embedded tweets in posts.  All in all, it’s a good thing; pages load much more quickly.

    However, I think it would be an improvement if the images of the neutered tweets were actually links to the tweets, so that readers could easily view them on Twitter if desired.  There have been several times I’ve wanted to see the actual tweets, but they can be hard to find because they’re no longer at the top of the tweeter’s page.  As it is now, if you click on the image, you just get the image in a new tab.

    I would think this would be simple to do; the HTML is pretty trivial, but I don’t know if FYWP makes it hard.

  56. 56.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 9:56 am

    @Ohio Mom:

    That was certainly my complaint about the neoliberal economics curriculum Ohio Son was subjected to.

    Thousands of schools use Junior Achievement to come in and do presentations. I’ve seen the presentation. It’s overtly Right leaning, ideologically. If it was once non–ideological that is not longer true. Much like the National Chamber of Commerce it promotes a specific economic view that is not “nonpartisan” but is Right wing. No one mentions it. The fact that there are Right wing orgs in schools is simply ignored.

  57. 57.

    kindness

    April 29, 2022 at 9:56 am

    When one of my pup children dies, it usually takes me about a month of grieving and then I start looking over the pounds around me web sites for a new companion.  I say companion but the new pup is for both the existing dog and me.

  58. 58.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 9:59 am

    Funny thing on the newspaper questionnaire for a different race: Ohio to Congress 13. Used to be Tim Ryan’s district. Emilia Sykes is running as the only Democrat. Lots of Republicans who mostly answered questions with the usual Republican talking points.

    Last question was “How  are you different from the other candidates?” ( very much paraphrased). Every last one of the Republicans answered “I have lived in the district my whole life and I understand its voters.”  Republicans in what has been Tim Ryan’s district for 20 years. And since our government hasn’t got its act together on redistricting we don’t even know what the district boundaries are, so we do not know who is living in the district yet.

    These questionnaires sort out the vapid from the serious candidates.

  59. 59.

    James E Powell

    April 29, 2022 at 10:00 am

    @Kay:

    It’s all about which candidate will really piss off the libs. They want their elected officials to express their hatred & scorn for the rest of us.

  60. 60.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 10:03 am

    @debbie:

    I don’t think they should have to have kids in the district. Anyone who lives there can and should weigh in on the public schools. I agree with you thought that astroturf screaming mobs should have been at least identified as people who don’t live there, because it’s relevant.

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 29, 2022 at 10:05 am

    @rikyrah: Cancel my college loan is the Defund the Police of this cycle.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    April 29, 2022 at 10:05 am

    @germy: He’s a horrible person whose humiliation all right-thinking people should hope for, but OMG, the vicarious cringe! I may have actually pulled something.

  63. 63.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 10:07 am

    @Kay: Junior Achievement has always been right wing because it is essentially Capitalist. It was when I was in high school and it still is. I have no problem with that at all. It teaches kids how to run a small business. You don’t get that in your fancy prep schools and parochial schools. You only get that in public schools.

    My closets are still full of the excellent hangers they sold every year. Ubiquitous as girl scout cookies, but they last.

    ETA Went to high school in the early seventies.

  64. 64.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 10:07 am

    @James E Powell:

    It doesn’t matter that much as a practical matter in a US Senate race but I wonder if the Republicans will stick to their “abolish public schools” stance in the general. I’m not a national pundit covering the “woke mob” but abolishing public schools seems extreme to me. I don’t think I’m alone in that.

  65. 65.

    germy

    April 29, 2022 at 10:09 am

    Regardless of the incomes they make after graduation, Black households carry more student debt, which pushes down their creditworthiness. Unsurprisingly, then, Black people with a college degree have lower homeownership rates than white high school dropouts. 

  66. 66.

    Ksmiami

    April 29, 2022 at 10:11 am

    The thing I don’t get is this: why on earth do ppl think the GOP will be better than the Dems at solving anything? They offer nothing- in fact I think everything will get worse under their rule.

  67. 67.

    germy

    April 29, 2022 at 10:11 am

    No matter what you want to do with your life, I guarantee that you’ll need an education to do it,” President Barack Obama said in a 2009 national address to students. Such guidance is regularly told to Black people: The way to get out of poverty and achieve middle class status is to get a college degree.

    But a college degree does not eliminate the income gaps between white and Black workers. Black students finance their education through debt, and thus college degrees actually further contribute to the fragility of the upwardly mobile Black middle class. And because education does not achieve income parity for Black workers, the disproportionate debt Black students are taking to finance their education is reinforcing the racial wealth gap.

  68. 68.

    Elizabelle

    April 29, 2022 at 10:12 am

    Glad that Imm and Immp are home under the care of nurse cat.  What an ordeal.  I hope Immp’s health is way, way better.  And that Imm is back with us soon.  Thank you for the updates, WaterGirl.

    @rikyrah:  very sad for your friend and all the loved ones.  Hospice offers excellent care, but it’s hard to hear that the time has finally come.  That young woman and family have had to be so courageous.  Almost half her life taken up with cancer.  Knowing that time is so finite, which is just a concept to most of us.

  69. 69.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 29, 2022 at 10:14 am

    @Kay: Considering that 83% of K-12 age kids attend public schools, abolishing them wouldn’t mean they’d be attending fundie religious schools. It would mean most of them wouldn’t be attending school at all.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 10:14 am

    @sab:

    I wouldn’t have any problem with “capitalist”. The Junior Achievement presenter for the 4th graders told them the “most important” entities in the community are businesses. That’s an opinion.

    The kids redeemed it as far as I’m concerned because they are hysterical. One girl told the presenter her father owns a concrete factory (which the presenter knows because the presenter owns a car dealership and this is a small place) and a boy raised his hand and asked “is she allowed to brag?” Guffaw. Love that boy.

  71. 71.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 10:16 am

    @Geminid: Yes. Our local newspapers have cut back so much that the only actually reporting comes from USA Today, and it is often quite good, and quite local from around the state. Also too they picked up Connie Schultz (Sherrod Brown’s journalist wife) who is certainly not a RWNJ journalism hack.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    April 29, 2022 at 10:19 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    They’d be purchasing educational products from a menu of providers with their 5k voucher. State funding for Ohio public schools is on average 7200 per student, that’s just state- local levies can and do add to that and so does fed funding- so you see the advantage to this market based approach, I’m sure. It’s way cheaper. It’s a rip off, basically.

    They never talk about the numbers. It’s all “you’ll get a portable grant, blah, blah, blah, freedom”

  73. 73.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 10:25 am

    @Kay: Kids will redeem it if given the chance. That boy nailed it. In small businesses competing from scratch she shouldn’t be special because her dad has a car dealership.

    When it comes down to it they will all just be selling hangers (or whatever.)  Every kid has an equal chance to sell whatever.

  74. 74.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 10:30 am

    @lowtechcyclist: Andrew Johnson, apprenticed out in early childhood and only educated in his trade, did not learn to read, write or do basic math/arithmetic until he was married to an educated woman who taught him.

    Is this really what the RWNJs want for our country and their children?

  75. 75.

    WaterGirl

    April 29, 2022 at 10:33 am

    @The Golux: I agree with you.  You can link a URL to a photo, so that then when you click the photo, it takes you to the link.  All those screen captures junk up the media library, too.

    The other thing that would work is adding the tweets in a separate page, so the most important 10 tweets would show up in the post and then folks who want to see more would click a link and be taken to 10 more tweets.  But because they are linked and not IN the post, it won’t slow  down the thread.  So they aren’t reloaded every single time someone posts a comment or refreshes the page.

    John suggested the linking when he posted the limit, and I have suggested the other.

    But as long as they are respecting John’s limit of 10 tweets, each front-pager decides how they want to handle it, so what you and I think is best is not particularly relevant. :-) ?‍♀️

  76. 76.

    kalakal

    April 29, 2022 at 10:34 am

     

    @germy: That’s an I Speak Your Weight Machine in a suit

  77. 77.

    germy

    April 29, 2022 at 10:38 am

    @kalakal: 

    I’d never heard of him before but apparently he’s a big celebrity in the Qanon world?

  78. 78.

    rikyrah

    April 29, 2022 at 10:40 am

    @schrodingers_cat:

     

    Coming from the same muthaphuckas.

  79. 79.

    Tazj

    April 29, 2022 at 10:46 am

    @WaterGirl: Thanks for the update.I’m so glad he’s out of the hospital.

    I’m a little upset that NY’s highest court has ruled that the newly drawn maps are unconstitutional. I was hoping our maps favoring Democrats would cancel out those drawn favoring Republicans in other states. I’m sure I don’t understand all the issues involved but I can’t help but feeling that now isn’t the time for such a ruling. All I know is every time Republicans are in charge they draw the area around the city of Buffalo as small as they can and I’m stuck with some Republican yahoo for representation.

  80. 80.

    schrodingers_cat

    April 29, 2022 at 10:47 am

    @rikyrah: Indeed. Tax the rich but don’t confiscate the ill gotten gains of Russian oligarchs. These cosplaying socialists have a substantial following among the left leaning electorate. Make it make sense.

  81. 81.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 10:56 am

    OT to dogs. My Ponyo, who has many psychological issues related to separation anxiety, spends at least half an hour a day frantically sucking on a quilt on my bed, trying to calm herself down from anxiety. Usually at the end she collapses into sleep.

    She is just a dog, but she is a very good dog, and she has major stresses from her life before.

  82. 82.

    hueyplong

    April 29, 2022 at 10:57 am

    @sab: 
    Andrew Johnson, apprenticed out in early childhood and only educated in his trade, did not learn to read, write or do basic math/arithmetic until he was married to an educated woman who taught him.

    Is this really what the RWNJs want for our country and their children?

    —-

    Yes. Absolutely, unconditionally yes. Easiest question posted here since, like, forever.

  83. 83.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 11:00 am

    @hueyplong: Andrew Johnson would have voted yes after he won the wife lottery.

    I try not to hate but sometimes it is hard.

  84. 84.

    hueyplong

    April 29, 2022 at 11:05 am

    @sab: Trump, whose narcissism is his only actual flaw in GOP eyes, yet again said one of the quiet parts out loud when he proclaimed his love for the uneducated.  They swallow the FoxNews directives both because they want to and because they lack the critical skills to call BS about anything, ever.

    Sometimes I think some of Tucker Carlson’s memes are created purely to test the breakdown of critical thinking in his audience.  They must love the results to date.

  85. 85.

    Eyeroller

    April 29, 2022 at 11:12 am

    @germy:  There’s evidence that he (Ron Watkins) is “Q,” or at least took over from the originator.

  86. 86.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 29, 2022 at 11:20 am

    @Kay:

    They’d be purchasing educational products from a menu of providers with their 5k voucher. State funding for Ohio public schools is on average 7200 per student, that’s just state- local levies can and do add to that and so does fed funding- so you see the advantage to this market based approach, I’m sure. It’s way cheaper. It’s a rip off, basically.

    Yeah, kids watching educational videos.  Or probably not even doing that.  It’s not only a rip-off, it would be a dystopian rip-off.

    @sab:

    @lowtechcyclist: Andrew Johnson, apprenticed out in early childhood and only educated in his trade, did not learn to read, write or do basic math/arithmetic until he was married to an educated woman who taught him.

    Is this really what the RWNJs want for our country and their children?

    They don’t care about what depths this country sinks to, as long as they’re running things and can rub that in our faces.

    They don’t give a damn about America, no matter what they say.  They’d prefer a nation of grinding poverty where they’re in charge and are somewhat less poor, than an America where everyone was well off but they had no political power.

  87. 87.

    lowtechcyclist

    April 29, 2022 at 11:21 am

    @rikyrah: I’m so sorry.  I can’t imagine how hard that would be.

  88. 88.

    Soprano2

    April 29, 2022 at 11:29 am

    @Kay: I had an ongoing argument with a libertarian once who wanted “her money” that was spent on public schools to come to her instead so she could decide how to spend it. I pointed out to her that “her money” was only a fraction of what the public school spent on her child, because it’s a pool of money that comes from taxpayers, so while I guessed it was ok for her to take her own money to pay for a religious school, I didn’t want my money spent that way! I told her that if she got just “her money” it wouldn’t be more than a couple of hundred dollars – certainly not enough to pay for an education. What she actually wanted, of course, was all the money the public school spent on her daughter.

  89. 89.

    Anyway

    April 29, 2022 at 11:38 am

    @lowtechcyclist:

    Neo-feudalism is the goal.

  90. 90.

    opiejeanne

    April 29, 2022 at 11:41 am

    @Soprano2: They really don’t understand how much of anything works, do they.

  91. 91.

    Ohio Mom

    April 29, 2022 at 11:45 am

    @sab: Can’t the vet prescribe Prozac or some other med? Anxiety is terrible.

  92. 92.

    Quiltingfool

    April 29, 2022 at 11:55 am

    @Soprano2: People in my neck of the woods who bitch about paying taxes have zero problems with other people paying taxes so their kids can go to school.  My local tax “contribution” (from personal and real estate taxes) to the school district is about $2500.  Not a lot, our taxes are pretty low, but a family member who has a child in that school, pays about $75 in personal property tax.  And he bitches constantly that he shouldn’t have to pay taxes.

    After I told him this, he doesn’t whine about taxes in my presence.

    Oh, I don’t have children, but I’m happy to contribute to their education.  Investing in children is investing in the future.

  93. 93.

    kalakal

    April 29, 2022 at 12:12 pm

    @germy: Yeah I believe so. He’s an 8chan admin and a Q freak. There was a tv documentary – Into the Storm – where he features heavily in all his smug malevolence. He’s utterly odious

  94. 94.

    sab

    April 29, 2022 at 3:59 pm

    @Ohio Mom:  I should ask. I asked about a nutzo cat and she got Feliway. That works. I thimk the dog is just feeling sad and neglected. Dogs aren’t cats, and I used to spend much more time being active with my dogs. Dogs care and cats don’t

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