Is there a word for ‘Hateful and Petty to the 10th Power”?
One of our BJ peeps wrote to tell me about a ‘lovely’ school in New Hampshire. In his words:
We are infested with libertarians and MAGA, I’m sure this sounded good in their bubble (the town in question is generally conservative), but when exposed to the more rational part of the electorate it shows how mean and nasty the right has become.
Heres’ the story as I understand it:
- Some families had unpaid bills for school lunches
- A local church offered to pay off the bills for school lunches
- The school system sues the families instead
- When this made the news, it didn’t go so well for the school system in the court of public opinion
- And apparently the school system is surprised?
These people are monsters:
- Gross said he was concerned the gift would lead to more families not paying for student lunches, according to Wells.
- One of the arguments against St. Matthew’s helping that Gross raised with Wells last year, is that some of the families don’t qualify under the guidelines as poor and should therefore be made to pay.
- A blanket gift for all the debt would be helping people who did not deserve the assistance.
But for Wells, that’s not the point. He cited Catholic author and activist Dorothy Day who said, “The Gospel takes away our right forever to discriminate between the deserving and the undeserving poor.”
I am reminded of my favorite line in the song Eve of Destruction: Hate your next door neighbor, but don’t forget to say grace.
The Eastern world, it is explodin’Violence flarin’, bullets loadin’You’re old enough to kill but not for votin’You don’t believe in war, but what’s that gun you’re totin’?And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin’But you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendHow you don’t believeWe’re on the eve of destructionDon’t you understand what I’m trying to sayCan’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?If the button is pushed, there’s no runnin’ awayThere’ll be no one to save with the world in a graveTake a look around you boy, it’s bound to scare you, boyAnd you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendHow you don’t believeWe’re on the eve of destructionYeah, my blood’s so mad, feels like coagulatin’I’m sittin’ here just contemplatin’I can’t twist the truth, it knows no regulationHandful of senators don’t pass legislationAnd marches alone can’t bring integrationWhen human respect is disintegratin’This whole crazy world is just too frustratin’And you tell meOver and over and over again, my friendHow you don’t believeWe’re on the eve of destructionAnd think of all the hate there is in Red ChinaThen take a look around to Selma, AlabamaAh, you may leave here for four days in spaceBut when you return, it’s the same old placeThe poundin’ of the drums, the pride and disgraceYou can bury your dead, but don’t leave a traceHate your next door neighbor but don’t forget to say graceAnd you tell meOver and over and over and over again, my friendYou don’t believe we’re on the eve of destructionNo no, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction
Jesus wept.
Open thread.
War for Ukraine Day 936: A Brief Monday Night Update
BR
In addition to the good PA poll, I believe I saw that Harris is +8 in a new New Hampshire poll. Also, this Wonkette piece was nice:
https://www.wonkette.com/p/kamala-harris-made-a-big-announcement
Chet Murthy
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/21534416/free-state-project-new-hampshire-libertarians-matthew-hongoltz-hetling
Scene: A New Hampshire libertarian town, so libertarian that they barely have a functioning town government
Enter: a Bear
Hijinks ensue.
Villago Delenda Est
So many of these “Christians” are not.
WaterGirl
scav
So, the school district has taken upon itself the right to hinder the church’s freedom to behave according to its religious beliefs?
dmsilev
@Chet Murthy: Beat me to it. A classic story.
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: And they have no shame! They actually said these things. Out loud!
Juju
Scott Gross is appropriately named.
KatKapCC
I guess these folks are against abortion because they want to be able to starve as many children as possible.
Absolutely atrocious. Children deserve to be fed no matter how much or how little money their parents have.
WaterGirl
What was it that Barack Obama said we were sort on? It wasn’t compassion. I can’t recall the word, but it was a good one.
scav
@WaterGirl: Is he going to go in and over-ride any scholarships the church (or other civic group) awards to children if he deems the kids unworthy of the honor?
WaterGirl
@Juju:
Good one! I LOL’d.
WaterGirl
@scav: Probably.
Awful to think that this hideous person / people are running the school system.
WaterGirl
I’m pissed. Maybe we need a Festivus thread.
Rusty
I liked that the church wasn’t giving up, their plan is to keep collecting money and pay off the arrears in court instead. As the Episcopal minister pointed out, some families can’t navigate the system because they are in so much distress, others have needs but won’t meet the criteria. The schools solution is to instead punish them even more. Horrible people.
WaterGirl
@Rusty: I like that the story is being covered. But apparently they haven’t dropped the lawsuit against the people. So the school district appears to be shameless.
Danielx
@WaterGirl:
Given it’s New Hampshire, I’d guess the poverty guidelines include not living in a car or under a bridge.
WaterGirl
Open thread. (Fake) Jack Smith, truth-teller.
scav
Bumpersticker.
Kent
I would not want to be the school district representative having to explain to the judge in small claims court why they were wasting everyone’s time with this bullshit.
Were I that judge, I would just blanket cancel all the lunch debts, find in favor of all the defendants, and send the fuckers packing.
BR
Someone posted this Tim Walz video earlier and two things struck me:
https://www.tiktok.com/@timwalz/video/7415365782412021035
1. It’s a group of young men who came up to him, and you can tell by the way they’re looking at him, they’re really listening to him.
2. Walz’s line “Your friends might say ‘I’m not that into politics’ and the response is ‘Too damn bad, politics is into you.'” — you can tell from their faces that that really landed.
WaterGirl
Trump apparently can’t keep his lies straight. I thought last week he said he had nothing to do with Project 2025?
Scout211
Just saying.
scav
According to this, things have hit pause on the court cases. source
WaterGirl
@Kent: I think you left off the part where the school district had to pay all the legal fees for the other side.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
So, as always, the point isn’t to collect the debt. The point is to make people suffer.
WaterGirl
@BR: Yeah, you can see the admiration and respect on their faces. So earnest!
Quinerly
Highly recommend Lawrence O’Donnell tonight.
WaterGirl
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
There it is.
RaflW
I’m about ready to bring back public stocks, and locking guys like Scott Gross in ’em. Just for like one hour a day for a week (M-F). Not sure exactly what the charge would be, but just generally being a terrible human in need of some public humiliation.
Urza
@WaterGirl: That one’s been known for awhile. He only stopped liking them when it hurt him electorally. As the head of Project 2025 that quit said, he’s just lying to get through the election so he can implement it all.
Jackie
@WaterGirl: Boy, that brought back the memories!
Perfect song for shameless assholes.
WaterGirl
@scav: Maybe they do have some sense of shame. However, it seems like maybe they haven’t changed a thing.
Because that’s what really matters when it comes to keeping kids from going hungry. It can benefit the school district!
Villago Delenda Est
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): Cruelty is the point. Always.
Jackie
@scav: That’s great news! Too bad it took bad press to change their minds😡 Perhaps the upcoming elections had something to do with it?
NotMax
Repeating from downstairs.
Reporting breaking on Vance today saying “The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris.”
head/desk to infinity
kindness
My brother went to college in Henneker NH. I always had fun visiting but it was a tiny New England college town. NH & Maine like to wrestle over who is the craziest New England state.
BR
A Dem pollster talking about how Harris’s policies will help Black Americans, with the aid of some amusing illustrations (wait until the end):
https://www.tiktok.com/@doss.discourse/video/7415325824183700766
Victor Matheson
@Villago Delenda Est: Point of order. In this case it is actually the Christians who are indeed acting like Christians. It’s the local libertarian director of the school system behaving badly.
Starfish
The amount of time spent on this by the school district’s attorney or an outside consultant attorney will be of a value greater than the amount of the lunch debt, probably. These lunch debts are usually fairly small to the point that states realize it is not that much money.
Old Dan and Little Ann
I can’t with the stupid. Some goon I know from way back on the book of faces is all upset about a whistleblower claiming ABC rigged the debate to favor Harris. Everyone commenting believes THAT along with the said whistleblower just dying in a car accident.
Kent
Most small claims courts prohibit the use of attorneys by either plaintiffs or defendants.
So this jerk accountant would have to do it himself in person.
Jackie
@NotMax:
Quoting Musk, I see.
Jinchi
Weird that he and Elon come up with the same “joke” on the same day.
Roberto el oso
@KatKapCC: They’ll also need replacement babies for all the ones that get thrown out with the bathwater.
Jinchi
I don’t see how an administrator can refuse payment on a debt, just because it’s paid by the “wrong” person.
scav
@WaterGirl: Oh, I think there’s what they’ll say to the press and then there’s what dirty laundry gets whipped at certain individual’s patootie behind closed doors. Somebody made somebodies look bad.
Jay
@WaterGirl:
It does help the School District.
Truancy goes down, students pay better attention, students score higher on test scores, students are less disruptive.
In many States, this results in more State funding for the school, a better experience for the teachers, higher enrolment, etc.
But that should not be the only reason to do it.
Ghost of Joe Liebling’s Dog
@Old Dan and Little Ann:
Everyone commenting
believesthinks it’s funny to pretend to believe …WaterGirl
@Victor Matheson: Excellent point.
But I totally picture these school district assholes not just going to church on Sundays but leading committees and being active in their church.
Jay
@NotMax:
Well, it is an accurate statement. Liberals haven’t tried to kill anyone, “Conservatives” have tried to kill Dolt45 twice so far.
NotMax
@KatKapCC
“Our ancestors had rickets, why can’t we?”
//
WaterGirl
@Jinchi: Total coincidence!!!
WaterGirl
@scav: Yep. Never make your boss look bad.
Jackie
MAGAT Byron Donalds says Harris should pull all political ads featuring Project 2025 warnings in Battleground states for TCFG’s safety. Geez, why do P25 ads worry him?🤔
https://www.rawstory.com/byron-donalds-project-2025/
WaterGirl
@Jay: Agree! But when you’re trying to dig themselves out of a hole, maybe they should try to not sound like they are doing the right thing because it’s good for the school district.
Fuck the kids when you can, but I guess if you end up helping the kids while you’re trying to benefit the bottom line, you just have to suck it up and deal with it.
Jackie
@Jay:
With semi-automatic long guns!
piratedan
@Jackie: maybe they should actually pull the GOP ads since its Republicans that are attempting to kill him.
Chet Murthy
@piratedan: Outlaw assault rifles, send out the cops to confiscate ’em all! Trump’s life depends on it! Let’s get busy!
Jay
@WaterGirl:
Because so many believe there should be no “hand outs” or actual Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Wiccan, Church of Satan, etc “charity”, an ethical “Libertarian” argument should be that it’s better for the “bottom line”, but as we know, there are no “ethical” Libertarians.
Trivia Man
Never out of style –
Tom in person
Oh, the white folks hate the black folks,And the black folks hate the white folks.To hate all but the right folksIs an old established rule.
But during National Brotherhood Week,National Brotherhood Week,Lena Home and Sheriff Clarke are dancing cheek to cheek. (*) ·It’s fun to eulogize ·The people you despise,As long as you don’t let ’em in your school.
Oh, the poor folks hate the rich folks,And the rich folks hate the poor folks.All of my folks hate all of your folks,It’s American as apple pie.
But during National Brotherhood Week,National Brotherhood Week,New Yorkers love the Puerto Ricans ’cause it’s very chic.Step up and shake the handOf someone you can’t stand.You can tolerate him if you try.
Oh, the Protestants hate the Catholics,And the Catholics hate the Protestants,And the Hindus hate the Moslems,And everybody hates the Jews.
But during National Brotherhood Week,National Brotherhood Week,It’s National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week.Be nice to people whoAre inferior to you.It’s only for a week, so have no fear.Be grateful that it doesn’t last all year!
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
Were I a judge hearing this case, I would point out to plaintiff that the money they seek has been offered, not just once, but multiple times. Therefore, the remedy they are seeking cannot be the money. Since the court cannot grant any remedy but the money, the case is dismissed.
NotMax
@Jay
The legalization of pot should have been enough impetus to disband the Libertarians.
//
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@Jackie:
Per JDV, shootings are a fact of life, get used to it, snowflake.
NotMax
“Kids can bring their pets to school in lieu of payment if they want lunch.”
//
Jay
@NotMax:
other than;
https://nitter.poast.org/P_Kallioniemi/status/1793260571212517846#m
Funny how under every rock is a ruZZian Op.
WaterGirl
@Trivia Man: I had never seen that.
sdhays
@Jackie: Ha! “For Trump’s safety”
How about we put Ol’ Donny in a nice safe cell in New York “for his safety”? How about that?
A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno)
@WaterGirl:
Tom has an amazing catalog. The reason he stopped doing his songs was that all of them were still current – nothing had changed – and it wasn’t funny anymore.
TS
@Jinchi:
It sure happens everywhere. I once tried to pay my daughter’s health insurance (Australia) & because I was “not authorised” on her account, they would not tell me how much was owing, nor take my payment of amount $xxx
Fake Irishman
Of potential interest to jackals: apparently Biden did an exclusive Oval Office wide ranging interview with the Washington Blade on LGBTQ+ issues that came out today.
Don’t have a link handy, but I’d be interested to hear folks like Sister Golden Bear weigh in. Among other things, Biden makes it sound like his support for gay marriage ahead of Obama was a carefully calculated freelance move on his part. Also Sarah McBride who will likely become the first trans member of Congress next year appears to be a close Biden family friend. Of course, if you live in Delaware, you’ve probably had Biden personally drive you to the train station at least once in your life….
Ishiyama
Provide the food, and you will draw a crowd for your sermon.
NotMax
FYI for western time zones.
NYC proof of life post downstairs.
HumboldtBlue
How about a beautiful musical mashup to bring some light to the thread?
Jay
@Ishiyama:
Yeah, some “swarthy” Middle Eastern refugee figured that out a long time ago, food and drink always draws a crowd.
WaterGirl
@Fake Irishman:
I’d like to hear Biden tell tell that story!
When I started reading your sentence i expected to see you say that it was a carefully choreographed moved between Biden and Obama.
rikyrah
LarryO lays it all out tonight.
The stakes of tonight:
The Supreme Court
AND
The rest of the Federal Judiciary.
40% of Federal Appellate Judges will be of “retirement age” over the next 4-8 years.
This is why I don’t give a shyt what Tester and Brown have to do in order to win. We need them FOR THE JUDGES 🤬🤬😡
HumboldtBlue
@Fake Irishman:
Here ya go
rikyrah
Phucking demons 😡
This is a school lunch bill
Why are they so against feeding children 🤬🤬🤬🤬
KatKapCC
@NotMax: I am terrified for her safety. I wish she could campaign inside a giant bulletproof hamster ball.
Jay
https://www.wonkette.com/p/what-was-that-rich-lowry
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: Just win, baby!
grubert
@A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): Tom Lehrer said it was Kissinger getting the Nobel Peace Prize that did it
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾👊🏾
grubert
For myself, I don’t believe we’re on the Eve of Destruction
KatKapCC
@rikyrah: I imagine some of them are deep into the prosperity gospel and thus they view low-income people, including children, as being out of G-d’s favor and therefore, you know…fuck ’em, I guess. Funny because of all their “everyone should have eleventy children” thing.
Chet Murthy
@KatKapCC: john Calvin rears his ugly head
WaterGirl
@grubert: Some great lines in there, though. Great descriptions of the state of things.
Anoniminous
@rikyrah:
Because they’re scum. Vicious hate filled scum without a scrap of humanity.
Jay
@KatKapCC:
Funny thing is it’s the Christian Church all in on feeding kids and the
ruzzian assets“Libertarians” against feeding kids.rikyrah
Was he going to try and run away like Simmons did?
TMZ (@TMZ) posted at 9:23 PM on Mon, Sep 16, 2024:
Update: A law enforcement source tells TMZ … the #Diddy arrest was scheduled for Tuesday, but something happened that caused the feds to move in a day earlier.
(https://x.com/TMZ/status/1835867186550002114?t=KfhVopu7qpHEsnl7gzdQdQ&s=03)
Jackie
@Chet Murthy: Don Lemon was on CNN! promoting his new book, and he suggested a Bill named “The save Donald Trump sumthin sumthin semiautomatic ban.”
Snorting with laughter while red wine is in your mouth isn’t good.
Trivia Man
@A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): A couple years ago he put all of his works in the public domain. He is very old and was happy to have people enjoy his music freely. Amazing talent and a lovely human. Look up the story about 2 Chainz asking for permission to sample The Old Dope Peddler.
Jay
@Jackie:
You are wearing white after Labor Day????????
Heathen.
Club Soda, blot don’t scrub.
KatKapCC
@Jay: I’m aware. I read the post. But as Water Girl noted, the people doing the suing are probably also mostly or even all Christians, too.
NotMax
@grubert
Contemporary hit single response to Eve of Destruction, Dawn of Correction.
Anoniminous
The US wastes between 30 to 40 percent of our total food supply. We could adequately feed every single kid from pre-natal to graduation and not miss it. We don’t because there’s no political will to do it. When there was the political will, e.g., the Black Panthers providing free breakfasts, academic success rates shot up.
Jay
@KatKapCC:
Lots of people pretend to be Christians, few are.
Ixnay
@A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno): l believe it was when Kissenger won the Nobel. He said, satire is dead.
rikyrah
Racist azz phuck 🤬 🤬
John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) posted at 7:34 PM on Mon, Sep 16, 2024:
NBC asked JD Vance about Laura Loomer’s racist statement that the WH would “smell like curry” if Harris wins.
Calling it unimportant, Vance replied:
“whether you’re eating curry at your dinner table or fried chicken, things have gotten more expensive thanks to her policies.”
(https://x.com/JohnJHarwood/status/1835839765935018461?t=uBAMXpayNJOrEZNtEoOgzw&s=03)
divF
@Jackie: @NotMax: I agree. Only conservatives try to kill their own presidential candidate.
Sister Golden Bear
@Fake Irishman:
Here’s the link to the Washington Blade interview with Biden. A little pissed at the Book of Faces right now, since they removed my post about it, claiming it was spam. No thumbs on the scale, no sirree.
Anyway, I loved the interview, especially this bit:
Yeah, there’s things where I wished/wish he’d do more, but the man has heart in the right place, and I cannot tell you how it feels to actually, for once, have a president who has our backs.
Jackie
@A Man for All Seasonings (formerly Geeno):
JD needs to remind TCFG of that sad fact.
BR
@Sister Golden Bear:
This morning I saw this LA Times piece on Harris, complementary to the Biden interview, included a few bits I didn’t know about her like her close aide in SF:
https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2024-09-15/long-before-gay-marriage-was-popular-kamala-harris-was-at-the-forefront-of-the-equal-rights-battle
No One of Consequence
Either we are all God’s Children, or none of us are.
No exceptions.
If the first is true, then we treat each other as God’s Son or Daughter or Progeny. To do one iota less, is to dishonor the Divine.
If the second is true, then all of this religious crap is meaningless window dressing, commandeering hearts and minds towards purposes not of the Individual’s Benefit. However, down the combative, competitive road lies a Mad Max kind of dystopia. Individuals AND Peoples/Species do better in a cooperative strategy. Indeed, it can reasonably be argued that is the ONLY way forward.
YMMV, of course.
-NOoC
BR
I think I reached my limit for Trump and Vance news this weekend. I don’t even want to read bad things about them anymore, or mockery. I just want to move on completely. Just complete fatigue. I hope the country is feeling similarly.
Jackie
@NotMax: Sorry, NOT funny. Let’s not go there, please.
wjca
The savings on administrative costs largely offsets the additional cost of lunches. Such an appalling display of shrinking government bureaucracy. And if fiscal responsibility.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: I forgot to say, watermelon! What a pig.
Jackie
@Jay: 😂 I was wearing a Seahawks shirt in celebration of yesterday’s win! Currently soaking in oxyclean.
KatKapCC
@rikyrah: what in the bubbling fuck
mrmoshpotato
@Jackie: Woo! The Bears decided to suck however.
KatKapCC
@BR: Yep. Say whatever you want about Newsom and Harris, they were both 100% behind what they did then, and it meant a hell of a lot to a lot of people.
Quinerly
@Sister Golden Bear:
This is wonderful. Thanks for posting this.
chemiclord
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.): As always, the cruelty is the point.
karen marie
@scav: He’s a shitty administrator who sat on his thumbs while one family racked up $1500 in lunch fees. How does that happen unless the administrator is a fuckup?
karen marie
@NotMax: Telling on himself again.
Manyakitty
@WaterGirl: my god. It’s food for children at school. Every time I see any story about the abomination that is school lunch debt, I think we’ve failed as a society. Perfect soundtrack for utter degradation of the human spirit.
Manyakitty
@RaflW: maybe during lunch at school.
BR
I’ve found this random NJ union bro’s videos fascinating because he really was pro-Trump at some point and then switched and I was wondering if he was serious or not, but he did a video with his significant other who said that reproductive rights was her reason for supporting Harris and she got him on board. Now he’s super aggro in supporting Harris — kind of amusing. Hopefully guys like this are set enough that they won’t flip back in the two months we have left.
https://www.tiktok.com/@vikingcarpenterr/video/7412422338198703390
https://www.tiktok.com/@vikingcarpenterr/video/7412456816950480158
Nettoyeur
@RaflW: That used to work in Colonial Massachusetts
Quinerly
“11th Hour” on MSNBC….Stephanie Ruhle’s interview with Ryan Mac, technology reporter NYT, on Musk.
A must.
Ryan Mac now on my radar for reporting.
Chet Murthy
@RaflW: “Just for like one hour a day for a week (M-F).”
That’s pretty unkind! The line of people with Rotten Tomatoes will not be exhausted in only an hour. And what about those of us with rotten cabbage? Fungus ridden oranges? Really, it’s very unkind to only allow us an hour a day.
Sister Golden Bear
@KatKapCC: It did indeed. Marriage equality was/is far more than just about “love is love.”
There were so many horror stories from the AIDS years about partners being denied access to their dying partners in the hospital because they “weren’t family,” homophobic families would literally kick partners out of their dead partner’s home (and take all the possessions) while the body was still warm, and far far more.
There’s so many things married hetero folks took for granted that were legally denied to gay couples. E.g. the case that end up legalizing same-sex marriage involved a couple fighting for right for the surviving partner to inherit the estate of the other, just was straight people were able to do.
KatKapCC
@Sister Golden Bear: Yeah. There was a long time in my life when I assumed I would never be able to marry, and it wasn’t so much the wedding or the ring or whatever, but all that marriage entails in our society that made me sad and angry about it. And just…like, why should some random stranger get to decide who another random stranger is allowed to marry? Can I tell two right wing jerks they can’t marry because they might breed an even bigger right wing jerk?
frosty
@BR: OMG you’ve got me watching TikTok! My millenial kids won’t know who I am any more.
(Those were both really good BTW)
Jackie
Some hopefully good news:
What gives hope? This:
Independents will decide who wins the presidency, in my opinion. I just hope they choose Joy and Hope over Hatred.
Quinerly
Why is no one reporting on Trump’s ranting about the “giant faucet”?
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5132479/user-clip-giant-faucet
https://wildfiretoday.com/2024/09/15/trump-threats-to-block-california-wildfire-aid-if-elected-president-firefighter-reaction/
hitchhiker
I just read that the school board has decided to let the church go ahead and clear the debts. Scott Gross appears to be one of the most tone-deaf humans ever to open his mouth. His official position was that he had to go to court because it was the only way he could get some of these families to communicate.
Seriously. He sent them official letters and everything! It’s their own fault if they’re too lazy to give him a call. When this story became public, poor Scott got a lot of hate mail from people who thought that was a stupid reason to turn down money — especially when it also became public that he thought letting the church pay down the debt would just encourage more kids to eat lunch when they were hungry and their parents hadn’t followed the rules.
Also, the NH legislature voted down a bill last year to make free school lunch universal, as it is in neighboring states Vermont, Massachusetts, and Maine. Live free or die, kids!
Jackie
@Quinerly: There’s just too much “Breaking News” all over the place.
I agree; this IS newsworthy news.
cain
@Jackie: Every one of the would be assassins were former Trump voters.
Jay
@Quinerly:
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c5132479/user-clip-giant-faucet
Trumpshit crazy.
Jackie
@cain: I know! 😂 TCFG must be scared shitless!
Ishiyama
The United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Markenzy Lapointe, is a Haitian immigrant; he is the prosecutor in charge of the Ryan Routh case: Fox News https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo4xemKWn30
frosty
@WaterGirl:
WG, you should dive down the rabbit hole and listen to all of Tom Lehrer’s songs. What rhyming!!
Favorites:
Who’s Next?
So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)
Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
Chet Murthy
@frosty:
Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun(2),
A man whose allegiance, is ruled by expedience.
Call him a Nazi, he won’t even frown.
“Ha, Nazi Schmazi,” says Wernher von Braun.
This song was originally posted on protestsonglyrics.net
Don’t say that he’s hypocritical,
Say rather that he’s apolitical.
“Once the rockets are up,
Who cares where they come down?
That’s not my department,”
Says Wernher von Braun.
Some have harsh words for this man of renown,
But some think our attitude
Should be one of gratitude,
Like the widows and cripples in old London town, (3)
Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun.
This song was originally posted on protestsonglyrics.net
You too may be a big hero,
Once you’ve learned to count backwards to zero.
“In German oder English I know how to count down,
Und I’m learning Chinese,” says Wernher von Braun.
Chet Murthy
@Chet Murthy: and “The Vatican Rag”
and “New Math” (“so simple, only a child could do it!”)
Ishiyama
@frosty: We Will All Go Together When We Go
The Hunting Song
The Irish Ballad
Next?
NotMax
@frosty
A long time favorite lyric from his We Will All Go Together When We Go:
When the air becomes uranious we will all go simultaneous
ArchTeryx
Left without comment, other than to say: One of Depeche Mode’s most pointed, cutting, and explicitly political songs:
https://youtu.be/wF3WiVqqDAQ?si=vjiflDFMNnie1525
Dangerman
Is there a spray for such infestation? If we play Taylor Swift music, will they freak and run? If we say there is an Apprentice Marathon on the tube if they look hard enough, will they disappear?
Odd. From my Gospel, the thought of voting for TCFG turns my stomach.
wjca
@Quinerly:
The parts of California that are the most at risk of wild fires are also the reddest areas. Trump threatening to leave them to burn might even change a few votes here. Doesn’t matter for the presidential race, of course. But it might be enough to flip a Congessional seat or two.
frosty
@Jay: Well, I’m sure you know this, but it’s technically not a faucet because that’s all that he can understand; he’s complaining about diverting LA’s precious precious water to the Sacramento Delta to keep the wetlands and wildlife alive.
I got obsessed with California water when I lived in SoCal in the 70s (one of the reasons I moved back east where I grew up). LA has seized their share and more of Western water. Put a Navy showerhead in your bathroom. Plant xeriscaping landscapes. Let your car get dirty. Fuck ’em.
Jay
@wjca:
Based on my 10 year experience with “Cons” in BC’s Interior, they won’t connect the dot’s, at all.
Jay
@frosty:
It’s also a “hollar back” to wingnut claims that the US should own all of Canada’s water.
BR
@wjca:
Nah, I mean even when Paradise went up in flames, the mayor and local electeds just blamed Newsom. Ideology is a powerful thing.
frosty
@Jay: Hell yes! The Yukon River is flowing the wrong way. Any fool can see that!
(I haven’t looked at a map)
IIRC Stalin started a project to divert some Arctic Rivers southward. I’m not sure if it was a Real Plan or a Concept of a Plan or just an excuse to kill some more Gulag prisoners with heavy labor in freezing weather.
frosty
I love this blog. The tag shouldn’t be Open Thread, it should be Wide Open Thread! All the Tom Lehrer lyrics; thanks everyone.
I’m off to bed. I’m still hoping to get to an 8:00 AM bird walk in the morning.
West of the Rockies
@BR:
When I try to click on a TikTok link, I get a “slider puzzle” that doesn’t work. It just blocks the majority of the screen. Annoying.
scav
@wjca: like hell. I grew up in Baldy, and it just burned. I was in a lot of the cabins that burned in Bear Canyon. Is it 100% pure and thus worthy of being saved from wildfire in your eyes? Nope, and I can probably name some of the probable Trump voters that doom the village in your eyes. (I even gave them the nickname Brokenheart when there, for reasons probably not unaligned to his voting / internet ranting observed later. ) I also know they’re with the volunteer fire dept watering down the same fucking hills my father watered down on earlier fires. And that was one village that minded its own damn business when I grew up in it: we had everyone there. Anyone that didn’t want to be in the flatlands because they were a little off.
Jay
@frosty:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Sea%E2%80%93Baltic_Canal
My favorite is Red State wingnut’s idea to pump Mississippi river water across the plains, over the Rockies, into the West.
Rusty
@hitchhiker: New Hampshire is heavily gerrymandered. The Democrats have gotten more votes for members of the senate, house and executive committee, but control none of them. Hopefully we can at least win the governorship in November and have some break on the march to the right.
prostratedragon
Capitalized hatred, Salieri edition.
wjca
I’m afraid you totally misunderstand what I was saying. *I* think they should absolutely not be left to burn.
But if Trump makes good on his threat, they would be. A few of the folks might, I hope, recognize the threat and reconsider their voting intentions.
wjca
I’m afraid you totally misunderstand what I was saying. *I* think they should absolutely not be left to burn.
But if Trump makes good on his threat, they would be. A few of the folks might, I hope, recognize the threat and reconsider their voting intentions.
wjca
@wjca: Apologies for the double post
Poe Larity
Y’all think too small. When Oregoners voiced opposition to 1960s ideas of pumping from the Columbia to California, the gov’t researched putting a big maw at the mouth of said Columbia and piping it undersea to those greedy Californians.
scav
@wjca: Look, I can’t vouch for the individual’s brokenheart’s political decisions, but I can damn well vouch for Baldy’s community. Whoever they vote for. We leave no one behind.
I hope certainly that is what you mean. because otherwise flatlander.
Chet Murthy
@scav: I certainly read @wjca: ‘s comment at 142 as saying:
Maybe if these people in these areas most at risk of wildfires understood that TCFG was happy to let them burn in order to bring California to heel, they might decide that it was in their interest to vote against TCFG.
The implication being, that the Dems do no do that sort of shit — which they do not.
NotMax
@frosty
Also see: Aral Sea.
piratedan
@Chet Murthy: yeah but!!!!!!!!
DJT says that they do and that’s proof enough for me!!!!!!!!!
In certain cases, this kind of loyalty would be admirable, in this case its pathetic because they refuse to believe their eyes and ears to learn otherwise.
Citizen Alan
@Jay: I had a moment of horror when I read that as Andrea McArdle and could not imagine Little Orphan Annie growing up to be a Libertarian tankie.
Citizen Alan
@Jay: 190+ stories about Biden’s “cognitive decline” after the debate in the FTFNYT, and now that he’s out of the running, Shitgibbon can go out EVERY FUCKING DAY and talk like an absolute crazy person, and Nepo-baby Sulzberger’s shitty rag doesn’t care.
Citizen Alan
@frosty: Or, you know, we could just ban the cultivation of avocados and alfalfa and that would basically solve the problem overnight.
Citizen Alan
@Chet Murthy: They won’t. The Leopard would never eat their faces.
scav
I fucking hope so. Because I do have rather have a fucking lifetime’s experience of who needs to show up when Goat’s Hill needs water.
it’s all rather simple, sometimes.
Gloria DryGarden
@WaterGirl: fabulous. Thank you!
it seems strange to end up needing the separation of church and state, do a church can practice the charity they believe in. A reversal of sorts.
How dare the school district try to determine who deserves or doesn’t deserve help? If the families didn’t pay it, they are likely struggling. For crying out loud.
bjacques
@Jay: and the inspiration for Belomorkanal cigarettes, which are sort of the opposite of real cigarettes. A cardboard tube takes up about 3/4 of the length and you twist it to make the filter for the tobacco factory floor sweepings at the end. Cool design of the pack though. Kill your lungs in the memory of the 15-20% of the 120,000+ (per Wikipedia) gulag slave laborers who dug the canal.
Birdie
@scav: Oh please. This veers way too close to salt-of-the-earth “real Murrican” crap. And this “flatlander” (though no longer in California I have paid more than enough taxes to keep rural California towns in roads and sewerage) tells you to shove it.
Jay
@Birdie:
Baldy went for Biden, 58-42.
There are idiots amongst us.
When I lived rural, at the start, the Dipper, (NDP) won.
That was because it was a transport hub, (Unions) timber, (Unions), mining, (Unions) and we had a really good rep.
It later went to the Con’s as it became a place to gas and go to somewhere else and TFW’s filled most of the service jobs.
The “rural” folks became the majority voters, cows mattered more than people.
SomeRandomGuy
I must say, I’ve heard that if you’ve *refused* money to pay a debt, so that you can sue the debtor, there are some judges ready to give lessons to Mt. Vesuvius. Here, it’s not like there’s necessarily a proffer of payment on behalf of a particular debtor, which makes the water murkier, but, “you could have the money? In your hands? Right now? Without wasting one bit of the court’s time… is that what you’re telling me?” is an *awfully* uncomfortable conversation to have, or so I’ve been led to believe by hasty plaintiff’s attorneys, of which some of whom are reputed to have survived the experience. But you know what braggarts lawyers can be.
So, “they took a beating in the court of public opinion,” sounds like they’re doing better than they deserve, is all I’m saying.
OlFroth
In the school district where I work, no child is ever refused a lunch, no matter their ability to pay or a negative balance on their account. We also do not serve the “lunch of shame.” All kids can select any of the lunches being offered. The only thing they cannot get if they are in arrears are the extras, like potato chips.
gene108
Conservatism in a nutshell, “it’s better a thousand children starve, than one undeserving child receive a free lunch”.
Can be repurposed to anything, “it’s better that a thousand innocent people sent to prison, than one guilty person go free”.
lowtechcyclist
I thought libertarians believed that charity was a Good Thing, that it should take the place of government handouts and eliminate the need for them. (Libertarians of course don’t believe government should step in even if charity doesn’t adequately fill the need, but that’s a side issue here.) And here they are saying they’re going to use the power of government to block private charity and generosity.
Sounds like they’re all for Big Government when it suits them. Here this church is acting totally in accord with libertarian principles, and since they don’t approve of the way this church is exercising its free choice, they’re stomping on it. They’re Church Ladies enforcing their moral code, except their church is the Randite church or something like that. Some libertarians they are.
Ruckus
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
@WaterGirl:
The point is to make them suffer by putting them in their place. Some people think they are the shit – and they are, just not in the way they think they are. Humans seem to be of two relative types, those that see themselves as top of the food chain and those that see themselves as part of it. The top of the food chain folks believe that they know all, see all, are all, and everyone else is not only beneath them but has to live exactly like the top of the food chain assholes want. To them it’s a small food chain – them and everyone else. Problem is that it is the opposite – they are the bottom of the food chain and everyone else is above them. They want what they do not deserve, to be above everyone else. Which is of course opposite the very basic concept of this country.
wjca
I’d add almonds to the mix, but yeah.
Redshift
The “undeserving” is the wedge conservatives constantly use to turn mean-spirited people against things that are obviously good. (The fact that many of the “undeserving” happen to have a different skin color makes it easier, of course.)
When trying to address a social problem, your top priority can either be for everyone to get what they need, or for no one to get something they don’t deserve. It cannot be both. This story really crystallizes it — usually we’re stuck trying to explain how means-testing is wasteful because people who can afford better really won’t take the minimum-quality “free” thing just because it’s free. But here they say the quiet part out loud “if we can’t be sure some of this isn’t going to the undeserving, we honestly believe it’s better for the deserving to get nothing.”
Matt McIrvin
@Redshift: The real wedge is when the means-testing has a hard cutoff somewhere, without a ramp-up so that at some point, doing just slightly better means you lose the benefit entirely and end up worse off. Then people who want to kill it for everyone can then use the people who got the short end of the stick and work them against the recipients.
(This is how conservatives often claim tax brackets work. That’s a lie. But it IS how too many means-tested aid programs for the poor work.)
Matt McIrvin
@lowtechcyclist: Well, they assumed private charity was going to work they wanted it to, and not go around giving handouts to people they didn’t like!
Ruckus
@WaterGirl:
P 2025 benefits him so it’s good. He would never live by it but the little folk would have to so – and therefore better for him (there is of course a reason I call him shitforbrains – OK many, many reasons)
shitforbrains entire life has been about him being not just above the crowd but above everyone else. He is “better” than every other single person on this planet – just ask him. Oh and BTW he’s not the only human that thinks this about themselves. In part it is the animal concept of survival of the fittest. Smart people know that survival is easier as part of the whole – assholes think that survival is them being above everyone else – the prime example of this is djt. But he is nowhere near alone in this concept. And the reality is that it doesn’t work – take djt – PLEASE.
Ruckus
@rikyrah:
They aren’t against feeding children.
They do not want to feed THOSE children. (Whatever THOSE stands for) They want for themselves and screw everyone else. This is not an insignificant percentage of humans – after all it is the theory of survival of the fittest – IOW those throwing the most fits.
SteverinoCT
What’s funny (to me) is that the New Math then was what I learned– the ones place and the tens place and so on– in the 60-70s. NOW the “New Math” being taught is befuddling folks like me (except that I get it: it’s how I do simple math in my head).
Ruckus
@Sister Golden Bear:
Do remember that in our government the president does not have free rein to do anything they want. A president has a lot of power but is constrained more than in many countries. And it is the rest of the people’s representatives that have some power. Each one singly does not have a lot of power but as a group congress does. It is in some ways more difficult to get anything done but in many ways that is a better way to govern, because it takes power out of the hands of one person. It is specifically not a dictatorship. And yes even I often see that the walls of our government often hamper governing. Which sounds bad till you compare it to some other forms of government which don’t do this. This is supposed to be a government of, by and for the people. ALL the people. There have to be walls, restrictions or at some point someone will get into office and screw over everyone, just because they can. It is not impossible here, but it is a lot harder than in some countries.