May, 2017 archive
Paying for Poison 0
Your guide to being Flint-hearted:
More than 8,000 residents who have unpaid bills have received notices that if their balances are not paid by May 19, a tax lien will be placed on their homes, according to a report by NBC News.
Pennant Racism 0
Even if you do not follow baseball, you may have heard about the incident in Boston in which a small number of Red Sox fans hurled racial epithets and peanuts at the Baltimore Orioles’s Adam Jones. Ultimately, 34 fans were ejected and one has been banned from Fenway Park.
Alfred Doblin considers the incident’s implications. Here’s a bit of his considering.
Have Cake, Eat It Too 0
Southernbeale dissects the hypocrisy of right-wing Christians. You know them: they are the ones who claim they are oppressed because they are unable to impose their will on others. Here’s a bit (emphasis added):
Of course not. But they have been witness to the secularization of American society, something they have been powerless to stop. This is the real “oppression” they decry, and yet there’s a very good reason they can’t stop it: they are part of it. They want the benefits of secularism but not the costs. They want to attend football games on Sunday but don’t want their influence on American society to wane. They want to participate in secular culture while holding themselves above it.
(See the Mississippi story that she refers to. It is vile.)
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
After the accident, exchange insurance information politely.
The teens were on their way to school, Westervelt said.
Follow the Money 0
Thom suggests that Trumpcare is motivated by tax cuts for the rich and nothing more, then reviews the potential costs to ordinary citizens.
“Words Mean What I Want Them To Mean” 0
E. J. Dionne considers our Humpty-Dumpty President’s laughable label as a “Populist.” A nugget:
In a season of dispiriting tidings, few habits have been more infuriating than the ease with which political commentators of all stripes have applied the P-word to him. Trump has courted this with old-fashioned union hall rhetoric about his devotion to “hard-working men and women.” He claimed during his campaign that he would end tax breaks that helped the rich, rip up trade treaties and be vigilant against the flight of jobs to China — pronouncing its name in a menacing way.
But as is the case with everything involving Trump, his words had no connection to thought. They were all about the effect they would have. Trump had warned us about this in best-sellers where he admitted that he uses words primarily to get the deal he wants.
“Facts Are What People Believe” 0
In the Raleigh News and Observer, Jim Jenkins lauds the benefits of a Trumpled view of the world. A snippet:
“The Party of Personal Responsibility” 0
Click for the original image.
In related news, Dick Polman dissects the hypocrisy.
Image via The Bob Cesca Show Blog.
Still Rising Again After All These Years 0
Daniel Ruth marvels at the antics of a Florida Republican who is determined to block a memorial to persons held in chattel bondage. A snippet:
Instead Baxley, R-“I Love the Smell of Juleps in the Morning,” said he would prefer a memorial that celebrates people in a more uplifting manner. And since he chairs the Government Oversight and Accountability Committee, where the slavery memorial bill landed, the measure wasn’t even scheduled for a hearing.
. . . because if you don’t talk about it, it didn’t happen, right?
