A warning: I probably should have screamed this post into a pillow rather than writing it out. Just saying it might be best to scroll on by if you’re looking for uplift.
Still with me? Okay.
Tip O’Neill’s maxim, “all politics is local,” has been turned ass-over-tea kettle. All politics is national now. That has implications that we’ll get to in a moment.
Remember when the MAGA howler monkeys went ape-shit in Michigan last year in response to what were called “lockdowns” but were actually relatively light measures to restrict the spread of a pandemic that at the time had few effective treatments and no vaccines? Armed people stormed the statehouse, and a cabal of incompetent goons plotted to kidnap the governor. It turns out that was a dress rehearsal for a national production we all witnessed on January 6.
This year Governor Whitmer encouraged Michigan school districts to require masks but stopped short of issuing a mandate at the state level:
“Districts and local public health leaders should keep working together to implement mask guidelines and create buy-in at the community level, which leads to better outcomes and better adherence to policies that keep kids, teachers, staff, and parents safe,” [Governor Whitmer] said. “Together, we can protect ourselves from COVID and ensure kids keep learning in-person.”
That would make sense in an “all politics is local” world, but that’s not the world we’re living in. What happened instead is that the crazies trained their ire on local officials who tried to do the right thing.
The following incident happened in Kent County, Michigan, but similar scenarios have been playing out all over the country for more than a year:
After a woman attempted to run Kent County Health Department director Adam London off the road just hours after he issued a mask mandate for some schools last month, the health officer issued a plea to the Kent County Board of Commissioners.
“I need help,” London wrote in an Aug. 22 email to the county commissioners, which Michigan Advance received today after filing a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Kent County Board of Commissioners last week. “My team and I are broken. I’m about done. I’ve done my job to the best of my ability. I’ve given just about everything to Kent County, and now I’ve given some more of my safety…”
“There is nothing to be gained by entertaining such people with dialog,” London continued. “In many cases, these are the same people who dismiss the plot against the governor [Gretchen Whitmer] as “just guys joking around” and the January 6th insurrection [at the U.S. Capitol] as a peaceful patriotic protest. I think it is a grave mistake to unnecessarily give them targets and platforms. There is a sickness in America far more insidious than COVID. You are more empowered to fight this disease than I am.”
Dr. London says the commissioners are “more impowered to fight this disease” than he is, which is true since they are elected officials and he runs the health department. But because all politics is national, the board demonstrated on a micro scale the macro problem we face as a nation: the Democratic members of the board signed a statement in support of London and the health department. The Republican members declined to do so.
According to the article, Republican members of the state legislature also predictably sided with the kooks. Several pulled a DeSantis, threatening to defund the county health department unless it rescinded the mandate. One member, Steven Johnson (R-Wayland), issued an official statement accusing London of overstepping his authority, stated that he (Johnson) would “refuse to follow their mandate” and encouraged citizens to “disobey this overreach into people’s lives.”
In his email to the board, London identified what we’re up against and what needs to happen:
“These are people who hope to force their views on others through intimidation, aggression, and their rhetoric suggests violence as well. I will not participate in witch trials in which the science I’ve presented, and the opinions of legitimate experts, is reduced to the same stage as people living in echo-chambers of junk science, salespeople, and Youtube videos. For the leaders of these misinformation campaigns, it’s never really been about our data; it’s been about their dogma.”
“If you want to fire me, or censure me, or pass a resolution condemning me, by all means please proceed. Do what you need to do your job. But first, let me share my prayer with you: I pray that people more powerful than me, Democrats and Republicans, rise up with one voice and say, ‘we will not tolerate or provide quarter for this nonsense in our part of America…’”
In 2020, we all hoped for a clear and unmistakable repudiation of Trump and Trumpism. We got half our wish — Trump is gone. But Trumpism is still with us. Those of us who live in red states are still essentially living the MAGA nightmare, and the same tribe of crazies who are making it impossible for the Kent County public health department to do its job have prevailed in our communities. You can see the results by looking at a COVID hotspot map.
Those of you in blue states have your own hordes of nutbags making spectacles of themselves at schoolboard meetings and other venues, at least in the rural areas of your states. According to polls, the pandemic-deniers are vastly outnumbered, even in places like Florida. But will we “rise up with one voice” as Dr. London hopes and put an end to this nonsense? That’s really the only question that matters, IMO. Otherwise, collective action on anything is impossible.
So, it’s ultimately up to voters, but before it comes to that again, I hope to Christ the elected officials we’ve empowered at the federal level already will use every tool at their disposal to oppose the authoritarian cult that is bent on destroying this country. The vaccine mandates the president announced a while back were a good start. I’m not a lawyer, but I suspect more can be done, such as vaccine mandates for all types of travel regulated by the feds.
How else can the feds turn the screws? They fund a lot of shit that goes on in states, and that can be a lever. The requirement that hospitals and facilities that take in Medicare and Medicaid dollars vaccinate employees is a great pressure tactic. Are there others?
How about agencies? Would it be possible for someone at the DoJ or other federal agency to have a talk with Lord Fish Stick von Haw Haw’s employer about the potential corporate perils of allowing “talent” to spread deadly misinformation during a pandemic? If so, it’s high time to have that talk. Etc. Again, I’m not a lawyer, just a citizen who’s spit-balling on a goddamn blog, but the feds have a lot of power. Are they using every bit of it?
Of course Republicans will screech about authoritarianism and censorship, but guess what, they already do, and they always will. Hell, one of the several contenders for the coveted “nuttiest GOP House member” crown recently published a fundraising video showing herself babbling about Democrats and socialism and then allegedly blowing up a car with a giant gun — a video that would have been absolutely indistinguishable from an al Qaeda recruiting YouTube if you just slapped a long beard on her stupid face.
We can’t let these crazies win, and we mustn’t let notions of comity or fear of retaliation when power changes hands stand in the way of a gloves-off effort against them using every legal means at our disposal right now. Because all politics is national, we need the most ruthless federal response we can legally muster to make the stakes perfectly clear and cut through all the “both sides” bullshit. If we wait until the election to address the “sickness in America” Dr. London warned us about, it will be too late.
Emma from Miami
Preach it, sister!
Frank Wilhoit
When politics was local it was because news was local. There is no longer local news. If one incident like this is reported, many others are happening and not being reported.
hells littlest angel
… when they are not actively engaged in it. Or even when they are.
I am at a loss as to what to do about these rotten motherfuckers. Wishing they would all drop dead hasn’t worked so far.
sab
I don’t know how it is now, but Kent County used to be owned by the DeVos and Van Andel families. Justin Amash was too lefty for them.
BGinCHI
It’s time to go to the mattresses, and a not insignificant part of the Democratic Party establishment are arguing over whether we should beg for a gaming license.
Ksmiami
Stop treating them at fucking hospitals. Cut them off and isolate them. Turn off their internet. Just let em die
Ksmiami
@hells littlest angel: we don’t have to wish, we can turn them away from medical services
Roger Moore
One thing we need to do is to change our language. These people are not protesters or critics or skeptics. When they show up at meetings and try to intimidate people who disagree with them, when they threaten officials who render decisions they don’t like, when they show up outside people’s houses armed to the teeth, and when they go further and do things like trying to run someone off the road, they’ve gone beyond that. They’re trying to achieve through violence and threats of violence what they can’t win at the ballot box, and that makes them terrorists by any sane definition of the term. We need to call them that and prosecute them appropriately.
CaseyL
Half the country, and one of the major political parties, have simply decided they want the US to be an authoritarian ethnostate. They are terrorists.
The other half are still trying to act according to rule and law, but dithering over the details.
The DoJ and Biden Administration need to use the Patriot Act to imprison these terrorists, up to and including Trump, Eastman, and current elected officials. But they won’t because it would be politically difficult, and “get in the way” of enacting a legislative agenda that (thanks to the terrorists who are elected officials) won’t get passed anyway.
We are living in the middle of a revolution. And we’re losing.
Jeffro
Whether it’s about the blessed debt ceiling, or the vaccine/mask mandate wars, it would be helpful if Dem leaders picked a night and gave a national address with the theme of
Nicole
Excellent piece and I’m glad you didn’t scream it into a pillow. I’m (regrettably) with you; I don’t know what the solution is. I watched that Tucker Carlson bit about the mandate for a vaccinated military, and he sounded like a crazy person- like, who would believe the army’s intent is to get all the men with “high testosterone” to resign? (Which is also not how the army works) But once propaganda gets into a person’s fear response, I think they’ll believe anything. He also put up a slide from an alleged presentation of the military (to whom? Didn’t say. When and where? Didn’t say) that included the 7 tenets of Satanism. He railed about the US Gov’t promoting Satanism. I paused the screen to read the tenets (Tucker did not; he rushed on to the next slide). I read them to my husband and now he says he’s a Satanist (with some quibbles about tenet 4 but he says it’s impossible for anyone to agree with EVERYTHING in their faith).
dr. bloor
It’s not Trumpism, it’s Reaganism with a steroid-like boost of Gingrinchism on top. It’s been festering for 40 years, and we’re basically deadlocked in a dance where they break shit for however many terms of office they can minority-rule themselves into, followed by the occasional breather where D’s get a chance to clean up the mess and maybe do a bit of rebuilding.
I’m pretty skeptical that there will ever be a meaningful turnaround re: this state of affairs, insofar as the game is so thoroughly fixed at this point. Packed courts, gerrymandered legislative majorities, and the fact that beyond the malevolent facists a huge portion of the American Center is “Center” because they’re routinely too stupid, ignorant, and/or apathetic to pay attention to what’s happening is the perfect recipe for devolution.
lowtechcyclist
I quite honestly think Congress should pass a resolution proclaiming that we are in a state of war with the SARS-Cov-2 virus and all its variants.
This would arguably make treasonable, under the language of Article III, the spread of bogus information that aids the spread of the virus. So if Fox News and Newsmax and OAN and the GOP politicians and the right-wing talk radio mini-Limbaughs all over America were to continue to spread their lies, they might find themselves facing charges of treason.
And they’d deserve it. We could repurpose Gitmo to contain their sorry asses.
Kay
I find the school disruptions unforgiveable. After all that kids have lost in this pandemic that these horrible, cynical ADULTS decided to make it impossible for schools to function is just reprehensible.
They’re a minority. How is they have such a profound and wholly negative effect on this country? How long are people supposed to put up with this?
The far Right have not contributed ONE THING in the course of the whole pandemic. It has been one fucking screaming hissy fit after another. I don’t know how it happened but 20% of the country have managed to wrap the rest of us around the axle, and the thing keeps spinning. You can’t get away from them. You send your kid to school, there they are, screaming.
Kay
I’m right there with you, Betty. I don’t know if that’s a comfort but I agree with every word.
Enough. It is past time the 80% who haven’t lost their goddamned minds are no longer subject to the lunacy of the 20%. We need a huge group of political leaders at all levels, all the way down to county commissioners and city councils, to say “enough”. If they can’t act like adults in public schools they should be barred from public schools. It is not fair to families and students who are going to school to get some work done to be subject to this. They can ruin their own kids education. They shouldn’t be able to ruin everyone elses.
lowtechcyclist
@Roger Moore:
Seconded.
@CaseyL:
I can’t for the life of me understand why it would be politically difficult. I’m sure 65-70% is opposed to public officials being threatened and intimidated for doing their jobs, or private citizens being doxxed for having the nerve to speak out at public meetings.
If the Patriot Act is applicable, fuck yeah, the DoJ should use it against these people. Letting them get away with shit just makes more people more willing to commit greater violence.
eclare
As reported in the morning thread, Tennessee, where I live, has decided that vaxxed people no longer will be given monoclonal antibodies. The treatment will be reserved for the unvaxxed.
I am so sick and fucking tired of coddling these assholes.
Kay
I’m also sick of being ordered to psychoanalyze them. I don’t care why they act this way and I’m not qualified to diagnose them or come up with solutions. I don’t care if they get thru it and out the other side. I want the 80% protected from them FIRST and then their fucking mental issues can be addressed, or not, either is fine with me.
Triage, baby. If 90% of students and families are willing to follow school rules then that 90% comes before the screaming mob. They come SECOND. They can submit their demands in writing.
FelonyGovt
I think the result in the California recall came at least in part from the majority being fed up to the gills with these mask-refusing, science-scorning COVIDiots. It made Democrats who might have otherwise been complacent send in their “no” votes out of anger.
If we can mobilize that anger nationally, maybe we can find a way out of this.
germy
Not just in America
Joe Falco
@Roger Moore:
I’m fine with calling them “enemies of humanity”. That’s how I see them.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@dr. bloor:
This. Since at least 1980, the Republican party has been about anti-environmentalism, deregulation, gutting the safety net, shifting the tax burden to the poor, cowboy diplomacy, enforcing fundamentalist Christian moral dogma, and strengthening criminal law and police power in ways targeted at making it a crime to be black.
This is the result of 40 years of modern GOP “policy” and politicking. Think of it this way, Goldwater created the Southern Strategy, Nixon perfected it, Reagan institutionalized it and Trump made it public. This didn’t happen by accident.
That’s why I generally have no respect for the Never Trump crowd (to coin a driftglass phrase, they all suffer from Republican Detachment Disorder) because they helped the GOP weaponize the stupid and the racists and are now surprised at the results.
Barney
The politics may be national, but the witchhunts are local. The physical threats, like trying to run a doctor off the road, or the social ones like trying to get public employees fired for promoting public health, are done by individuals, aimed at individuals, and condoned by the small groups who have to power to stop them – Republicans at that level of government, police forces, and so on. The same classes of people that, 60 years ago, were fighting to keep Jim Crow thriving.
Kay
Donald Trump’s thugs and we’re stuck with them. Isn’t this fun? Boy, having a sleazy reality tv show star as President really paid off for the country, don’t you think? I hope CNN and the NYTimes made a bundle off promoting him- they’re the only winners in all this.
Just pure malice. Hatred. That’s his legacy. He poisons everything he touches and we’ll now be dealing with it for the next 20 years. Such a delighful interesting romp for political media spreading this fucking rat poison. I hope they enjoy the money they made off the books.
Matt McIrvin
@Nicole:
That was a particular dogwhistle to Internet Nazi/PUA/incel types. They’re absolutely obsessed with testosterone levels (or what they imagine to be testosterone levels) as a rank of human worth.
Roger Moore
@Kay:
It’s not just a demand that we psychoanalyze them. It’s really a demand that we excuse them for their misbehavior. It’s the same way we’re always expected to be understanding of rich white criminal defendants. We’re expected to bend over backward to understand and excuse everything conservatives do, no matter how awful they are. I don’t really care that they’re misinformed, economically anxious, or whatever. They’re doing awful stuff that any sane, well socialized human being should recognize as being beyond the pale, and I shouldn’t have to accept it from them any more than I’d accept the same behavior from anyone else.
Omnes Omnibus
Use your voices. Call your reps at every level. Show up at school board meetings. Go to municipal board meetings. Speak up for the sane.
Let the good guys know that we support them. Let the assholes see that they can’t steamroll us.
Nicole
@eclare:
That’s not true. I looked up the actual phrasing from the TN NIH and it’s a recommendation. The exact wording:
Which is what is generally recommended nationwide for monoclonal antibody treatment.
And the Dept of Health’s public statement:
Don’t get me wrong; I think TN has done a piss poor job with Covid and will continue to do so, but this is not what it is being spun to be.
https://www.wjhl.com/local-coronavirus-coverage/tennessee-releases-guidance-for-monoclonal-antibody-treatment/
jl
Deadly epidemics from which there is no escape create dread and rage in some people that they cannot handle. So, bizarre, crazy, toxic behavior has always accompanied dangerous epidemics. So, the many anti-mask riots during 1918 flu epidemic, riots in Philadelphia yellow fever epidemic, reversion to barbaric medieval behavior during the great New England vampire epidemic.
Now we add cynical political manipulation to that bonfire, and we see the horrible and dangerous results. And it may be a case of wingnut propaganda to manipulate their rubes and marks spinning out of control. I’ve seen news blurbs over last week about extreme covid anti-vaxers going after all vaccinations.
Edit: soon we’ll hear about the constitutional right of food workers with Hep A to go to work, since they can upchuck and spew on the pot during their breaks. And the constitutional right of people with multi-drug resistant TB to not take their medication and go breath all over everybody in a crowded bar.
And of course, lies about BS ‘what would the Founders do’. Well, history says they would have watched approvingly, not utter a peep, while state governments called out the militia to kick some recalcitrant irresponsible ass.
germy
They’re worried, too.
Woodrow/asim
Assuming not rhetorical…because this has been a game long-played.
My Mom ran a PTA for a couple years, and was really successful. These orgs — most local government — are tragic, y’all. And I don’t mean that in a bad way; these are not people trained to deal with this kind of hostility. Most of this work is frankly, boring and attracts people into that boredom.
In contrast — a lot of these groups attacking are using playbooks built up for decades. I studied Creationism in HS and College, and you can see the same kind of attack patterns and agitations in the OG Creationism fights that these likely-astro-turfed “activists” pull today…
…or, for another sad parallel, the Town Hall “death panels” crap we endured, just a decade ago.
What I’m saying is, the people well-funded to fight these fights, like the Claremont Institute? In one way or another, the networks that support them have been running for a damned long time, and they know how to operate to gin up these fights while wiping most of their fingerprints off.
…I’m sorry, I know a lot of y’all know this. I just didn’t want people to be thinkin’ this is all just happenstance. They want the chaos, crave the validation of having all these folx rattling the “cage” of public education, because if these systems break? They can sweep in and install the changes their funders want.
And to hell with what the people who supported them, actually need.
Much less, the least of us.
(Again, please forgive the pedantry! I’m beginning to feel like I need some red string, index cards, and a corkboard…*sigh*)
Kay
@FelonyGovt:
Agreed. The majority have to stop treating them like an interesting side show, see them for the threat they are and defend their own schools and communities. If they disrupt they should be thrown out and if they won’t leave they shoud be arrested. Schools have to be orderly and safe. Some of these kids have missed an entire year. They do not deserve this. It’s not fair.
These adults attended safe schools where rules were enforced and lunatics were shown the door. The current crop of students are entitled to the same.
Kent
@eclare: How do they know if you are faxed or unvaxed? Didn’t Tennessee also ban vaccine passports? Heh…
Low Key Swagger
@Ksmiami: I keep seeing this. No, we can’t. My wife is a medical professional, and the thought of not treating someone because they made stupid choices never enters her mind. I get you’re angry, but offering nothing but this hateful response makes me worried for the future of our Party. This is not us.
germy
Good point.
rikyrah
This is a good one.
First of all, these muthaphuckas need to be put in jail.
Going around threatening people and trying to run them off the road. They belong IN JAIL.
Tired of this.
We have a MSM, who will pretend that the Republicans actually have a valid reason for not supporting people like the good doctor, when they don’t. They are supporting domestic terrorists.
Ksmiami
I still say the only way to confront bullies is to outnumber them and bring baseball bats. I’m not sure LEOs are on our side
Kay
@Woodrow/asim:
The local officials have to work together against the threat. It is the only thing that will work. It worked (to a certain extent) when the Trump Administration and the Republican Party tried to invalidate an election and remain in power and it will work again. They need one another. It has to be a united front. Schools are not negotiable. They may not behave this way on the property. They can stand in the street and yell and scream but the point of the place is the students. They come first.
rikyrah
@FelonyGovt:
The growing, unapologetic rage of the VACCINATED should be pointed out. I’m madder than a muthaphucka. Sick to death of those who would try and kill me, and that’s what the unvaccinated are trying to do – trying to kill the rest of us. And, they should be treated accordingly.
Ksmiami
@Low Key Swagger: Seriously- these terrorists are endangering us all without consequences. It needs to stop
Woodrow/asim
…see, this is why I apologize so much :)
I was not speaking on how to solve. I was just answering the why of the quote I pulled, why these people creep up and cause so much chaos.
That’s all. I’m not proffering a solution right now; you folx seem to have that discussion in hand.
Ksmiami
@Low Key Swagger: if we don’t nip this shit in the bud, our party doesn’t have a future.
different-church-lady
That’s because Trumpism existed long before Trump. All he did was mine it faster and refine it to more purity than anyone before him in America.
Kay
@Woodrow/asim:
I appreciate the explanation but I am past trying to understand why they do it. I no longer care if it’s astroturf or an ideology or a cult.
I think we should enforce the rules. They forfeighted the right to attend school board meetings when they threatened people. Pull it. Rescind permission. They can come back in when they learn how to behave. If it means their kids can’t attend public schools because their parents refuse to follow rules, then so be it. The 90% will at least have their right to attend safe and orderly public schools protected. It is simply unfair to the vast majority to allow this insanely angry faction to make all the rules.
Inside a public school is not where they may conduct their Trump rallies. They have to take it elsewhere. There are whole fucking stadiums they can rent, there are parks, they can march in the street.
JeanneT
I live in Kent County. Dr. London and his department have performed admirably in trying to protect our community from the worst of the pandemic, and it will be a horrible loss to our county if he resigns. Those citizens who are concerned with promoting public health have been/are still contacting our local commissioners and school boards to try to counter the ugly infectious aggressive agitators. It’s infuriating and exhausting. I am continually astounded that the elected Republicans here are so willing to be pushed around by the most crazed of their constituents.
Woodrow/asim
Then I apologize. As I said in my opening, I was unsure if your comment was rhetorical, or not.
Gretchen
We had the school board fights about teaching creationism here in KS. Average people weren’t paying attention, the crazies would take over, normals saw their kids’ education and fought back, elected sane people, and relax. But the crazies never give up and kept running and winning when people weren’t paying attention. We have to keep paying attention.
rikyrah
@Kay:
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP
Omnes Omnibus
Correct. We have means available if we choose to use them, but we can’t expect officials to stand up without our having their backs.
Chief Oshkosh
@eclare: Wait a minute. How if the fuck are they going to enforce this?
TheQuietOne
We need the help of the MSM! The republicans and the nuts, I repeat myself, need to be called out every day. When my local NBC station reported the officer that was shot and killed in a nearby town in the line of duty they also ran with the fact the shooter was a gun felon that had been released from jail. They also told how Gov. Parsons ( numbnuts ) had just signed a bill to not allow law enforcement to share information about gun felons!!!
Who broke the system? Why it was good ole numbnuts!! This needs to happen a lot!!
bemused senior
@Kay: Is it legal to restrict speakers at a school board meeting to residents of the district? I seem to remember reading that rwnj groups use social media to get attendance from all over to appear more numerous than they are.
FelonyGovt
Oh yes. I’m completely enraged that I, a senior citizen, did everything right, holed up at home, wore my mask everywhere, got vaccinated at the first opportunity and am STILL concerned about doing anything outside because of these assholes.
jl
@Kay:
” I think we should enforce the rules. ”
I think we need carefully designed policies of carrots and sticks, dangled in front of communities that will be more responsive to the one or the other.
Physicians working in working class and poor areas of Central Valley CA say still many people working two jobs, no wriggle room to take a day or part of day off to get shot or deal with side effects, taking care of kids. Put off vaccine and then in hospital or ICU with covid. See Ranu Dhillon’s twitter for example.
Roger Moore
@bemused senior:
You need to do more than just restrict the speakers. A big thing they’re doing is being generally disruptive by shouting down people they disagree with, making threats, and so on. We need to enforce the rules against that kind of behavior and ban people who engage in it. In the case of actual threats of violence, it wouldn’t hurt to prosecute. Above all, we need to make it clear that this stuff won’t be tolerated.
Mallard Filmore
@Kay:
Hi Kay! My knowledge of laws is weak … does this count as “kidnapping”?
gvg
I think it is a problem that the police are not enforcing good behavior. They aren’t arresting people who threaten public officials for doing their job. They are themselves resisting vaccinations even though covid is the leading cop killer now.This has in fact been going on for decades especially with the gun rights thugs threatening everyone who says regulation, and the cops help. That’s why I want the police who won’t get vaccinated, fired. I look at it as a proxy for those who won’t obey laws and society but in a critical position of authority.
bemused senior
@Roger Moore: it seems that there needs to be the ability for a private person to be able to sue the disruptive persons because leos don’t enforce the law in some of these places. Eta I see gvg made the same point about lack of enforcement.
zhena gogolia
I get a daily message from the governor of CT on Covid statistics. Now they’re including info on how many of the hospitalized are not vaccinated. Pisses me off:
“Patients Currently Hospitalized with COVID-19
294
(220 – 74.8% – are not fully vaccinated)”
(Of course, maybe some are children, I suppose.)
Betty Cracker
@different-church-lady: Someone up-thread pointed out the same thing, and I think everyone here realizes Trumpism didn’t spring out of Mark Burnett’s forehead wholly formed.
But as horrible as Trump’s Republican predecessors were, and as much scorn as they deserve heaped upon them for weaponizing stupidity and greed, Trump escalated it to a level that is more insane and self-destructive than anything Reagan, Bush I or Bush II did, IMO.
Those feckless pricks may have enriched the uranium, but Trump exploded the fucking bomb. (Hey, I don’t think I’ve ever mixed metaphors drawn from Greek mythology and nuclear physics before!)
Kay
@Mallard Filmore:
No, kidnapping has two other elements, but no one needs kidnapping. Schools have rules. Just enforce those. Once they remain on the property in violation of the school rules they can call the police, who can charge them with a whole host of misdemeanors, including disorderly and trespassing and (almost guaranteed) resisting, because they always tack that on. Those come with sanctions that can include incarceration so they will have to appear on the charge. Just enforce the ordinary rules and laws. We don’t lack rules. We lack the will to enforce them.
Just treat them like anyone else would be treated. They get notice “you’re trespassing unless you leave” and if they continue to offend they get arrested. Police will know how to do it- they’d do it with anyone else. “Public school” does not mean and has never meant “I get to do whatever the fuck I want”. It means the opposite. It means you have to comply with the school rules AND the criminal code. It’s more, not less.
Mallard Filmore
@Kay: OK. Thanks. I get too much partial information.
Bill Arnold
@FelonyGovt:
Yes, they are assho!es, but they are also a mortal threat, and should be treated as such.
Omnes Omnibus
@Kay: Another advantage of this approach is that it takes police sympathies out of the equation. They are just asked to do their job and remove a trespasser.
Lapassionara
@FelonyGovt: This! I am trying to list the many ways the pandemic has lessened my economic impact on my community. Since March, 2020, I haven’t been to a movie, strolled through a mall, shopped for clothes in a department store, browsed through a real book store or gift shop. Most restaurant meals have been take-outs. This has been good for my bank balance, but I can’t think it is great (multiplied by the people like me) for the small businesses in my area. If I knew people had to wear masks in the mall, stores, etc., I would resume some of these kinds of activities. So long as the anti-maskers view prevails, I mostly stay home.
I cannot for the life of me understand how the mantle of “conservatism” is bestowed on people who think that they have a right to yell at people and berate public officials. These people are radicals. As someone said above, they are terrorists.
Kay
@Mallard Filmore:
You’ve seen school board meetings. There’s plenty or rules that aren’t part of the criminal code. They have time limits per speaker, for example. They have executive session rules- those are governed by a state code – they school has to stay within the code. If they need more rules on a local level, they can pass some, but I bet they have plenty.
Here’s a good one:
Schools aren’t some lawless zone. All of the state laws apply, they just layer the district rules on top and it all has to fit within the US Constitution. It does. We have the whole scheme all worked out. Just plug and play.
piratedan
at the root of all this behavior is one very telling sticking point…
We have a law enforcement issue where the folks misbehaving are provided coverage by sympathetic types in the police department… who’s resisting taking vaccines in the public sector… the police, so if you call them to restrain people who are threatening civil servants trying to enforce public health mandates… well, I assume you can do the math. The amount of law enforcement that were engaged in the January 6th is troubling, plus the behavior of the police during the BLM marches, and their apparent tolerance of what the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers and III%’s do out in public.
It’s hard to enforce the laws that are out there when the people who you’re supposed to turn to for enforcement would rather support those who share the positions than do their jobs.
To borrow from baseball, the police are now calling balls and strikes and deciding just what is in the strike zone and what is not, rulebook be damned.
Mallard Filmore
@Kay: It’s the confining someone to a small space by threat of violence that had me wondering.
Thanks for the replies.
germy
Anoniminous
I think we can safely conclude Dunning-Kruger is the default mode for ~40% of the American population.
ETA: At some point I need to investigate the affect of Self-Induced Hysteria, aka “Evangelical Church Service,” and brain cognitive/affective dysfunction. I’m fairly confident there is a link
germy
@piratedan:
True. And police unions are against mandatory vaccinations for their members. So far, more police have died from covid than from violent crime.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: MoC introduce all sorts of bills all the time. This will go nowhere.
J.
Speaking of anti-mask crazies… This story in the WaPo , which has been one of the most read today, is about a good friend of my daughter’s who was asked to leave a restaurant for wearing a mask. Read the whole thing.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Kay:
The Louisville Metro council finally got around to establishing a buffer zone at the abortion clinic. LMPD has showed its chops by refusing to respond to calls to remove protesors from that zone, choosing instead to concentrate on its core functions of narcotics arrests and pulling over people for wide turns, excessive window tinting,, failure to engage turn signals, rolling stops and inoperative taillights.
Omnes Omnibus
Again, our side needs to show up at these meetings. We need to use our voices.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
I wish to shelve songs like Kumbaya and principles of nonviolence for the duration of this crisis.
Ruckus
@lowtechcyclist:
We could repurpose Gitmo to contain their sorry asses.
Gitmo is nowhere near large enough for all of them. And we already have Gitmo purposed to hold those who are attacking our country.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
Performative governing.
Ruckus
@Kay:
How many newspaper owners/TV broadcasters are died in the wool republican? That’s how they have this much effect.
catothedog
This is not craziness at all.
Infernal world! and thou, profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor, one who brings
A mind not to be changed by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; the Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
It’s all about power. Nothing – wealth, health, family, friendships – nothing matters, but power. It’s an all out struggle for power. They will be the ruling class, even if it means destroying Heaven to create Hell.
Do not mistake this for craziness. This is as cold and rational as it can be in war.
germy
@J.:
I wonder about the name of the place, if it’s a sly wink to lynching.
Yesterday out of curiosity I checked some online google reviews of the place. Reviews from last year before this incident reveal a guy (and his staff) who often bullied customers. One woman was attacked for asking for her change after a meal. Just a poorly run, dirty place… like most MAGA establishments.
MisterForkbeard
@Matt McIrvin: It’s a two-part thing:
1) “Biden hates the military and is trying to destroy it”
2) “Real men don’t vaccinate. You’re a real man, aren’t you?”
Win/Win for Republican, and all they have to do is get their voters killed and damage the country.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: So… protect soldiers who want to disobey a lawful order to not put themselves and their fellow soldiers at risk?
The military is real big on not following orders, isn’t it?
geg6
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
It goes back much further than that. I peg it to Goldwater winning the nomination in ‘64. That’s when the Birchers got into positions of power and Goldwater opposed the the CRA. Bad as he was, Nixon was the last gasp of traditional Republicanism, the dying ember. Once the Birchers and the evangelicals came together to elect Reagan, the GQP was inevitable.
I’m done with these assholes. Done, done, done. I am not speaking to my fellow staffer in my department who is the only one of us not vaxxed. It’s not been noticeable yet because we’re all too busy right now, but it will become obvious all too soon. And as soon as my boss or she question me about it, I will have no qualms about saying exactly why. I don’t care any more. I’m qualified to retire if they don’t like it. And I can tell you right now, that will be my reason to HR for why.
J.
@germy: I hadn’t thought of that re the name. Scary. (And I’m sure Natalie and Jose had no idea.)
germy
@MisterForkbeard:
“Rugged individualists wanted: Join the Army”
germy
i’m so old I remember when Logan was a respected 60 Minutes correspondent:
Betty Cracker
@J.: I made the assumption it was a reference to the sports term for how long a punted football remains in the air. In any case, I hope the young couple who are just trying to protect their baby don’t experience any more bullshit. It’s absolutely maddening.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Lapassionara: Yes, you are right, the sooner we can stop the pandemic, the sooner back to a normal economy, but that takes effort and we’re talking about lazy, dumb people. Wearing masks and getting a vaccine just is boring adult stuff. It’s easier to just go and scream at someone.
I figure come winter it’s going to be the apocalypse in the lot of Red States between COVID variations and mass tongue kissing. And when there is enough death and misery then the conservtards will stop it out of sheer animal fear.
Dan B
@Ruckus: Well off white people have enjoyed a mostly stable US, on the domestic side. They have not wrapped their minds around the chaos that continues to rise. They somehow failed to notice that the 1/6 rioters would have strung up Pence and almost every GOP politician and staffer if they had gotten their claws on them. The mob loathes all elites.
The rioters would burn down their own homes to make a hotter flame, not all, but enough. It’s important to repeat the stories until the elites and the disaffected hear them clearly. At the moment they dismiss the violence of the mob as just harmless tantrums.
The MSM are reporting story lines from a decade, or more, ago. Some publishers are posting storylines that are rehashing dirty hippy protesters. Vietnam era.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: That’s a pretty disgusting set of lies they got going there.
kindness
Yea…..I’m sorry but Republicans have learned from Fox News. If you get the people wound up, if you get them aggrivated and thinking they are being taken advantage of and work them up to a rage, those people no longer use reason as a basis for acting. Those wound up people will lash out and think they are proper in doing so. Republicans have unleashed the beast. They have no intention of putting it back in it’s cave.
germy
@Betty Cracker:
I made that assumption as well, but it’s a Texas MAGAT… who knows if there’s some sly double meaning going on there? His own employee, the one who was tasked with telling the couple to remove their masks, admitted to them the owner wasn’t very nice.
germy
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Attempts to disprove the lies are overwhelmed by other, outraged comments in the threads.
Kay
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
Guffaw.
I love the deference they’re shown. No one else in this country gets treated as well as these people get treated. All you have to do is say “I’m religious” and it’s “Sure! Go bother anyone you want! Follow them right into their doctor’s appointment! Can we get you a chair so you can observe the exam?”
Mallard Filmore
@germy: “As anarchists, we must stick apart.”
germy
@Mallard Filmore:
“We must hang together, or we’ll surely be denied service at Hang Time Sports Grill & Bar!”
Old School
@germy:
Clicking through I see the book in question is Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Pérez.
I haven’t read it, but it is a Printz Honor Book, so presumably it isn’t without merit.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: of course, rape and pedophila charges have always been the weapon of choice to use against minorities. Just call them lying racists scum and gloat about their emanate slow deaths from COVID. That will hurt them because that’s how they imagine their vicious, control freak god works.
germy
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Old School: Also patently absurd that any book encoraging pedophila could get published in the US, but this dumb fuck, Texas were talking about.
germy
@Old School:
stinger
@J.: Can you share some of the key information from the article, for those of us who aren’t WaPo subscribers? Thanks!
J R in WV
@Nicole:
For all of these years, majority of a century, I thought I was a scientific atheist. Now, NOW, I discover I have been a Satanist all these years. What a miracle?!!
ETA: And of course the REAL miracle is that the revelation came from Fucker Carleson, AKA Lord Fish Stick von Haw Haw! A great nickname for that oily bastard.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: Come on. Let’s apply Ockham here. Hang Time + Texas = Football reference.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
I’m going to name my restaurant Tight End after myself.
Soprano2
In MO our state attorney general is suing all of the school districts that put mask mandates in place for their school. It’s insane, since when do conservatives believe that the state government should be running all of the schools in the state? Ten years ago they would have screeched about how awful that would be, but now they’re promoting it!
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
You’re right, the owner is just a nice guy who loves football.
Benw
Joan Jett is pulling the plug on her tour due to COVID. I’ve got tix for the last show left, Sept 28th. Thanks, assholes, you get no Joan Jett!
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: Don’t put words in my mouth. I think you were running at least one conspiracy theory too far. It isn’t helpful.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
May I have your email address, so I can run all my comments here through you first?
This way, I can edit anything that doesn’t meet your approval.
MisterForkbeard
@germy: I don’t know about that particular passage, but the book itself is about a Texan teenage girl who falls in love with a black teenager and has to deal with direct racism as a result of it. It’s won awards and is fairly highly regarded as being both educational AND very entertaining.
germy
@MisterForkbeard:
At one time Lara Logan was one of the top correspondents at 60 Minutes. These are the stories she shines a spotlight on now.
Tim in SF
For the thousandth time, they plotted to kidnap and murder the governor. The focus should be on the “murder” part.
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: I am sorry that I disagreed with your brilliant discovery of a sekrit code in the name of a Texas sports bar. I will have more respect for your genius in the future.
ETA: Come on, I disagreed with you. And I think things are shitty enough without people having to make the kind of reach you did.
germy
@Omnes Omnibus:
So many good commenters have left because of nitpicking and in the case of old unca cosmo, outright abuse.
I’m sure many MAGA Texans have chuckled and made jokes about “Hang Time” after a few beers at that sports bar, but you do you. The owner of that establishment only wanted to be referred to by his first name in a newspaper article about the incident. Just a regular old sportsball fan.
pluky
@Mallard Filmore:
Red high lighting is mine.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/legal/kidnapping
“an act or instance or the crime of seizing, confining, inveigling, abducting, or carrying away a person by force or fraud often with a demand for ransom or in furtherance of another crime.”
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Omnes Omnibus:
Texas football = mediocre football in a closed league with a captive league network.
This is a hill I can comfortably die on.
Another Scott
Speaking (earlier) of Laurence Tribe…
Ooh. Throw the book at them!
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@germy: That sounds like like a sports reference to me. And I know Black and white people who say I’m “hanging” with somebody, or “hanging out” at a bar, and I don’t think they are slyly refering to lynching. And I did not see anyone say the owner was nice.
Betty Cracker
@Tim in SF: You told me that 999 times before? Huh. Maybe my husband is right about that whole “you don’t listen” thing…
(Seriously, though, point taken, but there’s no reason to be a dick about it. I’m saying that to myself and to anyone who happens to read this comment as much as I’m saying it to you. We who oppose the fucking plague rats need to stick together, and that’s easier when we aren’t being dicks.)
Omnes Omnibus
@germy: Wait a minute. I am driving people away because I politely disagreed that Hang Time was a lynching reference? Get a grip.
ETA: Walking away from this thread now. So maybe you are right.
J R in WV
@germy:
At first I thought would agree that servicemenbers being discharged for refusing to be vaccinated shouldn’t get a dishonorable discharge.
But then I thought about it for just a moment, and decided these folks are refusing to obey a lawful order — if I had done that, they would have thrown me out, after I served my time in the brig.
Those folks deserve no honor at all, they have benefited from training, pay, housing, etc, etc. Fuck them if they can’t obey SOP and the orders of the day. Line up and take your shot, you low life bastards, or get the hell out with bad papers~!!~
Baud
@J R in WV: I didn’t even realize a dishonorable discharge was an option for refusing to take other vaccines. I thought they basically held you down.
J R in WV
@germy:
Lara Logan will have to post the legitimate ISBN of the book in question before I buy a single letter of this bullshit! Intolerable that anyone spreads this crap.
There is no such book in a TX public library. She’s a despicable liar to say that there is one on the shelf of a library in Texas.
No one reads books in Texas! //s but just on this last sentence!
Chetan Murthy
@piratedan:
This is a long-term problem for us all, much bigger than covid. When and if the Fascists take power in DC, they’ll have po-po in every major Blue city, enforcing their will. Just as Dem elected city governments today are afraid to cross the po-po, they’ll be afraid in that future, too. We have to act today to change hiring, promotion, and immunity practices for police departments, everywhere we can. That means in all Blue states and cities. And this will be tough, b/c well-off Dems continue to support the police we have today. They don’t see police misconduct as an issue that affects them and then won’t, until it’s too damn late for our Republic.
I remember during the 2020 Police Riots, the Walnut Creek police department rolled out their fucking Urban Assault Vehicle and paraded around, trying to squash demonstrations with it. It was appalling. And this was *Walnut Creek*, in the *Bay Area*.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Betty Cracker:
As I tell the Contessa, “I did say it, it’s just that you’re getting older and your hearing is starting to suck. Maybe you need hearing aids.”
Bad things tend to happen after that, but I gotta say what I gotta say.
Another Scott
OMG!!1
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
Baud
@Another Scott: We’ve never had a default. Just the shutdown.
James E Powell
@Omnes Omnibus:
Heartily endorsed. Especially for anyone living in the districts or states where Democratic obstructionists believe it doesn’t matter what their constituents think.
Professor Bigfoot
@germy: sounds more to me like an absolute asshole who owns a bar named to attract people who love football.
(seriously, I’m phenomenally sensitive to this kinda thing; and even I am certain the name is just a sportsball reference)
debbie
It’s time to fucking arrest these assholes. They don’t get their own set of laws
ETA: I believe it was rikyrah who pointed to a tweet yesterday about a woman somewhere who showed up at a school board or city council meeting in blackface and claimed she was dressed as Rosa Parks and righteously protesting mask mandates.
I don’t think showing up will accomplish anything but violent reactions to people like her.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I don’t care what these people think or feel or believe. I care what they do.
trollhattan
DiFi says “You be you, Chuck.”
trollhattan
@Chetan Murthy:
Went to Bottle Rock music festival in ’19, which is held in Napa. When we left that night right outside the venue (the County Fairgrounds) was one of those ginormous armored vee-hickles labeled Napa Police. I bet it’s mostly used for controlling Karens loaded on blush wine.
germy
@Professor Bigfoot:
This was my original statement:
I never used to be phenomenally sensitive to this kind of thing. Until about 30 years ago when I married a Black woman and had kids. We experienced all kinds of bullshit. The whole spectrum from sly little giggled double entendres to verbal harassment to physical threats. So even though I still try to give people the “benefit of the doubt” I’ve come to expect anything from anti-mask sports bar owners.
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
Agreed. It’s gone on too long.
Geminid
@pluky:
@Mallard Filmore: “False Imprisonment” is punishable under criminal and civil tort law. This may br applicable to the actions described.
Professor Bigfoot
@germy: there’s very little doubt this fucker is an asshole and almost certainly also a white supremacist; and while i doubt the name of the joint was that sly wink, i wouldn’t bet against this asshole quietly winking it in private.
lowtechcyclist
@J.:
I thought that Texas had banned private businesses from having mask mandates. Maybe only requiring them is banned, and banning them is OK?
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: Oh, I get why you noticed that bullshit about that book. Yes, I can see how that childish crap hits close to home for you.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Professor Bigfoot: As they say “it would irresponsible not to speculate” on how much of racist the owner is.
Baud
@trollhattan:
When can we stop making Iowa the first in the nation? I thought they had turned a corner in 2018, but it looks like they are sliding down the black diamond.
Tenar Arha
Me: *yelling at the internet from Massachusetts*
Anyway—has anyone heard of this (https://www.sistersunitedalliance.com) organization in Texas or looked into them?
They certainly sound like they’ve had a very good idea. Thoughts?
lowtechcyclist
And these people aren’t?
Seriously, there are maybe a few dozen prisoners left over from Bush’s war in Gitmo. I’m sure room can be found, or even built, for them somewhere on the mainland.
I’m not talking about throwing every Tom, Dick, and Harriet down there who spreads lies on social media. Just the ones who are in a position to use mass media or high office to spread their toxic bullshit.
So maybe a few thousand at most, though I’m betting most of them would shut up once their lies officially became treasonous, which would cut the numbers way down.
raven
In watching part 2 of Muhammed Ali they showed footage of lunch counter sit-in’s and other confrontations complete with swastika’s and white power sign. Same old shit.
lowtechcyclist
@Benw:
Damn, Joan Jett is still rockin’ after all these years? That’s one act I wouldn’t mind seeing. Enjoy the show!
trollhattan
@lowtechcyclist:
The TRex tribute album released a trickle of singles over the last year, some meh and some horrid, then they drop Joan’s Jeepster, you can go home now boys. KILLS it. Seriously, she’s still got it.
Geminid
@Tenar Arha: I read somewhere that 2 million registered Texas women did not vote in 2016. Considering that less than 9 million Texans voted in that year’s Presidential election, and that Texas voter registration hit a record 15 million that year, this figure may be low. So outreach to unregistered and as well as registered Texas women can be an effective means for Democrats to win next year’s election.
Last year the orange churl beat President Biden in Texas by roughly 52-48%. This means that for every 26 Texans who voted wrong, 24 voted for Biden. Republicans have been successful in bringing in new voters the past decade, but I think their propaganda is starting to have diminishing returns. Democrats have only scratched the surface, so to speak, and groups like the one you describe have a lot of potential. Maybe they will interface some with postcards-to-voters initiative. And a coalition of Arizona Latino groups* found that door to door, in-person canvassing was a productive tactic in their effort to help turn Arizona blue. Which they did.
*I read about this in a Poltico article titled ” Inside the Effort to Turn Out Latino Voters- and Turn Arizona Blue.” The article came out right before the November election, possibly on November 5, 2020.
Geminid
@lowtechcyclist: I think we shoud concentrate on closing the prison at Guantanamo Bay, not repurposing it. There are already crimes on the books to use on bad actors, and plenty of jail space to put them in.
Gvg
@germy: it is a basketball phrase. Some really good basketball players jump up above the basket and appear to have all the time in the world to jam the ball in, as if gravity didn’t work on them like us mere mortals. It’s called hang time.
i can’t say some real nasty piece of work doesn’t have some other meaning in mind as a kind of evil double entendre, but probably the sorts term is all.
I am not that big a sports fan, but I have known that phrase for decades. Am I really the only one who recognizes it? It’s at least Michael Jorden, if not earlier.
Matt McIrvin
@geg6:
The Southern Strategy was Nixon’s. He was the first major figure to embrace the new crazy, and it was a conscious turn. Among other things, he was vocally anti-abortion, and a lot of Republicans weren’t at that time–the evangelicals mostly weren’t, yet.
Another Scott
@Matt McIrvin:
I blame Kevin Phillips and Uncle Pat – citing Jill Lepore’s article from the NewYorker.
Cheers,
Scott.
neldob
These nutters are not conservative, they are right wing extremists and should be named as such.
ian
Throw Americans into Gitmo? Check.
Deny medical care to sick people? Check.
Find any applicable law in the books to penalize people? Check.
Dogdamn people, don’t become the republicans. We are supposed to be better than that. Get a grip and remember your principles.