The Bad and The Good ... Monday April 25, 2022

These really are the easiest posts to compile, because, literally, there are dumb people everywhere ... but that's what makes it so frightening. So this week, I decided to include some Good News as sort of a palette cleanser for the crazies …

BAD

FLORIDA

We know that GOPQAnon Governor Ron DeSantis signed the bill to dissolve Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District last week, but now comes the question of who pays all the news taxes, and Orange County Tax Collector Scott Randolph says:

“The moment that Reedy Creek doesn’t exist is the moment that that those taxes don’t exist. You’re literally taking $163 million a year of taxes that Disney pays for Reedy Creek and wiping it down to zero. I don’t see that Orange County doesn’t raise property taxes by 20% to 25%. That’s what Orange County would probably have to do to cover this financial situation.”

But, hey, DeSantis smacked a cartoon mouse!

FLORIDA [Again]

Dozens of books were recently taken off Walton County schools library shelves  and School Superintendent A. Russell Hughes said:

“I did it for just a welfare of all involved, including our constituents, our teachers, and our students. I’ll continue to do those things and perhaps add some.”

One of those books was “Everywhere Babies,” published twenty years ago as an ode to infancy. It has long been a staple of family bookshelves, libraries, bookstores, a recommendation in new parent groups, and a Best Seller. So, why was it removed? Don’t Say Gay.

Though there are not any explicitly LGBTQ persons depicted in the book, author Susan Meyers says she believes her book was banned due to a single drawing of a man with his arm on another man’s shoulder.

Sinful!

MICHIGAN

A fundraising message sent by GOP state Senator Tom Barrett, who is seeking the Republican nomination for the newly drawn 7th Congressional District, claims:

“President Biden is forcing 5-year-olds to learn about gender reassignment surgeries, gender identities, and other radical ideas. Every American needs to step up TODAY and stop this sick and twisted ideology from poisoning our children.”

Barrett’s original fundraising appeal came via text and appeared to be an appointment confirmation for “Your Child” to receive “Gender Reassignment Surgery Tomorrow at 9 AM”  and asks:

“If you would like to CANCEL this appointment because you do not believe in teaching young children about dangerous transgender ideologies, please sign your name NOW.”

He has zero qualifications or ideas so he runs on fear and lies.IDAHO

IDAHO 

Lt. Governor Janice McGeachin, who is running for governor, will appear with Stew Peters for a political rally next month.

Stew, who? Peters is a white nationalist who supports Vladimir Putin, who, he claims, is “more honest than anyone in our government.” Peters is a racist who claims Russia is “the only country that’s not under the thumb of the criminal banking cabal.” He’s a white supremacist who popularized the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 is actually a synthetic form of snake venom and has repeatedly called for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be executed.

And Janet McGeachin wants to appear at a rally with him.

Seriously, Idaho? This is the best you can do.

TEXAS

Proving himself to be a huge asshat, Texas GOPQAnon Governor Greg Abbott’s rule that doubled the inspections for commercial trucks coming in from Mexico, because he says the trucks were carrying undocumented immigrants and drugs,  caused delays that cost the U.S. nearly $9 billion in gross domestic product.

The rule was in effect until, Abbott realized his dumbfuckery.

Another “government is too big Republican” costing millions, er, billions, to the American people because they haven’t a clue what’ s going on.

TENNESSEE

GOP lawmakers passed legislation making camping on public property a misdemeanor crime, a law which effectively criminalizes homelessness. 

Poverty is now a crime in Tennessee, y’all, and you can face a misdemeanor offense and a $50 fine or community service requirement if you don’t have a home.

ARIZONA

The Senate passed two controversial education bills last week, one that will empower parents to sue if they feel like educators are interfering with their right to direct their child’s upbringing, and another that would assist parents in monitoring their child’s library habits.

Let me say this, you wingnut GOP parents: rather than sue a teacher for doing his or her job, why not quit your job, stop going to Starbucks, buy a smaller house, and homeschool your precious babies so you can raise them to be ignorant fucks like yourselves?

GOOD

TENNESSEE

A Memphis prosecutor has dropped all criminal charges against Pamela Moses, the Memphis woman who was sentenced to six years in prison for trying to register to vote after her probation officer filled out and signed a form indicating she was done with probation for a 2015 felony conviction.

For trying to register to vote. In case it isn’t obvious, because this is still America, land of the White Free, Pamela Moses is a Black woman.

Although Moses was convicted last year and sentenced in January, she was granted a new trial in February after it was learned that her defense council has not been privy to certain documents in the hands of prosecutors.

Now, finally, the charges are dropped.

KENTUCKY

U.S. District Judge Rebecca Grady Jennings has temporarily blocked a state law that effectively eliminated abortions in Kentucky after the state’s two remaining clinics said they couldn’t meet its requirements.

The decision was a victory for abortion rights advocates and a setback for the GOP-led, anti-women legislature, which passed the law in March and then overrode Democratic Governor Andy Beshear’s veto of the measure last week.

Both of the clinics have resumed healthcare services for the women who chose to make their own choices.

FLORIDA

I love a good Letter to the Editor and this one, clearly from someone living in Ron DeSantis’ Flori-duh is just spot on. Sadly, when I saw the phot, the name was redacted because I’d love to give proper credit to the author. Anyway, here goes …

“Gov. Ron DeSantis claims Florida is a ‘Free state.’ Baloney!

It’s a free state if you’re rich, if you give millions to his re-election campaign, if you’re a wealthy developer or if you’re a CEO of a big corporation.

Bit by bit. DeSantis is taking away everyone else’s freedoms.

Freedom to put solar on your roof? No! Freedom to vote? No! Freedom for women to make their own health care decisions? No! Freedom to be who you are? No! Freedom for local government to decide local issues? No!

Freedom for children to read ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’? No! Freedom for businesses to offer diversity training for employees? No! Freedom to afford a place to rent? No!

Freedom to access affordable healthcare? No! Freedom for teachers to provide an honest teaching of history? No! Freedom to discuss sexual orientation in schools? No!

DeSantis’ ambition: Position himself in 2024 as the heir apparent to [Thing 45]. He wants to corrupt not just Florida but the entire country.

You can stop him, but you have to register and you have to vote! Let’s get rid of Gov. Ron and let Florida be a truly free state—again.”

In other words: CAST A GODDAMNED VOTE.

When Democrats vote, Democrats win.