Jazz Shaw looks just like the creepy old white guy that was janitor at my elementary school. You just know "Jazz" is a nickname he gave himself looking in a mirror while trying on a Fedora. From Kmart.
One Quibble* -
"They’d sooner murder a homeless person and bury him out by the rendering plant"
Out here in "The Sticks" everybody knows the dead homeless people go in the rendering plant. That's recycling and it's good for the planet! Oh and If the homeless person is a relation you do have an obligation to bury them.
Thanks for everything Roy - Have a great holiday! Hell, have a Merry Christmas and I mean that in a warm sincere way and not like the Target cashier who juts out their chin and barks it like the rest of us say "Fuck You".
As someone who lives in The Sticks, I can tell you that rural areas are, these days, far more crime infested than the cities. As profound poverty sets in--especially as Trump and the GOP continue to slash the social safety net--Cletus and his friends are forced to commit property crimes just to survive. Mostly it's break-ins and larceny, but armed robbery and drug-fueled murder are increasing in the countryside. People got no jobs, they got no money, and soon they won't have their welfare or SSI to keep them indoors and fed. But they KNOW that their present low estate is because of the Democrats giving welfare to those other people. Thus, they vote Republican because Republicans promise to take those benefits away.
Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/Good Festivus to one and all! May your sleigh bells keep ringing Happy Hannukah to you!
A friend of mine retired and bought 100 acres in south central Ohio, just outside of Chillicothe. He was going to build his dream home/Fortress of Solitude. Chillicothe sits just on the very outside edge of the western Appalachian foothills. A stultifying mix of prairie gothic and mountain degeneracy. Everybody seems a little closely bred is what I'm saying. He had his John Deere tractor stolen 4 times the first year. Twice by the same family.It was never gone very long. They all advertised it for sale on Craigslist which evidently the Sheriff department checks daily.
He lives outside of Asheville. now. Evidently all the locals have been priced out of living there so the place is pretty nice.
More crime is fungible based on demographics. Like, more crime amongst the good people and true Americans of the heartland is a lesser problem than the same amount of crime by the not-white scum of of coastal elite cities. Latter's a big problem while the former doesn't exist except it does. This fluid math is similar to the math used by Crooked Donnie in his tax returns where the worth of property isn't a fixed number but dependent on the question.
A friend works in a suburban company and recently had to go in to Boston for a work meeting. Being an urbanite, she took public transportation rather than drive into downtown (a wise choice). One of her co-workers, a suburbanite, asked her if she had Mace.
Born and raised in New York, I've spent half my life in flyover country and love many things about it. But Jesus on a bed of straw, these yokels and their politicians are suckers for every con man who drops by waving promises in their faces. Case in point, Foxconn. So aptly named, so unlikely to fulfill any of its promises. With that history, no wonder so many vote for Trump.
So how come the good people of the heartland are literally killing themselves? Their party of choice has been in control for forty years, so blaming the mostly powerless party is bullshit. So what’s the actual reason? Maybe being reported as some sort of ideal instead as dysfunctional people is part of the problem?
A word of caution: from the our side it's easier to believe that their side has been in control for forty years, to them Clinton and Obama were blood-dripping commissars bent on expropriating the white women when they weren't personally giving every tramp an happy ending.
In fact, from the current Lumpen Right's point-of-view, Bush, Bush, and even Reagan were at best cuckolds who never really gave the Dumbocrats what was coming them, 'compromised on everything', and only now has the slightest whiff of True Conservatism really had any power.
From a progressive, not corporate Dem/DINO, POV, what lasting victories have we achieved since the 1970s or so? We have no power except the vote which is limited by gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, ignorance and, by the end of any prim Aries, usually no huge choice.
We deal with facts -- the nation's been turned into a shithole. They deal with their reality-denying fantasies in large part because their decades of successes deny them the opportunity to claim victimhood. (I refer to the part of the GOP base not wealthy enough to benefit economically from GOP policies.) Now that I think of it, the non-10%er part of the GOP base who are actual victims of the victims of the GOP so tough on them.
I don't investigate right-wing kookery the way Roy does, but it's funny that you only see conservatives slagging big cities, particularly ones with Democratic mayors. Cities like Fort Worth never get mentioned. Similarly, you never see them *praise* those big cities that they control---then again, it might not be easy to sing the praises of Jacksonville, FA.
I'm convinced it only has an NFL franchise because the NFL owners wanted to have another Super Bowl site in Florida but did not want to deal with Disneyville AKA Orlando. Of course none of them actually *visited* Jacksonville in the early '90s, or they would have known it was Green Bay but with flying cockroaches.
I dubbed it “Jacksonvile” back in the 70s. I’m still convinced that most of the population is people on their way to the coast who got lost going through town and gave up
Yeah, about those tax breaks: this one has startled even some of my right-wing relatives (old news—the link is from seven years ago—but even so):
“But more and more of those tax dollars aren’t funding services; they aren’t even getting to the state capital. Sixteen states now allow corporations to withhold state income taxes from employees and keep the money as an incentive to locate to or remain in a state. That means that, in effect, employees pay personal income tax to their company rather than their state government”
Out here in my neck of the woods all the talented young people, uh.... move to the cities. The losers and dumb asses hang out and become meth addict Trump supporters with confederate flags (This is Oregon...) on their 15 year old pick up trucks with the big knobby tires and the jack kit. Fucking idiots... I raised three boys, they all moved to the city and are doing quite well thank you.
Hey, don't get me wrong, if you like a little solitude and quiet the country is a great place to live. But it's not a nice place to live because the smartest people live out here. It's the solitude and the quiet right?
since you say it's okay, Roy, I'm sharing this one-- and especially the comments-- with our town (pop. 9,000) planning committee, who constantly hear about the youngsters leaving and the town's "opioid epidemic."
Here is Australia our recently elected conservative government has no shortage of conservative dis/mis informationistas, the current standout being an elected member of Parliament (for SEVEN years), federal politician Bananaby Joyce, who recently issued a statement about climate change by saying "I just don't want the government any more in my life, I'm sick of the government in my life." In the statement he also 'urges Australians to respect God's plan for climate change.'
All this, mind, from a bloke who recently shucked his wife of 24 years AND their four daughters, so as to take replace them with his media advisor and new (pregnant) girlfriend.
When I think of the hicks in his electorate who voted for this clownish poltroon, I despair of the community being able to address garbage collection problems, let alone climate change.
(And Roy, jeez an edit button would be nice for us clumsy forgetful old geezers)
Jazz Shaw looks just like the creepy old white guy that was janitor at my elementary school. You just know "Jazz" is a nickname he gave himself looking in a mirror while trying on a Fedora. From Kmart.
One Quibble* -
"They’d sooner murder a homeless person and bury him out by the rendering plant"
Out here in "The Sticks" everybody knows the dead homeless people go in the rendering plant. That's recycling and it's good for the planet! Oh and If the homeless person is a relation you do have an obligation to bury them.
Thanks for everything Roy - Have a great holiday! Hell, have a Merry Christmas and I mean that in a warm sincere way and not like the Target cashier who juts out their chin and barks it like the rest of us say "Fuck You".
*Quibble is the best word!
Remember the Startrek episode with A.J. Ayer, "The Trouble with Quibbles"?
As someone who lives in The Sticks, I can tell you that rural areas are, these days, far more crime infested than the cities. As profound poverty sets in--especially as Trump and the GOP continue to slash the social safety net--Cletus and his friends are forced to commit property crimes just to survive. Mostly it's break-ins and larceny, but armed robbery and drug-fueled murder are increasing in the countryside. People got no jobs, they got no money, and soon they won't have their welfare or SSI to keep them indoors and fed. But they KNOW that their present low estate is because of the Democrats giving welfare to those other people. Thus, they vote Republican because Republicans promise to take those benefits away.
Merry Christmas/Happy Hannukah/Good Festivus to one and all! May your sleigh bells keep ringing Happy Hannukah to you!
A friend of mine retired and bought 100 acres in south central Ohio, just outside of Chillicothe. He was going to build his dream home/Fortress of Solitude. Chillicothe sits just on the very outside edge of the western Appalachian foothills. A stultifying mix of prairie gothic and mountain degeneracy. Everybody seems a little closely bred is what I'm saying. He had his John Deere tractor stolen 4 times the first year. Twice by the same family.It was never gone very long. They all advertised it for sale on Craigslist which evidently the Sheriff department checks daily.
He lives outside of Asheville. now. Evidently all the locals have been priced out of living there so the place is pretty nice.
More crime is fungible based on demographics. Like, more crime amongst the good people and true Americans of the heartland is a lesser problem than the same amount of crime by the not-white scum of of coastal elite cities. Latter's a big problem while the former doesn't exist except it does. This fluid math is similar to the math used by Crooked Donnie in his tax returns where the worth of property isn't a fixed number but dependent on the question.
A friend works in a suburban company and recently had to go in to Boston for a work meeting. Being an urbanite, she took public transportation rather than drive into downtown (a wise choice). One of her co-workers, a suburbanite, asked her if she had Mace.
You know who rides public transit? People we used to make sit in the back of the bus, that's who! Ooooooh! So scary!
Actually one of the things I love about Seattle is that *everybody* rides the bus.
Just had a coworker turn down a chance to go to a conference in LA because, and I quote, “I don’t speak Spanish.”
Born and raised in New York, I've spent half my life in flyover country and love many things about it. But Jesus on a bed of straw, these yokels and their politicians are suckers for every con man who drops by waving promises in their faces. Case in point, Foxconn. So aptly named, so unlikely to fulfill any of its promises. With that history, no wonder so many vote for Trump.
" But if I ask you if you love me
I hope you li-li-li-lie
Lie to me."
So how come the good people of the heartland are literally killing themselves? Their party of choice has been in control for forty years, so blaming the mostly powerless party is bullshit. So what’s the actual reason? Maybe being reported as some sort of ideal instead as dysfunctional people is part of the problem?
A word of caution: from the our side it's easier to believe that their side has been in control for forty years, to them Clinton and Obama were blood-dripping commissars bent on expropriating the white women when they weren't personally giving every tramp an happy ending.
In fact, from the current Lumpen Right's point-of-view, Bush, Bush, and even Reagan were at best cuckolds who never really gave the Dumbocrats what was coming them, 'compromised on everything', and only now has the slightest whiff of True Conservatism really had any power.
From a progressive, not corporate Dem/DINO, POV, what lasting victories have we achieved since the 1970s or so? We have no power except the vote which is limited by gerrymandering, disenfranchisement, ignorance and, by the end of any prim Aries, usually no huge choice.
We deal with facts -- the nation's been turned into a shithole. They deal with their reality-denying fantasies in large part because their decades of successes deny them the opportunity to claim victimhood. (I refer to the part of the GOP base not wealthy enough to benefit economically from GOP policies.) Now that I think of it, the non-10%er part of the GOP base who are actual victims of the victims of the GOP so tough on them.
I don't investigate right-wing kookery the way Roy does, but it's funny that you only see conservatives slagging big cities, particularly ones with Democratic mayors. Cities like Fort Worth never get mentioned. Similarly, you never see them *praise* those big cities that they control---then again, it might not be easy to sing the praises of Jacksonville, FA.
Jacksonville often bills itself as "the largest city by area in America" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacksonville,_Florida) but a lot of it is scrub pine and salt marsh.
I'm convinced it only has an NFL franchise because the NFL owners wanted to have another Super Bowl site in Florida but did not want to deal with Disneyville AKA Orlando. Of course none of them actually *visited* Jacksonville in the early '90s, or they would have known it was Green Bay but with flying cockroaches.
I dubbed it “Jacksonvile” back in the 70s. I’m still convinced that most of the population is people on their way to the coast who got lost going through town and gave up
Yeah, about those tax breaks: this one has startled even some of my right-wing relatives (old news—the link is from seven years ago—but even so):
“But more and more of those tax dollars aren’t funding services; they aren’t even getting to the state capital. Sixteen states now allow corporations to withhold state income taxes from employees and keep the money as an incentive to locate to or remain in a state. That means that, in effect, employees pay personal income tax to their company rather than their state government”
https://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/0517/Your-employer-may-be-pocketing-your-state-income-tax
Remember: It's us socialists who do not believe in the Magic of the Free Market.
Add that to the “health tax.” (Here in CO it’s 6% for me, about the same as SS.)
My personal phrase has always been " they'd rather pour raspberry vinagrette on that money and eat it rather than spend it on the poor".
Out here in my neck of the woods all the talented young people, uh.... move to the cities. The losers and dumb asses hang out and become meth addict Trump supporters with confederate flags (This is Oregon...) on their 15 year old pick up trucks with the big knobby tires and the jack kit. Fucking idiots... I raised three boys, they all moved to the city and are doing quite well thank you.
Hey, don't get me wrong, if you like a little solitude and quiet the country is a great place to live. But it's not a nice place to live because the smartest people live out here. It's the solitude and the quiet right?
It's a great place to live if you don't have to depend on the local economy for employment.
THIS. Seven years in Roanoke, VA. A woman in her 50s can’t get a job at the fcking WalMart
since you say it's okay, Roy, I'm sharing this one-- and especially the comments-- with our town (pop. 9,000) planning committee, who constantly hear about the youngsters leaving and the town's "opioid epidemic."
Here is Australia our recently elected conservative government has no shortage of conservative dis/mis informationistas, the current standout being an elected member of Parliament (for SEVEN years), federal politician Bananaby Joyce, who recently issued a statement about climate change by saying "I just don't want the government any more in my life, I'm sick of the government in my life." In the statement he also 'urges Australians to respect God's plan for climate change.'
All this, mind, from a bloke who recently shucked his wife of 24 years AND their four daughters, so as to take replace them with his media advisor and new (pregnant) girlfriend.
When I think of the hicks in his electorate who voted for this clownish poltroon, I despair of the community being able to address garbage collection problems, let alone climate change.
(And Roy, jeez an edit button would be nice for us clumsy forgetful old geezers)