Republican State Legislatures Assume Leadership of Insurrection.

[leaningright]

Independence Day. One of my favorite holidays. When I was in the 3rd grade my dad would let me spend $5 on fireworks. That continued until I was in the 6th grade and started mowing lawns for people … then I spent more. Then when I started hauling hay by my 8th grade year I spent more. It makes sense … when a person makes more he spends more on the things he likes. I still like fireworks and I buy them every year. My boy torches them off now but I still love the display.

The Fourth of July has meant fishing to me for years. A good friend and I had a tradition of riding the creek on our ATVs and cooking a shore lunch with our catch. We did that for a few years and as his siblings found out about it the came along until we had a group of 15 or more. We did away with the shore lunch and just met at someone’s house for a fish fry for the evening meal. We got older, kids came along and that tradition finally died out.

We’ll have a gathering tonight with and family and friends from church … fish will be on the menu but that won’t be all. Several families will supply the fireworks. It will be hot but I’m looking forward to another good Independence Day celebration. I love this country…even with my Native American blood.

 

[Into the Night]

The current SCOTUS is going to guarantee that all intelligent and moral people in America are going to HATE Christians.
The only doubt is whether America has enough intelligent and moral people. It doesn't seem so, the way things are going.
I wish that I had the youth, means, and access to expatriate.

Our Christian Taliban is essentially no better than the Islamist one in Afghanistan.
As they acquire the power, they'll move right up to the latter's atrocity levels. That's because their morality level is the same.

We all remember the Spanish Inquisition and then the Salem witch trials right here in America. In my home state, in fact.
They've started to come back already, thanks to the despicable SCOTUS.

I have excluded practicing Christians from my personal life due to their moral deficiencies.
Other intelligent and moral people will follow suit, but America has no shortage of troglodytes.

It isn't intelligent or moral to hate Christians.

 

[Into the Night]

Now that virtually all the Republican controlled state legislatures, with the complete blessing of our pig shit constitution,

I already know you support The Oligarchy and discard the Constitution of the United States and all State constitutions.

are dismantling the democratic republic

No such thing.

of the United States of America

No such thing. Not since the coup by DEMOCRATS.

by taking over complete control of who votes
and whose ballots get counted,

DEMOCRATS (at least they tried!).

storming the capitol should no longer be necessary.

Yet you still do it.

They have discovered how unnecessary it was to start the previous civil war by firing on Fort Sumter.

DEMOCRATS fired on Fort Sumter.

They could have just stayed home and done it in a perfectly constitutionally compliant way.

Why? The Union invaded a foreign nation.

Rural Christian conservatives are able to destroy the republic as a minority

No. DEMOCRATS conducted the coup.

because the genius founders provided them the right to do it.

No rights come from dead people.

What's worse, the confederates are not merely seeking separation anymore.
Now, they want to take over the whole thing.

What confederates????????!?

That, however, they can only do with our help.
Blue States have legislatures as well. Also, a fuck of a lot more money.

Is that why the SDTC is broke? Unable to produce sufficient electricity, unable to obtain enough water, and unable to maintain their roads?

Civilized progressive liberals have got to wake up.
We no longer have the luxury of believing in the idyllic America that we were told about by clueless grade school teachers.
It was a nice thought, but it was total bullshit. We should be easily able to see that now.

There are people in the middle of this country who hate us,
who hate our modern and humane ideas,
who worship a magic man in the sky,
and who believe that the magic man wants them in charge.
They have lots of guns.
They have no brains whatsoever.

The centrists and fence-sitters among us are not neutral;
they're clearly on the side of the shitkicker crackers.
They're all Joe Manchin without the expensive haircuts that they wouldn't be able to get back in their home states such as West Virginia.

So now, non-devolved, still with functioning brains humans, what do you plan to do about it?
You're not all pushing seventy-five.
Most of you will have to be here for a long, long time.
Do you wish to live like a human being,
or like a devolved mutant trumpanzee?

I have been the only contributor on this forum to remind you of what should have been obvious.

We have radical problems,
and there are NO moderate solutions to radical problems.

You can continue to be panty-waists fellating your precious constitution,
or you can decide that you'll do WHATEVER IT TAKES
to not live like some drooling cracker like the ones you've met here at JPP.

You want to start a fucking civil war. I already knew that. Be careful what you wish for. You just might get it.

 

[Into the Night]

You haven't missed anything but the usual impotent saber rattling from the wannabe Rambo psychos.

We're down in "civilization" visiting my youngest. We were talking about this last night, the attempted fascist takeover by the red states. She said we shouldn't despair. Her generation and the one after (which would be my older g-kids') are progressive, welcoming of diversity, politically informed AND active, and interested in moving the country forward. Issues dear to them are the economy, the environment including climate change, human rights, peace, universal health care. My oldest g-kids are 23, 21, and 20 and they echo this.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Nifty is the Rambo psycho. Nifty is the one calling for war!

 

[NiftyNiblick]

Independence Day. One of my favorite holidays. When I was in the 3rd grade my dad would let me spend $5 on fireworks. That continued until I was in the 6th grade and started mowing lawns for people … then I spent more. Then when I started hauling hay by my 8th grade year I spent more. It makes sense … when a person makes more he spends more on the things he likes. I still like fireworks and I buy them every year. My boy torches them off now but I still love the display.

The Fourth of July has meant fishing to me for years. A good friend and I had a tradition of riding the creek on our ATVs and cooking a shore lunch with our catch. We did that for a few years and as his siblings found out about it the came along until we had a group of 15 or more. We did away with the shore lunch and just met at someone’s house for a fish fry for the evening meal. We got older, kids came along and that tradition finally died out.

We’ll have a gathering tonight with and family and friends from church … fish will be on the menu but that won’t be all. Several families will supply the fireworks. It will be hot but I’m looking forward to another good Independence Day celebration. I love this country…even with my Native American blood.

It's nice to see the "true believers" happy, even if it's a sign of advanced psychosis.
Sane people can see that we're a fucking dumpster fire, unfortunately.

Although "born agains" treat cattle better than they treat women, so recent developments must really make them happy.

 

[leaningright]

Been a good week. Plenty of fireworks for the Fourth. It’s dry here but we weren’t under a burn or fireworks ban so I was pleased to not get any fire calls during the Fourth festivities. Last year a family put their fireworks into he bed of their Dodge truck and a stray rocket set things off. I had to stop helping set off our fireworks, get the fire truck and go out out that family’s Dodge. There was significant damage to the truck but it’s all fixed up and they’re still driving it. I remember a time when the truck would hav just burned up. There was no volunteer fire department here in the early 70’s. I’ve been volunteering since 1982 when I turned 16.

The son and I have been golfing on Tuesdays and Thursdays the past two weeks. My game is improving but I need to figure out how to chip things closer when I’m wishing 10-20 yards. My putting has been fantastic. I went three rounds with only two 3-putts.

My niece came to visit from Texas this week. She is a math teacher there and her husband is a preacher. They adopted three boys who are siblings a few years ago. The youngest is blind and requires a lot of special help. The older two have developmental problems of their own. Drugs. I am always amazed at the progress of these boys when they come to visit.

We’ll have to modify our golfing plans next week as we will be heading to St. Louis to watch the Cards and Dodgers on Thursday. Looking forward to getting to see the game in person. We’ve actually got pretty good seats neat the first bast dugout. Dread fighting the city traffic and crowds though.

 

[leaningright]

Golfed Monday and Tuesday with the son. Played well Monday … not so well Tuesday.

Headed to St. Louis right now. What I’d give for a decent bullpen right now. Last night was sickening.

 

[leaningright]

Saint Louis was great. My Cards got beat but I got to see some players that I really like… Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, Cody Bellinger, Justin Turner, … I even like Kimbrell and got to see him come in for the save.

Been golfing much better this summer. My score has gone down steadily.

Bought a boat motor for my scamp and small, aluminum boat yesterday. Thinking of making my aluminum boat into a hunting boat. It will open up access to several places where I can hunt on the WMA.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

"Bowling" is a word.
"Fishing" is a word.
"Tennising" isn't a word, and to more serious players, neither is "golfing,"

We don't golf. It's not a real verb. We play golf.

Try to be less of a regular guy, Rev. You're a TEACHER!

 

[leaningright]

Yea, but I’m just a Math teacher. I’ve always been told I was like a “regular guy” at a lot of my parent/teacher conferences.

I’ll try to do better when discussing playing golf. My game has improved this summer. Got to 108° here today. Was only 98° when we got off of the course. Planning to go again Thursday. Not supposed to be as hot.

 

[leaningright]

Temps weren’t as high yesterday but humidity made up for it. The golf game suffered from extra sweat. At least that’s what I’m blaming it on as I was up two strokes from Tuesday. Walking for the first nine then riding for the back nine has been a pretty good combination this summer … I’m down 15 lbs.

I got through my 12 hours of Professional Development yesterday afternoon and evening. Glad they do online stuff nowadays. Sitting through 12 hours of in person training over two days is painful. At least now I can leave the videos running and walk away. I took all the tests and passed them but had to run the videos to get credit. They could play, muted, while I listened to the Yankees lose two to the Astros.

Had to retrieve the Yukon yesterday morning. The wife drove it to meet up with her walking buddies and when they got back it wouldn’t start. The item at the link is a life saver…

https://martgentle.com/product/noco...tm_source=google&utm_campaign=Google Shopping

Drove the Yukon in to town and got the battery exchanged this morning. I had just bought it back in June of ‘21 so it was a simple exchange. Man they’re making things more difficult. I used to could have a battery changed out in 10 minutes. Took 30 - 40 today. Had to remove two braces and then you can finally get to the lock down bracket. I swear they’re trying to discourage do it yourself-ers.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

I swear they’re trying to discourage do it yourself-ers.

I was never one of those, Rev. When I cook my own meals, I feel as though I'm scabbing on the professional cooks and wait staff people.
But at least I still do it when I can't get out of it.

The Gestapo (my wife) is down to just doing laundry, now. She has a cleaning crew come in for housework.
And even there, she sends my dress shirts out. But I don't wear them as often anymore.

The same folks who plow our snow cut our grass, so we don't have to do that. We're both 75, after all.

But I've come to hate cooking. Today is Sunday, so I'll gut it out and throw some meat on the grill.
Tomorrow, however, is looking more and more like takeout Chinese.

As for DIY, though, I'm a retired accountant and don't have the patience to prepare my own taxes anymore.
I should get all required points for walking the avatar.

And seriously deteriorated skills of late have cooled down my golf enthusiasm.

Maybe I should call Liz Warren and ask her where she gets her energy. She's not much younger than I.
Or I could just walk over to her office when she's in town.
There's a hard left liberal from Oklahoma, Rev, but she escaped and found refuge here, I guess. Probably saved her from turning into Tom Coburn <shudder>.
But she can probably change a car battery which puts her past most Boston broads. God forbid that they chipped their nails!

 

[leaningright]

I was never one of those, Rev. …

I have been all my life. It started from not having the money to pay someone to do stuff like repack my wheel bearings, change out the starter on my vehicle or whatever came up. Now it is more from living where I live. There are no plumbers or mechanics to call who don’t have to drive at least 30 miles to get to us. Several aren’t willing or if they are they put you at the bottom of the list…to be bumped further down if someone closer calls before they get to you.

I have been on a remodelers list (wanting to remodel our guest bathroom to make it more “old person” friendly) for 8 months now. Haven’t even had anyone out to see what we want done to give an estimate.

I used to do this stuff myself out of necessity. Seventeen years ago I added on two bedrooms and a bathroom. I hired a crew (and I also helped them) to dry it in but I did all of the plumbing, electrical and finishing work myself. Then I remodeled the guest bathroom to suit my then 2 year old son.

Now my guests are my in-laws (who are late-seventyish) most of the time so I’d like to have a walk in shower with seats instead of a tub and I’d like to have a higher toilet with new floor covering installed. I could do this myself but I can also now comfortably afford to pay someone to do it so that’s the route I’d like to take. I’m getting lazy the older I get.

Today I’m making pastrami out of a calf from the pasture. Guess that’s a form of Do-it yourselfing also. We did take the calf to the processors so not all middle men were bypassed. Might as well smoke it off today though. It’s Monday and the golf course is closed. Going to be over 100° again so not really wanting to get outside and do anything. Watching TV and checking the smoker ever so often for 8 hours seems like a way to spend the day.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

I have been all my life. It started from not having the money to pay someone to do stuff like repack my wheel bearings, change out the starter on my vehicle or whatever came up. Now it is more from living where I live. There are no plumbers or mechanics to call who don’t have to drive at least 30 miles to get to us. Several aren’t willing or if they are they put you at the bottom of the list…to be bumped further down if someone closer calls before they get to you.

I have been on a remodelers list (wanting to remodel our guest bathroom to make it more “old person” friendly) for 8 months now. Haven’t even had anyone out to see what we want done to give an estimate.

I used to do this stuff myself out of necessity. Seventeen years ago I added on two bedrooms and a bathroom. I hired a crew (and I also helped them) to dry it in but I did all of the plumbing, electrical and finishing work myself. Then I remodeled the guest bathroom to suit my then 2 year old son.

Now my guests are my in-laws (who are late-seventyish) most of the time so I’d like to have a walk in shower with seats instead of a tub and I’d like to have a higher toilet with new floor covering installed. I could do this myself but I can also now comfortably afford to pay someone to do it so that’s the route I’d like to take. I’m getting lazy the older I get.

Today I’m making pastrami out of a calf from the pasture. Guess that’s a form of Do-it yourselfing also. We did take the calf to the processors so not all middle men were bypassed. Might as well smoke it off today though. It’s Monday and the golf course is closed. Going to be over 100° again so not really wanting to get outside and do anything. Watching TV and checking the smoker ever so often for 8 hours seems like a way to spend the day.

I'm willing to bet, Rev, that no official local inspector signed off on your carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work, right?

That wouldn't fly in Boston. Just another example of our both being in the right place for ourselves and the way we think.

 

[TOP]

"Bowling" is a word.
"Fishing" is a word.
"Tennising" isn't a word, and to more serious players, neither is "golfing,"

We don't golf. It's not a real verb. We play golf.

Try to be less of a regular guy, Rev. You're a TEACHER!

What's an unreal verb? "Our language has been subject to this cruel turning of words for some time. For instance, as Peter Davies reported in his 1992 Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms , at least as far back as Nov. 29, 1769, the Town Council of St. Andrews, Scotland, agreed “that the part of the Links as presently golfed upon shall be kept entire, and not ploughed up nor enclosed by the Town of St. Andrews or their tenants."
The Historical Dictionary of Golfing Terms: From 1500 to the Present Paperback – October 1, 1992
by Peter Davies (Author), Fran Carson (Illustrator)

 

[leaningright]

I'm willing to bet, Rev, that no official local inspector signed off on your carpentry, plumbing, and electrical work, right?

That wouldn't fly in Boston. Just another example of our both being in the right place for ourselves and the way we think.

I agree with you about us being in “the right place” for us.

I didn’t have to get a local inspector to sign off on the work but for insurance purposes our insurance agent sent someone out to inspect the wiring and plumbing before I covered up the walls.

 

[Flash]

The lukewarm liberals don't seem to like this thread.

Talk is cheap but balls are rare, it seems.

It doesn't take balls to write on message boards. Nor does it win the fight against the Windmills.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

I agree with you about us being in “the right place” for us.

I didn’t have to get a local inspector to sign off on the work but for insurance purposes our insurance agent sent someone out to inspect the wiring and plumbing before I covered up the walls.

Well, that's good. I'm sure that your work is first rate, but a second pair of eyes is usually a good thing from a safety perspective.
Boston red tape would drive you crazy, but to me, it's just a way of life. It's what you pay to have a paved sidewalk in front of your house.

 

[leaningright]

We played golf at a more ritzy course this morning. The friend who I golf with has medical treatments every other Tuesday so we’ve been meeting at a course about 35 miles away which is between where he lives and I live. My son has been going with us but since my friend had his infusion today my boy and I decided to go to a course about 20 miles in the other direction. It’s a bit higher priced but is PGA quality. Longer course, much, much faster greens, and usually more clearly defined fairways and rough. It’s been dry but they still weren’t bad today. Plenty of hazards and decently long. Here is a picture of hole #7, one of my favorites. It’s a 170 yard par three. One of the few times I hit a 7 iron. I scored par on that hole today which isn’t bad for a hacker.



Summer break is down to the short hairs now. I start work on Thursday and we move our son back to Norman on the 12th. Not looking forward to it but glad he’s getting to go. He’ll be the second generation of the family to earn a degree if he stays with it … and I think he will. He likes it much better than I did.

We have to provide a pot luck meal for our first few days. I’m creating a taco bar. I think it will be a hit with the returning teachers. I do look forward to seeing the kids again. And the cooler weather that comes with it. I resigned as assistant coach so I will,have more free time in the evenings as well. This will be year #35 … or is it 36? I’m going with 35.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

In my day, public school didn't restart until the Wednesday after Labor Day.
College started later than that.
Now many schools start up with a full month of summer left.
I would have hated that.

Spring in New England is a rainy mess. Going to school late into it was no problem.

Starting early would have been miserable for me. I love the waning days of summer...always have.
I have some awesome memories of late summer, getting ready to leave the beach and go back to the city,
knowing I would never again see people to whom I'd grown close.

It was often bittersweet, but in memory, it's just sweet. I would have missed a lot of that.

I also would have missed the Labor Day Eve riot at Hampton Beach in 1964. (It's probably on Google-I haven't checked.)
That was like basic training for college. I'll never forget it.

I learned about teargas, firehoses, shotguns firing rock salt, police batons, angry dogs (and you know how I love dogs), and all the other things I needed
to know to attend college in Boston in the mid-to-late 1960s. And all the while, in college, not at the beach, I was a 20-cent subway token from my mother's cooking if I wanted to go home.

In fact, I trained at a gym that was a very short walk from home--and still not very far from campus.
What became of that perfect world?

Kids today will never know what it was like. Their loss, I suppose, but they won't have to go through it disappearing, either.
Who could ever miss what exists now?
Maybe every generation goes through that.
It makes the impending end much easier to bear, I guess.