It gets worse
I normally shop at Cub but a client gave me a Roundy’s gift card. A world of difference. I’ve never had other customers crowd all around me while I was in line at Cub. Not to intimidate me, but to hit on the guy ahead of me in line who was being checked out. A man and a woman both kept asking this guy they knew if he’d buy their groceries for them. The victim kept shaking his head no, but the panhandling didn’t stop until he was out of the store.
When the fuck did we become such a nation of broke-ass bottom feeders? Double dip recession? I’m sure they’ve got numbers to prove there was a recovery in there somewhere, but I sure didn’t see it and I know these people didn’t. More and more work is online where they’ve never heard of minimum wage, and even minimum wage workers aren’t safe from predatory state agencies charged with making you pay for that kid you had in high school because the new black is making you pay it back. The moms are still stuck with the kids and not getting a dime more in benefits (less, most likely), but yeah, no matter how broke dad is, make him fucking pay. And pay, And fucking pay. And if he does something stupid to try to fix things all at once, put him away where he can work for less than a dollar an hour, most of which will go to pay for that kid.
There’s a consistency there, but it’s not applied elsewhere. No links, you know what I’m talking about. Some folks are better than the rest of us, and get to play by different rules and when they fuck up, Congress gives them billions to ease their pain.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9 is when folks in Wisconsin get to pay back the pay back crowd in kind. If you’re a cheesehead, vote. Then grab your neighbors and make them vote. Pay them back in kind. Pay them back in fucking kind.
Has Darling blown a sure thing?
Remember: Darling lies
Walker backs down and decides not to close DMV offices in Democratic districts
And congratulations to Gov. Walker: when’s the last time Wisconsin had a race riot? (and how long until the next one? and the next one? and the next one?) (and yes, I’m wondering if Walker paid some gangbangers to fuck with the zeitgeist just before the recall elections).
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News:
FAA reopened but that’s still 74,000 employees jerked around at the insistence of their Teabagging majesties
ALEC meeting’s sponsors exposed (what a coincidence! it’s all the corporations you already hate!)
Years and countless lives later, Pentagon gets around to noticing that their preferred vendors made some pretty shitty body armor (I know I had links to this back in the day because this was only kept secret from taxpayers) [more]
Thailand gets their first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra?
Explain to me again how the jobless numbers can improve even as fewer people are in the work force?
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Politics:
Pam “genocidal” Geller on Chris Christie: “[he] has shown himself to be a dangerous blustering bloviator, a good little dhimmi”
The gloves are off, Rush is in full dudgeon and the white supremacists are crawling out from under their rocks
Who’s an anti-semite this week?
When Ted Kennedy did this, the right and left beat him up until he backed off
Eric Cantor: professional hard on (he’s also a dead ringer for the assassin in Captain America)
Sean Hannity: professional Viagra addict
Fuck Obama: they never budge an inch, he never fails to extend them every courtesy (it’s like Jimmy fucking Carter all over again, and no, I really don’t give a rat’s ass that Obama will probably go down in history as the super-coolest EX-president ever)
The incredible shrinking Tea party [more]
Arne Carlson explains how the Ames Straw Poll hustle works (the winner is literally the person who spends the most)
Pawlenty caves and signs the NOM anti-gay marriage pledge, promising to be mean to gays and lesbians from now on
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Deeper thoughts:
Chomsky on America in Decline (it’s notoriously hard to bounce back after you’ve been thoroughly looted)
Houston’s water system is half a foot away from shutting down
Poor people today have way more megabytes than kings and queens used to have
If you didn’t watch that long Al Jazeera video this morning, here’s a second chance
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Etc.:
Wolcott pulls into a rest stop and then writes about Jerry Lewis
Mick Jagger sighting [video]
No way is Anne Hathaway right to play Catwoman
Got Firefox? Get this extension
If you’re not planning to watch or read Game of Thrones, here’s a quick explanation of why it’s the best book I’ve read this year
Did I mention the Lynx have won eight games in a row?
I like things that look like other things (maybe not so much with the branding)
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And a quick aside to my younger readers. Older folks don’t like to talk about it, but the truth is that older you get, the worse it gets. It makes no difference if you’re gay or straight, male or female. short or tall. Unless you’re a rich piece of shit, your life has already started to go downhill. Life gets worse and then it usually gets worser.
And yes, you have my permission to make a YouTube of this if you’re so inclined.
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I consider Milwaukee to be my hometown. While it is a very racially segregated and divided city, I’d be reluctant to call this mob “wilding” behavior racially motivated or reflective of the African American Community there. As appalling as I find Scott Walker to be, I don’t think it;s right or fair to assign blame to him or any politician for the criminal conduct of a youth gang. My brother who used to live in one of the more racially blended areas of Milwaukee predicted race riots under Bush. He made a good case but it didn’t happen. It is not helpful to describe events like these as racially motivated without a lot more evidence. White racists don’t need additional excuses to blame crime on the color of people’s skin.