I want to talk about that bullshit "Bob and Sally" cartoon because I also have thoughts about staying friends with people while disagreeing with them politically.
I have MANY friends with whom I disagree about one or more of the following:
* municipal trash pickup
* parking minimums
* appropriate housing density
* snow plowing schedules
* school funding models
* speed limits
* bike lane design
* funding for public art
* park priorities
There are A LOT of questions in politics where reasonable people can disagree:
* How do we balance all the competing needs for money, from inspections to permits to filling potholes?
* In what ratio should we tax income, property, purchases? When do we raise $ with fees?
But if you can't look at the Republican party and recognize that they're not answering questions about taxation differently, they're trying to spread a plague and destroy democracy, there's something wrong with you.
"Do the lives of Black people matter?" is not a question we can agree to disagree about.
"Should we count all votes cast?" is not a question we can agree to disagree about.
"Is COVID real, and a problem?" is not a question we can agree to disagree about.
"Fascism: good or bad?" IS NOT A QUESTION WE CAN AGREE TO DISAGREE ABOUT.
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I forgot to add a description to the gif. It's a guy skateboarding up to a barrier, trying to jump over it to land on the skateboard again, and fucking it up.
Oh man I really should have searched for "Wile E Coyote" when I was trying to find an appropriate gif.
I am literally begging everyone in Minnesota to flip their ballot over and vote for Paul Thissen. Michelle MacDonald is a far-right Bible-prop-using drunk-driving frivolous-lawsuit-filing disaster of a candidate.
Her past shenanigans involve a non-profit that spent years mostly appearing to exist as a PR wing for a woman who kidnapped and hid her children as part of a child custody dispute while pretending they were missing.
Here's what I wrote about her in 2014, when she got banned from the Republican Booth at the State Fair:
The thing about steroids is that they do multiple things at once. This is true for most drugs, but it really does seem to be ESPECIALLY true of steroids.
1. They reduce inflammation. 2. They suppress your immune system.
They're really good at both of these things and are in fact used for both of these clinically. Occasionally you want to do both at once!
However, if someone is sick with a virus, the "suppress the immune system" response is more likely to be a bug than a feature. (Not always, but a lot of the time.)
One of his events on Wednesday was a small, intimate house party that people paid $200,000/head to attend, and I know I keep hammering on this, but. This was the VERY DEFINITION of a high-risk event even if know one there knew they were sick.
Do I care about the well-being of a bunch of Trump supporters who are so loaded they dropped $200K to spend an hour palling around with the guy? Not really. I care about their housekeepers and nannies and gardeners. I care about their kids and the people teaching their kids.
I heard a news story on NPR this afternoon about a coal mine owner who has spent years lobbying against restrictions on how much dust miners can inhale who has now developed black lung disease.
There are people who make bad decisions for themselves and pay the price. And it sucks and if it's someone I know and like, I'll be very sad.
But there are also people who make bad decisions for everyone around them. Who make it clear they don't give a flying fuck what happens to the people around them. And yes: we all have a different response to THOSE chickens coming home to roost.