Category Archives: Politics

School Vouchers Were Supposed to Save Taxpayer Money. Instead They Blew a Massive Hole in Arizona’s Budget.

I mean, I am not an education specialist or a journalist, but this headline – and assumption – are just ridiculous.

Pro-tip for modern American journalism. If a Republican says something is about saving money or freedom? It is about NEITHER.

At least for you. Vouchers are for sending public money to private institutions that can’t make it on their own. It is about tax breaks for folks who don’t need them. It is about denying children a proper education on the public end, and to shield children from properly learning about the real world on the private end.

It is about taking from the poor and kicking them while they are down some more for cheap jollies. That’s it.

If I were an employer, I’d hesitate to hire someone who hid from the world in homeschooling, or private/parochial schools without at least asking why it was done. You are getting an incomplete person, even with the finest instructors. Public schools *should* be better, I agree, but life lessons are learned from being challenged, not running away and saying, “screw you and your’s, I’ve got mine (on your dime)”.

She could become the first Native American woman governor if Tim Walz steps down. Meet Peggy Flanagan

We could be in for a seismic demographic representational change in this state.

Flanagan seems good people. My only rip on her is that her husband, Tom Weber, was a great up-and-coming journalist for MPR before she became the lieutenant governor. He stepped down because of the perceived conflict of interest.

Frankly, given the conservative voice MPR has had since it changed owners, they’d have run him off anyway, but it was definitely a loss at the time.

The next generation of firefighters learned how to fight fires while in prison

NPR covers the changing face of wildfire fires out in the West. It involves folks who were in the California penal system who volunteered (for the low, low price at $5 a day when not in the field)

Smithsonian covered the program a bit ago.

Transitioning from useful inmate to professional firefighter isn’t easy though. A former inmate is trying to make that easier.

Why Republicans Are Patching Their Ears 

Collage of attendees with bandaged ears at the Republican National Convention.

They really *are* this fucking stupid.

And no, I snuck into a Klan rally when I was 14. I have no need to watch the RNC. Been there, done that, saw the cross burning.

Twenty years ago the same filth – or their parents at least – all sported fake Purple Heart band-aids to mock John Kerry during the lying Swift Boat idjuts era. Because Republicans have been absolute shits for far longer than most of us want to think about our friends, family, and neighbors. I mean, there are other examples but this one seems about the same level of performative bullshit.

Stonekettle is keeping score:

Nevada Firebrand Michele Fiore Indicted On Wire Fraud Charges

Human waste Michele Fiore, who I remember from her shenanigans as a gun-toting loon way back when we lived in Vegas, is being charged with stealing $70,000 from a fallen officer’s charity.

First, she’s been bad news for a LONG time. Second, she’s a judge. You know, from that stench-ridden pile of candidates Trump gets his federal judges from.

So, yeah, this *might* be a comeuppance, but probably not. She’ll likely end up on the Supreme Court given how high the shit floats these days.

And stealing from dead cops? Yeah, the insurrectionists will easily forgive her. I mean, they’ve been supporting a child rapist for years. This is so small potatoes.