Postcards from the class & culture wars (4.1.19)

April 1, 2019 By Fred Clark

“It’s the most metal thing I’ve ever done.”

“If the people are too proud to regard us as equals, then I am too proud to claim that equality by taking the Supper with them.”

“It was one of history’s greatest heists.”

“An official with the National Rifle Association corresponded with a prominent Sandy Hook conspiracy theorist to call into question the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.”

“Mo Brooks didn’t compare the Dems and the media today to Hitler. … He is taking Hitler’s POV and compared them to the Jews.”

“Police are investigating after the Oklahoma Democratic Party’s headquarters was vandalized with racist graffiti.”

“The president is not a white supremacist. I’m not sure how many times we have to say that.”

“Cardinal George Pell must serve a minimum of three years and eight months before he is eligible for parole, according to the judge’s order.”

“Damian said he had to carry wood for not knowing 13 Bible verses to Timothy’s satisfaction.”

“Anoint me with oil, just like Mary Magdalene anointed Jesus with her alabaster jar.”

“If my sexual orientation was to have sex with all of the men in there and I had sex with all of the women in there and then they brought their children and I had sex with all of them and then brought their dogs in and I had sex with them, should I be protected for my sexual orientation?”

“The wacko pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory has some friends in high places in South Carolina, where State Rep. Lin Bennett (R) has been posting on Facebook about her belief in QAnon.”

“The demon was a little under three feet tall with grayish skin and a potbelly.”

“Well, that’s just basic science right there.”

“Rational explanations don’t mean much to these guys.”

“Silicon Valley, and specifically the venture capital firms of Silicon Valley, are mostly run by old white men who read Ayn Rand in high school, thought it was great, and never changed their minds.”

“We are in the midst of a capital tantrum, in which people and corporations come completely unhinged at even the mildest suggestion that they should slow down their unchecked looting of the economy.”

“The business plan of BUYBAX is elegantly simple: WE WILL ISSUE STOCK — AND BUY IT BACK. THAT’S IT. THAT’S ALL. SHARES OUT, SHARES IN, SHARES UP.”

“A lot of us can’t afford to go to the doctor, so we have to live with this.”

“So it’s really a new world for us and very, very helpful.”

“While seeing elephants, we will finally hear about the elephant in the room.”

“If all the people who texted me would’ve shown that support publicly, it would’ve forced the whole industry to change.”

“It’s just that I have my suspicions.”

“Complete and total exoneration for Roxie and Velma.”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (3.27.19)

March 27, 2019 By Fred Clark

“As a nation, we’re wearing our underwear on our head and going to church.”

“Donald Trump has warned his political opponents of the possibility that they could eventually be confronted by armed Trump supporters in and out of uniform, telling a right-wing website on Monday that ‘it would be very bad, very bad’ if his backers in the military, police and a motorcycle group were provoked into getting ‘tough.'”

“Colleges are increasingly seen for what they are: another system that the wealthy can game.”

“This works out on average to one sexual assault by HHS staff on [an] unaccompanied minor per week.”

“The fact that a garbage legal argument was rejected by the federal courts today does not mean that it will be rejected tomorrow, so long as powerful groups like the Federalist Society are pushing judges who may embrace that ridiculous argument.”

“Good reporting, kiddo. But Rupert wants Donald Trump to win. So just let it go.”

“Bressman also happens to have served as statewide field director for Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts’ successful 2018 reelection campaign.”

“How was it possible that I was the victim and I was the prisoner?”

“Ten children, part of the same extended family, were killed by a U.S. air strike in Afghanistan, along with three adult civilians, the United Nations said on Monday [March 25, 2019, the 6,385th day of the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan].

“So the public is acting as an early investor, putting tons of money in the development of drugs that then become privatized, and then they receive no return on the investment that they have made.”

“Although Malek lived a long life active in Republican politics, he will always be remembered as the man who counted Jews in the government for Richard Nixon.”

“My name is Germán Dam, I am one of the journalists who published the information.”

“The Trump administration has demonstrated a clear pattern, through statements and policies, that it disfavors immigrants of color and black and African immigrants in particular.”

“I have been on the receiving end of DOJ’s efforts to spread religious liberty.”

“Lefemine had passed out packets of anti-feminist literature, expressed his view that the Bible says women are not fit for public office, and read aloud from an article titled, ‘The Feminism of the Mothers is the Destruction of the Daughters.'”

“The jail system and the correctional system was never meant to be a country club.”

“Like nearly all supply-siders, he has clung to this dogma in the face of repeated, spectacular failures.”

“The Trump administration, particularly when it comes to foreign policy under the deeply religious supervision of Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, continually pitches itself to the Christian Right.”

“But it wasn’t just cruel, it was also illegal.”

“From a legal standpoint, the argument ‘and I would have gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for you meddling special counsels‘ isn’t especially strong.”

“A 9-year-old United States citizen was detained by Customs and Border Patrol officials for more than 30 hours this week.”

“It is patently unfair for someone to be detained for six weeks over something that is nothing more than an administrative error and a misunderstanding.”

“We have detected that the barbed wire that was installed in the border area is no longer there.”

“Fight for your lives before it’s someone else’s job.”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (2.20.19)

February 20, 2019 By Fred Clark

“I think it is still going on because something does not stop just because you have become aware of it.”

“When leaders demand unquestioning obedience from women and girls, it sets up the perfect environment for predation to occur.”

“There is, in short, no good way to tell this story.”

“Never gratuitously annoy the person who is deciding how long you’ll spend in federal prison. I shouldn’t have to tell people these things, but here we are.”

“Bring back our childhood diseases, they keep you healthy and fight cancer.”

“That doesn’t make him a centrist. It makes him a rich Democrat who opposes his fellow Democrats taking a bigger chunk of his income or wealth.”

“The LGBTQ is a modern day version of the Ku Klux Klan.”

“But in my opinion, they’re trying to force their beliefs on society.”

“When asked if he felt it was appropriate for the publisher of a newspaper to call for the lynching of Americans, Sutton doubled down on his position.”

“As the IRS has dwindled in size and capability, audits of the poor have accounted for more of what it does.”

“The idea that anything good must be made just a little bit miserable for normal people is pervasive.”

“One thing that Janus v. AFSCME made clear is that the Court is more than happy to create different speech categories for unions and corporations, restricting the former and opening up the latter.”

“Ken Paxton, a statewide official accused of violating state securities law, would be empowered to decide who can skirt state securities law. And he’d get that power from a bill authored by his wife.”

“He seemed entirely at home sitting behind tables piled high with guns, drugs, and cash, a Make-A-Wish kid playing Scarface for the day.”

“In April 2016, Trump declared that he was confident that he could ‘get rid of’ the entire multi-trillion-dollar debt ‘fairly quickly.’”

“The Treasury Department’s daily statement showed Tuesday that total outstanding public debt stands at $22.01 trillion. It stood at $19.95 trillion when President Donald Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017.”

“The reason I am asking is because the Governor and some of his staff are staying in Washington, D.C. pretty frequently at the Trump International Hotel and the room cost is WAY more than the allowed amount.”

“It’s also striking to see Trump’s unfamiliarity with basic elements of civic life.”

“All the honor and the glory be to Jesus.”

“The total mass of insects is falling by a precipitous 2.5 percent a year, according to the best data available, suggesting they could vanish within a century.”

“The book unfolded much like Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events: You knew from the start that the outcome would be unpleasant, but you were guaranteed to learn a few vocabulary words along the way.”

“Laura and her family are an example of how to address the very real immigration crisis that the Trump administration’s policies and rhetoric have created.”

“The soup was good, but not good enough to qualify as an American state secret.”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (2.5.19)

February 5, 2019 By Fred Clark

“The 26 richest people on earth in 2018 had the same net worth as the poorest half of the world’s population, some 3.8 billion people.”

“So, it’s not like it’s a gigantic number overall.”

“Companies like Wells Fargo have enjoyed huge profits from the tax cuts and spent billions on buybacks while laying off workers.”

“Mitch McConnell, Chuck Grassley, and John Thune look at the existing policy landscape – the enormous deficit Republicans have created, the priorities in desperate need of investment – and believe what’s really needed is another tax break that would exclusively benefit the rich.”

“By expanding their demands beyond their own compensation, teachers’ unions are transforming into some of the most significant advocacy groups striving for socioeconomic equality in America today.”

“The Trump administration says it would require extraordinary effort to reunite what may be thousands of migrant children who have been separated from their parents and, even if it could, the children would likely be emotionally harmed.”

“Yes, judge. She was also a 13-year-old who under our laws can’t consent to anything.”

“Hagedorn also said that the NAACP, the national civil rights group, was a ‘partisan hack’ and a ‘disgrace to America.'”

“The topic turned, as was necessary, to Virginia Governor Ralph Northam’s refusal to resign after he tried the ‘sorry for the blackface/coonman nickname’ defense on Friday and then almost moonwalking to a Shaggy’s ‘It Wasn’t Me’ defense on Saturday.”

“Birnbaum doesn’t appreciate the irony, but there is little doubt he played a crucial role in the weaponizing of antisemitism.”

“On multiple occasions, including on or about December 1, 2017, STONE told Person 2 that Person 2 should do a ‘Frank Pentangeli‘ before HPSCI in order to avoid contradicting STONE’s testimony.”

“Trump heard something that wasn’t actual intelligence, and repeated it as truth.”

“The plot of the film is made up, as are the characters and developments that unfolded on screen.”

“These are full-blown, what-can-we-do-to-strangle-and-destroy-the-support-system Republicans.”

“In reality, all that remains in town today is a few clusters of homes, a scrapyard, a community center, a dairy, and the infamous PG&E station that connects to the vast natural gas pipeline system.”

“That’s just how it is off in Indian Country.”

“If a candidate can garner the support of me and my 1,156 Twitter followers, I would think that should be more than enough to take the win!”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (1.24.19)

January 24, 2019 By Fred Clark

“I love my students, that’s why I’m here — to advocate for them.”

“EITC recipients were audited in 2017 at twice the rate of taxpayers with income between $200,000 and $500,000.”

“I do think that a system that allows billionaires to exist when there are parts of Alabama where people are still getting ringworm because they don’t have access to public health is wrong.”

“This really is going to ripple through the whole housing market.”

“To be sure, there were several well-intended policy incursions to assist homeowners … but they were straitjacketed by draconian rules set up to ensure that ‘undeserving homeowners’ would not benefit, a resolve wholly missing when it came to policies that benefited potentially undeserving banks and corporate executives.”

“If you look at different places they put up a wall – no problem. If you look at San Antonio, if you look at so many different places, they go from one of the most unsafe cities in the country to one of the safest cities immediately.”

“Steve King is a racist, by his own admission, except of course he doesn’t think he’s a racist, he thinks he’s a ‘nationalist,’ or a ‘race realist,’ or whatever label racists use to describe themselves other than ‘racist,’ because being a racist is bad, so calling someone a racist is bad, because you are saying bad things about them, which is itself is a bad thing to do, because of reasons.”

“Notorious alt-right figure and accused Holocaust denier Chuck Johnson met with two Republican lawmakers in Congress.”

“A US-born Marine veteran who served in Afghanistan had his US passport, a REAL ID driver’s license, a military ID card, and his U.S. Marine Corps dog tags with him when he was arrested by police in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which held him for three days before his lawyer demanded his release.”

“I was peering through the window of my isolation cell at the Imperial Beach Border Patrol Substation. I could see past a highly secured heavy metal door to a holding cell that contained over a dozen children who ranged in age from five to 15, by themselves without any adult caregivers. Another cell contained women with their infants and toddlers. Another contained men. I could see mothers being fingerprinted while breastfeeding.”

“Trump administration prosecutors argued this week that members of the borderland faith-based organization No More Deaths broke the law by leaving jugs of water and cans of beans for migrants trekking through a remote wilderness refuge in the Sonoran Desert.

“If giving water to someone dying of thirst is illegal, what humanity is left in the law of this country?”

“It is the fear that makes us crazy.”

“Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan says her office has found 500 more Catholic clergy accused of sexually abusing children than the state’s six archdioceses have publicly identified.”

“Today’s story about Ernest Angley of Grace Cathedral may be difficult to read because of the overall nature of the story and the graphic language regarding the events that took place.”

“Abstinence-only sex education programs provide medically inaccurate information, do not prevent STIs, and have been linked to higher rates of teen pregnancy.”

“It’s been over a month since the Violence Against Women Act expired at the start of the government shutdown.”

“So, for example, a woman whose partner isolates her from her family and friends, monitors her every move, belittles and berates her, or denies her access to money to support herself and her children is not a victim of domestic violence in the eyes of Trump’s Department of Justice.”

“Erdman, an ardent conservative from western Nebraska, said Monday his bill [mandating signs reading “In God We Trust”] ‘has nothing to do with religion.'”

“Catholics in the Upstate of South Carolina learn very quickly that significant numbers of our neighbors who are deeply committed disciples of Jesus, do not think that we are.”

“When a big statue of Oñate was placed near the first Spanish settlement in New Mexico, itself a Native village dispossessed by the Spanish, someone soon cut off its foot.”

“Joe Brown, Joe Brown, He’s a Mean White Man.”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (1.15.19)

January 15, 2019 By Fred Clark

“He’s not hurting the people he needs to be hurting.”

“The longer this goes on, the larger the impact becomes.”

“I will. And the wall just got 10 feet taller.”

“The federal government is effectively the nation’s largest employer of low-wage workers.”

“The Trump administration is considering a far-reaching rollback of civil rights law that would dilute federal rules against discrimination in education, housing and other aspects of American life.”

“In truth, not only is Ocasio-Cortez’ proposal not radical at all, it would have been boring and normative policy for most of the 20th century in western democracies.”

“It should seem strange to base U.S. immigration policy on an idea Roger Stone and Sam Nunberg thought up without any analysis as to whether it represented good policy for the United States.”

“[ICE] tweaked its own risk assessment software to recommend mandatory detention for every person in its custody.”

“Two years into the Trump administration, 22 immigrants have died in ICE detention.”

“Falwell Jr. seems to believe that the only thing Christianity teaches Christians about their responsibility as citizens is that Christianity has no role to play in our responsibility as citizens.”

“There’s something almost sad about seeing this kind of idolatry articulated so clearly.”

“Evangelicals who advocate fidelity, truthfulness, and charity but demonstrate support for Trump risk falling afoul of potential converts’ evolved sensitivities about CREDs.”

“Anti-Gay Baptist Preacher Resigns from Church After ‘Being with Prostitutes.'”

“Anti-Gay Baptist Preacher Replaced by Anti-Gay Anti-Vaxxer Baptist Preacher.”

“Before joining President Donald Trump’s administration, right-wing commentator Robert W. Patterson argued against contraceptives because ‘condom use robs’ women of the ‘remarkable chemicals’ in semen.”

“Act shocked at recent revelations. Then schedule a meeting among themselves.”

“If you live in a spot where you don’t own the land, then you’re at the mercy of the landlord.”

“Americans are now more likely to die of opioid overdoses than car crashes.”

“The Brett Kavanaugh of his day.”

“Employees requested officers to ban a woman from the local Walmart store after she reportedly had been drinking wine from a Pringles can for several hours while riding on an electric cart.”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (1.2.19)

January 2, 2019 By Fred Clark

“Abortion in Ireland will be free, safe, and legal up to 12 weeks into pregnancy starting January 1.”

“Thus, black lung, and more of it. But though its miners are getting sicker, the coal industry does not appear to feel much responsibility for their health needs.”

“Federal authorities have arrested 170 immigrants who came forward seeking to sponsor migrant children in government custody, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said.”

“If the extent of the villainy seems downright cartoonish, it’s worth noting that the state GOP also took the Montgomery Burns–level step of loosening puppy mill regulations.”

“But, on the legal merits, O’Connor’s opinion would need a great deal of work to rise to the level of being shoddy.”

“He was more of a dick, for lack of a better word. I wish I had a more descriptive word. He was just a dick.”

“About 65 percent of the United States’ total jail population are pre-trial detainees who haven’t yet been convicted of a crime.”

“The bonuses do not feel like an effort to retain top talent through a difficult period, but a final extraction of cash before the ship sinks.”

“One thing I actually don’t understand is how our discourse often shifts seamlessly between ‘wow it’s so hard to live on $400,000 per year’ and ‘ungrateful moochers on disability, living the good life on $800 bucks a month.'”

“Only 5 percent of tenants who have attorneys are actually evicted because of eviction proceedings. But among those who aren’t represented, that number balloons to an astounding 78 percent.”

“Police departments in the U.S. are becoming less and less likely to successfully close rape investigations.”

“It seems strange that spending money to convince people to vote is protected as free speech, while voting itself is not.”

“Characterizing themselves as ‘educational’ institutions allows these organizations to claim tax-exempt status, and it’s been a boon for their finances.”

“[The Republican bill] could also increase law enforcement and military recruiter access to students, and it would restrict teachers from teaching ‘controversial issues’ or blaming one racial group of students for the ‘suffering or inequities’ of another racial group.”

“Not only did Republican Mark Green, a Congressman-elect from Clarksville who is also a medical doctor, express hesitation about the CDC’s stance on vaccines, he also said he believed the federal health agency has ‘fraudulently managed; the data.”

“The excitement and fanaticism surrounding the forthcoming Q-pocalypse has a distinctly religious feel, and indeed, many Q believers appear to be evangelical Christians.”

“I am a Bible-believing Christian.”

“I think the nature of his third marriage is one that Christians would be much more comfortable with.”

“God settled that over 2,000 years ago, folks, and I’m going to stand on it until hell freezes over.”

“What am I promoting as gospel right now that later generations will document, repudiate and apologize for?”

Postcards from the class & culture wars (12.26.18)

December 26, 2018 By Fred Clark

“Yeah, but I won’t be here.”

“You’re not going to believe this.”

“This is like an episode of Matlock that lasts all season long and where the client is actually guilty and Matlock is going through early-stage dementia.”

“It’s like, ‘Jesus, take the wheel,’ but scarier.”

“I am throwing ballots into the trash.”

“Basically this is the Holland Tunnel, but somehow infinitely less efficient, and only for consumers of one extremely dodgy brand that probably will go bankrupt within the next half-decade.”

These men are dressed like soldiers in a war zone, but they are not soldiers and this is not a war zone.

“A video on the site also describes how residents who work low-income jobs can handle rents up to $500 a month, and because mobile homes cost thousands of dollars to move, residents have little option but to stay.”

“These Pennsylvania families were threatened to be evicted on the basis of unpaid bills – bills that were not their responsibility and, in some cases, belonged to previous tenants.”

“I also get bombarded with direct messages from men who want to sleep with me but those are usually sprinkled with DMs from men who think I’m a degenerate who deserves to be dead. Sometimes I get both from the same guy.”

“They’re attacked all over again, shamed and defamed and revictimized.”

“The fact that there can be no accountability despite ‘serious’ allegations is, in some sense, the common theme of the time.”

“These proposed rules would effectively transform Title IX from a law that protects students into one that shields schools and perpetrators from accountability.”

“A majority of evangelicals (65 percent) say they take offense when someone says, ‘Happy Holidays.’”

“The Trump administration is resuming its efforts to deport certain protected Vietnamese immigrants who have lived in the United States for decades — many of them having fled the country during the Vietnam War.”

“The families in the migrant caravans trudging towards the US border are trying to escape a hell that the US has helped to create.”

“This is white supremacy, just in boat shoes.”

“We are living with the consequences today.”

“Keep this in mind if the anger you might be seeing now among us surprises and maybe even shocks you.”

“Being outnumbered doesn’t have to mean losing.”

“For their five- and six-figure contributions, attendees of the Mar-a-Lago event not only mingled with marginally prominent figures in Trumpworld — including Pastor Paula White and MyPillow founder Michael Lindell — they got a visit from the president himself.”

“Buying vengeance hippos to own the sales clerk.”