Closer, but also, everyone was sick of the Republican bullshit as Bush was on his way out and the economy was collapsing. McCain had a really hard sell.

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Friendly reminder to everyone that the rest of the world has signed on the United Nation’s Connvention on the Rights of the Child; the US doesn’t like that it could prevent children from being spanked, because God wants us to spank our children (spare the rod, spoil the child).

Religion is often a basis for the suffering of children.

I don’t know if blue states would extradite her though. Many would not. So maybe she could uproot her whole family and life to leave and make a new home. However, she’s super high profile in the Google now; any time she left the state or got pulled over for speeding or something, she’d be vulnerable to harassment. And if Republicans do this to the whole country… Ugh.

I’ll contend all day long that the ‘Texas Miracle ™’ is largely built on the backs of underpaid Latin/Mexican labor. (I would say totally, but that oil $$$ does its work too.) Republicans shitting all over immigration does, in fact, rob their localities of economic gains. I hope migrants in Mexico are treated more humanely than the United States has done. Hell, that’s still quite the low bar.

I’ve read about some churches that run paramilitary drills for their teenage boys. I imagine that’s not as isolated an incident as I wish it were. It’s really not just old fat dudes.

Part of what I remember is that the coaching job was in Washington, and he sued for the job after moving to Florida. Then, when asked, he said he’d be ready to start coaching in Washington again with like 3 days notice of reinstatement. He won his case, but did not move back up or try to retake his old job in any way. Makes the standing in the case look real funny.

Seconding Magnatiles

Also, marble runs!

Mental health is a squishier standard. Let’s say I had depression and decided to talk to someone about it, get the help I needed to become mentally healthy again. Should that necessarily be penalized if I want to go buy a gun to go out to the range or hunting with my buddies? Should seeking help disqualify someone entirely? Does that prevent people from getting help they think they might need, stigmatizing an already stigmatized practice?

Meanwhile, if Dave down the hill has a record, he’s already shown he was willing to do an illegal thing, whether or not the record is fair. If he already has reports against him for domestic disturbances, that’s pretty cut and dry violent behavior that ought not be allowed to intensify.

I’m not saying mental checks aren’t a good idea or aren’t worth it. I’m saying that they’re a harder sell because a) they take more nuance to formulate well and b) the propaganda machine will have an easier time telling people how those checks are overreach.

That sounds like the kind of conversation worth recording and taking to a lawyer. I can’t imagine a call that goes “Hi, I’d like to cancel my service. What do you mean you can’t do that? No one at the company can help? I’ve been on the phone with 4 different reps. Fine, I’ll just call my card to stop paying. What do you mean you’re going to send me to collections?!” wouldn’t get done kind of positive movement.

I wasn’t advocating that a person should quit. But there’s a far cry between the people I’m polite to because I see them at work everyday vs the people I’ll invest emotional energy in, converse with about more than the day’s weather. It’s really hard that OP has emotionally invested in a person who listens to bad people. That divide–where OP wants to put attention and conversation–is what I was trying to highlight. Have rational, honest conversations–if it’s safe to do so.

If you’re privileged enough not to be threatened in that situation (ie you’re not a younger woman, an immigrant, LGBTQ+) and it’s not emotionally damaging to maintain the relationship, do. Be there, but be open about different and willing to answer questions. Either they’ll be an ass eventually, or maybe, just maybe, you can show them the rabbit hole is just their head in the sand. Cult deprogrammers say over and over that the best way to get people to see reason is through personal conversation. But don’t have expectations that it’ll work all at once, or if they go back and forth in their beliefs. Unlearning worldviews is hard work.

They want the faithful to outbreed the heathens.

Yeah… Nixon grew up as a Quaker, and Quakers were supposed to be super pacifistic. Just an example to your point.

Forgive me, but I don’t believe political affiliation is a protected class–protected classes are the only things people can’t discriminate based on. So like, race, sex, religion are protected, but democrat/republican/green party aren’t protected. Businesses can legally discriminate against non-protected classes. It’s just usually a bad business strategy to turn customers away.