This comment is about the suit against Starbucks and his allegation that all those women and minorities mean that the service is bad. That's strange, because I always thought these guys assumed that women and minorities were kind of created to serve coffee to white guys.
I keep wondering how low we have to go before people wake up. What smack upside the head in the form of budget cuts or death or suffering do people need before it occurs to MAGA and the other ignorant that we're all in this together. In 1860, it required a civil war. In 1930, it required a depression and then a world war. What now?
And it's worth making it clear that it's not us versus them, it's the likes of Elon Musk and the oligarchy that has run this country for pretty much from day one that controls the levers of power, the information, and the money that pits us against each other. The FDR era was the closest we've ever come to leveling the playing field. Damn, even the robber barons in 1900 at least had some semblance of conscience and civic responsibility.
The problem is, way too many non rich people are conned into delusionally believing that by supporting the system for the rich, they or their kids will somehow end up becoming rich some day, so they vote against their own class interests over and over. A lot of it is also simple cluelessness about which economic class they are actually a part of. Everybody in America, except the rich, likes to think they are middle class, when anything but that is the truth. But they swallow the propaganda, and the issue of social and economic class is taboo in America, esp. with the corporate media and the two major parties these days..
So right on, and with that also came the evangelicals joining the Repub Party, as well as the issue of abortion and gay rights drawing those same people to the Repub Party. Divide and conquer, because once you get people to ignore or lose track of their real class status, it's easy to divide them against themselves, instead of them uniting against their real class enemies, the rich and corporations..
100% true. If only we would wake up and realize who our real enemies are. Together, we could be a formidable force against the people and corporations that seek to subjugate us.
That, indeed, seems to be the only way to combat this coup. No one is coming to help us. The S. Ct. is too corrupt and laid the groundwork for this tragedy to occur. We have to fight this, ourselves.
Thank you for covering this Jess. I have a friend who has a daughter with a hearing impairment. They live in Indiana and they want to take away any type of support these students and their families have. This will hurt a lot of people. I am so sick of the cruelty being so much the motive. Hate in their hearts with religion on their sleeves. So much the opposite of who they could be, if they so chose.
Hate in their hearts with religion on their sleeves. Could not agree more!! So horrendous the cruelty we are watching. I live in a blue state and feel powerless over the red states
I used to live in the bluest of states but now reside in red. Intolerable! The pretense of care and loyalty and high holiness is sickening. And the choice of intentional ignorance is truly abhorrent and completely unacceptable. We must unite and perhaps even rebel.
As a Harlan born preacher's kid your story triggered a kind of home-sickness and memory of my own grandparents' valuing of a kind of humble ambition. Maya Angelou's "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” No where was she blaming others just acknowledging that we can better. Thank you for this!
I am engaged here in Texas in the fight against school vouchers, that should more properly be known as a welfare program for wealthy parents to send their kids to religious indoctrination schools. We have public and elected officials across our country that are out to destroy the treasure that our public education system has long been. There was a time when the U.S. public education system was the best in the world. Soon it will not evey be a third rate education system thanks to Republicans who are out to destroy it as they are now destroying our democracy and disassembling our federal government. I am beyond angry about all of this and will continue to oppose it as best I am able. I know there are tens of millions who agree on this but there are way, way too many either not paying attention, apathetic, or simply too ignorant to notice what is happening and why it is happening. The answer to the why question is simple - Republicans.
A panel I went to yesterday, suggested that we stopped using the acronym, DEI and rollout the words for their full import: diversity, equity, inclusion. That white people will have to take a stand against real ideas instead of just a dry little acronym. I support this and if you agree, pass it on.
Great idea! It's like WOKE, BLM, etc. The acronyms become meaningless because they are repeated so many times no one hears them and don't know what they stand for in the first place.
The only "reason" I can see to do this is so they can funnel federal funds to private schools via vouchers which they can't legally do now. Much of what is happening seems tied to privatization of everything and ultimately, funded by taxpayer money with no oversight.
I see that angle as well. These schools often discriminate, which is why we can constitutionally say they shouldn’t receive tax payer funding. However, if we drop section 504, it will be a moot point.
I'm impressed that you can focus. There's so much crap hitting the fans right now that it makes my brain ache. How in the heck did we get so many cruel people in offices? Thanks for keeping them exposed.
Their tactic is to throw so much at us that we become traumatized and so overwhelmed that we can't fight back. We cannot do that. All hands are required on deck for this disaster.
Jess Piper: State AG Andrew Bailey "is suing Costco for their DEI policies, saying that the private company should be forced to hire more white men because hiring women and people of color is discriminatory."
Uh . . . I see . . .
I guess we are getting used to an upside-down carnival.
To hire women and people of color is discriminatory . . . because . . . we need "to hire more white men."
There SURE is a lack of those!
Let's see. I am trying to wrap my arms around this . . .
I just about spit out my coffee with the line that hiring women and people of color is discriminatory, as if there were a lack of white men.
I mean, those are lines that, a few years ago, I would have expected in "The Onion," "Mad Magazine," or Saturday Night Live.
Whew! And to hear Trump's press spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, who looks like she is educated, spout with a straight face some of the absurdities that issue from the Administration. She BARS Associated Press from the White House Briefing, because AP uses map designations to designate "The Gulf of Mexico."
John Lennon's last album sang about, "Strange days, indeed!"
Thank you for the head’s up on the 504 lawsuit. He won’t do anything to change his crusade to crush disabled children because Indiana’s Todd Rokita is equal to your AG in abject cruelty but I will still contact his office. I try to keep up on what all is going on but I missed this one.
I raised a child who had spina bifida and all that goes along with it. The first half of his childhood was in Pittsburgh and the 2nd half in Indiana. Even with the laws in place to protect education for those with disabilities, IN fought me every step of the way while the school districts in Pittsburgh did every thing they could to help.
I love your dear grandma's family photo and your connection to her. My grandpa lived with my family until he passed away when I was in high school. He taught us how to play checkers and he read aloud his favorite Readers Digest stories to us. He also loved to listen to opera on the radio. He had polio when he was a child and never finished school because he had to walk there. As an adult, he worked as a snow plow driver and heavy machine operator in northern, MN. He was tall and lanky with a long gray beard and always had a limp. At home, he was a philosopher of sorts and I thought he was one of the wisest people I had ever known. I wondered what would have happened if he could have stayed in school.
This comment is about the suit against Starbucks and his allegation that all those women and minorities mean that the service is bad. That's strange, because I always thought these guys assumed that women and minorities were kind of created to serve coffee to white guys.
Right?!?!
I keep wondering how low we have to go before people wake up. What smack upside the head in the form of budget cuts or death or suffering do people need before it occurs to MAGA and the other ignorant that we're all in this together. In 1860, it required a civil war. In 1930, it required a depression and then a world war. What now?
And it's worth making it clear that it's not us versus them, it's the likes of Elon Musk and the oligarchy that has run this country for pretty much from day one that controls the levers of power, the information, and the money that pits us against each other. The FDR era was the closest we've ever come to leveling the playing field. Damn, even the robber barons in 1900 at least had some semblance of conscience and civic responsibility.
I would love to see us return to the policies of FDR. I can't imagine how anyone except the rich would object.
Here in the Tennessee Valley, FDR is despised, but these folks never complain about having electricity.
The problem is, way too many non rich people are conned into delusionally believing that by supporting the system for the rich, they or their kids will somehow end up becoming rich some day, so they vote against their own class interests over and over. A lot of it is also simple cluelessness about which economic class they are actually a part of. Everybody in America, except the rich, likes to think they are middle class, when anything but that is the truth. But they swallow the propaganda, and the issue of social and economic class is taboo in America, esp. with the corporate media and the two major parties these days..
That became true when "prosperity theology" was taught in pulpits. Before that, we all knew where we stood socioeconomically.
So right on, and with that also came the evangelicals joining the Repub Party, as well as the issue of abortion and gay rights drawing those same people to the Repub Party. Divide and conquer, because once you get people to ignore or lose track of their real class status, it's easy to divide them against themselves, instead of them uniting against their real class enemies, the rich and corporations..
100% true. If only we would wake up and realize who our real enemies are. Together, we could be a formidable force against the people and corporations that seek to subjugate us.
A citizen uprising
That, indeed, seems to be the only way to combat this coup. No one is coming to help us. The S. Ct. is too corrupt and laid the groundwork for this tragedy to occur. We have to fight this, ourselves.
Maybe it’s too late? Did we miss the Zombie apocalypse, and the Zombies ate all the MAGA/GOP brains? 🧠
California withdrawing its support from the Union. No more taxes, no more food.
Thank you for covering this Jess. I have a friend who has a daughter with a hearing impairment. They live in Indiana and they want to take away any type of support these students and their families have. This will hurt a lot of people. I am so sick of the cruelty being so much the motive. Hate in their hearts with religion on their sleeves. So much the opposite of who they could be, if they so chose.
Hate in their hearts with religion on their sleeves. Could not agree more!! So horrendous the cruelty we are watching. I live in a blue state and feel powerless over the red states
“Hate in their hearts with religion on their sleeves.” Evidently not following in Christ’s path and teachings. Not sure what their religion is.
I used to live in the bluest of states but now reside in red. Intolerable! The pretense of care and loyalty and high holiness is sickening. And the choice of intentional ignorance is truly abhorrent and completely unacceptable. We must unite and perhaps even rebel.
I left Indiana in 2019 because I didn't want to raise my son in a place with the same kind of people I grew up with.
As a Harlan born preacher's kid your story triggered a kind of home-sickness and memory of my own grandparents' valuing of a kind of humble ambition. Maya Angelou's "Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” No where was she blaming others just acknowledging that we can better. Thank you for this!
Awwww! I’m so happy to read this. My grandmother was a Ray.
So was mine! She was born in Missouri though.
I am engaged here in Texas in the fight against school vouchers, that should more properly be known as a welfare program for wealthy parents to send their kids to religious indoctrination schools. We have public and elected officials across our country that are out to destroy the treasure that our public education system has long been. There was a time when the U.S. public education system was the best in the world. Soon it will not evey be a third rate education system thanks to Republicans who are out to destroy it as they are now destroying our democracy and disassembling our federal government. I am beyond angry about all of this and will continue to oppose it as best I am able. I know there are tens of millions who agree on this but there are way, way too many either not paying attention, apathetic, or simply too ignorant to notice what is happening and why it is happening. The answer to the why question is simple - Republicans.
Yup! Republicans
Watch out for that Measles outbreak down there!
Thank you Jess! I’m so glad you do what you do. More Missourians have got to be educated on what’s going on.
A panel I went to yesterday, suggested that we stopped using the acronym, DEI and rollout the words for their full import: diversity, equity, inclusion. That white people will have to take a stand against real ideas instead of just a dry little acronym. I support this and if you agree, pass it on.
Yup
A friend shared that veterans benefit from DEI also. Shameful.
Great idea! It's like WOKE, BLM, etc. The acronyms become meaningless because they are repeated so many times no one hears them and don't know what they stand for in the first place.
Yes, yes, yes! I am nagging everyone I see to use the words, not the initials. So many people don't even know what the initials stnd for.
I'll bet that you and I attended the same presentation.
The only "reason" I can see to do this is so they can funnel federal funds to private schools via vouchers which they can't legally do now. Much of what is happening seems tied to privatization of everything and ultimately, funded by taxpayer money with no oversight.
I see that angle as well. These schools often discriminate, which is why we can constitutionally say they shouldn’t receive tax payer funding. However, if we drop section 504, it will be a moot point.
Thank the dear Lord that Jeff Jackson was elected AG in North Carolina. I know his opponent would have loved to be a part of that horrible lawsuit.
OMG Bishop would have been first in line!
I'm impressed that you can focus. There's so much crap hitting the fans right now that it makes my brain ache. How in the heck did we get so many cruel people in offices? Thanks for keeping them exposed.
It’s hard, isn’t it friend. I just try to focus on one thing every day
Their tactic is to throw so much at us that we become traumatized and so overwhelmed that we can't fight back. We cannot do that. All hands are required on deck for this disaster.
Trying to drink from a firehouse, called the Gish’s Gallop.
That photo is a piece of true Americana. What a treasure.
It is my absolute favorite
Which is your grandmother? And do I see 2 or 3 boys?
Shared and restacked and hollered out the window. (Okay, I didn’t really do that last thing.) Thanks for the post, Jess.
Solidarity. And thank you.
Jess Piper: State AG Andrew Bailey "is suing Costco for their DEI policies, saying that the private company should be forced to hire more white men because hiring women and people of color is discriminatory."
Uh . . . I see . . .
I guess we are getting used to an upside-down carnival.
To hire women and people of color is discriminatory . . . because . . . we need "to hire more white men."
There SURE is a lack of those!
Let's see. I am trying to wrap my arms around this . . .
We are living in the upside down world for sure
Jess Piper: Your column is wonderful.
I just about spit out my coffee with the line that hiring women and people of color is discriminatory, as if there were a lack of white men.
I mean, those are lines that, a few years ago, I would have expected in "The Onion," "Mad Magazine," or Saturday Night Live.
Whew! And to hear Trump's press spokesperson, Karoline Leavitt, who looks like she is educated, spout with a straight face some of the absurdities that issue from the Administration. She BARS Associated Press from the White House Briefing, because AP uses map designations to designate "The Gulf of Mexico."
John Lennon's last album sang about, "Strange days, indeed!"
I’m confused. WHITE MEN DON’T LIKE TO WORK.
Gloria Horton-Young -- She who stirs the storm! Touché!
Well said!
I am a white man and my beautiful wife knows I don't like to work and I am retired!
Bingo!
Ba dum tis! 😂🤷🏼♂️
And he using TAXPAYERS' money do this. There is your waste, fraud, and abuse.
Thank you for the head’s up on the 504 lawsuit. He won’t do anything to change his crusade to crush disabled children because Indiana’s Todd Rokita is equal to your AG in abject cruelty but I will still contact his office. I try to keep up on what all is going on but I missed this one.
I raised a child who had spina bifida and all that goes along with it. The first half of his childhood was in Pittsburgh and the 2nd half in Indiana. Even with the laws in place to protect education for those with disabilities, IN fought me every step of the way while the school districts in Pittsburgh did every thing they could to help.
Oh, friend. I’m thinking of you.
I would expect those people to like the number of women that work in Charbucks. After all, making coffee for men is women's work, ain't?
I love your dear grandma's family photo and your connection to her. My grandpa lived with my family until he passed away when I was in high school. He taught us how to play checkers and he read aloud his favorite Readers Digest stories to us. He also loved to listen to opera on the radio. He had polio when he was a child and never finished school because he had to walk there. As an adult, he worked as a snow plow driver and heavy machine operator in northern, MN. He was tall and lanky with a long gray beard and always had a limp. At home, he was a philosopher of sorts and I thought he was one of the wisest people I had ever known. I wondered what would have happened if he could have stayed in school.