An excellent analysis - and it's a problem that extends through much of the country, though it seems to center in red states.
I don't think that Americans are innately more stupid than, say, our Canadian neighbors. I don't know if it's a lack of education or active brainwashing that keeps them chasing the one cookie left on the plate. But you'd think, at some point, a great mass of them would say, *wait a minute ... this doesn't make any sense.*
You said it all. And isn’t it telling who Abbott presents this cat box bs to, Baptist ministers! Growing up in a Southern Baptist church, until I left home 45 yrs ago, I have seen them as the heart of the far right Republican and now the Trump Party. They were first in on the “pro life” movement, anti gay, and MOST certainly LGBTQ stuff. So this furries stuff was grist for their mill. It wasn’t an accident that that’s who he met with.
I’m more ashamed of this state every day and this country for that matter.
The relentless campaign to defund public schools and libraries sickens me. And like every other atrocity it is being perpetrated with horrendous lies that repeated often enough will be probably believed, because the story will be the same everywhere, and is sensational, and so it goes. 🥲
I posted a note about old stan on my substack along with the vid of him being dismantled. Here is my note—all true and well documented:
FILE UNDER: GIVE ‘EM ENOUGH ROPE
Four years ago, I bought a house in Smithville, TX. When it was discovered I am not a Trumper, a group of people decided I didn’t deserve to live there. Lead by then council member Stan Gerdes, his wife Sam, and a local realtor, a city-permitted parade was held to drive me out of town. I was alerted to the parade by the mayor, who came to my house, knocked on my door, and escorted me to the police station, where the chief informed me I would need police protection during the parade. I tried to decline but he insisted my life was in danger. And so it came to pass that I sat in my house as the parade went by with a cop stationed on my porch to protect me.
This was followed by five months of extreme abuse, including daily golf cart drive-by harassment, boycotting of my businesses, and endless false reports of illegal behavior to city hall. At which point I sold the house and left. Stan and his wife are the embodiment of pure evil. He’s now in the Texas Legislature. I read a great piece by
Jason Stanford about Stan’s attempt to outlaw Furries in Texas schools. Gerdes lie-filled assertions were, of course, political theater based on pure bullshit. I’m happy to say he got his ass handed to him and his lies were pointed out in public. Watching this entire video will make your eyes bleed, but if you just watch from, say, minute 6 until minute 8 you will get the idea. What an absolute delight to witness this calm and measured take down.
Well, this is quite astonishing. Stan is apparently quite lacking in humanity or neighborliness. He is not, however, easily embarrassed, apparently. But what gave him/them the right to tell you that you couldn’t live there? Just your politics put them off? He’s as disgusting as every other Abbott and Trump sycophant in that building. I spent 22 years there as a reporter and it seemingly gets worse every year, and increasingly dysfunctional.
Someone stuck a flag on my lawn with a business card affixed to it. I did not appreciate that and said as much on my facebook. I had no idea that shitvillians were monitoring my social media—not that that would have stopped me. Shortly after this, someone—most certainly NOT ME—requested that the city ban this distribution of flags. The person who made this request was a vet who was offended at the multiple ways the flag distribution violated the flag code (using it for advertisement, flag touching the ground.) A rumor whipped around that I had demanded the REMOVAL OF ALL FLAGS IN SHITVILLE. I mean, I can’t make this shit up. Once the rumor got started, the parade and death threats commenced. Not only that, but Sam Gerdes came to my house before I was made aware of her parade plot to drive me out of town. She feigned neighborliness and said something like, “hey, there’s a parade Monday, i can pick you up in my golf cart!” In fact, she personally wanted to deliver me to the hungry haters. I found out about THIS from the police chief, too, who said he had spoken to her about her cruelty and told her she needed to tone it down. Suddenly I am now remembering that they RENTED THE LITTLE TRAIN to use in the parade. Okay, I gotta stop now because I am getting wildly triggered remembering all of this. Those people are truly, truly despicable scum of the earth. (My apologies to scum for the comparison.)
So no pretending to be a tree? Or a flower? Or hopping around like a frog lest some child decide she wants to transition to an aquatic animal? What would Joyce Grenfell have said?
Truly, Jim, I thought you were pulling my leg. I was reading a satire that would bring a wry grin to Swift, or that Borowitz would have been happy to purloin from you. And then I watched the video of Rep Talarico questioning Rep Gerdes re: HB54. I cannot say that my shock was greater than John Ford's reaction to seeing Marilyn Monroe's first screen test, but I did thunder the same as he: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," much to the concern of my adjacent neighbors.
Mississippi may now issue a miasmatic sigh, relieved that they are now elevated to that lofty 49th.
They say everything's bigger in Texas. It appears that lies told are indeed bigger. How could anyone, being of sane mind, vote for that man pushing that hoax?
Texas just blew up public schools. Public schools receive somewhere around $5k per student but Abbott just gave $10k per student of tax payer money to parents to send their kids to private schools receive.
That’s what he’s aiming for if he’s re-elected a fourth time in 2026, he’s their leader after all in the TX GOP and the true one in the national GOP in terms of the policy crafting with Dan Patrick.
An excellent analysis - and it's a problem that extends through much of the country, though it seems to center in red states.
I don't think that Americans are innately more stupid than, say, our Canadian neighbors. I don't know if it's a lack of education or active brainwashing that keeps them chasing the one cookie left on the plate. But you'd think, at some point, a great mass of them would say, *wait a minute ... this doesn't make any sense.*
Texans are not only fully indoctrinated by the conservative media that Jesus told them is His own Word, but they are incredibly conformist.
Therefore, one never accepts or considers anything other than the alternative facts given to them by Republican politicians or their sold out clergy.
So little to be proud of in Texas.
You said it all. And isn’t it telling who Abbott presents this cat box bs to, Baptist ministers! Growing up in a Southern Baptist church, until I left home 45 yrs ago, I have seen them as the heart of the far right Republican and now the Trump Party. They were first in on the “pro life” movement, anti gay, and MOST certainly LGBTQ stuff. So this furries stuff was grist for their mill. It wasn’t an accident that that’s who he met with.
I’m more ashamed of this state every day and this country for that matter.
The relentless campaign to defund public schools and libraries sickens me. And like every other atrocity it is being perpetrated with horrendous lies that repeated often enough will be probably believed, because the story will be the same everywhere, and is sensational, and so it goes. 🥲
I posted a note about old stan on my substack along with the vid of him being dismantled. Here is my note—all true and well documented:
FILE UNDER: GIVE ‘EM ENOUGH ROPE
Four years ago, I bought a house in Smithville, TX. When it was discovered I am not a Trumper, a group of people decided I didn’t deserve to live there. Lead by then council member Stan Gerdes, his wife Sam, and a local realtor, a city-permitted parade was held to drive me out of town. I was alerted to the parade by the mayor, who came to my house, knocked on my door, and escorted me to the police station, where the chief informed me I would need police protection during the parade. I tried to decline but he insisted my life was in danger. And so it came to pass that I sat in my house as the parade went by with a cop stationed on my porch to protect me.
This was followed by five months of extreme abuse, including daily golf cart drive-by harassment, boycotting of my businesses, and endless false reports of illegal behavior to city hall. At which point I sold the house and left. Stan and his wife are the embodiment of pure evil. He’s now in the Texas Legislature. I read a great piece by
Jason Stanford about Stan’s attempt to outlaw Furries in Texas schools. Gerdes lie-filled assertions were, of course, political theater based on pure bullshit. I’m happy to say he got his ass handed to him and his lies were pointed out in public. Watching this entire video will make your eyes bleed, but if you just watch from, say, minute 6 until minute 8 you will get the idea. What an absolute delight to witness this calm and measured take down.
Well, this is quite astonishing. Stan is apparently quite lacking in humanity or neighborliness. He is not, however, easily embarrassed, apparently. But what gave him/them the right to tell you that you couldn’t live there? Just your politics put them off? He’s as disgusting as every other Abbott and Trump sycophant in that building. I spent 22 years there as a reporter and it seemingly gets worse every year, and increasingly dysfunctional.
Someone stuck a flag on my lawn with a business card affixed to it. I did not appreciate that and said as much on my facebook. I had no idea that shitvillians were monitoring my social media—not that that would have stopped me. Shortly after this, someone—most certainly NOT ME—requested that the city ban this distribution of flags. The person who made this request was a vet who was offended at the multiple ways the flag distribution violated the flag code (using it for advertisement, flag touching the ground.) A rumor whipped around that I had demanded the REMOVAL OF ALL FLAGS IN SHITVILLE. I mean, I can’t make this shit up. Once the rumor got started, the parade and death threats commenced. Not only that, but Sam Gerdes came to my house before I was made aware of her parade plot to drive me out of town. She feigned neighborliness and said something like, “hey, there’s a parade Monday, i can pick you up in my golf cart!” In fact, she personally wanted to deliver me to the hungry haters. I found out about THIS from the police chief, too, who said he had spoken to her about her cruelty and told her she needed to tone it down. Suddenly I am now remembering that they RENTED THE LITTLE TRAIN to use in the parade. Okay, I gotta stop now because I am getting wildly triggered remembering all of this. Those people are truly, truly despicable scum of the earth. (My apologies to scum for the comparison.)
Texas is the Worst. And that's quite a condemnation compared to other neo-fascist states.
I feel like in Texas, we get the double whammy of mind-numbingly absurd BS that comes from our state and national "leaders". Stop the planet please!
So no pretending to be a tree? Or a flower? Or hopping around like a frog lest some child decide she wants to transition to an aquatic animal? What would Joyce Grenfell have said?
https://youtu.be/ZXhHFgDRNBQ
Truly, Jim, I thought you were pulling my leg. I was reading a satire that would bring a wry grin to Swift, or that Borowitz would have been happy to purloin from you. And then I watched the video of Rep Talarico questioning Rep Gerdes re: HB54. I cannot say that my shock was greater than John Ford's reaction to seeing Marilyn Monroe's first screen test, but I did thunder the same as he: "Jesus, Mary, and Joseph," much to the concern of my adjacent neighbors.
Mississippi may now issue a miasmatic sigh, relieved that they are now elevated to that lofty 49th.
They say everything's bigger in Texas. It appears that lies told are indeed bigger. How could anyone, being of sane mind, vote for that man pushing that hoax?
Let them sink into trumps Gulf of America. Neither will be missed.
Well, when you're 49th in intelligence, this isn't surprising.
Texas just blew up public schools. Public schools receive somewhere around $5k per student but Abbott just gave $10k per student of tax payer money to parents to send their kids to private schools receive.
Can I get my $10k in arrears? I promise 🤞 to buy a Jaguar. My kids are 33-30-26 and I dint get my cut of the taxpayer dime.
A world apart!
Sounds like he would make a great candidate for President 🤢🤮
That’s what he’s aiming for if he’s re-elected a fourth time in 2026, he’s their leader after all in the TX GOP and the true one in the national GOP in terms of the policy crafting with Dan Patrick.
And thank you God for Illinois.