I mean, Texas has Ken Paxton and Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick, but we ain't this bad!Maybe the Ten Commandments at Mar-a-Lago could have prevented some porn hook ups. https://t.co/8UDACfH6ru
— Schooley (@Rschooley) April 5, 2023
No; that's rapidly becoming the least of it, bad as that is.“A resolution to expel Justin Jones from his seat as a member of the House of Representatives…”
— Rep. Justin Jones (@brotherjones_) April 3, 2023
Just handed this on the House floor, but they still have to vote. We’ll not be intimidated. THE PEOPLE are demanding we act to stop kids from being murdered in school. #goodtrouble pic.twitter.com/SWvWA5tTPI
"If there is a firearm out there that you’re comfortable being shot with, please show me which one it is,” William Lamberth asked rhetorically. https://t.co/NsdzBzoYIT
— HuffPost (@HuffPost) April 4, 2023
State Rep. William Lamberth (R) agreed to talk with the protesters, but had a weird way to trying to win a debate with students worried about getting shot in class.Lamberth’s approach was to ask the students which firearm they’d prefer to be shot with.“If there is a firearm out there that you’re comfortable being shot with, please show me which one it is,” he asked rhetorically.Lamberth probably thought the question he asked the protesters was deep and Socratic, but it came across as heartless ― especially when accompanied by a shrug.“So you’re not going to like my answer, and, look, I’m going to say that straight up,” Lamberth warned. “It’s not about this one gun.”He then claimed that it would be impossible to stop every single gun from getting into “the hands of a crazy person, a deranged person, [or] a convicted felon,” and even if it was done, it “would do nothing to prevent y’all’s safety.”
Absolute fucking rock-bottom. There's nothing the state of Tennessee can do for you kids. Go back to class and practice your school shooter drills. And good luck with that.
So I ask again: can we boycott Tennessee now? Because: god-damn!
The offensiveness of the statement that the shooting wouldn't have happened if the Ten Commandments had been posted, is that the shooting took place at a Christian School. So it's almost guaranteed that they were posted somewhere, but of course that made as much difference as the color of the doors or next Thursday's television schedule. The AR-15 is our national fetish and we will happily sacrifice our children at its alter.
ReplyDeleteToday is the day where the biennial budget needs to come out of the New Hampshire house of representatives. Despite the Democrats getting more votes for house, senate and executive committee candidates, all three are controlled by the Republicans. Their control of the House is the thinnest, it's harder to gerrymander a house with 400+ representatives in a state of 1.3 million. There are a group of Free State/Libertarians that have vowed to vote against any reasonable budget, so the Republicans are working with Democrats to see if they can pass a budget. Even then, it guts education because the Republicans control the committees. The education reserve fund will be zeroed out, with the money not going to education. Education will now have to compete with every other priority for the state instead of having set aside funding. Also vouchers are expanded and they are guaranteed to be paid out, no matter what the budget for them, whereas other education matters are not so they get paid first and whatever is left might go to the public schools. Of the funding, there is a boost to some schools. The poorest schools, Claremont, Franklin, and so on, many which are suing the state under the state constitution to provide an adequate education (the state has argued that an adequate education can be provided for $2,500 per student), are getting nothing. The wealthiest towns, such as Bedford, Portsmouth, Amherst and so on, where political power resides in the state, are getting boosts of $3-4M each. The cities are also getting some boost because they carry some power due to population. The building fund, the state provides nothing for school building up to now, remains unfunded even while the reserve fund is drained and a dividend tax that only touches the top 5% wealthiest of the state will be eliminated. The head of the committee wiping out the education reserve fund is the New Hampshire representative for ALEC. It's ALEC and conservative billionaires that want "education reform" that are driving what is happening to schools here.
As bad as the house budget looks, if it fails to pass today with Democratic help, the state senate will then get to set the budget. Gerrymandering has left the senate much more firmly in Republican control and the budget from them will be substantially thinner than even the house version. The long term decline of public education in this state is baked in no matter what happens in the house today.