It is not pragmatic for a university to suck up to their enemies

I’ve been called tactless, among other things, and it’s a fair cop — I’m not very diplomatic. But I am definitely much more judicious than anyone in the Trump administration, I guess. Trump himself is a blundering nitwit, handling this whole Comey affair like a short-tempered, impulsive twit, and Sean Spicer, who is supposed to be good at public relations, was hiding from the press in the bushes.

And now, it’s Betsy DeVos. Poor Betsy. She gave the commencement address at a historically black college, Bethune-Cookman University. Not only is she the person in charge of dismantling the educational system in this country, but the Trump administration has consistently supported racist policies — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, have I said enough? She should have known what she’d get: students and parents booed her throughout the speech, turned their back on her, and some walked out. It was nuts that she was even there. It was amazingly clueless of her to agree to do it, and even more shocking is that she was invited to give that speech. What was going through the mind of Edison Jackson, president of the university? Not much, it seems. He has given three reasons.

But Jackson has staunchly defended his decision, telling reporters Wednesday, God is on our side, and when he’s for you, what does it matter who’s against you?

WTF? That’s a load of god-bothering fatalism right there. Why bother going to college? In’shallah, God will take care of his own.

He called DeVos’s visit an opportunity to engage and educate the secretary, and said she had met earlier with 12 Bethune-Cookman students who had offered her concrete policy suggestions.

That’s a slightly better reason, but it’s still somewhat delusional. DeVos has a long track record of desiring to happily gut schools, and I don’t think a meeting over lunch is going to change her.

Ah, but here comes the real reason.

But he also presented the decision as pragmatic. We are always about the business of making new friends, Jackson said. Her department controls 80% of the revenue that comes into our school. Why wouldn’t we want to do that?

You don’t want to do that, because her department controls 80% of your revenue. Fight back. Resist. It is inappropriate that these people should have so much power over public education, and it’s administrators who constantly concede greater and greater control who are part of the problem.

The students of Bethune-Cookman University who were vocal in their opposition to this anti-education Education Secretary have more integrity than the president of Bethune-Cookman University.

Look at these students!

Ha ha, charade you are

So perfect. An artist is going to float 4 helium-filled pigs over the Trump logo in Chicago. Thank you, Pink Floyd. Roger Waters must be prescient — they released the Animals album 30 years ago. I guess they saw Trump coming.

If you don’t remember the lyrics…

Big man, pig man
Ha, ha, charade you are
You well heeled big wheel
Ha, ha, charade you are
And when your hand is on your heart
You’re nearly a good laugh
Almost a joker
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying ‘Keep on digging’
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find
Down in the pig mine?
You’re nearly a laugh
You’re nearly a laugh
But you’re really a cry

Once again, Charles Pierce expresses what I was thinking

The Republicans are having a fucking party to celebrate disemboweling health care in the country, to the profit of the rich.

Goddamn them all. Goddamn the political movement that spawned them and goddamn the political party in which that movement found a home, and goddamn the infrastructure in which their pus-bag of an ideology was allowed to fester until it splattered the plague all over the government. Goddamn anyone who believes that blind, genetic luck is a demonstration of divine design. Goddamn anyone who believes in a god who hands out disease as punishment. Goddamn anyone who stays behind the walls and dances while the plague comes back again.

And if the Democratic Party can’t reduce these idiots to smoking ash through the stunning visuals that greeted this atrocious vote, then goddamn the Democratic Party, too.

Everyone who voted for this crime must pay a heavy price. The Republican party must be destroyed.

May the Fourth

Y’all remember the true meaning of this date, right?

The National Guard fire tear gas to disperse the crowd of students gathered on the commons, May 4, 1970.

Slate

Don’t let the Star Wars jokes distract you from the fact that this is a day to remember the horrors of the police state.

Also note that the guardsmen who murdered four students got away with it. No surprise there.

You British and your fondness for understatement

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, has announced his retirement at the age of 95. I don’t quite see the point of retiring from a job as a figurehead, but I guess even Walmart greeters can expect to see some time off, so good for him. The BBC did report on it, and made this statement that made me laugh:

He is famed for off-the-cuff remarks he has made at royal engagements around the world over the years.

Yes, I suppose you could say that.

One down. So when are y’all getting rid of the rest of the royal family?

7th District Republicans, making our choices clear again

I live in Minnesota’s 7th congressional district. Our representative is a Blue Dog Democrat, Collin Peterson.

I do not like Peterson.

I never voted for the guy until the last election, when I held my nose and punched his name in the voting booth because the Republicans have become the party of intransigent ignorance and bigotry, so even Peterson looks good in comparison. Unfortunately, I think he relies too much on the odious nature of the opposition to skate by.

And then I looked at the Facebook page for the Minnesota 7th Congressional District Republican Party. They really hate Collin Peterson. They think he’s a liberal, dont’cha know. By comparison with the poison they spew, I guess he might be.

What brought me to look at their page was that I learned that the 7th district Republicans, my neighbors, had posted this:

Wow. My neighbors suck.

Head Muslim Goat Humper? Seriously, dudes? Can you get any more racist?

Worst thing about it: now I’m going to have to vote for Collin Peterson, or whatever Blue Dog substitute comes along, again, and it left a foul taste in my mouth last time.