They want everything, and we should have nothing

Tara Lipinski won gold in Olympic figure skating 24 years ago. She and Johnny Weir, who competed in two Olympics, have been commentators for NBC for skating and at the Closing Ceremonies. Lipinski and Weir commented on the women’s figure skating mess. Lipinski said that she won her gold at age 15. But unlike the young Russian skater, she had a very supportive team around her, helping her as a teenager deal with the pressure. SemDem of the Daily Kos community wrote about the next nasty law coming out of Florida. It is a “Don’t say gay” bill to prevent teachers from discussing LGBTQ issues. Or that we exist. This is during a legislative session full of bills to ban books about race and the Holocaust, and ban lessons that might may white people feel discomfort. Also in the news: Florida has a massive teacher shortage. SemDem suggests boycotting companies based in Florida. This post has a link to a list. MSNBC tweeted a link to an article on their site with this quote as an intro:

54% of American adults between the ages of 16-74 read below a 6th grade level. So that means we have an epidemic of illiteracy," professor Brittney Cooper reacts to book banning. "If you make people ignorant, then it becomes much easier to control them.

Aldous Pennyfarthing of the Kos community discussed a national security hole. After the nasty guy’s accounting firm said their statements over the last ten year cannot be relied upon, no legitimate bank is going to allow him to be a client, and certainly not give him a loan. So who will? Saudis, Russians, narcoterrorists. And what would they want for giving the nasty guy a loan? National Security secrets. That’s why security clearance isn’t given to people who are financially compromised. Maybe we should be glad he never read the daily security briefs. The nasty guy is being sued in civil court for his actions before the January 6th Capitol attack. I’m not sure why a criminal suit hasn’t been brought, but we’ll take what we can get. Mark Sumner of Kos reported on Friday Judge Amit Mehta ruled the suit against the nasty guy can proceed. Giuliani and nasty junior are excluded because they didn’t actually call for violence at the rally just before the attack. But the nasty guy actually called his followers to “fight” as part of asking them to march on the Capitol. Some of the things Mehta wrote about in his ruling. Yes, public speaking is part of a president’s official duties. But not everything he says in public is part of those duties. A president speaking cannot be immune from a civil suit. The nasty guy called his followers to fight knowing militia groups were in the crowd and were prone to violence. And he appeared to ratify that violence in a tweet afterward. Keep this ruling around for the criminal cases. Rebekah Sager of Kos profiled John Boyd, Jr., a black farmer. Boyd went to the Farmer’s Home Administration. White farmers were able to get loans. He was denied, repeatedly. So in 1995 he formed the National Black Farmers Association. The NBFA sued. The USDA settled for $50K to each black farmer, though many of them didn’t know about it until it was too late to apply. Boyd went back to Congress to get the time limit extended. Last year the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill included $5 billion for farmers of color. Sid Miller, Texas Republican Agriculture Commissioner, challenged that part of the law as discriminatory. Boyd said:

All these white farmers out on the federal court, talking about reverse discrimination. I read the complaint, and I'll be honest with you, I almost fell out of my chair. They left out the part that says they got debt relief the whole time and pretty much all the loans. I mean, $1 million per farmer and subsidies, meaning they don’t even have to pay it back. While we, Black farmers, are getting foreclosed on, white farmers are getting debt relief. In all the years I went to court, I never once sued to stop white farmers from getting anything. These guys went to court to deny Black farmers our justice. And it’s a continuation of Jim Crow. They want everything, and we should have nothing. ... Here’s the thing. I’m a 6-foot-tall, 240 pound Black man. I’ve got a baritone voice and dark skin. I’m the epitome of a Black man in this country. I don’t want this country to look at me and that’s all they see. I want them to look at me and say, “this guy’s been farming since 1983. He knows his trade, his art, his skill. Let’s see what we can do to work with him.” That’s what America has to do. And until we are able to accept that, we're going to continue to have the same discussion.

Cirien Saadeh of Kos Prism reported on the basic income pilot project launched by St. Paul, Minnesota. As have previous projects, this one showed how a little extra money a month can help a poor person improve their lives. Saadeh tells some of their stories. The program has worked so well that dozens of other cities, including Minneapolis, have launched similar programs. This week’s pro-vaccine memes, assembled by Kos of Kos, are here. My favorites:

So you think COVID is a Chinese bioweapon? OK, so you’ll wear masks and get vaccinated against it... You’ll actually protect yourself from this Chinese bioweapon, right?

One showing a newly married couple at their reception:

And a toast to vaccines! Thanks to vaccines, we won’t need to have 10 children in hopes that 3 or 4 of them live to adulthood.

Showing what might be a magazine cover with brief summaries of the stories inside (an excerpt):

ANTI-VAXXER The Magazine for Absolute Twats It’s My Body, My Choice Writes an old white man who is against abortion