The catch is “a judge believes” because, in my experience, the judge doesn’t know anything other than “not here” and assumes willful contempt.

there’s always the fabled “cheaper apartment.” Which is sure to be just as spacious, safe and well-located and perfect for the family in every way, but less $$.

ah, “former landlord.” So someone that profited from not fixing but collecting the rent, then complaining about wear and tear to not give the deposit back.

I have done debtor and creditor side collection work. It’s miserable work occupied by miserable people and that’s mainly the collection lawyers. I’ve never met a group so ready to engage in willful ignorance about the realities of poverty living in order to ring a dollar or two out of a debtor.

As mentally ill American, I’m getting pretty tired of being the scapegoat for white men with bruised egos.

A friend who works as a Public Defender was expounding on this yesterday. Things that used to be suspension or detention now result in teachers calling in the SRO or the outside PD. Friend is very frustrated by it. We have a poor and increasingly POC/ESL town. Teacher vacancies aren’t getting filled, so what is left…

Sadly, this.

Dealing with my own elderly relatives, which is by no means an adequate sample size, made me think that it’s that they grew up/lived for many years with “real” news and anything that meets their definition of “real enough” is believed. There’s a confirmation bias issue, too, but they seem to think that The Facebook…

You described my older relatives. They were Reagan conservatives who thought communism was the worst thing ever and Russians would kill us in our beds. But despite being very much like the old USSR, they are suddenly okay if it prevents Brown President.

I’ve had to cut out a lot of family members over the past year. Every post they make is Obama-birther/racist, Trump from God, Trump saves economy, etc etc and then I’m the bad guy when I bring up that “liberal trash site Snopes.”

I can remember a couple of protesting students in my school days who were met with overwhelming displays of authoritarianism. I hope these kids keep going strong.

I hope you, or Splinter people working with you, can expand on the heartbreaking story.

The “they already broke the law” people amaze me in their willful ignorance and delusion. They cannot grasp that “there is no legal path to be a citizen” is a thing—they think you just apply and get a magic card if you answer some Buzzfeed-quiz history questions.

My (k-12) school was tiny in comparison...and was still a warren of halls, alcoves, and rooms that a professional SWAT team would be reluctant to walk into. (Source: SWAT team guy who I was talking to about this at lunch. Having to enter a school is a nightmare for him, given the massive chance for collateral damage.)

I went to a college that turned out a lot of teachers. Some of them shouldn’t have been trusted with sharp pencils, much less automatic weapons.

Yes, but twelve inches of that...

Oh, good. Three hours of “what went wrong?” and “how can she move on?” talking heads at NBC.

Local captain of industry who was a founder of my town used to import Swedes straight from Europe to work for him instead of hiring the undesirable Italians who were already here. Intermarriage was cause for expulsion from church/family and schools/neighborhoods were entirely separate. Then some black folks moved…

Exactly. Or even if they don’t have the exotic weapons in play, they have well-trained soldiers with daily PT and combat experience. Exactly how are you taking out a team that surrounds your house, Cletus?

A while back, I pointed this out and the reply was, basically, noise and nonsense. As you might expect. Something about how the Army would really switch sides to support blah blah blah.