Republican idiocy

Back to the basics of miscommunications:

In the age of texting, tweeting and other technological ways of communicating, North Carolina’s elementary school students could soon have to master a more old-fashioned craft: writing in cursive. “Every child should know cursive,” said state Rep. Pat Hurley, an Asheboro Republican and a primary sponsor of the bill. “Our children can’t write a simple sentence. They think printing their name is their signature.”

I have yet to read a hand-written note in cursive that didn't have at least one inscrutable word in it. You know why they call it cursive, right? Because when you come back from the store and you've got gorgonzola instead of garbanzo, it's not the note writer who has to run back to the store, it's the note reader. And he or she will be cursing all the way to and from said store, with maybe a little sotto voce grumbling at the beans themselves. Which they don't deserve, but that's what happens when unnecessary confusion arises.

It must be difficult to find so many people unsuited for their new jobs:

Randy H. Dishong was hired Monday as chief enforcer of the state’s car inspection and registration laws. The next day, he had to take care of an inspection and registration problem with his own car. DOT and DMV officials did not respond to requests for comment about Dishong’s fitness to oversee state enforcement of car registration laws. Beaty said the agency would not provide details about his car, including how long ago the registration had expired.

Again, vetting. I'm sure many Republicans will look at this and say, "No big deal." And in doing so, they will fail to grasp the larger point: how can you expect performance and efficiencies from an administration that keeps making such poor selections for leadership posts?

Not that NC Republicans read Esquire Magazine, but still:

Naturally, if you make the unemployed even more desperate more quickly, the "job creators" will respond by hiring all of them at the same wages they were being paid before they were laid off, or even perhaps at a higher wage, because that is the way "job creators" always have operated in this exceptional country of ours. Otherwise, one might suggest that the governor has decided that it's North Carolina's turn to prance around in Mississippi drag.

As much as I hate to say it, I think we can expect much more negative national attention, and probably more than our fair share of negative international attention. But I doubt it will have much impact on the behavior of Republicans here, as reality isn't their strong suit.

ProgressNC_GB 1:36am via Web Guv won't disclose, divest, recuse, or veto. The Utilities Comm., proposed rate hikes, McCrory's Duke stock. #ilm powermadpowergrab.com

Noteworthy:

•Gov. McCrory, a long-time Duke Energy employee with a financial interest in the company, will now have the power to appoint a whole new Utilities Commission – the very board that regulates how much Duke Power can charge for its services. There are rate increase requests pending even now. Who do you think will prevail in front of a commission stacked with Duke Energy allies – you, the ratepayer, or the power company?

And keeps the gold gas for itself:

Lee County officials this month released detailed property data revealing who owns the mineral rights to extract natural gas or other buried resources. The data shows that the owners of 365 parcels, on about 12 square miles, do not own the rights to drill or mine under their land. Many of them are concentrated in the northwestern gas-rich section of the county.

Much of which the King of Deforestation leased to gas companies a few years ago, with (of course) no warning at all to the people living on the land. More from Reuters:

Stand back, the flip-floppers are at it again:

tmorman 10:26am via web RT @Rob_Schofield: Tillis on past House GOP support for health care exchange: "That was then, this is now" #flipflop #ncga #ncpol #ncgov #governorpope

In other words, the people can't trust a damned thing you say, because your opinion follows whatever hot air is blowing up your arse at the time.

Methinks The Pilot is lost in the storm of propaganda:

In its comprehensive report "Energy Outlook 2030," the London-based BP asserts that the United States will be 99 percent energy self-sufficient by 2030, largely because of shale gas and oil produced by hydraulic fracturing.

Oil companies like BP have been pushing this meme for several years now, with the goal (like this author) of promoting the idea that we can drill our way to independence. But the reality of the global oil trade cuts the legs out from under this fantasy: