Welcome to the Karma Cafe

[Econoline]

This epic poem was written and posted on Facebook by Marcus Bales.

• • The Eighty-Sixing of Sarah Huckabee Sanders
    
    Listen, my children, I'll tell it again:
    The tale of the valiant little Red Hen.
    But that will be the very last time
    Since Stephanie Wilkinson doesn't rhyme
    With anything, and only slanders
    Rhyme with Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
    And as for Lexington, Virginia
    What a great big coccydynia
    It is to find a rhyme for that
    That's not obscure, cliched, or flat.
    Don't rustle candy bags or cough
    Remember to turn your cell phones off
    Stand for the anthem, cover your heart,
    Or take a knee. All right, I'll start.
    Some context first: conservatives,
    Who care more how each neighbor lives
    Than living right themselves, declared
    That businesses should be prepared
    To quiz their customers to see
    If they might be LGBT
    Or Q, and then if so then they
    Refuse to serve in any way,
    And throw that business out the door
    To try to hurt the other more.
    Republicans will sacrifice
    Their values, valuables, and price
    By throwing business out the door
    Since they think that hurts others more.
    So, now, two hundred miles from town
    A big-wig family settles down
    To try some farm-to-table food
    Out where their party won't get booed
    By other bigots if they're caught
    At dinner in some liberal spot.
    ‘Cause when you're real reactionary
    You learn you must be very wary
    Of what your fellow zealots think
    Of where you go to eat and drink
    Or else get slagged off as a tourist
    Although you were the purest purist
    Within the cult of fear and hate,
    And be cast out through the flaming gate.
    So: many miles away, they prize
    Their evening off from prying eyes,
    Anticipating they would eat
    Just like the liberal elite.
    How far they drove before they parked
    Went absolutely unremarked;
    The irony that they had sought
    A respite from their cultish thought
    Among the liberals they feared
    Was passed by like it wasn't weird.
    And then, of course, the Red Hen's crew
    Was partly LGBTQ,
    And didn't want to use their skill
    To serve those who so wished them ill.
    The honesty of farm-to-table,
    Transparency on every label
    Or menu item, was up against
    The lies that Huckabee dispensed;
    She spread her lies and fear and hate
    Pretending it made America great.
    A situation past retrieving
    Resulted in the party leaving.
    Not because she's in a cult,
    But rather since as an adult
    Who has a choice, she's told her lies
    And spread her hate. It's no surprise
    That what she does could not be fixed;
    Her conduct got her eighty-sixed.

This deserves the highest of accolades—if for no other reason than the use of the word "coccydynia" in a rhyme.

[Sue U]

Well Sue, while I don't agree with the result of your conclusion, I do think it makes sense. And, as you say, we must each decide where to draw the line.

While I won't join you in cheering the banning of Trump supporters from restaurants or other busiensses, I will join you and others who seek to unseat this abomination who is called president, and will join in the decrying of the policies, and to raise that point as much as I can.

Especially with the way the SC upheld the travel ban today (another point of shame for the US), we must get rid of this ass.

If I had the tools at my disposal, I would have Trump, Sessions, Sanders, Stephen Miller and anyone else responsible for this fiasco arrested and tried for crimes against humanity.

[Big RR]

I think that makes a lot of sense.

I don't think we are very far apart on our positions, only on what tactics are acceptable. As an example, while someone killing Trump wouldn't bother me in the least, I wouldn't defend it as right either (all legalities aside); and IMHO it would better than he deserves for what he has done. However, I just couldn't support such action.

[RayThom]

[Econoline]

[Econoline]

"OH YEAH...AND ONE MORE THING...WE ALMOST FORGOT: MAKE SURE OUR OPPONENTS CAN'T VOTE ANYMORE."

[wesw]

I understand that the Red Hen will be closed until July 5th.......

I guess she doesn t want to serve any people who would celebrate such a racist holiday.....

hey, she can refuse service to anyone, in my opinion, but you kinda need customers to turn a profit...., right? Right!?

karma indeed.

[Scooter]

She is shut down because your friends vandalized the place and sent her death threats.

That's the sort of behaviour that passes for "civility" among Trump supporters.

[Big RR]

Probably worth a visit; Iunfortunately it is not in DC (where I will be late next week), but is about 3 hours away. But if anyone is in Lexington VA, I would urge them to visit.

As I said above, I don't condone the owner's behavior, but cannot stand intimidation of this type; we have to stand up against the jerks who choose to threaten and vandalize.

[Guinevere]

Saw a post today that they are booked solid for the next month!

Who goes to a restaurant on the 4th? Isn't it better to give the hard working employees a day off so they can celebrate freedom and independence?

[Big RR]

I wonder if they'll ship takeout?

[wesw]

yeah, guin....

y'er right there..., every tom, denise and harry is gonna have their grill fired up for the fourth....

RR, are you sure about the veracity of the reports of vandalism and harassment?

my friends and I would never do anything like that.

I believe in the market, as you seem to believe.

you would go to support her, I would not go because I would not be welcome.

half the country would not be welcome.

let me ask you, and guin, as lawyers......

screaming and yelling , with spittle flying, right in someones face, using filthy curses and slurs, in front of children, in the street or in a restaurant is harassment, it is disturbing the peace, it can be considered assault in extreme cases,

is that correct?

[Sue U]

Civility, because that always works out great!

NEW YORK TIMES, JUNE 15, 1934:













Loves me some Quakers, but pacifism has its limits.

[wesw]

well, you might begin a revolution , but you are unlikely to win a free election with that strategy.

[Big RR]

From what I've read from major news sources, I think that's the case, but I have not witnessed it directly (but if I used my direct experience as the only way to believe something, I would not believe there was an Afghanistan or Iraq either).

As for your second question, I really can't say because Virginia law would govern (and I don't know Virginia law) and I think any charge assault would be very fact sensitive and would ordinarily include the imminent risk of some sort of violence. General screaming and yelling in the street, it could be a Trump rally for all I know.

Sue--I guess it depends on whether you're seeking to effect change through talk or to abandon the discussions in favor of revolution. Antagonizing the other side and then complaining that we can't talk or reach a compromise with them is pretty disingenuous.

[Econoline]

[Sue U]

screaming and yelling , with spittle flying, right in someones face, using filthy curses and slurs, in front of children, in the street or in a restaurant is harassment, it is disturbing the peace, it can be considered assault in extreme cases,

To be very clear, NO ONE screamed and yelled at Sarah Huckabee Sanders in that restaurant, or used filthy curses or slurs. A server noted who was at the table and brought it to the attention of the chef who called the owner:

[Owner Stephanie] Wilkinson explains that her staff initially seated Sanders and her family and served them cheese plates before the chef called Wilkinson for advice on how to proceed.

Wilkinson, who was at home that evening, came into the restaurant and talked the issue over with her staff. She says they all objected to Sanders’ defense of Trump’s since-reversed child separation policy and his desire to ban transgender people from the military. Wilkinson says she personally believes that Sanders works for an “inhumane and unethical” administration and defends the president’s cruelest policies.

But Wilkinson left the decision up to her staff. She says she told them, “Tell me what you want me to do. I can ask her to leave. They said ‘yes.’ ”

Wilkinson recalls walking up to Sanders at her table and saying, “I’m the owner. I’d like you to come out to the patio with me for a word.”

After the two stepped outside, Wilkinson says, “I was babbling a little, but I got my point across in a polite and direct fashion. I explained that the restaurant has certain standards that I feel it has to uphold, such as honesty, and compassion, and cooperation.”

“I said, ‘I’d like to ask you to leave.’ ”

Wilkinson said Sanders immediately responded, “That’s fine. I’ll go.”

Before leaving, the Sanders family offered to pay for the cheese plates they had ordered but Wilkinson told them the food was on the house.

Source.

All very civil.

Then SHS had to go and create a national shitstorm over it by tweeting on her official account, in violation of federal ethics rules, whining about how unfair it is that The Owner Of the Red Hen Restaurant In Lexington Va., Just In Case You Wanted To Send Your Hate, thinks she's an enabling monster. (She is an enabling monster.)

Honestly, fuck her and the high horse she rode in on.

[wesw]

so this Clydesdale saunters up to this Shire horse and remarks on his unusual height, for a horse....

...then they laughed and laughed in the way that only giraffes can understand.

[Scooter]

Looks like the heroin supply was especially pure this week.

[Lord Jim]

so this Clydesdale saunters up to this Shire horse and remarks on his unusual height, for a horse....

...then they laughed and laughed in the way that only giraffes can understand.

...When logic and proportion have fallen sloppy dead
And the white knight is talking backwards
And the red queen's off with her head
Remember what the dormouse said...