“Market prices for this new housing are likely to far exceed the already high prices that existed in Lahaina before the fire. For renters, the old housing stock that was destroyed provided opportunities for reasonable rents,”

I think this is the issue. Poor folks live in older buildings. Can't rebuild new old, run-down cheap neighborhoods.

Firefighters — who once backed the DeSantis takeover — are among those furious about the changes

"I didn't think the leopards would eat my face."

benefits like park passes are unethical.

Wtf. Perks are win-win. It's a trivial expense to allow employees to use existing company assets, but it's very valuable to the employees. Boss gets happy employees for less expense. Both sides are happy. No, that's bad because:

"Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God," the passage began. "And those which exist are established by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves."

Ok, I didn't see anything about perks there, but this logic supports gassing Jews (what the local authority wanted) and condemns smuggling them out of Germany (opposing God apparently).

These people are dangerously insane.

My dad (silent generation): Back in my day, a guy could get a job at a gas station and be able to own a house and support a stay-at-home wife and kids. I dunno how you kids make it.

Me (gen X): Back in my day, a guy could get a job at a gas station and afford rent and food. I dunno how you kids make it.

I'm not sure when the guy in the comic was born. Medieval times maybe? Because economic conditions for working class folks have been getting steadily worse for the entire lifespan of everyone alive today, at least in the US.

Playing music. Started on a shitty hand-me-down acoustic guitar. Got a better guitar. Got an electric. Got a better amp. Got a couple of pedals. Got a better amp. Got like 6 more amps, some cabs, 5 more guitars, a huge pedalboard, a cello, a keyboard, an audio interface, attenuators, mics, etc etc.

You gotta understand... I need all this stuff. There are subtle differences that you've never noticed before but will probably hear once I do an a/b comparison for you, and I absolutely must get an AC15 next to round out the collection instead of buckling down and recording something.

Article: The phrase "Rich men north of Richmond" is a cleverly disguised antisemitic trope

The guy that wrote the song: “It was funny seeing my song at that (Republican) presidential debate. Because I wrote that song about those people"

Source for quote:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/aug/25/rich-men-north-of-richmond-oliver-anthony-republicans

Calling everything racist isn't helpful. This song is a poor man's cry for economic justice, and instead of saying "yeah, that's the 1% we've been complaining about, come over to our side," the left calls it racist because it has Southern imagery in it.

Once upon a time, Republican leadership were smart but evil people who fed lies to their base but understood that they were lying. Since they weren't actually delusional, they could choose the most politically useful lies and abandon the ones that didn't poll well.

Enough people believed their lies that the new generation of Republicans are True Believers. They've lost the ability to tailor their message to the political climate because it's no longer seen as just a bunch of crap to please the base, but TRUTH. Except that it's not actually true, so their policies fail.

This is the inevitable result of governing through falsehood. Objective reality can not be gaslit, and abandoning it never works out well long-term.

Let’s keep it civil

Oh, in that case I don't have a comment on the American healthcare system.

Looks good for at least another couple of hundred yards.

Eggs are gross.

They're both violations of the conditions of release. Two separate violations, unrelated except for being prohibited behavior.

He organized an event without getting a permit.

The permitting process ensures that there's adequate security, traffic control, etc.

He didn't do any of that legally required stuff, and the result was an angry mob. We've been through this. This is why you need a permit for large public gatherings, and why he's legally liable for what happened.

"We've decided to expand our policy of not paying bills. We're now retroactively un-paying bills we've already paid."