Billy Shreve has been using his social media vocally to criticize the NFL over the past few days. What’s that about? Most likely he’s upset that players are getting horrible degenerative brain diseases caused by repeated concussions. Or maybe this story about the Seahawks’ Michael Bennett chapped his hide and he wants to see some action. Surely it couldn’t have anything to do with peaceful protests or the national anthem. And now, this:
Surely he means to publicly criticize China for curtailing the free exercise of religion.
In case a refresher is needed, the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution reads:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Since his other half is famous from sea to shining sea for threatening to sue a reporter who used his name–the name of an elected public official–in the newspaper without his permission, we are beginning to wonder what parts of the Bill of Rights they like. Is it just the shoot ’em up part that the NRA likes to quote, but also leaves out some of the words when they do? Aren’t the conservatives the constitutional “originalists?” Which unsurprisingly seems like it’s only a concept held dearly to people who have always been considered 5/5ths of a person.
We would like to leave you with a little music to enjoy on this fine fall day. May we all remember that America means we pledge daily to the ideals of liberty and justice for all.
Loquacious lecturing Tony Chmelik–imagine our surprise when we fret that Shrelauter will muck things up, and then he takes the reins. He got into orator mode again this week, and man we can do without the Tony with a condescending tone schtick. Sighhhh.
There was long discussion of the River Board process, which had Councilman Chmelik frustrated with the time these things take and the lack of television air time, but the bulk of his grievances centered on County Executive Jan Gardner’s public briefing last week regarding the school capacity report and traffic study. And he wrote and delivered an exhausting, pompous speech on the matter, in lieu of discussing like a normal person.
Jessica Fitzwater criticized him for wanting to spend additional taxpayer dollars to find something that reached conclusions he agreed with, and after listening to him complain about money already spent and tiresome, lengthy processes, it was hard not to see her point. He had some great ideas in there, though, such as how it would be inaccurate to assume all the houses would actually be sold (????). We find that kind of funny coming from someone with as large a family as he has. Why didn’t the report assume families of twelve would move into every one of those homes? We can come at this from both sides, dude. It also bugged him out that increasing costs of construction weren’t factored in, and isn’t that shooting yourself in the foot, if you want to say maybe we don’t need to plan for big expenses? We have a confuse.
At any rate, that finally ended (if you’d like to know more, the Frederick News Post has a good run down that won’t make you want to stab yourself in the ears; we cannot recommend actually exposing yourself to the archives of this meeting) and they went into closed session. Chmelik helpfully acknowledged during Council Member Comments that we had probably heard enough from him. Hoo-boy. Truer words never spoken.
And then, apparently national laughingstock Kirby Delauter wanted to take it outside with Jerry Donald over that meme someone made with Jerry spanking Kirby. We’ll put it in here for educational purposes, since he’s opened the door to that (genius!), and ICYMI. It’s in reference to Jerry Donald using his social media account to publicize the inaccuracy of Kirby’s assertions that the Democrats on the Council are planning to make Frederick a sanctuary county. How dare he insist Misleading Push-Poll and Fake News Employer Kirby stick to the facts. This caused Kirby to (allegedly) call him another name for a trendy pink knitted lady hat, approximately one time for each woman who attended that march, it sounds like. He wants Jerry Donald to monitor his Facebooking more closely, which is beyond hilarious, considering the source. Maybe Kirby should worry about the damage he does with his own Facebook account. Or lippy outbursts.
Did we think this was worth using? Not that much, really. Now that the context has changed? Yes, yes it is.
A Miner Detail spoke with Delauter, who claims that M.C. Keegen-Ayer and Jerry Donald just want to make the council look foolish–an assertion that causes us to hoot in side-spitting, knee slapping laughter, given the dedication he has to looking like a fool all by his own self.
Do you know what? Billy Shreve wasn’t even worth mentioning. That’s how bad all this was!
Yesterday, County Executive Jan Gardner held a press conference on residential growth. Though this is probably no surprise to our readers, the last BOCC really screwed us! Here’s some highlights from the power point presentation that accompanied the briefing:
Holy Crap People! How did we let this happen?
If all that doesn’t show the importance of paying attention to local issues, we don’t know what will! What is almost incomprehensible about all this is that one of the people on that 2010-2014 board thinks that he should run the whole county! Here’s his “Issues” page from his County Executive webpage:
Well, we know from the whole Citizens’/Montevue sell off that seniors are not his priority. He also has not numerically been able to defend his school lease idea, though he has been given opportunities to do so. Isn’t it in question whether he is for or against sanctuary counties? And proven track record?! BAAHAA, just scroll up!!! It’s one thing that we let the Young BOCC get away with what they did. However, if we choose to elect a person to our highest county office who literally sold us away to developers, and put us on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars, then we really don’t care about this place that we call home.
Your Local Yokels are staring in disbelief at our televisions again this morning, for what seems like infinite mornings at this point. Every once in awhile some dolt’s irresponsible shrieking about “Rain Tax” worms it’s way into our consciousness and turns into a rage supernova. Just as it did a moment ago, when CNN showed an arial view from the 1950’s of the Addicks Reservoir west of Houston. This is a picture of the dry reservoir that normally serves as a park, with vast farmland property to the northwest of that. Then they showed a photo of today, where hundereds of thousands of closely packed homes and the network of roads and driveways and patios create an impermeable surface nightmare that overwhelms the flood control system. This is clearly a catastrophe of historic proportions, but the situation is not helped by the lack of policy and regulation, and conditions that coddle developers over residents. Things that Houston and Texas both are famous for. This is what happens when you have irresponsible, unchecked development and ignorance of the mitigating solutions. For now, the solution is to produce controlled flooding of properties downstream (including the downtown area) in the hopes that the levees there and at a second reservoir under similar strain do not catastrophically fail all at once, and create a much more destructive and dangerous condition.
This situation is not nearly over. In our region we typically deal with inconvenient storms that you can plow and shovel and move and sometimes relocate and dump and melt. Here we see a virtually flat city inundated, and people have been lost to both rising and rushing waters that are far more difficult to control. Due to our landscape, flood waters can also come at us rushing downhill. The fact that anyone around here ever behaved as though this is a strain on developers ignores the strain on life and property for potential victims. Let this be an ongoing lesson to those who may want to turn on the television and reexamine their priorities. The average annual rainfall in most of Maryland is only a few inches different from the norm for the Texas Gulf Coast.
In the meantime, do what you can to help Texas and now Louisiana, as Harvey continues to hammer them.
LOLOLOLOLOLOLLLLLLLL look what we found before we published! You fool. It’s used to justify it because the facts check out. Your pal Fred Propheter is correct–proper planning (including funding mitigating drainage systems to handle the water) is necessary. You have to pay for that somehow! Now we get to tag Kirby Delauter and the CE race in this. Well played, social media treasure trove! You be you!
Same batguano time, same batguano channel, folks (that’s channel 19 if you’re new here, and if so you will be able to distinguish the local boosters from the local haters right away).
Also, Confederate Kirby is still campaigning for County Exec, so there’s guaranteed grandstanding during council member comments. If Billy is worse drink a Dirty Carnie, and if Kirby is worse drink a Dirty South.
And remember folks, Frederick County’s best stories are about running the Rebs out of town…seems like some of our local folk are having a hard time recalling poor Ms. Barbara Fritchie’s old gray head.
We cannot believe you are making us interrupt her resting in peace again.
Here are two dueling local radio hosts: Dave Schmidt being 100% accurate, and Bob Miller with #teamdelauter not catching on that the Nazis are still the bad guys. They are debating over a characteristically ridiculous statement Kirby made to Danielle Gaines of the Frederick News Post.
Here’s the money quote. “I don’t condone any of it. One side’s as bad as the other. We should all get together with the one common goal to make this country great,” he said.
The alt-right is not a thing. It is a rebranding, because supposedly we all know that. If you look at the Totally Nazi Invitation for “Unite the Right” there are Third Reich eagles all over it along with the “Heritage Not Hate LOL WTF” flag. It’s weird how those things are always hanging out together. Birds of a feather, etc. If there were no Nazi rally, with their Nazi graphic design, there would not have been a thing. The Nazi side actually killed someone. Get a flipping clue here, people.
This was the poster inviting Trump’s “very good people” to the Unite the Right rally. Note the Nazi imagery and the speakers: pic.twitter.com/3MOVdyKD3T
One side is out at night carrying torches and making Klan salutes, but in 2017 they are brazen enough to have their Klanfest without even having the decency to cover their pasty faces. Look how samesies the other side is, out at night having a candlelight vigil for a young lady killed by a Nazi. “Both sides!!!!!”
Spectacular photo of our side in Charlottesville, the only side for love and equality for all. pic.twitter.com/RvTVLYKB1y
We had a lot of company this week in calling out Kirby Delauter for his assertion that the U.S. Civil War was fought over “total freedom.” Both Seventh State and Red Maryland took Kirby to task for the completely inaccurate assessment that this war had nothing to do with race.
Yesterday we shared a screen shot of Kirby’s response to the writer of the Seventh State piece on our Facebook page. Here’s part of the conversation in case you missed it:
Sorry, Shadow! There’s no way for us to clear all that up for you!
Besides coming across as a bully, does he understand the concept of on and off the record? We think not. And how is taking what he said and writing about it a hit piece? A hit piece is presenting false or biased information. Just because he didn’t want everyone to see his stream of consciousness, doesn’t mean any of it isn’t true! If anything, the citizens of this county have the right to know how the person who wants to lead our fine county feels about these types of issues!
So, why all the outrage? We figured it out last night when we saw the Frederick News Post piece entitled:
“Political Notes: Delauter says Facebook post not intended to stoke Civil War threats”
You see, Kirby no likey when he has to talk to the FNP reporters. So, instead of taking any responsibility for his posts, (or learning any lessons from his endless social media gaffes) he goes after one of the bloggers who dared to point out his own words to everyone else. And, he didn’t do himself any favors in this “on the record” interview with Danielle Gaines either. Just check this quote out:
“I don’t condone any of it. One side’s as bad as the other. We should all get together with the one common goal to make this country great,” he said.
Isn’t that so very Trumpy of Kirby!? There is NO moral equivalence between the two sides in Charlottesville. Nazis are always the bad guys, Kirby!! White Supremacists are always on the wrong side! We will not for one second tolerate this moral equivalency!
He also doubles down on his reasons for why the war was fought and why he thinks we have problems today (Spolier alert: It’s all the leftists fault!):
Delauter said he does believe that the primary issue driving the Civil War was states’ rights.
“The slavery was obviously part of that, but I think the crux of it was states’ rights, the South wanting to secede,” he said.
He said he thinks the primary issues of today are not based in race, but in politics.
“I don’t think the crux of our problem of what is going on is race. I think it’s a deeper problem of division from the right and the left,” Delauter said. “… The left is trying to shove everything down everyone’s throat, removing statues. Everything they want, they gotta get or they riot, they burn things down, they destroy property.”
Kirby, read the Secession documents! Anyone who thinks that the Nazi side wasn’t the bad guys, watch this:
You may have naively thought that Kirby would step away from the computer for a few days. But, you would be very wrong indeed:
Mike Signer is the mayor of Charlottesville in case you didn’t know.
Is this the kind of “straight shooter” we want running our county?
The layers of this onion are as swollen and pregnant as John Donne’s flea.
What meanest thou, dim hashtag? It could be argued that this writer believes in deriding the elites of the tech world, in spite of the irony that those individuals make so many of the dollars that help keep the economy from sucking like a flea. A descendant theory holds that it is mere ambivalence to the U.S. stock market and its investors. Whatever the intent, this collection of loaded imagery calls the reader to remember the author’s relationship to the ironic tension created through his advocacy of the tech free Jefferson Tech Park.
The prevailing scholars at present concur that Delauter is implying #fakenews, and the statement “we don’t need them any longer,” must be interpreted as an insistence that the only news others should read is the propaganda disseminated via Facebook videos Trump’s minions produce, the Increasingly Nuclear Twitter War Tweets of POTUS himself, and retweets from members of his “intellectual” coterie. One notable local member is Councilman Billy Shreve. This is a device one will see frequently employed within the wing nut genre: by employing a heavily loaded allusion, such as the one to Soros, his reader is immediately aware of the team he plays for. It is critical for the writer convey that he is not on the team of reason and science and engineering and physics, dear readers. His allegiance is to #teamcovfefe, also referred to in texts as A Basket of Gullibles.
As to which interpretation is the writer’s intended one, readers may also determine that the answer is most like Sarah Palin’s news sources: all of them, Katie!
You guys. Kirby has a T-shirt ostensibly intended to allow firefighters to show support for his campaign, and we cannot wait for you see it! It says, “Extinguish bad government/Vote Kirby Delauter” and depicts a flame throwing fire extinguisher…um…torching everything in sight. Now, we are not professional fire fighters, but we are pretty sure that isn’t how you put out fires.
Doesn’t it have a blowtorch effect? My oh my, this is too much fun. It gives that flow chart a run for its money on giggle fit potential.
It is poignant, y’all. What a master of symbolism. We had no idea of the fertile artistic mind operating behind that basic dude/common clay image. Accidental brilliance. What could better represent the unintended consequences that would result from voting for this dingdong. Way to fan the flames, man!
Another fun thing we’ve noticed is that he is taking pictures of random individuals. Individuals. Then he tags them with some category. Say Kirby bumps into Joe the Plumber at the carnival, right? And Joe, who you may have heard is a plumber, is apparently feeling kindly toward Kirby, who <<waves wand, a la peanut butter and jelly sandwiches>> becomes a movement like Plumbers for Kirby. So much for his English degree. That’s not how singular and plural work, but better luck next time.
May this campaign never end. It is such a delightful diversion from our national nightmare. However, we do notice that Women for Kirby has 117 likes, and like Hair Furor’s approval rating, that is too many. Don’t get carried away here, people.
Those are the RINOs? Wowza. Kirby’s on well water, right? I hope whatever is poisoning his kooky noggin is not affecting the rest of us. Aside: 52 Followers? Good luck with your campaign #52. And best of all a parody account from back in the “Don’t put my name in the paper without permission” days has 10 times as many. Oh, man.
Apparently Trump is the ne plus ultra. What must it be like to live in this delusional world where the kooky president did nothing to promote his own party’s bill, one time said this was easy and we’d have healthcare for all–obviously before he mused, “Who knew healthcare was so complicated?” Apply the magical thinking sauce, and he’s somehow the only one who isn’t at fault. Trump is the head of a nuttier cult than the Scientologists. Honestly, we still can’t understand how a man who says whatever pops into his brain (ineloquently) and contradicts himself from one day to the next has the respect of anyone. On the other hand, we haven’t been out there entertaining the idea that #kirbydelauter was a misunderstood genius, either.
Obviously, Kirby the wannabe is well positioned to respect someone who is successfully using every opportunity for the government to line his pockets by putting everyone up at a family owned property at the many opportunities afforded to do so by his impressive golfing breaks from his cable news diet. Cue sad trombone for the excavator who wished in vain to get county contracts, but the council said, “No no no,” like good ol Amy Winehouse.
Just yesterday a poll said about a third of the Trumpin’ cohort don’t believe DJT Junior met with the Ruskies, in spite of the fact that we know because he told us he did! How are we supposed to live in a society with these fools? Let’s not see this one elected to County Executive. We’re not too proud to beg.
frederick local yokel 