Encounter with an A$$*ol* Republican Teabagger at the grocery store.

[1monster]

My car has developed some vacuum hose leaks (we found two) and hasn't been running well enough for me to risk taking it on the road till all are found and fixed. So I waited till my husband got home from work at 10:15 tonight to take a late night run to the grocery store for necessities (dog food and cat food! as well as people food).

While we were loading up his ancient (1994) Chevy van with our purchases, a big guy (older with pale gray hair) walked by asking if we'd seen "the crop of bums we are raising in this country." And my husband answered, "Yeah, and all of them are in Washington."

Then he walked back toward us and said, "Did you hear what they are doing with the military in Afghanistan?" And I asked what? He said, "Obama's so petty he's refusing to pay for the funerals and death benefits for the soldiers."

I answered, "Well that's because the Republicans shut down the government and won't fund anything."

He got angry and said that's not so, blah blah. And I said, "yes it is true. I keep pretty well informed, but I'm not going to argue with you."

At which point he became so incensed that he pointed to the groceries that we were loading and said, "Let me ask you this, HOW MUCH OF THAT AM I PAYING FOR?"

Now I am incensed, actually infuriated. "Nothing! We both work!" "Yeah, right," was his rejoiner as he made tracks away. I hope not so fast that he didn't hear me say "what an asshole."

My husband and I both work and have fortunately never had to rely on public assistance. But I'm not unaware that bad luck and circustances could change that for us as it has for many.

What I can't understand is the absolute hatefulness people like that jackass to perfect strangers. And how would have someone who was forced to rely on public assistance felt to hear the contempt of that jackass.

I'm not a vindictive person, but I would love to grind his face into a bit of poverty for a while. I don't think he'd learn anything, but one could hope.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

1. Admire your restraint.

Because if he accused me of that I might have decked him. Bullies tend to back down pretty quick when they're stood to.

[BootinUp]

2. Question

The way he jumped on you makes me wonder if you are white or other ethnic background. Basically I am wondering if this guy was a racist.

[1monster]

6. Maybe a racist, but both my husband and I are white. My husband is retirement age, and

looks it. I'm nine years younger and still can pass as somewhat younger than I am.

I'm assuming that because we are not teabagger extremists and were driving an older (and beginning to look beat up) conversion van that the guy assumed were were a welfare case.

No, we can't afford newer nice cars anymore, but that is partly because we do spend a big chunk of our money on cat food and dog food for our rescued furry family members. It's a choice we've made and it's no one's business but our own.

He's an elitist: you know a "I've got mine, fuck you!" type of guy.

[BootinUp]

8. Yeah. I know them types too

You did good.

[MADem]

27. He'd hate me, then--my car is a subcompact that's over a quarter century old now...

It has a nice paint job, though...!

I'm gonna drive that car until it dies or is just too much of a PITA to maintain. So far, so good, knock wood. Why buy new just to have "the latest?" If your old stuff works, hang on to it.

Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without...now THAT's being "green" IMO!

[Tigress DEM]

41. Hi Mad!

[JustAnotherGen]

32. He would hate me and Mr. Jen too!

Granted my husband has some cool older cars at our home in Italy and is a collector of classic motorcycles. . . But we believe for how we "live" a car is a point A to point B "thing". They are also something you pay cash for and own outright. So his 12 year old Yukon, my 7 year old Altima, and my brown skin would have enraged that man.

And the Mr. Jen would have brought out his Calabrese for that man taking one step toward me and I would have been calling attorneys all night.

That asshole is very very lucky it was you.

[demwing]

34. I'm guessing he assumed welfare

Only because you defended Obama. He can't imagine that his knowledge or logic about the shutdown might be flawed, so the integrity of your position must be questionable.

In short, you must have been bribed.

[1monster]

52. In truth, I was not defending Obama; I was simply stating the truth. Since the truth does refute

his accusation of Obama, I guess it was a defense of Obama.

[SheilaT]

54. Oh, heck, you might be driving that old car

because you really like it and you've kept good care of it and it's happily reliable and suits your needs.

Choice: van + rescued furry family members. Strikes me as a good choice, especially since you seem pretty happy with it.

[Catherine Vincent]

3. He probably just got done watching Faux News or something

And yeah, the deceased soldiers money is on hold but the family will eventually get their due once the government opens back up right?

[Dustlawyer]

18. That type of behavior is very common amoung Republicans. My theory is the effect of the RW media,

who fire them up with incendiary propaganda is mainly to blame. Ever notice that, like this guy, they assume that you, a total stranger, believe what they believe? Republicans are more likely to engage in political comments to strangers. It is b/c the "facts" as they see and hear them on Fox News or Rush etc., could only lead to one conclusion. When they discover that we are Democrats they believe we are the crazies! Democrats are much less likely to assume a stranger holds the same beliefs b/c we get accosted so often with things like "Obama is coming for our guns" or "Obama should be impeached before he totally ruins the country!"
My being from Texas and working the whole Gulf Coast makes it that much worse b/c their are also a lot more of them here!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

25. Same with email forwards. Acquaintances of my parents' are constantly

sending that RW BS to them, assuming they agree. My parents are Democrats and they don't want to see that crap. Yet, when they have politely said as much, the sender often gets offended! They think they can "say" whatever they want, but if you dare disagree, you're the problem?

Fox and RW radio have created a whole bunch of rude, hateful, agressive idiots.

[raccoon]

35. I live in SC and I feel your pain. I think when one lives in an area red as a baboon's arse, right-

wingers think that because they are the majority in that area, that EVERYONE thinks the way they do,
at least everyone who is white.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Well done! I'm proud to K&R.

[doc03]

5. I sat down next to a couple of them at McDonald the other day.

One of them was going on about Obama shutting down the WWII memorial and him being a Muslim yada yada yada. I just slammed my tablet shut and went to the other side of the building. It is not worth arguing with them their minds are closed to any facts. All they know is what they hear on Fox news and the radio, you just as well talk to those cats and dogs you were shopping for.

[PennsylvaniaMatt]

7. You and your husband were much more composed than I would have been!

How utterly disgusting that right after he found out that you and your husband "weren't on his side" so to speak, his ignorant self was reduced to personal attacks when he DOESN'T EVEN KNOW YOU! Typical Tea Party right-winger, armed with the notion that all people that are not completely against President Obama are on public assistance and "the main reason for our country's problems." That's what you get when you have people watching Fox News all day....rich people telling middle class people to blame all of the country's problems on poor people!

I absolutely HATE how they characterize Democrats as "lazy" or "stupid", or in the case of me being a College Democrat, "naïve and uninformed." You don't know how many damn times I've been told "You'll be a Republican when you start paying taxes." Absolute garbage! Look who makes up the Democratic Party - hard working, middle class Americans! And look who makes up the GOP. People at the very bottom of the economic spectrum who don't realize that GOP economic policies are hurting them, and people at the very top, who are in many ways contributing to the problem!

It's jerks like this that bought into Mitt Romney's 47% BS, while they were too stupid to realize that they are probably in that 47% that he was talking about, depending on their age or income.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

17. What gets me is the "47%" has been twisted by Republicans to think they are in the majority...

In actuality, Republicans make up less than 25% and Democrats make up about 25% and the other 50% of America doesn't vote.

[blkmusclmachine]

9. Typical Republican. Full of animosity.

[Tigress DEM]

10. Riding the bus home "from work" because downtown parking is a ransom on it's own....

Old drunk guy is dropping his bills all over the place. I'm smiling and hoping I don't have to bend over to make sure he doesn't lose his money. After the third time he drops not only 1's but 10's and a 20 wrapped inside, I tease him a bit, "Keep trying to give it all back, doncha?"

He's like "Fu** you" and I look at him and say, something like, "Not in your wildest dreams, old man"

Then he tells me, "STFU - I'm from Philly."

"You're from Philly and that means something to me how?" I say because this isn't my first drunk and belligerent on the bus.

So he tells me, "Get a job."

I snap right back, "I HAVE a job, as**ole. Where do you think I just came from?"

"Well, try laying carpet!"

"Hah, I've laid tile." The bus driver chuckled other people were laughing louder.

"Bullshit."

"My whole downstairs basement. Heavy Italian tile, cut it up with a water saw and every thing." Shut is face up for awhile.

He stared at me like he was going to come hit me and I almost wished he had. All I would have had to do was move quickly enough and he would have broken his fist on something behind me. He started sputtering and the driver told him that I had tried to be nice to him and if he didn't watch his language and tone he could get off the bus and stay outside.

Someone with a walker came on and I moved back a few seats. Someone says they saw him give me the middle finger.


I could have been really bad, though. "Yeah, buddy and when I WAS unemployed I spent my time working on my house. Tearing down walls with a sledge hammer, breaking up concrete and towing it out with a wheelbarrow 150 pounds at time, holding up sheet rock for the ceiling, painting the outside of my house and the inside of my basement.... but you know it was my 64 year old AUNTIE that drove the jack hammer, so I'm not all that tough. STILL don't think you want to mess with me."

Man looks at me with decent work casual clothes on and decides I'm on some fun ride and I look too prissy to know what real work is. Sheet. He didn't know I'm a DEM. Poverty makes you stronger, but unemployment will drive you nuts unless you have enough projects to keep you busy until you get back in business again. Least that is how I am.

[Cha]

11. Yes, they get so Incensed when you call them on their bullshit!

Your dose of Reality means they are nothing but brainwashed Pod people. Really disgusting pos that cannot think for themselves.

How dare he regurgitate fox-limbaugh et al to a total stranger!

[TeamPooka]

12. I would have told him "all of it andmy drugs too"

[Contrary1]

21. Great minds...

I would have said, "Everything but the cigarettes and Crown Royal".

[sheshe2]

13. K&R!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

14. These guys are looking for a fight. Some are armed too.

[Tigress DEM]

42. THAT is the scary part

[Dreamer Tatum]

15. Cool, another high noon at the grocery store. nt

[1monster]

33. Well it was a first for me. I had a firend who became that sort of person. She's not a friend

anymore. But I've never had a stranger (at the grocery store or not) act like that before. I guess the grocery store is common ground for all kinds of people.

[munster69]

16. I'm afraid there is no help for T-baggers

They watch so much GOP TV, listen to so much GOP radio that they go through a non surgical lobotomy and it is permanent.

[martigras]

19. Next time

Next time, remind him YOU are paying for his Fox news watching, Socialist, Social Security and Medicare.

[Left Coast2020]

20. I posted a story yesterday about an arguement I witnessed at VA between two vets

One guy was in wheelchair in back--other guy was sitting directly in front of him. Waiting room had CNN on and I walked in during Mr. O's press conference on defaulting.

I sat down to watch and guy in wheelchair started spouting some crap about Obama--alledging he is cause of shutdown. Black dude sitting one row in front of him turned around and just shut him down without hesitation.

I remember the black vet tell him, "thats your commander in chief (I think he called him an a-hole).

He's working/supporting your benefits". "So don't give me that S*** you hear on Fox". "The republicans started this s***. Not the President".

Old dude in wheelchair shut up.

Other vets sitting in room said nothing. I thought black dude was going to deck him from where I was standing/sitting. I wanted to say something, but I may on staff there soon. So I decided to be lowkey. Keeping fingers crossed.

And BTW, The Presidents 10x40 is hanging on the wall as clear as day in the VA hallway enterance. Awsome.

[Victor_c3]

31. I'm surprised by the hatred some older vets have for our president

However, I chalk it up to them being from a different generation.

When bush 43 was president I used to cringe whenever I saw his picture around the main entrance of the VA hospital I go to. I'm glad that is long gone now.

[Tigress DEM]

44. WOW!

PRICELESS!!

He's working/supporting your benefits". "So don't give me that S*** you hear on Fox". "The republicans started this s***. Not the President".

[Volaris]

22. he approached you because insecure people NEED acknowledgment of their worldview.

Some, admittedly, are more ballsy about it than others.

Fuck him, and try and have a good day.

[radicalliberal]

23. Complete strangers should keep their mouths shut and not be rude.

We've become a nation of ill-mannered brats and punks. Little boys in big men's bodies. One of these days that guy might receive a knuckle sandwich. Absolutely pathetic! My daughters displayed better manners and more maturity than that jerk when they were four years old.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

24. There's a new wave of hostility creeping around the country.

It's on the news and street corners. I was confronted by a rather large, drunk, man who blamed me for the problems of our local politics because I dared to say our employee association was not the same thing as a union. "YOU'RE THE PROBLEM!" he yelled. I was being very friendly and nice and am not unattractive and was well dressed, so it was startling as hell. We were handing out flyers about the "power grab" by our local Tea Bag wing of the GOP. He hates his neighbor, who was a firefighter and retired with a hefty pension. So I'm the problem for warning people about the power grab that was going on.

I think some people want to paint one side as the villain. And they've been so completely brainwashed for decades by Limbaugh and Co. Now they're screwed every which way and they're striking out. My hope is that this is a slow expulsion of a lot of anger. Maybe there will be a calm on the horizon and a more civilized group will take the place of so many with ill will toward our democracy.

The End.

[polynomial]

26. The bias of social Offensiveness

President Obama is under the most difficult social experiment ever tried in this so called free America. So is the black community, the stress level introduced by the government shut down has a very deep implication.

This shut down introduces an avenue for those really possessed with the deepest anti-social negro hatred in many that needed a kick start to take place at the street level pushing white black difference into actions perhaps even criminal, chaos, or heated action arguments.

This is the primary factor in this Republican Tea Party agenda to generate indifference so much so every person in a responsible position could jam the system at will with bias especially anything connected with blacks government operations, or business that have blacks dominant in its operations. Blame the nigger syndrome. Worse are those blacks and whites that have to work and deal with this politically generated rejection by the Republican Party. This is a monumental misrepresentation by the media. With that said the media ditched the whole concept in favor of making this shut down a president versus Republican Party. This the worst bias ever generated since the civil war.

Especially in viewing some blacks that rebel by wearing their pants down way low too low. However reading an article by our mainstream media MSNBC; “Those people just may be wearing their pants in an anti-social way because they feel rejected by society and see no value in following its rules. We don’t value black boys in this society if they can’t rhyme or play sports, and then we wonder why they reject the society that presumes them guilty and worthless.” That was an interesting comment but there is more to it. Especially when Andrea Mitchell privy to trillion dollar deals that affect black housing title fraud bundled with hidden profiteering motives has no shame.

My experience the other day, when a black women, with her baby was trying to reach for a box of Welches Fruit Rollups. She asked me to help her get the box that had the best deal way in the back of the shelf hard to reach for. It was very easy to get the box of fruit rollups then hand it to her. I assumed it would be for her little girl.

Our conversation reflected on the contents of the fruit rollups had high fructose corn syrup one of the diabetic type food products that is ubiquitous in food across almost any shelf. She knew it was not good but did not have enough money to buy the good stuff. After looking at the rollups it appeared all of them had high fructose corn syrup which is considered a carcinogen to cause diabetes. America has an extraordinary disgrace in food product safety let alone a government shutdown America may someday have a food shut down. Then everyone will be running around by the seat of their pants.

[carolinayellowdog]

28. this "off their meds" phenomenon must be nationwide-- ran into some crazies in NC

I went to a down home country cookin restaurant that has never been anything but a bunch of friendly rednecks in the ten years or so I patronized it. Last week for the first time ever at breakfast there was a bunch of raging old assholes acting drunk at 8 am, going on about not Obama but Harry Reid. Not all at the same table either, shouting to one another at some distance. Wrote it off as a one time aberration, until hearing last night from my partner that he went back with someone else at breakfast and witnessed the same bunch acting the same way, this time making wild false accusations against Obama.

Faux news lies are ginning up the hatred to the point that murders seem the inevitable result.

[quaker bill]

29. It is a world view that is full of false assumptions

Part of the self affirmation includes the assumption that only people who are like them, look like them physically and in possessions, and think like them, actually work, and have "American values". They are "special" and Fox tells them so.

The fact that they are just as hosed as any member of the 99% is evident in their need to make very broad false assumptions about their "specialness". Feeling "different" or "better" than the rest of us requires leaps of rationalization over a large and growing body of false assumptions. To be maintained in the face of a reality that contradicts their assumptions at every turn, the collected body of false info needs to be fed new BS almost every day.

If you don't grow it, then you might start feeling stupid for stockpiling guns, ammo, dried food, and silver ingots...

[Victor_c3]

30. "how much of that am I paying for"

That would have gotten me going. I get a pretty decent disability check from the VA for a disability I got as a result of my time in Iraq (i.e. a pointless republican war that a bunch DINOs supported).

I find that people like that usually shake my hand and thank me for my service and move away from me as fast as they can...

[quakerboy]

57. Understandably so

My first thought was, given he was described as older, how much of his social security am I paying for? How about his parents? How about his kids or grandkids schooling.

Its hard to find anyone in the crew who isn't a terrible hypocrite. They generally love and feel entitled to the government benefits they get, but hate those that anyone else gets.

[davidpdx]

36. Make me glad I don't live in the US anymore

There are too many damn fucking crazy people and most of them are walking around with guns. Don't get me wrong, I still love my country, but some people have gone too far.

[TransitJohn]

37. When identity politics are practiced so heavily this is the result.

Sorry you had to hear that shit.

[IdaBriggs]

38. I posted a joke about Republicans and dementia earlier this week.

Sounds like it isn't really a joke sometimes.

[Mr Dixon]

39. IMO

It is damn near impossible to change a person’s mind, especially if they agree with a certain ideology. You would have a better change and dipping out the ocean with a spoon IMO.

[maryellen99]

40. When and if we default and the economy crashes

That teabagger will be the first in line demanding assistance.

[City Lights]

43. What a douchebag!

I know I shouldn't be, but I continue to be stunned at just how stupid many Americans are. Especially republicans! Both elected and those who elect them. They are so empty-headed I am amazed that their heads don't cave in!

[Orsino]

45. He wasn't looking for facts, I'll suggest.

Like many Republicans this month, he may want a lot of reassurance that his political loyalties haven't been terribly misplaced. Assholish behavior such as he displayed is also the sound dogma makes leaving the body.

[kevinbgoode1]

46. You can always be pretty sure. . .

that when one of the self-righteous right wingers start acting like they pay for everything, their own sense of entitlement is off the charts. If that man ever found himself anywhere near poverty in his own life, he'd be the first in line for a handout - and worse, scream at the top of his lungs that he's "entitled" because he paid $1 in taxes one year (and likely only because he made a mistake in adding up his made-up deductions on the forms.)

[BKH70041]

47. .

[Liberalynn]

48. Good for you for standing up to him even if he didn't listen

In my writer's group there are some tea party nut-balls. We have a rule no politics/no religion. They are always trying to violate it. We democrats just sit there and roll our eyes at them until the moderator tells them to shut it down but frankly I am getting tired of biting my tongue. Why should they get to spew their crap all the time? The moderator is a Dem by the way.

[Enthusiast]

49. Have they completely lost their fucking minds?

The guy pegged you as "moochers". It would be poetic justice if the guy someday found himself on relief due to circumstances beyond his control.

[LSK]

50. who wants to bet the guy is on social security ?

[Liberal_in_LA]

51. what a jerk

[get the red out]

53. That's their media for you

They really believe that anyone who isn't on "their side" (totally delusional) is on public assistance. That is an amazing achievement!

I miss the America where people could be of differing political opinions and still respect one another. That is long gone now. The lies a large part of the population is willing to believe has destroyed civility entirely.

[cristianmarie533]

55. I've had too many such encounters to count

Frankly, after several years of dealing with that kind of nonsense, I've all but given up trying to convince such neanderthals that they're wrong. Now I just try my best to ignore those kind of people altogether.

[displacedtexan]

56. Me, too. My favorite incident, though, was when a stranger said to my husband...

"If you shaved that beard, you'd get a job!"

My husband, who's at the top of the food chain in the San Francisco school district, replied, "Why should I shave when I get a check from the government every month?"

Which is true. The city government pays his salary.

This happened in Texas, BTW, where we were visiting my family.
I thought I was going to need my CPR training on the stranger, though.

Good times.