A Great New Song and Video From Courtney Barnett: “Nameless, Faceless”

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‘Nameless, Faceless’ is taken from Courtney Barnett’s upcoming album ‘Tell Me How You Really Feel’ out on 18th May 2018. Pre-order here: courtney-barnett.lnk.to

Out on Milk! Records, Marathon Artists and Mom+Pop
courtneybarnett.com.au

Follow: lnk.to

Music video directed and animated by Lucy Dyson (lucydyson.com)

Words & Music by Courtney Barnett

Don’t you have anything better to do
I wish that someone would hug you
Must be lonely
Being angry
Feeling over-looked.
You sit alone at home in the darkness
With all the pent-up rage that you harness
I’m real sorry
Bout whatever happened to you

I wanna walk through the park in the dark
Men are scared that women will laugh at them
I wanna walk through the park in the dark
Women are scared that men will kill them
I hold my keys
Between my fingers

He said “I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup
And spit out better words than you”
But you didn’t
Man you’re kidding yourself if you think
The world revolves around you
Yknow you got lots to give
N so many options
I’m real sorry
Bout whatever happened to you

I wanna walk through the park in the dark
Men are scared that women will laugh at them
I wanna walk through the park in the dark
Women are scared that men will kill them

I hold my keys
Between my fingers
Go on tell me
You’re just kidding
He said, she said
Nameless, faceless

Jump to bottom

321 comments
1
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:15:21pm

Found an honest to God bot right now…..name with number suffix, strange spelling patterns, no wallpaper on page… outrage memes all over. It’s Russian wingnut catnip!

In Soviet Russia, Colusion investigate YOU!

2
Quoth the raven, Covfefe.  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:15:59pm

re: #1 Scottish Dragon

Found an honest to God bot right now…..name with number suffix, strange spelling patterns, no wallpaper on page… outrage memes all over. It’s Russian wingnut catnip!

[Embedded content]

Wonder if that’s run by one of the guys that got indicted today.

3
Belafon  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:17:34pm
4
goddamnedfrank  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:18:13pm

Glennwald is madonline.

5
ObserverArt  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:18:41pm

Great song. She is maturing as an arranger, and she has been a good writer all along. The one little change in the song had me thinking a bit of Cobain/Nirvana. Nice “pop” graphics too.

6
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:19:03pm

re: #2 Quoth the raven, Covfefe.

Wonder if that’s run by one of the guys that got indicted today.

I love the Russia colusion bit. Dead fucking giveaway along with the number string on the name….

7
De Kolta Chair  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:19:13pm

Trump tweets from prison:

— There are some great people in the Aryan Brotherhood, especially my cell mate Bruno. Haters gotta hate! #NotSarcasm

— My newfound MS-13 bros have not only turned me out but turned me on to the great sounds of Los Tigres del Norte! Alas my new cellmate Jared — loser white boy! — only listens to the fucking Eagles. #SoyChicano

— Who knew joining the Muslim Brotherhood would be so complicated? #WallaceFardMuhammadLives #BeanPiesRSurprisnglyTastyNoNotReally

8
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:25:22pm

re: #4 goddamnedfrank

Glennwald is madonline.

[Embedded content]

9
goddamnedfrank  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:25:53pm

LOL, the dirtbag left is really taking this thing well.

10
Kragar  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:26:02pm
11
The Major  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:27:00pm

re: #4 goddamnedfrank

12
The Major  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:34:10pm
13
scottslemmons  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:34:48pm

re: #9 goddamnedfrank

LOL, the dirtbag left is really taking this thing well.

[Embedded content]

Earlier today, I was joking about Republicans in Congress sitting at their computers trying to delete all their emails to Russians. I guess that sense of panic was going around on the other end of the horseshoe, too. GOLLY, IT IS A MYSTERY.

14
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:35:54pm

re: #12 The Major

I don’t recall her being upset that a sheriff couldn’t find a prisoner in his own jail before the prisoner died of thirst.

15
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:36:51pm

I repeat my prediction that there will be THOUSANDS of indictments before Mueller and his team have finished their work. Whole political movements and media genres will be identified as criminal enterprises and duly liquidated.

16
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:38:37pm

“…The Russians really did interfere in the US election. The Russians did have a vast conspiracy to help get Trump elected, and there is someone doing something about it. Robert Mueller is defending the American people and democracy. Trump has gaslighted his own country for a year, and Mueller has cut through Trump’s psychological games and defended his country in a way Trump has refused to do.

Trump and the Russians are on the run because Robert Mueller has democracy’s back.”

17
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:39:09pm

Totally OT, but…

Fuck Ticketmaster.

No, seriously. Fuck these assholes.

All I wanted to do was buy some Ed Sheeran tickets for my wifes birthday. First, whatever stupid plugin they make you use to choose tickets on the website crashes on me not once, not twice, but THREE times.

Then, I see I have to pay an extra $45 in convenience fees and bullshit for two tickets with a total $65 face value.

And finally, when I went to enter my credit card info on their POS website the number entry field was so jacked up I had to enter in wrong numbers, then tap in the field and backspace them to get the right ones.

Of course, I can’t get these tickets anywhere else thanks to this company and their monopoly bullshit and I refuse to pay exorbitant prices to buy them from a reseller.

So, I say again: FUCK Ticketmaster!

18
Quoth the raven, Covfefe.  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:41:37pm

re: #17 Eclectic Cyborg

Stubhub isn’t an option?

19
teleskiguy  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:44:13pm

re: #17 Eclectic Cyborg

I bought tickets to Ween at Red Rocks this morning with Ticketbastard’s competitor AXS. Face value for a pair of tickets was $110. I paid $165 for the pair.

20
teleskiguy  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:45:13pm

re: #18 Quoth the raven, Covfefe.

Stubhub isn’t an option?

StubHub is the secondary market, where high demand tickets can sell for a month’s rent in Silicon Valley.

21
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:46:05pm

I would love to see certain hinterland Republicans frog-marched into captivity for betraying their country. Fully half of the Texas GOP county committees gleefully jumped on the secession bandwagon in response to what is now proven to have been a Russian AstroTurf campaign. How many of the treasonous pigs got a little cash under the table in the process? I think we’re going to find out.

22
Quoth the raven, Covfefe.  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:49:48pm

re: #20 teleskiguy

StubHub is the secondary market, where high demand tickets can sell for a month’s rent in Silicon Valley.

Jesus H. Christ. I use Stubhub fairly often for baseball games. I know it’s a different market, but you can really score big in that arena.

23
Jebediah, RBG  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:50:41pm

re: #17 Eclectic Cyborg

oh my god yes. Fuck them forever.

24
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:52:07pm

re: #22 Quoth the raven, Covfefe.

Jesus H. Christ. I use Stubhub fairly often for baseball games. I know it’s a different market, but you can really score big in that arena.

I would have spent about $35 more for shittier seats on stubhub. I did use stubhub last summer to get tickets to a sold out show and had a good experience with them.

25
Kragar  Feb 16, 2018 • 8:57:00pm
26
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:01:15pm
27
Kragar  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:01:51pm
28
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:03:20pm
29
De Kolta Chair  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:05:00pm

Maybe it’s the drink talking, but this quartet from Liverpool might be on to something…

The Beatles - You really got a hold on me (live, 1963)

30
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:12:14pm

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

31
goddamnedfrank  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:12:17pm
32
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:15:08pm
33
MsJ  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:15:27pm

Some of these are really funny. (There’s only one about curling… But it’s funny too.)

34
MsJ  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:16:00pm

re: #32 jaunte

No concept of propriety. None.

35
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:16:34pm

re: #34 MsJ

He’s a monster.

36
MsJ  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:20:11pm

re: #35 jaunte

He’s a monster.

He’s obviously a doddering, old, mentally unstable guy. If he wasn’t such a dickbag, I’d feel sorry for him and say he belonged in a place where people could watch over him. As it is, I only feel prison is the appropriate place for him.

37
De Kolta Chair  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:21:37pm

re: #30 Scottish Dragon

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

[Embedded content]

Aside fron his other inanities, did it ever occur to Dreher that Dostoyevsky was Russian?

Bit o’ trivia: according to my favorite author and personal hero Vladimir Nabokov, a more literal translation of Dostoyevsky’s “Notes From The Underground” is “Notes From The Basement.” Not so romantic perhaps, but that’s Vladimir Vladimirovich for ya.

38
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:23:14pm

re: #36 MsJ

He’s lived almost his entire life not learning anything about being human, and being insulated by money from that disability. He’s a horrible blank.

39
Kragar  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:24:19pm
40
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:26:17pm

re: #37 De Kolta Chair

Aside fron his other inanities, did it ever occur to Dreher that Dostoyevsky was Russian?

Bit o’ trivia: according to my favorite author and hero Vladimir Nabokov, a much better and more logical translation of Dostoyevsky’s “Notes From The Underground” is “Notes From The Basement.” Not so romantic, perhaps…

Dreher is on a big Russian mysticism kick these last few months. What utterly floors me is that this is his reaction when 17 people are dead in a high school?? THIS??

41
A hollow voice says, Covfefe.  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:27:06pm

re: #17 Eclectic Cyborg

Totally OT, but…

Fuck Ticketmaster.

No, seriously. Fuck these assholes.

All I wanted to do was buy some Ed Sheeran tickets for my wifes birthday. First, whatever stupid plugin they make you use to choose tickets on the website crashes on me not once, not twice, but THREE times.

Then, I see I have to pay an extra $45 in convenience fees and bullshit for two tickets with a total $65 face value.

And finally, when I went to enter my credit card info on their POS website the number entry field was so jacked up I had to enter in wrong numbers, then tap in the field and backspace them to get the right ones.

Of course, I can’t get these tickets anywhere else thanks to this company and their monopoly bullshit and I refuse to pay exorbitant prices to buy them from a reseller.

So, I say again: FUCK Ticketmaster!

I agree wholeheartedly — I have skipped concerts because I would have had to go through Ticketmaster.

Sometimes you can also get tickets from the venue, although the drawback is that you have to go to their physical box office directly.

42
Belafon  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:27:08pm

re: #39 Kragar

[Embedded content]

I always thought it was Nicolas Flamel who we needed to figure out.

43
Flying Squirrel Girl  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:30:28pm

re: #19 teleskiguy

Can I be your date?

///

(Ween fan since 1992)

44
fern01  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:38:18pm

re: #31 goddamnedfrank

[Embedded content]

I have ZERO idea why she hangs around to be abused. Is it $$$ - Is he threatening to send her parents out of the country - why do so many people not see how absolutely HORRIBLE he is.

45
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:38:56pm
46
De Kolta Chair  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:39:37pm

re: #40 Scottish Dragon

I look forward to his many more deserved decades of total obscurity.

47
fern01  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:40:24pm

re: #36 MsJ

He’s obviously a doddering, old, mentally unstable guy. If he wasn’t such a dickbag, I’d feel sorry for him and say he belonged in a place where people could watch over him. As it is, I only feel prison is the appropriate place for him.

There is nothing there to feel sorry for. He has acted like this all his life. Only cares about 1 person - ever.

48
teleskiguy  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:42:27pm

re: #38 jaunte

He’s the worst human being in the country to have the job he has. The worst. It was predicted by a founding father.

49
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:43:29pm

re: #25 Kragar

50
Kragar  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:44:18pm
51
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:44:52pm

re: #50 Kragar

He seems a bit agitated.

52
De Kolta Chair  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:46:05pm

re: #44 fern01

I’m looking forward to Melania being outed for having affairs behind Orange Julius Caesar’s back. And I will raise my glass in sarcastic solidarity.

53
teleskiguy  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:46:20pm

re: #43 Flying Squirrel Girl

Can I be your date?

If you’re in the Denver area on 5 June I’d be quite pleased to hang out with you at a Ween show at Red Rocks. Let me know, you’re at the top of the list of my +1.

54
Interesting Times  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:47:15pm

re: #44 fern01

I have ZERO idea why she hangs around to be abused. Is it $$$ - Is he threatening to send her parents out of the country - why do so many people not see how absolutely HORRIBLE he is.

There was speculation to that effect in the comments to the tweet, as well:

55
teleskiguy  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:51:46pm

It’s gonna be really weird, I’m certain…

56
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:52:02pm

re: #54 Interesting Times

I want to hate her. I do. But I lived it and I can’t. You say and do whatever you have to when they have enough money and power and meanness to threaten loved ones.

I’ve had similar discussions with my wife about Melania. She survived an abusive first marriage, and points this dynamic out whenever I grumble about her.

57
scottslemmons  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:52:25pm

re: #50 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Poor Jacob probably saw a name on the indictment list he recognizes. He’s midway between the Denial and Anger stages right now.

58
jaunte  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:52:55pm
59
Ace-o-aces  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:53:09pm
60
Ace-o-aces  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:53:28pm
61
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:54:24pm

No, I am not happy.

If somebody wants to copy these in a tweet and make sure they end up in his feed, I would not be offended however.

62
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:54:46pm

re: #50 Kragar

[Embedded content]

“Here in Russia…”

Oh, really?

63
Interesting Times  Feb 16, 2018 • 9:57:03pm

re: #58 jaunte

Who was asking for this in the previous thread?

64
Ace-o-aces  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:02:23pm
65
Flying Squirrel Girl  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:02:46pm

re: #53 teleskiguy

Ween at Red Rocks again would be a life goal. My sister went last year (she wasn’t even a fan until she saw them live and they blew her fucking mind) and I almost cried cause I was so jealous. I saw them there in 2000ish, with Tenacious D and Galactic. I fucking love those guys. Thanks for the offer, I’ll keep you posted!

66
goddamnedfrank  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:03:52pm

re: #44 fern01

I have ZERO idea why she hangs around to be abused. Is it $$$ - Is he threatening to send her parents out of the country - why do so many people not see how absolutely HORRIBLE he is.

I’m fairly certain that she signed a post-nup agreement after the election that guarantees her a very large payout if she maintains the pretense of marriage as long as he’s President. There was lots of talk about them divorcing leading up to the election but his winning created a new need for the public optics of a stable if not blissful marriage. Their breaking up would be politically destabilizing to his administration. Still, she couldn’t stand him so stayed in New York for the first seven or eight months of 2017, until that separation became so noticeable that she relented and moved to DC.

67
De Kolta Chair  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:03:57pm

Later lizards, excelsior!

Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko, circa 1960
68
whitebeach  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:06:18pm

re: #36 MsJ

He’s obviously a doddering, old, mentally unstable guy. If he wasn’t such a dickbag, I’d feel sorry for him and say he belonged in a place where people could watch over him. As it is, I only feel prison is the appropriate place for him.

I don’t really want to see the asshole in FloMax. Maybe a little Club Fed where he has his own putting green, five feet square, perfectly flat, and the same pin location every day forever. Pus every meal is steak—Trump steak. And he gets conjugal visits from Melania, after she has control of his money and is heavily involved with an Argentine polo player. I could probably think of more strictures along these lines, but hey, Geneva Conventions and it’s getting late.

69
Scottish Dragon  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:06:41pm

Good night all. I’m angry, but I need to go to bed.

70
sagehen  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:08:12pm

re: #66 goddamnedfrank

I’m fairly certain that she signed a post-nup agreement after the election that guarantees her a very large payout if she maintains the pretense of marriage as long as he’s President. There was lots of talk about them divorcing leading up to the election but his winning created a new need for the public optics of a stable if not blissful marriage. Their breaking up would be politically destabilizing to his administration. Still, she couldn’t stand him so stayed in New York for the first seven or eight months of 2017, until that separation became so noticeable that she relented and moved to DC.

Or the Russians told her she wouldn’t live long if she left…

71
sagehen  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:09:51pm

re: #70 sagehen

Or the Russians told her she wouldn’t live long if she left…

Another hypothesis…

That $25 million in “inauguration” funds that went to a company owned by her “aide” (who lives in NYC and only comes to the White House 2 or 3 days a month? Maybe that’s Melania’s money.

72
Ace-o-aces  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:14:29pm
73
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:17:48pm

re: #64 Ace-o-aces

“Russian stooge” doesn’t count anymore.

74
MsJ  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:33:39pm

ICYMI

75
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:37:17pm

A living creature. What a world this is.

Facebook Post

76
Pawn of the Oppressor  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:51:21pm

re: #44 fern01

I have ZERO idea why she hangs around to be abused. Is it $$$ - Is he threatening to send her parents out of the country - why do so many people not see how absolutely HORRIBLE he is.

She’s an employee, just like everyone he meets. Her job is to make him look upmarket, in exchange for having her bills paid, and they both know it.

I don’t feel at all sorry for her. She’s as rotten as he is.

77
Amory Blaine  Feb 16, 2018 • 10:58:48pm

I got a #4 cylinder misfire on the mini van. So I take off the plastic engine cover and there was a nest on top of the engine! Some rodent chewed up the sound deadening foam on the underside of the engine cover and also through my #4 fuel injector wires. Wire burned up about 3 inches. Lucky the wiring was under some kind of wire wrap, or the nest could have started the car on fire. I have to wait til Monday for the part and hope that was all he chewed through. I didn’t notice any other damage and blew all the leaves and stuff out.

78
EPR-radar  Feb 16, 2018 • 11:19:42pm

re: #30 Scottish Dragon

Dreher’s head is even farther up his ass than usual, which is a hell of an achievement.

We don’t need literature to deal with this, we need political action, starting with a political moon shot campaign over the next 30 years designed to expose the NRA for the fucksacks that they are and to get the idea of repealing the second amendment firmly into the national conversation.

79
ozharas  Feb 16, 2018 • 11:22:13pm

re: #45 jaunte

The video - he is unmoved, no emotion or inflections in his voice, he does his stupid handshake manoeuvre on the doctor - who looks exhausted and has a distinctly unimpressed look and demeanour.

Decades of training, and hours of surgery on kids, and then has to entertain this doofus.

80
ckkatz  Feb 16, 2018 • 11:28:59pm

re: #77 Amory Blaine

I got a #4 cylinder misfire on the mini van. So I take off the plastic engine cover and there was a nest on top of the engine! Some rodent chewed up the sound deadening foam on the underside of the engine cover and also through my #4 fuel injector wires. Wire burned up about 3 inches. Lucky the wiring was under some kind of wire wrap, or the nest could have started the car on fire. I have to wait til Monday for the part and hope that was all he chewed through. I didn’t notice any other damage and blew all the leaves and stuff out.

You have my sympathy. And I do hope that the damage was confined to what you found.

About 15 years ago, I had a short on my porch lights when a squirrel chewed through some screening and then chewed some wires. It proved fatal to the squirrel as well as the electrical circuit.

And…

Supposedly, in Russia during the winter of 1942-43 the Nazi 22nd Division had 54 tanks disabled by mice chewing up the wires.

“Many of the division’s tanks had been parked in dugouts for an extended period of time and protected from the frost by straw. When the tanks were called on to respond to the Soviet offensive, many could not be started because mice had sought refuge in the straw and then in the tanks where they chewed up the insulation of electric system wires.”

en.wikipedia.org

81
ericblair  Feb 16, 2018 • 11:47:40pm

re: #12 The Major

Balls get dropped all the time, Ann. Besides, isn’t this more of a local problem than the @FBI normally deals with - like election fraud?

5:33 AM - Feb 17, 2018

You know, I think the right wing loons have a point. So from this moment onwards, everyone who threatens gun violence or eliminationist racial statements online gets a visit from the FBI, state, or local cops, and gets fired or expelled. We on the left are real sorry that we prevented this from happening before.

82
DodgerFan1988  Feb 17, 2018 • 12:04:16am

Conservatives already making up stories of black people assaulting whites in the movie theaters during the screening of Black Panther.

83
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 17, 2018 • 12:12:01am

So that TEN_GOP Twitter account was the Russians. I had a feeling.

nbcnews.com

84
fern01  Feb 17, 2018 • 1:04:00am

re: #52 De Kolta Chair

I’m looking forward to Melania being outed for having affairs behind Orange Julius Caesar’s back. And I will raise my glass in sarcastic solidarity.

I really doubt she has - probably has an agreement that says he can & she can’t.
Thus said, there is zero sympathy from me - she signed up for the deal - no idea why she isn’t out of there long ago.

85
Dr Lizardo  Feb 17, 2018 • 1:21:42am

re: #84 fern01

I really doubt she has - probably has an agreement that says he can & she can’t.
Thus said, there is zero sympathy from me - she signed up for the deal - no idea why she isn’t out of there long ago.

I think it’s probably more mundane - he’s probably threatened her (and her parents) with deportation back to Slovenia, and he did that long before he became POTUS (you know, that whole “I know people!!” schtick) and he’s most likely told her she’d never see Barron ever again as well if she divorced him.

86
Targetpractice  Feb 17, 2018 • 1:32:37am

It is disturbing these days how easily conversations go from “I’m a history buff, love to visit the sites” to “You know the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, right?” when you’re talking with an old white man. I swear, I could have won a round of “White Grievance Bingo” in the last 20 minutes:

- War was about trade/economic, the North was afraid of competition
- War was over failure to compromise
- Secessionist state proclamations read like Declaration of Independence
- It was totally like the Revolutionary War (i.e. colonists against overbearing crown)
- They’re erasing our history/heritage
- South dominated by Democrats, North by Republicans

Why does this shit always happen to me when I’m a captive audience?

87
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 17, 2018 • 1:51:23am

Missed tip on Florida shooter. I don’t think there’s a connection but it reminds me of a procedural fad in law enforcement back in the 80s: refusing unsolicited tips and information from the public. They did this by forcing the informant to jump through hoops before they would take the info, essentially reversing the dynamic by pretending that the informant was asking THEM for a favor, rather than the other way round. For instance I called to report a freakazoid who was posing as a DEA agent so he could solicit sexual favors from college students. I had the guy’s name, workplace, and vehicle description and license number. The cops said they would not take the report unless I could also tell them where he lived. Of course I had no idea and could not find out without launching a private investigation on my own. A full year later the guy was arrested after he flashed his fake badge and drunkenly threatened officers who were responding to a brawl at a local saloon.
Another time a young friend of mine spotted a fugitive bank robber on the street, noting that the man had changed his hair color. In my presence he called the cops to report the encounter. They told him that they could not take the report unless he put it in writing and came to the station and presented the report in person. This set off my ex-cop alarm bells and I advised him not to go. A month later, the fugitive was apprehended.
Media reports noted that he had changed his hair color. They fawningly attributed the capture to “good police work.” This was around the same time the Lubbock cops engineered the false rape conviction of Timothy Cole’s, who died in prison before he could be exonerated.

88
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 17, 2018 • 2:16:49am

The coming civil war will not be between bad law enforcement and its victims, but I think a national uprising against brutal and abusive cops could be a key triggering factor. For all their air of force and authority, the police still maintain order largely by consensus. As we saw in the LA riots a quarter century ago, a breakdown in that consensus exposes the vulnerability and limitations of police power and can lead to chaos and disorder in startlingly little time.

89
Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis  Feb 17, 2018 • 2:17:34am

‘Hot Coil Challenge’ shows how foolish people can be

TUCSON, Ariz. - Just when you thought these so-called internet challenges couldn’t get any more dangerous, a new online trend is gaining some popularity.

The internet was introduced to the “Hot Coil Challenge” recently, and it’s got many people worried about the human race.

It’s just like it sounds.

People are turning on the stove, getting the coils hot, and then putting their arm or other limbs on the stove as long as they can.

Some are posting their video to YouTube, while other are posting videos encouraging the viewer to not try it - which gives us some hope

90
Targetpractice  Feb 17, 2018 • 2:31:25am

In their jubilation over how the indictments “vindicate” Trump is that the flip side is also true, the very words that Rosenstein used yesterday that the wingnuts are hanging their ”There was no collusion!” talking points on also kill dead their ”Hillary was colluding with Russia!” conspiracy theories. And that’s before you actually delve into the indictments, which spell it out pretty clearly that the Russian rodent fornication efforts were aimed at tearing down her campaign in favor of pushing voters towards Trump or third party candidates.

Mueller shot a wingnut conspiracy yesterday just to watch it die.

91
Dr Lizardo  Feb 17, 2018 • 2:33:37am

re: #89 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis

What’s next? The “Russian roulette with a pistol” challenge?

*headdesk*

92
Dr Lizardo  Feb 17, 2018 • 2:43:03am

Now this is a cool story:

Fresh off its Golden Globe award for best animation, the Disney-Pixar movie Coco is a favorite to win an Oscar next month.

It’s a sweet story of a small boy, Miguel, who dreams of becoming a musician despite his parents’ objections. On the way, he finds family, tradition and a magnificent white guitar, encrusted with pearl details and a black skull.

Real-life sales of guitars like Miguel’s guitar have soared thanks to the movie. And not just in U.S. stores. A small town in Mexico’s western highlands, famous for its generation of guitar makers, is also enjoying a Coco boon.

Paracho, in the state of Michoacán, is the former home of the very guitar maker who helped design the instrument seen in the film.

npr.org

93
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 3:01:30am

re: #86 Targetpractice

It is disturbing these days how easily conversations go from “I’m a history buff, love to visit the sites” to “You know the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, right?” when you’re talking with an old white man. I swear, I could have won a round of “White Grievance Bingo” in the last 20 minutes:

- War was about trade/economic, the North was afraid of competition
- War was over failure to compromise
- Secessionist state proclamations read like Declaration of Independence
- It was totally like the Revolutionary War (i.e. colonists against overbearing crown)
- They’re erasing our history/heritage
- South dominated by Democrats, North by Republicans

Why does this shit always happen to me when I’m a captive audience?

It has gone from “Slavery was not the sole cause of the Civil War” to “Slavery had nothing to do with the Civil War!”

Just like it went from “Not everything the Nazis did was evil” to “The Nazis were great guys!”

94
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 3:03:22am

re: #88 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines

The coming civil war will not be between bad law enforcement and its victims, but I think a national uprising against brutal and abusive cops could be a key triggering factor. For all their air of force and authority, the police still maintain order largely by consensus. As we saw in the LA riots a quarter century ago, a breakdown in that consensus exposes the vulnerability and limitations of police power and can lead to chaos and disorder in startlingly little time.

We are also dealing with a systemic conflict of interest: DAs are used to working with police to bring charges against the people they arrest, not working to obtain indictments and convictions against police.

Nothing is going to change until we institute new procedures for dealing with criminality on the part of LEOs.

95
majii  Feb 17, 2018 • 3:55:24am

re: #94 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

“Nothing is going to change until we institute new procedures for dealing with criminality on the part of LEOs.”

I agree. There are more and more instances occurring in which cops are failing to serve and protect and have become criminals themselves. I’m thinking of the so-called elite gun task force group members on trial who were heavily involved in robbery, changing time cards to reflect they’d worked more hours than they actually worked, and stole and sold drugs. I guess they got the idea that they could do these things because they were “elite,” and wouldn’t be questioned about the crimes they committed. A young officer here in GA resigned on Thursday. He was selling drugs and guns out of the back of his police vehicle. Another off duty officer here got caught on video shouting racist and homophobic slurs at a group of persons he didn’t even know. The problem with trying to rein these officers in is multifaceted because of the following: Sometimes the corruption is so deep that it touches everyone in the department. Then, there’s the brotherhood of the uniform that make officers feel they must back each other up even if they know an officer has done something wrong. I’ve also noticed that we have many citizens who think police officers should never be held responsible for anything they do, even if it involves shooting down an unarmed citizen in our streets. Juries are loath to find a police officer guilty even if it’s 100% clear that s/he is guilty as hell. Some prosecutors work hard to exonerate police officers and will quickly declare that a shooting is/was justified, and union leaders make sure they’re involved as soon as possible so they can begin the propaganda campaign to save the police officer’s job. Then, we have the media that tends to always try to give law enforcement a pass. We have members of law enforcement who are racist, homophobes, Islamophobes, rapists, anti-Semites, and misogynists. These individuals don’t leave these attitudes at home when they put on their uniforms and begin their shifts. To improve officers’ performance and transform them into the public servants they are supposed to be will require no tolerance policies for certain behaviors and attitudes, additional training, especially in teaching them to use the tools they have before they reach for their guns. I would also suggest giving them a battery of psychological tests, and checking their social media backgrounds/history, just to name a few. When I was growing up in the 1960s, we rarely had an incident in our city in which a police officer would shoot a citizen down in the middle of the streets of my city. That has changed, and it’s sad. Something will have to be done. Something must be done. It’s going to take ongoing civic activism, studying candidates records and never missing a vote when top law enforcement officers are elected.

96
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 3:57:04am

re: #95 majii

“Nothing is going to change until we institute new procedures for dealing with criminality on the part of LEOs.”

I agree. There are more and more instances occurring in which cops are failing to serve and protect and have become criminals themselves.

If they know they can get away with crimes and be protected by their superiors, then they will be emboldened. And once that culture is established, it cannot be rooted out with compromising law enforcement overall.

I am afraid a lot of communities are past that tipping point.

97
Barefoot Grin  Feb 17, 2018 • 4:43:11am

re: #87 Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines

Missed tip on Florida shooter. I don’t think there’s a connection but it reminds me of a procedural fad in law enforcement back in the 80s: refusing unsolicited tips and information from the public. They did this by forcing the informant to jump through hoops before they would take the info, essentially reversing the dynamic by pretending that the informant was asking THEM for a favor, rather than the other way round. For instance I called to report a freakazoid who was posing as a DEA agent so he could solicit sexual favors from college students. I had the guy’s name, workplace, and vehicle description and license number. The cops said they would not take the report unless I could also tell them where he lived. Of course I had no idea and could not find out without launching a private investigation on my own. A full year later the guy was arrested after he flashed his fake badge and drunkenly threatened officers who were responding to a brawl at a local saloon.
Another time a young friend of mine spotted a fugitive bank robber on the street, noting that the man had changed his hair color. In my presence he called the cops to report the encounter. They told him that they could not take the report unless he put it in writing and came to the station and presented the report in person. This set off my ex-cop alarm bells and I advised him not to go. A month later, the fugitive was apprehended.
Media reports noted that he had changed his hair color. They fawningly attributed the capture to “good police work.” This was around the same time the Lubbock cops engineered the false rape conviction of Timothy Cole’s, who died in prison before he could be exonerated.

There were also multiple failures before 9/11. I thought that they had addressed issues of tips and field office reporting.

98
Barefoot Grin  Feb 17, 2018 • 4:44:37am

Speaking of 9/11, I’ve seen several “nothing could have prepared us for the level of cyber attack….” But that was Richard Clarke’s next warning almost immediately after the attacks.

99
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 4:50:58am

re: #97 Barefoot Grin

There were also multiple failures before 9/11. I thought that they had addressed issues of tips and field office reporting.

on one hand, you get the potential for fear mongering and denunciation, on the other hand, you can let a mass murderer slip through the net.

it is not an easy job.

calling for resignations is a political stunt, calling for reform and rethinking is reasonable

100
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:04:15am

re: #64 Ace-o-aces

[Embedded content]

Well at least then you’d have killed someone dangerous to civilization…

101
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:04:42am

heh

102
BigPapa  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:06:49am

The most profound indictment of the right wing is that Russian trolls push narratives and conspiracy the right enthusiastically trades in.

This means the Russians believe the right wing is destroying America.

103
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:16:57am

For Purity’s sake, let’s remember that these are not “The Russians”. This is the Russian Kleptocracy, who hold the same position to the Russian people that Trump and his band of billionaire thieves hold to us. Anyone know the Russian term for “Malefactors of Great Wealth”?

104
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:19:17am

re: #103 Decatur Deb

For Purity’s sake, let’s remember that these are not “The Russians”. This is the Russian Kleptocracy, who hold the same position to the Russians that Trump and his band of billionaire thieves hold to us. Anyone know the Russian term for “Malefactors of Great Wealth”?

Злодеятели большого богатства

105
Jay C  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:19:35am

re: #77 Amory Blaine

I got a #4 cylinder misfire on the mini van. So I take off the plastic engine cover and there was a nest on top of the engine! Some rodent chewed up the sound deadening foam on the underside of the engine cover and also through my #4 fuel injector wires. Wire burned up about 3 inches. Lucky the wiring was under some kind of wire wrap, or the nest could have started the car on fire. I have to wait til Monday for the part and hope that was all he chewed through. I didn’t notice any other damage and blew all the leaves and stuff out.

Yeah, same thing happened to me a couple of years ago: we had to clear garage space for some house repairs, and parked the cars outside in the summer. When I went to start the Mini Cooper one day it was dead: when the tow guy came to give it a jump, we found that mice had gotten in and eaten the fuel lines - apparently a delicacy for the little suckers, who knew?

Anyway, I did learn a good trick for making a homemade rodent- repellent: useful if you have to store a car somewhere where the bastards might get at it. In a small spray bottle, mix a couple of teaspoons of essential peppermint oil with a pint of water and a couple of drops of liquid soap to emulsify it. Spray if all under the car, up in the wheel wells, and all around the engine. It’s pretty pungent, but will fade after a week or so, and does a good job of keeping critters at bay.

106
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:20:18am

These malefactors had a lot of Russians convinced that Obama was a warmonger and that Hillary was out to commit genocide on white people.

107
Dave In Austin  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:25:08am

re: #104 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Злодеятели большого богатства

Vzroslyye lyudi bol’shogo bogatstva

108
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:26:10am

re: #106 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

These malefactors had a lot of Russians convinced that Obama was a warmonger and that Hillary was out to commit genocide on white people.

For a guess, I’d say about 27%.

109
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:29:15am

re: #105 Jay C

Yeah, same thing happened to me a couple of years ago: we had to clear garage space for some house repairs, and parked the cars outside in the summer. When I went to start the Mini Cooper one day it was dead: when the tow guy came to give it a jump, we found that mice had gotten in and eaten the fuel lines - apparently a delicacy for the little suckers, who knew?

Anyway, I did learn a good trick for making a homemade rodent- repellent: useful if you have to store a car somewhere where the bastards might get it. In a small spray bottle, mix a couple of teaspoons of essential peppermint oil with a pint of water and a couple of drops of liquid soap to emulsify it. Spray if all under the car, up in the wheel wells, and all around the engine. It’s pretty pungent, but will fade after a week or so, and does a good job of keeping critters at bay.

Each Spring, when it’s time to put my old Land Rover back on the road, we face the moral problem of either removing the birds that are nesting in the dash tray or waiting until the hatchlings fledge.

110
Barefoot Grin  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:30:33am

re: #99 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

on one hand, you get the potential for fear mongering and denunciation, on the other hand, you can let a mass murderer slip through the net.

it is not an easy job.

calling for resignations is a political stunt, calling for reform and rethinking is reasonable

Very good points. Not an easy job at all.

111
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:36:52am

re: #110 Barefoot Grin

Very good points. Not an easy job at all.

In fact the calls by the Parkland sheriff and others to increase the identification of weird kids could easily lead to greatly increased bullying and isolation. That’ll work well.

112
jeffreyw  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:42:32am

Imgur


Good morning!

113
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:55:32am

re: #95 majii

Google “LAPD Rampart Division Scandal”.

Back in the 90s there was a major scandal in the Rampart division where a significant number of cops were caught planting drugs on alleged gang members and getting them convicted under the 3 strikes law. They actually kept “points” on how many victims they did this to. The cop group actually took on a gang activity including the tattoos and bling…

114
Barefoot Grin  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:55:39am
115
Mike Lamb  Feb 17, 2018 • 5:59:25am

re: #50 Kragar

[Embedded content]

Hold the phone…our Intrepid Conservative Boy Scout with his Junior Grifting Merit Badge is now in Russia?

116
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:00:59am

re: #112 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

Good morning!

Looks good. I did corned beef hash and a bit of toast this morning.

117
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:09:03am

re: #112 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

Good morning!

One look at that and I got to get to the gym…

118
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:13:10am

re: #89 Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis

‘Hot Coil Challenge’ shows how foolish people can be

They’re just speeding up the natural selection process

119
jeffreyw  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:37:47am
120
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:40:52am

re: #113 Joe Bacon 🌹

Google “LAPD Rampart Division Scandal”.

Back in the 90s there was a major scandal in the Rampart division where a significant number of cops were caught planting drugs on alleged gang members and getting them convicted under the 3 strikes law. They actually kept “points” on how many victims they did this to. The cop group actually took on a gang activity including the tattoos and bling…

and yet MS 13 is an existential threat that must be stopped by mass deportations and a border wall

121
bill d. (b.d.)  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:41:56am

re: #119 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

You have enough cardinals to elect a new pope.

122
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:43:38am

re: #121 bill d. (b.d.)

You have enough cardinals to elect a new pope.

you beat me to the College of Cardinals comment

123
bill d. (b.d.)  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:45:04am

re: #122 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

you beat me to the College of Cardinals comment

lol, you have to be quick around here even on a quiet saturday morning

124
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:55:41am
125
sagehen  Feb 17, 2018 • 6:57:37am

re: #113 Joe Bacon 🌹

Google “LAPD Rampart Division Scandal”.

Back in the 90s there was a major scandal in the Rampart division where a significant number of cops were caught planting drugs on alleged gang members and getting them convicted under the 3 strikes law. They actually kept “points” on how many victims they did this to. The cop group actually took on a gang activity including the tattoos and bling…

In NYC it was “The Dirty Thirty” (the 30th Precinct) — but it wasn’t about framing people to send them to prison, it was all about the money. They’d rob drug dealers, keep the cash, sell the seized drugs for half-price (and keep that money too)…
en.wikipedia.org

126
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:09:51am

re: #82 DodgerFan1988

Conservatives already making up stories of black people assaulting whites in the movie theaters during the screening of Black Panther.

[Embedded content]

The Russians have had a campaign of stirring racial tensions in this country for decades.

127
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:19:06am

re: #86 Targetpractice

It is disturbing these days how easily conversations go from “I’m a history buff, love to visit the sites” to “You know the Civil War wasn’t about slavery, right?” when you’re talking with an old white man. I swear, I could have won a round of “White Grievance Bingo” in the last 20 minutes:

- War was about trade/economic, the North was afraid of competition
- War was over failure to compromise
- Secessionist state proclamations read like Declaration of Independence
- It was totally like the Revolutionary War (i.e. colonists against overbearing crown)
- They’re erasing our history/heritage
- South dominated by Democrats, North by Republicans

Why does this shit always happen to me when I’m a captive audience?

I have taken to keeping a copy of the relevant section from the relevant section of the Texas declaration of secession in my wallet.

128
sagehen  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:19:23am

re: #126 Belafon

The Russians have had a campaign of stirring racial tensions in this country for decades.

And Republicans have been aware of it for decades; back when they were actual patriots instead of “Patriots”, they promoted Civil Rights for the express purpose of undermining the Soviets’ ability to do that.

1960 - Nixon on Civil Rights

129
Big Beautiful Door  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:19:33am

re: #60 Ace-o-aces

[Embedded content]

No thoughts and prayers?

130
jeffreyw  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:21:22am

re: #121 bill d. (b.d.)

131
jeffreyw  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:22:31am
132
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:26:35am

re: #91 Dr Lizardo

What’s next? The “Russian roulette with a pistol” challenge?

*headdesk*

Don’t post that! You could be right.

133
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:27:06am

re: #132 Unshaken Defiance

Don’t post that! You could be right.

eating an entire washing machine

134
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:28:34am

re: #130 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

When our Italian neighbors came for a stay they saw cardinals for the first time. They thought we were just joking when we told them the name.

135
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:30:44am

re: #126 Belafon

The Russians have had a campaign of stirring racial tensions in this country for decades.

Patrice Lumumba University (1960) is not in the Congo. The list of famous alumni is telling.

en.wikipedia.org

136
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:32:03am

re: #58 jaunte

[Embedded content]

The police are the only ones who allow themselves to be near him.

137
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:35:53am

re: #135 Decatur Deb

Patrice Lumumba University (1960) is not in the Congo. The list of famous alumni is telling.

en.wikipedia.org

But their policy of inviting guest students sometimes backfired: Russians did not like the sight of these fellows, often the privileged sons of local political potentates, “preying” on Russian women and a number of them “accidentally” fell out of upper-storey windows…all in all, they did little to encourage “friendship between nations”.

Nor did the North Korean or Vietnamese guest workers. They would be seen leaving the country at then end of their term of service loaded with consumer goods, which were in short supply, which also annoyed the locals. And needless to say, they lived in separate quarters and had little other interaction with their Proletarian brothers and sisters.

138
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:38:20am

Ahhh Saturday.

So if the bg check is failing to catch even the easy ones to catch…
cnn.com

The documents include more than 30 reports going back as far as 2011, covering misbehavior by Cruz and some by his younger brother. They add further depth to the emerging portrait of Cruz as an unstable teen who had long been on the radar of law enforcement, behavioral specialists, teachers and fellow students.
Yet Cruz was still able to pass the nation’s gun background check system in February 2017 and obtain an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, one that he used to kill 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day.

Couple things here. When a guy like me says little to no support for new gun laws until we can actually use the ones we have reasonably well please do keep the above in mind. Best way to make a bad law of a necessary one is under or selectively enforce. When a guy like me tells AG Sessions to go to hell, I’m recalling the above in the context of agencies like ATF threatening to start taking guns away from medical or recreational pot smokers while failing to stop guys like Cruz.

So when do we get to a place where we admit we must deal with the most ill and threatening among us before they act? Everyday things are deadly too in the hands of the violently insane.

139
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:40:59am

re: #39 Kragar

Last time I saw a mouth that big it had a hook in it.

140
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:43:41am

re: #138 Unshaken Defiance

Yet Cruz was still able to pass the nation’s gun background check system in February 2017 and obtain an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle, one that he used to kill 17 at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Valentine’s Day..

The right to bear arms is not identical with the right to unlimited access, but any agency that tries to do its job by restricting access is risking a major outcry and a ton of pushback from from the NRA.

remember the blowup during Katrina when FEMA tried to ban guns in emergency housing? That was taken up as a 2A issue.

141
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:43:49am

There are so many people that have an interest in stirring racial tensions here, both in the country and out. The problem in this country is so many people who just accept these images, and more importantly the message, without questioning. No one is perfect, but too many choose something that confirms their biases. Too many people choose to just follow what those around them seem to want rather than deciding for themselves.

142
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:50:09am

re: #141 Belafon

People made a massive racial issue out of Ferguson, but to me that was only part of the issue.

To me, the main issue at hand was the inherent systemic conflict of interest: DAs are used to working with police to obtain indictments and convictions. It is not in their long-term interest to work against policemen who are charged with crimes.

And knowing this, police become emboldened feeling that they can get away with most anything.

143
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:51:00am

re: #140 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Yeah, the NRA makes it very difficult to have these discussions and that’s exactly how. And BTW it’s worth repeating that gun owner membership in NRA is single digits… They are a gun maker organization not a shooter organization.

We don’t want unfiltered access to guns. Criminal possession underpins the desire (degree of necessity as an arguable point) for defensive home / place of biz guns.

144
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:52:31am
145
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:54:11am

re: #140 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Notice whose outcries they blissfully ignore, and those who they fawningly over react to. Ignore the poor, the abused minority. But let a state legislator in a white / GOP run state like Arizona say a few words, and poof. ATF stops working straw man cases.

146
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:54:41am

re: #143 Unshaken Defiance

Yeah, the NRA makes it very difficult to have these discussions and that’s exactly how. And BTW it’s worth repeating that gun owner membership in NRA is single digits… They are a gun maker organization not a shooter organization.

We don’t want unfiltered access to guns. Criminal possession underpins the desire (degree of necessity as an arguable point) for defensive home / place of biz guns.

If you want to own and use a gun to defend your home, then I guess that is your good right.

But it does not stop there: every time we see a public shooting, the answer proposed is more guns out on the streets.

Defending your home is one thing, but to effectively deter a public active shooter, you have to be a trained professional with years of experience, good situational awareness and nerves of steel.

That is not a skills set that can be purchased over the counter at the local Wal-Mart sporting goods section.

147
First As Tragedy, Then As Farce  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:55:45am

re: #131 jeffreyw

A lot of years ago, I saw Junior Brown at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth. The late Mitch Mitchell on drums. It was a good show.

148
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 7:58:01am

re: #74 MsJ

ICYMI

[Embedded content]

I guess Manafort wasn’t sufficiently cooperating.

149
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:00:10am

re: #144 jaunte

[Embedded content]

There were people who were complaining about reporters being rather dispassionate in their reporting of the shooting. One of the stories I’ve heard about that crash was that the reporter who said “Oh the humanity!” was fired because of his reporting.

150
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:02:29am

re: #149 Belafon

There were people who were complaining about reporters being rather dispassionate in their reporting of the shooting. One of the stories I’ve heard about that crash was that the reporter who said “Oh the humanity!” was fired because of his reporting.

dispassionate or just emotionally numbed?

151
I Would Prefer Not To  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:02:42am

re: #148 Belafon

I guess Manafort wasn’t sufficiently cooperating.

I thought Manafart wasn’t cooperating, but gates was.

152
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:03:05am

re: #146 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

As critics, we stay on the NRA to attempt tp reduce their influence. Loudly point out what’s wrong. Then take a breath and stop letting them define what anyone but them even really wants. They and their arguments like you rightly point out should not be associated with anyone but them and their membership.

IOW 95% of us shooters disagree with the NRA a lot. What the NRA says needs to become the secondary headline below the big ones. Okay not yelling here ;-) think of this as a literal news headline instead

ENFORCE BACKGROUND CHECK/STRAWMAN LAWS TO REDUCE GUN KILLINGS

19PpwQOKX5z/5/JrsPqNfBrhg4u7qsEhFYJ5zV7vdR8ItSEbaVKuTw==

I have had it with the NRA embarrassing me as a shooter.

153
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:05:04am

Hey, is Teleskiguy around? I’m not a skier but this story caught my eye :D NOT The Onion…

‘This Must Be Some Mistake,’ Says Snowboarder After Winning Olympic Gold In Skiing

She went up the hill a snowboarder but came down an Olympic champion skier. That’s one way to tell the story of Ester Ledecka, the Czech athlete who stunned the world — and herself — by winning the women’s Super-G race at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

“How did that happen?” she asked a cameraman at the bottom of her run.

Before today, Ledecka had been most well-known as a snowboarder — that’s where she’s had the most success, including world titles and a trip to the Sochi Games in 2014. But she has refused to specialize in one sport, and she started racing on the World Cup Alpine circuit two years ago.

As for how she won, an elated Ledecka said, in a transcription from the Olympics’ news service, “I really don’t know what happened. You tell me … I was riding. I really don’t know what happened. It was great.”

npr.org

154
FormerDirtDart  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:07:10am

I figure it could be either a Summer or Winter Olympics event

155
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:08:00am

re: #151 I Would Prefer Not To

I thought Manafart wasn’t cooperating, but gates was.

You’re more likely right. I’d forgotten who’s on Mueller’s good list and who’s on his naughty list.

156
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:09:09am

This seems like a line we should be pushing:

157
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:12:36am
158
HappyWarrior  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:14:48am

re: #157 jaunte

[Embedded content]

If he really wanted to respect the dead, he’d listen to the students.

159
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:14:52am

re: #146 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

With all that’s wrong with open carry, unrestricted CCW, I think we have to stop failing ourselves at the social safety level. From the same link above-

The vast majority of the police calls resulted in “no paperwork filed,” according to a list obtained by CNN on Thursday. But the few that are described in police reports detail Cruz’s multiple outbursts.

What does it take to deal with dangerously ill people?

160
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:20:39am

re: #158 HappyWarrior

I’m sure he had other plans today than to golf. This is just another case of his reflexive self-promotion.

161
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:21:33am

re: #159 Unshaken Defiance

With all that’s wrong with open carry, unrestricted CCW, I think we have to stop failing ourselves at the social safety level. From the same link above-

What does it take to deal with dangerously ill people?

we are not allowed to even address guns as a health or public safety issue…just as a 2A issue

162
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:23:27am

re: #161 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

we are not allowed to even address guns as a health or public safety issue…just as a 2A issue

Tying both hands behind our collective backs. I’m with ya.

163
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:26:07am
164
Renaissance_Man  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:29:17am

re: #159 Unshaken Defiance

With all that’s wrong with open carry, unrestricted CCW, I think we have to stop failing ourselves at the social safety level. From the same link above-

What does it take to deal with dangerously ill people?

It takes them being black, or brown, or some other ‘dangerous’ social class.

The US firearm system is working as intended. The system is not designed to keep weapons out of the hands of insane white males. If it was, it might actually happen sometimes, and gun deaths might decline, instead of rising. Gun massacres are an intended feature of American life - they stimulate gun sales, they keep people fearful, stimulating more sales and the social and political constructs that keep American people in a constant state of depraved indifference.

Americans believe that guns are for shooting other people in normal civilian life. This is a mindset that is so alien to those of us who did not grow up here, yet so ingrained in the national consciousness that the average American cannot conceive of it any other way. As long as everyday, commonplace gun deaths are the province of ‘those people’ - black thugs, gangbangers, etc. - and gun massacres are a privilege of white men, the American system is exactly as it is supposed to be.

165
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:29:32am

re: #163 jaunte

“We have got to wake up, wake up and understand that we have to have

…MORE GUNS!!!

166
MsJ  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:30:03am

re: #151 I Would Prefer Not To

I thought Manafart wasn’t cooperating, but gates was.

Manafort was. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he wasn’t. I think he may have needed a little incentive to help him make a correct choice (some people have no concept of right and wrong and he’s one of them).

He also has a multi-million dollar house that the feds could take from him.

And I hope they do.

167
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:30:38am

re: #164 Renaissance_Man

The gun is a mythical talisman that will protect us from terrorists, criminals and mass shooters.

168
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:31:40am

re: #165 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

Sheriff Judd has all the answers, right up to the point when he becomes legally responsible for any deaths.

169
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:32:17am

re: #162 Unshaken Defiance

Tying both hands behind our collective backs. I’m with ya.

There are some over at the Liberal Gun Club that say we need to no more laws just “root cause mitigation”. But the NRA fights against any study of just what those root causes are just as hard as if it were a renewal of the AWB.

I get so frustrated by the knee jerks on both sides. The AWB was meaningless - look at current California compliant rifles for examples of how porous those laws are. Can’t change the causes if we don’t know what they are either.

Licensing and testing, like with cars, is the only real hope for change. And we may well have to grandfather in every current gun owner the way hunter safety class requirements were grandfathered in.

170
MsJ  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:33:00am
171
I Would Prefer Not To  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:35:00am

re: #166 MsJ

Manafort was. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he wasn’t. I think he may have needed a little incentive to help him make a correct choice (some people have no concept of right and wrong and he’s one of them).

He also has a multi-million dollar house that the feds could take from him.

And I hope they do.

He’s going to lose his house, but that’s ok, because he may get to stay in the big house.

172
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:39:48am

re: #170 MsJ

So try another airline you dumb fuck.

173
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:40:00am

re: #170 MsJ

Then walk, asshole.

174
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:40:58am

You think Trump would have even visited the school if it wasn’t just up the road from his fancy club?

175
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:41:37am

re: #174 Eclectic Cyborg

Nyet.

176
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:41:50am

re: #174 Eclectic Cyborg

Nope

177
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:45:07am

re: #149 Belafon

There were people who were complaining about reporters being rather dispassionate in their reporting of the shooting. One of the stories I’ve heard about that crash was that the reporter who said “Oh the humanity!” was fired because of his reporting.

No, I think it was the other reporter—the one who phoned in a routine successful landing. From a bar.

178
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:45:38am

re: #163 jaunte

We already have almost a million people exactly like he described. We call them police.

179
MsJ  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:46:30am

re: #172 Eclectic Cyborg

So try another airline you dumb fuck.

It’s not the airline, it’s that he doesn’t want any icky citizens telling him what they think of him.

180
MsJ  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:47:22am

Somehow this seems important.

181
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:48:32am

re: #119 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

Waiting for the white or black smoke to emerge from the bird feeder! 😉

182
MsJ  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:50:48am

Something has happened to Mags.

(Whom I still loath.)

183
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:51:46am

re: #179 MsJ

It’s not the airline, it’s that he doesn’t want any icky citizens telling him what they think of him.

Then he can pay the extra to upgrade his ass to First Class.

184
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:53:23am

re: #183 Eclectic Cyborg

Then he can pay the extra to upgrade his ass to First Class.

That’s always been permitted by the Joint Travel Regulations. (They also allow the application of gov’t-paid FF miles.)

185
MsJ  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:56:27am

I hated people sometimes.

“Curling isn’t a sport!”

“Those American curlers are fat. No wonder they lost!”

Grrrrr…..

186
stpaulbear  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:59:07am

re: #179 MsJ

It’s not the airline, it’s that he doesn’t want any icky citizens telling him what they think of him.

The solution to this is that the passengers in first class should also start telling him what they think of him. I think we can all agree, rich or poor, that he sucks.

187
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:59:32am

re: #163 jaunte

188
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 8:59:59am

re: #183 Eclectic Cyborg

Then he can pay the extra to upgrade his ass to First Class.

189
makeitstop  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:00:50am

re: #182 MsJ

Something has happened to Mags.

(Whom I still loath.)

[Embedded content]

Finished her book, maybe.

Or (long shot), she’s had a ‘scales falling from her eyes’ moment.

I’ll go with ‘finished her book.’

190
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:04:09am
191
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:04:17am

re: #187 Joe Bacon 🌹

Or an unstable MAGA friendly teacher has a bad day and students they don’t like.

192
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:07:10am

re: #182 MsJ

I don’t see anything particularly impressive or indicative of much (other than her reading the indictments like everyone else) in this tweet myself.

193
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:10:02am
194
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:11:10am
195
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:13:00am

re: #193 JordanRules

Start with your sugar daddy.

196
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:14:24am

re: #194 JordanRules

Instead of doing something to ensure Russians weren’t meddling in our elections, President Obama laughed at the suggestion that Russia was our biggest geopolitical foe.

It is NOT our biggest foe, but that does not mean they are our friends

I remember the blowup when he said that ISIS was not an existential threat to the US…that was quickly twisted into “Obama does not see ISIS as threat”. Perhaps because they did not understand what “existential” means so they just bleeped it out…

197
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:15:39am

re: #194 JordanRules

Oh, that’s why Trump won’t implement the sanctions Congress voted on Russia, he’s hoping it will hurt Obama’s presidential chances.

198
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:15:57am
199
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:15:57am

re: #191 JordanRules

Or an unstable MAGA friendly teacher has a bad day and students they don’t like.

Never mind the rather low odds of dropping someone using an AR-15 with a pistol when you DON’T have the element of surprise…

200
stpaulbear  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:17:03am

re: #163 jaunte

Fox News

@FoxNews
Sheriff Grady Judd: “We have got to wake up, wake up and understand that we have to have… specially trained people that have concealed firearms that can run to the threat and protect our children.”

In the time it takes for the “specially trained people” to “run to the threat”, dozens of kids and teachers could be dead.

201
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:17:55am

re: #199 Eclectic Cyborg

Right. It’s absurd from the get-go.

202
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:22:01am
203
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:22:24am

re: #119 jeffreyw

[Embedded content]

Looks like a convention of cardinals.

You need a tiny little chimney on the roof of the birdhouse. When you see white smoke coming out of it the cardinals will have elected a new pope!

204
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:23:18am

re: #121 bill d. (b.d.)

You have enough cardinals to elect a new pope.

And I did not see this until after I made my comment. Heh. Like minds.

205
Dave In Austin  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:25:19am

re: #193 JordanRules

I read all of Melania’s tweets in Natasha accent from Moose and Squirrel. And it just comes naturally.

206
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:29:15am
207
FormerDirtDart  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:29:18am

re: #190 Ace Rothstein

Imagine if Obama had done smiling/thumbs up photo ops with first responders and hospital staff after Ft Hood, Giffords/Tucson, Aurora, Sandy Hook, Charleston, Chattanooga, San Bernardino Dallas or Orlando.

208
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:30:15am
209
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:30:22am

re: #148 Belafon

I guess Manafort wasn’t sufficiently cooperating.

I have a feeling dealing with Manafort could be a pain in the ass. He just looks like greasy hard to pin down trouble.

210
Unshaken Defiance  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:31:04am

re: #187 Joe Bacon 🌹

211
Citizen K  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:33:46am

re: #196 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

It is NOT our biggest foe, but that does not mean they are our friends

I remember the blowup when he said that ISIS was not an existential threat to the US…that was quickly twisted into “Obama does not see ISIS as threat”. Perhaps because they did not understand what “existential” means so they just bleeped it out…

It was also before it was really apparent the extent of Russia’s cyber warfare apparatus, as well as the wilingness of countless high-profile Americans to actually give up access and money to the Putinistas for their own political gain.

The furor over the whole ‘geopolitical foe’ was all over democracy, saber rattling, and international relations. This is a direct attack on our institutions that has been enabled by the motherfuckers we fucking elected on the exact fucking basis of Russian misinformation, gleefully disseminated and perpetuated by these exact same motherfuckers.

Obama wasn’t the fucking one who was back-dealing directly with Putin just to win a fucking election. He actually wanted to put the screws to Putin and keep him a (mostly) regional strongman. It’s those who gleefully surrendered American institutions just for eternal, perpetual power and ‘triggering the libs’ that have empowered Russia into what it is today: our fucking owners.

212
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:33:53am

Oh Bounce is so ready to give his earnest analysis.

213
FormerDirtDart  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:33:58am
re: #163 jaunte

Fox News

@FoxNews
Sheriff Grady Judd: “We have got to wake up, wake up and understand that we have to have… specially trained people that have concealed firearms that can run to the threat and protect our children.”

re: #200 stpaulbear

In the time it takes for the “specially trained people” to “run to the threat”, dozens of kids and teachers could be dead.

These jerkoffs are incredible. The damn police don’t even “run to the threat” anymore.

214
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:34:49am

re: #210 Unshaken Defiance

[Embedded content]

This guy isn’t even good about the bureaucratic aspects of sheriff’n. Any manager knows this is when you demand more in-house manpower and resources from the penny-pinching budgeteers.

215
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:34:52am
216
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:35:21am

re: #158 HappyWarrior

If he really wanted to respect the dead, he’d listen to the students.

He doesn’t listen to anyone because he has no respect for anyone.

I still wonder if he has any real honest good dear friends.

217
Eclectic Cyborg  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:35:43am

Also: Who picks up the bill for arming and training the teachers?

218
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:36:38am
219
Citizen K  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:37:02am

re: #217 Eclectic Cyborg

Also: Who picks up the bill for arming and training the teachers?

The same folks who routinely deny them funding for actual school supplies like pens, stationery, books, et. al. Because you can never have enough guns, there’s always money for guns.

220
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:37:46am

re: #218 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

A military helicopter carrying officials assessing damage from a powerful earthquake crashed Friday in southern Mexico, killing 13 people, all on the ground, according to the Associated Press and Reuters.

Five women, four men and three children were killed at the crash site and another person died later at the hospital, the Oaxaca state prosecutor’s office said in a statement, the AP reported.

Mexico’s Interior Department said that the helicopter was carrying Secretary Alfonso Navarrete and Oaxaca state Gov. Alejandro Murat, who were evaluating damage from the earthquake, when their helicopter crashed. The helicopter crashed on top of two vans in an open field while trying to land in Santiago Jamiltepec on Friday, officials told Reuters.

221
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:39:51am

re: #206 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]

222
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:41:00am

re: #217 Eclectic Cyborg

Also: Who picks up the bill for arming and training the teachers?

the students’ families of course, what are we some sort of socialist handout paradise?

223
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:42:42am
224
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:42:52am

re: #221 Backwoods_Sleuth

When Trump and Pence continue to side with a foreign adversary which seeks to attack our democracy and weaken America, it reeks of treason

WRONG!

Not clapping for President during SOTU speech = Treason
Colluding with foreign power to influence US election = NOT Treason

225
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:44:32am

because, of course, he did:

226
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:46:52am
227
Mike Lamb  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:47:19am

re: #194 JordanRules

[Embedded content]

Ask McConnell what happened when Obama tried to do something…

228
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:47:46am

re: #185 MsJ

I hated people sometimes.

“Curling isn’t a sport!”

“Those American curlers are fat. No wonder they lost!”

Grrrrr…..

[Embedded content]

Don’t feel bad MsJ. I am an auto racing fan and I’ve been told the whole time it is not a sport.

I guess having to maintain like 2% body fat to fit in a formula one car, be able to dress in all that nomex underwear and three-layer driving suit, be in a balaclava (head sock) with a tight fitting helmet on, sweating your butt off and taking hi-g-forces both in the turns and under braking and acceleration for a couple hours or more is not athletic. Plus having supreme hand eye coordination and lightning fast reflexes and superb feel for balance (in the seat of your pants) is also not athletic.

Race car drivers have some of the best recorded resting heart rates known in athletics too. I guess under all that stress, you still need to keep your cool.

Nope it is not a sport. It’s just tooling down the road with the radio on while you yak on your cell phone. Just like most Americans do when they are out driving too!

229
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:53:28am
230
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:53:53am

re: #194 JordanRules

Ronna McDaniel

@GOPChairwoman
Instead of doing something to ensure Russians weren’t meddling in our elections, President Obama laughed at the suggestion that Russia was our biggest geopolitical foe.

What does what Obama thought about Russia as a political threat have to do with Russia meddling in our elections?

I swear…the GOP flak distributors are getting dumber by the day. I guess that is the influence of Trump on the party. Yesterday’s Mueller indictment really knocked them into idiocy. They are flailing badly.

231
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:54:11am

re: #229 JordanRules

That was back when our country had a real man as President.

232
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:55:00am
233
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:56:02am

re: #230 ObserverArt

Yup. I think Charles commented yesterday that the stupid was about to get even stupider.

234
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:57:13am
235
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:57:34am

re: #232 JordanRules

I can assure you charities didn’t created the NHS, build affordable housing for the working class in 1945

From what I read, the NHS was created during the war when the UK was expecting mass civilian casualties from the Blitz and a possible invasion. And the housing was built to replaced what was destroyed during the war, predominantly working-class housing near the industrial and dockside areas the Germans targeted.

236
Ace Rothstein  Feb 17, 2018 • 9:59:28am

re: #234 Backwoods_Sleuth

Is that the drunken idiot that was looking for Hillary in the woods or some shit?

237
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:00:56am

re: #235 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I’ll be damned, it wasn’t a GoFundMe campaign.

238
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:02:20am

re: #234 Backwoods_Sleuth

The responses to this have been hilarious.

239
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:02:23am

re: #225 Backwoods_Sleuth

because, of course, he did:

[Embedded content]

Who needs $25,000,000 when you have all those thoughts and prayers?

Those are invaluable you know.

240
Jay C  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:05:07am

re: #236 Ace Rothstein

Is that the drunken idiot that was looking for Hillary in the woods or some shit?

Yep: Jeanine Pirro: the New York GOP’s most famous Candidate That Never Was: now reduced to Hillary-stalker and Fox News Blather-dispenser. Not sure which is worse……

241
prairiefire  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:05:34am

Comicon day! Waiting for Danny Trejo panel to start. Big crowd.

242
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:08:53am

it’s snowing here in TheBackwoods…

243
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:10:04am
244
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:12:31am

Former mall rat here!

245
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:13:31am

re: #242 Backwoods_Sleuth

it’s snowing here in TheBackwoods…

We are supposed to get some flurries today too, but the southern part of the state is called to get and inch or two.

But 60s early next week. And I do not see anything below freezing as far as temps in the long range forecasts. I hope that holds. I am done with winter.

246
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:15:18am

re: #245 ObserverArt

We are supposed to get some flurries today too, but the southern part of the state is called to get and inch or two.

But 60s early next week. And I do not see anything below freezing as far as temps in the long range forecasts. I hope that holds. I am done with winter.

forecast high here for Tuesday is 78F. YOW!

247
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:17:27am
248
jeffreyw  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:18:54am

re: #242 Backwoods_Sleuth

it’s snowing here in TheBackwoods…

Imgur


This morning we got an inch or so, it looks to be gone by tomorrow.

249
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:23:27am
250
allegro  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:23:55am

Thanks to whomever mentioned it the other day, I spent the last two evenings taking a needed break from the hate and horror watching a Netflix series that is so uplifting and inspiring: Queer Eye. Really. It goes a lot deeper than the original series of funny, talented gay guys turning a shlub into someone presentable, though they do that, too. They are addressing societal issues one-on-one in personal, revealing ways. For example, one of their clients was a deeply religious fundy guy. While out planting a garden one of the gay guys who had similar upbringing flat out asked the guy “what does your church think about homosexuals”? The guy was just speechless for a few moments. I won’t spoil the moment by going further. Ditto a conversation between the black gay guy and white GA police officer client.

Cannot recommend this series too highly to take a breath and renew your faith in your fellow humans. Educational too. Looking forward to trying a peach and egg white facial mask later today. :)

251
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:26:26am

Has Bernie issued a statement on the indictments?
I mean, I definitely think he should.

And what about Tad Devine? He used to love getting media time. Where did he go? Maybe he’s knitting.

252
Decatur Deb  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:27:55am

re: #249 Backwoods_Sleuth

With today’s revelations regarding Russian meddling how long will the leftist witch hunt against @realDonaldTrump continue?

Until we’ve found the last damned witch.

253
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:29:52am

Yes, yes, yes!!!

254
Aucun pays pour les vieux ennemis  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:30:28am

re: #247 Backwoods_Sleuth

255
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:30:41am
256
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:32:03am
257
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:37:31am

re: #255 Backwoods_Sleuth

The gunman accused of killing 17 people inside a Florida high school will plead guilty if prosecutors take the death penalty off the table, Broward County public defender confirms

why should they accept a guilty plea if they have the evidence on him?

I am sure the same people who oppose gun control just love them some death penalty

/

258
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:38:51am

Posted a Page with my thoughts on “they’ll use something else”

259
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:40:19am

re: #256 Backwoods_Sleuth

Woo lawd. Crazy Louise Mensch is all up in the replies commenting from her multiple accounts.

There are some pretty damn funny responses too.

260
GlutenFreeJesus  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:40:50am

re: #199 Eclectic Cyborg

Never mind the rather low odds of dropping someone using an AR-15 with a pistol when you DON’T have the element of surprise…

Don’t forget body armor…

261
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:41:29am

re: #250 allegro

I definitely plan on binge watching it soon. Thanks for the cosign.

262
Barefoot Grin  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:44:36am

re: #230 ObserverArt

What does what Obama thought about Russia as a political threat have to do with Russia meddling in our elections?

I swear…the GOP flak distributors are getting dumber by the day. I guess that is the influence of Trump on the party. Yesterday’s Mueller indictment really knocked them into idiocy. They are flailing badly.

I know Obama laughed at Romney, but after Crimea the sanctions got heavy and were getting under the skin of the oligarchs. That’s a big reason for the attacks.

263
allegro  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:45:57am

re: #257 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

why should they accept a guilty plea if they have the evidence on him?

I am sure the same people who oppose gun control just love them some death penalty

/

So they don’t need the expense of a trial. Life without parole is fine with me especially since I think the death penalty is barbaric and should be off the table anyway.

264
Stanley Sea  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:47:32am

re: #229 JordanRules

[Embedded content]

There will be photos of the yam yucking it up with mar-a-emoluments last evening.

265
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:50:26am

Well, at least he honored the bet. LOL

266
Stanley Sea  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:51:04am

re: #250 allegro

Thanks to whomever mentioned it the other day, I spent the last two evenings taking a needed break from the hate and horror watching a Netflix series that is so uplifting and inspiring: Queer Eye. Really. It goes a lot deeper than the original series of funny, talented gay guys turning a shlub into someone presentable, though they do that, too. They are addressing societal issues one-on-one in personal, revealing ways. For example, one of their clients was a deeply religious fundy guy. While out planting a garden one of the gay guys who had similar upbringing flat out asked the guy “what does your church think about homosexuals”? The guy was just speechless for a few moments. I won’t spoil the moment by going further. Ditto a conversation between the black gay guy and white GA police officer client.

Cannot recommend this series too highly to take a breath and renew your faith in your fellow humans. Educational too. Looking forward to trying a peach and egg white facial mask later today. :)

I finished Shetland last night (Thank YOU) and will continue to follow the Allegro trail.

267
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:51:23am

re: #157 jaunte

[Embedded content]

This guys habit is to put in a literal 5 day week at the office then leave for the weekend.

268
Renaissance_Man  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:51:24am

re: #258 Blind Frog Belly White

Posted a Page with my thoughts on “they’ll use something else”

Great story. The canard of ‘using something else’ is such obvious bullshit. I would say it’s hard to believe it keeps being trotted out but like so much religious dogma, it’s believed implicitly even by people who might otherwise be reasonable.

It’s like the whole rest of the world doesn’t even exist. That all these other places in the world where people don’t believe guns are for everyday gun battles in the street are hellholes of crime where a crazed populace commits mass potato peeler murders and civilians die every day in mass pressure cooker bomb murders. And yet, someone on TV says it, so Americans believe it unquestioningly.

269
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:54:49am

re: #163 jaunte

[Embedded content]
BSheriff Grady Judd: “We have got to wake up, wake up and understand that we have to have… specially trained people that have concealed firearms that can run to the threat and protect our children

Because you can’t think of a single thing that might prevent the shooting from starting in the first place?

Not one idea?
Cause we’ve got lots……

270
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:56:55am

re: #251 JordanRules

Has Bernie issued a statement on the indictments?
I mean, I definitely think he should.

And what about Tad Devine? He used to love getting media time. Where did he go? Maybe he’s knitting.

Jeff Weaver, Comic Book King, got more face time that Devine. He is by far the bigger prick in the Sanders team.

271
Backwoods_Sleuth  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:59:13am
272
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:59:20am

re: #170 MsJ

[Embedded content]
Pruitt insists he needs to fly first class after past bad experiences traveling coach

But it’s not his decision.. the team recommended it to him
He’s just… complying

273
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 10:59:51am

re: #253 JordanRules

Yes, yes, yes!!!

I so hope there are Hispanic/Latino and Middle Eastern groups forming up GOTV groups too. We need all good people to gather this year like never before.

We all have Republican butts to kick.

274
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:01:44am

re: #270 ObserverArt

Tad used to work with Manafort so I’m particularly interested in what he has to say.

275
wrenchwench  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:03:54am

re: #272 dangerman

Hi!

I started my 5K three hours ago. Finished two and a half hours ago. Googled ‘how long does it take to run a 5K?’ It said, ‘most of us can do it in 30 minutes’. Proving once again, I’m average. I’m OK with that.

276
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:05:23am

re: #258 Blind Frog Belly White

Posted a Page with my thoughts on “they’ll use something else”

I will be interested in another Lizard’s take on your page? RWC/Unshaken Defence and I have had a few discussions about the “use something else” thinking.

277
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:06:13am

re: #185 MsJ

I hated people sometimes.

“Curling isn’t a sport!”

“Those American curlers are fat. No wonder they lost!”

Grrrrr…..

[Embedded content
Should curling be considered an Olympic sport?

Curling IS an Olympic sport.

The question if one should even be asked is whether it should be an Olympic sport
There’s a procedure for that

And I have no problem with curling
Just bad grammar

278
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:07:32am

This was delightfully funny.

279
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:07:36am
280
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:08:15am

re: #277 dangerman

Curling IS an Olympic sport.

The question if one should even be asked is whether it should be an Olympic sport
There’s a procedure for that

And I have no problem with curling
Just bad grammar

There are so many Olympic sports about which I don’t give a shit. Like, nearly all of them. So why would anyone think that the Olympic sport THEY don’t give a shit about shouldn’t be an Olympic sport?

281
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:08:59am

re: #193 JordanRules

[Embedded content]

Every single day is #randomactsofkindnessday

282
allegro  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:11:20am

re: #267 dangerman

This guys habit is to put in a literal 5 day part-time week at the office then leave for the weekend.

I see no evidence of a full-time job he’s doing.

283
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:11:28am

re: #199 Eclectic Cyborg

Never mind the rather low odds of dropping someone using an AR-15 with a pistol when you DON’T have the element of surprise…

More after the shooting starts idiotic solutions

284
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:12:26am

re: #274 JordanRules

Tad used to work with Manafort so I’m particularly interested in what he has to say.

Good point. I was just commenting on your face time comment.

Now that you mention the connection though…maybe that is why Tad kept on the downlow and wasn’t as big a mouth as Weaver.

Sure would be something if that connection ties the Russians directly to Bernie.

Damn, gonna need more popcorn.

285
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:16:23am

Meanwhile I’m unfriending more Berniebots on Facebook. Amazing to see them still going n Kill Hill mode defending Trump…

286
wrenchwench  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:16:30am

re: #278 JordanRules

This was delightfully funny.

[Embedded content]

Every day is ‘it’s crazy that I’m alive right now’ day.

287
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:17:40am

re: #284 ObserverArt

Oh he was definitely out there too. I remember seeing him quite a bit.

google.com

288
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:17:44am

re: #285 Joe Bacon 🌹

Meanwhile I’m unfriending more Berniebots on Facebook. Amazing to see them still going n Kill Hill mode defending Trump…

Yeah. The information about Russian support for Bernie on social media brings a whole new depth of meaning to ‘Berniebots’ doesn’t it?

289
allegro  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:17:50am

re: #275 wrenchwench

Hi!

I started my 5K three hours ago. Finished two and a half hours ago. Googled ‘how long does it take to run a 5K?’ It said, ‘most of us can do it in 30 minutes’. Proving once again, I’m average. I’m OK with that.

You may be average among those who run 5Ks. Guarantee you are WAY above average among the rest of us who just go “yay!” as you run past our lazy asses.

290
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:19:13am

re: #285 Joe Bacon 🌹

Yeah, I’ve seen some pretty extreme doubling down from a few folks still feeling the Bern.

291
stpaulbear  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:20:32am

re: #279 jaunte

Empathy and awareness less than zero.

292
jaunte  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:21:27am

re: #291 stpaulbear

He likes kids that don’t get shot.

293
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:22:38am

re: #287 JordanRules

Oh he was definitely out there too. I remember seeing him quite a bit.

google.com

Alright damnit…you win…sorta. Jeff Weaver returns similar amounts of YouTubes.

I’m gonna mark it down as Jeff Weaver pissed me off more than Tad Devine because Devine came off better where Weaver was mostly a prickly asshole.

Deal? : )

294
Joe Bacon 🌹  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:23:19am

re: #288 Blind Frog Belly White

Yeah. The information about Russian support for Bernie on social media brings a whole new depth of meaning to ‘Berniebots’ doesn’t it?

Bulls-Eye!!!!!!

295
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:24:18am

re: #289 allegro

You may be average among those who run 5Ks. Guarantee you are WAY above average among the rest of us who just go “yay!” as you run past our lazy asses.

I do 5K in a vineyard, the first half at a brisk pace uphill. I count that as the equivalent of jogging without the pounding on the joints. Then downhill at a brisk pace as well. Takes about an hour

this website from our village shows part of where I walk (click on photo for enlarged panorama shot)

oberheimbach.de

296
Belafon  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:25:11am

re: #235 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

From what I read, the NHS was created during the war when the UK was expecting mass civilian casualties from the Blitz and a possible invasion. And the housing was built to replaced what was destroyed during the war, predominantly working-class housing near the industrial and dockside areas the Germans targeted.

That’s cool. What he said was true, then.

297
wrenchwench  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:25:13am

re: #289 allegro

You may be average among those who run 5Ks. Guarantee you are WAY above average among the rest of us who just go “yay!” as you run past our lazy asses.

And I didn’t come in last! There was one woman who might have been a third my age, who passed me on every uphill, and I passed her on every downhill. It was a downhill finish, so she was one of the few runners I beat. The walkers were behind me. Last in was one of my customers who I once was describing to Mr. w,, trying to tell him why I thought she was kind of weird, but everything I said made her sound just like me, so I shut up. She was walking her dog. I high 5’d them both.

298
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:25:51am

re: #293 ObserverArt

Deal!

This already makes us better than 45 at doing deals right?

299
Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:27:37am

re: #296 Belafon

That’s cool. What he said was true, then.

Churchill was out to abolish the NHS after the war, but the Labo(u)r government preserved it and it proved too popular to abolish, although the Tories are doing their best to privatise it.

300
Pineapple Pizzagate  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:28:36am

re: #163 jaunte

Fox News✔

Sheriff Grady Judd: “We have got to wake up, wake up and understand that we have to have… specially trained people that have concealed firearms that can run to the threat and protect our children.”

Grady Judd is the same sheriff who had his deputies checking IDs & threatening arrests at shelters during Hurricane Irma.

301
allegro  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:30:33am

re: #295 Wendell Zurkowitz ((slave to the waffle light))

I do 5K in a vineyard, the first half at a brisk pace uphill. I count that as the equivalent of jogging without the pounding on the joints. Then downhill at a brisk pace as well. Takes about an hour

this website from our village shows part of where I walk (click on photo for enlarged panorama shot)

oberheimbach.de

Gorgeous. I would love to walk my dog there. Me, walk. Dog, mosey and sniff. Would take us a whole lot longer than an hour to cover the same real estate. :)

302
Dave In Austin  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:33:18am
303
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:34:07am

I don’t how many college basketball fans there are here…but for those that like to fill out the NCAA March Madness Brackets in office pools and other contests…this is your year.

No one team is dominant this year. All the ranked teams are getting beat and most of the major conferences seem pretty even.

I’m thinking you can just choose the bracket at totally random and have a decent chance to win. You don’t really need to know much about teams because all 68 will have a chance.

Watching Michigan State struggling with Northwestern right now. MSU was a #1 team at one time, and they have been having a fight on their hands every Big# game.

304
JordanRules  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:37:23am

Please run for office one day Emma.

305
ckkatz  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:37:43am

re: #166 MsJ

Manafort was. Then he wasn’t. Then he was. Then he wasn’t. I think he may have needed a little incentive to help him make a correct choice (some people have no concept of right and wrong and he’s one of them).

He also has a multi-million dollar house that the feds could take from him.

And I hope they do.

My understanding from the Friday night Rachel Maddow show was that there was a filing by prosecutors preliminary to pulling the bail of Manafort. The filing seemed to indicate that the loan he used to purchase his big house in Virginia was obtained fraudulently. I suspect that they are, as mentioned, fed up with his slimy behavior.

306
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:39:37am

re: #256 Backwoods_Sleuth

[Embedded content]
FM Lavrov: no evidence of Russian state interference in US elections has ever been presented

Does no one understand what an indictment is?
(And isn’t)

307
The Ghost of a Flea  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:40:21am

I’m going to say something deeply cynical about the idea of more armed security at schools:

It will happen in the larger societal context where black kids are axiomatically threatening and handled like adults. And where excuses are made for better-off kids. And where culture war mythology means that nonviolent atypicality—mental illness, LGBTQ, just being weird relative to their community—are viewed as dangerous by virtue of existing.

And the recruitment of those security officers will bring home to young people at school the same kind of power abuses that we routinely see with law enforcement in the street. How quickly does “could be a school shooter” degrade as a justification for anything? Random searches? Intimidation? How articulated will be the remit for this security? What will be the oversight process?

Again—we have a society that’s built an inequality into justice and a pipeline from school to prison. Scratch the surface of these security measures and underneath there’s an excuse for a different variety of panopticism…much like the “Patriot Act,” putative safety covers the shaving down of right to privacy.

Now here’s the really cynical part: I don’t think the “law and order” conservatives that like this idea are ignorant of the above. At every step of every discussion following a shooting, the conversation is steered opportunistically towards ideas and individuals they want to attack, and I think the demand for more “safety” is exactly the same kind of reach. With the lagniappe of more kids of the “wrong kind” busted earlier and cut out of opportunities, voting, et cetera.

Now here’s the really, really cynical part: I think there’s people who are really excited about the idea of making education something less about thinking and more about compliance, and schools as armed camps is a win for that position.

308
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:40:25am

re: #305 ckkatz

My understanding from the Friday night Rachel Maddow show was that there was a filing by prosecutors preliminary to pulling the bail of Manafort. The filing seemed to indicate that the loan he used to purchase his big house in Virginia was obtained fraudulently. I suspect that they are, as mentioned, fed up with his slimy behavior.

They also mentioned other crimes they learned of since the original bail hearing. Maddow’s guest, a former Federal Prosecutor, suggested this may indicate that Gates is being really cooperative, plus they may want to hold Manafort in custody before his trial.

309
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:40:44am

re: #303 ObserverArt

I hope you’re right. I’m not a big basketball fan - all you need to watch is the last 2 ~ 5 minutes and you’ve seen all of 99% of the games, IMO - but I really enjoy a nice chaotic March madness. One where all 4 #1’s are gone before the sweet 16 would make me happy. If none survived into the 32, I’d dance a jig. Because then every other match would be worth watching since we’d be in unknown realms :D

310
ckkatz  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:42:02am

re: #289 allegro

You may be average among those who run 5Ks. Guarantee you are WAY above average among the rest of us who just go “yay!” as you run past our lazy asses.

Congratulations to Wrenchwench! You successfully completed a 5k!

I agree with Allegro, the time may be average, but successfully completing a 5k is way above average!

311
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:44:47am

re: #304 JordanRules

Please run for office one day Emma.

[Embedded content]

These students are going to make a difference. This blowback on all the politicians over guns sure feels a whole lot different than other shootings. Maybe America has reached the point where it is not going to take this any longer.

Damn, I sure hope so. Come on America. We can do this. It is our government, not the NRAs!!!

312
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:49:23am

re: #311 ObserverArt

These students are going to make a difference. This blowback on all the politicians over guns sure feels a whole lot different than other shootings. Maybe America has reached the point where it is not going to take this any longer.

Damn, I sure hope so. Come on America. We can do this. It is our government, not the NRAs!!!

I only wonder what false assumptions the 2nd Republic of the United States will make that will be like the ones the first one made about race and firearms… because every generation has it’s own follies…

313
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:49:33am

re: #280 Blind Frog Belly White

There are so many Olympic sports about which I don’t give a shit. Like, nearly all of them. So why would anyone think that the Olympic sport THEY don’t give a shit about shouldn’t be an Olympic sport?

Cause we’re selfish and myopic ?

314
William Lewis  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:51:39am

re: #313 dangerman

Cause we’re selfish and myopic ?

Pretty much. I love watching fencing & yachting but try to find them on TV for the opposite problem.

315
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:52:31am

re: #313 dangerman

Cause we’re selfish and myopic ?

The Olympics should consist only of sports popular in America. That’s just a give, right?
/////////////////

316
dangerman  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:55:12am

re: #314 William Lewis

Pretty much. I love watching fencing & yachting but try to find them on TV for the opposite problem.

i’ve been a fencer since 1968 or so. (i started very young)

i have never seen an olympic broadcast of it

317
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:55:56am

re: #314 William Lewis

Pretty much. I love watching fencing & yachting but try to find them on TV for the opposite problem.

Fencing is a not a simple sport for laymen to grasp, as it’s presented on TV. But I’ve often fantasized about slow motion replay of touches, with someone diagramming where the blades are going and the moves used. A multi-angle, slow motion view of a successful attack by envelopment, or a well executed 1-2-3 could be spectacular.

318
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 11:56:04am

re: #309 William Lewis

I hope you’re right. I’m not a big basketball fan - all you need to watch is the last 2 ~ 5 minutes and you’ve seen all of 99% of the games, IMO - but I really enjoy a nice chaotic March madness. One where all 4 #1’s are gone before the sweet 16 would make me happy. If none survived into the 32, I’d dance a jig. Because then every other match would be worth watching since we’d be in unknown realms :D

Some of the most exciting college BBall games I have ever seen have been this year. Wild point swings, huge runs, double and triple 3-point shots at the end of the games with each shot taking the lead by a point…it has been extremely entertaining.

March Madness will be maddenning this year.

319
ObserverArt  Feb 17, 2018 • 12:02:44pm

re: #316 dangerman

i’ve been a fencer since 1968 or so. (i started very young)

i have never seen an olympic broadcast of it

They (NBC) did some coverage of it in Brazil.

One thing that really brought up the interest then was Ibtihaj Muhammad who was not only the first female Muslim-American (in Hijab), but she won a team bronze medal in sabre fencing.

She helped raise more coverage of the sport overall too. I’ve seen entertainment shows with her on and she showed the hosts some tips.

320
Blind Frog Belly White  Feb 17, 2018 • 12:06:49pm

re: #316 dangerman

i’ve been a fencer since 1968 or so. (i started very young)

i have never seen an olympic broadcast of it

I started in college, then continued while living in Ithaca, and for a couple years out here. Foil, though I did briefly try epee. I didn’t have the point control for that, but I was quick enough for foil.

321
Shiplord Kirel, live from behind wingnut lines  Feb 17, 2018 • 3:08:47pm

re: #164 Renaissance_Man

It takes them being black, or brown, or some other ‘dangerous’ social class.

The US firearm system is working as intended. The system is not designed to keep weapons out of the hands of insane white males. If it was, it might actually happen sometimes, and gun deaths might decline, instead of rising. Gun massacres are an intended feature of American life - they stimulate gun sales, they keep people fearful, stimulating more sales and the social and political constructs that keep American people in a constant state of depraved indifference.

Americans believe that guns are for shooting other people in normal civilian life. This is a mindset that is so alien to those of us who did not grow up here, yet so ingrained in the national consciousness that the average American cannot conceive of it any other way. As long as everyday, commonplace gun deaths are the province of ‘those people’ - black thugs, gangbangers, etc. - and gun massacres are a privilege of white men, the American system is exactly as it is supposed to be.

In the wave of popular “adult” TV westerns in the late 50s, early 60s, this was exactly right. The programs were built thematically around a flawed, sometimes tormented central character, with a gun as symbolic talisman. The Rifleman, Have Gun Will Travel, Gunsmoke, and literally dozens of others were often beautifully written and acted (it was a very profitable business after all) and they always involved some sort of moral lesson, with Bible quotes in abundance. They also displayed a (largely mythical) world where guns were everyday accoutrements and gunplay a routine method of problem solving. The Rifleman has been justly praised for the extraordinary on-screen chemistry between Chuck Connors as widowed father Lucas McCain (the Rifleman himself) and John Crawford as his son Mark, and for its insightful portrayal of parenting. The show was not especially violent by early 60s standards. Nevertheless, Lucas managed to shoot and kill over 120 bad guns during the show’s 5 year run.


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