Today's Tweet

Fart-Breathing Purists will always be with us. And we must always love them - we must always consider their viewpoints - so we can make sure they understand why it's essential for us ultimately to ignore them on most occasions.

In a perfect world, Jill Stein’s legacy will be permanently ending the utterly moronic practice of throwing away votes on losers in some bullshit “principled” stand.

— The Hoarse Whisperer (@HoarseWisperer) February 18, 2018

Digging IntoThe Archives

From a piece in Forbes by Chris Ladd, last October, listing the Top 10 Lies Obscuring The Gun Debate:

In a ritual as central to American life as football on Thanksgiving, each new mass shooting spawns a wave of unfocused political energy that quickly dissipates into “thoughts and prayers.” No matter how many people die, no matter the cruelty of the methods or the youth and innocence of the victims, we cannot translate our outrage into sensible gun control measures.

Key to this failure has been a dense fog of misinformation, shrouding debate and thwarting any potential response. Cutting through the gun lobby’s campaign of confusion will be key to building public consensus around reform. Unless we pierce this fog and develop a focused political agenda, Las Vegas will recede from consciousness, one more mass slaughter on our way to the next one.
My current fave:

Lie #8: We need guns to protect ourselves from the government.

Claims of a Second Amendment right to overthrow the government may be false, but they get us very close to understanding the honest motives behind the gun lobby.

Until 2008, no federal court had ever recognized an individual constitutional right to own a firearm. If anyone imagined that the Constitution protected a right to use violence to overthrow the government, that idea was put to rest in 1794, when George Washington marched an army across Pennsylvania to squash citizens’ “Second Amendment remedies.”

If the Second Amendment was about resisting the government, why have we only enjoyed a personal right to firearms for less than ten years? And why don’t we have the right to obtain other critical supplies for our jihad, like mortars, land mines and fighter planes?

A dark truth lurks in the “Second Amendment remedies” lie. What fuels the most passionate wing of the gun lobby is the American tradition of mob violence. A population armed with infantry weapons is no match against the organization and equipment of a modern nation-state, but with the inaction or complicity of local law enforcement a well-armed population can run riot over unprotected minorities.

What happens when citizens take up arms against the government? Study the history of the Black Panthers. Despite being reasonably well-armed and organized, they were systematically hunted down and killed until the movement died out. Absent some zone of safety, protected by complicit law enforcement or benefiting from a smaller "sub-state," private use of weapons is ineffective. Reconstruction featured many similar examples. Racist militias failed to capture New Orleans in the Battle of Liberty Place in 1874 despite being reinforced by Confederate veterans and strengthened with weapons captured from US forces. However, these same militias found success in the rural countryside, where they enjoyed the complicity of local law enforcement.

Private weapons are ineffective in resisting the government, but highly effective as an unrecognized extension of government. Well-armed white paramilitaries were the lynchpin of Jim Crow, waging a campaign of terrorism in black communities. Their private activities allowed local governments to impose crippling limits on black citizens while escaping accountability. Many black Americans were armed as well, but their weapons did them little good. Racist militias could operate with the tacit backing of local law enforcement, while any use of force by black residents in self-defense was be ruthlessly punished.

Behind the “Second Amendment Remedies” lie lurks a dark reality: private arsenals have always been the bloody left hand of white supremacy. When gun enthusiasts shrug off the mass slaughter of innocent civilians to preserve “freedom,” they aren’t talking about your freedom or mine.
Runner-up:

Lie #5: The solution to gun violence is more gun ownership.

This lie would be too bizarre to earn column space, but politicians are actually using it to build policy, putting guns in places like schools, churches and bars. There is no empirical basis for the claim, but it is sometimes accompanied by one misleading data point.

In a twist on Lie #2, gun advocates sometimes point out that a massive rise in gun sales in recent decades has coincided with a long decline in crime rates. Reductions in crime have also coincided with a long trend of rising ocean temperatures, and an increase in the number of black quarterbacks in the NFL. Without some explanation of cause, this factoid is useless.

Further complicating this argument is an inconvenient fact – crime rates have been falling in recent decades all over the civilized world. How has the surge in US gun sales somehow triggered simultaneous declines in criminal activity in Britain, Germany, France and so on? It hasn’t, because there is no connection between US gun sales and declining crime rates.

There’s another interesting dimension to this lie. Gun sales have surged in recent years in the US, but gun ownership is declining. Fewer American households own a gun than at any point in the past half a century. Only three percent of gun owners possess about half of all the weapons in circulation in the US. Today in the US, the average gun owner possesses eight weapons. America has far more guns in private circulation than at any time in its history, but three quarters of Americans do not own one. Mass gun ownership has no relationship to declining crime rates.

Today's Today

Happy Presidents Day

I'm not trying to pretend everything would be just peachy if we had the actual winner of the election in the White House now.

But I think it's safe to say we wouldn't have quite the criminal enterprise in power either.

May you live in interesting times - my ass.

More On Why - or - Why, Moron?

Evan Osnos, The New Yorker:

The power of anonymity. In a section titled “Use of U.S. Computer Infrastructure,” prosecutors noted that some of the defendants and co-conspirators “purchased space on computer servers located inside the United States in order to set up virtual private networks.” Once they had those, they could create social-media accounts and communicate with American campaign activists “while masking the Russian origin and control of the activity.” What obligation do campaigns have to vet the people and information they encounter? Under current law, campaigns must document the sources of their funding (to insure, among other things, that they receive no foreign donations, which are against the law).

The power of voter suppression. To promote Trump, the Internet Research Agency did not just amplify his supporters’ enthusiasm; it actively sought to deter others from participating in the democratic process. Months before Election Day, Russian trolls “began to encourage U.S. minority groups not to vote in the 2016 US. presidential election or to vote for a third-party US. presidential candidate.” In one case, a Russian-controlled account on Instagram, with the name “Woke Blacks,” posted, “[A] particular hype and hatred for Trump is misleading the people and forcing Blacks to vote Killary. We cannot resort to the lesser of two devils. Then we’d surely be better off without voting AT ALL.”

The power of news illiteracy. At the heart of the Russian fraud is an essential, embarrassing insight into American life: large numbers of Americans are ill-equipped to assess the credibility of the things they read. The willingness to believe purported news stories, often riddled with typos or coming from unfamiliar outlets, is a liability of today’s fragmented media and polarized politics. Even the trolls themselves were surprised at what Americans would believe. According to the indictment, in September, 2017, once U.S. authorities had begun to crack down on the fraud, one of the defendants, Irina Viktorovna Kaverzina, e-mailed a family member, saying, “We had a slight crisis here at work: the FBI busted our activity (not a joke). So, I got preoccupied with covering tracks together with the colleagues.” She went on, “I created all these pictures and posts, and the Americans believed that it was written by their people.”
Let's review, shall we?

Fine, But

Hillary was such a lousy candidate it only took the entire RNC and the FBI and Wikileaks and the Russian government and 25 years of shit dropped on her by the Wingnuts to "beat" her even though she got 3 million votes more than the guy who came 2nd.

And look, kids - I'm not crazy about her either. But my first choice didn't get the nomination, so I went with the least bad. Which is what you do.

And please don't give me shit about how great Bernie is. He was my first choice because he was the least bad during the primaries.

When the Democrats "conspire" to nominate a Democrat, you can color me unsurprised.

• Bernie got played
• He knew it goin' in
• He registered as a Dem
• He played 'em back
• He lost
• You don't get everything you want

Can we just get past all that shit now?

A Few Observations

"Conservatives" love to bitch about the timelines of the Mueller investigation. They contend (eg) that the investigation started before 45* began his run, and somehow, that means he couldn't possibly have anything to do with the Ruskies' rat-fucking.

Here's a tiny hint: "Make America Great Again" - Trump applied for a patent on that slogan in November of 2012.

Another one: The rat-fucking began (more or less) in 2014, but Trump claims he wasn't even running, and besides, he'd never had anything to do with the Ruskies back then - The 2013 Miss Universe Meat Parade was held in Moscow, and Trump was there, having boasted about doing "a lot of business with the Russians" and that he'd met Putin.

The indictment published 16FEB2018 is an interesting 'next step'.

U.S. law bans foreign nationals from making certain expenditures or financial disbursements for the purpose of influencing federal elections. U.S. law also bars agents of any foreign entity from engaging in political activities within the United States without first registering with the Attorney General.
Previous indictments have established that there were people inside the Trump campaign, doing dirty things, possibly in cahoots with "the Russians".

This new indictment tells us who "the Russians" are, links them to people in this country, and tells us how the Rat-Fucking crosses the threshold into Unlawful Campaign Activity.

We ain't there yet, but just like Grandma said: "Oh honey, If that thing had fangs and a rattle, you'd be close to dead now."

Today's Tweet

One step at a time. We have to keep pushing to shit-can Citizens United - it goes against everything this democratic republic is built on.

We just won a major victory in federal court, making clear that Citizens United can no longer shroud its biggest donors in secrecy. pic.twitter.com/iiucp3looR

— Eric Schneiderman (@AGSchneiderman) February 15, 2018

 

Professional Left Podcast

The Professional Left

Donald Trump has not twisted the GOP into something that fits his image. Donald Trump perfectly reflects what the GOP has been for at least two generations now.

What Passes For Logic

No ma'am - that's not a school. That's a prison.

This is not conservative, and this is not common sense - this is the Daddy State.

.@JudgeJeanine: "We need to protect kids, & that means we've got to have metal detectors, we've got to have experienced cops..., & we've got to be able to have perimeter controls. We've got to have teachers who can carry a weapon & react to this kind of nonsense." #Hannity pic.twitter.com/jTZBXGfCOp

— Fox News (@FoxNews) February 16, 2018

 

Today's GIF

Here's a nice little nightmare for ya.

The LeBron Thing

“The climate is hot,” James said. “The No. 1 job in America, the appointed person is someone who doesn’t understand the people. And really don’t give a fuck about the people. When I was growing up, there was like three jobs that you looked (to) for inspiration. It was the president of the United States, it was whoever was the best in sports and then it was like the greatest musician at the time. You never thought you could be them, but you can grab inspiration from them.”

“It’s at a bad time. While we cannot change what comes out of that man’s mouth, we can continue to alert the people that watch us, that listen to us, ‘This is not the way,’” James said. “It’s not even a surprise when he says something. It’s like laughable. It’s laughable and it’s scary.”

--LeBron James

Here's the whole video:

When The Headline Says It All

God love The Onion

Blood Money

Just spoke to Broward School Superintendent. Today is that terrible day you pray never comes.

— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) February 14, 2018

Rubio = $3.3 Million from NRA

I am heartbroken for the students & family of those involved in this horrible tragedy & I'm praying for our first responders as they act swiftly to contain the situation. https://t.co/rCn5lFYhHP

— Cory Gardner (@SenCoryGardner) February 14, 2018

Gardner = $3.8 Million from NRA

Heartbreaking news out of Florida. Jane and I send our prayers to the school, the community, and the victims of this tragedy.

— Rob Portman (@senrobportman) February 14, 2018

Rob Portman = $3 Million from NRA

Praying for the students, teachers and first responders affected by the tragic shooting in Florida. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families.

— Bill Cassidy (@BillCassidy) February 14, 2018

Bill Cassidy = $2.9 Million from NRA

Tragic news out of Florida. Please keep the victims, their families, first responders and the community in your thoughts and prayers.

— Senator Thom Tillis (@SenThomTillis) February 14, 2018

Thom Tills = $4.4 Million from NRA

I'm devastated to hear about the tragedy in Florida. Praying today for the students and all those impacted.

— Congressman Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) February 14, 2018

Ken Buck = $800K

Please join me in praying for the students, faculty, and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, as well as their loved ones. Let us also show our gratitude to the courageous first responders.

— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) February 14, 2018

Joni Ernst = $3.1 Million

My heart breaks for all the families, teachers, and students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Praying for all affected by the tragic shooting in Florida today.

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) February 14, 2018

RNC and GOP Candidates = $17.4 Million

My prayers and condolences to the families of the victims of the terrible Florida shooting. No child, teacher or anyone else should ever feel unsafe in an American school.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 14, 2018

45* = $21 million from NRA

BTW - take a look at The Dunblane Massacre, Scotland, 1996.

Of Guns And Skateboards

I don't know what to make of this.

Bad guys good guys pic.twitter.com/jAwmoii0q7

— someone (@Sadenss) February 12, 2018

 

Today's Pix

(click one - like maybe the 1st one)