Stopping A Bad Guy

I haven't come up with the clever turnaround phrase - The good guy is the one who keeps the bad guy away from the gun(?)

I dunno, but if the bad guy doesn't have the gun, then the bad guy doesn't pull the shit.

Gun violence has something to do with guns - get it?

Sarah Burris, Raw Story

Police were able to thwart another potential mass shooting, this time the attack was aimed at Syracuse University. It’s all thanks to one gun shop owner who denied the possible shooter an AR-15, despite having all the legal rights to purchase one.

Twenty-two year old student Xiaoteng Zhan was deported to China by federal agents March 20, according to Syracuse.com. He had stockpiled a gun, ammunition and accessories in his off-campus apartment.

- and -

Police were able to arrest Zhan prior to carrying out the threat. They reportedly worked with a gun shop in New York’s Madison County to track the potential shooter on spring break in Mexico. The gun shop reported that Zhan wanted to purchase an AR-15, a weapon that has been used by mass shooters in previous incidents.

- and -

Zhan should have been able to purchase the weapons legally, but the shop owner refused. The owner then followed Zhan to his car and wrote down his license plate number. Police learned he went to Dick’s Sporting Goods asking about assault rifle. He was denied there as well.

I can't dismiss the probability that the gun dealers were acting on an impulse based in prejudice against "the other", but if there's a way to set that aside for a minute, I'm left with an impression that there are gun-friendly businesses out there trying to do something about our gun problem.

Way to go, guys.

Here We Go Again

One of the big things about 45*'s regime is that Mike Pence is leading a stealth attack on secular government.

And it continues to show through once in a while.

Kimberlee Kruesi, The Idaho Statesman:
A Republican lieutenant governor candidate on Tuesday softened his stance that women who get an abortion should be punished if it is ever criminalized in Idaho, a day after saying the punishment should include the death penalty.

“Prosecutions have always been focused on the abortionist,” said Bob Nonini in a statement. “There is no way a woman would go to jail let alone face the death penalty. The statute alone, the threat of prosecution, would dramatically reduce abortion. That is my goal.”

Nonini first raised eyebrows on the divisive social issue during a Monday candidate forum in Moscow hosted by the conservative Christian podcast CrossPolitic.

“There should be no abortion and anyone who has an abortion should pay,” Nonini said.

Pressed by moderators on the nature of the punishment, Nonini nodded in agreement when asked if he supported the death penalty as a possible outcome for abortion.

Nonini, a three term state senator from Coeur d'Alene, confirmed that position in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

However, several hours later, Nonini issued a statement seeking to take back his strict stance.

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/election/article207845019.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.idahostatesman.com/news/politics-government/election/article207845019.html#storylink=cpy

So, as is often the case, Nonini makes the crazed wingnut statement that gets his "base" fired up, and then walks it back in exchanges with the part of The Press that he knows his base will never see or hear.

But let's review this hardened "Pro-Life" position:

The guy is so thoroughly intent on preserving life, he's willing to kill the mother to save the fetus in her womb.

Q: what is your policy regarding a woman who attempts to abort her own pregnancy?

If you criminalize abortion - even when you reserve the penalties for the "abortionist - you need to be ready to commit law enforcement resources at the level necessary to investigate every woman every 28 days. 

All of which means you've established the Fertility State.

And sorry not sorry, but it's been tried - Decree 770 - and the whole thing turned out to be really bad for Mr and Mrs Ceaucescu.

Here's the thing - again:

Eggs ain't chickens.

Caterpillars ain't butterflies.

Ain't nuthin' goin' on in my daughter's uterus that's any of your goddamned business.

So fuck the fuck off, you fucking fuck.

Today's Tweet

I don't remember ever seeing this.

Expecting people to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps is reasonable only when everybody's got boots.

Wow, I’ve seen/heard a lot of MLK footage but this is the first time I’ve seen this interview. How profound this is. pic.twitter.com/Lm8SR2z3bT

— Justinfication (@Justinfication) April 4, 2018

 

Today's Tweet

The consensus forming on the intertoobz is that a $32 million settlement only comes with what the lawyers refer to as "some really freaky shit", which is an actual legal phrase - I checked Black's Law Dictionary (No I didn't - I made that part up).

JUST IN: Federal judge denies Bill O'Reilly's request to keep past sexual harassment settlements sealed https://t.co/Bun1o5pfhH pic.twitter.com/DKDDQ7hBW6

— The Hill (@thehill) April 4, 2018

 

Russia Russia Russia

It's always Russia.

I went to see The Death Of Stalin, and maybe it's just me, but I can't stop thinking there's an obvious parallel here. There are efforts to scramble our brains - efforts coming from the White House - that seem to sync up pretty well with the main theme of the movie: "Believe nothing except what I'm saying to you right this instant."

Maybe it's not just me. Maybe we need to proceed with enough of a touch of paranoia to keep us mindful of how this shit goes when it really gets going.

Maybe it's about The Russian Daddy State by mere coincidence. And maybe not.

Art is pretty amazing.

Today's Tweet

This one has aged pretty well.

May the Cosmic Muffin bless you and keep you, John Fugelsang

In 9th grade the coach said my sweater made me look gay.
I replied that was ok, as I wanted his wife to leave me alone.
And that's how I failed gym.

— John Fugelsang (@JohnFugelsang) April 2, 2018

 

There Will Be Propaganda

It's never time for Radical Skepticism - because that's an exercise in self-defeat, which makes it a very useful thing for the Daddy State.

Radical skepticism or radical scepticism is the philosophical position that knowledge is most likely impossible.[1] Radical skeptics hold that doubt exists as to the veracity of every belief and that certainty is therefore never justified. To determine the extent to which it is possible to respond to radical skeptical challenges is the task of epistemology or "the theory of knowledge".
Every year, the big guys spend many many billions of dollars on Marketing and Branding and Advertising and straight-up Propaganda. They don't spend that kinda money on something that doesn't work.

Be Aware.

Dark Forces (ie: "conservatives" in this case) have been pouring very large butt-loads of Money, Time, and Effort into a project that takes us back to the equivalent of mid-18th century Europe.

Today's Today

Today's Today - Also Too

It's not really such a coincidence that Easter falls on April Fools Day, right?

The Mob Abides

This is Arizona state representative Eric Descheenie:

I've heard this one floating around the net, and finally decided to look it up.

Surprise surprise, it does indeed show knuckleheaded "anti-immigration" freaks letting their shit overrule whatever shriveled critical thinking skills they still retain.

Snopes:

The incident occurred during a chaotic, five-hour long demonstration on 25 January 2018 at the Arizona capitol building where roughly a dozen anti-immigration activists turned out to protest the social justice lobbying group Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA) — though the group was there to advocate for pro-labor legislation, not immigration. Protesters alleged that LUCHA was “trying to advance social, racial and economic justice for DACA recipients, illegal aliens and their illegal families.” According to state lawmakers who were at the scene, the protesters were visibly armed.
The protesters were raggin' on Descheenie (who is of Navajo descent), questioning whether or not he was in this country legally.

A Native-American; an American Aboriginal - they needed him to be "alien"; they saw him as "alien"; so they went after him because he looked alien.

But they're not part of a racist mob looking for an excuse to satisfy their blood lust.

Today's Tweet

It's pretty fucked that guys like 45* - operating on the premise that "International Boundaries Are For Suckers" - find it so easy to sell the rubes on the absolute necessity of "Border Security".

When Capital is free to go wherever its most likely to turn a profit, but Labor is chained to its country of origin, people trying to work for a living are always the losers.

Trump: If only the US-Mexico border could be as good as the barbwire, hyper-militarized DMZ between North and South Korea!!! pic.twitter.com/QPMBDwxJ4e

— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) March 30, 2018

hat tip = Bob Cesca on Twitter

Today's Pix

Isn't every Friday a Good Friday?

A Brief Manifesto

A reminder. A short list of items to help us stay grounded:

• Earth is not flat
• Vaccines work
• We've been to the moon
• Climate change is a thing
• The universe is expanding
• Math is the universal language
• Chemtrails aren't a thing
• Weather weapons aren't a thing
• We are made of star stuff
• Science is like magic, only real

Today's Tweet

There will be stoopid

God grant me the serenity to accept that Trump supporters are morons, the courage to tell Trump supporters they are morons, and the wisdom to not be a Trump-supporting moron.

— Middle Age Riot (@middleageriot) March 27, 2018

 

Today's Juicy Morsel

45* has elevated a lawyer named Andrew Ekonomou(**) to a lead position on his Russia Probe team.

Ekonomou said that since he began working with Sekulow, he has attended meetings with Mueller’s team. He said he brings more criminal experience to the table than Sekulow. Ekonomou is a member of The Lambros Firm LLC, a boutique firm in Atlanta, which mostly handles civil and criminal racketeering cases for D.A.s around the state.

Might that last bit - "criminal racketeering" - be a tiny hint as to what Team45* has been hearing in those meetings with Bobby Three Sticks?

(**) I can't find a bio for this guy.