Today's Poe

Raw Story:

The far right is not exactly known for critical, nuanced thinking, so it should come as no surprise that it’s not too hard to prank them on Twitter.

A Twitter parody account @DrNifkin, posing as a Mayo Clinic doctor, outraged Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists when the fake physician boasted about aborting Trump supporters’ babies last week.

“When Trump supporters come to my office at the Mayo Clinic, I love misdiagnosing their healthy pregnancies as ectopic so they have to abort their white fetuses,” @DrNifkin wrote last week, the Daily Beast reported.

“That’s murder! Premeditated!” wrote one Twitter user in response.

“I hoped this was bot but seems it’s not, you love that you can rattle the apple cart? You have fun at it!! Do you not know every idol (sic) word you will give account for? These words are murderous. But your heart is cold, ice cold,” he concluded.

For days, the Mayo Clinic had to ward off attacks by conservatives on Twitter who were outraged that the medical center and research hub would employ Dr. Nifkin.

“Sick sick stuff,” Infowars writer Paul Joseph Watson tweeted.

Dr. Rifkin’s Twitter profile identifies him as an “obstetrician at the world renowned Mayo Clinic parody.”

Poe's Law - Wikipedia

Today's Tweet

The Real Wives of SuperMax Colorado

The number of times other men will claim them as "prison wives."@JackPosobiec pic.twitter.com/wfPEQLlhJo

— Tea Pain (@TeaPainUSA) July 4, 2018

Wacky Numbers

I've seen this float by on more than a few occasions lately:

After One Full Month of Unhinged and Violent Anti-ICE Protests -- Trump's Approval Jumps 10 Points With HISPANICS! from r/Conservative

Latin Rebels asked Zogby about their numbers and got some interesting insight.

143 LatinX respondents - not exactly a representative sample.

And a 10% increase is not the same as a 10-point increase, so chill your tits.

Go to school, "conservatives".

Today's Eternal Sadness

The Hill:

An Alabama man is accused of shooting three people to death after a judge denied his ex-wife's attempts to order him to surrender his weapons, according to The Decatur Daily.

The news outlet reported on Tuesday that police say Darwin Brazier, 43, of Ardmore, used a semi-automatic SKS rifle with a high-capacity magazine to shoot and kill his ex-wife and two other people before killing himself. 

In addition to killing Debra Ann Rivera, the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office said Brazier killed her husband, Radex Rivera, and their roommate, Timothy James Hayward-Boger.

The sheriff's office told the news outlet that Brazier shot 30 high-powered rounds near the scene before leaving and later was found by a SWAT unit with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 

The report notes that Debra Rivera had twice attempted to get a judge to order Brazier to surrender his weapons because of alleged abuse. The requests were rejected both times. 

Her most recent attempt to get Brazier stripped of his guns came in March. She petitioned Limestone County Circuit Judge Chad Wise for a protection-from-abuse order March 1, which was initially granted on a temporary basis. It was terminated on April 10, however.

“He calls my husband threatening to hurt both of us,” Debra Rivera wrote in a court filing. “(He) drives by my house all hours of day to check where I am. He is upset I am now married and don’t want to be with him. He has been physical in the past, pulled a gun on me. … I know he has anger toward me and in past has caused physical pain to me."

Today's GIF

We can't get away from the problems we create for ourselves by trying to get away from the problems we create for ourselves. But somehow, we seem never to tire of the effort.

Happy Birthday, America

Keeping It Real

In honor of the World Cup, I wanted to show a little clip of young soccer players working hard to emulate the very best of heroes.

Neymar Acting School from r/funny

Today's PSA

Holiday cheer, and all like that there.

Today's Today

If you're going to tell people the truth, make it funny - otherwise they'll kill you.

I'm not quite the Libertarian Mr Stanhope is. And based on the bit about everybody paying their share - I'm not convinced he's all that Libertarian either.

I get the point about living your own life and leaving people alone, and wanting to be left alone in return. Honest, I get it. The problem with being Libertarian is that it's short-sighted.

Just sayin' - there are caveats for just about everything.

Happy 4th, everybody.

Today's Churchiness

My default position is that I can do without religion. Churches are too often scams - especially the big ones, which are really nothing more than musical theater.

But I'll give credit when it's due.

Try to ignore the pearl-clutching style of the anchor - as if she's reporting on the landing of shape-shifting lizard people from outer space (thanks, Alex Jones).

"Battle at the Border"? What the fuck, lady?

And sorry not sorry, but the field reporter's attitude felt a little condescending - like she can't believe the producer is forcing her to tell the story of some dirty hippie clergy people doing something inappropriately critical of Lord Commander Marmalade's glorious efforts to stem the tide of the brown hordes sweeping over us from the south... don't forget this is Mike Pence country.