Which will happen first, peak wingnut or the day that an expanding sun extinguishes the last trace of life on Earth? Place your bets.
Fresh on the heels of the shooting of a BLM agent near the California/Nevada border by a “sovereign citizen” far right activist, Carbon County, Utah, has, I guess you’d call it, seceded from the BLM.
By a unanimous vote, the County no longer recognizes the BLM’s authority and any action within the county’s borders will be deemed an “AN IMMINENT THREAT” to its citizens.
This is exactly like how after Richard Poplaski shot a bunch of cops the Pittsburgh NRA declared that cops are enemies of the state.
Oh wait, they never said that. Among other reasons it would be, you know, insane.
***Update***
As long as I’m reminiscing about John’s legendary chestnut, take a look at the post that came immediately after. I still feel pretty good about that one. This line stands out in particular.
it won’t take long before partisan leftwing blogs start chafing against principled activists like Greenwald
Anyone want to take the other side of that argument?
the Conster
WOLVERINES!
greennotGreen
I believe this is the point at which George Washington would send in federal troops.
PsiFighter37
Why are we mocking these great rural white American welfare heroes? They’re standing against the biggest tyranny of all – a government agency collecting on grazing fees that are far below market.
scav
The one underneath should also get a mention: Georgia Man Later Discovers He Shot Himself In Penis While Holstering Gun.
No longer just a substitute, they’d rather protect it than the real thing.
Also, how go you not notice the a) Bang! b) pain, especially given the Bang! was presumably public? ‘Merca. Too bad there wasn’t a good man with a gun nearby to react appropriately to this threat of violence in a public space.
Alce_y_Ardilla
Color me cynical but I think the BLM will keep a pretty low profile until after november, then will make any moves it want to make. How ever all of that could change if a couple more police get shot, Then all bets are off.
scav
Help, I actually triggered moderation go figure. And not even with the honor of actually working for or enjoying it.
Ash Can
BTW, I hope everyone enjoyed Jim Wright’s excellent Stonekettle Station blog while it lasted.
Higgs Boson's Mate
I repeat; fuck it, light ’em up.
the Conster
@efgoldman:
Mel Brooks got there a long time ago with Blazing Saddles.
Baud
I’m looking forward to the opportunity to get Reconstruction right this time.
Morzer
@Ash Can:
I gather that someone called Mike Malloy is responsible for this.
Higgs Boson's Mate
My money’s on the heat death of the universe.
srv
I invested everything I had into that jackboot manufacturer and not a single dang gubmint order yet!
I blame Obama.
Alce_y_Ardilla
@scav: you mean a pubic space
Kropadope
I do think we should reduce the role of the federal government. Let states be more independent, then the well-managed and most innovative states can take better care of their citizens for the same or less money. Also promote interstate projects and other cooperation, this will make it more evident to citizens the relationships they have with other states and the benefits of interdependence.
kindness
The day the sun expands and swallows the earth, the teahaddists & Fox will still be denying global warming.
WaterGirl
@scav:
I seriously checked the header 3 times to make sure this wasn’t The Onion.
WaterGirl
I included a “bad” word in my quote from the article linked by scav. Please may I be removed from moderation?
WaterGirl
@scav: Same way I did, we both included quotes with the word pe-nis.
trollhattan
@Kropadope:
Worked well in ’61. (No, the other ’61.)
SiubhanDuinne
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has dumped George Will’s syndicated column because of his rape survivors piece.
Now it is true that they’re replacing him with Michael Gerson, so very little net gain for St. Louis readers — but consequences for Will.
I’m taking this as a positive sign. Wondering whether other papers may follow suit.
scav
@WaterGirl: I finally achieve being a bad influence. By this you can see how dull my life has been.
Baud
penis
the Conster
Obligatory link to peak wingnut thread circa August 2009. There is no peak wingnut, so expanding sun it is.
ETA: includes General Stuck :(
Tim F.
@Kropadope: The key question is, do you believe that things should work that way and you hope to elect people who will enact it, or do you think they work that way now and you have every right to shoot the first “government” official who tells you otherwise.
In the first case then congrats! You are participating in the great American political experiment along with the rest of us. In the latter case, get help.
⚽️ Martin
I reiterate that I think Obama should call up the Utah National Guard and have them escort BLM and other federal officers for all business in that county, and do the same in Nevada with Bundy. Let Carbon County pick up the tab for their share.
The militias may be willing to take on local police, but they aren’t about to take on the US military.
Karen in GA
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s a start.
Kropadope
@trollhattan: I was thinking there could be a more agreeable way we could accomplish this. Hash it out amongst ourselves politically. Im just tired of the fact that it’s hard to have nice things here in Massachusetts because we have to pay for Mississippi to keep their citizens poor.
Besides, they’re waging a cold civil war against us anyway. What was the debt ceiling fight if not an attempt to destroy our system of government?
Tim F.
@the Conster: Heh. I still feel pretty good about this one. I wrote it literally five minutes after John posted his thread that coined the phrase.
Ash Can
@Morzer: I got the impression recently that he and his posts were looked upon favorably here. Maybe I was mistaken.
⚽️ Martin
@Kropadope: So when Utah wipes some species from the face of the earth, we’re supposed to be okay because California saved some other? And when California has half the carbon emissions per capita, and have been showing the nation how to do it for, well, 40 years now, at what point do we step up and tell Texas (who have 3x our emissions per capita) to get their act together before they drown us all?
PurpleGirl
@Ash Can: It was an excellent piece. I hope he returns to blogging soon.
Kropadope
@Tim F.: No, I’m not one of these psychos who think the way to change the role of government is to come out shooting.
MattR
I was just perusing this 185 court decision from Alberta in 2012 which was intended to provide an overview of the sovereign citizen movement (or Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Argument as the judge called it) and the people “selling” the ideology as well as provide guidelines for dealing with them. It really is amazing the things they have convinced themselves are legitimate (or illegitimate as the case my be).
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Kropadope: The Articles of Confederation worked so well the first time around.
Suffern ACE
@scav: I have to admit I don’t know a lot about gun physics, but wouldn’t a gun fired that close to your body create burns of some sort on your thigh? or do they make pants out of aesbestos.
srv
@Kropadope:
You do remember how the War of Northern Aggression worked out?
Elizabelle
OT, but this made me smile:
The FBI and US Attorney’s office is investigating how former Virginia Democratic state senator Phillip Puckett came to resign his seat and throw state Senate control to the Republicans. Several of whom had promised him a job on the Virginia Tobacco Commission and to smooth the way to a judgeship for his daughter.
At the time, AG Mark Herring said his office would not be looking into the matter.
But now descend the Feds. And is it worse to offer a bribe or accept one? Numerically, more Republicans could fall here.
Popcorn time.
(Puckett’s pukeitude threw an obstacle into Gov. McAuliffe’s expanding Medicaid, which the GOP staunchly opposes. But this could play out rather sweetly, actually …)
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@efgoldman:
That might take care of your objection.
greennotGreen
@Ash Can: No, he was looked on favorably. Morzer has a sad bc in the real, non-digital world Gen. Stuck died.
Jeffro
@efgoldman: Love. It. “…the party of sedition and cop-killing…”, and unfortunately, it’s 100% true.
Let’s not just hold their feet but their entire legs to the fire on this – enough is enough.
Gravenstone
@WaterGirl: How the fucking fuck do you not only manage to shoot yourself, but with that wound geometry, and NOT REALIZE IT?!?!
Talk about numb nuts….
⚽️ Martin
@efgoldman: I’m assuming they aren’t suicidal. I’m also assuming that they’re fucking cowards, because they are. Nothing courageous about a few hundred guys with guns staring down a dozen BLM officials. I doubt they’d stand their ground with such courage if 1,000 members of the national guard arrived with fully automatic weapons.
Tim F.
@Kropadope: That is fine, it just means you are basically irrelevant. Radical decentralization sounds great until you start talking about what it will mean for social security, medicare, roads, railways, shipping, air transit, national security, disaster responses, rural subsidies, urban infrastructure, science, medicine and food. PBS would stop showing Downton Abbey.
George Dub dipped his toes in that business and it gave us Speaker Pelosi. People don’t like losing things they count on.
Morzer
@greennotGreen:
What are you talking about? I am talking about Mike Malloy trying to screw Jim of Stonekettle out of due acknowledgement and payment for using his material. How does Stuck come into this?
Kropadope
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): When we first tried it, we were a fledgling nation; we had under-developed industry and massive war debt. Some of that’s changed, but I think we would, for example, have to pay down a significant portion of our current debt before we considered making a move like this. Also, until we had a complete plan in place for implementation, I think the way our current model should work looks way closer to what the Ds are doing than the Rs. We certainly need more equity in the tax code and robust protections for workers, for starters.
For an analogy, the little baby sapling states weren’t thriving, they were too hard to tend all spread out. Now we’re grown and may need re-potting.
WaterGirl
@scav: Congratulations?
WaterGirl
@Baud: Now that’s just downright annoying! Every bad word FYWP punishes me for, you go ahead and post. How do you do that?
the Conster
@Tim F.:
Man, you’re good.
Pogonip
@greennotGreen: It’s long past the point where I would have sent them in.
WaterGirl
@Elizabelle: Oh, yay, this makes me very happy!
Eric U.
@Kropadope: the problem is that most of the most beautiful and fragile lands owned by the federal government, i.e., me, are in the western states controlled by absolute idiots. You can see what would happen to Utah if they controlled federal lands, it would have a cabin every 1/4 mile like the private wilderness does now. It’s horrific in its own way. I like things the way they are now. Just because someone lives next to my land doesn’t mean they own it, and that’s the way they think about federal land. Screw them and their magical thinking.
When the BLM was forced to take the logos off of their trucks was the days we should have had fake, armored blm trucks with drones following them. If there is anyone that deserves a droning more than these domestic terrorists, I’m having trouble figuring out who it is
Mike in NC
It was about 20 years ago that wingnut icon and Watergate criminal G. Gordon Fucking Liddy advocated shooting federal ATF agents in the head. Didn’t do squat about his radio ratings, did it?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Kropadope: The world has become more, not less, complicated and interconnected than it was in the late 18th century. Also, with respect to things like robust protections for workers, states are currently free to set their protections about what the Fed gov’t requires. The federal minimum wage is a floor, not a mandate or a ceiling. the federal government currently let good states be good while protecting against absolute shittiness on the part of places like South Carolina.
Kropadope
@Tim F.: No, not radical decentralization. Very planned and well thought-out decentralization. There absolutely needs to be plans in place for the states and the federal government (in it’s new form) to fulfill those various roles.
Needless to say, I don’t expect this to happen. Democrats are reluctant to decentralize and Republicans have no sense of responsibility. I wish Democrats would reconsider though. The current arrangement is way more detrimental to the average blue state than the average red state, for reasons I know you all know.
And why does everyone keep saying I’m proposing war? I’m proposing a Constitutional convention.
Baud
@WaterGirl:
FYWP recognizes men’s rights!
(Actually, I was in moderation. Tim F. must have released me.)
Villago Delenda Est
@efgoldman: This, right here, is the problem.
This is not about rationality or practicality. It’s about raw emotion and acting on it pretty much the way a three year old does.
Villago Delenda Est
@Kropadope:
In the current environment, those are pretty much the same thing.
WaterGirl
@efgoldman: I will forgive Baud because he makes me laugh pretty much every day. But it’s still annoying! :-)
Personally, I think he must have front-page privileges somehow, because front pagers can use all the bad words with impunity.
Pogonip
@Suffern ACE: Cole had a pair but he lost them.
Villago Delenda Est
@Gravenstone: I see what you did there.
Mason
The meat of the resolution basically says that federal agencies have no authority to enforce state and local laws in the county. Doesn’t say anything about enforcing federal laws, though it does say federal agents need to report to the sheriff. Whoopie.
⚽️ Martin
@Kropadope:
And achieve what? Do you have any idea what throwing out the Constitution and writing a new one would entail? What common ground do you see to support a new one?
Villago Delenda Est
@Kropadope:
Again, might as well wish for a unicorn to ride. The current environment is filled with people who oppose planning and thinking things through.
WaterGirl
@Baud: That Tim F. is really on the ball. He’s a keeper.
SiubhanDuinne
@Karen in GA:
Yes. I’ll take my wins where I can find them.
Kropadope
@⚽️ Martin: I said reduce, not eliminate. States would obviously have no right to do things that inflict harm on other states, like pollute. The role I see for this more limited federal government would allow it to create financial incentives for accomplishing worthwhile goals.
For example, while I think the government should do less, the ACA is a good example of something I think is allowable. It taxes people who aren’t taking care of their own business (costing other citizens money). It creates markets that increase competition in healthcare and increases information available to consumers. Then, on top of it al, it allows the states latitude in creating their own systems that accomplish the same goals.
WaterGirl
@Villago Delenda Est: And I missed it!
Edit: caught the nuts reference, missed the “numb”.
Villago Delenda Est
Tim, you should feel good about that post, because you were right. The “crushing defeat” only made the wingnuts wingnuttier. In the immediate aftermath of 4 November 2008 we got the entire birther thing going. It hasn’t stopped since…they’ve moved on from one absurd “scandal” to another as the previous one lost traction, only to find the new one doing it too, so time to move on to the next gambit. None of them are working, no matter how hard they try, so they ratchet up the crazy in order to see if something more insane might stick.
SiubhanDuinne
@efgoldman: Oh, I know syndication rights with one Midwestern paper will neither make him nor break him. But I’m inclined to view it as a symbolic victory. The P-D is sending a message. And, as I indicated, it may be the first pebble in a snowball.
Mandalay
kiddieporn for Wayne LaPierre: PORTRAITS OF LITTLE KIDS WITH THEIR OWN REAL GUNS
O/T I think the photographer is really talented. This is her website. Going there is a great way to flush the Cheneys out of your system.
ulee
When these wingnuts are too awful to bear just jeannie c riley, bobbie gentry, and dusty springfield yourself. You’ll feel a whole lot better.
the Conster
@Villago Delenda Est:
They’re addicts. They’re racist hateful fear junkies, and they’ll pay any price, including their sanity, for the fix.
Mike in NC
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): You cannot underestimate the shitiness of South Carolina. Unless you are a conservative white Evangelical Christian, you really do not exist.
scav
@efgoldman: Testing charge card. . . . penis . . . . That or really annoying the moderators.
ETA the simple joys of codes!
Villago Delenda Est
@the Conster: So eventually they’ll die of an overdose?
Speed the day, FSM. Speed the day.
Kropadope
@⚽️ Martin: Well, maybe it can’t happen right now, but if I think it’s worthwhile I should at least put the idea out there. How long were we trying to reform the healthcare system?
And even if we can’t agree on a new system right away, we can debate it for years, as we have a currently functioning system (well, partially functioning). Also, the possibility of achieving this may stop the Rs from waging the economic war they’re ACTIVELY waging on our government.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Mike in NC: That is my big concern with thoughts of devolution. SC is appalling now; if we give them more latitude, what, in the name of all that is good and right in the world, will they do with it? I prefer not to find out.
⚽️ Martin
@Kropadope:
You do realize that the right wants to federalize a ton of shit. Gun ownership, abortion, the right to pollute (the very opposite of the thing you want), the right to eliminate species, the right to discriminate against voters. They’ll demand that the federal government cannot create financial incentives. Fuck, that’s the whole fight about ACA and medicare expansion. It will go on and on.
The GOP is only for states rights for the things they want. They are violently opposed to it for everything else. You realize that several states have introduced fines for people using clean energy. There will be no leeway for regulation, taxation, and so on. There’s no such thing as a partial constitutional convention. You’re rewriting the whole thing – how Congress is structured, how we elect president or even have one at all, the whole bill of rights. Everything.
Anne Laurie
@Tim F.: That was a fine post indeed, sir!
I’ll admit I was wrong about the top professional RWNJs, unfortunately:
Despite my lifelong career as a Stoic (sect of Eeyore), I failed to understand just how much .01% money would be available to keep the top-ranked professionals in line!
Baud
⚽️ Martin
Irvine is on their way home. Too early an exit.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Baud: Brilliant. On a par with 4′ 33″.
Villago Delenda Est
@⚽️ Martin: Not only that, they’ve actively sought to prevent the Federal Government from performing its constitutional requirement to promote the general welfare by prohibiting the CDC from compiling stats on gun related deaths, whether accidental or intentional or whatever.
The last time a constitutional convention was held, they chucked the entire existing structure (the Articles of Confederation) and replaced it with our current Constitution. Can you imagine the utter chaos a constitutional convention would be now? Every fucking one issue group in the country will be there to push their agenda, no matter how insane or contrary to the desires of the majority. It will make Proposition 8, which actively sought to deny people basic rights, look like a mild slap.
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Sorry. I changed it back.
ulee
And just what was it that she and Billy Joe were throwing off the Tallahatcie Bridge?
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Baud: Thanks.
Villago Delenda Est
@⚽️ Martin: Furthermore:
Pretty much how the South didn’t think that the “states’ rights” of the Northern, non-slavery states should get in the way of the recovery of their escaped human chattel.
Villago Delenda Est
@ulee: Tickets to an Elvis concert.
Baud
poker
@scav:
Thanks!
princess leia
Did I miss that the WP dumped George Will?? I will admit that I am surprised.
Matt McIrvin
@Kropadope:
It’s probably cheaper than dealing with the interstate refugee crises and occasional outbreak of genocide we’d constantly be having otherwise.
scav
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Villago Delenda Est: A duck.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@scav: Stale and derivative.
scav
@Baud: You still did something trickier than my last 8203 in your comment 90
Anoniminous
@princess leia:
St. Louis Post Dispatch. NOW is bugging the WP to dump him. They won’t.
Villago Delenda Est
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): So if Bobbie Gentry weighs the same as a duck, she’s made of wood, and therefore…
Baud
@scav:
Just used the space code.
Villago Delenda Est
@Anoniminous: Mass driver bombardment from orbit is the only way to deal with the WaPo.
Svensker
@greennotGreen:
Funny, I saw a doggie the other day that made me think of the General and his beloved pup. Sigh.
scav
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): consider it a cover, a tribute band. didn’t quite manage the brevity of the original alas! but still an homage.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@Villago Delenda Est: A witch! Build a bridge out of her!
@scav:
ETA: Now it’s retro.
scav
@Baud: Funny that yours is so short and my supposedly zero-width space is so thick. the other side of the joy of codes!
Baud
Test.
Villago Delenda Est
@Baud: FAIL!
Hold him back a year. With Bart Simpson.
ulee
I don’t think that nice young preacher taylor saw shit. I think he’s a fucking liar.
Central Planning
@WaterGirl:
His was in French.
Villago Delenda Est
@ulee: I think he was REALLY pissed that they tossed away those Elvis ducats.
Corner Stone
@Svensker: President Stuck, he dead.
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Why a duck?
Corner Stone
Ah, Kropadope.
He and/or she who has strengthily and repeatedly posted that any R candidate in the WH is better than a lifelong D politician.
Good times.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@SFAW: Ducks, like wood and very small rooks, float.
SFAW
@efgoldman:
I disagree. The wingnuts are nothing if not Zeno-phobic.
That being said: I’d use the same remedy on Carbon County that some wingnuts proposed for the Middle East in the wake of 9/11. Those fuckers will never learn, but at least they can be made an example of.
(At some level, I can’t believe I’m writing that. District 13? But those fuckers keep trying to destroy the country, and it gets tiresome.)
ulee
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name): very, very small rooks
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
You’re overthinking this. Or perhaps too young to get the non-Python reference.
Or perhaps you’re ignoring it, because something something.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@SFAW: Shit, I just plain missed it. “Whya no chicken?” Well-played.
greennotGreen
@Morzer: OMG, my new mouse is making me into an idiot! When I clicked the link to the referenced comment, I somehow ended up at a comment by the Conster, No.27, and that’s what I was replying to. You know, when you shuffle the comments randomly, that really don’t make any sense, do they?
Sorry!
burnspbesq
@⚽️ Martin:
You have more confidence in the Utah National Guard than I can muster. It wouldn’t surprise me a bit to learn that some of those units have a lot of “sovereign citizen” sympathizers, and some fairly serious insubordination could follow.
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@burnspbesq: I have confidence that they will do their jobs.
Kropadope
@Corner Stone:
Only bettWhat’s that got to do with the price of milk?SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Of course, I did resist the urge to opine that Billie Joe jumped off the Tallahatchie Viaduct.
But I’m glad to see you’re not QUITE a pup.
burnspbesq
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
One would hope.
SFAW
@greennotGreen:
But they do, unshuffled? Good to know.
Uncle Cosmo
@efgoldman:
Sounds like Zeroes’ Paradox to me…
Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name)
@burnspbesq: I think that baseless speculation that elements of the US military will not do their jobs is unnecessary. When you worked for the IRS, did you pursue cases where you personally did not agree with the law or the government’s interpretation of the law?
SFAW
@Omnes Omnibus (the first of his name):
Ah, but that was before the Kenyan Mooslim usurper got “elected” and everything changed.
Morzer
@greennotGreen:
No worries. I blame Obama for the NSA shuffling our comments.
Unless, of course, it is time for us to move into blaming Hillary mode.
SatanicPanic
Sadly Tim, this was exactly right
fleeting expletive
I read somewhere today that people put unsalted butter in their coffee, and it gets them extra strength and endurance and longevity maybe. I kind of think that’s got to be a joke, but if not: Party on, dudes!
SFAW
@fleeting expletive:
Yeah, how ’bout them Red Sox?
Villago Delenda Est
@fleeting expletive: Is that something that Dr. Oz recommends?
SFAW
@Villago Delenda Est:
Yes, but only if you don’t exercise.
artem1s
@Elizabelle:
Isn’t Blagoyevich in jail because of crap like this? And he never even got to the stage of making an actual offer of what he was willing to exchange.
Cervantes
Apparently not.
EthylEster
@Cervantes observed:
And I am amazed. Perhaps the fever has broken? Nah.
Bill Arnold
Can’t estimate the odds of human extinction before the sun eats the earth, but the probability of peak wingnut coinciding with human extinction is 27%. (There will be a last human. Probability that they will be a wingnut is 27%. Q.E.D.)
johnny aquitard
@Alce_y_Ardilla: Color me even more cynical because I think this ultimately is about the right using their control of the media to try to create another Ruby Ridge type cause (and, they hope, martyrs) that will fire up their base.
Such an incident can be used to win the election for them.
It’s a coordinated strategy not a coincidence.
Jebediah, RBG
@fleeting expletive:
It’s true, but as I understand it the butter has to be from grass-fed cows only. Also, some coconut oil goes in.
I do it every morning, and I now make $7,000 dollars a day just sitting at my computer!