An All-American tragedy in three acts:
Trump, again calling MS-13 gang members "animals," to NATO's Stoltenberg, a Norwegian: "You don't have that where you come from"
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) May 17, 2018
Stoltenberg was the prime minister of Norway when Anders Behring Breivik murdered 77 people in an anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant-inspired terrorist attack on his own country. https://t.co/B5vKkPLD4a
— Pema Levy (@pemalevy) May 17, 2018
And then:
Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock claimed Americans needed to wake up to government plot to seize guns https://t.co/aNW7A0mWcN
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 17, 2018
If these characterizations are accurate, this puts the shooter into the Anti-Government Extremist category. pic.twitter.com/q1I3XKZ39W
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 17, 2018
This seems counterproductive to a rational person. Use a firearm to shoot 100s of people and Congress might actually consider gun control legislation.
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 17, 2018
This second idea (inspiring future terrorist events) is sometimes called propaganda of the deed or propaganda by the deed. The idea of inspiring like-minded individuals to copy a deadly crime pops up in a lot of manifestos.
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 17, 2018
The other message he may be sending to the government?
"Don't fuck with gunowners. We can do serious damage if you try."
If this motive turns out to be true, he was effectively using American civilians as hostages.
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 17, 2018
Coda:
This is America pic.twitter.com/TGWQUPqsVo
— ?? Barstool Kent ?? (@BarstoolKSU) May 14, 2018
Now that I graduated from @KentState, I can finally arm myself on campus. I should have been able to do so as a student- especially since 4 unarmed students were shot and killed by the government on this campus. #CampusCarryNow pic.twitter.com/a91fQH44cq
— Kaitlin Marie (@KaitMarieox) May 13, 2018
You did this in Ohio, where Tamir Rice and John Crawford were fatally shot for holding fake guns. You’re still alive, @kaitmarieox – not even arrested – after bringing a semiautomatic rifle to school. That’s white privilege. pic.twitter.com/t9lGMoYBFT
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 17, 2018
Of course she’s got her own Wingnut Welfare Wurlitzer grift up & running. She’s like a nine-year-old gleefully climbing onto Creepy Uncle’s lap — sure, her parents keep telling her long boring stories about ‘bad touch’, but Creepy Uncle gives her a dollar every time she hunts through his pockets…
psycholinguist
When i was at UC Santa Cruz, students who craved attention would run around naked on campus with feather masks on. That girl might want to try that instead.
Baron Elmo
Jebus Christ. Does this gun-humping bimbo even understand how easy it would be for someone to simply grab the rifle from behind and garrote her with the strap?
Not that I would ever carry out such a horrendous act, mind you…
John Revolta
Christ, what an asshole.
Gemina13
She actually used the Kent State shootings to justify her putrid little stunt. She’s beyond help.
Anne Laurie
@psycholinguist:
The NRA (or Kochs, or Mercers, or whichever RWNJ funds her ‘Liberty Hangout’) wouldn’t pay her to run around being naked. But they’re already paying her to run around being stupid, and that was just as a part-time gig while she got her degree. C.R.E.A.M., baby!
Msb
The vast majority of Breivik’s victims were teenagers at a summer camp.
And there are alt-fighters who call him a hero.
There’s a movie coming out about the murders, called Utøya. Should be educational but don’t think I can bear to see it.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Clearly she’s suffering from #EconomicAnxiety
Anne Laurie
@Baron Elmo:
That’s why she had a camera crew following her, to take the perfectly framed pic.
How many photos do you supposed had to be discarded because her mechanical penis substitute had disarranged the back of her micro-mini up & displayed too much pasty white heinie? Or because she couldn’t resist looking over her shoulder at the lens?
Amir Khalid
Had the protesters at Kent State 48 years ago been armed, there would have been many more than four dead in Ohio.
SarahT
Tomi Lahren’s brains & Dana Loesch’s psychosis all wrapped up in one neat package. Yay. Can she please be the female version of all those men who accidentally shoot themselves in the nuts? Because that would be awesome.
Viva BrisVegas
@Amir Khalid:
I thought that the excuse the National Guard gave when asked why they shot up Ohio State was that they thought one or more students were armed.
All US universities should be free fire zones. //
Of course the important question: is she cute enough to host a segment on Fox News?
Gin & Tonic
Thanks for the reminder of the insanity I am about to return to. Having spent a bit over two weeks in Scandinavia now, I am wracking my brain trying to think of a single quality of life (social, political, you name it) issue on which the US is an improvement. February is probably pretty grim here, but otherwise….
cokane
The source on the Vegas Shooter is unnamed person in jail, quoted by the New York Daily News. I dunno, I’m not sure this is a fact we should be certain of at this point. I don’t think it’s worth speculating about his reasoning from this.
From Both Sides of the Pond
Since it’s an open thread – massively bummed out. Was interviewing for a new job as my current, horribly toxic workplace absolutely has to go (academic institution). Interviewer pushed and pushed and pushed to know what dysfunctions exist at my current institution, and in the interest of not appearing to be withholding, I explained a few. At which point the interview went south because I was associated with such a toxic workplace. Which I want to leave. To be placed in a situation where I can either lie and lose for lying, or be truthful and lose for fear I’m tarred with the toxicity… I’m mad at myself for showing any honesty and wondering if they were being harsh but necessary or completely unprofessional. They even told me ‘you’ve got to get out of there!’ Thought that was the point…
Aleta
“You don’t have that where you come from”
What they don’t have in Norway: capital punishment; businesses and government trying to abolish unions; insanely expensive rent and housing markets; a government indifferent to hunger and homelessness; poor maternity care and long waits for addiction treatment; people forced to work 50-60 hour weeks on fixed salary. Last I knew, they don’t have privatized prisons and they don’t shame children or anyone who needs welfare. Conservatives may have changed some of this.
Amir Khalid
@Viva BrisVegas:
Especially military academies. The officer corps of the future must ever be ready for war at a moment’s notice. //
Gin & Tonic
@Aleta: A couple of days ago you asked about the drive from Bergen to Stavanger. The coastal highway, E39, is really the only way. It includes about a half-dozen bridges, about a half-dozen tunnels and two ferries. Takes about 5 hours in total.
Inventor
@Gin & Tonic: I have taken that exact highway twice. Also, from Bergen to Trondheim and once from Oslo to Lillehammer.
Aleta
@Viva BrisVegas: https://www.kent.edu/may-4-historical-accuracy
Aleta
@Gin & Tonic: Did you see any fjords?
(joke)
Did you happen to go see the Vasa in Stockholm (the warship)?
John Revolta
@From Both Sides of the Pond: Just a guess- I suspect the interview may have gone south because you “badmouthed” your current workplace, as bad as it may be. Interviewers don’t want hear you do that, even though they may be pushing you in that direction.
Gin & Tonic
@Aleta: Yes x2. Boarding now.
From Both Sides of the Pond
@John Revolta: Honestly, that’s what I figured. I guess my question is at what point does it cross the line for them to keep basically demanding that you do so? Don’t get me wrong, I’m terribly mad at myself – but when it becomes apparent I either tell them what the place is like or be tossed for nondisclosure, what way out do I have?
Patricia Kayden
@From Both Sides of the Pond: You don’t have to tell them much. Just state a few mild things about your current job but don’t spill all the gory details. When interviewing for my current position, I said nothing about why I left my former longtime position. Wouldn’t have been helpful.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
Yeah, well, Brevik doesn’t count. He isn’t an animal. He’s a nice white guy who was willing to kill the animals. White guys aren’t animals. They aren’t bad people. By definition, only Muslims, Black people and Mexicans (by which one means Hispanics overall) are animals.
Amir Khalid
@From Both Sides of the Pond:
I think you could reply that for the sake of discretion, you will say only so much about your current workplace and no more. If they don’t respect that, you probably don’t want to be working for them anyway.
OzarkHillbilly
@Gin & Tonic: Soon you will be pining for the fjords.
J R in WV
Maybe work ahead to select some accurate yet non-destructive stories that illustrate your current workplace is less than perfect, perhaps because of a lack of opportunity for advancement, for example. But without really showing it as toxic and unendurable, even if most days that exactly how you feel about it.
I’m not sure why it appeared that telling the real dirt seemed to have made you unattractive as an employee, nor why the interviewer went digging at you for that kind of disclosure. In my last management job, we usually did a small committee, at least a second person, most often 3 and sometimes a forth for a specific technical skill to talk about, in hiring interviews.
We even participated in conference calls with similar other state IT shops to have joint interviews of proposed contract groups to perform a complex task under an EPA grant, say for exchanging data with members of regional groups of states, or the 50 states with EPA, or such projects. Sometimes it was complex.
We usually had a list of attributes, and each individual or group got scores on each attribute, so we could have some objective ranking as well as who seemed good to work with. Hiring was a really hard thing sometimes, other times we talked with someone and knew after the hour-long phone interview that this was the person we wanted.
We only made a terrible choice once, and had to let a person go immediately because they had misrepresented their experience, depth of knowledge and ability, by having a second guy do the phone interview. The interviewee had a vocal tik of raising his voice at the end of each sentence, like Steve of SGO or ATL or wherever he was that week complained about recently, all the way from India. The contractor who showed up didn’t do that, but also wasn’t skilled the way the interviewee was.. We decided to do a two week trial that didn’t work out at all. Fail!
Study this event to see how to change it if it happens again, but don’t dwell on it, it sounds like a toxic interviewer, you may have dodged a real nightmare.
Better luck next time!
satby
@Amir Khalid: @From Both Sides of the Pond: what Amir says. Another way to handle it is to reply that every workplace is different with different people, and that you’re leaving your current position because you want to expand your skills by (specific opportunities) offered by the interviewer’s company/institution.
That’s honestly why you’re looking, right? Just cheerfully deflect pushy questions about the current job with answers about how you work well with everyone and are focused on the future.
NotMax
@Gin & Tonic
Sounds like a lovely trip.
Come drive the road to Hana sometime. Breathtakingly beautiful and, if you like bridges…
JR
She’s a troll. Don’t give her oxygen
Cermet
@NotMax: Can you imagine the environmental statement today that would be needed to destroy that much rain forest? Lucky there were no liberals to stop that gash across that area.
NotMax
@Cermet
Whole thing was a WPA project during the Depression. Many of the one lane bridges now showing their age.
satby
It looks like my beautiful old boy Hershey may be going to the vet today for the last time. Not sure what happened in the night, but he’s clearly in pain suddenly. He’s been obviously slowing down the past few weeks, but he’s also almost 13, old for his breed nd size. If he was a human I would suspect he had a non-fatal heart attack.
Not exactly the plans I had for my birthday today.
Baud
@satby:
Oh no. Worst birthday. I’m so sorry.
NotMax
@satby
Happy, happy birthday. Hope this may cheer you up a bit.
raven
@NotMax: And some genuine stoners at the end of the road!
Leto
‘Bigger than Watergate’: Trump joins push to expose an FBI source
President Trump’s allies are trying to undercut the Russia investigation by targeting a top-secret source. The dispute pits Trump and the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee against the Justice Department and intelligence agencies.
Traitors. All of them.
@satby: I’m so sorry Satby.
raven
@NotMax: Here’s one for them bridges!
Immanentize
@satby: I’m so sorry, I hope Hershey is better off than he looks right now. And in all situations, one ought to celebrate another successful trip around our friend, the sun. You’ve had an amazing year!
satby
Thanks all. He’s sleeping comfortably at the moment next to my chair but awake he can barely walk and his breathing is labored. Hoping the vet can fit him in. And that it’s not the end, but if it is he’s had a good run for a dog on death row 10 years ago.
JPL
@satby: It’s always a sad event, and I’m sorry.
Libraryguy
@satby I am so, so sorry to hear this. Holding you both close in my thoughts.
Elizabelle
@satby: All the best to you and Hershey. Happy birthday!
In the event it is Hershey’s time, he will always be associated with your birthday, and on later ones, you will be happy to think of his sweet self.
Steve in the SFO
@Gin & Tonic: we have better plumbing
Sm*t Cl*de
But they didn’t, so Paddock wasn’t so irrational after all.
sherparick
@Viva BrisVegas: Yea, she definitely sees the career path Loesch and Lahnen have laid out is the one for her to follow to fame and fortune. By the way, looking at her and Doocy, and for that matter Charlie Kirk, I get a bit tired of liberals being called smug and condescending. Never seen such smug assholes in my life.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: I wasn’t there, and I understand FBSOTP’s upset, but if that’s the most important thing to the interviewer (and presumably the company), then I agree that it doesn’t like a good place to work.
Hang in there, FBSOTP.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@J R in WV: +1
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@satby: Hope the vet can help, our Nikki was having a good deal of trouble walking(back problem) and the vet prescribed some meds and she was back to being the ‘big puppy’. So you never know, what you think might be a one way trip can turn out to be a round trip.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I’m hoping so, thanks!
Another Scott
@JR: + Eleventy-Billion.
:-)
In other news, Reuters:
The 1MDB scandal was a gigantic grift – something so huge that Donnie could only aspire to but is/was (fortunately) too incompetent to pull off. Here’s hoping that the investigation finds all the crooks. And here’s hoping that the positive turn of events in Malaysia [is] an example for Mueller’s team, and for us all.
Cheers,
Scott.
Aleta
@NotMax: What a paradise. Do you ever see whales from shore? Got to admire whoever laid that curvy road.
Another Scott
@satby: So sorry, Satby. Remember the good times.
Here’s hoping your birthday is memorable for good reasons, too.
Cheers,
Scott.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: We have FREEDOM!
FREEDOM is a registered trademark of the Republican National Committee.
satby
@Another Scott: thanks Scott.
OldDave
@satby: {{{{{ hugs }}}}}
RedDirtGirl
@satby: So sorry to hear that. What a way to spend your special day. Big hug!
Aleta
@satby: Hope he is soon back to being himself, and you’re soon back home. Happy birthday
Tenar Arha
@satby: I’m sorry to hear this. Happy Birthday & best wishes for Hershey.
hedgehog mobile
@satby: Oh no. I am so sorry. (((satby and Hershey)))
Barbara
@From Both Sides of the Pond: This would be very frustrating, but it is a question that is pretty common, so you should try to prepare anodyne answers that emphasize the positive elements of your current position, toxic as it might be, and why you are seeking a new challenge in your life. Something to the effect of “X has given me so many great opportunities but at this point I need to move on to meet my professional goals,” or “I think my particular skills will flourish in a different environment.” These are not false, they just focus on the future not the icky present. Some version of that for every question they ask about your current situation. It takes discipline but it’s definitely worth it, because for every interviewer who likes hearing gossip, there are at least four who will ding you for being willing to put your employer in a bad light.
From the way you describe what happened, I would not rule out the fact that the interviewer might have heard rumors or gossip about your current employer, especially if they are in the same or related field, and was specifically plying you for information. Or maybe a lot of other people where you work have applied for the same position and they are wondering what the heck is going on. Good luck.
Barbara
@satby: So sorry. Hoping for better news about Hershey.
a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)
@satby: I’m sorry. I hope things get better.
Mark
Now that she’s graduated, why doesn’t she just get the hell off campus? Attention whore…grifter. Nothing more.
WaterGirl
@Barbara: That’s really excellent advice.
From Both Sides of the Pond
I appreciate the advice from everyone. I blame myself for lack of discipline, but hopefully more opportunities will be coming. Academic faculty type jobs are running out for next year, so you can understand why I am kicking myself. But ever onward.
Miss Bianca
@satby: oh, no! Worst birthday present ever. : (
So sorry to hear, this, satby. You have all my sympathy.
satby
Reposting from the morning thread: Thanks everyone for the good wishes for both Hershey and me. He’s at the vets getting some tests done and I am waiting to go get him and hoping whatever’s hurting him is reasonably treatable. That would be a nice birthday present.
NotMax
@Aleta
Yup. Whales can be seen offshore from roughly late November to late March.
WaterGirl
@From Both Sides of the Pond: What they did in trying to get you to spill… from what you said they took it beyond the usual questions in that area.
I say maybe you dodged a bullet if that’s how they act in an interview. But yes, Barbara gave you some great advice on how to shut that down the next time.
You learned something about yourself and something about the potential employer. I call that a win. (if you are thinking big picture)
Dog Mom
@satby: Hoping for the best for your boy Hershey and therefore a great birthday present for you. If it is not to be, I wish you both strength and that time stands still for just a bit to allow for peaceful good byes. I keep thinking that I will be facing something soon with my 15 1/2 year old Weimaraner, but she is still getting up each morning, though hobbling around with arthritis – she can still manage to bark at her beagle sisters.
Kay
If you’re wondering what the school safety commission has been up to:
They first blamed Obama, and then public schools, which is exactly what one would have predicted if one was familiar with DeVos’ 50 year career as a political operative.
Now that we’ve found the culprits- Obama and public schools- (surprise!) they can all go home, relieved that they will never have to actually do anything.
You really have to marvel at the ingenuity. If I said to you that DeVos will conclude that school shootings are due to programs designed to reduce RACIAL disparities in schools you’d wonder how she got there. She got there because she started there. And will end there.
Dog Mom
@From Both Sides of the Pond: Good advice above. It is difficult not to answer the question as it is asked. As Barbara says you don’t know what else they may know and what is prompting the asking. You do not need to be their “mole” though. Before going for your next interview, try to think of a few positive things you can say about your current situation – however small – maybe you were able to create a good deliverable (a document, a piece of code, whatever) – you don’t need to explain any obstacles to getting that done. Rehearse saying it a few times adding how the good experience that has prepared you for your next position. As you are heading to the next interview, repeat this so it is fresh in your mind.
Camassia
On facebook, journalist David Neiwert had an interesting insight on the effect of the rabbit hole world of conspiracy theories on men like Paddock:
“Think of all the mass shootings of recent vintage. Think about how many of the perpetrators believe conspiracy theories. It’s pretty much all of them. That includes bombers like McVeigh and Rudolph, too.
It’s not that conspiracy theories by themselves provide the motivations for these acts, though in this case they may actually form the lion’s share of the motive. But one thing all these cases share in common is the unhinging effect of conspiracism. Not only does it separate the person who goes down the rabbit hole from reality, it cuts them off increasingly from normal human contact with others — and most of all, forms a kind of dehumanizing mechanism in their minds for their ultimate victims. Those people are no longer people to them — they’re just hapless pawns in a big game. It’s really a horrifying world that they eventually inhabit.”