Cuomo’s announcement is of course related to the recent stabbings in Rockland County. Anti-Semitic hate crimes are up 21 percent in New York in the last year (2018). It’s no mystery why.
I sometimes get wrapped into reality TV shows – sad but true. I’m currently watching Nightwatch, which follows New Orleans EMS, Police and Fire first responders on the night shift. What strikes me about the show is the sheer amount of resources devoted to guns – the police are constantly working to confiscate illegal guns, and EMS and Fire run around that city treating shooting victims. A shooting response is an all-out effort at saving a life, with multiple paramedics responding. The EMS teams will often even have an emergency room physician on scene at a shooting. This $10K pre-hospital response is nothing compared to the $100K+ in-hospital treatment of the victim, and probably the multi-million dollar follow-up if the victim survives but is disabled. All this because our country is flooded with guns.
It’s always a wonder that a group that is manically focused on reducing taxes has no interest in reducing the cost of public services directly related to the rhetoric and policies they promulgate.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
That’s just the rational, what’s good for my neighbors is good for me, bleeding heart do-gooder in you talking.
To grok the “mind” of the quintessential gun humping asshole, you must embrace a Randian ethos of selfishness.
Another Scott
In other news, Reuters:
Haha. So funny. But nobody else in the region better get them or Bibi will sic America on them.
Grr…
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
On this topic, one of the things that struck me about the various videos and reports over the years of police violence against civilians is that in most/every/far-too-many cases, the police seemed to shoot someone and then just stand around and (seemingly) not even attempt to offer first aid. It’s good that there are shows (that I don’t watch) illustrating EMS people trying to save shooting victims, but it would be nice if police were involved in those efforts as well.
Cheers,
Scott.
OzarkHillbilly
C’mon, you know there is no connection whatsoever between the two.
Kay
This is one of the arguments that actually reaches Right wingers- I’m not saying they’ll do anything different but it bugs the hell out of them when you bring it up, so I do.
I also argue that their gun fetish is restricting my freedom, because we all get searched constantly looking for their stupid fucking guns. We’re not any freer living in a country bristling with metal detectors and security people. They’re there because of the gun fetish. It restricts my freedom. I resent it. The whole country has to be searched and evacuated and undergo “shooter training” because these nut jobs are obsessed with guns. It’s not fair to the non-gun nut majority and it’s wasteful and expensive. Control yourselves. I’m tired of paying your babysitters.
laura
The group that is manically focused on reducing taxes cares not a goddamned whit about providing public services or the health and well being of anyone outside their select circle. It’s been the case since the dawn of the first gilded age. Heck, one of them said he could pay one half to kill the other half.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before but we need confiscatory tax rates to wring the idle capital out of the soft palms of the malefactors of great wealth and create a social goods focused economy. Direct jobs – yes please. New WPA – hell yes to that.
Harrumph!
germy
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: stability popping up all over the place. Someone predicted on twitter this morning that the Saudis probably announce a nuclear program soon. Also, too
So we abandoned the Kurds and pissed off the Shiites, the Iraqi parliament is calling for us to get out… I’m sure those Sunni extremists are just gonna sit back and do nothing.
Kay
Because 3% are too stupid and reckless and lazy to secure their home arsenal, every public school kid in this country has to spend countless hours and millions of dollars lining up on the sidewalk. Cover the cost of your own hobby. I don’t want to pay for it. There should be a 1% local school tax added to every gun purchase. Pay up, deadbeats.
debbie
Right-wing nuttery can come from the most unexpected places, even the apparently addled brain of Terry Gilliam.
Mandalay
Iraqi Lawmakers Urge End U.S. Troop Presence as Iran Mourns a Slain General:
I can’t wait to hear Trump tell us how Iraq and Iran have fallen into his cunning trap.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jesus. I just read last night that he at first ordered airstrikes against Shia militias outside of Baghdad, then shifted to the killing. All this because he was watching TeeVee
MattF
Long thread on money laundering. No, I haven’t read the whole thing. Starts out with the fundamental point that money laundering is an essential part of any significant criminal enterprise. Via jwz.
debbie
@germy:
If true, three wows are not nearly enough. That fat fuck.
Starfish
I think all the shooting victims in Baltimore are brought to a single shock/trauma center, and there is a documentary about the facility.
Barbara
@germy: It is always worth remembering that heightened conflict serves someone’s interests. Reduced conflict between SA and Iran for instance could be perceived by some as a negative development for Israel. I do not see how it would be tenable for us to use Iraq as a staging ground for either real or proxy war with Iran. Would love to hear thoughts.
Mathguy
@debbie: Wow. The evergreen New Yorker line is applicable here: “Christ, what an asshole.”
germy
I’m not sure if the Reduce Taxes gang has no interest in reducing the cost of public services. I think they just want to eliminate public services.
debbie
@germy:
In the comments, Arraf confirms that it was the U.S.-backed Iraqi PM who revealed that. How pissed must Iraqis be at this moment?
Barbara
@Starfish: JHU also gets its share of GSW cases, but UMD shock trauma is more accessible to more parts of the city, where I used to live (very briefly). I have an acquaintance who used to be part of the shock trauma team but quit after a while.
germy
@debbie: My guess right now is that’s it’s true. If it were just a twitter rando, I wouldn’t have repeated it.
But this is the source:
jane arraf
Verified account
@janearraf
NPR international correspondent. Cairo-based, covering Iraq and other places on the crossroads of this-is-amazing and you-can’t-possibly-be serious.
chopper
@germy:
great. so now iraq is going to kick everyone out, consolidating iranian influence. iraqi sunnis are going to start seeing some more neck-booting, and iranian-backed militias are going to have free reign along a land border with saudi arabia.
does iran even need to respond to this assassination? seems like a win for them.
debbie
@germy:
Yep, she’s great.
Another Scott
Military.com:
That’s ok, Donnie has said 16 times (as of March 2019) that ISIS has been defeated, so it’s no big deal to change the mission to US force protection.
It’s a good thing that the US thought through the consequences of assassinating Soleimani and Muhandis and planned for blowback. Huh.
(groucho-roll-eyes.gif)
Cheers,
Scott.
debbie
@germy:
Also, there seems to be doubt that Trump did not know about the purpose of Soleimani’s trip to Iraq. Trump probably sees any effort at stability or reduction of tensions as a bad thing. It’s probably his ace in the hole for the election.
Barbara
@chopper: Donald Trump and Netanyahu have this in common: an overwhelming need to foment immediate distraction no matter how destructive the consequences over the next few weeks or months. At least Netanyahu is probably aware enough to comprehend the odds of longer range costs. Trump is just a little kid smashing his toys without any understanding that he is also breaking them.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Another Scott: “Protect and serve”… whom?
germy
HRA
Jim Hoft at the Gateway Pundit is reporting Iran is offering 80 million for Trump’s Head.
Barbara
@germy: It is all part of Jared Kushner’s middle east peace initiative, nothing to see here.
TTT
It’s a really bad look when people only seem to care about bigotry if they can blame their political opponents for it. Neither the Monsey stabbing rampage nor the Jersey City kosher market shooting were done by white supremacists or Trump supporters. The EIGHT yeshiva arsons last year, likewise not by white supremacists or Trump supporters. In the last 2+ years of hate crimes against Jews in the greater N.Y. metro area ZERO of the perps identified have been white supremacists or Trump supporters.
Jewish people have been beating our heads against the wall for YEARS trying to get people to take the threats against our lives seriously if they don’t come from white supremacists or Trump supporters. That is the whole point of this march.
MattF
@germy: So… the ‘boots on the ground’ are Israeli? That will solve all our problems, obvsly.
Hungry Joe
@debbie: I’ve always thought Terry Gilliam was overrated. Some good stuff, but everything he does is drenched in self-indulgence.
Barbara
@HRA: The government of Iran isn’t that stupid.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
Not sure about those cops “helping.”
How many times do we hear that it’s an unarmed person they shot, just because. Because they are racist, or assholes, or racist assholes, or actually weren’t checked to see if they even qualified to the low standards a lot of police forces have, if they have any standards at all.
Not sure they wouldn’t make it worse.
And yes I know it’s not all cops. But it’s far, far too many of them.
germy
@debbie:
He knows how to manipulate the media. They’re all talking about Iran now, and have dropped impeachment coverage.
eddie blake
@Another Scott:
if they live and recover, they sue. they try to press criminal charges.
from the cop’s perspective, a dead perp is better than a live tort.
Ruckus
@Kay:
And all that security to protect against an unnecessary intrusion on the public costs money and time that could be far better spent if we didn’t have to do all the security. Which of course the majority of my life we didn’t do…..
Ruckus
@laura:
I like your style!
germy
Pompeo dismisses Iraqi leader’s call for all foreign troops to leave
“We are confident that the Iraqi people want the United States to continue to be there to fight the counterterror campaign,” the secretary of state said, two days after a U.S. strike that killed a top Iranian commander.
TTT
Also, if armed cops and school security are somehow the wrong response to protect these Jewish communities that are heavily targeted for hate crimes , what is the right response?
Steeplejack
@Mathguy:
Especially asshole-ish when the person in question made his career on satirizing the sort of smug, oblivious asshole that he has now become. Circle of life or something.
germy
Trump faces Iran crisis with fewer experienced advisers and strained ties with U.S. allies
The president has spent much of his first three years in office attacking critical capabilities he now needs.
Ruckus
@Kay:
How about a 100% local school tax on each gun purchase?
It’s not each shooting that costs, although they add costs in the extreme, it’s all the money spent to try and stop the shooting, that can’t actually be accomplished all that well because the schools don’t have the money.
Steeplejack
@chopper:
Obligatory: “free rein.”
germy
@Steeplejack: Maybe he was always like that. Just better at concealing it in the past.
My opinion is he’s been coasting for years on the goodwill of Monty Python fans.
HRA
Barbara at #34
I do not believe Iran is stupid. I always thought they were smartest in the region.
eddie blake
@germy: yup.
Kay
@Ruckus:
I think it has huge repercussions, including police becoming para-military. They’re responding, in part, to the risk that they’re dealing with a gun nut. It just ripples endlessly outward- schools, police, courts. They’re all responding to a “worst case” situation. I don’t think we consider any of the secondary costs.
All to mollify a hyper-sensitive and irrational group of people with a very dangerous hobby/obsession/lifestyle choice. They have to be catered to, by everyone. It’s nuts. Everyone else comes second to their wants and desires and they refuse to even control themselves. They’re bullies. Strutting around the playground giggling at the fear they create.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
Ugh, I don’t like the prospect of having 2-3 more open nuclear powers in the Middle East by the end of the month. That’s a really bad news.
In more petty grievances, ‘Formerly disgruntled’ vs CES 2020…
Welcome to CES 2020, where Trump spawn are welcome and award-winning innovations are censored
Let’s compare these factoids about CES 2020, shall we?
CES awards cannabis company then bans it from mentioning cannabis while exhibiting (TechCrunch)
While for some reason, Ivanka Trump is a keynote speaker this year!
CES 2020 Keynote Addresses (CES website)
Gag, cough, spit…
Okay, back to today’s regularly-scheduled SNAFU.
Steeplejack
@HRA:
Whatever is the opposite of a reliable source, Hoft is it. Let’s wait for confirmation from Hugh Hewitt. ?
Barbara
@TTT: Outlawing high powered weapons has the advantage of making all of us safer. And I don’t see anybody arguing that Jews as a group are wrong to adopt defensive measures but that such measures in general are effectively a tax on the rest of us imposed by second amendment absolutists.
hitchhiker
My friend Jen can tell you all about the post-crisis life of a gunshot victim.
This story is old .. since it ran she won a seat in the AZ state legislature, with the help of some of you through ActBlue.
https://www.rollingstone.com/interactive/feature-gun-control-survivor-detail-jennifer-longdon/
rikyrah
@Kay:
That is a great tax idea, Kay.??
Steeplejack
@germy:
Trump’s crew ignores U.S. elected officials, so why should Iraqi ones be any different?
eddie blake
@TTT:
yeah, that’s SO not true.
only 33% of the arrests made in the first three quarters of 2019 were black people, 60% white.
similar stats the year before. 57% white, 36% black.
Kay
And all the mainstream commentary that the reaction to gun nuts is an over-response is equally annoying. You try it. Try to run a public entity or building and come up with a rational response to a mass shooting. You be the principal who has to explain why 20 1st graders got slaughtered, when the first question will be “could this have been prevented?” The cost of failing is SO HIGH. Of course they over-react. A mistake is catastrophic.
Watch media after a school shooting. They immediately go on the hunt for the school employee or policy that “caused” it. So schools respond, and blow another million or two on some scammy “security” contractor, which at this point is an entire scam industry, perhaps not coincidentally staffed entirely by gun nuts and far Right lunatics. They created lucrative careers for themselves.
Mandalay
@Steeplejack: It looks like he is parroting this report:
Either the bounty was offered on Iranian State TV or wasn’t, but it seems unlikely that such a specific claim would be fabricated.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@debbie:
He may think so (or want us to think so), but we don’t have to buy into it.
2003 this is not. Don’t forget that W. and company spent 18 months relentlessly selling an invasion of Iraq, as an indirectly justified response to 9/11. Trump is lazy and impulsive. It’s a different (though possibly more dangerous) situation.
He’s poking the hornet’s nest. That’s fucking scary. But he’s not done the groundwork to lead the United States into a war. And he certainly isn’t winning skeptics over with his last-minute bullshit justifications. And as we learn more… Sheeeeeet.
But please don’t assume this is an ace in the hole for him politically. It’s a Hail Mary pass at best.
Kent
Turn the full resources of the FBI against these hate groups instead of witch hunts chasing Russian-planted disinformation about the 2016 election? Maybe?
mrmoshpotato
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: So much stability that you may get bored of stability!
So much genius that you may get bored of genius!
eddie blake
@germy: some of his movies are indeed brilliant. the nightmares trilogy of ‘time bandits’, ‘brazil’, and ‘the adventures of baron munchausen’ is an incredible set of films with brilliant production design, terrific acting and very good direction.
there are a few more gems in his resume, but i will concede he’s fallen off his game as of late.
Kay
And you can do it- you can be the school superintendent who says (rightly) “this security is mostly bullshit and I’m not doing it” but if you take that risk you had better PRAY there’s not a shooting at your school because if there is every idiot is going to be insisting you could have prevented it with a million dollar security contract. So no one risks it. Because THEY will be the fall guy. On THEM. So they all have to pay and pay and “prepare” for the one in a million because there is that ONE and their worst nightmare is this time, it’s them.
Jay
Streets jammed full of mourners, in a City where the current Iranian Government is not at all popular.
Omnes Omnibus
@TTT: Who is saying this?
@eddie blake: What does this have do with anything?
rikyrah
@MattF:
That was a great thread.
Thanks?
germy
@eddie blake: Yes. Munchausen was 1988.
Jay
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy:
IDK… Impeachment is pretty high up on the Google News page. The only topics above it at the moment are Iran and a deadly pile-up on a PA turnpike.
Even the weak-ass political media can cover multiple topics at once on occasion, and they have additional motivation to cover impeachment due to where we’re at in the process.
Congress is back in session tomorrow. Let’s see what happens…
Kent
Honestly we probably should be gone from the region. I’m not sure where we have made things better. I’m sick of these geo-political “great game” things that both parties seem to endlessly engage in with my tax dollars. This region is in the EU’s back yard and they are the ones who use the oil and suffer the refugee crises. Let them take the lead in middle east peace-keeping if anything needs to be done.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
I think eddie blake is replying to the implications made in TTT’s original post.
Kay
If you’re wondering why your public school can’t afford field trips anymore it’s because we spent $2.7 billion mollifying and coddling 3 million gun nuts. And negatively impacted the quality of life of every single student- 50 million kids. All so they can strut around Wal Mart with their AR-15.
Expensive! You’re ALL paying for it.
mrmoshpotato
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Also remember that the motherfucker is still impeached.
Jager
@Another Scott:
One of my good friends is a retired Broward County EMS Battalion Chief. He has some stories that will raise your hair and a lot of them are about bad cops.
germy
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
chris
2020 is off to a good start.
Link.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@eddie blake: I enjoyed 12 Monkeys quite a bit in my day.
But old white men can fuck off with the “won’t the world pity an old white man” crap. And I say that as a soon-to-be old white man.
Maybe John Cleese can school his old pal a little. John seems pretty with it still.
TTT
@eddie blake: I didn’t specify that they were black – I said that they weren’t white supremacists or Trump supporters. The “white” category of violent antisemitic perps you cite also includes Arab-Americans.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/31/nyregion/jewish-bias-safety-nyc.html
“During the past 22 months [Dec ’16 – Oct ’18] not one person caught or identified as the aggressor in an anti-Semitic hate crime [in NY metro area] has been associated with a far right-wing group”
To be clear: the MAGAs hate us. But for the most part, they don’t live right next to us. We have been begging people to take antisemitism seriously when it ISN’T of the MAGA variety, because we end up just as dead, but it seems to be a very big and unwelcome ask.
germy
@Jager: Wasn’t there some talk once about rotating EMS and police duties? Personnel being trained in both? I’m not sure which state.
Amir Khalid
@HRA:
Really? I wouldn’t pay eight bucks for it.
Feathers
Ugh. I don’t know that the funding for additional security will have any effect, or just be more fuel on the fire, because it is school funding issues driving much of the problems in Rockland. I’ve been following it all because I have a friend in Rockland County who grew up there and it has been so ugly for so long. Let’s just say anti-Semitism in Rockland County is complicated: This American Life did an episode on the crisis back in 2014.
mrmoshpotato
So this is a Republican Stupidity thread, eh?
Catherine D.
@Another Scott: And Tom Lehrer nailed it over 50 years ago
Who’s Next
Steeplejack
@Mandalay:
Okay, starting to see some mentions in legitimate news sources, and “Trump Bounty” is spiking on Twitter search.
I could find no provenance for En24 News on the Google. No background information at all. That’s slightly odd.
ETA: I wasn’t saying that this didn’t happen. But Jim Hoft should not be your first source for anything, including whether the sun came up this morning.
mrmoshpotato
@Amir Khalid: When it comes to Gateway Pundit, you must remember he is the stupidest man on the Internet.
Jay
@Omnes Omnibus:
there is an ongoing Domestic and Foreign troll op currently rolling to create social media conflict between Jewish social media users and POC social media users,
posing as fake Jewish people or fake POC, and using the the recent anti-semetic attacks by the tiny fringe of violent Black Hebrew Israelite movement.
the goal is to split Jewish activists, ( civil rights, social justice) from the African American activists, ( civil rights, social justice) using the ususal troll techniques.
Thus TTT’s “drop in” post that’s not even close to being factually accurate.
Mandalay
@germy:
Which is exactly how things should be. The notion that we should continuously have endless punditry and speculation on what might happen next with impeachment, when nothing is happening right now, is silly.
Meanwhile, Trump has illegally assassinated an Iranian on Iraqi soil and is threatening to attack Iran, Iran has offered a bounty on Trump’s head, and Iraq is considering throwing all US troops out of Iraq.
Which is the bigger story right now?
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Kent: Perhaps. But gone from the region would need to mean 100% – no troops, no advisors, no contractors, no weapons sales, no foreign aid, or assistance.
It’s a vacuum that will be filled by other world powers. That’s one of the things about it that makes me the most nervous.
But at this point, Trump’s left us with no choice, I guess…
Yet again, the asshole in chief has left our nation weaker and less influential in world affairs. Xi must be over the moon with these developments. Putin as well, of course. And that scares the hell out of me. (I’m starting to say that a lot recently, I’ve noticed.)
bemused senior
@Another Scott: Now that I have a daughter who is a police officer (LAPD) I have a different perspective on these issues. First, all cities aren’t the same. Since I have seen her trajectory from recruitment through the academy and now nearly through her probation year, I know that the department is trying to inculcate good values and practices, through selection, screening, training, and oversight. She has been trained to give cpr, and to call an ambulance even for medical issues that aren’t seemingly life threatening. I don’t know how many incidents we see that reflect incomplete understanding of the situation.
Jay
eddie blake
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: oh i agree. that was some tone-deaf shit.
also wasn’t quite sure what he was trying to say, ‘it’s horrible what happened to the weinstein accusers, but they deserved it because they were in the industry and that’s how things were’?!?
wtf? that’s some SERIOUS dick-stepping right there.
TTT
@Jay: I’ve been posting here since 2005, which seems to be about when you were born. If you have anything informed or intellectually honest to say about this topic, feel free to start at any time.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Jay: “Let’s you and him fight”
I don’t like to toss around the troll accusations too often, but if it walks like a troll, and quacks like a troll…
New nym, concern trolling in a divisive way. We see this a lot here. They’re probably not all trolls. And some of them probably are. Who can tell anymore? If you don’t like it, there’s always pie
And ETA – maybe not a new nym in this case. It is so easy to fall into the trap of “I don’t recognize you, and you pissed me off, so you must be a troll”. Again, it’s hard because there really are trolls out there.
AnonPhenom
@eddie blake:
The Netanyahu/Trump supporters won’t be deterred by “facts”. Particularly since pretending only the Left has this issue worked so well for them recently during the UK elections. If it will help Trump get re-elected they’ll pretend anti semitism only counts within a 25 mile radius of midtown Manhattan.
Kent
@Kay:
Teacher here. Where is the money going? At least in the schools I’m familiar with:
Electronic security and badge systems for visitors where you scan in your driver’s license and get a temporary badge to set foot on campus. These are honestly not a bad idea but more for reasons of domestic violence and child abduction by non-custodial parents. There are a shitload of creepy guys out there looking to mess with their ex-wives by messing with their kids. That’s not a gun issue so much as a creepy guy issue.
More security guards
More cameras everywhere. Which mostly get used to figure out which kids are vaping in the bathrooms.
Remodeling that hardens front entries and locks down the rest of the building. They now have expensive computer-controlled locks in many school buildings that lock external doors except during passing periods and such.
Perimeter fencing around school grounds
Instead of books, computers, lab equipment, more teachers/counselors/nurses etc.
Kay
@Mandalay:
I was pleasantly surprised by local tv news coverage of Trump/Iran last night. They were really low key and kind of refreshingly skeptical of the Trump Administration claims. None of the cheerleading and “patriotic” bullying we saw with the Iraq invasion. Maybe they learned something.
germy
eddie blake
@TTT: yeah, no. ‘someone’ is taking it seriously.
https://boropark24.com/at-rally-against-hate-cuomo-announces-45-million-to-secure-jewish-sites/
right?
Kay
@Mandalay:
I was pleasantly surprised by local tv news coverage of Trump/Iran last night. They were really low key and kind of refreshingly skeptical of the Trump Administration claims. None of the cheerleading and “patriotic” bullying we saw with the Iraq invasion. Maybe they learned something.
Jay
mrmoshpotato
@germy: And in the interim, we’ll have to leave it right there. (goes to commercial)
Fuck Chuckles Todd.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Kay:
Maybe Trump is lazy and inept. The media would have been cheerleading this plenty, had the administration implemented an appropriate 12-18 month campaign building up support for a war. That’s how W got his cheerleading (that and 9/11 of course).
schrodingers_cat
I just called my mother a cheerleader for a mass murder and hung up on her. She was in the see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil about India’s PM.
Kent
I completely understand the argument. But show me anywhere in the world where US military aid and intervention has made the world a better and safer place? What “good” regimes are we propping up and where?
OK, maybe Japan and Korea. And perhaps the Kurds.
TTT
@eddie blake: Right! Good! I was perplexed that it seemed the original post and some follow-ups were reacting like this was some shady political opportunism. I may have misread things, and would almost prefer if that were the case.
HRA
In regards to Jim Hoft and Gateway Pundit about the bounty: This was in Memeorandum. It was the only source. Otherwise I would have sent another source. PS I never liked Jim Hoft.
I wouldn’t do it either, Amir.
Kent
@schrodingers_cat: Is something new happening in India today? Or just more of the same?
Jager
@germy:
My friend was a medic in Vietnam and graduated in the first class of EMTs in Broward. He had so much medical training over the years, I can’t imagine how they would train for both. My ex-wife is a nurse practitioner (spent 10 years in the ER and on helicopters) she said Don knows as much medicine as she does.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Remember the W. Bush folk scheduled the vote a few months before the midterms, they thought though the timing pretty well.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Exactly. They had a plan. T don’t play that way.
oatler.
@eddie blake:
Love Brazil and Munchausen but Tidelands was a tough nut to swallow.
Feathers
@bemused senior: My brother, who did his senior project for his Criminal Justice BA on improving police/homeless interactions, now laughs mercilessly telling degrading stories about the bums he rousts off their benches. You can do all the training you want, but if the “bad apples” rule the stations, it doesn’t mean shite. And what’s scary is that my brother is probably not one of the “bad” guys.
germy
@Kent:
https://oldshowbiz.tumblr.com/post/190076727619/but-how-are-we-going-to-pay-for-it-a-list-of
Jay
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
the funny thing about “sucessful” Social Media troll campaigns, is that they go from the fringes, to the mainstream, relying on not trolls for the most part, but instead, “Typhoid Marys” and media to amplify it, and rely on the argumentive nature of the “normal user” to carry it on.
spout some bs, add in some truth, sit back and watch as posters spiral down the nit picking, pedantry and trivia, knowing full well that words are going to piss a few somebodies off and things will get heated.
mrmoshpotato
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: You sure that wasn’t 12-18 months of lying, bullshit and jingoism from Shrub, Dick, Rummy, Condi and Colin?
And let’s not forget “You’re either with us, or you’re with the terrorists.”
“Fuck you libtard! George W Bush is a wartime president. Why do you hate the troops?!”
and
“Fuck you Frenchy! We’re gonna rename French fries to Freedom fries, and buy a bunch of champagne and French’s mustard to destroy! That’ll show ya!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@mrmoshpotato: And then Obummer comes along and puts French mustard on his burger.
MagdaInBlack
@schrodingers_cat:
Im sorry. It has to be tearing you apart to have this happening.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@mrmoshpotato: Yep, I remember that lovely time.
Today feels very different, even though there’s still plenty of jingoism coming from the right.
eddie blake
@oatler.: yeah, the last film of his i really enjoyed was fear and loathing.
Jay
You don’t have to go there and read, just note that MAGAts are now doing the mix and match of Gateway Pundit and Spudnik, or Still Dead Briebart and RT, that was spoon fed to them by the Russian psyops from about 2008 forward,
all on their own.
mrmoshpotato
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ooooooooooo!!! Look at Mr. Fancy Pants!
“I like him (Dump) because he’s not a politician.”
“Have your teeth drilled by not-a-dentist.” -Bluegal (Professional Left podcast)
mrmoshpotato
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Yeah. It’s worse. How bad are things? Well, do you hate George W Bush but wish he were President again? :)
chopper
hebrew school is back on and now our synagogue is requiring adults wear name tags because of security worries.
mrmoshpotato
@Jay: Spudnik. Appropriate.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@germy: @eddie blake:
Reading the interview, Gilliam comes off as a cynical, Machiavellian monster:
Via Wonkette
The dude clearly didn’t read Spider-man comics as a kid. “With great power comes…”
bemused senior
@Feathers: Definitely there’s an issue of old boys with bad attitudes. My daughter has seen it a lot. It stems in part from the self selection of vets as recruits, which has a good side and a bad side. Good, in that these officers bring physical fitness, leadership training, understanding the reason for discipline and chain of command; and bad in that there is a lot of right wing ideological baggage. As for the homeless problem, our society doesn’t invest in dealing with issues of mental health, jobs, housing but leaves it to the police to deal with these problems on the street. In LA there is an enormous problem of MRSA infection among the homeless. Horrible for the infected, but also leads to fear and revulsion among people who must scrupulously glove themselves before interacting with homeless people involved in street crime
Mike in NC
In conservative American utopia, everybody will have guns and nobody will pay taxes.
Chyron HR
@HRA:
Damn, and Stormy Daniels went down on him for just $130K.
Barbara
@TTT: Maybe not in NYC but certainly other attacks have been, e.g., in Pittsburgh. What additional response are you suggesting?
eddie blake
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: yeah, like i said. lots of dick-stepping in that interview.
it really sucks when you find out that those you admire are assholes. but i suppose it’s better to know what they’re really like going forward.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@mrmoshpotato: Agreed. As I said in another comment earlier, “It’s a different (though possibly more dangerous) situation.”
schrodingers_cat
@Kent: Yes ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyaarthi Parishad) the student wing of the BJP went on a rampage at Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Cracked some skulls, while the police looked on and blocked the main access to the university.
#SOSJNU
Mnemosyne
@TTT:
I think people were seeing it as shady political opportunism because your first post did seem to imply that the majority of the perpetrators were African American when that’s not actually the case. Now that you’ve accepted the statistics that someone else quoted, your position is a little more clear.
Also keep in mind that very, very few of these assholes have formal ties to any white supremacist groups, but they’re still acting on white supremacist and anti-Semitic beliefs. For example, I don’t think that the Tree of Life murderer in Pittsburgh had any formal ties to white supremacist groups, but he absolutely was a white supremacist and an anti-Semite.
schrodingers_cat
@MagdaInBlack: Thanks it is upsetting.
Steeplejack (phone)
@schrodingers_cat:
I feel for you. I just don’t know what to say—about this or your other observations on the horrific situation in India.
CaseyL
@HRA: I hope he’s right, and I hope someone takes them up on it.
Damned_at_Random
Guns don’t kill people, ammo does. A massive tax on ammo (and reloading components) could be used to offset some of the social costs of the 2nd amendment. The heaviest tax would apply to the most commonly used weapons of mayhem – .223’s used in AR-style weapons and the ammo for handguns. Hunting rifle ammo would be taxed at a lower rate – because sports and also population control of game species since we have eliminated so many natural predators.
trollhattan
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is this the part where we become tired of all the winning? I did not get the blast text.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@eddie blake: Tell me about it. I was Ryan Adams’ #1 fan from 2003-2019.
Sometimes, because of the way you appreciate the art, or because your relationship to the art is already complicated, the revelations don’t have to change much for you.
But when you unabashedly love an artist and want to celebrate and share their art with others – and you find out they’re not who you thought they were – that changes everything.
Jay
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
there seem to be a “new breed” of National Security “influencers” out there, the product, ( in many cases, actual products) of the War of Terror, also known as the Infinity Wars.
They see the threats, challenges, they understand the traditional US role as a stablizer,
They also understand the failures of Infinity War, along with the also traditional US role as the “quicker fucker upper”.
gradually, some of these voices have gone from paper/blogs/other social media, to cable and TV as commentators.
add in that it’s Doltus,
Iran,
and aside from the Koolaide drinking MAGAt’s, Likkuidnicks and Iran haters, there are a whole bunch of normally hammer weilding Middle East “analysts” having heart attacks.
Mnemosyne
@HRA:
Given that Hoft is the stupidest man on the internet and that there’s a whole lot of Russian propaganda being circulated, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s a mistranslation of some kind, either deliberate or mistaken.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
People like that think policy is like a buffet were you can take what you like out of it.
Suzanne
It should be noted that very few places in the country have enough Level 1 trauma capacity to handle a major shooting spree. When the Las Vegas shooting happened, there was one Level 1 trauma center in the entire state, and it has two trauma bays. So that should be factored into our thinking on this issue.
And it’s not just an issue of building more. Level 1 trauma centers have to have trauma surgeons present in the facility at all times (or within a very short distance; state regs vary). They also have to have a dedicated trauma operating room, a big blood bank, and burn care, either in the facility or immediately accessible. All of this is incredibly costly (and usually is unprofitable), and all of this only exists within large urban centers.
But the right wing doesn’t want to talk about this, I think because it’s GOP voters who will come out as losers on this issue.
mrmoshpotato
@Mike in NC: And yet somehow, somehow, police, firefighters and paramedics will still exist and be willing to help you when needed. Infrastructure will also be maintained by the same magic too.
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
Ugh. I’m sorry that this disaster has brought you into conflict with your mother. I basically had to stop even mentioning politics in front of my mother because we’re on opposite sides. It’s really hard.
Neldob
@Another Scott: I wouldn’t want to mention Vanunu in this conversation. oopsie.
debbie
@Mnemosyne:
It was definitely unclear. I wasn’t sure if the implication was to put it on AAs or Libtards.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Jay: I’d take the Obama/Biden administration back in a heartbeat. They weren’t perfect, but they were much better for world peace than folks on the performative left are willing to credit them for.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@germy: More proof that EVERYTHING Trump touches turns to shit. Saudis thought they could control Trump and didn’t realize Trump is nothing more than a toddler in an adult’s body.
Jay
@Mnemosyne:
he was recruited and radicalized online by Trad Mom and the “Identity” clique of Nazi’s. He trained up with MPFPS games online and discord chats with mixed Nazi teams.
None of these “Lone Wolves”, are “Lone Wolves”.
sdhays
What will it take for our professional commentators to understand that Dump didn’t shit all over our entire national security architecture by accident? He doesn’t “need” any of the shit they say he does because he’s playing a different game. He’s not the President. He’s a criminal figuring out ways to help himself and his creditors. And a stupid, narcissistic, mean, vile human being who does horrible shit because it makes him think he’s happy (he’s incapable of true happiness).
The world can burn as far as Dump cares, as long as Dump properties continue to bring in that sweet dirty money for laundering.
Ruckus
@Barbara:
Trump is just a little kid smashing his toys without any understanding that he is also breaking them.
Who then gets pissed at whoever is around when he finds the broken toys, having no idea that he’s the one who broke them.
He is an out of control 73 yr old acting as if he’s 5 and has an unlimited amount of power to hit back at every perceived slight, that he caused by acting like that 5 yr old. And his supporters think that is normal, because they have no idea how to actually be adults themselves.
Starfish
@Barbara: It must be hard to see the same nonsense going on all the time.
mrmoshpotato
@Mnemosyne: Or Jim Hoft could just be a dumbfuck. :)
scav
@schrodingers_cat: Alas, some things are absolutely more important than blood ties: we shouldn’t stand by silently enabling awful beliefs or behaviors because, well, you know, “family” à la Hallmark afternoon specials idealization. It’s just another blue line of cops protecting bad cops performing outrages. Ok, forgive the little stuff but not bodies lying on the street. So sorry.
Kent
So Somalia basically.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Oops, never mind. I should have googled first. He’s also concerned about cancel culture and won’t perform on college campuses.
germy
@Jay:
frosty
@MattF: I read the whole money laundering thread. Very helpful, I hadn’t quite understood how it worked before.
mrmoshpotato
Slow clap for the “Eww! Hillary!” crowd. I’m going to go dent my fridge with my head.
HRA
@Mnemosyne: Others are picking it up now. As I had mentioned, I never liked Jim Hoft. It was a should or shouldn’t I moment to click on his site for the 1st time.
germy
Another Scott
@Catherine D.: Yup. Thanks muchly.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@debbie: Even if you accept Gillman’s argument Wienstien is still a useless idiot and people like him should lose their jobs When you are in a leadership position you are supposed to be making decisions based on the subordinates capabilities at that task, not if they are willing to go to bed with you. There might just be a connection between the decline in the of mass music and movies and this attitude in Hollywood that actors and musicians are nothing but whores.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@mrmoshpotato: I assume that disinformation is more likely. Trump would like nothing more than this to become a “Trump vs Iran” wrestling match in the eyes of American voters. A bounty on Trump himself (vs threats against the troops, the USA, all of us, etc.) plays into that narrative nicely.
I still can’t find any confirmation from a trustworthy source. So far, top hits on search for “Trump Bounty”: Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, PJ Media. All other top results were unrelated articles from more trustworthy sources.
Seems like this would be newsworthy and quickly verifiable if true, no? Rather suspicious…
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@HRA: “Others are picking it up now”
Daily Mirror, Daily Mail, PJ Media
Any trustworthy sources yet?
Mandalay
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: You got me to look at his twitter posts. He seems bored, petty and lonely
https://twitter.com/JohnCleese
Another Scott
@Jay: Please don’t post old inflammatory rumors that aren’t true.
Military.com:
The US military is not the only actor with agency in Iraq…
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
@Steeplejack (phone): Thanks for your comment. It helps.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: This is familiar:
From Snopes (2015):
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/el-chapo-donald-trump-bounty/
These guys have a playbook that they return to, time and again.
This “story” stinks to high heaven.
Mallard Filmore
@eddie blake: 
If you are a bank, you must expect to be robbed, so just let it go.
frosty
@bemused senior:
I have a son with a Criminal Justice degree who is in his second year of being a patrolman. I went to his Police Academy graduation, heard the Mayor speak, and I have some degree of confidence in his supervisors and fellow officers. I’d be more worried if he were in some of the other locations we read about.
Formerly disgruntled in Oregon
@schrodingers_cat: I feel for you too, SC. Your story reminds me of so many heartbreaking stories from 2015-2017 as families clashed and split over Trump.
I have to believe there’s hope for reconciliation. But that seems like a long ways off right now.
But the Modis and Trumps thrive on conflict. Perhaps eventual reconciliation can disarm them.
Another Scott
@Barbara:Whoops this is for eddie blake at #130.Rachel at SJL – How to be a fan of problematic things.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon: Ok. Jim Hoft is also a dumbfuck.
James E Powell
@MattF:
Spent the morning reading the whole thread along with some of the linked articles. It’s a subject that needs a good documentary, but not by Michael Moore.
Another Scott
@Mnemosyne:
JoeMyGod:
If is doing a lot of heavy lifting there…
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
mrmoshpotato
@James E Powell:
“I guess we’ll never know why they did it.” (drops Columbine massacre and moves on even though the basement tapes still existed at the time)
germy
@Another Scott:
Joke’s on them. It’s empty.
debbie
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
No argument from me.
Mnemosyne
@mrmoshpotato:
Didn’t they do it on Hitler’s birthday, but we weren’t allowed to point out their white supremacist meanderings? ?
Ruckus
@Kay:
They are armed bullies.
They were always bullies, now they can “get away with it.”
One thing is the logic is completely missing. Gone. As if it never existed. As if it’s not even a concept. It’s stupid, it’s asinine, it’s insane. We’ve sold our lives for a “right” that doesn’t even exist, written for a time that is long past. I used to hunt, I had guns. But life isn’t the same as it was 200 yrs ago or even 50 yrs ago. And so many in our country live and act as if life is still the same. The world has moved on, as it always does, but so many want a life that never existed, and a time that never was.
Ruckus
@mrmoshpotato:
Someone had to be and he seems to be so very over qualified.
mrmoshpotato
@Mnemosyne: Yes. Not sure. I was griping about Michael Moore being a dishonest documentarian.
Ruckus
@bemused senior:
Don’t forget that the LAPD was on the federal shit list not all that long ago. For the Newton precinct, in which I owned a business. We used to have the goon squad patrol our street on occasion. Six, very big, white men in a car would drive around looking for black people to stop and harass. And would call for backup if there was more than one person walking. Constant harassment. And I’d bet far more than that.
I’ll give them credit, it seems that a lot of change has been and is happening, at the very least trying to be better. And I see a lot of LAPD on the Metro train system that I ride often and they are not old school cops, I’ve seen them actually help people and be actually friendly. That’s different than decades ago. That doesn’t mean everyone trusts them, that’s going to take a long time to repair, if it’s ever possible. This picture is something that one would never see in the LAPD’s world not all that long ago.
J R in WV
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m sorry for what is happening in India, and I know feeling that your family doesn’t understand what’s going on is perhaps even worse. I’ve lost connection with family members over current politics too, and it really sucks!
Mr. Kite
@HRA: why do you think that amplifying what Hoft “reports” is worth doing?
Bill Arnold
@Formerly disgruntled in Oregon:
Just checked my crawl of the site, and the TTT nym has posted since 2005.
The problem I have is that responses to antisemitic attacks are orthogonal to Kay’s superbly written points about the entirety of America paying in time and money for gun nuts’ hobbies, e.g. unlocked gun cabinets and teenage boys at home. And that the comment was semantically disconnected from anything here except Kay’s comment.
Mixing the memes, I do not feel safer with a handgun-armed guard at the entrance to my local [combined conservative/reform building], knowing that a potential attacker can buy a rapid fire rifle at any local gun store.
Mr. Kite
@HRA:
You never liked him, so you wasted no time to share his garbage here. Why? Only question I have if you are an active or passive right wing tool.
HRA
@Mr. Kite: It was current news I shared here.
The shock of it led me to not express my dislike for Jim Hoft. I corrected it in another message.
I have been on this blog longer than you The chances are higher of you being a right wing for I have not seen your name before.
chris
@schrodingers_cat: That’s very sad but sometimes one has to treat “family” as just people, people you don’t want anything to do with.
I have five siblings. Four of us get along fine but we haven’t seen or spoken to the other two in over a decade and we’re fine with that. Some things are unforgiveable.
Jay
@Another Scott:
that’s the 6 unidentified dead (so far) from Friday’s strike. It’s been confirmed that it was Shibl Muhsin Ubayd al Zaydi‘s convoy that was struck, “local sources” say he was killed.
Nobody has seen him since, and as the guy front and center in the current round of violence, it’s unususal that his PMU has neither confirmed, nor denied his death, nor has he issued to local or international news orgs, any statements since the strike.
He may have his head down, but it’s not that hard to get a statement out, either about the strike, (confirming he’s alive) or continuing to rabble rouse. ISIL, the Talibs, al Shaab, Boko Haram, al Quida leaders did it all the time.
Nobody has taken credit for the air/drone strike. The US has denied it was the US, but,……
so, the “rumour” has been “confirmed” by “local sources” just not any “official sources” because:
a) nobody is taking credit
b) the 6 bodies in the 2 vehicles are burned beyond recognition and Iraqi morgues have been a little backed up since 2003 for some reason,
c) nobody “official” has issued a denial.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.ibtimes.com/iran-backed-militia-leader-shibl-al-zaydi-likely-killed-baghdad-airstrike-say-reports-2896130%3famp=1
“The International Business Times is an American online news publication[2] that publishes seven national editions in four languages. The publication, sometimes called IBTimes or IBT, offers news, opinion and editorial commentary on business and commerce. IBT is one of the world’s largest online news sources, receiving forty million unique visitors each month.[3][4] Its 2013 revenues were around $21 million.[5]”
eddie blake
@Another Scott: thanks!
Mr. Kite
@HRA: You got taken in by right wing disinformation. Just like you described it. They got an emotional response (“shock”) out of you that suppressed your thinking facilities long enough that you went and spread the message on this forum.
Happens to everyone. The thing is to learn from it.
Another Scott
@Jay:
HTH.
Cheers,
Scott.
Jay
@Another Scott:
and they didn’t bomb the Kunduz MSF Hospital either,
until, days and days later, they admitted they did.
bunch of weddings too, refugee convoys, and an entire area of Cambodia they saturation bombed for 14 months too.
So, we will see. Not a lot of people in that neck of the woods have the ability or interest to hit that target. Most of those with an interest, don’t have an airforce.
Funny question, who has “control” of Iraqi Airspace? It’s not the Iraqis.