Ding Dong (Open Thread)

by 5:35 pm. It has 121 Comments.

Friends, let us savor (even though the fare is provided by Politico):

‘I’m worried’: Allies fear NRA has lost its power in Washington

The National Rifle Association’s internal turmoil is preventing the once-mighty organization from crafting a plan to blunt the latest gun control push, highlighting the group’s weakness at a crucial political moment.

The disarray at the NRA is alarming allies who say President Donald Trump and Congress appear to have a brief opening to pass legislation while the group is so politically feeble it isn’t able to aggressively lobby lawmakers against proposals or hold them accountable for their votes, according to a half-dozen Republicans familiar with the situation…

Multiple Republican Senate offices said they haven’t heard from the NRA, which touts 5 million members. The NRA has been slow to respond to the litany of scandals. And Trump has told aides the NRA is vulnerable and on the verge of being “bankrupt,” according to a Republican close to the White House.

The article says Republicans are worried that meaningful gun safety legislation will be passed in the short term. They needn’t be. Trump has already moved on to blaming mass shootings on the closure of old-timey insane asylums.

It’s perfectly on-brand for Trump to question the death merchant lobbyist’s fiscal health after they gave him $30 million in 2016, but a Venn diagram of gun nuts and Trump supporters would be damned close to a perfect circle, so he’s unlikely to cross the NRA in any significant way.

Still, it’s glorious to see the blood-gargling sociopaths at the NRA engulfed in cascading corruption scandals like common TV preachers. LaPierre seems determined to cling to power, which is great news for people who wish the organization a messy, protracted demise.

An unfavorable election cycle that sweeps NRA toadies out the door might finally wrest political power from the organization’s cold, bloody hands. It wouldn’t solve our gun nut problem, but it sure would make it harder for gun nuts to impose their will on the majority of Americans. A girl can dream, anyway.

Open thread!





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Ongoing Active Shooter in Philadelphia!

by 8:37 pm. It has 98 Comments.

This appears to have started about 4 hours ago and is still ongoing. It apparently started while Philadelphia Police were trying to serve a warrant.

And that despite taking casualties, the Philadelphia Police Department is trying to end this without further violence.

From Philadelphia Police Department Sergeant Eric Gripp:

Update at 9:47 PM EDT

Open thread!





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All That’s Missing From This Story Is an Alligator, a Golf Cart, and Several Kilos of Cocaine: Approaching Peak Floriduh! Man

by 9:24 pm. It has 78 Comments.

Welcome to the Gunshine State!

Is that a GLOCK in your orgy party outfit pocket or are you just happy to see me?

Take it away Daytona Beach News-Journal!

A 9 mm Glock was taken from a bedroom during a sex party, in which guests wore masks during the orgy and were encouraged to use code names, deputies say

A handgun was swiped from a Deltona home during a weekend sex party and the gun owner couldn’t give detectives any names of possible suspects because the culprit — like the 20 or so other guests at the party — was wearing a mask, deputies said.

“We’re probably not going to solve this one,” Volusia County Sheriff’s Sgt. Todd Smith said during a public meeting Thursday. “And DNA (identification) is not going to be an option.”

The 9 mm Glock was holstered and lying on top of a nightstand in the master bedroom when it was stolen, the homeowner told deputies. It was taken during an orgy, in which the theme was anonymous sex, according to a report.

Guests who were invited to the party near Saxon Boulevard were encouraged to “come and go as they pleased” throughout the weekend and were told to bring friends and acquaintances if they so desired, the report stated.

Additionally, guests were told to use fictitious names or no name at all, the homeowner told the Sheriff’s Office.

The orgy took place July 19-21 and deputies were contacted a few days later. On July 26, the detective assigned to the case called the homeowner for more information, but he seemed “apprehensive” about giving further details.

The homeowner eventually told the detective that 20 or so people were in his house that weekend and he guessed that he only knew five or six of them, the report stated.

The party was advertised on a social media site, deputies said.

All this needed to achieve peak Floriduh! Man is an alligator, a golf cart, and several kilos of cocaine!

Open thread!





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Open Thread: Good for Tim Ryan

by 7:20 pm. It has 79 Comments.


(IIRC, ‘suspending’ means he doesn’t lose access to any presidential-campaign funds he may have collected, so it may be just a legalism)





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“The call is coming from inside the (White) House…”

by 9:17 am. It has 219 Comments.

While we wait for details on the most recent mass murder (the one in Ohio), further evidence is emerging that the El Paso shooter was a Trump-supporting, immigrant-hating white supremacist who was radicalized online and committed his horrific crime to achieve political ends. In other words, a terrorist.

Many lines from the so-called manifesto the terrorist published could have been tweeted by Trump, GOP Chairwoman Ronna Romney McDaniel or the perpetrator’s own US Senator, John Cornyn:

Trump tweeted the following this morning:

The FBI, local and state law enforcement are working together in El Paso and in Dayton, Ohio. Information is rapidly being accumulated in Dayton. Much has already be learned in El Paso. Law enforcement was very rapid in both instances. Updates will be given throughout the day!

Thanks, President Police Scanner. Now go load your ass into a cart and play 18 holes at your self-branded resort on our fucking dime, you worse than useless sack of shit.

Regarding the El Paso shooting, Trump can’t and won’t connect the dots since they lead directly to his bloated orange carcass. The mainstream media is unlikely to connect the dots forthrightly today, if ever. TPM describes the terrorist’s gaslighting strategy:

There’s abundant evidence the shooter is a big fan of President Trump and certainly of his worldview. And yet the manifesto includes a sort of preemptive rebuttal of any claims that he is a Trump supporter or that Trump influenced. He predicts that “the media” will identify him as a white supremacist and blame President Trump’s racist and xenophobic rhetoric for radicalizing him and provoking the attack. Such claims would be “fake news” and such claims will indeed only prove that “the media” is “fake news.

It’ll be clarifying to see which non-Fox News media outlets participate in the white supremacist terrorist’s clumsy attempt at obfuscation. So far, the signs are not encouraging.

But El Paso native Beto O’Rourke didn’t mince words:

We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you’ve had a president who’s called Mexicans “rapists” and “criminals,” though Mexican immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than those born here in the country. He is a racist and he stokes racism in this country, and it does not offend our sensibilities, it fundamentally changes the character of this country and it leads to violence.

Thank you, Mr. O’Rourke. These times demand plain speaking.





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