I’m not going to link it, but now the morons are comparing the MoveOn woman who was thrown to the ground by four large men and then had her head stepped on to… Squeaky Fromme.
These people are lunatics.
Reader Interactions
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jl
I am surprised (but then I am known to be naive). So, I have no comment.
Kryptik
John, you should know better. Didn’t you say yourself that this cycle has proved that Peak Wingnut is a myth? That there’s literally nothing batshit insane enough to discount Republicans or conservatives in his atmosphere?
Comrade Luke
Labeling her “the MoveOn woman” isn’t helping. I know you didn’t mean it that way btw, I’m referring to The Others, to wit:
They’re already blaming MoveOn and asking them to apologize.
Guster
Are they demanding that she apologize?
WyldPirate
@Guster:
Only if she got shot in the face…
Southern Beale
Programming note: Lauren Valle will be on Olbermann tonight.
So this is so interesting to me. My husband used to be a Kentucky lawyer and wonders if Tim Profitt (the guy who pulled Valle down so his buddy can stomp on her) will lose his open carry permit? There are pics on the ‘net of him at a Lexington open carry “picnic.”
Guster
@Comrade Luke: Every now and then I remember where the name ‘MoveOn’ came from, and it makes me long for rational discourse and dispassionate centrism.
Cat Lady
We’re in the event horizon. Imagine the 2012 election cycle, and tell me the Mayans weren’t on to something.
Sirkowski
WUT?
Wag
… which would turn Rand Paul into Gerald Ford?
General Stuck
They say she was in disguise, though I’m not sure what the proper uniform should have looked like to make her un stompable. They are more than simple lunatics. They are lunatics backed into a corner by demogrphics, and everything they do and say has the same inconsolable subliminal message. Let us have our birthright to power to run this country, or else.
The idiots in Kentucky couldn’t wait till after the election to do the “or else”. And may have hurt their chances for getting power back, or just as likely, increased those chances. Who the fuck knows anymore. Other than either way, life ain’t gonna be like it has been in murrika.
Morbo
Cole, you should appreciate this bit of corporate trolling:
WePay Drops 600 Pounds Of Ice In Front Of PayPal Conference, Hilarity Ensues
celticdragonchick
I’ve seen literally dozens of comments claiming she looked lik a threat and that she could have been legitimately shot dead.
Of course, that will be the next little incident.
Violet
Squeaky Fromme? So Rand Paul is the President and Lauren Valle’s sign was a gun? WTF?
John, Peak Wingnut is like the unicorn. Nice thought, but not gonna happen.
MikeJ
@Wag: I look forward to the return of Chevy Chase to SNL.
I wonder how Generalissimo Fransisco Franco is doing these days…
Kryptik
It’s still only going to get worse. When 54% of the country counts the Tea Party as an absolute good, and when the country believes the Dems are more extreme than the Tea Party…yeah. I’m waiting for those random citizenship checks to become reality not just in Arizona, but even in ‘Blue’ NY and NJ. Because obviously the country has become shit scared of anyone sufficiently brown or insufficiently teatarded, and we can’t have THOSE kinds of people ruining our fine country…
Mister Papercut
My total lack of surprise, let me show you it.
beltane
I always thought it was Christine O’Donnell who was kind of Manson family-ish, but what do I know.
celticdragonchick
No, John, they aren’t. That would be the easy way out.
They are rationally advocating and instigating armed violence.
Ash Can
I’m afraid that Peak Wingnut would be attained only through the election of Teahadists to the White House and to majorities in both houses of Congress, which would result in our government wrecking things and blowing shit up all around the globe. This would result in turn in allied forces waging war against the US, subduing it, and occupying it until they saw to it that a decent government was installed.
…Er, did I just godwin this thread?
lamh32
Obama’s answer on Capri in RI is a pretty good one. Makes Capri seem like a petulant child.
FRANK WHO?
BTW, this story was all over the Afr Am blogs and radio! People were calling in pissed an outraged calling Capri “shove it statement” disrespectful. Carpi should just thank his lucky stars, RI does not have a really large Afr Am population like the South does!
Wag
About as well as could be expected, after all these years.
The Dangerman
No doubt foot stompers deserve some time in the Pokey (hopefully being poked repeatedly), but I’d like to know why she felt a wig was needed (assuming it wasn’t just a fashion statement). There is clearly some history here…
freelancer
In this metaphor, which Republican gets to be Roman Polanski?
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Mister Papercut: I wish there were “like” buttons on this blog. Because I would have “like”-ed this comment.
John Bird
She planned to assassinate Rand Paul — WITH SATIRE!
General Stuck
@The Dangerman:
Yea, she admitted there was, and the attackers knew her from other Paul events, and does raise the question of pre meditation for something along the lines of what happened.
Omnes Omnibus
@MikeJ: He is still dead.
celticdragonchick
@freelancer:
I wanna know who gets to be the horse.
Comrade Luke
Peak Wingnut will never happen, because no matter how batshit insane the right gets they we get normalized by the media. That then leaves room for people to come in from even further right.
Lather. Rinse. Repeat.
Larkspur
@The Dangerman: A big shiny bright blonde wig. Stealthy. Maybe she couldn’t find a tri-corner hat that fit?
Mark S.
Do any of these Real American Patriot bloggers at least have a visceral reaction to 4 guys roughing up a woman? Regardless of one’s political sympathies, that’s the image that makes me sick to my stomach.
Well, we’re a post-racial society now; maybe we’re also a post-sexist one as well.
Comrade Luke
WTF are people talking about here? She could wear a shirt that says “I’m An Insane, Crazy Bitch. Please Stomp On My Head” and there’s still no justification for stomping on her head.
freelancer
@John Bird:
Makes sense then why they freaked the fuck out. They have no earthly clue what satire is.
Evan
Their reaction reminds me of the time I saw an out-and-out neo-nazi at the Jack In The Box. He was wearing a black uniform, a nazi eagle badge, the works.
He was wandering around, muttering to himself about “enemies.” He saw a not-blonde person across the street and muttered “There’s another enemy!”
You don’t want that guy in your neighborhood. Even when he’s not specifically stirring up trouble, you get the impression that it wouldn’t take a whole hell of a lot to provoke him into an inexplicable, indiscriminate rage.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@celticdragonchick: Well yes, there is that.
But it could be argued that sometimes “crazy” is also deadly dangerous. I honestly think that the argument can be made that many in the tea party are, in fact, unhinged, and as a movement, they certainly are advocating and instigating armed violence. No contradiction there.
Raise your hand if you’re particularly anxious about the President’s continued health and well being over the next week! /raises hand
Kirk Spencer
@Comrade Luke: Actually, we’ll never see peak wingnut because wingnut is an infinite resource.
The Dangerman
Interesting (haven’t seen any photos or video; don’t really care to do so). So, stealth wasn’t her thing; still, I’d like to know the history. Not that it justifies the event (again, go directly to jail, don’t collect $200, etc.), but … it’s like I’ve seen the end of the movie and missed some of the good stuff at the beginning.
debbie
@ Mike J:
I couldn’t find it on youtube, but did you ever see Chevy Chase doing Gerald Ford demonstrating how to vote? He walks into the booth, draws the curtain closed so all you can see are his lower legs, you see him turning from side to side to side, then he finally asks, “Umm, excuse me, where’s the toilet paper?”
Suck It Up!
Where is Mama Grizzly to denounce this assault?
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@Comrade Luke: Also true.
You see, here’s the problem: We have the “reasonable” market cornered, and there’s none left for them!
Larkspur
@General Stuck: Ahh. Interesting. They knew her from other events. So either they had reason to believe she was a Squeaky Fromme (in which case a call to the police beforehand might have been prudent) or they knew she was just an anti-Paul agitator, and couldn’t be bothered to figure out a tactical countermove. Or pushing her down and stepping on her head was the countermove.
Hmm. If this is now okay in American life, I have a lot of anti-abortion protesters’ heads upon which to trod.
The Bearded Blogger
You know when you wake up after a night of heavy drinking, how you suddenly remember really embarassing/disgraceful things you did while drunk, and think “oh, fuck”…
Peak wingnut would be an action so awful that the american right would have a similar awakening… But face stomping isn’t nearly enough. Massive corruption, incompetence and a murderous foreign policy weren’t enough.
Seebach
@The Dangerman: It was a MoveOn stunt where she was presenting Rand Paul with some kind of corporate whore award. Awards show hostesses from the Fox dimension are all blonde bimbettes. It fits the gag.
steviez314
Zeno says we’re halfway to Peak Wingnut.
Dudeguy
Please let it come soon. I don’t know how much more of this shit I can take.
LesGS
@The Dangerman: What I have gleaned from my reading about the incident on various sites, is that Ms. Valle was engaged in a bit of… I dunno, performance art..? She was going to try to give Paul an “employee of the month” award from “Republicorp,” and the blonde wig was maybe supposed to be a stab at playing a vapid, gushing fan.
At least, that’s what I *think* was going on there. (Give her a break, she’s only 23…)
John Bird
I think that the criminals who attacked Valle genuinely believed they were citizen-heroes stepping in to defend a champion of The People.
This is a defining characteristic of the paranoid style of politics as Hofstadter describes: its subscribers believe that they are under imminent threat of attack and death, and that their leaders are targeted for corruption, attack, and even assassination by an ill-defined enemy that they associate with opposition groups, whether or not those groups have ever really posed any threat.
The paranoid will respond accordingly, as though they fear for their lives and the lives of their leaders every second of every day.
And it’s not hard to see where the named names come from, after a guy tried to shoot up the Tides Foundation because somebody’s chalkboard explained that they were probably the key link in a plot by the President and a Jewish financier to blow up an oil rig and kill eleven people.
Remember, in these people’s worlds, MoveOn.org reflects the viewpoint of one man: George Soros.
Omnes Omnibus
@The Dangerman: I had assumed it was part of her costume as an “award presenter.”
jrg
Today is one of those days I desperately want to wake up from. I simply cannot believe the number of people out there who think it’s OK for grown men to stomp on a 110 pound woman’s head. We are a very, very sick nation… getting sicker by the day.
On the bright side, I’ve decided to early vote first thing tomorrow morning.
Larkspur
@The Dangerman: I get what you’re saying. We don’t disagree. I’m just a tad verklempt about the incident.
General Stuck
@Mark S.:
NO/ and neither did the tea bag assholes care about harassing a man with MS at one of their klan gigs back during the HC debate. They can’t control their hatred and rage from feeling marginalized by folks of color and burdened with helping out other “unproductive” malingerers in THEIR country. Like the disabled, the ill, the poor, etc…..
sound familiar?
The Dangerman
@Seebach:
She’s becoming less and less likable.
Don’t want people tossing books at Obama; don’t see this stunt is much different.
Still, foot stompers? Jail.
The Bearded Blogger
@Evan: “Tough guys” are the original emos… they want to feel victimized, marginalized, threatened… otherwise there would be no reason for their anger and aggression…
I actually think the upcoming violence, if it doesn’t do too much damage, could actually be a net plus, a showing up of the tea party as the white suprematist assholes that they are…
Violet
@The Dangerman:
Was wondering the same thing. Maybe it is a fashion statement. I went to a neighborhood gardening fair this weekend and the woman manning the table for the local neighborhood association was wearing a blue wig. Didn’t seem to be a reason for it. Fashion statement, I guess. It did match her shirt.
General Stuck
@LesGS:
Dear God, engaging in performance art at a political event. The blasphemy of it all!!
Seebach
@The Dangerman: Well that’s hardly fair. Paul damn well earned that award. I think he should receive it.
Nick
Clearly, if Obama had used the bully pulpit…
(Sorry, I had to)
General Stuck
Unless she was planning to throw the award at Paul, I don’t see such a comparison.
stuckinred
They keep this shit up and they’ll get weatherwoman diana
gbear
@Mark S.:
Envy.
Nick
@The Dangerman:
She wasn’t going to THROW the thing at him.
If some wingnut showed up at an Obama rally trying to hand him the Soviet flag, we’d roll our eyes (I’d laugh) and we’d move on.
rob!
The Squeaky Fromme reference makes total sense. Most wingnuts—even those in their 20s–describe liberals as all pot-smoking, long-haired, black light poster-having hippies. Its as if these wingnuts were quick frozen in 1972 and then reawakened a few years ago.
I once found my way to Human Events, reading an article about Bob Dylan. The piece was bland but relatively inoffensive, but the comments–as you might expect–were completely deranged. They described liberals in a way that was completely at odds with what the average progessive is nowadays. So their cultural references don’t really go past the 1970s. Hence, Squeaky Fromme.
Jinchi
Would she have gotten a pass if she had simply shown up with an assault rifle and a threat to water the tree of liberty?
Citizen_X
She gives her story here. According to her, they blocked her path when Paul arrived, and “they started grabbing for me and I ran all the way around the car with them in pursuit. The footage is after I’ve run all the way around the car and I’m in front of the car and that is when they took me down.” And that’s why she’s seemingly barging into the crowd in the beginning of the video.
So any apparent “threat” in the video is the Paultards’ own doing.
John Bird
@The Dangerman:
You don’t see a difference between someone throwing an object at the President of the United States and someone attempting to publicly shame a Senate candidate by coming up and talking to him?
Really?
jrg
Other than the fact that Paul is not the president, random teabaggers are not the Secret Service, she never threw anything, and instead of restraining this woman, they stomped on her fucking head, the situation’s nearly identical.
El Cid
I’ve known right wingers to continually show up at any liberal or left etc. demonstration and try to stand right with them with opposing signs, etc.
Nobody apparently chose to pull one down and stomp on his head.
Roger Moore
@Mark S.:
Yeah. Their visceral reaction is that she deserved it. If she had been gang raped, they would probably have said she provoked the rapists.
David Brooks (not that one)
Well, since this is Kentucky, they had to be alarmed by her because everyone can be assumed to be carrying a gun, surely? After all, it’s expected that you pack heat to a political event these days.
Larkspur
Sometimes it’s okay for girls and women and ladies to be unlikable. No, really. It might get your head stomped, but it’s well within normal human behavior parameters to sometimes or always be unlikable by some or all other people. I’d have figured she’d get laughed at or mocked, or YouTubed for purposes of nation-wide mockery, or possibly escorted out in a safe and sane manner.
But as the guy said, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition.
Violet
@rob!:
It’s bizarre, isn’t it? It’s like time stopped for them in 1972.
celticdragonchick
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
Raises hand.
Yeah, I have had a few concerns there as well.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
It’s not the media that’s legitimizing the left–it’s our two-party system. It seems like in the 1800s, the party system was not sufficiently ossified that it seemed reasonable to start new competitive parties, but not today.
In a modern two party system, complete with party chairs, media infrastructures, and safe seats it doesn’t matter how crazy one side gets–it’s seen as a legitimate part of the government. That’s why I haven’t really been one to advocate Republicans to go crazier–it’s a genuine loss to our country. Other states that have multiparty systems can have parties full of crazies, no problem–but in america we really depend on both parties being mildly sane for our government to function.
John Bird
Nothing says “defending America” like a good ol’ stomp to the head.
Seriously, when you have someone down on the ground and restrained, stomping on his or her head is a straight Nazi move. There’s no justification for it beyond sadism. It doesn’t protect anyone from anything.
And as to people admitting that the Tea Party movement is a dangerous development and an actual threat to the country and not just a banana peel for the Republicans: finally.
Larkspur
@stuckinred: “They keep this shit up and they’ll get weatherwoman diana”.
Oh great. Thank you for that imagery, and for making me have to wonder about whether to wish for more or less manual dexterity.
garage mahal
My suggestion for the lexicon:
Palinmilitaries
Ron
Oh, John. “Peak wingnut”. you poor naive soul.
The Bearded Blogger
@John Bird: George Orwell said that the fascist goose-step is a symbol for stomping on a person’s head, and that that is the gesture that most fully encapsulates fascism…
stuckinred
@Larkspur: Well, if you know the story of Diana Oughton it should give you pause.
morzer
@beltane:
More like the Addams family. She’s Cousin Wingnut.
El Cid
The TeaTard brigades will welcome this news.
Run for your lives. La Reconquista arrives.
Just Some Fuckhead
What does it Profitt a man that he should gain the attention of the whole world by loosing his sole?
Who is Squeaky Fromme?
The Bearded Blogger
@garage mahal: Awesome.
How about Black Tea-Shirts?
gbear
@Violet:
I take it that no one here has ever listened to classic rock radio.
I still think it’s really weird that they went all the way back to Squeaky Fromme. It makes me think that the men putting out these memes are all about Karl Rove’s age. I bet half the guys blowing their tops in the comment sections are too young to have any idea who she is.
freelancer
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther:
Yeah, he’s not going to Dallas (or the rest of the South for that matter) anytime soon, is he?
The Bearded Blogger
@El Cid: So crappy soap operas and don francisco… muslim or communist?
Midnight Marauder
@Larkspur:
Fixed and such.
How many times do people like this have to demonstrate that they are totally unworthy of the benefit of the doubt?
General Stuck
OOps!
Crank up the wingnut paranoia another notch or two.
El Cid
@The Bearded Blogger: Terror babies!
morzer
@gbear:
I stick with my belief that these people are mentally locked in 1963, and they’ve never recovered from 1964.
morzer
@General Stuck:
How long before Jan Brewer explodes? There’s got to be some impressive self-combusting potential with all that gas and hatred locked into one scraggy faux-blonde form.
garage mahal
@The Bearded Blogger:
Dig it!
MikeJ
@morzer: All that echo from holding those rockery rollery concerts in a baseball stadium drove ’em crazy.
Omnes Omnibus
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Dude, I am not sure if you know how much win you packed into that question.
4tehlulz
@General Stuck: VOTER FRAUD
General Stuck
@morzer:
I don’t know, but she is getting punked from all directions by the feds, as are the other xenophobes in that state. Maybe she and little Hitler Sheriff po will go on the lam together and seek asylum in The Republic of Texas. Though I expect the pink underwear will have to be left behind. Don’t think pink underwear will fly in Texas./
Laura W.
@Omnes Omnibus:
LOL. New here?
;-)
Bnut
The armchair Jack Baurers over at HotAir are embroiled in debate over the “what ifs” of this girl wearing a suicide bomb. It’s fucking priceless.
stuckinred
@Bnut: A running shoe to the neck is the only know way to prevent a suicide vest from being detonated.
WaterGirl
@freelancer: I read a really compelling article related to this during the Obama campaign. I cannot remember the name or where it was, but they made a compelling case for the fact that the more this is discussed the more likely it is to create a climate for it happening.
Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther
@celticdragonchick: @freelancer: I’ve also worked up a little worry that the tea party will decide next week that some election or other was “stolen” from them, and then he goes to that state….
Honestly. I keep remembering what Israel was like in the lead-up to the Rabin assassination, and just… yeah. Worrying.
Bnut
@stuckinred:
This is all actually an elaborate underground shoe advertisement.
Omnes Omnibus
@Laura W.: That’s just one of the best lines I have seen here in weeks. My cap is doffed.
morzer
@General Stuck:
So long as they don’t try and mooch welfare checks from real Americans they can fly it as a flag on their front lawn in Wingnuttia TX for all I care.
stuckinred
@Emily L. Hauser/ellaesther: Easy now, there is a lot of hot fucking air out there.
max
and then had her head stepped on to… Squeaky Fromme.
Squeaky Fromme was a Muslim???
max
[‘Who knew?’]
stuckinred
Ms Vallee coming up on KO.
Martin
@General Stuck: Fuuuuuck. Let’s just pour gas on that crazy fire.
There’s a bit of a debate out west here about once again extending voting rights to non-citizens. Imagine if permanent residents in Cali could vote in state and local races? 15% of the state population are legal non-citizens.
At issue are some communities where the majority of the population are permanent residents, but they can’t even vote for mayor or school board.
The Dangerman
@John Bird:
Of course I do; that’s why I said “don’t see much difference”.
John O
@steviez314:
I laughed hard at that one.
Bnut
Every time I see “Fromme”, all I can think of is the Sausage King of Chicago.
Mnemosyne
FYI, Steve Benen has a good round-up of current developments. Valle did end up with a concussion (diagnosed at the emergency room) along with other injuries and her assailant has been served with a summons for assault.
The Bearded Blogger
@steviez314: so awesome
General Stuck
@Martin:
I’m just happy to live in a state where there is no clear ethnic or racial majority, and except for the wingnut Little Texas SE part of the state, NM is Mass on The Rio Grande, and though fairly poor, we all get along most excellent.
And the northern part of the state could easily be a peoples republic, but it’s too cold up there for me.
Just Some Fuckhead
@Omnes Omnibus: It’s eerie how relevant the Bible still is after 6000 years.
Nerull
@The Dangerman:
You are becoming less and less likable.
Ash Can
@lamh32: Thanks for your updates; they’re very heartening!
@celticdragonchick:
Carl Paladino, I would imagine.
morzer
@Ash Can:
He’s got the ass role down, but who gets to play the head?
DonBelacquaDelPurgatorio
The hell you say.
The lady in the fray, Ms Valle, is on Keith right now, and seems to be a pretty rational person. If her action was seen as an assassination attempt, then a good recital of Sticks And Stones should make the everyone feel better.
MikeBoyScout
Listen, nobody could have predicted that the candidate who kidnapped a girl and forced her to pray to AquaBuddha when he was younger and stupid and can’t find a graceful way to explain that would possibly have a goon squad like his whackjob fellow banana republican candidate up in Alaska.
Seriously! NOBODY COULD HAVE PREDICTED!!!
John Bird
@The Dangerman:
I see much difference, as do non-fools. Clear enough?
The Dangerman
@Nerull:
Oh, dear me, what shall I ever do?
Turns out, per Olbermann, she wasn’t trying to hand something to Paul. So, much of my previous statements go away if true.
The Dangerman
@John Bird:
See 123.
Also, fuck you.
Clear enough?
Karen
@El Cid:
But Univision is owned by NBC Universal, soon to be Comcast so does that mean they should storm Rockefeller Center?
Nerull
@The Dangerman:
Isn’t telling someone ‘fuck you’ as bad as rape?
Karen
The head stamping man gets ordered to court.
Not sure if that actually means anything.
D-Chance.
And the BJ post count on the curb-stomp kerfroo-froo is now up to seven. I wonder if any of those Randians played lacrosse at Duke…
Woodrowfan
I think it will turn violent before it’s over…
Woodrowfan
I stick with my belief that these people are mentally locked in
19631863, and they’ve never recovered from19641865.fixed
DKF
No, John, they are monsters.
Woodrowfan
or the theater, or a World’s Fair, or a train station, or ride in an open car in Dallas, Milwaukee or Miami.
and yes, snark aside, I worry about that as well….
Gravenstone
@D-Chance.: Heaven forbid that different front pagers have their own spin on the issue, or that mulitple thread appear over time to allow those coming late to the party to have their say on the subject.
I think your village misses you, idiot.
The Dangerman
@Nerull:
Huh? I have no idea as to your point, but fuck you, too.
Larkspur
@The Dangerman: Dangerman, dude, calm down. I personally guarantee that no one here is gonna step on your head. At least not for long. I will save you myself. Likability mattereth not; head-stomping is just mean and tacky, and I’m totally against it.