Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

When someone says they “love freedom”, rest assured they don’t mean yours.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Bark louder, little dog.

Putin must be throwing ketchup at the walls.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

You can’t love your country only when you win.

The republican caucus is already covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

I didn’t have alien invasion on my 2023 BINGO card.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

So it was an October Surprise A Day, like an Advent calendar but for crime.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

It’s all just conspiracy shit beamed down from the mothership.

I conferred with the team and they all agree – still not tired of winning!

Ah, the different things are different argument.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The revolution will be supervised.

Glad to see john eastman going through some things.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Just because you believe it, that doesn’t make it true.

“And when the Committee says to “report your income,” that could mean anything!

I did not have this on my fuck 2022 bingo card.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Bundy? Bundy Who?

Reader Interactions

155Comments

  1. 1.

    Belafon

    I posted this in the last thread but it fits here:

    Here’s an awesome new quote from Bundy:

    If I call — if I say negro or black boy or slave, I’m not — if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offended, then Martin Luther King hasn’t got his job done then yet. They should be able to — I should be able to say those things and they shouldn’t offend anybody.

    Edited to remove appeal.

  2. 2.

    Comrade Dread

    Not going to happen.

    White supremacy is deeply embedded in the Neo-Confederate, small-government mindset. The idea that the Federal government is bloated with ‘waste’ and ‘fraud’ by those people, and you all know who ‘those’ people are, amirite? And we need to take back America back to way things used to be when folks knew their place and women stayed at home and voted the way their menfolk told ’em to.

    You’ve got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know… morons.

  7. 7.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I wonder if some of Bundy’s political supporters were relieved when he spouted racist crap because it gave them an excuse to dump him and not face the problems created by the showdown with guns.

    Also, I thought the name Bunkerville was a joke. You know, people in a bunker. But it turns out it’s a real place.

  8. 8.

    beltane

    Luckily for them, teabaggers do not posses either short term or long term memory. As soon as one hero flames out, he or she is immediately forgotten, to be replaced by the new True American Patriot du jour.

  10. 10.

    Fuzzy

    @Bill B: All they have to do is pass more gun laws like Georgia just did so these poor downtrodden folks can defend themselves the murican way, with more firepower.

  11. 11.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    The problem is that with each new conservative icon, regardless of how they flame out, the escalation remains to where god knows how much their crazy and bigotry and economic brinkmanship gets normalized, especially by the media and its consumers who desperately twist in the wind to find the right ‘both sides same thing’ angle, or just flat out embrace it completely, because remember, Dems and Liberals are ALWAYS ALWAYS the worst people in the history of ever, and if you fail at life, it’s your own damn fault for not being the “right” kind of person, you inferior cretin.

  13. 13.

    ? Martin

    This is shocking. Shocking, I tell you.

    These findings offer what seems to be a straightforward message. Members of the upper-class—the better off among us—are self-serving. They don’t need to rely on others and would rather members of the lower-classes—just like the pedestrians in the San Francisco intersection—get out of their way. But is this a fair assessment? The data are certainly clear: Higher social class often equals lower trustworthiness. That seems to suggest that untrustworthiness is a birthright of the upper class.

    Rich people cheat and break the law to get to, and stay at the top. Once the Roberts Court learns of this, why I’m sure they’ll be quick to reverse many of their recent decisions.

    Supreme Court justices tend to be middle class, right?

  15. 15.

    Violet

    Is this latest craziness the death rattle of the teabaggers? Or is it yet another case of No Peak Wingnut?

  16. 16.

    raven

    @Fuzzy: The firepower is and will be here, and everywhere else in this country, for the foreseeable future. This is just a stick in your eye.

  17. 17.

    Cassidy

    @Violet: Peak Wingnut is an armed insurrection. Eventually, someone will try to light the powder keg and hope others follow them.

  18. 18.

    Belafon

    @Violet: Not sure those are exclusive. I don’t think you can ever reach peak wingnut, but you won’t have to deal with it for a long time if the teabaggers are gone.

  19. 19.

    JDM

    If that ad had been real it would have said it was an unpaid internship, with possibility for post-internship lucrative grifting for the right individual.

  20. 20.

    beltane

    @? Martin: One of the things I learned from attending private school in 7th and 8th grade was that rich kids are really big into shoplifting. The disdain for mom and pop store owners just rolled off them like sweat on a muggy day.

    They also were totally into cheating on tests. I learned to use my long hair strategically to keep their eyes off my desk.

  22. 22.

    Frankensteinbeck

    I think the lack of solution is baked into the problem. Cultural conservatives – racists, misogynists, Christianists, haters of all stripes – are freaking out more and more as the country slips away from them. They’ve tried being benevolent overlords, and all that got them was equality, which was the last thing they wanted. Now they have to have leaders who are freaking out just like they are. Those people, inevitably, are loons, incompetents, and occasionally merely grifters who will take the money and run.

  23. 23.

    The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik

    @Violet:

    There will never be Peak Wingnut. Every time we think we reach Peak Wingnut, they just get crazier and the previous Peak Wingnut becomes normalized. I’m half expecting people to go out of their way to use the word ‘Negro’ now out of spite and all the news outlets wondering why some people keep being shocked at such an innocuous word.

  25. 25.

    Amir Khalid

    @Fuzzy:
    Let’s not forget something about “Joe the Plumber”: His first name isn’t Joe, and he was only ever a plumber’s assistant.

  26. 26.

    catclub

    @Cassidy: “Eventually, someone will try to light the powder keg and hope others follow them. ”

    Timothy McVeigh would like a word on that Eventually.

  27. 27.

    Belafon

    @srv: I’m torn between wanting this guy arrested for violating federal law or making sure he is always on TV. Sure, he’d get some decent air time for his trial, but we’d only get this kind of stuff if he’s on the witness stand and his lawyer loses control.

    I think the BLM needs to wait until reporters stop showing up at his press conferences.

  28. 28.

    Iowa Old Lady

    I think Oklahoma City was close to peak wingnut. Things died down a little after that as people saw the results of what they were advocating.

  29. 29.

    David Hunt

    @Belafon: Well, I guess it’s too bad some white guy murdered him before he finished up his job to Bundy’s satisfaction. As a p.s., I’d trade MLK still being alive and working for civil rights for Cliven Bundy shutting up about him in a nanosecond, but I doubt Bundy would…

  30. 30.

    RSA

    @Belafon: TPM has this version of the quote (with my copy edits):

    “If I say ‘negro’ or ‘black boy’ or ‘slave,’ I’m not — if those people cannot take those kind [sic] of words and not be offensive [sic] then Martin Luther King hasn’t got [sic] his job done yet [sic],” he added.

    The Craigslist ad needs to mention a lack of facility with English.

  31. 31.

    Cassidy

    @catclub: They’re not exclusive. Timothy McVeigh tried and failed. Eventually, someone else will try and, hopefully, fail. If they are successful, though, the “brand” will be irreparably tarnished with the added benefit of knee jerk laws passed to try and keep it from happening again. The downside is innocent people get killed.

  33. 33.

    Patricia Kayden

    That Craiglist ad is deficient because it should start with a warning that Negroes, gays, non-Christians, and women folk need not apply. There is no way that TBaggers would hide the restrictions on who can apply all the way in the last paragraph.

    Otherwise spot on.

  34. 34.

    SuperHrefna

    @Cassidy: How did McVeigh fail? He killed 168 people including lots of kids in daycare. He succeeded to the point that supporting militias became socially unacceptable for nearly two decades. Sadly, that window appears to be closing and the condemned to repeat history crowd are having another go at American Anarchy.

  36. 36.

    srv

    @Belafon: I say give him the Joe the Plumber TV time and let him self immolate. Invite him to Scarborough and have him elaborate. In then end, he’ll still have Alex Jones and that’s about it.

  37. 37.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The Reich-Wing establishment is very busy attempting to shove Cliven Bundy down the memory hole. Noisemax has already forgotten that he exists, or ever existed.

    The cowards are running away from him as fast as their Prada-clad feet can carry them.

  38. 38.

    Cassidy

    @SuperHrefna: He was trying to start an insurrection. He failed. He was successful in planting a bomb and murdering innocent people, but the overall goal was not achieved.

  39. 39.

    Higgs Boson's Mate

    Bundy has failed to win the blessing of Lady Palin of Patriotic Determination so he isn’t my hero.

  41. 41.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Cassidy:
    Which is and will be the failure of the entire right wing militia movement, including Bundy. McVeigh is not even close to the only one who tried to start a civil war. They don’t have an army, only a million chickenhawks on Medicare. It’s also the important difference between Republicans and actual fascists. They may have the same ideology, but they have no organized paramilitary to enforce it through fear. They’re trying to do the same thing at the voting booth, facing ever-diminishing returns.

  43. 43.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    How many times does this make that Tribble topped presidential aspirant Rand Paul – totally not a racist – has expressed support for some teabagger crank only to have said crank say racist things? Seems like at least half a dozen at this point, and it’s certainly been often enough that it’s time to wonder whether that “totally not a racist” descriptor is accurate. I mean, how many racists can you cozy up to before it makes you one too?

  46. 46.

    acallidryas

    It’s hard to get to peak wingnut because of their amazing way of spinning even to themselves. This is an actual quote from a libertarian friend who took exception to me accusing Clive Bundy and his secessionist friends of being racist on facebook:

    And by the way, that statement above is not racist… he could be saying, “better explicit slavery that you know is wrong than subtle slavery you defend.” What does he really mean?

    Is that not the most perfect response ever? I’d almost think he was a parody if I didn’t know him so well.

  47. 47.

    Roger Moore

    @Belafon:

    I think the BLM needs to wait until reporters stop showing up at his press conferences.

    I think the BLM needs to infiltrate his press conferences by dressing up as reporters. When there are no more real reporters and everyone there is a law enforcement officer, they can take him into custody.

  48. 48.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Belafon: Agreed. When there’s an usurper in the WH, the militia movement heats up. This nonsense happened in the late 70’s too, and died down when the shitty grade Z movie star took down the solar panels from the roof of the White House.

    Don’t forget the JFK Treason poster.

  49. 49.

    Schlemizel

    @Belafon:
    UGH! Is there any way I can revoke my membership in my European heritage? Seriously, this guy needs to crawl back under a rock.

  50. 50.

    JoyfulA

    @? Martin: Standing in front of a supermarket a while back, I saw a pair of nuns pull out of a parking space, smack into the car next to them, and drive away.

    As a pedestrian, I never trust any driver to obey the law and not run me down unless I make eye contact.

  51. 51.

    Belafon

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: In Paul’s (and other Republican’s) view, a person is racist when 1) that person says some variation of nigger or 2) that person points out that Paul is being racist. Since Paul is too smart to use ni*r in any situation where his BAC < .2, he's obviously not racist, and it doesn't matter how many blacks tell him otherwise.

  52. 52.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @acallidryas:

    And by the way, that statement above is not racist… he could be saying, “better explicit slavery that you know is wrong than subtle slavery you defend.” What does he really mean?

    Keep fucking that chicken, asshole.

    To clarifiy, your facebook friend, not you, acallidryas. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, though…it’s par for the course.

  53. 53.

    Cassidy

    @Frankensteinbeck: The way I see it, is to get to a point to be a full blown insurrection facing federal troops, they’d have to get through at least two levels of armed conflict with local, state, and federal LEO’s and possibly the National Guard. It won’t happen, but someone will try.

  56. 56.

    Epicurus

    @Villago Delenda Est: Well, that would then imply that whatever is attached to his shoulders and underneath that magnificent “hair hat” (Hat tip to my beloved late father) is a…(I can’t go on. I must go on!) Pardon me, I’ve misplaced my brain bleach.

  57. 57.

    Chris

    @Belafon:

    Right, that was my point. It seems to me that the militia movement didn’t “decline for 20 years after OKC” – they declined for a few years after the 1990s, then declined to resurface for eight years because there was a Republican in the White House whose abuses they were cheering rather than spinning conspiracy theories about. Then Obama came back into the White House, and the militia movement spiked again.

    I had never heard of militia activity spiking in the 1970s, though. I thought the phenomenon started in the 1990s (in its modern form, of course – there’s plenty of precedent in the KKK and neo-Nazi groups).

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @JoyfulA:
    Take it from a long time motorcycle rider, eye contact is not the panacea you think it is. There is a reasonably large segment of the population that will look directly at you and then try to run into you. Trust no one that has a physical possibility to run into you. And never think they won’t laugh about it as they drive away.

  60. 60.

    SatanicPanic

    @Cassidy:

    Peak Wingnut is an armed insurrection.

    QFT.

    I am calling it right here- Cassidy has elegantly answered the question that has bedeviled BJ for years now. Peak Wingnut is armed insurrection. The trouble we were having was thinking that there is one Peak Wingnut. In reality, this country has already experienced at least one Peak Wingnut between the years 1861-1865. There will be more. I know this isn’t a comforting thought, but there it is.

  61. 61.

    Chris

    @Belafon:

    And if someone says some variation of nigger, most conservatives will briefly concede that it’s a bad word and then go off on a several hour tirade about the injustice and racial double standard in how black people are allowed to say it and white people aren’t.

  63. 63.

    Citizen_X

    @David Hunt:

    it’s too bad some white guy murdered him before he finished up his job

    Typical. Blame a white man for black laziness.

    [/wingnut]

  64. 64.

    Debbie

    While listening to my five minutes of Glenn Beck this morning, I heard him condemn Bundy, and then in the next breath, say he still believes Bundy has a good heart. Until these false distinctions stop, the Tea Party won’t be going away.

  66. 66.

    Chris

    @raven:

    Wow, oy.

    I suppose the reason I haven’t heard of it is that the 1985 siege of their compound didn’t cause the same amount of outrage as Waco and Ruby Ridge – or at least it doesn’t seem to have. (Of course, that siege couldn’t be conveniently pinned on a newly inaugurated Democratic president…)

  67. 67.

    shelly

    I say give him the Joe the Plumber TV time

    But ol’ Joe is STILL a hero to many in the Teabag world.
    No matter how much they may screw up, RW folk heroes never fade away…completely.

  69. 69.

    Betty Cracker

    @Chris: Steve M at No More Mr. Nice Blog had a post up the other day on that very point: Lots of quotes from black conservatives that basically said the same thing Bundy did, and a note that instead of condemning Bundy, they should be decrying the double standard if they want to be consistent about it…

  70. 70.

    JPL

    Wow! I leave for a few hours and the guy returns with another shovel. Just go away Cliven, just leave. I am not part of his We the People.

  72. 72.

    raven

    @Chris: Hey the fucking Minutemen dogged lot’s of anti-war folks in the Midwest in the late 60’s early 70’s. They would send post cards to people with “The Crosshair is on your back” postcards. Perlstein even had that in Nixonland.

  73. 73.

    JoyfulA

    @Ruckus: Well, I generally wait for something a little more than eye contact: slowing down to barely moving, nodding, waving me across.

    But you’re right. You can’t trust ’em. (I’m sure my husband would sue them but good.)

  74. 74.

    Ella in New Mexico

    Because I am friends with a few Republicans who are part-time ranchers/farmers, I knew from the start that this guy was gonna be a REALLY bad choice for Right Wing Folk Hero. At first, he tugged at their heartstrings because the family farmer is truly an endangered species and anyone who cares about that–or of the quality of your environment or the health and safety of your food– is pretty sad to see that way of life disappearing. But very quickly, as the facts became known that he was basically associating with crazy militia types and was just giving a finger to the very same laws my friends obey on a daily basis he lost them.

    First of all, ranchers/farmers I know all want the environment to be sustainable for the future and do work closely with the Feds to help that happen. They follow the rules about getting permission to use Federal State land and for the rotation of grazing locations; they pay their very reasonable grazing and water use fees– and still show a good profit afterwards. New Mexico as a couple of small family ranchers who are dug in righty nut-jobs that have been fighting the Federal Government on everything from wolf reintroduction programs to free ranging rights because they think they should be able to graze their cows anywhere they want in our National Forest– but for the most part , they are isolated and don’t represent the major users of Federal land.

    It also doesn’t hurt that in poverty ridden New Mexico, between the Feds PILT income and the leases paid to our State Land Office, we take in millions and millions of dollars of precious income that is channeled directly into our schools and other important public services, and everyone knows it.

    The thing that gets me is that these same Republicans share almost all of my values. Our kids grew up together and you can’t tell them apart in many ways. My friends think what Cliven Bundy spouts about race and his crazy political beliefs and that he has dodged paying his fair share are all dead wrong. They totally hate Congress for it’s worthless political games and failure to do anything good anymore. Of course, they still blame Obama for pretty much everything, cuz God knows the President can just wave a magic wand to make the world change, though. They seem to me to be frustrated, a little sad, confused, and not very sure of just what the future holds anymore. But yet, they still see themselves as lifelong Republicans, members of a Party that no longer exists to serve them, but rather, exploit their fear and sense of hopelessness in order to elect oligarchs to power. It’s like a church that you don’t agree with but dang it, it’s the church you were baptized in and all your friends and family are there so you remain a member even if you don’t follow it’s dictates anymore.

    I am so hoping that because this latest stunt hits so close to home, my friends take note of how despicable this Party and it’s Spokespeople are in trying to hoodwink THEM into thinking it’s only about low taxes and self reliance and freedom from government intrusion into their private lives.

  75. 75.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Belafon: I like the reference to “MLK hasn’t done his job” right after calling a man a “boy” and implying “slave” is some sort of sticks and stones epithet and not a symbol for the imprisonment, exploitation, and torture of millions of people for the sake of a private pecuniary gain.

    But there’s no irony in the last, as he hardly blinks at the illegal exploitation and wanton destruction of common property to stuff his own greedy pockets. And he treats his cattle shitty, too.

  77. 77.

    J.D. Rhoades

    @Cassidy:

    Peak Wingnut is an armed insurrection. Eventually, someone will try to light the powder keg and hope others follow them.

    Good. The major and bloody reduction in the wingnut population this will bring on will be well worth it. I was actually hoping for such a culling at the Bundy Ranch.

  78. 78.

    Cacti

    Cliven Bundy’s lack of an internal filter has been useful.

    For the casual observer, he’s drawn a bright line between white supremacist philosophy and the libertarian right, that the political junkies already knew was there.

    No plausible deniability for this one.

  79. 79.

    dww44

    An hour on so ago, Carol Costello had 2 Republicans (Sean Spicer and Ron Christie) on discussing the problem with the GOP attracting minorities and women. Spicer, the RNC communications director, kept complaining about how the media lets Democrats get away with saying all sorts of offensive things about Blacks and about women and gays. He also kept referring to a Democratic governor who made anti-Semitic remarks but never named any pols who were guilty of these racist remarks.

    The only push back from Costello was that the media didn’t give Dems a pass. She never asked him to provide names and context. Who was this anti-Semitic governor? The only liberal I remember of recent vintage who said politically incorrect things was Alex Baldwin and he promptly lost his MSNBC gig. To whom was Sean Spicer referring.

  80. 80.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Bill B: It’s not well constructed–it argues two positions at once from paragraph to paragraph, like building a house out of buttered mash potatoes.

    No mangoes, really, although she does want to say “We’re not racists–you liar meanies!” while saying that Bundy was silenced by political correctness and the GOP politicians who ran from him are cowards.

    Reminds me of Holocaust denial. Seriously.

    Oh, did any body else see “Never Forget” with Leonard Nimoy? I think it was a made for TV movie. I saw it in class, lucky me. First time I ever heard the phrase “kangaroo court”. Based on the true story of when one of the bigshot loudmouth slimeball deniers got taken all the way to the Supreme Court and royally schooled.

  81. 81.

    acallidryas

    @Patricia Kayden:

    My response, in full:

    He said, “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.” But yeah, sure, maybe he was making a completely non-racist objective evaluation of “The Negro” and philosophizing about whether the subtle slavery is even worse than the non-subtle one when they could be violently beaten and their family life consisted of having their children be sold away from them. Who knows what he could mean?

    And by the way, the authoritarianism he wants to take up arms against is having to pay the same fees everyone else does for using federally managed land. Or, as some people might put it, to get government assistance for his ranch. Moocher.

  83. 83.

    shelly

    “better explicit slavery

    Sure, and after finding that actual slavery is not your cup of tea, you can just quit, right?

  84. 84.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Patricia Kayden:

    That Craiglist ad is deficient because it should start with a warning that Negroes, gays, non-Christians, and women folk need not apply. There is no way that TBaggers would hide the restrictions on who can apply all the way in the last paragraph.

    But they’ll phrase it as “lie-bruls, atheists, Communists…”

    They’ll take anyone who shucks and jives and reinforces their prejudices and sense of superiority. SE Cupp is an atheist (although the shtick is running thin), Michelle Malkin is a Filipina anchor baby, Herman Cain and Allen West are Black men from the South, although only the later was actually, real life crazy. Although Cain is finished on the national stage for lusting after white women–not for sexual harassment, mind, but because of that LTR with that homely lady. Bridge too far. But he still has his radio show. And that’s just talking heads–I could list more media names. You don’t have to be part of the dominant group to get their approval if you kiss their ass the right way. Which, I mean, ewww, but….

  85. 85.

    rk

    @Belafon:

    If I call — if I say negro or black boy or slave, I’m not — if those people cannot take those kind of words and not be offended, then Martin Luther King hasn’t got his job done then yet. They should be able to — I should be able to say those things and they shouldn’t offend anybody

    Because of course MLK and the civil rights movement was all about giving whites the freedom to use racial slurs against African-Americans.

  86. 86.

    shelly

    @Bill B:

    Well, my dear, people will stop categorizing you as racists and sexists when you stop saying racist and sexist things.

    But it’s always easier to blame it on good ol’ political correctness.

  88. 88.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Frankensteinbeck: It’s also the important difference between Republicans and actual fascists. They may have the same ideology, but they have no organized paramilitary to enforce it through fear.

    Nice. Good point.

  91. 91.

    Gravenstone

    Because this is Balloon Juice, and pets are a priority, I wanted to share this item I found on Faceborg.

    Massachusetts humane shelter took in 40 Maine Coons early this week, and is seeking potential adopters.

    Sorry I don’t have a direct link to the appropriate update, just scroll down an bit if you’re interested.

  92. 92.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Calouste: xpost alt.racist and soc.men

    all that separates them is age (sometimes–always suspected a lot of the posts on the racist alt.* groups were young teenagers who enjoyed trolling, kind of what drove GNAA on /.) and income levels, as the soc.men MRA shtick was all about finding a superior justification for thinking that you are a special creation and everyone else owes you

    both had strong undercurrent of frustrated sexual desire

    like with homophobes it’s funny how quickly your really dedicated racist poster will launch into elaborate sexual fantasies

  94. 94.

    Another Holocene Human

    @Cassidy: Christopher Dorner, the Army of One.

    Guess that just proves he had more balls than those sunburnt fucks.

  95. 95.

    WaterGirl

    @Gravenstone: I had to search for “40” at the link in order to find the right thing. The photos of three of the cats are just gorgeous!

  97. 97.

    shelly

    Massachusetts humane shelter took in 40 Maine Coons early this week, and is seeking potential adopters.

    Oh no, now you’re gonna get Cole all hot and bothered.

  99. 99.

    Trollhattan

    @doug r:
    Watched the episode last night and would have stood and applauded, except the fam was asleep. StewBeef has that fvcker Hannity cornered and is beating the snot out of him, and Hannity is too dumb/vain to counter with a rope-a-dope.

  101. 101.

    Mnemosyne

    @Patricia Kayden:

    That Craiglist ad is deficient because it should start with a warning that Negroes, gays, non-Christians, and women folk need not apply. There is no way that TBaggers would hide the restrictions on who can apply all the way in the last paragraph.

    Nah, they’d take the applications to show that they’re totally not racist. And immediately toss them in the circular filing bin. But they accepted the applications, so they’re not racist/homophobic/Christianist!

  104. 104.

    Trollhattan

    @shelly:
    In this case they’re actual raccoons, and must be adopted as a family.

    Who am I kidding, Cole would adopt them, too.

  105. 105.

    Mnemosyne

    @raven:

    You’d be surprised — Nevada is pretty blue. They have a lot of libertarian crazies, but they also have a lot of union labor at the hotels and other tourist traps.

  107. 107.

    Ella in New Mexico

    @raven:

    New Mexico ain’t Nevada, no?

    No, we are definitely a unique culture in this state but we have a LOT in common–a fairly even split between Dem’s and Republicans, miles and miles of space between major cities, millions of acres of Federally controlled land, a big DOD presence, a huge water crisis, gambling casinos, a significant number of multi-generation Mormon farm families and gazillions of miles of seemingly worthless scrub desert just waiting to be munched by blissfully-unaware-they-are-slaughter-bound cattle.

  108. 108.

    Schlemizel

    @Trollhattan:

    The thing is, insHannity has no crossover in audience, his viewers would not know Stewart if he were not mentioned on FAUX News. He literally picked a fight he had already won. The mouth-breathing morans & shut-ins already know poor Sean is set upon by them liberals & such. He has no real need to defend himself from an attack nobody in his potential viewership knows exists.

    This is all about the little guys ego. Had it been a prize fight they would have stopped it after round 1 as “unable to defend himself”. So he goes for rounds 2 & 3 to be turned into a pulpy mess but HIS crowd assume he is winning because they only see the punches Sean throws.

  110. 110.

    Betty Cracker

    @doug r: It was a good rant, but why all the Arby’s hate? Sure, Arby’s sucks. But is it appreciably suckier than most other fast food joints? I think not.

    At least Arby’s half-assed acknowledges the existence of horseradish with their crappy “horsey sauce” condiment, which, crappy though it is, is better than the usual ketchup-mustard-mayo triumvirate available elsewhere at the interstate hub.

    If I were gonna compare Hannity’s shit-show with a fast-food chain, I’d choose something truly abominable, like Jack in the Box, Church’s, Sonic or even McDonald’s (though their fries aren’t bad).

  111. 111.

    rikyrah

    Parents keep kids away from popular park after armed man shows up twice
    Posted: Apr 23, 2014 10:27 PM CDT Updated: Apr 23, 2014 10:35 PM CDT

    By Donna Rapado
    FORSYTH COUNTY, GA (CBS46) –
    Parents whose children play at a popular park in Forsyth County are worried about a man they’ve seen carrying a gun.

    The sheriff’s office investigated after dozens of parents called 911 about the armed man at Fowler Park off Carolene Way.

    They said the man was at the park with gun and a knife on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday, the normally very busy park was empty, no kids anywhere.

    “I’m at Fowler Park Rec Center,” one concerned man told the 911 operator. “This may be perfectly legal. But there’s a dude walking around the parking lot outside the ball fields where all the kids play. He’s strolling around the parking lot, and he’s got a big pistol tucked in his belt.”

    One woman called 911 and said, “There’s a man with a gun in his pocket walking around the soccer field at Fowler Park in Cumming.”

    “OK, I know we’ve received several phone calls, and deputies are working on the situation,” replied the operator. “It’s the most active time for the children coming in and out. So the parents are starting to get very scared,” said the worried caller.

    The Forsyth County Sheriff’s office put out a statement saying it’s aware this man was at the park carrying weapons. But deputies can’t do anything about it because by law the man has every right to be there with his knife and gun.

    “Unfortunately for parents the man has an Open Carry permit and isn’t violating any laws,” the sheriff’s office said in its statement.

    Children in the United Futbol Academy normally plays at Fowler Park’s field. The league took matters into its own hands.

    In a letter to parents Wednesday it explained it had called police and the Parks and Rec Department.

    “Unfortunately, there is no restriction on Open Carry in Forsyth County,” the letter said. When Forsyth County deputies questioned the man, “he had a Georgia permit.”

    United Futbol Academy explained it’s looking to hire security, which would take a few days.

    “So sorry that on this beautiful day we have to cancel training. For the safety of our players and their ability to focus on training we make this very difficult decision,” ended the league’s letter.

    http://www.wsmv.com/story/25326365/parents-keep-kids-away-from-popular-park-after-armed-man-shows-up-twice

  113. 113.

    rikyrah

    As someone said on another blog, it’s not that Bundy thinks any different from the rest of the GOP..

    It’s just that he hasn’t wisened up to use the Frank Luntz-approved dogwhistles.

  115. 115.

    Patricia Kayden

    @acallidryas: I prophecy an “unfriending” in your near future.

    Just kidding. Perhaps your friend can be reached with some common sense.

  116. 116.

    Jay C

    @Bill B:

    I wonder if Ms. McAllister had to type that inane screed standing up? the waves of butthurt displayed in that whiny rant must have been agonizing!

    If there were some way to harness conservative self-pity for energy, we’d never have to dig another ounce of coal in this country again…

  117. 117.

    Schlemizel

    @Trollhattan:
    I was going to go with a bit of a translation pun on the German of a near homonym
    Küheeutermarshall

    But thought it probably would not be caught

    euter
    unter

  118. 118.

    Patrick

    @rikyrah:

    I guess I don’t know why people are complaining. Isn’t this exactly what they wanted when they voted for the legislators that approved this? “Freedom”…

  120. 120.

    beth

    @Patrick: Yep, and when the fees for their precious snowflake’s soccer league go up to pay for the extra security, I’m sure they’ll be real happy about that too.

  122. 122.

    Origuy

    @rikyrah: Don’t these people pay attention? They’d better get used to seeing men with guns everywhere in Georgia now. The state legislature and governor that they elected made sure of that.
    ETA. Patrick beat me to it. They won’t all be white men, either.

  126. 126.

    Another Holocene Human

    @rikyrah: Georgia seems to be the poster state for cutting off your nose to spite your face. See: transit, regional.

    I love how they “eliminated gas tax” but then declared all of I-95 from border to border a “construction zone” with doubled speeding fines. Hahahahaha. Wanky little fuckers. Here’s hoping they serve beer in hell, right?

  127. 127.

    Another Holocene Human

    @beth: This is a good line of attack–“Open carry in church, but not in the airport? What is this, communism?!”

    eta: nope, nope, wait just a darn minute–all of that airport security is the fault of the near sheriff now. my bad.

  130. 130.

    Trollhattan

    @Origuy:

    They won’t all be white men, either.

    That’s the part they didn’t quite think through, isn’t it? Have they forgotten the tale of St. Ronaldus and the be-rifled Blackity-Black Panthers?

  131. 131.

    drkrick

    @Patrick:

    I guess I don’t know why people are complaining. Isn’t this exactly what they wanted when they voted for the legislators that approved this? “Freedom”…

    The “Guns Everywhere” bill didn’t attract much popular support, although I guess you can blame them for electing legislators who are so extremely responsive to the NRA.

  132. 132.

    Betty Cracker

    @SatanicPanic: I much prefer my homemade tacos, but Taco Bell will do in a pinch! My taco philosophy is similar to my pizza philosophy: better bad tacos than NO tacos!

  135. 135.

    Chris

    @Another Holocene Human:

    You don’t have to be part of the dominant group to get their approval if you kiss their ass the right way.

    I’m never quite sure whether I find these guys more repellent than the rest, or just the same. Yes, there’s something sick about screwing over your own people in exchange for scraps from the table of power… but that really doesn’t make them unique. It makes them like every other conservative who earns less than $250,000 a year. It’s just more blatant when it’s black, atheist, gay or other conservatives because with these guys, The Narrative doesn’t even bother pretending that they’re part of the club.

    And yet, there’s still something about Herman Cain that makes me even more disgusted than with most of these guys. It’s just the speed with which he turns from a raging bully when talking to gays, Mexicans, Muslims et al into a simpering boot-licker when his white colleagues remind him of his “place.”

  137. 137.

    Chris

    @Patricia Kayden:

    I prophecy an “unfriending” in your near future.

    Am I the only one who doesn’t even bother talking to wingnuts on Facebook (or, increasingly, at all)? I tend to be the one who unfriends them first, unless they’re really close family in which case I just block them from showing up on my news feed and try not to check up on them too often.

  138. 138.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Chris: I am lucky in that few of my FB people are wingnuts. I have hidden the feeds from two people, a gun nut cousin and a Paulite college friend.

  141. 141.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    You know what, though? I can almost guarantee that all these worried parents voted for state representatives and senators who supported Georgia’s recently-signed “Guns Everywhere” bill.

    Elections have consequences, folks.

    ETA: And as usual, others beat me to the punch, namely Patrick and origuy.

  142. 142.

    Violet

    @SiubhanDuinne: I watched the video, which showed the park, and most of the people in it seemed to be white. So yeah, they’re probably the ones who voted for the reps who created this law.

    Where are all the black and brown people and scary Muslims carrying weapons in public? When that starts happening in white neighborhoods, things might start changing.

  143. 143.

    Betty Cracker

    @SiubhanDuinne: Never heard of it until you posted that link. Good lord!

    @Belafon: We don’t have that chain. For fast-food chain tacos in this neck of the woods, it’s Taco Bell or nothing.

    @SatanicPanic: I live in a semi-rural area where there are many Mexican immigrants, so it’s not hard to find good Mexican food, but you have to look beyond the fast-food joints and trust unlicensed roadside vendors not to accidentally poison you. I’m usually willing to take that gamble!

  144. 144.

    Chris

    @Ella in New Mexico:

    They seem to me to be frustrated, a little sad, confused, and not very sure of just what the future holds anymore.

    I think that’s pretty much everyone right now, at least everyone who makes less than $250,000 a year. Particularly the “not very sure of just what the future holds anymore.”

  145. 145.

    dww44

    @rikyrah: Don’t know how much you know about Forsyth County, Georgia, but it is without a doubt one of the very most conservative areas of Georgia although it’s on the receiving end of suburban Atlanta sprawl, albeit middle and upper class somewhat affluent sprawl. The northern part of the state has historically been where the most extreme right wing groups are found. Not in the agrarian and rural and poor Southern portions.

    It is going to take a mass revolt on the part of voters ( or, worse, a tragic shooting) to get this train towards the wild west stopped and reversed. I’ve a Republican voting retired minister relative in Northwest Georgia who signed a petition opposing the law and said that he was thru with the GOP at the state level if the bill became law, which it did.

  146. 146.

    Patrick

    @drkrick:

    The “Guns Everywhere” bill didn’t attract much popular support, although I guess you can blame them for electing legislators who are so extremely responsive to the NRA.

    Polls have showed that about 90% of all Americans favor stronger background checks. But Congress could care less. Why? Because Republicans make up about 50% of Congress. Unless people vote Republicans out of office, nothing will change when it comes to guns. And people, the voters and non-voters, can only blame themselves. Same thing goes for this park in Georgia.

    People would have a gripe if we were a dictatorship. But we are not. Elections have consequences.

  147. 147.

    jl

    @Chris: @Ella in New Mexico:

    Sorry that your friends are confused. Who cares what their party registration is, when you get the bottom of it? How do they vote in the primaries or the general? Do they ever vote for a sane moderate GOPer? Do they ever vote for the non-reactionary person in federal, state and local elections? I would gently open up discussions in that area.

    Farming and ranching has been a risky boom and bust industry, for like, forever. The fates of farmers and ranchers n the U.S. have always been controlled more than they want to admit by international finance, financial markets, big money investors. I mean, where did the capital come from for the stolid self-reliant ‘self-made’ cattle ranchers in the wild west after the Civil War? Mostly big finance European, and especially English, money.

    And were did the farming good life come from in post-war U.S.? Depression era regulation and subsidies, fat and comfy WWII government contracts, and post-WWII, big corporate money for raw product going into high tech food processors and, more recently, export trade.

    But the facts collide with the stolid self reliant myth.

    I have had same experience with some small family farmers in Central Valley California. Those confused moderate types in my family sold out their farms years ago and are now living off the proceeds, and the farmers that remain all fall somewhere in the tebagger class, from teabagger curious to full on raging nutcases. Most of the teabaggers’ problems are their own making, but they blame everyone but themselves for everything that goes wrong. Two of them have been repeatedly ripped of by ‘nice Christian’ reactionary white guy con men, but they never seem to learn. Everything is always Obama’s, liberals’ or the Damnocrats’ fault.

  148. 148.

    WaterGirl

    @Patrick:

    Unless people vote Republicans out of office, nothing will change

    Is that too long for a bumper sticker? ‘Cause I would buy one if it’s not.

  149. 149.

    opiejeanne

    @Another Holocene Human: shudder. Just two days ago saw the statue of Jeremiah MacKay erected in his memory. It stands about 30 feet away from a plaque honoring his grandmother, in the middle of Lake arrowhead village.

    If not for Dorner they wouldn’t have this fine bit of public art.

  150. 150.

    Archon

    Can someone tell me the endgame to these surreal political times we are in? If Republicans weren’t drawing most of their numbers from senior citizen homes I’d say this would inevitably end in a lot of political violence.

    Hopefully were in “conservative red giant” faze before they implode politically.

  151. 151.

    Chris

    @jl:

    To clarify, I was reacting to the “frustrated,” “sad” and, as indicated, especially “uncertain of what the future holds” parts of that – not so much “confused.” I would agree with pretty much everything you say.

  152. 152.

    DesertFriar

    I’ll sing you a song of peace and love,
    Whack fol the diddle all the di do day.
    To the land that reigns all lands above.
    Whack fol the diddle all the di do day.
    May peace and plenty be her share
    Who kept our homes from want and care,
    God bless Mother England is our prayer.
    Whack fol the diddle all the di do day.

    Whack fol the diddle all the di do day.
    So we say, Hip Hooray!
    Come and listen while we pray.
    Whack fol the diddle all the di do day.

    When we were savage, fierce and wild
    She came like a mother to her child.
    She gently raised us from the slime
    Kept our hands from hellish crime,
    And sent us to Heaven in her own good time.

    Now our fathers oft were very bad boys.
    Guns and pikes are dangerous toys.
    From Bearna Baol to Bunker Hill
    They made poor England weep her fill,
    But ould Brittania loves us still!

    Now Irishmen, forget the past!
    And think of the time that’s coming fast.
    When we shall all be civilized,
    Neat and clean and well-advised.
    And won’t Mother England be surprised?

    The faces/places change, but the song remains the same.

  153. 153.

    evodevo

    @Iowa Old Lady: Yes. The militia crap quieted down a LOT here in rural Ky when it got out that a day care had been blown up. Quite a few redneck acquaintances ceased hanging out with the terrorist wannabes on the weekends. Even today you can shut one up tout suite by mentioning Tim McVeigh the babykiller.

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