Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

You are either for trump or for democracy. Pick one.

Petty moves from a petty man.

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

Republicans do not pay their debts.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Wait, what?

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

The party of Reagan has become the party of Putin.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

A norm that restrains only one side really is not a norm – it is a trap.

Is trump is trying to break black America over his knee? signs point to ‘yes’.

If you cannot answer whether trump lost the 2020 election, you are unfit for office.

Human rights are not a matter of opinion!

Nothing says ‘pro-life’ like letting children go hungry.

Their boy Ron is an empty plastic cup that will never know pudding.

Let the trolls come, and then ignore them. that’s the worst thing you can do to a troll.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

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Wednesday Morning Open Thread

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gop art of free speech toles

(Tom Toles via GoComics.com)

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Speaking of the “art” of making threats, Dana Milbank looks at the latest Tea Party tantrums and says that “Obama has already won the immigration fight“:

Among the many ways Republican members of Congress are contemplating to punish President Obama for his executive actions on immigration is a proposal of elegant simplicity: They would refuse to invite him to the Capitol to give his State of the Union address.

Yes, that should do the job. And if this doesn’t force Obama to back down from his executive orders, Republican lawmakers can escalate by unfriending him on Facebook and unfollowing him on Twitter. If even this fails, they can take the extreme step of having their Christmas cards from the Obamas returned to sender. Surely, the president then would have no choice but to relent…

My Post colleague Robert Costa has heard Republican lawmakers floating no fewer than nine possible responses, from the frivolous (the State of the Union snub) to the outrageous (impeachment). But all signs indicate Republicans have abandoned attempts to defund Obama’s executive actions under the threat of a shutdown — at least for now. Instead, they plan to keep the government running through Sept. 30, probably allowing immigration-related spending to lapse earlier next year. This would be paired with a symbolic vote blocking Obama’s executive actions…

From the Balloon Juice Lexicon:

Kabuki – Japanese Kabuki is a form of classical theatre known for highly stylized drama and elaborately made-up actors performing pieces codified over hundreds of years. It’s completely opaque to people who don’t already understand it. In political terms, actions or statements said to rely upon posturing, exaggeration, and loud noises to disguise their empty theatricality. Modern conservative Republicans prefer the Theatre of Noh (h/t commentor Donald G)

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Apart from a little histrionics for the holidays (the Speaker can play Rudolph!), what’s on the agenda for the day?

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Late Night Open Thread: The Winnowing Continues

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Yes, I’m being sarcastic, but “news”. It’s official, per the Washington Post — we won’t have Rob Portman to kick around in 2016:

… The Ohio Republican, a seasoned politician and favorite of the GOP establishment, could have made a credible contender for the White House. But Portman said that with the new Republican majority in the Senate, he sees “a real opportunity over the next two years to break the gridlock in Washington.”…

Portman has considerable cachet within the Republican establishment. As vice chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee over the past two years, Portman helped recruit several star Senate challengers. Popular with major party donors, Portman raised millions of dollars for the party’s Senate efforts and enhanced his national finance network. He also played an important role in bringing the 2016 Republican National Convention to Cleveland.

Portman has been considered a reliable conservative on most issues, although last year he reversed his position on same-sex marriage, which put him out of step with his party’s orthodoxy. Portman decided to support same-sex marriage after his son, Will, told his parents that he was gay.

Cynical translation: He’s made himself unpalatable to the GOP “base” (in every sense) primary voters, but the Permanent Party still holds a hope he might deign to serve as VP to whichever bombthrowing loon draws the lucky top card.

Speaking of vice-presidential prospects, sounds like Martin O’Malley is picking up his game, per the Baltimore Sun:

Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski told a group of Hillary Clinton supporters gathered in Baltimore County on Monday that Maryland would provide a “groundswell of grassroots” support for the former Secretary of State should she decide to run for president in 2016.

“We need Hillary,” the Maryland Democrat and Senate Appropriations Committee chairwoman told about 100 people gathered at Goucher College for a fundraiser organized by the Ready for Hillary PAC, the group laying the groundwork for her possible candidacy…

Not mentioned by Mikulski or anyone else on stage was Martin O’Malley, Maryland’s outgoing governor who is also weighing a run for president in 2016. The fundraiser was expected to draw several other high profile Democrats — many of whom have worked closely with the O’Malley administration for years — but only Mikulski showed…

Early signs of support for Clinton among the congressional delegation that knows O’Malley best demonstrates the challenge the governor faces as he contemplates a possible White House run. Polls in early primary states show Clinton eclipsing O’Malley, despite his repeated appearances for congressional and gubernatorial candidates in the run up to this year’s midterm elections…

And back on the “Right” (wrong) side of the aisle, the Talivangelicals are fighting with the Glibertarians, again/still, per Dave Weigel at Bloomberg Politics:

… “Online gambling websites are preying on every kid with a smartphone or a tablet,” warned Huckabee. “This is frankly one of the most important topics that I don’t hear anybody talking about.”

It’s very likely that Huckabee believes this. It’s also simply true that he’s endorsing Sheldon Adelson’s lobbying stance… the Coalition [to Stop Internet Gambling] is an Adelson front group, as has been known for most of 2014. Its less-than-secret mission is to bring social conservatives like Huckabee—and his viewers—into the trenches, to pass the Restoration of America’s Wire Act, ban Internet gambling, and thereby direct more profits to brick-and-mortar casinos. Like—oh, let’s just pick one at random—the Venetian.

Huckabee’s fresh enthusiasm for this cause sets him against his eternal intra-Republican Party enemies, the libertarians—or, as he calls them, the “faux-cons.” Opposition to the online gambling ban has been fomented and endorsed by the likes of FreedomWorks, Grover Norquist, Ron Paul’s Campaign for Liberty (through president John Tate), and the Competitive Enterprise Institute. “This bill allows the federal government to take a heavy hand in regulating the Internet, opening the door for increased Internet regulation in the future,” those groups’ leaders said in a letter to legislators this year…

Upon this topic I think we can all agree: Root for injuries.

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Open Thread: Real, Hard-Hitting Journamalism

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… as committed at Tucker Carlson’s Vanity Project:

… The WaPo reporter appears to be part black and feels most comfortable with people who have dark skin. His mother and grandmother, however, are white. A brief perusal of his mother’s Facebook page shows that Wesley looks nothing like his caucasian mother and more closely resembles his dark-skinned father…

Also, if you believe Charles C. “No, the other Charles” Johnson, Lowrey was once ticketed for speeding and the officer guessed his race as “White, Caucasian, Asiatic Indian, and Arab.” Who are ya gonna believe, a DFH reporter or an anonymous LEO?

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So Sorry About Your Gang Rape, Dear. Now I Need to Get the Other Side of the Story.

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And people wonder why victims of rape and sexual assault don’t come forward:

ferfuckssake

Rape now gets the “both sides do it” treatment from our failed media experiment. If the alleged rapists want to push their side of the story, they can leave behind the veil of anonymity and tell their side in court.

And fuck the New Republic and the Washington Post for pushing this shit. The Rolling Stone rape piece officially has now received more public scrutiny that all of Judy Miller’s WMD claims prior to the Iraq war.

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Playing With Fire

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Who says the St. Louis police don’t have a sense of humor:

Michael Brown’s stepfather was hurt and angry when he urged a crowd in Ferguson, Missouri, last week to “Burn this bitch down,” his wife and attorney say, but that hasn’t stopped authorities from launching an investigation into whether he incited a riot.

Following the announcement that the grand jury would not indict Officer Darren Wilson in his stepson’s death, Louis Head stepped onto a platform above the crowd and embraced his wife, Brown’s mother. He then turned to the demonstrators — some of them shouting “F— the police!” — and yelled, “Burn this motherf—er down!” and “Burn this bitch down!”

No charges have been filed against Head, but police have interviewed people who know Head and who were with him November 24, the day a prosecutor announced that Wilson would not be indicted in the August 9 shooting, Police Chief Tom Jackson said Tuesday.

If the only person who is indicted related to the killing of Michael Brown is his father, the police are actively looking to create riots. I wouldn’t put it past them or McCulloch, though.

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Open Thread: Cranky Old Men

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supreme injustices danziger

(Jeff Danziger’s website)

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Speaking of elderly dicks (looking at you, Nino), here’s a story from Slate‘s science & health editor:

Jim Watson is one of the most important scientists of the 20th century. He is also a peevish bigot. History will remember him for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA, in 1953. This week, Watson is insuring that history, or at least the introduction to every obituary, will also remember him for being a jerk.

In a fit of pique and self-pity, Watson is selling his Nobel Prize medallion. He will become the first Nobel laureate in history to do so. He gave the Financial Times several reasons why, this Thursday, he will auction off the gold disk, symbol of the highest honor in science (expected price: up to $3.5 million). He claims that, even though he ran major research institutions and served on corporate boards until the age of 79, he needs the money. He might donate it to universities, he said, or buy a David Hockney painting. Oh, and he also mentioned to the FT that he’s selling the medal because he has become an “unperson,” and “no one really wants to admit I exist.”

This is not about the Hockney. Selling the medal is Watson’s way of sticking his tongue out at the scientific establishment, which has largely shunned him since 2007. Watson had been making racist and sexist remarks throughout his career, but he really outdid himself seven years ago when he told the Sunday Times that he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really.” He further said that while we may wish intelligence to be equal across races, “people who have to deal with black employees find this not true.”

Finally, for once in his life, Watson didn’t get away with making ignorant, prejudiced statements…

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Apart from noticing those who don’t improve with age, what’s on the agenda for the evening?

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No, We Don’t Need Stricter Gun Laws. Not At All…

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I was actually in Morgantown yesterday when this was going down:

Jody Lee Hunt, the West Virginia man suspected of killing four people in Monongalia County before taking his own life, didn’t appear to randomly select his victims, authorities say.

“Mr. Hunt did know each of these victims and we do have some key pieces of evidence that do point to him as being the suspect, including his social media traffic as well,” Lt. Michael Baylous with West Virginia State Police told CNN Pittsburgh affiliate WTAE. “We have an idea why this may have occurred, but we’re not in a position where we’re ready to release this as of yet.”

Police found Hunt’s body in the woods of northeast West Virginia late Monday following a daylong manhunt. It appears he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“They did discover a truck that matched the truck’s description that we were looking for, and inside they found a white male who matched the description of Mr. Hunt,” Baylous said.

Authorities identified three of the victims as Doug Brady, Sharon Berkshire and Michael Frum, WTAE reported. Brady was shot outside his auto shop, Doug’s Towing, in Westover. Berkshire and Frum both were killed at a home east of Morgantown.

Family members told WTAE that Berkshire was Hunt’s onetime girlfriend.

Family members of the fourth victim identified him as 43-year-old Jody Taylor, a cousin of the suspect, according to the affiliate. The two had operated a towing business together called J&J Towing, according to the victim’s mother, Cassandra Taylor.

Actually, the police know a lot more than that about Hunt and his motives:

New details released Tuesday in a quadruple homicide and subsequent suicide indicate that Jody Hunt, 39, of Westover, was upset with his ex-girlfriend, two men she was believed to have relationships with, and the owner of a rival tow truck company.

A 12-hour manhunt came to an end Monday night when Hunt was found with a self-inflicted 9mm gunshot wound to his head in Everettville, near the border of Monongalia County and Marion County, off US Route 19.

While the bodies of Sharon Kay Berkshire, 39, of Westover and Michael David Frum, 28, of Maidsville, were first found by a nearby landlord in Cheat Lake, law enforcement was dispatched to a reported shooting at 7:42 a.m. At Doug’s Towing in Westover, where owner Doug Brady was gunned down by Hunt. After traveling to Cheat Lake and killing Berkshire and Frum, Hunt shot and killed his cousin and business partner, Jody Taylor, 43, at his home on Sweet Pea Lane.

Berkshire filed a domestic protection order against Hunt, a convicted felon, in 2013 and again in early 2014, said Monongalia County Sheriff Al Kisner. Berkshire later dismissed the protective orders and continued her relationship with Hunt, said Kisner. Berkshire and Frum were in a relatively new romantic relationship, said Kisner. Criminal records indicate that Hunt was convicted in January 1999 in Virginia on kidnapping and abduction charges. Hunt also faced firearm and wanton endangerment charges in West Virginia and spent five years in Huttonsville Correctional Facility. It’s likely that Hunt obtained a firearm by falsifying documents or purchasing it from a person who did not require documents, said Kisner.

If a convicted felon and certified lunatic can obtain a gun by simply “falsifying” documents or picking one up at a gun show or from someone else, it is beyond time to revisit how easy it is to buy guns. Of course, it’s been beyond that time for a long, long time.

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