Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Insiders who complain to politico: please report to the white house office of shut the fuck up.

The willow is too close to the house.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

Republicans firmly believe having an abortion is a very personal, very private decision between a woman and J.D. Vance.

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Technically true, but collectively nonsense

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

The gop is a fucking disgrace.

With all due respect and assumptions of good faith, please fuck off into the sun.

The “burn-it-down” people are good with that until they become part of the kindling.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Roe is not about choice. It is about freedom.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

Republican also-rans: four mules fighting over a turnip.

The revolution will be supervised.

If you can’t control your emotions, someone else will.

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Late Night Open Thread: When You’ve Lost the NY Daily News…

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129Comments

  1. 1.

    JordanRules

    Was gonna post that NYDN cover downstairs AL. That gave me a big Wow.
    I hope shit just got real. I really do.

    But then….welp. It’s a good headline and callout.

  3. 3.

    prob50

    that’s the most appropriate newspaper and overdue headline I’ve seen in my 65+ years. Will the rest of the “News” media follow up? I think the next GOP debate should be devoted to pressing those feckless bastards on gun control and the consequences of their willing embrace and use of, “toxic” rhetoric.

  4. 4.

    Howard Beale IV

    Can any one of these Godbotherers show me a documented case where prayer actually stopped a bullet fired at point blank range from not killing its target without some ‘freak stroke of luck’ where a mis-manufactured bullet just disintegrated or mysteriously deflected at the last second?

    No?

    Didn’t think so.

  6. 6.

    Chris

    The fact that even one of the perpetrators is named Farook gives me very little hope that any good will come of this, and muvh fear of the contrary. Like I said in an earlier thread: I am afraid of ISIS attacks, not for their own sake so much as for the reaction in this climate.

  9. 9.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Tommy: This isn’t the Post, it’s the Daily News. The same Daily News that gave you the pithy and factually accurate headline “Ford to City: Drop Dead.”

  12. 12.

    Digital Amish

    Yeah, the power of prayer. How’s that working for you? More importantly, how’s it working for the victims? F#<k all those assholes and their useless prayers.

  15. 15.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    @Chris:

    It occurred to me today that one crazy guy from Baltimore who shot his girlfriend and then drove to NYC to kill two cops was PROOF POSITIVE that Black Lives Matter needs to shut up, but one crazy guy storms a Planned Parenthood and kills three people while babbling about baby parts and the media just has no idea what could possibly have caused this.

  16. 16.

    The Ancient Randonneur

    Twenty dead first graders didn’t change anything. Why will this shooting change anything? It won’t.

  23. 23.

    prob50

    @Tommy: Hmm…Not so much “Best”. Perhaps a serious contender in the “Cutest” category, tho.TV news here in LA just reported this was the 351st instance of a “Mass shooting” in the first 334 days of this year. I believe this statistic is based on US numbers only.

  24. 24.

    Mnemosyne (tablet)

    OT, but I swear I just saw a tourism ad for Israel that featured a picture of Pope Francis at the Wailing Wall. So does that mean that Pope Frankie has cross-religious appeal, or are they trying to get more tourism dollars from the goys?

  27. 27.

    Mike G

    Add a recent classic, “Ben Carson Defends Himself Against Allegations That He Never Attempted to Murder a Child”.

  28. 28.

    Calouste

    Or the classic headline in I think it was the Daily Mirror after Dubya was re-elected:
    “How can 56,000,000 people be this stupid?”

  29. 29.

    Redshift

    A good one from my congressman, too:

    @RepDonBeyer
    My thoughts and prayers are with the victims in San Bernardino. If we are ever allowed to vote on gun safety, my vote will be with them too.

  30. 30.

    Ruckus

    A true headline that zings almost all the conservative hit parade stupidity in one page?
    What the hell is this world coming to?

    Of course that’s as far as anything will go, a couple of zinger headlines and back on the old grind of conservative bullshit by the truckload. It’s not even a micron step in the correct direction.

  32. 32.

    Ruckus

    Got a better headline.
    From the Mob Boss Daily
    Conservative politicians – I got your prayers right here.

  34. 34.

    Mike J

    BTW, the president of Turkey is NOT being sought in connection with the shootings.

    I link to the Washington Times because earlier they had a story naming him as a suspect. Now, they’re happy to tell who else was stupid enough to fall for it, but a name seems missing from their list:

    The reports in Fox News, the Atlanta Journal Constitution, The Los Angeles Times, Mediaite and elsewhere named a 28-year-old Qatari citizen, Tayyeep bin Ardogan, as the second suspect.

  37. 37.

    Brachiator

    @Chris:

    The fact that even one of the perpetrators is named Farook gives me very little hope that any good will come of this

    Some of what came out in this evenings’ press conference with the police suggests a very angry employee and workplace violence.

  38. 38.

    Felanius Kootea

    @Brachiator: It seems to have started as a workplace dispute but what on earth would make a couple don tactical suits and ultimately have a gun battle with police that left them both dead and their six month old daughter an orphan?

  40. 40.

    piratedan7

    @redshirt: agree, and in a way, I’m pleasantly surprised to see it and see it called out as nothing more than empty mealy mouthed false sympathy.

    It’s high time that we need to ditch the facetious prayers and hosannas for intercession from on high and simply legislate some fucking sanity back into our culture.

    better background checks
    no guns for people with a history of violent offenses
    no guns for people with mental illnesses
    maybe even some comprehensive mental health care

    we have more stringent checks for a drivers license and in some cases to vote in an election than we do for buying and owning a weapon.

  41. 41.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    I like what Yglesias had to say about this. Too often, he seems like he’s falling for the Border shit, but here he got it right. Liberals should make a case that conservatives aren’t doing their fucking jobs, since, seemingly, the only way to head these things off is to pray about them. Why aren’t these assholes praying hard enough? Come on, tough guys, you all have hotlines to God. Don’t you care enough about your fellow citizens to give him a tinkle and put in a few good words for everybody else?

  48. 48.

    eemom

    I wasted a shit ton of time this evening arguing with a gun fellator on a friend’s FB page. WTF is wrong with me?

  49. 49.

    Steve in the ATL

    Anyone here in the East Bay area? My body says it’s 4 am but we are still going strong here in Alameda!

  50. 50.

    Tommy

    @eemom: Nothing. I noted in another comment I was kind of stunned a rare post by me on Facebook about gun control seemed to get some traction. I guess the gun people were just regrouping, because I can’t even find the effort to respond to them all a few hours later.

    My favorite response is this:

    This is why more people to need to conceal carry.

    This is from a former client. A lady I really like if we don’t talk politics. She is using the Confederate Flag as her profile pic on Facebook.

    It hurts my head that we are so apart on the issue of guns. I think we need less of them and she thinks we need more. I tend to agree with my father, as I said here last night. He is a shooter. Knows gun like the back of his hand. He doesn’t think for a second you or I with a gun will stop a mass shooter. Thinks people are stupid that even entertain the concept.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    This Rick Perlstein piece on Rahm Emanuel and Politico is delightfully vicious:

    Chicago’s sociopathic mayor sat down for a breakfas­­t interview this Wednesday at a tony club on the 66th floor of the 106-story Willis Tower, hosted by POLITICO Playbook, the website tout Washington scans every morning to learn what they’re supposed to talk about that day, indifferent or oblivious to the fact that monied interests pay to bias coverage therein.

    It was something to watch Allen immediately abandon all journalistic self-respect. Obsequiously, he began stammering out an apology. Smelling weakness, Rahm came back with a Corleone bark: “It’s not going to work.” He abruptly thanked us for coming, though several “ers” and “ums” came first. Watch, and see Mike Allen twitch, thoughts of his suck-up card’s revocation plainly dancing through his head.

  53. 53.

    Oatler.

    The National Review intelligentsia had nothing to say about the clinic shooter, now that an Arabic name appears they have things to say.

  54. 54.

    ? Martin

    @Felanius Kootea: Well, you have to acknowledge that they already had the tactical attire and the weapons, and possibly the pipe bombs. There doesn’t seem to have been time for them to shop/build those things, so it’s possible they had some other plan here which was then adapted/co-opted to this situation.

    So either they were radicalized, or he had a growing grudge that finally spilled over that day. After all, he didn’t set out for the party armed up – but it doesn’t seem like it took more than an hour or two to leave angry and return in that state.

  55. 55.

    Baud

    This whole thing is creepy (NYT)

    Couple Kept Tight Lid on Plans for San Bernardino Shooting

    By JULIE TURKEWITZ and BENJAMIN MUELLER
    DECEMBER 3, 2015
    ANAHEIM, Calif. — On Wednesday morning, Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife, Tashfeen Malik, left their 6-month-old daughter with Mr. Farook’s mother, telling her they were dipping out for a doctor’s appointment, a relative said.

    By nightfall, it was clear that was a ruse, as the police said the couple spent the day carrying out a rampage at a social services center that killed at least 14 people before leading officers on a sprawling chase that ended with the two dead in a bloody gunfight in a suburban neighborhood.

    Before the attack, Mr. Farook, 28, who was born in Illinois and whose parents are from Pakistan, joined colleagues at an annual holiday party for the San Bernardino County Public Health Department, where he has worked for five years as an environmental inspector, officials said. He had attended the same party the year before, and he did not appear out of place.

    Soon, however, he stormed out in anger. The nature of the dispute was not clear, but when he returned with his wife, 27, both of them were dressed in tactical gear and carrying assault rifles, officials said. That level of preparation is among the factors investigators are weighing as they examine a motive for the attack.

  57. 57.

    Kay

    @Oatler.:

    I’m waiting to see if we hear about mental illness in this case. That to me is the really stark dividing line- only certain shooters get the mental illness “treatment” when speculating about why they did it.

  58. 58.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    Someone or a group of people know what the argument was about, so that will come out. They were (apparently) told by police not to say anything but they’ll eventually figure out they don’t have to comply with that.

  59. 59.

    Baud

    In happier news, NYT has a sad about Jeb!’s low poll numbers.

    WATERLOO, Iowa — This ought to be Jeb Bush’s time.

    He laid out a detailed plan to crush the Islamic State three months before the Paris terrorist attacks. He gave a well-received speech on rebuilding America’s military at the Citadel two weeks ago. He has shown new confidence discussing terrorism, the Syrian refugee crisis and American values, and how they intertwine.

    But instead of winning a second look from voters, Mr. Bush continues to be ignored, and to languish in the polls, even as the nation contends with what he calls “serious times that require serious leadership.”

  60. 60.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Disgruntled workers aren’t a new thing. The pre-planning husband-wife with a new kid scenario is crazy, however.

  61. 61.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    I;m not yet convinced of the pre-planning. Gun nutism is a hobby – they buy all kinds of crap. Baby with MIL could be unconnected.

    I think the husband/wife team is weird, though. It’s less alarming to me than the idea that he could just recruit an unrelated co-shooter though. That’s more weird.

  62. 62.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    Agree about gun nuttism. But how does one get their spouse to do something like this as a spur of the moment type thing? Whatever was going on must have been festering for a while with both of them, I would assume. I guess we’ll see.

  63. 63.

    Amir Khalid

    I think this is the first time I’ve heard of a married couple doing anything like this. So far, no mention of the husband or wife having any radical religious connections. No reports of “Allahu akbar!” shouted at the beginning of the attack, no mention of a suicide vest on either the husband or the wife. And the husband had to go home from the party to fetch his wife, the guns, the tactical gear and the bombs. Does that mean they had that stuff in advance, just waiting for the right provocation?

  64. 64.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: You’re right about the hobby thing. My dad had quite a few gun, mostly bought after he retired. One for each type of shooting, much as I do with cameras and lens.

  65. 65.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    The GOP county chair here told me Republicans don’t believe Trump supporters are “real” Republicans, in the sense that they are not true-blue GOP primary voters who will vote GOP down the ticket or no matter who is at the top. The whole thing was amusing- he seems to think they’re kind of political tourists or something, “diluting” the purity of their primary electorate. It’s a theory I hadn’t heard before, looky-loos directing the Party, people who could wander off if they don’t get their celebrity nominee. I wonder if he’s getting this from actual people he’s seeing wanting to be delegates and such because he would know if he hadn’t seen them before. I can’t ask them a lot of questions or they get nervous and stop telling me things, because I am on The Other Side :)

  66. 66.

    Amir Khalid

    @Baud:
    Is The New York Times not aware of the obvious? America is indeed in serious times that require serious leadership, but Jeb is seeking the nomination of an unserious party whose base wants unserious leadership.

  67. 67.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Amir Khalid:

    Does that mean they had that stuff in advance, just waiting for the right provocation?

    Knowing how some gun nuts are, no it doesn’t. There is a subset of GNs that like to experiment with blowing stuff up as well as shooting stuff up. Having a few pipe bombs laying around for that Saturday BBQ with the buds is not near as rare as we’d all like to think it is.

  68. 68.

    David Koch

    @Baud: right after Paris, just over 2 weeks ago, they were pushing the usually DC conventional wisdom that the public would sober up and discard Trump for ¿Jeb ? who’s a very serious person.

    this was, what, the 20th time they said some event will turn things around for the aristocracy.

    expect the same broken record to play over and over until Trump completes his primary sweep in Florida.

  69. 69.

    Kay

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    I wrote a post here once on the dummies you can buy for shooting practice and there are a lot of gun-related items for sale. Thousands of websites, all sorts of stuff. Lots of military-style clothing.

  70. 70.

    Cermet

    Tragic shooting; so many weapons so easily available. That the person is of Arab or has an Arabic style name will allow the thugs and their cowed followers to claim this wasn’t the fault of lax gun laws but “Syrian refugee’s” and these terrorist must be kept out because …well, because.

  72. 72.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They passed the NCLB rewrite out of the House so conservative ed activists are excited because the GOP runs so many states. The bill limits the federal role and passes a lot back to states.

    Happily, they have horrible ideas that parents will hate, ideas like putting in “assessments” that measure “character”:

    “Over the past 10, almost 15 years,” he continued, “we’ve so focused on reading and math scores and this is the real opportunity to make sure we’re capturing the things that are important, whether it’s grit and persistence or school culture or parent engagement, and the only way to do that is to give power back to the states. You cannot centrally manage an innovative, creative accountability system from Washington D.C.”

    I can’t wait to see the standardized assessment they come up with to measure kids and schools on “grit”. It’s basically “how bootstrappy are you?” If parents objected to too many standardized tests in math and english (and they did) I think “the grit test” will drive them right over the edge.

  73. 73.

    Mobile RoonieRoo

    Betty you should see Rod Dreher’s post on the “prayer shaming” He truly is becoming more unhinged by the day.

  74. 74.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    @Kay: When I was in elementary school, back in the days of stone tablets, we got 2 grades: effort and achievement.

  75. 75.

    NorthLeft12

    @Mike J: When I was in England about three years ago I saw this headline on one of their tabloids; “Drunk Yobos Flush Dwarf Down Loo”.

    I always regretted not buying the paper and bringing it home. By the way, that headline was next to a picture of a woman dressed in lingerie stretched out across the whole cover. Great contrast.

  76. 76.

    J R in WV

    Jeb? has one enormous problem – He can’t even use his last name on his campaign signs.

    Why?

    Because everyone in the world knows that W Bush destroyed the economy of the world, destroyed what little stability the Middle East had when he was elected, allowed the September 11 terrorist attacks to occur with no interference from any branch of the US government, allowed a major US city to be destroyed with no assistance for the victims from FEMA, and I’m gonna stop there, although I could go on for a while.

    We have to assume that Jeeb? thought by leaving his last name off all his campaign literature he actually thought people would forget he is the brother of the worst world leader since, well, eveh! Which is probably the second stupidest idea he ever had, after thinking that he might be electable to high office after the way he misruled in Florida and his brother misruled in Washington, DC.

    People still remember how Jeeb? treated Mrs Schiavo, the poor brain-dead woman who’s husband tried to do right by her. Her blood family started the whole thing, but Jeeb? jumped right on the bandwagon, tried to pass laws that would “protect” Mrs Schiavo – who was as responsive as a turnip, in spite of the crazy antics of her relatives. The autopsy proved that her brain was completely non-functional, except for the part the kept her breathing. Most people would not want to be kept alive in that condition, nor for the government to get involved in intimate medical decisions.

    Aren’t Republicans supposed to be for personal freedom, and keeping government out of people’s affairs? The Schiavo mess showed in dayglow colors how fraudulent that claim was and is, and the rest of the Republican party didn’t much like having their “small government” bullshite shown up for what it is.

    Jeb! doesn’t have a chance of gaining the nomination, and if a miracle happens to allow him to win the Republican nomination, he won’t do as well as any previous loser – like Goldwater, maybe, for example.

    I’m talking about politics because I can’t bear to talk about current events at all.

  77. 77.

    David Koch

    @eemom: I engage in the same behavior. People will retweet Gwen Ifil’s tweets in my timeline and they’re usually good. But her show “Washington Week” is thoroughly corrupt by Broderism (ie gop always right, dems always wrong).

    I know this. Yet I end up watching her show last weekend and it’s Obama sucks because he won’t occupy Syria and only republicans like ¿Jeb ? can keep us safe. As if the terror attacks of 9/11, London, and Madrid, as well as the destabilization of the ME didn’t happen under republicans.

    And I hit myself on the head and wonder why did I waste my time. Watching internet porn would have had more utility than that freak show.

  79. 79.

    Kay

    @BillinGlendaleCA:

    Right, but these are national lobbies and they like a veneer of “science!” so they come up with elaborate scientific-sounding assessments that schools have to administer and then report. They’re never “experiments” in the sense that they try them out small-scale and admit if they’re a disaster. They put them in one state and then the whole gang likes the sound of it so they go in cookie-cutter in state after state then they defend them to the death no matter the actual “results”.

    Ohio lawmakers once had to pull an ed bill from the floor because they left the generic caption on it- they literally copy and pasted the whole thing from Jeb Bush’s ed org.

    My son’s (great) math teacher gives them points for “hard work” but that’s an individual observation not a state-wide rubric.

    “Grit” is all the rage because there was a single study and then a paper – they like ideas that have a stern moral tone- “scolding the lower classes” is the default in conservative edu-circles. Ideally the studies come from an Ivy League university and then the Ivy League “brand” is used to lend legitimacy to the whole thing. I think the idea is to flood public schools with so many shifting “rubrics” and “measures” that the whole system collapses in exhaustion.

  80. 80.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Amir Khalid:

    no mention of a suicide vest on either the husband or the wife.

    Well, the guy was an American. Our favored finale in these things, as I said before, is suicide by cop.

  81. 81.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    But both liberals and conservatives choked on “equity”. The way to bring “equity” to public schools is to fund them equitably, according to need, but that’s too big a lift politically so we all decided to just yell at the low income schools a lot and demand they try harder. They have reams of “data” on low income schools. They don’t lack information. They lack the will to change funding formulas. They know integration works, too. They know if they mix up schools and put lower income in with higher income that “works” to raise scores but that’s also too big a political lift.

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    @J R in WV: Months ago, I assumed that any wave of terrorism-fueled fear/war-fever would make people nostalgic for Dubya, and revive the Bush name as a winning brand.

    That’s not how it’s shaking out.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    @David Koch: I figure the target audience for those broadcast political chat shows these days has got to be mostly people over 70.

    Well, them and Daily Show writers.

  85. 85.

    Matt McIrvin

    @J R in WV:

    Aren’t Republicans supposed to be for personal freedom, and keeping government out of people’s affairs?

    That was always obviously false when it came to what people did with their genitals, so it’s no real surprise that it would extend to other things. I remember being incensed at the hypocrisy of it whenever Reagan started going on about getting the government off your back.

  87. 87.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    They are, but so much of this is an end-run, an attempt to reach the issue without upsetting anyone.

    Ohio actually has a version of open enrollment and has had it for 15 years. The idea was parents would choose “higher performing” schools, but that is not, actually, what parents “choose”. What parents here seem to be choosing is schools with fewer Latino students in them and it doesn’t correlate with “higher performing”. It’s interesting to talk to local administrators because they’re much blunter. My son’s school is 50% low income and his superintendent told me that’s about the limit she can handle while keeping scores up- if it goes higher she needs more funding just to tread water on test scores. Every point that low income number goes up it gets harder for her to show “growth”, it’s a moving target.

  88. 88.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kay: They could buy some grit from Crow T. Robot!

    (These days it seems as if my daughter’s school system is largely funded through dozens of small, weird, grifty sales campaigns for knick-knacks, wrapping paper and caramel popcorn, so this sketch is particularly poignant. Though the writers were referencing a bygone age when a lot of this was stuff kids personally signed up for through comic-book ads.)

  89. 89.

    David Koch

    @Matt McIrvin: the problem is Hate Radio has conditioned the base to hate the Bushs.

    After they lost the House and Senate in 2006, they wouldn’t accept the defeat was the result of their wacked out polices. How could grifters like Hannity and Limbaugh, selling snake oil, say “we were wrong and we need to reform”. Instead they blamed Bush, saying conservatism can never fail, it can only be failed and it was failed cuz Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld weren’t conservative enough.

    After being fed this propaganda for 10 years the base is not about to look to a Bush.

  90. 90.

    The Golux

    @NorthLeft12: Some years ago, the Hartford Courant sports section ran this headline after the Yankee relievers wasted Bartolo’s good effort:

    Sweet Colon, Smelly Bullpen

  92. 92.

    NorthLeft12

    I used to be a very active Catholic, but now I am a borderline atheist. Even back when I was religious I would never substitute prayer for anything that I could accomplish myself or was in my fellow humans’ control. What kind of religion promises you that everything will turn out okay if you do nothing and just sit on your ass and pray? This is a serious question. Seems to me this is against most of what any religion asks of its members. What kind of ignorant and lazy people believe this crap?

  93. 93.

    Sherparick

    Like the Major Hassan case at Ft. Hood, I expect the right wing and the MSM will go ballistic at President Obama “for failing to keep us safe” and characterizing these two saps as “ISIS strikes America.” Logic and reason really have nothing to do with it. Somehow, President Obama’s failure to bomb the Shiite, Secular Assad Government in Syria will be the reason that this guy decided to attack the people he had been working with for the last 5 years.

    Just like the individuals who join right-wing mass movements, individuals who become frustrated with the conditions of their life, and looking something greater, can find themselves seduced by mass movements whether anti-abortion outfits like the Army of God or Islam inspired outfits like ISIS. Whatever else it is, both ISIS and Al Qaeda are part of a militant movement that aims to attract the frustrated and disappointed in the Muslim world and the Muslim diaspora to the West. The problem for us is when one of the nutters is Muslim, it brings the U.S. a little closer being taken over by the hysteria of Trumpism.

  94. 94.

    David Koch

    @Baud:

    He gave a well-received speech on rebuilding America’s military at the Citadel two weeks ago.

    Adjusted for inflation, the defense budget is 50% higher today then it was in 2000 and higher then the combined budgets of the next 13 nations, yet the Times thinks it needs to be “rebuilt”

  95. 95.

    BubbaDave

    @NorthLeft12:
    As a Christian myself: God’s job is to bring healing and comfort to those who have suffered these horrific losses.
    My job is to vote, donate, volunteer and agitate in an effort to make these tragedies less likely to recur. It’s a long slog against huge odds, but it’s the hand we’ve been dealt.

  97. 97.

    Lurking Canadian

    @NorthLeft12: it says right there in the Gospel that “Thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test”.

    Of course, it’s in red ink, so it’s part of the stuff Real Christians (TM) are trained to ignore.

  99. 99.

    debbie

    Every now and then, the Daily News shows some sense. I especially like this cover in contrast to the New York Post’s cover:

  101. 101.

    Peale

    @Kay: I think I need a break. I mean, there was a mass shooting yesterday and I still think Rahm Emmanuel is probably the worst person in the country right now. If the people in Chicago burnt theor city to the ground so that he’d have no place to be mayor of any longer, I would think of that as a rational response.

  102. 102.

    scav

    @Peale: While Rahm certainly isn’t shining with glory, the issues and rot with the city police is long-standing and deep. My personal preference is to go after the PD and allied judicial structural rot, taking out politicians as collateral damage as needed.

  103. 103.

    Death Panel Truck

    @Calouste: It was “How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?” I didn’t still think I had the jpeg, but I just searched for “Mirror” on my external hard drive, and found it.

  104. 104.

    Gypsy Howell

    @piratedan7:
    Which one of those would have stopped this particular mass murder? Or Newtown? Or any of the countless others?
    The guns, and our absurd interpretation of the 2nd Amendment are the problem.

  105. 105.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    @Kay: I though the whole point of No Child Let Go Forward was so the conservatives could take over the state role in education and force it back to traditional values indoctrination.

  106. 106.

    Jay C

    @Cermet:

    According to the NYT, Syed Farook was born in Illinois-his parents, it is assumed, were the immigrants (from Pakistan) – not that this will mean much to the Muslim-bashers, I’m sure….

  107. 107.

    Starfish

    @Kay: On sites such as schooldigger and greatschools, the schools that are highest scoring are usually the schools that are the most white. I don’t know if racial makeup is taken into account in the scores, but there seems to be a diversity penalty. For example, we have a bilingual elementary school that starts with each student in their native language, and increases the student’s level of either English or Spanish as they move up in school. That school scores much lower than most other schools even though the students are probably more bilingual than everyone else.

  109. 109.

    Chris

    @Oatler.:
    The National Review intelligentsia had nothing to say about the clinic shooter, now that an Arabic name appears they have things to say.

    Best comment I’ve seen to date. And it’s not just the National Review. It’s truly instructive to watch the few right wingers I’m still in touch with via Facebook or Twitter completely lose their shit on some shooting incidents and go quiet as church mice on others.

  110. 110.

    Chris

    @Kay:
    The GOP county chair here told me Republicans don’t believe Trump supporters are “real” Republicans, in the sense that they are not true-blue GOP primary voters who will vote GOP down the ticket or no matter who is at the top. The whole thing was amusing- he seems to think they’re kind of political tourists or something, “diluting” the purity of their primary electorate.

    It’s telling that it’s become such a reflex for Republicans to dismiss anyone they don’t like with “well, he’s not a REAL American (or nowadays, a real conservative) anyway, so I don’t have to listen to anything he says!” He apparently doesn’t realize that it makes no fucking difference whether voters pass his purity test. What matters is whether the candidates pass theirs, because whether or not you think they’re worthy of the name “Republican,” they’re still the voters you’ll have to convince. To paraphrase one of their own, you run for election with the voters you have, not the voters you wish you had.

  111. 111.

    piratedan7

    @Gypsy Howell: quite possibly not THIS one Gypsy, perhaps could have made a difference in Tucson, Sandy Hook, Aurora… some response is better than no response.

  112. 112.

    Chris

    @Betty Cracker:
    The Atlantic published a remarkably stupid piece on “prayer-shaming” in the wake of yesterday’s mass shooting. Yeah, that’s the problem.

    Eh… in re this whole question, I ironically saw some truly nasty “prayer-shaming” by Facebook and Twitter conservatives after the Paris attacks (because the answer isn’t prayers and candlelight vigils! The answer is nuking Iran – uh, that is, Assad – no, I mean, you know, the guys in Mecca – wait, is it Eastasia or Eurasia this week? Oh just punch a fucking hajji for freedom, already!)

    Which was par for the course for them and characteristically missing (or ignoring) the point – prayers and candlelight vigils aren’t a substitute for real action. They’re not meant to be. It’s just a way of showing emotional support, but as someone who had a sister and several friends [all fine] in Paris that day, I quite appreciated the emotional support. Just like I did fourteen years earlier when 9/11 happened in a city I was living in, and spawned candlelight vigils all the way to Tehran. Most of us don’t live in [San Bernadino, Paris, Washington] where we could help directly, and most of us don’t work in the kinds of positions that would allow us to truly make a difference. Plenty of us can’t even donate or volunteer for the relevant political campaigns. “Prayers for X” is about all many people can do, so I don’t knock it.

    The problem highlighted in the NY Daily News isn’t the “prayers for X” meme per se, it’s that all the people it quotes are people in positions of power who actually could make a great deal of difference. But we already know they won’t, being bought and paid for by the arms dealers and cowed by the penis-compensator buyers. So their prayers and good thoughts specifically can go fuck themselves.

  113. 113.

    Tripod

    @Kay:

    The character and grit bullshit means they want to whack the kids with a stick like in the good ol’ days.

    It’ll go over big in certain parts of the Bible Belt (TX & OK), those southern plains puritans are nutty.

  114. 114.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Tommy: I have some facebook friends from high school who are using this as a final excuse to get concealed carry permits or conceal carry everywhere they go. I try not to be judgmental, but I do point out to them that people have accidents with all kinds of things – cars, ladders, and yes, guns, on a regular basis, and that carrying a gun poses risks to you, your loved ones, and anyone around you. And if you don’t get that, think about an accidental discharge that maims someone you love, or a complete stranger. If that complete stranger is permanently incapacitated, the best case scenario is you’re working for that guy for the rest of your life to pay off the liability for your negligence – you’re putting his kids through college while yours can’t afford it. If he dies, you’re going to prison for involuntary manslaughter, and then working for his family to pay off the civil suit for the rest of your life. Is it really worth it?

  115. 115.

    Tripod

    @scav:

    Perlstein comes off as unhinged on the subject of Rahm. To the point I’m starting to wonder if that’s just a particular fixation, or if it permeates his work on other subjects.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
    You are thinking logically.
    Gun humppers/god botherers, conservatives are not thinking logically.
    It escapes them, the entire concept of logic. Don’t know if it’s too difficult for them or requires too much effort to get from point A to point Z but they seem to always stop at point G. And they’ve skipped B-F.
    Separately.
    Also had a thought about the Bush family. We’ve had two of them as president and both have gotten us war(s) in the middle east. Even if it’s only in the back of people’s minds maybe they are thinking, another one? The god botherers aren’t getting any action from him, people with kids may be rethinking…….. Maybe it’s dawning on some that constant war really isn’t the answer. Yes I know that many want the middle east destroyed (at least the people) but maybe they are seeing the cost to them and saying too much. (One can hope anyway)

  117. 117.

    Ruckus

    @Tripod:
    Not sure he shouldn’t be a bit unhinged on the subject. Look how the current president has been once Rahm left DC. Look how Chicago hasn’t changed or gotten worse on his watch. Rahm is a piece of work with a D after his name, and from the looks of it he deserves all the scorn (and more) that he’s been getting.

  118. 118.

    What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?

    @Ruckus: They’re not the most logical people but when it comes to the pocketbook argument (being sued for negligence and paying out for the rest of their lives) it gives many of them something to think about. it’s the most effective counterargument in my experience anyway, because you’re not telling them not to do something they think they want to do, your just telling them that what they want to do has risks they may not have fully considered. They all want to be Dirty Harry but the risk of winding up destitute financially penetrates that fantasy at least a little.

    Conservatives are completely incoherent on middle east policy. None of the populist conservatives want another war (the neocons always want another war but their name is mud among rank and file conservatives). At the same time they do seem to want us to destroy ISIS, and they want Obama to do more – even though they can’t say what more he should be doing if sending in ground troops is off the table. Some of them criticize Obama for being a warmonger and at the same time a terrorist sympathizer, which makes no coherent sense whatsoever. I do think they distrust the Bush family, and if I were Hillary and JEB somehow got the nomination I’d make sure everyone in the conservative movement knew that JEB has long and deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia. They won’t turn out to vote for someone they think is in league with the “A-rabs”.

  120. 120.

    Chris

    @What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
    They all want to be Dirty Harry but the risk of winding up destitute financially penetrates that fantasy at least a little.

    We’re unlikely to ever have a chance to be Dirty Harry (and those who do often end up dead) – but most of us can relate to financial trouble a little better.

  123. 123.

    Paul in KY

    @Tripod: For a progressive person, such as Perlstein, Rahm is the DLC jerk who’s trying to get all the good policies out of the Democratic Party.

  124. 124.

    Djchefron

    @Myiq2xu: One of the many wise things in the Qur’an is verse 13:11: “God will not change the condition of a people until they change it themselves.”

  126. 126.

    RaflW

    @The Ancient Randonneur: Twenty dead first graders didn’t change anything. Why will this shooting change anything? It won’t.

    A few months ago I thought this. But I think we are seeing a shift in the power balance on guns. Many politicians who were cowed after Sandy Hook I think have looked back and seen that their weakness 1) got them nothing from the right, no protection from the NRA and their coordinated spending and 2) was a failure that has ongoing, morally repugnant implications.

    I think unfortunately that the old adage “things have to get worse before they get better” is in play, and that Sandy Hook was part of that arc but not the inflection point we wanted it to be. That we failed in that moment does not presage unending failure.

    In times like these I turn to poet Marge Piercy for sustenance and hope.

  129. 129.

    RaflW

    @Cermet: I’m not aiming this at you personally, and I risk being a pedant, but the vast majority of Pakistanis are not Arabs.
    Sadly our country absolutely sucks at geography and international cultural knowledge.

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