I didn’t listen to the live feed of the arrest of the last moron because I thought it was like listening to a snuff film in the making, but I did check the Oregon paper later for a write-up, where I discovered this:
Lost in the final hours of the occupation was the original motive for starting it: the imprisonment of Dwight and Steven Hammond. The militants didn’t mention the Harney County ranchers in the closing moments. Instead, they focused on whether they would be able to live to tell their story.
Fiore gave this advice to militant Sandy Anderson about writing her story: “Be detailed Sandy, be very, very detailed,” Fiore said. “Like that author did in Fifty Shades of Grey.”
It’s only been a month since this:
"They huddled together for warmth. The cold of Ammon's Ruger 22 against Brian's naked thigh sent a thrill up his spine." #bundyeroticfanfic
— colin meloy (@colinmeloy) January 6, 2016
We’ve reached the phase in our nation where the wingnut right is unspoofable.
Baud
But, sadly, not unelectable.
Iowa Old Lady
I’ve often wondered how The Onion stays in business. And Tina Fey doesn’t even have to write new words.
Miss Bianca
“And it is that word ‘detailed,’ my darlings, that marks the first place in “Fifty Flavors of Vanilla…Creamer” at which Tonstant Weader fwowed up.”
(with apologies to Dorothy Parker)
chopper
i’m sure her memoirs “fifty shades of cray” will be a best seller.
Jay S
I’m waiting for “40 days alone (together) in the desert” myself.
KG
Nah, we’re just really close to the wingularity, so it looks like they’re unspoofable, but don’t worry, they are… I mean, we have the internet for a reason beyond videos of pets and naked people, right?
The Ancient Randonneur
In the end it always was about their own selfish needs
Mnemosyne
Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?
Geez, this “Hamilton” craze is even bigger than I thought.
jl
” the Harney County ranchers ” means the criminals who slaughtered a heard of deer illegally and then committed arson to cover it up? I guess a case can be made that they got a raw deal with the minimum sentencing laws (as have many others for far lesser offenses), but I think that is what a jury of their peer decided that is what these local ranchers were.
Or does ” the Harney County ranchers ” mean the neighbors whose property they destroyed without any notice or permission in the cause of some special (Edit: Sovereign Citizen Constitutional) rights and privileges for special buddies of the Bundy Gang?
Redshift
Poe’s Law, man, Poe’s Law.
schrodinger's cat
Bigfoot Cole big foots again, this time an uplifting post celebrating authors in our midst with more news about toddler patriots, who wanted their mommy and their pacifier.
Cacti
@jl:
Right. What the mean is “the white criminals and terrorists”. But it just never quite comes out that way.
No one knows why.
dedc79
And then i squeezed the bottle of Elmers with all my might, and felt the sweet burn of the glue as it shot up my nostril, and suddenly my pocket Constitution was coming to life, the calligraphy of Article 10 danced off the page and into the air, twisting and turning, red, white and blue, and I began to chant “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution”
A Ghost To Most
@The Ancient Randonneur:
In the beginning,also too.
Baud
@Cacti: I’d settle for “thugs.”
Calouste
If you needed any reasons to prefer Trump over Cruz as the Republican nominee, here’s Heidi Cruz talking about her husband (via Rightwingwatch
jake the antisoshul soshulist
They have been unspoofable for years. We just need to make an annual pilgrimage to the grave of irony.
scav
The utter concern repeatedly voiced about the nice muslims being bombed, despite their evil shariah law, so unlike GOD’S law which the patriots were peacefully camping in support of with the assorted semi-automatic 2nd-Amendment Neighborly-Sticks so that they could have guaranteed jobs and weed, not to mention underscore the plight of the ignored UFOs and leaking Nuclear Reactors (Decaying Infrastructure!) that should really be Solar. That could very well have been Kumbaya that played on the bagpipes as they not-rurrendered out, after their long time spent cleaning the refuge buildings and artifacts after the depredations of the BLM. Nary a cow grazing free was mentioned, neither. For a few seconds, I rather felt like I had wandered into a stealth Ultra-Green Party SuperPac ad.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
I only have to see the phrase and I start tearing up (pronounced teer-ing).
But my new craze is War and Peace. I’m re-watching it online and realizing how much they cut out of the teevee version. I’m also realizing that they mixed up all the battles, but they dramatize them very well and in line with LT’s descriptions.
dedc79
@Calouste: Hmmm…
vs.
Keith G
Sapiens possess an amazingly precarious social psychology.
Mnemosyne
@gogol’s wife:
Where is it streaming online? I forgot to set my DVR for it and my cable company doesn’t let me on demand Lifetime.
daryljfontaine
@Mnemosyne:
President Obama:
“I couldn’t make sense of their Constitutional interpretation if I tried…
…and I tried.”
D
piratedan7
you know…. it would be a guilty pleasure to watch this play out on TV if they weren’t busy buying enough ammo to take over a 2nd world country, fucking up our schools with their god bothering and insistence that states rights and slavery are good things. Or if they had any insight (say 19th or 20th century) about civil rights bestowed upon humans of any differentiated sex, creed, color, or orientation. As it is, I just am about of pity party pathos for these people who appear to be even more poniless than effete totebagging liberals.
Mnemosyne
@daryljfontaine:
Oh, I’m fully expecting Obama to break out some Washington Farewell speech before he officially leaves office. “Though, in reviewing the incidents of my administration, I am unconscious of intentional error, I am nevertheless too sensible of my defects not to think it probable that I have committed many errors …”
We’re going to a lecture at the Huntington tonight about the British side of the war and the decisions they made that allowed the colonists to win. Wondering how many “A. Ham” hats will be on display, and the play won’t even be here until next year.
? Martin
@Calouste: I love how Judeo-Christian values doesn’t actually contain any Judeo values. It’s like grape soda or compassionate conservatism.
Benw
My Time with the Ranchers: The Sandy Anderson Story
Chapter 1
One day I went to the wildlife refuge to occupy it with the ranchers. After awhile we gave up. Here is a link to my Gofundme page. Please send me money.
The End
? Martin
@gogol’s wife: Spoiler alert: the French win.
redshirt
@Mnemosyne: For the record, you in no way are working for Hamilton Enterprises or any affiliated organizations?
Baud
@Calouste:
Hmmm.
debbie
There is no more powerful argument for Common Core than these Oregon clowns. There must be standards.
gogol's wife
@Mnemosyne:
I don’t know if this is streaming, since I don’t really understand what that is, but this is where I’m watching it. I hope it doesn’t disappear.
redshirt
@srv: Also, Lucifer now has a TV show. The End Times as foretold in the Good Book.
Villago Delenda Est
@The Ancient Randonneur: How many of these asswipes were actual fucking veterans…people who put their lives on the line for ungrateful garbage such as themselves, and oh by the way, The Donald and the Bush Crime Family.
Villago Delenda Est
@srv: Um, no.
The X Files just cashed in on the crazy that was already out there. The JBS has been around since the end of WWII. Before them you had the Silver Shirts, the Klan, the Know-Nothings…the entire fucking Confederacy.
jl
@Mnemosyne: If the inadequate blah president said those words, the wingnuts and GOP would erupt in outrage. Obama would disgrace the dignity of the Office of the President of the United States! What would George Washington think? He’d be spinning in his grave.
lamh36
OT, but this makes me sooo mad right now. Fuq’n Bobby Jindal
Thanks, to Bobby Jindal and all the folks who supported and voted to keep him in 2X. Yeah go ahead and blame the poor or the new Gov who only been in office for what 1 month…NOPE look yourselves in the face and your children and remember you voted for Jindal to do something bout them “welfare” folks and he did just that…he cut funding to public hospitals, closed them all, closed mental health, cut public services but kept tax cuts and incentives for the oil companies, and the old money businessmen in Louisiana…So please…miss me with the blame for the poor folks on welfare and such….thx Bobby!
The TOPS program has been a main resources for students being able to get a higher education since at least the time I was in high school…for over 20 years…
Now thanks to Louisiana’s “historic budget shortfall”…this is where we are…
TOPS payments suspended amid looming Louisiana budget crisis
trollhattan
@Calouste:
Gosh, she seems nice.
Pivoting briefly to Texas; Texas, why you so crazy?
Folks keep proclaiming Texas’ “purple statehood” but I can see no evidence from here in the bleachers. Your morons (statehouse, congress) continue to be more moronic, not less.
raven
@gogol’s wife: It’s also available on iTunes and Amazon Prime.
Baud
@lamh36:
Don’t forget Obama.
beltane
You will hate me when you click this link, but it’s the perfect illustration to go with this post.
Mnemosyne
@redshirt:
The guy who wrote “Hamilton” is doing some work for the same Giant Evil Corporation that I work for — does that count?
I’m only one degree of separation from the guy through work contacts. So frustrating.
Grumpy Code Monkey
@KG:
You should probably clarify that you mean videos of pets and naked people as two separate categories of videos, not necessarily videos of pets and naked people.
As Scully said to Mulder, “…the Internet isn’t good for you.”
As for holding up Fifty Shades of Grey as a template for writing…anything…Christ, why isn’t that surprising in the slightest? There’s just this whole subtext of sexual fucked-up-ness with these people. Were they all sexually abused as kids or something? This is a serious question.
debbie
@beltane:
Almost as good as Johnny Depp’s Trump.
Mnemosyne
@raven:
We have Amazon Prime, so I’ll give that route a try.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
@Mnemosyne: See if they mention the theory that the Howe brothers were secretly (or, maybe not so secretly) Patriot sympathizers.
redshirt
@Mnemosyne: It’s a good admission, but it leads to questions…
Mnemosyne
@debbie:
I heard some of the audio from that this morning. Must. Watch.
Denali
@beltane,
I hate you.
agorabum
@beltane: I can’t say I wasn’t warned…
jl
@Baud: Blaming Obama for failing me today is so past and old.
As of right now I am pre-blaming the future Baud! 2016! administration for how it has already failed me over the coming year.
And if I have a typical year coming up, could mean problems for Baud! And I note that he has not even responded that critical test of his administration yet.
Baud FLOPS.
nutella
@Calouste:
Wow, that’s some horrifying stuff. Almost every sentence contradicts the one before.
I wonder if the constitution she’s talking about living under is the actual constitution of the US or the imaginary one of the Bundys and their friends?
jl
@beltane: clicked that link down before it got completely open. NSFA (Not Safe For Anyplace)
Mnemosyne
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym:
The politics were surprisingly fluid — Angelica Schulyer married John Church, who both supported the patriots and returned to England to serve as an MP. He returned to England permanently after she died.
NotoriousJRT
Michele Fiore is bat shit crazy, and I am sorry she was allowed to play any role (however positive) in this clown show.
jl
Does not bode well…
Rubio Says He Chipped A Tooth On A Frozen Twix
TPM
He told journalists the molar mishap happened while he was on a plane. “I just bit into a Twix bar and I go, ‘Man this Twix bar’s got something really hard in it,’” Rubio said. “And I go, ‘Oh my gosh, I cracked my tooth.’”
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/rubio-chips-tooth-frozen-twix
Edit: I can have some empathy with W and the pretzel, but…
beltane
@debbie: That is terrific! And classy!
lamh36
@Baud: oh…the comments on the FB page are already blaming Obama and the new governor who’s been in the office for ONE MONTH…
Naw…it’s Obama and welfare recipients…fuckers…
redshirt
@jl: If Rubio can’t handle a Twix bar, how could he possibly handle Putin?
beltane
@jl: Is that for real? This election is completely blurring the boundaries between real and unreal, parody and fact.
jl
@lamh36: Sorry to hear that news. Hard blow to a lot of kids in Louisiana, and a shame. Hope that the mess Jindal left can be cleaned up asap.
jl
@beltane: If Rubio repeated himself several times during the interview before he noticed, and apologized to his staff for not memorizing his line properly, then I guess we’ll know it’s real.
lamh36
@jl: It’s not the ONLY thing the new Gov has chosen to cut, but it the biggest news cause, it literally affects thousands of students.
The locals news station:
Keith G
@Mnemosyne:
So next the movie (directed by J.J. Abrams?). And after that the ride (or should I say, The Experience?).
nutella
AP has the weird idea that the occupiers/trespassers/felons of Malhuer should be referred to as ‘armed ranchers’. Only one of them, as far as I know, lived on or owned a ranch and he (Finicum) did not make his living from it.
Only one of them, as far as I know, was from Oregon. The rest were all outside agitators, carpetbaggers shouting about local control when none of them were local and the people who actually live in Harney County wanted them out.
Now we learn that Sandy Anderson was there to gather material for a book. All those federal employees out of work, all those local people inconvenienced, all those LEOs working overtime, occupiers jailed and one dead, and she’s using it as a writing project.
I hope that one of the laws preventing felons from profiting from their crimes will be applicable to her.
Keith G
@jl:
It happened what he bit down on it again, and again, and again.
NotMax
@jl
Because there’s simply no other way to determine if something is frozen other than sticking it in one’s mouth.
Although, come to think of it, the Republicans are probably immune to brain freeze, what with lacking the requisite organ and all.
NotoriousJRT
@Calouste:
Gag.
jl
@lamh36:
” Some students may have to drop out of school ”
That is very sad, and infuriating. I didn’t think about all that suspending payments implied.
I hope people really make a fuss and find a way to at least keep partial payments going to those who are already in the program. Cutting off kids after they get into a program is just too nasty and mean.
State should try to make at least partial payments to those already in the program, even if they have to end new awards. And State should make a big appeal to get some stop-gap private funding to take care of those already in the program. Start some GoFundMe sites?
People in LA should make a big fuss and see if there is some way to not cut them off.
Mnemosyne
@Keith G:
He’s writing songs for The Rock. No, seriously. He’ll probably be our next EGOT — Bobby Lopez became one after “Let It Go” won the Oscar.
Technocrat
@NotMax:
This idea that frozen Twix bars should be chewed gingerly is a fantasy. Marco knew EXACTLY what he was doing when he bit it.
lamh36
Shit…and it could get worse…
Damn… I’m hoping this is a negotiation tactic…or at the very least NOT true…
WDSU News
Gimlet
http://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2016/02/11/998130/us-republicans-had-urged-iran-to-delay-prisoner-swap-shamkhani-says
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said a recent prisoner exchange between Iran and the US went ahead as planned despite calls by Republicans for a delay until US presidential elections.
“In the course of the talks for exchanging prisoners, the Republican rivals of the current US administration who claim to be humanitarians and advocates of human rights sent a message telling us not to release these people (American prisoners) and continue this process (of talks) until the eve of US presidential elections,”
The release of the inmates came hours before the official start of a nuclear deal finalized by Iran and the Group 5+1 (Russia, China, the US, Britain, France and Germany) back in July 2015.
jl
@nutella: And exactly none of them were ranchers in Harney County, though I read one guy nearby sent them some beef. The ranchers near the refuge I read about in the news were more likely to be armed to keep the Bundy crooks off their land in case they came around and started wrecking stuff again.
lamh36
Baud
@lamh36: Whoa.
WarMunchkin
@Gimlet: Treason, full stop.
Gimlet
Last Fall?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-foundation-received-subpoena-from-state-department-investigators/2016/02/11/ca5125b2-cce4-11e5-88ff-e2d1b4289c2f_story.html
February 11
Investigators with the State Department issued a subpoena to the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation last fall seeking documents about the charity’s projects that may have required approval from the federal government during Hillary Clinton’s term as secretary of state, according to people familiar with the subpoena and written correspondence about it.
The subpoena also asked for records related to Huma Abedin, a longtime Clinton aide who for six months in 2012 was employed simultaneously by the State Department, the foundation, Clinton’s personal office, and a private consulting firm with ties to the Clintons.
p.a.
@lamh36:
I hope it’s a tactic also, but La. Rethugs seem to be on the frontline of the ‘anthrax and tire rims, brigade.
Baud
@Gimlet: It’s worked for them before.
Mnemosyne
@lamh36:
Ouch! If the legislature won’t budge, though, I’m not sure what other options he has.
jl
@lamh36: thanks for some good news, if it happens. There will be some yelling about treason for at least two reasons over next few weeks. Wonder which ones the news will think worthy of coverage.
Germy
@Mnemosyne: We were watching Supergirl last Monday night, and Hamilton got a mention.
Gimlet
@WarMunchkin:
I wonder if we will get names?
Mnemosyne
@Gimlet:
So much for October Surprise Part Deux.
goblue72
This is all going to seem quaint and even more comedic in six months when the country is diving head-first into a recession. The next few months are going to see economic volatility push all this aside.
Central bank engineered asset inflation is running out of a steam with little to show for it in the Main Street economy. The Bank of Japan this week basically surrendered and Abenomics is likely at its end. The PIIGS are about to squeal again, while the largest bank in Germany has taken to issuing proclamation of “DON’T WORRY – WE HAVE ENOUGH MONEY – WE PROMISES!”. Fed Chair Yellen today declared in response to whether the Fed would consider negative interest rates “I wouldn’t take those off the table.” – which is major turnabout from just a few months ago when a sequence of 25 basis point increases were being assumed by Fed watchers. Crude closed today at it lowest price since 2003 – and is trading at 75% below its June 2014 peak – and there isn’t much end in sight.
You think people are pissed at the banks now? Just wait unit they take us on recession round 2 for an economy where 90% of the country still hasn’t clawed back what it lost last time around. What will the Establishment say then?
Germy
@goblue72:
Trumpf?
MomSense
Fingers crossed everyone but it looks like we may get a cease fire in Syria in a week.
lamh36
hellslittlestangel
@Calouste: So the face of god is backpfeiffengesicht. Well, I’m not surprised.
MomSense
@lamh36:
Damn. We are dealing with the same mentality from our governor here in Maine. He said the other day that he is going to appoint himself commissioner of education. They are always trying to destroy. Constant destruction.
lamh36
Yeah…bet this will make fuckers pay attention to what Jindal azz did to the state
Gin & Tonic
@Gimlet: Do you ever find yourself wondering why there’s a “link” button right above the comment box?
Villago Delenda Est
@Keith G: Statement from the Twix people: “Let’s just dispel with this notion that biting into a Twix will crack your tooth unless you’re an android.”
Villago Delenda Est
@goblue72:
Please do not put us on the tumbrels!
goblue72
@Germy: Frighteningly so. Shades of early 1930s.
Mnemosyne
@goblue72:
The Establishment will say, “Vote Republican!”
What, you think it’s a coincidence that this is happening when the Republican field is imploding?
The Lodger
@jl: Had to be a Right Twix.
seaboogie
@KG:
….aaaand, here’s your twofer.…
SIA
LOL Goobers
redshirt
Twix had an ad campaign recently about not sharing, right? Get your own?
Fits broke tooth Marco to a T.
NotMax
@KG
There’s naked people pics on the internet?
Do tell.
:)
debbie
@lamh36:
I so hope this is true. Not two hours ago, I listened to an NPR report about the negotiations and it was being reported that the three-week delay in the ceasefire showed that Russia held all the power in the room while the US had none.
SIA
FYWP trying again without the link, via Digby:
Mnemosyne
@KG:
I have a photo of Daveed Diggs holding a puppy but only his arms are naked. Does that count?
Miss Bianca
@goblue72:
Deutsche Bank’s troubles ain’t official till they’ve issued the official Soviet-style denial: “There was no riot in Red Square today. No protestors were shot. There have been no bad loans.”
Calliope Jane
@Gimlet: the Republican playbook really never changes, does it.
boatboy_srq
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Having spent seven years in RC schools and four years amongst the SBC undergrads….
Well, you would be surprised at the few instances of criminal child abuse/endangerment, but the programming would come as no surprise whatever. Added plus: some of the nastiest, oiliest pervs I’ve ever met were in that crowd. There’s small wonder that so much sleaze trails from the borders of their oh-so-civilized enclaves when there’s so much ick lying just beneath the surface of their Cloaks of Righteousness. “Married and cheating” approaches normal. They are the reason Ashley Madison and Tinder have done so well. Not the least bit surprising that so many brought up in that atmosphere are so sexually messed up.
Feathers
@gogol’s wife: Thanks for the heads up on it streaming on Prime. I keep looking for it, but getting distracted before making it to Amazon.
If you want the whole thing, it is well worth chasing down the Mosfilm version from the 60s. Nearly eight hours long, it was released as four separate films (like the Marvel films today, hee!). The acting is very good, but what makes it a must see is the battle scenes. The production was lent the Red Army, so the battles were filmed on the actual battlefield whenever possible, using the actual number of soldiers who fought, in replica uniforms.
Here’s a link to Roger Ebert’s review (from 1969!). He posits that this film and Gone With the Wind are the two great epic films of cinema history, and that War and Peace is the better of the two.
Now I’m making myself want to watch the whole thing again, after watching the new one. I checked and my library has it. I saw it onscreen in high school, when I was studying Russian. It is on DVD – be sure to get the widescreen version!
boatboy_srq
@Grumpy Code Monkey: Afterthought: writing a la Fifty Shades actually implies some reading skills. If you want an illustration of how unusual that actually is, take a look at the new home designs popping up. I swear to FSM that builders are convinced that nobody not pulling down mid six figures or higher actually reads: there is no place in these houses for a single bookshelf.
catclub
@goblue72:
so no real difference between 10% unemployment and 4.9% unemployment?
Long and steady ( and slow) GDP growth is no different from 5% contraction of gdp?
GM and Ford had their best year ever.
m0nty
@Calouste: reminds me of Mrs Stanis Baratheon.
Goblue72
@catclub: None of which has trickled down to the middle and working classes in term of real wage growth in an inflation adjusted basis.
glory b
@chopper: Ha!
My pick for the comment of the week!
Paul in KY
@Calouste: Gag a maggot! Cue up the Trump Weasel Lied!
Paul in KY
@Mnemosyne: I think the decisions had a lot to do with the French & the wars they engaged in from Late 18th to early 19th centuries.
Rob in CT
@Goblue72:
Mostly true, though wage growth has picked up a little bit recently.