Some knucklehead in Phoenix decided to see what would happen if he lit an entire fireworks display on fire (h/t: Sploid) inside a Wal-Mart. This is not a very good idea. Aside from starting a low explosive fire, and fortunately there weren’t any higher powered fireworks on the display or this would have been much, much worse, Arizona is a Constitutional Carry state. This means one can open carry without a permit, as well as conceal carry with or without a permit. The prankster is lucky someone didn’t hear several pops and decide there was an active threat that needed responding too!
Steve in the ATL
I’ve been in Arizona since Sunday. Highs in the 115-120 range. Lows not much lower. I’m assuming this climate is one of the reasons why this state is batshit fucking crazy.
Roger Moore
Unfortunately, he did not earn the Darwin Award he so richly deserved.
magurakurin
speaking of dumpster fires…does anyone have a link to the actual vote on the senate gun bills….who voted what? I can’t find it.
Roger Moore
@Steve in the ATL:
Stop making excuses for them. It was in the 108-112 range here in Southern California, but that kind of heat doesn’t melt our brains to conservative mush.
amygdala
Understatement of the day.
The stupid, it burns (and explodes).
hkedi
@efgoldman: You can get a Darwin award and live, just as long as you permanently sterilize yourself in the accident.
Marc
Hey Cletus! Look at this!
patrick II
@efgoldman:
Death is not necessary. If you stupidly hurt yourself to the degree you can’t reproduce, you can earn a Darwin award.
Aardvark Cheeselog
@efgoldman:
You have to remove yourself from the gene pool, preferably before reproducing.
hovercraft
@magurakurin:
Here you go. If you click on the vote count on the left it shows the individuals and their vote on each measure.
Sorry broken link, see below for new one
hovercraft
@magurakurin:
Sorry about the broken link try this one
amk
@magurakurin:
https://twitter.com/igorvolsky
he has all the details. heitkamp is the backstabber in all. joined manchin and dkos tester in some.
Roger Moore
@efgoldman:
You only have to remove yourself from the gene pool, so you can win the award by maiming yourself in just the wrong way, e.g. emasculation.
Jordan Rules
@Roger Moore: Agreed, no excuses for us but we stay in the fire pit long after its left yall. And hell, it will be 108ish around 10PM.
magurakurin
@hovercraft: thanks :)
ETA damn access denied….maybe because my IP address is out of country?
ETA I can’t even get to senate.gov. Adam any insight on this?
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: Here’s the link to the ones from today. Click on each specific link to see who voted which way.
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/a_three_sections_with_teasers/votes.htm
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: try this:
http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/legislative/a_three_sections_with_teasers/votes.htm
Lolis
@srv:
Haha. Texas is lucky to have Arizona and Florida to sneer at.
trollhattan
Jesus. Idocracy was supposedly hundreds of years hence; we’re living it. Next time I shop Costco I’m betting the light rail is running.
Villago Delenda Est
@Marc: If I may, a small correction: “Hey, Cletus! Hold my beer and watch this!”
SFAW
That would depend on his skin color, now wouldn’t it? If he were white, then “boys will be boys, those scamps are just having fun.” If he were non-white, then he would have been pre-emptively “neutralized,” because you never know with those people.
Adam L Silverman
@SFAW: I believe the term you’re looking for is perforated.
Walker
I was reading elsewhere that the damages from this will be tremendous. Remember, Walmart carries food these days. With all this smoke, a lot of it will have to be thrown out for health code reasons.
NotMax
Wal-Mart dropped the hyphen from the name of the stores back in ’08. Signage has read Walmart since then.
The company name is still Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
It can get confoozible.
Adam L Silverman
@Walker: Apparently they’re being charged with the felony in severity just below murder. So they are in significantly more trouble than yogurt spoilage with depraved indifference and malice aforethought.
magurakurin
@Adam L Silverman: access denied.
???
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: I don’t shop there, so I 1) don’t pay attention to the signage and 2) don’t actually care.
burnspbesq
Wal-Mart. Always Wal-Mart. Shit like this never happens at Costco or Target. Wonder why …
EBT
These guys are actually facing some hard theoretical time.
Adam L Silverman
@EBT: Yep, Arizona class 2 felony. Potentially upwards of 20 years in prison.
Adam L Silverman
@burnspbesq: And they’ve socialized their store security too!
http://www.9news.com/news/local/investigations/walmart-earning-notoriety-with-police/59199294
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2016/public-safety/walmart-police/
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: One sec, let me see what I can do…
(what do I look like? Senate IT?…)
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: According to the AP style guide I gots it right:
http://www.cjr.org/language_corner/language_corner_040714.php
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 4751 to S.Amdt. 4750 to H.R. 2578 (Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016)
Statement of Purpose: To address gun violence and improve the availability of records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System.
Vote Counts: YEAs 53 NAYs 47
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —53
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
NAYs —47
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gardner (R-CO)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: Measure Number: H.R. 2578 (Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 )
Measure Title: A bill making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts: YEAs 44
NAYs 56
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —44
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —56
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: mendment Number: S.Amdt. 4749 to S.Amdt. 4720 to S.Amdt. 4685 to H.R. 2578
Statement of Purpose: To Secure our Homeland from radical Islamists by Enhancing Law enforcement Detection (“SHIELD”).
Vote Counts: YEAs 53
NAYs 47
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —53
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
NAYs —47
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Collins (R-ME)
Coons (D-DE)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Flake (R-AZ)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Mnemosyne
Anyone remember the freeway shootings in Arizona by a (fortunately incompetent) sniper? Yeah, turns out they still don’t know who the fuck did it and they had to let their sole suspect go.
Good thing the 2nd Amendment says we’re not allowed to track guns or ammunition in any way, amirite? //
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: Amendment Number: S.Amdt. 4720 to S.Amdt. 4685 to H.R. 2578 (Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016)
Statement of Purpose: To authorize the Attorney General to deny requests to transfer a firearm to known or suspected terrorists.
Vote Counts: YEAs 47
NAYs 53
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —47
Ayotte (R-NH)
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Kirk (R-IL)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Manchin (D-WV)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Tester (D-MT)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
NAYs —53
Alexander (R-TN)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Lankford (R-OK)
Lee (R-UT)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: Measure Number: H.R. 2578 (Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016 )
Measure Title: A bill making appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2016, and for other purposes.
Vote Counts: YEAs 56
NAYs 42
Not Voting 2
Grouped By Vote Position
YEAs —56
Alexander (R-TN)
Ayotte (R-NH)
Barrasso (R-WY)
Blunt (R-MO)
Boozman (R-AR)
Burr (R-NC)
Capito (R-WV)
Cassidy (R-LA)
Coats (R-IN)
Cochran (R-MS)
Collins (R-ME)
Corker (R-TN)
Cornyn (R-TX)
Cotton (R-AR)
Crapo (R-ID)
Cruz (R-TX)
Daines (R-MT)
Enzi (R-WY)
Ernst (R-IA)
Fischer (R-NE)
Flake (R-AZ)
Gardner (R-CO)
Graham (R-SC)
Grassley (R-IA)
Hatch (R-UT)
Heitkamp (D-ND)
Heller (R-NV)
Hoeven (R-ND)
Inhofe (R-OK)
Isakson (R-GA)
Johnson (R-WI)
Kirk (R-IL)
Lankford (R-OK)
Manchin (D-WV)
McCain (R-AZ)
McConnell (R-KY)
Moran (R-KS)
Murkowski (R-AK)
Paul (R-KY)
Perdue (R-GA)
Portman (R-OH)
Risch (R-ID)
Roberts (R-KS)
Rounds (R-SD)
Rubio (R-FL)
Sasse (R-NE)
Scott (R-SC)
Sessions (R-AL)
Shelby (R-AL)
Sullivan (R-AK)
Tester (D-MT)
Thune (R-SD)
Tillis (R-NC)
Toomey (R-PA)
Vitter (R-LA)
Wicker (R-MS)
NAYs —42
Baldwin (D-WI)
Bennet (D-CO)
Blumenthal (D-CT)
Booker (D-NJ)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Cantwell (D-WA)
Cardin (D-MD)
Casey (D-PA)
Coons (D-DE)
Donnelly (D-IN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Franken (D-MN)
Gillibrand (D-NY)
Heinrich (D-NM)
Hirono (D-HI)
Kaine (D-VA)
King (I-ME)
Klobuchar (D-MN)
Leahy (D-VT)
Markey (D-MA)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Merkley (D-OR)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murphy (D-CT)
Murray (D-WA)
Nelson (D-FL)
Peters (D-MI)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schatz (D-HI)
Schumer (D-NY)
Shaheen (D-NH)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Udall (D-NM)
Warner (D-VA)
Warren (D-MA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)
Not Voting – 2
Carper (D-DE)
Lee (R-UT)
PurpleGirl
While watching TV this evening I saw I a strange commercial: for a fireworks store. IIRC, it’s in Pennsylvania and it had an overlay saying that fireworks were illegal in NY unless you had a permit to give a fireworks display.
Viva BrisVegas
Supermarkets here stopped selling fireworks decades ago and when they did it was from behind a glass counter.
The idiot who though it was a good idea to allow unattended low level explosives to be on open display in a public area is a prime example of why the so-called nanny state is needed to keep the rest of alive when we go shopping.
Adam L Silverman
@Viva BrisVegas: Down here they set up these huge marquee tents in strip mall parking lots and vacant lots and sell them from there. Officially you can only use them if you’re using them to shoo away agricultural pests. The FL lobbylature refuses to actually fix the law, so everyone who buys them for the 4th of July does paperwork claiming they’re buying them for legitimate, agricultural pest control purposes only. Which is, of course, not true at all.
Gaffa
North Dakota’s Heitkamp wasn’t so much a backstabber as she was someone who just likes guns (speaking as one of her constituents).
Yeah, she’s a very conservative Democrat. No, a lot of us are not happy on her stances on guns (and other things). Speaking as someone who actually worked hard on her campaign, though, she was far, far better than the sewer-dwelling subhuman whom she was running against, which is why I busted some butt to help her get elected. Yes, she’s innately pro-gun. But she’s not an insane racist Teabagging dipshit either (which was about the best you could say about her opponent).
As a minor bit of good news, she is not a fan of the NRA, and hasn’t accepted any money from them. Not that it matters based on her voting record on guns, but there you are.
Viva BrisVegas
@Adam L Silverman:
I like to think I’ve been around, but I had never heard of that as a use for fireworks.
Then again in the rural areas around here, using fireworks to scare off pests would likely get you convicted for arson and line in the local paper under “Believe It or Not”.
hovercraft
@PurpleGirl:
When I lived in Westchester County and Long Island I’m pretty sure it was illegal, I think it had to do with the population density, it may be legal upstate where there are less people.
Adam L Silverman
@Viva BrisVegas: Here’s the entire FL code for them. Sparklers and a lot of other low explosive novelties are exempt.
http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0700-0799/0791/0791.html
Here’s the agriculture section:
? Martin
So last month Trump spent $737K at Trump owned properties and $321K on payroll. The campaign is paying for his kids travel and using his kids businesses.
Unsurprisingly, more and more evidence the entire US electorate just got grifted.
TriassicSands
Walmart fireworks — just another Trump voter competing (unsuccessfully) for a coveted Darwin Award.
The worst news out of DC today was not the failure to pass gun control legislation — even if it had miraculously gotten through the Senate, there was no way the idiots in the House were going to pass any of that legislation.
No, the worst news is that Justice Breyer joined the dark side and voted to further trash the nearly dead 4th Amendment (search and seizure). In a 5-3 vote, with the women all voting like intelligent jurists who appreciate the need to limit the search and seizure powers of the police, Breyer joined the radical right wing men in once again freeing the police to use illegally obtained evidence.
The good news? Scalia is dead and didn’t survive to make this ruling even worse.
Garland was a poor choice to replace Scalia. Clearly, we need yet another liberal woman to add some sense to the Court.
Felonius Monk
@burnspbesq:
THIS is why! — You don’t have images like this for Target or Costco.
karen marie
@Roger Moore: That’s because you have ocean access. Five years here, and I have completely lost my ability to be rational when temp goes over 110.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
From ’09.
For the record, I give them none of my custom either unless everywhere else is sold out of a particular item.
karen marie
@Jordan Rules: Nine-twenty p.m., it’s 109.
Mike J
I smell veep.
Roger Moore
@Adam L Silverman:
Proving that we can do WTFWW and we won’t let no phony “authorities” interfere with our God Given Rights As Mericans is the whole point of Independence Day fireworks. If they were completely legal and above board, it would defeat the purpose.
magurakurin
@Adam L Silverman: thanks Adam. Some of those are cloture votes, then. Man, the 60 vote threshold in the Senate needs to go.
NotMax
Le sigh.
Palmer and Massie, two pieces of human scum.
With apologies to scum.
MattF
Note that the new version of Unicode (9.0, I think) has a ‘facepalm’ emoji. This could be very useful– although it doesn’t reach the exalted level of the ‘pile of poo’ emoji ?.
Adam L Silverman
@magurakurin: Yep, they never actually voted on them, just voted on whether to vote on them. The reality is though that even had any of them passed, they would have never made it out of the House. I highly doubt that they would even have been brought up in committee in the House.
NotMax
@MattF
The list of things I actively despise with every fiber of my being isn’t very long; emojis are on it.
Adam L Silverman
@NotMax: Actually, and not to diminish what happened in Orlando, its not the worst mass shooting in American history. While its unclear how many of the fatalities and casualties in the St. Louis Race Riots were by shooting, it was definitely up there.
http://articles.latimes.com/1992-07-12/news/mn-4125_1_east-st-louis-riot
As was the Colfax Riot, the Pequot, Sand Creek, and Marias massacres.
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/06/deadliest-mass-shootings
http://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2016/06/americas-deadliest-mass-shootings-part-ii
ETA: We are very good at killing each other. Its the real national pastime.
Jordan Rules
@karen marie: *fans self* Just went to the store. It’s still brutal!
MattF
@NotMax: Tsk. I suspect that if the ancient Sumerians had hi-res color displays, we’d all be using emojis in our writing systems rather than alphabetic characters.
Mnemosyne
@karen marie:
That is the ocean advantage — it was 110 in the SFV today, but it’s down to 88 now.
Mnemosyne
@efgoldman:
Man, the man is non-stop.
Major Major Major Major
The worst part is, the video is boring. All that stupidity and it wasn’t even fun for me to watch.
Adam L Silverman
@Major Major Major Major:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzaSfWhWwLc
Happy now?
Major Major Major Major
@Adam L Silverman: I’ve never been happy.
Mike J
@Adam L Silverman: Can you poke Alain to get him to take the link tracker back out? Naked links put mere mortals in moderation again.
Major Major Major Major
@efgoldman: Maybe for a minute.
AnotherBruce
@Gaffa: Thanks for that explanation, Gaffa. I hope someday soon she will have the space to deal with this in an intelligent way. But right now, there’s a lot of stupid with this issue.
BillinGlendaleCA
@NotMax: ?
BillinGlendaleCA
@efgoldman: I’m about 7 miles due north of downtown LA. Mnemo is a tad bit to the west, Roger(and Ruckus) is to the east. Burnsie is down south in the OC.
Gaffa
@AnotherBruce:
Well, yeah, but to her that *is* being intelligent. She’s a farm girl, farmers like their guns (and farmers are 75% of your constituents in North Dakota, and 95% of them are the hardcore anti-tax conservative Posse Comitatus racists that gave direct birth to the Gordon Kahl movement — hell, Kahl was North Dakotan).
That being said she’s not stupid, but she’d need pressure from a concerted Senate push (like directly from the White House and also from the Senate Majority Leader) to vote for gun control. The little if impressive mini-coup we just saw this weekend just won’t cut it. She’s just honestly against gun control legislation, in the sense that the rifles and shotguns that are the main weapons out here really are used mainly for hunting. Hell, North Dakota is the state where the drug-using liberal fine arts professors in our large universities, who are pro-abortion rights and hardcore Democrats, still protest *for* the NRA so that we “don’t lose our guns” (I can say this with experience because I know a few).
If you’re going to single-issue purity test North Dakota Democrats for gun control legislation, you’re going to find most of them traitors to your cause, I’m afraid. Those of us interested in sane and humane laws for the sake of us all fight a rearguard losing battle in our own party here.
But Heitkamp hates the Tea Party and is big on women’s rights and health care, and did a fine job as commissioner in a number of state offices over the years (as typical for the state, her being a Democrat meant she didn’t engage in the usual graft and corruption that our GOP state officers do).
So take the allies you can find, and please be content in that overall the Democrats we manage to get elected nationally are far more sane, humane, and genetically not-evil than their counterparts they run against. The Ku Klux Klan ran major cities in North Dakota as recently as the 1940s, and we’re still the state with the most recent lynching in US history (right in my home town; it’s a bridge only 3 miles from where I live, and just got a very nice new coat of paint and some rather pretty glowy blue lights on it).
Anne Laurie
@PurpleGirl:
Yeah, we have related ads here; New Hampshire makes a nice profit selling fireworks to Massholes who can’t legally use them (or in some cases, even possess them). There’s a predictable chain of idiots who motor up to the “Live Free or Die (Okay, Maybe Mutilate Yourself a Little” State, spend their money at dozens of permanent and pop-up fireworks vendors, and (usually) get busted coming back at the border, and their new toys confiscated. Apart from the mandatory “Can’t Use These Wonderful Bang-Pops in the Nanny State of Massachusetts” warning on the tv ads, all the local media run stories from the state & local police departments, pointing out that they will be stationed at the toll crossing and they will not do refunds on any illicit fireworks they confiscate. Usually with video from the previous year’s parade of shamefaced/disgruntled recalcitrants getting busted! And there’s still at least a couple sad stories every year, over the July 4th holiday and afterwards, about people being maimed or killed & properties burning down because some idiot mistakenly assumes that his success as a smuggler makes him an expert pyrotechnician…
Anne Laurie
@Viva BrisVegas:
Some major airports have experimented with fireworks (and flash cannons, and battery rounds) to discourage flocks of birds from hanging out near the runways. Never underestimate the American obsession with loud noises and/or blowing stuff up — we’re an entire nation that never progressed past the childhood developmental stage of playing with matches.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
One could also point to the Battle of Blair Mountain, the Thibodaux Massacre, and others as well.
Joey Maloney
@magurakurin: o
RealityBites
True story: I know a man who blew off several fingers playing with fireworks when he was a child. His sister once told me that he was helping a neighbor with a task that required manual dexterity. I asked if it was difficult for him and she said, “nope,he doesn’t have any fingers to get in the way.”
Denali
One of the women in my high school senior class lost both legs at an explosion in a fireworks plant.
low-tech cyclist
Well, the Wal-Mart’s on fire when the lights go out
The room lit up and we ran about
Well, this is what I really call a party now
Packed up our cars, moved to the next town
-with apologies to Modest Mouse
boatboy_srq
@efgoldman:
Well, that does explain Arizona (and Texas, and Florida, and…).
Miss Bianca
@Adam L Silverman:
OK, even before coffee I still think this is the one of the funnier things I’ve ever read first thing in the morning…
ETA: Pre-coffee and post-coffee agree.
Joy in FL
@Adam L Silverman: Thank you, Adam, for posting these lists.
Paul in KY
@Gaffa: I’m cool with her voting agin it. Understand the situation.