Never change New York dead tree front pages: pic.twitter.com/4paWHS3LLW
— bmaz (@bmaz) September 20, 2016
He was a would-be terrorist and failed murderer, a dumb criminal captured by good police work. Per NYMag:
The man suspected of planting bombs in New York and New Jersey over the weekend was charged with five counts of attempted murder of a law enforcement officer on Monday following a police chase and shoot out in Linden, New Jersey earlier in the day. His bail was set at $5.2 million and he is expected to face further charges.
Ahmad Khan Rahami – a 28-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen living in Elizabeth, New Jersey – was reportedly shot by law enforcement after firing on cops. Rahami was “conscious and awake” when taken away in an ambulance, though the extent of his injuries is unknown…
Police officials told NBC News that a fingerprint found on one of the unexploded devices helped law enforcement hone in on Rahami. Though the Manhattan bombs were different types of explosives than that found in New Jersey, they did share similar materials, and used cell phones as the detonation device, which also tied Rahami to the multiple crime scenes, according to officials. “He certainly seemed to do virtually nothing to cover his tracks,” an official told NBC News.Some thieves may have also unwittingly helped authorities in their search for the most wanted man in America, reports DNAinfo. On West 27th Street, where an unexploded pressure-cooker bomb was found, sources say two people looking to steal the suitcase may have accidentally disabled the device and thus left key evidence intact…
Police officials have not named Rahami’s potential motive for the attack, and it is not yet clear if he had direct ties to overseas terror networks. At a press conference at NYPD headquarters after Rahami’s capture, authorities cautioned that the investigation is still in flux. But they did assure the public that, contrary to earlier reports, there is no indication that Rahami was operating as part of a larger terror cell or involved in a bigger plot…
Shredding our Constitution because one sad young man felt cheated out of his share of the American dream seems like a massive overreaction, unless you’re a Republican thug looking for a way to gin up xenophobia in pursuit of votes…
This whole thing is worth your time to read from Trump in Florida today: pic.twitter.com/IdHgnYSsL8
— Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) September 19, 2016
.
Response from someone with actual experience in the field:
I don't know much but I know that this is wrong. At every level, from a practical operational level to a national & moral level, it's wrong
— Patrick Skinner (@SkinnerPm) September 19, 2016
The world is scary for children, that's why adults must act with care and thought. Do not be a child. Work the problem and work it together
— Patrick Skinner (@SkinnerPm) September 19, 2016
Sorry for rant. I just remember being in some odd places always thinking how blessed we are here. But it takes heart to remain that blessed
— Patrick Skinner (@SkinnerPm) September 19, 2016
I properly don't talk about former stuff but I'm familiar with effective counterterrorism efforts and the importance of resilience and trust
— Patrick Skinner (@SkinnerPm) September 20, 2016
Betty Cracker
That speech highlighted above is pure fascism, as was this rant from Trump broadcast on Fox & Friends yesterday:
He sounds like an inarticulate Hitler, circa 1930s, Godwin be damned. Sometimes it fits. This is one of those times.
SP
Shorter Trump:
“And they won’t let him bleed out! They’ll probably even FEED him while he’s in custody, and then- gasp- he’ll have a LAWYER at his TRIAL! Instead we need to strip his citizenship and torture him! And if you don’t agree, you’re weak!”
robert thompson
Trump is trying to use this as ‘Burning Reichstag’. This guy is about par with van der Lubbe. The treatment is going to be better but even the Nazis didn’t execute the supposed suspect immediately. The utter lack of morality in this candidate is comparable to Hitlers machinations pre-1933. There I said it. Who will deny he has reached the point of openly spouting treason and a craving for unlawful acts against citizens.
MattF
@SP: “And his family’s not in prison. Sad!”
robert thompson
@Betty Cracker: Yours was better said. I feel free to call him that thing that we are told never to call fascists. He has proved himself an inarticulate Hitler so many times. No one in the major media will ever call him that though.
sukabi
The Nick Anderson cartoon is spot on.
The Thin Black Duke
There’s an ominous Stephen King quote that comes to mind: “An asshole is a guy who doesn’t believe what he’s seeing.” It’s painfully obvious who Donald Trump is and what he wants to do if enough brain-dead cowards in this country vote this monster into power, and if if anybody tries to tell you something different, then they’re a goddamned asshole, period.
robert thompson
@The Thin Black Duke: I prefer to say Trump’s fan have a serious character defect. I avoid even their proximity when possible and that includes family member, especially them.
rikyrah
Good Morning ?, Everyone ?
NorthLeft12
This is typical Deadbeat Donald; he is trying to make an example of the American justice system working well [at least the enforcement part] and trying to make it out that it is actually a failure and an example of how your system does not work.
Anyone in your country who is not scared shitless of a man who vows to basically eliminate crime is either a craven coward or violent bully or a witless ignoramus. Good chance it is all three.
Bruce K
I flew out of NYC a couple of days before this happened, but the reaction of New Yorkers is basically “wounds will heal, property damage can be repaired, so let’s keep on keeping on”, right?
Some days I’m kinda proud to call myself a New Yorker, even if I’m an expatriate. I also recall that NYC voted against Trump in the Repub primary…
NorthLeft12
@The Thin Black Duke: What you said. People who believe in and support Deadbeat Donald are flat out using their vote to betray your country and the constitution that your laws and government are based on.
And just to be clear, ignorance of what he is proposing to do and the consequences of those actions is no longer a plausible defence.
Kay
Will appoint federal judges if he wins, including one (or more) to the Supreme Court and the GOP Congress will rubber stamp all of them.
We could be stuck with Donald Trump’s judges for 30 years.
?BillinGlendaleCA
I’m sure that NR will be here later today to tell us about the latest poll they showed on Morning Joe, oh wait, it showed HRC up by 5. Never mind.
Cat48
@NorthLeft12:
Why does Trump even live in the US? He seems to hate everything about America. I’m sick of him ranting and raving about my country and lying about everything. The GOP should be ashamed.
?BillinGlendaleCA
For your viewing pleasure this morning: I Heard the Mission Bells(Part II) – Mission San Gabriel Arcángel.
Waldo
@Cat48: He lives here because his type is banned in Germany.
?BillinGlendaleCA
BTW, Willie just pointed out that Trump’s speech above was scripted.
Cat48
@Waldo:
Probably true, heh.
robert thompson
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Nice. It’s funny but I have been to almost all of the missions, even San Antonio de Padua, but living relatively close I have never been to San Gabriel.
Kay
If you really want to get a sense of urgency, imagine Trump on voting rights. Absolutely essential federal role. He’ll be appointing the attorney general and all the US attorneys- also some of the judges that the state voting rights cases will go to.
He’s a proud voter fraud conspiracy theorist- promotes the most rank Fox news bullshit about black voters stealing elections at those rallies. GOP-led states will go bonkers with voter suppression efforts. They’ll have an absolute field day, especially in the south. That doesn’t just mean Republicans stay in power at the federal level- it affects every single race down to school board and water commissioner.
rikyrah
Did you miss the tweet from his spawn, comparing Syrian refugees to Skittles ?
Cermet
Again, just shocks me that someone as terrible as the rump will be voted for by so many amerikans because he has a ‘thug’ next to his name on the ballot; issues like our basic beliefs and constitution be damned … and it will be if that ass wipe piece of stinking shit is voted into office.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@robert thompson: The only local one I’d been to until this past week was San Juan Capistrano, but that was when I was a kid. I’ve driven by Mission San Buenaventura numinous times, but I’ve never stopped there.
Botsplainer
Well, yesterday’s fasting worked like a charm.
Peale
@Cat48: they aren’t though. They’ve been dreaming about putting electrodes on the balls of minorities for years Apparently.
Botsplainer
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Really nice. Religion has left me behind, but I really do love photos of old Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Botsplainer: You saw my pics of the local Greek Orthodox Cathedral?
Botsplainer
@Kay:
Can you imagine what a Trump staffed civil and voting rights division of a he DOJ would look like?
Imagine Attorney General Kristopher K Kobach.
greennotGreen
Since I have moved to the country, when I drive in to the city I pass the Lewis Country Store. Recently their electronic sign read, “Deplorable owned and operated.” Then it was, “Ahmad Rahami go to hell!” Today it read, “Deplorables will see your jihad and raise you one crusade.”
How is it that someone like the sign’s author can be so clueless about what it means to be American? This person wants to identify with the “basket of deplorables” – misogynists, racists, homophobes, Islamaphobes. This person wants to condemn a suspect for a crime without first determining his guilt in a court of law or discovering whether there were extenuating circumstances like a psychotic break. And this person wants to counter current criminality by citing centuries-old religious wars of aggression.
What happened to, “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That noble sentiment has been replaced by dominance displays of chest-pounding and stick-waving. We’re better than that. At least, I hope we are.
Botsplainer
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
I did – beautiful.
robert thompson
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Ventura is like many of the missions in a urban setting and still holds mass. Santa Barbara is the same. Being surrounded you lose the history vibe. Or at least I do. Was up at Soledad and they happened to be conducting a dig at that time. They showed me what the wing would have looked like and even uncovered some foundation footing while I watched. Fascinating.
Botsplainer
@Botsplainer:
And to clarify – the fasting led to no more dog diarrhea. He slept like a champ, and is still snoring next to me.
Anne Laurie
@rikyrah: Posted it earlier: Creepy Clowns!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@robert thompson: They have some of the old adobe pillars at San Gabriel.
Cat48
@Peale:
Yep, GOP just get more horrible w/age. Not renewing the Voters Rights Bill proves that. Even W renewed it, but we have to make it permanent now and it should apply to all states. Arizona was unbelievable in the Primaries with the long lines, can’t wait to see what they try during elections.
The electrodes just freak me out, just goons.
Botsplainer
@robert thompson:
My personal favorite church photo was one I took of a large wall in Sienna, in Tuscany. The guide said that the wall was to be part of the largest cathedral in all Christendom, but was never completed. When I asked why, she said “you’ve heard of the Black Plague?”
That hit and humbled me in so very many ways – gave me chills, even.
Botsplainer
@Cat48:
This election almost makes me wish that Romney would have won in 2012 so that we could avoid the rise of Trump.
And who knew that we’d look back on W fondly as a decent Republican?
Kay
@Botsplainer:
That’s true- not an exaggeration. He would appoint Kobach.
He’s always been this bad, Donald Trump. He’s always been a horrible (and incredibly stupid) person.
1989:
Wrongly convicted kids-teenagers- and he did it to distract from bad publicity. Imagine this fool in charge of federal law enforcement. All that power. An army.
robert thompson
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Can you imagine the serenity the padres must have felt inside the walls. They are so green and lush like the outside grounds of grand houses in Spain. I suppose the pillars have been retrofitted for the next quake.
robert thompson
@Botsplainer: Wow that kinda brings it all home. The vast resources and will to construct the massive cathedrals throughout Western Europe is kind of humbling too. Those poor serfs sure must have believed in a real fiery Hell and their only relief from the drudgery and poverty of their lives was hoping that you got into Heaven. What a sweet scam.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@robert thompson: Not those, they were for buildings that no longer exist. The buildings that are still there have had a lot of seismic work done on them. I have one pic that shows the ruins of the original bell tower that was destroyed in the 1812 quake. In San Fernando the chapel is a reproduction of the original, since it was destroyed in the 1971 Sylmar quake.
Kay
George HW Bush said he’s voting for Clinton. He hasn’t denied he said it privately, anyway. It doesn’t surprise me- there’s no other choice in this race, but it’s funny.
Gin & Tonic
@robert thompson:
Go inside. Marvel at the gold and silver treasures. Ponder the numbers of Mesoamericans killed to steal all that gold and silver. “Humbling” is not a word I’d use.
Splitting Image
@Botsplainer:
It wouldn’t have worked. Whichever Democrat you elected to repair all of the damage done by Romney would become an even bigger Threat to Liberty than even Obama was. Regardless of whether Trump or someone else emerged as the eventual challenger, he would be pushing the envelope even further than Trump is doing this time around, and you’d be looking back at Romney as a decent Republican.
JPL
@Kay: Priebus needs to renounce him right now! lol
Seth Meyers slammed Trump and his lies last night. Just listen
robert thompson
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @?BillinGlendaleCA: Yeah a lot has been lost. San Miguel ( just north of Paso Robles ) has a huge crack in the sanctuary wall. It has been closed to the public for some time. I did get to see it before its closure. A unique sanctuary as the Native design was very pronounced. Just a veneer of European decoration. You probably know but San Juan Batista literally sits atop a scarp of the San Andreas Fault. The ex-rodeo grounds adjacent uses the slope for their grandstand.
BlueDWarrior
@Gin & Tonic: I think humbling is still a valid term to use, even knowing that. A lot of culture is built upon the backs of the vanquished, whether the vanquished deserved it or not (most of the time, they didn’t). And I think it would serve all of us well to remember that no matter how clean a path you may walk as an individual, there is always the very high chance the society you grew up in stomped over someone else to clear that path for you.
Kay
I know this is a touchy subject, but Clinton speaks like she’s aware it’s amplified now. It’s a huge improvement. She has a nice, low voice if she isn’t straining to make it louder. Sounds 10X better, her real voice, rather than what happens when she tries to make it louder. I was so pleased. I know it’s tied up with sexism but it sounded bad APART from any notions people have about women.
robert thompson
@Gin & Tonic: Was referring to the European cathedrals, but your point remains. All that glitter in Central and South America was paid for by disease epidemics which killed far more than actual violence. That said the treatment of New World natives can never be expiated. I can’t imagine what disgust and disdain must lay within their memories.
Matt McIrvin
@rikyrah: Well, we already knew Skittles were a menace requiring the use of deadly force.
BlueDWarrior
@Kay: I think she’s reviewed tapes of her own speeches and has finally been able to internalize the necessary modulations she needs to make to her voice to not sound like she’s yelling (screeching some would say) all the time.
And yes it is a fault of our society that we ascribe bad things to loud women, but something like that doesn’t change in a few weeks so you have to work around it as best you can while trying to make it better for the long term.
Kay
@JPL:
I’m glad they’re saying that birtherism is how he rose in the GOP because that’s true. You know how there are moments in your personal life when you make a decision that you don’t know at the time is pivotal, but it turns out to be?
That’s the GOP and birtherism. Sometimes you only get one shot to turn something around. They chickened out with birtherism and this is where they ended up. A profound wrong turn that might not have looked like one at the time.
Botsplainer
@Splitting Image:
I was talking to a couple of colleagues yesterday (one is the head of Club D here in the People’s Republic, the other an old Bernfeeler), Trump is a guy who, if elected, is the last President of the United States under this Constitution. The Bernfeeler began making Bern noises, and the head of Club D laughed at him while I blamed Bern and his minions for poisoning the well with all that “warhawk”, “rigged process” and “corporate whore” talk. When the Bernfeeler said “but she is Wall Street” I pointed out that we kinda need those guys.
I think he got it after the double teaming.
Kay
@BlueDWarrior:
I know people disagree with this, BUT. We ascribe bad things to loud women and Hillary Clinton sounds bad when she strains her voice to amplify it. Not all women sound bad loud. She does, however. Her speaking voice is nice- it’s low and when she uses it she retains a conversational quality- it’s more personal.
Botsplainer
@robert thompson:
I can speak from experience and interactions that a lot of the Mayans quietly stick to old practices and rituals within the framework of living in a place that is overwhelmingly Catholic. They seem to do a lot of both.
BlueDWarrior
@Kay: Fair enough
Botsplainer
@Kay:
Women do sound bad loud, because when we hear that, we assume we’re being yelled at by our significant others – which is the default setting in male-female relationships.
Betty Cracker
@Kay: I noticed that too. It sucks that something like that could make a difference when she’s running against an honest-to-dog fascist, but this is the world we live in.
Ann Arbor voter
Doesn’t it seem strangely coincidental that Donald predicted the terror attack just after he admitted to his ridiculous 5-year web of lies? Some people are saying that he was involved in those attacks in order to distract the media from his years of deceit…that’s the word here in Michigan…just something I’ve heard…
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: Rush Limbaugh calls it a “shrieking second wife” voice. He’s been rolled by three gold-diggers, IIRC. I guess he should know.
Gin & Tonic
@robert thompson: I was referring to the European cathedrals as well. All that gold was stolen from the Aztecs and shipped over.
After the fifth or sixth cathedral tour in Spain I became ill at the thought of all that human suffering and gave up going inside.
Kay
@Botsplainer:
I feel like there will be a recognition that some of this is sexism when she’s President and it continues. That’s what happened with Obama. First there was fierce denial that any of the attacks on him were motivated by racism and then it became too obvious to excuse as “principled opposition”. It took a while.
rikyrah
@Botsplainer:
There would be no Civil Rights division ???
rikyrah
@Kay:
Yes, that underlying sexism against her.
If she were a White man, this would not remotely be close.
Botsplainer
@Betty Cracker:
Hey, if they dug some gold, they earned it.
Fact is, they didn’t get paid enough.
Or to put it another way, what would it take for you or any other normal woman to spend line time with him?
LOL
Botsplainer
@Betty Cracker:
Hey, if they dug some gold, they earned it.
Fact is, they didn’t get paid enough.
Or to put it another way, what would it take for you or any other normal woman to spend lone time with him?
LOL
Betty Cracker
@Botsplainer: Damn right they earned it, and I hope all three (or was it four?) of them wrung every cent they could out of the vile bastard on the way out.
raven
Me and my sis getting bombed by the swallows at Capistrano, 1958.
Betty Cracker
@raven: Very cool photo!
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I will never forget that moment at one of Trump’s rallies in which bellowed into the microphone “I AM SICK! AND TIRED!! OF HER SHRIEKING VOICE!!!”
Botsplainer
@raven:
I always thought they were supposed to be small.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: I think we visited there 10 years after that, no pics; sad.
ETA: I do have a few pics from a visit to the Santa Barbara Mission in 1994.
Emma
@robert thompson: For a very good, non-academic explanation of the actual views of people in the Middle Ages I suggest the Brother Cadfael stories. Either book or tv series will do.
raven
@Botsplainer: You know what, maybe those are just pigeons.
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Here’s the chapel last year.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@raven: Capistrano? I’d love to go down there again, but Metrolink sucks going to the OC(it’s designed for commuters going to DTLA) and after my drive to the beach a week and a half ago, I’m not trusting my old car for that long a trip.
That excludes Ventura as well.
raven
Capistrano Courtyard
raven
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Yea, we had some time to kill the day after the wedding in Laguna last year so I took the bride on an early morning tour. Your catholics will have to tell me what this means.
raven
This was a fun shot at Dana Point.
Humdog
@?BillinGlendaleCA: you have to take Amtrak to Capistrano. Beautiful trip, Olivera Street in the a.m., Capistrano for lunch.
Dadadadadadada
@greennotGreen: tl;dr: read American Nations by Colin Woodard. It has all the answers.
Long version: the “United States” is not and never has been a unified society with widely-shared culture and values. From the start, it’s been an awkward alliance of convenience between several distinct cultures, whose differences stem from different parts of Europe and North America, and who have never seen eye to eye on any number of issues.
In order of founding date, the nations are: First Nation (ca. 10,000 BC; this includes all the surviving Indian tribes; it is the most diverse, most diffuse and least powerful nation today); El Norte (the US Southwest, from Texas to the coast, and as far north as Frisco; founded in the blend of Spanish and local Indian cultures in the 1500s, distinct from neighboring regions of the US and Mexico; absorbed whole into the US in 1848, ruled for a few generations by an imported US/Anglo minority, presently re-asserting itself through the rise of Hispanic political power); New France (now reduced to Quebec and New Orleans, a society that is markedly less absolutist than many of its modern neighbors); Tidewater (the Virginia planters, founded 1607, currently on the path to extinction); Yankeedom (New England and points west, founded 1620, Puritan-based, the source of much of “American ideology,” including popular sovereignty); New Netherland (New York, which retained Dutch culture despite the English conquest, and so preserved ideas like freedom of inquiry and conscience, which it later pushed into the Bill of Rights); Deep South (slave lords); Midlands (Pennsylvania and environs, German-dominated, pacifistic, pluralistic, hard-working); Appalachia (chaotic, violent, taking poverty and ignorance as badges of honor and a key point of identity); the Left Coast (the west coast from SF to Vancouver; a blend of Yankee utopianism and Appalachian hedonism, born from the Yankee shippers and Appalachian gold-rushers that settled California in the mid-1800s); and the Far West (an ‘internal colony’ that cannot sustain itself without massive subsidies from outside, and whose attitude to outsiders has always been “go away, leave us alone, send us more money”).
The Deep South, Appalachia, the Far West and El Norte’s Anglo minority are Trump’s base. They have always been stratified, authoritarian, extravagantly racist societies. Trumpism fits them like a glove. Opposition to Trump is rooted in values like pluralism, human rights, rule of law, etc. that have long histories in the Midlands, Yankeedom, and New Netherland (all of which strove to get certain cherished points into the Constitution) and were built into the founding of the Left Coast (which didn’t exist until long after the Constitution), but which Appalachia and the Deep South find foreign and non-essential.
Gin & Tonic
@raven: It’s “I shall rise again” in Latin.
Dadadadadadada
@Dadadadadadada: Sorry for the wall o’text and replying to myself. To resume:
I’d bet anything that Trump’s support is overwhelmingly from white people in the Deep South, Far West, Appalachia, and El Norte. The nations are not well-defined geographically, and their borders have little or nothing to do with state lines or national borders (hence the “Pennsyltucky” phenomenon; Philadelphia is the capital city of the Midlands, and Pittsburgh is heavily Midlands, and everything in between is solidly Appalachia; also the stark divisions in New York state politics, where New Netherlands culture from the city often clashes with Upstate and Long Island, where Yankee culture dominates; also how Left Coast San Francisco has more in common with distant, officially foreign Left Coast Vancouver than with much closer California desert towns that are part of the Far West; and so on). Also, internal migration further muddies the waters; an Appalachian that moved to Yankeedom 10 years ago is still an Appalachian, and vice versa. This explains why Trump is popular in certain (Deep South) parts of Florida, and not so much in other parts that are dominated by transplants/retirees from the northern nations.
However, as Woodard’s theory predicts, Trump’s base of support is dominated by the nations I mentioned. Appalachian culture is heavily based on racial resentment (from the Reconstruction period, when they felt their impoverished circumstances were being ignored in favor of equally impoverished freed slaves); Deep South and (white) El Norte cultures are heavily based on white supremacy over an oppressed non-white underclass; the Far West is perpetually fascinated by the idea that distant elites are screwing them over. In all cases, unrestrained violence and/or human-rights abuse is seen as a cromulent means to the end of securing one’s own privilege and enforcing rules.
Hence the deplorables.
Gin & Tonic
@Dadadadadadada: Judging by stickers and yard signs there’s a ton of Trump support here in Yankeeland.
Stella B.
@Gin & Tonic: is there really a ton of support or are the Trumpistas simply inclined to trumpet louder?
Ruckus
@greennotGreen:
Some are not better.
Some are far worse.
Always been that way, probably always will be that way.
Bad people don’t get into power by being nice.
Gin & Tonic
@Stella B.: Here in RI, Trump got 63% in the R primary. Granted, this is a very D state, primary turnout is always low, and by that point there were few candidates left, but in the more rural parts I think it’s fair to say there is strong support. From what I know and see of MA it’s a similar story.
Uncle Cosmo
@Gin & Tonic: Those Trump signs aren’t there to support but to intimidate. Just listen to the tenor of the Trumpenproletariat at rallies or on Twitter or Facebook. What Clintonista in his/her right mind is going to put up a Clinton lawn sign & risk a brick through their window some dark night? Or put on bumper sticker & risk a keying or slashed tires?
Groucho48
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Best autocorrect of the week?
KS in MA
@Kay: Totally agree.
pat
@raven:
I could be wrong, but they seem to be looking and acting more like pigeons…
Chris T.
@greennotGreen: I’m always tempted to go into a place like that and ask the guy: “Remember when Christ said, ‘If a man strikes you, shoot him with your AK-47’?”
Canadian Visitor
What are the odds? The immigrant-terrorist was spotted and turned in by another immigrant (the owner of the bar in NJ). How would Trump & Co. deal with that?