Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

He really is that stupid.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

Come on, man.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

We cannot abandon the truth and remain a free nation.

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

Take your GOP plan out of the witness protection program.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

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

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

Incompetence, fear, or corruption? why not all three?

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Charlottesville Today (Open Thread)

Charlottesville Today (Open Thread)

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Here are some tweets from reporters covering the Nazi parade:

Anti-Nazi protesters chanting, “We’re here! We’re gay! We fight the KKK!”

Nazi scum chanting “Fuck you, faggots!”

Militia goons surrounding a park:

Looks like it’s the wrong park too. Thanks for radicalizing these fucking geniuses, NRA!

Do you think Donald Trump will find a moment, perhaps on the golden throne, to tap out a tweet condemning the fact that honest-to-Christ Nazis are terrorizing an American city today? Hell no. They’re his base.

On the bright side, reporters are saying the anti-Nazi counter-protest is shaping up to be much larger than the Nazi march. Stay safe, counter-protesters.

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

188Comments

  4. 4.

    Frankensteinbeck

    reporters are saying the anti-Nazi counter-protest is shaping up to be much larger than the Nazi march

    Ah, good, that is what I was hoping for. They have done their damnedest to rig the situation so they won’t have to be outnumbered, thus the march last night and probably the changing location today. They need it constantly ground in that they are a tiny minority and live under the threat of a vast, hostile majority. That is the only thing that prevents them from campaigns of violence. Bullies depend on an overwhelming advantage.

  5. 5.

    trollhattan

    Militia with semi-auto rifles surround the park

    The “open carry” thing has really calmed down a nervous nation. As to the “semi-auto” bit I’ll bet my next paycheck at least a few are no longer “semi.” #LeadPoisoningisPermanent

  6. 6.

    Shana

    Haven’t heard from my daughter yet – UVA Law School grad who’s down there as a legal observer/aid – and am slightly concerned. Not much as she’s pretty sensible, but still a little concerned.

    ETA: got a text at 11:03 saying she’s still safe.

  14. 14.

    Kay

    Donald Trump has to denounce them. Oh, right. No he doesn’t. Any other President would have to, but not our pampered toddler-President. We have a special, lower standard for Trump.

  15. 15.

    theflax

    It’s the right park. Charlottesville tried to get the rally moved from this semi-residential neighborhood to a park outside of town but (thanks in part to the dumbasses at the ACLU) they were denied.

  17. 17.

    hovercraft

    @Shana:
    I’m glad she safe.

    Fucking Twitler must be so proud. I wonder when he’ll tweet about the anti Neo-Nazi thugs who’ve attacked peaceful patriots marching in defense of Real American Heritage.

  18. 18.

    Splitting Image

    As a historical note: the phrase “Unite the Right” was coined in Canada during the 1990s by a Mr. Frum, with whom some of you might be familiar.

    The official purpose of the “Unite the Right” movement was to bring together the conservative movement, which was at the time split into three factions. The real purpose was to instill a belief that “uniting the right” depended on the centrists making however many concessions the radical right demanded to keep them in the party. The results are as you see above.

    I wonder if Mr. Frum can be reached for comment.

  19. 19.

    Mike R

    The lack of self awareness of these militia jerks is over whelming. As someone who comes from a family of WWI and WWII combat veterans and as Vietnam veteran they are just such a bunch of degenerate fucks and wannabes my absolute disgust with them is indescribable. How they can do this in public, simply pathetic, oh crap what a bunch of fucking punks.

  20. 20.

    Kay

    When career employees of the Environmental Protection Agency are summoned to a meeting with the agency’s administrator, Scott Pruitt, at agency headquarters, they no longer can count on easy access to the floor where his office is, according to interviews with employees of the federal agency.
    Doors to the floor are now frequently locked, and employees have to have an escort to gain entrance.
    Some employees say they are also told to leave behind their cellphones when they meet with Mr. Pruitt, and are sometimes told not to take notes.
    Mr. Pruitt, according to the employees, who requested anonymity out of fear of losing their jobs, often makes important phone calls from other offices rather than use the phone in his office, and he is accompanied, even at E.P.A. headquarters, by armed guards, the first head of the agency to ever request round-the-clock security.

    Another low quality Trump hire. I love the massive security presence around these people. The US Secretary of Education now spends millions of dollars monthly on her personal security force. Someone should tell her she’s not that important to most people. Is she afraid the unwashed masses will get access to her super-secret school voucher plan?

    VIP’s, baby. Very Important People. Their ideas must really suck if they’re this terrified of the public finding out about any of them.

    Bring Mooch back, with his expensive sunglasses and celebrity posse. At least he was entertaining.

  21. 21.

    MJS

    A couple things – I think we can dispense with the term “Neo-Nazi”. 99.9% of the “original” Nazis are dead, so the ones we have now can simply be called “Nazis”. Also, what is it with a large portion of white Americans identifying with the causes of vanquished foes? From the Confederacy, to Nazis, and now with the losers of the Cold War, these guys really like siding with history’s losers.

  23. 23.

    Shana

    @Shana: Just got another text saying she’s seen a few beatings and “Bit of tear gas but I haven’t had it bad so far”. Don’t know if that means she’s been exposed to it or just seen it deployed.

  25. 25.

    lamh36

    @Kay: i don’t even know why they think Donald Trump will be a comforting force..he’s is the gasoline the inflamed them

  27. 27.

    hovercraft

    @Splitting Image:
    This is why even though many people on the right are now staunchly anti Twitler, I do not embrace them, they have too much to answer for. Frum blames Obama for the rise of Twitler, and he hasn’t apologized for his axis of evil bs. Fuck him.

    Jennifer Rubin is more honest, she acknowledges that Twitler is a symptom not the disease.

  30. 30.

    Villago Delenda Est

    The same rule that applies to the Village applies to Nazis.

    Wipe them out. All of them.

  33. 33.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Kay:
    She’s afraid of what people will do to her when it’s revealed she plans to recommend to have all public schools closed and funds allocated to build shitty failing charter schools that everyone will be forced to attend.

  35. 35.

    lamh36

    ‪Prediction: WH issues statement with no outright condemnation but instead praise of police & local govt, & comment on counter protestors‬

  36. 36.

    Splitting Image

    @hovercraft:

    This is why even though many people on the right are now staunchly anti Twitler, I do not embrace them, they have too much to answer for. Frum blames Obama for the rise of Twitler, and he hasn’t apologized for his axis of evil bs. Fuck him.

    Exactly.

  39. 39.

    El Caganer

    @lamh36: Ignoring them is about the worst thing anybody could suggest – it will just convince them that you’re afraid of them.

  45. 45.

    Adam C

    Trump will lie about anything, go back and forth as the wind blows, and forget what he said 10 minutes ago. But he does not, ever, criticize fascists, white supremacists, or Putin.

  46. 46.

    raven

    Woo, motherfucker with a confederate flag with a nice big lump of his head!! I guess these badasses aren’t really locked and loaded.

  49. 49.

    zhena gogolia

    @lamh36:

    Thank you for that. I get so sick of this line. At least if you’re old enough, you know that racist scum are a constantly renewable resource, not limited to the older generations.

  50. 50.

    trollhattan

    @Kay:

    Bring Mooch back, with his expensive sunglasses and celebrity posse. At least he was entertaining.

    Agree, Mooch captured the Trump zeitgeist perfectly–the Bronx-born Manhattanite-wannabe president’s doppelganger.

  51. 51.

    FlipYrWhig

    I can’t imagine that this demonstration accomplishes anything but making the demonstrators look insane and malevolent. What’s the point, to complain that left protests get friendly coverage but theirs don’t? Or to provoke a reaction like Fred Phelps? Because, ya know, people in general don’t like contorted-faced shouters with guns and torches.

  53. 53.

    raven

    @FlipYrWhig: There are people that would be just thrilled if someone got killed.

    The Greensboro massacre is the term for an event which took place on November 3, 1979, when members of the Communist Workers’ Party and others demonstrated in a “Death to the Klan” march in Greensboro, North Carolina, United States. The CWP, which had advocated that Klan members should be “physically beaten and chased out of town”, engaged in a shootout with members of the Ku Klux Klan and the American Nazi Party.[1] Four members of the Communist Workers’ Party, and one other individual were killed and eleven other demonstrators and a Klansman were wounded. The CWP had supported workers’ rights activism among mostly black textile industrial workers in the area.[2][3]

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam C:

    Trump will lie about anything, go back and forth as the wind blows, and forget what he said 10 minutes ago. But he does not, ever, criticize fascists, white supremacists, or Putin.

    The terrorist attack on the mosque in Minnesota was a week ago. Has Trump said anything, including diddly or squat, about that yet? Let alone condemning the perpetrators?

  57. 57.

    Amir Khalid

    @theflax:
    Isn’t that a bit harsh on the American Civil Liberties Union? If I recall rightly, their mission includes defending the freedom of all speech, not just agreeable speech, and they are obliged to defend it for neo-Nazis just as they are obliged to defend it for the majority who oppose neo-Nazis.

  58. 58.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Kay: I’m so tired of the Toddler in Chief. He is – as you first noted – an aggressively bad person. And he’s aspirational for these assholes – they want to be mean, bullying, proudly ignorant, racist, and dishonest, without suffering social or legal consequences. He is, so why can’t they? Of course he won’t denounce this – it’s a group of his most enthusiastic supporters.

  59. 59.

    lamh36

    Tweet from National FOP

    Join us in praying for the cops in #Charlottesville as they try to protect the racists and the protesters each. Nearly impossible job

  64. 64.

    BretH

    Woo, motherfucker with a confederate flag with a nice big lump of his head!!

    And thus is born a martyr for The Cause. Which enables more victimization claims and more recruiting. I think they should have just been ignored except for contemptful looks from passers-by. Thus any violence would have been of their own making. Ignore them if they are being lawful and throw their asses in jail when they step out of line.

  69. 69.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Amir Khalid: As I recall the first anyone ever heard of Glenn Greenwald was his defending a neo-Nazi demonstrator. I don’t think it was an ACLU case but it was thematically similar to previous ones in which they’d taken an interest.

  72. 72.

    Sab

    @Baud: In order to burn a confederate flag you have to buy them, and nobody wants to send money to the kind of people who sell confederate flags.

  76. 76.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Fat Steve Bannon must be so proud. Those are his peeps! Loathsome toads, the lot of them. Racism is alive and well in an embarrassingly large swathe of white America.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @FlipYrWhig: What it demonstrates is that they can be insane and malevolent as much as they want, and we can’t do anything about it. A show of power. Being outrageous and even ridiculous is part of the act. The point is that this is OK now, that their side runs things, they’ve got the guns and nobody dares laugh.

  87. 87.

    Jeffro

    @lamh36: Marsha, you’re kidding right? He’s out on the 9th hole, trying to putt for double-bogey…someone will let him know if North Korea lets loose.

  91. 91.

    Elizabelle

    @zhena gogolia: Saw that story. Back to writing my “Dear New York Times” cancellation letter. In my head so far.

    Disgusting. FTF NYT. They’re not merely reporting. They are normalizing.

  92. 92.

    Jeffro

    @Betty Cracker: @Baud: GOOD – Dems should pile the holy hell right on Orangemandias’ fat ass about this. Let’s hear what he chooses to say about this…let’s make sure Dems, independents, non-Trumpkin Republicans hear every last one of his 140 characters about it.

  93. 93.

    FlipYrWhig

    @Baud: I haven’t kept up with recent output but AFAICT he’s been a tedious dipshit coasting on fumes since 2004.

  96. 96.

    Jeffro

    @JPL: Ugh. Did David Duke have some sort of plastic surgery or something? Or is that just what happens to people when they join HYDRA?

  98. 98.

    Baud

    @FlipYrWhig: Even when I find him less annoying, I can’t recall anything insightful he has ever said. It’s just cynical drips and drabs. He’s not always wrong, but it’s not very illuminating.

  100. 100.

    pamelabrown53

    @lamh36: @32.
    Hi lamh. You can always count on Cilliza to say something mind-blowingly stupid. We must always, ALWAYS stand up against white supremacists.

  102. 102.

    Another Scott

    @Baud: As I read him in his top post on his site at the moment, his main point – and I agree with it – is that blaming the voters is a bad approach. Candidates have to convince voters to support them, not the other way around.

    I think he puts far too little emphasis on things like voter suppression, gerrymandering, and all the rest.

    But the general point that our candidates need to do better isn’t wrong (even if it is kinda tautological).

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  106. 106.

    Baud

    @Another Scott: It is tautological, and he never offers anything.

    And blaming voters is not wrong, when the other side’s voters are inspired by hate. Our potential voters need to understand that we will protect them.

  108. 108.

    Chris

    @lamh36:

    Is it petty that after so many instances of cops doing to black people exactly what the Nazis want, and the Blue Wall of Silence backing then up, I’m not inclined to pray for cops right now? Let them earn their paychecks for once.

  112. 112.

    Yutsano

    @Shana: It’s nerve wracking. A good friend is doing his doctorate in physics there. Fortunately he’s not there right now (he’s at a convention) but he’ll have to come back to the scars. And wonder if any of his students were involved.

  116. 116.

    Betty Cracker

    So Melania Trump finally addresses it:

    Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence. #Charlottesville

    Sounds like she’s talking about a regrettable conflict in which both sides make valid points but need to chill. Is it so hard to condemn motherfucking Nazis in unambiguous terms? Still nothing from Trump.

    Recall that Trump immediately tweets about terrorist attacks in France, Belgium, etc., if he suspects the perps are Muslim.

  117. 117.

    trollhattan

    @Cheryl Rofer:
    It teeters on ‘boff sides” without stating explicitly. I’d think a European citizen would feel compelled to explicitly denounce Nazism wherever it appears.

  120. 120.

    JPL

    @Chris: If there were a local rally, I’d be tempted to buy a confederate flag in order to burn it in front of the assholes.

  121. 121.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    Can’t we get Jared in there to fix things? He could have Ivanka stand by and stare vacantly to help.

  122. 122.

    Mnemosyne

    @lamh36:

    It’s a well-known fact that ignoring them is the WORST tactic you can use. It makes them think that what they’re doing is okay. The only thing that works is to counter-protest in such huge numbers that they back down.

  125. 125.

    Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho

    @Amir Khalid: I don’t think so since the boots are a MN company. “Research” reveals, per wiki, the name change was to suck up to the auto industry.

  127. 127.

    Jeffro

    @trollhattan: you’re exactly right – it is pablum designed to fool low information folks into thinking that someone in the trump administration condemned it.

    I want to hear from the great orange one himself

    Come on trump, what are you waiting for? Scum

  128. 128.

    lamh36

    @Chris:

    I personally saw Ferguson police use crushing force against protesters for much less than what the Nazis in Charlottesville are doing today.

    They had snipers trained on unarmed and peaceful crowds merely protesting, before the slightest hint of violence emerged.

    So when you say, that Nazis have the right to protest because everyone has that right, remember that not everyone does in practice.

    https://twitter.com/adamserwer/status/896413734717059072

  129. 129.

    Caphilldcne

    @Cheryl Rofer: RMNB is nearly a daily visit from me. One of the best hockey blogs in the nation. My first hockey fandom is the Wings but the Caps are right up there. This is so upsetting yet somehow unsurprising that some Michigan right wing morons would try to steal the wings logo. I’m truly sad about the republicanization and wingnutieness of my beautiful home state. In retrospect it’s been going on forever.

  130. 130.

    Baud

    Pelosi

    Our nation is defined by the march of progress. Our strength lies in our diversity. We must reject hate. #Charlottesville

    Kamala Harris

    This is un-American. We must all stand against hatred and bigotry. Our unity is our strength and diversity is our power.

  131. 131.

    Yarrow

    @lamh36: Melania can go to hell. She claimed she was going to make online bullying her “cause” and says nothing when he own husband is one of the worst offenders. This tweet is nothing more than normalizing the white supremacists, Nazis and fascists. Condemning violence on “both sides.” Morals and ethics mean nothing to these people.

  134. 134.

    trollhattan

    @Yutsano:
    I wouldn’t worry too much about random folks in the rather large metro area. A year ago we had a ton of skinheads and antifas bashing and stabbing the snot out of one another three miles from my casa and I didn’t even know anything was happening, other than an odd surfeit of helicopters for a Saturday.

  138. 138.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Matt McIrvin:
    A big part is that they believe the country is ready for a race war, that there is a vast, many millions army of whites ready to join them if they hear the call. This has never happened, and when the serious neo-Nazi types gather it’s pathetically small, about like this. Yes, most whites think they’re only a little extreme, but have zero intention of getting off their ass about it. It’s almost exactly like the socialist revolution idiocy, except at least socialists have basically good goals.

    @Betty Cracker:
    The point is exactly that being a neo-Nazi and preaching the violent elimination of minorities is a perfectly legitimate viewpoint that should be allowed as much room as any other. This is a statement of approval, just a wimpy one.

  140. 140.

    pamelabrown53

    @Baud: @84.
    Have you read of any Republican senators denouncing this travesty and calling for trump to denounce?
    (I’ll donate 100 bucks to a charity/candidate of your choice if you find a single national Republican senator).

  147. 147.

    Yarrow

    @lamh36: More than “don’t mind their votes” they need those white supremacists’ votes. Otherwise they won’t get elected. The racists, fascists, white supremacists and Nazis are the GOP base.

  152. 152.

    NeenerNeener

    @Baud: I still visit his blog every Thanksgiving to re-read the “Preznit giv me turkee’ post. It’s become a tradition.

  153. 153.

    Kay

    @Yarrow:

    Please.

    She gives up the right to lecture me about hate when her family rises to power on promoting the blatantly racist “birther” conspiracy. She gave up the moral high ground. They can’t have both, the Trumps. They can’t have power based on racist themes and the moral high ground. They have to choose.

    I get that they’re privileged, entitled people and they believe they should have both but credibility is earned and none of them have earned it. Trump is a nasty piece of work and his administration reflects his character. They can dress it up all they like but it all goes back to the small, petty asshole at the top.

  154. 154.

    mouse tolliver

    So this happened a couple days ago. Chuck Todd shames the Democratic Party for not being more welcoming to the Confederate flag flying crowd. His comment happens near the end of this Tom Perez interview.

    http://www.msnbc.com/mtp-daily/watch/preparing-for-2018-where-do-democrats-stand-1022001731644

    Fuck Chuck Todd!

    First thing I saw on the news today was a neo-Nazi waving a Nazi flag between two white supremacists waving Confederate flags. Fuck Chuck for trying to normalize their hate. Fuck Chuck for trying to shame Democrats into accepting a symbol of hate.

    Establishment Dems need to wake up though. Perez had a weak response to that question. This is asymmetrical warfare. The time for outreach and conciliatory rhetoric is over. If this was about anything but racism the WWC wouldn’t throw their support to the party that is openly opposed to a “livable wage.”

  155. 155.

    Kay

    Wouldn’t it be the attorney general’s role to denounce race-based hatred? Oh, right. He’s a low quality hire too. No help there! We may be down to some assistant secretary level before we find a decent Trump hire. The top tier clearly aren’t up to the challenge.

  157. 157.

    West of the Rockies (been a while)

    @Quinerly:

    It’s only just after ten here, but I’ll join you in that beer before too long, I suspect.

    I’m a total uber geekster, but I wish Star Trek were the reality: humans of all colors working alongside Vulcans, Klingons, Dinibean Slime Devils…

    Can we make it so?

  158. 158.

    ThresherK

    @Baud: Internal monologue, each:

    I can’t believe I have to repeat this, but Nazis and race supremacists are bad!

  159. 159.

    Lurking Canadian

    The image above points to something in the “open carry” movement that doesn’t make sense. (Well, the whole movement doesn’t make sense, but this in particular.)

    There must be a way for the government to pass a law against armed rebellion. That’s what this is. These are not individual housewives bringing their AR-15 to the Kroger. This is a battalion of hostile riflemen occupying a public square. Sure they haven’t shot anybody yet. Lee’s forces probably didn’t shoot anybody in Pennsylvania before the first day of Gettysburg either, but that doesn’t make them not an invading army.

    And if the police have really fled the scene because they’re scared…fuck them. When did cowardice on duty become such an acceptable thing to claim?

  160. 160.

    Caphilldcne

    @Alternative Fax, a hip hop artist from Idaho: this just sent me wandering around the web and yeah just seems to be because the new owner was involved with a Montreal bicycling club and liked their logo plus thought it would ingratiate him with the Detroit auto magnates. It turns out Red Wing Minnesota (home to the shoes/boots) is named after an Indian chief from the area. Which surprised me because I was pretty sure that the town and the team were both named after the red wing blackbird. I really should have known that. Fortunately I can say with confidence that my other team the Washington Capitals are named after the practice of capitalizing names and first letters in sentences.

  162. 162.

    Kay

    I know Obama is a private citizen and he did his time but since it’s clear Donald Trump is fucking obsessed with Obama in a small, jealous way, wouldn’t it be fun if Obama goaded him?

    Like a red flag in front of a particularly dense and elderly bull. I would completely enjoy it and if he plays it right he could keep Trump busy for months, which will limit damage to the rest of us.

    Just a tweet once a week. 30-40 seconds of his time :)

  163. 163.

    Yarrow

    @Kay: Melania never has had any right to tell the rest of us what to do. She sold herself for money when she married the racist shitbag. If that’s how she wants to live her life, whatever, her choice. She doesn’t get to then turn around and lecture the rest of us on morals and ethics. She’s a fraud.

  165. 165.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Yarrow:
    Exactly right. Melania doesn’t really care. She’s only doing this for appearance’s sake

  166. 166.

    Quinerly

    @West of the Rockies (been a while):
    I held off until 11:45 AM here in St. Louis. Sitting here at a cafe, outside with brunch friends, gazing at Anheuser Busch Brewery, drinking a local, craft IPA. Inside, they just turned on MSNBC. I was trying so hard to tune out and drop out today….but I digress…..

  167. 167.

    El Caganer

    @Kay: The only thing Sessions would denounce about race-based hatred is that there isn’t enough of it.

  168. 168.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @Lurking Canadian:

    And if the police have really fled the scene because they’re scared…fuck them. When did cowardice on duty become such an acceptable thing to claim?

    If they’re so scared why not call in neighboring police forces for reinforcements? Is that a thing that can be done?

  173. 173.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @pamelabrown53:

    Same here.

    ETA: It’s gone on long and often enough now that I’m beginning to think that’s the Twitter version of rickrolling. I don’t think there is such a picture. No other news anywhere of Spencer getting arrested in Charlottesville.

  174. 174.

    thaflax

    @Amir Khalid: No. They defended hate speech, not simply disagreeable speech, and helped make a bad situation worse. CVille wan’t banning the protest, just trying to move it to a spot with fewer people and businesses after leaning that more people were going to attend than noted on the initial permit application. ALCU had no business weighing in, although I guess it helps burnish their BOTH SIDES DO IT bona fides

  178. 178.

    Shalimar

    @Lurking Canadian: it isn’t the open carry law that is the problem. It is a symptom. All previous rally evidence from the last 2 years strongly suggests that if it was the NAACP that was ringing a protest site with members carrying semi-automatic weapons, police would have arrested all of them and sorted out the legalities later.

  179. 179.

    theflax

    @hitchhiker: He’s been on top of it; among other things he declared a state of emergency before the rally was even supposed to start. Stop implying/assuming he’s a bad governor.

  181. 181.

    Quinerly

    @pamelabrown53:
    Frazer’s. Friend now from Eureka Springs staying with me awhile. Another friend now from Yosemite visiting. They picked the spot. Hope all is well with you. Come back for a visit!

  182. 182.

    Steeplejack

    @Amir Khalid:

    No relation. “Red Wing” was sort of a regional meme, for lack of a better word, in Michigan and Minnesota. There was a famous Dakota Sioux chief by that name in the early 19th century, and the name was well known. There is a town in Minnesota called Red Wing, dating from the 1850s.

  185. 185.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @Mnemosyne: Exactly.

    Back in the glorious days of a misspent youth when I hung out in punk clubs in the 80s, the punks would literally punch any skinhead Neo-Nazi who showed up.

    Because, based on experience, if you didn’t, the more and more of them would show up until they drove away everyone else. FWIW, club management would turn a blind eye to this of street preventative measures, because they didn’t want those sorts of skinheads around either.

  186. 186.

    a thousand flouncing lurkers (was fidelio)

    @lamh36: Representative Blackburn’s devotion to the GOP is exceeded only by her self-absorbed stupidity.

  187. 187.

    trnc

    There must be a way for the government to pass a law against armed rebellion.

    No need for a law. It’s already covered.

    Section. 8.

    The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; … To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;

    What we really need is for people to learn that the 2nd Amendment is not a non-sequitur and that the militia to which 2A refers are the same militia that are strictly regulated per other articles of the constitution.

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