Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

Cancel the cowardly Times and Post and set up an equivalent monthly donation to ProPublica.

Republicans want to make it harder to vote and easier for them to cheat.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Live so that if you miss a day of work people aren’t hoping you’re dead.

This blog will pay for itself.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

The cruelty is the point; the law be damned.

There are no moderate republicans – only extremists and cowards.

We need to vote them all out and restore sane Democratic government.

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

Dear media: perhaps we ought to let Donald Trump speak for himself!

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

I am pretty sure these ‘journalists’ were not always such a bootlicking sycophants.

Take hopelessness and turn it into resilience.

Speaking of republicans, is there a way for a political party to declare intellectual bankruptcy?

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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Today In All American Americana

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It’s been almost a week since the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. So what is going on with American teenagers planning on taking their 2nd Amendment rights out for some exercise?

(Before anyone grouses about it: yes, that is not an AR pattern rifle in the picture it is a GLOCK handgun. Since it is locked back and lying on its left side, I can neither see the caliber (printed on the barrel) nor the model number (printed on the left side). From the size of the barrel in the picture I’d estimate it is a 9mm parabellum/9X19 caliber. It definitely has had a custom grip/frame job.)

Bethesda Magazine has the details of last Thursday’s incident:

Prosecutors detailed Monday during a bond review hearing in Montgomery County District Court what was found during Thursday’s search of the home of Alwin Chen, 18, of the 11700 block of Gunners Drive in Germantown Court. Chen, who appeared in court over video from the Montgomery County Detention Center in Rockville, was ordered held without bail by Judge John C. Moffett. He faces charges of possession of a handgun, possession of a firearm by a person under 21 and possession of a firearm on school property, according to county police.

When arrested Thursday afternoon at the high school, Chen had a 9mm handgun in his book bag and a knife in his pocket, according to police, The arrest came a day after a former student shot and killed at least 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida.

Officer Michael Chindblom of the county police department’s crisis intervention team testified in court Monday that police found the list and additional weapons at Chen’s home while executing a search warrant. In addition to the AR-15 style rifle, several inert grenades, revolvers, a Glock pistol, landmine detonators and an attack vest were found, he said.

This is clearly an example of the power of the labeling theory of crime. Had he lived on Bakers Drive, I’m sure he’d have just made cupcakes for his classmates.

We can be thankful that Mr. Chen was unsuccessful, but there have been four more mass shootings since Nikolas Cruz shot up Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School last Wednesday. One each in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Kansas, and Texas. There were only 2 killed and 20 wounded across all four incidents.

Stay frosty!

Open thread.

Reader Interactions

215Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    AR-15 style rifle
    •Multiple grenades
    •Detonator for C4 land mines 
    •Additional guns
    •Tactical vest
    •List of grievances re: students/school 

    All hunting tools.

  3. 3.

    Adam L Silverman

    Is it wrong of me that I actually had to think about whether it was appropriate or not to post the clip from Dr. Strangelove of Slim Pickens saying: “a guy could have a pretty good time in Vegas with that stuff”?

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    Officer Michael Chindblom of the county police department’s crisis intervention team testified in court Monday that police found the list and additional weapons at Chen’s home while executing a search warrant. In addition to the AR-15 style rifle, several inert grenades, revolvers, a Glock pistol, landmine detonators and an attack vest were found, he said….

    David Felsen, an attorney representing Chen along with Jill Michaels, said his client is a good student who had “never been in trouble” and a scholarship-level athlete. He presented two acceptance letters from colleges in Maryland and Florida. Chen was cooperating “100 percent” with police, he said, and there was “no hint of any mental issue at all.” The weapons appeared to be legal and were not owned by Chen, but by another person living at the house and were found in another bedroom, according to Chen’s attorneys.

    The weapons were appropriate to be in the house, Felsen said. “This is an 18-year-old with absolutely no history,” he said.

    So, who else was in the house, and why the fuck did they have these weapons?

  7. 7.

    Gravenstone

    He seems suspiciously nonwhite. Be curious how vocal the gun fundies get about his ‘rights’ to assemble that arsenal.

  11. 11.

    Jager

    My oldest daughter is the director of counseling at an “examine in” 7-12 school in Northern CA.. After the Parkland story broke last week, the principal asked her to make an announcement to the students. She opened with, “We love you.” At noon she went outside and sat under a big tree on the campus and listened to her students talk for an hour then spent the afternoon and most of the next day doing one on ones. She told me the most important thing was to let them talk and for her to listen.

  13. 13.

    ARoomWithAMoose

    @Baud: “List of grievances re: students/school” is perhaps the second most important hunting tool to have in your possession.

  16. 16.

    Corner Stone

    My son’s teacher is talking about installing one-way locks and blackout curtains in her classroom. This is excellent.

  18. 18.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gravenstone: East Asians are okay. They’re pale. SE and Central Asians depends on whether they’ve converted to a conservative form of Protestantism, changed their first names to something middle American, and are slavishly and glibly reactionary.

  21. 21.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    I heard some Douglas students on the radio as I was driving around today. They were saying this wasn’t a Democratic or Republican issue and we needed bipartisan action. And I thought, “Oh honey.” It made me sad. They were already being trained to mouth popular clichés.

  22. 22.

    Corner Stone

    @ARoomWithAMoose:

    “List of grievances re: students/school” is perhaps the second most important hunting tool to have in your possession.

    You gotta pick your spots. Can’t get ’em all.

  24. 24.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jager:

    an “examine in” 7-12 school

    Not familiar with that term. Could you please say a bit more about the “examine in” school concept? Thanks.

    ETA: I should have said at the outset, your daughter sounds like a caring and wonderful young woman. I’m sure that students were grateful for her listening skills.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Gravenstone: Given the way the National Firearms Act and the Gun Control Act are written, I’m not sure a BATFE regulation banning them would survive a court challenge. I’m also not sure a bill to outlaw them would make it pass the 60 vote cloture threshold in the Senate. Let alone be brought up for a vote in the House.

  26. 26.

    Corner Stone

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    They were saying this wasn’t a Democratic or Republican issue and we needed bipartisan action. And I thought, “Oh honey.” It made me sad. They were already being trained to mouth popular clichés.

    I have been stunningly saddened by this repeated refrain from these young people. Hopefully they saw what not calling out the R party got them today when they shut down the gun vote in FL lege.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike J: I’m pretty sure the grenades are illegal. I don’t know about some of the other stuff. The AR pattern rifle, the GLOCK, and the tactical vest, as well as a list of grievances are all legal. What I’m not sure about are the detonators.

  31. 31.

    Baud

    @Corner Stone:

    I was following the net neutrality debate which is highly partisan, but there were a lot of people who wouldn’t accept that the Dems were better than the GOP (despite the yeoman’s effort of some).

  36. 36.

    TenguPhule

    @ARoomWithAMoose:

    “List of grievances re: students/school” is perhaps the second most important hunting tool to have in your possession.

    For the most dangerous gamer.

  37. 37.

    Raoul

    You may have seen that the Florida legislature just refused to act on an assault weapons ban. Perhaps you also saw that a FL legislator (Repub, of course) had a conspiracy theory staffer tweet something “inappropriate”.
    I happened to discover that FL-63 has a Black Democrat running for November. She’s a Harvard grad and just 38 years old. I just donated to Fentrice Driskell in honor of the Parkland kids.
    We need to dethrone all these fvking Republicans.

  39. 39.

    Suzanne

    So we got an email yesterday from the principal of Spawn the Elder’s high school. Apparently there was a threat made against the school and/or a student (the email and news reports were light on details). Spawn heard from a friend that it was in regards to a fight that happened last week on campus. The principal wrote that the threat was not credible, but that the police would be all over the campus this week “just in case”, which makes me think it was more credible than they’re letting on. Spawn was freaking TFO last night and this morning.

    Thanks, GOP!

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Baud: That, not having a leadership or decision making structure because that was somehow bad. And the drum circles.

  42. 42.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    On the other, I remember when Occupy felt they needed to be nonpartisan and it prevented them from recognizing that one party was better than the other for their issues.

    To be fair, both sides. Because her emails. /s

  43. 43.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I think we need to accept that there are a lot of people who agree with us on a variety of issues who simply will not fight with us. I recall posting a number of stories after the election about how many self identified environmentalists do not vote either.

  44. 44.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat:

    Both-sides-do-it and its more mealy mouthed sister bipartisanship needs to be cremated and its ashes scattered in the Marianas trench.

    Gonna need more flamethrowers.

  45. 45.

    Citizen_X

    @Adam L Silverman: The original line was “have a pretty good weekend in Dallas.” Given that the movie was supposed to open Nov. 22, 1963 (and ended up being delayed a few weeks), they figured that that was way inappropriate, and overdubbed the “Vegas.”

  48. 48.

    TenguPhule

    @Baud:

    I think we need to accept that there are a lot of people who agree with us on a variety of issues who simply will not fight with us.

    I don’t think Baud: 2020 “Let’s not bitch about our lazy ass do nothings” has the ring of a winner to it.

  50. 50.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud: It’s a relief, really. If he had been Caucasian we’d all have to make a huge effort to understand what drove him to this, but now we can just seal the borders instead.

  52. 52.

    gvg

    Someone in that house is setting a bad example.
    They don’t say if it was locked up. It could have been locked up safely tho I don’t exoect so. Student was arrested for taking a gun to school. Day after national news of school shooting. Maybe he wants to be arrested.

  58. 58.

    TenguPhule

    @schrodingers_cat:

    I was describing the Hindu last rites, first cremation and then not even holding on to the ashes, returning the body to the elements.

    I know. I was riffing on the American tradition of more dakka.

  60. 60.

    TenguPhule

    @gvg:

    Maybe he wants to be arrested.

    Preferable to him actually shooting up the school.

    Its not much, but in these times I’ll take it and be thankful.

  64. 64.

    Manyakitty

    We had a seventh grader shoot himself at a middle school in the Canton area this morning, maybe half an hour south of me in Akron. Then this afternoon, another school district went on a general lockdown after social media threats.

    But everything is fine. Perfectly normal. ?☹?

  65. 65.

    different-church-lady

    @Baud:

    I think we need to accept that there are a lot of people who agree with us on a variety of issues who simply will not fight with us sabotage us because SPEECHES TO BANKSTERS!!!!.

  66. 66.

    SiubhanDuinne

    Because it’s an Open Thread, and in hopes that lamh and rikyrah are around:

    Just heard a news snippet on my local NPR station that one of the international gates at ATL Hartsfield-Jackson Airport put up a departure sign indicating a flight to Wakanda.

    They are said to be open to negotiating the fare in either dollars or vibranium. LOL!

  68. 68.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Baud: Ideally its the Ganga, but any body of water will do in a pinch. I suggested Marianas Trench so that the ashes will never rise to the surface again. I am open to the Sea of Tranquility* too.

    * I know, not a real sea with water and such.

  69. 69.

    Jager

    @SiubhanDuinne: It’s a public school, kids have to take a series of exams to qualify for admission, based on the Boston Latin model. Kids take 5 AP classes a day, emphasis on academics, and the arts. One of her students last year is the daughter of two farm workers. (the kid taught her dad how to read and write) The girl got a full ride to Brown, she told my kid that she is planning on law school to become an immigration attorney. The kids are an excellent mix, ranging from farm worker families to silicon valley multi-millionaire’s kids.

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    Oy vey!

    Update: Hours after this story posted, an aide to state Rep. Shawn Harrison, R-Tampa, Benjamin Kelly, sent an email to Alex Leary saying:

    “Both kids in the picture are not students here but actors that travel to various crisis when they happen.” Asked for backup to that claim, Kelly sent another email with a link to a YouTube conspiracy video about one of the students.

    “There is a clip on you tube that shows Mr. Hogg out in California. (I guess he transferred?),” Kelly’s email read.

    Asked about the email, Harrison said: “If my aide disparaged a student from Parkland who is grieving than I will deal most strongly with my aide. … Clearly it was inappropriate for him to send that.”

    After that, he said Kelly had been put on leave.

  77. 77.

    TenguPhule

    @Adam L Silverman: And this is just the first week.

    Remember, the Sandy Hook parents still get shit on by these assholes to this day.

    Something is seriously wrong with half the country.

  78. 78.

    Wapiti

    @TenguPhule: As a crusty old combat engineer, I’d suggest that the first report is always wrong, and the detonator might either be a detonator for a M4 antitank land mine or a detonator for C4 (the explosive). Or it might be something else.

    Either way, if there’s inert grenades in the stash, the detonator or whatever it is probably wandered off a demolitions training range some time ago. I don’t think the Army has trained much on M4 mines in the last 20 years.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @Brachiator:

    Hmmm. Makes one wonder if bringing the handgun to school was a cry for help, and I mean that literally — If they catch me with a gun, they’ll search the house and find Dad’s arsenal before he can use it.

  81. 81.

    Mnemosyne

    @SiubhanDuinne:

    We got an official email from the head of the Giant Evil Corporation that opened with, “It’s hard not starting with ‘Wakandaf forever’ …”

    The GEC leadership is ecstatic today. They gambled on a young writer/director of color and it’s already paying off hugely.

  82. 82.

    NotMax

    Have Repubs peppered the Twitter with the hashtag #KidsLivesDontMatter yet?

    Or would they consider that too subtle?

  83. 83.

    randy khan

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):

    I’m not going to be critical of them on that. If you want to pass gun control in the Florida legislature, you need a lot of Republican votes. With any luck, they understood beforehand that the Dems largely (although, unfortunately, not entirely) were with them.

  84. 84.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mnemosyne: What happens when Stephen Miller writes and the President signs an addendum to the Travel Ban EO that adds Wakanda to the list?

  87. 87.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    Have Repubs peppered the Twitter with the hashtag #KidsLivesDontMatter yet?

    Or would they consider that too subtle?

    #TheKidsareAltRight

    /s

  89. 89.

    MomSense

    @TenguPhule:

    It’s not just the parents. Anyone, but especially women, who says anything about gun control in a public setting will find themselves harassed online and in meat space. These gun nuts are terrorists.

  90. 90.

    Steve in the ATL

    @debbie:

    Someone needs landmine detonators inside their house???

    You never had a sibling who borrowed your stuff without asking?

  91. 91.

    TenguPhule

    @NotMax:

    But your luggage ends up in Latveria.

    Actually no, FOX still owns those rights in film. So entirely seperate universes…unless you’re suggesting that airlines have pioneered wormholes in their quest to fuck up people’s travel plans?

  93. 93.

    Corner Stone

    @randy khan:

    I’m not going to be critical of them on that. If you want to pass gun control in the Florida legislature, you need a lot of Republican votes.

    I’ve listened to a lot of what they have been saying and it seems like they think they can bring this to a non-party resolution. IMO, there is nothing to be gained by attempting to curry R’s to your effort. An all out assault (if you will) against R’s is the only pressure that is going to work.

  95. 95.

    TenguPhule

    @MomSense: I just think it takes an extra special level of cruelty to target the victims of a shooting for that level of gutter smearing.

    There is a very special hell for those people.

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    @TenguPhule: Actually, Disney is buying Fox’s entertainment side. So the rights will be reverting once the deal is done and blessed off by the regulators.

  99. 99.

    Kayla Rudbek

    @Mnemosyne: would the GEC be open to selling Black Panther-themed science kits? I haven’t seen the movie yet but I was thinking about the essay I linked to the other day discussing T’Challa and Shuri as scientific role models and wondering what interest there would be in such products. (I’m pretty sure that the GEC has already been working on action figures and Barbie dolls)

  104. 104.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Mnemosyne: Sorta OT, but anyway – I’m not an “action movie” sort of guy, and can’t remember the last one I’ve paid money to see; I don’t know shit about Marvel comics (I was more of a “comix” guy some decades ago.) But I’m intrigued by the hype, and wondering if I should go see the movie everybody is talking about, since dear Mrs G&T will be traveling this weekend.

  106. 106.

    MomSense

    @TenguPhule:
    Absolutely. These gun fanatics are monsters. I’m just bringing attention to onenof the obstacles to organizing for gun control legislation. People are afraid to speak out.

  107. 107.

    Brachiator

    @Adam L Silverman:

    What happens when Stephen Miller writes and the President signs an addendum to the Travel Ban EO that adds Wakanda to the list?

    Wakanda is killing it in the Winter Olympics. It’s those vibranium skis and skates.

  108. 108.

    Kay

    This is nice:

    West Boca Raton high school students have walked out for a 12-mile gun reform march to Marjory Stoneman Douglas.

    Another wave of students from Palm Beach County have made it to the high school. 10 miles in 3+ hours. “We’re exhausted, but couldn’t be prouder to be here,” a senior said.

    My grandmother would say “God love ’em” if she saw that. She loved the youngs :)

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    @TenguPhule: And they will extend copyright for 250 years, as the Framers were too foolish to do when they wrote “by securing for limited times.” So that your grandchildren’s grandchildren can’t draw a three-fingered anthropomorphic mouse.

  112. 112.

    Steve in the ATL

    @TenguPhule: mostly, plus half of Arizona and New Mexico, part of California, and all of Puerto Rico. But they still aren’t the south. Texas is for purposes of Southern Living magazine, but is not accepted as such by southerners in general and Texans almost to a person.

  119. 119.

    TenguPhule

    In lighter news, corporate fuckups by KFC’s management has resulted in the majority of their stores in Great Britain closing because they have no chickens.

  121. 121.

    Jager

    @SiubhanDuinne: It is a great school, but woefully underfunded. My grandson goes there, loves it, but hates the fact he has to ride to school with his mom, never been in her office either. Gives her a wide berth at school. The explanation is that he’s 14.

  127. 127.

    Kay

    @MomSense:

    It is. Such a leap of faith, that they believe they can do this.

    Remember the Sandy Hook parents? They were stunned when Congress voted down their bill. There’s a real “fuck you” quality to this from lawmakers. A real strutting arrogance. I’d love to put every one of these assholes out of a job.

  129. 129.

    germy

    Saw Black Panther for the second time today. There’s so much detail (visual, character, sound) that I needed a second viewing. My wife loved it, and she is not a comic book or movie fan.

    ‘Wakanda the Vote:’ Group organizes voter registration drive at ‘Black Panther’ movie

  133. 133.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @MomSense:

    That’s the photo that made me cry and simultaneously want to smash things.

    We need a word for that dual emotion. (I expect there’s a fine lengthy German portmanteau. Amir?)

  135. 135.

    Mnemosyne

    @Kayla Rudbek:

    I think that the consumer products side thought it was going to be a Boy Movie and didn’t produce dolls yet.

    I’m pretty sure that’s going to get remedied as fast as the factories in China can crank the toys out.

    I haven’t heard anything about a science kit, but it’s a great idea.

  136. 136.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    Remember the Sandy Hook parents? They were stunned when Congress voted down their bill. There’s a real “fuck you” quality to this from lawmakers. A real strutting arrogance.

    I remember. It was a fucking kick to the teeth. Every one of those legislators who voted against the bill should have had ads demonizing them for it nonstop.

    Instead, the ones that DID pass some restrictions in Colorado got voted out.

    Maybe Canada can invade us and import some sanity.

  139. 139.

    No Drought No More

    Watching her facial expressions and body language with the TV muted, Sarah Huckabilly Sanders looked likes she wants to vomit half the time. As she doesn’t strike me as a stupid individual, her preposterously blatant lies on behalf of Trump can most sensibly be explained as the behavior of someone in way over her head, and who knows it..

    I remain mercilessly unsympathetic to the whole rotten crew- “Hang ‘Em High”- and that includes each and every congressional republican, no exceptions whatsoever. R.O.T. stands for Russia Owns Trump… and the republican party does not give a damn about it. Quite the contrary, as is becoming increasingly obvious.

  140. 140.

    Mnemosyne

    @Gin & Tonic:

    I’m seeing it on Thursday, so I can’t give you a direct opinion. Our own Sister Railgun called it A meditation on leadership and what it means to be a king, with the occasional fistfight.

  143. 143.

    different-church-lady

    @No Drought No More:

    As she doesn’t strike me as a stupid individual, her preposterously blatant lies on behalf of Trump can most sensibly be explained as the behavior of someone in way over her head, and who knows it.

    Not mutually exclusive.

  145. 145.

    Brachiator

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Sorta OT, but anyway – I’m not an “action movie” sort of guy, and can’t remember the last one I’ve paid money to see; I don’t know shit about Marvel comics (I was more of a “comix” guy some decades ago.) But I’m intrigued by the hype, and wondering if I should go see the movie everybody is talking about, since dear Mrs G&T will be traveling this weekend.

    I thought the movie was hugely satisfying. Oddly enough, a coworker and his wife also loved the movie, but their teen aged nephew said, “Not enough action.”

    I think that the script and the acting is better than the typical superhero movie. Also, I’m aware of the background of most comic book characters, but have not read comics in years and never felt that I had to do any research on the character or his opponents.

  147. 147.

    Kay

    @TenguPhule:

    They did..nothing:

    The big-ticket Obama proposals didn’t get a ton of traction in Congress. A Senate measure intended to prevent gun violence that also included provisions designed to help mental-health services and security infrastructure at schools ultimately didn’t get a floor vote. Retired Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, then-chairman of the Senate education committee, and Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn, at that time the ranking member, worked together on the mental-health and safety provisions for schools.
    And former House staffer told us that while the momentum for significant change hadn’t yet petered out by the time of that February House hearing on school safety, “It wasn’t too [long] after that that it was clear nothing was going to happen.”

  151. 151.

    Steve in the ATL

    @Mike J:

    Texas is however the only state to (attempt to) secede from two different countries to keep their slaves.

    Yee haw! God bless Texas!

  154. 154.

    Corner Stone

    @Kay:

    There’s a real “fuck you” quality to this from lawmakers. A real strutting arrogance. I’d love to put every one of these assholes out of a job.

    There are many things I would like to see happen to these “people”. Losing their job is somewhere in the middle.

  155. 155.

    Gin & Tonic

    @trollhattan: Clearly, had James Madison been aware of the pecuniary value of anthropomorphic mice, he would have proposed “unlimited time” instead of “limited time.” That is obvious, isn’t it?

  156. 156.

    Mnemosyne

    @WaterGirl:

    No, but it seems weird that someone with that kind of arsenal would bring a single handgun to school right after another school shooting. It’s hard to say what irrational people are going to do, though.

    (Note that I’m not saying “crazy,” but I do think that deciding to shoot up your school is by definition an irrational act.)

  157. 157.

    chopper

    (Before anyone grouses about it: yes, that is not an AR pattern rifle in the picture it is a GLOCK handgun. Since it is locked back and lying on its left side, I can neither see the caliber (printed on the barrel) nor the model number (printed on the left side).

    I doubt anybody here gives a shit about the exact make and model and caliber gun in a picture in a tweet. I really think you’re misreading the commentariat here. we’re not gun nuts.

  160. 160.

    germy

    @Brachiator: I admit I was mostly baffled watching Batman V Superman. The plot literally made no sense to me, and I felt no emotional connection to any of the characters. And I’m someone who grew up reading Batman & Superman comics.

    I know absolutely nothing about Black Panther comics, but I was swept along with the movie, and deeply moved. I understood the story and loved the characters.

  161. 161.

    Chyron HR

    @debbie:

    Guns 17, Children 0! Ho ho ho! Maybe Governor Scott can reward the shooter by letting him out of jail to kill again.

  164. 164.

    Baud

    @Kay:

    There’s a real “fuck you” quality to this from lawmakers. A real strutting arrogance. I’d love to put every one of these assholes out of a job.

    That’s the attitude that got them the job in the first place.

  166. 166.

    NotMax

    @TenguPhule

    At one time (very early 70s) Warner Bros. sent a disc of phony promos for the record company to radio stations, all humorous (and many were put on air at college radio stations). The one which sticks in the gray matter featured a novice reporter, happy and eager to be doing an interview at Warner Bros., who doesn’t realize he’s actually at a company named Warner Bras. Beginning went something like this:

    Factory owner: “Welcome to Warner Bras, kid!”

    Reporter’s audio thought balloon: “Warner Bras? Oh, I get it, he’s using the abbreviation. How hip!”

  167. 167.

    TenguPhule

    @germy:

    The plot literally made no sense to me, and I felt no emotional connection to any of the characters.

    This is DC’s movie problem in a nutshell.

  168. 168.

    Kay

    @TenguPhule:

    The Chicago Tylenol murders were a series of poisoning deaths resulting from drug tampering in the Chicago metropolitan area in 1982. The victims had all taken Tylenol-branded acetaminophen capsules that had been laced with potassium cyanide. A total of seven people died in the original poisonings, with several more deaths in subsequent copycat crimes.
    These incidents led to reforms in the packaging of over-the-counter substances and to federal anti-tampering laws.

    10 people died. Within a year the federal government had instituted changes in OTC packaging regs and within two, Congress had a new anti-tampering law passed.

    School shootings, brutally slaughtered kids year after year after year? Nothing. They do nothing.

  169. 169.

    Mnemosyne

    @trollhattan:

    Our copyright law needs to be re-written to account for the fact that we now have copyright owners that are undying corporations, but nobody wants to have to be the one to do that. That’s why they keep kicking the can down the road.

  171. 171.

    different-church-lady

    @Mnemosyne: It’s a really simple solution: characters can stay in copyright as long as you keep using them, and individual works go into public domain.

    But nooooooo….

  175. 175.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jager:

    It is a great school, but woefully underfunded

    Let’s just hope Betsy DeVos doesn’t hear about it.

    Your grandson sounds totally appropriate for 14. In another year or so when he gets his learner’s permit, he’ll be happy to ride to school with his mom as long as she’s in the passenger seat :-)

  176. 176.

    germy

    @TenguPhule:

    This is DC’s movie problem in a nutshell.

    I hope Matt Reeves can do something good with The Batman. I think he insisted on creative control when he signed his contract with the idiot studio executives.

  177. 177.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay: Because the gun humpers are fucking insane.

    We can’t get studies about gun violence, because they believe it will lead to confiscation of their guns.

    We can’t get a fucking database of who owns what guns and ballistic records of all guns owned, which would make narrowing down shooting suspects a lot easier, because they believe it will lead to confiscation of their guns.

    We can’t prevent people at risk or mentally unstable from getting guns because they believe it will lead to confiscation of their guns.

    As that tweet mentioned, if you keep making it about “Do Nothing” and “Confiscation” inevitably, things are gonna tip to “Confiscation, and fuck you too.”

  181. 181.

    Mnemosyne

    @germy:

    IMO, they have a Zack Snyder problem. He is a bad director and a worse writer, and yet they decided to put him in creative control of the DC movie universe.

  183. 183.

    TenguPhule

    @germy:

    I think he insisted on creative control when he signed his contract with the idiot studio executives.

    The only real hit so far was Wonder Woman. And that was only because they managed to humanize her better then the comic book version. DC’s problem is their comic universe has almost all of their top tier heroes be unrelatable to regular people, all of them are special, gifted, paragons with few character flaws (Gold & Silver age). The DC universe was more shiny and optimistic at the start and when they tried to copy Marvel’s gritter reality, they made the problem worse by swinging way too far on the pessimestic scale.

  184. 184.

    Kay

    @TenguPhule:

    We have to wait until every conservative has personally hunkered down in a classroom while a shooter roams the halls because they are apparently incapable of comprehending anything that they themselves have not experienced.

  186. 186.

    Amir Khalid

    @Adam L Silverman:
    If East Asians (presumably you mean Chinese, Japanese, Koreans) are okay because fair skin, how about browner Southeast Asians like me?
    ETA: I see you’ve already covered this.

  187. 187.

    TenguPhule

    @Kay:

    We have to wait until every conservative has personally hunkered down in a classroom while a shooter roams the halls because they are apparently incapable of comprehending anything that they themselves have not experienced.

    Worse then that. A Democratic rep got shot in the head, they stood by the Gunz. A Republican got shot in the thigh, they stood by their Gunz.

    Not even personal self interest is motivating these people to change their stance on Gunz.

    They be literally too stupid to live.

  188. 188.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    DC’s problem is their comic universe has almost all of their top tier heroes be unrelatable to regular people, all of them are special, gifted, paragons with few character flaws (Gold & Silver age). The DC universe was more shiny and optimistic at the start and when they tried to copy Marvel’s gritter reality, they made the problem worse by swinging way too far on the pessimestic scale.

    No. DC just got nervous and made crappy movies. Marvel movies are hardly gritty, but they are definitely more fun to watch.

    Oddly enough, DC television (the CW shows) and animation are all pretty solid.

  189. 189.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Marvel movies are hardly gritty, but they are definitely more fun to watch.

    Iron Man: Thinly disguised Ukraine battlefield.

    Iron Man 2: Corrupt weapons manufacturer

    Captain America: Nazis with death rays

    Captain America 2: Nazis with death rays have taken over the world’s national defense agency

    Avengers: Secret weapons programs go horribly wrong combined with alien invasion

    Avengers 2: Fighting Nazis with death rays leads to a weapons program going horribly wrong and resulting in mass destruction leading to UN accords

    Captain America 3: Terrorism

  193. 193.

    Brachiator

    @TenguPhule:

    Marvel movies are hardly gritty, but they are definitely more fun to watch.

    Whether a movie is enjoyable or fun is not conveyed by a synopsis.

    I noted to a coworker that Guardians of the Galaxy has jokes, but the latest Thor movie is a superhero film set in a comic universe. Both are fun in different ways. Ant Man is a light hearted heist film.

    Man of Steel is an alien invasion movie. It actually could have worked better. But Snyder has a good visual imagination but is a mediocre filmmaker. Nolan’s The Dark Knight is pretty grim in places, but you know what? The Joker is fun. Dangerous, crazy, but fun to watch. And that film ends in tragedy for a number of characters.

  194. 194.

    Jake the antisoshul soshulist

    I don’t know if the nimber is big enough, but a young man is custody
    for allegedly shooting his grandparents and an uncle to death in a neighboring county.

  197. 197.

    TenguPhule

    @Brachiator:

    Whether a movie is enjoyable or fun is not conveyed by a synopsis.

    I agree they were fun to watch, but most of them stuck to more down to earth threats, so to speak.

    The whole alien invasion thing was done more real life style with actual people doing actual stuff, compared to Man of Steel. Also, lack of boring invincible hero.

  203. 203.

    Adam L Silverman

    @germy: That’s okay, Zack Snyder doesn’t know anything about Batman or Superman either. And they let him write the script, direct, and produce the movie.

  207. 207.

    J R in WV

    @germy:

    Dear @simonschuster, your author, Dinesh D’Souza, is using his Twitter account to mock the survivors of the 2/14/18 gun massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High. I’ve attached pictures, and here are the URLs of his tweets. https://t.co/qe3Kgge2Ne, https://t.co/HIlCQsLzS6 pic.twitter.com/AoDyu4eXsc— Cindy (@cindymclennan) February 20, 2018

    Amazing string of tweets after our friend Dinesh dumped on the survivors, and the deceased, from Douglas High School. I don’t know who @cindymclennan is, but she did a great job. Also informed Jeff Bezos, since he sells books by this piece of shit.

    There’s a photo of Mr. D’Souza with a photo of Michael Shkreli, who bought a generic drug selling for $5 and boosted the price to thousands of dollars. Shikreli, frequently ID’d as the more hated man on the Internet, is now probably replaced by Mr. D’Souza, who in his portrait is way past goofy looking to crazed. What a piece of work.

    I recall that Dinesh, supposedly a Evangelical Christian, showed up at a “Christian” event of some sort with his new girlfriend, prior to his divorce from his former girlfriend and wife, and was surprised when they asked him to leave. I guess he hadn’t picked up on the social expectations for “Christian” grifters yet. What a piece of work!!

    Hope the new girlfriend is happy with her ex-con unemployable friend Dinesh. I guess he’s employable by RWNJ groups, I wouldn’t go there myself, but Dinesh is probably looking forward to an outlet for his spleen. What a piece of Work!!!!

    Writing this made me feel better, a little bit.

  208. 208.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    The only writing about him that would make me feel good was if they let me do his obituary.
    Actually there are a number of obits that I’d like to be able to write. Being able to write them would be a reason to live no matter what.

  209. 209.

    EmbraceYourInnerCrone

    @Brachiator – what’s going on is a normal Tuesday in the U.S. :

    http://www.gunviolencearchive.org/reports/mass-shooting

    The website isn’t up to the minute but including the Parkland shootings between the first of this month and 18 February there where 11 shootings with 4 or more victims

    They range from domestic violence situations that turned into murder/suicide to a driveby at a Texas Roadhouse restaurant where the youngest victim was 5, to bar fights that turned into gun fights. Guns make many situations so much worse.

    A girl at my daughter’s former high school was knifed to death several years ago. The one thing we were all thankful for (I know that sounds insane) was the boy who killed her had a knife, not a gun. It was an awful situation and one of the few things that could have made it worse would have been a gun.

    This has to stop but I have no idea how to stop it (I do know – vote out the Republicans and make the Dems push through gun control legislation).
    Adam Lanza machine gunned a first grade class and it didn’t matter (I know I know it wasn’t a machine gun, I don’t care)

  210. 210.

    James E. Powell

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m trying to imagine a circumstance where elected officials would not kick this one down the road. Who or what is pushing back and demanding that something be changed?

  211. 211.

    Chet Murthy

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Oh, idunno. They also said that anybody who takes $$ from the NRA will be named-and-shamed. And I’m presuming that they’ll be naming and shaming those FL legecritters. It might be astute — giving Rs a chance to change their minds and get right with the Lord, so to speak.

    I can’t believe these kids mean that whatever the Rs want, should be a basis for compromise. Not for one second do I believe that. They’re just willing to accept Rs who want aboard, I suspect.

    But I could be wrong.

  212. 212.

    Chet Murthy

    @Mike J: At least they’re ashamed enough about it, that they don’t teach it in Texas History either of the two semesters (once in middle school, once in h.s.) it’s taught.

    Oh sorry, I meant, shitbird assholes that they are, they can’t even bring themselves to address this horrific chapter in their history. Fuckwits.

    ETA: by which, I mean the first secession (from Mexico). Wihch I only learned about in the last few years, perhaps even from this blog.

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