Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

Jesus, Mary, & Joseph how is that election even close?

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

I’m pretty sure there’s only one Jack Smith.

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

In my day, never was longer.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

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

The words do not have to be perfect.

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

This blog will pay for itself.

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

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

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

Optimism opens the door to great things.

“Squeaker” McCarthy

Not all heroes wear capes.

A dilettante blog from the great progressive state of West Virginia.

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Second rate reporter says what?

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

You are here: Home / Open Threads / More Bombs In Austin?

More Bombs In Austin?

by | 61 Comments

This post is in: 

Per The Austin Statesman:

9:30 p.m. update: Two men in their 20s have been hospitalized with serious injuries following an explosion in the 4800 block of Dawn Song Drive in Southwest Austin. Officials said their injuries did not appear to be life-threatening.

What the hell is going on?

ETA: From NY Mag:

Three package bombs have gone off in Austin, Texas, in the past two weeks, and they appear to have targeted members of prominent black families, the president of the local NAACP told NBC News Wednesday.

No indications yet if this latest explosion is related. If it is, hopefully Trump can stop attacking the FBI long enough for them to address these domestic terrorism incidents.

Reader Interactions

61Comments

  2. 2.

    Amir Khalid

    My first thought was “Yet another industrial disaster in Texas”, but that looks like a residential street.

  3. 3.

    Washburn

    What’s going on? A NRA affiliated false flag operation to turn national conversation away from gun control and also kill some minorities and LGBTQA people and allies.

  5. 5.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et Al.)

    I only hope it’s white people doing this shit.

  6. 6.

    Barbara

    @Mike J: Based on what I have read the FBI will be able to confirm if they are related by examining the explosives. These are apparently somewhat sophisticated devices.

  7. 7.

    Jay S

    My guess would be white boys playing with pipe bombs blow themselves up. May or not be related to the other bombs.

  8. 8.

    oatler.

    Just another day on the Gaza Strip, when we’re all sniping and slaughtering each other while The Corporation profits.

  12. 12.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    @Mike in NC:
    Is 75% of the vote an even plausible percentage in a modern democracy? Yes, I know it was rigged, but is it in a high office like the presidency (of any nation)?

  18. 18.

    chuckInAustin

    I rarely comment, but I read the blog almost daily.
    I’m about 2 miles from the latest explosion. I’m fking pissed off about all this. My gut feeling is this is NOT related to the other explosions. This is just based on news reports. They always characterized the previous explosions as being very sophisticated. But I heard someone on the news mention that one of the injured was hurt by a nail from the explosion. That doesn’t fit with what I’ve heard from the other explosions. (I have no inside info.)

  19. 19.

    Washburn

    @Wag:

    It’s the best approach in a Trump world: imagine the most outlandish and disgusting thing imaginable and you’re probably only scratching the surface of the actual depravity …

  26. 26.

    ? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?

    Via The Hill: Trump Presses GOP to Change Senate Rules

    The Trump administration is putting pressure on Senate Republicans to crack down on Democratic efforts to delay its agenda, fueling talk about the need for rules reform among Republicans on Capitol Hill.

    Republicans are in discussions with Democrats about bipartisan changes to Senate rules to speed up consideration of President Trump’s judicial and executive branch nominees, but if that effort flounders — as similar ones have in the past — they’re not ruling out unilateral action.

    White House patience with the Senate’s backlog of nominees is wearing out, as Vice President Pence made clear during a private meeting with the Senate Republican Conference on Tuesday, according to lawmakers who attended the discussion.

    White House legislative affairs director Marc Short on Friday accused Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of “weaponizing” the rules to keep executive and judicial branch positions vacant.

    Short noted that Democrats have required Republicans to hold 79 cloture votes on nominees during Drumpf’s first 14 months in office.

    “That’s roughly five times the number of the last four administrations combined,” he said.

    A cloture vote ends dilatory action on a bill or nominee and is often used to end filibusters. It requires 60 votes to pass.

    During the first 14 months of the past four administrations — a span of 56 months under Presidents Obama, George W. Bush, Clinton and George H.W. Bush — the Senate held 17 such votes, according to Short.

    He promised that Trump would begin to speak out aggressively in response to what he called “historic obstruction.”

    “I think that perhaps I’m a warm-up act for him making a larger foray into this,” Short told reporters.

    He said Trump would “make his case to the American people that the objection has gotten ridiculous.”

    A spokesman for Schumer on Friday blamed the administration and Senate Republicans for the backlog of nominees.

    “This administration has been historically slow in submitting nominations and has withdrawn more nominees in the first year than any of the past four administrations,” said the Schumer aide.

    The Democratic aide also noted there are currently 145 nominees awaiting action from Republican-controlled committees.

    Trump has withdrawn more than 20 nominees and failed to submit nominations for key State Department posts such as the ambassadorships for Cuba, Egypt, Honduras, Iceland, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Sweden.

    Senate Republicans are reaching out to Democrats in hopes they might agree to changing the Senate rules to shorten the amount of time it takes to process nominees.

    Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) is spearheading that effort.

    “We’re desperately behind on judges and noms,” Lankford told The Hill. “We’ve had a cloture vote 80 times. That’s more than the last four presidents combined.”

    A Republican aide said Lankford “has had some positive private conversations about this with Democrats, many of who realize that this trend is really, really bad.”

    But such bipartisan efforts have fallen short in the past, prompting speculation among some GOP senators that changing the rules with 51 votes — a controversial tactic known as the “nuclear option” — may be the only way to get something done.

    “We need to reduce the amount of post-cloture time for nominees. The amount of time we now spend is ridiculous,” said one GOP senator who requested anonymity to discuss Tuesday’s conversation with Pence.

    Senate rules require 30 hours to elapse on the floor once the Senate votes to end dilatory debate on a nominee, which empowers the minority party to eat up the calendar by refusing to yield back time.

    The use of the nuclear option — which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) employed last year to eliminate the Democrats’ power to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch — wouldn’t likely happen until the next Congress.

    Republicans control only 51 seats and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) hasn’t voted since early December, reducing their effective majority to 50.

    A single GOP defection would scuttle any attempt to change Senate precedent through a ruling of the chair, which needs to be sustained by a majority vote.

    Republicans, however, hope to expand their majority. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) pointed to an Axios poll this week showing that if the election were held today, Republicans could capture as many as five Democratic-held seats.

    In a Wall Street Journal op-ed published in August, Lankford argued for shrinking the amount of time required to elapse after cloture has been filed on executive nominees from 30 hours to eight or less.

    He pointed out that the Senate adopted this expedited process for a short time in 2013 under former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who also invoked the nuclear option to eliminate filibuster for executive branch nominees and judicial nominees below the level of the Supreme Court.

    “It worked then and it would work now,” Lankford said.

    There is strong support among junior Republican senators for changing the rules.

    “The intention of the original filibuster and cloture was to allow for extended debate of issues, not for obstruction of a party’s administration by delaying of nominee votes, so Sen. Perdue would like to see these rules changed,” said Caroline Vanvick, a spokeswoman for Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.).

    Democrats argue that Republicans slow-walked Obama’s nominees once they gained control of the Senate.

    Senate Republicans forced cloture votes on 168 of Obama’s nominees, even though 62 of those nominees were later confirmed unanimously or by voice vote.

    Democrats also argue that McConnell broke Senate tradition under Obama by holding up his nominee to the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland, for 10 months until Drumpf took office.

    The action left the high court shorthanded for most of 2016.

    Bolding mine. That better be bullshit. They want to ram through as many RWNJ judges as possible. Fascist fucks.

  27. 27.

    Amir Khalid

    @tracy ratclif:
    I understand that in the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea, the incumbent always wins the presidential election by a unanimous vote. This Vladimir Vladimirovich guy is a piker.

  29. 29.

    efgoldman

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    That better be bullshit. They want to ram through as many RWNJ judges as possible. Fascist fucks.

    No quarter. What goes around….

    Republicans, however, hope to expand their majority. National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) pointed to an Axios poll this week showing that if the election were held today, Republicans could capture as many as five Democratic-held seats.

    Whistling past the graveyard?

    Fuckem!

  36. 36.

    eric U.

    weird, I had John Cole muted on twitter somehow. I was wondering why I didn’t see any tweets from him.

  40. 40.

    TS

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    White House legislative affairs director Marc Short on Friday accused Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) of “weaponizing” the rules to keep executive and judicial branch positions vacant.

    Well they learned about not allowing votes for the judicial branch from the turtle. The pot and kettle are strong with this b.s. And the media conveniently forgets who should be the newest member of the SCOTUS

  41. 41.

    Gretchen

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Infuriating! How dare they complain about obstruction after they stole a seat on the Supreme Court! They may experience unintended consequences if the Senate goes Democratic and they don’t get a single person confirmed for the next 2 years, and then get no say under the next Democratic administration. Hahahahahaha.

  43. 43.

    Arclite

    @rikyrah:

    Domestic terrorism in Austin

    Oh, no no. We can’t call it “terrorism”, because blacks are being targeted. We must use the proper term: “anti-black intimidation tactics.”

  44. 44.

    joel hanes

    @sukabi:

    full page ad

    brutal.

    A quibble: the accursed one is depicted attempting to penetrate the Kalahari.
    Should be Washington DC.

  45. 45.

    Mike J

    NPR @NPR 1h
    Police have arrested a man over a bomb threat that forced the cancellation of a concert at South by Southwest.

    Thank god the hipsters are ok!

  47. 47.

    seaboogie

    I am glad to have this place where I can safely say that tonight – I just want to shout and yell and break things.

  48. 48.

    SectionH

    @chuckInAustin: Copy cat assholes? I’m pretty fond of Austin* myself, and hope so hard that the asshole/s get caught asap.

    *It was driving through a lot of the rest of Texas I wasn’t fond of. Although, tbh, I can say honestly nice things about other places in TX too. Mostly cities of course.

  50. 50.

    Doug R

    @? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:

    Is 75% of the vote an even plausible percentage in a modern democracy? Yes, I know it was rigged, but is it in a high office like the presidency (of any nation)?

    Even Alan Keyes running against Barrack Hussein Obama for Senate in Illinois got 27% which we figured was the Keynes threshold, being Cheney’s popularity rating at the tail end of the W Bush presidency. Putin’s pushed it past that. I know it’s not as extreme as Stalin’s 99 per cent votes, but come on…..

  51. 51.

    TOP123

    @chuckInAustin: I drove by that area twice today, coming right back by there (on the cuthrough from 71, Sw pkwy) only a couple of hours before. It does worry me, too, about copycat attacks; I remember seeing a smashed in windshield on Keonig with police and ambulance and officers interviewing witnesses after the rock thrower on 35 was caught. I still don’t know what happened there, but the image sticks with me.

    WTF is happening here?

    eta to simplify ? @ end

  60. 60.

    Patricia Kayden

    @TenguPhule: Getting? They were attacking protesters during his campaign rallies. This is just a continuation of those rallies and Charlottesville where they killed a protester and beat up others. Such “good people”.

  61. 61.

    R. Bailey

    Writing from San Antonio. It is my understanding that the latest Austin explosion involved a trip wire that was set off by two bicyclists. Black families do appear to be being targeted.
    G-d (or all the gods at once, if you prefer) help us. Definitely entering into The Crazy Years.

Comments are closed.