Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Let’s finish the job.

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

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. don’t touch it.”

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

He really is that stupid.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Democrats have delivered the Square Deal, the New Deal, the Fair Deal, and now… the Big Joe Biden Deal.

They love authoritarianism, but only when they get to be the authoritarians.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

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

You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. Go Senator Whitehouse!

Every reporter and pundit should have to declare if they ever vacationed with a billionaire.

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Too often we confuse noise with substance. too often we confuse setbacks with defeat.

There’s always a light at the end of the frog.

Republicans can’t even be trusted with their own money.

You cannot shame the shameless.

The new temporary speaker of the house is a spiteful little shit.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Breaking: Not *ALL* The News Sucks…

Breaking: Not *ALL* The News Sucks…

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… On Tuesday, Kessler shocked even his own lawyers by withdrawing his request that a federal judge order the city to grant him a permit for a “Unite the Right 2” rally for the weekend of Aug. 11.

But after the hearing, one of his attorneys, James Kolenich, told reporters that Kessler could still show up at Market Street Park, formerly known as Lee Park and then Emancipation Park, next month with a group of 24 people or fewer, without needing any permit. He and others maintain that they are protesting the city’s effort to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.

Kessler, who lives in Charlottesville and graduated from the University of Virginia, quickly vanished after the hearing and was unavailable for an interview request.

His court appearance Tuesday was part of his ongoing lawsuit against the city, alleging that its denial of his permit violated his First Amendment rights. Kolenich told the news media that the lawsuit remains active because Kessler wants to prove the city acted illegally so that he can obtain the permit for a “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville for August 2019…

Kessler, who recently claimed online that he supports “white rights” and does not hate other races or ethnic groups, applied in November for a city permit to hold what he described as a “two-day festival” with an expected crowd of 400. His permit said the event wanted to call attention to “government civil rights abuse” and “memorialize the sacrifices made by political dissidents” during last year’s rally.

The next month, city manager Maurice Jones denied Kessler’s application, asserting that the demonstration would “present a danger to public safety” and would probably cost too much money for the city to protect and keep peaceful…

“The City’s concerns about the trustworthiness of the Plaintiff himself are substantial,” its lawyers wrote. “[T]he City has collected a great deal of evidence . . . that the Plaintiff will state peaceful intentions in public while in private encouraging and enticing attendees to engage in violence.”…

Kessler claims he’s still pushing for a permit to rally in DC, but it’s an open question as to whether he and his cosplay buddies want to be standing between the Antifa activists and the serious white-nationalist ‘Sons of Odin’ types…

Reader Interactions

47Comments

  2. 2.

    David Fud

    So, Kemp blew Cagle out of the water in Georgia. He will face Stacy Abrams in a race for governor. Do what you can folks. It would be a huge win for us all if she can beat him in November.

  3. 3.

    NotMax

    How much do you suck as a human when *white supremacists* are distancing themselves from you?

    Abandoned to pull himself down by his own jackboots.

  4. 4.

    Mnemosyne

    “memorialize the sacrifices made by political dissidents”

    So, basically, he was planning to gloat over the murder of Heather Heyer.

    Not surprised the judge gave him a big ol’ nope on that.

  5. 5.

    Major Major Major Major

    @NotMax: Heh!

    Man, glad he’s pulled his own application, but I can’t shake the feeling that something worse will come next.

  7. 7.

    efgoldman

    I am still a first amendment absolutist. The best thing about these racist pigs (apologies to pigs) is that whenever they show their ugly ass faces in public, they can be counted on to encounter a much larger group of counter protesters – exercising THEIR first amendment rights
    MAGA my ass.

  8. 8.

    Yarrow

    “The City’s concerns about the trustworthiness of the Plaintiff himself are substantial,” its lawyers wrote. “[T]he City has collected a great deal of evidence . . . that the Plaintiff will state peaceful intentions in public while in private encouraging and enticing attendees to engage in violence.”…

    I’ll bet. These people aren’t exactly subtle and they aren’t all that smart. They don’t really hide what they’re doing.

  12. 12.

    Mary G

    @efgoldman: Yes, the fact that they’re always been a much larger group of counter-protesters show up since the first tiki torch march have disabused these guys of the notion that their bullshit is acceptable in our society.

  13. 13.

    Adam L Silverman

    @James E Powell: There were three extreme ones out of five GOP candidates. Kemp, who did the shotgun video and had the round up the undocumented truck; Cagle, who said he’d just call the National Guard to do it, and Michael Williams, who had a deportation bus he customized and got himself banned from Cracker Barrel for trying to do a rally with it in their parking lot.
    https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/williams-deportation-bus-tour-hits-a-few-bumps-in-the-road/751146512

  14. 14.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Adam L Silverman: Third Amendment Rights Group Celebrates Another Successful Year

    WASHINGTON, DC—The National Anti- Quartering Association, America’s foremost Third Amendment rights group, held its annual gala in Washington Monday to honor 191 consecutive years of advocating the protection of private homes and property against the unlawful boarding of military personnel.

    “This is a proud day for quarters-owners everywhere,” said the organization’s president, Charles Davison, in his keynote address. “Year after year, we have sent a loud and clear message to the federal government and to anyone else who would attack our unassailable rights: Hands off our cottages, livery stables, and haylofts.”

  19. 19.

    NotMax

    Getting to the time to electronic things electronic down, turn off the water*, and scoot.

    Keep the home fires burning, jackals.

    *Precautionary measure, because if a leak is gonna develop, it’ll be when am away.

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    That made little to no sense. :)

    Getting to the time to shut things electronic down, turn off the water*, and scoot.

    Keep the home fires burning, jackals.

    *Precautionary measure, because if a leak is gonna develop, it’ll be when am away.

  23. 23.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Amir Khalid: Not since the Revolutionary War. The 3rd Amendment states that the government can’t commandeer your domicile and force you to house and feed troops in it, which was one of the major things the British did to the colonials that pissed them off.

  26. 26.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Yarrow: in my darker moments I kinda feel like no amendment will apply if they get Kavanaugh through.

  29. 29.

    Mike J

    @Major Major Major Major: Have you ever read The Emperor of Ocean Park by Stephen L. Carter? Itr’s about a black law prof at Yale whose father, a federal judge dies. There’s a throwaway joke in it about him being the nation’s foremost third amendment scholar. Or I think there is. I haven’t read it since it came out in the early 2000’s, but it’s an excellent book that has struck with me.

  30. 30.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Mike J: I’ve not heard of it. I have a Niven and a Vinge glaring at me across the table but maybe I should read some political fiction after that.

  31. 31.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Yutsano:

    (Huh. It used to pick up links without the www before)

    I’ve always rather enjoyed the fact that there are 3x as many syllables in the abbreviation “www” than there are in “world wide web.”

  36. 36.

    Origuy

    The only significant court case related to the Third Amendment is Engblom v Carey.

    The case was initiated by a 1979 strike by New York State correction officers. While the officers were on strike, some of their duties were performed by National Guardsmen who were activated. At Mid-Orange Correctional Facility (and other facilities) striking employees were evicted from employee housing which was then used to house some of the National Guard.

    I thought there was a case where an officer was in transit and required to spend some time in the city where his father lived. Rather than stay in a hotel or the local BOQ, he was ordered to stay with his father. Dad objected on Third Amendment grounds. I haven’t been able to track it down, though.

  37. 37.

    Amir Khalid

    @Mike J:
    Germans say “vehvehveh”. A Volkswagen (“folksvahgen”) is called a “fauveh” over there, which is shorter and better than “veedubbelyew”.

  41. 41.

    rikyrah

    @Major Major Major Major:
    I loved all three of Professor Carter’s first three fiction books.
    The Emperor of Ocean Park
    New England White
    The Palace Council

    I appreciated that the Black protagonists were not involved in stereotypical settings/stories.

  43. 43.

    prostratedragon

    One fine summer day Mr. Whitmore said to himself, “I think it would be fun to ruin a newspaper.”

    During a Tuesday meeting with editorial staff that lasted more than an hour, Tronc executive vice president Grant Whitmore and the Daily News’ newly installed Editor in Chief Robert York occasionally struggled to answer pointed questions about the underlying strategy behind the cuts.

    At one point, York asked for 30 days to develop an editorial strategy, which prompted dismay from some staff.

    “I would’ve thought we’d have had a strategy, and then we would’ve made decisions based on how to carry out that strategy,” one staffer remarked, according to a partial audio recording of the meeting obtained by The Daily Beast.

    “That’s a very reasonable question. That’s not the way that we did it,” Whitmore replied, prompting audible sighs and some chuckling among staff.

    From Daily Beast

  45. 45.

    Dorothy A. Winsor

    @David Fud: Re the Georgia election, I saw this on twitter this morning.

    WARNING! Georgia is at it again!! My husband checked his voter registration a couple months ago and was purged w/o notice. I checked mine at that time and I was still registered. I checked again today and I’m suddenly PURGED. Remember to consistently check your registration!— Secret Derp State Society ???? (@TurtlesgaloreMR) July 24, 2018

  46. 46.

    Ramalama

    @efgoldman: I once temporarily lost my mind and opted to live in the south for one year, a very conservative time in America, and a very conservative location, to go to college. The school had as a speaker to a class — the real live PR person for the real petroleum company featured in the Cher movie “Silkwood.” The students in the hall were so polite! But they asked real questions. Politely. And she ended up crying at the mic and shutting the whole thing down early…because the questions were so rude.

    I’m reminded of that day, so long ago now, often.

  47. 47.

    J R in WV

    @Ramalama:

    I guess sometimes the truth is rude, huh? When your company has killed a bunch of people, and attempted to kill others to keep those first murders undercover!

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