Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

There is one struggling party in US right now, and it’s not the Democrats.

There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans.

Bogus polls are all they’ve got left. Let’s bury these fuckers at the polls a year from now.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

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

Well, whatever it is, it’s better than being a Republican.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

In after Baud. Damn.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

It’s not hopeless, and we’re not helpless.

Nothing worth doing is easy.

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Whatever happens next week, the fight doesn’t end.

“The defense has a certain level of trust in defendant that the government does not.”

People are complicated. Love is not.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

…and a burning sense of injustice to juice the soul.

Republicans got rid of McCarthy. Democrats chose not to save him.

We’re not going back!

White supremacy is terrorism.

Even though I know this is a bad idea, I’m off to do it anyway!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

You are here: Home / Economics / C.R.E.A.M. / C.R.E.A.M. Open Thread: The NRA Discovers the Political Grift Is Not As Easy As It Looks

C.R.E.A.M. Open Thread: The NRA Discovers the Political Grift Is Not As Easy As It Looks

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It looked foolproof! Give your self-selected ammosexuals an outlet for their most paranoid, racist fantasies, and watch the dollars flow in! Unfortunately, the existing Repub professional grift-orgs… excuse me, PACs… saw Wayne LaPierre and his buds less as competitors/partners, and more as sheep for the fleecing:

… New York Attorney General Letitia James is conducting a wide-ranging investigation into alleged financial mismanagement at the NRA, while the group is embroiled in a messy lawsuit with its longtime image-maker, Ackerman McQueen. The NRA sued the Oklahoma City-based ad firm last month to get documents as part of an apparent internal investigation into whether the firm has been siphoning money out of the gun lobby, allegations that Ackerman denies.

Then there’s Carry Guard. The program — which offers combat training and liability insurance for shootings carried out in “self-defense” — was founded in 2017 to keep money flowing into the NRA’s dwindling coffers after President Trump’s surprise election left gun owners assured that, for the time being, at least, no “jack-booted” government officials were coming for their firearms.

Instead, Carry Guard has become a financial liability of its own. Multiple states have banned the program and are investigating whether the NRA violated state law regarding the marketing and sale of insurance. In a lawsuit against Lockton, Carry Guard’s administrator, the NRA alleged it lost “tens of millions of dollars” from the program after relying on assurances that Lockton was complying with state law. Numerous NRA members took issue with the program’s “sloppy” rollout.

Gun control advocates even gave Carry Guard a nickname: “murder insurance.”

Rather than help the NRA shore up its finances, Carry Guard has become a symbol of the unprecedented public relations and legal woes plaguing the nation’s largest gun group…

 
But, hey… at least they can still use social media to gin up death threats against gun-safety volunteers, for manliness & FREEDUMB!…

Reader Interactions

70Comments

  1. 1.

    Harbison

    My favorite part was that the coverage for your legal bills was not paid until you were acquitted. So no money to pay the lawyer when, you know, you actually need to pay the lawyer.

    How in the world did they lose money on this?

  2. 2.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Conventional measures to dissuade criminality are not working here. Time to kick it up a notch.

  3. 3.

    craigie

    If you criticize the NRA, instant death threats. Guaranteed. Luckily, they are not a terrorist organization.

  5. 5.

    Raoul

    Apparently in the past few days, my twitter acct got blocked by Dana Loesch. What a shame! Also, what a pathetic snowflake, blocking me with my sub-900 followers. Can’t take the heat, don’t be a grossly overpaid shill for death eaters.

  6. 6.

    lumpkin

    Of course one of the images advertising the program shows a white “good guy” aiming a gun at a black “bad guy”. This shit always comes down to racism.

  8. 8.

    West of the Rockies

    I’ve been posting here since about ’08. Somehow I do not know: what is C.R.E.A.M.?

  12. 12.

    NotMax

    @West of the Rockies:

    I have to look it up in the B-J lexicon (which, BTW, is sorely in need of updating and proofreading) about every other time it is used here as can never remember what it stands for no matter how many times I check.

  14. 14.

    Amir Khalid

    @NotMax:
    Someone needs to take on the task of curating the Lexicon. Preferably someone who lives in the US, where most of the vocabulary comes from.

  20. 20.

    Anne Laurie

    @NotMax:

    B-J lexicon (which, BTW, is sorely in need of updating and proofreading)

    I’ve been told to sit on my hands until after the Great Reboot. Once that happens, look for my posts soliciting revisions, additions, etc.

    (Although I sometimes think you & I are the only ones who ever look at the lexicon any more!)

  22. 22.

    NotMax

    @Steeplejack

    One might quip…

    … tommyrot.

    /could not resist

    (Fingers apparently have a mind of their own tonight. They originally typed Steeplejackal.)

  23. 23.

    Aleta

    Third night in a discount motel waiting for the soul dog to be OK enough to get released after surgery Wednesday. They say it went well but he’s not eating or walking yet. Thanks for the very encouraging words a few nights ago. It helped a lot.

    I’m trying to think of this as just a costly vacation. The internet lied about two restaurants my first two nights here, but tonight I found some amazing Indian food that cured some of my ills.

    Asked for a different room when I had to stay again tonight, and this one has a giant dumpster out the window next to a gorgeous cherry in full bloom. It must be some kind of joke about learning to enjoy the ‘awareness of impermanence’ (mono no aware) instead of staying stressed by the impermanence of beautiful dogs and $.

  29. 29.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    Sorry,

    Best wishes.

    When we moved east, first night was in a “Best Western” pet friendly room, reeked of urine and cigarette smoke, with a batchelor party just down the hall,

    Screw it, loaded up the truck and fled to Hope. 2 am, ‘60’s motel, asked if they had “pet friendly rooms”.

    Proprietess came out, 3 Jack Russels, 2 Siamese, super friendly.

    Slept well.

  30. 30.

    Aleta

    @Steeplejack: thanks. It’s a rare moment but I’m believing that could help — he’s got a sensitive open heart — and I really appreciate it.

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    @Jay:

    Nice. I am compelled to listen to the acoustic version of “Boys Don’t Cry.” My favorite. Dunno why I can’t find the video for it. I could have sworn there was one.

    My brother is coming up on his 60th birthday in October, and I have started planning the mother of all playlists for a gay boy circa 1975-1990. This will definitely be on there.

  32. 32.

    Duane

    @Steeplejack: There’s a lexicon? Next I’ll find out there’s a like button too. Is Cole a real person cause that doesn’t seem likely.

  34. 34.

    Aleta

    @Jay: First night here, fitful low howls from some hound dog til 4 am. (My pup licked his lips at every howl and tossed and turned all night.)

  36. 36.

    Steeplejack

    @Duane:

    Dunno about Cole, but the lexicon is up top under “Quick Links.”

    A “like” button—never!

  39. 39.

    Steeplejack

    @Jay:

    Thanks, but sorry. First video is the electric version of the song, the second is the acoustic version but no video. The third is the one I posted.

    There is—or I thought there was—a specific video for the acoustic version: just a simple setup of them in front of screen, almost like a skiffle group, shot in black and white, perfectly married to the acoustic version.

    It sort of looked like this one, but that’s not it. Maybe I’m misremembering. Was there some other, lesser-known group that covered it?

  40. 40.

    Aleta

    @Jay: Big Bend, alone in a tent, three days ago my last ride before I walked in said, “They saw a mt. lion yesterday.” Every soft noise and little crackle exploding inside my head all night long.

  41. 41.

    Duane

    @NotMax: Some absolutely charming movies on TCM tonight. Really enjoyed ” The Clock.” To me, it was like seeing Judy Garland for the first time.

  43. 43.

    Steeplejack

    @NotMax:

    That’s a little reductive! The ’80s were a fertile time of one-hit wonders and one-off hits (especially from Britain), second only to the ’60s. And being gay doesn’t mean you have to listen only to gay-approved music.

    The Polecats, “Make a Circuit with Me.”

  44. 44.

    Jay

    @Steeplejack:

    Donno, maybe.

    Using the sountrack montaged to actual photo’s or vid of the Birthday Boy, seems to be the most effective presentation.

  47. 47.

    Jay

    @Aleta:

    Had the puppers in the tent, at Rock Creek. Casey and Digger at 3. Nobody slept.

    Attu River. Salmon season. Small geodesic pup tent. First night.

    Got run over in the night by 3 Kodiac Grizzlys and one moose.

    Tent was trashed.

    5 days until the float plane came back.

    Luckily, I was alone.

  49. 49.

    Jay

    @Steeplejack:

    Yes and no. For some of us at the time, it was a time of the squats, built communities, “local” social systems built outside of government, which was failing us.

    On the bright side, you just need sound, no vid.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    @Duane

    Really her first ‘adult’ role and AFAIK the first time a studio didn’t try to disguise her chest and cleavage behind starched bodices and high collars.

    Tonight’s viewing was the first time I noticed that the rear projection in the scene where they first ride on the top level of the double decker bus runs on a loop. Also a couple of newly noticed oopsies: at one point she points to the right while she says, “That’s St. Patrick’s cathedral.” St. Pat’s facade shows up on the rear projection about 15 or so seconds later, behind her and on the left.

    She also points to her right and says, “That’s Radio City Music Hall.”. They’re headed uptown on the Fifth Avenue bus, as evidenced by the dialogue “we’re heading toward the [Central] park.” Radio City is (a) on Sixth Avenue, (b) which would be to her left.

  57. 57.

    Jay

    @Steeplejack:

    Doug and the Slugs, outside of audiophiles, got know for two “one hit wonders”,

    I knew Doug. He was a copyright lawyer who in the 80’s and 90’s built the best independant label in YVR.

    It’s like Dire Straights. They get remembered for Sultans of Swing, not Telegraph Road.

  60. 60.

    joel hanes

    @Aleta:

    mono no aware

    Been reading blogs since 2001, and Usenet before that, and this is only the second or third time I’ve seen that phrase used. Thirty years ago when I nihongo o benkyo shita, my sensei spent considerable time on traditional culture, and the appreciation of the rough and worn and handmade unique aesthetic, and on why sakura were the epitome of mono no aware. All reading/writing skills completely decayed now, but I can still say “that is a big new bicycle factory” with an atrocious accent, so there’s that.

  61. 61.

    joel hanes

    @prostratedragon:

    how wonderfully strange variety tv was

    Thank you, thank you, and a big hand for the Hungarian dancing midget acrobats. And now, a visit from Topo Gigio. Stay tuned; later in the evening we’ll bring on Senor Wences.

  67. 67.

    Another Scott

    @Amir Khalid: I think it’s like a “dead man’s hand” or something like that.

    Or maybe somewhere like the Straight of Magellan??

    (Hehe.)

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  69. 69.

    Procopius

    @Harbison:

    How in the world did they lose money on this?

    Ask Richard Viguerie how he makes his money. The conservative base seems to be the biggest set of suckers ever discovered. Look at the ads on Glenn Beck’s show.

  70. 70.

    Shana

    @Jay: How funny is that story! Just sent the link to my daughter’s boyfriend who is an auto mechanic.

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