Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

The willow is too close to the house.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

After roe, women are no longer free.

Come on, media. you have one job. start doing it.

No one could have predicted…

The revolution will be supervised.

But frankly mr. cole, I’ll be happier when you get back to telling us to go fuck ourselves.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

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

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

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

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

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

The GOP couldn’t organize an orgy in a whorehouse with a fist full of 50s.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Perhaps you mistook them for somebody who gives a damn.

You cannot shame the shameless.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

“More of this”, i said to the dog.

Americans barely caring about Afghanistan is so last month.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

You are here: Home / Open Threads / Open Thread: Another Would-Be White Supremacist Foiled

Open Thread: Another Would-Be White Supremacist Foiled

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Yes, this is a direly serious topic; apparently the would-be Avenger of Whiteness murdered his stepsister before failing to damage anything at the mosque beyond his own dignity (and the national sense of civic comity).

On the other hand, my first-gen Norwegian-American Spousal Unit has always insisted that modern Norwegians are a notoriously polite & non-violent people because the most violently-inclined members of the gene pool self-exported to other lands during the Viking period…

(I will defend the argument that mocking these would-be ‘race heroes’ is a better disincentive to potential followers than inflating their importance.)

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    Tony Jay

    Serwer’s late to the party. It’s already covered under the “Where the fuck is your chin?!?” principle.

  3. 3.

    MattF

    Article in Slate says the gunman expressed admiration for Vikdun Quisling, the Nazi-simpatico Norway supreme leader during WWII. I’m betting this won’t be a popular viewpoint in Norway.

  4. 4.

    geg6

    Totally with you on the mocking thing. This is why I loved Green Shirt Guy. It’s the only appropriate reaction to these assholes. They are no different from the junior high bullies who are nothing but stupid cowards.

  5. 5.

    Brachiator

    Mr Rafiq is 65

    A 65-year-old worshiper, Mohamed Rafiq, who helped thwart the attack and held the suspect until the police arrived, was hailed as a hero on social media and in the news media.

    Still a hero. Very glad that the attack was foiled.

    But his poor stepsister. Such a vile evil that she is a victim of this madness.

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    The article says that groups of people in Oslo showed up to mosques to protect and support Muslims.

  8. 8.

    hells littlest angel

    I worry that mocking these depraved would-be murderers will only serve to radicalize them.

    oh, wait.

  9. 9.

    Anne Laurie

    Sigh…

    Katie Hopkins isn’t just a racist moron — she’s been approvingly retweeted more than once recently by the Oval Office Occupant.

    Stupid/Evil loves Evil/Stupid…

  10. 10.

    rachel

    @MattF: Vidkun Quisling; what kind of a piece of crap takes him as a role model? I mean, his name is synonymous with “treachery”.

  12. 12.

    Mike in NC

    We departed our ship in Norway at 3 AM, had almost a four hour layover in Amsterdam, followed by 8-3/4 hours to cross the Atlantic. Got the full cattle car treatment upon landing at the airport in Atlanta. They checked our passports three times. Now sitting and waiting another three hours for our final leg home. No wonder we don’t fly that much.

  13. 13.

    Keith P.

    The white supremacist must not have been wearing enough tactical gear if a 74-year old got the drop on him. That’s exactly what the yellow sunglasses are for!

  14. 14.

    A Ghost To Most

    If JC is around, I started on his spoon, until I sawed my thumb open. Not too bad, but my last tetanus shot was 10 years ago, so off to the docs for a shot tomorrow. This is an occupational hazard I am quite used to. The carving continues.

  17. 17.

    SFAW

    For some reason, the phrase “rip his head off and shit down his neck” came to my (alleged) mind re: Mr. Rafiq’s lost opportunity.

    Maybe he can do that to legendary “tough guy” Robert Ritchie or Ted Nugent?

    Figuratively speaking, of course.

  18. 18.

    Sloane Peterson's knee therapist

    And now as I lie here, my body all holes
    I think of those traitors who bargained in souls
    I wish that my rifle had given the same
    To those Quislings who sold out the patriot game

  22. 22.

    Baud

    @Jay:

    Why is Taibbi even wasting his time writing about her? She’s got no support.

    creating the distorted impression that her only critics are in the mainstream media/Washington establishment. 

    And why would he seek to promote the media/Washington establishment like that?

  29. 29.

    Ruckus

    @A Ghost To Most:
    I think that all of my best work in a machine shop had blood on it a time or two. Still does to this day. It’s how I know I’m doing things correctly, I’ve bled on it. The more complicated a part is and the less I’ve bled on it, the more I worry that I’m screwing it up.
    When I was younger I imagined that if I brought stock in Johnson & Johnson I’d make myself rich, just off my own bandaid usage.

  30. 30.

    Immanentize

    @Jay:
    @Jay:
    @Jay:
    I am intrigued. What is your theory of commenting? Aggregation? Attention? I notice you put up a whole lot of links. Do you get paid by link?
    /S/ confused

  31. 31.

    Jay

    @Baud:

    Douchebro’s gotta douch, Russian assets have to promote other Russian assets.

    It’s pretty clear that he and others, wound up compromised by being douchebro’s during their time in Russia.

    Taibbi lived and worked in Russia and the former USSR for more than six years. He joined Mark Ames in 1997 to co-edit the English-language Moscow-based, bi-weekly free newspaper, The eXile, which was written primarily for the city’s expatriate community. The eXile’s tone and content were highly controversial. To some, its commentary was brutally honest and gleefully tasteless; others considered it juvenile, misogynistic, and even cruel.[9][10][11] In the U.S. media, Playboy magazine published pieces on Russia both by Taibbi and by Taibbi and Ames together during this time. In 2000, Taibbi published his first book, The Exile: Sex, Drugs, and Libel in the New Russia, co-authored with Ames. He later stated that he was addicted to heroin while he did this early writing.[12]

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Taibbi

  32. 32.

    Immanentize

    @Ruckus:
    It’s like working on a car engine (back when you could). The work didn’t start until the first blood was drawn. I am nostalgic for that king of effort.

  35. 35.

    Ohio Mom

    How many of these shooters don’t start off with an appetizer of killing a woman they are related to?

    @A Ghost To Most: Yikes. Tetanus can land you in the ICU. Hurry up and get that shot.

    Very nice of you to make a giant spoon for Cole. I hope he posts a photo of him using it.

  36. 36.

    JPL

    @Immanentize: When I type in King of Effort the Saudi KIng is first and Steve King second.

    I’m not typing in douchebro on google.. You can have that joy

  37. 37.

    dexwood

    @Chris T.: @A Ghost To Most:
    Wood carver here. Spoons, too, and figurative, folk art pieces. Oddly, morbidly, pieces I’ve bled on have sold quickly (cleaned & sanded first, hazmat unneeded). It’s weird. My wife noticed first and mentioned it, she often helps stem the flow. Will come back later, heading out. . .

  38. 38.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    Like making potato pancakes in days of yore. Not REAL latkes without some knuckle blood incorporated courtesy of the box grater.

    ;)

  39. 39.

    Dan B

    @A Ghost To Most: I believe that Tetanus lives in soil, or that the virus remains viable. So it is unlikely you’ve been exposed but it’s good to get a shot anyway.

  40. 40.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Ruckus: So you work with tools that can fuck you up on an industrial scale. Impressive.

    My grandfather worked in a steel mill, and once had something large and heavy drop immediately in front of him, flattening the steel toes of his boots. Apparently, he curled his toes, and walked away unhurt.

  42. 42.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Ohio Mom: It’s what I do (make things), and there was a broken but still living alder branch in the yard waiting for me to do something with it.

  44. 44.

    West of the Rockies

    @Immanentize:

    Rikyrah does that, too. I assume they are meant to be interesting off-ramps for those who are interested (as they usually are).

  45. 45.

    A Ghost To Most

    @NotMax: Box graters hurt like hell. The tree saw didn’t hurt too much, but it made a mess. My RN wife steri-stripped me back together.

  46. 46.

    JPL

    @Jay: This morning I saw a clip of Wilmer speaking and thought why not mention his lapses. Nah.. won’t happen

  47. 47.

    Dan B

    @Dan B: Correction: Tetanus is a bacteria that survives as spores in soil but can be in dust and other things. A booster every ten years is recommended.

  48. 48.

    Chris T.

    @Dan B:

    I believe that Tetanus lives in soil, or that the virus remains viable

    If I can be serious for a moment (can I be serious for a moment?), (a) yes but (b) it’s a bacterial disease (caused by a Clostridium variant), which also lives in a few other common places, and it’s much too easy to get it into wounds, particularly deep punctures, and easily cured via a vaccine that’s good for ten years.

    See also https://medlineplus.gov/tetanus.html

  49. 49.

    Jay

    @Immanentize:

    Douchebro’s preceeded edgelords which preceeded shitlords.

    It was a mysogenistic “edgy” style of writing, trying to “outcool” Hunter S Thompson that was popular in male centric mass media, starting in the 1990’s.

    eg. all the male staff at The eXile.

  50. 50.

    Cacti

    @JPL:

    Bernie is the Republican dream candidate.

    His few remaining true believers here are still in denial about why the GOPers and Russian bots haven’t laid a finger on him to date.

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jay: Because assholes like Chuck Todd can whine about Hillary’s emails 25 hours a day, but be silent about “They’re rapists,” suggesting a Muslim ban, talking about your orange dick during a political debate, “bleeding out of her wherever”, etc.

  52. 52.

    Kay

    @Jay:

    George W Bush did it constantly and they all considered it adorable and evidence of his authenticity and straight-shooterness.

  54. 54.

    Spanky

    @Jay: It’s good to know #MoscowMitch has constituents in La Jolla. Isn’t that also where Mitt’s car elevator was supposed to go?

  55. 55.

    JPL

    @Spanky: Gosh he might even rub shoulders with the elite and if he does rub shoulders, I hope that those attending were told to not hold back on the shoulder rubbing .

  56. 56.

    Kay

    “The Family” on Netfix has a good rundown of how and when US evangelical Christians embraced Putin – they think he brought God’s law back to the evil Soviet Union. I know (some) labor history – perhaps a little more than the average person- and I did not know evangelicals were fighting against labor unions since the 1930’s – that’s where it all started.

    So good job, Lefties. You have somehow managed to blunder into an alliance with the religious Right :)

    I’m actually relieved. You knew they were in this somewhere, because the GOP goes nowhere without them, but I needed a documented connection.

  57. 57.

    Jay

    @mrmoshpotato:

    @Kay:

    Yup, but, as Malcolm points out, it’s not something The Resistance should be amplifying.

    As Carol Orr, and many of the anti-facist digital nerds have long pointed out, there are lots of ways to draw attention to digital nazis and other horrible people, with out generating traffic to their media, and people should provide constant backpush on the MSM for their IOKIYAR bs.

  58. 58.

    Ruckus

    @A Ghost To Most:
    Yes I do. But it’s always been at my own hands that blood has been drawn. Even a failed attempt at cutting off a thumb was accomplished with the other hand. I did manage to teach a number of Latino ladies running plastic molding machines a few choice english swear words as I left a trail of blood from where I was working to the office. A spurt and puddle every heartbeat. Fun Times.
    Now as for big almost injuries, we had an overhead crane with a magnet to pick up large pieces of steel. The magnet failed just as one of my employees was setting a 1200 lb block down on the ground. Nice noise it made, fortunately that was the extent of the damage. Well other than the possible damage to the mans pants.

  59. 59.

    debbie

    @Kay:

    “The Family” on Netfix has a good rundown of how and when US evangelical Christians embraced Putin – they think he brought God’s law back to the evil Soviet Union.

    Good god, they’re delusional. They similarly think those of the Jewish persuasion happily take care of Jerusalem on their behalf until the Rapture starts.

  60. 60.

    Yarrow

    Matt Taibbi may be a dick and a traitor but I still appreciate his take downs of Thomas Friedman. I’ve always enjoyed this passage:

    Remember Friedman’s take on Bush’s Iraq policy? “It’s OK to throw out your steering wheel,” he wrote, “as long as you remember you’re driving without one.” Picture that for a minute. Or how about Friedman’s analysis of America’s foreign policy outlook last May: The first rule of holes is when you’re in one, stop digging.When you’re in three, bring a lot of shovels.” First of all, how can any single person be in three holes at once? Secondly, what the fuck is he talking about? If you’re supposed to stop digging when you’re in one hole, why should you dig more in three? How does that even begin to make sense? It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder if the editors over at the New York Times editorial page spend their afternoons dropping acid or drinking rubbing alcohol.

  61. 61.

    NotMax

    @Ruckus

    Having sliced off the top half of one thumb when was a kidlet, trust me, you didn’t miss anything worth experiencing.

    ;)

  62. 62.

    mrmoshpotato

    @JPL: Wilmer being a one-trick pony (income inequality!) is a lapse. Sorry, now TWO-trick – “I’ll tell the people about aliens!”

    Wilmer -> forest -> knitting

  63. 63.

    mrmoshpotato

    @NotMax: Physical injuries aren’t anything worth experiencing? Hot! Dog! :)

    Don’t you go splashing around in any lava lakes on a hot day. Ya’hear?

  64. 64.

    Kay

    @debbie:

    It’s funny because my husband, who isn’t that political, pointed it out to me probably two years go. He reads international news. He said Putin was a cultural conservative, just sort of wondering about it and putting it together with US religious conservatives. It was right after they gutted Russian laws regarding domestic violence. The justification for doing that was domestic violence prosecutions threaten the role of men as leaders in families.
    That’s the connection. Like so many things in the GOP, there is the central role of religious conservatives. It’s always there but it wasn’t clear to me with the Putin/Russia love.

  66. 66.

    Baud

    Charles Pierce

    What matters is that, when the history of this plague-ridden political epoch is written, assuming any American will still then be capable of writing, Bill Weld is going to be remembered as a Republican who stood up and walked the walk, a Republican who was not simply Deeply Disappointed and/or Seriously Concerned at the actions of the maniac in the White House, but the only Republican who was willing to put his name on a ballot and campaign against said maniac, an incumbent president* of Weld’s own party. If only for that, Bill Weld serves as a walking reproach to the entire cowardly rest of the Republican Party.

    I don’t understand what Pierce is thinking. Bill Weld ran a third party campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016. The fact that he’s still better than most Republicans is not a reason to lionize him.

  70. 70.

    Kay

    @Baud:

    This is like a set piece for Democrats, Baud: “The Republican I admire”

    Republicans never do this- only Democrats. Their love is always unrequited. I personally think it’s tragic :)

  72. 72.

    Jay

    @Kay:

    There’s a certain group of “centerist” pundits and others who still pine for the good old days and have not yet come to terms with the fact that the house is burning down, there are concentration camps, and Nazis are in office.

  74. 74.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Jay:

    There’s a certain group of “centerist” pundits and others who still pine for the good old days

    They pine for the Eisenhower administration?

  77. 77.

    Millard Filmore

    @Kay:

    evangelicals were fighting against labor unions since the 1930’s

    I am puzzled by why it is ok for the government to protect the rich with the corporate veil and corporate bankruptcy, but protecting workers and the value of their labor is evil.

  80. 80.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Millard Filmore:

    I am puzzled by why it is ok for the government to protect the rich with the corporate veil and corporate bankruptcy, but protecting workers and the value of their labor is evil.

    “Because fuck anyone who stands between me and making as much money as possible while fucking over as many people as possible.” – Republican proverb

  84. 84.

    AThornton

    @Millard Filmore:

    Because “From each according to their ability, to each according to their work” is Socialism as defined by the evil Karl (the Commie) Marx hisself.

  86. 86.

    J R in WV

    @Millard Filmore:

    sorry about the triple posting. “Post Comment” in Chrome gave no feedback, twice. So I went to Firefox.

    That’s OK, they were all quite excellent comments~!!~

  87. 87.

    Firebert

    @Millard Filmore:

    I am puzzled by why it is ok for the government to protect the rich with the corporate veil and corporate bankruptcy, but protecting workers and the value of their labor is evil.

    Calvinism.

    The rich are God’s blessed, while the poor are not, and therefore must surrender gratefully their labor to the rich.

    (Grew up in a family that was part of the same denomination as Betsy DeVos. Shook the dust from my sandals as I walked away.)

  89. 89.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud:

    Why is Taibbi even wasting his time writing about her? She’s got no support.

    You answered your own question. People like Taibbi love hopeless cases most of all; by supporting them, they keep their hands perpetually clean.

  90. 90.

    Millard Filmore

    @Firebert:

    The rich are God’s blessed, while the poor are not

    But I am rich in labor. Do they really think it is ok to loot the value of my work?

  93. 93.

    Kay

    @Millard Filmore:

    If you were chosen you wouldn’t be a laborer. It’s circular :)

    It’s not they worship rich people. It’s just that rich people are chosen by God. Which is also why they’re rich. I don’t know- chicken/egg, I lost them somewhere.

  95. 95.

    Ruckus

    @Baud:
    He really isn’t saying much about Weld. Other than he stuck himself into the middle of a shit storm without as much as a poncho or any way to stem the tide of shit rushing out of all conservative orifices. I think that is a hell of a lot more than 99.99999% of republicans are doing or will do. Yes he’s still be a disaster of a candidate and would make a shitty president, but how many levels above trump is he? It’s more than one. Of course we need about a million levels above trump to even get from maximum shit to only real bad but still it would be an improvement. Of course it also shows that the entire republican party is, as a group, in about the same completely shitty group as trump.

  96. 96.

    Timurid

    As Dollar Store Anders Breivik found out the hard way, wrestling is a very popular sport in South Asia.
    I bet that guy has a nice set of cauliflower ears hidden under his turban…

  97. 97.

    Ruckus

    @NotMax:
    This would have been the entire thumb. About 1/8 in away from the hand proper. I cut about a third of the way through the bone, cut the tendon, the artery and the nerve bundle. I’m still paying for it. As you well know having cut off part of yours.

  99. 99.

    Anne Laurie

    @Ruckus: Did some pruning / deadheading this afternoon, didn’t bother to go back for my gauntlets first. Came in repeating the old gardener’s mantra: Prosperous roses demand blood sacrifices!

  100. 100.

    Anne Laurie

    @Baud:

    I don’t understand what Pierce is thinking. Bill Weld ran a third party campaign against Hillary Clinton in 2016. The fact that he’s still better than most Republicans is not a reason to lionize him.

    Pierce is also a Masshole. I suspect I’m not the only one with a soft spot for ol’ Bill, regardless of his flaws…

  104. 104.

    Anne Laurie

    @The Lodger: Well, that didn’t hurt Weld’s reputation!

    (Low bar, yes. But he actually did a good job of behaving like a decent person while in office, as was the tradition among New England Repubs.)

  108. 108.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Baud: In Weld’s defence, he basically spent the last two or three weeks of the 2016 campaign telling people to vote for Clinton and not for his ticket. Would it have been better if he hadn’t enabled a third-party run at all? Yes. But he himself seems to have had a change of heart when it became apparent that Dump might actually, for lack of a better term, “win”.

    Ceterum censeo factionem Republicanam esse delendam.

  109. 109.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Kay:

    US evangelical Christians embraced Putin – they think he brought God’s law back to the evil Soviet Union.

    That helps, but they would have embraced anyone who helped them win political gains in the US. Anyone. Their only moral principle is being allowed to hurt anyone they choose, and they feel like that literally god-given right is being stolen bit by bit.

    @Millard Filmore:

    I am puzzled by why it is ok for the government to protect the rich with the corporate veil and corporate bankruptcy, but protecting workers and the value of their labor is evil.

    Because the latter is cruelty, and American evangelical Christianity is a hate cult. The rich are not vulnerable and evangelicals can’t get their jollies watching the rich suffer, so hurting or helping the rich – they don’t care. They also think the rich are white, which helps. Giving the rich free rein enables the rich to make the poor suffer, and evangelicals can get off on that. The vulnerable banding together to improve their own condition is antithetical to the evangelical desire to gloat over the suffering of others.

    @Firebert:

    The rich are God’s blessed, while the poor are not

    From my experience, even that is just an excuse to blame the poor for their own suffering, so evangelicals can pat themselves on the back for enjoying the pain of others. Blaming the victim is THE evangelical go-to argument. All conservatives, really.

  110. 110.

    A Ghost To Most

    @Amir Khalid: Cuts go with the territory. If it wasn’t the spoon, it would have been something else.
    My wife doesn’t even blink about it anymore. She just breaks out the first aid kit.
    Besides, figuring out how to make a spoon out of a branch is my idea of fun.

    I envy you playing the guitar. I played 45 years ago, but broke three fingers playing football, and never played again. Big regert.

  111. 111.

    Jay

    Mississippi ICE raids: "there was a young man who was working there that protested the arrests because he was an American citizen…& they tased him, knocked him to the ground & put handcuffs on him before they finally figured out that he was an American." https://t.co/WVGaI3BxNE— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) August 8, 2019

  112. 112.

    A Ghost To Most

    @dexwood:
    I have never sold anything I’ve made. Given a lot away, though. Do you do it for a living? Mostly I work in walnut, leather, and brass.
    The alder is useful for utilitarian stuff. It carves well when green, then dries out hard and strong.

  113. 113.

    Gemina13

    @Tony Jay: I JUST posted that scene from “The Preacher” to my FB page with this story.

    “Where the fuck is your chin?!” may be one of the greatest lines ever.

  114. 114.

    Jay

    @A Ghost To Most:

    Yeah, when I lived on the Coast, alder was trash wood and firewood. Never try to split seasoned alder. Split it when it’s green.

    Here, in 160 acres, I have all of 2 Alder trees.

    But the best use for alder is cooking fish.

  115. 115.

    frosty

    @A Ghost To Most: I envy you playing the guitar. I played 45 years ago, but broke three fingers playing football, and never played again. Big regert.

    One word for you: slide. Ok, more words: with a thumbpick. No fingers needed.

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