America, fuck yeah:
Video footage shows the moment two women buying a rifle failed to notice a baby falling off the shop counter.
The customers can be seen admiring the gun inside a pawn shop while the infant sits on top of the glass counter beside them.
But while they are busy talking to each other, the shop assistant behind the counter leaps forward and tries to grab the baby as it slowly topples head-first towards the ground.
Luckily store manager Bill Reel noticed the child seemed “unsteady” and raced forward to catch it just before it hit the concrete floor.
The younger woman can be seen clutching her hand to her chest in shock as the father-of-four hands the baby to the other woman, believed to be the grandmother.
A little heavy-handed as far as metaphors go, but I’ll allow it.
This kid has no fucking chance they should just allow the clerk to keep it.
Baud
Gun nuts suck, but I don’t think this type of negligence is limited to that particular fetish.
pinacacci
OT but can haz livestream judiciary committee articles of impeachment comment thread? Gohmert is nuts.
schrodingers_cat
OT: I am feeling so very despondent about what is happening in India and knowing the Sangh ideology that the government at the Centre is wedded to, things are going to get worse. My folks are making lame excuses for the BJP while some of husband kitteh’s relatives are actively spreading BJP propaganda.
*Sangh = Short for RSS, Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (National Volunteer Corps) BJP’s parent organization which was inspired by Fascists and Nazis and founded in the 1920s.
trollhattan
Heard about a couple living in the USA
Said they traded in their baby for a
Chevroletgun.Seems right.
Baud
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m sorry. It’s bad in both your homes.
Elizabelle
They weren’t paying any attention to that baby. What kind of idiot sits a baby up on the counter like that to begin with? And is not standing right there, in front of baby?
So lucky the employee was paying more attention. That was going to be a terrible injury.
And then they wrap the baby in a camo blanket. Utah. Ugh.
NotMax
Can never remember whether it is a magazine of morons or a clip of cretins.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: India doesn’t have the equivalent of a Democratic party or Nancy Pelosi, sad to say. We are lucky to have both.
Another Scott
@pinacacci “Congress obstructed Congress!!111ONE”
:-/
Cheers,
Scott.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Apparently Gym Jordan just went off on a “they don’t like us” rant, impeaching trump is just more of your liberal elitist ways to look down on “us”.
That’s not what impeachment is about, but…
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Barrage of boneheads?
Elizabelle
I thought this was important. Maria Hinojosa twitter feed. (I don’t know how to better embed.) Cuz NPR and MSNBC seem to do this constantly. The repetition of the propaganda — hey, folks, look at this! But it is amplification.
Another Scott
One for the lawyers and the grammar pedants:
Hehe.
Cheers,
Scott.
pinacacci
It’s all so surreal
ETA Rep. Bass is bringing it.
Melusine
Odds they don’t have any plans for child-proofing their new toy? Extremely high.
But they’re obviously tired of the old toy now. It doesn’t come with a silencer. Fucktards.
OT: ❤ this interview:
Property taxes are a wealth tax
beth
And they probably sold them the rifle which they will leave unattended in their home with their unattended child – we’ll be reading about that poor kid after he shoots himself or one of his siblings in a few years.
Baud
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
To be fair, I don’t like them.
Patricia Kayden
?BillinGlendaleCA
@pinacacci:
At least you didn’t cast aspersions on his asparagus.
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
Pretty sure that’s a euphemism for the Minbari-Earth war in the Babylon 5 timeline.
:)
Kent
I come from a rural family and have been around guns (and some gun nuts) my whole life.
What seems new-ish to me is how many women I see diving into gun culture. I don’t remember it used to be like that back in the day. But then no one carried military weapons either. It was all about bolt-action hunting rifles with polished walnut stocks, and expensive shotguns of various gauges for each type of bird hunting. I had a uncle who was a total gun nut but he mostly spent his time hand loading, target shooting, and collecting/restoring old vintage guns. Nothing remotely military-ish.
Another Scott
He’s not just a clown. He’s a danger.
We need to do what we can to vote all the Teabaggers out.
Cheers,
Scott.
pinacacci
Ya know, even though the Democratic Convention in 2016 was really scripted and calculated, it still rang true, there was passion in defense of beliefs, I found Rev. Barber amazing…I think these hearings make me so uncomfortable because of all the hollow men speaking on the Republican side…they believe nothing. Their passion is false. Yet it will sound ok to many people who can’t hear the echoing from the hollow men. So anyway that’s why it weirds me out.
Baud
Mnemosyne
@schrodingers_cat:
I’m back in touch with my old friend from high school who is originally from somewhere in Maharashtra and she’s pretty depressed right now, too. ?
(I realize that saying “somewhere in Maharashtra” is like saying “somewhere in California,” but it’s the most I can get my brain to give me right now. I used to know the city but can’t remember.)
Baud
@pinacacci:
The 2016 convention was amazingly good.
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: *looks it up* Haha
It’s now 22 degrees with a 1mph wind. Interested?
prufrock
@Kent: Your uncle had a hobby. Modern gun nuts are part of a cult.
Kent
@Another Scott: Back when we lived in Texas we would sometimes drive out to Caddo Lake in East Texas for camping and boating. Kind of a cool area. But it takes you right through the heart of Gohmert’s district in Marshall TX. That place is the most insular inbred place you have ever seen. Makes the rest of Texas seem downright progressive and intellectual. That man suits his district, honest to God. It’s a scary place. If you have ever seen the movie Bernie, that is set in Gohmert’s district and based on a real crime story.
Amir Khalid
@Elizabelle:
It’s of a piece with their attitude towards the basics of gun safety, isn’t it?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: My favorite part was when Roger Murdock spoke.
zhena gogolia
@Baud:
Oh, great. Talk about kangaroo court.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: That’s what Moscow Mitch wants.
pinacacci
@Baud: It was.
Ugh Rep. Roby is being calm and measured, still ending up at the nonsense place though. They believe nothing.
Steeplejack
@Another Scott:
“Pled” is of the devil. Also “dove” for “dived.”
NotMax
@mrmoshpotato
At a reasonable distance, certainly. New high for the date of just about 90 yesterday, which was also the day of my monthly errand sojourn into town, where it felt more like 110 in the shade.
mrmoshpotato
@zhena gogolia: “And the verdict is “Not guilty.”
“We haven’t even started the trial yet!”
“Court adjourned!”
zhena gogolia
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Of course they don’t want witnesses. Witnesses would only show them up. All this BS about “let’s have Schiff testify” — I wish they would!
mrmoshpotato
@NotMax: Oof. Spicy.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@zhena gogolia: I’m thinking that Schiff will be one of the managers.
Citizen Alan
@pinacacci:
Oh yeah, totally scripted and calculated … except for the fact that all the Bernie delegates booed every time Hillary’s name got mentioned.
hitchhiker
Because I am sometimes in need of a reality dose, I read a long thread today over at reddit’s askreddit sub, in which people with direct experience of mass shootings were invited to describe what happened.
It did the job, meaning, it reminded me that trauma is real and ongoing, and that in spite of what are now thousands and thousands of damaged people with stories to tell about the day someone showed up with weapons, we still can’t quite change the channel.
We let people who don’t have enough sense to keep a baby from falling off a countertop buy guns and take them home. With the baby.
pinacacci
@Citizen Alan: No, not what I meant. Was talking about the stagecraft, the white suit, the hug from Obama, the great music selections. Not in any way saying the whole thing was a play, but the stuff on stage was definitely well-planned. And I’m glad most people in the arts are leftish
ETA and that we can boo each other sometimes
Ruckus
@NotMax:
Yes, yes it is.
Shana
@beth: There was a story in the WaPo Sunday about a child who died. I don’t remember how, but the story mentioned that the grandmother was 42 and the mother was 17. Didn’t look like those two were much different.
As a 60 year old whose kids aren’t even married yet, I find those kinds of ages stunning.
Roger Moore
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
Which is kind of ironic, since he was first elected to replace one of the managers of Clinton’s impeachment.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Roger Moore: Yup, I was thinking the same thing.
schrodingers_cat
@Mnemosyne: Actually I am quite happy about the non-BJP coalition in power in Maharashtra. Not happy about the BJP government in the Centre.
ETA: Is she from Mumbai, Pune or Nagpur?
Baud
@Roger Moore:
It’s the circle of life.
Citizen_X
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Who’s “us,” Gym? Your claim to fame is as an enabler of criminals; first at Ohio State, and now in Washington. And you’re absolutely right: I do not like the collective You.
Jay
Kent
@Shana: Science teacher who I currently co-teach with started her teaching career as a young 24 year old science teacher in South San Antonio. She said that in her first remedial science class, as the teacher she was the only female in the class who had never been pregnant.
We really live in two different countries.
Ruckus
@Kent:
I used to go duck and goose hunting, 17-19 yrs old. Hand loaded our own shells. 3 close calls and I had enough. And none of us drank or used any other mind/mood altering substance. One more close call 2 yrs later when someone was actually shooting at me for walking down the street – which caused me to set a new 1000 meter world record. Not timed of course but I’m still here so I’m claiming the record. And that ended any concept I had that guns were in any way a reasonable thing to have. So about 50 yrs of wanting guns to go the fuck away. Given where we are, I’ve stopped wishing for anything more than the sun to come up in the morning. And me to be able to see it.
kindness
Utah, eh? I wondered where and thought of more than one that was likely. I was wrong though. My bad.
BRyan
Completely OT, but can I ask anyway? Anybody have any experience with the “be good to people” clothing line and the organization behind it? Their shirts are becoming ubiquitous enough, at least around here, that I’m beginning to find their schtick annoying — perfect strangers, no matter how well intentioned, do not get to randomly tell me to mind my manners, thank you … OTOH, better that than a gun in my face, I know.
Lock Trump Up
@?BillinGlendaleCA
Fuck Louie Gohmert, fuck asparagus, and fuck that scumbag Gerrit Cole for signing with those goddamn motherfucking NY Yankees.
chopper
@NotMax:
a belt of buffoons?
Shakti
@schrodingers_cat:
My relatives belong to a sect which debates whether it’s Hindu or not. They don’t seem concerned in the slightest that these BJP people will one day decide they’re not Hindu.
I can’t talk to anyone — my father just goes into rages [he wrote an angrygram about an India Abroad article] and the hometown community paper just is in full Modi defense.
chopper
@Another Scott:
oh thank fucking god.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Lock Trump Up:
Um, Gerrit Cole is a fellow Bruin and made the FTNYY’s pay him major bucks until he’s 41. The Dodgers(and Angels) dodged a bullet here.
Ohio Mom
It’s not the main thing about the video, it’s more like icing on a cake, but most moms/grandmas with an upset, crying baby would attend to him/her — look him in the eye, kiss him, say reassuring things in a soft voice, rock him, that sort of thing.
This granmother takes the baby and holds him/her without a glance in his direction, just like he’s a sack of groceries. I have no idea what the cammo blankets suposed to accomplish.
Jeffro
@pinacacci: I know, right?
Huge moment in US political history and we’re deep-diving on some random gun wacko
joel hanes
@Steeplejack:
also “snuck” for “sneaked”
NotMax
@Ohio Mom
Sweetener to the offer to have him take the child in trade.
//
Jay
Elizabelle
@Ohio Mom: I started to wonder if the women are an aunt and grandmother, or even a caretaker and her daughter or mother.
Anyway, they’re negligent.
ruemara
@beth: my thoughts exactly
Martin
@Baud: It’s not. But it’s extremely illustrative of how bad humans are at assessing risk.
Martin
@Jay: And the government wonders why tech companies are so determined to protect the integrity of device to device encryption.
Steeplejack
@joel hanes:
✊
Martin
@Another Scott: He should be arrested. What he did is illegal.
Elizabelle
It’s been a week for misjudging danger, no? Thinking of the eruption on White Island/Whakaari, New Zealand. And the cruise ship excursioners there. Although it sounds like even experienced locals and guides did not perceive visiting as a life-threatening risk. Reading that New Zealand is one of the the capitols of daring feats, bungee jumping all over the place, and that it’s not a litigious society such as our own. But:
WaPost:
New Zealand orders more than 1,290 square feet of human skin for badly burned volcano victims
I guess med staff will learn a lot more about how to care for such gruesome injuries. Science proceeds and innovates, especially from terrible incidents like this one.
Jay
Elizabelle
@Martin:
Yeah, I agree. Teach Gohmert and the goons in Congress a lesson. The law applies to them, too. Arrest him for endangering the whistleblower.
====
Went to see an excellent movie last week — The Peanut Butter Falcon, about a young guy with Down syndrome pursuing his dream. Recommend it. Anyway, very uplifting but I recognized I was kind of gritting my teeth while watching and realized — it was the southern accents. Movie is set on the North Carolina coast, filmed in Georgia.
And the white males with southern accents were just repelling me.
It’s the exposure to all the Republican jackasses on the Intelligence and Judiciary committees. The Mueller hearing, the more recent one. It’s like Clockwork Orange territory.
I was thinking “this can’t be! I live in the South. I have nephews with slight accents …”
But there it was.
Martin
Speaking of which.
So, 2nd time he ‘accidentally’ shoots someone, is on probation, prohibited from owning firearms, and owns 4 firearms’.
Leaves four kids unsupervised with four guns (while trespassing) to check on a hog trap – which was almost certainly also illegal.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Another Scott: No other lawmakers have done this.— Kyle Cheney
Rand Paul?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle:
Kid did it twice while there.
OT: She had surgery for a sinus problem she’s had since she was a teen today, she seems to have fared OK and is resting at her mom’s.
Immanentize
Forget the aged Wolfman vs Dracula! I want an update. Frank Sheeran meets L. Gohmert.
Elizabelle
@?BillinGlendaleCA: She’s a brave one. Zip lines are plenty exciting, thank you very much. Lucky pup for visiting NZ, though.
hilts
h/t https://www.mediaite.com/news/cbs-airs-insane-video-of-trump-supporters-suggesting-violence-if-president-is-removed-my-357-magnum-says-he-wont-be/
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Elizabelle: She also jumped out of a perfectly good airplane while in New Zealand. She got her mom to do the zip line thing on their cruise.
Jay
@Elizabelle:
White Island/Whakaari tourism is highly regulated and the volcano is highly monitored. When it vents, its ususally steam/gas upwards from the crater ridges or outside the crater ring and out to sea.
This one was superheated ash/steam/gas that came out sideways and filled the entire crater.
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1100076
Any active volcano is dangerous, Mount St. Helens for example, even hot springs are dangerous.
scav
@Elizabelle: After I started sitting my cousin’s kids I found myself automatically checking the well-being of anyone shorter than knee high at all times. One shouldn’t really yell “Stop at all driveways!” after any random urchin barreling past.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: Sadly, no law applies to what friggin Ghomert did. It’s in the Constitution. Debate clause
Jay
Elizabelle
@Martin: Yeesh. Previous vic was a child, too. Florida man. Titusville.
Also, he transported this shot up 9 year old daughter himself, in his vehicle, to a hospital “on the other side of the city”, instead of calling 911. She faces several surgeries.
No bail for Mr. Adkins.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: He could still be censured or even expelled by the House though.
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: They have Vikings there, don’t they?
People who hold signs Go on to hold many things.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@hilts:
Jethro got his cipherin’ right the first time
Jay
Immanentize
@Elizabelle: They have Vikings there, don’t they?
People who hold signs Go on to hold many things.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: UN
LIKELY
Elizabelle
@Immanentize: Vikings. Right.
Have become quite the fan of Taika Waititi. Saw his What We Do in the Shadows (vampires in present day New Zealand; hanging around outside nightclubs cuz they have not been invited in); Jojo Rabbit. Go Kiwis!
John Revolta
“Ah own gunz so ah kin proteck mah kidz!!”
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: Agree on the chances, but that would be the appropriate remedy.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: I still have hope that Gina Haspel will win this knife fight.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize: She came up though operations, I’m sure she knows how to handle a knife.
Immanentize
@?BillinGlendaleCA: a knife or other things…. As a citizen I am horrified. As an observer I am transfixed
Jay
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/politics/2019/dec/11/boris-johnson-hides-in-fridge-to-avoid-piers-morgan-interview
Gin & Tonic
@Elizabelle: Adrenaline tourism is big business down in NZ. I did this when I visited.
Immanentize
@Gin & Tonic: I bet you had a cappuccino too! Daredevil!?
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Gin & Tonic: Kid did that one.
Amir Khalid
@John Revolta:
People like this man and those women compartmentalise between their love of guns and the safety of children in their care. They cannot deal with both at the same time. That is sad and worrying.
Gin & Tonic
@Immanentize: Probably more than one.
Took a boat ride too.
Jay
https://baynature.org/2019/12/10/naturally-2019-closes-with-thousands-of-10-inch-pulsing-penis-fish-stranded-on-a-california-beach/
mrmoshpotato
@pinacacci: House Judiciary Committee will resume the articles of impeachment debate at 9AM ET tomorrow.
Dan B
@schrodingers_cat: The news out of India is depressing and yet the scale is so huge it’s nearly impossible to process. It’s like Syria, the Rohingya, and the Uyghurs. The horror us so immense that it keeps disappearing from my thoughts. It certainly is not enough in the consciousness of most Americans. Dozens of Indian cities are huge. People live together in small spaces. The Jama Masjid (sp) Mosque in Delhi divides the Muslim market and the Hindu markets. Are there a million people in each within walking distance? Much of America’s tech and medical sectors are closely tied to or run by Indians. Violence in India could rapidly explode and would throw the US and much of the world into recession and worse. Our incompetent regime would interfere with our IC and DOD, probably use the opportunity to weed out level headed and constitutional loving people.
And there are friends in India who are in harms way.
Elizabelle
@Gin & Tonic: Very cool.
Adrenaline tourism. Like that term.
Elizabelle
@scav: Little kids are wicked fast. And deviously quiet when they want to be.
Dan B
@Jay: Seems like we’ve hit a tipping point for the northern hemisphere. The Jet Stream has been out of whack at least once a month. It’s been another weird weather year for Seattle. Precip is below normal, snowpack is extremely low (electricity, water, and irrigation in eastern WA depend upon snowpack), and there were other odd changes that persisted for months. And there were huge losses of potatoes in WA and Idaho from an early hard freeze. The Jet Stream dipped wildly south along the east of the Cascades and Sierras. It froze potatoes and caused hurricane force Santa Anas. Fire and ice.
Feathers
The only thing that could make this more ‘Murican is if the women then went after the manager for putting his hands on their child.
@Elizabelle: One of the few bright spots around the Boston Marathon bombing was that because the victims went to teaching/research hospitals it has meant a leap forward in the understanding and treatment of traumatic hearing loss. Mainly because the doctors and researchers were able to follow and compare so many cases simultaneously. Also, most of the people treated for all the injuries have agreed to be a part of follow up studies.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
Eagle vs. Shark (2007) is worth looking up, especially if you like Jemaine Clement.
Elizabelle
@Feathers: Always look for the bright spots, even in terrible events.
@Steeplejack: Eagle vs. Shark it is. And good on you for chauffeuring Laura Too and Merlin around. And Merlin was out of his carrier while in the car? Brave of both of you.
Steeplejack
@Elizabelle:
No, that was a joke about letting him drive!
He stayed in his carrier the whole time. I didn’t even get a look at him, because it was a small soft-side draped with a towel. Looking forward to photos from TomatoQueen.
Amir Khalid
@Dan B:
Masjid (originally an Arabic word) already means mosque, so you would not need both words in the name of a particular mosque.
Elizabelle
@Steeplejack: Good to hear. My cat got her head stuck in the steering wheel while my mom was driving us on I-95. Traumatized us all. That cat was not a fan of automobiles.
The Lodger
@Amir Khalid: But is there an ATM machine nearby?
Dan B
@Amir Khalid: I know but believe most BJ readers don’t. Should have just said the largest mosque in India.
My friend who was raised secular Hindu in New Delhi was terrified to visit the Jama Masjid. She’d been raised to believe that all Muslims wanted to kill Hindus.
MERKLE
The child yet lives?
I am unconvinced.
Amir Khalid
@The Lodger:
Probably. Automated teller machine machines are everywhere.
pinacacci
@Dan B: Damn it NOT POTATOES. Damn it
ETA not sarcasm.