It’s always performative bullshit…
A sitting US Congressman is threatening to shoot a presidential candidate and former Vice President.
(Also, this is why Colorado now has a gun sense majority and why @SenCoryGardner will lose his seat in November.) https://t.co/SrrrpXOJi5
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) March 6, 2020
No one is coming for your inoperable gun, Ken. #ShootingBlanks https://t.co/d36mQHuvld
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) March 6, 2020
HumboldtBlue
I may not be coming to take away your firearms, but I sure as hell am coming to take your girl!
dmsilev
Well done, Congressman Swalwell.
NotMax
Kind of surprised there’s been scant, if any, mention of the swastika banner unfurled by a nutball at a Wilmer rally.
JWR
Re Swalwell’s tweet, there’s gotta be a joke in there about Buck’s inoperable gun and a porn actors flaccid peni$, but I’m coming up short. Guess I’m #ShootingBlanks
Kent
It’s gotten about as much mention as the crazy vegan protester at Biden’s rally. How much mention do you think it deserves?
opiejeanne
@NotMax: at first I thought it was a Bernie supporter, but just another MAGAt.
NotMax
@Kent
While I don’t think we need to dote on it, some comment about whether it is an isolated incident or an opening salvo might be in order.
Call me old fashioned but I don’t find vegans the same class of threat as I do Nazis.
West of the Rockies
Meanwhile, Republicans shit themselves over Schumer’s (perhaps inartful?) SCOTUS observation.
chris
@NotMax:here you go, the guy’s a professional neo-nazi. Youtube took his site down today. Thread:
Kent
Deleted.
NotMax
@Kent
I don’t know, which is why some discussion might be in order. Experience tells that such people do not operate in a vacuum.
Poe Larity
NotMax
@chris
Thanks for the info. One off damage control or does YouTube check out accounts of his followers/others he follows?
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Apparently the Secret Service has been discussing whether or not Sanders and Biden should get protection prior to being officially nominated, which is usually when SS protection kicks in.
Obviously, in the wake of these two incidents, they should both get it.
ETA: FWIW, I suspect it was more of a hahahahaha youâre a loser dick move than a threat, but thatâs what the police should be investigating.
chris
@NotMax: I don’t know for sure but I think they take it down when they get enough complaints. After this I’m sure his followers are being looked at. He’s pretty toxic if Gab banned him.
West of the Rockies
@Poe Larity:
What is wrong with Kentuckians that they elect McConnell and this clown over and over?
Martin
So, the more I dig into nCoV and related data, the more fascinating it is. The feds say they have 12M N95 masks stockpiled, but CA has 21M stockpiled. How many does your state have? How uneven is this distribution going to be? How quickly can China get back to work and make more if we keep cocking this up?
So, assuming the fatality rates so far which seem relatively stable, we’re looking at a peak number of  fatalities of 1.8M. That’s if every person in the country gets it, but also if every person gets adequate health care.
The typical occupancy for hospitals is 65%. So, we’ve got about 300K beds to work with. But if you put infected people in regular beds, you’re going to infect that other 65% (who presumably are already sick, so doubleplusbad). I’m not sure how they’re planning on addressing that.
There are 100K ICU beds in the US, but they tend to have higher occupancy, so we really don’t have a ton of capacity there. Sure you could put a nCoV patient there, but you might be turning away someone having a heart attack. There’s about 50K mechanical ventilators and about â are in use at any time.
Assuming we don’t get this shit under control, I estimate we run out of mechanical ventilators and ICU beds before the month is out based on the current fatality rate (rather than infection rate which we know is a useless number). We have a longer runway on regular beds because there’s more capacity there and more flexibility.
We’ll see what the fatality curve looks like. It could be distorted by the cruise ship, but if it holds we’re at 110 dead by one week from today, 750 by two weeks from today, and 5200 by 3 weeks from today. Not evacuating that cruise ship makes those numbers far more likely.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
You honestly don’t perceive deliberately waving a swastika at a Jew to be a threat? What about spray painting them on a synagogue or on headstones? Just spirited hijinx?
Martin
Wuhan extended their quarantine period to 28 days since some people still testing positive after 14. Not sure I trust that, but worth keeping an eye on.
The Thin Black Duke
@West of the Rockies: Too many white people in Kentucky hate niggers, bitches and queers.
Poe Larity
@Martin: If the mortality rate is 15% for over 70, have to factor in nursing home beds, Some 1.7M per the intertubes.
Martin
@Poe Larity: By all accounts a huge % of those over 70 will require the IUC bed. Not very many below 70. So, not sure they help us out much.
Adam L Silverman
Flag code violation: Check! DC municipal magazine ban violation: Check! John Cooperâs 4 Rules for firearm safety violation: Check!
Kent
Quick peek at google tells me that Kentucky is 87% white and just 24% college educated. That seems to be the toxic combination in the 21st Century.
Adam L Silverman
@Kent: Anything about percentage inbred?
Another Scott
@Poe Larity:
Relatedly…:
Poor, poor Rand…
Cheers,
Scott.
NotMax
@Adam L. Silverman
Lock, stock and two empty frontal lobes.
;)
Kent
Of course it is a threat.  But for the sake of curiosity, how many death threats do you think Bernie gets per week? I have no idea.
To some extent this is like how televised sports no longer show it on screen when fans disrupt the game by jumping onto the playing field and running around.  How much media attention do we give these sorts of attention-seekers?  When it is obviously attention that they seek?
West of the Rockies
@The Thin Black Duke:
Sad but true.
West of the Rockies
@Kent:
I hope the clown faces REAL consequences:Â jail time(?), loss of a job, familial shunning.
West of the Rockies
@Kent:
I’d guess lots of evangelical idiocy, too.
NotMax
@Kent
The attention they deserve – trying to (not physically) pound it into thick skulls that opprobrium and repulsion is what they generate. Not by dwelling on it (or on them) but also by not tacitly accepting it through avoidance as some sort of subset of normal and not as dangerous and aberrant.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
A hate crime is not necessarily a direct physical threat to a specific person. Itâs usually meant to terrorize an entire community, not threaten a specific person with harm. My point was that Sanders was probably not in personal danger from this asshole but, again, thatâs why the asshole needs to be investigated and thatâs why Sanders should get Secret Service protection ASAP. Is that clear enough for you?
Kent
Attention as in getting their asses locked up and their entire life and all known associates investigated with a microscope and anal probe? Then yes.
Attention as in national TV coverage making them celebrities within a certain vile subset of the population? Not so much.
Kent
Josh Marshall agrees with you on the Nazi by the way:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/dont-ignore-this
JWR
@West of the Rockies:
Don’t forget the Kovington Kiddy Korner.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Clear as mud. Threats do not have to include immediate violence to be threats.
Your words:
A specific person? How about if he was seen as a representative (that status earned or no) of a class of people?
NotMax
@Kent
The other side of the coin being that if they are not called out for vilification each time (don’t have to use the names, just the acts) then it is wide open for some who otherwise are not as radicalized to interpret silence as assent.
patrick II
@NotMax:
Evidently you’ve never had to sit at the table until you finished your peas.
Major Major Major Major
Can we just take all their guns already and get it over with?
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
Yes, Iâm a secret anti-Semite who doesnât take hate crimes seriously. You finally caught me after all of these years. Happy now? ?
Major Major Major Major
@Martin: I saw back-of-the-envelope calculations that depending on severity and spread assumptions, our hospitals may be full some time in early-mid May.
I also found a fun JAMA study finding that N95 respirators and surgical masks are equally effective for preventing flu in healthcare workers, for whatever thatâs worth. Not really able to evaluate it obviously but it was an interesting finding building on earlier findings https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2749214
Kent
Those are actually Ohioans who moved across the river for the lower taxes in KY.
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
Might want to leave “deflectors on full” to Star Trek.
;)
Kent
@NotMax: I don’t have all the answers. But I don’t think giving attention seekers national attention is necessarily productive. A couple of months in the lockup and all of their associates subject to FBI investigation might be more productive.
People of these ilk usually have a shitload of other things to hide. Put them under the microscope and lock them up for all the weapons and drug and tax violations they are probably also guilty of. They aren’t usually model citizens who just happen to have fringe points of view.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Don’t know how commonplace it is but isn’t some hospital garb (including surgical masks?) treated/infused with chemical agents meant to provide an additional barrier?
NotMax
@Kent
We’re not at cross purposes. It’s a delicate balancing act. And the mass media don’t do delicate with much if any proficiency.
That said, I don’t believe a bit of mention on an almost top 10,000 blog is going to bestow martyrhood on anyone of any stripe.
JWR
Don’t think this idiot is the same idiot, but still an idiot, (probably has a very punchable face, too.)
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: couldnât tell you, but here are the models
ETA the only difference between the construction and medical versions of the 3M ones seem to be FDA approval/additional fluid resistance
Kent
Of course not. On the other hand it isn’t going to be productive to give him 5 hours on FOX news discussing:
“OK that was bad but does he maybe have a point about the socialism?”
“Both sides….because Cuba and the Sandanistas are bad too”
“Is Sanders inviting extremists by his extremism?”
etc. etc.
NotMax
@Major Major Major Major
Ah, there we are. Anti-microbial scrubs. Not, apparently, particularly effective.
Major Major Major Major
@NotMax: that one I donât find too surprising for some reason.
bago
https://twitter.com/bagofmice/status/1236166467520999426?s=2
On the one hand, it proves that the people who said that “video games would desensitize us to violence” were on to something. On the other hand, congressman with loot box blinged AR…
NotMax
@Kent
Near as I can tell we’re in complete agreement on the table setting and just have minor differing outlooks as to how the place cards should be laid out.
trollhattan
Will give the genius congressman this: if you give that gun to Tamir Rice it’s real enough.
Asshole.
Mnemosyne
@NotMax:
I donât see the point in continuing any conversation since you consistently decide to put the worst possible construction on everything I say. This is not even close to the first time youâve done it, so I am now putting you in my pie filter for everyoneâs sake. Goodbye.
trollhattan
Mulvaney free to spend St. Patrick’s Day in N. Ireland.
WH churns staff so fast they’re opening a “Can’t believe it’s not butter” franchise.
NobodySpecial
Upon seeing that, I wish Sanders had said, ” And THESE guys are the ones claiming our ideology is a failure.”
NotMax
@Mnemosyne
So you won’t see this, and about that I honestly do not care.
Your long standing truculent denial there might exist the shadow of a possibility you have been mistaken about anything rears its head again.
I forget, is it a red or a white that goes with complacency?
Gvg
@NotMax: look in a mirror.
your excessive anger to a minor disagreement makes you less persuasive not more. Talk more dispassionately and you will get more engagement. Attack people, and they will push you away, and not listen to you.
itâs actually hard to figure out the best possible response to hate attention seekers. I have seen several different responses to this kind of thing including both yours and mnems, and I didnât see great results for any strategy. Deplorables donât want to be marginalized and are actively trying to defeat all such strategies is the problem and the reason no one answer actually works.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
That gun, good lord, that’s like some Anime fan with their cheesy wall hanger Katana; they took a deadly weapon and Disneyfed so they could treat it like a toy.
NotMax
@Gvg
I’m not angry so much as perturbed but when someone essentially characterizes a vile display as “Wassamatter, can’t you take a joke?” I’m not going to placidly let that pass either.
Ksmiami
@West of the Rockies: well Kentucky now has Covid so hopefully GOP voter ranks will be culled
debbie
@opiejeanne:
Not just another MAGAt.
“>Thread
PenAndKey
Then I guess it’s a good thing for us that nobody here has actually, you know, done that.
Uncle Cosmo
Excuse me, but you don’t just pick up & come 25 light-years to a rather ordinary G2V star for your health. I mean dang, they may want something a bit more involved than a recipe for mango-peach salsa…
(Of course this has all been done before – in Contact Carl Sagan gave us Vegans & Nazis in the same message…)