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You are here: Home / Politics / America / Things Are Getting Sporty In Lansing: Sauce for the Goose Edition

Things Are Getting Sporty In Lansing: Sauce for the Goose Edition

by Adam L Silverman|  May 6, 202011:36 pm| 131 Comments

This post is in: America, Ammosexuals, Civil Rights, Domestic Politics, Election 2020, Gun Issues, Gun nuts, gun safety, Open Threads, Political Action, Politics, Post-racial America, Silverman on Security

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The response to this is going to be very, very, very interesting!

Here's video of that moment, courtesy of @CityPulse pic.twitter.com/AfQmGeoi4X

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) May 6, 2020

From Kyle Kaminski at The Lansing CityPulse:

WEDNESDAY, May 6 — After a hoard of armed and angry protesters swarmed Lansing last week, State Rep. Sarah Anthony brought some extra protection on her way to the State Capitol today.

At least three African Americans carrying large rifles escorted Anthony across Capitol Avenue earlier this morning so she could safely attend committee meetings without fear of intimidation. She said she didn’t necessarily request the help, but welcomed the extra security nonetheless.

“We were all just appalled by the lack of support and lack of security that I had, that other legislators had, and the fact that a lot of the demonstrators last week were adorning many racist, anti-Semitic signage. I think it just triggered a lot of folks, especially African Americans.”

Anthony and other lawmakers met this morning for an appropriations committee meeting. The scene was quiet. Anthony’s cadre of Second Amendment advocates had no trouble entering the building. They left to quietly stand on the front steps after Anthony made it inside an elevator.

“We want to change the narrative, first of all. We want people to understand that people of color can come out here with guns just the same as anybody else can,” said Michael Lynn Jr., a black Lansing firefighter and community activist who helped organize Anthony’s security detail.

Lynn watched a video that Anthony posted to Facebook as the protest formed last week. In it, she looked on from her office across the street as protestors slowly crowded the Capitol Lawn carrying Confederate flags, Nazi symbolism, nooses and other blatantly racist forms of imagery.

After some demonstrators eventually made it inside the building last week, one maskless and gun-toting protester got so close to Anthony’s face that she could smell his breath. And lawmakers shouldn’t be scared to come into work because of armed intimidation, she said.

“The majority of the protesters were white,” Anthony said. “I’m still not exactly sure on the connection between confederate flags and Nazi symbolism. They just had no connection to the stay-at-home orders. The fact they were carrying guns openly while we voted was unnerving.”

Anthony’s concerns are largely based on a “complete failure” of the Michigan State Police to maintain adequate security, she explained. She didn’t find out until this week that police could have escorted her to her car after she left the Capitol. No other security measures were mentioned.

“It was just unnerving to me as a woman and as a person,” Anthony said, noting that Capitol sergeants otherwise do an adequate job keeping lawmakers inside safe. “These community volunteers today won’t be needed all the time, but they wanted to have a presence today.”

Because Lynn is black, he suspects that cops would’ve been a bit more cautious — and perhaps violent — had his group been as boisterous as some of the crowds last week. He wanted to prove a point that Second Amendment rights aren’t limited on the basis of race.

“I could hear the fear in her voice during that protest,” Lynn explained. “It was the visual of her being that scared to go to work. It meant we had to do something. We came out here today to make sure we could provide some protection, even if it’s only just to make her feel better.”

Much more at the link.

The last time something like this was attempted was when the Black Panthers in California exploited a loophole in California state law and carried unloaded long guns with them everywhere. Including the state capitol to peaceably assemble to petition the state governance for redress of their grievances. While a bunch of nice, white, suburban school kids were visiting on a field trip to have lunch with the recently elected Governor Ronald Reagan. The California legislature pushed significant gun control legislation through and Governor Reagan signed it into law so fast that then 18 year old Wayne LaPierre’s head nearly spun off its axis!

As I wrote up top, it will be very, very, very interesting to see the response to Mr. Lynn’s actions in protecting Representative Anthony.

Open thread!

* Just a quick technical note regarding the tweet. The rifle carried by the guy next to state Representative Anthony is an AR style pistol with a stabilizing brace carbine. So it is not only not a large rifle, but is, at best, an equivalent in size to a short barreled rifle.

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Reader Interactions

131Comments

  1. 1.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    Crucial decisions are being made by people who can't think even two weeks ahead. Arizona is shutting down modeling of the future lest it embarrass governor's plans to reopen the state. But that future will arrive whether it's modeled or not. t.co/BdUdqCxrPy— David Frum (@davidfrum) May 7, 2020

  2. 2.

    feebog

    May 6, 2020 at 11:43 pm

    More of this please. Push back at these mofos.

  3. 3.

    Ohio Mom

    May 6, 2020 at 11:45 pm

    Couldn’t help but notice everyone is properly masked, unlike the gun-toting crazies.

  4. 4.

    DMcK

    May 6, 2020 at 11:46 pm

    The rifle carried by the guy next to state Representative Anthony is a carbine. So it is not a large rifle.

    …in response to a HORDE, not a “hoard”.

  5. 5.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 6, 2020 at 11:47 pm

    @rikyrah: Bugblader beast of Trag method, if we don’t see the Virus it can’t hurt us!

  6. 6.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 11:48 pm

    Malia and Sasha in their mother’s documentary.

    "Also every time you guys play Stevie Wonder—I don’t know, I cry a little bit," Malia says. t.co/DkVSdEBn42— ABC News (@ABC) May 7, 2020

  7. 7.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    May 6, 2020 at 11:49 pm

    @Ohio Mom: A people don’t survive 400 years of slavery and oppression by being stupid.

  8. 8.

    Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)

    May 6, 2020 at 11:51 pm

    As you say, sauce for the goose.  I eagerly await the usual clowns popping up to tell us all why this is dead wrong and altogether different from the nice white nazis toting guns.

  9. 9.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 11:52 pm

    But the President requires everyone around him to be tested, right? Hmm…sounds like one standard for the White House and another standard for the rest of America. t.co/aCTvtDaZRi— Symone D. Sanders (@SymoneDSanders) May 7, 2020

  10. 10.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 11:53 pm

    Carville: Look what his campaign is doing. They’re a pack of grifters. His campaign manager got two condos, a Ferrari, a yacht, a Range Rover and they’re all just fleecing the campaign. This is all about making money and they’re going in there and giving him fake polls. pic.twitter.com/Xj5Bk18GeG— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) May 7, 2020

  11. 11.

    Kelly

    May 6, 2020 at 11:54 pm

    It’s carried by a black guy therefor it’s a large rifle.

  12. 12.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 6, 2020 at 11:55 pm

    @DMcK: I am not following.

  13. 13.

    debbie

    May 6, 2020 at 11:57 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    I’ll leave you with this happy bedtime story: Apparently Dr. Amy Acton lives a few blocks from me. You probably heard that the RWNJ nuts have begun showing up at her home to continue their protests, armed with signs and, yep, guns. The city/suburb has been informed by their police chief, attorneys, and legal scholars that there’s nothing to be done about this because of the First and Second Amendments.

    The city/suburb has so far put up polite street signs asking protesters to respect the neighbors’ rights. As if.

    What assholes.

  14. 14.

    rikyrah

    May 6, 2020 at 11:58 pm

    Why isn't the @SenateGOP focused on responding to COVID-19?Senator McConnell hasn’t held a single vote here on the Senate floor this week related to COVID-19.Instead, Republicans on the Judiciary Committee are wasting time on the nomination of McConnell protégé Justin Walker.— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) May 6, 2020

  15. 15.

    SiubhanDuinne

    May 6, 2020 at 11:58 pm

    a hoard of armed and angry protesters

    I’m seeing this a lot recently, and it’s making me stabby.

  16. 16.

    Viva BrisVegas

    May 6, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    Rifles that are pointed at you only come in one size, huge.

  17. 17.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 6, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    @Ohio Mom:

    Did you hear about the Ohio House voting to limit the powers of the ODH Director? This is bullshit. Apparently, it’s not likely to pass the Senate

  18. 18.

    hells littlest angel

    May 7, 2020 at 12:00 am

    I worry for the safety of those guards. I hope no cops get near them.

  19. 19.

    debbie

    May 7, 2020 at 12:01 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It may pass, but DeWine has already said he’ll veto it.

  20. 20.

    Ohio Mom

    May 7, 2020 at 12:02 am

    One last thought before I log off for the night. While the Panthers were protesting, I think this group is a sign that the state is crumbling before our eyes.

    The state is supposed to have a monopoly on force but it has abdicated responsibility for law enforcement. These gentlemen are filling that vacuum.

  21. 21.

    frosty

    May 7, 2020 at 12:06 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Third word in the article is misspelled. Sheesh. I bet the copy editors got cut in the last round of layoffs.

  22. 22.

    rikyrah

    May 7, 2020 at 12:07 am

    Former Texas Rep. @BetoORourke tells @Lawrence that just providing additional funding for food banks is unsustainable and the best way to feed hungry Americans is to expand who qualifies for the SNAP program. t.co/loBM2wiytM pic.twitter.com/AVOt9Z4onc— The Last Word (@TheLastWord) May 7, 2020

  23. 23.

    Brachiator

    May 7, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Has Trump tweeted that the guards are good people?

  24. 24.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:11 am

    @SiubhanDuinne: None of those guns have a bayonet mount.

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:12 am

    @frosty: Are you sure that someone isn’t stockpiling a large amount or armed and angry men? Just in case the market for them crashes.

  26. 26.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:13 am

    @rikyrah: The best way is to just send everyone a check or direct deposit every month and let them spend it however they need it.

  27. 27.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:13 am

    @Brachiator: Whatever you’ve ingested, please contact poison control and remain calm until emergency services arrive.

  28. 28.

    frosty

    May 7, 2020 at 12:16 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Hmmm. But it looks like a growth market in angry Old Bald Fat White Guys to me.

  29. 29.

    scav

    May 7, 2020 at 12:18 am

    To be fair, that original bevy of “patriots” did look rather like they’d been buried for a solid while in a muddled pile (probably to escape real danger) and then disinterred in a somewhat worn state. But then, as they don’t look like valuable objects before being stashed, hoard indeed isn’t the word. Midden might cover it.

  30. 30.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 12:19 am

    @debbie:

    Lawmakers look to limit authority of Ohio Director Of Health, Dr. Amy Acton

    “This isn’t an attack against them. This is the fact that the governor is not the voice of the people, the director is not the voice of the people,” said Republican State Representative Tim Ginter.

    The amendment would limit any stay-at-home order issued by the Ohio Department of Health to 14 days.  If the director and governor wanted to extend the order, they would need the approval of a bipartisan committee.

    The issue passed through the House 58-to-37.

    “When you have a pandemic crisis such as this you have to act quickly and you have to be decisive and that’s exactly what Dr. Acton has done,” said Democratic State Representative Michael O’Brien.

    O’Brien is among several Valley Democrats opposed to the change.

    “I voted no and I am so angry because it’s a dangerous partisan attack on the lead doctor in the state of Ohio,” said Democratic state representative Michele Lepore Hagan.

    But, Republicans in support say Dr. Acton’s name was never mentioned on their side of the aisle and that this isn’t political.

    “I think what this is affording, is it’s affording the people of the state of Ohio a second opinion by those and from those that represent them,” said Ginter.

    The issue now heads to the senate. If passed, the Governor has to ultimately sign off on it.

    A second opinion!

    And oh, well, if Acton’s name isn’t directly mentioned than I guess it’s not an attack!

  31. 31.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:20 am

    @frosty: The Preexisting Condition Commandos!

  32. 32.

    HumboldtBlue

    May 7, 2020 at 12:21 am

    At least three African Americans carrying large rifles

    Were they expecting more?

  33. 33.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But that’s socialmolism! This is America! We can only offer thoughts and prayers and pointless gestures like flyovers or wave flags like Archie Bunker slobs

  34. 34.

    Roger Moore

    May 7, 2020 at 12:27 am

    @rikyrah:

    McConnell knows which way the wind is blowing. He’s pushing to approve every judge Trump can appoint, and he’s already talking about the need for austerity. He knows the Democrats are going to win, and he’s trying to make it impossible for them to govern after they do.

  35. 35.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:30 am

    @HumboldtBlue: African Americans or large rifles?//

  36. 36.

    Steeplejack

    May 7, 2020 at 12:31 am

    @rikyrah:

    I saw that. It’s a great idea, and so simple. SNAP is already in place and presumably could be ramped up very quickly.

  37. 37.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:32 am

    @Roger Moore: As I wrote here shortly after the Kavanaugh confirmation, expect to see a Kennedyesque retirement by Justice Thomas over the summer if the polling for both the President and for GOP control of the Senate continues to be bad and/or gets even worse. Both to ensure that McConnell and Leonard Leo get to fill the seat so that it can’t be filled by Biden and as a strategy to rally the base to try to ensure the President’s reelection and the preservation of McConnell’s GOP majority in the Senate.

  38. 38.

    Steeplejack

    May 7, 2020 at 12:37 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    But you can’t install a new justice within a year of an election. That’s well settled law!

  39. 39.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 12:37 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Why not invoke the McConnell rule? No SCOTUS nomination should be considered until after the election. Let the American people decide!

    I’m actually serious. McConnell should be hammered with this and an explanation should be demanded for how this is different than Garland

  40. 40.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:38 am

    @Steeplejack: @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’m really beginning to wonder why I go to all the trouble of writing these front page posts if none of you are going to actually read them.//

  41. 41.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:42 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I’m actually serious. McConnell should be hammered with this and an explanation should be demanded for how this is different than Garland

    As I’ve written repeatedly, McConnell recognizes nothing but power. He is a pure fascist. Might makes right. As long as he has the votes, he does not care if anyone thinks him a hypocrite or a liar or a cheat or anything else. All he cares about is accumulating power so he can use it to achieve his two goals: 1) the removal of all limited on campaign funding and financing and 2) stacking the judiciary with partisan extremist ideologues who will rule to protect him and his donors and the wealthy organized crime family and smuggling ring that he married into. That’s it.

  42. 42.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 7, 2020 at 12:44 am

    @Adam L Silverman: I always presumed the company Jag and summer house in Tuscany were enough.  You want more?  Greedy fuck.

  43. 43.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 12:45 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Not even if he were to be repeatedly harrassed over it? People getting aggressive and in his face over it?

  44. 44.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2020 at 12:46 am

    @Steeplejack: IIRC, it’s the Biden Rule.

  45. 45.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 7, 2020 at 12:46 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): How close do you really think you can get to him?

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:48 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): He has a full time security detail from the Capitol Police. And because his wife is a cabinet secretary they can be supplemented with Secret Service if necessary. No one gets within 10 feet of McConnell unless he wants them to.

  47. 47.

    Han

    May 7, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): McConnell is already on record that it only counts if the President and Senate Majority are different parties. If they’re the same party, then they can go ahead with a new justice. I wish I was kidding.

  48. 48.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Don’t cabinet secretaries usually rely on their own department’s protective services?

  49. 49.

    rikyrah

    May 7, 2020 at 12:52 am

    Has anyone you personally know died from the coronavirus via new Quinnipiac poll in New York state:White voters:27% yes72% noNon-white voters:47% yes52% no— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) May 6, 2020

  50. 50.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 12:52 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Depends on which department and how big the threat is. And who they are.

  51. 51.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2020 at 12:57 am

    @Adam L Silverman: It would require a Presidential order then.

  52. 52.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 12:58 am

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Well, if we’re being hypothetical:

    All it would take is speed and picking the right moment for an opening

    Not that I’m advocating violence.

    No, I’d prefer just making every question he’d answer at his press conferences about the “McConnell Rule”. And protestors would never give him a moment’s rest

  53. 53.

    TaMara (HFG)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:00 am

    @rikyrah: Me, too Malia. Me, too.

  54. 54.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 7, 2020 at 1:01 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I think that I speak for Adam when I say don’t call us to bail you out.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:02 am

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Paperwork is easy to do.

  56. 56.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:02 am

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Hey, don’t worry. You won’t have to because I don’t plan on doing any of that

    Anyway, been staying safe?

  57. 57.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:03 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): @Omnes Omnibus: New phone, who dis?

  58. 58.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:06 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    LOL. I say a lot of things I don’t mean when I’m frustrated. I’m just so pissed because a lot of the time there’s nothing I can do to stop awful shit from happening

  59. 59.

    DMcK

    May 7, 2020 at 1:06 am

    @Adam L Silverman: See the first sentence of the story you quoted. First they fired the proofreaders…

    ETA: …and I see others beat me to it. Sharp of eye and mindful of usage the jackals are!

  60. 60.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:06 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I’d like to suggest that you not turn yourself into Tengu 2.0. There are some things that shouldn’t even be asked about hypothetically. Whether in jest or frustration.

  61. 61.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:07 am

    @DMcK: I’m a big fan of smokeless proofreaders.

  62. 62.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:07 am

    @DMcK: More seriously, now I’m following.

  63. 63.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:08 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): I understand that. And I get the cathartic nature of being able to vent from behind a nym. But that said, dial it back a couple of notches.

  64. 64.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:11 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    You’re right, Adam. I apologize and will try to not do this in the future.

    It’s scary because these people like McConnell don’t care if I live or die. I’m an essential worker. And because they try to cut off every way of peacefully removing them from power, it makes the more violent methods more palatable when they do brazen, cruel, corrupt shit

  65. 65.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:13 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): No need to apologize, I’m not offended. Just concerned.

  66. 66.

    Timurid

    May 7, 2020 at 1:14 am

    @Adam L Silverman:  Nobody here may be asking about or proposing anything, but the people who are going to doom tens of thousands of Americans may not have thought their cunning plan all the way through. Bin Laden got shot in the face for much less. Somebody, somewhere is going to start doing the math.

    These people think they have some magical plan to protect themselves from the virus. But I have no idea how they expect to escape the political violence that will be the inevitable consequence of mass death on American soil aided and abetted by Federal and state governments…

  67. 67.

    Mary G

    May 7, 2020 at 1:17 am

    Two women upset that they couldn’t dine-in at an Oklahoma McDonald’s due to COVID-19 shot and injured two 16-year-old employees. Every high-income country is home to dangerous people. Only America is making access to guns even easier during the pandemic. t.co/MbXfPHmzbT— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) May 7, 2020

  68. 68.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:18 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks for your concern. I mean that, but I’ll be fine. Just blowing off some steam. I’ll try to not blow it off being Tengu 2.0.

    Whatever happened to him anyway? Did he just stop commenting?

  69. 69.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2020 at 1:18 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    I don’t plan on doing any of that

    So you say.

  70. 70.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:19 am

    @Timurid: It is going to get worse before it gets better. With this President and administration and McConnell controlling the Senate, there was no other way it could really play out.

  71. 71.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:19 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Cole banned him.

  72. 72.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:20 am

    @Mary G:

    What the hell were they hoping to accomplish?

  73. 73.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:20 am

    @Amir Khalid: I’m getting ready to rack out, but did you get my reply to your email?

  74. 74.

    Timurid

    May 7, 2020 at 1:20 am

    @Adam L Silverman:  We are governed by people who are objectively worse than Al Qaeda. I’m still trying to get my brain around that…

  75. 75.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2020 at 1:21 am

    @Mary G:

    The only reports I have seen of armed violence in response to pandemic restrictions are from America. I wonder why.

  76. 76.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:22 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Oh. Can I ask about what?

  77. 77.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:22 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Homicide. With a side of fries and a supersized shake.

  78. 78.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2020 at 1:22 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Just replied to it, thanks.

  79. 79.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:23 am

    @Amir Khalid:

    You are kidding, right?

  80. 80.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    May 7, 2020 at 1:23 am

    @Amir Khalid: Assholes with guns.

  81. 81.

    Kent

    May 7, 2020 at 1:24 am

    @rikyrah:Carville: Look what his campaign is doing. They’re a pack of grifters. His campaign manager got two condos, a Ferrari, a yacht, a Range Rover and they’re all just fleecing the campaign. This is all about making money and they’re going in there and giving him fake polls. pic.twitter.com/Xj5Bk18GeG— Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) May 7, 2020

    Yep.  The emperor has no clothes.  They are going to paint a fantasy world for him through November 4 because why not?  If he wins again all is well.  If he loses, then you are out of a job anyway.  If you give him the truth now you’ll just get fired.

  82. 82.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:25 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): His repeated inability to stop fantasizing about doing serious bodily harm, including killing, a wide variety of Republicans and conservatives. We’d ask him to cool it, he’d acknowledge the request and say he’d do it. He’d do it for a bit and then he’d slip. Cole tried to reach out to him and my understanding is that was unsuccessful, though I’m not sure why. And then Cole just decided he’d had enough.

  83. 83.

    Achrachno

    May 7, 2020 at 1:26 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Isn’t a hoard usually valuable stuff like gold or silver?  You know, like a viking hoard or the Staffordshire hoard.  A “hoard” of angry RW nuts is worthless and probably better called something else.  A pile?

  84. 84.

    Kent

    May 7, 2020 at 1:28 am

    @Adam L Silverman:@Roger Moore: As I wrote here shortly after the Kavanaugh confirmation, expect to see a Kennedyesque retirement by Justice Thomas over the summer if the polling for both the President and for GOP control of the Senate continues to be bad and/or gets even worse. Both to ensure that McConnell and Leonard Leo get to fill the seat so that it can’t be filled by Biden and as a strategy to rally the base to try to ensure the President’s reelection and the preservation of McConnell’s GOP majority in the Senate.

    At this point I’m reduced to praying that enough GOP Senators become ill and go on ventilators that they can’t muster a majority vote for anything in the Senate between now and November without bringing Democrats on board.  A bunch of them are really old so it isn’t outside the realm of possibility.

  85. 85.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 7, 2020 at 1:28 am

    @Kent: If you give him the truth now you’ll just get fired.

    And, at this point, it’s not like you’d be able to get your self-respect back.

  86. 86.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:31 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Thanks. That sounds about right for him. Yeah, I’m definitely going to cut that shit out

  87. 87.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:31 am

    @Timurid: Bin Laden actually had a well established set of strategic objectives rooted in an ethical and moral worldview and derived from a set of both objective and subjective grievances. I don’t agree with his objectives, I think the ethical and moral worldview, as an outsider who has spent two decades studying that religion, is a perversion of his professed religion. And while I accept and appreciate the actual objective grievances, they don’t justify his ends, ways, or means.

    McConnell doesn’t even have this. He simply pursues power because achieving it allows him to accumulate wealth, which allows him to consolidate his power. The President is just an appetite on legs. And the people he’s surrounded him with are either like McConnell, like himself, or a combination.

    It is sad that bin Laden actually had a far better articulated ideology, theology, and objectives than either McConnell or the President in the damage the three have done to the US, our allies, our partners, and others. But it is true that he did.

  88. 88.

    Achrachno

    May 7, 2020 at 1:31 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Yes!  And I’ll give mine to someone who needs it.  I’ll sure not spend it myself while the mango is in charge.

  89. 89.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:32 am

    @Amir Khalid: A combination of whole word pronunciation and the new math replacing traditional phonics and mathematics instructions in elementary schools. Drives people right to the streets.//

  90. 90.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:32 am

    @Amir Khalid: Thank you. You’re doing me a favor!

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:33 am

    @Kent: Actually Parscale got two houses and a pair of condos out of it. As well as the yacht, the Ferrari, the Range Rover, and several other cars.

  92. 92.

    Achrachno

    May 7, 2020 at 1:34 am

    @Kent: Why am I pleased at the prospect of his low quality hires looting his campaign?

  93. 93.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:34 am

    @Achrachno: I think so, you think so, but to someone like Wayne LaPierre or Ammon Bundy, most likely not.//

  94. 94.

    Omnes Omnibus

    May 7, 2020 at 1:35 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Yeah, but does he have a car elevator?

  95. 95.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:35 am

    @Kent: Senator Rand Paul refuses to wear a mask because he’s now “immune”. And an asshole.

  96. 96.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:36 am

    @Achrachno: And that’s the beauty of it. If you don’t need it, you can donate it. Or part of it. If you do, then you spend it on what you need to spend it on.

  97. 97.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:38 am

    @Omnes Omnibus: I doubt it. It’s Florida, so most likely a five car garage.

  98. 98.

    Redshift

    May 7, 2020 at 1:38 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    The best way is to just send everyone a check or direct deposit every month and let them spend it however they need it.

    Like the Paycheck Security Act, from Senators Mark Warner, Bernie Sanders, Doug Jones, and Richard Blumenthal, perhaps?

  99. 99.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    May 7, 2020 at 1:40 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Heaven forbid he set a good example by wearing a mask. Plus we don’t fully understand what “immunity” means yet. A relative of my mother’s friend was hospitalized with COVID-19 and has been recovering for the past month. She still tests positive for the virus

  100. 100.

    JWR

    May 7, 2020 at 1:41 am

    Jeebus H. Kee-rist! Watch the video. Watch Trump. Once it becomes clear that one of the the nurses was NOT there to sing his praises, he turns away, does that weird, self-hug, arm crossing bit, and blank-stares at nothing. The man is irredeemable.

    ETA My local broadcast news ran this. Woo-Hoo!

  101. 101.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:42 am

    @Redshift: I hate it when senators plagiarize my work.//

  102. 102.

    JaySinWA

    May 7, 2020 at 1:44 am

    @Achrachno: There are people who hoard scraps and old newspapers until there homes are so full of crap that it is hard to move. Not every hoarder is hoarding things that have value.

  103. 103.

    chopper

    May 7, 2020 at 1:44 am

    * Just a quick technical note regarding the tweet. The rifle carried by the guy next to state Representative Anthony is a carbine. So it is not a large rifle.

    oh god, next you’re going to tell me it had a magazine instead of a clip. who fucking cares?

  104. 104.

    Achrachno

    May 7, 2020 at 1:45 am

    @Adam L Silverman: Sounds like a market-based solution, doesn’t it? One would think the Rs would be all over it.  Businesses providing desired goods and services would prosper, and we’d not have all these backroom shenanigans where cronies mop up millions for themselves.

  105. 105.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:45 am

    @chopper: I love fishing when I have the right kind of bait.

  106. 106.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:46 am

    @Achrachno: Conservatives have been consistently wrong on economics for over a hundred years.

  107. 107.

    chopper

    May 7, 2020 at 1:46 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    to be fair, tests look for viral RNA. bits of that can persist in the lungs and sinuses long after the virus has been beaten. i dunno about months, but for a while. so tests may show a ‘positive’ but it doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s shedding actual viral particles here.

  108. 108.

    Redshift

    May 7, 2020 at 1:47 am

    @Achrachno:

    Why am I pleased at the prospect of his low quality hires looting his campaign? 

    It is one of the reasons I am optimistic despite the big fundraising they’ve been doing for years. I doubt Trump and his cronies will be able to keep their paws off it, even if using it for the campaign would be better for him. And I have to believe they’re siphoning off some donations that would otherwise go to other GOP candidates.

    And unlike most candidates, he won’t even donate much of it to other campaigns (again, for his own good) because he can’t let go of loot.

    At best, it will all collapse when he fires underlings for skimming off what he expected to pocket, and a Biden Justice Department will claw back a lot of misappropriated funds.

  109. 109.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:47 am

    Time for me to rack out. I’ve been dragging tuchas all day. Catch everyone on the flip. Everyone have a great night. Or morning for those closer to or on the other side of the dateline.

  110. 110.

    JaySinWA

    May 7, 2020 at 1:51 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    someone like Wayne LaPierre or Ammon Bundy, most likely not.//

    Your jest has a lot of truth in it, the 2A touts are milking these rubes in any number of ways.

  111. 111.

    Redshift

    May 7, 2020 at 1:51 am

    One belated follow-on to the Ted Knight discussion in the previous thread – I recall an interview with Ed Asner once where he was asked about dealing with some difficult situation or something, and replied “well remember, I worked with Ted Knight for twelve years, and he wasn’t acting!”

  112. 112.

    Mallard Filmore

    May 7, 2020 at 1:56 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

     

    Plus we don’t fully understand what “immunity” means yet.

    It could mean Rand is a spreader.

  113. 113.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    May 7, 2020 at 2:01 am

    Rick Wilson just dropped a bomb on Martha McSally (video)

  114. 114.

    smike

    May 7, 2020 at 2:20 am

    @Achrachno:

    Pile is good, but quote marks are obligatory, as in, “Yeah that group is quite a “pile”.”

    Air quotes, also, too.

  115. 115.

    Bruce K

    May 7, 2020 at 2:33 am

    Carbine, long rifle, to-may-to, to-mah-to, let’s call ’em weapons of war, because that’s what they are.

  116. 116.

    rikyrah

    May 7, 2020 at 2:36 am

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    The Dems should use this as a guide as to how every Republican running in 2020 should be tied to Dolt45

  117. 117.

    James E Powell

    May 7, 2020 at 2:42 am

    2020 has certainly been a year of surprises, but I bet nobody expected Mnuchin getting into it with Axl Rose on twitter.

    @axlrose

    It’s official! Whatever anyone may have previously thought of Steve Mnuchin he’s officially an asshole.

  118. 118.

    Kent

    May 7, 2020 at 2:53 am

    @James E Powell: Oh my God.  That is the best twitter thread I have read in years!  Axl gets medieval on Mnuchin. 

    My bad I didn’t get we’re hoping 2 emulate Liberia’s economic model but on the real unlike this admin I’m not responsible for 70k+ deaths n’ unlike u I don’t hold a fed gov position of responsibility 2 the American people n’ go on TV tellin them 2 travel the US during a pandemic.— Axl Rose (@axlrose) May 7, 2020

  119. 119.

    joel hanes

    May 7, 2020 at 3:04 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Republicans are immune to  hypocrisy damage.  Expose them all you want — their voters actually revel in the bad behavior of their politicians.

  120. 120.

    Arclite

    May 7, 2020 at 3:05 am

    What could go wrong, really?

  121. 121.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 7, 2020 at 3:34 am

    @Adam L Silverman:

    “Say what you will about the tenets of National Socialism, at least it was an ethos.”

  122. 122.

    NotMax

    May 7, 2020 at 3:42 am

    @Villago Delenda Est

    “The great strength of the totalitarian state is that it forces those who fear it to imitate it.”
      – A. Hitler
    .

  123. 123.

    Mary G

    May 7, 2020 at 4:12 am

    We dodged another bullet:

    NBC's Pete Williams: Justice Ginsburg is out of the hospital and back home tonight.— Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) May 6, 2020

  124. 124.

    seaninclt

    May 7, 2020 at 5:52 am

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    You’d know far better than I would, but that looks like an AR pistol as opposed to a rifle. 8.5″ barrel with the M-Lok stock although I could be completely wrong.

  125. 125.

    Amir Khalid

    May 7, 2020 at 6:00 am

    @seaninclt:

    Wouldn’t pistols be a better choice for escorting a VIP? I’ve never seen the Secret Service depicted carrying rifles.

  126. 126.

    Ohio Mom

    May 7, 2020 at 9:01 am

    Amir Khalid: To be persnickety, there are Secret Service snipers often stationed on rooftops with rife-like weapons (I’m staying out of the inevitable arguments about which weapon is which kind).

    Other than that, yeah, I suspect you have a point, as far as actual effectiveness goes — unless their goal is to make a statement.

    I’m on this ad hoc Security detail’s side, even as I don’t like the hint of anarchy. I’d much prefer to see actual police or sheriffs do this job.

  127. 127.

    Alex

    May 7, 2020 at 10:01 am

    Guns in the Capitol update: the Michigan Capitol Commission has signaled they will not act to prohibit guns. They claim they have the authority to ban signs but not guns because there is no law against carrying guns in public. That’s just logic. Obviously the Republican majority Legislature won’t change it by law. One of their caucus is very closely tied to the main group behind the armed intimidation, and the rest are literally cheering them on. Also the speaker’s father is suing the governor saying the stay home order infringes religious liberty, even though they extorted an exemption for churches early on. So glad we are not living in some kind of theocratic dystopia where armed gangs roam the streets. . .

  128. 128.

    J R in WV

    May 7, 2020 at 10:43 am

    @chopper:

    oh god, next you’re going to tell me it had a magazine instead of a clip. who fucking cares?

    You don’t think the discussion of types of rifles might just be humor? I do…

    And clips are very rare now in modern rifles, mostly all magazines. ;-) I see that you probably don’t care, although that was left a little vague by your comment. “Who F’ing cares?” is non-determinative, actually…

    Would a speed-loader be classed as a clip? I think not, and they’re usually intended for revolvers.

    And I understand the point being made here, which is that the state legislators did not feel well protected by the MI State Police.

    Frankly, nothing in the First Amendment nor the Second Amendment allows armed mobs of racists and fascists to bully anyone, much less elected officials. All of those people should have been arrested for a wide variety of armed assault charges and held in jail until courts were available to hear their cases, sometime like next February or March. And if there are no laws forbidding threatening activity with firearms in MI, then the legislature needs to be forbidding threatening with firearms with severe penalties attached.

    But I’m betting there are such laws on the books, and wondering why they aren’t being enforced to protect our governing officials.

  129. 129.

    Plain Dave

    May 7, 2020 at 11:48 am

    @JaySinWA:   Sorry, mine was off-topic.

  130. 130.

    Adam L Silverman

    May 7, 2020 at 1:11 pm

    @seaninclt: You are correct, I just embiggened the picture and will make the adjustment up top. It’s an AR style pistol with a stabilizing brace.

  131. 131.

    Barb 2

    May 7, 2020 at 9:10 pm

    @Adam L Silverman: 

    “The President is just an appetite on legs.”

    Best descriptive sentence of the creep!!!

    As for the armed escort of the people’s representative. Good. We need to see more of this.

    Mobs of white male armed neonazis are the most dangerous subspecies. Especially Trump’s army.

    Note to Adam – New email.

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