Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Despite his magical powers, I don’t think Trump is thinking this through, to be honest.

People are complicated. Love is not.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

Everybody saw this coming.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires republicans to act in good faith.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Balloon Juice has never been a refuge for the linguistically delicate.

Not all heroes wear capes.

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

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

Good lord, these people are nuts.

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

if you can’t see it, then you are useless in the fight to stop it.

I know this must be bad for Joe Biden, I just don’t know how.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You can’t love your country only when you win.

Consistently wrong since 2002

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

Shallow, uninformed, and lacking identity

Since when do we limit our critiques to things we could do better ourselves?

You are here: Home / Civil Rights / Criminal Justice / American Carnage After Dark: The (Extrajudicial) Kenosha Shooter

American Carnage After Dark: The (Extrajudicial) Kenosha Shooter

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The kid who murdered at least two people in Kenosha seems to have been a softer, dumber version of the guy who murdered Heather Heyer in Charlottesville — a dropout whose uneasy classmates ‘joked’ about becoming a school shooter, someone whose only strong affiliation or interest was a Protect & Serve! fantasy of blue knights standing guard over a grateful community against the forces of disorder. In the Reuters video with the best short summary, he runs away from people attempting to disarm him, literally trips over his own feet, and starts spraying bullets in all directions when they catch up to him. Then he walks toward an armored police vehicle with his hands up — only to be waved past by LEOs in search of the real threat, mouthy Black protestors and stoners armed with skateboards.

And then the Worst People in the World leapt to his defense, because after all this ‘misunderstood young man’ was just doing what they’d been urging all their listeners to do.

Scary part is, it’s not just the Thin Blue Linesmen stanning this luzer, plus the Squatter-in-Chief’s nastiest minions…

And FoxNews…

And the NY(Com)Post…

It’s the Very Serious People at the self-styled ‘Paper of Record’!

Once again, Erick ‘Voice of the GOP Gated Community’ exposes the seams in the cover story:

Murder hornets. Raging pandemic. Armed right-wing vigilantes. 2020 — waddaya gonna do, amiright?

Reader Interactions

59Comments

  1. 1.

    NotMax

    Jeeze. Take pity on the folks who are normally time zone awake at these hours and toss us a non-bleak thread once in a while.

  3. 3.

    Gretchen

    I’m feeling about as low as I ever have about how conservatives are spinning this.  It used to be everyone could agree that going into a crowd and shooting people was a Bad Thing.  Today conservatives were arguing that it was self defense after he shot that one guy and the crowd tried to stop him from shooting  anyone else.  And the guys who got shot were No Angels, so it was fine.  I feel like I’m In the front row of a witch burning and I’m the only one who doesn’t think it’s awesome.

  5. 5.

    Arclite

    O/T: My biggest concern with this election is the October Surprise: Trump contracts COVID-19 and dies two weeks before the election.

  7. 7.

    opiejeanne

    I’ve been so angry about this for two days, and then the kicker? The shooter’s mommy drove him and his gun to Kenosha.

    What do you fucking say to your kid when you drop him off with his assault weapon in an area where there is civic unrest? “Have fun, son”? “Call me when you want to me to pick you up”?

    I can’t figure out where the stupid question marks go.

  9. 9.

    mrmoshpotato

    @oatler.:

    Colbert had Chris Christie on his show tonight and pretty much bum-rushed him off it.

    Wait. What? Why? No, seriously, why?!

  10. 10.

    Pete Downunder

    My friends here Downunder cannot understand the American tolerance of guns. I try to explain that the SCOTUS by deliberately misreading the 2nd Amendment and ignoring its history crushed most attempts at sensible gun control. When I was growing up in New York City in the 50’s we had, as I recall, the Sullivan Act which effectively banned unlicensed guns within the city and licenses were very hard to come by. We had mass shooting here in 1996 and immediately after guns were pretty much totally banned except on rural properties and for use in target shooting at registered ranges. As a result gun violence is rare.

  11. 11.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Arclite:

    O/T: My biggest concern with this election is the October Surprise: Trump contracts COVID-19 and dies two weeks before the election.

    And we all use our ballots to say “FUCK YOU, PENCE!” and vote for Biden/Harris!

    ETA – Sorry, meant that joyfully (happy warrior). :)

  13. 13.

    lgerard

    MELANIA Trump refused to move into the White House until a new toilet was installed in the Obamas’ former bedroom, according to a new book.

    “Stephanie talks about how she took one look at her bedroom and bathroom and demanded a new shower and toilet.

    “She was not prepared to use the same bathroom as the Obamas or anyone else for that matter – it wouldn’t matter if it was the Queen of England.

    “She wanted everything redecorated, repainted, new furniture and decor – everything was old and shabby and she wanted it to be brand new.

    “Melania is the wife of the president and doesn’t expect she should have to make do with second hand or previously used facilities.

    Melania ended up staying put in her gold-encrusted quarters in the Trump Tower penthouse in New York while the bathroom was redone and other improvements were made to Michelle Obama’s old living space.

    Son Barron remained with her and she ended up extending her stay to July 2017, when his school term ended.

    With taxpayers shelling out $150,000 a day for Melania’s security at the tower, rumors started to circulate about why she hadn’t moved with her husband, the source said.

  14. 14.

    opiejeanne

    @Xenos: I am having a lot of trouble wrapping my head around this whole thing. don’t know how he got home, but maybe she just picked him up after the cops didn’t arrest him. Haven’t heard that part yet, but I’m stunned that the cops didn’t arrest him.

    IMO his mother should be charged as an accessory to murder. He’s 17 and open carry of a loaded gun is only legal in Illinois AND Wisconsin for 18 and older. She knew he had the gun, she may have bought him the gun, and she brought him to the scene of his crimes, and he was also in violation of curfew (which the stupid chief of police practically said the protesters were shot because they were out after curfew.).

    The first video I saw of this event, he shot the first victim and ran away, and you could hear him saying, “I just shot someone!” I wondered why he would be saying something like that, but now I think he was on the phone with someone, maybe mom.

  15. 15.

    bluefish

    Horror fest. So sick of the endless bs. The grieving red head trying to bond in the audience seats with the other grieving family who ignored her had me fleeing to a very dark back yard. Peron. It’s the new thing cuz calling the man a traitor is just not cool. Yet. It will be.

  17. 17.

    Jay Noble

    @opiejeanne: I saw a screenshot twitter thing that showed Mommy dearest was one of the militia folks. Full on regalia and armed. Rittenhouse is a Mama’s boy

  25. 25.

    mrmoshpotato

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Ok.  Fuck the entire Russthuglican party and vote Biden/Harris! :) (And for all Democratic candidates down the ballot.)

    Time for some more cooking videos, then dreams of loaded baked potatoes.

  28. 28.

    Sister Golden Bear

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: They could select a new candidate, but it would be too late to get the ballots changed. Not sure what the legal ramifications would be of a last-minute replacement.

    But I assume it’s straightforward for Pence to be elected as VP, since he’s on the ballot, and take office as president. He could then step down with his newly-appointment VP taking his place. But since Pence thinks he’s divinely-destined to become president, it may be hard to persuade to do this.

  29. 29.

    Jay Noble

    Piecing together from the videos I’ve seen

    Some chaos, somebody(ies) being chased. Shots are fired

    Voice of camera person saying “they dropped him”

    Rittenhouse and others are seen closing in on downed victim – Joseph Rosenbaum. This is next to a building and behind a vehicle

    Rittenhouse’s companion pulls off shirt and renders aid. Besides his rifle, Rittenhouse is carrying what is described as a medical bag. He does not leave it.

    Rittenhouse turns and begins to hightail it from the scene in a beeline to the cops about 2 blocks away.

    As Rittenhouse begins to run, people who have seen the shooting start yelling and pointing him out and people along they way take up the chase and also yell and point.

    At about 1 block and a couple glancing blows, Rittenhouse trips and pursuers pounce trying to take the rifle. This is when he shoots victim 2 – Anthony Huber. And then victim 3 – Gaige Grosskreutz, who inexpicably has a handgun arrives and has a hole put in his elbow.

    Everyone backs off

    Rittenhouse gets up and calmy walks towards the police at the other end of the block. None of the cops move for over 40 seconds. Not one cop is seen outside their vehicle as he walks by as  he seemingly looks to be arrested or . . . something. He just walks off.

    Of note: Rittenhouse and all 3 victims look pretty white to me.

  32. 32.

    Martin

    @Pete Downunder: My friends here Downunder cannot understand the American tolerance of guns.

    You seem to think we dislike the violence. Look at how we’ve designed things – violence is the central feature.

  34. 34.

    Martin

    @Jay Noble: Yeah, all of the idiots on social media yelling ‘self defense’ to the shooting when he trips seem to willfully overlook that he had just shot someone in the head and people were trying to disarm a murderer.

  35. 35.

    patrick II

    Yesterday we were trying to figure out why he was wearing gloves.  The picture up top makes it clear — to keep cleaning fluid off of his hands while he helped clean spray paint from the wall.

  37. 37.

    Sloane Ranger

    @Jay Noble: This might be an unpopular observation but, from your description,  it sounds like there may be 2 shooters. Unknown shooter hits victim 1, *Rittenwhatever’s companion begins to render first aid. Protesters see guy with gun standing near the victim, jump to conclusion he’s the shooter and begin chasing him. *Ritten… panics, runs away, stumbles and shoots at approaching protesters thinking they’ll attack him.

    This is the nightmare scenario of having loads of unidentified, unauthorised people wandering around with deadly weapons.

    *Sorry, can’t remember the guys full name.

  40. 40.

    Just Chuck

    One thing’s for sure: I’ve supported repealing the second amendment for a while, but now I’m fine with the idea of going house to house and seizing guns.  Won’t happen, but I support it.

  41. 41.

    Just Chuck

    @Sister Golden Bear:
    Since we only cast votes for electors, the electors are pretty much free to use their judgment and vote for the VP as the top of the ticket. There might be some obligation to choose a placeholder VP right then and there, but there’s an existing process for choosing a new VP once already in office.

    So yeah, we’d be up against the unstoppable crowd-rousing charisma and political shrewdness of … Mike Pence.

  42. 42.

    Ian

    The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who’s best on public safety, and law and order.”

    Does this sentence seem to smack you upside the head with contradiction?

  45. 45.

    Amir Khalid

    @Ian:

    As Joe Biden points out, this shit is happening in Trump’s America. The genius who said that is inadvertently making a case for electing Biden.

  46. 46.

    Jay Noble

    @Sloane Ranger: The thought of a second shooter is not out of the question. There 4 or 5 shots heard before the 1st victim is seen down and Rittenhouse doesn’t appear to be the only one with a rifle. The ballistics reports should be interesting on that 1st victim.

  48. 48.

    raven

    As Rosenbaum lay on the ground, the suspect made a call on his cellphone and said, “I just killed somebody” as he ran away, the complaint alleges. His friend received a call from him at 11:46 p.m. saying that he shot someone, an investigator says in the complaint.

  49. 49.

    evodevo

    @Arclite: Yes. This. or stroke out…I want him functioning until the day after the election, at the very least.  I really really want him to last long enough to see the inside of a jail cell…

  50. 50.

    Kay

    I was reading about the two victims, because to me the most appalling thing about the local police narrative is the complete absence of the victims.

    Just fundamentally not doing their jobs, law enforcement. Instead of serving the people of that city, they have taken up with a Right wing celebrity- the shooter. Appalling.

  51. 51.

    Patricia Kayden

    Lake Charles and Calcasieu Parish has been filled with controversy and tension after our parish government by a vote of 10-5 refused to take down the Confederate South’s Defenders Monument. Hurricane Laura had other plans and brought it down herself. pic.twitter.com/HmyCVlJF8k— Davante Lewis (@davantelewis) August 27, 2020

  54. 54.

    burnt

    @patrick II: There’s another reason you wear latex gloves. It’s to keep gunpowder residue off your hands so you come up clean when the cops test you for it.

  55. 55.

    Racer X

    Katie Pavlich: “If when you have no police around to defend businesses and people who are being attacked, and their livelihoods burned to the ground, then there is a void that is filled.”

    So by that logic…

    If when you have no Justice Department around to defend citizens rights and people who are being attacked, and their livelihoods being destroyed, then there is a void that is filled.

  56. 56.

    fxdshdw

    @mrmoshpotato: We have two levels of gun ownership here in illinois. You can get an FOID (Firearms Owner ID) card which allows you to purchase and possess a firearm, and/or a Concealed Carry permit which allows concealed carry. The FOID only requires a background check. The Concealed Carry requires a class as well.

  58. 58.

    Chris T.

    Is anyone else weirded out by the fact that Rittenhouse was the name of the bad guys in the TV series “Timeless”?

  59. 59.

    Richard

    @Arclite: i could live with that. We’ve been praying for help for a long time now. This trump thing is out to destroy us. What a stupid boy to do that shooting, and the same thing goes for that Nick Sanndman and all the rest of those boys.

    They are just boys. Stupid, dangerous boys. The true fukkin idiots of all boys that ever lived in our time. How could they be raised this way? I don’t understand.

    I know lots of people. We are various and use several languages. Those shitty spoiled boys are going to be ruined for life, if you allow them to do this. I do not say they should be executed, but they gotta pay some consequences for the murders they have committed.

    Ignorant little stupid monsters. It is on their families, who allowed this. I swear, it’s not that hard to be human!

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