• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

“Everybody’s entitled to be an idiot.”

This is dead girl, live boy, a goat, two wetsuits and a dildo territory.  oh, and pink furry handcuffs.

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

You passed on an opportunity to be offended? What are you even doing here?

Not all heroes wear capes.

’Where will you hide, Roberts, the laws all being flat?’

It’s pointless to bring up problems that can only be solved with a time machine.

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

You cannot love your country only when you win.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Give the craziest people you know everything they want and hope they don’t ask for more? Great plan.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

The revolution will be supervised.

This must be what justice looks like, not vengeful, just peaceful exuberance.

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

This isn’t Democrats spending madly. This is government catching up.

Mobile Menu

  • 4 Directions VA 2025 Raffle
  • 2025 Activism
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Gun Issues / Gun nuts / Late Night Open Thread: Mock, But Don’t Point

Late Night Open Thread: Mock, But Don’t Point

by Anne Laurie|  September 6, 202012:01 am| 111 Comments

This post is in: Gun nuts, Open Threads

FacebookTweetEmail

Never point your weapon at something you might want to use later, they told me…

In the non-trivial chance this is an ironic meme, this ex-Boy Scout very much frowns on “jokes” where you point a firearm, even unloaded, directly at your soft and mushy insides, to say nothing of treating a tool such as that unseriously in general

— The Cyberpunk Landsknecht (@cakotz) September 5, 2020

Speaking of gunhumpers mishandling things:

BREAKING: Wayne LaPierre’s former chief of staff admits “School Shield” is a bogus safety campaign meant only to raise money; supports background checks; and says the @NRA effectively prevented Donald Trump from acting on gun safety for political reasons. https://t.co/Z5pDbLMe8b

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) September 3, 2020


He has a book to sell, while it’s still news:

The National Rifle Association’s former second-in-command is breaking with the group’s orthodoxy and calling for universal background checks and so-called red flag laws in a new book assailing the organization as more focused on money and internal intrigue than the Second Amendment, while thwarting constructive dialogue on gun violence.

The former executive, Joshua L. Powell, who was fired by the N.R.A. in January, reinforces the kind of criticism made of the organization by gun control groups and state regulators, but it is the first critical look at its recent history by such a high-ranking insider.

He describes the N.R.A.’s longtime chief executive, Wayne LaPierre, as a woefully inept manager, but also a skilled lobbyist with a deft touch at directing President Trump to support the group’s objectives, and who repeatedly reeled in the president’s flirtations with even modest gun control measures…

Much of the book centers on Mr. LaPierre, who Mr. Powell says “couldn’t run an organization on a fiscally sound basis to save his life,” and who filled the N.R.A.’s coffers by catering to “the extreme fringe.” So pervasive were the organization’s troubles, Mr. Powell says, that Mr. LaPierre confided in him last year that he was thinking about quitting, and possibly asking Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas governor and Republican presidential candidate, or Jason Chaffetz, a former House member, to replace him…

Yeah, with options like those two, it’s pretty safe to say the NRA is *not* about to return to its roots as a gun-safety organization.

*Incredible* ad placement https://t.co/O12JlOKg4q pic.twitter.com/l9hO1wh7di

— David A. Graham (@GrahamDavidA) September 3, 2020

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « This Is America Open Thread: Not All Racists…
Next Post: Sunday Morning Garden Chat: Pacific Northwest Bounty, Part 3 »

Reader Interactions

111Comments

  1. 1.

    Kent

    September 6, 2020 at 12:08 am

    I have family who are long-time NRA members. I’m sort of afraid to ask what they think now. That’s almost cruel. But prior to the recent complete melt-down of the organization they mostly just did it for the magazine American Rifleman which is sort of those must-have virtue-signaling thing to have sitting around your house in certain parts of the country.

    Now days there are more upscale choices like Garden and Guns (really, I’m not making that up, I thought it was parody when I first saw a copy in my dentist’s office in Texas): https://gardenandgun.com/ which is sort of a southern-oriented Sunset Magazine with sections on guns and fishing for the guys.  The kind of thing that George Will would write for if he lived in Savannah and owned hunting dogs.

  2. 2.

    randy

    September 6, 2020 at 12:09 am

    My favorite Army Surplus on South Broadway is advertising Thin Blue Line Clothing. I guess I’ll have to find another place to shop.

  3. 3.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:10 am

    Hey, we get some pretty bonehead ad placements here. Just sayin’.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    September 6, 2020 at 12:12 am

    It doesn’t matter whether or not you believe in Darwinian evolution; Darwinian evolution believes in you.

  5. 5.

    Benw

    September 6, 2020 at 12:14 am

    Imagine if we’d spent that last 50 years fetishizing diapers instead? Pampers would be the most powerful corporation on the planet and a shitload of people would still be alive

  6. 6.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    September 6, 2020 at 12:18 am

    Does anybody know what the “October Surprise” Barr promised last week is all about? Just heard about it today

  7. 7.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 6, 2020 at 12:18 am

    This is my fat 50-plus ass trying to get a job.

    No food deliveries for me but hell, I interview well.

    I didn’t even curse.

  8. 8.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:19 am

    Confession: I was a member of the NRA. Okay, it was sometime around 1962, when I was 10, and I got a damn good education in gun safety and target shooting with the .22 that my parents gave me.* But it could be used against me in some political smear campaign.

    ———
    * Still don’t understand what that was about. We never lived anyplace where I could just take it out into the woods and blast away, and I was never much interested in hunting. I had it with me the summer I stayed with my grandparents on the farm in Tennessee, when I was 11 or 12, and I think I left it there. Come to think of it, I need to find out what that was about.

  9. 9.

    JaySinWA

    September 6, 2020 at 12:20 am

    @dmsilev: That may be true but Darwinian evolution is a slow and tortuous path to perfection.

  10. 10.

    Ken

    September 6, 2020 at 12:20 am

    I keep trying to figure out how you would draw the weapon from those mask-holders without either shooting your ear or ripping off the mask (or in a combo, ripping off your ear with the mask).  Anyone having better luck?

  11. 11.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:20 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    It wouldn’t be a surprise if we told you what it is. ?

  12. 12.

    Kay

    September 6, 2020 at 12:21 am

    Among the hundreds of grants the NRA foundation distributed over those four years, only three are listed as going to schools as part of the National School Shield program, for a total of less than $200,000.

    Another gross Right wing grift.

    They started the School Shield scam right after Sandy Hook. Which means they used the deaths of those little kids to line their own pockets.
    There is no bottom. Each revelation is more appalling than the last.

  13. 13.

    Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)

    September 6, 2020 at 12:21 am

    @Steeplejack:

    LOL. Is it something to worry about?

  14. 14.

    Calouste

    September 6, 2020 at 12:21 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The same as Rudy Ghoulliani’s big reveal on the last day of the RNC that didn’t happen?

  15. 15.

    randy

    September 6, 2020 at 12:22 am

    @Steeplejack: Their website shows it in marque over front door. “Show your support” for Thin Blue Line

  16. 16.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @HumboldtBlue:

    Somebody help that little kitty up there!

  17. 17.

    JaySinWA

    September 6, 2020 at 12:23 am

    @Steeplejack: I don’t know what Barr was yammering about, but they have been telegraphing a vaccine announcement pretty loudly.

  18. 18.

    Calouste

    September 6, 2020 at 12:24 am

    @Ken: And you have like, what, half a pound of metal dragging on your ear? I go with the guy who said it’s trolling.

  19. 19.

    dmsilev

    September 6, 2020 at 12:24 am

    @Ken: Never mind actually trying to use the gun, just think about what the weight of the gun does to the ears (since that’s where the mask is ultimately supported from).

  20. 20.

    Major Major Major Major

    September 6, 2020 at 12:25 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): will worrying about it accomplish anything or just make you feel bad?

  21. 21.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:27 am

    @Ken:

    It’s just performative bullshit and “Haw-haw, we owned the libs, they believed it!” But there are no doubt some idiots who didn’t get the memo and will give it a go. Darwin Award paperwork set on autofill.

  22. 22.

    Ruckus

    September 6, 2020 at 12:29 am

    @Kent:

    I belonged to the NRA. 53 yrs ago. Then I grew up and realized that most people with guns have no concept that it is a weapon and is useful only for killing. Also there was a war on and my draft number turned up to be 15. So I assumed that I’d have enough weapons around to reenforce the concept that killing can be a way of life.

    The NRA has become one the worst grifting organizations on the planet. They fetishize death by gunpowder and bullets.

    No Thanks.

  23. 23.

    Leto

    September 6, 2020 at 12:30 am

    @Kent: I saw that magazine the other day and thought it was a joke. I just don’t get it but I’m not the target audience.

  24. 24.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:33 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka):

    Not until we know what it is. Barr has been pretty open about his plans to fuck up the election, so no surprises there.

    And—SteepAnon alert!—this salvo of Trump revelations that started this week and seems to be continuing makes me wonder whether the deep state has decided to pull out all the stops and make sure that Trump loses in a landslide so big it’s immune to any Barr “October surprises” or electoral shenanigans.

  25. 25.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:36 am

    @randy:

    Who “their”? NRA? I was referring to the “NRA survey” ad in the middle of the NYT story shown at the end of Anne Laurie’s post above.

  26. 26.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:37 am

    @JaySinWA:

    Then it’s not really a surprise.

  27. 27.

    HumboldtBlue

    September 6, 2020 at 12:38 am

    Wildfire about 16 miles as the crow flies from my brother’s home in east county San Diego.

    Terrible terrain, heavy fuel loads and high temps with no humidity and steady winds.

    I’ve driven that area a dozen times, circuitous mountain roads sheer cliffs and a ton of chapparal and every other dry bush you can name.

  28. 28.

    Kay

    September 6, 2020 at 12:38 am

    @Ruckus:

    Just the numbers on the Right wing grift payroll are extraordinary. There are thousands of people who finance their lavish lifestyle thru donations by Right wing nuts. You could fill a convention hall with them. It could be a vocational program. There are definitely more people living off Right wing donations than there are coalminers. And it gets bigger every year. If you count Falwell, and you should, there are right now 4 investigations into Right wing grift orgs, and that doesn’t even count the Trump Campaign, which is also skimming millions of dollars.

  29. 29.

    Kent

    September 6, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @Ruckus: I agree with you 100%.   I’m just suggesting that there are a lot of folks out there who are kind of just NRA members out of habit and for the magazine and not because they even follow gun politics.  They just have a vague sense that having an NRA magazine on your coffee table is the right wing version of say a lefty displaying Mother Jones or Utne Reader or whatever in terms of virtue signaling.

    I expect the recent scandals have changed things.

  30. 30.

    randy

    September 6, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @Steeplejack: Denver Army Surplus

  31. 31.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:39 am

    @Leto:

    I’m not the target audience.

    Phrasing!

  32. 32.

    West of the Rockies

    September 6, 2020 at 12:40 am

    @Ken:

    It’s gotta be a super uncomfortable mask.  Having a few pounds of steel hanging off your face?  Someone is compensating for an anatomical shortcoming.

  33. 33.

    JaySinWA

    September 6, 2020 at 12:41 am

    @Steeplejack: I have no problem believing that their idea of an October surprize has no grounding in a real view of surprize. Or that they won’t step on whatever surprize they have in store by announcing it in time for it to be crushed before it is official.

  34. 34.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:46 am

    @randy:

    Okay, explain to me like I’m slow what Denver Army Surplus has to do with what we’re talking about? Do they have an ad that is appearing here? If so, I’m not seeing it, because I AdBlock the shit out of stuff and throw Cole some cash now and then.

  35. 35.

    West of the Rockies

    September 6, 2020 at 12:46 am

    @Steeplejack:

    Christ, I can hardly wait until Bill Barr waddles out of his office for the last time under the weight of his enormous head.  He goes from chief ratfucker to impotent Pez dispenser of rage and conspiracy theories.

  36. 36.

    Ruckus

    September 6, 2020 at 12:48 am

    @Kay:

    I think my favs are the Mercers. Owe 7 BILLION to the IRS. Now that’s some hardcore grifting.

    But yes the republican party has always been about easy money and keeping it in their hands. At least for the last 120 yrs. Governing? Not so much. Once again I have to say that the only difference with shitforbrains is he’s too stupid to not scream the quiet parts out loud.

  37. 37.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:48 am

    @West of the Rockies:

    And, hopefully, defendant in many legal proceedings.

  38. 38.

    Kent

    September 6, 2020 at 12:48 am

    @LetoI saw that magazine the other day and thought it was a joke. I just don’t get it but I’m not the target audience.

    It is actually pretty popular with a certain set in the south.  Their target market is the douche frat boy from a SEC school after they turn 30 and get a mortgage and want to start feeling sophisticated and urban in a southern way.  You know, the type who wear ties and blazers to Alabama football games and lounge around their frat houses drinking mint juleps.  And then move on to a regional sales rep job with some corporation and buy a house in the suburbs.  And their counterpart sorority girls.  There are a LOT of them.

  39. 39.

    Leto

    September 6, 2020 at 12:49 am

    @Steeplejack: Zing!

  40. 40.

    randy

    September 6, 2020 at 12:51 am

    @Steeplejack: My mistake. Your comment so close to mine I thought was connected.

  41. 41.

    Leto

    September 6, 2020 at 12:55 am

    @Kent: Oh, I know the type. Lived among them for almost 30 years. Here’s the recipe for the best biscuits and jam to have for your Sunday brunch, and on the next page, here’s our test review of the best buck shot to use. I still just find it dumb, mainly because for the people being described, the women will still get Home and Garden and the men will still pick up a hunting/gun specific magazine. The way Garden and Guns is packaged, it’s for their parents. It’s the 50+ plus country club crowd. Idk, it’s just dumb.

  42. 42.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 12:56 am

    @randy:

    Okay, I see. Sorry. I am fastidious about “replying” to comments, so I didn’t see the connection. Just came into a new thread and popped off a comment about the criticism of the NYT having an NRA ad in the middle of an NRA exposé story. I have yet to see any site that is really in control of their ad placement.

  43. 43.

    Gvg

    September 6, 2020 at 1:00 am

    @West of the Rockies: I think it must be a fake gun. It’s just like putting a logo on your clothes to show how cool you are, that crowd puts guns on everything…probabilities on their underwear too.

    you are right, that makes no sense from a gun use point of view, which signals to me, these aren’t real gun user, they just play.

    there are real gun people, these aren’t them.

    i recall 25 years ago my gun loving cousin explaining he had to stop hunting with his high school best friend who just wanted to drive around near the entrance of hunting areas with beer in the car instead of quietly sneaking around in the woods to get a deer. Cousin said he felt unsafe around his careless friend. Uncle chimed I’m with other examples he had known. I learned their were different groups of gun users who didn’t hang out together.

  44. 44.

    trollhattan

    September 6, 2020 at 1:03 am

    Nasty wildfire east of Fresno.

    Rescue mission underway to save 150 trapped by Creek Fire near Mammoth Pool Reservoir

    At least 10 people were injured and others remained in danger Saturday night among the 1,000 people trapped near Mammoth Pool Reservoir due to a fast-growing wildfire, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office confirmed.

    Fresno Community Regional Medical Center admitted six burn victims who were evacuated from the Mammoth Pool Reservoir area and the hospital was preparing for the possibility of receiving more evacuees.

    The severity of their burns were not immediately known. Meanwhile, 65 people received medical treatment at a triage set up at the Fresno Yosemite International Airport, Madera County Sheriff public information officer Sarah Jackson confirmed.
    https://www.sacbee.com/news/california/article245524785.html#storylink=cpy

    Yikes

  45. 45.

    randy

    September 6, 2020 at 1:05 am

    @Steeplejack: Next time you’ll see me slapstick stumblebum coming.

  46. 46.

    Kent

    September 6, 2020 at 1:06 am

    @Leto:@Kent: Oh, I know the type. Lived among them for almost 30 years. Here’s the recipe for the best biscuits and jam to have for your Sunday brunch, and on the next page, here’s our test review of the best buck shot to use. I still just find it dumb, mainly because for the people being described, the women will still get Home and Garden and the men will still pick up a hunting/gun specific magazine. The way Garden and Guns is packaged, it’s for their parents. It’s the 50+ plus country club crowd. Idk, it’s just dumb.

    It’s virtue signalling.  No one really reads the articles unless they are at a dentist office.  It is what you put on your coffee table in your Chip and Joanna home to go with the shiplap siding and hand-blown shot glasses.  So your guests don’t mistake you for some sort of fucking lib or Yankee.  It’s a white persons magazine but they always have some article about some random black chef or musician so they can feel “woke” in that patronizing Southern way.  Like when upscale white southerners search out that best BBQ joint in a black neighborhood to say that they did, then quickly scurry back home to their gated subdivision.

  47. 47.

    NotMax

    September 6, 2020 at 1:07 am

    OT.

    Internet (and only some cable channels, including TCM) outage for over 5 hours this afternoon. Came back up a short bit ago. Unable to call ISP because my phone service, through them, was also down.

    Consequent physical palpitations abating.

    ;)

  48. 48.

    Steeplejack

    September 6, 2020 at 1:14 am

    TCM now in the middle of Penelope Spheeris’s 1981 music doc The Decline of Western Civilization, about the Los Angeles punk scene. To be followed by Part II (1988), about the heavy metal scene.

  49. 49.

    Jerzy Russian

    September 6, 2020 at 1:19 am

    @HumboldtBlue:  There is a big cloud of smoke overhead now, in San Diego. Going to be another hot day tomorrow, which is not good for the firefighters.

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    September 6, 2020 at 1:21 am

    C-SPAN3 showed back-to-back several Post Office documentaries/instructional shorts from the 40s/50s/60s earlier today. during their Reel America program

    Interesting choice on their part

  51. 51.

    joel hanes

    September 6, 2020 at 1:38 am

    @Kent:

    Until 1977, the NRA was a sane gun-safety and marksmanship education organization.   They helped the government write the gun laws that still prevent you from owning an M60 full machine gun, a Tommy gun, or a bazooka unless you go through some rigorous licensing and pony up some real money.  The National Rifleman was a pretty anodyne publication, largely concerned with deer hunting and target competitions.

    Then at the 1977 NRA national convention, an organized cabal of 2nd Amendment absolutists showed up in large numbers and voted all their own candidates into every national office, replacing the entire leadership overnight.

    Within a year, the magazine had taken several large steps toward the kind of fascist propaganda it has promulgated ever since, with a new focus on using guns to “protect” oneself and one’s family against other people.

  52. 52.

    hotshoe

    September 6, 2020 at 1:43 am

    @trollhattan: yeah, heard on car radio this afternoon they were officially advising people to get into the reservoir water to save their own lives if necessary when it looked as if fire would sweep through the entire area.

    Although I guess I wouldn’t wait to be officially told to get in the water if I were anywhere near …

    I can’t imagine how horrified the folks are — still sheltering there waiting for rescue — and the families waiting for news.

    Welcome to global warming.

    Goddamn every sick climate-change denier. Goddamn their eyes.

  53. 53.

    Steeplejack (phone)

    September 6, 2020 at 1:44 am

    @joel hanes:

    I’d love to know who was behind that “organized cabal of Second Amendment absolutists.” Perhaps Silverman can shed some light.

  54. 54.

    Frankensteinbeck

    September 6, 2020 at 1:49 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): and @JaySinWA:

    The Trump administration’s record of following through with declarations of what they will do is pretty sparse.  The farther out the time scale, the less likely.  Trump also has zero patience and is needy as Hell.  If Barr had an October surprise, he would be releasing it now instead of in October.

    No, what I’m hearing is flopsweat and wishful thinking.  They are desperately hoping for a vaccine rather than having one.  They will surely throw out multiple attempts at an October surprise, but they’ll be hastily cobbled-together garbage nobody takes seriously.  Nunes Memo type stuff.  Comey moves a crucial 2% of the vote because he was publicly trusted and validating what everyone ‘knew’.  Barr has neither of those advantages.  Frankly, he’s only competent compared to the breathtaking dimwits around him.

    And if they get lucky and shove out a vaccine in the next two months, they’ll fuck it up.  They always do.  When Jared got off his ass and finally tried to help the pandemic he failed.  He couldn’t organize PPE and ventilator distribution.  His and the administration’s whole organizational philosophy are just too stupid.

  55. 55.

    trollhattan

    September 6, 2020 at 1:52 am

    @hotshoe:

    Yup, this sucker was first reported Friday night and has already blown up to 36k acres in a day. When you’re in the woods with one or two ways out and lots of folks clogging those scant roads, it becomes dire very quickly.

    Lack of wind should help, but the absurd heat is going to keep fuels extremely dry and flammable.

  56. 56.

    NotMax

    September 6, 2020 at 2:02 am

    @https://balloon-juice.com/2020/09/06/late-night-open-thread-mock-but-dont-point/#comment-7847799

    Jared couldn’t organize a one man masturbation contest.

    //

  57. 57.

    NotMax

    September 6, 2020 at 2:07 am

    Sorry, was distracted by something on the Zoom thing participating in on the other monitor. #56 should have been

    @Frankensteinbeck

  58. 58.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 6, 2020 at 2:09 am

    Assclowns – as in “How long until one of these clowns has a bullet exit through an ass cheek?”

  59. 59.

    joel hanes

    September 6, 2020 at 2:11 am

    @Steeplejack (phone):

    I’d love to know who was behind that organized cabal

    There’s a Wikipedia article

  60. 60.

    Frankensteinbeck

    September 6, 2020 at 2:13 am

    @NotMax:

    That’s pretty close to what it was.  “My team of young, go-getter MBAs will leverage their contacts to do a way better job than old-fashioned career bureaucrats!”  And all they got were promises that never came through.  Grifters flocked to milk the sucker.  There was no sign Jared or Trump even made money off it.  Pure rich guy stupidity in action.

  61. 61.

    mrmoshpotato

    September 6, 2020 at 2:22 am

    @Frankensteinbeck: Is that before or after making up the losses with volume? :)

  62. 62.

    Origuy

    September 6, 2020 at 3:00 am

    Blackhawk helicopters have been bringing out people trapped at the Mammoth Pools campground, 20 at a time. There were about 150 people there. There are reports of other people trapped. I’m somewhat familiar with the area; I’ve been to Shaver Lake several times. The only way out of the area is Highway 168 west; there are no roads through to the east that cross the Sierra.

  63. 63.

    Anne Laurie

    September 6, 2020 at 3:05 am

    @Leto: Here’s the recipe for the best biscuits and jam to have for your Sunday brunch, and on the next page, here’s our test review of the best buck shot to use. I still just find it dumb, mainly because for the people being described, the women will still get Home and Garden and the men will still pick up a hunting/gun specific magazine. The way Garden and Guns is packaged, it’s for their parents. It’s the 50+ plus country club crowd. Idk, it’s just dumb.

    I know a lot of magazines like that used to be targeted specifically as ‘gift subscriptions suitable for your _____’.  Maybe the G&G publishers rely on 30-something married spouses buying subs for the in-laws, or vice versa?

    Of course, the bulk medical-supply ‘suitable reading for any dentist/optometrist/wellness center practice’ is probably a reliable niche, too…

  64. 64.

    Poe Larity

    September 6, 2020 at 3:18 am

     

    @randy: Was driving through Jefferson County CA last week and am still confused why the local patriots were all flying thin blue line flags. 20 years ago they were all Gadsden flag waving, RATM and anti-authorati.

    I guess it wasn’t just Paul Ryan who missed the point.

  65. 65.

    opiejeanne

    September 6, 2020 at 3:26 am

    @HumboldtBlue: Which tweet is the relevant one?

  66. 66.

    TS (the original)

    September 6, 2020 at 3:29 am

    @Frankensteinbeck:

     He couldn’t organize PPE and ventilator distribution.

    Which is why the states are being told to organise vaccine distribution – trump admin can’t organise their way out of the standard paper bag.

    The sane states, knowing the availability of a vaccine before Biden is elected is trump looking for a survival  route, won’t waste time & money on organising for a non event.

  67. 67.

    Sister Golden Bear

    September 6, 2020 at 3:33 am

    @trollhattan: I was in Shaver Lake (just south of the fire) last weekend, and drove through what’s now the south end of the fire area. The place where I stayed is in the evacuation zone.

    Definitely, an odd feeling.

    Almost detoured to Mammoth Pools on the way home, but it would’ve taken too long because very windy road. Tough to evacuate people out of the area quickly, even if the lake wasn’t surrounded by the fire.

  68. 68.

    rikyrah

    September 6, 2020 at 3:51 am

    @Kay:

    There really is no bottom with these muthaphuckas?

  69. 69.

    Sebastian

    September 6, 2020 at 3:57 am

    @Steeplejack: 

    That’s what Josie and I were talking about last night on an almost dead post.

    This is coordinated. First Suckergate with multiple sources and the Trumpista defense forces got mowed down by machine gun fire. Just brutal.

    Now Cohen with FauxBama as opening move. First reaction everywhere was “this is bullshit, too crass, can’t trust Cohen, it was just a joke”. They burned through their usual cycles wayyyy too fast because … Lordy, there are tapes! Been out there for 8 years hahaha

    All other revelations in Disloyal will be treated differently because no one wants to be proven a fool in less than 24 hours. That’s a lot of damage about to rain down.

    It also hits hard into Donald’s relationship with Evangelicals (the GOP GOTV boots on the ground) and white working class. I am starting to have a hunch that Trump trashtalks whoever is not in the room. There will be witnesses and tapes.

    And Jesus Fucking Christ, THE COMEY RULE on Showtime 9/27 and 9/28. A fucking two night event and it looks absolutely amazing. Jeff Daniels, Brendan Gleeson, Michael Kelly, Jennifer Ehle, and Holly Hunter.

    They are taking Trump apart, bit by bit. McConnell must be shitting bricks. I wonder what Judge I love beer! is thinking right now.

  70. 70.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    September 6, 2020 at 4:20 am

    @Sebastian: The debate is the following day on the 29th

  71. 71.

    BigHank53

    September 6, 2020 at 4:41 am

    The NRA was too grifty for Oliver North. Just sayin’.

  72. 72.

    Sebastian

    September 6, 2020 at 4:53 am

    @David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch:

    Hahahaha

    What does Adam always say? It takes  lot of work to have so many coincidences?

    Who needs an October Surprise? Looks like we’ll have surprises twice per week until the election.

  73. 73.

    Amir Khalid

    September 6, 2020 at 5:27 am

    @dmsilev:

    I imagine a commonly asked question in the After Time: “Why does his right ear droop like that?”

  74. 74.

    raven

    September 6, 2020 at 6:36 am

    Garden and Gun is a really good magazine and the only articles they have about guns are about antique and really high dollar game weapons. My only issues with it are that you don’t get a digital subscription with paper and you can’t look at the digital in landscape. We don’t virtue signal with the fucking thing we read it!

  75. 75.

    Booger

    September 6, 2020 at 7:23 am

    @Steeplejack (phone):  Harlan Carter, a horrible human being and literal murderer.

  76. 76.

    Kirk Spencer

    September 6, 2020 at 7:52 am

    @Ruckus:

    I think my favs are the Mercers. Owe 7 BILLION to the IRS. Now that’s some hardcore grifting.

    I have this idle dream about the irs. That there is a rules change that says everyone in the top 0.1% gets audited annually, and the rest of the top 1% gets an audit every three years. Based on what we already think we know, the amount collected to include fines would more than pay for the additional auditors, attorneys, and clerks required.

    I’m old, I know many of the hurdles to that dream, hence the “idle” adjective. But still I dream.

    (Yes off-thread. But I couldn’t pass up the opening your comment provided.)

  77. 77.

    evodevo

    September 6, 2020 at 8:11 am

    @Gvg: Yes. This, and like around here, probably shooting out the window of the car at  various critters who happen to cross the road or appear on the roadside.  Had a couple of yahoos do that right in front of my property one year..they had the bad luck that I pulled up right behind them. They sped up and beat it down the road.  Found the deer across my property line in some trees, dead .  I got the deer meat from that one…

  78. 78.

    lowtechcyclist

    September 6, 2020 at 8:21 am

    I’m on board with the notion that the ‘mask holsters’ thing is someone’s joke.

    But is it just me, or does it seem like the notion of gun safety is increasingly being abandoned and ridiculed by the Second Amendment nuts?

  79. 79.

    Kirk Spencer

    September 6, 2020 at 8:22 am

    @Gvg: nod. I don’t hunt anymore. Haven’t done so in decades. I understood bullets flying my way in the army. Having them snap past while standing in an open field and as I was passing through brush during hunting seasons was not tolerable. Do not know if either shooter was drunk or just naturally stupid. Don’t care.

  80. 80.

    artem1s

    September 6, 2020 at 8:23 am

    @Steeplejack:

    .22 that my parents gave me.

    In the community I grew up, a .22 was the standard confirmation gift for boys.  I kid you not.  My brother got one but not me or any of my sisters.  He taught me the basics of shooting it.  I was 6 or 7 or so.  I know my crazy wing nut uncle took him rabbit hunting once and that’s the last time I remember seeing my brother with that gun.  He left off hunting before deer season.  My father ended up with it when my brother left for college. He used it for killing various varmints around the house.  My dad grew up on a farm when guns were actually tools, not fashion accessories.  But the .22 right of passage was pretty standard where I grew up.

  81. 81.

    artem1s

    September 6, 2020 at 8:32 am

    @West of the Rockies:

    Christ, I can hardly wait until Bill Barr

    He’s the one guy I most want to see indicted and convicted out of this whole ratfucking grifting clan. Sure as shit the GOP will try to recycle him as a federal judge or put him on SCOTUS the next time they are in power.  He and Cheney both should have been in jail long time since.  Even if their pals commute the sentence at least being convicted of a federal crime can keep them from getting appointed to the bench.  Honestly, I’ve always thought the whole White Water Lewinsky affair was designed to keep Clinton off the bench but Newt had to have revenge for his AF1 seat and so he had to indulge himself in some revenge p0rn.

  82. 82.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 6, 2020 at 8:35 am

    In the non-trivial chance this is an ironic meme, this ex-Boy Scout very much frowns on “jokes” where you point a firearm, even unloaded, directly at your soft and mushy insides, to say nothing of treating a tool such as that unseriously in general

    Right-wingers don’t understand irony; what they call “irony” is this kind of aggressive hyperbole aimed at triggering the libs, or sometimes any right-winger less extreme than themselves (the guns-pointing-at-dicks group may have been that), while also functioning as a trial balloon for a future sincere position. “You think I’m nuts? Fine, I’ll behave twice as nuts and see how you like that. If it goes over badly I’ll point out I was just yanking your chain and complain that you can’t take a joke.” It’s built on the formula of schoolyard bullying.

    Trump himself, of course, is the king of this; telling his fans to double-vote was an example–he even got the “you can’t take a joke” part in in advance.

  83. 83.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    September 6, 2020 at 8:44 am

    @Steeplejack: I think my Dad had some small interest in shooting. I remember once we drove past a gun club and on a whim he stopped in and picked up an application.

    When he saw that they wanted you to fill in your family tree going back five generations he threw it away in disgust (he was the child of Russian Jews).

    Sometimes wonder what kind of weird WASP-y club that was and if there are a lot like that.

  84. 84.

    Matt McIrvin

    September 6, 2020 at 8:48 am

    @Poe Larity: American “libertarians” have always been authoritarians at heart, despite the anti-authoritarian trappings. They just believe the hierarchy should have them on top, as kings of their own domains, protected by their inherent biological superiority and the stuff they own. It’s a declaration of certain types of power over other human beings as illegitimate and others as legitimate.

    The “thin blue line” stuff is about cops killing black people and making property damage a capital offense. Both things most libertarians are A-OK with.

  85. 85.

    Luciamia

    September 6, 2020 at 9:01 am

    @Calouste: Maybe he’ll play his bagpipes. Yup, he does play them.

     

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Maybe

  86. 86.

    Morzer

    September 6, 2020 at 9:03 am

    https://twitter.com/JenniferJJacobs/status/1302584363410915330

    On WWI commemoration trip, Trump fancied several pieces art at US ambassador’s historic residence in Paris, where he was staying—and on a whim had a portrait, bust and figurines loaded onto AF1, sources tell @nwadhams and me. Figurines now on mantel in Oval. Story out soon.

  87. 87.

    Morzer

    September 6, 2020 at 9:06 am

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-06/trump-ended-2018-france-trip-having-art-loaded-on-air-force-one?sref=yYYRek8e

    Apparently, Trump’s judgment was characteristically bad – and he grabbed some fakes!

  88. 88.

    prostratedragon

    September 6, 2020 at 9:12 am

    @Morzer:
    Nice lede:

    After Donald Trump’s planned trip to a French cemetery for fallen Marines was canceled in November 2018, the U.S. leader had some extra time on his hands in a mansion filled with artwork.

  89. 89.

    Ken

    September 6, 2020 at 9:20 am

    @Morzer: At a minimum, he’s now on notice that those artworks are being watched.

  90. 90.

    A Ghost to Most

    September 6, 2020 at 9:24 am

    Donald Sackville-Baggins at work.

  91. 91.

    BruceFromOhio

    September 6, 2020 at 9:26 am

    The con and it’s associated grifting will continue until it doesnt.

  92. 92.

    Morzer

    September 6, 2020 at 9:28 am

    @A Ghost to Most:

     

    Chapeau, mon gentil hobbit!

  93. 93.

    different-church-lady

    September 6, 2020 at 9:33 am

    WE ARE 90 COMMENTS IN AND NOBODY IS GOING TO MAKE A JOKE ABOUT SHOOTING YOUR MOUTH OFF??!!????!!!!?????

  94. 94.

    Morzer

    September 6, 2020 at 9:38 am

    @different-church-lady:

    Well, now you’ve bitten the bullet….

  95. 95.

    BruceFromOhio

    September 6, 2020 at 9:41 am

    @joel hanes: the scent of the con was irresistible! Move to CO to get back to the land, when rivers of cash could be flowing through your hands? That’s not even a choice.

  96. 96.

    BruceFromOhio

    September 6, 2020 at 9:47 am

    @Morzer: someone had to take one for the team.

  97. 97.

    Ken

    September 6, 2020 at 9:51 am

    @joel hanes: @BruceFromOhio: If the NRA is dissolved as a charity, New York must distribute its assets to another charity with similar goals. Do they have to use the current goals, or can they go back to the original ones – perhaps by arguing that the grifting started with the change of direction in 1977?

  98. 98.

    L85NJGT

    September 6, 2020 at 9:58 am

    A few years back I heard an NPR piece on declining state DNR revenue from hunting and fishing licenses – a longtime Wisconsin DNR guy said the demographers told them thirty years ago the hunters would fade away.

    So there’s a lot of dad was an avid hunter, so I keep a piece (aka family heirloom) and read some magazines, rather than spend a shitty weekend in a blind or be arsed to get to the range.

  99. 99.

    M31

    September 6, 2020 at 10:03 am

    @mrmoshpotato: Assclowns – as in “How long until one of these clowns has a bullet exit through an ass cheek?”

    “That’s my ass hole, not my asshole, but the hole  ’cause I’m an ass”

  100. 100.

    Ken

    September 6, 2020 at 10:11 am

    @M31: “This is my rifle, this is the bleeding hole where I used to have a gun….”

  101. 101.

    A Ghost to Most

    September 6, 2020 at 10:20 am

    @L85NJGT: Or like me, like to shoot, but not at living things. I gave that up at 15. I killed a buncha clay pigeons and pots back in the day.

  102. 102.

    catclub

    September 6, 2020 at 10:42 am

    @Steeplejack:

    speaking of phrasing:

     

    Imagine if we’d spent that last 50 years fetishizing diapers instead? Pampers would be the most powerful corporation on the planet and a shitload of people would still be alive

  103. 103.

    Jinchi

    September 6, 2020 at 11:53 am

    @Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Does anybody know what the “October Surprise” Barr promised last week is all about? Just heard about it today

    Did Barr actually call it an “October Surprise?”

    Because an October Surprise is explicitly political. That would be an open statement that he’s planning to meddle in the upcoming elections.

  104. 104.

    Yutsano

    September 6, 2020 at 12:01 pm

    @Jinchi: I thought the planned “October Surprise” was Thomas announcing his retirement so a replacement could be appointed right before the election. But at this point who knows?

  105. 105.

    The Lodger

    September 6, 2020 at 12:35 pm

    @dmsilev: I think you get a permanent case of Jeff Sessions ears.

  106. 106.

    Just Chuck

    September 6, 2020 at 1:27 pm

    @lowtechcyclist:

    But is it just me, or does it seem like the notion of gun safety is increasingly being abandoned and ridiculed by the Second Amendment nuts?

    Yep, as are the concepts of “well-regulated”, “security”, “free state”, and “being necessary”.

  107. 107.

    Enhanced Voting Techniques

    September 6, 2020 at 2:04 pm

    @lowtechcyclist: If you follow the thesis of that The Atlantic’s article about Laura Ingram this is all about self loathing, so  that attitude fits that.

  108. 108.

    joel hanes

    September 6, 2020 at 2:10 pm

    @L85NJGT:

    rather than spend a shitty weekend in a blind

    Some of the best weekends of my adolescence were spent in a duck blind on a marsh — and on some of the very best of those, we never got in a shot.

    Eight hours of actually watching the sky, starting an hour before sunrise, feeds the soul —  if you can let your mind go still for a while and be present in the moment.

  109. 109.

    Jess

    September 6, 2020 at 2:41 pm

    Gun nuts: Mask holsters FTW!

    Me: Oh please oh please…

    I’ve turned to the dark side.

  110. 110.

    A Ghost to Most

    September 6, 2020 at 6:22 pm

    @Jess: It was purely a “trigger the libs” play, and it appears a fair few bit on it.

  111. 111.

    brantl

    September 6, 2020 at 9:33 pm

    I think that we should make examples of anti-gun control rhetoric, and apply it to explosives, like C4 and dynamite. Just run the same quotes that these knuckleheads keep espousing, except about dynamite. It will sound ridiculous, and the point will be obvious.

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - dmkingto - SF Bay Area Scenes 7
Image by dmkingto (7/31/25)
Donate

Recent Comments

  • Nelle on Covid & Other Plagues Update (Jul 16, 2025 @ 3:44am)
  • VFX Lurker on Covid & Other Plagues Update (Jul 16, 2025 @ 3:33am)
  • Sister Inspired Revolver of Freedom on War for Ukraine Day 1,237: TACO Tuesday!!!! (Jul 16, 2025 @ 3:27am)
  • Ten Bears on Covid & Other Plagues Update (Jul 16, 2025 @ 3:25am)
  • Kathleen on Tuesday Night Open Thread (Jul 16, 2025 @ 3:24am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
No Kings Protests June 14 2025

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Feeling Defeated?  If We Give Up, It's Game Over

Donate

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!