Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Republicans: slavery is when you own me. freedom is when I own you.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

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

Trump’s cabinet: like a magic 8 ball that only gives wrong answers.

If you still can’t see these things even now, maybe politics isn’t your forte and you should stop writing about it.

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

You can’t attract Republican voters. You can only out organize them.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

New McCarthy, same old McCarthyism.

Those who are easily outraged are easily manipulated.

“In the future, this lab will be a museum. do not touch it.”

It is not hopeless, and we are not helpless.

Oppose, oppose, oppose. do not congratulate. this is not business as usual.

Too often we hand the biggest microphones to the cynics and the critics who delight in declaring failure.

You don’t get to peddle hatred on saturday and offer condolences on sunday.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

Stamping your little feets and demanding that they see how important you are? Not working anymore.

Sadly, media malpractice has become standard practice.

When I was faster i was always behind.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

Welcome to day five of every-bit-as-bad-as-you-thought-it-would-be.

You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: Head Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes Remains in Custody

Domestic Terrorists Open Thread: Head Oath Keeper Stewart Rhodes Remains in Custody

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(I checked; it was up to a whole $230 by 4pm EST… )

Per the Washington Post:

With his signature eye patch and fiery speeches, Stewart Rhodes is among the most recognizable leaders of the anti-government movement — and one of its most controversial.

As founder of the Oath Keepers, part of the self-styled militia segment of the far right, Rhodes projected himself as the commander of a private army willing to confront “tyrannical” federal authorities and defend the Constitution by any means necessary.

In reality, according to extensive interviews with his associates and extremism trackers, Rhodes is a couch-surfing propagandist whose thousands of recruits paid membership dues but mostly acted as “keyboard warriors,” disseminating violent rhetoric but rarely showing up in great numbers when Rhodes called.

The Oath Keepers contingent that participated in the U.S. Capitol attack was among the biggest showings researchers have seen from the group — about two dozen members or associates, including Rhodes, have been charged with conspiracy, and a handful more face other charges related to individual actions they allegedly took that day.

It was also a moment that would implode the organization and alienate Rhodes from other anti-government leaders. Oath Keepers members, including those charged in the Capitol attack, bristled at what they see as Rhodes’s pattern of calling on followers to rise up and then abandoning them when they faced legal consequences.

“He sets the stage for other people to very quickly make the decision for themselves to engage in criminal or violent behavior,” said Sam Jackson, an extremism scholar whose book “Oath Keepers” traces Rhodes’s path from Army paratrooper to Yale Law graduate to far-right figure…

Hampton Stall, an extremism researcher who monitors self-styled militia groups, said any future iteration of the Oath Keepers is likely to come from “an insurgency” that’s trying now to regroup into a movement that can endure beyond Rhodes.

“If there’s any sort of accountability that ever comes to him, it will have been after years of him basically telling people to take up arms and shoot people,” Stall said. “His role within the Oath Keepers environment is less about coordinating specifics and more about creating the fertile ideological soil for violence.”

A man after TFG’s own tiny, shriveled pulmonary organ…

Cynic that I am, I’ve wondered if the judge didn’t have a whole ‘nother category of ‘flight risk’ in mind…


This was his wife’s explanation of the incident, which I personally think very generous of her. Because the only two similar put-an-eye-out “accidents” I remember hearing about were both failed, half-hearted ‘you’ll be sorry when I’m dead’ suicide attempts. But maybe Rhodes learned from his experience!

Reader Interactions

133Comments

  4. 4.

    mrmoshpotato

    Love the bits in the indictment on how much these guys spent on tactical shit. Economic anxiety my ass

    All the more reason Lady Justice should beat the living shit out of these fascist shitstains.

  10. 10.

    Elizabelle

    Wait.  He shot out his own eye?  After being trained with weapons as an Army paratrooper?

    More from the WaPost:

    The idea that Rhodes might again escape consequence while his foot soldiers languished in jail was the final straw for members who had long complained that Rhodes misused the group’s funds for such personal expenses as fancy steak dinners and hair dye.

    That he is a grifter does not make him less dangerous. These people studied the Nazis and Joseph Goebbels very closely.

  13. 13.

    M31

    he was a flight risk partly because of the “elaborate escape tunnels” he had installed in his backyard

    so he was going to escape to his neighbor’s backyard? that’s some fine insurrecting opsec right there

  14. 14.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @mrmoshpotato: and just look at that turreted McMansion in the I’d bet gated community of Economic Anxiety Estates

    Stewart Rhodes’ legal defense fund has only raised $80 out of a goal of $250,000.

    Un-ironically some of the best news I’ve heard about this in a while

  16. 16.

    Geminid

    Rhodes can’t raise money to defend himself on crimes he committed for Donald Trump. Meanwhile Trump is sitting like some bloated dragon on over $100 million he’s raised this past year. Trump is dangling the prospect of pardons in front of Rhodes his cohorts, but they be wondering why they can’t get any help right now.

  17. 17.

    Elizabelle

    Here’s a cool story about a better human than all the Oathkeepers put together.

    WaPost: Comic book store owner to ship ‘Maus’ free to anyone who asks in Tenn. district where it’s banned

    “Reading ‘Maus’ [as a teen] opened my eyes,” [Ryan] Higgins said. “I remember thinking, ‘This is about more than superheroes fighting bad guys.’ It was heartbreaking and emotional, and it brought a whole new window to something I had little knowledge about.”

    When Higgins bought the Comics Conspiracy shop in Sunnyvale, Calif., near San Jose, he decided to make sure that the shelves were always well-stocked with cartoonist Art Spiegelman’s story detailing his father Vladek Spiegelman’s experiences, and the resulting trauma. For 16 years, that’s been the case.

    ….Higgins said he had a hunch that sales of the graphic novel would surge [with the banning], so he quickly ordered 100 copies of “The Complete Maus” to give away. “I’ll donate up to 100 copies of The Complete Maus to any family in the McMinn County in Tennessee,” he wrote on Twitter. “Just DM me your address!” He would also pay for the shipping.

    About 60 students and parents who reside in the McMinn County school district have contacted him wanting copies, he said, and he plans to ship them later this week as soon as his book shipment arrives.

    In December, when a Texas school district banned the graphic novel “V for Vendetta” and comic book series “Y: The Last Man,” Higgins did the same, offering on Twitter to send copies to anyone in the district who wanted them.

    … One of the people Higgins heard from was Malachi Cates, a 15-year-old sophomore at McMinn County High School, asking for a copy through his mother. Malachi said he felt embarrassed when he looked at his cellphone last week and saw the school board’s decision-making worldwide headlines.

    “I was shocked — I couldn’t believe what they had done,” he said. “I hadn’t ever read the novel, but when I heard about it being banned, I knew I had to read it.”

  19. 19.

    UncleEbeneezer

    We finally booked our vacation for our 10th Wedding Anniversary.  We are gonna rent cabins in Reds Meadow and Tamarack Lodge (both in Mammoth Lakes).  Three nights in both.  Late Sept (even though our Anniversary is 8/31) so that it will be much less crowded in general.  Original plan was to do a trip to England, but Covid fucked that up, so that will have to wait.  This will be a different kind of awesome though as it will give us a chance to finally do some serious exploration of Mammoth hikes.  We’ve visited there numerous times but never had the time to do longer, day hikes out of the valley.

  23. 23.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    That sounds wonderful! The planning and anticipation will be great fun, and I hope you’ll share your plans with us.

    And, of course, take lots of photos to submit to OTR!

  24. 24.

    J R in WV

    @UncleEbeneezer: ​
     
    Aww! That’s so nice!!

    You guys have a good time. Last May, during the pause in infectious events, Wife and I managed to go out for dinner at one of our favorite places here locally. It was our 50th anniversary.

    Friends in the neighborhood who share the date for their anniversary were also having dinner there. So a nice coincidence there. Have a nice time this coming fall!

  25. 25.

    Mike in NC

    If Elmer worked for crazy Ron Paul, we have to wonder what lunatics serve as staffers for Gosar, Greene, Cawthorn, Boebert, Gaetz the rest of the GQP. Our tax dollars at work.

  28. 28.

    RSA

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Love the bits in the indictment on how much these guys spent on tactical shit. Economic anxiety my ass

     
    Ugh, “tactical.” I wish our language were less trendy: “paramilitary weapons and accessories” might be better.

  29. 29.

    Ohio Mom

    @cope: After reading what the ex-wife has to say, I am sure that one of the pages in the DSM describes Rhodes. That doesn’t excuse him, lots of people who match descriptions in the DSM manage not to break the law so flagrantly.

    On another note, it was interesting to read about prosthetic eyes. The things you learn incidentally.

  33. 33.

    J R in WV

    @cope:

    It includes more about [Elmer Stuart] Rhodes’ hygiene habits and glass eyeball troubles than you might care to know.

    My great uncle Russell wore a glass eye like 80 o r90 years ago, with no problems. Back before antibiotics were common. And Rhodes can’t keep things clean enough, he needs to wear a patch?

    Sorry, that’s just sorry. Maybe the prison staff can keep him clean enough to wear a glass eyeball. Mom had Great-Uncle Russell’s glass eye in a curio cabinet in the living room. IIRC he fell off the porch roof and lost his eye, back in the 1920s.

  34. 34.

    Bill Arnold

    Guy showed up in a very nearby town at a pathetic protest against COVID regulations in 2020:

    I’m in Newburgh NY, where the Oath Keepers are demonstrating in support of a tattoo shop opening up in defiance of state COVID regulations
    — Sam Jackson (@sjacks26) May 30, 2020

    I do hope Roger Stone’s involvement (on and shortly before Jan 6 2021) gets him (Stone) in very deep trouble. That guy will do stupid risky things to stay out of jail. And his OPSEC, while not totally pathetic, has exploitable flaws.

  35. 35.

    prostratedragon

    @geg6:  They have a narrow task. Developing women and men is a broad one, much of which is supposed to happen at the undergraduate level. But it does seem that the law schools let a lot of barbarians (wish I could think of a better word) in to take the training that they offer.

  36. 36.

    Geminid

    @Bill Arnold: I think Stone was the key interface between Trump and the militias, just like he was the interface between Trump and the Russians in 2016. Stone was consorting with Oathkeepers the morning of January 6 and the day before, and there is reporting tjat he was initiated into the Proud Boys. Stone says he caught a flight out of Dulles that afternoon, like he knew to get clear of the plot he had helped put in motion..

  37. 37.

    The Pale Scot

    I’d really would like to see forensic accounting done of the money here. Multiple houses? Cars stashed in the woods? Laying down 10s of thousands in the space of days for gear? It’s like an episode of Criminal Minds where the perp gets out of prison after 20 yrs and instantly has access to cell phone spoofers and C-4

  38. 38.

    Kirk Spencer

    @oatler:

    He’s not as bad as those extremists who crashed a jet into the WTC.

    That’s only because he’s not as competent as those extremists.

  39. 39.

    West of the Rockies

    These rightwing fascists hate everybody and everything… blacks, browns, Jews, LGTBQ+, liberals, scientists, the “wrong” coffee shop, unions, sexually independent women, teachers, Hollywood…

    THey spend their miserable lives hating and fearing and cheating…

  43. 43.

    Subsole

    @oatler:

    Correct.

    He’s much worse.

     

    @West of the Rockies:

    They hate everyone who ain’t white, and damn near half the folks who are.

    Or, it may be more accurate to say they hate everyone who ain’t themselves. And damn near half the folks who are.

  44. 44.

    Jay

    @The Pale Scot:

    won’t happen. You can raise all the Dark Money/GoFund Me you want and spend it on anything you want, if you are “unregulated”, ( eg Board, Organizational Regulations, etc),

    even then, it has to be either internal, or illegal, ( tax fraud, mail fraud, wire fraud, etc)

    Which is why so many of these reich wing “groups” and causes are nothing but grifftopia.

  45. 45.

    Geminid

    @dexwood: Personal security, and apparently more than that. Rhodes had an arsenal staged across the river in Arlington, and there was a plan to use it.

  48. 48.

    Elizabelle

    The interview with the ex-wife was very interesting.  Especially the end, where she spoke of how personally risk-averse Rhodes is.  Implies he was given a guarantee for participating in the insurrection.

    I’ve been avoiding reading about these maroons, but the ex-wife is intelligent and seems a pretty good observer.  Will read the LA Times article next.

    And: for those who did not read the David Niewert article above, ex-wife was a Mormon; met him when she was 18 and he was 25 and ex-Army.  He was always domineering, and even got her to work as a stripper to put him through college.  Domestic abuse.  Their teenaged daughter who built a shed in the woods so she would not have to sleep in the same house with Rhodes.  (They hosted a scary former Marine, Charles Dyer aka “July4Patriot,” who is in prison now for molesting his own young daughter.)

    Rhodes could not hold down a job for long.  He worked for one year at a law firm; fired for being habitually late and not doing much work.  Follow the money, indeed.

    Tasha Adams:

    the other part of my head was, ‘This guy’s been fired from everywhere. And if he starts this, all he has to do is talk for a living. That’s all he has to do is talk. He cannot get fired. Maybe he can make a paycheck and maybe we can, like own a house, or at least be able to pay the electric bill.’ Because at that point we were lucky we were living in a home that was already deep into foreclosure and we couldn’t rent it out to anyone else, because we were months behind in rent. You know, the power and the water was getting shut off every other month. And we were dipping into food storage to eat.

    She had a good insight into these loser/poseurs/fantasists:  on how some were so disappointed the world did not fall apart after Y2K, and why:

    “Stewart was all-in for Y2K, for sure,” she said. “The moment the lights did not go out, there was a palpable disappointment, I think, that I really picked up on. ‘Oh, I don’t get to be king of the world.’ I think the simplicity of that life is what a lot of these guys long for. They want that to happen, and you know—it was about to be it! It was about to be the moment that all the things in life that they fail at disappear.”

    They cannot succeed in a civil society, or an actual meritocracy.  Burn it all down.

  51. 51.

    mrmoshpotato

    @RSA:

    Ugh, “tactical.” I wish our language were less trendy: “paramilitary weapons and accessories” might be better. 

    And let’s not forget all of the tactical beer bellies.

  52. 52.

    Brachiator

    @Elizabelle:

    They cannot succeed in a civil society, or an actual meritocracy.

    This is true of some of them, but not all. Who were the people who flew to the insurrection in a private aircraft?

    And from another story about these folks:

    More than half of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists were white-collar workers such as business owners, architects, doctors and lawyers. Pape, who has decades of experience studying global political violence, says this statistic was unexpected. Out of the hundreds of people arrested for breaking into the Capitol, he says only 7% were unemployed at the time — nearly the national unemployment average.
    Normally, 40% of right-wing extremists have prior military service, whereas Jan. 6 Capitol rioters sat at about 15%, he says.

    They were also older, established.

    Typically, right-wing extremists are young — normally under the age of 34. On Jan. 6, rioters were mostly in their 40s and 50s.

    The paramilitary nut balls are a subset of a fairly prosperous, but angry and resentful bunch of idiots who are willing to throw their lives away for Trump.

  53. 53.

    dr. bloor

    @Mary G: Unless and until someone throws magic fairy dust on the Constitution in general, and the Electoral College and Senate in particular, the beatings will continue until the morale is ground into a fine dust.  This is where we are, circa 2022.

  54. 54.

    Roger Moore

    @M31:

    so he was going to escape to his neighbor’s backyard? that’s some fine insurrecting opsec right there

    As I understand it, he lives in the middle of nowhere, so he doesn’t have neighbors.  The tunnels were supposed to lead to the woods near where he lived, where he had supplies (IIRC including vehicles) positioned.  IOW, this was a substantial investment in being able to get out of his house unobserved.

  57. 57.

    MomSense

    @mrmoshpotato:

    INORITE

    The egos on these motherfuckers.  That piece of shit has constructed a fantasy in which he is soooooooo important that he needs elaborate escape tunnels.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    She cleared it up in a follow-up. Book club is tomorrow, Weds 2nd Feb. She’s bracing for a nasty blizzard and sent it early in case she loses power or internet access.

  66. 66.

    MomSense

    @zhena gogolia: She sent the invite tonight but the zoom is tomorrow.

    I was too busy to submit a question but I’d love for Curt to let Adam know how much I love his dad!  If he ever needs to vent without the risk of getting kicked out of his club, he would be welcome to comment here. Ed Schiff is a jackal – he just doesn’t know it yet.

  68. 68.

    The Thin Black Duke

    @Mary G: It didn’t help that more than a few psuedo-progressives on “our” side in 2016 were delusional enough to believe that Trump was the lesser or two evils.

  69. 69.

    Joy in FL

    @zhena gogolia: I did. I read all the way to the end, and it does say Feb. 2 for the meeting. I bet the busy WaterGirl was trying to get the emails sent early and forgot to change “tonight.”

  72. 72.

    Sure Lurkalot

    @cope: @Elizabelle:

    Stayed with the fucker for almost 30 years even though she seemed very aware of the monster he was destined to become early on. She finally left when he was more dangerous and unhinged than ever. I know women get trapped in cycles of abuse and I can understand the fear but why so long?

  74. 74.

    Jeffro

    why do these loons always have a gazillion guns?  Are they part octopus?  Don’t they have (only) two arms, each with just one hand at the end?

    what do they think, it’s like the movies and they’re going to have enough warning to load thirty guns (three under each window!) and move from point to point, emptying them all (and then reloading?)

    I know we have a gun problem in this country but I think we also have an action movie problem to go with it.

  76. 76.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @zhena gogolia:

    I believe that was the original schedule, but we were warned all along that things could change — and sure enough, things changed! He was so open and personable last time, and I’m excited that he’ll be with us again tomorrow!

  77. 77.

    danielx

    @Baud:

    I have to admit I have totally overestimated the intellectual powers of Yale Law grads, although Rhodes is likely not a representative example.

    On the other hand, W is a Yale MBA graduate as I recall. So maybe the whole Yale thing is overrated.

  78. 78.

    geg6

    @Sure Lurkalot:

    Because he had a shitload of guns, was unhinged and she felt she had no way out.

    Do. Not. Judge. Her.  You say you understand her fear, but you obviously do not.

  80. 80.

    Geminid

    @mrmoshpotato: Stone tried to pull off the ultimate dirty trick on January 6.

    He has real problems now, though. One is an IRS judgement of over $1 million for back taxes.

  82. 82.

    Salty Sam

    Oath Keepers members, including those charged in the Capitol attack, bristled at what they see as Rhodes’s pattern of calling on followers to rise up and then abandoning them when they faced legal consequences.

    Stuart Rhodes:  “Hey! Let’s you and them fight!”

  84. 84.

    gene108

    @danielx:

    On the other hand, W is a Yale MBA graduate as I recall. So maybe the whole Yale thing is overrated.

    Yale undergrad. Father and grandfather were also Yale undergrads. Double legacy admission.

    Harvard MBA

    Edit: He was born in New Haven, CT, where Yale is located.

  86. 86.

    Kirk Spencer

    @dr. bloor: yaknow, two thoughts predominate.

    The first. It comes to mind, from when I was a tough little bunny rabbit and not the flabby old thing I am now, that the primary characteristic of the really tough fighters – be that one of the elite military or the dedicated civil rights types or any etc – is that they are stubborn. They lose fights. They face impossible odds. But they don’t quit. And eventually the other things they’re good at – skills and knowledge and moving and communicating and all that – it has time to make an impact. And eventually they win.

    The second? About that fairy dust? Just call us tinkerbell.

  87. 87.

    Villago Delenda Est

    Rhodes needs to be locked up forever. He’s a clear threat to national security.

  89. 89.

    BeautifulPlumage

    @Sure Lurkalot: she described a time before she even thought she could leave. How much of her patriarchal Mormon upbringing caused that perspective? And when she’s looking back it’s with her current knowledge of how narcissists and abusers act. When she was 18 she didn’t have that knowledge. Plus, add the kids and options become limited.

    You say you understand, but you don’t sound like you do.

  90. 90.

    Kay

    @Jeffro:

    why do these loons always have a gazillion guns? Are they part octopus? Don’t they have (only) two arms, each with just one hand at the end?

    For this loon is seems clear he bought all the gun equipment because they planned to bring the guns in the evening of January 6th and use them. He was planning to arm the rest of the loons.

  92. 92.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @danielx: ​
     The deserting coward is a Yale undergrad, Harvard MBA, but only because University of Texas Law rejected him.

  94. 94.

    Bill Arnold

    @Geminid:

    Stone tried to pull off the ultimate dirty trick on January 6.

    He was very involved (more than he’s admitted) with the DNC hacks and related 2016 ratfucking.

  95. 95.

    danielx

    @gene108:

    Thanks for the correction (seriously). So maybe the whole Ivy League thing is overrated, or would a less rigorous academic load be particular to legacies, or enormous contributors and their idiot offspring, or….

    It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

  96. 96.

    Ruckus

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    Haven’t been to Mammoth in a few decades but used to go all the time, a buddy’s dad lived there. I imagine it has grown just a tad since then but decades ago it was an amazing place. And the most amazing places likely haven’t changed much at all. Be careful hiking and enjoy you anniversary!

  97. 97.

    danielx

    Note: totally weird. It’s 53 degrees on the back porch and supposedly by this time tomorrow night we will be up to our lips in shit (figuratively speaking) and up to our knees in snow (literally speaking). Snow on top of rain, sleet and ice, so it should be a total joy. Would prefer not to go out and subject ye olde Outback to a foot of snow.

    Nevermind, got food, firewood, snowblower, de-icer for the driveway, blowtorch, holy water, samurai sword….oh, and beer.

  98. 98.

    Josie

    @danielx: Years ago, when my middle son was looking at schools, we were told that the Ivies were hard to get into.  Once you were in, however, it wasn’t that hard to graduate.  Evidently, they are very focused on their graduation rates as that affects their ranking.  Don’t know if that is true or not, but it could explain some of the legacies earning those degrees.​
    ​
    ​

  99. 99.

    Salty Sam

    @Subsole: Or, it may be more accurate to say they hate everyone who ain’t themselves. And damn near half the folks who are.

    That may be one of the most profound things I’ve read in quite a while…

  100. 100.

    Gin & Tonic

    In re MisterDancer’s post yesterday about Whoopi Goldberg, I’m hearing, on a distant TV, Don Lemon saying that she’s been suspended from her show. Not sure for how long.

  103. 103.

    John Revolta

    @Elizabelle:

    “The moment the lights did not go out, there was a palpable disappointment, I think, that I really picked up on. ‘Oh, I don’t get to be king of the world.’ I think the simplicity of that life is what a lot of these guys long for. They want that to happen, and you know—it was about to be it! It was about to be the moment that all the things in life that they fail at disappear.”

    This is a very good and important insight. Many of these guys are divorced, have trouble with jobs, trouble with the law etc. and are mad at the world in general. When all that shit goes away……..THEN, by God, THEN I’ll show ’em!!

  107. 107.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Ruckus: I’m sure it’s much more developed than when you went.  Even in the last 10 years it’s gotten more crowded. Off-season though, is still pretty chill.

  108. 108.

    Jeffro

    @Kay: I meant in general, Kay  ;)

    I’m aware that this specimen in particular wanted to send a sh**load of guns over to the Capitol to help them, um, stand their ground.

  112. 112.

    Jeffro

    Speaking of domestic terrorists like Fox News and the GQP leadership, let’s have this be the subject of more than a few minutes’ media examination, eh?

    US Has Far Higher Covid Death Rates Than Other Wealthy Countries.

    Verily, ’tis a mystery how this could be the case… (eyeroll)

    And 43 percent of people 65 and over have not received a booster shot. Even among the fully vaccinated, the lack of a booster leaves tens of millions with waning protection, some of them many months past the peak levels of immunity afforded by their second shots.
    In England, by contrast, only 4 percent of people 65 and over have not been fully vaccinated and only 9 percent do not have a booster shot.

    Um also Fox News and GQP officials doing everything they can to kneecap the recovery…

  114. 114.

    Dopey-o

    @Salty Sam:

    @Subsole: Or, it may be more accurate to say they hate everyone who ain’t themselves. And damn near half the folks who are.

    That may be one of the most profound things I’ve read in quite a while…

    They love America,  but hate most Americans.

  115. 115.

    Another Scott

    @NotMax:

    Absurdle starts with all words in mind and keeps its options open as possible as long as possible. Even getting it in five was surprisingly tricky. Supposedly you can do it in 4.

    Absurdle 5/∞
    ⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
    ?⬜⬜?⬜
    ?⬜?⬜?
    ⬜⬜⬜??
    ?????https://t.co/Paa2wFClyi

    — Carl T. Bergstrom (@CT_Bergstrom) February 1, 2022

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  116. 116.

    Ruckus

    @geg6:

    @MagdaInBlack:

    Thank you both.

    We really shouldn’t judge people like his wife. She does not seem to be involved in his bullshit and while she stayed with him for a long time there is always a lot more to the story than she knew everything and should have left. Given his reported life style and proclivities and a child and likely her fear of retribution, how much money they had, how easy does it sound for her to just pick up and leave? This world can make a situation like hers a lot worse for a woman to just up and leave. And this dipshit has shot himself what, twice? Yeah I’m almost amazed that she is speaking up now. That’s got to be a pretty strong woman and I wish her and her child well.

  117. 117.

    StringOnAStick

    @Ruckus: I hope she has security or is at an undisclosed address after being so upfront with what a dirtbag he is.  He does have followers and they generally have a poor attitude towards women in general and some real hatred about women who divorce guys like them.

    I’m wondering about his being sent to same lock up as the other 1/6 miscreants.  Is that jail another insurrection waiting for a spark or are they starting to turn on each other as rumours of who has flipped or not start getting around? Given how he’s great at encouraging others to get into serious trouble while he whistles from the sidelines, he might not be very popular with the ones who’ve been locked up for a while.

  118. 118.

    BigJimSlade

    @UncleEbeneezer: I can recommend the trail up to Lake Ediza and Iceberg Lakes (we took the bus from town to Agnew Meadows and started from there). Not the easiest hike in the world, but really good

    For an even longer hike, go to Garnet and/or Thousand Island lakes.

    In any case, have a great time!

  119. 119.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @BigJimSlade: Edina definitely on our list.  I camped there years ago but my wife has never been up there.  I don’t think Thousand Isles is doable as a day hike ?

  124. 124.

    Jay

    @Ohio Mom:

    standard prison policy is to isolate “linked” criminals from each other and isolate “the accused” from the convicted to limit intrafighting and further conspiracies.

  128. 128.

    mardam

    Maybe Rhodes’ mother should have told him he’d shoot his eye out if he played with guns.

    So avoidable!

  129. 129.

    Uncle Cosmo

    @danielx: So maybe the whole Ivy League thing is overrated, or would a less rigorous academic load be particular to legacies, or enormous contributors and their idiot offspring, or….

    What I recall from >50 years ago is a definite dichotomy between universities based on admissions policies. Public schools were humongous and pretty much took anyone with decent high-school grades, but once matriculated you were in the land of the C-curve: Fuck around in your courses – or simply be academically incapable of doing the work – and you flunked out. And many did.

    The hoity-toitier private schools (with the Ivies at the tip of the shaft) were (mostly) smaller and much more “selective”, but once in, welcome to Club B-Curve. The less competent, for the most part, wound up with “gentleman’s C’s” and graduated anyway; much effort avoiding either study or attendance was needed to flunk out – and then, after a semester cooling one’s heels in the larger world, be readmitted.[1]

    Tl; dr version – In colleges of higher renown, the hardest work is getting in.[2]

    My undergraduate degree is from Johns Hopkins, which institution had (still has) pretentions to Ivy-equivalence[3] in its School of Arts & Sciences (now named for B$B [big-bucks benefactor] Zanvyl Krieger) but a split personalty with its School of Engineering (also named for a B$B[4]). A&S was generally B-curved under the presumption that no graduate could do much damage to JHU’s reputation without an advanced degree, and no one was getting into grad school with a C average.[5] OTOH, incompetent engineers with a Hopkins degree could seriously corrode that reputation, so the engineering courses were graded very tough – C-curved at best.[6]

    [1] I met a guy who took 10 years to get his bachelor’s at Cornell – one semester majoring in booze and bridge, one semester sitting out, one semester on the wagon applying himself, lather, rinse, repeat.

    [2] Note that for “legacies,” the hard work had been put in by the parents or grandparents, usually generously lubricated with donated $$$. Or just generously lubricated – cf. Kushner, Jared, and Trump, Donald.

    [3] A spoof edition of the campus newsletter that came out in my time there year claimed “The Hop” and its sister school, Goucher College, had been rejected for memberships in the Ivy League and Seven Sisters on the grounds that they lacked “both the academic excellence and necessary snob appeal.” Cold but accurate!

    [4] “The Hop” is adept at selling off naming rights to B$Bs. Mikey Bloomberg’s name (dis)graces the School of Public Health and the new Physics & Astronomy building; Krieger’s also defaces the hall where I took most of my physics and math classes, replacing that of JHU’s first professor of physics. I fully expect that once Bloomberg (JHU ’63) departs this mortal coil and his will offers another couple of billion into its endowment if it changes its name to “Michael Bloomberg University at Johns Hopkins,” the greedy mofos who run the place will crawl over broken glass to comply. Whenever they come whining for donations, I tell them to ask Mikey to toss his sofa cushions for another $100M or so, ‘cuz they ain’t getting a cent from me pre- or post-dirt-nap.

    [5] I mean, whaddaya gonna do with a BS in biology besides teach? Go to law school (which Hopkins doesn’t have one of) and become a bankruptcy attorney? I know a guy who did just that…

    [6] Engineering students had to satisfy area requirements outside their major, so they worked both sides of the street. IMO you should add half a point to their GPA for a fair comparison with A&S majors. 

  131. 131.

    TheTruffle

    @danielx: My dad had a Yale BA. He was a college librarian and my parents’ friends included academics with Ivy League degrees. These were some of the kindest, most generous people you’d ever meet, and none would have ever had anything to do with someone like Rhodes.

    The real issue, IMO, is the cosplaying fake patriots.

  133. 133.

    dearmaizie

    Went down a rabbit hole with the WaPo article.  Took me to the ex-wife’s blog.  Hoo boy. This guy is Manson-level crazy.  But it also struck me that he is donald trump – without money.  That is, if trump weren’t shielded by wealth, he would be Stewart Rhodes.

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