Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you voted for Trump, you don’t get to speak about ethics, morals, or rule of law.

And now I have baud making fun of me. this day can’t get worse.

The republican ‘Pastor’ of the House is an odious authoritarian little creep.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

Optimism opens the door to great things.

No one could have predicted…

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

There is no right way to do the wrong thing.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Beware of advice from anyone for whom Democrats are “they” and not “we.”

He wakes up lying, and he lies all day.

Republicans don’t lie to be believed, they lie to be repeated.

… gradually, and then suddenly.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it’s not glory.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

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

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

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

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

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gun safety

Let’s Try A ‘New’ Marketing Tactic: Guns Are for Grown-Ups

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I was arguing for this idea on Sadly, No a good 15 years ago (Remember when people smoked in *maternity wards*?… ) The other commentors scoffed, but certainly things haven’t *improved* (especially for young people) since then…


There are too many guns floating around where kids can get their hands on them. And the guns themselves are getting more dangerous…

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Adrian Fontes Is a Force To Be Reckoned With

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We have all the best people.  Really!

BlueGuitarist linked to this video in yesterday’s post about Adrian Fontes, and all I can say is WOW.

It’s 4.5 minutes of your life, and it’s so worth it.

Adrian Fontes on the 2nd amendment.

He cuts straight through the bullshit.  We might have a new explainer-in-chief!

Open thread.

 

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Thursday Morning Open Thread: Hope for the SAD

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Ron the Unready (Open Thread)

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We didn’t watch the DeSantis – Crist debate last night. We banked our votes for Crist via return mail a while back, and we heard enough of DeSantis’s droning, adenoidal voice to last several lifetimes before and after the recent hurricane, so we took a hard pass on hearing more of it.

Also, the race depresses me because I suspect Crist will come up short again in Florida, even if the party does better than expected elsewhere. (Don’t @ me — it’s been my lived experience in gubernatorial elections for this entire fucking century.)

All that said, I did watch a clip or two of the debate on Twitter and read takes from several frustrated theater critics masquerading as political pundits, and outside the echo chambers, it’s obvious why DeSantis only agreed to one debate: he sucks at debating. I mean, look at this asshole:

I’ve seen that animatronic glitch before — it appears whenever DeSantis wanders outside the con-media bubble and gets asked a tough question. He’s a thin-skinned prick, as is his bloated orange meat-sack mentor, but DeSantis lacks Tangerine Baal’s repertoire of dumb schoolyard taunts, so he glitches out.

Imagine what a Chris Christie (or even the original orange fart cloud himself) would do with that on a GOP presidential primary debate stage.  So, maybe those of you who think DeSantis is a Beltway pundit flavor of the month who will flop on the national stage like Scott Walker or Tim Pawlenty are right. Here’s hoping.

* * *

To follow up on yesterday’s school shooting in St. Louis, a 16-year-old girl was killed, as was 61-year-old health and PE teacher Jean Kuczka. The teacher’s daughter said she was told her mom stepped in front of the gunman to protect the kids.

Such a senseless loss. I think it’s understandable that people tend to focus on the children who die in these horrible mass shootings — children have their whole lives ahead of them, and the little ones are so innocent. But we should take time to grieve the slaughter of our educators too.

In the Post-Dispatch account, Ms. Kuczka sounds like a wonderful person and a dedicated teacher. She had a husband and five kids, and her last child had recently fledged the nest. Her daughter said Ms. Kuczka was looking forward to retirement.

Teachers almost always die in these attacks — while filling a difficult and necessary role, often for low pay and poor working conditions that now include getting screamed at and having their character impugned by hard-right political operatives pretending to be concerned parents.

Would a “Moms for Liberty” operative take a bullet for a kid? I think they’d be more likely to use a child as a human shield.

Rest in peace, Ms. Kuczka. You deserved so much better.

Open thread.

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Accessories Before the Fact

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The sentencing hearing for the shooter in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre in Parkland, Florida is ongoing this week. The shooter, Nikolas Cruz, pleaded guilty to the murders, so the trial is to determine whether he’ll spend the rest of his life in jail or be executed for the crimes. In Florida, death sentences require a unanimous verdict.

Cruz committed the murders with an AR-15 on February 14, 2018. He was 19 at the time and a former student. He is now 23 but still looks like a kid to me. (Perhaps because he’s about the same age as MY kid, whose adulthood I outwardly respect but secretly do not accept.) It’s fairly rare for a school shooter to be tried in court; most kill themselves or are killed by the police.

Sentencing Trial
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooter, Nikolas Cruz, listens during the penalty phase of his trial at the Broward County Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale on July 19, 2022.
MIKE STOCKER / POOL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

Cruz randomly murdered 14 students, a teacher who was trying to lead students to safety in his classroom, and the school athletic director and a football coach, who ran into the building to try to save students. The armed school resource officer took cover outside as the shooting unfolded. An additional 17 students were shot and injured. All of this happened within six minutes on three floors of one building.

I’m against the death penalty in every case, including this one. If Cruz had killed or injured my kid, I’m sure I’d have an entirely different view, and I expect the parents and families of those killed and injured at MSDHS are hoping for a unanimous verdict of death. It’s perfectly understandable.

Cruz had been a troubled mess for many years. Law enforcement missed so many red flags. Cruz caused so many unendurable losses, and some of the victims and families have channeled their rage and sorrow into gun safety activism, including students Cameron Kasky, David Hogg and X (formerly Emma) González, and also Fred Guttenberg, whose 14-year-old daughter Jaimie was among the victims.

All school shootings are horrific, but for me, this case has been haunting from the beginning. I wrote about it here a couple of days after it happened, believing it might finally change the thinking on guns, even just a little. It did, a little. The wingnut-dominated Florida statehouse and then-Governor Rick Scott did what was previously unthinkable and enacted new gun restrictions. Not enough. But not nothing either.

Anyway, I doubt they will, but I hope the jury spares the shooter’s life. And I hope everyone involved, even him, finds a measure of peace. Cruz is responsible for the horrors he visited on that school, all the lives he took and all the pain he caused. But America gave him the gun that made such a deadly rampage possible. This country — our sick gun culture — is an accessory.

Open thread.

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Late Night Open Thread: Small Mercies

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Good news, if the ruling is actually enforced:

… Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger said the state crime lab would destroy the gun, probably in April. Judge Bruce Schroeder, the Kenosha County judge who presided over Rittenhouse’s trial, approved the agreement. Rittenhouse was not in court for Friday’s hearing.

The judge also ordered that Rittenhouse’s $2 million bail be divided among his attorney, a foundation that solicited donations for his defense and actor Ricky Schroder, who donated to the defense fund…

Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, filed a motion Jan. 19 asking prosecutors to return Rittenhouse’s rifle, his ammunition, his face mask and other clothing he was wearing the night of the shooting to him. Richards and David Hancock, a spokesman for Rittenhouse, said last week that Rittenhouse, who is now 19, wanted to destroy the rifle and throw the rest of the items away so nothing can be used as a political symbol or trophy celebrating the shootings.

“We didn’t think anyone should profit from it,” Richards told reporters after the hearing. Asked if anyone had reached out about purchasing the gun, Richards responded: “Lots of people.” He didn’t elaborate…

The judge approved an agreement that calls for splitting the money between Richards’ law firm and the #Fightback Foundation. Attorneys Lin Wood and John Pierce, who were representing Rittenhouse in the early days of case, formed the foundation to raise money for him. The agreement also calls for sending $150,000 to Schroder, the former star of the 1980s television series “Silver Spoons.”…

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