I’m tired.
A Successful Conclusion from the Cold Case Files: Floriduh Woman aka Floriduh Clown Edition
After 27 years our detectives finally solve the Clown murder of 1990. Sheila Keen #Busted for killing Marlene Warren https://t.co/S5ijCo1RSM pic.twitter.com/xjfNZFvHZl
— PBSO (@PBCountySheriff) September 26, 2017
a woman in Florida allegedly dressed up as a clown, killed another woman, and then MARRIED THAT WOMAN’S HUSBAND https://t.co/5IjzbHCfTg
— Rebecca Nelson (@rebeccarnelson) September 27, 2017
Twenty-seven years after a clown carrying flowers and two balloons shot a woman to death at her front door, Florida authorities announced an arrest in one of the more bizarre cold case investigations in a state known for bizarre crimes.
Sheila Keen Warren, 54, was arrested without incident in Washington County, Virginia, on a charge of first-degree murder with use of a firearm in the killing of Marlene Warren, 40 — her current husband’s previous wife — in 1990, officials said Tuesday.
“Any murder’s horrific. It doesn’t matter whether you’re wearing a clown costume or not,” Palm Beach County sheriff’s Sgt. Richard McAfee said at a news conference Tuesday.
“Taking another person’s life is a horrific incident,” McAfee said. “It just took us 27 years to bring closure to the victim’s family. Murder cases never go away.”
Open thread!
Open Thread: “Ungrateful” As the New “Uppity”
At WH dinner, Trump said the NFL issue has “really taken off,” per source. “He was happy—he feels like he’s clearly winning that exchange."
— Rebecca Ballhaus (@rebeccaballhaus) September 26, 2017
Patriotism isn't about making everyone stand and salute the flag.
Patriotism is about making this a country where everyone wants to.
— Jason Kander (@JasonKander) September 24, 2017
According to Jelani Cobb, at the New Yorker:
Sixty years ago, Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, became a flash point in the nascent civil-rights movement when Governor Orval Faubus refused to abide by the Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education. Faubus famously deployed the state’s National Guard to prevent nine African-American students from attending classes at the high school. In the midst of the crisis, a high-school journalist interviewing Louis Armstrong about an upcoming tour asked the musician about his thoughts on the situation, prompting Armstrong to refer to the Arkansas governor as several varieties of “motherfucker.” (In the interest of finding a printable quote, his label for Faubus was changed to “ignorant plowboy.”) Armstrong, who was scheduled to perform in the Soviet Union as a cultural ambassador on behalf of the State Department, cancelled the tour—a display of dissent that earned him the scorn and contempt of legions of whites, shocked by the trumpeter’s apparent lack of patriotism.
The free-range lunacy of Donald Trump’s speech on Friday night in Alabama, where he referred to Colin Kaepernick—and other N.F.L. players who silently protest police brutality—as a “son of a bitch,” and of the subsequent Twitter tantrums in which the President, like a truculent six-year-old, disinvited the Golden State Warriors from a White House visit, illustrates that the passage of six decades has not dimmed this dynamic confronted by Armstrong, or by any prominent black person tasked with the entertainment of millions of white ones. There again is the presence of outrage for events that should shock the conscience, and the reality of people who sincerely believe, or who have at least convincingly lied to themselves, that dissenters are creating an issue where there is none. Kaepernick began his silent, kneeling protest at the beginning of last season, not as an assault against the United States military or the flag but as a dissent against a system that has, with a great degree of consistency, failed to hold accountable police who kill unarmed citizens…
Yet the belief endures, from Armstrong’s time and before, that visible, affluent African-American entertainers are obliged to adopt a pose of ceaseless gratitude—appreciation for the waiver that spared them the low status of so many others of their kind. Stevie Wonder began a performance in Central Park last night by taking a knee, prompting Congressman Joe Walsh to tweet that Wonder was “another ungrateful black multi-millionaire.” Ungrateful is the new uppity. Trump’s supporters, by a twenty-four-point margin, agree with the idea that most Americans have not got as much as they deserve—though they overwhelmingly withhold the right to that sentiment from African-Americans. Thus, the wonder is not the unhinged behavior of this weekend but rather that it took Trump so long to exploit a target as rich in potential racial resentment as wealthy black athletes who have the temerity to believe in the First Amendment…
I had a little more to say on the whole protest thing.https://t.co/yj7JA8NN60
— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) September 26, 2017
Open Thread: “Ungrateful” As the New “Uppity”Post + Comments (270)
A Jones for this, a Jones for that
I hope the Democratic national committees dump a lot of money into the Alabama Senate race. It’s no lose: either we get Senate seat (ideally) or we make Roy Moore the face of the Senate GOP. I’m not sure the Democratic national committees are smart enough to do that, though, so let’s pitch in. To top everything off, the Democrat Doug Jones is a very good candidate.
LOCK HER UP!*
Via Wired, here’s Jared Kushner’s most recent voting data info:
This on top of the numerous incomplete and incorrect government disclosure whoopsies. Is he simply incapable of filling out a form correctly?
Someone should check the marriage license. He married Don Jr. by accident, probably.
Open thread!
*H/T: Samantha Bee
The Crackpottery Barn Rule
Beltway media outlets have settled on “conservative firebrand” to describe Alabama GOP nominee Roy Moore. I like Charlie Pierce’s formulation better: “theocratic crackpot.” “Lawless zealot” would also work, as would “Talibangelical” or “Bible-humping, dainty-pistol-waving crazypants.”
Longtime GOP operative and WaPo columnist Ed Rogers is dismayed this morning:
Roy Moore’s win is bad for Alabama, and even worse for the GOP
To liberals, having Moore in the Senate will be the gift that keeps on giving. He will be the mainstream media’s favorite Republican senator. They will count on Moore to embody every negative stereotype that a conservative from Alabama and an elected Republican can have… Finally, there is a truly anti-gay, anti-woman, anti-Muslim, anti-everything elected Republican for all the world to see… Alabama specifically and Republicans everywhere will suffer as a result of Moore’s presence in Washington.
Emphasis mine, and from your keyboard to the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s delicate al dente orrecchiette, Ed; Republicans everywhere deserve to suffer.
He goes on:
Trump’s support for appointed Sen. Luther Strange (whom I contributed to) was right in every way. Trump needs more poised, experienced allies in Congress. He should do all he can to populate the Republican caucus with serious leaders who have a good sense of reality and what is achievable.
How on earth is Trump, a permanent resident of a delusional narcissistic fantasy world, supposed to identify Republicans who are “serious leaders who have a good sense of reality and what is achievable,” Ed?
He meeps some more:
Political predictions are foolish. It is a mistake to take today’s headlines and extrapolate to the next election. But Republicans are doing nothing to discourage Democrats about their prospects for 2018 by electing the likes of Moore. The idea that Moore’s victory was some kind of Bannonite strategy to strengthen Trump by diluting rational Republicans in the Senate with incapable crackpots is demented.
You know who’s “demented,” Ed? The “incapable crackpot” your party put in the Oval Office. And while the walking canker sore Steve Bannon may have selected that particular piece of crackpottery as a vessel, the lunacy contained therein is an artisanal GOP product in production since at least the 1970s.
Ed sadly concludes:
The bottom line for Republicans is, in Congress, within the White House and among the electorate, things are perilously close to being out of control. Our leaders, while discouraged, certainly don’t need to capitulate. But real Republicans need to start winning.
The “real Republicans” have already won, Ed — last November and last night. You broke it, you bought it; Crackpottery Barn Rule.
CHIP reauthorization
Childrens’ Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding is due to expire this Saturday. The program has not been extended yet. CHIP covers 8.9 million kids in FY 2016. In 2009/2010, I was out of work and my daughter was on CHIP. It was the best insurance I’ve ever had as the network was broad, the premium after subsidy was very affordable, co-pays minimal and the customer service assistance in navigating the split enrollment process between Medicaid and CHIP was exceptional.
There is a Senate bill (Hatch-Wyden) that will re-authorize CHIP for five years. The big policy change is that it makes the states pay more of the match in years 3, 4 and 5 compared to current law. That bill needs to go through the House and the Senate by the end of the weekend. It needs to go through without any poison pills and extraneous provisions attached to it.
So if you have a minute, call Congress once again. Let’s take care of the kids today.