Curse the darkness
11 Wednesday Oct 2023
Posted Uncategorized
in11 Wednesday Oct 2023
Posted Uncategorized
in15 Wednesday Jun 2022
Posted Uncategorized
inTags
gun violence, guns, K-12, missouri, Public Education, Terrorism
Today:
Cody Holyoke @CodyKMBC
[….] TEN districts have now cancelled summer school/district activities today because of a mass shooting threat in Blue Springs:
Blue Springs
Lee’s Summit R7
Independence
Fort Osage
Grain Valley
Oak Grove
Odessa
Lone Jack
Hickman Mills
KC Int’l AcademyUpdates on @kmbc
[….]
8:18 AM · Jun 15, 2022
21st Century American exceptionalism, eh?
25 Thursday Oct 2018
Posted social media
inWhy Trump’s insistence on using unsecured phones is such a disaster
10/25/18 08:00 AM
By Steve Benen
…Let’s count the ways in which this is a disaster for the president. First, it offers proof of Trump putting sensitive information at risk, not accidentally, but as a result of neglect and laziness. On any given day, the president of the United States knowingly picks up unsecured mobile devices, has private conversations, and remains indifferent to the fact that foreign spies may be listening and recording everything that’s said…
Late last night, a question, in the aftermath of the news about pipe bombs that were sent or delivered to a number of Democrats and a news organization:
Michael McFaul @McFaul
Did Trump call Obama or Clinton today?
11:44 PM – 24 Oct 2018
Someone wins the internets:
Jamison Foser @jamisonfoser
dunno. ask China.
[….]
11:54 PM – 24 Oct 2018
Previously:
When Fascism comes to America it will be produced like a reality TV show, clutching its social media feed… (October 25, 2018)
30 Monday Jan 2017
Posted Uncategorized
inTags
Bigotry, Donald Trump, executive order, immigration, Muslims, Roy Blunt, Steve Bannon, Terrorism
So we’re two days into the fallout from The Donald’s Muslim ban (and, dear folks, all his denials aside, it is a Muslim ban). We’ve always known that he would feel compelled to pander to anti-Muslim bigotry and that his efforts would be in character, that is, cruel, unnecessary and stupid, but did this particular effort need to be so inept? Harold Pollack sums up the shear incompetence embodied in the President’s Executive Order (EO):
The President’s team had months to prepare this signature immigration initiative. And they produced…an amateurish, politically self-immolating effort that humiliated the country, provoked international retaliation, and failed to withstand the obvious federal court challenge on its very first day.
Given the despicable nature of this effort, I’m happy it has become a political fiasco. It also makes me wonder how the Trump administration will execute the basic functions of government. This astonishing failure reflects our new President’s contempt for the basic craft of government.
Given the scope of the mess our amateur hour president and his flunkies – racist Bannon’s dirty fingerprints are all over the EO – have made, don’t you think that those Republicans who moaned and whined about Obama’s relatively modest executive orders might have something just a little harsh to say about what Mr. Trump has produced? And some do. Some can only manage to whimper a little about how it’s “too broad” or offer some other anodyne criticism. Some, however, like Pennsylvania’s Charlie Dent, have enough intestinal fortitude to make a reasonably strong statement condemning the nasty little exercise.
Of course, a few GOPers think this EO is just what the doctor ordered. Missouri’s own Republican Senator Blunt, for instance. He thinks the EO is just hunky-dory:
He is doing what he told the American people he would do. I would not support a travel ban on Muslims; I do support increased vetting on people applying to travel from countries with extensive terrorist ties or activity. These seven countries meet that standard. Our top priority should be to keep Americans safe.
Blunt just holds his nose and pretends that Muslim-baiting isn’t the real goal and he’s good to go. You gotta admit, this old boy knows who butters his bread.
But is that greasy bread worth demonizing a few million Muslim Americans? Or turning one’s back on desperate people fleeing death and chaos? Especially when it was another bad American president, George W. Bush, who pushed Humpty Dumpty off the Middle Eastern wall. Don’t we owe these people something besides lies about the need for “very, very strict vetting” that are used to cover up the fact that President Orange Buffoon needs to fire up the bigots who voted for him?
Kevin Drum suggests that the turmoil over the EO is just what Steve Bannon wanted:
… Bannon wanted turmoil and condemnation. He wanted this executive order to get as much publicity as possible. He wanted the ACLU involved. He thinks this will be a PR win. [… ] Liberals think middle America will be appalled at Trump’s callousness. Bannon thinks middle America will be appalled that lefties and the elite media are taking the side of terrorists. After a week of skirmishes, this is finally a hill that both sides are willing to die for. Who’s going to win?
It’s pretty clear where Roy Blunt is putting his money.
09 Wednesday Nov 2016
Posted Uncategorized
inIn case anyone has any doubts about the level of stupidity our newest batch of fearless GOP leaders will manifest over the next few years, they should be allayed by this tidbit from TPM:
A south California Republican who welcomes drastic climate change with open arms was on Tuesday elected to a seat on the Golden State’s Legislature.
“Most of the Muslim nations are in the hot areas of the world,” Randy Voepel, who will represent suburban San Diego, told the Los Angeles Times in an interview last week.
[…]
Almost a decade ago, he told an LA Times reporter that climate change was positive because “our enemies are on the equator” and would be most aversely affected.
I’m willing to bet this GOP bozo is also up in arms about admitting refugees from the Middle East. Well, guess what – as climate change intensifies, the number of those refugees will become overwhelming. Admitting them or not admitting them to the U.S. or Europe will do nothing to quell the inevitable conflicts that will destabilize less “equatorial” communities along with those hot, dry places Voepel evidently knows next to nothing about.
As a matter of fact, climate change may be at least in part responsible for the quagmire the U.S. is trying to negotiate right now relative to terrorism, ISIS, and the civil war in Syria – which has been experiencing an “historic” drought that climate scientists believe to have been exacerbated by, you guessed it, climate change:
Climate scientists have argued that global warming very likely exacerbated the historic drought, thanks to potentially permanent changes to wind and rainfall patterns. Thus, even if negotiators do reach a resolution, the underlying strains in the region may be here to stay. In fact, almost half of the countries most at risk of water shortages in the coming decades are in the Middle East or North Africa.
The sad reality is that supply disruptions are increasingly likely at the same time as the world is facing rising demand for water. The toxic combination of population increases and water-intensive lifestyles, driven by affluence, may lead to devastating price spikes. Expect water wars in the decades ahead.
But climate change will impact more than access to water. The Pentagon recognizes global warming as a significant strategic threat, saying that it could it could cause “instability in other countries by impairing access to food and water, damaging infrastructure, spreading disease, uprooting and displacing large numbers of people, compelling mass migration, interrupting commercial activity, or restricting electricity availability.” Further, the U.S. military fears such disruptions could “create an avenue for extremist ideologies and conditions that foster terrorism.
So the next time an ISIS operative, formal or internet-radicalized, U.S. bred or foreign, explodes a bomb in the U.S., think about the role climate change played in the resulting casualties. But don’t wait for Donald Trump and his potential National Security Advisor, Dr. Strangelove’s General Buck Turgidson retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn, to factor these details into their response to international terrorism.
And remember, we’ve got our own borderline desert states and our own incipient water wars. And plenty of GOP-loving “entrepreneurs” ready to capitalize on scarcity. Given time, we’ll probably have our own internal refugees.
Voepel and his ilk, including, of course, Donald “Climate Change is a Chinese Plot” Trump, will learn the hard way that the chickens always come home to roost. Sad thing is, though, it’s the rest of us who’ll be wiping up their fecal droppings.
13 Monday Jun 2016
Posted Uncategorized
inRepublican gubernatorial candidate Eric Greitens loves him some assault weapons. In fact he released a political ad in which he proceeds to blow the heck out of something in the distance with a military-style AR-15 carbine. Just a good ol’ boy having himself some fun blowing the beeswax out of what he calls “politics as usual.” Loves him some heavy-duty metaphors, too, it seems.
This weekend a troubled, homophobic, ISIS loving young man also made use of an AR-15. One Omar Mateen, who, despite having been investigated by the FBI for possible terrorist inclinations, flourished his Florida firearms license and concealed carry permit, walked into a gun store and, as Digby puts it, “walked out with a hand gun and an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle with the capability of mowing down a hundred people in a matter of minutes. And that is what he proceeded to do.” There was nothing metaphorical here, of course.
Given the nature of Greitens’ ad, the Orlando event gives rise to some questions for the aspiring politician (who, incidentally, seems to want to pretend that he’s no politician, but a NAVY SEAL):
I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for answers. Heck, this being Missouri, I won’t even hold my breath waiting for the questions to be asked.
12 Sunday Jun 2016
Posted social media
inTags
4th Congressional District, guns, Israel, missouri, Orlando, social media, Terrorism, Twitter, Vicky Hartzler
On June 8, 2016:
The Hill @thehill
BREAKING: Police say three killed in Tel Aviv terrorist shooting [….]
3:29 PM – 8 Jun 2016
Seven minutes later:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler@RepHartzler
My prayers are with #Israel & victims of #TelAviv attack. #StandWithIsrael
[….]
3:36 PM – 8 Jun 2016
Today via Twitter, on Orlando, from Representative Vicky Hartzler (r):
To be fair, the day isn’t over yet.
Update:
Rep. Vicky Hartzler@RepHartzler
My prayers are w/ victims & families of #Orlando attack. Unnerving reminder of threat posed by radical ideologies. [….]
4:41 PM – 12 Jun 2016
One person killing fifty other people with weapons he legally purchased in the last week is not unnerving, it’s an atrocity.
28 Saturday Nov 2015
Posted social media
inTags
Colorado, Jane Cunningham, missouri, Planned Parenthood, shooting, social media, Terrorism, Twitter
We almost used the headline: “We never thought we’d be thankful for Ed Martin…” Just couldn’t do it.
From Jane Cunningham (r), former state representative and former state senator:
Jane Cunningham
@JCunninghamMO Shooter at CO Springs Planned Parenthood. Reporting “loss of life”. Tragedy, but loss of life is a daily event at Planned Parenthood. 8:10 PM – 27 Nov 2015
We rest our case.
21 Sunday Apr 2013
20 Saturday Apr 2013
Posted Uncategorized
inThere’s been some noise generated by the usual suspects about whether or not President Obama was too late to dub the Boston Marathon bombing an act of terror. Generally, a political or social motive is considered essential for such an act to be considered terrorism, and even though the suspects have been identified, we have no clue as to their motive, so others, including a few sane conservatives, have responded that assigning a label is actually premature.
However, given the general furor raised by what conservatives want to view as the the president’s failure in regard to semantics, Senator Claire McCaskill has taken the issue a step further and asked some pertinent questions about how we label acts of mass violence:
Based on the evidence at this point, is there any difference between Sandy Hook and Boston other than the choice of weapon? … We are so quick to call Boston terror,” McCaskill said. “Why aren’t we calling the man with the high-capacity assault weapon and the high-capacity magazine, why aren’t we calling him a terrorist?
I would probably have been inclined at one time to say that I’m not interested in the words that we use to describe these actions. However, it occurs to me that McCaskill’s concern underlines the fact that how we label vicious events is indicative of how seriously we take them. If we are going to deal with the epidemic of gun violence – in the face of NRA intransigence, their paid-for gun whores, and other assorted 2nd amendment nutjobs – we need to conceptually separate it from everyday crime and elevate its importance, something that the label “terrorism” might do. Another example of using labels as a tool to fight especially vicious crime is provided by the designation of “hate crimes.”
The importance as well as the fungibility of such labeling was really brought home to me by a Daily Kos posting about a Fox news contributor who tweeted:
Just b/c the bombing suspects were Muslim, that doesn’t make it ‘terrorism’ any more than a crazy abortion clinic bomber is a terrorist.
Poor baby probably thought she was counseling forbearance in the absence of real information. Instead she reveals an unfortunate mindset when it comes to terrorism – that’s right, terrorism – against abortion clinics. As the DailyKos poster notes, the range of violence that has been carried out against abortion doctors and clinics meets the FBI’s definition of terror* – which, as far as I am concerned, is as good as any. It’s important to make this point because only when we realize that we are talking about people who resort to the same solutions as Al Queda, do we finally understand the full, evil implications of their actions. I’m not sure that “terrorism” is the word we want to use to describe Sandy Hook, but perhaps we do need some special label to designate such events as distinct phenomena that we need to combat with the same energy we have shown when we approach the issue of terror – preferably a label with the same emotional impact as “terrorism.”
*There is no single, universally accepted, definition of terrorism. Terrorism is defined in the Code of Federal Regulations as “the unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives” (28 C.F.R. Section 0.85).