US Politics: Dominoes falling, GOP failing, what a time to be alive!

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

22 dead in Maine mass shooting, 50-60 more wounded. 

This country fucking sucks. 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Tywin et al.

[Corvinus85]

And he's still on the loose apparently.

[Fragile Bird]

10 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

22 dead in Maine mass shooting, 50-60 more wounded. 

This country fucking sucks. 

Fuckfuckfuck.

Well, that knocks Israel off the tv.

[Fragile Bird]

Uh, we have boarders in Maine.

[The Anti-Targ]

Damned tragedy for the people who's lives have been ruined.

So how is the narrative going to go with this mass shooting? What are the gun laws in Maine? Is this going to be proof that tighter gun laws are needed, or proof that tight gun laws "caused" this or made it worse than it should have been?

Edited October 26, 2023 by The Anti-Targ

[TrackerNeil]

3 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

 There's nothing smart about this guy. 

I think being smart is helpful when you hold a lot of bad opinions. Dumb people quickly run out of rationalizations for their terrible ideas, but smart folks can always come up with something. The Jan 6 insurrectionists were just exercising free speech, there was no insurrection anyway, if there was an insurrection it was Antifa or BLM, Trump never encouraged anyone, blah blah. These are the folks who come up with the talking points for Fox News, and they're not dumb. Fools and scoundrels sure, but not morons.

Edited October 26, 2023 by TrackerNeil

[BigFatCoward]

Googled 'Maine' and seconds news story was about new abortion laws. Likelihood incidents are linked?

[Bironic]

Apparently the shooter is a 40 year old white man armed with a semiautomatic weapon, he’s from the army reserve and had/has mental health issues… Maines gun laws are rather relaxed and in recent years several attempts to change that have failed…

[Derfel Cadarn]

58 minutes ago, Bironic said:

Apparently the shooter is a 40 year old white man armed with a semiautomatic weapon, he’s from the army reserve and had/has mental health issues… Maines gun laws are rather relaxed and in recent years several attempts to change that have failed…

Funny how the white terrorists all have mental health issues, whereas no one seems to bother making any such diagnosis for the ones convinced there’s 90 virgins waiting for them

[Fragile Bird]

3 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Funny how the white terrorists all have mental health issues, whereas no one seems to bother making any such diagnosis for the ones convinced there’s 90 virgins waiting for them

I heard on CNN that the guy had actually been committed to a mental institution (their phrase). I guess we’ll find out if he escaped or never turned himself in to the hospital. You’d think he would have been escorted there, but we don’t know the circumstances yet.

Now they are reporting 16 dead again, down from the 22.

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

11 hours ago, TrackerNeil said:

I think being smart is helpful when you hold a lot of bad opinions. Dumb people quickly run out of rationalizations for their terrible ideas, but smart folks can always come up with something. The Jan 6 insurrectionists were just exercising free speech, there was no insurrection anyway, if there was an insurrection it was Antifa or BLM, Trump never encouraged anyone, blah blah. These are the folks who come up with the talking points for Fox News, and they're not dumb. Fools and scoundrels sure, but not morons.

I think this is where you have separate being smart from being well educated. In conservative circles what you tend to see is the latter being good at manipulating morons, but when challenged in unfriendly settings most of them show that they're either not that smart in general or just really great at one thing and below average at almost everything else. 

[Martell Spy]

‘Get the right cases to the supreme court’: inside Charles Koch’s network
Billionaire’s web of rightwing groups works to bring cases to court that could undermine core functionings of the US government

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/oct/26/charles-koch-us-government-rightwing-supreme-court

Quote

 

Casey Mattox, a legal strategist at the main Koch advocacy group, Americans for Prosperity, argued that the supreme court was now “primed for a real change in the law” on federal regulations which he said amounted to a “paradigm shift”. Mattox said: “That’s why we are partnering with organizations that can get the right cases to the supreme court.”

The effort appears to have born fruit. Two of the most significant cases before the court in the 2023-24 term, brought with the backing of Koch-linked organizations, attempt to rein back the government’s power to impose regulations on corporations.

The prominence of the cases underlines how the libertarian empire created by the Kochs is still a force to be reckoned with within US politics. Since David Koch’s death in 2019, and the Koch network’s decision to come out in opposition to Trump ahead of next year’s presidential election, the network has receded from public attention.

 

 

[Mr. Chatywin et al.]

2 hours ago, Fragile Bird said:

Now they are reporting 16 dead again, down from the 22.

It's up to 18 now, but the silver lining I guess is that the number of people injured has dropped from 50-60 to 13 per NBC. 

[Fragile Bird]

6 minutes ago, Tywin et al. said:

It's up to 18 now, but the silver lining I guess is that the number of people injured has dropped from 50-60 to 13 per NBC. 

I assume they took almost everyone in, for shock, and that didn’t count as an injury in the end.

[Ormond]

3 minutes ago, Fragile Bird said:

I assume they took almost everyone in, for shock, and that didn’t count as an injury in the end.

One report I saw said many people had small injuries suffered when they were running away from the gunman, so perhaps they also stopped counting any injury that wasn't a gun wound. 

[Zorral]

14 hours ago, House Balstroko said:

What is the Republican Party trying to accomplish at this point? They seem to be embracing more and more extreme positions. Do they not realise that an ever smaller proportion of the population shares those views? If they keep it up, they probably won’t ever be able to win another election ( fingers crossed). 

What They've love been relentlessly working for, for at least 2000 -- the end of democracy, the end of racial and gender justice and equality, any curbs or demands of reasonable responsibility for the obscenely wealthy and the great joy of exercising cruelty upon whomever whenever without repercussion.  Where have you been all this time for pete's sake?

 

[Zorral]

13 hours ago, Tywin et al. said:

22 dead in Maine mass shooting, 50-60 more wounded. 

This country fucking sucks. 

And this is how They get 'er done, over and over and over -- this is the 34th mass murder this year.  And They keep asking, how does this happen?

This is how it's done:

Uvalde: AR-15
Buffalo: AR-15
Boulder: AR-15
Orlando: AR-15
Parkland: AR-15
Nashville: AR-15
Las Vegas: AR-15
Sandy Hook: AR-15
San Bernardino: AR-15
Midland/Odessa: AR-15
Colorado Springs: AR-15
Poway Synagogue: AR-15
Tree of Life Synagogue: AR-15 
Lewiston: AR-15

Ex-military They say, with 'mental health issues.'  The evidence is he was a magrat, racist, election denying, shitbag -- all of which are a mental health issue.  This is what we get for allowing FOX to blast everywhere on military bases and centers for how many fucking decades now?

Maine voters are adamantly anti-any regulation or law over guns -- at least the majority are.

 

Edited October 26, 2023 by Zorral

[Zorral]

Jenna Ellis and Michael Cohen: What happens when Trump's co-conspirators become his victims
Ellis' sobbing in court is hard to swallow — but her tears may matter a lot more when she testifies against Trump

https://www.salon.com/2023/10/26/jenna-ellis-and-michael-cohen-what-happens-when-co-conspirators-become-his-victims

Quote

....  In both Cohen and Ellis' stories, it's easy to see how they got sucked into the drama of committing crime. Engaging in a criminal conspiracy is certainly more exciting than the paperwork-oriented life of an ethical lawyer. It was probably a rush, getting away with all the crimes — until, of course, they stopped getting away with it.  ....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York Republicans to push ahead with resolution to expel George Santos from House

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/george-santos-expel-from-house/

Quote

 

.... Some New York Republicans say they're going to push ahead with a formal resolution to expel embattled Rep. George Santos, Republican of New York, now that the House is open after its three-week speaker stalemate.  

Santos' New York House colleagues announced a measure last week to boot him from Congress, after federal prosecutors added new charges and allegations to a federal indictment that accuses Santos of committing fraud and conspiracy. 

The New York Republicans said they expect to move ahead with the measure as early as this week. ....

 

 

[Bironic]

6 hours ago, Derfel Cadarn said:

Funny how the white terrorists all have mental health issues, whereas no one seems to bother making any such diagnosis for the ones convinced there’s 90 virgins waiting for them

Can't obviously negate your assessment, but I would prefer if the media would be more reluctant regarding the whole mental health issue debate in such cases in general(not only in cases of white men vs muslims). First it creates the idea in peoples minds that mental health issues lead to violence or are dangerous, which in almost all cases they are not and even if they are people with mental health issues are far more likely to be a danger for themselves rather than for others. Thus it doesn't help people that are already struggling explainig their respective issues to the general public. Second mental health was often used in history to discredit certain ideologies "he's crazy" so let's not take his viewpoint or actions seriously and lastl but not least you can do perfectly evil, bad and illegal things without suffering from any mental health issue. I can't say that any of this is the case in the current tragedy but it might.

[Zorral]

 

26 minutes ago, Bironic said:

mental health issue

Yet, in every instance, of just those mass murders I listed above, committed with Those Weapons, the conclusion in all these cases, is that these murderers were lone wolves who suffered mental health issues.

The number of people just in our city alone with obvious mental health issues, is enormous.  The number of acts of violence they are carrying out is growing.

The real problem, besides how easy it is to obtain and keep these dreadful weapons in the hands of private citizens, whether supposedly suffering mental health issues or not, is that our entire capitalist society fosters mental health issues, in every way from the amount of graphic violence that we can consume 24/7 without interruption, to capitalism itself, insisting the only value to have a great deal of money, no matter how it is obtained and who suffers for it, and the only joy is inflicting suffering on others.

I am feeling this so acutely right now as at the beginning of the week and Afro Cuban amiga, with whom we've been close for years, the single mother of triplets, who lived with her mother, committed suicide, threw herself off the balcony of their apartment 37 stories up.  Her note said, "I am worthless, I see this every day.  You are better off without me."  That was it.

 

And