This guy proposes nihilism as a key part of the aesthetic - not specific to the internet nazi "trolls" I remember previous works on this theme being the main subject of. (And not as a displacement of the racism explanation, but rather standing alongside it.)
So fucked up and so predictable how Trump turned around and blamed the media for getting bombed. I hate him so much.
Looks like someone in FL has just been arrested.
I was confused at how Trump even thought it appeared to be an attack on the media, but I guess it's enough that Brennan and Clapper are CNN contributors.
Van covered with dense political text and stickers, no legible text but I definitely saw the stylized GOP elephant, and probably a big portrait of Trump (definitely white, and a president from the decoration around it). Sure looking like stochastic terrorism, as one could have assumed.
Van covered with dense political text and stickers
One of the stickers looks like CNN's Jones. For when you want Van on your van. (Yo dawg.)
A white van with the windows covered. We're importing English stereotypes.
I'm probably too jaded, but I'm amusing myself thinking about this terrorist fool's cognitive dissonance: if he's a far-right true believer, he would surely find the false-flag arguments compelling had he not actually planted the bombs on his own initiative. I kind of want him to flip and make up a story about how Debbie Wasserman Schulz put him up to it that is exactly as slipshod as the detonation devices. We can watch it evolve in real time along with the conspiracy theories. I am dedicating this comment to the author of that New Republic link in 1.
I have a rush project going, so naturally I'm having trouble looking away. Rumors as of now: they got Florida Man with DNA because he licked the stamps; he's a convicted felon and a registered voter in Florida. Waiting to hear if he voted in 2016.
With the arrest maybe we'll find the answer to the question that has been really bugging me: Why Robert De Niro?
So the GOP can claim the victims are just paid actors.
I wondered about 11 too. Maybe the bomber confused him with Robert Mueller.
I know life is a rich tapestry, but Latino Trumpistas so baffle me.
Or maybe some kind of Seminole identification? Huh.
Is that how Americans lick stamps?
16. Perhaps they see themselves as upright people who share their neighbors' prejudices against shifty lowlifes. Honesty, individualism, and maybe the church and the US flag. What's not to understand?
8: Sorry to say you actually nailed it, if the Daily Beast has correctly identified his Twitter feed:
Other tweets falsely claimed the February 2018 mass shooting at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, was a false-flag operation orchestrated by Soros and his liberal allies.
Halford's not here to place bets, but I wonder what the odds are that he'll go one way or the other. He has a real credibility problem here! Maybe for banal reasons it's more likely that he'll spin up a conspiracy story to try and escape punishment.
I feel like all my stereotypes of Trump supporters are being confirmed.
8 is so delightful. I'm picturing him listening to Fox et al - the very people he desperately wants approval from - and crushing panic sets in as he hears them maintain that nope, it couldn't possibly be him, surely it was Vince Foster's killer.
So this is what it's like to live in a simulation, huh.
Perhaps they see themselves as upright people who share their neighbors' prejudices against shifty lowlifes. Honesty, individualism, and maybe the church and the US flag. What's not to understand?
It's machismo, patriarchy, abortion, and family. At least in Heebieville, the Latino community is pretty badly fractured politically.
I also imagine the aspiration-towards-whiteness allows them to see themselves as not the true targets of GOP racism.
Jammies' cousin is one of the few nutjobs left in my FB feed, and he did post a "GO VOTE!" thing that featured HRC and some guy who I didn't recognize but surely must know, and "600 requests for security" - so this must be Benghazi? - and then a photo of the same guy, beaten up and bloody, "Go vote!"
On topic because conspiracy theories. I literally could not piece together the tortured logic as to what she did and why that should drive you to vote in the midterms, two years since she's held any public office.
Maybe they heard white people get free college?
And presumably some of them actually are the white people of their home societies.
27: And desperation to distinguish themselves from those arriviste undocumented immigrants, or at least that's the way it used to be in the Central Valley.
I certainly have knocked on the doors of some very right-wing Latinos (usually men) in San Joaquin County.
Their parents had to assassinate JFK to fit in. They don't want to make all that have happened for nothing.
We're just short of 40, but this is almost related, and any way a it's strange world we live in.
So, I decided to buy myself an expensive pair of sunglasses to replace a cheapo pair I liked, but my son had lost several years ago. I order them online, get the confirmation, and a FedEx tracking number. Ships the same day, supposed to be delivered to my office in 3-5 days. A couple days in, I check the tracking data, and it seems to be slowly making it's way here. Subsequent checking shows it getting to town on day 6. No delivery that day or the next or the next. I check tracking, and it just says pending.
Yesterday, I got an auto-generated email from the sunglasses company asking me to provide an online review of the sunglasses. Uh, well, wtf?
Finally, today, 15 days after ordering, and 9 days after the package is supposedly in town, I call FedEx: wtf? Gal says 'it says pending, but I'll open an investigation. Someone will call you today.' In half an hour, FedEx calls. 'There was an accident. The truck burned up, and every package on it was lost. Call the shipper, and they can file a lost package claim.' What? Really? She insists.
I call the sunglasses company, tell the story. The clerk checks the tracking info, which still says pending, and she bursts into laughter. Neither of us can believe that FedEx hadn't told them, or me, or apparently any of the dozens of other people whose packages were on that truck, about a truck full of packages lost. She has to verify with FedEx of course, but seemed generally committed to getting me those sunglasses.
I'm not sure I believe that story. The sunglasses outfit in is NY, so this wasn't a bomb from Florida Man or whatever. Or was it?
By "pending" they mean the aerosols that used to be your package are suspended in the atmosphere.
(I'm cracking up over how I fucked up the antecedent in 22 to make it seem like the entire comment was about Halford. Sorry, man! I'm not that obsessed with you; I just remember your fondness for betting. All third person pronouns refer to the bomber, who was the "he" in the previous comment.)
Getting me down this week are the Bolsonaro stickers I keep seeing on the backs of cars in our East Bay town.
Seems to be registered Republican. did vote in 2016. Picture of himself at the inauguration with shirt about a 306 EV tsunami.
Current conspiracy theory form Limbaugh and other asshats is that the stickers are too "fresh." However, someone just tweeted about texting their spouse a picture of the "crazy" Trump van that delivered lunch from October 2017.
"Florida Man Identified as Mail Bomb Suspect" is pretty much the most dog bites man headline ever.
39: What is it with expat fascists? Bolsinarists here, Erdogan supporters in Germany, Greenwald in Brazil. I guess they get that fascist kick but they don't have to live with the consequences.
11 De Niro went on an anti-Trump rant a while back, and Trump tweeted about it. The one thing they all had in common is that they were singled out by Trump tweets attacking them.
I'm very disappointed in Florida Man. "Trained Florida Ferret Identified as Mail Bomb Suspect" would be much more on brand.
Fox News going with van being covered with " "political bumper stickers and ideological sayings."
The simulation's function is fleshing out details around plot notes from the laziest scriptwriter ever: the bomber was foreclosed with a fraudulent robosigning from a Mnuchin company. Or at least a company that Mnuchin's later bought, it's unclear.
Trivial but immensely annoying to me media tick: Referring to the victims as "critics of Trump." While true, they are also people who Trump singled out to attack in Twitter and speeches. (However, it seems that Tom Streyer had one directed at him, not sure if he has ever hit Trump's radar.)
Special case since Steyer put out all those impeachment ads?
I thought it was interesting that women were beneath the bomb-sender's notice. Lo, he is exactly what we all knew he was.
Waters, Obama, Clinton, possibly most recently Harris?
I was actually using Harris as my benchmark. If Harris didn't get one, he was only focused on men.
I don't really want to over-defend that; it was more of a passing thought that a side benefit of sexism is that they don't qualify for getting bombs in the mail (in sexist minds).
I'm a bit surprised none of the bombs exploded. Competence aside, chances are SOME of them would have gone off at random. My best guess is he wanted to make it look like a Democratic false flag operation. That's what right-wingers were guessing in advance of course.
he wanted to make it look like a Democratic false flag operation
But he can't do that without covering himself in shit! And if he admits to the brilliance of this double-false flag scheme, then the Dems are exonerated. I am genuinely fascinated to hear a plausible account of how this would work given the psychology of almost any dedicated Trumpist -- they might martyr themselves, but solely to martyr their own reputation? What's in it for him?
If you want something to work, give the job to a guy with fewer stickers.
The likeliest thing, I'd say, is that he attempts clumsily to portray himself as a victim, put up to the act by double-crossing Democrats; this story persuades the people it needs to persuade, no prosecutions follow from it and therefore no proof is ever requested or furnished, and the separate realities continue more or less unchanged. I'm hoping this dude's hunger for glory/notoriety torpedoes that outcome, though.
Oh, I'm sure he thought he was undetectable. Maybe even that federal authorities wouldn't even be looking for him.
I'm thinking that he put 400 stickers on his van means he has that hunger.
The legal argument will be that he didn't want the bombs to go off, and intentionally made sure they wouldn't, so he was just trying to scare people and not attempting murder. He will plead to something less than attempted murder, but still get a 10-20 year sentence. That's if he's a lone wolf. If he had accomplices all bets are off -- he could turn them in to get a reduction, or he could be charged with conspiracy to murder.
My guess is that he enters a guilty plea for some, but says some were self-defense because their ancestors killed Jesus. Mike Pence writes an op-ed, in the NYT, on how this is a compromise everyone can accept.
Really the most disturbing thing about him (outside of all the crimes) is that his van bore multiple images of Mike Pence.
Or maybe some kind of Seminole identification?
Come on people, simplest scenario is Trump pardons him. Maybe appoints him to a post in DHS- he has first hand knowledge of the topic, after all!
It seems his father immigrated from the Philippines.
I couldn't figure out why Sayoc's former lawyers are talking to the press. Without a confidentiality release, that seems blatantly unethical. But I've decided the most logical explanation is that Florida doesn't have any legal-ethics rules, because Florida.
Trying the case in the media seems like a good idea.
63: Time to break out the old cheek swabs again.
To keep the tone light, I should find my favorite story about the recreational use of steroids. It's about Scott Chinery, who had a famous guitar collection (only reason I know about him)... can't find the source but something like: he was living in the dorm in college, taking too many 'roids, and got really pissed off at the students in the room next door playing their stereo too loud. So he tore a hole in the wall and ceiling and started climbing through to the other side, but while he had the brute strength to get that far, he was also too bulky and got stuck. I presume he just banged on the wall, kicking helplessly and roaring at them to turn down the fucking Eagles, until the RA showed up. Later he became very rich and got to play D'Angelico archtops whenever he wanted.
I literally could not piece together the tortured logic as to what [Hillary] did and why that should drive you to vote in the midterms, two years since she's held any public office.
*shrug*
It isn't logical, but she's just intended to be representative of the sort of people who have advanced in the Democractic party and the ways in which Democrats make decisions.
It's pure tribalism, but I admit that I sort of hope that somebody is using ugly photos of Trump in anti-GOP ads even after he leaves office.
||
Somebody left a bunch of old PC Magazine's at the library swap spot. I grabbed one (December 1990) just out of curiosity. Looking at it now, here are the headline stories on the cover.
First Looks:
[Texas Instruments]'s TravelMate 3000 Notebook: 5.7 Pounds of 386SX Power.
Communications:
38.4 KBits/Sec on your phone line? PC LAN Labs test 7 high-speed modems
Connectivity:
Battle of the network giants: LAN Manager 2.0 vs NetWare 386 3.1
Free Utility:
Fine-tune your VGA: PRISM paints your screen with 262,144 shades of color
|>
|| So, the President is coming back to Montana, his fourth visit this year. He should buy a golf course if he's going to keep coming. Actually, he had a stunning sunset here last week, so maybe he's in love. Or in hate: I guess Sen. Tester killing his stupid VA pick is just too much defiance for Trump. |>
71 is on topic because the bomber was obviously juicing, right? I saw some picture of earlier today at some 2017 trump rally, mid 50s, totally jacked arms.
||
I think I'm so funny. I just went to a Halloween party and left after 10 minutes. My costume is that I ghosted.
|>
I hope you swiped a six pack on the east out.
Also, what kind of sick bastard puts boots on a monkey?
What kind of sick bastard puts a mouse cursor on a TV screen?
At least that probably isn't a fetish.
Oh, come on. Do they give a Nobel Prize for attempted chemistry?
[Steps on rake]
it's a strange world we live in.
I don't understand anything any more.
But 76 made me laugh.
30 makes perfect sense to me. In fact it's the moment I understand the Benghazi nonsense: the message of that confused dream is "you are besieged in a threatening world by a hostile mob and you appeal for help — but that woman hears it and she will not protect you"
She is the worst of all women, the bad mother. She will always be an existential threat. There should be a man there in her place, a big, powerful man,.
||
More thunderstorms in Arrakis. This is unreal.
|>
Chilly drizzle here. That's basically what you get this time of the year.
Roc North is halfway through its three annual weeks of non-awful weather.
Actually, I quite like chilly drizzle.
I would not presume to imply otherwise.
Missouri seems nicer than I remembered, but ugly carpet.
They probably got a good discount if they did the whole state the same.
The St. Loius airport is just so much nicer than the Kansas City one, except the carpet. Very comfy seats in the boarding area.
Now there'll be hell to pay when ajay wakes up.
Local people should check the news before they head out.
Now it's Pittsburgh!? Damn it!
I hope y'all are okay. I wish everyone were okay.
We're okay. My wife and I were going to take a tour of the cemetery a few blocks away from the synagogue. They told us to go home. Lots of sirens and cops on the walk back. Hearing more sirens now.
One of the congregations very close to me just moved into that synagogue building a few months ago. God I hope my neighbors are okay.
As happens increasingly often, I've bypassed grief for now and gone straight to anger with this one.
He yelled "all Jews must die," I can't even express how even after the events of the past few years that sends chills down my spine.
oh no i just checked the news, how terrifying. revolting, chilling.
Have people started flooding HIAS with donations yet? That seems reasonable; four stars on Charity Navigator...
https://www.hias.org/hias-statement-pittsburgh-tragedy#.W9SqXz1AYY4.twitter
They seem good; already made a donation. Heading downtown to donate blood. Trying to find out if there's a way to support the local Jewish community materially.
Pittsburghers, there's going to be vigils in the Forbes & Murray area starting at 6:00. https://twitter.com/Clozilla/status/1056257003729928193
Early this morning, I read 98-100 and laughed, and wondered if ajay would turn up to make one of his snarky-funny comments.
A few hours later, I checked in to read 101. Haven't felt much like laughing ever since.
Moby, dalraita, Stormcrow -- been thinking of you all day. So utterly heartbroken to hear of this.
HIAS national is definitely a reputable donation source; I personally know many staff at HIAS Pennsylvania and they are excellent too.
Canvassing in beautiful Salida, CA today, I knocked on the door of a woman who said she liked Democrat Josh Harder on most points but could not vote for him because of what she had heard about his stance on abortion. I explained straightforwardly that the ads being aired were false, using video from when he misunderstood a garbled question at a town hall, and in fact he supports abortion to the extent currently legal under California law. She accepted this as a reasonable explanation and agreed to vote for Harder. She was even willing to give me the filled-out mail-in ballot on the spot! And she is a registered Republican. I was wondering if I had slipped into a new timeline.
Nota bene, it is legal starting this year in California for individuals to take sealed ballots for private delivery. In my case she was willing to provide it but it had been opened and resealed so I had to give it back and recommend she get a replacement ballot.
Process liberals will be the death of us all, Minivet.
Nota even bene-er, Salida, CA is pronounced to rhyme with saliva.
This is Stanislaus County, I'm sure there are some people itching to catch out Dems on bad process.
Nota bene, it is legal starting this year in California for individuals to take sealed ballots for private delivery.
This seems fraught. Would I trust someone who came to my door to take my ballot? What if they destroy it?
Would I trust someone who came to my door to take my ballot?
I would not, no. On the other hand, I don't even pretend to understand anything any more.
I'm pretty sure that Minivet is doing good work, though. Thanks, Minivet!
We have a ballot measure this time to outlaw unrelated people picking up ballots. Put on the ballot by our Republican legislature. They want to suppress voters just like the other states, but our governor vetoes that shit.
I guess I'd take one if someone asked me to, but I never ask them, even when they say it's all filled out.
My fellow canvassers and I talked about it, and we agreed while we probably wouldn't do it ourselves it was good to offer people the option. The level of trust involved is probably not much different from that invested at many existing stages in the voting process. And of course at the back end there are significant criminal penalties for abusing that trust.
Why we can't have nice things part the eleventy-millionth.
Wake up this morning and this the AP tweet/headline I see.
@AP A gunman who expressed hatred of Jews exploited doors that were unlocked for worship to target a Pittsburgh synagogue, killing 11 people and wounding
I guess they were afraid the President* would win the biggest victim-blaming asshole award for decrying the lack of armed guards.
Read this fucking shit:
A gunman who had expressed hatred of Jews exploited that vulnerability, so common in so many houses of worship across the country, in a singularly horrific way.
It's not quite Steve Martin in the Jerk but it is close : "He hates these cans. Stay away from the cans."
*Speaking of jerks, I thought I saw where Trump was going to come to Pittsburgh. Just fucking don't.
None of the several friends who I am aware of having attended or worked there it appears that none were there yesterday morning. Several congregations use the building .
Consider 123 cross-posted to the Overreacting thread. Lying in bed at 6:15 AM on a Sunday morning twitter is the worst twitter.
So, I've seen almost the whole history of the Internet, and there was no point before two years ago that it occurred to me that the main beneficiary would be fascists. I thought either a) it would break down barriers and people would get along better, or more pessimistically b) it would break down barriers and people would discover that people who are different are horrifying, but I didn't count on c) people would use it to create hermetically sealed bubbles where they work themselves into a killing frenzy.
(c) follows naturally enough from (b). And it isn't just fascists making bubbles.
Don't be so hard on yourself, is what I'm saying. You totally called it .
Lou Dobbs is a literal Goebbels is another thing I learned this week.
||
I was supposed to go to my godmother's house for dinner yesterday and just when we were about to leave I saw a voicemail on my turned-off cell phone from her husband telling me that their car had been hit by a tree and they were at the hospital.
I tried to call and sent a text. Message back said only that she was in surgery and everything seemed under control. Her husband is sort of stoic, so I let a friend who is a deacon know. Word back is that lung and liver were injured but not the heart but there was significant internal bleeding. I think she is in the ICU. Also found out via a 3rd party that the son who is in NY is coming up butthe one on the West Coast is not.
I would like to visit but think that they do not want too many people around in the ICU. I know that their priest was going last night.
I'd like to visit but I do not want to be in the way. Howmuch time should I leave before reaching out?
|>
And it isn't just fascists making bubbles.
For instance, there's a Collective Soul fanpage on Facebook with over a million likes/follows, and that's for a band that objectively sucks.
123.last: He said that, but he's a huge liar.
I don't think b necessarily led to c. The worst are old people who went directly from real life into their bubble, without passing through the general Internet.
Yes. Lou Dobbs is selling the same lies as always using pre-internet media.
130 Taking a leap but it sounds like a day would be ok?
That "?" was me uptalking that sentence.
I'm not surprised by the bombing or shooting, but it bothers me a little that I think some of this perspective may be valid: https://americanmind.org/essays/our-revolutions-logic/
135 and 136: That sounds about right.
Christ, what an asshole.
I mean he's right that on the question of whether people of color, LGBTQ folks, women are actual humans deserving of all the rights of actual humans, my side of the thing isn't really any longer open to compromise. And I guess he's right that we'll never willingly go back to a world whether that question is resolved in the negative.
139: I stopped reading at the point where he takes credit for reintroducing the term "the ruling class" back into American politics.
Chris's best days are really behind him.
Why is anyone even bothering to respond to 137.
130: BG, I would consider just showing up today, with food. You could go to the waiting room and if it's too crowded or if you feel in the way, you can just drop off the food and leave. There's a lot of blank waiting time in the ICU. It may comfort the family to have company, or to know that you care enough to come, or to have something to eat other than cafeteria food.
Ironically, 142 and 144.1 made me look more closely at the article, which is total garbage. The "anti-Kavanaugh hoax" section is particularly awful. I assume Roger is three weeks away from being a full-blown Trumpist, and will ignore him from now on.
Also, it took me a really long time to get 143. I have dishonored myself and my family.
People showed up with all kinds of food when my dad died. It was very nice.
144 and 147: hopefully, she won't die. Their priest went. They did emergency surgery last night. She is intimated but still open. They want to do more surgery if she stabilizes tomorrow.
I texted one of her sons who was on his way over (had come up from New York) and he's going to let me know.
146 sb 149. I was also confused at first because Charley's "Christ" in 140 primed me for it being a typo-based joke.
150: Thanks. Shouldn't there be an a, um, what's it called, "ob" something or other included? Obcon? Obscure content? It's been so long -- it's "ob" something.
It was from Usenet. "[ob ... something]" Gah, I can't remember!
I've been thinking about Thucydides as well. My grandfather was big on him.
There was an old video game site that had a metric for reviewing FPSs based on TTC: time elapsed between the between the beginning of the level and the first crate. Portentous right wing bullshit may be measured in Time To Thucydides.
Actually I quite like Thucydides. But I had been thinking of "Among Murderers and Madmen":
"That's the terrible thing about it," yelled Friedl. "The victims, the many, many victims don't show us any way at all. And for the murderers times change. The victims are the victims. That's all. My father was a victim of the Dollfuss period, my grandfather a victim of the Monarchy, my brothers victims of Hitler, but that is no help to me, do you understand what I mean? They simply fell down, were run over, were shot, stood against the wall, ordinary people who didn't think much or have many opinions. Well yes, two or three of them thought a bit, my grandfather thought of the coming Republic, but tell me, what was the use? Couldn't it have come without that death? And my father thought of social democracy, but tell me who can claim his death?-- not our Workers' Party that wants to win the elections. It doesn't need a death for that. Not for that. Jews were murdered because they were Jews, they were nothing but victims, so many victims-- but surely not so that today we should at last tell our children that they are human beings? It's a bit late, don't you think? No, that is something no one understands, that the victims serve no purpose. That is just what nobody understands and that is also why no one feels it an insult that these victims should also have to suffer so that we shall come to realize certain things. These realizations aren't needed at all. Who here doesn't know that one should not kill? That's been known for two thousand years. Is it worth wasting another word over that? Oh, but there is plenty of talk about it in Haderer's last speech, there it has just been discovered, he twists and twines humanity round in his mouth, he quotes the classics, quotes the Fathers of the Church and the latest metaphysical platitudes. But that's crazy. How can anyone make a speech about that? It's completely insane or malicious. Who are we that people should have to say such things to us?"
This isn't even the view from nowhere but the view from inside a fiction, not endorsed by its author or anyone else, and yet it's stayed in my head a long time. I have that "How can anyone make a speech about that?" reaction often, and this weekend more than ever.
There is a pop-up Republican local headquarters that just appears downtown. With a sign that says "Jobs Not Mobs" in the window. Fuckers.
157 reminds me of some of Douglass's rhetoric in his 4th of July oration: "Must I undertake to prove that the slave is a man?"
Ah, shit, read the whole fucking thing. I fell apart a bit just now, looking at the final section, with its firm optimism about the spread of Enlightenment....
159: It was! Sadly, their embedded Alien vs. Child Predator no longer works.
Guy calls me at the end of the day Friday, wants some reassurance that the recent volatility was just a temporary aberration -- "So, I figure they caught this bomber guy, right? Do you think people will be less freaked out on Monday?"
Brazil goes full fash. I guess it really is the country of the future. Fucking hell.
163: well at least there will always be the sanity of Canada and its institutions.
Their tweet on the story. Brazil's new president elect, Jair Bolsonaro, is a right-winger who leans towards more open markets. This could mean fresh opportunities for Canadian companies looking to invest in the resource-rich country.
And bizarroworld subhed: Miners could benefit from relaxed regulations, as environmentalists fear growth plans will destroy the Amazon.
And the Sunday shows* for the most part seemed to be a total shitshow of both-siderism "oh why are we so divided?" crap. Especially Chuck Todd. It's so special when the passive voice of white supremacy is that of a confused-looking doofus.
Futures so bright we gotta wear shades.
*I know, how is Sunday unlike any other Sunday?
I was weirdly relieved when I saw the murderer's picture on the news and did not recognize the face. I knew the odds were against it, but Pittsburgh starts to feel like a small town sometimes. It seems like I can't leave the house without seeing somebody I know or at least recognize from having seen before. It wouldn't have changed anything at all if it had been a guy I'd seen on the bus or whatever, but it was a small relief to know that I hadn't.
156- That might be right. Certainly the link in my post at 137 was mostly right wing nonsense. My grandfather who liked Thucydides was a Communist though. Unfortunately there is enough truth in that link to make a lot of trouble.