744 Comments

Add one more death to PAB's (ongoing) total.

Making America Dead Again

Expand full comment

'"When deputies attempted to contact the suspect, a lethal force encounter occurred and the suspect was pronounced deceased," an update read.'

Ugh. Cop talk is the worst form of euphemism. "Pronounced deceased," holy crap.

Expand full comment

Cops showed up, and the suspect got dead. Mere coincidence?

Expand full comment

"....suspect FA..."

"....suspect FO...."

Expand full comment
Comment deleted
Aug 21, 2023
Comment deleted
Expand full comment

My Grandfather, who was born in 1900 and spoke English as a second language, once left my Grandmother a phone message with a LOT of afterthoughts:

"Mrs. Neighbor called.

Her husband passed on....

From the land of the living...

Into the afterlife."

Expand full comment

Wrong wing fascists are grooming murderers.

Expand full comment

Well they harmed nine children, all those kids friends, and everyone else that has to deal with this truly horrible nonsense brutal killing.

Expand full comment

So this old satire article about Fandom (the Wiki hosting company) has just become reality:

https://hard-drive.net/hd/video-games/fandom-ceo-frustrated-its-impossible-to-lay-off-unpaid-users-who-update-wikias-for-fun/

Fandom has added a new "feature" in which an AI generates an "FAQ" for each wiki and inserts it into the middle of articles. This new feature allows Fandom to cut costs by replacing volunteer wiki editors with an AI. They temporarily disabled it after it was pointed out how the statements in it's "FAQs" were wildly inaccurate.

Expand full comment

Richard Painter is growling about GOP insurrectionists on MSNBC. Gotta love that guy!

Expand full comment

I asked ChatGPT, “who would make the most likely Republican presidential candidate next year?”

I shouldn’t have been surprised when it said:

“A person with a personality disorder indicated by a pattern of lying, cunning, manipulating, glibness, exploiting, heedlessness, arrogance, delusions of grandeur, sexual promiscuity, low self-control, disregard for morality, lack of acceptance of responsibility, callousness, and lack of empathy and remorse. Such an individual may be especially prone to violent and criminal offenses.”

Ed. fact check: In all honesty, that was the definition of ‘psychopath” in The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

The man is a real overachiever

Expand full comment

Putin tried to shoot the Moon. And failed. Russia’s First Moon Landing in Decades Ends in Failure After Crash https://www.thedailybeast.com/russias-first-moon-landing-in-decades-ends-in-failure-after-crash

Expand full comment

Who knew that Ukrainian Nazi terrorists were on the Moon?

Expand full comment

Sounds like a movie that should be on Joe Bob Briggs’ drive in show.

Expand full comment

Happy nice times!

Expand full comment

He did technically shoot the moon though

Expand full comment

Yeah but his attempt to defenestrate the moon seems to be a complete bust, not that his team of rocket scientists will tell him the truth.

Expand full comment

I've been thinking a lot about Rwanda lately. Here's a little bit from the wikipedia article on the genocide, about the media aspect. It sounds chillingly familiar.

"The Power groups believed that the national radio station, Radio Rwanda, had become too liberal and supportive of the opposition; they founded a new radio station, Radio Télévision Libre des Mille Collines (RTLM). The RTLM was designed to appeal to the young adults in Rwanda and had extensive reach. Unlike newspapers that could only be found in cities, the radio broadcasts were accessible to Rwanda's largely rural population of farmers. The format of the broadcasts mirrored Western-style radio talk shows that played popular music, hosted interviews, and encouraged audience participation. The broadcasters told crude jokes and used offensive language that contrasted strongly with Radio Rwanda's more formal news reports.[104] Just 1.52% of RTLM's airtime was dedicated to news, while 66.29% of airtime featured the journalists discussing their thoughts on different subjects.[105] As the start of the genocide approached, the RTLM broadcasts focused on anti-Tutsi propaganda. They characterized the Tutsi as a dangerous enemy who wanted to seize the political power at the expense of Hutus. By linking the Rwandan Patriotic Army with the Tutsi political party and ordinary Tutsi citizens, they classified the entire ethnic group as one homogeneous threat to Rwandans."

Now, there was a lot more going on there than just that, but still.....

Expand full comment

I sometimes wonder whether we'll end up in a civil war like the one in Rwanda or a civil war like the one in Ireland.

There was actually an online article about that exact subject, although I haven't been able to find it since I first read it.

Expand full comment

And in CALIFORNIA. Obviously it would be horrific if it happened in Florida, but no one would be surprised. But in CALIFORNIA?? One of the most progressive states in the country?

Who the fuck goes to CALIFORNIA if they have a problem with Pride flags?

Expand full comment

It's in between two secretive bases for Scientology (closer to the one where Shelly Miscavige is imprisoned).

Expand full comment

This was San Bernardino.....high desert meth-head country. Lot's of RWNJ paranoid types living out there.....trust me on this one. I lived in the high desert for 25 years for my job. We used to say "it's not the asshole of the universe, but you can smell it from here.......and see it just over the Cajon Pass"

Expand full comment

It's not like all the shit has to only be in Florida where it would be most appropriate.

Expand full comment

A demented one.

Expand full comment

Lots of California regions are conservative.

Expand full comment

Well that's disappointing.

Expand full comment

Rufo woke up to the long standing, and very obvious, fact that conservatives are very, very, reliable bigots; it overrides any other impulse they might have on any topic. Now that fact has become the sum total of conservatism. Why have ideas, much less policy, when you can get way more traction from bigotry?

Expand full comment

I'm putting up a pride flag now. Been meaning to for a while.

We need to come out in force. EVERY one needs a Pride flag. Don't let them force US under any rocks, THEY need to scurry back under the rocks they crawled out of.

jfc

Expand full comment

I am by nature not a flag-flyer, but I may have to break that tradition for my classroom this year.

Expand full comment

Living in an apartment condo in a retirement community that’s in a conservative area (Maryland’s Eastern Shore) I expected some flack when I first flew a Trans Flag from our balcony. Several folks have asked what the flag is and I tell them. I’ve had no complaints or requests to not fly it. The woman’s death in CA frightens me but the flag will remain. Old people are lousy shots anyway.

Expand full comment

A word to the wise from an old soldier: an AR-15 does not require much accuracy. Fly the flag, but be careful, citizen.

Expand full comment

Did LA just get a fucking earthquake in the middle of a hurricane?

That's Los Angeles for you: always trying to one-up New York.

Expand full comment

yeah, my sister in Glendale just replied to my email asking her how things are out there and she said no rain, no wind, but a very mild tremor.

Expand full comment

Shot to death over a flag? Speechless.

Expand full comment

We actually had two people quit at our work just because they put up a couple rainbow streamers in the hallway for pride week. Not even a flag. Just quit their jobs over it.

Expand full comment

Love it when the trash takes itself out.

Expand full comment

Counter point. Daughter's boyfriend is an apprentice carpenter. One of his co workers started getting all trans phobic and spewing shit about it at work.

He got fired for it, after arguing with HR loudly on the job site.

Expand full comment

Watch yer backs because the fired guy could well become the next disgruntled mass shooter.

Expand full comment

Not lost on anyone, but it's been 2 months, so likely OK. There was a long build up and careful deescalation.

Expand full comment

Politics is 100% out. Can't have it on the workroom floor! IMAEEHO. (In Mine, And Everybody Else's Humble Opinion) Woiuldn't mind sneaking in A Opinion or two, myself, though.

Expand full comment

I like his workplace.

Expand full comment

Win-win

Expand full comment

Hopefully they were quickly and easily replaced by modern human beings. Because your company is better off without thin-skinned narrow minded bigots like that on the team.

Expand full comment

Far-righties have always been far more dangerous to innocent people than the lgbtq+ community. The FBI has said so publicly, and in the congressional record. Not only should platforms like TwitterX and Facebook have a duty to report hate speech, we should have a federal program to identify, and track extreme offenders. Ironically, they belong on public lists which warn the public of their presence, much like the sex offender registry.

Expand full comment

TwitterX is not a platform. It used to be but now It is hate toy for one loony self-admirer with money.

Expand full comment

Registries don't work. The people who look people up on registries, such as the sex offender registries, are either scammers or the very bigoted people that are under discussion in this thread. Registration make politicians feel good, but it does not prevent crime.

We want to live in a society where our right to privacy is protected, but at the same time we want government to prevent someone or some group from committing crimes before they happen. We can't have both.

And it doesn't help when law enforcement down grades threats from the right and over react over any perceived threats from the left.

Expand full comment

Um, zero sum libelz?

Expand full comment

TwitX is literally owned by an adult child that peddles in hate speech.

Expand full comment