Remember after the El Paso massacre when loathsome Donald Trump and the Third Lady visited the scene of the xenophobic hate crime Trump had inspired and posed for a campaign-style, thumbs-up photo with an orphaned infant? I didn’t think anything could top that stunt for sheer grotesquery.
Reader, I was wrong:
This is just gross. They have Trump trying to pronounce and read the names of the dead children while the NRA rings a bell. Disgusting. pic.twitter.com/AADaVc4o0s
— Ron Filipkowski đşđŚ (@RonFilipkowski) May 27, 2022
Could the scene get any worse than that — a repulsive buffoon mispronouncing the names of murdered children at a convention glorifying the murder weapons as an electronic bell tolls after Trump finishes mangling each precious child’s name?
Yes, reader. Yes it could:
A speech where Trump read the names of the victims ends like this pic.twitter.com/fQZxrB9OiI
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 27, 2022
I’m a professional word-having person, and I have no words.
But I do have a palate cleanser, and even though TaMara posted a version of the same incident here last night, I’m posting it again because I want to watch it on loop several times a day:
That NRA supporter was disarmed from that mic real quick. pic.twitter.com/rXAA9ztpyv
— Adam Parkhomenko (@AdamParkhomenko) May 27, 2022
When I’m feeling optimistic, this scene is a great metaphor for how I think we’ll win: fed-up moms wrenching a megaphone out of a gun-humping goober’s hands and shooing him away in exactly the same way they’d run off a mangy raccoon that invaded a picnic.
Open thread.
TFG shared his plans if he returns to office. He wasn’t tough enough last time; this time will be different. FSM help us all.
I appreciate the effort it took to assemble this post, but I am not getting out of the boat on those first two clips. Rather, I watched that last clip three times instead.
Wow. He was *dancing* after reading the names of the dead?!
He thought the applause afterward was for him, apparently.
I canât even . . .
That last video clip gave me a real lift.
Watching that goober getting stopped in his tracks by a woman half his size. It was the way he changed from arrogant bully to cringing coward in a heart beat when he realised he was in real trouble. The look on his face and the change in his body language.
“By the grace of God, no guns were harmed in the incident.”
I alternate between âyou couldnât pay me one million dollars to watch that Trump videoâ and âOMG I CANNOT LOOK AWAY FROM THAT SHITSHOWâ. I spent four years feeling like that. It was terrible.
That Trump video of him reading the name is a big WTF? What are they all on uppers and anti-depressants they are chemically incapable of normal human emotions. “Assholes” doesn’t even begin to explain that.
For those of you who can’t stants Trump’s snot nosed voice; just watch the video with the sound off. Trump’s body language says plenty.
kalakalMay 28, 2022 at 10:47 AM
It’s a nice example of people who actualy understand political speech. They don’t want him screaming at them with a bullhorn and they don’t have to allow it. They tell him “get out” and “go over there” (to the pro-slaughter side of the protest).
They don’t have to associate with him. Conservatives (and some of the dumber liberals) used to understand this. Now they all insist you have to allow him to join your group. No you don’t. They’re on the anti-slaughter side. They don’t want him.
The spectacle inside the NRA convention makes me want to vomit. Thereâs something deeply wrong with those people.
I vacillate between thinking we should never speak of the wretch again to believing it’s important to bear witness to the depravity. If it were just Trump, it would be an easy decision. But since approximately a third of our fellow citizens are still in his cult of personality and around 98% of elected Republicans still treat him as supreme leader, the danger is ongoing.
brendancalling May 28, 2022 at 10:57 AM
They can never, ever admit they’re partly responsible for these slaughters. The whole gun nut community is now one big denial exercise. They’re like tobacco companies in the 1950s. They will be denying the connection between gun deaths and guns forever, because the alternative is they’re monsters.
I sometimes marvel at how bad the gun nut argument is.
“There is no connection between guns and gun deaths”
They should have been laughed out the room the first time they tried it.
Given what we know about gun sales following mass shooting incidents it wouldâve been gruesomely appropriate to play the ca-ching sound after each name.
Everything is about tfg. If he was not around the sun would not come up in the morning.
@Kay – Denial and deflection is the GOP’s entire MO, and has been for quite some time. At least ever since 9-11, when – in order to protect the Bush Administration from answering for its incredible incompetence and indifference – the GOP mounted a campaign to blame the way intelligence was handled, rather than the people who were responsible for handling it.
The thing about that rather large male gun nut with a megaphone being chased out is that the handful of much smaller women got rid of him with just their voices, pointed index fingers, and small steps forward.
Thereâs a metaphor and moral in that.
The reporter Steven Monacelli was upset that Parkhomenko tweeted his video without attribution.
Being a fan of the niche sport that is horse racing, I see a lot of horse racing threads on Twitter. Horse racing is rife with misogyny and racism (just google “Rich Strike” “owner” and “Kamala Harris” and you’ll see the REAL reason the Kentucky Derby winner didn’t run in the Preakness), but this time my thread is filled with a lot, a lot of angry pushback at the particularly bad actors from racing fans who usually stay pretty quiet about political issues. I’m hopeful that maybe, maybe, maybe, this is the beginning of a sea change. The reporting on the absolute clusterfuck that was the police response doesn’t seem to be going away.
I don’t know; Horse Racing Twitter is the closest I get to spending time with right-wingers, but something feels different this time.
And yes, “No, actually, it’s the guns,” should be the stock response of sane people everywhere to every stupid excuse the Right puts out.
(And hugs to all jackals; it’s nice to virtually see you!)
Could I just put in a good word for mangy raccoons?
Being compared to gun humpers really hurts our feelings.
Sorry, their feelings. The mangy raccoons’ feelings.
This isn’t mange, I’m just having a bad hair day.
“Daniel saw Ramos approach the window of his classroomâs door and then shoot through the glass, striking his teacher in the leg. Another bullet ricocheted off a wall and hit a student in the nose. She had been crouched down a few feet away from him.”
Daniel was in room 109, which is a different room than the two (adjoining) rooms where the shooter killed the most students (111 and 112) and police broke the windows to get the kids out of 109, so did 111 and 112 not have windows? And why would it take an hour to get them out of room 109?
Their latest story doesn’t make any sense either.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2022/05/27/uvalde-school-student-survival/
@zhena gogolia: Twitter automatically attributes video to the account where it was originally posted â its right there in the tweet if you click thru. đ¤ˇââď¸
>>if you click thru.
__________________
Who has time for that?
@Kay: Jesus, those poor kids and teachers. I hope they can find peace eventually.
@BC: All I know is, he was upset about it. He said something like, “Why didn’t you just retweet me?”
Fucking twitter won’t let me find the tweet. Fuck them.
@Kay
I for one blame spoons for all the gun deaths.
I’m just going to trust everyone’s assessment of the Kremlin’s orange fascist shitstain’s disgusting stunt.
In a really bad mood. Having just recently recovered from elbow replacement, now I’m in the incredibly elaborate preparation phase for hip replacement. Meanwhile I can’t sleep at all.
@oldster
“Could I just put in a good word for mangy raccoons?
Being compared to gun humpers really hurts our feelings.
Sorry, their feelings. The mangy raccoonsâ feelings.
This isnât mange, Iâm just having a bad hair day.”
I was thinking the same thing.
Cauvin was really funny parodying Trump dancing.
@ZG Sorry to hear that. In the end, it should all be worth it, but in the meantime, endless doctor visits and sleeplessness are hard to take
@Betty Cracker
May 28, 2022 at 10:59 AM
>>I vacillate between thinking we should never speak of the wretch again to believing itâs important to bear witness to the depravity
_________________
We’re in a culture war. IMHO we should make clear to people that Trump represents and defines conservative culture. We should then offer people a more attractive culture, and let them make their choice. YMMV.
@zhena gogolia
May 28, 2022 at 11:43 AM
That sucks. But you’ll feel a lot better once the surgery is over. Hip replacements work wonders.
There should be a concerted effort to out these psychos WRT the banning of weapons at their conventions, town halls and rallies. If they pass laws to allow permitless carry everywhere, what part of âeverywhereâ do they not understand? The gun freaks are their supporters, right? They should be welcoming anyone packing. In fact, I propose it be a requirement to attend.
@Kay
“so did 111 and 112 not have windows?”
That’s plausible. Most of the schools in the Phoenix and Tucson areas don’t have windows. (Yes, all the research indicates that this is terrible for learning.)
Agree that the story is not holding up to scrutiny.
The most disgusting cruel and condescending thing Iâve seen. And in that context, at the NRA convention. My god.
That bell. Itâs a kill count bell. Seriously, kill count vids are a genre on youtube for violent movie characters like James Bond, the Terminator, John Wick and the like. And after every kill they always have a bell.
Itâs the same goddamned thing. And as others noted, it is also reminiscent of the Hunger Games. Itâs a kill count. They are actually getting satisfaction these hispanic kids are dead.
These people are sick and depraved. My god how I hate and despise these monsters. And that motherfucker smiled and danced at the end. My god. Heâs a psychopath.
@Ohio Mom – I’m reminded of Lara R confronting Allen Armantrout in Charlottesville. https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/6u2dsm/woman_confronts_white_supremacist_allen/
(That’s an AR-15 (or similar) slung across his back.)
Cheers,
Scott.
@ zhena gogolia: Here it is:
Monacelli is entitled to his opinion, but IMO, his beef should be with Twitter rather than Parkhomenko. It’s a Twitter feature that lets you retweet someone’s video (with clickable attribution automatically supplied by Twitter) and add your own commentary. People have retweeted my vids that way, and it never occurred to me to be annoyed about it, but I’m a hobbyist. His mileage obviously varies!
PS: Hope you feel better soon! Pain sucks.
@Another Scott That’s a great photo.
Another one is this, the look of amused contempt on Saffiyah Khan’s face is perfect
https://time.com/4733122/saffiyah-khan-birmingham-protestor-edl/
zhena gogolia I’m sure it doesn’t;t help to hear “hang in there” but it’s all I got.
@zhenia gogolia From seeing the before and after with friends’ hip replacements while it’s not fun it’s definitely worth it
@Better Cracker
“Monacelli is entitled to his opinion, but IMO, his beef should be with Twitter rather than Parkhomenko. Itâs a Twitter feature that lets you retweet someoneâs video (with clickable attribution automatically supplied by Twitter) and add your own commentary. ”
I am sure Mr. Musk has this on his to-do list once he acquires Twitter.
Here’s Steven Monacelli’s complaint about how his video was embedded and not retweeted: https://twitter.com/stevanzetti/status/1530308033519271937
And I see Betty has found it.
Guns and abortion show the power of a minority of extreme single-issue voters to force their way against a far larger majority of voters who stringly disagree with them on those two issues, but whose focus is diluted across a much wider array of practical and moral concerns
When you’ve lost Jon Voight…something has shifted. Whether that means change, only time will tell.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1530533221980594176?s=20&t=DL1QVAQPnIa5HmZYsuhyYQ
One for OO:
(via gavmacn – he’s on fire today)
Cheers,
Scott.
TaMara Jesus, he’s a shit eaten dog fucker if there ever was one.
I see lots of blue lives flag bumperstickers driving around in the metro Phx area
and my assumption is always that they’re Trumpers too chicken to be loud and proud. I’ve seen more Lets Go Brandon stickers..I am guessing the blue lives flags are going to be replaced by more Lets Go Brandon stickers.
Listen folks, the stand outside and yell strategy isn’t working.
If you and a few thousand of your really pissed off friends find yourself outside an NRA convention, go ahead and find yourself inside an NRA convention and make it impossible for them to function. They may have acres of guns in there, but they aren’t allowed to have ammunition. There’s no venue in the US that will tolerate that kind of liability, nor will the NRA themselves, and nobody in that building is going to stand up to thousands of really pissed off people with or without their assault rifles.
The peaceful protesting has failed, and we have the dead children as proof. Time to step it up.
Suzanne May 28, 2022 at 11:47 AM
Oh, the school has windows. There are banks of windows in all the photos and they pulled students out of windows. 109 had windows- that’s how Daniel got out. The back (the south side, I think) doesn’t have windows but I think that portion is a gym or some other large spaces.
Popehat retweeted a picture of a family with their guns spread out on their deck. It’s even worse than it appears, because they’ve got more on their roof. (!!!) It’s from the Ameriguns Project.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CUNMGaPsrYQ/
Zounds.
Cheers,
Scott.
Suzanne May 28, 2022 at 11:47 AM
Daniel says police tried to open his door with a key but the lock was jammed because when the teacher locked it she jammed the key in such a way they couldn’t key it open from the outside. So police broke the windows.
Sort of on topic, but some of the so-called “benefits” Abbott was offering to the Uvalde victims was merely granting them a temporary and targeted exemption from his horrible policies.
Temporarily medical care for the wounded, in a state that ranks near the bottom in insurance coverage – and which refused the Medicaid expansion.
Psychiatric care in a state that recently slashed mental health services in a push to eventually rank 50th of 50 among the states, if it’s not there already.
Temporary suspension of the pointless and punitive work rules for WIC eligibility for victims and their families.
There you go. A temporarily holiday for the directly-impacted from the push to make Texas more dystopian for people of color and the poor. But the rest of you remain fucked. Carry on and carry and conceal.
If everyone if that crowd was armed with assault rifles and was as trigger happy as the way that NRA supporter in the vid presumably wanted, they’d need a forklift to carry his sorry, megaphone-losing remains to the morgue.
I tried to find the original of the Jon Voigt vid but it all points back to the Filipkowski tweet. I see Jon has a twitter feed but I don’t see this post. It isn’t attributed and appears to be clipped at the start. It does match the background of some of his other stuff. I wonder if he deleted it?
I donât know why he thinks the âjacking off two guysâ hand gesture is good.
I just finished listening to a repeat of an “American Life” episode about post-Sandy Hook and a parent’s (Lenny Posner) battle to stop Alex Jones and other hoaxers. There couldn’t be a more poorly informed group of Americans than those assholes.
Regardless, after listening, my heart is broken for all children-victims and for the monsters this “ideal” of a country has turned people into.
@ Chris m May 28, 2022 at 12:30 PM
â Guns and abortion show the power of a minority of extreme single-issue voters to force their way against a far larger majority of voters who stringly disagree with them on those two issues, but whose focus is diluted across a much wider array of practical and moral concernsâ
Most radical revolutionary movements succeed, because their followers are fanatically focused on the revolution, while everyone else goes about their business.
American conservatives are a radical revolutionary movement.
Don’t they have landline phones in each classroom? Why didn’t the cops try to call the guy if they thought he had barricaded himself? What were they waiting for?
@Another Scott : Dear lord ! Why??
Almost “We had em in the Nam. “Beginning during the War in Vietnam,[5] and continuing in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US Department of Defense (DOD) provides monetary assistance in the form of solatia and condolence payments to nationals who are killed, injured, or incur property damage as a result of U.S. forcesâ actions during combat.[6
@ Kay May 28, 2022 at 12:48 PM
I saw a video yesterday, and I canât find it, which showed ways teachers plan to protect students, in case of active shooters.
Ways to bar the door, so it canât be forced open seemed a universal tactic. Most teachers bought equipment for that task with their own money.
Honestly heartbreaking weâre subjecting teachers to this.
I love that clip from Houston too … of course, I wish it never existed. However. Just an NB., I was reading the Twitter stuff from the reporter who shot that film, along with lots of other clips from the protest outside the Blood-and-Gore fest. He did say that he would have appreciated a re-tweet of his material, instead of just embedding it, like Adam P did above. I usually am the last to know about this kind of stuff, but as a recovering academic, I am sadly alert to credit-grabbers. ETA, Yep, TFG is, ah, . . no words. Somewhere in the neighborhood of grotesque, down a few addresses toward evil, over across the street by soulless, and in the back alley with the garbage.
@debbie
Alex Jones et al? Poorly Informed, Malignantly Uniformed, or Malignantly Uninformed with Intent (to Profit)?
whoops! I see the credit-attribution situation has been well covered. Sorry!
@scav May 28, 2022 at 1:22 PM
I’m going with Willfully Malignantly Uninformed with Intent to Profit.
Iâd be inclined to give a mangy raccoon a treat.
Iâd beat the shit out of the gun humper. Read the room, buddy.
Also, learning the timeline yesterday, that the worse than useless local police were in fact worse than useless–that they could have gone in and saved some kids, any kids, well it just kind of broke me inside. If I had been a parent of one of the kids who perished, I would be beyond insane with grief and rage. Absolutely in a pull those guys limb from limb state of agitation. Which would of course do little. I hope their own shame and humiliation, and the knowledge of national (international) exposure is a pretty awful punishment.
Thanks, everyone, for encouragement.
@Martin
âThey may have acres of guns in there, but they arenât allowed to have ammunition.â
Au contraire, I am sorry to say. Gun shows always have ammo. Even in California, not that thereâs that many gun shows here anymore thankfully. Itâs a great idea though.
@ scav: All of the above.
@ zhena gogolia: I’ve never had one, but I have more than a few friends with new hips, and they never stop remarking how much better they feel afterwards. Best of luck!
@Kay 11:09; And the stupid argument that laws won’t prevent these incidents. I always ask them “Why don’t we repeal all the laws if they don’t prevent anything? What good are they, right?” They always get upset by that. It’s an extremely dumb argument.
The second Trump vid should obviously go with the music raven put up yesterday, but I’m gonna go with another version.
https://youtu.be/yb3K0TsyP8U
===
IIRC, one of dsquareddigest’s rules is “audit”. IOW, look back with clear eyes, figure out what happened and why, and adjust policies and funding going forward to get better outcomes in the future. Every sensible government organization does or should be forced to do that when asking for their next year’s budget. One doesn’t have to “defund the police” – that’s a category error. The police, like everyone else, should have to justify their public funding every year for everything they do.
Cheers,
Scott.
Don’t ANY of Trump’s supporters realize what an abysmal, cringey excuse for a human being he is??
I plan to attend TFG’s funeral for the express purpose of driving a stake through his empty dessicated heart. It’s the only way to make sure that level of evil stays dead.
I’ve started several comments here this morning. Deleted all of them. I just can’t express how I feel about this entire thing of the rightwing and guns, about their love of killing devices and their use. I’d like to say that’s an inhuman love but I’d be wrong. It’s a love of power that most rightwingers have no chance of having (and which most people should never have) so they substitute guns for the power they don’t and never should have. We are at a human crossroad. One where as not only a county but as a universe we have to decide what level of power individuals have and that it can’t be brought by money, no matter how much your selfish ass has.
@FelonyGovt: My eternal question.
FelonyGovt @2:33
Look at them.
THEY are abysmal, cringey excuses for human beings, which is why they like him. He’s one of them, even as he attempts to separate himself from the unwashed masses. That’s why they like this shitty excuse for a human being.
I wanted to drop in something that I saw yesterday that I havenât seen reported very widely. It was in the Washington Post (and at least one other source), but I canât remember which story. I think itâs legit.
It now appears that the shooter was not wearing body armor. He was either wearing an armor vest with no protective plates in it or a “tactical” vest with pockets to carry all of his extra ammo magazines.
Got on the Google and found this from the Texas Tribune: âIt was reported earlier that the suspect was wearing body armor, but it appears he was wearing a plate carrier vest with no ballistic armor inside, authorities said.â
Yet another brick crumbles from the cops’ narrative edifice.
Steeplejack If he was hit and it didn’t stop him what’s the difference?
@ FelonyGovt:
Itâs like they refuse to acknowledge his history of horribleness going back to the late 1970s. He and Fred would have ruined any of them, but they donât care.
Kamala says it out loud! Assault weapons ban.
Thank you, Betty Cracker. You made my day, my week, my month, my year with that post, especially the last twitter entry showing the magat chased away by women. I love it.
So this weeks edition of âthe most important futbol game evah playedâ is delayed 30 minutes to 9:30pm in Pareeee!
Raven May 28, 2022 at 3:15 PM
Apparently the Fyre Festival people are in charge of the gates, judging by the looks of things.
CaptainC The commentators sure don’t have a clue. . . but then neither do I and I keep watching. Apparently Liverpool has no chance?
@ MaiNaem mobile May 28, 2022 at 1:10 PM
Donât they have landline phones in each classroom? Why didnât the cops try to call the guy if they thought he had barricaded himself? What were they waiting for?
Why would they have landlines? I doubt they have had for years, especially in cheap education Texas. I donât recall phones in any classroom I was ever in going back to the 60âs. They had intercoms.
I didn’t think TFG could piss me off any more, but nope, owned again.
@raven:
> “If he was hit and it didnât stop him whatâs the difference?”
“Body armor!” was another point in their rationale for not engaging him, like how the security guard in Buffalo shot at that murderer without effect and got killed himself.
@debbie at 10:39 am
I was just listening to Hidden Brain while driving back from the garden center. The show was about how the super-rich don’t think or live like the rest of us.
The key takeaway, from my view:
The super rich believe the shit about how redistributing wealth via taxes “creates dependency culture” and “stifles initiative.”
Since they’ve never met normal people who need normal levels of help from time to time (sure, they have butlers and drivers and hairdressers, but those are props in the background of their precious lives, not people to ‘meet’ and ‘know’) they haven’t the foggiest idea what they’re saying. It’s just a fake moral superstructure to justify their greed.
And no one is more of a flagship for a false, decayed, immoral superstructures defending greed that DJT.
@RaflW:
I know some really, really rich people. Some think like you say, others donât and are eternally generous with their hearts and their wealth. I think itâs all about how theyâre raised and the demons they develop. Your last paragraph: /chefâs kiss/
The UEFA Champions League between Liverpool and Real Madrid kicked off 36 minutes late because of traffic problems. It seems Liverpool fans with tickets are STILL waiting to get into the Stade de France..
I am really surprised that the Uvalde swat team has not removed their FB page. They are getting ripped up in the comments.
@Raven
>If he was hit and it didnât stop him whatâs the difference?
Was he hit? I thought the latest story was that there wasn’t a confrontation before he entered the school.
Amir Khalid Much like when Trump attended the Alabama Georgia National Championship game in Atlanta.
Liverpool has no chance, right?
Steeplejack
old school
I think it was all bullshit.If he wore some kind of vest it was just another excuse not to go after him.
@Raven:
Liverpool have been dominating the play so far.
@Steeplejack: And what if the cops thought the murderer had body armor? Even though cops are trained to shoot at “center body mass,” they are not prohibited from shooting a gunman in the upper thighs. That will take someone down, and those cops had plenty of rounds to shoot.
Soprano2 May 28, 2022 at 2:18 PM
@Kay 11:09; And the stupid argument that laws wonât prevent these incidents. I always ask them âWhy donât we repeal all the laws if they donât prevent anything? What good are they, right?â
That’s just what I was saying after I saw a stupid poster that read: ” More Laws aren’t the solution. Evil doesn’t obey laws.” Follow that to its logical conclusion–no laws, anarchy.
RaflW @3:49
“Itâs just a fake moral superstructure to justify their greed.”
Damn. The uber wealthy (and a lot of the not so uber wealthy) broken down to their basic level. Their entire existence in one sentence. Wealth over everything else, I’m great because I have money. Scrooge McDuck in english rather than cartoon.
@ RaflW
Speak of the Devil! Elon Musk of the chance of a global recession.
â âThis is actually a good thing,â Musk said in response to a question from a Twitter user. âIt has been raining money on fools for too long. Some bankruptcies need to happen.
âAlso,â he continued, âall the Covid stay-at-home stuff has tricked people into thinking that you donât actually need to work hard. Rude awakening inbound!ââ
More on why a hypocritical as well as a mean bastard here
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/may/28/elon-musk-welcomes-global-recession-its-been-raining-money-on-fools-for-too-long
@Steeplejack: And what if the cops thought the murderer had body armor? Even though cops are trained to shoot at “center body mass,” they are not prohibited from shooting a gunman in the upper thighs. That will take someone down, and those cops had plenty of rounds to shoot.
Vinicius Jr scores. Liverpool 0-1 Real Madrid.
@Matthew Neperud
A thigh is a much smaller target than the centre of mass on the toso, so that much harder to hit.
â Iâm a professional word-having person, and I have no words.â
Hereâs three: âHeâs a sociopathâ
@ That is true, and that is why police are taught to shoot at center mass. But the perfect can be the enemy of the good. Those cops all had at least 10 rounds to shoot, they were trained shooters, and they had the murderer outnumbered. They made a choice, and their belief that the murderer had on an armored vest does not justify it.
That police chief should have led the way. The only leadership he can display now is to resign. But Uvalde is starting to seem like a corrupt town in a Lee Child novel.
And go Liverpool!
scav @ 4:40
Elon’s a rich boy because of governmental handouts?
Who’d a thunk it? He is doing reasonable good for the world with the idea of electrifying vehicles, although I’d bet we would have gotten there without him, it just would have taken longer. But him as a person? He seems like most every other rich asshole in the world, his money makes him a better human, in his mind. Monetary value is a crappy way to measure humanity, which may be one reason crappy people do just that, because monetary value has nothing to do with humanity.
Sorry, “Matthew Neperud” is just my new Twitter handle.
@scav @Ruckus
Elon better be careful what he wishes for. Ford delivered their first electric F-150 yesterday, where Teslaâs Vaportruck, uh, Cybertruck is nowhere to be seen three years after it was announced. And one point people might start to notice that his mouth is writing checks that his arse canât cash.
Real Madrid win the Champions League by beaing Liverpool 1-0 after a brilliant game by their keeper Thibault Courtois, who thwarted the Liverpool attack all night long.
Matthew N: “Uvalde is starting to seem like a corrupt town in a Lee Child novel.”
Texas. check. small town. check. Corrupt? over-determined, my friend. Small towns in the South (and TX is definitely “the South”) are all tinpot neofeudalist kingdoms.
Very politely summarized, Amir. My own point of view is limited to a very succinct âFUCKâ.
@ Amir Khalid:
A security guard at my work was an ex-cop with 30 yearsâ service. She said the only time she used her gun was when a suspect at a car stop jumped out of the car and punched her in her face, knocking her down. He pulled out his gun and came at her. She pulled her weapon and hit him in the thighâwhere she was aiming. That used to be standard practice, she told me.
How about this for the reason the cops did what they did?
They are dumb. As in Not Very Bright. Unable to process an unexpected situation.
And the idiot who let this happen should resign in disgrace. And be forever vilified.
Surprised how little I am surprised.
“May 28, 2022 at 5:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard
âGov. Greg Abbott said Wednesday that the Uvalde school shooter had a âmental health challengeâ and the state needed to âdo a better job with mental healthâ â yet in April he slashed $211 million from the department that oversees mental health programs,â NBC News reports.
âIn addition, Texas ranked last out of all 50 states and the District of Columbia for overall access to mental health care.â
Beto already made the point that the bulk of Texas mental health support is inside the state prison system.
“Gvg May 28, 2022 at 3:38 PM
…
Why would they have landlines? I doubt they have had for years, especially in cheap education Texas. I donât recall phones in any classroom I was ever in going back to the 60âs. They had intercoms.”
I had the same thought but when my wife taught in a moderately well funded school they had intercoms, and they could patch in calls from outside. If they had access to the office they probably had 2 way comms to any classroom, unless Texas … Then again they would need someone who could operate the system and someone who could communicate rather than just bark orders so no.
@Amir & @cope
Courtois wins all of the Man of the Match awards for the next ten seasons for that performance. We made enough clear chances to win 5-0, they made one and defended like demons. And we looked soooo tired.
Still. Disappointed but not dismayed. Weâll just reboot and win it next season along with the League. Weâre LFC, weâre just – that – good.
Good luck and quick healing, zhena gogolia! I’m now lining up for lower back surgery and dealing with getting over having to do it and deal with recovery.
Best wishes!! đ
Anybody here recommend Sally Rooney?
Thanks, Tony Jay, for putting things in perspective. I would still better if I could get a hug from JĂźrgen.
@zhena I got her most recent from the library to see what the fuss was about. Enjoyed it. Quick read, two evenings. Can see why people adore them and also why the are loathed. Basically about smart people who overthink things. Any other questions?
@feathers: thanks I looked at a sample of Conversations and decided it looked fun so ordered it.
@Odie: thanks!