There have been conflicting stories about how militant LaVoy Finicum. Occupants of Finicum’s car say he was “executed” with his hands up. Law enforcement accounts say that he was reaching into his left jacket pocket and not keeping his hands up (and a loaded gun was found in that pocket later). To me, in this video, a couple of things are … Read More
Oregon Standoff Loosing Steam
Kudos to law enforcement. Looks like their tactic worked. A lot of lefties, including me, thought they were ignoring the armed occupiers when this thing began, but the feds knew what they were doing: It’s a pretty safe bet that by seizing the opportunity to decapitate the leadership of the Oregon occupiers, federal authorities were hoping the remainder of the … Read More
The Mass Shooting You Didn’t Hear About
The FBI doesn’t take victory laps, but I think maybe it should. These stories happen all the time and they never get the same media attention as the stories in which people bleed. And that’s why so many Americans live in (and vote out of) fear. We’re doing okay against the bad guys — better than you might think. This … Read More
The Blame Game Starts
Politico: With time running out until the first primary votes are cast, establishment Republicans have begun a ferocious round of finger-pointing over who is to blame for the party’s failure to stop Donald Trump. The chiding, once limited to private conversations, is now erupting in public view — with campaigns, operatives, donors, party officials and conservative intellectuals arguing over why … Read More
Trump At War With Fox
This may be the point where the fracture in the Republican Party becomes unfixable. You have a candidate who leads the GOP poll by double digits nationally, fighting with the media mouthpiece of the GOP in a bizarre carnival of testosterone. It’s the climax of a bizarre confrontation between the candidate and the dominant conservative news outlet. The first debate … Read More
You Read Digby Now
She wrote about how Trump has revealed something very important about the conservative movement for Salon this morning. A good many of its believers have just been mouthing words all these years. They don’t care about their elaborate ideology. They just hate the other team…. a snippet: The Republican establishment is under a tremendous amount of stress right now. Donald … Read More
Oregon Standoff Has Arrests, A Shootout, and A Death
… but it continues. There had been no visible law enforcement presence around the refuge as the situation stretched on for days and weeks, and occupiers came and went as they pleased, though they said they remained on guard. The group’s leaders had felt comfortable enough to move freely, leaving the refuge’s headquarters to attend meetings with residents and law enforcement officials. On Tuesday … Read More
How Flint Happened
It’s long and wonky, but Nate Silver’s 538 site looks at the Flint lead problem from a statistical standpoint. Good stuff. Some snippets: Officials at the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, the agency in charge of making sure water is safe in the state, made a series of decisions that had disastrous consequences: Against federal guidelines, they chose not to … Read More
R.I.P. Abe Vigoda
The actor who never dies, has died: Legendary actor Abe Vigoda — who starred in “The Godfather” — died under hospice care at the age of 94 … TMZ has learned. Abe’s death had been falsely reported countless times, dating all the way back to 1982. Abe played Tessio in “The Godfather” and also “The Godfather Part II.” In fact, he … Read More
“Good Guys With Guns” Will Be The Death Of Us
More so now that are allowed to carry guns anywhere and are easily spooked: Police say the man suspected of accidentally shooting a stranger at a Renton movie theater told them he carried a firearm because he feared mass shootings. Dane Gallion, 29, told officers he took the gun to Regal Cinemas 14 at the Landing on Thursday night because … Read More
Backfire
This is unusual and uplifting: A grand jury convened to investigate whether a Houston Planned Parenthood clinic had sold the organs of aborted fetuses on Monday cleared the clinic and instead indicted the undercover videographers behind the allegations, surprising the officials who called for the probe and delighting supporters of the women’s health organization. The Harris County grand jury indicted … Read More
I Might Have Been Wrong
I used to think that Trump would lose steam after Iowa and New Hampshire. But I’m beginning, like the GOP establishment itself, to swallow the possibility of the inevitability of a Trump victory in the GOP primaries.
Flint Water – What’s Up With That?
The Flint water story has been around for a few weeks, but it really hit national attention (finally) when Hillary Clinton raised in the Democratic debate last weekend. Here’s a backgrounder. The first thing to keep in mind is that Flint, Michigan is no longer the thriving city it once was. As Michael Moore documented in “Roger and Me”, Flint … Read More
But But But It’s 20 Degrees And Snow Is In The Forecast So How…
Welp, last year was the hottest year on record since they started keeping records: Scientists reported Wednesday that 2015 was the hottest year in recorded history by far, breaking a record set only the year before — a burst of heat that has continued into the new year and is roiling weather patterns all over the world. In the continental … Read More