69 thoughts on “Not Again”

  1. ABC7 (Los Angeles): “Just spoke with a man who was at the front door of the bar when the shooter began firing. Says he had a handgun, shot the guard at the door, threw several smoke bombs inside, and then continued firing. Described shooter as middle eastern looking with a beard.”

  2. ny times:

    Parkland Activists Took On the N.R.A. Here’s How It Turned Out.

     
    HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — After the shooting massacre at a high school in Parkland, Fla., survivors found themselves taking on the National Rifle Association as they crisscrossed the country rallying young adults to register and vote against candidates opposed to gun control.
    On Tuesday, the Parkland students got a dose of political reality.
    While their registration drives enrolled thousands of younger votes, the students were unable to turn key races in their home state. Ron DeSantis was elected governor and Rick Scott was leading the vote for United States senator. Both Republicans were endorsed by the National Rifle Association.
    “Things didn’t necessarily go our way but we know that this is the start, that it’s going to be a long road,” one of the most vocal students, David Hogg, said on Wednesday. “The Florida elections were very close, which is encouraging. For us, the loss in Florida is a call to action.”
    In midterm elections dominated by health care and immigration, the results on Tuesday also showed that Americans are still wrestling with who should be allowed to purchase guns, how they should be regulated and what defines responsible gun ownership.

    The outcomes let both sides claim some margin of victory. Two dozen N.R.A.-backed candidates and longtime gun lobby supporters were defeated in House contests, according to Giffords, the gun safety group. And 88 of 129 candidates backed by the group won their races.
    But groups that oppose gun control also claimed victory. Along with Mr. Scott and Mr. DeSantis, Senate candidates endorsed by the N.R.A., like the Republicans Mike Braun in Indiana and Marsha Blackburn in Tennessee, defeated their Democratic opponents.
    The director of public affairs for the N.R.A., Jennifer Baker, said on Wednesday that “the gun control lobby suffered big losses to pro-Second Amendment candidates in their most high profile races.”
    A Republican-controlled Senate, Ms. Baker added, would “continue to confirm pro-Second Amendment judges to the lower courts all the way to the Supreme Court.”
    Voters between the ages of 18 and 29 went to the ballot boxes in greater numbers in House and Senate in races across the country, according to an analysis released on Wednesday by the Institute of Politics at Harvard.

    Young voters, according to an analysis of exit polls, also helped Jacky Rosen, a Democrat, win the Senate seat in Nevada, and contributed to Beto O’Rouke’s strong showing against Ted Cruz in the Texas Senate race. In Florida, the Harvard research showed, young voters chose the Democratic candidate for governor, Andrew Gillum, over Mr. DeSantis, 62 percent to 36 percent, though Mr. Gillum ultimately lost.
    John Della Volpe, director of polling at the Institute of Politics, said that politics had become more tangible for younger adults in recent years.
    The attitudes of youth started to shift after the 2016 election, from fear to hope for the future, he said. Then came Parkland on Feb. 14. A “traumatized generation” became an “energized generation,” which Mr. Volpe expected would help shape a more progressive domestic agenda and demand gun control legislation.
    “Parkland turbocharged a movement that was going to happen anyway; the tragedy gave them some momentum,” he said. The Parkland students helped the movement, he added, by giving “youth very specific ways to engage: register to vote, sign a petition, call a lawmaker.”
    At least one person associated with Parkland saw the Florida midterms as a victory.
    Hunter Pollack, 21, is the brother of Meadow Pollack, 18, who died in the shooting. Mr. Pollack’s father appeared in a political ad for Mr. DeSantis.
    “The F.B.I. failed my sister. The Broward Sheriff failed my sister. The Broward School Board failed my sister, and Andrew Gillum was a candidate who aligned himself with those failed politicians,” Hunter Pollack said.
    “If he were elected, I’m positive shootings would continue to happen in schools,” Mr. Pollack said. “He would not take school security seriously. He’s a guy who doesn’t even believe in police officers in schools.”
    Mr. DeSantis, he said, vowed to get justice for the 17 victims and hold all parties “accountable.”
    A Parkland shooting survivor, Jaclyn Corin, who is a founder of March for Our Lives, the student-led gun control movement, said she had woken up on Wednesday ready to continue building.
    “It felt like Feb. 15 in that know we have to make a change. We have to,” said Ms. Corin, 18, who voted for the first time this election. “We were not successful in this race, but we understand even more work needs to be done.”
    “Young people are sick and tired of going to funerals of their friends,” she said. “They are sick and tired of seeing kids their age shot at schools, in theaters, at concerts.”

  3. wapo:

    GOP Rep. Karen Handel concedes one of Georgia’s hardest fought congressional races to first-time candidate Democrat Lucy McBath
    November 8 at 8:29 AM

    McBath is an anti-gun violence advocate who jumped into the race at the last minute, citing February’s mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead. Her 17-year-old son was fatally shot in 2012 by a man who had argued with the teen and his friends about loud music coming from their car.
     
    “After carefully reviewing all of the election results data, it is clear that I came up a bit short on Tuesday,” Handel wrote in a Facebook post.This is a developing story. It will be updated.
     

  5. Hang in there Ruth!

    Ruth Bader Ginsburg hospitalized after fall
    The Supreme Court announced that the 85-year-old justice fractured three ribs and is at George Washington University Hospital “for observation and treatment.”

  6. God, will we ever wake up and do something about the availability of guns to any crazy jamoke who wants 3 of them?  How stupid are we? (Don’t answer that – it is rhetorical).

  8. Georgia GOV aint over … Brian Kemp, the Republican candidate for Georgia governor, has resigned as secretary of state effective Thursday night. Kemp was due to face a lawsuit Thursday brought by Georgia voters over his role overseeing his own election against Democratic candidate Stacey Abrams, which remains too close to call.

  11. UPI:

    U.S. News
    Nov. 8, 2018 / 10:12 AM

     
    Key races in Georgia, Florida, Arizona still in dispute
     
    For the Senate race, Republican Gov. Rick Scott leads incumbent Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, by 21,899 votes, or 0.26 percent, making it the closest Senate race in Florida’s history.
     
    In the governor’s race, Republican Ron DeSantis holds a 42,938 vote lead over Democrat Andrew Gillum, just a 0.52 percent difference. The threshold for a recount is 0.5 percent.
    Campaigns are scrambling to get provisional ballots counted in the race and have demanded to know how many provisional ballots were given out and the details on who filed them. Provisional ballots are given to voters who may not have the correct form of government-issued ID or their address doesn’t match what’s on file. The deadline to verify ID is 5 p.m. Thursday.
     
    Election supervisors refused to give details, saying they would not release any identifying information for those who cast provisional ballots.
    […]
    In Arizona, the race for an open U.S. Senate seat remains undecided as some ballots remain uncounted and neither campaign is willing to accept defeat. The Republican party filed a legal challenge arguing that the disparate deadlines for returning defective early votes violates voters’ rights.
     
    The race pits Republican Martha McSally against Democrat Kyrsten Sinema. Neither candidate received 50 percent of the vote.
     
    In addition to the problems with early ballots, provisional ballots are also outstanding. There could be hundreds of thousands of votes remaining to be counted.
     

  12. “…Described shooter as middle eastern looking with a beard.”

    Nope, another white American.  While the Republicans stoke fear of immigrants and Muslims coming to kill us all, mentally-ill white dudes with too-easily acquired firearms are slaughtering people by scores, weekly.  Everything about the GOP is fake.

    (I haven’t seen a picture of the murderer, I’m assuming he’s white from his very Anglo name.)

  13. SC church shooter- piece of shit white kid

    LV concert shooter- piece of shit old white dude

    PA synagogue shooter- piece of shit middle aged white guy

    DC baseball game shooter- piece of shit middle aged white guy

    VA van crash murderer- fat piece of shit white kid

    …i’m sure i’m leaving a few out.  I’m supposed to be afraid of immigrant laborers?  I’m afraid of the angry dude next-door with a legally aquired arsenal.

  14. He’s a disaffected white guy  he drove his Mom’s car to get to the bar former marine may have ptsd

    I say let’s jail all white guys between the ages of 17-35

  15. Columbine- mentally-ill white kids

    Aurora, CO- mentally-ill white kid

    Sandy Hook- mentally-ill white kid

  16. Steve King lost.   Now that is some good news.  So if Goopers find Steve King unacceptable (except how long will it be before he has a show on Fox) how can they find SFB acceptable.

  17. …by the way, these white murderers murdered mostly white people.  But be afraid of brown people?  I’m confused.

  18. Not Again….  thoughts and prayers (says the gun lovin’ gop)

    KGC….  Steve King…  really?…   that’s as good as Scott Walker’s defeat!

    And… yes…  RBG…  all the best!

  19. …just in case i’m accused of constructing false narratives:

    Orlando nightclub murderer- self-loathing gay Muslim

    VA Tech murderer – mentally-ill Asian guy

    San Bernadino army base murderer- Muslim-American terrorist (a whole base full of good guys with guns didn’t prevent tragedy, btw)

    Parkland FL school murderer- mentally-ill white kid

  20. bink, another thing they have in common is that they are all male.   seems to confirm the  Calhoun’s too-many-male rats-in-cage experiment.

  22. …male, and mentally-ill.

    Also, in the military, disclosing symptoms of mental illness, of any degree, and the associated stigma of it, is likely to lead to reduced responsibilities, and eventually discharge, discouraging sufferers from seeking help from professionals when such help could be effective.  Those same people are issued firearms and administered training to use them.

  23. My favorite line from Fat ass the golfing president was when he tried to say all those sexual harassers -aka GOP members of the House- left because the GOP tries to build new leadership  they left because of the ME TOO movement

    Again why doesn’t that behavior impact Trump’s popularity?

  24. …because bullied people become bullies.  What better way to push someone around than to vote Republican and have them push people around for you?

  25. so much for that 1st amendment thingy about the press

    Despite his party losing control of the House, Donald Trump took a victory lap last night calling the results ‘very close to a complete victory’ for Republicans. He also did some heavy-duty tweeting about it. Despite claiming victory, Trump was in a foul and spiteful mood today, and it made for a nasty press conference. He wasn’t just mad about a line of questioning from CNN’s Jim Acosta, he lashed out at just about everybody.

  27. nbc news:
    The ongoing battle between the White House and CNN reporter Jim Acosta took another turn Wednesday night after press secretary Sarah Sanders tweeted out a video that CNN later claimed was manipulated to make it seem as if Acosta was aggressive toward a White House aide.
    “Absolutely shameful, @PressSec. You released a doctored video – actual fake news,” Matt Dornic, CNN’s vice president of communications and digital partnerships, tweeted Thursday. “History will not be kind to you.”
    Dornic was referring to a video clip tweeted by Sanders that appeared to show Acosta, CNN’s chief White House correspondent, making physical contact with a White House aide who had attempted to retrieve a microphone from Acosta during a press conference on Wednesday.

    At the press conference, Acosta and President Donald Trump engaged in a contentious exchange in which the president accused the journalist of being “a rude, terrible person.”
    Hours after the press conference concluded, Sanders said Acosta’s “hard pass” had been suspended as a result of the incident, saying that the journalist put “his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as a White House intern” — a claim that doesn’t appear to be supported by original live video of the incident.
    The video clip Sanders tweeted Wednesday night — which CNN claimed had been manipulated — showed Acosta making a chopping motion at the aide’s arm as she attempted to retrieve the microphone.

    In his tweet, Dornic shared a video that appears to reveal how the clip released by Sanders had been altered.
    The video clip tweeted by Sanders Wednesday night matched a clip posted by Paul Joseph Watson, editor-at-large for far-right media outlet Infowars, who denied altering the video.
    A senior administration official told NBC News they’re not discussing the video that Sanders tweeted out or where it came from.
    The situation marks the latest chapter in an ongoing and intensifying feud between the White house and Acosta.

    Acosta had tweeted Wednesday night that he was denied access when he tried to enter the White House. In a statement posted on Twitter Wednesday night, CNN challenged Sanders’ account and argued that the suspension of Acosta’s credentials “was done in retaliation for his challenging questions at today’s press conference.”
    “Press Secretary Sarah Sanders lied,” the cable news network said of the explanation. “This unprecedented decision is a threat to our democracy and the country deserves better. Jim Acosta has our full support.”

    The revocation of Acosta’s full White House access came hours after a tense White House press conference, during which Trump berated Acosta after the journalist had tried to ask about the president’s characterization of a migrant caravan of roughly 4,000 Central American immigrants who are walking through Mexico to claim asylum in the U.S.
    When the president tried to go to another journalist, a White House aide came over to Acosta to try and take the mic. Acosta declined to give up the microphone, and asked a question about the ongoing Russia investigation even as Trump tried to move on.

    Trump told Acosta to “put down the mic.” When Acosta finally relinquished it and sat down, Trump began to verbally berate him from the lectern.

     

  28. They are truly deplorable people

    Suckabee Slanders  just a whore– she will do anything for  $$$$$  the evidence is all around us

  29. Only in an alternate universe could Tuesday nights results be declared a victory for Trump. Yes they held the senate, but they lost the house big time and in areas that would have remained red under normal circumstances.

    Trump may find his complete sucess a little less sweet when the subpoenas start coming in.

  30. Voters in WA just passed what is probably one of the strictest gun control measures in the country and it won by a large margin.

    People are tired of the do nothing response at the national level and are taking the matter into their own hands at the state level.

  32. Steve King may not have lost but in a democratic house he just became irrelevant which is almost as bad as losing.

  33. Hey…  Mainstream Press….

    just don’t show up.  Treat trump with as much irrelevancy as he treats you.  He may berate and insult you…  but I’d bet he’d be really pissed off if you ignored him and his press conferences.

    and oh yeah….  fuck Huckerbee Sanders too…

  34. Oh darn..now why did I think he lost?   I thought I saw something about him conceding

    I want to know where Kavanaugh was when RBG fell

  35. I find the current ignorant, arrogant, sleazy, incompetent, current occupant of the White House so loathsome that if he suddenly keeled over from a massive coronary, only knowing Pence had just become President would keep me from throwing a Mardi Gras level celebration complete with decorated float parades, jazz groups, and second line marchers.

  36. Bink,  I share your confusion.  Maybe the CA shooter had been in the sun and had a swarthy complexion or something.  Mass shootings – we know, because the facts demonstrate – that most are done by white males.  Reading the comments following the WaPo story about the shooting there are those whose answer is … drum roll, please … more access to guns. Idiots.

    Jace, somebody or another reporting election results say the Dem pickup is now at 35 in the House and when the CA races still sitting out there are resolved it could be 35-40.  And let us not forget the 6 governorships picked up and the over 300 state legislative seats gained (which according to Joe Scarborough is 1/3 of the total pickups by the Repugs during the 8 years of Obama.)  And I forget how may state legislative houses flipped, but it was more than a few.

  37. I had 3 broken ribs once, but I was young. It was still nasty. It hurt to breathe. Laughing, coughing, and sneezing were horrid. I wanted to find a joke free zone. Ergo, my deep sympathy for Justice RBG.

  38. Jamie,

    I would join you for that party, but as you say then it would be Pence and he is too dangerous. Indeed it maybe the possibility of Pence that will hold off any impeachment proceedings for the time being unless the Mueller investigation turns up something really big .

  39. Can anyone solve a mystery for me.  Why do all right wing male TV opposition guests look as if they either need a new toupee or a decent hair stylist?  Do the networks only hire men who look as if they are unwillingly celibate?

  40. Redistricting in CA ought to eliminate dunkin’ hunter and 8 or 9 of his racist/sexist/classist/gun-murder-loving pals, without looking at all gerrymanderish.

  41. Pogo,

    I was wondering about those CA races I thought that there were a few outstanding. If the final number is thirty five or forty it represents a pretty good thumping especially since some of those seats were in very red territory. Combined with the governors pick ups and legislative increases it was Avery successful night for democrats. I was especially pleased with the results in Nevada where Democrats took almost everything that was on the board. Still have my fingers crossed about AZ.

  44. Hey…  Mainstream Press….
     
    just don’t show up.
    renee, I had that same thought when I saw the twit throw his tantrum.  on the same order, they could go to the pressers but not turn on the cameras (or accidentally trip on wires and accidentally unplug them and his mic) or if they have to film, do extreme close-ups of his wrinkles, flab, makeup flaws etc…. cover the real dt warts and all

     

  45. Jeff Sessions was sure a short lived story

    jace, noregard hasn’t had his say yet.  I look for something very passive-aggressive delivered in a thick southern drawl

  46. Patd,

    Don’t know what he could say that would make much difference. He was an early Trump supporter who got played like a cheap violin. Good riddance to him.

  47. the guardian:

    Donald Trump’s new attorney general once said that judges should be Christian and proposed blocking non-religious people from judicial appointments.
    Matthew Whitaker, who was made acting attorney general on Wednesday after Trump fired Jeff Sessions, said judges needed a “biblical view of justice” and questioned the judgment of secular lawyers.
     
    Whitaker made the remarks at a conservative forum in April 2014, where he appeared as a candidate for the Republican US Senate nomination in Iowa. Video clips of the event were saved by People For the American Way, a liberal campaign group.
    The Republican candidates were asked what justification they would use to block the confirmation of federal judges nominated by Barack Obama, who was then US president.
    Whitaker said he wanted to know about a judge’s judicial philosophy, along with their views on natural law, natural rights and the US founding documents. But he added: “I don’t think that gets us far enough.”
     
    “Because natural law is often used from the eye of the beholder, if you will,” Whitaker said. “I’d like to see things like their world view. What informs them? How have they lived their life? Are they people of faith? Do they have a biblical view of justice? Which I think is very important.”
     
    The event moderator, conservative blogger Erick Erickson, asked Whitaker whether he required a “Levitical or New Testament” view of justice. Whitaker opted for the New Testament.
     

    [….]

    Whitaker was previously a paid adviser to an invention-promotion company in Florida that was accused by the US government of running a multimillion-dollar scam. Court records show Whitaker sent a threatening email to one of the alleged scam’s victims who tried to complain.

     

    [?? Court records show Whitaker sent a threatening email to one of the alleged scam’s victims who tried to complain ?? not being very christian of you there, huh Matt] 

  48. Jace, well, maybe in the national races, but NV elected a dead pimp to the state legislature.

    LAS VEGAS — A Nevada brothel owner and reality TV star who diedlast month afterfashioning himself as a Donald Trump-style Republican candidatehas won a heavily GOP state legislative district.

    In Alabama when I was growing up there the joke was that in the rural counties local officials got elected because all the dead people voted for them.  NV Republicans have taken that old joke to a new level – live  people voting the dead into office.

  49. jace, i’m hoping sessions suddenly recalls some troubling comments heard at his little meeting with kislyak  and tells all including the grand jury.

  50. newsweek:
    Protest organizers say hundreds of demonstrations will be held across the U.S. and in Canada on Thursday over fears President Donald Trump will interfere with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. This follows the U.S. leader seemingly forcing Attorney General Jeff Sessions to resign on November 7.
    The protests, which have been organized by activist group MoveOn under the banner of “Nobody Is Above the Law,” are set to take place in cities across the country and Canada, starting at 5 p.m. local time.
    [….]
    MoveOn is demanding that Whitaker “immediately commit not to assume supervision of the [Mueller] investigation” in a statement on MoveOn’s site calling on demonstrators to join Thursday’s protests. 
    The demonstration organizers have accused Trump of “putting himself above the law” by potentially placing the Mueller investigation at risk.
    Relate: “Protect Mueller” Protest Held Outside White House After Sessions’s Departure
    “Donald Trump has installed a crony to oversee the special counsel’s Trump-Russia investigation,” protest organizers said in their statement, accusing the U.S. leader of having “crossed a red line, violating the independence of the investigation pursuing criminal charges in the Trump-Russia scandal and cover-up,”
    “Trump putting himself above the law is a threat to our democracy, and we’ve got to get Congress to stop him,” the statement said. “We’re mobilizing immediately to demand accountability, because Trump is not above the law.”
    Organizers have pledged to hold at least one rally in each state, with others being planned in Canadian cities including Toronto, Calgary and Montreal.
    Protesters had already gathered outside the White House on Wednesday evening, just hours after Trump announced the news of Sessions’ departure. Demonstrators held up neon letters that spelled out “Protect Mueller.”
    That rally appeared to be organized as part of the “Kremlin Annex,” an ongoing 17-week-long protest that began on July 16, the day Trump returned from his controversial Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
    Mueller has indicted a number of Russian nationals and firms over meddling in the 2016 election. The special counsel is now investigating whether anyone on Trump’s campaign team collaborated with them.

  52. wapo:
    A new opinion piece co-authored by George T. Conway III — husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway — argues that President Trump’s installation of Matthew G. Whitaker as acting attorney general Wednesday was unconstitutional.
     
    “It’s illegal. And it means that anything Mr. Whitaker does, or tries to do, in that position is invalid,” George Conway wrote with his co-author in a piece published by the New York Times on Thursday, less than 24 hours after Trump ousted Jeff Sessions from the post.
    [….]
    In his piece, George Conway argued that Whitaker should to be subject to Senate confirmation before serving. Because he wasn’t, “there has been no mechanism for scrutinizing whether he has the character and ability to evenhandedly enforce the law in such a position of grave responsibility,” the piece said. “The public is entitled to that assurance, especially since Mr. Whitaker’s only supervisor is President Trump himself, and the president is hopelessly compromised by the Mueller investigation.”
     
    The piece is co-authored with Neal K. Katyal, who was an acting solicitor general under President Barack Obama.
     
    The two lawyers pull no punches in offering their assessment of Trump’s latest controversial move.
     
    “For the president to install Mr. Whitaker as our chief law enforcement officer is to betray the entire structure of our charter document,” they wrote.
     

  53. Opening the books on Florida vote counting is a Pandora’s Box. It didn’t end in 2000, that experience just encouraged the GOP corrupters in rural counties.

  54. NY Times:
    Trump’s Appointment of the Acting Attorney General Is Unconstitutional
    The president is evading the requirement to seek the Senate’s advice and consent for the nation’s chief law enforcement officer and the person who will oversee the Mueller investigation.

    By Neal K. Katyal and George T. Conway III

     

  55. loved that George Conway in his op ed quoted justice Clarence (the twit’s “favorite” justice) from the NLRB case to back up his argument:

    Justice Thomas agreed with the judgment, but wrote separately to emphasize that even if the statute had allowed the appointment, the Constitution’s Appointments Clause would not have. The officer in question was a principal officer, he concluded. And the public interest protected by the Appointments Clause was a critical one: The Constitution’s drafters, Justice Thomas argued, “recognized the serious risk for abuse and corruption posed by permitting one person to fill every office in the government.” Which is why, he pointed out, the framers provided for advice and consent of the Senate.

  56. YEEEEEHAAAAW!

    I just read our local paper… which comes out on Tues. and Thurs.  The lead article was how NH experienced a big blue wave.  We flipped both the state senate and the state house legislature to Democratic.  We elected the first black woman to the state senate.  We did keep the repub governor… but he’s only had 2 yrs and that almost always assures re-election…  but it was very, very close.

    Our Congress people and Senators in DC are all Democrats.  So except for the now neutered governor, I live in a blue state…     yes!

  59. Patd,

    I’m not sure that Trump cares much what the constitution says. No one of stature or any consequence is going to challenge him.

  60. I would love to be a fly on the wall in the Conway household at Thanksgiving dinner.  George definitely has a singular focus on pointing out the unconstitutional actions of his wife’s boss. I’d have to guess he and the lovely KellyAnne have an agree to disagree and not discuss it policy.

  62. Apparently, she has said she is very disappointed in him because he doesn’t support her in her job

     

  67. Vietnam War Era Veteran? DoD has created the Vietnam Era Pin. It is nice to get. Not splashy or shiny, it is a nice pin to recognize those of us who served back then. DoD specifically made it for the “era” not just VN combat vets. 50 years is a long time back. I am not sure how yet other than events for veterans.  As soon as I know I will post the information.

  68. A pin ? Just for being in uniform ? For those who lucked out, & never got to Viet Nam ?

    You mean, a pin just for participating ? Isn’t this against the ripuplikkkanazi ethos ?

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