Elflocko

This can't be stated often enough...

Yeah, LBJ was a hothead, but he was also cunning and calculating. Neither of which describes that wretch in the WH. Andrew Jackson...

Having to watch it via bootlegged uploads to YouTube since we're no longer in the States but agree that it is exceptionally well done. I'm sure some historians would quibble with parts of it but I've enjoyed it. As to your Trump/Johnson comparison, I couldn't see Trump signing the Civil Rights Act, but that's a discussion for another topic...

Scalia was on the take and Thomas is now via his wife...

I know SOIS is OK, and Le Tigre just posted a couple of hours ago, so he's good as well. All of our friends there are safe, though I'm sure there will be second or third degree injuries/deaths with the sheer level of carnage. One of my oldest friends in Las Vegas left the festival an hour before the shooting started. It was her first country music festival, and likely her last. My wife and I left Las Vegas in May, and as someone who lived there for 20 years, and drove directly past the location of this terrorist attack nearly every day on my way to work for the past 5 + years, I hope those in this thread will indulge my perspective on the attack. While I'm horrified, angry, and disgusted at this attack, I'm simply not surprised it happened; I'm surprised it took so long for it to happen. Nevada is a reflection of The United States' gun fetish on steroids; more guns, bigger guns, everywhere. There are probably a half dozen shooting ranges that advertise "Shoot a real machine gun!" around town. I couldn't drive more than 5 miles in any direction without passing a gun shop, seeing ads about gun shops, billboards about gun shops or gun shows. As I didn't own a gun, and had no particular interest in doing so, one would think that this would all just run into the background after a while. It might have if not for the fact that Nevada is an Open Carry state. It was not out of the ordinary to be in the grocery store (in one of the richest, whitest parts of the city, mind you) looking at strawberries, and have some yokel with a hero complex stroll by with a 357 Magnum strapped to their hip. I know there are other states with Open Carry laws (Texas comes to mind) but Nevada seemed to have a wanton disregard for public safety and basic common sense when it came to walking around locked and loaded. It wasn't just the sheer proliferation of weapons in that state, it was the guns combined with right-wing paranoia on the fringes and in the rest of the state. Nevada went blue in the last election because of Las Vegas; Nevada's population is a touch under 3 million, with 2 million of them living in the Las Vegas Metropolitan area. However, get out of that area, and folks are kinda crazy. Think I'm exaggerating? Ask yourself why Alex Jones set up shop in Pahrump, a fetid shithole about an hour outside of Las Vegas. Rural Nevada is rife with poor schools, poor access to healthcare, ignorance that seems to be passed down genetically (see schools point prior), and a deep-seeded mistrust of authority. They live in their own delusional world of conspiracy theories and government overreach that perpetuates itself among the citizens in these small towns which lead to events like that at the Bundy Ranch. The terrorist, whose name I will not soil my keyboard with, lived in Mesquite. We know little to nothing of this wretch, but based on what I know of these small towns and my own experiences there, I have my suspicions. I used the word 'disgusted' to describe my feelings about this attack, and I used it because I am truly disgusted. Disgusted because nothing will change. People will share vacuous platitudes on Facebook, and the bullshit #vegasstrong hashtag is already trending, and a handful of politicians will pay lip service to meaningful change. It will be in the headlines for the next few months, and then the American populace will get distracted like a kitten with a shiny object, and forget about the 58+ dead people and scores of injured, while a square of some of the most valuable real estate in the world gets turned into a shrine until 100 people get murdered in the next attack. It's not just that our elected officials are in the pocket and controlled by the firearms industry and the NRA rendering us powerless, it's that the American people are too scatter-brained and comfortable in their daily existence to give a shit long enough to make the changes. And I know that some of you after reading this are asking "Well what the fuck do you mean by meaningful change El Flocko? What do you think needs done?". My answer is simple: Repeal the 2nd Amendment. You want an assault rifle and you're not in the military? Fuck you. You want to own 80 weapons thinking you're going to fight off the drone that'll blow up your house from a mile in the air because you think "The Expendables" was a documentary? Eat a bag of dicks. That's what it'll take to address the gun issue in the US, and it'll never happen in my lifetime...

I meant that as a compliment as it's one of his endearing qualities...

Bung possesses a Masters in Assholery...

Great read...

To that point: https://www.wsj.com/amp/articles/BL-REB-37736?responsive=y

Yes, and we really enjoyed it.

I've thought this for years...

Nevada has the "None of the Above Candidates" option. I couldn't bring myself to choose that option with my state in play, so I plugged my nose and pulled the plunger for the Neo-Liberal. Even without the benefit of retrospect I knew she would be better than the "Raping Cheeto"... Is it? I'm of the mind that this was our last chance to reconfigure the Supreme Court to drive a stake through Citizens United, particularly after Turtle Man's treasonous pilfering of Merrick Garland's seat. Now? If RBG punches her ticket any time in the following 3 years, the next 2+ generations are thoroughly boned...

I used to friggin' love Cyberball...

Infuriatingly tone deaf...