Ace of Spades Pet Thread (6/24/17)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Welcome to the almost world famous Ace of Spades Pet Thread. The thread is a little different today as I've been away and off the grid. So a light thread today. Still grab yourself a beverage and enjoy.

Saturday Gardening Thread: Firewater [KT]

—Open Blogger

Well, we've got something pretty close to "fire" going on all over the southwest. "High pressure system", they call it. "Miserable" I call it. And some actual fires in a few places. One near my cousin's home. And there is a lot of water in the Southeast about now. Is everybody OK?

The closest thing I have had to actual "firewater" this week has been sedatives for a rather unpleasant medical procedure. And we are adjusting to someone who works a night shift moving into the house. I have not been well-organized, so don't expect much of a theme today. There are some garden news items today, though.

Kindltot on our lead photo today:

These are the Oregon Tiger Lily, Lilium Columbianum. Such a showy lily in the woods here, they prefer open forest and the edges of clearing s and pastures. They grow a good 5 feet tall in the woods

The bulbs are supposed to be edible when steamed, but who would want to do that when the flowers are so beautiful? You can get them from native flower nurseries around here. They are very productive and grow even taller when they are watered and fertilized

They sound like a great plant for those who have some room.

Gizmos

Mr. Bar-the-Door has been looking at tillers. Here's something a lot smaller: a prototype Roomba for your garden. Solar powered. You need to keep your plants taller than the weeds and put collars around the seedlings you want to keep. Some other people are working on weeding robots, too. Check around.

I don't think I'me neat enough in the garden for this gizmo to work for me. How about you?

On an unrelated note, inspired by the weather, when's the last time you changed your AC filter? Do you have an older neighbor who may need help?

Recipe Time

Remember that it is time to submit your recipes for the AoSHQ Recipe Book. One of the recipes I am submitting calls for peeled tomatoes. Some varieties of garden tomatoes peel easily (pulling skin against a paring knife) without any treatment if fully ripe. But many do not, even when perfectly ripe or even a little over-ripe.

There are several methods for peeling tomatoes. This is a basic blanch-and-peel method. Bonus: Seeding a tomato:

But if you will be cooking a big batch of tomatoes, this is faster. Really. Plus, you can feed the skins to the pigs!.

Plants in the News

A study finds that green space around schools helps kids think. Plants around the house help, too. But not as much. Probably because, you know, common spaces.

Kids running through bluebells

Climate scientists are not the only ones who hide data, apparently. Here, results of a glyphosate study were apprently hidden because they were not negative enough. Heh.

I can dream, can't I?

We haven't forgotten those with cooler, shadier yards. Looking for something fragrant to go with your fragrant hostas?

Polemonium caeruleum 'Bressingham Purple' - Polemonium 'Bressingham Purple' is a Jacob's ladder with purple foliage and purple flowers that smell like grape Hubba Bubba bubblegum!

Jacob's Ladder 'Bressingham Purple'

The plant above is rated for hardiness zones 4 - 9. You can see a photo of a variegated Jacob's Ladder in this post. Even though the flowers are similar, the plants give very different effects.

Gardens of The Horde

Trying to keep plants alive in the heat. Weeding some. Anything going on where you are?

If you would like to send information and/or photos for the Saturday Gardening Thread, the address is:

ktinthegarden
at g mail dot com

Include your nic unless you want to be a lurker.

Close it up

Thread below the Gardening Thread: Roman Drama [KT]

—Open Blogger

A week ago, before Johnny Depp, um, made the news, Neo-Neocon wrote:

The current New York production of "Julius Caesar" in which Caesar is portrayed as a Trump-like figure is no ordinary propaganda.

Caesar is a particular figure with particular characteristics. Why was he assassinated? Because the assassins thought he had become a tyrant. They met a bad end themselves, as assassins often do, but along the way they felt they were doing Rome a service by ridding it of a dangerous leader. They considered it to be not an assassination, but tyrannicide. . .

She goes on to make some interesting comparisons with the theatrical visions of John Wilkes Booth. But she also includes commentary on a writer at HuffPo calling for Trump's legal execution. The HuffPo writer also called for additional executions. The HuffPo writer's plan for purifying the land is considerably more disturbing to me than Johnny Depp's recent foray into heroic fantasy. Because Johnny Depp is kind of crazy. And because the HuffPo piece actually got published.

And because Julius Caesar was not the only guy assassinated in Rome.

Saturday Morning Weird News Dump (6/24/17)

—Misanthropic Humanitarian

Damn dog!! Doesn't he know it's Vacation Day Saturday??????

EMT 06/24/2017

—krakatoa

I've spent every free moment the last 2 weeks rehabbing my first house to put it up for sale. Been a rental property for the last 6 years or so. Good tenants, but lots of stuff to do.

I think I am about 2 days from done.

New paint inside, pressure washed the siding, new kitchen counter, re grouted all the tile, fresh stain on the deck, repainted the garage, new caulk everywhere, reseeded the lawn... I contracted out for the counter install and some of the exterior trim repairs and painting. The rest is all me. The wife doesn't know this yet, but when this place sells, daddy gets a new TV.

Overnight Open Thread (23 Jun 2017)

—CDR M

It's going to take years to build back up trust in the FBI and other government agencies. Who does the FBI work for?

Considering how ludicrous the FBI's conclusions are as it relates to an attack on the third ranking member of the House of Representatives, you might reconsider whether to trust the FBI's conclusions in other areas, as well. And this is how our faith in institutions is degraded: steadily, gradually, with incident after incident where men in suits stand in front of microphones and make claims we know are not the whole truth.

If CIA contractors are willing to hack vending machines, what else do you think they're willing to do with capabilities they have access to in their official capacity? No one has really been punished at the IRS for their political shenanigans and the DOJ obviously interfered with the Hillary private server investigation. Until big name folks are held accountable for their violations, public faith in these institutions will continue to crater.

USS Fitzgerald

This still does not explain how the crew on the USS Fitzgerald were unaware of the other ship but that answer will probably have to wait for the investigation to be completed. Freighter was on autopilot when it hit U.S. destroyer.

Actual Headline

NY Post just having fun with a story. Morons busted trying to steal cops' cocks.

Spaghetti Western Billy Jean Cover

Army

Seriously? The Army is the fattest military branch. Evidently all the services have seen an increase in their body mass index.

To College Or Not To College

I still have quite a few years to go before my kids are eligible for college but I'm really hard pressed to justify the costs. Four reasons why college degrees are becoming useless.

F-35 Paris Show

Not too shabby. I do love that 360 pedal turn though.

Big Brother

I can see a lot of false positives being generated by this for out of state plates. Rhode Island bill sees highway surveillance cams ticketing uninsured motorists. Out of staters aren't going to be coming back to fight a $120 ticket. Easy money for the state and the contractor, who just so happens to get a 50% cut. Exit question. What happens when the uninsured motorist is an illegal alien?

Guns & Booze

I'm pretty sure there's a joke here somewhere when you get into an argument with your wife about sex and in order to make a point you try shoot the little guy off. Well, he fired 4 times and missed.

Where's The Civility

Keep telling us how you really feel Democrats. As Scalise leaves intensive care, Democrats leave civility far behind.

BTW, if one were to choose what one word would sum up Democrat/Prog reaction to Trump and anything GOP related in 2017 and it would be hyperbole.

Dog Video

Tonight's ONT brought to you by hilarious police blotter excerpts:

Top image via.

Notice: Posted by permission of AceCorp LLC. Please e-mail overnight open thread tips to player to be named later or CDR M. Otherwise send tips to Ace.

Close it up

"Russia, Russia, Russia!:" Kellyanne Conway Goofs on Indian-Slurring Alisyn Camarotta

—Ace

Alisyn Camarotta was most recently embarrassed when she asked a girl of Indian descent who'd just won a national spelling bee to spell "confeve," and then, when the girl got it slightly wrong, excused her mistake because "it doesn't have a Sanskrit root, which is what you're probably used to."

The Indian girl in question lives in the United States, speaks English, and wouldn't know Sanskrit even if she lived in India, where less than 1% of the population speaks it as a primary language.

Apart from being an expert on Languages That Indians Don't Really Speak, Camarotta also fancies herself a bit of a "player" in matters of national security and geopolitics.

Matthew Continetti Gets It, Finally: What if the Political Class Knows Absolutely Nothing About Anything?

—Ace

Continetti had been a populist critic of the puffed-up, jumped-up false elites, but then backed off that position in reaction (I speculate) to Trump's populist victory.

But he seems to be permitting himself to get it again.

Events are turning me into a radical skeptic. I no longer believe what I read, unless what I am reading is an empirically verifiable account of the past. I no longer have confidence in polls, because it has become impossible to separate the signal from the noise. What I have heard from the media and political class over the last several years has been so spectacularly proven wrong by events, again and again, that I sometimes wonder why I continue to read two newspapers a day before spending time following journalists on Twitter. Habit, I guess. A sense of professional obligation, I suppose. Maybe boredom.

The fact is that almost the entirety of what one reads in the paper or on the web is speculation. The writer isn't telling you what happened, he is offering an interpretation of what happened, or offering a projection of the future. The best scenario is that these theories are novel, compelling, informed, and based on reporting and research. But that is rarely the case. More often the interpretations of current events, and prophesies of future ones, are merely the products of groupthink or dogma or emotions or wish-casting, memos to friends written by 27-year-olds who, in the words of Ben Rhodes, "literally know nothing." There was a time when newspapers printed astrology columns. They no longer need to. The pseudoscience is on the front page.

...

"Like a bearded nut in robes on the sidewalk proclaiming the end of the world is near, the media is just doing what makes it feel good, not reporting hard facts," Michael Crichton once said. "We need to start seeing the media as a bearded nut on the sidewalk, shouting out false fears. It's not sensible to listen to it."

Don Surber coincidentally has a piece demonstrating that they're literally always wrong about everything, noting that they have learned absolutely nothing since November.

That's not just laziness. Even a lazy person learns by osmosis.

To actively reject all information is a purposeful exertion. They're remaining proudly ignorant as a demonstration of mule-headed willful stupidity.

The National Laughingstock: Our Deep State Embeds and Criminal Leakers Have Exposed Major US Covert Operation to Infect Russian Computer Networks with Malware

—Ace

There apparently is only one Law the Deep State follows now: Get Trump.

Rather than reading the article, see Comrade Arthur's thoughts about this being primarily a blame-shifting exercise excusing Obama from acting: Obama didn't deploy his weapons, but Trump is somehow to be blamed for following Obama's lead.

I guess that makes Trump a Russian stooge -- but not Obama, for some reason.

In any event, it's pretty clear that serious natsec secrets are being leaked here, and there must be a legal reckoning.

Love Trumps Hate, They Threatened: Swishy Bankrupt Actor Most Famous For Silly Hats and Stupid Accents Dreams About Assassinating the President

—Ace

The name "Johnny Depp" is synonymous for "late in age one-note formerly famous person who is broke and is now making even more awful movies than he used to.

So now he's musing about the last time an actor killed a president, and wondering if it isn't time for another one to do the same.

The Secret Service should take this seriously -- Johnny Depp has been alleged to have a history of violence, though usually against women even smaller than himself.

The Black Mass actor split [with Amber Heard] last year amid accusations he was abusive, and although he has always denied the claims, The Management Group (TMG) stated they knew he was 'volatile' in filings submitted as part of their ongoing legal battle with their famous former client.

In documents submitted this week, the company said: 'During his recent divorce from Amber Heard, Depp publicly and repeatedly denied having physically assaulted his former wife and accused her of manufacturing the allegations to 'extend her 15 minutes of fame'.

'However, [TMG were] informed well after the fact through communications with various house staff and security that Depp had been extremely volatile and sometimes "gotten physical" with Heard. [They] were also later informed that Depp had violently kicked Heard during an incident that took place in or around 2014.'

During the bitter divorce battle, Amber made public texts she had exchanged with the 54-year-old star's assistant, in which the employee apologised for his boss' behaviour, but the actor denied the texts were real - a claim which TMG dispute.

Heard later settled for $7 million, with no party admitting fault.This article mentions other instances of Depp's alleged "volatility."

The deal came on the eve of a hearing scheduled to begin on Wednesday and last five days, unleashing combative, high-priced lawyers to battle over lurid claims of jealous paranoia, drunken rages, manipulative greed and a severed fingertip.

Heard, 30, filed for divorce in May and obtained a temporary restraining order, alleging her Oscar-nominated husband assaulted her after a drunken argument in their LA apartment. Her filing said Depp, 53, “began obsessing over something that wasn’t true” and “became extremely angry”, throwing a phone at Heard, striking her cheek and eye “with extreme force”.

A separate statement from a friend of Heard’s who witnessed the scene, Raquel Pennington, supported Heard’s version, including a description of Depp swinging a magnum-sized bottle of wine “like a baseball bat”.

Heard, who stars in the upcoming London Fields, supplied photographs of her bruised face and smashed wine bottles and said the incident fit a pattern of abuse, including a violent row in Australia which disrupted filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Io Tillett Wright, another friend of Heard’s, wrote in an essay for Refinery 29: “The reports of violence started with a kick on a private plane, then it was shoves and the occasional punch, until finally, in December, she described an all-out assault and she woke up with her pillow covered in blood. I know this because I went to their house. I saw the pillow with my own eyes. I saw the busted lip and the clumps of hair on the floor.”

Apparently the "severed fingertip" claim went like this: Depp accidentally severed the tip of his finger when raging about his suspicions that Heard was having an affair with much-more-manly actor Billy Bob Thornton. So he "dipped the stump" into blue ink and wrote "Billy Bob" and "Easy Amber" on a mirror.

Which isn't crazy or worrying at all, and the Secret Service should definitely not take a long look at this "volatile," drunk, financially distressed asshole.

We have nothing to fear from broken drunks with Nothing Left to Lose.

Senate Announces Probe Into Loretta Lynch's Possible Interference in Email Matter During 2016 Election

—Ace

Notice the media doesn't want to talk about the interference that's actually evidenced.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has opened a probe into former Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s efforts to shape the FBI's investigation into 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, the committee’s chairman announced Friday.

In a letter to Ms. Lynch, the committee asks her to detail the depths of her involvement in the FBI's investigation, including whether she ever assured Clinton confidantes that the probe wouldn’t "push too deeply into the matter."

Fired FBI Director James B. Comey has said publicly that Ms. Lynch tried to shape the way he talked about the investigation into Mrs. Clinton's emails, and he also hinted at other behavior "which I cannot talk about yet" that made him worried about Ms. Lynch's ability to make impartial decisions.

Remember, the leftist media all reported that email between Lynch's confidantes claiming she wouldn't let the investigation get too far was "faked" or "forged" - these anonymous leakers swearing it, but not publicly -- but Comey himself gave no indications he thought the emails were faked.

The FBI never asked the writer of the email nor the addressee if it was "forged" by the Russians or real.

Maybe it's time for someone to ask them that, under oath.

Court Dismisses 14 of 15 Charges in the Persecution of Those Who Exposed the Trade in Organs of Aborted Babies

—Ace

When you charge someone with 15 counts, and 14 of them are so obviously without merit a judge dismisses them pre-trial, it shows the prosecution to be a politically motivated exercise in weaponized government.

On Wednesday the San Francisco Superior Court tossed for lack of evidence 14 of 15 criminal charges against journalists who recorded high-level Planned Parenthood employees discussing trafficking the body parts of aborted babies, reports LifeSiteNews. California’s Department of Justice says it will re-file the charges within the ten-day deadline for providing more evidence.

...

As a Democratic member of Congress, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra received thousands of dollars in campaign donations both from Planned Parenthood and fellow abortion promoter NARAL. His predecessor, whose department initiated the action, received $81,000 from Planned Parenthood for her campaigns.

In May, another California judge, who had contributed a quarter of a million dollars to former president Barack Obama’s campaign, slapped Merritt and Daleiden with contempt charges for releasing another video despite a restraining order. Their attorneys say the videos are already public thanks to their opponents’ public court filings, and the already released videos remain on CMP’s YouTube page.

In April, California’s Department of Justice raided Daleiden’s home and seized the recordings.

Nebraska State Democrat Official: I Wish Our Leftwing Assassin Had Succeeded in Murdering Steve Scalise

—Ace

The official has been removed from her post, but that wouldn't be enough if he were a Republican.

The recording was made during a conversation between Montag, party official Chelsey Gentry-Tipton and a friend of hers. Gentry-Tipton faced criticism last week for saying the GOP members of Congress crying about the shooting on television were funny because they supported the National Rifle Association’s agenda.

"I'm glad he got shot," Montag says in the recording. "I'm not gonna (expletive) say that in public."

"Well then what are you saying it to us for?" someone else in the recording asks.

"I wish he was (expletive) dead," Montag replies.

Here's the thing: The media milks one-day bad stories about Republicans into two, three, or four day stories by adding on secondary, follow-up, and spin-off stories. The easiest and most obvious way to milk a one-day story into multiple days is to turn to asking each and every Republican in the world if he denounces the person in question, and if he himself has contributed to the "Climate of X" that (unstated assumption offered with no evidence) caused the Recent Unpleasantness.

By doing so, you not only keep the story alive, so that more people hear about it, as it dominates all media chatter, but you subconsiously link the bad story involving one Republican to all Republicans.

This is deliberate.

But notice that the press never does that for Democrats. No one in the press -- not even in the conservative press -- will be asking Democrats if they denounce this Democrats' death-wishes, and if they think that Democrat hate-speech has encouraged this death-wish-speech, and if death-wish-speech encourages all the political violence on the left.

The media knows how to make a one-day bad story for one Republican into a weeklong bad story for all Republicans.

It also knows how to make a one-day bad story for a Democrat a half-day story about a minor office-holder of unknown party affiliation.

Corrected: I incorrectly wrote "she" when referring to Montag. The article identifies him as male, but who knows any more.

I Never Knew This Had A Name

—OregonMuse

Feminist: All men are rapists.

OregonMuse: What, are you high? You know that's complete bullshit.

Feminist: No, it's not, it's why we need feminism -- to smash the patriarchy.

OregonMuse: Feminism is bullshit.

Feminist: You're obviously a h8r. "Feminism is the radical proposition that women are people, too." How could you be against that?

-----

Do you see what the feminist did there? She led with a controversial, hard-to-defend statement, and then, when pressed, retreated to a safe, no-sane-person-can-be-against-this platitude. And then pretended the two are the same. I've seen this in one form or another for years and it's just infuriating. But I never knew until about an hour ago that it has a name.

Ladies and gentlemen, behold, the Motte and Bailey trick:

Motte and bailey (MAB) is a combination of bait-and-switch and equivocation in which someone switches at will between a "motte" (an easy-to-defend and often common-sense statement, such as "culture shapes our experiences") and a "bailey" (a hard-to-defend and more controversial statement, such as "cultural knowledge is just as valid as scientific knowledge") in order to defend their viewpoint. Someone will "support" the easy-to-defend (motte) temporarily, to ward off critics, but does not actually believe what they're saying. The "difficult" (bailey) version always remains the desired belief, but is never actually defended. For all intents and purposes, the MAB'er is defending a "ghost" belief.

So MAB is a specie of the genus "bait and switch." I found this graphic on Twitter that illustrates the MAB with a couple of examples:

It has suddenly occurred to me that the old "clown nose on/clown nose off" stunt that Jon Stewart pulled on Tucker Carlson to great effect could be seen as a kind of MAB sub-specie.

Anyway, that's all I've got this morning. Hopefully, ace will be here soon with some real content.

Close it up

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

And from the Cookbook committee:

We are looking for some Horde artists to do some pen-and-ink drawings for our Moron cookbook. We don't need the art just yet until we find out the file lay-outs required by the printer, but we would like to collect some names of artists who might be interested. They can email Weasel and Bluebell at the email address at the cookbook link, which is shared by both of us: recipes at moroncookbook dot com

The Morning Report 6/23/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. The weekend is here once again and the top story is the rolling out of the Senate Obamacare Repeal/Replace Bill. As expected, there's no repeal and the replace component essentially anchors the original 2010 monstrosity in our lives for all time. On a positive note, McYertle apparently does not have votes to move it forward and there will be amendments. Thankfully, Cruz, Paul and Lee are in the mix so that at least some of the more odious, economy-killing, freedom-killing aspects of this disaster are removed. To be sure, no matter what, parts of the original are here to stay. As someone once said, the one thing that you can never destroy is an entrenched government bureaucracy, but perhaps it can be made as benign as possible. Obviously, the Democrats are fueling the fires of more violence claiming millions will die in the streets if it passes. I would not be surprised if someone, somewhere steps forward and threatens GOP lawmakers with death if the bill becomes law. And Obama opened his cake-hole because the one good thing about this is that if it passes, there goes the single most important legacy of his 8-year reign of error. Amazingly, he's so wrapped up in his own little world that he doesn't appreciate the fact that a good sized chunk of his original namesake poison will no doubt continue to course through the veins of an atrophying America, perhaps forever. Meh, screw him to Hell.

If you look past our rage at and disappointment in the party that is allegedly ours, the Democrats are in absolute free fall. The Robert Mugabe Leadership of octogenarians has no clue about how to deal with PDT and who he represents; us. Their puppet masters in the MFM are equally clueless as are the cadres in academia and the culture complex. To them, it's all about the messaging and not their message itself. As Ive said before, if we only had a fraction of support from the GOP, the Democrats could become less relevant than "The Rent Is Too Damn High." But as we have seen from this insult from McYertle and Ryno, their interest is in preserving the power of the State. What a crying shame. But, thank G-d for Donald J. Trump.

Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• Obamacare Repeal and Replace is Obamacare Copy and Paste . . .
  
• . . . Deviates from House Bill Only Marginally . . .
  
• . . . Meanwhile, Anthem/Blue Cross Pulls Out of O'Care Markets in WI and IN
  
• Gulf Tensions Escalate as KSA, Other Arab States Demand Qatar Shut Down Al Jazeera
  
• PDT Hammers DNC for Failing to Give Hacked Server to DHS, FBI
  
• Ex-CIA Employee, State Dept. Security Worker Arrested for Passing Defense Secrets to Chi-Coms
  
• Sanders' Wife Lawyers Up
  
• Comey Spotted Leaving NY Times Building Yesterday
  
• Prayers for Nancy as Several Dems Plotting Her Ouster
  
• Yes, Please! "Progressive" Group Pleads with Dems to Retain Disastrous Strategy of Shunning White Working Class Voters
  
• How the Dems Burned $40 Million to Lose Four Elections and Scam Supporters
  
• Minor Miracle: 14 of 15 Charges Against Planned Parenthood Expose Documentarians Dismissed in SF Court
  
• Mr. President, Meet Avner Shapiro: Saboteur from the DC Swamp
  
• Judge Blocks Deportation of More than 100 Iraqi Christians
  
• The Dirty Secret of How Income Taxes Really Work
• The Sharing Economy Is Much Bigger than Uber

ONT-88 Lines About 44 Congressmen

—WeirdDave

Kamala was an AG once
Bent the law to her own whim
Cory was a different type
He invented all his friends
Charlie was an orange guy
I've never seen a tan like that
Charles avoided taxes
claimed he couldn't do the math

Hmmmm HmmHmmmmHmmHmmm
Hmmmm HmmHmmmmHmmHmmm

Granny Rictus McBotoxface's Allies Circle the Wagons Around Their Incredible Shrinking Crone

—Ace

Love Trumps Hate, They Threatened

—Ace

1. Illinois Man Indicted and Held Without Bail For Threatening Life of President, Citing Media's Unproven Russian Collusion Conspiracy Theory.

The Real Democratic base -- not the celebrities they trot out every four years.

Before I die I want our president and congress to sign a treaty to never side with Russia or any enemy of the United States of America! If one will then that person deserves to be shot," his post read. "Guess what Trump? I'm waiting for the right time...and I KNOW your (sic) Putin's (expletive)!

Maybe he was just making a dark joke and didn't actually intend to threaten an assassination.

" The secret service now has a heads up as to my plan to assassinate Trump...let's see if they act."

Whoops, there goes that defense.

But maybe he didn't mean it honestly.

...

"Honestly am I really going to have to kill trump before our fine Government (the jack booted thugs they are) actually takes me into custody for threatening to assassinate President Donald Trump? I mean he sold our country to The Russians. He is a Benedict Arnold but hey the (expletive) is our President even though he needs a blade in his neck. And you dumb, asses who stick up for him...who's gonna protect you when someone like me comes t (sic) take you out."

2. Man Charged With Threatening GOP Rep and "every g**damn one of you."

"I've seen the prayer ya'll were saying at the baseball diamond ... I think ya'll better hit your knees and pray for the people that you're screwin' up their lives...

"We're coming to get every g**amn one of you and your families. Maybe the next one taken down will be your daughter. Huh? Or your wife. Or even you."

3. 30 GOP Congressmen have been attacked or threatened since May.

May 8: Wendi Wright, 35, was arrested after stalking Rep. David Kustoff (Tenn.) and trying to run him off the road. After pulling over, Wright "began to scream and strike the windows on Kustoff's car and even reached inside the vehicle."

May 9: Virginia Rep. Tom Garrett needed heavy security at a town hall after receiving a series of death threats in May that police "deemed to be credible and real."

"This is how we're going to kill your wife," one message said. Others detailed how they would kill his children, and even his dog.

May 12: A town hall participant accosted North Dakota Rep. Kevin Cramer, shoving fake dollar bills into his suit jacket. A Kramer supporter grabbed the same man by the neck. Both men were ejected by law enforcement, but neither were charged.

May 12: A Tucson, Ariz. school district employee was arrested by the FBI for sending several death threats to Arizona Rep. Martha McSally. The man threatened to shoot McSally and told her to "be careful" because her days "were numbered."

And that's not even up to the Ides of May.

4. Jason Chaffetz Receives Threat: "Prepare for the Battle, Motherf***er."

So: How are Democrats responding to the fact that their colleagues were shot at just a few days ago due to their blood-and-thunder rhetoric?

Like so:

5.

Wisconsin Bill Would Expel or Suspend Students in the University of Wisconsin System Who Attempt to Shut Down Public Speakers

—Ace

Nice.

Under a new bill approved Wednesday night by the Wisconsin State Assembly, such student protesters in the UW system could be suspended or even expelled if they repeatedly disrupt campus speakers they disagree with.

The Republican-backed legislation, called the Campus Free Speech Act, is part of a national effort by conservative groups to crack down on protests intended to silence controversial speakers on liberal college campuses. Similar measures have been enacted in Colorado and introduced in Michigan, North Carolina, Virginia and California.

Demonstrations like the one that interrupted Shapiro’s speech last fall have become an increasingly common sight at universities around the country as debate has roiled over how to curb hate speech while protecting free expression and intellectual diversity. Some demonstrations have turned violent, like the recent protests and riots in Berkeley, Calif., that shut down a planned lecture by conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.

Bizarrely, this law (should it become one) will probably be successfully challenged on free speech grounds, with plaintiffs arguing their shutting down of free speech is their own free speech. The fact that the state is an actor here will be held against the measure.

But it shouldn't -- the UW system is itself a state actor, and is therefore obligated to defend free speech rights itself. It isn't doing so -- and therefor the "state actor" is already acting against free speech. This is more correctly seen as a corrective to that illegality.

A better option is simply to defund any universities -- for, say, a year per offense -- that don't vigillantly protect speech rights.

Senate's Obamacare Bill Is Primarily Designed to "Fix," Expand Obamacare

—Ace

Of course.

My anger about this is tempered by the fact that I was pretty sure this program would remain on the books forever, as soon as it went operational.

Reform of the individual market, intended to give those who do not get coverage through work or a federal program access to subsidized, regulated coverage. The law created a new federal subsidy, based on income, for lower- and middle-income households to purchase health insurance. It set up federal rules requiring insurers to sell to all comers while limiting their ability to charge based on health history. It mandated that all individuals obtain health coverage or pay a tax penalty. And it erected a system of government-run health insurance exchanges on which consumers could purchase subsidized, regulated individual market coverage.

Those exchanges have never been fully stable as either business or policy propositions. Premiums have marched steadily upwards; last year, the price of a typical plan rose by 22 percent, and early reports show large spikes coming this year as well. The non-profit health insurance organizations that Obamacare funded have mostly shut down. Large, for-profit health insurers, meanwhile, have lost money and either scaled back their participation or dropped out entirely.

Republicans have repeatedly criticized these marketplaces for being expensive and unstable. As Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who spearheaded the drafting of this bill, likes to say, "Obamacare is collapsing around us."

Yet even more than the House plan, the Senate plan retains the essential structure of Obamacare's individual market reforms. It would likely result in fewer people being covered, and it would not stop the destabilization of the market.

Like the House plan, the Senate plan retains Obamacare's major insurance regulations, including the requirement to cover pre-existing conditions, at the federal level. Unlike the House plan, it does not allow states to apply for a waiver to opt out of those rules. It also eliminates Obamacare's health insurance mandate.

Every state that has attempted this combination of coverage regulations without a mandate has seen a swift meltdown in the individual market. There is every reason to expect that the same would happen under the Senate plan, especially since Obamacare's exchanges were struggling with a too-small, too-sick enrollee pool even with the mandate in place.

The Senate bill attempts to manage this instability by buying off health insurance companies with payments that Republicans previously argued were illegal and should be stopped.

Populism, the uncouth and ill-informed belief that Your Social Betters are incompetent and are lying to you, must be stamped out due to its total divergence from reality.

Alternate Opinion: Avik Roy is a rightist health care policy expert. I tend to disagree with his assumptions, which tend to include the liberal imperatives of some kind of government-sponsored health care.

You know -- achieving Liberal Policy Imperatives Through "Conservative" Market-Based Solutions.

However, he's certainly no crank. He's very enthusiastic about the bill:

I'll read his own lengthier response once he posts it.

Trump: No, I Never Made Tapes of Comey

—Ace

As he said in response to a Jon Karl's question a couple of weeks back: You'll be finding out soon, and you'll be disappointed in the answer.

Florida Sheriff: If You're Not Afraid of Guns, Then Get One

—Ace

Not only is he advising people to arm up and keep their shooting skills honed, he's training personnel at a college in his jurisdiction to serve and protect in an active-shooter situation -- in fact, the moment an active-shooter situation is declared, they'll become legal deputies, granted legal authority to stop a crime in progress.

The countdown to the media savaging this guy and going through his garbage begins now.

"The armed assailant doesn't plan on you fighting back," said Sheriff Grady Judd. "He plans on having a gun, doing all the shooting, and you're just a sitting duck. Well, the ducks need to shoot back."

...

"If you're not afraid of a gun, get one," said the sheriff. "And if you need to shoot somebody, shoot 'em a lot."

Florida Man (Partly) Redeems Florida.

BTW, "Sheriff" is a contraction of "shire-reeve," or the keeper/protector of a shire.

Hyperpoliticized, Captured-By-Progressives Garbage Institution the FBI Claims James Hodgkinson Had No Particular Target In Mind, Didn't "Surveil" the Minor, Ugly Park When He Repeatedly Scouted It and Took Pictures of It

—Ace

I don't think I'll ever trust the FBI again, and would be very skeptical of any case they made, were I sitting on a federal jury.

Another institution successfully destroyed by Obama.

You have to read the piece and compare what we know as facts with the FBI's bizarre, acid-dosed "conclusions."

Just another arm of the DNC, this one carrying weapons and subpeonas.

Update: Maybe the FBI felt the need to protect the SPLC, whose FaceBook account James Hodgkinson "liked."

James T. Hodgkinson, the Bernie Sanders supporter who targeted Republicans at a congressional baseball game practice and gravely wounded Congressman Steve Scalise (R-La.), gave moral support to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the group whose "hate map" inspired a terrorist attack in 2012. The SPLC had repeatedly attacked Scalise, along with former presidential candidate Ben Carson and women's right activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

"Over the decades, the SPLC has refined a method of defaming its political opponents that is extremely effective when combined with the massive war chest it can rely upon," explained Lt. Gen. (Ret.) William Boykin, executive vice president at the Family Research Council (FRC) in a letter to Senators on Tuesday.

"The SPLC targets people by using the 'hate' or 'extremist' label against them seeking to destroy them," Boykin explained. "Few people or organizations have the resources to fight back, so the SPLC typically has a clear target."

...

Laird Wilcox, one of the foremost experts on American political extremism, said the SPLC has "specialized a highly developed and ritualized form of defamation ... a way of harming and isolating people by denying their humanity and trying to convert them into something that deserves to be hated and eliminated."

Reach Out And Touch Someone: Longest Confirmed Sniper Shot In History

—CBD

The ballistic calculations are impressive, but observation of the conditions across two miles of space plays a huge part. And all of this while in combat. Canadian special forces sniper kills an ISIS fighter from TWO MILES away in the longest confirmed kill shot in history
And I love the touchy-feely euphemism for killed: "disrupted!"

It must be a tremendously demoralizing circumstance when every now and then somebody around you gets shot, and you have no idea where the bullet came from, and probably didn't even hear it.

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD

[Pli de chapeau: OregonMuse]

The Morning Report 6/22/17

—J.J. Sefton

Good morning, kids. Top stories today include the impending crashing and burning of the State of Illinois. From a Leftist point of view, how did capitalism, conservatives and American greed rob poor welfare recipients of their money and destroy the state? While Tubby Riefenstahl, Robert B. Reichhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh-uh and their ilk ponder a way to craft that message into something rational Americans will swallow whole, the GOP Senate leadership is set to unveil its version of Repeal/Replace. Although I have not seen the details, it does allegedly end Planned Parenthood funding completely. We shall see. In the wake of the huge win in GA-6, it's wise that the GOP not waste the momentum. Hopefully the bill will be worth it. Lastly, on this date, June 22nd, 1941, the Germans invaded the Soviet Union and began the bloodiest, most violent land battle in human history. Anyway, links from around the world, across the nation and up your street. Have a better one and remain blessed.

• "Vintage Trump" Rocks the House at Iowa Rally
  
• Collusion with the Russians? See McStains Circa 2008
  
• Gowdy: Maybe Dems Didn't Cooperate with DHS Because of Something Else on that Server
  
• Ill and Oys: State Faces Complete Financial Collapse, Can't Even Pay Lotto Prizes
  
• Trib Columnist: Break Up Illinois
  
• Irrelevant Political Agitation Group Rejects Offer from Egomaniac to Meet with President
  
• Trump Was Right: Study Confirms Nearly 6 Million Illegal Votes Inflicted Obama on the Nation
  
• Farsis Threaten to "Depose Trump," Preparing Missile Strikes on US Forces
  
• Republicans Face Pressure from Constituents for Swift Obamacare Repeal, As . . .
  
• . . .McYertle and Friends Unveil GOP Senate Repeal/Replace Bill Today
  
• In Wake of Ossoff Trouncing, Democrats Post Worst May Fundraising Since 2003
  
• Tubby Riefenstahl: "Dems Can't Get a Friggin' Clue"
  
• Chutz-Pocrisy Dept.: Dems Fight for $15 While Paying Interns $0.00
  
• Greenfield: You Can't Be Pro-Palestinian and a Feminist
  
• Coulter: The Left Has One Final Argument - - Kill Them
  
• James Hodgkinson: Look For the Union Label

Overnight Open Thread 6/21/17 (tmi3rd)

—Open Blogger

Good evening, Morons and Moronettes. I'm tmi3rd,, and I'm filling in this evening. The fact that there just happens to be a tropical system about to go ashore on the Gulf Coast is merely a coincidence.

Seriously.

More beneath the fold...

Well, since tropical weather has traditionally been my beat, let's touch on it very briefly...

Tropical Storm Cindy will go ashore around Sabine Pass (roughly the TX/LA line), and a Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from San Luis Pass to the mouth of the Mississippi River (basically the greater New Orleans area). Winds are sustained at 50 MPH with gusts to 65 as of 8 PM EDT, and what's going to happen is that it's going to take its time moving into southern Arkansas. About 3 days in, it'll get absorbed by a cold front and haul ass off to the east.

The thing to bear in mind is that what typically gets people in trouble in tropical weather is not wind, but flooding. So anywhere you've got sustained heavy rain (particularly in the first three days after landfall with this one), you have that potential for severe flooding. If you're in the path of this storm, just please stay away from high water.

On to the fun...

So the Stanley Cup Finals finished up in the last week or so, and my Nashville Predators lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins in six games. It was a bummer of a way to lose a series, but I'm not going to re-litigate the series. Instead, I will extend my sympathy to one of the teams my Preds beat, the St. Louis Blues. The following video documents the pain fans of this franchise have been through.

CONTENT WARNING: if you're a Blues fan, this is absolutely BRUTAL.

Yikes. Sorry, guys.

Sooo... this is a thing, eh?

Australian man who binged on meth feared dead after attempting to have sex with crocodile

Welp.

...on this occasion, the man would make a fateful decision while his judgment was impaired by the drug. "He was a few hundred metres down the beach when he started pulling his clothes off," said the friend. "We thought he just wanted to streak or something but then up ahead we were shocked to see a croc."

The group of friends shouted at the man to leave the crocodile alone, which was estimated to be around 2 metres long. "We were worried he was so off his face on ice he'd try to provoke it, but nothing would prepare us for what he did next."

According to the friend, the man- now naked- leapt at the crocodile and started trying to have intercourse with it. "We were still a fair distance back, but I reckon he just about got it in," said the witness. "Of course, the croc wasn't having a bar of it, and it started thrashing around like crazy."

The man's friends were powerless to help as the crocodile clenched its jaws across the man's torso and hauled him into the water. "There was some thrashing around under the water for a few seconds before nothing- it was just still," said the distraught friend.

Tonight's musical selection...

This guy's name is Peter Kastner, and he's a session bassist from Los Angeles. He's playing a tune called "Nardis", and he's playing a really amazing instrument made by a luthier named Rob Allen. The MB-2 (or MB-5 in its 5-string version) is a semi-hollow instrument, and I was STUNNED when I picked one up for the first time.

I *SUCK* on upright bass, but I've done plenty of live and session work on bass. When I need to get an acoustic sound of one form or another, I can get EXACTLY the sound I'm after from this instrument, and I'll be picking one up shortly. Those of you who are familiar with my playing know that I'm a Pedulla guy when it's up to me, and usually wind up playing Fender in the studio. The Rob Allen basses are truly exquisite instruments, and you can check them out at roballenguitars.com.

One more musical selection...

This is just more of my study music. If I'm listening to classical, I'm conducting it and it's a distraction. So I stick to deep house.

Some closing thoughts...

So Ace and Instapundit have been spearheading the "punch back twice as hard" initiative (for lack of a better word) against the left, and I largely agree. There are a few things I want to point out that are worth imitating from the left, and there are a few worth avoiding.

As a preface- this is just my take, so it's worth exactly what you're paying for it. Your mileage may- and probably will- vary.

First of all, I agree with this piece: "Political Violence Is A Game The Right Can't Win". Here's why, part one: as the linked piece notes, yeah, we're better armed on the right, but they organize better. From the piece:

The first thing righties have to understand about Lefties is that lefties have a lot more practice building their own institutions, and assuming control of existing institutions, than their counterparts on the right do, and they share their practical experience with each other. Righties who like to build churches will build a church and worship in it. Lefties who like to build churches will build a church, write a book telling people how to build churches, go out and convince people church-building is the thing to do, run workshops on how to finance, build, and register churches, and then they'll offer to arrange church guest speakers who'll come preach the Lefty line.

Righties need to do a better job of teaching each other. And not just teaching the right-winger closest to them. The most organized groups on the Right are the pro-life and RKBA activists; everybody else on the Right should be learning from them.

Strong stuff. Here's the second part:

The second thing to understand about Lefties is how they actually function. There's a lot of independence involved. Righties like hierarchy, so often think of the Lefties as taking marching orders from George Soros or whoever in a very hierarchical fashion. Not so much. A lot of left-wing organization is very decentralized, and they negotiate with other lefty groups as to exactly how they'll do things and time things to not hurt each others' work, so the labor movement's march is not derailed by black-bloc window-smashing (see, for example, DIRECT ACTION, L.A. Kauffman's excellent history of the Left from the 60s on).

The Lefties call that approach "embracing a diversity of tactics," which, taken to its logical extent, is a weasel-worded way of saying that the lefty mainstream is comfortable with radical leftist violence. People don't like to talk about this much. But while it's impossible to imagine, say, an abortion clinic bomber getting a cushy job at an elite university, that's exactly what happened to a number of alumni of the 1970s leftist terror group known as the Weather Underground. As fugitives, they were financially and operationally supported by members of the National Lawyers' Guild; afterward, they were so normalized that the 9/11 issue of The New York Times infamously ran a profile lauding Weatherman alumnus Bill Ayres. By contrast, right-wing terrorist Eric Rudolph's fugitive days were spent hiding in the wilderness because no one would help him. He was caught literally dumpster-diving for food. Potential right-wing extremists face opportunity costs that their left-wing counterparts do not.

As you can imagine, it's time to read the whole thing. I've got one final point to make, and then the rest of the evening is yours.

On the right, we've been led around by media hosts who told us what we wanted to hear, only to find out that about half of them were in it to take our money. Thus, my skepticism of Jack Posobiec and Laura Loomer. They created a spectacle, and the GoFundMe page for their legal fees is doing quite well.

Because we've had so many political candidates essentially run for office in order to do book tours and become Fox-famous, I want to see these folks put their money where their mouth is, which leads me to my bigger point:

Nobody likes a scold, and nobody likes annoying people. Ace has said this for well over a decade, and it can't be emphasized enough: we gain nothing by becoming snowflakes, SJWs, or all the things we rightfully point at, laugh at, and detest.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't hit back, but it means that we need to not become exactly what we despise about the left.

Kick that around and decide for yourself a) whether that's something you can get behind, and b) what it means to you. Mine is a decidedly imperfect take on it, as I threw it together in the last ten minutes before putting this post up, but again,
see what you think.

Thanks as ever for reading- I'm back to med school in another couple of weeks, so I'll be pretty busy shortly. That said, if you need to get a hold of me, please don't hesitate to come find me on Twitter, and have a good evening! I have to be up with the kids in the morning, so I won't be around too late tonight.

-tmi3rd

Close it up

Bits and Bobs Open Thread

—Ace

David Frum had a bit of a snit today.

Charles Cooke demolished his spasmodic, full-auto-ignorance tweets in two posts, the second one specifically mentioning David Frum, who, by the way, looks like he spent twenty years in Barad-Dur being raped by Gollum and learned to love it.

His every spastically uninformed argument rubbished, he then turned to -- get this! -- emotively shrieking like the sad Gollum bitch he is.

Jazz Shaw digests a good Peter Bienart piece about how Democrats -- who once routinely spoke in favor of border enforcement and even noticed (gasp!) that of course an unlimited stream of new foreign workers must depress native-born wages, have since decided that to repeat any of the things they uncontroversially said just 8-10 years ago is a vile heresy.

They did the same thing on gay marriage and Choose Your Own Adventure bathrooms, too, of course.

The FBI has bizarrely claimed that James Hodgkinson had no "particular target in mind," and that his assassination attempt was -- of course -- definitely not terrorism.

I forgot to mention this classic excuse earlier -- a Democrat operative said Ossoff lost because it was impossible to reach his voters, because they live in their parents' houses.

Sounds about right!

A precinct captain for Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff's congressional campaign complained recently that many of his constituents are hard to reach because they still live at home with their parents.

"Those were the angriest people," Jessica Zeigler told Slate, referring to the Republican parents of the young Democrats. "When you are targeting their child, or heaven forbid their child might not think the same way as them, it becomes ugly."

Living with your parents at age 27 does tend to make one angry.

The parents aren't too thrilled, either.

Speaking of Monster Babies, I linked this earlier, but it's worth highlighting: The President of Evergreen State Day Care Center says he's issued a "stern warning" to some of the thugs at his Monster Baby Nursery.

And that's all I got. Night!

Is This Something? Audio of Old Documentary on Mentally Ill Children Repurposed as Narration of Video of Social Justice Warriors

—Ace

Let me spare you the trouble of answering: Yes, this is something.

As this isn't much of a post, let me link an article I've had open for a while: Monster Babies should be neither seen nor heard and certainly not obeyed.

Let's Stop Treating the Young As If They're Political Sages

by Clare Foges

We should be challenging the naive, unaffordable views of many under-25s, not kowtowing to them

"Respect your youngers," tweeted the pop star Lily Allen after the shock election result driven by a high youth turnout. But have we come to respect the youngers and their opinions too much?

Recent years have involved increasing youth worship in politics. Come election time, TV producers fall over themselves to put together panels of young people to offer up vacuities about “choosing hope over fear” and other quotes they may have spotted on Instagram. Grey-beard presenters nod deferentially at every complaint offered up by youthful contributors, however inane or ill-informed (the passion of youth requires no substantiation). Millennial mouthpieces on social media rouse the tribe with talk of reclaiming their future and how dreadfully they have been let down by older generations.

Well, that's all they'll let me see without paying, but you get the gist.

This video (also embedded below) should be ample proof that we're respecting the young far too much.

Democrats Begin Talking Up the Unthinkable: Putting Granny Rictus McBotoxface Out to Pasture

—Ace

First, an artist's depiction of the Handel victory in #GAO6:

The stubby, dull knives are out for Nancy Pelosi, with one Democrat going on-record to say that if she were on the ballot for leadership right now, he wouldn't vote for her.

Another Democrat said it's time for the White Witch to go back to Narnia to start a hashtag campaign against Aslan's "#lionsplaining."

Meanwhile, it's Excuseapalooza on the left.

Cashew-faced Queen of Conspiracies Rachel Maddow is stealing a play from Milli Vanilli and Blam[ing It] On the Rain -- she's deep in the fever swamps exploring the "partisan implications" of some light rain in GA-06 yesterday.

Meanwhile, goofball feminist and leftwing blogger turned NYTimes columnist Jill Fillopivic (gee, isn't it strange the Times only hires leftwing bloggers?) claiming Handel was a huge "bigot" and America as a whole cannot be turned away from voting from such bigots.

So, along with #Hacks, the excuses now include "bigotry," Americans' inherent vileness and stupidity, and God Himself. Pretty much standard prog responses.

One more bit of gloating below, thanks to Tyler O'Neill of PJ Media's Hot Mic.

Content warning: may contain scenes involving mutual reciprocal homewreckers Joe and Mica.

Left Media Now Blaming Tossoff Loss on, Get This, Hacks

—Ace

That picture doesn't have anything to do with the headline, but I love it so much, and this particular picture is in hi-def, so the vivid colors of Sadz really pop.

I also love this picture:

The feelz! All the sadz! Looks like someone's got a case of the Tuesdays!

Strangely, CNN's All-Stars never appear this crestfallen when (briefly) reporting on people killed by terrorists.

Dana Bash's shockface resembles someone who has just been unexpectedly, but gently, sodomized by an elk.

Oh, and only slightly less Weepy McDrippyface than CNN are the butthurt feminists:

And if you want to see more unattractive women you wouldn't even f*** on a dare handling the loss poorly, you can check out Free Beacon's clip of The View.

Anyway, re: hacking, here are more conspiracy theories that dedicated anti-conspiracy-theory bloodhound Jake Tapper will again take no notice of.

The media had been prepping the battlespace for this contingency previously:

Good Explanation of Why Tossoff Lost

—Ace

An extended twitter essay here.

If you want the short version, see Stephen Greene's digest.

If you're too lazy even for that: People are sick as hell of the riots, the bullying, the temper tantrums, and the constant caterwauling banshee-wailing from the Monster Babies, or the Garbage Babies as Iowahawk calls them.

They're sick of the constant agitation towards violence from the left, and the media's covering that up, at least, when it's not openly justifying it.

They're sick of the left making them second-class citizens and imposing that status through both vigilante violence as well as the official actions of the corrupt and weaponized state.

They're sick of the institutions of what used to be called "America" issuing get-out-of-jail-free cards to those who threaten American citizens, thereby giving the left a hunting license to kill people on the right.

They're sick of Fake News CNN, where an anchor, shortly after a Black Lives Matter assassin shot a bunch of cops in Dallas, praised that leftwing assassin as "courageous and brave." (Skip to 2:04.)

In short, they're starting to realize the left has declared solemn war on them, and they're waking up to that awful reality, and the inescapable consequences of it.

Cop Stabbed at Bishop Airport in Flint, Michigan; Being Investigated as Possible Terrorism; Attacker Reportedly Shouted "Allahu Ackbar"

—Ace

We may never know the motive, the media promised.

The cop was stabbed in the neck. He had been in critical condition, but is now reportedly in stable condition.

Is This Something?

—Ace

Someone has made a short film goofing on nutjob/Hentai enthusiast Kurt Eichenwald.

The ending is funny, and brief, and should be watched just because it's only 41 seconds long:

A Victory For Free Speech

—OregonMuse

The left has been trying to embed the "hate speech is not free speech" meme into the national consciousness for at least the last couple of years. Well, yesterday, SCOTUS handed down a decision that addressed this very issue.

The case centered on Oregon-based, Asian-American band The Slants, which was denied a trademark because its name was considered offensive. The band countered that the 70-year-old law at issue violates free-speech rights -- and Justice Samuel Alito, in the court’s opinion, agreed.

And here is the result:

And the good part? It was an 8-0(!) decision. Even the Court's far left contingent agreed.

So progressives can just suck it.

Here's the only sour note:

Alito cautioned in his opinion that the government still “has an interest in preventing speech expressing ideas that offend.”

I haven't read the opinion, so I don't know the context of this statement, but it reminds me of my one and only beef with conservative jurisprudence, i.e. sometimes it conserves too much. That is, it sounds like the ruling was based on extremely narrow grounds that will provide progressives many opportunities for relitigation. Like Obergefell. If by some miracle it had gone 5-4 our way, the progressives would have been back within a year with another homosexual marriage case from another state, and they wouldn't have given up until they got the decision they wanted. Then BAM!, now it's settled law and any subsequent challenge is a violation of "precedent."

The end result always seems to be that progressive victories become permanent, but conservative ones rarely do so.

Second look at conservative judicial activism?

Mid-Morning Open Thread

—CBD