- The anti-fascist fascists may have reached a new low. They used threats of violence successfully to cancel a long-time traditional parade in Portland, Oregon. Why? Because Republicans were participating. (H/T M)
- And once again — as is the usual these days — police are doing nothing to stop mob rule. Just happened again in Berkeley. Mind you, I think it’s naive to expect cops to protect free speech; they’ve rarely ever been in favor of it. But as a general rule, cops have at least enjoyed whacking left-wing demonstrators over the head. Now they’re not even doing that.
- Sigh. Only NASA could be running out of space suits while hardly putting anybody into space. What a sad commentary.
- Hey, while we’re whining about oppression and inequality, how ’bout having better racial integration in the NFL? After all, it’s only fair, right?
- Maybe United really means it this time. Could happen.
- But I don’t think the Trumpists really mean it when they talk about tax reform. Not that their plan is all bad. There’s plenty of good in it. It’s just that it’s all crony. Ain’t nothin’ there that’ll help lift the burden from the middle and working classes. Oh yeah, trickle down. I forgot trickle down. That’s worked so well for Joe Average for the last 30-some years.
- I do worry about North Korea aiming for a reachable mainland U.S. target — i.e. Seattle. Actually, I worry even more that they’ll aim for Seattle or Portland … and miss. But saner heads say Seattle’s not all that likely to be the next to be nukes.
- Yeah, gotta agree with Joel on this one. That concealed carry badge isn’t going to be a hit with cops anywhere.
- Surprise. Dogs prefer to take advice from people who actually know what they’re doing.
- And here’s your awwwwwww story for the day. You’ll have to click to see, but it’s got both a cute kitten and beautiful kind-hearted dogs.
If dogs respond better to those who know what they’re doing, maybe that explains why so many owners cannot control their dogs; i.e. why dogs do not obey their owners.
OT: This sounds interesting. New book by Cory Doctorow…
https://arstechnica.com/the-multiverse/2017/04/cory-doctorows-walkaway-hardware-hackers-face-the-climate-apocalypse/
ANTIFA is anything but! They act exactly like Hitler’s Brown Shirts.
I’m always fascinated by the “..a few bad apples” argument in reference to groups like Antifa through history. Of course, besides Gun Free Zones, Americans currently have some choice in the option to protect themselves.
I’m a child of the cold war. I keep thinking, “But if all you want is to commit national suicide, there’s other ways to deliver one nuke to Seattle. You don’t need a giant missile program.” At this point I wonder if even the Chinese would really mind all that much if Trump turned Pyongyang into a parking lot. It would be an attractive prospect if not for all those dead hostages who didn’t ask to be trapped on the wrong side of a line.
With every victory, the antifa crowd gets bolder. I worry that when the shooting starts, it may not stop for a long time.
I know that it’s inevitable. But it’s still something I dread.
When criticizing NK’s missile program, remember that they have successfully launched 2 satellites into orbit. Whatever went wrong the day of the test, it was not because they didn’t know how to launch a rocket.
“ANTIFA is anything but! They act exactly like Hitler’s Brown Shirts.”
Absolutely. What’s weird is that they can’t see that.
“Absolutely. What’s weird is that they can’t see that.”
Not at all. They’ve adopted another Nazi technique, too: The Big Lie. They accuse their opposition of everything they are themselves doings, screaming it loud enough and often enough that they convince themselves and few gullible idiots.
If there is one thing that 9/11 proved it is that you don’t need ICBM’s to put a hurt on the US of A and if you consider how we over reacted with the Patriot Act and thus it seems all we need is a reason to destroy our own liberty.
IMHO a dirty nuke in the downtown of you name the cities (Seattle, LA, Wall street, etc. etc….) can do a pretty good job of pulling out some key cards in our house of cards and their are many countries & groups capable of dirty nukes today.
Then you have the North Koreans (8 or more nukes today) and soon to be Iranians (who the O with the help of the R’s) will have some nukes soon too; do they really need ICBM’s to put on a big hurt when all you need is some scuds tipped with nukes on freighters offshore firing those nukes at elevations that brings about EMP’s over large parts of this Ole US of A giving us the panic, chaos and deaths related to the end of civilization in the effected areas. Of course we can count on our noble R’s and D’s to not over react thus bringing about complete tyranny to our non existent constitutional republic of today, can’t we?
I expect there are probably many dog/cat cross adoptions. Many years ago, I was given a tiny puppy, much too young to wean. Her mother and all siblings had died, and the neighbor didn’t want to be bothered. I tried to feed the little thing, but it was too weak to nurse from the pet bottle and seemed to be hopeless, so I set it out in the shade of the back yard because I couldn’t bear to see it die.
A few hours later I realized that my sons would be home from school soon, and rushed out to take care of it. I searched the yard, then the barn, and found the puppy nursing vigorously on an old barn cat with three kittens about the same age as the pup.
She grew up healthy and happy, but was always suspicious of dogs… She was convinced she was a cat! That was my first Welsh Corgi, mixed with a little who knows… and she lived for 19 years. Wish I had pictures.
That cat looks like she might have a little Maine Coon in her? Nice.
Do I get to tell my Mama Click story now? Huh? Can I?
Better forgiveness than permission: I had a middle-aged female tabby that lived with me in this little RV along with three dogs. These dogs’ social orientation had been screwed with when they were puppies to the point where a cat was not only a fully-accepted pack member but actually something of an authority figure. But we lived in the desert where a cat often doesn’t live long. Click – that was the cat – had lived there since kittenhood and was very smart for a cat; knew how to avoid the predators further up the food chain.
We were unfortunately approaching some personnel changes in the dog pack, and in anticipation I responded when somebody needed a home for a black mutt puppy. I didn’t really know anything about raising puppies, and figured that I should let the pack help with that while I still had a pack. Didn’t know how Click would react to a new puppy, but the older dogs had already demonstrated that they would correct another animal that messed with Click.
The puppy seemed to get that Click was not to be used as a chew toy, and soon she was actually playing with him. If he got too rambunctious, she’d haul off and swat the hell out of him and he’d take it.
Then one day I came into the trailer to find Little Bear (the puppy) chowing down on a rabbit. Indoors. Where he could not conceivably have caught a rabbit. I know he wasn’t outdoors, and I know he didn’t sneak a rabbit indoors past me. How the hell did that dog get a rabbit?
A few days later it happened again.
One night I woke to hear the unmistakeable sound of a small body being devoured whole by a dog, two feet from my face. My first thought was “I certainly hope Little Bear (who was growing fast) isn’t eating Click.” Turned on the light. Nope – rabbit.
It was beginning to look like that was going to be the mystery of the summer. Then one evening I heard the cat door open and-not-quite-close, and it looked as though Click were stuck in the door and struggling. She was struggling, all right – with the limp body of a cottontail rabbit bigger than she was. She finally got it through the door and then rather tenderly laid it in front of Little Bear. Who devoured it on the spot.
She broke two cat doors that summer. And none of the other dogs ever offered to join in the feast – not even Magnus, the head dog, who loved him some rabbit. I joked later that she was raising her own personal monster as a retirement plan.
🙂 Worked, too.
Joel — I’d forgotten about Mama Click and the rabbits! Thanks for the reminder and the charming story. Click was a great cat.
If you read the Portland “protestors” letter to the parade sponsors, you’ll see typical bully verbiage. In the first paragraph they promise a “non-violent” protest if the racist haters are allowed in the parade. After much drivel saying how they felt compelled to protect the citizenry from having to put up with anyone non-left, they finally state that they will rush into the parade in a group and push and pull the non-believers out of the parade.
Non-violent. Yeah, I’m not hitting you, it’s just that my fist is connecting to your face at a fast rate.
The parade was cancelled, not because of the threat, but because the parade organizers agreed with the threateners.
At least Joel’s one is a window sticker, and not a “real badge.”
Like this one:
https://www.amazon.com/NEW-Concealed-Carry-Badge-Wallet/dp/B017QO4KRQ
We are NOT cops and we don’t want to look like one.
(Note to Claire: Yeah, it’s on Amazon, but still… ;-))
I’d love to bug one of the parade-disrupters’ planning sessions, to see whether they are naïve or malicious. I’d also love to bug one of the college-administrators’ response sessions, to see if they are naïve or malicious.
Take 3,421 of “Remember when the media was all O.M.G. at the thought that right-wingnuts wouldn’t accept Hillary’s inevitable coronation?”
I also note that these incidents are taking place where it’s relatively safe to be liberal. I’ll be watching Atlanta this weekend, to see what happens. msm editorials are already saying they and the cops are more afraid of NRA actions than demonstrators, but I note the articles aren’t actually quoting any real-life line cops.
And once again — as is the usual these days — police are doing nothing to stop mob rule
This concerns me a great deal. It’s easy to say “well, that’s Berkeley” but it’s a much more serious issue. Citizens have come to expect police to be supportive of lawful behavior and sufficiently unsupportive of unlawful behavior to take action to stop it. If the attitude and behavior of Berkeley’s police force spreads, or even if it’s only perceived as spreading, it will establish police as being “on the other side.”
At some point, it’s very possible – perhaps probable – that Antifa, or other similar groups, will cross the provocation threshold and trigger a response that is not just self-defensively violent but punitively violent; if police officers, any police officers, are perceived as being part of the enemy against whom we must not just engage in self defense but exact severe enough retribution to completely stop the activity and make future attempts at it extremely unproductive, that will become very ugly very fast.
Of such things are civil wars made.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/30/business/traffic-light-fine.html