[Boiler]

A long read from the New York Times on how the NRA has tried to stop any reform to the Death Cult in the USA.

How the A.T.F., Key to Biden’s Gun Plan, Became an N.R.A. ‘Whipping Boy’ https://nyti.ms/3edFGs8

[Arrowhead]

Talking of Death Cults, check out the newly elected Chairman of the Oklahoma Republican Party and his family:


I suppose we shouldn't be surprised, Oklahoma is probably the most Trumpian state of the whole lot.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Okies. A byword...

[MisterMuncher]

This looks like a scene deleted from Verhoeven's RoboCop for being a bit too whacky.

[Arrowhead]

It's going to be interesting seeing how various Anti-Trump Republicans perform over the next couple of years, especially with Trump having already declaring himself the presumptive Republican nominee for 2024.

On Saturday, Texas's 6th congressional district held a special election to fill a seat which had been vacant since the incumbent Republican passed away earlier in the year from COVID-19. Amongst the Republican candidates was one Michael Wood, a military guy who had been vigorous in his condemnation of Trump's role in the Jan 6th insurrection, and who had been financially supported by various Never Trump conservative groups such as the Lincoln Project and the Republican Accountability Project.

Wood ended up finishing 9th out of 23 candidates, managing just over 3% of the overall vote total for the district. His 2,503 votes did, however, represent more than 5% of the total Republican votes cast on Saturday, suggesting perhaps that there has indeed been a modest amount of traditional GOP voters abandoning the party in the wake of Jan 6th.

Lots of Ifs and Buts, however if the Republicans end up leaking a similar proportion of their vote share at future elections elsewhere, it could leave them in a bad place. For example, at the 2020 presidential election Trump would've ended up with 3.7M fewer votes, with Biden almost certainly winning North Carolina and Florida, as well as having majority control of the Senate.

[Andy McDandy]

I think that just as in the UK with the Tories, the Republicans have "priced in" their voter base and safe seats, and realised that a smaller party doesn't actually hurt them that much, as long as they have the big ticket donors.

Fewer people to gladhand and satisfy, fewer dreary provincial dinners to sit through, fewer people to reward, fewer ideas from the grassroots that might sit at odds with the big money agenda. Tribalism means that the old dears will vote for anyone in the right coloured rosette, and getting some interchangeable Ben or Emma from the ConSoc means a less independent minded, more malleable, and less likely to die in office representative than some former councillor or knight of the shires who might have ideas of their own, or a heart condition.

[Bones McCoy]

Those crazy Ammosexuals are at it again...

Grand Canyon lottery to kill bison gathers 45,000 entries

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-57017028

[Spoonman]

'murica!

First, pulling a CHY-EY-NA conspiracy out of your arse...

...Republican cancel culture...

..."Foxmania"...

...more Republican cancel culture, this time the daughter of a former Republican VP...

(for context, Liz Cheney has made the big mistake of speaking on record of moving the Republican party on forward by leaving Donald Trump behind - https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... ing-point/ )

...meanwhile in Oregon, God's plan is happening...

...while in Ohio, and it's "Not The Onion".

[Boiler]

Looks like trouble is brewing for the NRA;

In Rebuke to N.R.A., Federal Judge Dismisses Bankruptcy Case https://nyti.ms/33zG2Dp

Tee hee.

[Youngian]

Lindsey Graham is right, Josh Hawley or Cruz won’t inspire bozo assholes to get off their arses to vote. Only Trump can he’s one of them.

[The Weeping Angel]

Lindsey Graham is right, Josh Hawley or Cruz won’t inspire bozo assholes to get off their arses to vote. Only Trump can he’s one of them.

Hawley reminds me of those obnoxious rich kids you see in American high school dramas.

[Bones McCoy]

Judge Slams 'Students for Trump' Founder as a 'Cold-Blooded Fraudster' Before Sentencing Him to a Year in Prison

https://secondnexus.com/john-lambert-co ... BgRoHFJbFU

[Boiler]

I'm surprised they're not shouting "Burn the witch!"...

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/12/us/p ... -vote.html

[kreuzberger]

Judge Slams 'Students for Trump' Founder as a 'Cold-Blooded Fraudster' Before Sentencing Him to a Year in Prison

https://secondnexus.com/john-lambert-co ... BgRoHFJbFU

HE can thank Lady Luck for that stretch. Wire Fraud is a Federal offence and, as such, attracts really stiff sentences.

My old CEO got twelve years on similar charges. Mind you, he had racked up $109m by the time it all came toppling down.

Edit: poor concentration.

[MisterMuncher]

I truly don't claim any understanding of the patchwork quilt of American criminal justice, but I always found the distinction between state and federal crime a weird one. They do seem very fond of playing up the harsher conditions of federal prison as a little bonus feature too. The fucking wankers

[davidjay]

This made me smile.

Buckingham Palace demands Her Majesty’s image removed from ‘Trump Train’

https://www.itv.com/news/2021-05-13/qan ... rump-train

[The Weeping Angel]

What the Fuck?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... im-remains

The public outcry over the handling of human remains retrieved from the ashes of the deadly 1985 bombing of a Black liberation organization in Philadelphia dramatically escalated on Thursday, with the revelation that the bones of an undisclosed number of Move victims were incinerated and dumped by the city without the knowledge or permission of living relatives.

In a bombshell disclosure, the mayor of Philadelphia, Jim Kenney, announced that he had fired the city’s health commissioner, Thomas Farley. The mayor said that Farley had told him earlier this week that several years ago he had become aware that remains of victims of the Move bombing – in which 11 people died – were still in the possession of the city’s medical examiner’s office.

It is understood that the health commissioner became aware of the bones’ existence in 2017. Instead of attempting to identify them and return them to the families of the deceased, Farley said “he made a decision to cremate and dispose of them”, the mayor said in a statement.

[AOB]

New York prosecutor says Trump inquiry now 'criminal'

A spokesman for the state's top prosecutor, Letitia James, said the inquiry into Mr Trump's property company was "no longer purely civil".

"We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA."

Ooh, sounds intriguing... tell us more.

" We have no additional comment."

You tease.

[Tubby Isaacs]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... reg-abbott

Texas governor signs extreme six-week abortion ban into law
Senate Bill 8 bars abortion at six weeks with no exception for rape or incest, amounting to a near-total ban

This stuff is not popular in the US generally.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/20 ... oe-v-wade/

[The Weeping Angel]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... reg-abbott

Texas governor signs extreme six-week abortion ban into law
Senate Bill 8 bars abortion at six weeks with no exception for rape or incest, amounting to a near-total ban

This stuff is not popular in the US generally.

https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/20 ... oe-v-wade/

Roe vs Wade is also going to be coming up before the Supreme Court as well.