Slow dancing in the big city

 

Yesterday's news:  A man shot numerous people in front of the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno yesterday morning, killing three, but he didn't leave a manifesto or a note.  Try and find anything about it today.

Last night a different man killed four people in a New York City office building, possibly because he had a beef with the National Football League.  His note said he suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain injury often seen in football players, although Shane Tamura never played in the NFL.  This is the kind of mass murder that brings them out of the weeds, and Greg Kelly already knows who's really to blame:

How this guy's medical problems became an "Anti-ISRAEL, anti-Jew TERROR ATTACK" Kelly will likely explain in a subsequent screed, along with that beard, but "Blame Mamdani" season is here.  Laura Loomer hurried to brand Tamura "a Free Palestine low IQ black jihadi" and to claim he shouted FREE PALESTINE, which no one else could hear.  Like her cult leader, she likes to underestimate the intelligence of all not-white people.  She also had advice for Marco Rubio:  "Mamdani is in Uganda while his supporters are killing cops in NYC tonight.  Don't let him back into the country."  Makes perfect sense to low-IQ Laura.  

Look, it's our old friend the gun control debate!  Where've you been?  Nobody asked him but John "Heehaw" Kennedy got to the microphone first:  "We don't need more gun control, we need more idiot control."  He's an Oxford man who thinks everyone else is dumb, with more justification than Loomer, and he proposes bringing back stop-and-frisk for dark-skinned people like Tamura because that will stop a man with an AR-15 in his pocket.  Backpack.  Whatever.

The off-duty NYPD officer killed has now been identified as Didarul Islam, an immigrant from Bangladesh.  Wesley LePatner, a board member of the UJA Federation, is also dead.  According to Mayor Eric Adams, Tamura was looking for the NFL office and went to the wrong floor.  In other words, random victims.  So can we turn down the hate a few hundred degrees?  Even Trump managed to respond more or less appropriately (for him). 

But will he attend Officer Islam's funeral?  Joe Biden would.

The New York Post is saying that Tamura purchased his AR-15 from Palmetto State Armory, a gun store that advertises regularly on local television.  Either they have a branch in Las Vegas where he lived or he travelled to New York via Columbia, South Carolina.  Or they're wrong.

Yes, I said Trump responded appropriately, but stranger things are going on.  Marjorie Taylor Greene just agreed with me.  I suspect her dislike of Randy Fine outweighs her concern for the starving children of Gaza, but it still feels weird.  Senate Republicans John Cornyn and Lindsey Graham are also following Trump's lead in acknowledging the man-made famine, being careful to blame Hamas, of course.  Questioned after his meeting with Keir Starmer, Trump produced some word salad about finally getting food to Gaza:  "It's going to be working with the United States, uh, getting the food.  We got a lot of food ourselves and we're going to bring it over there.  We're also going to make sure they don't have barriers stopping people ["they" being Hamas or Israel, depending on when you ask him]. We're going to be getting some good strong food."  I don't think those people can handle kung pao chicken right now.  

Shamed by France, the UK is promising to recognize Palestine if Israel does not agree to a ceasefire and a two-state solution by September.  Careful, Keir, you're going to pull a muscle.  And before you start calling Starmer an antisemite, Greg and Laura, be advised that his wife Victoria is Jewish.  You already look silly enough.

From the Independent:  "Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took the opportunity to play dress-up again as she visited Argentina to sign a new visa-free travel agreement...It is the latest in a long series of sartorial stunts for the former South Dakota governor, who at various times has dressed as a plumber, a welder, a builder, a highway cop, a Border Patrol agent, a firefighter, a Coast Guard officer and an ICE agent in tactical gear."  This time she was a cowgirl riding a horse provided by the Campo de Mayo Military Base.

Yes, we're respected all over the world again.  She missed more than the terrorist shootings in Reno and New York.  A coalition of religious organizations is suing DHS for intimidating their members through "threats of surveillance, interrogation or arrest" at places of worship.  "Churches have seen both attendance and financial giving plummet," the complaint says, alleging violation of the First Amendment as well as the 1993 Religious Freedom Restoration Act.  It looks like the first president to market his own line of Bibles may have gone a step too far.  Hypocrisy has its limits.

Tariffs -- how do they work?  Last week Trump was promising to lower prescription drug prices by as much as 1,500 percent.  This week it looks like the trade deal with the EU, if it happens, will raise drug prices instead.  As with religiosity and xenophobia, it's hard to strike the right balance.  Much easier to drive around Turnberry blasting show tunes to drown out the reporters shouting Epstein questions.  May I recommend "Thank Heaven for Little Girls" from Gigi?

 

CBS cancelled The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and agreed to allow Brendan Carr to appoint a Minister for Public Enlightenment -- sorry, "bias monitor" -- for its news division who will report all facts and other missteps to Trump directly, but that's not enough for Fox's Joe Concha.  Colbert's contract runs through next May, during which he can say anything he likes (including the already immortal "Go fuck yourself") to The Leader, and this is unacceptable.  Concha wants him removed NOW because his show is "basically MSNBC meets The View" (something MSNBC should seriously consider) and gets low ratings and makes Trump angry and he just doesn't like it.  He seems very concerned that the show is "hemorrhaging money," which is not really his damn business unless he owns Paramount stock.  This is why you never submit to bullies -- they always come back for more.  Joe, go fuck yourself.  

Time...is that you?  If so, well done.