In 1999, majority whip criticized David Duke as unelectable

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 1 Comment
New House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R–LA) speaks to a white, nationalist group, but not white nationlists

New House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R–LA) speaks to another white, nationalist group.

Since Monday, House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R–LA) has fended off criticism for appearing at the 2002 National/International EURO Workshop on Civil Rights, a white nationalist organization founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. You know Duke is a pro, because he put “civil rights” in the name of his white supremacist convention. John Boehner is a pro, too. He and other Republican leaders have issued coordinated statements defending Scalise and expressing their confidence that he can wield the power of the whip.

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Friday links! Propaganda states edition

By Dan Brooks in Friday Links 2 Comments
A $2.5 million Bugatti with a penis painted on it. Kombat! Kids: Can you find the komposition mistake in this photo?

A $2.5 million Bugatti with a penis painted on it. Can you spot the composition error in this photo?

According to a website called The LAD Bible, someone parked his Bugatti Veyron on the streets of Seattle, where someone else—presumably a rival Veyron owner—spray-painted a penis on the hood. The LAD Bible says that’s bad. Its 200-word article does not say who owns the car, the date this may have happened, whether the police are involved or how LAD Bible came to know about it, but it does describe the act of vandalizing a sports car as “unthinkable.” Today is Friday, and you don’t need a government to run your propaganda state. Won’t you relentlessly enforce the values of the ruling class with me?

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One third of Daines’ $5 million is from MT

By Dan Brooks in Montana Politics 1 Comment
"Hadouken," Daines retorts

“Hadouken,” retorted Daines

The Democratic Party of Montana has found a replacement for lurching plagiarist John Walsh: Amanda Curtis, high school math teacher and Butte resident, presumed plucky. And she is getting the full disbursement of leftover Walsh funding allowed by law: two thousand dollars. Meanwhile, an entity called the Lee Newspapers State Bureau reports that about one third of Republican Steve Daines’s $5 million in campaign funds came from within the state. That’s actually a lot for a small-population Senate race.

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Cop’s counterpoint: If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me

By Dan Brooks in Fascism 0 Comment
Mug shots of four LAPD officers acquitted in the beating of Rodney King

Mug shots of four LAPD officers acquitted in the beating of Rodney King

Yesterday in the Washington Post, LAPD veteran and professor of homeland security Sunil Dutta published an editorial titled I’m a cop. If you don’t want to get hurt, don’t challenge me. Black Post subscribers throughout the nation dropped their newspapers and froze. A few were shot between one and 19 times. But that wasn’t anybody’s fault, because the cops are under a lot of stress—mostly from dealing with us all day. As Dutta puts it, “It’s not the police, but the people they stop, who can prevent a detention from turning into a tragedy.” Losing my goddamned mind after the jump.

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Genius entrepreneurs develop bulletproof blanket for schoolchildren

By Dan Brooks in Gun control 21 Comments
bulletproof-blanket

Children lying under the ProTecht Bodyguard® bulletproof blanket prepare to be sprayed with bullets.

Ask any child, and he’ll tell you that there’s only one way to prevent deaths from school shootings: ban school. But what if there were something else we could do—something that might protect our children without impoverishing their minds even further? Had you asked me that question two weeks ago, I would have thrashed you for a lackwit. But then Peter “The Vulgarian” Franke told me about the Protecht Bodyguard® bullet-resistant blanket, which “can provide a quick, simple solution for maximum protection against a school intruder.” How many deaths from school shootings will this literal security blanket prevent? Well, it covers about 90% of a child’s body, so…

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