Jesus thinks he has fixed the irony meter.

You can support J&M on Patreon… Read the rest

Something pretty after a rough few days: from the last Winter Olympics, in Sochi:

… Read the rest

This just in (i.e. just tweeted by Benjamin Wittes with an extra-emphatic “BOOM”) –

Indictment of INTERNET RESEARCH AGENCY LLC

The Post yesterday:

The latest revelations come after U.S. intelligence officials warned this week that Russia is gearing up to meddle again, this time in the November elections. Yet even as analysts urge preparation for the next round of online disinformation, major questions remain from 2016 over how Russians inserted themselves into a rollicking American political campaign without setting off more alarms in the United States — or triggering efforts to combat the disinformation effort.

The analysis by Albright, who is the research director at Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism and is part of Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center

Senator Marco Rubio claims to know, somehow, that restrictions on gun ownership would not have prevented yesterday’s slaughter at a public high school.

Sen. Marco Rubio said Thursday that gun restrictions would not have prevented the mass shooting at a high school in his home state.

“I understand. I really do. You read in the newspaper that they used a certain kind of gun and therefore let’s make it harder to get those kinds of guns. I don’t have some sort of de facto religious objection to that or some ideological commitment to that, per se,” the Florida Republican said.

“If we do something, it should be something that works. And the struggle up to this point has been

Guest post by Maureen Brian, originally commenting on a Facebook posting of mine of Trump tweeting:

So many signs that the Florida shooter was mentally disturbed, even expelled from school for bad and erratic behavior. Neighbors and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!

If the behaviour of young Mr Cruz was so bad that he had to be expelled from school then clearly he had problems. He had had problems for some time.

Was he offered any sort of support long ago? Was that support even available? Did anyone offer support to his family?

Before we rush to station a brigade of psychiatrists in every school or fall for … Read the rest

Via:

… Read the rest

The Times is live-updating the latest Random Explosion of Carnage:

• Gov. Rick Scott of Florida said he would meet with state lawmakers to secure more funding for school safety and the treatment of mental illness. “If we have somebody that’s mentally ill, they can’t have access to a gun,” Mr. Scott said.

• The authorities said the AR-15 rifle that Mr. Cruz used in the attack was purchased legally. “No laws were violated in the procurement of this weapon,” said Peter J. Forcelli, the special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Miami. In Florida, an AR-15 is easier to buy than a handgun.

It’s not about “mental illness,” it’s about horrifyingly … Read the rest

You couldn’t make it up.

Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda? My goodness. This isn't about a gun it's about another lunatic. #FloridaShooting

— Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) February 15, 2018

Can the Left let the families grieve for even 24 hours before they push their anti-gun and anti-gunowner agenda? My goodness. This isn’t about a gun it’s about another lunatic. #FloridaShooting

Where to begin?

We’re not preventing the families from grieving, or interfering with their grieving.

What “agenda”? The only “agenda” is to try to stop this horrendous thing from happening over and over – in fact to try to prevent it from ever happening again, on … Read the rest

The BBC yesterday:

The Australian Football League (AFL) has agreed for the first time to allow a transgender footballer to play women’s football at state level.

Hannah Mouncey, 28, who previously played at local level in Canberra, hopes to take to the field in the state of Victoria this season.

The AFL said it wanted everyone to be able to play Australian rules football.

Before she began her gender transition in 2015, Mouncey played for the Australian men’s handball team.

The AFL’s decision means she can now partake in any of its affiliated state leagues during the 2018 season.

…

Australian rules football consists of two teams of 18 players and takes place on an oval-shaped field.

Players can

Garrett Epps on widening contempt for the rule of law in the US such as for instance

the litigation tactic adopted by Michael Turzai and Joseph Scarnati, two Republicans who are respectively the speaker of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives and the President of the Pennsylvania State Senate, in an emergency stay application filed with Justice Samuel Alito. The application asked Alito to block a decision of Pennsylvania’s State Supreme Court. That decision—rendered as an order on January 22 and explained in a lengthy opinion on Thursday—invalidated the system of U.S. House districts approved by the Republican legislature for election of members of the U.S. House next fall.

The state court held that the partisan nature of the district

And speaking of trying to slash budgets for everything that’s not weapons or presidential travel while also pissing it away on graft and trumpian whims – Donnie’s Excellent Parade will cost between 10 and 30 million.

Trump’s military parade would cost between $10 million and $30 million, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney said on Wednesday.

Mulvaney offered the estimate during questioning at the House Budget Committee. He said the White House hasn’t yet budgeted for the parade and would either rely on Congress to appropriate funds, or use money that already has been approved.

“The estimates I’ve seen, they’re very preliminary, is between 10 [million dollars] and 30 [million dollars] depending upon the length,” Mulvaney said. “Obviously an

Trump’s proposed budget (which mercifully won’t get through Congress) slashes science and the arts and humanities, while in another part of the forest his hires steal public money in every creative way they can think of. The latest example:

Veterans Affairs Secretary David J. Shulkin’s chief of staff doctored an email and made false statements to create a pretext for taxpayers to cover expenses for the secretary’s wife on a 10-day trip to Europe last summer, the agency’s inspector general has found.

Vivieca Wright Simpson, VA’s third-most senior official, altered language in an email from an aide coordinating the trip to make it appear that Shulkin was receiving an award from the Danish government — then used the award