Yesterday a bunch of pro-gun advocates showed up at state capitols to protest gun control measures. And yes, they were armed.

Must have been a buy one get one free sale at the flag store.

Courtesy of the AP: 

Gun rights supporters — many carrying rifles and ammunition — gathered at state capitols across the U.S. on Saturday to push back against efforts to pass stricter gun-control laws that they fear threaten their constitutional right to bear arms. 

From Delaware to Wyoming, hundreds gathered at peaceful protests to listen to speakers who warned that any restrictions on gun ownership or use eventually could lead to a ban on gun ownership, which is guaranteed under the Second Amendment. 

“If you have a building and you take a brick out every so often, after a while you’re not going to have a building,” said Westley Williams, who carried an AR-15 rifle as he joined about 100 people braving blustery weather in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a pro-gun-rights rally in front of the state supreme court building. 

Dave Gulya, one of the organizers of a rally in Augusta, Maine, said about 800 people showed up at the statehouse — a gun-free zone — to make the point that “we are law-abiding.” 

Saturday’s protests were planned in dozens of state capitols less than three weeks after hundreds of thousands marched in Washington, New York and elsewhere to demand tougher gun laws after the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17. Organizers of those protests demanded a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and called for universal background checks on potential gun owners.

You know here's the thing.

If you want people to believe that gun owners are relatively harmless, perhaps you DON'T show up to a rally looking like this:

That is using your weapons in an attempt to appear intimidating, not to appear safe and protective of others.

As for these rallies, well Ammosexuals why don't you get back to us when you can actually demonstrate strength in numbers.

Boise March for Our LIves, March 24, 2018
3% Gun Rights Rally in response, April 14, 2018
Blue wave a'comin' pic.twitter.com/SaO5RMrBDm

— Sisyphus Idaho (@Sisyphus43) April 14, 2018

Because as of right now it appears you are greatly outnumbered.

During Trump rallies there was an increase in violence. I know, color me surprised.

Courtesy of the New York Times:  

A study published on Friday appears to confirm what news reports suggested long ago: President Trump’s campaign rallies were associated with a rise in violence when they came to town. 

A city that hosted a Trump rally saw an average of 2.3 more assaults reported on the day of the event than on a typical day, according to the study, led by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and published in the journal Epidemiology. The authors found no corresponding link between assaults and rallies for Mr. Trump’s Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. 

“It appeared to be a phenomenon that’s unique to Donald Trump’s rally,” said Christopher Morrison, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and the lead author of the study. 

It may come as little surprise that the rallies were associated with increased violence, as the often volcanic clashes between Mr. Trump’s supporters and opponents were widely covered at the time.

Yeah I think we all knew this even without a study.

And most of that violence probably happened right there at the rally.

So now that Trump is elected it appears that uptick in violence is now spreading across the country.

So this happened yesterday.

Thousands pack the streets of New York for the second annual Women's March. (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/8D3fC7aa8r

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 20, 2018

We're not going anywhere.

In 2018, we're bringing our #PowerToThePolls.

GET READY.#WomensMarch2018https://t.co/yekbsBwxHj pic.twitter.com/joTcSU4Nuf

— Women's March (@womensmarch) January 20, 2018

Women’s March rallies are taking place in hundreds of cities across the world, galvanized by the #MeToo moment. Here’s the latest. https://t.co/zDbRq8TpPr

— The New York Times (@nytimes) January 20, 2018

My favorite signs of the day.#WomensMarch2018 pic.twitter.com/jayPwaNAec

— Denizcan James (@MrFilmkritik) January 20, 2018

LIVE: #WomensMarch2018 in Manhattan

Wow. Absolutely amazing. Republicans should be terrified of Election Day 2018. #TrumpShutdown https://t.co/b8FS1RN74S

— Scott Dworkin (@funder) January 20, 2018

Courtesy of Fox News: 

Across the world, people were coming together and hitting the streets on Saturday -- the one-year anniversary of President Trump’s inauguration -- marching against his policies and in support of the #MeToo movement against sexual assault and harassment. Protests in New York, Washington, D.C., and Rome were among the more than 200 such actions planned for the weekend. 

In Rome earlier Saturday, dozens of activists gathered to denounce violence against women and express support for #MeToo. 

People also gathered in Osaka, Japan; Frankfurt, Germany; and Kampala, Uganda, for boisterous demonstrations.

To me this is a beautiful thing.

But you have to know that if you are a powerful man used to treating women like objects, or second hand citizens, this has to be one of the most terrifying things imaginable.

But not for one powerful man, because I don't think he really understood what was happening. 

Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March. Get out there now to celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months. Lowest female unemployment in 18 years!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2018

What was the score on that cognitive test again?

DOJ seeking information concerning anti-Trump Facebook users.

Courtesy of Law Newz:  

The ACLU-DC is trying to stop three search warrants that’d let the Department of Justice snoop around protesters’ Facebook accounts over Inauguration Day protests. They filed in D.C. Superior Court on Thursday, saying the government’s demands violate the Fourth Amendment because they are so broad, and threatening First Amendment speech. These warrants ask for too much information not directly relevant to the federal probe, argues the ACLU. This includes information on the plaintiffs’ friends, associates, and the approximately 6000 individuals who just “liked” an anti-Donald Trump Facebook page. 

Requested data would go back to Nov. 1, 2016, a week before the presidential election. “The warrants make no provision for avoiding or minimizing invasions into personal and associational/expression information, for preventing such information from being shared widely within the government, or for destroying irrelevant material when the investigation is concluded,” said the ACLU filing. In other words, this might chill First Amendment speech by giving the government means to observe anyone who were simply linked to anti-Trump protesters. 

This fight stems from arrests made Jan. 20. Demonstrators came to Washington D.C. to protest President Donald Trump‘s inauguration, and over 200 ended up getting charged with felony rioting. In investigating the alleged criminality, the federal government later got three search warrants from the D.C. Superior Court against three Facebook accounts: the disruptj20 page (now known as Resist This) owned by Emmelia Talarico, and personal accounts owned by Lacy MacAuley, and Legba Carrefour. According to the ACLU, these people didn’t initially know about warrants because of a gag order. Facebook fought this gag order, which was later dropped by the government shortly before the D.C. Court of Appeals ruled on it. Talarico, MacAuley, and Carrefour hadn’t even been charged with Inauguration Day-related arrested by the US Attorney, said the ACLU. 

The DOJ declined to comment.

Well on the plus side the Trump Administration seems to finally be recognizing "domestic terrorism," but on the negative side they seem to think that domestic terrorism includes people who "like" a page that says mean things about Orange Hitler.

At this point I am afraid that the outcome of all this attention being paid to Russia's use of social media to impact our election will be that the Trump Department of Justice can then use it to make Facebook and Twitter hand over user information that can then be used to go after critics of the administration.

As much as I want something to be done to protect our democracy from hostile foreign governments using social media to alter the outcome of elections, I have absolutely no confidence that Trump and his lackeys will not use any governmental control provided to them for their own nefarious plans.

After all the greatest threat to the future of this country does not reside in the Kremlin, it resides in the White House.

During 2016 election the Russians apparently used Facebook to try and set up pro-Trump rallies in 17 Florida cities.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Suspected Russia propagandists on Facebook tried to organize more than a dozen pro-Trump rallies in Florida during last year’s election, The Daily Beast has learned. 

The demonstrations—at least one of which was promoted online by local pro-Trump activists— brought dozens of supporters together in real life. They appear to be the first case of Russian provocateurs successfully mobilizing Americans over Facebook in direct support of Donald Trump. 

The Aug. 20, 2016, events were collectively called “Florida Goes Trump!” and they were billed as a “patriotic state-wide flash mob,” unfolding simultaneously in 17 different cities and towns in the battleground state. It’s difficult to determine how many of those locations actually witnessed any turnout, in part because Facebook’s recent deletion of hundreds of Russian accounts hid much of the evidence. But videos and photos from two of the locations—Fort Lauderdale and Coral Springs—were reposted to a Facebook page run by the local Trump campaign chair, where they remain to this day.

It seems like almost everyday we are learning just how involved Facebook was in helping Russian operatives hijack this election. 

I have a feeling that we are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg.

Russia also used Facebook to organize anti-Clinton rallies in Texas.

Courtesy of Business Insider:  

A Russia-linked Facebook group attempted to organize a series of anti-immigrant, anti-Hillary Clinton rallies across Texas last November, three days before the election and months after Russian operatives used the social-media platform to organize an anti-refugee-resettlement protest in rural Idaho. 

The group, called Heart of Texas, had over 225,000 followers as of last summer. It was shut down last week as part of Facebook's takedown of accounts and pages "affiliated with one another and likely operated out of Russia," a Facebook spokesman told Business Insider on Wednesday. 

Casey Michel, a journalist who has spent years tracing US secession movements to Russia, tracked the group's activity throughout the election and determined it was more than just a platform for far-right Texas secessionists.

Several signs pointed to the page being a Russian influence operation, including a lack of contact information and ads, and a corresponding Twitter account created in November 2015 — right around the time Facebook experienced a surge in Russia-linked, fake accounts, Michel said. Its "about" section read only: "Texas's the land protected by Lord." 

Perhaps the most revealing clue that Heart of Texas was not a project spearheaded by dissatisfied Texans was the language. The memes posted in the group contained typos, grammatical errors, and a general unfamiliarity with basic English phrases.

This of course follows news that the Russians used Facebook to organize anti-immigration rallies as well. 

At this point if I were a conservative Trump voter I would be wondering or ANY of the memes I liked, posts I shared, or rallies I attended were NOT created by the Russians.

For the rest of us I think we are just seeing the tip of the iceberg and that there is a whole lot more we are going to learn about just how the Russians stole the 2016 election.

Congress overwhelmingly passes resolution which condemns neo-Nazis and White Supremacists. But will Donald Trump sign it into law? Update!

Courtesy of NBC News:  

Congress has approved a resolution condemning white supremacists, neo-Nazis and other hate groups following a white-nationalist rally in Virginia that descended into deadly violence. 

The resolution recognizes Heather Heyer, who was killed Aug. 12, and 19 other people who were injured after a car allegedly driven by a neo-Nazi slammed into a crowd of demonstrators protesting the rally in Charlottesville. It describes Heyer's death as a "domestic terrorist attack" and acknowledges two Virginia state troopers who died in a helicopter crash while monitoring the protests. 

Six senators from both parties, led by both of Virginia's Democratic senators, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine, introduced the measure, which the Senate approved unanimously Monday night. The House approved the joint resolution Tuesday by unanimous consent.

This resolution now goes to Donald Trump for his signature.

For almost any other president in history this would be a done deal.

But for Trump this might actually present a conundrum.

Does he sign the bill to prove to the world that he is not a racist POS?

Or does he refuse, because deep down he really IS a racist POS?

Update: Good news, Mike Fuckabee's daughter says that Trump will "absolutely" sign this resolution. 

.@PressSec Sarah Sanders says Pres. Trump will "absolutely" sign resolution condemning white supremacist groups. https://t.co/Wu7QWmhc7r pic.twitter.com/idSRAOHWWg

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) September 13, 2017

I wonder if in a quiet act of defiance Trump will sleep in his KKK pjs tonight?

The Russians used Facebook to organize anti-immigration protests to stir up Trump supporters during campaign.

Courtesy of the Daily Beast:  

Russian operatives hiding behind false identities used Facebook’s event-management tool to remotely organize and promote political protests in the U.S., including an August 2016 anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim rally in Idaho, The Daily Beast has learned. 

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to The Daily Beast that the social-media giant “shut down several promoted events as part of the takedown we described last week.” The company declined to elaborate, except to confirm that the events were promoted with paid ads. (This is the first time the social-media giant has publicly acknowledged the existence of such events.) 

The Facebook events—one of which echoed Islamophobic conspiracy theories pushed by pro-Trump media outlets—are the first indication that the Kremlin’s attempts to shape America’s political discourse moved beyond fake news and led unwitting Americans into specific real-life action. 

“This is the next step,” Clint Watts, a former FBI agent and expert on Russia’s influence campaign, told The Daily Beast. “The objective of influence is to create behavior change. The simplest behavior is to have someone disseminate propaganda that Russia created and seeded. The second part of behavior influence is when you can get people to physically do something.”

I swear the more we learn about how hard the Russians worked to help get Trump elected the more we have to wonder just what was promised to them for their efforts.

The lifting of sanctions, open access to the White House, a green light for more oil exploration in the Arctic?

All of that seems reasonable, but I cannot help but think that there was even more to it than that.

Donald Trump is upset that people are writing books about him.

Courtesy of The Hill: 

MSNBC anchor Katy Tur in her new book compares covering then-presidential candidate Donald Trump at campaign rallies to being "caged in the center of the arena like a modern-day Roman Coliseum." 

"They turn as one to boo at us in unison. Six thousand Trump supporters railing against 30 or so journalists — caged in the center of the arena like a modern-day Roman Coliseum," Tur wrote in "Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History." 

Trump criticized Tur during several speeches throughout the campaign, calling the then-33-year-old a "third-rate reporter," "disgraceful" and "not nice." 

At one point during the general election season in July 2016, Trump openly accused Tur of supporting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

If you watched any of MSNBC's coverage of the election, you could not have missed Keay Tur's excellent reporting from the very belly of the beast, the Donald Trump rallies.

She was verbally assaulted, threatened, and even stalked by Trump supporters, not to mention being verbally attacked by the presidential candidate himself.

However in Trump's eyes none of this qualifies Tur to write a book about her time on his campaign.

As evidenced by this tweet he sent not long after it was announced that Tur's book was set for release yesterday.

Fascinating to watch people writing books and major articles about me and yet they know nothing about me & have zero access. #FAKE NEWS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 12, 2017

Of course as we know Donald Trump's version of "fake news" is any news which disagrees with his version of reality.

Personally I think the very fact that he felt the need to attack her like this just reinforces that what she wrote is something he does not want us to read. I imagine it will only help the book sales. 

37 pro-Trump rallies cancelled. Will be held online instead where it is much safer for the little snowflakes.

Courtesy of Gizmodo: 

Pro-Trump rallies that were originally being planned for roughly 37 locations across the US have been canceled. The rallies, scheduled for September 9th, were being coordinated by ACT For America, a pro-Trump and anti-Muslim hate group best known for its “March Against Sharia” back in June. The group said it will instead hold online demonstrations. 

ACT For America released a statement to Breitbart, America’s number 1 website for adult virgins, claiming that the cancellations were due to “the recent violence in America and in Europe.” ACT For America, which calls itself “the NRA of national security,” is now proclaiming Saturday, September 9th an online “Day of ACTion.” It’s not yet clear what the organization has planned, but it’s probably a safe bet that it will involve plenty of shitty memes.

"America’s number 1 website for adult virgins," I love that!

Clearly this is for the best because I have it on good authority that when internet trolls are exposed to the public it is kind of like when vampires go out in the sun, they simply whither and die.

Or have warrants sworn out for their arrest:

Officials at the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office of Albemarle County in Charlottesville said on Monday morning that four warrants had been issued for Mr. Cantwell’s arrest. The office referred questions about the nature of the charges to the University of Virginia Police Department. A spokesman at the department did not respond to requests for comment on Friday, Saturday and Monday. 

The Boston Globe reported on Thursday that the warrants were related to the “illegal use of gases, and injury by caustic agent or explosive.”

Just in case you forgot exactly which pathetic POS this is, it's this guy.

You know personally I think that ALL Trump supporters should avoid going out in public and acting like they are actual human beings and stuff, and should instead  stay on the internet where they can freely associate with others of their kind, like pedophiles, bronies, and people who still miss Crystal Pepsi.

You probably missed it but apparently small crowds of people rallied for Trump all around the country today. And by small crowds, I mean REALLY small crowds.

Huge 50 person rally at the White House happening right now! #March4Trump pic.twitter.com/mK7ARZGi7l

— Aaron Black (@BlackCatUnloads) March 4, 2017

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Around 100 Donald Trump supporters gathered outside Trump Tower on Saturday afternoon, as part of a nationwide effort to show appreciation for the embattled president.  

In something of a blow for the expression of support, the pro-Trump rally was hampered by a dwindling turnout and a counter-protest. 

“I thought there’d be a little bit more people,” said Lance Lovejoy, from Maspeth in Queens. “But it’s a little bit cold out. And it wasn’t well put out either. I only found out about it yesterday.”

Yeah, it was cold, THAT must be it.

Completely off topic but here is a tweet showing the thousand or more women who showed up for the Women's March in Anchorage during a snow storm.

#WomensMarch in #Alaska pic.twitter.com/bspvBvZMAr

— Julia O'Malley (@julia_omalley) January 21, 2017

The crowds were so small that even Fox News did not bother trying to lie about them:

Supporters of President Donald Trump held a series of smaller rallies and marches around the country to show their pride in his presidency. 

Saturday's "March 4 Trump" demonstrations are intended to show unity in the face of what organizers call "a seditious fringe" aiming to sabotage his vision for the country. 

A couple hundred supporters gathered in New York near Trump Tower, chanting "U-S-A." One held a sign reading: "I am not a Democrat anymore." Another read: "Yes he is our president." 

Well Trump may be HIS president but it certainly does not seem as if there are too many who share that sentiment. 

First pic is the #March4Trump at the Ohio Statehouse in Columbus. The other 2 are from the @WomensMarch. Same city. https://t.co/q6hS3fo6Gu pic.twitter.com/3MC7033xPr

— Emanuel Zbeda (@therealezway) March 4, 2017

I wonder how many protesters we will see when Trump gets removed from office for colluding with the Kremlin?

(H/T to Politicususa.)