Supreme Court Helps Out Mass Shooters by Overturning Bump Stock Ban

The Supreme Court released an extreme ruling on Friday overturning a Trump-era ban on bump stocks, an attachment used to convert a semiautomatic rifle into an automatic rifle and which dramatically increases capacity for causing mass death. The Supreme Court overturned that ban in a 6–3 vote on Friday, with all liberal justices dissenting.

Bump stocks were initially banned by the Trump administration following the Las Vegas massacre, where a shooter using a bump stock fired more than 1,000 rounds at concertgoers over the course of 11 minutes in October 2017, killing 59 people and injuring more than 500. But even gun-friendly Trump’s restriction was a step too far for the high court.

Delivering the ruling, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued that bump stocks don’t convert rifles into machine guns, which are banned. Thomas’s logic is that because a bump stock allows a shooter to “rapidly re-engage the trigger” instead of continuous shooting, bump stocks don’t convert assault rifles into machine guns. This splitting-hairs distinction evacuates any consideration for how much a bump stock transforms a rifle—converting the number of bullets that can be shot per minute from 180 to anywhere between 400 to 800.

The Supreme Court’s ruling focuses on granular differences between high-capacity weapons of mass death—as if how frequently a finger pulls a trigger makes much difference to the loved ones of those killed under a hail of bullets.

Speaker Mike Johnson tried to claim to Sean Hannity that Donald Trump didn’t trash Milwaukee in his meeting with House Republicans on Thursday, despite the fact that Trump admitted he made the insult.

On Fox News Thursday night, Hannity asked Johnson point-blank if Trump called Wisconsin’s largest city, the site of the Republican National Convention this summer, a “horrible city.”

“No, I didn’t hear it, and I was sitting right next to him,” Johnson said, seemingly unaware that Trump had already doubled down on his comments on Fox News itself. 

Trump’s insult of Milwaukee spread quickly and prompted denials and explanations from Republicans Thursday, including Wisconsin representatives who were present. Johnson appears to have taken his cue from Representative Bryan Steil, who also denied that Trump attacked the city, while three other Republicans from the state tried to explain it away, not knowing that Trump would later own his comments.

Wisconsin Democrats have already pounced on Trump for his words, with Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson mocking the convicted felon and former president and Representative Gwen Moore joking that Trump’s presence in Milwaukee would raise the city’s crime rate. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential nominee’s other bizarre comments in his House meeting have been overshadowed, including his mention of Taylor Swift and his even stranger claim that one of Nancy Pelosi’s daughters had told him he and her mother “would be perfect together.”

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene doesn’t want anyone getting the wrong idea: that get-in-line remark from Donald Trump was definitely a compliment.

The MAGA soldier was thrilled that the presumptive GOP presidential nominee even recognized her among the crowd of House Republicans during his closed-door meeting with the caucus on Thursday.

“He’s always so sweet, recognizing me, and he said, ‘Are you being nice to Speaker [Mike] Johnson?’” she told CNN’s Lauren Fox.

“He was joking. And I said, ‘Eh,’” she continued, gesturing with her hands. “He said, ‘OK, be nice to him,’ and I nodded my head.”

But interpreting the interaction as anything other than high praise from an idol to his sycophants is completely off the books. Greene made a point to furiously correct Politico’s Olivia Beavers, who reported that the room had “erupted” after Trump ordered the instruction.

“Nothing’s worse than a reporter that only reports half the story,” Greene wrote on X, sharing a screenshot of Beavers’s description of the meeting. “She left off all the nice compliments Pres Trump said about me to our conference.”

“President Trump is right. I’m loyal and unapologetically support him everywhere and all the time, and I am capable. That’s why I’ll be nice to Johnson as long as he’s nice to my favorite President,” she continued. “And that means Speaker Johnson better use the full weight of his office to stop the politically weaponized government and pass our Republican agenda, not Biden’s agenda.”

Greene and Johnson were diametrically opposed as recently as last month, when the Georgia Republican forced a vote to strip Johnson of the gavel. Her motion to vacate fell apart after the House voted 359-43 to keep Johnson in leadership.

But the time-consuming and chaotic effort came at the cost of Greene’s already minimal popularity in the lower chamber, with Republicans insisting that she be stripped of her committee assignments for leading another attempt to divide an already thin and historically unproductive majority.

Lawrence O’Donnell tore into Senator Ted Cruz for submissively applauding Donald Trump, who famously hates him, even after the presumptive GOP nominee had walked out of his meeting with Senate Republicans.

During his show on MSNBC Thursday night, O’Donnell reminded viewers that during Trump’s first run for president, he made several depraved comments about Cruz. Trump had made the wild assertion that Cruz’s father killed President John F. Kennedy. He also attacked Cruz’s wife’s appearance, threatening to “spill the beans” on her. Cruz tossed a few volleys of his own, calling Trump a “pathological liar,” a “sniveling coward,” and a “serial philanderer.”

O’Donnell reminded viewers that, “There was real suspense then going into the 2016 Republican Convention about whether or not the deeply offended Senator Cruz would even endorse Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president. But Senator Cruz looked into his heart and found … nothing,” O’Donnell said.

“Nothing that would prevent him from endorsing the presidential candidate who attacked and lied about his father and attacked and lied about his wife. And there was Senator Cruz today in that lineup of utterly egoless Republican men craving their moment with Donald Trump, craving a possible handshake, or a possible pat on the back, or a wink or a smile, a glance, anything from Donald Trump.”

When it became apparent that Trump would seize the nomination in 2016, the Texas senator put the bad blood aside, and has since repeatedly sold his soul for a ticket on the Trump train. In January, Cruz announced he was “enthusiastically” endorsing him for president.

O’Donnell highlighted how Cruz’s spinelessness was once again on display during Trump’s meeting with Republican senators Thursday. In footage from the event, Trump can be seen moving down a line of senators hoping for a handshake. He stopped in front of his fanboy, Cruz, for a moment, before swiftly moving down the line. As Trump made his way out the door, Cruz kept clapping—and continued applauding even after Trump was out of the room.

“He kept clapping after Donald Trump left the room, after the door was closed,” O’Donnell scoffed. “Did he think Donald Trump could see through the door?”

Another day, another manufactured ragebait: Conservative media is circulating a video of Joe Biden apparently wandering off during a G7 summit gathering in southern Italy with claims that fascist Italian Prime Minister Meloni had to “pull him back to focus.” The incident caused a stir among right-wing outlets—and was totally doctored.

The clip that circulated among tabloids at home and abroad, including the New York Post, Sky News, and Times of India—was first blown up by right-wing account “RNC Research,” an account managed by Trump’s campaign team and the Republican National Convention and that claims to be “exposing the lies, hypocrisy, and failed far-left policies of Joe Biden and the Democrat Party.”

RNC Research’s post conveniently cropped out a skydiver repacking his parachute that Biden turned to talk to before another skydiver began addressing the group of global leaders. After the New York Post shared the video of the incident on X, it was quickly met with a Community Note debunking the claim. While the New York Post’s article admits Biden was speaking with a skydiver, the headline and included video are nonetheless deceptive, provoking criticism of the Post’s coverage of the non-incident incident.

In the full video, world leaders are informally gathered around each other, talking and looking around as Biden moves to chat with a skydiver repacking his parachute. While he’s speaking to the skydiver, another skydiver begins talking to the group, at which point the gaggle of world leaders begin to shuffle and adjust to listen to the skydiver. It’s at that point Meloni taps Biden to notify him that another skydiver is speaking to them behind him.