Fun with Guns isn’t fun if somebody gets killed.  Unless, of course, an idiot shoots himself.

A 43-year-old man has died after authorities say he accidentally shot himself in the face while taking selfies.

The Skagit Valley Herald [Washington State] reports the man and his girlfriend were photographing themselves with the weapon on Sunday at a residence when he shot himself.

Skagit County Sheriff’s Office Patrol Chief Chad Clark says the woman reported that she and the man had taken photos with the gun several times that day and that the man had loaded and unloaded bullets multiple times.

Clark says a bullet apparently remained in the gun the final time he fired.

Apparently?  Did the report actually say “apparently”?  No shoot, Sherlock.

Thanks to everybody for the heads up.

The putative sancilbupeR nominee won’t release his tax returns, despite being called out by a prominent Mormon to do so, and won’t distance himself from an historically racist organization.

Meanwhile, the prominent Mormon was once a himself snacilbupeR nominee who wouldn’t release his tax returns, despite being called out by a prominent Mormon to do so, who wouldn’t distance himself from an historically racist organization.

No matter how much you shake it:

Once a flipper, always a flopper.

~Primo

Guys, I am almost fully back to normal.  A day or two more and I’ll be good as new.

But, I had to drop what I’m doing to bring you this.  Some folks have mentioned it in the comments but I need to make it a full from age story.

Travis County (think Austin) has elected a Snake Stomping Trump Republican as their county chair.  The Texas Tribune describes the reaction of the GOP power structure in Austin as “apoplectic.”  I dunno, I think maybe “snot slingin’ roof raisin’ rage” might be more accurate.

To say that Robert Morrow, the new Travis County Republican party chairman is plain spoken is like saying that Van Gogh paints nicely.  Morrow cusses like a sailor, oodles women, is convinced that most of the GOP is gay and that Hillary Clinton is “a bull dyke.”  The seems real obsessed on this gay thing.

He drops F-bombs like they were tisket-taskets in his basket.

Instead of dog whistles, he just hollers for Rover to get his butt home.

Morrow’s main complaint is with “establishment” Republicans, who he does not believe should hold elected office, he said. Last week, he tweeted that the Republican National Committee was just a “gay foam party.”

Morrow has a long history of critiquing prominent state Republicans in vulgar, and often sexually explicit, terms. For years, he has alleged that Perry is secretly bisexual; in 2010, he referred to him as “Gov. Skank Daddy” in an email.

He also uses the n word and chewed out a reporter for not wanting to use it.

When the Tribune asked about the content of some of Morrow’s social media posts, without using the specific racial slur Morrow had employed, Morrow seized on the omission as an example of corruption within the media.

“You are a perfect example of what the Trump movement is revolting against because you can’t even pronounce the word n—– when you are talking about a Facebook post,” Morrow said. “What a pathetic excuse for a reporter you are.”

Stock up on popcorn, my Texas friends.  This is gonna be fun.

Thanks to everybody and their Aunt Matilda for the heads up.

Poor Marquito.  Every time he turns around, Chris Christie is popping up like an overfed, short-haired, leaping gnome to absolutely crush him. The Outlaw Jersey Whale first eviscerated Marco Rubio in a debate-stage murder-suicide, broadcast live on the electrical teevee.  Then, when the RU-B0 droid finally looked like he might become a real boy, when he was finally poised to be poised to do something, Christie joined the Prince of Darkness Orange and sucked all the oxygen out of Mark’s Mojo.

Now, post SuperMinnesota, he’s third in delegates, third in wins, and has finished third in most states.  His only hope is to convince the media, party elders, money people and the RNC that he can ride this Win-Lose-or-Draw Primary to the Cleveland convention conclusion, and a broke, broken, brokered candidacy.

~Primo

As crazy as the snacilbupeR race is, it’s not, really. If you replaced all their names with letters – candidate A, candidate B etc – any rational observer would say that, based on the trends and the polls, candidate A with 316 delegates is well on his way to becoming the party nominee for President.

Except, nobody in the Party LIKES candidate A. Also, nobody likes candidate B very much, the only other guy who has won a few. Candidate C, who won Minnesota in the middle of last night, everyone likes simply by virtue of that fact that’s he’s not B, and most emphatically not A. He’s also not the most adroit politician to ever execute an aqualunge, but candidates D and E are less adroit still.

So what this leaves us is Trump, with one quarter of the votes needed to win the nomination, being treated as a pariah by the very party for whom he is their standard bearer. As party leaders try to find an alley door to shove him out of, all his voters just keep voting for him. BUT: they rarely raise him above 40% in a race, and he racked up all those Super Tuesday wins while still failing to achieve a majority in a single race. No Republican has, yet, in 2016, and that’s a record.

Never in the history of Republican Primaries have we gone through Super Tuesday without several – sometimes many – state races won with a majority of votes. They number in the dozens going back through 1984, when Super Tuesday was invented, and continue back through early primaries in the 1970s, when the modern primary system came to be. Two candidates, 3 candidates, 4 candidates, even 5 valid candidates gaining votes early on in races such as this, have always produced winners – sometimes several – who broke the 50% mark.

Here are the number of Republican contested primaries (or caucuses) won with >50% of the vote, by year, thru Super Tuesday of each contest:

Note: 1984 and 2004 were left out because they were virtually uncontested incumbents.

So while, on the one hand, it may appear that Republicans are denying Trump true front-runner status, on the other hand, there’s never been a front-runner who deserved it less.

~Primo

Last night’s Super Tuesday races shaped up about as we discussed. Bernie blew the doors off in Vermont. Shrodinger’s cat was indeed alive in both Colorado and Minnesota, and the race was indeed close in Oklahoma, where Sanders won, and Massachusetts, where he lost.

But Hillary ran up impressive victories across the South. Her 78% in Alabama nearly matched Sander’s 86% in Vermont, and the remainder of all her other states showed at least 30-point wins across the board, with some margins running 2-1 or even 3-1. But it was the tiny win – MA – that was the dagger.

By any measure, including compared to Donald Trump, Clinton did extremely well and, among pledged delegates, maintains a 544 to 349 lead over Bernie, or almost exactly the 200 delegates we discussed yesterday.

By virtue of winning almost all the states he tried to compete in, Bernie maintains a narrative that the race is not over. He can claim viability, and, in fact, in a race where 2,383 delegates are needed for victory, no one is yet close to winning.

However, there is the small matter of unpledged delegates, aka Super delegates. Sanders has 22 of them, which rockets his total to 371. Clinton has 457, which gives her 1,001 delegates, or 42% of the total needed for the nomination.

The SuperD’s are, of course, a bone of contention, but even if they disappeared tomorrow, and the race were to be decided by pledged delegates alone, Sanders would have to average 54% for the remainder of ALL the primaries. In other words, if only white people come out from now on he has a shot at a hypothetical victory. But if Hillary loses every remaining contest averaging 47%of the vote, she still wins the pledged delegates.

In order to even build the case that the SuperD’s should not be used to tip the result, Bernie needs a game changer. In the next 2 weeks, roughly another thousand delegates will be awarded, the bulk of them in states where Hillary is posting poll numbers like the SEC primary last night. He’s got to cut into this lead, to re-challenge Hillary’s inevitability narrative.

In poker, you’re said to still be in the game if you’ve got just “a chip and a chair.” Bernie still has plenty of money, and a narrative. But unless he starts winning, and winning soon, and winning big, he’ll be ready to cash out in two weeks. The hole will just be too deep.

~Primo