It was a day to remember. A day of extraordinary sights and sounds.
Like Donald Trump being forced to listen to sobbing teenagers and the parents of their murdered friends.
And trying to show he felt their pain, with the help of some scribbled notes.
Which as Billy Bragg says is beyond belief.
When I saw this pic late last night I thought it must have been photoshopped. Apparently not. Turns out that the President of the United States needs notes to remind him to how to show empathy. Staff have to tell him he should say 'I hear you' to Parkland survivors and families. https://t.co/m4RsAelYDV— Billy Bragg (@billybragg) February 22, 2018
And says so much about Trump the man and the President.
But on such an extraordinary day, I think I enjoyed this sight the most.
Seventeen-year-old Cameron Kamsky asking Marco Rubio whether he was prepared to give up the millions he receives from the NRA.
Florida school shooting survivor Cameron Kasky challenges Sen. Marco Rubio: "Can you tell me right now that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?" https://t.co/LiU42QFBEv #StudentsStandUp https://t.co/p6jlUGFxOs— CNN (@CNN) February 22, 2018
But of all the sights and sounds of an extraordinary day, this was the one I found the most moving.
The Stoneman Douglas High School drama club singing this tribute they wrote to their dead friends.
With these fighting words:
We refuse to be ignored by those who will not listen.
Together we have the power to change the world around us.
You're not going to knock us down, we'll get back up again.
We will shine.
And boy are they ever shining.
May that light help lead others to a better world.
And tremble you miserable Trump, your day is coming...
Why is it all Trumps fault? There were a bunch of school shootings under Obama.
ReplyDeleteYes, there were school shootings during Obama's 8 years. Do you recall what party controlled Congress for 6 of those years and refused to pass any bills he proposed?
Deletehi anon@8:27...Obama actually cared about those dead kids and felt their loss, while Donald Trump had to carry notes to remind him what empathy meant. Which meant that Obama did his best to implement gun control, while Trump is a bum boy for the NRA...
DeleteObama at least tried to introduce gun control, but was thwarted by Trump's paymasters, the NRA
ReplyDeleteHi Jim...exactly, but you know Trump. Now he's claiming the Russian hacking scandal was all Obama's fault. And next week he'll be claiming that the Parkland massacre was all Obama's fault as well...
DeleteBad Bot. The fault lies with the Republican party and their terror wing, the NRA, who scuttled the gun control proposals introduced by Pres. Obama after the Sandy hook massacre.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget their well-financed propaganda fear-mongers: Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Drudge Report, and Trump's favorite "alternative facts" outlet, Alex Jones at Infowars. Feeding meat to the base 24/7 and convincing them that the scary black Islamo-Marxist from a faraway shithole in Nambia was going to disarm Real American Patriots™ like the Jews in Nazi Germany, and send them all to Wal-Mart FEMA camps to be forcibly married off to gay illegal immigrants who were going to burn their Bibles, indoctrinate their children into the cult of Canadian healthcare by giving them autism vaccines and dirty un-Christian sex education, and make their women get abortions that Hillary Clinton eats on her spirit-cooking pizza during satanic sharia rituals at the Obama family mosque. Want to stop this nightmare in its tracks? Hoard moar gunz!
DeleteThe staggering level of incoherent insanity that far too many people in the conservative base accept as gospel makes "War of the Worlds" look like a Rickroll by comparison. Orson Welles would be aghast at the reality distortion field that Roger Ailes (piss be upon him) has been able to build.
Jackie
DeleteAbsolutely brilliant.
hi Jackie...good one. It's such a parade of madness, that after reading your comment I had to hold me head with both hands lest it explode. Lordy, future generations will never believe us when we tell them what happened. I'm going to have to try to convince them that I was in a coma during the Trump years, or plead insanity... ;)
DeleteI see Trump in the White House, not Obama.
ReplyDeletearm all the teachers
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/-lDb0Dn8OXE
"Hey! Hey! NRA! How many kids did you kill today?"
ReplyDeleteHey, it worked for my generation. Go students!
hi anon@2:03...If it's right, and it is, and it rhymes, and it does, let's do it !!!
DeleteUS teachers now will get bonus for shooting bad guys, teaching not so much.
ReplyDeleteUS teachers are so badly treated and poorly paid that if the state armed them they would be better off holding up Walmark stores than shooting people in schools.
DeleteMost teachers I know did not take a tactical shooting course as part of their educational training. Still, in the US, who knows?
hi Steve...that's just what the SWAT squad needs to see when they arrive at the scene of a school shooting. An adult running around firing shots in every direction. Goodbye Mr Chips. And besides, just the thought of some of my teachers being armed is the stuff of nightmares. One used to throw a blackboard eraser at my head when I nodded off, so I can only imagine what he might have done if he was carrying. Fire three shots into the ceiling, or fire them at me... ;)
Deletehi jrkrideau...I think the wrong kind of teacher would volunteer to be armed, and students would have to fear them as well, the enemy within. I also read a cute message from a student who said she really loved this teacher, but she managed to light her dress on fire while trying to change a light bulb, so please don't arm her...
DeleteIt not one event
ReplyDeleteits a matrix
and all the arrows
lead to war
Oh yes the Soviets loved
Christopher Walkon
when he double crossed
the capitalist
who considered
him expendable
and thats the view
I have of the
world today
we are all
expendable
for the cause
President Bone Spurs
loves the military
Rush Bunion
exalts them daily
and everyone who
ran away from
the fight
is egging the world
on to war
The USA has troops deployed
in 150 nations
the Russians
just one as far as we
know
but maybe their
version of Blackwater
is dug in
the Donbass
The USA spends
on weapon lets just
say a Trillion dollars
a year
the Russians not
even a hundred billion
So let me axe you
if you are Russia
why are you wanting
to fight the USA?
But right now
we have two
proxy wars
in hot combat
the Donbass
in Ukraine
and Syria
in the Middle East
Hotbox of 3 D
allies and enimes
switching daily
with deadly results
if you dont know
today they are
not your friend
but Orwells
shifting narritive
of foe and friend
and how its
always been
to the holi poli
who can keep score
when they names
keep changing back and
forth
I just know my people
are going forth
to battle and dying
for something good
in the dessert
so far from home
This is how I understand
Syria and I have not read
a single book
just watched
tales of Templers on TV
Assad is a Templer
yes a Christian who
thinks the Pope smokes
dope
He is a leftover of the crusades
the Muslims captured all the
rest of the holy spots
but Syria remained above
the fray except they lost
a lot to Isreal
but at the end of the day
it did not matter
the Golan was never
theirs anyway
If your the only Christian nation
in the middle east
to survive from the crusades
to modern times
you have to have
made some deals on
the side
plus when it comes
to dealing with Muslims
there is no carrot
only stick
and vice versa
in the wasteland
of humanity
that is the
middle east
Muslims are divided
between followers of the word
Sunni and followers of the blood
Shia. Syria bet on blood
and that meant
their biggest ally in the region
was the Ayatoolias
talk about hard
choices
but it should be
clear that between
the blood and the word
there is little choice
in a fight
So this situation simmered
for centuries until the newborn
baby Israel arrived in 1949.
The Jews believed they
owned the land of the people
of blood and the UN agreed
Many wars latter we
are here
Israel allegedly
arming the people
of the word who
are blood thirsty
terrorists allededly
produced by
the CIA
with the intet
to rid Syria
of Christians
because they
stuck their
nose in the wrong
tent
centuries ago
just to survieve
Into this mess
comes fossil fuels
which lay fallow
in the sands
of time
and are easy
pickings
because its
gas and it
hardly needs
to be pumped
it flows
Guess what in
every equation
Syria is the choke
point on the map
to get the gas to
market
when the USA
makes the offer
Syria refuses
and next thing
you know all
hell breaks
loose and Syria
looses everything
except a place
then the Russians
step in and everthing
becomes half way
normal again
and that the point
the story ends
today
but it could
be WW3
if greed
keeps getting
in the way
of common
sense
about
how wealth
is created
and spent
Er, is this supposed to be a free verse poem? If so, I think it would have been better just to compose an essay, with capital letters and periods!
DeleteJust sayin’
Hi Steve...Is there a hidden message if you read it backwards?
DeleteThe sock puppet on Trump's left hand shouts "arm the teachers" and immediately disappears down the rabbit hole followed by an angry mob. Meanwhile the short ugly fingers on his right hand proceeds with the task of clearing the land for the new tower and surround.
ReplyDeleteToday is a busy agenda: a) give Vlad a call and script the sanction charade b) Scramble some careers and get sonny boy his permanent clearance .. the benefactors are getting restless c) put some more tinsel on the crooked uranium stealing Hillary doll before tossing it into the park d) view the Fox classified briefing ...
Its a smart ploy; move people into Alice's amusement park of deception while clearing the land for the new Trump empire. Much better and less painful than burning the old place down to clear it. Things are on schedule but the park is filling up quick and the emotionally powered containment fields are near capacity. Last night one of the Twitter bots powering the mirrors went down, a crack developed and some of the people got a glimpse of the bulldozers working outside. Fortunately the back up system kicked in and the unwanted thoughts were contained but its a worry and more reinforcement will have to be added.
RT
hi RT...Say that to a future generation, and not only will they not believe you, they'll lock you up in a mental asylum and throw away the key. And you'll be shouting, "but it's true it really happened!!!!!" And you'll be right, but it won't do you any good. Better to claim you were rendered mute, and communicate with them using very simple hand signals, or holding your head and making moaning sounds... ;)
DeleteIt took a youth movement in the 1970s to amend the Constitution, so that teenagers would have the right to vote against someone who was likely to pack them off to fight for rich men's resource wars. I hope this youth movement has the same effect, except this time to amend the Constitution so as to eradicate the blood-soaked ink stain that is the Amendment sharing a number with a colloquial term for merde. It's not quite as poignant as the aforementioned "Hey! Hey! NRA! how many kids did you kill today?" chant, but as far as I'm concerned, Amendment Number Two is a disgusting smear of poo. And "good guy with a gun" theory is just M.A.D. on the domestic front. Enough already of "bringing the war home."
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, however: as for the "what about tyranny" argument, there is a new book out by scholar and activist Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz that reveals the true history of what those malicious militias were originally intended for: suppressing slave rebellions and clearing out pesky Indians who got in the way of "manifest destiny." So the sacrosanct 2A has always been about institutional white male supremacy and striking terror into the hearts of "lessers" right from the get-go. It's meant to maintain tyranny, not defend against it. It's not about "hunting." It's about the most dangerous game, being played against people who the ruling class doesn't even consider human.
And we see this "creeping tyranny" already happening, with calls to turn in mentally ill people before they've committed a crime (4A, 5A), calls to outright shoot people for speaking out against the gun lobby (1A), calls to nullify states' rights to have their own gun laws with this "reciprocal carry" BS (9A, 10A), and calls by the NRA's propaganda hate network to "shoot liberals" for the crime of voting their conscience (13A, 19A, 26A), that this obsession with keeping the 2A is actually obliterating the rest of our constitutional freedoms. Why not just zero in on the common denominator? Treat it like bad code in an obsolete abandonware operating system in dire need of an upgrade, and delete the rootkit!
#TimesUp. Fix it already. The document is almost 250 years old, and there is nothing "divine" that says it can't be upgraded to the modern age, that it has to be treated like Moses Heston's fabled ten commandments. He's got a lot of blood on his cold, dead hands. The U.S. will be dragged into the 21st century to join civilization kicking and screaming if necessary, and these kids plus millions more "people power" in their corner might just be the ones to do it. The only thing stopping bad guys with bullets is good guys with ballots.
there is nothing "divine"
DeleteAre you sure? I, often, get the impression that Americans confuse this with the Bible. Both are sacred documents.
hi Jackie...I would love to see the Second Amendment going up in flames, but I just can't see that happening. As jrkrideau says, some of your people seem to think it was handed down to Moses or Charlton Heston with the Ten Commandments. I also don't think the Parkland kids will make much progress with gun control. But what I do believe they can do is fire up the millennials to vote Republicans out of office all over the country, elect progressive judges, and let the decent start healing America....
DeleteNo "thoughts and prayers" on his cheat sheet? Then again, by now even Trump has that one memorized. Nice try Donald. Even his proposal to ban bump stocks and keep the mentally ill from obtaining firearms may at first seem sincere until you realize the GOP congress would never pass it. Nope. Bought and paid for by their proud sponsor and epitome of paranoia and delusion, the NRA.
ReplyDeleteChange will require wholesale changes to congress, the senate and last but not least, the potus. It will take time and these kids need to keep the momentum going and keep engaging people but it can be done.
JD
you are quite correct, that whole sale changes are required in Congress. They could start by electing some of those kids. They'd make a nice change from those currently occupying those jobs. They're too young to run for president, but I'm sure some of them would do a much, much better job than Trump.
Deletehi JD...yes, wasn't that both hilarious and pathetic. Who I wonder wrote that list, General Kelly or Ivanka? And I agree with you, he's terrified of the NRA and apart from some token gestures gun control will go nowhere until the day he is defeated. I believe hat most Americans are now in favour of it, but as you say, the Republican Congress will be an impediment, until it too is replaced...
DeleteI don't see Ms Gonzalez. Guess he thinks her parents come from some shithole country.
ReplyDeletehi lagatta...I think trump would be terrified to go anywhere near Emma Gonzalez, but she got a chance to take on the NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch at the CNN Town Hall and she was brilliant...
Deleteof course they had to give Trump notes to remind him how to behave. he just doesn't get it. He doesn't care. If it doesn't benefit him some how, he just doesn't care. its that simple. who cares why he is that way, he just is. Now people can clearly see how out of touch he is with everyone and everything which isn't a benefit to him and his pocket book
ReplyDeletethe song at the end was amazing. don't be surprised if they pick it up and turn it into a broadway musical.
I didn't agree with a lot of marco Rubio had to say, but I do give him credit for actually showing up, with is more than the governor and a lot of others were willing to do.
those kids and others like them may wind up changing America. About 20 million of them get to vote in the next election.
The reason Rubio showed up is because he still wants to be president some day!
DeleteDid you notice when host Jake Tapper asked Rubio and the other two Democrats to each take a minute and make an opening statement, that’s what each of the Democrats did, but Rubio kept speaking for several minutes? He loves the sound of his own voice.
hi e.a.f...yes that is of course the problem. A psychopathic person like Trump is incapable of feeling empathy, or care about anybody but themselves. I'll also give Marco Rubio some credit for turning up, but of course none for not having the courage to disavow the NRA. But as for the kids, I think we are witnessing the beginning of a new generational rising that could with a bit of luck change the U.S. and the world we live in....
Deletehi anon@5:45...yes, there is no doubt that Rubio is positioning himself for a post-Trump world. But even if he does become the Republican presidential candidate one day, I don't think they'll be enough Republicans still standing to vote him into office...
DeleteRubio's time has pasted, not that it was ever there, but he is of Hispanic descent and there are lots of Republicans who will not vote for him to be President.
DeleteExpect Mr. Bains Capital to make another run for it, that is why I expect his is taking a run at senator. However, he isn't the smartest in his family, its his cousin.