February 22nd-23, 2017 continued. It's been 467-468 days since the Nov 8, 2016, election of some rich asshole, no. 45, and 395-396 days since the Jan 20th inauguration.
Fox News host flips out on Parkland teens mocking ‘adults’ like Marco Rubio — and the backlash is spectacular
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior Sarah Chadwick and Fox News host Laura Ingraham (Twitter / Wikimedia Commons)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Friday echoed a familiar right-wing talking point about the Parkland school shooting survivors, criticizing them for talking—presumably disrespectfully—“to and about adults.”
Ingraham was reacting to a Thursday tweet by Marjory Stoneman Douglass High School junior Sarah Chadwick suggesting, “WE should change the names of AR-15 to ‘Marco Rubio’ because they are so easy to buy.”
In classic “get off my lawn” fashion, Ingraham suggested Chadwick’s quip about Rubio was inappropriate because he’s an “adult.”
“HOW TEENS SPEAK TO AND ABT [sic] ADULTS,” Ingraham tweeted Friday, complaining that “sophomore” Chadwick was using language unbecoming of a young woman.
Chadwick hit back on Twitter, prompting others to rally around the Parkland survivor. Read the satisfying reactions below:
I’m a junior. twitter.com/ingrahamangle/…
do not mess with the teens twitter.com/sarahchad_/sta…
thought I told you, do not mess with the teens pic.twitter.com/6qhJLG40Au
Does Laura Ingraham think social media is her ally? She merely adopted social media. The #Parkland teens were born in it; molded by it. twitter.com/sarahchad_/sta…
Hey @IngrahamAngle, here's another disrespectful rib-tickler from delinquent teen Sarah Chadwick! Make sure to spotlight this one too, you flailing dirt witch. twitter.com/sarahchad_/sta…
the rich asshole says armed teachers would be more effective at preventing school shootings than armed guards
"I'm telling you, that would work."
During his speech to CPAC on Friday, President the rich asshole made a case that armed teachers would be more effective at preventing schools than armed guards — an argument that’s not supported by evidence or common sense — and then claimed that an armed teacher at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week could have stopped Nikolas Cruz from killing 17 people with an AR-15.
“These teachers love their students, and these teachers are talented with weaponry and with guns,” the rich asshole said, not talking about any teachers in particular. “And I’d rather have somebody who loves their students and wants to protect their students than somebody that doesn’t know anybody and doesn’t know the students and frankly, for whatever reason, decided not to go in even though they heard lots of shots being fired inside.”
the rich asshole’s remark about a person who “decided not to go in” was addressed at a sheriff’s deputy who was stationed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas school when Cruz went on his rampage but failed to respond to the shooting. While this seems like an obvious indictment of the rich asshole’s idea that militarizing schools is the best way to prevent mass shootings, the president instead interpreted the guard’s failure as evidence that the best solution is to arm teachers instead.
“So this crazy man who walked in wouldn’t even know who it is who has [a gun]. That’s good,” the rich asshole said, alluding to Cruz. “That’s not bad, that’s good.”
“And the teacher would’ve shot the hell out of him before he even knew what happened,” the rich asshole added, as the CPAC audience erupted in cheers.
the rich asshole’s argument assumes that teachers would end up being better marksman than cops, who generally shoot accurately less than 30 percent of the time. It assumes that a teacher armed with a handgun would’ve been able to take out a gunman using a much more powerful AR-15. And it assumes that the benefits of introducing guns into public schools would outweigh the negatives, like accidents and endangerment of students of color.
In general, studies have shown that the “good guy with a gun” myth is just that: a myth. A comprehensive study by the Violence Policy Center found guns “are rarely used to kill criminals or stop crimes.” In 2012, “for every justifiable homicide in the United States involving a gun, guns were used in 32 criminal homicides,” researchers concluded. Another study by the University of Pennsylvania found that someone carrying a gun is “4.46 times more likely to be shot in an assault.” And the presence of more people with guns in active shooter environments creates dangerous situations for law enforcement officers, who won’t necessarily be able to distinguish between a good Samaritan and a perpetrator.
During a CNN town hall on Wednesday, survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas made clear that they think the best way to prevent future massacres is to ban assault weapons. But the rich asshole — who spent a good chunk of Thursday parroting the NRA’s talking points — isn’t willing to consider it.
During his CPAC speech, the only gun control measure the rich asshole said he supports is a vague measure to strengthen background checks.
Stephanie Ruhle burns the rich asshole’s ‘great people’ to the ground: ‘Where’s he going to visit them? In jail?’
Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle (MSNBC)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
MSNBC’s Stephanie Ruhle pointed out the irony of CPAC attendees punctuating President some rich asshole’s speech with “lock her up” chants as another one of his campaign aides pleads guilty to federal charges.
The co-hosts of “Velshi and Ruhle” panned the president’s speech as dishonest and “meandering,” and they pointed out the rich asshole never addressed some of the breaking news surrounding his presidency.
“By our executive producer’s conservative count, he touched on at least 31 different topics in this speech,” said co-host Ali Velshi. “None of which were Russia, by the way — Russia didn’t come up.”
Ruhle reminded viewers that 13 Russians were indicted last Friday in connection with election interference, but the rich asshole tried to change the subject.
“If the White House is watching, I would like to ask you,” she said. “The president said over and over about these great trade deals that this administration is renegotiating. Please, let us know what they are.”
Velshi said the president’s speech was “sprawling” and filled with dishonest statements.
“It was lie, to new topic, to another lie,” Velshi said. “I don’t understand how this audience continues to fall for this.”
Ruhle noted the irony of CPAC attendees calling for the rich asshole’s election opponent to be jailed, hours before his campaign deputy chairman is set to plead guilty to conspiring against the United States and lying to federal investigators.
“You’ve got a president up there continuing to go after his former political opponent from over a year ago, calling her a crook,” Ruhle said. “Look at all that’s around him — Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, Mike Flynn, George Papadopoulos. I remember when Anthony Scaramucci sat across from me and said: The president has great judgment and picks great people. Great people? Where’s he going to visit them? In jail?”
Eric the rich asshole says criticizing his family’s conflicts of interest infringes on their free speech
"What don't we get hammered for?"
Eric the rich asshole says criticizing his family’s conflicts of interest, as well as the blurred line between the rich asshole Organization and the White House, is an infringement of their First Amendment rights.
“What don’t we get hammered for?” he said, speaking with Fox News host Laura Ingraham on Thursday, addressing pushback against his brother, some rich asshole Jr., who recently traveled to India to deliver a speech at an event with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“My brother was over there. We have a bunch of buildings in India. He’s talking about how the Indian people are wonderful people and he enjoys his experience over there and everything else, and then all of a sudden you have this,” he said. “These are the first people that say the First Amendment should be protected until you say something they disagree with and then they try to shred you to pieces.”
Notwithstanding the fact that the press, which is protected by the First Amendment, has been a frequent target of the rich asshole administration, the president’s critics have good reason to be skeptical of Donald Jr.’s India trip. The eldest the rich asshole son, who took over daily operations of the family’s namesake business, the rich asshole Organization, with his brother after their father became president, was originally scheduled to deliver remarks at a global business summit on Friday. Modi was also scheduled to speak at the event.
The speech, titled “Reshaping Indo-Pacific Ties: The New Era of Cooperation,” was met with criticism by those who claimed a foreign policy address would infringe on the supposed firewall between the White House and the rich asshole Organization and could be seen as influence-peddling.
To stem the fallout, the president’s son changed the title of his remarks at the last minute to a “Fireside Chat,” according to the summit website. Critics remained unconvinced.
“There’s nothing we don’t get attacked for,” Eric added on Thursday. “[Democrats] do everything they can to undermine our family because it’s the only move they have. … We take [any conflicts of interest or the appearance of conflict] seriously. We take that exercise so seriously.”
Shortly before President the rich asshole took office in January 2017, he handed over control of the rich asshole Organization to his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, pledging that the two sides would not interfere with one another’s business. However that barrier has been breached multiple times over the past year, as the rich asshole hotels and resorts benefit from foreign governments and domestic groups hoping to curry favor with the president or buy access to his family.
Donald Jr.’s visit to India was plagued with controversy from the start: In addition to criticism over his planned remarks, the president’s eldest son came under fire after it was reported that the rich asshole Organization had sold at least $15 million-worth of real estate in a single day by offering potential buyers a dinner with Donald Jr. himself if they purchased a condominium in the new the rich asshole Towers project in Gurgaon.
“The optics of the visit do not look good from Washington — or from any other place for that matter,” Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the Woodrow Wilson Center, told the Washington Post. He admitted that, despite those concerns, there was “not much that can be done about it.”
“This is the new normal,” he said.
Both Eric and Donald Jr. have insisted that the rich asshole presidency is bad for business. In April 2017, Eric claimed the rich asshole Organization “would be doing 30 deals across the globe” were his father not the president; and as recently as Tuesday, Donald Jr. told English language Indian channel CNBC-TV18 that the organization was missing out on lucrative deals because of the family’s promise to keep business and White House matters separate.
“A few years ago, I said it would become our largest (market) because I really believed in the market. … I think it will continue to be the same when I am able to get back in the market and focus on the business side, on new deals again in the future, once my father is out of office,” he said.
He added: “India, it has been an important market for us, but again there is this opportunity cost of the deals that we are not able to do that don’t get discussed. We could do so many more but we are not doing those.”
Over the past year, the rich asshole Organization has raked in hundreds of thousands in profits from foreign governments staying or booking events at its various hotels. According Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a government ethics watchdog organization, political and special interest groups have spent approximately $1.2 million at the president’s properties since his inauguration.
Watch the rich asshole and the NRA CEO use same talking points just hours apart
On Thursday, the rich asshole and the NRA CEO both spoke out about their desire to "harden" schools.
At the end of a school safety roundtable event at the White House on Thursday, President the rich asshole was asked by a reporter if he thinks his proposal to “harden” schools with armed guards and armed teachers will put him at odds with the National Rifle Association, which spent $30 million to elect him.
The president indicated he doesn’t expect any problems.
“I don’t think I’ll be going up against them, I really think the NRA wants to do what’s right,” the rich asshole said. “I mean, they’re very close to me, I’m very close to them. They’re very very great people, they love this country — they’re patriots. The NRA wants to do the right thing.”
It makes sense that the rich asshole doesn’t foresee conflict with the NRA, given that he was speaking at the end of an event where he parroted the pro-gun talking points used earlier in the day by NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre.
Consider some of the pro-gun buzzwords used by LaPierre during his speech earlier Thursday at CPAC. NPR put together an analysis looking at LaPierre’s comments in comparison with what the rich asshole said hours later.
“Can we protect so much with armed security, while we drop our kids off at school, that are so-called gun-free zones, that are wide-open targets for any crazy madman bent on evil to come there first? There first? In every community, PTAs, teachers’ unions, local law enforcement, moms and dads – they all must come together to implement the very best strategy to harden their schools, including effective trained, armed security that will absolutely protect every innocent child in this country. That has to happen now. Evil walks among us, and God help us if we do not harden our schools and protect our kids. …“I refuse to leave this stage until I say one more time that we must immediately harden our schools. Every day— every day, young children are being dropped off at schools that are virtually wide open, soft targets for anyone bent on mass murder. It should not be easier for a madman to shoot up a school than a bank or a jewelry store or some Hollywood gala. Schools must be the most hardened targets in this country.”
Now compare that with the pro-gun buzzwords the rich asshole used during the White House event (emphasis from NPR).
“We have to harden our schools, not soften them. A gun-free zone to a killer or somebody who wants to be a killer, that’s like going in for the ice cream. That’s like ‘here I am, take me.’ We have to get smart on gun-free zones. When they see ‘this is a gun-free zone,’ that means that nobody has a gun except them, nobody’s going to be shooting bullets in the other direction. And they see that, it’s such a beautiful target. They live for gun-free zones.“Now what I’d recommend doing is the people that do carry, we give them a bonus, we give them a little bit of a bonus, because frankly they’d feel more comfortable having the gun anyway, you give them a little bit of a bonus, so practically for free you’ve now made the school into a hardened target. …“You want a hardened school, and I want a hardened school, too.”
CNN put together a video of the rich asshole parroting LaPierre’s lines.
The NRA has made clear that it opposes new regulations on semi-automatic firearms. During the White House event on Thursday, the rich asshole suggested that more guns are the solution to mass shootings.
While the rich asshole clings to the NRA’s talking points and resists legislative gun control efforts, a number of major companies are taking the opposite approach.
As ThinkProgress has reported, First National Bank and Enterprise Holdings severed their business relationships with the NRA following last week’s mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that was perpetrated by a gunman with an AR-15.
POLITICS
Ivanka the rich asshole Faces Backlash Over Olympic Closing Ceremony Gig
“Daddy is gonna let her pretend to be an Olympian for the closing ceremony. Yaaaay!”
Ivanka the rich asshole’s visit to the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, has been widely criticized on Twitter.
President some rich asshole’s daughter and adviser will lead the U.S. delegation at Sunday’s closing ceremony. She’s also scheduled to dine with South Korean President Moon Jae-in and attend sporting events during the three-day trip.
Vice President Mike Pence caught similar heat for representing the U.S. at the opening ceremony. Team USA’s two openly gay male athletes, skier Gus Kenworthy and figure skater Adam Rippon, both blasted the vice president’s intolerance of the LGBTQ community.
Now, many are asking why the first daughter is representing the U.S. on the global stage:
Not sure why you are our representative for the closing ceremonies. You were not elected.
Ultimate participation award goes to...Ivanka Trump! Daddy is gonna let her pretend to be an Olympian for the closing ceremony. Yaaaay!
Doesn’t her love of winter sports involve Aspen, designer onesies for the slopes, and hot chocolate in exclusive lodges?
Would you also be doing a little business while there? That goes without saying. Stop embarrassing us!
I just saw where Ivanka is going to South Korea to lead the American Team in he closing ceremony ........The Question is WHY ???? What gives her the right to Lead anyone ........#TheResistance
Why? @IvankaTrump does NOT represent the USA. It is shameful for Trump's family to go. (Unless she is the First Lady in her duties...)
Ex-the rich asshole aide Rick Gates to plead guilty to conspiracy against the US and lying to feds in Mueller probe
Rick Gates and some rich asshole (cnn.com)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
Former the rich asshole campaign aide Rick Gates — a longtime business associate of Paul Manafort — has pleaded guilty in the special counsel probe of Russian election interference.
Gates, who served as the rich asshole’s deputy campaign chairman, agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy against the United States and lying to federal investigators, according to a court filing reported by NBC News.
Both charges carry a maximum five-year prison term.
The 45-year-old Gates and the 68-year-old Manafort were indicted Oct. 30 on a variety of fraud and money-laundering charges in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of the rich asshole campaign ties to Russia.
The pair were hit again Feb. 22 with indictments on 32 counts of bank and tax fraud related to the case.
Gates’ second set of attorneys asked to withdraw from the case Feb. 1, the same day the former the rich asshole campaign official admitted he lied to Mueller’s team about his conversations with an unspecified congressman and lobbyist.
Shepard Smith: People Go To Prison For What Jared Kushner Did
As the rich asshole’s son-in-law continues to revise his answers, Robert Mueller may be looking over his shoulder, too.
White House senior aide Jared Kushner’s multiple omissions on required financial disclosure forms for his security clearance would “be a crime, punishable by prison” for other people, Fox News host Shepard Smith said Thursday.
“Apparently not in this case,” Smith added.
The White House has implied that Kushner’s frequent revisions to his financial forms to provide information that was incorrect or missing have caused delays which have held up his security clearance, even though he works with an interim clearance that allows him to view classified information.
Two sources, however, also told CNN Thursday that Kushner will not obtain full security clearance until special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation is complete.
some rich asshole’s son-in-law “submitted his application and did not include 100 contacts with foreigners,” Smith said on “Shepard Smith Reporting.” He “later had to go back and include them ... but he did not include the meeting in the rich asshole Tower with the Russian lawyer and Russian translator. So that was another amendment to this thing.”
Revisions made last July by Kushner, who is married to Ivanka the rich asshole, added 77 previously undisclosed assets and more than $10 million in holdings.
Further additions were made as recently as last month, according to a letter obtained by Talking Points Memo. The letter to White House deputy counsel Stefan Passantino dated Jan. 3 added a number of additional business interests. It also corrected and added new corporate positions that Kushner was legally required to disclose in his initial paperwork.
A conviction for withholding, misrepresenting or falsifying information on the form for security clearance can result in up to $10,000 in fines and five years in prison.
“It’s really uncommon you’d still be trying to get the form correct at this stage in the game,” Don Fox, a former acting director and general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics, told TPM. Fox served under presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
The financial disclosure information is required by federal law so that investigators can determine any possible conflicts of interest or criminal activity in a security clearance probe. Kushner has yet to obtain full security clearance for access to highly sensitive classified information 13 months after he stepped into his White House role. Yet he can access classified information on a temporary basis.
It’s really uncommon you’d still be trying to get the form correct at this stage in the game.Don Fox, former general counsel of the Office of Government Ethics
White House chief of staff John Kelly is cracking down on the security clearance protocol In the wake of the Rob Porter scandal. The White House staff secretary resigned after revelations of domestic violence accusations against him. The domestic violence claims had been disclosed to officials working on his security clearance. But Kelly indicated that Kushner will not be affected by the new standards, CNN reported.
Besides the delays caused by Kushner’s frequently amended information, it’s also possible that information in the forms is raising a red flag.
Kushner is reportedly under investigation by Mueller for a meeting in the rich asshole Tower during the 2016 presidential campaign with representatives linked to the Kremlin who purportedly would disclose information harmful to Hillary Clinton. Mueller also questioned Kushner about his interactions concerning Russia with former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.
Mueller is also examining meetings with international leaders Kushner had during the administration transition and afterward, while his family real estate business was seeking global investments, CNN reported.
An Israeli insurer invested $30 million in the Kushner family real estate firm shortly before Kushner traveled to Israel on a diplomatic mission in May 2017, The New York Times reported.
In addition, The Wall Street Journal has reported that the Securities and Exchange Commission and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York, are investigating the Kushner company’s participation in the EB-5 visa program. The program provides green cards to well-heeled foreigners who invest a minimum of $500,000 in certain businesses. At least two Kushner real estate projects in New Jersey have benefited from the program.
Kushner stepped down from running Kushner Companies but is still a key investor in its operations.
Spokesperson says NRA has no responsibility to help prevent mass shootings
"When it comes to gun violence, you don’t want to talk about guns."
A day after telling CPAC that “many in the media love mass shootings” because they are good for ratings, National Rifle Association national spokesperson Dana Loesch complained on CNN that its town hall on gun violence on Wednesday did not focus enough on solutions. Moments later, she angrily rejected the suggestion that her organization bears some responsibility for the epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence in America.
Loesch partially praised the host of the Wednesday discussion, Jake Tapper, for having done an “admirable job” before he “ultimately lost control,” but charged, “I do think maybe perhaps the way the network was hosting this discussion, it didn’t seem that the network perhaps intended for it to be geared towards discussing solutions. I get it, emotions are high. It’s awful. Barely a week ago, but I really want to have that discussion as to what we can do to stop this in the future.”
Watch:
New Day host Alisyn Camerota noted that in her appearance at that town hall, Loesch had projected a reasonable image, but that on Thursday, she had intentionally inflamed the situation before a more conservative audience. “You’ve used that inflammatory rhetoric. Why do you use it at CPAC, why are you doing that?”
“Because it’s true, Alisyn,” Loesch replied.
The heated exchanged continued. Moments later, Camerota suggested that perhaps the NRA bears some responsibility too for gun violence and thus has a responsibility to help address the problem. The organization has not just opposed common sense measures like universal background checks and bans on semi-automatic weapons like the one used in last week’s horrific Parkland mass school shooting, but has actively encouraged Americans to arm themselves.
“The NRA does bear some responsibility in terms of [finding] this solution. They do need to come to the table,” Camerota said.
“No, we absolutely do not,” Loesch responded. “We’re parents too.”
Watch:
Camerota then observed that the NRA’s response to tragedies like Parkland is simply changing the subject. “It’s so interesting that you guys want to talk about all sorts of things. You talk about the mistakes at the FBI. You’re happy to talk about mental health. But when it comes to gun violence, you don’t want to talk about guns.”
WATCH: Shooting Survivors Clap Back After Dana Loesch Claims They Tried To Attack Her
On Wednesday night, on the one week anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas High shooting, CNN held a town hall event with survivors of the shooting, families of those lost, lawmakers and NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch. During the event, Loesch was asked tough questions and booed a lot. The teenagers who started the Never Again movement had no patience for her nonsense talking points, but they had a dialogue and then she left. That was the end of it….except it wasn’t.
On Thursday during a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), Loesch accused the shooting survivors of trying to attack her town hall:
I had to have a security detail to get out. I wouldn’t have been able to exit that if I didn’t have a private security detail there were people rushing the stage and screaming ‘burn her.’ And I came there to talk solutions, and I still am going to continue that conversation on solutions as the NRA has been doing [since] before I was alive.
Yeah, that’s a lie. Students who were at the event called Loesch out for lying about them. One student named Natasha said,”As someone who was there front row, the crowd was not cheering ‘burn her’ as she walked off stage. We yelled “shame on you” instead. Why does she insist on lying? Does she and the NRA feel threatened by us?” Another student, Michelle, posted a video of Loesch leaving the venue with a caption that said,”We use words not weapons”:
RELATED: NRA Wayne LaPierre Calls Parkland Survivors ‘Opportunists’
This is how desperate the NRA is to push their narrative that these children are somehow a danger to the common American. Loesch wanted the CPAC crowd to believe that the Never Again teens want to seize their guns so they have no protection from kids like them. She didn’t care if she was lying, no more than NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre cared that he was lying when he called the kids “opportunists.” Unfortunately, what neither of them counted on is how tech-savvy these teenagers are. These young men and women grew up with social media. They know how to debunk bullshit in real time. They take videos all day long, so they have evidence to support their claims. The Stoneman Douglas students are not going to be intimidated by the NRA like the generations before them.
The next time Loesch and the NRA want to lie about someone, she should probably pick a weaker target because these teens will not allow themselves to be scapegoats for America’s terrorist organization.
POLITICS
Parkland Survivor: ‘I’ve Never Been So Unimpressed By A Person’ After the rich asshole Call
The president reached out to Samantha Fuentes while she was in the hospital recovering from shooting wounds.
President some rich asshole has spoken to and met with several survivors and family members of victims of last week’s school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Not all of them were happy to hear from him.
Samantha Fuentes, a senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School― where a former student killed 17 people after opening fire on the campus― was at the hospital when the president called her. Fuentes, who was shot twice, told The New York Times that the president “didn’t make me feel better in the slightest.”
“He said he heard that I was a big fan of his, and then he said, ‘I’m a big fan of yours too.’ I’m pretty sure he made that up,” she told the Times. “Talking to the president, I’ve never been so unimpressed by a person in my life.”
In addition to speaking to victims by phone, the president met with Parkland families as well as other victims of gun violence at the White House on Wednesday. He received public backlash after a photo from the listening session showed him holding a notecard with a reminder to tell attendees, “I hear you.”
the rich asshole organized the listening session after declining to attend a CNN-hosted town hall event with survivors and parents ― a decision that some Parkland students called cowardly.
“The fact that [the rich asshole] has organized [the listening session] just proves that he’s scared of us and that he doesn’t want to have to face us,” Emma Gonzalez told CNN.
“If some rich asshole wants to listen to us, he should have taken the first invitation,” Alex Wind said. “We are not going to come to him. He is going to need to come to us.”
Florida Sens. Marco Rubio (R) and Bill Nelson (D), as well as NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, attended the CNN event. Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) skipped it.
The town hall was full of passion and outrage, much of it directed at politicians for what families saw as inaction on gun control. Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter Jaime was killed in the Parkland attack, told Rubio that, “your comments and the comments of the President were pathetically weak.”
Parkland survivors were also quick to criticize the rich asshole’s defense of the National Rifle Association in the wake of the shooting. After the president tweeted that NRA leaders are “great people” and “patriots,” student Cameron Kasky said it was “the WORST POSSIBLE THING TO SAY.”
“Would American patriots try to buy our elections and our children’s lives by lobbying for lax gun laws even after massacres?,” said another student, David Hogg.
US court blocks the rich asshole administration from ending oil, gas waste rule
Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke (Wikipedia)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
A U.S. court temporarily blocked the rich asshole administration from delaying or ending an Obama-era rule aimed at preventing oil and gas leaks during production, according to court documents, marking the fourth time either Congress or the courts have upheld the rule’s implementation.
The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, in an order filed on Thursday, granted the states of California and New Mexico’s bid for a preliminary injunction and denied the administration’s request to move the trial to another court venue in Wyoming.
Its decision was part of a lawsuit filed by the two western U.S. states against U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Bureau of Land Management in a case that was combined with another filed by a coalition of 17 groups, including the Sierra Club environmental advocacy organization and several tribal groups.
The rule, finalized in November 2016, took effect in January 2017 and was aimed at reducing leaks of natural gas, or methane, that happen through venting and flaring during oil production on federal land. The Obama administration said that venting of methane cost taxpayers over $330 million a year in lost revenues from natural gas.
In his ruling, U.S. District Judge William Orrick said he granted the request for an injunction given that the bureau’s “reasoning behind the Suspension Rule is untethered to evidence contradicting the reasons for implementing the Waste Prevention Rule,” adding that the plaintiffs were likely to prevail on the merits of their case.
“They have shown irreparable injury caused by the waste of publicly owned natural gas, increased air pollution and associated health impacts, and exacerbated climate impacts,” the judge wrote in his decision.
Orrick also said the lawsuits addressed the administration’s “alleged failure to justify a different rule,” not the substance of the rule that is part of other legal issues before the U.S. District Court of Wyoming. The Wyoming court has separately denied an injunction to block the rule.
Additionally, an attempt by lawmakers in Congress to invalidate the rule failed to secure enough votes last May. In October, another California court also overturned the Interior Department’s decision to suspend the methane waste rule.
Representatives for the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Environmental Defense Fund, one of the advocacy groups suing the administration over the issue, said the move leaves current regulations under the Waste Prevention, Production Subject to Royalties, and Resource Conservation Rule in place.
“The protections restored by today’s decision will help to prevent the waste of natural gas, reduce harmful methane, smog-forming and toxic pollution, and ensure communities and tribes have royalty money that can be used to construct roads and schools,” the group’s lead attorney, Peter Zalzal, said.
the rich asshole urges Mexico to block illegal immigrants from El Salvador
President some rich asshole (Screenshot)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
U.S. President Donald the rich asshole on Friday called on Mexico to do more to prevent violent illegal immigrants from El Salvador from entering the United States, again pushing his long-proposed border wall but stopping short of saying Mexico would fund it.
the rich asshole, in a post on Twitter, said U.S. law enforcement was removing gang members from El Salvador but that they continued to return, adding: “El Salvador just takes our money, and Mexico must help MORE with this problem. We need The Wall!”
‘They weren’t buying what he was selling’: Wayne LaPierre stopped speech to ask young conservatives why they weren’t cheering
Wayne LaPierre speaking at the 2013 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
DON'T MISS STORIES. FOLLOW RAW STORY!
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough called out NRA frontman Wayne LaPierre for attacking law enforcement as part of his broad strategy to scare Americans into buying more guns.
The “Morning Joe” host showed portions of the NRA executive vice president’s speech Thursday at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where LaPierre stoked fear and anger against the government and law enforcement — as he has after other high-profile gun massacres.
“Wayne LaPierre and the NRA, they’ve now spent the past 30 years, I guess, 40 years slandering the men and women who were actually fighting every day and on the front lines in our fight against radical Islamic terror,” Scarborough said. “This is what he thinks of those people.”
Scarborough said the NRA spokesman had convinced some gun owners that federal authorities were “jack-booted” thugs who wanted to disarm Americans — but a New York Times reporter who covered CPAC said this latest speech appeared to fall flat.
“He was stoking these fears not just of Second Amendment infringements, but of trampling and confiscation of individual liberties across the board,” said reporter Jeremy Peters. “That’s what he said, and it’s an interesting shift in strategy for a group like the NRA which no longer has a president in the White House to demean and to demonize and to make an enemy of, so what they’ve done is they’ve said, ‘Okay, there’s a much broader conspiracy — it’s no longer coming just from the Democrats, it’s coming from the media, it’s coming from the intel community, it’s coming from the government and they are going to get you, and the ultimate goal is to take your guns.'”
But the speech didn’t seem to go over well with younger conservative activists, Peters said, prompting LaPierre to re-enact Jeb Bush’s infamous “please clap” moment.
“The room was not with Wayne LaPierre yesterday,” Peters said. “Actually, at one point he stopped and he said, ‘I sense it’s a little quiet out there.’ It was quiet, he said, because they must be scared and all gun owners should be. But the reason they were quiet is because they weren’t buying what he was selling.”
U.S. Immigration Agency Changes Mission Statement To Reflect ‘America First’ Agenda because the rich asshole and his cronies are racist dickbags
The new statement removes a reference to the U.S. as a “nation of immigrants.”
The federal agency tasked with managing immigration to the U.S. has changed its mission statement to reflect a new agenda, removing language that identified America as a “nation of immigrants.”
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services made the change on Thursday. The revised statement is meant to reflect the guiding principles of the agency’s new director, L. Francis Cissna, who was picked by President some rich asshole. Cissna hopes to focus on “fairness, lawfulness and efficiency,” a spokesperson for USCIS told HuffPost.
USCIS is in charge of granting visas, residency and other permits that allow foreign citizens to visit, live and work in the United States. According to its new mission statement, the agency “administers the nation’s lawful immigration system, safeguarding its integrity and promise by efficiently and fairly adjudicating requests for immigration benefits while protecting Americans, securing the homeland, and honoring our values.”
The previous version of the mission statement read, “USCIS secures America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.”
One of Cissna’s concerns about the old statement was that it used the word “customer” to refer to immigration applicants. Cissna has directed the agency’s employees to end the use of that term.
Referring to applicants as “customers” emphasizes the ultimate satisfaction of the applicant, Cissna wrote in an email to his staff, rather than the “correct adjudication” of the applications according to law.
“Use of the term leads to the erroneous belief that applicants and petitioners, rather than the American people, are whom we ultimately serve,” the director stated in the email, provided to HuffPost.
Cissna’s email did not address why the reference to America as a “nation of immigrants” was removed. However, the rich asshole administration has pushed forward a number of policies that have concerned immigration advocates.
During the rich asshole’s State of the Union address last month, he proposed making drastic cuts to legal immigration. Last September, the president threw nearly 700,000 undocumented young people’s immigration status into jeopardy when he announced the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The rich asshole administration also decided to terminate the temporary protective status that allowed thousands of immigrants from Haiti and El Salvador to remain in the U.S.
the rich asshole has long pledged that he would prioritize the needs of native-born citizens. On Thursday, Cissna’s email to USCIS employees reflected the president’s “America first” policies.
“All [immigration] applicants and petitioners should, of course, always be treated with the greatest respect and courtesy,” Cissna wrote in his email. “But we can’t forget that we serve the American people.”
The USCIS spokesperson told HuffPost that Cissna developed and debuted the new mission statement during his first conference with USCIS senior leadership from around the world.
Cissna has worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security since 2005. He was sworn in as director of the USCIS on Oct. 8, 2017.
H/T The Intercept
POLITICS
The U.S. Already Tested the rich asshole’s Canned Goods Idea On Native Americans. It Was Bad.
The program began by promoting canned meat and powdered milk for low-income people.
As a child, A-dae Romero-Briones eagerly awaited the government truck that delivered her family’s monthly food box to the designated drop-off spot at New Mexico’s Cochiti Indian Reservation. A “good” package included real butter and cheese. A “bad” package was filled with powdered eggs and some kind of canned meat that reminded her of “dog food.” She had to dig through layers of gelatinous goo to reach the actual protein.
But it was the powdered milk that Romero-Briones, 36, dreaded the most.
When she came down to the kitchen in the morning and saw her grandmother preparing oatmeal or cereal with the flaky milk, Romero-Briones couldn’t help but cringe. It felt like the rest of her day would bring only more disappointment.
“It was like eating cereal with water,” she said. “Tasting real milk was almost like candy to us.”
An attorney with expertise in agricultural law, Romero-Briones is now the director of native food and agricultural programs at the First Nations Development Institute. The Lodi, California-based organization provides grants to groups that work to improve food access, health and nutrition for Native American families.
Romero-Briones and her family received the food deliveries as part of the Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR), a project of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Established in the 1970s, the program was conceived as an alternative to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), still often called food stamps, that would serve low-income households living on or near reservations. The delivery of uniform food boxes was presented as an option for reservations located in remote rural areas with few supermarkets. Recipients could choose whether they wanted to participate in FDPIR or SNAP.
FDPIR remains an option for Native Americans, although it is now administered locally by tribal organizations and state agencies. The program got $151 million in federal funding last year and serves about 90,000 low-income households every month. In 2009, the average FDPIR box was valued at about $78 per recipient per month.
The quality of the food and the way it’s distributed have improved on a number of reservations since Romero-Briones was a child, said Janie Hipp, director of the Indigenous Food and Agriculture Initiative at the University of Arkansas. But food security advocates contend the program still has a number of problems: Many of the products are high in salt and sugar, and there are few fresh fruits and vegetables. This is of particular concern in native communities, which face high rates of heart disease and obesity.
And now those problems could extend to millions of other low-income Americans if the rich asshole administration successfully overhauls SNAP as it proposed in its 2019 budget outline last week. The proposal calls for a 25 percent spending cut to SNAP and would partially replace food stamps with boxes of canned goods in a way that looks rather like the less desirable aspects of the program Romero-Briones remembers.
There are currently 42 million SNAP recipients, who receive an average voucher of $125 per person per month. Those vouchers can be redeemed for almost any food product in a grocery store, excluding things like liquor and hot, prepared meals. The program is credited with reducing the poverty rate from 15.4 percent to 12.8 percent in 2015, according to an Urban Institute report.
Under the rich asshole administration’s proposed program, households getting more than $90 per month in SNAP benefits would receive a portion of those benefits in the form of a food package, dubbed the “Harvest Box.”
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney likened the boxed food program to Blue Apron, a high-end subscription food service that delivers ingredients with recipes to people’s homes. But for those well-versed in government commodity programs, the proposal rings more of the problematic efforts of yesteryear.
Hipp said the idea is riddled with problems. In addition to the nutrition concerns and the fact that the boxed program wouldn’t give recipients much autonomy over their food choices, she noted there are logistical issues when it comes to moving this much food to this many people. FDPIR services about 90,000 households a month, a tiny fraction of the number that SNAP supports. There are also questions about how the boxed food program would handle recipients’ individual dietary restrictions.
Native American advocates have been working to move away from the delivered boxes and instead to set up FDPIR food sites that resemble grocery stores. They’re also trying to incorporate more staples of the native diet, such as wild rice, bison, salmon and blue corn.
Years of subsisting on the typical American diet has had devastating health effects on native populations. Fifty years ago, heart disease was a rarity among Native Americans. Today, it’s the leading cause of death. Native Americans also have a greater chance of developing diabetes than any other racial group in the U.S.
The rich asshole proposal listed a number of foods that a standard Harvest Box would include such as peanut butter, shelf-stable milk, beans and pasta. But it didn’t explain how it would tailor the boxes to, say, someone who has specific dietary needs.
“What do you do with people who have allergies or who can’t have gluten or who can’t have dairy?” Hipp asked. “The ‘one size fits all’ idea ― it’s not even regressive. It’s not matching up with what we already know in the science around how different people’s physiologies react to different foods.”
In the last decade, a number of tribes have transitioned from the delivered-box service to a supermarket-style program. An initiative in the Cherokee Nation of Northeastern Oklahoma serves about 11,000 recipients who have access to seven FDPIR locations that are modeled after grocery stores, said Chuck Hoskin Jr., the secretary of state for the Cherokee Nation.
The updated program gives people more control over their food choices, and the options themselves have improved over the years. Recipients can pick cartons of milk instead of just powdered milk, for example. They’re getting frozen or fresh pork chops, hamburger and bison instead of canned meat. There are also fresh fruits and vegetables, instead of the canned versions.
These food sites are strategically located near health centers, so that recipients can learn about the medical options available to them, and the sites host food seminars to teach people about healthy eating. At one recent event, 150 participants in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, received free blenders and smoothie recipes in exchange for attending the monthly workshop and tracking their exercise and nutrition.
“You can’t put that opportunity in a box,” Hoskin said.
The rich asshole administration argues that its proposed changes to SNAP would be a huge money-saver, shaving about $21 billion a year from the federal deficit over the next decade.
But Hipp wonders how such savings could even be possible, considering the logistical challenges and expense involved in getting these packages to people’s homes or drop-off locations. Delivering the food in a timely manner would be key, since perishables will expire. FDPIR has struggled with these issues over the years, prompting ongoing negotiation between the tribes and the federal government, Hipp said.
FDPIR still serves a critical purpose in rural areas where it’s simply not feasible to get to a supermarket that participates in SNAP. On the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, for example, there are about 40,000 residents spread over some 3,500 square miles and just three supermarkets. Prices in those stores are often very high. The stores bring in goods from Rapid City or neighboring Nebraska, and store owners say fuel costs force them to set higher prices.
The FDPIR grocery-like sites that native advocates would prefer would require additional funding and infrastructure, which aren’t expected anytime soon, Hipp said.
The Harvest Box concept might not have much chance of moving forward in Congress, and the rich asshole administration officials have suggested it was really meant to rile up liberals. But the proposal may have served to emphasize just how serious the administration is about pushing forward with $85 billion in other cuts to food assistance programs. Food security experts are urging advocates to focus less on the Harvest Box proposal and more on the bigger issue: the steep cuts to SNAP.
“I worry that all the attention to the Harvest Box distracts from the fact that this administration has proposed to shrink SNAP,” said Stacy Dean, vice president for food assistance policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. “It’s important for us to focus on that vision, one where millions of people lose benefits and benefits are slashed for those who remain. That’s deeply worrying.”
the rich asshole ambassador pick made a big donation to Mar-a-Lago gala right after he was nominated
Most if not all of the money raised for the gala is funneled to Mar-a-Lago, not for charity.
Shortly after President some rich asshole nominated Leandro Rizzuto Jr. as ambassador to Barbados, the Florida business executive promised to give thousands of dollars for an upcoming gala at the president’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, according to a Washington Post report published Thursday.
Rizzuto and his wife pledged the donation, which may be as high as $25,000, in mid-January to the Trumpettes USA gala scheduled for 2019. Two weeks prior to the donation, the rich asshole nominated Rizzuto to be ambassador to Barbados and a handful of other Caribbean nations.
Most if not all of the money raised for the gala by the Trumpettes, a Palm Beach-based socialite group, is funneled to Mar-a-Lago, not for charity, according to the Post.
Earlier this month, CNN uncovered that Rizutto had peddled fringe conspiracy theories and unfounded attacks on the rich asshole’s political opponents during the 2016 presidential election. Rizzuto spread smears about Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and his wife Heidi, as well as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), and Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R), according to a CNN review of Rizzuto’s Twitter account.
Among the unfounded claims that Rizutto promoted on Twitter:
- That Ted Cruz was unfaithful to his wife
- That Heidi Cruz was a leading member in an effort to combine the governments of the United States, Canada and Mexico.
- Rizzuto told Cruz to “go back to Canada.”
- Rizzuto called Hillary Clinton “a terrorist with amnesia.”
Meanwhile, across the globe in India, some rich asshole Jr., spent the week on a private business trip that netted $15 million in real estate sales in just one day for a the rich asshole Towers project after buyers were promised meals with the rich asshole’s son, according to another recent Washington Post report.
Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee raised conflict of interest concerns with the trip, during which the rich asshole Jr. is scheduled to give a foreign policy speech, alongside India’s prime minister and other high-ranking Indian government officials, at a global business summit.
the rich asshole Jr. is executive vice president of the rich asshole Organization, the real estate business that President the rich asshole still controls, and which has more business entities in India than in any other foreign country, according to the Post.
In an attempt to stem criticism about potential conflicts of interest, the rich asshole Jr., who is not part of his father’s administration, said in a CNBC television interview on Tuesday that his father put curbs in place for which he doesn’t get credit.
“India, it has been an important market for us, but again there is this opportunity cost of the deals that we are not able to do that don’t get discussed,” the rich asshole Jr. said. “We could do so many more but we are not doing those.”
Yet, in India, the rich asshole name was clearly good for the company’s bottom line. Reuters reported that the rich asshole Jr.‘s partners in India played up the rich asshole brand prior to his visit, placing ads in India’s newspapers to attract buyers for luxury flats in a the rich asshole Towers project.
The ads promised buyers the opportunity to rub shoulders with the rich asshole’s son by joining him for a “conversation and dinner,” according to Reuters.
Ethics officials and government watchdog organizations continue to call for the rich asshole to divest himself of assets that can lead to conflicts of interest. One of those groups, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics [CREW] in Washington, D.C. chronicled instances in which government and special interests interacted with the president’s private businesses during the rich asshole’s first year in office, and found more than 500 instances of potential conflicts of interests.
CREW found that “those who patronize President the rich asshole’s businesses have, in fact, gained access to the president and his inner circle. Indeed, it appears that at least some of those guests are trying to use that access to exert influence.”
In Florida, the Trumpettes founder, Toni Holt Kramer, dismissed the idea that Rizzuto’s donation might be connected to his nomination as ambassador, according to the Washington Post.
“Oh, God, no,” Kramer told the Post. “They’re not doing it because they want to be in good graces with the president. They’re doing it because they want this country to run right.”
Parkland teen: the rich asshole only listens to people paying him ‘blood money’
By
-
"He only listens to people putting money in his pockets."
For Samuel Zeif, who lost his best friend during the massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the rich asshole’s recent capitulation to the NRA doesn’t come as a surprise.
Speaking to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Zeif commented on how the rich asshole, since the White House “listening session,” has been aggressively advocating on behalf of the NRA.
Indeed, in a bizarre, televised round-table discussion at the White House on Thursday, the rich asshole engaged in NRA fantasies about the need to weaponize schools by paying teachers and coaches “a little bit of a bonus” for bringing a firearm into school everyday.
“I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected,'” he said.
the rich asshole removed any doubts about his unbreakable loyalty to the NRA and its radical gun agenda on Thursday, in the wake of last week’s school mass murder.
Adopting the gun’s lobby’s bizarre plan to arm hundreds of thousands of school teachers and flood classrooms with firearms, the rich asshole made clear he’s not going to be part of any serious debate about gun violence in comes weeks and months.
Zeif sees the rich asshole plan as madness. He also thinks AR-15s, like the kind used to kill 17 teachers and students in Parkland, Florida, should be outlawed.
“I don’t think it should be available to the public, at all. It’s a weapon of destruction,” he told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “It’s a weapon of war. It’s not what our founding fathers intended in the Second Amendment. They intended for defense, and this is offense. This is not for protection.”
Zeif appeared at the White House on Wednesday and delivered a gut-wrenching monologue about the need to protect school children from guns.
“I turned 18 the day after. Woke up to the news and my best friend was gone,” he told the rich asshole, while fighting back tears. “And I don’t understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war.”
As for his trip to the White House, “We had a long talk with him. And I’m sure that right after we left he had a long talk with the NRA,” said Zeif.
“And, who’s he going to listen to?”
Confused the rich asshole takes 4 different positions on arming teachers in 24 hours
By
-
the rich asshole has a very strong opinion on letting teacher carry guns. He just doesn't seem to know what it is.
Few issues appear to have the rich asshole more confused and tongue-tied than the proposal to let teachers and school faculty carry concealed weapons. He has changed his tune on arming teachers at least four times in the last 24 hours. At one point, he even changed it mid-tweet.
The first phase of the rich asshole’s dramatic, whiplash evolution on guns in classrooms began on Wednesday afternoon during his “listening session” with school shooting survivors and the families of victims. He advocated “concealed carry for teachers and for people … of that type of talent.”
He ignored the emotional plea of Parkland survivor Samuel Zeif to clamp down on “weapons of war,” despite the fact that his crib sheet explicitly reminded him to “hear” the people there.
But after the rich asshole’s remarks provoked condemnation, including from a teacher who had voted for him, the rich asshole was prompted to angrily “clarify” his position on Twitter Thursday morning.
“I never said give ‘teachers guns’ like was stated on Fake News @CNN & @NBC,” the rich asshole tweeted, in a seeming disavowal of his first idea.
But then, in the same tweet, he adopted a third stance, saying that we should arm some teachers. “What I said was to look at the possibility of giving ‘concealed guns to gun adept teachers with military or special training experience — only the best.”
Later that day, the rich asshole took a fourth swing at articulating his stance in his “school safety” meeting. According to the White House press pool, he argued for a system in which teachers get “a little bit of a bonus” for being armed and asserting that either 10%, 20%, or 40% of teachers would be qualified.
Whatever the specifics, the rich asshole’s idea is in fact vigorously opposed by most teachers and school boards, and for good reason: Asking teachers to double as SWAT team members is a recipe for disaster.
And in some mass shootings, like the 2011 Tucson attack, some bystanders were armed, but could not shoot without hitting an innocent person.
It makes no sense to waste school resources arming teachers, and bear all the attendant risks of accidents or crime that guns in schools would pose, when the chance a teacher could actually engage a shooter through a crowd of screaming students is so low.
For that reason, even Sen. Marco Rubio, one of the National Rifle Association’s biggest beneficiaries, declined to support arming teachers at Wednesday’s CNN town hall on gun violence.
the rich asshole should pay attention to educators on this issue. Because while it has taken him four tries and counting to work out the details of his opinion, the opinion of those actually in our schools is quite clear.
Florida teens break cycle, keep America focused on guns for 8 days straight
By
-
The Parkland school shooting survivors are already bringing about the change they're seeking.
For most Americans, the news cycle following a deadly school shooting is all too familiar. After a few days of headlines, the spotlight starts to fade. Before all of the victims have even been buried, the news cycle begins to move on. Within a week, the shooting — and any dialogue about stopping the next one — is in the rearview mirror.
But this time, it’s different.
The students who survived the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School said they wanted to bring about change — and the evidence shows they already are.
Compared to other major mass shootings in the U.S., interest in gun control has remained remarkably constant in the week since the shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Google Trends
Sutherland Springs, Texas: After the Nov. 5, 2017, shooting that left 26 people dead and 20 others injured at a Sutherland Springs, Texas, church, searches for gun control spiked just like they did after last week’s mass shooting. But unlike last week, interest in the topic quickly faded and was nearly back to baseline levels within a week.
Google Trends
Las Vegas, Nevada: Just a month before the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Stephen Paddock shot 58 people to death and injured more than 500 others at a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, marking the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. Yet even after this horrific milestone, interest in gun control only remained elevated for a few days before quickly plummeting back down to baseline.
Google Trends
Orlando, Florida: The second deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history took place on June 12, 2016, when 49 people were killed and 50 others injured at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida — about 200 miles away from Parkland. Google searches for gun control spiked and remained elevated for about five days but then faded precipitously within a week. Within two weeks, searches had returned to baseline levels.
Google Trends
Newtown, Connecticut: On Dec. 13, 2012, twenty children and six teachers were shot to death at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, marking the second deadliest school shooting in history. The unimaginable horror of such young children being murdered in their classrooms garnered international attention — yet interest in gun control had already started to decline within six days of the shooting.
Google Trends
Within twelve days of the Newtown shooting, Google searches for gun control had returned to baseline levels.
Google Trends
While we are still just eight days out from the devastating shooting that took the lives of 17 students and teachers in Parkland, FL, interest in gun control is elevated more than it has been at this point in the aftermath of any other major mass shooting in modern history. And while other factors may contribute to trends in Google searches for gun control, it’s undeniable that the powerful words and courageous actions of students who survived the shooting are having a major impact on our national dialogue.
Instead of politicians or organizations leading the calls for gun control, it’s teenagers who survived the shooting and who are now putting a human face to the tragedy. They’re going in front of the cameras, into statehouses, and onto the streets to demand change.
They, too, have seen the sickening cycle that follows mass shootings — and now that they’ve lived it, they’re determined not to let it continue. And based on the metrics, they’re off to a record-breaking start.
After Mass Shooting, FL House Votes to Put “In God We Trust” Signs in Schools
Read more at http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2018/02/22/after-mass-shooting-fl-house-votes-to-put-in-god-we-trust-signs-in-schools/#IfXGbH2fMSZ3wsZi.99
The Florida House — the same lawmakers who rejected a ban on assault weapons while declaring porn a health risk — has finally figured out a way to prevent more gun violence.
They’re going to put the words “In God We Trust” in every classroom.
image: http://wp.production.patheos.com/blogs/sites/8/2018/02/DanielsGodTrustDumb.png
The bill (HB 839) would require all public schools to post the state motto, “In God We Trust,” in a “conspicuous place.”Sponsor Rep. Kim Daniels, a Jacksonville Democrat who runs her own ministry, said Florida needed the legislation, given the goings on in the state.“He is not a Republican or a Democrat. He is not black or white,” Daniels said. “He is the light, and our schools need light in them like never before.”She spoke directly of the school shooting, and said it’s no secret that the state has “gun issues” that must be addressed.“But the real thing that needs to be addressed are issues of the heart,” Daniels said.
I’m sure the students in Parkland feel better already. If only these signs were in classrooms last week…
The bill passed through the House on a 97-10 vote. Maybe those 97 legislators have no idea that Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School was already home to a club called First Priority, a Christian group, before the shooting. Or maybe they think future mass murderers will see the signs and rethink their actions. Or maybe God will finally get the hint that He doesn’t have to let innocent people be murdered by a disgruntled former student because He clearly forgot to intervene last time.
What’s on their agenda tomorrow? A rain dance? Replacing health insurance with homeopathic pills? Boosting the economy via dowsing rods?
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from listening to teachers in the wake of last week’s shooting — something these legislators obviously haven’t done — it’s that they don’t want to be told how to do their jobs, especially in ways that have nothing to do with the students’ education. They don’t want to arm themselves with lethal weapons, and they don’t want to post Christian signs in their classrooms.
This is a useless bill. It’s another sign that nearly the entire State House needs to be replaced in the next election.
By the way, if the name Kim Daniels rings a bell, it might be because, a year ago, she posted a video on Facebook condemning witches and warlocks (since they’re the real threats to our democracy).
I used to think sending “thoughts and prayers” after a tragedy was the least politicians could do to help the victims. I was wrong. This is even worse. Just watch Daniels’ full speech beginning at the 3:50 mark of this video. If anyone told you “In God We Trust” wasn’t about Christianity, her speech is a clear sign those people are lying to you.
What a joke these people are.
NRA head breaks silence to attack gun control advocates: 'They hate individual freedom'
02-22-2018
Video by USA Today
The head of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA) has broken his silence more than a week after the Florida school shooting with a vituperative attack on gun control advocates, accusing them of exploiting the tragedy to push their agenda.
Wayne LaPierre, whose lobby group faces an unprecedented challenge from the activism of students, including survivors of the massacre, sought to paint his opponents as “elites” and “socialists” hellbent on undermining Americans’ constitutional rights.
“The elites don’t care not one whit about America’s school system and schoolchildren,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor in Maryland. “If they truly cared, what they would do is they would protect them. For them, it’s not a safety issue, it’s a political issue.
“They care more about control, and more of it. Their goal is to eliminate the second amendment and our firearms freedoms so they can eradicate all individual freedoms... They hate the NRA, they hate the second amendment, they hate individual freedom.”
Addressing a sympathetic audience of conservative grassroots activists, LaPierre continued: “They fantasize about more laws stopping what other laws have failed to stop. So many existing laws were ignored. They don’t care if their laws work or not. They just want to get more laws to get more control over people. But the NRA – the NRA does care.”
The massacre of 17 students and staff at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school in Parkland, Florida, last week was the second deadliest shooting at an American public school and has spurred extraordinary protests across the country. The debate reached a watershed on Wednesday when students and teachers confronted US Senators in a noisy “town hall” event televised live by CNN; there were raucous cheers for the idea of sweeping bans on assault weapons.
© Reuters Wayne LaPierre at CPAC in 2017.
LaPierre’s name was initially kept off the agenda at the annual CPAC to protect him from media scrutiny. The NRA often prefers to stay out of the spotlight in the wake of a major shooting.
LaPierre sought to put the warnings in the wider context of a “socialist enemy” within, who he said “oppose our fundamental freedoms enshrined in the bill of rights”. He claimed that the Communist Manifesto and Karl Marx were ascendent on university campuses, describing socialism as “a political disease”.
The NRA chief warned the packed ballroom: “You should be anxious and you should be frightened. If these so-called European socialists take over the House and the Senate and, God forbid, they win the White House again our American freedoms could be lost and our country will be changed forever, and the first to go will be the second amendment to the US constitution” – the right to bear arms.
Pushing the same agenda on school security as some rich asshole, he insisted: “The whole idea from some of our opponents that armed security makes us less safe is completely ridiculous. If that’s true, armed security makes us less safe, let’s just go ahead and remove it from everywhere.”
He continued: “We must immediately harden our schools. Every day young children are being dropped off at schools that are virtually wide open, soft targets for anyone bent on mass murder. It should not be easier for a madman to shoot up a school than a bank or jewellery store or some Hollywood gala.
“Schools should be the hardest target in this country. Evil must be confronted with all necessary force to protect our kids.”
He ended his speech, which was met with a standing ovation, by repeating the notorious mantra he had issued after the Sandy Hook school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012: “To stop a bad guy with a gun, it takes a good guy with a gun.”
In an earlier speech, the NRA’s national spokeswoman singled out the media for criticism. Dana Loesch said: “Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it. Now I’m not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you.”
Under intense public pressure, there has been speculation that the rich asshole might use his credibility with Republicans to take on the NRA, one of his strongest backers. But on Thursday he tweeted full support: “What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris [Cox] and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The president reaffirmed his proposal to address school shootings by giving some teachers guns, tweeting that it would be a “great deterrent” to killers. He suggested “a little bit of a bonus” for trained teachers who are armed.
the rich asshole, who held a listening session with students and parents on Wednesday, also said he would advocate for tightening background checks for gun buyers, with an emphasis on mental health, and lifting the age limit to 21 to buy some types of guns – policies less likely to please the powerful pro-gun lobby group.
Many attendees at CPAC expressed support for the idea of arming teachers.
Debi Millman, a fundraiser based in Los Angeles, suggested it was more realistic than restricting a country already awash with guns. “How many millions of them are there? You’re never going to be able to keep evil out. A better solution for me is have the schools be able to defend themselves. If criminals know that if they attack a school they’ll get their heads blown off, that’s a good idea.”
Randi Green, a personal trainer from Los Angeles, interjected: “Except for the fact most teachers are liberals and would balk at the idea.”
Green was skeptical about the students at Parkland who had been speaking out. “They’re definitely being manipulated,” she said. “Everybody has a voice but these are young kids and I don’t think they know better than lawmakers. I thought they were very disrespectful in the way they speak to people. I think the parents are rooting them on.”
Scott Pio, 33, wearing a red “Make America great again” cap, also backed the proposal for teachers to carry and conceal firearms. “We can arm everybody else around important people, why can’t we arm everybody around our students, especially as they are soft targets? What are people so afraid of? Even city council managers are already protected by guns.”
Pio, a software engineer from Fairfax, Virginia, also suggested making schools more secure, with only one point of entry, and increasing the number of security guards on site. But he was opposed to a ban on semi-automatic weapons. “There are plenty of people in rural areas who use guns to protect their homes and go hunting. But I’m OK with raising the age to 21 for assault rifles.”
Chris Davis, 44, a police officer from Pennsylvania, said he was “impressed” by the students who have spoken out but criticised liberal campaigners demanding tighter gun controls. “These same people say President the rich asshole is a tyrant. The reason you have the second amendment is to protect yourself from a tyrant.”
Todd McKinley, 40, a retired soldier from Kingsport, Tennessee, added: “The left called him Hitler, but then they want to grab all guns just like Hitler did.”
WASHINGTON — President some rich asshole on Thursday expanded on his idea to train and arm some teachers with guns, suggesting that firearm-adept school staff be given "a little bit of a bonus" for carrying weapons, and promising federal funds to train them.
At a White House discussion on school safety solutions with state and local officials, the rich asshole said "highly adept people ... who understand weaponry" could carry guns in schools, estimating that 10 to 40 percent of teachers could be qualified for such a task. Those who are would undergo "rigorous training," he said, later adding that he'd consider offering federal money for that effort.
Officials "can't just give a teacher a gun," he said.
Asked if he had concerns about teachers with guns making quick judgments in the chaos of a school shooting, the president said he did not, because they would be "experts."
the rich asshole proposes bonuses for skilled, gun-carrying teachers 2:08
Earlier Thursday, the rich asshole lashed out on Twitter at news organizations, including NBC, for saying he wanted to "give teachers guns" — an idea he supported during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday with parents and students who had lost loved ones to gun violence.
"I want my schools protected just like I want my banks protected," the rich asshole said at Thursday's White House event, where he was joined by a mostly Republican group of state and local officials, with Mayor Christine Hunschofsky of Parkland, Florida, the lone identified Democrat.
The president also proposed regulating the content children consume in video games, movies and online because, he said, the "level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts" and "bad things" are happening to their minds.
"We have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it," the rich asshole said, adding that some movies are "so violent" but don’t feature sex so they're often available for children to see and he wondered if some type of rating system might be necessary to address the issue.
It was unclear if the president was referring to potential changes to the current ratings systems for video games and movies, which already flag and often age-restrict such content, or was proposing a new system.
the rich asshole also said he didn't like the idea of schools conducting active shooter drills, calling them a "very negative thing" that are "very hard on children."
“I wouldn’t want to tell my son that you're going to participate in an active shooter drill,” the rich asshole said, in a rare reference to his 11-year-old son, Barron.
the rich asshole — who described himself Thursday as "the biggest believer in the Second Amendment" and an ally of the powerful National Rifle Association — said "there's a tremendous feeling that we want to get something done" to prevent any more school shootings.
That feeling, the rich asshole said, is shared by the NRA, whose leader, Wayne LaPierre, on Thursday attacked "opportunists" who he said were exploiting shootings for "political gain."
Watch NRA chiefs full speech at CPAC 37:07
the rich asshole's remarks came hours after he voiced support on Twitter for what he called the "Great American Patriots" of the NRA, while also noting areas where he would support policy changes that could restrict weapons access: more rigorous background checks, including an increased emphasis on flagging those with mental health issues; raising the minimum age for legal gun purchases to 21; and ending the sale of bump stocks that can be used to make certain weapons fire rapidly like automatic guns.
During LaPierre's remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference, which took place shortly before the White House event, the NRA leader derided some of those solutions, such as more stringent background checks, as unacceptable and ineffective.
Still, the White House has already made early moves on a few of those fronts. This week, the rich asshole directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to propose regulations that would ban the use of bump stocks and similar devices "that turn legal weapons into machine guns.”
The White House has also said the rich asshole supports bipartisan legislation from Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Chris Murphy, D-Conn., that would make the current national background check system function more effectively, though it wouldn't expand the system's reach.
On Wednesday, the president presided over a heart-wrenching White House listening session with students, parents and teachers affected by recent mass shooting tragedies — including last week's shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.
In the aftermath of that shooting, which killed 17 students and teachers, surviving students have publicly pushed for action on gun control.
You Realize Arming Teachers Is Going To Lead To Black Students Getting Murdered By Their Teacher, Right?
If you give public employees guns they will turn them on black people.
There are many reasons to be against President
But there’s one more problem that I’m sure most white people haven’t thought about yet: arming American teachers will directly result in students of color being shot to death at school.
I know that because the only other group of public employees that is armed at the behest of the state shoots unarmed people of color on the reg. The cops actually receive extensive training on how to use their firearms, how to asses threats, and how to deescalate situations, and yet they still murder innocent civilians all the time.
Giving a teacher a gun is ASKING them to be afraid. It makes poor judgment a homicidal offense. And that danger will be borne by black and brown students. The students who make teachers “afraid” just by their very existence.
We’ll be telling teachers to shoot armed terrorists breaching the school. What’s really going to happen is an unarmed black truant loitering in a hallway he’s not supposed to be in who gets shot eight times by the jumpy choir director.
Oh, she’ll feel just awful about her mistake. But a jury of her peers will never convict her of a crime.
One can assume that the legal system will treat armed teachers just like cops. Civilians are not allowed to discharge their weapons in public places except in the most extreme of circumstances, but cops are allowed to pop a cap in anything that frightens them. We’ve learned that cops are cowards who are easily spooked. The bar for a frightened teacher will be even lower. Having told the community that armed teachers are necessary to protect children, no jury is going to convict a teacher just because he or she mistakenly perceived a threat. And white America will rally around the poor teacher who emptied his clip into a “loud,” “aggressive” student of color who “has a history” of smoking cigarettes behind the school and getting into fights.
I can see the media reports now: “D’LaQuan Freedman was shot dead after threatening local teacher Miss Mary Priss with projectile chicken nuggets. Priss believed Freedman had a gun in his lunchbox, which in fact only contained a Pokemon ball believed stolen from a white child. Though just eight, Freedman’s permanent record revealed that the large, athletic boy received detention three whole times since his parents divorced, late last year.”
America is entirely too racist to arm teachers. Our legal system is INCAPABLE of holding public employees to account for murdering minorities. Black and brown students should not have to die because disgruntled white boys are shooting up their schools.
Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.
the rich asshole praises NRA leaders: 'They love our country'
BY BRANDON CARTER - 02/22/18 09:46 AM EST
President the rich asshole took to Twitter on Thursday to praise the National Rifle Association and its leadership, calling them “Great People and Great American Patriots” who “will do the right thing.”
“What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” the rich asshole tweeted, referring to NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre and NRA-Institute for Legislative Action executive director Chris Cox.
What many people don’t understand, or don’t want to understand, is that Wayne, Chris and the folks who work so hard at the @NRA are Great People and Great American Patriots. They love our Country and will do the right thing. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
the rich asshole’s tweet comes amid a heightened debate over gun control measures in the wake of last week’s deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school that left 17 people dead and more than dozen others injured.
He also announced Tuesday he had directed the Department of Justice to propose regulations to ban bump stocks, devices that allow semi-automatic guns to be modified to shoot more rapidly. The NRA has opposed legislation that would ban bump stocks, which were found on some of the rifles used by the gunman in the Las Vegas mass shooting last year.
the rich asshole reiterated his support for raising the age limit on gun purchases to 21 and vowed to push “comprehensive background checks” in a tweet Thursday morning.
the rich asshole reiterated his support for raising the age limit on gun purchases to 21 and vowed to push “comprehensive background checks” in a tweet Thursday morning.
In a statement released before the rich asshole’s tweets Thursday morning, the NRA praised the rich asshole as the “most pro-Second Amendment president in recent history.”
“We believe he is serious about finding meaningful solutions to our nation’s serious problems, so that sociopaths and the dangerously mentally ill are prevented from committing these horrific crimes,” Cox said in a statement to The Hill.
The NRA has faced new pressure since the Florida shooting, with survivors of the attack calling on lawmakers to refuse future donations from the organization.
The NRA has spent more than $1 million on elections in the 2018 midterm cycle, according to Open Secrets.
The organization also spent $30 million during the 2016 presidential race in support of the rich asshole.
