A dapper child reporter asks Sarah Huckabee Sanders what specific actions the Trump administration is taking to address school shootings:
Sanders gets question from child journo about school shootings and lockdown drills. pic.twitter.com/d1Qf7xlbXp
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) May 30, 2018
I didn’t see the briefing live, but much of the media reaction online centered on the wobble in Sanders’ voice in the clip above. The break in her voice when addressing the boy might have been humanizing in a person who hadn’t demonstrated so conclusively that she’s a soulless shill for a putrid demagogue.
But we know what she is, so let’s hear what she actually said, which boiled down to this: “Blah-blah-blah we’re having a meeting about it.”
The bottom line, charming kid-reporter, is that the tangerine-tinged homunculus who is that woman’s boss received $30 million-plus from the firearms business lobbying group known as the NRA, so neither he nor any of the craven turds who meld together to form the towering shitpile known as the Republican Party will do a goddamned thing to address school shootings in a meaningful way. Ever.
However, these folks are trying (via The Miami Herald):
Parkland parents launch a Super PAC to go after politicians and the NRA
Starting Wednesday, some Parkland families are raising money for a campaign to push the National Rifle Association out of politics and ban assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines in the U.S.
Following the lead of their children, parents from the community where 17 died in a Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School have joined together to form Families vs Assault Rifles, a nonprofit and political action committee founded to be a counterweight to the NRA…
The parents’ Super PAC is soliciting $17 donations, one dollar for each life lost in the shooting.
The PAC site features video and a quote from Marco Rubio’s disastrous appearance at the post-Parkland CNN town hall as the banner — they’ve adopted the so-called “problem” Rubio identified — “you would literally have to ban every semi-automatic rifle that’s sold in the U.S.” — as an objective! I’m in for $17 bucks.
Open thread.
Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)
This whole party is beyond reclaim. They’re irredeemable. The only way for Republicans to save themselves at this point is to leave the party. Otherwise, they’re tainted beyond saving.
Comrade Colette Collaboratrice
I’m in for $18, because life, not death.
trollhattan
I accept your offer, senator.
Mary G
I am so impressed that a red state like Florida has such a great school with teachers, parents and students. They are so good at spacing actions out to keep the pressure on.
Tom
Here’s the Men in Black solution:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_l0lFxFF7I
Chyron HR
She should have just called in the other Sanders to waggle his finger at the little brat and snarl “White people use their guns for HUNTING!”
BruceFromOhio
In for $68, me plus three who maybe couldn’t.
We echo the words from the March for our Lives: “Either change the law or change the lawmakers.” We plan to do both.
Solid plan. Let’s do it.
Mathguy
I missed the by-line but then I read “…so neither he nor any of the craven turds who meld together to form the towering shitpile known as the Republican Party will do a goddamned thing to address school shootings in a meaningful way. Ever,” and knew it was Betty. Nobody does righteous rants as well.
Mandalay
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott released a “School and Firearm Safety Action Plan” today in a surprisingly rapid response to the Santa Fe shootings.
You can read it here, but don’t bother because it’s all pointless window dressing (“Expand Crime Stoppers Program”, “Protect school employees by implementing a zero-tolerance policy for students who commit assault”) so that he can pretend he is taking meaningful action.
germy
Acid reflux.
trollhattan
Dick Tuck, Nixon’s long-time personal nemesis and prankster has died.
Well done sir, and thanks!
Meanwhile, Roger Stone and Karl Rove are very much alive.
Mandalay
A sad side story on Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School: they plan to knock down the building where the slaughter took place, but from the school’s web site:
Understandable, but still a bummer.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
I really feel like the tide is turning for the better. What we’re seeing is the results of when good, motivated people get involved in the political process. There’s still so much to be done but this, along with the OK Democratic party rebuilding itself from the ground-up by focusing on issues like education is very encouraging
Yarrow
@Mandalay: The good news about Abbott having a meeting about school safety and releasing a plan is that it shows that Republicans know they can’t just go with thoughts and prayers anymore. It isn’t working. The general public is sick of all the school shootings and they want things to change. Abbott’s meeting and plan may be stupid but he’s trying to look like he’s “doing something” because people are demanding things change.
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mandalay:
I wonder if making it into a museum/memorial would be better choice
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Yarrow:
The best part is that once the public realises these half-measures for what they are, the GOP will be still be screwed
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Mary G:
If I recall they had a really great civics teacher. Seems he had an effect on them
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
@germy: I figure she was choking back a laugh.
SFAW
@trollhattan:
Sorry to hear about Dick Tuck, he was pretty awesome.
Quinerly
The Benjamin Rhodes book.
“The day Mr. Obama hosted Mr. Trump at the White House after the election seemed surreal. Mr. Trump kept steering the conversation back to the size of his rallies, noting that he and Mr. Obama could draw big crowds, but Mrs. Clinton could not, Mr. Rhodes writes.”
https://mobile.nytimes.com/2018/05/30/us/politics/obama-reaction-trump-election-benjamin-rhodes.html
Betty Cracker
@Mandalay: I read somewhere that the Sandy Hook school building was demolished and rebuilt. I can understand the impulse behind that — something so horrible happened there that the demon must be exorcised. But in a way, tearing the buildings down seems like a fig leaf to cover the awful fact that we’re unwilling to substantively address these tragedies.
sixthdoctor
The linked Times article is a fascinating (albeit depressing) read…
danielx
@trollhattan:
Andrew Breitbart is still dead, so there’s that.
SFAW
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
I hope you are correct, but history seems to indicate otherwise, with respect to the Rethugs paying a price.
jk
God bless this child reporter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_1LfT1MvzI
Quinerly
@sixthdoctor: posted about this above. Such a depressing read. Not sure I will be able to get through the book.
Mandalay
@trollhattan:
I second that. They should put him on Mt. Rushmore for this effort alone:
Priceless.
NotMax
“What’s the meeting about?”
“Deciding what to say that will get you people off our back without our actually doing anything.”
sixthdoctor
@Quinerly: I might have to get it and then wrap it in bubble wrap so when I throw it at the wall every five minutes screaming G**DAMMIT!!! it limits the damage…
cain
@trollhattan:
We really need to bring that kind of stuff back. Pranking the Orange Menace would be amazing. He fucking hates being laughed at and the results will make him go crazy.
Frankensteinbeck
How much you paid Trump means nothing, only how much you may pay him in the future. Still, I’m sure he expects more money, he’s a mean shit who has less than no sympathy for the victims (I’d bet he thinks it’s funny and their fault), and as a hardcore white supremacist, he’s at least sympathetic to the argument that white people need all the guns they can get.
Amir Khalid
@Chyron HR:
Neither of them is my favourite person named Sanders. I much prefer this guy.
Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)
Oh god. Vintage Trump.
SiubhanDuinne
@Quinerly:
I don’t know whether I have the fortitude to read the book. Just the NYT article brought me to tears.
Mandalay
@Betty Cracker: I see both sides of the argument, and I don’t know how the decision to demolish the building was reached, but if a formal request came from the student body it would have been close to impossible to refuse them; the optics of doing that would be horrendous.
SiubhanDuinne
Grand Jury has indicted Harvey Weinstein on rape charges. Not surprising, but very satisfying.
The Ancient Randonnier
I donated for myself, my two high school aged daughters and for the twenty children and six adult staff members of Sandy Hook for a total of $493.
To the NRA and its’ supporters: Every time we step into the voting booth we will remember,
The Ancient Randonneur
I donated for myself, my two high school aged daughters and for the twenty children and six adult staff members of Sandy Hook for a total of $493.
To the NRA and its’ supporters: Every time we step into the voting booth we will remember.
chopper
has it not been considered that the ‘wobble’ in jethrene’s voice was from her trying hard not to laugh at the poor kid?
debbie
@Betty Cracker:
Yeah, but Sandy Hook was for little kids. You can’t traumatize them by sending them back into that building.
Mnemosyne
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Trump Fairness Doctrine at work — if Valerie Jarrett gets an apology, Trump has to get a bigger and better apology or else it’s not ffffaaaaaaiiiiiirrrrrr!!!
FWIW, I’m pretty sure that Bob Iger’s response to that would be, Go fuck yourself, Donald.
Elizabelle
@Quinerly: The thing that strikes me: no discussion of whether the results were legitimate. I wonder if they have any doubts now.
And it’s astounding they did not know that Trump was under investigation. That strikes me as negligence by the FBI and Saint Comey.
I won’t be reading that book.
Peter Baker wrote the article.
I don’t think Obama did enough to warn. I wonder if he’s changed his mind since.
However, article by Peter Baker, who is a FTF NYTimes Republican whisperer. Setting the stage. This article pretty much says “Obama thinks Trump is legitimately president.”
And we don’t know: did Obama know Trump was under FBI investigation? Rhodes says he personally learned it from the media after the election. But article is silent on whether Obama knew.
Betty Cracker
@The Ancient Randonneur: You are fabulous! All who donate are, including me! ?
debbie
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady):
Any idea what that HORRIBLE statement was? “We won’t pick up ‘The Apprentice'”?
beused
I did not expect to see Sarah choke up, almost seemed like a glimmer of humanity peeking out but nah. She’ll never let that happen.
different-church-lady
SANDERS’ INNER MONOLOG: “Steady. Must… keep… lying…”
I'll be Frank
It would seem to me that the logic where any money paid to PP becomes averaged into the money spent on abortions means that any Politician that took money from the NRA took money from the Russians.
Quinerly
Meanwhile, Kim Kardashian West, the reality TV star and high-profile socialite, is heading to the WH…. She’s expected to discuss prison reform with WH officials and Pres Trump.
Sab
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?: Have you found a voter registration project? If not, contact Sherrod Brown’s campaign. They seem to be spending their money on grass roots organizing ( i.e. organizers salaries) instead of saving it for expensive tv ads. Also they seem to be whole Dem ticket, not just the candidate.
I was hesitant to donate to his campaign before, because money is tight in my house and I hate that all political money seems to go to ads and the people who place them.
However, this does not seem to be the case. He has really good people at the grass roots level, and they are committed to the whole ticket top to bottom, not just the Senate candidate.
sixthdoctor
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): That’s right, America, our leader and the most powerful person on Earth whines and cries and feels sorry for himself like the Nobody Likes Us guys from The Kids in the Hall! Way to go!
https://youtu.be/HoaoP3aJi5U
different-church-lady
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): Hey, we’ll gladly have someone compare you to an ape, if that’s what you’re looking for, Donald.
Kay
Education doesn’t get much press, so DeVos doesn’t get much press, but her school safety commission is not getting high grades:
She has a consistent problem with a lack of transparency and not including anyone from a school when setting school policy.
The much-ballyhooed Trump “apprenticeship” committee was the same. They rolled it out like it meant something and they ended up releasing a report. WILDLY over-sold.
Betsy DeVos just does a horrible job. She’s never run anything in her life . She was a lobbyist funded 100% with family money- she wasn’t even ever a real employee, hired and retained in any kind of merit-based process, let alone a manager. She couldn’t be fired as a lobbyist- the whole thing was funded by her family.
One amusing thing- she may be the most run-against Sec of Ed in history. It seems like every state level Democrat in the country is using her in campaign ads.
different-church-lady
@Quinerly: TRUMP: “Kim, what did you do to end up in prison? Are you in MS-13?”
Brachiator
@Yarrow:
And yet, right wing nut jobs continue to have a melt down caused by their desperate attempts at denial.
Sadly, the worst of these clowns keep trying to blame what they perceive to be the evils of permissive liberal society for gun deaths.
She claims that she knows these things because she’s a nurse. If wimmins got married, stayed home and read the Bible to their babies, America could have all the guns they wanted, just like God intended.
debbie
@Sab:
Sherrod’s been running ads here since just after the primary. I was surprised to see this so early.
Quinerly
@Elizabelle: first article/review of Rhodes’ book. I’m waiting for others to review it… Plus for Rhodes himself to comment.
Quinerly
@different-church-lady: actually, Trump could question the mother of 5 of his grandchildren. Do you remember a few weeks back the articles about Jr’s wife he is divorcing? Page Six ran a big piece about her boyfriend when she was a teenager being in a gang and going to prison.
Mnemosyne
@Brachiator:
Gotta love all of the Serena Joys running for office to prove that women should stay at home and not run for office. ?
rikyrah
THREAD about today’s events, and why today was a bad day for Michael Cohen
https://twitter.com/Lib_Librarian/status/1001921614525562880?s=19
rikyrah
@Sab:
Even if it was for the top, voter registration helps
Gelfling 545
@Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): see, Donald, you don’t get an apology when the statements are TRUE.
Sab
@debbie: Yikes. Sorry to hear that. I know he knows what he is doing, but I do agree with Kay on us needing organizers.
On the other hand he is funding organizers, and they seem to be pretty good.
trollhattan
@Kay:
DeVos is as qualified to oversee public education as Rick Perry is to run Lawrence Livermore Lab and Sleepin’ Ben Carson to reform Section 8. Trump’s ultimate revenge is putting the inept in charge of organizations he wants to kill off. As a tactic it ain’t a bad one.
NotMax
Shocked, shocked.
Bolton Taps Neo-Nazi as National Security Council Chief of Staff
Quinerly
I sure thought this had ended. Japan killing pregnant whales as part of a study.
https://bbc.in/2IYspWE
beused
@Brachiator:
Black has the answer for declines in family support systems. All people have to do is surrender to her brand of religion and trust thoughts and prayers will deliver all they need.
Sab
@Kay: Teachers hate deVos. That is good for November. I know apolitical rural Republican teachers in Ohio that hate deVos. Here’s hoping they realize the survival of public schools is at stake.
Mnemosyne
@trollhattan:
I now know someone who is an engineer at Livermore. It’s a little weird, but turns out Cal Poly SLC is a really good engineering school. Who knew? ?
We had a long conversation about the process of getting her security clearance. It took about 2 years to get the full thing, because it’s all done by contractors who don’t make much of an effort to contact your references.
NotMax
@Brachiator
“Support saltpeter in school lunches!”
Steeplejack (phone)
@Kay:
Link or source for that story? Would like to read more.
Yarrow
Not really a surprise, but glad to see it happen:
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Brachiator: I think she actually trying blame school shootings on masturbation and apparently suggesting incest as the solution with “family support mechanism”. Sounds like she is a proud daughter of Appalachia.
Cheryl from Maryland
Donated to the PAC! Good luck to them.
rikyrah
@Kay:
Her incompetence, in league with her evil policies- she is right out of central casting.
rikyrah
@Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.):
Wipe them out.
All of them.
Brachiator
@Mnemosyne:
Evangelical nutcases tie themselves into knots trying to explain how the man should be the head of the family, and rule over wimmins, except for wimmins politicians who do the Lord’s work. The stupid must be exhausting.
rikyrah
@Quinerly:
???
H.E.Wolf
@? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?:
Yes! I agree. Thanks for such a clear, succinct, positive statement – it cheers me up, over here scrunched up over a keyboard and a list of volunteers in a flippable district. It’s nice to have good neighbors, no matter if the neighbor is thousands of miles away….
Kay
@rikyrah:
It’s hysterical. I follow her because I was familiar with her work in Michigan, so I have this DeVos expertise :)
The DeVos family have a fleet of racing yachts. I saw one in a race last summer, on Lake Michigan. The people I was with pointed it out because they know my politics.
So this year she does a “school visit” conveniently located in Grand Rapids (the DeVos family own that city- they bought a whole city) the first workday after Memorial Day. She doesn’t even pretend this is a real job. Any work she does has to fit into her leisure schedule.
She doesn’t mention the fleet of racing yachts when she’s scolding teachers who make 40k a year on their work ethic.
It’s like Ivanka. These people take fake jobs and then we’re all ordered to pretend they’re actually working.
Sab
@Kay: Weird that education doesn’t get much press, because the actual voters I know put this at 1 or 2 on their most important issue list.
ETA:even the professed apolitical ones
Quinerly
@rikyrah: Poco sends tail wags! His Escape is loaded and he knows we are heading back to St. Louis in the morning. John Lennon, fearless rescue kitty, awaits us! Our tribe of 3 will be reunited. ?
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Kay:
That’s wealth, power, and privilege for you
H.E.Wolf
Oh, and a note for anyone new to political volunteering: one option is to ask if there’s a “Coordinated Campaign” doing any work in your vicinity.
I found out about that by accident in 2012: I was volunteering for a candidate at the state level, and they/we shared space in the big Coordinated Campaign office, working on every Democratic campaign from Obama’s re-election, on down to local stuff.
In 2016, I made a beeline for that year’s coordinated campaign HQ; and I’ll be dropping in to this year’s location, as soon as they finish assembling the tables. :)
The energy is almost always high, and it’s exactly the sort of effective, on-the-ground effort that Kay so eloquently describes.
Also there are snacks. :)
? ?? Goku (aka Amerikan Baka) ? ?
@Sab:
I was thinking of contacting VoteRiders. Brown’s campaign, now that you mention it, would also be a good place to look. Thanks for suggesting it.
beused
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
I just want some reporter to ask her how much porn she had to watch to reach her conclusion with documentation.
Amir Khalid
@Quinerly:
Japan has for decades resented being scolded by other nations because it kills whales for food. So it hunts whales for “research” and once the whales are dead, why not chop’em up for the seafood market? This despite the fact that not a lot of Japanese still want to eat whale meat.
stinger
@NotMax: In Sanders’ defense, she did say it was an OFFICIAL meeting.
hitchhiker
Donated my $17 and then some.
Last week I was in Paris, where I saw men in uniform at the airport and two of the major train hubs with assault rifles at the ready .. and of course I thought of Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas, and Parkland, and all the rest.
Hard to describe how shamed I was at the idea that there are places in the US where untrained fools are allowed to swagger around with those bloody things, scaring the crap out of their neighbors.
NotMax
@Amir Khalid
Remember reading some years back that there was a move to put whale on school menus. Which was unsuccessful in the extreme when done.
TenguPhule
@Amir Khalid:
To the point that they have fucking freezers full of the stuff from prior hunting that they have to throw out because they can’t get rid of it fast enough.
I love Japan, but gods this is one of their really stupid flaws that I wish they’d grow out of.
TenguPhule
@NotMax:
Horse meat would have been better. Properly prepared, the meat is sweeter then beef.
Wakeshift
Donated $51 to the PAC.
2 for my daughters now in school, plus one more because f&#k the NRA.
Also, @I’ll be Frank at 47, I love this formulation! Should work great as long as logic holds… oh.
drdavechemist
Just did our family’s part-2 adults and 2 almost high school graduates =$68
I keep thinking about how Australia managed to successfully ban and buy back semi-automatic weapons, proving it can be done if there is enough political will. Here’s hoping that the side of sanity can prevail in this country with enough support.
J R in WV
@Brachiator:
Some years back, two women were running for the US Senate here in WV, and I was phone banking and otherwise a volunteer for the Democrat. Several times I called someone who told me they couldn’t vote for either candidate for Senate this election. God told us in the Bible that woman cannot be set above a man, so neither candidate was qualified to be in the US Senate, both being female.
The result of the election was Senator Shelly Moore Capito. Daughter of Felon Governor Arch A Moore, Jr. Wife of Wells Fargo bank executive, most crooked bank in this nation. He got the job days after Shelly voted to revoke financial regulations that crimped Wells Fargo’s style.
J R in WV
@H.E.Wolf:
Dude, Where is this magical place you speak of????
I want to volunteer, but last time working for Hillary was so, so hard… that ending sucked, still does!
kingweasil
I’m in Betty! thanks for the link, best kingweasil