Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

I’d like to think you all would remain faithful to me if i ever tried to have some of you killed.

There are consequences to being an arrogant, sullen prick.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Is it negotiation when the other party actually wants to shoot the hostage?

Hot air and ill-informed banter

You cannot shame the shameless.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Conservatism: there are people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

Thanks to your bullshit, we are now under siege.

Balloon Juice, where there is always someone who will say you’re doing it wrong.

When you’re in more danger from the IDF than from Russian shelling, that’s really bad.

Not rolling over. fuck you, make me.

“The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.”

Everything is totally normal and fine!!!

Fight for a just cause, love your fellow man, live a good life.

Everybody saw this coming.

Of course you can have champagne before noon. That’s why orange juice was invented.

Seems like a complicated subject, have you tried yelling at it?

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

You are here: Home / Balloon Juice / Meetups / Proof of Life: Iowa Meet-Up

Proof of Life: Iowa Meet-Up

by | 175 Comments

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Per always-interesting commentor Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly IOL):

Stinger and I met [Saturday], along with her sister. Here’s proof of life.

Left to right: Dorothy A. Winsor/IOL, Stinger, Stinger’s sister Joyce.

Thanks, DAW!

As a reminder… Anyone wants a meet-up in their neighborhood, all you need is an announcement and a general date and/or venue. Send me an email at annelaurie (dot) bj (at) gmail (dot) com, and I’ll put up a post for you.

Reader Interactions

175Comments

  4. 4.

    Adam L Silverman

    As a result of this caucus, Senator Bernie Sanders has been projected to win the Democratic Iowa primary.

    What?

  5. 5.

    cain

    When is Tamara going to do another denver meet up? Maybe I could get some political folks to show up eh?

  9. 9.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @Downpuppy: We already ate all the food.

    Funny thing. Stinger and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time. I’m guessing she recognized me by the green balloon I was holding. She told me her sister might be there, so we asked the guy at the front if someone might be waiting for us. He said, “Is one of you named Stinger?” (only real name) We claimed the name and he led us to the booth. I was ahead and slid onto the bench saying , “Hi, Stinger’s sister!”

    In the meantime, Stinger is behind me waving her hands. Turns out this wasn’t Stinger’s sister. She must have thought I was crazy.

  16. 16.

    WaterGirl

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): I laughed out loud! One time in high school I was waiting outside my house for friends to pick me up. Car pulled up, I jumped in, started talking and then noticed the 4 strangers in the car. Oops.

    I was not a car person back then. In my twenties, four of us friends drove from Illinois to Colorado and back; someone asked me what kind of car we had driven and I answered “I think it was red.” I was not trying to be funny. We didn’t have a car growing up so I just never paid any attention to them at all.

  17. 17.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @WaterGirl:

    I was not a car person back then. In my twenties, four of us friends drove from Illinois to Colorado and back; someone asked me what kind of car we had driven and I answered “I think it was red.”

    My mind is reeling right now.

  27. 27.

    WaterGIrl

    I just looked up, and one of the 4-month-old pups staying with me is on the couch, which is a no-no even for my dogs. But everyone else is sleeping quietly and I don’t want to upset the applecart.

  31. 31.

    opiejeanne

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): LOL at forgetting what kind of car you owned.

    We live in Washington and we caucused for Hillary. In our group it was a split and there were two delegates for each candidate. No one even brought up Stein. The first round was very pleasant and kind of exciting; we were all neighbors and some of us knew each other. Round 2 a couple of weeks later was when it got ugly with non-delegates shouting down the speakers for Hillary after we had politelyl listened to the speaker for Wilmer. That’s after we’d had the silly motions to do stupid things in protest of something or other. I don’t even remember what those three people wanted or who they were interested in but they were very annoying and the meeting bogged down at that point. Things improved when they split us into Hillary and Wilmer groups to choose our state delegates and decorum resumed. We had teens and people in their 80s and we got our business done. We were leaving and could hear shouting down the hall and wondered what they were yelling about. Maybe the disruptors followed them into their meeting room, but they didn’t have badges.
    We let three non-delegates observe from outside in the hall with the door open. They got bored and wandered off after a bit.

    ETA: I now hate caucuses from the bottom of my dark, wizened little heart.

  32. 32.

    Shana

    @Adam L Silverman: It’s a beautiful state. I grew up across the river (Mississippi) from Iowa and used to go over to drink as a senior in high school. IA’s drinking age was 18 then, and IL’s was 19. I’ve also spent some time in Iowa City and a bit in Washington, IA. Don’t know if they still do, but Iowa used to have the highest literacy rate in the country.

  37. 37.

    TaMara (HFG)

    @cain: I have been thinking we should do this again. I went to a Jared Polis house party yesterday and that left me thinking we could do a meet-up and brainstorm on candidates and strategies for Nov.

  40. 40.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    @opiejeanne: We’ve been here for about 20 years now and, because I worked in Ames during the week, my first caucus was 2008. So it was Obama, who was my choice. But between the first and second round of voting, we Obama supporters were all out in the hall waiting for the Richardson people to make up their mind about what they were going to do. I was standing next to an African American woman who said her husband had been reluctant to come and she told him, “Baby, you gotta come. It’s history.” I swear a chill ran down my body. Yeah. It was history.

    Apart from that, I prefer primaries for all the reasons we’ve talked about here. But that moment was amazing.

  41. 41.

    Shana

    @raven: Your link didn’t work for me, but I did a google search and it looked like a fun lineup. We seem to have a number of odd areas of overlap.

  47. 47.

    geg6

    Always so lovely to put faces to screen names.

    As always, I send out an open challenge to Pittsburgh area Juicers to have a get together. After all these years of suggesting one, I realize we all must be the introverts to end all introverts, but we should do this. We might even entice Cole and/or Devin to show up due to proximity.

  50. 50.

    Shana

    @opiejeanne: My husband is Janet’s husband’s youngest brother. Went with them to AFI Silver theater last year to see Saving Brinton. Lovely movie about a guy in Iowa who found a treasure trove of early movies, including a bunch of Melies’ films that were thought to be lost. A delightful film.

  58. 58.

    Mnemosyne

    The recipe I’m following says it’s supposed to make 6 servings of chili, but this is a LOT of chili. I guess I know what we’re both having for lunch for the next week or so.

  66. 66.

    opiejeanne

    @Shana: That sounds nice. How would I know your sister-in-law’s sister? Where in the state of Washington does she live?
    I’m a bit confused. You saw a movie in Maryland about old movies (yay for the rescue) found in Iowa. I’m not sure how all of this is connected.

  71. 71.

    oldgold

    My sister attended the Wadena music festival. She was supposed to be visiting a friend. About a week after the festival, her story fell apart. My parents went ballistic.

    Even though I did not attend, the length of my hair, which had previously been a sore point, went to defcon 2. “We will have no gd hippies in this house!”

  72. 72.

    opiejeanne

    @Mnemosyne: I screwed up the chicken pot pie I made, somehow the gravy was fine when I finished making it but now that the pie has cooked it’s found some extra liquid somewhere while it was baking. It’s somewhere between soup and stew. Tastes good but that was not what I was going for. Drat.

  73. 73.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Yeah, me too, the Dakotas, Minnesota, Iowa, Montana, I think I’ve been to all the others.

    Nevada we crossed on the train, I did step off in Reno at like 2 or 3 am, just to say I had been there. Lots of desert!! We did Idaho coming back to Salt Lake from Jackson’s Hole after visiting Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, just a corner. That trip we rented a Lincoln, which was actually a fun car, and got 32 mpg over two weeks in the mountains.

  75. 75.

    jk

    Professors from the University of Houston and Boise State University sent current and recent members of the Presidents & Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association a survey on presidential greatness, asking 170 historians to grade each president. In bad news for President Trump, he came in dead last, bumping Buchanan, faulted for bringing the United States to the brink of civil war, up a spot. Abraham Lincoln came out on top, followed by George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Teddy Roosevelt, and Thomas Jefferson, while Harrison, who died of pneumonia just 31 days into his term, joined Trump and Buchanan at the bottom.

    h/t https://sps.boisestate.edu/politicalscience/files/2018/02/Greatness.pdf

  76. 76.

    Mnemosyne

    @Major Major Major Major:

    At the moment, a little more soup-y, but I took off the lid and turned the heat up a smidge to see if that will boil off some of the extra liquid.

    @opiejeanne:

    Weirdly, I remember that that was how Kimberly lost “The Great British Baking Show” in the first season that was broadcast in the US. It wasn’t a pot pie, but a similar meat-and-pastry concoction and the gravy wrecked the pastry when she baked it.

  78. 78.

    chris

    Go to Sioux City and drive around a bit. You can go to Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota in about an hour.

  79. 79.

    J R in WV

    @raven:

    Keokuk is a famous rock-hound place, geodes of all kinds – well with all kinds of crystals in them, they’re all the same kind of geode. I have a couple I traded for, but never got that far west on a rock hounding trip.

  80. 80.

    Mike J

    @opiejeanne:

    Round 2 a couple of weeks later was when it got ugly with non-delegates shouting down the speakers for Hillary after we had politelyl listened to the speaker for Wilmer.

    At my second round Berners challenged every single Hillary vote cast. Later, some of their number left but still wanted their votes counted.

  82. 82.

    hilts

    More bullshit behavior from the ratfucking Trump Inc

    Investors in a luxury property development in India are being offered the chance to have “conversation and dinner” with Donald Trump Jr.

    The eldest son of the US president is visiting India this week and will promote the Trump Towers development near Delhi.

    Critics say the Trump family is cashing in on the president’s name.

    But Mr Trump Jr has said he has been building relationships in India for years.

    The full-page advertisement, which ran as the front cover of several Indian newspapers over the weekend, featured a picture of Mr Trump Jr together with text: “Trump is here. Are you invited?” and “Trump has arrived. Have you?”

    The 47-storey towers in Gurgaon, close to the Indian capital, are being developed by the Trump Organisation and local partners – with some apartments selling for more than $1m.

    The Trump Organisation, formerly headed up by President Donald Trump, is an umbrella company for hundreds of investments in businesses including real estate. Donald Jr is now its executive director.

    India is the group’s biggest property market outside the US, and in 2016 the Trump family earned up to $3m (£2.14m) in royalties from ventures in India, according to a financial disclosure report.

    h/t http://www.bbc.com/news/business-43108549

  86. 86.

    WaterGirl

    For the folks who mentioned TPLO last week when I said my dog Henry has to have surgery… I checked with my vet and TPLO is an option even though he is a little guy. So thank you to Jay and MoxieM for the tip.

    Also, as I googled TPLO on balloon juice, I found a bunch of posts over time from cosima who kept us up to date as things progressed in the weeks after surgery. cosima, if you are still here on BJ, let me know if you see me in a thread? Henry’s surgery is on 2/27. thanks.

    edit; i did see one thing in the BJ comments that has be worriedv- something like “as you know if there’s a problem with the TPLO, there’s nothing else that can be done”. If anyone can shed some light on that, I would really appreciate it.

    I am headed to bed with all the pups now, but I will check back in the morning. Goodnight all!

  90. 90.

    opiejeanne

    @WaterGirl: It had a big steam hole, but it wasn’t a pastry crust. The top was sliced potatoes brushed with oil and arranged in a spiral design. It looked pretty. I think you’re right about the veggies, probably the peas I added to it after the veggies and gravy were finished. Possibly peas and the potatoes. I can fix it. I usually put a top and bottom crust on this thing and I’ve never had this problem, but the potatoes are cooked first before the pie is closed up.

  91. 91.

    stinger

    @Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady): The caucus process gives a candidate’s supporters the chance to try to persuade others to vote for her/him, on the spot right before voting takes place. It can be informative for voters who aren’t deeply into politics, and there’s something special about hearing your neighbors and acquaintances talk passionate politics on this one day every four years! It gives me a sense of community, like an old Norman Rockwell painting — much more so than marching into a curtained booth and marking up a ballot in isolation and silence (and perhaps some ignorance). It also offers some of the features of ranked-choice voting.

    I understand that primaries make it easier for more voters to participate, but I’ll miss caucusing when it goes away, which I expect it shall.

  92. 92.

    Major Major Major Major

    @J R in WV: Growing up, I spent a lot of time at the family farm out near Wilber, Nebraska, the ‘Czech capital of the USA.’ So if you like Czech food, Nebraska has that going for it, but it’s in the middle of nowhere.

    Lincoln is… fine. You don’t get beat up so much for being queer any more, I hear.

  96. 96.

    Scamp Dog

    @cain: I handled the details for our last get-together, and I’d be happy to set up another. AL, fell free to pass my contact info on to Cain. Or if you want, Cain, you can contact TaMara and she can get you my information. I think we originally set up the meetup to introduce you to the area, but your work had you travelling on that date, IIRC. So we definitely need to set up another that you’ll be able to come to. Sometime in March?

  98. 98.

    opiejeanne

    @Shana: OH! LOL! Now we’re on the same page. Your comments were giving me a little bit of a surreal experience. Still giggling.
    And I’m glad they found those “lost” Melies films. The man was a genius. The movie “Hugo” touches on his story, the grumpy old man is supposed to be Melies.

  99. 99.

    Corner Stone

    @stinger:

    The caucus process gives a candidate’s supporters the chance to try to persuade others to vote for her/him,

    No it doesn’t. It gives a bunch of shouty assholes with time on their hands a chance to bully or intimidate regular people into moving into their corner.

  102. 102.

    Adam L Silverman

    I’ll just leave this here:

  107. 107.

    Ninedragonspot

    @Major Major Major Major: I grew up in the Star City, as Lincoln likes to style itself. Still fondly remember the Czech kolaches.

    After I moved to the Bay Area, someone asked me, “How is it that every guy I meet from Nebraska is gay?” I replied, “because we all left.”

  109. 109.

    MomSense

    Looks like a nice party with some lovely Jackals.

    I may be in Boston at the end of March. Kid’s band has a gig at some club but it may be too stalker parent for me to go.

  117. 117.

    Mandalay

    Nobody could have predicted….

    Last month, Walt Disney Co. announced it was giving $1,000 each to more than 125,000 employees. The Burbank media giant, similar to many other companies, planned to give extra money to employees after the GOP federal tax overhaul reduced the corporate tax rate.

    However, the Service Trades Council said Monday that Disney refuses to give employees at the Orlando theme park the bonuses until the union approves a new contract. “If the unionized employees do not accept Disney’s offer by August 31, ‘the bonus offer will expire,’ ” according to a news release from the trades council.

  118. 118.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I don’t know the year of the Renault Dauphine

    My first car! 1967, red with tan leather seats. Bought it for $300 when I graduated from high school.

  119. 119.

    opiejeanne

    @Mike J: The bullying! It was insane. I remember some of your stories and heard from several others. Even some of Wilmer’s supporters were bothered, young people who were initially excited became disillusioned by the events at their round 2 for their area.

  126. 126.

    O. Felix Culpa

    @Omnes Omnibus: The Dauphine is ranked as one of the worst cars of all time (although I imagine the Yugo surpasses in that category), but I loved it.

    ETA: Got fantastic gas mileage, a real bonus during the OPEC gas shortage years.

  127. 127.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    Just about two years ago….

    Mitt Romney‏Verified account @ MittRomney
    If Trump had said 4 years ago the things he says today about the KKK, Muslims, Mexicans, disabled, I would NOT have accepted his endorsement
    11:13 AM – 3 Mar 2016

    Just a few hours ago….

    Mitt Romney‏Verified account @ MittRomney
    Thank you Mr. President for the support. I hope that over the course of the campaign I also earn the support and endorsement of the people of Utah.
    6:56 PM – 19 Feb 2018

  128. 128.

    Ruckus

    @Jager:
    Sorry the Renault out shines the 2CV. Not by much mind you but it does. Known people that owned each of them. Neither was worth a crap, even way back in the 60s.

  129. 129.

    Viva BrisVegas

    I notice that on the same day as the greater tragedy, in Amarillo a bad guy with a gun held a church full of people hostage. Thankfully a good guy without a gun wrestled the weapon away from him. The hero was then promptly shot multiple times by the attending police.

    He survived the shooting.

  131. 131.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @O. Felix Culpa: Imagine being in your early 20s with a less than Jaguar but above MG sports car. No regs about who sits where. The Renault got him to work. That was the only time it was used.

  132. 132.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    Sounds like me being able to say I’ve been to England. The ship stopped in Plymouth to refuel and I went on the pier to empty the trash. I can truthfully say I’ve walked on English soil. Same in the Azores.

  133. 133.

    Origuy

    I’m reminded of the Steven Wright joke. He drove across the country once with only one cassette tape to listen to. He couldn’t remember what it was.

  134. 134.

    Ruckus

    @O. Felix Culpa:
    I forgot about the Yugo. Had a young lady that worked for me buy one. She was trying to establish credit and that was the cheapest “car” available. I’d have to agree that the Renault was better, but we are talking a very few degrees of better.

  138. 138.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    I think the next 24 hours are gonna be fun for Elder Etch-A-Sketch

    Mitt Romney@ MittRomney
    7 Oct 2016
    Hitting on married women? Condoning assault? Such vile degradations demean our wives and daughters and corrupt America’s face to the world.

    I guess he thinks “condoning” means “bragging about”

  140. 140.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Corner Stone: I didn’t have much hope for Willard to be the noble voice of NeverTrump in the Senate, but I didn’t think he’d signal his capitulation so quickly

  141. 141.

    cain

    @Mnemosyne:

    I’m going to be in Denver in mid-July for the RWA conference, so there will be a combined writing/political meetup.

    Sweet, you’re like one of hte people I would really love to meet!

    As a side note, remember I told you those teens are going to get the “granite countertops” treatment? Seems like gateway pundit has already started the conspiracy theories. Hell Chelsea Clinton implored that asshole to go back and attack her instead of the kids. See the asshole’s tweet Parents, teachers, everyone is going to be attacked by these guys. Apparently, it’s not too soon to go after the victims.

  142. 142.

    No Drought No More

    How desperate has Trump grown since Good Friday of last week? Desperate enough to endorse Mitt Romney tonight, that’s how much. Remember the dinner photo taken while Romney groveled while angling to run the State Department? Think Mitt has forgotten either?

    Romney, of course, will soon be playing the role once played by the democrat’s Joe Lieberman* during the late 90’s great Presidential Penis Scandal. I’m looking forward to the performance, though no doubt not nearly as much as The Mittster himself is.

    *(Al Gore’s greatest and most inexcusable political miscalculation. WTF was he thinking that day?).

  143. 143.

    Yutsano

    @cain: And he’s (mostly) getting dragged in the responses. Of course he just drops shit without actually responding. The weasel.*

    *No offence to any weasels reading this. Y’all are good peeps.

  145. 145.

    Matt McIrvin

    @cain: From now on, being a survivor of a mass shooting means that conspiracy assholes are going to go after you and your family.

  146. 146.

    Aleta

    Just months before Donald Trump announced his bid for president in 2015, federal regulators announced they were slapping one of his longtime Atlantic City casinos with a record-setting $10 million fine for lack of controls around money laundering.
    The problems went back years. The penalty was actually the second record-setting fine for the Trump Taj Mahal involving money-laundering oversight.

    Casino officials admitted to “willful and repeated” violations of the Bank Secrecy Act:
    As federal authorities put it in a settlement:
    Trump Taj Mahal admitted that it failed to implement and maintain an effective AML [anti-money laundering] program; failed to report suspicious transactions; failed to properly file required currency transaction reports; and failed to keep appropriate records as required.

    Propublica, podcast:

  151. 151.

    John Revolta

    @Matt McIrvin:

    Historians seem not to have liked him in the 1990s but now consider him top 10

    I……………what?

    I suppose hair metal will be next. Lemme the fuck outta here!

  152. 152.

    cain

    @TaMara (HFG):

    @cain: I have been thinking we should do this again. I went to a Jared Polis house party yesterday and that left me thinking we could do a meet-up and brainstorm on candidates and strategies for Nov.

    I seem to know a number of people running for office so it might be fun.

  155. 155.

    cain

    @Scamp Dog:

    @cain: I handled the details for our last get-together, and I’d be happy to set up another. AL, fell free to pass my contact info on to Cain. Or if you want, Cain, you can contact TaMara and she can get you my information. I think we originally set up the meetup to introduce you to the area, but your work had you travelling on that date, IIRC. So we definitely need to set up another that you’ll be able to come to. Sometime in March?

    Oh, man, I feel bad. Yeah, I think I went to China that week, there was a lot of travel. For March, I’m free the first weekend, but traveling on the second weekend, and then free again on the 3rd weekend, and not free on the last weekend before April.

    Yes, please, love to have the contacts and set up something before publishing.

  156. 156.

    frosty

    @J R in WV: I picked up everything but Hawaii by 1978. Still hanging at 49. It’s tough to get both Dakotas without going a day out if your way. I did it on a Greyhound Ameripass, Minneapolis to Aberdeen to Fargo to TR Nat’l Monument in 2 days.

  158. 158.

    cain

    @Matt McIrvin:

    @cain: From now on, being a survivor of a mass shooting means that conspiracy assholes are going to go after you and your family.

    Yes, because their entire goal is to muddle everything to the point that nobody knows what the truth is. I mean to the point that it never happened. In which case, what did that asshole going on trial for? Those kids are going to see their lives dragged in the glass. I hope that we’re all strong enough to push back and shout them back down to their mother’s basement where they belong.

  162. 162.

    efgoldman

    @raven: My dad’s first brand new car was a ’56 Plymouth Plaza (bottom of the line) with tail fins anddpush button auto trans to the left of the steering column; they called it “Wedgwood blue” but it always looked turquoise to me

  163. 163.

    efgoldman

    @Jager:

    Erase the Renault Dauphine from your memory banks, worst car ever…

    My first wife bought one shortly before we were separated. I don’t know what happened to it, or her.

  164. 164.

    frosty

    @efgoldman: I think my dad’s was a ’49 Merc, at least that’s the car my P’s got married in. His friends soaped it and Dad made them wash it off before he left the reception.

  165. 165.

    cain

    @? ?? Goku (aka Baka Amerikahito) ? ?:
    I think you know, we’re not that kind of asshole. These people are head crazy. All we want is just some fairness and justice. These guys have sold their soul and are stark raving nuts. We simply don’t have the kind mentality to start peaking in houses looking for dirty on these people. Plus they are usually anonymous going after public figures.

  166. 166.

    Aleta

    Speaking of meetings:

    Rachel
    @indiana_rachel
    I’ve held @momsdemand meetings in #Bloomington #Indiana when only 3 people showed up. Tonight we had almost 200. Don’t tell me nothing has changed.

    One thing to learn from what’s happening here: @MomsDemand and @Everytown laid groundwork for years to be ready for this moment. Social movements aren’t simply moments of protest. They are massive organizational efforts that prepare to funnel discontent into collective action.

    Shannon Watts
    @shannonrwatts
    Typical turn out for a @MomsDemand meeting in Raleigh, North Carolina: 20 people

    Tonight: So far, we’re counting 500. We had to start a spill room.
    #ThrowThemOut

    Sarah Shon
    @SarahCGShon
    Replying to @shannonrwatts and @MomsDemand
    Went to my 1st mtg Saturday in Columbus Ohio–they typically get 15-20 but had so many rsvp that they had to move to bigger venue, and had standing room only! It was so inspiring!

    Jenny Ruth
    @JennyRuth81
    Same in Pittsburgh! Our usual 15-20 ballooned to 105 at yesterday’s meeting

    

  167. 167.

    Mike in NC

    MSNBC now says LTG McMaster in danger of being fired for speaking truth in front of Fat Bastard. What a shithead.

  168. 168.

    Aleta

    @Aleta:

    Shannon Watts
    ‏@shannonrwatts
    Feb 18
    Normal turnout at our Maine @MomsDemand meetings: 20 people
    Today: 250

    Barbara King
    ‏@TheBarbaraKing
    1,000+ people in Los Angeles today demanding common sense gun laws and honoring the victims of #parkland @MomsDemand

  169. 169.

    cain

    It will require great organization to keep the interest high, and get people motivated out there and participate.

  170. 170.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Steve in the ATL: When Reagan was in office I remember thinking: In the future everyone will consider this man one of the greatest Presidents, and they’ll all be wrong.

  172. 172.

    Aleta

    This rally was held at the state capital in Ky on the morning of Feb 14th, planned and held before Parkland happened. These groups have been organizing and meeting for years. Since the shooting, many more people have joined the Ky chapters of the groups.
    From the Courier Journal (Ind and Ky)

    FRANKFORT, Ky. — More than 100 people, including many mothers, rallied Wednesday at the Capitol to denounce three bills that would relax Kentucky’s gun restrictions, particularly at public schools and universities. 
    Volunteers for the Kentucky chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a grassroots movement dedicated to preventing gun violence, said they believe the bills pose a danger to Kentuckians of all ages. 
    “We are here to go toe to toe with the gun lobby,” said Connie Coartney, who volunteers with the Kentucky chapter of Moms Demand Action, which itself is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, a national organization with more than 4 million supporters. “Why do we show up? Because we know it doesn’t have to be like this. We can make a difference.”

    The bills Moms Demand Action opposes are:
    »  House Bill 210, which would prohibit Kentucky’s publicly funded colleges and universities from restricting someone’s ability to possess a gun on campus if that person has a license to carry a concealed deadly weapon;
    »  House Bill 36, which would let people carry concealed deadly weapons without a license in the same places people who are licensed can carry them;
    »  and Senate Bill 103, which would allow public school boards (and private schools) to appoint employees as school marshals who would be allowed to store — and, if necessary, use — a gun on campus to protect other people.

    “For over 20 years, our elected officials have offered trite condolences,” said Hollan Holm, who survived the 1997 shooting at Heath High School in Paducah, not far from Marshall County High School, where two 15-year-olds were killed in another shooting last month.

  173. 173.

    J R in WV

    Wow. Not a surprise that there are people sick enough to attack people working to prevent deaths and maimed students. What a shame to learn that it is happening so quickly, so soon after all those people lost loved ones to terrorism. I guess if people tried to convince the nation that no kids were killed in Connecticut, that that was stage craft by anti-gun politicians, nothing is too low for those creeps.

    But hearing that meetings are overflow suddenly make me hope that the balance has changed, and that the worms launching attacks on activists working for safety and peace will crawl back into the basement holes. Thanks for all that good news from all over the country.

    I fought for peace and against the Vietnam war nearly 50 years ago until I was drafted with a low birthday number in the draft lottery, and we were all attacked as unAmerican hippies back then for hating death and maimed children. Some things change really slowly, until the tipping point is reached. I believe I will have a tiny sip of whiskey and go back to bed for another bit of attempted sleep on that good note.

    Thanks again for the good news!!

  174. 174.

    Ruckus

    @J R in WV:
    I too think it is different this time. That there are enough people this time to offset those who think that death to others makes their life better. The war was big but it happened relatively fast, a huge build up, with just enough people who remembered WWII positively and of course the communist menace. This is different, this war is first going on at home, the only people being defeated are the innocent victims, who aren’t at war at all, and there isn’t a menace other than the shooters and the guns, and it has built to a point that it is way past just a phase, it is constant, it hits close to home and it is just as unnecessary.

  175. 175.

    Miss Bianca

    @cain: way late to this thread, but I’d love another Denver meet-up. Had to miss the last one Also had to miss meeting up with sme lovely BJ folks down in New Mexico and I haz a sad about that.

    Let’s do it!

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