#WhatIf politicians stopped taking money from the NRA? pic.twitter.com/cIK41dd3nW
— March For Our Lives (@AMarch4OurLives) March 16, 2018
I was never much of a marcher; age and bad joints haven’t exactly increased my inclination to communal protest. But I know some of you are making plans to join the marches in your area, if anybody wants to leave a comment below and maybe attempt to get together…
Also, in case it’s helpful, reason #2,387,451 I’m glad I decided against having kids:
“Fellow parents of smallish kids: Are you planning to take your families to the March for our Lives?” wrote an acquaintance on Facebook earlier this week. Her children are in fifth and second grade. “Anyone else have concerns about the event raising fears in our kids’ minds? My kids know about Parkland, but have not (yet) asked, ‘Could that happen here?’ “
And that is a good question. For many parents, it is the question right now.
How young is too young to join in a protest or a march?
There is a lot to consider for those thinking of taking younger kids to the March for Our Lives on March 24 in Washington. The logistics alone can be a major issue: thousands of people, scattered bathrooms, hours of standing.
But more than that, this march is about kids being shot to death in schools. So the images and messages at the event will certainly be concerning for children who may be too young to process (aren’t we all?) the horror.
Will a march or protest send their anxieties into a freefall? Or can it empower them and make them feel as if they have some control or ability to change things?…
And this makes me feel more hopeful about the event —
I’m going to be at the “March for our Lives” next Saturday in DC and one of the coolest things about it is that they are not letting any politicians or people over 21 speak. There’s something happening here.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 15, 2018
— because, naming no names, the last thing we need right now are a bunch of aging politicos &general attention-hunters trying to score another fifteen seconds of ‘virality’ at the expense of these kids. Let ’em make their own experience, just like we did, back in the day.
Kobekid
No politicians? No one over 21?
Brilliant!
OzarkHillbilly
I’m thinking about it. Was gonna talk to my son and his ex about possibly bringing my 9 yo granddaughter. Unsure if it’s a good idea or not as part of me thinks “Let her be ignorant and unconcerned about this shit as long as possible.” In fact, the more I think about it the more I lean to the “Naaahhh.” side.
Zattarra
@OzarkHillbilly: If she’s 9 she already knows. Her school has done drills on this. They’ve told them what to do in case of a shooter in the building. You can’t hide this if the kid goes to a public school. She knows.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: I like the sound of
Hey Hey NRA
How Many Kids did you kill today
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@raven: that’s a winner.
?BillinGlendaleCA
The kid told me Monday after our urban hike that her sister decided to home school her daughter, one of the reasons is school shootings. I don’t think it’s a particularly good idea, but I can understand that angle.
OT: During “snuggle time” with my girls the cocker got up to sniff at the window I’ve got cracked open in the bedroom and then started to bark. I got my head lamp out and saw two coyotes in the yard in front of the cave. The light scared them off and when I went out I notice the body of a black cat that’s been out and about the yard at night the past month or so. I went back inside and saw the coyotes return to claim their prey.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Ending the manufacturing of AR-15 or the sale of AK-47s would really hurt quail hunters. Amirite!
Shamelessly, he’s already tried to hijack national school walkout day on Wednesday by making an uninvited speech. And since the massacre, he’s been pretending that he’s always been
at war with Eurasiaagainst assault weapons.Chyron HR
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
Which Alzheimer’s victim said it: Donald or Bernard?
Aimai
Im going! Will walk with other social workers.
Kobekid
@OzarkHillbilly: Grandfather knows best
rikyrah
Good Morning Everyone ???
rikyrah
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
There are too many receipts of him and the NRA
rikyrah
@raven:
I love that too. Straight to the point
raven
@rikyrah: It makes me nostalgic even though LBJ was long gone when I got into the streets. I was otherwise occupied.
OzarkHillbilly
@Zattarra: True. Not sure if that changes the math enough.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@rikyrah: It’s the weekend!
barb 2
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
I really dislike and despise Bernie — cult leader, creepy person. I’ve seen too many cult fanatics and anyone who manipulates followers like Bernie is always self-absorbed. He just another grumpy old white guy who hasn’t done much but gets a pass.
How dare he even try to grab onto the bravery of the student’s fighting the NRA and the GOP.
That new book by Corn – Russian Roulette has a lot of words but little surprising or new information. Other books cover similar material and are far more readable. Plus the authors’ whitewash of Bernie’s behavior and ties to Russian and retread of Clinton’s emails make for boring reading. I give it 2 out of 5 stars.
Jeffro
Actually, at this point I’m thinking no one over 21 should be able to hold elected office. Sort of a baby version of Logan’s Run* but given how the adults are doing…
*the pretty good book, NOT the really awful movie, thanks!
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: A winner.
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Hence, Miss Kitty is an indoor cat.
raven
@Jeffro: Or Wild in the Streets sort of.
raven
I love it when Mika gets all horrified when they talk abut that icky sex shit!
RedDirtGirl
Someone here came up with this one I might put on a sign…
GOP/NRA: “Children should be slain and not heard.”
I’ll be going to the NYC march if anyone wants to meet up and march together.
Baud
@rikyrah: Good morning.
Baud
No one ever does a Take a Nap at Work Protest For Some Good Cause.
Need more outside the box thinking in these troubled times.
Amir Khalid
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
The gun makers of America have grown fat selling more guns to Americans than they will ever need, and now their sales are fulling as they run out of suckers to sell more guns to. Meanwhile their excess production is being used to end lives young and old. They can and should be made to pay for that, and if they pay by going out of business it will serve them right. The US Government can always pay to maintain a strategic reserve of small-arms manufacturing capacity for police, military, and private-sector security needs plus the relatively few Americans who still hunt their meat.
Bernie’s words show a pol torn between his debt to the NRA’s financial support and endorsement, and the need to appeal to young people who don’t want to get killed attending school. He seems to be leaning toward the NRA. That says a lot about him, I think.
Amir Khalid
@Jeffro:
If you think the Logan’s Run movie was awful, you should see the TV show.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly:
I was a bit surprised to see them, I’d never seen them in the neighborhood before. After I saw them, I closed the doggie door. They seem to be gone now, but the dogs aren’t going out alone tonight.
cosima
Little Cosima has been ‘marching’ since she was being carried in a back-carrier. Didn’t have to do it when she was in the baby bjorn, because we were living in socialist utopia then… Her first was an anti-Palin rally. She’s done pro-Obama rallies. She’s been right up front, watching him speak twice. She’s marched in Pride parades. Marching = empowerment. If you don’t take your children to march for what you strongly believe in, you are just talking the talk, you are a passive bystander. Whether or not you want your children to know about these things, they exist — we must be the change that we wish to see, and we must model that for our children.
That said, it was bittersweet for me to read about , and see the videos and photos of, children marching for gun control in the US. I so wished that Little C could have done so in solidarity. She recently put together a powerpoint for her school house (the school is split into 4 ‘houses’ — sort of like Harry Potter) about taking a stand against a nearby windfarm planned on an iconic hill (which also happens to the hill that her house is named for). So, Little C is protesting windfarms on scenic hills, whereas if we were still in Denver she & I would have been out protesting for gun control. And that, in a nutshell, is why we took on the herculean task of making the move to the UK (expensive, time-consuming, limiting, and until we recently received our residency it was a knife-edge sort of existence for us).
March with your children! Have the difficult discussions that will underscore your commitment to effecting positive change! How is worrying about what they may or may not worry about a better option than trying to remove the problem? That is a parent that I really cannot relate to.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@raven: what icky sex were they talking about?
cosima
@Amir Khalid: Nasty old fraud trying to play both sides, as ever. How I loathe that man.
OzarkHillbilly
Gun Protest: Why Arizona Teenage Republicans Chairman Quitting His Position
Steeplejack (phone)
@raven:
You’d feel the same way if your partner was Joe Scarborough.
Kay
The STOP Act they’re selling to these kids as a fix is a reauthorization of an existing DOJ grant program that was already in place, with 20 million in additional funding:
They changed the name of an existing program. Sometimes you just cannot believe how cynical these people are.
OzarkHillbilly
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Good move. I hear our coyotes most every night but rarely see them (as is their intention) When my folks were still alive I saw coyotes on a # of occasions at their west STL county home and have even seen them in STL proper (along the River Des Peres). They do get around.
Citizen Alan
@Jeffro:
Black women can hold elected office at any age. Otherwise, I kind of agree with you.
Feathers
@?BillinGlendaleCA: As they say – Q: How do you know a coyote has moved into the neighborhood? A: The missing cat posters. Other issue, when you see the poster for the black cat, do you let them know?
Why I didn’t like seeing coyotes: it meant they’d pushed the foxes out. Apparently foxes and coyotes don’t share territory, so when the coyotes show up, no more pretty, pretty foxes out the back window. Boo.
Chyron HR
@OzarkHillbilly:
“And making sure people with histories of mental illness and domestic violence can’t obtain guns.”
GOP: “Domestic violence, too? That wasn’t part of our deal, Martinez! That wasn’t PAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAART!”
Kay
They were going to reauthorize the DOJ Secure Our Schools program anyway, because they introduced it on January 30th, which was prior to the shooting.
Betty Cracker
Maybe it’s an anomaly generated by my particular follow list, but it seems the Sanders-Clinton supporter wars have ramped up 10-fold on Twitter over the last week or so. In March 2018. No idea why.
At this point, it might be best if Sanders runs, gets treated like a front-runner (i.e., gets all the shit dumped on his head) and, hopefully, gets blown out in the primary. Otherwise, we’ll never hear the fucking end of it.
OzarkHillbilly
@cosima: When one is a grandfather, the equation is more than a little different.
Kay
They took out “metal detectors” and added “evidence-based”. I don’t think the kids are buying it though- they keyed right into the word “reauthorization” on Twitter :)
No one reporting on this is saying it’s a reauthorization of a program that has existed since 2011. That seems important, since the GOP is selling it as a response to this shooting, which it is not, and since they were planning on reauthorizing it anyway.
debbie
@raven:
I remember that movie and thinking how far away the age of 30 was. Hah on me.
debbie
@Kay:
It was stupid then and it’s still stupid. Just like the GOP.
Kay
Not true. It’s the same “action” they took in 2011. Of course, she probably didn’t bother to read it because reading is for losers. Winners just say things.
Baud
@Betty Cracker: Sanders speaking at the gun protest and Clinton speaking in India.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Feathers: I don’t think we’ve ever had foxes in Southern CA, at least not in my memory.
@OzarkHillbilly: We used to hear them(and occasionally see them) when we lived up in the hill country. I’ve seen them quite a few times in Griffith Park(I almost hit two of them once), but that’s across a freeway(the 5) and the mighty LA River.
OzarkHillbilly
@debbie: Thanx. You just reminded me of how far away the age of 30 is.
Anne Laurie
@Feathers: There are coyotes well established in the next town over, but the foxes still lived around here as of last fall, cross fingers. One of the veterinarians at our local practice, when we told her quite vociferously that our two cats were ‘confined’ to the house, said she’d been to a talk at the latest animal-health convention, and it was reported that fewmet exams showed that MA coyote diets averaged about 60% ‘stray’ cats, ugh.
Apart from the foxes, I worry about migrating coyotes because we also share a house with three small, aging dogs. At approximately 20lbs each, they’re a little large for coyotes to tackle… and the ‘Eastern coywolves’ usually go after solitary pets… and there’s still plenty rabbits around the neighborhood. But we have installed brighter lights in the fenced-off area of the back yard where the dogs are accustomed to being let out!
Kay
@debbie:
Democrats in the House barred the use of funds for “security training of personnel” that includes weapons training, but it’s back in the Senate version.
So Republicans are reauthorizing an existing program and trying to add gun training for teachers. Which means they did absolutely nothing except trying to get more guns into schools.
debbie
@Kay:
Reminds me of that Social Security lockbox. Another example of GOP’s absolutely nothing policy.
Anne Laurie
@Betty Cracker:
I’ve noticed the same thing. Partly, I think, it’s because his step-daughter lost her (local VT, mayor of Burlington) race, and All the Haterz made a public point of gloating about that. Part of it is that HRC’s back in the news, and whenever that happens the BernieBros rile each other up for war like those podgy adolescents in Lord of the Flies. Part of it is that Elizabeth Warren’s getting positive media attention for resisting the Dodd-Frank ‘loosening’, and the nutsier RoseBros seem to think any good strokes given to any older female politician have been stolen from St. Sanders.
And finally — mostly, IMO — the #MarchforOurLives students have not asked Bernie or his followers (self-perceived as The Guys Who Ended the Vietnam War) for their very valuable advice and counsel! Kids, these days — no respect!
debbie
@OzarkHillbilly:
Ha! I still have a clear memory of sitting on a stairway at school on my 16th birthday and thinking that, considering how long it had taken just to get to age 16, my life would be an eternity.
rikyrah
@Kay:
I believe that the kids know this, Kay.
Cheryl Rofer
@Betty Cracker: I’m not seeing the Bernie-love on my TL, but I suspect mine is less oriented to domestic politics than yours is.
But I’ll suggest that maybe it’s Russian bots stirring things up. Putin has a bunch of things going at the moment, including trying to hack into power plants. Part of his current offensive, although it’s likely they’re ramping up for the election.
satby
@rikyrah: Good morning ? !
I wish I could go to the Chicago March, but I can’t afford to lose the income from missing the market that day. So I bought a T-shirt from the March organizers in support and will be wearing it.
cosima
@OzarkHillbilly: Just out of curiousity, how do you feel it is different as a grandparent? My parents were not politically active. The first rally my parents showed up to was one that I was at with the girls — they stopped by (on their bicycles) to say hi, which sort of allowed them to tangentially take part, dipping their toes in the water. Never did anything else (and that was in 2008) until my mom did the big pink hat march in DC with one of her sisters.
Do you feel that you’re not able to speak about your political beliefs with your grandchildren (perhaps they differ from your children, the parents)? Do you worry more about them?
I read the text in the post as a parent being worried about marching re: guns — is it empowering, or anxiety-inducing? My response was parent-to-parent, but I do wonder how the calculus changes as a grandparent unless as a function of having political views that differ from the parents of the grandchildren (glad that my daughter has a partner who is as liberal as she/we are).
Kay
There are about 98,000 public schools in the US. 50 million to “harden” them is a laughably small sum. Congress allocated 120 million for the Trump Family security costs alone.
They are shoving this cost onto schools, which will harm these very same students because it will come out of the school budget. The money will simply be moved from education to security.
They are not even sincere in their bad idea of “hardening” schools. Even that is bullshit.
satby
@?BillinGlendaleCA: @OzarkHillbilly: in Michigan, the coyotes were frequently around, mostly hunting small rodents around the pond in the wetlands next to the house. They would exchange barks with the dogs some nights, which was fun/spooky to hear. And though my cats had access to the outside it was only into a 10x10x4 catio pen, fully enclosed, and if predators came near they still hightailed it back into the house. I enjoyed spotting the coyotes, they did keep nuisance rodents in control.
Bruuuuce
Assuming my health permits, I plan to be there in NYC, with my 19- and 17-year old offspring. Sadly. the younger was ill on the 14th, so she missed the Walkout, but we’re looking forward to showing up and raising our voices for sanity.
Patricia Kayden
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: Senator Sanders is truly a big bag of surprises (not so pleasant ones though). I’m very disappointed with him on his record of voting in a manner which is pleasing to the NRA. Unfortunately, he’s probably not the only non-Republican who is under the sway of the Gun God. If Democrats take over Congress this November, they better have a plan to introduce legislation to ban assault weapons — similar to the ban which was implemented in 1994 by President Clinton.
Kay
We’re going to the Cleveland march and taking our youngest. It’s a detour on what is a spring break trip for him (and us) – the organizers on Twitter say it will be 10k but I have no idea where that came from.
satby
@cosima: it changes because it’s not his kid. The parents might agree politically and still not want their child at a march and that would be that.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: I guess we’ll soon see how this “hardening” nonsense really works because some states are going ahead with this dubious plan. I foresee chaos if there is a school shooting and teachers are required to engage in shooting battles with former students.
Matt McIrvin
@Kay: I can’t help but read her Twitter handle in a StrongBad voice. “BETSY DEVOS’ED!!”
satby
@Betty Cracker: @Anne Laurie: @Cheryl Rofer: the Bern-bots have increased in my FB feed too. And though bots might be behind some of it, too many shares of Wilmer screed are coming from purity ponies I know IRL. Ramping up divisiveness for the election is probably why, evidence had shown they start well before the elections hear up.
Patricia Kayden
@Kay: They will do everything except actually address the gun violence issue which is ban access to weapons of war which have no business in the hands of civilians.
cosima
@satby: Hmmmm. Not what I wrote about, or what the post is about, but okay… I’d have liked to march with my mother in DC, with both my girls. We were thousands of miles away (on a different continent), and not able to afford to make the trip. This new era of activism affords opportunities for multi-generational marching, which is great. Wish we didn’t have to march or protest, but we have to work with what we’ve got.
Schlemazel
@Kobekid:
I am old enough to have been involved in protests where the age limit was 30. “Never trust anyone over thirty” was the slogan. We will be there on the 24th.
Schlemazel
@raven:
More echoes
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: I’m seeing it too, and a big ramp-up in True Progressive resentment toward Democrats. I think the financial-deregulation bill sparked some of it–at least that has a substantive policy basis, with a lot of centrist Democrats supporting a bill that as far as I can tell is genuinely bad.
Denali
I plan on going to the march in Rochester. Sure do hope it warms up by then.
satby
@Patricia Kayden: there’s been 3 incidents of teachers/security guards at schools firing their weapons by accident since Parkland. Just to discuss armed people at schools is nuts. It’s a crazy solution.
OzarkHillbilly
@cosima: The politics are no problem at all, both my son and his ex are liberals. Tho I can not speak to how they feel about particulars my sons views are very close to mine and I doubt very much either would object to my stating my views on different subjects. It is just that grandparents are in a very different place.
I did things with my sons that most people can’t imagine doing with their children in any way, shape, or form. I exposed them to things that most people aren’t even aware exist. It was important to me that they get to see and do these things from a very young age, that the wonder of the world we live in get installed from the very beginning and the lessons that go with that wonder would be taught too. As the parent, that was my choice to make. I’m not the parent anymore.
My son and his ex get to emphasize the things they think are important. As the grandparent I have to respect that. And if I’m smart I will do it silently.
Matt McIrvin
@Patricia Kayden: This is something Kirsten Gillibrand has to deal with too–in her early days as a Representative she was in a relatively red-leaning district and pandered to the gun lobby. It may be a problem if this is going to be her national political moment.
Baud
@Matt McIrvin: Only Baud! is pure.
Kay
@Patricia Kayden:
Well, the current reauthorization seems to ban federal funding for weapons training, and the Senate is less friendly to that than the House so I bet Democrats succeeded in blocking that. If they’re arming teachers they won’t be doing it with federal money.
President Trump said at his fake forum that he liked arming teachers because it’s free. This asshole just got 130 million from the public to protect his fucking family and he’s looking for free fixes for 98,000 public schools. His kids matter a lot more than your kids.
Schlemazel
@Betty Cracker:
no, the true believers will be angry at the unfairness of St. Bernard having all the shit dumped on him. He is special and should not be treated like that!
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: …Also, some of it could ultimately be Russian troll stuff reacting to Mueller tightening the screws on Trump. The Greenwald/Taibbi bunch are insisting harder than ever that Trump/Russia is a chimera and that Democrats are the ones cheering for World War III.
satby
@cosima:
This is what you asked, and what I answered. As Ozark also did, with more detail.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: True. She explained it by saying she represents her constituents and reflects their views. I don’t think that’s gonna fly.
satby
@Schlemazel: yes, one of the things going around was a post of pure bullshit about how “Wilmer is fighting a war against corporate interests and people stuck in the two party system can’t understand” ( paraphrasing). That one seems obviously bot like if the goal is to undermine elections.
OzarkHillbilly
@satby: Sometimes when Woof and I are sitting outside, the coyotes get riled up and Woof feels the need to state his opinion on the matter in a short, succinct, emphatic, and very deep, “WOOFF!” or 2.
For some reason or other the coyotes get very quiet after that.
Schlemazel
@Matt McIrvin:
Sen Gillibrand has several of those issues. She was also anti-choice. The nicest thing I can say is she appears to be for Ms. Gillibrand above all else. If she does finally pull the trigger and run I expect he shifting beliefs will be an issue she will have to deal with.
Elizabelle
Happy Friday, jackals.
That’s genius: no speakers over 21; no politicians. Sidesteps the Saint Bernard problem quite well. Although: I can feel the media narrative since the Parkland shooting: “thank dog for these kids — will you look at them! — because politicians are so ineffective. And especially Democrats.”
These school shootings were brought to you by the NRA, working through the Republicans they own. That’s becoming conventional wisdom now, but let’s not pretend there weren’t lots of adults, for years and years, fighting for gun safety. Before Sandy Hook. Kids have been getting killed for years, even in restaurant robberies, and parents — especially Moms! — have been there.
All that said, I am glad to have the young take the lead here. It’s their reality, and their future.
Lahke
I’ll be marching in Boston, anybody else?
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
And of course earlier this week, at Cal State LA, a coyote bit a child. Apparently a cop wounded the animal and they put out traps to catch it. No results so far.
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel: I will never forgive her for being the poster child of forcing Al Franken out of the Senate. Fuck Gillibrand. I really will not ever vote for her. We can do better.
Another Scott
@Amir Khalid: No time to look, but my recollection is that many/most US gun makers are in and out of bankruptcy quite frequently. Dunno if that’s because the MOTU have loaded them up with debt, or their sales are drying up, or what. And some of the big retailers (Cabelas) recently merged with another outfit.
The NRA and gun shops seem to have done great when they could scream that Obummer was going to take all the guns, but there do not seem to be mountains of money to be made in the industry as a whole.
And if they’re having problems making money as a result of falling sales, then we can expect even more strident pro-gun screaming from them and their supporters… :-(
Your larger points stand, of course. ;-)
Cheers,
Scott.
raven
@OzarkHillbilly: Bohdi has a distinct bark when they are around. He’s seen them and he wants no part of it.
germy
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
If we can’t do better we are in big trouble as a nation
Schlemazel
Good cartoon this morning. I particularly love that “t-rex” become “rex-t” and the swamp is depicted as a tar pit. very fitting
http://blogs.post-gazette.com/2018_Rogers_Cartoons/20180316_Tar_Pit.jpg
cosima
@OzarkHillbilly: I expect there is a space there (your ‘silently’?) where grandparents are able to express their views through actions (or lack thereof). Our oldest has seen a large sea-change there — my former mother in law (her Nana) was a die-hard Republican of the old-school type. One of the family’s closest friends (and an in-law) was a one-time senate leader (Ted Stevens). Nana has gone from virulently pro-Republican (not evangelical) to a Democrat. My ex (her son), has remained virulently pro-Rep, including being a gun-fondler. My daughter has been very close to someone at pretty much every space along the political spectrum, and made her own choices (fortunately liberal). Our youngest has not had any of that, only us (my husband and me) to inform her views. She is too far (distance) from her grandparents. There is a lot to be said for actions vs. words when it comes to politics — I’ve had many a heated conversation with my parents about not walking the talk (not voting because ‘someone else will do it for me’!!!!), but the squatter in the WH has made them a bit more active, and better late than never. Both my girls were shocked that their grandmother took part in the DC march — previously that would have been inconceivable.
P.S. Your response did not pop up for me to see until after I’d seen & responded to satby… I think comments move too fast for my typing or something.
cosima
@satby: I think I type too slowly — your comment popped up, but I did not see his until well after. Or my comments load slowly? My computer’s a pretty basic (and slow) model.
Dog Mom
If anyone didn’t see or wants to add to the Rochester-Buffalo-Niagara Falls Meet up(s) thread – here is the link:
Please add what days, times, locations work for you and suggestions for restaurants/pubs.
OzarkHillbilly
@raven: Woof just doesn’t like sharing**. I’d hate to see what a pack could do to him but fortunately he’s big enough they have all decided they want nothing to do with him.
** he doesn’t like sharing with other dogs or little humans either but he does tolerate their existence. it is hilarious how he will put himself between me and any other dog or my granddaughter.
kindness
You know Senators rarely run from microphones, right?
Do they already have Bernie tied up and strapped down?
germy
Will Bernie show up at the march with a bullhorn to jump to the head of the crowd? Last night on CBS News they showed a brief clip of him exhorting students during their walkout.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: They seemed to take notice when Nikki started barking at them.
Matt McIrvin
@Schlemazel: If she is nominated, I will support her against Trump with great enthusiasm and without reservations. That’s all I have to say about that.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Brachiator: I saw that on the news, the kid went to CSULA and still lives in the hood.
Frankensteinbeck
OT, some asshole spray painted Black Lives Matter on a Fraternal Order Of Police building. Turns out, that white boy did it in full view of a security camera.
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
This is the last straw for me with Bernie. I thought he was a strong negative already, but I was holding out for ‘honest but with his head backwards.’ No. This move throws any suggestion he believes in his claptrap out the window. Once you go there, all that’s left is that he’s a deliberate ratfucker trying to turn young idealists against the Democratic Party. I am livid.
@OzarkHillbilly:
Kid, the people harassing you because of your position on guns aren’t getting paid by the NRA.
OzarkHillbilly
@cosima: I can, and do, always express my viewpoints on whatever issues of the day are happening in the news. With Baby Girl, I talk about whatever she wants to, which AFAICR has never been politics.
My “silently” was in specific reference to whatever values they feel are most important to instill. I may disagree on their emphasis, thinking another thing more important. Or even thinking they are making a mistake by doing this that or the other. “raising their child wrong” by being too strict or too permissive or too a thousand one different things. If I am smart, I just STFU. I won’t even complain if I don’t get to see my granddaughter for a month or 2 or 3. Life is complicated, busy, and full of competing pressures, I refuse to add to them.
I am quite often slow to reply for any # of reasons. No biggie.
Matt McIrvin
@Betty Cracker: We just got done celebrating Conor Lamb’s win, and he’s not really on our side on this. Candidates have to go with what will fly in their district. But he’s not running for President either.
Betty Cracker
@Matt McIrvin: You mean you’re not an idiot like Susan Sarandon? Good! No one should be that goddamned dumb after 2000, let alone 2016.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
Glad they have video. Do we know yet whether he was a generic idiot or a false flag planter?
Schlemazel
@Matt McIrvin:
Yeah, but I am spending my time (district caucus is tomorrow) doing everything I can to deny her the chance.
Not Trump is the lowest bar to clear
cosima
@OzarkHillbilly: I did not actually see this comment up top — now I see where it all tied together. So, Little C’s school (in Denver) had an active shooter situation (police vs. criminal in the streets outside the school). And the drills have been going on for years. So, unfortunately, they know, even from a young age. They look to the people they love to figure out whether or not they should be anxious about these things, and to talk to them sensibly about them. I’m certain my parents would never have taken either of the girls to any sort of protest or parade without asking, but if they had asked, I’d have said we should all do it together. There’s not much we get to shield our kids from these days — we may think we can/do, but I’m not convinced it’s very effective. Little C has shocked the heck out of me with a few things (that I didn’t know until I was an adult), and we tried to keep her in a bubble about some of those things. Life & peers conspire against us in that. Maybe someday there will be some multi-generational photos of marching to go along with your excellent garden photos.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud:
A distinction without a difference.
Schlemazel
@Baud:
According to FAUX he said he has a black friend so than means this was a threat against all police*
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* Admit it, you can’t really be sure if that is true or I just made it up
OzarkHillbilly
@cosima:
Life always does that. As hard as it was in the 60s-70s, it was an entirely different world. I have no idea what it’s like to be a child today. I just don’t want to jump the gun.
Baud
@Schlemazel: I admit it.
Elizabelle
So, I keep CNN’s Headline News on in the background some mornings, because they’re News Lite, and “what, me a newscaster?” and actually very little Trump coverage. And this morning, WRT the fatal bridge collapse:
Concerned brunette newsreader, sitting in for Robin Meade: “What is the president of Florida International University saying about this tragedy?”
Female correspondent on the scene: “Well, they are all crushed …”
ewrunning
I’m marching in Seattle. My dog and I have had three coyote encounters recently, including just around the corner from our house on trash day. We live in the city, but less than a mile from a large wooded park. Puts all those missing cat signs in the neighborhood in a new light.
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
Oh man, that is bad.
We were watching some stupid award show a hundred years ago. Andy Williams was presenting an award to Stevie Wonder as part of it. Wonder was in Africa on tour but they had set up a satellite link. The link went down & the video feed stopped. Williams was flustered as the screen filled with static. he said “I can’t see Stevie, can you see me?” The room got very very quiet.
Steve in the ATL
@?BillinGlendaleCA: never seen a fox in SoCal, but I did see one up north in Dublin last month. Surprised me as it was more brown than red. I guess that’s another east coast/west coast thing.
Brachiator
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The 5 year old child who was bitten was walking in the area with his father. The coyote later appeared to threaten a female student, which led a campus cop to shoot and wound the animal.
Elizabelle
@Schlemazel: I know. Thank dog, no coffee in our mouths for either episode, no?
hedgehog mobile
I’m going. Lutherans and Episcopalians (of which I am one) are doing a march from St. John’s Cathedral down to Civec Center prkk in Denver, which is where the Denver marvh starts.
Schlemazel
@Elizabelle:
BTW – the I-35 bridge that collapsed was replaced by one built by the company building that walkway & using the same techniques.
Gov Pawlenty was getting a lot of bad publicity because he had gutted the inspection system to save money. To deflect & prove he could get things done they threw that freeway bridge up in a couple of months instead of the year it normally takes. It was a couple of years before I would drive on it and I still avoid it almost always. I have no faith in that company or their process. It is sad that we needed to get a second demonstration (yeah, they had an earlier failure) that they may not be as good as they should be.
Betty Cracker
@ewrunning: I’ve seen more coyotes in the last year than I’ve ever seen in my life. Not near my neighborhood — yet — but it sure looks like their numbers are increasing, even here in FL. If I had cats or small dogs, I’d keep them indoors or under close supervision while outside.
Jager
@OzarkHillbilly: We have several packs of coyotes up in the canyon. I was walking Anze the Dog (90 lbs of GSD) one evening, a young coyote spotted him and tucked tail and took off. They are pretty bold, though, I saw one wandering through Westlake Village one afternoon, it was polite enough to stay on the sidewalk and off the lawns.
eric
@Lahke: yes, most likely with the ex and the spawn.
OzarkHillbilly
@Jager:
Once they get naturalized to huimans, yes, and those are the ones you have to watch out for. Their country cousins are far more skittish.
FlyingToaster
We are already full up that Saturday (Morning: Music School; afternoon: Violin Graduation), but more importantly, we three discussed it last year and came to a decision.
When WarriorGirl’s 13, and old enough not only for her own phone but her own Twitter / Instagram / Snapchat / what have you account, then she can accompany us to protests. Until then, I do not want to have to keep her on a leash to keep from getting separated in the scrum, especially since she’s almost as tall as I am at age 10.
Jager
@OzarkHillbilly: Driving on the 101 about 7 in the morning during rush hour I saw a big male coyote sitting, scratching himself on the grass by the Westlake Village exit, bumper to bumper traffic at 70 mph whizzing by 20 feet from him, not a care in the world.
WV Blondie
Hubbo and I have reservations on a bus to the March in D.C. (We’re in the part of WV that’s only about 70 miles from the capital.)
We don’t have kids, but if we did I’d take them if they wanted to go. As said above, children go through active-shooter drills in school; they know the score. I’d rather think of the hundreds of thousands of people they will see standing up for their protection.
Gelfling 545
I’ll be going to the Buffalo area march. My grandkids have been going to marches/ protests from a very young age. They’re vety intelligent (take after their nana, they do) and have a basic grasp of what the issues are and why the protest is happening. The oldest one travelled to OH with her mom & her aunt to canvass for Obama when she was 10, so pretty active in this way. They don’t seem amy more anxious than anybody else’s kids. Maybe less so as they have had things explained to them instead of picking up vague intimations from the atmosphere and have been given a means to help. With proper prep beforehand the logistics are no more complicated that a trip to the zoo.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Jager: Westlake Blvd exit, that’s my old stomping grounds.
Yellowdog
@Patricia Kayden: Trump would never sign it. The main advantage of taking back the House is stopping bad laws because the good ones will be vetoed. Impeachment means nothing if the Senate will not convict, which requires considerably more than a simple majority.
Yellowdog
I live in an over-55 community (highest turnout of any Dem precinct in the state) outside of DC, which is having its own rally. I may still go downtown, though.
Matt McIrvin
@Schlemazel: The thing that concerns me is that for every single politician who I’ve heard mentioned as a major 2020 contender, I can think of the one-sentence “deal-breaker” that will dog them. Kamala Harris: doesn’t want to abolish ICE. Corey Booker: said something nice about Bain Capital. Joe Kennedy III: opposes legalizing pot. Elizabeth Warren: the Indian thing; too eager to endorse the Bernie camp’s conspiracy-mongering. Bernie: is Bernie. (For all the others we can add “is not Bernie.”) Joe Biden: where do I start?
Maybe everyone has one of those, but I guess some are like Obama, really good at deflecting the hits.
Ruckus
I’m planing on going to the LA march. Because I’m an old, I also plan on standing in the back and listening and applauding. Because I’m an old I remember all the protesting about Vietnam by young (and old) people and how much good that did. I’m hoping that this is different. I’m hoping that we are at a turning point in our run as a country, that enough young people want to get involved in actually running it for the better good, rather than for the power and money. Maybe hope does spring eternal.
Ruckus
@Anne Laurie:
The kids are a lot smarter than some give them credit for.
Miss Bianca
@hedgehog mobile: ooh, that sounds good. Very much want to go to Denver march.
EL
I’m going to the LA March, and looking for sign ideas.
WhyKnot241
I;m in. Wiil take Green Line from Greenbelt. Plan on VERY crowded Metro