It's so unbelievably depressing that these folks, going through the worst grief imaginable, end up having to teach a 70-year old man how to behave like a human. https://t.co/wRH0zvkTxs
— zeddy (@Zeddary) June 1, 2018
The mother of a teenage girl killed earlier this month in a massacre at Santa Fe High School in Texas tells PEOPLE she challenged President Donald Trump‘s views on gun violence during his Thursday meeting with survivors of the mass shooting and families of the victims.
Trump, 71, repeatedly called the gunman “wacky” while speaking at the gathering, at a Houston military base, according to Rhonda Hart…
She then explained that her daughter had anxiety, Asperger’s syndrome and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and “took medicine daily.”
“I said, ‘[The shooter] might have been depressed, but he wasn’t wacky.’ But if that kid needed help, he needed to have proper access to it,” Hart says, “meaning you shouldn’t repeal the Affordable Care Act [one of Trump’s cardinal promises] and get them the help they need and take away the stigma of mental illness.”
She says she told Trump, “Mental illness needs to be addressed.”
“I said all that and he didn’t say anything,” she says. “He was just like, ‘Uhhhh …’ ”
So… when do we get to the part where I talk about my bigly Electoral College win?
Per The Hill:
The mother of a Texas school shooting victim said that in a recent meeting with families, President Trump repeatedly suggested arming teachers as a way to combat school shootings…
Hart, who is an Army veteran, told the AP that she suggested employing veterans in schools to serve as guards, and that he responded, “and arm them?”
“It was like talking to a toddler,” she said…
[Trump tossing rolls of paper towels at the families of the Santa Fe school shooting victims]
Dry your tears with these! They work great for blood too so save some for next time! https://t.co/fTmBAlbF3F
— OhNoSheTwitnt (@OhNoSheTwitnt) May 31, 2018
gene108
Just can’t get that worked up about how abnormal Trump is.
It was obvious during the campaign.
The man lacks normal human emotions.
The only thing that gets me worked up is that 60 million people decided to vote for him. I feel betrayed by my fellow citizens.
schrodingers_cat
@gene108: Same here. He fails at being human, forget being President.
ruemara
@gene108: Ditto. It’s not Trump that the world is really looking askance at. It’s the American electorate. How do we trust you guys again?
zhena gogolia
@ruemara:
This is what depresses the hell out of me.
schrodingers_cat
@ruemara: @zhena gogolia: A third of this country lost their marbles when President Obama was reelected.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@schrodingers_cat: I’d ask if he were a replicant or a Cylon, but a few individuals in both groups turned out quite sympathetic. He’s just a malignant narcissist. It’s unfair to compare him to almost any other group, real or fictional. He would definitely fall the Voight-Kampff though.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
I’ve wondered before if maybe he’s a replicant and this is the best they can do. It’s got all the bad human traits, not one good one and a memory board is burnt out and took a controller board out with it so has all the intelligence and emotions of a 4 yr old.
Elizabelle
All Trump can see is the “wacky” because he does not want to admit that guns are the problem.
Guns. And all that sweet, sweet NRA money, and paranoid asshole MAGA and second amendment types.
I really think kids and schools should do a multi-day strike. Know we are coming to the end of the school year, but maybe parents could make other arrangements and JUST NOT SEND THEIR KIDS BACK in the fall. Treat the fucking “both sides” media to photos of empty or emptyish classrooms, empty of kids and teachers. Who decided not to return and be targets.
I think a few days would get the message across; parents have a summer to plan childcare and activities for the younger kids.
And it will happen 2 months or so before the midterms.
ETA: the older kids, teachers, and supporters could assemble for a protest rally or march, or go see their public servant congresscritters etc. Maybe another march on DC.
Bobby Thomson
The odd thing is that Hart seems to be singing from the NRA hymnal and he still couldn’t connect with her.
schrodingers_cat
@Ruckus: My 8 year old niece was smarter and more empathetic when she was 4 then T is at 70 plus.
Ruckus
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Damn, missed by a minute.
It’s my typing. Trying to type with a tremor can be such a bitch. Have to correct every other word.
Bobby Thomson
@Elizabelle: no, that’s the wet dream of Republicans. They have no interest in reopening any of those schools, or at least not the “wrong” ones IYKWIMAITYD).
Elizabelle
@ruemara: Interesting point.
Maybe it’s in business’s interest in carving Fox News and rightwing fantasy world back then, hmmm?
I don’t see how we reclaim a functioning democracy with Fox News and Breitbart out there polarizing and lying to folks. Who might just double down, so we need to take away their MAGA pacifiers.
Elizabelle
@Bobby Thomson: You can say that, but parents and teachers might see the point of a targeted (ahem) and short public action.
If the GOP does not want to fund public education, that’s another thing voters should learn, loud and clear.
Cause havoc a bit, but in a nice and scheduled fashion.
Ruckus
@schrodingers_cat:
That’s easy to believe. It’s not rare that any 4 yr old wouldn’t be smarter and a far better human than drumpf.
But because we are nice people, we leave out that the 4 yr old we are referencing him to is technically/medically a moron.
Bobby Thomson
@Elizabelle: i wish i could trust voters.
Ruckus
@Ruckus:
Also I’m going to say, once again, that it’s not inconceivable that drumpf is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Age is reasonable for it, a lot of the behavior is explained…..
Of course he’s always been a piece of shit………
rikyrah
I wrote this morning that it was hard for me to have sympathy for this woman. How much more do people need to see to get that, unless you are a Dolt45 supporter, you should not be subjecting yourself to him. We have far too many examples of his inhumanity for people to pop up surprised at how he acts.
debbie
@rikyrah:
Are you talking about one of the women up top?
JPL
Another parent praised Trump for spending time with them on her facebook page. That part of Texas is pretty conservative, so I glad this parent spoke up.
Corner Stone
@rikyrah: I keep wondering why just one of them can not act like a Trump supporter, get in close for a handshake or photo op and then headbutt him right in the fucking nose.
Bonus points if you grab him by the knot in his tie and pull him to the ground on top of you.
Corner Stone
@JPL: I’m not going to get started on Santa Fe.
The Other Chuck
@Corner Stone: Trump’s a germophobe. Spitting in his face would be more effective on several levels.
scav
Ahhhh, My Sainted Reverend Aunt, who carefully and exhaustively pontificated at me why her superior moral (she is a Lutheran and now also Episcopalian? minister) and intellectual training led to her voting for Trump — she didn’t find Obama properly consoling. Didn’t care if she elected a fascist, things needed shaking up and, as a feminist too you know, Hillary never accomplished anything herself but just as Bill’s wife and did you see!! what Nancy Pelosi was wearing?! and I really really should be utterly convinced by my Reverand Aunt’s words as ‘She’d been to College.”
Nah, we’ve not spoken since. (That last superlative defence of her action somehow put me over the edge a few standard deviations beyond where a sane edge was last sighted.)
Corner Stone
@The Other Chuck: A display of physical dominance by a woman would be the ultimate expression to his base.
Frankensteinbeck
@Ruckus:
He has always been a meaner-than-shit, narcissistic asshole, with a hatred of government regulation and minorities (the duskier, the more hated) as two of his major drives. What he hasn’t always been is incoherent, rambling, and repetitive.
rikyrah
@debbie:
Yep. One of the posters in the morning thread pointed out this story.
hellslittlestangel
Trump is definitely human. No other species is capable of stooping to his level of awfulness.
Ruckus
@Frankensteinbeck:
Which is why I keep bringing it up.
Ruckus
@scav:
I’m sorry but your aunt was intellectually trained and chose drumpf? Has she taken a hit to the head in the last few years? Fallen down a flight of stairs? Or is it in any way possible that she is maybe a racist?
TenguPhule
@schrodingers_cat:
Sorry, this implies they had said marbles to begin with.
Gelfling 545
@rikyrah: I think many people feel that reports HAVE to have been exaggerated. I mean, who acts like that? Well, seeing is believing.
Gelfling 545
@scav: That it is your aunt and not your uncle tells me she must be ELCA ( the rest don’t hold with women getting above themselves) and I would never have believed there was an ELCA Lutheran alive who’d vote for Trump. Still less an Episcopalian. I’m shocked. Really.
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Ruckus: That sucks; sorry to hear that. (And I thought “typing” on a phone was bad.) Synchronicity or great minds or something, though.
(The number of letters in common between “Replicants” and “Republicans” also seems a pertinent fact here.)
The Lodger
@Corner Stone: Because the presidential protection detail is prepared and seriously bored, that’s why.
Ruckus
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Based upon their ideals and qualities it’s possible that they are one and the same thing.
Ruckus
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Also typing on a phone is even more fun.
I can’t wait for the tremors to get worse and I have to start using the dictation function to post on BJ. Maybe the week after next. It isn’t that I don’t know how to type it’s that I can’t really control where my fingers go. My brain says one thing, my fingers do something, something, something. It’s often not what the brain said. It can be fun at work, seeing as I work with my hands. Some days are good, some are not. And one rarely knows which way a day might go until after you get there. I liked being a reasonably functioning adult. I’m having a tough time deciding if it’s better that the body goes first or the mind. Then I’m reminded about dad and his Alzheimer’s. Watching a man in his 80s, standing there crying, getting his diaper changed and having his ass wiped by his daughter, which while he may not be able to do anything about, he knows isn’t what he asked for when he signed on for this trip. In the modern world I’m going with body first.
Marina
Here’s the thing that’s been tormenting me. Yeah, 60 million souls thought it was a good idea to vote for DJT. But close to 100 MILLION US citizens thought it was a good idea to just not vote. Because Both Sides, I guess. HRC wasn’t any more trustworthy than DJT, I guess. So 160 million (plus whatever number chose of their own free will to vote third-party) out of the 249,485,228 US adult (18+) population in 2016 (h/t google) just didn’t bother/didn’t care. There are more of them than of us. Just a fact. Tell me I’m wrong, tell me next time will be different…
different-church-lady
People for years have been saying Americans want a President they can identify with.
And, now, at long last, far to many of them have what the want: a man who is heartless, souless, clueless, utterly lacking anything resemblng empathy, and an asshole by choice.
Just like them.
Good job, America.
different-church-lady
@gene108: The real heartbreaker: they voted for him because they are like him.
john fremont
@TenguPhule: The black President stole their marbles!
(((CassandraLeo)))
@Ruckus: Man, that’s horrible. I wish I had something to say that seemed adequate. “You’ll be in my thoughts” doesn’t remotely cover it. “I’m sorry” sounds off because it sounds like I’m claiming responsibility. I wish you the best. That’s the best I’ve got right now, I’m afraid.
cynthia ackerman
@Ruckus:
Ruckus
@(((CassandraLeo))):
Hey no worries!
We owe each other curtesy and kindness, we don’t owe each other a sainted or perfect life. I’ve had a good run so far, yet it’s been anything but perfect and I’ve still got quite a ways to go. Trying to see if I can outlive mom, she made it to 94. I’m trying for 95. Only 26 more to go. And she lived longer than anyone in her family or dad’s. I just like to complain about the hand dealt, who doesn’t? OTOH I was amazed when I got to half a century, maybe doubling that should be the goal. Not many of us make it to 100, some don’t want to, some can’t and some just quit trying.
Ruckus
@cynthia ackerman:
Now that’s not nice. To cunts.
I try not to use that word because it’s usually highly inappropriate. And I practice swearing on a regular basis.
I worked for a company owned by a non profit and the CEO of that was a guy that I knew for over a decade before I went to work there. But I only saw him in public. The first week I went to work I was in his office and he was swearing far more than I ever do. I almost fell over laughing. He’s a good guy and has immense control over his speaking which helped me a lot in dealing with the public. It’s a good trick to learn, when something is appropriate and when it isn’t.
ETA Also given the discussion of Sam Bee’s (appropriate IMO but not others) use of the word I’d have to say your use is perfect. Almost internet winning.
Ruckus
@cynthia ackerman:
I know that words can hurt, that we should as I stated above have respect for others. We owe each other that.
But what about when people don’t respect others and make life far more difficult or worse, like drumpf or pretty much anyone in his family? Most of them have proven time and again that they don’t even have respect for themselves. Are we obligated to respect them when they so obviously don’t respect anyone, when they do harm to lots of people for a few bucks or personal gratification?
I’m going to say no, we really don’t. It’s not that they haven’t earned it, just being born did that, but they sold it or threw it away, any iota of respect they earned by being born.
kingweasil
“Uhhhh” … can’t fix stupid
Victor Matheson
@Gelfling 545: agreed about ELCA pastors. Tough to find many Trump voters in that demographic.