NEW: @GiffordsCourage releases video featuring 8 Dem presidential candidates urging action on gun violence, 1st part of bigger series on Dem field/guns
Candidates featured:@BetoORourke@ewarren@PeteButtigieg@CoryBooker@JoeBiden@KamalaHarris@BernieSanders@amyklobuchar pic.twitter.com/cLXzYEN7od
— Johnny Verhovek (@JTHVerhovek) September 9, 2019
Damn fine ad, IMO…
We are witnessing a sea change in the Democratic Party on gun control.https://t.co/KSvghtfser
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 7, 2019
BIDEN, SANDERS, WARREN and BUTTIGIEG aren’t calling for forced buybacks — they want to ban mew sales of AR-15-style guns and make it optional to sell the ones currently in circulation to the government.https://t.co/KSvghtfser
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 7, 2019
.@BetoORourke: “We must go the necessary steps further, as politically difficult as they may be—a gun registry in this country, licensing for every firearm, and every single one of those AR-15 and AK-47s will be bought back so they’re not on our streets.”https://t.co/KSvghtfser
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 8, 2019
Good for Mr. O’Rourke. He may have decided that going full “gun-grabber” is the best position for him at this time — if it isn’t what the horse-race touts like to call a ‘deal changer’ for his own campaign, at least it keeps the topic front & center in the media.
In NH, I pressed Beto O'Rourke on how he'd enforce a mandatory buyback of assault weapons. What's the penalty for noncompliance? Jail time? He wouldn't go there.
"I would expect Americans to comply with the law."https://t.co/KSvghtfser
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) September 9, 2019
(Let the frothing proponents of the LAWNORDER!!! party defend ‘… but only if it’s laws I happen to agree with’ in public, during a high-profile election season.)
Felanius Kootea
Saw that ad earlier today and was very happy to see it. The Dem candidates seem to really get it this time – with the Parkland kids and March for Our LIves,
there is a new crop of voters who may very well be single issue gun-control voters. About time.
OT: on a completely different note, I’m really looking forward to the new sitcom Bob Hearts Abishola
which starts later this month. It has Gina Yashere as a co-writer and I’ve loved her since her stand up days in London. First time I’ll get to see Nigerian immigrants
like me represented in a network comedy. Looking forward to it.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
zhena gogolia
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Is every single Republican congressperson a Russian asset? How did they achieve this?
I am completely flabbergasted.
But her e-mails.
Ruckus
That Saul Kapur tweet with Beto’s reply
Is perfect. Of course the people who would be most likely to complain are the people who already are not complying with the law, unless there is some law I’ve never heard of that says racist white people can shoot people at their hearts desire.
Amir Khalid
@zhena gogolia:
Buy the party leadership, and the followers will do what followers do.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@zhena gogolia: it’s the passivity of a sizable chunk of the American people that flabbergasts me. From the sort of soft trump supporter to the “I disapprove but impeachment is too much” side…. what the fuck does it take?
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Ruckus
@zhena gogolia:
If you look at most if not all republican federal office holders, their loyalty is/appears to be to the republican party and mammon, not necessarily in that order. End of concept. Laws of the land? You’re kidding right? They believe in a higher power. And he didn’t have a son who died on a cross. And they see their opportunity with drumpy in office.
Kamala.Harris.2020
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
The bolded part is, um, interesting.
Another Scott
I knew a guy in high school who had a real, genuine, Tommy gun. I don’t think it was licensed.
My dad told me a story just a few years ago about going out to the mountains in Colorado with his dad and shooting a German machine gun that his dad brought back home after WWII. He said they eventually took it somewhere to have it disabled.
Yeah, Beto’s proposal wouldn’t get every single AR-15 and AK-47 out of every house in America. But it get the vast majority of them – not as quickly as we’d like, but more and more over time. And it wouldn’t require ATF breaking down everyone’s door to do it.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@Another Scott:
A friend of dads had a fully functional Army half track from WWII and a 50cal machine gun to mount on it. I believe he rented it out for movies.
Also knew a guy from OH who had a federal firearms license and would go to machine gun shoots with his buddies.
zhena gogolia
@Kamala.Harris.2020:
Love your nym!
Another Scott
@Ruckus: My favorite Ohio uncle had a big gun collection, a 3-pounder cannon that he’d fire at artillery ranges (he’d use black powder and frozen-orange-juice cans filled with concrete as the shells), and a life membership to the NRA. He said he could get a “tax stamp” to get a machine gun, but it didn’t interest him. He lived in a small town in NW central Ohio, so getting checked out by the local sheriff, etc., was probably pretty easy if he wanted to go that route.
He was a nice guy and I never really thought of him as a “gun nut” (he didn’t talk about them much at all), but …
Cheers,
Scott.
Jeffro
With a leak like that (about the Putin-knowledgeable asset that had to be extracted) one has to think we’re going to be hearing more and more counterintelligence investigation-related stuff from now through trumpov’s un-re-election next November (assuming he makes it that long). The IC knows that this country cannot take 4 more years of the way he and his fellow grifters deal with intelligence info, as if it were a thing to be bought and sold for the benefit of the trumpov org.
With the guns thing: I’m glad to see the Dems treating it like the majority position it is and adding it to their campaign platforms and talking about it and talking about it some more. I hate to say it, but as statistically unlikely as a school shooting it, a) the urban and suburban parents are terrified and b) their kids are completely stressed from the shooter drills. And the GOP is proposing that we just do literally nothing. Oh, except “thoughts and prayers” and some other nonsense I saw today about using apps(!) to track when someone’s about to flip out(!!). Yes…so very helpful, Republicans, thank you. Or perhaps we could actually reduce the numbers of assault rifles and large magazines available, etc etc.
GO DEMS! Push hard on this, we have nothing to lose and only our national sanity to gain here. And the vast, vast majority of the country is with us on these issues of universal background checks, closing the gun-show loophole, and prohibiting assault weapons/large clips
Eric U
I’m glad my gun-grabber philosophy is finally being taken up as a serious position. Seems obvious that it’s a good idea. It’s just stunning that shootings like the one in Las Vegas can happen without anything being done to stop them
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ll ask again: What. The Fuck. Does it take? /rhetorical, I know everyone here is asking more or less the same thing
so… trump wants the airport kept open because his imagined hotel guests won’t be bothered to make the extra half-hour trek from Glasgow’s main airport… the Scots want the airport open because…. ???…. so the the gov’t-owned airport is driving US service members to and from (with lunch!) the president’s money-losing golf resort in order to guarantee revenue and flattery to the man who can arrange large fuel purchases to guarantee revenue for the money-losing airport…
Jim, Foolish Literalist
according to the story, on at least one trip the crew doubled up in rooms, so at least thirty rooms paid for from September to June, when I’m guessing bookings at a golf resort on the Scottish coast drop off a bit
cmorenc
@Jeffro:
The reason the NRA has been able to politically punch so vastly far above its weight in numbers all these years is because gun nuts were strongly committed single-issue voters, whereas gun control voters did not rank that as high a priority among other issues, even though their nominal numbers were significantly more numerous. This phenomenon isn’t limited to gun control – it’s why committed single-issue voters on any issue tend to punch far above their weight in numbers. The NRA has also enjoyed far more committed financial backers to their cause (possibly we now know, including Russia).
What’s hopefully changing is that enough pro-gun control voters have raised the relative importance of the issue to out-weigh and out-number the gun nuts in enough races to make a durable majority difference. Because winning in 2020 races isn’t enough, as 2008 demonstrates – if our voters slack off and we experience a repeat of 2010 turnout differential returning the NRA and gun nuts back in the political driver’s seat to undo whatever we accomplished.
hells littlest angel
Please don’t turn this into the left’s “anti-abortion” equivalent.
gene108
We’re seeing a sea change in the Democratic Party on a number of issues. Candidates are proudly putting forward a liberal agenda. They are beginning to get an audience for their stances on combating global warming, gun control, etc.
laura
@zhena gogolia: Yes, through campaign cash much of which filteredntheough the NRA would be my best guess.
Also, good on Beto for mandatory buy backs of assault style rifles.
gene108
@Ruckus:
As long as the targets were dark enough, though that “law” was largely unwritten
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Jon Ossoff is running for Senate in GA. If he’s good enough for John Lewis, he’s good enough for me.
gene108
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Newly elected Dems in R+ districts feeling like they have their constituents support for impeachment hearings.
I can live with being cautious and seeing these freshman Reps get re-elected, and maintain control of the House, than going all in on impeachment and some of them losing.
The rest of the country isn’t where on-line liberals are at yet.
Leto
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: @Jim, Foolish Literalist: When Trumpov says he knows nothing, of course he’s lying and of course there’s a paper trial:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/09/us/politics/trump-hotel-turnberry.html
Of course he was lying. Of course there’s a paper trail showing he’s lying. Can’t wait Republicans to justify why the asset is allowed to use tax payer funds like a personal fucking atm. The USAF officials that approved this need to be shitcanned. Add this to fucking list of impeachable offenses. Christ on a cracker!
Another Scott
In other news, the Chevy Chase, MD dog park will be turned into a regular park.
Hmmm…
[eta] (via nycsouthpaw on Twitter)
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Leto: It looks like the FTFNYT took a 2016 story, and recent documents, about this from a Scottish reporter and didn’t give him credit.
:-/
(via nycsouthpaw)
Cheers,
Scott.
trollhattan
@Eric U:
Las Vegas should be viewed as a sea change for industrialized gun killing by an individual. You need a bomb to top the nearly 1,000 dead/wounded total and spree killers seem to need shooting, for reasons.
trollhattan
@Another Scott:
Sooo, only “hot chicks” now? I has confused.
planetjanet
Some commenter had the most amazing nickname for Boris Johnson in a post either today or yesterday. For the life of me, I can neither remember it or find it. Anyone have an idea what it was?
Leto
@Another Scott: Well crap. Broke my FTFNYT rule and that’s what I get! Apologies on my part; saw the info on Maddow, then googled it later for this.
Kay
@Leto:
Less and less surprising that this airport can’t survive without shady deals. This is the business partner they chose. Just put the agents in the windbreakers in and start hauling out boxes. It was over the day they hooked up with the Trump Family.
Amir Khalid
@planetjanet:
Was it “Clown Prince Flobalob” by Tony Jay?
planetjanet
@Amir Khalid: Not ringing a bell, but that is a creative phrase.
Kay
The WaPo says the Trump farm bribe is up to 30 BILLION dollars. Can that be true? The entire stimulus was 800 billion. Trump is giving farmers 30 billion for the trade war he started? Just a straight cash gift? I mean, Christ. At least with the stimulus we bought something. We’re paying for food twice?
Kay
It’s true:
Good Lord. 28 billion. Just to protect the President in 5 states.
It’s obscene.
Kay
The plan is to distribute it quickly, before anyone catches on. Also- they’re horribly corrupt so it’s going to cronies. We have to hire an entire new federal police force. They need like 10,000 more just for corruption.
Leto
@Kay: Exactly. It was already a failing airport, the Scottish government bought it for a pound, and then they team up with the worst businessman in the world and here we are. And considering how Wussilini has pissed off everyone in Scotland, I’m sure the Scottish government will be more than happy to hand over documents related to this deal, as well as assist US law enforcement when the windbreaker brigade rolls up on Shitberry and starts hauling out boxes. Maddow said this tonight, but it’s basically true: where the hell do they (House members) start for Impeachment charges when each week brings a new set of actionable items?
Calouste
@planetjanet: Hugh Grant (yes, that Hugh Grant, no, he’s not a commenter here) came up with “overpromoted bath-toy”.
Mnemosyne
@Another Scott:
As with so many things in the modern world, a small group of intransigent assholes are going to ruin things for people who just enjoy big booms. ?
James E Powell
@Kay:
It’s obscene but who’s going to condemn it. Our Farmers are immune from criticism.
mrmoshpotato
@James E Powell: The farmers of the Constitution are tremendous bigly!
How many electoral votes are in those 5 states?
206inKY
@Jeffro: I think you’re absolutely right. Active shooter drills are scaring the shit out of suburban parents, kids, and teachers, and sparking a ferocious backlash against gun culture. Beto gets it.
I keep beating this drum but everyone needs to watch the HBO Documentary “Running with Beto.” He is a generational talent. I had forgotten how effectively he went after Cruz in the debates. I think he’s just not cutthroat enough to go after fellow Democrats, and his decision to campaign in places like Mississippi is too far outside the box for a primary that runs through Iowa whether we like it or not.
We got pummeled in rural regions last year, but made deep inroads into the suburbs. Democrats urgently need to adjust their priorities to serve the coalition we have, not the coalition we used to have. Arizona is more winnable right now than Wisconsin, which is too white and rural. I’m deeply worried that we will nominate an American version of Jeremy Corbyn and lose the suburbs.
mrmoshpotato
@206inKY: Not only scaring the shit out of people, but fucking up generations of kids. I don’t know when active shooter drills started, but they weren’t in place when I was in high school, and Columbine happened then.
We’re treating school shootings like fires and tornadoes were treated when I was in school. When did murder become a freak occurrence caused by a lightning strike, old wiring, or stormy weather conditions? None of these shootings “just happen.” And there’s a common element – it’s the guns, stupid!
206inKY
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Alongside guns, I think good government— attacking hard on Trump’s profound corruption — is another winning issue in 2020. We need to find the things that easily unite the unusual cross-class coalition that emerged in 2018, and avoid things that divide it.
I tend to trust Pelosi in all matters of strategy but there’s just no way to interpret the rapid swing of the suburbs toward Democrats as anything but an overwhelming Trump backlash. They didn’t just wake up and find religion on economic justice after decades of sending tools like Darrell Issa to Congress.
Mnemosyne
@206inKY:
I don’t disagree with you about Arizona, but Wisconsin tossed Scott Walker out on his ear and elected a Democratic governor.
206inKY
@mrmoshpotato: Amen! It’s madness that it’s the new normal. My students arrive in college with horror stories from their many years of active shooter drills. They mostly talk about it with dark humor and bitter sarcasm, but beneath the surface they seem to have a solidarity from shared trauma. And this is in Kentucky!
206inKY
@Mnemosyne: True, but here are three results:
WI Gov
Evers: 49.54%
Walker: 48.44%
AZ Sen:
Sinema: 50%
McSally: 47.6%
TX Sen:
Beto: 48.3%
Cruz: 50.9%
Arizona sure seems like the best bet if I had to pick one of the three for Dems. Sinema’s margin was similar to Cruz in Texas, and Texas is supposed to be insurmountable.
Mnemosyne
@206inKY:
I think WI and AZ are both potentially gettable, so why not aim for both? ?
mrmoshpotato
@Mnemosyne: AZ Senate seat is up in 2020; WI in 2022. We can do both.
206inKY
@Mnemosyne: Oh definitely! Don’t get me wrong, I completely agree we should go for both. I just think that Arizona seems like the best hedge against the loss of Wisconsin in case it goes the way of Ohio in 2020.
I guess my larger point — as an admirer of Lisa McGirr’s Suburban Warriors, the best history of the rise of modern conservatism in the 1960s and 70s — is that it’s bonkers and game-changing that Arizona is even remotely in play.
Omnes Omnibus
@206inKY: When did you last spend time in either state?
sukabi
@Kay: More than likely several billion of that 30 will find it’s way into drumpfs and other administration members pockets. Most of the rest will go to big agri and avfew crumbs will find their way to red state farmers.
JAFD
@planetjanet: Might it have been in
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/sep/06/boris-johnson-twilight-zone-police-escort-conservatives
206inKY
@Omnes Omnibus: How come? I lived adjacent to Wisconsin in the 2000s. My thoughts on it have been shaped by Katherine Cramer’s book The Politics of Resentment: Rural Consciousness in Wisconsin and the Rise of Scott Walker, an ethnography. I teach on AZ and NM but have never lived there, just visited.
chopper
@mrmoshpotato:
we’re creating entire generations of kids with low-level PTSD, and then we point and smear them as ‘snowflakes’ just cause they act like they want some fucking normalcy and stability in their lives.
Citizen Alan
@James E Powell:
Not while I’m alive.
Steeplejack
@planetjanet:
From Tony Jay yesterday:
“Floss-headed crash-test dummy of a ‘leader.'”
“Blustering Boris the Cockslinging Clown. Ar-Flobazon the Golden, King of Men and Supreme Lord of Middle-England.”