Last night, TOP had a liveblog going about Anderson Cooper’s Stephanie Clifford interview on 60 Minutes last night. I discovered it on the Recent Story list while looking for the new series, These Revolutionary Times. Also, I found another FP post by GOS himself, who provided a quick transcript from CBS. To me, it is pitiful but TOP is starving for ratings. I’m surprised they didn’t solicit quite the polling that CNN did: Source: CNN Mind one, I did see the interview when it was being broadcasted last evening. The only thing that was particularly interesting was the timing of … Continue reading →
Parkland students interview Bernie Sanders: ‘Your generation has the power to change America’
Two student journalists from the Eagle Eye, Stoneman Douglas high school’s newspaper, interviewed the Vermont senator about the search for a breakthrough in the gun debate – and his own voting record.
More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.
National School Walkout: Thousands Protest Against Gun Violence Across the U.S.
A month ago, hundreds of teenagers ran for their lives from the hallways and classrooms of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where 17 students and staff had been shot to death.
On Wednesday, driven by the conviction that they should never have to run from guns again, they walked.
So did their peers. In New York City, in Chicago, in Atlanta and Santa Monica; at Columbine High School and in Newtown, Conn.; and in many more cities and towns, students left school by the hundreds and the thousands at 10 a.m., sometimes in defiance of school authorities, who seemed divided and even flummoxed about how to handle their emptying classrooms.
The first major coordinated action of the student-led movement for gun control marshaled the same elements that had defined it ever since the Parkland shooting: eloquent young voices, equipped with symbolism and social media savvy, riding a resolve as yet untouched by cynicism.
“We have grown up watching more tragedies occur and continuously asking: Why?” said Kaylee Tyner, a 16-year-old junior at Columbine High School outside Denver, where 13 people were killed in 1999, inaugurating, in the public consciousness, the era of school shootings. “Why does this keep happening?”
Wreathed in symbolism, the walkouts generally lasted for 17 minutes, one for each of the Parkland victims. Two more nationwide protests are set to take place on March 24 and on April 20, the anniversary of the Columbine shooting.
"I'm here to fight for my life because we're scared. We never know if we're going to come back home from school." – High School Student Cindy Marquez pic.twitter.com/Ef4n3uYVdv
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 15, 2018
More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments, including:
*Sanders urges Defense Secretary James Mattis to crack down on ‘exorbitant’ salaries of defense contractor CEOs
*Lead Kills Way More Americans Than We Ever Imagined
*Sacred Native American Monument Shrunk for Oil
*Trump Chooses ‘Insufferable Wall Street Hack’ Larry Kudlow as Top Economic Adviser
*Pipeline news, Water Protector updates & More
The Parkland students went through an unbelievably traumatic experience. But because they are prepared not just to mourn, but to stand up and fight back, I think it's possible we are going to see real change. pic.twitter.com/izHPdzA4cl
— Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) February 27, 2018
More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.
I just saw MO Gov. Eric Greitens being led away in the custody of the St. Louis Sheriff. — Robert Patrick (@rxpatrick) February 22, 2018 Turns out that taking a picture of your nude mistress without her consent and threatening to use it against her isn’t something looked upon kindly by the authorities. According to a grand jury, “on or about March 21, 2015, in the City of St. Louis, State of Missouri, the defendant knowingly photographed K.S. in a state of full or partial nudity without the knowledge or consent of K.S. and in a place where a person … Continue reading →
US school shootings: Florida survivors take NRA and politicians to task
Faced with a furious crowd of Florida students demanding a renewed ban on assault weapons, Republican senator Marco Rubio offered one concession after another.
He said he supported legislation to raise the legal age to purchase a rifle to 21 from 18. He said he supported a law to create gun violence restraining orders, which would give family members and law enforcement a way to petition a court to take away a dangerous person’s guns. He said he opposed Donald Trump’s proposal to prevent school shootings by arming teachers or putting more armed security in classrooms.
Finally, Rubio said he was “reconsidering” supporting a ban on high-capacity ammunition magazines, what experts call the most substantive part of the assault weapon ban. Rubio said that yet-to-be-announced details from the investigation on the attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school would show that limits on ammunition magazines might have saved several lives in the shooting.
None of this was enough for the passionate crowd of more than 7,000 people at CNN’s town hall discussion in Florida on Wednesday night. They applauded, cheered and gave standing ovations in support of a full ban on the kind of military-style rifle and ammunition used in the Parkland shooting. A loophole-ridden federal assault weapon ban had passed in 1994, in the wake of a school shooting in California, and expired a decade later, in 2004.
Rubio, the only national Republican politician who agreed to answer questions from the Florida shooting survivors, seemed to watch the political ground of the gun debate shift under his feet. At one point, he argued that it did not make sense to ban only a subset of semiautomatic rifles based on certain cosmetic military features.
“You would literally have to ban every semi-automatic rifle that’s sold in America …” he began, before being cut off by huge whoops and cheers from the crowd.
“Fair enough, fair enough,” Rubio said. “That is a valid position to hold.”
More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments, uncluding:
*Over 70 Progressive Leaders Rally Behind Ambitious Economic Policy Pledge
*Sen. Bernie Sanders On Gun Control, Russian Meddling And Congressional Dysfunction
*Victims of Big Oil Pollution Speak Out Against Pruitt’s Luxury Flights
*Jail medical services firm charged after inmate’s Milwaukee death
*Pipeline news, Water Protector Updates & More
At White House Lie-In, Teens Call on Congress to ‘Protect Kids, Not Guns’
Building on the nationwide mourning and outrage that followed a Florida school shooting last week that left 17 people dead, dozens of teenagers held a “lie-in” at the gates of the White House on Monday to protest years of congressional inaction on gun control and highlight the National Rifle Association’s pernicious influence on the political process.
The demonstration began with protesters—many of them from the group Teens for Gun Reform (TGR), which organized the event—lying on the ground in front of the White House for several minutes, symbolizing “how quickly someone, such as the Parkland shooter, is able to purchase a gun in America.”
“We have organized this protest in solidarity with all of those who were affected by the horrific school shooting in Florida,” TGR said in a statement. “We call on President Trump and leaders from both parties to finally act in the interest of America’s youth and end these tragic mass shootings. It is imperative that American children are safe in their classrooms, churches, malls, movie theaters, and streets.”
Hoisting signs that read “NRA: There Is Blood on Your Hands” and “Protect Kids, Not Guns,” demonstrators also directed “Shame on you!” chants at the White House.
But President Donald Trump—whose speech in the aftermath of the Florida shooting didn’t mention guns once—was not in the White House to hear the chants or listen to the protesters’ demands, as he spent President’s Day playing golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
We should lower the voting age to 16!
The students I teach are more than capable of understanding the issues. They deserve to have their voices heard to demand gun reform, action on climate change, and policies to make college more affordable. https://t.co/4LwNdjsl1V
— Cathy Myers (@CathyMyersWI) February 19, 2018
More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.
“The Time Is Now”: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Students to Take to Streets of Washington
Among growing calls for gun control legislation, students who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School continue to deliver some of the most powerful statements in the wake of the tragedy, and on Sunday a group of them declared that “now is the time for us to stand up” and announced plans for a march in Washington, D.C.
The students, Jaclyn Corin, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Alex Wind, made the statements to NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Gonzalez, who on Saturday gave a moving speech that went viral, told NBC, “This is our opportunity to talk to President Trump, Gov. Rick Scott, and state [sic] Senator Marco Rubio to make sure that they know we are talking directly to them and all other members of the United States government that are being funded by the NRA to tell them now is the time to get on the right side of this.”
..
A call to action for the March 24 event, March For Our Lives, declares, “It doesn’t have to be this way…Refuse to allow one more needless death.”
“March For Our Lives,” its mission statement explains, “is created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar. In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.”
“The mission and focus of March For Our Lives,” it adds, “is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues.”
More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.
