News and Current Events - 2017 - 2022

[Gillian]

Vanity Fair has an article by Dave Cullen about the Florida high school protesters working to propel #NEVERAGAIN beyond the march tomorrow.

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/03/inside-the-secret-meme-lab-designed-to-propel-neveragain-beyond-the-march?mbid=nl_CH_5ab54d2c96e05b53bfb908b0&CNDID=20771719&spMailingID=13183418&spUserID=MjUxMzAzNzY4MDk0S0&spJobID=1362160621&spReportId=MTM2MjE2MDYyMQS2

The link didn't work for me with IE, but does with Chrome.

Larry OregonDoggie provided the link.

Thank you for this link. 

[morrobay]

Convicted of a crime? That is pretty outrageous. Isn't that what Ernst Lubitsch and Charlie Chaplin and so many more were doing in their times, making light of Hitler and showing him to be a buffoon? There is a joke like that in every Mel Brooks movie. It's also what comedians do every night to Donald Trump. And you might recall that one of them got in a lot of hot water and banned from the airwaves, Kathy Griffin, until Bill Maher had her on his program recently, for going what was deemed too far.

Thanks for your reply, Lyle, I was hoping to get some input on this story.  And I agree with what you wrote...there will always be someone who is offended by something said or written or videoed, and we continue to have these things parsed and dictated by the majority, as they interpret the 1st amendment to suit their views...

[morrobay]

oh for god's sake...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) criticizes the March for Our Lives rallies, saying kids should "take CPR classes" instead of "looking to someone else to solve their problems."
Source: CNN

[Jeff Wrangler]

I've always said (usually accompanied by derisive laughter from whoever I was speaking to) that FB is a conspiracy, which is why I refuse to use it.  I downloaded my data - hardly anything - but this person had a different experience.

Every time I get sick and tired of being, essentially, ridiculed by friends because I'm NOT on Facebook and decide that, finally, I should sign up, I hear something horrible like this latest scandal. I'm hoping this might turn out to be a case, for me, of "He who laughs last. ..."

Of course Facebook is a conspiracy, designed for no other purpose than to make Mark Zuckerberg stinking rich.

All tech is a conspiracy. Jobs, Gates, et al. invented stuff without which the world got along just fine until they came along. They invented these fancy toys, seduced us all into becoming dependent on them, and then continued to invent new fancy toys that everyone MUST have in order to make themselves even more stinking rich.

Yes, I'm perfectly aware that without them and their toys I wouldn't be participating in this conversation.

[CellarDweller115]

eta: if Cambridge Analytica accessed my data, they would find that I like cat videos...

They would get such an odd mix from me,  they wouldn't know what to think about it!

[morrobay]

 

[morrobay]

I'm posting the link to the rest of the story in case anyone's interested, but I really wish they'd stop putting the killer's picture in their stories.  It seems like the local TV news was even worse, leaving his picture up, full size, as they talked over it...playing into the hands of other losers like him hoping for fame through murder.

The Austin bomber called himself a 'psychopath' in his confession video


Austin, Texas (CNN)Days after the Austin bomber blew himself up as police closed in, investigators are no closer to answering the question nearly everyone in the community is asking: Why?

Investigators searching for a potential motive are relying on *****'s own words from a 25-minute recording he made hours before he was confronted by a SWAT team early Wednesday.

In the cellphone recording, [the murderer] refers to himself as a "psychopath" and shows no contrition for carrying out a nearly three-week-long bombing spree that left two people dead and spread fear across the city.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/25/us/austin-bombings-investigation/index.html

[morrobay]

17 year old victim Draylen Mason was a talented student and bass player accepted into the selective Butler School of Music at the University of Texas at Austin.

Mason was the "most remarkable talent in a most remarkable youth orchestra program called Austin Sound Waves," said Doug Dempster, dean of the College of Fine Arts at UT Austin, KXAN reported.

The Austin Sound Waves program offers free music instruction to artistically underserved children.

[morrobay]

Reserved And Resilient, Bombing Victim Anthony Stephan House Had Agreed To Mentor Kids This Summer

Anthony Stephan House hugs his daughter, then 2

[Lyle (Mooska)]

oh for god's sake...

Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) criticizes the March for Our Lives rallies, saying kids should "take CPR classes" instead of "looking to someone else to solve their problems."
Source: CNN

Is Rick still crying out for attention? Is there still a place for Rick in national conversations? What a doofus.

After being in Government so many years, does Rick not know that's why we elect politicians--to serve us? That we look to politicians to do our bidding? Isn't that why religious people like Rick pray to God?  Or does Rick do this: "Dear God, I pray for...oh never mind, I'll take CPR classes."  No "Stronger Together" for Rick, I guess, it's all "I alone can fix it." As I Said in another post this week: The fix is in.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Our weather cleared up for a beautiful partly cloudy day to march in Los Angeles yesterday! If what I saw in person and on the news yesterday doesn't give us hope for the younger generation, I don't know what will. There are a lot of amazing "kids" out there. I'm afraid my feet weren't going to cooperate for a long march in Downtown L.A. this time, but my own neighborhood, West Hollywood, had a gathering and short march near San Vicente and the West Hollywood Sheriff's Office in a show of support for the world-wide "March for Our Lives" movement. There was a feeling of so much energy out in the ether yesterday. Some of that may have been due to the weather--it was the first weekend of this month that it was sunnier and not raining! (No complaints from me about that.)

The L.A.P.D. tweeted out just after the huge march downtown:

"LAPD reports no arrests Saturday at the March for Our Lives rally downtown and there were only 3 medical-related calls during the march and only one reported suspicious package, which was quickly deemed personal property. That is what we like to call, SUCCESS! This truly is the City of Angels. Enjoy the rest of your weekend L.A.!"

[Lyle (Mooska)]

Meanwhile:

National Rifle Association: The leading national group promoting gun rights.

From their NRA-TV program said:

"March For Our Lives is backed by radicals with a history of violent threats, language and actions."

So Politifact did some fact checking and found the NRA to be (surprise) LYING!
Politifact's rating on their lying:



It's just the NRA shooting off their mouth again. Sad.

[Lyle (Mooska)]

I don't know if I'll watch the Stormy Daniels interview on 60 MINUTES tonight, as I will hear all about it at some point anyway, I'm just glad for anything that's a thorn in the President's side. I mean, how can ANYONE be surprised by any of this? And if one doesn't care about any of it then they don't care about the country.

ABC reports that Donald Trump has referred to stories around his alleged affair with adult film star Stormy Daniels as a 'political hoax,' a friend of the president said.

Sad.

I love Stormy Daniels' lawyer because he is doing what Trump does. He's fighting back ten-fold at everything Trump and associates throw out there and, of course, that's Trump's model: "If they hit you, you hit them back ten times harder."

So, her lawyer tweeted out:

Michael Avenatti
@MichaelAvenatti

You are correct. Ms. Clifford's claims are yet another "hoax" - similar to other infamous "hoaxes" like the moon landing, 9/11, etc. Is this, along with claims that I worked on some campaigns 25 yrs ago, the best you guys can come upon with to discredit us? #basta
_______________

People are wondering, since anytime potentially damaging information comes out about Trump he tries to pre-emptively distract with some other news, like pardoning Joe Arpaio or announcing tariffs or other things, what he might be planning for this afternoon?

We shall see.

Trump reminds me of another Lily Tomlin line from her monologue about what things worry her:

"I worry that the person who thought up Musak, might be thinking up something else."

[Jeff Wrangler]

The cover of the March 26 New Yorker is a cartoon of Pumpkin Head standing naked behind a lectern, which strikes me as funny only because early last week I was, seriously, asking myself, When will somebody stand up and say that the Emperor has no clothes?

[fritzkep]

Another article by Dave Cullen on the march.

https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2018/03/how-one-parkland-survivor-experienced-the-march-on-washington?mbid=nl_CH_5ab56ee921bdcb46d35896fa&CNDID=20771719&spMailingID=13190773&spUserID=MjUxMzAzNzY4MDk0S0&spJobID=1362306730&spReportId=MTM2MjMwNjczMAS2

Link provided by Larry OregonDoggie.