Protesters carrying signs at March For Our Lives rally in Parkland, FL
Today, Parkland, Florida was once again Ground Zero in the fight against gun violence. While the March For Our Lives protests took place around the country and, indeed, around the world, and the event in Washington, D.C. was the largest, Parkland (specifically, the February 14, 2018 mass shooting at Parkland’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) is the reason why the marches happened. Moreover, Parkland is Ground Zero today because Donald Trump is hiding out at his Mar-a-Lago private club a mere 40 miles away in Palm Beach.
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Democratic supporters in McHenry County, IL carry party banner
The Democratic Party is still experiencing a rift that emerged during the 2016 presidential campaign, between so-called progressives (a misnomer since the Democratic Party’s mainstream principles, from civil rights to taxation to gun safety laws and more, are progressive) and more establishment Democrats. Those factions were represented by Senator Bernie Sanders and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. Thus far, the party has held a unity tour featuring Sanders with Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez. That tour did not do much to mend the party rift, especially as Sanders, an Independent, spent and still spends much of his time bashing the Democrats and telling them what to do. Now, Democratic Party leaders and Democratic-leaning organizations are sending numerous surveys to Democratic supporters, apparently in an effort to find out what the voters want to focus on, and to try to show that the politicians are in touch with voter needs.
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U.S. Senator Raphael Edward “Ted” Cruz
There’s some big name news this week on the Republican side, involving both Donald Trump (and his alleged side woman, porn star Stormy Daniels), as well as Senator Rafael Edward “Ted” Cruz. The news brings to mind some of the nicknames politicians use, and why.
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High school students march against gun violence in Minneapolis, MN.
The mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida has led to a renewed movement against the “guns everywhere” policy pushed by the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Republican Party members who receive so much NRA funding. Led initially by surviving students from Douglas High School, but now joined by many other individuals and groups, there are marches, protests, school walkouts, phone calls, emails, campaigns on social media such as Facebook and Twitter, and other efforts taking place to safeguard America’s children and adults. The momentum appears to be building and the tide may be turning in favor of steps such as Universal Background Checks for all firearm purchases, a renewed Assault Weapons Ban, and more. But as with all movements, the goals of this movement need to be articulated in a simple and powerful way in order to win over hearts and minds. So the question becomes, what is the best way to describe what this movement is fighting for?
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Leave a comment! Tags: Affordable Care Act, Broward County, Democrats, Facebook, firearms, Florida, gun control, gun reform, gun safety, gun violence, guns, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, mass shooting, National Rifle Association, NRA, Obamacare, Parkland, Republicans, Twitter
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio of Florida
After the Parkland, Florida school shootings last Wednesday that left 17 dead, most of them schoolchildren, one of the people who comes off looking the worst is Florida’s Republican U.S. Senator, Marco Rubio. Let’s look at Rubio’s responses to the Parkland shooting:
First, Rubio offered prayers, as Republicans typically do. However, Rubio’s version was to admit that his previous prayers did not work:
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Leave a comment! Tags: Al Hoffman, AR-15, Assault Weapons Ban, Elliot Rodger, Florida, gun control, gun restraining order, gun violence, guns, Marco Rubio, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, mass shooting, National Rifle Association, NRA, Parkland, red flag law, Republicans, Santa Barbara, school shooting, Twitter, universal background checks
Republicans’ dream? Lady Liberty holding a gun instead of a torch.
After another deadly school shooting involving an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, this time in Parkland, Florida, Republicans responded with their usual calls for “thoughts and prayers.” Perhaps the worst offender was Florida’s own U.S. Senator, Republican Marco Rubio, who proved that his previous prayers didn’t work:
However, when Rubio and other Republicans want something on any other issue, from tax cuts to taking away a woman’s freedom over her own body to military spending to taking away our affordable healthcare, they don’t pray, they vote. That’s just what Americans should do here.
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Leave a comment! Tags: AR-15, Assault Weapons Ban, Congress, Democrats, Florida, gun conrol, Marco Rubio, Nancy Pelosi, National Rifle Association, NRA, Parkland, Republicans, school shooting
Reality TV star and ex-Trump White House official Omarosa
Let’s first stipulate that things are strange when the discussion of the White House involves one reality TV show contestant talking about a reality TV show host. Nevertheless, that is the world we now live, where Donald Trump hired Omarosa Manigault-Newman to work in the White House Communications department, and then fired her one year later. Post-firing, Omarosa (now famous enough for first name only), known as a reality TV “villain” from Trump’s “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice” shows as well as other TV programs, quickly landed on the new season of CBS reality TV show “Celebrity Big Brother.” There, she has already made waves for her ominous comments about Donald Trump. While many people dismiss Omarosa as just a media attention “whore,” she has twice been in a unique position to judge Trump, thus her comments about the danger of Trump’s presidency are relevant.
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London Heathrow Airport immigration poll.
Republicans are well-known for their loaded words and phrases. Being against abortion becomes “pro-life.” Discrimination against gay people becomes “religious freedom,” and so forth. Word pairs crafted by Republicans, such as “death tax” or “death panels,” can contain a tremendous amount of framing, that is, staking out an argumentative position merely in the way one refers to something. Republicans are also adept at the next step: repetition in lockstep to make such phrases stick, which artificially swings the discussion of the issue in the Republicans’ favor. It is no surprise therefore, that the Republicans, including Donald Trump in last night’s State of the Union address, are using another such loaded phrase, and that it appears in discussions about immigration, a Republican favorite hot-button issue.
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National Park closures during 2013 government shutdown
Today, Senate Democrats and Republicans agreed to end the federal government shutdown (known as the “Trump Shutdown”) and keep government running until February 8, by which time Congress hopes to vote on a new long-term spending bill. In return for their agreement, Democrats got a six-year extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) that Congressional Republicans had let expire last September. Furthermore, the agreement includes a promise by Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to hold a vote on codifying the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, which Donald Trump ended last September. The agreement can be seen as a net win for Democrats, and they should portray it as such.
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Republican U.S. Senate candidate and alleged child predator Roy Moore, dressed as a cowboy.
The latest revelations regarding Donald Trump‘s affair with and payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels don’t seem to be fazing Republicans. The reaction seems to be no more negative within the GOP than when Trump was caught on tape bragging to “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush about sexually assaulting women. Trump’s ex-wife, Ivana, even accused Trump of raping her, and some 19 women have also accused Trump of sexually assaulting or harassing them. This yawn from Republicans about Trump’s conduct toward women extends to many other Republican politicians as well. For example, U.S. Senator David Vitter was caught and admitted hiring prostitutes in 2007, and was re-elected in 2010. Likewise, Newt Gingrich has been a top Republican presidential contender and adviser for years, even though he is a serial adulterer who presented his first wife with divorce terms as she lay in a hospital bed recovering from cancer surgery. That these Republican men never seem to be punished by their supposedly “family values” base for sexual misconduct or mistreatment of women may be because the Republican Party thrives on a twisted notion of masculinity.
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Leave a comment! Tags: Al Franken, Anita Hill, Anthony Weiner, Chris Matthews, Clarence Thomas, David Vitter, Democratic Party, Donald Trump, Eliot Spitzer, Fred Thompson, George Lakoff, George W. Bush, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Joni Ernst, Michael Dukakis, Republican Party, Sarah Palin, Stormy Daniels, Tucker Carlson
