Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Conservatives attack credibility of students who survived the school shooting in Florida. Seriously? Update!

Courtesy of Think Progress:

David Hogg, a senior at the school, was one of the first to appear on national television and demand action. “We’re children. You guys are the adults. You need to take some action and play a role. Work together. Come over your politics and get something done,” Hogg said, looking directly into the camera. 

Hogg is now being targeted by Gateway Pundit, a far-right blog that has press credentials from the Trump White House. A post published on Monday by the site’s White House correspondent, Lucian Wintrich, features Hogg’s photo with the word “EXPOSED” stamped in red.

Wintrich says Hogg and other students throw up some “red flags.” The first “red flag” is that Hogg’s father is a retired FBI agent. (Hogg freely admitted this on national television.) The insinuation is that Hogg’s father, who does not even work for the FBI, has tasked his son with talking about gun control to take the heat off the agency. 

Wintrich also uses an edited YouTube video of Hogg having some difficulty answering questions for a taped interview as evidence that Hogg is “heavily coached on lines and is merely reciting a script.” There is no evidence, in the video or elsewhere in the article, supporting this claim. 

Wintrich then drops all pretenses and fully embraces the conspiracy: 

Why would the child of an FBI agent be used as a pawn for anti-Trump rhetoric and anti-gun legislation? Because the FBI is only looking to curb YOUR Constitutional rights and INCREASE their power. We’ve seen similar moves by them many times over. This is just another disgusting example of it.

Is anybody else having a Sandy Hook deja vu?

Some version of this conspiracy theory has now spread across social media.
It has even been embraced by Donald Trump Jr.:
And Hogg is not their only target.

Trust me when I say that I have seen the conservatives go low before, but to attack these kids, or suggest that they are "milking the deaths of their peers for careers," is so incredibly disgusting that it literally makes me sick to my stomach.

I understand the fear that the Right is feeling right now, if I saw these kids coming after me and my party I might be wetting my tighty whiteys as well, but all that attacking them accomplishes is to make them even more determined and erase ANY hope of convincing them that the conservatives and Republican party are not their enemies.

To use perhaps too apt of a metaphor the conservatives are essentially shooting themselves in the foot right now.

And while all this is going on a critically clueless conservative journalist is suggesting that the gun control debate needs to wait until people start showing respect to gun owners:

So if you want to stop school shootings it’s not enough just to vent and march. It’s necessary to let people from Red America lead the way, and to show respect to gun owners at all points. There has to be trust and respect first. Then we can strike a compromise on guns as guns, and not some sacred cross in the culture war. 

You know I have heard of "tone deaf" before, but this David Brooks guy is just "deaf deaf."

(Buzzfeed by the way has a rather expansive article on the student's grass roots activism, that essentially drives a stake through the heart of the whole "manipulated by the Left Wing" narrative.)

Update: People are starting to lose their jobs over these smear campaigns.
Nice to see a little justice served. 

41 comments:

  1. Compassionate conservatism on full display. I can see Drupf there handing out MAGAT hats and then telling the kids to pay Don Jr 45 bucks a copy, the monies go into Drumpf's personal retirement fund.

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  2. Anonymous4:54 PM

    Unfortunately, it seems that Florida has decided that the right to own weaponry that is beyond any practical need (other than for killing humans, which is exactly what these weapons were designed to do) is more important to protect than the right for children to not be shot at in school.

    The shooter’s right to own the murder weapon trumps his victims’ rights to live. Every. Damn. Time. *sigh*

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  3. Anonymous5:18 PM

    Disgusting,but somehow I think these students will not be stopped by these verbal attacks,after all they have already survived a horrific American terrorist attack sponsored by the NRA.

    as for that dumbass donald jr,he hus tweeting his way to prison,along with his scheme to represent both trump org and the admin in India. I know Mueller is keeping an eye on him.

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  4. Anonymous5:50 PM

    Bristol at it again. http://m.eonline.com/news/914662/bristol-palin-celebrates-sarah-palin-s-birthday-back-in-alaska-after-dakota-meyer-split

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous6:31 PM

      Piper has come of age, she needs to help her mother now. Everyone else is too old and lost interest in Sarah's business.


      Bristol is way too busy on the shitter, all that tea she is selling. No wonder Dumkota left, imagine the smell. No don't.


      "Does anyone else get so busy you feel like you have zero time to do anything for yourself?!! Whenever I can't make it to cycling, or don't take time to eat healthy (hello fast food and sweets ����‍♀️!!) I always make sure to drink my @teamiblends skinny tea, whether I'm eating clean or not!! Not as a meal replacement, but to help keep me active for my babies.. " Bristol Palin

      Delete
    2. Anonymous11:57 PM

      Tripp Palin has the ugliest damn teeth of about any kid I've ever seen. I hope his father is saving up for braces and dentists.

      Delete
    3. Anonymous12:55 AM

      Bristol's family is so glad she left him. The cannot stand him. But his family is sad because as they said, shes the "perfect daughter in law."

      Delete
    4. Anonymous12:56 AM

      Her son has a pretty big trust he can access at 18. And t hat's separate from college fund.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous10:19 AM

      The hideous Heath Palins only used him for his medal. They thought Sarah could control both Bristol and the chump.
      http://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Dakota-Meet-Sarah-Palin-1024x512.jpg


      Sucker face.
      http://www.thesportsmanchannel.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Dakota-and-Sarah.jpg


      Who does he love more?
      https://i1.wp.com/radaronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/bristol-palin-husband-dakota-meyer-challenges-dan-bilzerian-to-fight-pp-.jpg?fit=1200%2C765&ssl=1


      Exes Palin and Meyer are one step closer to a permanent custody agreement
      https://malialitman.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/dakota-meyer-april-rose-model.jpg


      # AR-15
      http://4-riders.com/pics/arfcom/FUMM.jpg


      What a damfamily!!
      https://i2.wp.com/radaronline.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/track-palin-arrested-jail-christmas-pp.jpg?fit=1200%2C788&ssl=1


      Father of the Year
      http://scontent.cdninstagram.com/hphotos-xap1/t51.2885-15/e15/928077_590542067666858_1353830079_n.jpg

      Delete
  5. Anonymous5:52 PM


    'When your children act like leaders and your leaders act like children, you know change is coming.'

    -Mikel Jollett
    [Tweet]

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  6. Anonymous5:58 PM

    My mother always said the GOP was evil. Now I believe her without question. How could anyone refuse to acknowledge this grief? And turning it to a conspiracy? So depraved.

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  7. Anonymous6:01 PM

    This made me sick to my stomach too. Will meet up with a local Moms Demand Action group on Thursday. They have a FB page.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous6:08 PM

    Imagine the Sandy Hook kids today.
    Innocent young lives forever shattered.
    There IS no excuse nor rebuttal.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Anonymous6:17 PM

    DUMBEST THING DAVID BROOKS EVER WROTE???

    John McCain't plucked Sarah from Wasilla and the Republican nutters havent taken a day off since!

    "ST. PAUL

    Political parties usually reform in the wilderness. They suffer some crushing defeat, the old guard is discredited and the pain compels turnover and change. John McCain is trying to reform the Republican Party before a presidential defeat, with the old guard still around, and with a party base that still hasn’t accepted the need to transform. The central drama of this week’s convention was the struggle by reform Republicans to break through the gravitational pull of old habits and create something new.

    Before the convention, some McCain aides wanted to sunder the links to the past in one bold stroke: Name Joe Lieberman as the vice presidential nominee, promise to serve only one term, vow to take a hiatus from partisanship and work by compromise to get things done. That proved to be a leap too far.

    So McCain was pulled back. But he refused to stay there and pressed ahead by picking Sarah Palin. At first, this seemed like the fresh break he needed. Her career in Alaska has been nibbled on the edges, but the key fact is this: When the testing time came, she quit her government job, put her career on the line and took on the corrupt establishment of her own party.

    But again, the forces of the past pulled McCain back. Parts of the press pack elevated Bristol Palin’s pregnancy. A controversy over human reproduction brought back the old culture wars and the mommy wars. Battle lines formed, as in the days of Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas, and everyone took their pre-assigned roles.

    Millions declared themselves qualified to judge her a bad mother, while others held her up as the model of evangelical virtue. And, of course, the whole thing became enmeshed in the clichés of red-blue: the supposed conflict between the condescending media elites and the gun-owning trailer trash, between abortion-rights urban women with one kid and anti-abortion rural women with five.

    For 36 hours, the gravitational pull of past resentments dominated the media-culture war complex. And from the convention podium the past and the future fought to a draw. On the one hand, Joe Lieberman went up there and praised Bill Clinton, giving a glimpse of what a less partisan political future might look like. On the other, there was Mitt Romney, who delivered a cynical, extreme caricature of old-line Republicanism.

    The convention thus sat on a knife-edge. And then Palin walked onstage. She gave a tough vice presidential speech, with maybe a few more jabs than necessary. Still it was stupendous to see a young woman emerge from nowhere to give a smart and assertive speech.

    And what was most impressive was her speech’s freshness. Her words flowed directly from her life experience, her poise and mannerisms from her town and its conversations. She left behind most of the standard tropes of Republican rhetoric (compare her text to the others) and skated over abortion and the social issues. There wasn’t even any tired, old Reagan nostalgia.

    Instead, her language resonated more of supermarket aisle than the megachurch pulpit. More than the men on the tickets, she embodies the spirit of the moment: impatient, fed up, tough-minded, but ironical. Even in attack, she projected the cheerfulness of someone confident about the future.

    In those 40 minutes, the forces of reform Republicanism took control, at least for a time. Republicans started talking about Palin, Bobby Jindal and a brighter future for their party."...

    There was more Brooks fappery but you probably already get the drift.


    http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/05/opinion/05brooks.html

    Well...

    NOW WE HAVE DOLT 45 and his klepto kkklan of family and friends. The tRUMPS make the Palin "Wasilla hillbillies looting Neiman Marcus from coast to coast," look like penny ante shit. At least she was skeered of Vald!


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    1. Anonymous6:36 PM

      THEN she went back to real life a LOSER , she never got over it because she IS, went unscripted, the truth came out about who she AND her family REALLY are, and they've been caricatures of x-tianity ever since.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:02 PM

      I agree, Sarah’s a loser.

      I’m a liberal, but honestly, had Sarah made different choices after 2008, I think she may have eventually risen to take her place national politics on her own 10 years later and emerge as someone who, even if you disagreed with her politically, you could still admire and respect her.

      I see Sarah definitely as horribly squandered potential. And squandered by Sarah herself. I still remember the ridiculous speech she made upon her surprise resignation from being governor. At that point, there was just no redeeming this woman.

      How much cooler would it have been if, instead of quitting for the easy money and becoming a Faux News skank, she went back to being governor. And after a full term having actually LEARNED something as governor, she got re-elected. And learned some more. 10 years after losing as VP, she emerged more polished and principled, and entered the Senate. Or possibly the White House in a conservative cabinet, not as president.

      Being able to see Sarah come back and prove she’d learned something and finally get a job on her own merits would be wonderful to watch.

      Was it not great watching Obama the past 8 years? He showed all of us who voted for him that our faith was not wasted. He may not have been experienced as a lot who came before, but I think he proved rather quickly that he was more than up for the job. And that he’s gone, historical rankings are being quite good for Obama. All and all, a great American political story.

      I love those. Don’t you?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous7:31 PM

      Wait until everyone hears all about July 3 2009.

      It is unflippinbelievable!

      Delete
    4. Anonymous7:52 PM

      7:31pm

      Trust me, at this point no one will care, regardless of how sensational it is.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous9:16 PM

      ^ Idk. Seems raising the Dead had a rea$on for it. Oily Ho $kkkank just cashed in on it.
      Problem its front page news.
      Oopsy Boobsy did it again! ;)
      Fucked left when she shudda
      humped right. bahaha bahaha

      Delete
    6. Anonymous3:42 AM

      Does David Brooks believe for a minute that Sarah Palin wrote her 2008 acceptance speech? Then he's as dumb as the rest of the GOP!
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  10. Anonymous6:17 PM

    Drumpf buys in to all of this conspiracy shit. All of it.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous6:52 PM

    You know that the Right are Nazis when they pick on children. Next it will be grandmas. It's the oldest story in the book.
    Trump and Putin care only for their agenda and that is to line their pockets so thick with their country's resources that down the line their worthless lineage never has to worry about a dime. Putin cares naught for his country men. It's all about him. Same for Trump and Co.
    That's why the Russian bots are always on the 24/7 vigilance to undermine any effort to equalize the playing field for other humans. That's what this is about.

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  12. Anonymous8:00 PM

    So it took kids to stand up for kids being slaughtered and when they do they have to fight to not be discretited. Kids people, kids being attacked, kids who are sick of going to school afraid and God Damn all the parents out there should stand up! These are our kids were talking about and this is not acceptable.

    Let Trump have secret service for Barron what the hell doe's he care. We have a President with an eleven year old in school who is protected, can Trump not even imagine the fear or horror of other parents?

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    1. Anonymous3:39 AM

      My hope is that the sheer number of young people who are angered by what happened and who care about their futures being a little bit safer with sensible gun laws in place will prove to be too much for the mean NRA-loving GOP to handle.

      As soon as the first high school survivor spoke to a newsperson, I thought that they will be trashed by the media. And it's happening, as soon as the victims were buried. Disgusting.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  13. Anonymous8:36 PM

    The NRA made a shit load of money when Obama was President by spreading fear that he was "Going to take away our guns!"

    Did you ever imagine there were so many paranoid rubes? and they bought into and ammo grew " scarce" and ammo went up in price and was stockpiled no matter what the cost just in case the commie Muslim President was going to raid their homes and take away their hunting rifles and hand guns.

    Lets just admit it, if President Obama was white all the Muslim crap would not sell.

    And now we are stuck with a liar, an idiot an obese comb over failed ass hole who uses twitter to tell us how butt hurt he is. MAGA.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Ammo has a shelf life. It doesn't last forever.

      (non-corrosive) 10 years if stored properly; cool dry place away from direct exposure to sunlight. (I.E. not your typical redneck garage, attic or shed. Basement maybe as long as it's dry.) Probably the typical cheap crap bought at Walmart.

      If they bought a ton in 2008, time to replace it!

      That is where the money is. Jack up the price and then make them buy it again in another 10 years. Not only replace it but double the previous amount, you know, just in case. Oh, and sorry, but the price has gone up. Inflation you know. OH, but this here's made in the USA by genuine citizens, no immigrant workers, no siree.

      MAGA!

      Delete
  14. Anonymous8:47 PM

    Would love to support these Florida kids (& all others who are taking up the baton). Not a social media user. Does anyone have a link to a legit GoFundMe account where one can contribute to their efforts? Thanks!

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  15. Anonymous9:25 PM

    How many kids gunned down in schools is it going to take before something is done? What is the acceptable number? Ask the parents of a dead child what it is, ask a so called civilized society what it is, lets ask our so called leader of the free world what it is. Our kids are not free if they fear going to school.

    You build that wall Trump while you have more problems right here and no illegal ever shot up a school. Put that money to use to save kids.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous12:36 AM

    conservatives and liberals are just as bad as jesus freaks

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Anonymous3:35 AM

      So who's left? I don't think that "liberals" are "just as bad as "conservatives" or "jesus freaks," although I have no idea how you define them. Not all Christians are "jesus freaks" for your information.
      Beaglemom

      Delete
  17. OT:

    Holy Moley another big fat Mueller indictment.

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/trump-dems-defended-election-integrity-until-lost-133614757--politics.html

    "A 33-year-old attorney fired last year by a prominent international law firm became the fourth person to plead guilty in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation, admitting Tuesday that he lied to federal investigators about his contacts with a Trump campaign official.

    Alex van der Zwaan, who worked at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, admitted in Washington's federal court Tuesday to making false statements about his interactions with former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates. His plea deal may allow him to avoid prison."

    "But the charge against the attorney, who is also the son-in-law of a Russian billionaire, does not involve election meddling or relate to the Trump campaign's operations. Instead, it stems from the special counsel's investigation into Paul Manafort, Trump's former campaign chair, and Gates, who is a longtime business associate of Manafort."

    SON IN LAW OF A RUSSIAN BILLIONAIRE!

    "The false statements van der Zwaan admitted to making involved the timing of his last communication with Gates and a person, described as "Person A," who was a longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates in Ukraine."

    "Last year, van der Zwaan married the daughter of Ukrainian-Russian billionaire German Khan, according to the Russian editions of Forbes and Tatler magazines.

    Khan, who was born in Kiev, shares control of one of Russia's biggest financial and industrial investment conglomerates, Alfa Group, with fellow billionaires Mikhail Fridman and Alexei Kuzmichev. Forbes estimates Khan is worth about $10 billion.

    Khan and his partners are suing Buzzfeed News over its publication of a dossier of allegations about ties between Trump and Russia. The dossier, which is a collection of memoranda authored by former British spy Christopher Steele, makes several claims about Alfa Group that the partners say are false and defamatory."

    And there's the link to the Steele Dossier.

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  18. I *KNEW* it!

    On President's day Trump was playing golf while victims of the Florida shooting were being buried. A few miles from the Funeral and he's playing golf.

    "President Donald Trump visited his Trump International Golf Course in West Palm Beach, Florida, while funerals for victims of the Parkland, Florida, school shooting were going on just miles away. His apparent leisure time in the wake of this tragedy is raising some eyebrows."

    https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/02/20/he-went-play-golf-while-they-held-funerals-anderson-cooper-lays-into-trump/354131002/

    http://people.com/politics/president-trump-golfing-funerals-florida-shooting-victims/

    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/374510-trump-hits-golf-course-3-days-after-visiting-shooting-victims

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:32 AM

      But earlier during his Presidents' Day weekend he had visited the hospital with big smiles and thumbs-up gestures. Obviously that's all that Trump had to do, right?

      And then, at some White House event, he promised to get rid of the stocks that make some weapons even more warlike. Of course, Congress tried to do that last fall and the NRA objected so nothing happened. Doesn't he remember?
      Beaglemom

      Delete
    2. I think he did the hospital photo op on Friday before he arrived to Mar-A-LaGofuckyourself. The big disco party was Saturday night. He spent Sunday rage-tweeting at Oprah trying to goad her into a twitter war or something. And Monday he played golf because he promised he wouldn't do it on the weekend.

      That direction to Sessions about bump stocks is windowdressing. Neither Sessions nor the president nor Tobacco and Firearms have the authority to do anything about bumpstocks. Congress has to pass a law and the president has to sign it. Don't hold your breath on that happening.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous6:07 AM

    Have you seen Todd?
    Still in that environment eavaging race.
    Hope he doesn't win because we all know how humble they are lol!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous6:25 AM

    i'm behind these great kids all the way. they have great courage and love. how can anyone say they are milking the death of friends for any purpose? these kids are better than the republicans and the nra!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous7:06 AM

    Ben Shapiro Blasts HuffPost For Labeling Him a ‘Survivor Smearer’: ‘Disgusting’

    https://www.mediaite.com/online/ben-shapiro-blasts-huffpost-for-labeling-him-a-survivor-smearer-disgusting/

    ReplyDelete
  22. Anonymous12:42 PM

    Priorities, priorities.../s:

    https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/21/health/florida-legislature-porn-dangerous-but-not-weapons/index.html

    https://www.rawstory.com/2018/02/strippers-protest-gun-laws-pretending-sell-ar-15-tea-partier-gave-away-real-ar-15-freaks/

    http://www.newsweek.com/ar-15-church-blessing-pennsylvania-815013

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous11:22 PM

    The dragon fights the most right before it dies.

    And of course, Ann Coulter is saying her usual "Im a filthy c###" banter.

    ReplyDelete

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