This White House meeting is upsetting me greatly.

[madaboutharry]

I just want to cry. I can't breathe.

The solutions are all about putting people in mental institutions and giving teachers and staff guns.

[Generic Brad]

1. This is all staged

These are hand picked GOPers.

[global1]

16. Hats Off To The White House Staff For....

screening the people that are attending this meeting at the WH. I'm amazed that they were able to find - in such a short time - such a group of people that so closely allign with the NRA & the Repugs. I guess they're capable of doing a good job when they have to.

[maxrandb]

28. CNN and MSNBC should be required to report this

Shitshow as an in-kind contribution to Donnie Short Fingers reelection campaign

[lame54]

36. Does Douglas have a young republicans club?

[RussBLib]

2. breathe

and go get some exercise afterward

it's bad but it's still not hopeless

[madaboutharry]

5. You are really kind.

But I do feel it is hopeless. This administration doesn't care. Nothing is going to change. The NRA controls the government.

Trump just said he thought it would be great to have the Marines patrolling the schools.

[Hortensis]

25. We're all different, Mad. If you can't toughen up

enough to watch this without being hurt by it, don't watch. And I mean that. This is foolish.

You have no civic duty to hang around political forums and certainly not to watch trashy,sensationalized and dramatized commercial political-entertainment shows. They're grossly distorted, extremely incomplete, and often dishonest. This is time much better spent healthier, happier ways. And stay completely away from sports-announcer-type sites like Politico.

Maybe pick a couple of good journalistic websites, perhaps Vox because it tries to explain the news, The Atlantic, New Yorker has a nice variety. Stay away from Mother Jones and others that focus heavily on social injustice issues. Until you can fix them it's enough to know we have some big jobs we must vote good people in to handle on November 6. Add something like The Smithsonian to remind you about the big amazing world we live in and the many people living good lives in it.

And see you at the polls.

[Tipperary]

37. Good advice. I had not the slightest hope that the staged nonsense called a listening session

meant anything at all. I did not watch, knowing I would hear about it here and elsewhere. Not in the least bit surprised. I am only surprised that so many here seemed to have had some sort of odd faith in the dotard.

[Hortensis]

39. 'Odd faith" all right. Good term.

A tendency to these hopeful moments and disappointments is probably a basic personality thing.

From the time I was a child I seemed to have been wired to see this as a very imperfect world and that people and everything we're involved in must be imperfect. Yet I'm also an eternal optimist, that wiring again no doubt, and an idealist--but one with an adjustable time line.

Reading this stuff, I'm grateful life cut me that break anyway. Makes for a much smoother emotional ride. Certainly Trump could never disappoint me.

[mythology]

32. In the 2000s Republicans were putting same sex marriage bans on the ballot

Last edited Wed Feb 21, 2018, 09:54 PM - Edit history (1)

Because it won them votes. We ignored because it was a "gay" disease. In the 2010s those bans were being voted down and same sex marriage is legal. We had slavery for over 200 years and Jim Crow for another hundred years. And 50 years later a black guy with a funny name was president.

Just because something is hard to change, that doesn't mean it won't change. The ability to change things stops when we do.

[madaboutharry]

33. I agree with what you said here.

[Tipperary]

38. Gay marriage is a disease?

Did I read your post wrong?

[Chipper Chat]

3. Trump is pontificating on arming teachers.

He said that will solve the problem.

[beveeheart]

10. Don't forget that he also thinks retired Marines

will want to volunteer in the schools to help protect the children.

[anneboleyn]

14. Then he asked, who thinks thats a good idea? (Cameras didnt show how many DID NOT RAISE

THEIR HANDS — IT WAS OBVIOUSLY THE MAJORITY). Trump was clearly irritated by students not liking his “HUGE” idea (sigh). He also rambled on and on and on repeating the same phrases over and over. God it’s excruciating. What a pig — using these kids for political points.

[OhNo-Really]

29. I am confused. Who listened to who in this Listening Session?

I know my blood pressure won't allow me to warch a trumpian scripted shit show

[lapfog_1]

4. i just came in from a 3 mile hike

with my niece and her St. Bernard...

found I left MSNBC on... ehhh I was having a good day

switched the TV off

[Motley13]

6. Parkland is a GOP area

the ones I thought had the best ideas, were the Sandy Hook mom that said there is legislation in congress now that could be passed.

The other was a young man that said Australia has had zero school shootings since they passed gun control & we can learn from them.

[MichMary]

12. Australia doesn't have a 2nd Amendment

It was easier to do there than it ever will be here. Don't know if that kid has any idea what it would take to repeal the 2nd Amendment.

[lunamagica]

21. The kid never said anything about repealing the 2nd admendment. He was talking about

how easy it was to buy a gun which is not intended for self-defense, but for war.

Just because it was easier there, it doesn't mean it is impossible here

Speaking of the 2nd amendment, how come no one seems to remember the part where it says "A WELL REGULATED MILITIA"?

[MichMary]

24. I believe

"well regulated" is one of those things that it is up to the courts to interpret. I think it meant something different 250 years ago than it does today.

[lunamagica]

26. Everything is different than it was 250 years ago. That is the reason the constitution was supposed

a malleable document. The idea that the 2nd amendment is written in stone and should not be altered in any way when weapons today are nothing like they were when the constitution was written is pure insanity

[procon]

27. The 2nd Amendment doesn't need to be repealed to restrict what types of guns

can be legally owned by the public. Remember we already had a ban on these military style guns and there is no reason that bill couldn't be renewed. Also, in Heller, Scalia stated that the Second Amendment is not unlimited and no one has a right to own every sort of weapon they can find.

Even before tackling the gun issue, we must stop the bribery and quid pro quo relationships between lobbyists and politicians that take the voices of the public out of the decisions.

[HopeAgain]

22. Parkland is pretty Democratic, I think

State Rep. Moskowitz is a Dem., U.S. Rep Deutch is a Dem., Sate Senator Rader is a Dem. That is a wealthy district, but not red.

[MichMary]

7. We do need better (and more)

resources for mental health. Probably most of the school shooters have had some element pf mental illness involved. If there would be intervention, treatment, follow-up maybe some of this could be prevented.

The 2nd Amendment isn't going away any time soon, and banning scary looking guns isn't going to happen without considerable challenges along the way. In the meantime, what do you suggest? I don't see a lot of realistic possibilities.

[backtoblue]

19. Scary looking?

They are weapons of war. The second amendment allows for regulation.

[OldHippieChick]

8. Watched less than a minute of the Cheeto-blowhard

and saw the audience all dressed in suits and ties. Knew it was staged. Changed channels before I barfed.

[Laurian]

9. This will be seen for what it is by most. Pay no attention to this

hand picked group and concentrate on supporting those students who chose to go to Tallahassee to make their case to the legislature and the world today. That's where the future lies.

[RussBLib]

13. I agree

I just happened to have the TV on while I was writing on the computer. I do feel rather dirty after watching this listening session bs.

[kskiska]

11. How about the guy

who suggested there be only one entrance to the school? Suppose there was a fire or gas attack by a student? Every time someone brings up having more guns in schools Cheet-o nods his head.

[anneboleyn]

20. Exactly. It also would allow a shooter to bottleneck victims who were trying to escape. And of

course it’s an obvious fire hazard and would never be permitted as a basic element of building a school in the modern age (my high school had about 4,500 students — the idea of 4,500 students trying to leave at the end of the day through one exit is something so ridiculous that it makes me even more depressed).

The idea of having one exit for thousands of students and arming teachers just depress me. These aren’t “solutions.”

[Phoenix61]

15. I didn't watch this but I was in Tallahassee , Florida

Those kids are motivated and so was everybody else there. As nice as federal regs would be, we can do this state by state. Look what Conneticut did after Sandy Hook. This is doable but the Orange Shitgibbon, Lying Ryan, and McTurtle are not going to help us.

[nocalflea]

17. On the bright side:

2/3 of Americans want more effective gun control. The NRA is probably going down in the Trump/Russia scandal. A generation of young people have become politically aware and are willing to stand up, truth to power. They will have the right to vote soon enough and they will.

A Trump/NRA rally won't change these truths.

[Initech]

18. Just when I think we really can't sink any lower...

Today has made me question just how low it can go, and when I think we've hit rock bottom, it gets worse:

- Infowars assholes are trying (and failing) to disrupt student protestors

- Conservatives on Twitter are mad that their hate-filled tweets are getting purged

- Turd Nugent and Qusay Trump both tweet that the shooting was a false flag and that there was an MSM plant

- The Florida House GOP dismissing a debate on firearms but declares pornography a health hazard

- A sitting president of the United States who has done nothing to unite the country and is only marginally pretending to care about the victims

[malaise]

23. I turned it off

It was unbearable

[arthritisR_US]

30. I had to turn it off with all the ass kissing for 45s ego.

[SharonClark]

31. You can't breathe? Turn it off and take a breath.

[MoonRiver]

34. That was my impression too.

The Idiot planted NRA creeps in the audience. It was perfectly obvious. Message to the #NeverAgain movement is to never trust Chump or any Repuke if you want real gun control legislation.

[tavernier]

35. Big lie.

Come to my school and watch the children tell the truth.