Friday, February 23, 2018

Giving Up Hopelessness For Lent


Did anybody mention this to Trump at the presser with Turnbull?

Before I went out this morning, I knew this:

1)  A major private held bank in Nebraska cut ties with the NRA, declining to continue it's contract to issue an NRA branded VISA card.

2)  Enterprise car rentals, which operates three brands, decided to end its discount to NRA members.

3) Wayne LaPierre falls flat at CPAC, an event mostly populated by twenty-somethings just slightly older (and certainly more conservative) than the activist kids from Parkland, Florida.

“The room was not with Wayne LaPierre yesterday,” Peters said. “Actually, at one point he stopped and he said, ‘I sense it’s a little quiet out there.’ It was quiet, he said, because they must be scared and all gun owners should be. But the reason they were quiet is because they weren’t buying what he was selling.”

I came back to learn this:

a)  Avis, Budget, and Hertz are all out of the "NRA discount" business.
b)  Chubb Insurance, which underwrites the NRA's Carry Guard firearms insurance, wants nothing more to do with the NRA.
c)  Symantec, though LifeLock and Norton, have cut ties with the NRA
d)  Allied and North American Van lines no longer offer discounts to NRA members.
e)  MetLife no longer offers them discounts, either.

The pressure is on Google, AT&T, Apple, Roku, and Amazon to stop providing access to NRATV.

And, going back to news from this morning, the "kids from Florida" have, in just 4 days,  succeeded in raising $3.5 million dollars in aid of their effort to lead a march on Washington, and continue their fight for sensible gun laws.  Gucci has since added $500,000.00 to that amount.

Oh, and in the afternoon there is also this news:

"We are well on our way to solving the horrible problem" of mass shootings, President Trump said Friday at a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House.

Trump said he had spoken Friday morning with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., about possible ways Congress might respond legislatively following last week's shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead. "People are looking to really energize," Trump said of his discussions with the two top Republicans on Capitol Hill and GOP legislative efforts following the school shooting.

The man is a black hole of information. But the kids are alright; and no law mandating or even allowing teachers to carry and shoot in schools is going anywhere, especially if nobody is going to pay for their training, firearms, and liability insurance.  I mean, even Rick Scott isn't supporting an "arm the teachers" bill in Florida.

One last thing:  I heard different numbers than this in the morning, but I can't verify them now (300% increase in turnout for Democrats, 25% increase for GOP), so this will do:

More Democrats have cast ballots than Republicans since early voting began this week in Texas, according to state election figures released Thursday, and turnout among Democrats is up 46 percent over the last midterm elections in 2014. For Republicans, meanwhile, turnout is basically flat.

Democrats have not been turning out to vote since the Gov. Miz Anne lost to W. because: why bother?  And the state Democratic party has been relentlessly useless at inspiring them.  But Trump's approval is evenly spit, 46% in favor, 46% opposed; and Democrats in Texas despise Trump in numbers equally to the Republicans who admire him.  Which means there are a lot more Democrats here than have been voting in many years.

That might change.

No comments:

Post a Comment