Gov. Rick Scott (R) is pushing firearm confiscation orders and stands opposed to the suggestion that teachers should be armed for school safety.
CNN reports that Scott is pushing a “Violent Threat Restraining Order,” which are similar to California’s Gun Violence Restraining Orders in that they a designed to secure court orders to confiscate firearms following a family member’s complaint.
It is difficult to see how such orders–designed to be triggered by family requests–would have been effective against Nikolas Cruz. After all, the family with which he was staying repeatedly called the police on him in November 2017 but refused to file charges when sheriff’s deputies arrived. A member of the family with which Cruz was staying explained away Cruz’s erratic behavior by saying he “had been suffering significantly from the loss of his mother” earlier in the month.
Scott is also pushing a bump stock ban, “tougher background checks,” more stringent rules against the mentally ill, and a ban on purchasing or possessing firearms by anyone “subject to an injunction for protection against stalking, cyberstalking, dating violence, repeat violence, sexual violence, or domestic violence.
In other words, gun control, gun control, gun control.
And in the wake of the heinous school shooting in which students and unarmed, defenseless teachers were killed, Scott stands opposed to arming teachers for defense of themselves and their students. He said, “I think you need to have individuals that are trained, well-trained. My focus is let law enforcement do the keeping us safe and let teachers focus on teaching.”
Scott said this even though the law enforcement officer present on campus during the attack failed to confront Cruz. On February 22 ABC 13 reported that Broward County sheriff’s deputy Scott Peterson was on campus outside building 12 during the attack, but “never went in” after Cruz. Peterson resigned from sheriff’s office after his lack of action was uncovered.
Where Is Black Lives Matter Now? Keep Blaming the police.
A new report names Baltimore, Md., as the most dangerous city in America after the city had the highest per capita murder rate in the country for 2017.
USA Today analyzed 2017 law enforcement crime data from the 50 biggest cities in the nation and found that Baltimore had a higher per capita murder rate than cities like New Orleans and Detroit.
Baltimore came in first with about 56 people murdered per 100,000 in 2017, seeing about 343 homicides throughout the course of the year. New Orleans, on the other hand, saw 40 per 100,000 killed and Detroit saw 39 per 100,000.
The city also saw more total homicides than big cities like Los Angeles, Dallas and New York City. The USA Today analysis left out St. Louis, a smaller city, that would have beaten Baltimore’s per capita homicide rate.
Baltimore struggled to fight the gun violence plaguing the city in 2017, with activists hosting “ceasefire weekends” in an attempt to urge people to stop murdering each other.
Things seems to have taken a turn for the better in the city since the new year started. The mayor fired the former police commissioner and enacted a new one to get better results on stopping the violence and killings that have gone down since the year began.
Not all residents agree with the USA Today analysis of their city, saying they haven’t felt any danger while living in the city.
“It’s a shame when people who don’t come in the city and don’t experience the city, don’t have relationships here want to make comments about it,” Rachel Cybor told CBS Baltimore.
Why did Oprah not bring up all the corruption from the Obama Administration, and scandals from the black so-called savior Barack?
Last fall, Oprah Winfrey spoke with 14 Michigan voters, seven of whom voted for Donald Trump. Winfrey sat down with the voters again to get their thoughts on Trump’s first year in office.
One year into Donald Trump’s presidency, Americans remain divided, often unwilling to listen to what the other side has to say. It’s happening in families, among friends and at the workplace. We witnessed that schism first-hand last fall when we went to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and gathered 14 people – seven who voted for Mr. Trump, seven who did not – for a wide-ranging discussion about politics, policy and the president himself. To mark President Trump’s first year in office we decided to repeat the experiment. We never intended to go back to Grand Rapids. But then we learned that, after disagreeing on virtually everything, our group stayed in close touch. Members from opposite sides of the divide actually became friends, organizing outings and talking every day in a private facebook chat group. All of that made us want to go back.
Rose:Can we please come together and at least give this president a chance?
Oprah Winfrey leads another discussion with 14 Michigan voters
CBS NEWS
This was the group when we met them in downtown Grand Rapids six months ago. Fourteen passionately partisan strangers.
Now, they greet each other like old friends. Lauren Taylor, a liberal community organizer, and Tom Nemcek, a staunch libertarian and supporter of President Trump, couldn’t be farther apart politically. But they took the initiative to bring the group together. Tom, a gun rights advocate, took members of the group shooting. It made such an impression on Laura Ansara, she bought her own gun and joined the NRA.
Matt Wiedenhoeft – a Trump supporter who teaches economics and coaches a hockey team at Grand Valley State University – invited them to a Saturday night game.
And nearly the entire group turned out for what they call a team-building workout organized by Jennifer Allard, a lifelong Republican who says she couldn’t bring herself to vote for Donald Trump. Wesley Watson, a community health activist, was there. So was Daniel Skidmore, a conservative and first-time voter. And Maggie Ryan, a lawyer and self-described independent.
Oprah Winfrey: When we first met, there were some of you who had said, you know, you’d never been in conversations, certainly engagement, with members of the opposite side, political side. So has that changed for you now?
Jennifer: Yes. Because now I’m looking at them as people, not as you’re Trump or not Trump. This has been an incredible experience and an education for me.
“I feel like he cares more about me than the last president did.”
Frank Luntz: This never, ever happens.
A few weeks ago, we re-assembled the group— a cross-section of voters selected for us by conservative pollster Frank Luntz.
Frank Luntz: I was surprised that they stayed together because there was every reason, based on the conversation, that they would pull themselves apart.
Oprah Winfrey: Yeah.
Frank Luntz: But what I liked about it is that they came to respect each other, appreciate each other, and live each other’s lives to some degree so that they could empathize. That was a laboratory.
They may know each other a lot better now, but their political views have not changed, especially when it comes to President Trump.
Oprah Winfrey: How many people here voted for him? Just to remind everybody. And how many of you would vote for him again? You would vote for him again?
Laura: Yeah, my 401(k)’s up 35%. My house is up another $31,000, yes.
Since meeting each other last fall, the 14 partisan voters have kept in touch and become friends
CBS NEWS
Daniel: I feel like he cares more about me than the last president did. He cares about issues affecting my day-to-day life more. Like, the tax cuts. That’ll increase my bottom line.
Tim: Temporary.
Daniel: Better than nothing.
Oprah Winfrey: So the tax plan, do you feel, are you gonna personally benefit from that?
Daniel: Yes, I will. I calculated I’ll benefit from it.
Oprah Winfrey: Tom, you said the quote that was so memorable the last time, I love him more and more every day. Do you still feel that?
Tom: I do.
Oprah Winfrey: Do you still send a check every time he does something that you approve of?
Tom: When he fulfills a campaign promise, yes I do.
Oprah Winfrey: And Matt, you said something the last time like, he speaks for us or speaks like us.
Matt: He speaks like everybody else does. This guy’s straightforward. I’m bringin’ jobs back. I’m worried about America first. And that’s what I’m gonna do. And guess what? He’s kept every promise he startedbecause he said it.
Tom: What he means is he doesn’t speak like a politician.
Wesley: Over the last few weeks our president have made comments about Haitians and…
Maggie: S*ithole countries, I mean?
Tom: Were you guys in the room? Were you guys in the room? Were you in the room?
Kim: Oh my goodness.
Tom: Okay, because there’s three people who were in that room who said he never said this.
The room was the Oval Office, where in a meeting about immigration, the president reportedly used profanity to describe Haiti, El Salvador and African countries, while praising Norway.
Oprah Winfrey: Who here believes that he made the comment about, quote, “s*ithole countries?”
Tim: Absolutely.
Kim: Absolutely.
Oprah Winfrey: You think he made the comment?
Paul: Yeah, I think he made the comment. Yes. I think all presidents have made a comment behind closed doors that wasn’t reported–
Oprah Winfrey: You think all presidents have used the term s*ithole?
Paul: Yes, I do.
“I don’t agree that it is okay to tweet the way that he does, getting in a war with North Korea, ‘My button’s bigger than your button.'”
Tim: Okay, can I just say something? It’s not about the swearing. Okay? I expect every politician to say that. It’s the fact that he demeaned an entire race or a country. And if our president, who we – I respect the office, and I expect and demand better actions than that.
Maggie: My relatives came from Ireland and that was for a long time considered to be a s*ithole country. It’s, obviously Irish people aren’t discriminated against now, but, like, they were for a really long time. And you can’t say something about a country that then applies to all the people coming from it.
Oprah Winfrey: Okay?
Matt: I can see him using the language. But you guys at times you need to look at the man you’re talkin’ about. This man looks at one lens, through one lens and all. It’s an economic lens. He did not look at this as people in those countries, in my opinion.
Jennifer: And that’s unfortunate.
Matt: He did not say the Haitian people or the people of Africa.He said, “Those countries.”
Oprah Winfrey: Come on, Matt. If you’re talking about… Matt, if you’re talking about the country, you’re talking about the people in the country. When he’s talking about Norway or Norwegians, he’s talking about Norwegians.
Matt: Sometimes I think Trump, just met with Norway and that was the first thing he thought of, ’cause, he said some things that are weird.
Oprah Winfrey: Okay, so polls are showing that respect for the United States is eroding around the world. Do you care what the world thinks of the United States?
Jennifer: Absolutely.
MULTIPLE PEOPLE: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Matt: How many people believe China’s sittin’ at home right now and they’re like, “Man I wonder if I make this decision will it hurt the U.S? Will the U.S. people like this decision?” Do you think China asks that question? The only country in this world that asks that question is us.
Tim: I work with global students that wanna come to the United States. Well, ever since Trump got elected in 2016, the numbers of incoming global students have gone down. They do not feel safe. That’s a shame.
Laura: What are they afraid of?
Paul: Trump.
Kim: Yes.
Tim: They’re afraid of how they’re being, they’re gonna be treated.I mean look turn on the news.
Laura: I feel safer now than I ever did the last eight years of Obama. Oh my God.
Oprah Winfrey: How do you feel safer? Tell me how you feel safer?
Laura: Well, I feel like I can say Merry Christmas to anyone I want wherever I want.
Jennifer: You could anytime!
Tim: You could! Spare me the fake outrage!
Jennifer: Obama always said Merry Christmas.
Maggie: I don’t think Laura has fake outrage but like, I do think some of the things that you believe, I don’t think really make that much sense. Like, I don’t think Obama’s a Muslim.
Oprah Winfrey: Let her finish telling us why she feels safer.
Laura: Safer means that I’m not gonna have regulations after regulations after regulations that are gonna outdo my budget. I don’t make any money. I’m poor. So when I mean I don’t make, I probably make less than anyone at this table. You know, my heat bills go up. My electricity goes up. I guess it makes me feel economically safer that Trump’s in office.
Oprah Winfrey: There have been some members of Congress, including Republicans, questioning his stability and fitness for office. What do you think of that, and do you believe he has the temperament to be president?
Matt: We see one side of him outside of the office. We don’t see what happens in the office. And what we see coming out of the office is results. So his temperament and his intellect’s gotta be high enough to create results.
Lauren: Mmmm, what– what results?
Matt: What results? The economy, Supreme Court Justice, 90 plus regulations taken off.
Tom: ISIS.
Matt: ISIS being defeated.
Jennifer: I believe that he does not have the temperament. I do agree the economy is great, but I don’t agree that it is okay to tweet the way that he does, getting in a war with North Korea, “My button’s bigger than your button.”
Oprah Winfrey: Is that an incident that you think speaks to him not being fit to be president?
Jennifer: Yes. Yes. I think it’s a crazy game, it’s an ego game, and I just want a president who cares more about America than his own ego.
Tom: Trump is a counter puncher. Kim Jong Un came out with his, “Hey, I’ve got the nuclear button.” Trump is a counter puncher. He’s gonna say, “Guess what? Mine’s bigger than yours.” It’s just who he is.
Jennifer: I know but it is like playground antics of “My dad can beat up your dad.”
Oprah Winfrey: This is what’s really interesting to me. What I got from the group the last time and actually has helped me in listening to, you know, all reports in the media is that, you allactually hear things differently. That you are listening in a different way.
Lauren: We do hear things differently. We say things differently. We can hear it in different ways, but that doesn’t mean we’re gonna agree. I’m never going to agree that bullying, kicking a sleeping bear is a good idea. If that bear is gonna wake up and blow your country up if you threaten it, for God’s sake, find a better way.
Kailee: I just don’t know how you can read some of those tweets and see how far apart they are from each other, sometimes only minutes, and think that you’re dealing with someone who’s competent and rational and intelligent. To me, they’re just, they’re, all he does is bully people. That’s literally all he does–
Tom: But that’s because you hate him.
Kailee: I don’t hate him.
Tom: You do hate him.
Kailee: I don’t agree with his beliefs. That doesn’t mean that I hate him.
Tom: You passionately hate him.
Kailee: I’d argue that you hate liberals.
Tom: I do.
Kailee: Yeah
Oprah Winfrey: Why do you hate liberals?
Tom: I think that their tactics are divisive, and I think their tactics are destructive to this country.
Tom: Correct. We had a discussion online about the inheritance tax. And it was it was pretty interesting, that who thinks that all of the money that your parents saved all their lives should go to the government?
Jennifer: Yeah, I, and I agreed with you.
Tom: I know you did. I know, ’cause we saw our parents struggle and go from poverty to save and all the struggles, all the eating at home, not eating out, not going on vacations, not going to the movies, not doing any of those things so that they could save and have a nest egg. And then some people think it’s okay, “I want that money to go to the government because they can spend it better.”
Maggie: Just as a comment. The inheritance tax kicks in, used to kick in at $11 million, and so by the time that you get to that–
Tom: For a couple.
Maggie: OK. $5.5 million. By the time that you get to that amount of money.
Tom: What does the government do to deserve the money that your parents scraped together their whole lives and saved?
Lauren: Whoa, anger.
Tom: What did? What does the government do to deserve that?
Lauren: Do you feel bullied right now?
Maggie: Well, I think that Tom is aggressive in how he talks, butover time, in America, we have become more unequal. And one of the ways to make it so that we become more equal is to make sure that the richest people pay more in taxes when they die.
As heated as their arguments got in person. It was just as bad in their online forum. The issue that nearly broke up the group: the “Me Too” movement.
Jeff: There were some tense moments in that group. Let’s be honest there were some really tense things.
Jeff Vanderwerff is a fourth generation farmer and loyal Republican. We visited him this past fall. With 2,000 acres to oversee, he doesn’t have time to get together with the group, but is active in their facebook thread.
Jeff: You know what sometimes you just need to hit the mute button and walk away for a little while. You know, some days it seems like it’s really productive and we could actually discuss issues, discuss policy, ideas, how they impact us. And some days, it kind of descends into the family living room. But it is what it is.
Tom: I think that’s a reflection of the passion that all of us have.
Voice: Right it’s true.
Tom: We all have passion.
And it gets most heated when they are online. Unlike most Americans who use social media to connect with like-minded people and reinforce their opinions, this group uses it to hear each other out. At least that’s the idea, and one reason Matt Wiedenhoeft named it – somewhat optimistically – “America’s Hope.”
Matt: I named it ’cause the fact that it was still going and everybody was participating.My thought was that if we can legitimately get 14 people to discuss this, why can’t that grow to 28, to 56, and just continue to compile and compile?
Oprah Winfrey: Were there times, I’m addressing this to you, when you thought the group would break up. You wanted to quit. Is there one incident in particular or discussion that stands out?
Matt: Yeah, absolutely there was a time when I was gonna walk away and I thought the group would be done at this point.
Oprah Winfrey: Was this the debate about sexual harassment?
GROUP: Yes. Yes. Yes.
Wesley: I believe it was the comments when Trump made about the female senator. He basically said that she would do anything for endorsement.
GROUP: Yeah, Yes. Yes. Yes.
The spark – as is often the case — was a presidential tweet using language that left just enough room for interpretation.
Oprah Winfrey: The exact tweet was: “Senator Kirsten Gillibrand would come to my office quote ‘begging for campaign contributions not so long ago. And would do anything for them.'” How could that start the kind of debate that would make everyone want to leave the group?
Matt: It’s how, how you hear it and how you interpret it.
Oprah Winfrey: So you interpreted that comment from the president as meaning what?
Matt: She was willing to do anything at all costs to get the endorsement. Not sexually. Never considered that. That never even entered my mind.
Tom: Me either–
Oprah Winfrey: And it didn’t enter your mind?
Laura: No.
Jennifer: But I think it’s a male-female thing, though.
Matt: I asked my wife, my mom, my sister. None of them…
Rose: It didn’t enter my mind.
Oprah Winfrey: It didn’t enter your mind?
Rose: It didn’t.
Oprah Winfrey: Did it enter your mind?
Kim: It did not enter my mind.
Oprah Winfrey: It did not. That he was talking about…
Kim: That it was about sex.
Wesley: It entered my mind.
Tim: It did mine too.
Wesley: It entered my mind, ’cause he has a behavior of saying outlandish things like this. So-
Jennifer: And, and that’s the thing, if he had not spoken about women in the past that way, then I would have perceived it just like you did.
Matt: The problem I had wasn’t the comment or the way, the fact that you guys interpreted it differently. It’s the fact that you wanted me to denounce it or I felt the same way.
Jeff: Matt, I’ll, I’ll differ with you slightly, is I read it and I kinda went [chortle] because I, in my mind I knew exactly what he was saying.
Oprah Winfrey: Okay, I want you to clarify. You said…
Jeff: Unfortunately, I thought, “Okay, he’s probably making that in a sexual innuendo-type manner.”
Oprah Winfrey: You felt that?
Jeff: That was how I, that was how I read it. That’s my opinion.
In a tense online argument about that tweet – and the larger issue of sexual harassment— Lauren Taylor repeatedly challenged some of the conservative men to “condemn” the president’s “treatment of women.” It did not happen.
Jeff: It was similar to a later discussion about Roy Moore. And it was damned if you do and damned if you don’t, because you know, did I think the comment was appropriate? No, I didn’t think the comment was appropriate. Did I think the whole Roy Moore situation was appropriate? No, it was completely inappropriate. But the problem was I felt sitting in that group like the gun was pointed at me and it was “You will denounce,” as a Trump supporter “You will throw him under the bus and walk away or you condone everything he does.”
Matt: This is what I’m talkin’ about.
Jeff: And that was what made you say “This is what, what are we doin’ here?”
Oprah Winfrey: So, for those of you who are not Trump supporters, can you hear what Jeff just said? Can you hear that?
GROUP: Yeah. Yes. Yes. Yeah.
Oprah Winfrey: You hear that? What Jeff and Matt have said?
Lauren: Can I respond to that? That was me, who needed to hear from you that you would side with women. I think that, the way it was heard by you was that I wanted you to denounce Trump. I don’t think you should have to denounce a person that you believe in, but I do need to know that men will take sexual assault and abusive language and the treatment of women really seriously. And when the women in the group are saying, “Please will you let us know that you understand this? Please will you stand up with us,” and get no answer, we were ready to walk away too.
Oprah Winfrey: But would you agree with his assessment and his assessment that you were requesting that they either denounce what he had said or—
Lauren: Yeah. I didn’t want you to denounce Trump. I’m so sick of trying to get people to denounce Trump. When women come out and say they’ve been sexually assaulted or Me Too, take us seriously. And when you say that you need proof, tell us what that means. What proof would be good enough for you to actually assure us that you care?
Matt: Then vice versa. You need to tell us what you mean by standing up, because I have a daughter. And if somebody ever touched her, I think you know what the outcome would be. If somebody, if sexually abused my mom, my sister, you, and I knew about it, you know what the outcome would be. I’m always standin’ there. So the assumptions that men don’t stand with women, we don’t know what more we can do. We don’t know. I mean tell us. You, I mean literally. I’m not necessarily gonna go march with ya.
Jennifer: Why not!
Wesley: I think we can lead by our actions.
Oprah Winfrey: I don’t think a lotta women are asking for you to march. They’re just asking to be heard.
Matt: And I’m willing to listen.
Jennifer: I think that for me, it wasn’t so much about Trump, as Lauren said. It’s the bigger issue. I’m a “Me Too” and so that is very hot button for me. Now, had you talked to me like you did right here, I would have said, “Okay, that makes sense.” But again, we’re on a thread that’s moving really, really quick. And things are being said, and people are, like, just looking at it misinterpreting. And that’s what keeps happening. Is we’re misinterpreting each other
Oprah Winfrey: One person who hasn’t been touched by the movement is the president himself. During the campaign, we are all aware that some 20 women accused him of inappropriate sexual behavior. There was the Access Hollywood tape of course. What do you all think about that?
Lauren: Makes me rage.
Wesley: It’s a reflection of the people.
Oprah Winfrey: Maggie?
Maggie: I think probably part of the reason that the Me Too Movement is happening is because we elected somebody who so many women said sexually assaulted him. There was a videotape. To me, it’s just, it’s horrible. I don’t think people who do that should be in power.
Lauren: It’s disgusting.
Jennifer: And it sends a message to everybody else. That’s the problem. It sends this message that it’s okay. And it’s not okay.
Oprah Winfrey: Do you think the president is held to a different standard when it comes to this issue of sexual harassment?
Daniel: The question is, are these accusations credible? There’s been multiple reports of foundations funding lawsuits. Like, they encourage women to take up lawsuits against President Trump.
Oprah Winfrey: Okay, I want to hear what Tom has to say about this.
Tom: I think they should. I think they should bring their case to court if they have evidence that he did this, bring it to court.
Frank Luntz: You are their voice. You will be heard.
Conservative pollster Frank Luntz, who first assembled the group for us, joined us for our second roundtable.
Oprah Winfrey: Is there anything that was said by the group that stood out to you? Any words or phrases that we should be listening for? Anything in particular?
Frank Luntz: The word that stood out was actually denounce. That you have to denounce a politician if they said something. You have to denounce. Sure, people should be held accountable. But denouncement is divisive. And denouncement is the kind of political correctness that so many people reject today.
Oprah Winfrey: Did the conversation that we hear, is it representative of conversations happening across America, because you’re all over…
Frank Luntz: There’s no difference around that table than what you would hear in any place of work, in people’s dining room tables, even in college campuses across the country. It’s the same kind of give and take, the same kind of frustration and anxiety, the difference is that the people in Michigan really want to listen to each other.
Oprah Winfrey: What do you all think you’ve accomplished with this group?
Lauren: I don’t have access to Trump voters outside of this group. In fact, during the election, I pretty much deleted everybody, who believed in the values that Trump espoused. So this group has helped me to understand perspectives that I would not have had access to. And so I’ve been able to take that out to my friends who don’t have access to Trumpers, and they come back and say, “Hey, I really learned a lot.” That’s huge. Because everybody wants to feel understood, but it’s quite a different thing to want to understand. And I think most of us have gotten that out of this.
Jennifer: Yeah, I agree.
Oprah Winfrey: What have you gotten out of it?
Matt: Heartache. (laughter) Dead phone batteries. This is a good group of people. You guys really are. And I understand everybody’s set in their ways. It’s, it’s, it’s not the 80% that we will never change that we’re just never gonna agree on 80%. So 20% we need to figure out a way to come together on.
Jeff: You know, I think if we really get down to it, those of us that are on the right side of the equation, we’re not always, what, we don’t always want to be defined by Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. And the folks on the left, they don’t always want to be necessarily defined by Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.
Jennifer: Not at all.
Jeff: Because there are positions that those groups hold that aren’t real congruent with what a lot of us think sometime.
Tom: Agreed. One hundred percent.
Lauren: That’s right.
Jeff: And you know, maybe that’s our fault for letting the parties go the way they have and the platforms that have been created. But ultimately it’s gonna be up to us if we want to fix it or not.
Archie Bunker Called Him Meathead Because Damn He Has A Big Head. I wish there was a brain in there.
His had was not as big back then but I wish someone would punch him in that big mouth.
Rob Reiner escalated his attacks on President Donald Trump on Sunday, taking to social media to demand that GOP “patriots” take a stand to “end” what he called the “sickness” of his presidency.
The 70-year-old LBJ filmmaker — a frequent critic of the president who previously launched a committee to explore possible Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race — blasted Trump in a Twitter post in apparent response to a school shooting in Florida this week that left 17 people dead and 15 others injured.
“How much longer do we have to put up with a mentally ill sociopath?” Reiner wrote. “When the f*cked up psyche of the leader of the free world comes before the horrific deaths of innocent children, it’s time for GOP patriots to stand up and end this sickness.”
Rob Reiner
✔
@robreiner
How much longer do we have to put up with a mentally ill sociopath? When the fucked up psyche of the leader of the free world comes before the horrific deaths of innocent children, it’s time for GOP patriots to stand up and end this sickness.
10:50 AM – Feb 18, 2018
27.6K
10.2K people are talking about this
The actor and director repeatedly criticized Trump on his Twitter account this week, both in response to the Florida attack and to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s indictments of 13 Russian nationals for alleged interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
In a Friday post, Reiner appeared to accuse the president of treason after the indictments were announced.
“It is now crystal clear that Russia had a profound impact on the 2016 election,” he wrote. “They have attacked US, they are continuing to attack US. If Trump is unwilling to acknowledge this and unwilling to protect US, the word TREASON is now center stage.”
Reiner also accused Trump of failing to act on guns due to influence from the NRA.
“There are 21,000,000 reasons why Donald Trump refuses to protect our children from being slaughtered by guns,” he wrote. “The NRA has deep pockets. But we will show them that our hearts and our pockets are deeper than theirs.”
Reiner spoke at the anti-Trump Women’s March Los Angeles in January, where he accused the president of “tearing away at the fabric of our democracy.”
This month, the filmmaker referred to Trump’s presidency as “the last battle of the Civil War” while accepting a social justice award at the African American Film Critics Association Awards in Beverly Hills.
How Is It That The Parents And Others Did Not Know He Was A Time-bomb. Guns Don’t Kill But Idiots With Guns Do. “We Have Banned Murder and Cocaine But But Are Still Here”
He preened with guns and knives on social media, bragged about shooting rats with his BB gun and got kicked out of school — in part because he had brought bullets in his backpack, according to one classmate. He was later expelled for still-undisclosed disciplinary reasons.
The portrait of Nikolas Cruz, suspected of fatally shooting 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland and wounding 15 others at his former school, is a troubled teen with few friends and an obsessive interest in weapons. Administrators considered him enough of a potential threat that one teacher said a warning was emailed last year against allowing him on the campus with a backpack.
Parkland school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz arrives at Broward County Jail on Thursday, February 15, 2018. Reliable News Media
Late Wednesday, detectives were digging into the past of the 19-year-old who had no previous arrests but had displayed plenty of troubling behavior before officers took him into custody after what ranks as the third-deadliest school shooting in American history.
“Our investigators began dissecting social media,” Broward Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters. “Some of the things thatcome to mind are very, very disturbing.”
Cruz, who was arrested soon after the shooting and taken to BSO headquarters, could face multiple state charges of first-degree murder and attempted murder.
At Stoneman Douglas High, he was part of the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps during his freshman year, classmates said. Charo said he spoke little and “was into some weird stuff.”
“He used to tell me he would shoot rats with his BB gun and he wanted this kind of gun, and how he liked to always shoot for practice,” Charo said.
Cruz’s Instagram page, identified by friends as his but which has since been removed from the popular site, underscored his love of weapons.
In the images, he sported dark bandanas over his face and beanies and baseball caps on his head.In one post, he wielded knives between his fingers as though they were claws. In another, he showed off a small black handgun.
“Pistol fun a– f–k” he wrote in that post.
One post on his Instagram was for an online ad for a Mossberg Maverick 88 slug shotgun. Another post showed the definition of “Allahu Akbar” — an Arabic phrase meaning God is great. Federal authorities, however, said Wednesday that they did not believe the shooting was connected to terrorism.
On Wednesday, police said, he was armed with an AR-15 rifle.
Friends said he spoke little of his relatives. He and his brother were adopted when they were young by Lynda and Roger Cruz, of Long Island, New York, according to relatives. They raised the boys in Parkland.
Roger Cruz died over a decade ago and Lynda struggled with the boys, said Barbara Kumbatovich, a former sister-in-law. “She did the best she could. They were adopted and had some emotional issues,” she said.
Kumbatovich said she believed Nikolas Cruz was on medication to deal with his emotional fragility. “She was struggling with Nikolas the last couple years,” she said.
After his mother died, Cruz moved in with a friend, whose family in Broward took him in and even gave him own bedroom. He worked at a dollar store and went to a school for at-risk youth, said Fort Lauderdale attorney Jim Lewis, who is representing the family.
Cruz had his AR-15, but the family asked that gun remain locked up in a cabinet, Lewis said. On Wednesday morning, Cruz slept in and gave only a cryptic reason why.
“He said, ‘It’s Valentine’s Day and I don’t go to school on Valentine’s Day,’” Lewis said.
The family had no idea what was going to happen, Lewis said. “Nobody saw this coming,” Lewis said. “They’re shocked.”
Charo, his former classmate, said Cruz had earlier been suspendedfrom Stoneman Douglas High for fighting — and also because he was found with bullets in his backpack. Sheriff Israel said at a news conference that Cruz had been expelled for “disciplinary reasons” but he did not provide any details of what led to that action.
Math teacher Jim Gard remembered that the school administration earlier sent out an email warning teachers about Cruz.
“We were told last year that he wasn’t allowed on campus with a backpack on him,” said Gard, who had him in class. “There were problems with him last year threatening students, and I guess he was asked to leave campus.”
Drew Fairchild, a Stoneman Douglas High student stranded at the Marriott Heron Bay, where students were taken after the shooting, said he shared a class with Cruz during their freshman year.
“He used to have weird, random outbursts, cursing at teachers,” Fairchild said. “He was a troubled kid.”
The parent of another student agreed, saying his son, Daniel, had warned him about Cruz.
“If you were to pick one person you might predict in the future would shoot up a school or do this, it would be this kid,” said John Crescitelli, quoting his son.
Superintendent Robert Runcie told reporters on Wednesday afternoon that he did not know of any concerns raised about the student. “We received no warnings,” Runcie said. “Potentially there could have been signs out there. But we didn’t have any warning or phone calls or threats that were made.”
Runcie, citing federal student privacy laws, declined to discuss the suspect’s school record. But he confirmed that Cruz was still a Broward schools student, despite having been kicked out of Stoneman Douglas High.
Another former classmate, Nicholas Coke, called Cruz a “loner” who left the school and moved away a few months ago. Coke said he recalls an incident in middle school when Cruz kicked out a glass window and ran out of his classroom before getting caught.
“He had a lot of problems in middle school,” Coke said. “You never think anyone you know is going to do something like this.”
MSNBC’s Chris Matthews inexplicably referred to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi as an “ethnic sort of person” during a “Hardball” segment Monday night.
During his earlier speech in Ohio, President Donald Trump attacked Pelosi for calling $1000 bonuses for workers “crumbs,” asserting that Pelosi is the GOP’s “secret weapon” to winning elections.
On top of mocking Speaker Paul Ryan for tweeting about a school secretary receiving $1.50 more in her weekly paycheck — which the woman said would allow her to cover her yearly Costco membership — Matthews suggested that Trump attacks Pelosi because she is “ethnic” and “from the coasts.”
“Picking on somebody from the coasts, usually ethnic, and making them the poster person of the Democratic Party is old business for the Republicans,” Matthews claimed. “They did that for Tip O’Neil, they did it after Teddy, and now they do it after Nancy Pelosi.”
“They take an ethnic sort of person from one of the coasts and make them the banner person,” he concluded.
Pelosi is white and was born in the United States, so it is unclear what Matthews meant when he referred to her as “ethnic.”
Matthews also alleged that Republicans like to attack Pelosi because she “looks well-off, she’s well-dressed, she seems like somebody who comes from pretty good circumstances.”
