"We've been locked in a classroom-We have seen our friends text parents goodbye-We are the experts."

[kpete]

Survivors of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida have delivered a blistering message to President Donald Trump.

Students David Hogg and Cameron Kasky joined Bill Maher on Friday’s broadcast of “Real Time” to talk about the upcoming “March For Our Lives” and their campaign for gun control.

During the wide-ranging interview, Hogg revealed how the White House had called him the day before Trump’s “listening session” to invite him to attend.

But he declined the invitation, which he called “very offensive considering the fact that there were funerals the next day, there was mourning we still had to do.”

“I ended on this message with them. I said, ‘We don’t need to listen to President Trump. President Trump needs to listen to the screams of the children and the screams of this nation,’” Hogg added.

Kasky also delivered a strong response to members of the National Rifle Association and lawmakers who claim the campaigning students from “don’t know what they’re talking about.”

“We’ve been locked in a classroom. We have seen our friends text their parents goodbye. We are the experts,” he said. “We know exactly what we’re talking about. How dare you tell us we don’t know.”





MORE plus VIDEO:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/parkland-survivors-bill-maher-donald-trump_us_5a9a537fe4b089ec353a7acb?ncid=engmodushpmg00000004

[bronxiteforever]

1. Kick and recommend for visibility and truth telling

[lastlib]

6. ditto!

[Lindsay]

2. These kids are the best example

of speaking truth to power that I have seen for a very long time.

They are brilliant rays of hope in a very dark time.

[smirkymonkey]

7. I agree.

I am more and more impressed by them every time I see or hear from them. We all need to stand behind them.

[calimary]

14. Brilliant and absolutely breathtaking!

“How dare you tell us we don’t know”!!!

WOW! I’m in awe.

[Girard442]

3. Y'know, it's a cliche to talk about kids having their innocence stolen from them, but...

...it's certainly true here. Far too soon for them to be adults, but at least they're good ones.

[Stuart G]

4. k and r....thanks for posting !!! great find.....no text...

[treestar]

5. Well expressed

I think I tried to say that when debating a nutter, but he says it much better. They are young, don't have experience, etc., but they do have the experience of that day which most people don't have.

They could even join up with survivors of Columbine, etc. (So horrible that the use of "etc." works here).

[sharedvalues]

8. These kids show that our media is right-wing

It's hard to admit, but our media is effectively right wing. Yes, every bit of our mainstream broadcast and print/internet media.

We know this because the kids' simple message has never gotten through before. And that message is obviously true. That message - that kids are getting killed because of easy gun availabiity - never got through after Sandy Hook.

And we're watching these kids interact with the media and we're surprised that they're able to 'speak truth to power' and 'get their message through'. Their message is obvious!! Why hasn't the media transmitted it before? Because the right now has figured out ways to control our media, even the media that we think of as centrist or center-left.

I realize it sounds crazy, but I'm saying that on many topics the NYT is a right-wing outfit. Not intentionally, but they get manipulated by the right to transmit right-wing messaging. Does that make them effectively right wing? I think so.


p.s. I am so heartened by these students. They give me faith in the country again and I'm rooting for them.

[Fred Sanders]

10. Legacy TV Media may be effectively right wing but NYT has never been right wing, so, fail.

[sharedvalues]

15. NYT echoed right-wing talking points on Hillary. That makes them effectively right wing

The right - and give them credit for good PR - has totally manipulated our media. They have cowed the NYT into pushing right wing talking points. The kids from Parkland are not influenced by the GOP lie machine. They expose the true center. Sadly, the NYT on many issues is to the right of that center.

(Short summary of NYT: some op-ed columns left: Krugman, now Goldberg. Some rightwing propagandists: Stephens, Weiss, Douthat a bit. Net: center. Politics coverage: desperately bothsidesist and exploited by right. Investigative pieces (e.g. arbitration, nail salons, drug treatment centers): a beacon of clarity and light and really progressive. Bring back a real public editor and get some real progressive op-ed writers who would like Bernie's policies.)

[Fred Sanders]

16. Proves nothing of your claim. Clinton story was simply a story. The rest is again your opinion.

[sharedvalues]

17. Here's proof. NYT doesn't cover Benghazi trial today the same way they did.

Why? Because the right doesn't seed Benghazi into the national conversation anymore.

The NYT can in significant ways get co-opted by the right wing press. If the right decides to whip up anger about Benghazi, NYT can't help but cover it. That means they are manipulated to COVER RIGHT WING TOPICS. It's crazy.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/erik-wemple/wp/2017/11/09/why-has-fox-news-abandoned-benghazi/

Truth is dribbling out of the now-six-week-long trial. We’re discovering that the United States paid a Libyan informant $7 million to secure key information from Abu Khattala. The relationship between informant and suspect developed over many months and proved critical in assisting U.S. forces in capturing Abu Khattala. Under the pseudonym of Ali Majrisi, the informant spoke at trial of how Abu Khattala intended to kill “everyone there” at the Benghazi installation, a bloody ambition that extended to a rescue force that U.S. officials had sent that night from Tripoli. In other testimony, CIA officers detailed efforts to rescue U.S. personnel under attack in the Libyan city.

The drop-off is stark and inexplicable. In the 20 months following the attacks, Fox News ran in excess of 1,000 segments on Benghazi, according to a September 2014 report by Media Matters. The focus remained intact even after that, spiking upon the release of the “13 Hours” book and movie — a compelling account from the security operators who saved many American lives that night. “This movie, if it’s really popular, is going to force [Hillary Clinton] to answer some questions,” said Steve Doocy on “Fox & Friends” about the movie, which premiered during the 2016 presidential primary season.

The article shows that the NYT covered this Benghazi trial - good for them. But they DID NOT cover it obsessively, like they did a few years ago. Why? Because their coverage is in part dictated by the right wing press.


------------------


overall point: our media leans right because right-wing propaganda manipulates them. Until we fix that manipulation, we'll have to deal with distorted public debate. Yes, even on the pages of the NYT.

[dlk]

9. The Powerful Voices of the Parkland Survivors Will Not be Silenced by Corrupt NRA Operatives

These children are speaking truth to power in a way we've never seen before. The wave of decency is gaining in magnitude and there is hope we will prevail against the powerfully entrenched forces of corruption that have poisoned our country.

[Moral Compass]

11. Incredible

“We are the experts.” That cannot be argued with (although the cravens will).

These teenagers speak with power and passion. Amazing.

I can imagine myself still curled into a fetal position and whimpering after having suffered a trauma like this.

Wow.

[pangaia]

12. Many replies here show wonderful 'support' for these guys "speaking truth to power."

I am so glad to see that..

NOW-- you and you and you, and oh yes, you too, and ME.. get out there and speak truth to power.

THAT is the support these brave souls need. Not just here on a white desktop screen, or tiny cell, ..
WE need to be active in whatever way we can... even letters to the editor..


Hell, I have to go after my local Y again that has put fox back up on one of the TV monitors in the fitness center. (I got them to turn it off once already.)
This time I think I need to do a LONG document with examples of just how corrupt fox is... ugh !! I dread it..

And a letter to the editor of a local paper that just printed a column by that fucker Marc Thiessen... about how wonderful trump's 'tax cuts' are.


Go get 'em !!!!!!!

[SpankMe]

13. Powerful statements from this brave young man. n/t