Dianne Feinstein was a dick to some schoolchildren yesterday. For many, many, many minutes, she was not a dick. But then she was a dick. She said some unfortunate things about like "ohhhhh you know SO MUCH BETTER" and "why don't YOU run for Senate then" and "I win elections by all the millions of votes, you can't tell ME what to do!" (It was implied.)
But what Dianne Feinstein did not do yesterday was big-foot the children (who were really smart and passionate) out of her office. And no, Twitter, she didn't singlehandedly stop the Green New Deal and therefore needs to resign.
Dianne Feinstein knows one true thing: The Green New Deal will not pass this current Senate. She's not lying, she's not being a bitch. It is just true. Might she sign onto the GND in future? Oh, maybe, she says, she might do that. She might not though, because it isn't "paid for." Is that some DiFi-style centrist bullshit? Sure. She's always been like that.
I'm from California, and always thought she was far too conservative to represent it. We really needed two Barbara Boxers (who's also a dick). I was in the room once at an Orange County Dem luncheon when Dianne Feinstein shouted that TEACHERS were to blame for the state of education. TEACHERS!
What even the fuck, Dianne Feinstein!
But the video the Sunrise Movement sent around, showing Dianne Feinstein eating schoolchildren and pooping them out and wiping herself delicately like the Charmin bears with the Green New Deal ... well, it ain't what happened. Did she get supercilious at a couple of points? She did. Did she try really hard not to for a long time? That too. Here's a statement from the Sunrise Movement, via SplinterNews:
"This is why we need fundamental change in the Democratic Party, said Sunrise Movement executive director Varshini Prakash said in a statement. "Leaders like Feinstein are out of-touch with the center of energy in the party, which is with the grassroots movement for a Green New Deal."
The energy IS for a Green New Deal. We're all for it! And in the meantime, until that passes, something still has to be done.
Dianne Feinstein has five bills dealing with climate change right now: two on cap and trade, a couple on fuel efficiency, and nationalizing California's energy efficiency standards. "BUT THAT'S THE STATUS QUO," shouts Twitter in unison, not realizing it really really fucking is not. And if those bills could pass this Senate -- the oil companies simply do not care for them at all -- it would be a gigantic start. Unless everyone thinks waiting for the GND and doing nothing in the meantime is the way to go.
Tommy Christopher has the whole vid.
Here's the @SenFeinstein video threaded #DianneFeinstein To recap: she engaged on substance, told them she might vo… https://t.co/yfIu6wyAln
— Tommy MMXIXtopher (@Tommy MMXIXtopher) 1550889868.0
Did Feinstein do those things to the gun store? Or was it local and federal officials? Did they prosecute them or just threaten?
If I'm understanding correctly, the gun store gave cops some guns when that massive shootout was occurring. I would have thought the cops had the legal right to commandeer whatever they needed: guns, cars, etc.
I remember watching that incident, but I never heard a lot of details about it.
In fairness, Feinstein does hate guns, is a champion of gun control, and has good reason for it. She's the one who found Harvey Milk and tried to find a pulse.
It is a very convoluted tale, and both sides of the gun debate/argument have muddied the waters in the last 20 years.
I, too would have thought that the police could simply commandeer them, too. As at least one Federal judge has written, CA gun laws are a thicket, with many built-in traps. I expect that with half a dozen state and federal agencies digging into the store, their business suffered, minor violations and discrepancies were probably found, the death by a thousand cuts.
It probably came down to whether the store offered them before they were commandeered, but the research is difficult at this point.