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stone space

stone space's Journal
stone space's Journal
September 19, 2016

CSGV STATEMENT: Donald Trump's Continued Embrace of Insurrectionism is Deplorable

DONALD TRUMP’S CONTINUED EMBRACE OF INSURRECTIONISM IS DEPLORABLE

Once Again, GOP Candidate Hints at Violence Against his Democratic Opponent.


Washington, DC (September 17, 2016)—Friday evening, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump once again speculated about violence against his Democratic counterpart, Secretary Hillary Clinton.

Echoing decades-long talking points from the National Rifle Association and pro-gun extremists, Trump suggested disarming Secret Service agents protecting Clinton. “She doesn’t want guns, take their – let’s see what happens to her,” Trump said. “Take their guns away, okay? It will be very dangerous.”

The thinly veiled intimation that gun owners could take up arms against Secretary Clinton is nothing new. Last month, Trump alluded to the possibility of Clinton’s assassination, saying “Second Amendment people” could do something to prevent a President Clinton from choosing Supreme Court Justices.

“Trump’s pattern of inciting violence is deplorable — plain and simple,” said CSGV Executive Director Josh Horwitz. “This type of language is dangerous and irresponsible. It has no place in the American political process and should be repudiated immediately by Americans of all political stripes.”

# # #

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) seeks to secure freedom from gun violence through research, strategic engagement and effective policy advocacy. Find CSGV on Facebook and Twitter.


http://csgv.org/releases/2016/donald-trump-second-amendment-comments-again/
September 19, 2016

Black holes belch fire after eating cosmic spaghetti, studies show.

By examining 'echoes' of infrared light, scientists were able to measure the intensity of black hole flares.



When objects approach a black hole, they become stretched under immense gravitational force – a phenomenon fittingly known as “spaghettification.” The black hole then devours its cosmic meal, before finally letting loose a massive, flaming cosmic belch.

For the first time, scientists have recorded this explosive event. By examining infrared light from black hole disruptions, which is captured and “echoed” by surrounding space dust, two separate research teams were able to measure the intensity of the flares.

snip-------------

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0919/Black-holes-belch-fire-after-eating-cosmic-spaghetti-studies-show


September 18, 2016

Ana Lopez: "I'm Being Trolled By Gun Rights Activists — But I Won't Back Down"

I'm Being Trolled By Gun Rights Activists — But I Won't Back Down

In August, Ana Lopez and her fellow students at the University of Texas, Austin, organized a protest against the state’s recently enacted campus carry law, which allows students who are 21 and have a concealed handgun license to bring guns to public colleges and universities. This week, Lopez said she learned that she was the target of online threats for her work with the Cocks Not Glocks movement. She shared her story exclusively with Refinery29, and the views expressed here are her own.



snip---------------

Two weeks ago, a man named Brett Sanders posted to YouTube a graphic “short film” depicting the murder of a woman involved in the Cocks Not Glocks protest of Texas’ new campus carry law. The deplorable video had one message, in my view: She’s putting herself out there as a target. Go get her.

The “she” in the video, many people believe, was based on me.

As leaders of a major anti-gun protest that made international headlines, my co-organizers and I are used to the attacks. We are used to the baseless threats of rape and murder. We have been told that we should get lined up and shot. We have been called “sluts” and “whores” ad nauseam. Even our families have been targeted.

We’ve learned to take these comments with a grain of salt.

After all, some people will just never get it. To this day, it still appalls me that the Cocks Not Glocks movement’s use of inert, harmless sex toys as protest props elicits a stronger, more violent reaction than the prospect of a drinking-age college student legally carrying a loaded handgun in their JanSport.

But what really sets this snuff film apart from the hate mail we’re so desensitized to is the ill-conceived shock factor of it all.

I felt a burning in the pit of my stomach when I first saw the video. I saw images of my friends, of our allied gun violence prevention organizations, and of our protest itself.

Due to the low quality of the video, I skipped toward the end, not thinking much about it. But then I came upon a scene in which a female Cocks Not Glocks protester who looks like me — and gets a call during the film from one of my real-life friends and fellow activists — gets shot in the head by an intruder. Sanders has since said that he had “never heard” of me before, and that the idea that he intentionally cast my doppelgänger in his film is “absurd.” But it didn’t feel that way to me.

I felt nauseous. The hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I felt an immense weight bear down on me. I felt horrified, disgusted, and, most of all, livid.

I quickly read through the comments, expecting to see an outpouring of disapproval, but my eyes locked on one of the top-rated comments: “Ha Ha. He should have raped her first.”

I could barely breathe.

The first thing I did was call my mom. The second thing I did was call campus police. I spent the rest of the day feeling numb and hyperaware of my surroundings. After all, I still had to worry about the presence of legal, loaded handguns in my classroom at the University of Texas, Austin, amidst all of this.

The aftermath felt infinitesimally worse, however. I worried that this video would encourage more attacks. I worried for the safety of my peers, and of my family.

snip------------------------

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/09/123294/cocks-not-glocks-gun-activist-violent-youtube-video



****TRIGGER WARNING***



Texas gun-rights activist slammed for graphic film portraying shooting of a student protester

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/09/13/texas-gun-activist-under-fire-for-graphic-video-portraying-the-death-of-a-student-protester/


(A scene from “Never Met Her,” a short film about an anti-gun protester’s shooting death. (YouTube/Brett Sanders) )

September 18, 2016

Ana Lopez: "I'm Being Trolled By Gun Rights Activists — But I Won't Back Down"

I'm Being Trolled By Gun Rights Activists — But I Won't Back Down

In August, Ana Lopez and her fellow students at the University of Texas, Austin, organized a protest against the state’s recently enacted campus carry law, which allows students who are 21 and have a concealed handgun license to bring guns to public colleges and universities. This week, Lopez said she learned that she was the target of online threats for her work with the Cocks Not Glocks movement. She shared her story exclusively with Refinery29, and the views expressed here are her own.



snip---------------

Two weeks ago, a man named Brett Sanders posted to YouTube a graphic “short film” depicting the murder of a woman involved in the Cocks Not Glocks protest of Texas’ new campus carry law. The deplorable video had one message, in my view: She’s putting herself out there as a target. Go get her.

The “she” in the video, many people believe, was based on me.

As leaders of a major anti-gun protest that made international headlines, my co-organizers and I are used to the attacks. We are used to the baseless threats of rape and murder. We have been told that we should get lined up and shot. We have been called “sluts” and “whores” ad nauseam. Even our families have been targeted.

We’ve learned to take these comments with a grain of salt.

After all, some people will just never get it. To this day, it still appalls me that the Cocks Not Glocks movement’s use of inert, harmless sex toys as protest props elicits a stronger, more violent reaction than the prospect of a drinking-age college student legally carrying a loaded handgun in their JanSport.

But what really sets this snuff film apart from the hate mail we’re so desensitized to is the ill-conceived shock factor of it all.

I felt a burning in the pit of my stomach when I first saw the video. I saw images of my friends, of our allied gun violence prevention organizations, and of our protest itself.

Due to the low quality of the video, I skipped toward the end, not thinking much about it. But then I came upon a scene in which a female Cocks Not Glocks protester who looks like me — and gets a call during the film from one of my real-life friends and fellow activists — gets shot in the head by an intruder. Sanders has since said that he had “never heard” of me before, and that the idea that he intentionally cast my doppelgänger in his film is “absurd.” But it didn’t feel that way to me.

I felt nauseous. The hair stood up on the back of my neck, and I felt an immense weight bear down on me. I felt horrified, disgusted, and, most of all, livid.

I quickly read through the comments, expecting to see an outpouring of disapproval, but my eyes locked on one of the top-rated comments: “Ha Ha. He should have raped her first.”

I could barely breathe.

The first thing I did was call my mom. The second thing I did was call campus police. I spent the rest of the day feeling numb and hyperaware of my surroundings. After all, I still had to worry about the presence of legal, loaded handguns in my classroom at the University of Texas, Austin, amidst all of this.

The aftermath felt infinitesimally worse, however. I worried that this video would encourage more attacks. I worried for the safety of my peers, and of my family.

snip------------------------

http://www.refinery29.com/2016/09/123294/cocks-not-glocks-gun-activist-violent-youtube-video



****TRIGGER WARNING***



Texas gun-rights activist slammed for graphic film portraying shooting of a student protester

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/09/13/texas-gun-activist-under-fire-for-graphic-video-portraying-the-death-of-a-student-protester/


(A scene from “Never Met Her,” a short film about an anti-gun protester’s shooting death. (YouTube/Brett Sanders) )

September 17, 2016

NEVER MET HER---"The sequel will be even more offensive"--*Trigger Warning*



We spoke to the guy behind the gruesome video showing a Cocks not Glocks protester being murdered


The sequel will be ‘more offensive’

Recently a short film attacking the Cocks Not Glocks protesters, the group famous for protesting against the Concealed Campus Carry with dildos.

The short film depicts one of the protesters trying to defend herself with a dildo, then being shot in the head and has been accused of being threatening and violent.

The video depicts a protester coming home from the Cocks not Glocks rally. As she is watching the video of the rally, a man enters the house, who was purposely cast as a black man because “statistically, African-Americans are more prone to create violent crimes” (although the most recent FBI data proves him wrong). The protester tries to defend herself from the intruder using a dildo, and is shot and killed.

We spoke to the creator of the short film, Brett Sanders:

What inspired you to make the video?

snip-----------------------

http://thetab.com/us/uta/2016/09/15/spoke-creator-gruesome-video-showing-cocks-not-glocks-protester-murdered-2767
September 17, 2016

If you picked Wednesday, Sept 14 in the Texas Campus Carry betting pool, you're a winner!

http://www.chronicle.com/blogs/ticker/accidental-gunshot-is-reported-on-texas-campus-that-now-allows-firearms/114331






September 16, 2016 by Nadia Dreid

Accidental Gunshot Is Reported on Texas Campus That Now Allows Firearms


A gun was accidentally discharged on Wednesday night in a dormitory at Tarleton State University, The Texas Tribune reports. The incident occurred less than two months after a Texas law allowing permit holders to carry weapons on public-college campuses took effect.

A university spokesman told the Tribune that the shooting had caused no injuries and only minor property damage.

The law allowed colleges to make exceptions, and some chose to ban guns from dorms. Tarleton State was not one of them, and the person who fired the gun was a license holder, according to the newspaper. The university did not specify if the person was a student.

Critics of the law have said it puts more people at risk of violence, and some faculty members have taken extra steps to bar firearms from their offices. There have also been student protests against the law on campuses across Texas.
September 8, 2016

'It Was Terrifying:’ Campus Carry Protester Feels Targeted by Gory YouTube Video

http://kut.org/post/it-was-terrifying-campus-carry-protester-feels-targeted-gory-youtube-video

How can students be expected to study when campus carry gun nuts are putting out videos depicting them in interactions with gun owners in which the student "cocks, not glocks" activist get shot in the head and her blood splatters all over the place?



Somebody please tell me how having campus carry doesn't interferer with the educational purposes of a university.

It only took days for this to happen.

This is just the beginning of the very first semester of campus carry, and these students being targeted here are probably just now beginning to study for their first major exam in most of their classes under the new regime.







July 29, 2016

"UnAmerican"

What does it mean for Democratic delegates to be called "unAmerican"?


http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=8058955

This is getting ugly.

Why are we going down this road?



We don't have to do this.

We can win without stooping to this level.



July 29, 2016

I can still remember the daily repeated chants of "USA! USA! USA! USA!" outside my office window.

(X-Posted from GD: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028058868 )

It was decades ago, in 1980, but the memory is still crystal clear.

Students and others would gather every day outside the administration building, which was right next to the math department here, wave flags and shout, "USA! USA!".

There was a restaurant here in Ames, with a sign posted, "Iranians not welcome here", first on small card, and later in huge red letters on a giant billboard next to the restaurant.

One day, a friend, who was married to an Iranian, was in an university dormitory elevator, and 5 guys got into the elevator with her.

They shouted "USA! USA!" at her.

By the time the elevator door opened, my friend's body was cut and bruised, and she had several broken ribs.

These were ugly, ugly times here in Iowa, and whenever I hear such chants, I am filled with fear.

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