This is an unbelievable tw**t from a Presidential candidate, but it’s real:
America. pic.twitter.com/TeduJkwQF3
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) February 16, 2016
. . . and a response from a saner land:
Australia. pic.twitter.com/vrki9lfnAR
— Mark Pesce #WearAMask (@mpesce) February 16, 2016
I can’t think of a worse symbol for America. What happened to a damn eagle? Or even a hot dog?
h/t: Chris B.
Twitter wars. Down in the dregs.
By hot dog do you mean Donald Trump?!
I had a similar response, a picture of some Poutine with the caption “Canada”.
As an Aussie, I’m so grateful that we had a Prime Minister who stood up to the gun lobby.
And he was a conservative…
Thanks John O – I was going to say that.
There have been lots of good responses to it. This is one of those areas where Twitter actually works as a medium.
https://twitter.com/SarahJuno/status/699764782077968384
Interesting how even though I live in the environs of Murder USA aka Chicago, Illinois still has fewer per 100k people firearm deaths than the Deep South or Texas or Jeb’s Florida.
“Interesting how even though I live in the environs of Murder USA aka Chicago, Illinois still has fewer per 100k people firearm deaths than the Deep South or Texas or Jeb’s Florida.”
Contrary to the myth gun deaths are proportional to the lack of gun laws, and per capita ownership of legal guns, not crime rates.
Unfortunately, Chicago itself has a rate of about 15 per 100,000 (2014 numbers), placing the city itself in the deep purple, barely not black range for the map above. I’ve not done the numbers, but there’s a good chance that Illinois would be in the lowest category in the map were it not for Chicago weighing it down.
My state of Wisconsin is similarly weighed down by Milwaukee’s numbers, which are comparable (~15 per 100,000) to Chicago’s – though not as much, since Milwaukee’s got a smaller percentage of WI’s population than Chicago does IL’s. I think my state just sucks outside of Madison – where I live – which has a 4 per 100,000 rate, placing it in the map’s lowest category. 😉
This might sound bizarre, but I’d be interested a comparison of the demographics of the MT/WY victims & perpetrators versus those of the deep south.
Or just some McDonald’s fries.
GOP. Sink thy self.
Yes, they are shooting themselves in the foot, but not in this case. The majority of Americans, even those who don’t own guns, are pretty pro-gun. This is the one (only? I think so) “social” issue where the GOP is actually in line with people’s opinions. Most favor some kinds of restrictions that the NRA wouldn’t approve… but nothing that would satisfy any gun control advocate.
I like the Aussie Nerf gun response.
It’s much more fun than Jeb’s view of the world.
Mark Pesce is an American ex-pat living here working as a “futurist”, whatever that means. Anyway he’s a witty bloke with some interesting ideas.
The gun is made by FN America, a subsidiary of FN Herstal of Belgium also known as Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre.
During WWII FN Herstal made weapons for the Nazis.
Glad to see things come around full circle!
Darn, you beat me to commenting that that weapon is made by FN America. It doesn’t appear the Republican candidates know much about the US (Cruz is forgiven, since he’s Canadian), but what about Rubio:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/16/politics/marco-rubio-vancouver-america-campaign-ad/
Yeah, hell, where’s his Colt Commander?
That’s a little bit beside the point.
Any arms factory in occupied territory made guns for the German military. In facts arms supply is a truly international business (not that that’s a good thing).
Browning (US) had his designs produced by many manufacturers, including FN.
I believe a favourite gun in the US is the Glock, which is Austrian (you know, where Hitler came from?)
But it’s beside the point; I don’t see Jeb Bush’s tweet as “support local industry”, I see it as “I support *guns*” and the message would be the same if there was a Luger in the picture.
cr
(Come to that, the Nerf gun isn’t Australian, either. The toy industry is a truly international business (not that that’s a good thing)
If you were a “True American”, your sidearm of choice would be a Smith and Wesson, Colt or similar American owned company which makes its weapons in America (spits chewing tobacco). I bet Jeb drives a Kia.
Smith and Wesson also meets Dirty Harry’s approval so extra American.
Well my gun of choice (if I had to have one) – based on discussions with my gun-enthusiast friend and considerations of ruggedness, simplicity and reliability – would be an AK-47. I guess that puts me squarely in the ‘bad guys’ category.
(Yeah I know it’s not a pistol. But I guess if I hold the trigger thingy long enough and wave it around a bit I might actually hit something with it).
cr
AK’s are one of the most inaccurate weapons on the planet. Certainly, it’s a rugged, dependable weapon and if you have a lot of peasants and they’re all aiming in one direction, you’ll likely hit something, but there’s really no reason for anyone here to own one. Even the Galil, which is the Israeli version and more accurate, does not compare to other weapons.
Bearing in mind what it’s meant for, which is *not* a sniper rifle…
But then I have no reason to ever own a gun or, in fact, any legal opportunity to. Unless I joined a gun club and why would I? I can cause far more public mayhem, alarm and despondency with my trusty automobile.
(If NZ Transport Agency is reading this, that was a joke, fellas. Honestly!)
cr
I thought the message was, “No, really, I’m not a wuss.. see, I own a gun like a manly man (and you know I own it because, like all manly men, I have my name and title lettered across the top of the barrel).
I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a gift from some influential donor.
(Is this the right place for the subjunctive or not?)
Yes! Thank you 🙂
😉
All about the votes, obviously. He has to show he’s a gun guy. Only I doubt there are as many gun-guy votes out there as he may imagine. And of that number, a whole lot are drooling over other trigger-happy candidates.
Yep, Jeb’s desperately scraping the barrel here….
“I can’t think of a worse symbol for America. What happened to a damn eagle?”
Republicans have problems with eagles:
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/video/2015/dec/10/donald-trump-attacked-by-american-bald-eagle-video
Bald Eagles are Democrats! Who knew?
That would be a twist, given http://muppet.wikia.com/wiki/Sam_the_Eagle
There’s a Muppet Wiki? Who knew?!
Funny page. 😀
If a political candidate did that in NZ, s/he would never be elected.
Another thing that would destroy a candidate’s election chances in NZ is saying, “God Bless You and God Bless New Zealand.” at the end of every speech.
I just don’t get this. It’s completely outside my cultural experience and I can’t understand it.
Our last PM used to say God Bless Canada all the time. It was very foreign to most of our ears and I suspect it was something he picked up from his fellow Evangelicals south of the border.
You’re well rid of him!
I love Murdoch Mysteries and I was watching an old episode last night and was mildly horrified to see a note at the end that it was inspired by Stephen Harper comments about the importance of ice hockey in Canada. Quite apart from anything else, I would have thought anyone could work out the popularity of ice hockey without being “inspired” by Harper!
Ha ha maybe Harper gave to the arts for that mention.
Coincidentally, I heard Yann Martel speak a week or two ago.
The safety is off
A metaphor for modern republicanism.
Oh you poor Americans. This is the stereotype you have to fight against all the time. The only thing that could have made it worse would have been the gun resting on a bible. To cheese it up, he should have put a # in front of America.
And damn, I thought the beaver was a questionable national symbol.
what is wrong with “beaver”, so matter what it stands for…what better national symbol, however you look at it…what do you think Canucks do during 6 months of freezer?
We complain for 6 months about how cold it is (unless you live in BC) and then, if you live in Ontario and Quebec, we complain that it’s too hot.
I.e., pretty much like the northern States, except the Pacific NW…
Yay Australia!
Canada is here to help America with its election woes.
How does one go about building a polite culture?
“Please” and “thank you”, eh? We learn it in kindergarten. We used to color the queens crown and her carriage using lots of purple. Then the Mounties in red. I turned out super polite, didn’t I? eh?
Your spelling of colour outs you as an imposter. I spelled “your” wrong down thread, which outed me as homophonic.
Yer right. I’m no longer a Canukian citizen. But, I think you’ll agree I got the right colours.
““Please” and “thank you”, eh? We learn it in kindergarten. ”
Well, so do we. Must be more to it than that.
Seems perfectly believable to me. It accurately represents a major truth about America.
One of our local gun ranges has this on their “about” page:
They should just as well run and play out the 2016 presidential race on twitter. It kind of has the correct feel and matches up intellectually. They can all play show and tell with their favorite guns and pretend they know how to use them.
Notice at least two of the top candidates have already had news conferences covered fully on CNN. We can all watch the destruction of the political system on our favorite media. Think of it, news conferences for simple candidates that have not been elected to anything, simply so they can degrade and call each other names.
Probably say “sorry” a lot.
One of my favorite responses (after the nerf gun) was a guy pointing out that the guns aren’t even American-made. Irony knows no bounds with the current crop of Republicans.
You’re spelling of colour puts you as an imposter. It was good up until then.
Fortunately, Twitter blew up with people tweeting back & mocking him with their own pics representing America and other countries, most pretty funny, all better than Jeb’s.
If he’d tweeted, “My favorite pistol” it wouldn’t even be interesting, much less disturbing. But he didn’t. He tweeted “America”, as though the gun symbolizes America, as though the gun were one of America’s chief values or something. That’s the part that is kind of sick.
I’ve said it frequently, but I’m about twenty times more bothered by the gun worshiping culture, the bizarre gun *fetish*, than I am by the actual weapons. Sure, guns are dangerous, but I personally find it much harder to live with the mentality than I do with the actual weapons. There is something very sick in a lot of the gun lobby that goes beyond the mere right to be armed.
“He tweeted “America”, as though the gun symbolizes America, as though the gun were one of America’s chief values or something.”
You mean it *isn’t*?
[/snark] Sorry 😉
cr
It ranks right up there with our God-given right to wear sleeveless shirts.
Funny thing is, it doesn’t even seem to sit right with my opinion of Jeb (which is that he’s probably better than his brother and would make a much more formidable candidate for the Dems to face). Cowboy he ain’t.
You don’t suppose he could’ve meant it – ironically?
cr
Wouldn’t be surprised if he at least thought it was ironic, while simultaneously expecting that the intended audience wouldn’t see it that way. I don’t think any candidate (except Trump) does much of anything these days without running it by his/her coterie of advisors.
I think a reasonable counter message would be for influential people in other countries to retweet the image ironically. That is, I think hearing this same message reflected back at us is perhaps a more effective counter message than the Nerf gun.
Yes, it seems strained. I sure hope he’s fired that gun… the only thing worse than being a GOP candidate who doesn’t own a gun is one who owns purely symbolic guns and doesn’t know how to use them. Probably smart of him not to be in the photo holding the gun because real gun people would be able to spot his (probable) evident inexperience.
Well if Sigmund were still alive I’m sure he’d declare it a sexual fetish. And I’m sure he’d be right. It’s creepy and sick and one of the many reasons why, despite being in the USA for some decades, I have never wanted to become a citizen; but then I’m a canadian and how could I improve on that?
Could be he’s challenging Trump to a duel.
Not all that long ago (in evolutionary time, at least) this wouldn’t even be a question.
Sounds like an excellent idea.
Replace all the campaign nonsense with duels fought on TV, in the style of all those “talent” shows.
Having them all on a season of Survivor would probably be as good a way to pick a candidate as we have now.
But not half-dressed on an island, please!
Oh I don’t know, the sight of the Trump half-dressed would probably get him the degree of support he deserves 😉
If Michelle Obama stood for Pres, on the other hand…
cr
It’s the apologizing.
Republican virtue signaling, I guess…
You know, I refuse to accept this comedy show mocking everything the founding fathers stood for at every turn as an election. What is the message? That corporate America will bite your arse regardless of who you are and what you do? That the USA will take from you what it wants by force if you do not give it willingly?
This is not freedom. This is not bravery. This is not democracy. It is da mockery.
This is incredible, but here in Spain in the 21st century some unbelievable things still happen too. Today, one of the members of the Madrid council, Rita Maestre,is being tried for protesting against the existence of chapels, in this case a catholic chapel, in a publicly funded university, The Complutense University of Madrid. This happened a couple of years ago when she was a university student and decided to go there with other 10 people holding signs demanding the removal of chapels from public universities. She even dared to show her breast while showing the sign!! The “DA” is asking for a year in prison for “offending the religious feeling” For real, that’s a crime here. Literally thousands of corrupt politicians, including most members of the current government but it’s her who is being tried. There is another Rita, Rita Barberá, in this case, from the governing party, the PP, that is being in the limelight after all of the council members from her party when she was the mayor of Valencia were charged with bribery, corruption etc but she’s now in the “senate” a sort of pseudo-parliament where nothing happens but politicians have a nice protection against being tried by normal courts and feel safer. Believe it or not, here are around 10.000 people in Spain enjoying that special status (aforados). Her party has not asked her to resign –she just says that she knew nothing about it :). This is the state of justice in current Spain. At least as I was writing these lines,she’s worldwide trending topic, and this won’t go unnoticed.
Ooo. That’s interesting and disgusting. I don’t think corruption in the U.S. is quite that egregious, thank goodness. And prosecution for criticizing the contamination of secular government by religion is reprehensible. Looks like Spain has some serious work to do.
When guns outnumber people in a country, is it any surprise that politicians want the votes of those guns?
On second thought, the idea of guns voting scares the hell out of me.
I guess that means he’s realized that the “!” in his campaign slogan isn’t enough to convince people that he’s not a “low energy guy”.
Just shows how deranged the Repugs have become.
This rather sums it up
https://twitter.com/brian_bilston/status/700011838415704064
Did anyone mention that this is what a sane person would tweet as a way of highlighting everything that is wrong with America.
The pro gun people are lighting up social media. This has me wondering, for all the people who feel more secure carrying weapons around for protection on the off chance they get in a situation where they can successfully thwart a crime, how many also wear bullet proof vests? This would seem to be the sensible position as it will help you far more than a gun should you be ambushed, yet I never read about mad rushes to buy Kevlar after a shooting.
James Corden: “Anyone else worried Jeb got rid of his glasses the same week he got a gun?”
I feel compelled for the 2nd time in two days to post a Beatles song. No complete version of the Beatles version is on YouTube (except for a full rendition of the White Album) so this is a cover from the film “Across the Universe”.
There is something deeply wrong with the American psyche, I was just browsing the Kindle list of books on politics and related subjects and it seemed to be overpopulated with para-military survival guides, books on secret societies, terrorists threats, threats to religious freedom and such.
It seems that a deep paranoia is gripping many in the US.