Environmentalists Superglue Themselves To Capitol Building Because They’ve Run Out Of Ideas
[guest post by Dana]
There’s just all kinds of stupid happening:
Environmental activists blocked congressional staff and lawmakers after super gluing themselves to doors and each other in a building on Capitol Hill on Tuesday afternoon.
The Washington, DC, chapter of Extinction Rebellion glued their hands to one another and to door knobs, forming chains around entryways and exits at the basement in a building for House lawmakers.
The protesters hung signs around themselves imitating emergency notices and calling for the passage of the Green New Deal.
“DECLARE CLIMATE EMERGENCY,” one sign said.
“We’re sorry. Due to the CLIMATE EMERGENCY Congress is shut down until sufficient action is taken to address the crisis,” another sign said.
The superglue used in the protest comes with a a warning about making contact with the skin. And if you’ve accidentally gotten some superglue on your fingers when using it, you know how unbelievably dumb it is to willingly put it all over your hands for a cheap stunt that likely had no outcome other than to annoy people inconvenienced by such foolish and selfish behavior.
Capitol Police explain that if you are touched, it’s assault, but folks still trying to squeeze past protestor’s arms and legs to get past doors. pic.twitter.com/zz1vnKVtS6
— Claudia Grisales (@cgrisales) July 23, 2019
(Cross-posted at The Jury Talks Back.)
–Dana
Oh brother.
Dana (bb0678) — 7/24/2019 @ 5:45 pm“You literally may have to climb through body parts to get through. Protestors suggest if that’s hard, imagine worsening climate change problems.”
The mental images that are raised by this are too difficult to even contemplate.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/24/2019 @ 5:49 pmThese are the people the party is responsive too, like the Dutch folksinger you dont think one or more might snap.
Narciso (aa2efd) — 7/24/2019 @ 5:55 pmOh, come on! They’re not hurting anyone. They could not, even if they wanted to, because they restrained themselves. Just leave them there!
nk (dbc370) — 7/24/2019 @ 5:59 pmI want to be embarrassed for them but they’ve crossed the line of stupid in the sand.
Dana (bb0678) — 7/24/2019 @ 6:02 pm(Pssst. I’ll bet they didn’t really superglue themselves.)
JVW (54fd0b) — 7/24/2019 @ 6:11 pmWell that would sure be funny, JVW. To fool lawmakers, and Capitol employees would be incredibly maddening. But to fool the Capitol Police who were called out to help inconvenienced employees and people doing business at the Capitol make their way through the traffic mess would be seriously dumb.
Dana (bb0678) — 7/24/2019 @ 6:16 pmAcetone-deaf.
______
OT- And so it was half a century ago this day the Apollo 11 CM ‘Columbia’ became a gem of the Pacific Ocean– ‘returning men safely to Earth’- satisfying JFK’s pledge of May 25, 1961– by splashing down and concluding the most significant step in human history since life crawled on to land out of the sea.
What a time to be alive.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 7/24/2019 @ 6:32 pm(Pssst. I’ll bet they didn’t really superglue themselves.)
Pity. It would have been a great way to find out how long a young, healthy person can survive without water in an otherwise comfortable, climate-controlled, modern indoor environment.
nk (dbc370) — 7/24/2019 @ 6:37 pmBut to fool the Capitol Police who were called out to help inconvenienced employees and people doing business at the Capitol make their way through the traffic mess would be seriously dumb.
I’m super-cynical about these sort of things, but I’m guessing that the Capitol Police are generally told to give protesters a pretty wide berth, because both Democrats and Republicans don’t want to see their activist wing treated harshly. If I’m right, then it makes all the sense in the world for the activists to lie about this sort of thing, as a way of making it seem like they are fully committed without having to sacrifice any skin (literally).
JVW (54fd0b) — 7/24/2019 @ 6:41 pmNot exactly Rosa Parks.
Dustin (e01605) — 7/24/2019 @ 7:07 pmParents must be proud as peacocks.
mg (8cbc69) — 7/24/2019 @ 7:11 pmSo, so, so tired of this bad performance art.
For pity’s sake, MLK and the other protesters of the REAL civil rights era were arrested and languished in jails! They were set upon by dogs! They were beaten and killed.
These snowflakes! I’m just out of outrage I guess. They are not worth it.
Patricia (3363ec) — 7/24/2019 @ 7:30 pmUsing all those Superglue chemicals can’t be good for the environment, and I’ll betcha the making of the product polluted air and water as well as churned out CO2. Bad, bad protesters.
Even a joint like EcoWatch calls Extinction Rebellion “radical”.
Yeah, blocking traffic and building entrances is a surefire way convince me over to their cause. Sign me frickin’ up. It’s about as adult as screaming at political opponents in restaurants.
Paul Montagu (dbd3cc) — 7/24/2019 @ 7:45 pmSarcasm aside, I really hate those causey-cause types who believe their pet issue is So Important that they must be obnoxious dicks and disrupt other peoples’ lives, bypassing an actual political process that could actually achieve results.
I’ll be slightly contrarian. Is it really a bad thing to shut down Congress for a bit?
Kishnevi (4e6bac) — 7/24/2019 @ 7:52 pmI find it good whenever I see a commenter channeling Beldar.
felipe (023cc9) — 7/24/2019 @ 7:55 pmWhen I first read this, I immediately thought of the Black Lives Matter people harassing people out enjoying Sunday brunch. That infuriated me so much because Americans were minding their business, and spending their hard earned money to enjoy being with their families and friends. It’s impossible to believe that this (or similar stunts) persuade anyone.
Dana (bb0678) — 7/24/2019 @ 8:00 pmJust kids being kids.
I remember in college my left-wing stoner roommate was part of some activist group protesting and doing civil disobedience to get Student Health Services to stock suicide pills (for use in case of nuclear war, you see).
(Note to nk – he went on to work as Chief-of-Staff for a scandal-plagued Chicago alderman named Joe Moore. He left that job in 2007; not sure what he’s been doing since…)
Dave (1bb933) — 7/24/2019 @ 8:16 pmPoor dude…I think they pass the pipe around in that office, because one of my interns this year worked the past academic year in Ald. Moore’s office. Of course he got beat in February of this year by a squad-ly black lesbian, one of several Dec Socs that got voted in this round.
urbanleftbehind (ed1084) — 7/24/2019 @ 8:25 pmThe web records from that long ago are kind of fragmentary, but it looks like my old roommate was actually involved in one of Moore’s scandals.
When he left the job, Moore gave him and another departing aide some kind of illegal severance package that the city told him (Moore) to pay back. The other aide who got paid off claimed it was hush money, which ofc Moore denied…
Dave (1bb933) — 7/24/2019 @ 8:37 pmKishnevi, I agree with you. That’s why I liked the sequesters–Congress was at least not able to do much to destroy the nation during that time.
And Dana the BLM “brunch actions” were horrific. And the media were terrible to ignore them.
Patricia (3363ec) — 7/24/2019 @ 9:14 pmArrest them for using chemical weapons.
Kevin M (21ca15) — 7/24/2019 @ 9:31 pm“And the media were terrible to ignore them.”
They show who they are and what they’re all about by what they don’t cover as much as how they cover what they do.
Colonel Haiku (2601c0) — 7/24/2019 @ 9:36 pmHey at least they are not trying to slow down global warming by getting rid of climate change denighers!
lany (9997a3) — 7/25/2019 @ 12:04 amJust when you think you can’t get dumber than MRA’s our come the environmentalists to redefine loser.
Time123 (b0628d) — 7/25/2019 @ 5:30 amHmmm…time to see if that new chain saw works as advertised
Horatio (606189) — 7/25/2019 @ 5:59 amMake them each huff a whole tube of the glue!!!
urbanleftbehind (ed1084) — 7/25/2019 @ 6:08 amHmmm…time to see if that new chain saw works as advertised
Heh! Wouldn’t that have been a neat trick? Not that they would go through with it. But Security calls Maintenance and asks them if they could send a couple of guys over with a Skilsaw? “Mommy!”
nk (dbc370) — 7/25/2019 @ 6:12 amBone saw
mg (8cbc69) — 7/25/2019 @ 6:23 amYou know, it isn’t all that hard to talk to a national politician, or to the aide that does all the work, and get your point of view across. This kind of demonstration is about press coverage, not changng a politician’s mind. And I guess they figure these antics do have an effect there.
But the big no no in performance theatre is to make a lot of average people’s life harder or more expensive. This will make people hate you and your cause, and the memory won’t go away. The global warming people have a problem in this regard, and it really isn’t solvable.
Appalled (d07ae6) — 7/25/2019 @ 7:16 am“When I first read this, I immediately thought of the Black Lives Matter people harassing people……..”
They not only harassed people just being out and about, they attacked people for pointing out that ‘All Lives Matter’, the philosophy espoused by MLK Jr had been rendered ‘offensive’ because it exposed the intellectual void of their movement.
harkin (0f62bd) — 7/25/2019 @ 7:22 am30.It’s impossible to believe that this (or similar stunts) persuade anyone
They’re intended to persuade people close to their side that this is a really, really serious issue and that they are correct that something needs to be done NOW! because look at the extremes they are going to accomplish things. That is, this is intended to gain b> followers. There are enough people who can’t or don’t follow the argument but judge thins indirectly thsi way.
And also this could be intended to intimidate people, Not to do what they say, because that;s impossible, but to get them some money or privileges.
Sammy Finkelman (27cd2c) — 7/25/2019 @ 9:34 amto paraphrase Judge Smails, “don’t those people have jobs?”
Harcourt Fenton Mudd (6b1442) — 7/25/2019 @ 11:09 am