A coalition called Shut Down DC teamed up with actress and activist Jane Fonda and friends to shut down downtown Washington, D.C. Friday. As you know, if it’s Friday, it’s time for a Fire Drill Fridays climate change protest from Ms. Fonda and her merry medley of minions. This week’s protest brought a new dimension to the event – traffic was deliberately blocked in order to shut down the nation’s capital.
The disruption began during the morning’s commute and a smallish group of protesters raised banners to block traffic intersections. By the end of the workweek, most people are just trying to get through Friday and begin their weekend. You can understand a less than enthusiastic reaction from folks trying to get to their office in a city where traffic problems are a regular occurrence.
A little more than a half-dozen bozos making the commute a nightmare for thousands. pic.twitter.com/iS4w8KdQ7Y
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) December 6, 2019
A half-dozen “bozos” isn’t much of a crowd, let’s be honest, but they seemed to just be the early ones. Typically Ms. Fonda’s protests are scheduled to begin at 11:00 a.m. and this one was no different. Perhaps The Resistance just like to sleep in.
@ExtinctionR and @ShutDown_DC protesters disrupted morning rush hour traffic in D.C. today. #ClimateAction #ClimateStrike #ClimateChange pic.twitter.com/Ysjdxt53fb
— Bev Banks (@BevCBanks) December 6, 2019
Thursday an opinion piece was published by Jane Fonda in the New York Times. She was singing to the choir. As she retold the story about her decision to move to Washington, D.C. for a whopping four months to organize weekly protests, a now tediously familiar story, she quickly turned her attention to the political angle of her actions. We know from her past screeds that Big Oil and the fossil fuel industry must be obliterated and while it’s sad that thousands and thousands of workers from an oil rig’s drilling floor to white-collar office workers will be on the unemployment lines, well, they’ll find other jobs eventually. If you don’t applaud this weekly street performance, you don’t matter anyway.
We have reached a time in this fight when the only way forward is to organize, mobilize and vote politicians who won’t act out of office. We must overcome the power of the fossil fuel industry and elect an environmental champion for president and a congressional leadership ready to move forward aggressively with a Green New Deal to save us and the planet, starting the day they take office.
Winning at the ballot box is how we will succeed in building a more just and equitable economy, one thriving from good clean energy jobs. It’s how we will secure a habitable planet for future generations. It’s how we will protect our cherished public lands and species, and ensure all Americans have safe water and clean air — especially low-income communities and communities of color who for too long have borne the brunt of inaction.
You get the picture here. Fonda bashes President Trump and those of us who don’t fall for the histrionics of the climate alarmists. Some of us are old enough to have been hearing this stuff since the 1970s when the panic was over the ushering in of a new ice age. Now we are all going to die from heat and drown from higher sea levels. Big Oil money in politics is bad unless it is in the form of escalating taxes on the industry. I noted that Fonda also moves the goalpost a bit on how long there is before the damage cannot be stopped. While most of the alarmists use a 12-year reference, though Robert Francis O’Rourke moved that up to a mere 10-year deadline, Fonda claims the number of years is less than eleven for drastic measures to curb greenhouse gas and carbon emissions. Yet, we are to believe that all of the propaganda is settled science. Go figure.
Each week has a theme and this week is to shut down banks and financial institutions like BlackRock, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America and Citigroup in downtown Washington. Let’s nationalize financial institutions and usher in the Green New Deal.
JPMorgan Chase has spent nearly $200 billion on fossil fuels since 2015, making them one of the worst climate criminals. These people will gladly kill our planet if it means higher quarterly profits. Let's nationalize them and fund the Green New Deal! #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/JJiE9Kdjwy
— Metro DC DSA (@mdc_dsa) December 6, 2019
The protest is in part to spotlight alleged profiting off of the detention of illegal migrants.
Join us Friday in DC for week 9 of #FireDrillFriday 🔥!
We’re going to shut down business-as-usual for the financial institutions that profit off of the climate crisis and immigrant detention alongside @ShutDown_DC, @SunriseMvmtDC & @XRebelDC. pic.twitter.com/XpRCKQwI6i
— Fire Drill Fridays (@FireDrillFriday) December 4, 2019
Shut Down D.C. posted a tweet with a message that sounds threatening. “Those killing the earth have names and addresses.” Will ordinary workers in the financial industry be victims of cancel culture now? And, as usual, the alarmists and their friends on the left conflate illegal immigrants and legal immigrants.
Tomorrow we’re shutting down business as usual for the banks + investment firms funding the climate crisis and profiting from the incarceration of immigrant families.
Those killing the earth have names and addresses.
Join us in the streets https://t.co/Q8UqrqoBTR#ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/aOLnA0D7Cd
— ShutDownDC (@ShutDown_DC) December 5, 2019
Those killing the earth have names and addresses. We’re coming for you #ShutDownDC pic.twitter.com/DGH2vDe7zD
— ShutDownDC (@ShutDown_DC) December 6, 2019
#DefundClimatechange sit-in at @JPMorgan @chase in Washington DC. #FireDrillFriday pic.twitter.com/AEoyDVi95O
— Rising Tide NA (@RisingTideNA) December 6, 2019
Each week Jane Fonda drags along celebrity friends. Lately, she has let her friends be arrested by Capitol Police while she sneaks off to avoid arrest. She doesn’t want to risk a month-long stay in jail that she’d be subjected to with another arrest. This week she’s protesting with actresses Kyra Sedgwick and Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black). They were thanked for “putting their bodies on the line.” So dramatic.
Today we are joined by thousands to take action for migrants and human rights. Thank you @TaySchilling and @kyrasedgwick for putting your bodies on the line with #FireDrillFriday pic.twitter.com/B1WXIjy6fq
— Fire Drill Fridays (@FireDrillFriday) December 6, 2019
Blocking the ability for regular people to go about their day, whether it is driving to work or doing banking business, isn’t a smart way to gain the support of those who may not be as alarmed as the alarmists. Some protesters chained themselves to the doors of business buildings.
BREAKING: Activist are shutting down @WellsFargo demanding an end to the billions of dollars they pump into pipelines, private prisons and more. Our lives and our futures are NOT for sale #ClimateStrike pic.twitter.com/eDernyE3aG
— 350 DC (@350_DC) December 6, 2019
Little children were exploited, too. You may remember that the star of Young Sheldon, while older than a pre-schooler, still a child, was used last week by the protesters. These young ones showed up at the end of the march.
A beautiful and hopeful end to this #FireDrillFriday — a group of preschoolers just marched through! It’s their future and we will fight for it #ShutDownDC #ClimateStrike #FridaysForFuture pic.twitter.com/sPUyUC1gzO
— Fire Drill Fridays (@FireDrillFriday) December 6, 2019
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