Jane Fonda’s birthday wish was to be arrested during a Fire Drill Fridays protest. Her wish was granted Friday. She was handcuffed and led away from her fellow climate alarmists as they sang Happy Birthday to her. Fonda’s 82nd birthday is Saturday. It was her fifth arrest since moving to Washington, D.C. to organize weekly protests.

Ms. Fonda appeared very happy as she was taken away by the police. She even stopped and turned around to say something to her people – the police officer patiently accommodated her – before turning back around and continuing on to the police vehicle. Fonda has avoided arrest since her fourth arrest because if she had been arrested a fifth time within a certain time frame, she risked a month-long jail sentence. She’s committed to the cause but just not that committed. She didn’t want to risk being in jail when her Netflix show begins filming again. What’s Grace and Frankie without Grace? When she’s not performing at climate change protests, she’s performing on Netflix.

https://twitter.com/FireDrillFriday/status/1208113304331280384

The biggest Fire Drill Friday protest yet for Ms. Fonda? 138 people doesn’t seem like a large protest, does it? None of her protests have drawn large crowds, though. The largest one was when her protest joined up with another one.

Those arrested are usually charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding. Fonda is not being charged for her first four arrests. She asked for 82 people to “put their bodies on the line” with her this week.

The protesters occupied the Senate Hart building. The protests have been going indoors with the onset of winter weather. Each week there is a theme for the protest and this week’s was a focus on health. “Climate change is a public health emergency”, she said at the rally that began in front of the Capitol. Everything to an alarmist is an emergency.

Jane Fonda brings along her celebrity pals to help draw attention to the protests. This week Gloria Steinem, actresses Casey Wilson, and Rosanna Arquette, and actor Matt McGorry heeded her call. Professional agitators from labor unions and social justice warriors were there to be arrested, too.

Fonda thanked her fellow alarmists for coming out to celebrate her birthday after she put the call out and told them that “the earth needs an army”, which is an interesting phrase, given her history of anti-military protests.

“You may generously say that you came to celebrate my birthday with me in this wonderful activist context, which has gained so much traction — more than I ever imagined — and I appreciate this. But I think we are all here today because we know what lies ahead,” Fonda told the crowd. “The Earth needs an army.”

She was joined by other longtime activists, including the Rev. William J. Barber, who revived the Poor People’s Campaign, which promotes economic justice; Buddhist teacher and civil rights activist Roshi Joan Halifax; labor organizer Dolores Huerta; and feminist activist Gloria Steinem.

Halifax, Barber and Steinem also were arrested. Steinem is 85.

“This is a beginning here. We’re going to go back to our communities and we’re going to do what Jane Fonda is asking us to do,” said Huerta, 89. “We’re going to give her the best birthday present — ever.”

“Dozens” of nurses were arrested, too. If we are to believe the reporting, they came from across the country and dressed up in white coats. Aren’t doctors the ones who wear white coats? The nurses wore pins on their coats that read “Climate change makes us sick.” Senators’ staff members enjoyed the show and joined in on the chanting during the arrests. I guess with the Christmas break, the staffers had some free time on their hands.

“As nurses, we are not just focused on treatment, we’re also focused on prevention,” said Laura Worby, who treats refu­gee families in the District. “Not only should we care about the health impacts of climate change on our patients now, but we need to be on the front lines of calling for prevention.”

Senators’ staff members peered out windows down into the cavernous atrium as the voices of demonstrators filled the room: “Cops need oxygen, too,” they chanted as police officers encircled them.

“Senators need oxygen, too,” they shouted.

Left behind from the sit-in in the Senate Hart building were yellow placards with the words “Happy 82nd birthday Jane!”. That’s the difference between protests led by liberals and those led by conservatives – conservatives clean up after themselves. That difference was noted during the days of the Tea Party rallies. Our liberal betters, though, who claim to have such concern for Mother Earth sure aren’t bothered by leaving the premises dirtier than how they found it. The rest of us are expected to do as they say not as they do.