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A gunman opened fire at U.S. Congressmen and others who were gathered at a practice this morning for the Congressional Baseball Game. House Majority Whip Steve Scalise and at least four others were reportedly injured. The gunman, who has been identified by unnamed sources as James T. Hodgkinson III, was taken to a local hospital where he died from his injuries:
A gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire Wednesday at a park in Alexandria, Va., as Republican members of Congress held a morning baseball practice, wounding at least five people, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.).
The suspected gunman is James T. Hodgkinson III, 66, from Illinois, according to multiple law enforcement sources. President Trump announced that the gunman, who was wounded in a shootout with officers, has died at an area hospital.
The wounded also included two Capitol Police officers and a congressional aide, according to one law enforcement official and witness accounts.
Congressman Scalise was shot in the hip and is in stable condition.
Hodgkinson's motive may have already been identified by the media:
A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rhetoric against President Trump, including a post that reads: "Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It's Time to Destroy Trump & Co."
Charles Orear, 50, a restaurant manager from St. Louis, said in an interview Wednesday that he became friendly with Hodgkinson during their work together in Iowa on Sanders's campaign. Orear said Hodgkinson was a passionate progressive and showed no signs of violence or malice toward others.
Also at LA Times, Reuters, The Atlantic, The Hill, and CNN.
(Score: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:37PM (13 children)
Just as this incident achieves nothing positive, drone kills of DAESH leaders in the middle east solves nothing. There is always someone else waiting to step into the shoes of the dead person and followers now inflamed and more motivated to fight back.
lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday June 14 2017, @05:52PM (12 children)
Yeah, but the right wing has been "fighting back" against a harmless center-left as if they're a violent and fringy left for ages. They don't have any tactics left to uncork. I guess maybe they'll benefit from that same center-left falling all over itself to attack itself for being "too left" as if that's what caused the situation of hopelessness and sincere despair for America that provoked this.
Thing is, I don't think anyone who wants to oppose political violence is wrong to do so. I just think we've reached a point where political violence is an inevitability, and far less morally indefensible than it used to be, it makes sense to fight people who want to kill you.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:15PM (11 children)
Promotion of political violence (terrorism) is morally and intellectually indefensible in a non-authoritarian, democratic society. You are not living in Venezuela.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by ikanreed on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:19PM (8 children)
Eh, considering that I'm gerrymandered as fuck where I live, such that votes in my state have literally been the inverse of electoral results, might as well be.
You can pretend that republicans haven't been systemically dismantling democracy, among their many other authoritarian tendencies, but that is, at best, deluded.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:29PM (7 children)
It's the same for conservatives living in metropolitan areas. There's little difference between republicans and democrats when it comes to authoritarianism; only in the presentation. The left definitely has better PR. This is why, despite the unfavorable disparity in statist murder rates, you have streets full of communists yelling "nazi" at centrists.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:40PM (6 children)
No, fuck that. Republicans are at least slightly over-represented in like 95% of legislative bodies in this country, with only like Maryland and Illinois as notable inverses, which much smaller effect sizes.
The fact that there are districts where majorities exist is not the same as engineered systems where 50.5% of people in a state can vote for democrats, and 10 out of 13 seats go to republicans. This is why "both sides are bad" is so goddamn stupid. One side can be affirmatively dismantling democracy, and the other side can have a normal fucking electoral system, and partisan assholes will pretend that the former aren't authoritarian shitheads.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Arik on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:52PM (4 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:25PM (1 child)
The stupid DNC primary thing makes no sense as a serious charge on even slightly sincere analysis.
Sanders would've won. Clinton was the single worst possible candidate the party could have put forward out of anyone alive recently holding national office. Clinton was the favorite of the party leadership. These are all true statements.
Everything after it is basically conspiracy bullshit. I don't know what you think was exposed in the emails, but the way you describe it to me, it reads like you think there was some kind of vote rigging or money-shifting that didn't happen.
And yes, as of 2016, pretty much all republicans are vile anti-democracy pieces of shit with no redeeming features to speak of. 20 years ago, they were mostly just obsessive partisans. 30 years ago, they were pretty close to decent politicians I'd have disagreed with.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:12AM
Decent politicians do not support the war on drugs. That's 'strike one, you're out' territory.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:27PM
we have seen the DNC emails that detail how they deliberately rendered Democracy a farce in their own most recent Presidential Primaries
In the last week, rank and file Donkeys as well as non-aligned Progressives have been pushing for a New Wave movement. [google.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:14PM
Abuses of power are normal and should be expected.
The 2 party game is a massive distraction you fools. DFL = heavy smoking. GOP = arsenic. Both kill you.
Fascism is Italian and it stands for corporate governance heavy in authoritarianism -- we are already there NOW, we just haven't progressed to mirror past implementations... even if we to achieve the same level as historical examples or surpass them, our implementation will not look exactly the same. Racism is not an essential ingredient for example. The reason the GOP is usually worse is because corporatism is practically their religion. (Hell, just quoting most of Jesus gets you labeled a socialist.)
The DFL is less corrupted; however it is still corrupted. Both will try to game systems for power, but today it's a good cop vs bad cop with both parties functionally working towards the same ends. The DFL is the good cop; but still part of the problem. Now some fools think the GOP is the good cop; but other than showing how gullible they are-- it's really no different than two people fighting over which method of suicide is smarter....
(Score: 3, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:56PM
In the false equivalence category, the Dem side is not the one dismantling protections for the people, nature, and global agreements proudly in the pursuit of selfish profits.
I do have to applaud Kansas Republicans for noticing their ideology pushed to the extreme did put them in major trouble. May the Federal Republicans learn...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:05AM
So you agree that Trump should be impeached then? Cause that is his position. No take backsies once the videos are on the intertubes!
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:08AM
We live in an undemocratic authoritarian society, though. We have a two party system that causes many people to vote for the one they see as the lesser evil; not much democracy in that. We also have a society where the government conducts unconstitutional mass surveillance on the populace, hires thugs to violate people's rights at airports, allows police to get away with violating our rights, infringes upon our fundamental right to control our own bodies by disallowing us from ingesting certain substances, and where the government is fighting countless useless wars overseas. That's plenty authoritarian, even if there are even worse countries.
I don't support the violence, but we simply do not live in a non-authoritarian democratic society.