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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: 3, Touché) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:11PM (4 children)
Me for one. Who knows who or what might have taken his place? Someone more competent could have made things much harder.
The world is full of kings and queens who blind your eyes and steal your dreams.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:13PM (2 children)
If Hitler hadn't meddled so much in military planning, his generals would've had a lot better shot at winning the war.
Reading about the Battle of France is pretty funny for that reason. The guys in the general staff and Hitler are screaming at Rommel to stop, and he's all "hey, I'm going to drive over here 'cuz I think I can cut them off and surround them." They were worried his supply lines would get cut but the French bungled the entire thing so badly it didn't end up mattering.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @11:03PM (1 child)
Even though they were underpowered by WW2 standards, Rommel's cutting of French supply lines lead to thousands of French tanks becoming available to Germany as regional patrol vehicles. While they weren't good enough to go toe to toe with WW2 era tanks, they allowed them to free up their own tanks for other offensives, while still providing heavier fire support than infantry or available wheeled vehicles.
Interestingly there are parallels to be drawn between Hitler's bungling of the War, and Trump's bungling of American Foreign Policy. The difference is one involved delivering/failing to deliver bullets, while the other involved selling/losing sales of bullets :)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Thursday June 15 2017, @03:46PM
To be fair, early-war German tanks were much more about mobility and coordination than firepower and armor.
- wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:40AM
Using various definitions of "competent", one can imagine many different results, some better, and some worse than what actually happened. Competent general? Competent statesman? Competent humanitarian? Competent genocidal monster?
I think it most likely that if Hitler had died in the '30's, there would still have been a war. The "peace" written after WWI almost ensured that there would be. With Hitler out of the picture, would the Nazi party have been as powerful? Would the Brown Shirts have existed?
Hitler was just one part of a huge puzzle, after all.