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Breaking News
posted by takyon on Wednesday June 14 2017, @04:15PM   Printer-friendly
from the no-baseball-jokes dept.

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.


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  • (Score: 2, Flamebait) by julian on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:06PM (12 children)

    by julian (6003) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:06PM (#525555)

    This is a pretty obscure website with low traffic, I don't think they'd bother. Sadly, the simplest explanation is that he's one of our overnumerous indigenous nutters.

    You certainly can be incredibly skilled and also deluded. One of the greatest living geneticists, Francis Collins, became a fundamentalist Christian because a frozen waterfall told him to.

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  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:20PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:20PM (#525567)

    You certainly can be incredibly skilled and also deluded. One of the greatest living geneticists, Francis Collins, became a fundamentalist Christian because a frozen waterfall told him to.

    I think that's actually the most rational explanation or excuse for converting to Christianity I've ever heard.

    • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:48PM (9 children)

      by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday June 14 2017, @06:48PM (#525597)

      I'm pretty sure that "Because the (white) guy with the weapons told me to" has been the most rational reason to convert for quite a few centuries.

      • (Score: 2) by edIII on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:59PM (5 children)

        by edIII (791) on Wednesday June 14 2017, @07:59PM (#525637)

        You got that wrong.

        It's because "the (white) person who was handing me food, clothing, and helping me with shelter couldn't shut the fuck up about it". Starvation is the penultimate form of duress, suffocation being the ultimate. Some people refused to convert or confess their sins in the Inquisition, but it's a much easier route when you're smiling and feeding people ;)

        --
        Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:06PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:06PM (#525641)

          Yes those methods were used as well, but they started with guns. "We're gonna move in here and do what we want, try and mess with us and you die." Then they bring in the priests for the slightly more subtle tactics.

        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:09PM (3 children)

          by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:09PM (#525666)

          > handing me food, clothing, and helping me with shelter

          Are you referring to poor people in civilized societies, who only massively converted during invasion (or King strategic decisions), but otherwise starved while already praying the local god?
          Are you referring to a convenient myth that colonizers were actually helping locals with food, clothes and shelter?

          Because, "Hey, it's this way to pray unless you want it to be your last prayer" vastly outnumbers both of the above.

          • (Score: 2) by KGIII on Wednesday June 14 2017, @11:39PM (2 children)

            by KGIII (5261) on Wednesday June 14 2017, @11:39PM (#525730) Journal

            That seems numerically unlikely, given population totals, time, and the breadth of missionary coverage.

            I don't suppose you have a citation?

            --
            "So long and thanks for all the fish."
            • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:29AM (1 child)

              by bob_super (1357) on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:29AM (#525772)

              http://i.imgur.com/rzv85dn.png [imgur.com]

              Which ones of these regions was never conquered by force by someone bringing their one true religion in their luggage?
              Maybe the US/Canada/Australia, because the locals ended up mostly dead anyway, and that's only if we don't count the people brought against their will, then encouraged to worship right...

              • (Score: 2) by KGIII on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:36AM

                by KGIII (5261) on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:36AM (#525777) Journal

                I see you missed my point. Numerically, they are happily converting people even today. It's not like they stopped converting people in the 1800s. They are still bribing hungry souls for Jesus, and on a very large scale. Hell, you probably have a religious soup kitchen, right there in your town.

                --
                "So long and thanks for all the fish."
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:12PM (2 children)

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:12PM (#525669)

        White? Try Latino. Cortez. Junipero Serra. Coronado. etc.

        • (Score: 2, Informative) by bob_super on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:27PM (1 child)

          by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:27PM (#525679)

          *facepalm*
          *headdesk*
          *wondering if kidding, re-reads, no hints ...*
          *second headdesk, just in case*
          *cleans keyboard*
          Spanish people, like the English, French, Dutch, italians, greeks and most other world-wide colonizers (Sorry Genghis!), are white.

          The fact that they later bred with any woman they saw, regardless of skin color, whether they were local "indians" or they had to import them across the ocean, doesn't change the fact that the colonizers of America, Africa, and huge chunks of Asia, were predominantly white, including all the ones you named.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:51AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:51AM (#525784)

            Some Spaniards are very white. Most are somewhat less white. Many more are descended from black and white mixes. But, whatever.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:19PM (#525650)

    The small size of the site's user base is actually perfect for such activity and has a snowball effect. Due to the "fuck beta" motivation behind this site the user base also has a higher proportion of viable targets.

    Maybe he is a shill and maybe he isn't, but I think it is very important to keep the possibility in mind. We KNOW there are thousands of trolls being paid to actively push agendas and undermine others. Why would a government not spare a tiny bit of effort for this site? The grassroots feel and the common "we're too small to bother with" actually lends credibility!!