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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 jmorris on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:13PM (27 children)
Take a look around you. The Powers that Be (the ones with both the R and the D brands) thought they HAD made voting ineffectual, why do you think they totally lost it when Trump won? Say what you will about Trump, it is clear they Powers that Be are terrified of him because they do not think they can control him. We shall see what comes, it is certainly off script at this point. But I voted for it because it is better than the war with Russia that Hillary and the Powers that Be had planned out.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:25PM
Yeah I wish!
The GOP realized Trump commanded the demographics so they quickly welcomed him into the fold. Your little "upset" was immediately integrated with their game plan and Trump simply is not capable of throwing them off. He is a puppet, a loud obnoxious near-perfect puppet. His major accomplishment? Being so shitty that they are constantly in damage control mode, but that just means the annoyance of a few extra appearances on talk shows.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Soylentbob on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:49PM (5 children)
So, instead of "The powers that Be" destabilizing the middle east, helping the weapons industry to make more money, exploiting the lower class, destroying the environment, bending over for the NRA and increasing surveillance and growing the swamp by installing cronies left right and centre, you have now the Trumpinator, destabilizing the middle east, helping the weapons industry to make more money, exploiting the lower class, destroying the environment, bending over for the NRA and increasing surveillance and growing the swamp by installing cronies left right and centre. And building the biggest swamp you've ever seen. A great swamp. Really amazing. With short sentences. On twitter. Really amazing.
And instead of having a strong opponent to Russia with all their human rights issues, you have now someone who might actually be in their pocket.
So sad.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:17PM (4 children)
Russia with all their human rights issues? Really? Is that something Americans can harp on anymore? They rather surrendered that good guy stuff two decades ago when they decided to go all butch and start torturing people. For me, that pretty much abnegates any and all other claim to any moral high ground at all, but for giggles let's also throw out there a total police state surveillance system, detaining people indefinitely without charges or due legal process, assassinating American citizens with drones, and having the highest members of the federal government openly and brazenly subverting the law.
Against all that, can anybody really throw stones at Russia?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Soylentbob on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:49PM (3 children)
I have some Russian colleagues, and they are often slightly amused when I talk to them about the issues I see with human rights here in Germany... I think it's all grey, but some grey is slightly darker than the other, and while I consider Putin an accomplished politician, I'm still quite happy not to live in Russia.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:58PM (2 children)
Well sure. It's very cold and the life expectancy for men is 45 years. And they write their "R"'s backwards. On the other hand, it's acceptable to have two vodkas at lunch and the women are beautiful and the popular culture dark enough to warm the cockles of a hipster's heart.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by DECbot on Thursday June 15 2017, @05:25PM (1 child)
So, you're telling me I get all of that in addition to removing 30 of the most painful years of my life? Where's the signup sheet or do I have to do the NSA/Snowden thing first?
cats~$ sudo chown -R us /home/base
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @09:04PM
It's not the years in your life, but the life in your years, tovarich. How much heroism you practice in between is purely optional.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:56PM (14 children)
If you look at what Trump has actually done, and what guys like Paul Ryan wanted to do and George W Bush did, they aren't all that different. Donald Trump may be the bad boy of the cabal, but he's part of the cabal. When it comes to policy, Donald Trump does what he's told, just like most everybody else in Washington.
Of course, to understand this, you have to ignore the soap opera drama cooked up by the media that dominates most politics coverage. Look at budgets, policy changes, laws passed, executive orders, and you'll see that Trump is just like any other Republican would have been.
If the Powers That Be were really terrified of him, the news networks would not have slavishly covered his campaign, and the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton would not have pushed for him to be the Republican nominee behind the scenes.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by jmorris on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:17PM (9 children)
They were sure they could beat Trump. That is why they pushed him to get the Republican nomination. Yea, they really were that dumb. Most people started having a sneaking suspicion Trump wasn't nearly as incompetent as 'everyone' thought around about Convention time, but they kept right on believing a hot mess like HRC could easily beat him right into the first two hours of election night coverage. Aren't you glad people that dumb aren't running everything for a brief moment? Aren't you glad we aren't at war with Russia? That we aren't supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and ISIS anymore? And did I not predict electing Trump would bring Republican and Democrats in Congress together in bipartisan opposition and has this not happened? Has this not brought much needed clarity to the extent of the problem we face with the Uniparty? And if unmoved by any of those rational arguments, are you not at least entertained? :)
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday June 14 2017, @09:26PM (7 children)
Drumpf *is* incompetent. It's just that the Dems 1) were corrupt and infighting and 2) seriously underestimated just how much of a pack of irredeemable degenerates most of the US voting public is. This was an inevitability, a bad idea whose time had come. But the orange shitbag has *no idea* how he got up there or what he's doing and lordy lordy does it show.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Touché) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 15 2017, @12:56AM (6 children)
"irredeemable degenerates"
That's pretty funny coming from 'Zumi.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 15 2017, @07:54AM (5 children)
Please, you aren't fit to tie my shoes, and that lame attempt to even suggest I'm the same kind of subhuman as you only makes you look worse.
Not, though, as bad as the fact that you're so unaware of how people see you that you even thought for a moment that would work. Ye gods. You are your own worst enemy, has anyone ever told you that?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Troll) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:22PM (4 children)
"same kind of subhuman as you"
I made no such suggestion.
"unaware of how people see you"
So, it's a popularity contest? I'll just let you win. Seriously, I'm not even interested in competing.
"you aren't fit to tie my shoes"
More funny stuff. I don't tie shoes. Not since my youngest son learned to tie his own shoes, anyway. Then, he got smart, and stopped tying shoes.
http://dungarees.net/product_Wolverine_W02429_Raider_MultiShox_Contour_Welt_-986-1.html [dungarees.net]
So, if you're still tying shoes, you're way behind the curve. Yes, I am unfit to tie your shoes.
Meanwhile, you are by far the champion degenerate, and way out of my class.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 15 2017, @04:09PM (3 children)
See, this is one of those things where the proper response to you isn't a yes or a no; it's "mu" (void, emptiness, "un-ask the question," "not even wrong"). You're so far out to lunch your mind, such as it is, is overdrawing its expense account.
But keep replying, please; with every post you further prove my point, viz., "Runaway has forgotten the First Rule of Holes, and indeed is such an un-self-aware individual he doesn't even know he's *in* a hole." Uzzard has the same problem. Neither of you know when to lay down and shut up.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 15 2017, @05:34PM (2 children)
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
-Dylan Thomas
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 15 2017, @05:50PM (1 child)
Correction: not only do you not know when to shut up, but you run out of material long before you're done making an idiot of yourself. Keep going; the mere fact of your continuing posts is enough to condemn you, content aside :) I dunno what it is about you and Uzzard but you two have an almost Trumpian inability to know when to fold.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Thursday June 15 2017, @11:59PM
And, look at the mirror. You insist that you must "win". But, look back at "Uzzard" and I. You can't win, because neither one of us thinks that you matter. Speaking for myself, I just can't take you very seriously. Actually, not seriously at all. I'll see your Trumpian, and raise you a two Clintonians. Like Hillary, you take yourself far more seriously than the world takes you.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:32PM
The Democrats being idiots does not mean that Donald Trump or the Republicans aren't idiots. It's entirely possible, and there's substantial evidence for this, that they're all idiots.
Another reason that I'm reasonably certain Trump is not a real threat to the Powers That Be: He wasn't shot while on the campaign trail, before he had Secret Service protection. Compare that to, say, Bobby Kennedy, who was repeatedly showing a willingness to stand up to the military and end the Vietnam War and just happened to meet Sirhan Sirhan.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:30PM (3 children)
Trump is a businessman and not a politician. He doesn't understand DC. He understands the vox populi, but not DC. The policies, except for the sensational handful he can do unilaterally, are the same as Bush and Ryan's because he surrounded himself with people cut from the same cloth as Bush and Ryan. His Chief of Staff, his VP, his Sect. of Treasury, etc. They are business-as-usual, they like business-as-usual, and so of course they will conduct business-as-usual. They're gonna keep doing that and let the President run around with his thumbs on Twitter, chasing his ego high, fighting with the media, etc. Suits them fine.
The only way Trump would get anything different than that is to really shake things up in just a handful of ways. He could sack everybody but characters like Steve Bannon, but that would consume the next two years while he tries to find more people like Steve Bannon. Congress, whose operatives in the administration had just been purged, would fight Trump on confirmations every step of the way. DC would absolutely shut down and everything would fall into civil war. He could call on his base to descend on Washington and rattle the windows and doors of Congress and everyone else who fights him to intimidate them, but there would be an inevitable reaction from forces opposed to him who would do the same and everything would fall into civil war. Or, Trump could start a war with Iran or Syria or North Korea and use that as cover to purge DC and recast it into something more to his liking.
He doesn't have many more options than that because he's not the head of the Trump party, with loyalists controlling blocks of Congress and statehouses and willing to back him up on policy.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:05PM (2 children)
Based on his 37% approval ratings, I'd say he does not in fact understand the vox populi. He won because his opponents had even less of an understanding of the vox populi. Apparently, the people who claim to be the smartest political minds in the country need to be told that the message "You will never again hold a decent job, and the people that took your house and your job have had absolutely nothing happen to them for their highway robbery, but don't worry, everything is great!" isn't a winner.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @09:21PM (1 child)
His approval ratings haven't really moved all that much, when you think about it. The same voters who saw him through the primaries and general are still with him, for the most part. If his polls have dipped at all it's because both the Republicans and Democrats in DC have turned on him with equal fervor, whereas during the general the RNC held its fire.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the approval ratings for those in DC going after Trump are far lower than 37% (I've seen 47%, but let's go with yours for the sake of argument). Congress is in the single digits and gets excited if they break into the low teens. The press is at something like 24%. Next to that Trump's a frickin' genius.
I do agree with you whole-heartedly that the people who claim to be the smartest political minds in the country do need to be told a message, which is that their even more awful performance in office (according to approval ratings) and general shenanigans don't cut the mustard anymore. Their failure to answer to the real needs of the American people made Trump possible, and make incidents like yesterday's likely if not inevitable.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday June 15 2017, @09:35PM
Which poll are you looking at for that? I agree Congress in general has a low polling number, but since on average people think their own congresscritter is just dandy, that may not mean as much as you think.
However, what I do think is extremely important is that not a single political institution in this country has the support of a majority of Americans. Seriously. Not Congress, not the president, not the Supreme Court, not either major political party. That wasn't supposed to be possible in a democracy, and it definitely bodes trouble.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by deimtee on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:20AM (4 children)
I don't think Hillary and her masters had a war with Russia planned, too much risk of some patriotic soldier on either side escalating until they hit MAD.
I am sure she was gearing up for a full on war with Iran. No nukes, biggish army, nasty terrain, massive amounts of warbucks to be made, and who cares about the G.I.s who will die for the Lizard profits.
Sad thing is, Trump is possibly heading there too, but it's not as certain.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @01:32PM
"Sad thing is, Trump is possibly heading there too, but it's not as certain."
It's the only thing he can do to survive, politically. Perhaps he's too hapless to realize that and make that move.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:12PM (2 children)
The real reason for that upcoming attack is that Iran presents a salient on the southern Russian front in the global game of Risk that the strategists in Washington never stopped playing. What, you thought it was a coincidence that there are now US allies all along Russia's western border and much of its southern border? And that Iran is surrounded on 3 sides with US military presence? These guys have never forgiven Mikhail Gorbachev for ending the Cold War without a US army in Moscow.
Well, that, and Iran has oil and natural gas.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday June 15 2017, @09:27PM (1 child)
What are all those strategists going to do with themselves in 7 years when oil and natural gas are as passe as whale oil? Does the Great Game shift to securing sources of cobalt? Maybe it's war under the sea for krill supplies?
Maybe the rest of humanity would fare much better by removing all those people from anything important and putting them in therapy to help them cope with their penis envy.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday June 17 2017, @03:28PM
I'm pretty sure in 7 years these strategists will be playing the same game they are now. Keep in mind they still think they are fighting the Cold War which actually ended over 25 years ago. I don't think another 7 years is going to matter much.