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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, Interesting) by Thexalon on Wednesday June 14 2017, @08:22PM (1 child)
Some Tea Party folks were like that. Some were not. In general, trying to characterize a large group of people based on a small sample size is not a good idea.
I had an interesting chat with a Tea Party guy on a train many years ago. I was clearly not convinced, but I thought it would be at least worth hearing what he had to say. My basic impression:
1. There is a genuine grassroots interest behind it. The basic claim of the Tea Party is that the US government is not accurately representing the needs of constituents like them, and in that they are absolutely correct. I'm a left-wing guy, so I disagree about their solutions to the problem, but we agreed on a fair amount.
2. Some very rich people have also spent a lot of money steering that genuine grassroots enthusiasm towards voting for Republican candidates. For example, early on in the Tea Party's history there was a convention with a star-studded cast of speakers like Sarah Palin (fresh off her VP campaign), and she got paid something like $500K to give her 1 hour speech. I asked my new acquaintance one simple question about it: Where did the money for that kind of paycheck come from?
One other factor that has to be involved when discussing the Tea Party: The Republican Party had become very unpopular when the Tea Party started, in no small part due to the failures of the Iraq War, combined with the economic crash of 2008. So in part the "Tea Party" was about rebranding the Republicans so as to not leave behind their base of ordinary voters. It was trying to contain them in much the same way that the Democrats are currently trying to contain Sanders supporters. In neither case is the attempt likely to work long-term.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by hendrikboom on Thursday June 15 2017, @02:39AM
To make sure they -- and everyone else -- are represented, you need proportional representation.