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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: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 16 2017, @08:05AM
Let's start with this: lots of supposedly anti-authoritarian people don't act that way when they feel they might lose -- the left went for authoritarianism with Lenin, Castro, Kim, Chavez, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho Chi Minh, and many more. I can't actually think of a proper example on the right. The popular one, Hitler, is only "right" relative to the popular alternative at the time, which was communist. He's far left by modern American standards, and totally mainstream by modern European standards. Maybe some kind of theocracy would count, but the only non-Islamic one is a silly example: Vatican City.
It isn't fair to compare Trump against a theoretical ideal. We just got done with Obama, who was even more into drone strikes and spying than the second Bush. Heck, Obama even spied on Trump, which is kind of a Nixon thing! Our standards are thus pretty low.
Trump has made at least a bit of progress on the wall, shifting the current budget a bit and putting out bid requests for contractors. He has made some progress in tossing out illegals. He has made multiple attempts to block immigrants from Obama's list of dangerous countries and is taking the fight to the supreme court. He has gotten a great judge onto the supreme court, probably better than Scalia and almost as good as Thomas. He found a truly wonderful secretary of defense. He is beating some sense into the EPA and he got us out of that Paris climate disaster, so now there is hope for our economy. People are getting hired again.
So... that all looks good. You should support him. MAGA