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Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to murder charges and apologizes for Parkland high school massacre
Nikolas Cruz, the gunman who carried out the massacre of students and faculty members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in February 2018, pleaded guilty in a Florida courtroom Wednesday to 17 counts of murder and 17 counts of attempted murder.
Cruz, 23, faces a minimum of life in prison and maximum of the death penalty, which will be decided by a jury in the upcoming sentencing phase of the trial. The prosecution has said they plan to seek the death penalty.
See also:
Gunman Pleads Guilty in Parkland School Shooting
Nikolas Cruz pleads guilty to all charges in 2018 Parkland massacre
5 things to know before Parkland school shooting change of plea hearing
It is good that the perpetrator of such a crime may be brought to justice.
I remember after the Columbine school shootings when it was promised that this would never be allowed to happen again. Unfortunately, our country strives to make it easy for children to access firearms unsupervised.
Second
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., mocked a Florida school shooting survivor as an "idiot" who "only talks when he is scripted" in a 2019 interview with a Georgia gun group, according to a previously unreported video obtained by NBC News.
"He is very trained. He's like a dog. He's completely trained," Greene said of the survivor, David Hogg, now 20, in an interview with Georgia Gun Owners Inc. in April 2019, less than two years before she was elected to Congress.
Videos of Greene, a freshman Republican, berating Hogg in Washington surfaced last week after she was appointed to the House Education and Labor Committee. House Democrats are pushing to bar her from serving on any committees, citing in part her previous statements suggesting that the shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, were hoaxes.
How do people like this come to power? Where do they find voters who will vote for such people? Does this only happen in the USA? I feel confident that the good people of her voting district in Georgia will continue to re-elect her.
I like her "Trump Won" mask, now that it is abundantly clear he did not win after many lawsuits and audits later.
It is amazing to live in a time when people will believe the most ridiculous outlandish things without any critical thought. People can no longer tell fact from fantasy. Or facts simply do not matter.
Update: A prediction: Trump will win in 2024. Yes, really.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @04:58PM (42 children)
All handed to him by the democrats feigned "weakness"
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Informative) by DannyB on Wednesday October 20 2021, @05:07PM (17 children)
Handed to him by those who vote for him.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @05:24PM (16 children)
People vote for him because they feel there's no choice. Frustration put him into office, just like it did for Carter, Clinton, and Obama which resulted in subsequent republican victories, because of democrat complicity in their refusal to overturn "republican" policy, it's happening right now. People see no reason to vote for a democrat, aside from being "not trump". The Party is happy as long as the vote remains between DNC and GOP. You can't argue with a 95% reelection rate.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 20 2021, @06:21PM (7 children)
If people are frustrated they should vote for someone better, not worse. Voting R because Ds didn't do well enough is just massive ignorance. Odd how your narrative is always anti-dem while being ever so slightly pro-rep.
To head off your reply, yes the Rs are awful and it would really be nice if we could just ignore them as you like to do but that just buries the problem and pins all the blame on Ds. Acknowledging that Rs are terrible when someone calls you out is not enough to counteract your one-sided (ha!) rhetoric.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @06:36PM (6 children)
No, what happens when the politician doesn't perform is that the dems stay home, handing the election to the republicans, until the republicans piss them off enough to get out and reelect the same dems, rinse/repeat. We can pin the beginning of this when the dems nominated Humphrey in '68, handing the election to Nixon. If the dems want to win, they have to become an actual opposition party. Their so called "compromise" is really complicity. But as we can see, the illusion works, corralling 98% of the vote. Not too shabby
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 20 2021, @08:33PM (5 children)
1956 - 59.3%
1964 - 61.4%
1968 - 60.7%
1972 - 55.1%
1976 - 53.6%
1980 - 52.8%
1984 - 53.3%
1988 - 50.3%
1992 - 55.2%
1996 - 49.0%
2000 - 50.5%
2004 - 55.7%
2008 - 57.1%
2012 - 53.8%
2016 - 54.8%
Hmm, not seeing this drastic partisan change you're talking about. Might want to clear your talking points with reality first.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @09:13PM (4 children)
:-) Thanks for making my point. Keep it as close to 50% as possible, which has worked pretty well from '72 onward, before then it was a solid 60% (Percent of what, by the way?). So yeah, something happened to keep things more evenly divided. Frustration, antipathy, and money are the biggest motivators. The Party works it very well to its advantage.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 5, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 20 2021, @10:43PM (3 children)
"which has worked pretty well from '72 onward, before then it was a solid 60%"
Uh oh you sprung the trap!
1920 - 49.2%
1924 - 48.9%
1928 - 56.9%
1932 - 52.6%
1936 - 58.8%
1940 - 58.8%
1944 - 56.1%
1948 - 51.1%
1952 - 61.6%
Warms my heart to see you out yourself as a total hack. Never do research, just shit out one dimensional hot takes, rinse and repeat.
"Frustration, antipathy, and money are the biggest motivators"
Which is why you constantly work to generate the first two?
"Keep it as close to 50% as possible, which has worked pretty well from '72 onward, before then it was a solid 60% (Percent of what, by the way?)."
Interesting how you make a counter point BEFORE you point out that you don't even know what the numbers mean. % of voting age population btw. Thanks for reacting before thinking, gave me a good chuckle.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @11:18PM (1 child)
Eh, much ado about nothing.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @01:56AM
hahaahhaha
you absolute sniveling coward
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @06:23AM
>> Uh oh you sprung the trap!
Fusty is known to trigger traps all the time. But the time old question remains unsolved: Are traps gay?
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday October 20 2021, @08:51PM (7 children)
People voted for him for various reasons: he had an (R) after his name; to "own" the libruls; or because they agree with their fellow sociopath.
Your constant bleating about "one party conspiracy" is ludicrous. Since when are groups larger than about a dozen able to keep their mouth shut about such things?
The two party system evolved from our First Past The Post voting systems. No grand conspiracy needed. Now in all honesty, since that system benefits both parties there is little incentive to change things. To say that they are cooperating is another thing entirely.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @09:30PM (4 children)
The numbers and sequence of events tell the whole story, some people are just in denial apparently. There is no "conspiracy", that's just the standard strawman distraction by partisans to avoid the issue. I never said anything about a "conspiracy". Both factions of the Party merely have mutual interests to preserve the reelection rates, and maintain financial support from the industry which would dry up if they don't comply. Even you can't deny that 95% is pretty impressive.
Republicans will vote for republicans, democrats for democrats. There is no reason vote for a democrat if the democrats act like republicans and refuse to oppose them, making up all sorts of excuses that make people want to vomit. If you want the dems to win, you know what has to be done. And now it looks like Manchin might leave the dems, handing the senate back, oh well... sayonara... vaya con dios
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Thursday October 21 2021, @03:32PM (3 children)
So you're not actually believing that there is a big conspiracy, that's cool. Stop with the "one party" rhetoric then. They're not working together, they're just not rocking the boat.
RE: Manchin - He might as well switch, as he's been effectively working for the GOP these past months. Ditto with Sinema, whose constituency is not happy about it.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 21 2021, @07:36PM (2 children)
Of course they are. It is perfectly normal to act this way when nobody is watching, they do what they can get away with. Everybody is just in denial, and this is the chronic result. Regardless of any of this, it is still up to the voters to change the Party or remove it. There is no other way for it to happen.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by cmdrklarg on Thursday October 21 2021, @09:12PM (1 child)
Dude, make up your mind about what message you're sending. Are they colluding, or not?
They are not, because there is a big difference between two sides cooperating and two opposing sides not changing the rules of the game.
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 21 2021, @09:29PM
They are indeed cooperating to maintain those reelection numbers, which should speak loudly enough to wake the dead. DNC/GOP act as one, almost since Reconstruction. The "Battling Bickersons" routine is for your entertainment. I don't expect murder in the senate. I don't understand why this seems odd. Congress is prison yard politics in Armani
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @04:30AM (1 child)
The lefties have these made up reasons in their heads, and won't listen to anyone who contradicts them. If you want to know why people voted for him, why don't you ask the people who voted for him, instead of the people who didn't vote for him.
The majority of the answers are going to be :
- It is obvious the Democrats have sold out to their corporate overlords. They do nothing for anyone on or below the average wage.
- He wasn't Clinton. He wasn't even part of the Establishment. It was a giant "Fuck You" to everyone screwing them over.
- He promised to make things better. He may not have done it, but he at least promised to try.
- Buttery Males. You can make fun of it all you like, but there are over a million people with security clearances who know they would be spending a decade in jail if they did what Clinton did with classified documents and destruction of evidence. That's one million direct, plus everyone they can convince, who won't vote for her.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @06:27AM
no no no... it was the russian hackers™
(Score: 5, Insightful) by DannyB on Wednesday October 20 2021, @06:39PM (23 children)
You don't say anything about how horrible some of the worst of the R's are. Just how bad all of the D's are.
Of course that's not as bad as some others whose universal answer is "TDS". It must be TDS! When they say that they have already lost any argument.
The question I raised about Greene is why some people will vote for someone so horrible. It really is astonishing. I don't think Biden is the best president ever (or worst), but I don't think he is horrible as a human being.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @06:47PM (4 children)
It's a given, goes without mentioning. Why bemoan the obvious when no opposition is put up? To win, the dems have to oppose, not "compromise". It's the only way to motivate enough voters to maintain a real filibuster proof majority. The present charade is run to keep congress at 50-50 where blame passing works the best. Governing is not their intention, reelection is, and it's working like a charm, wouldn't you agree?
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday October 20 2021, @06:58PM (1 child)
I can't disagree with that. The dems in power are spineless. The R's are ruthless and don't care about you or your family. It is too bad people don't take "public service" seriously. It's not about winning the argument, it is about what is good policy. Some people don't care about actual policy, only inflexible ideology.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Wednesday October 20 2021, @07:09PM
They are not "spineless" at all. This is a coalition to maintain power and authority. The "spinelessness" is pure theater, looking for sympathy votes, but just enough to keep it at 50%. And to reelect them is also corrupt. It means they're looking for some kind of preferential treatment, handout/tax cut. Like it not not, the government is a pretty good reflection. A little like a certain Surfside condo.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Magic Oddball on Thursday October 21 2021, @09:27AM (1 child)
There's one big problem: a lot of registered Democrats are relatively centrist and will stop helping the party's candidates win if the Democrats start trying to push too far to the left in the name of opposition.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 21 2021, @07:13PM
Yes, the party is very conservative, just as much so as the republicans, as their mutual successes show.. The "liberals" won't get anything out of it. An actual liberal party would draw a significant number of republicans in addition to the democrats. The insistence on riding DNC coattails after all the failures over the last half century is a bit irrational.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 3, Insightful) by cmdrklarg on Wednesday October 20 2021, @09:12PM (1 child)
They vote for Greene because like her, they are horrible human beings. They are more interested in making sure the right people are harmed instead of making their own lives better. They are happy to watch the world burn as long as THOSE people are burning too.
They also vote for her because she has an (R) after her name on the ballot (the stupidest reason to vote for someone. Yes, this includes those who vote (D) for that reason as well).
Answer now is don't give in; aim for a new tomorrow.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @04:37AM
I am reminded of a scene in a book set back in the slave era. Can't remeber the title, but the scene was written so well it is still pretty vivid. A runaway slave is recaptured and the slavers give him a choice. Chop his foot off with an axe, or chop his balls off with a machete. Care to guess which he chose?
So who else was on the ballot?
(Score: 0, Flamebait) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday October 20 2021, @09:42PM (15 children)
On the contrary, you don't yet understand the argument.
Are you old enough to remember when Bush left office? Libruls blamed Bush for the hurricanes, for 9/11/01, for forest fires, for the price of gas, - EVERYTHING! In their eyes, Bush was some kind of supernatural god-like being. Had to be to do all the things libruls accused him of.
And, today, we have TDS. Some average dumbass won an election - much like Bush - and your librul media attributes him with all sorts of powers. He's larger than life, he eclipses Hitler, he draws on dark powers, blah blah blah.
FFS, get over that shit. TDS is a real thing, and you don't live beside a river in Egypt.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @02:07AM (1 child)
Hi traitor, if you're lucky the Navy won't haul your ass in for being a piece of shit oath breaker.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 21 2021, @07:38AM
All that shit, from Katrina to the invasion of Iraq, was Bush's fault. He was one incompetent asshole, much like our Runaway, here! "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie!" Yes, if Bush Jr has ever served, for real, he would be an oath-breaker like the Runaway. A loathesome, incompetent, not too bright piece of shit, fallen not far from the tree. Only, nobody knows for sure who Runaway1956's father was. Some say his father is dead, from a certain point of view.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 21 2021, @02:26PM (12 children)
You are misstating it.
Bush was blamed for mishandling Katrina. Doing nothing for too long. Sort of like Trump and Covid-19.
Bush administration had enough information to have detected 9/11, but didn't put it together. Although I don't really blame Bush. I think that was organizational incompetence.
I don't remember about Bush and the price of gas in short supply due to using that gas to start forest fires.
TDS is just a nonsense answer to legitimate criticisms of a horrible president and even worse human being. It is just an attempt to silence and deflect embarrassing criticism. Nothing else.
TDS is a real thing that is suffered by Trump's supporters, worshipers, sycophants and acolytes.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 21 2021, @03:10PM (11 children)
Yes, five days. Bush did nothing for five days. The mayor of New Orleans couldn't pick up a phone, or get on a radio, or even send a police cruiser to the state capitol in five days, to call for help. The governor of Louisiana couldn't pick up a phone, or get on a radio, or charter an airplane to take her to Washington, D.C. to ask for help.
It took five days of silence from the state, before Bush finally asked "WTF is going on down there? Better send in the cavalry to get some answers!"
Bush did a lot of stupid shit, but you don't get to blame him for _any_damned_thing_ that Democrat officials fucked up during and after Katrina.
The 9/11 stuff? Gotta agree, at least in part. There were laws in place that actually prevented the various intel agencies from sharing info. I think 9/11 could have been stopped, but it isn't clear that Bush had all the knowledge necessary to do so. The Pentagon should have had all that intel, but . . . they didn't. The CIA should have had it. Let's not even talk about the FBI. Time and time again, they interview bad guys, and let them go. Then the next month they set up a sting, and imprsison idiots who aren't competent to string three firecrackers to go off in series.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday October 21 2021, @03:39PM (10 children)
Five days is a long time if YOU are the one in the middle of a disaster without food, water, shelter, power, medicine, etc.
If you eat an entire cake without cutting it, you technically only had one piece.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday October 21 2021, @06:40PM (9 children)
Yep, you're right. 5 days is a helluva long time. So, for five long days, no one in the disaster area did anything?
Now, let's take a look at the situation from another perspective. The mayor might make excuses that he was literally up to his ass in alligators. I won't believe it, but he can make the claim. What about the governor? SHE happened to be sitting nice and cozy a couple hundred miles from Ground Zero. She didn't know, and apparently didn't care, that no news was coming out of one of the biggest cities in her state? WTF didn't she roll some state police, or the National Guard, both of which she commanded? Five days. That really is a helluva long time.
Stepping outside the chain of command within the state, we have to ask why FEMA didn't sound an alarm. Or any agency within Homeland Security. Why didn't the Army Corps of Engineers contact the outside world on their own? Mostly, I defend the Corps of Engineers when idiots are attacking them in regards to Katrina. But, they dropped the ball by failing to contact higher command.
The President of the United States shouldn't be picking up the phone to ask every mayor in the country how they weathered the latest storm. There are multiple communications nets through which the Pres is supposed to be kept informed.
Oh, one more. WTF was CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and all the other worthless news sources? Not ONE of them tried to get a news van into the affected area? Any one of them could have reached Lafayette, and reported from there. I think they could have reached the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain - but nothing.
Incompetence was wide spread in the state, and in the nation, but you can't blame the White House for all of that.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Thursday October 21 2021, @07:44PM
Incompetence everywhere.. [youtube.com] That's what makes any hurricane into a disaster.
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @08:08PM (7 children)
Perhaps this [youtube.com] might jog [youtube.com] your memory? [youtube.com] Those look to me like a bit more than just "nothing".
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 22 2021, @08:56PM (6 children)
Your first link. I don't recognize her, but the senator is blathering about what a good job she and congress is doing? Fair haired boy in the background, "Excuse me senator . . . for 4 days I've been seeing bodies in the streets . . ."
That is exactly what I was talking about. And, it took 4 days to get the message out there. On the 5th day, George told his people to find out WTF was happening.
I'll give you this: My memory of Katrina isn't as sharp as it was in 2005. But, it was quite personal for me. I made a delivery in New Orleans 3 days before Katrina, and I made another on day 8 or 9 after. Went into the city in company with the Colorado National Guard, in fact. When I left New Orleans, I went to Mississippi, where the damage was at least as bad, and probably worse. So, even after 11 years of growing older, I still have a pretty clear memory of the news I was seeing after Katrina.
The word was not going out, loud enough, or soon enough, or long enough.
I thank you for your links - and here's one for you. https://southernspaces.org/2009/x-codes-post-katrina-postscript/ [southernspaces.org]
Just look at the photo for a moment before scrolling down. I can't say whether I saw that particular house when I went back into New Orleans. But, I saw hundreds like it on my first post-Katrina trip, and thousands more in succeeding trips to the city.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday October 22 2021, @11:01PM (5 children)
<rolls eyes>The "fair haired boy" is Anderson Cooper. You have heard of him, yes?</rolls eyes>
Is anyone surprised by this? Anyone???
Go back and look at those news clips again, this time for comprehension. Reporters were all over this story literally from day one. About the only ones who weren't immediately paying attention were a certain few idiots in the White House.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday October 22 2021, @11:22PM (4 children)
Anderson Cooper, on day 4, embarrassed a senator. That's day 4. The other two videos you offer are reminiscences, long after the fact.
I do not recall any news network doing 24/7 coverage from downtown New Orleans during that first week after Katrina landed. I think that CNN did a better job than the others, but still, CNN news crews weren't hounding officials at FEMA, or at the National Guard headquarters, or at the White House.
Day four, our Fair Haired boy, whom you have identified as Anderson Cooper, brought a senator to bay, and hit her with some unsettling facts. Why weren't there 50 other news hounds at the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C. demanding answers on day two?
I'm having a problem with the thrust of your posts. Are you implying that Bush was the only person in the nation who had any responsibility in that fiasco?
Once again - the mayor didn't reach out through official channels. I've allowed that maybe he has a half-assed excuse. The governor didn't reach out. The Civil Service didn't reach out. (Parenthetically, I had a run-in with one of those fine Civil Sercice badge-carrying assholes, in New Orleans - a completely ignorant fuck.) National Guard, Corps of Engineers, State Police, none of them contacted the outside world.
Day four. One embarrassed senator being mauled by a reporter got results, the following day.
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday October 23 2021, @12:01AM (3 children)
What they are "reminiscing" about is their coverage of the Katrina story which they were doing from Day 1, you blithering tool!!!
No, I'm implying that he and a certain few others in his administration were not paying attention to what was going on and being covered live 24/7 on the news. They were oblivious while a city on US soil was literally drowning.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 24 2021, @03:37AM (2 children)
Didn't you catch the memo? "The buck stops here," is now "the buck stops here, unless you are a Republican."
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 24 2021, @04:35PM (1 child)
"The Buck Stops Here" - Truman
"The Buck Will Stop With You" - Obama
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 27 2021, @12:26AM
"I'll put the bucks in my pocket. Anything else, you're on your own." - Trump