Trump is actually being consistent on this point. Corey Stewart, chairman of his Virginia campaign, said “Liberal politicians who label police as racists — specifically Hillary Clinton and Virginia Lt. Governor Ralph Northam — are to blame for essentially encouraging the murder of these police officers tonight.” Trump’s campaign disavowed Stewart’s comment: “Corey Stewart’s comments are his own. They have nothing to do with the Trump campaign. They are not reflective of Mr. Trump’s position, nor are they indicative of Mr. Trump’s personal value system on the horrific events in Dallas and the last several days, with so many people killed."
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They don’t call it Southern strategy for nothing. If the truth hurts, be the change you wish to see.
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If the movement does not set out to be non-violent, it will not end up that way, and will be co-opted by kooks with guns and bomb making materials who have anger issues. There is no guiding principle other than anger at the injustice. It’s not enough. It gets bad headlines, and there is no end-game other than race war.
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Yes, he is always a victim, which absolutely is a Southern thing.
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Totally agree, and I believe that is what President Obama will do. He’ll go away for awhile and write his presidential memoir and then he’ll be out on a book/speaking tour and I have every confidence he’ll use that time to further his (our) agenda. I will deeply miss him as president, but I really don’t think we’ll get a chance to miss him in general. I feel like he’ll be one of the most vocal and consequential former presidents in history. Now the FLOTUS is a different matter. I think Michelle is over all of our shit. And rightfully, deservedly so.
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He wrote many times that we shouldn’t “read anything into” Trump’s use of a Star of David. He spent time insisting it was a “Sheriff’s star” (even finding image #142 in Google Search that showed a star from Taos NM without the bulbs on the star points. We, the liberal posters of TPM, were “always looking for an outrage.” I posted at the time to wait until someone made an even indirect remark about the South or about Southerners, and Then Richard would take umbrage.
Took him 3 days to prove my point.
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Having read @richardinjax’s comments over the last couple years, I am of the opinion he is “the change” he wishes to see. As a gay, fellow Southerner (Virginia), I must say that it’s a hell of a slow-as-molasses-in-winter type of progress most of the time. Many of us do our best. Yes, the truth does hurt at times – good people don’t like seeing or feeling catch-all, blanket statements when we’re doing our level best to effect positive change and just try to live our lives as well. That said, I know the score, and am usually one of the first ones to hold us to the same high standard with which I prefer we all had. Thanks.
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You guys realize the original article is exactly one simple declarative sentence. I am amazed you have all these insights from a single sentence.
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The possibility for President Obama to effectively take on social issues is reassuring. But never doubt that right wingers have enough bile for both of these fine people.
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We really aren’t civilized, are we? I weep for the world my grandchildren live in. I taught my son well. He is a great dad and human being. As a boomer I finally broke the generational bigotry of my immediate family.
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“We’re putting pieces together to understand what happened and why, developing witnesses,” said Scott Dutton, spokesman for the GBI, which is handling the case at the request of local police. “There’s nothing to indicate there’s a connection to that.”
Officer Randall Hancock was shot multiple times as he responded to a 911 call about a car break-in outside the Three Oaks Apartments just after 8 a.m. Friday, Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress said at a news conference.
“The officer called out on the radio screaming for assistance,” Childress said, and officers from multiple law enforcement agencies swarmed the apartment complex.
The GBI later identified the suspected gunman as 22-year-old Stephen Paul Beck and said it was Beck who also placed the 911 call. Both Childress and Dutton identified the suspect as an Asian male. Charges against Beck were still pending Friday as he was being treated at a Florida hospital, Dutton said.
Hmmm. Will have to wait for more info.
Link:
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/man-exchanges-gunfire-georgia-police-officer-40434452
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The brain evolved too quickly. Really: what, 50,000, maybe 100,000 years from ape to human? That is an eyeblink on the evolutionary scale. Consequently, we didn’t have time to evolve the emotional and attitudinal adjustments necessary to properly and safely use this powerful new tool, intelligence. It’s like a three-year-old with a Thompson sub-machine gun.
(Quasi-related sidebar: I was told recently that the number of Americans killed this year by toddlers with guns exceeds the number killed by terrorists. Shockingly, that seems quite plausible.)
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It’s an unnoticed and even unintended form of racism when a killing of a police officer by a vicious criminal who happens to also be in a minority group that is currently organizing for more just unbiased treatment has his motives commingled with the minority group yearning and building support for simple equality and much denied common dignity.
The motives of the Black Lives Matter movement are unimpeachable in my opinion. If individuals like this vengeful sociopath personally act out and commit similar to much worse race biased anti social deadly violence that Black Lives Matter activists are protesting, concurrently with the legal and well established actions of people peaceably assembling and protesting discrimination and inequality, shame on anyone trying to hang the guilt for that criminals personal decisions and actions on the minority group simply since they share the skin tone of the sociopath.
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The spin you just put on this incident is exactly what they do. Wow. You watch too much TV.
Trump’s earlier mindless and hypocritical statement: “Our nation has become too divided… Racial tensions have gotten worse, not better. This isn’t the American Dream we all want for our children.
This is a time, perhaps more than ever, for strong leadership, love and compassion.” begs the question, who is stoking the fires of racism in America? (rhymes with chump)
However, Trump must have wiggled free of his RNC-appointed staffers, and threw out this ironic gem later in the day:
“Isn’t it sad that on a day of national tragedy Hillary Clinton is answering softball questions about her email lies on @CNN?
5:31 PM - 8 Jul 2016”
He just can’t help himself.
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Wait… the article used the term “ambushed.” Is that confirmed? Or did the caller think the person breaking-in was the burgler? Need more info, please. Also… please do not use inflammatory wording as fact unless source is provided, e.g. “Sheriff’s spokesperson confirms officer was ambushed.” Thank you.
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If all he wanted to do was just kill someone, the last person he would call is a cop because it’s guaranteed the cop will be armed. Obviously he wanted to kill a cop, so he faked a 911 call. I recall people did that with a pizza guy a few times too, that was “just to kill someone”. But in this case, they wanted to kill a cop.
All this madness is greatly complicated by “stand your ground” laws, that give people the right to use lethal force simply on the basis of feeling ‘threatened’. It throws reason to the wind and creates a really dangerous situation for everyone, including (and perhaps especially) law enforcement.
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Stephen Paul Beck, 22, called 911 and said that his car had been broken into and he needed police assistance. When Officer Randall Hancock responded to the call, Beck shot at him several times, striking him twice in his protective vest and once in his abdomen, according to a statement from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Officer Hancock returned fire and stopped the shooter. Both men are currently hospitalized: Officer Hancock is in stable condition, Beck is in serious condition.
A spokesman from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and Valdosta Police Chief Brian Childress confirmed that Officer Hancock is white, and the shooter is Asian American. There is not yet any known motive, and investigators said there is no indication of a connection with the shootings in Dallas.
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I was being somewhat facetious. There was a protester who was identified by DPD as a suspect or a person of interest in the shootings. He is a black man who was armed with an unloaded long arm.
He turned himself in (and his rifle to a cop) as soon as he was aware that the police were looking for him. He was hauled in for questioning and eventually released. There was video showing he couldn’t have been involved in the shootings – gunshots were heard and the timestamp showed that he was in the crowd with the rifle slung over his shoulder.
Personally, I think carrying a weapon to that sort of protest is a lot like trying to use gasoline to put out a fire. But the fact is that he was within his legal rights to openly carry his rifle. I’m very grateful that the officer he turned himself into didn’t shoot him.
Bottom line: he was a good guy with a gun. He could do no more to help the situation in Dallas than I could from my home in Cincinnati. Good guys with guns don’t solve shooter incidents – they create peril for themselves.
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