I guess it didn't even merit a thread this time...

[ex-khobar Andy]

And the press were banned because it wasn't supposed to be a photo op. From Slate:

And while the president refused to speak to reporters, who were scolded by the White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, in a statement saying that the visits were all “about the victims” and not a “photo op,” hours later, Trump released a campaign-style video of his triumphal comforting tour.

[BoSoxGal]

That is sick. That is so so so sick. Taking "photo-op" with the orphaned infant.

yrs,
rubato

Exactly. IF the family wanted to meet the President and First Lady, and wanted a photo to commemorate it, that’s all well and good. I can’t quite fathom why since the baby’s lovely 25/26 year old parents - Latinos who were targeted for their skin color - were just slaughtered while buying school supplies for their 5 year old and some supplies for the housewarming they were about to have in their brand new home; but just the same I won’t criticize them. But I can criticize Trump for publicizing a meeting that should have been solemn and private.

As David Brooks said tonight, Trump is just a pure sociopath. He is incapable of genuine emotion. He is particularly incapable of empathy. This isn’t fixable. He is a giant empty hole who did not feel loved as a child and thus cannot love anybody else.

Malignant narcissism is probably a generous diagnosis for Trump. He’s 73 and he has always been this way and he will never be able to even fake it. We can expect only more of this disgusting behavior at every new incident of domestic terrorism that takes place during the rest of his presidency. I expect more since his hateful rhetoric won’t change.

I wish he would die.

[RayThom]

According to Snopes: The man pictured to the left of the president is the baby’s uncle, Tito Anchondo, who told the El Paso Times that his brother was “a big Trump supporter,” and that the uncle wanted Trump “to know our family stands with the president.” For that reason, the baby, who had been discharged earlier according to hospital officials, was returned for the president’s visit and captured in the photo."

Andre Anchondo was a Big Grifter supporter? Gee, why do I have a hard time believing this?

Regardless, this photo borders on obscenity. Trumpelthinskin just oozes a smugness that pleads for a punch in the face.

[Bicycle Bill]

Regardless, this photo borders on obscenity. Trumpelthinskin just oozes a smugness that pleads for a punch in the face.

Oooooo!!  OOOoooooo!!! OOOooooooo, Mr. Kotter!!!



Can I do it?  Please, please, Mr. Kotter?

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

Just in case you didn't realize we had fallen through the fucking looking glass:

FBI RANKS 'BLACK IDENTITY EXTREMISTS' BIGGER THREAT THAN AL QAEDA, WHITE SUPREMACISTS: LEAKED DOCUMENTS

Leaked FBI documents indicate "black identity extremists" and animal rights activists are among the agency's top counterterrorism priorities under President Donald Trump.

The FBI's priority list documents, obtained by The Young Turks Thursday, lay out the Bureau's 2018 fiscal year focal points in counterterrorism, cyber crime and counterintelligence.

The 2018-19 "Threat Guidance" documents describe black identity extremists (BIEs) as those who "use force or violence in violation of criminal law in response to perceived racism and injustice in American society." The files claimed some BIEs acted in hopes of "establishing a separate black homeland or autonomous black social institutions, communities or governing organizations within the USA."

An internal FBI report from August 2017 was widely criticized for using the BIE label, which many called racist. But the Consolidated Strategy Guide documents leaked this week show the FBI kept the term and made BIEs one of its top counterterrorism priorities.

Under the Trump administration, they're considered a bigger threat than terror groups such as Al Qaeda.

"Animal rights/environmental extremists" and "anti-authority extremists" were also deemed top existential threats.

Under a cryptic strategy titled "IRON FIST," the leaked documents suggest the Bureau plans to use infiltration and other undercover techniques to "mitigate" threats posed by black extremist groups, including exploiting the felony status of some members.

Other language labels black extremists as racist themselves.

"Likely to target civilian and government entities that are perceived as oppressors, including, but not limited to, law enforcement officers, the U.S. government, members of rival BSE [Black Supremacist Extremists] groups, and individuals based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation and religion," read one section called "Key Domain Entities."

The documents show the FBI wrongly projected there would be "attrition" and declining membership within white supremacist and nationalist extremist movements over the past few years.

And in reference to white supremacy, the documents read, "Some RMVEs [Racially Motivated Violent Extremists] are driven by a belief in the superiority of the white race and a perception that the U.S. government is conspiring with Jews and minority populations to bring about the race's demise," the 2020 threat guidance documents state. (The FBI has also begun using "Racially Motivated Extremism" as a watered-down label for white nationalists groups.)

In the documents leaked to The Young Turks, the FBI sought to lower the "threat impact" by BIEs and identify who is recruiting or facilitating for such groups in the U.S.

"The FBI judges some RMVE perceptions of police brutality against African Americans served as justification for premeditated, retaliatory violence against law enforcement in 2016."

I have to question whether those responsible for putting together this claptrap are not themselves white supremacists. Nothing else would explain such a warped view of the state of affairs.

[Scooter]

A black identity extremist? Ah, no, another white neo-Nazi Trumpanzee:

Las Vegas neo-Nazi charged with plot to bomb gay club, synagogue

The FBI arrested and charged an alleged Las Vegas neo-Nazi with plotting to bomb a synagogue and gay club in the city on Thursday.

Conor Climo, 23, who worked as a security guard, allegedly was found to be in possession of bomb-making materials and was "communicating with individuals who identified with a white supremacist extremist organization using the National Socialist Movement to promote their ideology," according to the FBI.

The Las Vegas Joint Terrorism Task Force began investigating Climo in April, according to the criminal complaint, after it learned he was communicating with Atomwaffen Division, a white supremacist neo-Nazi group.

"AWD encourages attacks on the federal government, including critical infrastructure, minorities, homosexuals, and Jews," the complaint states. "AWD works to recruit like-minded members to the organization, train them in military tactics, hand to hand combat, bomb making, and other techniques in preparation for an 'ultimate and uncompromising victory' in a race war."

The FBI used a confidential informant to begin discussing weapons and explosives on an encrypted chat app and eventually quoted Climo "regularly us[ing] derogatory racial, anti-Semitic, and homosexual slurs."

He also discussed a plan to burn down a Las Vegas-area synagogue on May 10, the complaint says. Then, 13 days later, the FBI began using their own undercover employee to talk online with Climo, during which he discussed building explosives and being "more interested in action than online s---."

In late June and early July, Climo discussed preparing for an attack and doing surveillance "in great detail" of a bar on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas he claimed "catered to homosexuals."

The complaint also makes mention of Climo's Quora account, a question-and-answer social media site, where he once quoted Adolf Hitler in discussing the "downsides of multiculturalism."

The FBI executed a search warrant at his home on Aug. 8 and found thermite, sulfuric acid, a soldering iron, circuit boards and other bomb-making components, according to the complaint.

He was arrested and admitted to agents he hated "African-Americans, Jews, and Homosexuals" and was planning on building an improvised explosive device.

"Threats of violence motivated by hate and intended to intimidate or coerce our faith-based and LGBTQ communities have no place in this Country," U.S. Attorney for the District of Nevada Nicholas A. Trutanich said in a statement. "Law enforcement in Nevada remains determined to use the full weight of our investigative resources to prevent bias-motivated violence before it happens. I commend our partners who identified the threat and took swift and appropriate action to ensure justice and protect the community."

Authorities also found a sketch outlining two "infantry squads" attacking the Fremont Street bar with firearms, the complaint says.

The complaint also makes mention of a 2016 TV interview with Climo, conducted by Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV, in which he discusses patrolling his Centennial Hills neighborhood armed with an AR-15 assault rifle, large knife and 30 extra rounds of ammunition.

"If there is possibly a very determined enemy, we at least have the means to deal with it," Climo told KTNV three years ago.

Climo later told KTNV he was dropping the one-man patrol before it even became a regular occurrence.

[Econoline]

[BoSoxGal]

Look at those bitches fawning all over him - it makes me want to vomit. They have zero self respect.

[Sue U]

God save us from white women.

[Big RR]

Just like in high school, they still love the assholes.

[Scooter]

[BoSoxGal]

Students and Teachers Are Writing Wills in Case They Are Killed in a School Shooting | teenvogue

De ElizabethAugust 15, 2019
“It felt like I should think about what should happen to my own family if something were to happen to me.”

A makeshift memorial to the teens killed in the Parkland, Florida shooting
Getty Images
Over the past few weeks, Allison* has been busy getting ready for her 16th year of teaching high school English. Her back-to-school routine has become habit after so many autumns, but this year is noticeably different. Among the lesson plans, the school supplies, and the class rosters, Allison is also writing her will — in case she is killed in a school shooting.

“It’s something that I’ve been meaning to do for a number of years, since I first purchased my house seven years ago,” the 38-year-old told Teen Vogue. “I do seem to always think of it in the context of the school year.” Allison added that the recent mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, were the final push she needed in order to create her will. “I kept it fairly simple and generic,” she said of the process. “I utilized a free online program that allows you to fill in specific details and then frames it within the necessary legal jargon. I only designated a few specific things.”

Allison is not alone. Christina*, a seventh- and eighth-grade history teacher from California, created a will just a few months after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting for the same reason. “School shootings were always in the back of my mind as a possibility, but something in the conversation shifted after Parkland,” the educator explained. “My coworkers and I were talking about it more, and my school started doing school-shooting training. There were news stories about teachers dying in shootings and being ‘heroes.’ I’m not sure how I would react in a moment like that, but I hope I would protect my students. It felt like I should think about what should happen to my own family if something were to happen to me.”

That fear is not unfounded; 2018 was the worst year on record for school shootings in the United States, according to a report from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, which began compiling data on this topic in 1970. Everytown for Gun Safety reports that there have been at least 57 incidents of gunfire on school grounds in 2019 so far. And sadly, school is not the only place where people in the U.S. have a fear of being shot; there have been mass shootings at churches, at temples, movie theaters, nightclubs, festivals, concerts — to say that “nowhere is safe” would not be an exaggeration. Since the devastating Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, there have been over 2,000 mass shootings in the U.S., but few new laws to restrict access to guns.

While having a will is a good idea for asset-owning adults, it’s not just teachers who are preparing for the possibility of dying in a school shooting. Last year, Javon Davies a sixth grader from Birmingham, Alabama, went viral after he wrote out instructions for what should happen to his belongings (like his PlayStation and his cat), if he were killed at school — and more students are doing the same.

Tony, a high school senior, told Teen Vogue that a group of his friends created wills together this summer. Like Allison, they were moved by the recent shootings in El Paso and Dayton, though the Texas resident noted that his peers have discussed the topic before. “One of my friends started talking about how she was worried about a school shooting happening at our school, and another said he thought about writing a will once, just in case,” Tony recalled. “Then after those two shootings happened in the same day, we were texting about it again and decided to get together and write them. I’m not sure what my friends did with theirs, but I put mine in my desk drawer at home.”

Being afraid of dying at school is something that no young person should think about, yet many students worry about it on a daily basis. According to a 2018 Pew Research Center survey, the majority of teens are afraid of a mass shooting happening at their school. Azadeh Ghafari, a licensed psychotherapist who specializes in emotional and behavioral disorders, told Teen Vogue that the threat of mass shootings can be detrimental to one’s mental health — especially a young person who is exposed to the constant barrage of headlines concerning gun violence. Ghafari, who helps victims of crimes cope with trauma and grief and has also worked with a nonprofit organization that provides active shooter training, added, “Safety and security are vital to an adolescent’s healthy psychological development, and the continuous anxiety and sense of danger that comes with never-ending news cycles has the potential of disrupting that sense of security, and put teens at risk of developing anxiety and mood disorders.”

In addition to reading about school shootings in the news, many American students are participating in realistic active shooter drills in their own classrooms. Across the country, thousands of districts are adopting programs like ALICE, which encourages students and teachers to fight for their own survival in the event of a school shooting. During one of these drills, students and teachers role-play active shooter scenarios; they practice running to the nearest exit, barricading the door, and, in some cases, defending themselves should a gunman enter their classroom.

One of those realistic drills was the catalyst for Dana*, 16, to create her own will. “We had to decide if we should shelter in place or evacuate, and we chose to shelter,” the high school junior from Colorado told Teen Vogue. “I remember thinking that if the shooting were real, the person with the gun could come in at any moment, and I might be seconds away from dying. I started thinking about all of my friends and my parents and my sister and got the idea [for a will] from there. That night I wrote out what I would want to happen to my belongings, money I earned from work, that kind of thing. I also wrote that I’d want my body to be cremated because the idea of being buried freaks me out.”

None of this should feel normal, and yet children as young as preschool age are now taking part in active shooter drills. There is a concern among some mental health professionals that these realistic school shooting drills are doing more harm than good, and there’s very little data supporting their effectiveness. The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) has warned that, while lockdowns can “save lives and are considered best practice in crisis response,” such drills can potentially “produce anxiety, stress, and traumatic symptoms in some students or staff.” NASP also notes that lockdown drills should never be a surprise (though we’ve witnessed that happen too).

Ghafari explained to Teen Vogue that active shooter drills can be very traumatizing for students, adding that these drills are “a constant reminder that [students] might actually be killed at school. Students have reported feeling anxious, scared, and confused during and after the drill, and there is very little evidence to show that they are actually making our schools safer or our teens prepared.”

While having emergency protocols in place is important for any large organization, some experts say school shooting drills aren’t the answer to the larger issue of gun violence. “Instead of tackling the issue of gun control, white supremacy, and toxic masculinity, we are expecting minors to share in the responsibility of finding solutions to address gun violence and mass shootings in our country,” Ghafari pointed out. “We are expecting them to carry the brunt of the weight on multiple fronts.” Everytown points out that stopping mass shootings and gun violence on school grounds begins with “a multi-faceted plan that starts with tailored gun violence prevention policies.” The organization suggests legislation such as Red Flag Laws, stronger background checks, and more restrictions on semi-automatic weapons as concrete, tangible ways to reduce gun-related injuries and deaths at school.

Young people are demanding change too. From organizing rallies to running for office, students all over the country are done waiting for current politicians to take action — they are ready to take it themselves. Chloe Bernier, a 17-year-old student from Chicago who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after losing a friend in a school shooting, told Teen Vogue that her life has been completely changed by her dedication to the fight for gun reform. As the president for Chicago Student Activists, Chloe is working closely with other student organizations to spread awareness and affect change. “The friends I made in Chicago Student Activists were the first people I told about losing my friend in the shooting,” the 17-year-old told Teen Vogue, noting that she previously missed over 30 days of school during her junior year due to school shooting–related anxiety. “I began speaking about it…to raise awareness about how deep and far the trauma of a mass tragedy…can reach. A lot of people believe that it stops where it started: at the scene of the tragedy. But the truth is that it stretches a lot farther and does a lot more damage.”

Though Chloe has thought about making a will like Dana and Tony, she ultimately decided against it. “I’ve considered writing one, but have never actually gone through with it,” she explained. “The thought of doing it is too morbid for me at this point in my life. I don’t want to have that perpetual reminder of worry sitting somewhere, waiting for me to die.”

Dana is ready to take action as well. The 16-year-old has attended anti-gun rallies with her mother, and wants to see a safer country with stronger gun laws as she grows up. “We need gun control now,” she said. “I honestly don’t know what it will take to make [politicians] listen, but I’m going to keep yelling until they do. All of us are.”

*Names have been changed out of request for privacy.

[ex-khobar Andy]

According to CNN:

Teen ran out with a $2 beer. Memphis store clerk followed him and shot him dead

A jury found a grocery clerk guilty of killing a 17-year-old boy who ran out of the store with a beer he didn't pay for in Memphis, authorities sad.

Anwar Ghazali was convicted of second-degree murder after a four-day trial, Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich said Friday. He will be sentenced on September 23.

"This defendant took it upon himself to be the judge and jury and the executioner over a $2 beer," prosecutor Lora Fowler said, according to CNN affiliate WMC.

The shooting happened in March 2018, after Dorian Harris walked out of the Top Stop Shop with a beer without paying, Weirich said.

Ghazali pulled out a handgun and followed him, firing several times. He didn't call the police, but told a witness as he returned to the store, "I think I shot him."

Harris was shot at least three times and was left to bleed out, Fowler said. His body was found two days later in a yard near the store with gunshots in the back of his thigh, Weirich said.

I wouldn't mind some guidance (maybe from our *president [????]) about the point at which it becomes OK to follow a shoplifter out of the store and shoot him three times. An $8 beer? A $15 bottle of Pinot Grigio? A $45 bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape? We need to know where the line is.

[RayThom]

... I wouldn't mind some guidance (maybe from our *president [????]) about the point at which it becomes OK to follow a shoplifter out of the store and shoot him three times. An $8 beer? A $15 bottle of Pinot Grigio? A $45 bottle of Chateauneuf du Pape? We need to know where the line is.

Sharia Law... it's a bitch.

[Scooter]

[ex-khobar Andy]

Another mass shooting in Texas - seven dead, 21 wounded at last count, including a police officer Zack Owens. It's not clear if Owens was injured in the original shooting incident or the response.

This paragraph in the NYT account caused me to stop:

Officer Owens’ brother, Jake Owens, is also an officer with the Midland Police Department. Abigail McCullough, the wife of Mr. Owens’ cousin, set up a donation page on GoFundMe, a crowdfunding site, to help pay the medical expenses for Zack Owens. By early Sunday afternoon, more than $54,000 had been raised.

I understand people wanting to help, but aren't Owens's medical expenses 100% covered by the taxpayer? And if not, why not?

[Joe Guy]

If you click on the GoFundMe link, it takes you to a fundraiser for the 17 month old girl. There's something wrong with that news article.

[ex-khobar Andy]

It's working now - they must have mended the link.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/medical-fund ... zack-owens

[Joe Guy]

Yeah, they fixed the link. I agree with you. I don't see how he could not be covered by his health insurance. It looks too much like a scam. We need more information to justify the request for money.

[RayThom]

Yeah, they fixed the link. I agree with you. I don't see how he could not be covered by his health insurance. It looks too much like a scam. We need more information to justify the request for money.

O ye, of little faith.

Zack's mom said he'd get every cent of it. That should be enough to justify every purchase he'll make -- vacations, cars, houses -- stuff to facilitate the healing process.

The little girl can fend for herself.