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

[BoSoxGal]

Stop telling me what I’d do and what I’d think BB - you barely know me, you’re not inside my head and you clearly don’t pay attention to what I actually say here because you’re too busy filtering everything through your bias and obvious deep disdain for me.

If someone were to say negative things about lawyers here, I’d more than likely be in agreement. I believe that the majority of lawyers are money grubbing or egomaniacal dangerously ambitious assholes, in fact - that’s my own observational experience and I have no problem standing by it. My opinion of cops is also based on my own observational experience - both from following the epidemic of excessive use of force cases and from working closely with cops for a couple of decades and being the sister of one. I firmly believe that in practice more cops are bad than good, because the policing culture encourages moral ambiguity and law enforcement in the USA has been infiltrated by white supremacists and other sociopaths - even the FBI acknowledges this.

Again, please in future refrain from framing your posts by telling me how I think and what I would say. You’re fucking clueless about what I think and feel and it’s insulting that you think you know me.

eta: I made the mistake of taking you off ignore - won’t make it again. You now cease to exist in my world.

[Bicycle Bill]

I believe that the majority of lawyers are money grubbing or egomaniacal dangerously ambitious assholes, in fact

Which group do you fit into?     right back at'cha

-"BB"-

[ex-khobar Andy]

They took Dylan Roof thru the Burger King drive in after they picked him up for the Charleston Emanuel AME Church slaughter.

Killing brown people is a public service in the eyes of most cops; selling untaxed cigarettes and exhibiting an attitude to cops? Clearly a capital offense - if you’re black.

According to Snopes, Root was not taken to a BK. They were required to feed him just like any prisoner - I am guessing that they didn't want any lawyer claiming that his civil rights (being fed) were neglected - so they sent out to a local BK and had a cop go and pick him up a burger. Being late (11 PM or so) they had few options.

Sounds to me as if the cops did the right thing here.

Are there a lot of racially violent cops? Yes, way too many. Is it a majority? I doubt it. Same with lawyers. The bulk of lawyers I have known are decent people trying to make a living like the rest of us. Many of them do it well. Most people - of whatever profession - want what most of us want. Unfortunately for police and lawyers and a few other professions, the asshole minority have an outsized ability to fuck things up for the rest of us.

[Scooter]

Stochastic terrorism:

[RayThom]

And now, Dayton Ohio. The turnaround between mass murders is really picking up.

Ohio Shooting Leaves Nine Dead
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ohio-shoot ... 1564908036

[BoSoxGal]

They took Dylan Roof thru the Burger King drive in after they picked him up for the Charleston Emanuel AME Church slaughter.

Killing brown people is a public service in the eyes of most cops; selling untaxed cigarettes and exhibiting an attitude to cops? Clearly a capital offense - if you’re black.

According to Snopes, Root was not taken to a BK. They were required to feed him just like any prisoner - I am guessing that they didn't want any lawyer claiming that his civil rights (being fed) were neglected - so they sent out to a local BK and had a cop go and pick him up a burger. Being late (11 PM or so) they had few options.

Sounds to me as if the cops did the right thing here.

Are there a lot of racially violent cops? Yes, way too many. Is it a majority? I doubt it. Same with lawyers. The bulk of lawyers I have known are decent people trying to make a living like the rest of us. Many of them do it well. Most people - of whatever profession - want what most of us want. Unfortunately for police and lawyers and a few other professions, the asshole minority have an outsized ability to fuck things up for the rest of us.

Ok, so he didn’t go to BK - they brought it to him. You’re delusional if you think that is anything like common practice. No, in the vast majority of cases cops aren’t feeding suspects hot meals at the start of questioning. If you feel the need to dismiss the professional experience of an attorney who both defended and prosecuted in the criminal justice system over a two decade period and who has studied and followed criminal cases for an even longer period, then start paying better attention to other sources - true crime documentaries are abundant, including footage of real interrogations and many many stories of wrongful convictions and exonerations.

I handled thousands of cases while practicing criminal law and never once saw a case where cops fed a hot meal to a suspect in the interrogation room. Most were lucky to get a cup of water, a very few might have gotten a can of soda and bag of chips from the vending machine. Cops don’t spend much time, if any, worrying about violating the civil rights of suspects - the headlines are plentiful evidence of that, and I can attest that cleaning up after the civil rights violations by cops is a huge part of every DA’s/CA’s job.

[ex-khobar Andy]

I bow to your very superior experience of the criminal justice world; and I certainly don't think that the cops normally serve hot meals to suspects.

My point is that they appear to have done the right thing here; and I am guessing (or theorizing) that their motivation - given that this might have been the biggest case any of them had ever participated in and so everyone at the station, from the Chief on down, was involved - might have been that they had better play this by the book. If that meant feeding the fucker in order to pre-empt some lawyer's attempt to accuse them of somehow violating his rights, I think that is a very worthwhile expenditure of my tax dollars.

I'm well aware of the unspeakably horrific death of Eric Garner and the appalling murders by Dylan Root. I am quite capable of denouncing those acts while at the same time thinking that the cops sometimes (most of the time) get it right.

[Econoline]

[Econoline]

[Bicycle Bill]

the image is a link, btw

-"BB"-

[Burning Petard]

I have eaten garlic ice cream in Gilroy. I bought a stetson in El Paso. I have stayed over nite in a Dayton motel three times as I made road trips to the midwest. I went to bed last nite feeling bad about the shooting in El Paso. Then I heard on the morning radio news about Dayton. He shot his own sister! What is going on in the minds of people? I have been feeling really rotten all day.

What can I do? 'Thoughts and prayers' are just bullshit--no, worse than that because bullshit is at least good organic fertilizer. I have written letters and made phone calls to my congress critters about better back-ground check laws for years. I am a member of the NRA. Recently I got a typical phone call with a canned speech carefully crafted to scare me into sending the NRA money and spending more money at the local gun shops. There was a human being on the other end of the line and after some back-and-forth, they admitted to me that they were also sick of the way Wayne LaPee has been running the organization.

But what can I actually DO in Bear Delaware that will make a difference? One person today told me I should make a special effort just to be nice to people--specially young males. Maybe that that is all I can do.

snailgate.

[RayThom]

'O ye, of little faith.

Knowing that our elected officials are powerless to do anything about this constant mass carnage, I am so thankful to God that I still have my thoughts and prayers to offer up to these poor souls.

Matthew 5:21-22 “You have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.’ But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

Hallelujah... and God bless America.

[ex-khobar Andy]

What can I do? 'Thoughts and prayers' are just bullshit--no, worse than that because bullshit is at least good organic fertilizer. I have written letters and made phone calls to my congress critters about better back-ground check laws for years. I am a member of the NRA. Recently I got a typical phone call with a canned speech carefully crafted to scare me into sending the NRA money and spending more money at the local gun shops. There was a human being on the other end of the line and after some back-and-forth, they admitted to me that they were also sick of the way Wayne LaPee has been running the organization.

snailgate.

I'm guessing that you joined the NRA because you like hunting or target shooting; and you think that it's worth having an organization of like minded people who can help to train others in the use of equipment which could, if wrongly operated, result in the injury or death of the user and others.

I don't know, because I'm too lazy to look it up, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of the traditional NRA membership has left because they don't want their membership dollars to go towards the 100-round-magazines-are-a-god-given-right! brigade or to indulge Mr LaPierre's taste in fancy suits.

I'll circle back to that, but let me make a point. The political right has long decried the rise of 'victimhood culture' which gave us words like 'microagression.' But now we see even the most macho, least racist of presidents (he told us so!) telling us that the rest of the word has played the US for suckers all these years. Those wicked Canadian farmers have been taking advantage of us! No more, of course. Isn't it odd that the overriding fear of the NRA is that they (the feds, I suppose but it could be anyone) are going to take our guns away? Help me, help me! Thomas Jefferson himself told me that I could keep this muzzle-loading musket semiautomatic AN-15 in my cold, dead hands! (The AN-15 used by the Dayton OH shooter was made right here in Kentucky by Anderson Manufacturing in Hebron - just over the river from Cincinnati. We're so proud.) I too decry the victimhood culture. No-one is coming for your guns, Mr LaPierre. Just as long as you keep them locked up so that no-one can steal them and use them to make some actual, real-life victims. I should probably rephrase that. real-death victims. If it turns you on, Mr LaPierre, to gloat over your collection of semi-automatics in the privacy of your own bedroom while wearing a $3850 suit, that's your affair. (I should probably rephrase that too, but I won't.) I'm really not coming for your weapon, Mr LaPierre. (Not rephrasing.) Suck it up, Mr LaPierre. (Really, I'm not doing this on purpose. It's just that I feel it in my bones. [Stop that.] I've become a bit of a missionary about this.)

If the good people who make up the bulk of the NRA (I know some) would vote out the crop of mercenaries who run the organization and return it to its original mission, we'd all be better off.

PS: LaPierre translates as The Peter. Look it up.

[Bicycle Bill]

And yet again, Trump finds a way to botch up the response to these incidents:

President Trump on Monday morning blamed the media for “anger and rage” that gave way to the shootings that left 29 dead in El Paso and Dayton over the weekend.  “The Media has a big responsibility to life and safety in our Country,” he tweeted.  “Fake News has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years.  News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!”

Minutes before pointing the finger at the media, Trump posted a two-part tweet calling for Republicans and Democrats to “come together” to “get strong background checks.”  The call for action was immediately stripped of any shred of sincerity when, with the first words of the second half of the tweet, the president suggested “marrying” the legislation to immigration reform.

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump
2h2 hours ago

We cannot let those killed in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, die in vain. Likewise for those so seriously wounded. We can never forget them, and those many who came before them (and the many, many more who will come after them unless something is done about these weapons of war in civilian hands — addition mine). Republicans and Democrats must come together and get strong background checks, perhaps marrying....
9,401 replies 8,742 retweets 43,973 likes

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

....this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. We must have something good, if not GREAT, come out of these two tragic events!

It’s also not the first time Trump has made a weak plea for background checks following a mass shooting.  Nothing substantial has ever resulted from his calls, as Trump has not followed up on them in any significant fashion.

The tweets come after a weekend in which Trump’s responded erratically to the gun violence.  On Saturday, in the aftermath of the El Paso shooting, he issued a boilerplate tweet about how “reports are very bad, many killed” and that he pledged the assistance of the federal government to Texas Governor Greg Abbott.  Fourteen minutes later, Trump tweeted well wishes to Colby Covington, an MMA fighter who supports him.  “Fight hard tonight Colby.  You are a real Champ!  #MAGA,” he wrote above a picture of him smiling with Covington.  That night, Trump was all smiles as he dropped in on a wedding at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

The response wasn’t much different Sunday.  He again spent the day at his golf course in Bedminster, capping off updates about the federal government co-operating with law enforcement with a pair of tweets announcing that he authorized the flags at federal government building to fly at half mast.  “Melania and I are praying for all those impacted by this unspeakable act of evil!” he said, finally.  Though the El Paso shooter posted a manifesto decrying an “invasion” of immigrants, at no point did Trump condemn white nationalism, white supremacy, or xenophobia.

A few minutes after posting his anti-media tweet, Trump retweeted a follower who thanked him for “stand[ing] up for others” in the wake of the tragedies, along with an image of him staring out the window of the Oval Office — presumably deep in thought.
(Yeah .... no doubt thinking, "If I had played the eight-iron instead of the pitching wedge from the rough on the 7th hole on Saturday, I probably wouldn't have had to three-putt that green.")

-"BB"-

[Bicycle Bill]

I went to bed last nite feeling bad about the shooting in El Paso.  Then I heard on the morning radio news about Dayton.  He shot his own sister!

Well, there you go.  It must have been an honor killing.
The others were just collateral damage.

-"BB"-

[Scooter]

The Hooded Sheet-in-Chief is now blaming mental illness, video games and the media.

If that's true, then why are these mass killings so rare in other countries? Are Americans so much crazier than anyone else in the world? Do Koreans not play video games? Is there no mass media or internet in Germany?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[RayThom]

And don't forget the victims in Toledo.

The lines of coke he snorted started to kick in at around 7'15". (I'm convinced Lord Dampnut is on a regimen of psychotropic meds.)



To be fair and unbiased, Papa Joe misremembered Houston and Michigan as the shooting sites at a fund raiser yesterday.

[Econoline]

To be clear, this is obviously fake (OR IS IT???? )...but it's still hilarious!

[Econoline]

The Hooded Sheet-in-Chief is now blaming mental illness, video games and the media.

If that's true, then why are these mass killings so rare in other countries? Are Americans so much crazier than anyone else in the world? Do Koreans not play video games? Is there no mass media or internet in Germany?

Inquiring minds want to know.

[MGMcAnick]

I think that the 251 statistic is flawed. I heard that number on Sunday, but later heard it was not correct. My guess is that someone put 251 on the internet, and since it was on the internet it must be true. Then it was spread far and wide. Here is what TIME Inc has to say.

https://time.com/5643553/2019-mass-shootings-list/

I have been in that El Paso Wal*Mart. It was several years ago before we had a president who liked to incite all manner of racist issues and hate. It overlooks Interstate 10 and has a Sams Club next to it. No one was shooting.