Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

[BackInTex]

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.

(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.

(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

Clear link? Talk about delusional. Where is the link, murky or otherwise?

[silverscreenselect]

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.

(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.

(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

Clear link? Talk about delusional. Where is the link, murky or otherwise?

HIAS is the Hebrew Immigrant Aids Society. I think the link is pretty clear (there are a large number of groups supporting the immigrant caravan, but for some unknown reason Bowers chose to focus on this one).

Here are some of his other quotes:

"There is no #MAGA as long as there is a kike infestation."
"Open you eyes! It is the filthy EVIL Jews bringing the filthy EVIL Muslims into the country!"

Of course, this guy got his inspiration from the top. Here's what Trump had to say today about Tom Steyer, who is Jewish and one of the people to whom the MAGAbomber's packages were addressed:

Just watched Wacky Tom Steyer, who I have not seen in action before, be interviewed by @jaketapper. He comes off as a crazed & stumbling lunatic who should be running out of money pretty soon. As bad as their field is, if he is running for President, the Dems will eat him alive!

[silverscreenselect]

And now we have what appears to be the bloodiest act of anti-Semitic hate-violence in American history. My point at the moment is not to assess what factors or circumstances made this possible or egged the killer on. I will say that previous presidents have found it their duty to speak to the nation as a whole at times of cruelty or tragedy. In recent times this ranges from Ronald Reagan after the Challenger disaster, to Bill Clinton after the Oklahoma City mass killing, to George W. Bush in his speech to Congress after the 9/11 attacks, to Barack Obama after the Charleston church shooting.

Donald Trump has never once, in his life, spoken in that vein—as bearer of the whole nation’s grief, as champion of its faith and resolve—so there is no reason to expect that he could possibly do so now. America has almost always had someone able to play that role before. If presidents didn’t naturally possess that register in their discourse, they learned the bearing and language that was expected of them. Harry Truman did so, after he unexpectedly became the leader of the post–World War II world. George W. Bush did, in his early remarks after 9/11. Even Lyndon B. Johnson, who fit no model of a natural orator, recognized what the country needed from him after history-changing assassinations: of the Kennedy brothers, Jack and Bobby, and of Martin Luther King Jr. Like his predecessors, he recognized what was expected of him, and he tried his best.

Donald Trump cannot and will not do any of this, and the absence of such a voice in national leadership is palpable. It is as if George Wallace had been president when King was killed—or Theodore Bilbo, or Strom Thurmond. Even those figures, though, would have probably had a clearer awareness of what a president was supposed to do.

Fallows follows with a description of the HIAS and what they do. Very good article.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archi ... as/574198/

[Beebs52]

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

Clear link? Talk about delusional. Where is the link, murky or otherwise?

HIAS is the Hebrew Immigrant Aids Society. I think the link is pretty clear (there are a large number of groups supporting the immigrant caravan, but for some unknown reason Bowers chose to focus on this one).

Here are some of his other quotes:

"There is no #MAGA as long as there is a kike infestation."
"Open you eyes! It is the filthy EVIL Jews bringing the filthy EVIL Muslims into the country!"

Of course, this guy got his inspiration from the top. Here's what Trump had to say today about Tom Steyer, who is Jewish and one of the people to whom the MAGAbomber's packages were addressed:

Just watched Wacky Tom Steyer, who I have not seen in action before, be interviewed by @jaketapper. He comes off as a crazed & stumbling lunatic who should be running out of money pretty soon. As bad as their field is, if he is running for President, the Dems will eat him alive!

Thanks for your personal efforts to elevate the conversation.

[Bob78164]

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.

(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

In this case, by the way, there's a pretty clear link between Donny's rhetoric and the shooter's motives:

HIAS likes to bring invaders in that kill our people. I can't sit by and watch my people get slaughtered. Screw your optics, I'm going in.

(Emphasis added.) HIAS is a refugee agency. --Bob

Clear link? Talk about delusional. Where is the link, murky or otherwise?

I'll use the words of Adam Serwer in The Atlantic:

The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread, and that his followers chose to amplify.

When you use the world's biggest megaphone to describe desperate refugees walking to the United States from hundreds of miles away as "invaders" and a lunatic takes your words seriously and decides to act on them, you bear some responsibility. --Bob

[Estonut]

I'll use the words of Adam Serwer in The Atlantic:

The apparent spark for the worst anti-Semitic massacre in American history was a racist hoax inflamed by a U.S. president seeking to help his party win a midterm election. There is no political gesture, no public statement, and no alteration in rhetoric or behavior that will change this fact. The shooter might have found a different reason to act on a different day. But he chose to act on Saturday, and he apparently chose to act in response to a political fiction that the president himself chose to spread, and that his followers chose to amplify.

When you use the world's biggest megaphone to describe desperate refugees walking to the United States from hundreds of miles away as "invaders" and a lunatic takes your words seriously and decides to act on them, you bear some responsibility.

So you see a straight line between the President saying that South & Central American people forcing their way over our borders are "invaders" and some asshole shooting up a synagogue?

[silverscreenselect]

So you see a straight line between the President saying that South & Central American people forcing their way over our borders are "invaders" and some asshole shooting up a synagogue?

When you make as many statements like that as Trump does and you have as many assholes following you as he does, things like this are going to happen.

[Estonut]

So you see a straight line between the President saying that South & Central American people forcing their way over our borders are "invaders" and some asshole shooting up a synagogue?

When you make as many statements like that as Trump does and you have as many assholes following you as he does, things like this are going to happen.

That is WAY more general than the specificity that Bob# claimed.

[silverscreenselect]

So you see a straight line between the President saying that South & Central American people forcing their way over our borders are "invaders" and some asshole shooting up a synagogue?

When you make as many statements like that as Trump does and you have as many assholes following you as he does, things like this are going to happen.

That is WAY more general than the specificity that Bob# claimed.

If you look at this guy's social media records, his anti-Semitism was there long before the caravan, but it does seem to be a triggering event with him (the idea that the Jews were financing this caravan to bring Muslim terrorists into the country). More generally, Trump says a whole lot of inflammatory things that can incite hate groups and violence. Different statements hit different people's hot buttons, and, what's more, by his rather lame and infrequent attempts at apologies, sympathy, or any sort of damage control, Trump gives the impression that he tacitly endorses what's going on (going off with his usual tirades against the MAGAbomber's targets within a couple of days after the arrest is but the latest example). It's a bit surprising that we get three highly publicized incidents in one week, but he has a big audience for his statements, and some number of people who pay attention who are just waiting for something to trigger them.

And as for Trump's suggestion that security guards in the synagogue might have helped, this guy shot and wounded four trained police officers wearing protective gear. It's quite likely that a poorly paid (or volunteer) security guard getting in a firefight with the shooter in the synagogue would just have resulted in more casualties.

[Weyoun]

When you make as many statements like that as Trump does and you have as many assholes following you as he does, things like this are going to happen.

That is WAY more general than the specificity that Bob# claimed.

If you look at this guy's social media records, his anti-Semitism was there long before the caravan, but it does seem to be a triggering event with him (the idea that the Jews were financing this caravan to bring Muslim terrorists into the country). More generally, Trump says a whole lot of inflammatory things that can incite hate groups and violence. Different statements hit different people's hot buttons, and, what's more, by his rather lame and infrequent attempts at apologies, sympathy, or any sort of damage control, Trump gives the impression that he tacitly endorses what's going on (going off with his usual tirades against the MAGAbomber's targets within a couple of days after the arrest is but the latest example). It's a bit surprising that we get three highly publicized incidents in one week, but he has a big audience for his statements, and some number of people who pay attention who are just waiting for something to trigger them.

And as for Trump's suggestion that security guards in the synagogue might have helped, this guy shot and wounded four trained police officers wearing protective gear. It's quite likely that a poorly paid (or volunteer) security guard getting in a firefight with the shooter in the synagogue would just have resulted in more casualties.

I live near the Tree of Life. My wife and child passed through that intersection minutes before the incident happened.

I'm only writing to comment that there's a police station two small blocks away from the synagogue, on Northumberland Avenue. It's actually why the cops were able to get there so quickly. I seriously doubt a single guard could have done anything else. My child attends a Jewish daycare, and Trump's suggestion that we just stick someone out there with a gun isn't what I want for my child. Trump's an idiot and a bad person.

I won't comment further than that, since I see that the board - as it has been for years - is a stupid display of children kicking each other in the sandbox, blaming the other side for all the problems in this country.

[silverscreenselect]

That is WAY more general than the specificity that Bob# claimed.

If you look at this guy's social media records, his anti-Semitism was there long before the caravan, but it does seem to be a triggering event with him (the idea that the Jews were financing this caravan to bring Muslim terrorists into the country). More generally, Trump says a whole lot of inflammatory things that can incite hate groups and violence. Different statements hit different people's hot buttons, and, what's more, by his rather lame and infrequent attempts at apologies, sympathy, or any sort of damage control, Trump gives the impression that he tacitly endorses what's going on (going off with his usual tirades against the MAGAbomber's targets within a couple of days after the arrest is but the latest example). It's a bit surprising that we get three highly publicized incidents in one week, but he has a big audience for his statements, and some number of people who pay attention who are just waiting for something to trigger them.

And as for Trump's suggestion that security guards in the synagogue might have helped, this guy shot and wounded four trained police officers wearing protective gear. It's quite likely that a poorly paid (or volunteer) security guard getting in a firefight with the shooter in the synagogue would just have resulted in more casualties.

I live near the Tree of Life. My wife and child passed through that intersection minutes before the incident happened.

I'm only writing to comment that there's a police station two small blocks away from the synagogue, on Northumberland Avenue. It's actually why the cops were able to get there so quickly. I seriously doubt a single guard could have done anything else. My child attends a Jewish daycare, and Trump's suggestion that we just stick someone out there with a gun isn't what I want for my child. Trump's an idiot and a bad person.

I won't comment further than that, since I see that the board - as it has been for years - is a stupid display of children kicking each other in the sandbox, blaming the other side for all the problems in this country.

Steve:

It's good to hear from you again, only I wish it weren't after such a horrible tragedy. I hope you and your family are doing well under what must have been shocking circumstances. Our deepest condolences and sympathies go out to all the friends and family of the victims.

[earendel]

Why is globalist automatically "liberal Jews"? Most people don't know nor care whether Soros is Jewish. Very odd statement.

This article explains why labels like “globalist” are troublesome.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/201 ... mb-attacks

Like you, most American politicians are probably unaware of the connotation. (That’s not the case in his native Hungary.). I hope they become educated and use more appropriate insults.

That’s BS. People don’t dislike Soros because he’s Jewish, it’s in spite of it. He is dangerous to our country.

How is Soros "dangerous to our country" any more than the Koch brothers? Both support organizations with whom they are in agreement, both fund politicians and parties that they agree with.

[BackInTex]

And given every opportunity to act presidential, Trump acts petty and partisan and continues to fan the flames that breed dangerous idiots like these shooters and bombers.

I said the same thing about Obama. We, unfortunately, are both right.

That is a disgusting calumny. The only thing President Obama did to fan the flames that stoke violence was to be a black man who had the audacity to get himself elected President of the United States. He showed tolerance, compassion, and respect for his political opponents, even those whose avowed mission was to make him a one-term President by opposing anything and everything he attempted to accomplish, even things they used to support.

Comparing President Obama to Donny is delusional. --Bob

August 28, 2015
Deputy Darrin Goforth (someone I personally knew)

July 7, 2016
Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens
Officer Michael Krol
Sgt. Michael Smith
Officer Brent Thompson
Officer Patricio "Patrick" Zamarripa

July 17, 2016
Deputy Brad Garafola
Officer Matthew Gerald
Corporal Montrell Jackson

[silverscreenselect]

August 28, 2015
Deputy Darrin Goforth (someone I personally knew)

July 7, 2016
Senior Cpl. Lorne Ahrens
Officer Michael Krol
Sgt. Michael Smith
Officer Brent Thompson
Officer Patricio "Patrick" Zamarripa

July 17, 2016
Deputy Brad Garafola
Officer Matthew Gerald
Corporal Montrell Jackson

Maybe I missed it, but when did Obama advocate violence or make any suggestions that these police officers or police in general were the enemy? In fact, every time one of these incidents occurred, Obama condemned them immediately and forcefully.

https://www.politifact.com/virginia/sta ... ecried-ki/

[BackInTex]

Maybe I missed it, but when did Obama advocate violence or make any suggestions that these police officers or police in general were the enemy?

To borrow a phrase from the left, he used a dog whistle. From "the police acted stupidly", to "if I had a son he'd look like Trevon", and sending in the DOJ to investigate the police in Ferguson (along with other places) and treating them as guilty until proven innocent, while staying silent when BLM and NofI protesters openly called for killing police...tweet tweet.

In fact, every time one of these incidents occurred, Obama condemned them immediately and forcefully.

Yeah, a little late after the fact, but he did make sure we all knew he felt the police shared some of the blame in his speech in Dallas.

[Bob78164]

Maybe I missed it, but when did Obama advocate violence or make any suggestions that these police officers or police in general were the enemy?

To borrow a phrase from the left, he used a dog whistle. From "the police acted stupidly", to "if I had a son he'd look like Trevon", and sending in the DOJ to investigate the police in Ferguson (along with other places) and treating them as guilty until proven innocent, while staying silent when BLM and NofI protesters openly called for killing police...tweet tweet.

In fact, every time one of these incidents occurred, Obama condemned them immediately and forcefully.

Yeah, a little late after the fact, but he did make sure we all knew he felt the police shared some of the blame in his speech in Dallas.

Are you saying that the DoJ shouldn't even investigate? It should just ignore the number of unarmed black men being shot by police? Chalk it up as the price of doing business in (white) America?

What's wrong with investigating? Republicans certainly never tired of investigating Secretary Clinton. --Bob

[BackInTex]

Chalk it up as the price of doing business in (white) America?

No, chalk it ups to robbing a store, beating the store owner, charging a police officer and beating him in (black or white) Ferguson.

[silverscreenselect]

To borrow a phrase from the left, he used a dog whistle.

To borrow a phrase from Princess Bride, "I do not think that means what you think it means."

[Bob78164]

The shooter acquired and possessed all four of his weapons (an assault rifle and three handguns) legally, as well as the shotgun in his car and five more weapons found at his home. --Bob

[flockofseagulls104]

I must say, watching from the sidelines: the bat phone has been ringing off the hook.

If you want to know what I think, I'll just leave it to aSSShole. He always lets us know what I think, regardless what I say.

[silverscreenselect]

I have to say that the Pittsburgh shooting has brought the two parties together in at least one regard.

Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan all refused to go with Trump to Pittsburgh today.

So we can get bipartisan support on some issues.