James T. Hodgkinson: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know

Heavy.com  "An anti-Trump, Republican-hating Bernie Sanders supporter with a history of domestic violence has been identified as the shooter who opened fire on Republican members of Congress Wednesday morning at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, the Washington Post reports. He was shot by police at the scene and later died at a local hospital, President Donald Trump said.

" 'James T. Hodgkinson, 66, was from Belleville, Illinois, the newspaper reports. A motive for the shooting is not yet known, but Hodgkinson’s Facebook page shows someone who had a high interest in politics, who supported Bernie Sanders during the presidential election and expressed anger with President Donald Trump and Republican Congressmen.

"The gunman was shot by two Capitol Hill Police officers who were at the scene as a security detail for Rep. Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip, who was among those shot. The two police officers, special agents David Bailey and Krystal Griner, were also wounded, along with Zack Barth, a staffer for Rep. Roger Williams of Texas and a former staffer turned lobbyist, Matt Mika. The victims are all expected to survive, but Mika was the most seriously injured and was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon.

"Two Congressmen, Rep. Jeff Duncan and Rep. Ron DeSantis, described an encounter with a man who asked them if those practicing were “Republicans or Democrats” before the shooting. DeSantis, when shown a photo of Hodgkinson, confirmed he was the man who approached him, CNBC reports.

"Alexandria Police Chief Michael Brown said his officers and Capitol Police officers exchanged fire with the gunman.

"Sources told the CNN it was a “deliberate attack.”

"The GOP baseball team was practicing at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in the Del Ray neighborhood of Alexandria when the shooting occurred. The Republican team was preparing to play its annual game against Democratic congressmen at Nationals Park in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

"This post will be updated as more information is made available. Here is what we know so far:" . . . Hat tip to Steve Alison

Gunman opens fire at congressional baseball practice...

Expect much sarcasm from the left, mixed with some rejoicing by academia and Hollywood. TD

UK Mail   "The gunman who opened fire on a Republican congressional baseball practice session on Wednesday morning, injuring four people including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, has been named as James T. Hodgkinson.  

"The shooter from Belleville, Illinois, fired up to 100 rounds from a high powered rifle from the third base dugout at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park in Alexandria, Virginia, as the group practiced batting at around 7.00 a.m.

"He was eventually shot by two U.S. Capitol Police officers who were accompanying Scalise. They were both wounded as they exchanged gunfire. 

"Hodgkinson, who was first named by CBS News, is now in custody and undergoing treatment at a local hospital. Acquaintances said the man was a staunch Democrat who volunteered for Bernie Sanders' campaign. 

"Zachary Barth, a congressional staffer for Texas Rep. Roger Williams was also shot. Senator Rand Paul, who was at the scene but was not injured, described it as a 'killing field.'

"Moments before the attack, a man - thought to be the shooter -  asked if the group were Republicans or Democrats, Florida Rep. Ron DeSantis said. North Carolina Rep. Mike Walker told NBC News the 'gunman was there to kill as many Republican members as possible.'

"Michigan Rep. Mike Bishop described how one man – thought to be part of Scalise’s Capitol Police protection detail – stood his ground to return fire as the congressmen and at least one of their children dove for cover in a dugout and Scalise dragged himself across the field after being hit, leaving a trail of blood behind him." . . .

Belleville suspect in congressional shooting belongs to anti-GOP groups

"James Hodgkinson of Belleville protests outside of the United States Post Office in Downtown Belleville in this file photo. Hodgkinson is part of the “99%” team drawing attention to the disproportionate amount of money and political power the top 1 percent of Americans have acquired."

. . . "Two days ago, Hodgkinson posted an angry tweet about President Donald Trump on Facebook.

“ 'I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an a-- hole you are Truly the Biggest A-- Hole We Have Ever Had in the Oval Office,” he wrote on Facebook.
Hodgkinson is a member of a number of anti-Republican groups on Facebook, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
▪  “The Road to Hell is Paved with Republicans”
▪  “Donald Trump is not my President”
▪  “President Bernie Sanders”
▪  “Illinois Berners United to Resist Trump”
▪  “Boycott the Republican Party”
▪  “Expose Republican Fraud”
▪  “Terminate the Republican Party”

Comey got 'steely silence' after confronting Loretta Lynch about Clinton's email probe

Circa  Ex-FBI Director James Comey has privately told members of Congress that he had a frosty exchange with Obama Attorney General Loretta Lynch last year when he confronted her about possible political interference in the Hillary Clinton email investigation after showing Lynch a sensitive document she was unaware the FBI possessed, according to sources who were directly briefed on the matter.

"During his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee last Thursday, Comey alluded to the exchange after publicly discussing an encounter with Lynch, where she ordered him not to refer to the criminal probe of Clinton’ handling of classified emails not as an “investigation” but rather as a “matter.”  He suggested it smacked of political spin rather than the way professional law enforcement officers talk.
. . . 
"Comey told lawmakers in the close door session that he raised his concern with the attorney general that she had created a conflict of interest by meeting with Clinton’s husband, the former President Bill Clinton, on an airport tarmac while the investigation was ongoing.

"During the conversation, Comey told lawmakers he confronted Lynch with a highly sensitive piece of evidence, a communication between two political figures that suggested Lynch had agreed to put the kibosh on any prosecution of Clinton. 

"Comey said “the attorney general looked at the document then looked up with a steely silence that lasted for some time, then asked him if he had any other business with her and if not that he should leave her office,” said one source who was briefed."

Only in America: Boys gain sports stardom by beating girls

William Dodd   "Last week, the Hartford Courant reported that a freshman runner on the Cromwell High School girls' track team won the 100- and 200-meter dashes in a meet with Portland, Stonington, and Old Saybrook High Schools.  The winning freshman ran the 100-meter final in 12.66 seconds and the 200-meter final in 26.08.  

"This year, the 15-year-old track meet winner, Andraya Yearwood, is called a girl in media reports.  But last year, Andraya was on the middle school male track team.  Several months ago, when he announced to his parents that he identified himself as a female, Andraya's parents were fully supportive of their son's new gender discovery.  "Once we identified that she [sic] was transgender, a weight lifted off her [sic] shoulders," his mother said.  "She's [sic] been engaging in so many different things and so confident about what she [sic] is doing that she [sic] is almost a totally different person. And that's what you want to see as a parent: a child that is confident and loves herself [sic]."

"Of note, the last-place finishers at the same track meet in the boys' 100-meter and 200-meter dashes finished their races in 11.73 seconds and 25.59 seconds, respectively.  Andraya would have finished last had he competed with the rest of the boys.  The second-place finisher in the girls' 200-meter dash was last year's winner, Sarah Hall, a junior from Stonington High School and an actual girl.

"The Cromwell track coach couldn't be happier with Andraya's gender revision.  "I have a spectacular female [sic] athlete," . . .

Transgenders dominate in weightlifting, track, wrestling, football, basketball, mixed martial arts

Attorney General Sessions’s Recusal Was Unnecessary

Andrew C. McCarthy claims Attorney General Sessions’s Recusal Was Unnecessary

The Big Collusion Narrative Keeps Melting Down
"After two days and almost six hours of high-stakes public testimony, I’m struck by the total lack of any compelling claims supporting the “big” collusion narrative, that Russia conspired with Trump or Trump officials to “hack” election. While we certainly aren’t privy to all the relevant information or all the relevant testimony, nothing that James Comey said last week or that Jeff Sessions said today (much less any of the questions directed his way) contained so much as a meaningful hint that the Committee was on the verge of uncovering the political scandal of the century. Rather, the focus keeps shifting to much narrower questions regarding Trump’s decision to fire James Comey — questions that are important but far less historically consequential than any claim that a president or his attorney general are traitors to their country." . . . David French

From Johnny Carson to Stephen Colbert

The reason he didn’t let on where he stood politically is that he believed that he had a much greater responsibility — to offer Americans of all political persuasions an island of good-natured fun, a place where everyone could laugh together, every night.

This Reagan sketch is in a class far above what TV comics today are capable of.

Dennis Prager  "Whatever the Left dominates, it ruins. 
"In a monologue considered witty by teenagers, by teenagers in adult bodies, and by those who hate President Trump, CBS Late Show host Stephen Colbert said about the president: 
“The only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c***holster.”
"And: “You’re turning into a real pr**-tator.” 
Witty? Not to many of us. 
"And not just not witty, obscene — which is particularly disturbing because it was broadcast on network, not cable, television.
"But more than anything, it exemplified a trend in American life that one could identify without any exaggeration as the unraveling of civil society. To anyone, liberal or conservative, who grew up watching Johnny Carson on late night TV, the descent from Carson to Colbert is as breathtaking as it is heartbreaking.
. . .
"The universities, the news media, the entertainment media, the fine arts, the courts, the high schools and elementary schools (and, coming soon, the preschools, as soon as they’re government-funded and universal) — all ruined wherever leftism has achieved dominance."

The Murdoch Boys and the Future of Fox News

Journalist Michael Wolff, who has written extensively about Fox News, wrote about James Murdoch on April 20, 2017:
It would be hard to imagine how James could have been regarded with more contempt by many of the people at Fox News. James was rather exhibit No. 1 of the liberal elite entitlement that Fox had so profitably programmed against.

Peter Barry Chowka

. . . "James and Lachlan Murdoch are married to high profile professional women – both of whom are widely reported to be on the far left side of the political spectrum. James’s wife Kathryn was a marketing executive and is now a dedicated environmental activist. At the Web site of the foundation that she co-founded with her husband, Kathryn Murdoch’s profile notes: “Between 2007-2011, Ms. Murdoch served as Director of Strategy & Communications for the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) where she also managed CCI’s partnership with Microsoft in the development of a global greenhouse gas emissions tracking software.” She is also a trustee of the Environmental Defense Fund. Confirming Kathryn Murdoch’s left wing credentials, her personal Twitter account features frequent tweets like the one she posted on June 4, 2017: “I don't believe in Donald Trump. Will that make him go away?”

. . . 

"Michael Wolff weighed in again on April 20, 2017: The ouster of Roger Ailes in 2016 and Bill O’Reilly on April 19, 2017, he wrote, “means most of all that James [Murdoch] is in charge. And, most immediately, this means that Fox News, that constant irritant in James’ view of himself as a progressive and visionary television executive, will begin to change. Virtually overnight.' ”

. . . 

"In terms of what might emerge if Fox News continues to falter, there are indications in a number of recent articles that people with large amounts of money to invest are eyeing the possibility of creating a new conservative news channel to challenge Fox News. Meanwhile, alternatives like One America News Network, available on some satellite TV systems and via Roku, are gaining subscribers. Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns or operates 170 local television stations, most of them outside of the major media markets, recently completed a deal to buy Tribune Media, which would add Tribune’s 42 broadcast TV stations in 33 major markets to Sinclair’s portfolio. Sinclair currently provides Full Measure, a weekly news program to its affiliates, anchored by former CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson who is one of the best investigative journalists in the country. NPR reported that in the expansion of Sinclair “There are what could be the stirrings of plans for a national platform – such as a cable television station. . . Speculation has centered on possible conversion of Tribune's WGN America as a possible conservative news and opinion channel.' ”

Peter Barry Chowka is a veteran journalist who writes about national politics, media, popular culture, and health care. His bio with links to many of his writings can be accessed here.

Democrats' long knives for Hillary starting to be unsheathed

Thomas Lifson

. . . "Media friends already warn Democrats of the dangers of a "destructive blame game" – because Republicans are the only ones who are supposed to be riven by internal factional conflict.  But Van Jones leaves no doubt that big money is at stake, and the left-race coalition is tired of the Clintons and their hogging.

"This is only going to get more entertaining.  Face it: an existential threat faces the Clinton Machine.  If Hillary is out of the game, future prospects for the hangers-on depend on Chelsea.  Turning her into a successful politician (or anything else) will be a herculean labor.  She has a lot of items on her C.V., but like Barack Obama, they seem to be titles without notable accomplishments attached to them.  Her sole visible work on NBC was an outright embarrassment and sparked resentment among the ranks of working journalists, none of whom could imagine getting such an opportunity with so few qualifications.

"The death throes of the Clinton Machine will not end quickly or mercifully."

Duke Process of Law

Mike Adams

"Duke is the most fundamentally racist and sexist university in America. If you don’t believe me just ask Paul Griffiths – an Oxford educated now­ former Professor at Duke Divinity School (DDS). Just last semester, Griffiths, who is white, expressed opposition to a Racial Equity Institute “diversity” program that was being pushed by one of his so­-called colleagues. Expressing his opposition to the program resulted in a charge of racial and sexual harassment by a white colleague named Thea Portier­ Young. Rather than face a kangaroo court that refused to provide him documentation of relevant evidence in advance of his hearing, Griffiths resigned his tenured position.

"To be sure, the decision of Griffiths to resign rather than fight has been met with sharp criticism. But critics of Griffiths seem to have forgotten what happens to people at Duke when unsupported charges are leveled against them. Lest we forget what history has taught us, let us review the actions of the campus community at Duke University beginning over a decade ago in the wake of the Duke lacrosse scandal.

"After a lying criminal named [Crystal Mangum] accused two, then three, then four, then five, then six, then twenty white lacrosse players of raping her she finally settled on a version of events in which she was raped by three white lacrosse players. Later, she was unable to identify any of them from a comprehensive set of photos of players then on the team. By this point, it was clear she was lying. The campus should have come to the defense of the falsely accused students. But what happened next? Here are some highlights: " . . .
Continue reading...

California’s descent to socialism

OC Register  "California is widely celebrated as the fount of technical, cultural and political innovation. Now we seem primed to outdo even ourselves, creating a new kind of socialism that, in the end, more resembles feudalism than social democracy.

"The new consensus is being pushed by, among others, hedge-fund-billionaire-turned-green-patriarch Tom Steyer. The financier now insists that, to reverse our worsening inequality, we must double down on environmental and land-use regulation, and make up for it by boosting subsidies for the struggling poor and middle class. This new progressive synthesis promises not upward mobility and independence, but rather the prospect of turning most Californians into either tax slaves or dependent serfs.

"California’s progressive regime of severe land-use controls has helped to make the state among the most unaffordable in the nation, driving homeownership rates to the lowest levels since the 1940s. It has also spurred a steady hegira of middle-aged, middle-class families — the kind of tax-burdened people Gov. Jerry Brown now denounces as “freeloaders” — from the state. They may have access to smartphones and virtual reality, but the increasingly propertyless masses seem destined to live in the kind of cramped conditions that their parents and grandparents had escaped decades earlier.

. . . 

"There is some irony in a new kind of socialism blessed by some of the world’s richest people. The new policy framework is driven, in large part, by a desire to assume world leadership on climate-related issues. The biggest losers will be manufacturing, energy and homebuilding workers, who will see their jobs headed to other states and countries.

"Under the new socialism, expect more controls over the agribusiness sector, notably the cattle industry, California’s original boom industry, which will be punished for its cows’ flatulence. " . . .

See also: THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CALIFORNIA   "This site is dedicated to exposing the continuing Marxist Revolution in California and the all around massive stupidity of Socialists, Luddites, Communists, Fellow Travelers and of Liberalism in all of its ugly forms.

" 'It was a splendid population - for all the slow, sleepy, sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home - you never find that sort of people among pioneers - you cannot build pioneers out of that sort of material. It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day - and when she projects a new surprise the grave world smiles as usual and says, "Well, that is California all over."
- - - - Mark Twain (Roughing It)

California becomes Venezuela

Russian Collusion: the Democrat Holy Grail (Updated)

http://legalinsurrection.com/2017/06/branco-cartoon-what-goes-up/

“Zeal for the deal” caused Obama to dismantle units targeting Iran terror financing

Asher described extensive collaboration in terror-financing among the Iranians, Syrians, and Venezuelans. He testified that the U.S. government was in a position to take these networks down. Instead, the Obama administration took down the units that were combating the terror-financing, according to Asher.

Power Line   "Susan Crabtree of the Washington Free Beacon reports on explosive testimony from David Asher, who served as an adviser to Gen. John Allen at the Defense and State Departments. Asher told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that, in the lead-up to and during nuclear negotiations with Iran, top officials across several key law enforcement and intelligence agencies in the Obama administration “systematically disbanded” law enforcement activities targeting the terrorism financing operations of Iran, Hezbollah, and Venezuela.

Asher stated:

Senior leadership, presiding, directing, and overseeing various sections [of these agencies] and portions of the U.S. intelligence community systematically disbanded any internal or external stakeholder action that threatened to derail the administration’s policy agenda focused on Iran.

"I wonder whether James Comey, the FBI director at the time, was part of this disbanding.

"Asher went on to testify that the Obama administration squandered the chance “at a very low financial cost” to take apart Hezbollah’s finances, its global organization, and the Iran proxy’s ability to “readily terrorize us [and] victimize us. . . .” He added:

We lost much of the altitude we had gained in our global effort, and many aspects including key personnel, who were reassigned, budgets that were slashed—many key elements of the investigations that were underway were undermined.

Indeed, said Asher, “several top cops” retired and the U.S. government lost their years of expertise." . . .

. . . "In each instance, the motive was fear of disrupting the nuclear deal or, as House Foreign Relations Committee chairman Ed Royce put it, “zeal for the deal” — a deal that, even if adhered to, will not deny Iran nuclear weapons." 

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