The actual victims in Dallas are being swept under the rug

 

Meanwhile, MAGA and Trump and claiming the shooter was a lefty trying to kill ICE agents.  He only shot detainees.

Utterly despicable

"Mind your own business."  Unvaccinated, unmasked "freedom" bullshit performers spreading covid to me and my family IS my business, you deplorable bucket of piss.

UPDATE:

Also Houston.

UPDATE:

Trump in Dallas

This has been the same play at every rally he's ever had.

And still they love him.

Okay, this is a long one.  As always, I won't publish it all.  Daniel Dale's entire thread is here. 

Trump calls Democrats "hateful and enraged." He adds, "Crazy. They're crazy. They're crazy." He says he no longer believes the Democrats love America. Trump accuses Democrats of wanting to "indoctrinate our children." He says he knows "from personal experience": children come home and say "Mommy, Daddy, this is what I learned," and "you're going, Oh, no, don't tell me."

Trump again uses a tree metaphor in arguing for his re-election: "You plant a baby tree. It's gotta catch. Get that extra time -- we'll have more tax cuts." 

Yeah, for the guys at the top.

He goes on to say his wall is "going up rapidly," though no additional miles had been built as of the beginning of October.

Trump says he won't disparage media tonight: "I'm going to say, 'You're legitimate media.'" He then adds, "I don't actually mean that." He then talks about how the Academy Awards is now a failed enterprise because "it had stupid people" who criticized Trump. 

Trump: "I will never allow the IRS to be used as a political weapon -- except in the case of myself, where they use it against me." This is another case of him ad-lib-inserting nonsense about himself into a prepared text about other people. 

Trump boasts that he was the only one who noticed O'Rourke's hand and arm gestures. "Nobody noticed it. I noticed it. The flailer." 

Trump says that foreign leaders, including "dictators" who don't like to go by the title dictator, always tell him, "Sir, congratulations, sir, on what you've done." 

Trump with some of his most aggressive words about unmasking the federally protected whistleblower: "Who is the whistleblower? Who is the whistleblower? We have to know! Is the whistleblower a spy?"  For at least the 22nd time in the last two-and-a-half weeks, Trump falsely says, "The whistleblower got it all wrong." The whistleblower was highly accurate. We know this because of the rough transcript released by the White House itself.

Trump falsely says China has never spent more than $20 billion in a year on US agriculture. It spent $25.9 billion in 2012. Trump usually says it never spent more than $16 billion.  Trump is saying his usual false things about how tariffs have cost Americans "nothing" and China is "eating" all of them.

Trump after bashing Hunter Biden's China business dealings after flying there on Air Force Two: Can you imagine if Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump or Ivanka Trump? (He trails off.)

Why, yes, I think we can.

Trump on the Bidens: "You-know-what and pillage. It's the R-word. You-know-what and pillage. You know what word I'm talking about, right? I don't want to use it 'cause they'll say it's a horrible word that Trump used." No evidence Joe Biden ever profited from his son's dealings.

Not only that, but now there'll be right-wing conspiracies about the Bidens raping women.

 Trump on Texas: "You had a hurricane two years ago now. They (local Republicans) still keep calling me for money. 'Sir, could you give us another...Thank you for being so generous to Texas, sir.'" As he used to, he says that Hurricane Harvey had "the biggest dump of water." "You made a fortune on the hurricane," Trump tells Texas of federal recovery money.

Trump says sir a lot, then begins railing about Hillary Clinton's emails.

Trump tells his now-standard Sir story about a general telling him "we don't have ammunition." The military did say there was a shortage of certain precision bombs at the time, but the broad "no ammunition" claim is obviously false.  

Trump is telling a extremely nonsensical story about how people tried to make a deal with Turkey for 15, 20 years but couldn't, but he got it done. The Syrian Civil War is less than 10 years old. This is an extremely narrow deal related to Turkey's offensive this month.

And it wasn't a deal, unless you call doing Turkey's bidding a deal.

Trump says that a bit of war was necessary in northern Syria: "Sometimes you have to let 'em fight a little while." He likens the situation to a childhood scrap: "Like two kids in a lot...let 'em fight...and then you pull 'em apart."

Jesus wept.

"Bring our soldiers back home. Bring our soldiers back home," Trump says. He is not currently doing so, having deployed 1,800 more to Saudi Arabia and redeployed the troops being withdrawn from Syria to elsewhere in the region. 

Trump tells the wrong version of his story about Mexican soldiers deployed to combat migration, saying there are 27,000 "on our border." The 25,000+ are divided between Mexico's northern and southern border. CBP's Mark Morgan says it's about 15,000 on the US border. 

Trump claims to have spent more than $2.5 trillion on the armed forces. That total appears to include the defense appropriation for the 2020 fiscal year, which hasn't been completed yet. (And the 2020 fiscal year just started.) 

Trump claims to have ended a "war" on American energy, then boasts of the US becoming the #1 producer of oil and gas in the world. That accomplishment happened in 2012, under Obama 

Trump says his usual semi-comedic wrong thing about how the use of wind power means that you can't watch TV if the wind isn't presently blowing. The Energy Department has a whole thing on its website explaining that this thought is wrong. 

That's okay.  His followers don't read.

Trump says he can be very presidential, more than any other president except for Abraham Lincoln in his hat, and "all you have to do is act like a stiff." He acts out being a stiff.

Trump is recounting election night 2016 in great detail [...] Trump is shouting about his preparations for the 2016 debates. He said he fired his debate coach in about 10 minutes, because he advised Trump to never interrupt anyone, and you can't beat Ted Cruz without interrupting.

Trump falsely claims that "we didn't win any cases" at the WTO before him, not "anything for years, practically." Trump's own Council of Economic Advisers said in a February report that the US had won 86% of the cases it has brought since 1995. 

Trump falsely claims that presidents "always" have no judicial vacancies to fill. Presidents usually have dozens. He then tells a Sir story about how he had "142." It was 104. 

And I don't suppose he mentioned that was because Mitch McConnell wouldn't bring up Obama's nominees for a vote.

Trump says Obama leaving him judicial vacancies shows that he was a bad president. [...] He complains about the claim that Obama was a "wonderful president."

Trump does his usual thing about how his presidency will end "in 16 years, maybe 20" -- there are some cheers -- but how he's only kidding to drive people crazy. 

Trump tells his usual lie about how he got Veterans Choice passed after others had tried and failed for 50 years. Obama signed Choice into law in 2014. 

Trump repeats his vow to end the AIDS epidemic within 10 years, falsely claiming the Obama administration "spent no money on that."

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Love Me, Love Me, Love Me - I'm a Liberal

Luckily, we don't need to DO anything besides listen.  They FEEL that way even if it's not true - it's not our fault.  But we should LISTEN; they just want to be heard.

It doesn't mean anything.  She's just saying words that sound good.  And then you can go on about your way.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

And While We're Talking About Narcissists...

Look at these people. Look at their faces. Look at their postures. What is on their minds? Not police death, not police brutality.

Just when it seemed former President George W. Bush was at a safe enough distance from the public eye, he sparked another media storm by swaying side to side to organ music at a memorial service for slain Dallas police officers, as the nation watched on. Enjoying himself a little too much, Bush threatened to spoil the entire somber mood of the occasion.

  RT

He was not alone. Watch the video. I suspect Bush was lit. And Michelle and Barry are enjoying it.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

2nd Amendment Rights

Micah Johnson, the man who shot Dallas police officers served in the US Army Reserve in Afghanistan and was a member of - or "liked", depending on what you read - the New Black Panthers.






...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Framing the Issue

This weekend, the city [of Dallas] remained in a shocked state of mourning. Candles were laid out on concrete posts in front of the Dallas police headquarters and Stars and Stripes stickers sat in a box waiting to be taken. An inscription scribbled on the box in cursive read: “7-7-2016, Remember our fallen heroes; honor our DPD heroes still among us”.

  Guardian

Stars and stripes stickers? Conflating police officers with the state. It's a short walk to fascism from here, people. A very short walk.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Well, Thank Goodness

They wouldn't have wanted to waste a perfectly good robot on a [racist epithet].

Jesus Effing Christ.  Who are these "investigators"?  And editors?  Are we sure they're not the robots?

Waiting for the Official Explanation

This made me think of something else.  It's common for people commenting on terrorists to call them cowards while our brave freedom fighters use drones and robots.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

If You Needed Any Proof of American Human Ignorance

#DallasPoliceShooting

The lack intelligence and reasoning evidenced in some of these tweets will astound you.  I assume this is the "real America" Joe Walsh was talking about.  I remember the first (and only) time I saw the Ricky Lake show.  I was both flabbergasted and repulsed by "real America."

I need more sand.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Thanks for All Your Prayers

There sure is a lot of the usual on the internet: pray for the families, pray for Dallas, pray, pray, pray.

How's that been working so far?

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Dallas

Downtown Dallas was in lockdown early Friday after snipers shot 11 officers, five fatally, during a protest over deadly police shootings of black men elsewhere.

Three people were in custody and a fourth suspect exchanged gunfire with authorities in a parking garage at El Centro Community College into the morning, Dallas Police Chief David Brown said. One of the suspected Dallas shooters has been "neutralized."

  CNBC

If you listen to the clip (please do - they also interrogated him - lying about having proof of his involvement as we've seen police will do - when he went to the police), the "he's pissed" bit doesn't seem quite right.  It should say, "he's upset."  But, I have no doubt he's also pissed, as he well should be.  

He didn't just delete the tweet.  He (or Twitter) deleted the entire account.  Perhaps because people were directing others to "check out his other insane tweets" and reporting him to the Secret Service and FBI.

Who's Joe Walsh?  An ex-Congressman from Illinois.

President Barack Obama, who is in Warsaw, Poland, said his team is keeping him updated. "We still don't know all the facts, we do know there's been a vicious, calculated and despicable act on law enforcement," Obama said. "I believe I speak for every American when I say we are horrified."

  CNN

Funny, I don't recall him coming out to say the police killings of Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were vicious or despicable acts by law enforcement.

As of 6:45 (Dallas time) this morning, there is an amazing lack in online articles of mention of the race of the suspects, who were heavily armed with assault-type weaponry in at least one case.  Maybe now there'll be some gun control legislation since it was police that took the hit.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:

Dallas Police Chief David Brown confirmed the death of Micah Johnson, the suspects that police cornered in a parking garage at El Centro College in the downtown area immediately following the shooting.

According to Brown, police cornered Micah Johnson and negotiated with him for several hours. When talks broke down – they exchanged gunfire with the man. At that point, police sent in a remote vehicle and detonated a bomb – ultimately killing him.

“We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was. Other options would have exposed our officers to great danger” said Brown.

“He seemed lucid during negotiations.” said Chief Brown “He expressed anger for Black Lives Matter.”

Brown admitted that Johnson told police that he was upset over the recent string of police shooting. “The suspect said he was upset at white people” said Brown. “He said he wanted to kill white people, especially white police officers.”

Johnson stated he was not affiliated with any groups and stated that he did this alone.

  CBS

Then who were the other shooters? Coincidence?  Or were there actually others?  The fact that people are in custody does not mean they were actually involved.  If there weren't other shooters, I hate to say what it says that one man could kill five and wound seven officers, unless it says something about automatic weapons in the hands of civilians.  I know - wait for it.

If only those police officers had guns, this wouldn't have happened, right?

He Won't Have His Job Long

Speaking to MSNBC on Saturday morning, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was asked to discuss the growing anxiety over Syrian refugees entering the United States, purportedly over concerns they could be potential agents for militant groups such as ISIS. Rawlings staunchly rejected the assertion that Syrians are somehow uniquely prone to violence, saying he is more concerned with the rise of white supremacy and the recent flurry of mass shootings committed by white men.

“I am more fearful of large gatherings of white men that come into schools, theaters and shoot people up, but we don’t isolate young white men on this issue,” Rawlings said.

[...]

“ISIS is no more Islamic than Nazi senior staff was Christian,” he said. He also subtly challenged Christian governors and other followers of Christ who have rejected refugees, referencing Jesus’ scriptural call to “welcome the stranger” in Matthew 25:41-43.

  Think Progress

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.  (I believe that is a direct quote from Jesus.)