All Purpose Politics and News Thread

[walkonby]

ugh!!! Russia!! I had set up the machine to tape the 3 tv specials on Putin ( done by Oliver Stone ) but now I am afraid to even watch them.

[Darth Penguin]

6 people killed in London tower block blaze

The Met has confirmed that six people were killed – and the number is expected to rise. Commander Stuart Cundy said: “Our thoughts are with everyone involved in this truly shocking fire at Grenfell Tower.

“I can confirm six fatalities at this time, but this figure is likely to rise during what will be a complex recovery operation over a number of days. Many others are receiving medical care.”

[Darth Penguin]

Top Republican Scalise wounded in multiple shooting

A top US Republican and aides have been shot during baseball practice in Virginia, a congressman says.
Police in the upmarket Washington DC suburb of Alexandria said they were investigating a "multiple shooting" and a suspect was in custody.
Alabama lawmaker Mo Brooks told CNN House of Representatives Majority Whip Steve Scalise and aides were shot.
Police tweeted they were "investigating multiple shooting 400 block E Monroe St. Suspect believed in custody".
The lawmakers were practising for the annual congressional ballgame between Democrats and Republicans, which was scheduled to be played on Thursday at Nationals Park, home of Major League Baseball franchise the Washington Nationals.
An apparent eyewitness on Twitter, @ben_childers, said Wednesday morning's gunfire rang out at the YMCA baseball fields, by the Eugene Simpson Stadium Park.



Local media report there is a major police presence after the attack.
Alexandria police tweeted: "Suspect is in custody and not a threat."
Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, texted Fox News to say that Mr Scalise had been shot in the hip and would survive.
He said someone had used a belt as a tourniquet on him.

[GoodBoy]

6 people killed in London tower block blaze

Watching news conference live on BBC News from the UK and the story emerging is crazy

Apparently the fire may have started with a fridge exploding on the 4th floor. Also the firefighters have said that even with all their combined experience they do not recall a fire spreading so quickly and with such ferocity. The building is pretty much gutted but at this time thought to be structurally sound - at least for now.

[GoodBoy]

So sad ... image from the stream ... at 12h35 EDT

[Darth Penguin]

Gunman dead after Virginia baseball shooting

A gunman who sprayed bullets at Republican lawmakers during baseball practice in a Washington DC suburb has died, US President Donald Trump said.
The attacker, identified as Illinois resident James T Hodgkinson, was taken to hospital and died from his injuries.
House of Representatives Majority Whip Steve Scalise was one of five injured in the early morning attack at a park in Alexandria, Virginia.
Two police officers suffered non-life threatening wounds as they fired back.

~~snip~~


Mr Scalise was shot in the hip was said to be in "good spirits" before he was taken in for surgery.
He was "doing well" after his operation, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy said.
Senator Mike Lee, a Utah Republican, said someone had used a belt as a tourniquet on Mr Scalise at the baseball field.

---

What we know about the Virginia shooting suspect

• James T Hodgkinson is a 66-year-old man from Belleville, Illinois, a small city just across the Mississippi River from the city of St Louis, Missouri
• Mr Hodgkinson's wife told ABC News he moved to Virginia two months ago
• His Facebook account shows anti-Republican and anti-Trump rhetoric
• He was a volunteer on the campaign of former Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders

[GoodBoy]

A wider view of the building in London ...

[DaveP]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/virgini...nson-1.4160322

Hodgkinson was a member of many anti-Republican groups on Facebook, including "The Road to Hell Is Paved With Republicans," "Terminate The Republican Party," and "Donald Trump is not my President," a search of what appeared to be his profile showed.

The left has lost its mind in the US. I invite any of you to look up antifa in the US. The videos are everywhere online, just a google click away. On campuses across the nation and in liberal states, crowds of rioters are advocating violence. They're advocating violence against the right. And now they're shooting at the right. And shooting politicians on the right.

What happens when the right shoots back? I mean, the right are the ones who actually know how to use guns, right?

This is actually pretty serious. A lot of liberal children and liberals who never grew up so are still children (even at 60) are trying to come at the right with violence. This is such a bad idea. Many on the right have learned how to protect themselves from violence by meeting violence with overwhelming force and far better training.

[Darth Penguin]

Pizzagate gunman recorded video for daughters

"I can't let you grow up in a world that's so corrupt by evil without at least standing up for you, for other children just like you," he said. He tells them he wants to protect people who can't protect themselves.
Welch, who is from Salisbury, North Carolina, pleaded guilty in March to interstate transportation of a firearm and assault with a dangerous weapon. Prosecutors will drop a third charge, possessing a firearm during a crime of violence, which had carried a mandatory minimum prison term of five years.
As part of his guilty plea Welch has acknowledged entering the Comet Ping Pong restaurant Dec. 4 with an AR-15 assault rifle and a revolver. He also acknowledged driving to the restaurant from North Carolina to investigate a conspiracy theory about Democrats harboring child sex slaves there. Patrons fled when they saw Welch enter the restaurant, and when he encountered a locked storage closet he fired multiple times. No one was injured.
Prosecutors, who are calling for Welch to spend 4 ½ years in prison, said in court documents that the video shows Welch "was lucid, deadly serious, and very aware that his planned confrontation would likely leave him dead or in jail."
Welch's attorney Dani Jahn, argued that he should be sentenced to 1 ½ years in prison. She wrote that Welch, who previously worked as an emergency medical technician and volunteered in Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, is an involved parent to his 7-year-old stepdaughter and 4-year-old daughter.
In his 1-page, handwritten letter filed with the court Tuesday but dated June 2, Welch wrote that he "came to D.C. with the intent of helping people I believed were in dire need of assistance, and to bring an end to a corruption that I truly felt was harming innocent lives." He wrote that he wanted to apologize and that he acted without considering the repercussions of his actions or the possible harm.
"It was never my intention to harm or frighten innocent lives, but I realize now just how foolish and reckless my decision was," he wrote.

[DaveP]

Pizzagate gunman recorded video for daughters

Darth, if you're going to post a link to a news story, include your opinion on it. This is a forum not a news aggregator.

[Darth Penguin]

More than 70 still missing, 30 dead following tower fire.

More than 70 people remain unaccounted for after the Grenfell Tower blaze and 30 are confirmed dead, it has been revealed.
Police released updated figures on the deaths on Friday as anger in the community grew over what residents said was a lack of information being released to them.
In a press briefing during which residents shouted their own questions at police and fire service representatives, Metropolitan police commander Stuart Cundy said 30 people have been confirmed dead, including one victim who died in hospital. But he acknowledged that the death toll will increase.

The scale of the disaster came into stark focus as it was revealed for the first time that 70 people are believed to be unaccounted for since the blaze. Police fear the fire was so intense and devastating that some victims may never be identified.
Cundy said 12 bodies were in the mortuary but a number still remained in Grenfell Tower, where a dignified and careful retrieval operation would take place in hazardous conditions. But, he said, this could take many weeks.
He said the victim in hospital had died despite the best efforts of medical staff. At least 24 people are being treated in hospital, 12 are in a critical condition.
Cundy also said he expected the death toll to rise further. “I do believe that sadly the number will rise.
“The building itself is in a very hazardous state. It is going to take a period of time for our specialists, both from the police and from the London fire brigade, to fully search that building to make sure we locate and recover everybody that has sadly perished in that fire. We will be doing that as swiftly as we can.”

[Darth Penguin]

Munich shooter was American on holiday in Germany

The man who shot and critically injured a policewoman near Munich on Tuesday was a US citizen born in Bavaria, according to a US media report.
Thirty-seven-year-old Alexander Bischof from the US state of Colorado has been identified as the shooter by various family members, broadcaster Denver7 reported on Wednesday.
On Tuesday a man shot a policewoman in the head after stealing her colleague's gun at Unterföhring station on the outskirts of Munich. Police have still not confirmed the identity of the attacker in the assault that also left two bystanders injured with bullet wounds.
The Local could not reach the Munich police department for comment on the shooter's identity.
SEE ALSO: Several injured after shooting in Munich area
The shooter is currently in a secure psychiatric unit after being apprehended shortly after fleeing the scene. Prosecutors have charged him with attempted murder.
According to Denver7, Bischof had arrived in Munich from Athens on Monday evening as part of a trip around Europe. He slept in Munich airport before travelling on the S8 metro line into the city on Tuesday morning.

Eyewitnesses have described how he was acting in an unusual way and talking to himself on the train.
He then suddenly, and without apparent cause, punched a commuter in the face who had just entered the carriage. Other passengers intervened, while the police were also alerted.
At Unterföhring station, two officers detained the suspect and took down his details in a routine manner, according to police chief Hubertus Andrä.
But then the suspect attempted to push the male officer in front of an oncoming train. In the ensuing scuffle, the man stole the officer’s gun and fired several shots at his female colleague, with one bullet wounding her in the head.

[Darth Penguin]

President Trump: I'm being investigated over Comey's firing

Donald Trump seemed to confirm for the first time that he was under federal investigation on Twitter on Friday morning.
“I am being investigated for firing the FBI Director by the man who told me to fire the FBI Director! Witch Hunt,” tweeted the president as he both confirmed a blockbuster Washington Post story from Wednesday and contradicted himself yet again about his decision to fire James Comey in May. The Post had reported that Trump was being investigated for potential obstruction of justice by Robert Mueller, the special counsel looking into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
“After 7 months of investigations & committee hearings about my ‘collusion with the Russians,’ nobody has been able to show any proof,” Trump also tweeted on Friday. “Sad!” A Washington Post review of recent special counsel and special prosecutor investigations found they took an average of three years to conclude.
The president’s tweets came two years to the day after Trump first launched his improbable presidential bid by famously descending an escalator in Trump Tower in New York, and while his presidency is embroiled in crisis over the federal investigation led by Mueller into his campaign’s ties to Russia.
The inquiry’s apparent expansion to target Trump reportedly focuses on whether the president attempted to obstruct the investigation – in particular, on Trump’s reported attempts to encourage former FBI director James Comey to end an investigation into former national security adviser Michael Flynn. A spokesman for Mueller declined to comment for the Guardian, and a spokesman for Trump’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment. The White House recently began referring all questions on Trump and Russia to the lawyer Marc Kasowitz.
Comey testified under oath to the Senate intelligence committee earlier in June that Trump told him in a private conversation: “I hope you can see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go. He is a good guy. I hope you can let this go.”








Comey was fired on 9 May, and initially the White House cited his handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server as the reason for his termination, releasing a memo authored by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein as a basis for this action. However, several days later, in an interview with NBC News’s Lester Holt, Trump contradicted his administration and cited “this Russia thing” as the reason for Comey’s sacking.

[DaveP]

7 posts in a row by you with no comment from you.

[FallenPixels]

I can't help but think that SC would be a nicer place if several of you just put each other on ignore. You are clearly never going to get along or agree on anything.

Dave is right, it's a forum not a news aggregator and many people would like to see an opinion rather than a copy/paste article. However, some people don't read news sites and do learn what is going on in the world from these posts.

As a forum though, it is meant for discussion and there seems to be little interest in the actual news stories lately (with the obvious exception of the fire)

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