Barbara Bush has died.

Courtesy of the NYT: 

Barbara Bush, the widely admired wife of one president and the fiercely loyal mother of another, died Tuesday evening at her home in Houston. She was 92.

On Sunday, the office of her husband, former President George Bush, issued a statement saying that after consulting her family and her doctors, Mrs. Bush had “decided not to seek additional medical treatment and will instead focus on comfort care.” 

The Bushes had celebrated their 73rd wedding anniversary in January, making them the longest-married couple in presidential history. 

Mrs. Bush had been hospitalized with pneumonia in December 2013. She underwent surgery for a perforated ulcer in 2008 and had heart surgery four months later.

It is always sad when somebody dies, but at 92 you certainly cannot say that Barbara Bush did not live a long and full life.

I have a lot of very strong feelings about the Bush family, I think only Laura Bush gets somewhat of a pass.

Barbara Bush was by all accounts a very hard woman, and one who was difficult to please.

In fact impressing his mother was one of the reasons given for George W. Bush wanting to invade Iraq and finish the job that his father, in his eyes, failed to accomplish.

How is that for a legacy?

Update: Probably need to add these.

Our statement on the passing of Former First Lady Barbara Bush: pic.twitter.com/MhTVYCL9Nj

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) April 18, 2018

Barbara Bush was a remarkable woman. She had grit & grace, brains & beauty. She was fierce & feisty in support of her family & friends, her country & her causes. She showed us what an honest, vibrant, full life looks like. Hillary and I mourn her passing and bless her memory.

— Bill Clinton (@BillClinton) April 17, 2018

Warm and generous.

And then there was this:

.@FLOTUS Melania and I join the Nation in celebrating the life of Barbara Bush: pic.twitter.com/4NzyjxqAFM

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2018

Just what every First Lady hopes for when they die.

A form letter from the current occupant of the White House that does not contain a shred of humanity.

So classy.

"Why did you wait?" Donald Trump seemed confused by CIA's desire not to kill family members of terrorists.

Courtesy of WaPo: 

President Trump’s pronouncement that he would be pulling troops out of Syria “very soon” has laid bare a major source of tension between the president and his generals. 

Trump has made winning on the battlefields of Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan a central tenet of his foreign policy and tough-guy identity. But Trump and the military hold frequently opposing ideas about exactly what winning means. 

Those differences have played out in heated Situation Room ­debates over virtually every spot on the globe where U.S. troops are engaged in combat, said senior administration officials. And they contributed to the dismissal last month of Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster who as national security adviser had pressed the president against his instincts to support an ­open-ended commitment of U.S. forces to Afghanistan. 

Trump’s words, both in public and private, describe a view that wars should be brutal and swift, waged with overwhelming firepower and, in some cases, with little regard for civilian casualties. Victory over America’s enemies for the president is often a matter of bombing “the s--- out of them,” as he said on the campaign trail.

Of course under President Obama the policy was to spare innocent civilians, and family members, and instead use precise targeting to take out the terrorist objective.

As we know that did not always work, and many innocent civilians were also killed.

However Trump does not seem at all bothered by that sort of collateral damage.

Trump came to office promising to give the Pentagon a free hand to unleash the full force of U.S. firepower. His impatience was evident on his first full day in office when he visited the CIA and was ushered up to the agency’s drone operations floor. 

There agency officials showed him a feed from Syria, where Obama-era rules limited the agency to surveillance flights — part of a broader push by the previous administration to return the CIA to its core espionage mission and shift the job of killing terrorists to the military. 

Trump urged the CIA to start arming its drones in Syria. “If you can do it in 10 days, get it done,” he said, according to two former officials familiar with the meeting. 

Later, when the agency’s head of drone operations explained that the CIA had developed special munitions to limit civilian casualties, the president seemed unimpressed. Watching a previously recorded strike in which the agency held off on firing until the target had wandered away from a house with his family inside, Trump asked, “Why did you wait?” one participant in the meeting recalled.

To be clear killing innocent people overseas is how you create more terrorists, not defeat terrorism.

Trump's inability to understand that, or to respect human life, will only ensure that not only does terrorism outlast his term, but that it increases exponentially.

Having said that I am going to tack on the report about those Russian sanctions right here, because I do not think they deserve a post of their own.

Some in the media are trying to give Trump credit for finally cracking down with some aggressive sanctions that will actually hurt the Russian oligarchs who support Putin, but they are fools.

Trump is NOT behind these sanctions. In fact he was clearly dragged kicking and screaming into supporting them, because he had NO choice.

If this were really something that Trump was behind, he would have tweeted the shit out of it, but there is not a peep about this on his account.

To sum up Donald Trump does not value human life, but he absolutely values his relationship with Vladimir Putin.

Mississippi nine year old boy shoots sister in the head when she refuse to give up video game controller.

Courtesy of USA Today: 

A 13-year-old girl has died after authorities say she was shot Saturday by her 9-year-old brother, local media reported. 

Monroe County Sheriff Cecil Cantrell said the girl would not give up a video game controller when her brother wanted it. 

Cantrell said she was shot in the back of the head, and that the bullet went through her brain. The girl was rushed to Le Bonheur's Children's Hospital in Memphis. Cantrell said late Sunday that she died of her injuries, WLOV-TV and other media reported. 

Authorities don't yet know how the child had access to the weapon they say he used to shoot his sister. 

It's also unclear how much knowledge the boy had of the dangers of guns.

Well he knew enough to point and shoot, and that is what makes guns so fucking dangerous.

This cannot be blamed on video games, or violent television shows, this happened because somebody in these children's lives did not understand the concept of gun safety and did not put this weapon in a secure location where the children could not access it.

So once again the gun that was purchased to keep people safe, ended up taking another innocent life.

Stephen Hawking has now "slipped the surly bonds of earth" to touch the face of....truth.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

Stephen W. Hawking, the Cambridge University physicist and best-selling author who roamed the cosmos from a wheelchair, pondering the nature of gravity and the origin of the universe and becoming an emblem of human determination and curiosity, died early Wednesday at his home in Cambridge, England. He was 76. 

His death was confirmed by a spokesman for Cambridge University. 

“Not since Albert Einstein has a scientist so captured the public imagination and endeared himself to tens of millions of people around the world,” Michio Kaku, a professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York, said in an interview. 

Dr. Hawking did that largely through his book “A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes,” published in 1988. It has sold more than 10 million copies and inspired a documentary film by Errol Morris. The 2014 film about his life, “The Theory of Everything,” was nominated for several Academy Awards and Eddie Redmayne, who played Dr. Hawking, won the Oscar for best actor. 

Scientifically, Dr. Hawking will be best remembered for a discovery so strange that it might be expressed in the form of a Zen koan: When is a black hole not black? When it explodes.

By any measure Stephen Hawking was an absolutely amazing human being.

And in fact a living lesson as to just what can be achieved by humanity itself once it steps away from superstition and fully embraces the miracles to be discovered by scientific exploration.

The challenges that Hawking faced in his life were the kind that would destroy most people, and yet he managed to not only adapt, but to overcome.

It kind of puts the challenges that most of us face into perspective doesn't it?

Remembering Stephen Hawking, a renowned physicist and ambassador of science. His theories unlocked a universe of possibilities that we & the world are exploring. May you keep flying like superman in microgravity, as you said to astronauts on @Space_Station in 2014 pic.twitter.com/FeR4fd2zZ5

— NASA (@NASA) March 14, 2018

His passing has left an intellectual vacuum in his wake. But it's not empty. Think of it as a kind of vacuum energy permeating the fabric of spacetime that defies measure. Stephen Hawking, RIP 1942-2018. pic.twitter.com/nAanMySqkt

— Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) March 14, 2018

Have fun out there among the stars. pic.twitter.com/S285MTwGtp

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 14, 2018

I would say RIP, that would be an insult to the memory of this great man.

Another mass shooting, this one in a veteran's home in California.

Courtesy of SF Gate:  

A military veteran who had been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder burst into a veterans home in the North Bay town of Yountville on Friday with a rifle, killed three women connected with the treatment program and then killed himself, authorities and program officials said. 

Law enforcement officers found the bodies of the victims and the killer at the Veterans Home of California-Yountville shortly before 6 p.m., more than seven hours after the incident began, said Chris Childs, an assistant chief of the California Highway Patrol. 

Authorities had earlier said the gunman was holding staff members of the Pathway Home, a program on the Veterans Home campus that had been treating him for PTSD until he was asked to leave several days ago. 

One of those killed was the program’s executive director, Christine Loeber, the Pathway Home said in a statement. Also killed were Dr. Jen Golick, a therapist with the program, and Dr. Jennifer Gonzales, a psychologist with the Department of Veterans Affairs in San Francisco, the statement said.

The killer's name was Albert Wong, a man suffering from PTSD after serving overseas and fighting in the unnecessary wars started by the Bush Administration.

There are hundreds of similar afflicted veterans in this country, and virtually all of them continue to have access to firearms.

After all if you listen to the conservatives that was one of the rights they were fighting for over there. Which of course makes no sense.

"I was over there in Iraq shooting the enemy so that I could return back here and shoot a couple of doctors as is my God given right as an American."

Well I guess we have no choice but to install some bullet proof glass, add some reinforced doors, and post a couple of cops at all of the veteran's homes in the country.

I mean what other solution could there possibly be, right?

Yet another school shooting, this time in Florida, which left at least 17 dead. It just never stops.

That is footage from inside a classroom in Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

These are sombody's babies hiding behind desks and screaming in terror as they listen to their schoolmates being slaughtered right outside their room.

Courtesy of NBC News:  

At least 17 people were killed when a teen opened fire with a semiautomatic rifle at a high school in Parkland, Florida, on Wednesday afternoon, officials said. 

Fourteen others were wounded, five of whom suffering life-threatening injuries, hospital officials said. 

Authorities said the suspect, identified as 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, concealed himself in the crowd fleeing Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He was arrested in nearby Coral Springs and later charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder.

Cruz had recently been expelled from Douglas for disciplinary reasons and was enrolled elsewhere in the district, Broward County schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said. He took an Uber to campus on Wednesday, Runcie told NBC News.

The gunman was believed to have been armed with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle and multiple magazines, said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel. It was unclear whether he had any other weapons, Israel said.

It's always an AR-15 in these school shootings, isn't it? 

That seems to be the weapon of choice for those who want to gun down innocent children in a school.

This is the eighteenth school shooting this year, and it is only February!

As was pointed out earlier THIS ONLY HAPPENS IN AMERICA.

We are the only place in the world where this happens with any kind of frequency, if at all.

And yet we refuse to do what is clearly necessary to stop all of this, and protect our citizens.

We cannot EVER call ourselves the greatest nation on earth if we cannot even protect our children while they are in school. Period!

Croatian hunter killed by stray bullet while "hunting" farm raised lions. I believe that is Karma calling on line one.

Courtesy of SF Gate:

A Croatian big game hunter was preparing to shoot a lion during a hunting expedition in South Africa when he himself was shot and killed. 

Pero Jelinic, whose friends say had "hunted everything that could be hunted in Europe," had already killed one lion and was sighting in a second Saturday at a remote lodge near Setiagole, according to Total Croatia News. 

Initially, the bullet that hit Jelinic was described as "stray," but police are now investigating the incident as a possible homicide. 

The lions were captive-bred. They had been farm-raised to be hunted in a legal yet controversial sport often called "canned hunting." 

Well it's about time the lions started shooting back.

You know I am not much of a fan of hunting in the first place, but what possible challenge is it to kill animals hand raised by other humans?

I mean it would be just as macho as using a high powered rifle to pick off family pets in people's backyards.

Asshole deserves to die. 

St. Louis gun buy back program such as success that they ran out of money before they ran out of guns to buy back.

Courtesy of Chron: 

An effort to remove guns from the streets of St. Louis is being called a success, so much so that there wasn't enough money to buy up all of the offered weapons. 

Hundreds of people turned out Saturday for a gun buyback program, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported . The city has recorded more than 200 murders this year, the most in two decades, and officials say part of the problem is too many guns. 

Those bringing in guns were promised $100 to $200 per weapon, no questions asked. The Bar Association of Metropolitan St. Louis, along with individuals and some companies, raised $125,000 in donations.

It wasn't enough, and some people had to be turned away. Police said 303 handguns, 533 long guns and six assault rifles were purchased.

Just imagine how many lives could be saved if this program went national.

That married with more stringent background checks for gun buyers, and mandated gun registry programs, could save perhaps thousands of lives each year.

I don't know, seems kind of worth it to me.

But then again perhaps I care more about the sanctity of life than your average supposedly pro-life conservative. 

Another day, another school shooting. This time in New Mexico.

Courtesy of Time Magazine:  

Students hid in their classrooms, some behind locked doors or in closets, as a gunman opened fire Thursday inside a New Mexico high school, killing two classmates before he ended up dead. 

Authorities and other officials in the small town of Aztec near the Colorado border have released few details other than to say the shooter and two victims attended Aztec High School. 

No other injuries were reported, and it was not clear if the shooter died by suicide or was killed by police. 

Bryn Divine, a senior, said she was sitting at her desk in her history class when she heard gunshots erupt down the hall. At first, it sounded as if someone was swinging a metal baseball bat against the lockers. 

Then she heard an announcer over the school intercom tell students: “This is not a drill.” 

“I stayed in my desk, and I just prayed, ‘Please just let this be over as soon as possible.’ That was my first reaction,” she said.

I hate to break to this young woman, but this will never be over.

Never.

And just to drive that point home just the other day Congress passed a bill that would allow folks to carry concealed weapons across state lines. 

After all this is America, where we are constantly told that access to more guns means less gun violence.

And so long as many of our fellow Americans believe that there will be a never ending stream of blood flowing from the victims of that mindset.

In case you have forgotten this is how a REAL President comforts the families of fallen soldiers.

Here's President Obama in 2014 showing how a real Leader speaks to & comforts the family of a fallen soldier. ❤️🇺🇸pic.twitter.com/mYZBpwXV4O

— Ricky Davila 🇵🇷 (@TheRickyDavila) October 22, 2017

Compassion, empathy, and genuine affection for others.

The man never failed to demonstrate the very best of what it meant to be an American leader.

Donald Trump cannot even make a condolence call to the family of a deceased soldier correctly.

Courtesy of AP: 

Relatives of people who died in military service have recounted varied interactions with President Donald Trump in the difficult days and weeks after their loved one’s death. Despite Trump’s boast that he reaches out personally to all families of the fallen, interviews with families members did not support his claim. Some never heard from him at all, and a few who did came away more upset. 

The Associated Press reached out to the families of all 43 people who have died in military service since Trump became president and made contact with about half the families. Of those who would address the question, relatives of nine said they had heard from Trump by phone or mail. Relatives of nine others said they haven’t. 

Several spoke of being comforted by Trump but at least one call went awry: Cowanda Jones-Johnson told the AP that Trump spoke disrespectfully of her fallen nephew, Sgt. La David Johnson, when he called family members Tuesday. Johnson was among four servicemen killed in Niger earlier this month.

Of course the story that was tearing through the internet yesterday was this one.

Courtesy of WaPo:

President Trump, in a personal phone call to a grieving military father, offered him $25,000 and said he would direct his staff to establish an online fundraiser for the family, but neither happened, the father said. 

Chris Baldridge, the father of Army Sgt. Dillon Baldridge, said that Trump called him at his home in Zebulon, N.C., a few weeks after his 22-year-old son and two fellow soldiers were fatally shot by an Afghan police officer on June 10. Their phone conversation lasted about 15 minutes, Baldridge said, and centered for a time on the father’s struggle with the manner in which his son was killed — shot by someone he was training. 

“I said, ‘Me and my wife would rather our son died in trench warfare,’ ” Baldridge said. “I feel like he got murdered over there.” 

Trump’s offer of $25,000 adds a dimension to his relationships with Gold Star families, and the disclosure follows questions about how often the president has called or written to the parents or spouses of those killed.

When reporters started trying to get an answer from the White House as to why Trump did not actually write this check, this happened:  

President Donald Trump sent a $25,000 personal check to the family of a fallen soldier the same day that The Washington Post reported that he had promised the soldier's father a personal donation during a June condolence call but never followed through. 

A White House official confirms to CNN that the President sent a personal check Wednesday to the family of Army Cpl. Dillon Baldridge Wednesday. Baldridge, 22, was killed in June by an Afghan police officer.

Now to be fair a president is NOT expected to volunteer his personal money to the family of a fallen soldier. But when you are trying to convince the country that you are better at this than your predecessor, well then let the mocking begin.

However before we turn to such frivolity we need to remember that there are those who will go to great lengths to defend the Orange Fuhrer.

Courtesy of CBS Miami:

Rep. Frederica Wilson’s office claims multiple threatening phone calls directed at congresswoman came into her D.C. office on Wednesday. 

Her staff told CBS4’s Carey Codd the calls were directly related to the phone call from the president to the wife of Army Sgt. La David Johnson. 

The congresswoman’s staff said they alerted the Capital Police, Miami Garden Police and the threat division of the U.S. House of Representatives. 

Codd was told she is safe and that she is being protected at this point.

It must be remembered that this entire thing was self inflicted.

Trump was the one who bragged that while other presidents before him, President Obama in particular of course,  were a little hit and miss when it came to reaching out to Gold Star families, he was talking to ALL of them.

And then when called out on that lie, and confronted with his lack of empathy, he started to attack those who criticized him.

This is why we are not supposed to allow a thin skinned lunatic into the White House. 

Donald Trump today accused President Obama, and other former presidents, of not calling the families of fallen soldiers.

12 days after it was announced soldiers were killed in Niger, Trump says "I will at some point during the period of time call the parents." pic.twitter.com/vPh85JNF4x

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 16, 2017

Courtesy of TPM:

During a press conference on Monday afternoon, President Donald Trump made the dubious claim that former President Barack Obama and other former presidents did not personally call the families of soldiers who died in combat. 

Trump quickly walked back the claim when a reporter followed up. 

The President first told reporters that he had written letters to the families of soldiers who died in the recent attack in Niger and said he would soon call the families as well. He then claimed that his approach was unique, and that not all past presidents made those calls. 

“The traditional way, if you look at President Obama and other presidents, most of them didn’t make calls. A lot of them didn’t make calls,” he said. “I like to call when it’s appropriate, when I think I’m able to do it. They have made the ultimate sacrifice so generally I would say that I like to call. I’m going to be calling them.” 

That was more than one former Obama adviser could stand.

that's a fucking lie. to say president obama (or past presidents) didn't call the family members of soldiers KIA - he's a deranged animal.

— Alyssa Mastromonaco (@AlyssaMastro44) October 16, 2017

I absolutely do not blame her for that response.

They did not call President Obama the "Consoler-in-Chief" for nothing.

He met with the families of fallen soldiers. (Mostly in private.)

Met the caskets of soldiers who lost their lives in battle.

Attended multiple military funerals for those who lost their lives.

And visited the hospital beds of men and women who had been wounded fighting for their country.

Here was what Pete Souza the White House photographer under President Obama had to say.

Pete Souza: 'I photographed [President Obama] meeting with hundreds of wounded soldiers, and family members of those killed in action.' pic.twitter.com/01pICn3YVo

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 16, 2017

We know that Donald Trump is a lying POS but this is low even for him.

Las Vegas mass shooting completely changes band member's stance on guns.

pic.twitter.com/0NFjHf3PW2

— Caleb Keeter (@Calebkeeter) October 2, 2017

Courtesy of WaPo:

“I’ve been a proponent of the 2nd amendment my entire life. Until the events of last night. I cannot express how wrong I was. We actually have members of our crew with [Concealed Handgun Licenses], and legal firearms on the bus,” Keeter wrote. “They were useless.” He continued: 

We couldn’t touch them for fear police might think we were part of the massacre and shoot us. A small group (or one man) laid waste to a city with dedicated, fearless police officers desperately trying to help, because of access to an insane amount of fire power. 

Enough is enough. 

Writing my parents and the love of my life a goodbye last night and a living will because I felt like I wasn’t going to live through the night was enough for me to realize that this is completely and totally out of hand. These rounds were just powerful enough that my crew guys just standing in close proximity of a victim shot by this f—ing coward received shrapnel wounds. 

We need gun control RIGHT. NOW. My biggest regret is that I stubbornly didn’t realize it until my brothers on the road and myself were threatened by it. We are unbelievably fortunate to not be among the number of victims killed or seriously wounded by this maniac.

(Keeter is the lead guitarist for the Josh Abbott Band)

Yes, of course we need gun control, but the Republicans are still saying that it is wrong to talk about it in the wake of this most recent shooting, because it would be "insensitive" to politicize it.

The problem of course is that after a couple of weeks everybody's nerves will calm down, and nobody will feel compelled to talk about it at all. That wouldn't be goal would it?

rhetorical question, of course it is.

That's why the NRA is delaying TV ads in Virginia. 

Gotta wait for the dust to settle.

According to Quartz this is the 338th mass shooting in 2017.

That is more than one mass shooting a day.

So this one band member's position on the 2nd Amendment has been changed, but for the rest of the country, who were NOT ducking bullets while people around them were murdered, this is still an academic argument.

So do we need to wait until EVERY American barely survives a mass shooting in order to see a change to our gun laws?

Because sadly even then that may not prove enough of an incentive.

Simply put, you cannot call yourself the greatest nation on earth if your citizens are being gunned down in random shootings every day.

Why is that so damn hard to understand?

Mass shooting in Las Vegas. Update!

Source

Courtesy of NBC News:  

A gunman fired a barrage of bullets on an outdoor country music festival in Las Vegas Sunday night, killing at least 50 people and injuring more than 400 others, police said, in the worst mass shooting in modern American history. 

From his room on the 32nd floor of a glitzy hotel, the shooter, identified by law enforcement officials as Stephen Paddock, 64, of Mesquite, Nevada, fired shot after shot down on the crowd of more than 22,000, sending terrified concertgoers running for their lives. 

“We heard what sounded like firecrackers going off. Then all of a sudden we heard what sounded like a machine gun. People started screaming that they were hit… When we started running out there were probably a couple hundred [people] on the ground,” witness Meghan Kearney told MSNBC. 

"People kept dropping and dropping… People were getting shot one foot away from us," she said. “People were trying to save their friends. There were gunshots everywhere. Helping them would’ve meant that we got shot, too.” 

There are reports that this man had as many as ten rifles in his possession, and that he killed himself before the police reached him.

As you can hear from this footage the man clearly used at least one fully automatic weapon, which is supposedly illegal.

Currently the motivation for the shooting is unclear.

This is a terrible, terrible tragedy and is being called the worst shooting in American history.

Update: Trump weighs in.

My warmest condolences and sympathies to the victims and families of the terrible Las Vegas shooting. God bless you!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 2, 2017

"Warmest condolences?"

Update 2: Trump is now speaking about the shooting. He is actually quoting scripture.

Plans to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday. I assume to make sure none of his properties were hit by gunfire.

Update 3: Hillary Clinton offers the leadership that Trump cannot.

Las Vegas, we are grieving with you—the victims, those who lost loved ones, the responders, & all affected by this cold-blooded massacre.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 2, 2017

The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots.

Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 2, 2017

Our grief isn't enough. We can and must put politics aside, stand up to the NRA, and work together to try to stop this from happening again.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 2, 2017

Now you know why the NRA worked so hard to defeat her.

Update 4: Let's put this to rest, shall we?

UPDATE: Senior U.S. officials say no evidence Vegas shooter was connected to international militant group after ISIS claims responsibility

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) October 2, 2017

You probably saw this coming., Donald Trump attacks mayor of San Juan in early morning tweets.

The Mayor of San Juan, who was very complimentary only a few days ago, has now been told by the Democrats that you must be nasty to Trump.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

...Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They....

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

...want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

Of course this was in response to Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz's desperate call for help yesterday. So instead of getting these people the help they so desperately need, Trump decides to become defensive and attack this overwhelmed mayor personally.

That's real leadership. 

By the way Trump sent those disgusting tweets from the comfort of his private golf course in New Jersey. 

POS!

This story about Donald Trump refusing to help a dying man at Mar a Lago essentially sums up his presidency.

Trump was afraid to help a dying man at Mar-a-Lago because he was bleeding https://t.co/3SXrwziabU pic.twitter.com/jxgesI2FJz

— Justin Miller (@justinjm1) September 28, 2017

There you go.

Why would Trump care about a protester being killed in Charlottesville?

About people being denied health care in this country?

Or about American citizens dying in Puerto Rico?

He simply doesn't care.

And if he is so heartless that he can even turn away when somebody is dying right in front of him.

Then how can any American really believe he would care about them?

(Here is the original article.)

Another senseless shooting. This time at a church in Tennessee.

"He was just shooting." Witness recounts church shooting outside Nashville that left one dead and six injured. https://t.co/gRKfVGoHj3 pic.twitter.com/R975iWM1Xs

— ABC News (@ABC) September 24, 2017

Courtesy of Tennessean: 

One person was killed and eight others wounded Sunday after a man in a ski mask opened fire following a church service in Antioch. 

The shooter, identified as Emanuel Kidega Samson, a 25-year-old Rutherford County man, accidentally shot himself after he was confronted by an armed member of the congregation and is being treated at the hospital, according to Metro Nashville Police. 

Police say the gunman wore a neoprene ski mask when he shot and killed a woman in the parking lot of Burnette Chapel Church of Christ, as the service was ending shortly after 11 a.m. With his blue Nissan Xterra still running, the gunman then entered the rear sanctuary doors of the church and began "indiscriminately" shooting, police said. 

Among those shot were three men and three women, police spokesman Don Aaron said.

Apparently the gunman was confronted by an usher at the church and while pistol whipping the man he inadvertently shot himself in the chest.

He ultimately survived and is in police custody.

No reason has been given for the shooting.

Just another day in the NRA's America.

Former Fox News host Eric Bolling's son has died.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

The 19-year-old son of former Fox News host Eric Bolling was found dead Friday. 

The cause of Eric Chase Bolling’s death remained unknown as of Saturday afternoon. 

The younger Bolling died hours after Fox News announced it was parting ways “amicably” with his father. The Fox personality came under fire after HuffPost published a report in August revealing that he had sent inappropriate text messages to current and former female colleagues.

The Huffington Post did not identify the cause of death, perhaps out of respect, but TMZ did:  

Well placed FNC sources tell TMZ ... Eric Chase died from a drug overdose. We're told he was having a hard time dealing with the trouble his dad was having at the network. Our sources say he was extremely embarrassed by the stories and was "emotionally upset."

If this is accurate, and I am pretty sure it must be or I don't think TMZ would have written it, this is incredibly sad news.

I almost did not post this today because I worried that people who do not like Bolling would say hateful things.

I also really do not like Eric Bolling, but he is a parent who just lost his only child.

Right now there is nothing that matters at all except for that. Not the fact that he worked for a cable station that has worked to destroy journalism in this country, not the hateful things he has said about President Obama, not even the fact that he sexually harassed the women who worked with him.

The ONE thing that matters is that this man just lost his only child.

I think the majority of us here are parents so I know you can imagine what that must feel like.

There is literally NO pain I can imagine that would hurt as much as the pain he must be feeling right now.

And if TMZ is right, and the suicide was the result of Bolling's behaviors at work and the loss of that job,......well....there are simply no words to express what that must feel like.

So as one human being to another, I am deeply sorry for Mr. Bolling's loss and only want to express my most heartfelt condolences.

Dreamer dies trying to rescue people during Texas flood, his Mexican born mother will not be allowed to attend his funeral.

Courtesy of HuffPo: 

Alonso Guillen came to the U.S. from Mexico as a child. He died here, too: On Wednesday, he disappeared when his boat capsized while he was rescuing survivors of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in the Houston area. 

Family members recovered his body on Sunday from a creek in Spring, Texas, according to The Houston Chronicle ― just hours before reports emerged that President Donald Trump will end the program that shielded Guillen and others like him ― so-called Dreamers ― from deportation. 

Guillen, a 31-year-old disc jockey who came to Texas from Mexico as a teenager, never became a U.S. citizen. But he had a work permit and protection from immediate deportation as part of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program ― DACA ― that then-President Barack Obama established in 2012. 

Last week, he headed south from his home in Lufkin, Texas, with a borrowed boat, insisting he wanted to help rescue flood survivors. His father, a legal permanent resident, wept on the sandy banks of Cypress Creek on Sunday as his son’s body was pulled from the water, the Chronicle reported. Jesus Guillen recounted to the paper how he asked his son not to go on the rescue mission with two friends, and that he thanked God for the time he had with his son. 

As Law Newz reports Guillen's mother will not be allowed to cross the border in order to attend her son's funeral:  

While Guillen’s father is a legal permanent resident of the United States, his mother, Rita Ruiz de Guillen is currently applying for legal status here–and unable to cross the border in order to bury her son. 

She had hoped U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials would be understanding of the situation and issue a humanitarian visa so she could properly mourn, but her request was denied and the grieving 62-year-old was sent back to Me exico after reaching the U.S. border. She said, through tears: 

“I’ve lost a great son, you have no idea. I’m asking God to give me strength. When we are with God, there are no borders. Man made borders on this earth.”

I'm sorry, putting politics aside where at least is the compassion for this grieving mother? 

I mean what are they afraid she will do, leave the funeral, disappear into the crowd, and then immediately start stealing American's jobs?

Just a reminder that this woman gave her life fighting against racism.

Heather was the resistance, she was a TRUE patriot. Rest in paradise. You fought, and we will keeping fighting like you're right here w/ us. pic.twitter.com/KNK0GA3enr

— Margaret Cho (@margaretcho) August 13, 2017

Heather Heyer is her name. She was 32 years old. She was murdered on Saturday, August 12th in Charlottesville, VA. May she rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/q8Fo4YdPiV

— Michael Skolnik (@MichaelSkolnik) August 13, 2017

I don't think that too many people set out to be a martyr.

I certainly believe that Heather Heyer expected to return home to her family after she spent the afternoon standing up for the rights of others.

However she did not get to return home, and it was those who have no respect for the rights of others who took her life.

Her mother would like her legacy to be about the fight for justice.

Courtesy of HuffPo:

Heather Heyer’s mother, Susan Bro, told HuffPost that her daughter attended Saturday’s rally because she “was about bringing an end to injustice.” 

“Heather was not about hate, Heather was about stopping hatred,” Bro said through tears. “Heather was about bringing an end to injustice. I don’t want her death to be a focus for more hatred, I want her death to be a rallying cry for justice and equality and fairness and compassion.”

Keep in mind that the man driving that car which took her Heather Heyer's life was not the only alt-right protester willing to resort to acts of terrorism.

Read the story of Deandre Harris, the Charlottesville boy violently attacked by a mob of white supremacists. https://t.co/f6FhvlpXOr pic.twitter.com/lD97LuVF8j

— Matt McDermott (@mattmfm) August 13, 2017

Trump's NSA adviser. H.R. McMaster was willing to call these acts "terrorism" on the Sunday Talk shows today, but so far our commander-in-chief has refused to do the same.

But WE know terrorism when we see it.

And we know that it is not indicated by the religion which you follow, or the color of your skin, but rather the darkness in your heart.