Brooke Baldwin Breaks Down

This is performative leftism.

If you cry enough maybe something will be done, right?

At CNN:

President Trump's Statement on the Mass Shootings in Texas and Ohio (VIDEO)

He makes a perfectly sober and heartfelt statement, denouncing the killings and repudiating racist hatred and "white supremacy." Of course, it's never enough for the evil left.

At the White House page, "Remarks by President Trump on the Mass Shootings in Texas and Ohio."

What's Really Behind the 'White Supremacy' Terrorism Scare

It's Julie Kelly, at American Greatness:

Julie Kelly today at American Greatness with What’s Really Behind the ‘White Supremacy’ Terrorism Scare https://t.co/AAGEOGmfii pic.twitter.com/73L20945u9

— American Greatness (@theamgreatness) August 6, 2019

The anti-Trump forces, now stripped of their Russian collusion ammunition, have invented another imaginary threat they hope to weaponize against the president: The public menace posed by “white supremacist” terrorism.

Much like the collusion conspiracy theory—which relied on random incidents, fictional villains, unconvincing evidence, and the Bad Orange Man in the White House—there is little substance to this purported danger.

Unironically, the whole ruse is being pushed by the same people who foisted the Russian collusion hoax on the American people for three years in the hopes of prompting President Trump’s impeachment and removal. The political agenda behind this manufactured white supremacy crisis is equally sinister because its specific purpose is to influence and undermine the 2020 elections.

The “white supremacy” canard is intended to further demonize Trump; falsely defame his supporters as white supremacists; and pressure nervous voters into defeating Trump and Republican candidates next year. The strategy is as cynical as it is pernicious...

8chan Founder Says 'Shut It Down'

I don't care about 8chan. I've never visited any of the troll message boards, although I don't think they should be regulated by government. Preventive action is key. If it's not 8chan it'll be something else. There's unlimited outlets for shitposting trolls to gather, spew, and foment nihilist racist propaganda.

Following-up, "El Paso Shooting Suspect Posted Online 'Manifesto' Decrying 'Ethnic Replacement' in the U.S. (VIDEO)," and "'Shitposting Nihilist Trolls' and the Lolz of the El Paso Shooting Massacre."

At the New York Times, "8chan Is a Megaphone for Gunmen. ‘Shut the Site Down,’ Says Its Creator":

I talked to the founder and former admin of 8chan this morning. He told me he wants the site to be shut down, after being involved in 3 mass shootings this year. https://t.co/tewgBEqYeF

— Kevin Roose (@kevinroose) August 4, 2019

Fredrick Brennan was getting ready for church at his home in the Philippines when the news of a mass shooting in El Paso arrived. His response was immediate and instinctive.

“Whenever I hear about a mass shooting, I say, ‘All right, we have to research if there’s an 8chan connection,’” he said.

Mr. Brennan started the online message board 8chan in 2013, as a spinoff of 4chan, the better-known message board. In its early years, the site was known as an unmoderated free-for-all site populated by anonymous posters, where shocking and offensive humor reigned.

Now, 8chan is known as something else: a megaphone for mass shooters, and a recruiting platform for violent white nationalists. And Mr. Brennan, who stopped working with the site’s current owner last year, is calling for it to be taken offline before it leads to further violence.

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“Shut the site down,” Mr. Brennan said in an interview on Sunday. “It’s not doing the world any good. It’s a complete negative to everybody except the users that are there. And you know what? It’s a negative to them, too. They just don’t realize it.”

So far this year, three mass shootings — El Paso, the mosque killings in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the synagogue shooting in Poway, Calif. — have been announced in advance on 8chan, often accompanied by racist writings that seem engineered to go viral on the internet.

Moments before the El Paso shooting on Saturday, a four-page message whose author identified himself as the suspected shooter appeared on 8chan’s politics board, known as /pol/. The person who posted the message encouraged his 8chan “brothers” to spread its contents far and wide.

Given its repeated involvement in mass shootings, 8chan has become a focal point for those seeking to disrupt the pathways of online extremism.

“8chan is almost like a bulletin board where the worst offenders go to share their terrible ideas,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League. “It’s become a sounding board where people share ideas, and where these kinds of ideologies are amplified and expanded on, and ultimately, people are radicalized as a result.”

8chan has been run out of the Philippines by Jim Watkins, a United States Army veteran, since 2015, when Mr. Brennan gave up control of the site.

The site remains nearly completely unmoderated, and its commitment to keeping up even the most violent speech has made it a venue for extremists to test out ideas, share violent literature and cheer on the perpetrators of mass killings. Users on 8chan frequently lionize mass shooters using jokey internet vernacular, referring to their body counts as “high scores” and creating memes praising the killers.

Mr. Brennan, who has a condition known as brittle-bone disease and uses a wheelchair, has tried to distance himself from 8chan and its current owners. In a March interview with The Wall Street Journal, he expressed his regrets over his role in the site’s creation, and warned that the violent culture that had taken root on 8chan’s boards could lead to more mass shootings.

After the El Paso shooting, he seemed resigned to the fact that it had.

“Another 8chan shooting?” he tweeted on Saturday. “Am I ever going to be able to move on with my life?”

Mr. Watkins, who runs 8chan along with his son, Ronald, has remained defiant in the face of criticism, and has resisted calls to moderate or shut down the site. On Sunday, a banner at the top of 8chan’s home page read, “Welcome to 8chan, the Darkest Reaches of the Internet.”

“I’ve tried to understand so many times why he keeps it going, and I just don’t get it,” Mr. Brennan said. “After Christchurch, after the Tree of Life shooting, and now after this shooting, they think this is all really funny.”

Mr. Watkins did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

In the early days of 8chan, Mr. Brennan defended the right of 8chan users to post anonymously, without censorship. And he dismissed incidents of harassment or violence by users of the site as the price of being an open forum...

Neera Tanden Trounced for Dancing on Graves, Campaigning for #Dems, After Mass Shootings

This is really, really bad.

At Twitchy:

Never let a crisis go to WASTE --> Neera Tanden TROUNCED for dancing on El Paso/Dayton graves to campaign for Dems https://t.co/DYa5JklEoB

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 4, 2019

Never let a crisis go to waste, eh Neera? Instead of an intelligent conversation about what’s driving these shootings, who’s responsible, and how to stop them, why not attack your ideological opponents to score points?
You don’t care about lives, you only care about power.

— Tryx™️🌪 (@Tryxt3rocks) August 4, 2019

'Shitposting Nihilist Trolls' and the Lolz of the El Paso Shooting Masscre

Actually, I suspect one can be a little more scientific when trying to identify root causes, but he's not entirely wrong. It's Brian Cates with a tweetstorm from earlier, via Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit, at Twitchy:

‘Media and politicians DON’T get it’: Brian Cates’ thread on the gunman’s alleged ‘manifesto’ is a must read https://t.co/rSDkI6aykT

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 4, 2019

We’re now facing something new.

Before, a person intensely motivated by politics would write a manifesto to explain their reasons for resorting to violence.

Shitposting trolls on the chans aren’t trying to affect real political change.

The manifesto is PART of the trolling.

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 4, 2019

The **Antifa** guy from three weeks ago, now THAT was an old style attempt at a mass murder.

He left behind a rambling, disjointed manifesto enumerating political reasons for his attack on the ICE facility. https://t.co/ZDA16zeYhT

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 4, 2019

But something new has been added into the mix in the last year and we have to recognize it:

Mass shootings done for **fun** as the ultimate troll where these shitposters write confusing manifestos and then sit back & watch the fun as both sides claim he belongs to the other.

— Brian Cates (@drawandstrike) August 4, 2019

Trump Must Condemn 'White Nationalist Terrorism'

Sure, he can denounce it, but that never satisfies the left. Democrats would do well to bone up on the policy and legislative efforts the Obama administration launched after the Newtown massacre What new guns laws were effected? Bupkes.

I’m going to agree here. But, if Trump denounces “White nationalist terrorism” blood thirsty #Democrats won’t be satisfied. That’s the problem when it all gets politicized. Double standards will get more people killed. 🤷‍♂️ #ElPaso #CieloVista #MassShooting #Walmart https://t.co/noG9uWz0jY

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

#Democrat Pete Buttigieg Warns Against the 'Domestic White Nationalist Terror' Threat (VIDEO)

Democrats didn't wait long.

Following-up, "Democrat Beto O'Rourke Politicizes Mass Slaughter at #CieloVista #Walmart in #ElPaso (VIDEO)."

Buttigieg, who otherwise often sounds reasonable, is pathetic and desperate here.

#Democrats in a race to demonize law-abiding citizens for the actions of an evil individual filled with racist hatred. STFU and fix your #Democrat thug-controlled cities before blaming #Republicans for this evil act. #ElPaso #CieloVista #MassShooting 🙏🤷‍♂️ https://t.co/zK4fypY6YJ

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

El Paso Shooting Suspect Posted Online 'Manifesto' Decrying 'Ethnic Replacement' in the U.S. (VIDEO)

Bellingcat has an investigative report, "The El Paso Shooting and the Gamification of Terror." (Via Memeorandum.)

And click through at Gateway Pundit to read the shooter's racist screed, which cites the New Zealand Christchurch massacre as inspiration: "El Paso Walmart Shooter Patrick Crusius Admits in Manifesto That he Chose a Gun-Free Zone for Obvious Reasons."

And at Russia Today (with the obvious caveats):

El Paso Shooting Suspect Could Face Death Penalty (VIDEO)

I hope the dude fries. Let's so leftists launch an anti-death penalty campaign to free this guy from death row. I mean, it helps to be politically consistent, right? (*Eye-roll.*)

At the El Paso Times, "Capital murder charge filed, death penalty sought against man arrested in El Paso Walmart mass shooting."

Democrat Beto O'Rourke Politicizes Mass Slaughter at #CieloVista #Walmart in #ElPaso (VIDEO)

I'm shocked, horrified, sick, and angry with all the mass shootings, whatever the background of the shooter. And obviously, politically-motivated hate crimes must be denounced and prevented. But let's work as a team. Not tear each other apart. Beto's not helping. And he's especially not helping the #Democrat Party, which will not win a battle to secure even more regressive and confiscatory guns laws.

#Beto is really hitting the “blame Trump” talking points hard. Politicizing #ElPaso won’t turn out well for #Democrats, especially when the left’s inevitable gun confiscation propaganda goes into overdrive. #FakeNewsCNN #Dems #CieloVista #massShooting 🤷‍♂️

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

This is what I’m talking about. 🙄 #Beto https://t.co/vz1rjdWN7V #ElPasoShooting #CieloVista #MassShooting https://t.co/u1PLugKNXv

— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) August 4, 2019

A tragedy like this is not an opportunity to reboot your failing presidential campaign.

This is disgusting and wrong.https://t.co/gHfPHx1Oet

— Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) August 4, 2019

NRATV Shuts Down

I don't follow the ins and outs of NRA's internal politics and organization, but things aren't going well, apparently.

At the New York Times, via Memeorandum, "N.R.A. Shuts Down Production of NRATV."

Leftists are cheering, at HuffPo, "Twitter Users Celebrate NRATV’s Demise With ‘Thoughts And Prayers’ For Dana Loesch."

It's all political warfare. Dana gets their goat and she can take the flak.

N.R.A. Shuts Down Production of NRATV: https://t.co/Od8PRrsr50

Oh and Dana Loesch is out too.

Sending my #ThoughtsAndPrayers

— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) June 26, 2019

Long Beach City College Gun Scare Lockdown (VIDEO)

My college's Pacific Coast Campus was on lockdown yesterday, although it turned out the weapon was a fake gun, I guess to be used in some kind of theater production.

Campus security sent out emergency notifications through email and text messaging around 11:00am or so. The college took this very seriously, which is good. I'd like more answers about why some theater production was having fake guns in use and there was no formal notification to the college beforehand?

My school's newspaper, the Viking, has the story. Turns out is was a theater professor himself who "stupidly" walked across campus carrying the fake weapon, without a bag or anything. You think people might freak out?

See, "Film professor carrying prop gun caused campus lockdown."

And at ABC 7 News Los Angeles:

You Gotta Love It: California Gun Owners Buy Ammunition on #BlackFriday (VIDEO)

Getting ahead of the new state legislation, which takes effect January 1st.

This guy Walt Fetgatter, interviewed at the piece, speaks for millions of Californians. Our rights are being violated. People are fleeing the state. In addition to gun control, taxes are way too high (and all kinds of "climate change" emissions regulations are killing businesses statewide).

At ABC News 10 San Diego:

Dana Loesch: 'Law-Abiding People Should Not Always Be Paying the Price for the Actions of Criminals...' (VIDEO)

Here's Ms. Dana, on Fox and Friends the other day:

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition: Guns, God, and Church Services

At the Los Angeles Times, "At a church security seminar: Guns, God and 'get those heads up' when you pray":

At a church security seminar: Guns, God and 'get those heads up' when you pray https://t.co/NIWtSJ6n49 pic.twitter.com/gK3a9goaQx

— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) May 22, 2018

Just as the people in Mariners Church began to pull off their hats, bow their heads and close their eyes to pray, Jimmy Meeks snapped at them.

"Get those heads up!" said the pastor and retired Texas police officer.

Hadn't he just warned them that closing their eyes made them targets? Sheep in the presence of wolves.

"What's wrong with y'all?"

Their eyes duly peeled, he then led the crowd in a prayer.

"Wherever we are, Father, should the wolf cross our path, give us the wisdom to know what to do with that moment, and give us the power and the courage to act to stop the wolf and protect our sons and daughters."

Churchgoers, preachers and law enforcement officers from across Southern California had gathered for a church security seminar in Huntington Beach hosted by the California Rifle & Pistol Assn., which delivered a warning: Faith alone will not protect you in a house of God.

In the sleek sanctuary of Mariners Church, the mostly male crowd sipped coffee, jotted notes and punctured the air with shouts of "Amen!" and "Hooah!" as a series of out-of-town speakers at the Sheepdog Seminar encouraged them to be the ones who step up and protect others if, God forbid, an attacker comes.

In the months since a gunman in November killed 26 people at the First Baptist Church in rural Sutherland Springs, Texas, many people of faith have begun questioning how to keep religious institutions safe, said Rick Travis, executive director of the California Rifle & Pistol Assn. His organization has been inundated with requests for church security training and probably will be hosting events for the next several years, he said.

"We don't want people to be afraid," said Travis, a churchgoer himself. "We want people to be knowledgeable."

The seminar happened four days before a mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas killed 10 people, mostly students, and reignited the never-ending debate over gun control, the 2nd Amendment and the place of firearms in American society.

Appearing on Sunday morning news programs, Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said that teachers need to be armed. He said guns are not the problem.

"Guns stop crimes," he said on ABC's "This Week." "If we take the guns out of society — if you or anyone else thinks that that makes us safer, then I'm sad to say that you're mistaken. That will just give those that are evil … [the ability] to put more of us in danger."

Were the assembled at the church safety event being told to pack heat in the pews? Not always in so many words — and that wasn't the whole kit and caboodle of advice. But if you're legally able to carry a gun, the speakers said, it's best to do it.

"If you do not have an armed presence in your church, you are simply not ready," Meeks said...

Kaya Jones

She's a sweetie.

#PinkHair 💗 don’t care 🤷‍♀️ 🤣 pic.twitter.com/m90w6hnOL5

— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) May 10, 2018

"I don't know if I'm going to be singing with any groups again or what I'm going to do. But I definitely know that my goal right now is to be that ambassador for the #2A community in the entertainment sector that really isn't spoken for and needs more education." —@KayaJones #NRA pic.twitter.com/hg7buqc2rH

— NRATV (@NRATV) May 14, 2018

Pool time play date with this amazing woman @TheAmyRobbins ❤️🇺🇸❤️ pic.twitter.com/7NEgizxbTH

— Kaya Jones (@KayaJones) May 20, 2018

Texas School Shooter Dimitrios Pagourtzis Murdered Girl Who Turned Down His Advances

It's horrible.

At LAT, "Texas school shooter killed girl who turned down his advances and embarrassed him in class, her mother says":

NEW: The Santa Fe High School gunman killed a classmate, Shana Fisher, who had turned down his advances, her mother tells us. Shana finally stood up to him and embarrassed him in class, and "a week later he opens fire on everyone he didn't like." https://t.co/clHL0gO6zP

— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) May 20, 2018

As he heard the gunshots approaching down the hall Friday morning, Santa Fe High School student Abel San Miguel, 15, hid with a few classmates in the art class storage closet.

He wasn't sure if he was going to survive. Through the door, he could see the barrel of a shotgun. Then the shooter began shooting through the door, killing at least one student inside, and grazing Abel's back.

When the shooter left the room briefly, Abel and others left the closet and tried to barricade the door. But the shooter pushed it open, spotted a student he knew, and with anger said, "Surprise!" before shooting the student in the chest.

"I'm still trying to process everything," Abel said in an interview.

As more details emerged about the shooting that left 10 people dead and 13 injured at the Houston-area school, the student who authorities said confessed to the attack was being held in isolation Saturday as officials identified the victims.

The family of the 17-year-old suspect, junior Dimitrios Pagourtzis, is "as shocked and confused as anyone else by these events that occurred," according to a statement released to the media.

"We are gratified by the public comments made by other Santa Fe High School students that show Dimitri as we know him: a smart, quiet, sweet boy," the family statement said. "While we remain mostly in the dark about the specifics of yesterday's tragedy, what we have learned from media reports seems incompatible with the boy we love."

One of Pagourtzis' classmates who died in the attack, Shana Fisher, "had 4 months of problems from this boy," her mother, Sadie Rodriguez, wrote in a private message to the Los Angeles Times on Facebook. "He kept making advances on her and she repeatedly told him no."

Pagourtzis continued to get more aggressive, and she finally stood up to him and embarrassed him in class, Rodriguez said. "A week later he opens fire on everyone he didn't like," she wrote. "Shana being the first one." Rodriguez didn't say how she knew her daughter was the first victim.

The gunman repeatedly taunted students during the attack, according to another harrowing account posted to Facebook by one survivor's mother.

After scrambling to escape the shooter's blasts in the art room, Isabelle Van Ness, covered in dust from rounds hitting her classroom walls, could hear the shooter in a next-door classroom yelling, "Woo hoo!" while shooting, according to her mother, Deedra Van Ness.

"The gunman then comes back into their room and they hear him saying … are you dead? Then more shots are fired," Deedra Van Ness wrote. "By this time, cell phones all over the classroom are ringing and he's taunting the kids in the closet asking them … do you think it's for you? do you want to come answer it? Then he proceeds to fire more bullets into the closet and tries to get in."

Police arrived within 10 minutes later as Isabelle hid among the bodies of her classmates, and she could hear the shooter reloading after an "exchange" with police, her mother wrote.

Soon after, the shooter surrendered. "She and her friends had been in the same room with the gunman the ENTIRE TIME," her mother wrote. "As the media announces the names of the confirmed dead, Isabelle falls apart. ... She had prayed that her friends lying around the school were just injured and the confirmation of their deaths was crushing."

The dead included two teachers, Glenda Perkins and Cynthia Tisdale, along with Shana Fisher and seven of her classmates: Kimberly Vaughan, Angelique Ramirez, Christian Riley Garcia, Jared Black, Christopher Jake Stone, Aaron Kyle McLeod and Sabika Sheikh, an exchange student from Pakistan.

Two bombs that Pagourtzis allegedly brought to the school Friday were "intended to be IEDs," improvised explosive devices, but turned out to be "nonfunctional," Galveston County Judge Mark Henry said Saturday.

Pagourtzis, a football player who had allegedly posted images of guns and a T-shirt with the words "Born to kill" on social media in the weeks before the shooting, is being held without bond while facing charges of capital murder and aggravated assault on a public servant.

His schoolmates were allowed to return to parts of the school Saturday to retrieve their abandoned belongings...

More.

Hey, Normal Americans, Donˊt Worry About Us Locking Up Your Guns

At Director Blue:

GUN CONTROL FASCISTS: Hey, Normal Americans, Donˊt Worry About Us Locking Up Your Guns https://t.co/EJXni1cQsB pic.twitter.com/e7ov5Zv9t6

— Doug Ross 🔵 (@directorblue) April 18, 2018

Citizen's Righteous Rant Defending 2nd Amendment Goes Viral:

From Nice Deb, at Pajamas:

Citizen's Righteous Rant Defending 2nd Amendment Goes Viral https://t.co/LJ6FHzRkv3 #Video via @pjmedia_com

— Debra Heine (@NiceDeb) April 6, 2018