Have a wonderful Father's Day everybody!
#HappyFathersDay. Miss you, Dad. pic.twitter.com/3ySnXwitQf
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 18, 2017
Commentary and analysis on American politics, culture, and national identity, U.S. foreign policy and international relations, and the state of education - from a neoconservative perspective! - Keeping an eye on the communist-left so you don't have to!
#HappyFathersDay. Miss you, Dad. pic.twitter.com/3ySnXwitQf
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 18, 2017
It may very well be that this week was the week that Israel and the US put to rest former president Barack Obama’s policies and positions on Israel and the Palestinians.RTWT.
If so, the move was made despite the best efforts of Obama’s team to convince the Trump administration to maintain them.
The details of Obama’s policies and positions have been revealed in recent weeks in a series of articles published in Haaretz regarding Obama’s secretary of state John Kerry’s failed peacemaking efforts, which ended in 2014.
The articles reported segments of two drafts of a US framework for a final peace treaty between the PLO and Israel. The drafts were created in February and March 2014.
The article series is predicated on the assumption that Kerry and his team were on the precipice of a historic breakthrough between PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. But a close reading of the documents shows that the opposite was the case.
There are two reasons that Kerry had no prospects for reaching a deal.
First, he, Obama and their advisers were too hostile to Israel and its citizens to ever convince Netanyahu that Israel’s interests would be secured.
A February 2014 draft framework agreement, which was based on conversations Kerry and his team held with Netanyahu and his advisers, makes this clear. The draft includes Netanyahu’s demand that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria not annexed to Israel would remain “in place” after the implementation of a peace deal, and presumably, become towns in the future Palestinian state.
In other words, Netanyahu demanded that the Israelis in Judea and Samaria whose towns would be located in the territory of “Palestine” would enjoy the same rights and protections as Israel’s Arab citizens enjoy.
Kerry and his team would have none of it. The February draft agreement notes, “[US] negotiators need to check with PM [Netanyahu] on whether he wants to [maintain this position]… They believe that if so, he will push strongly for ‘in place.’ ‘In place’ is inconsistent with US policy and therefore unacceptable to us as well as the Palestinians.”
In other words, the position of the Obama administration was that all Israelis living in areas that would become part of the Palestinian state must be forcibly removed from their homes and communities.
Haaretz reporters Barak Ravid and Amir Tibon recalled that in previous rounds of negotiations, the Palestinians – unlike the Obama administration – had not rejected this Israeli position out of hand. That is, in demanding the mass expulsion of Israeli Jews from their homes, the administration adopted a policy more extreme than the PLO.
Then there is the problem with the PLO...
On Linda Sarsour’s Politics of Hate and the Pathos of Her Jewish Enablers https://t.co/NR5PDHabJT via @tabletmag— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) June 18, 2017
Linda Sarsour is a progressive-media darling. One of Essence magazine’s “Woke 100 Women,” Sarsour was named a leader of the Women’s March that followed President Donald Trump’s inauguration, despite declaring that “nothing is creepier than Zionism”—though her wish to “take away” the “vagina” of clitoridectomy victim and human-rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali, praise for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, upholding Saudi Arabia as a bastion of women’s lib, embrace of the terrorist murderer Rasmea Odeh, and claim that “Shariah law is reasonable” because “suddenly all your loans & credits cards become interest-free,” are all—at least in my humble estimation—definitely creepier.Why? Democrats have been poisoned by the seeds of self-hatred, and thus they'll let people like Sarsour do the work of Satan to destroy them. It's not difficult.
Yet Sarsour’s ride on the media wonder-wheel continues—thanks in part to Jewish individuals and organizations who embrace the idea that haters like Sarsour can’t actually hate them. Recently, the “homegirl in a hijab,” as a fawning New York Times profile described her, delivered the commencement address at the City University of New York’s School of Public Health. It was a strange choice on the part of CUNY, not least because Sarsour has zero professional experience in the field. Prior to the event, critics, many of them Jewish, called upon CUNY to rescind its invitation in light of Sarsour’s rhetoric and associations. A group of progressive Jews released an open letter in defense of Sarsour. “In this time, when so many marginalized communities in our country are targeted on the streets and from the highest offices of government” the letter solemnly declared, “we are committed to bridging communal boundaries and standing in solidarity with one another.”
Also coming to Sarsour’s defense was the Anti-Defamation League, which presumably stands against the defamation of women, Jews, and the Jewish state. “Despite our deep opposition to Sarsour’s views on Israel,” its head Jonathan Greenblatt said, before offering the following non sequitur, “we believe that she has a First Amendment right to offer those views.”
No one, of course, disputes Sarsour’s legal right to spout whatever vicious nonsense she wants. But there is nothing in the First Amendment that says Sarsour has a “right” to speak at CUNY, or appear on CNN, or publish an op-ed in the New York Times. As an organization ostensibly committed to fighting anti-Semitism and other forms of prejudice, the ADL was under no obligation to defend a Jew-baiting, demagogic, foul-mouthed, sectarian bully—someone who, in fact, asserted that anti-Semitism is “different than anti-black racism or Islamophobia because it’s not systemic.” Not systemic? Tell that to the survivors of the most systematized effort at extermination in human history. If there is a more utterly mendacious claim that perverts the truth about humanity’s oldest, deadliest and very much “systemic” hatred, I’m not sure what it could be.
Still, Greenblatt—whose organization was once devoted to combating anti-Semitism—decided that it was better to side with his fellow progressives in public than risk his position on the team. Why?
This is an important question for Jewish Democrats, since the weird combination of communal masochism and personal arrogance that characterizes Sarsour’s self-appointed “Jewish allies” also makes for a particularly ineffective form of coalition politics—at least for the Jewish side of the equation...
Three trends are driving the new energy revolution: management, data analytics, and automation. https://t.co/ft3nbboy1O
— Foreign Affairs (@ForeignAffairs) June 18, 2017
The technology revolution has transformed one industry after another, from retail to manufacturing to transportation. Its most far-reaching effects, however, may be playing out in the unlikeliest of places: the traditional industries of oil, gas, and electricity.More.
Over the past decade, innovation has upended the energy industry. First came the shale revolution. Starting around 2005, companies began to unlock massive new supplies of natural gas, and then oil, from shale basins, thanks to two new technologies: horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (or fracking). Engineers worked out how to drill shafts vertically and then turn their drills sideways to travel along a shale seam; they then blasted the shale with high-pressure water, sand, and chemicals to pry open the rock and allow the hydrocarbons to flow. These technologies have helped drive oil prices down from an all-time high of $145 per barrel in July 2008 to less than a third of that today, and supply has become much more responsive to market conditions, undercutting the ability of OPEC, a group of the world’s major oil-exporting nations, to influence global oil prices.
That was just the beginning. Today, smarter management of complex systems, data analytics, and automation are remaking the industry once again, boosting the productivity and flexibility of energy companies. These changes have begun to transform not only the industries that produce commodities such as oil and gas but also the ways in which companies generate and deliver electric power. A new electricity industry is emerging—one that is more decentralized and consumer-friendly, and able to integrate many different sources of power into highly reliable power grids. In the coming years, these trends are likely to keep energy cheap and plentiful, responsive to market conditions, and more efficient than ever.
But this transition will not be straightforward. It could destabilize countries whose economies depend on revenue from traditional energy sources, such as Russia, the big producers of the Persian Gulf, and Venezuela. It could hurt lower-skilled workers, whose jobs are vulnerable to automation. And cheap fossil fuels will make it harder to achieve the deep cuts in emissions needed to halt global warming...
Sad news #Breaking as Police announce that Hadas Malka has died of her wounds in today's attack in #Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/XA8CYSzytH— Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) June 16, 2017
— Katie Hopkins (@KTHopkins) June 17, 2017
It will be dangerously hot Saturday as we're expected to see a high of 110.
— Beth Duckett (@Beth_Duckett) June 17, 2017
The NWS has already issued excessive #heat watches for Friday into early next week across the Southwest: https://t.co/sXoaAXBD3C pic.twitter.com/9Im1iOM0IT
— The Weather Channel (@weatherchannel) June 14, 2017
A heat wave will arrive late this week in California and across the southwest US - here's how you stay safe https://t.co/asAP108BNk 🌡️☀️😓 pic.twitter.com/WdUfr2aETC
— NWS (@NWS) June 14, 2017
Actually, Ace isn’t arguing we should use violence. He’s talking about boycotts and blacklisting. Yeah, let’s do that. He doesn’t say to violently shut down left-wing public performances like a bunch of special snowflakes. So-called conservatives have lost their minds. The vote here is running almost 75 percent in favor of shutting down speech — SPEECH — you don’t like. You want to parrot the left, conservatives? Are you going to start hitting antifa leftists over the head with bike-locks, like anarchist Eric Clanton up in Berkeley? No. Are you going to start throwing bricks through the windows of businesses, like the riots on Telegraph Avenue, simply because people like Milo are scheduled to speak? No. Or at least, I’m not. That way lies much more polarization and violence, which purportedly conservatives don’t want. So what’s it going to be?We won't have debates in this country if conservatives want to fight violent leftists with more violence. That's not what Ace was arguing.
Scott Pelley is out at “CBS Evening News,” Page Six has exclusively learned.And by the way, I stopped watching any television news for about six weeks this semester, especially as the Russia conspiracy became too much to handle.
Sources tell us that “Poison Pelley’s” office was being cleared out Tuesday while the anchor was away on an assignment for the network’s news magazine “60 Minutes.”
We’re told he’s being shifted permanently to “60 Minutes.”
Insiders tell us that CBS News president David Rhodes “is making [Pelley] move to ‘60 Minutes,’ ” and that the pair “don’t get on.”
Another TV insider said that while Pelley’s ratings have been down, “There’s also been friction between him and [Rhodes].”
Added a source, “[Pelley] was pushed out of the ‘Evening News.’ It’s been coming for a long time. This could have been handled better — [Pelley] is away on a story, and they’re cleaning out his office. It’s not the correct way to treat the face of CBS News.”
Erin Andrews – Health Magazine USA July/August 2017 Issue https://t.co/ku9sWQyKJy pic.twitter.com/o8HrrGSjKD
— juststarz (@juststarz) June 15, 2017
Breaking News: The Minnesota officer who fatally shot Philando Castile was acquitted of all charges https://t.co/JmTnv4v7B4
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 16, 2017
'Mad as hell,' #PhilandoCastile's mother reacts to not guilty verdict: https://t.co/JFCN7XJDaA
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 17, 2017
"My son loved this state. He had one tattoo on his body, and it was of the Twin Cities," Valerie Castile said. "My son loved this city, and this city killed my son."
Valerie Castile also addressed the crowd directly after leaving the courthouse, expressing her disappointment.
"The system continues to fail black people, and it will continue to fail you all. Like I said, because this happened with Philando, when they get done with us, they coming for you, for you, for you and all your interracial children," Valerie Castile said. "Y'all are next, and you will be standing up here fighting for justice just as well as I am."
Stupid snowflake garbage. Pathetic. https://t.co/bBVb99D0mt
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) June 17, 2017
Met Police says first #GrenfellTower victim has been identified; 58 people are missing and are assumed to be dead - the number may increase pic.twitter.com/gjyi28sJHM— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 17, 2017
— Jessica Miller (@camstarwar) June 17, 2017
It’s also a movie that doesn’t wear its issues on its stripes. Without feeling the need to brand itself either a woman-in-the-military movie or animal-activism yarn, [director Gabriela] Cowperthwaite quietly goes about humanizing everything so that both of these elements, which might get treated as hot-button topics elsewhere, gain a kind of understated momentum all their own. Sure, that gives it the slight tinge of a chummy, politics-free, armed-services recruitment video — especially when Common’s around to play the supportive sergeant always this-close from breaking into a smile. But the battle scenes are direct and tense, if not exactly original, and even when the screenplay tosses in a burgeoning flirtation with a fellow K-9er (the charming Ramon Rodriguez), “Megan Leavey” makes it feel like an extra color in a soldier’s story, not a predictable story beat for a heroine...RTWT.
NOONAN: Rage All the Rage -- and It's Dangerous... https://t.co/TeZApk0FMB
— DRUDGE REPORT (@DRUDGE_REPORT) June 16, 2017
What we are living through in America is not only a division but a great estrangement. It is between those who support Donald Trump and those who despise him, between left and right, between the two parties, and even to some degree between the bases of those parties and their leaders in Washington. It is between the religious and those who laugh at Your Make Believe Friend, between cultural progressives and those who wish not to have progressive ways imposed upon them. It is between the coasts and the center, between those in flyover country and those who decide what flyover will watch on television next season. It is between “I accept the court’s decision” and “Bake my cake.” We look down on each other, fear each other, increasingly hate each other.
Oh, to have a unifying figure, program or party.
But we don’t, nor is there any immediate prospect. So, as Ben Franklin said, we’ll have to hang together or we’ll surely hang separately. To hang together—to continue as a country—at the very least we have to lower the political temperature. It’s on all of us more than ever to assume good faith, put our views forward with respect, even charity, and refuse to incite.
We’ve been failing. Here is a reason the failure is so dangerous.
In the early 1990s Roger Ailes had a talk show on the America’s Talking network and invited me to talk about a concern I’d been writing about, which was old-fashioned even then: violence on TV and in the movies. Grim and graphic images, repeated depictions of murder and beatings, are bad for our kids and our culture, I argued. Depictions of violence unknowingly encourage it.
But look, Roger said, there’s comedy all over TV and I don’t see people running through the streets breaking into laughter. True, I said, but the problem is that, for a confluence of reasons, our country is increasingly populated by the not fully stable. They aren’t excited by wit, they’re excited by violence—especially unstable young men. They don’t have the built-in barriers and prohibitions that those more firmly planted in the world do. That’s what makes violent images dangerous and destructive. Art is art and censorship is an admission of defeat. Good judgment and a sense of responsibility are the answer.
That’s what we’re doing now, exciting the unstable—not only with images but with words, and on every platform. It’s all too hot and revved up. This week we had a tragedy. If we don’t cool things down, we’ll have more.
And was anyone surprised? Tuesday I talked with an old friend, a figure in journalism who’s a pretty cool character, about the political anger all around us. He spoke of “horrible polarization.” He said there’s “too much hate in D.C.” He mentioned “the beheading, the play in the park” and described them as “dog whistles to any nut who wants to take action.”
“Someone is going to get killed,” he said.
That was 20 hours before the shootings in Alexandria, Va.
The gunman did the crime, he is responsible, it’s fatuous to put the blame on anyone or anything else.
But we all operate within a climate and a culture. The media climate now, in both news and entertainment, is too often of a goading, insinuating resentment, a grinding, agitating anipathy. You don’t need another recitation of the events of just the past month or so. A comic posed with a gruesome bloody facsimile of President Trump’s head. New York’s rightly revered Shakespeare in the Park put on a “Julius Caesar” in which the assassinated leader is made to look like the president. A CNN host—amazingly, of a show on religion—sent out a tweet calling the president a “piece of s—” who is “a stain on the presidency.” An MSNBC anchor wondered, on the air, whether the president wishes to “provoke” a terrorist attack for political gain. Earlier Stephen Colbert, well known as a good man, a gentleman, said of the president, in a rant: “The only thing your mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin’s c— holster.” Those are but five dots in a larger, darker pointillist painting. You can think of more.
Too many in the mainstream media—not all, but too many—don’t even bother to fake fairness and lack of bias anymore, which is bad: Even faked balance is better than none.
Yes, they have reasons...
Filling in at the weather center for the rest of the week! Tune in for your heat wave forecast at 7 on @10News #SanDiego #Weather ☀️ pic.twitter.com/tzieyT60rv
— Jennifer Delacruz (@10NewsJen) June 16, 2017
More immigration news: The Trump admin just killed DAPA https://t.co/VyPPTzEaLs
— Jon Passantino (@passantino) June 16, 2017
Promise Kept: Trump Admin Rescinds DAPA Amnesty Program https://t.co/RdQR7QVr55 pic.twitter.com/iDjajYnJgx
— The Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 16, 2017
The Trump admin just rescinded DAPA, which would have given legal status to undocumented parents with US children pic.twitter.com/9KzSaLbfAZ
— Marcelo Rochabrún (@mrochabrun) June 16, 2017
Local immigration lawyer says Trump Administration's decision to rescind DAPA will not impact Dreamers: https://t.co/k5D3zfbUU3
— #NBC7 San Diego (@nbcsandiego) June 16, 2017
LAURA INGRAHAM: It's a level of viciousness and vitriol that we see on social media but usually that's an anonymous thing. But now people are emboldened and they are saying it in person. They're doing chalk drawings of people and their families on their driveways so they wake up in the morning and they see a chalk drawing.The full video from the panel is here, at Fox News' Special Report, "Will calls for unity among lawmakers hold up?"
I think Charles is right. This apocalyptic language we hear on other cable networks, where these are supposedly very respected hosts who get up every morning and say, 'Will be republic survive Donald Trump?' In other words, the resistance is a physical resistance. If you believe your survival is at risk, you have the moral duty to physically resist that. And I think this freak yesterday took it to heart.
Our most popular pic last week: @GlacierNPS by Daniel Ewert #Montana pic.twitter.com/bga4QpaPdR
— US Dept of Interior (@Interior) June 11, 2017
CAUGHT ON CAM: Deli clerk suffers broken jaw after 2 men pummel him with avocados, bananas in NYC deli: https://t.co/IKO6BWjfbQ pic.twitter.com/yoaTuRjuXt
— NBC10 Philadelphia (@NBCPhiladelphia) June 14, 2017
WATCH: Angry customers pelt bodega clerk with avocados https://t.co/3NcqAWYwiN pic.twitter.com/tYdQsFREO9
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) June 16, 2017
(1/2) @nytopinion - commonsense suggestion by a journalist, am talking to attorneys this AM and exploring options. BTW, wonder.. pic.twitter.com/jACvxwUBZH— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) June 15, 2017
(2/2) ...WHY someone would no longer be in public eye? Think constant libel & slander have anything to do with it? 🤔— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) June 15, 2017
This paragraph in today's NYT editorial on Alexandria shootings is offensively, quasi-Stalinistically wrong: https://t.co/nWhhcHfMso pic.twitter.com/LkJFifUh73— Jeff B/DDHQ (@EsotericCD) June 15, 2017
Are you fucking kidding me? https://t.co/z9oXkYnm2l— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) June 15, 2017
Helps to remember the NYT is playing politics when GOP representatives were FUCKING TARGETED FOR ASSASSINATION.— John Ekdahl (@JohnEkdahl) June 15, 2017
We published an editorial last night on the shooting at the G.O.P. men's baseball team practice field in Alexandria.— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) June 15, 2017
We got an important fact wrong, incorrectly linking political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Giffords. No link was ever established.— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) June 15, 2017
We're sorry about this and we appreciate that our readers called us on the mistake. We've corrected the editorial. https://t.co/t1FZ3iEYQJ pic.twitter.com/k7WW5uJIQO— NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) June 15, 2017
This isn’t a gun issue, it’s a rhetoric issue. Twice in one month a far leftist decided to express dissent via murderous rampage.
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) June 15, 2017
Trump: “By playing tonight, you are showing the world that we will not be intimidated” by threats to our democracy https://t.co/s8EWMir4LI
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 15, 2017
#CAIR Islamophobia Watch: Islamophobia and Trumpism are bringing disparate right-wing groups together. https://t.co/wjqRJgpHPg— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) June 14, 2017
Updated condition of Rep. Scalise. Please find the statement here: https://t.co/1mt8o5wp8u
— MedStar Washington (@MedStarWHC) June 15, 2017
Congressman Steve Scalise sustained a single rifle shot to the left hip. The bullet travelled across his pelvis, fracturing bones, injuring internal organs, and causing severe bleeding. He was transported in shock to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, a Level I Trauma Center. He underwent immediate surgery, and an additional procedure to stop bleeding. He has received multiple units of blood transfusion. His condition is critical, and he will require additional operations. We will provide periodic updates.And just now, at People Magazine:
‘He’s in Some Trouble:’ Donald Trump Says House Whip Steve Scalise’s Condition Is Worse Than People Think https://t.co/cVj41oPjKv
— People Magazine (@people) June 15, 2017
“If you go back to the days of the Civil War, one can find cases in American political history where there was far more rancor and violence,” said Shanto Iyengar, a Stanford political scientist. “But in the modern era, there are no ‘ifs’ and ‘buts’ — partisan animus is at an all-time high.”Keep reading.
Mr. Iyengar doesn’t mean that the typical Democratic or Republican voter has adopted more extreme ideological views (although it is the case that elected officials in Congress have moved further apart). Rather, Democrats and Republicans truly think worse of each other, a trend that isn’t really about policy preferences. Members of the two parties are more likely today to describe each other unfavorably, as selfish, as threats to the nation, even as unsuitable marriage material...
New #BenGarrison #Cartoon "Lighting the Fuse" words lead to actions
— BenGarrison Cartoons (@GrrrGraphics) June 15, 2017
The Radical Left is the Mainstream Lefthttps://t.co/Oj98iIxEAZ pic.twitter.com/C1ffwjMdAE
SPLC President: The SPLC condemns all forms of violence. Our hearts are with those who were injured today. https://t.co/fzMVEWuSZQ pic.twitter.com/8qSbuJgr2O
— SPLC (@splcenter) June 14, 2017
I'm blocked by this idiot Huffington Post "Jesse Benn," whom I've never heard of before. 🤔#Alexandria— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 14, 2017
More than 12,000 tweets have called for Trump's assassination since the inauguration. https://t.co/xgE6BqdhTn
— Stefan Molyneux (@StefanMolyneux) June 14, 2017
Washington (CNN): Rep. Steve Scalise, a congressional staffer and members of the Capitol police force were shot Wednesday in Alexandria, Virginia, during Republicans' early-morning practice ahead of a charity baseball game.
President Donald Trump said the alleged gunman had been killed. Federal law enforcement officials identified the alleged shooter as James Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Illinois.
At least six people including Scalise, the third ranking member of House Republican leadership as the majority whip, were hospitalized.
Scalise was in critical condition after surgery, according to So Young Pak, spokeswoman for MedStar Washington Hospital Center. Scalise is out of his first surgery, according to a Scalise aide. It is not clear if he will have a second surgery. His wife Jennifer and their two young children are traveling up from New Orleans to Washington now to be with him.
A congressional staffer, Zach Barth, was also shot in the leg and has since been released from the hospital. Matt Mika, a lobbyist for Tyson Foods and former staffer, was also identified as one of the victims. He was out of surgery and in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon, according to a statement from his family.
House Speaker Paul Ryan also identified two members of the Capitol Police who were injured, Crystal Griner and David Bailey. In a statement, Capitol Police said Griner was in "good condition in the hospital having been shot in the ankle," and that Bailey "was treated and released having sustained a minor injury during the incident."
Rep. Roger Williams, a Texas Republican, was also hospitalized and released with an injury to his ankle.
As of Wednesday afternoon, Mika was in surgery and in critical condition, according to a statement from his family...
Impeachment and removal from office are only the first steps; for America to be redeemed, Donald Trump must be prosecuted for treason and — if convicted in a court of law — executed.
#Belleville suspect James Hodgkinson #killed in congressional #shootout belonged to anti-GOP groups. #Alexandira https://t.co/NF7KbWKM1I pic.twitter.com/2AIMiVmJxY
— News-Democrat (@bellevillenewsd) June 14, 2017
The accused shooter who was killed during gunfire at practice for a congressional baseball game Wednesday morning was from Belleville.More.
The shooter was James T. Hodgkinson of Belleville, who belonged to a number of anti-Republican groups, including one called “Terminate the Republican Party.”
President Donald Trump said Hodgkinson died during gunfire exchanged with congressional security workers.
Hodgkinson, 66, owned a home-inspection business. Hodgkinson was a licensed home inspector from 1994 to 1997, when his license expired, according to records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation. He also held a license from 2003 to 2016, but it was not renewed.
Two days ago, Hodgkinson posted an angry tweet about President Donald Trump on Facebook.
“I Want to Say Mr. President, for being an ass hole you are Truly the Biggest Ass 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”
The FBI was investigating Hodgkinson’s postings on social media. Agents from the FBI and other federal investigators arrived Wednesday morning at Hodgkinson’s two-story home on the outskirts of Belleville. Spokesman Dillon McConnell of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said the agency is “conducting emergency traces for a handgun and a rifle,” but declined to identify the weapons types.
Hodgkinson took a Democratic ballot in the primary election in 2016.
In 2012, Hodgkinson took part in a protest outside the downtown Belleville post office. He said he was part of a “99%” team drawing attention to the amount of money and political power the top 1 percent of Americans acquired.
Aaron Meurer is a neighbor of the Hodgkinsons and said he noticed in the last two months James had been gone. The alleged shooter’s wife Suzanne told him her husband was travelling.
“She said that he went on a trip. She wasn’t real specific,” said Meurer, unclear whether the couple had split up recently.”He’s been gone for the last two months, so I haven’t seen him around too often.”
Meurer said he occasionally cut his neighbor’s grass to help out. He didn’t know the neighbors well, just socialized from the lawn, and said his neighbor would fire guns on his rural property, commonplace in the open area outside of Belleville...
.@BernieSanders condemns shooter who volunteered on his campaign: "I am sickened by this despicable act... I condemn this action." pic.twitter.com/kQoa6hCYhJ
— ABC 7 News - WJLA (@ABC7News) June 14, 2017
BREAKING: Shooter named as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill. https://t.co/1qZZCwSZL8
— Washington Post (@washingtonpost) June 14, 2017
‘Seek help’: David Frum HAMMERED for ‘fallacious and ghoulish’ response to Alexandria shooting https://t.co/WjvFeFjsYP
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘Stop talking’: Ezra Klein’s reaction to Alexandria shooting involves ‘a BIG lie’ https://t.co/OjVvs1adYq
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘You are sick’! This guy’s response to Alexandria shooting may be the worst yet https://t.co/yWVZqjgmuz
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘What’s wrong with you?’ ‘Anti-racism strategist’ Tariq Nasheed slammed for Alexandria shooting reaction https://t.co/3JYRixxQIy
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘Hateful PR*CK.’ Verified account tweets/deletes VILE thread on Alexandria, targeting GOP https://t.co/wh5oXQPLZm
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
Alexandria shooting suspect reportedly dead; Purportedly wanted ‘to destroy Trump’ https://t.co/zighmGqdXF
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘BAN WHITE MEN!’ Shaun King embarrasses himself more than EVER with bizarre Alexandria rant https://t.co/Ls05Drv0F8
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘What a moron’! WATCH: Terry McAuliffe’s gun control plea contains some VERY fuzzy math https://t.co/kRlyvGolkC
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
Wait, WHAT? Newsweek’s detail about Rep. Scalise sends heads to desks https://t.co/JPa9xFivrn
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘Nailed it’: GOP Rep. Mo Brooks issues ‘perfect’ defense of 2nd Amendment after Alexandria shooting https://t.co/q9oXyFJAn2
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
‘Republicans are CHEATING us’: Hodgkinson’s hometown paper publishes his letters to the editor https://t.co/MPD49obBry
— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) June 14, 2017
New Gallup poll tells a tale on the state of our culture, and it’s not good https://t.co/ZTw4tH2q5i— LifeSiteNews.com (@LifeSite) June 13, 2017
Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am not a pessimist; however, what I am going to say might cause angst among some in the pro-life and pro-family movement, especially Catholics.
A recent Gallup poll exposed three terrible truths. First, we are not succeeding in transforming hearts and minds to cultivate and sustain a Culture of Life. Second, we are losing the younger generation to materialism, secularism and moral relativism. Third, the moral compass and Christian conscience in America is systematically being phased out of existence while indifference and tolerance of evil fill the void.
I readily admit that I usually place little emphasis upon polls; however, the results of this survey highlight and parallel trends we see around the world. Societies are radically rejecting centuries of Judeo-Christian beliefs concerning life and family while embracing a secular view of life and the human person.
How did we get here? It's been a slow fade. The acceptance of homosexual marriage. Normalizing it. Flaunting it. Adoring it like a god. https://t.co/HEarItXX5J
— Terri Green (@TerriGreenUSA) June 13, 2017
And don't forget normalizing transgender ideology and depravity. Christian values are playing defense. It's an assault on decency.
— Donald Douglas (@AmPowerBlog) June 13, 2017
In Britain, “people are switching loyalties, not tribally, but like consumers" https://t.co/DoGIM6Piti— New York Times World (@nytimesworld) June 11, 2017
Forget Comey. The Real Story Is Russia’s War on America https://t.co/KE4fySDTFH
— POLITICO Magazine (@POLITICOMag) June 13, 2017
Opinion: "Imagine my horror at discovering that the United States is more calcified by class than Britain" https://t.co/h25WWCkqUy
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 11, 2017
"Sympathy for the Devil "
Ed Driscoll, at Instapundit "AND THE ROLE OF EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN WILL BE PLAYED BY…: Liberals’ Knives Come Out for Nate Silver After His Model Points to a Trump Victory..."
R.S. McCain, "'Jews Are Dead, Hamas Is Happy, and Podhoretz Has Got His Rage On ..."
Ace, "Georgia Shooter's Father Berated Him as a "Sissy" and Bought Him an AR-15 to 'Toughen Him Up'..."Free Beacon..., "Kamala Harris, the ‘Candidate of Change,’ Copies Sections of Her Policy Page Directly From Biden's Platform..."