State Trooper killed in Richmond

MoonHowler

trooper chad

Patch.com:

RICHMOND, VA. — A Virginia State Trooper was killed Thursday in a Grayhound bus terminal by a man he was chatting with who suddenly opened fire in an apparently unprovoked attack before law enforcement shot him dead, Virginia State Police announced Thursday night.

Killed was Chad Dermyer, 37, a Marine Corps veteran and a native of Jackson, Michigan.

After shooting Dermyer, the man continued to fire until he was shot by two other troopers, police said. The suspect was taken to VCU Medical Center, where he died, police said.

Dermyer, who graduated from Virginia State Police Academy in 2014, was taken to VCU Medical Center, where he later died, police said.

Too many area police officers have died.  It sounds like Trooper Dermyer was simply talking to a man when that man turned around opened fire on the trooper.

We wonder why cops sometimes make mistakes.  It will be interesting to learn more about the perpetrator.  What would make him kill a cop?  Other people have been seriously maimed also.

 

 

Word to the wise on change school names: Involve the community

MoonHowler

From Insidenova.com:

Sun Gazette editorial: A lesson for those eager to change school names

 

Before leaders of the Fairfax County school system rush higgledy-piggledy toward changing names of schools that don’t fit their definition of political correctness, they might want to glance just a few miles to the south to see what happens when ham-handedness goes awry.

There, the Prince William County School Board has come under fire both for changing the name of a middle school, and for doing so in a high-handed manner that avoided any semblance of community involvement.

 

It must have sounded like a good idea to some in Prince William: Mills Godwin, a late two-term governor but one with no direct connection to the community, seemed an odd choice for a school name from the beginning, so school officials recently decided to change it to honor George Hampton, an African-American leader in Prince William.

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Trump calls for punishment for women who have an abortion

MoonHowler


Trump is totally unacceptable and overlooks the fact that abortion is legal in the United States as per the decision Roe v. Wade. A woman’s right to abortion is settled law. Fie on these stupid men who keep equivocating and pretending that this right is not legal.

end abortion

At some point,  women will have control of their own bodies.  It will be as accepted as women having the right to vote.

Full control of one’s own reproduction is the only way that women will have full economic autonomy.  Full control should include access to effective contraception and access to abortion if that is needed.

Donald Trump should be punished for not thinking about what comes out of his mouth.  The women of America will probably see to it that he pays….at the voting booth.

Trump campaign: lie and deny

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump defended his campaign manager as a “very decent man” Tuesday, hours after the staffer was charged with battery in Florida for allegedly grabbing a reporter and yanking her away from Trump.

Corey Lewandowski, 42, faces one misdemeanor count of battery as a result of the March 8 incident. He voluntarily went to police headquarters in Jupiter, Fla., and signed paperwork that ordered him to appear in court on May 4.

The police also released a new video of the event, taken from the security cameras at Trump’s own golf course. It directly contradicted what Trump and Lewandowski had both said about the incident in the past.

They had asserted that Lewandowski never touched the reporter, Michelle Fields.

In the video, he does — grabbing her hard enough to pull her backwards.

Who do you believe?  Trump or your own two eyes?

Ms Fields, the reporter in question, has stuck to her story and has since voluntarily left Breitbart, mainly because the organization failed to back her over Trump’s campaign manager.

To date, Trump denied there was a video.  When one was produced, the story changed.  Trump simply will not accept responsibility.  Life everything else, it is always someone else’s fault.

Trump needs to have a come to Jesus meeting with his campaign manager and be done with it.  Corey Lewandowski acted inappropriately.

Secret Service nixes firearms at the RNC

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

The Secret Service on Monday quashed the hopes of gun rights advocates who were pushing for the open carry of firearms to be allowed at this summer’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

An online petition in support of the effort rapidly gained signatures and attention in the past week, applying pressure to pro-gun Republican officials and presidential contenders to walk the walk when it comes to guns. But on Monday, the Secret Service said that only law enforcement personnel will be allowed to carry firearms at the event.

“Title 18 United States Code Sections 3056 and 1752 provides the Secret Service authority to preclude firearms from entering sites visited by our protectees, including those located in open-carry states,” Secret Service spokesman Robert K. Hoback said in a statement. “Only authorized law enforcement personnel working in conjunction with the Secret Service for a particular event may carry a firearm inside of the protected site.”

Ticket or not, any unauthorized person with a gun will not be allowed into the event, he said.

Why on earth would any of the candidates want guns inside the convention center?  There are enough fruits and nuts wandering around as it is.  Arming them would surely spell trouble for someone.

If the Secret Service says no, then that’s that.

Earl Hamner Jr.– A Virginia gentleman of great talent

MoonHowler
Earl Hamner, Jr.
Earl Hamner, Jr.

Abcnewsgo.com:

Earl Hamner Jr., the versatile and prolific writer who drew upon his Depression-era upbringing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia to create one of television’s most beloved family shows, “The Waltons,” has died. He was 92.

Hamner died in Los Angeles and had recently been battling pneumonia, said Ray Castro Jr., a friend of Hamner’s who produced a documentary, “Earl Hamner Storyteller,” about the writer. Castro said he learned about Hamner’s death from the writer’s daughter, Caroline. A Facebook post by Hamner’s son, Scott, stated his father died surrounded by family at Cedars Sinai Hospital while John Denver’s “Rocky Mountain High” was playing.
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Indiana: Abortion banned for fetal anomaly

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed a controversial abortion bill Thursday that, among other things, would ban the procedure if it is sought because the fetus was diagnosed with a disability or defect such as Down syndrome.

Shortly before his deadline to act on the sweeping measure, Pence called the law “a comprehensive pro-life measure that affirms the value of all human life,” according to the Associated Press.

The law, which was passed by the legislature earlier this month, would make Indiana the second state in the nation, after North Dakota, to ban abortion in cases where a fetal anomaly is detected. It also would bar the procedure in instances where the decision is based on the sex or race of the fetus. And it could make Indiana the first state in the country to require that fetal remains be buried or cremated, rather than treated like medical waste.

So this is where it is all going?  Fetal anomaly is certainly a compelling reason to have an abortion.  In fact, to me, it is  the most legitimate reason of all.  The cost and the wear and tear on families caring for a seriously disabled child is more than most people can bear.

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A sniveling coward? Sounds like the locker room

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

While courting voters in Wisconsin Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) used strong words for rival Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. He said Trump is “a sniveling coward” who has a problem with women.

DANE, Wis. — Donald Trump’s ability to roil the presidential race with a few swipes of a smartphone was revealed again in Wisconsin. Before a visit to a factory, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) — the only Republican currently stumping here — had to field questions about the week’s second late-night Trump tweet that mocked the senator’s wife, Heidi.

“Our spouses and our children are off bounds,” Cruz said. “It is not acceptable for a big, loud New York bully to attack my wife. It is not acceptable for him to make insults, to send nasty tweets — and I don’t know what he does late at night, but he tends to do these at about 11:30 at night, I assume when his fear is at the highest point.”

The source of Cruz’s ire seemed, as has become Trump’s habit, petty and puerile. Trump, who has no public appearances scheduled until a March 29 rally in nearby Janesville, was angered by a Web ad from the tiny Make America Awesome PAC, allegedly targeted at Mormon voters, that displayed a salacious photo of the mogul’s wife, Melania, from a magazine shoot and warned that she could become first lady unless Utahans caucused for Cruz.

The PAC has no relationship to Cruz, but on Tuesday night, Trump warned that he would “spill the beans” about Heidi Cruz; on Wednesday night he retweeted someone who compared an unflattering photo of Mrs. Cruz to a glamorous one of Mrs. Trump.

It just sounds like locker room talk to me.  How unseemly.  How ungentlemanly.  How rude.  How unpresidential.

A PAC seemed to have started off the firestorm of insults.  These PACS are really out of control and have been for several decades.  If we want to start with campaign reform, then there is one of the places to start.  PACs seem to answer to no one.  They can do what they want to do with little, if any, accountability.

Congress needs to get off its do-nothing rear and draft some legislation to hold PACs accountable.

Cruz suggests “patroling” Muslim neighborhoods

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

The Republican and Democratic presidential candidates collided sharply Tuesday in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks in Brussels, with GOP hopeful Ted Cruz calling on law enforcement to “patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods” and his Democratic rivals sternly rebuking him.

The uproar highlighted the deepening rift between Republicans and Democrats on an issue that was poised to gain a fresh foothold in the campaign: the treatment of Muslim Americans amid concerns about terrorism.

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton tweeted that Cruz’s proposal was “beneath us,” while Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that singling out a religious group would be “unconstitutional” and “wrong.”

Cruz faced only muted criticism from his own party, with Donald Trump — who has called for a ban on the entry of Muslims into the United States — voicing support for the senator’s plan.

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Terrorist attack in Brussels 3/22/16

MoonHowler

terrorism

Washingtonpost.com:

BRUSSELS — Apparently coordinated terrorist explosions rocked Brussels Airport and a metro station Tuesday, leaving at least 26 dead and raising fears that attackers carried out retaliatory strikes after the arrest of a key suspect in last year’s Paris massacres.

The full casualty count remained unclear hours after the attacks, but various Belgian reports and officials said it reached at least 26.

“We are talking about scores of dead,” said Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel without giving clearer estimates after blasts brought down roof panels at the airport’s departure hall and an explosion on the Maelbeek metro platform shrouded it in smoke and littered it with debris.

The death toll is now at 26 with many others wounded.   The Belgium terror alert has been raised to maximum level.  Bad deja vu.  The news continues and will continue throughout the day.

How does any country or locality prevent these kinds of attacks.  You can’t be everywhere.    In the wee hours of the morning when I first heard this news, I couldn’t make out where the terrorism had happened.  I just knew somewhere. (I was too tired and lazy to give it my full attention.)   It could have been anywhere.  The story doesn’t change.  Just the location.  Terrorism seems to be spreading around Europe.

Theory: Where did Trump come from?

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

The Republican establishment began losing its party to Donald Trump on May 24, 2000, at 5:41 p.m., on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Urged on by their presidential standard-bearer, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, and by nearly all of the business lobbyists who represented the core of the party’s donor class, three-quarters of House Republicans voted to extend the status of permanent normal trade relations to China. They were more than enough, when added to a minority of Democrats, to secure passage of a bill that would sail through the Senate and be signed into law by President Bill Clinton.

The legislation, a top Republican priority, held the promise of greater economic prosperity for Americans. But few could predict that it would cause a series of economic and political earthquakes that has helped put the GOP in the difficult spot it is in today: with the most anti-trade Republican candidate in modern history, Trump, moving closer to clinching the party’s nomination.

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The Obamas go to Cuba

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

HAVANA — President Obama landed in Cuba on Sunday afternoon, a trip that took more than half a century to complete, to a destination only 90 miles from U.S. shores.

Stepping off Air Force One under drizzling skies, the president held an umbrella over his wife, Michelle, and greeted several senior Cuban officials.

The Obamas, including the president’s two daughters and his mother-in-law, were welcomed on the tarmac by Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, and Josefina Vidal, the head of the U.S. section of Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, as well as Jeffrey DeLaurentis, the senior U.S. diplomat in Cuba. The official welcoming session will take place Monday morning when Obama meets with Cuban president Raúl Castro at the presidential palace.

90 years is a long time.  We have diplomatic ties with Russian (well sort of), Vietnam, so why not Cuba.  They are close.  Dissing the country for 90 years hasn’t paid off.  Let’s try communication.  It might just work.

Good for the Obamas!

Protestors block main road to Trump event

MoonHowler

ABC15.com:

FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ – Protesters lined the streets of Fountain Hills on Saturday morning to block traffic to the Donald Trump rally.

Air15 video showed protesters blocking Shea Boulevard with a couple Maricopa County Sheriff Deputies on scene.

A tow truck was able to move two vehicles but the protestors remained. At one point, a jeep plowed into the protesters. No one appeared to injured.

No arrests were made.

So far no arrests have been made.  I expect all that has changed.  Sheriff Joe is on the prowl, supporting Trump in Tucson.

I am drawn on this one.  I do not believe in blocking egress.  I don’t believe in blocking roads.  That behavior is the behavior of Operation Rescue.

On the other hand, I sympathize with the protestors.  Sometimes people have to do extreme things to stop unacceptable behavior.

I wonder how much of this protest is about immigration and how much is about Trump’s overall nastiness and inappropriateness.  Stay tuned.

I hope no one is hurt.

 

 

 

McConnell refuses to hold hearings on Garland nomination

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Mitch McConnell is not budging.

No matter how much pressure President Obama and Democrats try to apply, McConnell’s allies say the Senate majority leader will never agree to hold hearings on the nomination of Merrick Garland, a federal appeals court judge, to succeed Antonin Scalia as a Supreme Court justice.

Even Republicans who disagree with him think that McConnell (R-Ky.) will not retreat from that defiant stance. “I don’t see the majority leader changing his mind on this issue. He believes strongly that this should be a decision made by the next president,” said Sen. Susan Collins (Maine), one of two Republicans to call for hearings on Garland.

Since Scalia’s death, and McConnell’s pronouncement hours later, Democrats have been stunned by the senator’s determined position not to consider any nominee — and his flat-out refusal to extend the traditional courtesy of meeting with the nominee.

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Rubio suspends his presidential campaign

MoonHowler

Washingtonpost.com:

Years of carefully laid plans to repackage the Republican Party’s traditional ideas for a fast-changing country came crashing down here on Tuesday when Sen. Marco Rubio suspended his campaign for the presidency after a crippling defeat in his home-state primary.

Since Mitt Romney’s devastating loss in the 2012 presidential election, the Republican National Committee and leading voices at think tanks, editorial boards and Capitol Hill symposiums have charted a path back to the White House based on inclusive rhetoric and a focus on middle-class issues.

Nobody embodied that vision better than Rubio, a charismatic standard-bearer for conservative orthodoxy who readily embraced the proposals of the right’s elite thinkers. The senator from Florida spoke urgently and eloquently about raising stagnant wages and eradicating poverty. He had an immigrant’s tale to match the rhetoric. And on foreign affairs, he was a passionate defender of the GOP’s hawkish tilt.

I am sad.  Rubio seems like a decent man.  I would never vote for him because he is far too conservative for my taste.  However, he is a person I respect.   Cruz and Kasich are still in the race.

There is just something wrong when decent people get rolled over by the ruffians, hooligans, and hate mongers.

This whole Trump thing is just sad and very scary.