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You are here: Home / Politics / War on Terror / War on Terror aka GSAVE® / Let’s Extrapolate

Let’s Extrapolate

by | 93 Comments

This post is in: 

We all know the situation in Dallas, and here is another in Tennessee:

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has released the name of the suspect behind Thursday morning’s random shooting in Bristol, TN that claimed the life of an area newspaper carrier and injured three others, including a local police officer.

The TBI says 37-year-old Lakeem Keon Scott was armed with at least two weapons, an automatic-style rifle, a pistol and a large amount of ammunition, reports CBS statation WJHL in Tennessee.

Preliminary findings indicate Scott may have targeted people and officers after being troubled by recent events involving African-Americans and law enforcement officers in other parts of the country.

Let’s ignore the similarities regarding the guns, because I’ve basically given up on gun control in the US. It’s never going to happen in my lifetime. Let’s look at the fact that they were radicalized by events that didn’t involve anyone they know personally being killed or hurt.

Now, think for a second. How many terrorists do we think we create every time we bomb someone in the middle east and kill a bunch of innocents?

Reader Interactions

93Comments

  2. 2.

    BruceJ

    Those are FREEDUMB BOMBS! They make nothing but friends! I remember being told that by Shrub & Co.

  3. 3.

    rikyrah

    John Lewis ‏@repjohnlewis 11h11 hours ago

    I feel sometimes we’re sliding backwards. The scars & stains of racism are still deeply embedded in America society. We have to deal with it

  5. 5.

    Felonius Monk

    A man who called 911 to report a car break-in Friday ambushed a south Georgia police officer dispatched to the scene, sparking a shootout in which both the officer and suspect were wounded, authorities said. Both are expected to survive.

    and more

    The GBI later identified the suspected gunman as 22-year-old Stephen Paul Beck and said it was Beck who also placed the 911 call. Both Childress and Dutton described Beck as an Asian male. Charges against Beck were pending Friday as he was being treated at a Florida hospital, Dutton said.

    (Source)

  6. 6.

    Mai.naem.mobile

    Gawd,Cole,you’re so stupid. Dontcha know they’ll welcome us with flowers and chocolates when we bomb them? It’s so obvious to Cheney,Rummy,Bushie McCain and Blair

  8. 8.

    Major Major Major Major

    How many terrorists do we think we create every time we bomb someone in the middle east and kill a bunch of innocents?

    I’ll never understand why we act like terrorists don’t have agency.

  9. 9.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Major Major Major Major: Among the many crimes that they’re not being held accounted for, the deserting coward, the Dark Lord, and their minions remain the best recruitment officers Al Qaeda and Daesh could ever hope for.

    This goes for Drumpf, too, who might as well be drawing a paycheck as an advocate for Daesh, since the policies he says he’ll implement are exactly what Daesh wants us to do.

  10. 10.

    singfoom

    Exactly John, The belief that if we just double down and keep droning terrorists ignores this very point. Wish there was an easier way to humanize people…

  13. 13.

    debbie

    I don’t think gun control should be given up on. In fact, I think the Second Amendment should be rearguard.

  15. 15.

    Major Major Major Major

    @Villago Delenda Est: that is all true. But these are still people making choices we’re talking about. We reject the purely circumstances-based argument for the Brexit vote since some of those folks were just big ‘ol racists, we should give terrorists the same level of agency.

  16. 16.

    GregB

    There was a Hezbollah leader who was turned to a life of militancy after his brother was killed by US naval shelling back in 1982. Muganiyah I think. The Israeli’s ultimately killed him.

    As for the reported shooter in Dallas, he was an Afghanistan veteran. Who knows what his experience was. His actions were that of a seriously disturbed man.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bk: On behalf of everyone else here, but srv, we extend an invitation for you to comment here more!

  22. 22.

    Doug R

    So every acting out in the entire nation of what, 330,000,000 gets turned up to 11? Of the 30 gun murders EVERY DAY? Even the gun NUTS realize the popular misinterpretation of the slave hunting second ammendment is bullshit.
    You are FREE to keep your National Guard weapon in a locker, f*ck no you can’t keep them at home.

  23. 23.

    Wyatt Derp

    Now that it’s black people shooting white people maybe can get some sensible gun regulations.

  25. 25.

    Shalimar

    @srv: So your point is that it’s only evil to murder people if there is some chance their relatives might retaliate against you personally?

  26. 26.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Wyatt Derp: The open carry of long guns was banned in California after the Black Panthers paraded around in Sacramento. Ronald Reagan signed the law the instant it hit his desk.

  31. 31.

    jayboat

    Oh crap- tense situation developing in Atlanta… huge protest has moved onto the interstate and is blocking 85 northbound, police are there in force trying to get the crowd off the freeway.

    Geez, I hope they can resolve it without bloodshed but I am not feeling optimistic.

  32. 32.

    ? Martin

    Since Congress has deemed that the 2nd amendment is the only part of government deserving of their attention, it’s no surprise that the public resorts to it to solve all problems, just as the NRA intends.

  36. 36.

    Face

    I heard a bit that the woman (name?) filming and ultimately putting on the vid on socmed was arrested during that altercation. Anyone know for what she was cuffed? What was/is she charged with? Witnessing a homicide?

  37. 37.

    Shalimar

    @srv: More directly, if it doesn’t matter that we are killing civilians with the occasional terrorist since newly-created terrorists can’t get here to hurt us anyway, then what is our national interest in drone attacks in the first place? As you claim, the targets are no threat to us.

  39. 39.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Face:

    She posts regularly on her own blog (I subscribe by email, and I can tell you she remains as feisty and incisive as ever). A couple of months ago her name came up during a thread, and she popped in to say that she is way busy and not commenting here very much, but I believe she checks in now and then to read threads.

  41. 41.

    zanamu

    “Now, think for a second. How many terrorists do we think we create every time we bomb someone in the middle east and kill a bunch of innocents?” My very question, since 2001. But thanks, because in my experience, it cannot be asked often enough.

  42. 42.

    The Dangerman

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    The open carry of long guns was banned in California….

    I read some Righty today that was pissed that the Open Carry Dude in Dallas was considered a suspect. How the fuck are the Cops supposed to know someone that’s carrying when the bullets start flying is a “Good Guy” and not a “Bad Guy”. Sorry, you’re carrying when the shit starts, you go right to the top of the “Potential Bad Guy” list.

  43. 43.

    ThresherK (GPad)

    @SiubhanDuinne: Seconded. I think reallife s taking more of her time as of late. There is more than enough gun stories to keep her going on that alone but at some point who wouldn’t want to write about something else than the 2nd Amendment Hero du Jour?

  44. 44.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @The Dangerman: Blah. Makes him a suspect, automatically.

    There’s some video showing the contrast between a white guy open carrying an AR-15 and a black guy carrying one in Jackson County, OR. White guy treated with courtesy and respect, black guy ordered on to the ground.

    BTW, the blah guy open carrying in Dallas last night turned his weapon over to a cop when the shooting started.

  45. 45.

    Shalimar

    @Face: In the Castile killing, the girlfriend and her daughter were taken into “protective custody”, held separately, and released the next day. There were no charges.

  46. 46.

    hovercraft

    @Wyatt Derp:
    It worked that way back in the sixties when the black panthers and the black power movement was prominent, that’s why St. Reagan signed gun control legislation in California. But today the gun lobby uses the fear of blahs having guns as an excuse to sell more guns. FOX’s obsession with imaginary epidemics of knock knock games and black on white crime waves is all about ginning up fears that they are coming to get you so you need to buy more and bigger guns.

  50. 50.

    hovercraft

    @Villago Delenda Est:
    I keep telling you people, open/conceal carry laws are to protect white people from the blah people, we’re very scary you know. Blahs have no reason to be afraid so they don’t need to carry, and if they do they shouldn’t insist on scaring people forcing them to shoot them.

  54. 54.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @hovercraft: That makes perfect sense in a very deranged way.

    But it’s an accurate analysis of how things actually work.

    And it sucks. No fucking end, it sucks.

  55. 55.

    hovercraft

    @shomi:
    I’m just gonna quote bk

    bk says:
    July 8, 2016 at 10:25 pm
    seriously, SHUT THE FUCK UP, YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE.

  57. 57.

    ? Martin

    I was unaware of the Kerner Report.

    Commission staffers had produced a blistering and radical draft report on November 22, 1967. The 176-page report, “The America of Racism,” recounted the deep-seated racial divisions that shaped urban America, and it was damning about Johnson’s beloved Great Society programs, which the report said offered only token assistance while leaving the “white power structure” in place. What’s more, the draft treated rioting as an understandable political response to racial oppression. “A truly revolutionary spirit has begun to take hold,” they wrote, “an unwillingness to compromise or wait any longer, to risk death rather than have their people continue in a subordinate status.” Kerner then nixed the report, and his staff director fired all 120 social scientists who had worked on it.

  58. 58.

    max

    How many terrorists do we think we create every time we bomb someone in the middle east and kill a bunch of innocents?

    Depends on how many of them have cable TV news subscriptions.

    max
    [‘Save the world! Ban CNN! Not to mention Fox!’]

  60. 60.

    Culture of Truth

    I don’t know the number of killed, but all candidates this year, including Bernie Sanders, support drone strikes.

  62. 62.

    Technocrat

    @Wyatt Derp:

    Now that it’s black people shooting white people maybe can get some sensible gun regulations

    In a race between “sensible gun regulations”, and “black people getting accosted in the streets”, I’m not betting rent money on the former. Let’s fervently hope we’ve hit the year’s quota of militant dumbasses-slash-psychos

  64. 64.

    seaboogie

    We are in the age of instant communication where you cannot just stew in your own little corner of the earth, but are made aware of everything that is happening immediately. In terms of sheer barbarism, the world has been much, much worse. In order for us to come together to address what remains to be healed, we have to see the nature of the wound and the toxicity of the infection that continues to spread. But there are many good people doing good things,

    Except for the most hardened who are deeply invested in their beliefs, this terrible week has unmasked the nature of our challenge with respect to race and gun worship in a way that is horrific, and yet deeply instructive. I hope that it is a turning point in the nature of our discussion. May it have the same burgeoning inevitability that gay marriage has had over the last several years.

  65. 65.

    Mnemosyne

    @seaboogie:

    I had a really stupid conflict with a co-worker today about the events of the last few days — literally, it was between I need a fucking break from this shit (me) and don’t mourn, organize! (her). But it mostly arose because I don’t talk about politics at work except with a select few, so she thought I was a typical clueless middle-aged white woman and had only seen the police shooting from Dallas. We talked it out, but I really didn’t want to have to have that talk in the middle of my workday.

    ETA: Though she did tell me about Thoughts and Prayers: the Game, so at least I heard about something new.

  66. 66.

    max

    @shomi: When it’s black guys killing white cops Cole seems fairly at ease about it. “The facts aren’t in yet”. “Lets all just calm down”.

    Here, let me make this easy for you:

    The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Some police agency or another has released the name of the suspect some fucking fool behind Thursday morning’s whatever today’s random shooting in Bristol, TN Somewheresville, USA that claimed the life of an area newspaper carrier and injured three others, including a local police officer some goddamn number of people.

    The TBI says 37-year-old Lakeem Keon Scott cops say this fucking dickhead was armed with at least two weapons, an automatic-style rifle, a pistol and a large amount of ammunition some ridiculous amount of firepower, reports CBS statation WJHL in Tennessee a bunch of journos.

    Preliminary findings indicate Scott whichever fucking fruitcake this was may have targeted people because he is an asshole and and officers after being troubled by recent events after losing his shit for some stupid fucking reason involving African-Americans and law enforcement officers in other parts of the country. Or maybe it was some Muslim Nazi freak.

    And then you, Shomi, sashay in to tell Cole he’s an asshole because he doesn’t hate the black/brown/white/Martian people enough, and also Honk if you love the Honkies/Blacks/Asians/Hispanics/Persons of a Gender/Disadvantaged Martians.

    And then everyone pretends they couldn’t have just written your stupid fucking comment for you, because they’ve got all of your previous idiot comments stored as boilerplate in the fucking cloud. After all, all they have to do is pull your fucking string and you start farting idiocies out of your empty plastic head.

    max
    [‘Don’t you have some empty anonymous death threats to be sending on Twitter or some stupid shit like that?’]

  67. 67.

    Technocrat

    @Mnemosyne:

    I really didn’t want to have to have that talk in the middle of my workday

    Don’t blame you one bit. I bailed on going in, so I could avoid running into anything with an opinion (I work with conservatives).

    You get paid to deal with a certain amount of stress at work, no need add to the burden. At least not for free!

    “So can I ask why liberals…”

    “Hold on, let me record the time. Listening to your bullshit is triple pay, I gotta keep records”.

  69. 69.

    Mnemosyne

    @Technocrat:

    I work with my fellow liberals, so at least there’s that. I’m pretty sure this co-worker has never heard that many swear words come out of my mouth because I don’t swear at work, but how else is one supposed to talk about the events of the last few fucking days?

  71. 71.

    seaboogie

    @shomi: @max:

    the circumstances just don’t seem to matter to fair and balanced Cole.

    Well, shomi – at least you’ve moved on from your “wrong way Cole” tired old saw. To use another reference to a useful tool – if you can leave off polishing that axe that you love to grind – and since you follow this blog from time to time, consider that Cole has a number of fraternity brothers who are young black male students – a couple of whom are summer roomates. He might have some insight to offer (he does) and you might actually learn something from listening to him instead of being beholden to your trolling perch that you seem to find so comfortable.

    John Cole has set an excellent, curmudgeonly example in the ability for someone to listen, pay attention and change their point of view based on evidence. He’s often wonderfully ranty, and never petty. And he made a great forum here where even you are welcome.

  72. 72.

    seaboogie

    @Mnemosyne: Man – I do NOT miss corporate life at all! It’s just a deeply weird dysfunctional family that I am not up for anymore, even if I need to work retail and consulting to stay out of it. More power to you. BTW, any hints you want to give on which evil corporation it is that you work for?

  73. 73.

    seaboogie

    @Mnemosyne: I work in an artisan jewelry store where it is permitted to say “fuck”, if it is germane with the right client. Heh.

  74. 74.

    Mnemosyne

    @seaboogie:

    Oh, everyone knows which Giant Evil Corporation I work for, though I try not to use the name. We warp children’s minds literally from birth and make them think magic is real. Does that help?

    ETA: I could say “fuck” all day long if I wanted to, but I choose not to. It’s pretty good as corporate jobs go, even if we are evil.

  76. 76.

    redshirt

    @Mnemosyne:

    Oh, everyone knows which Giant Evil Corporation I work for, though I try not to use the name. We warp children’s minds literally from birth and make them think magic is real. Does that help?

    ETA: I could say “fuck” all day long if I wanted to, but I choose not to. It’s pretty good as corporate jobs go, even if we are evil.

    You work for evil and know it and yet lecture us on ethics.

  79. 79.

    sunny raines

    I’ve basically given up on gun control in the US. It’s never going to happen in my lifetime.

    big mistake. the wall of lunacy propagated by the NRA is crumbling; the majority of American people, a significant majority have just about had all they can take of gun insanity. When the camel’s back breaks, wayne lapierre and similar disgusting gun nut sludge are going to be flushed back under the rocks from whence they came. The free reign of terror of the gun nut is coming to a close soon.

  80. 80.

    seaboogie

    @Villago Delenda Est: I used to work as a buyer for a national retail card and book chain (which is now surely defunct) in Canadia. One of the lines that we carried – per my very funny colleague – “rhymes with Mallmark”. It’s become kind of trope with me that is universally understood when I use it. Doesn’t work with companies whose name starts with an “M” though….

  81. 81.

    seaboogie

    @Mnemosyne: Ohhhh…I had some licensing fun with your folks with whatever Star Wars vehicle was out in ’99. What a pain in the patootie! Still kind of galls me that they held the license for the RCMP, while I was still in Canadia. That said, Giant Evil knows their way around licensing – helluva machine! BTW, Mr. Pixar lives just down the road from me. His house is somewhat fancier than my reno’d garage/cottage.

  82. 82.

    Ruckus

    @redshirt:
    Who would know ethics better than someone who works very close/for evil? Negative examples galore! Of course a congressional page for a republican member of congress would have more and better examples of how to live life with no ethics whatsoever.

  83. 83.

    Mnemosyne

    @seaboogie:

    I don’t know how he is as a neighbor, but Mr. Pixar is actually quite nice. (I’m assuming you mean the one who looks like a cartoon character, not the one who’s the computer nerd — though he’s also quite nice.) I’m not sure he knows my name, but he hugs me whenever he sees me.

  84. 84.

    Steeplejack

    @? Martin:

    Wow. White power structure finds uncomfortable report uncomfortable. Film at 11:00.

    Good article, though.

  85. 85.

    seaboogie

    @Mnemosyne: John Lasseter. He’s a couple miles down my road, and also a wonderful gent who is an active part of a pro-active community.

  86. 86.

    Barb2

    @Villago Delenda Est: So reasonable.

    Marines do that already.

    A friend of mine, while he was a Marine – was the weapons control person – I forgot the correct Marine title. All firearms on base were locked up. Anyone including the base CO who wanted or needed their personal firearm had to ask the corporal for the weapon, then sign it out with the witnessing signature of the corporal. My friend said that every time the base CO and other officers had to ask him for their weapon was a powerful experience. He was also very serious about his duties and responsibility.

    This is the Marines on a military base, in Hawaii. Navy brats make fun of Marines – yet I now know that the Marines are correct in their weapons safety protocols. There should be a responsible person between you and your weapons.

    But that will never happen. Not in America home of the idiots. Something is perverted in America.

  87. 87.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @seaboogie: everybody at Pixar (at least everybody I’ve met, which is a few of ’em) is lovely. The culture they’ve cultivated there is a model, which is why Ed Catmull’s book has become canon to people who want to build really lovely work cultures.

  88. 88.

    Kropadope

    @efgoldman:

    I admire your optimism. Maybe I’m just too old and cynical.

    Many young libertarians seem to be anti-gun-control absolutists.

  90. 90.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Kropadope: Indeed, some of them seem to care about almost nothing other than hating gun control and taxes. (Some reserve an equal share of hate for labor unions.)

  91. 91.

    I'mNotSureWhoIWantToBeYet

    @pseudonymous in nc: Thanks for the pointer. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such uniformly high review scores for a book at Amazon (that aren’t fake).

    Cheers,
    Scott.

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