As some have noted in the comments, a Quebec City mosque – the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Center – was attacked during evening prayers today. Five congregants have been killed. One of the local Quebec French language papers is now reporting that two suspected shooters are in custody, though there may be an additional one still at large. Additionally, one of the two shooters has “a Quebec name” and was wielding an AK-47 or AK pattern rifle. Canada has pretty tight restrictions on semi-automatic firearms, including rifles. Quebec name implies a francophone, Quebecer. The mosque has been targeted by vandals in the past. This is obviously a developing event and information is likely to change over the next 24 to 72 hours.
domestic terrorists
Jeff Sessions: Not A Good Man, or An Honest Legislator
Graham & Sessions commiserate on how it feels to be caricatured as southern racists. "How does that make you feel?" "It does not feel good."
— Rebecca Traister (@rtraister) January 10, 2017
I've no idea whether Sessions personally hates black people.
I know with near certainty that he will try to keep black people from voting.
— Ian Millhiser (@imillhiser) January 10, 2017
Nor are his fellow Republicans, no matter how “nice” they may appear to the Media Village Idiots. Per the Washington Post:
Sen. Cory Booker testified Wednesday that Sen. Jeff Sessions is the wrong man to lead the Justice Department, saying the Alabama Republican’s lengthy record in Congress exposed views that are inconsistent with the venerated job he is seeking.
“If confirmed, Senator Sessions will be required to pursue justice for women, but his record indicates that he won’t,” Booker said. “He will be expected to defend the equal rights of gay and lesbian and transgender Americans, but his record indicates that he won’t. He will be expected to defend voting rights, but his record indicates that he won’t. He will be expected to defend the rights of immigrants and affirm their human dignity, but the record indicates that he won’t.”
The remarks marked the first time a sitting senator has testified against a colleague’s nomination for a Cabinet post, and they were among the most notable in Sessions’s two-day confirmation hearing.
In total, legislators heard testimony from 15 supporters and detractors, and Sessions answered questions over more than 101/2 hours. Nothing that was said was likely to stop the Republican-controlled Senate from confirming him, with Democrats failing to land anything close to a fatal blow during the hearing…
Sessions is generally well liked in the Senate, despite views that draw polarized responses. To those in law enforcement and conservative legal circles, he is an honorable man, dedicated to enforcing the law no matter his personal feelings. To civil rights advocates, immigrant advocates and others, his record makes him a troubling selection to lead the Justice Department…
"It was a good feeling" when Supreme Court gutting Voting Rights Act, Sessions says. Tell that to voters who have been disenfranchised
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 10, 2017
important story from @pemalevy before Sessions hearing on him blocking black judges https://t.co/DwudzETbTv
— Rebecca Leber (@rebleber) January 9, 2017
Charles P. Pierce, at Esquire:
As far as a political tactic for attaining a government job that makes sensible people blanch at the very thought of your assuming it, unremitting banality in the face of questioning, harsh or otherwise, has served people very, very well. This was why, on the first day of the hearings in the Senate Judiciary Committee as to his nomination to be Attorney General, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions wielded unremitting banality so masterfully that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth and, even if it did, he would be polite and not mention in polite society that he had a mouthful of melted butter, nor spit it into the ashtrays, either. I’m not kidding. If you bought what he was selling, Sessions made Atticus Finch sound like James K. Vardaman.
You know all that really bad stuff he said when he was a senator, and when he was out on the stump pitching for El Caudillo del Mar-A-Lago? Forget about all of that, because he’s going to be the Attorney General now, so none of that counts, no backsies. When he called the NAACP and the ACLU “un-American” organizations back during the 1980s, he only meant in the context of their opposition to the various excellent Reagan Administration adventures in Central America, and then only because he thought their opposition to our proxy death squads would damage the “historic” record of achievement enjoyed by both organizations…
Franken: "Do you agree with Trump that millions of fraudulent votes were cast?"
Sessions: "I do believe we regularly have fraud"
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 10, 2017
This is unreal answer from Sessions. Only 4 cases of fraud in 2016 out of 135 million votes https://t.co/02GbFllZ8C https://t.co/5kdQOCE5zs
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 10, 2017
Given DOJ powers, this is one of Session's scariest answers. GOP has been committed to making voting tougher by playing up specter of fraud. https://t.co/qByYN8cjWE
— Taniel (@Taniel) January 10, 2017
The “good” news, FWIW, is that Sessions and his defenders at least feel themselves compelled to lie about his history and his beliefs. Dave Weigel got assigned to look for the pony in the pile:
… Noteworthy, too, is the way Sessions and the Trump transition team decided to handle his confirmation hearing. Sessions didn’t mention Trump in his opening statement other than to thank him for the nomination. And even before senators questioned him about the allegations of racism that led the GOP-controlled Judiciary Committee to reject his nomination to the federal bench in 1986, Sessions preemptively defended himself against “damnably false charges.”
The guest seats were filled by the likes of Al Sharpton, Khizr Khan, members of the Congressional Black Caucus. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), now the top Democrat on the panel, noted that “there is so much fear in this country . . . particularly in the African American community.”
Sessions said the “caricature of me in 1986” was wrong. “I did not harbor the kind of animosities and race-based discrimination ideas that I was accused of. I did not.”…
Sessions said it was “very painful” to be identified as a racist. He said he saw “systematic and powerful” racism in the South. “I know we need to do better,” Sessions said. “We can never go back.”
Does he believe that? We’ll see…
Jeff Sessions prosecuted three black civil rights activists for voter fraud in 1985. @emilybazelon, with context. https://t.co/h5Jgrkyei4
— Jamil Smith (@JamilSmith) January 10, 2017
Important to note: civil rights activists prosecuted by Sessions acquitted of all charges within 3 hours by jury https://t.co/LjC2deRFfC pic.twitter.com/07zVRCghTe
— Ari Berman (@AriBerman) January 10, 2017
Took 20 mins, but got through. Please take time to tell your Senator to vote NO on Jeff Sessions. 202-225-3121. https://t.co/tYbMckM9mp
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) January 10, 2017
Much more below the fold — including a few quotes from Sessions’ defenders, at the very end.
During opening remarks, Sen. Sessions expressed concerns “recent jump” in murders are the beginning of a crime wave https://t.co/WMcEhL5ijN
— NPR (@NPR) January 10, 2017
Sessions links public criticism of policing to literal murder of police officers pic.twitter.com/9Hsg97KceW
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 10, 2017
From Politico, “Sessions faces decision on politicizing Justice Department“:
Donald Trump suggested on the campaign trail that he could use the Justice Department to fulfill his political agenda, taunting Hillary Clinton by threatening to throw her in jail over her email scandal.
Now, Sen. Jeff Sessions, Trump’s pick for attorney general, will have to decide whether to follow his predecessors by vowing to not let politics drive the DOJ’s decision-making.
The idea that the Justice Department should be free from political interference is not rooted in any statute or explicit constitutional provision. Instead, it evolved through a series of internal policy memos and letters issued by past Justice Department officials from both parties, according to a POLITICO review of historical records.
Sessions, as attorney general, could decide to abandon or overhaul those policies, a concern heightened by Trump’s suggestions during the campaign that he could pursue politically motivated prosecutions.
Notably, Sessions’ nomination is now in the hands of some of the same Republicans who pushed for tougher firewalls between the White House and the Justice Department during the Clinton administration. Those senators, Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Orrin Hatch of Utah, have not raised the issue in throwing their support behind Sessions, who faces his first day of confirmation hearings on Tuesday.
“This is the biggest question Jeff Sessions has to answer,” said Matt Miller, a former spokesman for Attorney General Eric Holder, who left office in 2015. “Attorneys general have always established it’s not appropriate for the White House to influence prosecutorial or investigative decisions. But there’s no law or regulation. If they want to change it, they can change it.”…
Feinstein notes that Sessions voted against the immigration bills; fwiw, FAIR (which SPLC keeps calling a hate group) has endorsed him.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
Sessions has praised a 1924 immigration law designed to keep out Italians, Jews, Africans, Middle Easterners, Asians https://t.co/wiCv3DuMvD
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 10, 2017
Leahy GRILLING Sessions on whether grabbing a woman by the genitals is assault. Sessions finally concedes: "Yes." https://t.co/YLDsaKYA5v
— Jenna //\\ Wortham (@jennydeluxe) January 10, 2017
tbf, asked bc Sessions said during the campaign that it was not assault. https://t.co/V3lk6ZXjH1
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
Scoop: Trump AG nominee Sessions failed to disclose oil interests as required, ethics experts say – via @thamburgerhttps://t.co/6sHkh6CQw7
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) January 10, 2017
Jeff Sessions' face as he hears about @CNN's Russia compromised Trump story from @alfranken at the Judiciary Committee moments ago pic.twitter.com/ECnm1z9ScR
— igorvolsky (@igorvolsky) January 10, 2017
Tariffs, tax cuts, deregulation, and the Johnson-Reed Act. It's like Coolidge. Except he's not Silent Don https://t.co/C3J2KuOY8j
— Eric Rauchway (@rauchway) January 10, 2017
Blumenthal asks Sessions if he'll appoint a special counsel on Trump's Deutsche Bank conflicts. "I'm not aware of that case," sez Sessions.
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
What is #Sessions' view of state marijuana laws? Will he pressure 'Sanctuary Cities' w/ withholding DOJ grants/forfeiture revenue?
— Jonathan Blanks (@BlanksSlate) January 10, 2017
Sessions gives no clear answer to whether he’d go after #weed even in states w/legalization: "I won’t commit to never enforcing federal law"
— Hannah Allam (@HannahAllam) January 10, 2017
A Sessions quote to rile up the popular vote fans: "The American people spoke clearly in this election and agreed with my view."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
Sheldon Whitehouse asks Sessions if he ever chanted “Lock her up.” Sessions says “No, I did not. I don’t think."
— Mike Warren (@MichaelRWarren) January 10, 2017
It's not like Sessions would do any dumb ass thing Trump asks him to do or anything. pic.twitter.com/FiLD5oU5cW
— Schooley (@Rschooley) January 10, 2017
***********
When you're a four term senator who's been in elected office since the early 1990s pic.twitter.com/zGdgwmU6sj
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 8, 2017
Orrin Hatch asks Sessions to re-establish a DOJ unit going after obscenity/porn. Sessions would "consider it."
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
Grassley: “Sen. Sessions got re-elected without a primary opponent or a general election opponent. Ye gods! Wouldn’t we all like that?"
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
Hatch says he hopes Sessions, one of the first to back Trump's muslim ban, will protect the religious freedom of all americans
— Mazel Tov Cocktail (@AdamSerwer) January 10, 2017
Cornyn tossing Sessions the slowest softballs of the day: "Do you think it’s ever appropriate for someone to assault a police officer?"
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 10, 2017
.@SenTedCruz "enthusiastically" supports @SenatorSessions. He was also proud to support Texas' discriminatory voter ID law. #StopSessions https://t.co/L2DTHE7KoW
— Civil Rights (@civilrightsorg) January 10, 2017
Cruz says to Sessions that he was worried today would become "ugly with accusations that don't belong in this hearing."
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) January 10, 2017
"I don't agree with everything anyone I know has ever said or done, including myself" writes @JoeLieberman in letter endorsing Sessions.
— Niels Lesniewski (@nielslesniewski) January 10, 2017
Jeff Sessions: Not A Good Man, or An Honest LegislatorPost + Comments (39)
Today in Stochastic Violence and Terrorism
News started to break yesterday of the horrific kidnapping, brutalization, and torture of a mentally/developmentally disabled Chicago man by four others – one of whom was an acquaintance.
A mentally disabled man attacked and racially taunted on a Facebook Live video was able to leave a West Side apartment after a neighbor complained about the noise and distracted his attackers, authorities said Thursday.
Two of them followed the neighbor downstairs and the 18-year-old victim took the opportunity to leave the building in the 3300 block of West Lexington Street, ending a five-hour ordeal, police said at a news conference.
Officers found the man wandering the streets in the Homan Square neighborhood around 5:15 p.m., police said. “I observed him wearing a tank top, inside-out, backwards, jean shorts and sandals on,” said Officer Michael Donnelly. “He was bloodied, he was battered.
“He was very discombobulated,” he added. “He was injured. He was confused.”
The four perpetrators are facing felony charges, including hate crimes charges:
Four people face felony criminal charges including hate crimes and kidnapping in the brutal beating and torturing of a mentally disabled man that was broadcasted on live on Facebook.
Jordan Hill,18, of Carpentersville; Tesfaye Cooper, 18, of Chicago; Brittany Covington, 18, of Chicago; and Tanishia Covington, 24, of Chicago; face felony criminal charges of aggravated kidnapping, hate crime; aggravated unlawful restraint; aggravated battery deadly weapon; robbery; PSMV and residential burglary.
Chicago police were made aware of the video Tuesday afternoon. The footage shows the suspects kicking, hitting and cutting the hair of the victim while he was gagged. Shouts of “F*** Trump!” and “F*** white people!” can be heard in the background.
At one point, the victim is held at knife point and told to curse President-elect Donald Trump. The group also forces the victim to drink water from a toilet.
The victim was held hostage for at least 24 hours and as long as 48 hours. Police believe the kidnapping took place in an apartment in the 3400 block of West Lexington on the West Side. Chicago police found the victim “in distress” walking along a street, authorities said.
CPD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi called the footage “reprehensible.”
What has gotten a lot of play, and some of it absolutely falling in line with preconceived notions and prejudices, is that the victim is White and the perpetrators are African American.
I want to make this very, very clear: people, regardless of ethnicity, what we call race in the US, religion, or any other demographic descriptor we can come up, do horrible, terrible things to their fellow humans. And they do it all the time. In this case the victim/perpetrator realities lined up to provide grist for certain people’s mills, but what happened in Chicago is, unfortunately, not restricted to any one particular ethnicity or religious group. It is also unacceptable. And it would be unacceptable if the victim was African American and the perpetrators were white. Or if the victim was LatinX and the perpetrators were Jewish-American. Or if the victim was LGBTQ and the perpetrators were Asian American. Wrong is wrong is wrong regardless of race, ethnicity, creed, sexual orientation, or national origin. There is enough evil in the world without looking to shoehorn it into one’s ideological prejudices to score political points.
It is more important now than ever to remember and take to heart the wisdom of President Washington from his Letter to the Jewish Congregations of Newport, Rhode Island:
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.
Today in Stochastic Violence and TerrorismPost + Comments (109)
Today in American Domestic Terrorism: Dylann Roof Found Guilty
CHARLESTON, S.C. — Dylann S. Roof, a self-radicalized young white supremacist who killed nine black parishioners last year when he opened fire during a long-planned assault on Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, was found guilty by a federal jury here on Thursday.
The jury convicted Mr. Roof of nine counts of hate crimes resulting in death, three counts of hate crimes involving an attempt to kill (there were three survivors), nine counts of obstructing the exercise of religion resulting in death, three counts of that charge with an attempt to kill, and nine counts of using a firearm to commit murder during a crime of violence.
Not all hate crimes are acts of terrorism, but some, like Roof’s actions at Mother Emanuel Church were. His statements as he commenced killing – “‘You rape our women and you’re taking over the country. You have to go.’” – and his manifesto make it clear his use of violence was intended to achieve political action through fear and intimidation.
Here’s the US’s definition of domestic terrorism from 18 U.S. Code § 2331 – Definitions:
(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—(i)to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
Today in American Domestic Terrorism: Dylann Roof Found GuiltyPost + Comments (110)
Open Thread: Pizzagate — You Can Fix Ignorant, But You Can’t Fix (Deliberately) Stupid
Pizzagate, possibly to become the textbook example of how inventing “fake news” can lead to “real, tragic consequences”. I’ve been ignoring it — I suspect a lot of us have — because it seems one of those wingnut-shit-dumps designed, like cholera, to spread its contagion further with every mention. But given that one of its deluded proponents has managed to push the argument from banned-on-reddit to national news outlets, I’m gonna recomend Gizmodo‘s “Pizzagaters Aren’t Giving This Shit Up“:
For months, 4chan and Reddit users have delved deep into the emails of John Podesta as they were released by Wikileaks and concluded that the emails contained coded language about a secret child-trafficking ring operating out of Comet Ping Pong, a Washington DC pizzeria—a ring ran by Podesta and former presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. The theory was known as “Pizzagate,” and until recently it was just another of the internet’s outlandish conspiracy theories. Two of pizzagate’s loudest mouthpieces have backed off their support after a man armed with a AR-15, a Colt. 38, and a shotgun entered the restaurant to “investigate.” And yet, pizzagate somehow trudges on, without them.
(Pizzagate has been debunked by Snopes and the New York Times, and one of its biggest communities—r/pizzagate—was booted off Reddit for the repeated release of personally identifiable information, as Gizmodo reported last week.)
Two of the most vocal (and visible) entities propping up pizzagate’s absurd claims were, predictably, arch-troll Mike Cernovich and the Alex Jones’ Infowars….
There have always been people on the fringes making unsubstantiated claims and then covering their asses, just as there have always been angry, confused people willing to believe and forgive them. And while connections have been drawn by other outlets to Welch’s associations as a possible motivation for entering an otherwise unassuming pizzeria with a small arms cache, the connection is unprovable. But, hopefully the risk of having emboldened a gunman might cause Cernovich, Jones, and their ilk to reconsider fueling the fires of internet conspiracies.
What we’ve all been learning during Trump’s ascendence, though, is that the fringes are closer than ever to the center of power in this country. Among the pizzagate truthers, as Politico reported yesterday, is Michael Flynn Jr., close adviser to his father Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn—Trump’s pick for national security adviser…
Maddison Welch has the excuse of being a petty-criminal substance abuser with nothing more pressing on his calendar than investigating the ‘basement sex tunnels’ in a building with no basement. But what’s Alex Jones’ excuse — or Lt-Gen Flynn’s? Lulz nothing matters?
George Orwell would’ve been so impressed! All human knowledge and history accessible at the click of a few buttons, and people are using it… to embed themselves, and each other, further and further in a matrix of unbreakable, shatterproof STUPID.
Late Night Nightmare Reads: The San Bernadino Shootings, A Year Later
Couple who carried out San Bernardino massacre googled "who is the leader of ISIS?" on morning of attack, ABC News reporting
— Mohamad Bazzi (@BazziNYU) December 1, 2016
The Washington Post, doing journalism:
… “The brutality of the attack’s perpetrators could not have been in starker contrast to the selflessness and generosity that characterized those taken from us,” the White House said in a statement marking the anniversary Friday and honoring the victims of the attack. Using another acronym for the Islamic State, the message continued: “In the year since this tragedy, we have mourned those we lost, just as we have continued to confront the violent ideology behind this attack as well as the terrorist groups, including ISIL, that propagate it.”
In a new interview broadcast this week, the police chief in San Bernardino said authorities believe that the specifics of the attack — targeting that particular gathering at that time — may have been motivated by the holiday party set to take place in the same room after the training ended. The chief, Jarrod Burguan, cited comments made by the female attacker before the shooting.
Malik had said online “that she didn’t think that a Muslim should have to participate in a non-Muslim holiday or event,” Burguan told ABC News.
The room where the training occurred — the same room where the health department had held active-shooter training earlier that year — was filled at the time with Christmas decorations, including a large Christmas tree, ornaments and items on the walls….
If it weren’t for all the dead people, jokes would be made about the virulence with which many of us regard enforced holiday ‘jollilities’ at our workspaces. Or discussing the weight of microagressions.
But this is the real heartbreaker — again, from the WaPo:
Maybe the child would be hers one day, so Saira Khan began preparing the house for her niece’s next visit. She sanitized the baby toys and double-checked the child safety locks. She cleaned the nursery where the girl had never been allowed to spend a night and tidied the crib that had been recovered and moved from a crime scene. It had belonged to the baby’s parents, and it was in the apartment where they had left her one morning last December before driving to an office party in San Bernardino, armed with pipe bombs, handguns and AR-15s.
Late Night Nightmare Reads: The San Bernadino Shootings, A Year LaterPost + Comments (17)
Florida Woman! (Not BettyC!)
Police have arrested a 24-year-old Waldo woman who they believe called in a bomb threat to the University of Florida last week.
Jessica Ward was charged with making a false report concerning planting a bomb, which is a felony, according to a news release today from UF police.
The threat was made against the university’s engineering building, and Ward worked in the building’s Java Hut Coffee Kiosk, the release says.
Students were evacuated from the building Wednesday after a note was found on the first floor of the building in a restroom, and classes in the building were canceled for the rest of the day.
Later, during an interview with police, Ward said she wrote the threat. She told them she wanted to leave work at the threat’s indicated time so she could have “me time,” according to the release.
Ward was arrested this morning and remained at the Alachua County jail on a $15,000 bond.
Open Thread!