As we now move into the official Political Aftermath period of the Boston bombing — the period that will determine the long-term legislative fallout of the atrocity — the dynamics of privilege will undoubtedly influence the nation’s collective reaction to the attacks. That’s because privilege tends to determine: 1) which groups are — and are not — collectively denigrated or targeted for the unlawful actions of individuals; and 2) how big and politically game-changing the overall reaction ends up being.
This has been most obvious in the context of recent mass shootings. In those awful episodes, a religious or ethnic minority group lacking such privilege would likely be collectively slandered and/or targeted with surveillance or profiling (or worse) if some of its individuals comprised most of the mass shooters. However, white male privilege means white men are not collectively denigrated/targeted for those shootings — even though most come at the hands of white dudes.
Likewise, in the context of terrorist attacks, such privilege means white non-Islamic terrorists are typically portrayed not as representative of whole groups or ideologies, but as “lone wolf” threats to be dealt with as isolated law enforcement matters. Meanwhile, non-white or developing-world terrorism suspects are often reflexively portrayed as representative of larger conspiracies, ideologies and religions that must be dealt with as systemic threats — the kind potentially requiring everything from law enforcement action to military operations to civil liberties legislation to foreign policy shifts.
Right.
Once again, Caucasoids are fundamentally responsible for the consummate ills of the world, millions of years ago and now.
The Senate delivered a devastating blow to President Obama’s agenda to regulate guns Wednesday by defeating a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks.
It failed by a vote of 54 to 46, with five Democrats voting against it. Only four Republicans supported it.
Democratic Sens. Mark Pryor (Ark.), Max Baucus (Mont.), Heidi Heitkamp (N.D.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (Nev.) voted against it. Reid supported the measure but voted against it to preserve his ability to bring the measure up again.
GOP Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Susan Collins (Maine), Pat Toomey (Pa.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) voted “yes.”
Imagine. The bill was so bad that five Demorat senators actually voted against it. But fear not, because John McCain (D) voted for the bill.
What appeared to be a likely victory for the president was resoundingly defeated by the Senate as jittery Democrats facing tough reelections next year joined nearly the entire Republican conference.
Defeated and angry — and surrounded by Newtown families, former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and Vice President Joe Biden — Obama vowed to continue the gun control fight as he castigated senators who sank the bipartisan background checks proposal. He walked to the podium with his arm around Giffords, critically wounded in the 2011 mass shooting outside a Tucson supermarket, and hugged relatives of victims of the December Newtown shooting who attended the event.
See the video above. It was, in a word, demagoguery.
And for roughly the fifth time, let me be perfectly clear with regard to my stance on gun control laws: I will not now, not ever, sacrifice my Second Amendment rights for children. Not for one child; not for a hundred. I won’t sacrifice them for me, I won’t sacrifice them for you.
Let’s be frank. Gun violence deaths predominantly occur in melanin-enhanced communities whose male youths have no regard for themselves or others, or human life in general. These shootings occur in communities where the populations are shoved into econo-box living circumstances, in urban environments. These areas are overarchingly Demorat/Leftist controlled politically. There isn’t a Republican or a Conservative within miles.
The bulk of America, via Gallup, isn’t worried about gun violence (4%). It’s mostly worried about the economy and about jobs. It is DC that is making the current Talking Points about guns, because they are taking advantage of the Useful Idiots who would so readily toss away their freedoms for a modicum — and a very poor one at that — of security.
The Obaka Administration operates only via crisis. It’s this crisis or it’s that crisis. There is no planning, only Management By Crisis. And those events portrayed as crises are mostly not. The “gun issue” is not a crisis. It is a diversion and it is a naked attempt to reduce the freedoms of citizens and an attempt to corral power and control in DC.
The bombing in Boston? That is not a crisis. More people were killed in the two neighboring counties, in one day, in vehicle accidents than at the Boston Marathon.
Yet, because of the Pussification of America, weak-kneed Americans are more than willing to swallow the pill of defeat and demand more cameras, more checks, more abrogations of our Civil Rights, in order to feel “secure.” FEEL. The operative word. Emotions, once again. But, in truth, what HAS the TSA and Homeland Security done to make us more secure? Oh yes, except to spend more billions of dollars and to reduce individual freedoms.
Your freedoms are at stake here, ladies and gentlemen.
Today, we “won” one.
But please note who voted to give away your rights.
“I’m in favor of reducing taxes under any circumstances, under any excuse, with any reason whatsoever, because that’s the only way you’re ever going to get effective control of government spending. If you don’t reduce taxes to get rid of that surplus, it’s going to be spent. The rule for hundreds of years is that governments will spend whatever the tax system will raise, plus as much more as they can get away with.”
Barack Obama’s administration has cut the budget nearly in half for preventing domestic bombings, MailOnline can reveal.
Under President George W. Bush, the Department of Homeland Security had $20 million allocated for preventing the use of improvised explosive devices (IEDs) by terrorists working inside the United States. The current White House has cut that funding down to $11 million.
UPDATE: Counterterrorism officials found what they believe to be five additional, undetonated explosive devices around the Boston area, according to two people briefed on the rapidly moving investigation.
The devices—which are in addition to the two that exploded near the finish line of the marathon—were discovered over the course of a frantic inspection of suspicious packages, many of them abandoned as pedestrians, runners, and others scrambled away from crowded public streets. Each had been rendered inoperative or was in the process of being rendered inoperative, the officials said.
Roupen Bastajian, a state trooper from Smithfield, R.I., had just finished the race when he heard the explosions.
“I started running toward the blast. And there were people all over the floor,” he said. “We started grabbing tourniquets and started tying legs. A lot of people amputated. … At least 25 to 30 people have at least one leg missing, or an ankle missing, or two legs missing.”
One explosion and then another obviously indicates terrorism. You can clearly hear the second explosion after the first.
I’m not certain of the facts yet — no one is — things are chaotic and it is early, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there are unexploded bombs that failed to detonate. If this is a Middle Eastern-type planned event, then there would be secondary bombs rigged to explode or be triggered remotely in order to kill the first and subsequent waves of emergency responders.
It is now indicated that ball bearings were involved in the packing of the explosives.
At least two people are dead and 73 injured – including up to 10 with amputated limbs – after two bombs tore through the finish line of the Boston Marathon, according to the Boston Police Department.
Authorities were guarding a person of interest at a local hospital, according to a New York Post report confirmed by Fox News. The person, who sources said was 20 years old, had severe burns, but authorities had not determined whether the person was a victim or a perpetrator. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said during a press conference that no suspect is in custody.
The simultaneous explosions just before 3 p.m. and reports of two other unexploded devices found near the scene raised suspicions of a terrorist attack. Intelligence officials told The Associated Press two unexploded devices were being dismantled. Competitors and race organizers were crying as they fled the bloody chaos, while some witnesses reported seeing victims with lost limbs.
“Somebody’s leg flew by my head,” a spectator, who gave his name as John Ross, told the Boston Herald. “I gave my belt to stop the blood.”
Information also indicates the devices detonated not as the first persons were finishing, but later on in the race. They were placed not far from the finish line itself.
One dead victim is a child; other children are seriously injured. 176 total are injured.
After TWO days, Mr Obama finally labeled the acts as “terrorism.”
