"Drug, marital troubles dogged Tenn. suspect, family" by Richard Fausset New York Times July 18, 2015
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Mohammod Abdulazeez’s eyelids were droopy, that he smelled of alcohol and marijuana, and that a “white powdery substance” was dusted around his nostrils. Abdulazeez told them that he had snorted crushed caffeine.
Another pious and partying patsy!
Less than three months after his April 20 arrest for driving while intoxicated in connection with this traffic stop, Abdulazeez would exhort readers of his blog to put their “desires to the side” so that Allah might guide them “to what is right.”
All I exhort you to do is search for the truth of events for yourself. I can help guide with my analysis and relevant information, but the onus is on you.
And Thursday, authorities say, he fatally shot four Marines and a Navy petty officer here, then died in a gun battle with the police.
In the aftermath of the shootings, many of the people who knew Abdulazeez — classmates, neighbors, fellow athletes, fellow Muslims — spoke of the nimble way he and his Chattanooga-area family operate in both the secular, suburban world here and the more conservative reality of the Middle East, where he was born and his parents, Jordanians of Palestinian descent, still have family.
The elder Abdulazeez is a soil engineering specialist in Chattanooga’s Public Works Department. US officials said he and his wife are of Palestinian descent....
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"Navy petty officer is 5th to die in Tenn. rampage; Investigators still seek motive for the attack" by Timothy Williams and Kenneth Rosen New York Times July 18, 2015
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — As the shooting rampage at two military facilities here claimed another victim Saturday, states around the nation sought to bolster security for local military recruiters by pulling them into safer locales or authorizing them to be armed.
Meaning authority will be sealed off from the public even more.
******************
Investigators are searching for a motive for the killings. Abdulazeez was a naturalized US citizen born in Kuwait. So far, they say, they have not found evidence that he was directed by anyone or had ties to the Islamic State.
Federal officials are examining his computer and other electronic devices to trace his communications and the websites he visited and they are seeking to learn more about a seven-month trip he made in 2014 to Jordan, where he has relatives, to see whether he was radicalized overseas.
Chattanooga prides itself on strong ties between people of different faiths, and some Muslims voiced concern that the community’s perception of them may have changed after the shooting rampage.
Mohsin Ali, a member of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, said he hoped the local community didn’t dissolve into turmoil the way others have in the region over the building of mosques and other matters, the Associated Press reported.
“We, our kids, feel 100 percent American and Chattanoogan,” said the Pakistani-born Ali, who is a child psychiatrist. “Now they are wondering if that is how people still look at them.”
“He shot our Marines and our police officers, shattered the peace of our city, frightened our children,” Ali said. “He destroyed the lives of his whole family. He did his best to spread hatred and division. Disgraceful. And we will not let that endure.”
**************
Valencia Brewer, the wife of a Baptist minister, knows how she will try to see Muslims as the days after the horrific shooting turn to weeks. “I think the way you have to look at it is this was an individual person. You can’t point at all Muslims because of this,” she told the AP....
Oh, tell it to all the flag-flying southern boys (complete with sexual peccadillos)!
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I'd rather not give you any ideas, readers.
The ma$$ media continues with the guilt by association:
"Boston protesters stage counter-rally to KKK event in S.C." by Monica Disare Globe Correspondent July 18, 2015
About 50 protesters rallied outside Faneuil Hall on Saturday afternoon to oppose a Ku Klux Klan demonstration in South Carolina opposing the removal of the Confederate battle flag from the State House grounds this month.
Participants in Boston wielded signs and megaphones as they marched to chants of “Hey, hey, hey, ho, ho, ho, the KKK has got to go.”
“Why am I still dealing with the Ku Klux Klan in 2015?” 36-year-old Edmund Schluessel, a math professor from Somerville, yelled while standing at the front of the crowd.
Is he "dealing" with them?
At the same time, about 40 members of the North Carolina-based Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan were marching up the South Carolina Capitol’s steps in Columbia, the Associated Press reported.
The KKK’s rally in South Carolina was preceded by a dueling rally on the north side of the State House, organized by Black Educators for Justice, based in Jacksonville, Fla., the report said.
The rally in Boston condemned the Klan’s march and stood in solidarity with counter-rallies across the country, said Brock Satter, 44, an organizer of the Faneuil Hall event.
It was meant to speak for more than African-American rights, Satter said, as he gestured at the racially diverse crowd.
The Klan’s demonstration is an “affront to everybody’s rights everywhere,” Satter said. “Anybody who thinks or believes in democracy, they should be repulsed by this.”
That is so upside down. It may be objectionable, but that is exactly what the right entails. Anything else is censorship. You are only for free speech if you are for speech you hate. I'm not for muzzling propaganda papers; it's up to the reader to decipher it for themselves. Truth is self-evident. This political correctness posing as tolerance and sensitivity is the same.
The event’s organizers chose to hold their rally outside of Faneuil Hall because the building’s namesake, Peter Faneuil, made his fortune from the international slave trade.
That is very interesting (guess whose side the BRA took).
This, organizers said, is just one example of Boston’s racially charged, and often ignored, history.
Yeah, no kidding:
The Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews
Jewish Involvement in Black Slave Trade to the Americas
I've come to find history is pretty much the opposite of everything I have been taught and told.
The Boston Tea Party is one of the seminal events in local history, but as Tahia Bell-Sykes, another event organizer pointed out, not all Americans gained their freedom during the Revolutionary War.
Protesters hope that events like these draw attention to this history so the community can begin to heal racial wounds.
What if you didn't cause the wound?
“This is about acknowledgment,” Bell-Sykes said. “If you don’t acknowledge it, you can’t address it.”
Why should I acknowledge guilt for something I had nothing to do with?
Many in the crowd also held signs decrying police brutality. The event was sponsored by the Massachusetts-based Mass Action Against Police Brutality.
Oh, yeah, remember that? Where have those protests gone, huh?
As tourists drove by on duck boat tours and enjoyed the historic district, protesters continued their rally.
“We need mass action,” said Clay Brown, 24, of Somerville. “We need millions in the street.”
Yeah, but each time we do that the security forces come in and clear us out.
Besides, we don't need to be giving the federal government as reason to go live with Jade Helm.
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Before raising the flag of surrender, I wanted to bring your attention to this:
Alex Jones Says All Muslims Should Be Deported
It's great to see Morris active and well, and the mask just dropped off Alex Jones.
(I just dropped Prison Planet as a link)
You reap what you sow:
"Counter-protesters join kimono fray at MFA" by Stephanie McFeeters Globe Correspondent July 19, 2015
A playful attempt by the Museum of Fine Arts to engage summer visitors has triggered a controversy that is mushrooming beyond expectations, with protesters taking to the museum’s “Kimono Wednesdays” event in increasing force each week, and a group of kimono-wearing counterprotesters joining the fray.
The debate has reached such a pitch that incoming MFA director Matthew Teitelbaum, who arrives in August, has announced plans for a future symposium, developed with input from MFA audiences, on art history and traditions of representation.
It all began with....
The Confederate Flag controversy!
The protesters have seized the opportunity to raise broader questions involving racism, sexism, and colonialism.
The furor reached new heights on Wednesday as about two dozen protesters and half as many counterprotesters filled the MFA’s Impressionist gallery.
On one side, a group of mostly young Asian-American and white women gathered to protest “Kimono Wednesdays,” demanding additional context for the event and questioning views of Asians as “the other” in American culture.
They held signs with messages like “Not your Asian fetish” and “I have been assaulted, raped, harassed + stalked, denied my humanity repeatedly & you don’t want to think about me because I am just another Japanese woman.”
Because people are wearing kimonos on a Wednesday?
Displaying a sign reading “Decolonize our museums,” a woman who gave her name only as Pampi, 36, spoke about the need to trace artworks to their first acquisitions, which she said were often violent, and charged the MFA with shirking its responsibility to curate the event for a diverse American audience.
Stepping into the dispute this week were several counterprotesters wearing kimonos, including some older Japanese women, who advocated for the museum to return to its initial “Kimono Wednesdays” programming. One held a sign saying “I am not offended by people wearing kimono in front of French paintings.” Another sign read, in part, “I welcome museum exhibits that share Japanese culture with the community.”
No offense, but I'm siding with the older Japanese women.
(Blog editor then bows deeply -- before profusely apologizing for those nuclear bombs unnecessarily dropped on your nation, as well as the months-long fire bombings that preceded them)
Etsuko Yashiro, 53, of Concord, who helps organize Boston’s Japan Festival, said she was there to share the beauty of kimonos with an American audience. Ikuko Burns, 79, who was born in Tokyo and has lived in Boston for 53 years, explained how she used to bring kimonos to local schools as a consultant for the Children’s Museum to teach introductory lessons on Japan.
“I’m a little bit disappointed by the other side,” she said, questioning what the protest had to do with Monet’s painting and chalking it up to the participants’ youth.
In her MFA “Spotlight” talk on Wednesday, museum educator Wendy Dodek spoke of Commodore Matthew Perry’s “gunboat diplomacy” of the mid-19th century and — addressing a question raised by protesters the previous week — relayed the fable depicted in the Monet painting’s kimono, which revolves around a warrior named Taira No Koremochi.
Though museum security reminded visitors repeatedly to keep their voices down, conversations between protesters and counterprotesters became emotional at times.
You go to the museum for a quiet afternoon and.... sigh.
Wearing a cherry-blossom-patterned kimono, Ara Mahar, 23, of Dorchester, who founded the Boston branch of an international kimono group, held a sign referencing a YouTube video in which a Japanese man is asked when foreigners can wear kimonos. The answer? “Whenever.”
Standing with her fellow protesters, Shaina Lu, 25, of Jamaica Plain, said she sensed a misunderstanding between the opposing sides. Those with concerns about the event would also like to see the kimono celebrated, she said, but in a “culturally affirming” way.
“This is part of the misunderstanding: We never said people who aren’t Japanese can’t wear a kimono,” said Loreto Ansaldo, 35, of Hyde Park, who helped organize the protest.
In Boston’s broader Japanese and Japanese-American communities, opinions of the controversy varied widely.
“I have talked to many people, including Japanese and Japanese-Americans, that didn’t find the event offensive on its face,” said Paul Watanabe, who directs the Institute for Asian American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Still, he agreed with the museum’s decision to recast the program.
Mountain out of a molehill to push the agenda of division.
Watanabe said MFA staff could have avoided the controversy by better contextualizing the painting within a discussion of cultural appropriation and by clarifying what they hoped visitors would gain by donning replica kimonos.
“Their original idea was done, unfortunately, without a lot of thought and care about what its consequences might be,” Watanabe said.
“We actually do not quite understand what their point of protest is,” said Jiro Usui, the Deputy Consul General of Japan in Boston. “We tried to listen to those people who are protesting, but we think together with the MFA we should encourage that Japanese culture be appreciated in a positive way.”
Ken Oye, copresident of the Japanese American Citizens League’s New England chapter, had his own take. “This is a funny controversy,” said Oye, stressing that he was speaking personally and not on behalf of his organization.
The painting is rooted in the idea of cultural borrowing, he said, and understanding the debate requires acknowledging the painting’s complex context, including both French infatuation with Japan and the corresponding Japanese infatuation with French Impressionism.
It looks to me like the painting is a compliment, not an insult.
“Sitting in the last room of the Orangerie [Museum in Paris] surrounded by Japanese tourists staring at Monet’s work and gawking — that’s part of this,” he said.
“It certainly has stirred a discussion in Boston on what do you mean by cultural appropriation and what do you mean by racism,” Oye said. “What bothers me is the nastiness of some of the commenters, on all sides of the issue.”
The true agenda revealed: it's about shutting down free speech and anything that questions or objects to official dogma.
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Related:
Disloyal to the United States? Wesley Clark Wants to Detain You For Duration of War on Terror
So sayeth the war criminal who obliterated Serbia.
And with that I see the rainbow shimmer.... a sign to end this post.
NDU:
"NASCAR fans in N.H. ignore request to ditch Confederate flags" by Jacqueline Tempera Globe Correspondent July 19, 2015
Despite officials’ continued requests to keep Confederate battle flags away from NASCAR tracks, some fans proudly displayed their banners at the Sprint Cup Series race in Loudon, N.H., on Sunday.
Fans took to Twitter, posting photos of their rebel-flag-emblazoned T-shirts and hats, arguing that displaying the symbol, which many consider racist, is an act of free speech.
It's become the symbol of it, yeah.
One woman, using her Twitter handle @justinemee , sent a message to NASCAR saying, “Got my confederate flag on for tomorrow! I dare you to make me take it off!”
In an attempt to discourage fans from displaying the flags, the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, where two Sprint Cup series races are held annually, offered to exchange Confederate flags for an American flag or race flag of choice, free of charge, according to Kristen Lestock, the communications director for the speedway.
“Our goal is always to provide a fan-friendly atmosphere to all of our guests here,” Lestock said in a statement. “We’re simply asking NASCAR fans to focus on the one flag we all support with pride — the American Flag.”
I'm embarrassed by it, but whatever you offer. (You know, the Germans once had only one flag that was focused upon; just a thought regarding the road we are on)
As of Sunday afternoon, no fans had taken advantage of the deal, she said.
That's a statement right there.
Last month, after nine people were shot to death at a black Charleston, S.C., church by an alleged white supremacist, NASCAR chairman Brian France said he supports the eradication of the Confederate battle flag.
Woa!
“We will be as aggressive as possible to disassociate NASCAR events from an offensive and divisive symbol,” France said in a statement. “We are working with the industry right now to achieve that goal.”
Being a corporation and business, NASCAR must take the politically correct course. Advertisers would boycott.
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While on history, the reason there is a NASCAR is because of the moonshining in Kentucky and Alabama. One need only watch an episode or two of the Dukes of Hazard to.... oh, yeah, that's not on anymore because it has that flag on top of the car.
I'll clarify my position here: I won't fly a Confederate flag and may not even believe in its ideals; however, it has the right to fly just as the rainbow flag does. We all have to make our own judgements, and in the end truth and decency will win out.
"S.C. memorial to segregationist sparks criticism" Associated Press July 20, 2015
COLUMBIA, S.C. — As South Carolina pulled down the Confederate flag from State House grounds, the statue of avowed segregationist and former governor and US senator ‘‘Pitchfork’’ Ben Tillman watched.
You know what? Let's wipe it all clean. Let's censor and sanitize history into a politically-correct, agenda-pushing box of current conformity -- and we'll call it freedom!
Tillman’s statue seems safe for now. Republican legislative leaders, Democrats in the General Assembly, and civil rights leaders aren’t calling for it to come down. But there are calls to at least make sure the memorial tells more of the story than what is currently on there, which reads in part: ‘‘Loving them he was the friend and leader of the common people.’’
That will always get you in trouble with the keepers and guardians of the gate of history.
‘‘If they just put the truth on it,’’ Lonnie Randolph, president of the South Carolina NAACP, said in a January speech about 20 yards from the statue. ‘‘Tell them he is a killer of people. Tell them he was part of a lynch mob.’’
Then U.S. presidents will need to go back under the microscope.
But whether the Tillman statue gets any scrutiny by the Legislature next year is in question. The same law that moved the Confederate flag from atop the Capitol dome in 2000 to the pole where it was removed permanently on July 10 also has a component called the Heritage Act, which requires a two-thirds vote by lawmakers to change any historical monument, from the State House grounds to town squares.
They will take him down. Feckless politicians start wars but cave under political pressure.
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This article will complete today's triplets:
"Tenn. gunman had been depressed, family says; Officials inquire into 2014 trip he made to Jordan" by Jay Reeves and Michael Biesecker Associated Press July 20, 2015
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — FBI spokesman Jason Pack declined to comment on whether investigators were pursuing mental health records for Abdulazeez. But FBI Special Agent Ed Reinhold said at the most recent news conference about the case that agents were looking into all aspects of his life and had not yet turned up any connections to Islamic terrorist groups.
Here we go. Two days ago it was implied ISIS, and now it is the pharmaceutical connection (which I have come to believe indicates mind manipulation and control, programs governments and other interests have been working on for years. Even have shrinks helping them devise torture guidelines. Put it all together, folks).
*************
Abdulazeez was first treated by a child psychiatrist for depression when he was 12 or 13 years old, the family representative said Sunday.
‘‘He was medicated like many children are. Through high school and college, he did a better job sometimes than others staying with it,’’ said the spokesman.
Uh-huh.
Several years ago, relatives tried to have Abdulazeez admitted to an in-patient program for drug and alcohol abuse but a health insurer refused to approve the expense, said the representative.
Obummercare made sure they will now cover that.
Counterterrorism investigators, meanwhile, continued to interview Abdulazeez’s acquaintances and delve into his visit to Jordan, looking for clues to who or what might have influenced.
A-ha. It was the "terrorists" that did mind control!
Bassam Issa, the president of the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, said Abdulazeez’s father told him he felt blindsided by the attack. ‘‘He told me that he had never seen it coming and did not see any signs from his son that he would be that way and do something like that,’’ Issa said.
************
A law enforcement official who was not authorized to discuss the investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity said FBI agents were continuing to interview people Sunday and reaching out to a broader circle of potential contacts and acquaintances.
The official said that investigators were especially interested in Abdulazeez’s trip to Jordan and were trying to determine whom he met with, what he did, and whether he might have gone or tried to go anywhere else.
Looks like a frame-up for the set-up and cover story.
Hours before the shooting, the suspected gunman sent a text message to a close friend. It had a long Islamic verse that included the line: “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him.”
Anyone could have set up an account and sent that, especially government-employed hackers.
The FBI said it is reviewing the message, which could provide insight into the gunman’s motivation.
The bureau has also dispatched agents to Jordan to interview officials about the gunman’s contacts.
Law enforcement officials said people interviewed in Tennessee commented that Abdulazeez appeared changed after returning home, although he did not give any outward indications he was prepared to take violent action.
There you go!
What was he doing over there anyway?
However, interviews the authorities have conducted with the gunman’s friends in Tennessee have shown he liked to go to shooting ranges.
The Manchurian Candidate!
Jordanian officials, while saying its investigators are cooperating with the FBI, added they had not found evidence Abdulazeez engaged in any suspicious activities while in the country.
So for which intelligence agency did the kid work?
The friend who came forward with the text message has been interviewed by FBI agents. Federal investigators are checking the text message to see if it provides any motivations for Abdulazeez.
The friend, who has not been publicly identified, told Reuters he thought nothing of the text initially but now wonders if it was a hint of Thursday’s attacks.
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The story now is "no evidence he was a Muslim radical, and he went to Jordan to get away from substance abuse and a group of friends whom relatives considered a bad influence."
????????
Why go that far away? To deliver a package for his firm, be the package to be delivered for what feels increasingly like another drill gone live.
Related: Body of local Marine killed in Tenn. taken to Delaware base
UPDATE: Kimono controversy erupts anew at MFA panel
Pffft!
3 people can make a difference!
When it is something meaningless, distractive, and divisive.
God help us all.
