Steve Scalise, a Louisiana Republican congressman and majority whip is in critical condition after a shooting at a baseball game. Five others were injured after James T Hodgkinson, opened fire and was then killed after a firefight with police. Hodkinson’s Facebook account is filled with anti-Republican and anti-Trump posts; and he had campaigned for Bernie Sanders. In a tragic irony, Scalise and others were practising for the non-partisan annual baseball match with the Democrats in Congress.
Hodgkinson, 12 Dec 1950 (FBI net), had a history of domestic violence, anger and alcohol abuse. He was a Sun Venus in Sagittarius with his Sun trine Pluto; a publicity-attracting Mars in ambitious Capricorn square Neptune, and Mars in a hard-edged, angry trine to Saturn; and a T Square of Uranus opposition Mercury square Saturn. The last would give him some organisational skills but also high levels of impatience and a tendency to dominate.
2017 would have set off his hair-trigger responses with tr Uranus in an insecure, volatile square to his Mars exact now; and a mega-confused tr Pluto square his Neptune. And tr Pluto was also square his violent Mars/Uranus midpoint exactly when he opened fire.
Steve Scalise, 6 October 1965, New Orleans, is a Sun Mercury in Libra, as befits a lawmaker; with his Mars in Sagittarius quincunx Jupiter in patriotic Cancer; and Uranus Pluto opposition Saturn. He’s not in a great year though there’s nothing exact at the moment. Tr Uranus is just over the opposition to his Mars/Pluto and Mars/Uranus midpoints which are high risk; with tr Pluto trine his Uranus and Pluto, and square his Uranus/Neptune and Neptune/Pluto midpoints; and tr Neptune conjunct his Saturn. Confusion, uncertainty and major changes.
His relationship chart with Hodgkinson, whom he’d probably never met, and there is no suggestion of any personal animus, merely a generic political dislike – does have a heavily aspected Mars, conjunct Saturn, and trine Pluto trine Jupiter; with Jupiter opposition Neptune. So a powerful composite which is often the case in these oddly karmic interactions, even if it was just wrong time, wrong place for Scalise.
Like many terrorists/mass shooters, Hodginkson was a bubbling cauldron of rage looking for a target.
I’d say the British media are not exactly good in reporting these stats either. It’s not as bad as the USA, but where the media are concerned it definitely exists within the subtext of a story, alluding to the suspicion of Muslims.
I remember a news report about a year ago regarding a shooting in Spalding. I used to live there and it is a gentle, quiet, village, in semi-rural Lincolnshire. The newsreader read out that ‘a man shot two women and then himself.’ I assumed a domestic. Yet, the newsreader ended the report, ‘the police have yet to confirm whether this was a terrorist attack.’ I thought it an extremely odd thing to say. It’s not exactly an ISIS-like pattern; rural England and low fatalities. It turned out it was a domestic. The husband shot his wife and daughter before himself – domestic violence is the common theme with terrorists. He terrorised his family for years and when his marriage broke up it angered him that he could no longer control them. His son said, ‘he had no cause but to frighten his family and to generate his own esteem from trampling and bullying us.’ Of course, when it was clear it was a white man who killed his family, it wasn’t a terrorist attack anymore, but a ‘domestic problem’. But, this constant hinting at the Muslim community – it’s almost like subliminal seeding. In my opinion, the Spalding shooter, Lance Hart, IS a terrorist in which two innocent women lost their lives. The sons he left behind, he ruined their childhood with his emotional abuse.
It’s one of the main reasons I’m sick of the news. There is definitely an anti-Muslim agenda going on, both here and in the USA and probably the rest of Europe, and I think it is extremely damaging for Muslims, as well as the interaction between our community and theirs. It really does make my blood boil. I just don’t understand why they are being targeted and demeaned in this way?
The Anti-muslim agenda is a self-solving issue, Jo, so rest easy. Muslims are going to be the majority population worldwide, based on their polygamy and high birth rate, within this century. Viola! Problem solved.
While I don’t believe he deserved to be shot, Steve Scalise is anti nearly anything or anyone progressive. And by progressive, I mean any progress that occurred from the beginning of the American Civil Rights era to the present day. This article gives a rather generic overview of the man.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/a55631/who-is-steve-scalise/
To me, Scalise and the shooter represent the two extremes of the political climate in America today. I don’t see things improving here anytime soon. As for labeling the shooter’s actions “terrorism,” it will never happen. America defines terrorism in shades of brown and in religious affiliations. As long as old white men maintain a stranglehold on power in my country, there will never be honesty about who is statistically most likely to commit a terrorist act.
I can give you an honest statistic about terrorists that everyone agrees on: 99% of them are male.
The Republicans have released the Kraken, and it’s circling them.
Larryc,
Re if shooter had been black, or even brown, you have hit the nail on the head.
In the same manner that Nixon could never be a crook, there are no “domestic” American terrorists in America. Cognitive dissonance or some such phrase. Terrorists are always in another country, never here.
It all depends on which side of the ocean one resides, Jo.
If the shooter was black, there’d be waves of anti-Muslim activities…even if non-Muslim.
Interesting the news outlets are calling Hodgkinson a gunman and not a terrorist, isn’t it? I guess that’s the privilege of being white. But, he’s a terrorist in my eyes. Also interesting, but not surprising, the domestic violence theme is in there, as has been shown in the histories of men like Hodgkinson.