El Paso Mass Shooting Marks 250th In 215days

At least 20 people have died and dozens more are injured following a shooting yesterday at a Walmart adjacent shopping center in El Paso, Texas. One of the deceased victims was an infant child.

A 21-year-old man is in custody and suspected of posting a manifesto to message boards like 8chan before he opened fire on the El Paso Walmart with an AR-style semi-automatic gun. 

The four-page document reportedly contains bold statements of white supremacy in America and cites the “Hispanic invasion of Texas” as the reason for the shooter’s attack. The writer predicted he would be called a white supremacist by the “fake news” and lamented that his support for Trump would be used to put a spotlight on the president’s rhetoric towards immigrants. 

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, a Twitter account with the suspect’s name liked tweets with the “BuildTheWall” hashtag as well as a photo of guns used to spell out Trump’s name.  

El Paso is approximately 80% Hispanic and the targeted Walmart is located very close to the U.S. border with Mexico, meaning it is accessible to people from both countries. The shooter targeted that specific facility in a seeming attempt to maximize Hispanic deaths.    

This attack was the second shooting in an open Walmart store this week. On Tuesday, an associate shot and killed two other employees in Mississippi following a recent suspension.      

Last Sunday, a 19-year-old man opened fire at a California garlic festival and killed three people — including two children — while leaving more than a dozen more wounded. The shooter also had writings which contained white extremist themes. 

Democratic Primary Debates: Round 2

Twenty candidates took the stage last Tuesday and Wednesday nights for the second round of Democratic primary debates. 

Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren provided a united front against attacks from their more centrist fellow candidates on the first night of debates. When John Delaney called policies promoted by Sanders and Warren like Medicare for All “impossible promises,” Warren fired back in defense with, “I don’t understand why anybody goes to all the trouble of running for president of the United States just to talk about what we really can’t do and shouldn’t fight for.”

During the second night of debates, Joe Biden gained the most speaking time of any candidate on either night, in part because anyone who is mentioned by name by another candidate is allowed 30 seconds to respond. Biden’s political record, including his role in the presidency of Barack Obama, was heavily scrutinized.  

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard confronted Sen. Kamala Harris about her record as attorney general of California, which included prosecution of parents with truant children. Gabbard apparently stood out to viewers. She was the most searched candidate on Google during the second night of debates and gained nearly 30,000 new Twitter followers.

The next debates will take place next month and are anticipated to feature fewer candidates as the requirements will be stricter. Eight candidates have qualified so far. 

Trump Takes on Elijah Cummings and Baltimore

Last weekend, Pres. Trump tweeted an attack directed at Rep. Elijah Cummings in which he called Baltimore a “rat and rodent infested mess” and alleged that Cummings may be stealing money from the federal government. 

Cummings represents Maryland’s 7th Congressional District, which Trump referred to as “the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States.”

Many of Trump’s claims regarding Baltimore have been refuted. For instance, the district Cummings represents includes zip codes associated with the lowest crime rates and highest incomes in the country. 

Later in the week, Cummings reported that he had thwarted a potential home-intruder who was attempting to gain access to his home last weekend. Cummings reported he was home and awake at the time, and he scared the intruder off by yelling at them. 

Pres. Trump used this potentially dangerous situation to continue his attack on Cummings with a sarcastic tweet. He wrote, “Really bad news! The Baltimore house of Elijah Cummings was robbed. Too bad!” When faced with backlash, Trump denied that his tweet was written in jest and that he really did think it was “too bad” that Cummings. 

Cummings chairs the House Oversight Committee, which coincidentally leads investigations into the Trump administration.