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  • Charlottesville White Supremacist/Murderer Sentenced To Life

    Charlottesville car rammer James Alex Fields sentenced to life in prison

    The man convicted for ramming his car into a crowd during the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville has been sentenced to life in prison.

    James Alex Fields had his sentencing hearing in federal court in Virginia, in the same town where his 2017 car ramming led to the death of a counter-protester, Heather Heyer, and injured others.

    Fields, who is now 22, already pleaded guilty to 29 of 30 federal hate crimes in March. The Associated Press reports that in part of the plea deal that he reached at the time, the prospect of a death sentence was removed.

    Thomas Cullen, the U.S. Attorney for the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia, called the car ramming a "hate-inspired act of domestic terrorism."

    He said that in addition to Heyer, the lives of those who were injured "will never be the same." Cullen said Fields "deserved to spend the rest of his life in prison."

    Susan Bro, Heyer's mother, said she agreed. Speaking at a press conference after the sentencing, Bro said she didn't want him to receive the death penalty even though "he probably deserved it, but it probably wouldn't accomplish anything."

    Bro apologized "to the tax payers, for saddling you with this burden" by having Fields spend life in prison, "but it was the judge's call."

    (MORE: What to know about the violent Charlottesville protests and anniversary rallies)

    Fields reportedly issued an apology in the sentencing heating before his sentence was issued, but Bro didn't believe it.

    "That was a last attempt to get a reduced sentence," she said. "He's the least sincere person I've ever met."

    Both prosecutors and Fields' lawyers earlier determined that the federal sentencing guidelines suggest a life sentence, but the AP reported that last week his defense attorneys wrote a letter to the district judge asking for a sentence "less than life."

    "No amount of punishment imposed on James can repair the damage he caused to dozens of innocent people. But this Court should find that retribution has limits," Fields' attorneys wrote, according to the AP.

    Friday's sentencing in federal court is separate from state charges that he faces in connection to the same incident.

    (MORE: Jury recommends life in prison plus 419 years for Charlottesville car attacker)

    In the state case, a jury recommended a sentence of life plus 419 years, though a separate hearing on that sentence is scheduled for mid-July.

    Cullen said it is an "undisputed fact" that white supremacism and hate crimes "are rising in this country, they have been for several years." As such, he hopes that Fields' sentence will "achieve a deterrence effect for the community at large."

    "This was calculated. It was cold-blooded. It was motivated by this deep-seated racial animus... that was becoming more prevalent as he got older," Cullen said.

    Bro, who now helps run a foundation established in her daughter's name said she is "very happy" with his sentence.

    "I might be able to sleep tonight. I didn't sleep much last night," she said.

    "I'm kind of done with him and I'm moving on with my life," she said. "I have things to do."
    _________________

    This is Donald Trump's base. This is Donald Trump's legacy.
    “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

  • #2
    ^ Presidents come and go. What matters is that institutions work irrespective of biases in meting out justice. This is very good. You should be proud.
    Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Oracle View Post
      ^ Presidents come and go. What matters is that institutions work irrespective of biases in meting out justice. This is very good. You should be proud.
      Presidents come and go...like dead fish, except the stench lingers on. That's what bothers me the most about Trump: He's normalizing and emboldening the worst aspects about him.

      As I said, this genetic skidmark neckbeard and those like him are Trump's legacy.
      “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

      Comment


      • #4
        Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
        Presidents come and go...like dead fish, except the stench lingers on. That's what bothers me the most about Trump: He's normalizing and emboldening the worst aspects about him.

        As I said, this genetic skidmark neckbeard and those like him are Trump's legacy.
        I'd assume that rednecks, skinheads, neo-nazis, white supremacists, KKK types were always there in US, so why now. When democrats are in power, those guys are still there, in the shadows maybe. Trump got elected and those same guys came out of the woods to spread hate, or kill. Trump never said them to kill innocent people, plus your justice delivery mechanism is very good. Trump with his stupid statements emboldened those I agree, but they cannot escape the law. Do ordinary Americans do not fear the law? Where do these same guys disappear when a democrat becomes POTUS? What am I not understanding here?

        Is Trump racist? I argued with the Colonel some days back, and the definition seemed vague. Before he became President, I never came across any articles or incidents that would suggest so. He has been fed with a golden spoon all his life, he bought whatever he wanted, he slept with whomever money could buy - this is a rich man's disease. If we leave aside the golden spoon argument, this is a poor man's disease too. Let's list out some of his achievements below.

        #1. He doesn't want to release his tax returns, so probably he is corrupt. Agree.
        #2. He takes pride in authoritarian leaders of other nations and calls them great men (Xi, Putin). Agree.
        #3. He doesn't condemn far-right attacks on Americans, and it seems to emboldened those people. Agree.
        #4. He's alienating US allies. Agree.
        #5. He's a got a bad hairstyle for what (?), 3 decades? Agree.
        #6. He's narcissist. Agree.

        What else?
        Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by Oracle View Post
          Trump never said them to kill innocent people, plus your justice delivery mechanism is very good. Trump with his stupid statements emboldened those I agree, but they cannot escape the law.
          He doesn't have to come right out and say "Kill innocent people". Emboldening prompts people to take actions they otherwise ordinarily probably wouldn't.
          On the hand, he is absolutely on the record advocating and inciting violence against people, protesters, journalists etc.

          Originally posted by Oracle View Post
          Do ordinary Americans do not fear the law? Where do these same guys disappear when a democrat becomes POTUS? What am I not understanding here?
          They tend to disappear to the Internet where it's safe and relatively consequence-free: Stormfront, for example.


          Originally posted by Oracle View Post
          Is Trump racist? I argued with the Colonel some days back, and the definition seemed vague. Before he became President, I never came across any articles or incidents that would suggest so.
          Oh yes, he absolutely is. He learned at his father's knee. Plenty of information to that effect.
          Start here and here
          Last edited by TopHatter; 01 Jul 19,, 17:43.
          “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

          Comment


          • #6
            Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
            He doesn't have to come right out and say "Kill innocent people". Emboldening prompts people to take actions they otherwise ordinarily probably wouldn't.
            On the hand, he is absolutely on the record advocating and inciting violence against people, protesters, journalists etc.

            They tend to disappear to the Internet where it's safe and relatively consequence-free: Stormfront, for example.

            Oh yes, he absolutely is. He learned at his father's knee. Plenty of information to that effect.
            Start here and here
            Should have paid more attention to your election process, but never did I ever think Trump would win. Damn, how did he become your President. His family were immigrants, and the way he acts...jeez.
            Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by Oracle View Post
              never did I ever think Trump would win.
              Neither did I. I was positive that the American people would soundly repudiate Trump and Trumpism. Which of course they did, spectacularly so.

              Too bad I forgot about the Electoral College.

              Originally posted by Oracle View Post
              Damn, how did he become your President.
              See above^^
              Hillary Clinton was an extremely polarizing figure that ran like an elitist idiot and lost like an elitist idiot.
              She stayed in the liberal enclaves where it was safe, instead of getting out onto the dirt roads and gravel driveways of the working class, and engaging the unwashed masses that she clearly disdained so much.

              Also, people just plain didn't like her and her decades-old wagon train of scandal and bullshit.

              Originally posted by Oracle View Post
              His family were immigrants, and the way he acts...jeez.
              The immigrants-of-the-barely-distant-past usually hate the new crop "johnny-come-lately" immigrants.

              Check out Martin Scorsese's Gangs Of New York for a great example of this.

              Besides, as you said, he was born with a silver spoon in his ass, so it's practically a congenital trait.
              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

              Comment


              • #8
                Hey, I didn't say silver spoon. I said golden spoon. And certainly not in the ass. :D Hahahahaha
                Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Jeez, get over yourself. There was no "sound repudiation" of Trump, he got 46% of the vote. Even if you think he should have lost, that's more than the % of many other Western leaders. His popularity continues to hover at 40%, which puts him at his low point pretty much in line with the other post-Reagan Presidents, and above both Bushs. Sorry that tens of millions of Americans would rather have Trump than Hillary, and will still probably prefer Trump over whoever the Dems put up in 2020, but that's reality. Those people clearly do not think Trump can be summed up by this stupid rally led by stupid people who at this point don't even like Trump anymore.

                  Trump got elected and those same guys came out of the woods to spread hate, or kill.
                  Did Dylan Roof time travel from the future to murder everyone at a church? Because that was in 2015, before Trump even ANNOUNCED his candidacy.
                  There was a follow-up rally in DC in 2018. 20 people showed up. This just isn't a mass movement, and it's not going to become a mass movement.
                  If Trump manages to win a second election and the GOP retains the Senate, Trump's legacy among conservatives will be "The Guy who Overturned Roe V. Wade." If THAT group somehow wins out in the 21st century (who knows, stranger things have happened), Trump will then be remembered as one of America's greatest Presidents, up there with Lincoln and Washington. More likely he will be remembered as a particularly shitty, particularly racist President, but definitely not one that touched off a mass movement of anything, because there's no mass popular movement of anything on the conservative side right now. All the action on conservative items is basically legislative at the state level and in the courts.
                  "The great questions of the day will not be settled by means of speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood"-Otto Von Bismarck

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by GVChamp View Post
                    Did Dylan Roof time travel from the future to murder everyone at a church? Because that was in 2015, before Trump even ANNOUNCED his candidacy.
                    There was a follow-up rally in DC in 2018. 20 people showed up. This just isn't a mass movement, and it's not going to become a mass movement.
                    If Trump manages to win a second election and the GOP retains the Senate, Trump's legacy among conservatives will be "The Guy who Overturned Roe V. Wade." If THAT group somehow wins out in the 21st century (who knows, stranger things have happened), Trump will then be remembered as one of America's greatest Presidents, up there with Lincoln and Washington. More likely he will be remembered as a particularly shitty, particularly racist President, but definitely not one that touched off a mass movement of anything, because there's no mass popular movement of anything on the conservative side right now. All the action on conservative items is basically legislative at the state level and in the courts.
                    I think the press rakes up issues of racism more, now that Trump is the President. We have our fair share of left leaning media in India too. But, as a centre-right, what I cannot tolerate is discrimination against people based on their skin color, sexual orientation or religious choices. That's a no no. There is a history of racism in the US, in every country. It's still there. What TOP meant and I agree is Trump's talks have emboldened those far-right idiots. The 1st amendment makes sure the federal government cannot ban those groups, free speech and blah blah. So, it will continue.

                    Mind spacing your paragraphs. Thank you.
                    Politicians are elected to serve...far too many don't see it that way - Albany Rifles! || Loyalty to country always. Loyalty to government, when it deserves it - Mark Twain! || I am a far left millennial!

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                      Neither did I. I was positive that the American people would soundly repudiate Trump and Trumpism. Which of course they did, spectacularly so.

                      Too bad I forgot about the Electoral College.
                      This popular vote line gets repeated ad infintum. You say its because of the electoral college.

                      Now there was a similar situation in the Indian election in 1999. We don't have an electoral college but we do have a first past the post system.

                      Guess what the margin was between winner & loser. A whopping 20 million votes. Meaning the losing party lost the election despite having twenty million more votes.

                      Nobody used the popular vote line then. If the votes aren't distributed then the first past the post system ensures you don't get seats.

                      No point having deep pockets of support. What matters is that support has to be spread out.

                      In the 2004 Indian election the loser in 1999 won. They still had the popular vote and won by 18 million votes. What made 2004 so difficult to predict is the vote share changed by a mere 2 million votes. The winner in 1999 lost by a mere 2 million votes and the elections with it.

                      This time the former loser ensured the support was spread out.

                      All to say this popular vote line is bunk.

                      Only how representative matters.

                      And i don't think US & India are very different in this regard.

                      Given this election happened in the good ol' USA, we cannot say it was not free & fair but you guys have come up with a way to even undermine that.

                      They call it Russian meddling. So Trump in his meeting with Putin at the G20 in response to a question on just that told Putin not to meddle with the 2020 election : D

                      Reminds me of the EVM controversy. All the parties that lost the Indian election said electronic voting was flawed and have to go back to paper.

                      It's not good for democracies when people start concocting reasons to doubt the result.

                      The last time the Democrats refused the results of an election they opened fire on Fort Sumter.
                      Last edited by Double Edge; 01 Jul 19,, 10:34.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                        He doesn't have to come right out and say "Kill innocent people". Emboldening prompts people to take actions they otherwise ordinarily probably wouldn't.
                        On the hand, he is absolutely on the record advocating and inciting violence against people, protesters, journalists etc.
                        But no successful case filed against him yet ?

                        There are enough lawyers, funds and motivation to take this guy to the cleaners yet nothing.

                        Who is he inciting violence against ? people who gatecrash his rallies and abuse him.

                        If i change the context to a football game, as in the one you don't use your hands. There are barriers that separate the fans. Depending on the rivalry between competing teams emotions can run pretty high. Being in the wrong camp and yelling for your team is going to be unwelcome. That is how i see protesters at his rallies. They are more disruptors than protesters.

                        I continue to be impressed by the amount of abuse this man gets. It's phenomenal. There are journalists that could for lack of a better term be considered hostile. In fact such journalists have been ejected from press conferences at times. All to create a sensation.


                        They tend to disappear to the Internet where it's safe and relatively consequence-free: Stormfront, for example.

                        Is Trump racist? I argued with the Colonel some days back, and the definition seemed vague. Before he became President, I never came across any articles or incidents that would suggest so.
                        Oh yes, he absolutely is. He learned at his father's knee. Plenty of information to that effect.
                        Start here and here
                        Reading that atlantic article, a few things stand out

                        - he comes from a generation that came of age before the political correctness thing started. His attitude is typical of the generation that produced comedies like Archie Bunker & The Jeffersons. Could you make comedies like that today ? no the lawsuits would just pile up. Back then nobody said it was racist.

                        If you work in any of the fortune 500 they make you go for race sensitisation classes. How to speak and how not to speak. If you don't attend the class you can be in trouble and if you are unlucky with the way you speak even bigger trouble. There is this zero tolerance attitude. Trump rejects all of this because of the era he grew up in. Up to a point i don't disagree because it can be quite over the top. It's like being in kindergarten and getting sent home means fired.

                        - in some of the chapters mentioned, what comes across is he is very determined to protect his business interests. His turf. His motivation to challenge any competition is very apparent. I see this as his primary motivation than anything else.

                        - given this guy is a pol, and into publicity. He's going to do things to attract attention. He knows just where the line is and he will come close but no further. eg. Mexican Judge & Central Park five.

                        - the problem with saying emboldening is its very broad. There are enough nut jobs out there that would do something without him being in office.
                        Last edited by Double Edge; 01 Jul 19,, 10:30.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by TopHatter View Post
                          See above^^
                          Hillary Clinton was an extremely polarizing figure that ran like an elitist idiot and lost like an elitist idiot.
                          She stayed in the liberal enclaves where it was safe, instead of getting out onto the dirt roads and gravel driveways of the working class, and engaging the unwashed masses that she clearly disdained so much.
                          You know, I ran into a New York couple at the bar one night. They've been out here for 5 years. They're in generally the same field I am, but on the programming end.

                          You could call them hyper-political social justice warriors pretty much on the far left of the spectrum. The type of people whose every waking moment (and possibly their dreams too) are consumed by political thought. They were so utterly clueless as to trends in the Rust Belt and Midwest in general, that people have lost their jobs, homes, marriages, are living in regions that have been mostly mired in economic recession and depression for over three decades.

                          Of course, they think they know what's best for everybody, and if everybody simply did what they told them they'd be so much better off. Zero awareness that conditions, traditions, work and life habits, circumstances, etc. have a considerable amount of variability and what goes in Manhattan and the Left Coast doesn't have a shred of relevance to the lives of working-class people in Middle America.

                          I came away with the impression that formerly Democratic voters in Middle America are just animals or automatons to them, and with their self-indoctrinated mentality, the duty of pro/formerly union Middle Americans is to do what they're told because they don't know any better, to trust the doctrinaires, because, of course, these doctrinaires have Middle America's best interests in mind.

                          Not that I really care about political matters. I really just gave them an opportunity to educate me about their complete disconnect from the reality tens of millions of Americans are living in, and let them expose their ignorance. I even let them believe I agreed with many of their notions, by nodding, and saying vague things, that made them think I was a fellow progressive.

                          Regarding these white supremacist murderers, I think we ought to set them free. Dress them up in their Ku Klux Klan robes or other white power paraphernalia, and parachute them out the back of an airplane into the Congo, or any other African country experiencing civil wars, insurgency, or violent civil unrest. Might need to use some satellite surveillance to guide the crew of the plane to make sure they parachute these murderers into the right village at precisely the right time. :-)
                          Last edited by Ironduke; 01 Jul 19,, 16:48.
                          "Every man has his weakness. Mine was always just cigarettes."

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Hillary Clinton was an extremely polarizing figure that ran like an elitist idiot and lost like an elitist idiot.
                            She stayed in the liberal enclaves where it was safe, instead of getting out onto the dirt roads and gravel driveways of the working class, and engaging the unwashed masses that she clearly disdained so much.

                            Also, people just plain didn't like her and her decades-old wagon train of scandal and bullshit.
                            nah, HRC's main weakness wasn't so much her campaign, it was just herself as a person. she was an experienced politico-- something which she leaned hard into-- at a time when people in swing states didn't want an experienced politico.

                            she pointed out quite accurately that while it was perfectly true that she didn't spend time in Wisconsin, she DID spend a lot of time in Florida and Pennsylvania-- and she still lost those states.

                            her main election strategy was to replicate the Obama coalition while snagging some center-right votes, because she knew she wasn't as popular as Obama with minorities. what she didn't account for was that she got basically no center-right votes worth mentioning, while Trump went around playing up his "poor man's idea of a rich man" shtick that won him a bunch of working-class votes.

                            i doubt Sanders would have done better were he the Dem nominee.
                            There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."- Isaac Asimov

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Originally posted by GVChamp View Post
                              Jeez, get over yourself. There was no "sound repudiation" of Trump
                              Get over myself? Why? Because I was right?
                              No "sound repudiation" of Trump? Really? Didn't bother to read that link did you.

                              Donald Trump has lost popular vote by greater margin than any US President
                              "That [2.8 million vote] deficit is more than five times bigger than the 544,000 by which George W. Bush lost to Al Gore in 2000 - the second biggest popular vote deficit in history for a candidate who has still gone on to become President."

                              Originally posted by GVChamp View Post
                              he got 46% of the vote. Even if you think he should have lost, that's more than the % of many other Western leaders.
                              46% but still the greatest deficit of votes in US History. Dead last, pretty impressive.

                              In this regard, I don't particularly care about the percentages of many other Western leaders. We're talking about the United States here.

                              Originally posted by GVChamp View Post
                              His popularity continues to hover at 40%, which puts him at his low point pretty much in line with the other post-Reagan Presidents, and above both Bushs.
                              Funny thing about his popularity. Given the economy that he touts so much, his popularity should be soaring. But it's not. Funny that!

                              Originally posted by GVChamp View Post
                              Sorry that tens of millions of Americans would rather have Trump than Hillary, and will still probably prefer Trump over whoever the Dems put up in 2020, but that's reality.
                              Why are you sorry? I already went into great detail why she lost. And besides, considering that tens of millions of Americans on both sides will probably vote a straight party ticket, what does that prove anyway?

                              Originally posted by GVChamp View Post
                              Those people clearly do not think Trump can be summed up by this stupid rally led by stupid people who at this point don't even like Trump anymore.
                              Those people clearly don't mind a single negative thing about Trump (a self-admitted serial predator, who also managed to spit on POW's as a group)...he's got an even bigger wagon train of bullshit than Clinton.

                              Stupid people that don't even like Trump anymore? Really? That's news to me, got a source? Because I'd say the alt-right still adores the hell out of Trump.
                              “He was the most prodigious personification of all human inferiorities. He was an utterly incapable, unadapted, irresponsible, psychopathic personality, full of empty, infantile fantasies, but cursed with the keen intuition of a rat or a guttersnipe. He represented the shadow, the inferior part of everybody’s personality, in an overwhelming degree, and this was another reason why they fell for him.”

                              Comment

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