Sources call it a deliberate attack

Was shooter a Bernie Sanders supporter?

Lone shooter targets Republican congressmen at baseball practice outside Washington D.C., hits Republican majority whip Steve Scalise, one staffer, A Tyson Foods lobbyist, and two Capitol Police, who fire back even as injured. 50 to 100 shots fired. Had it not been for the police presence, “It would have been a massacre,” Sen. Rand Paul said.

“It was basically a killing field.” More here on this breaking story.

Meanwhile, Leftists are defending casting the assassinated Julius Caesar in a New York City staging of Shakespeare’s play as a bloodied Donald Trump. It’s “just another opportunity for outrage,” tut tuts a New York Times opinion piece.

“The right-wing commentators stoking this scandal are using it to get attention and attack liberals.”

Let’s unpack that. New York’s intelligentsia indulge their Trump assassination fantasies by casting a blond-haired actor wearing a business suit and red tie as Julius Caesar and conservatives have the nerve to object?

“A Trumpian Caesar? Shakespeare Would Approve,” a New York Times opinion writer assures. What about using Republicans for target practice?

So Trump deranged are our liberal-progressive-socialist acquaintances that they are spitting the F-word like it was their personal mantra.

Then of course, there is Kathy Griffin, “comedienne.”

UPDATE #1: Fox News had U.S. Rep. Rodney Davis on air. The Republican from Illinois was at bat this morning when the shooting began. He indicted the current atmosphere of “political, rhetorical terrorism.”

We (and he, by inference) do not excuse from responsibility for this toxic environment the current Tweeter in Chief. We are on record castigating Donald Trump for coarsening the public discourse, dating back to his churlish comments on fellow Republicans during the run-up to the convention. His exhortations at his political rallies when confronted by disrupters itself threatened to incite violence.

But disrupting speeches is itself a form of violence, something our liberal-progressive-socialist news media here in Madison refuses to address.

Or, The collectivists who support the black-maked Antifas breaking windows and burning cop cars, whether on the UC-Berkely campus or during the presidential inauguration in Washington D.C. A leading voice of the Bernie Sanders Left is The Nation magazine. It celebrated the “Anti-Fascists [who] Will Fight Trump’s Fascism in the Streets.”

In stark contrast with many liberals, antifa activists refuse any dialogue with Trumpism. … disruption, confrontation, doxxing and altercation remain tactics anyone taking seriously a refusal to normalize Trump-era fascism should consider.

UPDATE #2:

“Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy.
It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

— Hodgkinson on his Facebook page 3-22-2017.

James T. Hodgkinson has been identified as the shooter who opened fire on Republican members of Congress Wednesday morning at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, the Washington Post reports.

Hodgkinson, 66, was from Belleville, Illinois, the newspaper reports. A motive for the shooting is not yet known, but Hodgkinson’s Facebook page shows someone who had a high interest in politics, who supported Bernie Sanders during the presidential election and expressed anger with President Donald Trump and Republican Congressmen.

Hodgkinson was shot by police and taken to the hospital. President Donald Trump announced in a televised statement that Hodgksinson has died. …

Two Congressmen, Rep. Jeff Duncan and Rep. Ron DeSantis, described an encounter with a man who asked them if those practicing were “Republicans or Democrats” before the shooting. DeSantis, when shown a photo of Hodgkinson, confirmed he was the man who approached him,CNBC reports.

Hodgkinson’s Facebook home page features a Bernie Sanders photo.

UPDATE #3:

Our … acquaintances are holding their tongues

It is 5:38 p.m. CST. Still waiting for Democracy Now! to post something other than “House Majority Whip Steve Scalise & Congressional Aides Shot Playing Baseball.” No causative agent, i.e. Bernie supporter.

Absolutely NOTHING at The Nation. Closest is “Can Berniecrats reclaim Democratic party?”

Nothing at The Progressive. Its top line, Flag Day in the Trump Era … has become a tool to galvanize a jingoistic patriotism.”

Daily Kos? Mute. MoveOn.org, the same.  Vox attempts objectivity: “The blood is on their hands”: how the right-wing media blamed Democrats for the Scalise shooting.”