Wednesday 17 June 2015, 10:44 pm Nine shot, killed at black church in Charleston, S.C.: cops Nine people in a Charleston, S.C. black church were shot and …
Was The Charleston Church Shooting Yet Another False Flag Distraction Event?
First: Charleston Church Shooting Kills 9, Then: House Passes Fast-track Trade Bill, Next: Obama Calls For Curtailment Of Gun Rights
SOTN Editor’s Note:
The timing of the Charleston church shooting is very suspicious, indeed, occurring the evening before the House Republicans quickly rammed through the Fast-track Trade Bill. That this highly consequential vote took place with so little advance notice is quite suspect as well. The mainstream media was practically AWOL, even after they were all over the issue prior to the first House tandem votes.
The U.S Federal Government seems to use these “weapons of mass distraction” whenever they need to distract the body politic from what they’re really doing in Washington. It has actually become expected that there will be a false flag attack, or mass murder, or shocking assassination, which always serves to sufficiently divert the attention of the citizenry from the crimes that elected officials routinely commit against the interests of the people.
When, pray tell, will the American people wakeup?!
By the way, this heinous church shooting also appears to have been carefully staged to be another “shock and awe” attempt to sway the American people into an abrogation of the 2nd Amendment. Obama et al. are determined to strip the populace of their constitutional gun rights. Before he leaves office, he will do everything to accomplish that feat of political legerdemain, aka naked governmental betrayal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FIRST:
Charleston Church Massacre: Shock, Sadness, Outrage Erupt on Social Media
People.com
The scene at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina DAVID GOLDMAN/AP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
THEN:
House Passes Fast-Track Trade Bill, Sends it to Senate
The U.S. House passed President Barack Obama’s fast-track trade bill, one of the president’s top second-term priorities, with mostly Republican votes a week after a Democratic rebellion almost killed the proposal.
The 218-208 House vote Thursday returns the measure to the Senate, which also voted for it last month. Obama wants the expedited trade negotiating authority to help his administration complete a 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership.
A Senate vote to bring up fast-track authority could come as soon as Thursday afternoon, if Democrats block action on the defense appropriations bill, a Republican leadership aide said.
A Senate Democratic aide said that it would be premature to predict consent could be reached to vote this week on the trade bill itself.
Twenty-eight House Democrats, including Representatives Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Terri Sewell of Alabama, voted for the measure. And 50 Republicans, including Representatives Chris Collins of New York and Daniel Webster of Florida, voted against it.
“This is a vote for a stronger economy and higher wages. This is a vote for our system of free enterprise. This is a vote for American leadership,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, a Wisconsin Republican, on the floor before the vote.
Up-or-Down Vote
The measure, known as trade promotion authority, would let Obama submit trade agreements to Congress for an expedited, up- or-down vote without amendments. It would give the authority to Obama and the next president for six years as part of a package that revamps U.S. trade policy into the next decade.
With fast track through the House, attention now turns to how its backers will make good on a pledge to ensure that the worker-aid program also is enacted. Passing both measures is a long-standing political agreement between backers of fast track, even though most Republicans oppose it.
House Democrats, who have been supporters of worker assistance, voted against it last week because the vote was legislatively linked to fast track — something that is no longer the case.
A senior House Republican member said that, in private talks, Obama has promised he’d sign fast-track once it’s passed to ensure that House Democrats can’t continue the political linkage between the two proposals. The lawmaker requested anonymity because Obama hasn’t publicly stated this.
White House Stance
Asked for comment, the White House pointed to remarks Wednesday by White House press secretary Josh Earnest that “the only legislative strategy” that the president would support is one in both the fast-track and worker-aid measures reach Obama’s desk. Such a strategy “will require the support of Democrats in both the House and the Senate,” Earnest said.
On Thursday, deputy White House press secretary Eric Schultz reiterated that stance, saying, “The president’s been clear he wants both TPA and TAA at his desk for a signature as soon as possible.”
House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, predicted that the Senate would pass both, with worker assistance attached to a bill promoting commerce with poorer countries, possibly next week.
Boehner ‘Confident’
“I’m also confident that the Senate can consider both TPA again and trade adjustment assistance as part of the preferences package that hopefully will be back here as soon as next week, so we can move both of these to the president,” he said.
Despite assurances by Republican leaders in both chambers there will be action on both measures, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California and other House Democrats say they worry that the worker’s assistance program won’t be renewed.
“I see it as a gone goose,” said House Rules Committee top Democrat Louise Slaughter of New York.
In an unusual alliance, most Republicans supported Obama’s argument that the fast-track measure, known as trade promotion authority, would benefit the U.S. economy. Most Democrats joined with labor unions in blaming free-trade agreements for a decline in U.S. manufacturing jobs.
“When you vote for TPA under these circumstances what we are saying to the administration is this is a blank check,” said Sander Levin, the top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee.
The fast-track provision was added to a popular public- safety retirement bill, H.R. 2146, that passed the House 407-5 on May 12 and the Senate by voice vote on June 4.
Obama went to the Capitol on June 12 to plead for Democratic support for the fast-track bill just hours before that vote, and he met Wednesday at the White House with a group of House Democrats who back the plan. Other top government officials including Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew also lobbied for the expedited negotiating authority.
Republicans also faced opposition to the trade package within their own ranks from members who wouldn’t vote for anything strengthening Obama’s hand in international negotiations.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NEXT:
Obama on Charleston: It’s too easy to get guns in America
Obama: Shooting Shows Need For Gun Control
President Barack Obama on Thursday expressed profound “sadness and anger” at the Charleston church shooting as well as deeply personal frustration that America’s political climate makes it virtually impossible for now to tighten restrictions on who can buy firearms.
“We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” Obama said in the White House briefing room, Vice President Joe Biden standing at his side.
“It is in our power to do something about it. I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now,” the president said. “But it’d be wrong for us not to acknowledge it, and at some point, it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.”
Throughout Obama’s remarks, Biden stood grim-faced, his hands clasped in front of him, fingers laced, with an a expression of grief on his face. The vice president, whose elder son died of cancer earlier this month, looked worn.
It was Obama’s 14th statement on a mass shooting since taking office, according to CBS News’s Mark Knoller, the closest thing to a presidential records keeper in the White House press corps.
“I’ve had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times,” Obama said Thursday.
President Barack Obama says the Charleston church mass shooting could happen because the alleged killer “had no trouble” getting a gun. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let’s be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency,” he said.
The president had previously called the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut “the worst day of my presidency” and the failure of lawmakers in the aftermath to adopt a modest package of restrictions on guns “probably the most disappointing moment I’ve had with Congress.”
President Barack Obama on Thursday expressed profound “sadness and anger” at the Charleston church shooting as well as deeply personal frustration that America’s political climate makes it virtually impossible for now to tighten restrictions on who can buy firearms.
“We don’t have all the facts, but we do know that once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” Obama said in the White House briefing room, Vice President Joe Biden standing at his side.
“It is in our power to do something about it. I say that recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now,” the president said. “But it’d be wrong for us not to acknowledge it, and at some point, it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively.”
Throughout Obama’s remarks, Biden stood grim-faced, his hands clasped in front of him, fingers laced, with an a expression of grief on his face. The vice president, whose elder son died of cancer earlier this month, looked worn.
It was Obama’s 14th statement on a mass shooting since taking office, according to CBS News’s Mark Knoller, the closest thing to a presidential records keeper in the White House press corps.
“I’ve had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times,” Obama said Thursday.
President Barack Obama says the Charleston church mass shooting could happen because the alleged killer “had no trouble” getting a gun. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
“Now is the time for mourning and for healing. But let’s be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency,” he said.
The president had previously called the massacre of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut “the worst day of my presidency” and the failure of lawmakers in the aftermath to adopt a modest package of restrictions on guns “probably the most disappointing moment I’ve had with Congress.”
But his remarks on Thursday suggested that he has become resigned to the political reality that legislative action is not possible, for now, in the face of opposition from Republicans who hold both houses of Congress as well as from some Democrats.