Blog Heap of Links for the day 8 July 2016

…A Virginia man has been charged with attempting to assist the Islamic State by photographing targets in the Washington, D.C., area for what he thought would be a video encouraging lone-wolf terrorist attacks in the nation’s capital.…

Man Calls Police In GA, Reports Break-In, When Cop Arrives, He Is Shot In Ambush… Both men were wounded in the ensuing gunfire, and both are expected to survive.…

…According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, an officer was shot during a traffic stop Friday morning in west St. Louis County. …shot in the neck …suspect was apprehended a short time later in the 800 block of Burgundy Lane after a foot pursuit. …The officer has died.…

A man accused of shooting indiscriminately at passing cars and police on a Tennessee highway told investigators he was angry about police violence against African-Americans… One woman died and three others, including one police officer, were injured in the rampage early Thursday morning …officers have also been targeted in Georgia and Missouri…

…William Johnson, Executive Director of the National Association of Police Organizations… “It’s a war on cops… And the Obama administration is the Neville Chamberlain of this war.”…

…The man who shot 12 police officers, killing five, at a Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Dallas on Thursday night has been named as Micah Xavier Johnson, a 25-year-old with no criminal history or ties to terror groups.

Johnson, from Mesquite, Texas, a 20 minute drive from Dallas, reportedly told law enforcement that he was a US Army Veteran, and claimed to have acted alone, countering reports that as many as four gunmen were involved in the massacre.…

FBI investigating anti-police group that ATTENDED DALLAS MOSQUE…

…Five law enforcement officers are dead. 27 officers have been shot and killed in the line of duty thus far this year. In all of 2015, 39 officers were shot and killed.

War is being waged on our civilian protectors. The drum beat has been constant for nearly two years.…

…This was an attack on all of us and one of the worst days out of nearly seven and a half years of miserable to horrible days we as a nation have had to endure under the worst president, bar none, in American history.…

Dallas police Chief David O.Brown confirmed Friday that the fourth suspect in the ambush that left four officers dead Thursday night did not kill himself but was done in by a bomb detonated by police.… “The suspect said he was upset about Black Lives Matter. He said he was upset about the recent police shootings. The suspect said he was upset at white people,” Brown told reporters. “The suspect stated he wanted to kill white people, especially white officers. The suspect said that we will eventually find the IEDs. The suspect stated he was not affiliated with any groups and he stated that he did this alone.”…

…Twitter …the past three days have brought an onslaught of highly violent calls to action. A search query for phrases such as “kill pigs” “kill police” and such pulls back thousands of posts. Many of these are blatant threats to all police… threats and incitement to violence seen below were all posted before the massacre of police officers in Dallas, Texas. At the time of publication, all the tweets captured below remain on Twitter, and can be found via the site’s search function.…

…A "Black Lives Matter" activist has celebrated the Dallas massacre of five cops on Twitter, following up on her calls a year ago for the lynching of white people and cops.…

UN Statement On Dallas Cop Killings Slams U.S. Police For Being Racists…

…Congressional Black Caucus Press Conference After Dallas: GOP Are “Co-Conspirators In The Devaluation Of The Lives Of Men And Women Of Color”…

In the face of all the ugliness of the last two days, maybe we need to see there's a some good kind people reaching out there.…

Air strikes kill 23 at holiday spot in Syria's Idlib during ceasefire…
US to deploy missiles in S. Korea as North riled…
Four NATO battalions to go to eastern Europe to deter Russia…

During a protest in Dallas about the killing of a black man by a police officer, two snipers opened fire on police. Ten officers were shot, and three have died so far. This is a breaking news story, and new details will probably emerge during the night.

In other news, 25 passengers were injured when a pipe bomb exploded on a train in Taiwan.…

1968 sucked the first time around…
Student: Don’t say ‘step’ because it’s insulting to people who can’t walk…
A better idea: Privatize the Postal System, Abolish a Monopoly…

Louder With Crowder: Let’s Hate Cops! All Facts Are Racist!…
Pamela Geller: Bill O’Reilly Wakes Up To Obama’s Muslim Problem – Eight Years Too Late…
Megan McArdle: Treat Rape Like Every Other Crime…

Survey: Canadians regretting Muslim refugees, believe mainstream Islam promotes violence…
North Korea says US sanctions on Kim Jong Un are ‘declaration of war’…
Iran could be targeting America’s electrical grid with EMP weapon…

Wonder if John Kasich knows about this? …
Shocking! No one saw this coming…
You're grounded, don't do that again…

…On this day in 1775 the Olive Branch Petition was signed by the Continental Congress of the Thirteen Colonies. The petition was intended to try to reconcile with the King of England and try to avoid the coming war. The King refused to accept the petition and had already declared the colonies "in rebellion". It did not help that a "private letter" by John Adams had been intercepted which indicated he was against the petition so the King did not consider the petition to be serious. The original petition had been written by Thomas Jefferson but was rejected because it was considered "too harsh".