Tag Archives: right-wing domestic terrorism

STOP 🛑 The Violence!!!

Posted on by under Bits 'n Pieces, guns, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

A child comes home from school, says he’s going to beat up the kid who called him a name.  The mother sits down with the child, offers him a piece of cheese and a juice box and explains to him that there are other, better ways to resolve his differences with the other child.  She talks about finding the reason why the other kid called him a name, talks about him sitting down with the other kid and maybe a mediator, to talk about their differences.  And she explains to him that violence is never the answer, that violence will only lead to more violence and that eventually someone will get hurt, perhaps badly.

Okay, sure … that’s the fairy tale scenario, but believe it or not, similar scenarios are happening as we speak around the nation today and every day.  But … among the so-called adults in the room?  HAH!!!

Violence.  It has become a part of life in our society, has become the accepted way of resolving disputes and differences, especially when it comes to politics.  A few examples:

  • The Republican candidate for governor in Wisconsin, Tim Michels, angry about a story published by a local newspaper calling out his contributions to anti-abortion groups, is calling for people to take up “pitchforks and torches”. “I believe people should just, just be ready to get out on the streets with pitchforks and torches with how low the liberal media has become.”
  • Says Florida governor Ron DeSantis about Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading virologist in this nation … “And I’m just sick of seeing him. I know he said he’s going to retire. Someone needs to grab that little elf and chuck him across the Potomac.”
  • In Idaho last November, Bingham County Sheriff Craig Rowland threatened a carful of teens with a gun. The then-sheriff pointed a gun at a vehicle containing seven girls and their church group leader and said, “I will f—ing shoot you.” Their crime?  They placed a “thankful turkey” on his front door as a part of a neighborhood goodwill effort.  Rowland has since been relieved of his duties and pleaded guilty to aggravated assault.

These are just a few examples of people in public office, elected officials, blatantly inciting violence.  Consider Lindsey Graham who … threatened? … promised? … that if Trump were indicted on the many potential charges facing him, “there’ll be riots in the streets.”

DAMMIT, people!!!  WE THE PEOPLE work our asses off every day to pay these people’s salaries, to pay for them to fly across the ocean on a whim, to pay for them to wine and dine diplomats and others … and this is how they repay us?  By inciting violence, by calling for people to come after us with pitchforks and guns and whatever the hell else they have in their arsenals?

I don’t know about you guys, but I find it completely unacceptable and a heinous crime against the people of this nation for an elected public official, whether a sheriff, governor, or a member of Congress, to call for violence!  This nation is currently in a state of turmoil, thanks largely to right-wing radicals, and the politicians who call for violence are throwing fuel on the fire.

Worse yet … we are seeing the results across the nation.  It takes little or nothing to spur such groups as the Proud Boys, Oathkeepers, Three Percenters and others into action, but today even the average Joe is angry, and it doesn’t take much for him to pick up that AR-15 or his trusty Glock and head out the door with a lust for violence.

We are a nation of angry people on both sides of the political spectrum.  There are more guns in this nation than there are people.  That’s a bad enough recipe for disaster, but add in the people we elected to public office telling us to get out there and take our revenge and … is it any wonder that gun violence has increased?  Where are we headed?  Back to firebombing homes and schools as was the case in 1960s Mississippi?  More children dead in school shootings?  A world where it’s not safe to walk down the street or shop in a grocery store?

I don’t care where your ideology falls on the political spectrum, I think most sensible people agree that violence is NOT going to solve our problems but will only exacerbate them.  When our elected leaders are the ones calling for and supporting calls for violence, then this country has bigger problems than we thought.  Are our leaders really so stupid that the only way they can think of to respond to ideas with which they disagree is to call for violence?  I believe that any public official who calls for or in any way promotes violence should be immediately removed from his office.  Period.  We need peacemakers, not warmongers.

Real Time With Bill Maher ~ New Rule: The Baldy Awards

Posted on by under Humour, Law and justice, Political commentary, Re-blogs, Social commentary

My friend Kim, over at By Hook or By Book, published the single most relevant and important video clip yesterday that I have seen in ages. It is a 7-minute clip of Bill Maher, ‘telling it like it is’. Bill Maher puts every one of the knuckleheads who attacked the Capitol and our Congress on January 6th to shame, and he reminds us who the real ‘patriots’, the real people who are driving change for the better are. Please, if you watch nothing else today, take 7 minutes to watch this … I promise you will not regret it. Many thanks, Kim, for sharing this absolutely excellent clip with us!

By Hook Or By Book

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It’s Not Over Yet …

Posted on by under Election 2020, Free Press Issues, Law and justice, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Rants, Social commentary

Three days ago, Trump supporters stormed the Capital building in Washington, destroyed public property, and caused the deaths of five people.  They were a mob, they fit every definition of domestic terrorists.  A few were arrested, and dozens more have since been identified and arrested, including the jerk who so proudly posed for a photo with his feet on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk.  Many have lost their jobs, as their employers saw their pictures or were informed of their unconscionable acts.  However, Wednesday was not the end, the movement has not been stopped or even slowed by the public condemnation or the relatively few arrests.

Yesterday’s headline …

terrorism

According to the article …

Parler, Telegram chat rooms and the platform TheDonald.win were all used to plan and coordinate the Jan. 6 rally that turned into a riot. Posters explicitly stated their intentions to “occupy” the Capitol. QAnon conspiracy theorists and people associated with militia groups had a visible presence in Wednesday’s crowd.

“Round 2 on January 20th. This time no mercy. I don’t even care about keeping Trump in power. I care about war,” an anonymous person posted on the platform TheDonald.win, which is filled with comments posted by people who lauded those who rioted Wednesday as “heroes.”

Law enforcement is scrambling to identify those who broke into the Capitol building, and are worried about the inauguration as another target.

“There is growing concern that violent extremists are emboldened by the breach of the Capitol, which means the clock is ticking on taking down the most influential incites of violence before they act again,” said Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI assistant director and NBC News national security analyst.

The Secret Service, which is supervising security for the inauguration, could not immediately be reached for comment. The Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Secret Service, referred NBC News to the Secret Service.

According the National Park Service, which handles permits for rallies in D.C., there are seven First Amendment permit applications in process that overlap with the inauguration date, one of which is clearly for Trump supporters.

Over the years, I have often argued that the time has come to put some limitations on the First Amendment right to free speech.  Every ‘right’ comes with an associated responsibility, in this case the responsibility to act peacefully.  Those who would come to Washington to do harm, to kill and destroy, are taking their ‘right’ to free speech several steps too far and must be stopped within the next 11 days, else the eagerly anticipated inauguration day will become a bloodbath and the start of an internal war in this nation.

My first question is, if the organizers of Wednesdays riots were communicating their plans on the aforementioned websites, then the FBI and Department of Homeland Security surely knew of their plans, so why wasn’t there a heavy law enforcement presence surrounding the Capitol, rather than only a handful of Capitol Police, some of whom were actually seen helping the terrorist enter the building?  This is a question that MUST be answered … immediately!  Did Donald Trump somehow interfere or stop law enforcement from interrupting the plans of the terrorists?  Is the leadership in our security forces as corrupt as that at the head of our government?  We need to know, and somehow the plans for Joe Biden’s inauguration must be changed, must be made as secure and as private as possible.

If our own security forces have been compromised, as I believe may be the case, then who can we turn to for help?  I’ve lived on this earth for 69, almost 70 years now, and I’ve learned that fear is immobilizing, better to be angry than afraid.  And I am angry, but today I am also afraid.  I am afraid that in less than two weeks, this nation may be shattered like the windows of the Capitol were on Wednesday.  I’m afraid that our government is no longer functional, can no longer maintain a nation of law and order.  In fact, it would seem that many within our government are a part of the movement that seeks to overthrow it.

There are many who must share the blame for what happened Wednesday and what may yet happen in the coming two weeks, but the time for blame and punishment will come later.  Right now, it is time to work to ensure the safety of the incoming administration, of our lawmakers, and of the people of this nation.

For some time now, I have hoped that this nation could be reconciled, that the Great Divide between right and left could somehow begin to heal, but today I see no common ground to work with.  In my book, those who would destroy this nation with their racist, bigoted views are not of the same species as the rest of us and I think this nation may well be beyond repair.

Still More Snarky Snippets …

Posted on by under Free Press Issues, Political commentary, Racism & Bigotry, Social commentary

It has been snowing for 24 hours now, and yet there is no more than 1/4-inch on the ground.  How does that work?  Anyway, the last time I recall seeing more than just a brief glimpse of that big, bright ball that used to be in the sky was August, I think.  Cold and gloomy make me even more grumpy than usual, which makes today a good day for just a few snarky snippets.  snow-covered-house

Where’s da salad …

I was at the grocery, my local Kroger store, on Sunday evening, my usual time to buy groceries, and one of the things on my list was a bag of salad.  Guess what?  No salad.  None.  Nada.  Nunc.  Zip.  Zilch.  Nary a bag of salad to be found.  Why?No saladLast Tuesday, two days before Thanksgiving, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a food safety alert urging Americans to refrain from eating, and retailers from selling, any romaine lettuce.  Apparently, five people had died from an E. coli outbreak in June, and nearly two hundred people got sick.  In June.  This is November.  Okay, sigh, I bought a head of iceberg lettuce, some carrots and made my own damn salad … no biggie.  Except …

Every day in America, 96 people on average are killed by guns and hundreds more are injured.  We cannot buy romaine lettuce because … GASP … five people died, yet tens of thousands of people die from guns every year, and buying a gun is about as simple as walking into a Wal-Mart store and saying, “I’ll take that one … and 100 rounds of ammo, too.”  Does anybody see anything wrong with this picture?  Is lettuce really more dangerous than a gun?  No, but it is a hell of a lot easier to ban!

Sssssnakesssssssss in Mississippi …

You may remember my post from Sunday titled The Ugly Face of Racism, about the run-off election today in Mississippi for the Senate seat left vacant by Thad Cochran.    The republican candidate, Cindy Hyde-Smith has made multiple blatantly racist comments, and yet, the race is close.  Trump went to stump for her yesterday, which many believe will give her the winning edge. (Seriously???  Sheesh.) But this snippet isn’t about her, isn’t about whether she wins or loses, but instead is about the venomous monsters she unleashed.

Nooses and signs with messages about lynching were discovered on the grounds of the Mississippi State Capitol on Monday.  You’ll remember that Ms. Hyde-Smith said that she would be in the front row if invited to a lynching?  Well, apparently some took her at her word and are extending that invitation.Nooses.pngMs. Hyde-Smith currently holds about a 5-point lead over her African-American democratic opponent, Mike Espy.  After the bigoted insults she has hurled, she should be polling so low that she drops out. This, to me, says something about the people of Mississippi.

Prescience buried …

In April 2009, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in conjunction with the FBI, released a report  titled Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment. The report  warned that “rightwing extremists may be gaining new recruits by playing on their fears about several emergent issues.” It also predicted that the possibility of new gun restrictions and the return of “military veterans facing significant challenges reintegrating into their communities” might mean “emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks.” The report called this convergence of factors the “most dangerous domestic terrorism threat in the United States.”

Are you scratching your head and wondering why you don’t remember hearing of this report?  It is because the report was quickly squelched after congressional republicans threw a temper tantrum.

Representative Lamar Smith of Texas said the administration was “awfully willing to paint law-abiding Americans, including war veterans, as ‘extremists.’”  Then-representative Steve Buyer of Indiana, the top Republican on the House Veterans’ Affairs committee at the time — called it “inconceivable” that some veterans could pose a threat.  But the final blow came from then-Speaker of the House, John Boehner, who issued a formal statement:

John-Boehner“To characterize men and women returning home after defending our country as potential terrorists is offensive and unacceptable.  The Department of Homeland Security owes our veterans an apology.

Furthermore, the Secretary of Homeland Security owes the American people an explanation for why she has abandoned using the term ‘terrorist’ to describe those, such as al Qaeda, who are plotting overseas to kill innocent Americans, while her own Department is using the same term to describe American citizens who disagree with the direction Washington Democrats are taking our nation.  Everyone agrees that the Department should be focused on protecting America, but using such broad-based generalizations about the American people is simply outrageous.”

Thus it came to be that the report was removed from the DHS website and never made public.

And now, perhaps it doesn’t seem so far-fetched.  Just last month, 13 people died in two incidents: A Kentucky gunman attempted to enter a historically black church, then shot and killed two black patrons in a nearby grocery store. And an anti-Semitic loner who had expressed anger about a caravan of Central American refugees that Trump termed an “invasion” has been charged with gunning down 11 people in a Pittsburgh synagogue, the deadliest act of anti-Semitic violence in U.S. history.

This month brought two more bodies: A military veteran who had railed online against women and blacks opened fire in a Tallahassee yoga studio, killing two women and wounding five. All told, researchers say at least 20 people have died this year in suspected right-wing attacks.

It is true that to a large extent Donald Trump must shoulder much of the blame for the aforementioned incidents, for his support of white ‘nationalism’ has opened the door for much of this.  And it is also true that even had the 2009 report been made public, it might not have made much difference.  But the very fact that the republicans, led by John Boehner, squelched the report that we now know contained predictive information, kept it from the public, is infuriating and perhaps some of those who were injured in Charlottesville, or killed in the synagogue in Pittsburgh, should lay the blame at the feet of Mr. Boehner.

And now, though I could go on for quite a bit longer, I must get busy.  I have a list of things that must get done today, the first one being to make a list!  Miss Goose’s birthday is tomorrow … she will be 24, but don’t tell her I told, for she is rather upset at being so “old”.