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We are aware of all internet traditions.

You cannot shame the shameless.

We still have time to mess this up!

If you’re pissed about Biden’s speech, he was talking about you.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Come on, man.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

It’s time for the GOP to dust off that post-2012 autopsy, completely ignore it, and light the party on fire again.

A democracy can’t function when people can’t distinguish facts from lies.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

Optimism opens the door to great things.

Wow, you are pre-disappointed. How surprising.

No offense, but this thread hasn’t been about you for quite a while.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Conservatism: there are some people the law protects but does not bind and others who the law binds but does not protect.

If senate republicans had any shame, they’d die of it.

I see no possible difficulties whatsoever with this fool-proof plan.

You are here: Home / Politics / America / Today in Domestic Terrorism and Stochastic Violence: Your Weekly Jewish Community Bomb Threats

Today in Domestic Terrorism and Stochastic Violence: Your Weekly Jewish Community Bomb Threats

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We appear to have entered a period of a campaign of terror against Jewish Community Centers, Jewish day schools, and synagogues across the US. The first few weeks the threats were called in on Tuesdays. Last week it switched to Monday.

This is on top of a bomb threat being called into the Anti-Defamation League.

As I wrote last week:

Here’s what I think the security issues are going forward:

1) We’ve got some knucklehead who gets his gratification calling these in and seeing the news coverage. He may or may not be a hard core anti-Semite, but he’s basically in it for ego gratification. And based on decades of criminological research into deviance, delinquency, and offending, it is highly likely it is a he. So step up your game ladies! He may or may not even be in the US, given VOIP technology. And he may never intend to do anything but make these calls.

2) Or he intends to eventually escalate. Specifically after he feels that he has made enough of these, or other copycats have, to create a sense of complacency for the folks at the JCCs and synagogues. Basically emergency alert fatigue. At that point he actually plants a bomb at one of these locations because he figures he’s got a reasonable expectation of casualties because the threats have become commonplace and are no longer being taken seriously.

3) Or, even worse, he never originally intended to escalate, but because the threats have become commonplace the coverage drops way off. He doesn’t get his gratification and as a result escalates in order to get his rush. Basic addictive behavior pattern. Also, serial criminal pattern.

4) Or, also even worse, he never intends to escalate beyond calling in the threats, but someone else who does want to do real, physical damage to property and harm to people does. This individual or individuals waits until the coverage begins to drop off because the calls are every week or every other week like clockwork and the local news decides it needs to cover something more important. And then this person that wants to cause real harm and actually hurt people decides its time to strike because complacency has set in and some synagogue or JCC isn’t going to take the threat as seriously.

And I fully expect that this pattern will at some point be fully extended to mosques and Hispanic and Asian churches, as well as Sikh temples. I know that the Hispanic and Asian churches in my area have seen an increase in both vandalism and threats, just as the synagogues and mosques have, because they are viewed as immigrant places (of worship) and therefore acceptable targets despite being churches.

I think it is also very important to point out and recognize that one of the targets of this campaign of terror are children.

While no one has been physically hurt so far as a result of these threats and the vandalism at Jewish cemeteries, this is now an ongoing, coordinated campaign of terrorism. The point is to make the children attending these schools be afraid to go to school. It is to make their parents afraid to send them. And to make the teachers, administrators, and other staff afraid to go to work. It is intended to coerce all of these people, as well as members of the wider Jewish American community and the communities of other religious and ethnic minorities in the US. It is also intended to coerce and intimidate the neighbors, commercial or residential, of these institutions to demand they relocate in order to minimize the threat to themselves.

As Chemi Shalev wrote today in Haaretz:

What’s even more dismaying is the fact that Trump is being buoyed by a cadre of enablers and apologists, many of them Jews, who are doing their best to make light of the attacks, to ridicule the growing Jewish apprehension and to absolve Trump of any complicity in the rise of anti-Jewish sentiment. The arguments of these Trump apologists are multilayered:  A. Anti-Semitism isn’t growing; B. If it is, it has nothing to do with Donald Trump; and C. Where were you when Obama was president and anti-Semitism was almost official state policy?

All three claims are pathetically nonsensical. If anyone can come up with a precedent in the past few decades for over 50 JCCs being evacuated over the course of a few weeks because of repeated bomb threats, two large scale desecrations of Jewish cemeteries and a flood of anecdotal evidence of widespread harassment of Jews in public schools, please do. Definitive statistics are unavailable, awaiting an official determination by the police and FBI about the exact nature of each and every incident, but one would think that warnings by Jewish leaders all across the country, including unaffiliated federation leaders, would at least give Trump’s defenders pause. Do they believe that everyone is in on some left-wing conspiracy to inflate anti-Semitism? Have Jews been consumed by mass hysteria?

As for Trump’s culpability, well, give me a break. Of course it’s hard to pinpoint any direct link between the president and the outburst of animosity towards Jews and no one is claiming that he has any interest whatsoever in seeing anti-Semitism rise. But there is abundant evidence to suggest that the president has been playing with anti-Semitic fire ever since his presidential campaign started in mid-2015. He has been sending subliminal signals to those who would do Jews harm, using well-worn dog whistles even if he doesn’t intend to, and stubbornly refusing to forthrightly project his abhorrence of anti-Semitic incidents.

The list of such messages and gestures is long and well known by now, including Trump’s own stereotypical depiction of Jews in his appearance last year before the Republican Jewish Coalition, his use of the phrase America First, his refusal to disavow the blatantly anti-Semitic imagery of Hillary Clinton with dollars and a six pointed star behind her, and that’s before we even mention his continuing flirtation with white nationalism and supremacism. And despite all the explanations and justifications, the White House omission of Jews from its Holocaust Day announcement and its steadfast refusal to back down, even when apprised of the anguish they caused Jews and the jubilation they sparked among anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, remains inexplicable and inexcusable. (much more at the link)

We will once again leave the last word to 18 U.S. Code § 2331, highlighting the relevant part:

(5)the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—

(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;

(B)appear to be intended—

(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.
(Added Pub. L. 102–572, title X, § 1003(a)(3), Oct. 29, 1992, 106 Stat. 4521; amended Pub. L. 107–56, title VIII, § 802(a), Oct. 26, 2001, 115 Stat. 376.)

 

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    Omnes Omnibus

    A. Anti-Semitism isn’t growing; B. If it is, it has nothing to do with Donald Trump; and C. Where were you when Obama was president and anti-Semitism was almost official state policy?

    A, Bullshit. B. Bullshit. C. Fuck you!

  4. 4.

    Mike J

    Weekly? Doesn’t seem to be that long in between. I’ve heard this called the fifth wave of threats. Anybody have a grand total?

    What does Ivanka’s rabbi think about all this?

  9. 9.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mike J: During January they were on Tuesdays to Jewish day schools and JCCs and a synagogue or two (a lot of the schools are colocated at either synagogues or JCCs). Last week they switched to Monday. There was a smaller number directed against ADL and some other Jewish institutions later in the week/on the weekend.

  12. 12.

    frosty

    I just started Timothy Snyder’s “Black Earth: the Holocaust as History and Warning.” I didn’t think it would be a book about Current Events.

  14. 14.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: Earlier today I was speaking with a former teammate. Retired Marine colonel. We were talking about this and I told him my take is that at best/worst the President is a philo-Semite. That’s the flip side of anti-Semitism where an individual thinks highly of Jews based on the same stereotypes that anti-Semites use to despise them. This is based on his past comments at last year’s Republican Jewish Committee, as well as documented remarks about only wanting short guys in yarmulkes counting his money. https://www.facebook.com/politico/posts/10152992105931680

    I told my friend, however, that I don’t think it even gets this far. I just don’t think the President thinks about this stuff. Or about African Americans or Hispanic/LatinX Americans or Muslim Americans or Sikh Americans or Hindu Americans or Buddhist Americans or Indian Americans, etc. Its too much work to actually think this stuff through. Basically he’s too lazy to be a proper bigot, racist, and anti-Semite.

  15. 15.

    gwangung

    You know…even Bush the Younger would have moved heaven and earth (or, at least, kicked FBI tail) to get this solved.

    Think about that.

  16. 16.

    Jeffro

    I think that in addition to Indivisible and Swing Left and other Resistance activities, it’s time for Dems to start having their own (off-Capitol) hearings, their own budgets presented, their own steps they intend to take to curb things like this rising wave of anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant violence. Not just speeches on the Senate floor carried by C-Span but regular outreach via all channels, newspapers, social media, everything. People need to see that under Democratic control of Congress, Trump wouldn’t be getting away with all this shit; with a Democratic President, Ryan wouldn’t either.

  18. 18.

    SiubhanDuinne

    So far, none of these outrages has happened anywhere close to where I live. And so far, my most active response is to feel sick at reading or hearing about them. I’d like to do more, something that’s both useful and that demonstrates alliance and support, but don’t know what that looks like. Maybe I’ll call a JCC near me tomorrow, but in the meantime am open to suggestions from this good community if anyone has any ideas.

  19. 19.

    Adam L Silverman

    @amk: People here got mad at me for a post where I discussed a possible shift among the GOP/conservatives to support for a herrenvolk democracy as a result of the President’s candidacy, campaign, and potential (at that time) election.

  20. 20.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman:

    my take is that at best/worst the President is a philo-Semite. That’s the flip side of anti-Semitism where an individual thinks highly of Jews based on the same stereotypes that anti-Semites use to despise them. This is based on his past comments at last year’s Republican Jewish Committee, as well as documented remarks about only wanting short guys in yarmulkes counting his money

    Let’s hope it’s only that, and not the desire to be a certain much younger Jewish guy w/ the initials “J.K.”

  23. 23.

    Jeffro

    @Adam L Silverman: And if there’s any upside to that, it’s that the few remaining principled conservatives, the #NeverTrump folks, will come to realize that they truly have lost their party to the Trump Tea Party, and that it’s time to make peace with coming over to the Dems. Just a few will tip things well enough…

  25. 25.

    Adam L Silverman

    @efgoldman: No. That cure is worse than the disease. Those folks, and they’re still around, are the Jewish American equivalent of the militia movement. They hate everyone and everything that isn’t Jewish and they do the defining of who is and is not Jewish and who should and should not be targeted.

  29. 29.

    trollhattan

    @Adam L Silverman:
    Suspect that insight is accurate. Trump will tolerate whomever might be a mark/income stream, and couldn’t care less about their background or proclivities. Grew up in NYC after all.

    His discovery, if you will, is that the racist, nationalist cranks comprise his path to power so he perfected their language. Their simple, simple language.

  30. 30.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: If the JCC near you is the one I think it is, its a wonderful facility. And you don’t have to be Jewish to be a member. It’ll have a health club/gym, swimming pools, hot tubs, steam rooms, etc.

  32. 32.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: I made that point as well. That if all the Klan groups and neo-NAZI groups and white supremacist groups and white nationalist groups and race realists and the leaders of all these movements endorse what you’re doing and publicly state, to anyone that will listen that what you’re doing, proposing, saying is the best thing that has ever happened to the US and for their movements and interests and that you’re the first candidate for President and now President to say these things, then you have a problem that requires some contemplation and reflection.

  33. 33.

    Adam L Silverman

    @SiubhanDuinne: Not that I’m aware of. Technically Mondays and Thursdays are the days, other than Saturday (and holidays) when the Torah would be read at morning prayers. But I really doubt the person/people making the threats know that. If they did they’d be targeting synagogues and calling the threats in on Mondays, Thursdays, and Saturdays to coincide with morning prayers.

  35. 35.

    geg6

    They had a story on the local news tonight about this and then went into a local angle. Apparently, the Pittsburgh Jewish community has hired it’s own security force and they interviewed the guy they hired to run it. He has had a long career in law enforcement at various levels and he has what seems to me to be an appropriate sense of the danger and has already implemented a security plan for local JCCs, day schools and synegogues. I wonder how common this is elsewhere. There have been no incidents here yet, but I’m glad they are being proactive.

  38. 38.

    Adam L Silverman

    @geg6: The Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia advertised for a Director of Security last week. I’ve been consulting with a local congregation. People are scared. They should be.

  39. 39.

    chopper

    and America doesn’t seem to give even one shit.

    this shit just goes to show why the alter cockers are always so paranoid.

  43. 43.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: As I wrote last week and copied and pasted up above: it may just be as simple as that. And there’s no intention to extend it any farther because this is enough to get the perpetrator/perpetrators his/their jollies.

  44. 44.

    Tokyokie

    @Adam L Silverman: The great film director Sam Fuller, who happened to be Jewish and win the Silver Star on Omaha Beach, makes that exact point in White Dog. The film was so unapologetically anti-racist and pessimistic that it ended his career as a director.

  46. 46.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Tokyokie: Is that the one with the white Alsation that had first been trained to attack African Americans and then retrained to protect them and attack white Americans? Haven’t thought about, let alone seen, that movie in years.

  48. 48.

    geg6

    @Adam L Silverman:

    Hmmmm, really surprised the Pittsburgh group is ahead of the curve here. But glad. I want them to protect themselves. They are obviously being targeted. And there’s lots of Klan in the vicinity of the city. Washington, Greene, Westmoreland and Somerset counties are filled with white supremacists. All within an hour or so of the city.

  50. 50.

    rikyrah

    I have no doubt in my mind that there will be another Sandy Hook. The victims will be non-White, the killers will be White Supremacists… and the MSM will once again that it’s the lone wolf syndrome, even though they would have studied on a PhD level of hate groups. There will be no responsibility from this White House, and a pretend investigation from Attorney General White Citizens Council.
    I don’t want it to happen, but, I feel it in my bones.

  51. 51.

    Mike in NC

    @EBT: We visited Asheville about six years ago. Beautiful downtown area that the tour guides said was ironically too poor to just bulldoze in the 1920s and hence many of the buildings were preserved and rehabilitated in the 70s and 80s.

  52. 52.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Adam L Silverman:

    I remember when it was first under construction. A few years later, there was another flurry of building, which I later recognized was mostly for things like security fences and space for security personnel. It made me very sad at the time to realize that they thought it was necessary.

  53. 53.

    Tokyokie

    @Adam L Silverman: That’s the one. The dog is supposedly reprogrammed, but in the end it will attack anybody. And small wonder you haven’t seen it lately. Paramount never commercially released it. I first caught it 20 years ago at a Fuller tribute at Sundance (where I met Fuller and got him to autograph my Naked Kiss poster!), but it has since been released on DVD by Criterion. (No Blu-ray yet, unfortunately.)

  54. 54.

    Adam L Silverman

    @geg6: There’s an overarching/umbrella organization that helps coordinate this stuff. My guess is they’ve recommend to folks to do this and it all depends on how quickly each area moves. The real problem is I’ve seen the position descriptions for some of these and they are looking for very basic qualifications. And they don’t understand in the Intelligence, Security, and Counter-terrorism world 2-3 years experience with an AA or BA is an entry level position, despite what the job announcement says.

  55. 55.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Omnes Omnibus: I do not disagree. You can’t simply work off of that possibility. You have to be prepared for the worst case scenario – that this will escalate. Either by the perpetrator/perpetrators of the phone calls or by those looking to capitalize on them.

  56. 56.

    Mike J

    @Tokyokie: TCM showed it a year or two ago, so they have it.

    It would be interesting to come up with a playlist of movies that have become more relevant in the Trump era. I think they actually pay attention to their fora too.

  58. 58.

    amk

    @chopper: really? you are gonna go false equivalent with rw racist pos’s imaginary dreadful things to actual dreadful things, that btw, are being perpetrated by the same scums?

  59. 59.

    Ohio Mom

    @Mike J: Ivanka’s rabbi is a member of Chabad. Obviously I don’t know how he voted. But the Chabadites in my neighborhood are enthusiastic and loyal Republicans — their argument being that the GOP is “better for Israel.”

    I’m very curious about how they reconcile this wave of anti-Semitic acts with the fact that the catalyst for these acts is the guy they voted for.

  60. 60.

    Mnemosyne

    @Tokyokie:

    It’s been a while since I’ve seen it, and the end is a bit confusing, but I think it was more that the dog was retrained but ended up turning on the old white guy who resembled his original trainer.

    Not joking when I say it was probably Kristy MacNichol’s best role.

  64. 64.

    trnc

    Since all acts of terror by persons of middle eastern descent are labeled by some as Islamic terrorism, is there a reason I should not think that threats against Jewish schools and centers are Christian terrorism?

  65. 65.

    ? Martin

    Our local Jewish center got a bomb threat near the end of the day today. Evacuated, bomb search. It’s absurd that the White House and the GOP are doing and saying basically nothing about this.

  66. 66.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Ohio Mom: One of my very best friends turned to religion after his first wife died within a year of his wedding (I was a groomsman and a pall bearer in two different Jewish ceremonies all in one year too). I was in his next wedding too. He was the first person outside my family that I reached out to when my marriage went south. He’s gone bonkers on Israel, I am sure he voted for Trump, but I won’t ask him because I don’t want the confrontation. I know the pain and confusion that drove him deeper into religion. I just regret the result.

  67. 67.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @Adam L Silverman:

    then you have a problem that requires some contemplation and reflection.

    Well, then, Donald is not your man to address the problem. Because contemplation and reflection are not in his very limited skillset.

  69. 69.

    Frankensteinbeck

    One of the major reasons people voted for Trump was that they knew he would turn a blind eye to hate crimes. That the federal government is the major impediment to those is a pillar of why Republicans are anti-government.

  71. 71.

    rikyrah

    And please understand this. When this horrific incident happens, I and many others will blame those who voted for Dolt45. They brought this. And, no, they will not be allowed to weasel away from it.

  75. 75.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @rikyrah: I’ve got your back on this. They are responsible for their actions, whether they know it or not, or whether they acknowledge it or not. And there will be consequences.

  76. 76.

    Adam L Silverman

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Almost all the religious extremist movements are basically the same in what they believe and how they operate. All you have to do is adjust the sacred text/texts, name of the Deity/Deities, how many times a day to pray and in what direction, dietary restrictions, and list of who the enemies are. They all treat women like crap. And they all have assumed the authority to define the acceptable boundaries of the religion, who is in it, who isn’t (even though they really are), and what to do about it.

  77. 77.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: Daesh and the evangelical “Christian” right are two sides of the same coin.

    Or, what Adam said directly above me. GoT’s “Faith Militant” is pretty much the same thing.

  79. 79.

    Mnemosyne

    @rikyrah:

    When you choose an action, you also choose the consequences of that action.

    Or, to put it in more specifically Christian terms, Trump has sown the wind, and now we’re waiting for the inevitable whirlwind.

  82. 82.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @rikyrah:

    I agree with you. I don’t know where it will be, nor how many victims there will be — it will have its own unique twist, so the MSM will have a new chew-toy — but, like you, I feel in my bones, in my cells, that we’re going to witness something horrific aimed at a minority community before the year is out. And yes, I will know whom to blame for fomenting an environment that supports it.

  84. 84.

    randy khan

    A decent human being with a functional Justice Department would have mobilized an FBI task force already, would have authorized protection from the U.S. Marshalls and would have issued a public statement not just condemning the threats but promising action to halt them going forward. And despite their myriad faults, all three of the preceding Republican Presidents would have done just that. Not this one.

  87. 87.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Mnemosyne:

    Or, to put it in more specifically Christian terms, Trump has sown the wind, and now we’re waiting for the inevitable whirlwind.

    Picking at nits here, but that’s from the Hebrew Bible (Hosea/minor prophets) — what Christians call the Old Testament.

  91. 91.

    Adam L Silverman

    @Mark: It never is. Cracking/breaking a culture isn’t actually all that hard. Repairing it so that it can find a new normal is very, very hard. And often requires multiple attempts.

  92. 92.

    David ?Canadian Anchor Baby? Koch

    Elizabeth Drew‏ @ElizabethDrewOH

    Fact is Muslim American communities are showing more empathy to Jews about anti-Semitic vandalism than President of the United States.

    278 replies 10,322 retweets 19,605 likes

  95. 95.

    Villago Delenda Est

    I guess it’s fun to bash Muslins and Mezzikans, but the alt-right Nazis are obsessed with Jews. All those other groups they loathe are only appetizers in preparation to go for the ultimate evil. These people have been empowered, whether Donald cares to admit it or not, by Donald’s victory in November. One of their own is one of Donald’s closest advisors, and that advisor is absolutely candid about his position.

  98. 98.

    Kay

    @randy khan:

    A decent human being

    That’s why it won’t get better. He simply doesn’t have it in him. Straw into gold. Ain’t gonna happen.

    Bad hires always get worse, never better, and Trump is an extraordinarily bad hire.

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    It’s an observation, not meant either to advance or retard the conversation. Normally when a Scriptural quotation or reference is identified as being “specifically Christian,” the implication is that it comes from the New Testament. I was pointing out that the line predates Christianity. That’s all.

  101. 101.

    tobie

    According to the Post, an interview with Trump will air tomorrow on Fox in which he states that he thinks Obama is behind the protests against him. What an immature ass! No, Donald, you inspire our hate. You’ve brought this on yourself.

  103. 103.

    Yarrow

    @tobie: That’s so sad it’s funny. He really can’t let either Obama or Hillary go. He needs an enemy. Obama showed up in NYC and people cheered–so he’s the enemy of the moment. I wonder if he’ll blame Obama during Tuesday’s Not State of the Union speech?

  105. 105.

    bluehill

    At the risk of going Reichstag fire, any concerns that this is a prelude to an actual attack made to look as if it was done by “radical Islam”? Trying to calibrate my degree of paranoia.

  106. 106.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    That’s just pathetic. Apart from having to live in Trump’s America, I can’t think of anywhere worse to live than inside Trump’s head. It must be awful to be filled with such bilious paranoia all day, every day.

  109. 109.

    Tyler Forrest

    When a gas line exploded down the street, my child’s pre-school/daycare was evacuated to the JCC near by. They sheltered and took care of all the kids. I was an hour away and the wife was out of town. I was worried but knew that our girl was safe. They took awesome care of the kids that day. That was back in October. Now . . . my reaction might be slightly different. Like sheer fucking panic. JCC’s don’t just serve Jewish communities.

  110. 110.

    TriassicSands

    @Yarrow:

    Well, Trump did inherit a mess. Carnage really. I mean the country has probably never been in worse shape.

    Unemployment during the Great Depression was about half of what Trump claims it was under Obama (it’s probably down at least 20% now that Trump won a glorious Electoral College victory with an unprecedented 306 votes).

    The burning question I have about his speech is will he refer to his stunning, astounding, amazing EC victory? Can he ever again talk for more than five minutes without mentioning it? Or was he chastised in the recent press conference? (Laughter)

  112. 112.

    Adam L Silverman

    @bluehill: It’ll depend on what happens. How quickly the perpetrators are identified. And how the news media decides to handle it.

  113. 113.

    Villago Delenda Est

    @TriassicSands: I’m afraid it’s going to be how much everything is a mess, and Congress must pass an Enabling Act right now so Donald can “fix it”.

  116. 116.

    polyorchnid octopunch

    @rikyrah: It already did. Only thing was it happened in Canada and targeted muslims, so it definitely sank like a stone in US media.

  117. 117.

    Chet Murthy

    @? Martin:

    It’s absurd that the White House and the GOP are doing and saying basically nothing about this.

    Not absurd. “part of the plan”.

    To be clear: I’m just as horrified. But I don’t for a second think this isn’t thought-through. Every time Bannonazi’s sock-puppet refuses to condemn these things, every time his condemation is clearly extracted with pliers, is a message to white supremacists and anti-semites (oh, but I repeat myself) everywhere that it’s only a matter of time.

  119. 119.

    Gretchen

    The goal of these people has always been divide and conquer. Whites in the South could remain in power despite being outnumbered by slaves, because poor whites were convince that the system favored them too.
    The current white supremacists aren’t so careful. There was a shooting at the suburban Kansas City JCC a couple of years ago. None of the 3 people who were killed were Jewish. It’s a community center. Members of the community were there. It has a great daycare center which was on the short list when looking for a daycare for my Lutheran grandson. When I read about bomb threats there, I don’t think “Those people”. I think “They’re threatening kids like my darling Alex. He could be in danger!” Two young Indian men were shot near where I live. They worked at a place where someone I know works. I’m very familiar with the area where this happened. My daughter was going to bring her Indian-American boyfriend home to meet me next weekend to celebrate my birthday. They decided not to come. I’m the sort of old white lady these folks take for granted as being on their side. They couldn’t be more wrong. I’ve got my torches and pitchfork ready and am just waiting for direction on where to direct them. I’m ready to tear them out root and branch and can’t wait for the opportunity to start, and punish them for threatening the people I love, and people I don’t know who have people who love them and deserve protection too.

  121. 121.

    Thru the Looking Glass...

    “Hillary Clinton meets in secret with international banks to plan the destruction of global sovereignty in order to enrich these global interest powers, her special interest friends and her donors,”

    Donald Trump, Oct 13, 2017

    “The struggle between the people and the hatred amongst them is being nurtured by very specific interested parties. It is a small, rootless, international clique that is turning the people against each other, that does not want them to have peace…They are the only ones who can be addressed as international, because they conduct their business everywhere, but the people cannot follow them.”

    Adolph Hitler, November 10, 1933

    I know I’m not the 1st one who pointed this out but seriously…

    ETA: I believe language like the above quote only started turning up in Trump’s speeches AFTER Bannon joined his campaign…

  122. 122.

    Gretchen

    To be a little more specific: These folks feel safe threatening Jews and brown people in lily-white, Republican Kansas. Lily-white, Republican Kansas isn’t as lily-white and sympathetic as they think, and we’re looking forward to seeing them go down.

  123. 123.

    Gretchen

    These awful people think they’re targeting the “other”. But I think I’m in the majority, despite being an old white lady, that I feel that these awful people are targeting people, if not like me, people I care deeply about and want to protect. And if they want to hurt those people, I’m in favor of hitting them with the full force of anything the forces of law can bring forth. They’re totally wrong if they think that some of us won’t care because it’s not me and mine specifically who are being targeted. Me and mine is a lot more fluid and inclusive these days.

  124. 124.

    J R in WV

    @Adam L Silverman:

    …that if all the Klan groups and neo-NAZI groups and white supremacist groups … and the leaders of all these movements endorse what you’re doing … saying [it] is the best thing that has ever happened to the US and for their movements and interests and that you’re the first … President to say these things, then you have a problem that requires some contemplation and reflection.

    Except that The Donald Trump cannot contemplate and reflect, at all. HE is causing this outpouring of hate. And this outpouring of hate is stirring up mentally defective and violently tending people to make these threats, and so it goes.

    If a single person is injured or hurt, it is Mr Trump’s fault. And everyone else involved with these Klan and fascist groups up and down the tree of “leadership” for these dweebs. A real American president would have a public meeting with his security leadership and tell them to bust these American Terrorists soonest, to put all their attention on this issue until the surviving free fascists crawl back under their rock.

    Our current President evidently doesn’t understand which parts of his job are important ndn which are not.

  125. 125.

    DHD

    It’s almost as if someone is trying to convince American Jews that they’d be better off in Israel, or even better, as settlers in “Judea and Samaria”.

  126. 126.

    Miss Bianca

    @Mike J: late to the thread (as always)…but “V for Vendetta” and “Dr. Strangelove” come to mind rather immediately…

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