Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you thought you’d already seen people saying the stupidest things possible on the internet, prepare yourselves.

Republicans seem to think life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

Authoritarian republicans are opposed to freedom for the rest of us.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

When do we start airlifting the women and children out of Texas?

I’m more christian than these people and i’m an atheist.

Polls are now a reliable indicator of what corporate Republicans want us to think.

The republican caucus is covering themselves with something, and it is not glory.

If you don’t believe freedom is for everybody, then the thing you love isn’t freedom, it is privilege.

Radicalized white males who support Trump are pitching a tent in the abyss.

Do we throw up our hands or do we roll up our sleeves? (hint, door #2)

When they say they are pro-life, they do not mean yours.

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

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Giving in to doom is how authoritarians win.

I desperately hope that, yet again, i am wrong.

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

Is it irresponsible to speculate? It is irresponsible not to.

Republicans are the party of chaos and catastrophe.

The snowflake in chief appeared visibly frustrated when questioned by a reporter about egg prices.

I have other things to bitch about but those will have to wait.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

Yeah, with this crowd one never knows.

You are here: Home / Politics / domestic terrorists / Reports from Tennessee: Nazi Snowflakes Have No Stamina

Reports from Tennessee: Nazi Snowflakes Have No Stamina

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Local reporter Natalie Allison has a whole bunch of short clips from the rally in her Twitter feed. And a nicely observed story in the Tennessean:

… 9:20 a.m. Shelbyville: About 40 minutes before protest was set to begin, more than 50 counter-protesters were waiting to get through a security checkpoint.

A woman is dressed like the statute of liberty. One young man has an “Antifa” flag, the sign for a movement of anti-Fascist, far-left protest groups, draped around him.

There were no signs of white nationalists yet…

10 a.m. Shelbyville: Chad Bagwell, 30, of Centre, Ala. was among the first to arrive on the white nationalists’ side. When he got there at 9:30, the convoy of other protesters hadn’t arrived and police weren’t letting him in to the protest area.

Bagwell held an American flag and was wearing a red Make America Great Again hat. He said he planned to bring a Confederate flag, as well, but forgot it.

He said he learned about the rally through a friend on a social networking website. His friend thought he might enjoy attending the White Lives Matter rally, Centre said, which he understood to be about refugee resettlement.

He drove two hours to attend Saturday’s protest.

“I don’t have nothing against refugees, but I do think they need stricter vetting for it,” Bagwell said…

10:05 a.m. Shelbyville: The first members of the League of the South, a white nationalist group that helped organize the White Lives Matter rally, have arrived and are making their way through security…

11:20 a.m. Shelbyville: At least 160 white nationalists have come to the Shelbyville rally. More than 300 counterprotesters are there…

Wesley Lowery, for the Washington Post:

… Local residents and leaders spent most of the week anxiously wondering how many would travel the rural highway that snakes south from Nashville over Christmas Creek into Shelbyville for a “White Lives Matter” rally planned by several national white supremacist groups.

Such rallies have turned violent, even deadly, in recent months, sparking fears that the Shelbyville gathering could as well. Once the white supremacists showed up — the rally started about an hour late — there was yelling, but no violence.

Rally organizers had anticipated about 175 people, while Tennessee’s racial justice and liberal groups were unsure of how many of their members would attend. Ultimately it appeared that about 300 people attended — about 100 “White Lives Matter” attendees and twice as many counterprotesters…

Organizers included the National Socialist Movement, a neo-Nazi group; the Traditionalist Worker Party, which wants a separate white ethno-state; Anti-Communist Action, a right-wing group that believes America is being threatened by communists; and Vanguard America, a white supremacist group that believes America is inherently a white nation that must be preserved. This rally, they said, was specifically about immigration and refugee policies.

The plan was for speakers to address the assembled white supremacists, some of whom carried shields and Confederate flags, before the group would depart to nearby Murfreesboro for another rally.

At moments, the rally speakers spouted verbose diatribes about a “genocide” they claim is being perpetrated against “the white race” and “white Southern culture.” At other times, the speeches seemed to be a grab-bag of talking points. One speaker complained that black Americans often say the n-word, but when he does, people are offended. The speaker after him railed against Black History Month…

Promptly at 1 p.m., the assembled ralliers bowed their heads in prayer and, after being told that boxed lunches were available on the bus, departed.

In Murfreesboro, about 20 minutes away, a second set of counterprotesters lined the roadway, ready to challenge attendees of the second rally. But the rally didn’t happen; the bus of white supremacists never showed up…


.

… but the second Nazi rally “got cancelled”… per Natalie Allison, again:

… 1:31 p.m. Murfreesboro: After marching down Veterans Parkway, about 350 people gathered on a sidewalk on Church Street south of the parkway. As the group descended on the heavily trafficked area, employees at a Walgreens located at the intersection could be seen taking photos of the crowd from the doorway of the store.

Chants of “show me what democracy looks like, this is what democracy looks like” and “Murfreesboro loves,” the group ignored the chilly air while awaiting the caravan of white nationalists who are expected to head through on their way to the downtown square. Car honks and even an occasional horn from a semi truck could be heard as the crowd awaited the caravan…

2:20 p.m. Murfreesboro: The White Lives Matter rally in Murfreesboro is underway. City officials said as many as 500 people were in the downtown square.

White nationalists and counterprotesters are on opposite sides of the square. Fencing has been set up to keep the groups separate, and police are stationed in the 15-foot gap between the groups.

There are only about 15 white nationalists, but both sides are screaming and chanting at one another — and police have cautioned both sides to temper their shouting.

Counterprotesters have chanted “Nazis go home” and “shame” at the white nationalists…

3:20 p.m. Murfreesboro: The spokesman for the League of the South offered two explanations for canceling the Murfreesboro rally. On Twitter, he said long security lines in Shelbyville delayed the group. He also accused Murfreesboro of being a “lawsuit trap.”…

Poor fragile manbabies. It’s just no fun without the cover of darkness and / or the element of surprise.

Reader Interactions

117Comments

  2. 2.

    Mike J

    PSA: If you’re on twitter, don’t give any sketchy apps access to your account. My TL is full of spam from the accounts of juicers trying to spread malware.

  4. 4.

    dmsilev

    Bagwell held an American flag and was wearing a red Make America Great Again hat. He said he planned to bring a Confederate flag, as well, but forgot it.

    “I have never made but one prayer to God, a very short one: Oh Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it” – Voltaire.

  7. 7.

    Jeffro

    You’d get more people at a “bring back high-flush toilets!” rally…and fewer turds. Time for America’s media to move on, not much to see here.

  11. 11.

    Bruuuuce

    It’s just no fun without the cover of darkness and / or the element of surprise.

    Or overwhelming numbers and/or weaponry to intimidate the “lesser races”. Chickenshit cowards.

  19. 19.

    Jeffro

    Those symbols and flags are getting pretty arcane. That kinda-sorta American-flag-ish one with the black twisted ribbon on it…shouldn’t it just have Jeff Sessions’ family coat of arms or something?

  21. 21.

    dmsilev

    @Karen: I think it’s defunct now, but Sean Hannity used to have a dating website (called, I swear I’m not making this up, ‘Hannidate’). That seems like the appropriate venue for a guy like that.

  29. 29.

    Zinsky

    What doorknobs like this Bagwell dude don’t seem to “get” is that you can’t really be for the American flag and the Confederate flag, at the same time. You see, one doesn’t really exist, if the other side won. It’s kind of binary…

  36. 36.

    jl

    @Jeffro: We need to look for points of weakness and press them. Their weird ad hoc disorganized iconography and cosplay comes from the fact that there is no mainstream US intellectual or moral tradition behind them. Their ideas are completely foreign to the Founders and Framers. Their only official leader on the national stage is Trump, and while Trump is a bigot, he really doesn’t care all that much, not enough to develop it into an actual ideology. Racism and bigotry is just habit and impulse with Trump. That is very bad and very dangerous, but he doesn’t care about it enough to develop it into an ideology. To the extent he thinks about it, it is as a political gimmick to get him applause from his base.

    We know now that Trump didn’t even care about his precious wall, or really cared about illegal immigration, the great Hispanic threat enough to remember to make it a centerpiece of his campaign. Stone and another one his flunkies said that they thought up the Great Trump Wall as a kind of mnemonic that would remind him to demonize Hispanics since that got him votes. And the Great Trump Wall turned out to be huge hit with Trump rally crowds, and that is the only reason Trump latched on to it as a theme.

    Doesn’t mean that there is nothing in US history and society that is behind them. Sadly there is plenty, but that strain of our history was never celebrated as virtue, and has lost ground to the true ideals of the country.

    So, in one way they are lost and confused losers with no real leaders, no real backing, and if we can keep resisting Trumpster attempts to hijack the country, they will surely lose. Maybe they subconsciously know that, and that explains why we see so many of them suddenly lurch from hateful braggadocio into the most bathetic confessionals of frank self-pity and confusion.

  39. 39.

    Jeffro

    @jl: I think we’ve forced them so many steps beyond Lee Atwater’s classic explanation…

    You start out in 1954 by saying, “N_____.” By 1968 you can’t say “n_____”—that hurts you, backfires. So you say stuff like, uh, forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff, and you’re getting so abstract. Now, you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is, blacks get hurt worse than whites.… “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, uh, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “N_____.”

    …that they start going with wacky stuff like black-ribbon flags and cartoon frogs. Unfortunately, that’s just the overt stuff – the sentiment is clearly still strong at the ballot box

  40. 40.

    Gravenstone

    @Gin & Tonic: One suspects that Stormfront (or similar ilk) provide oh so helpful links. Either that, or they went down the rabbit hole of some Russian dating site and went out the side door.

  43. 43.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    “Degenerate hoards”
    Have been transported back to 1934 Germany?

  44. 44.

    lgerard

    Kat Chambers of Jackson, Miss., drove six hours to participate in the counter-protest. She said she was there representing her own group: Cat Ladies Against Racist Morons.

    even the cat ladies are pissed

  45. 45.

    Heywood J.

    I assume close-up examination of their flags and costumes will reveal many smudges of powdered sugar and mayonnaise. It’s impossible to take these losers seriously.

  52. 52.

    jl

    @Jeffro: I hope I’m not being too optimistic. I think around half of whites in the country have some significant racel/ethnic/religious bigotry issues strong enough to affect their judgment on a regular basis on voting and policy. When I hear their nonsense, I’m inclined to probe their thinking rather than confront, and I am white guy so part of the club and I hear things said inside the club. I’ve rarely met these bigots who will fess up to frank racism. They’ll dodge around to the issue really being ‘culture’ or hard to tell the ‘good ones’ they can trust from the bad and such like crap.

    What has impressed me most by friends and family bigots who have visited California and been all skeered by half the people who pass by is the abject ignorance
    I think it is a huge problem that has horribly warped our history and government policy, but I think the number of committed knowing white supremacists is a very small minority. But it will take as long, maybe a few more generations, to get rid of the scared confused emotional racist and bigot who will fess up that the ‘blood and soil’ stuff is nonsense, and racism is nonsense, if you can get them to open up. But maybe their bigotry, being IMHO, being impulse born from fear ignorance and habit, it is more stubborn than the conscious racism of the hard core supremacists

    But fact is that, their slogans and the history they are spouting is pure BS nonsense and fantasy, and their leaders are toxic fools. The thing I fear most is that a competent leadership for this movement will get close to power. We are in bad enough shape as it is, with incompetent toxic fools in power now.

    Maybe being a white guy I can afford to be less angry and resentful about it. I don’t fool myself into thinking that a dirty lib like me is not on their list, but I am very far down. Though with Trumpster in power, I do think more frequently that some of these people do have lists, and people like me are on it, along with a lot of others.

  54. 54.

    Peale

    @? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Trying to figure that one out. A horde of barbarians is probably a scary collective. A hoard of barbaiarians is probably a scary collection. Does one put barbarians aside in warehouses for future use? Are they a valueable stash like pirate booty or kind of gross, like a pirate’s booty?

  55. 55.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @jl: Why do you think that typing something that long at this time of night will have any effect?

    Edited.

  58. 58.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    @Major Major Major Major: Search string “Degenerate Hordes” returns no band results on Metal Archives. It’s technically possible that it’s taken by a non-metal band, but the odds are almost nil. The odds are slightly larger that it’s taken by a metal band that MA is too snobby to add because of its incomprehensible standards for what qualifies as metal, but last.fm also doesn’t list any artists by that name, so I’d say the odds are, again, almost nil.

    (I didn’t search Hoards, because my inner grammar Nazi wouldn’t allow it. I suppose it’d be possible to justify it as some kind of pun.)

  60. 60.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @jl:

    Maybe being a white guy I can afford to be less angry and resentful about it. I don’t fool myself into thinking that a dirty lib like me is not on their list, but I am very far down. Though with Trumpster in power, I do think more frequently that some of these people do have lists, and people like me are on it, along with a lot of others.

    You also have to admit, it would be a lot easier to blend in

  67. 67.

    danielx

    Hey where have I heard this exact policy solution before?

    Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

    Totally.

  71. 71.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @BruceFromOhio:
    Oh yeah. I’m not quiet about that shit usually. I will call out people when appropriate. My loud mouth will probably get me killed someday but oh well.

  72. 72.

    jl

    @BruceFromOhio: Who was that addressed to?

    There is no blending in with the Trumpsters or the goons at these rallies. We’ve seen time and time again that these people turn on each other.and eat themselves up. They are toxic and dangerous, regardless of whether they are knowing conscious racists or confused ignorant self-pitying bigots.

  73. 73.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @BruceFromOhio:
    They want their white ethnostate and they want it now. People like Spencer don’t fool me with they’re non-violent “minorities will self-deport”, “we’re totally ok with gays” hipster fascism. We all know that with the power of the state they’ll force any non-whites citizens who refuse to leave.

    Doesn’t surprise me that they chant that “Russia is our friend”. That’s their ideal white ethnostate. Never mind that it isn’t and that in such a system these people would be on the bottom if not purged for doing or saying something that the regime didn’t like.

  77. 77.

    BruceFromOhio

    @jl:

    Who was that addressed to?

    You: “Maybe being a white guy I can afford to be less angry and resentful about it. ”
    Goku: “You also have to admit, it would be a lot easier to blend in”

    Both of you, but Goku called it. It will probably get me hurt or killed eventually. But the gist of it is, I really, really despise bullies. And the only way to send them packing is to get right. In. Their. Faces.

  78. 78.

    jl

    I’m so sick with flu I’m going to have to go lie down. Not sure if I said something wrong or people are expressing surprise that I am willing to listen and try to figure out how and why bigots think the way they do. There are so many bigots running around, not much point in confronting them if you know it won’t change anything.

    The random Trumpster bigot in my family is not going to get converted and do squat to prevent the nightmare of Trump’s lawless iCE coming down on DACA kids in a few months. Better to focus my frustration on giving money or writing Harris and DiFi and Pelosi about that.

    @BruceFromOhio: OK, thanks for explaining.

  79. 79.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    Well Thanksgiving is going to be awkward this year at the Trump’s (more so than usual):

    Jared Kushner’s brother slams Trump administration’s efforts to weaken Obamacare

    The brother of White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has issued an impassioned defense of the individual marketplace under the Affordable Care Act, or ACA while criticizing the Trump administration for not easing “growing confusion among shoppers.”

    Joshua Kushner, the self-acknowledged liberal co-founder of a 2012 health care startup called Oscar Health Insurance, wrote an Axios op-ed with the company’s CEO, Mario Schlosser.

    In it, they call out the “uncertain impact of the Trump administration’s last-minute policy moves” regarding the health care law.

    “The administration’s cuts to outreach and sporadic lip service to repealing the ACA do nothing to stanch growing confusion among shoppers,” they also note.

    However, Kushner and Schlosser write that they are nonetheless optimistic because, in their words, “we are seeing signs that sustainable strategies to keep health care costs down for all Americans are being accelerated and proven out in the individual market.”

    Despite the positive tone, their company has faced some serious challenges.

    “In the four and change years since it started, Oscar has lost hundreds of millions of dollars, withdrawn from two of the seven markets where it sold insurance, and raised premiums while severely cutting its network in New York, its home state,” a GQ report noted back in March.

  83. 83.

    jl

    @BruceFromOhio: Also from my experience, I’ve had more success persuading the bigots and reactionaries in my family to change their thinking little by little, issue by issue, after listening to them vent, than others in the family who just yell at them.

  84. 84.

    Lyrebird

    @jl: Feel better soon!

    My sleep schedule is messed up, so I am sure I didn’t catch all the nuances in people’s responding to your longer comment. Sounded pragmatic to me.

  86. 86.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @jl:
    The scariest part is a lot of them in videos and pictures look like normal people I’d pass by in a grocery store. Evil really is banal

  87. 87.

    Snarki, child of Loki

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: “he media didn’t cover the Bowling Green Massacre either. ”

    I, for one, would like to invite those White Nationalists to the “Bowling Green Massacre Zeroth Anniversary”.

  88. 88.

    ? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?

    @jl:
    Personally I just really like throwing their tropes right back in their faces just to see their reaction. Kinda like if you called them a snowflake or you suggested a white fallen police officer was “no angel”, probably deserved it, making all sorts of justifications of why the guy who shot the cop was justified.

    I’ve never done the cop one (assholish) but would love to see a law and order and blue lives matter type blow up. Would they see what I was trying to do?

  89. 89.

    BruceFromOhio

    @jl: Those that will change their thinking will do it on their own with or without my help. Those that won’t, I want them out in the open, in the light, for all to see. Cut to the chase already, clocks ticking. There’s been plenty written here about it, this is not rocket surgery. Are you a Nazi bigot or not? It’s actually a simple question. DO YOU WANT TO KILL PEOPLE WHO AREN’T WHITE? If no, then WHY DO YOU SUPPORT PEOPLE WHO DO? If yes, then WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? It’s very illuminating to watch the dance, and far less words. The Faux News ones struggle the most, poor dears.

  90. 90.

    MomSense

    Unless you have an entire day to kill, so not watch Stranger Things. The second season is intense.

  92. 92.

    danielx

    Roger Stone’s Twitter account has been suspended after Trump-Russia meltdown

    Am I correct or incorrect that this is one of those, like, Villager insider horse racing news? Like how likely is it that the average voter, R or D, from Wheeling VA, or Rumford MN, or Muncie IN (formerly known as Middletown USA) knows who Roger Stone is or gives a flying fuck what he says or does?

    ETA: tho roger stone is a slimy sonofabitch who should have to spend all eternity at a barry manilow concert in company with people to whom he owes lots of money.

  94. 94.

    Mike in NC

    @MomSense: Have not watched yet, but another excellent show on Netflix is “Mindhunters” based on a retired FBI guy novelist who studied serial killers and is set in the 1970s. Where do they get so many of these period cars?

  97. 97.

    MomSense

    @Mike in NC:

    That was really good. It’s so much fun to see the cars. On one of the Stranger Things episodes a light blue, boxy Camry went by that looked just like the car we had.

    @Major Major Major Major: It gets better. I was meh about the first but my son told me to keep watching and he was right. The suspense keeps building.

  98. 98.

    Feathers

    @Mike in NC: From collectors. They get a kick from seeing their car in a movie and it adds value to the car. Also there are companies that rent props to movies who have inventory of whatever era is in vogue for period filming.

    BTW The Deuce is fantastic. They even get the body types of the humans right. Nobody’s been to the gym.

  100. 100.

    opiejeanne

    @Mike J: Am I one of the perps? I don’t think I’ve given any apps access to anything recently, let alone sketchy ones, but I had a problem with my phone and Facebook earlier and had to shut it off to get rid of an ad supposedly for Walmart that could not be dismissed any other way.

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    @Mike in NC:
    My boss has a couple thousand sq ft storage space with classic cars in it. He is by far not the only one. Long ago (HS) I worked for a retired marine drill instructor who had an army half track from WWII. It ran and was drivable. He rented it out for movies.

  104. 104.

    Redshift

    Speaking of snowflakes, I randomly ended up on a Republican Governors Association email list starting in September, and I’ve stayed on it just to know what they’re up to.

    For a while it was all NFL and anthem protests, and their fundraising premium was flag shirts “to wear to NFL games” and flag bumper stickers with “I stand.”

    Now they’re flogging ice scrapers, because argle bargle liberal snowflakes. Yes, it’s that stupid.

  106. 106.

    Ruckus

    @Redshift:
    I got on some state rethug mailing list.
    Unsubscribed. Still got their crap.
    Email reply to the next one. Semi nice that I wouldn’t vote republican for any amount of money type of note. Still got their crap. Oh and BTW wasn’t even in the persons district.
    Second email to third one. Far more swear words than non. Never threaten, just make them pissed off. Along the lines of When the fuck are you fucking assholes going to learn to read? And much more. That stopped it.

  107. 107.

    Redshift

    @danielx: No, the average voter doesn’t know who Roger Stone is, but this isn’t a “turn voters against Republicans” thing, it’s a “Stone is up to his neck in the Trump-Russia mess, and he’s freaking out over Mueller” thing. And it’s amusing, because he’s such an asshole that it’s good to see him suffer.

    It’s an example of what intelligence guys (according to Malcolm Nance) call “the target getting buggy.” Meaning that he knows he’s done bad stuff, but doesn’t know how much investigators know, so when it looks like someone is going down, he worries about all the stuff he knows they could get him for, and starts twitching.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    @Redshift:
    Would be nice if his life of assholish republican crap comes back and takes a nice big bite out of him.
    Ahhh a boy can dream.

  110. 110.

    opiejeanne

    @jl: Good for you. I’ve tried that but I’m out of patience, and I yelled at my sister because I think she voted for Trump out of … I don’t know what, either habit of voting R or a male acquaintance told her she should. She always looks to male authority and she hasn’t noticed what a bad strategy that has been for her. But I finally yelled at her and I’m sure it did no good, but I know she did finally hear me, that voting against her own interest is a bad idea.

    I’m the bossy older sister.

  114. 114.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    I take some heart from the fact that these guys always seem to be outnumbered by at least 2-to-1 by decent people whenever they decide to stage one of their little shit shows.

  115. 115.

    Matt McIrvin

    @danielx: Especially considering that Roger Stone has multiple accounts (to promote books, movies, etc.) and just immediately started tweeting on the others the moment he was banned.

  116. 116.

    Matt

    “I don’t have nothing against refugees, but I do think they need stricter vetting for it,” Bagwell said…

    Y’know what, Chad. You’re right. Now just self-deport back to the Confederacy while we process your application to live in the United States, and take your Nazi homeboys with you.

    For your convenience, a time machine has been provided. It’s behind the door marked “CAUTION: WOOD CHIPPER”

  117. 117.

    hugely

    @Major Major Major Major: actual “shelbyvillans”. I drove there once in the 1990s to tour the city bc of the Simpsons. It was quaint and cute. I did get the feeling it wasnt far enough from 1890s for my taste

    The adopt a highway signs on the route to Shelbyville were sponsored by the Kountry Keg Kowboys (they might have used Cs though). Rather depressing

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