Donald Trump and his Department of Homeland Security have decided they don’t want to bother the very fine people who terrorize America:
The Department of Homeland Security has disbanded a group of intelligence analysts who focused on domestic terrorism, The Daily Beast has learned. Numerous current and former DHS officials say they find the development concerning, as the threat of homegrown terrorism—including white supremacist terrorism—is growing.
In the wake of this move, officials said the number of analytic reports produced by DHS about domestic terrorism, including the threat from white supremacists, has dropped significantly. People in and close to the department said this has generated significant concern at headquarters.
“It’s especially problematic given the growth in right-wing extremism and domestic terrorism we are seeing in the U.S. and abroad,” one former intelligence official told The Daily Beast.
The group in question was a branch of analysts in DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A). They focused on the threat from homegrown violent extremists and domestic terrorists. The analysts there shared information with state and local law enforcement to help them protect their communities from these threats.
We don’t worry about body counts when they’re untermensch.
cmorenc
When you don’t like the facts, kill the facts. And then make some up that fit the narrative you want to be true.
guachi
Democrats need to hammer that Republicans are weak on terrorism and cite domestic, right-wing terrorists
scav
It somehow only makes sense if we really are just being raised in an NRA-approved game preserve, and really what they object to with foreign terrorists is that they’re poaching, doing a job real ‘mercans actually can do and prefer to do themselves.
schrodingers_cat
We should be thankful that it is not yet state policy to do away with the people these fine people deem to be the “undesirables”. Our government was making asylum seekers sleep on gravel under a bridge last week.
Something that our FPers missed between elebenty posts about a mayor.
Mary G
Well, for Twitler their killing POC, Jews, libtards, and Mooslims is a feature, not a bug.
Roger Moore
@guachi:
Republicans are not “weak” on domestic terrorism. They actively encourage it.
schrodingers_cat
@Roger Moore: Yes and they would like it to be the official policy. They want to bring back the 1920s immigration laws for starters.
kindness
Are they selling Klan hoods in the White House gift shop yet?
Barbara
So when the next incident comparable to the Oklahoma City bombing happens, how long do you think it will take before they blame Obama?
WaterGirl
There is no limit to the damage that this administration is doing. It’s like they live for it.
MattF
@Barbara: Considering that the maximum speed of information transfer is the speed of light– i.e., about a foot per nanosecond…
hells littlest angel
You say terrorists,
I say Sturmabteilung,
Let’s call the whole thing off
oatler.
The Trump regime’s desire (lust) to foment domestic terrorism is currently winning bigly.
rikyrah
Glad you saw that, Cole.
It’s a bunch of lone wolves, don’t you know…
LightCastle
@cmorenc: The Doctor speaks some truth on the issue.
“You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common.
They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views.
Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.”
https://youtu.be/uqpq9tP14PA
Mike in NC
Fat Bastard just wants to protect his neo-Nazi base. He also has apparently decided not to bother trying to repeal ACA until his shit base reelects him. Looks like the “Party of Healthcare” slogan didn’t make it past 48 hours. Whocoooda known?
Uncle Cosmo
@Barbara: Considering how little understanding of time or sequence the Far Wrong’s target audience has for anything that happened before last Christmas, I’m half surprised they aren’t blaming Obama for Oklahoma City itself.
CliosFanboy
@Barbara: what is smaller than a nano-second??
TaMara (HFG)
FFS, I’ve barely had two cups of coffee and gotten the dogs out for a walk and this morning is already depressing the hell out of me.
Time to step away from the internet….
different-church-lady
@CliosFanboy: a pico-second.
A Ghost To Most
A slight correction: it’s not terrorism when white christians do it.
White eco warriors are considered terrorists. Antifa are considered terrorists.
rikyrah
No lie told ???
Adam Serwer? (@AdamSerwer) Tweeted:
The president believes white farmers in the midwest are true Americans and therefore entitled to aid, and Puerto Ricans are not. It’s not more complicated than that. https://t.co/kUBq45pqcR https://twitter.com/AdamSerwer/status/1113092040533991426?s=17
Amir Khalid
@CliosFanboy:
Wikipedia has the answer:
WaterGirl
@TaMara (HFG): Yep. Because of all the ugliness out there — and the recent propensity to political candidate ugliness on BJ of late — I so appreciate the calming, non-political posts that you and Betty Cracker have been putting up.
OldDave
@different-church-lady: And if CliosFanBoy is interested, then the femtosecond, which is one quadrillionth of a second.
ETA: http://news.mit.edu/2012/explained-femtoseconds-and-attoseconds
Enhanced Voting Techniques
I would almost say this a conspiracy to encourage it, but then it’s the Trump admin, these lazy idiots would think Fox news reports are all the analysts and statistics they need.
Frankensteinbeck
@Uncle Cosmo:
They blame him for 9/11, and I wish that was a joke.
@rikyrah:
I said at the time, he believes Puerto Ricans are Mexicans. Most hard racists do. I would not be surprised if on a test half of America said Puerto Rico was part of Mexico, not the US.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@LightCastle:
Yes, Donald Trump.
Gravenstone
@guachi: They’re not weak on it, they encourage it when it serves their purpose. Both as a means to further their own goals and as a pretext to criminalize the “other”. It all depends upon the color and religion of the individual terrorist.
Mart
@Mary G: You have the mass murderer who shot up country music fans in Vegas, and the idiot Democrat who shot up Republican Congresscritters at baseball practice. Think there would be some concern “they” are coming for us…
Gravenstone
@Mike in NC: McConnell and friends probably made it abundantly clear that they, and by extension Trump would get their collective asses handed to them should he be so stupid as to make healthcare a signature issue for 2020. So they turned to the tried and true approach of planning to screw everyone they can the microsecond they further consolidate their power.
Mart
@rikyrah:
Google search says: “There are currently some 330,000 veterans and some 35,000 Puerto Ricans in active duty service. The Puerto Rico Army/Air National Guard and the Reserve components represent another 10,000 Puerto Ricans in uniform. At least, 375,000 Puerto Ricans are veterans or are still wearing the uniform.May 28, 2017”.
Gravenstone
@rikyrah: His butthurt all comes back to that one mayor badmouthing him because of his callous disregard for the people of Puerto Rico. He’s determined to punish everyone there because she hurt his feelings.
A Ghost To Most
@Mart:
My evil plan would be to get a bunch of Nashville Kuntry fans trapped in a venue, then forcing them to listen to lefty country. Not that it would change them, but it would make them nuts.
WaterGirl
@Gravenstone: I disagree. Trump was punishing everyone in Puerto Rico BEFORE the mayor spoke up about Trump’s callous disregard. That’s WHY the mayor spoke up. Why blame the mayor??
CliosFanBoy
@OldDave: that sounds like the time it takes the RW to blame Obama.
snoey
@Frankensteinbeck: True for most, but Trump’s an old school NYC landlord so to him Mexicans are another kind of Puerto Rican.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: There’s such a thing as lefty country? I am a fan of classic country (Patsy Cline, etc.) but I only hear the current stuff on jukeboxes in taverns. Never heard any lefty country there (not a surprise, considering where I live), but I was appalled to learn recently that there’s such a thing as country rap, and my dog, is it awful!
Frankensteinbeck
@WaterGirl:
Yeah, this goes directly back to Trump thinking Puerto Ricans are Mexicans. Everything else is a detail. It’s not like he isn’t a proven white supremacist. Once someone explained to him that Puerto Rico is American, it just became a part of Mexico that happens to be under American rule and he can ethnically cleanse.
MattF
@Betty Cracker: I’d put Steve Earle in that category– and there are many other ‘Americana’ musicians who are not classic country and not explicitly political either, e.g., Gillian Welch.
Uncle Cosmo
@WaterGirl: No no, the Trumpthuglican playbook is to screw over some not-white-fundy group, provoke public complaint by a member of (or someone representing) that group, & then flaunt the complaint as justification for screwing them over in the first place (& now, if possible, even harder). It works for their base, which is largely innocent of any linear concept of time, including cause & effect.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@MattF:
That’s so frigging stupid that has to be Trump’s reasoning.
cmorenc
@Betty Cracker:
There’s a wonderful role-reversal lampoon of sexist stereotypes in country music “Girl in a Country Song” by Maddie & Tae. Caution: your eyes might hurt after seeing guys in the sorts of suggestive clothing in which women are often adorned in country music videos, especially the not-so svelte guy in bib overalls taking a shower @apx. 2:50. Hilarious!
Gravenstone
@WaterGirl: I’m not blaming her. Only pointing out that his level of disdain for PR increased significantly after her warranted criticisms of him. Remember that he immediately and consistently verbally attacked her following her statements about him. It’s all been downhill from there. Although I will admit that Frankensteinbeck’s comment about intentional conflation with “dirty Mexicans” also makes a great basis for his disdain of Latinx people in general.
Mart
@MattF: Remember listening to Steve Earle on satellite radio’s Air America. How can we forget the Dixie Chicks and Willie Nelson? Number of blue dog country Dems:
NotMax
@Betty Cracker
Made me throw up in my mouth a little.
Gravenstone
@cmorenc:
Cole has a cameo?!?!
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Some people know it as Americana.
DBT
Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit
Steve Earle
Sturgill Simpson
My favorites. There are a bunch more. Lucinda Williams is not just a fine sativa.
scav
I wonder if he’ll actually whine that all the flooded Nebraskan farmers aren’t being properly “grateful” enough for him doing a stardard action of the god-damned minimum of his job. Can photo-ops of him renaming post-offices — “The best name ever! No other president has ever named such a great name ever before! All the best names!” — with chanting crowds behond him be far behind?
Hallmark will have to come up with a whole line of gilded Thanking Trump cards: “Thanks for mailing me my tax refund!” “All Hail for repainting the lines on the local interstate!”
Amir Khalid
@cmorenc:
I must say, I like where Maddie & Tae are comimg from.
WhatsMyNym
@rikyrah:
It’s easier for him to skim money off the top when the money goes to “white farmers” (industrial farm businesses) in the mid-west, than when it goes to Puerto Rico.
Betty Cracker
@A Ghost To Most: I’ve listened to Lucinda Williams for ages but never noticed a political slant.
Betty Cracker
@cmorenc: LOL! That was good. :)
Rand Careaga
@Betty Cracker:
Yee-haw! (link is to the YouTube channel of Merle Hazard, “America’s foremost country singer/economist”)
Danjos
@Barbara: 3 seconds
ruemara
@Gravenstone: Nah. He was determined to keep those brown folks in their place, from stealing from good white americans. Only some of this is a personal issue about Yulin. What it is, is plain old deep, ugly, violent racism.
A Ghost To Most
@Betty Cracker: Exactly. As opposed to the constant drumbeat of godz, gutz, gunz propaganda from Nashville. Real songs by real people.
The real lefties are those I mentioned. Sturgill Simpson’s “Metamodern Sounds in Country Music” is an eye-opening first listen.
Barney
Meanwhile, in the UK:
And just to show there are good people on both sides: “It can now be reported that Renshaw is a convicted paedophile who was jailed for 16 months last June months after he groomed two underage boys online.”
I am currently engaged in an argument on a British forum, in which various right wingers are moaning that all this talk of white supremacists is just unfair, because Christchurch is on the other side of the world, and the ADL report saying over half of US extremist killings in the last decade were by white supremacists doesn’t count because the ADL hasn’t got over Hitler (seriously, that’s almost a verbatim quote), and the media is reporting this neo-Nazi plot to murder an MP far too much. Because 9/11. Where do they find these fucking people?
Sloegin
In Homeland’s defense, the investigation probably fingered too many current employees. Gotta protect your own.
Jim Parish
Some of Charlie Daniels’ early work – “Uneasy Rider”, “Long Haired Country Boy”, maybe “Still in Saigon” – was leftish, but he moved hard right pretty quickly. I think I’d class Dolly Parton as on the left, too, although not much of her work is political.
Dan B
@Frankensteinbeck: Mexico Island to be specific. It’s one of the seven, and counting, Mexicos.
I heard that Hawaii may be up for Pacific Kenya. Has a ring to it, emmi right?
J R in WV
@Betty Cracker:
“There’s such a thing as lefty country? ”
Willy Nelson and the other “outlaw” stars that tour with him, for one example. Lucinda Williams and that ilk for another.
Wife also very fond of Patsy Cline.
J R in WV
@Jim Parish:
Dolly is adored by wife, for good reason. Her primary charity has put something like 100,000,000 books into the hands of children!! Plus all the jobs she has created in East Tennessee. After growing up in grinding poverty, like Loretta Lynn, also a good person.