Look- not all Republicans are terrorist supporting white supremacists, but if you are a terrorist supporting white supremacist, you’re gonna be a Republican:
State Rep. Matt Shea planned and participated in domestic terrorism against the United States before and during the armed takeover at Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, an investigation commissioned by the Washington state House found.
The 108-page report found that beginning in November 2015, Shea, working with militia leader Ammon Bundy, helped “in the planning and preparation” of the Malheur takeover, a six-week conflict in which dozens of armed protesters occupied the refuge in rural Eastern Oregon. The standoff ended after one protester was shot and killed and dozens were arrested.
“Representative Shea, as a leader in the Patriot Movement, planned, engaged in and promoted a total of three armed conflicts of political violence against the United States Government in three states outside the state of Washington over a three-year period,” according to the report released Thursday. “In one conflict Representative Shea led covert strategic pre-planning in advance of the conflict.”
Immediately after the report was released, Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the Republican minority leader of the House, said Shea “has been suspended from any role in the House Republican Caucus.”
“He should resign,” Wilcox wrote on Twitter. “He cannot use House Republican staff, he cannot meet with the caucus, his office will be moved.”
Dear GOP- the call is coming from inside the house.
Duane
IANAL, but he will be arrested and tried for these obvious criminal acts. Right?
Mary G
Now the conservative guy on the debate panel is shit-stirring by bringing up Obama’s comments about women should be in charge and old men not getting out of the way are the cause of all our problems. Bernie and Biden both smack it aside. Biden says “he wasn’t talking about me.”
Then he asks Biden about being the oldest, Biden brings up Winston Churchill, the guy said American in a gotcha way, and Joe goes “I was joking [ed. – implied you moron]. Big laughs. Says Politico reporters don’t have a sense of humor.
Goes to Warren – you’d also be the oldest president ever inaugurated, what’s your answer? “I’d be the youngest woman president ever elected!”
Leto
Treason; this is called treason.
Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.)
We desperately need a press full of people who are willing to say outright that the Republican Party has given up on democracy and thrown its lot in with fascism and terrorism. They don’t want to say that, because it’s uncivil. They don’t want to say that because they hang out with, and are friends of, the people they should be writing about forthrightly and bluntly. But they need to say it.
We’ve made some headway. The press has learned to call Donald Tяump what he is; but they’re still committed to believing that Tяump is some kind of aberration, a freak, something that nobody could have foreseen, and there was no way to stave off.
But as I’ve said many times, this was inevitable. Not this specific this, but some this like this. Under the right circumstances, they could have nominated Roy Moore or David Duke or somebody like David Koresh or Timothy McVeigh. The Republicans have been building toward somebody like Tяump for 25 years. It shouldn’t shock us that they got there.
CaseyL
He’s a Washington state representative from Spokane Valley. Washington is mostly-blue west of the Cascades, and mostly-red east of the Cascades. And some places are redder than others. The city of Spokane is itself (relatively) liberal, but Spokane County is pretty right-leaning, and Spokane Valley very much so.
Odie Hugh Manatee
I grew up in the conservative shithole known as Spokane. We got the fuck outta there in the early 90’s and my wife and I only go back to visit family. As much as we love to see them we’re always happy to be leaving that place. Wallowing in ignorance and constantly whining about the western part of the state is all they know.
Tom Foley would disavow the place now.
Kay
@CaseyL:
I listened to a podcast about him. It was about the Patriot Movement but he was central in it. The reporter couldn’t figure out why Shea was going to these far-flung Patriot events because they are outside his district. I figured he was raising money off them- a bunch of small donations from all over-he’s like a celebrity at their events.
WaterGirl
Maybe this Wilcox person has been living in a cave for the past 4 years? Not quibbling with what he wants to do, but with the disconnect between this and everything else the R party is doing.
burnspbesq
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
It’s a little difficult to imagine a town with a Jesuit university as a right-wing shithole, but I’ll take your word for it.
debbie
The party should set aside a day for professional development on how to vet members.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie: ????
Baud
@Omnes Omnibus:
She meant “pet members.” It’s a Baud! 2020! party building proposal.
Kent
@burnspbesq: Spokane is a city of 200,000 and is reasonably liberal. There are older neighborhoods that would remind you of Portland. Spokane the city is sitting in Spokane County which is 500,000 so 3/5 of the area is suburban and exurban sprawl. That’s where the most of the right wing wackos live. Shea comes from the reddest part of suburban Spokane. The metro area also borders Northern Idaho which is the heartland of the right nationalist movement and adds in another 100,000 or so in the general area.In the past 50 years most of the population growth in the Spokane area has been in the sprawling suburbs not the central city. So it has become more suburban rather than less.
For some reason, Spokane has been unable to gain much economic traction in the past several decades. It actually more resembles an older midwest city than a west coast city. Other cities in the region like Boise have been exploding with growth. I’m not exactly sure why Spokane is lagging behind. It’s got the biggest medical centers between Seattle and Minneapolis. The scenery is nicer than Boise. It’s got a variety of colleges and universities. But it’s just very stagnant. And also super white. Might be the least diverse metro area over 500,000 in the entire country. Or close to it.
WaterGirl
PSA: The site will be down tonight for up to an hour between midnight and 6pm for more maintenance.
Omnes Omnibus
@Baud: Makes sense.
oldster
Wow– I am impressed that Wilcox is talking about real consequences for this. I hope that he can make them stick. I worry that instead, Wilcox will come out tomorrow and say that his comments were misunderstood, and in fact Shea is a True American Patriot.
That Malheur debacle made me sick at the time, and even more in retrospect, after I realized it was a leading indicator of our country’s dysfunction. Here were a group of people committing treason and armed insurrection, who would have been shot down in the streets if they were brown or black, but were instead made into heroes and acquitted of all charges.
They were never heroes. They were unAmerican scum, worse than foreign terrorists because they have had every advantage and ought to know better.
But they were nursed on Reaganite ressentiment and white supremacy — the bastard spawn of James Watt and Anne Gorsuch. Filthy traitors.
Let’s hope this guy really gets the boot. Washington State deserves so much better.
opiejeanne
@WaterGirl: The disconnect between what Shea has been up to locally, too. Since 2016 we’ve been calling on Wilcox to do more than censure him.
http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/washington-democrats-call-for-ouster-of-matt-shea.html
“….Shea’s most recent public-relations crisis unfolded on Saturday. The Guardian’s Jason Wilson published texts sent by Shea and two other men, whom Wilson identified as far-right radio host Jack Robertson and Anthony Bosworth, who helped occupy the Malheur wildlife refuge in 2016. In the texts, which date from 2017, Shea appears to offer material assistance to Robertson and Bosworth, who believed a left-wing uprising was imminent and proposed a violent response. “Ok. What BG checks need to be done. Give me the list,” he wrote. Robertson and Bosworth offered more threatening contributions. “Fist full of hair, and face slam, to a Jersey barrier. Treat em like communist revolutionaries. Then shave her bald with a K-Bar USMC field knife,” Robertson wrote. Robertson told the Guardian that his comments were “tongue-in-cheek.”
Though Shea did not make threats in the chats, his participation, and his apparent offer to run background checks on local left-wing activists, swiftly earned him a round of political condemnation. The state Democratic Party has called on the GOP to boot Shea from its ranks. But in a statement, Republican House Minority Leader JT Wilcox stopped short of calling for Shea’s resignation or even for his censure.”
Kent
The WA GOP has nothing to lose by purging Shea. His district is ruby red. It might actually help them rebrand
Honestly I kind of hope they keep him around. He helps clarify what they are all about.
WaterGirl
@opiejeanne: Wow. Treason. Right out in the open. While serving in government. The mind boggles.
danielx
Cue death threats against J.T. Wilcox in 3…2…1…
Suzanne
So I bought Nancy Pelosi’s mace pin for SuzMom.
I think I shared with y’all about how, last year, SuzFam went to a music festival at Glen Helen Amphitheater near San Bernardino with some friends. Anyway, we stayed two nights at a Hampton Inn off the I-10. The first day at breakfast, we sat down in the dining room for breakfast, and about ten minutes later, a group of Hammerskins sat down at the table next to us. Apparently there was some convention or gathering. I was horrified. We reported it to the hotel staff, but they didn’t do anything, even though they were all dressed in their full gear. UGHHHHH.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suzanne: Where did you get it?
Gin & Tonic
@Suzanne: I’m embarrassed to admit that I know what a foreskin is, but don’t know what a hammerskin is.
Omnes Omnibus
@Gin & Tonic: Skinhead group. Imagery straight out of the fascist bits of Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
Mary G
@Gin & Tonic: Racist skinheads who think Hitler was a squish.
Gin & Tonic
I guess I need to get out more.
WaterGirl
@Gin & Tonic: I didn’t know, either. Not sure whether that will make you feel better or worse.
Ksmiami
@Mary G: I actually thought Obama should have made an example of those malhuer assholes and drone blasted them into dust but that’s just me
oldster
@Ksmiami:
Nope, not just you. Me, too.
Sloegin
Spokanistan ex-pat as well. It’s a lovely place full of some really unpleasant people. It’s generally known as a ‘nice place to raise kids’ but has no economy to speak of other than retail. Shea has been a known problem for nearly a decade, but got re-elected in 2016 despite the local paper (Spokesman Review) dishing dirt on him – which is mind-blowing in its own right, as the SR has been a fascist rag in all my memory growing up there.
Dems in Olympia have been trying for years to get Shea expelled, or short of that, trying to get the Rs to remove him from their caucus, but no dice. The minority GOP leader has suspended Shea this evening, but he ( JT Wilcox) was on Shea’s radio show (called Battlefront) not too long ago praising him.
Sloegin
My bad; he was re-elected 2018.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@burnspbesq:
You would think not but Gonzaga is an anomaly there. There’s a reason the white supremacists like north Idaho… eastern Washington.
Kent
@Sloegin: He’s in the House so you were right both times. They serve 2-year terms.
Kent
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
What makes you think people go to Gonzaga because it is Jesuit? Have you been to Gonzaga? It’s basically trying to become the west coast version of Notre Dame but it’s a long way away from that yet. Today it’s where a lot of Seattle and Portland suburban helicopter parents send their kiddos because UW and UO are way too liberal and they can’t get their kiddos into Stanford or USC. It’s like the whitest place you have ever seen outside BYU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jnei6VODrGI
Suzanne
@Omnes Omnibus: Ordered it from annhand.com.
Suzanne
@Gin & Tonic: Hammerskins are neo-Nazis. They dress just like you’d expect…. “Nazi Punks Fuck Off” was written about people like that.
I am always amazed, whenever I cross paths with actual white supremacists, how totally un-supreme in every way they are. Completely unattractive and unintelligent. They have no qualities that would seem to be appealing.
Which, of course, supports my thesis that Trumpy people support him because they are sad that “liberals” are doing better than them at life and supporting Trump is the only way they know how to protest.
West of the Rockies
So Meadows says he won’t seek reelection and this clown gets his dinky stuck in his zipper… There’s a couple more seats in play.
cain
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
Yes, we get the same here in Oregon. It’s like they don’t understand that we underwrite all their taxes. That because of the liberal rich part of the state they have money for services.
Ruckus
@Lord Fartdaddy (Formerly, Mumphrey, Smedley Darlington Mingobat, et al.):
More like over 60 yrs.
Never forget William F. Buckley, nor Joe McCarthy
Ruckus
@Kent:
USC is far from the whitest place on earth. I go by there a few times a month and my sister taught there over a decade ago. I’ve met a number of her students and they were all shades of humanity.
Kent
@Ruckus: I never said USC was white. I said BYU was white. What USC has become is the big name prestige reach school for west coast and Pacific Northwest kids from affluent families who know that Stanford is mostly beyond reach as it has become harder than Harvard. My daughter is a HS junior and she has affluent friends here in suburban Portland so I end up having the college conversation with their various parents from time to time. You’d be surprised at how much USC pops up as the dream school for upscale Portland suburbanites. They all want their kiddos to go to USC and study business or pre-med. Gonzaga and places like Occidental, University of Puget Sound, Lewis & Clark, etc. are safety schools for that set and the default for wealthy parents who’s kids are less than stellar. My point was that pretty much no one (or very few) go to Gonzaga specifically because it is Jesuit.
kindness
I’m shocked! Shocked I say to see that terrorism is going on here at Rick’s Republican Fun House. Close the place!
-Here are your bullets sir.
Oh why thank you.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@Kent:
I never said that they went there for that reason, did I? One of my sisters is a graduate of Gonzaga and you’re right, it’s as white as white can be.
I don’t know why people here think Spokane (the city itself) is relatively liberal, it isn’t. Holy crap. The city has been mismanaged by just about every city manager, mayor and council they’ve had. Corrupt city cops, corrupt sheriffs and corrupt government. I remember one cop that cleaned out the drug room, made all kinds of drug deals and when busted, sued the police and won a huge settlement for them letting him get addicted to coke. Another one was a sheriff who was canned after getting busted for his late night backseat liaisons by one of his girlfriends showed up while he was in the back seat of his squad car with another one. He was fired, sued and got his job back (with a settlement and back pay). He was able to successfully argue that he could have answered a call with little to no delay.
One mayor was the local news anchor that got the job because people liked him. He was a disaster. I grew up in a poorer section of town and the people I went to school with are all now conservatives, except for one. Some are dead way too young, others are drug addicts, and most of them live lives little changed from their youth.
It is a depressing place, I keep begging my sisters to leave and move here to Oregon. :) Late response but I had to pull myself out from under our Mustang (putting in a new fuel system) to get caught up.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@cain:
Yeah, same here in Brookings but I have no problem arguing with them here, they seem a bit saner than Spokanites. There are the usual loudmouths, but the conservatives that know me know that I know my shit (politically/historically) and I’ve softened up more than a few of them with real information and knowledge.
Every time I look out at the ocean I’m thankful that we discovered this place and moved here.
Zinsky
I have a friend who lives outside Portland. While the vast majority of Oregonians are liberal thinkers, he says there are a fair numbers of what he calls “cooters” living in the rural and heavily forested areas of the states. These are the lowest of the low-life conservatives who listen to Fox, Rush and Glenn Beck non-stop and eagerly look forward to shooting other human beings. Rep. Shea represents these vermin…
J R in WV
@Kent:
Just maybe the “super white” and “least diverse metro area… in the entire country” are exactly the reasons it is stagnant and doomed to dwindle away? Maybe?!!
It is obvious to me that a vibrant mix of people from different places with different backgrounds provides a huge lift to a society. In genetics it is called hybrid vigor! Spokane looks like it will never have that hybrid vigor. Kinda sad. Pathetic racists having no clue.
Leto
Go-Hate Me; pretty sure it was founded by Thiel, Musk, the Birch Society, Republican Party… so the usual suspects.
JPL
The best that can happen is they lose their jobs since they were unmasked. Most likely they will be charged with a misdemeanor and will still be able to vote and buy more guns.
It’s a white man’s world. fk
Baud
At first I thought there was a second incident in Idaho.
SpaceUnit
I’ve found that whenever folks make a point of labeling themselves as patriots one can safely assume that the opposite is true.
Nancy
Your description and wishes for these individuals seems right to me. Pretending to be military and roleplay could be laughable until someone gets hurt.
Sister Golden Bear
Reposting from downstairs, since it also involves domestic terrorists and LGBTQ+ folks. Just across the SF Bay from me, Proud Boys terrorize a Drag Queen Story Hour at a public library. No arrests at the scene, but the Sheriff’s Office says they’re conducting a hate crimes investigation.
First-hand account from the drag queen doing the story reading:
Calouste
@Leto:
Technically it would be Go-Hate-Them.
Also ironic that these white supremacists get arrested by a police department led by one Lee White, which is a rather, uhm, white name.
Mike in NC
@SpaceUnit: Take it for granted that any group with ‘Patriot’ or ‘Liberty’ in their name consists of right-wing idiots.
Sister Golden Bear
The ways things are going it’s not a matter of if there’s going to be violence at one of these events, but when, and how bad.
But now I’m gonna be even queerer than ever. Because fuck ’em.
Gin & Tonic
Today in nation-state terrorism:
ETA: So yeah, maybe not “today.” Sue me.
sab
@Sister Golden Bear: These guys are so obviously concerned about the kids.
trollhattan
Who remembers the Spokane MLK bomber?
https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/mlk-parade-bomber
An even worse disaster avoided than today’s close miss.
JPL
@Sister Golden Bear: Is this the one you mentioned?
Rep. Eric Swalwell
@RepSwalwell
·
5m
In flight now from CA to DC as I learned of Proud Boys attack on Trans community in my district. I will return home this week to meet with law enforcement and the community. We will not stand for this. And justice will flow like waters. #Pride
trollhattan
@Gin & Tonic:
Lovely people. It’s no secret Russia is using cluster weapons against civilians, but perhaps it’s now getting more of the attention it warrants.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-61778433
And yet they’re the ones handing out death sentences.
dww44
@SpaceUnit: Exactly. As with projection, the right is great at this sort of stuff. For decades I’ve disdained all the showy aspects of patriotism because historically it always takes a country down a dark path. We are seeing that before our very eyes. At times like this, I think of all the guilt trips that the GOP laid on the rest of us about the time of the Iraq invasion. The country would be a lot better off if a majority of us prioritized humility and understanding over arrogance and willful ignorance.
SpaceUnit
@Mike in NC:
Yep. And I think they’re lucky they were stopped by the police.
From the news clips I’ve seen they look like a bunch of soft, doughy momma’s boys who would have gotten their clocks cleaned. They should have stayed in their basements.
ColoradoGuy
Kind of like “DPRK” or the “Holy Roman Empire”. If they call themselves “Patriots”, they are actively working to set up a Putin-style fascist dictatorship, and if “Liberty” is in the name, they want to intimidate the “normies” with their guns, and outright murder gay, trans, and their allies.
Redshift
And give them all criminal records (the ones who don’t already have one) so they’ll have to worry about more serious charges and penalties if they get caught pulling this shit again.
J R in WV
@JPL:
Congressman Swalwell is a Mensch~!!~
SpaceUnit
@dww44:
I thinks it’s more deflection than projection. They want to deflect from the fact that they hate pretty much everything about this country.
Scout211
I had the same question that John Cole asks: who is funding this group? I haven’t found that answer, but there is a lot of information about this relatively new group. ProPublica had a person go undercover and join the group. The leader started the group w hen he was 18 and has strict control over the members and the activities,
ProPublica
Southern Poverty Law Center
Anti-Defamation League
Sister Golden Bear
@JPL: Yes.
Although as far as I know the drag queen doing the reading isn’t trans.* But the haters don’t make that distinguish, and in fact yelled anti-trans slurs at her. (Note, it’s customary to refer to drag queens (and drag kings) by the gender that they’re presenting as while in face.)
*There are a number of trans women who are attracted to men who first explored their identity via drag, as well as a lesser number (like myself) who are attracted to women. And who may continue performing in drag post-transition. I still do on occasion, although I mostly do burlesque these days. There’s also a similar dynamic with trans guys and drag kings. Albeit in both cases it’s a definite minority of performers — although there’s a lot more who are more genderfluid than will admit it. On the drag queen side, admitting there’s more to it than just the stage will generally get you dropped immediately by other gay men you’re dating.
RSA
@JPL:
I’m pretty ignorant about what’s done to identify and track domestic terrorist groups, but it seems obvious to me that membership is a perfect example of a red flag. There ought be legislation to prevent people in those organizations from owning guns.
Tony G
@Redshift: Yeah, I hope so too. But, unfortunately I’m pretty sure that their “friends” and family will be very proud of them. They are part of a cult, and the people they associate with are typically part of the same cult.
CliosFanBoy
The Sherrif released the info about all of those charged. Didn’t see anybody from Virginia, but most seemed to be from Idaho, Utah, and Washington State.
Kent
Here in America….
A group of black men with guns is called a “gang” the individuals are called “gangbangers”
A group of Hispanic men with guns is called a “cartel” and the individual members are called “narcos,” “sicarios,” “capos,” etc.
A group of white men with guns is called a “militia” and the individuals are called “patriots”
So it goes…
Baud
@RSA:
Maybe. But a lot of the Jan 6 seditionists were turned in by friends or family.
NotMax
Tremulous anxiety this is warm-up for the first national Juneteenth holiday.
Redshift
@Tony G: Yeah, that’s why I focused on the criminal record. One thing I learned from the insurrection arrests is that the reason a lot of them got short sentences is because that’s what the guidelines can for if they have no previous record, so I figure any minor conviction is a good thing for that reason alone.
Baud
@Kent:
No one calls them patriots except themselves.
Leto
@Scout211:
There’s a wiki page on them, including documentation on a lot of their activities:
Here’s the part I like:
I know the common jargon around here are: the kids are alright. No, no they’re not. Your kid might be ok. You might know a some who are ok. But there’s a fuck ton who aren’t.
JPL
@RSA: That is such a good point. Now let’s hope they don’t derail the deal.
Baud
@Redshift:
Yeah, a lot of the outrageous sentences you hear about people getting for minor crimes is because of repeat offender statutes. There are other problems, but that’s a big one.
Delk
Today is the sixth anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub massacre. 49 lgbtq people out for a fun night shot dead.
moops
Sadly, nobody has to pay them. They will donate their time and their spare money to the cause.
Kropacetic
Splitters…
moops
@Delk: Sad fact. Garland’s DOJ is sending a task force to investigate Uvalde that include John Mina. The Sheriff that hung back and listened as the Pulse Nightclub was butchered.
Scout211
@Leto: And watch out for those Boy Scouts:
From the ProPublica article: ProPublica
Sure Lurkalot
@Sister Golden Bear: It’s beside the point to ask what’s the point of protesting these events? The kids didn’t get to the story telling by themselves; their parents brought them. I thought they wanted parents to have eminent domain over everything their children see and hear. Only if the parents hate who they hate…
Betty
@SpaceUnit: I read that their leader lives with his parents. So basement is very likely.
realbtl
OMG is there anything more pathetic than a Trump lunchbox?
NotMax
‘@Scout211
Moved to the Goy Scouts.
//
zhena gogolia
@realbtl: stuffed with kfc and McDonald’s
Yutsano
@realbtl: I’m trying to wrap my brain around such a thing existing. It’s still hurting my head. Also: who still uses lunchboxes in high school?
docNC
These guys were the third or fourth team. Losers.
The leaders/organizers are leading from being invisible and in the way back.
We need to be ready; there’s more of them.
Baud
@realbtl:
You don’t even want to know about his underoos.
SpaceUnit
@Betty:
Ha. Figures.
Kropacetic
A true to life print that Trump modeled for himself. Yes, the mushroom in front is authentic.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: ha And the fries are cold.
zhena gogolia
@Kropacetic: He said we don’t want to know!
zhena gogolia
@JPL: I’m thinking of the mukbang that jl cauvin did
Kropacetic
@zhena gogolia: All the more reason to make it public…
JaySinWA
@Leto: I wouldn’t rule out Koch and Mercers from the potential funders. Thiel would be riding the tiger with the anti LGBTQ swing in this event, but I’m sure his MOTU attitude makes him feel immune.
SpaceUnit
I’d also like to point out that these guys are dopes for wearing a ‘uniform’ to this kind of thing. You’d want to blend in. These boys have shit for brains.
Doug R
@SpaceUnit:
If you’ve got to wave a flag at your rally, it’s kind of a tell that you’re foreign influenced.
Leto
@Scout211:
Lets count the blaring klaxxons:
– produced a unanimous sense of surprise that he’d started an organization committed to an all-white America (they always say that)
– against gay marriage, he was regarded more as a nice, conservative boy than a threat
– lazy student and a bit of a loner, but he had a knack for argument and a stubborn streak about never being wrong (can’t wait for him to replace Ted Cruz as the most loathsome debate club member of Congress)
– he wore a Make America Great Again hat and carried a Trump lunchbox
Idk, seems like an absolute shithead and ofc is a rank and file GOP member. Can’t wait to see how his parents are even worse. Or better yet, surprised! Noooo… not my little boy! /s Fucker.
NotMax
‘@Baud
Featuring Jared, Junior and Eric?
//
trollhattan
@zhena gogolia:
Hip nazis now ditch McDonald’s for “Vkusno i Tochka”
susanna
May Biden be lining up his ‘as needed’ Executive Orders to deal with these groups with far harsher penalties. I couldn’t care less about these people and their eventual records or loss of jobs and income. They must be stopped and removed from society on the spot, with harsh sentences.
If not, our legal, physical and humane resources for dealing with them will be exhausted and overwhelmed, at best. They are tearing at the core structure of this country.
These are people with guns, plenty of money and nutjobs plotting for their ‘victory.’ (Roger Stone, Bannon, crazy-hubris types, etc.).They’re removing our country’s most important description: Freedom, liberty to choose and pursue happiness (I’m not certain I grasp the last part). And they fear nothing right now. For they feel rightously important, on a mission, saviors.
I want a plan for their plans that provides strong resistance to these gun-carrying, self-emulating banditos, and with solid assurrance that the legal enforcers like the police can and will handle these uprisings. I want everyone to know what the plan and legalities will be.
zhena gogolia
@trollhattan: oh god is that really what they call it? What poshlost
piratedan
@JaySinWA: at the point right now where finding these guys is getting kind of important because it seems that they can create a never end stream of cannon fodder to throw at us…
and while there are more than a few usual suspects (Kochs, Murdochs, Thiel, etc)… gotta look beyond to the deep pocketed religious right, Russians, Saudis, hell even the Chinese and the ever worrisome who the hell else do we not know about?
NotMax
‘@Leto
Soon to be appearing on late, late night infomercials touting Himmlercoin.
//
MisterDancer
It did not take “brains” to enslave people. Or build the Authoritarian regime in America that was Jim Crow.
It’s fine to laugh at ’em. Unti you realize that, while you have been laughing, they have been playing the long game, with long guns.
I recommend a sharp mind and sharp eye on these assholes. I assure you, they may only have one brain cell, but they are eager and motivated to use it.
WaterGirl
@moops: I am having trouble understanding what’s going on with that. I think I need more information, or more context.
Is that sheriff part of the DOJ?
Burnspbesq
@JPL:
Under Idaho law, the conduct alleged is a misdemeanor. Is there some felony with which the could be charged? Probably. But this is Idaho, and Prosecuting Attorneys are county elected officials. Where is the incentive to upcharge a group that most voters in the county were openly or secretly cheering for?
Ascap_scab
Here is the booking report of the 31 “Patriot Front” charged with criminal conspiracy.
AL, AR, CO, ID, IL, MO, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY. Claim your nazis.
https://www.scribd.com/document/578037271/The-Kootenai-Co-Sheriff-s-Office-Booking-Summary-Report-Press-Log-for-05-00-00-06-11-2022-and-05-00-00-06-12-2022
JoyceH
Personally, I found this story rather… encouraging? When you read the headlines, white supremacists planning a riot in Idaho, you think, well — Idaho. But then come to find out that these guys came from like a dozen states – and they got a grand total of 31. Another encouraging sign is that the cops were proactive and didn’t wait until the guys ran amok before arresting anyone. Geez, if a white supremacist can’t riot in Idaho without being arrested, where CAN they riot?
Burnspbesq
@Mike in NC:
Does that include the New York Liberty?
MisterDancer
Oh, Google or Facebook/Meta or Twitter could tell you. In fact, one of my big fears is what that asshole Musk might do with the real time data he claims to need to complete the sale…
And I don’t mean that as a joke. Data mining/prediction tools could tell us, today, who’s at risk to be indoctrinated. There’s enough studies that broadly hint at the signs.
Such as: Koch/etc. don’t fund these groups directly. Aside from any assumptions you care to make around lack of IRS and campaign enforcement, the simple fact is that just funding entities like Prager U and the many video fuckers who soften the ground for hate does a great job of building the funnel.
Google knows, but between legit privacy concerns and the worship of money, does dame near nothing to stop YouTube from being a cesspool. Same with way too many services –and then you get into the aggressively supportive tech bros, like Theil and no doubt others, more silent in their support.
It’s not paranoia, not hyperbolic to say billions have been spent, over decades, to bring us to this point. We should grapple with the enormity of the situation in front of us, because that UHaul’s contents come not from that Redneck joke fantasy we have in our heads from media, but a very deadly reality that has been loosly built up over generations.
And I assure you, more than one person in these loose affiliations wants to remake America in the Myth of Dixieland.
We must stand against that.
Kent
@Baud: and Trump, FOX News, DeSantis, Abbott, etc. etc.
Mike in NC
How about those fucking ridiculous stuffed “Trumpy Bear” things that came with an American flag blanket inside? That way the loser who bought one could wrap themselves in the blanket and suck their thumbs.
Baud
@Kent:
I consider them part of “themselves.”
eldorado
@Kent:
i propose an ‘Oklahoma’ or ‘Idaho’
Ascap_scab
Here is another hero who blew himself up while making bombs.
‘A Michigan man is in critical condition after losing both his arms in a house explosion.
Dozens of firearms, loaded AR-style magazines, small explosive devices and thousands of rounds of ammunition were found inside.’
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/wayne-county/2022/06/12/bombs-weapons-warren-house-exploded-man-critical-condition/7602002001/?gnt-cfr=1
Tokyokie
@Betty: Hah! Shows what you know, Miss Smartypants. Houses in Grapevine don’t have basements. That’d mean you couldn’t build it quickly on a concrete slab.
Citizen_X
@Ascap_scab: I’ll be really mean: Gee, can’t use his guns anymore. Too bad. Thoughts n’ prayers, etc.
Tokyokie
@Ascap_scab: sounds like he had plenty of arms lying around to replace those he lost.
Spanky
@Ascap_scab: I pity the person hired to wipe this asswipe’s ass.
Philbert
@Ascap_scab: All these guys from so many states is just asking for Federal interstate conspiracy to commit violence charges. FBI is there anyway.
Ksmiami
@trollhattan: we need to help Ukraine wipe the Russians in their country out. Enough fucking around and allowing Putin to act like Dr. No.
schrodingers_cat
OT Brief thread on the most recent horror show in India for any interested juicers.
Gin & Tonic
@Citizen_X: I’ll be even meaner: there goes his sex life.
scav
@Citizen_X: Lost his right and his left to bear anything.
Hungry Joe
Obviously these guys are dangerous. Still, every time I see a shot of one of them in his brand-new camo and fresh-out-of-the-box gear — multi-pocketed vest, wrap-around shades, lovingly polished AR-15 hanging from his chest, Boebert-esque pistol strapped to his side — standing around at some demonstration, glowering menacingly (or so he hopes), I envision him excitedly unpacking his Amazon combat delivery package, donning his fresh duds, then spending 45 minutes in front of the bathroom mirror, working on The Look. It’s pathetic, and (sorry) laughably so.
Yeah, I know — members of the S.A. probably did the same, pre-Amazon thing. Ultimately, it’s not one bit funny. And yet … it kind of is.
Ksmiami
@Gin & Tonic: Can’t lose something you obviously didn’t have before…
Sister Golden Bear
@SpaceUnit: The point of the uniforms — was to make a statement of power, and as was importing Nazis from other states to make their local numbers look bigger.
The statement was to pose a visible threat. And they were quite explicit in comma that got leaked, that is one of the points to being masked was so much that people couldn’t be sure if the nice clean-cut boy at CVS was one of them.
It’s an play straight out of the KKK — making their targets constantly looking over their shoulders for a threat that could materialize at any time.
StringOnAStick
@Sister Golden Bear: I looked at the tweet thread of their photos, they all seemed to have the required fascist haircut: longish on top, shaved on the sides. Something to look for and pay attention to when out and about because PF members have a definite look they are going for.