FYI: I’ll Just Leave This Here

March 6, 2018  “A South Carolina white supremacist who praised racist mass shooter Dylann Roof and longed to commit violence against Jews, Muslims and people of color has reached a plea deal with federal prosecutors that will likely result in a relatively short stint in federal prison.”  [HuffPo]

March 2, 2018   “Nikolas Cruz left at least 180 rounds of ammunition — inside magazines that bore Nazi swastika symbols — at the scene of the Parkland school shooting.Along with his AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, Cruz abandoned at least six magazines that each contained 30 bullets at the scene of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, according to two sources who spoke on condition of anonymity.” [SunSentinel]

December 16, 2016  “Dylan Storm Roof’s website hinted at why he chose “historic” Charleston to shoot nine people to death at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina. Along with a long, hate-filled screed, the 21-year-old included photos of himself burning an American flag, taking aim with Ca pistol and posing proudly at sites connected to the Confederacy.” [CNN]

August 6, 2012  “Before he strode into a Sikh temple with a 9 mm handgun and multiple magazines of ammunition, Wade Michael Page played in white supremacist heavy metal bands with names such as Definite Hate and End Apathy.” [CBS]

January 7, 2010   (DC Holocaust Museum shooting) “Prosecutors said that von Brunn, an admitted white supremacist who lived most recently in Annapolis, had been planning the assault for months and that he hoped “to send a message to the Jewish community” that the Holocaust was a hoax. “He wanted to be a martyr for his cause,” a prosecutor said in court.” [WaPo]

July 28, 2008  “Jim David Adkisson told investigators all liberals should be killed and admitted he shot people Sunday morning at Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by CNN affiliate WBIR.” [CNN]

Generally speaking —

August 22, 2017  “Terrorists murdered 3,342 people on U.S. soil from 1992 through August 12, 2017. Islamist terrorists are responsible for 92% of all those murders. The 9/11 attacks, by themselves, killed about 89% of all the victims during this time. During this time, the chance of being murdered in a terrorist attack committed by an Islamist was about 1 in 2.5 million per year.

Nationalist and Right Wing terrorists are the second deadliest group by ideology, as they account for 6.6% of all terrorist murders during this time. The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, the second deadliest terrorist attack in U.S. history, killed 168 people and accounted for 77% of all the murders committed by Nationalist and Right Wing terrorists. The chance of being murdered in a Nationalist or Right Wing terrorist attack was about 1 in 33 million per year.”  [Forbes]

ADL 2017 Report 

“Unlike 2016, a year dominated by the Pulse nightclub shootings in Orlando, Florida, committed by an Islamic extremist, a majority of the 2017 murders were committed by right-wing extremists, primarily white supremacists, as has typically been the case most years.”

I’ll just leave this here.

 

GOP and the Great White Whine

There are Neo-Nazis parading in Charlottesville, Virginia.  Young mostly, male mostly, and all white.  They’re convinced, probably radicalized online, that (1) they are the master race; (2) they are victims; and (3) they are ‘free’ to display their hatred and bigotry in public spaces.  They are the Great White Whine.

And the man in the White House is silent.

If they weren’t white and they decided to conduct a march with burning tiki torches they’d probably find out what ‘oppression’ feels like.  If they weren’t white and decided to show up for their rally armed, then they’d probably find out what ‘oppression’ looks like.  If they weren’t white, and they showed up calling for “Power” they’d assuredly find out what ‘oppression’ sounds like.

And the man in the White House is silent.

A thug, and these are thugs, don’t necessarily have to wear hoodies and jeans; they can just as easily be clad in khaki trousers and golf shirts.  If the Neo-Nazis proved nothing else today they’ve at least provided proof of this truth.  Interesting isn’t it, that African Americans, some 13% of the American population, honor Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation, fly the Stars and Stripes with pride, and make up 17% of our active duty military.  People of Hispanic heritage constitute about 18% of our population, and make up 12% of our active duty military — three times their number in 1980.  The Neo-Nazis gathered in Virginia waved the Stars and Bars, the battle flag of treason and traitors to the Union instead of the Stars and Stripes.  It takes a major amount of chutzpah for them to declare themselves “Patriots.”

And the man in the White House is silent.

Thus far the only comment from the White House came from the First Lady, herself an immigrant, to say: “Our country encourages freedom of speech, but let’s communicate w/o hate in our hearts. No good comes from violence.”  Granted this isn’t a full throated denunciation of Neo-Nazism, but it’s more than any other White House figure has ventured.

And, still the man in the White House is silent.

And, his silence is a grave danger to the Republican Party.  Ordinarily I’d not spend much thought on how the Republican Party should position itself for success in this country, but this is serious.  I do believe in a two party system, I do believe there is a place and purpose for conservative policy arguments — I don’t have to agree with them, but that “free speech” part is important.  If the current administration continues to be associated with Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, and other thugs then the human propensity to append guilt by association will engage.  If David Duke marches with his fellow Neo-Nazi White Supremacist thugs, and the administration make no official (and stern) condemnation, then the guilt by association will have more potential traction.

And still the man in the White House is silent.

The man in the White House has yet to condemn the attack on the Bloomington, MN mosque — indeed, one of his spokespersons opined it might have been a “fake hate crime.”  He’s not apologized in any way, shape, or form for comments about immigrants from Mexico and Central American countries being “bad hombres.”  He’s not offered any solace for African Americans who are searching for ways to attract attention to their efforts to bring their communities and their local law enforcement personnel closer toward the goal of better, and more cooperative, relationships.  Therefore, we ought not be surprised that…

The man in the White House is silent.

His followers declare that President Obama’s politics were divisive.  Perhaps because he heard the complaints of the African American communities, as Trump’s followers do not? Perhaps because he understood the economic and cultural contributions of immigrants to this country, as Trump’s followers do not? Perhaps because he appreciated the humanity and worth of members of the LBGT community, as followers of Trump do not?  An individual’s failure to recognize the humanity and worth of those who are unlike himself isn’t the fault of any politician — it is seated in the insecurity of that individual himself, by himself, selfishly for himself.

And the man in the White House is silent.

Silent as the thugs align with his political party, emboldened to march without hoods and masks, to wave their flags alongside his banner, inviting the notion that to be a Republican is to be a Neo-Nazi, a White Supremacist, and an intolerant bigot.  Or, that to join the Party is to align oneself with the Neo-Nazis, the White Supremacists, and the bigots.  What I hope for the Republican Party is…

A man in the White House who will not remain silent, who will banish from his administration those who harbor Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist, bigoted, intolerant views.  Republican members of Congress who will condemn the Neo-Nazis, the bigots and the intolerant.  Republican Party leaders at the national, state, and local levels who will vehemently assert that the Republicans today decry intolerance, bigotry, and racism, and will not associate themselves with it.  I hope to see Republicans with the courage to say,  we can do perfectly well in our elections without the staining of our honor with your bigotry, racism, Neo-Nazism, and White Supremacy. sil

The man in the White House is silently leading the Party to a narrow and dark place.  It doesn’t have to be that way.

No, I’m not all that thankful, not really

If you haven’t read the outstanding rant by Charles M. Blow, please click over there as soon as possible and read it.  There are many things for which I am thankful this season, and the editorial opinions of Mr. Blow are among them.  However, there are several things for which I am definitely  NOT thankful.

I am not the least bit thankful that the Executive Office is going to be host to rubbish like Steve Bannon and his ilk.  There is no “normalizing” Nazis.  There is no way to white-wash over the anti-Semitic, racist, and corporatist ideology which moves him.  These people aren’t conservative, and definitely aren’t Conservative. Nothing about them reminds any sentient being of William Buckley or even Lewis Powell.  They aren’t populist or even Populist. They aren’t anything like Mary Elizabeth Lease or William Jennings Bryan.  To label them “populist” is a measure of the lack of historic knowledge imparted to or retained by our journalists and political writers.  Honest Conservatives were worried Bannon would bring this collection of misfits and simpletons into the White House.  They were correct. No sooner did the Trumpster move toward the Oval Office than the neo-Nazi were in full Heil Trump form.

I am not thankful for any suggestion that there’s even a remote way of legitimizing “registries” for members of minority groups.  When Trumpster spokesperson Carl Higbie suggested that the internment of Japanese Americans set a “precedent” for the registry of Muslim Americans, alarm bells should have gone off all over the country.  This country, in one of its worst moments, rounded up approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans along the west coast and herded them into internment camps. They sold their homes, their businesses, their farms, mostly at a fraction of their value.  And, now we have Chris Kobach inches from the Trumpster’s ear calling for a repetition of the failed NSEERS program to register Muslims in America.

“The program was considered a failure, both within the Bush administration and by outside experts. By the time the Bush administration ended the domestic registration portion of the program in December 2003, it had registered nearly 100,000 men and led to the deportation of nearly 14,000 ― many of them for overstaying visas or ignoring previous deportation orders. It did not lead to a single terrorism charge against any individuals.” [HuffPo]

That’s correct: 100,000 registrations; 14,000 deportations, and not a single terrorism charge against any individual.

I am not thankful that anyone near the White House should spout such nonsense as “I don’t know any woman who can’t afford birth control.” “Just Google it.”  If that weren’t enough, there’s Wayne Allen Root, Trump supporter extraordinaire, who thinks any woman who seeks public assistance, food assistance, or gets free or inexpensive contraceptives should be struck from the voter rolls. [RWW]  This level of misogyny and sexism is long out of date, and way beyond the pale.  I am thoroughly tired of the blatantly mischaracterized attacks on Planned Parenthood.  They are manufactured out of heavily edited, purposefully misleading, and dubiously sourced material – whole cloth as it were.  I am not the least bit thankful for that.

No, I’ll continue to call neo-Nazi’s Neo Nazis.  I’ll call sexists Sexists. I’ll call racists Racists.  Remember when the Right was so sensitive to politically correct speech?  Let’s be politically accurate – a Nazi is a Nazi; a Sexist is a Sexist, and an Anti-Semite is an Anti-Semite.

No matter how much “nuance” the editors and publishers may want to cover over those matters with some tasteless seasonal canned gravy.

Chills Down the Spine Time

If this isn’t chilling I don’t know what could be.

“Neo-Nazi Website Daily Stormer: Sessions Is “An Aggressive Anti-Black Racist,” “We’re Going To Get Absolutely Everything We Wanted.” The Daily Stormer is a neo-Nazi website that worships Adolf Hitler and Trump. It helps lead online attacks against Jewish journalists, whom it routinely refer to as “kikes.” The site has frequently praised Sessions, calling him “a hero,” “our second favorite Trump guy (second to Bannon),” and “basically the only guy in the Senate who is an immigration purist.”

Site editor Andrew Anglin reacted to the Sessions news in a post headlined “It’s Like Christmas: Sessions for AG, Gen Flynn as National Security Advisor.” He praised Sessions for being “an aggressive anti-Black racist” and wrote, “Honestly, I didn’t even expect this to all come together so beautifully. It’s like we’re going to get absolutely everything we wanted””

[MMFA]