President St Helens
Ya think it's messy now - gonna get real bad if that thing blows.
— TenGraves (@Tengrain) October 27, 2018
Saturday, October 27, 2018
Today's Tweet
President St Helens
Ya think it's messy now - gonna get real bad if that thing blows.
When A Cigar Is Just A Cigar
Tim Wise at Medium:
For several days conservative commentators suggested or even outright insisted that the bombs were likely hoaxes sent by liberals or antifa so as to discredit the right in time for the mid-terms.
Among the right-wing pundits pushing this line were Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage, Mike Flynn Jr., Frank Gaffney, Kurt Schlichter, Candace Owens, Lou Dobbs, Laura Loomer and Dinesh D’Souza, among others.
Limbaugh, for his part, went further than merely denying the conservative provenance of the recent bombs, actually suggesting that bombings and terrorism are things that right-wingers simply don’t do. Which is totally true, except for:
Tim McVeigh and Terry Nichols
Or Eric Rudolph
Or Joe Stack
Or Lawrence Michael Lombardi
Or anti-abortion extremists like Michael F. Griffin, Paul Hill, John Salvi, Robert Dear, James Kopp, Justin Carl Moose, Scott Roeder, Shelley Shannon, Paul Ross Evans, Matt Goldsby, Jimmy Simmons, Kathy Simmons, Kaye Wiggins, Patricia Hughes, Jeremy Dunahoe, Bobby Joe Rogers, Francis Gradyand Ralph Lang among others
Or anti-Muslim arsonists like Bruce and Joshua Turnidge
Or James David Adkisson
Or neo-Nazi Wade Michael Page
Or Byron Williams
Or the right-wingers involved in at least 60 bombing, shooting and/or terror plots in the ten years following Okahoma City, including:
Charles Ray Polk
Willie Ray Lampley
Cecilia Lampley
John Dare Baird
Joseph Martin Bailie
Ray Hamblin
Robert Edward Starr III
William James McCranie Jr.
John Pitner
Charles Barbee
Robert Berry
Jay Merrell
Brendon Blasz
Carl Jay Waskom Jr.
Shawn and Catherine Adams
Edward Taylor Jr.
Todd Vanbiber
William Robert Goehler
James Cleaver
Jack Dowell
Bradley Playford Glover
Ken Carter
Randy Graham
and the list goes on.
The problem is not “angry rhetoric on both sides.” It is not a generic “incivility.” And no, being spoken too harshly or made to feel unwelcome in a restaurant is not remotely equivalent to receiving a bomb from someone who wants to kill you.
The problem is a president who has normalized a rhetoric of demonization and dehumanization since the day he launched his campaign.
When you start your political career generalizing about Mexican migrants being rapists and drug dealers, and you say during that campaign that you wish to shut down all immigration by Muslims, and you suggest your opponent should be jailed for using an unsecured e-mail server (even as you have continued to use an unsecured cell phone), and you refer to the media as the enemy of the people such that your most loyal fans verbally assault reporters at your rallies, you are the problem.
You, and all who empower you and embolden you.
It is time to put an end to this foolishness, beginning on election day and every day afterwards.
Podcast
Daddy State Awareness Rule 6:
If everybody's guilty, cain't nobody hold us accountable
Holy fuck, the Republican party is full of Republicans. But no matter - I just need my confirmation fix.
Stochastic Terrorism - will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest!?
 |
| do the swag |
Friday, October 26, 2018
Poor Pitiful You
Jennifer Rubin, WaPo:
It takes remarkable skill, when you think about it, to claim victimhood when your enemies are threatened with assassination. But for President Trump, his state media and his cultish following, victimhood is central to their identity and critical to their mobilization. A party in control of every branch of government is the victim. White males — even a wealthy Yale graduate with a lifetime appointment to the federal bench — are victims. The cops who shoot unarmed black teens are victims. Residents of the small towns in the Rust Belt where few, if any, illegal immigrants live are victims of immigrants. Forget the crime statistics; we’re victims of criminals who are here illegally. Conservatives who control an entire media universe devoid of journalistic standards are victims of the mainstream media. Americans are victims (ripped off!) by an international system that made us the world’s only superpower.
- and -
As we learn that one suspect is in custody in the mail-bomb investigation, we still do not know the exact motives behind the assault on our democracy. But one thing is for sure: Trump will take no responsibility for his incendiary language, not even for his praise of a congressman who body-slammed a reporter, his dehumanization of immigrants, his incitement of violence (“I’d like to punch him in the face”) or his insistence that the media is the “enemy of the people.” He’s not only not responsible for the bombing attempts in any way; he’s a victim of the media citing his inflammatory language as inspiration for political violence.
It takes remarkable skill, when you think about it, to claim victimhood when your enemies are threatened with assassination. But for President Trump, his state media and his cultish following, victimhood is central to their identity and critical to their mobilization. A party in control of every branch of government is the victim. White males — even a wealthy Yale graduate with a lifetime appointment to the federal bench — are victims. The cops who shoot unarmed black teens are victims. Residents of the small towns in the Rust Belt where few, if any, illegal immigrants live are victims of immigrants. Forget the crime statistics; we’re victims of criminals who are here illegally. Conservatives who control an entire media universe devoid of journalistic standards are victims of the mainstream media. Americans are victims (ripped off!) by an international system that made us the world’s only superpower.
- and -
As we learn that one suspect is in custody in the mail-bomb investigation, we still do not know the exact motives behind the assault on our democracy. But one thing is for sure: Trump will take no responsibility for his incendiary language, not even for his praise of a congressman who body-slammed a reporter, his dehumanization of immigrants, his incitement of violence (“I’d like to punch him in the face”) or his insistence that the media is the “enemy of the people.” He’s not only not responsible for the bombing attempts in any way; he’s a victim of the media citing his inflammatory language as inspiration for political violence.
The consistency is always there:
- I didn't hit you
- But if I did, I didn't hit you hard
- But if I did, you had it coming because you told everybody that I've threatened to hit you
- You made me do it
In Court Yesterday
Julia Marsh, NY Post:
Trump picked up the infamous painting — now at the center of a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general who alleges suspect spending by the charity — during a 2014 auction benefiting The Unicorn Foundation at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Florida.
“So Mr. Trump donates $10,000 to start the bidding, and then when the bidding goes on and no one else bids, they’re stuck with the painting,” his attorney Alan Futerfas told Manhattan Supreme Court.
Trump picked up the infamous painting — now at the center of a lawsuit brought by the state attorney general who alleges suspect spending by the charity — during a 2014 auction benefiting The Unicorn Foundation at his Mar-a-Lago country club in Florida.
“So Mr. Trump donates $10,000 to start the bidding, and then when the bidding goes on and no one else bids, they’re stuck with the painting,” his attorney Alan Futerfas told Manhattan Supreme Court.
And so the “Art of the Deal” author got the raw end of the deal and wound up having to plunk down $10,000 on the portrait. But rather than fork over the dough himself, Trump billed his own Donald J. Trump Foundation for the cost.
It Gets Worse
Speaking of the bombs mailed to several of Cult45's favorite enemies, Rush Limbaugh opined, "Conservatives just don't do that sort of thing."
We reached out to Barnett Slepian, George Tiller and several daycare workers in Oklahoma City, but they were all unavailable for comment.
Michelle Goldberg, NYT:
On Wednesday night, after bombs were sent to a number of Donald Trump’s most prominent enemies, he held a rally in Mosinee, Wis. A president with even a pretense to statesmanship would have canceled it — the country was in the middle of what can reasonably be described as a terrorist attack, with someone attempting mass murder against leading Democrats. Trump, needless to say, is not such a president.
At the rally — which featured Trump fans chanting, “Lock her up!” about Hillary Clinton, to whom one of the bombs was addressed — Trump called for the country to come together “in peace and harmony.” Then, in characteristic fashion, he blamed the press for America’s climate of simmering rage. “The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories,” he said.
It was an audacious act of misdirection, especially since the attack included a bomb sent to the New York offices of CNN, one of Trump’s favorite punching bags. But while Trump’s words were meant to further derange American political debate, they were, in one sense, clarifying. They demonstrated the rank disingenuousness of conservative complaints about “incivility,” a term that’s increasingly used to conflate expressions of political anger with political violence, equating yelling at politicians with trying to kill them.
- and -
The violent part of the right is integrated into the Republican Party in a way that has no analogue on the left. A few months before the Unite the Right white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that devolved into a deadly riot, Corey Stewart, now the Republican candidate for Senate in that state, appeared at an event sponsored by one of Unite the Right’s organizers, Jason Kessler. (He’s since disavowed both Kessler and Paul Nehlen, a white nationalist he once described as a “personal hero.”) One rallygoer, James Allsup, had been president of the Washington State University College Republicans. He stepped down amid the ensuing controversy, but was later elected a precinct committee officer by his local party organization. (The Republican National Committee has denounced him.)
- and -
The dubious category of “civility” lets people on the right pretend that mailing a politician a bomb is in the same vein as berating a politician in a restaurant. It’s a sort of right-wing political correctness, treating rudeness toward powerful people as akin to assault.
In June, the actor Robert De Niro cursed at Trump during a speech at the Tony Awards. On Thursday, news broke that De Niro was among those who were sent explosive devices. Only one of these things is a problem. We are in a dark place in this country. The blame belongs with Trump, not those shouting their opposition to him.
Christian Picciolini, LA Times (from 10-07-18):
When four members of the white supremacist group Rise Above Movement were arrested last week on federal charges that they traveled to Virginia last year with the intent to incite a riot and commit violence, many news outlets referred to the group as an “alt-right fight club.” Others called it “a racist social club.”
We reached out to Barnett Slepian, George Tiller and several daycare workers in Oklahoma City, but they were all unavailable for comment.
Michelle Goldberg, NYT:
On Wednesday night, after bombs were sent to a number of Donald Trump’s most prominent enemies, he held a rally in Mosinee, Wis. A president with even a pretense to statesmanship would have canceled it — the country was in the middle of what can reasonably be described as a terrorist attack, with someone attempting mass murder against leading Democrats. Trump, needless to say, is not such a president.
At the rally — which featured Trump fans chanting, “Lock her up!” about Hillary Clinton, to whom one of the bombs was addressed — Trump called for the country to come together “in peace and harmony.” Then, in characteristic fashion, he blamed the press for America’s climate of simmering rage. “The media also has a responsibility to set a civil tone and to stop the endless hostility and constant negative and oftentimes false attacks and stories,” he said.
It was an audacious act of misdirection, especially since the attack included a bomb sent to the New York offices of CNN, one of Trump’s favorite punching bags. But while Trump’s words were meant to further derange American political debate, they were, in one sense, clarifying. They demonstrated the rank disingenuousness of conservative complaints about “incivility,” a term that’s increasingly used to conflate expressions of political anger with political violence, equating yelling at politicians with trying to kill them.
- and -
The violent part of the right is integrated into the Republican Party in a way that has no analogue on the left. A few months before the Unite the Right white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Va., that devolved into a deadly riot, Corey Stewart, now the Republican candidate for Senate in that state, appeared at an event sponsored by one of Unite the Right’s organizers, Jason Kessler. (He’s since disavowed both Kessler and Paul Nehlen, a white nationalist he once described as a “personal hero.”) One rallygoer, James Allsup, had been president of the Washington State University College Republicans. He stepped down amid the ensuing controversy, but was later elected a precinct committee officer by his local party organization. (The Republican National Committee has denounced him.)
- and -
The dubious category of “civility” lets people on the right pretend that mailing a politician a bomb is in the same vein as berating a politician in a restaurant. It’s a sort of right-wing political correctness, treating rudeness toward powerful people as akin to assault.
In June, the actor Robert De Niro cursed at Trump during a speech at the Tony Awards. On Thursday, news broke that De Niro was among those who were sent explosive devices. Only one of these things is a problem. We are in a dark place in this country. The blame belongs with Trump, not those shouting their opposition to him.
Christian Picciolini, LA Times (from 10-07-18):
The Rise Above Movement, or R.A.M., is far more dangerous than these euphemistic labels suggest. An extreme hate group that grew out of California’s skinhead subculture, R.A.M. calls for the extermination of Jews and other “anti-white” enemies, not to mention the overthrow of the U.S. government.
R.A.M. is one of many violent hate groups that espouse such views. Atomwaffen Division, a neo-Nazi group that is organized into cells and whose name means “atomic weapons” in German, openly aspires to terroristic violence. Proud Boys, another group in the white-power ecosystem, has demonstrated a propensity for extreme violence.
Despite the dangers posed by such groups, many Americans tend to view their violent acts as either the work of a mentally deranged individual or the collective anger of misguided young men who are merely lashing out. This outlook is dangerously naive and one we can no longer afford to indulge.
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the U.S. grew from 784 to 917 between 2014 and 2016. There are now 954 hate groups across the country. Some of these groups include “pro-white” militia that are engaged in paramilitary-style training, learning hand-to-hand combat and guerilla warfare techniques and planning strategic attacks on critical infrastructure.
If jihadists were plotting any of the above on American soil — to kill American citizens and take out U.S. power grids, among other things — our collective response would be far less permissive. Put another way, if these extremists had brown skin, we would call them terrorists.
Instead, we wave away their threats and do so despite this glaring fact: White extremists have committed nearly 75% of all terrorist attacks on American soil since September 11.
Inspired by the writings of Hitler and the idea of “white jihad,” members of groups like R.A.M. and Proud Boys don’t need much provocation to become violent. Indeed, members of Atomwaffen Division have been charged in five killings over the past two years.
Samuel Woodward, the 20-year-old Newport Beach man charged with stabbing a former high school classmate nearly 20 times, is reportedly a member of Atomwaffen.
In Reston, Va., a 17-year-old Atomwaffen member was charged last year with murdering his girlfriend’s parents, reportedly because they had forbidden their daughter from dating him.
In Tampa, Fla., Devon Arthurs, a 19-year-old former Atomwaffen devotee who converted to radical Islam, was charged last year with shooting two of his neo-Nazi roommates after they ridiculed his sudden transformation.
In a separate case, another of Arthurs’ roommates, Brandon Russell, 22, an Atomwaffen leader, was arrested for possessing radioactive material and bomb-making devices. Among his possessions, police found a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
It is true that the leaders of such groups draw in disillusioned young men who believe the world has sidelined them. But just because their members look familiar to many Americans does not make them less dangerous. Their violence is part of a growing pattern of domestic terrorism and should not be excused as an adolescent blip.
And oh BTW -
According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of hate groups in the U.S. grew from 784 to 917 between 2014 and 2016. There are now 954 hate groups across the country. Some of these groups include “pro-white” militia that are engaged in paramilitary-style training, learning hand-to-hand combat and guerilla warfare techniques and planning strategic attacks on critical infrastructure.
If jihadists were plotting any of the above on American soil — to kill American citizens and take out U.S. power grids, among other things — our collective response would be far less permissive. Put another way, if these extremists had brown skin, we would call them terrorists.
Instead, we wave away their threats and do so despite this glaring fact: White extremists have committed nearly 75% of all terrorist attacks on American soil since September 11.
- and -
Inspired by the writings of Hitler and the idea of “white jihad,” members of groups like R.A.M. and Proud Boys don’t need much provocation to become violent. Indeed, members of Atomwaffen Division have been charged in five killings over the past two years.
Samuel Woodward, the 20-year-old Newport Beach man charged with stabbing a former high school classmate nearly 20 times, is reportedly a member of Atomwaffen.
In Reston, Va., a 17-year-old Atomwaffen member was charged last year with murdering his girlfriend’s parents, reportedly because they had forbidden their daughter from dating him.
In Tampa, Fla., Devon Arthurs, a 19-year-old former Atomwaffen devotee who converted to radical Islam, was charged last year with shooting two of his neo-Nazi roommates after they ridiculed his sudden transformation.
In a separate case, another of Arthurs’ roommates, Brandon Russell, 22, an Atomwaffen leader, was arrested for possessing radioactive material and bomb-making devices. Among his possessions, police found a framed photo of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.
It is true that the leaders of such groups draw in disillusioned young men who believe the world has sidelined them. But just because their members look familiar to many Americans does not make them less dangerous. Their violence is part of a growing pattern of domestic terrorism and should not be excused as an adolescent blip.
And oh BTW -
Today's Tweet
Fighting back. Ka-boom.
This is how you fight back against racism, bigotry and the current Republican party.— Ryan Knight 🌊 (@ProudResister) October 25, 2018
Thank you @AndrewGillum. #BringItHome pic.twitter.com/oPVsbMMmpg
Thursday, October 25, 2018
Today's Quote
"You may be sure that the Americans will commit all the stupidities they can think of, plus some that are beyond imagination."
-- Charles de Gaulle
Today's Tweet - 2
Steve Schmidt - "We stand on a ragged edge..."
"Donald Trump did not mail the bombs but he created the atmosphere where a sick person would look at those individuals and see an enemy...." - @SteveSchmidtSES w/ @NicolleDWallace pic.twitter.com/aFxadGR4DI— Deadline White House (@DeadlineWH) October 25, 2018
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