More Right-Wing, White Supremacist Violence

In the past week, we've seen at least two outbursts of far-right extremist violence, with the most recent the deadly shootings in Las Vegas:

A man and a woman who shot two police officers and then a civilian in Las Vegas on Sunday may have been white supremacists, according to Las Vegas newspapers. 

The Las Vegas Sun quoted neighbors at the couple’s apartment complex saying that the two “had a reputation for spouting racist, anti-government views, bragging about their gun collection and boasting that they’d spent time at Cliven Bundy’s ranch during a recent standoff there between armed militia members and federal government agents.”  (our emphasis)

The pair, after killing the two police officers and civilian, committed suicide.  Naturally, the cowards ambushed the two police officers and the unarmed civilian;  those are the tactics "armed militia members" are most comfortable with, when they're not parading their manhood compensators weapons in a Chili's or Starbucks, or at Cliven Bundy's ranch.  As an added touch and to make clear where they stood, the pair put a cover over the dead cops that included the tea bagger "Gadsden flag" ("Don't Tread On Me").

Earlier in the week, a "sovereign citizen" named Dennis Marx attempted to take over a Georgia courthouse:

Dennis Marx, a former TSA employee and member of the 100,000-plus “sovereign citizen” movement, planned to lay siege to a Forsyth County, Ga., courthouse and take hostages before he was killed by a sheriff’s deputy on Friday.

Throwing smoke bombs and tire spikes, Marx attacked the Forsyth County Courthouse on Friday morning, striking a sheriff’s deputy in the leg with a bullet. The deputy, 25-year veteran James Rush, returned fire, and Mr. Marx was killed after a brief gun battle on the street, which was joined by a local SWAT team.

As is generally the case, Charles Pierce leads us to the heart of the matter:

Yeah, like Dennis Marx, these two jamokes allegedly marinated themselves in the stew of guns and paranoia that bubbles daily in the conservative media from fringe radio hosts and chain e-mails all the way up to the polite precincts of the National Review Online and the Fox News Channel. That shouldn't surprise us any more. The enabling of dangerous loons and the empowerment by firearms thereof is simply a staple of conservative politics in this country, yet another fetish object, yet another set of conjuring words for the conservative priesthood, which (always) deplores the activity of a few while realizing in its heart of hearts that it has no political future at the moment, no real substantial constituency, without people like this and millions of others who share Dennis Marx's motivations and his view of the world, but who thus far have declined the opportunity to ventilate their fellow citizens.

We would only add that it should also come as no surprise that the "mainstream media" will do its gosh darned best not to dwell on these stories when there's a good Bergdahl Benghazi!!!  non-scandal to over-inflate.

Meanwhile, it's not a moment too soon that the Justice Department is refocusing on the domestic terrorist front.

UPDATE:  Raw Story has more on the Las Vegas killer-creeps, with photos and the pair's Facebook likes (Rand Paul, Ron Paul, Freedom Works, the NRA, "patriot movement's" Alex Jones, etc.).

UPDATE II:  Steve M. at No More Mister Nice Blog trashes typical right-wing attempts to paint the two Las Vegas wingnuts at "leftists."  Leftists, my ass.

UPDATE III:  The Anti-Defamation League weighs in:

“The two police officers who lost their lives are only the latest in a series of casualties in a de facto war being waged against police by right-wing extremists, including both anti-government extremists and white supremacists,” said Mark Pitcavage, ADL Director of Investigative Research.