Whistleblower: Intelligence On Russia, White Supremacists Altered To Suit Trump

 

Of all the dangerous, if not treasonous, national security lies and coverups that the assministration of the malignant loser engaged in, this has to be close to the top of the list:

Tweets Of The Day -- A Racist Is A Racist Is A Racist

.@PressSec calls @kaitlancollins's request to unambiguously denounce white supremacist groups a "partisan attack question"

— Jordan Fabian (@Jordanfabian) October 1, 2020

 

Senate Republicans just blocked a unanimous vote on a resolution condemning white supremacy. It passed the House unanimously. They said that after 9 months of the legislation languishing that the committees of jurisdiction needed to look at it and consider their “equities.”

— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) October 1, 2020

 

If you can’t condemn white supremacy you are a white supremacist. I don’t get how this is even a debate.

— The Volatile Mermaid (@OhNoSheTwitnt) October 1, 2020

 

I wrote this two years ago, about the mainstreaming of hate and extremism by the Republican Party. https://t.co/obfDfpOH6O

— Caroline Orr Bueno (@RVAwonk) October 1, 2020

 

If Trump loses, many Republicans will want you to know they were the ones who were anonymously concerned & aggrieved about his racism & authoritarianism.

— Taniel (@Taniel) October 1, 2020

 

That Trump has a shot at winning reelection even though nobody can honestly say they're better off now than they were 4 years ago -- even if you have more money, society has mostly ceased to exist & you can't travel -- speaks to how powerful white grievance is in American society

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2020

 

The president is openly running on preventing black people from moving into white neighborhoods or immigrating to the US, and his supporters at his rallies think that’s great and would also like to see him imprison his political enemies. https://t.co/LuNxizPdsH

— Adam Serwer🍝 (@AdamSerwer) October 1, 2020

 

So, just a reminder that the nut doesn't fall far from the tree -- 

 

Reminder: In 1927, Donald Trump's father was arrested after a Klan riot in Queens. https://t.co/H6ndiX9MB8

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) October 1, 2020

 

DHS: White Supremacists Greatest Terror Threat

In a draft report that we will not likely see released in final form while Cadet Bone Spurs is in office, the Department of Homeland Security has assessed the threat level from various actors and confirms that Trump's loyal base fascist white supremacists pose the greatest domestic terrorism threat  (uh, sorry, Low Barr):

White supremacists present the gravest terror threat to the United States, according to a draft report from the Department of Homeland Security.

Two later draft versions of the same document — all of which were reviewed by POLITICO — describe the threat from white supremacists in slightly different language. But all three drafts describe the threat from white supremacists as the deadliest domestic terror threat facing the U.S., listed above the immediate danger from foreign terrorist groups.

“Foreign terrorist organizations will continue to call for Homeland attacks but probably will remain constrained in their ability to direct such plots over the next year,” all three documents say.

Russia “probably will be the primary covert foreign influence actor and purveyor of disinformation and misinformation in the Homeland,” the documents also say. [snip]

None of the drafts POLITICO reviewed referred to a threat from Antifa, the loose cohort of militant left-leaning agitators who senior Trump administration officials have described as domestic terrorists. Two of the drafts refer to extremists trying to exploit the “social grievances” driving lawful protests.  (our emphasis)

The same evil movement that we've fought in this country and sent Americans abroad to fight in World War II is out from under their rocks and sewers and metastasizing under the regime of Cadet Bone Spurs (who denigrates the sacrifice of those who died and sacrificed in that cause).  Time to #WakeUp America.
 
(Photo:  Note the Nazi salutes -- know the enemy.)

The Next White Supremacist Mass Shooter? (Cont.)

This is officially an epidemic:

A Connecticut man who had amassed an arsenal of tactical weapons and body armor, and who police say may have been preparing for a mass shooting, left a trail of virulently racist and anti-trans postings online.

TPM found that social media accounts registered to Norwalk, Connecticut resident Brandon Wagshol both reflected elements of the police accusations against him and contained rants against minorities.

Wagshol was arrested, officials said, after a joint FBI-local police investigation on a tip that the 22-year old was trying to import “large capacity rifle magazines from out of state.” During the investigation, Wagshol wrote a Facebook post “that showed his interest in committing a mass shooting,” leading to a raid on his house and his arrest, the FBI and local police said in a joint statement.

Police say that they uncovered a weapons cache during the raid, including titanium body armor and a combat helmet. [snip]

He appears to have maintained at least two Twitter accounts. One, under the handle @wagshol_brandon, and another, under @naughtwagshol. Both list Norwalk, Connecticut as their location, and both are linked to other social media profiles apparently belonging to Wagshol.

The 22-year old frequently used racial slurs in the posts, and appears to have been fixated both on transgender people and on the FBI.  [snip]

The accounts also liked a string of extremely racist posts, one of which appears to have been a reference to the KKK demolishing someone’s house.

He's been charged with four counts of illegal possession of high-capacity firearm magazines, and is being held on $250,000 bond.

There's also another young white nut who's been arrested in Florida who fantasized about becoming the all- time mass shooting killer.  Whether he had political motivations or not, he had 400 rounds of ammo. No doubt he was part of a "well- regulated militia."

The Next White Supremacist Mass Shooter? (Cont.)

Another one was stopped in time, for now:

An Ohio man has been arrested for making threats toward a local Jewish community center in New Middletown.

James Reardon Jr., 20, has been charged with telecommunications harassment and aggravated menacing and is being held in the Mahoning County Jail on $250,000 bond with a court hearing planned for Monday morning.

On Friday, the FBI Violent Crimes Task Force raided Reardon’s house and seized a cache of weapons and ammunition, including dozens of round of ammo, multiple semi-automatic weapons, a gas mask and bulletproof armor. [snip]

Police initially became aware of Reardon on July 11 when he posted a video on Instagram of a man shooting a semi-automatic rifle with sirens and screams in the background. He tagged the Jewish Community Center of Youngstown in the post.

"That kicked off an intense investigation, a very rapidly evolving investigation, because of the way the world is," New Middletown Police Chief Vince D’Egidio told Youngstown ABC affiliate WYTV.

Reardon is an avowed anti-Semite and white nationalist and attended the deadly "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, according to WYTV. During the raid on his house on Friday police also discovered anti-Semitic and white nationalist propaganda. 

They're continuing to crawl out from under rocks all over the country.  Maybe this weak simpleton (look at his smirking mug shot) just wanted to get arrested (posting a violent video and tagging a Jewish Community Center?) to give himself some cred among his incel buddies without actually, you know, "performing"?  WTF, we've already wasted too much time on another Shitty Walter Mitty.

(Photo:  Must've confiscated your MAGA cap)

Gun-Humping Wingnuts Threaten Murder

Threats by white male wingnuts to commit violent acts are proliferating on social media. Two recent cases:

An Ohio man is facing charges of making interstate threats against New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, saying on his Facebook page that she "should be shot." Timothy James Ireland, Jr., who was also charged with being a fugitive felon and felon in possession of a firearm, confirmed to investigators that he took responsibility for the statement. The fugitive warrants were issued by Florida authorities after Ireland failed to appear in court on a felony charge.

In Florida, a 26- year- old man was arrested Friday for threatening to shoot up a Walmart with an AR-15 assault style rifle. Richard Clayton, whom Florida law enforcement described as having white supremacist views, posted on Facebook, "3 more days of probation left then I get my AR-15 back. Don't go to Walmart next week." We wonder what the "probation" was about, since he's apparently made threats on Facebook before.

Mentally unstable demagogue Donald "Very Stable Genius" Trump has unleashed forces of right-wing violence with his vile rhetoric and tweets, seeming to give them permission to go after people that Trump has marked as "the other" or the invaders. Those forces won't go away once Trump does --  it'll still be his Republican Party -- but they have to be confronted and stopped at every turn.

The Next White Supremacist Mass Shooter? (Cont.)

Luckily, this anti- semitic homophobic white supremacist crackpot's fever plans were discovered in time:

A Las Vegas security guard [Ed.: WTF?!] is facing a federal weapons charge after authorities say he discussed making explosives and was planning attacks on a local synagogue and a bar that catered to the LGBTQ community.

According to the Justice Department, 23-year-old Conor Climo promoted white supremacy and communicated with people who identified with a white supremacist extremist organization.

Acting on a search warrant, law enforcement discovered bomb-making materials, which prosecutors described as “the component parts of a destructive device,” at Climo’s home.

Climo was arrested Thursday morning and later charged with one count of possession of an unregistered firearm. He appeared in court Friday.

A criminal complaint says that Climo discussed making Molotov cocktails and improvised explosive devices as well as his plans to attack a synagogue in Las Vegas during online encrypted conversations this year.

Climo also talked about conducting surveillance on a bar in downtown Las Vegas that he believed catered to the LGBTQ community and tried to recruit a homeless person to conduct “pre-attack surveillance” at a synagogue and other targets, according to the complaint.

While carrying out the search warrant, investigators found a notebook that contained hand-drawn diagrams of a potential attack in Las Vegas and drawings of “timed explosive devices,” the complaint said.

Buzzfeed adds more context, including:

Climo told FBI agents that he had experimented with making explosive devices for some time, and that he "harbors biases and hatred toward various racial and religious groups to include African-Americans, Jews, and Homosexuals."

Climo also told agents he had joined the white supremacist group The Feuerkrieg Division, a splinter of Atomwaffen Division, because the group, "offered him glory and the ability to contribute his knowledge of constructing explosive devices toward a 'righteous' cause."

He left the group, he said, because of their inaction.

How many more of these heavily armed fascist fanboys are out there feeling a sense of empowerment to act out their crackpot, violent fantasies?  How many of these cretins, who've spent years being poisoned by hate media and now the rantings of the racist- in- chief, are ready to put thought into action? 

California Garlic Festival Shooter Identified

The horrific outbreak of violence at yesterday's Gilroy Garlic Festival in California, which has claimed three lives so far (including a 6- year- old boy and 13- year- old girl) and many more wounded, was perpetrated by 19- year- old Santino William Legan, according to police.  He fits a familiar profile in the Trump era:

Legan also shared his views that include fringe white supremacist book written in 1890. Called “…one of the most incendiary works ever to be published anywhere,” by a noted anarchist, Legan quoted from the book in a post accompanied by a Smokey the Bear sign about fire danger. He wrote: “Read Might Is Right by Ragnar Redbeard. Why overcrowd towns and pave more open space to make room for hordes of mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats?”

According to the book Modern Satanism: Anatomy of a Subculture, Might Is Right by Ragnar Redbeard was authored under a pseudonym. It is purported to expand on Friedrich Nietzsche’s “theories of master–slave morality and herd mentality …”

The book is described as being akin to Social Darwinism and includes misogynistic and racist principles “claiming that the woman and the family as a whole is the property of the man and proclaiming the innate superiority of the Anglo-Saxon race. The book also contains many strong anti-Semitic statements.”  (our emphasis)

You can count on several things:  that his violent anger towards "mestizos and Silicon Valley white twats" has resulted from the racist and eliminationist rhetoric coming from the far right, given license by the "good people on both sides" white supremacist in the White (Supremacist) House;  that his access to his weapon(s) of choice was unimpeded;  and that, in laying this massacre solely at the feet of "mental illness," the media will bend over backwards to ignore the political philosophy behind this horror -- so far that it can kiss it's own ass.

(Photo:  The alleged shooter.)

Arrest Made In Black Church Arsons

The son of a deputy sheriff in Louisiana has been charged in connection with the burning of three African-American churches in Louisiana over a two-week period. The accused, Holden Matthews, is apparently a fan of pagan and white supremacist internet sites, according to his Facebook page.

"The fires Matthews is apparently suspected of setting occurred at St. Mary Baptist Church, Greater Union Baptist Church, and Mount Pleasant Baptist Church on March 26, April 2, and April 4, respectively. Another “intentionally set” fire was also reported on April 7 at the predominantly white Vivian United Pentecostal Church a few hours away."

Commenting on the arrest and the emboldening of white supremacists, NAACP President Derrick Johnson said,

“The spike in church burnings in the Southern states is a reflection of emboldened racial rhetoric and tension spreading across the country. But this is nothing new. For decades, African-American churches have served as the epicenter of survival and a symbol of hope for many in the African-American community. As a consequence, these houses of faith have historically been targets of violence.”

It's a good day today in Louisiana.

Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

We have a theme today, growing out of the horrific events in New Zealand.

Amanda Sakuma discusses the failure of tech companies to weed out  far right- wing hate speech and violent content, following the latest example of the white supremacist who used social media platforms to upload his "manifesto" and video of his murdering 50 Muslims worshiping in Christchurch, NZ:

At this point, in theory, tech companies should be well-practiced in the art of blocking far-right hate speech and violence from their platforms. They’ve been having to deal with it for years.

After the 2017 Unite the Right rally of neo-Nazis and white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia — where a woman was mowed down and killed by an avowed Nazi sympathizer — tech companies faced intense public pressure to block prominent instigators of explicit far-right extremism. Twitter suspended a bunch of white supremacists and prominent provocateurs — including Milo Yiannoppolis, Alex Jones, and Gavin McInnes — but was hesitant to target other alt-right leaders like Richard Spencer. Gab and the Daily Stormer, two havens for neo-Nazis, were similarly banished to the darker recesses of the Internet. Reddit quarantined hate-fueled subreddits, while other companies like PayPal, GoDaddy, Squarespace blocked white supremacists from using their services.

In effect, individual leaders and groups were targeted in response to a high-profile flashpoint in American politics and culture. But for many critics, those actions were hollow in addressing the underlying proliferation of racist and white supremacist ideas that are peddled online.

Sakuma highlights an issue with self- policing right- wing hate speech, ignoring the danger it presents (our emphasis):

Friday’s massacre exemplified a larger problem that’s plaguing the internet. Platforms are struggling to self-police problematic content created by its users, while the lawmakers who would ostensibly impose regulations are either too reluctant or ill-equipped to do so — and many in both camps are predisposed to treat far-right rhetoric less seriously than other forms of extremism, to boot.

Will Bunch discusses the rising tide of white nationalism, enabled by certain familiar players:

It’s ironic that -- in a time when the American political debate centers on Trump’s made-up emergency about a border wall -- there ain’t no mountain high enough to keep the most vile, racist propaganda from spreading from Europe to the United States to Australia and echo back again in a matter of nanoseconds, and to keep that bile from inspiring the kind of deadly violence you’d never see from Central American immigrants.

After the banality of the wanton violence and the killer’s live broadcast, the second most shocking thing about the New Zealand massacre was how well versed the perpetrator was in right-wing tropes that aren’t just common on the American internet but find their way to “mainstream” venues like the Fox News Channel or the halls of Congress.

The Australian gunman said he wanted to spark more debate about our Second Amendment, invoked (perhaps sarcastically) the right-wing media celebrity Candace Owens, and spewed a range of warped theories about the threats to Western civilization from “invaders” that -- while horrible -- were only a degree or two more extreme than what we’ve heard from an Iowa congressman, Steve King, or from the good citizens of Old Forge, Pa. Or from certain quarters at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Speaking of Steve King,

Just white supremacist congressman   Steve King joking about civil war pic.twitter.com/AqpXkzIvRC

— Brian Tashman (@briantashman) March 17, 2019

How many more strikes does this vicious clown get before he's expelled from Congress?

Adam Serwer takes a deep dive into the antecedents of neo- Nazi white supremacist ideology in the U.S., and one of its most influential 20th century purveyors:

The seed of Nazism’s ultimate objective—the preservation of a pure white race, uncontaminated by foreign blood—was in fact sown with striking success in the United States. What is judged extremist today was once the consensus of a powerful cadre of the American elite, well-connected men who eagerly seized on a false doctrine of “race suicide” during the immigration scare of the early 20th century. They included wealthy patricians, intellectuals, lawmakers, even several presidents. Perhaps the most important among them was a blue blood with a very impressive mustache, Madison Grant. He was the author of a 1916 book called The Passing of the Great Race, which spread the doctrine of race purity all over the globe. 

Serwer discusses the pseudoscience behind Grant's "race purity" crackpottery and "race suicide" alarms, which is echoed today by the knuckle- draggers talking "white genocide" in relation to the current immigration debate:

...to recognize the homegrown historical antecedents of today’s rhetoric is to call attention to certain disturbing assumptions that have come to define the current immigration debate in America—in particular, that intrinsic human worth is rooted in national origin, and that a certain ethnic group has a legitimate claim to permanent political hegemony in the United States. The most benignly intentioned mainstream-media coverage of demographic change in the U.S. has a tendency to portray as justified the fear and anger of white Americans who believe their political power is threatened by immigration—as though the political views of today’s newcomers were determined by genetic inheritance rather than persuasion.

The danger of Grantism, and its implications for both America and the world, is very real. External forces have rarely been the gravest threat to the social order and political foundations of the United States. Rather, the source of greatest danger has been those who would choose white purity over a diverse democracy. When Americans abandon their commitment to pluralism, the world notices, and catastrophe follows.

Finally, please check out Infidel 753's blog round- up for the best survey of interesting recent posts from around the Internet.  It's always worth the time, in our opinion.

Tweets Of The Day -- "Invasion"

The universal language of hate:

Trump echoes the rhetoric of the New Zealand mosque shooter, who wrote in his manifesto, "For many years I had been hearing and reading of the invasion of France by nonwhites... once I arrived in France, I found the stories not only to be true, but profoundly understated." https://t.co/gR8TqSHXau

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 15, 2019

Also:

Asked by a reporter if white nationalism is a growing threat, @POTUS replies, ”not really,” suggesting it’s just a small group of people.

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) March 15, 2019

Australia: Proud Boys Founder Of "Bad Character"

ABC Australia reports that the former leader of the far-right extremist group Proud Boys, Gavin "McOutiss" McInnes, has been denied a visa to enter Australia. Australia cited as its justification for the denial that McInnes was of "bad character." The white supremacy promoter recently left the organization he founded after it was classified by the FBI as an extremist group tied to "white nationalism", i.e. neo-Nazism. Looks like the head rat knows when the ship is sinking.

The so-called Proud Boys are a cowardly collection of misfits, losers and thugs who ambush progressive protesters and others deemed to be enemies of the "white race." Recently in New York City, a group of them brawled with members of Antifa and seven of the group have now been arrested on various assault charges.

(photo: "McOutiss", center, with his red-hatted Stormtrumpers)

Sunday Reflection - Statue Symbolism

Some musings on statue symbolism this morning. As always, these are snippets; please go to the links for the full essays.

First, if you aren't already aware of the origins and true meaning of Confederate statues, Prof. Karen Cox is here to enlighten:

Almost none of the monuments were put up right after the Civil War. Some were erected during the civil rights era of the early 1960s, which coincided with the war’s centennial, but the vast majority of monuments date to between 1895 and World War I. They were part of a campaign to paint the Southern cause in the Civil War as just and slavery as a benevolent institution, and their installation came against a backdrop of Jim Crow violence and oppression of African Americans. The monuments were put up as explicit symbols of white supremacy.

(If you're familiar with the KKK- glorifying 1915 D.W. Griffith movie, "The Birth of a Nation," think of these statues as static representations of the same era and racial perspective.)

Infidel 753 on the claim that the Confederate statues represent Southern "heritage:"

To really see how bizarre this is, imagine if some Germans insisted on displaying Nazis flags and statues of Nazi leaders, but claimed that this was out of pride in their German heritage and nothing to do with anti-Semitism or fascism.  Germany as a culturally-distinct region is more than a thousand years old and can boast world-class achievements in science, technology, music, literature, architecture, and on and on.  To ignore all that, and choose symbols representing solely Germany's twelve-year lurch into the darkest depths of evil, would strongly suggest that what they were really commemorating was not German heritage at all, but rather that very evil.

So it is with the Confederate flag and statues.  To treat these as if they were the epitome of the Southern heritage, the symbols best suited to express it, actually demeans that heritage by presenting only its worst face as if that represented the whole. 

Christine Emba on why she's tired of explaining why she and other racial and religious minorities matter in the "debate" over Jim Crow- era monuments:

There are the appeals to reason, grown tedious for having been so often repeated: No, taking down a monument is not an “erasure of history.” No, it is not a slippery slope from removing mutinously erected statues of Lee to dynamiting monuments to George Washington. No, even if all the Confederate monuments disappeared overnight, we would not as a country forget that the Civil War ever happened or what it meant. After all, we still have books and museums and cemeteries and preserved battlefields and structural inequality. 

Then there are the analogies, the individual stories, all the more painful for being constantly retold: No — I can’t just “get over it,” because I can’t just take off my dark skin, which permanently marks me as the other. No, they aren’t “just statues”: They bring up personal, painful memories of current racism and marginalization — shall I recount those for you, again? [snip]

...Why would so many Americans rather undergo one million mental contortions than admit that someone else's safety matters? Why is it so hard for you to care? 

The answer, I think, is not one that I'll like. But perhaps you can take up the burden of explaining that to me.

Sadly, the majority of Americans (!) still believe the statues should remain, though at the same time they claim to oppose white supremacy and the KKK by large percentages. We have a lot of explaining to do, don't we?

(Photo: The Robert E. Lee statue in Charlottesville, VA)

Tweets Of The Day - The White (Supremacist) House

Trump says federal funding for HBCUs is racist against whites.  https://t.co/ElKh2nWdNi

— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) May 6, 2017

The tweet refers to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and neo- fascist white nationalist Donald "Rump" Trump's statement on the omnibus spending bill Rump signed Friday. Here's what happened:

President Donald Trump signaled Friday that he may not implement a 25-year-old federal program that helps historically black colleges finance construction projects on their campuses, suggesting that it may run afoul of the Constitution. 

In a signing statement on the $1.1 trillion omnibus government spending bill, Trump singled out the Historically Black College and University Capital Financing Program as an example of provisions in the funding bill “that allocate benefits on the basis of race, ethnicity, and gender.” 

Trump said his administration would treat those programs “in a manner consistent with the requirement to afford equal protection of the law under the Due Process Clause of the Constitution’s Fifth Amendment.”’

Once and for always, the orange shitgibbon and his staff of redneck nitwits don't have the faintest foggiest notion what they're talking about.  Here's Cheryl Smith at the United Negro College Fund trying to paint a picture for them:

Smith noted that the federal designation of an institution as an HBCU is not based on race, but rather on mission, accreditation status and the year the institution was established.” She speculated that the “signing statement may simply be the Office of Management and Budget being overly cautious and perhaps not fully understanding this important distinction as it relates to HBCUs, but UNCF needs more information regarding their thinking and intent.” 

Under the program, which was created by Congress in 1992, the Education Department provides federally-backed loans to historically black colleges and universities for the construction of buildings and other facilities. The bill provides $20 million in federal loan subsidies in fiscal year 2017 to support as much as $282 million worth of financing to the schools. 

Derek W. Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina School of Law who studies constitutional and education law, called Trump’s reference to the HBCU program “rather odd.” (our emphasis)

Odd is as odd does.

This could've been a clue earlier:

Who could've predicted the Trump administration would treat historically black colleges & universities with contempt? pic.twitter.com/oq9ig7BDGt

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) May 6, 2017

How could this have gotten by Presidential apprentice and heavyweight liaison Omirosa?! We don't think she'll get any props for this!

Tweets Of The Day - Signs O' The Times

just two people doing a white power hand gesture in the White House pic.twitter.com/OXlFSGmhN1

— Emma Roller (@emmaroller) April 29, 2017

Look, whatever it takes to relieve their economic anxiety. https://t.co/DrskQDugXa

— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) April 29, 2017

And,

EPA website removes climate science site from public view after two decades https://t.co/OYtTwNCtkM

— andrew kaczynski 🤔 (@KFILE) April 29, 2017

And (h/t Balloon Juice),

"I thought it would be easier" is really not what you're hoping to hear from the guy you just hired for the most important job in the world.

— McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) April 28, 2017

It's not even what you're hoping to hear from the contractor you hired to fix your driveway. https://t.co/zMVpDawrii

— Michael T. Rose (@MikeTRose) April 28, 2017

A More Typical Endorsement For Trump

From "The Political Voice of White Christian America!" -- the Ku Klux Klan's newspaper endorses neo- fascist white nationalist Donald "Rump" Trump:



Kind of clarifies things, as if it that was needed.

Today's Cartoon And Tweet - The "Party of Lincoln" And The KKK

(click on image to enlarge)



(Jim Morin, Miami Herald)

On the heels of likely Republican nominee and neo- fascist hairball Donald "Rump" Trump's failure to disavow support from the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups (and then claiming it was due to a "bad earpiece"), Speaker of the House Paul "Lyin'" Ryan (R- Galt's Gulch) took to the podium to declare:

Today I want to be very clear about something, if a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games, they must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people's prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln.

Sometimes the sensory overload is too much and our bullshit detector melts down.  We'll let Dave Weigel boil down a response to these breathtaking and demonstrably false assertions by Lyin' Ryan:

"The Republican Party condemns racism in all its forms"
"Will you guys restore the Voting Rights Act?"
"Hang on my earpiece is broken"

— daveweigel (@daveweigel) March 1, 2016

White Supremacist Right- Wingers Arrested In Minneapolis Shootings

Three genetically mutated white supremacists believed responsible for the shooting of 5 "Black Lives Matter" demonstrators in Minneapolis on Monday have been arrested:

Police arrested three suspects in connection with the Monday night shootings that wounded five protesters, and social media posts reveal a fascination with guns, video games, the Confederacy and right-wing militia groups.

Authorities arrested 23-year-old Allen “Lance” Scarsella following a brief SWAT standoff Tuesday afternoon in Bloomington, and two other suspects, 21-year-old Nathan Gustavsson and 26-year-old Daniel Macey, later turned themselves in.

It doesn't take long to go from getting beaten up at a Trump rally to this, does it?

Before the shootings, white supremacists went online to talk about harassing the BLM crowd, including BLM's white supporters, who they referred to this way:

“Best to act as much like a beta white cuck as much as you can.”

Some time in lockup will test how "alpha" these manly specimens are when they're not holding onto their "cuck" cock compensators. (h/t to Anonymous commenter)

(Image:  The Minneapolis white supremacist shooters (unconfirmed).)

White Supremacy And The Myth Of The Confederacy

Prof. James Loewen writes today about how history has been turned upside down "with the pen (and noose)" by Southern apologists, then and now, and how its chickens have come home to roost:

With our monuments lying about secession, our textbooks obfuscating what the Confederacy was about and our Army honoring Southern generals, no wonder so many Americans supported the Confederacy until recently. We can see the impact of Confederate symbols and thinking on Dylann Roof, accused of killing nine in a Charleston, S.C., church, but other examples abound. In his mugshot, Timothy McVeigh, who bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, wore a neo-Confederate T-shirt showing Abraham Lincoln and the words “Sic semper tyrannis.” When white students in Appleton, Wis. — a recovering “sundown town” that for decades had been all white on purpose — had issues with Mexican American students in 1999, they responded by wearing and waving Confederate flags, which they already had at home, at the ready.

Across the country, removing slavery from its central role in prompting the Civil War marginalizes African Americans and makes us all stupid. De-Confederatizing the United States won’t end white supremacy, but it will be a momentous step in that direction.

As long as we fear telling the sometimes ugly truth about our history,  there will remain a large, ignorant population in this country that, 150 years on, will use the false myths of the Confederacy to justify flaunting its symbols of bigotry and treason.  It's long, long past time Americans stop indulging those noxious lies.

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.