Right-wing Domestic Terrorism

[LFC]

A Florida man who was one of the traitors at the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection threatened to attack again. He was arrested, of course.

The FBI has arrested a Florida man who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and threatened to do it again, the Sun Sentinel reports.

William Rogan Reid, 36, was arrested on Thursday. According to the Sentinel, he was turned in by someone who knew him after they saw video posted to Instagram showing him and others participating in the riot inside the Capitol building.

In a post to the social media messaging site Discord on March 11, Reid wrote that, "[January 6] was the breaking point for a lot of people but they're cowering in fear again because of incarceration." He later wrote that the event was "our Boston Tea Party."

"I'LL F------ DO IT AGAIN," he wrote in a subsequent post.

[LFC]

Anything associated with Amon Bundy ends up associated with right-wing domestic terrorists (RWDTs). He got his dumb ass in trouble in Idaho so what was the RWDT response? Jam a residential street and protest the judge's home in the case before a ruling was even made. This isn't the first time they've pulled this kind of stunt.

Joey Gibson was struggling to find a parking place for his flag-festooned pickup truck. The residential Boise, Idaho, neighborhood was already crowded with people and vehicles, including a large motorhome with a “MAGA MONSTA” sign. (“She parked right in front of my driveway,” a resident shouted about the motorhome. “That’s not okay.”)

Many in the crowd on Saturday were not locals. Gibson, the leader of the far-right streetfighting group Patriot Prayer, had traveled interstate from western Washington. He and others were there to protest outside the home of a judge involved in the case of Ammon Bundy, the leader of a different far-right group. The protest, which Gibson helped promote by sharing the judge’s address on the Internet, was a melting pot of fringe activists deeply invested in Bundy’s already-contentious court case.

“We need civil disobedience and we need people who are courageous enough to go to jail while you guys haul them in there,” Gibson shouted through a megaphone at police who guarded Magistrate Judge David Manweiler house, while a crowd waved signs on the suburban street.

The protest outside Manweiler’s home, which was followed by a demonstration outside a Boise courthouse, was the latest development in Bundy’s escalating, and unusual, legal drama. The saga is testing the power of an alleged nationwide network of far-right activists Bundy calls People’s Rights, but also the ability of the legal system in a conservative state to hold even the most idolized far-right figures accountable.

This is the kind of follower they attract. To quote Blazing Saddles, "You know. Morons."

One attendee told a live streamer that she’d become involved with Bundy’s movement last year when she heard he was organizing a maskless Easter service for 1,000 people. After that, she remained involved with People’s Rights and lost her job for what she described as religious and anti-mask reasons. “I got fired in August because God told me not to wear a mask,” she said.

[goldenvalley]

Can we deem the sold out crowd at the Texas Rangers game a terrorist event.  Not a lot of people wearing masks there.  Isn't it sort of like releasing Sarin gas in a subway tube?

[Bact PhD]

Apr 6, 2021 20:43:31 GMT goldenvalley said:

Can we deem the sold out crowd at the Texas Rangers game a terrorist event.  Not a lot of people wearing masks there.  Isn't it sort of like releasing Sarin gas in a subway tube?

No! No! That's FREEDOM¹ in glorious display!!

¹I would call it "Superspreader Event."

[LFC]

Once again we see Republicans cozying up to right-wing domestic terrorists.

The chairman of the right-wing street gang the Proud Boys will speak to a local Florida Republican club next month to tell “his side of the story” and “set the record straight.”

That’s the word from the Boca Raton Regional Republican Club, which has promoted the $45 May 3 dinner on Facebook and through its newsletter this week. The club’s president, Armand Grossman, is the former vice mayor of Miami Springs, Florida.

Tarrio (pictured above, right) currently faces charges related to the burning of a Black Lives Matter banner in Washington, D.C. in December, for which he subsequently claimed credit online. At the time of Tarrio’s arrest, police allegedly discovered two high-capacity firearm magazines in his possession, for which he faces an additional charge.

Tarrio allegedly told police that he intended to give the magazines, which were unloaded and featured Proud Boys logos, to someone who’d ordered them off of a web store he operates. He’s currently released from detention pending trial.

[andydp]

A breach in the wall of solidarity.  Wonder if its the former FBI informant/President of the Proud Boys ?


Defendant In Capitol Insurrection Flips, Helping Prosecutors Build Case Against Proud Boys

The Justice Department is focused on building cases that will allow them to bring conspiracy charges against the leaders of extremist groups like The Proud Boys and The Oath Keepers. This news of a defendant agreeing to cooperate is the first sign that they’re getting help from some of the people who took part in the siege.



According to CNN, court records have suggested that plea deals have been in the works for several weeks.


www.newsandguts.com/defendant-in-capitol-insurrection-flips-helping-prosecutors-build-case-against-proud-boys/?fbclid=IwAR124t7W2lDQ3MmE3NKRfAn00Z-U2HXm6lZmA5PjRR96UBhIMmRegmdSdek

[andydp]

It would be so freakin` cool if the FBI came and arrested this dirtbag at his "speech"

Defendant In Capitol Insurrection Flips, Helping Prosecutors Build Case Against Proud Boys

Story here !!

www.newsandguts.com/defendant-in-capitol-insurrection-flips-helping-prosecutors-build-case-against-proud-boys/?fbclid=IwAR124t7W2lDQ3MmE3NKRfAn00Z-U2HXm6lZmA5PjRR96UBhIMmRegmdSdek

Added bonus: imagine if some idiots in the audience started to hinder the FBI during the arrest.

Apr 8, 2021 18:51:14 GMT LFC said:

The chairman of the right-wing street gang the Proud Boys will speak to a local Florida Republican club next month to tell “his side of the story” and “set the record straight.”

[LFC]

The Pentagon is instituting a program to keep extremists out of the military.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced plans to update screening procedures for military recruits as part of an effort to weed out extremism among the nation’s troops, according to a memo released Friday.

The development comes after the Pentagon last week concluded its 60-day “stand down” to address extremism and white supremacy in the military in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection of the U.S. Capitol by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

In the memo on Friday, Austin said: “The vast majority of those who serve in uniform and their civilian colleagues do so with great honor and integrity, but any extremist behavior in the force can have an outsized impact.”

The defense secretary called for additional screening of potential recruits, demanding that military services ask recruits a standardized set of questions “to solicit specific information about current or previous extremist behavior.”

It’s notable that Pentagon policy does not specifically prohibit membership in many of those groups and that Friday’s actions do not ban current service members from being members of such organizations.

The memo said that the updated screening procedures will still help officials to “clarify that any demonstrably false answers provided in response could form the basis for punitive action for fraudulent enlistment.”

The Pentagon had acknowledged in February that white supremacist and similar fringe groups “very aggressively recruit soon-to-be veterans.”

[LFC]

An ambush by one of the Bugaloo believers from last June is explained. The progression of outrage groups that helped drive his insanity is scary shit. It's also the right-wing media's business model.

In fact, Steven Carrillo had a different objective, a goal he had written about on Facebook, discussed with other Boogaloo Bois and even scrawled out in his own blood as he hid from police that day. He wanted to incite a second Civil War in the United States by killing police officers he viewed as enforcers of a corrupt and tyrannical political order — officers he described as “domestic enemies” of the Constitution he professed to revere.

Now, as he texted with his brother and watched deputies assemble so close to him that he could hear their conversations, Carrillo sent an urgent appeal to his fellow Boogaloo Bois. “Kit up and get here,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message that prosecutors say he sent to members of a heavily armed Boogaloo militia faction he had recently joined. The police, he texted, were after him.

“Take them out when theyre coming in,” the text read, according to court documents.

Minutes later, prosecutors allege, Carrillo ambushed three deputy sheriffs, opening fire with a silenced automatic rifle and hurling a homemade pipe bomb from a concealed position on a steep embankment some 40 feet from the deputies. One deputy was shot dead, and a second was badly wounded by bomb shrapnel to his face and neck. When two California Highway Patrol officers arrived, Carrillo opened fire on them, too, police say, wounding one.

“The police are the guard dogs, ready to attack whenever the owner says, ‘Hey, sic ’em boy,’” Carrillo said in an interview, the first time he has spoken publicly since he was charged with murdering both the deputy sheriff in Ben Lomond and, a week earlier, a federal protective security officer at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland.

When Carrillo was finally subdued on June 6, cellphone footage captured him shouting at deputies as they led him away, “This is what I came to fight — I’m sick of these goddamn police.”

For Carrillo, that final frenzied expression of rage marked the culmination of a long slide into extremism, a journey that had begun a decade earlier with his embrace of the tea party movement, libertarianism and Second Amendment gun rights, before evolving into an ever-deepening involvement with paramilitary elements of the Boogaloo Bois. The militant group is known for the distinctive Hawaiian shirts its members wear at protests, often while brandishing AR-15s and agitating for the “Boog” — the group’s shorthand for civil war.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 13, 2021 16:11:00 GMT LFC said:

An ambush by one of the Bugaloo believers from last June is explained. The progression of outrage groups that helped drive his insanity is scary shit. It's also the right-wing media's business model.

In fact, Steven Carrillo had a different objective, a goal he had written about on Facebook, discussed with other Boogaloo Bois and even scrawled out in his own blood as he hid from police that day. He wanted to incite a second Civil War in the United States by killing police officers he viewed as enforcers of a corrupt and tyrannical political order — officers he described as “domestic enemies” of the Constitution he professed to revere.

Now, as he texted with his brother and watched deputies assemble so close to him that he could hear their conversations, Carrillo sent an urgent appeal to his fellow Boogaloo Bois. “Kit up and get here,” he wrote in a WhatsApp message that prosecutors say he sent to members of a heavily armed Boogaloo militia faction he had recently joined. The police, he texted, were after him.

“Take them out when theyre coming in,” the text read, according to court documents.

Minutes later, prosecutors allege, Carrillo ambushed three deputy sheriffs, opening fire with a silenced automatic rifle and hurling a homemade pipe bomb from a concealed position on a steep embankment some 40 feet from the deputies. One deputy was shot dead, and a second was badly wounded by bomb shrapnel to his face and neck. When two California Highway Patrol officers arrived, Carrillo opened fire on them, too, police say, wounding one.

“The police are the guard dogs, ready to attack whenever the owner says, ‘Hey, sic ’em boy,’” Carrillo said in an interview, the first time he has spoken publicly since he was charged with murdering both the deputy sheriff in Ben Lomond and, a week earlier, a federal protective security officer at the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Oakland.

When Carrillo was finally subdued on June 6, cellphone footage captured him shouting at deputies as they led him away, “This is what I came to fight — I’m sick of these goddamn police.”

For Carrillo, that final frenzied expression of rage marked the culmination of a long slide into extremism, a journey that had begun a decade earlier with his embrace of the tea party movement, libertarianism and Second Amendment gun rights, before evolving into an ever-deepening involvement with paramilitary elements of the Boogaloo Bois. The militant group is known for the distinctive Hawaiian shirts its members wear at protests, often while brandishing AR-15s and agitating for the “Boog” — the group’s shorthand for civil war.

Remember when we worried that radical Islamists were radicalizing people and creating mayhem and death?  Well it's happening right here just with a different ideological bent.  And this particular guy was taking advantage of the protests relating to George Floyd to carry out his own particular beef with the world probably assuming he'd never be noticed.  Then his crazy took over and he didn't camouflage his intent anymore.

[LFC]

Apr 13, 2021 16:38:52 GMT goldenvalley said:

Apr 13, 2021 16:11:00 GMT LFC said:

Remember when we worried that radical Islamists were radicalizing people and creating mayhem and death?  Well it's happening right here just with a different ideological bent. 

And never forget that this was being figured out under W Bush. Under Obama the analysis continued and when they tried to publish it the Republican Party gave aid and comfort to our domestic enemies. Now their part of the Republican base, right up until one of them does something that's bad PR at which point that person suddenly becomes "mentally ill."

[LFC]

On the upside at least most of these right-wing domestic terrorists are dumb as a box of rocks.

A man currently being held in detention for allegedly storming the United States Capitol building on January 6th is in more trouble after using prison-monitored communications devices to tell his family he was "proud" of his actions.

Via BuzzFeed News' Zoe Tillman, prosecutors are urging the United States Court for the District of Columbia to keep MAGA rioter Ronald Sandlin detained because of messages that contradict his claims in court that he feels deep remorse for his actions.

The prosecutors show that Sandlin, just one day after he described his actions on January 6th as "shameful" during a court hearing, sent a message to a fellow MAGA rioter in which he said he had a "divine destiny" and waxed nostalgically about the fact that "we made history that day and the full implications of our actions [have] yet to be realized."

And just one week before the court hearing in which he expressed remorse, Sandlin sent a message to his mother saying he was "proud to call [the other Capitol riot inmates housed in the D.C. jail] my friends we stood up for what we believed in and sacrificed."

Prosecutors are arguing this shows that Sandlin's expressions of contrition are insincere and are asking the court to keep him in custody until this trial.

[LFC]

Dumb and violent which makes him the prototypical MAGAt.

A notorious anti-masker who took part in the U.S. Capitol riot loudly confronted a California city councilman at a brewery in possible violation of his probation.

Benjamin Martin, whose anti-mask group shut down several stores over coronavirus mandates and was ordered by a judge to stay away from a farmers market, approached Fresno City Council member Miguel Arias at BarrelHouse Brewery Company and shouted insults and slurs related to public health measures, reported the Fresno Bee.

"You're worthless," Martin shouted from a short distance away. "You don't do your job right. You're a horrible f*cking person."
Tired of ads? Want to support our progressive journalism? Click to learn more.

Arias wished Martin a good day, but he called the councilman "garbage" and a "mask Nazi" who engages in "cancel culture."

Other customers asked Martin to calm down, and a waitress eventually ushered them away from Arias and his companions at an outdoor picnic table -- but the councilman said Martin and his group returned and threatened to "smash my head into the cement" when he left the Paso Robles brewery.
"(Martin) is still free to make terrorist threats with apparently no restrictions at all," said Arias, who compared the group to the right-wing Proud Boys. "These groups represent a real threat to the public."

Here's a real piece of work.

Martin is currently on conditional probation in connection with a plea agreement for a 2017 domestic violence case, and he's also the subject of a restraining order related to his anti-mask activities at a Sprouts Market location.

He is also a realtor with Keller Williams, though his license is on restricted status because he failed to disclose his domestic violence conviction.

Martin claims to have been inside the Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection and can be seen in a video showing Donald Trump supporters chanting "traitor" at Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) in an airport after he refused to block certification of Joe Biden's election win.

[LFC]

So who was the ultimate source of the order for Capitol Hill Police to limit their use of force?

One of the most frightening aspects of the Capitol riot was how easy it appeared to be for a right-wing mob to take over the building. Now, a new report from from the Capitol Police inspector general has helped to explain why that was the case. The report, obtained by The New York Times ahead of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday, confirms that officers were specifically instructed by their leaders not to use their most effective tactics to hold off the pro-Trump hordes. Inspector General Michael A. Bolton writes that the agency’s Civil Disturbance Unit, which is trained to deal with big protests, was forbidden from using its most powerful tools to stem the riot. “Heavier, less-lethal weapons,” such as stun grenades, “were not used that day because of orders from leadership,” Bolton wrote. Officials who were on duty during the riot told the inspector general that, if such equipment was allowed, it could have helped cops “push back the rioters.”

Read it at The New York Times

[goldenvalley]

Apr 14, 2021 19:18:26 GMT LFC said:

So who was the ultimate source of the order for Capitol Hill Police to limit their use of force?

One of the most frightening aspects of the Capitol riot was how easy it appeared to be for a right-wing mob to take over the building. Now, a new report from from the Capitol Police inspector general has helped to explain why that was the case. The report, obtained by The New York Times ahead of a Capitol Hill hearing on Thursday, confirms that officers were specifically instructed by their leaders not to use their most effective tactics to hold off the pro-Trump hordes. Inspector General Michael A. Bolton writes that the agency’s Civil Disturbance Unit, which is trained to deal with big protests, was forbidden from using its most powerful tools to stem the riot. “Heavier, less-lethal weapons,” such as stun grenades, “were not used that day because of orders from leadership,” Bolton wrote. Officials who were on duty during the riot told the inspector general that, if such equipment was allowed, it could have helped cops “push back the rioters.”

Read it at The New York Times

More fear of appearing to over react thus inciting protestors to behave in kind?  Or an attempt to allow protestors free rein to plow past law enforcement in a medieval warfare method (but with bear spray)?

[LFC]

Armed terrorists were nearby, ready to be called in, during the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection.

Multiple affiliates of the Oath Keepers, and multiple cases that appeared to contain firearms, made the trip to a Virginia hotel in advance of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

And these people, and suspected weapons, were ready to swoop into D.C. “at a moment’s notice” during the attack on the Capitol, he said.

The details about the purported “quick reaction force” set up in a hotel in Arlington, Virginia were the most extensive that federal prosecutors have revealed to date about their knowledge of an alleged force ready and waiting to join the Capitol attack.

The description came during a hearing for one Oath Keeper, Kenneth Harrelson, who’s been indicted alongside several others with conspiring to interrupt Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, among other charges. In a court filing earlier this week, the government noted that surveillance footage from the Comfort Inn in Ballston showed Harrelson picking up what appeared to be a rifle case from a hotel room there on Jan. 7.

On Wednesday, assistant U.S. attorney Jeffrey Nestler said “additional surveillance video from the Comfort Inn shows not just Mr. Harrelson, but other individuals who were affiliated with the Oath Keepers, including Person Three and others, carrying up and down from the lobby and back, multiple different items that look similar to this — large carrying cases that appear to be consistent with rifle cases.”

Person Three is the label that prosecutors have used for someone who allegedly booked a room in the Comfort Inn, and, according to an alleged Dec. 30 message from co-defendant Thomas Caldwell, was “committed to being the quick reaction force anf [sic] bringing the tools if something goes to hell.”

Also on the surveillance footage, Nesler said, was an individual who appeared to carry a rifle draped under a sheet, or a piece of linen.

Most notably, Nestler alleged that “Mr. Harrelson and others had stashed a large among of weapons there, and that people who were affiliated with this group were at the Comfort inn in Ballston on Jan. 6, monitoring what was happening at the Capitol, communicating with other members of the team, including Mr. Harrelson on the Signal chats, and prepared to come into DC and ferry these weapons in to the ground team, which Mr. Harrelson was running, at a moment’s notice if anyone said the word.”

[LFC]

Another right-wing terrorist has now been charged for threatening BLM protesters.

Frank Cavalluzzi, who made headlines last summer as the “Queens Wolverine,” has been charged with attempted murder, New York NBC4 reports. In June 2020, Cavalluzzi jumped out of a car at Cross Island Parkway and charged at protesters at a Black Lives Matter event, yelling “I will kill you.” Footage at the scene showed he was wearing a glove that had four scarily long knives attached to it, which the district attorney described as a “glove of blades.” He then got back in his car and drove in the pedestrian area, nearly plowing down people in the sidewalk. Luckily, no one was injured. Cavalluzzi surrendered to authorities last year but was finally indicted Wednesday with 39 criminal charges, including attempted murder, attempted assault, reckless endangerment, and weapons. If convicted, he will face as many as 25 years in prison for each victim involved.

[LFC]

Capitol Hill Police made 17 requests for backup in 78 minutes during the Jan. 6 Republican Insurrection.

A new analysis from the Washington Post revealed that over the course of 78 minutes during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, police called for backup 17 times and were ignored.

Using the audio of the police radio channels, the Post walked through how those audio pieces from the radio matched with footage on the ground as President Donald Trump's supporters made their way to the U.S. Capitol, breached the perimeter and ultimately the doors of the building.

"The examination reveals how police were hampered by an insufficient number of officers and shortages of less-lethal weapons and protective equipment and also provides a glimpse into communications breakdowns within the police response," said the report.

[goldenvalley]

Apr 15, 2021 15:38:47 GMT LFC said:

Armed terrorists were nearby, ready to be called in, during the Jan 6 Republican Insurrection.

Multiple affiliates of the Oath Keepers, and multiple cases that appeared to contain firearms, made the trip to a Virginia hotel in advance of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, a federal prosecutor said Wednesday.

And these people, and suspected weapons, were ready to swoop into D.C. “at a moment’s notice” during the attack on the Capitol, he said.

The details about the purported “quick reaction force” set up in a hotel in Arlington, Virginia were the most extensive that federal prosecutors have revealed to date about their knowledge of an alleged force ready and waiting to join the Capitol attack.

The description came during a hearing for one Oath Keeper, Kenneth Harrelson, who’s been indicted alongside several others with conspiring to interrupt Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory, among other charges. In a court filing earlier this week, the government noted that surveillance footage from the Comfort Inn in Ballston showed Harrelson picking up what appeared to be a rifle case from a hotel room there on Jan. 7.

On Wednesday, assistant U.S. attorney Jeffrey Nestler said “additional surveillance video from the Comfort Inn shows not just Mr. Harrelson, but other individuals who were affiliated with the Oath Keepers, including Person Three and others, carrying up and down from the lobby and back, multiple different items that look similar to this — large carrying cases that appear to be consistent with rifle cases.”

Person Three is the label that prosecutors have used for someone who allegedly booked a room in the Comfort Inn, and, according to an alleged Dec. 30 message from co-defendant Thomas Caldwell, was “committed to being the quick reaction force anf [sic] bringing the tools if something goes to hell.”

Also on the surveillance footage, Nesler said, was an individual who appeared to carry a rifle draped under a sheet, or a piece of linen.

Most notably, Nestler alleged that “Mr. Harrelson and others had stashed a large among of weapons there, and that people who were affiliated with this group were at the Comfort inn in Ballston on Jan. 6, monitoring what was happening at the Capitol, communicating with other members of the team, including Mr. Harrelson on the Signal chats, and prepared to come into DC and ferry these weapons in to the ground team, which Mr. Harrelson was running, at a moment’s notice if anyone said the word.”

Since the Capitol police and Metro police were declawed and the Nat'l Guard not showing up was there no reason to start shooting?

[goldenvalley]

A guilty plea from an Oath Keeper.

Mr. Schaffer, who is also a guitarist and songwriter for the heavy-metal band Iced Earth, was initially charged on Jan. 16, in what amounted to a first wave of criminal complaints, and accused of carrying bear spray and engaging in “verbal altercations” with police officers at the Capitol. Photos from the riot show him wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt under a tactical vest and a baseball cap that read “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member.”

At a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Mr. Schaffer pleaded guilty to two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding and entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon. Both are felonies and carry a combined total of up to 30 years in prison.

As part of Mr. Schaffer’s deal with the government, prosecutors have agreed to sponsor him for the Witness Protection Program.

I guess he's taken a new oath. 

[andydp]

Apr 16, 2021 17:59:26 GMT goldenvalley said:

A guilty plea from an Oath Keeper.

Mr. Schaffer, who is also a guitarist and songwriter for the heavy-metal band Iced Earth, was initially charged on Jan. 16, in what amounted to a first wave of criminal complaints, and accused of carrying bear spray and engaging in “verbal altercations” with police officers at the Capitol. Photos from the riot show him wearing a blue hooded sweatshirt under a tactical vest and a baseball cap that read “Oath Keepers Lifetime Member.”

At a hearing in Federal District Court in Washington, Mr. Schaffer pleaded guilty to two charges: obstruction of an official proceeding and entering a restricted building with a dangerous weapon. Both are felonies and carry a combined total of up to 30 years in prison.

As part of Mr. Schaffer’s deal with the government, prosecutors have agreed to sponsor him for the Witness Protection Program.

I guess he's taken a new oath. 

You know what's next ? This guy will be throwing some Proud Boys under the bus. I'm sure the feds are looking to get these people in a conspiracy rap. What better way than to show contact before and during the insurrection ?

I'm also willing to bet the Proud Boy leader who was the Fed Informant is talking a lot too.  

[LFC]

NBC has published an article on radicalization of members and former members of the US Special Forces. It's worth a read on its own but Josh Marshall attempts to explain where it came from. Once again we're lead back to the DHS report warning us about this and the Republicans who screeched bloody murder against protecting our country.

I wanted to flag your attention to this NBC article about radicalization among current and retired US Special Forces personnel. NBC got access to private Facebook groups for these communities – again current and former. They had a lot of racist, far-right, QAnon type content. Not universal and not uncontested, but still a lot.

This is not terribly surprising. Special Forces commands are overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly white and they’re embedded in a military culture which in itself leans in a heavily conservative direction. One thing I hope to focus on more in the coming months is the larger story this is part of, which I would define as the radicalization of American culture and politics in the wake of our intensive and brutalizing engagements in the Middle East over some thirty years.

It starts with the Gulf War in 1991, which is a massive effort but fairly quickly drawn down. That is umbilically connected to 9/11 and the far larger and more sustained engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq. (It’s the Gulf War which gets you the permanent US deployments in Saudi Arabia which are at least the nominal driver of al Qaida’s war with the US.) Here you have not only the traumatization and brutalizing of multiple generations of young Americans but also the roots of the cult of ‘tactical’ gun and military culture. You can see the first signs of it in the ‘gee-wow’ videos produced out of the Gulf War with laser guided munitions zeroing on buildings and vehicles in motion.

[andydp]

Several articles have been published about Kyle Rittenhose getting donations from law enforcement and other government employees. These bozos actually used their OFFICIAL e mails to make the donations.

I’m in Maine and dependent (with permission) on the neighbor’s WiFi. It seems to be “acting up” can someone post a link about Kile’s donors er... accomplices ?

Thanks

Never mind... I forgot about "Mobile Hotspot".  Here goes.  I am actually using a link to Fox "news".  I've bolded an interesting use of "Christian assets"

Kyle Rittenhouse donations came from police, public officials: report

Transparency group Distributed Denial of Secrets shared the details of some donors who attempted to conceal their identities using an anonymous feature on GiveSendGo, a Christian crowdfunding website, following a data breach, The Guardian reported.

Some donors were associated with email addresses traced to police and public work emails, it said.

www.foxnews.com/us/kyle-rittenhouse-donations-police-public-report

[LFC]

Rep. Maxine Waters's (D-CA) comments about the Derek Chauvin trial outcome weren't helpful but now we have a number of clearly memory deficient Republicans suddenly concerned about talk that could be considered incitement. TPM points out the hypocrisy in Trump Said ‘Peaceful’ Once While Inciting Insurrection. Now GOP Clings To That To Go After Waters.

“(Waters) was trying to incite violence and in fact there is violence going on right now in Minnesota because of her actions,” Scalise said.

Much like McCarthy, Scalise accused Waters of making “inflammatory” comments in the past, before expressing his support for the House minority leader’s move to censure Waters.

“I’d like to see Maxine Waters apologize for the inflammatory comments she’s made in inciting violence. It’s a powder keg down there, the last thing you want to do is make it worse,” Scalise said while referring again to the remarks made by the judge in Chauvin’s trial.

Pressed again on whether his colleague Brooks should apologize for his remarks hours before the deadly Capitol insurrection, Scalise deflected and instead complained about Democrats not condemning Waters’ remarks.

Conveniently ignoring the fact that he’s denied Trump helped incite the mob behind the Capitol attack, the House minority whip accused Democrats of only wanting to “speak out on one side of the aisle, not on both.”

Guess what, Stevie. That's what happens when you avoid any condemnation of months of inflammatory speech and lies which lead to violence and death. You lose your standing to point your finger at the other side ... PERMANENTLY.

[LFC]

There is no oversight of the Capitol Police Board. So in addition to the Trumpies holding up military help and the mysterious order from having stronger less lethal weapons on hand we have several groups just kind of functioning independently. No wonder Y'all-qaeda was able to breach the Capitol.

While disparate congressional committees have chipped away at what exactly allowed a pro-Trump mob to muscle into the Capitol building on January 6, one thing has become clear: the opacity cloaking the inner workings of the Capitol police.

Much of that scrutiny has become focused on the Capitol Police Board, the overseeing body of the force comprised of the architect of the Capitol, House and Senate sergeants at arms and the chief of police in a non-voting role.

The board has authority over almost all of the security decisions made at the Capitol, but received little attention until the January 6 disaster. Calls for its reform have become a bipartisan unifier as lawmakers look to improve Capitol security.

While the attack unfurled, calls bounced back and forth between the sergeants at arms, eating away crucial time as they struggled to communicate about bringing in National Guard backup.

During a hearing before the House Administration Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA) asked Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton which “entity” has oversight over the board.

“Actually, sir, I went back and tried to research that just for my own edification — I don’t believe there is any actual oversight of the board,” Bolton said.

“Hmm,” Loudermilk responded, seeming taken aback. “That’s interesting. I would guess if there’s any oversight, it would be this committee.”

Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) echoed Loudermilk’s bafflement a few questions later, exclaiming “holy smokes!”

“It’s my opinion that this committee has a responsibility to oversee the Capitol Police Board, including those members appointed by Speaker Pelosi,” he added with a little partisan zing.

He asked committee chair Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) if they’d be able to schedule a hearing specifically on the oversight of the board in the near future. She was noncommittal, saying they were taking a comprehensive look at all the elements of Capitol security.

The revelation is just another reason we know so little after the historic security failure at the Capitol. While committees have tried to get their teeth into various pieces of the day — and a more comprehensive report is expected from the joint Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees next month — they’ve been stymied by the difficulty in getting all the players in the same room at once. A hallmark of the hearings so far has been buck-passing.

There was also a wave of resignations in the wake of the attack, further muddying the waters.