Right-wing Domestic Terrorism

[LFC]

Another right-wing domestic terrorist militia group, just like we were warned about by the DHS but who were given blanket protection by Republicans.

When QAnon conspiracy theorists descended on a Dallas event hall in late May for their convention, they were met at the door by members of 1st Amendment Praetorian, a tough-talking new volunteer group devoted to running security at MAGA events, assembling “intelligence” dossiers on perceived Trumpist foes, and foiling threats from “antifa” protesters, real or imagined.

Decked out in black shirts bearing their group’s Roman-helmet logo, the self-proclaimed Praetorian members soon found that Dallas was light on antifa. Instead, they helped to bounce a few reporters, including one from The Daily Beast.

The QAnon conference marked a new high-profile stage for the group. Its co-founder, former Green Beret Robert Patrick Lewis, tweeted a photo of himself unfurling a Pine Tree flag—a Revolutionary War-era emblem appropriated by the far right—with disgraced former Trump National Security Adviser Michael Flynn and then-Texas GOP Chairman Allen West.

Lewis has worked security for prominent pro-Trump figures before, including Flynn. Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, a right-wing conspiracy theorist and early QAnon evangelist, has called the Praetorians “absolutely life saving.” But Lewis isn’t just a bodyguard. Through his group, Lewis has become a rising right-wing pundit with an apocalyptic vision about antifa “Tet Offensives” and suburban massacres palling around with QAnon promoters convinced top Democrats will soon be arrested. In memos, Lewis has imagined a continent-wide “syndicate” of liberals collaborating with Chinese special forces units to bring down America.

And when that happens, Lewis promises, 1st Amendment Praetorian—named for the elite cadre of centurions charged with guarding the Roman emperor and purporting to consist entirely of veterans of the military, law enforcement, and the intelligence community—will be ready. “There’s a shadow underbelly to all of our society,” Lewis warned in a May video to his fans, adding: “We can’t allow things to continue as they are.”

[Deleted]

1st Amendment Praetorian .... these people, supposed adults, live in a comic book universe 'cos this reads like a Marvel script. I have to keep checking to see what planet I live on as this isn't Earth-as-I-knew-it. Everybody's gone knucking futz

[LFC]

Jun 7, 2021 17:36:44 GMT LFC said:

Remember the Oregon lawmaker caught on video opening a door to let a mob of people into the state Capitol? Turns out he set the whole thing up in advance. It also turns out that he's dumb as a brick. You have to read his "sly" statements that he believes amount to "plausible" deniability.

Whoa! This is a surprise. The terrorist enabler was just punted out of the Oregon state legislature by unanimous vote (well, except his own).

Republican lawmakers voted with majority Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives to take the historic step of expelling a Republican member who let violent, far-right protesters into the state Capitol on Dec. 21.

Legislators said on the House floor that this could be the most important vote they ever cast. They then proceeded Thursday night to expel an unapologetic Representative Mike Nearman with a 59-1 vote, marking the first time a member has been expelled by the House in its 160-year history. The only vote against the resolution for expulsion was Nearman's own.

All it took to get them to support his expulsion was a video of him opening the door to let in the terrorists, the terrorists actually saying he knew he was going to let them in, and video of him telling a group of terrorists in advance that he was going to let them in. Such brave Republicans.

[LFC]

Another protest over a police shooting, another murder of a protester.

One woman is dead and others are injured after a man drove into a Minneapolis protest Sunday night.

[LFC]

The Pentagon gave these standby orders. One of the generals the House Oversight Committee will be talking to is General Charles Flynn, Michael Flynn's brother.

As the Jan. 6 insurrection at Congress worsened, Capitol police and D.C. officials began to scramble for help.

As pro-Trump rioters breached the building and brought Congress to a halt, they made more than 12 requests of the Pentagon for the National Guard to come, according to findings from the House Oversight Committee.

And over the hours that the attack unfolded, Pentagon officials told the national guard unit to “standby” five times, the panel found.

The House Oversight Committee is holding a hearing on Tuesday with FBI Director Chris Wray and two generals who responded to increasingly frantic requests from the Capitol and law enforcement to deploy the guard: Gen. Charles A. Flynn and Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt. The hearing will begin at 2 p.m.

Both Piatt and Flynn, brother of disgraced general Michael, responded to requests from the Capitol for support from the military.

Questions about the national guard response on Jan. 6 boil down to a gap of time between 1:30 p.m., when rioters were overwhelming police outside the capitol and officials began to request military support, and 5:20 p.m., when the national guard unit arrived.

By that time, the insurrection had mostly been suppressed by local and regional police units.

[LFC]

Republicans continue to provide aid and comfort to the enemy.

During a House Oversight committee hearing Tuesday, several Republicans spent their speaking time expressing concern for a specific group of people involved in the January 6 attack: the insurrectionists themselves.

Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA) was preoccupied with whether any insurrectionists were being held in solitary confinement, pressing FBI Director Christopher Wray on the matter.

“I am troubled that reportedly dozens of individuals from the January 6 riots have been held without bond in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day,” Hice said, noting that “even Elizabeth Warren” called that form of punishment “cruel and psychologically damaging.”

He asked Wray how many insurrectionists were currently held in isolation.

“I don’t know the number that would be held in those conditions,” Wray responded, adding that it’s a “decision made by the court” and that “I don’t keep up on the terms of confinement or detention.”

“There’s a great deal of concern with this,” Hice asserted, before moving on to ask why there haven’t been investigations into the Black Lives Matter protests from last summer.

Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) took a slightly different tack a few questions later, sowing doubt that some of the people arrested for participating in the insurrection had been innocent bystanders who simply wandered into the building.

“How many people were in the Capitol that day, I mean members of the public?” Grothman asked, looking around. “Does anyone know the answer to the question?”

He threw out numbers like 1,100 and 800, painting a picture of a Capitol buzzing with legions of tourists and visitors. In reality, the Capitol was closed to the public amid the COVID-19 pandemic back in March 2020, and is only now slowly reopening to guests of lawmakers and staff.

[LFC]

Liz Cheney didn't lie and she's not going quietly. Here she rips into Paul Gosar for also giving aid and comfort to the enemy by attacking the Capitol Hill police. He's unfit to live in America much less being a Congressman.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) on Tuesday night blasted what she called “disgusting and despicable” efforts by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) to “smear” the U.S. Capitol Police officers who protected lawmakers when a pro-Trump mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“It is disgusting and despicable to see Gosar lie about that day and smear the men and women who defended us,” Cheney, the former conference chair, wrote on Twitter detailing her own experience standing nearby the Arizona Republican before Capitol Police, risking their own lives, led lawmakers to safety.

Liz Cheney
@liz_Cheney

On January 6, as the violent mob advanced on the House chamber, I was standing near @repgosar and helped him open his gas mask. The Capitol Police led us to safety. It is disgusting and despicable to see Gosar lie about that day and smear the men and women who defended us.

Josh Gerstein
@joshgerstein

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), at House hearing, says Capitol police officer was ‘lying in wait’ for Ashli Babbitt before shooting her. Again says Babbitt was “executed” by police, demands name of officer involved in shooting

[LFC]

21 GOP Reps Opposed Awarding Gold Medals To Capitol Police For Jan. 6 Bravery

MTG objected to the use of the completely accurate and proper word "insurrection."

John Rose
Andy Harris
Thomas Massie
Bob Good
Louie Gohmert
Barry Moore
Ralph Norman
Matt Rosendale
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Chip Roy
Paul Gosar
Andy Biggs
Warren Davidson
Scott Perry
Matt Gaetz
Greg Steube
Andrew Clyde
Jody Hice
Mary Miller
Michael Cloud
Lauren Boebert

[pnwguy]

Jun 16, 2021 14:47:14 GMT LFC said:

21 GOP Reps Opposed Awarding Gold Medals To Capitol Police For Jan. 6 Bravery

MTG objected to the use of the completely accurate and proper word "insurrection."

John Rose
Andy Harris
Thomas Massie
Bob Good
Louie Gohmert
Barry Moore
Ralph Norman
Matt Rosendale
Marjorie Taylor Greene
Chip Roy
Paul Gosar
Andy Biggs
Warren Davidson
Scott Perry
Matt Gaetz
Greg Steube
Andrew Clyde
Jody Hice
Mary Miller
Michael Cloud
Lauren Boebert

"They were patriot soldiers expecting to be treated as liberators"

[LFC]

His lawyer spoke the truth when he described him as "vanilla" but it doesn't make him any less of a traitor.

Prosecutors argue Taylor joined a “mob of protesters” to attack law enforcement officers attempting to secure the Capitol—while armed with a knife—and he should be kept in pre-trial detention.

But his defense team had a different theory on Tuesday: the family man simply had too much time on his hands during the coronavirus pandemic and acted out.

“He’s kind of boring, this is probably the most exciting thing that’ll happen in his life,” Taylor’s lawyer, Dyke Huish, said during a Tuesday detention hearing. “Really he’s kind of a vanilla kind of guy—though admittedly he was upset about the masks.”

Huish describing his client as “moderately successful,” and a religious man who doesn’t drink and went to Brigham Young University. He insisted that Taylor’s actions during the insurrection were unique and spurred by his anger over the state-wide lockdown and mask mandate. He denied that Taylor is a militiaman—just that his documented violent actions were misunderstood.

“This was a guy who got mad about the masks and so he got wound up and felt like this was an appropriate thing to do,” Huish said during the hearing.

Evidence collected by federal investigators since February, however, shows a different story.

[LFC]

The not-so-Proud Boys.

Newly released chat logs show chaos and fear within the Proud Boys in the weeks following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.

The chat logs, released by lawyers for a Washington-based leader in the group, Ethan Nordean, paint a picture of a street gang buckling under the pressure of federal charges.

“I mean fuck,” one unidentified individual said in recordings obtained by prosecutors from Nordean’s phone. They then referred to anti-fascists, or “antifa”: “‘Tifa looks like professionals compared to us… It’s completely fucked.”

In other audio files from the same day, unidentified speakers worried openly about federal charges. One person mused that authorities don’t prosecute unless they have a “completely locked case.”

“We are fucked,” another person said. “They are coming for us.”

[andydp]

Jun 16, 2021 16:24:18 GMT LFC said:

His lawyer spoke the truth when he described him as "vanilla" but it doesn't make him any less of a traitor.

As they say in Newark NJ: Tough S*#@.

[andydp]

Jun 16, 2021 18:26:13 GMT LFC said:

The not-so-Proud Boys.

Newly released chat logs show chaos and fear within the Proud Boys in the weeks following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
One person mused that authorities don’t prosecute unless they have a “completely locked case.”
“We are fucked,” another person said. “They are coming for us.”

Just to repeat what they say in Newark NJ:  Tough S@#*.  Suck it up buttercup.

[goldenvalley]

In some of the defense of the insurrectionists I see a "take that libtards!" turnabout is fair play attitude at work. In particular, pity the poor folks in solitary confinement...oh this guy had a boring life so he decided to do a little hell raising for a good cause...the peaceful "tourists" who didn't break any windows. All mirror images of some of the statements made by those critical of the criminal justice system's operations and attitudes towards offenders and protestors talk about things like that. They are seen as making excuses for wrongdoers so why not use these similar statements about the insurrectionists.

[jackd]

The best defense is the Flip Wilson defense: "The devil (Trump) made me do it!".

[LFC]

Some of the right-wing terrorist groups are bleeding money. Good.

The right-wing Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have hit the skids since the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Members of the militant groups have been charged with planning and carrying out the assault on the U.S. Capitol, and the Oath Keepers are falling apart as board members accuse founder Stewart Rhodes of improper spending and the Proud Boys leader is making "Black Lives Matter" T-shirts to stay afloat, reported the Wall Street Journal.

"We're bleeding," said Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio in April, complaining about his e-commerce business. "We've been bleeding money since January, like hemorrhaging money."
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Tarrio has been cut off by PayPal and other processors for selling "hate propaganda" against Democrats, so he set up a secret site he won't identify that sells Black Lives Matter merchandise and items calling for Donald Trump's impeachment.

And as always grifters are gonna' grift.

Rhodes, the Oath Keepers founder, also did not go inside the Capitol and has not been charged in the riot, but he's facing allegations from his group's board of directors that he misused member dues and donations.

Four board members quit last year after confronting Rhodes over the issue, and at least six state chapters have peeled away from the national organization.

The group's former secretary noticed Rhodes had maxed out his Oath Keepers card three days in a row at the same sporting goods store and refused to explain the spending, which the credit card company revealed was for an AR-10 military-style rifle that cost around $1,000 paid over three days due to the card's $350 daily limit.

The limit was set up after Rhodes previously spent $800 at Walmart on more than a dozen steaks and some exercise equipment.

Membership has fallen by 80 percent from its peak to about 7,500, according to former board members, and the group had less than $10,000 in its coffers in April.

[LFC]

Another traitor turns out to be a common grifter.

Former California police chief Alan Hostetter who has been charged with rioting at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 formed a charity that he presented to the IRS last year as a organization meant to defend "human and civil rights" and educate the public about vaccines.

But NBC News reports that court papers say his charity was actually a platform to "oppose Covid-19 lockdown restrictions, protest that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump and advocate for violence against political opponents."

Alan Hostetter has already been charged with conspiracy to stop the certification of Joe Biden's presidency, but he could also be charged with violating IRS rules regarding tax-exempt nonprofits.

[LFC]

A racist MAGAt terrorist (feels like I'm repeating myself) plead guilty to firing a gun into a car filled with black girls last year. He needs to go to jail and must never be able to legally own or operate a firearm for the rest of his life.

A supporter of former President Donald Trump has pleaded guilty to intimidation with a dangerous weapon and willful injury after he fired multiple shots into a car filled with Black girls last year.

Local news station KCCI reports that 26-year-old Michael McKinney is now admitting to "causing the occupants to fear serious injury from my action" and also seriously injuring a 15-year-old girl whom he shot in the leg.

McKinney shot into the car while attending a pro-Trump rally at the Iowa Capitol building in December, exactly one month before the deadly January 6th pro-Trump riot that took place at the United States Capitol building.
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"McKinney was wearing body armor and heavily armed when he participated in a pro-Trump parade of slow-moving vehicles through Des Moines on Dec. 6," reports KCCI. "Police say he had a pistol, another firearm in his vehicle and was carrying two loaded magazines."

Witnesses say that the girls' car was surrounded by Trump supporters after they drove by and began taunting them. The car's driver put the vehicle in reverse to escape the Trump supporters and struck a pickup truck, at which point McKinney drew his weapon and started firing at them.

[LFC]

Here are lower key domestic terrorists. They displayed such bravery as they harassed children over masks. Why? Because Tucker Carlson told them to. These people are f***ing piles of garbage as is Tucker.

Three kids were sitting on a bench in southeast Pennsylvania when adults came up to harass them about wearing masks.

"What are you doing out here?" a male adult's voice asks the kids.

"What do you idiots — face mask—" a woman's voice can be heard saying.

"Why are you wearing a mask?" the man asks.

"Where are your parents at?" the woman asks. "They have you out here masked?"

"You don't need to wear them, you know that?" the man says.

"Why the hell you wearing a mask out? Where's your mom and dad?" the woman asks.

The kids can be heard mumbling that the CDC said that it's safer.

"How come you ain't dead yet," the man asks.

"Yeah," the woman follows.

"Take it off!" the man says before the video cuts off.

The interesting part of the video is that it was the woman who appeared to be filming their attack on the kids. She had to have uploaded it to social media to further attack the youth.

The people in the video are following the instruction of Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who told viewers on April 26 that they should accost Americans they see wearing masks and call 911.

[LFC]

The Jan. 6 Republican terrorists are finding out that American employers don't like their kind. I guess Faux News can't hire all of them. Time to find a MAGAt owned business to work for.

According to a Washington Post deep dive into the fall-out after a pro-Trump couple from the Portland area were exposed after harassing a reporter at the Million MAGA March in Washington, D.C., last November, the report notes that far-right extremists are increasingly finding themselves fired from their jobs and virtually unemployable after their names and faces are exposed by their victims.

As the Jan 6th Capitol insurrectionists are being rounded up by the FBI with the help of the public who are being provided with videos filmed during the riot after Trump's "Stop the Steal" speech, their future appears bleak even if they avoid jail time.

Case in point, Edward Jeremy Dawson and his wife Michelle who both lost their jobs after he harassed a journalist in DC, his identity was revealed despite wearing a mask and they were forced to keep weapons handy in their home while fearful after being harassed for their activities.

In a video (which can be seen below), Edward Dawson can be seen crowding reporter Laura Jedeed which led to him being exposed when it was posted online and eventually his firing.

According to the WaPo's Robert Klemko, "Two days later, Dawson lost his job as an ironworker, his employer citing his actions in D.C. His wife, Michelle, uploaded a tearful self-shot video to Twitter announcing his firing, and later that month she was asked to hand in her vest and badge at a Walmart in Battle Ground, Wash., where she worked as an online-order fulfiller. She thinks she was fired over her politics but acknowledges that she had missed a substantial amount of work because of back problems," adding, "Anonymous abusive callers deluged the Dawsons' cellphones, with some urging the couple to kill themselves, the Dawsons said."

Klemko notes that doxing has become commonplace with the rise of social media and that it is employed by people on both the left and the right as a form of retribution.

[Bact PhD]

To give the modern paraphrase of an old saying, those who live by doxxing...

[andydp]

Jun 21, 2021 20:57:18 GMT Bact PhD said:

To give the modern paraphrase of an old saying, those who live by doxxing...

"Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword ."  (Matthew 26:52)

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.  (Galatians 6:7)


Deal with it snowflakes....

[Deleted]

Jun 21, 2021 20:38:14 GMT LFC said:

The Jan. 6 Republican terrorists are finding out that American employers don't like their kind. I guess Faux News can't hire all of them. Time to find a MAGAt owned business to work for.

Tourists out for a picnic and a leisurely stroll by the Potomac getting fired from their jobs. What has America come to?! Blame it on cancel culture, I say. Eating away at America from the inside like termites. 

[LFC]

Pelosi Announces Select Committee To Probe Capitol Attack After GOP Tanked Commission

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced on Thursday that House Democrats will form a select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection that then-President Trump helped incite, following Senate Republicans’ deployment of the filibuster to kill the bill that would have created a bipartisan commission to do the same work.

“This morning, with great solemnity and sadness, I’m announcing that the House will be establishing a select committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection,” Pelosi said.

Pelosi told colleagues Wednesday she’d make a decision on whether to form the select committee this week.

During the announcement, Pelosi took aim at Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), citing his reported remarks last month urging his Republican colleagues to do him a “personal favor” by voting against the Jan. 6 commission.

“A temple of our democracy was attacked by insurrectionists,” Pelosi said. “It is imperative that we seek the truth as to what happened.”

After stressing that Jan. 6 was “one of the darkest days” in the nation’s history, Pelosi said that the House select committee will investigate “the facts and the causes of the attack” and will recommend next steps on how to prevent similar attacks from happening again.

[LFC]

The first insurrectionist sentenced gets off light. I hope this isn't a pattern for those demonstrably involved in violence against Capitol Hill Police and destroying property.

A middle-aged Indiana grandmother who referred to storming the Capitol with thousands of MAGA rioters on Jan. 6 as the “best day ever” became the first insurrectionist to be sentenced for her crime on Wednesday.

By all accounts, it was a slap on the wrist that offered hope for hundreds of rioters to get off easy.

Anna Morgan-Lloyd, a 49-year-old from Bloomfield, was sentenced to three years of probation after pleading guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building. D.C. District Judge Royce C. Lambert also sentenced Morgan-Lloyd to 120 hours of community service and ordered she pay a $500 fee for her crime, stating that the grandmother received a lower sentence because of her immense remorse for her crimes.

Morgan-Loyd is among roughly 500 individuals who have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 riot—and among the first to cop to their crime. But the grandmother’s sentencing signals that similarly accused insurrectionists who strike up a deal with prosecutors may not see jail-time, a dynamic one federal prosecutor described as a “massive win” for many far-right extremists.

“No question Morgan-Lloyd’s case will set precedent for the hundreds of non-violent accused individuals who participated on Jan. 6,” Neama Rahman, a former New York federal prosecutor, told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “No question that some charged individuals will be breathing a sigh of relief about this sentencing. This slap on the wrist is a significant win.”