talkpolitics | So Here We Are, in "Whackadoo World"

Defendant Michael Burnett, testifying about the "anarchist" militia group he was involved in which killed a former soldier and his 17-year-old girlfriend because they were ‘loose ends:’

I don’t know how it got to the point where two people got murdered.

The pity of it is, he sounds absolutely sincere. He just doesn’t know how a group that named themselves F.E.A.R (Forever Enduring, Always Ready) could have ended up killing human beings. After all, he explains to the judge, their aims were:

To give the government back to the people…patriotism.

And according to the Assistant DA, what did their plans for “giving the government back to the people involve?”

…bombing vehicles of local and state judicial and political figureheads and federal representatives to include the local department of Homeland Security.

They also wanted to kill the president.

You can see how an organization like this shooting to death two people could come as a shock to this guy.

Soooo, let's sum up, shall we? We've got what happened in La Place, Louisiana recently when some "Sovereign Citizens" decided to kill them some cops. We've got the shootings in the Sikh temple by a white supremacist. There's the attempted MLK day bombing in Spokane last year by a disgruntled veteran. And let’s not forget all those other incidents that have been piling up since 2008. Jim David Adkisson’s attack on a Unitarian church; The murder of Dr. Eugene Tiller; The Glenn-Beck-inspired Adkisson wannabe who, thank goodness, got caught on his way to San Francisco to shoot up a non-profit Beck had been reviling on his show.

Looks like the predictions of that reviled homeland security report from 2009 were pretty much on target -- with a slight amendment pertaining to the most recent incident. One of the concerns expressed in the report is that:

…rightwing extremists will attempt to recruit and radicalize returning veterans in order to exploit their skills and knowledge derived from military training and combat. These skills and knowledge have the potential to boost the capabilities of extremists—including lone wolves or small terrorist cells—to carry out violence. The willingness of a small percentage of military personnel to join extremist groups during the 1990s because they were disgruntled, disillusioned, or suffering from the psychological effects of war is being replicated today.

I’ve not heard that any members of this group (its actual number remains unclear) were ever deployed overseas. Their connection to the military, however, is pretty much undeniable.

And here are some other excerpts from that HS report – you know, one the right wing screamed bloody murder about:

(U//LES) Threats from white supremacist and violent antigovernment groups during 2009 have been largely rhetorical and have not indicated plans to carry out violent acts. Nevertheless, the consequences of a prolonged economic downturn—including real estate foreclosures, unemployment, and an inability to obtain credit—could create a fertile recruiting environment for rightwing extremists and even result in confrontations between such groups and government authorities similar to those in the past.

— (U//LES) Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first African American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and appeal through propaganda, but they have not yet turned to attack planning.

(U//FOUO) Proposed imposition of firearms restrictions and weapons bans likely would attract new members into the ranks of rightwing extremist groups, as well as potentially spur some of them to begin planning and training for violence against the government. The high volume of purchases and stockpiling of weapons and ammunition by rightwing extremists in anticipation of restrictions and bans in some parts of the country continue to be a primary
concern to law enforcement.

Now, some of you may remember that I've brought this up before. One person here declared my concerns were only true in "whackadoodle world." Others, more than once, have tried to hyperbolize my concerns out of all recognition, as though i were invoking jack-booted troops marching on Washington and overthrowing our government. As I said -- repeatedly and to the point where I finally just consolidated all my concerns into one comment -- I've been more worried about a rise in violent right wing domestic terrorism similar to what happened in the 1990s.

Golly. Good thing that hasn't happened!

Right?

Addictinginfo has an excellent summary up of the right wing rhetoric that leads people to believe violence is the only answer, rhetoric coming, not from small groups pushed to the fringe, from figures within the Republican party. There’s Allan West back in January telling Obama, Reid, Pelosi and “my dear friend, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee:

Take your message of equality of achievement, take your message of economic dependency, and take your message of enslaving the entrepreneurial will and spirit of the American people somewhere else. You can take it to Europe, you can take it to the bottom of the sea, you can take it to the North Pole, but get the hell out of the United States of America. Yeah, I said hell.

Here’s Texas Justice Tom Head on the possible consequences of the re-election of President Obama:

He’s going to try to hand over the sovereignty of the United States to the U.N., and what is going to happen when that happens?

I’m thinking the worst. Civil unrest, civil disobedience, civil war maybe. And we’re not just talking a few riots here and demonstrations, we’re talking Lexington, Concord, take up arms and get rid of the guy.

Now what’s going to happen if we do that, if the public decides to do that? He’s going to send in U.N. troops. I don’t want ’em in Lubbock County. OK. So I’m going to stand in front of their armored personnel carrier and say ‘you’re not coming in here’.

When the Republican message, over and over again, is this kind of hyperbole, when they constantly tell people that President Obama and his supporters are not merely people who disagree, but anti-Christian commies out to destroy America… Of course there are going to be people who, in our gun-rich environment, take these statements absolutely seriously and decide to act on them.

If the worst happens, if, God forbid we have another bombing like Oklahoma city, or a successful attempt on our president’s life, I really, really don’t want to see any Republicans looking perplexed and saying, “I don't know how it got to this point...”

Partially crossposted from Thoughtcrimes

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

From:

notmrgarrison.livejournal.com

Good thing calling people hate groups doesn't lead to such violence. Maybe the lack of tragedies is because the right wing hires better security guards. And there was the global warmist who took people hostage at the Discovery Channel headquarters.

The SPLC said in 2010 a father and son who identified themselves as sovereigns, Jerry Kane and 16-year-old Joe Kane, shot and killed two police officers in West Memphis

I''m guessing the 16 year old wasn 't in the military. There's nothing in your linked article at least that says any of them were. And the Sikh shooter was kicked out of the military, I've yet to see any evidence he was involved in politics, but a lot of evidence he was a serious racist. Did he attack a government facility?

From:

mahnmut.livejournal.com

Maybe the lack of tragedies is because the right wing hires better security guards

Or maybe... unicorns!

From:

notmrgarrison.livejournal.com

Or maybe it didn't make the news in South Africa because no one died:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&gl=us&tbm=nws&q=chikfila+shooter&oq=chikfila+shooter

A place to discuss politics without egomaniacal mods.

So Here We Are, in "Whackadoo World"

Credits & Style Info

Links

Summary