Wolf! Wolf! Wolf!

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

Petition Calls For The National Guard To Disarm Militia Holding One Pennsylvania Town Hostage.

Chief Kessler has already cost the town of Gilberton over $15,000, after a councilman won a lawsuit against him and two other local officials following an incident where he was arrested and strip searched in retaliation for a political speech.

This is the sort of virulently insular and radical chauvinism that tends to fester in the darker wings of the right-wing in this country. The likes of Ron Paul quietly tolerate and/or encourage these elements. This sort of emergent jack-booted thuggery is merely a precursor to the sort of fascism these people want. It is a dark and sick place, the mind of an angry white conservative male.

At first they peacefully assembled with guns, and I said nothing.
Then they peacefully assembled with guns and blocked the door, and I said nothing.
Then they peacefully assembled with guns, blocked the door, and shut down the meetings, and I said nothing.
And then we didn't have a government anymore!

The interesting thing about the far-right in this country is how they pretty much plot to overthrow the government, plan terrorist attacks, all in the name of preventing such things. It's gotta be a powerful mind warp. They believe in a democracy, of sorts. The kind of democracy where the most guns wins.

Comments

[paft.livejournal.com]

You beat me to it.

What kills me about a lot of media coverage of this is the way they keep talking about the issue being a "profanity laced youtube video," as though the profanity were the issue and not the fact that the man has gone on record calling for certain officials to be shot, along with any liberals who happen to get in the way.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Ignore those men with guns blocking you from entering the public meeting and they'll just go away...right?

Paul Krugman recently said that the overriding issue of the day is the fact that the Republican Party seems to have gone batshit insane. What's happening in this little town is an example of the lunacy that's been steadily rising from the bottom to the top in this country since the 1980s. I'm hearing "arguments" now from presumably respected "conservative" pundits and legislators that were what I heard from lame-o right wing crazies fifteen years ago,

How do you ignore the crazies when they're pointing guns at you? How do you ignore crazy talk when it's become the platform and the agenda of a major political party?

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

How do you ignore crazy talk when it's become the platform and the agenda of a major political party?

I find it pretty easy to ignore Democrats, I just stop watching the "news" shows.

[dexeron.livejournal.com]

Maddow likes referring to the Republicans as a "post-policy" party. I have my own qualms with it as a descriptor, but I've got to admit, it's a great way to highlight how so much of what they seem to be engaged in these days isn't the furtherance of policy, but obstructionism, howling about enemies, railing against opposition, just plain histrionics all around.

Even if this dude were doing a bang-up job as Chief, he's spending so much time tilting against straw-liberals that he's undermined his own credibility, and that of his office. Politically, short term, he's got all the like-minded folks up there with him, but long-term, it's a terrible strategy. This isn't the way to go about re-establishing long term electoral success, but this guy, this Chief, is a perfect example of what's become the S.O.P. for too many Republicans these days.

That doesn't even start to get into how freaking terrifying the dude is. If this were a private citizen, he'd be on some kind of watch list.

[the-rukh.livejournal.com]

And later this:
http://www.cnn.com/2013/08/05/us/pennsylvania-town-hall-shooting/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

What's going on in Pennsylvania?

[jonathankorman.livejournal.com]

These militia guys are everywhere.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Pittsburgh in the west, Philadelphia in the east, and Alabama in between

James Carville :P

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

There must be something polluting the ground water. What could it be? Let's see. Gilberton is close to Frackville. Could there be hydrolic fracturing going on in the area?

[paft.livejournal.com]

Guns, guns, guns...

[devil-ad-vocate.livejournal.com]

I took a visual trip through the "town" on Google Maps. Other than the coal mine slag heaps, it doesn't have much to offer; and it will probably be a ghost town in another ten years. This guy is a pathetic little man who is puffing out his chest, and venting his anger at having a crappy job in a dying town - with no prospects for anything better in life.

[paft.livejournal.com]

And that makes him harmless?

[policraticus.livejournal.com]

Whatever you want to call these yahoos, you can't call them libertarian.

It is a constant wonder to me how Ron Paul, who spent his career voting "No!" whenever and where ever someone wanted to use the government to do even the most anodyne anything and whose dearest wish is to have a vanishingly small Federal footprint, is always labeled a fascist, which is an ideology that, at its heart, is about the government and politics suffusing and controlling every aspect of private society. Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato, as ol' Benito used to say. Can you imagine those words coming out of any libertarian mouth? I can't. How a libertarianism which wants to legalize soft drugs, hard drugs, gay marriage, while abolishing the Federal Reserve, Obama Care, the Dept of Defense, the NSA and limiting our foreign involvements to pre-Spanish-American War levels somehow magically transmogrifies into totalitarianism is, frankly, beyond me.

[rick-day.livejournal.com]

Indeed; the politics of labels. A pet peeve of mine.

[brother-dour.livejournal.com]

Proof that it ain't just disenfranchised Muslim guys who are terrorists

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

one man's freedom fighter...

[enders-shadow.livejournal.com]

there is something terrifying in this scenario; corrupted power is quite possibly the highest tier of evil.....

to tie this into my post; that man should be forced to wear a camera when he works

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

All cops should.

[mikeyxw.livejournal.com]

No argument that this cop seems a bit nutty, same with his pals. He should probably be fired, but it would seem to be the call of the councilmembers elected to make such decisions.

What did strike me was the story you quoted was pretty nutty as well. Having Obama call in the National Guard to take over the borough? I’m hoping it’s a joke, but if it is, nobody seems to have gotten it. Maybe if they said FEMA instead of the National Guard people could have sat back, pointed, and laughed.

While hearing the story from the Green Party’s gubernatorial candidate does provide one view about what’s going on, one that would be about as valid as copying and pasting a version of the events from the NRA, here are a few others from more mainstream media who also were at the event:

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/07/suspended_gilberton_police_chi.html

http://www.wfmz.com/news/Gilberton-Council-discusses-wild-cop/-/121458/21272246/-/9br68mz/-/index.html

http://wnep.com/2013/07/31/gilberton-police-chief-suspended/

One of the stories states:
“Some of the heavily armed men acted as security for the meeting -- and for Kessler. Some barred entrance to the borough building at the start of the public meeting. Mayor Hannon hand-selected members of the media to be admitted. Gilberton residents were given first preference to get in.”

Giving Gilberton residents first preference? Now that is fascism at work. The mayor determining who, from a crowd of over a hundred can come to a meeting with space for somewhere around a dozen? That’s clearly democracy by those with the most guns. Seriously, the meeting room was tiny, it seems the door was “barred” to actually let in those from the town to have their say, which doesn’t seem like a bad idea. It certainly doesn’t seem like those who wanted to speak against him were prevented from either getting in or speaking, there’s video after all.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think this guy has any business being a cop. However, saying that the town is being held hostage, the council is too afraid to fire him, and that the National Guard should be mobilized is meeting nuttiness from the right with nuttiness from the left… and one upping it.

[jonathankorman.livejournal.com]

gun rights activists from multiple states showed up in support, with all manner of firearms strapped to their belts and hanging from their shoulders .... both media members and Gilberton residents were out-numbered by the gun-toting 2nd Amendment rights activist who flocked in support of Kessler. Some of the heavily armed men acted as security for the meeting -- and for Kessler.

Well that's comforting. There's no reason at all for the citizens or council to feel intimidated by these concerned citizens who just swung by to help out.

[gunslnger.livejournal.com]

The likes of Ron Paul quietly tolerate and/or encourage these elements.

Slander.

The rest of your post is useless vitriol railing against a strawman.

[meus-ovatio.livejournal.com]

"Slander."
lolololololol

[vehemencet-t.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it always amazes and galls me how you cry about people with guns taking your freedom and oppressing you, yet you don't mind it that the police (and the military as well on a larger scale) do that exactly as a matter of policy.

Nobody really has anything wrong with having people with more guns in control and restricting various freedoms, so long as it is their team with those guns restricting those who they find bad, dangerous, scary, icky or what have you.

As long as you get to be one of the ones that benefits, just make sure it's only black people, or the Jews, religious dissenters, dope-smoking teenagers, "violent" protesters and wildcat strikers, tax evaders, environmental activists, homosexuals, immigrants, transgender people, the homeless or the people that like to wear cowboy hats and carry rifles in their trucks that are getting stomped on, you'll turn a blind eye and thank the crusade for making you safer.

Now let's not get this wrong. I have zero tolerance for so-called "big men" blowing their mouths off, using their guns as phallic substitutes and ranting about how 'liberals are homo' and they fantasize about staging a coup d'etat that I would have exactly as much faith in making us free as I would if the Communist Party of American took power. Not much.

But don't be a hypocrite. Acknowledge the fact that the current system is based on exactly that kind of tyranny at its root, just masqueraded through claims of democracy, when in fact, there's very little democratic about the rich and their corporations dominating political process.

America fuck yeah!

[paft.livejournal.com]

You seem to have missed the fact that this guy is running the town police department.

[sophia-sadek.livejournal.com]

This police chief resembles some of the guys we get here in San Francisco as refugees from Oregon and Washington. I can see him on one of our street corners with his pit bull begging for change.

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

Bringing in the National Guard is, pardon the expression, overkill.

He's nothing but a bully looking for a fight. However, since he's made threats against public officials, I think a nice visit from the FBI is in order. The counter threat of being charged with a class C or D felony with enhanced sentencing is generally enough to make someone's gun go limp.

[paft.livejournal.com]

a: He's nothing but a bully looking for a fight.

He's more than that. He's a bully with the ability to follow through on his threats. He's the man who runs that town's police department. He's already caused the city to pay a hefty settlement for strip searching a council member who used profanity in a voice-mail to the police department.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/10/06/councilman-strip-searched-for-using-profanity-in-complaint-to-police/

I may not consider the request for federal intervention realistic, but I certainly understand it, given that the city leaders are either too afraid of or too sympathetic with the chief to get rid of him.

[tigron-x.livejournal.com]

insert pot meets kettle pic.

[paft.livejournal.com]

The above comment has become yet another meaningless internet meme.

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Liberty!

[dwer.livejournal.com]

and of course, were this person pulled over for driving an unsafe vehicle, it would be the MAN making him STOP at the POINT OF A GUN!

[yes-justice.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much lead reaches the water table when Chief Mark Kessler and his gang fire off all those rounds into the hillsides. From his behavior I'm guessing a fair amount.

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

Where are all the Muslims right wingers coming out denouncing this guy? This is proof that all Muslims right wingers are terrorists!

[whoasksfinds.livejournal.com]

if these guys were strapping c4 to their chests and killing tens of thousands of innocent people every year in bombings, you might have a point.

[underlankers.livejournal.com]

Conservative ideas of responsibility are to always favor it.....when someone else is responsible. If armed thugs are intimidating a city, it's somehow the government's fault.

[kylinrouge.livejournal.com]

Suppression done in the name of freedom.