Neil MacFarquar wrote this story in the New York Times. It is a chilling warning.
Many Americans fought and died to protect our democracy and preserve our rights. Sadly, there extremists within the country who threaten the ideas and values we hold dear. They are haters and white supremacists who betray the national idea of e pluribus unem.
They robbed an armored car outside a sprawling Seattle shopping mall.
They bombed a synagogue in Boise, Idaho, and within weeks assassinated a Jewish talk radio host in Denver.
Then a month later, they plundered another armored car on a California highway in a spectacular daylight heist that netted more than $3.6 million.
What initially seemed to F.B.I. agents like distant, disparate crimes turned out to be the opening salvos in a war against the federal government by members of a violent extremist group called the Order, who sought to establish a whites-only homeland out West.
Their crime spree played out in 1984. Fast forward to 2021. Federal agents and prosecutors who dismantled the Order see troubling echoes of its threat to democracy in the Capitol riot and the growing extremist activity across the country…
Those who tracked the group say the legacy of the Order can be seen in the prominent role that far-right organizations like the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers played in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“Many of the participants of these groups today come from the same sources as the Order,” said Gene Wilson, the lead prosecutor, who went on to become a U.S. magistrate judge in Seattle before switching to private practice. “I think they might be just as committed to totally changing democracy as we know it.”
The men who played central roles in disbanding the Order still consider it the most important case of their lives. Given the Order’s “potential for violence and destruction,” said Mr. Manis, no other domestic group posed a similar threat to the United States.
The Order collapsed after its charismatic leader, Robert Jay Mathews, died in a fiery shootout with scores of F.B.I. agents on Whidbey Island, Wash., in December 1984. His followers were rounded up in a nationwide manhunt and 23 of them faced trial on racketeering charges involving two murders, robberies that netted more than $4 million, counterfeiting, weapons violations and arson. Sentenced to lengthy terms ranging up to 252 years, most of the core members died in jail.
Far-right groups often express antigovernment ideology or espouse ideas about returning the United States to some imagined, idyllic form of constitutional rule. What made the Order so dangerous was that it set about achieving that goal, killing, robbing and planning spectacular terrorist acts in hopes of toppling the government.
Just before federal agents closed in, its members had been figuring out how to sabotage the power grid in Los Angeles, hoping to incite riots and looting. Men affiliated with the Order had also surveyed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City as a target, which helped to inspire Timothy J. McVeigh to blow it up in April 1995, killing 168 people in the worst homegrown terrorist attack in American history.
The First Amendment means that people cannot be prosecuted on the basis of ideology alone, so the hurdle is figuring out which secretive individual or group, whether far right or far left, might be turning to violence. The dangerous core bent on violence is usually only 5 to 10 percent of an extremist organization, agents said.
Mr. Mathews, raised among white supremacists, organized a heavily armed, clandestine guerrilla force designed to spark a civil war. Adherents sought to restore America to its imagined origins and considered preserving the “green graves” of their white forefathers a sacred duty. To join, members stepped into a wide candlelit circle formed around a white infant and pledged to fight, in secret and without fear of death, to make the United States an Aryan nation…
With the robberies that were the initial focus of the group’s efforts, Mathews worked toward a general uprising, dispensing the money to extremist groups nationwide to buy weapons and other matériel. He hoped his war chest would serve to bind them together, with a wave of violence forcing the U.S. government to cede Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Colorado as an initial white homeland…
The men who disbanded the Order believe that any contemporary group with similarly dangerous aspirations would also likely be hidden. Members of the Order shunned publicity to concentrate on crime. “Everything that they did was covert,” said Tom McDaniel, a former FBI agent who moved to Montana in 1984 to pursue the case and never left.
It was only when the FBI agents were closing in on Mathews in November 1984 that he issued a declaration of war. Part of the declaration threatened to kill politicians in Congress: “When the day comes, we will not ask whether you swung to the right or swung to the left; we will simply swing you by your neck.”
The wording came from a tract published by the National Alliance, a far-right organization run by William Luther Pierce, author of “The Turner Diaries,” a dystopian novel that imagines a white supremacist underground that takes over the United States and eventually the world.
Although the motivations are related, there is plenty that separates groups active now from those that operated in the past. Far-right organizations once needed to engage with possible recruits in person; now much of that radicalization occurs online. They can connect, scheme and even act through the internet. It was also unthinkable that any high-profile politician would voice opinions that such groups considered encouragement. Now those words have come from a former president.
Former agents viewed the Capitol riot and last year’s protests over social justice issues as possible seeds for radicalization.
“I feel that if there is an organization today from the extreme right that is following in the footsteps of the Order,” Manis said, “you will not know anything about it until it is too late and they have already done something dastardly.”
“Former agents viewed the Capitol riot and last year’s protests over social justice issues as possible seeds for radicalization.”
OMG. How can anyone read that sentence and not see the agenda here? This is establishment propaganda with the sole intent of ginning up fear of all dissent and protest with the purpose of manufacturing consent for “domestic terrorism” laws in direct violation of everything our Constitution and Bill of Rights allegedly stand for.
Bring up some obscure right-wing group from the 1980s that no one has ever heard of, sound the alarm about other groups “following in their footsteps, and then bring up leftist protests for justice issues, such as BLM. Or are they really saying that BLM protests are the same as right-wing mobs? Anyone who actually believes that needs to stop pretending to even be ‘liberal, let alone left.
Every American should be required to take a class (or multiple classes) in recognizing propaganda. The most important thing education can teach is how to evaluate what we “know” – how do we know it? Who says so? What is their agenda? What are they saying and, more importantly, what are they not saying? Who gets to speak and be heard and who doesn’t? What is and isn’t a “valid” opinion? Who are you not allowed to criticize? Until people start realizing how we’re being manipulated with half-truths, lies and fear, we will never break out of the authoritarian spiral we have been marching down for decades now.
A blog full of teachers should be smart enough to recognize these techniques, break through the fog and teach our children to do the same. Breaking the establishment, imperialist narrative and reclaiming it with a humane, healthy narrative of mutual cooperation in harmony with our planet is the only hope for the future of this planet. Our current path of corporate-serving austerity at home and violent imperialism abroad is not sustainable for our planet or the inhabitants thereof. Dissent is vital.
From the huffingtonpost, 5-30-21: Avowed QAnon disciple and confessed felon retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn has called for a Myanmar-like military coup in America.
“It should happen,” Donald Trump’s former national security adviser said in an astonishing declaration at a QAnon conference Sunday. end quote
Is the Jan. 6th insurrection recent enough.
Without the armed robberies of the 1980s; without the violence wrought by Timothy McVeigh; without the implied purposes of the Jan 6th insurrection and a former president’s bombastic approval; privatizing destruction of public education will achieve all their aims without firing a shot or taking a life.
I have noticed that the people who condone or always minimize the danger of the radical right extremists almost always benefit from white privilege.
I suspect that deep down, they know that their whiteness and not being Jewish or Muslim will protect them.
We saw those people in Nazi Germany, too, chiding their Jewish friends for their worry. And after the war, they all claimed they “didn’t agree” with Hitler but it was the silent complicity of all of them that allowed Hitler to rise to power.
There were a few on the left that didn’t think Trump winning another 4 years was a big concern, and kept pushing the false narrative that Biden winning 4 years was just as big of a concern. I’m sure Hitler’s opponents were very flawed and problematic, but if you weren’t an Aryan, he also was a threat that many Aryan Germans did not feel and some who claimed to not support Hitler also smugly criticized others for worrying about the dangers of empowering Hitler.
“then bring up leftist protests for justice issues, such as BLM. Or are they really saying that BLM protests are the same as right-wing mobs?”
There seems to be a serious reading comprehension issue here.
This article did not “bring up leftist protests for justice issues, such as BLM” and imply or say that “BLM protests are the same as right-wing mobs”
On the contrary, this is about how the reaction to BLM protests by some whites on the right and even some on the left (who would throw out insults like “identity politics” to get other whites to see BLM as enemies) was used to get more whites to support the far right extremists.
I hope people will read the article more closely instead of depending on someone’s false (but self-serving) characterization of the article.
I have said this before, but worth repeating – I strongly encourage everyone to make Caitlin Johnstone a regular part of their reading buffet. Even if you disagree with her (as I do sometimes), engage with her ideas and actually try to refute her arguments without just dismissing her. This is as good a place to start as any: https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2021/05/26/the-us-empire-is-a-self-reinforcing-trauma-factory/
Join all the right wing fanboys who love Caitlin Johnstone.
The same type of people who send those ugly threats to AOC somehow are fans of Caitlin Johnstone.
Please refute this argument: progressives are evil because Truman dropped the atomic bomb (and he started Medicare). Refute that!
LBJ started the progressive great society program and napalmed children. Refute that!
Australia is still a racist country and their labor party is rife with scandal. Refute that! Never mind, Caitlin Johnstone doesn’t really care that much about her own country’s horrible history.
It is impossible to refute anyone who wants to criticize the terrible pasts of any nation. The US has done bad things. So has Australia. So has Israel. So has every country in the middle east. So has Russia. No one can “refute” that.
But there are those who seek to minimize the evil of the far right extremists and Putin and want to always change the subject to focus on the greatest “evil” — the US and mainstream Democrats.
There is a lot wrong in Australia, too.
nycpsp, I actually was OK with the Caitlin Johnstone piece dienne cited. I took issue with only a couple of conclusions. But I respected the very thorough linking to supportive evidence for assertions. I don’t have your background on who likes/ follows her blog, but I don’t read many book reviews in advance either, like to draw my own conclusions first. I think what you object to is placing both Reps & Dems equally on the hot seat. But there is a place for that. Sure, right-wingers will cite her every critique of Dem party (while ignoring her Rep critique). Nevertheless, I don’t like echo-chambers either, because they prevent me from acquiring all the info/ POVs I need in order to choose between OK & not-OK actions of my party & making my voice heard with my reps.
bethree5,
Yes, what’s not to like in this Caitlin Johnstone piece? Manufactured consent. That’s how it works.
Sometimes Ted Cruz says something that is true. Sometimes Donald Trump does. So what? They are people who should have no credibility because they also lie when it suits them. But like spoiled children, they have voters who enable them to cause great damage with their lies when they deserve to be shunned, not elevated as truth-tellers because once in a while they write or say something that isn’t full of lies.
Journalists get things wrong sometimes. But the difference between a journalist who gets things wrong and a journalist who is a liar who should never be trusted is that journalists who get things wrong will correct their mistakes. When they double down on lies even when they are called out, it makes them liars and giving them respect because at some point something else they write is true just makes them continue to lie when they can. It’s what Fox News viewers do. They ignore all the lies and believe that the fact that sometimes a Fox News personality says something that is true means that they are very important voices who should be respected.
Every liar tells the truth sometimes. So what? If a dishonest person happens to be saying something that is true, then I am positive that dozens of honest people are saying it, too. So why cite the dishonest person? To give them credibility so that the next time they lie, you will be primed to believe it. They pay no price for their lies, which simply enables them to continue.
Has Caitlin Johnstone corrected her lie that the impeachment of Trump was all a nothing burger drummed up by evil Democrats out to get Trump? She pushed that pro-Republican, pro-Trump false narrative in which Trump is an innocent victim of evil and corrupt Democrats over and over again. It is amazing that she can get away with that and still have progressives elevate and praise her so that she gains more credibility when she pushes whatever right wing friendly lies she decides to push in the future.
bethree5,
My longer reply didn’t post so replying again.
I don’t understand why anyone would read the writings of people who have a history of misleading and misinforming their readers. Whether or not they might on occasion tell the truth is irrelevant. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell might occasionally say something truthful but that doesn’t mean that the people who highly recommend to friends that they read the writings of Trump and Cruz don’t have another agenda.
Caitlin Johnstone believes that the impeachment was a nothing burger because Trump did nothing wrong, and she endlessly pushed the false narrative that the Mueller Report completely exonerated Trump and his campaign. It might have been understandable to be wrong in the beginning — real journalists often are — but when there is clear evidence that they are wrong, journalists don’t double down on their lie. They correct it. Caitlin Johnstone just ignores facts that don’t fit whatever narrative she wants to push.
If you are willing to overlook that someone has a history of pushing false narratives because once in a while that person writes something that happens to be true, then you simply enable that person to write more false narratives. Just like you don’t condone your kids lying because sometimes they say things that are true. You explain that people who tell falsehoods lose credibility. At least they should lose credibility.
Caitlin Johnstone has no credibility even when she happens to be saying something that is true.
Well hey, I only just heard of her yesterday, after all. Your reply gave me some leads to hunt down more about this writer. You mischaracterize somewhat her positions on the impeachment/ Mueller report, but only to the extent of eliminating nuance. I certainly don’t plan to make a steady diet of her. Agree her self-promotion is unappealing, and find little deep thinking. While there’s plenty of truth in her observations of power structures, there’s nothing new in it, i.e. she is a muckraker but not an investigative journalist, just a cynic.
bethree5 says: “I think what you object to is placing both Reps & Dems equally on the hot seat.”
Wrong. What I object to is the false equivalency that places Reps & Dems “equally” on the hot seat. That makes me similar to AOC and Bernie because both of them are truth-tellers as opposed to being like Caitlin Johnstone who has an agenda to convince readers that there is no difference between the Dems and Republicans except the Dems lie more to impeach Trump and the Republicans told the truth to defend poor victimized Trump. I read Diane Ravitch because she believes in telling the truth, not that the truth doesn’t matter because it’s more important to push an agenda.
If you don’t care about the truth, then read Caitlin Johnstone because sometimes she’ll tell the truth but only when it serves her larger purpose of normalizing all the horrible things that the Republicans do. Which is why this poster recommended reading Johnstone’s columns when the subject of the extremist danger to our country by the far right was discussed.
Oops our replies crossed. Hope you saw my take after investigating this writer further. I would just suggest we not give her much weight [let alone make her part of a regular reading buffet as dienne suggested]. From the few articles I read including by others in that orbit, they seem to spend a lot of time in pi**ing contests trying to take each other down. Little give & take, a lot of broad generalizations, another echo chamber. I would read them the same way Chiara peruses ed-reform outlets, just to check in & see what they’re up to.
bethree5,
Thanks very much for reading my lengthy replies and I apologize because I see my first one (which I thought was lost) did post finally.
I love Chiara’s posts and willingness to let us know what is going on in the ed reform media. I am all for anyone perusing Caitlin Johnstone the same way. It’s not that everything that is printed in the ed reform media is a lie — it is that everything that is printed is there to serve their overall false narratives of how charters are so great and necessary and never to challenge that false narrative.
Caitlin Johnstone’s columns all seem to serve the overall false narrative she is pushing. And what is odd is that the false narrative she is pushing normalizes the current far right Republican party and normalizes Putin while she often goes out of her way to demonize the Democrats. Lots of people criticize Democrats and the US but the ones without an agenda don’t pull their punches when it comes to the Republicans and Putin.
I’m sorry if I mischaracterized Johnstone’s positions on impeachment. I didn’t notice any nuance in the columns I read, which seemed to grasp for any straw to push her favorite false narrative that the really evil party was the Democrats, not Trump’s Republican party.
Extremists include racist libertarians who use their wealth against American ideals. Violence may not be their modus operandi. However, their attempts and successes at covering-up right wing violence, enable their more violent allies.
Walter Hussman’s name will live in infamy. Multiple media report that Hussman, a donor to the public University of North Carolina, was behind what happened at the school to the journalist behind the 1619 project.
Prior to his censorship activism at UNC, Hussman appeared on Fox’ Tucker Carlson show.
Not surprising that Hussman uses his Arkansas paper as a platform for school choice. Tultican posted a Little Sis chart showing Hussman, Ark. Ed. Reform, Ark. Learns and the National Christian Foundation. Hussman, in a 2006 interview, said that schools don’t need more money, don’t need teachers with masters degrees, don’t need to continue to reduce class size. Hussman went to summer school at Phillips Exeter then, to Laurenceville, a N.J. Boarding school, then. he got his journalism degree from the private Columbia University.
Like Private Bone Spurs, of course, his medical exam saved him from the draft.
Scum low life with wealth- Walter Hussman.
Teacher ratio
Exeter, 5 to 1
Laurenceville, 7.5 to 1
Tuition
Exeter, $60,000 approx.
Laurenceville boarders, $70,000
The Lawrenceville School is located in Lawrenceville, NJ.
Florida continues to enact laws attempting to control free speech. It just voted on a social media law which conservatives are claiming is partial to liberal ideology. This law will likely be challenged in court.
Richard Corcoran, Florida Education Commissioner, continues to try to silence any teacher that supports liberal causes like BLM. At a recent college speech in Michigan, Corcoran claimed that textbook publishers are “infested with liberals.” He added that he has to “police teachers on a daily basis to avoid educators “indoctrinating” their students with a liberal agenda. I’ve censored, fired or terminated teachers for doing that,” he said. One of the terminated teachers is suing the state with representation from the SPLC.
Hussman’s MBA (not journalism degree) is from Columbia
The two historians that Hussman reportedly chose to cite in his e-mails about the 1619 project are Gordon Wood and James McPherson. They share his demographics (race, relative age and gender) including familiarity with private universities.
Hussman allegedly said he wouldn’t have written what he wrote if he’d known it would be made public. I opine that when one is only familiar with private institutions, there is a knowledge deficit.
Dangerous Extremists
Extremists are a danger
(And sometimes, so’s the “cure”)
But who they are is stranger
Than some would claim, for sure
Reblogged this on Lloyd Lofthouse and commented:
Who are the MAGA people that threaten our Constitutional republic and democracy?
Well, 7 MAGA died in a Tennessee plane crash this week while headed to a rally. Reportedly, a sponsor of Roger Stone’s rally was on board the plane. The founder of the Remnant Fellowship Church which grew out of a diet ministry was on board with her husband of 3 years, a former Tarzan actor. Critics describe the diet minister as having extremely tight control of her flock.
True to the humorists’ prior observation about GOP women, the gals on the plane had big, fried blonde hair.
Diet ministers need to have strict control.
Otherwise their clients will not lose weight.
So, there are even fewer remnants of the Remnant Fellowship Church?
Enjoyed the Remnant comment.
The diet pastor got into a conflict with her publisher of religious things. Orthodoxy or heresy? She maintained that Jesus, as God’s son, was a lesser deity.
I don’t blame the pastor for being confused.
I was raised in the Catholic Church and never could make heads or tails of the “Holy Trinity.”
I mean, what kind of father would let his son be crucified, for Christ’s sake?
And how do the Holy Goats fit into the picture, anyway?
Then again, show me a religion that doesn’t have absurdities.
And I might even consider joining.
Might.
Confusing, indeed, and that’s without the 2021 mixed messages attributed to Jesus that extoll capitalism (predatory), conscience and social justice….wait…looking back, there was the 1845 playbook used in Ireland.
Self debasement requiring self flagellation (rumors of Opus Dei practices) reminds one of Marilyn Manson’s accusers.
Dieting for Jesus is low level on the continuum. I once overheard an exercise class where the trainer told the assembled that they were exercising for Jesus.
Bikers for Jesus
Biking for Jesus
On Harleys and Hondas
Jesus it pleases —
And motorbike mommas
MADA: Make America Diet Again
The Washington Post wrote a stern editorial about Russian hacking into public and private accounts in the U.S.
RUSSIA IS not stopping. This is the only conclusion to draw from news that hackers linked to the country’s main intelligence service compromised an email system used by the U.S. Agency for International Development within the State Department. The attack targeted the computer networks of human rights groups and other organizations critical of President Vladimir Putin — and it continues even now.
Microsoft discovered and disclosed the breach on Thursday, identifying the culprit as the Nobelium group also responsible for the SolarWinds operation, which recently wormed its way into the innards of hundreds of companies and at least seven government agencies. President Biden last month announced the U.S. response to that incursion: levying some sanctions on Russian companies and individuals, expelling some diplomats and taking other “unseen” actions to deter further malfeasance. Many punches, however, were pulled — ostensibly to avoid escalation. Now it appears not only that Russia has not been deterred, but may itself have escalated.
Adding insult to injury, the latest salvo took advantage of the same weakness in the country’s cybersecurity as did SolarWinds: insufficient safeguards in critical supply chains that run from private enterprise up to the most sensitive public entities. In this case, widely employed email software from a company called Constant Contact was the way in. Spear-phishing messages were blasted out from USAID to more than 150 organizations and reached more than 3,000 accounts. These contained malicious code to let the hackers into recipients’ computer systems, where they could infect others on the network or make off with data. The emails were coming ever faster and ever more furious upon the effort’s discovery — designed, it seems, not to hurt the State Department but civil society, including groups that analyze Russian foreign policy and those that oppose the Kremlin. One lesson from this mess should have been learned already, which is that sensitive digital supply chains must be shored up. The White House issued an executive order earlier this month to build baseline standards with which all commercial suppliers to the federal government must comply. That should provide some more protection, but efforts to hunt for threats and defeat what’s found must also improve.
Another lesson, however, remains: Mr. Putin will not respond to the traditional playbook of sanctions and expulsions by backing down, but rather by stepping up to the boundaries of Internet-age espionage and pushing them. Mr. Biden must make very clear what the United States is and is not willing to tolerate. He must also have a plan for how to respond when an adversary refuses to listen.
These “breaches” are actually pathetic. Those responsible for “security” (at Solar Winds and elsewhere) should lose their jobs over recent breaches because there is no excuse.
One does not need to be a computer security expert to understand that it doesn’t matter how secure your firewall to the internet is if the software you are running on your servers is infected with malware.
If it did not have such serious ramifications, it would be laughable that the organization responsible for computer security (Solar winds) acted as the vector for the malware. Which, of course, was no accident.
And Microsoft’s disclosure of a breach is just par for the course. Microsoft wouldn’t know computer security if it hit them in the head with a hammer.
Passing on this Memorial Day thread I just saw.
https://twitter.com/justinlascek/status/1399375544148500483?s=21
Ofc, the largest, most well-funded, most ubiquitous of these white supremacist terrorist groups is the Republican Party.
Bingo
Thankfully white supremacy isn’t one of the significant problems where I life.
Live, that is.
?? Don’t you live in America?
No, Manhattan.
No, Manhattan. LMAO.
But white (over) privilege, entitlement and contrived grievance certainly seem to be.
Tell us about yourself, Greg. I talk about myself plenty—apparently enough to annoy you to the point of making personal insults. What about you should we know?
Not personal insults, just observations. Here’s one thing you should know about me: I moved my family to a place where my children could attend public schools. I didn’t whine when the pandemic hit and fall back on the option of abandoning that commitment to consider sending them to private schools. Here’s another thing: I didn’t whine when confronted personally with property damage because of a rage that had been festering for generations and was unleashed by the public murder of a black man. One more thing: I’m not obtuse enough to claim that there is great injustice based on race and then claim I’m not part of the problem or that I have not benefitted from it. Not being insulting, just observational. Now go back to wallow in your self-pity and conjured injuries. That was an insult.
Thanks!
Greg, not to interfere in this p**ing match, but does the fact you were actually *able to make a pandemic move to where your kids could get in-person schooling – & continue earning a living for your family – suggest white privilege? I could well be wrong on that score. It’s a generalization from stats showing in-person schooling is highest among white well-to-do & lowest among places with high concentrations of poor people of color. And those generalizations usually don’t reflect all the ins & outs of specific local and personal situations. Which is what makes it sketchy to assign racist/ classist categories to individual decisions.
GregB
I suspect FLERP lives in Manhattan Below 96th street. If I had to guess within blocks of Central Park . White grievance is probably not a significant issue. Little to grieve about except by Koch and Bezos. However if he traveled up to 15 miles in any direction he might find grievance and supremacy.
Joel — Garment District.
FLERP!
At the current rate of shrinkage it may get a name change soon.
Go downtown and take the ferry .
Maybe Manhattanites believe Staten Island is a separate country?
NYC public school parent
See we agree. But tell me something. Why are Centrist Democrats shocked that Max Rose lost in CD 11 . Why the narrative that a district like that and there are about 11 similar lost districts represented a rejection of progressive policy . Max Rose was the anti AOC.in NYC.
2018 was a fluke, Democrats were motivated to show up in a midterm by Trump. A fluke that with gerrymandered districts may not be easy to
replicate.
Here is another one as a fellow NYC (ex) resident. Although crime is up it is still lower than it was at anytime between 1960 and 2012 ;
damn Bloomberg!!!! The right never fails to play the fear /race card.
NYC public school parent
And to continue our previous conversation about the failure of a particular institution we discussed whose name we will not mention. S.I. represents a blatant failure to educate the membership . That Borough should never elect a Republican , no less only have 1 Democrat in 32 years before Rose.
The other shoe in our other discussion. The leadership gets the membership it deserves and vice versa.
Figure it out . Because it boils my blood. Being a bank means little if you can’t deliver the vote. And don’t think that is lost on politicians.
Joel Herman,
SI is almost 75% white. Racism has a lot to do with the success of the Republican party. And voting once for Obama doesn’t mean someone is not racist, just like “some of my best friends are…” doesn’t make someone less racist. Today’s racism is white folks struggling economically (or sometimes doing quite well in their union jobs) who are brainwashed into believing it is those corporate Dems and their non-white supporters who are to blame.
Those voters aren’t looking for AOCs or Bernie’s who offer a progressive economic agenda. As you so accurately pointed out, those voters are the ones who call those people “radical socialists” and reject them for Republicans. They are more likely to vote for a Biden than AOC. But Biden, like LBJ, has the possibility of making this country more progressive economically.
When I left teaching and worked in an anti-David Duke organization, when his popularity hit its apex, the first “media” event I ever organized was a book signing for Tom Martinez, who wrote a book about his experiences as a member of the Order in the 1980s. His life was very much in danger. It seems odd, thirty-plus years later, that this is not just a problem, but much stronger than we would ever have dreamed then. But here we are.
In “the 30+ years+”, an alliance formed between the leaders of two major U.S. religions. Those leaders, their monied backers, opportunistic libertarians using them, many in the religious media and, Leonard Leo began to aggressively turn the nation to the right.
Linda
Were you the Ghost writer of “The Power Worshipers ” or “Unholy” ?
“Focused on fostering fear…accused the state of violating parents rights… In 2016, the organizations with Catholic views allied with evangelical organizations and formed the National Front for Families
(references Mexico, but it was a world wide campaign)…(in the period immediately prior to 2016), organizations with Catholic views were not as close to the spaces where decisions were made about laws and public policies. However (the new period saw) a strong presence in media and social networks added to their strategies to have political influence.”
(Laicism in the Crosshairs, the New Official Contents of Sex Education in Mexico, ePub 2021, Scielo website, Armando Javier Diaz Camarena)
Pope Francis’ recent rejection of P.M. Justin Trudeau’s direct request confirms the values of the Catholic church.
Besides , having to capitalize Catholic was one of Martin Luther’s pet peeves which motivated him to post his 95 Theses.
Sometimes I post my own theses (or some might spell it feces) in the wrong place.
Interesting exercise- type in Catholic church, using a lower case c for church. Spell check changes it to a capital C. Protestant religions, like Presbyterian, you won’t find the same thing.
It depends on your browser, but spell check “learns” (sometimes).
I think that’s why my spell check doesn’t correct me when I write SomeDAM (to SomeDamn, for example)
So, my guess (and it’s only a guess, cuz spell “correct” is usually an app programmed by an idiot, full of “e” s and “I”s and signifying nothing) if you normally spell catholic with a capital C, it corrects it if you use lowercase.
It didn’t correct mine above, probably because I don’t use the word much — of the word catholic, either.
Given that I worked with lots of (functionally illiterate) programmers over the years, I would have to say that the other possibility — that some programmer actually knows the rules of spelling — would seem to be the less plausible assumption.
It happens when Catholic is capitalized by the user and church is not, the writer’s “church” is changed to Church.
Doesn’t do it in Word or Google Docs for me, so unfortunately this Da Vinci Code sequel may not have legs.
Spell checkers are unique to the software (including browser) you are using, so one can not draw generalizations — other than that they suck as a general rule.
And that’s because they are usually programmed by people who are better at computer languages than natural (human) languages.
Calvin University has a page devoted to capitalization protocol.
The examples provided, “Correct: The Roman Catholic Church is well established in that neighborhood” ” Correct: The Old Time Methodist Church Is in Alto”
The latter example refers to a specific church, a use that calls for capitalization.
The paragraph that precedes the examples states that Methodist church is correct because capitalization is not used for a worldwide church. It begs the question I originally suggested, why Catholic Church when it is a generic reference.
Evidently, the spell check on some devices (mine is standard Apple desktop bought with software installed) was developed by the authority that instructed Calvin University and likely other experts.
Kudos, GregB!!! or your work in that anti-Duke org.
Joel
The influence that drives school privatization- is the power of the religious alliance equal to or greater than billionaires?
Part of the world history of anti-Semitism was examined in Irish Historical Studies, Vol. 44, Issue 165. (9-2020), reproduced on-line by Cambridge Press.
Discourses about unionism at the time of revolutionary Ireland included Irish nationalist tropes that featured conspiracy theories about Jewish influence. Anti-Semitism was found more in the British spin of Irish events, than it was in Irish-generated materials.
The view that Jewish people and unionism were connected played a significant role in the spread of anti-Semitic conspiracies at the time.
Given that 80+ percent of Jewish people vote Democratic in the U.S. today and we see a rise in anti-Semitism, I speculate that what has been consistent in modern history is that the overwhelming majority of Jewish people support progressivism. It threatens conservatives.
Seven out of every ten Republicans believe that, via some impossibly vast conspiracy, the 2020 election was stolen from Donald Trump. These people think that the Orange Idiot is currently the rightful president of the United States.
Yes, that many of your fellow citizens are that stupid and deranged.
That is scary. But when that statistic is quoted, it is important to add that the number of Americans who identify as “Republicans” is under 30%, so it’s 70% of that 30% of Americans who identify as Republicans.
I wonder about the 30% of Republicans who don’t believe that lie, because they are not really welcome in their party anymore. Look at what happens if they challenge that lie. They either embrace it or they aren’t welcome.
Did Sidney Powell set a new date for Trump’s 2021 inauguration?
I heard today that Trump said he expects to be restored to the Presidency in August.
Humorist Andy Borowitz wrote today that Trump would be restored in August to the presidency of Trump University.
Little known fact: Jabba the Trump is simply the larval form of Mothra.
Trump mistook the word, inauguration for indictment.
I found the framing of the NYT article troubling. The raw content makes for a good piece: interviews with people who were involved in putting down an ‘80s violent domestic group, who voice concerns on what they’re seeing today. But the title, the big Proud Boys photo, and insertions by the writer gave it a fear-mongering feel. Neither Proud Boys nor Jan 6 organizers in general resemble the secretive profile of the Order. If anything those references undermine the interviewees’ message.
As a reader, the interviews made me ask what has changed about fed investigations since then, but little was said on that score. My next Q was: if methods did change, how did they miss Tim McVeigh? Had to research that myself—article gave us nothing except he was partially inspired by the Order’s having cased that Okla City fed bldg. What I found: neither McVeigh nor Nichols were ever part of a domestic terror gang, secretive or otherwise. There were actually a few warnings in the 2 wks prior to the bombing, but communications in ’95 were not sufficiently in-real-time to put things together in time. What to make of this info? On the one hand, McVeigh’s 5-yr path to violence was a 1-man show until just beforehand, so we could have another of those anytime. On the other, last-minute prep could be forewarned/ acted upon by FBI today without changing any laws.
Bethree
Did Lawrence Grayson reply to your corrections?
:-Þ