Why Isn't The The Growth Of White Right Wing Terrorists Being Seen as a Threat To Our Country?
By Thom Hartmann A...
The Southern Poverty Law Center is reminding us - and there was a great thread by SunLei over at Democratic Underground pointing this out, and thanks for the for the tip on that - that we're not paying attention to white right-wing terrorists in the United States. And they actually represent the greatest threat to this country right now. If you measure the number of people who've been killed by terrorists in the last 20 years, the vast the majority have been right-wing terrorists. Included in the list:
"August 12, 2017
James Alex Fields, 20, of Maumee, Ohio is arrested in Charlottesville, Virginia. after driving his car at a high rate of speed into a crowd of counter-protesters"
He, of course, is the one who killed Heather Heyer.
"August 12, 2017
Jerry Drake Varnell, 23, of Sayre, Oklahoma, is arrested after a months-long investigation by federal agents after he attempted to remotely detonate what he thought was a thousand-pound vehicular bomb outside a BancFirst building in downtown Oklahoma City. Varnell had expressed sympathy for so-called "III%" ideology, and wanted to start the next revolution. "I'm out for blood," he allegedly told an FBI informant."
"May 26, 2017
Jeremy Joseph Christian, 35, is arrested after allegedly harassing two young women on a Portland, Oregon train. He told the women to "go back to their country" then allegedly stabbed three bystanders when they intervened. Two, Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, 23, and Ricky John Best, 53, died of their wounds. A third, Micah Fletcher, 21, survived. Christian served 13 months in prison in 2002 for having an illegal weapon in the Multnomah County Detention Center and was convicted in 2011 on federal charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He had also expressed a multitude of political views on his Facebook page, and appears to have adopted far-right extremist positions, including an admiration for Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, support for a whites-only area in the Pacific Northwest and also support for the removal of mosques. He also gave Nazi salutes at an April "free speech" rally in Portland."
"May 16, 2017
Broadwater County, Montana, sheriff's deputy Mason Moore, 42, is shot and killed near Three Forks, west of Bozeman, while involved in a pursuit of a vehicle he had attempted to stop for a traffic violation. The occupants of the vehicle engage Highway Patrol officers in gunfire through several counties while under pursuit until finally being stopped by tire deflation devices in Powell County. The vehicle's passenger, Marshall Barrus, 38, continues to fire at law enforcement upon exiting the vehicle and is shot. He dies the next day. The vehicle's driver, Lloyd Barrus, 68, the father of Marshall Barrus, surrenders at the scene. Lloyd Barrus has lived in Bakersfield, California, and posted pro-Trump materials on his Facebook page, as well as links to various antigovernment and conspiracy theory sites."
"March 22, 2017
James Harris Jackson, 28, is arrested after he turns himself in at a Manhattan police precinct where he confesses stabbing Timothy Caughman, 66, to death with a sword on a city street on March 20 after traveling to New York City to allegedly hunt and kill black men. Jackson, who is white, allegedly stabbed Caughman, who was black, as a "practice run" to kill others and deter white women from race-mixing. Jackson, an Army veteran, tells a media source following his arrest that "the white race is being eroded.""
"Feb. 22, 2017
Adam W. Purinton 51, of Olathe, Kan., is arrested in Clinton, Mo., after telling a bartender at an Applebee's that he needed a place to hide after having killed two Middle Eastern men. Purinton allegedly shot two men in an Olathe bar, after telling them to "get out of my country." "
"October 14, 2016
Three members of a southwest Kansas militia dubbed "The Crusaders" are arrested after an eight-month investigation on charges stemming from a plot to attack a housing complex in Garden City, Kansas, that houses a mosque. Curtis Allen, 49, Gavin Wright, 49, both of Liberal, Kansas, and Patrick Stein, 47, of Dodge City allegedly stockpiled firearms and explosives and planned to use four explosive-laden vehicles to attack the complex, which is home to a number of Somali immigrants."
"August 27, 2016
Joseph Garguilo, 40, is arrested in Massachusetts by the FBI for allegedly threatening to kill President Obama, burn down a mosque and kill homeland security officers. In his home, investigators find assault rifle ammunition, parts to assemble AR-15 rifles, chemicals to build incendiary explosive devices and handwritten notes threatening violent attacks against Muslims."
"July 17, 2016
Gavin Eugene Long, 29, of Kansas City, Missouri, kills three Baton Rouge, Louisiana, police officers in a coordinated ambush-style attack then dies in a shootout with law enforcement. Long, a military veteran, went by the name Cosmo Setepenra and had declared himself an antigovernment "sovereign citizen.""
"July 7, 2016
Army reservist and Afghanistan veteran Micah Xavier Johnson, 25, shoots 12 police officers, killing five, in downtown Dallas after a Black Lives Matter protest. Two protesters were also wounded. Johnson barricades himself in a building at El Centro College and tells a hostage negotiator he wanted to "kill white people," especially white officers. Johnson, who had expressed support for several black separatist groups on Facebook, dies when a police robot detonates a bomb near him."
He's sort of the other side of this, a black guy going after white people. But what we're doing is stoking racial divisions constantly. Look at the kind of rhetoric that's been coming out of the Republican Party all these years.
"January 2, 2016
Armed antigovernment militants occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge."
We've seen all this stuff.
Lest we forget, this is happening here.
Comments
#2
Why?
You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught to hate and fear. You've got to be taught from year to year.
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear. You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught. To be afraid of people whose eyes are oddly made and people whose skin is a diff'rent shade. You've got to be carefully taught. You've got to be taught before it's too late. Before you are six or seven or eight. To hate all the people your relatives hate. You've got to be carefully taught!
#3
Absofrigginlutely, Arrgy!!! The simple truth in all its glory. Thanks for just saying it plainly.
Thom laid out a damn compelling narrative, one that has the advantage of also being true, backed up by the reality of America as a racist nation, about 30% anyway.
Notice how lopsided the evidence is. Can you imagine the right-wing outrage if most of the sad stories above reflected the same trend but could be attributed to liberals instead, never mind the oxymoron? Although our big bowl of nuts contains all flavors, learned bigotry and racism -- as always -- is by far the biggest one to crack.
#4
Las Vegas NV will soon have the largest weapons of mass destruction gun show. This following the massacre at the Country Western Concert this year. Only in Vegas I guess.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/01/23/gun-industry-trade...
Since as usual our Government did nothing about the gun laws after the Vegas massacre, when and where is the next one?
#5
Yes Deepspace, It is very frightening. Wonder what website told "Jeffessee" he should spew the vitrol and hatred here. This is getting frightening. What I proffer is that; the fundamentalist christian leaders (so called) have partnered with the Russian Ortahdox and Putin took GW's (the second's) playbook and ran with it since they got him elected with help from the Supreme assholes! . ( Franklin Graham & Sameritans Purse and all his op ed's factored in and I'm wondering if Mueller will question him.) The "Fundamentalist Churches" require (by admonishment subliminally) if they don't come on Sunday twice and Wednesday they are sinners. Especially if they dont tithe. And then you have choir practice..... That's usually when the Preacher or Choir Director (or organ player/piano player) hook up in a storage room or basement. The hypocracy is so evident. They (evangelicals) want the end to come and quickly. Before they sin even more! Not against sex mind you; merely the HYPOCRISY! And now; we are rendered with the 25/30% that have "God on their side (in their minds)" Just like he Crusades......... Dangerous times! And we look back and say the Civil War was terrible? Just wait; unless something really Big and Good happens soon! If not; this will be the modern Crusade; and for greed! They really have lost the concept of our constitution and the role of a government. They wish for anarchy and sorry but; it seems on the horizon soon.
#6
Oldskoold
I think you misunderstood what l was saying. Im not defending them. Quite the opposite..
The "other" is anyone who is other than themselves...
Be it a different race, creed, religion, political viewpoint and on and on and on... Sorry for the misunderstanding!
#7
Shit man... Im as far as anyone could get from a " Christian fundamentalist"
Im an Agnostic Secular Jew.
Sorry again for the misunderstanding.
#8
#2 - You state well indeed (beautiful piece of doggerel)
Religion has the same approach
#9
#7 - The human need to identify mystifies me
Like 'i am an agostic secular jew'
With no disrespect... of what import is the choice?
#10
Might I add: January 22, 2018: Brandon Griesemer..... "A madman who was arrested after railing against CNN as fake news and pledging to travel to the network's Atlanta headquarters and committ a mass shooting." NY Post.
Just like the gun toting pizzagate madman, someone had to program ole gun nut Brandon. Geez, I wonder who convinced him that CNN was fake news?
These are two examples of right wing terrorists going after perceived liberal targets. Trump's hate speech has consequences....doesn't take much to manipulate foxmerized minds.
#11
Diane Reynolds: Regarding yesterday's stock market reply: Inflated, excessively or unreasonably high.
What do you think will happen this time when too big to fail, fails? ....another round of privatize the profit and socialize the loss? Guess again! Thom has been right all along, there is a wicked crash coming....not even up for debate.
In my opinion the crash will finally do Crooked Donny in....he'll simply resign in a state of confusion, a version of his habit of declaring bankruptcy. Oh but wait, he's a successful business man!
#12
like oldskool ... I FEAR this is not gonna end well at all . It is like I can hear a sucking sound . I am pressing my old sunday suit just incase we are all ORDERED to attend the white church at the corner ,the one with the knucklehead bible thumpin , gun totin ,hypoctrite preacherman . And with that said MAY GOD BLESS America just one more time as this sucking sound can't be good .
#13
When we had an economy that worked for the people, the happiness index of the U.S. was good. The neo-cons have destroyed that happiness. They took away all that made America a good country to live, work and play in. Too many desperate Americans with no job, no security, no well being, no future. Desperation is what makes people go bad, and that is why we have so many bad people today. All due to the greedy and corrupt destroyers of the Roosevelt economy.
#14
Maybe some fascist will chime in spewing out worn out already chewed talking points.
#15
Hephaestus #9
Me being agnostic is a choice. To believe or not believe in faith, or to not even put any importance on it is most definitely a choice.
Extreme belief in faith can breed distrust, ignorance,hatred and even violence towards "others" who are different, who dont share the same beliefs
But me being a Jew is not a choice. History has shown again and again(3000+ years), that If your born a Jew...then your a Jew till the day that you die. You can choose to embrace it or deny it. But it wont change that truth.
Down through the millennium, we've been subjugated and oppressed by one conquering force ( or rapacious foe )after another... We were murdered and enslaved again and again. We were forced to flee from one land to the next. And seemingly always finding ourselves unwelcome... Yet we always held true to our culture, faith and heritage.We never gave up and assimilated. Maybe that's where this hatred and persecution stems from? Im really not sure?
Now its got a name. Its called anti-Semitism. And its very much alive all over the world. And this "melting pot" country is definitely not excluded.
In my 58 yrs. on this rock, I've seen it first hand. I first experienced it in my youth, when my family moved from a heavily Jewish populated suburb of Chicago to small town, rural Wisconsin in the early 70s. I got in fist fights over hateful things said by some of my classmates. Of course they were just repeating what their parents instilled in them. In later years l saw or eard it on the job site, in bars, gun shows, motorcycle rallys, etc... Hell, I've sat down in public restrooms, and read the hate on shithouse walls.
In Madison and Milwaukee, synagogues and Jewish cemeteries have been vandalized numerous times...
1 killed and 5 injured in a shooting at a Jewish center in Seattle in 2006.
3 killed in a shooting at a Jewish center in Kansas CIty in 2014.
Unlike a person of color, l can hide my "Jewishness." l can blend in... So through the years, I've heard these haters Let their guard down and spew their bigoted vitrial!
Im not sure where it all started? Is it when we crawled out of a cave, and ventured forth to discover a different group who crawled out of a different cave?
But the sad and scary fact is... Bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, the whole shebang! Its here!
And with that absolutely disgusting racist pig in the White House. It aint getting any better soon!
So yes, l "identify" with being Jewish...
I DONT have a "choice."
There is a reason why "Never Again" is tattooed on me!
#16
Sorry Jefflisse! I obviously did misunderstand your comment. I have seen these people being brainwashed since around 1987 and it truly disgusts me!
#17
No problem. :-) Speaking of the right wing trolls. Their silence about this particular blog... Says it all!
#18
Yep!
#19
Thom sure does his best to keep the propaganda going....divide, divide and then divide. Don't want the people to see that out of hundreds of millions of people very few are terriorists. The terriorists that exist are on both sides.
Tell the truth for a change!
Antifa & KKK suck!
Also hating Christians is no different than Hating any other group of people, Jewish people should be especially aware of that.
I'm not a part of any hate group so I guess that makes me a "Troll". I prefer to care about our Whole Country and all of our people no matter what color, who they voted for, or why.
Still don't like Hillary though, and I think she's going down.
#20
As a troll posting on a progressive blog, you're part of the Hillary Hate Group, blind to false-equivalency, double-standard propaganda disseminated by right-wing corporate media, which has clouded your judgment and affected your vote, helping to install the Pussy Grabber as America's greatest fascist leader, regardless if your vote was cast for a third party.
So how'd that work out for the country? Fortunately, your particular hate group is only a small minority of the electorate and could never win the popular vote ...or even the Electoral College, that is if Republican red-state legislatures and Secretaries of State would never again disenfranchise millions of Democrats.
#21
Go figure. Family of "rancher" killed in Oregon standoff sues Police and the United States.
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If most of these " Right Wing Terrorists" are..
Home grown, white, god fearing, Christian, males... Then..
Your question is answered!
They're not the "OTHER".