The Western roots of American fascism

When we look at what has happened to our nation, we are not spending enough time on how so much of this has originated in the rural West.   However, a number of scholars are doing exactly that and it’s likely we will see books on the subject.

Leah Sotille, who is an outstanding journalist working on this issue, has a good Slate piece about how the role of the Bundy occupation of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in laying the groundwork for the rise of American fascism in the years since.

But van Tatenhove’s testimony made another thing very clear: Far-right militia groups have, for years, used the Western United States as a testing ground for extremist violence, staging stand-offs on public land to amass followers and experiment with what they could get away with.

Van Tatenhove would know. Sitting before Congress in a Descendants T-shirt and jean jacket adorned with punk pins, the former Oath Keeper told the committee that his association with the group began back in 2014, when he arrived as an “independent journalist” at the Bundy Ranch standoff in the Nevada desert. He was quickly sucked into the cause.

The 2014 standoff was started by the rancher Cliven Bundy, a man who considered himself a member of the 1970s anti-federal lands Sagebrush Rebellion, and who had been vocal since the 1970s about his disdain for federal ownership of land.For 20 years, Bundy had refused to pay the required fees to the federal Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that he owed for grazing his cattle on public land. So, in April 2014, the BLM attempted to round up Bundy’s cattle as a penalty for non-payment. It was a repossession: Bundy hadn’t paid his bills, and the government came to collect.

But Bundy twisted the affair into something else entirely: taking to a right-wing YouTube livestreamer’s channel (someone who also positioned himself as an independent journalist), Bundy told a story of a rural family being attacked by a tyrannical government. He called for “We the People” to take a stand, and many people answered Bundy’s call. Supporters arrived from around the country — New Hampshire, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Arizona — and eventually outnumbered the federal officers. These supporters included the Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and members from chapters around the West, who seized the Bundy affair as an opportunity to promote their anti-government worldview. The feds found themselves surrounded: militiamen pointed sniper rifles at the small group of officers from overpasses. Eventually, the BLM let Bundy’s cattle go, and fled.

The moment the Bundys were found not guilty by a jury in Portland in the fall of 2016 was the moment that for me was when I realized that Trump was probably going to win.

How about some really good news?

A former Fort Bragg soldier, who re-enlisted in the Army after attacking police with chemical spray during the riot at the U.S. Capitol, will now serve the longest prison sentence handed down so far against a North Carolina defendant tied to the massive insurrection case.

On Friday, a federal judge in Washington sentenced both James Mault of Fayetteville and a co-defendant to 44 months in prison plus three years of supervised release.

“They were not patriots on Jan. 6,” Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell said during the hearings for Mault, 30, and Cody Mattice, 29, of Greece, N.Y., according to NBC News. “No one who broke police lines that day were. They were criminals.”

A weeping Mault, formerly of Brockport, N.Y., near Rochester, took responsibility for his actions but asked for leniency.

COMMENT:  STFD and STFU — you got leniency — you should have received 8 years instead of a mere 44 months.

This nice lady needs to invite Mr. Remington to move in with her

 

On Monday, local news outlet ABC 13 reported that a Black family is being targeted with racist threats after moving into the planned community of Kingwood just outside Houston, Texas.

“Within a week of moving into the Woodland Hills Village subdivision, Erika, her roommate, and her 12-year-old daughter were faced with a note left on their front doorstep,” reported Shelley Childers. “‘Very nasty. ‘Color of your skin. [Expletive], get out of here. You don’t belong here, get out of our neighborhood,” Erika recalled. And then the very next day, she says a second note was also left at the doorstep. ‘Go to sleep. Wake up. There’s another note: ‘last warning,” she explained.”

According to the report, Erika then caught four men in her driveway slashing the tires on her SUV, upon which they fled the scene.

Houston police say they are investigating the incident as a hate crime. A neighbor, identified only as Robert, said, “Somebody that will do that, there’s nothing redeeming about them.”

Hate crimes have seen an uptick in recent years, reaching their highest level in roughly two decades.

Remember — this happened in a gated community in Houston TEXAS — map of Texas:

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I live in a rural county in a Southern state that is about 99% Republican.  During political campaigns, signs for Democratic candidates are defaced, destroyed, stolen.  I put a stop to the vandalism of signs in my yard by simply sitting on my front porch a couple of nights a week with Mr. Remington.  During the 2020 campaign, he spoke to a couple of would-be vandals.  No more problems since.

Remington Model 870: Great Guns | Range 365
My friend, Mr. Remington.

Illinois Governor lays it on the line . . . “Give me one example of the Republican Party showing up for life”

Illinois’ Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker delivered a blistering speech in Tampa Saturday equating Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis with former president Donald Trump and condemning him for doing more to “protect” Floridians from LGBTQ children and immigrants than from white nationalism and gun violence.

As keynote speaker at the Florida Democratic Party’s annual leadership conference, Pritzker urged Democrats to call out white nationalism and gun violence as domestic terrorism and to campaign against Republican candidates — including DeSantis — who do not.

“This pattern is a clear domestic terrorism threat,” Pritzker said. “He is happy to pick on LGBTQ kids and immigrants, but God forbid he calls out what the FBI refers to as our most pressing security threat: the rise of white extremism.

“Ditch cautious rhetoric and even more cautious electoral strategy, and start speaking honestly … about the dangers democracy is facing from the MAGA Republican party,” Pritzker said, prompting a standing ovation from the audience, estimated at 2,000 at the sold-out event.

Pritzker, governor of the state where a gunman murdered seven people and wounded scores more on July 4 at a parade in Highland Park, on the North Shore of Chicago, said it is true that preventing violence crime requires investments in intervention programs, mental health, and law enforcement, but he said those are not enough.

“Make no mistake, dealing with crime also involves getting guns off the streets. Ultimately, we need a federal assault weapons ban,” the governor said, also calling for national attention to “an epidemic of young men enamored with white nationalism” killing people en masse with assault weapons.”

Pritzker said the national Republican Party is “obsessed” with MAGA politics and weakening support for Democrats by ginning up fury and fear over problems that pale in comparison with gun violence and loss of abortion rights.

“Here is where the Republican game plan is the most audacious: They want to distract you into believing that gay marriage, black history, Disney World and library books are more of a threat to our children than AR-15s,” Pritzker said, and the audience rose to its feet in applause. “Don’t tell us that a 10-year-old is too young to learn about the history of slavery but not too young to run active-shooter drills when she learns how to play dead.”

Citing the U.S. Supreme Court ruling striking down abortion rights in place for nearly 50 years under Roe v. Wade, Pritzker called the Republican Party hypocritical for seeking that outcome in the name of “pro-life.”

“No part of the Republican agenda is about life. Give me one example of the Republican Party showing up for life in this country,” Pritzker said, arguing that it is the Democratic Party that supports life by expanding health care, supporting reproductive freedom, supporting humane immigration policies, and promoting diversity in American society.

“Get ready, because the next thing on their to-do list is a nationwide abortion ban,” Pritzker said.

To stop the “GOP insanity” of the MAGA agenda, he said, Democrats such as he, Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and President Joe Biden should stand firm for Democratic principles and elect more Democrats, especially to the U.S. Senate and the presidency.

U.S. Rep. Val Demings spoke Saturday at the FL Democratic Party’s annual Leadership Blue weekend. Demings is challenging U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio for the Senate seat in 2022. Credit: FL Democratic Party.

“Floridians, you can stop national Republicans in their tracks if you elect Val Demings to the U.S. Senate,” Pritzker said, and the room burst into cheers, sign-waving and noise-making.

Democratic U.S. Rep. Demings, an Orlando Democrat challenging Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, also delivered a rousing speech, citing Trump’s “big lie” about election fraud to attack voting rights, the Supreme Court’s anti-abortion ruling after Trump appointed three conservatives to the bench, and Rubio’s record of opposing abortion rights and gun-violence prevention.

“Ours is the only party fighting for the Constitution, rule of law, and our democracy,” Demings said, brandishing a fist.

Demings, former police chief in Orlando, was on the House Democratic team that impeached President Trump in 2019 for using his role as U.S. president to pressure the president of Ukraine for political favors. (The Republican-led Senate did not concur in the impeachment). She said those are “tough jobs” that she chose to do and of which she is proud.

Demings said she and other Democrats face formidable odds and that the stakes are high.

“We’re not going back. We’re not shutting up. We’re going to fight,” she said.

How it started

 

 

Meanwhile, there’s this:

The board that administers the Pulitzer Prizes rejected former president Donald Trump’s request to rescind the 2018 prizes awarded to The Washington Post and the New York Times for their reporting about his campaign and administration’s connections to Russia election interference.

Trump challenged the awards on three occasions, including last year, arguing that the articles were based on “false reporting of a non-existent link between the Kremlin and the Trump Campaign.” He called the stories “no more than a politically motivated farce which attempted to spin a false narrative that my campaign supposedly colluded with Russia despite a complete lack of evidence underpinning this allegation.”

The Pulitzer board rejected that claim on Monday after undertaking the journalistic equivalent of a state election recount. In an unusual move, it authorized two independent reviews of the articles submitted by the newspapers — and essentially recertified the results.

“The separate reviews converged in their conclusions: that no passages or headlines, contentions or assertions in any of the winning submissions were discredited by facts that emerged subsequent to the conferral of the prizes,” it said in a statement.

Are you “pro-life”? If so, please go slit your wrists, jump off a bridge, or do something to end your worthless life.

This story will repeat and repeat and repeat now that the “pro-life” ghouls and “christians” have obtained the Supreme Court decision they want.

CNN on Monday profiled a mother in Texas who went through what the network described as a “nightmare” after being denied treatment after suffering a miscarriage because her doctor feared being sued under Texas’s anti-abortion law.

In an interview with CNN, Texas mom Marlena Stell explained that her suffered a miscarriage after becoming pregnant last year, but that her doctor would not perform an operation to remove the dead fetus from her body because they could be targeted by anti-abortion activists who have been empowered by a law passed last year that allows ordinary citizens to sue anyone who helps in delivering an abortion.

Stell said the fetus stuck inside her was causing her increasing pain to the point where she had difficulty walking. She eventually found a doctor willing to perform the procedure to remove it, but only after undergoing yet another ultrasound to ensure that the fetus was actually dead.

Stell also told CNN that she does not want to try to have another child so long as she’s living in Texas.

“I’m worried about getting infected, have something happen to me and then my daughter is left without her mom,” she said of the prospect of suffering another miscarriage that would not be treated.

 

I really, really do hope that every one of you “pro-life” motherfuckers has a daughter or granddaughter or niece or grandniece who dies of a miscarriage that cannot be treated because of your anti-abortion laws.  And I hope they die screaming and crying in pain.

What has DOJ been doing the past few months?

I have to confess that I have been one of the multitude complaining loudly that Dept of Justice under AG Merrick Garland seems to be letting Trump and his band of fascist coup plotters go untouched while prosecuting only the low-level thugs who attacked the Capitol on Jan 6.

However, it appears as though DIJ is moving along . . . here’s a compilation of DOJ activity involving Trump’s inner circle . . . the noose may be tightening around Trump.  Remember:  Trump has been the head of a criminal enterprise for 40 years, similar to a Mafia family, so, there’s no reason to believe his political “family” is no different.  When DOJ goes after the Mob, they start at the bottom and work up, which appears to be exactly what’s going on here.

RUDY GIULIANI

April 13, 2021: SDNY obtains historic and prospective cell site warrant for Rudy.

April 21, 2021: Warrants for Ukraine-related investigation approved. This was Lisa Monaco’s first day as Deputy Attorney General. The temporal scope on the Ukraine warrants extends from August 1, 2018 through May 31, 2019.

April 28, 2021: Warrants executed. Around 18 devices seized, of which 16 can be cracked.

September 3, 2021: SDNY argues that the privilege review for Rudy’s devices must be conducted pre-scope (meaning, before just the information on Ukraine is identified) and generously offers to limit temporal range of review to items post-dating January 1, 2018, significantly expanding the temporal scope of the privilege review vis a vis the known warrants.

September 16, 2021: Judge Paul Oetken approves SDNY’s desired treatment of Rudy’s phones, meaning anything that post-dates January 1, 2018, regardless of topic, will be reviewed for privilege.

November 2, 2021: Special Master releases contents of 7 devices, for which privilege review extended through seizure. 2,223 items were provided to the government.

January 15, 2022: WaPo quotes Rob Jenkins, who represents a number of Proud Boy defendants, explaining that DOJ is asking about Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani’s ties to militia members.

January 19, 2022: Special Master releases contents through April 2021 of one phone amounting to over 25,000 items, as well as eight other devices for which the privilege review extended from December 1, 2018 through May 31, 2019.

April 12, 2022: In guise of coming to a final decision on the Ukraine influence-peddling that hasn’t happened yet, DOJ asks Rudy to unlock last several devices.

May 26, 2022: Subpoenas (CNN, NYT) relating to the fake elector plot ask for information on:

  • Rudy Giuliani,
  • Boris Epshteyn
  • Justin Clark
  • John Eastman
  • Bernard Kerik
  • Joe diGenova
  • Victoria Toensing
  • Jenna Ellis
  • Kenneth Chesebro

ROGER STONE

March 17, 2021: In response to motion for bail for Connie Meggs, DOJ includes picture showing both she and Graydon Young worked a Roger Stone event on December 14, 2020.

June 23, 2021: Oath Keeper Graydon Young, who interacted with Stone in Florida in December 2020, enters into a cooperation agreement.

June 30, 2021: Oath Keeper Mark Grods, who worked the Willard the morning of the insurrection, enters into a cooperation agreement.

September 15, 2021: Oath Keeper Jason Dolan, who guarded Stone in both Florida and DC, enters into a cooperation agreement.

January 15, 2022: WaPo quotes Rob Jenkins, who represents a number of Proud Boy defendants, explaining that DOJ is asking about Roger Stone and Rudy Giuliani’s ties to militia members.

March 2, 2022: Oath Keeper Joshua James, who oversaw security of Stone on the morning of January 6 and reported back frequently, enters into a cooperation agreement. James also provides statement to NYPD inquiry of Stone associate Sal Greco.

March 4, 2022: WaPo describes hours of documentary video tracking Stone’s events leading up to the attack, including details from a Friends of Stone list on which Stone started planning Stop the Steal immediately after the election. Both DOJ and January 6 obtained the video.

May 2022: NYT describes more about the FOS list, confirming that Owen Shroyer, Enrique Tarrio, Stewart Rhodes, and Ivan Raiklin took part. By June 23, 2022, DOJ had extracted the contents of Shroyer, Tarrio, and Rhodes’ phones.

SIDNEY POWELL

June 2021: Nikki Fried announces Sidney Powell’s Defending the Republic had been raising funds in Florida without registering as a charity.

August 24, 2021: Powell’s fund settles with Florida.

September 2021: AUSA Molly Gaston issues subpoena for records relating to Sidney Powell’s grift going back to November 2, 2020.

November 30, 2021: Several outlets report on subpoenas relating to Powell. (WaPo, Daily Beast)

January 22, 2022: Powell’s attorney claims to be “cooperating” with DOJ investigation.

June 22, 2022: Months after BuzzFeed and Mother Jones report on the scheme, DOJ asks Judge Amit Mehta to conduct conflict inquiry regarding Powell’s funding of Oath Keeper defendants’ defense.

ALEX JONES

April 13, 2021: Jones videographer Sam Montoya arrested on trespassing charges related to January 6.

August 19, 2021: Jones sidekick and January 5 speaker Owen Shroyer arrested for violating a non-prosecution agreement by trespassing; Shroyer did not enter the Capitol.

January 20, 2022: Judge Tim Kelly denies Shroyer’s motion to dismiss, effectively agreeing with DOJ that Shroyer (and so Alexander and Jones) weren’t invited by cops to the East steps and didn’t de-escalate the crowd.

May 5, 2022: Montoya asks for 60 day extension to discuss plea deal.

May 9, 2022: At status hearing, Shroyer attorney Norm Pattis describes talks of a plea deal.

June 14, 2022: Long-time Jones attorney Norm Pattis, who is representing Owen Shroyer, joins Joe Biggs’ defense team.

June 23, 2022: DOJ provides Shroyer unscoped contents of his phone, to provide scoped contents later.

ALI ALEXANDER

January 25, 2021: Brandon Straka arrested for trespassing and civil disorder. Straka was a key player in the Stop the Steal movement, playing a key role at the riot at the TCF vote counting center in Michigan after the election, spoke at the January 5 rally, sat next to Mike Flynn at Trump’s speech, and stopped at the Willard before heading to the riot. Straka was also on Alexander’s Stop the Steal LISTSERV.

February 17, 2021: First FBI interview with Straka.

March 25, 2021: Second interview with Straka.

December 8, 2021: In released testimony for an appearance before J6C, Alexander told a story that DOJ had already debunked in the Owen Shroyer case. For this and other appearances, Alexander was represented by Paul Kamenar, the same attorney that guided Andrew Miller through stalling the Mueller investigation for a year.

January 5, 2022: Third interview with Straka.

January 13, 2022: DOJ includes sealed cooperation memo in Straka’s sentencing memo.

June 24, 2022: Ali Alexander testifies before grand jury.

June 28, 2022: Alexander returns to DC.

JEFFREY CLARK

January 25, 2021: DOJ IG Michael Horowitz opens probe into whether current or former DOJ officials attempted to overturn the election.

July 26, 2021: Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer writes former top Trump DOJ officials permitting them to testify on efforts, led by but not limited to Clark, to involve DOJ in an attempt to overturn the election. This was the first of a series of Executive Privilege review waives DOJ asked Biden to make and roughly coincided with the delayed institution of a Contact Policy preventing Biden from learning about investigations.

June 22, 2022: Agents search Clark’s home and seize his devices. Per CNN, DOJ IG coordinated with the wider investigation into January 6.

JOHN EASTMAN

March 28, 2022: Judge David Carter rules it is more likely than not that Eastman and Trump conspired to obstruct the vote certification.

May 26, 2022: Subpoenas (CNN, NYT) relating to the fake elector plot ask for information on:

  • Rudy Giuliani,
  • Boris Epshteyn
  • Justin Clark
  • John Eastman
  • Bernard Kerik
  • Joe diGenova
  • Victoria Toensing
  • Jenna Ellis
  • Kenneth Chesebro

June 28, 2022: FBI seizes Eastman’s phone, gets him to unlock it.

FAKE ELECTORS

Fall 2021: According to NYT, Thomas Windom assigned, “to pull together some of the disparate strands of the elector scheme.”

January 25, 2022: Lisa Monaco confirms on the record that DOJ is investigating the fake elector scheme.

May 26, 2022: Subpoenas (CNN, NYT) relating to the fake elector plot ask for information on:

  • Rudy Giuliani,
  • Boris Epshteyn
  • Justin Clark
  • John Eastman
  • Bernard Kerik
  • Joe diGenova
  • Victoria Toensing
  • Jenna Ellis
  • Kenneth Chesebro

June 22, 2022: DOJ takes a slew of overt steps in their investigation into the fake electors:

  • WaPo: Law enforcement activity targeting GA lawyer David Carver and Trump staffer Thomas Lane, subpoenas for GA GOP Chair David Shafer and Michigan fake electors
  • NYT: Subpoenas to Trump campaign aide in MI, Shawn Flynn, as well as Carver, Lane, and Shafer
  • CBS: Search warrants for NV GOP Chair Michael McDonald and Secretary James DeGraffenreid
  • CNN: Subpoena for Shafer, a warrant for David Carver’s phone, information on a GA Signal chat

ALSO — MORE GOOD NEWS:  On July 15, we learned that DOJ has rented office space and is bringing in assistant federal prosecutors from around the country to beef up their group that is investigating the Jan 6 attempted coup.

DOJ takes aim at Trump world — Brings in more firepower!!

The bombshell revelations of the House’s Jan. 6 hearings have the Department of Justice putting more manpower—and more real estate—toward its investigations of figures close to ex-President Donald Trump, according to The Wall Street Journal. The paper revealed the law enforcement agency has expanded the roster, office space, and mission of the band of attorneys digging into Republicans potentially complicit in the bloody attack on the Capitol last year. The news comes after the latest rounds of congressional hearings disclosed that a host of GOP congressmen sought pardons in connections with their activism to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, and after feds raided the home of ex-DOJ lawyer Jeffrey Clark, who the House committee found had assisted Trump in pressuring the agency to falsely claim fraud in the Georgia election results. But the Journal also reported DOJ had grown frustrated with the committee for failing to turn over transcripts of its interviews, particularly with Republicans who participated in false pro-Trump elector slates in states Biden won.