Randy sent this to me, thank you Randy. This line below sums up the maga movement perfectly. It’s a political movement of election denying extremists, many of whom have threatened or committed violence. Feels like there’s a word to describe this. There is it is called terrorist. It is time we be honest about what the maga republican base is, they are a gang of thugs demanding their way through the use of threats and violence. They do not believe in common decency, civil debate, or any compromise. They do not believe in anyone having rights but them. They do not believe in democracy. They are a minority that is demanding through violence that the majority of people act and live as the maga thugs want you to, with no exceptions. They are the US Taliban. They demand that we ignore advancements in science, biology, social understandings and return to an ignorant past where they felt comfortable, but which was mostly myth and misinformation anyway. Hugs
It’s a political movement of election denying extremists, many of whom have threatened or committed violence. Feels like there’s a word to describe this.
Wajahat Ali
OPINION
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty
If we are to be blunt and honest, this “hate-fueled violence” that is threatening all of our communities is primarily coming from a single source: an incestuous network of MAGA actors, promoted by the GOP and right-wing media, who have increasingly threatened law enforcement, Democrats, educators, poll watchers, doctors, Republicans who don’t support Trump, and anyone and every institution that stands in the way of their white Christian nationalist utopia.
Earlier this week, Igor Lanis, a 53-year-old Trump fanatic in Michigan, murdered his wife and badly injured one of his children. He, in turn, was killed after firing his shotgun at the police. His daughter, Rebecca Lanis, told The Daily Beast that her father’s embrace of the QAnon conspiracy theory was a “very big contributor to what happened.” She said he was once an “extremely loving” father with no history of violence but all of that changed after Trump’s loss in 2020. According to Lanis, her father latched on to the Big Lie and started going down “crazy rabbit holes” which eventually radicalized him and culminated in bloodshed.
It’s worth remembering that Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by the Capitol police on Jan. 6 after attempting to illegally enter the Capitol building, was also radicalized in part by QAnon conspiracies. She is now praised by Rep. Paul Gosar, an ally of white nationalists, and seen in some right-wing quarters as a martyr.
Pacific Press/Getty
In 2019, the FBI declared QAnon a domestic terror threat in an internal memo. The hateful conspiracy theory believes a deep state of liberals is secretly conducting an international pedophile sex trafficking ring. The FBI warned that QAnon had the potential to radicalize individuals or groups leading up to the 2020 election.
The year is now 2022 and the former president has spent the past weeks promoting QAnon content on his Truth Social platform, ever since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence and found hundreds of top secret, highly classified documents. Media Matters Senior Researcher Alex Kaplan reports that Trump has boosted at least 50 QAnon-supporting accounts to his 4 million followers. Since the summer, more than a dozen QAnon-supporting Republican candidates have won their primaries. It is very likely that some of these potential terror threats will be roaming the halls of Congress in 2023.
Influential right-wing peddlers of hate—such as the woman behind the Libs of TikTok account and Matt Walsh of The Daily Wire—have picked up the “groomer” panic and used it to attack medical professionals and hospitals.
Rachael Rollins, middle, United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Joseph R. Bonavolonta, left, FBI special agent in charge of the Boston Field Office, and Michael Cox, right, Boston Police Commissioner announcing Catherine Leavy, 37, of Westfield was arrested for willfully making a false bomb threat towards Childrens Hospital at the US District Attorney’s office in the John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse.
Boston Globe/Getty
A quick recap: a domestic terror threat is being amplified by the former President of the United States, who is the figurehead of the GOP—a party that is currently supporting and championing extremist candidates, and working with pundits who promote hateful conspiracies that have radicalized individuals to harass, intimidate, and threaten violence.
One would think these revelations in light of the recent violence would be leading the news cycle. However, since Trump is a white man, and the criminal suspects aren’t Muslim, there is no War on Terror. Instead, some media outlets are bending over backward to court Republican viewers and criticize President Biden for speaking in front of U.S. marines, like Republican and Democratic presidents have done many times before him.
The lesson is that it’s good to be a white MAGA extremist. Just look at Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem.
If you’re MAGA, you can hold office, be an active member of a far-right hate group that took part in the Jan. 6 coup attempt, and inch ever closer to becoming the secretary of state of Arizona. Finchem, who actively promotes the Big Lie, recently accused former Vice President Mike Pence of orchestrating a coup against Trump. He is also a proud member of the Oath Keepers, whose leaders are headed to trial this month on seditious conspiracy charges for allegedly helping Trump in his failed coup.
“The year is now 2022 and the former president has spent the past weeks promoting QAnon content on his Truth Social platform, ever since the FBI searched his Mar-a-Lago residence and found hundreds of top secret, highly classified documents. ”
A member of the right-wing group Oath Keepers stands guard during a rally in front of the U.S. Supreme Court Building on January 5, 2021 in Washington, DC.
We can’t dismiss them as outliers. They are not the exception. They are the GOP’s base.
More than half of Republican Senate candidates have “rejected, cast doubt upon or tried to overturn the 2020 election results.” This includes retired U.S. Army Brig. Gen Don Bolduc, who just won the GOP primary for the New Hampshire senate seat—despite a super PAC aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell spending $4 million to support Bolduc’s less crazy GOP primary opponent, Chuck Morse. Buldoc, for his part, channeled Leonidas and celebrated his victory with cosplay—appearing with a small shield with arrows to symbolize his triumphant victory over the GOP establishment. (Bizarrely, two days after winning his primary, Buldoc flip-flopped, admitting Biden is the “legitimate” president.)
The sad reality is that Bolduc, Finchem, Gosar—along with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebart, Matt Gaetz, and Pennsylvania GOP candidate Doug Mastriano are the present and future of the Republican Party.
Republican Senate candidate Don Bolduc greets supporters at a town hall event on September 10, 2022 in Laconia, New Hampshire.
Scott Eisen/Getty
If we don’t speak out, then we will be complicit in normalizing their antisemitic conspiracy theories, hate, threats, and “wanton” recklessness simply because they are conservative, white, and Republican. If MAGA’s radicalized violence is not terrorism, then the word should be retired for good, or we should finally admit we’re only comfortable using it when the suspects are Black and brown people.
Nonetheless, President Biden, elected officials, law enforcement, and leaders from various institutions now have an opportunity to build upon Biden’s bold statements and go step a further to save our fledgling democracy: Declare MAGA as an active terror threat to our nation and finally treat them as such— instead of coddling them under the pretense of civility, the delusion of bipartisanship, and the hope for good TV ratings.
With 99 appearances on The Tonight Show, nearly two thousand game show episodes, and starring roles from Broadway to sitcoms to cartoons … for decades, Charles Nelson Reilly WAS television. But it almost never happened: At Charles’ first TV audition, an NBC executive took one look at him and said, “they don’t let queers on television.” So, how did Charles Nelson Reilly go from being too gay for broadcast to dominating the airwaves? This is the story of an iconic gay actor who went from selling his blood to make ends meet to being the most in-demand actor on television, thanks to a little help from Burt Reynolds, Broadway, and a haunted house.
Germany promised Ukraine weapons but hasn’t delivered. Now, anger toward Berlin is rising
Germany’s reticence has prompted critics to look for ulterior motives for its reluctance — with some citing World War II.
Thug rule! This is how the right intends to have and keep power. These are legal events that are not in any way offensive to normal people. They are in public and well chaperoned. Yet the republicans have made such wild statements their cult base thinks that all drag shows are a sexual orgy and that children are the star participants. It is really just Halloween dress up. This event was by teenagers for mostly teenagers. But this really is like the brownshirts that Hillter used to enforce his ideas and push him into power. These are gang thugs, the mentality of the Taliban. Are we going to tolerate this in the US? Where is law enforcement to say they won’t tolerate this terrorism against the people? If this were a Muslim group threatening this stuff the authorities would be all over that group and would be protecting the library and insisting the events be held. But because this is a gang of white Christian thugs forcing everyone to live by their morality and church doctrine the authorities tolerate it. This has become the normal response by the right now to things they don’t like. It started with masks in schools and Covid precautions where these thugs took over school board meetings and threatened violence to those board members who tried to implement the best practices of the medical community. Trust me it will not stop at drag shows, trans people, the rest of the LGBTQ+. It will be anything and any event the right doesn’t like. It has already been tried at Democratic rallies, and it will get violent because the right believes they have the god given right to use force on others and that the republicans in charge will support them because they are working for republican goals. Will they come for the Jews next? Will they allow laws that they don’t like? Is the US a nation of laws and equality? Or are we a land of gang thugs that enforce a Taliban like vice patrol to enforce their views of what is acceptable that they will let the public do. Hugs
It was advertised as a “fun-filled afternoon” in a Bronx library with a “local celebrity/author who encourages you to embrace your own uniqueness.”
Instead, the free event planned at the Morrisania Library starring drag artist Desmond Napoles was canceled after the teenaged celebrity received hate-filled and violent threats — a trend that has led to many other family-oriented LGBTQ events being canceled across the nation.
Known by the stage name Desmond is Amazing, Desmond, 15, is an LGBTQ+ youth advocate, a published author and influencer with nearly 200,000 social media followers. The 15-year-old is also the owner of clothing line Be Amazing NYC.
Desmond was called “disgusting” and a range of slurs by a person using a recently created Instagram account who also threatened to use violence against Desmond and their family.
Desmond is Amazing wearing clothing from their clothing line, Be Amazing NYC. (Wendy Napoles)
“You need to be locked away in a dog kennel and thrown into the ocean,” read one of the 10 private messages sent to the teen, which were seen by the Daily News.
The nasty attacks on Desmond — a high school sophomore who likes to volunteer at the New York Public Library “because it’s really fun and it gives me something to do during the summer” — came after the Morrisania Library announced that Desmond would present two teen-focused sessions reading from their book, “Be Amazing: A History of Pride.”
The events were originally scheduled for Sept. 17 and 24. Late last week, however, both sessions had to be canceled following the threats, which were reported to NYPL officials and the NYPD.
“I’m going to that library, I’m going with a bucked of dog s–t and I’m pouring it on your parents and rubbing it into their eyes,” the hate-filled Instagram user wrote.
Desmond — who’s no stranger to threats, having performed as a drag artist for the past seven years — showed the messages to their mother, Wendy Napoles, who contacted the library.
Napoles, 45, figured they would be OK and that the person was “just another cyberbully” — something the family has encountered before. “But on Saturday, he called the library to find out if Desmond was still going to be there,” she told The News.
The person, a man with a phone number linked to a business in Louisiana, then went on an angry tirade, saying that such events should not be allowed at the library, calling Desmond “a little f—ot.” The library decided to cancel for the safety of everyone involved.
Amy Geduldig, an NYPL spokesperson, confirmed to The News that “the presenter of the programs has been experiencing harassment online and there were indications that the events would be disrupted by this harassment,” leading the branch to cancel the programs “out of an abundance of caution.”
Desmond was devastated and took the news as a “hit in the heart,” but the scrapping of the event is hardly an isolated incident.
Over the past few months, events involving drag performers in several U.S. states, including Illinois, California, Texas, Idaho and North Carolina, had to be canceled due to “increased threats of violence,” according to local authorities.
Earlier this week, a library in Chicago was forced to cancel a drag queen bingo “due to the severity of the threats made against the library,” while the Cool Beans Bar and Grill in Denton, Texas, pulled the plug on an all-age Disney-themed drag brunch after the host of a conservative program on Blaze TV urged her nearly 250,000 followers to help “shut it down.”
Desmond is Amazing (Wendy Napoles)
The owner of a bakery in suburban Chicago in July was forced to cancel a drag-hosted “Brunch at Night” event after the building “sustained significant damage” as the result of anti-LGBTQ vandalism. Earlier in the month, a drag performer at a Palm Springs bar faced “escalating threats” after right-wing outlets picked up a video she had shared on TikTok featuring a young girl joining her on stage and dancing to Donna Summer’s classic disco hit “Last Dance.”
In early June, a group of five members of the Proud Boys stormed into a library in San Lorenzo, Calif., to protest a Drag Queen Story Hour event. A few weeks later another protest took place in Woodland, near Sacramento, when police had to use pepper spray to control the situation.
Such cancellations and threats of violence are alarming for Napoles.
“These people are feeling more emboldened. You see them bragging that they’ve had a victory when they close down these events,” she said. Linking “this whole anti-LGBTQ rhetoric” to the 1950s, “where people believe now that gays were pedophiles,” she added, “This is bad.”
This is sickening. The state of Texas is terrorizing kids and their families. This has to be stopped. The mother says this is clearly political because the state leading politicians are in tough election fights. Hugs
Amber and Adam Briggle, parents of a transgender child in Texas, joins Yasmin Vossoughian to discuss the hardship their family has endured under the policies of Greg Abbott, including being investigated by the DFPS, and their message to parents and the public about how to support transgender children.
In this video we tour Gordo From Earth’s purpose-built flatbed adventure truck bus conversion. Gordo’s bus is possibly the most unique bus conversion ever completed with a spaceship/cyberpunk interior full of high-tech features and with an incredibly well-organized and well-stocked shop, deployable by home-made crane on his flatbed exterior which also turns into a giant tent for camping/adventures. I know it sounds like I’m making all of this stuff up but once you see it you’ll believe it.
Check out Gordo’s Instagram here: https://instagram.com/gordofromearth?… Want your rig featured on Mobile Dwellings? I’d love to tell your story and show off your work too. Send me an email at gilliganphantom@gmail.com
“It’s a sin to destroy beautiful things,” said racist conservative Tucker Carlson about the migrants at Martha’s Vineyard. Cenk Uygur, Jayar Jackson and Mondale Robinson discuss on The Young Turks. Watch LIVE weekdays 6-8 pm ET. http://youtube.com/theyoungturks/live Read more HERE: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/tucker…
“Tucker Carlson went on a racist rant Thursday night while celebrating what he called the “happy story” of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sending two immigrant-filled planes to Martha’s Vineyard this week.
The Fox News host, who suggested sending migrants “in huge numbers” to Martha’s Vineyard back in July, said the island lacked diversity and claimed DeSantis was just trying to help.”
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Scottie's Playtime 