25 Comments

Compelling reading. Hate to be reading it knowing it’s true. I have several friends who are ex-Military who own guns but who I don’t consider to be gun nuts. They’ve talked about the shortage of ammunition for at least a year. The local Cabela’s gets delivery on Saturday. There are lines outside the door at 5:00 in the morning and they are sold out by 10:00 with a limit on how much you can buy. These aren’t hunters buying this stuff.

Expand full comment

I live in a quasi-rural area of PA, about 5 miles from a public shooting range. What I have been hearing over the last year or so is rapid, semi-automatic gunfire. Those creeps aren't practicing for deer season

Expand full comment

Geez-- yesterday, it was optimism -- don't give up on our democracy and flee the country. Today, it's we're doomed to a civil war in which only one side is armed. I'm feeling whipsawed.

Expand full comment

With any luck at all, if these violent groups really do launch a concerted attack, the majority of those in the military, and those in command of our military forces, will oppose them with armed force considerably greater than anything these evil monsters can summon. These people cannot be "talked down" from their positions, or negotiated with; they must be met with force much greater than their own, and they must not merely be defeated; they must be absolutely, utterly crushed.

Expand full comment

Sadly, the military and police are crawling with this vermin.

Expand full comment

Agreed, and I can't guess what percentage of both forces are infected with these vile ideas. BUT-- I can only hope that a substantial majority are not.

Expand full comment

The administration should already have a large counterinsurgency force in the field. If they wait, in typical Washington fashion, to see what happens and then come up with a strategy, it will be game over for the late great USA. This insurgency spans the spectrum from a former President and his staff, to congresspersons, to state legislators and governors, to Koch-ALEC judges, to billionaire right wing hedge fund moguls, to white supremacists, and right on down to every nut job in the country.

Expand full comment

Not only are the “antisemitic white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and the Three Percenters” all that, they’re also organized militias. Well armed and ready to revolt.

Expand full comment

Recently, one of these morons wore a Let's Go, Brandon t-shirt while attending an on-line AA meeting on Zoom...we shouted him down instantly!

The national infestation is frightening.

Expand full comment

Another thought…

Ammon Bundy, of NV and Malhuer Refuge, has been putting together a network of over 20,000 right wing militia types.

From the Oregonian…

People’s Rights leaders also have proposed armed enclaves in which “righteous” neighbors stand against the “wicked,” the report says. Bundy’s violence-tinged rhetoric -- such as telling followers that they would “be like a den of rattlesnakes” if their rights are threatened -- has attracted many militia members, Three Percenters, Oath Keepers and other paramilitary groups, according to the report.

You can read the whole article here -

https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/2020/10/ammon-bundy-and-allies-build-dangerous-network-of-militia-members-report-says.html

Having been doing research on these folks, this is only the tip of the iceberg. And it is terrifying to me..

Expand full comment

This struck me: "Many of the “assistants,” the report says, have been involved in extensive far-right activism. And the majority of those in its local leadership positions are women, which the report says is a first for modern far-right networks."

Sidney Powell is no doubt just the tip of the iceberg as well as those other donors of dark money for the failed coup.

Expand full comment

I believe you are right on target.

Expand full comment

Equally so to the rest of us…those of us who are of “a certain age” were taught that America would survive…that we were on the “right side of history.” How did it all go so wrong? Was it always THERE? Did the Orange Butt Boil simply open the door? The nut jobs used to be in enclaves removed from public view. Now they’re in local, state and federal office and more than willing to let us know who they are and in what anti-human activity they are involved.

Expand full comment

What do we do NOW?

Expand full comment

“Donald Trump’s own campaign paid hotel bills for ‘Stop the Steal’ organizers and for so-called ‘war rooms’ at the Willard and Trump International hotels.”

This may be the first time that the words “Donald Trump,” “paid,” and “bills” appear in the same sentence.

Expand full comment

I live around the corner from the NYC Republican Club. About 3 years ago, I woke to the unmistakable sounds of scuffle, flesh hitting pavement, and sounds like « I got him, going to kill him. » Gavin McInnes was at the club to « cosplay » the assassination of a Japanese politician by a right-wing swordsman. When McInnes appeared outside waving his (plastic) sword, and saw that Antifa were protesting, he called on his minions to attack. The police were on hand, they had been warned. The police did nothing to break up the fight. In fact, they only asked for footage from the building’s cameras close to a week after the event, and after the Proud Boy attackers were publicly identified by Antifa on social media. The sounds of that night, the opening salvo in my neighborhood, ring in my ears.

Expand full comment

As I have posted before, the people who want "civil war" do not know of what they are asking for.

Civil Wars are most uncivil. There is no Geneva Convention for Civil War. Targets can be families, homes; all targets become legitimate. Do not let the "Red Rooster" loose. Hard to control once it is.

Expand full comment

We need a very quick education in Weimar politics, and what NOT to do. The first thing is to stop assuming that radicals with guns will ultimately respect the calls of an unarmed majority to stand down. Consistent advertising by the Upper West Side/Beverly Hills/San Franny crowd that they abhor gun culture is like feeding spinach to fascist Popeyes. The time to address that is NOW, not later.

Expand full comment

I completed a portion of my preparations a few years ago.

Expand full comment

2022 Prediction Farmers Almanac-- Putin invades Poland after destroying the Ukraine Army. Then 3 % Aryan Cowboys blast away at Sam's Clubs. China takes Taiwan. Nordstroms get looted worldwide. Trump moves to Moscow.

Expand full comment

I’ve thought a lot about this, watched lots of paramilitary idjits run around, etc.. i still am not sure what to do to stop it, or to change it?

Expand full comment

You wrote: "A riot is a mass event involving human beings over which no one has control. But what is going on right now by violent right-wing groups and the elected political figures who support them is very controlled. Everything will be well-organized right up until the moment it isn’t. That’s what political violence is. It’s planned chaos."

Do we even begin to know how to combat "planned chaos"? To me that sounds very much like just plain WAR.

Expand full comment