Another mass shooting is underway

[homersapien 11,440]

Trump Is the Glue That Binds the Far Right

An analysis of 30,000 Twitter accounts provides a map of online extremists—and reveals that support for Trump is what holds them together.

J.M. Berger

Author of Extremism

Last week began with a wave of mail bombs sent to the enemies of President Donald Trump and ended with the massacre of 11 people at a synagogue in Pittsburgh. In between, a racially motivated shooter in Kentucky killed two African Americans. That incident received relatively little coverage, primarily because a locked door prevented the perpetrator from killing even more people at a nearby black church.

In the wake of these attacks, America collectively returned to the all-too-familiar ritual of crawling through each perpetrator’s paper trail and social-media footprint, looking for the ideological bread crumbs that might explain their actions.

Relatively little has emerged about the Kentucky murderer’s beliefs and motives, although his actions and words at the scene are clear enough to establish a racial basis for the attack. In Pittsburgh, the alleged killer was a committed neo-Nazi with a presence on gab.com, the alt-right social network. And the mail-bomb suspect, Cesar Sayoc, blazed a verbose trail on social media, not explicitly identifying himself with a specific extremist movement but invoking a host of conspiracy theories popular within the American far right.

All three investigations are in their early stages, and additional information may emerge that clarifies each perpetrator’s specific influences. But in many ways, there’s a clear common thread tying these incidents together. America is caught in a wave of radicalization being driven from the top, by the toxic rhetoric Trump blasts almost daily from the biggest pulpit in the world, the U.S. presidency. His casual invocations of violence and consistent demonization of his political enemies have opened the floodgates of hate in communities where anger has long simmered......

Read the rest at: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/trump-alt-right-twitter/574219/

 

[AuCivilEng1 11,026]

8 minutes ago, Brad_ATX said:

100% with you on this.  There's a cognitive dissonance there that just blows my mind.  The other thing is most of these people who hate on Jews are also self-proclaimed Christians.  I want to shake them and yell "Jesus was a Jew you moron!"

I have a theory that 90% of the Christian population in America would hate Jesus if he was a living person today. Jewish, brown, anti money........yeah he wouldn't stand a chance. Lol

[homersapien 11,440]

13 hours ago, johnnyAU said:

My feelings on Hillary have nothing to do with any Republican portrayal of her. I'm old enough to remember her and slick Willie from the old days. Her lack of popularity had nothing to do with "Republican hack machine" or "Russian collusion". She is who she is, and that wasn't good enough to get elected.

https://www.vox.com/2018/10/23/18004478/hack-gap-explained

[homersapien 11,440]

Trump Shut Programs to Counter Violent Extremism

The administration has hobbled the infrastructure designed to prevent atrocities like Pittsburgh.

Set aside the question of whether President Donald Trump’s rhetorical flirtations with white nationalism enabled Saturday’s mass shooting in Pittsburgh. What’s undeniable is that his administration has hobbled the infrastructure designed to prevent such murders.

In the waning days of Barack Obama’s administration, the Department of Homeland Security awarded a set of grants to organizations working to counter violent extremism, including among white supremacists. One of the grantees was Life After Hate, which The Hill has called “one of the only programs in the U.S. devoted to helping people leave neo-Nazi and other white supremacy groups.” Another grant went to researchers at the University of North Carolina who were helping young people develop media campaigns aimed at preventing their peers from embracing white supremacy and other violent ideologies. But soon after Trump took office, his administration canceled both of these grants. In its first budget, it requested no funding for any grants in this field.

It’s part of a pattern of neglect. The grants were administered by the Office of Community Partnerships, which works intimately with local governments and community organizations to prevent jihadist and white-nationalist radicalization. In Obama’s last year, according to the former director, George Selim, the office boasted 16 full-time employees, roughly 25 contractors, and a budget of more than $21 million. The Trump administration has renamed it the Office of Terrorism Prevention Partnerships, and cut its staff to eight full-time employees and its budget to less than $3 million.

Under Obama, the Office of Community Partnerships housed an interagency task force on Countering Violent Extremism, or CVE, that included officials detailed from the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center, and the Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services. Today the task force exists in name only. Its staff members have all returned to their home agencies and departments. “Under this administration,” says Selim, who now works at the Anti-Defamation League, “there’s been a precipitous decline in the dedicated staff and program funding devoted to combatting ideologically motivated violence.”

This decline can’t be chalked up to general budget cuts. Although Trump has slashed funding for many domestic departments, he increased Department of Homeland Security spending by more than 7 percent in his first budget and another 4 percent in his second. The cuts stem instead from two biases. First, in keeping with their law-and-order mentality, Trump officials would rather empower the police to arrest suspected terrorists than work with local communities to prevent people from becoming terrorists in the first place, as the Office of Community Partnerships did. Second, they believe the primary terrorist threat to Americans is jihadism, not white supremacy. The Office of Community Partnerships committed the sin of working on both.

From a public-policy perspective, that’s exactly what the government should be doing. In 2017, the FBI concluded that white supremacists killed more Americans from 2000 to 2016 than “any other domestic extremist movement.” But Trump advisers have shrugged off these inconvenient facts. In an interview in 2017, White House Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka declared that there “has never been a serious attack or a serious plot [in the United States] that was unconnected from ISIS or al-Qaeda.” When critics cited the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Gorka responded,  “It’s this constant ‘Oh, it’s the white man. It’s the white supremacists. That’s the problem.’ No, it isn’t.”

Gorka’s wife, and frequent co-author, Katharine Gorka, shares his Islamo-centric view of terrorism. She has proposed that the U.S. close “radical mosques” and bar Al Jazeera from broadcasting in the United States. “American and Western leaders,” she’s declared, “have preemptively shut down any debate within Islam by declaring that Islam is the religion of peace.” These views matter because although Sebastian has left the Trump White House, Katharine still serves as an adviser to the secretary of Homeland Security. In the months following Trump’s election, according to The Forward, she asked for the names of employees working on CVE. She led a team that proposed changing the mission from countering violent extremism to countering radical Islamist extremism. That didn’t happen. But Eric Rosand, a former senior State Department official, told BuzzFeed that Gorka “played a significant role in denying CVE grant funding to groups that work to de-radicalize neo-Nazis and other far right extremists.”

When Trump supporters insist that he’s a steadfast foe of white supremacy, his critics often cite his history of ambivalent responses—or nonresponses—to anti-Semitism. But Trump’s words aren’t anomalous; he’s put his money where his mouth is.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2018/10/trump-shut-countering-violent-extremism-program/574237/

 

 

[Mid Atlantic Tiger 150]

On 10/27/2018 at 11:08 AM, GiveEmElle said:

The church in KY had security policies in place and had their doors locked. I find it sad that a church has to lock its doors.

Really?  Welcome to Trump and White Evangelical's America.  Any other and it's open season.

[AuCivilEng1 11,026]

This is what unity and a great America look like. 

[AuCivilEng1 11,026]

 

I wonder what is causing this surge in anti-Semitism?

[AUDub 11,182]

5 minutes ago, Mid Atlantic Tiger said:

Really?  Welcome to Trump and White Evangelical's America.  Any other and it's open season.

Devin Patrick Kelley.

The deadliest modern shooting at an American place of worship happened a hair under a year ago in an Evangelical church, at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

[homersapien 11,440]

4 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I wonder what is causing this surge in anti-Semitism?

Perhaps there really aren't "good people on both sides".  

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

15 hours ago, homersapien said:

Hey kid.  It wasn't just a "poster", it was Homer - your nemesis.     And seriously, are you really going to parse the analogy of what was clearly a sarcastic comment?

This is the sort of post that prevents me from knowing when you are joking and when you aren't.

Seems that’s your problem pops

[DKW 86 7,440]

1 hour ago, homersapien said:

Hey David, still waiting on the quote proving I said Trump would be impeached for Russian collusion.

You were provided it at least 5 times so far and you still keep lying about it...

 

[homersapien 11,440]

8 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

You were provided it at least 5 times so far and you still keep lying about it...

 

Stop lying David.  You know damn well I never said it.

But you can always produce it right here and now to prove me wrong:

[homersapien 11,440]

41 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Seems that’s your problem pops

Well, you asked me if I couldn't tell when you were joking.  I can't.

That was a good example.  Were you serious or joking?

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

3 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Well, you asked me if I couldn't tell when you were joking.  I can't.

That was a good example.  Were you serious or joking?

QFT

[AUDub 11,182]

5 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Stop lying David.  You know damn well I never said it.

But you can always produce it right here and now to prove me wrong:

Oh for crying out loud. Don't you two have a thread in the smack forum?

 

 

[DKW 86 7,440]

30 minutes ago, AUDub said:

Oh for crying out loud. Don't you two have a thread in the smack forum?

I have put him permanently on ignore and went on my merry way. Apparently the mods are completely helpless to get him to move on.

[DKW 86 7,440]

38 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Stop lying David.  You know damn well I never said it.

But you can always produce it right here and now to prove me wrong:

I have ad nauseum, you keep lying about it. 

Do the board a favor and just go lie about something else.

I have quit even trying to ask you about the dozens to hundreds of lies you tell. 

[AuCivilEng1 11,026]

@NolaAuTiger,whats with the head slap? 

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

@AuCivilEng1 use your imagination.

[AuCivilEng1 11,026]

6 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

@AuCivilEng1 use your imagination.

Ummm. You don't think there is a rise in anti semitism? Am I close?

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

1 minute ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

Ummm. You don't think there is a rise in anti semitism? Am I close?

I assumed in the context of this thread you intended a rhetorical question. You’re not literally asking what the cause is, as much as you’re trying to make a political insinuation.

If I am wrong, tell me now.

[AuCivilEng1 11,026]

3 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

I assumed in the context of this thread you intended a rhetorical question. You’re not literally asking what the cause is, as much as you’re trying to make a political insinuation.

If I am wrong, tell me now.

I mean I have my theory. But the question was a question. From someone who wouldn't think what I think, what do you think has caused it?

[homersapien 11,440]

2 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said:

QFT

QFT indeed!  You never responded.  Were you joking or were you serious?  Here's the the sequence of posts in case you've forgotten:

 

20 hours ago, homersapien said:

Trump's modus operandi

Next time you quote Adam Schiff or get an idea from something he said, give him credit. 

 

20 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

Next time you quote Adam Schiff or get an idea from something he said, give him credit. 

Sorry, not following. 

Are you suggesting Schiff relies on cultural division and prejudice as a political tactic?   Can you provide an example?

 

19 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said:

No, it's not a bad faith argument. Being a future attorney is completely irrelevant. It's perfectly reasonable in light of the accompanying circumstances

It might be a perfectly reasonable suspicion, but it happens to be false.

Now you are insisting it's fact, when it's not. 

(But admittedly, I don't know if you are joking.  Seriously.)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

So, you accused me of quoting Adam Schiff  by using the term "modus operandi".  Apparently, your justification for that accusation was that Schiff had used the same term a few days earlier.

Now considering it's a very common and universally known term and considering I had no knowledge of Schiff's comments, (as evidenced in my response) you still insist I was quoting Adam Schiff 

If you aren't joking, you are essentially calling me a liar because I won't admit to something that you think I was doing, even after I explained I had no idea of what you are talking about, as indicated above.

This is the "serious discussion" political forum.  As far as I am concerned, exchanges of witty barbs or even ridicule are fine as long as they are directed toward a poster's comments or positions that have been posted.

What should be unacceptable are lies or misrepresentations of other's posts - say by begging the question.  If you cannot link every response to statement of fact or opinion made by another poster, then you need to concede you were mistaken.

Otherwise, without rules (of logic) and a little bit of integrity we might as well eliminate the "serious discussion" forum all together.  Doubling down on a proven mistake is no different that doubling down on an unsupported lie.  Likewise, a constant dependence on logical fallacies should be grounds for disqualification from the "serious talk" forum.

Again, why bother with a "serious talk" forum if such deliberately dishonest tactics are allowed.  Why bother to play at all if there are no rules?

Just my opinion.

 

 

 

[homersapien 11,440]

29 minutes ago, DKW 86 said:

I have ad nauseum, you keep lying about it. 

Do the board a favor and just go lie about something else.

I have quit even trying to ask you about the dozens to hundreds of lies you tell. 

"Dozens to hundreds?"   

Yeah, I can understand that could be a real challenge. Even if it were true, instead of an obvious attempt to obfuscate the issue.

So, instead,  how about quoting the one you accused me of.  You know, the one that started this dispute.

(P.S.: And you are doing a terrible job of ignoring me. )

[NolaAuTiger 3,295]

24 minutes ago, AuCivilEng1 said:

I mean I have my theory. But the question was a question. From someone who wouldn't think what I think, what do you think has caused it?

Are you truly interested in my perspective?

Assuming the question necessitates stipulations that there is a surge in anti-semitism, and said surge can be demonstrably proven, I would say there is no singular cause. However, I do not find it unreasonable that the current political climate can play a role, the responsibility of which extends across the entire political spectrum. Likewise, I suppose various media outlets can play a role too. Again, this assumes the stipulations are satisfied.