Tag Archives: domestic terrorism

Illustrating The Current Imbalance In Our Justice System

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On February 3rd, The Washington Examiner reported:

FBI Director Christopher Wray claimed the FBI is working just as hard to punish participants in the 2020 George Floyd riots as those involved in the Capitol riot, though neither the numbers nor his own boss’s words seem to back him up.

…Matthew Olsen, an assistant attorney general who heads the DOJ’s national security division, told the Senate in January that DOJ’s investigation into the Capitol riot is “unprecedented.” He also announced that his office had created a new “domestic terrorism unit” and said the Capitol riot is “being investigated as an act of domestic terrorism.”

The Justice Department said in January that at least 725 defendants have been arrested in connection with the Capitol riot and that more than 225 defendants had been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement officers. DOJ said in February that more than 165 defendants pleaded guilty to federal charges, including 22 felonies.

“The number of FBI [domestic terrorism] investigations over the past two years since March 2020 has more than doubled,” Olsen testified.

…McFadden (Judge Trevor McFadden), in a December ruling, argued there was a “troubling theme” in how prosecutors handled Portland riot cases compared to Capitol riot ones.

“The Government dismissed 27 cases brought against Portland defendants, including five felony cases,” McFadden said. “Dismissal of one felony case is unusual. Dismissal of five is downright rare and potentially suspicious. Rarely has the Government shown so little interest in vigorously prosecuting those who attack federal officers.”

On February 5th, The New York Post reported:

A man convicted of attempting to set fire to a high school during the Black Lives Matter riots in Minneapolis following the death of George Floyd has been sentenced to five years probation.

Mohamed Hussein Abdi, 20, was handed the probation sentence in a U.S. District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota, Thursday after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit arson, according to court documents obtained by Fox News.

Abdi was also ordered to pay just over $34,000 in restitution to Gordon Parks High School in St. Paul.

Court documents state that the sentence was “imposed pursuant to the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984.”

Draw your own conclusions.

Learning From The Chinese Social Credits System

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China became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. American supported the move. There were a few reasons for admitting them to the organization. The first was the belief that there would be an economic gain for America when Chinese markets were fully open to Americans and vice versa. The other reason was the hope that through trade China would become more free under the influence of commerce with America. The economic gain was limited due to the manipulation of the Chinese currency by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and freedom has consistently been squelched in China by the CCP. Obviously, we had good intentions, but we were wrong. Instead of exporting freedom, we may be on the verge of importing their social credits system.

Yesterday The Hill posted an article with the following headline, “Coming soon: America’s own social credit system.”

The article reports:

The new domestic “War on Terror,” kicked off by the riot on Jan. 6, has prompted several web giants to unveil predecessors to what effectively could become a soft social credit system by the end of this decade. Relying on an indirect hand from D.C., our social betters in corporate America will attempt to force the most profound changes our society has seen during the internet era.

China’s social credit system is a combination of government and business surveillance that gives citizens a “score” that can restrict the ability of individuals to take actions — such as purchasing plane tickets, acquiring property or taking loans — because of behaviors. Given the position of several major American companies, a similar system may be coming here sooner than you think.

Last week, PayPal announced a partnership with the left-wing Southern Poverty Law Center to “investigate” the role of “white supremacists” and propagators of “anti-government” rhetoric, subjective labels that potentially could impact a large number of groups or people using their service. PayPal says the collected information will be shared with other financial firms and politicians. Facebook is taking similar measures, recently introducing messages that ask users to snitch on their potentially “extremist” friends, which considering the platform’s bias seems mainly to target the political right. At the same time, Facebook and Microsoft are working with several other web giants and the United Nations on a database to block potential extremist content.

The article notes:

The potential scope of the soft social credit system under construction is enormous. The same companies that can track your activities and give you corporate rewards for compliant behavior could utilize their powers to block transactions, add surcharges or restrict your use of products. At what point does free speech — be it against biological males playing in girls’ sports, questioning vaccine side effects, or advocating for gun rights — make someone a target in this new system? When does your debit card get canceled over old tweets, your home loan denied for homeschooling your kids, or your eBay account invalidated because a friend flagged you for posting a Gadsden flag?

The article concludes:

Until and unless there is an organized pushback, our future could track with those of increasingly illiberal societies. Just last week, the British government announced its own version of a health social credit system. China’s system was announced only seven years ago. Considering the growth of algorithms and dependence on tech giants, the ability to track, censor and eventually punish ordinary citizens will be mindboggling by 2030. America’s descent into a 21st century Gilded Age directed by tech titans isn’t an inevitability. However, do you know anyone who would take a 5 percent Amazon coupon in exchange for a “call to action”? Or someone who would replace their Facebook profile picture to avoid being locked out? 

Peer pressure, trendy movements, and the ability to comply with the new system with the click of a mouse combine all of the worst elements of dopamine-chasing Americans. As it grows in breadth and power, what may be most surprising about our new social credit system won’t be collective fear of it, but rather how quickly most people will fall in line.

There are several problems with this other than the fact that it totally ignores the freedom and rights of Americans protected under the U.S. Constitution. Who defines extremism? Is extremism the belief in principles that were considered the norm only fifteen years ago–men in men’s sports, women in women’s sports, marriage between one man and one woman, etc.? We are heading down a dangerous path. I am personally aware of someone’s PayPal account being closed because the company became aware that she was in Washington, D.C. on January 6th. She was nowhere near the Capitol Building, but she was in the city. That is what we have to look forward to if we don’t stand up for our Constitutional rights.

 

Creating Further Division In America

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On June 16th, I posted an article about Biden administration’s plan “to create ways for Americans to report radicalized friends and family to the government, in an effort to fight domestic terrorism.” I am sure that the idea that your family and neighbors (or children for that matter) could report you for anything you say will help bring Americans together ((note sarcasm).

Well, it’s getting worse.

Yesterday The Daily Caller reported the following:

The FBI took to Twitter Sunday to encourage families to watch out for “homegrown violent extremism.”

“Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism,” the FBI’s tweet read in part.

Family members and peers are often best positioned to witness signs of mobilization to violence. Help prevent homegrown violent extremism. Visit https://t.co/bql36iSbig to learn how to spot suspicious behaviors and report them to the #FBI.

This is the tweet:

The article continues:

The link included in the tweet takes readers to the 2019 edition of the Homegrown Violent Extremism Mobilization Indicators report.

The report separates extremism into three groups based on whether the action is highly, moderately, or minimally diagnostic on its own.

Behaviors that are considered highly diagnostic include taping a martyrdom video or last will, preparing travel in order to join a terrorist group, or “communicating intent to engage in violent extremist activity,” especially on social media. (RELATED: DOJ Considering New Domestic Terrorism Laws Aimed At Violent Domestic Extremism)

In June, Attorney General Merrick Garland said white supremacy was the greatest “domestic violent extremist threat” facing the U.S. as he announced President Joe Biden’s National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism.

This is frightening. We currently have an open southern border allowing members of MS-13 and other violent gangs to enter America and the FBI is worried about politically incorrect opinions being expressed on social media. Wow.

I realize that a lot of this is a reaction to what happened on January 6th, when some unarmed people forced their way into the Capitol. However, I firmly believe that January 6th is being used as an excuse to shut down any opposition to the current administration–on social media or elsewhere. We have watched the media censor news they didn’t like (Hunter’s laptop, election fraud, coronavirus deaths in nursing homes in various states, etc.). What is being proposed here is the next step to creating a one-party government which punishes political dissent.

Yesterday The Epoch Times noted:

Richard Grenell, a former acting director of national intelligence, wrote that the FBI’s tweet “is outrageous” because the agency “has a growing credibility problem and this type of sinister snitching is clearly unhelpful.” Several Republican lawmakers also criticized the tweet, saying the FBI is encouraging Americans’ family members to spy on one another.

“In both Cuba & China, they also ask children to spy on their parents,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) wrote.

Rep. Dan Bishop (R-Texas) wrote: “These people protected Hillary, abused NSA surveillance databases against Americans, used known, unreliable DNC-funded propaganda to spy on Trump, perpetuated the Russia hoax, & lied to the FISC repeatedly. And now they tell you that you should spy on your family.”

It’s not clear if the FBI posted the tweet in reference to the Biden administration’s campaign against “domestic violent extremists” or the longstanding intelligence operations against Islamist terror groups. Officials at the agency didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment by press time.

 

We Thought It Was A Joke

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During the folk music craze of the 1960’s, the Chad Mitchell Trio released a song called “The John Birch Society” which made fun of the organization and accused the society of finding Russians under every bed. I grew up in a house where that idea was accepted, and it wasn’t until much later that I learned that the John Birch Society was actually on to something.

These are some of the lyrics from the song:

[Spoken]
Do you want Justice Warren to be your Commissar?
Do you want Mrs. Khrushchev in there with the DAR?
You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next-of-kin

If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in

Well, it took a few years, but here we are.

Yesterday Breitbart reported the following:

President Joe Biden’s administration announced their plans to create ways for Americans to report radicalized friends and family to the government, in an effort to fight domestic terrorism.

In a conversation with reporters, one senior administration official explained the importance of stopping politically fueled violence before it started.

“We will work to improve public awareness of federal resources to address concerning or threatening behavior before violence occurs,” the official said.

The official cited the Department of Homeland Security’s “If you see something say something” campaign to help stop radical Islamic terror as a domestic possibility.

“This involves creating contexts in which those who are family members or friends or co-workers know that there are pathways and avenues to raise concerns and seek help for those who they have perceived to be radicalizing and potentially radicalizing towards violence,” the official said.

Biden began his presidency with a stark warning in his inauguration speech about the “rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.” On June 1, Biden described the threat from “white supremacy” as the “most lethal threat to the homeland today.”

The Biden administration said it would also work with large technology companies on “increased information sharing” to help combat radicalization.

Increased information sharing–you mean like unmasking the phone calls of political opponents? You mean like putting people in solitary confinement because they were arrested on January 6th while dismissing the cases against people who looted and burned businesses in the name of Black Lives Matter last summer?

The article concludes:

The official added the Biden administration was taking the threat of domestic terrorism seriously and would redirect the focus of intelligence agencies on internal threats.

“We are investing many agencies of the government and resourcing them appropriately and asking our citizens to participate,” the official said. “Because, ultimately, this is really about homeland security being a responsibility of each citizen of our country to help us achieve.”

The lyrics should read, “If mommy is a conservative, you gotta turn her in.”

Quietly Correcting What Was A Noisy Mistake

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The Gateway Pundit posted an article today about the FBI’s reclassification of the June 2017 shooting attack on Republican Congressmen playing baseball in Eugene Simpson Stadium Park near Washington, D.C. The shooting had been classified by the FBI as “suicide by cop.”

The article notes:

In June 2017, James Hodgkinson shot a number of Republicans who were at Eugene Simpson Stadium Park after asking GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan, who was leaving practice there, if the remaining players were Republicans or Democrats, signaling he was looking for a certain profile.

…According to the FBI, in an official report that was released on Friday, the brutal 2017 attack at the Alexandria, Virginia, baseball field that nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise has been classified as “domestic terrorism” carried out by a “domestic violent extremist” targeting Republicans after the bureau previously classified it as “suicide by cop.”

…In late April of 2021, a US House representative instructed a reluctant Christopher Wray to investigate the origins of that odd report.

The article concludes:

Then the event was quietly updated to a domestic terrorist event.

Friday’s revelation was buried deep in the middle of a long FBI release and reversed that decision that was made by Andrew McCabe in 2017.  McCabe was apparently trying to soften the scrutiny of the motivation for the attempted murder of Republicans at the hand of a far-left radical activist.

The Washington Examiner reported on the matter, telling us where to find the information:

The revelation appears in the middle of an appendix on page 35 of a 40-page FBI-DHS report released on Friday titled “Security Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism.” In a section describing approximately 85 different “FBI-Designated Significant Domestic Terrorism Incidents in the United States from 2015 through 2019,” the Alexandria baseball field shooting appears, with the FBI categorizing the perpetrator as a “Domestic Violent Extremist” and describing the incident thusly: “An individual with a personalized violent ideology targeted and shot Republican members of Congress at a baseball field and wounded five people. The subject died as a result of engagement with law enforcement.”

It’s interesting when the FBI does things like that and forgets to update the public.

I realize that most FBI agents are honest, hardworking people who love their country. However, it sounds as if we need to remove an awful lot of the top brass at the agency.

A Portent Of Things To Come?

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Sometimes people say really stupid things. Most of the time, those comments can be easily dismissed. However sometimes even when a comment seems totally insane, it needs to be paid attention to because it may be a clue to future events.

Yesterday Breitbart posted an article about a recent comment made by Representative Adam Schiff.

The article reports:

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that we could not ignore the so-called predominant domestic threat was the white national threat and “some of the folks are part of the Trump base.”

Wallace (Nicole Wallace) said, “I want to ask you about the work on the intelligence committee. Is it different now that the intel chiefs testified to the tragic new reality that the gravest threats to the country are domestic violent extremists? Currently, under the threat warning, we know about radicalized by the big lie still being repeated by Donald Trump. I believe six times since last week and some COVID restrictions where he was also a leading and rater with tweets of liberate Michigan and liberate Virginia?”

…Schiff said, “We ought to be able to find common ground that the predominant terrorism threat facing the country right now is a domestic threat. The predominant part of that domestic threat is white national threat. That has international, transnational links as well. We can’t ignore that because of a political sensitivity that some of the folks are part of the Trump base. So I hope we can find common ground. We need to make sure we protect the country.”

I firmly believe that this is the prelude to the talking points that will be utilized if the audit of the Arizona presidential vote shows systematic fraud. Rather than face the issue and admit there is a problem, people saying that there was systematic fraud will be charged with undermining the election and labeled as domestic terrorists.

In another Breitbart article that was posted yesterday, Senator Schumer had the following comment:

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) stated that if Democrats can’t come to a bipartisan agreement on voting rights legislation “everything will be on the table to get it done.” And that one of the pieces of leverage he has for Democratic senators is that if Democrats don’t block some state election laws, “the chances of our caucus retaining the majority and people who are up for re-election like Kelly and Warnock winning is greatly diminished.”

Essentially what he is saying is that if the Democrats don’t tilt the playing field, they can’t win. Federalizing elections (which is against the Constitution) and calling anyone who opposes what you are doing domestic terrorists is one way to tilt the playing field.

The Title Sounds So Innocent

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The Biden administration has declared war on domestic terror. That sounds good. We really don’t need domestic terrorists roaming around the country. But what do they mean? The Federalist posted an article today that might provide some insight into the coming war on domestic terror.

The article reports:

The Biden administration is planning to use the full force of the federal government in pursuit of a new war. Its target? American citizens.

This countering “domestic violent extremism” effort, declared in the wake of the latest Capitol riot, represents the real-world counterpart to the corporate media rhetoric about the need to “deprogram,” “de-ba’athify,” and drone the Deplorables.

If this is a dangerous political witch hunt masquerading as a national security imperative, it should disturb every American. Half of the country could potentially be ensnared as would-be if not actual terrorists.

In a little-discussed Jan. 22 press briefing, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki asserted “[the] assault on the Capitol … underscored what we have long known: The rise of domestic violent extremism is a serious and growing national security threat.” Consequently, the administration plans a three-part response:

    • Developing a comprehensive threat assessment, coordinated with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security on domestic violent extremism.
    • Building “National Security Council capability to focus on countering domestic violent extremism,” including conducting “a policy review effort to determine how the government can share information better about this threat, support efforts to prevent radicalization, disrupt violent extremist networks, and more.”
    • Coordinating “relevant parts of the federal government to enhance and accelerate efforts to address DVE … an NSC-convened process will focus on addressing evolving threats, radicalization, the role of social media, opportunities to improve information sharing, operational responses, and more.”

In short, the Biden administration plans to turn the institutions and tools used to pursue foreign adversaries on “wrong-thinking” Americans. There are several reasons this is so troubling.

The article concludes:

It’s also worth noting who is leading this effort, and his political and policy predilections. As Psaki revealed, Joshua Geltzer will be responsible for the “scoping effort.”

During a September 2019 hearing before the House Oversight Committee’s Subcommittees on National Security and Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the former Obama administration National Security Council official and prolific Trump critic called for adopting a “transnational” approach to countering “violent white supremacy.” This included increased terror organization designations, use of the intelligence capabilities of the “international terrorism”-focused National Counterterrorism Center, and tech companies “policing their platforms to remove not just incitement to violence, but also, the ideological foundations that spawn such violence.”

Geltzer was careful to caveat that creating a “domestic analog to the foreign terrorist organization designation regime” might be unconstitutional and that efforts to counter violent white supremacy “must not be used as an excuse for interfering with the lawful expression of political advocacy.” But it is hard to square these seemingly conflicting statements.

In this charged and hysterical political environment, we should be all the more so concerned about the threats to our liberties, particularly of a national security regime with vastly expanded domestic powers. The first role of government is to protect our lives and liberties. The heavy burden is on our leaders to justify infringements on the latter in service of the former.

Stay tuned.

A Very Useful Shiny Object

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Magicians use sleight of hand to distract from what they are doing. They also use shiny objects to keep your eyes away from the secrets of their magic. We are currently watching the Democrat party use a shiny object to keep Americans from asking questions about losing their freedoms and about the double standard in the mainstream media.  Last summer’s riots and destruction were treated very differently in the press than the attack on the Capital was treated. We should also note the contrast between how the media handled the takeover of the Wisconsin capitol in 2011 and the January 6th riot in Washington. In the search for ‘domestic terrorists’ the Democrats are choosing to ignore many things. They are ignoring the fact that people leaving the White House grounds last summer after President Trump’s acceptance speech for the Republican nomination were harassed. One man was knocked to the ground. They are ignoring the riots last summer that, according to Breitbart, could reach $2 billion in insurance claims.

With all of the focus on domestic terrorism—purging our military, violating the civil rights of people who attended the Washington, D.C. rally on January 6th, accusing President Trump of fomenting insurrection, etc., we have also shut down any discussion of problems with the voting in the last election. Yesterday it was reported that Maricopa County in Arizona has refused to turn over election equipment and ballots from the November general election to the Arizona Senate. Mike Lindell, during an appearance on Newsmax, was stopped from making comments on election fraud in 2020. Yesterday I posted an article about a mathematician who states that the election results in some counties are mathematically impossible.

We can’t overturn the results of the election, but there are still many Americans who believe that there was considerable election fraud in the Presidential election of 2020. Putting shiny objects in front of us and trying to limit our rights to free speech are not going to change that belief—in fact it only reinforces it.

It is time for all Americans to wake up to the danger before them. Whether you love or hate Donald Trump, the attacks that are currently going on against his supporters are totally unconstitutional and need to end now. If you feel safe because you didn’t support President Trump, understand that he and his supporters will not be the last target of the recently formed thought police. Eventually they will come for every American who dares to have an original thought.

Who Is Rioting And Who Is Providing The Bricks?

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The following video was placed on YouTube today:

Breitbart posted an article that included an interview with Bernie Kerik, former New York City Police Commissioner, today.

The article reports:

Former New York City Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik called for the FBI to investigate the funding of “domestic terrorism” from operations such as Antifa and Black Lives Matter, offering his remarks on Friday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Tonight with host Rebecca Mansour and special guest host Ed Martin.

Riots and protests across multiple metropolitan cities are coordinated, said Kerik.

“I think the FBI has to investigate, especially this time, [when] you have enormous coordination between what’s going on in Minneapolis, then L.A., Houston, Atlanta,” Kerik determined. “There’s a bunch of coordination going on.”

Kerik added, “These pop-up riots, where they’re destroying businesses and cars and everything else, who’s paying? When these Antifa people get locked up, who pays their bail? Who gets them out of jail? How did they get there in the first place? Who pays for their communication networks?”

“I would say 10 to 15 percent of the people in Minneapolis that started protesting were from Minneapolis,” estimated Kerik. “Eighty to 85 percent of the people there were bused in. They came from somewhere else, and out of that group, you have a core group in a leadership role.”

This is an example of the need to follow the money. Who is buying and placing the bricks so conveniently? Bricks are not cheap. Who is paying for the buses to get people to these cities? People are not trashing their own neighborhoods–paid activists are doing it for them. It’s time we held the looters and their leaders accountable under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) Act.

I’m Feeling A Little Insecure

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Yesterday Infowars posted an article about some changes the Department of Justice is making in fighting the war on terror at home. I think fighting the war on terror at home is a really good idea–particularly since we have no way of vetting the refugees from Syria that the United Nations is sending us (rightwinggranny). However, I guess the Department of Justice does not necessarily see things the same way I do.

The article reports:

The DOJ announced it will appoint a “domestic terrorism counsel” to focus on who the Obama administration and the controversial Southern Poverty Law Center considers “extremists.”

“Looking back over the past few years, it is clear that domestic terrorists and homegrown violent extremists remain a real and present danger to the United States,” the DOJ’s John Carlin said on Wednesday.

But the Justice Dept. and the Department of Homeland Security previously characterized libertarians, conservatives and constitutionalists as militia-inspired “domestic extremists.”

“Militia members most commonly associated with third-party political groups,” a 2009 Missouri Information Analysis Center report stated. “It is not uncommon for militia members to display Constitutional Party, Campaign for Liberty or libertarian material.”

“These members are usually supporters of former presidential candidates Ron Paul, Chuck Baldwin and Bob Barr.”

Even more concerning, the MIAC report encouraged law enforcement to scrutinize Americans who oppose abortion, illegal immigration and the rapid growth of the government, all of which are views shared by a plurality of Donald Trump supporters.

I guess we have come to the point where not totally agreeing with the Democratic Party agenda puts you under suspicion as a ‘domestic terrorist.’ Meanwhile the Justice Department is ignoring the obvious threat that is currently invading our country, both as legal refugees and illegal aliens. At some point I hope the voters in America will hold these people accountable for what they are doing–they are not only putting our national security at risk, they are creating divisions among Americans that weaken us as a nation, This is not the way to bring America together.