Violent Right-Wing Extremists and Their Supporters

[Chicks]

Name 'em and shame 'em. This should be a very long thread, as there are so many of them, along with GOP reps who cheer them on, and the billionaires who fund them.

Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs sentenced to 17 years for Jan. 6 riot
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/11969...6-joseph-biggs

[Chicks]

The Jacksonville Shooting
https://www.csis.org/analysis/jacksonville-shooting

White supremacists remain one of the leading terrorist threats to Americans. According to data from the New America Foundation, since the 9/11 attacks, white supremacists and other right-wing terrorists have killed more Americans on U.S. soil than jihadists. In addition, their relative lethality has grown in recent years, while the jihadist attacks in the United States have tapered off, with the jihadist movement as a whole much weaker than in the past.

White supremacists also often have greater political impact and have more support from pockets of Americans. Much of what they champion—anti-Black racism, anti-immigrant sentiment, virulent misogyny, and other causes—has echoes in the mainstream political debate. This stands in sharp contrast to jihadist terrorism, where the overwhelming majority of American Muslims reject their teachings and cooperate regularly with law enforcement.

[Rajoo]

August 2023

Case in point: the Trump supporter who shot a neighbor he suspected of being a Democrat.

As Kristen King’s husband lay dying in their yard from three gunshots to his head, the 911 operator asked her: Did she know who killed him – or why?

Sobbing, King identified the shooter as her neighbor in the small Ohio town of Okeana. “His name is Austin Combs,” she stammered. “He’s come over, like, four times confronting my husband because he thought he was a Democrat.”

Then she broke down. “Why?” King wailed on the 911 recording, struggling for breath. “He’s the love of my life!”

The Nov. 5 killing of Anthony King was among 213 cases of political violence identified by Reuters since the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by supporters of former President Donald Trump on the U.S. Capitol.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates...tics-violence/

[Chicks]

Fears that Republicans’ rhetoric after Trump indictment could spark violence
‘An eye for an eye’, said Arizona congressman, while another representative from Louisiana gave militaristic instructions
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/...toric-violence

Belligerent and conspiracy-laden rhetoric from high-profile Republican backers of Donald Trump has heightened fears that the former US president’s campaign against his legal troubles could trigger political violence.

Fewer than 24 hours after Donald Trump was indicted, Arizona congressman Andy Biggs went on Twitter and used violent language to call for retribution. “We have now reached a war phase,” he said. “An eye for an eye.”

Clay Higgins, another Republican congressman from Louisiana, gave militaristic instructions to his followers. “This is a perimeter probe from the oppressors. Hold. rPOTUS has this,” he tweeted, using an abbreviation to refer to Trump as the real president.

Higgins added: “Buckle up. 1/50K know your bridges. Rock steady calm. That is all,” he added, using an apparent reference to military-scale maps. (Two days later Higgins tweeted: “Let Trump handle Trump, he’s got this. We use the Constitution as our only weapon. Peace. Hold.”)

The statements from the two far-right congressmen – both of whom voted to overturn the 2020 election – underscore the alarming way that violent rhetoric has seeped into mainstream US political discourse in the Republican party especially in the wake of Trump’s indictment.

An estimated 12 million adults – 4.4% of the US population – believe violence is justified to return Trump to power, according to a recent survey by the University of Chicago’s Project on Security & Threats (CPOST).

[Chicks]

How Kansas’ Koch Industries helped fuel the U.S. Capitol insurrection
https://kansasreflector.com/2021/01/...-insurrection/

[Chicks]

How some members of the Republican Party have normalized the use of violent rhetoric
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/ho...olent-rhetoric

h/t to @Rajoo for this one.

[Chicks]

Josh Hawley was against hate crime laws — till he could exploit the Nashville shooting
https://www.kansascity.com/opinion/r...273716495.html

Typical slimeball Repube.

[Chicks]

Countering organized violence in the United States
https://www.brookings.edu/articles/c...united-states/

Numbers for right-wing extremist violence are far higher, with numerous high-profile terrorist attacks as well as lower-level assaults, vandalism, and other forms of violence. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, far-right extremists have killed 130 people in the United States, more than any other political cause, including jihadists.7 Notable attacks in recent years include the 2018 Pittsburgh Synagogue attack, the 2019 El Paso mall killings, and the 2022 Buffalo market attack. A range of far-right extremists, including organized groups such as the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers as well as hundreds of unaffiliated conspiracy theorists, anti-government extremists, and ordinary supporters of President Trump, also stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a direct assault on American democracy. Far-right extremist violence has not abated: earlier this month, on May 6, 2023, an apparent neo-Nazi with misogynist leanings shot up a Texas mall, killing eight people.

In contrast to far-right extremists in the past, today’s violent far-right often targets law enforcement. On January 6, 2021, of course, far-right extremists were responsible for the death of a Capitol police officer and the wounding of over 100 others. A right-wing extremist also threatened an FBI facility in Cincinnati in 2021.9 Anti-government extremists have regularly attacked and killed local police, questioned their authority to enforce the law, resisted arrest, and otherwise pose a grave threat to law enforcement.

Another danger of violence is that it infects and degrades politics. After the 9/11 attacks, Americans of all political beliefs came together, supporting a strong response to jihadist terrorism. Unfortunately, during its four years in office, the Trump administration increased public fears of white supremacist and anti-government violence because of its perceived toleration, and at times even encouragement, of these causes. Trump’s rhetoric matched some white supremacist talking points, playing down police violence against Black people, calling Mexican immigrants “rapists,” declaring COVID-19 to be a “Chinese virus,” telling Black and other minority members of Congress to “go back” to their home countries, claiming a mythical “deep state,” and demonizing the FBI. When violence occurred, as it did during a 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia organized by white supremacists, Trump opined that their ranks included “very fine people.”

[Rajoo]

“We” Don’t Have a Political Violence Problem. Republicans Do.

The Paul Pelosi attack was no aberration. Only one party counts violent insurrectionists as a constituency it dare not alienate.

The proof lies in what unreasonable Republicans have been saying since Paul Pelosi, 82, got his skull cracked at 2:30 a.m. Friday morning by a hammer-wielding QAnon enthusiast shouting, “Where is Nancy?” Donald Trump Jr. retweeted a photograph of a hammer and a pair of underwear—an early news report, since corrected, said the attacker was stripped to his underwear—captioned, “Got my Paul Pelosi Halloween costume ready.” Representative Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, posted and then deleted a tweet saying Pelosi’s assailant was a male prostitute whom Pelosi had hired (which of course wasn’t true). Elon Musk, who is not a Republican but appears drawn to the GOP’s more fetid precincts, tweeted along the same lines, later removed the tweet, and still later joked about it rather than apologize. Charlie Kirk suggested the whole story was intended “to smear millions of conservatives.” (For a fuller review of such stomach-turning statements, see Michael Tomasky’s piece, “Paul Pelosi Almost Died, and Most Republicans Don’t Have A Big Problem With That.”)

The GOP has become so extremist that a substantial portion of its leaders and more prominent sympathizers make light of or deny political violence committed against Democrats. There is no corresponding such behavior by leading Democrats when Republicans are threatened or attacked—and yes, there have been some horrific instances—because Democrats don’t count violent insurrectionists as a political constituency they dare not alienate.

https://newrepublic.com/article/1683...licans-problem

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by Chicks

Name 'em and shame 'em. This should be a very long thread, as there are so many of them, along with GOP reps who cheer them on, and the billionaires who fund them.

Proud Boys leader Joseph Biggs sentenced to 17 years for Jan. 6 riot
https://www.npr.org/2023/08/31/11969...6-joseph-biggs

Tough guy Joe Biggs wept and blubbered when his sentence was read to him.

Hey Joey, don't do the crime if you can't do the time, as they say. (rolls eyes)