COLLECTIVE MADNESS


“Soft despotism is a term coined by Alexis de Tocqueville describing the state into which a country overrun by "a network of small complicated rules" might degrade. Soft despotism is different from despotism (also called 'hard despotism') in the sense that it is not obvious to the people."

Monday, June 13, 2016

What’s in a name?

Omar Mateen and Rightwing Homophobia: Hate Crime or Domestic Terrorism?

 
    A snapshot from one of the many vigils held across the nation in the aftermath of the Pulse Club shooting. This one took place at The Center, a community center for the LGBT community in Las Vegas, Nev. John Locher / AP 

This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor Juan Cole’s website.
US law enforcement is at least initially categorizing the horrific Orlando shootings as “domestic terrorism.”

I don’t think it probably was terrorism in any useful sense of the term.  
I used to know what domestic terrorism was, before the term became politicized in the past decade.  It was defined right there in the Federal code of 1992:
“(5) the term “domestic terrorism” means activities that—
(A) involve acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State;
(B) appear to be intended—
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
(ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or
(iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and
(C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” 
The great thing about this definition is that it focuses on the motive behind the act.  And it specifies that the motive has to be to coerce people or influence or affect government policy.

So if the alleged shooter, Omar Mateen, was a terrorist you would expect him to make demands about US government policy.  There will be more such acts, he would have said, unless the US government passes a law outlawing homosexuality.  Or unless the US government withdraws from Afghanistan.  (But if he aimed to change the latter policy, why shoot up a civilian gay club on Latin night?  Wouldn’t he have targeted, say, a US Army base?)

Shootings like Orlando that hit “soft targets” such as restaurants or nightclubs are not a form of classical strategic terrorism.  Serious terrorist would hit military targets, e.g.–an act that might hope to degrade US security.  Shooting down people at a nightclub has no obvious strategic goal.  Such a goal is intrinsic to the tactic of terrorism, and its absence should cause us to question the use of the term.

What we know about Mateen so far doesn’t indicate that he was a member of a terrorist organization.  If the authorities thought that he was, the crime would have been labeled international terrorism, not domestic.

We know that his father, Seddique Mateen, is a Pushtun nationalist from Afghanistan who objects to the 1893 Durand Line that the British drew between British India and Afghanistan, which cut the Pushtun ethnic group in two.  Today, the Pushtuns (called Pukhtuns in the local dialect) are a majority in the province of Khyber-Pukhtunkhwa of northern Pakistan, while the Afghanistan Pushtuns dominate a number of provinces stretched across eastern and southern Afghanistan.  Decades ago a Pushtun nationalism that wanted to unite Pushtuns into a single country and secede from both Pakistan and Afghanistan had some popularity, but it is now a fringe movement.  

Mateen senior goes on a California Persian-language tv and promotes this subnationalism.  He is also said to support the Taliban, but that may be because he sees them as authentically Pushtun and oppressed by the Punjabi Pakistani officer corps, rather than because he is a fundamentalist.  His big emphasis seems to be on erasing the Durand Line.  He asserted that his son’s action had nothing to do with Islam.  Although the US press is depicting Seddique Mateen as himself perhaps unbalanced, his position isn’t crazy, it has just become a minority idea.
durand
Iranian languages incl. Pashto h/t Wikimedia 

You could imagine Mateen being brought up to resent that the West had divided and weakened the Pushtun ethnic group.  But there isn’t any evidence that Omar shared his father’s separatist politics.

  We know that Omar Mateen’s marriage failed because, his ex-wife alleges, he beat her.  Her Muslim relatives were so appalled on hearing this that they extracted her from the match.

She says he wasn’t religious 8 years ago.
We know that a co-worker when he was employed as a security guard considered him unbalanced, racist and homophobic, and even left his position rather than continuing to have to work with him.

We know the FBI investigated him twice and found no reason to pursue the inquiry or to keep him on a terrorist watch list.

So this person looks as though he was unbalanced and extremely prejudiced individual who bought two semi-automatic weapons only last week and then committed a mass shooting against a group against which he was bigoted.

He may have invoked Daesh (ISIS, ISIL) as he began his mayhem, but there is no reason at the moment to think that he was involved with them in any practical way.

He was about to commit a mass murder that he must have known would likely end in his own death as well.
  
So it may be that he was searching for a way to make sense of his homicidal impulse, a way to give meaning to his senseless killing and senseless death.
So, a major, major hate crime for sure.  But terrorism?  What is the governmental policy he wanted changed?

If it was about gay marriage, well, there is a lot of political opposition to that on the Republican Right, and violence against gays has been a feature of the American far right.

In fact, you could argue that the American evangelical groups that successfully lobbied Uganda to execute gays were engaged in a form of international legislative terrorism–they are certainly driven by a political agenda and wanted to see people killed; they were just more patient about it.

In a mirror image of Mateen, police in LA arrested James Wesley Howell , a right wing white conspiracy nut.  Howell was found with high powered rifles and bomb-making materials.  He says that Hillary Clinton is Hitler, and he is a truther, alleging that the US government is behind terrorist attacks since 2000.  He was headed to the Gay Pride parade in Los Angeles, though friends of his denied that he is a homophobe.  (Friends don’t always know these things).
If Howell was planning an act of violence at the parade, it was forestalled by his arrest, so it is hard to compare him to Mateen, especially since we know so little about Howell’s intentions.  But these two men both seem to have been unbalanced, and both intended to go to a gay event. 

The biggest thing they had in common between being off their rockers was that they had free access to high powered firearms despite all the signs they exhibited of being one can short of a six-pack.

107 comments:

  1. Here’s why Trump’s foreign policy terrifies neocons

    Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump outlined his stance on foreign policy on April 27. He said his strategy involves the use of diplomacy and "new people" outside the foreign policy establishment. (Reuters)

    By Joseph A. Mussomeli June 9

    Joseph A. Mussomeli served in the U.S. Foreign Service from 1980 to 2015, including periods as U.S. ambassador to Cambodia and Slovenia.

    Most of my former colleagues at the State Department will be appalled by the assertion, but much of the media-fed angst about Donald Trump’s dearth of foreign policy expertise is contrived.

    Our cadre of neoconservative foreign policy experts, unhumbled after marching us into a reckless war in Iraq and a poorly conceived one in Afghanistan, who applauded as we bombed Libya and bitterly resent our having failed to bomb Bashar al-Assad in Syria, are frightened. Wisely, they often focus on comments that Trump has made on issues that are of less genuine interest to them — from his strident stance on immigration to his “threat” to our liberties to his sometimes deplorable commentary about women and some minorities. But what really troubles them is his generally level-headed and unmessianic attitude toward foreign affairs. Trump has no desire to make the rest of the world in our image; he is concerned only about the world not making America in its image.

    The neocons bemoan Trump’s rejection of a global role for the United States, but Trump has no intent to withdraw the United States from the world stage. He only rejects the wanton use of our young men and women on foreign adventures of questionable value.

    The neocons have two clear foreign policy objectives, and Trump may grant them neither. For many of them, their deepest yearning, ungranted even in the waning days of the George W. Bush presidency, is an air campaign against Iran. Trump doesn’t like the Iran nuclear agreement, but his instinct is to make a better deal rather than attacking, while Hillary Clinton has a strong record of supporting the prodigal misuse of military force. Clinton is just another neocon, though wrapped in sheep’s clothing — just as on some foreign policy issues Trump is little more than Bernie Sanders in wolf’s clothing....

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/why-trumps-foreign-policy-really-scares-neocons/2016/06/09/86614ac6-2cac-11e6-9b37-42985f6a265c_story.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yup, it's unlike myself but posted from the Washington Compost.

    I'm listening on Fox to a presser about how the Police finally used their Bear Cat armored vehicle to breach the wall of the nightclub after an explosive device planted by the Police didn't get the job done. Many hostages escaped through that hole in the wall. Finally, the shooter came out too - he had been holed up in a bathroom with 7 or so other hostages - and coming out is where he met his end.

    Trump was just on Fox making good sense about how we need more intelligence on these people and more legal tools....

    ReplyDelete
  3. Juan Cole wants us to focus on the blue eyed white guy. So does Obama.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Juan needs to take a vacation for awhile.

      Juan needs a rest.

      Delete
    2. Juan ain't the only one absolving the left.

      Delete
  4. We are not spending enough on the military and intelligence agencies. The TSA is too busy screening three year olds.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Right at the onset of our WOT, after 911 and pre TSA, I went through a screening and on my key ring was my dog tag and a silver bullet from the NRA. It was inspected and after much deliberation with a supervisor, it was seized to protect the homeland.

    In consolation for the confiscation and with all due respect, they did thank me for my service.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I had a wine tool taken last week. 3/4 butter knife blade attached to cut the foil around the top of the bottle. Forgot it was in my carry on. A ball point pen is more lethal. I guess the bubble butted TSA agent didn't have one.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Meanwhile we read that 90% of the fake test bombs get loaded on the plane....

    ReplyDelete
  8. “This site is dedicated to preying on people’s vanity, ignorance, or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse"

    How about some self disclosure for entertainment purposes.

    I'm diagnosed as Bi-Polar II with schizophrenic tendencies.

    Lets have fun with it :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 1912, from Modern Latin, literally "a splitting of the mind," from German Schizophrenie, coined in 1910 by Swiss psychiatrist Eugen Bleuler (1857-1939), from Greek skhizein "to split" (see schizo- ) + phren (genitive phrenos) "diaphragm, heart, mind," of unknown origin.

      Delete
    2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJcvlxdwLu4

      For a little context in me

      Delete
    3. Good Lord, you are out of your tree.

      Quirk might like that though.

      His taste in music is the shits.

      Delete
    4. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCV-qY05Qlo

      Here's one of my favorites.
      Three Dog Night, Family Of Man.

      Delete
  9. (IraqiNews.com) al-Anbar – An informed source in Fallujah said on Sunday, that the so-called ISIS had executed 19 of its elements on charges of deserting the battlefield in the area of al-Shuhada.

    The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said in a statement obtained by IraqiNews.com, “The ISIS terrorist gangs executed 19 of its elements who fled from the last battles against the security forces in the neighborhoods of al-Shuhada and al-Nassaf in central Fallujah,” adding that, “This came through the issuance of the so-called [ISIS] legitimate court a death sentence against [them].”

    The source explained, “The execution was carried out by firing a bullet into the head.”

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hows about we make it just a wee bit more difficult for the "crazy" among us to buy Assault Weapons?

    And, while we're at it, how about we jail the bible/koran thumpers that preach the murder of those they don't like?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You'll be pleased to know that I don't own a gun.

      Delete
    2. Making it just a wee bit more difficult for Rufus to get his hands on a gun is a good idea.

      Jailing the thumpers sounds like a good idea too.

      Delete
    3. Let's jail Smirk, too, just on general principles.

      Delete
    4. Three meals a day, library privileges, free dental,...?

      Just thinking of all the studying I could do,...:)

      Delete
  11. FWIW: I don't believe Anything that any semi-anonymous commenter posts on the internet.

    I don't care to know Anytbing about anyone, here, and I sure as hell am not interested in disclosing anything about myself.

    ReplyDelete
  12. We know all we need to know about you, Rufus.

    We know you're an old gas bag.

    An old gas bag that wants to raise taxes on everybody else.

    ReplyDelete
  13. As for me, I own a gun, and they're gonna take it from me when they pry it out of my cold, dead hands.

    And, I want lower tax rates so people can do more of what they want to do with their own money.

    And, I want Deuce to be able to keep his Limo.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Joint forces storm into central Fallujah, gun down six suicide bombers

    (IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Monday, officials in the Anbar Operations Command revealed that the joint security forces have started military operations and stormed into central Fallujah (62 km west of Baghdad). It was further informed that the forces so far have shot down six (6) suicide bombers during the operation.

    An official statement issued by the Anbar Operations Command and also received by Iraqi News, stated, “This morning the joint security forces started a military operation to advance into Nezal neighborhood in central Fallujah after liberating al-Shuhada neighborhood to the south of the city.”

    “The [security] forces clashed with ISIS members and managed to kill six (6) suicide bombers of the organisation,” the statement continued.

    Adding further,“Nezal neighborhood in central Fallujah is one of the most important residential neighborhoods of the city center. ISIS is trying to booby-trap large number of main roads and houses to hinder the progress of the security forces.”

    ReplyDelete
  15. This Is How Democracy Dies

    Why more left-wing violence is likely on the horizon.

    June 13, 2016

    Bruce Thornton

    Bruce Thornton is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center

    The attacks on Trump supporters at a rally in San Jose last week were another example of the left’s violent assaults on free speech and association. Before the election there is likely to be more thuggery, as an emboldened left lets slip their dogs of war to foment disorder to continue Obama’s aim to “fundamentally transform” America. As the long history of political philosophy teaches, this undermining of law by violence is an important sign of democracy’s impending doom.

    Over 2100 years ago, the Greek historian Polybius described how democracy dies:


    So when [the rich] begin to hanker after office, and find that they cannot achieve it through their own efforts or on their merits, they begin to seduce and corrupt the people in every possible way, and thus ruin their estates. The result is that through their senseless craving for prominence they stimulate among the masses both an appetite for bribes and the habit of receiving them, and then the rule of democracy is transformed into government by violence and strong-arm methods. By this time the people have become accustomed to feed at the expense of others, and their prospects of winning a livelihood depend upon the property of their neighbors, and as soon as they find a leader who is sufficiently ambitious and daring . . . they introduce a regime based on violence.

    It takes only a few revisions reflecting the modern world to see how closely Polybius’s analysis describes how the ideology and policy of the progressives are degrading America’s democratic republic.

    First, the progressives have “seduced and corrupted” the people not, like the aspiring tyrants of old, by spending their own money, but by redistributing the property of other citizens via the 16th Amendment, which instituted the federal income tax. Over the next century the funds appropriated by the IRS have financed the “bribes” for the people: the various social welfare programs and transfers that relentlessly have escalated in number, scope, and cost––in 2014 these programs ate up two-thirds of the federal budget.

    These transfers have indeed “stimulated” both the “appetite” of the people for even more government programs, and the “habit” of receiving them. That is why today the biggest problem facing our economy––the unsustainable entitlement spending that threatens in decades to gobble up every dollar collected by the feds––got only cursory attention in all the speeches of the presidential candidates from both parties. Indeed, the Democrats want to create even more programs and spend even more money on these “bribes".

    More insidious is the progressive update of “government by violence and strong-arm methods.” Rather than physical violence, we have the regulatory regime that Tocqueville predicted, one which “covers the surface of society with a network of small complicated rules, minute and uniform, through which the most original minds and the most energetic characters cannot penetrate.” Both parties have been guilty of feeding this regulatory cancer, but Obama has blown past all previous records. In 2015 just under 82,000 pages of rules and proposed rules were published, an all-time high. In his last year, Obama is pushing 4000 new regulations covering every dimension of business and private life. As a result, the freedom of citizens and businesses alike is diminished, subjected to the tyranny of executive agencies staffed by anonymous, unelected, and unaccountable functionaries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then there is the cultural violence, the tyranny of political correctness that has encouraged the tantrums of privileged “snowflake” college students who demand “safe spaces” and the punishment of “microagressions,” and are eager to use the state’s police and judicial power to silence those who challenge their ideology. Government, media, schools, and popular culture all practice self-censorship in order to mollify these budding tyrants, at the cost of everybody else’s freedom. We may not be threatened by the physical violence that ancient tyrants used to enforce their authority, but these regulations and informal speech codes are in the end backed by the coercive power of the state, which can sue, fine, and imprison those who fall afoul of their regime of rules.

      Thus we resemble the degeneration of democracy into tyranny described by Polybius. We have become a people who are “accustomed to feed at the expense of others,” and who live under a “regime based on violence” inflicted by a bloated federal government. And no matter how “soft” the despotism, nonetheless its concentrated and expanded power diminishes our freedom and autonomy.

      Other insights of Polybius are as pertinent now as they were in the 2nd century B.C. What better description of Hillary can you find than “a senseless craving for prominence,” “sufficiently ambitious and daring,” or a “hanker[ing] for office” that lies beyond her “merits”? Her relentless ambition has been obvious for 25 years, and her promises to follow in Obama’s footsteps and double-down on the entitlement state and its regulatory tyranny are the “bribes” she is relying on to win the presidency. And what makes this ambition “senseless” and “daring” is her lack of any qualities of character or record of achievements that would qualify her to be president. Like the tyrants of ancient Greece––disaffected aristocrats who believed they were entitled by birth to rule over the ignorant, low-born masses––Hillary’s only claim to the presidency is her status as a princess instead of a prince of the Democrat Party’s elite.

      More troublesome is the physical violence that has attended Trump’s rallies, and that may escalate in the months ahead, recalling the thugs and gangs that stalked the city-states of ancient Greece and elections in Rome during the last days of the Republic. Of course, such violence has marred American politics in the past, but the country and its culture have changed radically in the last few decades. In 1968, when the new left incited violence at the Democrat convention, the Democrat mayor of Chicago and the Democrat political establishment forcefully condemned the riot. George Meany, head of the AFL-CIO and Democrat Party stalwart, called the protesters a “dirty-necked and dirty-mouthed group of kooks.”

      Delete
    2. Those sorts of Democrats have nearly disappeared, and the leftists of 1968 have transformed the party. They and their epigones have infiltrated the media, popular culture, and most important the schools and universities. Most are a peculiarly wimpy sort of leftist, whining about “microagressions” and “safe spaces” from the tony precincts of prestigious universities. But they still vote and wield enormous influence. And they are reinforced by the progressive Brown Shirts who instigate violence at Trump’s events. Worse yet, the Democrat establishment has been indifferent to such violence, issuing generic condemnations as a preface to blaming it all on Donald Trump, as Hillary did after the San Jose violence, or the mayor of San Jose did when he said, “At some point Donald Trump needs to take responsibility for the irresponsible behavior of his campaign.”

      So are we approaching an election reminiscent of Polybius’ analysis of democracy’s demise? Will we see increasing violence at both parties’ conventions, as the minions of wannabe tyrants up the ante in order to further their ambitions for even more government control at the expense of individual freedom? Will the people ultimately decide they’d rather continue to “feed at the expense of others” than to be free citizens taking responsibility for their lives? Finally, will our already weakened democracy come closer to breathing its last?

      http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/263163/how-democracy-dies-bruce-thornton

      Delete
  16. Hillary State Dept. Blocked Investigation into Orlando Killer Mosque....DRUDGE

    We should have known it's all Hillary's fault.

    ReplyDelete
  17. TWA Flight 800 was brought down by a US Navy Guided Missile Ship

    258 Eyewitnesses, and Radar Images

    http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2016/06/twa_800_breaking__air_traffic_controller_tells_all.html

    ReplyDelete
  18. Strikes in Syria

    Attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 13 strikes in Syria:

    -- Near Abu Kamal, a strike destroyed two ISIL oil well heads.

    -- Near Ayn Isa, five strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed an ISIL fighting position, five ISIL vehicles, an ISIL command and control node and an ISIL front-end loader.

    -- Near Manbij, six strikes struck five separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed four ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL cave entrance, an ISIL weapons cache, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL light machine gun.

    -- Near Mara, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL tactical vehicle.

    Strikes in Iraq

    Bomber, ground-attack, attack, fighter, and remotely piloted aircraft conducted 19 strikes in Iraq, coordinated with and in support of Iraq’s government:

    Near Beiji, a strike struck an ISIL tactical unit and destroyed two ISIL fighting positions, an ISIL vehicle and an ISIL heavy machine gun.

    -- Near Fallujah, three strikes struck three separate ISIL tactical units and destroyed 11 ISIL fighting positions, two ISIL vehicles, two ISIL heavy machine guns, an ISIL anti-air artillery piece, five ISIL light machine guns, three ISIL tunnel systems and an ISIL recoilless rifle and damaged a separate ISIL fighting position and denied ISIL access to terrain.

    -- Near Haditha, a strike destroyed an ISIL vehicle.

    -- Near Kisik, a strike suppressed an ISIL mortar position.

    -- Near Mosul, six strikes struck two separate ISIL tactical units and an ISIL oil tanker storage area and destroyed an ISIL fighting position and an ISIL vehicle and suppressed an ISIL machine gun position.

    -- Near Qayyarah, seven strikes struck two separate large ISIL tactical units, an ISIL vehicle bomb-making facility and three ISIL-used bridges and destroyed an ISIL vehicle, seven ISIL assembly areas, two ISIL artillery pieces, an ISIL tactical vehicle, three ISIL mortar systems, an ISIL mortar position, an ISIL rocket rail, four ISIL vehicle bombs and 18 ISIL boats and suppressed a separate ISIL tactical unit.

    ReplyDelete
  19. "With at least 50 dead and even more seriously injured, this was the worst mass shooting in U.S. history. But it was also the 135th U.S. mass shooting of 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive, and the fifth to have occurred on the weekend."

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/orlando-shooting-likely-to-inflame-the-ugliest-debates-of-us-election-season/article30413297/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. .

      Perspective, Ash?

      You are on the wrong blog.

      I had heard about the Orlando shootings while at my kid's cottage at Point Pelee and I suspected what I would see here when I got back. The shootings in Orlando were despicable and senseless, a tragedy for the victims and their families, but it was no surprise to see the usual suspects here have become even more hysterical.


      .

      Delete
    2. I've got cousins in law who have a place on the water near Kingsville. Nice neck of the woods! Did you get out to the Island?

      Delete
    3. .

      No, my son-in-law got rid of his boat some time ago.

      .

      Delete
    4. There's a decent ferry that runs out there and back on the Canadian side. Makes for a great day trip - especially if there are little ones; beach and a ride on a ship.

      Delete
    5. I had heard about the Orlando shootings while at my kid's cottage at Point Pelee and I suspected what I would see here when I got back. The shootings in Orlando were despicable and senseless, a tragedy for the victims and their families, but it was no surprise to see the usual suspects here have become even more hysterical.

      It was just a nit, after all.

      Only 50 dead this time.

      You and Smirk both need good mugging.

      Delete
    6. It's hysterical to think that a policy of allowing people who hate this country free reign is anything other than ho hum.
      Next...

      Delete
    7. Hell, you are the one who think that those who hate the country should have a right to buy an assault weapon no questions asked.

      Delete
    8. .

      It's the policies you propose, Doug. Like the faux farmer, it appears the only terrorist attacks you are aware of in the US are those committed by Muslims. Or, perhaps like the farmer, those are the only ones you want to talk about. Are you like the farmer and just assume that anyone named Omar is a terrorist?

      Need we go over the numbers again?. Or, who law enforcement considers the biggest terrorist threat in the US. Like Idaho Bob, do you think it is actually possible to keep someone out of the US if they really want in to do harm. [Although Trump's idea of asking them if they are Muslim at customs sounds like real genius, do you actually think it would work?] Do you just keep all Arabs out? What about Christian Arabs? Druze? Copts? Alawites? Persians? Chaldeans? Are you aware that there are 3 million Muslims in the US already 25% of which are converts? And the numbers are growing. Would you deport them all?

      Do we also deport comic book aficionados like James Holmes, the guy who said he was the Joker just before taking out 12 people and causing 83 total casualties at an airing Batman vs Superman?

      Or Adam Lanza, 20 year old nutjob, who took out 20 1st graders and 6 adults in Newton.

      Or Robert Lewis Dear, an older nutjob who attacked that Planned Parenthood facility in Colorado.

      Or old Kyle Odom, the guy who shot that pastor in Coeur d'Alene.

      Do we also deport all the nutjobs, religious fanatics, and comic book lovers.


      What you guys are arguing we do is the same thing Bush did in pushing through the Patriot Act after 9/11. He played on peoples fears. Doing it out of fear wasn't the right thing then and it isn't now.

      If you like like me calling you hysterical, fine. I won't. Take Bob up on his offer
      to let you come out to the farm. But you better take your own bed. There might not be enough room under his for the two of you.

      .

      Delete
  20. Fight against ISIS: Apache helicopters make a debut in Iraq

    (IraqiNews.com) US Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced on Monday that the US military commanders in Iraq have used Apache helicopters to target ISIS sites near Mosul for the first time since US President Barack Obama authorized its use in offensive operations earlier this year.

    According to Reuters, Carter declined to disclose any details about the operation, saying only that the goal of the operation was to support the Iraqi forces taking up positions in preparation for the operation to retake the city of Mosul.

    “That’s the first time it’s been called into action,” Carter added.

    A senior US official said that more than one Apache flew in the mission, but only one struck.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. (IraqiNews.com) Anbar – On Monday, a source in Anbar Operations Command said that the joint security forces were able to arrest one of the assistants of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a security operation in northern Ruthba west of Anbar.

      The source said in a statement received by IraqiNews.com, “A joint security force carried out a military operation, at noon, against ISIS gatherings in al-Nazera area west of Anbar and arrested the assistant of the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, [known as] Rasheed Khalaf Dahi.”

      The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added, “The security forces also seized large quantities of weapons, explosive belts, secret encrypted documents and fake passports.”

      Delete
  21. Why Obama Still Refuses to Name Radical Islam

    To Obama, if there is something wrong with Islam, there is something wrong with him.

    https://pjmedia.com/diaryofamadvoter/2016/06/12/why-obama-still-refuses-to-name-radical-islam/

    Hillary Evolves, Now Willing to Cite 'Radical Islam' as Problem

    It makes my head hurt to read this, so I will leave only the link for the reader:

    https://pjmedia.com/trending/2016/06/13/hillary-evolves-now-willing-to-cite-radical-islam-as-problem/

    https://pajamasmed.hs.llnwd.net/e1/diaryofamadvoter/user-content/47/files/2016/06/obama_chamberlain_isis_article_banner_6-12-16-1.sized-770x415xc.jpg

    ReplyDelete
  22. WOW! #Pulse Club Patron Admits He Blocked Exit From Club Condemning Gays to Certain Death

    http://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2016/06/wow-pulse-club-patron-admits-blocked-exit-club-condemning-gays-certain-death/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. me and this random guy, tried blocking the door. At that point like I said the bullets were getting louder and closer. So we blocked this door and we did hear banging. I pray it wasn’t anyone trying to escape because I would forever feel guilty

      And then the banging stopped and then the bullets stopped, and only I'm here to tell the story.

      Delete
    2. I don't get that. Once they were out, why didn't they just leave the door open and run like hell ?

      Panic, I guess.

      Delete
  23. It was a self-hate crime. Evidently, the guy had been hanging out at The Pulse for awhile, but couldn't get a date. It seems, an asshole is an asshole - in any culture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He was casing the place.

      Your ability to make light of his motivations speaks volumes to your motivations.

      Delete
  24. The shooter/terrorist is of the same ideology as the Wahabbists, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Isis/Isil, it's the sunni branch of Islam.

    Of course the Shiite branch in no better... Iranian Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah (and others)

    No different that happened in Florida than happened in Paris or Tel Aviv.

    This aint a border dispute.

    The dispute is that Islam needs to be "supreme".

    It is humiliated that anyone else can succeed without Mohammed.

    ReplyDelete
  25. This was a poor, confused asshole committing "suicide by cop."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The repressed homosexual son of a homophobic father.

      With instant access to weapons of mass slaughter.

      Delete
    2. I agree. This was personal. The calls to the cops claiming ISIS were to give him cover about his own homosexuality. IMO

      Delete
    3. There is a Generally confused attitude toward sexuality in Islam.

      Afghanistan is like the gay capital of Islam
      (As former poster at Belmon "Vinnie" used to write about, having served in Afghanistan.)

      If you've ever met any of the dancing boys of Kandahar, you'll know that pederasty is rife in Afghanistan.
      (unusual in the Muslim World)

      But you two Morons must absolve Islamism.

      Delete
    4. It was "personal"
      ...as taught by his father, grandfather, great grandfather, the Koran, etc.

      Morons buying into the Narrative of Denial.

      Delete
    5. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
  26. There are 320,000,000 people in the United States of America.

    We lose almost 100/day to gun violence. Yesterday, it was closer to 140.

    And, today, it'll be 100 again.

    ReplyDelete
  27. By the way, the asshole had a "Grindr" account.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Paul Krugman: A Party Agrift

    The grift that keeps on grifting:

    A Party Agrift, by Paul Krugman, NY Times: This is not a column about Donald Trump.
    It’s not about the fraudulent scheme that was Trump University. It’s not about his history of failing to pay contractors, leading to hundreds of legal actions. It’s not about how he personally profited while running his casinos into the ground. It’s not even concerned with persistent questions about whether he is nearly as rich as he claims to be, and whether he’s ever done more than live off capital gains on his inheritance.

    No, my question, as Democrats gleefully tear into the Trump business record, is why rival Republicans never did the same. ...

    Were they just incompetent, or is there something structural about the modern Republican Party that makes it unable to confront grifters?

    The answer, I’d argue, is the latter. ...

    Sometimes the political link is direct: dire warnings about the coming depression/hyperinflation, from which you can only protect yourself by buying Ron Paul’s DVDs (the “Ron Paul curriculum”) or gold shares hawked by Glenn Beck. ...

    There’s also a notable pattern of conservative political stars engaging in what is supposed to be activism, but looks a lot like personal enrichment. For example, Sarah Palin’s SarahPAC gives only a few percent of what it raises to candidates, while spending heavily on consultants and Mrs. Palin’s travels.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Then there’s the issue of ideology. If your fundamental premise is that the profit motive is always good and government is the root of all evil, if you treat any suggestion that, say, some bankers misbehaved in the run-up to the financial crisis as proof that the speaker is anti-business if not a full-blown socialist, how can you condemn anyone’s business practices? ...

      Even as the newspapers are filled with stories of defrauded students and stiffed contractors, Republicans .. are going all-out in efforts to repeal the so-called “fiduciary rule”... Paul Ryan ... has even made repealing that rule part of his “anti-poverty plan.”

      So the GOP is in effect defending the right of the financial industry to mislead its customers, which makes it hard to attack the likes of Donald Trump. ...

      In the months ahead Republicans will claim that there are equivalent scandals on the Democratic side, but nothing ... rises remotely to the level of even one of the many Trump scams... They’ll also claim that Mr. Trump doesn’t reflect their party’s values. But the truth is that in a very deep sense he does. And that’s why they couldn’t stop him.

      Delete
    2. Tell me how much Bill Clinton raked in from Laureate International Universities...

      Delete
  29. Fuck Your "Right Wing Homophobia!"

    ReplyDelete
  30. Conservative blogger Jim Hoft comes out as gay after Orlando terror attack

    Conservative blogger and The Gateway Pundit owner Jim Hoft came out as gay Monday morning in the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

    Mr. Hoft, who kept his sexuality private until now, said it’s time for gays to “come home” to the Republican Party, after an Islamic extremist killed at least 49 people and injured more than 50 others at Pulse nightclub.

    “After the deadliest Islamist attack on American soil since 9-11 Barack Obama blamed hatred and guns,” he wrote. “His inability to [call] the attack what it is — Islamic jihad — has progressed from denial to psychosis. It’s never been more apparent than Sunday, when Barack was comparing the Pulse club attack to a movie theater shooting by a schizophrenic, that our poor president has lost his own grasp of reality.”

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/13/jim-hoft-conservative-blogger-comes-out-as-gay-aft/

    ReplyDelete
  31. Children of immigrants most fruitful recruiting ground for jihad...

    Account for half of deadly attacks in USA...

    REPORT: Arrest expected soon of alleged accomplice in Orlando mass shooting...

    Killer Omar visited club dozen times before massacre...

    Used gay dating app....DRUDGE


    Was he in the closet ?

    Who knows....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The fact is he was an Islamic killer from crazy Islamic parents whether he had a repressed limp wrist or not.

      Delete
    2. Exactly.
      As if any sane person cares about his sexual hangups vis a vis being steeped in an Unreformed Pre Medieval Religion.

      Delete
    3. More indicative of how fucked up he was was beating his hot wife instead of fucking her.

      Delete
    4. https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DRPCK8gxE6c/maxresdefault.jpg

      Delete
  32. .

    I have no idea why he did it but after watching the James Comey briefing this afternoon I have my doubts as to this being religiously motivated. The guy just sounds like a nut job.

    The were three calls. He called and he hung up. He called again and spoke briefly with the dispatcher, and then he hung up, and then the dispatcher called him back again and they spoke briefly. There were three total calls. Comey didn't say in which of the two calls the guy mentioned he was doing it for ISIS. However, he also mentioned his solidarity with a suicide bomber in Syria who was working for al Nusra, a Sunni group in conflict with ISIS. He also mentioned solidarity the Boston Bombers also Sunni. None of those were affiliated with ISIS.

    Comey also mentioned they had been tracking this guy since 2013 and that he made contradictory stories about terrorism. First, he claimed family connections to al Qaeda. He also said that he was a member of Hezbollah, which is a Shia terrorist organization that is bitter enemy of the so called Islamic State, ISIL.

    He also said, he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so that he could martyr himself.

    Guy just sounds bonkers to me.

    .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No connection whatsoever.

      Delete
    2. If my wife was still here, she could tell you that one day I was all Allah Akbar, and the next day Jesus Christ Almighty.
      ...and on the third day, I'd beat the unholy shit out of her.

      Delete
    3. .

      Sorry, Doug, you lost me at no connection whatsoever.

      .

      Delete
    4. I'm saying the narrative is the same as always:

      Try to put the maximum amount of distance between evil and Isalmism.

      Delete
    5. Not religiously motivated ?

      Really ?

      However, he also mentioned his solidarity with a suicide bomber in Syria who was working for al Nusra, a Sunni group in conflict with ISIS. He also mentioned solidarity the Boston Bombers also Sunni. None of those were affiliated with ISIS.

      First, he claimed family connections to al Qaeda. He also said that he was a member of Hezbollah, which is a Shia terrorist organization that is bitter enemy of the so called Islamic State, ISIL.

      He also said, he hoped that law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so that he could ((((martyr)))) himself.


      Jeez, Quirk, don't start a detective agency, "Q"tective, perhaps.

      It'd be another loser.

      Those are called 'leads' Quirk.

      He may be a little confused but the 'leads' all lead to Islam in some form....

      Delete
    6. New from Drudge -

      Male classmate says Omar asked him out 'romantically'....DRUDGE

      So, he may be a sexually 'confused' Islamic religiously motivated killer.....

      I don't see how one can take the Islam angle out of it.

      Delete
    7. Try harder, you'll be a better fit here.

      Delete
    8. More 'leads' -

      Islamic Terrorist Kills 49

      FBI Says Mateen Showed Strong Indications of Radicalization

      Made Two Trips to Saudi Arabia

      Obama: Orlando Shooting Was a Case of 'Homegrown Extremism'

      Rpt: Former Classmates Say Mateen Cheered on Terrorists During 9/11

      Co-Worker: Firm Ignored Unhinged Behavior Because He Was Muslim


      RealClearPolitics

      Delete
    9. .

      I'm saying the narrative is the same as always:

      Try to put the maximum amount of distance between evil and Isalmism.



      Not from me.

      Look at the post I put to you at QuirkMon Jun 13, 08:36:00 PM EDT

      I didn't deny there was Islamic terrorism. I merely pointed out that Trump's solution (and that parroted by his minions here) is asinine, doomed to failure and likely counter-productive.

      I also mentioned that Islamic terrorism in the US is relatively small; that it is small when compared other terrorism here, smaller still when compared to total murders here, and even smaller when compared to total terrorism in other countries. I said nothing about it not existing.

      On the Orlando killings, I didn't say it wasn't Islamic terrorism. I said that based on the FBI reporting and other factors I don't think it was religiously motivated. It sounds more like some guy trying to impress people with his 'street cred'. As I said a nutjob.

      .

      Delete
    10. The jihadi shooter also seemed to have a taste for demon booze himself.

      Delete
    11. The jihadi's father got it into his dim brain that he (the father) is the President of Afghanistan.

      Let's just keep these damned dim wits outta here !

      Delete
    12. But quirk minimizes islamic terror in Israel....

      just a few kids having fun with firecrackers...

      quirk, sorry you are over.

      Nothing you say is worth listening too..

      Delete
    13. .

      But quirk minimizes islamic terror in Israel....

      just a few kids having fun with firecrackers...



      I ask again if it is terrorism when the Palestinians do it is it also terrorism when the Israelis do it?

      If not why not?

      If yes, why does the IDF shoot dozens of Palestinian stone throwers but (as far as I can find) they shoot no Israeli rock throwers? I put up examples the other day to make my point.

      Simple question, bub.

      .

      Delete
  33. WE need to change: Obama tells us so.

    "President Obama obviously meant it when he said he regrets what happened to the happy swingers, singers and schmoozers at the nightclub Pulse in Orlando. He even came close to calling it by its right name, “radical Islamic terrorism.” But he stopped just short, and went to the ritual lecture to Americans who he said have “attitudes” they must change.

    He should aim his lecture at the people with the wrong attitudes. Most Americans, whatever they think of the lavender agenda — same-sex marriage, restrooms crowded with many genders and other politically correct impositions on the regular order — have no wish to kill or maim anyone, and certainly not in the name of religious faith. Who are the monsignors, the Baptist evangelists, the rabbis and the pastors preaching from a text summoning their faithful to kill in the name of harsh doctrines of an earlier millennia? If the president knows who these people are, spreading such “attitudes” in cathedrals, synagogues and wayside chapels, he has a responsibility to tell us, so we can warn our children against such malignant Judeo-Christian preaching.

    Hillary Clinton, trotting at the president’s heels in the manner of the trot dog, happy to trail in the steps and shadow of its master, was right behind as usual. She said Omar Mateen, the gunman who killed 50 or more when he sprayed the dance floor with a pistol and a rifle at the nightclub frequented by gays, used “a weapon of war,” and “we have to sort through the decision."
    Indeed! (whatever that means)

    http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/jun/13/obama-wont-let-tragedy-in-orlando-go-to-waste/

    ReplyDelete
  34. I've got a picture of Rufus giving Paul Krugman a blowjob.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. :):)

      :O)

      Please DON'T put it up !


      Anyone know the violent crime statistics for gays v straights ?

      Too lazy to look it up, but my hunch is the gay rate is a little lower than the straight, especially among the males.

      Delete
    2. The gentrification of shitty neighborhoods in CA is outstanding, also.

      Delete
    3. ...blacks retreat further into hellholes under liberal rule.

      Delete
  35. The thing that’s important to remember here is that it’s not a hate crime, let’s jettison that for a second because it’s really to be couched in the larger perspective that this is a holy war for the perpetrators so like the San Bernardino killers, these individuals see themselves in a holy war. They are doing what they do for the glory of God and to them Sharia, holding the puritanical 7th century Islam, is what they wish to create everywhere. That’s what the caliphate Islamic state represents. And one of the first things I posted on social media is a photograph of a famous Isis video where you can see them hurling individuals who are accused of being homosexuals off the roof of tall buildings on Isis territory. This shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that they want to kill the infidels: that’s all of us. But to them homosexuality is one of the gravest sins, so this reflects the reality of what is happening on Islamic territory.

    Dr. Sebastian Gorka, Chair of Military theory at the United States Marine College and author of the new book, Defeating Jihad, The Winnable War

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr. Gorka on the Laura Ingraham Show:

      http://www.podcastone.com/pg/jsp/program/episode.jsp?programID=669&pid=1656616

      Delete
  36. Some of John Nuttall’s plots might have seemed impractical but that’s how “lone-wolf terrorists” operate – they start with “crazy ideas” and then settle on one, the Crown told an entrapment hearing Monday.

    ...

    The Canadian Security Intelligence Service also contacted the RCMP in early 2013 to inform them Mr. Nuttall had been attempting to purchase potassium nitrate, which can be used in explosives.

    Mr. Nuttall’s counsel has said that information was not corroborated and argued that while police may have had reasonable suspicion to begin their investigation, it should have become clear Mr. Nuttall was not engaged in terrorist activity and was “all talk.”


    Lone-Wolf Terrorists

    ReplyDelete
  37. Paris police officer and wife stabbed to death...

    Attacker 'pledged allegiance to ISIS'....DRUDGE

    ReplyDelete