While the country is “transfixed” by the news that the man who told us that the COVID-19 would “disappear” in days last March has himself become a victim of his own folly, we shouldn’t lose track of the reasons why Donald Trump was never fit to be president of this country in the first place. We discovered on Tuesday--or rather, was reconfirmed for even the dullest of minds--that Trump will not toss away the refuse of society no matter how rotten it is. He “knows” all about the antifa movement, but he claims to have no idea of who his most loyal supporters on the white nationalist front are. But then again, in 2016 he claimed he didn’t “know” who David Duke was, and frankly he doesn’t care where his votes come from--even from the same kind of people that Bob Dole in 1996 instructed where the exits were.
The so-called “Proud Boys” were the group that came-up during the debate, and they have been receiving a lot of attention since Trump all but endorsed their violence and called on them to await an “order” before they commit said acts of violence in his name. They are even using his words at the debate--”stand back-stand by”--as their new “slogan.” The group’s original founder, Gavin McInnes, once proclaimed to his enemies, “We will kill you. That’s the Proud Boys in a nutshell. We will kill you,” a statement which found applause from none other than Ann Coulter. These people are just a bunch of thugs who feel “left out” of the national discussion, and with Trump incapable of showing any sensitivity for the concerns of protesters--preferring instead that they would just go away by any means necessary. He chooses to give succor to far-right extremists whose purpose is to give its members a forum to act out on their white grievance angst, and he has given them every reason to believe that he has their back.
And let’s be real about this: a few protesters may be out causing property damage, but they are not out to beat on or kill people; for groups like the Proud Boys, that is what they wish to do, and if they believe the “public” stands behind them--or better yet, the president--they will feel empowered to do so.
But the Proud Boys are not the only extremist hate group with a thirst for violence. Another, even more regularly violent group is the Patriot Prayer, which has gained notoriety for its activities in Portland, where the police allowed them to roam free and attack protesters. There is a very good reason why protesters in Portland have contempt for police in the city: they have a record of actively supporting far-right extremists. In 2017 during a protest march, The Guardian reported that while police were arresting counter-protesters, they were doing nothing against the far-right extremists, in fact allowing those with arrest warrants to escape unmolested, including Tusitala Toese, who had just been issued his warrant on an assault charge:
A far-right leader and Portland police officers made a deal to avoid the arrest of members of the Patriot Prayer group, despite the officers having probable cause to do so, according to video footage obtained by the Guardian.
The video, excerpted from livestream by Patriot Prayer group leader Joey Gibson, shows a violent demonstration in Portland on 3 June 2018. In it, Portland police bureau officers say that the deal had been authorized by Lt Jeff Niiya, then commander of PPB’s rapid response team, who has been recently criticized for having an overly friendly relationship with Gibson.
The video excerpt shows two police officers approaching Gibson near the end of the day. One officer says, “I just talked to Jeff Niiya, and he asked me to tell you that he has probable cause to arrest a couple of the guys here.
“They’ve arrested the other side, so it’s not singling you guys out,” the officer adds.
“But it’s time to go,” the officer says. “If you guys can go home, there won’t be any arrests.”
But there are even worse far-right threats out there. The extremist group a whistleblower claimed the DHS was attempting to downplay, but the FBI was calling a dangerous domestic terrorist group, was the boogaloo movement. The FBI field office in Dallas was particularly concerned about this group, and a field report warned the following.
The FBI Dallas Field Office judges in the next three months, continuing up to the January 2021 inauguration with the presidential elections acting as a potential flashpoint, boogaloo adherents likely will expand influence within the FBI Dallas AOR (Area of Responsibility) due to the presence of existing anti-government or anti-authority violent extremists, the sentiment of perceived government overreach, heightened tensions due to COVID-19 related state and local restrictions, and violence or criminal activity at lawful protests as a result of the death of an African American USPER (U.S. Person) in Minneapolis, factors that led to violence at otherwise peaceful and lawful protests in the FBI Dallas AOR.
The report noted that “This anti-government push is not directed at any specific entity, but directed at all government agencies, including local, state, and federal agencies and law enforcement.” Several adherents to the group had already been arrested on weapons charges. Their violence is very real; this past May, two boogaloo adherents went on a shooting spree in California that left a security officer and a sheriff’s deputy dead, and three others wounded. The Southern Poverty Law Center has also reported recently that “at least seven men associated with the boogaloo movement have been arrested for possession of weapons and plotting violent attacks.”
Another group being watched is the Atomwaffen, which like MS-13 is another homegrown “export” to other countries, this time to Europe and Russia. Atomwaffen is an unabashed neo-Nazi group that is also unabashed about achieving its aims by violent death. Politico reported last March that “The FBI arrested five alleged Atomwaffen members last month and eight alleged members of white supremacist group ‘the Base’ in January. Six members of Atomwaffen have been convicted since 2018 on charges including planning terrorist attacks and murder.” One of the principle “advisers” of the group, James Mason, is a vocal Trump supporter, stating that he believes Trump is the man to make America “white” again. The SPL Center notes that the group attracts a younger demographic and
fetishizes violence as the only vehicle for apocalyptic, racial cleansing. Such a purge is meant to lead to a national socialist order replacing a world that, from the perspective of its members, is a dystopian, apocalyptic hellscape where only the enemies of the white race profit and flourish.
Evidence of this “fetish” for violence is contained in such comments by the group’s adherents:
“The frail whites will serve as prey to the aryan predator.”
“I just get a raging boner of hate for the need to rape a Jewish t---. And removing her entrails. And feasting up on [sic] them.”
“Bulldozing bodies into mass graves is the obvious solution. But in all seriousness; what re-educaiton [sic] doesn’t fix, the sword will.”
The SPL Center reports that the group world-wide
“is organized as a series of terror cells that work toward civilizational collapse. Members, who can be fairly described as accelerationists, believe that violence, depravity and degeneracy are the only sure way to establish order in their dystopian and apocalyptic vision of the world.”
People may ask if we should take these groups “seriously” or not. But that is like asking whether we should take threats posed by the likes of Timothy McViegh seriously until it actually happens. When it comes to far-right extremist groups, this country tends to have its head in the sand. Some people still choose to ignore the fact that the El Paso killer was “inspired” by the anti-immigrant rhetoric of Trump and Fox News. They just refuse to call things by their real names.
Take for example that despite testimony that Las Vegas mass murderer Stephen Paddock espoused far-right extremist views and had stated that he hoped to be the catalyst to start a “war,” there is still the “official” claim that no “motive” for his actions could be “positively” determined. One witness who Paddock was dealing with to upgrade his semiautomatic rifles to fully automatic was “scared-off” because Paddock was talking about “law enforcement and military to start kickin' down doors and, um uh, confiscating guns,'" and that “I just remember the guy being so damn fanatical, you know, and getting kind of pissed at me because I wasn't, you know, doin' what he wanted." Paddock was clearly an anti-government, right-wing extremist; how much more evidence is needed?
These are the people Trump will take the support of, just as long as he doesn’t “know” about it. Of course Trump knew who David Duke was; as former senator Rick Santorum was forced to admit, Trump can’t "say something bad about people who support him”--no matter how bad they are.
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