Russian operatives used Facebook to organize armed anti-Islamist protest and targeted military vets in 2016.

Courtesy of Think Progress: 

Last May, nearly 100 demonstrators gathered around the Islamic Da’wah Center in downtown Houston, squaring off against one another in competing camps. 

The “Stop Islamization of Texas” protest was, on its face, largely similar to any number of other tense, vitriolic demonstrations that percolated through 2016. On the one end: a crew carrying Confederate flags, #WhiteLivesMatter banners, and heavy weaponry. On the other: counter-protesters with signs decrying Islamophobia, calling for communal unity, and a bubble machine going at full blast. 

Despite the presence of AR-15s, the demonstrations ended without violence. The white supremacists screaming “Fascist and proud!” dissipated, as did those supporting the Islamic center. 

The organizers behind the anti-Islam protesters, however, never showed. And now, over 16 months later, we know why. 

As CNN reported last week, the protest was put together by the “Heart of Texas” Facebook page – a page that was revealed last month as one of the fake accounts operated out of Russia. Unlike the November anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-secession rallies the page attempted to organize across Texas, the May protest not only brought armed protesters, but a raft of counter-protesters to face down those calling for “white power!”

Just let that roll around in your mind a little.

That means that the Russian government used an American social media platform to organize a situation where American people could easily have been shot and killed.

Who needs more bombs and bigger armies when you can so easily accomplish something like that?

And the Russians clearly knew which Americans were most susceptible to their manipulations.

Courtesy of McClatchy:

Russia has exploited social media networks to target current and former U.S. military personnel with propaganda, conspiracy theories and other misinformation, achieving “significant and persistent interactions” over Twitter during a one-month period last spring, a British research team found. 

The Oxford University study, which traced the reach of three websites with clear ties to the Russian government, adds a new dimension to revelations of a Kremlin cyber campaign aimed at undermining Americans’ trust in democracy during last year’s U.S. elections and helping Donald Trump win the presidency. 

“We’ve found an entire ecosystem of junk news about national security issues that is deliberately crafted for U.S. veterans and active military personnel,” said Philip Howard, a professor of internet studies who led the research. “It’s a complex blend of content with a Russian view of the world – wild rumors and conspiracies.”

Remember when I told you about that buddy from the gym who claimed that his opinion of Hillary was altered when he saw a meme on social media showing Hillary standing among a bunch of dead bodies and calling her a "war monger?"

Yep, you guessed it, he is ex-military.

I remember at the time wondering how he was targeted as he is essentially apolitical.

Now I know.

And we are still everyday learning more and more about how easily the Russians manipulated the American people.

It is enough to make you feel disgusted that you have to share the planet with such fucking morons.

Republicans are so pro-war that almost one third of them are willing to bomb the fictional home of Aladdin.

OMG Jasmine! Is that an ICBM missile?

Courtesy of the Guardian:

A poll on Friday by Public Policy Polling perfectly encapsulates the Republican presidential race so far: “30% of Republican primary voters nationally say they support bombing Agrabah.” That would be the fictional country in Aladdin. 

Republican voters, urged on by the Republican candidates, are now eager to bomb anywhere that has a Muslim-sounding name regardless of whether it comes from a cartoon. While the poll itself may be amusing, it’s not exactly surprising given the cartoonish levels of tough-guy militarism that spews from the mouth of every Republican candidate as they try to one-up each other on who would start more wars harder and quicker.

Now before any of you Democrats starting feeling smug, you should know that a full 19% of you are ALSO willing to bomb a Disney animated country into oblivion.

However it should be noted that it is NOT the Democratic leaders who are instilling that level of fear into the voters.

It's these guys.

Which by the way is yet ANOTHER reason that we should not be terrifying Americans while at the same time encouraging all of them to buy guns and get conceal carry permits.

Residents in upstate new York on alert after video surfaces of anti-Muslim terrorist saying he is headed their way.

Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Residents and authorities in a rural upstate New York community were taking precautions after an Arizona man posted a video online showing himself with a gun and saying he was traveling to the town for a possible confrontation, according to media reports. 

Jon Ritzheimer, of Phoenix, Arizona, was seen with a gun and claiming that he was heading to Islamberg, a rural hamlet that is home to a small Muslim community about 130 miles northwest of New York City, the reports said. His comments could be viewed as threatening, they said. 

Ritzheimer posted the video on Facebook, according to the reports. 

New York City’s Daily News, citing sources, reported that the FBI had issued an alert to law enforcement agencies to look out for him.

"His comments COULD be viewed as threatening?" Seriously?

His comments ARE threatening and there is really no other way of interpreting them.

The guy is trying to spread terror among the Muslim community and that is why I referred to him the way I did in the headline.

IM visitors will remember this Ritzheimer guy from various posts in the past year.

He is a wannabe tough guy who has been harassing the Islamic community here in the United States for quite awhile now.

I think it is a given that this guy is either going to get himself killed, or kill somebody else.

So yes, he is a terrorist. And he is one of our own.

Oklahoma man accidentally shoots himself while "guarding" a Muslim free gun shop. "It's like the Clampetts have come to town."

Courtesy of News on 6:  

The Muskogee County sheriff said a member of the group guarding an Oktaha gun shop accidentally shot himself Tuesday. 

Sheriff Charles Pearson said the man dropped his gun and a bullet hit him in the arm. The sheriff did not identify the man or offer any other details about what happened. 

The group of armed citizens and veterans is standing guard outside the Save Yourself Survival and Tactical Gear store after the owners said they received death threats from all over the world for putting up a sign saying Muslims weren't welcome. 

"I saw several of those gentlemen out there yesterday," Pearson said. "The way they were holding their weapons, with the fingers on the triggers, you can tell a couple of these gentlemen have no idea about weapons safety. It's like the Clampetts have come to town," Sheriff Pearson told muskogeenow.com.

One of the armed men took offense at the Sheriff's remarks:  

One of those volunteers, who claimed to be a combat veteran and would identify himself only as “Eagle One,” disputed the sheriff’s characterization of the volunteers. 

“Don’t paint us as ignorant hillbillies,” he said. “We just believe in people’s constitutional rights, and we’re here to make sure they get them.”

Yeah how can we call them hillbillies with an awesome moniker like "Eagle One?"  I mean that just screams "Respect my authority."

Pakistani Taliban:"Wherever we find Americans we will kill them, but we don't have any connection with the Boston Explosions." Update!

"Dear Boston: Sorry for your losses. Your losses are ours, too." - Muslim Peacemaker Teams in Najaf, Iraq

Courtesy of CNN: 

The Pakistani Taliban denied any involvement in a double bombing at the Boston Marathon that killed at least three people, spokesman Ihsanullah Ihsan said Wednesday. 

"Wherever we find Americans we will kill them, but we don't have any connection with the Boston Explosions," Ihsan said. 

The Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the Times Square bombing in 2010.

Thus far it seems that nobody has taken responsibility for the attacks, which is unusual for Islamic terrorist groups.

Also the injured Saudi that was originally identified as a "suspect" by certain irresponsible media outlets, and gave rise to the idea that this attack was the work of Muslim extremists, has turned out to be nothing of the sort.

This courtesy of the Washington Post: 

U.S. law enforcement officials said Tuesday that a Saudi national injured in the Boston Marathon bombing is regarded as a witness, not a suspect. 

The Saudi, who is recuperating at a Boston hospital, is in his 20s and is in the United States on a Saudi scholarship to study at a university in the Boston area. 

The federal officials’ explanation echoed comments by a Saudi official at the country’s embassy in Washington. The embassy official said that a Saudi national has been questioned as a witness but is not regarded as a suspect. The Saudi official cited information provided to the embassy by U.S. law enforcement officials.

I am not going to say that any of this indicates that there is no possibility that the attacks were not the work of Islamic terrorists, but but as time goes on it seems less and less likely.

I have noticed a rather interesting dichotomy  between the Left and Right media right now.

On the Left many pundits have seemed to focus more on the possibility that this was the work of domestic terrorists, possibly White Supremacists or anti-tax sovereign citizen groups.

However on the Right they seem to be working overtime to suggest that this HAD to have been the work of some Islamic group hell bent on the destruction of America. And some have even gone so far as to blame President Obama as well.

Like I said, I really do not have enough information to form a strong opinion, however I think that when we DO find the perpetrators one side is going to go on the attack, and the other is going to become very defensive.

And I find that very interesting. And not a little troubling.

Update: This is happening now:

A suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Wednesday in a breakthrough that came less than 48 hours after the deadly attack, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation said Wednesday. 

The official spoke shortly after several media outlets reported that a suspect had been identified from surveillance video taken at a Lord & Taylor store between the sites of the two bomb blasts, which killed three people and wounded more than 170. 

The official was not authorized to divulge details of the investigation and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. The suspect was expected at a Boston courthouse, the official said.

A news briefing was scheduled later Wednesday.

So we should know sometime today.

Batten down the hatches kids, this is going to get ugly.

Update 2: Oops now some new outlets are walking back reports of an arrest.

CNN now walking back reports of arrest. NBC may have been first and only outlet reporting correctly that there has been no arrest.
— Noah Rothman (@NoahCRothman) April 17, 2013

Hoo boy!

Update 3: The FBI just sent this out:

Contrary to widespread reporting, no arrest has been made in connection with the Boston Marathon attack. Over the past day and a half, there have been a number of press reports based on information from unofficial sources that has been inaccurate. Since these stories often have unintended consequences, we ask the media, particularly at this early stage of the investigation, to exercise caution and attempt to verify information through appropriate official channels before reporting.

I don't think they are very happy.

I present the un-aired Lowes commercial for "All-American Muslim."

Los Angeles, CA (TSG) December 15th, 2011. Actors Parvesh Cheena and Rizwan Manji (NBC's "Outsourced") star in a Lowe's commercial that, according to the YouTube description, ran into some difficulties: 

"In Winter 2011, The Lowe's Company pulled their television commercials from TLC's new series "All-American Muslim" under pressure from a Florida Christian Group ...This is that commercial."

Too bad they pulled it.  I kind of like it.

Though there was no connection, Fox News used the Oslo terrorist attacks to fan the flames of anti-Muslim hatred.

In early reporting all anybody knew was that there HAD been a bombing in Norway and a shooting at the youth camp.  Yet that was all Laura Ingraham needed to state unequivocally that, “Two deadly terror attacks in Norway, in what appears to be the work, once again, of Muslim extremists,” and then to immediately jump to a pre-recorded Bill O'Reilly interview with the lawyer representing the Islamic Community Center in New York, which prominently featured O'Reilly bullying the man and insinuating that the Muslim people were to blame for 9-11.



We can wait until we are blue in the face for Ingraham, or Fox News, to apologize for their blatant hate mongering but it will never come. This was a purposeful decision to gin up more hatred toward Muslims, and as a byproduct keep Americans supporting the wars overseas which financially benefits Fox News, and which feeds Roger Ailes personal xenophobia concerning the Islamic people.

This morning I wrote:

And hidden in the shadows there can be no doubt that America has its version of an Anders Behring Breivik, just waiting in the wings for that last straw to snap his emotional camel's back, or perhaps for direction from a Right Wing radio host or Fox News talking head, to provide a clue as to which enemy he needs to place in his crosshairs.

Can there be any doubt who Fox News is actively attempting to place in those crosshairs?


And is that not exactly the kind of rhetoric which inspired Anders Behring Breivik to launch his devastating terrorist attack against his own people in the first place?

Breivik had talked admiringly online about conversations he had had with unnamed English Defence League members and the organisation Stop the Islamification of Europe (SIOE) over the success of provocative street actions leading to violence.

"I have on some occasions had discussions with SIOE and EDL and recommended them to use certain strategies," he wrote two years ago. "The tactics of the EDL are now to 'lure' an overreaction from the Jihad Youth/Extreme-Marxists, something they have succeeded in doing several times already."

In other words it appears that the promoters of terrorism that Laura Ingraham, and her bosses, are having such difficulty identifying, may in fact be found staring back at them from the mirror. 


(H/T to Moral Low Ground.)

What was the motivation behind the Oslo killings? And are they destined to happen in America next?

This is pretty chilling stuff folks so you may want to have at the very least a cup of coffee before reading this.

Courtesy of the Foreign Policy blog:

I have just finished reading through what appears to be the 1,518-page manifesto and handbook of the alleged perpetrator of the worst terrorist attack in Norwegian history.

The manifesto, bylined by someone calling himself Andrew Berwick, is entitled "2083: A European Declaration of Independence" and was posted on Stormfront.org, a white supremacist website, and discovered by American blogger Kevin I. Slaughter. [UPDATE: Norwegian TV has confirmed that the author is indeed the Oslo shooter, according to the New York Times.]

In it, "Berwick" declares himself a "Justiciar Knight Commander," a leading member of a "re-founded" Knights Templar group formed at an April 2002 meeting in London. He claims the founding group has 9 members, whom he does not name, and that three other sympathizers were not able to attend the original meeting.

"Our purpose," the document reads, is to "seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda."

In grim, apocalyptic language, it advocates attacks on "traitors" across Europe who are supposedly enabling a Muslim takeover of the continent.

"[W]e should… not exceed (per 2010) aprox. 45 000 dead and 1 million wounded cultural Marxists/multiculturalists in Western Europe," the author writes. "The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come."

The manifesto also provides detailed instructions for everything from making a bomb to raising funds to preparing physically and mentally for what the author describes as a coming three-stage "civil war" between patriotic nationalists and "multiculturalists" who are, wittingly or not, destroying European civilization.

Filled with hateful rantings against Muslims -- whom the author claims are on a trajectory to take over Europe and erase its culture patrimony -- the writing bears a great resemblence to online comments attributed to Anders Breivik, 32, the confessed perpetrator of a massacre that has so far claimed nearly 100 lives.

The author also claims to be Norwegian, and says that English is not his native language. And at the bottom of the document are several pictures of Breivick in different outfits, including the frogman costume pictured above.

There is much more which you can read for yourself by clicking the link above.

This is very frightening information indeed, and I am sure I am not the only one amongst us who immediately thought of Jared Lee Loughner, or Timothy McVeigh, after reading of this tragedy and then wondered if, in this time of vicious political bickering, the very same kind of horrific incident wasn't in America's immediate future as well.

I can tell you with certainty that Frank Schaeffer has very little doubt:

There is a growing movement in America that equates godliness with hatred of our government in fact hatred of our country as fallen and evil because we allow women choice, gays to marry, have a social safety net, and allow immigration from other cultures and non-white races.

According to the Guardian newspaper, the killer wrote:

"Today's Protestant church is a joke," he wrote in an online post in 2009. "Priests in jeans who march for Palestine and churches that look like minimalist shopping centres. I am a supporter of an indirect collective conversion of the Protestant church back to the Catholic."

It seems Anders Behring Breivik longed for a "pure" and ultra conservative religion. He was a man of religious conviction, no liberals with their jeans need apply! Liberals beware.

Norway is just a first taste of what will happen here on a larger scale.

I certainly hope that this time Mr. Schaeffer is incorrect, but I cannot pretend not to see the same gathering storm clouds of which he is speaking.

And for those who have recently questioned why I still bother to call out Sarah Palin on her lies, and reveal to the world just how insane she, and her political points of view, are, this is why. Because the people behind this kind of hatred, and plans for Christofascist domination, are looking for an attractive package behind which they can broadcast their message of hate and divisiveness until the country is so splintered that they can then step in to grab hold of the reins of power.

I have long been convinced that Sarah Palin WAS the vessel that they chose to further their agenda.  But we, with no small amount of help from Palin herself, have managed to damage her credibility to the point that I don't believe they find her useful any longer. By no means am I suggesting that she is not still somebody whose activities should be monitored carefully, because she is.

However there are others like Bachmann and Perry with which we still to contend.  And hidden in the shadows there can be no doubt that America has its version of an Anders Behring Breivik, just waiting in the wings for that last straw to snap his emotional camel's back, or perhaps for direction from a Right Wing radio host or Fox News talking head, to provide a clue as to which enemy he needs to place in his crosshairs.

In other words my friends when it comes to unveiling the dangerous agendas of the lunatic fringe, or shining the light of truth on dark plots of nefarious political operatives, we have really only just begun.

In the immortal words of Robert Frost:

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.