Call Them Terrorists, Not a "Militia"
As we were saying...
Welcome to a special Thursday edition of Progressives Everywhere. I usually don’t send Thursday editions wide, but this one’s important.
Last night, we ran a story on the extremists that have taken over the Republican Party and injected hatred, vigilantism, and terror into state and local politics. A few of the right-wing lawmakers we highlighted are state legislators in Michigan, one of the hotbeds of anti-government activity. Today, news broke that those Republicans helped inspire a plot to kidnap Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and violently overthrow the state government.
State and federal authorities charged 13 angry white men with a litany of crimes on Thursday. Some headlines call the bearded toxic males who were arrested a “militia,” but that’s far too generous. These people are terrorists.
The affidavit is not a pleasant read, but it’s illuminating to see just how these would-be murderers think, communicate, and function. Here’s an excerpt — CHS-2 is an informant and FOX is one of the dopes they tricked.
On June 14, 2020, CHS-2 participated in a consensually recorded telephone call with FOX, who described the meeting in Dublin, Ohio. FOX said he needed “200 men” to storm the Capitol building in Lansing, Michigan, and take hostages, including the Governor. FOX explained they would try the Governor of Michigan for “treason,” and he said they would execute the plan before the November 2020 elections.
A few days later, they met at a second amendment rally in Lansing, the state capitol, where they marched with guns and tried to recruit more people to their cause. These rallies happened all summer, with far-right maniacs stomping around and threatening to kill Democrats so that they can defend their “constitutional” rights, which mostly include the right to carry a gun and not wear a mask.
Look at these miserable dorks:
These aren’t some independent group of fringe actors who are disconnected from the rest of the political mainstream. No, these right-wing lunatics have been egged on by Republicans all year. Republican lawmakers filed lawsuits to strip Whitmer of her power while these armed wannabe terrorists looked on in the capitol, refused to criticize their most violent threats, gave their anger plenty of fuel on social media, and even spoken at their rallies and marched alongside these disgruntled, bitter white men.
Their rhetoric speaks for itself:
Mike Shirkey, by the way, is the Michigan Senate Majority Leader.
State Rep. Beau LaFave, who I highlighted last night, actually walked through the capitol building carrying a semi-automatic rifle on the day of Whitmer’s State of the State speech. The Michigan GOP sued her over and over again and accused her of deliberately murdering people. The message was loud and clear.
So these angry disgruntled terrorists followed orders. According to the affidavit, they scoped out Whitmer’s vacation home in Western Michigan. They planned to either storm the capitol or take Whitmer on her own, when she had less protection. Here’s what one of them said in late July:
“In all honesty right now . . . I just wanna make the world glow, dude. I’m not even fuckin’ kidding. I just wanna make it all glow dude. I don’t fuckin’ care anymore, I’m just so sick of it. That’s what it’s gonna take for us to take it back, we’re just gonna have to everything’s gonna have to be annihilated man.”
Disturbing, right? You’d think that Republicans in the state would want to separate themselves from these nightmare terrorists, but instead, they actually rallied the same sort of psychos in front of the capitol building today.
So what do we do about all this?
Well, having the FBI catch these people is obviously a good start. But long-term, it’s not just about the individual actors. Instead, we have to take power away from the Republicans who legitimize them and egg them on. And thankfully, Democrats in Michigan are looking like they have a good chance to retake at least one chamber of the legislature.
Here at Progressives Everywhere, I’ve reviewed some of the best Democrats running and most likely flip opportunities. We’ve been raising money for them for months now and have already brought in $15,000 for them. But with just over three weeks until the election, we need to go harder. If we can flip both chambers, Democrats can pass stricter gun laws, finally clean up Flint, restore schools after a decade of Betsy DeVos sabotage, and take care of the state during the next pandemic.
I seriously believe that when those things happen, these kinds of radical terrorists won’t have the same power and sway over people. End the starving of working people, take away the appeal of angry fringe politics.
If we don’t do it now, the United States as we know it may just fall under their sway for good. It’s terrifying to think about because it could really soon be a reality.
Here’s the link to the latest version of our Michigan fundraising page — I’ve included Beau LaFave’s challenger (Renee Richer) in this list because even if she’s an underdog, I think she’s got a legit chance of winning. You can read about some of the other candidates here.
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Important News You Need to Know
Ohio: Big news here. Remember earlier this week, when Secretary of State Frank LaRose refused to allow multiple ballot drop box sites per county despite judges explicitly saying he could do so? Well, a federal judge just told him that he couldn’t stop counties from doing it themselves.
District Court Judge Dan Aaron Poster was not messing around, either. He wouldn’t even place aa stay on his decision while LaRose (inevitably) appeals. Read this:
“As stated above, we are in the middle of the worst pandemic in a century coupled with reasonable concern over the ability of the U.S. Postal Service to handle what will undoubtedly be the largest number of absentee voters in Ohio’s history. The Secretary has not advanced any legitimate reason to prohibit a county board of elections from utilizing off-site drop boxes and/or off-site delivery of ballots to staff. Voting began October 6, the Cuyahoga County board voted to begin collecting ballots at public libraries on October 13, other county boards may now vote to implement plans for off-site collection, and it is time for this litigation to end.”
Speaking of Ohio, the state Democratic Party chairman, David Pepper, busted out a monster Twitter thread today about Ohio’s egregious gerrymandering and how Democrats could end it without enough victories this November. Here’s a taste — click through to read the whole thing:
Wisconsin: On the other hand, we got some bad news vis a vis voting rights in Wisconsin, one of the country’s biggest hot spots for voter suppression.
A federal judge reversed a previous decision that was to allow absentee ballots to count so long as they got to election officials within six days of Election Day.
It also reversed another order that had extended the voter registration to October 21st. Now it’s back at October 14th and I’ve got more work to do over at AbsenteeBallots.info.
This will shock you: “Judges Frank Easterbrook and Amy St. Eve, appointees of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, respectively, ruled in favor of staying the lower court order.”
A George H. W. Bush-appointed judge on the panel was not pleased: “The right to vote is a right of national citizenship … It is essential to the vitality of our democratic republic,” Judge Ilana Rovner wrote. “No citizen of Wisconsin should be forced to risk his or her life or well-being in order to exercise this invaluable right. Wholesale deference to a state legislature in this context essentially strips the right to vote of its constitutional protection.”
National: The good folks at the Working Families Party put forward its 2021 progressive agenda with the help of the Squad, Black Lives Matter activists, union members, and the Sunrise Movement.
You can read The People’s Charter right here. These are its planks:
Care for the Wronged: Repair historic harms and end systemic racism.
Emergency care: Help everyone get and stay well, and support workers, families, and small businesses as long as it takes.
A Good Job for Everyone Who Needs One: Working people can’t wait years for jobs to come back, we need millions of jobs now.
Care for Each Other: Address the deficiencies in how our government cares for us that the pandemic has revealed.
Care for the Future: Act now to make us all more resilient to challenges we know we have to confront.
Remember, if you’re a New Yorker, vote for Democrats under the Working Families Party line — Gov. Cuomo rigged it so that if they don’t get enough votes on their line, they’re going to be powerless in years to come in NY.
Quibis:
Here’s a good catchup with Alex Morse, the mayor of Holyoke, MA and egregiously wronged Democratic primary challenger of corrupt Rep. Richie Neal.
Democrat Barbara Bollier is leading Republican Roger Marshall by three points in a new GOP internal poll that leaked on Thursday.
Meanwhile, in Florida, a Palm Beach school rehired the principal that told students that “some people don’t believe in the Holocaust.” And to be clear, he didn’t say that because he was simply explaining the absurdity of Holocaust denialism — he said it because he doesn’t believe in the Holocaust.
Wait, before you go!
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