The handwriting was on the wall November 9, 2016, when the KKK and the neo-Nazis marched proudly in the streets to celebrate Donald Trump’s victory. A few days later, on November 21, 2016, Richard Spencer chaired the National Policy Institute meeting in Washington D.C. The group describes itself as “an independent organization dedicated to the heritage, identity, and future of people of European descent in the United States, and around the world.” That day, the Ronald Reagan building hosted 200 attendees who raised their arms in the Nazi salute while chanting, “Hail Trump, hail our people, hail victory.” Therefore, it comes as no surprise that Trump’s DOJ, under the auspices of William Barr, would suppress the truth that the rash of domestic terrorism last year was directly traceable to white supremacist activity. David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement:
The Trump administration has known since at least April that alleged white supremacists were responsible for every single act of race-based domestic terrorism in the U.S. in 2018, yet not only took no action to combat the growing right wing violent extremism, but actually substantially reduced or even eliminated funding and programs that combat white supremacist extremism, violence, and terrorism – and then blocked the data from reaching the hands of Congress.
“Domestic Terrorism in 2018,” a document [linked to below] prepared by the State of New Jersey’s Office of Homeland Security Preparedness, “shows 25 of the 46 individuals allegedly involved in 32 different domestic terrorism incidents were identified as white supremacists,” Yahoo News’ Jana Winter and Hunter Walker report. […]
The report was “circulated” throughout the U.S. Dept. of Justice “and around the country in April just as members of the Senate pushed the DOJ to provide them with precise information about the number of white supremacists involved in domestic terrorism.”
The Justice Department, under President Trump’s hand-picked Attorney General Bill Barr, refused to hand over the data or the document to Congress.
This is the climate in which we live nowadays. Disinformation and denial of truth is rampant. Fox News makes every effort to soft soap white supremacy as nothing but “a hoax created by the media and the left,” to quote Tucker Carlson. Trumpworld emphatically does not want you to have the facts about white supremacy. Trump, Barr, and the GOP are pursuing a racist agenda, which is nothing new, but it has never been so pernicious as to include the suppression of routine reports and data.
Make no mistake, William Barr is doing an information bottleneck at the Department of Justice. Just connect the dots: 1. Trump will not provide witnesses to congress voluntarily. In fact, he admonishes anybody subpoenaed by Congress to ignore the subpoena, and moreover, the contempt citation that follows it; 2. Trump has not turned over a page of documentation requested by the House since the Democrats took control; 3. Trump authorized Barr to give classified information to “whoever he wants, whether it’s his people, or frankly people like Devin Nunes, who is a star.” That’s a quote from Trump on Hannity’s show, July 25.
Both Trump and Barr believe in an autocratic view of executive privilege. Barr is selectively releasing information. You recall how Barr wouldn’t release source materials from the Mueller report. Stonewalling of information and simple data that used to be passed along to Congress automatically, is now the order of the day. In a word, we are f**ked.
Here’s what the DOJ doesn’t want you to see. “Right-Wing Extremism Linked to Every 2018 Extremist Murder in the U.S., ADL Finds”
Here’s “Domestic Terrorism In 2018, another document Barr doesn’t want you to see.
The NRA doesn’t want you to know what’s really going on with guns and money from guns. They hide in the shadows at every turn and buy off politicians to keep things quiet and keep their money making machine grinding by fomenting both fear of the government and fear of the other. The DOJ is now shielding the white supremacists, who are in bed with the NRA, pursuing exactly the same agenda.
The Trump administration is the most corrupt in the history of this republic and it’s getting up there in comparison to corrupt regimes of the world. Mitch McConnell is staying at home in Kentucky, claiming a shoulder injury, in order to avoid reconvening the Senate and passing gun legislation, in the wake of the twin massacres last weekend. His goal is not gun legislation, it is stacking the courts, in order for Trump to realize his claim, that Article 2 of the constitution means, “I can do whatever I like.” Russia has indeed pulled off a bloodless coup using Trump, and Barr and McConnell are complicit accomplices, make no mistake. Democracy is not only at the abyss, it’s hanging over the edge and holding onto a blade of grass with it’s fingernails.
Respectfully, Ursula, I see this less as a “bombshell” and more as a “something we all either knew or suspected”. What amazes ME is how these domestic terrorists feel compelled to pick up their guns despite the fact that their (supposedly) preferred government is in power right now. But then I remember something Michael Moore (back when I was still taking him seriously) mentioned in the mid-2000s about conservative grumbling. Even when they’re winning, they’re not happy.
I see the information bottleneck by Barr as the most pernicious thing going on in government today. I see this recent suppression of the documents linked to as a bombshell, because the bedrock of democracy is the free flow of facts and ideas. We are no longer there. We are in a version of Orwell’s “1984” and Barr is the Minister of Propaganda, not Huckabee Sander’s successor. All she does is tweet photos and Trump supporting platitudes. BTW, has she given a press conference yet? Did I miss it?
Please do not insult IngSoc by associating them with this crew. As the multiple leaks coming out of this admin demonstrate (I’ve seen more tightly sealed colanders), the information is flowing out just fine. We might be missing a few details, yes, but what we DO learn points us on where to look for them. As such, Barr is a pretty lousy Minister of Propaganda.
And yes, the no-name girl replacing Sarah Hillbilly Goebbels has yet to show her face to one reporter, never mind a press gaggle.
It goes right along with the article I wrote earlier in the week, and your great comment, about how Trump et. al, disbanded the DHS Domestic Terrorism unit, all bc Trump saw them as his base. It just keeps happening over and over, new details, same type of story.
Sickening.
His base they may be, Jason, but the pushback on them continues to tell me how they are far from the majority. The sense of it is how they waited too long and prepared too little. So now they’re doing heinous, desperate stuff to head off the inevitable. My one regret is that getting past their shit is going to be PAINFUL…the kind of societal trauma where nothing is the same after.
Can you imagine what would have happened if President Obama or any other President for that matter pulled this kind of crap??? We all know the answer to that question. I’m sick and tired of hearing how the “liberal” media is being so unfair to Trump and his minions.
It’s amazing how the standards of government have fallen through the floor in just the past 2.5 years. I never dreamt I would see anything like this. I thought Nixon was as corrupt as it would get, or the Cheney regime, with Duyba the titular head. HA! Those two eras seem quaint by comparison. This is hard core corruption.
To paraphrase General Joe Hooker, may God have mercy on their reputations after this, for we shall have none.
I think you’re being far too dismissive of how damaging it is to see a president wear a tan suit.
Okay…I don’t have anywhere for that joke to go, because the tan suit thing with the right wing was just so stupid.
The Dijon mustard on a hamburger thing was pretty damaging as well……
*smirk*
Gas lighting galore. We, who have either been raised or lived with narcissists, recognize it every damned day. Can ya’ll imagine all that we don’t know but can conjecture? Barr connected to Russia – yes. I’m afraid that the mass murders are going to get worse the closer we get to the election.
And the mass murders will do nothing to change the math in DT’s favor. That’s the key insight W’s people had which Trump lacks: milk that one big tragedy to the hilt BUT make sure such a thing NEVER happens again. After enough of such episodes, it becomes YOUR fault because it happened on YOUR watch.
America must face a future revolution-of-sorts to claw back a level-headed form of society with a new form of government.
I thought it qualified as a bombshell. I refuse to think of it otherwise just because there are twenty other, worse things this administration is doing. There are endless bombshells. Tedious, but they’re all bombshells.
To my mind, a critical component of the bombshell is the shock factor. I lost that at least a year and a half ago when it came to Trump. He’s become far too predictable for that for me.