Showing posts with label COINTELPRO. Show all posts
Showing posts with label COINTELPRO. Show all posts

Sunday, May 31, 2020

American Tinderbox - Blame White Nationalists & The QAnon- "Boogaloo" Extremists Fomenting Riots To Launch a Civil War


Far-right activists marched through the University of Virginia campus with torches on Friday night.
THESE are the renegades the Feds ought to be looking at as chaos is unleashed in American cities. These Right wing racist savages - lower image from Charlottesville in Aug. 2017,  chanting "Jews will not replace us!"-  have been itching to start a race war since Charlottesville and before.

One can understand why Janice would be suspicious after watching AG Bill Barr's performance two nights ago, blabbering about the violence accompanying many of the George Floyd protests: "In many cases it appears the violence is driven by anarchic and left wing extremist groups".  Unwilling to pin the tail on the actual messengers of mayhem:  right wing extremists using the upheaval, chaos and violence to hijack the peaceful protests for their own ends.    With the reporting by Vice News overnight, that:

"Far Right extremists are hoping to turn the George Floyd protests into a new Civil War."

Janice had her first evidence that her suspicions were correct, and it is the Right and its dregs (e.g. from 4chan, 8chan, Boogaloo Bois, militias  etc.- such as stormed the Minnesota state house two months ago) behind all the havoc and using the civil protests as a "human shield". I agree with her totally and also that the Swine -in -chief and his toady Barr are trying to callously exploit these events to propound a "law and order" meme to help Trump get re-elected.  

And what do we find Trump doing in the midst of this national agony, with millions of citizens suffering -   over 104,000 deaths from the pandemic, 40 million unemployed, no more stimulus money and facing home evictions in a month?  Is he trying to assuage the pain and bring the country together? Hell no, he's acting the part of the vicious, vile, verminous rat he is, e.g

Image result for Trump as a rat images
Firing off a series of tweets at Minnesota's response, vowing "shootings" will soon be done, ridiculing protesters outside his gated mansion at the White House,  and warning them that "vicious dogs will be released."  Thereby putting himself in the same role as the infamous AL sheriff Bull Connor-   who used fire hoses and vicious dogs on peaceful marching men, women and children in Birmingham over 50 years ago.   Only this time going one better than Connor and bragging "there will be some of the most ominous weapons ever seen" - i.e. if protesters attempt to breach the WH fence to get at him.  See also:

America is at a low ebb, shaken by multiple blows, and Trump adds to the distress


 Janice is also aware, of course, of German history and how -when Hitler and the Nazis came to power - they had blamed "Jews, leftists, socialists and unions" for  ongoing civil unrest and violent mayhem and riots that struck German cities in the waning days of the Weimar Republic.  But most of those were incited by Hitler's S.A. (Sturm Abteilung) terror squads.

Ian Kershaw in his magnificent account of Hitler’s rise to power (‘Hitler Nemesis’) noted that Germany's 1930-31 Weimar Republic constituted a weak democracy which had little or no control over the most radical Rightists, especially Hitler’s NSDAP party. They would regularly beat Marxists, socialists, and any leftists on the streets while holding up signs that read: “Tot dem Marxem!” (Death to Marxists!)  (Recall on Thursday, Trump himself Tweeted out a video of a supporter saying, “The only good Democrat is a dead Democrat.”)

My good fortune has been that on two occasions - one in August of 1978, the other in May of 1985-   I was able to meet and talk with actual flesh and blood Germans from the WWII era: one who had been a member of Hitler Youth (forced to at the point of a gun to his mother's head), and two others who had fought for the most fearsome army on the continent - the German Wehrmacht. At different times, they used their own photographs, films and archives to show me just what Hitler and Nazis were about. Looking back on the content of those archival films I see the same echoes now in our present condition, including mass unemployment, riots, and mayhem.

Let's move to the present. In her latest NY Times column Michelle Goldberg wrote:


"But if America feels like a tinderbox at the moment, it’s not just because of pressure coming from the dispossessed. On Wednesday, the journalists Robert Evans and Jason Wilson published a fascinating and disturbing look at the “boogaloo” movement — “an extremely online update of the militia movement” — on the investigative website Bellingcat. “The ‘boogaloo Bois’ expect, even hope, that the warmer weather will bring armed confrontations with law enforcement, and will build momentum towards a new civil war in the United States,” Evans and Wilson write. They add, “In a divided, destabilized post-coronavirus landscape, they could well contribute to widespread violence in the streets of American cities.”

This is exactly what we are seeing now.  Echoing these insights, Mia Bloom on her blog Justsecurity notes:

 "Former FBI agent and CNN commentator, Josh Campbell wrote, that Minnesota “authorities have been monitoring alleged criminals online, including postings by suspected white supremacists trying to incite violence.”

Most disturbing:


"The accelerationists, if you have never heard the term, are an extreme subset of white nationalism whose goal is to bring about chaos and destruction. The basic tenet of accelerationism argues that since Western governments are inherently corrupt, the best (and only) thing supremacists can do is to accelerate the end of society by sowing chaos and aggravating political tensions. “Accelerationist ideas have been cited in mass shooters’ manifestos — explicitly, in the case of the New Zealand killer — and are frequently referenced in white supremacist web forums and chat rooms,” Zack Beauchamp explained.

White Supremacists pretending to host a protest to honor George Floyd on Facebook to whip up violence in San Diego were posted on the BLMSD social media warning people not to go and that it was a white supremacist organized rally. People attending demonstrations remarked on the fact that the demographics were wrong, in places like Oakland where the majority of the destruction was perpetrated by young Caucasian men has inspired not just people on social media but reporting in the mainstream"
Of course we also cannot ignore the possibility that agent provocateurs could be at work as well, such as from within the ranks of the police assigned to the protests.  (As pointed out by Joy Reid this morning in relation to an incident in NYC).  We also read from Mia Bloom's account:


"Experts on political violence (and not just Qanon conspiracy theorists) shared stories on social media that the May 27 looting and arson at AutoZone by an unidentified man in a gas mask carrying an open umbrella (dubbed #umbrellaman) was not necessarily a protester but could be an agent provocateur or member of the police. In video posted to YouTube, while this man smashed windows with a hammer, protesters at the scene accused him of being an outsider and began to film him.

According to reporting in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, “The man’s actions were so odd that other rioters in the area paused their own protests to call him out and began filming. “Are you a f—ing cop?” someone else can be heard yelling to the man as he disappeared from view.”
As in the 1960s it appears we are faced with fakes, double fakes, insidious skullduggery and the hijacking of protests  by those who firmly believe "the Great Replacement"  Rightist codswallop.  All this to aid their agenda by compounding violence and deflecting attention. The FBI's Cointelpro  comes to mind, which infiltrated left groups from 1956- 1971 and in many cases saw agents inciting incidents in the midst of normally lawful protests, like against the Vietnam War.  In one secret 1968 memo - since exposed via FOIA release-  Hoover made no bones about the motivation:
"To expose, disrupt and otherwise neutralize the activities of various New Left organizations. We must frustrate every effort of these groups and individuals to consolidate their forces or to recruit new or faithful adherents.”
It very much appears that Trump and Barr are resorting to the same tactics now, and Trump himself keeps pouring more gasoline on the simmering fires that could explode if we are not careful - as well as perceptive.  A lesson the Weimar Germans learned too late.  

Update: Further exhibiting his full blown psychosis, ignorance and incompetence in this crisis, Dotard fulminated that "we will be designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization".   To jog memories, this was the activist group -  NOT an organization with a clear structure that can be penalized under law- that came to the aid  of numerous Charlottesville citizens in August, 2017.  As I wrote in my Aug. 16 post:

Rev. Traci Blackmon  related on MSNBC  how African-Americans singing a hymn  near an entrance in Emancipation Park were set upon by the White racist loons and goons who proceeded to beat and mace them. As Rev. Blackmon put it, "the only thing that saved them was the intervention of Antifa and other protesters" - one of whom drove the racist louts back using a spray can and a match - effectively engineering a mini flame thrower. 

One can surmise from this that if Dotard Donnie Bonespurs had his way, those elderly black Americans singing their hymns would have been bashed senseless.  Much like this racist loon did to one Antifa member trying to save a fellow  protester that day:

And:

Friday, December 29, 2017

COS Socialists' Infiltration By Cops Shows Left Is Still Scapegoated In US Of A

The Colorado Springs Socialists take to the streets in black bloc. - COURTESY SPRINGS SOCIALISTS
Colorado Springs Socialists march downtown recently. Infiltration by police has come to light, but it's nothing new for left groups in the U.S..


The news that Colorado Springs Socialists were infiltrated by local police should not come as news for most deep politics researchers. Indeed, we'd seen this show before with the attempted infiltration and spying on Occupy Wall Street.  Recall, by early October,2012,  the movement arrived in Houston, Texas, whereupon law enforcement officials and the city’s banking and oil industry executives went ape shit even more so than they did in some other cities. The push-back took the form of violent assaults by police on Occupy activists, federal and local surveillance of people seen as organizers, infiltration by police provocateurs—and, as crazy as it sounds, a plot to assassinate the “leaders” of this non-violent and leaderless movement. (Don’t take my word for it. Here’s what the document obtained from the Houston FBI said as related by David Lindorff : http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/node/1494 )

In fact, trained snipers were to be assembled for attacks on protesters in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and other cities, e.g.
dissenting-vote-suddenly-dies-down-sniper-election-from-the-demotivational-poster-1273925293

In addition, a
nyone alive in the late 60s knows it was the FBI's COINTELPRO  program which actually infiltrated multiple protest groups including the Weather Underground, Yippies, the SDS (Students for a Democratic Society)  as well as less well known groups.  More on this below.

So the template has been used for some time, and the infiltration in COS is not new. As reported by The Colorado Springs Independent, the infiltrators were

"Two undercover Colorado Springs Police officers serving with the Metro, Vice, Narcotics and Intelligence Division (Metro VNI) whose intelligence-gathering work relies on anonymity." 

In the case of the two spy cops in the Springs, their cover was partially blown as a result of an operation on March 26. That day, the officers went undercover to embed in a “March Against Imperialism” organized by the Colorado Springs Socialists, which culminated in the citation of four marchers for obstructing a roadway and failure to disperse. When the City Attorney’s office turned over the evidence via discovery, the defendants viewed body camera footage that revealed the undercovers in their midst.


The Socialists were alarmed to learn in the aftermath that law enforcement had infiltrated their peaceful assembly, particularly given CSPD’s history of spying on (generally leftist and environmentalist) activist groups. In truth, the Socialists should not have been alarmed given the history of American law enforcement busting into left groups dating all the way back to the Wobblies in the 20s. (Google it!) 


Fast forward to the late 60s, early 70s, and infiltration of left groups went on "steroids" with  the FBI's COINTELPRO  operations. The basic strategy was to dress these undercover agents like hippies (bell bottoms, long hair, floral shirts) then have them "join" the groups and spread havoc from within by telling lies or planting false info. (Google COINTELPRO and learn more about it.)   It is perhaps true that the most radical misfits in those 60s Left groups (like the Weather Underground) spurred much more targeting and infiltration  of the left-leaning "normal" groups.

I guess one might go along with the old saw "Peter got to pay for Paul" or some such, i.e. if "Peter" is relatively innocent -merely exercising his free speech - but "Paul" is the real bad guy. In this case, the violent acts of the Weathermen definitely led to all other Left groups - even peaceful - being targeted by COINTELPRO.    One could therefore say, with some plausibility, the aggressive surveillance of the Occupy Wall Street groups as well as infiltration of Socialists in the Springs by local cops is a carryover of that mindset.


But one also shouldn't be surprised  that Socialists nationwide would insist on much more respect after a Democratic Socialist (named Bernie Sanders)  had run in the 2016  presidential campaign - and won some 20 -odd states in the Democratic primaries. 

It was therefore not too surprising that - as reported by the  Indy-  the COS Socialists "hired the powerhouse civil rghts firm:  Killmer, Lane & Newman LLP out of Denver. They  filed a motion to dismiss based on “outrageous police misconduct,” arguing police violated federal regulations when they infiltrated a group with no history of or clear intent to commit violence. "

According to testimony by the two undercover police and Metro VNI Lt. Mark Comte at the Dec. 6 evidentiary hearing, the intelligence-gathering operation began early this year, when they became interested in local leftists based on “national trends” — particularly the proliferation of black bloc, a tactic most closely associated with anti-fascism (Antifa) in which protesters wear black and mask up to hide individual identities from law enforcement, disapproving employers and/or right-wing enemies.

Hyper wary of the Socialists (who have nada to do with Antifa)  Comte sent “Mark” and “Amy” to an open meeting, organized by the Colorado Springs Anti-Fascists, in the back room of the downtown Wild Goose Meeting House in January. The meeting was organized to plan how to “shut down” right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos during his scheduled appearance at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. (Yiannopoulos as most know is a convicted sex offender who goes around the country gaslighting everyone and everything a la Steve Bannon's playbook).

There,  according to the Indy account:  “Mark” said he heard some attendees propose rushing the stage and disabling the sound system. During cross-examination, he told David Lane, lead defense attorney, that pulling power cords could be considered violent in his opinion. That particular proposal was never incorporated into the group’s plan and the protest was nonviolent. Despite that, the undercover operation continued.


As for why an interest in Antifa would lead to surveillance of Socialists, the prosecution argued "there’s ambiguity and overlap between the memberships."   Of course, this is bare balderdash. The only "overlap" is that both often wear black.  So the Socialists' lawyers had to point out the
distinct differences, namely that Antifa tends to align with anarchism, i.e. they want to abolish the state, while the Socialists are mainly Marxist-Leninists.


That means they WANT the state to be expanded, i.e. to take over industrial, health, and other operations for the betterment of all. This , as opposed to having national institutions, pensions, and even water supplies and utilities privatized by greedy capitalists - impoverishing and exploiting even more millions of hapless citizens  As one of the seated Socialists pointed out for the peanut gallery regarding differences with Antifa: “We don’t even like each other.”

Note, Antifa - in addition to the differences from Socialists noted above-  doesn’t, in fact, have members. It’s instead a zeitgeist, a motive cultural -social tendency, not a fixed  organization with a charter, membership list and objectives - like the COS Socialists.  The spy cops didn't get this difference so naturally conflated the Antifas with the Socialists. As Mark put it, quoted by the Independent

“[I saw] him show up to a protest wearing black bloc clothing,”  


Well, let us hope there are no Baltimore Ravens' fans hanging around the Springs, because their normal NFL gear is black jackets and/or sweatshirts along with caps and slacks to match. 
Image result for Ravens fans in all black gear images
I mean, we wouldn't now want local Ravens' football fans (like wifey) to be lumped in with Antifa and Socialists as well.

Fortunately, Judge Kristen L. Hoffecker is expected to rule on the defense’s motion to dismiss in the coming weeks. Once that's finished the Socialists can continue fielding more candidates for the  Ds in the 2018 midterms, having already taken one seat in VA last month. Socialists are also busy training hundreds more to vie for spots on school boards, especially in Florida - where a large Puerto Rican diaspora (from the hurricane disaster that Trump ignored) have poured in by the hundreds of thousands. This means a "revenge vote" will be forthcoming and ensure whatever Dem presidential candidate (maybe Socialist Bernie Sanders) unseats dumb fuck traitor Dotard.

On the other positive side, the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) are now grooming dozens of candidates to run in the mid terms, following the success in the recent primaries - including Virginia.

See also:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/11/10/what_democratic_socialist_lee_carter_s_upset_win_suggests_about_the_left.html

Sunday, August 17, 2014

"48 Liberal Lies on American History"? Exposing Larry Schweikart's Book For the Dreck It Is


"Where's Larry? We wanna learn 'bout Liberal Lies!"

It's almost a given that when you hear or see some right winger, who professes to be an "independent thinking researcher" on matters of history and politics, he or she is really a gullible pawn who doesn't know squat from squash. The first test, especially when they sound off about "liberals revising history",  is asking them to list four or five examples off the top of their heads. Nine will get you ten they can't do it, but will instead say "Read Larry Schweikart's book about 48 Liberal Lies!'

In such a case, rather than waste time on dreck (most of us who are college educated are choosy on how we invest our intellectual capital - or should be!) we check out the background of this purported history guru who would lead us libs from profound "ignorance" to the one and only truth.

It turns out if one even does a modest amount of research much can be learned about Schweikart. For example, he used to be a drummer for the 60s rock band 'Steppenwolf'. (According to an Arizona Tea Party site). Who'da thought?  I last saw those guys live in New Orleans in 1969 but they were only ok - not as good as the Stones, for example.

Other information we learn:

- He's a frequent guest on Fox and Friends, and also a "darling of the Right' including being pals with David Horowitz and Larry Prager

- He's had extended appearances on Limbaugh, bloviating at length

- His book '48 Liberal Lies About American History' has appeared in numerous Right wing venues including the hysterical 'Free Republic' to the somewhat more rational National Review.

So much for "independent thinking". Sounds more like dittohead "thinking".

Looking at Schweikart's list,  the discerning and historically- educated person, who's also worked in academia, can immediately spot two commonalities in the "lies". All are based on the strawman fallacy - which is attributing to an opponent or opposed group positions which they don't really hold or generally hold, and red herrings - contrived positions confected by Schweikart himself in order to distract from more substantive points or issues.

I'm not going to waste blog space with all of his listed BS idiocy but will just cite a few. Those who want to see the full list  of howlers (underwritten by his two endemic fallacies)  can easily Google them:


Lie #5: John F. Kennedy Was Killed by LBJ and a Secret Team to Prevent Him from Getting Us Out of Vietnam

Lie #6: Richard Nixon Expanded the Vietnam War

Lie #7: The "Peace Movement" Activists Were Not Dupes of the KGB 

Lie #8: Ronald Reagan Knew "Star Wars" Wouldn't Work but Wanted to Provoke a War with the USSR


The first alleged liberal lie listed is easily shot down - thanks to more than 20 years of released FOIA files on the assassination, and the obvious and evident exposure of the Warren Report as a political fraud. In combination with other facts released,  LBJ  has definitely been shown to have had a role, if not as the ultimate mastermind, then as a cooperative agent. Most of this I already showed in previous posts,  e.g.
http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2014/02/lbj-was-reluctant-warrior-it-doesnt.html

Noting especially that LBJ faced prosecution in the Bobby Baker scandal just days after the Dallas motorcade - with money trails to be released by the press and also a full judicial inquiry. Thus, actively cooperating in the assassination  (e.g. helping plan the motorcade route through Dealey Plaza) provided an expeditious solution to all his troubles - plus catapulted him into top dog position.   As for the "secret team" stuff, if Schweikart means the CIA or elements within it, e.g. 'Staff D' , a SIGINT operation also mandated for assassinations -   then he'd be correct and I already expatiated on how that was done, e.g.

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-pre-assassination-framing-of-lee.html

http://brane-space.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-pre-assassination-framing-of-lee_1807.html

Of course, those too damned lazy to do independent research would never learn that.

The claim that Nixon expanding the Vietnam war is a lie, is also a lie. Everyone not stoned or semi-conscious at the time,  and who has read the Pentagon Papers, knows damned well of Nixon's bombing campaign in Cambodia. By the very definition,  when you add another nation to your bombing sorties and attacks you have expanded a war. So I've no idea WTF Schweikart's all about.  It seems he believes his readers are brain dead zombies or totally illogical. I'm not sure which.

The Peace movement blather ("lie #7")  is a similar pile of horse manure, mainly for the consumption of right wing stooges who were either comatose during the 1960s or weren't born yet. Anyone alive then knows it was the FBI's COINTELPRO which actually infiltrated the protest groups including the Weather Underground, Yippies, the SDS as well as less well known groups. The basic strategy was to dress these undercover imps like hippies then "join" the groups and spread havoc from within by telling lies or planting false info. (Google COINTELPRO and learn more about it!)  Had the KGB really had a hand in any of the protests the FBI would already have had its people in on busting - exposing their influence. Hoover was a hyper-paranoid so would have  known if the KGB had any role!

The Star Wars tripe (#8)  has been circulating in the circles of the semi-educated Reich wing for decades. But a simple resort to picking up the special 'Directed Energy Weapons Report' in Physics Today from April, 1989 will disclose how Star Wars was totally exposed as a white elephant and fraud - a colossal waste of money.  The Report, all 30 odd pages of it, shows how the media and the Reaganites were led by the nose on this absurd program that had about the same chance of working as shooting an ICBM down with a rifle.  In that sense, the simple media PR emanating from the damned program would have clearly spoofed the Russkies into really thinking there was something there.

Oh, let's not forget another  liberal "lie":


Lie #20: Lee Harvey Oswald Shot JFK Because He Was a Deranged Marine, Not Because He Was a Communist 103

And, of course, neither is true. Oswald wasn't "deranged" at all but was portrayed that way by the puppet press which was cowed before LBJ's egregious political solution. . (See my  2 earlier links above to see how I skewer this crap.)

Other comments, from those who've reviewed Schweikart's book on amazon include the following:

1) I fear that if you're an educated conservative, and you've had the misfortune of reading this book, you've already pulled a good deal amount of hair out of your head like I have, internally pleading with Schweikart not to be such a bad writer and worse a bad spokesman for a cause.

Look: forget that these aren't really common things anyone is taught in school. Forget that many of these arguments are in fact originated by anti-government types. Forget that Schweikart is an abominable writer and harms the conservative movement by making it look like buffoonery. IN FACT.......you know what? .....Just forget this book ever came out.


2) Wow. This guy is an idiot. Reconstruction ended as a compromise of the 1876 disputed presidential election. By the 1920s it was fifty years behind us. The New Left never amounted to a true block of scholars as they discredited themselves and promoted unsustainable positions decades ago. In fact this is my main complaint about Schweikart, he discredits lies that he himself invented and attributed to liberals to make himself appear the hero. It is like the exterminator who releases mice into your house then charges you to get rid of them.


3) Of Schweikart's 48 "lies" I (who attended both American public schools and American public colleges) had never heard of most of them. In Lie #1 he claims that liberals believe American presidents were isolationists. No president has ever been a true isolationist. Lie #2 claims business interests promoted wars with Mexico and Spain. Actually, one cannot compare these two wars so simply as they were fought in different periods of our history under different sets of values. In 1898 the concept of imperialism was not unpopular with many, only a minority which included Andrew Carnegie.


4) Lie #34 truly demonstrates Schweikart's ignorance about Indians. He claims the lie is the first Thanksgiving took place because the Indians saved the Puritans from their own ineptitude. Larry, there is no lie here, this is exactly what happened. First of all the Pilgrims were not Puritans, they were separatists. Puritans wanted to "purify" the Anglican church. The Pilgrims saw Anglicanism as a lost cause not worthy of saving. So they set sail for Holland and lived there for a few years. But then they sought a greater degree of separation so they set sail for America, in September. When they arrived in November they realized they had no way of providing food for themselves through the New England winter. If the Pilgrims were so capable, why would they set sail in the fall, with no chance of planting a crop before winter? They truly were inept as the massive numbers of deaths from starvation that first year reflect.

5) Schweikart and scholarship are two words that really do not belong in the same sentence...cull 48 "liberal lies" from statements made at one time or another by "liberals" and then "demolish" same in 5 or 6 pages....seriously....that FDR knew about the Pearl Harbor attack (and, by extension, could have prevented it) is a lie that a liberal would propagate?.

6) Looking at his other books, they're purely political in nature and not objective in the slightest. It's no wonder that they're on the reading list for conservative and religious book clubs. They're so filled with hero-worship of the Founding Fathers and the other "Great Men" of US history that they are utterly useless as legitimate history books. No, I am not offended as a liberal but as a historian.

Take this book for what it is: a puff piece intending to make historically illiterate American, conservative Christians feel superior for being historically illiterate American, conservative Christians.



7) This book is a perfect example of the false "two-model" approach common to (but not exclusive to) fundamentalist thinking - we see it in the discussion of politics, religion, and regularly in most any broadcast media debate. This book is rife with allegedly "liberal" opinions (and often just conspiracy theories), many of which are certainly not taught in schools and universities. The book seeks to cover an array of topics, but in the end, sadly it says very little. It reads more as a reactionary quasi-tirade against illusory "liberal" foes somewhere in academia, the author being "true" history's courageous advocate. The writing itself bears the faint din of paranoia.

As for the genuine seeker of historical truth -  intelligent and educated people who wish to learn about the REAL lies taught about our history-  I recommend James Loewen's excellent and quality book, 'Lies My Teacher Told Me'


Enough said!