#Right Wing Violence

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Noah Berlatsky at Public Notice:

Donald Trump spent the first week of his second term using the presidency to glorify political violence and weaponize the threat of it against anyone who might consider criticizing him. Trump pulled the security detail from former chief White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, who is an enemy of MAGA thanks to his efforts to fight covid. He also ended security details for his former National Security Advisor John Bolton and his former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, both of whom have been targeted by Iran because they worked to advance Trump’s hard-line policies during his first term. Bolton of course is an outspoken Trump critic, but Pompeo campaigned for his former boss just last fall. Trump repaid him by using mobster logic to justify endangering his wellbeing, cold-bloodedly telling reporters who asked him last week about the decision to pull the security detail that “there’s risks to everything.” Trump claims that the withdrawal of security is a cost saving measure, but we know better. (He’s giving back pay to troops discharged over the covid vax, after all.) He’s settling scores and letting everyone within the government, past and present, know that the price of protection is loyalty to him. This is a not a new tactic for Trump, who has often used implicit or explicit threats against his opponents. Democracies are democracies in large part because they forswear violence; political parties and actors are supposed to settle their conflicts at the ballot box. Authoritarians, by contrast, address political disagreement through terror. The US has not always behaved as a democracy. During Jim Crow, vigilante groups like the KKK colluded with state authorities in lynchings, bombings, and other violent methods designed to terrorize Black people. Trump is attempting to revivify this American tradition by frightening his critics into silence.

Putting a target on Dems (but not just Dems)

Trump’s moves against Fauci and company last week were overshadowed by his pardons of about around 1,500 people convicted of crimes in connection with the January 6 insurrection, including some who brutally beat cops. Trump also commuted the sentences of individuals associated with violent rightwing groups and convicted of seditious conspiracy related to their involvement in the attack on the Capitol, including Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, who had been sentenced to 22 years, and Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years. Sen. Chris Murphy denounced the pardons on the Senate floor in a speech highlighting the danger of Trump taking the country down this road. “If you are engaged in violence to further Donald Trump’s political career, then you face no consequences,” Murphy said. “What happened this week is that political violence got mainstreamed in America … if they attack Democratic officials, and they’re doing it to support Donald Trump, they are likely immune … I’m just going to say it: it puts Democrats’ lives in jeopardy in particular.”

[...] The language of violence infuses Trump’s vocabulary more than ever. For instance, asked about Adam Schiff during a press event last week, Trump daydreamed about him being brutally assaulted, saying “I saw him last night on television. It looks like he got hit by a baseball bat or something. What happened to him? It look like he got beat around."  [...] Openly smirking about violence against political rivals in this way is an open signal to Trump’s fans. His base hears him loud and clear. Trump would no doubt argue that his remarks about Schiff are just an innocent joke, and that he released J6 protestors in the name of justice, not as a threat. But excuses and deflections are not very convincing given his history.

[...] The examples here are so ubiquitous it’s impossible to mention all of them in one piece. But to cite just a few cases: In 2015, Trump expressed support for white attackers who kicked and punched a Black protestor at one of his rallies. In 2019, he fired off an inflammatory tweet falsely and despicably linking Rep. Ilhan Omar (a Muslim) to the 9/11 terror attacks; she started receiving daily, horrific death threats. In 2022, Trump suggested that Paul Pelosi, husband of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, had it coming when he was attacked by a man wielding a hammer — a man who was a Trump supporter inspired in part by Trump’s demonization of his wife.

The most obvious past example of Trumpist terror, of course, is the January 6 coup attempt. On that date in 2021, Trump used his social media platforms and speech to incite a mob to storm the Capitol. There, they assaulted police officers and threatened the lives of lawmakers. As many as nine people died in the violence and its aftermath. In particular, Trump incited rioters to attack his vice president, Mike Pence, who refused to aid in illegally overthrowing the election. In private with his staff, Trump signaled support for insurrectionists who said they wanted to murder Pence.

The MAGA Cult is a violent fascist mob, gainfully incited by its leader Donald Trump and the right-wing media propaganda machine backing him.

[davidaugust]

Riots from rumor, rumor from Russia.

Russia tries to use us to sow chaos.

“The rumor was included in an article published by Channel 3Now, a site with suspected links to Russia, Logically said. The article was then cited by Russian state-affiliated news organizations including RT and Tass.” -AP

With ABC in US saying Channel 3Now’s Facebook is run by people in Pakistan and the US, and Daily Mail saying Channel 3 Now started 11 years ago sharing videos from Izhevsk, Russia.

Sources:

AP: https://apnews.com/article/britain-riots-unrest-social-media-misinformation-attack-5824d3136675e10d6a25c9e17287c994

ABC: https://abcnews.go.com/amp/International/wireStory/online-misinformation-fueling-tensions-southport-stabbing-attack-killed-112437256

Daily Mail: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13695801/amp/The-Russian-linked-fake-news-website-fuelled-lies-Southport-stabbings-sparked-violent-protests.html

[corporationsarepeople]

Tucker Carlson's portrayal of the deadly Jan. 6 attack as a largely peaceful event on his prime-time Fox News show set off a dangerous new wave of social media chatter that includes death threats against Capitol police officers and Democratic leaders, according to experts who monitor extremism and a report from Advance Democracy shared exclusively with USA TODAY.

The segment that aired last week downplayed the violence at the Capitol two years ago, falsely recasting the Washington mob that breached the Capitol as an “orderly and meek” gathering of “sightseers.”

Carlson’s claims, which accompanied clips of Capitol security footage, drew an angry reaction from right-wing users who fired off threats on Elon Musk’s Twitter and in pro-Trump forums directed at politicians who have made public inquiries into the violence, especially the congressional Jan. 6 committee

Those threats came in far greater numbers than before the broadcast, according to the Advance Democracy report.

Jan. 6 riot:Hundreds of identifiable people remain free. FBI arrests could take years

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Crowdfunding extremism:Extremists raised $6.2 million on crowdfunding websites in 'heyday' of financing

On Twitter, posts relating to Jan. 6 using violent rhetoric increased fivefold from the previous week, the report shows.

The outpouring of violence concerns extremism experts, who said Carlson and Fox News are playing with fire by spreading disinformation that could inspire violence against the targets of their coverage.

"If there were an attack right now on one of the groups or individuals that was mentioned in Tucker's report — one of the dumping grounds for his ire — I would not be surprised at all," said Megan Squire, deputy director for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center. "I mean, that's basically what we're expecting right now."

[briarpatch-kids]

One of my formative "Portland style" activism experiences was my mom calling me from the Occupy Wall Street protest excitedly telling me they're gonna gas them if they don't leave. Like... genuinely excited at the prospect of getting Teargassed for the Cause. Another was my friend in high school showing off their bruises from when they were rammed by police bikes for an anti police brutality protest. It's all about how much you can gain minor injuries and the social capital of it rather than the actual cause. That friend never even mentioned that the triggering event for the police brutality protest was the cops habit of tazing mentally ill people, just how they totally got bruised up at a protest by the cops.

When Portland people try to school me on activism I can't help but be like "honey we have Militias, in the plural." I'm glad you can break windows and start fires in the Pearl District, but we would be shot dead for that here and the cops would just watch.

[diveintomydream]

Every human wants to live in peace

[lectorel]

Got permanently banned from a subreddit for saying law enforcement shooting someone dead in the street was still a bad thing even when the victim was a violent right-wing fanatic.

Gotta say, I did not expect that to be such a controversial statement. So repeating it here: law enforcement shouldn't kill people. Even violent assholes have a right to be taken in alive, and it's a failure of practice and policy when someone is killed in the process of an arrest.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Gabriel Sherman at Vanity Fair:

In the past week, Donald Trump has signaled a desire to rule like a strongman rather than a president constrained by constitutional norms. Last Friday, Trump’s vice president, JD Vance, scolded democratic NATO allies and met with the leader of Germany’s extreme-right AfD party. On Saturday, Trump declared on social media: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.” This Tuesday, Trump blamed Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the brutal war that was launched by Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. “You should have never started it,” Trump falsely said of Zelenskyy, when in fact Putin invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The US president then doubled down on the feud Wednesday, calling Zelenskyy a “dictator.” Democrats are in the minority in both the House and Senate, which means the federal courts and congressional Republicans are the only guardrails on Trump’s second term. So far the judicial system seems to be holding—though a Trump-packed Supreme Court is now destined to rule on all manner of alleged overreach in the coming months. (And it’s an open question as to whether Trump will actually abide by rulings that go against him.)

Republicans in Congress, however, have consistently folded—approving all of Trump’s Cabinet picks, such as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tulsi Gabbard, with only a faint whiff of pushback on some of their boundary-scorching backgrounds. The confirmations predictably short-circuited many Democratic observers, but the rolling headlines of late have even some Republicans decrying the seeming erosion of checks and balances in recent weeks. “These are the heirs of the Greatest Generation, and they turned out to be the worst generation,” says Stuart Stevens, who served as a chief strategist on Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign and has since left the GOP, joining the anti-Trump Lincoln Project as a senior adviser. “It’s tempting to compare Republicans to Prussian aristocrats in 1930s Germany. But Prussian aristocrats were more responsible. They were dealing with civil unrest and the threat of a communist takeover. Republicans today have historically low unemployment, a record stock market. What’s their excuse?”

Political survival is one. Senate and House Republicans know Trump will orchestrate the running of a primary challenger backed by Elon Musk’s unlimited resources if a member defies him. But this is not the whole story of Republican subservience to the president. In private, Republicans talk about their fear that Trump might incite his MAGA followers to commit political violence against them if they don’t rubber-stamp his actions. “They’re scared shitless about death threats and Gestapo-like stuff,” a former member of Trump’s first administration tells me. According to one source with direct knowledge of the events, North Carolina senator Thom Tillis told people that the FBI warned him about “credible death threats” when he was considering voting against Pete Hegseth’s nomination for defense secretary. Tillis ultimately provided the crucial 50th vote to confirm the former Fox & Friends host to lead the Pentagon. [...]

From the moment Trump descended his golden escalator in June 2015 to announce his first run for president, he injected menace into his political rhetoric. On the campaign trail he talked about wanting to punch protesters in the face. During his first term, he praised Montana’s then representative Greg Gianforte for physically attacking Guardian reporter Ben Jacobs in 2017. “Any guy that can do a body slam, he is my type!” Trump said. (Gianforte later pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and received a six-month deferred jail sentence.) When protests erupted after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd in 2020, Trump called protesters “thugs” and said: “When the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The phrase echoed a remark made in the 1960s by a Miami police chief associated with stoking racial tensions in the city (Trump claimed he wasn’t aware of its origins). In a September 2020 debate against Joe Biden, Trump refused to condemn white supremacist violence and told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”

January 6 further catalyzed GOP fear of Trump-inspired violence. Romney told his biographer, McKay Coppins, that an undercurrent of anxiety thwarted Republican efforts to formally punish Trump for his role in inciting the riot. “One Republican congressman confided to Romney that he wanted to vote for Trump’s second impeachment, but chose not to out of fear for his family’s safety,” Coppins wrote in his book. “When one senator, a member of leadership, said he was leaning toward voting to convict, the others urged him to reconsider. You can’t do that, Romney recalled someone saying. Think of your personal safety, said another. Think of your children. The senator eventually decided they were right.” Former Wyoming representative and prominent anti-Trump Republican Liz Cheney told CNN that House GOP members confided to her that they were “afraid for their own security—afraid, in some instances, for their lives.” Representative Jason Crow of Colorado told NBC News after January 6: “I had a lot of conversations with my Republican colleagues last night, and a couple of them broke down in tears—saying that they are afraid for their lives if they vote for this impeachment.”

Republican Peter Meijer, then a Michigan representative, told Atlantic writer Tim Alberta in 2021 that one colleague seemed to nearly have a nervous breakdown over fears of being harmed by MAGA supporters if he were to vote to certify the 2020 election results: “He asked his new colleague if he was okay,” Alberta reported. “The member responded that he was not; that no matter his belief in the legitimacy of the election, he could no longer vote to certify the results, because he feared for his family’s safety. ‘Remember, this wasn’t a hypothetical. You were casting that vote after seeing with your own two eyes what some of these people are capable of,’ Meijer says. ‘If they’re willing to come after you inside the US Capitol, what will they do when you’re at home with your kids?’” Trump’s mass pardoning of January 6 participants has recentered those events in Republican minds of late.

Gabriel Sherman wrote a solid column in Vanity Fair on how the threat of political violence from far-right MAGA cultists serve to keep Republicans onside in enacting the dangerous Trump agenda.

See Also:

NCRM: Cowardice’: GOP Faces Backlash After Report Suggests Death Threat May Have Swayed Vote

[berrysquared]

just cactus ring things ya know

[hang-on-lil-tomato]

another “Christian”…

gives his 14 yo son a weapon of mass destruction and the disturbed child murders people. Mother is a violent nut.

right wing NUTJOB mtg has ads showing her blowing stuff up with her weapon of war.

guns and ammo magazines on my in laws’ coffee table. 🤮

the “Christians” offer thoughts and prayers and say it’s the price of freedom. Nothing can be done. 2a

What part of a “well regulated militia” are any of these lunatics a part of?!?

America is sick. Very sick.

[agentfascinateur]

Palestinian educators have previously told Middle East Eye that Israeli authorities were aiming to eliminate its curriculum in favour of the Israeli version, in an attempt to erode Palestinian identity and "distort" history. 

Academic content Israel has sought to censor, they said, includes the logo of the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian flag, lessons that discuss the Palestinian struggle against occupation, the right of return and prisoners, settlements, the immigration of settlers to Palestine, military checkpoints, the intifada, displaced villages, and considering Zionism a racist political movement.

[skyfallscotland]

Look not to be that person (lol who am I kidding, I'm always that person) but I find it vastly unfair that there are Americans reading chapter twenty-seven of Fourth Wing from Xaden's POV right now.

It's not my fault I was born on another continent (happy about it tho, very nice here) and the fact that some people think it's morally right for everyone else to wait four months to see it makes me very annoyed. You can bet your ass as soon as I see it somewhere I'm plastering that shit all over the internet. Regionalised bonuses are 💩

[justinspoliticalcorner]

The Proud Boys are back: How the far-right domestic terrorist group is rebuilding to rally behind Trump

Aram Roston at Reuters:

A dark SUV cruised past former President Donald Trump’s supporters near his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey on a windy April afternoon. Billowing from the vehicle were three flags: one for the Trump campaign, two others with the initials “PB” – the insignia of the far-right Proud Boys movement. Through the open windows, three Proud Boys flashed the “OK” sign with their hands, a gesture often associated with white supremacy and the far right. Trump’s fans cheered. Four men dressed in the signature black-and-yellow shirts of the Proud Boys spilled out of the SUV and began glad-handing the crowd like homecoming heroes. The Proud Boys are back. Four years after the failed effort to overturn Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat, the violent all-male extremist group that led the storming of Congress on Jan. 6, 2021, is rebuilding and regaining strength as Trump campaigns to return to the White House, according to interviews with eight Proud Boys, two U.S. law enforcement officials and four experts who track the group’s online activity.

Since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, four former Proud Boys leaders have been convicted in federal court of seditious conspiracy, each sentenced to 15 or more years in prison. At least another 70 members were charged with participating in the violence. But that crackdown hasn’t stopped the Proud Boys. Some Proud Boys say they are preparing to emerge once again as a physical force for Trump, drawn to his hardline nationalism and convinced their leaders will be pardoned if he wins. Trump himself promises to pardon convicted Jan. 6 rioters if he’s elected. After last Thursday’s historic guilty verdict against Trump, an Ohio Proud Boys chapter vowed “war” and posted a video of Proud Boy street brawls that ended with the message, “Fighting solves everything.” A Miami chapter said, “Now, more than ever, we are recruiting!” Some posted images of the upside-down American flag symbolizing the “Stop the Steal” movement that falsely claims Trump won the 2020 election. One Proud Boy told Reuters that America is in a period of “calm before the storm.”

The group’s main Telegram channel, however, posted a message urging Proud Boys to stay calm and not get drawn into a trap and risk arrest. “Trump is, of course, getting railroaded but we will not be walking into any honey pots over this.” In recent weeks, the group has become more prominent at pro-Trump events, highlighting the risk of renewed violence in this year’s presidential election. Dozens of Proud Boys – some in body armor and helmets – marked the third anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection with a show of force at the statehouse in Columbus, Ohio. On April 20, nearly a dozen gathered at a rally for Trump’s Republican campaign in Wilmington, North Carolina.  More recently, groups of Proud Boys from two chapters mixed with tens of thousands of Trump supporters at a campaign rally in Wildwood, New Jersey, in May.

On a boardwalk near the entrance of the Wildwood rally, several Proud Boys identified themselves as members of the “New Jersey State” chapter. One said they were there to provide security and stop agitators from “disrespecting or assaulting everybody.” Inscribed on his wraparound sunglasses were the initials “POYB” – short for “Proud of Your Boy.” He wore a ring with the initials “PB” and a black shirt with the yellow laurel wreath of the Proud Boys. Three men from another chapter greeted them, their faces hidden by gaiter masks. The re-emergence of the Proud Boys at Trump’s political rallies and events coincides with polls showing a majority of Americans fearing political violence will flare around November’s election. It also comes when Trump’s use of incendiary rhetoric is inspiring his supporters to target his opponents – including judges, prosecutors and political rivals – in a wave of threats that’s unprecedented in modern American politics.

Trump himself has not ruled out the possibility of political violence if he loses in November. “If we don’t win, you know, it depends,” he said when asked by Time magazine in April if he expected violence after the election. If he’s jailed or put under house arrest, “I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he said in a Fox News interview that aired on Sunday. “At a certain point there’s a breaking point.” Before the last election, Trump told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.” Three months later, federal prosecutors say, the group’s leaders plotted and led the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol. Trump’s baseless, rigged-election claims inspired the gathering, and Trump himself urged the assembled crowd to march on the Capitol as Congress certified Democrat Joe Biden’s victory.

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to questions for this story about his rhetoric, Jan. 6 and the Proud Boys. As the Proud Boys regroup, they’ve made changes designed to make them less vulnerable to law enforcement scrutiny, including doing away with layers of top leadership, according to interviews with members. The Proud Boys now operate with self-governing chapters in more than 40 states, with little apparent central coordination, members said. While the group’s structure has changed, its Canadian founder remains an inspirational figure to today’s Proud Boys. Gavin McInnes, a British-born far-right commentator who lives in New York, announced his resignation from the Proud Boys in 2018. But he remains deeply involved with the group, according to interviews with Proud Boys.

[...]

After McInnes stepped down, his successor, Henry “Enrique” Tarrio, raised the Proud Boys’ profile, pulling them from the fringe of the far-right toward the center of Trump-era Republican politics. Tarrio, a Floridian of Afro-Cuban descent, was sentenced last September to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy, defined as an effort by two or more people to overthrow the government or use force to hinder its operations, and other charges related to the Capitol riot. He has appealed.

Two criminal defense attorneys for Tarrio did not respond to emailed questions and phone calls. In the past, McInnes, Tarrio and a group of leaders dubbed “Elders” spoke publicly on the group’s behalf, set the agenda and guided its confrontations with left-wing groups around the country. They sat atop a formal structure and could disband Proud Boy chapters or expel members. Now, members say, the chapters are largely independent of each other and ban communications with the media. Most members who spoke to Reuters for this report did so on condition of anonymity. The group’s resilience has surprised some extremism experts. “The amazing thing is that so many people from the Proud Boys can be in jail and yet you have these active chapters,” said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the nonprofit Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. “Traditionally when the head of a neo-Nazi or white supremacist group goes to jail or dies, the organization will collapse, but that does not seem to be happening with the Proud Boys.”

[...]

During the Trump administration, the Proud Boys engaged in large-scale street brawls with antifa – antifascists – and other leftist groups across the country, typically by taunting demonstrators to instigate a fight. They adopted the slogan “Fuck Around And Find Out,” and emblazoned the letters “FAFO” on hats and t-shirts. Some historians compare the Proud Boys to fascist European militias of the 1920s and 1930s such as the Brownshirts, a Nazi paramilitary group that helped bring Hitler to power in Germany. Proud Boys say they’re nothing like the Brownshirts and bear no resemblance to fascists. But street violence and extreme nationalism are features of both groups. In the weeks before the Capitol riots, some wore a patch inscribed with “RWDS,” short for “Right Wing Death Squad,” a term used to describe Central and South American paramilitaries who supported right-wing governments and dictatorships. [...]

After Trump left the White House, the Proud Boys turned to America’s culture wars. They clashed with supporters of abortion rights and vaccine mandates, and harassed organizers of Drag Queen Story Hours, where female impersonators read at libraries or bookstores to children. Fights often ensued. Since the 2021 Capitol attack, Reuters identified 29 incidents of political violence involving the Proud Boys, almost all of them centered around social issues. All but one of the eight cases in 2023 involved clashes between Proud Boys and left-wing activists at demonstrations supporting LGBTQ+ rights. The tally was based largely on news reports and court records of fights, assaults and other physical confrontations. This year, the Proud Boys have returned to politics. In the first three months of 2024, there have been far fewer Proud Boys public events than in the same period last year. But half of them have been pro-Trump and the rest have been political in nature, related to guns or immigration, said Kieran Doyle of the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a U.S.-based nonprofit that monitors political violence.

On April 24, Proud Boys founder McInnes appeared at Columbia University’s pro-Palestinian protests. He told Reuters that the Proud Boys were not getting involved in the anti-Israel unrest, saying he was there to “ridicule” liberals by pretending to be a left-wing journalist. It didn’t work, he said, because people saw him and posted alerts on social media. “They recognized me and were scared.” There’s no authoritative count of Proud Boy members. McInnes claims there are about 5,000, down from 8,000 during Trump’s presidency but up from lows after the Capitol riot arrests. Official estimates of the Proud Boys’ strength vary widely, from 300 to 3,000 members, said a law enforcement source who has monitored the group. Reuters could not independently corroborate its numbers. Some former Proud Boys have abandoned the group for other, more overtly racist and violent groups, including the neo-Nazi Blood Tribe and the underground “Active Club” scene, a white supremacist male movement, one Proud Boy told Reuters.

Reuters has an informative article about far-right domestic terrorist group Proud Boys is rebuilding to rally behind convicted felon Donald Trump.

After the January 6th Insurrection, the group turned towards right-wing culture war items to launch protests, such as COVID mitigation measures (esp. vaccine mandates), drag story hours, and abortion access.

Read the full article at Reuters.

[alex51324]

Finally, some good fucking news!

If you need a reminder of the players here, The Onion is the long-running satire site, known for such articles as "God Angrily Clarifies Don't Kill Rule," "No Way To Prevent This, Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens," and, recently, "America Defeats America."

Alex Jones is the far-right crackpot known for such conspiracy theories as "they're turning the frogs gay," and telling Sandy Hook parents that they're crisis actors and their dead children never existed.

Jones lost a lawsuit to Sandy Hook parents and first-responders about two years ago, and has been dragging his feet about paying the $1.5 billion he owes them ever since, eventually filing for bankruptcy to get out of paying. As part of the bankruptcy, all of Infowars' assets were seized--the studio, equipment, domain name, everything--and put up for auction.

Jones's supporters attempted to buy everything so that they could re-hire him to keep running it. In order to prevent that outcome, several of the Sandy Hook families, and the gun control group Everytown For Gun Safety, teamed up with The Onion to outbid them and take Infowars off the air.

One bereaved parent described the outcome as "The justice we have long awaited and fought for."

The Onion joked,

The Onion is proud to acquire Infowars, and we look forward to continuing its storied tradition of scaring the site’s users with lies until they fork over their cold, hard cash,” said The Onion CEO Ben Collins. “Or Bitcoin. We will also accept Bitcoin.

They haven't said exactly what they plan to actually do with the purchase, except that Everytown For Gun Safety will be the "exclusive launch advertiser" when they put the site back up in January.

[graysbullshit]

THIS is what I meant when I said USA people don't ever do anything to defend the causes they support! In my coutry it is nearly impossible for a civilian to acquire fire weapons through legal means and while not impossible to get weapons through unlegal means it is very expensive. But you guys have easy access to fire weapons!!! If you can't fight them (by regulating this shit) than join them (make them fear for their lifes)! Start killing people! Start threatening people! Bring the black panters back! If conservatives can have armed militias killing innocents I don't see why the left wing shouldn't have an armed militia to fight them.

[blueberry-ry]

"Omg guys.... Can you imagine....wouldn't it be crazy.... if the Church...... had power.... over our politics 0-0....."

I'm gonna fucking implode

[socialjusticeinamerica]

“The ownership of the Proud Boys' trademark is now in the hands of a Black church that the White supremacist group vandalized in 2020.

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., was granted ownership of the group's trademark in a Feb. 3 ruling from Judge Tanya M. Jones Bosier of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The decision also gives the Metropolitan AME Church a lien on the trademark and the power to block the Proud Boys from using the trademark or selling licensed goods, like T-shirts or hats, without the church's approval.

Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys' leader, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. In a statement to the New York Times, which earlier reported the court ruling, and which Tarrio posted on X, he said the judge should be impeached and the church's nonprofit status revoked.

Tarrio, who had been serving a 22-year sentence for seditious conspiracy tied to his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol building, was pardoned by President Trump after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

The ruling on the Proud Boys' copyright stems from an incident on Dec. 12, 2020, when members of the all-male right-wing group attended a "stop the steal" event in Washington, D.C., and also attacked the Metropolitan AME Church by climbing over a fence to get onto church property, where they destroyed a "Black Lives Matters" sign, according to court documents. A court ordered the Proud Boys to pay the church $2.8 million, money that the group has failed to pay, the documents note.

As a result, the court gave the Metropolitan AME Church ownership of the trademark, giving them the right to deny use of the group's name and yellow or black laurel wreath symbol.

"This is our time to stand up, to be very clear to the Proud Boys and their ilk that we came here fighting, that we have never ever capitulated to the violent whims of White supremacist groups," Rev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of the Metropolitan AME Church, told CBS MoneyWatch. "If they thought we would be afraid, they were wrong. There are many people with us and who stand with us."

The Metropolitan AME Church, which was founded in 1838 and has hosted speakers including Frederick Douglass and Eleanor Roosevelt, can now collect funds from sales of Proud Boys merchandise as well as its membership dues, people familiar with the case said. The church can also block the Proud Boys from using the trademark, they said.

The notoriety of the Proud Boys' name likely helped the group in recruitment, which means blocking use of its trademark could both hurt the group's ability to sell merchandise and recruit new members, they added.

"From our point of view, it's fitting that the money the Proud Boys raised in sales and dues will go to fund the good work of the Metropolitan AME," Kaitlin Banner, who represented the church in the case and serves as deputy legal director at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, told CBS.

In his statement posted on X, Tarrio indicated he didn't intend to honor the court's ruling. "I hold in contempt any motions, judgments and orders issued against me," he wrote.”