Saturday, June 4, 2022

Last Call For Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

A former Wisconsin county judge was assassinated yesterday in his home, with the gunman trying to take his own life afterwards. On the gunman allegedly: a list of other political targets, including Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

Former Juneau County Judge John Roemer was shot and killed in his home in the Township of New Lisbon Friday morning.

Officials say when SWAT entered the home, they found Roemer zip-tied to a chair and fatally shot.

The Department of Justice says Douglas Uhde was found in the basement with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A law enforcement official says a "hit list" was found in Uhde's vehicle which included Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

It all started at 6:30 a.m. on Friday when the Juneau County Sheriff’s Office received a call notifying law enforcement of an armed person and two shots fired in a residence.

The caller had left the home and contacted law enforcement from a nearby home.

Following failed attempts to negotiate with the person in the home, at approximately 10:17 a.m. the Juneau County Special Tactics and Response Team entered the residence and located Roemer dead.

Dispatch recordings have also revealed that Roemer's son may have been a witness to the deadly scene.

Uhde, 56, was found in the basement with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He is in critical condition.

Law enforcement began life-saving measures, and Uhde was taken to a medical facility.

A firearm was recovered at the scene.

Kaul said the judicial targets have been notified.

Kaul said investigators are looking into whether this was related to court cases.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Chief Justice Annette Kingsland Ziegler released a statement on Roemer's death:

"The state's judicial family is shocked and saddened by this tragedy. Judge Roemer dedicated much of his career to public service in the law. Before taking the bench in 2004, he had served as an assistant district attorney and as an assistant state public defender. He was known by colleagues for his sharp legal mind and his willingness to share his time and knowledge with others. His work made a tremendous difference in the lives of many people in Juneau County and elsewhere in the state. Our deepest sympathy goes to Judge Roemer's family at this time."

The investigation is being handled as both a homicide and possible case of domestic terrorism.
 
So, we've gone beyond the "attempted plot phase" in Wisconsin and now we're at the "targeted political assassinations phase" of the ongoing terrorist insurrection, with all the targets having something to do with what the gunman considered a corrupt legal and political system in the US.

I guarantee you this guy thought all four people were enemies of Donald Trump.

I guarantee you more local and state politicians, judges, and civil servants are going to be killed in the months ahead, too.

We're in a ludicrously dangerous time right now.

Another Day In Gunmerica, Con't

GOP Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine says he will sign legislation passed this week in order to arm teachers in schools.
 
Ohio school districts could begin arming employees as soon as this fall under legislation approved by Republican lawmakers and set to be signed by GOP Gov. Mike DeWine.

Democrats said the proposal, which is optional for schools, sends the wrong message a week after the massacre of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Republicans say the measure could prevent such shootings. Lawmakers fast-tracked the legislation to counter the impact of a court ruling that said, under current law, armed school workers would need hundreds of hours of training.

The bill will protect children by ensuring instruction is specific to schools and including significant scenario-based training, DeWine said late Wednesday in announcing his support.

The measure is opposed by major law enforcement groups, gun control advocates, and the state's teachers' unions, which asked DeWine to veto the measure. It's supported by a handful of police departments and school districts.

Under the latest version of the bill, school employees who carry guns would need up to 24 hours of initial training, then up to eight hours of requalification training annually.

DeWine, who is expected to sign the bill later this month, also announced that the state's construction budget will provide $100 million for school security upgrades in schools and $5 million for upgrades at colleges.
 
So the response to school shootings in Ohio is:
 
  • Put more guns readily available in classrooms
  • Give teachers a day's training to keep packing
  • Turn schools into prison complex fortresses
  • Continue to terrorize kids with shooting drills 
  • Waste $100 million that should go anywhere else
 
In any other country this would considered insanity, Ohio would serve as a dark cautionary tale, and DeWine's career would be over. Instead, because this is Gunmerica, Louisiana is going to allow teachers to start packing heat too and I expect several other states will follow.
 
By the way, police officers in Ohio need hundreds of hours of training before going on the job, over 600 in fact.  Teachers, well, we'll give them 3 days.  Still, that's more than security guards get, they only have to have 20 hours and 4 each year for recertification, so that's good right?

Kids are actually going to die in Ohio classrooms where they will be shot and killed by Ohio teachers in entirely preventable deaths, but do go on about school safety.


Rep. Chris Jacobs, an Orchard Park Republican, said Friday that he was withdrawing as the GOP and Conservative candidate for Congress in the newly redrawn 23rd District, acknowledging that his newfound views on gun control place him at odds with the parties that endorsed him.

"This obviously arises out of last Friday, my remarks, statements on being receptive to gun controls," Jacobs said in an interview. "And since that time, every Republican elected (official) that had endorsed me withdrew their endorsement. Party officials that supported me withdrew, most of them, and those that were going to said they would not. And so obviously, this was not well received by the Republican base."

What's more, both the Republican and Conservative parties were circulating petitions for candidates to run against Jacobs in the Aug. 23 congressional primaries.

"I truly believe that I could win this, but it would be an incredibly divisive race for our party, for the district," Jacobs said. "There's a high likelihood that there would be a lot of outside money coming in, so it would make this gun issue the issue. And that divisiveness not good in any effort to move this discussion forward in a productive way."

It's good news because there are no good Republicans who are staying in the party and Congress, so Rep. Jacobs leaving because he knows he can't win in Buffalo as a gun safety Republican, and he still voted against Biden 75% of the time anyway. We're all better of with him being replaced.
 
The bad news is that remaining Republicans are even more nuts than Jacobs.
 
Just another day in Gunmerica.

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

Team Trump knows they have to get this month's January 6th Committee hearings off the news, and they have plans to go wall-to-wall on FOX, Newsmax, OANN, and other online right-wing noise machine outlets to make their own news and drown out coverage.
 
Former President Trump and his allies, in conjunction with top House GOP leadership and conservative groups, have begun pulling documents and coordinating a behind-the-scenes effort to counterprogram the Jan. 6 committee's televised hearings this month, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: Republicans face a daunting challenge in the coming messaging war. The committee has been building toward this moment for months, hoping to use the blockbuster summer hearings to paint a vivid picture of how close Trump and his supporters came to subverting democracy. 
Republicans are plotting to compete with wall-to-wall cable coverage by using their own platforms to argue the committee is a partisan fishing expedition that lacks legal legitimacy. That framing will be central to their hopes of defanging whatever negative revelations come to light during the hearings.

What we're hearing: Trump and his inner circle will rely heavily on members of Congress — from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) — to drive counterprogramming, sources familiar with their planning tell Axios.Trump himself has not ruled out making some sort of an appearance, one of the sources says. 
People close to Trump have been working closely with members of Congress, the RNC and outside groups like the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) to collaborate on their offensive narrative. Matt Schlapp, former Trump White House political director and chairman of CPAC, has been a leader in the effort, sources say.

A crucial component is ensuring these surrogates have the tools they need to fight back, according to Republicans.That includes digging up old documents and logs from the White House to help provide Trump surrogates with a full picture of what happened both in the lead-up to and on Jan. 6, 2021.

What to watch: These surrogates will be fanning the airwaves — especially on networks and social media platforms they feel are more favorable to their cause.That includes Fox News, Steve Bannon's "War Room," "Real America’s Voice," Facebook and Trump's own Truth Social and Save America PAC. 
Members of Congress and other conservative "influencers" are also planning to write op-eds and push their own rapid responses through their personal social media. Which witnesses the committee calls to testify publicly will dictate the coordinated response, the sources say.

Details: Members of House Republican leadership and would-be GOP members of the Jan. 6 committee are planning to meet early next week to go over potential strategy, two senior congressional aides tell Axios.
Jordan and Banks, whom House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) barred from the Jan. 6 panel last year, will seek to hammer the message that the committee "lacks merit and legitimacy" and is hyperpartisan, one of the aides emphasized. 
Another leading point Republicans plan to make is that the priorities of Democrats are "out of touch" with what Americans are most concerned about: inflation, spiking gas prices, the baby formula shortage and recent mass shootings. 
They're betting voters have Jan. 6 "fatigue," a House GOP leadership aide said. "We’ve got to be rigid and responsible, but a lot of Republicans think if Dems want to just talk about Jan. 6 between now and the midterm election — good luck," the aide added.
 
Of course, all this leads to the following observations:
 
1) Trumplandia is scared stiff.  They know what's coming, because they're the ones that committed insurrection against the United States. They wouldn't risk a major Streisand Effect incident by bringing more attention to January 6th among their own voters unless they knew that anything has to be better than America finding out the truth in these hearings.

2) They're setting the stage to punish the January 6th Committee Members in 2023. The screaming about the Committee itself being illegitimate is the biggest part of this. Documenting the hearings as "evidence to be used later" and as justification for, say, removing all the committee members from their other committee assignments in January (or worse) is the goal should Republican retake control of the House.

3) The pressure for media to cover the "Republican response" in order to "both sides" the hearings will be massive.  Expect cable news coverage teams on the networks like CBS, NBC, and ABC to feature at least some Republicans, as they will demand "equal time" for hours of hearings. News divisions will give it to them too, because of the access game they feel will be necessary next year. This will be a deliberate choice by the media when it happens.

So yes, the Trump plan is to flood the zone with bullshit and more, and we'll see if the Committee can rise above it later this month.