Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Yet Again

As the January 6th hearings get underway this evening, Michigan GOP gubernatorial hopeful Ryan Kelly, running on a platform of being a January 6th white supremacist domestic terrorist and openly bragging about it, has been arrested for being a January 6th white supremacist domestic terrorist.  Who knew, etc.

FBI agents arrested Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley on misdemeanor charges related to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The arrest and search that unfolded at Kelley's home in Allendale outside of Grand Rapids add more uncertainty to a chaotic race for governor that has seen five Republican candidates blocked from the ballot for submitting fraudulent nominating petition signatures.

Prosecutors filed four charges against Kelley, 40. They are knowingly entering or remaining in a restricted building; disorderly and disruptive conduct; knowingly engaging in any act of physical violence against person or property in a restricted building or grounds; willfully injuring or committing depredation against property of the U.S.

If convicted, Kelley faces maximum punishment of up to one year in federal prison. He was freed on a personal recognizance bond following a brief hearing in federal court in Grand Rapids.

Kenzi Niewiadomski, one of Kelley’s neighbors in his Allendale subdivision whose sister lives across the street from him, said she witnessed FBI agents leading Kelley away from his home in handcuffs Thursday morning. Kelley's wife and children left the home with backpacks in hand and got into a family van moments after Kelley was taken into custody, Niewiadomski said.

“He was just cooperating,” she said. “What are you going to do at that point?”

Niewiadomski said she can’t personally stand Kelley as a politician. He has a campaign flag flying below an American flag on the flagpole in his front yard.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment,” Niewiadomski said. 

 

Kelley will certainly make bond, and if he's smart, he'll hold a press conference to say specifically that being a white supremacist domestic terrorist is exactly why Republicans should vote for him in the primary in August. 

Keep an eye on this asshole.

Our Little White Supremacist Domestic Terrorism Problem, Con't

Homeland Security is warning that online extremist and white supremacist forums are pushing for more Uvalde-style school shootings as part of Republican "Great Replacement" theory rhetoric.

The U.S. Dept. of Homeland Security warned on Tuesday that people in online forums known for hosting violent extremist content are lauding the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas—and are pushing others to commit further attacks.

“Individuals in online forums that routinely promulgate domestic violent extremist and conspiracy theory-related content have praised the May 2022 mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and encouraged copycat attacks,” DHS officials wrote in a bulletin released Tuesday morning.

DHS officials explained that others have capitalized on the shooting—during which a lone gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers—to push conspiracy theories, including the false claim that the federal government faked the shooting to boost support for gun control measures.

DHS officials also noted that the alleged perpetrator of a mass shooting that killed 10 in a majority-Black neighborhood of Buffalo, NY 10 days before the Uvalde shooting, was motivated by racist conspiracies he found online; the shooter that killed 23 in a majority Latinx neighborhood in El Paso in 2019 was animated by many of the same theories.

Officials advised readers to “maintain digital and media literacy” and practice recognizing “false or misleading narratives” to protect themselves against proliferating misinformation.

Mass shootings have fomented similar conspiracies in the past: after a gunman killed 20 kids at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012, Austin-based far-right provocateur Alex Jones pushed the lie that the federal government had staged the shooting to drum up support for gun control measures.

After Buffalo, claims that the shooting was an orchestrated ‘false flag’ operation bubbled up again. Jones’ website ‘Infowars’ trumpeted that he’d predicted a false flag operation at a grocery store in the days after; an Arizona state lawmaker is now under investigation for endorsing the conspiracy on Telegram following the shooting.

 

Nobody should be surprised that a shooting at a predominately Hispanic school and a shooting at a predominately Black neighborhood grocery store are both being praised by those encouraging more shootings.

I expect things to get worse, as they have steadily since 2016.