They’ve already sent letters saying as much to corporations and law firms.
Lawsuit city.
11 Likes
The clinic should be installed on a gunboat to fend off likely attackers. Oh, the irony of the boat’s guns having to be used. /s
3 Likes
Just saying: Proud Boys, et al, likely see this scenario as a tripping mechanism for a civil war, that is, not all NG service people will follow the rule of law.
1 Like
The military in general is now politically far to the left of the Republican Party. With some exceptions, career military in particular poll more in line with the general public than most people think. And many take their oath quite seriously. It should also be noted that disobeying orders is punished severely; disobeying orders in the way you imply, violently in the field, is punishable by immediate violence.
In other words, if Proud Boys think they can stand even against weekend warrior National Guard, they have another thing coming. If they think NG members are going to switch sides for them, they are still badly mistaken. If one or two try, they will likelyfind it a fatal mistake.
15 Likes
The Freedom Cascus (yuck) has already told a big law firm that is exactly what they plan to do next time the legislature meets, as well as disbarring lawyers who help anyone get an abortion. It was a rather threatening letter about how the law firm needs to stop providing help to their employees. Also a stupid move. Sidley is a huge high powered law firm. Giving them notice of the plan was dumb
15 Likes
No argument there. That said, the operative word is “general”. Working for a private contractor supporting the DoD at labs near EAFB, I get to hear what comes out of the mouths of some of the military. Scientist/Engineer officers who, by the way, are nerd-cool and enjoyable to work with. I see indications of otherwise (as far as the military is concerned) when periodically having to visit a personnel center at EAFB. Sitting in the lobby, one is entertained by several monitors all lock-tuned to FOX talking heads, and that way for several years now; the channels cannot be changed by people in the lobby. Random supportive mutterings sometimes from other lobby-sitters – many times lower ranked military – add to my queasiness while waiting there. (I also get to hear such mutterings from Air Force civilians employed as lab techs supporting our contractor.) I have no reason to believe that there is not a serious percentage of like-minded National Guardsmen (weekend warriors perhaps too divorced from soldiers’ oaths), likely not enough in numbers to actually lead to the kind of world they want, but enough to create a situation that would ignite and (however stupidly) mobilize the armed, violent Right. In spite of military oaths, there is no way of knowing how potentially rebellious NG individuals will actually behave when ordered to maintain order and protect those who are Pro-Choice.
Interesting, though, is the plethora of recent firings of high-ranking officers in other branches of the military. There’s talk (and nothing so far official) of negligence, but within my small group at the lab, the word “traitors” keeps popping up. Perhaps some guardian angel higher-ups are cleaning house.
13 Likes
Anecdotal, so take it with a grain of salt, but I’ve heard many Tx NG are super pissed about the border shit going down here and that discontent has spread to the state GOP. A relative of mine is army reserve and has reported that the politics of the reserve have definitely shifted left since he joined 4 years ago.
ETA: specifically, my relative said the reserve and a lot of rank-and-file regulars were really pissed about the lip service the Trump administration gave to the military while denigrating gold star families and taking away a bunch of funding for infrastructure renovation at the bases
15 Likes
This got me curious, so I asked my relative about training on domestic terrorism and white supremacy. He said they’ve been doing enlisted training and officer training and there has been a big emphasis since 2016
16 Likes
I’m not surprised to hear you encountered those attitudes. During the late 1990s and at least into the early 2000s the Xtianists made a big recruiting push in the Air Force officer corps. A lot of it was centred around the academy in Colorado Springs, and that town is apparently still lousy with evangelical megachurches and businesses.
That branch of the service is the one I’d trust least to defend the Constitution if things go pear-shaped in the coming years.
13 Likes
I recall training on domestic terrorism going back to the '90’s. Of course Timothy McVeigh used to be a soldier so it was a very relevant teaching point. In some of my more senior coursework we received instructions on warning signs to watch for. None of the training do I recall drawing any association with right-wing politics though.
13 Likes
It should have. White supremacist groups shifted to a more lone wolf type model during the 80s and McVeigh and Nichols were very much the outcome of that shift (David Lane was one of the people who developed that idea in order to leave their networks as intact as possible). Their only other point of connection was with a couple who helped them with supplies and planning that had direct connections to the right wing militias of the day. And of course, he had read The Turner Diaries (William Pierce) which were very much a hand book on how to carry out such attacks and had a whole justification for these acts of violence. They were very much a forerunner of today’s accelerationists who are carrying out all kinds of nihilistic attacks all over the place.
The reason why we have this problem today is because we did not see the larger networks that were working through the lone wolf model and then we got distracted by a focus on radical Islam, and seeing terrorist behind every mildly conservative imam in America. And then of course, groups like Islamic State are cribbing directly from people like Lane and Pierce.
The whole thing frustrates me so much, because our institutions (DOJ, FBI, and apparently training in the US military too) just assumed that these people had gone away after the 70s, but they had not. Pretty much any punk rocker who came up in a scene in the 80s or 90s will tell you all about the problems with racist skinheads who were causing problems in their scenes. It was such a universal that you can see zines talking about this during that whole period.
I’m glad that they SEEM to be taking the seriously now (according to @anon23281680), but this should have been taken seriously years ago.
16 Likes
According to my relative, they are making an explicit connection between white supremacists and domestic terrorism. Including signs to look for and very strict reporting requirements. Like- if you notice x y or z and don’t report it, you will be disciplined. Unfortunately he says that racism and sexism are still huge problems and the movement on those is slow. There is movement, but slow.
15 Likes
No doubt about the connection. It struck me (later) that the connection to right-wing philosophies was probably being ommited in the training (because feelings, I guess).
The training I got from the FBI on bomb factories didn’t shift focus from the domestic threat, and pretty much discounted foreign actors. They’d even make a point of mentioning that a person of middle eastern decent would have a hard time buying a ton of fertilizer and fuel oil, but white guys could do so easily, and left it to us to draw the lines.
17 Likes
Absolutely. In addition there was an annual command climate survey where all unit members are asked anonymously whether they have seen or heard racist or extremist points of view in the past year.
I retired a number of years ago so I’m no longer up to speed, but I see this as a positive change.
14 Likes
Probably. Even then, some conservatives got real upset if you implied a connection, though even back then, shit was starting to slip in. I think you could even argue that goes as far back as Goldwater’s campaign run, as he brought in some of the Randian libertarianism that some on the right have been so enamored of.
The lot of them can fuck right off…
Now that’s interesting. I think I did read somewhere recently that what really got the FBI off track with a focus on domestic terrorists was 9/11 more than anything. But then again, the first world trade bombing was carried off by foreign terrorists, and had ties to Khaled Sheikh Mohammad, and that was 2 years prior to the OKC bombing. The FBI were surveilling the group that did it the whole time, and even watched as they built the bomb…
14 Likes
15 Likes
For Maryland high school student Sabrina Thaler, however, the prospect of attending college in a state that bans abortion is unsettling.
Thaler, 16, recalled the question she posed to her high school class during a discussion in May after the decision that ultimately overturned Roe v. Wade was leaked.
“What if I go to a college in a state where abortion is banned and I get raped and then I don’t have the option to have an abortion?”
20 Likes
We’re all wondering that, Sabrina.
16 Likes
Indiana’s Republican attorney general said Wednesday his office would investigate a doctorwho provided an abortion to a 10-year-old girl who was raped and became pregnant.
13 Likes
