You can’t possibly be surprised to learn that the violence accompanying the recent protests was generated by happy white fanatics who wanted to use it to disrupt the country.
In the wake of protests following the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a member of the Boogaloo Bois opened fire on the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct with an AK-47-style gun and screamed “Justice for Floyd” as he ran away, according to a federal complaint made public Friday.
A sworn affidavit by the FBI underlying the complaint reveals new details about a far-right anti-government group’s coordinated role in the violence that roiled through civil unrest over Floyd’s death while in police custody.
The Boogaloo Bois hate the police, too, but the reason is rather different: it’s not because the American police are forces for oppression and injustice, but because they threaten the Boogaloo Bois’ desire to rule the countryside with heavily armed right wing militias; they want chaos because that would allow these wannabe bandits and warlords to run amuck. They want to be the ones with the guns and tanks.
The Star Tribune has been following these guys for a while now, since they seem to be active here in Minnesota. A previous article profiled several of these goons.
Solomon, who manages the maintenance division for a local property management company, called himself “an armed redneck” who joined the Boogaloo movement after dabbling in right-wing conservatism, libertarianism and militia activity. The police bulletin that named Solomon noted that he had a “III%-er” militia sticker on his truck.
In an interview, Solomon said his allegiance rested with the Boogaloo movement and that he had neglected to remove the armed militia sticker. Like many Boogaloos, Solomon also said he now recants his past support for President Donald Trump. Now, Solomon views himself as an “anarcho-capitalist.”
The good news: support for Trump is declining among these fanatics. The bad news: they’re libertarians and ancaps.
The good news: they say they are against racism and white nationalism. The bad news: they still think shooting up a police station and letting the black community take the blame is just fine.
We’ve been suffering with these violent clowns for centuries, thanks to our institutionalized policies of injustice. Don’t be fooled by people who claim to be for equality, yet eagerly enjoy the privileges of structural racism and take advantage of a convenient pool of scapegoats. Watch Cody explain the whole grand problem.
I want to go on record here with my post-election-week prediction.
Assuming a clear Biden victory, what SHOULD happen if Republican leaders weren't gutless weasels is that, as soon as the race was unequivocally called, Mitch McConnell, Kevin McCarthy, and John Roberts would all head to the White House and tell Trump they are going to camp out in the Oval Office until he agrees to deliver a gracious concession speech.Due to the whole gutless weasel thing, though (and I should probably apologize to all weasels), what is more likely is that an unsupervised Trump will issue some kind of vague, blustery speech that doesn't mention conceding and blames his loss on baseless accusations of fraud and Chinese vote-rigging. There will be enough incendiary language in his speech that it will inspire a handful of his more unhinged followers to launch a handful of Amon Bundy-style occupations around the country. There won't be many (<100) people involved in these uprisings, and the FBI will be able to talk them all down in a few days, but we'll all be stuck with wall-to-wall media coverage during this time of nervous, sweaty, bearded men in camo clutching large weapons. Once it becomes clear that there will be no general uprising to make him dictator-for-life, though, Trump will disavow them all and say that he was misunderstood or just kidding, and the end results will be the same.
I have no idea why my comments ended up in red.
brucegee1962 But it’s totes appropriate!!
I think you’re extremely optimistic about Trump’s response to losing, brucegee1962@!
Re. Mitch McConnell, the spell that keeps him alive past his natural death appears to be unraveling, as he has bandages and discoloring on one hand which he refuses to discuss.
Another possible expanation is that he carelessly touched a crucifix without wearing gloves, or he is suffering a reaction to garlic.
brucegee1962,
It is so much worse than that. Even now, Rethug state legislators in several swing states are actively planning to invalidate the popular vote even before all votes are counted, vote in a slate of Trump electors and send them to the EC in December.
arids@6,
If successful, that would be a coup, marking the definitive overthrow of democracy (such as it is) in the USA.
@Birger in #5: Ha! I thought of the guy as a living dead also.
@6 arids,
They might do that if it’s a squeaker, and the electoral votes come down to one or two states. I am hopeful that won’t be the case — based on early voting, this may be a blue tsunami. Even in that case, Trump will still cry fraud, and his cult followers will still, of course, believe him. But I don’t think that, in those circumstance, state legislators would have the guts or coordination to try to pull a coup.
a-ray @ 6
A coup like that wouldn’t be the end of things.
That would just be the start.
At least some and maybe all the Blue states would just not recognize the new Federal Government. A Federal government that is formed by force loses its legitimacy.
What happens after that isn’t clear.
The worst that could happen would be a new civil war, one that quickly goes nuclear.
The USA has 40% of the world’s nuclear weapons and they are scattered everywhere across the land.
Birger about McConnell
He has also shown bruising around his face. He might have been administered some sort of blood anticoagulation therapy for one reason or another.
Covid-19 virus is circulating among Republicans in the Senate and the White House right now. It’s also known that Covid-19 virus activates the blood clotting pathway producing micro and macro-blood clots. It’s standard to administer anticoagulation drugs to seriously ill Covid-19 patients to prevent this. If McConnell caught the virus, he might have been given those drugs, a common one being low molecular weight heparin.
of course fox news will not give this the front page covering it should be getting.
that they are even contemplating any action that could be considered a coup indicates just how what constitutes the republican party are profoundly undemocratic
uncle frogy
Apparently the police precinct got burned down not by protestors who had quite legitimate reasons to burn it down, but by agents provocateurs who just wanted to stir shit up.
I’m kind of sad about that. The most legitimate target you can imagine but even that is actually the right wingers.
Should Trump actually win, those Boogaloo idiots are going to find themselves quite dead. Their only hope is for Biden to win, so the police stay chummy with them to “defend” the country against non-white people.
Don’t forget the California Boogaloos who killed 2 cops and wounded 3 others.
@brucegee1962(#9):
What you call a tsunami of blue is more of a different strategy on how to vote.
For example Florida had a 20% or so lead for the democrats until the early voting stations opened and the republicans started voting. The gap is no tow down to 10%.
brucegee1962 @ #1 — Somehow you managed to get a “<code>” tag on your comment.
@numerobis
From what I have heard and what the article states, the boog boi shot a firearm at the police station, then later joined the crowd of hundreds of legitimate protesters who burned the police station down together. I have hard from many people involved in these protests that do not want everything blamed on right wing agitators because that covers up that the Black community in this country has legitimate grievances and are tired of putting up with all the abuse. The protests and even some riots are actual legitimate cries for help from an oppressed community with very few avenues left and many who are involved don’t want the entire store to just be about boog bois. The boogaloo bois didn’t start these protests, the communities did and they still want the change they were demanding.
“The blame was fixed the instant protests against injustice began”
It was fixed a long while before that, or else the police wouldn’t feel that they could kill black people with impunity. If the police actually thought riots would change anything, they wouldn’t set them off. (And they wouldn’t respond to protests against police violence with more violence.)
Although support for Trump may possibly be declining among them — I doubt it very much, honestly, he’s everything they’ve said they want for years — it doesn’t matter if they still vote for him and show support for his policies. Intent is not magic — actions are a million times more important. (Which is, in a nutshell, also why I am unwilling to vote for Biden, and have nothing but contempt for people who do.)
Who the fuck cares what they say?! Trump says he’s against racism when asked about it directly. He says he’s pro-LGBT! No wonder Biden won the primary, people actually put weight on what imbecile right-wingers say!
Thankfully, my voting strategy is not driven by Vicar’s feelings of contempt for me. I agree with most of the rest of the above, by the way.
And The Vicar says he hates Trump. But still tries to persuade everyone not to vote to get rid of him. Funny, that.
They may say they’re not racists, but they are trying to start a race war, so, ya’know, I still tend to label them racists. The Wisconsin shooter was a boogaloo boy himself. Or should I say “boogaloo boi”, as his militia was called the boogaloo bois. They shoot both protestors and cops to try to start the conflict.
As to the talk of what might happen post election if Trump loses, well, just look at the Wisconsin shooter. He shot three people, protestors were screaming for the cops to do something, but they ignored them and even thanked him. Presumably the cops will claim they meant for “protecting businesses” and not the whole murder thing, but I think this gives us a model for how this can play out. Post election we could see mobs of angry Trump supporters who bring their guns out and go looking for liberals to expend their rage upon, and the cops could take their own sweet time responding, letting the murder happen and the perpetrators walk away before they swing into action.
If I lived in militia land, I might consider being elsewhere on election night. My worst case scenario is basically The Purge, but in miniature, happening in dozens of places around the country. I expect that not to come about, but so far everything has been worse than I expected, so all I can say is that I’m hoping for a boring election night. There’s still the problem that many have predicted that we won’t get a clear winner at all, that not only will we have to wait for mailed in ballots to be counted by also for the inevitable lawsuits by ratfucking Republicans. That may simply delay the violence however.
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blockquote>Or should I say “boogaloo boi”, as his militia was called the boogaloo bois.
I suggest “boogers.”
…why the fuck does the mobile site do that?
It’s just Mitch’s sacrifice of disfigurement to the Dark Side, as he gains in Sith powers of obstructionism.