Thursday THREATCON – 18 February 2016

It’s Thursday Threatcon, your intelligence briefing on right wing activity. Below are the best reports, investigations, exposées, and debunkery of the wingnutosphere this week. Due to new grand jury indictments of the Bundy gang over their armed 2014 confrontation with the Bureau of Land Management, our Threatcon Color Code is BUMMED SIENNA

• My favorite part of the federal indictment: confirmation of my suspicion that Cliven Bundy is actually a very bad rancher with very unhappy cows
• Shawna Cox, who was arrested in the traffic stop operation that captured Ammon and Ryan Bundy, has filed an incoherent. ‘sovereign citizen’-inflected $666 billion lawsuit against federal officials for doing “works of the devil“
• Responding to citizen complaints, the Oregon Department of Public Standards and Safety will investigate whether ‘constitutional’ Grant County Sheriff Glenn Palmer, an ideological ally of the Bundy gang, violated state regulations
• Threats from ‘patriot’ militia associates have forced the Oregon House of Representatives to shield the name of the Oregon State Police officer who shot militant LaVoy Finicum for another 90 days. The Department of Homeland Security and the FBI have issued a joint warning bulletin that anti-government extremists may retaliate against law enforcement officers. So where the hell is the #BlueLivesMatter crowd? Are they perhaps too busy not showing up to their own Beyoncé protests?
• Tampa, FL police are supposedly refusing to work security at a Beyoncé concert in April because of her ‘anti-cop’ song “Formation.” I have my doubts about this story, which seems like another attempt to deflect from the reality that right wing domestic terrorists are far more dangerous to law enforcement than black music fans
• The National Sheriffs’ Association is blaming Beyoncé for the recent deaths of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty and a number of right wing blogs are following suit. I will have more to say about this story soon, but for now, just take a look at alleged shooter Marcus Schumacher of Fargo, ND and ask yourself whether he looks like a Beyoncé fan or a #BlackLivesMatter enthusiast
• The Southern Poverty Law Center has issued a new report showing a 14% uptick in hate groups and anti-government groups during 2015. Notably, Ku Klux Klan chapters have exploded; so have black separatist groups. The number of anti-LGBT groups has doubled since 2011
• Rock star, NRA board member, anti-Semite, and human shitstain Ted Nugent says Donald Trump will make a good president because “at least he’ll be a liar of a different color“
• This week, a sexual assault nurse gave testimony on the strangulation and rape that Trenton, NJ Moorish Temple ‘sovereign citizen’ Don Finney allegedly committed on his estranged wife during a three-day kidnapping in 2012
• Watch US Navy SEAL Rob O’Neill, who claims to be the man who shot Osama bin Laden, stun Fox Business host Stuart Varney with the fact that women are already taking part in special forces raids:

• Not only is Donald Trump the favorite candidate of white supremacists, but he’s also got a significant boost from misogynist ‘Men’s Rights Activists‘ and scores highest in South Carolina among confederate apologists and the most bigoted conservatives. Trump has single-handedly made the Republican brand toxic among Latinos
• Trump’s popularity on the right demonstrates that much of the conservative grassroots is not really concerned with ideology, but respond to gut-level tribalism and “a shared antipathy for common enemies“
• While it may just be an outlier, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll conducted after last Saturday’s rancorous GOP debate shows Ted Cruz overtaking Donald Trump nationally. One possible explanation is Ted Cruz’s superior data operation, but Trump’s flip-flops on abortion may also be a factor
• A county official’s report leaked to the Guardian shows that from August 2009 to December 2010, Mercy Health Partners hospital in Muskegon, MI put at least five women’s lives at risk by denying them timely labor induction during miscarriage in accordance with protocols established by Catholic bishops. Pro-life!
• The new abortion barriers in Texas hit Latina women hardest of all
• The ‘baby parts for cash’ witch hunt continues: the VA House has passed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood — and may have accidentally cut off several state hospitals in the process. The Alabama House has voted to ban the sale of fetal tissues — even though the bill’s sponsor admits the legislation is purely symbolic because it duplicates federal law
• South Dakota has become the first state to pass an anti-trans student bathroom bill
• San Francisco technology entrepreneur Justin Keller doesn’t think wealthy people like himself should have to see the “pain, struggle, and despair” of homeless “riff-raff” on their way to work in one of the world’s most expensive housing markets
• ‘Moderate’ Republican presidential candidate and possible robot Marco Rubio has recruited anti-LGBT activists to create a marriage equality-repeal advisory board just in time for dubious, yet still-hilarious gay rumors to surface
• Proto-fascism: Donald Trump is now bringing people up on his rally stage to congratulate them for roughing up protesters

https://youtu.be/OYZPKYecRGM

• Before leaving Mexico, Pope Francis has called Trump “not Christian” for wanting to build walls against immigration
• Can you say “conflict of interest”? Eugene Scalia, son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, has thrown cold water on conspiracy theories surrounding his father’s death, but we should still ask questions about who paid for his trip
• Dominionism is the new ‘religious freedom’ and Ted Cruz is its messiah
• Atheists and progressives need to stop defending the anti-Muslim bigotry and boys club misogyny of leading figures in the movement. The last thing nonbelievers should ever do is elevate such people above criticism
• Aryan Nations, once the best-known neo-Nazi white supremacist group in the United States, has finally disappeared more than twelve years after the death of its infamous founder, Richard Butler
• Ultimate gender confusion: State Rep. Dick Jones of KS thinks that the Supreme Court Obergefell decision has established a third sex in law
• Anti-Native American group Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) has abandoned its resistance to conspiracy theories, embracing the John Birch Society and its ‘Agenda 21’ chupacabra
• Conservative infighting: Patrick Howley of Breitbart News is hammering GOP pollster Frank Luntz for the messy ethics of his Marco Rubio support; Luntz responds by saying Breitbart is “full of shit” and “so far up Trump’s ass.” Both gentlemen are correct
• Token brain surgeon Ben Carson is miffed at the media for reporting on his fake Stalin quote and his goofy theory about the pyramids being ancient granaries
• US Army Reservist Raja’ee Fatihah is suing an Oklahoma gun range for denying him service. According to his complaint, the owners reacted to his religious beliefs by picking up guns and demanding to know if he was planning to murder them for “jihad” and “sharia law”