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.
- The Anti-Defamation League has tracked a disturbing increase in right wing attacks on law enforcement
- The ‘sovereign citizen’ movement is in its second generation. Pleading guilty to tax evasion this Monday, Jared Adrian of South Dakota explained that he “kind of just started following what my dad was doing…When the wrath of the IRS never came down on him, I thought he might really be onto something”
- David Brat, who pulled off a surprise win against House Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor on Tuesday, has the endorsement of a group that concern-trolls about the violent overthrow of President Obama. Brat stands a very good chance of actually getting to Congress, which would be bad news for just about everyone
- After a Florida ‘sovereign citizen’ was arrested for refusing to enroll his daughter in school, he responded as “the executor of the state of Joseph Anthony Rosa” during his arraignment
- ‘Sovereign citizen’ Eric C. Holtgard, also of Florida, accepted a deal to plead guilty and serve three years in prison after he was arrested twice in 24 hours for menacing people with guns. Ironically, if he had shot those people dead he might have escaped justice altogether by invoking the state’s ‘stand your ground’ law
- And yes, Florida does seem to be a hotbed of the ‘sovereign citizen’ movement
- Even before the tragic weekend assassination of two Las Vegas police officers by a ‘sovereign citizen’ couple, the city had already begun training officers in how to recognize and respond to sovereign citizens (see video)
- At The Guardian, Ana Marie Cox writes that dark money will serve corporate interests regardless of party. Meanwhile, Koch Industries has launched its very first corporate advertising campaign
- At Gawker, Adam Weinstein destroys the NRA mythology of “good guys with guns”
- Pro-life activists are challenging Maine’s 39-foot buffer zone around the state’s only abortion clinic
- Meagan Hatcher-Mays at MMFA writes that discredited pro-life advocate Vincent Rue has been sighted peddling disinformation in states that are being sued by abortion providers over TRAP laws
- At the Daily Beast, Dean Obeidallah writes that Republicans can’t confront radicalism in their party because it would mean breaking with their base
- Oklahoma state house candidate Scott Esk favors stoning gay people, which sadly makes him a fairly normal Oklahoma Republican
- South Carolina Republican Anthony Culler, now running against Jim Clyburn for a seat in Congress, likes to crack birther jokes (see video)
[youtube]http://youtu.be/lfm9aN8Gn3s[/youtube]