I posted 3 pieces yesterday, an Open Thread on 18/11/2016 and now another OT. There is so much going on now that needs addressing and not enough time for it all. Conway says Trump is disavowing the white supremacists and has been all through the campaign. BS!!! His advisors and cabinet choices say otherwise. And what is worse for me, his poison is spreading here too! I have known for years that we have our own racists too . . . I have lived in areas where they hide. But I refuse to be cowed by them. There is no place in a civil society for racism, bigotry or discrimination of any kind.
Short Takes
Montréal Gazette — Maxime Fiset was well on his way to becoming a neo-Nazi when he was arrested for inciting hatred.
Fellow skinheads had shaved his head for him, he had a Nazi flag in his room, draped over his copy of Hitler’s Mein Kampf and books on how to make a bomb, and he had founded the first organization and website in Quebec to bring all the right-wing extremists together — the Fédération des québécois de souche.
But it wasn’t until his arrest at school in Quebec City, with brass knuckles in his pocket, that he truly became radicalized, he says — and planned to inflict maximum damage.
In an interview with the Montreal Gazette the week after Donald Trump was elected, as swastikas appeared across the U.S. and in Canada, Fiset, looked back on how he joined the neo-Nazi movement — and how he got out.
Looking for Answers
At 17, Fiset was in a loving home, was good at school, and had everything he needed.
But he was looking for answers. He had a particularly influential, nationalist high school teacher, and learned about 20th century history, Adolf Hitler and the rise of the Nazi party.
He was also very much pro-independence and frustrated by what he perceived as the “weakening of Quebec culture” and the obstacles to independence — non-francophones and immigrants voting no.
“I was naive, and searching for answers to questions pretty much everyone asks themselves at some point in their lives — about politics and democracy,” said Fiset.
“I thought the Nazi party answered those questions. It was simple, black and white, and that was seductive … I stumbled into it and got stuck.”
At the end of the school year, Fiset, already an imposing young man, got a job working security for the city, guarding Roland-Beaudin Park in Quebec City. One night he approached a group of skinheads to tell them to leave, but instead began talking to them. They were friendly, he said — and they introduced him to Stormfront.
Self-described as “a community of racial realists and idealists,” the Stormfront website features a weekly radio show hosted by white supremacists Paul Fromm and David Duke, as well as discussion threads on everything from “which religions are acceptable” to the vandalism at a mosque in Sept-Îles. (There is a Quebec Stormfront forum, as well as one specifically targeted to youth).
Though many of the other skinheads were mostly interested in “booze, women and (skinhead music) shows,” Fiset was lured in by the politics.
It is important to understand the underpinnings of a belief system before trying to combat it, Fiset offers a glimpse into that understanding, a glimpse obtained from first hand experience. We would do well to listen. Click through for the rest of Fiset's story.
Daily Kos — According to news reports, and tweets from Kevin Allred, who is a lecturer at Rutgers University, in New Jersey where he teaches gender studies, he was taken to Bellevue Hospital in New York City for “psychiatric evaluation” by NYPD police, from his home in Greenpoint, Brooklyn NY.
The NYPD had been contacted by Rutgers Campus Police who received a report from a student that Mr. Allred was “threatening to kill white people.”
Allred is white.
Is this to be the new norm for daring to exercising the first amendment right to freedom of speech?
i said: would conservatives care as much abt the 2nd amendment if guns killed more white people? a question meant to expose double standard — Tweet of Kevin Allred 15 November 2016
Click through for the rest of this short piece. Can you conceive of the first amendment being in danger? I can and Trump vowed to curtail the freedom of the press, among other things, during his campaign. He will be a vengeful, small minded little dictator. On top of that, Washington State Senator Ericksen (R) has proposed a bill that would make protesting an act of economic terrorism. Another assault on the first amendment. The shit is going to hit the fan, and Trump has not even been sworn in yet.
Washington Post — President-elect Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress are drawing up plans to take on the government bureaucracy they have long railed against, by eroding job protections and grinding down benefits that federal workers have received for a generation.
Hiring freezes, an end to automatic raises, a green light to fire poor performers, a ban on union business on the government’s dime and less generous pensions — these are the contours of the blueprint emerging under Republican control of Washington in January.
These changes were once unthinkable to federal employees, their unions and their supporters in Congress. But Trump’s election as an outsider promising to shake up a system he told voters is awash in “waste, fraud and abuse” has conservatives optimistic that they could do now what Republicans have been unable to do in the 133 years since the civil service was created.
“You have the country moving to the right and being much more anti-Washington than it was,” said former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), a leading Trump adviser who serves on the president-elect’s transition team.
“We’re going to have to get the country to understand how big the problem is, the human costs of it and why it’s absolutely essential to reform,” said Gingrich, who urged Trump to shrink big government and overhaul the “job-for-life” guarantee of federal work.
Gingrich predicted that Stephen K. Bannon, a former Breitbart News chief who helped steer Trump’s campaign and is now one of his most influential advisers, would lead the effort. “It’s a big, big project,” he said.
Click through for the rest. I wonder if such can be applied to Representatives and Senators, most of whom would be Republicans, who did not do their jobs over the past 8 years. They were paid well, had gold plate benefits, but certainly did not represent the interests of the people. Waste and fraud could certainly be found in the Congress.
My Universe —
5 Responses to “Squatch’s Open Thread 22/11/2016”
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MG: Very, very frightening. We have the cartels here, who run the drugs. It's an active threat here, haven't seen any skinheads here. Yet. Gulp!! Relieved that he got out. Those who become radicalized, including those who have left to join ISIS in Syria, are not stupid, he says — “it’s the smart ones who care about the answers that you have to worry about.”
DK: I can think of several who need to go to Bellevue, and it's certainly NOT Mr. Allred. Starting with the Pres-elect, and his cabinet, for fomenting this kind of hate, and violence, get them all in the paddy wagon!
WaPo: Yea, I agree. Let's start at the top with DT, his cabinet, and those in Congress who sidle up with the 'master' planner of these regulations. Let's fire them first, and see how that works out for them.
Cartoon: Oh, how adorable!! My cat's jealous. lol.
Very sad how things are going in the political arena. I know our Honorable President Obama must be shaking his head at every turn of how 'things' are going. I am saddened by the events going on now. DT will continue to spew his blather to appease the population, and will do what he wants to do, backed up by his cronies. It's quite frightening now to even listen to them all.
Busy day today, and with company in, day trips are on the list. I might even offer my car to let them go, and I can stay home. LOL. Enjoy your day, and Thanks, Lynn for post.
MG: A very interesting study in radicalization within a very scary situation. The hateful crazies getting legitimized is awful for societies around the world! I have to give Fiset credit!
DK: Aside from my connection to Greenpoint, Brooklyn, (having worked there for quite a few years, years ago), aside from being familiar with mental health issues, as a therapist, I see this is as either a story about someone's inability to understand the english language, or that someone's fear and anxiety interfering with his/her ability to comprehend. I feel badly for Allred, and hope he does not suffer a job loss due tothis garbage. On the other hand, I can understand the University, and the police's response, once a report of this sort, no matter how poorly founded, has been made. Kudos to the staff at Bellevue!!
WP: I believe that this opportunity to turn back the clock will not be lost by the greedy on the right! I believe that one of the reasons for the animosity towards unions stems from their history of funding non-right campaigns, period! Also, unions came into existence on a progresssive impulse, when corporate power was sooooo easily abused, and abuse of the working class/middle class is so much what the right is about! Look at the attacks upon the pipeline protesters, and picture this, and worse, being perpetrated by private armies run out of corporate offices in the U.S. early last century! The days of "If you don't come to work on Sunday, don't come on Monday!" may be over, but not for too much longer, if the bastards on the right get their Pseudo-Christian way!
In something of a tangent, spinning off the picture of Rumpy's transition team and proposed cabinet, he could possibly be surrounding himself with such a massive morass of incompetence, because he hopes to look good in comparison: how else to conceive of his floatng the idea of having Dr. Ben, head up H.U.D? What credentials, what experience does Dr. Ben bring to the table?? This is the clown who is credited with having said that "Religion is needed to interpret science, because it might all be propaganda." I think Dr. Ben has been hanging out with the anesthesiologists, and their magic potions, a bit too closely. Gingrich, Bannon, Gulliani, Sessions?
Amen to your stand against racism.
Fédération des québécois de souche is full of bags de douche.
It's clear to me that Allred was using allegory. Fascists used it as an excuse so unleash their dogs.
The war on public service would occur under any Republican President with majorities in both houses.
Hello Kitty!
MG: Radicalization, whether it's to the far left or the far right, is the same everywhere. It doesn't matter if the radical belief system is based on religion or on political views, the (almost always) young men and a few young women all end up with a warped tunnel vision of the world which is terribly hard to alter as it is also kept in place by the tight-knit community they want to be part of. All radicals have to leave their ratio and any feelings of empathy at the door as the first step in the bonding process within that group. And yes, sadly it's a very global problem.
DK: Sigh…I know, it's easy for me to say (but don't worry, the Dutch may be facing similar problems after the elections in March 2017), but RESIST Most of us here are old enough to remember it can be done.
WP: I'm very sure sure these cut-backs will not be put in place for Senators or Representatives in Congress, or their direct staff, nor will the Drumpf governments ministers and advisors and what have you have to fear for their entitlements. And I'm sure Drumpf will see to it that any cash-flow from sources outside of the government will no longer be scrutinized or hindered in any way and of course be tax-exempt.
MU: Hi there, cutie!
MG – I know (well, know through Linked In) an American who was also sucked in and is now out and working hard to fight racism. His name is Scott Shepherd. Because there is also an actor named Scott Shepherd, if you google for him you need to google "Scott Shepherd Reformed Racist." His LinkedIn profile is at https://www.linkedin.com/in/reformedracist and his blog is at http://racistnomore1.blogspot.com/ I am absolutely on board that trying to understand people from the outside doesn't help. If we weren't inside, we need to learn from those who were.
DK – Doesn't this sound like it happened under Stalin, or even possibly under Khrushchev? Or in the third book of C.S. Lewis's trilogy known as his "space trilogy" (the actual book title is "That Hideous Strength")? Laws protecting freedom of speech don't stand a chance when it is not one's views but one's sanity which is being questioned.
WaPo – After having skyrocketed unemployment by allowing private sector jobs to go overseas (through various means, including union busting), the Republicans will now further skyrocket unemployment by destroying government sector jobs (through various means, including union-busting.) They are well on their way to making the entire United States a "Hooverville." (I don't think they remember quite how many comparatively wealthy people were wiped out by the crash and committed suicide.) Where is the new FDR who can help us rebuild? We are still waiting for him. (Or her.)
Universe – Well, hi back!