Origin Stories

The flailing NY Times starts our Saturday with a bit of self-parody:

First Rule of Far-Right Fight Clubs: Be White and Proud

And the first rule of far-left fight clubs, known popularly as the 'antifa', or anti-fascists? Sorry, the Times hasn't written that story yet, although their current article acknowledges their significance:

As the founder of a group of right-wing vigilantes called the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights, Mr. Chapman, a 6-foot-2, 240-pound commercial diver, is part of a growing movement that experts on political extremism say has injected a new element of violence into street demonstrations across the country.

Part fight club, part Western-pride fraternity, the Alt-Knights and similar groups recruit battalions of mainly young white men for one-off confrontations with their ideological enemies — the black-clad left-wing militants who disrupted President Trump’s inauguration and have protested against the appearances of conservative speakers on college campuses.

Along with like-minded groups like the Proud Boys, a clan of young conservative nationalists, and the Oath Keepers, an organization of current and former law-enforcement officers and military veterans, they mobilized on social media to fight in New Orleans over the removal of Confederate monuments; on the streets of Berkeley, Calif., where clashes between the left and right have increasingly become a threat for law enforcement; and at a raucous May Day rally in Los Angeles.

By way of contrast the antifa had the run of the streets during Trump's inaugural, resulting in a famous punched 'Nazi', protest porn in The Nation (with a subsequent apology) and, well, not much interest from the Times in the origins of left-wing street thuggery.

As to the notion that we would spend four (or eight!) years watching left-wing violence against Trump supporters with no right-wing response, well, really? The police in Berkeley couldn't, or wouldn't, protect right wingers and here we are.

Comments

[Bubarooni]

Ha!

[hrtshpdbox]

In skillet mix technique stolen from the final scene of "Big Night" with Stanley Tucci.

Just made KevlarKid's egg recipe from the last thread. Turned out great! Definitely the first time I've used oil instead of butter.

[daddy on iPad tipping over Guam]

I can't do an end of thread on iPad. l'il help.

[Clarice Feldman]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2017/06/harvard_historian_beclowns_self_over_paris_climate_accord.html

(Yes end of threaders--PLS)

[daddy on iPad tipping over Guam]

...that experts on political extremism...

Experts? What experts?

[sbw]

Welcome, new readers!
Link to last page of thread here.
Ignore the trolls or mask them with Killfile. Chrome offers a Killfile option, too.
Credit sources for quotes.
Feel free to ask questions.
Try not to embarrass our generous host, Tom Maguire.

[Bubarooni]

I screwed up the gravy again.

Ain't nuthin' wrong with the sausage tho.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

This is an interesting video I picked up on Thomas Wictor's Twitter feed. The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi visits soldiers int he hospital who were wounded in Yemen.

Interesting glimpse into the humanity of Arabs, which we don't often see. I also was struck how the one soldier just wants to get back to his group (very similar to American soldiers).

Also, I didn't know Cleveland Clinic had a branch in Abu Dhabi (revealed in description of video on You Tube).

This has English subtitles.

And yes, I know, it could be propaganda and I know all about tacquiya and such. Just thought it was interesting.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-_jmPVLdV0

[JimNorCal]

Week In Pictures
http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2017/06/the-week-in-pictures-covfefe-edition.php

[sbw]

daddy:

Loved the Sherman anecdote. thnx.

Since the Pentagon Papers verdict, probably nothing for the reveal. The price of a free, and sometimes irresponsible press that wrongly feels itself entitled.

But, As the Greeks taught us, hubris eventually meets the wheel of fortune as it turns ’round.

[sbw]

Rats! Larwyned the thread.

[DebinNC]

The Asheville police chief ordering his officers not to intervene as Trump rally goers exited through a tunnel of jeering, unhinged Sorosbots, may have won NC for Trump. The Dem Charlotte Mayor allowing Sorosbots to drop chunks of concrete from I-85 bridge overpasses onto cars traveling below was also very clarifying to NC voters. I imagine the lesson wasn't lost of OH, MO, WI, and MI voters either.

[JimNorCal]

Not just Berkeley antifa of course.
San Jose police told to stand down while Trump supporters assaulted.
There was great blog post by a black cop who attended a Trump rally out of curiosity and was appalled by activists shouted obscenities at families with small kids.

[hrtshpdbox]

Muslims who don't read the Koran as a call to arms against infidels are regular folks, I've known quite a few.

[Captain Hate]

Also, I didn't know Cleveland Clinic had a branch in Abu Dhabi (revealed in description of video on You Tube).

They're everywhere. Anytime I see new construction I assume it's the Clinic or University Hospitals.

[DebinNC]

Clarice's 9:14 is delicious and a reminder of why Ted Cruz has a many fans.

[Captain Hate]

Yes, Deb, I'm not sure why so many people here take shots at Cruz because he's competitive with Trump in ability to identify and beclown gasbag opponents.

[Jim Eagle]

Yes, Deb, I'm not sure why so many people here take shots at Cruz because he's competitive with Trump in ability to identify and beclown gasbag opponents.

CH,

I know a certain guy in the San Diego area who can answer your question:)

[Marlene]

Good Morning! An apparently upset man performed an act of political violence here in Maine yesterday. The man went into the Augusta City Hall and applied for General Assistance and was denied. The man was holding a cup full of live bedbugs and slammed it down on the desk. The city manager said,"he slammed it down and bam! The bugs flew everywhere." The building was closed and sprayed. A bedbug sniffing dog will be brought in on Monday to sniff out any remaining bedbugs. In typical Maine understatement,the city manager said the incident was yucky.

[narciso]

So Carlos slims was fed the wolf, by Rhodes price et al, it's good to know we have the counterpart to angletin on the job.

[Buckeye]

Muslims who don't read the Koran as a call to arms against infidels are regular folks, I've known quite a few.

Now that the muzzie at the gas station has quit short changing me, I am starting to think he is regular folk.

Still keep one in the chamber.

[boris]

In case anyone missed it:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2017/06/origin-stories/comments/page/99/#comments

[Buckeye]

Sitting in the Nashville airport on my way home from the trip to hell in Dallas.

Will be in the car on the way to the lake at 2. Hopefully on a JetSki before dinner.

Lots of pretty girls in the airport this morning.

Whoever invented those black stretchy pants deserves an award.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Muslims who don't read the Koran as a call to arms against infidels are regular folks, I've known quite a few.--

There were lots of Germans and Japanese who didn't read Mein Kampf or adhere to Shinto.
However their failure to prevent the radicalization of their cultures led to millions of them being incinerated.
Islam is on the same reckless road it was 1000 years ago but this time the Crusaders have thousands of thermonuclear devices with a range far beyond Tours or the gates of Vienna.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Senator Sanctimonious is about to get his turn in the barrel:

DRUDGE REPORT‏ @DRUDGE_REPORT 2h2 hours ago

SASSE LAUGHS...

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Whoever invented those black stretchy pants deserves an award.--

Or a shiner, depending on who is wearing them.

[narciso]

The control faction in imperialist Japan were a small cabal indeed but that didn't stop honorable men like tamamoto and yamashita but being under their influence
And post war the likes of sasagawai and kodama still wielded great power as founders of the ldp, and kishi another figure still has impact to this day.

[Buckeye]

Or a shiner, depending on who is wearing them.

:)

[JimNorCal]

Doubtless already posted? For anyone else who missed it...

http://www.sarahpalin.com/usa-today-says-hillary-clinton-needs-memoir-title-twitter-users-offer-suggestions/

Not too many good ones but this seems about right.
Close, But No Cigar (A Clinton Story)

[narciso]

Yes liberals write about urban militias and other paramolitaries as if they came up, like Athena from Zeus head, but they often arose from provocations by incipient Marxist elements whether western Europe or south america.

[Bela1]

Still playing catch up but guess who'll appear with Chris Wallace on Fox News Sunday?

Al Gore!

Boy oh boy oh boy I better get my DVD hooked up for this one....

Iggy :D

[Frau Bahnhof]

"Whoever invented those black stretchy pants deserves an award."

Be careful...someone might post that photo of the Omen in hers.

[DebinNC]

LOL, Jim

[Janet the expert 🚬]

On FB - Denny Osburn - "Kathy Griffin beheaded to the unemployment line."

[henry]

Anonamom.... The local doc follows the health system guidelines (thanks ACA). It has to do with moderately high lipids. so the system prints out the usual no red meat or cheese, low fat recommendation for cholesterol. Then the no carbs thing for triglicerides. I think that I can eat beans and celery by that combo. The whole diet advice thing drives me nuts.

[Frau Bahnhof]

Also this scary thought from the Failing Gray Slut book section:

We look at new works from Sentors Elizabeth Warren, Ben Sasse and Al Franken, each rumored to be a future WH contender

[narciso]

Dave's on double secret probation I think for thst.

[Frau Bahnhof]

Confession is good for something, narciso: daddy and I have sinned in that category.

[-peter]

Whoever invented those black stretchy pants deserves an award.

Had a friend at U.Va. who was from Waynesboro, Virginia, where DuPont chemists invented lycra spandex. Wikipedia says chemist Joseph Shivers was the inventor, but my friend said his dad was the one.

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Frau,

Those three are buckets of awful, each in their own way.

I cannot stand the thought of any of them in the White House.

Sasse especially gripes me, as he pretends to be conservative and religious, but only when it suits him.

[Account Deleted]

anonamom--- you have lived to rock yet another day!

Spot on counsel to our henry.

henry--- the anonamom speaks wholehearted truth re arterial maladies.

carb control, vascular scouring w/proteolytic enzymes is the key.

my cardiologist threw up his hands during our last review of testing data on my vascular system:

"Okay. How in God's name did you do this?"

dog walking. veganic diet-- 90% raw during the past year. and proteolytic enzymes daily (no blood thinners--- blood and vessel cleaners)

not to carry on too long here.... i take a pre-mixed tonic to *support* the heart where the blood flow through the chambers is "heating" the blood to create a hostile environment for bacteria that will gather in the ventricles and get recirculated out of the pump out into the far reaches of the vascular system.

what they thought was scar tissue in a lower area of one chamber--- it's g-o-n gone.

the power of bear garlic.

glad you shared, brother. and me glad to share the miracle.

thanks for all the hard work and dedication, anonamom.

Kev

[Jim Eagle]

Aren't they called "yoga pants"? See them all over the village in different prints, colors and designs. See lots of runners in them also.

Expecting Frederick back from his last rehearsal of their spring musical called "Moviola" featuring Hollywood characters from the 1930's - 1950's. He is Nelson Eddy, in a RCMP costume, as he sings 'Lover Come Back to Me' to a 6th grade girl playing Jeannette McDonald.

Hope he can handle those deep bass tones:)

[Account Deleted]

/b>Just saw this, henry

"The whole diet advice thing drives me nuts."

so sorry if it felt like i was landing on the head of that pin.

intent: sharing what's worked.

[Frau Bahnhof]

Sasse doesn't have at chance at the WH, imho, Miss M.

Warren and Franken, however, could run on the prog ticket together. It's a Monty Python skit to scare the Schiff out of us.

[JM Hanes]

hrtshpdbox:
"Muslims who don't read the Koran as a call to arms against infidels are regular folks, I've known quite a few"

Ignatz:
"There were lots of Germans and Japanese who didn't read Mein Kampf or adhere to Shinto. However their failure to prevent the radicalization of their cultures led to millions of them being incinerated."

Let us not forget the Kurds, who have been fighting back, with their lives, for longer than we have, and who have been a democratic outpost in a world flush with dictatorships. I would note that their women take on heavy duty combat roles, too. Then there was the green revolution in Iran, snuffed out, in a tragedy of timing, with the active help of a U.S. President. It's my impression that the ruling class under the deposed Shah considered themselves more Persian than "Arab" which adds another dimension to the struggle. You can get a bit of that flavor in the laymens' answer to the questions posed about how modern Persians feel about the historic Islamic invasion which brought down the Sassanian Empire in 651. Yes, they have long memories in the Middle East. Jordan is another place where the rubber meets the road in an uneasy balance. Ditto Indonesia.

The question which needs answering, it seems to me, is one of how to prevent the kind of recidivism which we see in its most brutal form in Africa, where an enlightened Zimbabwe can go from bread basket to basket case in a few short years. Pictures of Egyptian or Afghan women in modern clothing only twenty years ago are reminders of progress that was reversed in its tracks.

I have a sense that nationalism can actually come into play as a positive force, but haven't had time to explore that idea. I am utterly convinced, however, that the division of church and state is the sine qua non of progress. Why is it that Islamists can thrive and expand in chaos while "western" values atrophy?

[Gentlejim]

Be careful...someone might post that photo of the Omen in hers.

Posted by: Frau Bahnhof | June 03, 2017 at 11:48 AM

Frau,
Those weren't stretchy pants. They were stretched pants.
;)

[Account Deleted]

Re: yoga pants, stretchy pants, tights, leggings.

;)

Mrs. Kid rocks every version of them. 5 feet 100 pounds soaking wet.

Her biking and yoga bunnies do too. They train daily like the US Marines.

The outfit is as practical as it is
eros-inspiring; the former being what they swear to as reason for wearing that stuff. ;)

The downside to all of those skin-tight options are the Berkeley harridans over 50 who insist on parading around with their sack of kittens in the trunk.

It's a privilege-- not a right--- if ya know what I mean.

As for the composition of this class of form-fitting garb, there are different combinations of material used depending on the desired balance of various functional requirements which might include wicking moisture, giving support, allowing skin to breathe, etc.

Lycra, nylon, polyester, and spandex are the usual suspects in any given formula used for production.

[narciso]

Ditto jm I got that notion from fall of heaven, the first reasonable account of the pahlavi regime since pahlavi.

[DrJ]

Your (almost!) daily Wretchard:

https://pjmedia.com/richardfernandez/2017/06/02/on-the-shoulders-of-giants/

[narciso]

Since taheti's 'nest of spies, I ousted some links about the mugabeesque predilictions of Zuma.

[Frau Bahnhof]

KKid - I understood henry's remark as a reaction to the usual recommendations from his (?) personal physician and not from JOM musings and experiences.
henry gets the last say...

[Frau Oberschenkel]

"Those were stretched pants," sez Gentlejim.

Yes! That's the thighs of it.

[JM Hanes]

KKid:

Pumpkin seeds & coconut are how I usually start my day, too! Of course, my pepitas are toasted with oil & salt, and the coconut flakes are sweetened with sugar, so we may not be on exactly the same page....

[Account Deleted]

JM--- nice to see you out and about today.

Dint get back re your souffle attraction. That version you spoke of yesterday sounds like something Mrs. Kid would like.

RE: Islam and the separation of church and state...

i concur with all of the points brought up in quotes from hrtsh and iggy and your post.

i'm reminded of one of J. Edgar's belief in "the 3% influence factor."

he was known for squashing movements that reached 3% critical mass of the general population.

once a movement surpassed that marker it was game on with momentum shifting in favor of the movement to shape the agenda going forward.

What we know so far with regard to Islam and Islamic jihad:

it's safe to conclude that Islamic jihadism is driving the agenda worldwide, despite our capacity to kill their foot soldiers with consistency when we so direct our campaigns.

350 million jihadis world-wide active in 1) cultural jihad and the infestating programs for sharia law (jihadi lite--CAIR, muslims getting elected to local offices and boards/commissions); 2) pen and sword jihad--- the endless tangle of Islamic jurists, scholars, and imams; and, 3) militarism--- the terror cell, terror army continuum.

their central goal is to make the continuous jenga-like moves that destabilize institutions to the point of civilizational collapse, such as what happened in Syria and Libya.

they use the laws, the religious code to control Muslim minds and bodies, and they use asymetric warfare to achieve those ends via "Death by a thousand cuts."

[hrtshpdbox]

However their failure to prevent the radicalization of their cultures..

Yes, indeed, Ignatz, law-abiding Muslims need to step up to denounce and fight the radicals within their ranks.

[hrtshpdbox]

However their failure to prevent the radicalization of their cultures..

Yes, indeed, Ignatz, law-abiding Muslims need to step up to denounce and fight the radicals within their ranks.

[hrtshpdbox]

Ah, darn, double post (now trebled, I 'spose).

[Account Deleted]

JM---- i sweeten my pumkin flax mix with "xylitol"... a no-aftertaste sugar alternative... no sugar spikes....

the nutrition plan requires all seeds be consumed raw so no toasting (which Mama Kid used to do with the pepitas to make them burning hot--- toasted in jalapeno infused corn oil...chingao!)

eating about 1 cup of the mix at 9 am carries me til the 4 pm salad these days.

it's been a real find because I was quite the "breakfast is the most important meal of the day" guy way back when.

[Account Deleted]

Thanks, Frau. You could be right (as usual). ;)

[narciso]

The problem box, as Greenfield puts it, what happens as in the UK when the local constabulary represented by hopkins and the city elders like the mayor are in three monkee mode.

[narciso]

I provided a little context in the comments as have others

[Frau Oberschenkel]

DKid - not "right" but just sayin'...

[narciso]

The Catherine levy book about him laden shows how extraordinarily duplicitous orgs like the Isi are, in the way they provided sanctuary for him and the taliban.

[Frau Oberschenkel]

"DKid"! where did that come from?
Roofpead

[henry]

Kev, thanks! I will shift that direction to the extent I understand it. From a quick search, I have been doing some of that anyway... now fo figure out where to get this stuff in rural WI.

[Skoot]

Well, I'm off to a wedding at Trump National Bedminster.

I 'll let you know if I have to pepper spray any hippies at the gate:)

[narciso]

Same place covfefe comes from, dark magic that isv airocorrect

[narciso]

Hence they think this is news:

https://mobile.twitter.com/thehill/status/871032993380544513

[narciso]

So now leaked emails are fine:

http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5932bf04e4b02478cb9bec1c?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

[Blue collar lies]

All of which is to say: The President, acting as self-styled champion of the American worker, says a pullout from the climate deal and full-throated recommitment to the dirtiest-burning fossil fuels will rush to the rescue of those who are hurting economically.

Sobering numbers show what we have to fear from climate change
The hopes Trump cruelly raised on the Rose Garden lawn Thursday will soon come crashing down.

Weigh that wishful presidential thinking against an honest look at an alternative economic future, in which the nation stands poised to decisively transition to cleaner energies, leading the world. This is not, of course, to the exclusion of coal, oil and other fuels. It is simply an affirmative bet on another path forward, a path that is better for the environment and the consumer.

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The nation’s renewable energy sector employs 800,000 people and rising. Our solar power industry alone employs more workers than the oil, coal and gas industries combined.

The obvious economic promise of energy sources other than dirty fossil fuels is why the bulk of American energy businesses — even including oil giant ExxonMobil, where Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was CEO — strongly supported remaining in the Paris Accord.

[narciso]

Note as the curiosity about the leakers like Qatari ministry of interior officials is left out of the picture.

[The delusion has peaked]

The Republican Governor of Kentucky, Matt Bevin, has a solution to crime in his capital city: “Volunteer patrols that will not report or stop criminal activity, but pray it away.”

He appears to be serious.

Bevin suggested at a community meeting that volunteer groups of between three and 10 people would adopt specific blocks and walk around them while praying, according to WHAS, the Louisville ABC station.

“You know, you walk to a corner, pray for the people, talk to people along the way,” Bevin said, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. “No songs, no singing, no bullhorn, no T-shirts, no chanting. Be pleasant, talk to the people, that’s it.”

That’s it, y’all.

We will meet at the south gate of the White House and pray like the dickens that God shoves Donald Trump out so we can change the locks. Apparently, that’s all there is to it..

[narciso]

This covers up the malfeasance of the ambassador that tried to detail the anti sepah accord.

[Captain Hate]

Questions Chris Wallace won't ask Weird Al:

1. How many science courses did you take in college and what were your grades?
2. For somebody who claims to be concerned about so called climate change caused by a trace gas, why do you, a divorced person, need to live in a house with its own zip code?
3. Does the fact that you lost the popular vote in your home state of Tennessee mean that the more people know you the less they like or trust you?
4. Since your father voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964, does that solidify his reputation as one of the most bigoted members in the history of the U.S. Senate?
5. Do you laugh along when South Park calls you ManBearPig or silently yearn for the day when you can make them political prisoners?

[narciso]

I think of gore sort of like that gone to seed part that Melvin belli had on that long ago trek episode,like a pied piper.

[UNO]

ON A FREEZING NIGHT in November, as police sprayed nonviolent Dakota Access Pipeline opponents with water hoses and rubber bullets, representatives of the FBI, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, North Dakota’s U.S. Attorney’s Office, and local law enforcement agencies frantically exchanged emails as they monitored the action in real time.

“Everyone watch a different live feed,” Bismarck police officer Lynn Wanner wrote less than 90 minutes after the protest began on the North Dakota Highway 1806 Backwater Bridge. By 4 a.m. on November 21, approximately 300 water protectors had been injured, some severely. Among them was 21-year-old Sophia Wilansky, who nearly lost her arm after being hit by what multiple sworn witnesses say was a police munition.

The emails exchanged that night highlight law enforcement efforts to control the narrative around the violent incident by spreading propaganda refuting Wilansky’s story, demonstrate the agencies’ heavy reliance on protesters’ social media feeds to monitor activities, and reveal for the first time the involvement of an FBI informant in defining the story police would promote.

The exchange is included in documents obtained by The Intercept that reveal the efforts of law enforcement and private security contractors to surveil Dakota Access Pipeline opponents between October and December 2016, as law enforcement’s outsized response to the demonstrators garnered growing nationwide attention and the number of water protectors living in anti-pipeline camps grew to roughly 10,000. Although the surveillance of anti-DAPL protesters was visible at the time — with helicopters circling overhead, contingents of security officials watching from the hills above camp, and a row of blinding lights illuminating the horizon along the pipeline’s right of way — intelligence collection largely took place in darkness..

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

Captain Hate,

More:

6. What happened to your dog that was found running loose in DC covered with maggots?
7. Why did you insist on showing that nude self-portrait of Tipper, painted when she was pregnant, on national television during the DNC, and why was it hanging in the hallway in your home in Tennessee where your children and grandchildren could see it?
8. How much involvement did you have with growing tobacco, which you said you hoed and chopped?
9. What were your grades once you declared yourself a Divinity School major?

[Zwei]

In addition to the email communications, The Intercept is publishing 15 internal situation reports prepared by the private security firm TigerSwan for its client, Dakota Access parent company Energy Transfer Partners, as well as three PowerPoint presentations that TigerSwan shared with law enforcement. The documents are part of a larger set that includes more than 100 internal TigerSwan situation reports that were leaked to The Intercept by one of the company’s contractors and more than 1,000 Dakota Access-related law enforcement records obtained via public records request.

Last week, The Intercept published an exclusive report detailing TigerSwan’s sweeping enterprise, over nine months and across five states, which included surveillance of activists through aerial technology, social media monitoring, and direct infiltration, as well as attempts to shift public opinion through a counterinformation campaign. The company, made up largely of special operations military veterans, was formed during the war in Iraq and incorporated its counterinsurgency tactics into its effort to suppress an indigenous-led movement centered around protection of water..

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

I find that Killfile breaks the posts up with nice white spaces between them. Very pleasing to the eye.

[3]

Roughly eight hours prior to Sophia Wilansky’s injury, Bismarck police officer Lynn Wanner — who, records indicate, acted as a liaison between intelligence agencies and field officers throughout the anti-DAPL protests — alerted local, state, and federal law enforcement partners that an “FBI inside source” was “reporting propane tanks inside the camp rigged to explode.” Wanner’s email about the FBI informant echoes the story the Morton County Sheriff’s Department would later tell journalists about Wilansky’s injury.

“We probably should be ready for a massive media backlash tomorrow although we are in the right. 244 angry voicemails received so far,” wrote Ben Leingang, a North Dakota state official, at about 10 p.m. on November 20. By morning, images of Wilansky’s severely injured arm were circulating online.

TigerSwan fretted about the backlash, too. “Protesters are claiming over 100 injuries associated with the demonstration and will surely contort video of the event into anti-DAPL propaganda,” the security firm noted in its internal report that next morning.

As another day passed, U.S. Attorney’s Office National Security Intelligence Specialist Terry Van Horn sent an email to members of various federal agencies noting the FBI’s claim that “a source from the camp reported people were making IED’s from small Coleman type propane canisters.” Van Horn added that Wilansky “was witnessed throwing an IED while on the bridge, it detonated early and caused the below injuries (see graphic photos).”

Less than an hour later, Van Horn emailed to the thread the text of a Facebook post from the page Netizens for Progress and Justice. “This wasn’t caused by law enforcement, it was caused by dumbass ‘direct action’ protesters that think they are doing the right thing without any consideration for the safety and welfare of honest protesters nearby that are caught up in things,” the post read, going on to describe a theory of the injury that conflicted even with law enforcement’s propane tank theory.

[Captain Hate]

10. Given the situations in Questions 6 and 7 and your son's problems with drugs, why should anybody listen to you preach about anything?

[Foul is fair]

How can we get this story out?” replied Maj. Amber Balken, a public information officer for the National Guard, which was also involved in policing the protests. “This is a must report,” Balken added, suggesting the name of a local conservative blogger. Cecily Fong, a public information officer with the North Dakota Department of Emergency Services, replied by promising to “get with” the blogger to circulate the article.

As The Intercept reported last week, Netizens for Progress and Justice also frequently published content produced on behalf of TigerSwan, including videos critical of pipeline opponents. Fong declined to comment on the exchange. Neither Van Horn nor Balken replied to a request for comment. The FBI declined to comment on any involvement it had in the protests, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs did not respond to a request for comment.

Ultimately, police promoted a story about the incident that echoed the claims of the FBI informant. On November 22, the Morton County Sheriff’s Department distributed press releases implying that Wilansky’s injury had been caused by a protester’s IED.

The Intercept reached Lauren Regan, an attorney representing Sophia Wilansky, and read the text of Van Horn’s email to her over the phone. “So much of it is totally factually incorrect,” Regan said.

“There has never been any evidence I have seen or heard of that gave any credibility to the allegation that propane tanks were being rigged as explosive devices,” continued Regan, who is a staff attorney at the Oregon-based Civil Liberties Defense Center. “To me, the timing of that revelation, in light of their having just basically blown a white woman’s arm off, always seemed extremely dubious.”

Sophia Wilansky’s father, Wayne Wilansky, agreed that “there’s not a shred of truth” to Van Horn’s account of Wilansky’s injury. “Obviously, disinformation is a major component of how they dealt with the protests,” he told The Intercept.

[henry]

You forgot the most important AlGore question: did he get his chakra released? Can he name the hooker masseuse that helped him achieve this feat?

[Five by five]

Surveillance Reports Paint Protesters as Desperate and Deviant

The internal situation reports from around the time of Wilansky’s injury contain their own examples of disinformation, invasive intelligence-gathering practices, and a fixation on the purported violence of DAPL’s opponents. At times, TigerSwan refers explicitly to informants and infiltrators. A document from October 3, for example, explains the ways the company monitored members of the American Indian Movement “mostly through social media” and “informant collection” in order to gauge the effectiveness of their security practices and “develop possible counter-measures moving forward.”

The documents, four of which were first published by Grist, include the names of dozens of pipeline opponents, labeling some as “persons of interest.” They describe meetings with law enforcement, including campus police at the University of Illinois and Lincoln Land College, as well as TigerSwan’s attempts to pressure officers into more aggressive action against protesters.

In the reports, TigerSwan declares success in accessing hard-to-find Facebook content, noting in an October 10 document, “The social media cell has harnessed a URL coding technique to discover hidden profiles and groups associated with the protesters.”

But TigerSwan’s intelligence was far from perfect and its interpretation of events was frequently off. For example, one document referenced a shell necklace that, TigerSwan speculated, marked members of the Mississippi Stand group who “have been arrested for the cause.” Mississippi Stand member Alex Cohen told the Intercept that the necklaces had nothing to do with arrests and were merely gifts given to a number of members by people indigenous to the area of one of their camps.

Overall, TigerSwan depicted the situation on the ground as volatile, at times painting the anti-pipeline camps as rife with drug use and “sexual deviance,” its inhabitants likely to stir violence. The security company found ways to interpret even the most benign social gatherings as potentially dangerous. One document previewed a casino concert featuring Jackson Browne and Bonnie Rait, fretting that it would draw “numerous outside influencers.” The document predicted, “Depending on the progress of drilling by then, the project could be adversely affected if not counter measured.”

After November 8, TigerSwan noted that “the election of President-elect Trump is likely to have a positive effect for the project overall and cooperation from the Federal level will likely improve after 20 JAN.” At the same time, TigerSwan commented on protesters’ post-election “despair,” writing on November 12 that “the DAPL protesters are inherently desperate and are not looking for a peaceful solution regarding the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in turn we can expect this situation to become more volatile than it has ever become before.”

On November 13, TigerSwan again insisted on the likelihood of violence erupting. “Most locals are now carrying weapons to protect themselves, their families and their property,” that report notes. “They have also expressed frustration with what they see as a lack of action by law enforcement.” Around the same time, TigerSwan and law enforcement expressed concerns about the impact the death of a protester might have on the pipeline project. “The use of force or death of a protester or rioter will result in the immediate halt to DAPL operations, which will likely permanently halt the entire project,” the PowerPoint presentations TigerSwan shared with law enforcement warned.

Weeks later, the Obama administration would deny the pipeline company a key federal permit, putting construction on hold. In January, President Donald Trump revived the project. The pipeline began service to customers last Thursday..

[Sexual nexus]

Fusion Centers and the “Surveillance-Industrial Complex”

The email chain from the night of the Backwater Bridge incident and other documents represent detailed illustrations of the work of a so-called fusion center. In 2007, President George W. Bush signed the 9/11 Commission Act, which allocated $300 million to the Department of Homeland Security for the establishment of fusion centers, originally intended to facilitate sharing of anti-terrorism intelligence among different state, local, and federal law enforcement agencies. According to the DHS website, there are currently 77 fusion centers nationwide, with every state home to at least one.

Brendon McQuade, a doctoral candidate at the State University of New York, Cortland, who is working on a dissertation on fusion centers, said that the records pertaining to the North Dakota State and Local Intelligence Center’s monitoring and repression of Standing Rock demonstrations offer unique insight into how fusion centers are used for political repression. “We’ve seen hints of this monitoring of the online presence of Black Lives Matter and Occupy protests, but never such explicit evidence of it as in the documents you’ve collected,” he told The Intercept after reviewing a selection of the documents.

According to former FBI Special Agent Michael German, who is now with the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School, fusion centers have become part of a broader “surveillance-industrial complex” in which security agencies and the corporate sector merge together in a frenzy of mass information gathering, tracking, and surveillance. Federal support for fusion centers is predicated on increased government access to “non-traditional information sources,” he notes. And one of the goals of fusion centers is to protect the nation’s critical infrastructure, 85 percent of which is owned by private interests.

“The insidious thing is that the role of private-sector entities in fusion centers has grown up without any specific legislation authorizing it,” said German, who co-authored a 2007 report on behalf of the ACLU called “What’s Wrong with Fusion Centers?” “Instead, the development of these techniques and relationships, such as the one involving TigerSwan and North Dakota law enforcement, has occurred within the closed-off world of law enforcement.”

[sbw]

MM, trolls are evidence #DemsGotNuthin. Each post solidifies resolve to #MAGA.

I, too, like how Killfile spaces out the meat of JOM postings.

[Seventh Seal]

Legal Ambiguity

TigerSwan’s status as a private company has enabled it to operate with virtually no transparency or oversight. The North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board confirmed in an email to The Intercept this week that TigerSwan still has not obtained a license to work as a private security firm in the state despite nine months on the ground. The company’s close collaboration with law enforcement, to which it has regularly fed intelligence, raises serious questions.

“The line between private security and law enforcement at DAPL has been nonexistent,” Bruce Ellison of the National Lawyers Guild, who also works with the Water Protector Legal Collective, told The Intercept. “They have been one in the same.”

Still, it’s not clear that either TigerSwan or law enforcement crossed a legal line with their surveillance activities. Private companies have few obligations to protect constitutional rights to free speech, association, or privacy. And while public agencies, including law enforcement, do have that obligation, they also have ample leeway to operate in invasive and unethical ways that are nonetheless legal. As The Intercept reported in January, detailed guidelines govern the FBI’s activities involving confidential informants and covert online work. But the guidelines are filled with loopholes that ultimately allow FBI agents to spy on just about anybody if they get the right approvals.

If TigerSwan were meeting regularly enough with the FBI, acting at the bureau’s behest, or even simply feeding agents information, it could represent an end-run around FBI rules. However, as Ramzi Kassem, a law professor at the City University of New York School of Law who directs the Creating Law Enforcement Accountability & Responsibility (CLEAR) project, put it, “The guidelines are one thing, but the legal baseline for what’s constitutional and what’s not constitutional is another.”

To a large degree, unless they were found to be acting at the direction of government, TigerSwan’s agents would likely be held to similar standards as regular citizens, their most likely violations being things like trespassing.

Despite the legal ambiguity, TigerSwan’s actions raise questions. “You have these privatized actors that are performing what are commonly understood to be government functions — whether or not we’ve agreed that these are acceptable government functions,” said Kassem. “Private corporations are taking these actions on a scale that is unheard of before — this isn’t your local private eye investigative service, we’re talking about tactics that the military uses overseas.”

“We need to be looking at whether our laws are sufficient to protect political groups from disruption, interference, and a tax by people who are infiltrating or surveilling their activities,” said Kris Hermes, an author and activist who has worked for years providing legal support at protests as a member of the National Lawyers Guild. “What it has done is thrown a chilling blanket over political organizing today whereby everybody feels that they should be engaging in some kind of security culture to avoid the snooping of law enforcement or private security firms. That has a far-reaching effect that I don’t think is appreciated enough. It prevents people from engaging .effectively in First Amendment activity.”

[Hateful Eighth]

Modern-Day Pinkertons

The privatization of law enforcement and its subjugation to corporate interests are hardly a novelty, though the increased militarism of the domestic policing of dissent has taken on sinister overtones in the wake of the so-called global war on terror.

In the late 19th century, Allan Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency offered private detective and security services to public and corporate clients. The “Pinkertons,” as they were known, relied heavily on undercover agents and often acted as agents provocateur, triggering violence as much as they engaged in surveillance and propaganda.

Through their involvement as armed guards during labor conflicts, the Pinkertons “became a shorthand for the abusive power of unchecked capitalism,” Paul O’Hara, a history professor at Xavier University who wrote a book about them, told The Intercept. To workers, the Pinkertons were “hired thugs for capital” and “a symbol of corporate power,” he wrote. Their activities led to two congressional investigations and the Anti-Pinkerton Act of 1893, which barred the federal government from contracting with the Pinkertons and similar groups. But the act largely failed in its intent, and the Pinkertons set the stage for public partnerships with mercenary groups continuing to this day.

TigerSwan never responded to The Intercept’s repeated requests for comment, oscillating instead between following and blocking these reporters on Twitter. The company did, however, retweet a comment by a reader of The Intercept. He had called TigerSwan “modern day Pinkertons.”.

[Clarice Feldman]

Capt Hate:Patricia Patience : As a Harvard sophomore, scholar Al "earned" a D in Natural Sciences 6 in a course presciently named "Man's Place in Nature." That was the year he evidently spent more time smoking cannabis than studying its place among other plants within the ecosystem. His senior year, Mr. Gore received a C+ in Natural Sciences 118.

[henry]

Clarice, that's like flunking Bill Nye's TV show (if you recognize Nye, you pass).

[Clarice Feldman]

Heh, Henry.

Capt Hate is a big hit this afternoon on FB,

[Blue collar]

Yeah. They forced Union organizers to embrace the other organized criminal enterprise. (Lucky Luciano) pitting his goons against Pinkertons and off duty cops goon squads who broke heads for persuasion.

Nothing changes.

[Clarice Feldman]

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18920327_10207440591608079_6599048388173346658_n.jpg?oh=8d9b23a8a57252573fb5c208d1da3fe0&oe=59B3651F

The Al Gore Wheel of Fortune

[Miss Marple the Deplorable]

I will never get over Gore insisting that nude self-portrait be shown in the "Meet Al Gore" film they showed at the DNC.

Never.

I think he was a wife-beater, myself.

[narciso]

Note how landsraAd member buffets monopoly on oil transport is left out of the frame entirely.

[JM Hanes]

Captain Hate:

11. How much money have you made in the carbon credit/carbon exchange market?

12. Have you ever calculated your own carbon footprint? Please put a number to your actual gross emissions [don't go there, peeps], prior to incorporating any potential offsets.

[Shocked]

No Union haters hereabouts?

I thought you despised blue collar activism.

[Jim Eagle]

Since 1:47 I have 11 hushes.

I would be interested if anyone here does read the carp being posted by the deranged troll?

Just saw the greatest goal I have seen in Champions League Championships and it was by Ronaldo. Juventus 1-Real Madrid 1.

[Jim Eagle]

....and it WASN'T by Ronaldo....

[henry]

13. When was the last time you flew commercial airlines?