#pittsburgh supremacy

[pretty-saucy]

It makes it much easier to just love my dream version of Calum and get over the real Calum when I hear him waxing poetic about Philadelphia. Fuck that place.

[gophersupremecy]

YALL I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!

I have had a buttload of homework to do all freaking week and am just now getting caught up in my NHL news!

THE SUCKY DUCKYS ARE OFFICIALLY ELIMINATED (as of Sunday)!!! To all my girlies who are ducks fans, I am sorry. But- I’m happy :) that’s all I can say. We all know how much I can’t stand the ducks (and zero hate to my girlies who are fans!!) so this brightened my day!

Anyways, I also saw a post that said the Penguins have a shot at winning the cup this year and I literally laughed out loud. They do not have a single chance- and I’m okay with that. I am beyond okay with that to be honest.

Also! Even though the Bruins are my freaking TEAM- part of me is really hoping the Nucks bring it home this year! Mostly because of Quinn and how he has just stepped up into leadership with so much tact and grace- I love him. So much. And I’m so proud of him!! I just think it would be a perfect ending to the best season for him (that and the Norris 🤩🤩) so anyways… yeah.

Love you guys! Don’t miss the Hockey East semis and final tonight and tomorrow!!!

[marrymepickering]

Sexy mouse boy is back

[mylight-png]

The Political Racialization of Jews

I think we have all seen the people calling Zionism "white supremacy" and Jews "white colonizers" in order to politically justify hating us.

But, what about the Pittsburgh Tree of Life shooting? Were we white then, when that white supremacist barged in and killed our people?

But, what about the worst killing of Jews ever, the Holocaust? Were we white when Hitler systemically slaughtered us in order to preserve his white Aryan race?

But, what about our time in Europe (where we, in fact, do not originate from)? Were we white when we were made to live separately from the actual "white Europeans"? Were we white when we were routinely and systemically attacked in pogroms? Were we white when laws were passed, prohibiting us from buying and selling certain things (ask me where bagels come from)?

But, what about America, where "no dogs and no Jews allowed" was written on businesses. Were we white when Leo Frank was falsely accused of murder, then taken out of his prison cell and lynched when his sentence was reduced? And the university/employment quotas against us? Were we white then?

Were we white any of the times we were hated and discriminated against for being "other" and different from those who were white?

In those days, we were racially categorized as being not white, because being white was seen as "moral" and desirable.

But now, what is the easiest way to strip someone of any right to consider themselves a minority or marginalized group? What is the easiest way to encourage people to disregard one's experiences of hate and oppression? What is the group society considers most privileged, and thus least qualified to define morals and ethics?

White.

We are called white, because the same people who call us white say that anti-white racism doesn't exist. So, how can hate against Jews exist, if we are white?

We are called white, because the same people who call us white view being white as a form of moral taint.

We are called white, because calling us white makes them believe that it is justifiable to strip us of our heritage and deny the fact that we are indigenous to the land they claim we are colonizing.

We are called white, even though according to FBI data, Jews are the most targeted minority group per capita in the US.

We are called white, even though our experiences are vastly different from white non-Jews.

Throughout history, we have been forced into racial categories that made oppressing and hating us easier.

And so that is why, as a Jew, I refuse to align myself with any racial category. Because I know that, depending on which way the political wind blows, no category will be safe or accurate. And because I know that those categories have been used, and will continue to be used, as an excuse to hate me.

[haggishlyhagging]

On March 9, 1977, Francine Hughes returned from business college to her Dansville, Michigan, home and put a frozen dinner in the oven for her husband, James. He didn't like it. Francine, he said, should be at home preparing meals for him, not running off to school. He beat her up, as he had done many times before; and to drive home his point he tore up her schoolbooks and term papers and forced her to burn them in the trash barrel. Twelve-year-old Christy Hughes called the police, who came to the house long enough to calm James down but declined, as they had many times before, to arrest him. They left James, tired from beating Francine, asleep in his bedroom. Determined to "just drive away," Francine piled the children into the family car. "Let's not come back this time, Mommy," they said. She carried a gasoline can to the bedroom, poured the contents around the bed where James lay asleep, backed out of the room, and set a match to it The rust of flame sucked the door shut.

Francine Hughes drove immediately to the Ingham County sheriffs office, crying hysterically, "I did it. I did it." She was charged with first-degree murder.

Dansville adjoins East Lansing, home of Michigan State University and consequently of many social-action groups. Within two months feminists and other interested people in the Lansing area had formed the Francine Hughes Defense Committee to raise money and public awareness for her defense. They were careful to say that they neither advocated nor condoned murder, but they held that women confronted with violence have a right to defend themselves. They argued that "Francine Hughes—and many other women facing similar charges—should be free from the threat of punishment," for Francine Hughes was a battered woman.

At the time wife-beating was a growing feminist issue, following close on the heels of feminist attacks upon rape, a crime it resembles in many ways. Both rape and wife-beating are crimes of violence against women. Both are widespread, underreported, trivialized, and inadequately punished by the legal system. Both are acts of terrorism intended to keep all women in their place through intimidation. In fact, rape is often part of wife abuse, though so far only a few states acknowledge even the possibility of rape within marriage. The chief difference between the two crimes is that while the victim of nonmarital rape must live with a terrifying memory, the abused wife lives with her assailant. Rapists are, in Susan Brownmiller's phrase, the "shock troops" of male supremacy. Wife-beaters are the home guard.

American feminists took up the issue of wife-beating when they learned in 1971 of the work of Erin Pizzey, founder of Chiswick Women's Aid, the first shelter house in England exclusively for battered women and their children. Rainbow Retreat, the first American shelter for abused families of alcoholics opened in Phoenix, Arizona, on November 1, 1973; and in St. Paul, Minnesota, Women's Advocates, a collective that began with a phone service in 1972, opened Women's House to battered women and their children in October 1974. Rainbow Retreat, during its first two and a half years, sheltered more than six hundred women and children. In St. Paul the five-bedroom Women's House sheltered twenty-two women and fifteen children during its first month of operation; less than a year later Women's Advocates were negotiating to buy a second house. Across the country the shelter movement spread to Pasadena, San Francisco, Seattle, Boise, Albuquerque, Pittsburgh, Ann Arbor, Boston, New York. To open a shelter was to fill it beyond capacity almost overnight. Suddenly it seemed that battered women were everywhere.

While activists opened shelters, researchers and writers set about documenting the problem of wife-beating or, as it came to be called more euphemistically in the academic literature, "domestic violence." The records showed that 60 percent of night calls in Atlanta concerned domestic disputes. In Fairfax County, Virginia, one of the nation's wealthiest counties, police received 4,073 disturbance calls in 1974. During ten months in 1975-76 the Dade County Florida Citizens Dispute Settlement Center handled nearly 1,000 wife-beating cases. Seventy percent of all assault cases received in the emergency room at hospitals in Boston and Omaha were women who had been attacked in their homes. Eighty percent of divorce cases in Wayne County, Michigan, involved charges of abuse. Ninety-nine percent of female Legal Aid clients in Milwaukee were abused by men.

The FBI guessed that a million women each year—women of every race and social class—would be victims of wife-beating. Journalists Roger Langley and Richard C. Levy put the figure at more than 28 million. Some said that one in four women married to or cohabiting with a man would become a victim; others said one in three. In some areas the incidence seemed even greater. In California the experts said one of every two women would be beaten. And in Omaha, the Mayor's Commission on the Status of Women estimated that 95 percent of women would be abused at some time. There scarcely seemed need of additional evidence, so the same statistics began to turn up in every new account, but repetitious as they were, they showed all too clearly that wife-beating is a social problem of astounding dimensions.

-Ann Jones, Women Who Kill

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

This Saturday (Nov 4), I'm keynoting the Hackaday Supercon in Pasadena, CA.

#15yrsago The Essential Groucho https://memex.craphound.com/2008/11/03/the-essential-groucho/

#5yrsago Swedish ISP punishes Elsevier for forcing it to block Sci-Hub by also blocking Elsevier https://torrentfreak.com/swedish-isp-protest-site-blocking-by-blocking-rightsholders-website-and-more-181102/

#5yrsago Disneyland’s laundry used “gamification” as an “electronic whip,” leading to worker stress and injuries https://aeon.co/essays/how-employers-have-gamified-work-for-maximum-profit

#5yrsago Facebook blames malicious browser plugins for leak of 81,000 users’ private messages and offer of account data for 120,000,000 users https://www.wired.com/story/hackers-posted-private-facebook-messages/

#5yrsago A human being at Facebook manually approved the idea of targeting ads to users interested in “white genocide” https://theintercept.com/2018/11/02/facebook-ads-white-supremacy-pittsburgh-shooting/

[radiofreederry]

The next #cityrumble has begun! This time, we're back in the USA covering cities that didn't make the cut last time. It's the US' minor cities duking it out for supremacy and a shot at glory in the all-star bracket! It's the #cityrumble Minor League!

Here's the bracket for round one. As always the contests are linked below.

Anchorage v Greensboro

Colorado Springs v Omaha

Little Rock v Corpus Christi

Tulsa v Birmingham

Sacramento v Charlottesville

Madison v Des Moines

Long Beach v Reno

Boise v Lexington

Eugene v Pittsburgh

Fresno v Orlando

San Bernardino v Asheville

Cleveland v Newark

Buffalo v Tucson

Salt Lake City v Kansas City

Saint Paul v Denton

Honolulu v St. Louis

[ausetkmt]

WASHINGTON (AP) — The social media posts are of a distinct type. They hint darkly that the CIA or the FBI are behind mass shootings. They traffic in racist, sexist and homophobic tropes. They revel in the prospect of a “white boy summer.”

White nationalists and supremacists, on accounts often run by young men, are building thriving, macho communities across social media platforms like Instagram, Telegram and TikTok, evading detection with coded hashtags and innuendo.

Their snarky memes and trendy videos are riling up thousands of followers on divisive issues including abortion, guns, immigration and LGBTQ rights. The Department of Homeland Security warned Tuesday that such skewed framing of the subjects could drive extremists to violently attack public places across the U.S. in the coming months.

These type of threats and racist ideology have become so commonplace on social media that it’s nearly impossible for law enforcement to separate internet ramblings from dangerous, potentially violent people, Michael German, who infiltrated white supremacy groups as an FBI agent, told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday.

“It seems intuitive that effective social media monitoring might provide clues to help law enforcement prevent attacks,” German said. “After all, the white supremacist attackers in Buffalo, Pittsburgh and El Paso all gained access to materials online and expressed their hateful, violent intentions on social media.”

But, he continued, “so many false alarms drown out threats.”

DHS and the FBI are also working with state and local agencies to raise awareness about the increased threat around the U.S. in the coming months.

The heightened concern comes just weeks after a white 18-year-old entered a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, with the goal of killing as many Black patrons as possible. He gunned down 10.

WATCH: Senate Homeland Security committee holds hearing on white supremacist violence

That shooter claims to have been introduced to neo-Nazi websites and a livestream of the 2019 Christchurch, New Zealand mosque shootings on the anonymous, online messaging board 4Chan. In 2018, the white man who gunned down 11 at a Pittsburgh synagogue shared his antisemitic rants on Gab, a site that attracts extremists. The year before, a 21-year-old white man who killed 23 people at a Walmart in the largely Hispanic city of El Paso, Texas, shared his anti-immigrant hate on the messaging board 8Chan.

References to hate-filled ideologies are more elusive across mainstream platforms like Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Telegram. To avoid detection from artificial intelligence-powered moderation, users don’t use obvious terms like “white genocide” or “white power” in conversation.

They signal their beliefs in other ways: a Christian cross emoji in their profile or words like “anglo” or “pilled,” a term embraced by far-right chatrooms, in usernames. Most recently, some of these accounts have borrowed the pop song “White Boy Summer” to cheer on the leaked Supreme Court draft opinion on Roe v. Wade, according to an analysis by Zignal Labs, a social media intelligence firm.

Facebook and Instagram owner Meta banned praise and support for white nationalist and separatists movements in 2019 on company platforms, but the social media shift to subtlety makes it difficult to moderate the posts. Meta says it has more than 350 experts, with backgrounds from national security to radicalization research, dedicated to ridding the site of such hateful speech.

“We know these groups are determined to find new ways to try to evade our policies, and that’s why we invest in people and technology and work with outside experts to constantly update and improve our enforcement efforts,” David Tessler, the head of dangerous organizations and individuals policy for Meta, said in a statement.

A closer look reveals hundreds of posts steeped in sexist, antisemitic, racist and homophobic content.

In one Instagram post identified by The Associated Press, an account called White Primacy appeared to post a photo of a billboard that describes a common way Jewish people were exterminated during the Holocaust.

“We’re just 75 years since the gas chambers. So no, a billboard calling out bigotry against Jews isn’t an overreaction,” the pictured billboard said.

The caption of the post, however, denied gas chambers were used at all. The post’s comments were even worse: “If what they said really happened, we’d be in such a better place,” one user commented. “We’re going to finish what they started someday,” another wrote.

The account, which had more than 4,000 followers, was immediately removed Tuesday, after the AP asked Meta about it. Meta has banned posts that deny the Holocaust on its platform since 2020.

U.S. extremists are mimicking the social media strategy used by the Islamic State group, which turned to subtle language and images across Telegram, Facebook and YouTube a decade ago to evade the industry-wide crackdown of the terrorist group’s online presence, said Mia Bloom, a communications professor at Georgia State University.

“They’re trying to recruit,” said Bloom, who has researched social media use for both Islamic State terrorists and far-right extremists. “We’re starting to see some of the same patterns with ISIS and the far-right. The coded speech, the ways to evade AI. The groups were appealing to a younger and younger crowd.”

For example, on Instagram, one of the most popular apps for teens and young adults, white supremacists amplify each other’s content daily and point their followers to new accounts.

In recent weeks, a cluster of those accounts has turned its sights on Pride Month, with some calling for gay marriage to be “re-criminalized” and others using the #Pride or rainbow flag emoji to post homophobic memes.

Law enforcement agencies are already monitoring an active threat from a young Arizona man who says on his Telegram accounts that he is “leading the war” against retail giant Target for its Pride Month merchandise and children’s clothing line and has promised to “hunt LGBT supporters” at the stores. In videos posted to his Telegram and YouTube accounts, sometimes filmed at Target stores, he encourages others to go the stores as well.

Target said in a statement that it is working with local and national law enforcement agencies who are investigating the videos. As society becomes more accepting of LGBTQ rights, the issue may be especially triggering for young men who have held traditional beliefs around relationships and marriage, Bloom said.

“That might explain the vulnerability to radical belief systems: A lot of the beliefs that they grew up with, that they held rather firmly, are being shaken,” she said. “That’s where it becomes an opportunity for these groups: They’re lashing out and they’re picking on things that are very different.”

[shirayuki7]

Ok your tags on the reblog were very cool, would love to hear more about this project. Also, this is entire based on vibes of just existing in or near PA and having incredibly revisionist (and religious) history books, yeah. Sounds right.

Yeppppp! Get ready for a long answer cause i am in the thick of it! I'm pretty much a complete outsider to this topic. USA history doesn't interest me as much as ancient history does. The whole theme of the project is religious in/tolerance, and I picked Pennsylvania because my in-laws are all in Pittsburgh and I thought getting to know the state more would be fun! I've already got a pretty good background in religious history, so most of my research has been contextual colonial history. But the primary source I'm basing my project on is AWESOME. It's "Gottlieb Mittelberger's Journey to Pennsylvania" (free in the Library of Congress btw) and it's just so full of amazing information about colonial PA and how it was viewed by outsiders at the time (for Gottlieb, it was pretty godless and not worth the hype despite how beautiful the country is. He lived in Lancester county for about 4 years before returning to Germany).

The basis of my research is that in Europe, most Protestant sectarians (Quakers in particular) were seen as anti-state/anti-authoritarian. Being a dissenter was the same as being a treasonous terrorist because religion was the basis for most if not all laws and public policy within a country. So dissenters like William Penn were heavily discriminated against based on their beliefs and punished by the state as tho they were public enemies number one (spiritual danger = real danger). So quite frankly, because the America's were the place for criminals to be sent anyway, it kinda made sense to let dissenters leave and rotten themselves and their communities else where. So William Penn gets permission from his buddy King James 2 to create Pennsylvania as a "holy experiment" for liberty of conscience (and Quakers) to go. Penn advertises in England and Germany for the most part about this land of religious freedom and opportunity. With a little censure from the crown about how he sets up the colony, Penn makes it law that people can believe what they want and therefore worship and do what they want (within reason). From the outset of the colony, we have a very diverse environment full of very diverse people. No single people's settled PA, despite Quakers being a majority for a time and even when they weren't the majority they still held most of the power in the colony.

Anyway, all the secondary literature I've read all say the same thing: Penn's holy experiment was a success. Religious tolerance helped make PA economically and politically successful and set up all the American colonies for an equally successful revolution. But I've noticed that they're all ignoring, or just plain forget because 'MURICA, that the colonies were not completely separate entities from their parent country and are enabling the narrative of usa supremacy and individualism that DID NOT EXIST at the time. Individualism sure as hell did exist, but not in the sense of "im an american." It was "I'm an English Quaker" or "I'm a German Lutheran" or other ethnic or religious identification. These historians make it sound like everyone thinks PA was a great thing... but here we have over 100 pages of a German immigrant's travelog that heavily criticizes Penn's colony, telling his fellow Germans that it's just not worth the risk and they're better off at home. Obviously there's a ton more nuance to the account than I'm giving here, but the whole book is him saying "here's this bad thing, here's this good thing but here's the dark side of the good thing that isn't immediately obvious but I will explain it to you for your own good, and here's another bad thing." Most of the negativity he gives about PA in particular is religiously based: anarchy and atheism (exaggerations, but it was how he saw it as a faithful Lutheran). He tells stories of women running the show (heaven forbid!) And how the courts and laws are so lax that everybody does what they want even if theyre sued! These are seen as bad things to him, but obviously to a modern person (and to many a modern Pennsylvanian) it sounds like libertarian paradise. The idea of "success" is what I'm challenging with the Gottlieb account; we as historians are always needed to challenge the narrative. Complicate the story. The 13 colonies as a melting pot and overall success story is a good story and we use it to reinforce murican values in our public schools (something i greatly disagree with but it is what it is). But it's not the whole story and never will be. We've got the puritans in New England doing their thing and the Quakers in PA doing theirs, but what did that actually mean to people at the time? Did they see it as success? I should probably stop now haha! This is getting long. Thanks for asking about my project, it helps me articulate it for my prospectus due in a few days. ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[beardedmrbean]

A self-proclaimed white supremacist was sentenced to more than six years in federal prison Wednesday for making online threats toward the jury and witnesses at the trial of a man who killed 11 congregants at a Pittsburgh synagogue.

Hardy Carroll Lloyd, 45, of Follansbee, West Virginia, was sentenced in federal court in northern West Virginia for his September guilty plea to obstruction of the due administration of justice.

BOY, 13, CHARGED FOR ALLEGEDLY PLOTTING MASS SHOOTING AT OHIO SYNAGOGUE: REPORTS

Lloyd admitted that the actual or perceived Jewish faith of the government witnesses and victims in the trial of Robert Bowers prompted him to target the jury and witnesses.

The U.S. Justice Department described Lloyd as a self-proclaimed leader of a white supremacy movement. Prosecutors said Lloyd, who was arrested on Aug. 10, sent threatening social media posts and emails along with comments on websites during Bowers’ trial.

Bowers was sentenced to death in August in the deadliest attack on Jews in U.S. history after a jury determined that capital punishment was appropriate.

In May 2022, the Texas Department of Public Safety offered a cash reward of up to $1,000 for information leading to Lloyd’s arrest after he allegedly posted a series of comments online threatening to carry a firearm onto the Texas Capitol grounds and challenge any police officer who tried to "take enforcement actions" against him. A statement from the department said Lloyd was a convicted felon. ______________________

hope he has a rotten time in there

[learnfromhistoryorrepeatit]

January 29, 2023, 10:15 AM

Inside a US Neo-Nazi Homeschool Network With Thousands of Members | David Gilbert, Vice News

An Ohio couple has been unmasked as leaders of the neo-Nazi “Dissident Homeschool” Telegram channel that distributes lesson plans to 2,400 members.

There are may sources within this article I will be referencing and most are listed below. We need to be aware of the reality of the situation of how Nazism has become more public accepted and followed (gaining followers from birth as it is described in this specific discussion) AGAIN (yes it has been here before & has origins here that I will talk later about on this blog).

“”Dissident Homeschool” network opened a lesson plan and were greeted with the words: ‘“As Adolf Hitler wrote…”’”on the platform Telegram. VICE investigative journalists “joined the group simply by clicking on a link, though the list of members was not publicly visible.”

“Since the group began in October 2021 it has openly embraced Nazi ideology and promoted white supremacy, while proudly discouraging parents from letting their white children play with or have any contact with people of any other race. Admins and members use racist, homophobic, and antisemitic slurs without shame, and quote Hitler and other Nazi leaders daily in a channel open to the public.”

“What’s even more disturbing, however, is that the couple who run the channel are not only teaching parents how to indoctrinate their children into this fascist ideology, they’re also encouraging them to meet up in real life and join even more radical groups, which could further reinforce their beliefs and potentially push them toward violent action.”

The faces behind the curriculum and programming of this telegram homeschooling collective have recently been identified by an “antifascist research group” called “Anonymous Comrades Collective. They “published a detailed report that unmasked the Saxons as Logan and Katja Lawrence, who live in Upper Sandusky, Ohio, with their four young children.” Whose recent public contributions include their local sheriffs public website.

“The researchers were able to identify the Lawrences through biographical details they shared in the Telegram channel’s group chat and on podcast appearances. One of the key clues to identifying them came when they revealed that they owned a German Shepherd called Blondi—the same name as Hitler’s dog.”

A question to be asked is; are we seeing non-direct evidence that reflects this growing and/or growingly accepted ideology and values? Is this isolated Telegram channel or is this an obvious “sign of the times” and potentially future? Well..

March 23, 2023 10:09 AM

Report: Antisemitic Incidents Soared to 'Historic Levels’ in 2022 | Masood Farivar, VOA News

According to the Anti-Defamation League “reported incidents of assault, vandalism and harassment targeting Jews in the United States rose to new “historic levels””. In an annual report, Audit of Antisemitic Incidents, “the Jewish civil rights organization said it documented 3,697 such incidents in 2022, up 36% from 2021, and the highest level since the group started keeping records in 1979.”

“This was the third time in the past five years during which antisemitic incidents have set a record high, the ADL said,” also elaborating it has been a “part of a five-year climb that has seen a doubling of antisemitic incidents since 2018, when a white supremacist killed 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue in the deadliest attack on the American Jewish community in U.S. history.”

“ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt said while no single element accounted for last year’s surge in antisemitism, a number of contributing factors were at play.”

“Among them: an increase in white supremacist propaganda activity, attacks on Orthodox Jews, a spike in bomb threats made to Jewish institutions and significant increases of anti-Jewish incidents in schools and on college campuses.”

“This data confirms what Jewish communities across the country have felt and seen firsthand — and corresponds with the rise in antisemitic attitudes,” Greenblatt said in a statement. “From white nationalists to religious fanatics to radical anti-Zionists, Jewish people see a range of very real threats. It’s time to stop the surge of hate once and for all.”

#hatecrimes #learnfromhistoryorrepeatit Learn outside your curriculum and be informed. I will be live streaming discussions, sharing current events and recirculating history. #tumblrlive #tumblrvlogging #live #tumblrdiscussion #news

[mariacallous]

(JTA) — The man who opened fire outside of an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia on Wednesday was animated by the same ideas, including antisemitic beliefs, that have spurred multiple mass murderers in recent years.

The shooter, who killed two people and injured a third outside the Tepláreň bar in Bratislava, the country’s capital, was a “radicalized teenager,” according to the Slovakian president. He released a manifesto prior to the shooting and also outlined his beliefs on Twitter, where extremism watchdogs said he had been active for more than a year.

The shooter’s track record on Twitter “raises questions about the effectiveness of Twitter’s content moderation and the platform’s role in spreading white supremacist content,” the Anti-Defamation League’s Center on Extremism wrote in an analysis published Friday of the shooter’s manifesto and online profile. The analysis noted that the shooter, who was found dead on Thursday, had tweeted both about his plan to carry out an attack and to brag about having done so.

In the manifesto, the ADL said, the shooter expressed hatred for LGBTQ individuals, saying that they “groom” children, and support for “great replacement theory,” the idea that Jews are orchestrating a campaign to “replace” white people with people of color. He also used multiple phrases coined by neo-Nazi groups and called for the genocide of Jews, according to the ADL’s analysis.

The manifesto and its contents add the Bratislava shooting to a growing list of attacks that follow a similar playbook. Replacement theory has inspired multiple antisemitic and extremist attacks, including the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in which 11 Jews were murdered; the 2019 attack on a New Zealand mosque that killed 51; the 2019 massacre at a Texas Wal-Mart that targeted Hispanic immigrants; and the murder earlier this year of 11 Black shoppers in a Buffalo, New York, grocery store.

“The Bratislava shooter’s writings demonstrate how well versed he was with American white supremacists,” tweeted Oren Segal, director of the ADL’s Center on Extremism. “White supremacy is a global terrorist threat.”

The attack has prompted recriminations and protests in Slovakia, where shootings are rare and murders hover around 60 per year, in a population of nearly 5.5 million. Thousands of people joined a rally in Bratislava’s picturesque old city to show support for LGBTQ Slovakians on Friday.

“We politicians are responsible for every single word we say. Yet so many here ruthlessly fill the space with hate,” wrote Slovakian President Zuzana Caputova on Facebook. “It makes me angry that even some prosecutors and judges don’t value verbal crimes and find them dangerous. I have been saying for three years and I warn you that it does not have to end in just words.”

“I strongly condemn a murder of two young people shot dead in Bratislava last night by a radicalized teenager,” tweeted Prime Minister Eduard Heger. “No form of white supremacy, racism and extremism against communities, incl. LGBTI, can be tolerated.”

Slovak media said the killer was the 19-year-old son of a one-time political candidate from the far-right anti-immigrant Homeland party and said police were investigating whether the gun had come from his father. The shooter communicated online on Twitter and 4chan, a message board frequented by extremists, after the incident, according to local media reports.

There, the ADL says, he appears to have found a warm reception.

“Already, violent extremists have begun lauding the Bratislava shooter as a ‘saint,’ equating him to earlier white supremacist terrorists — the very ones that he had admired,” the group wrote in its analysis.

[marrymepickering]

I've thought about this way too much today-

[dailyanarchistposts]

Some have suggested that we should simply see the difficult events at the convergence as a reminder to address the issues of white supremacy and gentrification; meanwhile, all manner of uninformed parties who were not present at the convergence have been commenting about it. We humbly suggest that it might be more appropriate for those who were not at the convergence to focus on discussing gentrification, oppression, and abuse in their own experiences, while listening to those who were present at the convergence when it comes to questions pertaining to it.

Summary of Events

After seven years of rural convergences, the organizers of the 2009 convergence agreed it was time to experiment with a new format. In doing so, they set aside a time-honed but predictable template, opening up the possibility of making new discoveries and new errors.

The original plan was to purchase a building in Pittsburgh and transform it into a community center in the course of the convergence. One consistent criticism of the convergences had been that they contributed little to the local communities in which they occurred; with this new approach, the organizers hoped to channel the temporary energy of the convergence into creating something of permanent use to the community that hosted it.

But this proved complicated on many fronts. Purchasing a building is difficult enough in itself apart from the challenges of organizing a convergence. Attempts to assemble a coalition of local collectives to share the community center did not pan out. Finally, the announcement that the G20 summit would be happening in Pittsburgh indicated that the authorities would be especially eager to use any pretext to harass the convergence—which would be particularly problematic if it took place in a building that was not yet up to code. On top of this, some locals argued that the neighborhood in which the proposed community center would be located was an inappropriate space for a predominantly white gathering. In response to all these concerns, the local organizers shifted their plans, renting a building in the neighborhood where they themselves lived along with a great number of Pittsburgh anarchists. Some of the considerations around this decision were addressed in a text included in the orientation ’zine distributed at the beginning of the convergence.

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the organizing group suffered a schism, further complicating matters and subtracting energy and resources from the organizing itself. In the end, it was impressive that the convergence came together at all. Hosting a week-long gathering of hundreds of people is not easy. Because the convergence is free of charge, organizers also had to come up with the resources to rent the building themselves, and to feed and provide for everyone.

The convergence site was a building on Penn Avenue, which forms the boundary between Bloomfield, Pittsburgh’s Little Italy, and Garfield, a predominantly African-American neighborhood in the process of gentrification. Some controversy persisted in the month leading up to the event; local organizers felt they had made a real effort to open up dialogue, while an essay entitled “Points of Consideration Before, During, and After the CrimethInc. Convergence” appeared implying otherwise.

The first five days of the convergence were filled with workshops, games, and discussions. Topics ranged from police tactics and legal support work to permaculture and the challenges of organizing with ADHD; several different workshops dealt with race, gender, and cultural appropriation. A ’zine library distributed hundreds of ’zines and books; a free kitchen prepared delicious meals; a mediation team addressed conflicts and accountability processes; a free clinic served the medical needs not only of attendees but also of people from the neighborhood.

There were two lengthy workshops discussing gentrification: the first dealt with general issues, while the second addressed specifically how the convergence affected the neighborhood in which it took place. At the second, it was decided that a letter would be written to be distributed in the neighborhood explaining what the convergence was about, and a potluck open to the community would take place on the final day of the event, to open dialogue and extend resources to locals.

The building itself, it turned out, was simply not big enough to accommodate everyone who came. At previous convergences, the rural setting had offered ample space for participants to take space and time to themselves; but in this context, in the center of Pittsburgh, that was impossible. This exacerbated the challenges and frustrations common at events that include people of a wide range of backgrounds and levels of awareness. For instance, some attendees of color have described the pain of feeling marginalized and isolated, and have stated that other attendees’ oppressive behavior was not addressed; some queer and trans attendees have recounted people asking inappropriate questions about their gender expression, and interactions with people who otherwise disrespected their identities. Most of the frequently-cited examples of oppressive behavior reference a handful of individuals who had not attended previous convergences and were not representative of the majority of attendees; but the fact remains that both the people who attended the convergence and the policies and structures put in place by the organizers failed to offset this.

On the evening of July 25, approximately 200 anarchists and fellow travelers gathered upstairs in the largest room in the building for a participatory cabaret. At the end of the performances, while everyone was still gathered, a commotion erupted at the back of the room. A half dozen people of color were shouting at everyone else in the room:

“Get out of this neighborhood! Get out of Pittsburgh! Do not return for the G20! GO BACK TO EUROPE!”

“We are NOT pacifists! This is NOT a safe space! Get out of here!”

“We have solidarity from hundreds of people all across the country!”

“All your squats, all your infoshops, all your collective houses are gentrifying neighborhoods of color! You think that just because people will nod to you on the street, they want you around? Get in your cars and leave!”

(“Some people here can’t leave!”)

“Too fucking bad! Get in your car and leave!”

The individuals, since described as “the disrupters” by people of color at the convergence who oppose their action, began to grab people’s belongings and throw them out of the space. Others reacted with outrage, and a shouting match ensued; threats were exchanged, but no blows were intentionally struck. The atmosphere was extremely charged; many broke down in tears, and some suffered panic attacks. One person of color who opposed the disrupters’ actions was called a “race traitor.”

The disrupters included four participants in the convergence and three people who had just arrived from out of town; they were backed up by two white people who had come to the convergence with those who planned to disrupt it. The two disrupters who had not been “in on” the action before that day disappeared early on in the events that followed; one reappeared at the “caucus” at the end, while the other left Pittsburgh immediately and has since said that he regrets his participation.

At first, longtime organizers exchanged glances of confusion: however many convergences and conferences they had organized, however many riots they had participated in and fights they had broken up, no one had dealt with this before.

Many who were not there have been curious as to why no one defended themselves. One complicating factor was that some of the disrupters were participants in the convergence who had been there the whole week, and even the ones who had just appeared were known to attendees; people considered them comrades and wanted to take their concerns seriously. Some young white participants who were still developing their understanding of race and privilege may genuinely have thought that being a white ally meant doing whatever angry people of color told them to do. For others, it was immediately clear that the action was scripted to frame all white attendees as racist, and that almost any measures to resist it would play into this strategy. Some concluded that the conflict playing out in that room at that moment was less important than the one that would play out in discussions over the following months and years, and the first priority was to make sure that nothing happened that could obscure the underlying issues in those discussions.

All these factors made it extremely difficult for people to know how to react, and the disrupters exploited this to the fullest extent they could.

As people fleeing the upstairs gathered outside, the police showed up. Despite the volatility of the situation, they were successfully turned away, though they had been seeking an excuse to enter the space all week.

Eventually, without any formal decision-making, three basic responses crystallized. Some people gathered downstairs, attempting to coordinate housing and rides for the distraught people making their way away from the confrontation. Some remained upstairs, acting as intermediaries with the angriest and most emotional white people, urging them to withdraw from the space and making sure things did not escalate. A couple people of color, not constrained by the fear that their actions could be misconstrued, confronted the disrupters. This culminated in a physical altercation as several people of color opposing the disruption attempted to force the disrupters out of the room. The two “white allies” who were there to support the disruption engaged physically in this conflict, while white organizers made sure other white people stayed out of it.

Ultimately, although significantly more people of color opposed the disruption than participated in it, some were mired into inaction that night by complicated feelings of alienation both from the disrupters and from some of the other convergence participants. When all the white people had finally left the space, there was a brief attempt at discussion between the disrupters and the remaining people of color who opposed them. The disrupters only repeated their dogmatic rhetoric justifying their actions; both parties concluded that dialogue was impossible. The disrupters came downstairs and stood around outside for a while before all leaving in a group. Some convergence participants slept in the building that night, but many had already left the area to sleep in their vehicles, at locals’ houses, in the nearby graveyard, or in other spaces such as at the Pittsburgh airport. Some left Pittsburgh entirely.

On Saturday, people slowly regrouped at the building and then at the Really Really Free Market. It was decided that the plans for that evening would be canceled so people could return to the building to discuss the previous night’s events. One concerned young white person worried that it would be disrespectful to return there after being told to leave, until he was reminded that the disrupters had demanded not only that white people leave the building but also that they go to Europe.

That night, the upstairs room was again filled with people. At the suggestion of some of those who had physically resisted the disrupters, the discussion focused on the ways white people had reacted to the disruption. A list was made of all the potentially oppressive or inappropriate things people had said or done in response, and the group went through them one by one, discussing the issues around each until everyone was satisfied. This arduous process lasted late into the evening. Unfortunately, some of the people who might have benefited most from this conversation had already left the convergence, or else were hanging out outside in reactionary disaffection. In this regard, though the disruption did not end the convergence, it fractured it, causing a minority of attendees to leave and another minority to disengage.

[violence-is-literally-stupid]

Domestic Terrorist Attacks in the United States over the Past 30 Years

Overview

Domestic terrorism in the United States has seen a significant rise over the past 30 years, with various political affiliations driving these attacks. This section provides a comprehensive list of notable domestic terrorist attacks, categorized by their political affiliations.

Far-Right Attacks

Oklahoma City Bombing (1995): Timothy McVeigh, motivated by anti-government sentiments, detonated a truck bomb outside a federal building, killing 168 people[1][3].

Fort Hood Shooting (2009): Nidal Hasan, inspired by Salafi-jihadist ideology, killed 13 people and injured 32 at a U.S. Army base[1].

Dallas Police Shooting (2016): Micah Xavier Johnson, motivated by anti-police and Black nationalist sentiments, killed five police officers and injured nine others[2][3].

Charlottesville Car Attack (2017): James Alex Fields, a white supremacist, drove a car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one and injuring 19[3].

Pittsburgh Synagogue Shooting (2018): Robert Bowers, motivated by anti-Semitic and white supremacist beliefs, killed 11 people and injured six at a synagogue[2][3].

El Paso Walmart Shooting (2019): Patrick Crusius, motivated by white supremacist and anti-immigrant beliefs, killed 23 people and injured 23 others[3].

Buffalo Supermarket Shooting (2022): Payton Gendron, motivated by white supremacist and anti-Black beliefs, killed 10 people and injured three[2].

Far-Left Attacks

Occupy Maine Incident (2011): An individual threw a homemade chemical bomb into an Occupy Maine encampment in Portland, Maine[1].

Portland, Oregon Protests (2020-2021): Multiple incidents of violence and property damage occurred during protests, with some involving far-left extremists[1].

Religious Attacks

9/11 Attacks (2001): Al-Qaeda, motivated by Salafi-jihadist ideology, carried out a series of coordinated attacks, killing nearly 3,000 people[1][3].

Ethnonationalist Attacks

No specific incidents identified in the provided sources.

Other Attacks

New Shiloh Christian Center Attacks (2015): Multiple incidents of arson and vandalism targeted a predominantly Black church in Melbourne, Florida, with no identified perpetrator[3].

Briar Creek Road Baptist Church Attacks (2015): Multiple incidents of arson and vandalism targeted a predominantly Black church in Charlotte, North Carolina, with no identified perpetrator[3].

Trends and Analysis

The majority of domestic terrorist attacks in the United States over the past 30 years have been perpetrated by far-right extremists, often motivated by white supremacy, anti-government, and anti-immigrant beliefs[1][3][4].

Far-left extremists have also been involved in violent incidents, particularly during protests and demonstrations[1][3].

Religious extremists, primarily motivated by Salafi-jihadist ideology, have carried out significant attacks, including the 9/11 attacks[1][3].

Ethnonationalist attacks have been less prominent, with no specific incidents identified in the provided sources.

The number of domestic terrorist incidents has increased over the past decade, with a significant surge in 2020 and 2021[1][2][3].

References

[1] CSIS. (2022). Pushed to Extremes: Domestic Terrorism amid Polarization and Protest. [2] GAO. (2023). The Rising Threat of Domestic Terrorism in the U.S. and Federal Efforts to Combat It. [3] The Washington Post. (2021). The rise of domestic extremism in America. [4] CSIS. (2020). The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States.

Sources [1] Pushed to Extremes: Domestic Terrorism amid Polarization ... - CSIS https://www.csis.org/analysis/pushed-extremes-domestic-terrorism-amid-polarization-and-protest [2] The Rising Threat of Domestic Terrorism in the U.S. and Federal Efforts to Combat It https://www.gao.gov/blog/rising-threat-domestic-terrorism-u.s.-and-federal-efforts-combat-it [3] The rise of domestic extremism in America - Washington Post https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2021/domestic-terrorism-data/ [4] The Escalating Terrorism Problem in the United States - CSIS https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states

[eventseeker789]

MLB Extravaganza: Washington Nationals Go Up Against Two Titans At Homeground

Washington Nationals Vs. Pittsburgh Pirates

The Washington Nationals are gearing up to face off against the Pittsburgh Pirates in what promises to be an electrifying matchup on the baseball diamond. With both teams hungry for a victory, fans can expect an intense battle filled with thrilling plays, clutch hits, and spectacular defensive plays.

The Nationals, led by their roster of talented players, will be looking to showcase their offensive firepower and solid pitching to secure a win against the Pirates. With seasoned veterans and rising stars alike, the Nationals boast a lineup that is capable of putting runs on the board and shutting down opposing hitters with precision.

On the other side, the Pittsburgh Pirates will be aiming to spoil the Nationals' plans and come out victorious themselves. With their own arsenal of talented players and a determination to compete at the highest level, the Pirates will be looking to make a statement on the field and emerge triumphant against their opponents.

As the game unfolds, fans can expect plenty of excitement and drama as both teams battle it out for supremacy on the diamond. From towering home runs to diving catches, every moment will be filled with anticipation as the Nationals and Pirates go head-to-head in a thrilling showdown of baseball prowess.

Watch them go up against each other on April 03, 2024 from 6:45p onwards.

Washington Nationals Vs. Philadelphia Phillies

Get ready for an exciting showdown as the Washington Nationals go head-to-head against the Philadelphia Phillies in a highly anticipated baseball matchup. With both teams vying for supremacy in the division, this game is sure to be filled with intensity, skill, and passion for the sport.

The Nationals, led by their star players and seasoned veterans, will be looking to showcase their offensive prowess and defensive prowess as they aim to outplay their division rivals. With a lineup stacked with talent and a pitching rotation capable of shutting down opposing hitters, the Nationals are poised to give the Phillies a run for their money.

On the other side, the Philadelphia Phillies are determined to defend their home turf and secure a crucial victory against their division rivals. With a roster filled with power hitters and strong arms on the mound, the Phillies will be looking to deliver a strong performance and come out on top in front of their home crowd.

As the game unfolds, fans can expect to see thrilling plays, clutch hits, and stellar defensive plays from both teams as they battle it out on the diamond. From towering home runs to diving catches in the outfield, every moment of the game is sure to keep fans on the edge of their seats.

So grab your peanuts and Cracker Jacks and get ready to witness all the action as the Washington Nationals take on the Philadelphia Phillies in what promises to be an unforgettable game of baseball at the National Park on April 06, 2024 from 4:05p onwards.

Author Name Barkat Dhanji