#racist extremists

[tomorrowusa]

« Hamas's surprise attack on Israel, on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur war, will be remembered as an intelligence failure for the ages.

[ … ]

Israel’s surveillance technology industry, as evidenced by the Pegasus spyware scandal, is among the most advanced in the world. Despite all of this, Hamas’s preparations were missed.

[ … ]

[T]his attack takes place in the midst of a period of profound social dislocation for Israel. Netanyahu’s far-right government, peopled with individuals in cabinet roles who should not hold public office, such as Itamar Ben Gvir, the minister for national security, have spent their time pouring petrol on what was an already highly combustible situation in the occupied territories. »

— Peter Beaumont at The Guardian. Mr. Beaumont was previously The Guardian's correspondent in Jerusalem.

This is one of the most spectacular intelligence failures since the start of the 20th century. Israel had previously been renown for having world-class intelligence gathering. Politics may have undermined its effectiveness.

Prime Minister Netanyahu heads the most rightwing government in Israel's history. His Minister of National Security is Itamar Ben-Gvir who is best known for his openly racist views.

Ben-Gvir is an attorney who enjoys representing Israelis accused of hate crimes. The reason he's a senior minister is that Netanyahu needs the votes of Ben-Gvir's extremist party to hold on to power.

Ben-Gvir's portfolio includes overseeing border security. Before being chosen as Minister of National Security by Netanyahu he had no experience in national security – and it certainly showed this weekend.

Pandering to far right factions to attain or retain power is ultimately not a winning move in any country – and that includes the US.

In the end, Netanyahu gets the blame for this disaster; when you intentionally sow division in your country and promote unqualified allies to power for political gain then it's your fail. If you can't rule without the help of racist extremists then you don't deserve to be leading a country.

[menalez]

some people keep forgetting that pride is not just some fun little party but a march against oppression

have u ever been to a single pride parade in western countries in the past few years? its indeed just a corporate-backed party at this point where people get to drink and dance and have fun and corporations get to profit off of gay people's struggles at an increased price. in germany pride even has a bunch of various floats for companies to advertise & there even was one for israel to promote themselves! i saw absolutely no protest but unfortunately i did see penis. pride has long stopped being about & for gay people and im not going to be wasting tears on people in philadelphia not being able to party as much as they wanted this pride month when there have been ACTUAL threats at pride & this certainly isnt one of them

[redhoodedangel]

Trump has been found guilty. Now to keep him out of office and his goons from following in his footsteps…

Here are some petitions you can donate to and sign:

[gammija]

i keep constructing elaborate political speeches in my mind. as if somehow if i could just talk to pvv-voters compellingly enough, explain to all of em why this is moronic on every level, they'd all suddenly find out that they're actually leftists at heart who just heard a few facts wrong

[age-of-moonknight]

“Soldier,” Vengeance of the Moon Knight (Vol. 2/2024), #3.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Alessandro Cappuccio; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[nando161mando]

ASIO warns of rise in fascist nazi rightwing extremists who want to spark a race war in Australia

[pumpkinsouppe]

Only in Austin will you see fucking cops on bikes and cops on horses Jesus fucking Christ I hate this state

[c-oanteen]

"being part of an oppressed group influences you in a way outsiders cannot understand" and yet you can't grasp the concept of the same being true about oppressed groups you aren't a part of. easiest way to tell if someone's actually interested in activism/politics/justice or just trying to find ways to feed their ego in the age of idpol

[crowley1990]

I mean. So lucky that I grew up on tumblr rather than any other website and it just made more of a feminist and communist and stuff but also. Lucky that I grew up online over a decade ago because I do not think online grooming was as prolific and as targeted as it is today.

[wilimia]

Cowboy knight

[tomorrowusa]

A majority of high profile classified document leakers are assholes. That includes Russian assets Edward Snowden and Julian Assange. Jack Teixeira undeniably belongs in that category.

He is basically a far right white supremacist gun nut in addition to being a traitor.

Jack Teixeira, dressed in camouflage fatigues, his finger wrapped around the trigger of a semiautomatic rifle, faced the camera and spoke as though reciting an oath.

“Jews scam, n----rs rape, and I mag dump.”

Teixeira raised his weapon, aimed at an unseen target and fired 10 times in rapid succession, emptying the magazine of bullets.

The six-second video, taken at a gun range near Teixeira’s home in Massachusetts, affords a brief but illuminating glimpse into the offline world of the 21-year-old National Guard member, who stands accused of leaking a trove of classified military intelligence on the group-chat platform Discord.

The Washington Post investigated Teixeira‘s background and online activities. He’s not exactly the boy next door which extremist blowhards like Tucker Carlson have claimed he is.

Teixeira’s love of guns, which first drew him to an online community of friends, was intertwined with a deep suspicion of the government that he served as an enlisted member of the Air National Guard. But Teixeira did not consider himself a whistleblower, according to friends.

By the time of his arrest, filings by federal prosecutors show that Teixeira had amassed a small arsenal of rifles, shotguns and pistols, as well as a helmet, gas mask and night-vision goggles, all under the roof of the house where he lived with his mother and stepfather. The Post obtained and verified two videos taken at their home in Dighton, Mass., where the FBI arrested Teixeira last month.

Filmed from the shooter’s perspective, the first video shows a person identified by a Discord user as Teixeira firing an AR-style weapon into the forest. Another video shows the gunman firing a pistol into the woods behind Teixeira’s home, including two rapid volleys that suggest the weapon may have been modified. It isn’t clear what legal or illegal modifications Teixeira may have made, though devices like binary triggers and typically illegal auto sear accessories can make semiautomatic guns fire quicker than they are designed to shoot. A separate photograph shows an AK-style weapon resting on a table outside the family home next to a helmet with attached night-vision goggles.

For Teixeira, firearms practice seemed to be more than a hobby. “He used the term ‘race war’ quite a few times,” said a close friend who spent time with Teixeira in an online community on Discord, a platform popular with video game players, and had lengthy private phone and video calls with him over the course of several years.

“He did call himself racist, multiple times,” the friend said in an interview. “I would say he was proud of it.”

Teixeira joined the National Guard in 2019 – during the Trump administration. We all remember how Donald Trump refused to admit there is such a thing as domestic terrorism. Obviously Trump doesn’t want to upset his white supremacist base.

The Post obtained hundreds of documents, as well as text messages, that Teixeira shared on the server over the course of several months. Teixeira’s lawyers declined to comment. Teixeira, who remains in federal custody, has not entered a plea.

[ ... ]

On Discord, an account with the handle “Jack the Dripper,” one of Teixeira’s known monikers, shared an image titled “payback,” showing a large passenger jet careening toward the Kaaba in Mecca, Islam’s holiest site.

Teixeira asserted that “lots of FBI agents were found to have sympathized with the Jan 6 rioters,” and he said naive members of the intelligence community, of which he was technically a part, had been “cucked.” He referred to mainstream press as “zogshit,” appropriating a popular white-supremacist slur for the “Zionist Occupied Government.” Friends said that during live video chats, Teixeira expounded on baseless accusations of shadowy, sinister control by Jewish and liberal elites, as well as corrupt law enforcement authorities.

“He had quite a few conspiratorial beliefs,” the close friend said, adding: “I remember him multiple times talking about things like Waco and Ruby Ridge, and talking about how the government kills their own people,” referring to a pair of notorious armed standoffs that the far right has held up as emblematic of government oppression.

In addition to the federal charges, Teixeira may face additional charges as a member of the military. 

Ann Stefanek, an Air Force spokeswoman, said Teixeira is subject to “potential discipline,” considering he was working under active duty. After the Air Force concludes an investigation, she said, a commander will determine if Teixeira should face charges in the military. The service is coordinating closely with the FBI in the leak investigation, she said.

[ ... ]

The military has, in the past, struggled to track down individuals who have espoused racist or white-nationalist ideologies. Service members have faced charges that include dereliction of duty and misconduct for racist rants.

Teixeira‘s extremism goes back to his high school years.

The interest in video games and conservative politics was accompanied by an acute obsession with violence, the friend said. “He would send me a video of someone getting killed, ISIS executions, mass shootings, war videos. People would screen-share it, and he would laugh very loudly and be very happy to watch these things with everyone else. He absolutely enjoyed gore.”

Friends may not have taken seriously Teixeira’s threats against his high school. But he voiced approval of some shooters, particularly when they targeted people of different races and faiths. Teixeira was especially impressed by a gunman’s rampage at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 2019, which left 51 people dead and 40 injured. “He was very happy that those people died,” the friend said, because they were Muslim.

This guy is seriously unhinged. The US military needs to conduct more effective investigations of new recruits. Several obvious red flags were missed back in 2019 when Teixeira signed up.

[lenbryant]

It quacks like a duck, Eric Trump.

[redhoodedangel]

Part Two to my previous post. Don’t let Trump and his goons win!

[swordswaltz]

being in your early 20s and starting to do adult stuff is like. most of it's a little bit of a drag but generally not that horrible. and then you have to start apartment hunting and you're like oh well i guess i might as well die

[unofficialadamtaurus]

Thoughts on the real anime’s finale?

"real anime" lol

I liked it! Weiss was cute (and her taking a pie to the face and then being the one to show the initiative to start the food fight [and also the food fight being an established Beacon tradition!] was a great way to show how she's "loosened up" after what she went through). Sun making a reappearance was very welcome, and the conversation between Blake and Ozpin was suitably tense. Ozpin really gave off "I know more than you and you are making a mistake by not telling me everything" vibes while Blake was cool as a cucumber in the face of all of it.

However...I really wish the show had done more to call out Weiss's racism. Did it do more than canon? Yes. But that bar is below the floor. This show is probably about at floor level, at least for me. Better than it was, much left to improve. If it gets future seasons, I'm interested in seeing them inject much more nuance into the faunus conflict (and Adam, naturally).

[nando161mando]

First Peoples’ Assembly condemns fake letter as ‘racist fear-mongering’ while Victorian police make inquiries