Yesterday the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which I thought was responsible for protecting us from foreign threats, issued an Advisory Bulletin warning of a “heightened threat environment” throughout the United States. The threat comes from “violent extremists with objections to the exercise of governmental authority and the presidential transition, as well as other perceived grievances fueled by false narratives, could continue to mobilize to incite or commit violence.”
The threat expires on April 30, 2021 at 1:30 pm. I’m not sure if that’s Eastern or Pacific time. Either way, after I finish this column, I’m going on heightened alert right for the next 90 days.
The DHS is referring to the individuals who might commit this violence as DVE’s, which stands for Domestic Violence Extremists. In 2020, these DVE’s allegedly “targeted individuals with opposing views engaged in First Amendment-protected, non-violent protest activity.” Obviously, they were the shock troops who led the invasion into the Capitol on January 6th, and they were – ready? – “inspired by foreign terrorist groups, who committed three attacks targeting government officials in 2020.”
Now it’s not clear whether the foreign terrorist groups attacked government officials, or whether these attacks were carried out by DVE’s who were either connected to or influenced by foreign terrorist groups. Either way, according to DHS, these DVE’s are “motivated by a range of issues, including anger over COVID-19 restrictions, the 2020 election results, and police use of force.”
Now wait just a goddamn minute. I thought the people who were pissed off about how the police used force were people on the Left, not on the Right. How come all of a sudden, the Black Lives Matter movement is getting its money from Cuba and Iran? Aren’t these the countries that are funding international terrorism big time?
I hate to say it folks, but if the DHS has enough time on its organizational hands to indulge in such nonsense, then perhaps Joe would take their budget and use the funds for stepping up Covid-19 relief. Because if you take a look at the list of ‘international terrorists’ identified by the Department of Justice who stormed into the Capitol on January 6th, what you see is a bunch of home-grown morons who showed up in D.C. because they had nothing better to do.
The picture above is one of the leaders of the international terrorist attack on the Capitol, who claims to be a ‘shaman’ for the QAnon brigade. Like the kids of my generation who used to drive around the country following the Grateful Dead, this moron has been turning up at appearances by the former President’s TV lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, over the last year. He also has a YouTube channel, of course, where he delivers lectures on secrets of the Universe, including how energy, frequency and vibration play vital roles in our existence.
Can you imagine this guy showing up in Teheran to be trained in committing terrorist acts? I’ll say this for the QAnon shaman, the fact that he hasn’t spent his life in a homeless shelter proves just how rich and stable this country really is. Which is exactly why this so-called DHS terrorist ‘alert’ needs to be stuck on a shelf somewhere and ignored.
Terrorism, or at least the kind of terrorism that really threatens the political status quo, isn’t borne out of the desire of some unemployed actor to make a name for himself by leaving a note on Mike Pence’s desk which warns that ‘justice will come.’
Remember the Unabomber? His bombs killed three people and mutilated twenty-three others, which made him a terrorist in every sense of the word. But he was ultimately identified, captured, and convicted, and is still sitting in the Supermax prison in Colorado, because the FBI got together with the local cops and figured the whole thing out.
I’m not saying that the Capitol rampage wasn’t terrorism or that we should assume that such violence won’t happen again. But even with the Pandemic raging on, this country is a remarkably stable and secure place.
Pace Donald Trump, it’s something we shouldn’t forget.
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