This election gets scarier by the day. It seems only a matter of time before someone gets shot. And if there are going to be shots fired, more than a few supporters of Donald Trump want to make sure they’re the ones doing the shooting.
On Twitter, and elsewhere online, Trump supporters are talking openly about bringing guns to political rallies and polling places. Some are actually taking steps to form some kind of Trump militia.
The living sack of human garbage that is Matt Forney recently Tweeted these suggestions for fellow Trump lovers:
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/708811928664195072
https://twitter.com/basedmattforney/status/708516727190065153
Unfortunately, Forney isn’t the only Trump supporter talking about guns.
https://twitter.com/RobinFoxNews/status/708974116653543425
https://twitter.com/LibrtyGuerrilla/status/709103137030668288
https://twitter.com/AmbikaPadmaloch/status/709142040232071168
@FoxNews Do us Trump supporters, have to start carrying our Guns For Protection at Rally's, WE WILL…..
— Radical Republican. (@todstertodd) March 12, 2016
@FoxNews I would encourage Trump supporters, To be armed when attending Rallies. This is for Your own protection. The Left Wants WAR.
— Radical Republican. (@todstertodd) March 12, 2016
You Liberals do not want to take it the streets, we will wipe the sreets up with your Blood.
— Radical Republican. (@todstertodd) March 12, 2016
Meanwhile, discredited right-wing hack “journalist” Chuck C. Johnson posted the alarming picture below on Facebook, promising to “use the Second [amendment]” against — that is, to shoot — anyone he think is threatening Trump’s right to free speech , even though he personally supports Ted Cruz.
Johnson took the post down, but not before it was screenshotted by Charles Johnson, a non-discredited journalist who unfortunately, and rather confusingly, shares the same first and last name as the dude with the red hair and beard pictured above.
Other Trump supporters think that their candidate needs to have a somewhat more organized army of Second Amendment fetishists to protect him from the “bad people” he talks about so much.
Like, say, a militia.
https://twitter.com/FoxLegChair/status/708520806716837888
Hire them? I’m fairly certain most “militia” members would be happy to do it for free. Earlier this month, in fact, the FBI arrested the co-chair of Veterans for Trump in New Hampshire on an assortment of charges related to his alleged participation in the armed standoff at Bundy Ranch in Nevada in 2014.
But hiring or otherwise working with Bundy’s militia may not be necessary, as Trump may soon have an unofficial militia of his own.
Yesterday, RT.com reports, a new Twitter account announced the formation of something called “The Lion’s Guard,” describing itself as
[a]n informal civilian organization dedicated to protecting the safety and security of innocent, peaceful Trump supporters from violent Far-Left agitators.
While the group would remain unarmed, the organizer pledged, it would be “willing to forcefully protect people if need be.”
Whoever was behind the Twitter account took it down within hours, citing threats.
But in that brief stretch of time, RT.com reports, the account was able to pick up 500 followers and a good deal of support from other Trump fans on Twitter, including many on the far right who presumably already own the requisite brown shirts and swastika armbands.
https://twitter.com/Third_Position/status/708760325353385984?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/DonnyLateNight/status/708741461773295617
https://twitter.com/TrumpLiberals/status/708738364405649408
https://twitter.com/GeorgiaAlpha/status/708738477769289732
@wearelionsguard You are doing what needs to be done. God bless. Can I donate?
— Jordan (@realJordanIV) March 12, 2016
@Third_Position @wearelionsguard Where do I sign on
— Concierge Monthly (@ConciergeMthly) March 12, 2016
https://twitter.com/Jenixian/status/708760475354288128
https://twitter.com/lyz_estrada/status/708753037561438208
Meanwhile, over on clickhate tabloid The Daily Stormer (partially archived here), the regulars are if anything even more enthusiastic about The Lion’s Guard than their counterparts on Twitter — though some of them seem to have forgotten the bit about the group being unarmed.
On 4chan’s Trump-loving, fascist-friendly /pol/ board (archived here), some are talking about trying to resurrect The Lion’s Guard on their own.
Whether or not The Lion’s Guard is resurrected, by its founder or by sympathetic Trump fans on 4chan or somewhere else, it’s clear that the idea of a “Trump militia” has an appeal to many of the orange-faced demagogue’s fans — and not just Daily Stormer readers posting pictures of a well-armed Pepe.
Writer Sarah Kendzior, who spent many hours with Trump supporters while waiting in line to see The Donald on his recent visit to St. Louis, noted in a piece for the Guardian that
Several Trump fans vowed that the next time, they would come armed. Some warned that if Trump was not chosen by Republicans, a militia would rise up to take him to power.
On Twitter, other Trump fans are making similarly chilling “predictions” and threats.
https://twitter.com/BLang71/status/709123350233280512
https://twitter.com/DXint/status/709151004030341121
https://twitter.com/_America_First/status/708819001959276545
Normally, I would dismiss this sort of talk as empty blathering. But this time this talk is attached to a dangerous demagogue who’s managed to rile up a very noisy minority of disaffected white people, millions strong, many of them already heavily armed.
If even a fraction of those people “march on DC” or anywhere else, the results could be bloody. I really hope that things aren’t heading where they seem to be heading, because that’s a very dark place indeed.
The right wing machine is based on hate, this was inevitable the minute the left wing decided to not have a spine and allowed the gop to drag the country further to the right.
By the end of the election expect people to seriously reconsider what the meaning of free speech actually means.
@Valentine March 13, 2016 at 11:26 pm
“O great, mighty, righteous and free Russian language!” – Turgenev
@rick March 14, 2016 at 1:54 am
Just like for them the immigrants both come to do nothing and sponge off welfare and to take away their jobs.
You got to admit this, Trump is indeed a punk-ass, but he is able to reach deep into the right-wing with his boastful rhetoric without being that more right-wing than his Republican competitors. In fact, if you compare him to his Republican competitors for the nomination, he may be even the lesser of multiple evils (I don’t think that I’d vote for him, if I’d be American. I’d also never ever for for Hillary, given this superdelegate shit. I’d either vote for Bernie in the primaries and then, if Hillary succeeds in bullshitting her way to the nomination, I’d simply either stay home or vote for a third-party candidate), if you look past his trolling. He fooled the right-wing into thinking him as anti-establishment even though he is as much establishment as Hillary at the very least. He even has a lot of anti-semites on his side despite being professedly pro-Isreal and having no problems at all with his daughter converting to Judaism.
And about his supporters, they’re just a bunch of Internet Tough Guys. I’d be very surprised, if they kick up more dust than a few brawls.
@blue cat – http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/07/13/us/alabama-ruling-hobbles-ban-on-guns-in-the-open-at-polls.html?referer=&_r=0
Breitbart threw the reporter under the Trump-bus, another resigns in protest as well, and now they are looking for a new fake news site where to be “reporters”. Awwwww. http://www.buzzfeed.com/rosiegray/michelle-fields-ben-shapiro-resign-from-breitbart
(Again, I could have fucking told it. “Cool Girls” don’t last.)
@ Snork Maiden and RosaDeLava
I’m not sure Milo’s orientation is a factor here, as such. He may not want to have sex with women, but he sure seems fond of belittling and dominating women. If only we’d give up feminism and recognize our “proper” place in the world, Milo would be satisfied that the rightful order has been restored.
The “superdelegate shit” is part of the Democratic Primary, and has been for a long time. Bernie knew about it going in. Frankly, it’s no real surprise that the Democratic superdelegates are mostly voting for the candidate who’s been a Democrat all along, as opposed to the one who joined the party so he could run for president.
What’s more, Hillary is still winning (albeit by a much narrower margin), even without the superdelegates.
And if you were in a safely Democratic or Republican state, that’s fine and dandy. If you’re in a contested state, that’s a good way to end up with a President Trump.
Maybe my opinion’s been coloured by how borderline trolly you were acting in the Bernie vs Clinton thread, but… Isn’t this victim blaming?
And why wasn’t Aris Butt banned two years ago?
He actually went to one shortly before Iowa. The church in question uses a modernized translation of the Bible and does readings on a three-year cycle, and this happened:
Then there was a sermon about charity and welcoming refugees and immigrants.
Well, that’s my blood nicely chilled for the rest of the week. Jesus.
Did anyone post this yet? A guy goes undercover to a Trump rally.
The oath wasn’t super-smooth in its execution for the rally— Trump had people raise their right hand and repeat after him, then he’d go too fast or say things that were too long for people to really repeat accurately. You could see some subtle satisfaction on Trump’s face as he did this — nobody in the world has more contempt for Trump supporters than Donald J. Trump himself.
https://medium.com/@bindingwave/florida-man-goes-undercover-at-a-trump-rally-51ec77e08eed#.jb219j9se
@guy:
Did he catch fire upon crossing the threshold? Enquiring minds want to know.
Meanwhile the only shots fired were by a anti-Trump person violently protesting a Trump Rally. That person also happens to be black.
Now isn’t that strange?
As for the rest of the blog: sorry to break it to you but your camp isn’t cool anymore. We — the antifeminists — took that place.
YAY! 😀
The superdelegate thing is overblown. Back during the 2008 primary, people were saying almost the same thing – Clinton had a lot of superdelegate endorsements early in the campaign, and people were speculating that they’d give her the nomination even if Obama came to the convention with the majority of pledged delegates. There was even a paper-thin justification for it: Obama’s delegate advantage came mostly from the low-turnout caucus states; Clinton had done better in the high-turnout primary states and had gotten more votes overall.
But of course when it came time for the convention, the superdelegates didn’t have any justification for giving the nomination to Clinton. If Obama’s campaign had cratered in the final months and he’d clearly lost the support of the rank-and-file, then they might have done it, but there was simply no other way they could deny the nomination to an acceptable candidate who had the majority of the pledged delegates.
Things are probably going to play out the same way this time: Unless Clinton’s campaign craters within the next few months, she’s going to go into the convention with the majority of pledged delegates. The superdelegates wouldn’t be able to justify handing the nomination to Sanders even if they were inclined to do so.
(If you’re not in the US, you might be overestimating Sanders’ support within the Democratic electorate. He does really well with the young white male demographic, which makes him Internet-popular, but Clinton is more popular among most of the other demographics that make up the party’s base.)
Will that photo “end feminism forever?” Definitely not.
Will it end female heterosexuality forever? I wouldn’t rule it out.
This will probably make me no friends here, but is anyone else flirting with the idea that, since we live in a country where every angry little man carries a gun, and the government is terrified to do anything about right wing lawlessness, the left really needs to start arming itself for self defense? I’m still pro gun control, but I’m even more pro having a country where fascists aren’t able to stage armed insurrections unopposed.
@ m
See, the thing is, a lot of us don’t care about being “the cool kids.” We generally tend to care about whether or not something is right, or fair, or just. The kind of thing the antifeminists call “politically correct” while they’re jamming their fingers in their ears and chanting “USA! USA!”
hedin:
That, to me, it the absurdity of American gun culture in action. We need guns because they have guns because we have guns because they have guns…
The trouble is, once you’re on that little merry-go-round, it’s hard to get off. Yeah, it might actually be sensible for left-wingers to carry guns these days. That’s the problem.
Wait, you mean we used to be cool? I never kept track of that sort of stuff. I just concentrated on trying to be myself, without worrying over whether it was cool or not.
Anyway, thanks for letting me know that antifeminism is cool now. My experience is that the coolest people are the ones who feel the need to tell you that they’re cool, so I know that I can trust your information.
Are you in the “The Lion’s Guard”? I’m wondering why they called it that. It sounds like it might be inspired by “Game of Thrones”.
@m:
“Isn’t cool any more”? When, in your opinion, were we cool? Specifically, between which two dates did you personally think “damn, those feminists are cool. I wish I could be one”?
Citation needed.
@hedin:
I think you’re right that the left needs to invest in self defence. However, in my opinion any attempt to approach this as single violent individuals would be a mistake: that sort of cult-of-the-lone-hero thinking is stupid when the right do it and would be stupid if we did it. What needs to happen is for collective action to be taken in this regard.
The problem, as you rightly identify it, is one of government timidity. Mass political action could well provide benefits here. I don’t know what America’s situation is like so I bow to my American friends here: what is the state of the anti-firearm movement and can it effectively be mobilised?
Sorry, but this shit is just hilarious. The only violence at Trump rallies has been supporters assaulting peaceful protesters or just turning on anyone who was picked out for looking “other”. Trump has been actively siccing his people like attack dogs and spoiling for a fight himself, and then claims he was “shut down” by people who showed up to disagree? Seriously, he literally shuts down under that kind of pressure and claims to have what it takes to lead a nation? Of course, narcissists are known for being fragile to criticism.
I just have to laugh at his supporters claiming they’re under attack by ISIS, because that’s what a bunch of extremists known for their kamikaze mass murder would do, show up armed with only a sign. Puh-lease.
I guess these mid-western conservatives from Boring-Cornfield-Where-Nothing-Important-Will-Ever-Happen USA must be desperate for some excitement and conflict in their lives, and being in the same room as a scary brown person raising their voice is probably the closest they’ll ever get.
Hey Matt Forney,
Just because you happen to think it would be a good idea to use violence to intimidate your political opponents, doesn’t mean that everyone else does.
Nuh uh!!!!! Our camp is the coolest!!!!!!!
http://media4.popsugar-assets.com/files/2015/07/30/973/n/1922283/92ada0b7_edit_img_cover_file_2387502_1438286409_wet_h_pds_048_h.jpg
Singing rounds, roasting weenies, and plotting misandry at Camp DworkiSolanas.
The reason the country is being dragged to the right isn’t spinelessness (although that does play a part), it’s a cynical center right Dem establishment and a gullible electorate who keeps getting fooled into voting for them. Sure, Obama was held back by Republican obstructionism, but he decided to bail out the banks, he decided not to prosecute them, and he decided to erode civil liberties (e.g. by making it legal for the president to execute American citizens independent of the judiciary).
As for Bill, his free trade treaties and expansion of the criminal justice system were devastating. And now the Dems are getting ready to make the same mistake again with Hillary.
The Republicans have been working on that one for a while. Not letting them force other people to pray in school, or teach their religion as science, or deny basic rights to gays is a crime against free speech, apparently. When the right says “free speech,” they mean unquestioned hegemony. Anyone who opposes their ideas is painted as opposing their freedom.
Trump = The Antichrist?
Just great, the end of the world starting with a beyond evil leader had to come *now*. I guess I’ll have to go to Home Depot to pick up some supplies to turn my house into a makeshift bunker.
The people who think Trump will change things if elected are not only dumb enough to miss the fact that he’s literally the 1%, but deluding themselves into thinking that congress is going to be any better with him than they are with Obama. Trump has zero in-office political experience, his idea of international relations will likely lead to the third world war, and someone needs to worry about the details of this jerk’s currently unspecific plans in case the rational voters give in to APATHY again and don’t vote in enough numbers to prevent a situation where we get Trump as president. I don’t want that, nobody I know wants that, and anyone reasonably intelligent shouldn’t want that.
I’m going to keep praying that a giant sinkhole opens up beneath Trump soon, is that too much to ask of FLORIDA, land of many sinkholes?!
@hedin- Don’t forget trying to stop those with money from influencing politics to their advantage by making it rain on politicians and lawmakers, bribery is free speech too.
Snork Maiden: “I’m concerned Trump’s current MO is going to lead to someone getting hurt.”
Do you mean is going to lead to more people getting hurt because people have already been physically assaulted at Trump rallies? I guess the only issue now is whether someone will be killed at one of his rallies by one of his Nazi/KKK supporters.