Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Extremism in America, conspiracies and polarization


The following article is a Halloween special for sure, but extreme interests do not serve the reasonable interests of the people.  And some of us "reasonable people" long for the days when moderate Republicans and Democrats were talking to each other, compromising, and moving legislation forward.

Smashing American terrorists
San Mateo County Times, Joshua Melvin, 10/26/12. "Peninsula explosive suspect has extremist ties, expert says."

BRISBANE -- There's a number of reasons the cache of 145 pounds of explosives discovered in a Brisbane home in early October were troubling -- one of them is the background of the man police say put them there.

William Harrell, 46, has links to extreme, anti-government ideas and movements, including the infamous sovereign citizens whose adherents have killed six law enforcement officers since 2000, according to an expert on the group and Harrell's ex-girlfriend.  Police, though, have declined to directly associate him with any extremist groups. 

....  According to records, Harrell made a Uniform Commercial Code filing in Kentucky which lists him as a debtor to himself. J.J. MacNab said sovereigns make these obscure filings because they believe it allows them to lay claim to a secret government bank account that belongs to them. 

MacNab said it's hokum, but added that is no indication sovereigns are dummies or wackos. She has been studying them since the 1990s and wrote a publication on sovereigns for the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors extremists.  "Something has happened in their lives that turned off a common sense switch," said MacNab. "They are not stupid or pathetic, naïve or poor."
Moderate together is better
Get defused
....  MacNab estimated in 2010 there were at least 100,000 sovereigns across the country. The FBI says the decades-old movement is a loose network of individuals with no established leadership.

Sovereigns manifest their beliefs in a variety of ways including making their own license plates, driver's licenses, filing frivolous lawsuits or refusing to pay taxes. When confronted on their law breaking, some sovereigns have turned violent.  Read article.  

Related Reports - The Anti-Defamation League, civil rights/human relations agency "Extremism in America", Sovereign Citizen Movement.  And, "Rage grows in America: Anti-Government Conspiracies",   Alex Jones, the conspiracy king." 

Related articleThe Times - Picayune, greater New Orleans, 8/17/12, includes embedded video.  

Related video - Conspiracy rants by Alex Jones, and the Alex Jones website..  

Posted by Kathy Meeh

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sounds like the Occupy Movement , a bunch of losers.

Ed said...

Sounds more like the militia movement to me. Never heard of the occupy movement having elements of white supremacy in it.......

Anonymous said...

sounds like the seeds of home-grown terrorism

Anonymous said...

You never know when you will need 145 pounds of explosives.

Anonymous said...

I think I heard some of those explosives when the Giants won the World Series. But the commies want to ban safe and sane fireworks on the 4th of July, a holiday with real meaning to REAL AMERICANS.