The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette probes the history of Robert Bowers, the domestic terrorist who murdered eleven Jewish Americans in the Pittsburgh Tree of Life synagogue after becoming convinced that a Jewish conspiracy was behind the "caravan" and other migration to America. What they find is unsurprising: A long pattern of obsession with far-right radio and internet personalities, the adoption of the hoaxes, paranoia, and conspiracy theories they promoted, and longtime preparations for violence defend himself from those conspiracies.
“He had a shotgun right at the door,” said Patrick Kelly, 54, of Dormont, who also worked at the bakery and lived in an apartment atop it, across the hall from Mr. Bowers, for much of the 1990s. “And if the [United Nations] blue hats or tactical [team] came to get him, he said, they’d be decked out in [body] armor,” so he practiced aiming the shotgun at face height, said Mr. Kelly.
The belief that the United Nations is preparing to seize control of the United States has been a commonplace theory of conservative circles for decades now; panel discussions of how the U.N. is preparing to nullify U.S. laws and impose their own can be found in, among other places, the annual CPAC convention, and is prominent in both the far-right militia movement and among ammunition-stockpilers throughout America. Bowers had a particular obsession with far-right radio personality Jim Quinn and internet extremist "Jack Corbin."
In the weeks before the Oct. 27 massacre, Robert Bowers shared memes about the “caravan” of Central Americans moving through Mexico, and began posting on the "mass migration" of immigrants and refugees, sometimes blaming Jews. He zoomed in on HIAS, formerly the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, which helps federally approved refugees of all faiths to settle in the U.S. Referring to HIAS, he posted: "You like to bring in hostile invaders to dwell among us?"
A week before the attack, he reposted a message that Western civilization is "headed towards certain extinction within the next 200 years and we're not even aware of it."
Read the rest here.
TOP COMMENTS
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
On this date at Daily Kos in 2003—Honoring our Veterans:
Some wonder why I am so vociferous in my condemnations of our administration and its dogged pursuit of Bush's War.
Unless you have been a veteran, you don't know what it's like to wear our nation's uniform. The sense of pride, the sense of responsibility it inspires. We love our country, and put our lives on the line on its behalf. We believe in what our country stands for -- notions of democracy, and freedom, and truth and justice. We are most intimately aware of the ultimate sacrifice paid by so many of our brothers in arms, because we ourselves were prepared to pay it.
Yet few of the people in charge made that sacrifice. Rather, they went out of their way to avoid serving their country. Cheney had "better things to do," Bush went AWOL. Virtually all of the "pundits" cheerleeding this war found creative ways to avoid serving. Wars are for the poor and the stupid to fight. Not for exhalted members of society like themselves.
Well, fuck them.
Today is not for them. It's for those of us who wore that uniform, and those who continue serving our country even as their leaders fail them, lie to them, and use them as pawns in their great political and economic chessboard.
And for those of our brothers and sisters in uniform who gave their lives on behalf of noble causes, and those not so noble.
Monday through Friday you can catch the Kagro in the Morning Show 9 AM ET by dropping in here, or you can download the Stitcher app (found in the app stores or at Stitcher.com), and find a live stream there, by searching for "Netroots Radio.” |