Oregon, a hate State
Commenter and blogger Ten Bears at Homeless on the High Desert had a post-up a couple of days ago depicting issues in Oregon with regard to a high risk for violence. Crooks and Liars picked up Ten Bears post a few days ago the same as Angry Bear is doing today.
As Ten Bears comments, it looks like the far right is exercising greater influence over the direction the Republican Party is taking in Oregon. Similar is occurring in Michigan with the failure to convict the people planning to kidnap Governor Whitmer.
_________
While Oregon officials grapple with an auditor’s finding that the state is at high risk for extremist violence, it’s becoming eminently clear that one of the wellsprings of the problem is the state’s own Republican Party. Even more than the GOP on the national level, Oregon’s Republicans have descended into an open embrace of the very factions that inspire and inflict that violence.
QAnon, Proud Boys candidates embraced by Oregon Republican Party
David Neiwert, Daily Chaos ~ A portrait of Oregon Republicans in 2022: Three GOP candidates are given an onstage benediction by a QAnon preacher praying over them. At a local “Lincoln Day” dinner, a group of Proud Boys—including a man under indictment for felony assault—share drinks and applause for their cohort running for a state House seat. At a debate among U.S. Senate candidates, the QAnon-loving 2020 Senate nominee compares aid to Ukraine with Donald Trump’s border wall, while she and her cohorts all condemn the nonexistent teaching of “critical race theory” for “breeding racism” in Oregon schools. …
Mainstream Republicans have been wrestling with the far-right takeover of the party apparatus for over a year now, following the vote by the party faithful in February 2021 to unseat Chairman Bill Currier, a vocal Trump supporter, and replace him with state Sen. Dallas Heard, a Republican from Myrtle Creek notorious for aligning with far-right causes. Heard led a pro-Trump protest at the Oregon Capitol in Salem on Jan. 6, 2021, at the same time as the U.S. Capitol insurrection—and had previously led a rally on Dec. 21, 2020 in which Patriots attacked and successfully breached the Oregon Capitol.
Heard stepped down as party chair in early March, accusing his fellow Republicans of “communist psychological warfare tactics” intended to “destroy anyone of true character.” His letter explained that he can no longer “survive exposure to the toxicity that can be found in this community.”
“The endless slander, gossip, conspiracies, sabotage, lies, hatred, pointless criticism, blocking of ideas, and mutiny brought against my administration has done what I once never thought possible,” Heard wrote. “They have broken my spirit. I can face the Democrats with courage and conviction, but I can’t fight my own people too.”
The bizarro world takeover has begun driving out ordinary mainstream Republicans, including the party’s 2018 gubernatorial nominee, Kent Buehler. His final straw came in February 2021 after party officials passed a resolution claiming that the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection was a “false flag” intended to smear Trump.
“I don’t know what the Republican Party stands for”
Ten Bears: Bend is not the town, Oregon not the state I grew up, spent over sixty years in
When G’ma “it’s the water” I thought she was talking about our teeth falling out.
Thanks run …
Ten Bears
It is a good commentary on issues with states. Similar is happening in Michigan too. Those people threatening to kidnap and harm Governor Whitmer over mask mandates and staying out of bars and restaurants are guilty and were guilty.
I hope they trial them again in the Eastern District this time.
I waited a few days before AB posted it. I did not want to steal the thunder you earned from Crooks and Liars.
High chance that they will be retried. I don’t think the DOJ will drop this after just one trial, but also don’t think they believe that Grand Rapids is the wrong place to hold the trial. The implicit reason that I think you would like it moved probably works strongly against it not happening. Keep in mind that this mistrial does not send it back to square one exactly since the filing of charges remains in place and that was done in Grand Rapids. I doubt the prosecutors are wasting any effort trying to convince anyone that it has to be moved.
I find it interesting that an Alaska man was sentenced to 32 months for threatening voicemails sent to Alaska’s two Republican senators.
Alaska Man Sentenced to 32 Months in Prison for Threatening U.S. Senators | USAO-AK | Department of Justice
Michigan must have a much different standard on political violence.
Jim
Asked the jury what they thought. It was a clear-cut conspiracy to kidnap the Governor and cause harm. Federal prosecutors did not get the message across that you can not threaten or harm people. This outcome if not corrected, will embold them even more.
The very apparent and outward animosity towards a woman governor . . . Whitmer, etc. was very apparent. Legislators saying crude things about her adulthood and teenagers. Armed protestors showing up at the capitol protesting in and around the capitol. (The gerrymandered state legislature will not ban bullet-spewing-weapons from the capitol building.) Political figures bussing people to the January 6th insurrection. It feeds into an atmosphere of physical disrespect of the person and the formal disrespect of the position.
They had one of the most secure elections in 2020 that could be had. The mistakes noted were simply that and were committed in dominant Republican counties by Republicans who rapidly corrected the errors. The difference was 154,000 votes for president in a state which elected Democratic Presidents since 1990. trump was the default fallout in the “anyone but trump or Clinton” in 2016. People thought they were being cute in naming others for president, libertarians, communist candidates, etc. The Dem org. also failed Michigan by not recognizing the issues.
Oregon among states with highest rates of domestic extremism in US report finds
KGWtv – March 30
KGVtv – March 30
SALEM, Ore. — Over the last 10 years, Oregon had the sixth-highest number of domestic violent extremism incidents of all U.S. states, a new report says, despite the state ranking 27th in the nation by population.
A report released Wednesday by the Oregon Secretary of State’s Office found the state can and should do more to prevent future domestic violent extremism incidents.
The report, titled “Oregon Can Do More to Mitigate the Alarming Risk of Domestic Terrorism and Violent Extremist Attacks,” focuses on five areas of review and outlines potential improvements or fixes the state can put in place.
Oregon has a long record of domestic violent extremism. Some of the more recent incidents include the The Dalles in 1984, when members of the Rajneesh movement contaminated the salad bars at 10 restaurants as they tried to throw an election. In the 1990s, the Animal Liberation Front and Earth Liberation Front burned research facilities and toppled a BPA transmission tower. In 2016, Ammon Bundy and supporters of extremist antigovernment movements took over the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in southeastern Oregon for five weeks. In 2020, a far-left activist shot and killed a right-wing activist at a rally that turned violent in downtown Portland. In December of the same year, far-right rioters entered Oregon’s closed State Capitol after a Republican lawmaker let them in. Former Rep. Mike Nearman was later expelled from the legislature, a first for Oregon, after video revealed he conspired with the group in advance to let them in a side door.
There were many arrests along the way, but none were charged with a state crime in Oregon for domestic terrorism because the state has no such law, something state auditors highlighted in the report. …
Oregon among states with highest rates of domestic extremism in US, report finds
Oregon among states with highest rates of domestic extremism in US, report finds