Also on today’s menu:
Police Association Offers Chance To Win AR-15
Conservative Extremists Embrace Death Squads
The West’s ‘Real War’ Against Russia
Eight people, including a three-year-old boy and his parents, two elementary school children, and a young engineer from India, died in a Texas shooting on May 6. The gunman, 33-year-old Mauricio Garcia, opened fire at Allen Premium Outlets in the Dallas area on Saturday afternoon before being killed by a police officer who happened to be there in connection with an unrelated call.
Garcia had Nazi tattoos and was dressed in tactical combat gear with a “RWDS” patch on his vest. “RWDS” stands for “Right Wing Death Squad.” As a “commissioned” security guard, Garcia had taken firearms proficiency training. CNN reported that an AR-15-style weapon was among those found near Garcia’s body.
Federal agents who have been reviewing social media accounts that they believe Garcia used say he had interacted with white supremacists and posted such content online.
Police Association Offers Chance To Win AR-15
Residents and business owners in Bristol NH are complaining about the top prize in a Bristol Police Association raffle: a semi-automatic rifle. It is a legal weapon, and a previous raffle that included a handgun had proven to be very successful for the association, which uses the proceeds for charity.
Those opposed to the raffle prize say children already worry about the possibility of a school shooting, and word that police are giving away an AR-15 may cause tourists to avoid coming to Bristol. Linda Carmichael said, “We have a police department who feel untouchable, who are perfectly comfortable alienating half the people they are supposed to protect.”
The Bristol Police Association is a nonprofit organization that is separate from the Bristol Police Department, although BPD officers are members of the association. They point out that anyone winning the drawing will still have to go through a background check before being able to claim the prize.
Conservative Extremists Embrace Death Squads
Representative Paul Gosar (R-AZ) has declared that “Hungary is a beacon,” and the Conservative Political Action Conference agrees, meeting last week in Budapest for the second time. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán believes that democratic principles of equality before the law, free speech, freedom of religion, academic freedom, a free press, and immigration are destroying society. Orbán maintains that his suppression of LGBTQ+ rights, academic freedom, and the media is a model for the world.
Since Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, right-wing activists in the United States have been wearing t-shirts offering “free helicopter rides” and saying “Pinochet did nothing wrong.” The reference to right-wing death squads on Mauricio Garcia’s vest refers to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s death squads that murdered thousands of political opponents, sometimes by tossing them from helicopters.
Yesterday was May 8th, and it is worth remembering that one of human civilization’s greatest triumphs occurred on that day. May 8, 1945, was the day that Adolf Hitler’s “thousand-year Reich” crumbled to dust. It was the day the war was won, and the Nazi criminals surrendered unconditionally. Hundreds of thousands of young Americans were among the casualties in a war that killed 60 million human beings.
When the crowds filled Times Square for the VE Day celebrations 78 years ago it would have no doubt shocked the participants if they would have been told that Nazis would be killing America’s kids in 2023. The main difference is that the killing today is usually done with American weapons.
The West’s ‘Real War’ Against Russia
During Russia’s annual Victory Day observance, celebrating the defeat of Nazi Germany during World War II, President Vladimir Putin declared that the West has unleashed “a real war” against Russia.
Just hours before Putin’s remarks, Moscow fired a barrage of cruise missiles at targets in Ukraine, but Ukrainian authorities said the country’s air defenses had destroyed 23 of 25 missiles launched.
Putin has described his invasion of Ukraine more than 14 months ago as defending against a Western threat. “Today civilization is once again at a decisive turning point,” he said. “A real war has been unleashed against our motherland.”
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