Trump Brings Civil Discord And Violence

There' been a lot of news recently about some deranged guy, 63-year old Carlos Bayon, of Grand Island, NY was arrested for leaving menacing voicemails on the office phones of House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Republican Conference chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA). He used his home phone to make the threats so-- not all that hard for Capitol Hill police and FBI to trace him. One message to Scalise: "Hey listen, this message is for you and the people that sent you there. You are taking ours, we are taking yours. Anytime, anywhere. We know where they are. We are not going to feed them sandwiches, we are going to feed them lead. Make no mistake, you will pay."

Police found various kinds of ammunition and instructions on how to build bombs when they searched Bayon's home, although no guns-- just 150 rounds of 7.62-millimeter rifle ammunition, 50 rounds of shotgun ammunition, a 2004 receipt for an SKS assault rifle, and a 1987 receipt for a .38-caliber revolver.

This week, I spoke to the chief of staff of a prominent Democratic House member, who is frequently on television. and social media. He told me that the office gets barraged with calls from right-wing lunatics constantly, including very serious threats-- even threats to the congressman's young children and pictures of the schools they go to.

"Any time the Member is on television,"the chief told me, "the office receives calls from angry conspiracy theorists-- most from outside the congressional district. These callers harass the interns and junior staff who answer the phones. These days for the right it’s all about 'owning the libs'-- so they don’t even feel the need to make sense, as long as they are annoying a Democrat they consider it a successful call."

The really aggressive callers make their way up to the Chief. Most are harmless and he has no problem putting them in their place, but a few are downright scary and include very specific threats. These calls are referred to Capitol Police to investigate.

The office also receives a regular stream of racist and sometimes threatening emails. And social media is even worse. People are truly nasty when they can be completely anonymous. "There is often a palpable racial element to the calls and social media posts," he continued, "which are often vulgar and abusive. Most calls or posts cannot be referred to the Capitol Police if they don’t contain a specific threat... Is there any surprise that we are where we are given how the President behaves on a daily basis?" This is definitely from a crazed Trumpist:



Apple made a smart decision to ban Alex Jones' unhinged podcasts, which are filled with insane conspiracy theories-- like child slaves on Mars and the PizzaGate hoax-- and hate speech galore. An Apple spokesperson:

Apple does not tolerate hate speech, and we have clear guidelines that creators and developers must follow to ensure we provide a safe environment for all of our users. Podcasts that violate these guidelines are removed from our directory making them no longer searchable or available for download or streaming. We believe in representing a wide range of views, so long as people are respectful to those with differing opinions.

Spotify and YouTube have also been removing some of Jones' most inflammatory material. Facebook banned him, but just for a month.

Meanwhile, The Hill reported yesterday that another top source of deranged hatred and baseless, dangerous conspiracy theories on the far right front, Q-Anon, may be in for some... embarrassment, especially if they're working for the GOP, as some people predict-- or as a leftist prank group, making fun of brain-dead Trump supporters. The anarchist hacking collective, Anonymous, has set about working to expose the people behind 'QAnon,' referring to it "as potentially dangerous and driven by a 'brainless political agenda.'... We will not sit idly by while you take advantage of the misinformed and poorly educated." Watch the video they posted Sunday. It's a hoot: