This guy spent 20 YEARS in the Marine Corps, National Guard, and now the Coast Guard and has admitted he was a âNazi Skinheadâ BEFORE he ever joined up.
I want each and EVERY ONE of his former commanding officers to answer questions as to what he told them about his âWhite Supremacistâ ideas and attitudes and to explain why he was not summarily drummed out of each of these services with a Dishonorable Discharge.
You will find that âWhite Supremacyâ is not only tolerated, it is ENCOURAGED by many officers in these services.
The rot goes very deep in the US Military (and Police Forces.)
Todayâs TPM scorecard:
Jussie Smollett - 3 stories
White Nationalist Terrorist - 1 story
So, why did I sign up for TPM Prime? 
You mean he canât go our for his morning run? How on earth will he be able to commit his atrocities if heâs out of shape?
What was your expectation?
Most Primates sign up to support the site. Many spend time exclusively in The Hive discussing unique topics or taking deep dives into topics of the day.
IMHO you get out what you put in, thereâs something here for everybody.
As for the Christopher Paul Hasson incident thereâs not much happening and wonât be until after his appearance in court.
Judge orders Hasson to be held until prosecutors can go through evidence and add terror charges
He is a by definition a hero, he should be released and his guns given back. Marine Corps Heroes cannot commit a crime, Ian David Long, Charles Whitman, and Lee Harvey Oswald werenât true Marines.
I had a good friend who was a Marine artillery officer (this was Vietnam). He said he only met one racist in the Corpsâa black gunnery sergeant who thought black Marines had to be twice as good as anyone else. Now, my friendâs definition of racist was perhaps less sophisticated than we would have today, but I think youâre way, way overstating the case.
Nor was Timmy McVeigh a true soldier.
Less National Inquirer and more Politico / NYT / WP. I signed up for political news, not sleazy gossip.
Somebody tipped off the authorities about this guy. Itâs as likely his fellow Coast Guard people as anyone else. Theyâd have a sense, like in any workplace, of whoâs got wacky ideas but is surely harmless versus who actually makes you kind of nervous.
âIn court, public defender Julie Stelzig accused prosecutors of making
inflammatory accusations against her client without providing the
evidence to back them up. She also accused the government of trying to
âcriminalize thoughtsâ and perhaps make an example out of Hasson, given
criticism that authorities have overlooked domestic terrorists.â
We certainly donât want to criminalize thought. But we do want enforcement to look into men who say, take pilot lessons at different airports, had multiple driverâs licenses from different states, and bought one-way tickets. We donât want to criminalize flying within the country by tourists, but we might want to take a look at aggregate facts and act on them before a man walks into a building and starts spraying rounds out of modified military-grade weapons.
YesâŚâhonorableâ. EXCEPT for the pesky little fact that he absolutely HATED at least half of the country and was willing to kill US citizens because they didnât follow HIS beliefs.
I resent this indefensible generalization.
Firstly it is not an officers place to be on a personal basis with troops in our command, itâs their Sergeants responsibility to keep them in line. Even so only so much can be done. (See the ink below)
Secondly This IS a very real problem. White Nationalists have become adept at coaching recruits on how to avoid detection measures during the induction process by growing their hair longer, answering standard questions a certain way and avoiding tattoos. I recall many applicants being disqualified from Ranger school based on informal conversations and observations during training. All were given either General or in some cases Other Than Honorable discharges.
Thirdly, the military knows this to be a very real danger and constantly tries to adjust for it. But the groups also adjust. The danger is not so much present while they are enlisted, itâs after discharge when they take their experience ans skills with them into private life.
How would you suggest we deprogram them? How do you suggest we screen them out during induction?
Iâm a sailor (not a good one). Iâve been a fan of the Coast Guard since one of itâs surfboats towed a boat I was on in from off Block Island. (It wasnât my boat, and not my fault.) I was very surprised to hear that one of itâs people was accused of this kind of craziness, but I think the Guard has changed a great deal, and probably not for the better, since its main mission was protection of life and property.
Lock him up and throw away the key-- my god, heâs a mad dog. Itâs criminal the kind of lunatics that are allowed in the military
âThis guy spent 20 YEARS in the Marine Corps, National Guard, and now the Coast Guard âŚâ
Fuck you for your service.
It was Robert Muellerâs FBI that blocked Coleen Rowley and her fellow Minneapolis agents from further investigating Zacarias Moussaoui.
âHe was honorable. ⌠He was a good man.â
I donât think this conclusion holds up to the latest available data points.
Sure. But letâs remember itâs one of its people. If this were happening every couple of months Iâd wonder but I think any group of 87K people gets a pass for one random crazy. Iâve always been a fan too, spent plenty of time on the water in my life and Iâve seen them shepherding hapless civilians safely home, and out operating in brutal weather. Those cutters are boss-looking too. : )
The Smollett story is political news, sadly. His alleged hoax is going to give rise to weeks of Hannity and Judge Jeanine et al crowing that there are no real hate crimes, that this proves Trump isnât racist or homophobic and neither are any of his followers, and that the libs are all liars who will do anything to make Trump and âtrue patriotsâ look bad.
The right will entirely discount the SPLC report on the increased rise of hate groups since Trump was elected.
Every time a real hate crime occurs, the victims will have to face accusations and implications that they made it all up, just like rape and sexual assault victims have for years â regardless of the proven fact that false accusations are rare.
So, yeah, it was sleazy. But it is also political and worth addressing.
Background screening became much less strict in the mid-Bush years when the military had trouble recruiting enough bodies for its endless wars. White supremacists had a much easier time getting in.