My diary yesterday about how some Tea Party leaders around Albany, NY, have been talking about violence, with a menacing photo of one of those leaders (Spyder, at left), was noticed, and then trashed, in their Yahoo group chat room.
They were evidently shocked that someone outside their clique would read and criticize their revolutionary fantasies.
I got called some names, which is OK, since I called Spyder a Christianist wacko biker guy with guns.
They generally denied that they had any violent intentions, despite what had been written on their site, and again encouraged clique members to avoid posting anything controversial on a site that anyone can read.
More details about Spyder and his clique, below.
I only quoted two guys yesterday, Spyder and this guy who claimed he has been talking with veterans about the logistics of an armed assault on Washington:
I have been in a vast number of discussions with many other Liberty minded groups for a long time. Most of these groups have a heavy Veteran audience. Most of them are combat vets who have fired shots in anger and know about battles, dieing and killing for their country. All of them, to the man, will go the extra mile again to fight to their deaths for Liberty and their family's safety.
I have never been in the military myself and I never want anybody to think I have been. I would jump in on conversations with these heros and almost every conversation about the pending loss of liberty turned into a discussion of going to DC with arms to take back America. This discussion was with men who hate the battle field, who still have night mares about war, yet were willing to do it all again.
Then slowly the conversations evolved into a reality check of what we were really proposing. We discussed the logistics and the what ifs of a battle. Their final conclusion was what the only conclusion should be. A straight on battle in DC would produce nothing but death and family's on both sides would be left mourning their fallen members. All agreed, all had the fear that in the end Americans would be the only looser. I think probably Oath Keepers grew from this type of discussion.
We tea party people are now talking of possible violence, the next level of what to do, the what ifs of battle.
This guy did not deny what he wrote, but clearly did not appreciate the public discussion of my diary on their little site:
EVERYONE,
Do not discuss this trash article anymore!
Do not give the a-hole, SOB the satisfaction of your comments.
This is their over-reaction to our "Can you hear us now?" we yelled in DC for 9-12 march.
They did hear us ...and loudly!
They think the only way to stop us is to demonize us as wackos and nut cases.
That is what liberal pinheads do.
Ignore the jackasses, they are only talking to other jackasses anyway, don't wast your time!
Commenting on them gives them status in their perverted world.
DO NOT HELP THEIR SIDE!
Keep the faith! ...Freedom is never free, ...you must fight for it!
...to the revolution!
bill, a 48%!
MOLON LABE!
(Emphases in the original, and the "molon labe" was in much bigger type.)
I had to look it up on the wiki to find out that "molon labe" is legendarily what the Spartans said to the Persians before Thermopylae. It translates roughly as "come and get it," or in the American vernacular, "over my dead body."
The Greek phrase has been adopted by some Second Amendment purists, and by a tea partier who is evidently more in tune with its martial provenance, "Freedom is never free, you must fight for it, to the revolution!"
Spyder, on the other hand, wanted to distance himself from apocolyptic revolutionary violence he had written about here:
God didn't write The Constitution, Man did, with God's guidance, so he has given us a test
He gave us 0bama
0bama is our test
Will we follow 0bama, and behave like Sodom and Gomorrah and be destroyed ?
Or will God's Army wake up and do what needs to be done to stop it ?
It's up to US to answer that question to the best of our ability, and I'm proud to say that most Patriots... are Christians
Spyder's "Army of God" is presumably not an angelic host, but heavily armed right-wingers like himself.
I quoted Spyder accurately, but nevertheless he took offense:
WTF ?????
Apparently this guy missed my post about doing NON violent demonstrations
I am so mad right now
Here's more of "non-violent" Spyder, from today:
I'm not fatigued
I'm EMPOWERED !
Just TRY to stop me !
I dare you
These guys are presumptively non-violent, despite what they're writing online. They are obviously caught up in the tea party fervor that they imagine turned out more than 2 million "patriots" in Washington on Sept. 12.
The other participants in the chat room discussion of the diary were resolutely non-violent, and seemed somewhat embarrassed that the violent fantasies of a few of their fellows had gotten wider attention.
As they should be.
The wider attention problem may be resolved by the local tea partiers moving much of their chat to a site that requires registration to read and comment.
Spyder is predictably all for that, because "The public yahoo thing is DANGEROUS to us."
Really? Why is that?
P.S. I'll probably see some of the local tea partiers Saturday, when I attend a Kirsten Gillibrand event in Troy -- they're planning to protest outside.
It might be worth another diary.