Pick a Side

It’s official. The Trump presidency went so far off the rails this week that the rails will never be seen again. The press conference held this past Tuesday was proof that Trump is completely unfit for office. All of you who said he’d “grow into the office?” You were wrong. Really wrong.

Voters loved him because he “tells is like it is,” which means he spouted a lot of incomprehensible nonsense, punctuated with insults and bravado. Republicans loved him because he claimed to be one of them, they march in lockstep, and because ideology is more important to them than integrity. The GOP didn’t just ignore his twitter wars, inciting of violence, and boasts of grabbing women by the genitalia. They defended him.   

They loved Trump because he was about as far from Obama as you could get. The Republican Party was furious that a black guy spent 8 years in the White House. When Donald Trump became a big public birther, they ate it up.

Don’t dare tell me you’re surprised by his conduct this week. The warning signs were a mile high and flashing. We’ve all been pretending that presidenting by Twitter is perfectly normal; even though we know it is not. 

A bunch of white supremacists were miffed about the removal of confederate statuary in Charlottesville, VA, so they decided to have a rally. They publicized the rally, and made a big deal out of it.  Richard Spencer, the new David Duke was going to be there. The old David Duke was going to be there. Chris Cantwell, a NH Free State Project mover turned white supremacist was going to be there. (Sidebar: have any of these guys who think of themselves as the master race ever looked in a mirror?)

Hundreds of white supremacists marched through the UVA campus last Friday night with tiki torches, yelling, “Jews will not replace us,” and “white lives matter.” The next day, the white supremacists showed up with shields, clubs, and guns for their peaceful demonstration. Naturally, counter-protesters showed up, too. There were violent clashes. The police mostly turned their back on the protesters. One of the neo-Nazis drove his car into a crowd of people, killing one person and injuring 19 others. Two state troopers were killed in a helicopter crash.

Trump was laboring selflessly at his golf club, where he found time to tweet about how we must all be united. He emerged later in the day to attend a news conference. He said “we” condemn the violence on many sides. He liked “many sides” so much he said it twice. He switched to talking about what a great job he’s doing, and how when he watches Charlottesville it makes him very sad. He didn’t acknowledge the white supremacists were responsible for the violence. He didn’t mention their domestic terrorism. How could he? They’re his base.

There was a lot of national outrage over what Trump didn’t say. It turns out a lot of Americans disapprove strongly of white supremacists. After 24 hours of bad press, back in Washington, some adult forced Trump to read a prepared speech, where he denounced the KKK, neo-Nazis, and white supremacists, and finally mentioned the two troopers, and the young woman who were killed. He was furious at the negative coverage and furious at being forced to read an adult speech.

The next day, after several CEO’s from his manufacturing council bailed out on him, he went from simmer to full boil, and hijacked his own press conference. He babbled insensibly about a young woman, a fine young woman, whom I assume is the one who was killed, but he never provided any context, so it just came across as disconnected nonsense. He said David Duke’s statement was beautiful. He kept braying about facts, and how he waited because he needed to know the facts. Clearly he was resentful about the facts he was forced to recite the day before, because he started blathering about two sides again, and how there were some “very fine people” on both sides.

How many of you know “fine” people who grab tiki torches and Nazi flags and march through college campuses bellowing about Jews? There are not two sides to neo-Nazis engaging in domestic terrorism. Our fathers and grandfathers fought a war against this.   

Trump has never been able to elevate himself to the kind of behavior the office demands, but this press event was a whole new frontier. This is a man who is the exact opposite of a statesman. He is the antithesis of gravitas. He is seriously, dangerously, unfit for office. He is incapable of being a world leader.

He should have been in Charlottesville, speaking seriously about violence and paying homage to the dead.  He should have been grave and presidential. Instead he was conducting a petty war with the media and petulantly presenting himself as the victim in the situation. Seriously, dangerously unfit for office.

What are we going to do about it? 

 

Published as an op-ed in the August 18, 2017 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Cop Killing With Cantwell

This is Chris Cantwell. This is his Halloween costume, worn at a recent Free State Project convention in Keene. 

He moved to NH as part of the Free State Project, the armed band of miscreants that are moving, en masse, to colonize NH, take over and dismantle our state government, then threaten secession. 

Cantwell wants to kill cops. Well, not really - he wants to "inspire" other people into killing cops. Cantwell lacks the courage of his convictions. He doesn't want to go to prison, because he's too important. The lesser folk should do his dirty work for him. It's all part of his desire to violently overthrow the US government.

The FSP publicly kicked him out in 2013, but that was all for show. He's still part of the cult, living in Keene (at the behest of the Free Keene cult leader Ian Bernard) across the street from the Church of the Free Load. Cantwell was on the CopBlock panel at the recent convention in Keene. We are asked to believe CopBlock has good, nonviolent intentions, yet Cantwell was part of the panel. One of these things is not like the other. 


I've written about Cantwell before:

Free Stater Blames Brentwood Cop for His Own Death

Cop Killers Love CopBlock

CopBlock Backpedaling Furiously

Big Turd Lands in Free State Punchbowl

He's eulogized a number of cop killers. The latest is Eric Frein, who killed one cop and wounded another, then hid out in the Poconos for almost 2 months. Frein was recently captured, and Cantwell waxes on about what Frein should have done:


I can’t help but think that his efforts would have been better spent moving to New Hampshire, and joining a community of people who also see law enforcement as a threat to their safety. He could have trained others to shoot, and survive. Instead of laying down his own life for the cause at such a young age, he could have been a force multiplier for all of us.

Yeah, I'm sure we all agree that it's a real shame Frein didn't move to NH. 

By the way - we're always told that Free Staters are peace loving folk. How does talk of "force multipliers" fit in with that peace loving stuff? Wouldn't you need "force multipliers" if you were planning an armed takeover? 

The only reason I’m alive is because I saw an alternative. I saw a way to do more for the cause of liberty by staying alive, than I could by dying. I can’t help but think the world would soon be a better place if people like Eric Frein, Jerad and Amanda Miller, Justin Bourque, Paul Ciancia, Tim McVeigh, and others, had seen that alternative too. What I wouldn’t give to today be surrounded by such brave warriors…

Jerad and Amanda Miller killed 2 cops and a bystander. Justin Bourque killed 3 RCMP officers and wounded 2 others. Paul Ciancia killed a TSA agent, wounded 2 other agents and a teacher. Heroic might not be the term you'd use to describe these folks. 

Cantwell refers to Timothy McVeigh as a "brave warrior." In 1995, Timothy McVeigh blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people and wounding 450 others. Nineteen of those killed were children - children that were in the day care center on the second floor. 

A man who blows up 19 children is not a "brave warrior." That Cantwell and his acolytes can justify that act, and treat McVeigh as some sort of hero is monstrous. 

The Free Staters love to tell us they come in peace. People who come in peace don't come armed to the teeth. People who come in peace don't bring guys like Chris Cantwell. 

FSP President Carla Gericke's cries of outrage reached the ionosphere last year when the FSP were called potential domestic terrorists in an application for an armed vehicle filed by the Concord PD.

Were the Concord PD  wrong? 

"We call them ‘libertarians” because ‘sociopath’ is such an ugly word." ~ TBogg

Cantwell Puts on His Cop Killing Cheerleader Uniform - Again

You remember Chris Cantwell. He's the guy who was kicked out of the Free State Project around this time last year. Cantwell was getting loud about how cops should be killed, and poor Carla Gericke, the president of the Free State Project was busy shrieking about how bad it was that the Concord Police Dept. considered the possibility that Free Staters could be potential domestic terrorists. The last thing Carla needed was for that to be proven true by Chris Cantwell, so he was ousted. 

Since then, he's aired his views on how cops should die on a number of occasions. He blamed  Brentwood Police Officer Steve Arkell for his own death. Officer Arkell was killed in the line of duty. When Justin Bourque went on a RCMP  killing spree in New Brunswick, Cantwell cheered him on, as he applauded Jerad and Amanda Miller for killing cops in Las Vegas. This led to him getting kicked off CopBlock, but that was purely cosmetic. CopBlock wants to keep their memes popular amongst "the slaves." 

Cantwell may have been kicked out of the FSP in a big public attempt to whitewash their public image, but it was all for show.  Cantwell lives across the street from the Church of the Free Load in Keene. Free Keene cult leader Ian Bernard begged Cantwell to come back to Keene.

He's still cheering on murder, as you can see here at his latest blog diatribe: Chris Cantwell - PA Troopers Got Off Easy:

Every traffic stop he engaged in was a death threat. Every arrest a kidnapping. Every fine a theft. He was paid through taxation, a global system of coercion that presently enslaves the entire human race. He was an active participant and willing co-conspirator in the system of oppression that makes wars possible. Should Dickson have pulled you over on the highway, and you attempted to evade him, he would use whatever level of force was necessary to stop you, up to and including running your car off the road and shooting you in the face, with a gun you were forced to pay for.

And

If his death prevented a single traffic stop, then his killer is a hero. If it saved the taxpayers of Pennsylvania a single penny, then his killer is a freer of slaves. If it makes one young adult think twice about becoming a cop, then his killer saved an immeasurable number of people from theft, assault, imprisonment, and death.

Our Free Stater wannabe overlords love to natter on about how they're all about peace and love, and claim adherence to something they call the non-aggression principle. 

It's all a bunch of road apples. Scratch that facade of peace and love and what you get is far, far beyond the mainstream. 



Update - it seems Cantwell has taken a cult name.

From his Facebook page:

While we're on the topic of Free Staters....

NH GOP Chair Jennifer Horn :

Horn said the group’s philosophy is “something that’s right in line with the Republican Party.”   

"For the most part," explained Horn, "the Free State Project has been very much a movement with character that I think has probably been a positive thing in our state.”

Is cop killing right in line with the GOP philosophy, Jennifer? 

Our Would Be Liberators

Earlier this month, in New Brunswick, a young man named Justin Bourque killed RCMP Constables Fabrice Gevaudan, Dave Ross, and Douglas Larche. He wounded two other Mounties. Justin Bourque was an angry young man, ginned up on conspiracy theories and fears about gun grabbers. (Definition: anyone believing that not every person should have access to firearms is a gun grabber.) One of his Facebook friends is being detained for threatening to kill police.

A few days ago, two police officers having lunch at a pizza place in Las Vegas were gunned down by Jerad and Amanda Miller, who put a swastika and a Gadsden flag on the bodies of the officers, announced the revolution was starting, grabbed their weapons, and went to a nearby Wal-Mart. They killed a man there. Jerad and Amanda were also ginned up on conspiracy theories and gundamentalist fears that the gummint was coming to take their guns away.

These killings happened in two different countries, and the killings were done by people who didn’t know each other. They did, however, have something in common. CopBlock. If you spend any time on social media, you’ve probably seen CopBlock memes; a picture with some message about police violence or authoritarian overreach. CopBlock claims their goal is police accountability. From their website:

We do not “hate cops.” We believe that no one – not even those with badges – has extra rights. The failure to realize and act on that is to our detriment. By focusing the disinfecting light of transparency on public officials we safeguard not just our rights but those of future generations.

Sounds good, doesn’t it? If only we could take these folks at their word.

A regular writer for CopBlock is a guy named Chris Cantwell. Cantwell was kicked out of the Free State Project (in a big public way) for advocating violence, which goes against what the FSP claims to believe. Cantwell, in his capacity as CopBlock administrator had the ability to use the CopBlock twitter account. While Justin Bourque was out killing Mounties, CopBlock sent out a tweet that read, “What the world needs is more people like Justin Bourque not fewer.” The same CopBlock that claims it doesn’t condone violence, the same CopBlock that claims adherence to something called the “Non Aggression Principle.”

Cantwell has lengthy rants on his blog where he waxes on about the reasons to kill cops. It’s not for the faint of heart or stomach. He’s an angry, angry man who doesn’t kill cops because HE doesn’t want to go to jail. He’d like to incite you to do the work for him. He cheered on Justin Bourque. He eulogized the Millers. And when Officer Stephen Arkell was killed in Brentwood, NH last month, Cantwell not only blamed Arkell for getting killed, he celebrated it. 

Justin Bourque had CopBlock memes on his Facebook page. Amanda Miller had a link to a YouTube video from the CopBlock channel that asks, “When is it Okay to Kill a Cop?” with words from an anarchist/Free Stater named Larken Rose. Jason Stam, the friend of Justin Bourque now in custody for threatening cops, posted Chris Cantwell’s CopBlock support for Bourque on his page.

CopBlock was co-founded by Adam Mueller, who calls himself Ademo Freeman and Pete Eyre. Mueller and Eyre are both members of the Free State Project. The Free State Project is the group of libertarians moving to NH with the intent of liberating us by occupying, colonizing, and taking over and dismantling the state government, and threatening secession. They claim to be nonviolent and peaceful. I serve on the board of a peace organization. We don’t have any videos that address when it would be okay to kill cops. That doesn’t fit into the category of peace – at least not as I understand it.

CopBlock has gotten a lot of negative media attention since the recent cop killing incidents took place. On June 11, they posted a notice on the CopBlock site that Cantwell is now a former author, and they pledged their adherence to the non-aggression principle. It was signed by a number of folks affiliated with the site, including co-founder Pete Eyre. It was not signed by Adam Mueller. He sent out a tweet saying that Cantwell “is no longer an admin of the FB page. Gotta be PC, ya know. Otherwise slaves won't like CopBlock.” In other words, they ditched Cantwell so that they can keep on getting well-intended folks to keep posting their memes and sending them money. That’s what they call non-Free Staters, by the way. Slaves.

Many members of the Free State Project will be appearing on ballots around the state this fall. At least one will be on the ballot in Carroll County. Ed Comeau of Brookfield is running for the NH House. Some of you will recognize Ed as the person who tapes a variety of public meetings, including the Carroll County Commissioners. The level of dysfunction we’ve seen in our county government may well have been nurtured by the FSP. Remember, their goal is the destruction of our form of government. What better way to begin than to ensure chaos, obstruction, and gridlock? It’s happening both in Concord and on the county level, engineered by Free Staters and their fellow travelers in the Tea Party and the John Birch Society. Always research your candidates to find out things like: What do they believe in? How do they support themselves financially? What groups are they associated with?

As for CopBlock, don’t be fooled by their attempt at a whitewash. They’ve allowed Cantwell’s rants all this time. The “When is it Okay to Shoot a Cop” video has been up on YouTube for over a year. If no cops had been killed, Cantwell would still be an administrator, and no one would be the wiser. The underbelly of our would-be liberators does not match their public face.

© sbruce 2014  

Published in the June 13 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

CopBlock Backpedaling Furiously

In the sudden glare of negative media attention, the folks at CopBlock are backpedaling rather furiously:  

We at Cop Block would like to address the article  written and shared to Cop Block’s Facebook page by former author, Christopher Cantwell, entitled Dead Men Don’t Start Revolutions, as it was reasonably and understandably concerning to many of you and many of us.

Suddenly Chris Cantwell's violent rhetoric is a problem, so now he's a "former" author. 

Some of the folks behind CopBlock have signed on to say that they don't support cop killing, they are believers in the non-aggression principle, and so on. One of the signers is Pete Eyre, who is a CopBlock founder. 

Adam Mueller, aka Ademo Freeman is NOT one of the signers. In fact, he tweeted this out:

@BitcoinBelle @voteforcantwell is no longer an admin of the FB page. Gotta be PC, ya know. Otherwise slaves won't like @CopBlock
— Ademo Freeman (@ademo_freeman) June 11, 2014

Cantwell was a CopBlock administrator even after he was ousted by the Free State Project for violent rhetoric.  This sudden ouster is all about keeping the "slaves" (all you nice liberals who post CopBlock memes) from being upset about the violence these folks espouse. 


 Some background.

Cop Killers Love CopBlock

If you have a Facebook page, you've probably seen memes from Cop Block. Many people who are concerned about the militarization of police departments post Cop Block memes, including some of my friends.

 CopBlock claims their goal is police accountability:

We do not “hate cops.” We believe that no one – not even those with badges – has extra rights. The failure to realize and act on that is to our detriment. By focusing the disinfecting light of transparency on public officials we safeguard not just our rights but those of future generations.

Those of us who write for and are responsible for CopBlock.org affirm that violence is not condoned except in the defense of self or others - while we recognize the rights of other individuals to use the CopBlock name, we do not recognize those that do not affirm and live by that statement. [click here for more on the non-aggression principle]

They claim they don't condone violence, but note how they weasel out of responsibility "we recognize the rights of other individuals to use the CopBlock name... but we don't recognize those who do not affirm and live by that statement..." 

Well, except for this guy. Christopher Cantwell is in favor of dead cops. He blamed Steve Arkell, the Brentwood, NH police officer recently killed in the line of duty, for his own death. 

He cheered on Justin Bourque, the young guy who killed three RCMP officers and wounded 2 others. 

As you can see, it says this Tweet is from CopBlock. The same CopBlock that claims it doesn't condone violence. As it happens, Cantwell is a frequent contributor who appears to be entitled to tweet as CopBlock. Given that Cantwell approves of killing cops, it's difficult to take the CopBlock bleatings about nonviolence and the so-called "non-aggression principle" very seriously. 

Amanda Miller, who, along with her husband Jerad Miller went on a spree in Las Vegas where they killed 2 cops in a pizzeria and a bystander in a WalMart, had a YouTube channel where she "liked" a bunch of videos about the moocher rebellion at the Bundy Ranch. She also "liked" this video from CopBlock:

So who IS CopBlock? Adam Mueller aka Ademo Freeman tells us all about it in this history written in 2010. The founders and behind the scenes guys are mostly from the Free State Project, the group of libertarians (or armed miscreants if you prefer) who are attempting to occupy, colonize, and take over NH. 

• Jason Talley, who donated the theme and his time to get Cop Block off the ground
• Pete Eyre, who guest blogs and post videos of his police encounters
• Ian & Mark of Free Talk Live, who have helped spread the message of Cop Block on their show, which lead to an anonymous donor. Who now helps Cop Block sponsor police brutality segments on FTL.

Jason Talley is a Free Keener. Pete Eyre is a Free Stater/Free Keener who comes to us from the Cato Institute, the Drug Free Alliance, and the Institute for Humane Studies - all libertarian enterprises funded by the Koch bros. 

Ian and Mark of Free Talk Live are Free Keeners. Ian is Ian Bernard aka Freeman a trustifarian moocher who claims his home is a church in order to get out of paying taxes, and Mark is aka Mark Edge, though his real name is Edgington. He comes to us from Florida, where he spent 9 years in prison for strangling a motel manager. 

And that's the point. CopBlock is the Free State Project. The FSP loves to tell us that they're here for freedom, and they are peaceful people. Underneath those claims of peace are a roiling, nasty, violent stew - Chris Cantwell, Larken Rose, Vin Suprynowiscz, Muni Savyon and  Darryl W. Perry to name a few. Then there are the Free Keeners who follow meter readers around with video cameras and harass them. That's not the act of peaceful people. It's intentionally antagonistic and bullying. Dave Ridley, the wannabe Stossel (or at least Jimmy O'Keefe) of the Free State Project stalks and harasses female legislators in the Legislative Office Building. Ian FreeLoad urged his followers to "ambush" Representative Janet Wall. 

I am certain that the same people who say guns don't kill people will come by to tell me that CopBlock doesn't kill cops. My friends who put CopBlock memes on their Facebook pages have never watched the "when should you shoot a cop" video, and will be horrified to learn it exists. They'll be horrified to listen to Larken Rose, the tax dodging Free Stater and anarchist whose words are heard in that "when should you shoot a cop" video. 

My friends aren't going to kill cops. But Justin Bourque did. So did Jerad and Amanda Miller. They all had CopBlock in common. And CopBlock comes from the Free State Project in NH - which is the home of the first in the nation presidential primary. In fact, the FSP is attempting to get a big chunk of folks here in time for that primary. Peaceful intent or something more sinister? It's worth pondering. 

Free Stater Cantwell: Sad, Mad, Victim

It seems my blog piece on the sickening views expressed by Free Stater Chris Cantwell caused him to get the sadz and the madz. How dare anyone criticize him for blaming a police officer for being killed in the line of duty and cheering about it? 

Free Staters are as constant as the sun and the moon in one respect: if you criticize them, they whine. It's always someone else's fault, and they are always the victims. 

In Cantwell's case, he had a big old hissy fit for himself. (NSFW)




The thing about putting your opinions out there in public is - you get held accountable for them. That's the joy and the sorrow of the First Amendment.  Cantwell's rant is the violent, heavily armed, adult version of a two year old tantrum in the supermarket. 

This is what the Free State Project has brought to our state. A big, angry, unstable, armed baby. 

Free Stater Blames Brentwood Cop for his own Death

Brentwood Police Officer Steve Arkell who was killed in the line of duty.

Free Stater Chris Cantwell blames Officer Arkell for his own death:

"I don’t know the Nolan family, but according to neighbors, they weren’t dangerous people. Susan Hughes told the Union Leader that Michael Nolan “never really talked to anybody; he stays upstairs with his TV on.” James Culbertson, 73, said the elder Nolan “seemed like a nice guy.” The Union Leader reported that Walter Nolan’s wife died two years ago, and Michael Nolan’s died of cancer in 2008.

So how do these seemingly normal people find themselves in a gun fight and exploding home? Obviously, it’s because the great escalators showed up. Some busybody neighbor hears an “argument” and thinks this is a really great reason to dial 911, knowing that the most violent people around (the police) are going to show up. Said violent people show up, enter the house with a gun, without permission, and surprisingly enough, these folks who didn’t ask for help, aren’t so happy about this.

For whatever reason, maybe he’s irrational because he’s in a heated argument, maybe he genuinely doesn’t know it’s a cop, maybe he’s rightfully fed up with police breaking into homes, the guy in the house opens fire on the cop, killing him. Once this happens, he knows his life is pretty much over. He knows that more police are going to come, and if he’s lucky enough to survive the ride to the jail, he’ll probably never leave. Faced with this horrific scenario, setting his home ablaze and taking his own life starts seeming like a reasonable alternative."

Cantwell is working those "maybes" mighty hard. He has no idea what happened. In his twisted mind, it may be "obvious" that the shooting and explosion were because the police showed up. There's no room in his philosophy for the possibility of senility, mental illness, or alcoholism combined with weapons and explosives and the potential results.  He's a  virulent and potentially violent cop hater who was publicly kicked out of the Free State Project for advocating "violence against government agents." As Cantwell makes clear in his own blog, that BIG PUBLIC STAND on the part of the FSP, was just that. It was a show:

I’m not ostracized by every member of the Free State Project, in fact I’m still facebook friends with the president thereof, this is a PR stunt to avoid unwanted attention. New Hampshire is a great place to live, and the FSP board is only 5 people.

That much is true. Cantwell regularly posts on Free Stater blogs and forums. Many members of the FSP are listed as his FaceBook friends, including Free State Project President Carla Gericke and Free Keene cult leader Ian Freeload, whose views on the age of consent for sex between adults and children recently came to light. 

I've lived in NH for 30 years, and I've never had to get fed up with police breaking into my home. Why? It's never happened.

Cantwell goes on to put the frosting on his hate cake:

"As a New Hampshire resident, I couldn’t disagree more. I mourn the loss of Michael Nolan. I mourn the injuries of his father. I’m upset about the property damage. Not the loss of Officer Arkell’s life."

Cantwell's armchair suppositions are repellent. Blaming Officer Arkell for his own death is beyond the pale. 

The armed miscreants of the Free State Project who are in the process of colonizing our state love to tell us how peaceful they are. 

Bullshit.