Witnesses told police one of the shooters yelled “This is the start of a revolution” before shooting the officers. Gillespie later said he could not confirm that.The couple that carried out the killings also made the trip to the Cliven Bundy ranch when he attempted to defy federal agents who asked him to pay debts he owed the government, and had numerous posts on social media discussing guns, revolution, "big government", and a need to fight against the New World Order.
The shooters then stripped the officers of their weapons and ammunition and badges, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation. They then covered the officers with something that featured the Gadsden flag, a yellow banner with a coiled snake above the words, “Don’t tread on Me.”
The flag is named for Christopher Gadsden a Revolutionary War general who designed it. It has recently come back in vogue as an adopted symbol of the American tea party movement.
Gee, where do you think this got those ideas from? Couldn't have been a result of the poison that's pushed all day and night on Faux News and AM radio could it? It couldn't be the propping up of deadbeats like Cliven Bundy as some kind of "patriot" on Faux News that made these guys sympathetic to the cause, did it?
Somehow, I'm not thinking Roger Ailes is thinking about the effect his corrosive, dishonest network is having, and is calling in BillO and company to "clean up their act." Not after smearing a returned POW and his family over the last week, as well as delivering racist, anti-Muslim rhetoric on top of it. Jon Stewart did a great job showing that disgusting act yesterday.
I'll also remind you that less than 2 years ago, Wisconsin had our own mass killing on a Sunday, as a white supremacist shot up a Sikh Temple in Oak Creek and killed 6 people before killing himself. And did that slow down the hate mongers in the Wisconsin GOP? OF COURSE NOT! Sen. Ron Johnson is still calling Obamacare the "greatest assault on freedom in the nation's history." In addition to the ridiculous mentality that somehow equates more people getting health care and the resulting control over their lives as "an assault on freedom", it also sends the unspoken message that the Obama Administration is a group of people that should be actively fought against. Combine that with deciding to take Barry Goldwater's statement of "extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice" literally, and why do we get shocked that these people get driven over the edge and perform these violent acts?
And because Republicans and GOP media don't care to exercise even a modicom of forethought over what happens after they make certain statements, and because our gutless media refuses to make them take responsibility for the inevitable violence that follows, this cycle of poisonous hate and division continues. May I remind you of who still gets 3 hours of airtime every day on AM 1130 in Milwaukee and AM 1310 in Madison?
And let's face it, if you're listening to Icki McKenna, you're not exactly a rational, decent person to begin with.
So I think it's well beyond time to take the GOP and their media enablers to task, and it's time to make every one of these cynical a-holes pay for riling up a stew that is rotting this country from the inside. We should take the names of advertisers and donors who support this rhetoric and expose it to the general public. Anyone who starts spouting off about prepping for "when the shit goes down" and fetishizing guns on Facebook? We gotta call that stuff to the cops, because it's stopped being figurative hyperbole far too often.
I'm done with it. It isn't a fucking game, and it isn't fucking "entertainment."
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