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What We Know About Louisiana Shooter: Tea Party, Westboro, Hitler, White Supremacy, And More

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A clear image of the Lafayette, Louisiana shooter is emerging, and some of it is horrifically disturbing.

The man who Thursday night shot and killed two people and wounded nine others before killing himself after trying to avoid police was 59-year old John Russel “Rusty” Houser. He has been described as a “drifter,” but a far clearer picture is emerging, and some of it is frightening.

Let’s take a look.

Houser was a former political candidate and activist in Columbus, Georgia, a local newspaper, the Ledger-Enquirer, reports. He “ran as a Republican for tax commission, but was charged for stealing an opponent’s yard signs and withdrew.” He also “had been admitted to practice law in Alabama after attending an unaccredited night law school.”

“He was very outspoken, highly intelligent, really didn’t trust government and anything about government. He always thought something was going on behind the scenes. He came across with a very conservative agenda,” Superior Court Judge and former Columbus Mayor Bobby Peters told the Ledger-Enquirer. The paper adds that that court records showed he had “a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder.”

Here are the only two tweets Houser ever posted:

On an online political discussion board, Houser wrote, “All sexual deviants are equal, that is true. Put them on a cold island or put decent people on a cold island. Either way, that will end the problem. Decent people can retake the entire world, as Hitler proved.” On that same site he also participated in threads titled “Gay marriage vs. pulygamy,” and “Marriage Equality; does the end game begin?”

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks and researches about 900 hate groups, plus individuals associated with them and their ideologies, today examines Houser in an article titled, “Lafayette Theater Shooter Fan of David Duke, Neo-Nazis, and Antigovernment Conspiracies.”

Houser was, the SPLC reports, “a politically disaffected, angry man who viewed the United States as a ‘financially failing filth farm,’ expressed interest in white power groups, anti-Semitic ideas, the anti-gay Westboro Baptist Church, as well as a number of conspiracy theories often espoused by the antigovernment right.”

A decade ago, Houser “registered to attend David Duke’s European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO) Conference in New Orleans,” the SPLC notes. “He lauded Duke, one of the most recognizable figures of the American radical right, a neo-Nazi, longtime Ku Klux Klan leader and now an international spokesman for Holocaust denial. On a PoliticalForum.com, Houser wrote in 2013, ‘David Duke has been unseen or hear of in years, but at one time appeared exactly what US needed.'”

He also “belonged to a forum associated with Tea Party Nation. He sang the praise of Adolf Hitler many times, saying ‘Hitler is loved for the results of his pragmatism,’ last January on the website stateofmind13.com.”

Noting that Houser “expressed racists extremism,” the SPLC goes on to report that he “promoted the disproven racist theory that a connection exists between race and IQ, and promoted The Bell Curve, a book written by Charles Murray.”

NCRM has written about Murray several times. Murray is often quoted by current GOP presidential candidates and often lauded by conservatives.

Houser’s membership with Tea Party Nation is notable given the extremism of the group. It’s not just another Tea Party Group. The SPLC has reported on them, as has NCRM. Its head has claimed that socialism has killed a billion people, and strongly suggested that President Barack Obama is a gay, crack-cocaine-smoking, marijuana-using drug addict who did poorly in college.

Raw Story reports “Houser was evicted last year from a rental property on 32nd Street, where his estranged wife owns a home that can be seen flying a Confederate flag on a Google maps search. It’s not clear whether he lived at the home when the photo was taken.”

On Facebook, he liked only two groups, including, I hate liberals!, which hasn’t been active since 2013.

ThoughtCatalog adds that he “supported Islamic fanaticism and the terror that comes with it,” “was supportive of Hilter’s Nazi Germany,” “believed George Zimmerman was a national hero,” and concludes, “was absolutely, positively, a terrorist.”

Houser was also a fan of a Christian Tea Party blog, Fellowship of the Minds, according to research by IBTimes.

In a blog post titled, “Moral Sickness at Root of America’s Decay,” Houser commented several times, including making this chilling remark: “The end comes, and I love it.”

Bottom line: Houser, according to the trail he left on the Internet, was anti-gay, a white supremacist, anti-government, a racist, a supporter of the Tea Party, Hitler, Iran and Islamic extremism – but not a Muslim – and a supporter of neo-Nazism. 

 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Houser’s political activities as being in Columbus, Ohio. They took place in Columbus, Georgia.

Image by Carolyn Scofield via Twitter

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‘Not Even Done Your Homework, Sir’: Dem Demands ‘Unqualified’ Trump Nominee ‘Shape Up’

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President Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as Ambassador to Singapore, orthopedic and sports medicine surgeon Dr. Anjani (Anji) Sinha, was blasted and berated during his Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday, after he appeared unable to answer critical questions about the role Singapore plays in U.S. national security and security in the Indo-Pacific region.

U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), a decorated Iraq War veteran and retired lieutenant colonel, pressed Dr. Sinha with pointed questions—particularly about Singapore’s role in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a bloc of ten member countries that includes Singapore.

“What does holding the ASEAN chairmanship entail for Singapore?” Senator Duckworth asked. “Can you name one thing? A role that they would have to play as ASEAN chair?”

“Well, you know that there—this is ASEAN chair is not only one country that are ten countries in—” Dr. Sinha replied.

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“No, the ASEAN chair is one country,” Duckworth explained.

“But there are 10 countries involved as the ASEAN group,” Sinha responded.

“You’re not answering my question. You’re not answering my question, sir,” said Duckworth, who sits on the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee and on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. “Can you name one thing there will be of critical importance to Singapore as ASEAN Chair? A role? There are many things. Can you name one thing?”

“Defense, economics…” Sinha offered.

“Those are very broad. Name an issue,” Duckworth demanded.

“Trade,” Sinha said.

“I don’t think…no,” Duckworth replied.

The questions continued, with Duckworth appearing extremely dissatisfied with Sinha’s answers.

“Please,” she finally said, “I’m trying to help you here, but you’ve not even done your homework, sir. You want to be ambassador to Singapore, one of the most important alliances, friends we have in the Indo-Pacific. A key place that we’re going to be fighting against our greatest adversary in the region, the PRC,” she explained, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

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“Singapore may feature incredible culture, but that should not be treated as a glamour posting,” Duckworth continued. “This nation is too important to the United States, to ASEAN, to the entire region. And frankly, I think the mission is important to U.S. interests and national security, and it should actually be a foreign service officer.”

“But I have even larger concerns with the political pick, when that political pick is somebody as unqualified as you,” she charged. “I’ve opposed political picks for Singapore from Democrats. So this is not a partisan issue. I just feel that you are not taking this seriously, and you think this is a glamour posting that you’re going to live a nice life in Singapore. What we need is someone who’s going to actually do the work.”

“You are not currently prepared for this posting, period,” Duckworth concluded, “and you need to shape up and do some homework.”

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‘No Amnesty’ and No Plan: Trump Ag Sec Grilled on Farm Labor as Deportations Continue

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One day after appearing in front of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to tell reporters there will be “no amnesty” for undocumented farm workers while insisting adults on Medicaid could replace them, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins faced sharp criticism for having no “concrete” plan to meet what she declared is the Trump administration’s goal of an entirely “legal” U.S. farm worker workforce.

“It sounds like you don’t yet have a concrete proposal to deal with farmers who rely on undocumented workers, am I right?” a Fox News Business host asked (video below).

“Well, no, we are working on it. We’re working on a concrete proposal,” Secretary Rollins insisted.

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“You’re working on it but that’s not a concrete proposal,” the host sharply charged.

“Well, no, the president has been very, very clear. We need to make sure that the food supply is safe,” Rollins said, before insisting that “ultimately, we have to move toward a 100% legal workforce, and that’s what this president stands for, and that’s what we’re doing.”

“The mass deportations will continue, but the president has been very clear that we have to make sure we’re not compromising our food supply at the same time,” Rollins said before declaring that “Congress has to fix it,” and U.S. Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer “is on it.”

“The border has to be secure and there will be no amnesty,” Rollins added, before the host again pointed out the administration has no plan yet.

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“It’s not easy, but I don’t think it’s fair to say there is a concrete proposal when you’re still working out details to try to deal with the needs of farmers who need a lot of these undocumented workers and at the same time not providing an amnesty.”

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‘Secretary Chaos’: Hegseth Running ‘Absolute Clown Show’ Critics Say, Amid Calls to Resign

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Last week, reportedly without consulting the White House, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unilaterally approved the decision to halt critical weapons shipments to Ukraine, which has been the target of increased attacks in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s illegal war against the sovereign nation.

President Trump on Tuesday claimed he had no knowledge of who ordered the halt in weapons shipments. That pause came just after his July 3 call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Hours later, Russia launched a massive bombing campaign against Ukraine.

“Russia launched its largest-ever drone and missile barrage on Ukraine, two days after the US stopped the delivery of some key weapons to Kyiv — including crucial interceptors used to shoot down Moscow’s missiles,” The Financial Times reported on July 4. “The barrage began soon after an hour-long phone call between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.”

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The halt of weapons to Ukraine was so catastrophic and damaging that it set off “a scramble inside the administration to understand why the halt was implemented and explain it to Congress and the Ukrainian government,” CNN reported. “The US special envoy to Ukraine, Ret. Gen. Keith Kellogg, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also Trump’s national security adviser, were also not told about the pause beforehand and learned about it from press reports, according to a senior administration official and two of the sources.”

“The episode underscores the often-haphazard policy-making process inside the Trump administration, particularly under Hegseth at the Defense Department,” CNN added.

Last week’s halt was the third time Secretary Hegseth unilaterally decided to stop weapons shipments to Ukraine, according to NBC News.

Pentagon officials last week said the halt was due to concerns over U.S. weapons stockpile levels, but NBC News reported that “an analysis by senior military officers found that the aid package would not jeopardize the American military’s own ammunition supplies, according to three U.S. officials.”

Hegseth’s decision “blindsided the State Department, members of Congress, officials in Kyiv and European allies.”

Now, critics are calling for Hegseth’s resignation.

Declaring the Defense Secretary “completely unqualified, and on an ego trip,” U.S. Rep. Ted Lieu (D-CA) responded to a post about Hegseth not informing the White House about his weapons halt.

“When is Pete Hegseth going to resign?” asked Congressman Lieu, a retired U.S. Air Force officer.

“This would be a good time for Congress to investigate Hegseth’s Pentagon and push for his resignation,” wrote Jeet Heer on Monday at The Nation.

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Many of my GOP friends and colleagues are decorated military veterans who have risked their lives for our country,” remarked U.S. Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY). “If they believe — as they must — that @SecDef poses a grave danger to our national security and that of our allies, I hope they will urge POTUS to finally fire him.”

Iraq War veteran Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), and host of the Independent Americans podcast, blasted Hegseth.

“No surprise here,” he wrote, also responding to a post about the weapons halt. “The sloppiness and incompetence is consistent. And his flawed leadership continues to disrupt and frustrate folks all across the Pentagon. And now, it’s also frustrating the White House and Trump himself.”

“He is Secretary Chaos,” Rieckhoff continued. “And every day he falls deeper beyond his depth. We are less safe, our allies are weakened, and our enemies are celebrating.”

Decorated former CIA operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security, wrote: “Leadership dysfunction at DoD…. This stuff just can’t happen… serious real world ramifications… (ie Ukrainians die). Is there any accountability?”

“Hegseth is running an absolute clown show,” warned Colby Badhwar of The Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA).

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Image via Reuters

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