Juan Cole and "Stochastic" Terrorism

University of Michigan comedian Juan Cole is at it again on his curiously-named blog, Informed Comment. In this latest inkblot, Cole addresses the topic of white supremacist terrorism in the wake of El Paso. (Dayton is apparently not addressed since the shooter there was an Elizabeth Warren supporter.) . He even introduces us to another one of those high-falootin academic words nobody ever heard of. "Stochastic". (Hint: It does not mean "fantastic show".)

https://www.juancole.com/2019/08/supremacist-terrorism-strikes.html

Let's start with the title:

White Supremacist Terrorism strikes Again in the Age of Trump and Putin

It's bad enough that the left is blaming President Trump for El Paso, but what's Putin got to do with it? Quite a lot, according to Captain Cole. He even throws in the fun fact that Russian bots targeted Colin Kaepernick. I'll bet you didn't know that, but then again, who can argue with the Daily Beast?

"Does anyone have any doubt at all that if the person had been a Muslim with a similar manifesto, substituting Islamic themes and grievances for those of white nationalism, the national security state and the US media would be in overdrive blaming the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims?"

Well, no. Actually the US media would be in overdrive searching for a motive and referring to the perp(s) as mentally ill people who didn't understand Islam and had put the entire Muslim community at risk of retaliation from white Christian Trump supporters-much like Cole would do.

"It isn’t less threatening. It is a national emergency. Research published at WaPo shows that in counties where Trump held rallies in 2016, hate crimes rocketed 226%.

Nationally, hate crimes are growing 9% a year, with Arab-Americans, Jews, and LGBTQ individuals seeing big spikes in hate crimes directed against them.

For eight years, we heard people like Cole complain that hate crimes were increasing during the Obama years because we had a black president. But one has to use care when claiming that this or that president is responsible for hate crimes. Islamic terrorism has no doubt played a role in suspicion directed at Arab-Americans (many of whom are not even Muslim). Trump has rightfully tried to institute a block on people coming from 7 countries who pose a security risk. He has responded in kind to the harsh language directed at him by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, an Arab-American, not to mention Ilhan Omar. For that, he is labled as a hater of Muslims. And what has Trump done or said to support charges that he is anti-Jewish or anti-gay?

As an academic, Cole should know quite well that Jews are under attack on university campuses across the nation, courtesy of the Palestinian-supporting crowd and that whites are being demonized on a daily basis for being "privileged" and "racist". Can't talk about that though.

"And, of course, the insistence of the Washington Establishment that we all be exposed to murderous violence by unbalanced persons wielding semi-automatic military-style weaponry allows such massacres to be carried out. But the toxic ideology of behind that insistence (and it has nothing at all to do with ordinary guns or hunting) is also deeply entangled in white supremacy."

Nonsense. Gun rights supporters will happily support the right of law-abiding minorities to arm themselves for protection. I am reminded of the time one of my old DEA colleagues, an African-American, intervened and shot one of two (white thugs) who were beating a cab-driver to within an inch of his life on the Las Vegas strip. When the agent fired, one of the bad guys was advancing toward him with a long wooden pole and calling him the "magic word". For saving the cabbie's life, our agent was hailed as a hero. Of course, incidents like this are beyond the realm of Cole's ivory tower.

"The Islamophobes like to argue that Islam is an inherently violent religion, that its adherents are quite literally commanded to such violence by its holy scriptures, the Qur’an. It’s a position that, as I explain in my new book, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace Amid the Clash of Empires, is both utterly false and ahistorical."

If Cole wanted to argue that most Muslims do not commit acts of violence against others, I would have no problem with that. To argue that there is no violence associated with Islamic/Koranic teachings is easily countered, however. Just looking at the title of his latest book is enough to refute the author.  

Here is where it gets really good:

"As for Trump’s culpability, I wrote last March:

“One of the tactics of the so-called “Islamic State group” or ISIL had been to put out calls on the internet and social media for people to engage in random acts of violence . . .Some have called this random, one-off violence, which is almost impossible to forestall, “stochastic” terrorism. When an operation is the result of a fair-sized organization such as al-Qaeda or the Ku Klux Klan, the organization can be tracked and infiltrated and stopped. But some person somewhere or two or three of them, who seem a little off but do not trip any law enforcement wires, can plot out a massacre with relative ease. Mass shootings are not intrinsically difficult to pull off. Just going into a restaurant or church or mosque and shooting people down with automatic or semi-automatic weapons is like rolling out of bed for someone without a conscience or someone who is sick…
The bad news is that Trump’s promotion of key themes of white supremacism, in conjunction with the billionaire Mercers and bizarre ideologues like Steve Bannon, have clearly produced a new wave of stochastic white nationalist terrorism."

Stochastic. What else can I say about that?

Other than that, Cole's article is a rambling screed about Russian bots, troll farms, "Moscow Mitch", Steve Bannon, White Rabbits, and Nuremberg rallies, all culminating in this:

"[This string of massacres] reveals the lunacy of Nancy Pelosi taking impeachment off the table in the face of this monster in the White House, clearly mentally imbalanced, without conscience, narcissistic, a pathological liar, and promoting hatred and violence at every turn."

I often wonder if the unthinkable happened and Trump were assassinated whether people like Cole would look back on their own words about Trump and ask themselves if they did not share some guilt. This is America, and people have the precious right to criticize their government and their president. But if you are going to link Trump's style and his words to the deaths of others, be prepared to accept criticism of your own words.

Reza Aslan Goes Ballistic on Twitter

I struggle to find an accurate description of Reza Aslan when writing about him. Is he a "personality", scholar, academic, or just plain comedian? Last I heard, he was still on the books as a professor at UC Riverside. He briefly had a gig on CNN before that infamous episode where he was seen on video joining a tribe of something or others in the hinterlands of India feasting on human brains. (Yum.)

That meal must have cost him more than just a rise in cholesterol because the curious Mr Aslan periodically goes off against those who don't share his "worldview", be it in eating human brain matter or whatever. Aslan's latest meltdown is directed at Trump supporters, whom he apparently holds responsible (both Trump and his supporters) for the massacres in El Paso and Dayton. (See above). He has also lashed out at Trump spokesperson Kellyanne Conway in a similar manner.

The only problem with Aslan's reasoning is that in the case of the Dayton shooter, one would have to substitute Trump's name with that of Elizabeth Warren since she was the preferred candidate of Connor Betts. How would this sound?

"After today, there is no longer any room for nuance. Senator Warren is a white nationalist terror leader. Her supporters-ALL OF THEM- are by definition white nationalist terror supporters. And this evil, racist scourge must be eradicated from society."

As much as I disagree with Warren's beliefs and her rhetoric, I do not assign blame to her for what the Dayton shooter did. Nor do I blame Trump for the actions of the shooter in El Paso. Trump is divisive and speaks his mind, but that's a far call from inciting murder. If Aslan truly is an academic and a scholar, he should know that.

Which brings to mind the second time I saw him speak. He was speaking on the topic of Islamophobia at UC Riverside in 2015, and I was on hand to videotape it and ask him a question during q and a. I asked him how he would define Islamophobia and if he would also apply the term to victims of Islamic violence, for example, Coptic Christians in Egypt. His definition was fine, but he had no sympathy for those "Islamophobes" who had been victims of violence or intolerance at the hands of Muslims. You can watch the whole thing here.

Reza Aslan goes to great lengths to get himself in the news. (You simply MUST watch that Indian brain-eating episode. It was CNN's finest hour until Michael Avenatti came along.) To most of us, he simply embarrasses himself with his shenanigans, outbursts, and bizarre academic "scholarship".

Is Sharia Being Enforced on Swedish Buses?

Hat tip Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna for sub-titling. Translation by Kronans Martell and Ullis News.


The case of Amanda Hansson is drawing a lot of attention in Sweden this week. Hansson was denied entry on a bus in Malmo because the driver felt that she was not dressed modestly enough. She complained and went public as you will see in the first video. In the second video we learn that the unidentified driver has been dismissed.



https://vladtepesblog.com/2019/08/05/bus-driver-in-sweden-forbids-entrance-of-swedish-girl-because-of-what-she-was-wearing/

Video link

Video link

Who Are Patrick Crusious and Connor Betts?

This article first appeared in New English Review.


On Saturday, two American cities were hit with mass murder. In El Paso, a 21-year-old man named Patrick Crusious attacked a shopping area in El Paso, killing 20 people before being arrested. Later, in Dayton, Ohio, 24-year-old Connor Betts carried out a similar operation in Dayton, killing 8 including his own sister before being cut down by police.

In the first hours following each incident, the country wondered who the shooters were and their motives. First, we learned that they were both white, and the next assumption was that they were white nationalists, racists, and probably Trump supporters. In the case of El Paso, that appears to be the case. Crusious' "manifesto" indicates he was angry about what he perceived as a "Mexican invasion". Thus, he attacked an area heavily populated by Hispanics. His writings indicated that he had held anti-Mexican immigrant views long before Trump became president, and thus, Trump should not be blamed for his (Crusious') actions. In short, the mainstream media and leading Democrats like Beto O'Rourke and Cory Booker have not hesitated one minute before declaring Trump complicit though his tweets and populist, "racist" rhetoric. Mr Crusious may or may not be a Trump supporter, but the President is no supporter of Crusious. He has strongly condemned both shootings.

In the case of Betts, the Dayton shooter, a different picture is emerging. It appears from his online rants that Betts was anything but a Trump supporter.  Back in his high school days, he was freaking out a lot of fellow students with talks of "kill lists" and "rape lists", which led to a suspension. Rather than hating any particular ethnic groups, it appears Betts just had a problem with people in general. Politically, it appears that he is a leftist, an anarchist, a Democrat, and a (gasp) Elizabeth Warren supporter.

However, while all you have to do is turn on CNN or MSNBC to learn of Crusious's political leanings, you have to dig a bit deeper to learn of Betts'-like the conservative Washington Times, for example.

So here we go again. Rather than universally condemn both shooters and mourn for all the victims, we have to pick our way through the online algorithms and compare how our mainstream media reports-or under reports the two tragedies. With the Dayton shooter, we will have to watch the media and the left focus on guns while accusing Trump and the NRA of being responsible for the El Paso tragedy. Nobody will accuse Elizabeth Warren of sharing responsibility for Dayton with her own brand of populist rhetoric. It wouldn't even occur to them. Frankly, it wouldn't occur to me either, but herein lies the hypocrisy. While there is even more to learn about both shooters, it appears their motives were vastly different-neither justifiable. Nevertheless, we have already seen the politicization of both incidents, and it is unfortunate. We should expect more from our leaders and our media.

As a (white) conservative, I am fully prepared to admit that white nationalism is rising, and it is not healthy. In the case of El Paso, it appears to have resulted in the deaths of 20 innocent people. There are many reasons for this rise, which would be the subject for an entire separate article. But we also have a serious mental health crisis in this country that is being compounded by increasing ethnic divisions that threaten to wipe out two generations of real progress. As trite as it sounds, if there was ever a time for us to come together as Americans, now is the time. Maybe we should all lower our rhetoric, including Trump, Booker and O'Rourke.

The bottom line is this: The public has every right to know as much as possible about every mass shooting-especially as to motive. We cannot address and fix our problems if we don't know what they are. We cannot adequately defend ourselves if we don't know the threat. Yes, I want minorities to know if they are under threat from white racists ready to kill. We also have a right to know about groups like MS-13 and Islamic jihadists who are out for blood. It should not color anyone's overall feelings towards those who merely share ethnicity or religion with the above groups.

In the case of the media, we have a right to expect full and honest reporting of incidents like these. Especially when it comes to motive.

El Paso and Dayton

Yesterday was another tragic day in America. Two senseless attacks in El Paso and Dayton by two deranged young men. A total of 29 dead and dozens wounded.

I learned of the El Paso attack shortly before leaving to attend a Dodgers game in Los Angeles. I was only able to post a couple of lines containing what was known at the time. Only after I returned home last night did I learn about Dayton.

Today, my posting above received two comments, one from Yossi C and the other from Anonymous, both informing me that the El Paso shooter was a white/white nationalist.

Fair enough. That is, in fact, the case. Here is my response to both of them, which is pretty much all I can say at this point:

Yossi and Anonymous,

.....and his name is Patrick Crusious, so we know more about his identity than either of yours, but no matter.

Seriously speaking, it certainly does appear that he is a white nationalist who was upset about the southern border immigration issue. It is very likely, he was targeting Mexicans or Mexican-Americans. For God's sakes, that could have been my (Mexican) wife killed in El Paso.

I understand that he was inspired by the New Zealand mass murder. He reportedly said something in his manifesto that Trump would be unfairly blamed for his actions. So is he a Trump supporter? Very likely.

But Trump is not a supporter of Crusious. He has condemned the incident just as he has condemned Dayton-also very likely the work of a white nationalist. But now we are all standing around blaming each other.

First of all, we have a serious mental health crisis in this country. A lot of sick people-angry people- are walking around. More to your points about him being a white nationalist, I have recently conceded that white nationalism is growing, and it concerns me. We already face the threat of Islamic terrorism, and now we have to deal with this. One thing that does not help the situation is this growing trend in the direction of tribalism, identifying ourselves not by our American nationality, rather by our ethnic identification. At the same time, white people are being demonized as "privileged" and "racist" in our universities. We now find ourselves in a vicious circle. 

Perhaps, we all need to be more careful with our words-including the President. We can support secure borders without hating Mexicans or other immigrants. We can demand that criminal aliens be removed from the country without hating whoever their nationality is. We can criticize the troubling aspects of Islamic doctrine, condemn the terrorists, and criticize organizations like CAIR et al without hating Muslims as people. We can also criticize racism without dismissing all whites as racists, which they are not. 

Had these been Islamic attacks, I would have written and pointed that out as part of my opinion that Islam is indeed a danger to us. I would not have written that all Muslims were responsible or that we should take out our anger against them. In fact, I have already said that several times. 
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What else can I add? Actually, I may have jumped to conclusions about the motive of the Dayton shooter, whose motive at this moment is not clear. (One of the victims was his own sister.)

Milan: Gypsy Woman Threatens Salvini-He Responds

Hat tip Gates of Vienna and Vlad Tepes for sub-titling. Translation by Fousesquawk.

Video link

A Gypsy woman, living in an illegal encampment in Milan, has threatened the life of Imterior Minister Matteo Salvini, saying "he should get a bullet". Salvini, who minces no words, replied accordingly. Naturally, he is being excoriated on the left.

For non-Italian speakers, the word for Gypsy, be they Roma or Sinti, is "Zingaro (a) depending on whether they are male or female. The suffix -accia has a variety of meanings. It is most closely translated as "nasty" when attached to a noun. The term, "poveraccia" translates as poor thing or poor person, "povero" being poor. Generally, the suffix -accia attaches a negative (like "nasty") connotation to the noun. Thus, the closest translation, which is being used by other publications in their translation of Salvini's comments, is "nasty Gypsy (woman)".

Salvini also advises the woman to expect the bulldozer. He has previously called for the bulldozing of Gypsy camps in Italy.

For those not familiar with the Gypsy population in Italy and other Euroepan countries, they tend to be nomadic tribes who set up trailer encampments on empty land in and around cities. Those camps are not places you would want to enter. Not only do they represent a blight, they would not be safe to outsiders. Generally, Gypsies do not assimilate with the surrounding populations and make their living by begging, stealing, or petty crimes. When we lived in Milan from 1982-1987, I was familiar with the Gypsy camps and their activities. Nursery schools (including our children's) would go on lockdown when Gypsies were spotted in the area for fear children might be stolen. We learned ourselves this was not an exaggerated threat. One day, one of the wives of an American Consulate employee, who we knew very well, was at an open market with her months-old baby in a stroller. She had just finished paying for an item when she turned around and saw that her son and the stroller were gone. Fortunately, she saw him down the road being wheeled away by a Gypsy woman and was able to rescue her son.

Perhaps, that will add some context to Salvini's comments.

The Shooting in El Paso

I've been following the reports coming out of El Paso. As usual, there are conflicting reports as to the shooter(s) and number of victims. At this point, the clearest version seems to be that there is one shooter, a 21-year-old male in custody with multiple fatalities. The weapon is reportedly an AK-47. Other than that, I don't know anything else.

A$AP Rocky Released

American rapper A$AP Rocky has been released from Swedish jail and is back in the US. Seems the liberal media is blaming Trump for being strong with the Swedes.


https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/08/asap-rocky-released-us-warned-of-negative-consequences-sweden.html


Good for Trump. The arrest of this man was a miscarraige of justice to begin with. The police should have arrested the two Afghan thugs who were harassing Rocky and his entourage.

California's Proposed Education Curriculum

Hat tip Stand With Us and Amcha Initiative


If you live in California, I hope you will read this, send your concerns, and pass it on. The California State Legislature is considering a state public school ethnic studies curriculum that is of great concern to the Jewish community. It incorporates the efforts of anti-Israel agitators and the BDS crowd to include pro-Palestinian propaganda into the curriculum that our kids will have to study. It does nothing to address the issue of anti-Semitism or even recognize Jews as a group facing discrimination. In short, this is a back door way to increase anti-Jewish sentiment among our school children. It is the Jewish children in our schools who will suffer the consequences.

https://www.standwithus.com/post/urgent-action-needed-stop-anti-israel-hate-in-california-public-schools

This is how the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement against Israel is described in the glossary and bibliography of proposed curriculum (p 2). You can access that page in the above link.

"Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)- is a global social movement that currently aims to establish freedom for Palestinians living under apartheid conditions. Inspired by tactics employed during the South African anti-apartheid movement, the Palestinian-led movement calls for the boycott, divestment, and sanctioning of the Israeli government until it complies with International law. BDS proponents and organizers have called for the global community to boycott or withdraw support from Israel and companies associated with it. The second component of BDS calls for governments, banks, universities, and other institutions to withdraw monetary support (divestment) from Israel and its companies. And finally, the third component—sanctions—asks international governments to hold Israel accountable for its actions through legislation, trade and military agreements, among other measures."

In addition, here is their definition of capitalism-just to give you more of a flavor of where this is all going.

"Capitalism- an economic and political system in which industry and trade are based on a “free market” and largely controlled by private companies instead of the government. Within Ethnic Studies, scholars are often very critical of the system of capitalism as research has shown that Native people and people of color are disproportionately exploited within the system. In a capitalist economy, surplus value (profit) is generated from human labor and everything is commodified."

In fact, I encourage the reader to read the entire glossary and definitions pp 1-22. There is so much I could throw in here, but that's probably for a separate post. This is scary stuff

This is California, Folks.

Update on Stuttgart Killing

Hat tip Gates of Vienna


We have an update on the grisly murder in Stuttgart, Germany we reported yesterday. It seems the perpetrator is an Arab who is either a 28-year-old Syrian or a 30-year-old Palestinian. The victim is described as a 36 year-old German-Kazakh and former roommate of the perp. The Austrian media identifies the pepr as Issa Mohammed.

https://gatesofvienna.net/2019/08/a-palestinian-becomes-a-syrian/

Surely, Angela Merkel will figure it all out.

MLB: Fousesquawk's Inside Scoop

Yesterday, I took in an Angels game in Anaheim. They were playing the Tigers. It was also the last day for trades to be made and the rumor mill was ablaze. Being a Cub fan, I was particularly interested in the weeks-old rumor that the Cubs were interested in trading for Tigers outfielder Nick Castellanos to booster their offense.

As I entered the gate, I saw a teenage boy with his mom and he was wearing a Castellanos Tiger jersey. Pointing to my Cubs cap, I told him that before the day was over, Castellanos might be playing for my Cubbies. "No way," he responded. "The Cubs have too much payroll invested in Rizzo, Bryant and Baez". Knowledgeable young man, I thought.

When the opening lineups were announced, Castellanos was right there playing right field. Then, in the first inning, I noted that he was not in the game. Could this mean that he had been traded? I quickly jumped on my Red Rider cell phone and texted my old army buddy, Ray, also a lifelong Cubs fan. "You heard it here first," I told him.  Sure enough, a few innings later, I learned that Castellanos had, indeed, been traded to the Cubs. The trade was reportedly consummated 40 seconds before the deadline. I wonder what the young boy is thinking now.

How come I don't get paid for this?

One Fine Day in Stuttgart

Hat tip Gates of Vienna, Vlad Tepes and Miss Piggy


Another day in Angela Merkel's New Germany-in this case, Stuttgart. Two migrants get into an argument yesterday, and-Voila! Out comes the sword, scimitar or some other exotic instrument of death, and one of them, reportedly a Kazakh, is on his way to the morgue while the other, reportedly a Syrian, is on his way to the hoosegow (for a few years). It was all caught on video.

Video link