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The show of support for Mayor Byron Brown at the downtown ballpark Thursday wasn't exactly a grassroots effort. Numerous members of Brown's senior staff participated and spoke.

Wondering whether Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown is giving serious consideration to mounting a write-in campaign to keep his job in November?

The answer might have been in plain sight Thursday night at Sahlen Field, where Brown threw out the first pitch before the Toronto Blue Jays went on to drop the Baltimore Orioles, 9-0.

Outside the park, a crowd of Byron Brown supporters gathered in front of the main entrance to make a pitch of their own. They wore T-shirts bearing Browns name and carried signs reading Keep Byron Brown.

This was no extemporaneous, grassroots expression of support for the four-term incumbent, who lost the Democratic primary election Tuesday to upstart India Walton, sending shockwaves through the regions political and business establishments.

A lot of the people there, including many who spoke to the TV cameras capturing the event, are members of Browns inner circle. Others occupy important, high-paying bureaucratic jobs.

These included:

Petrucci is also an elected member of the Buffalo Board of Education. Also present was South District Council Member Chris Scanlon.

Browns spokesman, Mike DeGeorge who made $110,054 last year was spotted among the demonstrators, too, but he was at the ballpark to make sure the mayors ceremonial game-opening pitch went smoothly.

(For the record, it did: The mayors delivery was slow, but he got it right over home plate.)

Also there was Tom Smith, who earned $110,805 in 2019 as chief of staff for the Buffalo Sewer Authority. Smith was previously head of the Mayors Impact Team and has been an aide to Brown since he was a state senator. Smith is married to Jessica Maglietto Smith, a top aide to the mayor she made $96,477 in 2020 and his campaign treasurer.

The man who the demonstrators offered to TV cameras as a community spokesperson was R.J. Ball. Hes the brother of Betsey Ball and Tim Ball, the citys top attorney. R.J. Ball works for Empire State Development as director of industry development, a patronage gig that paid him $104,000 in 2019. Unlike his siblings, Ball serves at the pleasure of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, not the mayor.

As deputy mayor, Betsey Ball runs operations for the mayor inside City Hall the role once occupied by Steve Casey, who previously ran the mayors election campaigns. As such, Ball was responsible, at least in part, for the campaigns disastrous rose garden strategy: Until the week before election day, Brown acted as if there were no primary election, no opponent, no need to engage in the usual politicking at which Browns previous campaigns have been so adept.

In the final week, money poured into Browns campaign but it was too late.

The result of Browns blunder: Walton beat the four-term incumbent by 7 percent of Tuesdays low turnout. It is too late for Brown to get his name on another ballot line in November, leaving a write-in campaign his only option other than conceding his loss, which he has not done. Brown indicated on election night that hed wait until every vote had been counted and the results certified by the Board of Elections.

At the same time these riders of the patronage merry-go-round were agitating for their boss to keep the job he lost Tuesday night, developer Carl Paladino had called an emergency conclave of wealthy businessmen to discuss how to prevent Walton from taking office in January.

Paladino told those he invited his goal was to raise $1 million to fund a write-in campaign to keep Brown in office in Novembers general election. The meeting was postponed after Buffalo News political reporter Bob McCarthy wrote a piece calling attention to the planned meeting.

Paladino has a long history of clashing with Black elected officials, and until recently that included Brown. In 2009, he helped bankroll the mayoral campaign of South District Common Council Member Mickey Kearns, who lost in a landslide to Brown in the Democratic primary.

Paladino ran for governor in 2010, but his campaign was derailed by the publication of racist and pornographic emails hed shared with an email list of friends and business associates.

He later was elected to a seat on the Buffalo Board of Education, but was removed from office in 2017 after he made racist remarks about Barack and Michelle Obama to a weekly newspaper. He was an early supporter of Donald Trump and remains a hero of the regions conservative and alt-right movements.

Walton, meanwhile, has been receiving national attention for her victory. Shes been congratulated by prominent progressive figures including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

That raises a fascinating prospect: Will Byron Brown, Buffalos first Black mayor, accept the backing of a guy like Paladino in an effort to defeat Walton, who is also Black and poised to become the citys first woman mayor?

If he does, what national figures and organizations will rush with money and volunteers to aid Waltons cause?

It could be a long, hot summer. And fall.

Paladino affirmed Friday to WGRZ-TV and other reporters that he had spoken to Brown and pledged his financial support, should Brown agree to a write-in campaign.

The mayor has not said whether he will do that, or whether hed accept Paladinos support if he does. But he told WGRZ-TV in a statement he was weighing the outpouring of support as he considers his next steps.

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Rallying to save their patronage jobs - Investigative Post

I am writing in response to the letter from Lee Santa. The Second Amendment to the Constitution was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791. It was written as a constitutional check on congressional power. Our forefathers didn't want a repeat of the totalitarian monarchy which ruled them before independence from Britain. They learned from an armed government, and didn't want citizens without a means of defense against that government, and tyrannical rule.

At that time there almost 700,000 slaves in the United States, and the population, according to the 1790 census, was 3,292,214. So it seems a little unlikely that the Second Amendment was written to suppress slave uprisings, which had not yet occurred.

But when have race baiters ever had a problem lying about the facts. Carol Anderson has a book to sell and facts are so inconvenient. In fact, over 300,000 white slaves were shipped from Britain to the Colonies, and in 1830 there were 3,775 free black people who owned 12,740 black slaves. Yes, those pesky facts again.

How dare you characterize citizens who uphold the Constitution and the Bill of Rights as, how did you put it, oh yes, "those, (with their Tarzan yells) who beat their chests, most likely alt-right/white supremacist scaredy-cats who are terrified of people of color, esp. blacks."

You are the racist here, you hate and seem terrified of white people. You are Carol Anderson's water carrier. I am embarrassed for you, you are the racist you purport to hate. And yes, Lee Santa, ignorance is a choice.

CATHERINE FAHRIG

Sandpoint

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The real facts about the Second Amendment - Bonner County Daily Bee

A soldier has been on the run from police in Belgium since mid-May after being implicated in the theft of weapons from a military base in Flanders.

The federal prosecutor charged Jrgen Conings with attempted murder and the illegal possession of weapons in a terrorist context after he was connected with threats to kill Belgiums top pandemic virologist, Marc Van Ranst.

The case highlights the countrys much overlooked problem with extremism on the right and how these politics have become entangled with the pandemic.

It is not just fringe far-right conspiracy groups, such as QAnon and Viruswaanzin, that have been exploiting the COVID-19 crisis. Several Belgian right-wing parties and movements are using the pandemic to spread misinformation and fuel resentment.

These mostly conservative, pro-Flemish-independence parties include the right-wing New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and the extreme far-right Vlaams Belang. Both have been vocal about the way the caretaker governments led by former temporary prime minister Sophie Wilms have handled the pandemic. The criticism grew even louder when a seven-party coalition took over in October 2020. Even though N-VA and Vlaams Belang were the largest elected parties in Flanders in 2019, they have been reduced to an opposition role in the current federal government.

This has been a bitter pill to swallow, especially for Vlaams Belang, which had hoped to form a coalition with the N-VA in order to bypass a 1989 ruling aimed at keeping it out of government because of its extreme politics.

The tense political climate has been further exploited by the Flemish alt-right movement Schild & Vrienden to sow even more division.

It is in this complex context that pro-Conings groups have been popping up online ever since his news of disappearance was broadcast in May.

Conings had been on a terror watch list since February as a potentially violent extremist and was known to be connected to another former soldier, convicted neo-Nazi Tomas Boutens. Yet neither the Belgian army nor the Belgian minister of defence appear to have been informed about this.

A Facebook group supporting Conings soon attracted more than 50,000 members before being banned and relocating to encrypted messaging app Telegram, which is harder to regulate. Posts praised his actions with fascist memes which are popular among the Flemish alt-right and extreme far-right.

At least three support marches have taken place since his search warrant was issued one of them coinciding with protests against COVID-19 measures in Brussels.

A number of scientific experts have become targets during the pandemic. As well as Van Ranst, infectious diseases specialist Erika Vlieghe and vaccinologist Pierre Van Damme have had to endure online attacks.

Belgiums record-breaking federal government formation talks did not help either. Politicians from the caretaker government quickly passed on all responsibility to a team of scientific experts at the start of the crisis. Trying to save political face, most of the pandemic communication was left to the experts. This is how Van Ranst, head of Belgiums pandemic planning team and an opinionated Twitter user, became the personification of the pandemic.

Mainstream politicians from the traditional right and extreme far-right have played a part in fuelling personal attacks against experts. Calling Van Ranst doctor Hatred in a previous Twitter dispute, N-VA politician Theo Francken, infamous for his anti-immigration stance, set the tone again at the start of the crisis. Quoting a satirical article, he sent out and subsequently deleted a tweet targeted at Van Ranst. The tweet combined the Dutch word for pandemic with the gay slur sissy, suggesting the virologist was being overly dramatic about the pandemic.

Van Grieken and his party have taken advantage of their social media know-how during the pandemic, often publicising content from Vlaams Belang-linked alternative news sites, such as the Flemish nationalist t Scheldt. Recurrent themes are xenophobic conspiracy theories and the constant suggestion that Van Ranst is the leftist hand puppet to Belgiums illegitimate federal government, associating him with Chinas alleged communist dictatorship.

Dries Van Langenhove, Schild & Vriendens leader and now independent Vlaams Belang politician, has participated in the bashing of Van Ranst as well. In a recent meme-packed video, he even compared Van Ranst to Stalin for advising against reopening hospitality businesses too soon.

This excessive trolling, often accompanied by death threats, has had a concrete impact on all experts involved: before the Conings case, Van Ranst already spoke about being prank-called by groups of drunk youngsters, often ending their calls by singing the Flemish national anthem and calling him leftist vermin.

The pandemic climate has proven to be an excellent breeding ground for extremists. It has provided them with an excuse to go after what they see as the freedom-destroying establishment.

In this climate, Conings is portrayed as a Flemish resistance fighter by many sharing his feelings of exclusion despite being wanted for extremely serious crimes. The way people have responded to his case shows there is an urgent need to more closely inspect Belgiums homegrown far-right extremism problem.

In my research, I have been looking at how continental urban terrorist violence materialises both online and offline in the aftermath of the Paris 2015 and Brussels 2016 attacks. This pandemic-driven case teaches us that present-day terrorist threats do not only stem from Jihadist milieus, as is often assumed. The actions of people such as Conings who appear, on the surface, to be outliers or lone wolves need to be analysed as part of a wider sociopolitical environment, particularly when political parties appear to feel so comfortable spreading misinformation.

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Jrgen Conings: the case of a Belgian soldier on the run shows how the pandemic collides with far-right extremism - The Conversation UK

On a recent episode of "Democracy Now!," Professor Carol Anderson discussed her book"The Second: Race and Guns in a Fatally Unequal America"that describes how the Second Amendment was written to empower local militia groups to put down slave revolts and protect plantation owners. She writes the Second Amendment is rooted in fear of Black people, to deny them their rights, to keep them from tasting liberty.

In light of that, those (with their Tarzan yells) who beat their chests about the Second Amendment are most likely alt-right/white supremacist scaredy-cats who are terrified of people of color, esp. blacks.

Recently attorney Alexandria Kinaid said We are committed to continuing to challenge the erosion of Second Amendment rights in Idaho.

Since the Second Amendment was created to suppress blacks (esp. freed slaves), it SHOULD be eroded.

I have to ask our local Second Amendment advocates (Steve Wasylko, Ron Korn, Dan McDonald, Scott Herndon and Jeff Avery)do you condemn the January 6thriot and mob attack of our nations capital? Dont beafraid, speak up and go on the record about your position on the Jan. 6insurrection.

Remember, intelligence is a gift and ignorance is a choice. Its sad that so many on the right prefer the latter.

LEE SANTA

Sandpoint

Continued here:
The Second Amendment is a racist document - Bonner County Daily Bee

Former President Donald Trumps lies about a stolen 2020 election united right-wing supporters, conspiracy theorists and militants on Jan. 6, but the aftermath of the insurrection is roiling two of the most prominent far-right extremist groups at the U.S. Capitol that day.

More than three dozen members and associates across both the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers have been charged with crimes. Some local chapters cut ties with national leadership in the weeks after the deadly siege. The Proud Boys chairman called for a pause in the rallies that often have led to clashes with anti-fascist activists. And one Oath Keeper has agreed to cooperate against others charged in the riot.

Some extremism experts see parallels between the fallout from the Capitol riot and the schisms that divided far-right figures and groups after their violent clashes with counter-protesters at the Unite the Right white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. The white supremacist alt-right movement fractured and ultimately faded from public view after the violence erupted that weekend.

I think something kind of like that is happening right now in the broader far-right movement, where the cohesive tissue that brought them all together being the 2020 election its kind of dissolved, said Jared Holt, a resident fellow at the Atlantic Councils Digital Forensic Research Lab.

Like Unite the Right, there is a huge disaster, a PR disaster, and now theyve got the attention of the feds. And its even more intense now because they have the national security apparatus breathing down their necks, he added.

But others believe President Joe Bidens victory and the Jan. 6 investigation, the largest federal prosecution in history, might animate the militia movement fueled by an anti-government anger.

Were already seeing a lot of this rhetoric being spewed in an effort to pull in people, said Freddy Cruz, a Southern Poverty Law Center research analyst who studies anti-government groups. Its very possible that people will become energized and try to coordinate more activity given that we have a Democratic president in office.

The insurrectionists who descended on the nations capital briefly disrupted the certification of Bidens presidential win and sent terrified lawmakers running for their lives.

The mob marched to the Capitol and broke through police barricades and overwhelmed officers, violently shoving their way into the building to chants of Hang Mike Pence and Stop the Steal. Some rioters came prepared with pepper spray, baseball bats and other weapons.

Members of the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers make up just a small fraction of the more than 400 people charged so far. Prosecutors have narrowed in on the two extremist groups as they try to determine how much planning went into the attack, but authorities have said theyre intent on arresting anyone involved in the riot.

More than two dozen Proud Boys leaders, members or associates are among those arrested. The group of self-described Western chauvinists emerged from far-right fringes during the Trump administration to mainstream GOP circles, with allies like longtime Trump backer Roger Stone. The group claims it has more than 30,000 members nationwide.

In the sustained protests last summer over police brutality, their counter demonstrations often devolved into violence. Law enforcement stepped in during a protest in Michigan. Members were accused of vandalizing property in Washington, D.C. Then, during a presidential debate with Biden, the group gained greater notoriety after Trump refused to condemn white supremacist groups and told the Proud Boys directly to stand back and stand by.

Chairman Henry Enrique Tarrio hasnt been charged in the riot. He wasnt there on Jan. 6. Hed been arrested in an unrelated vandalism case as he arrived in Washington two days before the insurrection and was ordered out of the area by a judge. Law enforcement later said Tarrio was picked up in part to help quell potential violence.

FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2019, file photo, Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio rallies in Portland, Ore. Outside pressures and internal strife are roiling two far-right extremist groups after members were charged in the attack on the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Noah Berger, File)

Tarrio insists the criminal charges havent weakened or divided the group. He says he has met with leaders of chapters that declared their independence and patched up their differences.

Weve been through the wringer, Tarrio said in an interview. Any other group after January 6th would fall apart.

But leaders of several local Proud Boys chapters, including in Seattle, Las Vegas, Indiana and Alabama, said after Jan. 6 that their members were cutting ties with the organizations national leadership. Four leaders, including national Elders Council member Ethan Nordean, have been charged by federal officials with planning and leading an attack on the Capitol. One of Nordeans attorneys said he wasnt responsible for any crimes committed by other people.

In this Jan. 6, 2021, photo, Proud Boys including Joseph Biggs, front left, walks toward the U.S. Capitol in Washington, in support of President Donald Trump. With the megaphone is Ethan Nordean, second from left. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, file)

The Las Vegas chapters statement on the instant messaging platform Telegram in February didnt mention Jan. 6 directly, but it claimed the overall direction of the organization was endangering its members.

The Alabama group expressed concern about reports that Tarrio had previously been a federal informant. It was revealed in court records recently that Tarrio had worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012.

We reject and disavow the proven federal informant, Enrique Tarrio, and any and all chapters that choose to associate with him, the Alabama group posted online in February.

Tarrio said he suspended national Proud Boy rallies shortly after Jan. 6 in part to focus on helping members facing criminal charges. Tarrio described Jan. 6 as horrible but said authorities overcharged his jailed lieutenants and are politically persecuting them.

Meanwhile, 16 members and associates of the Oath Keepers a militia group founded in 2009 that recruits current and former military, police and first responders have been charged with conspiring to block the certification of the vote. The groups founder and leader, Stewart Rhodes, has said there were as many as 40,000 Oath Keepers at its peak, but one extremism expert estimates the groups membership stands around 3,000 nationally.

Rhodes has not been charged, and its unclear if he will be. But he has repeatedly come up in court documents as Person One, suggesting hes a central focus of investigators.

Days after the election, Rhodes instructed his followers during a GoToMeeting call to go to Washington to let Trump know that the people are behind him, and he expressed hope that Trump would call up the militia to help the president stay in power, authorities say. Rhodes warned they could be headed for a bloody, bloody civil war, and a bloody you can call it an insurrection or you can call it a war or fight, according to court documents.

On Jan. 6, several Oath Keepers, wearing helmets and reinforced vests, were seen on camera shouldering their way up the Capitol steps in a military-style stack formation. Rhodes was communicating that day with some Oath Keepers who entered the Capitol and was seen standing with several of the defendants outside the building after the riot, prosecutors say.

Rhodes has sought to distance himself from those whove been arrested, insisting the members went rogue and there was never a plan to enter the Capitol. But he has continued in interviews with right-wing hosts since Jan. 6 to push the lie that the election was stolen, while the Oath Keepers website remains active with posts painting the group as the victim of political persecution.

Messages left at numbers listed for Rhodes werent immediately returned.

Court documents show discord among the group as early the night of the attack. Someone identified in the records only as Person Eleven blasted the Oath Keepers in a Signal chat with Rhodes and others as a huge fn joke and called Rhodes the dumbass I heard you were, court documents say.

Two months later, Rhodes lamented in a message to another Oath Keeper that the national team had gotten too lax and too complacent. He pledged to tighten up the command and control in the group even if it means losing some people, according to court documents.

After the riot, the North Carolina Oath Keepers branch said it was splitting from Rhodes group. Its president, who didnt return messages from the AP, told The News Reporter newspaper it wouldnt be a part of anything that terrorizes anybody or goes against law enforcement.

A leader of an Arizona chapter also slammed Rhodes and those facing charges, saying on CBS 60 Minutes that the attack goes against everything weve ever taught, everything we believe in.

The Oath Keepers leader has also suggested the group may be facing financial pressures. In an interview posted on the Oath Keepers website, Rhodes said it has been difficult for the group to raise money as its been kicked off certain websites.

The group also lost the ability to process credit card payments online after the company demanded that Rhodes disavow the arrested members and he refused, Rhodes said in a March interview for far-right website Gateway Pundit. The Oath Keepers website now says it cannot accept new memberships online because of malicious leftist attacks and instructs people to mail in applications and dues.

A member of the Oath Keepers was the first defendant to plead guilty in the riot. Jon Ryan Schaffer has also agreed to cooperate with the governments investigation. The Justice Department has promised to consider putting him in the witness security program, suggesting it sees him as a valuable cooperator in the Jan. 6 probe.

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Criminal charges resulting from US Capitol insurrection are roiling far-right groups - Anchorage Daily News