An order of onion ring layers of truth to go, please
When your ‘president’ backs men who celebrate the Holocaust, where do you turn?
By Sam Bellamy
If you’re reading this, it’s extremely unlikely you suffer the delusion that members of the Proud Boys and other Jan. 6th rioters are good people, as President Trump has described them in various ways.
To everyone but Trump and his followers, good people don’t beat cops, break through windows and doors of the U.S. Capitol, defecate and urinate on the floor or desperately search the building for Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi and anyone else they can drag onto the grounds for a beating. Or worse.
But even if you don’t share that delusion – or especially if you don’t – you might consider sharing the photo below, already bouncing around social media, with any people of your acquaintance who hold Trump, the Proud Boys and the rest of the rotten retinue in high esteem. It’ll make for an interesting conversation.
This photo reportedly wasn’t taken on Jan. 6th but at an earlier pro-Trump rally in 2020. Regardless, this man is a member of the Proud Boys, who were among the organized extremist groups leading the initial breach of the Capitol.
This man is wearing a shirt emblazoned with the cryptic message “6MWE.”
That stands for “6 million wasn’t enough,” a reference to Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
This is the sort of person our president-in-name-only celebrates and leans on when he needs people to lead an assault on democracy.
For some of the pardoned rioters, the return to action last week apparently went well. For others, decidedly not.
Matthew Huttle, a 42-year-old Indiana man who took part in the riot with his uncle, was killed Sunday during a traffic stop by a sheriff’s deputy, who said Huttle resisted arrest and was found to have a firearm on him.
As I noted in an earlier essay, Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes — who were convicted of leading the riot from a safe distance — visited podcast and talk shows hosted by conservative admirers. Around the same time, Trump told reporters at a briefing that both groups might have a role in the nation’s political discourse.
Rhodes was a celebrity again, at least in some circles. But a few days after the mass pardoning, a federal judge in Washington D.C. imposed travel restrictions on Rhodes and seven other convicted Oath Keepers, barring them from entering the city, the Capitol or its grounds.
On the very same day that order was issued, Trump’s new acting U.S. attorney in Washington, Ed Martin, filed court papers to reverse the judge’s decision, arguing that Rhodes could no longer be under court supervision.
Yes, an acting U.S. attorney immediately stepped in immediately to rescue the leader of a group that, according to trial evidence, discussed and guided the riot live on Facebook. One Oath Keepers message, referring to members of Congress, said, “All members are in the tunnels under capital, seal them in. Turn on the gas.”
The judge conceded to Martin’s appeal and lifted the restriction.
Meanwhile, MAGA devotees are celebrating the freedom of people who built an executioner’s scaffold on the Capitol lawn and chanted, “Hang Mike Pence!” No word on whether the “6MWE” dude was there, but other depravity was certainly on full display. One of the rioters wore a t-shirt bearing the words, “Camp Auschwitz.”
Last week, a burger joint in Toms River, N.J., ever so briefly offered a new special called the Proud Boys burger, featuring “white American cheese, onion ring layers of truth, resilience pickles, freedom fries, cancel culture coleslaw, and liberty sauce.”
When some patrons not brainwashed by Trump complained, the special was quickly pulled from the menu and the employee who created it was fired. “We truly do apologize,” the owner told NJ Advance Media. “It was a bad decision. It was stupidity. It was ignorance. But we do not support hatred or Nazism or any of that.”
Would that we could say the same of the men and women now running our government.
Another great read, Sam. Thanks!