(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Will NAPALM (North American Patriot and Liberty Militia) Be Deployed On Your Town [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-21 During a 2020 debate with Joe Biden, Donald Trump, when asked by moderator Chris Wallace if he would condemn white supremacist and militia groups, said: “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by,” which thrilled militia groups all across the country. With his labeling of those locked up for the January 6 insurrection as “warriors,” “patriots,” and “hostages,” Trump is once again signaling his embrace of MAGA-supporting militias. Media Matters for America recently reported that, “On June 3, podcaster and alleged January 6 participant Jake Lang announced a ‘NATIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL MILITIA’ called the ‘North American Patriot and Liberty Militia,’ or ‘NAPALM’ for short. Lang claimed that NAPALM was ‘organized and ready to mobilize to DEFEND this Republic from any enemy Foreign or Domestic.’” According to WIRED’s David Gilbert, Lang, who is currently in jail due to his actions on January 6, is aiming to organize “a nationwide network … of 3,000 plus county level militias all across the country who will each answer up to a state leader and all the state leaders will answer up to the leadership council, which he's the head of” (https://www.wired.com/story/far-right-militias-extremism/). Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson recently reported that while in jail, Lang has not only raised “his MAGA-world celebrity,” he has “raked in more than $500,000” on the GiveSendGo fundraising website. Stew Peters, a far-right white nationalist shock jock, who consistently spews anti-Semitic and anti-LGBTQ conspiracy theories, was recently named the national communications director of “NAPALM.” Lang, who claims to have come to God, serves as national chairman of NAPALM. He is currently “fac[ing] multiple charges of assaulting law enforcement officers and has been held in jail ahead of his September trial for his alleged crimes and what a judge called ‘a continued willingness to engage in violence’” Media Matters pointed out (https://www.mediamatters.org/january-6-insurrection/group-far-right-media-figures-using-social-media-recruit-its-newly-formed). Except for his legion of followers, most people recognize that Stew Peters is a pain in the ass. A perfect example of his pain-in-the-assedness was recently reported by the Daily Dot’s Tricia Crimmins who wrote that “Peters took down videos in which he claimed a gay influencer sexually abused his own children and suggested that the New York Police Department investigate him for sex crimes, The removal was predicated by a cease-and-desist from the influencer, who threatened a defamation lawsuit against Peters” (https://www.dailydot.com/debug/stew-peters/). According to the Anti-Defamation League, Peters is “A notorious purveyor of COVID-19 and anti-vaccine-related misinformation and conspiracy theories, … [and] is best known for producing the viral anti-vaccine film, “Died Suddenly.” In addition to Lang and Peters, according to Media Matters, other participants in NAPALM include Ann Vandersteel, the apparent “vice chairman … is a QAnon-supporting podcast host”; Pete Santili, the apparent “strategic operations director and self-described ‘legal liaison’ … is a right-wing radio host who has repeatedly threatened public officials with violence”; Couy Griffin, a January 6 participant who is the apparent “New Mexico state commander”; Rochelle Richardson (commonly known as Silk of Diamond (now deceased) and Silk) is the apparent “national recruiting coordinator”; and Maureen Steele, the apparent “national secretary.” Media Matters noted that in order “To promote and recruit for the militia, the group established public, state-specific Telegram groups for people to join and then be vetted for more private chats. The militia urges people to ‘make your Telegram account anonymous before joining,’ and a message in the public groups details next steps ‘to get you placed in your Vetted County Militia chat where you can message back and forth with other members & the Leadership.’ “A subsequent message from a group administrator further details the vetting process, noting that ‘after everything checks out’ people will get an ‘orientation’ on ‘expectations, emergency protocols, and order of operations’ for the militia. The message also promised to ‘ensure tyranny never takes a foothold in this AMAZING COUNTRY OF OURS’ and to ‘Make Militias Great Again.’” Is all this Langinating merely an attention-seeking gambit or is there juice behind his NAPALM project? Is it, as WIRED’s Leah Feiger asked David Gilbert, “really something we should be pretty concerned about?” Gilbert said that while it’s probably more ultra-right huffing and puffing, it should nevertheless be taken seriously. “I think it is absolutely fair to say that some of the stuff that he says is just hyperbole and it's just overblown and he's just trying to get attention. Like on his website and in his conversation with me, he said that the network has 20,000 members already, and that was a week after it had launched. That is just not true because we went through the Telegram channels and there's maybe 14, 15,000 members there, but experts have gone through it as well and looked at it more closely, and they have universally said the numbers are artificially inflated and that the real number of members is about 2,500.” Whatever NAPALM’s real numbers might be, there is definitely a subset of disgruntled white nationalists ripe for recruiting by armed militias. And, according to Gilbert, Lang’s efforts are the tip of a resurgent militia iceberg looming over the outcome of the 2024 presidential election. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/21/2247820/-Will-NAPALM-North-American-Patriot-and-Liberty-Militia-Be-Deployed-On-Your-Town?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/