The Elephant in the Room

oath Keeper's story. Here's what has happened. So you all know who the Oathkeepers are, obviously because we've talked about it on woke F and you all watch the news, and we also remember when Donald Trump told them all to stand back and stand by. They were also the architects behind the siege on the Capitol Building and the Oathkeepers as well as the Proud Boys. I believe that both of their leaders are under indictment right for their

attempt to overthrow the government violently. So as it turns out, the list, the membership list, and I'm checking out BuzzFeed News right now, their membership list of thirty eight thousand names has been leaked right and unsurprisingly, if you are a student of history and have ever paid attention to oh, I don't know anything that has to do with law enforcement, the military and the ideology thereof you know that it is not surprising that on this list there would be

three hundred and seventy current law enforcement officers, including sheriffs who lead actual police departments that are members. There would be one hundred active military personnel. There are eighty either serving currently in public office or are running for office

that are on this list. And what is unsurprising is any of those things, because if you understand the history of white supremacy in this country, and you understand the history of police and law enforcement and military in this country, it is not surprising that it would be filled with a bunch of fucking white supremacis why else do we have so many unarmed black people that are murdered? Right?

Why else do we have news stories that came out of Detroit with the boy Scouts who were on a field trip, and then it's reported that all of the targets that they see that the police officers used to quote unquote train are of black men. Right, it is unsurprising that when there was a big news story and it wasn't even that big, it kind of fluttered out that there were private chat rooms right with law enforcement, both current and retired, that we're using just the most

disgusting racial slurs, misogyny, all of these things. We know this because every single time that there is an incident of police violence, of police brutality, of police overreach, that we're told that that individual is just a bad apple.

But what we know to be fucking true, because we're not dumb, is that there are more Derek Chauvin's right and Joe R. Pios right, who Donald Trump pardoned, if you remember, for his lies and torture and schemes to brutalize and terrorize undocumented people when he was police chief in Arizona, and he was sent to jail for that. But of course Donald Trump pardoned him because he only

surrounds himself with the best fucking people. Nonetheless, we also know that through the history of the KKK and why they wore their hoods and all and their sheets and all of that bullshit garb was because they wanted to hide their idea entities. Why because they were law enforcement, they were judges, teachers, doctors, right. What supremacy is pervasive in every single facet of life. What is troubling me about this story is one I've only seen it in print.

I have not heard about it, talked about on mainstream cable news right, and I wonder why. And it's funny because I posted a video the other day on TikTok and folks in the comment section about this very story, and folks in the comment section, we're just like, of course, mainstream media is not going to cover it, because I bet some of their fucking names are on there too.

Because when you think about the coverage or the lack of coverage that is actually good, that actually puts black and brown people in a positive light or in an empathetic light, we see those stories few and far in between. So from the court room to the police department, to the newsroom, to the classroom, to every other place that you can possibly find yourself in, we know that white supremacy exists. My fucking problem, though, is A, this is a major story, and B why the fuck do these

people still have jobs? So here's what we have right here. I'm going to share this with you from BuzzFeed. The full report, if you want to see the list of names, was published by the Anti Defamation League earlier this week, and this is what BuzzFeed reports. The far right extremist organization rose to prominence after the insurrection for playing a

key role in planning the insurrection at the Capitol. Many members have been arrested for taking part in the riot, and some, including the group's founder, facing charges of seditious conspiracy. The membership list, which was first published last year by the journalism collective distributed Denial of Sequences, demonstrates that the radical anti government group is far from fringe and in

fact holds close ties to mainstream power. So this is the thing that I really want to talk about for a moment, because these are the distinctions that mainstream media would like to make, right just I would say in the same vein that Democrats like to make the distinction between maga Republicans and this mythical, magical unicorn of a good Republican that they often love to speak about. Oh, we've done some good work with these good Republicans, my man,

you are talking about like two people. Okay, This is not the entire community of Republicans who have Donald Trump's back until that motherfucker goes off of a cliff, and even then they'll jump on it and hope that he turns into some type of magical bird that will carry

their bullshit. Right. So here's the thing is, these lists are known, they are published, they don't get the NonStop news coverage that it should because we just shrug at it and we have believed, or maybe it makes us feel comfortable to be lied to by mainstream media when they tell us that these groups are just fringe groups, right.

Just in the same way when these horrible racist police officers murder or brutalized black people and people of color, we say that that person is just a bad apple, because taking on the entire system of law enforcement right would just be too fucking much to do. How would one undertake getting rid of all of these police officers who are only on the job to be able to utilize their power to oppress, torture, humiliate, discriminate against other groups.

This is the problem, because we have loved to believe. It's the same way that Donald Trump became president of the United States. The media sat around and they said, oh, he's just good for ratings, he's a clown. We'll go ahead and follow him. They followed it as every movements, right. They laughed at some of his fucking jokes. They gave him more coverage and more airtime because they said, Oh, he's just part of the fringe. Marjorie Taylor Green, same

fucking sentiments, Lauren Bobert, Matt Gates, Josh Holly. We continue to say that these people are part of a fringe radical right, when in fact they are assuming and are already in positions of power. And maybe if we actually spoke about these people and their ideology with the attention and urgency that it deserves, then we would actually do something about it. But I don't think that we really want to. That's the thing is that you have a

list of thirty eight thousand people. Right. We don't designate in the United States domestic organizations as terrorists organizations because we love to believe in America that terrorists are brown people that live in the Middle East, right, not fucking Bob and Jim and Chet that live in Idaho, Wisconsin and Kansas got together and then decided to show up at the Capitol Building with their fucking ar fifteens and

their military gear and attempt to overthrow the government. We don't label these organizations outside of the klu Klux Klan, which took bombing of churches and killing of I don't know how many fucking black people to be designated a

fucking hate group. When Donald Trump stood up on stage when he was asked directly to denounce white supremacy and didn't and instead incited a fucking insurrection, you would think that maybe the Department of Justice, and it's awful in its Office of Civil Rights, would decide, you know what, maybe part of our problem is that we don't actually name the ship that is in front of us, and by not naming it, we allow it to be normalized. Because you see, the only way that you can actually

get rid of something is if you name it. This is the thing that I have been saying about Joe Biden before he gave his speech about the soul of

the nation. I said, if you are not being specific with the American people and pointing to the villain and saying this is who is the problem is the group that is standing between you and your right to vote, between you and bodily autonomy, between you and your ability to marry who you love, between you and your ability to be relieved of student debt, between you and clean

drinking water. If you are not naming these people and you're still congratulating them and calling them over as your colleague, then how were people to understand that there really is a distinction, a sharp and fucking clear distinction between the two parties. It's the same way that I feel about the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys and the other two hundred some odd fucking white supremacist organizations in this country.

If you are not naming them as hate groups, if you are not whole them to the standard that you would other terrorist seals and organizations, if you were not working to infiltrate them and take them down, then what you were doing is readily allowing them to spread like a cancer across this fucking country, which they've done. We are at a point right now where things have gotten so fucking out of hand because we ignored the elephant

and pun intended in the fucking room. We ignored Donald Trump's misogyny, we ignored Donald Trump's racism, we ignored the Islamophobia because democrats that are impowering. I'm not talking about we the people, because we the people fucking saw it. We the people showed up in twenty twenty, and that not on my watch, but when those motherfuckers decided to infiltrate Congress in very aggressive ways Democrats were nowhere to be naming these motherfuckers as who they are, said, oh,

let's try and work with them. How are you trying to work with somebody that is literally gave insurrectionists a map to your office to have you killed. How are you working with people who have put your name and face up on their websites in crosshairs? How are you working with people who turned you into a graphic video game showcasing your murder. You don't. It's simple, you don't.

What you do instead is every day, with every breath that you have and every micro phone that you are in front of, then every screen that you can tweak from, is that you consistently tell the American people who the

fuck they are and what they're doing. You don't give them credit for saying thank you to the Republicans for helping us pass infrastructure, because then what you're signaling to the American public is that, oh, these motherfuckers still are working for us, even though they're rapid racists and white supremacists and misogynistic pigs. This is not even about playing dirty.

It's about just telling the fucking truth. So if they're eighty motherfucking elected officials that are on this list, and I don't even care if they are dog catcher in their fucking town. If you are holding elected office and you are a part of a designated white supremacist group. But that's the fucking problem. You see where we get here, because we can see, oh, it's an extremist group, but

they're not designated as a white supremacist group. They're not designated akin to the KKK, And we need to get that image out of our heads because these motherfuckers are shopping at the Gap, wearing tan pants and going to party the party store and getting their tiki torches. They don't look they don't have the look of the hate mongers from yesteryear, but that doesn't mean that they're not just as fucking dangerous. It's no secret that the news

is horsepill hard to swallow. Thankfully, there's the Bituation Room podcast hosted by comedian and commentator Francesca free Er and Tini for a lighter take on the heavy stuff. Each week, the Bituation Room brings you progressive comedians, experts, and activists to break down the issues in a way that won't just leave you crying under a weighted blanket. Get the Bituation Room on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and streaming on YouTube and Twitch. Hey there, I want to tell you

about another podcast I think you'll love. The Brown Girl's Guide to Politics, hosted by a Shanty Goehler, the president of Emerge BGG, is the one stop shop for women of color who want to hear and talk about the world of politics. Join a Shanty this season as she talks to incredible women of color who are changing the face of politics and tackling some of the most important issues basing the United States, from reproductive justice to voting rights,

to climate change and more. Tune in every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. I want to tell you about another story, and I want to tell you that partisanship here doesn't even fucking matter right with this story, because evidently this story involves political violence that took place earlier this month at the hands of a Democratic, a local

Democratic official, and a reporter. And then I'm going to tie together how all of these things are coming into clear, clear focus about just how dangerous of a time we

are living in. And oh, that's also cemented by the fact that the Supreme Court said everybody and anyone could have a fucking gun, right, So we know that everyone is filled with the most disgusting amount of hate for people that they don't know, but who Donald Trump told them is stealing their lot in life, coming in and taking their jobs and caravans and this, that and the other thing. I've never seen people with so much privilege wine so fucking much than the Republican Party. But I digress.

So let me tell you about this story because when I saw it, I was absolutely shocked. Las Vegas Police. This is in the Los Angeles Times, The La Times. Las Vegas investigative reporter was killed over critical stories. Robert Tells Is to appear on a homicide charge in Nevada, six days after investigative reporter Jeff German was stabbed to

death outside of his home. Las Vegas police alleged Thursday that a top local official killed investigative reporter Jeff German because of critical stories the journalists had written, as well as a new piece he was planning to write. Las Vegas Metro police arrested Nevada elected official Robert Tellis on suspicion of murder of the Las Vegas Review Journal reporter German after recovering items worn by the killer from the

Clark County Public Administrator's home. Authority said. Police said they also tied him to a vehicle he drove to the scene of the crime and found his DNA at the scene of the fatal stabbing. So here's what it goes on to say, tell Us was upset about articles that were being written by German as an investigative journalist that exposed potential wrongdoing, and tell Us had publicly expressed his

issues with that reporting. This is according to the Las Vegas Metro Police Captain Dorry Coreyn, and then ultimately tell Us was also upset from what he found out later that there were additional reportings that was pending. Folks, this man, this elected official, apparently he's a Democrat. The funny thing about this story, there's nothing actually funny. I don't mean funny, ha ha. The funny thing about this story is that Democrats right now are not saying that the police department

is corrupt. They're not calling for a more increased political violence, which is what we know would happen if this were a Republican We know exactly the tactics that they would use to ratchet up the fear, the hate, and the anxiety, because that helps them win. We are at a place in this goddamn country where it is so unrecognizable that an investigative journalist can't do their job. This man went to his home and stabbed him to death outside because

of stories that he had written, because he's reporting the truth. Now, I want you to think about this, and I want you to think about Jamal Kashogi, who was dismembered and murdered by Mohammed bin Salam in Saudi Arabia. When we hear those stories and it's in another country, namely one that is in the Middle East, we say, oh those people, my god. Right, we have no problem equating viciousness, right and barbarianism to brown people or black people. This shit.

There is no fucking difference except this man is going to go to jail. This is the thing that is separating us from dictatorships and authoritarianism is the ability to have accountability through the press. I read you my piece yesterday. The fourth estate is crumbling. What do you think will happen to journalism if things like this become the norm.

There's a commercial that plays to promote Rachel Nadow's Monday Night show on MSNBC, and in the commercial it's a clip obviously, it's a mashup of clips from her show and on our show. She said it should not take bravery to be a poll worker. You shouldn't have to be looked at as courageous, she says, to be an epidemiologist. It shouldn't take bravery to be an investigative reporter, unless, of course, you're on the battlefield in a war zone,

not if you're reporting in your hometown. It is. When I saw this story, I didn't even look up the political affiliation of the murder suspect because I didn't care, because it didn't matter to me one way or the other. But what matters is the environment, the toxic, dangerous, violent environment that has been created in this country in our politics because of the likes of Donald Trump and what has been permitted because we refuse to name things as

they fucking are when we see them. Motherfucker's knew Donald Trump was a racist and a misogynist and a sexual assaulter and a crook, but they didn't want to name it. God forbid, for neutrality's sake. We don't want to seem like what we're telling the fucking truth. So we play both sides. In countless rallies, you hear Republicans in particular

ratcheting up their calls for political violence. You heard Lindsey Graham say that about even the appearance of Donald Trump being held accountable, there's gonna be riots in the streets. What that rhetoric and the media's placating to this bullshit is what leads here. Now people will tell you, oh, you can't connect those dots, like this is a standalone thing. It's a lone wolf case. This isn't part of the norm.

Who were we kidding again, It's the same thing we say about police officers and the killings of unarmed black people and people of color. It's always an isolated fucking incident and not a pattern of violent behavior and white supremacy. You have got to name things if you want to change things. James Baldwin said, you cannot change things that you refuse to face. We walk around with blinders on

thinking that rhetoric, thinking that words don't have power. If they didn't, then we wouldn't have the First Amendment that has protected speech. If we didn't believe that words had power. This politician, a democrat, didn't like what was being said about him, didn't like what was being written about him, and hopped up on the world's bullshit, went and stabbed another man to death for words that he put in the newspaper. What message is that sending? I will say this.

This is from the statement. This is a statement from the Las Vegas Review Journal newsroom. The arrest of Robert tell Us is at once an enormous release and an outrage for the Review Journal newsroom. We are relieved tell Us is in custody and outraged that a colleague appears to have been killed for reporting on an elected official. Journalist can't do the important work our communities require if they are afraid a presentation of facts could lead to

violent retribution. This is the world that we are living and now where it has become commonplace that doctors and nurses are threatened for trying to save people's lives from a killer virus. We live in a world where teachers and school administrators are threatened for having the audacity to want to teach children the truth and not give them a bunch of bedtime stories that white supremacists think that they should learn This country was founded on violence, and

all of these fucking roosters are coming home. And we do ourselves and every single person around us a disservice when we make excuses and use euphemisms for things that we know are fucking wrong. I wish that we lived in a society where news actually worked to connect the dots, to deliver the truth, to enlighten the public, to engage them so that they want to show up and be responsible citizens. But we don't. Capitalism rules the day. Click bait is what brings in ad dollars. Everything is about

the bottom line. But the bottom line is this, for ends, we are living in the most dangerous times. I think that any of us who were not alive during the Civil Rights movement has ever seen And my fear is that stories like this one, stories like the oath keepers list, are going to become more commonplace, just like mass shootings that unless you know five or more people are killed, we just go on about our day. This shit is

not right and it should never be. That is it for me today, Dear friends on wokeay f as always, Power to the people and to all the people. Power at woke and stay woke as fuck.