This article is news and liberal commentary.
Which is almost amusing, because rightwing extremists have most of the AR-15s in circulation in this country.
Also, consider the source, the notorious Michael Caputo (photo at right), a Roger Stone protege, whose ties to Russia were “so concerning” he was a target of Robert Mueller’s investigation. Which raises this question: Does Caputo work for Trump or Putin? I’m inclined to say “both.” After all, there’s little daylight between Trump’s and Putin’s interests to begin with. For more about Caputo, read this article.
Caputo “lived in Russia for six years,” has had two Russian wives (the latest of whom is pictured at left), “was an adviser to a subsidiary of Gazprom, an energy company owned by the Russian government,” and “reportedly helped shore up Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reputation.” (Read story here.)
Caputo also is in the forefront of Trump’s efforts to manipulate Centers for Disease Control data as Trump tries to sidestep his bungling of the crisis. Read that story here and here.
Caputo got his current high-ranking federal official status, and accompanying paycheck, which he desperately needs as he’s a man with financial problems, because of his unflagging loyalty to Trump. When he goes on the stump to toot his foghorn about “leftist insurrection,” he’s not doing that on his own. This guy’s on a short leash, and everything he says and does is ordered from higher up.
It fits in with what appears to be a coordinated effort, most likely orchestrated by Trump himself or his closest aides on his direction, to discredit the upcoming election, stir up his conspiracy-theory-believing followers, and possibly try to keep Trump in power even if he loses. It’s consistent with the kind of scheming you’d expect to see from people plotting to overthrow our government, which I’ve commented about here and here.
The fallout could include more people like this guy who shot up a pizza parlor in the belief that Hillary Clinton was running a child sex trafficking ring in the basement. The pizza parlor building doesn’t have a basement. But America does have plenty of people who believe such nonsense, and they’re armed and dangerous.
It’s important for ordinary Americans, and any folks with common sense, to understand that people like Caputo, Stone, and bit players like Jacob Wohl aren’t outliers or aberrations. They are the Republican Party now. And that’s prompting people like this lifetime Republican academic to call for voting against all Republican candidates in this election, dissolving the GOP, and starting over from scratch (story here).