FEMA Being Chased Out of North Carolina by Armed Militia
Trump created the lie that FEMA wasn't helping and then got his thugs to make the lie the truth.
This is yet another first in our lives since Donald Trump infected our nation. A former president and the current nominee for the Republican Party in the campaign for the presidency shamelessly lied about President Biden’s refusal to send FEMA to the hurricane-wrecked regions of North Carolina because the residents there voted for Trump in 2020.
As FEMA workers fanned out everywhere throughout the state offering help, Trump upped the ante on his ridiculous and dangerous story by suggesting that “if the residents accepted FEMA help, then the Biden people would take over their houses and the towns and force them to accept Democrat policies.” As a result, the threats against FEMA workers began to rise, culminating in the roving bands of armed militia “hunting for FEMA” yesterday.
Federal emergency response workers operating in North Carolina’s Rutherford County in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene were told to evacuate on Saturday over concerns that an “armed militia” was threatening workers in the area.
An official with the U.S. Forest Service, which is supporting recovery efforts along with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), sent a message to numerous federal agencies at around 1 p.m. on Saturday warning that FEMA had advised all federal responders in Rutherford County to “stand down and evacuate the county immediately,” The Washington Post reported.
National Guard troops had come across two trucks of “armed militia saying they were out hunting FEMA,” the email said. “The IMTs [incident management teams] have been notified and are coordinating the evacuation of all assigned personnel in that county (Armed Militia Hunting FEMA).”
When George Washington was president, he was confronted with rebellious moonshine makers in the westernmost parts of Pennsylvania. The citizens making their drink didn’t want to pay taxes back to the government. They brazenly let it be known that they would not tolerate the demands for money that they earned fair and square. Washington, however, knew that if he didn’t make an example of them, the federal government would be so weakened that it could fall. After some minor clashes, he sent the army and collected the taxes. The Whiskey Rebellion set the precedent in the future.
What is taking place in North Carolina at the behest of Trump is a direct threat to the power of the federal government, and anyone instigating it or taking part in it should be arrested for treason. Donald Trump has once again demonstrated that he is the enemy of our nation and its citizens. People need help, and because he wanted to cast aspersions against Kamala Harris, he made up terrible lies that are not only jeopardizing the lives of those suffering, but his calls for resisting Biden and Harris have resulted in what I am not afraid to call an armed insurrection against federal workers.
William Jacob Parsons, 44, was charged with “going armed to the terror of the public,” Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Monday. He has been released on bail and denies making threats towards aid workers.
A Facebook profile, believed to belong to Parsons, features multiple posts about COVID-19 and conspiracy theories about vaccines and voting systems. Some posts also include the logo of the “Three Percenters,” an anti-government militia group, the BBC reported (Armed Militia Hunting FEMA).
Where is the outrage over this? It’s not here because we have grown so insensitive to Trump’s world of chaos, lies, and lunacy. If the average, sane person were to react emotionally each time Trump did something entirely off the wall like he did in North Carolina, then more people would be seeking mental health. Almost as if it is a form of self-preservation, we learn to ignore Trump and roll our eyes when he lets his latest example of crazy unfold.
This is very bad.
We have stopped paying attention to the details of Trump and merely shake our heads even at his most egregious examples of how to lead a nation, step-by-step over the cliff and into authoritarianism.
The first Civil War began in South Carolina at Fort Sumter. Will the Carolinas play another outsized role in our nation’s violent implosion?