Poor deluded racists

Just think of people who believe Europeans were white skinned, blue eyes, and blonde haired.

Too bad that isn't true.

Scientists have reconstructed his appearance based on 3D scans of the skull and information from the man's DNA and came up with the above image.

This changes this beliefs about Early Europeans:

It was initially assumed that Cheddar Man had pale skin and fair hair, but his DNA paints a different picture, strongly suggesting he had blue eyes, a very dark brown to black complexion and dark curly hair.

The discovery shows that the genes for lighter skin became widespread in European populations far later than originally thought – and that skin colour was not always a proxy for geographic origin in the way it is often seen to be today.

The Money Shot here:

Tom Booth, an archaeologist at the Natural History Museum who worked on the project, said: “It really shows up that these imaginary racial categories that we have are really very modern constructions, or very recent constructions, that really are not applicable to the past at all.”
Yoan Diekmann, a computational biologist at University College London and another member of the project’s team, agreed, saying the connection often drawn between Britishness and whiteness was “not an immutable truth. It has always changed and will change”.

I really wish Pioneer Little Britain Europe hadn't banned me from their face book pages because I would post this every place I could.

See also:

• This is the face of a prehistoric Brit
• First modern Britons had 'dark to black' skin, Cheddar Man DNA analysis reveals

The last gasp of the Leith NoDak takeover attempt by Craig Cobb, Trump supporter

In the 2016 election cycle, no surprise, given the pandering to white supremacists by Donald Drumpf and his family, Craig Cobb is a supporter.  Last October Nightline did an interview with Cobb.

Cobb is delusional if he thinks the problems people have with him are in any way discriminatory or contrary to his first amendment rights.  It is a sadly conservative phenomenon when those who attempt to victimize others then claim THEY are the victims when it doesn't go well.  It is endemic among conservatives.

Trump-Loving Racist Craig Cobb Repeatedly Calls Nightline Anchor Byron Pitts N-Word During Interview

While recently doing a story about known White Supremacist Craig Cobb, ABC producer Jasmine Brown and anchor Byron Pitts were subject to hateful tirades and now the story has been brought to life through a produced video by timesXtwo.

 “He is very much in love with Donald Trump,” adds Brown. She continues to describe a line of Cobb’s saying, “I would almost rather talk to a Jew, because then at least they would be intelligent.”

The final closing of the book on the attempted white supremacist takeover by Craig Cobb in the tiny town of Leith, North Dakota took place last week, just as TPT was running the documentary of the takeover on public television. 

It is worth watching the independent documentary Welcome to Leith here.

From KVRR:

North Dakota Officials Close Craig Cobb Investigation

BISMARCK, N.D. - State officials have closed their investigation into ten human rights complaints filed by white supremacist Craig Cobb.

Cobb alleged discrimination because of his white supremacy religious views.

The Department of Labor and Human Rights rejected all of the complaints, including one Cobb filed against Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem, who's running for governor.

Cobb and one of his crazy side-kicks, an Ichabod Crane lookalike named Kynan Dutton, were arrested and spent some time in jail for terrorizing the town of Leith before making a plea deal.

Had Cobb and his confederates been smarter and had more money, they might have pulled off their town takeover.  This kind of neo-Nazi intimidation is not a smart way to try to take over a town; you can count on push back.  Meet your not-so-friendly neighborly Trump supporters, and those with whom they choose to associate under the 1A..

Craig Cobb Appears to Be Back at His Old White Supremacist Behaviors

He just can't help himself; Craig Cobb has a flat learning curve. He appears not to be trusted. The judge and the prosecutor let him off way too easily, if this is true, when they made the plea bargain. He said he was done with White Supremacy, but apparently not.

From KXNET:

Craig Cobb, the White Supremacist who tried to take over the town of Leith, North Dakota, may be violating his terms of probation.

In April, Judge David Reich sentenced Cobb to four years of supervised probation with 26 strict terms.

He is not allowed to have any contact with any of the victims, including by computer.

He also must let authorities search his residence and computer at any time.

Now Cobb appears to be posting photos and articles about people in Leith on a comedy page on a website called "White Nations."

We are not able to confirm whether or not Cobb is actually the one posting, but they are under his name and photo.

A 19 paper file of evidence has been turned over to the Grant County Sheriff's Department.

Tim Tausend, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections says Cobb's probation officer, Kevin Hagen, is investigating.

If they find he is violating the terms, he will go back to jail for one year.

Craig Cobb Update - mid-February 2014

Craig Cobb, armed white supremacist who terrorized Leith, N.D. has dropped below the radar of most news coverage in the past couple of months.  There have been developments.

White Supremacist armed with clubs in Leith

Cobb and Dutton, armed in Leith

more white supremacists, Leith

Cobb draped in ammo, in Leith

His buddy in roaming the town, where he was photographed threatening people with their guns, has rolled over on him and is ready to testify against him. Cobb is trying for a plea deal, offering to sell his property in Leith, and to leave, if they don't prosecute him.

The prosecuting attorney is negotiating a plea deal, but the deal he has offered Cobb doesn't satisfy the good residents of Leith.  They don't want the plea agreement; they want him behind bars.  As of February 10th, according to the Bismark Tribune:

Dressed in an orange jail suit with his gray hair neatly trimmed and his face clean shaven, Cobb barely had time to sit at his attorney’s table before South Central District Judge Gail Hagerty set Cobb’s case for trial and gave both sides three weeks to negotiate a plea deal.

The situation came to a head on Nov. 16, 2013, when Cobb and follower Kynan Dutton were arrested for carrying long-barreled weapons on an armed patrol of Leith and allegedly terrorizing citizens.

Dutton was released last month on a plea deal in which he promised to testify against Cobb in exchange for reduced charges and probation.

Grant County State’s Attorney Todd Schwarz said he would meet with Cobb’s alleged victims after the short hearing to see if he could get some consensus on an acceptable outcome.

He wouldn’t speculate on how much, if any, prison time would be in the deal.
Schwarz said it’s his job to protect the community and people where Cobb might go from here. He’s in jail in Stanton on $100,000 cash bond.

Schwarz said he’s heard that Cobb may deed his house and other property in Leith back to the city or someone else to whom he owes money.

“If he’s not coming back to Leith I would take that into consideration,” Schwarz said.
In fact, Leith Mayor Ryan Schock said Monday that Cobb has sold his two-story house in Leith to a resident of nearby Carson. The deal with James Kenneth Zimmerman, a mechanic, apparently included two of Cobb’s abandoned vehicles.

The new ownership doesn’t apply to other property Cobb still owns.
 
Three unrelated and abandoned properties that were condemned in Leith were burned last week. Cobb’s former home must be brought up to code with sewer and running water before it can be be occupied, according to the town’s new ordinances.

A handful of area residents attended the hearing and talked afterward in the courtroom lobby.

Judy Roth of Elgin, formerly of Leith, said she won’t be satisfied with less than a return to the way things were before Cobb started up in August, “not until every lot in town goes back,” she said.

Her sister Peggy Arndt of rural Flasher said she wants Cobb’s vision of a community of haters to end in Leith.

“It needs to stop someplace, or he’ll go on to the next town,” Arndt said.

Grant County Sheriff Steve Bay said the charges are serious and the residents truly felt terrorized.

“He shouldn’t get off scot-free. Not because it’s a high-profile case, but going back to what he did and the crime at hand,” the sheriff said.

Bay said Cobb has cost the county more than $20,000 in jail boarding fees and medical costs, and the state spent another $21,000 to enforce the law a peace rally across from Cobb’s house in September.

Schwarz said Dutton is prepared to tell a jury what was going on in Cobb’s mind when they picked up guns to patrol Leith and confront residents that cold weekend before Thanksgiving.

He said Cobb primed Dutton by lying about some vandalism to their Leith property. Cobb knew the vandal was actually another white supremacist who was living on his property and had called the police to have the unstable man removed, but hid that information from Dutton, Schwarz said.

Based on Cobb’s state of mind at the time, Schwarz said, he has no doubt there could have been gunfire had Cobb been provoked.

“He was very agitated,” Schwarz said.

The state’s attorney said there is one line he will draw in cement, not sand, on any plea deal.

“Those guns will not be returned to him,” he said.

I'm somewhat less impressed with the notion of Cobb not getting his guns back should be given such importance; guns are too easily available both legally and illegally; they can be replaced.  It was not only the brandishing of guns on this one specific occasion that was really the problem.  And the residents of Leith have a valid concern; white supremacist groups have indicated interests in doing the same thing in other locations.

The photos above are one face of the radical right, the face of those who might be categorized, to borrow a term from science fiction fandom, the 'drobes', short for wardrobe fandom, in this case radical right men and women who like to dress up in what they hope are scary uniforms, including weapons.

It is fair to say that these thugs in their outfits hold views not that different from the views expressed by Michael Dunn, who was recently convicted of crimes involved with shooting at 4 black teens, one of whom died.  It is fair to say that these obvious, over-the-top right wing extremists hold views consistent with the radical right militias, that they are not significantly different in those views from radical right groups  like the John Birch Society -- militia groups and the Birchers have had tables at the political convention of the MN GOP, for example, and have had a presence at national events like CPAC.  The John Birch Society, of course, was founded by the father of our modern Koch Brothers who seek to buy control of our government and governmental processes.  The White Supremacists, the militias, and other radical right groups draw heavily in their membership from our armed forces; one estimate from the DOJ places half their active members as having served and often been recruited in our armed forces.

These groups, and the people in the photos above, meet the classic definition of conservatives:

1. they believe things that are demonstrably not true - and don't care they are not true;
2. they position themselves as victims when they are not, using their faux-victim status to justify excesses and aggression, both legislative and physical;
3. they have a sort-of-Christian theology that is at the core to their politics and which they seek to impose on others;
4. they have an unmerited sense of superiority combined with paranoia;
5.  they are obsessed with weapons, and the justification for weapons to overthrow any governmental entity that does not conform to their beliefs, at every level of government.

Are the Nazis More Honest than Wisconsin Republicans and ALEC?

ALEC operates as a super-lobbying entity while being an unregistered influence peddler. The Nut Gingrich is widely considered to have been acting for years as an unregistered lobbyist, notably in his Freddie Mac.

In contrast, MSNBC.com notes that the Nazis have hired and registered a lobbyist.  As evil as the Nazis are - in spite of being called a 'civil rights organization for white people' by Fox Not-News - they are at least in this regard a heckuva lot more honest and less corrupt than the conservative influence peddlers. Given the warm reception, accommodation, and encouragement offered multiple white supremacist groups at conservative events such as CPAC, it can only be presumed that the target of their lobbying efforts will be conservative politicians.  Despite their repeated but unpersuasive denials, there is a sadly broad streak of racism on the right; there have been a wide range of examples, from the racist comments left in various locations relating to the Trayvon Martin killing, along partisan lines, to the CPAC speakers, to the dismissal of Pat Buchanan from MSNBC.com for his support of racist media outlets and for the content of some of his books, to the warm embrace of the perennial, previously discredited hate-and-fear-mongers founded in part by the Koch Brothers dad, the John Birch society.    There is white supremacist groups on the right, including neo-nazis of different stripes.

From MSNBC.com:

'Swastika on the ballot': American Nazi Party gets its first lobbyist

By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com

The American Nazi Party has its first lobbyist in Washington, according to reports.
The Hill newspaper, which covers Congress when it is in session, said John Bowles had registered with House and Senate offices as a representative of the “ANP,” according to disclosure records.
The records said that he planned to lobby on “political rights and ballot access laws,” and other issues such as civil rights, healthcare and immigration.
“You know, congressmen and congresswomen have always been telling the American public that they were open to other viewpoints,” Bowles told The Hill. “I’m going to see if they were sincere about that, or I’m going to call their bluff.”
Bowles was a presidential candidate in 2008 for the National Socialist Movement, according to US News and World Report. Nazi comes from the German words for National Socialist.
He told The Hill that people in America did not understand the term socialism, but knew what Nazism was.
“So [we] decided: Why don’t we just say what we are?” he added. “In the future, when we get people on the ballot, when people see the swastika on the ballot, they’ll know what they’re getting."

(emphasis added above is mine - DG)
I followed various links, including this one which led to the American Nazi Party lobby web site.

National Socialist Lobbyist

"The White People's Voice to Congress and the White House"

I may not like them, I definitely do not agree with them, but I give them more credit than conservatives for at least being open and up front about who they are and their agenda compared to other conservatives in ALEC, or the Nut Gingrich, and Rick Saint-orum, who will presumably go back to influence peddling until the next presidential election cycle.

Rick Santorum's influence peddling and Jack Abramoff scandal days was noted here, although Gingrich has received a bit more attention this election cycle than Saint-orum:

A Roll Call article from March 2001 (accessed via LexisNexis) says that he did:

Santorum has assembled a virtual Who’s Who of Republican lobbyists, including a number of prominent ex-lawmakers, to advise him on how to improve communications and coordination between K Street and Capitol Hill as the GOP leadership seeks to push Bush’s agenda.
Among those attending the first meeting of the group last Tuesday were former GOPReps. Bob Livingston (La.), Bob Walker (Pa.), Rod Chandler (Wash.) and Paxon, as well as former Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.). [...]
Lobbyists who participated in the meeting include Jack Abramoff of Greenberg Traurig, David Carmen of the Carmen Group, Dan Meyer of the Duberstein Group, Dan Cohen of Arter & Hadden, Peter Terpeluk of American Continental Group, Dan Mattoon of Podesta-Mattoon, Don Fierce of Fierce and Isakowitz, Tom Korologos of Timmons and Co., Ed Gillespie of Quinn/Gillespie & Associates, and David Bockorny of Bergner Bockorny Inc. [John Bresnahan. "GOP Tightens Grip on K Street; Leaders Send Message To Associations." Roll Call. 3/12/2001]

A National Journal article from May 2001 (accessed via LexisNexis) reports the same thing:

Finally, both Santorum and Hutchison are hosting twice-monthly, informal conversations with lobbyists. Santorum is meeting with contract lobbyists; Hutchison is talking to representatives of trade associations.
Santorum held his first meeting in early March with such K Street heavy hitters as Jack Abramoff of Greenberg Traurig; Donald Fierce of Fierce and Isakowitz; Ed Gillespie of QuinnGillespie & Associates; Dan Meyer of the Duberstein Group Inc.;and Dan Mattoon of Podesta/Mattoon. Former Sen. Dan Coats, R-Ind., and former Reps. Bob Livingston, R-La., and Paxon also attended. [Louis Jacobson and Brody Mullins. "The GOP's New Bridge To K Street." National Journal. 5/5/2001]

It almost makes me sad that the Nazis are going to be potentially getting their hands dirty with dirty conservative politics. At least the Nazis are willing to run their candidates under their own brand and banner, unlike the Wisconsin dirty Republicans. Maybe the Nazis taking this step to be more politically active on the right will actually IMPROVE conservative political morality.

Because the way the right plays politics now, all the times they use the word 'values' and give empty lip service to morality should be choking them.