So I don’t know where to even start with this one. Obviously I’m referring to the FBI memo from the Richmond, VA office that indicates growing concern over terrorism people not worshiping the state in so-called “Traditional” Catholic parishes. When I first saw this article appear, I gave it the ole’ 72 hour wait to see what ends up being true.

After having the FBI confirm it, I went ahead and read the memo. I have read many, MANY FBI memos in the past. I’ve read plenty of intelligence memos from various agencies, and I’ve written a fair number of memos myself and with others. I also wrote a 100+ page masters thesis that was read by some very smart and important people in our government. I know that writing well is important because you never know how far something you write will travel, whether its an email, memo or 100 page analysis. Since its that important, you should learn to write well, cite good sources and be ready for criticism if you’re going to make points that are controversial.

Does this paper do that? Nope.

Seriously, go read it. First, it starts with an interesting statement: that RMVEs are interested in RTCs. As a network guy, I immediately confused RMVEs with NVME solid state hard drives and RTCs with the people that yell at you at boot camp. But no, RMVE is Racially and Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremist, and RTC is radical-traditionalist Catholic. OK, lots of acronyms, which tells me this is legitimately from a government agency right off the bat, because we know that government loves its acronyms.

Reading the first few paragraphs, its actually kind of bland. The memo states that the FBI is seeing an increase in RMVEs reaching out to RTCs, attending services and engaging more on social media, and that the RMVEs are trying to recruit RTCs. That’s not a crazy assertion. If all you see at more “radical” Catholic churches is women wearing veils and priests speaking out about the evils of homosexuality, and especially if that group of “radical” Catholics thinks the world is on fire because of sins like homosexuality, then yeah, it might seem like a great place to recruit people that would be OK bombing a gay nightclub.

But that’s where it all starts to break down. When I hear Racially Motivated Violence, I think people that hate black people, or white people, or Asians, or immigrants, or something like that. I suspect most people do too. But I have yet to see the Catholic church, including more traditional churches, argue that racism is good. There are lots of Catholic positions that homosexuality, transgenderism, abortion and sex outside of marriage are bad and causing problems in society. These same Catholics vote and protest against the governments attempts to impose these views on people, which is probably the more likely reason the FBI doesn’t like these people.

Saying that the Catholic Church, and more traditional Church followers, appeals to racist terrorism is even more dumb when you think of the extensive Catholic Church in Africa and the Caribbean that is full of…wait for it…black people! The Catholic Church, even the more traditional portions of it, represents people from all walks of life and all skin colors.

If the FBI memo said they that violent extremists were recruiting traditional Catholics to bomb abortion clinics and gay nightclubs, I might, MIGHT believe it. But that’s not what the memo says. It’s specifically about race and ethnicity, and it makes no sense whatsoever. Heck, even the Huffington Post argued that the Catholic Church lead the way to decriminalize mixed-racial marriage.

Probably should have cited that article over Salon…but I digress.

The next part is though: the FBI referencing “tripwire and source development.” I read that as:

  • Place snitches in churches
  • Develop a list of “trigger” words
  • Wrap up so-called “radical” priests when they say mean things
  • Threaten a “radical” churches tax-exempt status if they say mean things about the state

Sheesh, does this sound like the Tea Party? Or Waco, TX? Or Trump’s home in Florida? Or the dude that got thrown in jail over defending his kid in PA? If I’m drawing this conclusion, so are a lot of other people.

The analysis in the notes section does an OK job of breaking out SSPX vs FSSP vs Norvus Ordo. Honestly, style point here: put in a side-by-side comparison in the future. One nice graphic would make it a lot easier on the reader.

Further down, the memo admits it conducted no Analysis of Alternatives, fancy speak for “what other conclusions could we draw.” For an example, imagine a memo saying “War with China imminent in X years,” linking the increase in Chinese military activity to a desire to invade Taiwan. An alternative analysis might be that China is simply posturing to distract its population from domestic problems. Not having an alternative is another indication of sloppy detective and writing work on the part of the memo’s author.

The memo cites the Southern Poverty Law Center and a Salon article, which is what most conservative news agencies are jumping on. But the issues are deeper then that. There is no analysis of any of the RTCs, not even a basic open source analysis. The “Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary,” a scary sounding organization, is a bunch of nuns at a monastery. I doubt that they receive tactical weapons training on their campus, but maybe I’m wrong. If so, that might make for a cool addition to Larry Correia’s Monster Hunter science fiction series. But even a cursory review online shows that most of the organizations aren’t engaging in anything resembling violence.

The most disturbing thing to me is that this memo was even created and published. I’m sure the FBI gets thousands of leads every year, most of which end up being garbage. This looks like someone created an extensive memo over a single, unreliable source that was likely one racist person trying to recruit people that attend a Latin Catholic church. How did the Richmond station supervisor not read this and think “This looks dumb?” How did he or she not tell the author “You’re gonna need at least another source before we bother publishing this.”? That would have been my first comment.

So the FBI allows a poorly written memo attempting to tie racially-motivated extremists to members of the Catholic Church that attend a Mass said in a foreign language. It’s poorly researched, poorly sourced, draws crazy conclusions without data, all in what seems a blatant attempt to connect “white supremacy” to the Church. Much like the “white supremacy” nonsense that was tied to the military early on, this is only going to build more distrust in the FBI while doing nothing to fight actual terrorists.

This post represents the views of the author and not those of the Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Roman Catholic Church, or any other government agency.

This is a very bad idea but no Surprise

Posted: February 10, 2023 by datechguy in Uncategorized

I’ll say this for the Biden Administration. When you buy them they stay bought, to wit:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a new list of routine vaccines for children and adults now that it’s already more than a month into the new year. While COVID-19 shots weren’t on the agency’s list last year, the vaccines, including updated booster doses, are now added to the CDC’s 2023 routine immunization schedule for eligible children and adults.

The bottom line of this is that in a blue state that mandates following these guidelines the kids are getting the clot shot reguardless of the lack of risk of COVID for the young, but the real irony of this decision is that it comes after Fauci does this:

What if I told you that Anthony Fauci knew all along that the COVID vaccine could not possibly prevent either infection with or transmission of COVID?

Not surprised? Neither am I.

Now, what if I told you he just published a paper in a peer-reviewed journal admitting that fact, and calling for new types of vaccines to deal with the problem?

So the party of killing kids in the womb is going to make sure they get them later.

Well that’s the advantage of having a post-Christian bureaucracy You don’t have to worry about the actual health of lives of kids as long as you get your cut.

Those on the political left perceive reality completely differently from Conservatives and Libertarians.  Progressives, and other Marxists, live is a universe where reality is subjective.  Truth is what they believe or feel.  There is no objective truth.  Reality is malleable.  In this type of universe men can become women, masks actually protect individuals from the Wuhan Flu, and taxation is not theft. 

The State of the Union speech delivered by Joe Biden this past Tuesday was a perfect example of the fantasy universe leftists exist in. The entire speech was pure fiction with very little actual truth.

In this quote the authors of the speech deny the reality that our country’s inflation crisis was brought about by reckless levels of spending by the federal government during the Wuhan Flu pandemic.

Inflation has been a global problem because of the pandemic that disrupted supply chains and Putin’s war that disrupted energy and food supplies. But we’re better positioned than any country on Earth.  We have more to do, but here at home, inflation is coming down.  Here at home, gas prices are down $1.50 a gallon since their peak.  Food inflation is coming down.  Inflation has fallen every month for the last six months while take home pay has gone up.

Do sane individuals really believe the Biden regime actually created the mentioned number of jobs?

That’s why we came together to pass the bipartisan CHIPS and Science Act.  We’re making sure the supply chain for America begins in America.  We’ve already created 800,000 manufacturing jobs even without this law.  With this new law, we will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs across the country.

Only reality challenged individuals believe in the farce known as climate change.  Individuals with a very tentative hold on reality believe that transforming the United States into a socialist third world nation will prevent this mythical disaster.

Look, the Inflation Reduction Act is also the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis.  Lowering utility bills, creating American jobs, and leading the world to a clean energy future.  I’ve visited the devastating aftermaths of record floods and droughts, storms and wildfires.  In addition to emergency recovery from Puerto Rico to Florida to Idaho, we are rebuilding for the long term.  New electric grids able to weather the next major storm.  Roads and water systems to withstand the next big flood.  Clean energy to cut pollution and create jobs in communities too often left behind.  We’re building 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations installed across the country by tens of thousands of IBEW workers.  The climate crisis doesn’t care if your state is red or blue. It is an existential threat.  We have an obligation to our children and grandchildren to confront it. I’m proud of how America is at last stepping up to the challenge

Does Biden actually believe he is a capitalist?  The other talking points made in this next quote have long been disproved by economists such as Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell.

And we pay for these investments in our future by finally making the wealthiest and the biggest corporations begin to pay their fair share.  I’m a capitalist. But just pay your fair share.  And I think a lot of you at home agree with me that our present tax system is simply unfair.  The idea that in 2020, 55 of the biggest companies in America made $40 billion in profits and paid zero in federal income taxes?  That’s simply not fair.  But now, because of the law I signed, billion-dollar companies have to pay a minimum of 15%.  Just 15%.  That’s less than a nurse pays. Let me be clear. Under my plan, nobody earning less than $400,000 a year will pay an additional penny in taxes.  Nobody. Not one penny.

Joe Biden ignores the truth that his policies alone have resulted in the our skyrocketing energy prices.

You may have noticed that Big Oil just reported record profits. Last year, they made $200 billion in the midst of a global energy crisis.  It’s outrageous.  They invested too little of that profit to increase domestic production and keep gas prices down.  Instead, they used those record profits to buy back their own stock, rewarding their CEOs and shareholders.  Corporations ought to do the right thing.  That’s why I propose that we quadruple the tax on corporate stock buybacks to encourage long term investments instead.

This next quote is the most ridiculous made during his diatribe

In the last two years, my administration cut the deficit by more than $1.7 trillion – the largest deficit reduction in American history.  Under the previous administration, America’s deficit went up four years in a row.  Because of those record deficits, no president added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor.  Nearly 25% of the entire national debt, a debt that took 200 years to accumulate, was added by that administration alone.

This next quote was pure fantasy.

Instead of making the wealthy pay their fair share, some Republicans want Medicare and Social Security to sunset every five years.  That means if Congress doesn’t vote to keep them, those programs will go away.  Other Republicans say if we don’t cut Social Security and Medicare, they’ll let America default on its debt for the first time in our history.

These next two quotes are both dangerous and farcical.  They translate to the fact that the Biden Regime will try very hard to disarm law abiding Americans.

Thank God we did, passing the most sweeping gun safety law in three decades.  That includes things that the majority of responsible gun owners support, like enhanced background checks for 18 to 21-year-olds and red flag laws keeping guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to themselves and others.

Ban assault weapons once and for all.  We did it before. I led the fight to ban them in 1994.  In the 10 years the ban was law, mass shootings went down. After Republicans let it expire, mass shootings tripled.  Let’s finish the job and ban assault weapons again.

The Biden regime is trying to secure the order?  What an absolute joke.

We now have a record number of personnel working to secure the border, arresting 8,000 human smugglers and seizing over 23,000 pounds of fentanyl in just the last several months.  Since we launched our new border plan last month, unlawful migration from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela has come down 97%.  But America’s border problems won’t be fixed until Congress acts. If you won’t pass my comprehensive immigration reform, at least pass my plan to provide the equipment and officers to secure the border. And a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, those on temporary status, farm workers, and essential workers.

Penny: Can I ask you a question?

Sheldon: Given your community-college education, I encourage you to ask me as many as possible.

The Big Bang Theory: The Robotic Manipulation 2010

At first glance this story is a rather sinister thing:

 An intelligence analyst within the Richmond Field Office of the FBI released in a new finished intelligence product dated January 23, 2023, on Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists (RMVE) and their interests in “Radical-Traditionalist Catholics” or RTCs. The document assesses with “high confidence” the FBI can mitigate the threat of Radical-Traditionalist Catholics by recruiting sources within the Catholic Church.

If there is a better illustration of Bishop Fulton Sheen’s famous quote…:

There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate The Catholic Church, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive the Catholic Church to be.

….I can’t think of it.

Ed Morrissey who linked the story at Hotair had a bit of a chuckle too:

 It’s not as if some extremist Christian sects haven’t presented a real domestic-terror threat in the past, either, but the “rad trads” are mainly extremists entirely within the context of Catholicism, not in the sense of secular threats. The Traditional Latin Mass is going to be a major disappointment to FBI agents ‘infiltrating’ it.

And the extent of the rad trads “extremism” is the rejection of the vernacular mass (what is called the Novis Ordo) as illicit which the majority of those who regularly attend the Latin mass do not. Of course to the Fr. James Martins of the world and their allies in the church the affirmation of Catholic doctrine of subjects like homosexual sex, gay marriage and transgenderism is what makes an “extremists” so a Biden FBI run by the left would likely be considering Catholics as a whole (well except for that school in Canada that kicks out and arrests students who dared to say there are only two genders) extreme.

My own reaction is slightly different. If you tell me the FBI are sending people to attend Latin Mass or even the venacular Mass, either weekly or daily my response can be articulated in one word:

Good!

I can think of no group of people who more desperately need to be attending Mass than the folks at the FBI. Furthermore the even if they come with the intent to observe and report they will still be hearing the word and be part of the prayers and in the words of Screwtape:

Wherever there is prayer, there is danger of His [God’s] own immediate action

Give the Holy Spirit an opening to a soul and you can bet your bottom dollar he will dash in.

So to paraphrase Sheldon’s response to Penny: Given what the FBI has become over the last few years I strongly encourage every field agents and analyst in the bureau to attend as many Masses of any type as humanly possible.