by William Skink

How many anti-semites are there in America? According to Democrats, roughly half the country has anti-semetic potential. Does that seem like a crazy number? Maybe not.

How did I arrive at this number?

First, I looked at an apparent contributing factor to being anti-semetic, which is being a conspiracy theorist, and according to this Washington Post article, half of America believes in at least one conspiracy theory, defined in the article as “an explanation that makes reference to hidden, malevolent forces seeking to advance some nefarious aim. Not all conspiracy theories are untrue but they all contradict a commonly accepted explanation for the same phenomenon.”

Now that half of America has been established as possibly subscribing to anti-semetic conspiracy theories, it’s important to know which ones to be on the look out for. Luckily we have a local blogger prepared to do the difficult work of accusing someone of being anti-semetic, which Don Pogreba did in a post titled Republican Anti-Semite Files as Democrat in Missoula’s HD 99:

Mr. Strandberg has also expressed some troubling bigotry. It’s hard to overlook this post arguing that the United States is under the control of the Jewish Rothschild family, an attack the Anti-Defamation League calls a “classic Anti-Semitic myth.”

I kept the link intact so readers can read for themselves what is in the post. This is actually a subject I’m studying right now, so I won’t get into this alternate history stuff too much in this post, but it’s an area of inquiry I do think is important to examine.

If this alternate history stuff was the only anti-semetism to worry about, that would be bad enough, but sadly, there is more, like the anti-semites who for some anti-semitic reason don’t think Israel should militarily occupy Palestinian land and continue illegal settlements that pretty much the entire world agrees is a bad idea. Luckily we have honorable politicians like Hillary Clinton to tell these anti-semites behind the BDS movement what’s what:

Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton called the Israel boycott movement “alarming” in a speech Monday, characterizing activists as anti-Semitic and accusing them of “bullying” Jewish students on college campuses.

“Many of the young people here today are on the front lines of the battle to oppose the alarming Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement known as BDS,” said Clinton, speaking at the annual policy conference of the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). “Particularly at a time when anti-Semitism is on the rise across the world, especially in Europe, we must repudiate all efforts to malign, isolate, and undermine Israel and the Jewish people.”

BDS is a global movement of activists looking to pressure Israel into ending its occupation of the West Bank and restoring the rights of Israel’s Arab-Palestinian citizens. Opponents of BDS activism on campus frequently accuse BDS activists of “bullying opponents into silence” or trying to “de-legitimize Israel.”

The occupation of the West Bank is about to turn 50 years old and the BDS movement has been successful in bringing pressure and unwanted attention to the racism and disproportionate use of violence used by Israel to oppress and control Palestinians. Unfortunately the concern over racism for too many Democrats stops when it comes to the demonstrable racism of the apartheid state of Israel.

Now I would like to direct readers to a lengthy post just put up at MT Cowgirl by anti-gun crusader Jonathan Hutson bringing attention to a tv show that will air (which Hutson was involved in) about Hate in America. There is some interesting information about the Lenio case that Hutson and local community members apparently hoped would become a felony trial. Here is Hutson’s opening:

In the wake of a controversial decision this month to drop the felony intimidation charge against David Joseph Lenio – a 29-year-old White Nationalist who tweeted threats last year to shoot up a grade school in Kalispell, Montana, and “put two in the head of a rabbi,” then retrieved a weapons cache – the Investigation Discovery channel will premier the next installment of “Hate in America,” which explores the growing movement of strong-man worshiping populists, nativists, and armed anti-government militants across the country through the lens of Montana’s Flathead Valley.

While promoting the show and his own involvement, Hutson also delves into Kevin Lenio’s family background by depicting Lenio’s dad as an influential banker:

On December 30, 2014, the day he arrived in Montana, Lenio tweeted several times that he felt so angry at being economically disadvantaged that he wanted to “shoot up” a grade school in Kalispell. This short-order cook and snowboarder who falsely claimed to be destitute and homeless but who is actually the son of influential banker Remos Joseph Lenio, who co-founded the private investment bank Tillerman & Co. of Grand Rapids, blames a Jewish conspiracy for his sense of being disinherited from his economic birthright. He bragged that, in retaliation for his supposed life of poverty, he could kill more people than the 20 school kids and six adults who died in the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut in December 2012.

In that quote Lenio’s dad isn’t just mentioned by name, but a link in the original post goes to a PDF document that features Lenio’s father’s email address and phone number. Kind of creepy and a bit troubling from someone who will later depict himself as a victim:

In an opinion piece for the Flathead Beacon, a Flathead Valley newspaper owned by Maury Povitch and Connie Chung, Rabbi Francine Green Roston and I wrote: “Each of us writing this piece knows what it is to be threatened by Lenio. One of us (Francine) is one of only two Flathead Valley rabbis and has kids in the local schools. Lenio tweeted to the other of us (Jonathan) to ask where his kids go to school. Lenio crossed the line between hate speech and hate crime.”

I guess Jonathan Hutson doesn’t think bringing Lenio’s “influential banker” father into this case and spreading personal information about Lenio’s father is crossing a line.

Here are some of Hutson’s lingering questions:

Why did the justice system give David Lenio preferential treatment by releasing him into the custody of his wealthy banker dad without bail in July 2015? Why did the authorities fail to act when Lenio violated his release conditions at least 348 times in August 2015 even though 37 other Flathead County Detention Center residents had been rearrested for violating their release conditions? Why did the prosecutor and judge keep delaying the trial and finally agree to drop the felony charge of intimidation against him without any meaningful conditions? And what could be the significance of those jugs of urine in Lenio’s van? Those are topics about which I plan to write more extensively in the future.

Sure, good fodder for more writing, some of it might even turn a buck or two. With so many anti-semites in America, one could even make finding them a full time job.