I was always taught while growing up that, when something is equivalent, it means that two things have an equal weight of importance to them.
Yahoo.com reports that
It was business as usual at Minnesota’s Mall of America and Canada’s West Edmonton Mall on Sunday, with most people either oblivious to any threat to attack the shopping centers or confident that the risk was too small to worry about.
Shoppers, employees and recreational “mall walkers” were out in full force despite news of a videotape attributed to al Shabaab, a Somali-based Islamist militant group behind a deadly 2013 attack on a Kenyan shopping center, that appeared to threaten the North American malls.
Mall of America (MOA), outside the Twin Cities, and West Edmonton Mall in Alberta issued statements saying they were implementing extra security measures but there were no signs of beefed-up law enforcement at either mall.
At the MOA, one of the largest in the country, hundreds of people turned out for a walk to support the National Eating Disorders Association. The event started before shops opened their doors
Among the participants were Tatum Pugrah, 23, and her boyfriend Nick Disbrowe, also 23. The couple said they were not aware of any special threat but were not entirely surprised when told about the videotape.
“If anyone is going to target anything, it’s the Mall of America,” Disbrowe said.
Clem Jauquet, 57, said he knew about the threat but was not concerned enough to skip his usual early-morning walk around the mall. “I trust the government will protect us from bomb threats,” he said.
The MOA, with 520 stores, a theme park and 50 restaurants, is in an area with one of the largest concentrations of Somalis in the United States. Minnesota’s ethnic Somali population has mushroomed in the last two decades to more than 50,000.
U.S. authorities have been investigating the recruitment of ethnic Somali men into al Shabaab from the Minneapolis-St. Paul area since 2007.
An affiliate of al Qaeda, al Shabaab has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States. It claimed responsibility for an attack at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall that killed 67 people and fueled global concerns about mall safety.
West Edmonton Mall bills itself as the No. 1 tourist attraction in the oil-rich Canadian province of Alberta. It has more than 800 stores, two hotels and about 100 dining venues.
Hala Haddad, an employee at the mall, said the possibility of an attack would not keep her away from her job.
“I just don’t think we should let other people influence our behavior going to shopping centers,” she said.
Of course not.
That same sort of logic (or, lack thereof) can be traced all the way back to the White House.
According to the Washington Times…
A new Department of Homeland Security intelligence assessment circulated this month focuses on the threat of right-wing sovereign citizen extremist groups in the U.S. Some law enforcement groups say the threat is equal to, and occasionally greater than, the threat from Islamic extremist groups.
The Homeland Security report, produced in coordination with the FBI, counts 24 violent sovereign citizen-related attacks across the U.S. since 2010, CNN reported Friday.
These types of extremists believe that they can ignore laws because those laws attack their individual rights, even in routine daily instances like a traffic stop or being required to obey a court order, CNN reported Friday.
In one instance in Louisiana in 2012 a father and son were accused of engaging in a shootout with police after an officer puled them over for a traffic violation. Two offices were killed and several others wounded in the shooting. The two men were sovereign citizen extremists who claimed the police had no authority over them.
The Homeland Security report predicts that most sovereign citizen violence in 2015 will occur during routine law enforcement encounters at a suspect’s home, during enforcement stops and at government offices, CNN reported.
“Law enforcement officers will remain the primary target of (sovereign citizen) violence over the next year due to their role in physically enforcing laws and regulations,” the report states, according to CNN.
The new assessment comes as President Obama is holding a conference to focus on efforts to fight violent extremism. While the White House has come under fire for its refusal to use the term “Islamist extremism” during the talks, there has been very little discussion on the domestic terror threat from sovereign citizen groups.
“I don’t think it’s fair to say the (White House) conference didn’t address this at all,” an administration official said, adding that the president addresses the need to combat “violent ideologies” of all types, CNN reported.
While groups like the Islamic State and al Qaeda have dominated the global discussion on terrorism, a survey last year of state and local law enforcement officers listed sovereign citizen terrorists ahead of foreign Islamists and domestic militia groups as the top domestic terror threat, CNN reported.
The Homeland Security issued a similar report on the threat of right-wing terrorist groups in the past, garnering criticism for the Obama administration. A 2009 Homeland Security report on possible recruitment of military veterans by right-wing militia groups prompted an outcry from veterans groups.
That report was produced by staff members during the Bush administration but wasn’t published until then Homeland Security Janet Napolitano had taken office. Ms. Napolitano criticized her own agency for the report.
There’s that false equivalency, which the Administration and all their Leftist Minions in the MSM and on Facebook and Internet Chat Boards have been pushing as hard as they can.
They have attacked Christian American Conservatives, over the last month, trying to equate us to ISIS, to no avail.
So, Obama and his Administration have changed targets.
Now I’m not saying that wackadoodles like the Sovereign Citizens Movement, and other fringe organizations, are not a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal, a lot of them are.
However, in the grand scheme of things, these “Right Wing Extemists” do not threaten the security of our nation like Muslim Extremists do. It was not “Sovereign Citizens” who flew airplanes into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001.
When Obama embarrassed himself in front of the entire nation, on the morning of the National Prayer Breakfast, when he told the 75% of us who are Christians, that we should all “get down off of our high horses” and accept the fact that we, as Christians, are just as guilty of violent acts as Muslims, he ignited a political firestorm, which has since had gasoline poured on top of it, by Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani remarks, questioning Obama’s Christianity and Patriotism.
For the Department of Homeland Security to be so intent on spending time in pursuit of “Right Wing Extremists”, while home-grown Radical Muslims are being trained and nurtured by their mentors to carry out jihad against us, shows that the Administration’s philosophy of false equivalency is pervasive throughout the Obama .
And, unlike the harmless Direct TV Commercial, featuring “Bad Choices” Rob Lowe, the Administration’s BAD CHOICES could end up being the death of us all.
Until He Comes,
KJ
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