#michael meyer

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Far-right militia targets US military over baseless hurricane ‘weather weapon’ claims

Veterans on Patrol believes government caused Helene with weather manipulation tech, Telegram chats reveal

Jason Wilson at The Guardian:

A vigilante militia notorious for its patrols on America’s border with Mexico has threatened to take on the US military in recent weeks, with its founder baselessly claiming that Hurricane Helene was deliberately caused by a government energy weapon that needs to be destroyed, according to private and public Telegram chats.

Veterans on Patrol’s (VOP’s) conversations reveal that members believe the outlandish conspiracy theory that the US government caused the hurricane with weather manipulation technology, that the US military is spraying the American people with poisons, and that members should be willing to destroy government facilities in order to stop these activities. The chats, provided to the Guardian by the Global Project on Hate and Extremism (GPAHE), raise the prospect of the conspiracy-fueled militia group engaging in renewed violence under the incoming Trump administration. GPAHE co-founder Heidi Beirich told the Guardian: “VOP is one of the most dangerous militia groups out there now … with their recent targeting of military efforts to help with hurricane relief efforts in North Carolina, and their insane conspiracy theories, this is a recipe for disaster.” The Guardian requested comment from VOP via an email to an address posted in their Telegram chats.

In early October, the main account on VOP’s public Telegram – probably run by the group’s founder, Michael “Lewis Arthur” Meyer – has been depicting Helene as an “act of war perpetuated by the United States military”, with the goal of ensuring that “the lithium mines are secured and the planned Ashville Smart City comes to fruition”. The false claim that the federal government was seizing land from property owners in North Carolina in order to establish lithium mines circulated widely among the far right in the wake of Helene. The idea that smart cities are being created as a means of social control has a longer history among rightwing conspiracy theorists, and has even been linked to previous natural disasters. In 2023, following wildfires in Hawaii, Canada and the Canary Islands, conspiracy theorists on social media went viral after linking the disasters to an international conference on smart cities. Those claims were further amplified by the likes of the far-right broadcaster Alex Jones and Trump ally Charlie Kirk.

[...]

VOP was formed in Pima county, Arizona, around 2015 as a self-described veterans’ advocacy group, though founder Meyer has acknowledged he is not a veteran. While the group initially assisted homeless veterans in the Tucson area, setting up temporary shelters and distributing supplies to those in need, from 2018 it refocused on vigilante patrols at the southern border, with Meyer spinning conspiracy narratives fueled by his apocalyptic Christian nationalist beliefs. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), VOP’s activities are founded on “anti-government and anti-immigrant ideas”, and the group has pushed “anti-Indigenous, antisemitic, anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon falsehoods” under Meyer, who is a self-proclaimed pastor.

From 2018, Meyer drew attention on social media and recruits to the organization by claiming Mexican cartels were orchestrating human trafficking operations at the southern border, a narrative that meshed with “QAnon” and “Pizzagate” conspiracy theories, which were then gaining currency on the far right. The organization conducted unofficial desert patrols, and Meyer claimed to be in a “chess match” with the cartels. They have frequently falsely claimed to have found evidence of such trafficking: in one case in 2018, they claimed to have found a human trafficking site which authorities determined was simply an abandoned homeless encampment. Their activities drew criticism from law-enforcement agencies, who stated that the group’s actions were interfering with legitimate investigations and potentially compromising real criminal cases. The organization has since been known for using social media to promote various unsubstantiated claims about activities along the border. Their beliefs have led them into confrontations with property owners and law enforcement agencies.

Far-right extremist militia group Veterans On Patrol has targeted the US military in recent weeks due to baseless Hurricane Helene-related conspiracy theories, such as it being the fault of “weather manipulation.”

[exhaled-spirals]

« The assault occurred worldwide throughout the last century, as historic cities modernized. “Between the years 1900 and 2000, nearly one quarter of the landmarks of Amsterdam were leveled by Amsterdammers,” writes Anthony Tung in Preserving the World’s Great Cities. “More than half of the indexed buildings of Islamic Cairo—one of the few intact medieval Muslim cities that had existed at the beginning of the century—were destroyed by Cairenes.” Singapore tore itself down. Athenians looted “all but a minute fraction” of their city’s 19th-century design. Thousands of New York’s buildings were razed by New Yorkers. Moscow knocked over its onion domes and bell towers. Despite that their city was spared from incendiary bombing during World War II, Kyoto’s residents pulled down most of its wooden buildings afterward. Romans demolished a third of Rome’s historic structures. The Turks allowed Istanbul’s Ottoman architecture to rot. Beginning in 1949, Beijing worried its Old City like a scab, scratching away the city wall, tearing off its hutong. So did the rest of China: of the three hundred walled cities that existed at the founding of the People’s Republic, only four remained intact. Paris destroyed its Les Halles market, [and] in the mid-19nth century, the civil engineer Baron Haussmann performed drastic surgery on the medieval city center. He straightened its tangled lanes, tripling road width to 140 yards. Every new street took the place of six destroyed alleys. [...]

The historian Tung observes, “The preservation of great cities is ultimately the story of how different urban societies created environments of extraordinary meaning, were affected by their cityscapes through centuries of habitation, and came to realize that the loss of old buildings involved much more than just the visible destruction of ancient bricks and stones.” »

 — Michael Meyer, The Last Days of Old Beijing

[green-day-quotes]

“His voice is quite singular in that it's such a direct channel from his heart. I've heard about performers like him in the past. They said it about Al Jolson, that he had a pure desire to reach an audience that was intoxicating. The same with Elton John, or Judy Garland, or Adele - solely in their effect as live performers. It's never about them. It's just this pure love of pleasing people and getting a message across.”

- Michael Meyer on Billie Joe Armstrong, director of the American Idiot Musical (source)

[huesser]

Theatre Pavilion, the diploma design of Michael Meyer at the chair of A. Caruso at ETH Zurich

[lonelymoonsthings]

A Doll’s House, Henrik Ibsen. Translated by Michael Meyer

“The slamming of the front door at the end of A Doll's House shatters the romantic masquerade of the Helmers' marriage. In their stultifying and infantilised relationship, Nora and Torvald have deceived themselves and each other both consciously and subconsciously, until Nora acknowledges the need for individual freedom.

Ibsen’s 1879 play shocked its first audiences with its radical insights into the social roles of husband and wife. His portrayal of the caged ‘songbird’, his flawed heroine, Nora, remains one of the most striking dramatic deciptions of late-nineteenth century woman.”

Paperback

104 pages

Norwegian literature

Published 21 December 1879

[decorumviris]

[themostop]

Ah, yes. “Literature to Go.” As opposed to ordinary books which are notoriously stationary and nonportable.

[garadinervi]

Frederick Douglass: The Narrative and Selected Writings, Edited, with an Introduction, by Michael Meyer, Modern Library, New York, NY, 1984