I suppose when it comes to politics, I can be as passionate as the next fellow. But that said, when I encounter political thinking that doesn’t align with mine, I try not to lose my head.
Politics is dangerous business, and I say that because of the potential minefield that can pop up out of nowhere at work, at play, hell even at the family dinner table. Politics can take fast friends, trusted colleagues, and beloved family members down a bad road as easily, even more easily, than religion. I guess that’s why it’s recommended you don’t talk about either when you’re out in the wild with friends and associates or at home with family and extended family.
There’s just no profit in it, nothing to be gained, only the potential for loss, perhaps even grievous loss. All of us have a moment in our past where sister Darlene got into it with Uncle Ray over that goddamned Trudeau, the two of them never to speak again. While the names and the argument are unique, the commonality is there. You don’t just mix politics and religion in with those key gatherings, perhaps any gatherings, because its like going into the conversation with a basket of grenades, all with the pins pulled. You know you shouldn’t, but you do it anyways, going on to suffer the predictable consequences.
In Doylestown, Pennsylvania, Michael Mohn was worried that his 33 year-old son Justin was getting too radicalized along the lines of the MAGA Ret Hat crowd, complete with all the conspiracy theories and assertions that go along with membership in that group. He even went as far as providing oppositional statements in a federal civil case Justin had initiated.
Justin, for his part, considered both his parents to be “too far left,” and didn’t take kindly the fact that his dad provided the court with statements that poked holes in the younger Mohn’s court case. He, Justin, decided to take action.
With a gun recently purchased, Justin confronted and cornered Michael in one of the family bathrooms, intent one executing a citizen’s arrest on the charges of treason and providing false statements. Michael, a purported dabbler in the martial arts, took one look at the gun his son was waving around and told him that he, Justin, would have to kill him, Michael, before any of that would be allowed to happen, whereupon Justin did the only thing he felt was available for him to do.
He shot his father, right there in the family bathroom. Shot him and killed him.
Then, for good measure, Justin went to the kitchen and grabbed a kitchen knife and, with a machete already on hand, proceeded to cut his father’s head off, recording the entire thing on a Youtube livestream that was up for several hours before authorities finally managed to shut the channel down.
Asked why he decapitated his father, Justin said he wanted to deliver a clear message to federal authorities about his “demands,” which included federal workers submitting their resignations as well as the cancellation of public debt.
“I knew something such as a severed head would not only go viral but could lessen the violence,” said Justin.
I’m not readily familiar with the idea that a timely decapitation is a legitimate catalyst for the reduction of violence, although I can see some merit in a decapitation capturing a person’s attention.
Poor Justin was arrested the very next day, after clambering over a fence to get into the National Guard storage barracks at Fort Indiantown, Pennsylvania. Seems he was intent on supplementing his arsenal, thinking perhaps that a pistol and a kitchen knife might not be enough to overthrow the government of the United States. And that’s kind of weird too, because Justin went all Red Hat, yet he was talking like he wanted to overthrow a government led by the the Red-Hat-In-Chief, Donald Trump.
A case could be made that Justin had not gone to the effort of ensuring that all his “I”s were dotted and his “t”s crossed when it came to his medium and long-term planning. A great thinker he is apparently not.
During a pre-trial competency hearing, it was revealed that Justin Mohr had written a letter to the Russian Ambassador to the United States, requesting refugee status in that country, and offering an apology to Russian President Vladimir Putin for claiming to be the Czar of Russia. I’m not sure if Mohn was suggesting that Putin thought he was a the czar or if Mohn himself had advocated for that distinction. it doesn’t matter since the Russians ignored him.
From what I can see, the Russians felt they were unable to offer Mohn the sanctuary he requested, which surprises me to a degree, as they clearly had the makings of a future Russian general on their hands here, but they blew the call and blew him off.
So it’s just Justin now, alone facing the multy-tentacled American justice system, a system leavened with one part justice and nine parts spectacle and entertainment.
In the end, he was found both competent to stand trial and then guilty at that trial. His own mother, Denice Mohr, wants her son behind bars for the rest of his life. She’s hoping his radicalization will be tempered by the fact that he’s in prison, less free to spread his malevolent views with the rest of society.
NEWSMAGRENFREW 