That said Hungary was a victim of Russian tyranny too yet that hasn't stopped Orban from wanting to sit on papa Putin's lap.Poland is a slightly different matter because Poland and Russia have a border and a particularly difficult history, but yes Meloni is an exception to the rule. It might be conviction, but might just be she's in the same sort of place as le Pen and Wilders, but with less baggage of past comments and quicker to align with political expediency. Meloni is I think a bit cannier and pragmatic than many of her further right bedfellows (or required to be by circumstance): more willing to be or appear co-operative.
Catonsville woman pleads guilty to plotting attacks on Baltimore’s power grid
Amy Davis / Baltimore Sun Sarah Beth Clendaniel of Catonsville, above, and Brandon Clint Russell of Orlando, Florida, were charged with conspiracy to attack a Baltimore power grid.
A Baltimore County woman accused of planning attacks on Baltimore’s power grid as part of a white-supremacist plot with a Florida-based neo-Nazi leader pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to damage an electrical facility and illegally possessing a firearm.
Prosecutors agreed to recommend a sentence of 18 years in prison for the woman, 36-year-old Sarah Beth Clendaniel of Catonsville.
Clendaniel is accused of plotting with 28-year-old Brandon C. Russell, the founder of a neo-Nazi hate group, to shoot and destroy multiple electrical substations in the Baltimore region.
The pair espoused a “white-supremacist ideology” and believed in “accelerationism,” according to a statement of facts read in court. Far-right groups have adopted the ideology to call for the intensification of racial conflict through violence.
Clendaniel boasted that the attacks around Baltimore “would probably permanently completely lay this city to waste,” according to a recorded phone conversation she had with an FBI informant.
Clendaniel struggled to stand still in court Tuesday, fidgeting through the 45-minute hearing where Senior U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar accepted her plea. The judge set sentencing for Sept. 3.
Russell has pleaded not guilty to conspiring to damage an energy facility. His trial is scheduled to begin July 9.
Federal investigators alleged that Clendaniel was trying to obtain a rifle that she could use in attacks on substations and was found in possession of a 12-gauge shotgun in February 2023.
Clendaniel and Russell allegedly hoped to cause a “cascading failure” in the power grid by targeting energy facilities in Norrisville, Reisterstown, Perry Hall and other areas around Baltimore.
Sarah Beth Clendaniel, left, of Catonsville and Brandon Clint Russell, right, of Orlando, Florida, plotted to shoot and destroy multiple electrical substations in the Baltimore region to further their extremist, violent, racial and ethnic beliefs, federal prosecutors say.
Prosecutors said the plot to destroy critical infrastructure was made “in furtherance of Russell’s racially or ethnically motivated violent extremist beliefs.”
In a statement Tuesday, Maryland U.S. Attorney Erek L. Barron said that Clendaniel’s “hate-fueled plans to destroy the Baltimore region power grid threatened thousands of innocent lives.”
“But when law enforcement and the communities we serve are united in partnership, hate cannot win,” Barron said.
According to an FBI affidavit, Clendaniel told the informant that she had a terminal illness related to her kidneys and wanted to “accomplish something worthwhile” before her death. Clendaniel and Russell began communicating while they were both incarcerated, according to the affidavit.
Clendaniel was arrested in 2016 on charges that she branded a machete and demanded cash at a convenience store in Cecil County. She later pleaded guilty to robbery and was sentenced to nine years in prison. Clendaniel embraced a white-supremacist ideology during her time in prison, family members said.
Clendaniel faces the possibility of additional prison time because she was on supervised release at the time of the federal charges.
Her lawyer, Assistant Federal Public Defender Sedira S. Banan, did not comment as she left court Tuesday.
FBI agents searched Clendaniel’s online records in January 2023 and found photos of firearms, including an image of her wearing tactical gear with a swastika and holding a rifle and pistol.
The search also recovered screenshots of a Google document that stated it was “not a manifesto” but had many of the hallmarks of one, according to the FBI. The document referenced Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber; Anders Breivik, who was convicted of committing terrorist attacks in Norway; and Adolf Hitler.
“I would sacrifice **everything** [sic] for my people to just have a chance for our cause to succeed,” Clendaniel wrote in one document, according to the affidavit.
Russell was sentenced in 2018 to five years in federal prison for possessing chemicals used to create explosives. Law enforcement found the materials while they were investigating the murder of two of Russell’s roommates in Florida in 2017.
Russell told investigators that he started his own local violent extremist group with Nazi beliefs called the “Atomwaffen.” His three roommates were members of Atomwaffen until one murdered the other two in 2017 for bullying him after he converted to Islam, according to the FBI affidavit. Russell was not home when the murders took place.
Authorities did not disclose the nature of Russell and Clendaniel’s relationship, but the affidavit describes conversations in which the two discussed having children and Russell stated that “going to prison was worth it because I might not have met you otherwise.”
Yeah, weren't there at least three different women in Greek mythology who were said to be more beautiful than Aphrodite?I feel like it's important to remember that, while Greek gods tend to be exemplary in their fields, they aren't necessarily the best
Usually to the woe of the mortals who can compete with them
((N.B., Nioh is undoubtedly a better game than the upcoming Ass Creed will be, but that's not the reason why))
Joke's on everyone; it's Ubisoft, it's going to suck anyway.
"We don't need electrical power; we have WHITE power!"These ppl seriously obsessed with attacking power grids
That's... actually a good question. I don't think that Twitter account exists any more, I went looking to see exactly what kind of weirdo posted that and if it was meant as satire. It's apparently been memed and iterated on enough that I've seen that line applied to everything up to and including Battletech mechs.Please be satire?
If you're trying to be even vaguely historical (something which AC at least pretends at as far as set dressing) you don't really have any other black samurai to choose from. Amusingly, there are a bunch of Japanese twitter accounts annoyed about them using Yasuke for Assassins Creed Shadows rather than, y'know, having their assassin be a ninja because that would make too much sense.So Yasuke or some other black samurai is teased to be the lead of Assassin Creed Samurai. Now he's obviously not Japanese and the far right will have a field day with that....but of course they had the same reaction to William Adams not being Asian either.
I guess that makes the Ori games retroactively Nazi propaganda, and people are going to have to start doxing and harassment (sorry, "naming and shaming") campaigns if anyone with a following ever plays one on stream ever again?
Don't get their confusion - they use that photo because she's a woman, and it does a better job of concealing her from responsibility than her mugshot and since she's a woman that's important. Same reason her name isn't in the headline. When I searched for the story on Google, the top result was with CBS and had a thumbnail of a man's mugshot and the article didn't include a picture of her at all. Even neo-Nazi women remain women.
Then the actual kunoichi co-protaginist is *really* good at her job, because nerds on both sides of the ocean can't see herIf you're trying to be even vaguely historical (something which AC at least pretends at as far as set dressing) you don't really have any other black samurai to choose from. Amusingly, there are a bunch of Japanese twitter accounts annoyed about them using Yasuke for Assassins Creed Shadows rather than, y'know, having their assassin be a ninja because that would make too much sense.
Nobunaga's retainer who's the only black dude in a hundred miles will certainly have an easier time blending into crowds, though. /s