|
|
Post by zima on Feb 3, 2022 22:20:42 GMT
"The National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, closed indefinitely on Wednesday after years of wild QAnon conspiracy theories and mounting threats of violence, including a physical altercation last week with a Republican congressional candidate from Virginia demanding "to see all the illegals crossing on the raft," The Texas Tribune reports. On any given day, hundreds of species of butterflies travel through the 20-year-old nonprofit sanctuary, the Houston Chronicle reports. "Birders from across the country visit the refuge to observe and photograph birds unique to the Rio Grande Valley, and thousands of local schoolchildren take field trips to the center each year." In 2017, the National Butterfly Center sued the Trump administration to block construction of a border wall through its property. Two years later, "We Build the Wall" chief Brian Kolfage posted doctored photos of the butterfly sanctuary's dock, claiming it was being used for migrant transport and human trafficking. (Kolfage was later indicted for allegedly misusing funds for his nearby crowdfunded border wall.) Right-wing conspiracists have been falsely claiming the National Butterfly Center is involved in sex trafficking and other crimes since 2019, and executive director Marianna Treviño-Wright has been getting threats. Former Texas state Rep. Aaron Peña (R) told her before last weekend's "We Stand America" border security rally in neighboring McAllen that she could be a target and should "be armed at all times or out of town," the Tribune reports. The Virginia congressional candidate, Kimberly Lowe, arrived at the center on Jan. 21 and demanded river access, accusing Treviño-Wright of permitting "children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered," the Chronicle reports. After Treviño-Wright told Lowe to leave, Lowe tackled her, Treviño-Wright says."
"“It’s incredibly distressing that the United States has come to the point where a really significant part of the public is just no longer tethered to reality,” said Jeffrey Glassberg, the founder of the North American Butterfly Association, the parent organization of the butterfly center.
Glassberg has worked as a molecular biologist and patented DNA fingerprinting. He authored several books on butterflies before he established the butterfly center out of an empty onion field.
For the butterfly conservatory to be at the center of false trafficking allegations, he said, “nothing could be more absurd, frankly.”"
It would be hysterical if it weren't so sad.
|
|
|
|
Post by katlady on Feb 3, 2022 22:36:07 GMT
I read about that this morning. It made me mad and sad.
|
|
|
|
Post by Gem Girl on Feb 3, 2022 22:48:35 GMT
Is there nothing that these whack-job people won't ruin?
So tired of this nonsense.
|
|
dawnnikol
Prolific Pea
'A life without books is a life not lived.' Jay Kristoff
Posts: 7,891
Sept 21, 2015 18:39:25 GMT
|
Post by dawnnikol on Feb 3, 2022 22:58:29 GMT
Wouldn't it be nice if actions had consequences? FFS.
|
|
|
|
Post by lucyg on Feb 4, 2022 0:58:24 GMT
DOOMED.  |
|
|
|
Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 4, 2022 1:04:17 GMT
From the above posted Yahoo article....
The Virginia congressional candidate, Kimberly Lowe, arrived at the center on Jan. 21 and demanded river access, accusing Treviño-Wright of permitting "children being sex trafficked and raped and murdered," the Chronicle reports. After Treviño-Wright told Lowe to leave, Lowe tackled her, Treviño-Wright says.
Lowe disputes Treviño-Wright's account of events, but after news of the altercation spread, "We Stand America" banned her from the McAllen event. Lowe said she spent $2,500 for a "diamond VIP" ticket that would have included a private border tour with featured guests Michael Flynn, a QAnon favorite, and former acting ICE chief Thomas Homan. "I can't believe that the people who are supposed to be on my side of the aisle canceled me," Lowe told the Chronicle.
|
|
|
|
Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 4, 2022 3:32:44 GMT
Donate to the National Butterfly Center they need money. They have been paying for lawyers for all this mess....
|
|
|
|
Post by melrose on Feb 4, 2022 3:47:38 GMT
Donate to the National Butterfly Center they need money. They have been paying for lawyers for all this mess.... Great idea! Link: National Butterfly Center |
|
michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
|
Post by michellegb on Feb 4, 2022 11:57:36 GMT
The level of ridiculousness about this is insane. People have lost their damn minds. What a loss.
Thanks for the suggestion to donate - definitely going to do that.
|
|
|
|
Post by mollycoddle on Feb 4, 2022 13:11:39 GMT
These fucking people. More details. Talk about entitled! 😡😡😡
“I was on a conference call… halfway through the call… my son, Nicholas Allen Wright, interrupted me to say we had two female visitors enter who did not want to pay admission,” said Trevino-Wright on an affidavit filed in Hidalgo County. “(They) wanted us to open up the gate for them to access the back 70 acres of the property, so they could go see ‘illegals crossing on rafts.’”
Trevino-Wright quickly reviewed Lowe’s social media accounts and determined the women were there with the intention to trespass into closed areas of the nature preserve and broadcast information for which the conservancy has already received threats and harassment over the past several years.
“I’m federal. I work for the Secret Service, so nothing is off limits for me,” said Lowe’s aide, referred to as Michelle in the video, as the two women resisted leaving the Center.
A physical altercation followed in which Wright was thrown to the ground and Lowe and her aide attempted to leave the property in their vehicle with Wright’s mobile phone.
According to the affidavit, Trevino-Wright’s son attempted to close a gate in order to prevent Lowe and her aide from leaving the property with Wright’s mobile at which point “Lowe nearly struck him with her car, but in the now-deleted Facebook Live by Lowe, you can hear her screaming, ‘Get the fuck out of my way,’ as she speeds toward him and see she swerves to avoid the partially-closed gate.”
|
|
|
|
Post by zima on Feb 4, 2022 14:09:18 GMT
Donate to the National Butterfly Center they need money. They have been paying for lawyers for all this mess.... Great idea! Link: National Butterfly CenterDone. (their donation form is tough to navigate). |
|
|
|
Post by zima on Feb 4, 2022 14:11:12 GMT
The level of ridiculousness about this is insane. So is the level of beliefs > evidence/reason/facts in America right now. It has always been ridiculous, esp for a "developed" nation. But it has gone off the charts. That's what happens when you teach people their beliefs are as valid as other people's facts. |
|
|
|
Post by zima on Feb 4, 2022 14:18:02 GMT
"Lowe claimed in a five-page statement to The Post that she showed up at the butterfly center because a person told her it was the best way to access the Rio Grande to watch what was happening at the border, and that she had no idea the National Butterfly Center had been targeted in the past because of harmful misinformation. Yet when Trevino Wright asked Lowe and her friend to leave, Lowe and the other woman proceeded to heckle Trevino Wright, according to the audio, accusing her of being indifferent to child sex-trafficking. A QAnon con: How the viral Wayfair sex-trafficking lie hurt real kids “So we’re here with a woman who is not a very nice person, who’s okay with children —” Lowe can be heard saying, before being cut off, on the audio provided to The Post, which was previously reported by the Daily Beast. That’s when the altercation began. Trevino Wright tried to block Lowe from filming her. In an affidavit filed with the Mission Police Department and provided to The Post, Trevino Wright said she either knocked Lowe’s phone away or took it, panicking because of her past experiences with right-wing harassment. Lowe grabbed her phone and retreated to the car. But Trevino Wright said the altercation then continued with Lowe’s friend Michelle, who had claimed to be a Secret Service agent, and Trevino Wright ended up on the ground. A voice can be heard on the audio yelling, “Get the f--- down, b----!” After Michelle returned to the car and Lowe started to leave, Trevino Wright’s son was standing in the driveway and trying to close the front gate, believing in the chaos that the women had taken his mother’s phone. “Get … out of my way!” Lowe yells. She claimed in the statement that she “safely drove around him,” but Trevino Wright said her son feared Lowe was going to run over him." www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2022/02/03/kimberly-lowe-national-butterfly-center/Imagine being at your job and these goon squads show up w/their bullshit beliefs and start acting out on them. Whether Nazis in the 30s or the Tea Party/QAnon/MAGAs of today, they live out their beliefs that the world is the way they think it is and they have every right to use violence, threats, intimidation, fear to "fix it". We know where this goes when the rest of the people are too stupid or too unconcerned to care. It leads to mass deaths and destruction. WAKE UP America. You are on a path to horrors we vowed we wouldn't let happen again, let alone be the place where they are born. |
|
|
|
Post by mikklynn on Feb 4, 2022 14:24:20 GMT
Donate to the National Butterfly Center they need money. They have been paying for lawyers for all this mess.... Great idea! Link: National Butterfly CenterThank you for the link. I donated. We can't let the crazies win. I hope they use the money to sue these people for defamation. |
|
|
|
Post by revirdsuba99 on Feb 4, 2022 14:47:20 GMT
They have been fighting this for years. They used to have a gofundmepage...most of the money has gone to lawyers and court fees to save the land.
|
|
michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
|
Post by michellegb on Feb 4, 2022 15:46:34 GMT
FFS. Who marked this Politics? Sigh.
|
|
|
|
Post by freeatlast on Feb 4, 2022 15:56:04 GMT
Thank you for the link. I made a donation.
|
|
|
|
Post by Merge on Feb 4, 2022 15:57:52 GMT
FFS. Who marked this Politics? Sigh. Was it the butterflies? The Texas? Or are they trying to say QAnon is a legitimate political group? |
|
michellegb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 3,915
Location: New England and loving it!
Jun 26, 2014 0:04:59 GMT
|
Post by michellegb on Feb 4, 2022 16:18:24 GMT
Well someone has their panties in a twist today. I'll shut it off every time you put it on whoever you are. It's NOT political. QAnon is NOT a political party. The butterflies profess no affiliation to my knowledge. There is nothing political about this travesty.
ETA - Stop being a wuss and own that you are marking the post Politics. It's juvenile to just keep doing it because you can.
|
|
|
|
Post by lucyg on Feb 4, 2022 16:32:23 GMT
Well, so far this morning you’ve cost me $80, zima. Got anything more up your sleeve?  |
|
Mystie
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,299 
|
Post by Mystie on Feb 4, 2022 16:35:01 GMT
Oh, this is awful. They are destroying our world one little bit at a time.
|
|
|
|
Post by Darcy Collins on Feb 4, 2022 16:58:37 GMT
Well someone has their panties in a twist today. I'll shut it off every time you put it on whoever you are. It's NOT political. QAnon is NOT a political party. The butterflies profess no affiliation to my knowledge. There is nothing political about this travesty. ETA - Stop being a wuss and own that you are marking the post Politics. It's juvenile to just keep doing it because you can. I think some people see a thread than involves a politician (or in this case a wannabe politician) and mark it political. I don't agree with it, but it's happened so many times I can only imagine that they don't realize that just because someone is a politician or candidate, it doesn't make the thread political. I guarantee you that someone could start a thread about Biden's new cat and it'd be marked political. |
|
casii
Drama Llama
Posts: 5,466
|
Post by casii on Feb 4, 2022 17:05:39 GMT
Well, so far this morning you’ve cost me $80, zima . Got anything more up your sleeve?  As long as you're donating, I'm really hungry for pizza! On the topic, do these QAnon people really believe their own hype? Or is it the old trope of telling a lie so many times they start to believe it? Then other people start to believe their flights of fantasy too and act on it. (shakes old lady fist in rage) I love a good butterfly sanctuary. We grow milkweed and take care of many monarch caterpillars each year, so I'll chip in for them. |
|
|
|
Post by zima on Feb 4, 2022 17:37:55 GMT
Well, so far this morning you’ve cost me $80, zima . Got anything more up your sleeve? Mine wallet's out too  If that makes you feel any better (I hope it does). Such a pleasure to donate to both orgs. Especially the library though. Just the thought of them getting >$70k so far and then they'll get their eventual $110k when the assh#(*$ mayor is stopped from his tyrannical behavior makes me happy. It reminds me I need to donate to libraries more. I don't do enough there. So many needs. Too bad so many trillions are concentrated in the hands of the rapacious. |
|
If that makes you feel any better (I hope it does). Such a pleasure to donate to both orgs. Especially the library though. Just the thought of them getting >$70k so far and then they'll get their eventual $110k when the assh#(*$ mayor is stopped from his tyrannical behavior makes me happy. It reminds me I need to donate to libraries more. I don't do enough there. So many needs. Too bad so many trillions are concentrated in the hands of the rapacious.