An ugly old white man (I can say it, I’m one of them) took a seat in the front row of an Ilhan Omar speech, and then jumped up, shouted something unintelligible, whipped out a syringe, and sprayed something unpleasant and bad smelling on her. Then he was promptly tackled.
That’s a metaphor for something — ineffectual, horrible person making a stink and trying to disrupt a democratic event. Even more appropriate is the response by Omar.
Omar continued to talk after the disturbance, commenting: “We will continue. These f****** a**holes are not going to get away with it.”
Exactly right. Say it!
“We’re going to keep talking … just give me 10 minutes. Just give me 10 minutes. I beg you,” Omar told a man, who appeared to be security. “Please don’t let them have the show.”
“Here is the reality that people like this ugly man don’t understand. We are Minnesota strong, and we will stay resilient in the face of whatever they might throw at us,” she continued.
“Everybody settle down. I’m going to finish my remarks. It is important for me to continue to lead my Democratic colleagues in demanding her (DHS Secretary Kristi Noem) resignation. And like I said, if she does not resign, we are going to introduce articles of impeachment.”
I like representatives who have a clear idea of what needs to be done, and Ilhan Omar has that power.
Whether it’s Ilhan Omar or Iran, it’s been interesting watching you pivot from skepticism and atheism toward an embrace of whatever religious extremism is endorsed by the progressive movement at the moment. I wonder where the herd will lead you next.
What “religious extremism” are you babbling about? There’s something wrong with your brain.
The clown’s name is Anthony Kazmierzcak. He is 55 years old. He has a history of right wing postings. He is now sitting in jail on third degree felony charges. It is not smart to assault somebody on camera.
My conspiracy theory. He knew he would be immediately arrested. He will go to prison. Somebody will set him up a Go Fund me account and he will walk out of prison wealthy.
sinuousrills, your strawmanning is obvious and boring.
@1. sinuousrills : What’s your view of Ilhan Omar being attacked here? Do you condemn her attacker who appears to be intent on causing her some injury at best? To condemn that violence likely motivated by ideological hatred? The attacker very probabbly isn’t progressive.
What’s your beef with PZ reporting on that (or Iran) exactly? Do you think he shouldn’t have mentioned this story and blogged about it and, if so, why?
I don’t see how religion is involved, much less extremism. Care to draw us a diagram sinuousrills?
Instead of running from him she went after him. I’m impressed.
Huge respect for Ilhan Omar here BTW.
@6. Recursive Rabbit : The man who attacked Omar was pretty extreme…
Every sentence you have ever wrote on here is a lie.
Including this one.
The progressive movement doesn’t endorse any religious extremism.
We and they oppose all religious extremism.
Drive by troll.
This troll just drops off some trash and then runs.
PZ, like many cognitively flexible, open-to-experience people., pivot to and embrace new interests, perspectives, activities. He did that when his focus shifted from squid to spiders. Personal agency does that, no need for a progressive or religious mind melt.
There was also an aggressive attack on Florida representative Maxwell Frost quite recently:
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/25/congressman-maxwell-alejandro-frost-attack-police
This was also the second attack by right wingnuts on Democratic congresspeople in 3 days.
The Afro-Latino congressperson from Florida was attacked by a bigot in Utah who claimed that Trump was going to to deport him.
He got that wrong.
He was deported from Park city, Utah to a jail cell somewhere in Utah.
Most terrorist violence by a long ways in the USA comes from right wing fascists.
As they said in “Aliens,” “Why don’t we put her in charge?!“