Gateway Pundit/Progressives Today blogger Michael Strickland

He tried to ignore it for several days, but Jim Hoft, the fabled Stupidest Man on the Internet (SMOTI for short), has now put up a post about Michael Strickland, the writer for his site who was arrested last Thursday night for pulling a loaded gun on a crowd of demonstrators in Oregon. As usual, Jim Hoft’s tactic is to try to shift blame to the demonstrators, labeling them “thugs:” Conservative Activist Jailed After Pulling Gun on Gang of Thugs Trying to Kick His A$$ (Video).

Hoft identifies Strickland as a “former contributor at The Gateway Pundit and Progressives Today.” So he’s lying in the very first sentence of his post, since Strickland’s most recent post at Gateway Pundit was only five days before his arrest, on July 2. And his most recent post at Progressives Today (another site affiliated with Hoft) was only a few days before that, on June 30. Maybe Hoft fired him after he was arrested, but I doubt that; Strickland was clearly a very frequent contributor, and has dozens of posts at Gateway Pundit and Progressives Today.

More from the SMOTI:

This weekend Michael was confronted by a gang of men and he pulled out his gun. The story made headlines and Michael was thrown in jail. Michael has a concealed carry permit in Oregon and can legally carry a weapon. He was being threatened and he pulled the gun on his would-be assailants.

I don’t have any way to check if Hoft is telling the truth that Strickland has a CCW permit, but the fact is that he was charged with two felony counts of unlawful possession of a firearm — which sort of contradicts the SMOTI’s account.

As for Hoft’s assertion that Strickland was assaulted by a “gang of thugs trying to kick his ass” (and I love how he demurely uses dollar signs to spell out “ass”), here’s a video of the incident in which no assault is visible. When Strickland pulls the gun there was no one even close to him, and there were people telling the crowd to leave him alone and telling him to leave if he was concerned for his safety. Not exactly an angry mob, despite Hoft’s attempt to portray it that way.

And remember — he wasn’t just brandishing a weapon. He came to this demonstration with a loaded gun and five loaded magazines of ammunition. This guy knew he wasn’t going to be welcomed with open arms, and was equipped to kill a lot of people.

YouTube

Why were these demonstrators confronting Strickland in the first place? Because he’s well-known in Portland as a right wing provocateur (a sort of fledgling James O’Keefe) who films and photographs activists, posts their addresses and personal details, and smears them with made-up accusations.