The trouble with political metaphors is that they can gain a lot of traction without having much substance at all. Theyre catchy analogies, vividly illustrative but imprecise and potentially misleading .

Consider, for example, draining the swamp. Donald Trump repeatedly promised that, if elected, hed do that in Washington. Of course theres no literal, logical relationship between the federal government and a swamp, but Trumps metaphor resonated emotionally with many voters. Why? Because people were feeling left behind, their issues ignored; they saw Washington as dysfunctional, an unproductive, corrupt wasteland badly in need of reform. Enough people (barely) were persuaded that outsider Trumps crude, take-no-prisoners style could clean up the decadence and redeem the government.

Truly, Washington was (and is) a mess, and they had that right. But beyond responding to the mesmerizing appeal of a magical swamp cleanup, they forgot to do the work of analyzing accurately the causes of the mess, or what might realistically be done to attack it. Consumed with populist anger, they failed to see that Trump was bogus, a snake oil salesman totally unfit to deliver on his flashy promises.

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The real problems in Washington, Trump voters should have seen, begin with (1) the ideologically driven, paralyzing domination of partisanship over our elected representatives, and (2) the stranglehold on government by big money from Wall Street, corporations and billionaires and the privileging of their interests and those who represent them in the government. These are the real swamps that need draining. But Trump has only fanned the flames of division, all the while helping the rich get richer.

Like the rank amateur he is, Trump misidentified the nature of the swamp. (1) Egged on by people like Steve Bannon and the alt-right, he claimed repeatedly that the crux of the problem in Washington is the deep state, i.e. entrenched career civil servants in government departments and agencies. To the contrary, those experienced careerists provide essential continuity that steadies the ship of state through choppy, ever-changing political waters. (2) Naively, Trump has repeatedly jettisoned international cooperation. In isolationist, America first mode he has erratically weakened or severed our advantageous international associations like the United Nations, NATO and most recently his decision to leave the World Health Organization. He has impulsively abandoned treaties like the Paris Climate Agreement, the Iran Nuclear Deal and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while pandying to dictators and leaving our allies wondering what has happened to America and whether they can any longer trust us.

Trump is not a swamp drainer; hes a demolitionist. Convinced that the career professionals stood in the way of his wrecking ball, he began immediately (and has continued) to purge any who confronted him with facts and evidence contrary to his impulses. If they placed loyalty to the countrys interests above blind loyalty to him, they were gone. Repeatedly he has replaced experienced personnel in key positions with egregiously unqualified, un-Senate-confirmed, acting minions who unquestioningly do his bidding.

In Trump world, established norms the guard rails and levees that protect our democracy are disparaged and attacked. Recently, over the course of six weeks, our president has fired five inspectors general, legally mandated independent watchdogs in Cabinet departments (State, Defense, Transportation, Health and Human Services, and the Intelligence Community) for investigating corruption in his administration.

More broadly, he quickly set about weakening essential elements of the executive branch, against the interests of the people. For example, privileging military might over diplomacy, he has ruthlessly hollowed out the State Department, decimating its budget, paring its personnel while beefing up even further a military budget no one can see the top of. For example, he has done everything possible to undermine the Environmental Protection Agency, ignoring global warming, weakening the protections for clean air and water. For example, his continuing politicization of the Justice Department under the devious Attorney General Bill Barr for corrupt personal reasons must be denounced as an affront to the rule of law. It ought to keep all Americans awake at night.

Not least, his bullying tactics have turned congressional Republicans into fawning puppets who, with only a handful of exceptions, dare not oppose him or call out his misdeeds.

If you are serious about draining a swamp, you need to assign the task to someone with relevant experience in swamp engineering, someone with a proven track record; what we got in Trump was a huckster who claimed business acumen but had only a highly dubious, smoke-and-mirrors record of performance. You want someone who prioritizes the goals of the property owners, not someone bent on promoting first his own interests, as Trump has demonstrably done over and over. You need someone with balanced judgment who can build and skillfully lead an effective team; Trumps costly, badly bungled mismanagement of the pandemic crisis is but the latest striking example of his clumsy incompetence. You need someone with reliability and integrity; Trump is an unashamed, non-stop liar who has effectively turned prevarication into an Orwellian 1984-style political weapon. And when there are failures, you want someone with character to stand up and take responsibility, not someone who must always and inevitably find others to blame.

With Trump we got not a leader with good sense and diplomatic skills but a rash, unprincipled, confrontational gambler, dictatorial by nature and largely incapable of cooperative problem solving.

If you include a years campaigning, weve now observed the Trump presidency for four and a half years. Writing in the latest issue of The Atlantic, Anne Applebaum summarizes his performance thus: Notwithstanding his populist language, he has built a Cabinet and an administration that serve neither the public nor his voters but rather his own psychological needs and the interests of his own friends on Wall Street and in business and, of course, his own family. His tax cuts disproportionately benefited the wealthy, not the working class. His shallow economic boom, engineered to insure his reelection, was made possible by a vast budget deficit, on a scale Republicans once claimed to abhor, an enormous burden for future generations. He worked to dismantle the existing health-care system without offering anything better, as he promised to do. All the while he fanned and encouraged xenophobia and racism, both because he found them politically useful and because they are part of his personal world view.

Most important, he has governed in defiance and in ignorance of the American Constitution. ... His administration is not merely corrupt, it is also hostile to checks, balances, and the rule of law (emboldened further by his partisan-supported escape from impeachment]. He has built a proto-authoritarian personality cult with tragic consequences for public health (i.e. clueless mismanagement of the rampant pandemic) and the economy. She goes on from there.

To any clear-eyed observer with a good nose, the swamp is now boggier, the swamp gas more putrid than ever. Trump has removed rather than added value to our democratic real estate.

Not only has he failed to attack the rot in Washington he brought more with him and magnified what was already there. Clearly, if he wins another term, our democracy will suffer even more serious, possibly irreparable damage.

There are now signs that support for Trump is weakening across battleground states. Considering what he has given (or rather taken from) us, its high time.

And yet in November a majority of Idahoans will almost certainly vote to elevate this man once again to our nations highest office. In heavens name, what are they thinking? Dont they care? It boggles the mind.

H. Wayne Schow, a native Idahoan, is a professor of English emeritus at Idaho State University. Schow lives in Pocatello.

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'Draining the swamp' and other metaphors - Idaho State Journal

The conservative vein that gave rise to Donald Trump's presidency; Brexit and the growth of far-right nationalism across Europe is here.

And it has found a home within the New Conservative Party.

The party - which emerged from Colin Craig's Conservatives - wants a full repeal of the post-Christchurch terror attack gun-laws. Its rhetoric has drawn comparisons to white nationalism.

Canterbury man Lee Williams has spoken out at rallies against what he sees as the infiltration of the West by people of colour.

"A New Zealand is going down the exact same path of importing in an alien culture that refuses to integrate," he is heard at a recent free-speech rally.

He has given his full backing to the New Conservative Party in another video on his page.

Auckland University senior lecturer in politics and international relations Dr Chris Wilson says such rhetoric can be dangerous.

"They focus on the importance and superiority of white civilization and the protection of white cultures and homelands in the West," he says. "These ideas are actually very dangerous; and they are motivating a number of people around the world, young white men in some of the most extreme cases to attack people of colour."

But New Conservative NZ party leader Leighton Baker rejects any suggestion his party is on the extreme right of the spectrum.

The farmer and businessman says he is "centrist", someone who believes in human rights.

"I'm a worker, I am a taxpayer, I am a father, I'm a grandfather...I don't believe that is extreme in any way."

When questioned over the fact there seems to be growing support from the far-right for the party he says it is beyond his control.

"We can't control what people are like...we've been really clear about what we are saying, so we can not actually control what other people say."

Baker is concerned New Zealand is losing its grip on democracy.

"It's a sliding step toward socialism," he says of the current political system. "If you had to choose between North Korea and South Korea most people wouldn't choose between North Korea.

"Now that's a bit extreme I get that, but it seems we are moving in that way."

His deputy, Elliot Ikilei, believes Western society is the one that affords people the greatest freedom.

"The greatest culture in the world is Western culture," he told a group of supporters at a recent public event in Wellington. "It is the one culture where freedom of speech is the cornerstone of that culture."

Ikilei has been a regular guest at free speech rallies. He's tough on crime and against race-based policies.

"We would get rid of Mori seats. We would get rid of anything that changes Mori to something special and high up," he says.

Among the party's other 22 candidates is right-wing activist - Dieuwe de Boer, who is standing in Botany.

The Conservative Christian made headlines in January when police raided his home in search of illegal firearms.

In 2019 he tried to find an alternative venue for alt-right speakers Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux.

He has said declining Western populations are being replenished by migrants - a theory that Christchurch shooter Brenton Tarrant referred to in his manifesto.

But he condemns the shooter's final act of terror, despite defending his right to air his views.

"I have been very outspoken against firearm amendment bills and outspoken for freedom of speech," he is heard saying in a recent Facebook video.

A play on the slogan popularised by Trump and an indication of the type of country the New Conservatives want.

See original here:

New Conservatives defend Western culture as 'greatest in the world', warn NZ 'sliding toward socialism' - Newshub

So many things have gone missing this summer: Fourth of July parades, fireworks, summer camps and, as we approach the dog days, state fairs. Last summer I took my kids to the Oregon State Fair, where they sampled deep-fried bacon on a stick and failed to appreciate just how bizarre it is that people make sculptures out of dairy products.

As we paraded up and down the midway and ogled the deceptively difficult carnival games, I regaled them with stories of the carnies, roustabouts and flimflam men who ran the games and booths and -- in their spare time -- confidence tricks. The term mark -- literally a big spender marked with powdered chalk on the shoulder -- comes from carnies and leads to this invaluable life lesson: always leave the mark a dollar for gas (so he can get home instead of being stuck -- angry -- at the fair).

The story of every mark who encounters a flimflam man is a carnival version of Joseph Campbells heros journey. First, the flimflam man approaches the mark. Second, temptation, followed by a small payoff to demonstrate the schemes purported effectiveness. Third, the hard sell to go all in. Finally, a sudden unanticipated crisis or change of events that results in a complete loss.

Millions of college students are now on this suckers journey. College students and their families are perfect marks. Theyre told a degree is the only pathway to good jobs. After a remote spring and summer best characterized by the great They Might Be Giants lyric If it wasnt for disappointment/I wouldnt have any appointments, theyre primed for the temptation of a return to campus and normalcy.

Parents are equally excited at the prospect of getting kids out of the house. Anti-pandemic panegyrics from Purdue Universitys president on Plexiglas and the Protect Purdue Pledge promise a payoff this fall. But once students and families are all in, the payoff will turn to pain before pumpkins begin appearing on porches.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, 62percent of colleges and universities are, as of this writing, welcoming students back to campus, and 21percent are planning a hybrid model. Only 8percent of institutions will start the fall semester online only.

Meanwhile, with depressing summer dispatches on COVID-19 outbreaks at campuses such as the University of Georgia, University of South Carolina, University of Washington and Louisiana State University, its clear higher education institutions stand about as much chance of enforcing masks and social distancing as alcohol consumption and abstinence.

Look no further than the COVID-19 parties at University of Alabama, where students bet on whod contract the disease first. As Temple Universitys Laurence Steinberg wrote in The New York Times, interventions designed to diminish risk taking in this age group have an underwhelming track record. Faculty are afraid; 53percent of Purdue faculty and staff report feeling unsafe about returning to campus this fall. And theyre unlikely to feel better when asked to sign waivers of liability for risks including but not limited to, illness, severe bodily harm, and death.

Most dispassionate observers now recognize that return-to-campus plans are, as Juliana Gray wrote in McSweeneys, cooked up by your universitys Vice President for Magical Thinking: our university has always valued creative problem-solving, so we have posted NO COVID-19 ALLOWED PAST THIS POINT signs on the doors of every campus building. Plus, to show how seriously we take the situation, the signs have been laminated When they arrive on campus, all students will receive a welcome package containing a face mask branded with our university logo, a rabbits foot, a horseshoe, an evil-eye charm, a Maneki-neko, a crucifix, and a bulb of garlic.

So when the number of cases is undeniable (which may make the viral load higher on college campuses than anywhere else in the country -- no small matter for a disease where infection appears to be a function of viral load) there will be no choice but to revert to remote learning. Not even President Trump is capable of spouting the flawed premises and twisted logic that has made my college classmate Alex Berenson (who used to be less of a Nazi) famous over the past few months: that every single person who is vulnerable to COVID-19 has some underlying condition and is likely to meet his or her maker sooner than later.

Its the stuff of eugenics and self-styled bermensches like Berenson. And no college presidents -- not even Jerry Falwell Jr. -- will get away with this nonsense when theyre surrounded by science faculty and researchers who know a lot more about this disease than Berenson and other experts without any STEM training. The alt-right argument seems more and more like a plot by the healthy (which increasingly means wealthy) to kill the less healthy, akin to historys darkest flimflams.

I know optimism is not only in short supply for parents and students, but also the towns many colleges and universities support. But as @profgalloway has pointed out, optimism is one thing. Its quite another when a CEO in the midst of a disastrous earnings call demonstrates near-delusional optimism so investors dont sell shares.

Given that most presidents apparently lack confidence in social distancing plans, and schools like Cornell have gone so far as to delude themselves (justifying a return to campus by comparing COVID spread in a fantasy compliant campus model with a students-gone-wild-at-home scenario), optimism for fall falls into the latter category. Its a slow-motion car crash. As higher education experts like Seton Halls Robert Kelchen recognize, colleges are postponing the inevitable. But that dam will have to break soon. Then come the big hits.

The interplay between optimism and flimflam is the story of America. For every Lewis and Clark, theres a Bernie Madoff. Visionaries like Thomas Edison and Steve Jobs thrived in the limbo between already-sold sizzle and the harsh reality of product development. Were a country built on big bets leading to world-beating innovation, but also -- it is now clear -- world-leading failure. Our highs are higher, and our lows are lower. (The flip side of audacity is our inability to take direction like social distancing and mask wearing. We stopped following instructions in 1776 and never looked back.)

One unfortunate byproduct of American exceptionalism is our susceptibility to storytelling flimflam men. Without marks, there would be fewer Edisons and Jobses -- who made dreams come true -- and no Trump, who did the same, except with nightmares; biological and behavioral crises like COVID-19 arent susceptible to art of the deal fixes.

Fittingly, the Trump administration ruled this week that international students could not remain in the country on student visas to attend programs that are wholly remote. As a result, Trump is forcing schools like Harvard and Princeton to promise in-person elements, furthering the flimflam and turning thousands of universities into Trump University.

***

Rather than elaborately and expensively planning for a carnival-like bait and switch that will anger millions of customers and set the marginalization of American higher education at warp speed, colleges and universities should have been putting all their time and resources into:

No. 1: Dramatically Improving Remote Learning

Wholl really be hurt when colleges and universities send students home in September or October? Students for whom life is most likely to get in the way: low-income, underrepresented minority and first-generation populations who most need the leg up promised by postsecondary education. According to a Brookings study, taking courses online increases the probability of dropping out. Another study found each online course produced dropout rates 10 to 20percent higher than on-campus courses; over a semester or two, that adds up to a huge persistence gap.

Susan Dynarski from the University of Michigan summarized the research: for advanced learners, online classes are a terrific option, but academically challenged students need a classroom with a teachers support. Spring 2020 withdrawals from California Community Colleges (online) courses were 17percent higher than spring 2019. And that doesnt include 2,000 students in hard-to-convert classes like nursing because courses were simply canceled.

Compounding the challenge is that at the vast majority of colleges and universities, it wont be a reversion to state of the art online learning, but still remote learning. Susan Grajek of Educause, the association of education technologists, distinguishes remote learning from well-considered, durable online learning. Remote learning, she said, is a quick, ad hoc, low-fidelity mitigation strategy. Remote learning lacks instructional design that prioritizes engagement, organization, navigation, assessment and purpose -- all major contributors to student persistence and completion.

With leadership focused on success rather than snake oil, much more could have been done: adding instructional design so students in need of support stand a chance of actually learning something and completing; transforming courses to active learning; scaling up online partnerships and critical online support services. Jeff Selingo asked the question trustees should have been asking since April: should all that energy, time, and money spent on preparing for the fall instead [have been] spent on trying to improve remote learning, which for many colleges this spring was subpar?

No. 2: Securing and Offering Tuition Insurance

Many colleges and universities offer tuition insurance, but plans like GradGuard dont cover foreseeable or expected events, epidemics, [or] cession of operations by the school. Its unbelievable that not one higher education institution has done the work of contacting an insurance company and devising a new plan specific to COVID-19, which would allow students to recoup tuition paid in the event the campus is closed and students wish to opt out rather than paying for remote learning. Thousands of trustees whove made their fortunes in the finance industry have been asleep at this switch, among many. Of course, the hardest part would have been marketing such plans and watching the scales fall from students eyes.

No. 3: Reducing Expenses in Order to Provide Discounts

The wealthiest colleges and universities can afford to provide discounts, although Williamss 15percent discount for 2020-21 still leaves total cost of attending at a laughable $63,200. Students want and expect to pay less for remote learning -- 90percent of them, according to a recent survey. But Im not aware of a single college or university that has attempted to get its fiscal house in order to provide discounts for remote learning. That would entail hard work, and the internal squabbles and food fights attendant to zero-based budgeting. Failure to even make the attempt is indicative of higher educations continuing crisis of governance.

***

When infection rates reach undeniable and untenable levels this fall and most colleges and universities revert to remote learning while continuing to charge full freight, including perhaps for room and board, as the University of South Florida and Washington State plan to do, the confidence trick will be complete. (Some schools may try remote teaching before sending students home -- students in classrooms, faculty teaching synchronously and safely from a distance -- but remote teaching is only plausible if students are kept in an impossibly impregnable bubble.

And no city, town or public health department will tolerate a seeping cesspool of virus in their community.) Colleges will try to hang their hats on surprise and lack of agency. But -- particularly after the lost spring -- students will see through the flimflam and be as angry as any mark ever was. Fool me once, shame on you (and class action suits). Fool me twice

When millions of marks get angry, events can spiral out of control. In the late 1990s, the government of Albania endorsed a series of investment funds that were actually Ponzi schemes paying monthly interest of 10 to 25percent. In early 1997 the funds were no longer able to make payments, sparking protests and violence. Victims beat police, burned public buildings and engaged in widespread looting. The chairman of Albanias Democratic Party was assaulted by protesters and held hostage. Foreign countries were forced to evacuate their citizens. The national unrest -- sometimes referred to as the Albanian Civil War -- ultimately required an Italian-led United Nations force of 7,000 soldiers to subdue.

Rather than risking civil war, colleges and universities would be wise to end the flimflam now. Shockingly, the University of Southern California -- the poster child for contemporary higher education greed -- has done exactly this, announcing last week that fall would be online and urging students to reconsider living on or close to campus.

For the majority of institutions with unstoppable momentum to return to campus, consider the example of Fitness by the Sea beach camp. After many delays by Los Angeles County, Fitness by the Sea finally opened in socially distant mode on Monday, June 22. That very night, Fitness by the Sea emailed parents to let them know they had a very difficult time keeping campers within the groups distanced from each other and from the staff. As a result, the camp was closing for the remainder of the summer and would immediately process refunds. We very much look forward to moving past all of this and opening under better circumstances next summer.

Camps that want to have a next summer, and colleges and universities that want to have a next year, wont treat their customers like marks. If they do, even though the upcoming academic year will be remote, I suppose students will learn at least one thing: beware of flimflams.

Here is the original post:

Colleges are flimflamming college students and parents about reopening in the fall (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

Washington D.C., Jul 9, 2020 / 01:57 pm MT (CNA).-

Officials working in the Trump administration have told CNA that they have been frustrated by recent presidential tweets elevating controversial Catholic figures, saying the tweets undermine the work many Catholics in the administration hope to accomplish.

In recent weeks, the presidents Twitter account has cited support from two figures with polarizing reputations among Catholics: former papal nuncio to the United States Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigan, and the author and online polemicist Taylor Marshall.

While both men have been publicly supportive of the president, both are better known for their criticism of Church authorities than for their views on secular politics.

Two Catholics in senior positions in the administration told CNA the decision to elevate Vigan and Marshall has put the White House at odds with the U.S. bishops, instead of putting a focus on issues of agreement, and has frustrated some Catholic administration officials.

It puts those of us who care about the Church and care about the work we are doing here in a bind, one White House official told CNA. I believe in the work Im doing, and believe it matters as a Catholic. But I spend enough time just defending that simple premise I dont want to have to deal with crazy Catholic Twitter too.

Everyone knows the campaign needs religious voters, and Catholic voters for sure. But there is such a divide between the people working on policy stuff around here and the people doing this. For us, we are doing things that matter: on religious freedom, on life issues.

A second senior administration official, who attends weekly meetings with the president in the Oval Office, told CNA the president believes he has not been supported by U.S. bishops for his efforts on religious liberty, and that White House strategists have urged him to court Catholic votes through figures like Marshall and Vigan.

Both officials requested anonymity because of the nature of their positions.

The officials each independently attributed the decision to highlight support from outside the Catholic mainstream to Dan Scavino, White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Communications and the presidents social media director. They said it is part of a broader effort to stoke enthusiasm among the presidents most ardent supporters through social media engagement.

You know who is putting [Vigans letter] in front of the president? one official said, Its coming from [Dan] Scavino. He runs all of that side of things.

Around him and the rest, they have only one plan right now, or only one they are talking about: weaponize the base, the base, the base.

Earlier this year, the Trump administration garnered attention for hosting telephone calls with bishops and other institutional Catholic leaders regarding both the impact of the coronavirus on Catholic schools and the decision of some bishops to begin limited reopenings of public Masses in the early stages of a national reopening.

In those calls, the president promised his administrations support to Catholic initiatives, and to financially struggling Catholic schools. Bishops, including New Yorks Cardinal Timothy Dolan, faced criticism for seeming to lend implicit support to the presidents reelection bid, a charge Dolan and others disputed, while defending their engagement with the president.

The administration is continuing to advocate for parochial school assistance in coronavirus relief legislation.

But Trumps more recent Catholic overtures have been of a different stripe.

Both administration officials told CNA that after Trumps June 2 visit to the St. John Paul II National Shrine, a decision was made by Scavino and other strategists that the president should cultivate Catholic support from leadership figures outside the mainstream.

The president doesnt get why the bishops arent with him for doing work on religious liberty especially after the shrine visit, he was pissed about that, one official said.

The official told CNA that Scavino, himself a Catholic, views the support of figures like Vigan as a means of delivering Catholic votes without the implicit or explicit support of diocesan bishops.

The presidents shrine visit came at the height of protests and demonstrations across the county, following the killing of George Floyd. It also came one day after the controversial dispersal of demonstrators in Lafayette Park, opposite the White House, to accommodate a presidential photo-op in front of the historic St. Johns Episcopal Church.

Washington Archbishop Wilton Gregory issued a stinging critique of the shrine visit, calling it reprehensible, and saying the shrine had been egregiously misused and manipulated in a fashion that violates our religious principles.

The next week, on June 10, Trumps Twitter account retweeted a long letter from Archbishop Carlo Vigan, former papal nuncio to the United States, in which the archbishop lavished praise on the president and repeated his own theories about an international conspiracy to use the coronavirus pandemic to bring about a one-world government.

Both of us are on the same side in this battle, Vigan wrote to Trump, calling criticism of the presidents June 2 visit to the National Shrine of St. John Paul II part of an orchestrated media narrative against the president.

Vigan gained national headlines in 2018, when he claimed that he had warned Pope Francis about allegations of sexual abuse against former cardinal Theodore McCarrick, and then called on the pope to resign. Since then, the archbishop has lived in self-imposed exile, writing frequent open letters that make apocalyptic claims, proffer globalist conspiracy theories, and denounce sitting diocesan bishops and the Second Vatican Council.

Vigan last month denounced Washingtons Archbishop Gregory as a false shepherd after Gregorys criticism of Trumps shrine visit.

One administration official said Scavino saw Vigans letter as a way of touting support for Trump in the face of Gregorys opposition.

He thinks its a punch back against [Archbishop] Gregory, said the official.

On July 2, Trumps Twitter account tweeted about an appearance by Taylor Marshall on the One America News Network, in which Marshall said there is a war on Christianity, and praised the presidents leadership.

Marshall has recently been associated with the traditionalist priestly Society of St. Pius X, who are in irregular communion with the Catholic Church. He has tweeted that Catholic men should not attend diocesan seminaries, spoken about his resistance to Pope Francis, and has recently clashed with Bishop Robert Barron, who reportedly referred to him as an extremist, amid a disagreement over the role of clerics and laity amid the destruction of the statues of saints.

Marshals 2019 book Infiltration claims to outline a plot by which Modernists and Marxists hatched a plan to subvert the Catholic Church from within. Their goal: to change Her doctrine, Her liturgy, and Her mission, according to the books website.

Both Marshall and Vigan have large online audiences; Marshalls YouTube videos regularly draw more than 100,000 viewers, and Vigans missives are regularly published on popular conservative and traditionalist websites.

But one administration official told CNA that Catholics working in the executive branch have been discouraged by the presidents decision to promote Vigan and Marshall, especially because they believe the administrations work on life issues and religious liberty is important, and would benefit from more engagement with the bishops.

You feel like you cant win, the official said. Frankly, wed have liked a little more support from the bishops not for the president personally or the campaign, but for the work we are doing. There is stuff here that is important. But absent that, the thinking from the comms side seems to be have the friends we can get, and if theyre crazy, who cares? Its so frustrating.

Both officials told CNA that there exists a clear line between those senior Catholics in the administration working on policy priorities and those pursuing Trumps social media strategy.

There is no way the serious Catholics in the administration are pushing this stuff. They have too much to do, the first official told CNA.

The other senior source said the same, and lamented that some in the administration seem to view a combative stance against the bishops as a good in itself.

For headbangers like Scavino, real Catholics are the ones on message with the president, it doesnt matter how off the reservation they might be in the Church.

To [Scavino and Senior Advisor to the President Stephen Miller] the [U.S.] bishops are all shades of Pope Francis, especially on immigration, which drives Miller crazy.

The first official agreed, telling CNA that: The president doesnt know who Vigan is, he just knows hes an archbishop, he definitely doesnt know who Taylor Marshall is even I had to look him up. But you bet Dan [Scavino] knows, knows they are anti-establishment and have a following, and thats the campaign they want to run with everyone get to the people who are already there, intensify them, get them working for you and give the president some proof of support for what hes been doing.

[Scavino] has this idea that the more you can talk around the bishops the better the more radical you can be and the more you will deliver with the base. Him and [Stephen] Miller love that kind of stuff.

The White House first conceded in 2017 that Scavino assists President Trump in operating the @realDonaldTrump account, including by drafting and posting tweets to the account.

Scavino is an unlikely figure to mastermind the most famous Twitter account in the world.

A 2018 New York Times profile recounts that he first met Trump while acting as his caddie during a round of golf on a course upstate in 1990. In 2004, he returned to the course, then owned by Trump, as assistant manager, rising to manager four years later before starting his own business.

He returned to the Trump orbit at the early stages of the 2016 presidential campaign, eventually began helping candidate Trump run his Twitter account and later managed his social media output. Scavino earned a reputation for playing hard along the way. On one occasion, Scavino retweeted a video alleging that Sen. Ted Cruz was having an affair with a married former aide, Amanda Carpenter, who called the allegations a smear.

Carpenter told the New York Times Magazine that What Scavino did to me and what he still does to others would get any other professional fired. In Trumps universe, its a qualification. A willingness to engage in lies and smears on behalf of Donald Trump is a sign of loyalty that Trump treasures.

In the same profile, Former White House Communications Director Hope Hicks told the Times Magazine that Scavino is the conductor of the Trump train, and that his role in the administration is to tell [Trump] how things are playing with his people. Thats a gauge for him that the president takes seriously. Hicks left the White House in March 2018 but was named a counselor to the president in February this year.

Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has also credited Scavino with bringing fringe figures and social media personalities to the presidents attention. Bannon told the Times Magazine that he used to share with Scavino an office in the West Wing and he has his hands on the Pepes, in a reference to a popular cartoon image used by alt-right internet posters.

[Scavino] knew who the players were and who were not. Hed bring me Cernovich I didnt know who Cernovich was until Scavino told me, Bannon told the magazine of Mike Cernovich, an alt-right blogger who has made highly controversial comments on race, womens rights, and rape.

According to Politico, Scavinos ability to represent Twitter support to the president has real-world policy effects. In a 2019 profile, Politico quoted two sources saying Trump turned to Scavino to justify the announcement of his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.

Trump himself told Politico that Oftentimes, Ill go through Dan.

You know, Ill talk it over. And he can really be a very good sounding board. A lot of common sense. Hes got a good grasp.

While not a well-known public figure, Scavino has attracted controversy through his responsibility for the presidents Twitter account.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump came under fire for the use of alleged anti-Semitic imagery in a graphic describing Hilary Clinton as the most corrupt candidate ever. The image featured Clinton, a red star of David, and images of cash.

While the campaign initially dismissed criticism of the image, insisting that the star was meant to resemble a sheriffs badge, it later altered the image to a circle. CNN also reported that the image was originally posted on an anti-Semitic and white supremacist message board.

It was Scavino who defended both the original image and the eventual alteration, saying that it was not created by the campaign nor was it sourced from an anti-Semitic site. Scavino rejected any insinuation of anti-Semitism, citing his wifes Jewish family, but took personal responsibility, saying "I would never offend anyone and therefore chose to remove the image."

The White House did not respond to questions from CNA regarding Scavinos role in Trumps retweets of Marshall and Vigan.

One White House official told CNA that the presidents recent Catholic retweets fit Scavinos approach.

I totally get why people like Vigan and Marshall appeal to Scavino. Conspiracy theories, communists, freemasons, tons of retweets and YouTube followers? Its right up his alley, the official said.

The problem is it has happened now, even if this isnt the presidents idea, one thing youre not going to do is change his mind there is no reverse gear.

It drives the Catholics around here crazy because we are trying to do real work, the first official said. We take the faith seriously, we came here to serve.

See the article here:

Why White House Catholics are concerned about Trumps Catholic tweets - Catholic News Agency

The grating club versus county narrative that has crept into our discourse as a return to play creeps closer is mostly a symptom of the recent slow sports news month.

However, it reveals a fault line in the GAA ecosystem that has been cultivated by a vacuum of leadership in the association around the direction of games and competitions at both levels.

Defined club and county seasons are long overdue, but they can overlap to everyone's benefit. For that to work in practice, both extremes of our spectrum will need to appreciate the impact of the other to player development in an amateur association.

If you represent your county as well as your club, there is no more frustrating subject to hear talked at you. No-one feels the pull of both forces in the way that the players do and the linear nature of the commentary they hear offers no solutions. These players want to do their very best for both club and county and neither should be at the expense of the other.

In recent weeks we have heard from county chairmen and club representatives regularly, demanding solutions that suit their role and their agenda. Balance this withthe resistance of those within county camps to tolerating the place of clubs, and it is clear that neither camp values the other as they should.

The GAAs Two Drivers

It is an indisputable fact that the GAA as we know it today has been built on two essential components:

i) An unquantifiable body of volunteer work across the breadth of theorganisation.

ii) The revenue generated by inter-county competitions to underpin every other area.

These are the foundations on which everything else is built and almost every aspect of the GAA depends on both "drivers" working in tandem.

Without boring anyone with the details, full-time coaches, administration, facilities, etc. simply wouldn't exist in its current form without the investment possible because of the sustained popularity of the inter-county game.

The inter-county game has never had a higher profile than over the last decade and the quality of play people pay hard-earned money to see is only possible because of the volunteer work of clubs and their coaches. The conveyor belt of better and better players is extraordinary and may be the biggest achievement of this amateur organisation.

Political Spectrum

Players have been bearing the brunt of what is a seemingly constant battle for the moral high ground. Club and county wrestle each other for supremacy in both the hearts and minds of players. One takes public and private form but one permeates entirely in private.

Bending players to a club's will is normally atwo-prongedapproach.Of courseyou will hear the messaging clearly in the press but community and values cards will be played privately too. The county messaging is entirely hidden from view.

There is more than a touch of communism in claims of ownership of players and anyone other than themselves determining where they spend their time on a particular evening or afternoon

Not unlike the extremes of politics, we seem to have fanatics at both ends of the spectrum who just cannot see the value to us all of the need for sunlight to fall on all corners of the GAA map.

Our left wing has never struggled for a voice to preach the club before county myth. There is more than a touch of communism in claims of ownership of players and anyone other than themselves determining where they spend their time on a particular evening or afternoon.

In a very well-reasoned essay on the subject this week,John Coleman eloquently articulates the clandestine forces of self-interest that dictate the priorities within our game

If the association truly wanted to facilitate the capacity for players to serve both club and county satisfactorily, the fixture calendar would long since have been sorted. That no serious attempt to do so has been made tells its own story.

ClubANDCounty

Club is not before county and county is not before club. They are both equal and valuable parts of our identity and at any point where priority or ownership of a player is claimed by anyone other than that player, the claimant should lose all rights to contribute to the debate.

What is certainly true is that a club environment does not prepare any player for the ferocity of inter-county football.

Irrespective of the club, over a prolonged period of time the lesser intensity of training and games, lower volume of work, less time/access to sports science that clubs can provide pull at the threads of a county footballer's preparation.

Players who go directly into the top level of our sport from months of playing junior club football will feel as though they are playing a different sport because they will be

That is not to ridicule or lessen the value of club football its just a truism of the tiers of any sport. I recently heard a county chairman claim that there was no better preparation for national league and the pursuit of Sam Maguire than the club championship in the weeks immediately before.

That is a less than informed opinion, irrespective of the county in question. Players who go directly into the top level of our sport from months of playing junior club football will feel as though they are playing a different sport because they will be.

Each county has a duty of care for all their members including the finite number capable of playing inter-county football and to not take an opportunity to support club and county teams when the opportunity to do so is there represents dereliction of duty.

The Alt-Right

The expanding profile of inter-county games has nurtured with it a more destructive feature generally in the form of the modern manager.

There is an impression now carefully cultivated and projected that players can only develop to their full potential if they commit entirely to the county culture. That doesn't just mean training and games it requires adherence to a designed doctrine which sets out the lifestyle and mentality that is "encouraged".

For the most part, players will be happy to buy in to the dogma as it grants entry to an exclusive club that few have the ability to get invited to. Being part of that tribe gives shape and meaning to lives and does far more good than harm.

However, the managers who create these cultures often lose sight of their responsibility to the GAA collective and the players as individuals.

County teams have the power and influence to swallow clubs, underage teams, colleges, etc., but they ought not to. The standards may be different but players can learn more about leadership, responsibility and resilience when they are exposed to other environments, opportunities and challenges.

This is the alt-right of our political party with fervent zealots acknowledging no alternative approach to their own.

Seven Days a Week

Like previous attempts to curtail seasons or training practices at county level, the notion of an arbitrary date to start training seriously is ill conceived.

Players at the highest level are seven-day-a-week athletes, all year round. Throughout July and August clubs will be offering typically between two and four chance per weekto train with, in most cases, limited expertise in delivering those sessions.

There will be 30 men in each county conditioned and expecting more than that for their own well-being and development. They will naturally gravitate to each other to train and maintain their normal standards around their club commitments. That will be to the benefit of their club on the field of play.

Any county with the welfare of their players at heart would want these ad-hoc training sessions monitored and managed by the expertise they have on staff to avoid injuries and ensure players can peak for both club and county seasons.

The GAA's position removes any possibility of best practice in the world of conditioning and undermines the welfare of these players. It does, however, save on expenses.

Harmony

In the part of our calendar where club and county seasons overlap, the only thing that prevents a synergy that allows the player to do his best for both is communication.

Dictating to players where their heart should be at any stage of their playing career is a dangerous game and erodes trust and loyalty over time

Is it really beyond county backroom teams to communicate efficiently with 15 to20 club managers to create an agreed programme and workload for players in that busiest period?

It isn't optimum for either team in the very short-term, but it is what is best for the player and surely that is everyones priority. If it is, its not always evident.

The alternative is that club and county backroom teams continue to complain about each other without dialogue regardinginjured andfatigued players.

Dictating to players where their heart should be at any stage of their playing career is a dangerous game and erodes trust and loyalty over time.

The reality is that the majority of players who can do both are proud men who carry their club colours every time they represent their county. They will never want to dilute their contribution to either.

Our solution at the moment is to pile emotional pressure on them from both angles with claims of ownership over their priorities. Better is possible and our best players deserve it.

Listen to the RT GAA Podcast at Apple Podcasts,Soundcloud,Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Read the original here:

GAA's tiresome culture war insults and ignores players - RTE.ie

The New York Times podcast, Rabbit Hole, hosted by tech columnist Kevin Roose, brings an answer to a complex question: What is the Internet doing to us?

In 2020, nobody can deny that the Internet is essential to us. It has kept us together as we socially distance, and more recently served as the platform for organizing social activism. Weve also seen its ability to create politically-charged discussions over mundane topics, such as wearing masks, and its role in polarizing our beliefs at the expense of understanding one another.

For eight episodes, Roose takes his audience down the rabbit hole to reveal the chaos of Internet culture.

The podcast focuses on how social media platforms have served as the cornerstone of an emerging alt-right, conspiracy theory political movement. To illustrate this, Roose interviews social media executives, content creators, and consumers to show the Internets ability to be an echo chamber of opinions.

He also centres the podcast on redemption stories, as his interviewees ascend from the rabbit hole, changed by their experiences within it. Their redemption arcs humanize the interviewees, and I found myself celebrating their new, informed understanding of how they can be manipulated without realizing it. At the end of each of their arcs, each interviewee is presented as a wiser individual, which beautifully serves as a peaceful conclusion to their chaotic story.

Wonderland-level storytelling

The emphasis on storytelling is Rabbit Holes greatest strength, and what kept me hooked each episode. Rather than tiring listeners with research experts and statistics, Roose crafts engaging stories that feel like Im watching a suspenseful play unfold.

You buy into his characters the interviewees as he provides the background information. Its thrilling for the same reasons I enjoy a mysterious drama, as I eagerly wait for the next story to piece everything together. Instead of choosing either to be informative or engaging, Rabbit Hole chooses both and succeeds in equal respects.

The stories Rabbit Hole covers are also relevant and exciting. Roose looks at YouTubes recommended section and how it propels viewers to more extreme content, then turns to discuss the growing influence of YouTubes top creator, Pewdiepie and his tirade against the Wall Street Journal. While we commonly label politicians as the creators of political divide, I was given a new perspective from Rabbit Holes demonstration that many of our opinions come from celebrities, who use their audiences to advance a political agenda.

He also touches upon misinformation during the coronavirus pandemic and how conspiracy theorists create communities and friendships with each other in the process. Even if youre unfamiliar with these topics, Rooses calming voice and his masterful storytelling serve as a comfortable way to introduce you to this chaotic world.

Where its flaws lie

Rabbit Hole is not without its flaws, albeit small ones. For a podcast thats focused on right-wing political movements, I would have liked to see a brief exploration of the political left. It would be interesting to see if similar conspiracy theorists exist on the opposite side of the spectrum, and compare and contrast their ideas.

Inadvertently, Rabbit Hole highlights the political divide in the United States by only focusing on one side of the political spectrum.

Its other flaw lies in its effects, though this is dependent on your audio preferences. To emphasize the ominous undertones of Rabbit Holes content, jarring sound effects are used to give the reader a sense of unease as if falling down a rabbit hole.

Some episodes will include choruses of repeated words to add suspense or stacking of different voices to metaphorically show chaos. Others may transition from scene to scene with a glitchy and uncomfortable sound effect. I enjoyed these effects for their immersion, but I could also understand that some may find them off-putting.

Dont delay: Hop on in

Overall, Rabbit Hole is an excellent podcast that eases listeners into topics that can be intimidating. I highly recommend you give it a listen. The episodes are brief (around 30 minutes), and youll finish each one having learned something new. Its emphasis on storytelling creates fascinating plotlines that will naturally guide you towards the next episode, eager to learn more.

In this pandemic-stricken world, why not enjoy educating yourself on something you use every day?

Featured image from nytimes.com.

Originally posted here:

Review: Rabbit Hole hops into the Internets greatest failures and successes - The Charlatan

Update 6:23pm CT,July 8: PayPal deleted both accounts associated with Owen Benjamin. We regularly assess activity against our Acceptable Use Policy and carefully review actions reported to us, and will discontinue our relationship with account holders who are found to violate our policies, a company spokesperson told the Daily Dot in a statement.

Update #2 8:41am CT, July 9: On Thursday, a YouTube spokesperson said that the company had begun deleting the accounts. Only one of the seven which was inadvertently left out of an inquiry to the companyremains live. A YouTube spokesperson said in a statement,All users agree to comply with ourTerms of ServiceandCommunity Guidelineswhen they sign up to use YouTube. When users violate these policies repeatedly, like our policies against hate speech and harassment or our terms prohibiting circumvention of our enforcement measures, we terminate their accounts.

The original post follows below.

Owen Benjamin has called internet bans a joke. Yet he seems unwilling to accept them.

Last year, Benjamin, an alt-right comedian, was banned by the major platforms. In short order, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, PayPal, and Patreon permanently booted him for violating their policies against hate speech. Hes suing Patreon for $3.5 million over its ban.

The alt-right is a loose collection of conservatives that harbor white supremacists.

In March, the Daily Dot reported that hed apparently launched at least seven YouTube channels in an attempt to circumvent the ban. All seven were subsequently removed by the platform.

Now it looks like hes back.

The Daily Dot has found seven new channels that seem to belong to him, though they also may have been launched by fans doing his bidding. Benjamin is never shy about asking his followers, whom he calls Bears (he calls himself Big Bear), for favors and cash.

Theres Owen Benjamin Big Bear (21,000 subscribers), Owen Benjamin Big Bear v1 (1,400 subscribers), Owen Benjamin Big Bear v2 (80 subscribers) Mountain Bear 2.0 (2,600 subscribers), Anchor Bear (4,800 subscribers), and Big Bear Music Reconbear (560 subscribers), and Im Not Owen Benjamin v5 (7,400 subscribers).

Previous mirror channels, as the duplicates are known, were named Im Not Owen Benjamin v3 and v4, respectively.

Most launched after the Daily Dot reported on the seven mirror channels. Big Bear Music Reconbear is an exception; it launched in 2013. Videos on the channel date back just 10 months to shortly before Benjamin was banned from YouTube last December.

Benjamin did not respond to an email inquiry sent to an address listed on his DLive channel this afternoon.

As before, the content on these channels looks to be exclusively Benjamins.

YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment about whether these channels violate the ban, or if it would violate Benjamins ban if they were created the channels by others.

YouTubes community guidelines broadly prohibit channels and content that impersonates others or is intended to look like someone else is posting it.

Channels claiming to be a fan account, but actually posing as anothers channel and reuploading their content, are specifically prohibited.

So even if these channels were created by Benjamins fans, they could still be in violation of YouTubes rules.

The channels could also violate other policies. Benjamin has a track record of repeatedly making anti-Semitic and other bigoted statements, as well as spreading conspiracy theories and lies.

In a June 28 video Benjamin calls it preposterous to say the Union freed slaves in the Civil War, and implies that Black slaves supported the Confederacy.

Why were so many Blacks fighting for the Confederacy you might ask yourself, Benjamin said.

Have you ever tried to shoot a gun in chains? Have you ever tried to pick cotton in chains? The lies are becoming absurd.

In other videos he speaks pejoratively about grabblers, a derogatory term for Jewish people that he invented in part to avoid getting flagged for hate speech.

The three versions of the Owen Benjamin Big Bear channels include a contingency plan in case YouTube shuts them down.

One says, Youtube try to shut down our channel. Please, Subscribe to our second channel. [sic]

The main channel describes itself as Owen Benjamin Channel.

All three use the same icon for an avatar.

Two of the channels link to a Facebook group also called Owen Benjamin Big Bear. In a video from June 15, he says that his Instagram is now closed.

I will be not adding any more people.

The three Big Bear channels and the Im Not Owen Benjmain v5 link to PayPal accounts named Owen Benjamin Big Bear and Papa J. Bear, respectively.

In a recent video, Benjamin bragged, PayPal takes a few months before they figure out whos doing it.

PayPal is among the companies that banned him. In response to the Daily Dots inquiry, a PayPal spokesperson said that the company will look into whether the accounts are linked to Benjamin.

Given that Benjamin has joked that being kicked off platforms doesnt bother him, that he thinks its funny, it may seem strange that heor his fanswould bother to circumvent bans, never mind sue over them, especially considering that he still has other platforms to post content and fundraising streams available.

But money doesnt make itself, and Benjamins preferred way of making money is having his fans give it to him. The more ways he can reach them, the more money he presumably makes.

As the Daily Dot reported earlier this week, lately hes been begging followers to give him millions to buy a ranch in northern Idaho, which hes calling BearTaria. On DLive, a video hosting platform with more permissive terms of service than YouTube, he directs people to a fundraising page set up specifically for this purpose.

Donors are promised access to the campground, space permitting, of course.

All donations are non-refundable.

READ MORE:

Excerpt from:

Banned by PayPal and YouTube, this alt-right comedian is back on PayPal and YouTube (updated) - The Daily Dot

When Rachel Maddow published her recent book, Blowout, claiming that Russia in confluence with the oil lobby had conspired to bring Donald Trump to power in revenge for the US punitive measures in response to the annexation of Crimea, I had taken an issue with her central premise based on two arguments: timeline and the rise of white nationalists. By the time the annexation of Crimea and the following opprobrium could have policy implications. several developments like the rise of populist leaders like Modi and the strengthening of white nationalist groups were already in motion. I do not think Maddow has done justice to that aspect. But one of her self-confessed admirers, Stephen Bannon, Trumps former chief strategist, might be of some help.

Bannon believes in dharma and is a fan of the Bhagavad Gita. It is funny how these white nationalists and fringe ideologues take what suits them from the sacred book. For instance, his faith in his own dharma (righteous duty) owes itself to an interaction between Krishna (an avatar of Vishnu) and Prince Arjuna. The prince is refusing to fight a war and Vishnu through Krishna reveals his true and imposing form. This is also the source of Oppenheimers famous line, Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds. We will return to Vishnu and the alt-rights fascination with this deity and his destructive powers. Let us keep our eyes on Bannon for now.

Mumbai-based libertarian writer and podcaster Amit Verma has written a blogpost recollecting his meeting with Bannon and an unnamed woman (most probably Rebekah Mercer) in 2015, in New York, where he was asked if he would be interested in launching Breitbart India. Breitbart, originally a conservative online paper, has become a breeding ground for the alt-right. When Verma refused the offer Bannon told him, Well, we think that Modi is Indias Reagan. This is when Bannon had not joined the Trump campaign and barely personally knew the man. It is interesting how everyone who stands in Bannons way is destroyed. Bannon wants Andrew Breitbarts job, he drops dead. Bannon wants Paul Manaforts job, he is disgraced and forced to resign. He is wary of Roger Ailes stealing his thunder, he drops dead.

Bannon claims he is not a racist or a neo-Nazi but his views resonate with Hitlers propaganda. Hitler would blame the political elite of Germany which betrayed its countrymen in consonance with global moneyed Jewry. Bannon believes that Americas permanent political elite has betrayed its people in consonance with what he calls the party of Davos (international business elite). Like Hitler, he is an accelerationist who wants to bring everything down to build it anew and is renting an 800-year-old monastery in Italy to train gladiators to fight the coming wars at an annual cost of 100,000 per annum from his own pocket. That is where Vishnu the destroyer of the world fits into his narrative.

Speaking of Vishnu and Hitler, I told you two weeks ago that Savitri Devi, a Hindu convert of European origin and of Nazi persuasion, believed that Hitler was an avatar of Vishnu. Savitri Devis works have worked as the Rosetta Stone of neo-Nazism and Hindutva connection. Her book, The Lightning and the Sun, led me back to Turner Diaries publisher National Vanguard Books and to its recent publisher Counter-Currents. Her book, A Warning to the Hindus, led me to Hindutva philosophys founder VD Savarkar whose brother SD Savarkar wrote the foreword of the book. The Nazis believed in the fundamental inequality of humanity but did not have a religious philosophy. Savitri Devi provided them one by deifying Hitler and through effective exploitation of the cast-ist theology of monism. The only problem with this invention is that todays Nazis neither consider Indians as their equals or Aryans. It is a disaster waiting to happen as we will show you.

Interestingly, the man responsible for bringing Savitri Devis work to Counter-Currents is one John Morgan, who before coming to this publishing house, had co-founded another neo-Nazi house Arktos media in Budapest with Swedish white nationalist Daniel Friberg in 2009. In 2010, Arktos moved to India where it remained till (surprise surprise) 2014. During this period Friberg had a frequent truck with the RSS and BJP leaders and explored ways to work with them. Soon, Arktos would start publishing Hindutva books with equal fervour hitherto reserved for white nationalist literature. When in 2016 Morgan and Friberg split and Morgan joined Counter-Currents, Friberg combined forces with white nationalist and one-time Trump supporter Richard Spencer to establish AltRight.com.

The alt-rights online presence needs some closer scrutiny. It is commonly believed it emerged from gaming-related imageboards and websites like 4chan and Reddit. These websites, by the way, are infested with both neo-Nazis and Hindutva extremists. These origins are also important because Bannon in the documentary American Dharma made on his life let slip an illuminating anecdote. He talks about a nobody called Dave who one day dropped dead in his office and nobody, not even his family knew him well. However, in the gaming community, he was known as Ajax. And in a multiplayer game, thousands gathered to pay tribute to Ajax at his funeral. What it tells us is that the real meetings and planning of alt-right activities might be taking place in virtual and possibly gaming space.

And no wonder, the number of alt-right and neo-Nazi inspired groups keeps increasing. A recent group to emerge is called Boogaloo Bois which seems to be preparing for the second civil war. It calls itself libertarian not white nationalist, but the tactics employed are textbook Turner Diaries. What if like Bannons this is an attempt to obscure the truth and they all are separated pieces of a jigsaw puzzle that are assembled together whenever a race war and violent overthrow of the system is imminent. Bannon talks against the system, Alex Jones talks against the system and Boogaloo movement does so too. In Turner Diaries, the system is the name of a corrupt Jewish ruling elite that wants to turn whites into a minority. Bannon talks of the coming violent disruption as if it is imminent. Neo-Nazism 101.

One last piece of the puzzle: money. When Access Hollywood tape was leaked, everyone thought Trumps campaign was over and donors were ditching, who came to his rescue? An Indian billionaire Shalabh Kumar. Is it too much to suggest that instead of Americas deep state the very same people who came to Trumps rescue might be responsible for the tapes leak so that they can isolate and have Trump for themselves? This money must have gone to some alt-right groups as well.

If a race war is being planned in America and Europe it cannot be anything for the immigrant population including the Indian expatriates. Here is a quote from Turner Diaries: They have us vastly outmanned and outgunned, but not one of their leaders is motivated by anything other than self-interest. They are ready to betray the System the instant they can see an advantage in doing so. For now, we mustnt let them know that they are all inevitably headed for the gallows. Let them think they can make a deal with us and save their necks when the System falls.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 4th, 2020.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.

Original post:

The saffron swastika - The Express Tribune

WELLINGTON (Reuters) - New Zealand police and security services were warned of a threat against another mosque for the same day that a gunman killed 51 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch in 2019, an Islamic womens group told an inquiry into the shooting massacre.

FILE PHOTO: Armed police officers stand guard outside Al Noor mosque where more than 40 people were killed by a suspected white supremacist during Friday prayers on March 15, in Christchurch, New Zealand April 1, 2019. REUTERS/Edgar Su

The Islamic Womens Council of New Zealand said it warned police and security services repeatedly about threats from white supremacists, including when they received a Facebook message threatening to burn the Quran outside a mosque in Hamilton on March 15, 2019, the same day as the Christchurch attack.

Although the threat was not directly connected to the mass shooting, extra security measures could have been taken at all mosques, said the submission to the closed-door inquiry which was made public on Tuesday.

The police had enough intelligence to warrant a coordinated national strategy, the group said in the 130-page submission

If there had been such a strategy, then the message would have alerted every mosque in the country to a threat to one mosque on Friday 15 March 2019 and for all mosques to take extra security measures. Whether or not the threat was connected to the Christchurch killer is irrelevant.

Armed with semi-automatic weapons, Australian Brenton Tarrant, a suspected white supremacist, attacked two mosques in Christchurch on March 15, 2019, broadcasting New Zealands worst mass shooting live on Facebook.

Tarrant has pleaded guilty and a court will begin his sentencing on Aug 24.

The Islamic Womens Council submission said police, security services and government representatvies were focused only on combating terrorism by Muslim extremists, leaving the community vulnerable to the rising alt-right movement.

Evidence indicates that public sector employees were, at best, asleep on the job and, at worst, intentionally

ignoring our pleas and actively undermining our work, Aliya Danzeisen, who leads the groups government engagement, said in a statement.

Police said no comment would be made until the Royal Commission had concluded. However, on the specific threat in the report it said the person was identified and formally warned.

A government spokesman said the government will wait for the Commissions report before making any comment.

The Royal Commission inquiry into the shooting massacre is due report its finding by end of July.

Threats to the Muslim community have continued since the attack, with a threatening social media post appearing earlier this year.

New Zealand, unlike the United States or Britain, has never recorded specific hate crime offences, raising questions about what signs security agencies may have missed.

Islamic Womens Council estimates there would not be a Muslim woman in New Zealand who wears the head scarf who has not been abused in public at some time.

Read more:

New Zealand police warned of another mosque threat before Christchurch shooting massacre - Reuters

For as long as I can remember, Ive participated in church services and prayer meetings where I prayed fervently for revival. We cried out for another Great Awakening. It was through repentance and reconciliation that wed truly heal our land. I must confess, I wasnt sure Id ever live to see a truly large-scale religious awakening. But here we are. Here it is. Theres just one catch.

Its not Christian.

It is, however, quite fundamentalist.

Look, I know full-well that there is nothing original about observing that many Americans have transformed politics into a religion. The phrase Great Awokening is a direct callback to arguably the most significant Christian religious revival of our nations past. Its not original, nor is it surprising. Were hard-wired for a spiritual purpose. After all, Ecclesiastes 3:11 declares that God put eternity in the hearts of men.

The signs of political-religious fervor are incandescently clear. Heres John McWhorter, writing in The Atlantic, describing the religious elements of what he calls third-wave antiracism:

[T]hird-wave antiracism is a profoundly religious movement in everything but terminology. The idea that whites are permanently stained by their white privilege, gaining moral absolution only by eternally attesting to it, is the third waves version of original sin. The idea of a someday when America will come to terms with race is as vaguely specified a guidepost as Judgment Day. Explorations as to whether an opinion is problematic are equivalent to explorations of that which may be blasphemous. The social mauling of the person with problematic thoughts parallels the excommunication of the heretic. What is called virtue signaling, then, channels the impulse that might lead a Christian to an aggressive display of her faith in Jesus.

McWhorter was discussing anti-racism, but his analysis applies to elements of the intersectional left more broadly. Heres Andrew Sullivan with a similar analysis:

[Intersectionality] is operating, in Orwells words, as a smelly little orthodoxy, and it manifests itself, it seems to me, almost as a religion. It posits a classic orthodoxy through which all of human experience is explained and through which all speech must be filtered. Its version of original sin is the power of some identity groups over others. To overcome this sin, you need first to confess, i.e., check your privilege, and subsequently live your life and order your thoughts in a way that keeps this sin at bay. The sin goes so deep into your psyche, especially if you are white or male or straight, that a profound conversion is required.

Make no mistake, political religious fervor is not contained to the left. There are times when Trumpism veers directly onto religious turf. Sometimes quite explicitly. Observe the First Baptist Church of Dallas choir sing a hymn called Make America Great Again:

Spend any time around the new Trump right, and youre immediately seized by how closely it tracks that ole time religionwith Trump serving as the charismatic circuit-riding evangelist. People wonder about his deep bond with so many millions of rural Americans, but its obvious to observers who grew up in the Southeven if Trumps a New York reality star, hes still connecting with a deep (and idealized) rural cultural memory.

The result isnt just enthusiastic political support (political rallies and preacher-style rhetoric are nothing new in American politics) but a sense of identity, fellowship, and religious passion thats syncretistic with Christianity, with Trump serving as the Lords mighty instrument of justice and righteousness.

So, yes, secular religion is breaking out across the land. Thats old news. Heres whats newits growing so very dark. We dont need to repeat all the recent excesses of cancel culture to know that many anti-racist progressives are in the midst of a hunt for ideological heretics, and even the oldest sins cant be forgiven. Consider that on Friday a Boeing executive resigned after an employee complained about an article he wrote 33 years ago opposing women in combat.

(For the record, Im now ineligible to work at Boeing because I wrote against Pentagon policy changes permitting women to serve in ground combat roles a mere five years ago, and I stand by my argument.)

And if you think religious Trumpism is sweetness and light, you havent been paying attention. In fact, right-wing Trumpism is trying its best to build its own cancel culture, aimed at purging right-wing institutions of anti-Trump voicesor at abusing them and hounding them online and in real life.Cruelty isnt just a means to an end. Its often the point.

At the edges of Trumpism sit the racist alt-right and the followers of Q, a conspiracy theory so bizarre, incomprehensible, and paranoid that you strain to understand how anyone can believe its claims. Yet its growing in strength, and it occupies a deeply spiritual place in the lives of its adherents.

This darkness requires us to circle back to a word in the opening paragraphs of this essayfundamentalist. The more I experienced the extremes of both left and right, the more I felt like words such as illiberal or authoritarian or even religious didnt quite capture the totality of the devotion and the darkness of the world view. Fundamentalist is a better match. Our nations secular revival looks and feels very much like the fundamentalism Ive seen with my own eyes. It looks and feels like the fundamentalism Ive experienced. And so, on Friday, I tweeted this:

I want to be clear what I mean when I say fundamentalist. The word isnt a mere synonym for religious or evangelical or orthodox or devoted. Each of those words (hopefully) describe me! One or more of those words can describe members of many faiths, including revivalists in the Great Awokening. Ive met many secular, woke, intersectional, pronoun-announcing folks who are also open-hearted and open-minded.Politics may be their religion, but their practice is not grim.

To understand the distinction between fundamentalism and, say, evangelicalism or other forms of devotion, I want to go back to Ecclesiastes 3:11 and quote the entire verse: He has made everything appropriatein its time.He has also put eternity in their hearts,but no one can discover the work God has done from beginning to end.

Let me quote another verse, this one from the New Testament: Fornow we see in a mirror dimly, butthen face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even asI have been fully known.

Both of these passages speak to the existence of an immovable, irreducible amount of uncertainty in this world, including mysteries about God Himself.

Recall the end of the book of Job, when the righteous, suffering man demands an explanation for his plight from the God of the universe, and the God of the universe responds with an extended soliloquy that essentially declares, Im God, and youre not. And what is Jobs response? Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.

As a consequence, while there are many, many things we can know about Godand many things we can learnwe must approach our faith and our world with a sense of existential humility.

And that is exactly the quality that the fundamentalist lacks. Its the fierce existential certainty of the fundamentalist that is so often the root of authoritarianism and illiberalism. Im reminded of the old religious maxim, Error has no rights. That impulse lies at the heart of much of the Christian nationalist/integralist critique of classical liberalism. That impulse lies at the heart of the speech code and the metastasizing intolerance of woke capitalism.

In a culture stripped of existential humility, the only valuable speech is the speech of those who speak existential truth. Dissent harms the body politic by introducing error. Thus free speechas an independent liberty interestcannot possibly be in the common good. The common good is advanced only by truth, and thus only truth has rights.

And what is that fundamentalist truth? Strangely enough, it can shift. A fundamentalist can be both absolutely certain of their faith and endlessly adaptable to new revelation. Opinions held one year ago can be an anathema today. New leaders can rise and make new spiritual demands. Indeed, fundamentalism can be just as much about whom to follow as what to believe.

The deeper the fundamentalism, the more inscrutable its language, culture, and beliefs to those outside the circle of trust. At the extreme edges, like QAnon, the belief system can seem so nonsensical that youre tempted to wonder about the emotional and mental health of its adherents. But even the practices of more acceptable or mainstream fundamentalism can seem both strange and cruel.

Try explaining to someone outside the faith the idea that its necessary to destroy a mans career over a 33-year-old essay expressing an entirely mainstream political position.

Try explaining to someone outside the faith the idea of paying up to $2,500 for two women to come to your home and berate you to the point of tears for your alleged racism and white supremacy.

Try explaining to someone outside the faith well, this:

Fundamentalism is the disease, and illiberalism and authoritarianism are two of its political symptoms. Fundamentalism purports to fill that eternity-sized hole in the human heart, and it thus provides a person with a sense of burning purpose and meaning. It is not a grift (though grifters do prey on fundamentalists). It is not malicious (though a sense of righteous certainty can justify and excuse malicious acts). It is an identity.

What is to be done with our nations toxic fundamentalist revival? Heres a short but difficult list: First, reaffirm our nations commitments to pluralism. It is central to our classical liberal founding that error does, in fact, have rights. Second, construct and cultivate opposing institutions that model the values of humility, charity, and free inquiry that we seek to advance. Third, maintain a wide-open door to converts. And fourth, pray without ceasing for our nation and its people.

As longtime readers know, I grew up in a church that had strong fundamentalist roots. Ive seen many people leave fundamentalism and enter religious communities that were rich with the fruits of the spirit, including love, joy, peace, patience, and kindness. I have not, however, seen people battered, mocked, and berated out of fundamentalism. Indeed, anger and intolerance directed at the angry and intolerant often only serve to deepen the fundamentalists sense of conviction and purpose.

In other words, the fight fire with fire logic of the competing fundamentalist strains of the American secular revival is precisely wrong. One flame doesnt eradicate (or even permanently defeat) the other. They both feed each other, until the conflagration spirals out of control. Instead, fight this fundamentalist fire with water, the living water from the Holy Spirit of a loving God.

One last thing ...

Our present national crisis should make us angry, but that anger shouldnt focus on our friends and neighbors. They are not the enemy of our souls. I like this new song from We the Kingdom. Ive highlighted the group before (theyre from my church), and theyre a reader favorite. Their new song is fierce and defiantand aimed at exactly the right target:

Photograph by Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images.

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America Is in the Grips of a Fundamentalist Revival - The Dispatch

Stock image of a woman in a mask.

On July 8, 2020, during a special meeting of Mendocino Countys Board of Supervisors, the board voted unanimously for penalties to individuals who refuse to comply with facial coverings guidelines.

According to a draft of the proposed ordinance, the fines range from one hundred dollars ($100.00) for the first violation; two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the second violation; and five hundred dollars (500.00) for third or subsequent violations if the subsequent violations occur within one year of the first violation.

The ordinance says fines will apply to any individual person to willfully or negligently refuse to wear a Facial Covering after an Enfofrcement Officer has informed the person that a Facial Covering is requiredunless the individual articulates a truthful, valid reason for not wearing a facial covering that is also one of the exceptions provided below.

The ordinance will take effect immediately as an urgency ordinance, and shall be applicable as of July 8, 2020, the date of approval of this ordinance.

As to those that can enforce the masking requirements, the ordinances language allows for both law enforcement personnel and anyone designated by the Health Officer including county employees, contractors, or anyone designated by Mendocino Countys Chief Executive Officer.

Exemptions from wearing facial coverings range from children under the age of two years old, persons who are hearing impaired, incarcerated individuals, and makes room for medical exemptions as well. The ordinance does specify that anyone claiming medical exemption bears the burden of proof through appropriate evidence that their medical condition qualifies them for the exemption.

The ordinance defines when facial coverings are required: All individual persons must wear a Facial Covering before they enter, and at all times while inside an indoor facility or any enclosed space, besides their residence, and outdoors when unable to maintain a six-foot distance from other persons outside of their own household or Non-distancing Stable Group.

The draft ordinance makes room for those issued citations erroneously to appeal their fines. An individual who wants their citation reviewed would document their appeal in writing and then the County Health Officer or a designee would determine whether the fine was issued appropriately or not. The model allows for, Any Responsible Party aggrieved by an administrative decision of a Hearing Officer or by the decision of the Hearing Officer may obtain further review by filing a petition for review with the Mendocino County Superior Court.

Mendocino Countys 5th District Supervisor, Ted Williams, explained, The state already made it law to follow the health orders including facial coverings. Under state law, its a misdemeanor. None of us seem willing to find individuals $10,000 or send them to jail. Today, we passed a separate offense that is only an infraction. Section 7 makes it clear that this new offense applies to persons, not a commercial activity. Commercial activity is still covered under the state misdemeanor.

In a presentation to the board, Mendocino County Sheriff Matt Kendall compared the utilization of an infraction citation for eschewing facial coverings to those issued when seatbelt ordinances were first enacted. He said the fines and fees are a little stiff but it gets the point across and protects Mendocino Countys District Attorneys office from increasing the countys already-backlogged court system.

Sheriff Kendall also expressed concern that I have concerns that a person who wont sign a citation when that occurs, an arrest is a remedy. He hoped to not see use of force issues stemming from infractions, however, the violator will be the person that makes ultimately makes the decisions about their fate in these encounters.

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Mendocino County Board of Supervisors Approves Issuance of Fines for Refusing to Wear Facial Coverings - Redheaded Blackbelt

On May 4, far right personalities Milo Yiannopoulos and Michelle Malkin published what they call their America First reading list as a Google Doc that they then promoted through their social media accounts. Yiannopoulos has recently gained attention for promoting conspiracy theories about both COVID-19 and the recent anti-police brutality protests across the United States. Malkin, who might be best known for writing a book arguing that Japanese internment during World War II was justified, has similarly promoted dangerous disinformation about COVID-19 and reduced Movement for Black Lives protesters to invaders [and] ransackers. None of this is out of character for a pair whose recommended reading list is rife with anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, paranoid invasion fantasies, and at least one prominent fascist philosopher who explicitly denied the notion that he should rely on empirical evidence.

It might be tempting to dismiss the list as another stunt by attention-hungry provocateurs or an attempt to give a racist and misogynist worldview an intellectual veneer. However, it is worth paying attention to what their literary choices reveal about their ideology, the narratives that underpin it, and the connection between those narratives and real-world violence.

The first thing their list attempts to do is establish just what constitutes American literature. This holds true despite the fact that many of the titles were not written by Americans at all: the lists creators are invested in defining the United States strictly as an outgrowth of pre-modern Europe, so it should come as no surprise that it includes older canonical texts by figures like Homer, Ovid, St. Augustine and Shakespeare in addition to Americana like Huckleberry Finn and Paul Reveres Ride. The publication dates for most of its more modern literature by U.S. authors peter out by the early 1960s (Ray Bradburys 1963 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes, for instance) with only a small handful of more recent novels, such as the self-published, remarkably poorly written 2019 accelerationist novel Harassment Architecture by Mike Ma.

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In a tab on the Google Doc marked HOW TO READ, Yiannopoulos and Malkin address their readers directly, writing, The purpose of this list is to help you build a library that will give you a firm basis in history, politics, religion and theology. That firm basis manages to exclude the entire wealth of Black and Indigenous perspectives. Their understanding of modern American literature leaves no room for a Toni Morrison or a Leslie Marmon Silko, and their classics certainly have no place for a Frederick Douglass or a W.E.B. DuBois. Instead, they opt for a virtual how-to manual for white resentment and violence.

Having established that what they understand as American literary culture is innately and almost exclusively derived from Europe, the next thing their list does is reassert the narratives of invasion, resistance and expansion that have fueled the far right imagination for decades. Possibly the lists clearest example of an invasion narrative is recently deceased French author Jean Raspails 1973 novel The Camp of the Saints, a book Yiannopoulos and Malkin indicate is a must read and that has been championed by far right figures from Steve Bannon to leaders of Europes identitarian movement. The Camp tells of a ramshackle armada of boats carrying an undifferentiated mass of impoverished Indian migrants who literally eat feces and invade Europe like zombies, displacing its white inhabitants in the process. It begins with an anecdote about a pedigreed university professor who murders a young hippie for supporting the migrants (in 1973, it was still possible for the far right to characterize academics as upholders of Western superiority, rather than its destroyers). In fact, throughout the novel, the real villains are less the migrants than the media, political and religious elites, as well as the hedonistic activists who advocate for the nameless, faceless, brown-skinned horde. In all, the novels plot amounts to an updated stab-in-the-back myth.

Many on the far right have described the book as prophetic since a new wave of migrants began arriving on Europes Mediterranean shores in 2015 and renewed attention has been focused on undocumented immigration at the southern border of the United States since Donald Trumps election campaign began that same year. Pat Buchanan, who recently used The Camp of the Saints as a metaphor for an article about Syrian migrants on the white nationalist website VDARE, has two titles on the reading list, one of which is another must read; VDARE founder and white nationalist Peter Brimelow has one title on the list as well.

In case all of that is still too subtle, invasion narratives also dovetail neatly with the great replacement theory that motivated, among other things, the mass shootings at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, in March 2019. Shooter Brenton Tarrant titled his manifesto The Great Replacement and wrote, We must crush immigration and deport those invaders already living on our soil.

Over the past year, Yiannopoulos and Malkin have been working closely with the groyper movement, which is essentially an alt-right (white nationalist) rebrand since the old label became too toxic following the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017. In fact, it is groyper-in-chief Nick Fuentess podcast that gave the movement and the reading list the America First slogan. (Fuentes, one of the very fine people who attended Unite the Right, borrowed the phrase from Donald Trumps inauguration speech.) Groypers are a constituency already moved by the overheated rhetoric of invasion and replacement, and so attacking or, as they would say, resisting the classes of people they regard as responsible for facilitating the invasion is a logical next step.

The reading list includes both Italian fascist intellectual Julius Evolas Revolt Against the Modern World and Unabomber Ted Kaczynskis manifesto Industrial Society and its Future, which Yiannopoulos and Malkin describe as a rejection of the modern world. Either one of these texts is toxic enough by itself, but in conjunction with one another, they amount to a further indication that the list provides both a theoretical rationale and a moral justification for violent attacks on such modern notions as democracy, egalitarianism, feminism and multiculturalism. Where Evola draws on a mythologized past of undiluted elitism and authoritarian, masculine heroism that, he argues, needs to be reclaimed (while explicitly rejecting any need for empirical evidence), Kaczynski, whose 17-year bombing campaign killed three people and injured 23 others, rails against a leftist psychology that he claims is symptomatic of a sick industrial society. Like many contemporary reactionaries, Kaczynski despises political correctness, which he says has its stronghold among university professors. Not coincidentally, it is university professors who were the most frequent targets of Kaczynskis mail bombs.

The list also included more overt resistance narratives. It initially featured The Turner Diaries by William Luther Pierce (it has since been removed with no explanation given). The Turner Diaries is a novel about a clandestine movement of white men who use racialized terrorism and nuclear warfare to take back the United States from Jewish usurpers and what Pierce portrays as the mindless, sex-crazed Black and Latino men who act as their enforcers. Pierce was the leader of the militant white supremacist organization National Alliance and his novel inspired neo-Nazi terror group The Order, which was responsible for murdering talk radio host Alan Berg in 1984. Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh evangelized the book, traveling to gun shows to sell it (and its sequel, Hunter) to like-minded people; his bombing attack on the Murrah Building closely resembled a similar act described in detail in Pierces text. Investigators found portions of it in his getaway car. Germanys National Socialist Underground (NSU), which murdered 10 people and injured others in a years-long terror campaign against a mostly Turkish immigrant population, also took inspiration from The Turner Diaries: NSU member Uwe Mundlos translated several chapters of the book into German and a digital copy was found on a hard drive in an apartment Mundlos and his two primary accomplices had rented while underground.

The list also supports narratives of expansion, a central theme of classical fascism. It includes multiple titles that seek to [set] the record straight about the Crusades, a historical reference point that is ubiquitous in online far right discourse and invokes images of violent confrontation between Western warriors and Muslim Saracens. Moreover, the reading list and the compilers commentary constantly refer to a theme of Christian superiority and its inseparability from Western identity. They describe one must read title as explaining why the noblest virtues all rest on Christian principles and another as articulating how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination. At the same time, Willa Cather, the lone female author on the list who isnt a post-civil rights-era right-wing polemicist, may well be a fine writer, but Yiannopoulos and Malkin summarize their interest in her books by emphasizing her focus on the resilient women who settled the Great Plains. By constantly emphasizing the heroism of the colonizer while completely excluding any voice of the colonized, they make it clear that a certain kind of invasion is, in fact, acceptable to them. In brief, the sum total of the outlook supported by these texts is a justification of all past (and, presumably, present and future) colonial efforts by virtuous Western Christians at the expense of whatever Other is at hand.

The list is also heavy on anti-Semitic literature (The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, Kevin MacDonalds Culture of Critique, and yes, Hitlers Mein Kampf, although the latter has also been removed without explanation); masculinist or anti-feminist texts (Jack Donovans The Way of Men or several titles by Camille Paglia); and overt white nationalist screeds by the likes of Jared Taylor, Vox Day and Ann Coulter. Yiannopoulos and Malkins commentary is revealing here. They acknowledge that the Protocols are a hoax, but they say nothing about why they felt a fraudulent text produced in Tsarist Russia should be included anyway. They describe Culture of Critique as a highly controversial historical survey of the roots of anti-semitism [sic]. This is, at best, a grossly misleading summary. MacDonalds book is not so much an exploration of why other people have turned on Jews in the past, but rather why he believes Jews should be hated. His focus on what he believes is Jewish culpability, rather than other peoples attitudes toward Jews, is evident right in the books subtitle: An Evolutionary Analysis of Jewish Involvement in Twentieth-Century Intellectual and Political Movements. In fact, Culture is the final book of a trilogy and the subtitles of the other two, Judaism as a Group Evolutionary Strategy and Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Anti-Semitism only emphasize MacDonalds presumption that Jews are inherently, indeed genetically, predisposed to maintaining a subversive communal identity separate from whatever other populations they encounter. His analysis seldom rises above the level of condemning the clannish nature of international, cosmopolitan Jewry.

Yiannopoulos and Malkin have a history of brushing off claims of racism, misogyny and anti-Semitism by invoking their own genre of identity politics. Yiannopoulos could not possibly be anti-Semitic, because he is part Jewish; Malkin obviously cannot be misogynist because she is a woman. And neither of them could ever be racist because he claims he is married to a Black man (whose name he has never revealed and whose face has never been seen publicly) and she is Filipina and married to a Jewish man. Yiannopoulos, however, was banned from Twitter for leading a viciously racist and misogynist campaign against a Black actor and notoriously filmed singing America the Beautiful while his erstwhile friend Richard Spencer and others gave Nazi salutes. For her part, Malkin has openly supported anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and the white nationalist aspirations of the groyper movement.

One of the major tools of contemporary far right movements like the alt-right, Europes identitarians, and now the groypers is what they call metapolitics. It is a concept borrowed from mid-century Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci that was introduced to far right circles by Armin Mohler, a post-WWII German apologist for fascism, in a 1946 dissertation that codified what he called Germanys interwar Conservative Revolution. The concept gained popularity in the European far right through the work of Mohlers mentee Alain de Benoist and his notion of right-wing Gramscianism. De Benoist, the intellectual leader of Frances Nouvelle Droite (New Right), co-authored a Manifesto of the New Right for the Year 2000, which described metapolitics as, not another way of doing politics. It has nothing to do with a strategy that aims to impose an intellectual hegemony any more than it claims to disqualify other possible approaches or attitudes. It rests solely on the observation that ideas play a fundamental role in collective consciousnesses and, more broadly, in the entire history of men. In practice, far right metapolitics is a process of using cultural means to make far right ideas more palatable, or what many of its practitioners refer to as shifting the Overton window, which represents the outer limits of acceptable discourse.

The America First reading list clearly falls within the metapolitical sphere. It is nothing if not an overt attempt to instill a very narrowly defined conception of American culture in the minds of a young, overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly male constituency that is already predisposed to racialized and gendered resentment. As we have seen from Christchurch to El Paso, Oslo to Pittsburgh, their cohort is already prone to explosive and deadly violence.

It is possible to dismiss the America First reading list as just another manifestation of the far right echo chamber and the urge for people like Yiannopoulos and Malkin to keep drawing attention to themselves. However, it also provides useful insights into the mindset of their groyper constituency and related far right sects, as well as the pathways that lead from their exclusionary ideology to violent action. Three years after Unite the Right and in the midst of both a pandemic and a rapidly evolving push for anti-racist social and political change, understanding the process by which the far right propagates narratives of invasion, resistance and expansion in the interest of establishing its own sense of legitimacy is still a necessary precondition for effective opposition to their objectives.

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Far Right Reading List Shows Link Between Its Literature and Real-World Violence - Truthout

The agenda of the right-wing forces will likely move to the left, not through the betrayal of their basic ideological principles, but because they will have to respect the requirements of their electorate and supporters, writesDaniil Grigoryev,expert of the Institute of Globalization and Social Movements (IGSO), Moscow.

The COVID-19 pandemic, which has been top global news for months now, has resulted in a thorough revision of the seemingly inviolable rules of the game in budgetary policies, social infrastructure priorities and many other fields too. It has also provoked deep changes in collective consciousness, which is slowly rising from ruins amid the unexpected changes and pessimistic mid-term forecasts. What effect will this have on the public and, in particular, on the views that set the tone on the global political stage? To try answering this question, we really need to take a good look at the situation preceding the surprise pandemic.

Something that predominantly sticks out in global history over a period of the past decade was the increased turbulence, or a series of conflicts and crises that shook many countries around the world. Flabby economic growth in the United States, a large-scale crisis in the European Union (in particular, in southern Europe), ever decreasing growth rates in the periphery countries, and a shocking plunge of oil prices have created a material basis for social instability. On the other hand, they have launched a powerful process of political and cultural transformation. The military component of international relations, although very important, is not something to be brought up in this commentary.

The largest and most significant of these processes is the rise of political influence of various populist forces, which are gaining ever more attention by sharply criticising the existing social system, from its monetary policies to immigration laws and mainstream media. Populist leaders are famous for speaking simply, so that their slogans easily appeal to the general public, appealing to everyday experience, and offering simple solutions to the majority of current problems. [: There are very many books and other literature on populism, for example, The Global Rise of Populism (2016) by researcher Benjamin Moffitt and its latest contribution, Populism (2020).]

There are several dimensions of the rising populism. One is represented by the so-called left-wing populists, such as Pablo Iglesias Turrion (Podemos, Spain), Alexis Tsipras (former SYRIZA, Greece), Bernie Sanders (Democratic Party, US), Jeremy Corbyn (Labor Party, UK), Jean-Luc Melenchon (La France Insoumise or France Unbowed), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (member of the US Congress), and Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (President of Mexico). Despite their social media popularity, most of them did not have much luck when it came to fighting for power.

At the same time, right-wing populists seem to be more successful in this pursuit, for example, leader of the Brexit Party Nigel Farage, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, President of the National Rally (formerly National Front) political party Marine Le Pen, US President Donald Trump, President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro, and the collective leadership of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany. They have won elections and were more successful in attaining their other goals, such as Brexit. It is therefore not surprising that the attention of political analysts, commentators and academics was focused on these and other right-wing politicians.

Despite a rapid rise during the crisis period, the New Right politicians do not resemble their predecessors of the 1930s or even the 1970s in structure, ideology, or even presentation. A new term has been coined to denote them, alt-right, alternative right, to stress their unique status. The heyday of the alt-right coincided with Donald Trumps victory (Data source: Google Trends), who was widely supported by many speakers of the alt-right, related media resources and other celebrities, including many online communities.

Trumps political victory promised a bright future for the alt-right, and many people thought that the alt-right would determine the development of the worlds largest countries in the next decade. We are well aware now that these forecasts never materialised. The seeming unity of the alt-right started eroding exceedingly fast. Public figures claimed that they had no relation to the movement, including conservative youth leaders, such as Ben Shapiro and Milo Yiannopoulos, let alone Donald Trump himself. Trumps chief strategist and the co-founder of the far-right website Breitbart News, Steve Bannon, left the White House, although according to the grapevine it looks like he might be on his way back again. Many Western politicians slammed the door in the face of the alt-right after a series of thunderous scandals and suspicion of racism. In fact, alt-right supporters are now active predominantly in culture (gender identification, same sex families, and inclusiveness) and the environment, mostly climate change. The COVID-19 crisis has accelerated the gradual demise and degeneration of the alt-right movement, with the remaining few alt-right public figures only on rare occasions coming out with some statement or other.

Global shocks in human history usually encourage the spread of numerous popular theories and explanations of their origin, for example, the Zionist conspiracy theories of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Cold War spy mania, and the mystic theories that appeared during the Soviet Unions collapse. Collectively, they can be described as conspiracy theories that include many issues related to the alt-right and, in general, the right/conservative agenda.

Conspiracy researchers point out the features of many conspiracy theories:

Numerous interpretations and versions (the advocates of conspiracy theories claim that the COVID-19 pandemic originated in China, or the United States, or Russia);

Secretiveness and incomprehensibility (almost all conspiracy theories suggest the existence of private elite clubs and shadow governments)

Technophobia (the narratives of the digital concentration camp, forced human microchipping, 5G radiation, the dangers of vaccinations, and many other theories that are popular in Russia as well).

Another attractive feature of conspiracy theories is their rationality, according to which everything that takes place in the world can be explained by the existence of a small group of players with clearly mercenary objectives and effective instruments for attaining them. By this logic, unpredictability, chance, coincidence and uncontrollability only play a very insignificant role in these processes. Taken together, this shows that conspiracy thinking is a natural response of the public to frightening, unpredictable and dangerous events.

It is no wonder then that people who can be tentatively described as advocates of right-wing views have taken part in many events organised by COVID dissenters and the opponents of the lock-down regime. Overall, the right-wing politicians love of conspiracy theories is not a liberal presumption. For example, Infowars founder Alex Jones promoted a campaign that disputed the need for social distancing, shelter in place, and quarantine efforts. According to recent surveys, Republicans believe twice as often as Democrats that Chinese scientists engineered the coronavirus and that Bill Gates wants to use a mass vaccination campaign against COVID-19 to implant microchips in people to track them with a digital ID. However, the conspiracy-based agenda is not popular everywhere. For example, AfD is getting rid of unpopular marginal party members in an attempt to dissociate itself from such views

Government response to the coronavirus was so divided in many countries that this has not really helped to create and maintain a stable group of government supporters. Within a matter of a few months, the US and UK authorities moved from denying the danger of the coronavirus infection to calling for self-isolation, taking nationwide medical measures, and spending the largest ever amount of funds since WWII on financial support for the people, which reached double-digit percentage points of GDP. At the same time, far from all members of the right-wing parties have changed their views when it comes to the coronavirus, which is deepening the internal split in the not very popular movements and organisations.

Of course, the right-wing movement includes not only the alt-right and party groups in parliaments, but also conservatives, religious fundamentalists, and all manner of patriotic movements. The ultimate effect that they have on society is no easy task to assess, because the economic views of this movement vary from ultra-paternalism to anarcho-primitivism, and taking into account their fundamental ideologies that range from the political philosophy of the 19th century to the Scriptures.

So, what conclusions can we make from the just mentioned information?

First of all, when the COVID-19 crisis erupted, the alt-right had not developed as an integral movement with recognised leaders, ideologies (manifests), universal policy proposals and functioning political organisations.

Secondly, the coronavirus crisis is eroding the initially amorphous and unstable basis of the right-wing/conservative movement backed by numerous supporters of conspiracy theories, fringe politicians, anti-government forces, as well as the advocates of flat Earth theories.

And lastly, the overwhelming majority of the proponents of right-wing views are strongly influenced by changes in the public mood, the growing popularity of paternalism, the government programmes aimed at rapidly bringing the national economies back to pre-crisis levels, as well as ensuring (or introducing) the principle of universal access to modern, high quality medical services regardless of what people earn or where they live.

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Influence of COVID-19 Crisis on Global Right-Wing Agenda - Valdai Discussion Club

The result is The Atlantics first-ever feature-length documentary, White Noise, which focuses on the lives of three far-right figures: Mike Cernovich, a conspiracy theorist and a sex blogger turned media entrepreneur; Lauren Southern, an anti-feminist, anti-immigration YouTube star; and Richard Spencer, a white-power ideologue.

J.M. Berger: Trump is the glue that binds the alt-right

Progressives like to believe that racism is an opiate of the ignorant. But the alt-rights leaders are educated and wealthy, groomed at some of Americas most prestigious institutions. The more time I spent documenting the movement, the more ubiquitous I realized it was. I bumped into one subject dancing in Bushwick with his Asian girlfriend, and another walking around DuPont Circle hitting a vape. Their racism is woven into the fabric of New York, Washington, D.C., and Paris, just as much as Birmingham, Alabama, or Little Rock, Arkansas.

During a visit to Richard Spencers apartment in Alexandria, Virginia, I began to understand how the alt-right works. Evan McLaren, a lawyer, wrote master plans on a whiteboard. A band of college kids poured whiskey for Spencer, adjusted his gold-framed Napoleon painting, and discussed the coming Identitarian revolution. Spencer offered a sense of historical purpose to his bored, middle-class followers. In his telling, they werent just white Americans, but descendants of the Greeks and Romans. Myths are more powerful than rationality, Spencer told me. We make life worth living.

Read: Trumps white-nationalist pipeline

White Noise is about the seductive power of extremism. Hatred feels good. But the fix is fleeting. As the film progresses, the subjects reveal the contradictions at the heart of their world. Southern advocates for traditional gender roles, but resents the misogyny and sexism of her peers. Cernovich warns that diversity is code for white genocide, but has an Iranian wife and biracial kids. Spencer swears hell lead the white-nationalist revolutionuntil its more comfortable for him to move home to live with his wealthy mother in Montana. For so many who feel lost or alone, these avatars of hate offer a promise: Follow us, and life will be better.

White Noise shows how empty that promise is.

Toward the end of my reporting, my family traveled to Kielce, Poland, with my sole surviving grandmother, Nina Gottlieb, to retrace her steps fleeing the Nazis. They had signs: Jews and dogs are not allowed, she told us, as we gathered near her childhood home. My grandmother spent the war hiding under a Polish Catholic name, Janina Winiewski, until she was eventually resettled by HIAS, the Jewish refugee resettlement organization targeted by the white nationalist who murdered 11 people as they worshipped at a synagogue in Pittsburgh in 2018. Were all born innocent babies. What happens to us? my grandmother asked.

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Four Years Embedded With the Alt-Right - The Atlantic

Federal authorities on Tuesday said the man accused of killing a Santa Cruz County Sheriffs official and an Oakland security guard had ties to the Boogaloo movement.

But what is it?

The movement started in alt-right culture on the internet with the belief that there is an impending civil war, said Devin Burghart, director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights in Seattle. The two main aspects that differentiate Boogaloo Bois, as they call themselves, from other right-leaning militia-type groups are that they are younger and they are more likely to turn to acts of violence.

They are really violent, Burghart said. Armed conflict is at the core of their ideology.

Dr. Lawrence Rosenthal, director for the Center for Right-Wing Studies at UC Berkeley, said the movements origins are rooted in the history of the militia right in the United States, holding that patriots will rise up and lead to a second civil war.

While the movement overlaps with white nationalism, its supporters are centered more on the right to bear arms and not being subjected to constituted authority, Rosenthal said.

Another aspect that differentiates the movement from other extremist ones is its culture, like wearing distinctive patches and Hawaiian shirts.

The name itself is believed to come from the film Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, playing off the idea that the boogaloo is a sequel to the Civil War.

The FBI special agent who wrote the criminal complaint in the Santa Cruz and Oakland killings wrote that the movement was not a defined group but in general, followers of the Boogaloo ideology may identify as militia and share a narrative of inciting a violent uprising against perceived government tyranny.

Its difficult to estimate how many members or supporters the movement has, Burghart said, but there have been several recent real-life mobilizations, including three Nevada men who were recently arrested for allegedly plotting to terrorize protests in Las Vegas.

It has gained traction in recent months during the demonstrations to reopen the economy, he added.

Alejandro Serrano is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: alejandro.serrano@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @serrano_alej

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What we know about the 'Boogaloo Bois,' the far-right group tied to killings in Santa Cruz and Oakland - San Francisco Chronicle

The Trump presidency is often billed as a phenomenon born from chaos.

It arrived in a flurry of tweets, online beefs and the sound of rules and norms bending and snapping like fragile floorboards under a listing democracy. But make no mistake: The strategy of this White House and the culture it has sought to embolden is anything but random.

Posting wild conspiracy theories one minute, racist phraseology the next and then acting as if Trumps initial choice of Juneteenth for his latest rally made the day that now commemorates the end of slavery famous rather than being a blatant swipe of disrespect is all part of a strategy that relies on obnoxious, overwhelming online bullying, and pulls from an insidious corner of the gaming world as much as it does the history books.

Every bit of language out of Trump and the White House can be parsed for not-so-hidden coded messages and disinformation designed to create an environment full of symbols, badges and allegiances that create an us-versus-them playing field.

The bulk of Trumps speech Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., relied heavily on fear-based rhetoric with violent underpinnings. It was delivered in broad strokes as if to define teams.

I know our people, Trump said, cheerleading his followers strength in battle after portraying the Democratic Party as anarchists and stoking fears of immigration, even trotting out the grotesque slur kung-flu to describe COVID-19. While many laughed at the low turnout at the BOK Center rally after excessive hype from the Trump team, the president succeeded in disseminating his toxic messaging to a global audience. Its a thread that has been ramping up in recent weeks.

It was present when Trump tweeted that last weeks Supreme Court decision against his planned repeal of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA for so-called Dreamers, was shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or conservatives. Such language in particular is designed to appeal to those on the right who feel their culture is under attack.

And it was more directly spelled out in a Wall Street Journal interview in which Trump said wearing a mask in the pandemic is a way to signal disapproval of him and that attempts to COVID-shame him wouldnt work. Thats not just bad health-advice, it turns a face mask into a uniform and citizens into adversaries.

The Trump world overflows with language and images that are stand-ins for symbols, all of which the campaign shrugs off when called out. On Thursday, it was reported that Facebook removed numerous Trump ads that featured an inverted red triangle, a figure once used by the Nazis to identify their political opposition. The Trump team claimed it was an antifa symbol, a far-left movement that Trump is trying to use as a scapegoat by branding adherents as some sort of mysterious, Darth Vader-like overlords controlling the American empire.

Its as if Trump is the orator of his own extremely dangerous alternate-reality game, a type of play that graphs itself onto the real world and utilizes key words as signals to an in-the-know audience. In a playful environment, its a cue to dig deeper into a singular universe. Here, its an endless tunnel that has followers view every living being and pop-culture item as a symbol of potential political opposition.

Its not just a deflection; its the construction of a whole other alternate story line. Its a fantastical conspiratorial plot Trump has spun since his birther days, one that will only get more intense in the lead-up to the November election.

Recent attention has zeroed in on the boogaloo movement, a far-right fringe subculture that has been tied to violence around the country. Its followers also celebrate provocative memes and tweets while wearing aloha shirts and believing broadly speaking that progressive ideas are bringing us to a bloody race war that they hope will lead to their goal of overthrowing the federal government.

Any moment that can lead to mass unpredictability, be it Trumps calls to liberate states from stay-at-home health orders or large protests, exist, in their mind, to be exploited, and yet Trump continues to scream the word antifa as a call to arms. The president is creating a quest to look for conspiracies that dont exist such as the false Pizzagate claim that Hillary Clinton ran a pedophile ring in a restaurant basement all the way providing a narrative to an antagonistic way of life and using this moment of protest following the killing of George Floyd to create further divisions.

In these pursuits theres no elaborate puzzle or tidy solution, but it does provide followers constant fuel to hunt for the next conspiratorial breadcrumb until fiction turns into a much louder fiction or at least results on Facebook, which became a favorite landing spot for boogaloo supporters. Think of it as a Monopoly board, only instead of passing Go, the little square reads Fake News.

When viewed as part of a larger, game-like strategy, such chaos starts to come into relative clarity. The Trump thesis for leadership and disarray, while speaking to dark corners of internet message boards or Discord servers, even reads as if lifted from the texts of Diplomacy, a complicated-yet-nerdy board game of yore that unwittingly outlined a Trump-era manifesto.

There are some people who need to win to be amused, reads a guide to a 1979 edition of Diplomacy, the game first sold in the late 1950s and popularized by Avalon Hill. But Diplomacy, the guide tells us, is not a game for such persons.

No, in fact the guide directly spells out an alternate win state: maintaining the illusion of a balance of power. This is a game, in essence, where a player can dominate by keeping the others fighting among themselves. The goal? He is concerned that no player, no alliance, will become strong enough to eliminate any of the others, particularly himself.

Winning, more or less, comes from creating a state in which no one else can win. And power is maintained by keeping others confused, frustrated and angry. This feels uncomfortably close to Trumps method of governing.

Of course, the playing board was set even before Trump took office with Gamergate, a 2014 movement that galvanized around a perceived loss of power among a segment of the gaming community made up largely of men who believe their worldview is threatened by the media and the introduction of diversity in games. This publication and others have cited Gamergate as a blueprint for Trumps vitriolic attacks and Twitter dragging.

Thats because it isnt all that different from the complaints of those today who are angry over toppled Confederate statues or even the retiring of the Aunt Jemima brand. Keep politics out of a games is essentially an alt-right rallying cry for maintaining a status quo games by, for and starring white men.

Its a so-called army the administration has sought to activate, to quote Stephen K. Bannon, who once oversaw Breitbart News and served as Trumps campaign chief executive, in an interview he gave with journalist/author Joshua Green.

Consider them activated.

Thus, the cultural war moves to its next battleground, be it whatever high-profile game, television show or tell-all memoir is released this week. All are mixed together into a melting pot of racism and fear to maintain a hold on the cultural conversation. Or, rather, to simply make it difficult for other voices to get the floor.

Like the game of Diplomacy, its not about winning so much as it as just not losing.

In March, when fears over the spread of the coronavirus seemed to be alternately gripping and splitting the nation, I dug out my copy of Diplomacy, which I inherited from my dad but have had a hard time since college finding anyone will to play. In the spring, unfounded theories that the virus had been manufactured in a Chinese lab were floated, as was the suggestion by Trump to try the controversial anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and even bleach to prevent COVID-19.

Such messages drowned out and clashed with very real health concerns. Feeling stressed and powerless, I thumbed through a number of recent books and articles, trying to make sense of our disregard of facts, even in the face of something that would appear to be nonpartisan, such as a virus.

None of them hit as direct and plainly as Rod Walkers eloquent The Gamers Guide to Diplomacy.

Players, wrote Walker of the board game, do not expect consistency, but they do expect rationality. Sometimes any excuse will do.

Walker then writes of someone who was once an in-game ally, wondering why Walker stabbed him in the back.

His answer? Because it was there.

We should brace for the same, and be prepared to not stop showing our spine.

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How game theory not chaos rules the Trump White House - Los Angeles Times

Wizards of the Coast, best known as the company that publishes the popular fantasy-themed trading card gameMagic: The Gathering,recently announced it would be ending its longtime partnership with artist Terese Nielsen due to the latters affinity with the alt-right.

For reference,Magic: The Gatheringconsists of hundreds of thousands of cards, each of which is fitted with astounding artwork. The company typically does not produce this artwork in-house, but outsources it to a number of independent creators. Nielsen, who had been designing cards for Wizards since the early 1990s, was one of their earliest and most prolific freelancers.

For most of her employment, Nielsen was on good terms with the company. However, in 2018, fans began noticing the artist was following an alarming amount of conspiracy theorists on Twitter, nearly all of whom are affiliated with the alt-right. From white nationalists like Stefan Molyneux and Sandy Hook-deniers such as Alex Jones, Nielsen could be found in their lists of followers.

While the artist could have been following these accounts for strictly educational purposes not unlike how many non-Trump supporters follow the Presidents Twitter account she cemented her unfavorable political beliefs by retweeting a number of racist posts. As soon as the Magiccommunity became aware of her tastes, Nielsen began unfollowing many of the aforementioned accounts.

But her employer had already taken note. Had this controversy come to light a few years ago, Wizards of the Coast may have pardoned the artist and pretended nothing had happened. However, after receiving accusations of pervasive, ongoing racism on the work floor, the companys hands were metaphorically tied.

We havent commissioned new art from Terese Nielsen in quite a while, Doug Beyer, Principal Game Designer for Magic: the Gathering said. The last product that will have any reprint art from her is this Fall with Zendikar Rising.

See the article here:

Magic: The Gathering Ends Relationship With Controversial Artist - We Got This Covered

Thursday evening on Weekly MTG, Wizards of the Coast revealed that they have apparently ended their relationship with controversial artist Terese Nielsen.

We havent commissioned new art from Terese Nielsen in quite a while, said Doug Beyer, Principal Game Designer on the Worldbuilding team for Magic: the Gathering. The last product that will have any reprint art from her is this Fall with Zendikar Rising.

Beyers statement is Wizards of the Coasts first acknowledgement of the controversy surrounding Nielsen. It came on the same day that it was revealed that Nielsen will have at least three cards in Jumpstart, Magics newest supplemental product, with her art: Deaths Approach, Hunters Insight, and Rhystic Study. Many in the Magic community were upset that Wizards was continuing to use Nielsens work after the information that has surfaced throughout 2018 and 2019.

A sampling of alt-right, conspiracy-driven accounts that Nielsen followed on Twitter.

Nielsen, who lives in Carson City, NV with her wife, was one of Magics most popular artists and began illustrating cards in 1996s Alliances expansion set. But in 2018, people noticed that Nielsen had been following members of the alt-right and conspiracy theorists on Twitter. Those follows ranged from alt-right activists like Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec, to InfoWarshome of conspiracy theorist and Sandy Hook denier Alex Jonesand the white nationalist Stefan Molyneux.

She was also found to have liked a number of racist tweets that spouted anti-Semitic theories and made memes about white power.

Some of the racist and conspiracy-laden tweets Nielsen liked on Twitter.

When all of that was brought to light, she unfollowed many of those accounts and unliked the offending tweets. However, the controversy would not die down, and it resurfaced a year later in April 2019, at which time she issued a long statement on Twitter.

Being excommunicated from a community and ostracized by family for following my convictions is not new to me, Nielsen wrote. The Magic community has blessed me and taught me in a myriad of ways in the past 25 yearsI embrace the fact that many different viewpoints can, do, and should co-exist. In these stressful times, it is my intent to navigate in harmony with my core values (beauty, compassion, love) to the best of my ability without any need or desire to stifle, censor or demean another for differently held viewpoints.

Many found her statement vague and underwhelming, especially because it didnt address her alleged trans-exclusionary beliefs. Nielsen later posted a second statement celebrating pride month, saying: Just so nothing I have expressed thus far can possibly be misunderstoodfor the record, I support human rights, trans rights, gay rights, as well as religious freedom and the sacredness of life in all forms.

Just a few months later, Nielsens work ended up on the racist, QAnon and conspiracy-focused YouTube channel Edge of Wonder. The show posted a video on July 12, 2019 in which the co-hosts present art prints that Nielsen had gifted them.

Nielsens gifted work is displayed on an episode of Edge of Wonder.

So, a painter sent us these, Rob Counts says in the video. Terese Nielsen. She sent us all of these paintings and theyre actually incredible.

And signed them! replies co-host Ben Chasteen.

Despite the building body of evidence that Nielsen held fringe views, Wizards didnt make any public statements about the situation while the community grew increasingly uneasy. When Nielsen was given another card in June 2019s Modern Horizons set, Echo of Eons, Wizards still hadnt given any indication that they aware of the communitys concerns.

Then, in November of that year, controversy bubbled over once again at Mythic Championship VI. Autumn Burchett, winner of Mythic Championship I the first non-binary player to win a major tournament, wrote NO TERFS ON GRUUL TURF! on their (very expensive) Guru Forest and Island that feature artwork by Nielsen. (TERF stands for trans-exclusionary radical feminist and is often used to describe people who do not believe that trans women are women.) Burchett tweeted that Wizards asked them to remove those lands from their deck, causing an uproar in the Magic community as it appeared that Wizards was trying to stifle a very public criticism of Nielsen and her views.

Burchetts modified guru lands.

Nielsen proceeded to fade into the background as the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the entire world. Attention turned the delay of Ikoria: Lair of Behemoths release and the cancellation of Magics entire 2020 in-person schedule, from MagicFests to the Players Tour and Mythic Invitationals. On Memorial Day, George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, MN, generating waves of protest in the United States that dominated the headlines. The protests forced companies like Wizards to acknowledge how unwelcome many minorities felt in its game, resulting in the banning of seven cards for their racist depictions and an acknowledgement that [t]heres much more work to be done as we continue to make our games, communities, and company more inclusive.

A week later came the beginning of Jumpstarts preview seasonand the revelation that Nielsen would once again have cards with her art appear in a brand new Magic set.

We hear you, Beyer said Thursday. The implication of his wordsthat the last product that will have any reprint art from Nielsen will be in Zendikar Rising, combined with the fact that they havent commissioned any new art from [her] in quite a whileis that Wizards has stopped working with Nielsen and will cease printing cards with her art. When Hipsters reached out to Wizards for confirmation, they declined to comment any further.

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Wizards Ends Their Relationship with Terese Nielsen - Hipsters of the Coast

A petition has been launched by Philadelphia residents calling for the removal of former Supreme Court chief justice Roger Taneys name from the city street that bears his name.

The campaign, which has been organized by the community association Fitler Square Neighbors, states that the street should be changed to honor someone who has united the country rather than divided it, and who recognizes the contributions of all Americans.

Along with the petition, a rally was held at Markwand Parka part of Schuylkill River Park in Fitler Squareon Saturday to bring attention to the movement. The event was put on by Fitler Square Neighbors, as well as the Rename Taney campaign and the local community organization 5th Square.

The street was named after Taney in 1858. The southern portion of the street runs through Fitler Square, while the northern portion stretches from Fairmount to Brewerytown.

Taney has come under fire for writing the majority opinion of the U.S. Supreme Courts 1857 decision in the Dred Scott v. Sanford case, which held that African-Americans had no standing in court because they were not and could not be citizenseven if they were free.

There is just no reason for this divisive figure to continue to be celebrated in our city, the petition organizers wrote.

Baltimore and Annapolis, Maryland have removed statues of the former Supreme Court justice, according to the petition organizers.

The movement to take down Taneys name is the latest in a string of actions taken by city residents and officials to reassess statues, monuments, and murals honoring controversial figures across Philadelphia.

A statue paying tribute to former Philly Mayor Frank Rizzo outside of the Municipal Services Building in Center City was taken down earlier this month after it became a focus of the protests that have taken place in the wake of George Floyds death in May.

Additionally, a mural honoring the former mayor and police commissioner in the Italian Market of South Philly was painted over earlier this month too. The blank canvas that replaced the mural will soon be turned into new artwork.

Both the statue and mural have served as symbols of racism and police brutality for many residents. The late Rizzo has been scrutinized for his treatment of the city's black and gay communities during his time as mayor and police commissioner from 1967-1980.

Similar actions are being considered for the Christopher Columbus statue that sits at Marconi Plaza, as well as the Columbus Monument at Penns Landing.

The city ordered the South Philly statue be boarded up until its fate is determined, while the Delaware River Waterfront Corporation has covered the base of the monument at Spruce Street Harbor Park until a final decision is made.

Monuments honoring the Italian explorer have fallen under greater scrutiny in recent weeks.Some cities, including Camden, have removed them, viewing them as symbols of oppression committed against indigenous people. Supporters of the statues claim they are a historic marker and symbol of Italian heritage.

While these are symbolic actions, they strongly demonstrate that our city has the potential to evolve into one where everyone feels they are not only welcome but valued, the petition organizers wrote.

The petition calling for the removal of Taneys name can be viewed here.

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Philly residents call for Taney Street to be renamed - PhillyVoice.com

Good morning. I had a dream I was in Dan Tanas in Los Angeles and the place was packed. There was no coronavirus pandemic, just sweating martinis and jovial laughter, and I persuaded my guest, to order the shrimp parmigiana: best thing on the menu, exactly the sort of thing youd never make at home. The shrimp was delicious in my dream, but those words at home brought reality into my consciousness. Things went circular. I woke up in a sweat.

I miss complicated restaurant dishes, the ones a single cook works on for the whole shift: quick-frying the shrimp in batter, napping it in tomato sauce and mozz, running the dish under the salamander broiler so that it goes leopard-spotted at exactly the moment the shrimps perfectly cooked. You can make that 30 times an evening for a couple months and shrug: Its easy to make. Do it once at home, and youll see the lie in the sentiment. Its not.

So Ill wait for my shrimp parmigiana, my double consomm, my Peking duck. Well be able to eat those again, someday, I hope. In the meantime: Simplicity, ease, deliciousness squared.

Its neat. Setting yourself up for a lo-fi night of cooking oven-roasted chicken shawarma, say, with a side dish of charred shallots with labneh can actually hint at some of the joys we experienced in restaurants, when we could go to them. A vegan cheeseburger, courtesy of J. Kenji Lpez-Alt, could remind you of In-N-Out, back when you ate meat, back when you could sit in a booth at the shop on Sepulveda near LAX, first or final meal in Los Angeles. A Screaming Eagle cheesesteak sub might take you back to college dining halls, to how you could eat then, as if for two people or three. Steak au poivre from David Tanis? Is this now Raouls?

There are other recipes Id like to make real soon. Jerrelle Guys any-fruit drop biscuits (above), for instance. And Davids pasta with fresh tomato sauce and ricotta. Not to mention Melissa Clarks pasta with fried lemons and chile flakes. I could do those back to back!

(By the way, none of this is to say a cooking project cant be enjoyable right now. Angela Dimayugas beef empanadas prove that plain. So, too, Marcus Samuelssons quinoa with broccoli, cauliflower and toasted coconut, which is only laborious in the shopping. Try those, as well.)

Thousands and thousands more recipes to cook right now are waiting for you on NYT Cooking. Many more than usual are free to use even if you arent yet a subscriber to our site and apps. Please consider subscribing anyway, though. Your subscriptions support our work.

And please get in touch if anything gets squirrelly along the way, in your cooking or our technology. Were at cookingcare@nytimes.com. Someone will get back to you.

Now, its nothing to do with buttermilk or hand pies, and I wont bother you with the back story that led me to the site, but via The New York Public Library I came across this digitized collection of old New York magazines, dating back to the titles birth in 1968, another watershed difficult year for America. There is some really good browsing and reading to be had there.

Speaking of magazines, Essence turned 50 this year, and its editors have put together a marvelous hub that lets you explore its history through the lens of its covers and cover stars.

Finally, in case you missed it, heres A.O. Scott on Wallace Stegner, the first installment in a series hes writing for The Times on American writers, some well known, some forgotten, some overlooked. Its very good. Ill be back on Wednesday.

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What to Cook Right Now - The New York Times