MARNE When Elleen Wheatley was growing up, she always wanted to do the things that the boys were doing. So she modeled herself after one her twin brother.

I had my hair cut like a boy, she said. I had boots like a boy.

I was always with my brother, and we were always working- like carrying corn cobs, she said.

So its not a surprise that, at the age of 25, she would continue on that path and follow in her brothers footsteps and join the Marines.

Wheatley now has the distinction of being the oldest living female Marine, set to turn 103 years old on Aug. 26 and said it was all part of the job.

I didnt do anything outstanding, she said. I just did my work.

She served during World War II, and was sent off in 1942 to boot camp in North Carolina. When she got there, it was a bit of a rude awakening.

I got on the train in Des Moines, she said. It was a troop train. It was all girls. When we got there, they let us off in (an area) like a corn field.

While Wheatley was surprised to be dropped off in a corn field, she took it as a sign that she could tackle any challenge that was presented to her.

I made up my mind that if some of the girls could take it, I could too, she said. And I did.

Boot camp consisted of lots of school and also lots of marching, but she said, it was all worth it in the end just to see all those women marching together with matching uniforms.

And when we graduated, it was a beautiful thing, she said. All the Marine Corp girls in that parade. We were all dressed alike.

After boot camp, she was stationed in California, working on an air base there. While she loved airplanes, and had previous experience working at a munitions plant in Burlington, she wasnt working on planes, instead she was in the office working as a secretary.

We had nice quarters, she said. They were air conditioned. There were about 250 girls there.

She said women were not sent overseas, but they could be sent to Hawaii. She worried that if she were transferred there she would be away from her husband.

I was afraid that if he got sick, and they sent him home, Id have to (be in Hawaii instead of taking care of him), she said.

She spent six months at boot camp, two years in California, and eventually came back to Marne where she and her husband raised cattle and hogs. She still lives on the farm, today, but instead of cattle and hogs, she has a cat to keep her company.

Shes surprised shes almost made it to 103, and said her secret to living long is trying to do what she thinks would have made her dad proud.

I always tried to do things that my dad would be proud of, she said. I wanted my dad to be proud of me. He died when I was 16, (I think serving in the military) was the nicest thing I could have done (for him and me). I got so many benefits and I met a lot of nice girls in the service.

Anyone wanting to send Wheatley well wishes for her birthday can drop her a card at Elleen Wheatley, 2609 200th Street, Marne, Iowa 51552.

Read more here:

Just One Of The Boys | Atlantic | swiowanewssource.com - The Audubon County Advocate Journal

On the 59th night of BLM protests on July 25th at the federal courthouse, I was one of the thousands of protestors who went there. It took me a while to struggle through my fears of getting infected with the virus and the limits to my mobility due to old age and hip arthritis. But like so many others, I could no longer stay home. I knew from my previous experiences at many protests over the years, against war, racism, ICE, inequality, and exploitation of workers, that the police were extremely violent, often attacking us with little or no provocations. What was new was that the police had been attacking the BLM protestors non-stop for 58 nights with tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades, and non-lethal munitions. In contrast to their long history of using violence against non-violent protestors, the Portland police were seen protecting and fraternizing with white supremacist groups like the Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys at their rallies in this whitest of all US cities. When Mayor Ted Wheeler appeared at a protest last week, he was booed by many there, who called out Tear gas Ted. Later that night, Wheeler got a big dose of his own medicine.

The recent deployment of over 100 federal troops to Portland under Operation Diligent Valor by Trump added more fuel to the already fired-up protestors. Trump claims that he sent the feds there to protect federal facilities and officers against violent anarchists, but the reality is this: they have been deployed as an occupying army to crush the protests. Since their arrival in early July, unidentified federal thugs in camouflage have grabbed BLM protestors off the streets, putting them in unmarked vehicles, and detaining them for hours without charge. They have also escalated the violence at the nightly BLM protests at the (In)justice Center and the Federal Courthouse, working with the Portland police to attack non-violent protestors with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, flash grenades, and non-lethal projectiles. The videos of their actions pepper-spraying people at point blank, firing an impact munition at 26 year-old Donovan La Bella , causing a skull fracture which required an emergency surgery, beating and pepper-spraying Chris David, a 53-year old Navy Vet who was just standing there, and attacking non-violent protestors night after night with copious amounts of tear gas and pepper spray have not only intimidated and terrorized people, but also enraged them.

So far, Homeland Security and the Trump administration have refused to withdraw the federal thugs despite lawsuits filed by Oregons attorney general, the ACLU, state legislators and activist groups. Many of us can no longer remain silent as these accounts of daily violence by the police and feds make clear that what is at stake is not only racial injustice and inequality, but also an attack on our 1st Amendment right to free speech and civil rights.

I was heartened to see so many recent newcomers like the Wall of Moms, the dads, veterans, teachers, union workers, nurses, doctors and healthcare workers at the protest, as well as the die-hards who had been at the frontlines for 58 nights. Their presence makes it much harder for Trump, his supporters and critics of the BLM protestors to separate us into good vs. bad protestors, or to demonize us all as violent anarchists. The government, police and law enforcement agencies have a long history of suppressing many political movements for social change in the past by using this strategy of criminalizing our right to dissent and by deploying police and law enforcement violence to crush the resistance.

Now is the time for us to meet this challenge to protect our rights and to resist being under the boot of a fascist police state. The stakes are high as what happens in Portland will soon be replicated in other cities as Trump threatens to send more federal troops to Chicago, Seattle, Albuquerque and other cities to squash the BLM movement and our demands for justice and equality for all.

As the crowds grew in numbers throughout the night, we sang and chanted words which have become mantras: No justice, no peace, Black Lives Matter, Hands up, dont shoot! Feds go home, Stay together, stay tight! Feds stay clear, the moms are here! Light projections of George Floyds last words flashed across the JC building. I cant breathe. Everything hurts. Please dont kill me. Mama, Im through. We read them in silence, while others were chanting Black Lives Matter over and over again. Other messages flashed by, The power of the people is greater than those in power, The Revolution is Live, Black Lives Matter.

There were thousands of us around midnight. We were there at this nightly ritual of resistance, waiting for the inevitable to happen. Several protestors were trying to pull down the metal fence, which had been reinforced recently. After much effort, some succeeded in breaching the fence at one location. We heard the disembodied voice announcing over the loudspeaker: This is the Portland Police declaring a riot and ordering us to disperse immediately or be subjected to chemical attacks and arrests. The protestors booed and yelled, Fuck the police! Feds out of Portland! in response. Then the attacks began. Loud explosions went off, and clouds of tear gas rapidly spread down the streets from SW 3rd and Salmon. People were screaming and running, ignoring shouts of Dont run!

Despite my old legs and hip arthritis, I managed to run through the waves of tear gas. For a few terrifying moments, my eyes were burning, and I was blinded and disoriented. Luckily, I was helped by the amazing medics, who treated my eyes with a saline solution. I saw them treat other protestors injured by pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets. The feds and cops came running towards us, and chased us further and further downtown. None of the protestors who were standing with me had done anything wrong, but the feds and cops kept firing tear gas at us. I saw a few people being arrested near the Apple store downtown. Dozens of police cars with sirens blasting, blue lights flashing, sped down the streets. It was scary how quickly Portland had been transformed from the City of Roses to Little Beirut. Then the police and feds marched off, got into their cars, and drove off. It was a surreal scenethe streets were suddenly empty and quiet again, as if nothing had happened. But we know better. Our resistance is growing, and we will be back!

All photos by Bette Lee.

See the original post here:

Tear Gas and Thugs at the BLM Protests in Portland - CounterPunch

Im very happy, Maureen said through a mask. Im sure my father is, too. He would have loved to watch Mac play.

Annus, a 2020 Belmont High graduate who will play at Roger Williams, hit 86.78 percent of his shots over a span of two hours. He outlasted Scituate sharpshooter Jack Poirier, who had built a lead at halftime and hit 85.88 percent of his shots in total. George Smith (Brooks School) took third at 83.1 percent.

Mike Slonina, the CEO, president, and founder of A Shot For Life, Inc. was incredibly proud of everyone involved for successfully running the event amid extremely unusual circumstances.

Today was the biggest triumph on the day of an event in A Shot For Life history, Slonina said. There could not have been more things stacked against our program, and Im so eternally grateful.

The event was originally scheduled for last Saturday, but an impromptu Amateur Athletic Union tournament scheduled for that date pushed the ASFL Challenge back to Tuesday (boys) and Wednesday (girls).

A volunteer at the door took the temperature of every person who entered the building. All interns, volunteers, rebounders and spectators wore masks. Players did the same outside of when they were shooting, and each player brought their own basketball and was allowed one spectator and four rebounders. Interns and volunteers were assigned to specific courts, where they stood with hand sanitizer, towels, and water.

As pop music blared in the background, and time ticked off the clock, 16 shooters showed why theyre considered some of the top snipers in the state.

Globe All-Scholastic James McGowan, a rising senior at Westwood, drilled jumpers at a steady clip with his non-dominant left hand after suffering a spiral fracture in his right arm prior to the competition.

I had never practiced with my left or played with it before, McGowan said. It went a lot better than I expected. It was exhausting, but I just pushed through. If all these cancer patients can do what they do, I can push through a little tiredness.

Poirier, the Patriot League Fisher MVP and also a Globe All-Scholastic, got in a rhythm early, consistently drilling shot after shot. He clapped his fingers, snapped his hands, or shook his head in the rare instance that he missed, then he quickly regrouped and found a groove once again.

As he did so, Annus steadily built up momentum, and eventually his consistency launched him over the top. Annus, the Middlesex MVP, said he had a chip on his shoulder after taking fourth the year prior.

He warmed up earlier in the day in his backyard, and the heavy gusts of winds made shooting indoors for the first time in over four months seem like a breeze. Annus was overjoyed to prevail, but he was most proud of raising $1,000 for the cause [brain cancer research] and honoring his grandfather.

It hits a little close to home, Annus said. It means a lot to be a part of this organization.

Continued here:

In memory of his grandfather, Belmonts Mac Annus nets ASFL boys title - The Boston Globe

Melrose police officers saved a boys life Tuesday night after he was impaled by the spikes at the top of a fence and lost a significant amount of blood, according to police.

Officers at around 9:30 p.m. responded to Winthrop Elementary School for a reported leg injury. A 14-year-old boy had been impaled by the spikes at the top of a 4-foot fence possibly hitting his femoral artery after he had tried to jump the fence to help a woman who tripped on the sidewalk, police said.

The boy was pale and lethargic after losing a significant amount of blood, police said. His friends used a sweatshirt to try to stop the bleeding until first responders arrived.

Officer Levi DiFranza and Sgt. Charles Byrne were the first on the scene. DiFranza used his department-issued tourniquet to stop the bleeding and squeezed the pressure point while waiting for the Melrose Fire Department to arrive, police said.

DiFranza had the boy focus on him rather than his injury, speaking in a low, calm voice to the victim, who remained conscious the entire time, while they waited, police said.

The boy was transported to a Boston hospital by ambulance, which was escorted by Officer Alexander Barranco. The boy is recovering at the hospital, but is in good health and is not believed to have suffered any long-term health effects, according to police.

I am beyond proud of the quick, decisive actions by Officer DiFranza, Sgt. Byrne and Officer Barranco, Chief Michael Lyle said in a statement.

They remained calm and focused during a very intense incident, and ultimately saved this young boys life and prevented a terrible tragedy, the chief added. They are outstanding examples of the types of officers that make up the Melrose Police Department.

More:

Melrose officers save boys life after he was impaled by spikes on fence: Police - Boston Herald

Considering the scope of a virus that has killed nearly 700,000 people, wrecked national economies and brought superpowers to their knees, a fall without high school football seems barely worth a footnote in the already voluminous tragedy that is 2020.

This pathogen from hell has already deprived the world of the Summer Olympics, the magic of March Madness and, for the most part, baseball.

Several million graduates missed their proud march across a dais in cap and gown before friends and kin to claim hard-earned diplomas. More virtual schooling awaits most students this fall semester and the loss of many other activities, with some districts offering hybrid on-campus/online learning plans. Who knows how many festive weddings, joyous childbirths, golden anniversaries and family funerals were done with loved ones absent or, at best, connected via a tinny, faltering videoconference link.

Primary elections were delayed, holidays deferred and long-planned (and prepaid) vacations are put off indefinitely.

So why shed a tear for the boys (and girls) of autumn?

Its hard to explain unless you are or ever were one of those kids. Five decades ago, I was.

For most of their young lives, high school football has been these teens north star and guiding dream. Friday night heroics with teammates for the greater glory of their schools and communities propels them through carefree sandlot games, countless TV hours studying the sports collegiate or professional masters, summer training routines and the exhaustion of the practice field. Over time, the years, months and even weeks take on a familiar, even comforting rhythm fitted to the cycles of football, its season and its off-season.

About now, the grueling morning/afternoon preseason gauntlet known as two-a-days would be starting. Its a proving ground in the late summer swelter that prepares players and bonds them as a unit and as lifelong friends. Weeks before that, players have voluntarily conditioned themselves: pumping iron, running wind sprints and agility drills and mentally readying themselves for the challenges of the weeks and months ahead.

Amid that process, the statewide sanctioning body for interscholastic competition, the Virginia High School League, announced the cancellation of fall football with the possibility of a truncated mid-winter makeup season, God willing and pandemic permitting.

Its not the same as the fall season, but at least its hope.

The game is greater than games themselves. The experience goes beyond competition, beyond wins and losses. Its practical jokes in the locker room, bus rides home after a win, the crack and chatter of snare drums and the thumping bass as marching bands take the field on a crisp Friday evening, a teammates reassuring hand up after an embarrassing stumble, and having that same teammates back when they need it. Lifelong friendships grow here. Theres a sense of worth, of belonging, of family, all born of a special shared time a time essential to the developing adolescent psyche.

For these kids, it can be almost like dealing with a death, said Becky Snow, a former high school and college athlete and coach who now counsels Central Virginia athletes, including those making the sad transition out of sports. Its an ending to a part of who they are, a part of their identity.

When it ends (inevitably, it does), it hurts no matter how long youve played. I took off my helmet, cleats and shoulder pads one last time after my final game at Ole Miss in November 1977.

I was lucky.

Fairly quickly, my self-identity shifted from ballplayer to that of a newspaperman, a media professional and trusted advisor, not to mention a dad and husband. Yet despite the intervening decades, the VHSL announcement hit me hard, not because of who I am but because of who I was. My fondest football years were in high school. I know how crushed my teammates and I would have been had our final season in the green and gold been snatched from us as it has for thousands of boys and girls (44 females suited up statewide last fall) in big cities and small towns across Virginia.

Snows firm, Champions Mentality Consulting, already counsels spring sports athletes whose seasons were ripped away without warning in March. Football presents its own tricky set of issues, Snow said, because of its tough-guy ethic. And just as strong teams are essential to on-field success, she said, they can also help players cope with the loss of this season.

Football players have a culture of not showing emotion other than maybe anger or the game face, that unbreakable presence. This is a time to allow them space where theyre comfortable, maybe with their family or their second family the team so they can grieve. Maybe they get to see that their team captain or even their coach cry, to see that its OK to cry and to let it go, Snow said.

Being part of a sports team touches the teenage heart and changes him or her forever, and for the better. Back when Richard Nixon was president and a gallon of gas cost less than a quarter, Ray Wooten, my coach at Lake County High School in a poor, close-knit Tennessee farm community, deeply understood strong teams.

It was his superpower.

He nurtured a fierce loyalty and an us-against-the-world brotherhood, even as he seamlessly led the localitys first racially integrated teams in the mid-60s.

Kenny Chesney captured it perfectly in his homage to high school football: You mess with one man, you got us all. The boys of fall. Wootens teams were perennial winners during a head coaching career that spanned four decades in Tennessee and his native Mississippi. So I called Coach last week (Ill always call him Coach, a well-earned title of respect) at his Taylorsville, Mississippi, home to get his take.

There are a lot of kids who dont get much love at home. With our teams, I tried to give them that wanted to give them that, Coach said. Maybe some werent great athletes, but you give them a chance to play and feel good about themselves.

Some seniors who might attend college on football scholarships with a strong final season may lose that chance with a canceled fall season, he said. But the greater loss is to relationships.

Kids will lose contact with one another. Those friendships that the boys develop once theyre players well, they wont have that this year, he said. Its just something I cant fathom a whole state doing.

Twenty-eight years after Coach led our 11-1 team through an unbeaten regular season and a playoff run, I got to relive it vicariously through my oldest sons team at Henricos Mills Godwin High School. His 2000 Eagles team capped a perfect regular season with an appearance in the VHSL playoffs. His teammates were like brothers to him, and all the players families felt part of an extended Godwin football family in those precious years. A generation later, those players bonds with one another and their coach remain solid.

It was part of my life for 37 years, said Ron Axselle, who amassed a 166-94-3 record over 25 seasons as Godwins first football coach. You go out there on those hot, humid mornings, you smell the grass and the dew all over it, and its hard. You fuss about it, fight through it and then youre so proud when you survive it. Its a special, special time that you have with your teammates and you take away memories that you have forever.

There will be no muggy morning practices on dewy sod or mid-afternoon scrimmages under a hazy, incandescent sun this year. But, Coach Axselle notes, a short midwinter season would at least give football players something that this springs baseball, track and lacrosse athletes never got: one last chance to play.

I hope that happens. I hope for them that they play again. I hope that someday, decades from now after we 1970s boys of fall are gone, those fleeting football moments and the friendships born of them remain strong and bring them comfort.

See the original post:

Without football season, what becomes of Virginia's boys (and girls) of fall? - Virginia Mercury

On the 59th night of BLM protests on July 25th at the federal courthouse, I was one of the thousands of protestors who went there. It took me a while to struggle through my fears of getting infected with the virus and the limits to my mobility due to old age and hip arthritis. But like so many others, I could no longer stay home. I knew from my previous experiences at many protests over the years, against war, racism, ICE, inequality, and exploitation of workers, that the police were extremely violent, often attacking us with little or no provocations. What was new was that the police had been attacking the BLM protestors non-stop for 58 nights with tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades, and non-lethal munitions. In contrast to their long history of using violence against non-violent protestors, the Portland police were seen protecting and fraternizing with white supremacist groups like the Patriot Prayer and Proud Boys at their rallies in this whitest of all US cities. When Mayor Ted Wheeler appeared at a protest last week, he was booed by many there, who called out Tear gas Ted. Later that night, Wheeler got a big dose of his own medicine.

The recent deployment of over 100 federal troops to Portland under Operation Diligent Valor by Trump added more fuel to the already fired-up protestors. Trump claims that he sent the feds there to protect federal facilities and officers against violent anarchists, but the reality is this: they have been deployed as an occupying army to crush the protests. Since their arrival in early July, unidentified federal thugs in camouflage have grabbed BLM protestors off the streets, putting them in unmarked vehicles, and detaining them for hours without charge. They have also escalated the violence at the nightly BLM protests at the (In)justice Center and the Federal Courthouse, working with the Portland police to attack non-violent protestors with tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, flash grenades, and non-lethal projectiles. The videos of their actions pepper-spraying people at point blank, firing an impact munition at 26 year-old Donovan La Bella , causing a skull fracture which required an emergency surgery, beating and pepper-spraying Chris David, a 53-year old Navy Vet who was just standing there, and attacking non-violent protestors night after night with copious amounts of tear gas and pepper spray have not only intimidated and terrorized people, but also enraged them.

So far, Homeland Security and the Trump administration have refused to withdraw the federal thugs despite lawsuits filed by Oregons attorney general, the ACLU, state legislators and activist groups. Many of us can no longer remain silent as these accounts of daily violence by the police and feds make clear that what is at stake is not only racial injustice and inequality, but also an attack on our 1st Amendment right to free speech and civil rights.

I was heartened to see so many recent newcomers like the Wall of Moms, the dads, veterans, teachers, union workers, nurses, doctors and healthcare workers at the protest, as well as the die-hards who had been at the frontlines for 58 nights. Their presence makes it much harder for Trump, his supporters and critics of the BLM protestors to separate us into good vs. bad protestors, or to demonize us all as violent anarchists. The government, police and law enforcement agencies have a long history of suppressing many political movements for social change in the past by using this strategy of criminalizing our right to dissent and by deploying police and law enforcement violence to crush the resistance.

Now is the time for us to meet this challenge to protect our rights and to resist being under the boot of a fascist police state. The stakes are high as what happens in Portland will soon be replicated in other cities as Trump threatens to send more federal troops to Chicago, Seattle, Albuquerque and other cities to squash the BLM movement and our demands for justice and equality for all.

As the crowds grew in numbers throughout the night, we sang and chanted words which have become mantras: No justice, no peace, Black Lives Matter, Hands up, dont shoot! Feds go home, Stay together, stay tight! Feds stay clear, the moms are here! Light projections of George Floyds last words flashed across the JC building. I cant breathe. Everything hurts. Please dont kill me. Mama, Im through. We read them in silence, while others were chanting Black Lives Matter over and over again. Other messages flashed by, The power of the people is greater than those in power, The Revolution is Live, Black Lives Matter.

There were thousands of us around midnight. We were there at this nightly ritual of resistance, waiting for the inevitable to happen. Several protestors were trying to pull down the metal fence, which had been reinforced recently. After much effort, some succeeded in breaching the fence at one location. We heard the disembodied voice announcing over the loudspeaker: This is the Portland Police declaring a riot and ordering us to disperse immediately or be subjected to chemical attacks and arrests. The protestors booed and yelled, Fuck the police! Feds out of Portland! in response. Then the attacks began. Loud explosions went off, and clouds of tear gas rapidly spread down the streets from SW 3rd and Salmon. People were screaming and running, ignoring shouts of Dont run!

Despite my old legs and hip arthritis, I managed to run through the waves of tear gas. For a few terrifying moments, my eyes were burning, and I was blinded and disoriented. Luckily, I was helped by the amazing medics, who treated my eyes with a saline solution. I saw them treat other protestors injured by pepper spray, tear gas and rubber bullets. The feds and cops came running towards us, and chased us further and further downtown. None of the protestors who were standing with me had done anything wrong, but the feds and cops kept firing tear gas at us. I saw a few people being arrested near the Apple store downtown. Dozens of police cars with sirens blasting, blue lights flashing, sped down the streets. It was scary how quickly Portland had been transformed from the City of Roses to Little Beirut. Then the police and feds marched off, got into their cars, and drove off. It was a surreal scenethe streets were suddenly empty and quiet again, as if nothing had happened. But we know better. Our resistance is growing, and we will be back!

All photos by Bette Lee.

View original post here:

Tear Gas and Thugs at the BLM Protests in Portland - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch

Why did Donald Trump pick Portland? It's a question worth asking. There are more than two dozen American cities bigger than Oregon's largest, and of the Rose City's 650,000 or so residents, fewer than 7% are Black. Nearly all the cities larger than Portlandhave more diverse populations, and most have hadsubstantial,ongoing Black Lives Matter protests since Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin killed George Floyd in late May. Yet Trump settled onPortland not New York or L.A. or Atlanta,and notMinneapolis, where this all began as the staging ground for his plan to flood a city with federal police in hopes of escalating violence, all in hopes of generating scary images to frighten Fox News viewers with.

Portland wasn't targeted for public safety reasons, obviously. Trump doesn't care about people's safety, for one thing. For another, the presence of federal police officers is very pointedly to reduce public safety and escalate the violence Trump wants for his campaign ads. It's also a confusingchoice, considering that Portland is one of the whitest large cities in the nation a demographic reality visible on the ground among the protests making it an odd choice for a nakedly racist president who is making a big public stink of his loathing foranti-racism activists. Trump is clearly expanding his war on cities to other places, but Portland was clearly picked for the rollout of thisfascistic crackdown for a reason.

So, again: Why Portland?As with many other things Trump does, it appears he's following the lead of the various far-right, white supremacistand proto-fascist groups that have gainedpower in the years since his election. Groups like the Proud Boys, Patriot Prayer and various others have descendedon the city regularly since Trump's election, generally for the purpose of starting street fights with leftists and creating a spectacle. By targeting Portland for an invasion of federal police geared up like members of an occupying army, Trump is modeling himself after the far-right fringe that has been harassing that city for years.

"Far-right and white nationalist groups often plan rallies and events in areas where a majority of residents are politically and socially liberal, and where communities have reliably produced counter-demonstrations at such events," Jared Holt, an investigative reporter for Right Wing Watch, told Salon. "In the mind of the extremist, they are engaged in a culture war and are choosing to bring the fight to enemy turf."

Far-right groups regularly descend on Portland during the summer months some years, the city has seen multiple rallies often under the banner of "free speech" or protesting againstantifa activists,but mostly in hopes ofattracting counter-protesters and launching street brawls.

As I reported back in 2017, when these groups first started heavily targeting Portland, members of these far-right groups willswap memes and encourage each other to beat the tar out of anyone they deem"antifa."Some of these memes can get violent and disturbing, with references to curb-stomping, stabbingand shooting opponents. Former Chilean dictator AugustoPinochet was held out as a hero, mainly for his reported habit of murderingleftist opponents by throwing them out of helicopters.

As Arun Gupta of the Intercept explained in an articlelast year, the far right saw Portland as the ideal city "to stage violent spectacles" they could then spread throughout social media"to glorify the violence as a recruiting tool and proof of their racial and masculine virility."

Often, these far-right activists would try to justify this behavior by citing "self-defense" against "antifa,"but as Holt explained, it's wise to have "a healthy sense of skepticism" about such claims, sincefar-right groups "plan their events in locations with the expectation there will be counter-demonstrators, and work to actively escalate tensions between opposing sides"

Trump is taking the model developed by the extreme right in recent years, and amplifying it dramatically by using taxpayer-funded resources, including the shadowyfederal police agencies either created or vastly expanded during the post-9/11 campaign against terrorism. But the basic idea is the same: Target Portland for a right-wing show of force, knowing that this will likely provokea strong response fromleftist activists, and use that response as an excuse for increasing the violent repression in a waythat can be packaged and repackaged as sadistic propaganda designed to lure back wavering Trump voters or hypothetical suburban moderates.

The most obvious reason why Portland is a target is, of course, its long history of leftist activism, which does indeed include a contingent whether self-defined as antifa or anarchist or something else that is entirely willing to engage in physical confrontationwith far-right groups whotrawl the streets looking for a fight.

Trump himself is following this same logic, knowing that while most leftists are responding to the federal police with peaceful resistance, some are willing to fight back. Granted, the street scene in Portland is probably nowhere near as violent as Trump would like at most,he's getting images of some people pulling down a fence, setting off fireworksand tagging some buildings but it's the same calculus that far-right groups are employing, which is that some protesters will getunruly and can be spun as "violent rioters" on Fox News.

There's an even deeper reason that Portland has been such a target for the far right and now for Trump, who as usual takes his political cues from the very worst people in America. Thisgoes right back to the aforementioned fact that Portland is one of the whitest cities in the country.

Portland may be known as a progressive city now, but like the entirestate of Oregon, ithas a long history of white supremacy. (Indeed, there are still a lot of openly white supremacist groups inrural easternOregon, who are sometimes visible amongthe far-right groups who regularly descend upon Portland.) In the 1920s, Oregon had the biggest Ku Klux Klan organization west of the Mississippi, which isn't surprising when you consider that the stateeffectively bannedBlack people from moving there until1926. Portland was virtually an all-white city until World War II, and remains more than 75% white today. (Indeed, the city's Black population appears to havedeclined since the 1990s, perhaps reflecting increased gentrification.) In any case, Portland's whiteness is an artifact of decades of discrimination.

Of course Portland's politics have shifted sharplyleftward in recent years. The far right's specific loathing for Portland, then, is to some extentrooted in a sense ofbetrayal at acity that has turned away from itslong history of reactionary and racist politics. The constant drumbeat of far-right rallies, which routinely turn into brawls, aren't just about taking the fight to enemy turf. It's about the far right symbolically trying to reclaim a city that they feel they've lost to the left.

This subtext is often not far from the surface. Far-right activistsroutinely describe Portland's progressives as if they were a stain or an occupying force, as if progressives are illegitimate members of the community who need to be expunged so the city can be restored to its true heritage.

"The West Coast has slowly been infected with communist ideologies throughout our entire culture," saidJoey Gibson of the far-right group Patriot Prayer while promoting a 2017rally, leaning hard into this"paradise lost" framing of the waycities like Portland have become progressive. (Gibson was arrested on a felony riot charge in 2019 after years of orchestrating events that descended into violence.)

Patriot Prayer evenbilled its rallies as opportunities to "cleanse the streets of Portland" in 2018. One of the members of their Facebook group complained about the city's"stench-covered and liberal-occupied streets."

Trump and his acting Homeland Security secretary, Chad Wolf, have embraced this rhetoric that paints progressives in Oregon as an illegitimate power that needs to be overthrown with whatever level of force is necessary.

Trump has repeatedly emphasized that the cities he's attacking, especially Portland, are "run by very liberal Democrats," as if it wereself-evident thattheir leadership is illegitimate and therefore Trump is entitled to send in federal police against their explicit wishes.

Wolf has defended the invasionin similar terms, claiming the administration was "forced" to invade because of "a lack of action from city officials."That's a morelegalistic framing of the same argument, that the elected leaders of Portland aren't legitimate and that the right is more entitled than "liberal" elected officialsto decide what the law enforcement response to protests should look like.

The fact thatTrump is taking his cues from the far-right fringes is, sadly, no surprise. After all, he has recently promoted a conspiracy theory about thecoronavirusapparently concocted by a far-right nut who believes reproductive health problems arecaused by women having sex with demons. The far right is where Trump'sheart is, which is why his impulse after the 2017 riots in Charlottesville, Virginia, was to describe the white supremacists who rampaged there as "very fine people."

That's what happens when you elect aracist conspiracy theorist to the highest office in the land: Federal police are being deployed to imitate the tactics of proto-facist groups whoglamorize violence and long for the white supremacist past. Portland has endured years of abuse from these far-right groups whotreat the city as little more than a stage for their violent culture-war melodramas. Now the president of the United States is following suit.

See the article here:

Why did Trump pick Portland? He's following the lead of far-right groups, and the city's history - Salon

click to enlarge

Daniel Walters photo

Ken Peters, founder of the Church at Planned Parenthood.

By Emily McCarty/ Crosscut.com/ July 29, 2020

The debate over whether a Spokane religious group can hold services in front of a Planned Parenthood facility is getting so loud and heated thatit is headed toward a courtroom, where noise ordinances, the right to health care and the First Amendment are all likely to be debated.

The religious group calls itselfThe Church at Planned Parenthood, or TCAPP, and those who attend hear sermons and sing worship songs, all broadcast over a PAsystem. Their services include anti-abortion guest speakers and pastors from around the country.

But Planned Parenthood has been measuring noise levels, which its officials say are disruptive, intimidating, detrimental to the health and safety of staff and clients, and go above the legal decibel limit of city and state noise ordinances. In June, theyd had enough, so they filed a lawsuit against Covenant Church, which started the mobile ministry.

Covenant Church pastor Ken Peters, who founded TCAPP, said he chose to host services outside the facility for a reason.

We want to get as close to Planned Parenthood as we can, because the closer we are, the bigger the statement that it makes, Peters said. It makes a statement that we disagree with what they're doing.

Paul Dillon, vice president of public affairs withPlanned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, said the sound is so loud thatits damaging to the health of clients. Patients and staff can hear the songs and sermons throughout the building and inside exam rooms, so much so that theyve had to shuffle patients to different rooms just to be able to provide care, Dillon said.

It's really, really frustrating and should not be allowed to happen, when the laws are very clear in Washington state and the city of Spokaneabout interference with health care facilities, Dillon said. Its extremely unnerving for the patients at Planned Parenthood.

Substantial research has been completed about the negative health effects of excessive noise on patients, which is precisely why Washington state has a statute limiting noise outside of medical facilities, said Kim Clark, senior attorney with Legal Voice, which is representing Planned Parenthood in the lawsuit. Clark said the noise is so loud sometimes that staff cant hear each other when speaking, they lose their train of thought, and headphones cant cancel it out.

Staff have reported that patients will be crying in the middle of their exams, Clark said.

Peters, the pastor,said the services arent intended to be disruptive at allthat, in fact, he would gladly switch to 7 p.m. services to stop thelawsuit. But Peters hasnt changed the time. He thinks that the time of services arent Planned Parenthoods real concern, that its more about the health facility disagreeing with TCAPPs mission.

Were not there to stop their business. Were there to worship God and pray for the end of abortion, Peters said.

About150 people showed up for TCAPPs first service in October 2018, but since then, the gatherings have grown to over 400 by Planned Parenthood's countand over 700 by TCAPP's.

Planned Parenthood's Dillon says its not about singing, or sermons, or worship. Its about politics. The group portrays itself as just a bunch of singing Christians, he said, but he thinks their goal is to shut down Planned Parenthood.

This is not a church. This is not a church at all, Dillon said. You know, they can call themselves whatever they want, [but] in no way, shape or form is this a church.

Journalists have measured the sound from the services at above legal decibel levels, as has Planned Parenthood. While police monitor most every TCAPP service, they have never cited the group for a noise violation.

Legal Voices Clark saidthe Spokane Police Department has given Planned Parenthood multiple reasons why the policehavent enforced the law. But, ultimately, theyve never taken action against TCAPP, no matter how loud and disruptive the services may get.

In fact, it is the impression of both the staff at Planned Parenthood and the church itself that the police are on the side of the church, Clark said.

Peters said they work hard to stay below legal noise ordinance levels, but that the city council, which passed the ordinance in March 2020, is all pro-Planned Parenthood.

We know theyre there with their little sound meters and yeah, its just a stupid game, Peters said. But were doing everything we possibly can to comply with the sound ordinance and still be able to do what we feel is our First Amendment right.

Dillon said the lawsuit was really a last resort for Planned Parenthood, because itspatients should not have to face hurdles to basic health care.

Nobody deserves shame or stigma or bullying or intimidation, which is the goal of this group. Those are the tactics that they use, he said.

Peters responded jokingly when asked about Planned Parenthood staffs feelings of being intimidated.

Some of our singers, they sing quite off-key. So that could scare a lot of people, I understand, Peters said. I guess church scares some people. But it doesnt seem like any sort of threat to me.

Dillon said Planned Parenthood also is concerned about the involvement at TCAPP servicesof Proud Boys, a group designatedas a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Centerbecause some members voice white supremacist or anti-Semitic ideologies.

Peters didnt even know what a Proud Boy was until people accused him of being associated with them, he said, and lumping them in with extremist groups isnt accurate. But Peters said he cant control who comes to his services.

Its city property. I cannot control who comes and who doesnt, Peters said.

Alisha Merkt, 33, said she used the Spokane Planned Parenthood in her early 20s when she was uninsured. She went in for a pregnancy test, which was negative, but she left with a years worth of free birth control, thanks to Planned Parenthoods program for low-income patients.

She now has health insurance through her employer, but stays involved as a volunteer at Planned Parenthoods events. During one volunteer stint, she offered to help keep protesters from TCAPP off the facilitys property.

Merkt described the very tense atmosphere that day as disheartening.This was partially becauseTCAPP providedunfactual information about abortion, she said, andalso because of the service's incredibly loud,disruptive presence.

I felt powerless. I felt really I don't want to say discouraged but if they were staying off the property, I could only stand there and watch in horror, Merkt said. It was just a lot of negative energy and standing there knowing that, aside from making sure they stayed off the property, there was nothing else I could do, despite them disturbing patients inside and upsetting the staff and upsetting volunteers like myself.

Merkt said that Planned Parenthood saved her life back when she couldnt afford health care. She said she thinks a lot about the inconsistency she sees with TCAPP, whose mission is to end abortion, yet protests against a health care facility that provides family planning.

According to 2018 data, abortions madeup only a little over 3% of Planned Parenthood's total services, which include family planning, treatment for sexually transmitted infections, cancer screeningsand wellness exams.

Until they start thinking outside that very narrow viewpoint, they're going to keep pushing their agenda on everyone else because they feel it's their responsibility to save the people or to prevent these abortions, Merkt said. But they don't care outside thatwhat actually happens to the person. Its very selfish.

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Between high decibel levels and police inaction, tensions are building between Spokane Planned Parenthood and the pop-up church outside - Pacific...

Hundreds gathered in the Plaza de la Constitucion on Sunday afternoon in support of, and against, the St. Augustine City Commissions decision to remove the Confederate War Memorial.

Sunday afternoon a man sat on a trolley, looked to his left at the demonstrations taking place inside the Plaza de la Constitucion and moved his young son to ensure he was closer to the cursing, chanting, protesting and revved engines that filled the square than the child.

At the heart of the plaza, fenced off from the world, stands the purpose for the demonstrations: St. Augustine's Confederate War Memorial.

Nearly a dozen protests have taken place in St. Augustine and St. Johns County this summer demanding racial equity, equality and accountability for law enforcement. One of the the local demands at these protests has been to remove the Confederate War Memorial.

Last month, the St. Augustine City Commission, by a 3-2 vote, moved to remove the obelisk from public property. The first group of demonstrators in the plaza on Sunday vehemently disagree with the decision.

Sunday's demonstrations, for and against the removal of the memorial, were the most vehement of the summer. No arrests were made; but St. Augustine police repeatedly intervened to ensure violence did not erupt.

Emotions are running high in downtown #StAugustine at the Plaza de la Constitucion. @staugrecord pic.twitter.com/i33pQwFgfP

Members of the North Florida Patriots and other organizations first arrived in the Plaza Sunday morning in support of the obelisk that was moved onto public property in 1879.

Jaime Parham, a member of the North Florida Patriots, would like to see the memorial left alone.

"It's not going to go," Parham said. "We're not going to let it go."

Parham is a St. Johns resident. He would like to see a decision on the memorial placed on the ballot for the entirety of St. Johns County, not solely St. Augustine residents.

"We put contextualization to it, as they have requested," Parham said. "That's all we're willing to do. It's in its place of honor. If they say they are moving it, but they are going to keep it fixed or they are not going to destroy it, it's still taking it from its place of honor. Its an American war veterans memorial, and it's in its rightful place of honor."

Infiltrated within the North Florida Patriots were more than three dozen men who identified with the Proud Boys. Founded in 2016, the Proud Boys have been classified as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center

Not every member of the North Florida Patriots, or who was in downtown to support the monument remaining in place, was in favor of The Proud Boys' support. Their belief was The Proud Boys were unnecessarily antagonizing the Black Lives Matter protesters with rhetoric that included "(expletive) Antifa!" as well as other language that could be perceived as racist and/or sexist.

Black Lives Matter demonstrators were slated to arrive at the plaza at 1 p.m. Before they could march into the plaza as was frequently the case in June the North Florida Patriots met them. The Black Lives Matter protesters were hemmed into a 30-yard portion of the plaza near the Andrew Young Crossing and St. George Street.

After approximately 20 minutes, the Black Lives Matter protesters left the Plaza and marched north along St. George Street. As the Black Lives Matter demonstrators retreated, the North Florida Patriots took up what they considered defensive positions within the Plaza.

Though both organizations deplored the rhetoric of the other, the yelling, cursing and insults were more invective than in previous demonstrations.

Some attempted to find common ground.

Brooksville resident Mario Fulgium was among those in the square on Sunday. Frequently, he approached former St. Augustine resident Tony Brown in an attempt to find commonality.

Fulgium would like to see the monument remain. But he admitted Brown made valid points.

"His whole crew is yelling Black Lives Matter," Fulgium said. "Well, we are passionate. Red-blooded lives matter. You bleed blood, you bleed red. That gentleman understands that part of it. We don't want no one hurt. We want (a) peaceful (protest)."

Fulgium believes removing the monument is erasing history. He argues that history is not always pretty, but by removing the statue, it strips away an opportunity to learn about it.

St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. Over the last 455 years, this city has been governed by the Spanish, British and United States. On its outskirts, sits a fort that was a haven for runaway slaves. One hundred yards away from Sunday's protests is a market where enslaved people were bought and sold.

At the heart of the Plaza stands an obelisk that is taller, and more prominent, than the monument to observe the local veterans who died serving World War II, Korean War, Vietnam War and Operation Desert Storm.

Brown has previously told The Record he would like to see the monument be moved onto private property.

Sunday showed fixing hearts will not be simple.

Serena Milne is a Flagler College student who has attended multiple protests in support of the Black Lives Matter movement this summer. She would like to see a racial reckoning in the country. That includes removing the obelisk from downtown St. Augustine.

"We have to change our approach," Milne said. "Yelling is not doing anything. We have to be willing to have conversations."

Before Milne could finish the thought, two young Black women walked around the Loring monument and chanted "All lives don't matter until Black lives matter."

In response, two white men, cursed at them while yelling "All lives matter."

An argument ensued. Neither side listened. Instead, the two men and two women attempted to verbally overpower the other.

"Today, I had people look in my face saying 'Black lives do not matter,'" Milne said. "They were screaming at me. I have never seen this type of anger from people I have never met."

Originally posted here:

Protests in St. Augustine show removal of Confederate monuments still divisive topic - St. Augustine Record

As an old guy who appreciates history, I've long supported the middle class because of what Democrats have given us.

Without Democrats, we'd have no unions which gave us our 40-hour work week, minimum wages, medical care and educational opportunities while defending our civil rights. Thousands of workers have died in our mines and factories so we would have a middle class. Without Democrats, we'd have only the very rich and masses of very poor.

Our working class used to appreciate what unions and Democrats have done for us. Now, I'm amazed at how brainwashed and unappreciative many have become as they follow a con artist president who doesn't even pay taxes and is leading us into a racial civil war and dictatorship.

I always try to keep in the moderate middle, but extremists such as Arne Mortensen and Jim Walsh must be stopped.

Without a "go getter" like Rosemary Siipola, Kalama still wouldn't have a new police location. We need to elect moderates such as Dean Takko, Clint Bryson, Brian Blake, Carolyn Long, Jay Inslee and Joe Biden to help save our middle class and America.

Original post:

Lower Columbia Area speaks up: Letters to the editor for the week of Jul. 31, 2020 - Longview Daily News

4:10 p.m. in West Philadelphia, one minute after dispatch noted that pepper spray was going to be used on 52nd Street and Market. (Photo anonymously provided)

4:14 p.m.: Police declared the crowd at 52nd Street and Market an unlawful assembly, threatening to arrest anyone who remained. Civil affairs headed to 53rd Street with bullhorns to disperse the crowd, but the expressed goal remained unchanged: Secure the intersection of 52nd and Market Street and the fleet of vehicles parked along 52nd Street.

In effect, law enforcement consisting of PPD, University of Pennsylvania Police, Drexel Police, University of Science Police and Philadelphia Housing Authority Police, declared war on the neighborhood.

For the next several hours, officers terrorized residents in an alleged attempt to protect against looting. They protected nothing. They violently and indiscriminately assaulted whoever crossed their field of vision.

According to Resident A, police wantonly attacked residents several blocks south of Market Street, deploying tear gas and pepper spray gratuitously. Disoriented residents tried to return to their homes or flee from areas that had been drenched with gas, while police shot rubber bullets at people in the streets, on their door steps and front porches. Resident A helped an elderly woman who had been shot in that manner and stumbled onto her doorstep on Chancellor Street.

West Philadelphia Resident C arrived at 52nd and Arch around 6:30 p.m. The crowd had thinned but approximately 50 cops secured the area and turned this into an evening sport.

Cops allowed people to progress south toward Market Street and then in lined formation drove them north, chanting MOVE back, MOVE back, MOVE back. They repeated the charade over and over, not letting anyone through. A mother who was trying to return home with her four children, two of whom were infants, was refused passage.

Looting never concerned the police. The rallying cry of the protesters Whose streets? Our streets! guided their actions. The cops were taking back the streets that day.

Subsequently, Philadelphia leadership admitted their powerlessness, insisting that more boots on the ground would have preserved order. They failed to realize that their understanding of order was the cause for protest in the first place. On June 25, Mayor Kenney referred to the events in West Philadelphia as extremely violent. Kenney was not mistaken, but he got the perpetrators mixed up and empowered an already violent mob to deploy less than lethal munitions against the people he was elected to serve.

While much as been made his apology for tear-gassing protesters on I-676 the following day, no one seemed to take note of Commissioner Outlaws concession that the city was utterly unprepared for these protests and that the response was not adequate. Outlaw admitted she would have liked far more personnel than we had on that day.

West Philly Police were not prepared to wait for the National Guard to reverse their sense of disempowerment. Instead, retaliated against a predominantly Black community while media cameras were fixed on Center City.

The history of over-policing, Penntrification, and criminalization of West Phillys Black community is ongoing.

Last July, police rallied in the name of Justice for Daniel Faulkner, while the man wrongfully, as many claim convicted for murder, Mumia Abu Jamal, remains locked up. The cops who killed 11 members of the MOVE family returned to their lives.

As Angela Davis notes, race has always played a central role in constructing presumptions of criminality. Lately, cops buddied up with club-swinging vigilantes in South Philly and Fishtown and the Police Union partied with the Proud Boys. Blackness continues to be criminalized. In light of these continuities, the MOVE bombing, police violence, and gentrification have no chance of retreating to memory, let alone of becoming history.

The stories told about May 31, 2020, illustrate how noise shapes the facts we see.

Historians look for silences in the record and foreground what is not immediately visible. This article, then, is not a news report. It is a history of a day in May in a city that once fire-bombed its own people.

Anne Berg is an assistant professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Here is the original post:

Opinion How police tear gassed West Philly - WHYY

A recent campaign mailer pointed out Rep. Jim Walshs ties to Rep. Matt Shea, right wing extremist, secessionist and alleged domestic terrorist. Im relieved to see that Im not the only one troubled by the ways in which Walsh has chosen to align himself with people and groups who define the extreme edge of the political right wing.

By sharing many views, opinions and rally stages with Shea, Walsh also allies himself with violent extremist groups like Patriot Prayer, Proud Boys, and regional militia-type groups that are promoting violence and civil unrest. I personally witnessed him at a Second Amendment rally in Longview palling and joking around with Tusitala Tiny Toese of the Proud Boys, who later pled guilty to his role in an aggressive, violent altercation in Portland prompted by political differences.

Were at a moment when we need to be very vigilant that people dont use their Second Amendment rights to trample on the First Amendment rights of those they disagree with. We saw it happen recently in Grays Harbor, right in Walshs back yard, when armed counter-protestors behaved threateningly toward unarmed, peaceful demonstrators. What did we get from Walsh on this? Crickets. Nothing, as far as Ive seen reported.

Jim Walsh is not a legislator, hes an agitator. He is not a representative for all, he is a partisan for a very few. He is not a uniter, he is a divider. The 19th district deserves better than Jim Walsh. He will not have my vote.

LL Hauer

Winlock

Read the original here:

Letter to the Editor: Remove Extremist Jim Walsh - Centralia Chronicle

Even as the president obfuscates in public, his own intelligence officials are cognizant of the fact that right-wing extremists represent a more credible threat. An intelligence assessment dated June 15 and obtained by Politico warned law enforcement and public safety officials that the boogaloo movementwhich experts say seeks to ignite a civil warmay be zeroing in on the nations capital, but noted, while it identifies Washington D.C. as an attractive target, the boogaloo ideology is not restricted to a specific region and those who wish to cause division are routinely using peaceful protests as means of cover. Arrest and bloodshed have already been tied to the movement, the most notable recent example being the arrest of Steven Carrillo for the killing of a Santa Cruz sheriffs deputy in June. Carrillo also faces separate charges for a fatal shooting of a federal security officer in May. Also this summer, three Nevada men who self-identified with the movement were arrested in Las Vegas for trying to incite violence under the guise of peaceful protest. (Carrillo has pleaded not guilty. The three men arrested in the Las Vegas incident also pleaded not guilty.)

A cursory glance at public channels associated with the boogaloo movement on the encrypted messaging app Telegram reveals how followers seek to exploit civil unrest. Keep challenging yourself until combat ready condition is your new normal, reads one message, posted alongside a recommendation for ammunition. Another calls for a purge of every leftist ideal, and judgement in our cities, and says, There will be a time for action. But [its] not yet. You will know for sure when that time hits. Make sure youre ready when it does. Public channels associated with the right-wing Proud Boys movement express similar sentiments. Posted alongside a YouTube video titled, Facing the New Anti-White Reality, one Telegram user wrote, Excellent video on the current state of the West. Stare into the abyss and confront it without fear Western man. Its the only way to save our people. In another, When are the Proud Boys going back to Portland?

Their point of view on this is, Were all for everything that will spark and ignite tensions that will lead to the next war, Nate Snyder, a former senior DHS counterterrorism official, explained. As public sentiment has shifted in favor of the Black Lives Matter movement and against Trump, Snyder said of the president, He felt that he was under full-out assault, and thats why he went to go hide in the bunker, but added, Its not just him with that attitude and perspective or perception. These right-wing nationalist and white supremacist groups felt absolutely the same.

In light of this mindset, coupled with active attempts by countries like Russia to subvert U.S. democracy and the rampant spread of conspiracy theories on social media, experts expressed deep concern about the coming election. The president has alreadypromoted a number of debunked conspiracy theories regarding efforts by the Democrats to work with foreign countries to oust him. Hes already promoted debunked conspiracy theories about methods used to vote, Cohen told me. But what concerns law enforcement officials is that those same narratives, that same rhetoric is being noted by those who actually believe in these conspiracy theories and who belong to these domestic extremist communities. If the election ends up with [Trump] losing, theres a very real concern that we may see violence occurring in cities across the country.

Meanwhile, recent extremist activity may be just a taste of whats to come. This is kind of a practice run to what we could see later this summer, Johnson said, as well as into the fall going into the election.

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These Guys Are in Totally Over Their Heads: Experts Worry Trumps DHS Crackdowns Are Ignoring the Real Threat - Vanity Fair

Kamloops Mounties are aware of posters in town promoting the hate group Proud Boys Canada and have distributed copies to officers so they are aware, but the local detachment has had no interactions with anyone claiming to be with the group.

RCMP staff Sgt. Martin Van Laer said police received a report on July 12 from someone using the detachments online reporting tool. The person said they came across the poster along a walking trail near366 Waddington Cres. in Sahali and removed it.

We dont have anything else than this one report so far, Van Laer said.

Kyle Mardon was headed into the Royal Bank of Canada branch in the Columbia Place Shopping Centre on July 11 at about 7:30 a.m. when he noticed a copy of the 8.5-inch-by-11-inch sign on the outside of that building.

The promotional flyer for the Proud Boys asks people to contact them via email and lists their tenets, which include minimal government, maximum freedom, closed border, anti-racial guilt, anti-political correctness, glorifying the entrepreneur and venerating the housewife.

Founded in 2016 by Canadian right-wing activist and Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, the Proud Boys is an all-male, far right group with a history of street violence. Members are to swear off masturbation and declare themselves Western chauvinists who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Youtube have all banned the group from their platforms.

Mardon said he was surprised and disgusted to see the groups poster, adding he didnt think such organizations existed in Kamloops.

Upon seeing it, he took a picture of the sign and ripped it down, but didn't report it to police.

The group may seem innocuous, but their leaders and a large percentage of their members are considered white supremacists he said, noting his wife is of Indian descent and he doesnt want their children to have to face discrimination.

Mardon said he was aware of the groups online presence, but noted this was the first time he had come across a posted flyer. He is concerned the group may be operating in Kamloops.

I do not want to see such groups as the KKK, Antifa or Proud Boys getting a foothold here they are not wanted, Mardon told KTW, noting Canada is a multicultural society that accepts everyone regardless of where they are from or what they believe.

The last thing I want to see is any group becoming violent or racist towards any other group of people, he said.

As he drove away from the bank, Mardon said he noticed another copy of the sign posted on a nearby dry cleaners store and assumes there are others.

Other copies have the signs have been spotted in Kamloops and reported on social media by people who note they, too, have removed the messages.

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Proud Boys posters popping up (and being ripped down) in Kamloops - Kamloops This Week

(BPRW) THE COMMISSION ON THE SOCIAL STATUS OF BLACK MEN AND BOYS ACT PASSES THE HOUSE

(Black PR Wire) Washington, D.C. Today the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act (S.2163/H.R. 1636), introduced by Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson, to establish a 19-member commission examining the social disparities that disproportionately affect black males in America. Led by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), the Senate unanimously passed a companion bill, S. 2163, on June 25. The two lawmakers created a similar commission when they served together in Floridas state legislature.

I am elated that this legislation, which I have been fighting for several years to pass, is now poised to become national law. The commission will review police brutality, gun violence, fatherhood, recruiting and training black male teachers, and even sneakers, which play an important role in the lives of black boys. Welfare reform and the 1994 crime bill, which includes the controversial three strikes provision and harsh sentencing guidelines, also will be revisited. These federal policies left a devastating impact on black men and boys in America, said Congresswoman Wilson. The commissions underlying goal is to interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline and to better understand and eventually eliminate the educational and social chasms that have made it extraordinarily difficult for black males to become upwardly mobile.

The Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act establishes a permanent, bipartisan commission within the United States Commission on Civil Rights. Its 19 members will include congressional lawmakers, executive branch appointees, issue experts, activists, and other stakeholders who will examine social disparities affecting black men and boys in America. Based on its findings, the commission will issue policy recommendations to Congress, the White House, and federal agencies. The bipartisan, bicameral Caucus on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, which Congresswoman Wilson founded and co-chairs, will craft legislation to implement those recommendations.

Perhaps the most dangerous issue facing black boys in our country is racism itself. Too often they are perceived as criminals by the time they reach the age of five. Theyre labeled delinquent, not rowdy. They are hardened criminals, not misguided youth. Their very existence is often seen as a threat. It is a tragic reality that black males in America are treated as their own class of citizens, Congresswoman Wilson continued.

This treatment is reflected in social outcomes in such areas as education, criminal justice, health care and employment. More than one out of every six black men who today should be between 25 and 54 years old have disappeared from daily life. Low rates of high school retention among black male students directly relate to the high rates of joblessness and incarceration. More than two-thirds of black male dropouts end up serving time in state or federal prison. And while black males overall make up roughly 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent nearly 40 percent of all men serving time in state and federal prisons.

The final passage of the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act is a little bittersweet for me because my dear friend and colleague, Congressman John Lewis, did not live to witness this landmark day. He was one of its fiercest advocates and devoted countless hours during my tenure in Congress to inspiring hundreds of boys who are members of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, a mentoring and dropout prevention program I founded 30 years ago. I am honor to share this legacy with him, Congresswoman Wilson added.

The legislation is cosponsored by more than 200 members of Congress and has been endorsed by more than 20 renowned civil rights leaders and organizations, including Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Omari Hardwick, My Brothers Keeper Alliance, NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Council of the Great City Schools, Teach for America, the National Football League, Reform Alliance, Teach for America, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and Alpha Kappa Alpha, Sorority, Inc.

America is undergoing a transformative movement, as we confront and combat the racial injustice and police brutality that are killing hundreds of black Americans, particularly black men and boys, saidSpeaker Nancy Pelosi(D-CA). Today, the Democratic House will advance our drumbeat of action to achieve justice by passing H.R.1636 to establish a Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys, led by Congresswoman Frederica Wilson: a warrior for justice on behalf of the voiceless and vulnerable. This commission will be a critical force for acknowledging the institutional racism that black men and boys face every day in America and then to working to end it.

I thank Rep. Wilson for introducing this bill, which I was proud to bring to the Floor today, saidMajority Leader Steny H. Hoyer(D-MD). Too many African-American men and women are losing their lives as a result of racial profiling, hate, and bigotry. The killing must end, and we must address the disparities and inequalities impacting African-American men and boys when it comes to educational attainment, arrest and incarceration, crime and violence, income and wealth, and health care.Thats why a commission of the kind Rep. Wilsons legislation would create is so essential. I applaud her for her work on this critical bill, and I was pleased to see it pass the House with strong, bipartisan support today.

As we witness the deadly outcomes of interactions between black men and police from Walter Scott to George Floyd, we must seek comprehensive reforms that will change this narrative,Majority Whip James Clyburn(D-SC)said. Police reforms are necessary, but we must also restructure the system that has adversely impacted black men since birth. I applaud Congresswoman Wilsons tenacity to establish this commission that will develop a plan to address the systemic conditions that have led to historic disparities between the experiences of white and black men in this country.

From the moment slave ships landed in Virginia more than 400 years ago, black men and boys have had a target on their backs. Even though we have made progress in America, the events of the last few months have highlighted how far we still have to go. Unless we take the time to give our young men the opportunity to be successful, the system will take advantage of the opportunity to give them some time. I applaud Congresswoman Wilson for her tremendous leadership to get the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act passed in the House, saidRep. Hakeem Jeffries(D-NY), chair of the House Democratic Caucus and an original co-sponsor of the bill.

From the days of chattel slavery, black men and boys have been forcefully removed from their families, tortured, murdered, racially profiled, and oppressed in our country.As the chair of the Congressional Black Caucus,I am proud to support my colleague,Congresswoman Fredericka Wilson,in highlighting the psychological and social disparities faced by black men and boys.This important legislationdevelops abipartisan Commission on the Status of Black Men and Boys to begin the process of addressing the barriers of targeted systemic racism towards black men and developing policy solutions todismantlethem. Rep.Karen Bass(D-CA), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Now more than ever, it is imperative that we take action to address the racial inequities that continue to plague our nation, saidSenator Marco Rubio(R-FL).America is more successful when its citizens have equal access to economic opportunity and prosperity, and this is particularly relevant for young black men. As we confront the challenges of the 21st century, we will need to rely on the talents and contributions of every American. I applaud the House for passing the Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys Act, and I urge the President to sign it into law without delay. I was pleased to lead this legislation in the Senate, and I look forward to the work the Commission will do to address the racial and economic disparities affecting our communities today.

It is time that we come to terms with the fact that America has never fully addressed the systemic racism that has existed in our countryparticularly toward black men and boys, saidSen. Kamala Harris(D-CA).This bipartisan commission is the very beginning of a long overdue effort to confront the negative treatment black men and boys face every day in America. Next, we must continue our efforts with substantive legislation to right historical wrongs that have led to generations of racial inequities. I applaud Congresswoman Wilson and the House of Representatives for taking this step.

Almost eight years ago, my son, Jordan, was shot and killed while sitting in the back seat of the car at a gas station with his friends. A man didnt like the loud music they were playing, saidRep. Lucy McBath(D-GA), an original co-sponsor of the bill.On this day, while we look back at the life and legacy of John Lewis and remark at how far weve come, I must also look toward a future without my son and I see how far we still must go. This commission will search for ways to address the hurdles and inequities that many black men and boys continue to face, and help us all work together to create a better world for our children, for our grandchildren, and for American families across the country.

As governor, I signed legislation to create a Commission on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys in Florida, and Im proud to join Congresswoman Frederica Wilson, Senator Marco Rubio, and our colleagues to bring this effort to the national level. This is an important step to help make critical changes across our nation, saidSen. Rick Scott(R-FL).

The National Football League is pleased to support this bipartisan legislation, which is both necessary and timely. We applaud Congress for passing this bill, and for taking steps to develop comprehensive, research-based solutions to the systemic social and economic challenges that impact black men and boys in our society, saidTroy Vincent, EVP of Football Operations, NFL.

# # #

The content and opinions expressed within this press release are those of the author(s) and/or represented companies, and are not necessarily shared by Black PR Wire. The author(s) and/or represented companies are solely responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the content of this Press release. Black PR Wire reserves the right to reject a press release if, in the view of Black PR Wire, the content of the release is unsuitable for distribution.

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(BPRW) THE COMMISSION ON THE SOCIAL STATUS OF BLACK MEN AND BOYS ACT PASSES THE HOUSE | Press releases - Blackchronicle

Removing large-scale networks of accounts has a different, but no less significant, effect. Changes to the information ecosystem reduce the amplification power of these groups; removing the networked faction of QAnon accounts ahead of the election is notable because they are a significant node in the new MAGA coalition. Without this network of superspreaders on Twitter, it will be more difficult to coordinate the manipulation of search engines and trending algorithms.

But even if they succeed in reducing the spread of conspiracy theories, these actions reveal the twin problems facing online platforms: some speech is damaging to society, and the design of social-media systems can compound the harms.

All these interventions come as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Facebook have been asked to testify in front of the House Judiciary Antitrust Subcommittee. The hearingnow delayed until Wednesdayis part of a series exploring Online Platforms and Market Power and will call Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Tim Cook of Apple, Sundar Pichai of Google, and Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook.

Republicans have sought to invite others, including Twitter CEO Jack Dorseybut also an outlier, John Matze, the founder of the right-wing app Parler. Parler has built its brand on the back of claims that Twitter censors conservatives, and it recently went on a sprint to recruit Republican politicians. In July, Matze was a guest on a podcast that routinely features white nationalist and misogynist content and had been banned from YouTube in 2018 for hate speech. During the interview, Matze expressed pride that he provides a platform for those who have been removed from other platforms, such as Laura Loomer, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Jacob Wohl. On Parler, these figures have their content served alongside contributions from Republican figures the likes of Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, and Matt Gaetz, among others.

Minor apps provide alternative infrastructure for communities trafficking in hate speech.

Research by me and my colleagues on the development of another app, Gab, which gained limited popularity by promoting itself as a safe haven for free speech following the white supremacist violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, illustrates the serious limitations of minor apps that provide alternative infrastructure for communities trafficking in hate speech.

More:

Why Congress should look at Twitter and Facebook - MIT Technology Review

Background

The Proud Boys represent an unconventional strain of American right-wing extremism. While the group can be described as violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic, its members represent a range of ethnic backgrounds, and its leaders vehemently protest any allegations of racism. Their founder, Gavin McInnes, went so far as to file a defamation lawsuit against the Southern Poverty Law Center when the SPLC designated the Proud Boys a hate group.

In McInnes own words, the Proud Boys are a pro-western fraternity, essentially a drinking club dedicated to male bonding, socializing and the celebration all things related to western culture. In reality, the Proud Boys bear many of the hallmarks of a gang, and its members have taken part in multiple acts of brutal violence and intimidation. While the Proud Boys insist that they only act in self-defense, several incidents including one in which two members of the group were convicted of attempted gang assault, attempted assault and riot belie their self-professed peaceful nature. Indeed, many members have criminal records for violent behavior and the organization actively pursues violence against their perceived enemies.

During the last three years, the Proud Boys have established themselves as a dominant force withinthe alt lite. Easily recognizable, thanks to their black and yellow Fred Perry polo shirts and red Make America Great Again baseball caps, members are regulars at far-right demonstrations and Trump rallies. After several years of forging alliances with members of the Republican political establishment, the Proud Boys have carved out a niche for themselves as both a right-wing fight club and a volunteer security force for the GOP. Despite their associations with mainstream politicians, Proud Boys actions and statements repeatedly land them in the company of white supremacists and right-wing extremists. Jason Kessler, the primary organizer of the deadly 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, is a former Proud Boy. Several members attended the violent August 12, 2017 demonstration that ended in the death of counter-protestor Heather Heyer.

During an October 2018 brawl outside the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan, for which two Proud Boys members were convicted and sentenced to substantial prison terms, and seven others pled guilty, the Proud Boys were joined by the 211 Bootboys, an ultra-nationalist and violent skinhead gang based in New York City. In October 2019, members of the Denver chapter of the Proud Boys marched with members of Patriot Front and former members of the now-defunctneo-Nazi group Traditionalist Worker Party. These relationships show the Proud Boys to be less a pro-western drinking club and more an extreme, right-wing gang. Ideologically, members subscribe to a scattershot array of libertarian and nationalist tropes, referring to themselves as anti-communist and anti-political correctness, but in favor of free speech and free markets.

History

The Proud Boys was formed in 2016 by VICE Media co-founder, Gavin McInnes. In an op-ed in the far-right outlet Takis Magazinenotorious for its regular contributors, which included white supremacist Jared TaylorMcInnes announced the foundation of the group, describing its members as Western chauvinists who refuse to apologise [sic] for creating the modern world, and who long for the days when girls were girls and men were men. According to McInnes, the Proud Boys, whose name is taken from a song in the musical Aladdin, are a response and opposition to politically correct culture.

McInnes, whose VICE magazine built its reputation on publishing juvenile and often offensive material, had been trying to establish himself for years as a professional provocateur, making wildly racist statements and claiming it was all ironic, or tongue-in-cheek. In 2002, he said, We seem really racist and homophobic because we hang around with fags and niggers so much. It just becomes part of our vernacular.

At the same time, McInnes was becoming increasingly overt in his xenophobia and racism, telling the New York Times in 2003 that, I love being white and I think it's something to be very proud of. I don't want our culture diluted. We need to close the borders now and let everyone assimilate to a Western, white, English-speaking way of life.

According to McInnes plan, the roughly 1,000 Proud Boys would be organized into chapters nationwide. Membership would be divided into ranks from one to four.

To attain level one, an initiate must publicly state: I am a proud Western chauvinist, I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world.

To reach level two, the initiate must endure a beating by his comrades while reciting the names of five breakfast cereals. This is ostensibly to demonstrate adrenaline control; leaked online videos show the ritual to be far less violent than what McInnes described. Initiates are told to limit masturbation to once per month. The idea behind this ban -- that porn is making men weak and keeping them from forming real relationships with women -- is common throughout the right-wing extremist movement. In his op-ed, McInnes wrote: Though sexual intercourse is encouraged, Proud Boys have an endgame and it is to settle down and have kids. They have absolutely no respect for feminists but venerate the housewife so much, they are actually becoming quite popular with women.

To achieve the third level, an initiate must get a Proud Boys tattoo. Common variations are Proud Boy, POYB (acronym for Proud of Your Boy) and Uhuru, a Swahili word for freedom that the Proud Boys have appropriated as their battle cry.

Finally, the fourth level, which McInnes did not describe in the foundational document, is an honorary degree awarded for a material sacrifice or service by a brother. McInnes said in an interview that the fourth degree is awarded for a major fight for the cause. You get beat up, kick the crap out of an antifa," but he later backpedaled, saying it obviously doesnt mean you go to someones house or even pick a fight with one at a rally. Fourth degree is a consolation prize for being thrust into a shitty situation and surviving.

In October 2018, as law enforcement sought members of the Proud Boys for their role in the fight outside the Metropolitan Club, Proud Boys leadership released a clarified set of bylaws that seemed to contradict their prior, violent rhetoric. The new language reads: Any requirement that a brother commit a violent or illegal act as a condition precedent to receiving a fourth degree is, by this bylaw, abolished.

In early 2019, before Proud Boys John Kinsman and Maxwell Hare were convicted for their role in the 2018 fight, McInnes announced that he would no longer be formally involved with the Proud Boys. Leadership was assumed briefly by disgraced Texas attorney, Jason van Dyke, before he was replaced by Enrique Tarrio, a Cuban-American from Miami. Tarrio, the current chairman, is also running for the U.S. House of Representatives in 2020.

Violence

Violence has been a key component of the Proud Boys since the groups creation. McInnes has repeatedly advocated brutal tactics when dealing with the Proud Boys sworn enemies -- anti-fascist counter protestors, otherwise known as antifa -- and leaked chats from social messaging app Telegram reveal a clear pattern of inciting violence. In a June 2016 episode of the Gavin McInnes Show, McInnes warned his enemies, We will kill you. Thats the Proud Boys in a nutshell. We will kill you.

And yet, the groups leaders have repeatedly attempted to distance themselves from violence, both threatened and actual. In the aftermath of the 2018 brawl in Manhattan, McInnes stated in an interview with NewsmaxTV that he does not control these guys and described himself as the founder, not the leader. Similarly, Tarrio has repeatedly insisted that the Proud Boys organization is nonviolent.

Again, real world events belie the claims made by various Proud Boys leaders. Not only have there been several instances where Proud Boys have engaged in unprovoked violence, their social media conversations also demonstrate how inciting violence and responding to small slights with brutal force is key to the Proud Boys strategy. In fact, while the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights (FOAK) was formed to serve as a tactical defense arm (italics ours) of the Proud Boys, its leader, Kyle Chapman AKA Based Stickman, is a violent felon who has repeatedly encouraged violence against anti-fascist activists, and whose persona stems from his history of threatening counter-protestors with a heavy iron stick. Similarly, Proud Boys and their allies purposefully organize and act in a manner that will all but guarantee violence. In advance of the August 2019 End Domestic Terrorism rally in Portland, Oregon, organizer and outspoken Proud Boys ally, Joe Biggs, posted videos of himself holding a spiked baseball bat with the words Make America Great Again emblazoned on it, telling the camera that Were going to put this to good use. He also posed wearing t-shirts reading, Im Just Here for the Violence and Death to Antifa.

Screen shots of conversations on Telegram reveal how members of the Proud Boys consider any provocation to be a direct assault that legitimizes any use of force as acceptable retaliation. In advance of an April 2019 rally in Rhode Island, a poster wrote, If any contact is made with you, thats assault. If they take your hat, spray you with silly string, spit, push Its assault. We need to have all our guys there before we retaliate though if we can. The cops arent going to let us fight long. We need to inflict as much damage as possible in the time we have. In the same chat room, a Proud Boy member using the name Jason Cardona posed with a hatchet, writing, Group, meet Kindness. Later he posed with a large knife and wrote, If they want to meet wisdom all they have to do is ask. Poster Col. Kish wrote, Its a prior service Marines [sic] to get out and continue beating the fuck out of communists, semper Fi ooh ra.

At the rally in Rhode Island, among others, there have been instances of Proud Boys engaging in unprovoked attacks, as well as groups of Proud Boys attacking single counter-protestors.

In January 2020, Proud Boy member, Tusitala Tiny Toese, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge for an attack on a man in Portland. Fellow Proud Boy, Donovon Flippo, had earlier pleaded guilty to fourth-degree assault for the same incident.

In August, 2019, former Patriot Prayer member and current Proud Boy member, Russell Schultz, along with five others, was indicted for rioting following a fight outside the Cider Riot bar in Portland.

On January 6, 2019, self-proclaimed Proud Boy Buckey Wolfe allegedly murdered his brother with a samurai-style sword, claiming that God told me he was a lizard. The Proud Boys released a statement saying that Wolfe had never been approved as a member, but according to the Daily Beast, Buckeys Facebook profile included pictures of him with other members of the group. At the time of the murder, Buckey reportedly subscribed to the QAnon conspiracy theory. Prosecutors say that Buckey demonstratedsigns of mental illness.

Links to the political mainstream

On February 21, 2018, a new video appeared on the Proud Boys YouTube channel, showing Roger Stone, convicted felon and longtime advisor to President Trump, staring into the camera and reciting the Proud Boys initiation: Hi. Im Roger Stone. Im a western chauvinist, and I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world. Stone has had a long relationship with the Proud Boys, posing in countless pictures with various members, appearing in videos, receiving support from the group during his 2019 trial and even using them as private security at events. But Stone is not the only link between the Proud Boys and the political establishment.

After Gavin McInnes speech at the Metropolitan Club in 2018, conservative commentator Ann Coulter tweeted, Get a Proud Boys wristband to defend the men who defend you. Several Metropolitan Club members defended the decision to host the Proud Boys leader, and Alan Bialeck, a Club board member, told BuzzFeed News that he believes McInnes was merely expressing his right to free speech.

In October 2019, Donald Trump, Jr. posed for a photo with Proud Boy member Luke Rohlfing. It is unclear whether Trump Jr. was aware of Rohlfings political views, but the photo is part of a long-term Proud Boys strategy: posting alongside high-level Republicans in hopes of gaining legitimacy.

Both U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas) and Texas Gov. Rick Scott have been photographed alongside Proud Boys, as have U.S. Reps Mario Diaz-Balart (FL-25) and Devin Nunes (CA-22).

Sen. Cruz took his support a step farther, backing a non-binding resolution that would have defined anti-fascist activists as domestic terrorists after Enrique Tarrio launched a petition in favor of the bill. Even President Trump took notice and tweeted that Major consideration is being given to naming ANTIFA an ORGANIZATION OF TERROR.

The Proud Boys have also been embraced by a number of Fox News hosts; McInnes has appeared on Sean Hannitys Fox News program more than 24 times, and Tucker Carlson has appeared on McInnes show.

Racism:

While the Proud Boys often publicly denounce white supremacy, their activity has attracted white supremacists who share the groups opposition to progressive politics and proclivity for violence. The Proud Boys participated in the 2017 protests at the University of California-Berkeley, alongside a variety of white supremacist groups, including Rise Above Movement (R.A.M),Identity Evropa (now the American Identity Movement, or AIM) and theTraditionalist Worker Party (TWP).Similarly, members of Identity Evropa/AIM and TWP have joined Proud Boys and fellow right-wing group Patriot Prayer events in Portland. One man, wearing a patch for the Proud Boys-associated Fraternal Order of Alt Knights (FOAK), attended the October 2017 neo-Nazi White Lives Matter rally in Shelbyville, Tennessee. During the rally, he taunted the counter-protesters by destroying an antifa flag. Members of the Proud Boys also attended the violent August 2017 Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. They later circulated an image of themselves in a celebratory pose with a flag they captured from antifa. In October 2018, Proud Boys posed with members of the 211 Bootboys, an ultranationalist skinhead group, after McInnes speech at the Metropolitan Republican Club in New York City.

McInnes also has a long history with racism not confined to his repeated use of the N-word. He once called African-American actress Jada Pinkett Smith that monkey actress, and on an episode of the Gavin McInnes Show on Compound Media he said that Were the new n***ers. MAGA is the new black." McInnes declared on March 8, 2017, If you like Trump, you are a black man in 1945 trying to have water at a liberal fountain.

Misogyny:

The Proud boys claim that they venerate the housewife, but McInnes has said that women are lazy and less ambitious than men, and that the pay gap between women and men is due to the fact a woman would rather go to [her] daughters piano recital than work. He has said that women are magical and that birth is a magical thing, and that the U.S. should have enforced monogamy because women are colostomy bags for various strangers semen when they have sex outside of marriage. He has described feminism as a cancer that makes women ugly. Joe Biggs, a frequent Proud Boys rally-planning partner, close friend of Enrique Tarrio and former InfoWars contributor, has a long history of explicit misogyny and support for rape.

Islamophobia:

Within the Proud Boys creed The West is the Best lies an implicit anti-Eastern bias common among right-wing extremists and white supremacists. McInnes has called the idea of a Muslim American president insane and compared it to electing a German president in 1942 in America. In a talk show on Fox News, he said there was a huge problem with inbreeding within the Muslim community, and alleged that they [Muslims] hate all non-Muslims. There are also close ties between the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio in particular, and virulent anti-Islam activist, Laura Loomer.

Anti-Semitism:

Although McInneshas decried racism and anti-Semitism, his past statements tell a different story.Hehas posted videos of himself giving the Nazi salute and repeatedly saying Heil Hitler. He was accused of anti-Semitism in March 2017 when he posted a video on Rebel Media called Ten Things I Hate about Jews, which was later retitled Ten Things I HateAboutIsrael.

McInnes has made a number of contradictory statements about Zionism. Prior to his spring 2017 trip to Israel, McInnes appeared in a Rebel Media video in which he asked people to crowdfund his trip to Israel so he could see what the country was like for himself; however, in that same video, he referenced both The Culture of Critique, by white supremacist Kevin MacDonald, and David Dukes book Jewish Supremacism. It was during this trip that McInnes appears to have had somewhat of an anti-Semitic awakening. On his show on March 8, 2017, McInnes muses that Jews were somehow responsible for World War II because the Treaty of Versailles, wasnt that disproportionately influenced by Jewish intellectuals? He also defended Holocaust deniers and neo-Nazis, saying, Like at one point, the tour guide goes, You know, and there are people who think that this didnt happen. And I felt myself defending the super-far-right Nazis, just because I was sick of so much brainwashing. AndI felt like going, Well, they never said it didnt happen. What theyre saying is that it was much less than six million and that they starved to death and they werent gassed. Then he finishes his train of thought with some thoughts about Jews obsession with the Holocaust. God, theyre so obsessed with the Holocaust. I dont know if its healthy to dwell.

At another point McInnes said: Jews: If you dont want to get people mad, dont be annoying.

Transphobia:

In 2014, McInnes wrote a controversial article for the blog Thought Catalog titled, Transphobia is Perfectly Natural, which included the passage, Havent you seen all the totally functional, happily married, normal trannies walking around? They arent all dead, you knowTheyre non-heteronormative. In fact, the only thing more normal than castrating yourself and taking tons of hormones to grow tits is chopping them off.

See the rest here:

Proud Boys - Anti-Defamation League

In the past, Michale Graves, singer for the '90s version of The Misfits, has made it clear that he is both a punk and a conservative. To that end, he even appeared on the Daily Show and spoke about his views. It appears that Graves is now moving farther to the right. Yesterday, on his twitter account, Graves stated (in all caps): "I AM A PROUD WESTERN CHAUVINIST AND I REFUSE TO APOLOGIZE FOR BUILDING THE MODERN WORLD." Included in the post was an image of Graves flashing the "OK" sign, which, in recent years, has come to be a symbol of various far right groups. Graves then followed the statement with a series of hashtags that appeared to assert that Graves is a "proud boy" and supports Trump as well as Inforwars.

In earlier posts, Graves appeared to show support for Mel Gibson and Alex Jones; he also posted a brief statement that appeared to talk about mass killings by Stalin while including a image of the Black Lives Matter movement. As you probably know, Graves left the Misfits in 2000 and has not been connected with the band since.

Read the original here:

Michale Graves says he is a "proud western chauvinist" and a "proud boy" - Punknews.org

Reports of at least two people taken to nearby hospitals with gunshot wounds followed reports of a massive bout of gunfire in the Central District Tuesday night.

The shooting scene appeared to be spread out around the gas station at 23rd and Cherry where a shooting happened Monday night that sent multiple people to the hospital and left one dead.

UPDATE 7/23/20 2:20 PM: SPD announced Thursday that a 18-year-old hit in Tuesdays shooting has now died. The victim has not yet been publicly identified.

Witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots just before 10:45 PM involving multiple weapons. Seattle Police reported the shooting took place in the 2200 block of E Cherry and left at least one injured.

UPDATE 11:55 PM: SPD posted a brief on the shooting:

Detectives are investigating after two men were shot in the 2200 block of East Cherry Street Tuesday night. Officers were dispatched to investigate shots fired at the intersection of 22nd Avenue and East Cherry Street just around 10:45PM. As officers were arriving in the area, a man was dropped off at Sweedish Cherry Hill Hospital with a gunshot wound. A short while later a second victim arrived at Harborview Medical Center with a gunshot wound. Detectives are now working with the victims and possible witnesses to determine what led up to the shooting. If you have any information in this case please call detectives at (206)233-5000.

There were reports of at least one person dropped off at the Swedish Cherry Hill emergency room and a second person dropped off with a reported gunshot wound to the chest according to East Precinct radio updates.

Police were again collecting shell casings from the area near the AMPM store and ARCO service station and reported at least one vehicle with bullet holes and scattered shell casings. The streets were closed in the area as evidence was being collected.

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Another night of gunfire at 23rd and Cherry sends at least two to hospital UPDATE - CHS Capitol Hill Seattle News

Speaking after our 2-1 win against Brentford on Wednesday evening, an emotional Gerhard Struber expressed his pride at his young Barnsley side who defied all the odds to complete the most unlikely Sky Bet Championship survival.

The Reds, who spent 311 days of an extraordinary, pulsating campaign in the relegation zone, pulled off the greatest of escapes in the most dramatic circumstances at Griffin Park.

I think in my football life its the biggest job that Ive done and Im so proud of my boys, began Struber. We showed a big togetherness in the last few weeks and I think this was the big key that we stay in the league; this was not only words we can see in every game in the last few weeks that we must go on our personal limit in every game.

We played against such a big opponent and, in the first half, they had no control on the ball; our pressing was brilliant. In the second half, we had a little more problems but, in the end, we never gave up and did our best with the long breath and now we stay in the league.

Some people smiled, in the last few months, when I said we would stay in the league, but now I think everyone understands. We are a very good team and everyone deserves to stay in this league. I am so happy with my boys.

There are so many heroes to pick out and so many key factors to discuss from our clash with the Bees that its hard to know where to begin.

Perhaps Jack Waltons incredible save to thwart Bryan Mbuemo on the stroke of half-time. Maybe the numerous towering defensive headers from an often maligned but rejuvenated Mads Andersen, who has been tremendous since the restart.

But, ultimately, the games defining moments were our goals scored by players who had never found the back of the net in their professional careers.

Callum Styles has shown his undoubted talent in the past few weeks playing in an unfamiliar wing-back role, but he has gone from strength to strength. His unerring first time finish to beat David Raya at his near post was hit with the sort of confidence you would expect from a seasoned striker.

And then theres Clarke Oduor. Thrust into action with three minutes of normal time remaining to etch himself into the Barnsley history books by showing the initiative to race to the back post and tap home a goal of unprecedented magnitude.

Sometimes we need a little luck, continued Struber, who has seen his side dominate games but not get their rewards in recent weeks. Patrick Schmidt with his final pass and Clarke Im so proud of my whole squad and we need everyone.

I told the boys when we came back from lockdown, we need the whole squad we need every player and Clarke made this unbelievable finish. Im very proud.

Im proud of our development. The plan is very clear for the boys and many players have grown up their personal style. Now, we dont speak of talents, we speak more of professional players. You can see, against this massive opponent, we are on the right way.

We had the right result and I am very happy for our supporters they sent me so many messages and the energy, side by side, was very helpful.

You can watch Gerhard's post-match interview on iFollow Barnsley.

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The boss on that incredible evening at Griffin Park - barnsleyfc.co.uk