Monthly Archives: June 2021

Antifa militants attacked police in Portland, Oregon, after news broke of a deadly police shooting forcing the department to quickly announce that it was a white male to prevent riots, according to police and reports.

At least 50 protesters, most dressed all in black and carrying anti-fascist signs, gathered at a Motel 6 late Thursday where police shot a suicidal man who charged at them with a screwdriver, The Oregonian said.

The mob began yelling, throwing items at officers, and attempting to interfere with the investigation, Portland Police Bureau said in a release, with videos showing many chanting the anti-police phrase Fk 12.

One officers baton was grabbed and she was being pulled toward the crowd and someone from the crowd pepper-sprayed an officer, the force said.

At least one police vehicles tires were punctured and a window was broken, the department said, sharing details of the damage.

In the middle of the mayhem, cops tried to dispel erroneous information being circulated on social media, with local journalist Andy Ngo saying that Antifa falsely claimed the deceased was a black or brown person in flyers.

We can confirm that the subject involved is an adult white male, the department stressed.

The officer who fired the fatal shot was black, and was placed on paid administrative leave, which is standard practice, The Oregonian said.

Police have yet to identify the dead man, who police said was shot by officers responding to a welfare check.

Sources and witnesses told The Oregonian that he was suicidal and had charged at officers with a screwdriver after they attempted to get him to accept mental health help at a hospital. Ambulance crews were on the scene because of the initial suicide fears, the paper said.

Our officer encountered a very difficult and dynamic situation that no officer wants to face, Police Chief Chuck Lovell said at the scene.

I want to assure the community that were committed to a full, thorough and complete investigation, he said.

Read the original here:

Portland cops ID victim of fatal police shooting as 'white' to prevent Antifa riot - New York Post

America has a history of opposing education for Blacks. The enactment of HB 3979, which outlaws teaching Critical Race Theory (CRT) is the White establishment carrying on their traditions. WHITE washing history.

The two state representatives and the state senator for Bell county voted for HB 3979. I guess thats our communitys values.

How can you teach Reconstruction without talking about race/racism? After the Civil War freedmen started electing male Black representatives.Within a generation the election laws were adjusted to prevent that.

How do you not teach the Lynch Law? Right here in Bell County on the courthouse lawn a Black man was tortured and hanged. His body was broken and mutilated and trophy souvenirs taken.

You cant teach the Constitution and leave out the 3/5ths compromise, and the 13th and 15th Amendments.

Are you going to leave out the American genocide of the Indigenous peopleon the Trail of Tears or the Navajo Long Walk?

How about the massacre of Cheyenne women, children and old men camped under a white flag of truce on Sand Creek, Colorado?

Then the militia mutilated their bodies and took trophy souvenirs. (I see a pattern of racism.)

We cant leave out the Asians. We have racism for every race. Theres the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and Executive order 9066 (in 1942) for the internment of Japanese-Americans.

U.S. History, Government, and Social Studies cannot be correctly taught without addressing race and racism. It is woven into the fabric of America.

Cove reader says letter writer wrong to equate U.S. soldiers with Antifa

I see what Randy Broussard is doing in his letter of May 19. He is equating the brave military that fought the Nazis with the criminals and cowards of todays Antifa movement. Nothing could be further from the truth.

While they call themselves anti-Fascists, Antifa most closely resembles the Nazi Brownshirts with their common uniform, attempt to remain anonymous and wantonly destructive behaviors.

Antifa would feel perfectly comfortable with the Brownshirts as they destroyed Jewish businesses, burned books, and trashed the homes of those who opposed them.

Antifa would feel equally comfortable with the Maoists and Bolsheviks when they destroyed their own cultures. Antifa contributes nothing to the world and is destined for the trash heap of history.

In contrast, the American military in WWII would have stood firmly against Antifa and would have hated to be associated with them. The American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines really had two main objectives get the war over and get back to normal life. They didnt want to destroy the American way of life; they wanted to preserve it and participate in it.

They knew that, while the American way of life was not perfect, it was the best thing going. It still is.

I dare say that Americas military today would reject the title Antifa and any association with it. There is no comparison between these brave men and women and those cowards. Any attempt to make that comparison is simply a lie.

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Salado reader says history can't be taught without talking about race - The Killeen Daily Herald

Working to help raise awareness of cybersecurity risks in order to thwart future attacks, U.S. Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) introduced a bipartisan bill last week to establish a cybersecurity literacy campaign.

Over the past few months, we have seen rampant cyberattacks across the United States that have disrupted business, increased consumer costs, and threatened our national security, Rep. Kinzinger said. As technological advancements increase and become more complex, it is critical that everyone is aware of the risks posed from cyberattacks and how to mitigate those risks for personal security.

The congressman introduced the American Cybersecurity Literacy Act, H.R. 4055, on June 22, along with a group of cosponsors that included U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-FL) and Anna Eshoo (D-CA). The legislation would require the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) to create a cybersecurity literacy campaign to increase awareness of cybersecurity risks among the American public, including best practices for preventing cyberattacks.

Two of the more high-profile, disruptive cyberattacks recently impacted critical infrastructure, including the Colonial Pipeline and a water treatment plant in Florida.

Cybersecurity attacks and data breaches are increasingly common, costing private companies and consumers billions of dollars and exposing the private information of countless Americans, Rep. Eshoo said. As attackers become more sophisticated, Americans must have the tools to identify risks and protect themselves from attacks.

A cyberattack happens every 39 seconds, the congressman noted on Facebook, and since the pandemic, cybercrime has increased dramatically.

I am proud to introduce this legislation with my colleagues and look forward to working on this effort to help thwart future cyberattacks on all Americans, Rep. Kinzinger said.

The rest is here:

Legislation to increase awareness of cybersecurity risks unveiled by Kinzinger - Ripon Advance

Commentary: Nearly six months later, what do we know about January 6?

Joe Bidens very comfortable election victory over Donald Trump remains untarnished by any serious accusation of fraud or error. Trumps fans struck out in dozens of lawsuits; their comical, costly attempt to have Arizonas vote re-audited by a biased and inexperienced group is embarrassing; and Trumps lawyers are getting sanctioned for their legally frivolous arguments. Sydney Powell faces serious disciplinary charges in several jurisdictions, and the New York Court of Appeals just suspended Rudy Giulianis license pending a final decision, rejecting Giulianis defense that hes no longer a danger to society because he promises to say nothing more about the election.

Many who entered the Capitol illegally have been charged with crimes. (None are from Antifa, as Trump fans initially swore.) This week, a woman pled guilty who did no violence and now thoroughly regretted encouraging those who did. Oathkeepers are pleading guilty and cooperating. While Trump supporters in public office insist Trump didnt encourage the violence, many of those who committed the violence are telling courts that Trump did urge and inspire them.

Sane Republicans (or politicians who felt they could afford to) have denounced Trumps continued obsessive campaign to undo the democratic election. Other Republicans have punished those Republicans for speaking up. Trump himself reportedly expects to be magically reinstated. (The Constitution provides no such process, and Trumpists still have never clearly identified any material fault in the process, so Trump may not actually expect any such thing, but may merely be trying to make sure the donations and attention keep flowing.)

Trumpists last-ditch argument seems to be that what happened wasnt technically an insurrection. Im unsure how much that label matters, but the Oxford Dictionary definition (a violent uprising against authority) would sure seem to apply. Blacks Law Dictionary gives,A rebellion, or rising of citizens or subjects in resistance to their government, . . .anycombined resistance to the lawful authority of the state, with intent to the denial thereof, when the same is manifested, or intended to be manifested, by acts of violence.

Congress,our governments lawful authority,was duly certifyingpresidential votes on the appointed day,January 6.Mr. Trump told people theyd lose their country if they didnt fight for it.Many marched straightfrom his speechto Congress and successfully interrupted the process. Combined?Some of the accused conspired with each other in advance,making very detailed plans.

Acts of violence? You betcha. Abundant video evidence shows violence to people and official documents; many of the accused came with special tools for violence. Only a retreat by outnumbered police saved us from more extensive violence. Still, one officer died after being attacked and another shot a woman who was trying, with many others, to gain access to Congresspersons. Officers were allegedly hit by a barricade, a flagpole, and a lacrosse stick with a Confederate flag on it. One woman wanted to shoot Pelosi in the friggin brain. Others shouted that Vice-President Pence should be hanged, and erected a gallows. Note the or intended to be. The officers who physically prevented intruders from contact with Congresspersons sure thought the mob intended violence.

Above all, we know that many elected leaders, who would be screaming for blood if Palestinian sympathizers or Black Lives Matter folks had done this, insist it was kind of like a picnic the tourists had.

No, this was no picnic.

Read more:

Accountability For the Insurrection Is Essential - KRWG

This article is part of a deep dive on the Jan. 6 riot in Washington and creeping authoritarianism in America. See all of our work here.

In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a mob of then-President Donald Trumps supporters, a handful of Republican leaders were joined by a number of their voters in bestowing at least some culpability on Trump and the GOP in Washington.

Nearly six months later, Morning Consult polling has found that while the bulk of the overall electorate still shares that perspective, Republican voters appear to be following their leaders as they become increasingly likely to disassociate themselves, their party and Trump from the insurrection.

Since a Morning Consult/Politico poll conducted Jan. 6-7, the share of Republican voters who said Trump was at least somewhat responsible for the events that led to the Capitol attack fell 11 percentage points, to 30 percent, while the share who said the same of Republicans in Congress fell by a similar share, to 22 percent, in the June 18-20 survey. Both surveys were conducted among roughly 2,000 registered voters, with 2-point margins of error.

Republican voters are now more likely to blame President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats for the events that led to the Capitol attack than they are Trump and GOP lawmakers, many of whom supported his false claims of widespread election irregularities. That stance puts them at odds with the broader electorate, whose views on the matter have gone virtually unchanged.

Whats happening isnt partisan polarization but asymmetric polarization, with Republicans separated from Democrats and independents on everything from whether the 2020 election results were legitimate, to assessments of how Trump handled and Biden is handling COVID, to views about how the economy is doing, said Amy Fried, the chair of the University of Maines political science department and the co-author of a new book probing conservatives distrust in institutions.

Hans Noel, an associate professor of government at Georgetown University whos studied political coalitions, parties and ideology, also highlighted the passage of time and a relaxing of intraparty condemnation of the now-former president.

Since the aftermath of Jan. 6 and Trumps second impeachment trial, his popularity has improved among the GOP voters nationwide, Republican candidates for the midterms have flocked to his properties in search of his endorsement and GOP leaders expressions of disapproval about his behavior following his loss to Biden have given way to efforts by some lower-level Republican lawmakers and influencers to downplay the Capitol attack.

There were a lot of Republicans criticizing Trump and the insurrection right after it, Noel said. Messages ranged from it was antifa to its no big deal to it was Trump and not us. Now, the messages are still mixed, but the ones that criticize Trump have faded.

Despite that messaging, the Republican Party has not been able to shrug off voters views that the Capitol attackers are representative of the overall GOP.

While voters have become less likely to agree that the Jan. 6 rioters are representative of Trump rather than the whole Republican Party, they are now more likely to say that the insurrectionists represent the GOP overall. Among Republicans voters, however, the share who pushed back on both statements increased notably especially the one regarding Trump.

But most voters have no illusions about whom the Capitols attackers were fighting for: 64 percent said the people who breached the Capitol were Trump supporters, down 6 points from January. That drop was driven by Republican voters, 45 percent of whom still agreed with the sentiment.

Among GOP voters, 27 percent said the rioters were opponents of Trump, aligning with some of the conspiracy theories propagating on the right that allege the presence of outside meddlers.

Leading Republicans have been working to shift the blame to groups like antifa or the FBI in conservative media, both those groups are frequently portrayed as anti-Trump, said J. Miles Coleman, associate editor of Sabatos Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Perhaps over the past several months, this message has sunk in with Republicans at large, which seems reflected in the polling here.

The survey also found Republicans are tired of hearing about the event. Six months later, 68 percent of GOP voters agreed with the statement that there has been too much focus on the January 6th events at the U.S. Capitol, while half of the electorate disagreed.

Regardless of which side of that divide voters fall on, the country is about to hear a lot more about Jan. 6 as prosecutions start to move through the judicial system and a select committee launched last week by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) begins to carry out its own probe after Senate Republicans blocked the establishment of an independent, bipartisan commission.

Despite aligning with the statement that too much attention has been paid to Jan. 6, a 46 percent plurality of GOP voters said it was important that the federal government continue to investigate what happened six months ago, joining 9 in 10 Democrats and 67 percent of self-identified independents.

But that gap reflected across much of the survey probing voters views on an inarguably historic event six months later reflects something broader: Republican voters are less likely than others to say they were shaken by Jan. 6.

Just 1 in 5 Republican voters said the Jan. 6 attack has had a major impact on their worldview, ranking it at the bottom of a list of a dozen big moments in recent history. On the other hand, 2 in 3 Democrats said Jan. 6 had a major impact on their worldview, marking the biggest gap between the two parties on the question.

The implications of January 6th are still on their minds, Coleman said of Democratic voters. Contrast that to some right-wing media outlets, which are downplaying or trying to outright avoid mentioning it.

Link:

Republican Voters Largely Want to Move On From Jan. 6. The Rest of the Country Doesn't - Morning Consult