Category Archives: Alt-right

After Donald Trump won the U.S. election in November 2016, some Republicans hoped that the new President would mellow in office and moderate his hardline campaign positions. Steve Bannon saw it as his job to make sure that didnt happen.

Bannon, a former investment banker and right-wing documentary filmmaker who served as one of Trumps principal advisers during the final months of his campaign, moved into the West Wing in January 2017, taking over an office at a crucial hallway intersection steps from the Oval Office. His perch allowed him to see nearly everyone visiting then-chief of staff Reince Priebus on one side, and Trumps son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner on the other.

Bannons official new title was chief strategist, and he saw himself as besieged by ideological rivals trying to slow-walk Trumps controversial campaign promises to build a border wall, gut trade deals, and ban Muslims from entering the country. His ascent was seen by many as bringing the fringe voices of white nationalists and the alt-right directly into the West Wing. He spent hours on calls with GOP donors and reporters painting Priebus as beholden to the old Republican establishment and Kushner as a Democrat in Trumps house. He lasted seven months, before being pushed out for leaking about palace intrigue and refusing to cede access and control to Trumps second chief of staff, John Kelly.

Bannons time in the White House may have been short, but it was influential. Within a few weeks of moving in, Bannon helped launch Trump on the hardline policy path he has rarely deviated from since. Bannon, along with senior advisor Stephen Miller, pushed for the hasty freeze of the U.S. refugee program and the halt in immigration from seven majority Muslim countries, moves that were later challenged in court and required revisions. He kept a white board on the wall next to his desk and put green check marks next to actions that weakened international trade agreements like the Trans-Pacific Partnership and North American Free Trade Agreement.

It is quite a fall, then, to go from viewing himself as keeper of the Presidents to-do list to being arrested by federal agents three years later. Bannon was taken into custody on Thursday, accused of helping orchestrate a scheme to defraud hundreds of thousands of donors who contributed $25 million to an online crowdfunding campaign to build a privately funded wall on the U.S. border with Mexico. Prosecutors in the Southern District of New York alleged that Bannon had falsely told donors he would not be compensated for his work on the We Build the Wall project, and charged him with counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Bannon was reportedly arrested off the coast of Connecticut aboard the yacht of Guo Wengui, an exiled Chinese businessman.

Bannon pleaded not guilty on Thursday and was released on a $5 million bond. He wont be allowed to board private jets or boats without permission from a federal judge and must restrict his travel to New York and Washington, D.C. Bannon and his lawyer did not respond to requests for comment.

On Friday morning, Bannon was back on the air of his podcast, War Room: Pandemic, saying that his arrest was a political hit job and an attempt to silence proponents of building a border wall. He did not address directly the charge that he defrauded donors. All these charges are nonsense, Bannon said into a large radio microphone, wearing his signature costume: two black collared shirts. This is to stop and intimidate people who want to talk about the wall.

Trump distanced himself from Bannons wall project on Thursday, saying he didnt like the project and thought it was being done for showboating reasons. Trump said he feels very badly for his former adviser, but added, I havent been dealing with him for a very long period of time. It was inappropriate to be trying to fund a wall with private funds, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a visit of Iraqs Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi.

A White House statement sought to further distance the President from Bannon. President Trump has not been involved with Steve Bannon since the campaign and the early part of the Administration, and he does not know the people involved with this project, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in a statement. One advisory board member of the private wall project, Kris Kobach, the former secretary of state of Kansas, told the New York Times last year that the effort had Trumps blessing.

Bannons path to a desk down the hall from the Oval Office was as circuitous as one of his lengthy tangents that often veer into the history of Nazi propaganda or the Roman Empire. Bannon grew up in a family of Irish-Catholic Democrats in Richmond, Virginia. His father was a telephone lineman who later moved into management. Bannon served as a Navy officer and later got a degree in national security studies from Georgetown and an M.B.A. from Harvard. He eventually went to work for Goldman Sachs before breaking out to start a boutique investment firm in Beverly Hills that specialized in entertainment deals. In the early 2000s, he began producing documentaries that lashed out at political and financial elites and eventually took over Breitbart News, a website that Bannon once described as a platform for the alt-right, a movement that has embraced racist views and anti-semitism.

It was a tweet that brought Bannon and Trump together. In July 2015, weeks after Donald Trump announced he would run for President, Steve Bannon wrote on Breitbart that Trumps book, Time to Get Tough, was a blockbuster policy manifesto. Trump tweeted a link to the story. After that, Bannon repeatedly interviewed Trump on his radio show, and a year later, Bannon was hired as chief executive of the campaign.

Bannon didnt have to bring Trump his ideas on trade imbalances, harsh immigration policies and stripping away environmental regulations Trump already had them. The two men found each other, and Bannon brought a propagandists sensibility to the fight. They both embraced a tactic in Washington of not backing down in the face of flaming criticism and not apologizing if they landed on the wrong side of the truth. Bannon was fond of likening himself and Trump to honey badgers who dont relent even after being stung by bees or bitten by snakes.

When Trump won, Bannon asked to be named chief strategist in the White House and for the first few months of the Trump administration, Bannon had broad privileges to attend meetings in the Oval Office. The Anti-Defamation League called Bannons promotion a sad day and described his tenure at Breitbart as presiding over the premier website of the alt-right a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks hate-crimes, described Bannon at the time as the main driver behind Breitbart becoming a white ethno-nationalist propaganda mill. Former Ohio governor John Kasichs chief of staff John Weaver said Bannon would be footsteps from the Oval Office and represents the racist, fascist extreme right.

In the White House, Bannon was one of the few in Trumps orbit who rarely wore a suit and tie, often opting for a rumpled blazer and layers of dark collared shirts. Bannon left the white House in August 2017, in the wake of a firestorm over Trump saying both sides had responsibility for deadly violence during clashes over the removal of a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville, VA. Former White House aide Cliff Sims wrote in his book Team of Vipers that Bannon was the only one in the White House entirely comfortable and thrilled, really with Trumps remarks. Bannon clashed with Trumps second chief of staff John Kelly over Trumps response and other issues, and Trump had come to believe Bannon was regularly leaking to reporters about policy fights inside the West Wing.

Most presidents have an early ideological cheerleader like Bannon, says Julian Zelizer, a historian at Princeton University and author of Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker, and the Rise of the New Republican Party. Bannon played a role for Trump that was similar to how David Axelrod was able to help Barack Obama define a new Democratic coalition, and how Karl Rove helped George W. Bush expand on his base in Texas to win the White House, says Zelizer. Bannon saw how Trump fit into the Republican party and was able to articulate how Trumps anti-establishment populism and his restrictionist ideas on trade and immigration, once seen as fringe movements, could be the new GOP orthodoxy.

He had a feel for the Republican party and how it had changed over time, Zelizer says.He played an important role in not just helping Trump, but in helping Republicans see why Trump was the right candidate for the party at that moment, says Zelizer.

But one way Bannon was different than those close advisors, Zelizer says, was his active desire to sow chaos in government and erode the administrative state. Bannons arrest comes on the same day that a federal judge blocked Trumps latest effort to protect his tax returns from being handed over to prosecutors in New York as part of an investigation into Trumps business practices. Trumps lawyers are expected to appeal the decision. Ultimately it isnt surprising that another person in Trumps orbit would find themselves in legal trouble, Zelizer notes. This is someone who was comfortable in the world of Trump where the lines of ethics are beyond blurry, he says.

Once outside the White House, Bannon continued to take aim at the Republican establishment. He has long seen himself as a revolutionary wanting to crash the existing political order and undermine the clubby circle of elites, with targets ranging from the Clintons to Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Over the past few years, his support from major Republican donors waned and his direct influence over Trump dropped off. Bannon started a podcast about the COVID-19 pandemic that focused on Chinas initial coverup of the virus, and hes been a vocal critic of the Chinese Communist Party. Trump has said Bannons been a more effective advocate for him since he left the White House. Actually, Steve Bannons been much better not being involved. He says, the greatest president ever. Trump told Fox Newss Chris Wallace during an interview on July 19.

But even Bannon knows he lost sway and influence the moment he stepped out of the West Wing. Trump is always influenced by the last guy he talks to, Bannon told TIME during an interview at the dining table in his Capitol Hill townhouse in January. If you want to influence Trump, you got to be the last guy he talks to, Bannon said. That hasnt been Bannon for years.

For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Contact us at editors@time.com.

Follow this link:

You Got to Be the Last Guy He Talks To.' The Rise and Fall of Trump Adviser Steve Bannon - TIME

A recent VICE article described Warhammer 40k fans who have taken issue with the direction the game is being taken by Games Workshop as both an alt-right minority and a far-right faction.

On August 12th, VICE author Paulie Doyle published an article titled The Warhammer 40k Community Is Trying to Weed Out Its Far-Right Faction.

In the article, Doyle claims that the creation of a meme depicting then-Presidential candidate Donald Trump as The God-Emperor of Mankind led to closed 40k Facebook groups becoming a repository of racism and far-right content, filled with Warhammer-themed memes mocking everything from specific ethnic minorities to gender equality.

Related: YouTuber Arch Details Next Steps In His Warhammer Is For Everyone Campaign To Save Warhammer!

Doyle proceeds to promote the feminist No More Damsels charity, which seeks to create a more inclusive atmosphere in the London wargaming scene.

The charity had previously penned a letter to Games Workshop that demanded the company further elaborate on their plans to make Warhammer for everyone.

The discussion then turns to Arch Warhammer and his ongoing campaign to push back against Games Workshops divisive statement.

Related: Warhammer Fan Pens Open Letter Criticizing Games Workshops Divisive Diversity Statement

While Doyle notes that Arch says he does not identify as a member of the far-right, this is narratively undercut by the immediate attempt that follows to hold Arch responsible for the behavior of people in his Discord server.

Doyle writes, Two months ago, screenshots from Archs Discord server were posted on /r/Sigmarxism, a left-wing Warhammer subreddit. Multiple people had used racial slurs, while Arch himself referred to Smi people (an indigenous people of northern Scandinavia) as gypsy but worse.

He added, Another poster used the term field exercises a term understood in far-right circles as referring to the activities of the Nazi Einsatzgruppen, which murdered thousands of Romani people, Jewish people and communists in German-occupied territories during the Second World War as a suggested way of dealing with the group.

Doyle also notes that Arch had made a video in which he referred to the fictional Gnoblar race from the Warhammer fantasy series as house n*****s, and another in which he defended the use of the term White Lives Matter.

When asked for comment, Arch responded that he doesnt really concern himself with how extremists interpret his speech, and that he will continue to allow jokes.

Related: Warhammer Creator Games Workshop Accused Of Being Vicariously Racist To Community Members

If you are the most extreme tankie, or even the most extreme fascist, if you simply want to play a game of 40k, not talk about your politics, simply collect the miniatures I do not view that as Games Workshops duty to stop it, Arch explains.

I view that as the rest of societys duty to debate against these people and to prevent them via public discourse, and the public opinion.

Related: Marvel Comics Reveals Details On Their Upcoming Warhammer 40,000 Comic

Arch recently claimed that sources inside Games Workshop have informed him that the campaigns message had been received and asserted that We did everything we wanted to do. We have achieved our goals. And now we can sit back a bit and observe. If GW just continues doing what we wanted them to do in the first place which is just keep making miniatures, preferably something other than Primaris Marines.

If they just continue making miniatures, they continue making the lore, the hobby that we all enjoy, then we can get back to whinging about ludicrous prices or too many Primaris Marines, you know, hobby related stuff. And we can all be happy, he stated.

Arch responded in full to Doyles article in a recent video, wherein the dedicated Warhammer fan breaks down each of Doyles statements in great deal:

What do you make of Vices labeling of Warhammer 40k fans? What about Archs response to their article?

(Visited 2,692 times, 212 visits today)

Read more:

Vice Labels Critics of Proposed Warhammer 40k Direction As Alt-Right Minority - Bounding Into Comics

The House voted on a bill Saturday to provide $25 billion to the U.S. Postal Service and halt any planned changes amid growing fears that Trump is attempting to hinder the delivery of mail-in ballots ahead of Novembers election. The vote came one day after Postmaster General Louis DeJoy a Trump megadonor testified before the Senate about recent changes at the Postal Service. This is Michigan Senator Gary Peters questioning DeJoy.

Sen. Gary Peters: Will you be bringing back any mail sorting machines that have been removed since youve become postmaster general? Will any of those come back?

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: Theres no intention to do that. Theyre not needed, sir.

Sen. Gary Peters: So, you will not bring back any processors?

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy: Theyre not needed, sir.

Postal workers in Washington state and Dallas, Texas, said they have ignored orders from above and reinstalled high-speed mail sorting machines. Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports over 534,000 mail-in ballots were rejected across 23 states during this years primaries nearly a quarter of those in battlegrounds states. DeJoy is testifying before the House Oversight Committee today.

The rest is here:

House Passes Bill to Halt Changes at USPS as Fears Mount over Mail-in Ballots - Democracy Now!

C. and I arrive at Justice Center in downtown Portland on Saturday a little after 11 a.m. Unlike the night demonstrations, in which protesters pelt police headquarters with fireworks and flaming trash, the few dozen people this morning are waving American flags and shouting, "Blue lives matter!"

Which is not popular with the crew across the street, who shout back "ALL COPS ARE BASTARDS!" and that all cops must die.

Even the good ones?

"There are no good ones," an Ojibwe boy wearing a medicine pouch tells me.

He cannot name an instance where a police officer has done good for someone?

"You need to step six feet away from him," a kid at the curb tells meand, regarding my question about the police, "I am going to totally KICK YOUR ASS!"

So good morning from Day 87 of the protests in Portland, Oregon. This one is a little different: It's organized by Back the Blue, a group showing its support for police, support that includes a caravan of Trump-supporting motorcyclists who roar up and form a barrier between the opposing sides.

The call-and-response continues.

"All cops are brave!"

"Especially when they're wearing white hoods!"

"God, what a mess," says what looks to be a homeless dude, just before he wings a full water bottle at the flag-wavers.

"The Proud Boys are 100 deep and on their way in, on the MAX [light rail] train," says C. She's referring to the alt-right group behind today's "No to Marxism in America Rally," planned for noon. Last year's meet between the Proud Boys and antifa resulted in just about zero face time, in part because Portland police coordinated with various factions to keep the groups apart.

Things are different this year. Though the action is taking place directly in front of police headquarters, there is not, for the length of today's confrontation, one officer in evidence. Instead, there's a message through a bullhorn several times an hour, "This is the Portland Police Bureau. Our priority is the preservation of life and the protection of everyone's First Amendment [right] to speech We recognize there are groups with different views gathered here today"

The message's coda, to "Stop participating in criminal activity," does nothing to stop the anti-cop side from throwing eggs, throwing rocks, and shooting fireworks across the street. They are primed to fight, and they've been practicing every night since late May. The movement has grown from grief and outrage over the killing of George Floyd to demands for the abolition of all police and all forms of what it considers state-sponsored oppression.

The oppressors now appear to include anyone inside their homes at night. For two months the protestswhich during that time were mainly protests, with people of all stripes and ages marching in relative peace for the cause of Black Lives Matterwere in the main held at the courthouse blocks where we are today. But the dynamic has now changed. Each night, usually at 8 p.m., the black blocthe by-any-means-necessary wing of the movement, named for their all-black clothesmeet at a park somewhere in the city and march to the closest institution they deem problematic (police stations, social services buildings), which are graffitied, set on fire, pelted with trash and sometimes feces. Last week they added a new twist, marching through residential streets late at night and shining lights into people's homes, demanding they wake up, that they get "out of the house and into the streets!" These nightly campaigns take place citywide; residents have no idea if or when it will come down their block, which does not make for a peaceful night's sleep.

"I feel, as a community memberwe came from East Portland, Cherry Park neighborhoodand as one of many mothers in that neighborhood, we want to see the violence and the rioting end," says Christa, a petite woman standing next to a stroller holding her three children, ages four and under. "We want the city council to make a stand, to make some tough calls. We believe in peaceful protest and Black Lives Matter and all these issues. We do not agree with the collateral damage that is happening to our city. We love Portland and downtown is being ravaged by the ongoing riots; businesses are going out of business. It's just very frustrating."

She holds over her head a sign that reads "WHEELER/HARDESTYDO SOMETHING!" What does she think Mayor Ted Wheeler and Councilmember Jo Ann Hardesty should do?

"Hardesty needs to step up and support the police doing their job," she says. "People have the absolute First Amendment constitutional right to protest. They do not have the right to destroy property or assault individuals."

Christa is drowned out by the canned police announcement asking people to stop antagonizing each other.

"Right. 'Stop criminal behavior,'" she says. "The problem is, the district attorney refuses to prosecute once they're arrested. In essence, they're promoting ongoing violence by not having any consequences."

Would it be better if the police had a presence here today?

"Honestly? If the police were out here right now, it would just escalate the situation," Christa says. "When you have such a polarized issue, anything can add fodder. The police show up, this could very well turn into a violent situation."

It's already a violent situation: Proud Boys and black bloc screaming in each other's faces, golf balls and eggs being launched, pepper spray and smoke bombs making everyone cough, and the kid who promised to kick my ass whacking the sidewalk with a thick six-foot pole.

"USA! USA!

"BLM! BLM!"

"This is the Portland Police Bureau.We recognize there are groups with different views gathered here today"

"It's a testament to the passivity of Portlanders that someone hasn't gotten shot," says Kevin. Right, I tell him. Portland is not Pocatello, or Chicago. If someone is eventually shot by, say, someone who feels their home is under threat, the protesters will then have a martyr, who will be held up as proof of a racist system. It's a bit of a finger trap, really.

"And exactly their plan," he says. "For people who claim to be anti-fascist, they're awfully fascist in their tactics."

This "free speech for me but not for thee" manifests, too, in the anti-fascists constantly taking pictures of me, taking pictures of my notes, and, one time, taking my phone. The Ojibwe boy heckles me for 20 minutes. Someone posts photos on Twitter, identifying me as a "fash."

"I don't like you," a man I have never met tells me. "You spread propaganda."

What?

"Don't deny it, I've watched hours and hours of you online," he says. When I press him for these propagandistic details, he spends 10 minutes telling me he doesn't know exactly but doesn't need to know to know I am an enemy. He then galumphs toward the black bloc side, and I think how it makes sense for him to join a movement where he can feel integral without having to substantiate his reasoning, where the cost of membership is hating the people he is told to hate. As I watch him become subsumed by the crowd, another unidentifiable figure in black, I see him as no part revolutionary, more a meat-sack of insecurity.

I've encountered black bloc activists who, when alone, fold like a cheap suit, and also those who want to talk one on one, to maybe find a way toward progress together. This is not what is happening today.

A painter who's told me he paints the demonstrations because "they need to be captured in a medium other than film" gets a face-full of bear mace. A black bloc "medic" rinses his eyes with milk of magnesia. Five minutes later, C. pukes from the pepper gas.

To quote the homeless guy: What a mess.

"And it's not going to stop until the mayor and the governor let us do our jobs," a Portland police officer later tells me. Which neither have been inclined to do, framing the protests as peaceful when they visibly and exponentially are not.

What, I ask the officer, will it take for the nightly demonstrations to stop?

Maybe violence, he says. "You have a 24-year-old white kid who lives in his mother's basement get hit upside the head? He's not going to come out the next night."

The violence right now is not being doled out by the absent police, nor by the Proud Boys, who a little after 2 p.m. have started to march south. The black bloc contingent, which grew considerably as the afternoon wore on, follows close behind. Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down" plays as the Proud Boys are pursued through the empty streets of downtown. A dozen young people in black run up the ramps of the Unitus Plaza building, looking like cat burglars, looking to cut off the Proud Boys, to continue the fight. What else are they going to do in a COVID-closed city on a Saturday night?

But the Proud Boys have apparently ditched, heading not into the streets but directly to the MAX train. There will be no more fight with them tonight.

There will, apparently, be a little more pepper spray.

"I can't open it," says a young woman, her eyes shut and streaming tears as she holds a bag of eye wipes. Two blocks later, C. and I minister to another girl similarly blinded.

"I used to love this city. I used to love waking up and knowing I lived here," says C., as we walk past people cheering and sloganeering in the park across from Justice Center. "Now I just feel bad. Not for Portlanders. For Portland."

What will the park crew do on a Saturday night? What they do every night, which is take to the streets, maybe your street. They will tell you, via the same six or seven slogans, that if you are not with them, you're against them. They will call it love for their fellow man. They will claim they are righting historical wrongs, and who but a monster or a racist would object to that? They will call the destruction of property free speech, and average citizens, out of fear or confusion or not wanting to be seen as a monster or a racist (because who knows what terrors that might bring?) will say nothing, or squint hard enough to think yes, yes, it all makes sense, better to be with them than against them; better, maybe, to burn it all down.

Continued here:

When You Say Yes to Hate: Dispatch From Portland - Reason

Then it's caused by 5G towers, other times it was deliberately created in a lab in the United States. It's part of Bill Gates's grand plan to mandate vaccines and inject us all with nanotechnology, but a moment later it's part of the world government's agenda to introduce a universal basic income, destroy private enterprise and control us.

Like most families, mine is not unaccustomed to disagreement. But this is different. It's not possible to simply agree to disagree and talk about other things.

Even the attacks on September 11, 2001, are called into question by online conspiracists.Credit:AP

It is distressing to watch people disappear into the vortex of conspiracy theories, where every conversation leads back to yet another conspiracy. Standard definitions for what constitutes a fact or evidence no longer apply, and quantity of "research" is confused with quality of research.

Hours spent watching conspiracy videos is deemed more sound than a statement from a person who has devoted their life to studying the topic and is backed by regulatory bodies and peer reviews.

It is alarming to see how this media environment lays waste to people who are ill-equipped to critically analyse the content they are consuming.

"Proof" comes in the form of charismatic rants and memes with made-up quotes attributed to Hitler's Mein Kampf. The obscenity of comparing wearing masks to the mass murder of Jews in the Holocaust a truth that is also denied doesn't occur to those mired in the conspiracy swamp.

For the committed "truth seeker", even YouTube's conspiracy theories are too mainstream to be believed. Russian-backed websites and alt-right video sharing platforms are the preferred "news" sources. And while some articles and videos contain a grain a truth, they have been so misconstrued or extrapolated as to be beyond reason.

Working in the media I have been accused of being a handmaiden for the world government. I'm told that I write what "they" tell me to write. It's as if the person I have known and loved all my life has gone, fallen so far down a rabbit hole that there's little hope of ever finding their way out.

And the further they fall, the more lonely they become. All relationships are re-assessed on agreeing to a world view, no matter how warped. Family members are given veiled ultimatums to agree or be excommunicated. Friendships, some decades-long, are abandoned when people can't accept "the truth".

Loading

In my case, I am not blameless in the breakdown in our relationship. In the middle of a pandemic, conspiracy theories enrage me to the point where I struggle to be civil.

If she were happy and content in her fantasy land then maybe this would all be OK. But she's not. She feels oppressed when she clearly isn't. She's terrified of shadows. She's paranoid that she's being constantly monitored with malicious intent. And having cut herself off from almost all of her friends and family, she's surely lonely too.

In lockdown, fearful and faced with uncertainty, with too much time spent watching online videos, the only winners are the shonks counting clicks and monetising lies.

Writer, author of '30-Something and Over It'. View more articles from Kasey Edwards.

See original here:

The heartbreak of loving a conspiracy theorist - Sydney Morning Herald

Thank you for reading TheCascadiaAdvocate, the Northwest Progressive Institutes journal of world, national, and local politics.

Founded in March of 2004, The Cascadia Advocate has been helping people throughout the Pacific Northwest and beyond make sense of current events with rigorous analysis and thought-provoking commentary for more than fifteen years. The Cascadia Advocate is funded by readers like you and trusted sponsors. We dont run ads or publish content in exchange for money.

Help us keep TheCascadia Advocate editorially independent and freely available to all by becoming a member of the Northwest Progressive Institute today. Or make a donation to sustain our essential research and advocacy journalism.

Your contribution will allow us to continue bringing you features like Last Week In Congress, live coverage of events like Netroots Nation or the Democratic National Convention, and reviews of books and documentary films.

Become an NPI member Make a one-time donation

Read more here:

Instructive bad reading, Part II: Dissecting fascism with the help of Might is Right - NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Proud Boys battle with Portland protesters on Saturday, August 22. Justin Katigbak

Here's your daily roundup of all the latest local and national news. (Like our coverage? Please consider making a recurring contribution to the Mercury to keep it comin'!)

ICYMI, on Saturday a bunch of alt-right yahoos from Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys battled counter-protesters as Portland Police made disturbing (and obviously butt-hurt) excuses for refusing to get involved. But don't fret, cop supporters! They showed up in droves to violently put down an anti-police brutality protest on Sunday night. (It's almost as if they're begging to be defunded!) Hot shot contributor Suzette Smith has the details.

Sponsored

A cannabis shop for everyone from the connoisseur to the canna-curious. Order online for pickup or delivery. 3123 SE Belmont.

Four Portland protesters have filed a federal lawsuit against Acting DHS Director Chad "CHAD!" Wolf and 200 officers for injuries sustained from the feds' copious use of tear gas and impact munitions on peaceful demonstrators.

The Indian Creek fire in Oregon has burned close to 50,000 acres so far, and is currently only 20 percent contained.

Related: Oregon prisoners are being paid under $10 to fight the many blazes across the state, and our Blair Stenvick has more.

The Oregon Health Authority today reported 220 new positive cases of coronavirus in the state, and three additional deaths. Disturbingly, the OHA also reported on Saturday that a 34-year-old Multnomah County woman had died of the virus even though she had no underlying health conditions. WASH YA DAMN HANDS, WEAR YA DAMN MASK, KEEP YA DAMN DISTANCE.

According to a report from the AP, the governors of several states (including Oregon and Washington) were influenced by business interestssome of whom were very self-servingwhen coming up with state mandates that are being used to combat COVID-19.

IN NATIONAL NEWS:

Wisconsin's governor has called out the National Guard to respond to absolutely righteous protests following the despicable police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times in the back in plain view of his three children.

President Trump accepted his corrupt party's nomination to run against Joe Biden in November today, while also making sure to note that if he loses, it'll probably be because the election was "rigged." (He didn't mention that if he wins it will definitely be because the election was rigged.)

The Republican National Convention (AKA the GOP Garbage Parade) starts tonight in case you're a fan of watching a rapidly moving slurry of lies, corruption, racism, selfishness, and gross ineptitude.

New York's attorney general is asking a court to force Trump's business associatesincluding son Eric Trumpto testify and turn over documents in her case to prove that the president has a long history of committing business-related fraud.

Evangelical Christian and Trump supporter Jerry Falwell Jr. has resigned his post as the head of Liberty University over allegations of a sexual relationship between him, his wife, and a business associate. TO BE CLEAR: One's sex life is one's own damn business and shouldn't have any bearing on one's job. However, Falwell is indisputably a grade-a conservative creep who shouldn't be allowed to be in control of anything, so... HA. HA. HA.

In other "stepping down" news: White House counselor Kellyanne Conway has announced she is stepping down from her post to "spend more time with her family" to whom we offer our deepest condolences.

Postmaster General and Trump crony Louis DeJoy testified before an angry Congress today, denying that any of the implementations that he's enacted since taking his post have slowed down the mail. (Narrator's voice: "Though they clearly have.")

Today in "headlines you probably don't want to read, but here it is anyway": Scientists say Hong Kong man got coronavirus a second time.

Are these two points related? As a Taylor Swift fan, I say PROBABLY.

YOU NEED LAUGHS, RIGHT? Then don't miss the livestream I, ANONYMOUS SHOW featuring the wildest anonymous confessions and rants from the famous I, Anonymous column that will be deliciously dissected by a hilarious panel of comedians including Simon Gibson, Steph Tovah, Ify Nwadiwe, and your host Kate Murphy! GET THEM TICKETS NOW, BABIES!

THE WEATHER REPORT: Sunny skies tomorrow with a comfortable high of 82.

And finally... posted without comment.

Continue reading here:

Good Afternoon, News: Cops Turn Blind Eye to Violent Right Wingers, Falwell (and KellyAnne) Resign, and a Black Wisconsin Man Shot in the Back by...

The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we live possibly forever. Weve seen that business can be conducted from our homes. Exercise can be done in our living rooms. Schooling can be done via Zoom. Homes may be bought and sold based on the strength of their internet connectivity. But is this new normal preferable to what we had before? Will we return to our offices when the threat is over? Chuck Stephens of the Desmond Tutu Centre for Leadership shares his thoughts on South Africas lockdown and his desire to hold fast to the old normal. Claire Badenhorst

By Chuck Stephens*

Reinhold Niebuhr famously prayed for courage to change the things he could, serenity to accept the things he could not change, and wisdom to know the difference.

We keep hearing about the new normal, as if a virus can dictate to the human race which has split the atom and landed men on the moon how to redefine our future!

Speaking of landing men on the moon, when John Kennedy announced the Apollo project, he said: We are going to the moon, not because it is easy, but because it is hard. That is not the spirit of lockdown, it is the attitude of courage that you need to be a change agent.

Sorry, but I dont want to go to church online. I like to read the Bible from a leather-bound volume, not a tablet. (I dont need a scroll!) Let me get deeper into this question of what the non-negotiables are, the things that cannot change. There is already a resistance movement to the new normal.

For example, Apple and Amazon have prospered hugely from the lockdown. Apple devices have helped with communication and with contact tracing. Amazon actually staffed up while most businesses were forced to close, in order to expand supply chains right to the consumers door. Is this the new normal?

Read also: Graphs illustrate the devastating effects of Covid-19 on the SA economy

Will we fatalistically accept the closure of small business, of local producers, of corner stores, of tuck shops? God grant us some serenity here to keep small business and micro-enterprise from extinction. Oddly enough, some shops for essentials have remained open throughout lockdown. I have never heard of massive loss of life among their employees, or for that matter of bank employees or government employees. They managed to keep their salaries coming in while so many had to tighten their belts and accept debilitating loss of income.

This goes deeper into civil liberties. In Democracies, we cherish our constitutions. We have both national Bills of Rights and international charters. To a great extent, these were suspended by governments everywhere. What about the airlines for example? Borders were closed bringing international travel to a halt. Is that what borders are for? Whatever happened to the seamless, borderless world?

The travel industry has been decimated from airlines to hotels to restaurants. Some observers read this as a trend governments trying to assert their control. Others (mostly on the Right) generated a conspiracy theory saying that governments had ulterior motives in suspending rights during this moment of disaster.

That is actually my point so why all the talk about a New Normal? What exactly was wrong with the Old Normal? Or is there an element of political opportunism in this pandemic? Making changes that were harder to effect democratically. Like shrinking the bad habit of smoking, for example.

Speaking of conspiracy theories, these come from both sides. From the Left comes the push for voting by mail. On the whole, the trending of hard lockdown was championed by Leftists and opposed by the Alt-Right. So now they are saying that the new normal can include virtual conventions and mail-in voting. Just imagine the possibilities for corruption!

In South Africa, we have not yet returned to Alert Level 1 (read: normal). And yet already R5bn is under investigation for corruption a full 10% of the R50bn that government set aside for Covid relief. Here is a great example of resistance to change. ANC patronage has blossomed under this emergency. God grant us courage to change the things we can, and serenity to accept what we cannot change. The ANC seems almost fatalistic about this patronage system, not at all courageous.

God grant that the new normal allow no space for corruption.

This points, as always, to SAs electoral system. Finally some senior leader like Lekota, Maimane and Mashaba are pushing for re-structuring of the way we vote. Take that patronage system that we call cadre deployment away and replace it with a constituency-based system. God grant us the courage to make this part of the new normal.

But there are non-negotiables that we must not allow to change, no matter how much the Left tries to seize this opportunity to force its RET agenda.

Read also: Nedbank: Further warnings as SA banks face plummeting profits

Grant us vaccines so that we can return to school, to work, and to church safely. But dont let these vaccines enrich Bill Gates who is rich enough already and Anthony Fauci which would be a conflict of interests. Big Pharma must give account. The tight wiring diagrams have exposed a cabal of such people that make the whole vaccine business look very shady.

Grant us funerals where people can meet and grieve and celebrate their heroes in the time-honored African fashion.

Grant us a media that is not on a Leftist leash. Freedom of expression cannot be for sale. Government advertising budgets should not be used as an indirect form of censorship.

Grant us fact-checkers who can see that both Left and Right have their spin-doctors. We get conspiracy theories galore, from interference by the rich in Botswanas elections to politicians who want to defund the police. These are confusing times! God grant us generous measures of serenity to hold fast to what is non-negotiable from the Old Normal, along with the courage to make some changes going forward.

(Visited 143 times, 143 visits today)

Go here to read the rest:

Chuck Stephens on lockdown: Can we please go back to the Old Normal? - BizNews

There are just six months left in Donald Trump's presidential term. I think it's fair to say the office isn't going to change him.

But it's possible that he just changed the Republican Party forever.

In praising adherents of the deranged QAnon conspiracy theory on Wednesday as well as publicly endorsing two overt bigots who won their nominations to represent the Republican Party in November's congressional elections Trump has officially made the GOP the party of the internet scumbag.

Mainstream Republicans for the past four years have held their noses during Trump's most embarrassing tantrums, ragestorms, and racist blurts. They've dutifully swallowed their pride and surrendered their spines. In doing so, they've allowed the rot on the fringes of the right to seep further and further into the party's core.

Trump's latest trifecta just puts the stamp of approval on the rot.

Marjorie Green won last week's Republican primary in Georgia's 14th Congressional District. It's a deep-red district, and she is widely expected to be elected to Congress.

Greene is a 9/11 truther and QAnon supporter who posed for a photo with the former Ku Klux Klan leader Chester Doles to help advertise his political group. When asked about the seeming endorsement, Greene said the question was "silly and the same type of sleazy attacks the Fake News Media levels against President Trump."

She wrote in 2018 that "Saudi Arabia, Rothschild and Soros are the puppet masters that fund this Global Evil" referring to the fictitious global pedophile ring that's central to the QAnon conspiracy theory. In 2019, she stalked the halls of the Capitol looking for Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib the first Muslim women elected to Congress to badger them into swearing their oath on the Bible rather than the Quran.

On her own campaign's Facebook page she speculated that "Demon possession" and "military grade intelligence developed weapons like Voice of God technology" could be to blame for school shootings. She's also implied that some school shootings could be fakes, according to Jewish Insider. During her victory speech last week, Greene said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was "a hypocrite, she's anti-American, and we're going to kick that b---- out of Congress."

Trump congratulated Greene on Twitter as a "future Republican star" who is "strong on everything and never gives up a real WINNER!" House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy also made it clear Greene was welcome in the House GOP caucus and would be assigned spots on committees.

Separately, Laura Loomer a self-described "proud Islamophobe" who has cheered the deaths of migrants and called Muslims "savages" won the Republican primary in Florida's 21st Congressional District. It's a strongly Democratic district, and the seat is almost certainly not in danger of being won by Loomer.

Though she's well-known in far right and ultranationalist internet cadres, the 27-year-old Loomer is basically a B-list exhibitionist troll in the Milo Yiannopoulos mold. She's just as prodigious as he is at getting barred from every social-media platform, as well as by Uber and Lyft for harassing Muslim drivers but has been unable to even get arrested when flagrantly trespassing.

So embarrassing are her antics that she's even been barred from the Trump cult-of-personality festival CPAC (the Conservative Political Action Conference).

But rather than ignore this marginal far-right internet performance artist, Trump endorsed her: "Great going Laura. You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!" Several GOP congressmen also expressed their support for Loomer.

And on Wednesday, Trump responded to a question about QAnon by calling its supporters "people who love our country" and who "like me very much, which I appreciate."

The FBI has called QAnon a domestic-terrorism threat, and Facebook has barred hundreds of QAnon accounts it's said attempted to incite violence.

Each of these endorsements is a presidential seal of approval on an internet culture riddled with racism, overt calls for violence, and a belief that our "culture war" is just an early stage of a coming civil war.

More consequentially, Trump has stamped that same poisonous culture onto the Republican Party itself. That's how it works: Presidents are the head of the party for the time they are in office.

But president aren't kings, not even of their party.

All Republican lawmakers in Congress need to decide whether losing their seats is too high a price to pay for having principles.

This isn't a partisan issue. This can't be blamed on antifa or the "SJW snowflakes." This is an easy call.

Prominent conservative commentators such as Rich Lowry and Ben Shapiro have expressed disgust at Trump's embrace of QAnon. The former Bush adviser Karl Rove even called for Trump to disavow the "nuts and kooks" of QAnon.

When the partisan commentariat shrinks with embarrassment, it should be a clue to Joe Q. Republican that they could survive sticking their chins out to ensure that they and their political ideals are not associated with racists, bigots, and sadistic liars trying to incite a civil war.

But GOP lawmakers, with rare exceptions, have been either silent or tacitly supportive.

McCarthy stripped the racist Rep. Steve King of his assignments in 2019. Having set the precedent that rank bigotry is unacceptable in the Republican caucus, there's no justification for putting Greene on committees.

Republicans once prided themselves on being the "Party of Lincoln," or the "Party of Business," or the "Party of Limited Government." Failure to condemn racist paranoid internet trolls bearing their party's imprimatur even if it means defying the president is to forever surrender any of the principles for which the party once stood.

When the former Women's March leader Linda Sarsour who has been credibly accused of anti-Semitism appeared as a guest of Muslim delegates on a video call during the Democratic National Convention this week, Joe Biden's presidential campaign swiftly condemned Sarsour's views and reiterated that she had nothing to do with the Biden campaign. There's no reason GOP leaders can't clean up their own backyards, as well.

It's not a terribly high bar Republicans need to reach to ensure their party isn't known for being wholly indecent idiots. They can and should reject these people and ideas.

Sure, rebuking Trump invites the likelihood of retribution, but if you can't stand up to this, you can't stand up for anything.

Visit link:

Trump has officially turned the GOP into the QAnon Party - Business Insider - Business Insider

To save this word, you'll need to log in.

variants: or less commonly alt right

: a right-wing, primarily online political movement or grouping based in the U.S. whose members reject mainstream conservative politics and espouse extremist beliefs and policies typically centered on ideas of white nationalism Welcome to the alt-right. The label blends together straight-up white supremacists, nationalists who think conservatives have sold out to globalization, and nativists who fear immigration will spur civil disarray. Dylan Matthews Rather than concede the moral high ground to the left, the alt right turns the left's moralism on its head and makes it a badge of honor to be called "racist," "homophobic," and "sexist." Benjamin Welton Regardless of who triumphs at the ballot box, the biggest winner of this presidential election may be the alt-right: a sprawling coalition of reactionary conservatives who have lobbied to make the United States more "traditional," more "populist" and more white. Jonathon Morgan often used before another nounan alt-right manifestoSecularism is indeed correlated with greater tolerance of gay marriage and pot legalization. But it's also making America's partisan clashes more brutal. And it has contributed to the rise of the so-called alt-right movement, whose members see themselves as proponents of white nationalism. Peter Beinart

Read more from the original source:

Alt-right | Definition of Alt-right by Merriam-Webster