White Supremacists

American support for conspiracy theories and armed rebellion isn’t new – we just didn’t believe it before the Capitol insurrection

Amanda J. Crawford | – Americans had to confront a new reality when an angry mob attacked the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021: Some of their fellow citizens were in the grips of a false reality and had resorted to violence to support it. Conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election and the strange […]

African-Americans

Asians, other Minorities fear Attacks because of Race, Survey finds

Cronkite News Arizona PBS

By Breanna Isbell | – ( Cronkite News ) – PHOENIX – One in four Asian households in the U.S. report fearing physical attacks and threats because of their race, according to a recent survey by NPR, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. The survey, taken Aug. 2 […]

Far Right

Why the Rittenhouse verdict flies in the face of legal standards for self-defense

The Conversation

By Ronald Sullivan | – In a two-week trial that reignited debate over self-defense laws across the nation, a Wisconsin jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting three people, two fatally, during a racial justice protest in Kenosha. The Wisconsin jury believed Rittenhouse’s claims that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense after he […]

Donald Trump

Paul Gosar’s Fantasy of War Rape against AOC is Frustration that the Impotent Capitol Insurrection Failed

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Arizona Congressman, dentist, and inveterate nutcase Paul Gosar posted to Twitter a photoshopped Anime video showing himself as a cartoon character plunging a sword into the neck of a monster with the face of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of Queens and the Bronx. He is also seen menacing Joe Biden. Threatening […]

National Security State

The World the “American Century” Made: Quagmires, Wars and Serial Demonization

Tom Engelhardt

( Tomdispatch.com ) – On February 17, 1941, less than 10 months before the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor and the U.S. found itself in a global war, Henry Luce, in an editorial in Life magazine (which he founded along with Time and Fortune), declared the years to come “the American Century.” He then urged this […]

Far Right

Oath Keepers in the State House: How a Militia Movement Took Root in the Republican Mainstream

ProPublica

By Isaac Arnsdorf | – A membership roster for the Oath Keepers, a violent extremist group whose followers have been charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection, includes state lawmakers, congressional candidates, and local government and GOP officials. ( ProPublica) – North Carolina state representative Mike Clampitt swore an oath to uphold the Constitution after his […]

Crime

Top Trump Fundraiser Boasted of Raising $3 Million to Support Jan. 6 “Save America” Rally

ProPublica

By Joaquin Sapien and Joshua Kaplan | – The Insurrection The Effort to Overturn the Election ( ProPublica) – As much as $3 million may have been raised to support the Jan. 6 rally in Washington, D.C., that preceded the attack on the Capitol, according to interviews and documents reviewed by ProPublica, with some money […]

Donald Trump

The Republican Party’s flirtation with Fascism is becoming a Marriage

H. Scott Prosterman

Oakland, Ca. (Special to Informed Comment) – Republicans love to hijack democratic and progressive concepts, such as “free speech,” and apply them in a hyperbolic context that is counterintuitive to the original intent. While this tactic burgeoned in recent years, Donald Trump’s presidency and toxic wake has elevated the issues and urgency to defeat this. […]

Afghanistan

The same MAGA mob Who supported Insurrection are Smearing pro-American Afghan Refugees as Dangerous

Dan Dinello

Chicago (Special to Informed Comment) – Stoking fear of Afghan refugees, Stephen Miller — architect of Trump’s ethno-nationalist agenda — used the Afghanistan withdrawal and the ISIS airport attack as another opportunity to spread Islamophobia. Just hours after Kabul fell to the Taliban, Miller focused on an anti-immigrant message: “It is becoming increasingly clear that […]