White Supremacists

The January 6 Committee hearings are the most compelling thing in American History since Watergate, and I’m so old I attended the hearing on two different days. It was my good fortune to have a Congressional internship in DC that summer. This is Watergate to the power of infinity . . . or google. Chair […]

Antisemitism

Former Oath Keeper reveals racist, antisemitic Beliefs of White Nationalist Group – and their Plans to start a Civil War

The Conversation

By Sara Kamali, University of California Santa Barbara | – During his testimony before congressional investigators, former Oath Keepers spokesman Jason Van Tatenhove left little doubt about the intentions of the white nationalist militia group when its members stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Tatenhove explained that Jan. 6 “could have been a […]

Donald Trump

Imperial Detritus: Henry Luce’s “American Century” Comes Undone

Andrew J. Bacevich

( Tomdispatch.com ) – “The American Century Is Over.” So claims the July 2022 cover of Harper’s Magazine, adding an all-too-pertinent question: “What’s Next?” What, indeed? Eighty years after the United States embarked upon the Great Crusade of World War II, a generation after it laid claim to the status of sole superpower following the […]

Far Right

Militant white identity politics on full display in GOP political ads featuring high-powered weapons

The Conversation

By Ryan Neville-Shepard, University of Arkansas and Casey Ryan Kelly, University of Nebraska-Lincoln | – (The Conversation) – Republican Eric Greitens, a candidate for Missouri’s open U.S. Senate seat, shocked viewers with a new online political ad in June 2022 that encouraged his supporters to go “RINO hunting.” Appearing with a shotgun and a smirk, […]

Far Right

The Right-Wing’s Attempt to Militarize American Politics

Tomdispatch

( Tomdispatch.com) – Increasingly, it seems, Americans have an anger problem. All too many of us now have the urge to use name-calling, violent social-media posts, threats, baseball bats, and guns to do what we once did with persuasion and voting. For example, during the year after Donald Trump entered the Oval Office, threats of […]

Authoritarianism

Great Car Fight Movie Scenes Reminiscent of Trump’s attack on Agent Bobby Engel on Jan. 6

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Cassidy Hutchinson testified on Tuesday that Trump grew violent in the presidential limousine, nicknamed the beast, toward a member of his Secret Service detail. Trump had orchestrated the attack on the Capitol by the Oath Keeper and Proud Boys white nationalist militias and had promised them he would lead them […]

Donald Trump

The emerging Paramilitary Wing of the Republican Party

Minnesota Reformer

by J. Patrick Coolican, Minnesota Reformer | – It’s campaign season, which means Republican candidates for office wielding weapons and threatening to use them. Here’s U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, looking like an extra in a straight-to-DVD Western. COME AND TAKE IT pic.twitter.com/kwFrT61stF — Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) February 25, 2022 J.R. Majewski, a Republican candidate […]

Donald Trump

Why the Oath Keepers looks an Awful lot like al-Qaeda and Trump is its Usama Bin Laden

Juan Cole

Revised. Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Although the Congressional inquiry into the Jan. 6 insurrection is releasing new information about the ties between the White House and the insurrectionists, that the attack on the Capitol that day was a well-planned paramilitary operation was clear from Department of Justice indictments already released. Below, I revisit one […]

Far Right

Regardless of seditious conspiracy charges’ outcome, groups like Proud Boys seek to build a white nation

The Conversation

By Matthew Valasik, University of Alabama; and Shannon Reid, University of North Carolina – Charlotte | – As the House Select Committee prepares to begin public hearings on the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, far-right groups including the Proud Boys and the Oath Keepers are were a prominent topic of discussion. At the same time, both […]